Saturday, June 9, 2012

When You Are Governed By Psychopaths - 2

by David Ho
Preface

In the first post in this series, Dredd Blog complained about the lack of psychological analysis of various widespread, systemic events.

We have noted that these events have consistently been analyzed through the lenses of economic, political, or other realms, which exclude any psychological analysis.

Regular readers will also remember that long ago the Dredd Blog System noted some "criminally insane" aspects of systemic socio-pathological and/or pathological behavior in state power structures (e.g. The Criminally Insane Epoch Arises; State Crimes Against Democracy).

Some Background

Perhaps a more focused discussion of that issue was brought up in another Dredd Blog post:
The Dredd Blog System has consistently maintained that MOMCOM's behavior evinces a mental sickness, and has advocated that it be analyzed in that context.

Those series mentioned above were initiated, then extended, because the great bulk of analysis of MOMCOM is done through either a political, a criminal, or an educational lens, which only touches upon the surface, i.e., the prima facie aspects of the MOMCOM problem.

These somewhat shallow analyses have reached conclusions that have perplexed not only those who write them, but have also perplexed those who read those analyses.

That result happens, not because those analyses are false, but because they don't really, fully explain why anyone "in their right mind" would initiate such a scenario:
It’s no secret where this denialism comes from: the fossil fuel industry pays for it. (Of the 16 authors of the Journal article, for instance, five had had ties to Exxon.) Writers from Ross Gelbspan to Naomi Oreskes have made this case with such overwhelming power that no one even really tries denying it any more. The open question is why the industry persists in denial in the face of an endless body of fact showing climate change is the greatest danger we’ve ever faced.
(Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet, emphasis added). The perplexing result does, however, get to my point, which is that the officials of MOMCOM are not "in their right mind."

Thus, the need for deeper analysis, beyond legal, political, or educational, if any sort of viable solution is to be fashioned:
But should the bosses of polluting companies and the leaders of environmentally-unfriendly states join those responsible for mass murder in the dock. They could if a fifth crime against peace - ecocide - joined that list of human evils? The United Nations is now considering the proposal and the first test of how a prosecution for ecocide would work takes place on Friday, with fossil fuel bosses in the dock at the UK supreme court in London. It is a mock trial of course, but with real top-flight lawyers and judges and a jury made up of members of the public. The corporate CEOs will be played by actors briefed by their legal teams.
(Is 'Insanity' A Valid Defense To Ecocide?, emphasis added). I am not criticizing those analysts as far as their analysis goes, nor arguing that criminal prosecution is in error, I am merely asking them to deepen the scope of their work, so as to include a proper amount of the realm of psychology.
(MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact). Analyzing a mental / behavioral problem with various economic or environmental theories is unproductive.

The Diagnosis of Mania

I recently found a paper that does what needs to be done, it uses psychoanalysis rather that economic or environmental theory to diagnose a certain group's problem.

That is, it analyzes a meme complex (a group which thinks alike), and does it in relevant, applicable part in the same manner that an individual is psychoanalyzed.

That paper should now be seriously considered because it seeks to analyze some of the behavior in the terms that Dredd Blog has advocated for a few years now.

We have been arguing that such analysis would be more likely to lead to revelations of systemic dysfunction, then hopefully lead to remedies:
In this theoretically informed study I explore the broader cultural changes that created the conditions for the credit crisis of 2008. Drawing on psychoanalysis and its application to organizational and social dynamics, I develop a theoretical framework around the notion of a manic culture, comprised of four aspects: denial; omnipotence; triumphalism; and over-activity. I then apply this to the credit crisis and argue that the events of 2008 were preceded by an incubation period lasting for over two decades during which a culture of mania developed. Then, focusing especially on the Japanese and South East Asia/LTCM crises, I argue that a series of major ruptures in capitalism during this incubation period served not as warnings, but as opportunities for a manic response, thereby dramatically increasing the risks involved. I also argue that this mania was triggered and strengthened by triumphant feelings in the West over the collapse of communism. I suggest therefore that this manic culture played a significant role in creating the conditions for the problems that led to the credit crisis.
(A Culture of Mania, by Dr. Mark Stein, 2011, emphasis added). A free PDF of the entire paper is available for download.

