scam nation

 i think jeff sachs nails what's behind america's war mongering foreign (and domestic) policy in this scathing article which begins thusly:

On the surface, US foreign policy seems to be utterly irrational. The US gets into one disastrous war after another -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and Gaza. In recent days, the US stands globally isolated in its support of Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinians, voting against a UN General Assembly resolution for a Gaza ceasefire...

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/corruption-of-us-foreign-policy

appropriate 'horror and disgust'

this very recent article by ted galen carpenter in antiwar.com succinctly sums up the disaster that america's imperial foreign policy since 9/11 has been in parts of the arab world. Most notable about it is the expression of moral outrage at U.S. leaders for the destruction and loss of life they have wrought, an outrage that is notably absent from any lamestream american media outlet or commentator, anywhere. I defy anyone to show me an example. A big part of the propaganda job they do is to treat american war criminality and it's genocidal results with complete and blase equanimity, as if no moral outrage is ever called for regarding anything that america or it's bff israel does. After all, we're the good guys!

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Galen_Carpenter/2023/12/21/my-own-brush-with-death-has-intensified-my-opposition-to-u-s-imperialism/

awesome abby on american imperialism and militarism

this 25 minute video from awesome abby martin is an excellent concise elucidation of imperialism in general and american imperialism and militarism in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc_dOEkw5Gs

schooled by lebanese american rania khalek

rania khalek is a lebanese american radical journalist currently based in beirut. in this discussion with abby martin, she educated me a lot regarding middle eastern politics vis-a-vis the israeli incursion into the region and the rise of hezbollah as an indigenous lebanese resistance to that imperialist incursion. this education is the opposite of the propaganda churned out by western lamestream media. it strikes me as very nuanced and well informed, as opposed to the cartoonish and shallow characterization of hezbollah as a terrorist group by the west. as rania and abby point out, any group in the middle east that's radically opposed to israel gets labelled as terrorist by western media, while it's in fact the idf (israeli 'defense' force) that murders and terrorizes the regions arabs whose land it covets or already has stolen. together they point out the sheer insanity of israel and it's most powerful supporters in america, with a democratic party establishment that totally supports israel (including that supposed leftist socialist, bernie sanders) and a republican party led by trump that's frighteningly fascist and evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCAz3FPBYw

Roger Waters & Abby Martin on Gaza Genocide

 in the vast majority of what is said and the passion behind it, roger waters (of pink floyd fame) and abby martin speak for me in this video:

Roger Waters & Abby Martin on Gaza Genocide

Roger Waters & Abby Martin on Gaza Genocide

gaza concentration camp

 once again today (dec.8, 2023) the u.s. vetoed a u.n. resolution in favor of a cease fire in the so called war (one sided massacre) of palestinian civilians by the israeli military, armed to the teeth as usual with u.s. weaponry given as 'aid' to israel. this resolution otherwise had near unanimous support by all the other nations of the world, a fact glossed over by western media. one must ask the perplexing question: why is the american establishment, both political and the supposedly independent media, as zealously zionist as the war criminal government of israel? what hellish secret(s) lie behind this 'special relationship'?  a question for 'conspiracy theorists' to go nuts over.

this is an excellent 7 1/2 minute video from mintpress news summarizing how zionists have been murdering and stealing land from the non-jewish Indigenous people of palestine for the past century, leading up to the current 'war' between the 2, pointing out that the oct.7 hamas attack against israel was indeed provoked:

Gaza Concentration Camp

Gaza Concentration Camp

and today's norman finkelstein's 70th birthday. he's a courageous anti-zionist american jew who has been persecuted for his stance, as illustrated in this critically acclaimed documentary:

American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein (2009) | WatchDocumentaries.com

American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein (2009) | WatchDocumen... Jewish-American academic Norman Finkelstein, the son of holocaust survivors, makes the controversial claim that ...

