Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the good things in your life. While at least grasping the spirit of the season, Donald Trump nevertheless remained Trump – and gave his biggest thanks to himself. -- source

After the United States joined the war in 1917, president Wilson founded a government agency, The Committee on Public Information, to drum up support in public opinion for the US Crusade for Freedom©.

A young man, Edward Bernays, started working for it, and quickly learned his trade there. He later became known as «the father of public relations», and a pioneer in the modern PR-industry, where he, among other things, arranged the media part of the CIA-regime change operation in Guatemala in 1954. The full quote from him is as follows:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."-- source

I am reading My Life Among the Serial Killers by Helen Morrison. Helen Morrison is a medical doctor and forensic psychologist who studied serial killers. Interestingly, as I read this book, I find myself studying the psychologist and not the serial killers.

They are not psychopaths because psychopaths can have the ability to control what they do, think, and feel.

They are addicted to killing and they cannot control their actions.

Perhaps this is the best way to deal with the daily news of impending gloom and doom, which we see from a variety of places from the military battlefield, to the economic battlefield: Let the people know that not only are solutions being sought, but that their best interests are at heart. -- source

Difficult as it is to go through, the truth about how the ruling elite controls and manipulates humanity through its deception and dark practices is an essential step in our awakening. It’s important for us to break through our own fear and loathing and come to understand the nature of having been ruled by non-empathetic psychopaths who have been programmed to look and seem ‘normal’ on the outside. We need to stop projecting our own humanity onto them because all vestiges of humanity has been drummed out of them. -- source

Condemning them and getting angry may very well be a stage many of us need to go through, but eventually we will need to recognize them as victims themselves and forgive them. While they might not be aware of it during their lives, they are still a part of the human family and ultimately they chose to play these dark roles in service to human evolution. -- source

But on Friday, federal prosecutors recommended a “substantial term of imprisonment” for Cohen, saying his efforts to cooperate with Mueller have been “overstated.” Federal prosecutors said that Cohen was “motivated” by “personal greed” and “repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends.” -- source

Among other charges, Cohen recently pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his work on a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow, hiding the fact that he continued to speak with Russians about the proposal well into the presidential campaign.

In the New York case, prosecutors accused Cohen of a years-long “tax evasion scheme” to avoid paying federal income taxes on more than $4 million made through a number of ventures, including through his ownership of taxi medallions, his selling of real estate in Florida and his consulting work for other clients.

Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws by helping orchestrate payments to silence former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said they had sexual encounters with Trump while he was married. -- source

Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen who’s been working with Clinton crony Lanny Davis, may have bitten off more than he can chew when he decided to turn on his former client, Donald Trump. Cohen, who graduated from a law school in Michigan, ranked the worst law school in the country, apparently has a history of deceiving people. One insider claims he allegedly told people he graduated from a law school in Michigan—implying he attended the top-ranked University of Michigan Law School. -- source

The nearly 40-page sentencing memo from New York prosecutors claiming that President Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to make hush payments to two women that allegedly violated election law presents no actual evidence beyond Cohen’s own characterizations.

The memo itself, however, paints Cohen as a deceiver who willingly repeatedly lied, and who possesses a fleeting sense of wrongdoing, little remorse and a tendency to place blame on others. -- source

Netanyahu, known for his penchant for visual aids, brandished images purporting to show hidden Iranian nuclear sites – an "atomic archive" hidden in a "dilapidated warehouse" and radioactive storage at a rug-cleaning business.

Netanyahu never shies away from leveling threats at Iran and lauding Israel's own attack capabilities, recently saying that Israel has been developing "offensive missiles" capable of hitting anywhere in the region.

Despite warning the world about Iran's alleged nuclear menace, Israel has still neither confirmed nor denied the existence of its own atomic weapons program. The Jewish state is not a party to any nuclear non-proliferation treaty, yet various estimates put its nuclear arsenal between 80 and 400 warheads.

