ClandesTime

Recent stories focusing on the 'migrant crisis' and 'the Cologne attacks' - among other incidents - are provoking racial and religious tensions in Europe. In this episode I look at the simple-minded dialogue around these trends and events, identifying the Russian state as playing a critical role in the incitement. I recount some of my recent experiences of calling out RT and Sputnik for their thinly-disguised propaganda on the questions of immigration and multiculturalism, before articulating some of the supreme ironies of our modern 'political correctness'. (Read more...)

This week a little over 1 million people will die. Only one of them was David Bowie. In this episode I look at celebrity worship and the manufactured grief that results when a famous person dies. Why do people want to become celebrities? Why do people worship them? Why do so many celebrities commit suicide? Why do celebrity followers engage in all kinds of hypocrisy and special pleading in response to being reminded that famous people are just people? (Read more...)

2015 was an important year in government-assisted entertainment. Several major franchises - the Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Bond, Terminator, Fast and Furious, Mission: Impossible - released their latest films. All of these enjoyed the involvement of government agents and agencies. In this episode I review this year's state-sponsored movies (or at least, the ones I have seen). I quickly look at each individual movie before identifying three key themes running through several of these films - Russia as the enemy, the security services themselves being under threat, and the importance of secret societies. I round off by recounting my recent scuffle with Kevin Barrett of TruthJihad, and reading our highly amusing email exchange. (Read more...)

This review of the finale of Homeland discusses not just the final episode but the entire season. We reflect on what is new and different about this fifth season, from the religious dimensions being crow-barred into the show to the use of Russians as the enemy image and hackers as second-level terrorists. We examine the storyline of the recruitment of the Laura Poitras character by the BND, both drawing a parallel with the real life person and identifying this as a metaphor for Homeland as a state-sponsored show. We dwell on whether the CIA staff actually hate Laura Poitras, unaware that she may be an asset of some section of the Agency. As the conversation progresses, we outline the idea that Homeland is an experiment to see how far they can make people doubt their own perceptions of not just the show itself but also the geopolitical realities it sometimes portrays. We explore the idea that Homeland is designed to assault the audience's confidence in their own perceptions. We wrap up looking at Homeland's obsession with predicting or commenting on current events, often events that happen during the production or broadcasting of the show. We outline Alex Gansa's recent admissions that the major creative players in the show - including Claire Danes and Mandy Pantikin - attended four days of meetings at a private club in Georgetown. The meetings were arranged by former CIA deputy director John MacGaffin - the main consultant on Homeland - and involved currently serving CIA officers, State Department officials and White House staffers. (Read more...)

This much more dramatic episode of Homeland was the basis for a fun review discussion this week, touching on the hints towards the deep state, the portrayal of the Laura Poitras character, the implausibility of the CIA's handling of the Russian double agent problem and Pearse's hatred of Allison. We also discuss the mysterious origins of 'terrorist videos', particularly those coming to us via the SITE intelligence group, and how this is reflected in Homeland, and discuss why this episode made an explicit reference to the recent attacks in Paris. We round off talking about Pearse's enjoyment of the Carrie-Astrid relationship in the show, any my love of post-industrial architecture as the setting for both a jihadi terrorist cell and the CIA's discovery of that gang. (Read more...)

Today I am joined by good friend Adam of Themes & Memes to discuss the movie Kingsman. This is an action comedy set in the world of gentleman spies but beneath that exterior there is ultra-violence, a range of elitist, eugenicist philosophies, a rather sickening approach to sex, love and relationships and a whole lot more. So much, in fact, that even in this in-depth conversation we failed to cover it all. We also take a look at the state sponsorship of the film including the result of a FOIA request that I put in with the Metropolitan Police. (Read more...)

