National Security Agency director Robert O’Brien, 2020
U.S. fantasies of expansion, commercial dominion, and military prowess have long hinged on a premise of Pacific exceptionalism. Couched in the millenarian language of manifest destiny, the Pacific region and its multitudinous ecosystems, cultures, peoples, and nations have been vacated in favor of an
aqua nullius that frames the region as an empty space designated for U.S. possession by divine providence.
This manufactured Pacific
idea what David Palumbo-Liu describes as a “repository of the American imaginary” has borne many names.
3 Amid the nineteenth-century annexation of Hawai‘i and the colonization of the Philippines, politician Whitelaw Reid heralded the ultimate conversion of the Pacific into an “American Lake.”
The claim: Barbara Bush is the daughter of British occultist Aleister Crowley
A Facebook post from Feb. 16 claims that infamous British occultist Aleister Crowley was the father of former first lady Barbara Bush. This makes George W. Bush the grandson of the worlds (sic) most famous satanist, the user wrote. Crowley (1875-1947) is known for founding a religion called Thelema and popularizing the term magick to describe supernatural acts of the occult.
In a comment to USA TODAY,
Casey Zevenbergen, who posted the claim on Facebook, said he saw the claim several times, including on the secure-messaging app Telegram. This post has been circulating for many years, I also have seen it on other sites like Telegram. Not sure of its authenticity but it has raised a lot of conversations, Zevenbergen said.