Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Redux)

 

A beloved holiday ritual has returned to Southern California! For me, the X-Mas season means primarily one thing and one thing only: It's time for Brian Newell's SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS to take its rightful place on the boards of the Maverick Theater in Fullerton! This play is based on the not-quite-classic 1964 UFOlogical science fiction film directed by Nicholas Webster.

*SEE* Torg the Technical Wonder stride across the stage! 

*GASP IN AMAZEMENT* as realistic flying saucers whiz directly overhead! 

*MARVEL* at the unbelievably exotic sounds of the Martian "Pshhhhhh" Door! 

If you're persistent enough, you might even persuade Torg the Mechanical Wonder to pose for a photograph with you (see below). 

In 2016, the Los Angeles Times wrote, "A Fullerton holiday tradition began as an incredibly bad movie. Not even that so-bad-it’s-good kind of thing. Just plain bad. Maybe it’s the spirit of Christmas, but decades later, one little community theater has embraced the awfulness of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and turned a lump of coal into a present that just keeps giving.

"'I don’t know how this became a success,' said [Brian] Newell. 'I had to beg actors to do it. They thought it was a suicide show.'"

And if you want to see this "suicide show" for yourself, you have until Tuesday, December 23rd. Tickets can be ordered right HERE. If all the performances are sold out, which is most likely by this point, I suggest requesting to be placed on the wait list. In the meantime, check out Nicholas Webster's original film (featuring Fritz Hansen's *Astounding* Martian Furniture) directly below...

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians 1964:

And you can see the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 version of the film right here...

MST3K - S03E21 - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (HD):

THE WARPED REALITY PARANORMAL PODCAST (PART TWO)

Part Two of my recent appearance on THE WARPED REALITY PARANORMAL PODCAST has just dropped! In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of my 2015 book, CHAMELEO, and then move on to talk about my latest book, HOLLYWOOD HAUNTS THE WORLD: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CINEMA OF OCCULTED TABOOS, which is now available for purchase from Amazon or directly from the publisher (Headpress)!

Mind Control, Invisible Spies, and Hollywood Conspiracy w/Robert Guffey Part 2:

The Trump, Patel & Bongino Comedy Hour (A Play in Two Acts)

ACT ONE:

From Victor Nava's 11-21-25 NEW YORK POST article entitled "Trump 'Satisfied' with Conclusion
Would-be Assassin Thomas Crooks Acted Alone, FBI Claims: 'No Cover-up Here'":

Would-be assassin Thomas Crooks acted alone and was unknown to law enforcement when he attempted to kill President Trump at a Pennsylvania rally last year, the FBI has determined – a conclusion which officials claimed the president is “satisfied” with.

All of Crooks’ digital accounts, including foreign-based ones, were reviewed as part of the bureau’s exhaustive probe into the deadly July 2024 Trump campaign rally shooting in Butler, which is now listed as “pending, inactive,” FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Director Dan Bongino and a senior official directly involved in the investigation told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

“We fully briefed the president, as a victim of this case, at the White House, providing him with all of the details of our investigation, and the president was satisfied with the results and where we left it,” Patel claimed. 

The Crooks case has invited conspiracy theories and accusations that the bureau botched the investigation and stonewalled congressional lawmakers, who are also probing the shooting.

“We have reviewed this case over and over — looked into every nugget. We have spoken to the families, the president — there is no cover-up here,” Bongino declared.

“There is no motive for it, there is no reason for it.”

Patel suggested former FBI Director Christopher Wray is to blame for the conspiracy theories surrounding the case, such as that Crooks, 20, was aided in carrying out the assassination attempt or that there was a second shooter.

“My predecessor went to Congress and said he didn’t know if it was a bullet that hit President Trump in the head. The whole world knew it was a bullet,” Patel said. “For the No. 1 law enforcement officer to say that — it causes a massive disbelief in the institution that Dan and I are now running.”

The director added that “many people make a lot of money on social media pushing conspiracy theories for clicks.”

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

ACT TWO:

From Owen Scott and Maira Butt's 11-11-25 INDEPENDENT article entitled "Every Time Trump Has Sued the Media After He Threatens $1 Billion BBC Legal Action":

Donald Trump has threatened to sue the British Broadcasting Corporation after it aired an edited version of a speech he gave ahead of the 2021 Capitol Riots.

The edited speech was included in part of a Panorama episode, prompting Trump’s lawyers to demanded that the BBC remove the documentary before apologizing and compensating him appropriately.

The letter from the sitting president’s lawyers claims that failure to comply with his demands will lead to the broadcaster being slapped with a lawsuit of “no less” than $1 billion (£760 million).

BBC chair Samir Shah is still considering how to respond to Donald Trump, whom he called a “litigious fellow.”

However, this is far from the first time that Trump has threatened a media company with legal action over perceived damages to his reputation...

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

Norman Rockwell vs. The Department of Homeland Security!