This was not the most interesting instalment of Homeland so Pearse and I talked about topics related to the episode including the history of Kosovo and NATO's use of jihadis in the entire Balkans region, the arrest this week of a mysterious unnamed Montenegrin arms trafficker on his way to Paris, and why it is that the US Marine Corps Entertainment Liaison Office reports do not make any mention of Homeland. Pearse hypothesises that the USMC and Homeland had some kind of deniable outside-the-loop relationship and that suggests a much larger degree of co-operation than usual. (Read more...)

Disinfowars 25 – Delving Deeper: What Happened in Paris? - Podcast – Spy Culture

Today Pearse and I discuss the latest 6th episode of Homeland, 'Parabiosis' which saw the return of the classic spies vs jihadis type of storyline. We looked at the two halves of the story - Quinn holed up in a refugee hostel/terrorist halfway house and ultimately him killing the Reel Bad Arab Hajik, and Saul's rediscovering that he is actually a skilled secret agent. Both of these storyline are less about inducing a state of hyperreality and much more about shaping our perceptions of the real world. We discuss, for example, why it is that Russia is portrayed in Homeland as a patient, sneaky, intelligent people, but in news media supposedly reporting on real life events they are portrayed as brutish thugs. In the other storyline we dissect the fight scene between Quinn and Hajik as a metaphor for the struggle between Western military-intelligence establishments and Islam. (Read more...)

In this conversation Pearse and I took a few detours and rambled all over the place, but mostly talked about the concept of hyperreality - the condition of a consciousness that cannot distinguish between the real and the simulated. We show how Homeland does this but also consider the question of why: why would the CIA be interested in using this effect that shows like Homeland have on their audiences? What is the advantage for the CIA in hyperreality? (Read more...)

Continuing our review series of the 5th season of Homeland Pearse joined me to discuss the second episode. We dwelt on the coinciding of real news events and storylines and dialogue in Homeland, asking how the show manages to pull this off so consistently. This episode establishes that former CIA black operations officer John MacGaffin is still working on the show, and we expanded on many of the topics from episode 1 - Syria, ISIS, Laura Poitras, the Snowden affair - showing how each real life topic is an explicit inspiration for this fictional series. The conversation also touched on the concept of hyperreality which is as relevant to Homeland as it is to any other TV show out there. We wrap up by asking for more of your comments and predictions for this new season. (Read more...)

From Breaking Bad to Hell on Wheels, House of Cards to Fargo, psychopathic characters are becoming the mainstays of modern TV. In this episode I offer my opinions on all four of these shows, focusing on Fargo as an example of an antidote to the glorifying of psychopaths in pop culture. I also reflect on the differences between reptiles and mammals and how this pertains to the problem of psychopaths in our society. (Read more...)

From Jeremy Corbyn failing to sing the national anthem to the Prime Minister fucking a dead pig, it has been a fortnight to forget in British politics. In this episode I offer my reflections on the current state of affairs, in particular analysing the media campaign against Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour Party, and asking what's really behind it. Is this about creating a false rebel? Is this the establishment fighting back against a leader who refuses to occupy the centre ground? Or is it more complex than that? I round off this time by explaining what I'm up to in the coming months, and what you can expect from this show and the others I produce. (Read more...)

Marilyn Monroe's death in 1962 was ruled a 'probable suicide' but there have always been suspicions that she was murdered because of her relationship with the Kennedy brothers. In this episode I look at the various conspiracy theories about her death, from the highly plausible (she was murdered by her psychiatrist Ralph Greenson) to the ridiculous (the Mafia killed her on behalf of the CIA). From rumours in her FBI file, the much-disputed CIA memo dated the day before she died to the sexual fantasies of psychopathic mobsters, this is an epic exploration into one Hollywood's darkest mysteries. (Read more...)

The recent explosions in Tianjin, Quingdao and at a US military base in Japan have grabbed a lot of attention and inspired conspiracy theories. In this episode I offer a brief meditation on what the real story is, and how the alt media has no interest in it, and present a radical alternative theory connecting explosions in China and Japan and the recent skirmish on the Korean border. (Read more...)