Hedges, Sachs, and Hicks

 this Real News Network interview between chris hedges and jeffrey sachs is great! it provides a much different picture of the cold war, how it began and which side is most to blame for it than the standard anti-communist propaganda that every american is taught to believe. topics include the bay of pigs, the cuban missile crisis, JFK's troubles with the CIA and military leaders, relations with Khrushchev, and desire to end the cold war after the cuban missile crisis, which ended with his assassination, u.s. russian relations after the end of the cold war, breaking of a promise not to expand nato, the american supported ukrainian coup of 2014 leading to the current russian-ukrainian war in which the u.s. is providing massive assistance to ukraine, making it in effect a proxy war, as many have pointed out.

i agree with sach's fact based assertions that the u.s. has acted like a rogue superpower seeking global hegemony via militarism and intimidation, and that it bears primary responsibility for the current ukraine war. what he says about the eloquence of jfk's peace speech in 1963 is eloquent in itself. he mentions the deep state and the apparent control of big corporate media by the u.s. gov't. i do have a minor quibble with that. i think he perceives american politics as more independent and elite american politicians (like the president) as more powerful than they surreally are. i don't think he gets that both they and the mass media are controlled by a deep state that's essentially supranational, not at all exclusively american, zealously zionist, ruthlessly amoral, violent, and deceitful, and not beholden to any formal political parties or governments. they are what 'conspiracy theorists' like me refer to as 'puppet masters', for they control politicians and governments. i forgot to mention they seem to love wars. i think the 2nd zeitgeist documentary made the point that banksters profit immensely from wars, which suggest they might be the power behind the throne, the deep state executors. sachs doesn't talk about any of this. besides this omission, the points he makes are awesome:

What JFK tried to do before his assassination w/Jeffrey Sachs | The Chris Hedges Report

What JFK tried to do before his assassination w/Jeffrey Sachs | The Chri...

the 60th anniversary of the assassination is fast approaching. i came across a great interview earlier this year of vincent salandria, a young philadelphia lawyer who was one of the most prominent early 'conspiracy theorists who pointed out the vast discrepancy between the facts laid out by the warren commission and it's conclusion that oswald was a lone gunman, but a quick google search failed to locate it just now. perhaps i'll find it again later. for now i'll conclude with this short clip from the late great bill hicks, talking about jfk and the sobering message his assassination can send  to any and all future POTUSs that the same thing can happen to anyone who tries to defy the will and power of the deep state:

Bill Hicks describes what happens after an election

Bill Hicks describes what happens after an election

israel and anti-semitism

 i've been a 'conspiracy theorist' ever since taking a deep dive into researching the jfk assassination over 30 years ago in the wake of the oliver stone movie. that, and what i've learned since, particularly about 9/11, has boggled my mind. it's convinced me that mysterious conspirators have ruled the world with the help of very elaborate conspiracies designed to mislead public opinion to serve secret agendas that serve a tiny group of elites in the short term.

a prominent aspect of these conspirators appears to be a zealous zionism, or support for the state of israel. does this mean that those at the heart of the conspiracy are jewish? i don't know, it seems to be so. does this have any special relevance? not necessarily.  just like the assertion that america has become a rogue imperialist warfare state doesn't mean that all americans should be held responsible, criticism of the state of israel shouldn't be equated with anti-semitism, although the pro-zionist establishment is constantly trying to make that connection as a way to mute dissent against israel/zionism.

pro israel propaganda and silencing of dissent

 if anyone reads my previous post they might be indignant at my assertion that israel's war on 'hamas' (actually mostly defenseless palestinian civilians) isn't justifiable, given the apparent fact that hamas 'terrorist' attacks against israeli citizens started the current 'war'.

i have a couple things to say about that. first, the situation between the state of israel with it's apartheid regime and the displaced palestinians whose land has largely been usurped by israeli settlers appears to be rather similar to the situation which has long existed in america between oppressed minorities, especially inner city blacks, and american police. it's a very one sided and abusive relationship which engenders immense resentment and anger within the oppressed, so it's quite natural that at times such grievances will erupt into violence, like what happened in many american cities in the 1960s.