From Francesca Aton's 11-4-25 ARTNEWS article entitled "Norman Rockwell’s Family Speaks Out About Homeland Security’s Misuse of His Artwork":

The descendants of Norman Rockwell are speaking out against social media postings by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they say misuse the artist’s work.

Since this summer, the DHS has shared reproductions of Rockwell’s paintings on its X, Instagram, and Facebook accounts that promote anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The first, posted on August 20, depicts Rockwell’s Salute the Flag (1971) with the caption, “Protect our American way of life.” The painting predominantly features white people in early to mid-20th century clothing revering the US flag. Together, the painting and caption promote a conservative white populace free from diversity.

The second, posted on September 29, showed Rockwell’s Working on the Statue of Liberty (1946), depicting the famous statue’s raised arm, superimposed with the phrase “Protect your homeland and defend your culture,” along with a link encouraging citizens to “become a homeland defender today.” The caption included a quote from former US president Calvin Coolidge, reading, “Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.”

A third, also posted on September 29, featured Rockwell’s And Daniel Boone Comes to Life on the Underwood Portable (1923), depicting a young boy’s vision of the American frontiersman holding a rifle as he writes, accompanied by the caption “Manifest Heroism.”

“If Norman Rockwell were alive today, he would be devastated to see… that his own work has been marshaled for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color,” Rockwell’s family wrote in a recently published op-ed article in USA Today [...].

In a statement of solidarity, the Rockwell family concluded their op-ed by saying, “Now is the time to follow in his footsteps and stand for the values he truly wished to share with us and all Americans: compassion, inclusiveness and justice for all.”

This is not the first time that the DHS has misused artwork on their social media accounts to spread bigotry and hateful rhetoric. In July, the DHS shared Thomas Kinkade’s Morning Pledge with the caption “Protect the Homeland.” The artist’s foundation denounced the usage of the painting to promote “division and xenophobia.”

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

THE WRAP: "Conspiracy Theorists Are Right"

From Sharon Waxman's 11-17-25 THE WRAP article entitled "The Epstein Emails Show That Conspiracy Theorists Are Right: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Is Real":

The shocking revelation in the trove of 20,000 emails from the sordid world of Jeffrey Epstein is not that crimes were being committed.

It’s more sinister. The emails are disturbing because what they reveal — and in fact prove — is that conspiracy theorists are right. That their theories of full-on corruption in the upper spheres where power lives are valid. That the “Eyes Wide Shut“ cabal of political and financial interests married to sexual deviance depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film is not, in fact, fiction. It is reality.

So often journalists like myself attempt to demonstrate to family members and voters in the far reaches of the country, away from centers of power and money, that their conspiracies are false. That politicians are flawed, but that corruption is not the norm. It isn’t how we all operate. 

But the Epstein emails suggest otherwise. They suggest that in fact there is a widespread code among people with power and money who support one another. They are pals no matter what side of the aisle. They are in the club no matter the sins of their members — transgressions that get contextualized, explained away, “understood” [...].

Just a few months after this exchange [with Larry Summers], Epstein was arrested again, this time by the feds, on charges of sex trafficking. As a reminder, the search of his Manhattan townhouse at the time turned up evidence of sex trafficking and “hundreds—and perhaps thousands — of sexually suggestive photographs of fully — or partially —nude females,” according to the indictment. In a locked safe, there were CDs with handwritten labels: “Young [Name] + [Name],” “Misc nudes 1,” and “Girl pics nude.”

“So many people tried to ingratiate themselves with him,” observed Julie K. Brown, the intrepid journalist from The Miami Herald who first exposed Epstein’s crimes and has doggedly pursued the story long after. She hopped on the phone with me on Sunday.

I asked Brown if she thought the emails validated those who believed in wacky Pizzagate-style theories (where Hillary Clinton was bizarrely accused of participating in a pedophile ring).

“What do you mean by conspiracy? (Ghislaine) Maxwell and Epstein — that was a conspiracy,” she said. “And that’s exactly the way they should be looked at. He got away with this. And our criminal justice system is broken. People who have money and power get away with crimes. That’s just a fact. [The email trove] shows that people are willing to overlook even the worst crime if they think that somehow they’re going to benefit.”

She added: “It’s what they call the swamp.”

The swamp is specifically what Donald Trump promised to clean up. But he and Epstein are the swamp.

To read the entire article, click HERE. 

THE BOROWITZ REPORT: "She Says Trump Raped Her When She Was a Child"

In the November 13, 2025 episode of THE BOROWITZ REPORT PODCAST, Andy Borowitz and Kate Manne discuss the February 11, 2016 testimony of the pseudonymous Katie Johnson, who alleges that she was raped by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein when she was thirteen. You can watch the 11-13-25 episode of THE BOROWITZ REPORT by clicking HERE.

You can see Katie Johnson's testimony on YouTube: