Category Archives: ANFSCD

Meet Patrick Henningsen

I just ran across this dude within the last week as I’ve been trying to keep up with news of the Israel-U.S.-Iran war. He runs an outfit called 21st Century Wire. I don’t know him but he seems to live in my neck of the woods. Perhaps I’ll run across him on the trail. From his website:

21st Century Wire serves a niche audience which we firmly believe is not being catered for by the wider western corporate and state-funded media market. After over a decade of interacting and consulting with our learning community, we are keenly aware that they are much more inquisitive than traditional legacy media readers, and more aligned with independent content creators, as opposed to mainstream ones. Hence, we know that our audience expects this website to challenge the prevailing narrative and mainstream orthodoxy. Aside from the independent media remit, our number one intention here is to push the envelope and get the reader thinking, talking and hopefully inspire them to take on a more active role themselves, perhaps by creating their own website or information portal on social media. This may be by using free blog software, creating your own podcast,  Youtube channel, or just by utilizing social networks like Facebook or Twitter and others. We actively encourage this.

We oppose internet censorship and regulation in all its forms, especially through opaque regimes of control, run by elite committees comprised of ‘experts’ drawn from the Silicon Valley, corporate media, foundation and government-affiliated persons. We believe that such efforts are highly politicized and employ narrow subjective methods of regulation designed to target and silence independent media, while allowing mainstream corporate media to produce ever increasing amounts of fake news and propaganda. Such measures can only lead to a restriction of free speech and expression at a time in history when those freedoms are more important than ever to preserve. Censorship and regulation also interfere in the marketplace of ideas and deprive readers and members of the public to make up their own mind and conduct their own research based on the merits of the information and not on the arbitrary criticism and smears being applied by corporate or state-funded gatekeepers.

The purpose of our website is to educate, promote learning on geopolitical and social issues, as well as provide much-needed independent commentary, news reporting, including criticisms and critiques of larger corporate and foundation-funded media outlets and their coverage of global events. We also aim to deliver a consistent stream of independent research on subjects and views that are generally not covered in the corporate-owned and foundation-funded media spheres. In this way, we are helping to re-balance the discourse by giving a platform to alternative views and narratives which are largely absent from the corporate mainstream media and state-affiliated media outlets.

McDowell Peak on the left?

Who Said “War is a Racket”?

U.S. Army AH-64 Apache” by Sergeant Matt Hecht/ CC0 1.0

Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC:

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.


PS: You know what else is a racket? The U.S. healthcare system.

Who Killed Charlie Kirk?

Jimmy Dore is a professional comedian. His show below examines the headline question. You’ll not hear any of this in the mainstream media, but it deserves your attention. Dore’s guest is an alleged lawyer, Lionel, who’s actually funnier than Dore in this instance. As someone baptized and confirmed as a Catholic (plus eight years in parochial school), I got several good laughs out of the last five minutes of the show.

This Should Be Good

Bowl fragrant popcorn munch on“/ CC0 1.0

Crenshaw accepted the opportunity for a sit-down interview with Shawn Ryan, tentatively scheduled for Jan 2, 2026.

Shawn Ryan should have mentioned that he is not suicidal and that his vehicles are in good working order.

Someone in the comment section quoted Harry Truman: “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” That’s a legit idea even if Truman never said it.

Sadly, any major reform of the U.S. healthcare system will depend on federal and state legislators like Dan Crenshaw.

Steve Parker, M.D.

So All the Rumors About Jeffrey Epstein Are Wrong?

I doubt many Trump supporters saw his recent post telling many of them he doesn’t want their support anymore. He’ll find out in 2026 (mid-term elections) how many Trumpsters he’s alienated. Time will tell if the Epstein story has legs or not. Nicholas J. Fuentes predicts this Trump post will lead to his downfall. Larry C. Johnson outlines why the Epstein story isn’t a hoax.

We live in interesting times.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Image

Never Give Up

Image

It All Depends on Your Perspective

Literally Hitler Reacts to the Biden-Trump U.S. Presidential Debate

ANFSCD: Who Do You Trust?

I’m increasingly distrustful of the mainstream (aka legacy) media. Ownership of it is in the hands of surprisingly few people. This makes reported news susceptible to manipulation by folks that have an agenda that may be at odds with your desire for “just the facts.”

In 1976, when the U.S had only three or four national over-the-air TV stations and no Internet, 72% of Americans trusted mass media. A Gallup poll found that in 2023, only 32% of Americans had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in the mass media. A larger percentage—39%—had “none at all.” In view of AI or CGI-generated imaging, it’s getting hard to believe anything you don’t see with your own eyes.

Most of the mainstream media (aka legacy media) consumed in the U.S. originates from a handful of companies. From a 2021 essay by Helen Johnson:

In 1983 there were 50 dominant media corporations. Today there are five. These five conglomerates own about 90 percent of the media in the United States, including newspapers, magazines, book publishers, motion picture studios and radio and television stations. As of 2020, the five media giants are AT&T (Time Warner, CNN, HBO), Comcast (NBC Universal, Telemundo, Universal Pictures), Disney (ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel Studios), News Corp (Fox News, Wall Street JournalNew York Post) and ViacomCBS (CBS, Paramount Pictures).

Alternative Media for Your Consideration (not for local news, sports, weather)

By no means do I endorse or agree with everything you see or hear at these sites.

  • Tucker Carlson on X (news, opinion, politics, interviews)
  • RamzPaul on Rumble (news, cultural commentary, nationalism)
  • The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble (politics, news, opinion)
  • Michael Farris’ podcast “Coffee and a Mike” (interviews)
  • “Redacted” with Natali and Clayton Morris on Rumble (news, cultural commentary)
  • Jeffrey Prather’s “The Prather Point” on Rumble (preparedness, Deep State exposure, communitarianism)
  • The Epoch Times (U.S. and international news, lifestyle, health, Falun Gong)
  • The Unz Review (cultural commentary, economics, literature, politics, conspiracy)
  • Catherine Austin Fitts at Solari.com (for personal finance and investing, banking, government)
  • RT at RT.com (news and commentary from a Russian viewpoint)
  • O’Keefe Media Group (citizen journalism, expose wrongdoing)
  • Democracy Now! at http://www.democracynow.org or on YouTube (independent global news)
  • Paul Craig Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org (opinion, politics, cultural decay)
  • Al Jazeera at aljazeera.com (international news organization based in Qatar)
  • Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com (news and opinion)
  • Alex Jones at Infowars.com (news, opinion, health, politics, economics, conspiracy, vitamins)
  • Vox Popoli at voxday.net (philosophy, economics, politics, books, Arktoons, socio-sexual hierarchy, Christianity, classic literature)
  • Russell Brand on Rumble.com (news, social commentary, iconoclasm, politics)
  • Glenn Greenwald on Rumble.com (mostly politics)
  • Stew Peters Network on Rumble.com (social commentary, news)
  • Karl Denninger, The Market Ticker at market-ticker.org (finance and politics)
  • The Joe Rogan Experience at Spotify.com (long-form interviews with comics, entertainers, politicians, scientists, etc.
  • The Chris Hedges Report at The Real News Network (TheRealNews.com) or YouTube, or ChrisHedges.substack.com (wide-ranging interviews, essays)
  • The Real News Network at TheRealNews.com (journalism “advancing the cause of a more just, equal, and livable planet”);
  • Elijah Schaffer’s “Slightly Offensive” channel at Rumble.com (social commentary, interviews)
  • Censored.tv (Comedy and cultural commentary; some free content, much behind paywall)
  • Louder With Crowder podcast (Steven Crowder: comedy, news, politics)
  • Judging Freedom (Andrew Napolitano) on YouTube (law and politics)
  • The Jimmy Dore Show on Rumble.com (comedy, news, politics)
  • Timcast IRL (Tim Pool) podcast or YouTube (news, politics, culture)
  • Matt Taibbi at http://www.racket.news and the podcast America This Week (news, opinion, cancel culture, culture war)

I’d like to know if you agree or disagree with these choices, or if you’d add any.

Paul Craig Roberts writes that most folk in the West don’t have an accurate view of many historical events because honest journalism is suppressed by the mainstream media. He implies that most of us have no factual understanding of the following events:

  • The assassination of President John F. Kennedy
  • The Gulf of Tonkin incident
  • The 1964 Civil Rights Act
  • The Soviet Collapse
  • 9/11
  • Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”
  • The overthrow and murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
  • The Maidan Revolution of 2014
  • The Ukrainian-Russian conflict
  • The Israeli genocide of Palestine
  • The 2020 US presidential election
  • The current legal charges against Trump

Off the top of my head, I would add:

  • Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry in to WWII
  • The attack on the U.S.S. Liberty
  • The truth about Abraham Lincoln

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: ANFSCD = And Now For Something Completely Different

ANFSCD: Is the Past a Future Country?

A spiteful mutant

This post has nothing to do with weight management, Mediterranean diet, or fitness. If that’s why you dropped by, merrily move along. You won’t hurt my feelings. Or better yet, check out the topics in the right-side column.

Over at Unz.com, Bernard M. Smith has reviewed a book, The Past is a Future Country: The Coming Conservative Demographic Revolution, by Edward Dutton & J.O.A. Rayner-Hilles. If you have above average intelligence and are dismayed at the Western cultural degradation of the last 60 years, you may enjoy this review (and book) and it may cheer you up. The central thesis of the book seems to be that:

…..religious and traditionally conservative people outbreed irreligious and liberal people. Similarly, the very stupid and impulsive likewise outbreed irreligious and liberal people. Eventually there must be a political and social reckoning for these facts. This is a book that does what it can to tease all that it can from that reality while filling in the details of why societies and civilizations move as they do.

From the book directly:


There will be a ‘Great Escape’, whereby intelligent, conservative people flee apocalyptic chaos to establish refuges of civilization in which they weather the storm of the Dark Age. Those exiled will be conservative, middle class, and white (defined very broadly), set against ‘post-liberal’ areas of mixed ethnic minorities, with some white admixture. Today, the Woke will continue to induce guilt in the white or otherwise ‘privileged’ middle-class population, but tomorrow the underclass will be the frightening majority of the Western population, and too vast in size, and offensive in character, to sustain further sympathy. Lower IQ whites, reluctant or unable to move due to the associations between low IQ and conservatism and between high IQ and migration, will simply merge into the majority non-white populations; dissolving away into extinction like the Neanderthals.

Back to Mr. Bernard:

It is strange to think of religiosity as a positive evolutionary trait but that is the argument. In fact, upon reflection, it makes perfect sense. The West became great because it was all of these — it was composed of pious, virtuous, and intelligent people who were tribally conscious. Without thinking of it in Darwinian terms, they were people who venerated the past (their ancestors) and made provision for the future (their children) — and the only people they did not think of were themselves. Today, it is all inverted: our age mocks the past, makes no provision for the future (because they have no children), and thinks only of themselves (as the narcissistic people that they are). In a few words, we are irreverent presentists.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “spiteful mutants” theory of societal deterioration. Professor Dutton came up with that.

This is just here for my possible future reference. I’m tempted to get the book.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: ANFSCD = And Now For Something Completely Different