Dr. Stein goes through the structural components of mania sequentially applying those components to the cognition and behavior of professionals in a group, an organization, which qualifies as a meme complex.

One of the pillars of the mania which Dr. Stein elucidates during his analysis is systemic denial, leading to systemic ignorance, which Dredd Blog touched upon in the post: Agnotology: The Surge.

The Available Treatments

Since arguing about whether Keynesian economic theory, a bailout, economic stimulation, or austerity would be a better way to solve any financial crisis is useless (because the real problem is mania), instead of that fruitless exercise let's see what treating the mania that caused the problem would look like.

Many of the subject professionals are licensed by boards or associations which have rules and regulations for the professionals to comply with.

If group and individual therapy was required for membership, perhaps like the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) for lawyers is, then diagnosis and treatment would be likely to identify and offset the problems before those professionals wreck the economy because they have become manic.

The difference explained by psychiatrists as to sociopathy vs psychopathy, indicates that the powers that be in the U.S. are psychopaths:
Therefore, both psychopaths and sociopaths are capable of committing heinous crimes; however, the psychopath would commit crimes against family members or “friends” (as well as strangers) and feel little to no remorse.
...
The last main difference between psychopathy and sociopathy is in the presentation. The psychopath is callous, yet charming. He or she will con and manipulate others with charisma and intimidation and can effectively mimic feelings to present as “normal” to society. The psychopath is organized in their criminal thinking and behavior, and can maintain good emotional and physical control, displaying little to no emotional or autonomic arousal, even under situations that most would find threatening or horrifying. The psychopath is keenly aware that what he or she is doing is wrong, but does not care.
(Sociopathy vs. Psychopathy). They are taking millions in a destructive, dangerous direction, even as they lie and deceive the public about it.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Friday, June 8, 2012

The Right Is Wrong - 2

Judge Runs For Office
Yesterday Dredd Blog featured a post about how most federal judges in oil oriented southern states are well connected to the dirty oil barons.

Some things never seem to go away, so today let's revisit the issue of judicial bias.

On this date in 2009 Dredd Blog talked about how judicial prejudices in the states can be increased.

We noted that when judges are not only elected, in regular political elections, but then when they also have financial or other links to a case they are assigned to decide, it should not be controversial to not have them decide that case.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court was divided on that seemingly simple issue, the right wing of the court thinking it was ok.

The text of that 2009 post follows:

The U.S. Supreme Court held to common sense, and used the smell test to decide that it is not constitutional to have a judge with an apparent bias sit on a case being heard in an appeals court.

Most people on the street would say DUH!, but the right wing of the Supreme Court filed dissents.

Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Alito, and Justice Thomas, predictably ganged up to say it is constitutional for a judge to decide a case involving that judge's number one political campaign contributor.

The right wing of the court just did not get the notion that due process of law requires an impartial judge, and that impartiality must appear to be there and must actually be there.

In this case a jury rendered a $50 million dollar verdict in the trial court against a company that contributed to the election campaign of a judge on the court of appeals to which the jury verdict was appealed.

The judge who received the monetary benefit from one of the litigants did not recuse himself from that case, but heard it over protestations.

Professor Turley puts it this way:
A divided court voted 5-4 in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal, et al. (08-22) that West Virginia Justice Brent D. Benjmain violated the constitution by sitting on a case involving the major donor in his campaign, A.T. Massey’s chief executive, Don Blankenship.

This is an enormously important decision in establishing constitutional protections for litigants from judicial bias and abuse. Justice Anthony Kennedy again played his swing vote role.
(Jonathan Turley). Why does a political party, which espouses a certain political persuasion, call themselves "right" when they are increasingly "wrong"?

