TBR News March 4, 2016

Mar 04 2016

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., March 4. 2016:”Now there are frenzied, and uncordinated, attempts to somehow convince the voting American public, that Donald Trump ought not to be voted for. The real reason for this anger is that Truimp is not part of the domestic political machinery and if elected, might prove to be another Teddy Roosevelt who could damage the long-established bribery routines that are the lifeblood of American politics. The American public has become jaded and is growing increasingly angry with their elected officials. And when various foreign depositors discover that the gold they stored in Ft. Knox for safety has all been sold by the U.S. government to China to pay for huge military expenditures, then the global community will become as angry as the domestic one.”

Americans ‘totally disillusioned’ with US politics as usual

March 4, 2016

by Leonid Dobrokhotov

RT

Americans are tired of national mainstream politics with all the hopes and expectations the US middle class and youth entrusted to the first black US president. Now they are ‘totally disillusioned,’ political expert Leonid Dobrokhotov told RT.

Americans have been taught that when they go the ballot box they decide the fate of their country and even the entire world, said the Russian historian, who has been specializing in the US internal policy, political engineering and election mechanisms.

They voted to be the decision-makers,” Dobrokhotov said, emphasizing that Americans believe they live in a democratic country.

But over the last decades they have been losing faith in democratic America.”

The present situation appears to be that Americans do not want to vote for mainstream politicians any more, Dobrokhotov said.

For the first time since the 1960s and early 1970s there is an openly socialist participant in the presidential race in the US, namely Bernie Sanders.

For decades no US presidential candidate dared to publicly proclaim his socialist background, like Sanders “fighting social inequality” and speaking about social needs of Americans. This has put Sanders in second place among the Democrat candidates.

As for the #1 Democrat running for presidency, Hillary Clinton, she is a “typical mainstream candidate” with whom the US electorate happens to be tired of, suggests Dobrokhotov.

There is little doubt that she will enjoy “absolute support” from the US establishment, big business and the mainstream media.

Very forceful measures will be taken for her to win,” Dobrokhotov predicted, recalling the estimated $1 billion invested in her election campaign.

She [Hillary Clinton] has very big chances to win,” Dobrokhotov said, “but if it would happen, I believe that it will be just another step towards total disillusionment of Americans, who just do not want to vote for the choice of political establishment.”

Donald Trump’s Policies Are Not Anathema to U.S. Mainstream but an Uncomfortable Reflection of It

March 4, 2016

by Glenn Greenwald

The Intercept

The political and media establishments in the U.S. – which have jointly wrought so much destruction, decay, and decadence – recently decided to unite against Donald Trump. Their central claim is that the real estate mogul and long-time NBC reality TV star advocates morally reprehensible positions that are far outside the bounds of decency; relatedly, they argue, he is so personally repellent that his empowerment would degrade both the country and the presidency.

In some instances, their claim is plausible: there is at least genuine embarrassment if not revulsion even among America’s political class over Trump’s proposed mass deportation of 11 million human beings, banning of all Muslims from entering the country, and new laws to enable him to more easily sue (and thus destroy) media outlets which “falsely” criticize him. And his signature personality brew of deep-seated insecurities, vindictive narcissism, channeling of the darkest impulses, and gaudy, petty boasting is indeed uniquely grotesque.

But in many cases, probably most, the flamboyant denunciations of Trump by establishment figures make no sense except as self-aggrandizing pretense, because those condemning him have long tolerated if not outright advocated very similar ideas, albeit with less rhetorical candor. Trump is self-evidently a toxic authoritarian demagogue advocating morally monstrous positions, but in most cases where elite outrage is being vented, he is merely a natural extension of the mainstream rhetorical and policy framework that has been laid, not some radical departure from it. He’s their id. What establishment mavens most resent is not what Trump is, does, or says, but what he reflects: the unmistakable, undeniable signs of late-stage imperial collapse, along with the resentments and hatreds they have long deliberately and self-servingly stoked but which are now raging out of their control.

Two of the most recent, widely discussed anti-Trump outrage rituals – one from Wednesday and the other from last night’s Fox News debate – demonstrate the sham at the heart of the establishment display of horror. This week, American political and media figures from across the spectrum stood and applauded a tawdry cast of neocons and other assorted war-mongers who are responsible for grave war crimes, torture, kidnappings, due-process-free indefinite imprisonment, and the worst political crime of this generation: the attack on and destruction of Iraq.

These five dozen or so extremists (calling themselves “members of the Republican national security community”) were the toast of the town because they published an “open letter” denouncing Trump on the ground that his “own statements lead us to conclude that as president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the world.” This was one of their examples:

His embrace of the expansive use of torture is inexcusable.

Most decent human beings, by definition, would express this sentiment without including the qualifying word “expansive.” Even Ronald Reagan, whom virtually all the signatories claim to idolize, advocated for and signed a treaty in 1988 which stated that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever . . . may be invoked as a justification of torture” and that “each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law.” The taboo is on “all acts of torture,” not its “expansive use”: whatever that means.

But the group signing this anti-Trump letter can’t pretend to find an embrace of torture itself to be “inexcusable” because most of them implemented torture policies while in government or vocally advocated for them. So instead, they invoke the Goldilocks Theory of Torture: we believe in torture up to exactly the right point, while Trump is disgraceful because he wants to go beyond that: he believes in “the expansive use of torture.” The same dynamic drove yesterday’s widely cheered speech by Mitt Romney, where the two-time failed GOP candidate denounced Trump for advocating torture while literally ignoring his own clear pro-torture viewpoints.

Here we see the elite class agreeing to pretend that Trump is advocating views that are inherently disqualifying when – thanks to those doing the denouncing – those views are actually quite mainstream, even popular, among both the American political class and its population. Torture was the official American policy for years. It went way beyond waterboarding. One Republican president ordered it and his Democratic successor immunized it from all forms of accountability, ensuring that not a single official would be prosecuted for authorizing even the most extreme techniques, ones that killed people – or even allowed to be sued by their victims.

Many of the high officials most responsible for that torture regime and who defended it – from Condoleezza Rice and John Brennan – remain not just acceptable in mainstream circles but hold high office and are virtually revered. And, just by the way, both of Trump’s main rivals – Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz – refuse to rule out classic torture techniques as part of their campaign. In light of all that, who takes seriously the notion that Trump’s advocacy of torture – including beyond waterboarding – places him beyond the American pale? To the contrary, it places him within its establishment mainstream.

Then there’s the Outrage du Jour from last night. A couple of weeks ago, George W. Bush’s NSA and CIA chief, Gen. Michael Hayden, claimed that members of the military would never follow Trump’s orders if it meant committing war crimes such as torturing detainees or killing a terrorist’s family members (perish the thought). When asked about this last night, Trump insisted that the U.S. military would do so: “They’re not going to refuse. Believe me,” he said. “If I say do it, they’re going to do it. That’s what leadership is about.” Of all the statements Trump made last night, this was the one most often cited by pundits as being the most outrageous, shocking, disgusting, etc. Even bona fide war criminals such as the Bush White House’s pro-invasion and torture propagandist got in on the moral outrage act:

But is there any doubt that Trump is right about this? Throughout the 14-year-old War on Terror, a handful of U.S. military members have bravely and nobly refused to take part in, or vocally denounced, policies that are clear war crimes. But there was no shortage of people in the military, the CIA and working for private American contractors who dutifully carried out the most heinous abuses and war criminality. The military official in charge of investigating War on Terror policies, Gen. Antonio Taguba, said this in 2008:

After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.

In 2009, Gen. Barry McCaffrey said: “We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A.” The notion that the U.S. intelligence and military community will collectively rise up in defiance of the Commander-in-Chief if they are ordered to obey polices that are illegal is just laughable.

It’s obviously a pleasing fiction to believe – it produces nice, nationalistic feelings of nobility – but everything in the past decades proves that Trump is right when he says “they’re not going to refuse.” Some likely would, but nowhere near enough to preclude the policies being carried out. In fact, the primary argument used to justify immunizing America’s torturers is that they were just following orders as approved by John Yoo and company: reflecting a moral code which dictates that, even when it comes to plainly illegal policies, obedience is preferable to defiance.

Then there’s the feigned horror over Trump’s proposal to kill the family members of terrorists. Though they claim they don’t do it deliberately, the fact is that this is something that both the U.S. and Israel, among others, has routinely done for years: they repeatedly bomb people’s homes or work places, killing innocent people including family members, and then justify it on the ground that a terrorist was among them. While they claim they don’t target terrorists’ family members, they certainly target their homes and other places family members are certain to be found.

When a U.S. drone strike in 2011 killed the U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, and then another drone strike two weeks later killed his 16-year-old American son Abdulrahman (who nobody claimed was involved with terrorism), former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs justified that this way:

How Team Obama Justifies the Killing of a 16-Year-Old American

by Conor Friedersdorf

Oct 24, 2012

Politics

The Atlantic

Asked about the strike that killed him, a senior adviser to the president’s campaign suggests he should’ve “had a more responsible father.”

If you really think you can locate fine distinctions – we merely keep killing the children, spouses and other family members over and over by accident, not by purposely targeting – at least don’t pretend that what Trump is advocating is something our civilized minds have never previously encountered. He may be more gauche for saying it aloud and gleefully justifying it rather than feigning sorrow over it, but the substance of what he’s saying – despicable though it is – is hardly categorically different from what the U.S. government and its closest allies actually do over and over. And that’s to say nothing of the unpleasant fact which we’re all now supposed to ignore lest we be smeared as Trump supporters: that even as he advocates clear war crimes, he also, in some important cases, is advocating policies and approaches less militaristic and war-mongering than not only his GOP rivals but the war-loving leading Democratic candidate as well.

As for his starkly disgusting personal qualities, none of these is new. Anyone who has lived in New York has known for decades that this is who and what Donald Trump is. And yet he was fully integrated within and embraced by America’s circles of power and celebrity, including by those who now want to pretend to find him so hideously offensive. As The New York Times put it in December: “For years, President Bill Clinton was the best friend Donald J. Trump always hoped to have.”

Conversations with the Crow

On October 8th, 2000, Robert Trumbull Crowley, once a leader of the CIA’s Clandestine Operations Division, died in a Washington hospital of heart failure and the end effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. Before the late Assistant Director Crowley was cold, Joseph Trento, a writer of light-weight books on the CIA, descended on Crowley’s widow at her town house on Cathedral Hill Drive in Washington and hauled away over fifty boxes of Crowley’s CIA files.

Once Trento had his new find secure in his house in Front Royal , Virginia, he called a well-known Washington fix lawyer with the news of his success in securing what the CIA had always considered to be a potential major embarrassment. Three months before, July 20th of that year, retired Marine Corps colonel William R. Corson, and an associate of Crowley, died of emphysema and lung cancer at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. After Corson’s death, Trento and his Washington lawyer went to Corson’s bank, got into his safe deposit box and removed a manuscript entitled ‘Zipper.’ This manuscript, which dealt with Crowley’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, vanished into a CIA burn-bag and the matter was considered to be closed forever

After Crowley’s death and Trento’s raid on the Crowley files, huge gaps were subsequently discovered by horrified CIA officials and when Crowley’s friends mentioned Gregory Douglas, it was discovered that Crowley’s son had shipped two large boxes to Douglas. No one knew their contents but because Douglas was viewed as an uncontrollable loose cannon who had done considerable damage to the CIA’s reputation by his on-going publication of the history of Gestapo-Mueller, they bent every effort both to identify the missing files and make some effort to retrieve them before Douglas made any use of them.

Douglas had been in close contact with Crowley and had long phone conversatins with him. He found this so interesting and informative that he taped  and later transcribed them.

These conversations have been published in a book: ‘Conversations with the Crow” and this is an excerpt.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Crow-Gregory-Douglas-ebook/dp/B00GHMAQ5E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450147193&sr=8-1&keywords=conversations+with+the+crow

 

Conversation No. 15

Conversation No. 40

Date: Friday, October 4, 1996

Commenced: 9:01 AM CST

Concluded: 9:51 AM CST

RTC: Hello, Gregory. I wanted to give you a call because I have just had a long talk with Jim Critchfield. He says he managed to reach you this week and had a discussion with you. Whatever did you say to him? Jim’s howling mad over this. I hope you didn’t go too far.

