Correspondence: About the country

Conspiracy theories

Edited by Moristotle

[Items of correspondence are not attributed; they remain anonymous. They have been chosen for their inherent interest as journalism, story, or provocative opinion, which may or may not be shared by the editor or other members of the staff of Moristotle & Co.]

Headline from a Kansas native: “Kansas City won [the Super Bowl] in a landslide.”
    The game was rigged. There were massive scoring irregularities. We have hired Rudy Giuliani to represent us.
                            —Q you

The whole
season
was rigged!

The Q types need to hone their skills and learn to look beyond the obvious. The whole season was rigged. Brady goes to Tampa and they win their first Super Bowl in 18 years and become the first team ever to win in their home stadium. This has probably been in the works ever since Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts blew their chance to be the first team to win the SB in their home stadium.
    The NFL loves drama and epic storylines that allow those on the inside to win million-to-one betting jackpots. It’s all part of the league’s international money laundering scheme, which is where the owners make their REAL money.
    In all immodesty I will admit to helping uncover the information that broke open that story about the long, sordid history of sexual harassment in the pathetic quasi-leaedership of the Washington Football Team team formerly known as the Redskins, which led to the reveal about many of the major sports leagues being involved in sex trafficking as a means to entice top players to their teams, and even though Patriots owner Robert Kraft has not yet been convicted for his part in such, his day is coming. If Alex Jones ever did any actual research instead of just talking in that artificially deep and ragged voice trying to sound like Rush Limbaugh so he can take over that radio slot when the “godfather of deep-voiced radical rightism” succumbs, he would be all over this.
    Isn’t it amazing that if you throw in same basic factual storylines – Kraft was charged with soliciting a prostitute and something distantly unconnected involving sex trafficking, and the former Redskins did have a sexual harassment quagmire on their hands – and you then start spewing venom, drivel and bile, you can start making just enough sense to become rich and famous: as Rush, O’Reilly, Hannity, Trump, etc, have done.
    When Kennedy was assassinated, fewer than 10% of Americans thought there was a conspiracy involved. Nearly 60 years later, despite no evidence of a conspiracy being uncovered, and many investigations desperately searching for one, more than 80% of Americans think there was a conspiracy. There comes a time when people need to quit blaming politicians and movie makers and admit they choose to become delusional.

We won!


The Politico piece “ ‘She is weighing us down’: Georgia GOP cringes at Marjorie Taylor Greene spectacle” may have some of the greatest quotes I’ve ever read in an article about politics. When a doctor goes on the record and basically says “I know crazy when I see it,” and he’s in the same political party as the person he is talking about, that HAS to give hope to all of us who are pulling for the other side.

Among
the
climate
skeptics

If some of the great high school teachers we had were still alive, I wonder what they would say about all of the following?
    We here in California are in the midst of another drought. Climate skeptics are acknowledging what has been obvious for some time: the amount of rainfall we receive has been decreasing year after year.
    I read a couple of days ago about what Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on Facebook in 2018, that the Camp Fire in California may have been caused by laser beams from space, in order to manipulate the stock market.
    I recently read Luke Mogelson’s January 25 New Yorker article, about the January 6 riots at the Capitol [“Among the Insurrectionists”], adding it to several other accounts I’ve read. I keep wondering how many climate skeptics are also believers in the various conspiracy theories that propel the far right. Are these people all alike in refusing to accept hard evidence that contradicts their beliefs?
    Even if the conspiracy believers and climate deniers never attended college, you would think that a high school education would be enough to teach them to examine the hard evidence either supporting or debunking their claims. I hypothesize that the conspiracy believers and climate deniers get their information from internet posts, internet web sites, and Donald Trump – and that’s enough for them.

An editor organizes clumsy words by those who struggle to write, so they can be better understood by those who struggle to read.

Do you have a weird feeling of unease, as if we aren’t really done with Trump and his disciples have only begun to reveal how far they are willing to go?
    I heard a fantastic lead-in to a news show this morning, something along the lines of “can the Republican Party find a way to connect to its base and to reality?”
    Bizarre to be 66 years old and find myself thinking “if Biden turns out to be the second coming of Nixon, with just a couple of more positive tweaks, I will take that as a win and see him as the best president of my adult lifetime.”

Questions and answers from a Canadian Association of Retired People (CARP) Forum:

Q: Where can single men over the age of 70 find younger women who are interested in them?
    A: Try a bookstore, under Fiction.

Q: Why should 70-plus year old people use valet parking?
    A: Valets don’t forget where they park your car.

Q: Where should 70-plus-year-olds look for eye glasses?
    A: On their foreheads.

“Covid-19 Live Updates: More than 500 vaccine doses were left out to spoil on purpose by a hospital employee” (Dec. 31 NYT).
    “Pharmacist Accused of Tampering With Vaccine Was Conspiracy Theorist, Police Say” (by Shaila Dewan and Kay Nolan, Jan. 4 NYT). Excerpt:

A pharmacist who was arrested on charges that he intentionally sabotaged more than 500 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine at a Wisconsin hospital was “an admitted conspiracy theorist” who believed the vaccine could harm people and “change their DNA,” according to the police in Grafton, Wis., where the man was employed.
    The police said Steven Brandenburg, 46, who worked the night shift at the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wis., had twice removed a box of vials of the Moderna vaccine from the refrigerator for periods of 12 hours, rendering them “useless.”
    “Brandenburg admitted to doing this intentionally, knowing that it would diminish the effects of the vaccine,” the police said.

Something to be said for electric cars: I recently received a message about a man in California, a dedicated environmentalist and Democrat. He had become extremely disturbed by all the violence, disease, racial problems and other disruptions of living in this century. So he parked his car in the garage one night, as usual, but then sealed the doors and windows to the garage He got back into the drivers seat, started the engine, lowered the windows, and set the radio to some music. A day or more later a neighbor happened to glance through the window, saw him in the car, and broke in. They found the man exhausted but fine. However, the Tesla’s battery was dead.

Grateful for correspondence, Moristotle