Robalini's Week 17 NFL Picks

Here's my results for week 16 W-L-T record: 6-5
Season record: 68-56-5

Philadelphia Eagles (-8 1/2) Over Washington Redskins
The Eagles are one of those teams that comes around every now and then, a really talented team that underperforms, but starts getting it on just a little too late. They don't care about missing the playoffs now, but they do want to take it out on their opponents and prove to the other teams who make it they're lucky they're not there. The Redskins are the perfect team to prove it on...

San Francisco 49ers (-10 1/2) Over St. Louis Rams
The 49ers are trying to secure an opening round bye against a very weak team. They should take care of business...

Detroit Lions (-3 1/2) Over Green Bay Packers
The Packers don't have anything to prove at 14-1, while the Lions do...

New York Giants (-3) Over Dallas Cowboys
I've been a supporter of the Cowboys and Tony Romo all season. But he's injured to some degree, and the Cowboys have never lived up to to their potential all season. I don't expect them to change that in their final game, on the road against the resilient Giants...

Tennessee Titans (-3) Over Houston Texans
The Titans have an outside chance at the playoffs with a victory, and the Texans have nothing to play for...

Baltimore Ravens (-2 1/2) Over Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengal have underperformed all year against good teams, and the Ravens have an opening round bye earned with a victory...

Pittsburgh Steelers (-7) Over Cleveland Browns
Even if Big Ben doesn't play, the Steelers are in more than good hands with backup QB Charlie Batch...

Miami Dolphins (-2) Over New York Jets
I've been pro Jets all year, but like the Cowboys, they've never closed the deal. I don't expect that to change on the road against the Dolphins...

New England Patriots (-11 1/2) Over Buffalo Bills
The Patriots have two things to take care of: clinching home field advantage to the Super Bowl with a win, and gaining revenge on the Bills for a loss that still stings. They'll manage to do both...

San Diego Chargers (+3) Over Oakland Raiders
The Chargers are like the Eagles this year, which should lead to the same results of a decisive victory...

Seattle Seahawks (+3) Over Arizona Cardinals
The Seahawks are, to a lesser degree than the Eagles and Chargers, too little too late, but they'll still get the job done against the Cards...

All bets are placed at Station Casinos:

http://www.stationcasinos.com/

To check Las Vegas odds, The Konformist recommends VegasInsider.com:

http://www.vegasinsider.com/

Hank Paulson’s inside jobs

Felix Salmon Nov 29, 2011
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/11/29/hank-paulsons-inside-jobs

What on earth did Hank Paulson think his job was in the summer of 2008? As far as most of us were concerned, he was secretary of the US Treasury, answerable to the US people and to the president. But at the same time, in secret meetings, Paulson was hanging out with his old Goldman Sachs buddies, giving them invaluable information about what he was thinking in his new job.

The first news of this behavior came in October 2009, when Andrew Ross Sorkin revealed that Paulson had met with the entire board of Goldman Sachs in a Moscow hotel suite for an hour at the end of June 2008. He told them his views of the US and global economies, he previewed a market-moving speech he was about to give, and he even talked about the possibility that Lehman Brothers might blow up. Maybe it’s not so surprising that Goldman Sachs turned out to be so well positioned when Lehman did indeed do just that a few months later.

Today we learn that the Goldman meeting in Moscow was not some kind of aberration. A few weeks later, on July 28 2008, Paulson met with a who’s who of the hedge-fund world in the headquarters of Eton Park Capital Management — a fund founded by former Goldman superstar Eric Mindich.

The secretary, then 62, went on to describe a possible scenario for placing Fannie and Freddie into “conservatorship” — a government seizure designed to allow the firms to continue operations despite heavy losses in the mortgage markets…

Paulson explained that under this scenario, the common stock of the two government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, would be effectively wiped out…

The fund manager who described the meeting left after coffee and called his lawyer. The attorney’s quick conclusion: Paulson’s talk was material nonpublic information, and his client should immediately stop trading the shares of Washington- based Fannie and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie.

When we found out about the Moscow meeting, I asked how on earth Paulson thought such behavior was OK. But now I think he was downright pathological in giving inside information to his old Wall Street buddies. And the crazy thing is that we have no idea how many of these meetings there were, or how long they went on for — the only way that we ever find out about them is when reporters like Sorkin or Bloomberg’s Richard Teitelbaum manage to find a source who was in the meeting and is willing to talk about what happened.

Given that it’s taken two years since the release of Sorkin’s book for the Eton Park meeting to be made public, it’s fair to assume that there were other meetings, too — possibly many others. Paulson was giving inside tips to Wall Street in general, and to Goldman types in particular: exactly the kind of behavior that “Government Sachs” conspiracy theorists have been speculating about for years. Turns out, they were right.

Paulson, says Teitelbaum, “is now a distinguished senior fellow at the University of Chicago, where he’s starting the Paulson Institute, a think tank focused on U.S.-Chinese relations”. I’d take issue with the “distinguished” bit. Unless it means “distinguished by an astonishing black hole where his ethics ought to be”.

Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead

11-29-2011
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9099162-foreclosure-fraud-whistleblower-found-dead

A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has been found dead in her Las Vegas home.

NBC station KSNV of Las Vegas reported that the woman, Tracy Lawrence, 43, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday morning after she pleaded guilty this month to notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence. She failed to show up for her hearing, and police found her body at her home later in the day.

It could not immediately be determined whether Lawrence, who faced up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, died of suicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. ?Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.

Lawrence came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.

Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public. You can read a .pdf version of their indictment here.

Police said at the time that the alleged scam had thrown into question the legality of most Las Vegas home foreclosures in the past few years, leaving many people living in foreclosed-upon homes that they unknowingly don't actually own.

"I would suggest you review your documents and bring them to an expert and an attorney," said John Kelleher, chief deputy attorney general for Nevada's fraud unit.

Occupy Our Homes

J.A. Myerson, Truthout
Wednesday 7 December 2011
http://truth-out.org/occupy-our-homes/1323268606

Yesterday, no one had lived in 702 Vermont Street for three years. Vermont Street sits in East New York, the Brooklyn neighborhood where foreclosures are five times more frequent than in the rest of the state. Today, Alfredo and Tasha and their son and daughter moved in, with the help of a number of friends whom they'd never met. Some were from the advocacy groups Picture the Homeless and Vocal New York, others were clergy or members of the city council. They had been organized and brought together by Occupy Wall Street for a national day of action to promote foreclosure resistance, an event kicking off a project they call Occupy Our Homes.

Alfredo, Tasha and the kids, way back yesterday, were homeless, having been foreclosed upon by a bank and hundreds upon hundreds of people who had never heard of them came to East New York today to get them a home. Occupy Wall Street is itself somewhat homeless these days, having been evicted from Zuccotti Park on the orders of the 12th-richest man in the United States. A few weeks ago, the media tycoon in question deployed what he openly calls his "army" to dispossess the occupation, including, naturally, everyone who called it their home. Much wondering has been going on in the press about what Occupy Wall Street would do now that it was homeless. Today's answer seems to have been: get other people homes.

The few hundred activists marched through the streets of East New York and took a tour of the foreclosed properties in the area, which is very easy to do, since they are everywhere. "On every block, we have one or two homes either for sale or in foreclosure," Lorraine, who lives in the neighborhood, told me. "I think we have three houses for sale on my block alone."

On the Upper West Side, there are always street fairs. There are museums and libraries and there are parks and concert venues. And on the Upper West Side, there are places for kids to go after school and there are places for people who want to get healthier to exercise. On the Upper West Side, there are churches made of stone. In East New York, there is a church called Hope Christian Center, which looks like an abandoned office building, the paint on the façade stripping away to reveal the brick beneath.

"There's nothing to do here," said longtime East New Yorker Corinne Gonzales, who attributes the many people who watched the march from their windows to this. Revealingly, it was at their windows where people found themselves on a chance Tuesday afternoon in this neighborhood and not, perhaps, at work. Many of them joined the march, which, at its peak, swelled to what was widely estimated to include 1,000 participants - on a Tuesday afternoon in the rain.

Corrine had never seen anything like it. News cameras and satellite vans don't come here, except, occasionally, in the case of a shooting. Now, they'd come here to document the difficulty of a life of poverty and the attempt to change that dynamic. If Occupy Wall Street had chosen to do something else today, another day would have gone by in which no one in the media or politics paid any attention to East New York.

"It's not fair to us low income families," Corrine told me. "Everybody's talking about middle class. Middle class? What about us? We got children. It's not fair to us. And I thank God that you guys came out today to represent us low income families. And I appreciate it very much."

Some activists brought housewarming gifts for the new residents of 702 Vermont Street. Yates McKee, 32, marched carrying a large houseplant. "A plant is important because it's something that helps make it a nice environment," he told me. "It's also a metaphor for sustaining life."

Lorraine had brought brownies. She started a "part-time cooking thing" to make extra money before she lost her job. "They're free," she said, offering me one. "It might energize you, with a little sugar. I have a sweet tooth." These brownies were to welcome the activists who had come to help, though the baker herself faces foreclosure. "Any person at this point is one step away from being jobless and homeless," she remarked. "It's a reality. This is the life that we're living right now. It's like this is what we worked for, all those other years. This is the point that we've come to."

If anybody wanted demands, they were clear today. As Brian Gibbs of Picture the Homeless said by way of the people's microphone, "What we need is real, affordable housing now. It has to change." Gibbs was once homeless on the street and spoke of the police harassment routinely visited upon him and others in his situation. "The problem with homelessness is that people get so desperate, they are willing to risk arrest in order to get off the streets," he told the crowd.

At one stop along the tour, a young man named Quincy, who works as a part time plumber, took the people's mike. "I was tricked into signing over my deed," he confessed. "Now I'm getting evicted. I have a loan of $475,000."

Standing beside him, his city council member, one-time Black Panther Charles Barron, announced, "We will not let this young man lose his home. We've stopped other foreclosures and we're going to stop this one." Thereupon, Quincy began to weep, the friends and comrades he never knew he had gathering around him to place their calming hands upon his shoulders and his arms and his head. He didn't know they were out there, but 1,000 people ready to protect his home happened to be around the corner the day upon which he was getting foreclosed.

As Quincy wrapped up his remarks, a cry from the crowd drew everyone's attention to another longtime resident of the neighborhood, who told the story of having bought her house in 1997, putting $80,000 down. She'd been working two jobs all of her life and had paid her mortgage responsibly, putting down months in advance when she went on vacation. Her son did four years in Kuwait and four years in Iraq and now he's dead. The Pentagon, the woman said, doesn't know whether he died by enemy bullets or friendly fire. Since then, she's become sick and the bills for her medical treatment have ruined her hopes for paying off the rest of her mortgage. Crying to the sky, she asked again and again, "How am I going to do it?"

At the march's destination, balloons announced the block party to be thrown for the incoming neighbors. A tent appeared on the roof, on which was scrawled, "You cannot evict an idea whose time has come." Remarks were shared by, among others, Alfredo, a 27-year-old community organizer around stop and frisk, and Tasha, whose shyness in the face of the people's microphone moved her to nervous giggles and a swift conclusion to her brief thanks.

I went into 702 Vermont Street with the Occupy Wall Street Sanitation Working Group, who entered before anyone else to get the house ready to be, so to speak, occupied. This was a formidable charge. It very much seemed to one as though the people who left 702 Vermont Street did so in a big hurry. Crumbled dry wall, copious mold, piles of refuse - the house might as easily have been Sarajevo in 1996 than in the same city as Wall Street in 2011.

The sun set over Vermont Street behind the clouds, steadily drizzling on the block party. Eventually, Bloomberg's army, consisting of quite a smaller number of people when there wasn't rich people's property to protect, asked the block party to stick to the sidewalk, and the event drew to a close, teams of occupiers agreeing to stay with Alfredo and Tasha and with Quincy for the night, vowing to put their bodies between the residents and anyone attempting to turn them into something else.

The police's boss has $19.5 billion. He's got places to stay all over the world, luxury townhouses in the swankiest neighborhoods in the finest cities in the world and sprawling mansions in lush paradises in the tropics. And no one ever threatens to kick him out of any of them. For the time being, anyway.

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

J.A. Myerson is an independent journalist who is involved in the Media and Labor Outreach committees at Occupy Wall Street.

Occupy’s next frontier: Foreclosed homes

A campaign to defend families from evictions and protest foreclosure fraud launches next week
Justin Elliott
Wednesday, Nov 30, 2011
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/30/occupys_next_frontier_foreclosed_homes

Occupy Wall Street is promising a “big day of action” Dec. 6 that will focus on the foreclosure crisis and protest “fraudulent lending practices,” “corrupt securitization,” and illegal evictions by banks.

The day will mark the beginning of an Occupy Our Homes campaign that organizers hope will energize the movement as it moves indoors as well as bring the injustices of the economic crisis into sharp relief.

Many of the details aren’t yet public, but protesters in 20 cities are expected to take part in the day of action next Tuesday. We’ve already seen eviction defenses at foreclosed properties around the country as well as takeovers of vacant properties for homeless families. Occupy Our Homes organizer Abby Clark tells me protesters are planning to “mic-check” (i.e., disrupt) foreclosure auctions as well as launch some new home occupations.

“This is a shift from protesting Wall Street fraud to taking action on behalf of people who were harmed by it. It brings the movement into the neighborhoods and gives people a sense of what’s really at stake,” said Max Berger, one of the Occupy Our Homes organizers and a member of Occupy Wall Street’s movement-building working group.

The backdrop for all this is a new study suggesting the foreclosure crisis is only half over, with 4 million homes in some stage of foreclosure. Meanwhile, reports of illegal or questionable behavior by banks and mortgage lenders continue to stream in.

Like many of the Occupy actions that have focused on specific policy questions, this one is being organized by established progressive and labor-affiliated groups along with their allies in the movement. Among the allied groups listed on Occupy Our Homes’ website, for example, are the New Bottom Line and New York Communities for Change. On the Occupy Wall Street side of things, members of the direct action working group and the movement-building group in New York have been involved in the project.

Occupy Our Homes’ website (which was registered by a former SEIU official staffer) has the trappings of a slick professional campaign, with videos featuring the stories of families facing foreclosures and a pledge visitors are encouraged to sign stating:

… that until the banks do their part to help homeowners and to fix the economy, by writing down mortgage principal to current home values, I will:

•I will support homeowners resisting wrongful foreclosure evictions.
•I will resist any attempt by the bank to take my home.
•If they come to foreclose, I will not go.
A network of groups organized as Take Back the Land has been doing eviction defenses and related actions around the country for five years, according to organizer Max Rameau.

“Now with this Occupy movement ramping up, I think we have a significant chance to keep large numbers of people in their home,” Rameau told Democracy Now earlier this month. “[The goal is to] not only force the banks to allow the family to stay in the home. But also then force policy changes that would help thousands of other people for whom we’re not doing eviction defenses.”

We saw a similar dynamic in the preexisting campaign to extend the millionaire’s tax in New York, which has benefited from new energy and a new banner offered by the Occupy movement.

Will the new Occupy push on foreclosures pick up any steam? I’ll be covering whatever happens on Dec. 6, so stay tuned to find out.

Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin

Economic Doomsday Quote of the Week

"The world is watching Europe, waiting upon a solution. It’s not just the euro that’s at stake. If the euro fails, so too does the 27-nation European Union. Bank lending would freeze, stock markets would likely crash, and Europe’s economies would follow. Nations in the euro-zone would see their economic output decline, though temporarily, by as much as 50%, according to UBS forecasters. That economic meltdown would then spread to the U.S. and Asia, who would find themselves caught up in the credit freeze while their exports to Europe would collapse."
Source:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Euro-Finance-Ministers-wscheats-3060132077.html

Thanks to NaturalNews.com for the tipoff

NY Times’ Umbrella Man Exposed

Russ Baker on Nov 28, 2011
http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/11/28/ny-times%E2%80%99-umbrella-man-exposed

More and more, one is struck by the extent to which the New York Times is disassociated from reality. One might judge the paper’s publishing of official falsehoods as the occasional and accidental byproduct of the pressure to produce so many articles, were it not for the consistency and rigidly sclerotic way it loyally foists patently untrue material upon the public.

I say this as someone who still reads the Times, still has friends working there, and still retains some isolated pockets of fondness for it.

But it is hard to overlook these constant transgressions. As we note here at WhoWhatWhy, these range from ignoring the real reasons for the invasion of Libya to apologizing for fraud perpetrated by its favorite Afghanistan propagandist (and the author of Three Cups of Tea). It surely includes the paper’s failure to share with its readers overwhelming and constantly refreshed documentation of an organized coup that resulted in the death of President John F. Kennedy and the end of meaningful reform in America. I addressed that latter issue in the article, “NY Times’ Ostrich Act on JFK Assassination Getting Old.”
Far from proper journalistic curiosity, the paper sees its job as enforcing orthodoxy, and shutting down consideration of anything untoward. According to the New York Times’s peculiar brand of journalism, coups and plots happen with regularity abroad, but never, never, in the United States.

It is important to include the pejorative phrase “conspiracy theorist” in every article, even acknowledging concern about the health of democracy in America. It is important to have a good laugh at the expense of those poor souls who trouble themselves inquiring into the darker precincts of this country’s history.

So it is with the 48th anniversary of Kennedy’s death. Instead of assigning a single reporter to scrutinize the hundreds or thousands of meaningful, documented facts that do suggest more than “the lone nut did it,” the Times gets busy with the disinformation business.

Here are two Times “contributions” on this occasion:

UMBRELLA MAN

On the 48th anniversary of Kennedy’s murder, the Times ran an op-ed piece and short film by documentary maker Errol Morris about another man’s research into “umbrella man.” Umbrella Man is the nickname for a fellow who famously brought an umbrella on a sunny day for the president’s visit to Dallas November 22, 1963, stood on the “grassy knoll,” and, just as the president’s car passed, he opened the umbrella and pumped it in the air. Many have speculated as to the significance, or lack of significance, of this strange behavior. Some wonder if Umbrella Man was part of the assassination scenario, perhaps signaling to shooters. There was even the September 1975 Senate intelligence committee testimony by Charles Senseney, a contract weapons designer for the CIA, that the agency had perfected an umbrella that shoots undetectable poison darts that can immobilize and kill, raising questions about whether this was in play that day. (See P. 168 in the Senate committee testimony, where Senseney explains specifically about the agency’s use of a toxin and the ability to fire it from a modified umbrella.)

The self-described Umbrella Man, Louie Steven Witt, came forward to offer his testimony in 1978, or three years after the CIA expert provided this now forgotten testimony on umbrellas as weapon. Umbrella Man came forward just as a special House Select Committee on Assassinations was focusing on the possibility of a conspiracy (which, it concluded in its final report…was likely.)

The counsel for the Assassinations Committee, remarkably, does not mention the prior Senate testimony by the CIA weapons expert that such an umbrella device did exist, and instead quotes a more shaky claim by an “assassinations critic” regarding such a device.

Mr. GENZMAN. Mr. Witt, exhibit 406 is a copyrighted diagram

drawn by assassinations critic Robert B. Cutler which shows two

umbrellas with rocket and flechette attachments. Mr. Witt, do you

know what a flechette is?

Mr. WITT. I do now. I did not prior to our interview yesterday

evening.

Mr. GENZMAN. Did the umbrella in your possession on November

22, 1963, contain a flechette, or a rocket or a dart?

Mr. WITT, No, It did not.

Mr. GENZMAN. Has exhibit 405, the umbrella, ever contained -a

flechette, rocket. or dart?

Mr. WITT. No. Not since it’s been in my possession.

Mr. GENZMAN. Did the umbrella in your possession on November

1963; contain a gun or weapon of any sort?

438

Mr. WITT. No.

Mr. GENZMAN. Has exhibit 405 ever contained a gun or weapon

of any sort?

Mr. WITT. This umbrella?

Mr. GENZMAN. Yes.

Mr. WITT. No.

Mr. GENZMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Witt.

Mr. Chairman, I have no further questions.


Is the Times at all interested in the credibility of this purported umbrella-bearer? Absolutely not.

Instead, the Morris video presents the idea that sometimes, the most ridiculous scenarios are the truth. And so it presents the ridiculous, and asks us to believe it. Cutting to the chase, the man seen opening an umbrella comes forward to explain why he did it. Reason: in 1963, he was still mad at Britain’s pre-war Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement of Hitler, and held JFK’s father to blame as US ambassador to England in that period. Chamberlain was famed for carrying an umbrella. So—get this—Umbrella Man, hoping to make a statement about what happened in the late 1930s to JFK in 1963, pumped his umbrella at the time the fatal shots were fired…only for this obscure purpose.

The Times passes the responsibility for this travesty to Morris, who passes it along to Josiah Thompson, a former Navy underwater demolitions expert turned Yale philosophy professor turned private investigator, who appears on-screen to ruminate about “Umbrella Man.” He is happy to accept the Chamberlain story as “delightful weirdness.”

Watching this, one gets the sense that Thompson believes there was no conspiracy in JFK’s death. But what the Times implies with this little piece is false. In fact, Josiah Thompson is known for documenting the exact opposite. He wrote a serious investigative book in 1967, “Six Seconds in Dallas,” full of evidence and specifics, in which he concluded there was a conspiracy to kill JFK—involving three different shooters. But the New York Times is not interested in that, only in this new, droll dismissal of another piece of the puzzle.

I called Thompson to ask him about the Morris video, and he pronounced himself delighted with it. I asked him how he knew that the man who came forward to identify himself as Umbrella Man and present the Neville Chamberlain story was actually the same man in the fuzzy photo of many years earlier. By way of explanation, he mentioned hearing a story from a well-respected JFK researcher who in turn had heard that Umbrella Man had told his dentist years earlier that he was umbrella man. Pressing Thompson, I learned that the man who came forward as Umbrella Man never provided proof that he was in fact the man with the umbrella. Even the dentist story is third, fourth, or perhaps fifth hand, not verified by Thompson or his researcher friend. All of which proves nothing, and all of which suggests that maybe, just maybe, the man’s improbable, “delightful” story of Neville Chamberlain is, indeed, fabricated.

Just because Errol Morris is a master of the documentary art does not make him any kind of authority on what should be the province of careful investigators. Just because a story is absurd does not make it real, or “delightful”, as the Times video would like us to consider—and many did, with thousands emailing the Times piece to friends. This is something well understood by the game-players of the covert operations house of mirrors: the jesuitical contortions that can be made to twist any credible scenario.
Here are some things you should know about the man who came forward to identify himself as Umbrella Man and tell this ludicrous Neville Chamberlain story:

His account of his activities that day don’t track with what Umbrella Man actually did, raising questions as to whether this man who volunteered to testify to the assassination inquiry is even the real umbrella-bearer, or someone whose purpose was to end inquiries into the matter.
The man who came forward, Louie Steven Witt, was a young man at the time of Kennedy’s death. How many young men in Dallas in 1963 even knew what Neville Chamberlain had done a quarter-century before?

In 1963, Witt was an insurance salesman for the Rio Grande National Life Insurance company, which anchored the eponymous Rio Grande Building in downtown Dallas. It’s an interesting building. Among the other outfits housed in the building was the Office of Immigration and Naturalization—a place Lee Harvey Oswald visited repeatedly upon his return from Russia, ostensibly to deal with matters concerning the immigration status of his Russian-born wife, Marina. Another occupant of the Rio Grande Building was the US Secret Service, so notably lax in its protection of Kennedy that day, breaking every rule of security on every level.
A major client of Rio Grande was the US military, to which it provided insurance.

It’s worth considering the roles of military-connected figures on the day of the assassination. These include Dallas Military Intelligence unit chief Jack Crichton operating secretly from an underground communications bunker; Crichton’s providing a translator who twisted Marina Oswald’s statement to police in a way that implicated her husband; and members of military intelligence forcing their way into the pilot car of Kennedy’s motorcade, which inexplicably ground to a halt in front of the Texas School Book Depository (where Lee Harvey Oswald’s employer, a high official with the local military-connected American Legion, managed to find a “job” for Oswald at a time when his company was otherwise seasonally laying off staff.) Oh, and it’s worth contemplating JFK’s titanic, if under-reported, struggle with top Pentagon officials over how the US should interact with Russia, Cuba, and the rest of the world. You can read more about all this in my book Family of Secrets.

Is this concatenation of facts too crazy to consider? More crazy than that Neville Chamberlain story?

THE JACK AND JACKIE LOVE STORY

Not content with having Morris, who is no Kennedy expert, put out this misleading video on Umbrella Man, the Times earlier featured Morris’s book review of Stephen King’s novel imagining Lee Harvey Oswald. So now you have a man who knows little about the real story, getting people to read the imaginings of one who also knows little of the real story. Another way to look at this is that the New York Times is really, really interested in an occult novelist’s take on the death of a president, but just totally uninterested itself in looking into that death.

You must read Errol Morris’s review of King’s book, and please explain to me what he is talking about, because I have no idea. One of the few things that registered at all from this confusing mess is a comment about Jack and Jackie:

King has said that he struggled with the idea for this book for more than 30 years. One can see why. In fiction, we can decide who did or did not kill Kennedy. Writer’s choice (and King chooses). But he pays his debts to history in other ways — by showing the machine and, at the same time, the simplest human knots, the love stories behind history: Sadie and George[characters in the novel], Jack and Jackie.


Um, “the love stories behind history…Jack and Jackie”?

This is part and parcel of the Times’s approach: to maintain a feeble, People Magazine-like focus on the JFK-Jackie Camelot love story—which never actually existed. Anyone who has read any of the books featuring interviews with close friends of the couple know that the marriage was a political match for the reticent JFK, never for a minute a fairy tale romance, and that by 1963 the duo could barely stand to be in each other’s presence. If this is news to you, come out of your New York Times cave and read….practically anything else. (One worthwhile account—including Jackie explicitly ignoring JFK’s request that, for appearances’ sake, the First Lady not take off to cruise on the yacht of the caddish Aristotle Onassis in the fall of 1963—can be found in Peter Evans’s book, Nemesis. By the way, Onassis hated—and I mean hated—the Kennedys; RFK had blocked a big Onassis business deal years earlier.)

Or read in Family of Secrets how, since childhood, Jackie had been a friend of George de Mohrenschildt, the “father figure” to Lee Harvey Oswald, or how, the night after de Mohrenschildt’s testimony to the Warren Commission, Oswald’s best friend was invited to dinner at Jackie’s mother’s house, along with the Machiavellian intriguer Allen Dulles, whom JFK had fired as CIA director and whom Johnson so shockingly appointed to the Warren Commission investigating Kennedy’s killing—a man who surely is at the top of most people’s lists of those behind the assassination.

If you appreciate these sorts of things, it is striking to learn that Onassis was a business partner in oil deals in the Caribbean prior to Castro’s revolution, with….Oswald’s best friend George de Mohrenschildt, and that Onassis’ brother-in-law was the cover employer of CIA coup plotter Al Ulmer, who just happened to be visiting the Dallas area the week of Nov 22 1963 from abroad.

So, please, can we get past this “love story” pabulum and at least do just a teensy bit of investigating these odd and flagrantly suggestive connections? Maybe they’re all odd coincidences, but at least they seem, intuitively, worth pursuing, at least as much as those “delightfully weird” Neville Chamberlain umbrella stories.

The real danger of a video like the one about the Umbrella Man is that it encourages people to stop questioning, stop investigating. Just laugh it all off. There’s no trouble here in the land of the free, the home of the brave. Nothing to see here, folks, move along, move along.

It’s time to stop treating the New York Times as the slightly daffy uncle who is hard of hearing. There’s something more insidious going on, and every single person who works there and refuses to care bears some responsibility. Ditto with the rest of the media, which still takes this institution as its guide on what to cover—and what not to uncover.

Significa 12-23-11

Pat Robertson: You know you're out of touch when you think of Mac & Cheese as exotic ethnic food...
*

YouTube Movie of Week: Labyrinth (1986)

Part 1 of 8:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcq5Ac1-YC0

(All eight parts can be found on this page)

From the Retropedia via Archive.org:

Masterminded by Muppeteer Jim Henson and Star Wars creator George Lucas, Labyrinth combined live actors, puppetry and special effects in an elaborate fantasy. While not officially a sequel to Henson's The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth had the same look and feel, and it stirred up the same kind of religious fan fervor.

The film begins as a teenage girl named Sarah babysits her younger brother Toby. A naïve girl who indulges herself in fantasies and daydreams, Sarah dislikes always having to be responsible for her kid brother. In a moment of annoyance, she wishes the Goblin King would steal him away forever. She is horrified when her terrible wish actually comes true, and she plunges into the labyrinth in order to save poor Toby.

Jareth, the Goblin King, watches Sarah with great interest as she navigates her way through the treacherous, complicated maze. She is assisted in her quest by many strange characters, including the gruff dwarf Hoggle, the miniature but brave Sir Didymus and the gentle giant Ludo. Sarah's adventures in the labyrinth cause her to become a wiser and more compassionate person, as she matures from a self-indulgent child to a young, intelligent woman.

The film provided many memorable moments of stunning images, including a dark tunnel crowded with thousands of white Helping Hands, the odious Bog of Eternal Stench, Jareth's staircase kingdom (based on the drawings of M.C. Escher) and of course, the mysterious labyrinth itself.

David Bowie's performance as Jareth also made a striking impression. His Goblin King had a truly magnetic presence that made one understand why Sarah would find herself unwillingly attracted to him. The former Ziggy Stardust also wrote and performed five original songs for the film's soundtrack.

It's very easy to fall under the spell of a movie like Labyrinth, because it taps into our ideas about dreams and illusions. The film also boasted innovative puppetry creations for the numerous creatures that populated its fantasy world, making it an even more mesmerizing and unique moviegoing experience.

*

Lame Album of the Year: Lou Reed & Metallica's Lulu

There are a lot of people who think the alleged musical collaboration of Reed & Metallica is the worst album of the year. That's saying a lot in the time of Justin Bieber & Big Time Rush. In any case, count The Konformist in on this bandwagon. For more Lulu haterade, check out DangerousMinds.net:

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/lou_reed_and_metallicas_lulu_truth_in_advertising

*

Awesome Quotes

"I think there's a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel. It's not about being afraid to be public with your emotions or about who you are and what you stand for. But if you sell it off it's gone. You can't buy it back — you can't buy your privacy back. Ooh I want to be alone. Fuck you. We've been in your living room. We were at your birth. You filmed it for us and showed us the placenta and now you want some privacy?

Look at the Kardashians, they're worth millions. I don't think they were that badly off to begin with but now look at them. You see that and you think 'what, you mean all I have to do is behave like a fucking idiot on television and then you'll pay me millions.' I'm not judging it — well, I am obviously."

Daniel Craig, via Gawker.com


"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Thomas Jefferson


“That Cain’s candidacy was taken seriously for longer than a nano-second in a time of genuine crisis for the country raises fundamental questions about the health of the political process and the Republican party.”

Steve Schmidt, campaign manager for Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid
(Credit to DangerousMinds.net for this one...)

*

Killer Eyes
Full Article:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/superpredator-eyes-111207.html

The world's first superpredator was a giant crustacean with enormous eyes and a razor sharp mouth, according to a new study in the journal Nature.

The over 3-foot-long marine predator sat at the top of Earth's first food chain, say scientists from the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide. They found fossils for the crustacean, named Anomalocaris, at Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

The exceptionally well-preserved fossil eyes for this Cambrian Period crusher reveal the predator had acute vision that would rival or even exceed that of most living insects and crustaceans.

The University of New England's John Paterson, who led the study, and his colleagues explain that Anomalocaris held the #1 spot in the earliest food chain due to its large body size, formidable grasping claws at the front of its head, and a circular mouth with razor-sharp serrations...

*

Kool Websites

Kerouac.com
The Beat Museum
540 Broadway (at Columbus)
San Francisco, CA 94133
is the ultimate source for all your Beat Generation needs:
Email us at info@kerouac.com
or call us at 1-800-Ker-ouac (1-800-537-6822) or 1-831-372-4911.


http://www.salamanderandsons.com/

Salamander and Sons publishes the finest esoteric, occult and arcane books, with an emphasis on alchemical, Hermetic, and alchemystical works, along with texts qabalistic, philosophical, magic(k)al, mystical, and mythological in nature, written by adepts, sages and scholars both ancient and modern.

Salamander and Sons titles are available from our secure online shop and at all good bookstores.

Salamander and Sons titles are distributed in the USA, UK and Europe by Weiser Antiquarian Books (Maine, USA)...


http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/

Learn a Language in 10 Days with Pimsleur
The World Leader in Audio-Based Language Learning

Use the Pimsleur Approach to speak a new language in only 10 days! Pimsleur courses took over 40 years to develop and perfect. Just sit back and listen while the audio does the work for you. Each CD has been scientifically sequenced to rapidly lock language material into your brain after just one listen. You'll absorb your new language effortlessly without any reading, writing or computer use.

All of our courses come with a 30 Day, 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you're not absolutely thrilled with your new ability to learn a language and speak comfortably, simply return your course within 30 days for a full refund.


http://www.xylitolusa.com/

Xylitol is an all natural sweetener that looks and tastes like sugar. Xylitol is naturally occurring in many fruits and vegetables.

Once extracted and processed it yields a white, crystalline granule that can be used in any recipe that calls for sugar. It’s good for your teeth, stabilizes insulin levels, promotes good health and has no negative side effects.

*

Stoner Cooking

Hot & Spicy Party Mix
http://www.tabasco.com/taste_tent/recipes/recipe.cfm?id=300&name=Hot_Spicy_Party_Mix

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 teaspoons Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
1 1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
8 cups of your favorite Chex® brand cereals (corn, rice and/or wheat)
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup pretzels
1 cup bite-size cheese crackers

Combine butter, Worcestershire sauce, TABASCO® Sauce, and seasoned salt in a small bowl and mix well. Pour cereals, nuts, pretzels and cheese crackers into a large plastic zip-top bag. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture inside Zipper Bag. Seal top of bag securely. Shake bag until all pieces are evenly coated.

To prepare in microwave oven:

Pour contents of bag into a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high 5 to 6 minutes, stirring thoroughly every 2 minutes and scraping sides and bottom of bowl. Spread on absorbent paper to cool. Store in airtight container.

To prepare in conventional oven:

Pour contents of bag into an open roasting pan. Bake in a 250°F oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and store as directed above.

Makes 11 cups.

Note: Due to differences in microwave ovens, cooking time may need adjustment. These directions were developed using 625- to 700-watt ovens.

Nutritional information per serving: 242 calories, 5g protein, 29g carbohydrate, 12g fat, 1mg cholesterol, 655mg sodium


Homemade Ketchup
Christy Pooschke
Friday, December 02, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/034294_ketchup_recipes.html

HEALTHFUL INGREDIENTS:

Apple Cider Vinegar (Raw & Unfiltered)
Typical commercial ketchup contains white vinegar that is distilled from corn. This type of vinegar is inflammatory and offers no real health benefit. Apple cider vinegar that is raw, organic and unfiltered is a much better choice because it actually contributes to health in many ways - eases heartburn, joint pain and joint stiffness; improves skin complexion and bowel function; breaks down fat to aid in weight loss; etc. You may need to shop at a natural food store to find this type of vinegar because it is usually not sold in the regular vinegar aisle at most grocers. Be sure to carefully scrutinize the ingredients label before making your purchase because many products on the market are labeled as "apple cider flavored vinegar," and this is not the same thing! Such varieties are actually made from white vinegar (which is made from corn, not apples), and artificial flavors and colors are added to make them look and taste similar to apple cider vinegar!

Raw Honey
Unlike the refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup in most store-bought ketchup, raw honey is a sweetener that actually contributes to your health. Raw honey is full of vitamins and minerals, and it contains high levels of antioxidants. Refined sweeteners are inflammatory and should be strictly avoided (especially when you are ill). Raw honey actually reduces the inflammation associated with many conditions (e.g., allergies, infections). Raw honey is also antibacterial, so it's great to have around the house for dressing wounds, as well. Make sure you purchase honey that is truly raw because heating (i.e., pasteurizing) honey destroys its natural health benefits! Raw honey is most likely found at your local farmers market, natural food store or health section of your regular grocer. Most honey you find in the baking aisle of your regular grocer is heated (i.e., pasteurized) and pourable. In contrast, raw honey has not been heated and is generally thicker, less clear; it must be scooped out of the container rather than squeezed or poured.

Allspice
Allspice is a dried spice that helps control appetite, offers mild pain relief, aids digestion, regulates blood sugar and increases relaxation. It is also loaded with antioxidants, and it has antimicrobial properties that may protect foods from harmful bacteria.

Cloves
Cloves are another healthful spice. They can reduce heartburn, relieve nausea, aid in digestion and ease joint and toothache pain. Cloves are anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial, and they also contain high levels of antioxidants to neutralize free radicals!

HOMEMADE KETCHUP RECIPE:

6 ounces tomato paste (choose a brand that contains only "tomatoes")
3/4 cup water
2 TBSP raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP raw honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp onion granules (or 1/8 tsp onion powder)
2 pinches ground allspice
2 pinches ground cloves

In a medium saucepan, stir all ingredients together with a whisk. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir. Cover the pan, and then simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the ketchup cool, and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator. This recipe also freezes well if you prefer to make larger batches and store it for later convenience.

At GroceryGeek.com, Christy Pooschke shows consumers how to reduce their reliance on processed food. Check out her blog to learn how to shop for and prepare additive-free, natural foods. You'll love the free recipes, shopping tips and videos! Christy is also the author of an "Additive-Free" Cookbook & Grocery Shopping Guide, and she offers personalized consultations, as well!

Christy's passion for eating REAL food was sparked in 2007 when she eliminated her Fibromyalgia symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes. Until this time, she had been ingesting a Standard American Diet of boxed dinners, soda pop, candy and fast food; and she was very ill.

Since regaining her health with an additive-free diet, Christy has been on a mission to educate others about the dangers lurking in their cabinets and to help them achieve maximum health by reducing their reliance on processed foods.

In her free time, Christy operates Completely Nourished, Inc., a non-profit organization she founded to educate folks about natural foods, natural health and natural living. Check out the resources, recipes and online community available at http://www.completelynourished.org/. It's free!

*

Konformist Book Club: Armand Ptolemy and the Golden Aleph
Mark Jeffrey

Kindle Price: $0.99 includes free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet

ARMAND PTOLEMY is a thriller: think Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown -- with synchronicity machines, the iChing melded with difference engines and 'pseudo time travel' thrown in for good measure.

Geomancy: the art of making stone float with sound. The hacker collective 'Anonymous'. Secret societies …

This is the world of ARMAND PTOLEMY, a new action-adventure hero. Facing an enemy armed with the Golden Aleph -- a mystical device that allows its wielder to see holographically into every point in time and space, Ptolemy must use every trick of his Oxford-educated mind and circus-trained body to succeed.

But how do you fight an enemy that knows your every move … even before you do?

When Armand Ptolemy is called to investigate strange tremors plaguing an old wing of the New York public library, he finds himself enmeshed in a series of events that began in 1912. Yet Ptolemy himself is rumored to be from the past himself -- and the world's Elite lust after the secret of how he seemingly jumped forward over one hundred years in time. Most keenly interested in this secret is Octavio Veerspike, head of the Veerspike banking dynasty.

When the Commission -- a secret society of the world's most powerful people -- suddenly call a conclave in the tropics, Ptolemy has to figure out what they're up to, and fast.

But the Elites have other ideas. Putting into a motion the capstone of a hundred-years old plan, the Commission wants Ptolemy out of the way. And with the Golden Aleph giving them very potent powers of prediction, they just may succeed ...

Author Mark Jeffrey (@markjeffrey on Twitter) is perhaps best known for his best-selling young adult novel MAX QUICK: THE POCKET AND THE PENDANT (HarperCollins, 2011). First podcast as an online audiobook, the book received over 2.6 million downloads. Later, it was picked up by HarperCollins and re-published in hardcover in May, 2011. More information can be found at maxquickseries.com

MAX QUICK: THE TWO TRAVELERS is currently available as a podcast audiobook. Mark Jeffrey is currently working on MAX QUICK: THE BANE OF THE BONDSMAN as well as ARMAND PTOLEMY AND THE GEOMANCER. More information on Armand Ptolemy can be found at armandptolemy.com

Praise for MAX QUICK:
“A wildly imaginative romp through the vagaries of time, Max Quick leads the reader on a high–speed tour of ancient myths, alien kingdoms and some books you can really throw yourself into. Terrific adventure at breakneck speed.” (Richard Newsome, author of The Billionaire’s Curse )

“An imaginative addition to the middle-grade speculative adventure canon.” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books )

“Max Quick has the answers to life’s biggest questions. The world stands still the moment you enter this book. It’s a fabulous, fleet-footed adventure story that goes by in a whoosh.” (Kristin Miller, New York Times bestselling author of The Eternal Ones and the Kiki Strike series )

“A fresh, fun and fascinating idea deftly brought to life. With all its deeply–felt adventure, Max Quick should quickly captivate young readers.” (James Jennewein and Tom S. Parker, authors of the RuneWarriors Trilogy )

“This fast-paced adventure…will keep readers turning the pages. The incorporation of figures from Sumerian mythology adds an interesting element that may appeal to fans of Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” series.” (School Library Journal )

“Riveting. The Pocket and the Pendant is not what you expect, no matter what you expect.” (Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling author )

“Jeffrey’s descriptions of how time has stopped will stop readers in their own tracks. Plenty of action-adventure appeal.” (Booklist )

Mark has been named on of ‘50 to Watch’ by Variety Magazine, selected as one of the “Digital Coast 50' by the Silicon Alley Reporter, and one of the “Heroes of Multimedia” by Entertainment Weekly.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 273 KB
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B0067Y3K9Q

Amazon URL:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0067Y3K9Q/thekonformist

*

GODS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

a new TV series starting this week on THE ENIGMA CHANNEL - filmed entirely on location inside the Great Pyramid, at LUXOR and the house of HOWARD CARTER... GODS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD presents never before seen images of chambers carved with images of Reptilian-Amphibian-Humanoids - known in the Egyptian Creation Myths as the OGDOAD...

MESSAGE FROM BRITISH AUTHOR CHRIS EVERARD:

"Hello, I would like to thank everyone for the concern about my safety during my recent expedition to Egypt. For part of the trip we had a machine-gun armed escort - and whilst the BBC are currently portraying a violent and dangerous atmosphere, our recent expedition to Egypt was safe, full of fun - and we also discovered and filmed never-before-seen carvings, artefacts and statues which prove beyond all doubt that the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt were ingesting HASHISH, TOBACCO, COCAINE and OPIUM. Our most recent expedition also uncovered archaeological evidence that the Pharaohs were involved in HUMAN SACRIFICE and we also interviewed Egyptologists on camer who stated that MAGICAL SPELLS had been employed to assist the moving of huge stone blocks, obelisks and statues.

I would like to thank everyone for ordering my new book STONE AGE PSYCHEDELIA - I've invested 17 years of research and many thousands of pounds into the research for my book - revealing the secret hallucinogenic magic of the ancient people of Egypt and south America. I thank all of you for postig great reviews of my new book - and look forward to broadcasting a new TV Series on THE ENIGMA CHANNEL called GODS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. If you are stumped for a Christmas gift, then my advice is that the best gift is the gift of KNOWLEDGE."

STONE AGE PSYCHEDELIA contains 300+ Pages of previously unpublished research. This book is NOT a compilation of previously published articles - STONE AGE PSYCHEDELIA is 100% fresh research.

You can order direct via the Enigma Channel Cyberstore:

http://www.enigmatv.net/shop

*

Try the best natural sweeteners
Dr. David Jockers
Sunday, December 04, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/034317_natural_sweeteners_raw_honey.html

(NaturalNews) Sweet foods were a rare delicacy for our ancient ancestors. Today, we have an unlimited supply of sugary foods and beverages at our disposal. Natural sweeteners can be used effectively in moderation to provide the sweetness that most people crave. Here are the best natural sweeteners ranked in order based on low glycemic index and additional health benefits.

Every living creature is designed to run off of a simple sugar called glucose. It is the primary unit in the study of metabolism. However, there are certainly dangers involved with consuming too much glucose. Those dangers mostly involve elevated blood sugar and insulin, which trigger fat accumulation, cellular inflammation and insulin resistance.

Fructose is another simple sugar that is found in nature within fruits, honey, and plant/tree nectar. This is metabolized differently than glucose and can cause even more hazardous effects when consumed in excess.

Safe Natural Sweeteners in Order

Stevia: Stevia is processed from the leaf of the stevia plant, which is native to South America. This herb derivative has no effect on blood sugar, insulin signaling and triglyceride formation. It develops most of its sweetness from glycosides called stevioside and rebaudioside. These compounds are 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose, which makes them have the ability to withstand heat and have longer shelf life.

Studies have even shown the stevia leaf to have beneficial effects at improving cellular insulin sensitivity and at reducing the risk of type II diabetes and high blood pressure.

Lo Han Extract: A fruit plant that grows native in Southern China/Northern Thailand. Lo Han has a very low glycemic index and low sugar content. It gets the majority of its sweetness from a glycoside nutrient called mogrosides. These mogrosides are 300 times sweeter than sugar and act as anti-oxidants that have shown abilities to inhibit cancer cell formation. This is a wonderful sweetener but can be hard to find and expensive.

Coconut Nectar: This is a very low glycemic liquid sweetener derived from the liquid sap of the coconut blossoms. The glycemic index is 35 making it one of the lowest of natural sweeteners. Also, the fructose levels are very low at 10%, and it contains a wide variety of anti-oxidants, minerals and other nutrients that enhance blood sugar stability. It is challenging to get and quite expensive.

Organic, Raw Honey: This superfood does have an effect on blood sugar and contains approximately 53% fructose, so one should only consume this in moderation. Honey contains a wide array of trace minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, chromium, manganese and selenium. These nutrients are critical for healthy cellular insulin sensitivity and blood sugar balance.

Raw honey is also extremely rich in anti-oxidants and natural enzymes. Honey contains flavonoid anti-oxidants such as pinocembrin and pinostrobin that help reduce oxidative stress in the body and promote better enzyme activity.

Organic Blackstrap Molasses: Molasses is a byproduct of the processing of sugar. It does have an effect on glycemic index and must only be consumed in moderation. Blackstrap molasses is a very rich source of iron, copper, manganese, potassium, magnesium and selenium.

Sugar Alcohols: These include xylitol, glycerol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, and erythritol. Sugar alcohol is supposed to just pass through the body unrecognized. This causes no blood sugar imbalances and is considered a safe sweetener. However, many individuals have reported significant gastrointestinal distress that includes cramping, bloating, gas & diarrhea.

About the author:

Dr. David Jockers owns and operates Exodus Health Center in Kennesaw, Ga. He is a Maximized Living doctor. His expertise is in weight loss, customized nutrition & exercise, & structural corrective chiropractic care.

For more information go to:
http://www.exodushc.com/

To find a Maximized Living doctor near you go to:
http://www.maximizedliving.com/

Dr. Jockers is also available for long distance phone consultations to help you beat disease and reach your health goals.

Reality as Subversion

Douglas Rushkoff
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/11/29/reality-as-subversion.html

I wrote this piece six years ago for Arthur magazine, anticipating or at least wishing for the Occupy movement. LSD magazine just republished it in their latest issue with some beautiful graphics, here.

Here's the original text version:

Arthur, June 2005

I had a weird vision the other day.

Having brought our newborn back from the hospital just days before, my wife and I weren’t getting much sleep. I lied on the bed next to the baby and slipped into one of those theta wave trances you can reach on the way to a magick spell, visionquest, or psychedelic trip.

I was in a natural chamber of some kind, maybe a cave or clearing in a woods. It was a starting place from which any number of journeys could be taken. At each opening, another creature or entity beckoned me to follow it. And, had it been any other time in my life, I probably would have picked the one that seemed the most promising and followed it down the twists and turns of its path – and been either delighted or terrified by what happened. (The idea of being an experienced traveler or magician is getting better at predicting, guiding, or simply tolerating the variety of what’s on offer, and learning to bring back things or ideas of value.)

This time, however, for no particular reason other than really being okay with floating in that little entrance foyer, decided to stay put. The beckoning entities gave up and scurried or drifted down their reality tunnels, and I lied there, motionless.

Only then, after I decided to do nothing, did I notice the Elders. Three or four of them - shamans, prophets, zen masters, or some combination – sitting on a bench to my side, looking down at me. “Welcome,” they said, nodding. And I immediately got it. By doing nothing, I was doing everything. The path of no path. Just be.

And though I’ve spent a career, maybe even a whole lifetime creating realities for myself and others as a way of retreating from the oppressive consensus culture of the American Marketplace, I’m wondering if we might best abandon that tactic. Maybe, it’s time to stand still and let them do the conjuring.

Hear me out.

What I teach in my classes is that the evolution of media sees control of the story move away from the teller, and towards the reader or listener. The invention of text allowed people other than priests and royals to read and write, showing human beings that they were contributing to the human story. Thanks to the alphabet, we got the Judeo-Christian tradition, laws, and all those notions of progress.

The printing press put texts in the hands of many, leading to the democratization of interpretation, the development of “perspective,” and eventually the Enlightenment. If all perspectives matter, then all people matter equally.

Although TV set things back a bit, deconstruction and post-modernism came to the rescue, giving us all the ability to take apart what we see, and dissemble the many messages being piped into our living rooms and brains. Master deconstructionists, from William Burroughs and Bryon Gysin to Genesis P-Orridge and Negativeland, cut-up the news and paste it back together in news ways, in Burroughs words, to find out “what it really says.”

Of course, they were only foretelling the advent of the Internet, which turned the whole mediascape – the primary landscape of alternative media creation – over to us. Now, at least in theory, we are as capable of creating and disseminating a message as anyone else. Your basic middle class American teen (admittedly, among the planet’s better equipped individuals) can build a set of images, texts, or videos that extend his visions to the greater world. Rupert Murdoch’s ideas matter no more than those of the kid posting on Slashdot.

And so we fight for our rights or even just our freedom to do what we want to in the media space. To keep our Bittorrents flowing and our alternative media blogs rolling. We know the power of image creation, and want to retain our ability to make the images that stimulate, hypnotize, and program our world.

That’s why the powers that be are so committed to retaking their control over the image factory. Whether it’s American Idol recasting its stacked deck talent show as some sort of SMS-enabled democracy, or Project Echelon monitoring all our keystrokes so that truly subversive material can be cut off at the source, we’re witnessing first hand the dismemberment of our new body politic. Just as the forces of business turned the original Internet into a strip mall, they are now bribing the most popular bloggers with ad-based revenues and creating watered down simulations of online autonomy.

Meanwhile, they distract us with scary stories about how the latest and greatest technologies will be used against us. Neuromarketing, for example, the latest new tool in the advertising arsenal, is supposedly capable of using MRI technology to measure, definitively, our response to packages and advertisements. They shove some poor soul into an MRI machine (that could be used for a diagnosing a sick person) and then show him some Coke or Pepsi labels and then see what parts of the brain light up. Then fascinated but misguided journalists write bestselling books about that moment of decision that supposedly takes place independent of any conscious or rational process. Worse, these subconscious triggers can be tripped intentionally by any marketer or political linguist with the access and money.

That’s magick, people. And fake magick, at that, except for the fact that we believe this shit. It just isn’t true. It’s the kind of tripe that marketers and advertisers use to peddle their wares to the companies trying to compete with real culture, real thought, and real human progress. Of course the books claiming that our most important decisions happen in a “blink” are going to sell well, because they are part of the culture of selling.

It’s no wonder we get fooled by such stuff. For in our effort to exert some measure of control over our reality, we have migrated to the semiotic landscape – fighting with image and symbol, rhetoric and reason. In the spirit of Hegel, we match their faulty thesis with our daring antithesis, but forget that neither one necessarily brings us any closer to the truth. Just because you’ve got two opposing arguments doesn’t mean they resolve into some reality-based synthesis. (Two politicians can argue about whether the tax code should have 39 or 40 lines while a peasant starves on the Capitol steps.)

The realities that marketers offer us, just like the ones we offer back in return, are speciously detached from reality on the ground. Sure, they provide solutions to our problems, but from where do those problems originate?

As a new parent, I’ve been painfully aware of how little real community there is around us. This is a market success. Our parents are too far, our friends are too shy, the mothering old ladies are nowhere to be found. So who teaches my wife to breast feed? The “lactation consultant.” Yes – there is such a thing! And who watches the baby when we have to take a shower or get to work? Not a family member or friend down the hall, but a professional babysitter, daycare center or nanny. The diminishment of community is what fuels these new markets.

The greatest magic act of all – the unrecognized king of all sigils – was the creation of the dollar itself. We support the reality of this symbol whether we’re going after dollars or complaining about the lack of opportunity to accumulate them. By taking the very real values of wealth and prosperity and assigning them to the symbol of money, we dissociated our labor from the real. Sure, if we had some authority over that symbol system we might be in business. But we don’t; it’s the most protected and inaccessible set of mythology around. No cut and paste permitted, William.

I’m thinking we should let them win. Surrender the unreal realities to the bad guys. If they want broadcast television, mainstream newspapers, or even the web, let ‘em have it. They’ve conjured up an alternative universe that has very little true connection to what’s really going on here. And the market-based, competitive, reality-as-propaganda dream has swallowed them up. They are the victims of their own illusions. We don’t have to be.

We can take charge of the real reality they left behind. I mean the world we’re actually living in. The yards and streets and fingers and tongues. Let’s build bike lanes and barbecues, after school programs and AIDS care networks, places to play music and playgrounds for kids. They’re so busy monitoring the airwaves for signs of treason against the market or state that they’ve lost track of what’s happening between real people. Turn off your cell phone and speak to that guy sitting next to you on the bus. That’s about the most subversive thing you could do.

Instead, like well-meaning Pied Pipers, we play our tunes hoping the children might follow us instead of the other guy taking them off the cliff. But when we enter into that competition, we’re no better than the tune we can muster at that moment. If ours is more hypnotic or captivating than theirs, we win for the time being, and keep the kids believing our version of things until the next round.

And in entering that pissing contest, we deny ourselves the home field advantage. We live here, after all. If we can learn to sit still for a moment rather than following any of those phantoms, we can take over real reality, instead. It’s right here for the taking.

Toward a Psycho-Civilized Society

by David G. Guyatt
http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_mindctrl2.htm

The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
The background to the development of anti-personnel electromagnetic weapons can be traced by to the early-middle 1940's and possibly earlier. The earliest extant reference, to my knowledge, was contained in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific Survey, Military Analysis Division, Volume 63) which reviewed Japanese research and development efforts on a "Death Ray."

Whilst not reaching the stage of practical application, research was considered sufficiently promising to warrant the expenditure of Yen 2 million during the years 1940-1945. Summarizing the Japanese efforts, allied scientists concluded that a ray apparatus might be developed that could kill unshielded human beings at a distance of 5 to 10 miles. Studies demonstrated that, for example, automobile engines could be stopped by tuned waves as early as 1943. (1) It is therefore reasonable to suppose that this technique has been available for a great many years. Research on living organisms (mice and ground hogs) revealed that waves from 2 meters to 60 centimeters in length caused hemorrhage of lungs, whereas waves shorter than two meters destroyed brain cells.

However, experiments in behavior modification and mind manipulation have a much more grisly past. Nazi doctors at the Dachau concentration camp conducted involuntary experiments with hypnosis and narco-hypnosis, using the drug mescaline on inmates. Additional research was conducted at Aushwitz, using a range of chemicals including various barbiturates and morphine derivatives. Many of these experiments proved fatal.

Following the conclusion of the war, the U.S. Naval Technical Mission was tasked with obtaining pertinent industrial and scientific material that had been produced by the Third Reich and which may be of benefit to U.S. interests. Following a lengthy report, the Navy instigated Project CHATTER in 1947. Many of the Nazi scientists and medical doctors who conducted hideous experiments were later recruited by the U.S. Army and worked out of Heidelberg prior to being secretly relocated to the United States under the Project PAPERCLIP program. Under the leadership of Dr. Hubertus Strughold, 34 ex-Nazi scientists accepted "Paperclip" contracts, authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and were put to work at Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. By 1953 the CIA, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army Chemical Corps were conducting their own narco-hypnosis programs on unwilling victims that included prisoners, mental patients, foreigners, ethic minorities and those classified as sexual deviants. (2)

It was not until the middle or late 1970's that the American public became aware of a series of hitherto secret programs that had been conducted over the preceding two decades by the military and intelligence community. (3) Primarily focusing on narco-hypnosis, these extensive covert programs bore the project titles MKULTRA, MKDELTA, MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH (MK being understood to stand for Mind Kontrol), BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE and CHATTER. The principal aim of these and associated programs was the development of a reliable "programmable" assassin. Secondary aims were the development of a method of citizen control. (4)

Particularly relevant was Dr. Jose Delgado's secret work directed towards the creation of a "psycho-civilized" society by use of a "stimoceiver." (5) Delgado's work was seminal, and his experiments on humans and animals demonstrated that electronic stimulation can excite extreme emotions including rage, lust and fatigue. In his paper "Intracerebral Radio Stimulation and recording in Completely Free Patients," Delgado observed that: "Radio Stimulation on different points in the amygdala and hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation (an essential precursor for deep hypnosis), colored visions, and other responses."

With regard to the "colored visions" citation, it is reasonable to conclude he was referring to hallucinations -- an effect that a number of so-called "victims" allude to. (7) As far back as 1969, Delgado predicted the day would soon arrive when a computer would be able to establish two-way radio communication with the brain -- an event that first occurred in 1974. Lawrence Pinneo, a neurophysiologist and electronic engineer working for Stanford Research Institute (a leading military contractor), "developed a computer system capable of reading a person's mind. It correlated brain waves on an electroencephalograph with specific commands. Twenty years ago the computer responded with a dot on a TV screen. Nowadays it could be the input to a stimulator (ESB) in advanced stages using radio frequencies." (8)

In any event, narco-hypnosis was found, it is claimed, to be less than reliable, although some writers and observers dispute this. (9) Additional studies, conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron and funded by the CIA, were directed towards erasing memory and imposing new personalities on unwilling patients. Cameron discovered that electroshock treatment caused amnesia. He set about a program that he called "de-patterning" which had the effect of erasing the memory of selected patients. Further work revealed that subjects could be transformed into a virtual blank machine (Tabula Rasa) and then be re-programmed with a technique which he termed "psychic driving." Such was the bitter public outrage, once his work was revealed (as a result of FOIA searches), that Cameron was forced to retire in disgrace.

Also of interest is Dr. John C. Lilly (10), who was asked by the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health to brief the CIA, FBI, NSA and military intelligence services on his work using electrodes to stimulate, directly, the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. Lilly said that he refused the request. However, as stated in his book, he continued to do "useful" work for the national security apparatus. In terms of timing this is interesting, for these events took place in 1953. Scientist Eldon Byrd, who worked for the Naval Surface Weapons Office, was commissioned in 1981 to develop electromagnetic devices for purposes including riot control, clandestine operations and hostage removal. (11)

From 1965 through to 1970, Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA), with up to 70-80% funding provided by the military, set in motion operation PANDORA to study the health and psychological effects of low intensity microwaves with regard to the so-called "Moscow signal." This project appears to have been quite extensive and included (under U.S. Navy funding) studies demonstrating how to induce heart seizures, create leaks in the blood/brain barrier and production of auditory hallucinations. Despite attempts to render the Pandora program invisible to scrutiny, FOIA filings revealed memoranda of Richard Cesaro, Director of DARPA, which confirmed that the program's initial goal was to "discover whether a carefully controlled microwave signal could control the mind." Cesaro urged that these studies be made "for potential weapons applications." (12)

Following immense public outcry, Congress forbade further research and demanded that these projects be terminated across the board. But as former CIA agent Victor Marchetti later revealed, the programs merely became more covert with a high element of "deniability" built in to them, and that CIA claims to the contrary are a cover story. (13) Despite the fact that many of the aforementioned projects revolved around the use of narcotics and hallucinogens, projects ARTICHOKE, PANDORA and CHATTER clearly demonstrate that "psychoelectronics" were a high priority. Indeed, author John Marks' anonymous informant (known humorously as "Deep Trance") stated that beginning in 1963 mind control research strongly emphasized electronics.

An obscure District of Columbia corporation called Mankind Research Unlimited (MRU) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Systems Consultants Inc. (SCI), operated a number of classified intelligence, government and Pentagon contracts, specializing in, amongst other things: "problem solving in the areas of intelligence electronic warfare, sensor technology and applications." (14)

MRU's "capability and experience" is divided into four fields. These include "biophysics -- Biological Effects of Magnetic Fields," "Research in Magneto-fluid Dynamics," "Planetary Electro-Hydro-Dynamics" and "Geo-pathic Efforts on Living Organisms." The latter focuses on the induction of illness by altering the magnetic nature of the geography. Also under research were "Biocybernetics, Psychodynamic Experiments in Telepathy," "Errors in Human Perception," "Biologically Generated Fields," "Metapsychiatry and the Ultraconscious Mind" (believed to refer to experiments in telepathic mind control), "Behavioural Neuropsychiatry," "Analysis and Measurement of Human Subjective States" and "Human Unconscious Behavioural Patterns."

Employing some old OSS, CIA and military intelligence officers, the company also engages the services of prominent physicians and psychologists including E. Stanton Maxey, Stanley R. Dean Berthold Eric Schwarz plus many more. MRU lists in its Company Capabilities "brain and mind control." (15) Despite vehement claims by MRU's chairman that it is not a "front organization for any branch of the United States Government..." (16) one must treat these claims with a great deal of skepticism.

There followed an extensive hiatus in available informat ion through the 1980's up to the present day. This initially appears to have closely paralleled Ronald Reagan's presidency and not surprisingly flowed onwards during President Bush's term of office. (17) As a result, the once user-friendly Freedom of Information Act became less accessible and more bureaucratic. Search costs soared and material that had been (or scheduled to be) de-classified was reviewed and re-classified. This phenomenon is not an unusual occurrence in the United States, and tends to shadow the outward face of Congress. Public outrage leads to a temporary liberalization, but as public memory recedes (all too quickly) the old institutionalized covert ways quickly re-engage. We thus move to more recent times.

During 1989 CNN aired a program on electromagnetic weapons and showed a U.S. government document that outlined a contingency plan to use EM weapons against "terrorists." Prior to the show a DoD medical engineer sourced a story claiming that in the context of conditioning, microwaves and other modalities had regularly been used against Palestinians.

In 1993, Defense News announced that the Russian government was discussing with American counterparts the transfer of technical information and equipment known as "Acoustic Psycho-correction." The Russians claimed that this device involves "the transmission of specific commands via static or white noise bands into the human subconscious without upsetting other intellectual functions." Experts said that demonstrations of this equipment have shown "encouraging" results "after exposure of less than one minute," and has produced "the ability to alter behavior on willing and unwilling subjects." The article goes on to explain that combined "software and hardware associated with the (sic) psycho-correction program could be procured for as little as U.S. $80,000." The Russians went on to observe that "World opinion is not ready for dealing appropriately with the problems coming from the possibility of direct access to the human mind."

Acoustic psycho-correction dates back to the mid 1970's and can be used to "suppress riots, control dissidents, demoralize or disable opposing forces and enhance the performance of friendly special operations teams." (18) One U.S. concern in relation to this device was aired by Janet Morris of the Global Strategy Council, a Washington-based think tank established by former CIA deputy director Ray Cline. Morris noted that "Ground troops risk exposure to bone-conducting sound that cannot be offset by earplugs or other protective gear." In recent months I met with and discussed Russian research efforts, with a contact who had visited Russia earlier this year. He, in turn, met with a number of Russian scientists who are knowledgeable in this field. I have few doubts that the Defense News article cited earlier is fundamentally accurate.

In his pioneering work, Dr. Ross Adey determined that emotional states and behavior can be remotely influenced merely by placing a subject in an electromagnetic field. By directing a carrier frequency to stimulate the brain and using amplitude modulation to shape the wave to mimic a desired EEG frequency, he was able to impose a 4.5 CPS theta rhythm on his subjects. Drs. Joseph Sharp and Allen Frey experimented with microwaves seeking to transmit spoken words directly into the audio cortex via a pulsed-microwave analog of the speaker's sound vibration. Indeed, Frey's work in this field, dating back to 1960, gave rise to the so called "Frey effect" which is now more commonly referred to as "microwave hearing." (19) Within the Pentagon this ability is now known as "Artificial Telepathy." (20) Adey and others have compiled an entire library of frequencies and pulsation rates which can effect the mind and nervous system. (21)

During the siege at the Mt. Carmel church near Waco, Texas, FBI agents discussed with Russian counterparts the use of acoustic psycho-correction on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. It is understood that this contingency did not proceed. However, some unusual EM weapons were deployed at Waco. BBC World News and FBI film-footage in the possession of this writer show both the Russian equipment being demonstrated, as well as previously unseen noise generator and an unusual low frequency strobe array in use at Waco.

Have weapons of this nature been developed and field tested? Judging from the number of individuals and groups coming forward with complaints of harassment, the answer appears to be "yes." Kim Besley, of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, has compiled a fairly extensive catalogue of effects that have resulted from low frequency signals emanating from the U.S. Greenham Common base, apparently targeted at the women protesters. These include: vertigo, retinal bleeding, burnt face (even at night), nausea, sleep disturbances, palpitations, loss of concentration, loss of memory, disorientation, severe headaches, temporary paralysis, faulty speech co-ordination, irritability and a sense of panic in non-panic situations. Identical and similar effects have been reported elsewhere and appear to be fairly common-place amongst so-called "victims." Many of these symptoms have been associated in medical literature with exposure to microwaves and especially through low intensity or non-thermal exposures. (22) These have been reviewed by Dr. Robert Becker, twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, and a specialist in EM effects. His report confirms that the symptoms mirror those he would expect to see had Microwave weapons been deployed.

The April 1994 issue of Scientific American carried an article entitled "Bang! You're Alive" which briefly described some of the known arsenal of "Less Than Lethal" weapons presently available. These include laser rifles and low-frequency infrasound generators powerful enough to trigger nausea or diarrhea. Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) noted that non-lethal weapons have been linked to "mind control" devices and that three of the most prominent advocates of non-lethality share an interest in psychic phenomena. (23)

Current Projects include SLEEPING BEAUTY, directed towards the battlefield use of mind-altering electromagnetic weapons. This project is headed by Jack Verona, a highly placed Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer. Dr. Michael Persinger of Laurentian University is also employed on the project. Other sources have revealed a project entitled MONARCH which, supposedly, is directed towards the deliberate creation of severe multiple personality disorder. (24)

It is now the opinion of many that these and related programs have been brought under the banner of non-lethal weapons, otherwise known as "less than lethal," which are now promulgated in connection with the doctrine of low intensity conflict, a concept for warfare in the 21st century. It is clear that many of these Pentagon and related LTL programs operate under high classification. Others consider many similar or related "black" programs are funded from the vast resources presently available under the U.S. counter-drug law enforcement policy which has a FY 1995 budget of $13.2 billion. (25)

On 21 July 1994, Defense Secretary William J. Perry issued a memorandum on non-lethal weapons which outlined a tasking priority list for use of these technologies. Second on the list was "crowd control". Coming in at a poor fifth was "Disable or destroy weapons or weapon development/production processes, including suspected weapons of mass destruction." It is therefore clear that non-lethality is fundamentally seen as anti-personnel rather than anti-material.

In July 1996, the Spotlight, a widely circulated right-wing U.S. newspaper, reported that well-placed DoD sources have confirmed a classified Pentagon contract for the development of "high-power electromagnetic generators that interfere with human brain waves." The article cited the memorandum of understanding dated 1994 between Attorney General Janet Reno, and Defense Secretary William Perry for transfer of LTL weapons to the law enforcement sector. A budget of under $50 million has been made available for funding associated "black" programs. Dr. Emery Horvath, a professor of physics at Harvard University, has stated in connection to the generator that interferes with human brain waves that "These electronic 'skull-zappers' are designed to invade the mind and short circuit its synapses... in the hands of government technicians, it may be used to disorient entire crowds, or to manipulate individuals into self destructive acts. It's a terrifying weapon." (26)

In a 1993 U.S. Air Command and Staff College paper entitled Non Lethal Technology and Air Power, authors Maj. Jonathan W. Klaaren (USAF) and Maj. Ronald S. Mitchell (USAF) outlined selected NLT weapons. These included "Acoustic" (pulsed/attenuated high-intensity sound, infrasound (very low frequency) and Polysound (high volume, distracting) as well as high-power microwaves (HPM) that possessed the ability to deter or incapacitate human beings.

These and other classified weapons are being passed to domestic law enforcement agencies, as shown by the 1995 ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) International Technology Symposium, "Counter-Drug Law Enforcement: Applied Technology for Improved Operational Effectiveness," which outlined the "Transition of advanced military technologies to the civil law enforcement environment." There are some observers who fear that the burgeoning narcotics industry is an ideal "cover" in which to "transit" Non Lethal Technologies to domestic political tasks. Whether this is merely a misplaced "Orwellian" fear remains to be seen. However, organized crime is so globally "organized" that experts now believe it is impossible to eradicate or even effectively combat. (27)

The foregoing gives some necessary background to the origins and timing surrounding the development of anti-personnel electromagnetic weapons, and in particular demonstrates that the United States has an intense and long-established interest in mind control and behavior modification that spans five decades. As we have seen, fragmentary information has surfaced for brief spells, only to disappear, once more, from public scrutiny. It remains to be said that a great many advances in the realm of electromagnetic field technology and mind control techniques have, apparently, been made during the sixties, seventies and eighties. In particular, veterans of the Vietnam war are still coming forward with bizarre stories, which collectively (if true) point to a leap in knowledge that largely remains hidden behind the thick curtain of security classification. (28)

Major Edward Dames, formerly with the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency until 1992, was a long-serving member of the highly classified operation GRILL-FLAME, a program that focused on some of the more bizarre possibilities of intelligence gathering and remote interrogation. Known as "remote viewers," GRILL-FLAME personnel possessed a marked psychic ability that was put to use "penetrating" designated targets and gathering important intelligence on significant figures. The program operated with two teams: one working out of the top secret NSA facility at Fort George Meade in Maryland, and the other at SRI. Results are said to have been exemplary.

Following the Oliver North debacle, the Secretary of Defense officially terminated GRILL-FLAME, fearing bad publicity if the program were to become known to the public. The leading members of the project -- including Dames -- immediately relocated to the privately owned and newly formed Psi-Tech, and continue their work to this day, operating under government contract. In the course of his work, Dames was (and remains) close to many the leading figures and proponents anti-personnel electromagnetic weapons, especially those that operate in the neurological field. During NBC's "The Other Side" program, Dames stated that "The U.S. Government has an electronic device which could implant thoughts in people." He refused to comment further. The program was broadcast during April 1995.

This overview is merely a fragmentary glimpse of programs that have been, and continue to be, blanketed under tight security classification. Where information was available through FOIA filings, a great deal of additional information (in fact the greatest bulk) was deliberately destroyed or otherwise lost. However, this writer considers that what is available is sufficient to draw the conclusion that ongoing research, development and deployment of EM weapon systems that impact on the biological functions of the body, or more importantly, interfere with the human mind, are cause for the greatest humanitarian concern.

In an age where the threat of global warfare has diminished as a result of the easing of tension between east and west, it can be anticipated that some form of introspection will occur in the developed western nations. Societies that have been generationally and economically honed for warfare do not, on the whole, assume "for peace" production with such vigor and ability. Why this is so is not the subject of this paper. Unable to so readily project the "shadow" outwards onto another nation, the enemy without soon distills to become the enemy within. (29) In the United States, (30) for example, there is a rapidly developing trend of co-operation between the military and law enforcement agencies in LTL weaponry. While it is clear that this is driven to some extent by budgetary considerations, there remain legitimate concerns regarding the long-term effects on democracy.

The reality of a burgeoning and increasingly impoverished lower class that results from "swords to shears" economics, is certain to result in growing civil unrest, disobedience, strife, inner city turmoil and quite possibly much worse. (31) Rather than seeking to resolve the underlying causes of these tensions, it is feared that governments will instead resort to more durable measures to quell domestic dissent. Western industrial nations are especially prone to these developments for a variety of reasons. (32)

Less Than Lethal anti-personnel weapons (33) are seen in some influential quarters as being the ideal remedy for future domestic disturbances of this magnitude. (34) The danger with such possibilities is that western democracy may begin to fail, or suffer such severe set-backs in its traditional democratic forms that it will become increasingly repressive and oligarchic. (35) Armed with innovative technological weapons that do not necessarily kill, (36) but which render disenfranchised segments of society physically inactive, emotionally stupefied and incapable of meaningful thought is a goal of those who favor a "psycho-civilized society." This is a frightening and all too realistic scenario. Whether by design or by default, such an outcome is nothing short of a dictatorship.

Addendum:

Following the preparation of this paper and prior to its publication by Dr. Nick Begich in Earthpulse Flashpoints, a small number of factual errors and miscellaneous comments have been received and are now included below for the sake of accuracy.

Footnote 35. Noam Chomsky, in correspondence with this writer, advises that: "...we don't really 'argue that democracy has already been replaced.' Rather, that its functioning depends on an authentic free press, and that it exists only in part. That there is a one-party state -- in the sense that there are only factions of 'the business party' is not our idea; C. Wright Mills, among others, going way back."

Chomsky also refers to my caveat about the Spotlight article (see footnote 26) concerning the comments ascribed to Dr. Horvath and observers that "It's not the kind of comment that a Harvard physicist would be likely to make." It's such an glaring observation that I wonder why I hadn't thought of it myself. I still haven't heard back from Dr. Horvath, if indeed such a person exists. This citation, therefore, needs to be taken with even greater care. On the other hand, Dr. Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists has now written to me advising: "Spotlight is, to my mind, a thoroughly non-credible source (as you suggest). Without being able to verify the rest of the article, however, the quotation ascribed to me was accurate."

In a lengthy telephone call, British researcher Armen Victorian pointed out a number of relevant and interesting facts: A) Maj. General Stubblebine is no longer with Psi-Tech -- he was removed in a "palace coup" engineered, Armen says, by Major Ed. Dames and Col. John Alexander. B) In addition to his (DoD backed) Ad Hoc advisory role on Non Lethality for NATO, Alexander has now moved to head up multi-millionaire R. Bigelow's new Nevada-based National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). Bigelow is recruiting "top draw" personnel to study fringe science subjects including Remote Viewing, UFO's, etc. Jacques Vallee, the renowned French-born UFO researcher, is also part of the team. Armen will have a more in-depth article on these matters published in a forthcoming issue of Robin Ramsay's LOBSTER.

Project Monarch: Martin Cannon has more recently written stating that he believes this project to be fabricated.

Footnotes:

1) Interestingly, this capability is now confirmed in recent press reports in regard to LTL weapons.

2) For a fuller account of the Nazi experiments refer to Resonance No 29 November 1995, published by the Bioelectromagnetic Special Interest Group of American Mensa Ltd., and drawn from a series of articles published by the Napa Sentinel, 1991 by Harry Martin and David Caul.

3) In particular the publication of John Marks' The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (Penguin Books, London 1979) and Walter Bowart's Operation Mind Control (Fontana Books, London 1979).

4) Walter Bowart.

5) See Delgado's "Physical Control of the Mind: Towards a Psychocivilised Society", "Intracerebral Radio Stimulation in Completely Free Patients" in Schiwitgebel & Schwitzgebel (eds.). Speaking in 1966, Delgado asserted that his research "supported the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion and behavior can be directed by electrical forces and that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons." (Think 32 July-August 1966). Delgado was funded by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). It is believed he still works as a consultant for the U.S. government.

6) My italics.

7) See "Mind Control and the American Government" by Martin Cannon, LOBSTER 23.

8) See "Neural Manipulation by Radar" by Armen Victorian, LOBSTER 30, and also Time Magazine, July 1, 1974 "Mind Reading Computer."

9) Marks notes that the vast bulk of CIA key documents were illegally destroyed, in 1973, at the order of the then DCI, Richard Helms. Other writers have noted the psychological profile of Sirhan Beshara Sirhan, citing a virtually impregnable "amnesia" which lasts to this day. In 1968, Dr. George Eastabrooks (considered by some to be the grand-daddy of hypnosis in warfare) told a reporter at the Providence Evening Bulletin that he had conducted extensive hypnosis work on behalf of the CIA, FBI and military intelligence. He went on to say that the key to creating an effective spy or assassin rests in "creating a multiple personality, with the aid of hypnosis," a technique which Eastabrooks considered as "child's play." He went on to suggest that "Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby could very well have been performing through hypnosis." Of interest in this context was a book written by Lincoln Lawrence (a pseudonym), a former FBI agent who revealed the existence of a 350 page CIA document that outlined a technique termed RHIC-EDOM (Radio Hypnosis Intra-Cerebral Control -- Electronic Dissolution of Memory). Certainly many of the above-cited CIA programs were dedicated to electronically inducing amnesia. The case studies of Dr. Ewen Cameron in this context remain the most notable and the most chilling.

10) See his autobiography, The Scientist.

11) Anna Keeler in Full Disclosure, 1989.

12) Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report released under FOIA. Also see Anna Keeler. Capt. Paul E Tyler, MC, USN paper entitled "The Electromagnetic Spectrum in Low Intensity Conflict" (CADRE 1986) is also relevant in this connection. Tyler's observation are, understandably, shrouded in "maybes and what ifs" but is non the less instructive when placed in context to PANDORA and other projects.

13) In an interview with John Marks. CIA veteran Miles Copeland admitted to a journalist prior to his death that "The congressional subcommittees which went into this sort of thing got only the barest glimpse." Likewise, hypnosis expert Milton Kline, a veteran of covert experimentation in this field confirmed in 1977, that his work for the government continued.

14) See A. J. Weberman's "The Story of Mankind Research Unlimited, Inc." Covert Action Quarterly, Issue 9, June 1980.

15) Ibid. Cited from "leaked" and/or "stolen" documents.

16) Ibid.

17) Despite his apparently Democratic credentials President Clinton is not a reformer in this regard. In lock-step with all previous administrations dating back to the 1930's, President Clinton's administration is heavily composed of individuals who are members of the CFR or the Trilateral Commission (or both). There is some evidence to suggest that President Clinton had a special and close connection to the Central Intelligence Agency during his days as Governor of Arkansas. Terry Reed, and ex-CIA agent, has revealed that Clinton was an Agency "asset" during the period he worked for the CIA. This may not be as preposterous as it appears in view of the Starr Commission's decision to investigate this aspect of the President's past.

18) In connection with "enhancing abilities of friendly forces" see numerous articles and expose's on Col. John B. Alexander. Alexander, a former Commander of Green Berets special forces was a member of the U.S. "Phoenix" assassination program in Vietnam. Until recently he was Director of non-lethal programs at Los Alamos National Laboratory, but has since resigned following, it is believed, an undue amount of negative press. He remains NATO's adviser on NLD. Alexander wrote a book an article (and later co-authored a book entitled The Warrior's Edge) published in Military Review in which he outlined a number of hitherto "fringe" subjects -- including telepathy -- that should be brought in to the battery of future weapons. Alexander is dedicated to the development of a super-human soldier with enhanced abilities leading to an "invincible warrior." In his book he likens such a soldier to be a JEDI KNIGHT, from the film Star Wars (Project Jedi). He has powerful sponsors, including Vice President Al Gore. Alexander is cited as being the grand daddy of NLP. He is known to be heavily engaged in mind control and psychotronic projects. See Armen Victorian, "Psychic Warfare and Non lethal Weapons."

19) In this connection the work of Dr. James Lin of Wayne State University should be noted. Lin has written a book entitled Microwave Auditory Effects & Applications, in which he states "The capability of communicating directly with humans by pulsed microwaves is obviously not limited to the field of therapeutic medicine."

20) Refer to Dr. Robert Becker who has stated "Such a device has obvious applications in covert operations designed to drive a target crazy with "voices" or deliver undetected instructions to a programmed assassin." In 1974, Dr. J. F. Scapitz filed a plan to explore the interaction of radio signals and hypnosis. He stated that "In this investigation it will be shown that the spoken word of the hypnotists may be conveyed by modulate electromagnetic energy directly into the subconscious parts of the human brain -- i.e. without employing any technical devices for receiving or transcoding the messages and without the person exposed to such influence having a chance to control the information input consciously." Schapitz' work was funded by the DoD. Despite FOIA filings, his work has never been made available. Also it is interesting to note the date of 1974, which almost exactly mirror's the period when the USSR commenced its own program that resulted in "Acoustic Psycho-correction technology."

21) During October 1994 Dr. Ross Adey visited London to address a conference on the health implications of EM fields. At that time this writer was collaborating with a well known documentary film maker to make a documentary on this subject. I approached the conference organizers, given a free invite and assured that I would be permitted to speak with Dr. Adey privately. Additionally I assured the organizer that any meeting would be strictly confidential and off the record if Dr. Adey would feel more comfortable with that. In the event, Dr. Adey declined to meet with me and my complimentary invitation to attend the conference was rescinded. Dr. Adey said the subject was "too technical" to discuss.

22) Much similar effects have been reported, for instance, at the Women's Peace camp at Seneca, in New York state.

23) Psychic phenomena studies were, in fact, part of classified Pentagon programs dating back over two decades. Two separate "teams" conducted advanced experiments. One team operated out of SRI and the other from the NSA's Fort George Meade facility in Maryland. During that time, Major General Albert N. Stubblebine, Director of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, oversaw a program dedicated to "remote viewing" where operatives were tasked with, amongst other things, tracking Soviet "Boomer" submarines. Stubblebine is presently Chairman of the Board of Directors of PSI-TECH, a private company specializing in remote viewing and other activities. Col. John Alexander is also on the board. The company also employs Major Edward Dames (ex-DIA), Major David Moorhouse (ex-82nd Airborne), and Ron Blackburn (former microwave scientist and specialist, Kirkland Air Force base). PSI-TECH operate in the private sector and have received a number of classified government contracts. During the Gulf War, the company was approached by DoD with a request that the company's remote viewers be tasked with tracking and locating Iraq's Scud missiles. Col. Alexander and C.B. Scott Jones (who has previously worked for the U.S. government on mind control technology) both share an interest in Unidentified Flying Objects. The highly regarded New York Times journalist Howard Blum revealed in his book Out There that there is, indeed, a DoD UFO working group within the DIA. I mention this aspect only to demonstrate that the military and intelligence community are not averse to experimenting in and expending prodigious amounts of tax money on some of the "weirder" areas of life. The remote viewing teams were disbanded following the Oliver North fiasco by the Secretary of Defense who was concerned at the potential bad publicity. Thereafter, Psi-Tech was formed and the work continues...

24) Refer Martin Cannon. Lobster 23 "Mind Control and the American Government." Martin is an independent and objective researcher who has spent a considerable amount of time and personal money in researching this subject. See earlier reference to Dr. George Eastabrooks, footnote 3.

25) On October 24-27 1995, the Counter-Drug Technology Assessment Center held a symposium at Nashua, New Hampshire. Subjects discussed included the "transition of advanced military technologies to the civil law enforcement environment. These include advanced tracking, tagging, radio frequency and other "non-intrusive" technologies.

26) I have certain caveats in citing this material. Firstly, I have written to Dr. Horvath and the two other scientists referred to in the Spotlight article. To date none have replied either to confirm or deny their comments. One of them, Steve Aftergood, is highly reputable and is known to me indirectly. The other two are not known to me at all. It is also important to point out that Spotlight is an ultra-right wing publication and one must, therefore, take these citations with due caution. On the other hand, Spotlight shares a considerable "ethos" with some far-right elements of the military and intelligence community who are in a position to know about these developments and for their own reasons may have made this information available.

27) See Brian Freemantle's The Octopus Orion Books Ltd, 1995.

28) See Walter Bowart's Operation Mind Control recounting some chilling stories involving Vietnam veterans. In particular the case of "David" and ex-U.S. Air Force officer who had his memory "erased" following his term of service.

29) See the Collected Works of Carl Gustav Jung for a background to the psychology of "projection."

31) Aggravated by narcotics related crime -- presently estimated to between $500 - $800 billion a year, thus an industry outstripping all other "business sectors" with the possible exception of the weapons industry. These figures extracted from Brian Freemantle's The Octopus, Orion Books Ltd, 1995.

32) The present economic reality (and that for the foreseeable future) is that the once abundant life-style for large segments of western citizens will continue to erode. This will inevitably lead to dissatisfaction that will increasingly manifest itself in civil disturbance. Economically powerless to change direction, governments may possibly resort to authoritarian remedies, fueling greater unrest and a repetition of the vicious cycle. This model is based on the clear evidence that "nations" no longer possess the economic might to "buck" the markets. The globalisation of finance and the internationalization of "free markets", has led to (or perhaps resulted from?) giant "stateless" transnational corporations. Collectively, TNC's far outweigh the economic power of any one sovereign state. Under the combined onslaught of TNC's acting in concert, (referred to as "market trends") even G7 (in the form of combined Central Bank intervention) is often rendered powerless. Under this scenario, the future does not bode well. TNC's will continue to accrue to themselves an increasing proportion of the world's wealth, whereas nation states will grow increasingly reliant upon sovereign indebtedness to finance themselves or gradually assume "Third World" economies. The burden of "servicing" sovereign debt is met by a combination of fiscal measures, primarily increased domestic taxation (direct, indirect and more hidden measures) and decreased expenditure. Both measures impact heavily on the poorer classes and yet generally benefit the TNC's who remain large tax recipients. Effectively powerless, the political structure in sovereign states will have little alternative but to present to its citizens a facade of being in control if it is to remain in power. Bereft of economic muscle, old-fashioned real "muscle" (in the form of soft-kill-technologies) are likely to become more meaningful to the rule of law concept. It is therefore self evident that LTL weapons will thus be directed at the "rebellious" poorer classes. The Mexican "Zapatistas" are an early warning sign of how these socio-economic factors are likely to impact in the future. Mexico today, the United States tomorrow, and thereafter? See Noam Chomsky's World Orders Old and New for a more comprehensive analysis of the TNC global phenomenon.

33) Especially some classes of EM weapons that are viewed as having a capability to remotely modify behavior or attack higher functions.

34) See Department of Defense Draft directive dated January 1, 1995 outlining taking objectives for Non Lethal Weapons.

35) See Noam Chomsky's and Edward Herman's Manufacturing Consent (Pantheon Books, New York, 1988). The authors exhaustingly detail the widespread role of the media to propagandize "elitist" objectives whilst downplaying or ignoring altogether "hard news" that doesn't fit the "propaganda model." As a result, domestic "consent" is engineered both by the absence of information that doesn't fit the "model" and by exclusively featuring stories or hard news that do. The impact of these techniques effectively restricts political and economic debate, sidelining contrary viewpoints. Thus the authors argue that democracy has already been replaced and that, de facto, a one party state has been crafted.

36) This so called "soft kill" ability is politically desirable.

Source: Psycho-Civilized Society
Copyright by David Guyatt
Author's Website: http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/