Explained: The Gaza Concentration Camp (mintpressnews.com)

but this situation is different in that this eruption of violence supposedly occurred unprovoked and to the great surprise of israeli intelligence agents. this is highly dubious. knowing how devious and conspiratorial and ruthless these intelligence agencies are, how fond they are of staging violence and blaming it on others to justify their own violent agendas, i think it highly likely that not only did israeli intelligence know that 'terrorist' attacks were in the works, they probably had a hand in their instigation (via agent provocateurs embedded within hamas) and execution.

this article does a good job showing the extreme bias and dishonesty employed by western lamestream media in their reporting on the palestine-israeli conflict, not just recently but historically:

Propaganda Blitz: How Mainstream Media Is Pushing Fake Palestine Stories (mintpressnews.com)

and here caitlin johnstone writes about the steps israel and it's allies have taken to silence the voices of palestinians and their supporters:

The World Is Being Blinded To What’s Happening In Gaza – Caitlin Johnstone

the true face of israel

As usual, i'm much in agreement with caitlin johnstone, this time re. the current 'israeli-hamas war'.  i hate whenever america or it's bff israel engages in criminal wars of aggression which are sold to us as justifiable or defensive by lamestream mass media.  i hate how the public is so gullible and clueless and brainwashed by their government  and the supposedly independent media, both of which are obviously controlled by a ruthless zionist criminal class with the economic clout to get what they want.  i hate living in a corrupt, dystopian, and doomed world.

The True Face Of Israel – Caitlin Johnstone

This Is Exactly What It Looks Like – Caitlin Johnstone

dude making a difference

 i've been reading a book about a pretty unusual fella i think some of u might be interested in. his name is rob greenfield and the book is 'dude making a difference'. in it he recounts adventures encountered as he rode a bamboo bicycle across the usa in less than 3 months a few years ago. it reads like a diary of the trip. emphasized throughout are the great pleasures to be found in nature and simple living, eating healthy organic food, and being extremely eco and environmentally conscious. the author has a very positive outlook on life, has a lot of friends and makes them easily. when he wasn't camping out at night along the road he often stayed with what had been total strangers who lent him hospitality via a website called 'warm showers' that caters to folks like him. he got much if not most of his food along the way out of dumpsters, emphasizing how much perfectly good food gets thrown out in america, and he crossed the whole state of pennsylvania, west to east, without spending a penny. he has his own youtube channel i haven't checked out yet.

rob greenfield - Search (bing.com)

Death in the Haymarket

Computer troubles have prevented me from posting much here this past summer, but they've been fixed and i hope to post more often now.

On the labor day holiday i watched an excellent documentary about the infamous Haymarket bombing in chicago in 1886 and the subsequent trial in which several labor activists including a couple of very prominent and gifted leaders with anarchist sympathies were very unjustly convicted of crimes for which they paid with their lives. This led me to read a book on the subject titled Death in the Haymarket which was excellent and pointed out the extreme inequities which then existed (as they still do today) between owners and workers, the necessity of labor organizing labor, the terrific selfless character of it's leaders, and the corruption of society and it's courts of law which promulgate and uphold inequity and injustice. Following are some quotes taken from the book (top of p. 276):

"They were called anarchists... they were painted and presented to the world as men loving violence, riot, and bllodshed... nothing could be further from the truth. They were men who lover peace, men of gentle instincts; of gracious tenderness of heart, loved by those who knew them, trusted by those who came to know the loyalty and purity of their lives. They had lived for a revolution that would create a society based on cooperation instead of coercion. -eulogy for August Spies, Alfred Parsons, and 3 other martyrs killed by the state in Chicago on Nov. 11, 1887.

"Their highly publicized hangings seemed to many to be nothing more than a ferocious attempt to silence dissent in America."

Homo Ecophagus

i learned of this book from book tv on cspan 2, an author (warren hern) interview. it makes a compelling case that the human species, which the author has renamed 'homo ecophagus' (the man who devours the ecosphere) acts collectively like a super organism that has a remarkable similarity to a cancer in relationship to our planet's ecosphere. excellent (if sad and depressing) read.

homo ecophagus - Yahoo Search Results

Heart Sick

i just passed a couple of young ladies on the street where i live.  seen them before.  teenagers, probably over 15, under 20.  legal adults?  it's very hard to tell the difference between a 15 and a 19 year old.   the big change occurs at puberty.  it's easy to differentiate between a pre-pubescent 11 year old and a post pubescent 13 year old. growth spurt and breast development. but past puberty, a few years of age difference is hard to tell.

