Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

February 19, 1951: Robert H. Wood, "Saucers, Secrecy, and Security," Aviation Week  - praises the upcoming article in LOOK magazine identifying UFOs as balloons.


Article reprinted by Project 1947


February 19, 1957: UFO History - In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics officials Hugh Latimer Dryden and Jimmy Doolittle are asked about UFOs. They "flatly denied the existence of such space vehicles." When asked why they don’t speak out more often, they remark that they "cannot compete with the science-fiction people."


Source: US House Appropriations Committee, Hearings, Independent Offices Appropriations for 1958, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, February 19, 1957, pp. 1417–1419.


Work print of a 1988 news documentary titled "Something Foolish With a Pistol" on the 1958 Sculthorpe nuclear weapons incident in the UK. This documentary includes the only known filmed interview of former Master Sergeant Leander V. Cunningham [1917-1991], the person at the center of the incident. Others interviewed are: Former USAF Police sergeant John R. Stone; former USAF sergeant Greg Montilla and his wife, Ivy Montilla; Col. James Ryan, USAF; David Thurlow, reporter, Times of London; Lord George Ward of Witley, Former Secretary of State for Air under Harold Macmillan from 1957 to 1960.



The back story is on October 30, 1958, at RAF Sculthorpe, ~3 miles west of Fakenham, England, US Air Force atomic bomb technician Master Sgt. Leander V. Cunningham, 41, suffered a mental breakdown, locked himself in the bomb maintenance building, and threatened to detonate a Mark-5 bomb by shooting it with his .45 pistol.

After an 8-hour standoff, during which Cunningham reportedly climbed into the building's rafters, he was talked down and surrendered peacefully. After some medical care and evaluation, the senior technician was sent home to the United States.

Pre-Dr. Strangelove times...



The USAF tried to hush up the incident, but word quickly leaked out from people who worked at the base and had seen or heard about it. Press coverage, not always accurate, increased public interest. On November 5, Harold Davies, a member of Parliament from Staffordshire, inquired about the “beserk American airman” and nuclear weapons safety. Secretary for Air George Ward replied, “It is impossible for one individual to set off a nuclear explosion ... even assuming that he could get into the building, which I think would have been impossible.”

You may recall that last year, I wrote an entire book about modern society's descent into hell. It rang a bell with a lot of people, who see a deterioration of the world that seems more or less inevitable now. I see more and more people reacting to our current state of being with something close to despair: some of their fears are, I think, greatly exaggerated or misplaced, but others seem to hit a little too close to home for comfort.

Perhaps you've wondered, during these times, what the end will be like, and if you'll be around to experience it. The thought raises a great many questions, both theological and philosophical. But let's face it: we're here to talk about television, and for our purposes, the major question is this: how will television cover the end times?

When Ted Turner started CNN, way back in 1980, it was with the promise that the network "would stay on until the end of the world." Now, based on the network's increasingly dwindling viewership, you might wonder if the end of the world is a little closer than you'd like to think; personally, I think it's less an indication of an approaching doomsday and more an issue of the network's mismanagement. It seems to me as if CNN lost its way some time ago, and given the uncertainties about its future ownership, it's not wrong to wonder if CNN, as we knew it, remains a viable concern.

Regardless of how one might feel about it, you can't help but note the irony of it all, especially when considering the video below: the infamous, oft-rumored and apparently confirmed, “Doomsday Video” that Turner had prepared for broadcast at the end of the world.



You may well have seen the video since it first surfaced about a decade ago. The premise is just bizarre—it sounds like something you’d see on The Simpsons, doesn’t it? In fact, it's more than a little unsettling to watch. (Having the band play "Nearer My God to Thee" is a nice touch, though.) It’s also somewhat problematic theologically, whatever your beliefs. My own thought is that the Second Coming probably won't need breaking news to announce it. But who knows? It’s not as if there's any precedent to go by.

