Roy Christopher on OPERATION MINDFUCK

Roy Christopher, author of DEAD PRECEDENTS: HOW HIP-HOP DEFINES THE FUTURE and ESCAPE VELOCITY, writes about OPERATION MINDFUCK and Mike Rothschild's THE STORM IS UPON US in his latest article, "Flowers for QAnon":

Whether QAnon is a religion, a cult, a joke, a political movement, or just an online game gone awry, Robert Guffey‘s Operation Mindfuck: QAnon and the Cult of Donald Trump (O/R Books, 2022) is his attempt to figure it all out. Guffey’s pedigree in this area is unmatched. His first book, Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form (Trine Day, 2012), explores every conspiracy theory out there. Here’s a prescient line from Cryptoscatology: “In the modern day digital environment truth is as malleable as viscous liquid. You can’t make up anything that won’t come true a few minutes later.” Ever since Q emerged online in 2017, he’s been trying to figure out the appeal, the movement, and its meaning. His efforts are all chronicled in Operation Mindfuck.

Where cognitive dissonance is the default state of mind, QAnons’ frequent refrain of “Do your own research!” echoes that of Behold a Pale Horse author William Cooper. Cooper was viewed as a “P.T. Barnum-style huckster” in UFOlogy and conspiracy circles alike. Guffey quips, “Compared to QAnon, William Cooper was Buckminster Fuller.” (p. 29) Tarpley Hitt writes in The Daily Beast, “There’s an aspect of QAnon obsession that resembles demented literary criticism: every current event encoded with hidden meanings, global criminals desperate to signal their crimes through symbols, millions of messages waiting for the right close reader to unpack them.”

Another problem is that there are coded messages in the QAnon mythos. Figuring out which ones are messages and which ones are just junk is open to interpretation. Throughout Operation Mindfuck, Guffey follows Theodore Sturgeon’s advice he quoted in his book Chameleo (O/R Books, 2015): “Always ask the next question.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Steve Henn on OPERATION MINDFUCK

Poet Steve Henn (author of AND GOD SAID LET THERE BE EVOLUTION) just published a laudatory review of my latest book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP. Here's an excerpt:

Operation Mindfuck: QAnon & the Cult of Donald Trump by Robert Guffey tackles the conspiracy theories Q draws from, the history of the Q phenomenon, and the eventual attempts by mobs at least partially influenced by Q, and certainly influenced by Donald Trump, to overturn the 2020 Presidential election. The book is well-researched, with a full Bibliography of notes that reference and identify each quote from each source that Guffey cites. Guffey, additionally, has a long background studying conspiracy theories and their origins.

Not with innuendo, but with clear reference to documented text and speech, Guffey tells us the origin of various elements of the Q conspiracy, which is a pastiche that draws in so many people in part, Guffey says, because it has so many different sides and supposed connections to current events that a Q enthusiast can pick and choose whatever elements of Q they are most attracted to. Guffey points, for example, to the Satanic panic of the 1980s as a touchstone of the hysteria over supposed Satan worshipping elites in entertainment and politics. But he goes as far back as the 19th century, noting a satire of the Freemasons that later was perverted into political propaganda by the original Nazis, and that has hung around on the fringes where “the real story of what’s happening in the world” has maintained a presence ever since.

In other words, Guffey is not a lightweight. He knows how to write a real book.

I am avoiding cherry-picking a lot of specifics from Guffey’s book, in part because part of the pleasure of reading it comes from learning the various threads of conspiracy and their connection to the current political situation that he lays out in cogent and, mostly, un-hyperbolic prose, but also in part because I don’t want any readers who may be followers of Q to get bogged down in protesting this or that detail. Guffey’s “big picture” is much, much more cogent and plausible than Q’s....

Read the entire review HERE.

January 6th Update

From Michael A. Cohen's 6-28-22 MSNBC report entitled "A Truly Insane First Hour of Testimony":

Let’s recap what we’ve learned in the past hour.

• Donald Trump and his chief of staff were repeatedly warned about the potential for violence on Jan. 6.
• The president was told on Jan. 6 that many of his supporters on the Ellipse were armed. Police reported that some of his supporters had AR-15s.
• Trump told his aides to allow those armed individuals through security magnameters because, in his words, they weren’t there to harm him. 
• His exact words were “I don’t f—ing care they have weapons. Take the f—ing mags away.”
• He then gave a speech urging his supporters to march down to the Capitol.
• His aides warned that if he went to the Capitol himself it could potentially be a crime. According to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, if Trump went to the Capitol,  “We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable”
• When told in his presidential limousine that he couldn’t go to the Capitol, Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the car. 
• When a Secret Service tried to stop him, he attacked the Secret Service agent.
  

To read this and related reports about the January 6th hearings, click HERE. 

Bill Clinton, Area 51, and "Invisibility Research"

From Alyssa Guzman's 6-18-22 DAILY MAIL article entitled "Bill Clinton Admits He Sent Federal Agents to Find Out Whether There Were Aliens at Nevada's Area 51 and 'Made Every Attempt to Find Out Everything About Roswell' During His Presidency":

Former President Bill Clinton told James Cordon he sent federal agents to Area 51 to find out if aliens were hiding there. 