i've seen these 'girls' before but never spoke to them, passing by on foot or bicycle.  today as i was passing by on my bike, one of them called out to me in a suggestive way, an invitation to stop and talk.

something like this has happened to me countless times in my adult years, and especially as i've gotten older and more aware of 'age of consent' laws and how viciously reviled and persecuted are 'adults' who show an interest in legal 'children' (accused and convicted 'sex offenders' are always in the news, often for having forbidden relations with 'minors'), i've assiduously avoided responding.  taking into account that some women in their 20s can pass for being considerably younger, what these 'age of consent' laws effectively do is put a stark chill on responding to all young sheeple who are attractive and interested in attracting a mate.

as i think i've discussed previously in this blog, i've always been attracted to 'jail bait' teenagers as well as slightly older women who are pretty and petite enough to pass for them.  ever since i was a teenager myself, i've been aware that such attraction was verboten and liable to get me in deep trouble.  when i was young i didn't think that much of it, since i hadn't learned to properly question 'authority'.  since i have, i've always felt very disturbed and depressed about it.  heart sick, actually.  it eats away at me, building more and more resentment and a sense of extreme alienation and isolation from my own species, especially those who avidly embrace dogmatic and puritanical 'morality' and artificial laws.  for a long time it's been perfectly obvious to me that these only serve to oppress and increase the suffering, frustration, and difficulty of human life.

june is gay pride month.  i get some sense of solace and brotherhood from the stories of LGBQT sheeple who have had to fight against their own oppression, but i also know from experience that just because one experiences a certain type of oppression doesn't necessarily mean that one will feel empathy or solidarity with those who experience a different (but related) type of oppression.  the villain as i see it is dogmatic puritanism which can take many shapes and fuel many different oppressions, but unfortunately for me (and i think for my whole world), far too many sheeple fail to make such a connection.  they see no reason to universally condemn dogmatic puritanism.

i'm thinking as i have occasionally in the relatively recent past about coming out of the closet as a 'pedophile' (by writing about it and publishing this blog, i am somewhat).  i'm quite certain that i am not alone as such.  it's perfectly normal and natural to be aroused by pubescent females, considering that they have only begun the aging process and are at or near the peak of their fertility and of course have their whole fertile lives ahead of them.  i suspect this is so for all species, yet it's only us humans, with our seemingly infinite capacity for false rationalizion, deceit, and susceptibility to indoctrination (the basis for all dogmatic 'faith' or religion), who have insanely concocted the idea, buttressed by pseudo science, that post pubescent teenagers ought to still be regarded as children (actual children are also erotic beings whose eroticism ought not be repressed) who lack sufficient wisdom to make 'adult' choices such as whether to engage in erotic relations with a partner.  notice i specify 'erotic relations' as opposed to actual intercourse, for the way laws and common attitudes are, just about any sort of erotic activity for youth is taboo.  again, it seems obvious to me this is repression, making everyone neurotically fearful and ashamed of human nature, but anyone else so aware and bold enough to come out of the closet about it is extremely rare indeed.  were i to come prominently out of said closet i suspect i would have to face the subsequent onslought of vicious hate and persecution all alone.

erotic demonization and suppression are a large and essential aspect to the dystopia we're born into and must live with, but it's not all of it. i've tried to shed light on other aspects of it on this blog (and elsewhere) to no avail.  i don't understand why it's so damned difficult to make others see what i so plainly see, but it is, even among my fellow 'radicals'. 

Idiot, Lunatic, Or Charlatan?

the death this past week of pat robertson, arguably the most prominent and influential american far right wing christian weirdo of my lifetime, prompted a google search that came up with the following 'gems', a very small sample of some of the crazy idiotic things he's said over several decades. this is a guy with a law degree and a following of millions. totally dystopian!

listening to this guy and reading some of his other 'prophecies', claims, and opinions, inevitably raises the question: was he an idiot, a lunatic, or a charlatan? maybe all 3?