Now, CNN is not the only network to have thought about the potential of this story; the late Roger Ailes once mentioned that Fox would be there to provide live coverage when the end comes ("God to World: It’s OVER"), and I suspect MSNow, or whatever the hell it's called nowadays, would be of the same mind ("World to End: Women, minorities affected the most"). No word if they have a similar video locked away in a secret vault.

Whatever—but if CNN still plans to air this tape when the world ends, it would first behoove them to make sure that the network doesn’t end before the world does.

Adventures in Classic Television With Mitchell Hadley


Feb 19, 1999: Mike Judge's OFFICE SPACE was released on this day.




So the US alphabet agencies knew that Ukraine would destroy Nord Stream pipeline 3 months before the attack happened? Well, of course they did. Here we have a textbook example of what you might call drip-feed disclosure or strategic normalisation: a communication strategy where information pertaining to a particularly controversial truth — in this case the fact that the US blew up Nord Stream is released gradually rather than all at once.

Instead of presenting the full reality immediately (which might provoke shock, resistance or backlash), details are introduced in small, manageable increments. Each new piece slightly adjusts expectations, reduces surprise and allows audiences to adapt psychologically and emotionally.

Over time, what might initially have seemed unacceptable or radical becomes familiar and therefore more socially or politically tolerable. The process relies on habituation: repeated exposure lowers resistance.

In this case, the narrative has gone through the following adjustments:

– "Russia did it"

– "Russia probably didn’t do it but we don’t know who did it."

– "Let’s all forget about the bombing, it’s not a big deal anyway."

– "BREAKING: it looks like a bunch of drunken Ukrainian divers gone rogue did it, unbeknownst to everyone."

– "Ok, it wasn’t just a bunch of Ukrainian drunkards, but an operation carried out by rogue elements of the Ukrainian state, unapproved by the government, of which US-Western intelligence agencies were unaware."

– "By the way, what those rogue Ukrainians did was a great act of heroism and Europeans should be thankful to them."

– Ok, the Zelensky regime and US-Western intelligence agencies knew about it — but tried to stop it:: this is where we are now.

We’re getting closer and closer to the final admission: "Fine, it was a CIA operation carried out by US operatives with foreknowledge by several NATO governments. What are you gonna do about it?"

The question is: will anyone care at that point?


CIA is said to have been privy to the plans of the Nord Stream attackers at an early stage


Elon has some Ruskie competition...Russian state media on the development of "Argus" stratospheric drone that "has the potential to provide Russian troops and other users with high-speed internet similar to the Starlink system. Argus will also be capable of jamming enemy communications and monitoring the surface in real time. It will operate at altitudes of 15 to 24 km, inaccessible to light air defense systems. Testing will begin with a scaled-down model, and if successful, a full-scale version with a 40-meter wingspan will be assembled."


Atmosphere of influence: in Russia will be replaced by the Starlink system


Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor is the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested — the last being nearly 400 years ago: King Charles I, who was arrested in 1647 during the English Civil War, and later executed, in 1649.

Remember this bloody horse photo:



"Seven Household Cavalry horses, including one soaked with blood, ran loose in central London after throwing their military riders." The Household Cavalry is the King's official bodyguard.

That bloody symbolism was exactly 666 days before the police arrived in 6 unmarked vehicles to arrest Andrew on his 66th birthday. That's quite a coincidence!

As Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg puts it, the psychological foundation of the British monarchy lies in its "magic"; the connection between the crown and God, a connection which once made commoners seek out the sovereign's touch as something sacramental and not as  in the Epstein case, something sinister. Long had this been forgotten. Now after years of secularism, multiculturalism, licentiousness and even flirtation with Islam the monarchy has gradually torn down that arch till they finally  realized its not there.

Will the Monarchy survive?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnjNUSaNJMQ

There have been 63 monarchs of England and Britain spread over a period of approximately 1200 years. The number of scandals that have occurred in that period is probably beyond counting so the monarchy will probably survive minus some bruising. However, we're in the Trump era so any shocking thing is possible.


You’ll never see Zoolander the same way again... another island story...


Brother Paul's Children's Mission


The House Oversight Committee released their 5 hour Epstein investigation deposition video of Les Wexner.


https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/2024583406240043284