GD: No, not at all, Robert. He went on a fishing expedition with me and I tried to answer all his questions. That’s absolutely all. I was not rude or threatening to him at all. What did he say?

RTC: He said that you are a very dangerous person and he is going to stop your filthy lies about him and the Company. He thinks you are a renegade intelligence officer who can be legally stopped because of confidentiality agreements he is sure you must have signed at some point.

GD: Well, Robert, I think that comes of your telling him I was an intelligence officer.

RTC: Well, Gregory, I admit that I could have hinted at it when he was asking about you, but I was never specific. Never specific. Did he tell you I was?

GD: No, he took your hook, bait and all.

RTC: Jim said he knew absolutely that you were, or had been, an agent of influence because no one from the outside could possibly have your inside knowledge.

GD: Well, he’s wrong. He tried to threaten me with this so-called agreement and told me I was way out of line. That’s after I stuck the knife into him. I figured I’d do this because he was trying to find out what I knew about his operations or who might have told me. He never admitted knowing Mueller and kept trying to pass Krichbaum off as an army officer, not an SS man. I filled him in on Willi’s background and he certainly wasn’t happy.

RTC: I would imagine not. That whole Gehlen organization was stuffed with Nazis, most of whom were on the automatic arrest lists. He knew this and now he knows you know it. If this ever gets out, I mean really out, it will ruin his career and do damage to the German BND.

GD: Well, that’s a given. He says he’s writing a book about himself and Gehlen and now, he’s worried I’ll shit in his soup.

RTC: And he mentioned this Atwood several times. I know something about him and he claims you have made false accusations about some explosives deal.

GD: I got that from Atwood while he was drinking. It had to do with the two of them plotting to sell ex-Soviet atomic artillery shells to a Pakistani terrorist organization.

RTC: Jesus. Is that true?

GD: I don’t make these things up, Robert.

RTC: I’m not saying you do, Gregory, but could this Atwood have been indulging in fantasy?

GD: No. From Critchfield’s verbal reaction, some or all of it must be true.

RTC: You didn’t tape him, did you? He said you were visiting with some former Army intelligence officer that he had a very bad opinion of.

GD: John busted Atwood back in the early ‘60s for fraud, theft, tax evasion and so on. I would imagine that if Critchfield and Atwood were at all friendly, Jack’s name would cause spastic colon. As soon as he found out where I was, he got right off the line. He probably spent the day on the toilet.

RTC: This tape. You have it?

GD: Certainly. Would you like me to play it for you? Over the phone?

RTC: At this point, Gregory, that doesn’t matter. Yes, play it for me. Jim gave me his view of what was said and now I’d like to hear what really happened.

GD: Then give me a minute to get it hooked up.

(Pause)

`Transcription of a telephone conversation between James H. Critchfield and Gregory Douglas, Stillwell Kansas, on Wednesday, October 2, 1996

JHC: Mr. Douglas? Is this Mr. Gregory Douglas?

GD: Yes, it is.

JHC: This is Jim Critchfield. A friend of Bob Crowley’s. I wrote to you recently.

GD: Colonel Critchfield. Yes. Bob told me about you and I did get your letter.

JHC: I’ve been reading your book on Mueller. Very, very interesting to me. Fascinating.

GD: Why thank you very much, Colonel.

JHC: I’m not disturbing you, am I? I can always call later.

GD: No, no, not at all. I’m just visiting a military collector in Stillwell.

JHC: Your phone was busy but I did get a hold of your son who gave me this number. You’re sure this is not an imposition?

GD: No, not all. What can I do for you?

JHC: Well, as I said in my letter, Bob said you were looking for some information on the Pullach people and since I was actively involved with them, he thought I might be able to help you.

GD: He did speak of you. You were up there. That’s a Nazi summer home colony, isn’t it?

JHC: Yes, it was. And I understand you knew Gehlen?

GD: Yes. I met him in the summer of 1951 when I was in Munich.

JHC: Gehlen lived in Munich then, didn’t he?

GD: He might have but when I knew him, he was living at the Villa Rechsberg on the northeast corner of the Starnberger See. He was working for what he called an oil company up at Pullach and he was using the name Major Stephanos. General Staff. That wasn’t his name and Franz told me about him.

JHC: Would I have known this Franz?

GD: Franz von Brentano. One brother was Heinrich, the West German Foreign Minister and his other brother was Ambassador to Italy. He was with the Attaché Abteilung of the OKW during the war.

JHC: I think I remember the name. Were you staying with him?

GD: No, I was living at the Hotel Post in Starnberg. I think it’s a police station now. Gehlen lived down the road so I used to walk down and talk with him.

JHC: An interesting man.

GD: Yes, very.

JHC: Well, I’m writing a book about him and his organization and I was very much interested in your comments about Krichbaum.

GD: So I gathered from your letter.

JHC: Did you ever meet him?

GD: Willi? Oh yes, a number of times. He was living at Bad Reichenhall then. Used to live in Dresden during the war but got bombed out.

JHC: Willi was an army officer.

GD: Well, he was during the First World War, Colonel, but not in the Second.

JHC: I’m certain he was a Wehrmacht colonel then.

GD: I think he might have misled you. Willi Krichbaum had been a lieutenant in a Baden artillery unit in the first war, later was in the Freikorps and then joined the SS. Willi was an Oberführer in the SS. He was in charge of the Grenzpolizei in the south and was Heinrich Müller’s standing deputy in the Gestapo. Of course during the last war, Willi was chief of the Geheime Feldpolizei which was under the OKW. But he was still an SS colonel, not an army one.

JHC: My, my, Mr. Douglas, that is most interesting. Did Willi tell you this?

GD: No, Müller did. I do have a copy of Willi’s SS file, however, complete with picture.

JHC: I always thought he was a regular soldier.

GD: No, an SS man. He was assigned to the RSHA, Amt IV or the Gestapo. I rather liked Willi, Colonel. Ever look at his hands?

JHC: Oh yes.

GD: Badly wounded in the first war. You were asking about his connection with Gehlen? Willi was the chief recruiter for Gehlen’s Org. They used the CROWCRASS list mainly. I mean that’s the list of wanted Nazi war criminals. They took it away from Frenchy Grombach.

JHC: Mr. Douglas, Bob tells me you were serving in Germany after the war. What unit were you with?

GD: I was not in service in Germany, Colonel.

JHC: But to know what you do, you must have been. You certainly weren’t with our people. You were with the Army?

GD: Well, some time ago. Not now.

JHC: Ah, I knew it. Well, as a fellow soldier, I can see that we have some things in common. But I ought to advise you that your book is just a little too informative. You did sign a confidentiality agreement when you left?

GD: My God, so much paperwork.

JHC: Oh, I know. But I wanted to caution you against publishing anything that might jeopardize security matters. You have come rather close to this in certain areas.

GD: I probably have.

JHC: Just a friendly reminder.

GD: Thank you for the heads-up Colonel. I will keep that in mind.

JHC: Are you planning to write any more books on that subject? On Müller?

GD: Yes, I am. I have spoken with Robert about this.

JHC: You know, as I wrote to you, this book is stirring up some interest up at Langley. I’m sure you are aware that some of your comments are viewed with disbelief by some.

GD: Oh yes, Colonel, I’m sure they are.

JHC: There’s quite some information in the files that Müller died in Berlin in ’45.

GD: I know that. Did you know that they found the body of Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, his wife and two daughters in the courtyard of the Air Ministry?

JHC: Well, you see….

GD: Yes, it was Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller of the RSHA but it was also Doctor Heinrich Müller and he was not in the Gestapo. That’s why my Müller was called ‘Gestapo Müller.’ And that one had only a son and daughter. The wife and the two children are still alive. A different person with the same rank and similar posting, Colonel. I have a copy of his file as well. So much for that myth.

JHC: I think our problem here, Mr. Douglas, is that if certain people got it into their heads that, as you allege, the head of the Gestapo had even had contact with us, let alone worked for us, there would be quite a stink.

GD: I assume you’re talking about the Jewish community.

JHC: Well yes, of course that’s what I’m talking about. All they do is yammer about how important they are. They would raise cain about all of this if they ever believed it and you know how much trouble they can stir up. And you mentioned a Swiss interview with a so-called interrogator. Could you perhaps tell me who this person was? It could be very helpful in authenticating your book.

GD: Why, that’s no problem. The interrogator was James Speyer Kronthal who was the CIA station chief there in Switzerland. James was of the Speyer banking family. German Jews originally. Worked in Berlin before the war, selling stolen artwork for Hermann Göring. Did you know him?

JHC: I may have heard the name.

GD: The CIA did away with Kronthal eventually. He was a practicing homosexual and they believed, though never proved it, that he had been compromised by a Russian agent.

JHC: Did you, by any chance, hear this from Bill Corson?

GD: Corson? No. Müller told me.

JHC: Corson wrote a book on this….

GD: I know. ‘Widows.’

JHC: Right. Did you ever discuss this with Corson?

GD: Of course. Müller had told me that Kronthal’s favorite uncle had died of the influenza epidemic in ’18 and Corson said he knew this from the sister but had never published it. A small detail but I like the small details, Colonel. When Willi got in touch with his former boss, Heini was working for Swiss intelligence. Haussaman and Masson as I recall. Used the name Schwartzer and lived in an elegant villa on the Lake Geneva. Did you ever meet him?

JHC: No, of course not. I mean your book was a revelation to me and many of my friends.

GD: I can believe that. Bob said you raised horses. Do you?

JHC: Why, yes, Mr. Douglas, I do. Are you interested in horses?

GD: Oh yes. I learned to ride over at Possenhofen. You know where that is, I assume?

JHC: Oh yes, I do.

GD: I had an Arabian mare and always rode English. Actually, I used an old German army saddle and I still have it. Don’t ride anymore but I loved it. My instructor was a former Waffen-SS cavalry NCO. You wouldn’t know him, would you?

JHC: I..I really don’t recall.

GD: Good man. Taught me to take a jump with a coin under my ass. The idea was to have it there when you came down. You used to be in the cavalry, as Bob told me.

JHC: Yes, I was, and then we became an armored unit.

GD: I had a relative in the panzers. Got the Knight’s Cross.

JHC: I didn’t know that you were German.

GD: I wasn’t born there but I have family members there. Have you seen Mr. Livingston lately? He was at Pullach and I met him at Gehlen’s place once. In fact, I met you twice.

JHC: Did you? I don’t recall you, Mr. Douglas. You have a good memory.

GD: I’ve been told. I just take it for granted. Dulles bought Gehlen a villa on the east side of the lake. Will you put that in your book?

JHC: Did you get that from Bob?

GD: No, another source.

JHC: Mr. Douglas I have to ask you a serious question. Who are you working for now? Some people think you might have Russian connections.

GD: That’s giving me too much credit, Colonel. I have no secrets to sell to anyone. I just like to put puzzles together…to find out things.

JHC: Couldn’t that cause trouble?

GD: For others, Colonel, certainly not for me. I just write scenarios.

JHC: For our people?

GD: For anyone who will pay me and I have expensive tastes. American agencies like to threaten people to get information on the cheap and that doesn’t impress me. After all, Colonel, it isn’t love but money that makes the world go around. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but Müller used to sell looted art for the CIA. Auctioned some of the unknown pieces off. Lots of money involved. When he died in ’83, I got some of the pieces. A lovely Raphael for instance. Of course, I can’t even think of selling it because they’re still looking for it. Came from Hans Frank’s collection and before that, Poland. Worth millions if it had a clear title but it looks fine on my wall. And you might be interested in the knowledge that parts of the famous Amber Room were right there in Berg. You know Berg, of course. Bodeman-Soden people. It went to Thyssen down in Lugano eventually.

JHC: Well, that’s not in my field.

GD: I think we have a mutual friend, Colonel. Jimmy Atwood? Worked for the CIA in Berlin? Guns? INTERARMCO? Sam Cummings? That one.

JHC: Yes, I had some dealings with him.

GD: I had a run in with him in Austria in 1990. He tried to rip me off on a deal and he got the very dirty end of the stick.

JHC: I don’t…

GD: Does the name Globocnik mean anything to you?

JHC: In what context?

GD: Just curious. I always wondered what Langley did with a box full of gold painted paving stones. But enough of that. Poor Jimmy. You know, when he’s on the sauce, Jimmy talks far too much. He mentioned you once or twice. Now he lives on that lake near Berlin right next to Marcus Wolf. Not surprising considering Jimmy worked for him too.

JHC: I think right now you are way out of line.

GD: He did tell me about the Russian atomic artillery shells but you were a cavalry man and probably wouldn’t be interested. But Jimmy talks far too much and Jimmy is not a gentleman. Abandoned his wife and daughters after she had stuck by him when Angolia got him arrested in ’62. Walked off and left her.

JHC: I know about that. Left her for a tart he met in a club. You knew Angolia?

GD: I’m sitting in his office as we speak. He runs a security company now.

JHC: Is he the one who answered the phone?

GD: As a matter of fact, he did.

JHC: I’m going to have to get off now. It’s been an interesting time talking to you. You will hear from me later on some of these things.

GD: I am certain of that, Colonel. In my next book, I’m going to cover all the Nazi SS and Gestapo people who worked for Gehlen. And Bob Wolfe got me a U.S. Army General Staff listing from 1948 with the names of all the people we brought in then. Of course it was marked not to be released by order of the President of the United States but maybe Wolfe got a promotion and we don’t know it.

JHC: I really have to get off now. It’s been interesting talking with you.

GD: Well, the same, Colonel, and I hope I’ve cleared up some of your questions.

GD: I missed about thirty seconds at the beginning while I was turning on the recorder. The call came in to Jack and he took it on the speaker phone. When Critchfield announced himself and said he wanted to talk to me, Jack acted like he was going to leave but I waved him back into his seat. That’s when I turned on the recorder. Does it match with what he said?

RTC: In essence, but the way Jim tells it, he had complete control over the conversation. It’s obvious the reverse was true. Jim has a very high opinion of himself and he expects people to fall down and worship him. Actually, Gregory, I loved that tape. Listening to it and comparing it with Jim’s rantings, you have made me very happy.

GD: Don’t think I didn’t enjoy myself, too, Robert. What a stuffed shirt he is. Does he really think he can bluff me? With what? Some CIA-inspired court order? He can take one of those, roll it into a tube, insert it into his flabby ass and set it on fire.

RTC: You see, Gregory, if you had been connected with some official intelligence agency and signed the usual confidentiality agreement, he could get such an order. But, of course, if you never did, he’s shit out of luck.

GD: Isn’t that wonderful? I did warn him that Atwood had a huge mouth and gave him a few examples.

RTC: I heard. I have a feeling that Atwood won’t be long for this world given that Paki deal. If he has a sudden heart attack….

GD: Or goes out on the river in a little boat….

RTC: Then I’ll know that you were dead on. We can see.

GD: We could have a pool. Six months?

RTC: Probably. Or less.

GD: Will he come after me?

RTC: You’re not a Company man, Gregory. They’ll do everything they can to keep you out of print. Threaten any prospective publisher with dire financial problems and believe me, not one article about you or your book will ever appear in any American newspaper or on any American television talk show. And I mean ever. They’ll put a blackout on you. And I can assure you that even as I speak, Jim is gathering in all kinds of government informers to write terrible things about you…

GD: You mean like Wolfe…

RTC: Yes, and Naftali and the rest of the third grade Hebrew character assassination brigade.

GD: Yes, but most of them, if not all of them, are little pismires that no one knows anything about. Librarians, minor academics and so on. Pathetic little weasels with the brains of cockroaches. I know because I’ve had to listen to their whinings about the book. Oh mercy, Percy, I just can’t believe this! That’s what they go on about.

RTC: What’s your response?

GD: I tell them something my late grandfather used to say to the idiots he had to deal with. ‘I beg your pardon, sir, but are you anybody in particular?’

RTC: Oh that’s just the thing to say to them. Funny.

GD: They may be big men at home where they terrify small children and pets but in the real world, they remind me of furious squirrels chattering in a park when you stop throwing them soggy peanuts. They think that because they read a paper on some arcane subject at a meeting of other rodents that somehow they have reached the pinnacle of earthly grandeur.

RTC: And then the New York Times gives them some space in their Sunday edition and they cut out the article, frame it and stick it up on the wall of their cubicle.

GD: Failures but unaware of it. Their betters give them fake steering wheels, like little kids in strollers and let them spin them around, thinking they are running the boat. Well, do you want to bet on Atwood? Five will get you ten he’ll be dead meat within…let’s say within a year. Are you game?

RTC: No, I never bet on a sure thing.

GD: I’ve got a thick file on Atwood. Eventually, I’ll publish it. When Jack got him indicted, he threatened to snitch on the CIA so they got the indictment quashed. Jimmy has been involved in all kinds of gun deals where the CIA gives weapons to various groups in foreign countries then proceed to shoot all the leaders the CIA wants to get rid of. Like Guatemala for instance.

RTC: Best wait until he’s dead to do that.

GD: I’d much rather do it while he’s alive. I do so enjoy the shrieks of rage, followed by the sound of the toilet flushing.

RTC: Gregory, I just knew you’d do a good job. I knew it in my heart. I’ll have to tell Bill about this.

GD: What about Kimmel?

RTC: I’d rather not. He keeps warning me not to listen to you because you’re crazy as a loon and that no one must listen to you, ever.

GD: And he’s so friendly with me, too.

RTC: Don’t turn your back on him, Gregory.

GD: Should I send you the tape?

RTC: No, put it in a safe place.

GD: I will. Sure you don’t want to bet on Atwood’s remaining time on earth?

RTC: No. I told you I never bet on a sure thing.

(Concluded at 9:51 AM CST)

Saudi Arabia Cuts Billions in Aid to Lebanon, Opening Door for Iran

March 2, 2016

by Anne Barnard

New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Even as Iran and Saudi Arabia supported opposite sides in a bitter and bloody proxy war in Syria, the two adversaries managed to preserve a tense calm just over the border in Lebanon, where they have long competed for influence.

Now, suddenly, it looks as if Saudi Arabia is walking away — leaving Lebanon perhaps more firmly than ever in the grip of Hezbollah and its patron, Iran.

Instead of vying behind the scenes to counter Iran, as it has for decades, the kingdom has taken to punishing Lebanon for Hezbollah’s siding with Iran in Syria. It has slashed billions of dollars in aid, ordered Saudi tourists to avoid the Mediterranean nation, and, on Wednesday, declared Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful political, social and armed organization, a terrorist group.

Suddenly, this sliver of a nation, long beloved by Saudis for its night life, beaches and mountains, is once again thrust into the middle of the battle for regional dominance between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. The consequences could be enormous for a nation that barely survived its own civil war, borders Israel, hosts well over a million Syrian refugees and relies on a shaky power-sharing arrangement between sects for its own stability.

Iran has not shifted tactics in Lebanon. But Saudi Arabia has in what is seen as the latest of a series of newly assertive — critics say impulsive — foreign policy moves pressed by a new king and his son, the deputy crown prince.

In each case, Saudi Arabia has asserted what it calls its right, even duty, to counter Iranian influence. In Yemen, it is fighting an Iranian-backed rebel group. In Syria, it has supported rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whom Iran supports.

So it was surprising that in Lebanon, rather than once again taking the fight to Iran, the kingdom has taken a step back — a move that risks increasing Iran’s influence and fragmenting its Sunni rivals. It is a tactic that virtually no one here thinks has any chance of actually coercing Lebanon to constrain Hezbollah, a Shiite group.

Ali Rizk, a Lebanese political analyst close to Hezbollah, echoed many analysts across the Middle East in saying that Saudi Arabia had been prone to hair-trigger reactions since its leaders became incensed over the nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.

They just went crazy,” he said.

The move by Riyadh threatens not only to reshape the politics of the region, but to undermine this tiny nation’s fitful economy and delicate political balance. Already, the tensions have boiled over in small ways: After a television station broadcast a spoof ridiculing Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, the group’s supporters blocked roads and burned tires on Saturday night, setting off brief confrontations in the streets with rival groups.

In a speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Nasrallah struck back, accusing Saudi Arabia of crimes and massacres in its air war in Yemen and calling on it to “settle scores with Hezbollah and not with the Lebanese people.”

Diplomats and analysts have spent several weeks trying to understand why the Saudis would precipitously start penalizing Lebanon — and perhaps their own Lebanese allies — over the powerful influence of Hezbollah, which is nothing new.

Even politicians in the Saudi camp say that the kingdom’s moves have put Lebanon in an impossible position. The Shiite group’s forces are more powerful than the Lebanese military and act autonomously, most notably carrying out a major ground operation in Syria that has helped keep Mr. Assad in power.

Political figures on all sides point out that what Saudi Arabia has demanded from Lebanon — condemning Iran and Hezbollah, for example — is unrealistic.

If some think that Hezbollah will pull out from Syria due to some Arab stances,” Walid Jumblatt, the Druse leader who lately has been allied with the pro-Saudi Future Movement, told Orient TV, a Syrian opposition news outlet, “well, they won’t withdraw.”

Not even the Future Movement, the Lebanese party closest to Saudi Arabia, could bring itself to call Hezbollah a terrorist group — rather declaring on Wednesday that Hezbollah was involved in “terrorist activities.”

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and their allies in Lebanon and throughout the region, have been increasing since the start of the conflict in Syria, which is in its fifth year. Those tensions have risen further since King Salman rose to the Saudi throne last year and pursued a more assertive foreign policy, including the war in Yemen.

The Saudis have carried out an airstrike campaign that has killed civilians and destroyed hospitals and historic areas, and it has been roundly criticized by Hezbollah — even as Hezbollah was backing an indiscriminate Syrian government campaign to put down the rebellion there.

The newest round of recriminations began when Saudi Arabia executed a pro-Iranian dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Iranian demonstrators attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

In January, at meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Saudi Arabia sought formal condemnations not only of the embassy attacks but also of Iran’s and Hezbollah’s roles in the region. Lebanon did not sign on.

The country’s foreign minister, Gebran Bassil — who leads the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party aligned with Hezbollah — declared that Lebanon stood “in solidarity” with Saudi Arabia over the embassy attacks. But signing on to the statement, he said, would violate Lebanon’s policy of disassociation, or official neutrality, on the Syrian conflict.

Saudi Arabia’s main Sunni ally in Lebanon, the Future Movement led by Saad Hariri, criticized Mr. Bassil, saying that his stance did not represent Lebanon.

Finger-pointing ensued among Lebanon’s political factions, whose stalemate over Syria and conflicts on other issues has kept the country without a president for more than a year.

Next, Riyadh declared it was canceling $4 billion in aid pledged to Lebanon, $3 billion of which was earmarked for the Lebanese Army. The aid had been offered in a bid to bolster the army and make it more able to hold its own and operate independently from Hezbollah.

The kingdom and its allies suggested that the decision was based on what it saw as undue influence from Hezbollah in foreign policy, as well as security concerns after several Arab governments in the Persian Gulf said they had uncovered Hezbollah cells in their countries.

Ghattas Khoury, a Lebanese former Parliament member speaking for Mr. Hariri’s camp, said the kingdom’s Lebanese allies understood its position but would lobby the Saudis to change their minds.

The Lebanese Army is essential for us,” he said.

Last week, Saudi Arabia — and four of its five allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council — declared Lebanon unsafe for their citizens, although there has been no discernible shift in the security situation.

Those moves may have little concrete effect: The $3 billion in arms had yet to be delivered and Saudi and other tourists have already largely abandoned Lebanon during the Syrian war.

But Saudi Arabia and its gulf allies have other leverage: They could also throw out the half-million Lebanese who work in the gulf, a major economic lifeline for the country.

And Saudi Arabia already seems to have cut its support to Mr. Hariri, whose father, Rafik, a former prime minister close to the kingdom, was assassinated in 2005; the Saudis blame Hezbollah.

Employees of his party’s news media say their pay has become irregular. And the party is short of cash ahead of municipal elections this spring, when they could lose ground to Hezbollah and other rivals without funds to mobilize voters.

Asked to explain the decline in Saudi support, several diplomats and analysts said that Lebanon was taking a back seat to Yemen, Syria and other conflicts.

It’s just not a priority anymore,” one diplomat said.

Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

The Great American Mortgage Swindle

by Harry von Johnston, PhD

Although only bankers are aware of it, there is a second wave of economic disaster starting to build up that will make the earlier one pale into insignificance. Let us start out with MERS, shall we?

MERS = Mortgage Electronic Registration Inc.holds approximately 60 million Amerrican mortgages and is a Delaware corporation whose sole shareholder is Mers Corp. MersCorp and its specified members have agreed to include the MERS corporate name on any mortgage that was executed in conjunction with any mortgage loan made by any member of MersCorp. Thus in place of the original lender being named as the mortgagee on the mortgage that is supposed to secure their loan, MERS is named as the “nominee” for the lender who actually loaned the money to the borrower. In other words MERS is really nothing more than a name that is used on the mortgage instrument in place of the actual lender. MERS’ primary function, therefore, is to act as a document custodian. MERS was created solely to simplify the process of transferring mortgages by avoiding the need to re-record liens – and pay county recorder filing fees – each time a loan is assigned. Instead, servicers record loans only once and MERS’ electronic system monitors transfers and facilitates the trading of notes. It has very conserbatively estimated that as of February, 2010, over half of all new residential mortgage loans in the United States are registered with MERS and recorded in county recording offices in MERS’ name

MersCorp was the created in the early 1990’s by the former C.E.O.’s of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Indy Mac, Countrywide, Stewart Title Insurance and the American Land Title Association. The executives of these companies lined their pockets with billions of dollars of unearned bonuses and free stock by creating so-called mortgage backed securities using bogus mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers thereby creating a huge false demand for residential homes and thereby falsely inflating the value of those homes. MERS marketing claims that its “paperless systems fit within the legal framework of the laws of all fifty states” are now being vetted by courts and legal commentators throughout the country.

The MERS paperless system is the type of crooked rip-off scheme that is has been seen for generations past in the crooked financial world. In this present case, MERS was created in the boardrooms of the most powerful and controlling members of the American financial institutions. This gigantic scheme completely ignored long standing law of commerce relating to mortgage lending and did so for its own prsonal gain. That the inevitable collapse of the crooked mortgage swindles would lead to terrible national reprecussions was a matter of little or no interest to the upper levels of America’s banking and financial world because the only interest of these entities was to grab the money of suckers, keep it in the form of ficticious bonuses, real estate and very large accounts in foreign banks.. The effect of this system has led to catastrophic metldown on both the American and global economy.

MERS, it has clearly been proven in many civil cases, does not hold any promissory notes of any kind.. A party must have possession of a promissory note in order to have standing to enforce and/or otherwise collect a debt that is owed to another party. Given this clear-cut legal definition,  MERS does not have legal standing to enforce or collect on the over 60 million mortgages it controls and no member of MERS has any standing in an American civil court. 

MERS has been taken to civil courts across the country and charged with a lack of standing in reprossion issues. When the mortgage debacle initially, and invevitably, began, MERS always rotinely broght actions against defauilting mortgage holders purporting to represent the owners of the defaulted mortgages but once the courts discovered that MERS was only a front organization that did not hold any deed nor was aware of who or what agencies might hold a deed, they have been routinely been denied in their attempts to force foreclosure. In the past, persons alleging they were officials of MERS in foreclosure motions, purported to be the holders of the mortgage, when, in fact, they nor only were not the holder of the mortgage but, under a court order, could not produce the identity of the actual holder. These so-called MERS officers have usually been just employees of entities who are servicing the loan for the actual lender. MERS, it is now widely acknowledged by the courty, has no legal right to foreclose or otherwise collect debt which are evidenced by promissory notes held by someone else.

The American media routinely identifies MERS as a mortgage lender, creditor, and mortgage company, when in point of fact MERS has never loaned so much as a dollar to anyone, is not a creditor and is not a mortgage company. MERS is merely a name that is printed on mortgages, purporting to give MERS some sort of legal status, in the matter of a loan made by a completely different and almost always,a totally unknown enitity.

The infamous collapse of the American housing bubble originated, in the main, with one Angelo Mozilo, CEO of the later failed Countrywide Mortgage.

Mozilo started working in his father’s butcher shop, in the Bronx, when he was ten years old. He graduated from Fordham in 1960, and that year he met David Loeb.. In 1968, Mozilo and Loeb created a new mortgage company, Countrywide, together. Mozilo believed the company should make special efforts to lower the barrier for minorities and others who had been excluded from homeownership. Loeb died in 2003

In 1996, Countrywide created a new subsidiary for subprime loans.

In essence, not only bad credit risks were used to create and sell mortgages on American homes that were essentially worthless. By grouping all of these together and selling them abroad, the banks all made huge profits. When the kissing had to stop, there were two major groups holding the financial bag. The first were the investors and the second were, not those with weak credit, but those who had excellent credit and who were able, and willing to pay off their mortgages.

Unfortunately, as no one knows who owns the title to any home, when the legitimate mortgage holder finally pays off his mortgage, or tries to sell his house, a clear title to said house or property cannot ever be found so, in essence, the innocent mortgage payer can never own or sell his house. This is a terrible economic time bomb quietly ticking away under the feet of the Bank of America and if, and when, it explodes, another bank is but a fond memory. 

