Opinion

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By Chris Edwards
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Pop culture figureheads are by no means strangers to bizarre, and sometimes funny, rumors circulating around the populace. Think of the old days when tabloids in the supermarket typically given to cover stories about Bat-Boy would report on whatever strange thing Michael Jackson was supposedly up to. In the early days of the internet’s pervasiveness, a rumor spread about Marilyn Manson having a couple of ribs removed in order to, well, I’m sure you can imagine, if you don’t remember or are too young. If you can’t imagine that bizarre scenario, then, congratulations for being pure as the driven snow, but I digress.

Nowadays with social media spawning and dominating so much of the universal conversation, Taylor Swift is the it girl for proclamations as crazy as Bat Boy’s guano.

Before I endeavor further along this trek, I must confess ignorance of Ms. Swift and, by and large, her music. I’m not really her target demographic, and aside from that bit of eponymously titled juvenilia about Tim McGraw, the only real exposure I have to her music is through a song-by-song covers album that Ryan Adams recorded of her 1989 album.

From that record as evidence, I must admit she has some serious songwriting chops, and that’s further underscored by the fact that Adams, one of the best songwriters of his generation, opted to cover a whole album’s worth of her material.

Again, I’m no “Swiftie,” but there is no denying the woman’s talent, charisma and drive. Now, let’s get to these profoundly strange and utterly stupid conspiracy theories circling around her existence.

Swift has not been immune to out-there theories since her meteoric rise to household name status. More than a decade ago, a bizarre conspiracy theory surfaced that hinged on her resemblance to a woman named Zeena Schreck, the daughter of infamous huckster and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. Schreck served as “High Priestess” of the so-called church, and this discovery of resemblance between she and Swift led to a theory that Swift was the reincarnation of Shreck, but there was one problem: Schreck is still alive.

Still, that theory, as ridiculous as it was, led to all sorts of folderol about the pop star having made a Faustian bargain and/or her influence on young girls as a witchcraft practitioner. The most recent blitz of bizarre seems to be a by-product, or at least has coincided, with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Swift, who has been seen at Chiefs games supporting Kelce and the Chiefs from skybox seats and enjoying the games, has fueled several strange fresh theories, one of which is centered on the idea that the coming Chiefs vs. 49ers Super Bowl game is rigged to ensure that Kelce and his teammates win, so as to allow Swift a platform to announce an endorsement for President Biden’s re-election bid.

Anyone who has seen a Chiefs game in the past five years can easily call bull malarkey on the game-rigging idea. I’m not even a fan, but they are a team who has found a winning formula and wants the wins bad enough, having made three Super Bowl appearances in those five years. I watched them play the Baltimore Ravens last weekend, which sealed the deal for their appearance at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas this coming Sunday. If sloppy penalties and turnovers aplenty equal “rigged,” then I suppose the argument could be made, but my take is that the Chiefs wanted the victory more than the team from Baltimore.

Instead, reports such as Fox News host Jesse Watters proclaim Swift to be “an asset”; the result of a “Pentagon psy-op unit.” One-time presidential candidate and colleague to Watters in conspiranoia rantings, Vivek Ramaswamy, wrote of Swift and Kelce as “an artificially culturally propped-up couple,” and fanned the flames of the Super Bowl rigging theory.

What the Swift/Kelce coupling represents to me is a wholesome notion of supporting one’s partner. Swift cheering on her man is the sort of example that young women and young men need to see.

Many of the conspiracy theories that have circulated in the intelligence and positivity-starved social media corners about Swift seem to originate from a demographic known as the incels, or “involuntarily celibate.” These losers are threatened by strong women with platforms, simply put. Their inability to even co-exist with the fairer sex leads them to dealing in misogynistic rhetoric, largely online.

None of these folks bat an eye when Jack Nicholson or Flea are seen courtside at Lakers games, or when Matthew McConaughey turns up on the camera supporting the Longhorns. Funny how that works, eh?

The dearth of any cogent, valid criticism of Swift seems staggering given the number of inflammatory, or downright bizarre, dispatches out there. An article from the Federalist, published last September, states that Swift’s popularity represents a sign of societal decline in America.

Mark Hemingway, who wrote the piece, spends several paragraphs arguing that Swift is actually an amazing artist, and buried within it, the actual criticism is, well, shall we say, half-baked at best.

Hemingway cites a lack of lyrical quality but also claims that Swift has created an entire lyrical trope in popular music: failed romance grievance songs. Hmmmm…now that bucket holds no water whatsoever. Someone run and tell Stevie Nicks about this development, or how about Alanis Morissette.

At the end of the day, Taylor Swift is showing herself to be a positive role model for young people, but also helping fathers to bond with their daughters. If seeing that sort of wholesomeness, along with the public displays of support she gives her partner, bothers someone, that is a special kind of toxicity.

At the end of the day, however, even though I’m not familiar with her music, it’s amusing to watch a whole internet contingency of snowflakes melting all over Swift.