Hopefully the moderates, like Justice Kennedy who voted with the 5 Justice majority, will hold back the unbalanced federal judiciary which is more to the right than it has been in 7 or 8 decades.

This case is another indicator of the distastefulness of members of the judiciary running for election like politicians.

The federal judiciary has been purged of that problem.

We decried the "politicization" of the U.S. Department of Justice because it is a known moral hazard to politicize the practice of the law.

So what are the states waiting for? Those states that don't already need to have their governors nominate judges, and then have state senates approve or disapprove of those nominees.

The Supreme Court is losing respect in the public sector.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Supremes Are Well Oiled - 3

Are you in good hands with Oil State?
The "supremes" are those who call the shots, the supremes are those who do the governing, but the supremes do their governing from behind the scenes via The Private Empire.

These "big dogs" are international private dirty oil corporations who rule through the power of their vast wealth & the drug of nations: oil.

They are busy expanding the notion of national plutocracies into international dimensions, because they have become international in scope and influence.

They have politicians in their pockets, and have placed them in all the proper places, such as the place where they can appoint judges who are of the same ilk.

They have done this through a slow, ongoing coup, resulting in a judiciary that is the most far-right since the 1937, but they want to break even that record:
More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry,
WE wee the people
complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean - and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
(The Supremes Are Well Oiled - 2). They have the Supreme Five under their control, who recently did the Citizens United coup, a case that rendered politics the supreme location for the mantra "money talks, everything else shut up now."

Through the oil wars they are fulfilling their vision to have one supreme world plutocracy governing various nations, whose economies have been or will be converted into plutonomies, serving the plutocrats, not the people.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A Tale of Coup Cities - 3

"The vandals took the handles" - Dylan
In this series we have been talking about what appears to be a sudden change in national characteristics, using the word "coup" to describe those changes in the national fabric.

As with many words, this one poses some interesting prospects for discussion in the sense that the word "coup" is used for two purposes in the common vernacular.

Especially since it is, in one form of common usage, a nickname for "coup d'état".

This common loose usage, including Dredd Blog usage in posts of this series, happens in "U.S. English" even though there is potentially a night and day difference between the definition of "coup d'état", when compared with the main definition of "coup", which in some cases will become clear only after perusing the context it appears in.

The graphic above shows one of those "coup" times when the Vandals sacked Rome in 455 A.D., carrying away vast sums of wealth in various forms:
In the 440s, the Vandal king Genseric and the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, had betrothed their children, Huneric and Eudocia, to strengthen their alliance, reached in 442 with a peace treaty (the marriage was delayed as Eudocia was too young). In 455 Valentinian was killed, and Petronius Maximus rose to the throne. Petronius married Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, and had his son Palladius marry Eudocia; in this way Petronius was to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. This move, however, damaged Genseric's ambitions. The king of the Vandals claimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia was an invalidation of his peace treaty with Valentinian, and set sail to attack Rome.
...
It is accepted that Genseric looted great amounts of treasure from the city, destroying objects of cultural significance (hence the modern term vandalism), and also took Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters hostage. Eudocia later married Huneric. There is, however, some debate over the severity of the Vandal sack. The sack of 455 is generally seen by historians as being more thorough than the Visigothic sack of 410, because the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days whereas the Visigoths spent only three days in the city.
(Wikipedia). The killing of Valentinian was a coup d'état, which shows that the results of a coup d'état (Vandals sack Rome) are not always what those who pull off a coup d'état expect ("unintended consequences").

I have noticed that two prominent public figures in the United States have used the words coup and coup d'état to describe certain recent events that have taken place in the U.S., so I will share those with you, in the sequence that they were given:
"What happened in 9/11 is we didn't have a strategy. We didn't have bipartisan agreement. We didn't have American understanding of it. And we had instead a policy coup in this country, a coup, a policy coup.

Some hard nosed people took over American policy and they never bothered to inform the rest of us."
(A Tale of Coup Cities - 2, video at bottom, emphasis added). In the video quoted from, General Wesley Clark explains that he was in reference to the time frame of the "ten days" immediately following 9/11/01, when he visited the Pentagon.