Clinton, 75, joined Cordon, 43, on his show on Wednesday evening, revealing he and his former Chief of Staff John Podesta, sent a team to the classified military base.

'When I was president, and I had a Chief of Staff John Podesta - he loved science fiction - he made every attempt to find out everything about Roswell. And we also sent people to Area 51, we wanted to make sure there were no aliens.' 

When Cordon excitedly asked the former president who exactly he sent to the coveted area, he grabbed the late-night host's shoulder and said: 'Oh, if I told you that.' 

However, Clinton ended up revealing that, while the alien hunt was a disappointment, the base was used as a research and test ground for stealth aircraft. 

'I got to find out how we're going to deal with this, because [Area 51] is where we do a lot our invisibility research in terms of technology, like how do we fly airplanes that aren't pick up by radar and all that,' he said. 'So that's why they're so secretive.' 

To read the entire article, click HERE.

President Bill Clinton on the Clinton Global Initiative and Aliens:

Ghislaine Maxwell Update

From Bill Galluccio's 6-16-22 KFI AM 640 report entitled "Ghislaine Maxwell's Cellmate Says She Was 'Offered Money' To Kill Maxwell":

While convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell was locked up in a federal prison in Brooklyn, her cellmate reportedly planned to kill her. The shocking claim was made in legal filings by Maxwell's lawyers asking for leniency ahead of her June 28 sentencing.

The legal filing says that the unidentified inmate told at least three other inmates that she was going to strangle Maxwell in her sleep in exchange for money.

"One of the female inmates in Ms. Maxwell's housing unit told at least three other inmates that she had been offered money to murder Ms. Maxwell and that she planned to strangle her in her sleep," the filing states.

To read the entire report, click HERE.

S.O.S.

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OPERATION MINDFUCK ON HYPERSPACE!

Last night I returned to Solaris BlueRaven's HYPERSPACE radio show to discuss my latest book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP. If you have a Dark Vault Insider subscription, you can listen to the entire two-hour-long interview by clicking right HERE.

Your Random Jack Kirby Panel of the Day

 

Taser Drones

From Issie Lapowsky's 6-6-22 PROTOCOL article entitled "Axon AI Ethics Board Members Resign Over Plans for Taser Drones":

Nine members of the AI ethics board for police technology company Axon have resigned after the company said it would develop drones equipped with Tasers despite the board's earlier opposition.

Axon CEO Rick Smith proposed Taser drones as a possible answer to school shootings, even after the majority of Axon's AI board voted against a plan to pilot Taser drones with law enforcement. “We all feel the desperate need to do something to address our epidemic of mass shootings. But Axon’s proposal to elevate a tech-and-policing response when there are far less harmful alternatives, is not the solution," the resigning board members wrote in a statement....

To read the entire article, click HERE.

OPERATION MINDFUCK ON OPEN LOOPS!

The latest episode of Greg Bornstein's OPEN LOOPS podcast (which might very well have the best intro of any podcast ever) features a two-hour-plus interview with me about my latest book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP (available for purchase right now)! Topics covered in this episode include Shakespeare, Macbeth, the Freemasons, Tim Powers, Jack Womack, the Crystal Cathedral, Jack T. Chick, the Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus, Robert Anton Wilson, Maybe Logic, H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu, Bela Lugosi, penny dreadfuls, Jeffrey Epstein, Richard Shaver, Deros, Teros, William Cooper, Michael Aquino, January 6th, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Franklin Cover-up, the Church of Scientology, and other High Weirdness! (This show was recorded on Tuesday, May 31st.) To hear the entire conversation, click right HERE!

A BOX O' MINDFUCKS!

A box filled with copies of my latest book, OPERATION MINDFUCK, has just arrived in the mail. I've been told by the Bad Brains at OR Books that those of you who pre-ordered O.M. are already receiving copies. Since the book is not officially released until July 6th, that means there's still time for you stragglers out there to pre-order this quintessential mindfuck.

Click HERE to pre-order your copy of OPERATION MINDFUCK TODAY!!!

 

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR OPERATION MINDFUCK:

“Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential."

—Alan Moore, author of V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN

“One of the most difficult aspects of confronting QAnon conspiracism is finding the time and resolve to delve into its ever-expanding network of self-reinforcing connections and concepts. Robert Guffey does that work for you in OPERATION MINDFUCK, a codex to madness and a critical examination of how a massive fraction of our culture has imbibed a counter-reality. Guffey also explores underground sources lost on many mainstream historians, bringing us into an (occasionally ingenious) netherworld of outsider thought forms. Guffey is the Ernest Shackleton of paranoia—and one hopes his journey will result in a happier ending.”

—Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of OCCULT AMERICA and UNCERTAIN PLACES

MOTHER JONES: "Draft Order Would Have Given Armed Trump Supporters Power to Seize Voting Data"

From Dan Friedman's 6-4-22 MOTHER JONES article entitled "Draft Order Would Have Given Armed Trump Supporters Power to Seize Voting Data":

As MAGA-world scrambled in November 2020 to concoct claims that the presidential election had been stolen, a business associate of Mike Lindell—the My Pillow executive promoting outlandish conspiracy theories—circulated an especially extreme proposal: a draft executive order that would have empowered armed Trump supporters to seize voting data and conduct investigations of supposed “election tampering.”