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By Chris Edwards
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pop culture figureheads are by no means strangers to bizarre, and sometimes funny, rumors circulating around the populace. Think of the old days when tabloids in the supermarket typically given to cover stories about Bat-Boy would report on whatever strange thing Michael Jackson was supposedly up to. In the early days of the internet’s pervasiveness, a rumor spread about Marilyn Manson having a couple of ribs removed in order to, well, I’m sure you can imagine, if you don’t remember or are too young. If you can’t imagine that bizarre scenario, then, congratulations for being pure as the driven snow, but I digress.

Nowadays with social media spawning and dominating so much of the universal conversation, Taylor Swift is the it girl for proclamations as crazy as Bat Boy’s guano.

Before I endeavor further along this trek, I must confess ignorance of Ms. Swift and, by and large, her music. I’m not really her target demographic, and aside from that bit of eponymously titled juvenilia about Tim McGraw, the only real exposure I have to her music is through a song-by-song covers album that Ryan Adams recorded of her 1989 album.

From that record as evidence, I must admit she has some serious songwriting chops, and that’s further underscored by the fact that Adams, one of the best songwriters of his generation, opted to cover a whole album’s worth of her material.

Again, I’m no “Swiftie,” but there is no denying the woman’s talent, charisma and drive. Now, let’s get to these profoundly strange and utterly stupid conspiracy theories circling around her existence.

Swift has not been immune to out-there theories since her meteoric rise to household name status. More than a decade ago, a bizarre conspiracy theory surfaced that hinged on her resemblance to a woman named Zeena Schreck, the daughter of infamous huckster and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. Schreck served as “High Priestess” of the so-called church, and this discovery of resemblance between she and Swift led to a theory that Swift was the reincarnation of Shreck, but there was one problem: Schreck is still alive.

Still, that theory, as ridiculous as it was, led to all sorts of folderol about the pop star having made a Faustian bargain and/or her influence on young girls as a witchcraft practitioner. The most recent blitz of bizarre seems to be a by-product, or at least has coincided, with her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Swift, who has been seen at Chiefs games supporting Kelce and the Chiefs from skybox seats and enjoying the games, has fueled several strange fresh theories, one of which is centered on the idea that the coming Chiefs vs. 49ers Super Bowl game is rigged to ensure that Kelce and his teammates win, so as to allow Swift a platform to announce an endorsement for President Biden’s re-election bid.

Anyone who has seen a Chiefs game in the past five years can easily call bull malarkey on the game-rigging idea. I’m not even a fan, but they are a team who has found a winning formula and wants the wins bad enough, having made three Super Bowl appearances in those five years. I watched them play the Baltimore Ravens last weekend, which sealed the deal for their appearance at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas this coming Sunday. If sloppy penalties and turnovers aplenty equal “rigged,” then I suppose the argument could be made, but my take is that the Chiefs wanted the victory more than the team from Baltimore.

Instead, reports such as Fox News host Jesse Watters proclaim Swift to be “an asset”; the result of a “Pentagon psy-op unit.” One-time presidential candidate and colleague to Watters in conspiranoia rantings, Vivek Ramaswamy, wrote of Swift and Kelce as “an artificially culturally propped-up couple,” and fanned the flames of the Super Bowl rigging theory.

What the Swift/Kelce coupling represents to me is a wholesome notion of supporting one’s partner. Swift cheering on her man is the sort of example that young women and young men need to see.

Many of the conspiracy theories that have circulated in the intelligence and positivity-starved social media corners about Swift seem to originate from a demographic known as the incels, or “involuntarily celibate.” These losers are threatened by strong women with platforms, simply put. Their inability to even co-exist with the fairer sex leads them to dealing in misogynistic rhetoric, largely online.

None of these folks bat an eye when Jack Nicholson or Flea are seen courtside at Lakers games, or when Matthew McConaughey turns up on the camera supporting the Longhorns. Funny how that works, eh?

The dearth of any cogent, valid criticism of Swift seems staggering given the number of inflammatory, or downright bizarre, dispatches out there. An article from the Federalist, published last September, states that Swift’s popularity represents a sign of societal decline in America.

Mark Hemingway, who wrote the piece, spends several paragraphs arguing that Swift is actually an amazing artist, and buried within it, the actual criticism is, well, shall we say, half-baked at best.

Hemingway cites a lack of lyrical quality but also claims that Swift has created an entire lyrical trope in popular music: failed romance grievance songs. Hmmmm…now that bucket holds no water whatsoever. Someone run and tell Stevie Nicks about this development, or how about Alanis Morissette.

At the end of the day, Taylor Swift is showing herself to be a positive role model for young people, but also helping fathers to bond with their daughters. If seeing that sort of wholesomeness, along with the public displays of support she gives her partner, bothers someone, that is a special kind of toxicity.

At the end of the day, however, even though I’m not familiar with her music, it’s amusing to watch a whole internet contingency of snowflakes melting all over Swift.

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By Tony Farkas
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Saturday was my mother’s birthday. She passed in 2012, but I still think of her daily, and part of the reason for that actually is spurred on by current events.