It is important that we discern the meaning of the word coup, as well as the context in which General Clark used that word.

The definition of coup is "a highly successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment".

But General Clark, from the tone and context of his speech, likely had in mind coup d'état, because it means "a sudden and decisive action in politics, especially one resulting in a change of government illegally or by force".

In that same context during his speech General Clark quoted Donald Rumsfeld, who told General Clark during his visit to the Pentagon: "Nobody is going to tell us where and when we can bomb, nobody."

The other prominent public figure whom I mentioned above, used this language:
I fear that at least since 2010 we’ve been witnessing a quiet, slow-motion coup d’etat whose purpose is to repeal every bit of progressive legislation since the New Deal and entrench the privileged positions of the wealthy and powerful — who haven’t been as wealthy or as powerful since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.
(Robert Reich, emphasis added). This fits in with the series of Dredd Blog posts you may have already read, beginning with The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy.

Dylan Ratigan, once a Wall Street player who left to expose "Greedy Bastards", had an interesting show a while back: BookTV: Dylan Ratigan.

The subject of Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11 is discussed on two other media shows in videos: Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years - 3. Viewing all three MSNBC main stream media programs brings the evidence of a coup d'état more clearly into focus.

The Private Empire of oil barons is discussed in the post: MOMCOM: The Private Parts.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

MOMCOM: The Private Parts - 2

Old Style Oil Derricks
In the first post of this series, among other things, Dredd Blog quoted from an author who wrote about the sovereign oil government in his book "Private Empire."

Regular readers know that MOMCOM is an acronym we use to symbolize the Military Oil Media Complex, because the old descriptions, such as "Military Industrial Complex (MIC)", leave out what the U.S. Department of Energy calls "the lifeblood of America’s economy" - oil, and also leave out the mouthpiece of power - the media (BTW, it is not the free press).

The basic narrative is that private international oil corporations call the shots or govern nations of the world.

Thus, the word "government", in the real world, is not limited to the politicians in office, nor limited to government departments they oversee, nor is it limited to the uniformed military, rather, it includes all individuals who comprise The Private World Empire, and the heart and core of the governing is MOMCOM.

The media portion of The Private World Empire of MOMCOM has the primary function of covering up the reality and replacing it with fiction:
One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public.

And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public — and they're very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries — in Britain and the US — roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control
"
(The Deceit Business). The beginning of that propaganda, "roughly around time of WWI", was engineered in the United States by Edward L. Bernays, who knew all about how governing is done:
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. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
(The Ways of Bernays). His propaganda work was so powerful that it eventually inspired the NAZI propagandists a decade later.

The big dirty oil business is significant to the outcome of governing, and is easier to see in some places than in others:
ill "Beyond Petroleum" oil giant BP pick the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest today in Baku, Azerbaijan? If so, I wouldn't be surprised.

When I was arrested by the military police of Azerbaijan during my investigation of BP for Channel 4's Dispatches in 2010, one of the cops who surrounded our crew in the desert told us, with great pride:

"BP drives this country."

The Modern Oil Derrick
Indeed it does.

In 1992, the newly independent former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan elected a kindly Muslim Professor, Abulfaz Elchibey, as President.

But the voters had made an error: Elchibey refused to give BP an exclusive contract to drill the nation's massive Caspian Sea fields as the company wished. In 1993, with the assistance and, reportedly, guns provided by MI6, Elchibey was overthrown by the nation's former Soviet KGB boss, Heydar Aliyev.

Within three months, Aliyev handed BP a sweetheart deal, called "The Contract of the Century", to take Azerbaijan's Caspian oil.
(Islamic Republic of BP, cf: Texaco Pollutes Ecuador). The remainder of that article explains what happens to the 99% of a nation and its environment when MOMCOM happens to them (see also Mother Of All Enemies for an example in another nation).

The same phenomenon has happened, and still is happening, in the United States:
Let’s start by laying down the baseline premise: inequality in America has been widening for dec­ades. We’re all aware of the fact. Yes, there are some on the right who deny this reality, but serious analysts across the political spectrum take it for granted. I won’t run through all the evidence here, except to say that the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is vast when looked at in terms of annual income, and even vaster when looked at in terms of wealth—that is, in terms of accumulated capital and other assets. Consider the Walton family: the six heirs to the Walmart empire possess a combined wealth of some $90 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society. (Many at the bottom have zero or negative net worth, especially after the housing debacle.) Warren Buffett put the matter correctly when he said, “There’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won.”
(The Price of Inequality). The Private Empire constantly impoverishes the people who are the real owners of the oil of their various nations, constantly corrupts the puppet politicians it owns, and constantly pollutes the Earth with its drug we call dirty oil.

The Military portion of MOMCOM, the most non-civilian looking member of The Private World Empire, is governed in the same manner as the others:
The US has established its control over 191 governments which are members of the United Nations. The conquest, occupation and/or otherwise supervision of these various regions of the World is supported by an integrated network of military bases and installations which covers the entire Planet (Continents, Oceans and Outer Space). All this pertains to the workings of  an extensive Empire, the exact dimensions of which are not always easy to ascertain.

Known and documented from information in the public domaine including Annual Reports of the US Congress, we have a fairly good understanding of the strucuture of US military expenditure, the network of US military bases and  the shape of this US military-strategic configuration in different regions of the World.

The objective of this article is to build a summary profile of the World network of military bases, which are under the jurisdiction and/or control  of the US. The spatial distribution of these military bases will be examined together with an analysis of the multibillion dollar annual cost of their activities.
(The Worldwide Network). The Private World Empire of the 1% has a military at their disposal which has been financed by the taxes levied upon U.S. taxpayers.

It would become unstable if limited to one nation, because any plutocracy that establishes a plutonomy becomes inherently unstable:
... the U.S. is becoming a Plutonomy – an economy dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthy. And Plutonomies are far less stable than economies built on more evenly distributed income and mass consumption.
(The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy). That is why Halliburton moved its headquarters out of the U.S., and why ExxonMobil's CEO said "I am not an American company."

One stark example of how The Private Oil Empire trumps national norms is shown in a federal lawsuit where U.S. DOJ lawyers are taking the side of oil rich Saudi Arabia, even though Saudis financed 9/11 hijackers (Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years).

Before closing this post, I ask you to note that the picture of a private empire includes conflict among or between some of the private entities involved on the world scene, which, in the media version of reality, is made to look like conflicts between or among nations.

The Dredd Blog series The Peak of The Oil Wars shows that there are competing interests for oil and other resources, which is now the greatest single source of danger to civilization.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.


Monday, June 4, 2012

Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer? - 8

"blundering accidentally into their oil wells"
A couple of years ago we started this series with the post Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer?

Of course it was received with skepticism, because of, among other things, a subtle implied nexus between the Iraq war and the Iraq oil.

Perhaps there was also skepticism because of another, but not so subtle, Dredd Blog series The Peak of the Oil Wars, but Dredd Blog is not the first, nor is any blog today the first, to notice the historical reality of this having been going on for generations:
Notice the following quote from a book, published in 1944, commenting on U.S. exceptional propaganda of that time, aptly describing the McTell News generated perception and concept of a "national enemy":
The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells.
(As We Go Marching, by John T. Flynn, 1944, page 222). Some experts expect Iraq to "accidentally" become the largest supplier of oil now, since we blundered "accidentally into their oil wells".
(Myth Addiction Is Establishment's LSD - 3). Those who don't see this obvious, no-brainer reality won't see it because either they are not looking, or they have their eyes closed on purpose.

The "chickens may now be coming home to roost" as the old saying goes:
Despite sectarian bombings and political gridlock, Iraq’s crude oil production is soaring, providing a singular bright spot for the nation’s future and relief for global oil markets as the West tightens sanctions on Iranian exports.

The increased flow and vital port improvements have produced a 20 percent jump in exports this year to nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, making Iraq one of the premier producers in OPEC for the first time in decades.
(NY Times). The thing that is most important to note in this sequence of events, is that the oil companies who orchestrate the oil wars have no allegiance to any one nation (see MOMCOM: The Private Parts).

The previous post in this series is here.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

The Skulls They Are A Changin'

Pig Headed or Big Headed?
In two prior posts Dredd Blog noted some areas within some of the U.S. Educational Systems which were areas that are in need of improvement (see The Failure of Applied American Epistemology, and Agnotology: The Surge).

Yes, there may be problems there, but every problem has a solution doesn't it?

One problem may be that new research information, which is potentially related to research in another discipline, may not be automatically shared with researchers in other disciplines, even though it may in fact bolster their research.

That is, a scientist doing microbiology research may not share that research with scientists who are doing psychology research, for example, because everyone is quite busy, naturally doing their own, focused research.

Thus, the question came to my mind, "why isn't there a discipline, perhaps within the work of Librarians, which attempts to classify information between or among various disciplines?"

Let's compare some information in several disciplines, which seems to have some overlap or linkage, so as to question whether or not this hypothetical sharing of relevant information would be beneficial.

A paper and presentation was recently given which documented the change in shape and size of the skulls of certain Caucasian Americans:
The American population has experienced remarkable change in cranial morphology. Some of these have already been documented, but this paper expands on previous results by increasing the time frame, sample sizes and attempting to identify points in time when change begins, or proceeds most rapidly, which in turn may provide clues to reasons for the changes.
(Abstract: Cranial change in America: 1815 to 1980, Richard L. Jantz, Lee M. Jantz, Anthropology, University of Tennessee, emphasis added; Program of the 81st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, page 174-75; see also Tennessee Today; The Remarkable Change in Euro-American Cranial Shape and Size).

Another recent area of research, which may be linked to the skull-size research, is the discovery that symbiont microbes work to develop the human brain:
Microbes may indeed be subtly changing our brain early on — and for what purposes we cannot yet say ... the mere fact that microorganisms can shape our minds brings up many more questions about how humans develop their identity ... these findings call for a complete re-examination of human physiology and immunology. Attributes that were assumed to be human traits have been shown to result from human–microbe interactions.
(The Human Microbiome Congress, emphasis added). Another researcher informs us that current American concepts of reason originated in the 18th Century (The Etiology of Social Dementia, video at end of post), and in another place that researcher informs us:
Probably 98 percent of your reasoning is unconscious - what your brain is doing behind the scenes. Reason is inherently emotional. You can't even choose a goal, much less form a plan and carry it out, without a sense that it will satisfy you, not dis­gust you. Fear and anxiety will affect your plans and your ac­tions. You act differently, and plan differently, out of hope and joy than out of fear and anxiety.

Thought is physical. Learning requires a physical brain change: Receptors for neurotransmitters change at the synapses, which changes neural circuitry. Since thinking is the activation of such circuitry, somewhat different thinking re­quires a somewhat different brain. Brains change as you use them-even unconsciously. It's as if your car changed as you drove it, say from a stick shift gradually to an automatic.
(The Toxic Bridge To Everywhere, emphasis added). If all this research (i.e. head shape/size change, microbes shaping our brain, thoughts changing the brain) came together in one place, it might be sensible to hypothesize that when the brain changes in size and or shape, often so must the cranium, the skull.
Economy of Cygnus

But, let's not forget that it would be wise for those Tennessee skull researchers to also find out if those 1,500 skulls they studied were the skulls of economists (Economists - Aliens From Cygnus?).

Outer space may not be the only sphere where aliens exist, because there is mounting evidence that there could be some here in inner space too.

Since American economists have been telling us about an economy that does not exist here in the U.S.eh? any longer, we now need for them to get real and begin to talk about the Plutonomy that replaced the economy here, rather than the American Dream economy, which is now known to be something that is science fiction.

The Times They Are A Changin', Bob Dylan