Times have changed since I went to junior high school. We had a social studies teacher who taught us various ways advertisers try to trick us. I don't think they (teachers, that is) do that any more. I think today's public school teachers would be fired if they tried to actually educate. Here's a wiki page that's nearly identical to what we learned.

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

There are so many! Here's one we're very familiar with:

Appeal to fear
Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population, for example, Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's Germany Must Perish! to claim that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people.

and, similarly:

Demonizing the enemy
Making individuals from the opposing nation, from a different ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman (e.g., the Vietnam War-era term "gooks" for National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam aka Vietcong, or “VC”, soldiers), worthless, or immoral, through suggestion or false accusations. Dehumanizing is also a term used synonymously with demonizing, the latter usually serves as an aspect of the former.

We don't have to call Republicans "subhuman". We can just call them "stupid" or "low information voters" or "dangerous".

The whole list is fascinating reading. It looks like a textbook for those who control "information".

Which brings me to the point. It's propaganda, designed to manipulate is and it doesn't stop with politics. It's all a scam!

$10-15/hr jobs to save Crater Lake

We were walking down the street and saw a flyer on a telephone pole. Protect Crater Lake! Jobs! Summer! And when you go to the web site you see that what they want are people to stand outside the supermarket to try to raise money. Where does the money go? That's a good question, right? If you read further, digging down, you get the picture. The money does two things. It pays the salaries of the board and it goes into lobbying. Aha! Or what we call "bribery". So if you stand on the sidewalk and get people to give money, that money ends up in the pockets of the legislators. Swell. That's a scam!

http://www.environmentoregon.org/page/aze/work-cleaner-greener-healthier...

Dine out with your Mastercard And stand up to cancer

I was checking out some sports page or other and noticed this big ad that ran across the top and down both sides. I asked myself "If I had a Mastercard and if I went to a restaurant, would that end cancer?" I felt, surely, the answer was "no". Another scam? The money ("one precious cent at a time", says the website) goes to researchers who would be in the financial situation of having no more money if they actually succeed. And, weirdly enough, when you read the press release there's a short mention of cancer and then a much longer description of "memorable dining experiences". So yeah, a scam.

http://www.standup2cancer.org/press_release/view/dine_out_with_mastercar...

Cokie's kids charity

Who doesn't love children? Cokie Roberts, noted conservative who gets confused with a liberal because she was on PBS, is on the board of directors of "Save the Children". The website say 87% goes to programs. The other 13%? Fundraising and salaries. Here's a quote that shows how effective they are:

Following our response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., we worked with parents to help raise awareness about the importance to emergency preparedness and child protection.

Whoopee! That, surely, is worth whatever money I can cough up.

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6191697/k.F89E/Pro...

Clinton Foundation

Others can write more succinctly about this scam. Haitians are getting poor nutrition, poor services, but there sure is a lot of money involved! And then there are the shadowy aspects involving Hillary, her position as Secretary of State, arms sales....a scam!

The DNC and the RNC

Forget these two! They'll never get anything done. They exist solely to collect money. In fact, sad to say, virtually all candidates are fronts for that. Elizabeth Warren? Yes. Barack Obama? For sure. Bernie Sanders? shhh...don't tell some of the people here but yeah, I think so. Better than the others but, at least at this point, a front.

It's like Ray Campi sang. This whole thing is a ripoff!

And this from Bob Dylan

It’s all just a dream, babe
A vacuum, a scheme, babe
That sucks you into feelin’ like this

In general, anything you can send money to is a scam. It's like that Twilight Zone episode, "To Serve Man". It sounds great but, as we all learned, it's a cookbook.

These scams extend to our daily life. That health food supermarket? Scam. When the good bread gets taken out and the local white bread company (that's now owned by Wonder Bread) moves in, it's a scam.

Occasionally something or someone comes along that is pure and is loved for that. Then it's either killed or corrupted or eventually fades out.

Killed (would he have gone the way of Bernie? We never had the chance to find out)

Corrupted

Faded out

Sigh....time to revisit than "Tune in, Turn on, Drop out" thing.