What I most think about is her journey through this life, the steps she took to become my mother and ultimately the American citizen and woman of distinction she became.

Near the end of World War II, my mother, along with her sister, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, gathered together to run from the approaching Russian troops, who by all accounts, were not nice. There were reports of rapes, murders and all manner of atrocities perpetuated on the people of every country they rolled through.

Boarding a train with other refugees headed to Germany (which sadly was allied with Hungary at the time), they would frequently stop and run into the woods because of Allied bombers flying overhead (my grandmother had to do this suffering a gunshot wound to her foot).

They eventually made it to Germany, and even were there during the final bombings.

In the mid-1950s, the family traveled to the U.S. as displaced persons. They went through Ellis Island, where the officials ended up renaming her because they couldn’t process her Hungarian name, so Sarika became Charlotte.

She lived with her sponsor for a while, and then later ended up in Detroit, where she graduated high school, married her high school sweetheart, and then embarked on the next leg of her American Dream.

I never heard her badmouth this country, instead, she extolled its virtues, even when her heritage had an affect on my father’s career — he was turned down for a spot as security for Air Force One because my mother was from Hungary, which was at the time behind the Iron Curtain.

Her journey took her through family, school where she obtained her doctorate, becoming the first-ever civilian to run a department on an Air Force base, and ultimately a private practice helping others.

This all comes up in light of the untenable situation at the Texas border. Recent events have shown refugees (and who knows what else) flooding the country unchecked. Government officials are at each other’s throats as to what to do, and only the Texas government wants to stop the madness.

The pearl-clutching nannies who are all about saving everybody claim that these immigrants are only seeking a better life than the ones in their home country. They’re escaping warfare, oppression and horrible living condition, and we need to be their salvation, no holds barred.

Yet, where was this outpouring of love before? The horrors my people were escaping were no different from the immigrants seeking asylum now, yet my forebears went through the process and followed the law.

Those that manage to gain entry also begin taking from the U.S. taxpayer through social programs while at the same time decrying the United States. Anyone doing that in the 1950s would have been sent back to their mother country. So what’s different now?

That answer falls into the realm of will — the will of our “leaders” to do what’s right and follow the law. Our current leaders are the problem in this scenario, and since not enforcing the law is equivalent to aiding and abetting the illegal enterprise, then these “leaders” must face consequences as well.

Tony Farkas is publisher of the San Jacinto News-Times and the Trinity County News-Standard. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

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By Tom Purcell

According to the password managing company NordPass, the most commonly used passwords of 2023 are embarrassingly simpleminded.

The most popular password was “123456.” Scammers — and my dog, Thurber — can crack that one in less than 1 second.

“Admin” is the second most popular password. It and No. 7, “password,” also can be cracked in less than 1 second.

If you want to see how easy your passwords are to crack, type them into a password detector, such as this one from bitwarden.

The regrettable fact is, in the digital world in which we all now live, cyber scammers are working overtime to come up with ever-more-clever schemes to defraud us.

For example, ransomware attacks grew exponentially last year.

Ransomware is malicious software that scammers use to encrypt a company’s or individual’s data and block access to it until a hefty sum of money is paid.

Google the words “ransomware attack” and you’ll see a sizable list of individuals, big companies and entire cities that have been completely shut down by increasingly sophisticated scammers.

Another big trend: Activists who support various political causes are launching attacks on individuals and businesses who support their enemies.

Utilities and infrastructure that are using outdated systems are especially vulnerable to attacks.

Cyber attacks will be significantly worse in 2024 for anyone who uses a digital device.

Yet few are aware of, or prepared for, the threats they face — or how their poor cybersecurity skills are putting them and their families at incredible risk.

Case in point:

Last year, the top 10 weakest passwords were pretty much the same as they were in prior years, which offers a tremendous opportunity for cyber scammers to rob us blind.

You see, scammers are really good at guessing passwords — the weaker the password, the faster they can crack our code.

Here’s how scammers work:

First, they send us multiple fake emails or texts that look to be legitimate — spoofed emails from people we know or companies we do business with — hoping we click on the fraudulent links they embed.

Maybe it’s a “receipt” from Amazon that thanks us for our recent $300 order and asks us to click the link provided if we have questions about the order.

Or maybe it’s a special credit-card offer from your bank — except that it’s from an Internet address that has nothing to do with your bank.

If you “click here to apply” you will unwittingly allow scammers to install a malicious code into your computer that allows them to root around, hoping to find login and password details to gain access to your banking or credit card accounts.

Even if they don’t discover the passwords they need, it won’t take them but a few seconds to crack the weakest ones.

But our elderly face the greatest risk of cyber fraud because they are much more likely to trust people who email them or call them than younger generations are.

As we head into 2024, all of us must realize we are facing a new level of risk from cyber scammers.

We must learn what these risks are and learn to detect and thwart them so we can protect ourselves, our families and especially our elders from harm.

Improving our password skills is an obvious place to start. Here’s what a secure password might look like:

StopScammers1178#@!!in2024 &;&!!

According to bitwarden, it would take scammers centuries to crack that one!