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pat-robertson-says-critical-race-theory-is-a-monstrous-evil/

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/pat-robertson-prophesies-that-trump-will-win-reelection-then-the-end-times-will-begin/

Can Poly Make A Match For Me

polymatchmaker is a dating website for sheeple like myself who identify as ethically non monogamous (enm) seeking to meet like minded sheeple to form enm relationships and friendships, promote the enm community and facilitate communication. it must have been a labor of love for the dedicated couple/few who began and ran the thing for the couple of decades or so it existed, for i joined for free a couple years ago. they made a modest living off of charging members a modest fee in order to actually send messages and potentially connect.

notice how i began the paragraph above referring to polymatchmaker in the present tense and ended it by referring to it in the past tense. that's because by chance i discovered that it's ceasing operation the end of this month of may 2023.  i suppose as a gift of love the owners decided to allow all free members the privilege of messaging each other this last month.

i previously only paid the lowest fee charged for 'premium members', which was only like $12 for 3 months or one month, not too long or too short a time to try to make connections.  i was pretty picky back then and only messaged a large handful of women or couples looking to connect.  only one developed into what might generously be called a correspondence which was short lived and disappointing.

a couple weeks ago i decided to update/revise my polymatchmaker profile information, but i got sidetracked when i learned about it's imminent demise and this golden opportunity to reach out for free, send up to 10 messages a day, while i still can. i've spent a few hours going through profiles of women who have potentially enough in common with my fringeness to warrant messaging them. physically, pretty and petite are what catch my eye, but at this point as a 64 year old man my libido is fading fast, so i'm prioritizing compatibility, seeking the few who come relatively close to sharing my worldview, knowledge, and awareness or 'wokeness' to the surreality of this dystopian and doomed world.

thus far i've gone through a couple/few hundred such profiles that turned up in my search for the specific characteristics i sought in potential partners. i've only messaged about 3 dozen, or a couple/few on average daily, again making choices primarily based on compatibility. one might think that such discretion would yield a high percentage of responses, especially considering i informed just about all my messengees that they could message me back for free.  thus far i've received only one response, from the very first woman i messaged, best described as polite, perfunctory, and discouraging further contact.

it just blows my mind how sheeple in general and women in particular don't dig me.  i get more rejections than ...(what's a good punchline?...  i can't think of one. maybe u can).  anyway, i get tons of rejection.  i'm picky but not overly so. i'm open to any kind of relationship, friend or lover, as long as it's open, honest, and authentic. i've tried being very open, honest, and authentic in recent decades as the chief lesson learned from a misguided youth was that the worst lies are the ones one tells oneself.  as somebody famous (shakespeare?) once wrote/said:

'This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. '  (it was shakespeare)

iow, if u don't want to deceive others, begin by not deceiving yourself, which i did a lot when i was young and trying my damnedest to conform; to embrace dogmatic puritanical 'faith' and 'morality'. to believe that prayer or willpower could fundamentally alter my 'sinful' human nature and make me properly 'moral' or chaste and reasonably happy still.

i learned the hard way that the red pill was better than the blue one; that embracing difficult unpleasant truth is in the long run preferable to conforming to laws and conventions which went against my nature (and i dare say human nature) and which required self deception and not being my authentic self, especially when authenticity is most important, as in intimate relationships, be they between friends or lovers.

unfortunately, it seems my authentic self doesn't go over well with others. my worldview tends to be widely divergent from theirs.  i get rejected far, far far more in the case of women, and i don't surreally know why. i wish i did. i wish i understood a lot of things i don't and perhaps can't, in this crazy cruel world.  my failure at relationships or more specifically making initial connections, perhaps a failure to create a positive or encouraging first impression, baffles me. i'm not the only sherson with unpopular, 'radical' fringe views/convictions, but i truly stand out at failing socially, and being alienated, isolated, and lonely, or so it's seemed to me, since just about the time i first embraced authenticity over conformity.

Bullshit Is Everywhere!

Every month of may i think of George Carlin, born may 12, 1937, died june 21, 2008, certainly one of the greatest anti-establishment comics the USA has ever produced. In the clip linked below george laments the ubiquity of bullshit in american culture, especially among 'authority' figures. How i wish someone had taught me this when i was very young! It would have saved me from having to go through the first 30 years of my life being completely full of shit, deceived and deluded by the hypocritical, dogmatic, puritanical, and authoritarian culture/society i had the great misfortune of being born into! How i wish there was a way now that i could reach out to all the young sheeple in the world currently being similarly bullshitted, and clue them into the truth!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPrRxhYJMkQ

The Myth Of The Teen Brain

this article from scientific american counteracts very well the common assumption in modern american culture that teenagers are too immature to make 'adult' decisions such as whether or not to have sex (the supposed basis of 'age of consent' laws). towards the end of the article it states that by the age of 70 a human brain will have shrunk to the same size as that of a 3 year old! yet no one tries to claim that senior citizens should be considered too old to make 'adult' decisions in light of this startling fact!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-teen-brain-2007-06/

Stranger In A Strange (And Hostile) Land

going back to childhood i've had an acute sense of social alienation and isolation which has probably been centered around awareness that the society/culture i was born into is pathologically erotically repressed and in complete denial about it. or, worse yet, completely ok with it, as seems to be the case particularly with religious 'conservatives'.

this has been brought home to me most forcefully this past year, when it came to light to the leader of my local progressive political group (green party) that nearly 2 decades ago i tried and failed to seduce the teenage daughter (28 years my junior) of a woman who was very active in the group (as was i) and with whom i was on very friendly terms.  i did this behind her back shortly after her beautiful daughter graduated from high school (still 17 years old and thus considered a 'minor', or child, in the eyes of the law, which i didn't know, assuming she was probably 18 and thus 'legal').  this attempt was clumsy, but there wasn't anything hostile about it, nor did it engender any hostility at the time. only years later, after a chance encounter over the telephone between us that i didn't handle well (i wasn't hostile, just very distant and dismissive, feeling forlorn and rejected), did she come to see my behavior as problematic and decided to bring it up when she was invited to one of our annual picnics and declined the invitation, citing her fear that i might once again 'sexually harass' her, and revealing what had transpired between us (or not transpired) so many years ago.

this leader, also a woman but considerably older, had developed her own somewhat negative perception of me based upon my interest in discussing sexual matters with her pertaining to my sexual frustration and perception that society was horribly repressed and that this repression is especially directed at youth and 'adults' like myself who are particularly attracted to 'minors' or teenagers.  this drove a bit of a wedge between us which widened when this past 'indiscretion' on my part came to light, leading to a semi public confrontation between us resulting in a new code of conduct being developed for our group which explicitly forbids sexual harassment.

up until this point my association with the green party had been somewhat of a source of relief from my sense of nearly complete alienation and isolation from my own species, thanks to our shared politically progressive views and values.  however, this incident has more or less ruined the sense that this was a group with whom i could identify with as an insider.  now it seems that with them, as with the rest of society, i must be an outsider.

i write this in the hope that eventually someone somewhere will read it, identify with it and connect with me as a result, but this hope may well be forlorn, since my past attempts to gain a following (mostly by reaching out to local greens) have utterly failed.  it seems none of the them can well identify with my pov in this matter, leading me to wonder just how many of the several billion sheeple in today's world can, and how can i reach them?

this brings to mind a famous science fiction book i partially read years ago titled STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.  science fiction is a genre of literature well suited for the exploration and fleshing out of ideas which are considered strange or perhaps heretical by mainstream culture, and this is the case here, as STRANGER deals extensively with the concept of 'free love' and the bizarre manner in which modern civilized humans have demonized and suppressed sexuality.  thus it's become a bit of a reference point for sex radicals like myself, and i identify strongly with the idea that as a very 'sex positive' individual in a very sex negative society/culture, i am indeed a stranger in a strange (and hostile) land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land

American Exceptionalism: The Naked Truth

below is a quote taken from the text of a speech given by the late william blum (who has previously been featured in this blog).  according to covertaction magazine, it was the last speaking engagement of his life.  documentation supporting the list of claims (see below) appears in a couple of his books, as cited at the end of the article (click link):

'Let’s look at just how exceptional America has been. Since the end of World War 2, the United States has:

Attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically-elected.

Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries.

Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders.

Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries.

Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.

Led the world in torture; not only the torture performed directly by Americans upon foreigners, but providing torture equipment, torture manuals, lists of people to be tortured, and in-person guidance by American teachers, especially in Latin America.'

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2018/08/11/american-exceptionalism-the-naked-truth/