When confronted about the existence of an Israeli nuclear program by CNN's Chris Cuomo in May, Netanyahu dodged the question. The hypocrisy has been called out by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who accused Israel of running a "secret" nuclear weapons program in September and calling on Netanyahu to open the country to inspectors, as was required of Iran. -- source

What is a psychopath?

Psychopathy is a syndrome of traits classified among the personality disorders. Canadian psychologist Robert Hare in the wake of Hervey Cleckley’s The Mask of Sanity (1941), has defined its diagnostic criteria on the basis of a cognitive model that is now widely adopted, though some behaviorally-oriented psychiatrists prefer the term sociopathy. In an effort to get everyone to agree, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders, the American psychiatric bible, suggested antisocial personality disorder; but the term psychopathy is still in use.

The most striking traits of the psychopath are lack of empathy and conscience. Other traits are common to narcissism: psychopaths have a grand vision of their own importance. In their minds, everything is owed to them because they are exceptional. They are never wrong, and failures are always the fault of others. They often show megalomania, but some learn to hide their arrogance under false modesty. If the psychopath pretends to rise to the universal level, it is because he confuses it with his personal interests, and the truth with his own opinions. However, the psychopath is distinguished from the simple narcissist by his appetite for power, which makes him much more destructive. Moreover, his capacity for harm is not inhibited by any scruples or remorse: he is incapable of feeling guilt. Although he imagines himself a hero, and in some cases looks like a hero, the psychopath is, on the human spectrum, the polar opposite of the hero who sacrifices himself for his community; he will not hesitate to sacrifice the people around him, and when he knows he is lost, he consoles himself by causing as many people as possible to fall.

Basically, the psychopath perceives others as objects. He has a mechanical view of people and human relationships (and, in some way, of himself as well). Although devoid of conscience, he often has a keen perception of the law, which he, as a mechanic of the social engine, overestimates. He has not internalized moral law and in this sense is not socialized, but he has mastered the rules of the game and cheats without qualms if he can. For the same reason, the psychopath almost always develops an immoderate taste for money; he idealizes it as the epitome of power, the very essence of the social; he thinks that people can be bought and sold like things, and life often proves him right.

The diagnostic criteria for psychopathy also include pathological lying, deception (cunning) and manipulative behavior. The psychopath feels only very superficial emotions and has no real feelings for anyone; but he has developed a great ability to deceive. He can be charming to the point of being charismatic. He typically shows highly-developed verbal intelligence and lies with disconcerting aplomb. He is unable to empathize, but learns to simulate it, sometimes with a tendency to histrionics (Latin histrio, “theater actor”). The psychoanalyst Helène Deutsche makes this trait the mark of “as-if personalities” endowed with purely mimetic “pseudo-emotions,” devoid of inner experience, “a little like an actor with good technique, but not animated by any actual life.” (2) But the psychopath is more than that: he is a manipulator. It is through his extraordinary ability to feign, trick, trap, and capture that the psychopath draws his power. Although he himself is immunized against guilt, he becomes a master in the art of using guilt to dominate others.

In any situation, the psychopath projects a persona, which can vary according to circumstances. The opinions he wears in public are all disguises that he tailors to his own advantage. However, lying is so deeply embedded in his nature that the question of his “sincerity” is almost irrelevant: the psychopath can beat a lie detector. The truth has no value in his eyes, or merges with the version of events that suits him. The psychopath is unable to put himself in the place of others, and thus to view himself critically. Confident in any circumstance of being right and innocent (and superior), he considers the resentment of his victims as irrational and pointless. -- source

Known by the sobriquet “Popeye” because he had served as an officer in the Colombian navy, he says he personally murdered hundreds of people and ordered the deaths of thousands more.

A hero to many next-gen sicarios (hitmen) in Colombia, Central America, and Mexico, Popeye remains unrepentant and defiant. -- source