The proposal, obtained by Mother Jones, identified three individuals who would be granted this power. Two were associates of former national security adviser Michael Flynn: retired Army Colonel Philip Waldron and Texas businessman Russell Ramsland. Waldron and Ramsland, at the time, were working closely with Flynn and lawyer Sidney Powell to promote the unsubstantiated and loony allegation that the Chinese Communist Party, in cahoots with billionaire George Soros and an array of other actors around the globe, had rigged US voting machines to throw the presidency to Joe Biden.

It is unclear how far this proposal got; Trump never implemented it. But it’s an indicator of just how bizarre the effort to overturn the election was. The draft order was shared among a group of Trump backers organized by Powell, who was concocting conspiracy theories and developing implausible legal strategies to keep Trump in power. In a now infamous December 16, 2020, Oval Office meeting, Powell and Flynn reportedly pressed Trump to issue an executive order allowing either the military or a civilian agency to seize voting machines. Public reporting indicates that Ramsland and Waldron helped to formulate this proposal. But the idea may have may have taken at least some inspiration from the separate draft executive order distributed by Andrew Whitney, the Lindell associate.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

The Weird Misadventures of Utah's QAnon Sheriff

From Alan Herrera's 6-3-22 COMIC SANDS article entitled "Utah County Attorney Demands QAnon Sheriff Resign For Accusing Him Of 'Cannibalizing' Children":

Utah County Attorney David Leavitt demanded county sheriff Mike Smith resign from his post after Smith published a 151-page "report" implicating Leavitt in a “ritualistic” sex ring known for “cannibalizing young children.”

The report names Leavitt and his wife as part of this story circulated among adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory. The report claims the abuse of young children took place between 1990 and 2010 across three separate counties in the state of Utah.

QAnon, whose believers allege Democrats are part of a Satan-worshipping, baby-eating global pedophile ring that conspired against former President Donald Trump during his time in office, counts Smith among its adherents.

Lately, a new conspiracy has developed alleging progressives are raping and eating young children, raising tensions in Utah County.

To read Herrera's entire article, click HERE.

More information about this story can be found in Barbie Latza Nadeau's 6-2-22 DAILY BEAST article entitled "Utah County Gripped by Bizarre Accusations of Murder and Cannibalization of Kids":

In announcing the investigation into “ritualistic child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking” on Tuesday, the sheriff called on any potential victims who may have survived to come forward, but he said he did not directly name Leavitt. He said he has no plans to resign and refused to apologize for using his budget to fund the questionable investigation into a political foe. Instead, he blamed the county attorney for abuse of power.

“I believe that Leavitt is using his authority and his pulpit to bully, distract and mischaracterize the facts of an ongoing investigation,” Smith told reporters Wednesday. When asked about Leavitt’s alleged involvement, he said, “We don’t talk about who is under investigation.”

Smith told reporters no one was personally named in the report, but Leavitt said, in fact, he and his wife were named on purpose just a week before ballots are sent out.

“I am calling upon Sheriff Mike Smith to open his office to an outside investigation, where outside, independent investigators are able to investigate and confirm or deny that documents from a debunked investigation from more than a decade ago were or were not used for political purposes in a Utah County Attorney’s race,” Leavitt said in a statement [...].

The two officials have never met eye to eye since Smith endorsed a more like-minded conservative in the county attorney race. He maintains the timing of the report has nothing to do with revenge.

“This is not political,” he said. “This is something we take very, very seriously. This is some of the most egregious crimes that happen in our community, when our children are victimized at this level.”

Smith also played down the mention of cannibalism in his investigation, which Leavitt insists is part of the report. The sheriff says the main focus is sex abuse, not the consumption of children.

To read Nadeau's entire article, click HERE.

Mystery Needle Attacks

From Jade Le Deley's 6-2-22 TIME article entitled "'Needle Spiking': Spate of Mystery Attacks at Nightclubs Across Europe":

Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who’s doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all.

Club owners and police are trying to raise awareness, and a rapper even interrupted his recent show to warn concert-goers about the risk of surprise needle attacks.

It’s not just France: Britain’s government is studying a spate of “needle spiking” there, and police in Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating scattered cases too [...].

People from Paris, Toulouse, Nantes, Nancy, Rennes, and other cities around France have reported being pricked with a needle without their knowledge or permission. The targeted individuals, who are mostly women, show visible marks of injection, often bruises, and report symptoms like feeling groggy.

France’s national police agency says 302 people have filed formal complaints about such needle pricks. Several police investigations are ongoing in different regions, but no suspect has been arrested yet, no needle has been found and the motive remains unclear [...].

“Each case is different. We see injection marks, but some people don’t have symptoms. When potential victims have symptoms like discomfort or black holes (in their memory), they are not specific,” [Dr. Emmanuel] Puskarczyk said.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Your Random Jack Kirby Panel of the Day