Strange but True: The Oddballs on Parade

from The Encyclopedia of American Loons

Stephanie & Michael Relfe

Stephanie & Michael Relfe are among the stars of whale.to, insofar as they are committed to virtually any crazy thing ever suggested on that site. Yes, they are. Here you can read their interview with a reptilian. According to the Relfes “it was information from this interview of a female Reptilian that enabled Michael to work out how to stop his monthly abuductons, and my occasonal abductions, by changing the Quantum Matrix so that the various technologies of the enemy do not work.” And so it goes. “If this interview was permitted by senior reptilians, it was allowed for no good purpose as far as we are concerned. However, it is also possible that God allowed her to come and speak with us to give us some information, and she has since been punished (terminated).” The reptilians are liars, and as the Relfes point out in the article “The Causeof Many Miscarriages: Reptilians Steal Babies”, … well, I don’t think much comment is needed. Apparently the reptilians are not magical, however: “[M]etaphysical abilities are a gift from God to good beings, and that reptilians who are strongly associated with Fallen Angels do not fit this category. In fact, any display of metaphysical abilities is all due to their, admittedly very advanced, technology.” So there: Magic is good; technology is bad. There is also something about freemasons putting obelisks everywhere and worshipping Satan, but the connection is unclear.

How, by the way, do they know that reptilians are evil? “Next time you are at the zoo, look into the eyes of a crocodile and ask yourself, how much love is that crocodile captable of?” Evidently the same must go for extraterrestrial reptilians as well – though there may be good ones: “[S]ome reptilians did fight and die with the humans in some underground battles.”

For self-help advice, Stephanie Relfe has produced this one, which points out that “[t]he universe is a hologram. Everything is connected on an energy level with everything else.” Therefore the Law of Attraction. She also provides relationship advice: “Relationship troubles may be caused by commands inserted into the brain during alien or military abduction” – and treatises on mind control in films and computer games.

Stephanie also has some psychic abilities: “My psychic alter is very powerful and deadly. I found that out, quite by chance, in February, 2002. I decided to try a mental exercise from the book, ‘The Silva Mind Control Method.’ It consisted of counting backwards while looking upward behind my closed eyelids at a 20-degree angle. For some reason, this position of the eyes automatically produces an Alpha state in the brain. (I find it interesting that the posters and pictures of Harry Potter depict him with this eye position. Does the shadow government want today’s children to be in Alpha most of the time? *Parents, please take note and take action.) […] This incident has totally convinced me that my psychic alter and killer alter do exist; logically if these parts of me exist, then the other parts must exist as well. If the other parts exist, then, logically, something had to have happened to me to create them.” I don’t think “logically” is the right word here, but what do I know?

They have furthermore produced two books of Mars Records, available for free. The first describes “[b]iofeedback meter sessions where a man regained hidden memories of military service on Mars, Time Travel, Killing with Remote Viewing, Mind Control, and Military and Alien abductions.” In the second you can “[l]earn how YOU can stop military & alien abduction, and radionic attack! Plus learn the kinesiology Wernicke’s Correction.” Have fun.

Michael & Debi Pearl

Michael Pearl a Christian fundamentalist pastor, missionary, and evangelist. His day job is to run the No Greater Joy organization, but he is most famous for his, shall we say, controversial book To Train Up A Child written with his wife Debi. The Pearls claim to have sold 670,000 copies of that one, though the Nielsen BookScan records only 9,579 sales since 2001. Given the contents of the book one would hope the Nielsen numbers are more accurate.

To Train Up A Child is, simply put, a handbook in child abuse in which the Pearls book advises parents to use objects like a quarter-inch plumbing tube to spank children and “break their will,” as well as to subject them to other forms of torture (such as putting children under a cold garden hose and advice that “a little fasting is good training”) to ensure that they succumb to Jesus. The book has been linked to at least three child deaths, but according to the Pearls it is apparently a good way of teaching children arithmentics: “I have told a child I was going to give him 10 licks. I count out loud as I go … Pretending to forget the count, I would again stop at about eight and ask him the number. Have him subtract eight from ten, (a little homeschooling) and continue with the final two licks.”

The book claims to espouse “simple, Biblical principles.” In their own words: “If you are just beginning to attempt to control an already rebellious child who runs from discipline and is too incoherent to listen, then use whatever force is necessary to bring him to bay. If you have to sit on him to spank him then do not hesitate. And hold him there until he is surrendered. Prove that you are bigger, tougher, more patiently enduring, and are unmoved by his wailing. Defeat him totally. Accept no conditions for surrender. No compromise. You are to rule over him as a benevolent sovereign. Your word is final.” It’s really an epic battle of the wills, like Jesus against Satan. Carri Williams, home-schooling mother of one of the children who died, claimed that her daughter rebelled herself to death.At least the Pearls have some empathy for parents who don’t follow their ways, comparing such parents to Holocaust victims on the way to the concentration camp, and the toddlers their deranged concentration camp abusers, or something (the medical and civil authorities, on the other hand, are consistently referred to as “the Gestapo”)

Part of the purpose is to keep the child away from the New World Order: “If you want a child who will integrate into the New World Order and wait his turn in line for condoms, a government funded abortion, sexually transmitted disease treatment, psychological evaluation and a mark on the forehead, then follow the popular guidelines in education, entertainment and discipline, but if you want a son or daughter of God, you will have to do it my God’s way.”

Doreen Virtue

Doreen Virtue is a Hay House guru and practitioner of Angel Therapy, and is as such one of only a few people that can “see” and “communicate” with angels, including the guardian angels that watch out over all of us – yes, it’s similar to the same kind of bullcrap pushed, famously, by princess Märtha of Norway, who appears to be a fan – but whereas Märtha tries to teach you how to get in contact with angels yourself Virtue talks to them on your behalf. For a reasonable fee, of course. And they really can help you. Once angels saved Virtue’s life when armed robbers tried to steal her car by telling her to scream, and she screamed. They also help find her a parking place when she is in a hurry.

According to her bio Virtue was a natural clairvoyant even as a child, “seeing and conversing with what many people call ‘invisible friends’ (which are really angels and deceased loved ones).” I am not completely sure that this needs further commentary, but the seemingly desperate attempt at rationalization evinced by the parenthesis is rather telling. Currently she usually refers to herself as “Doctor Virtue”, but her “PhD” is from California Coast University, an absolutely legendarily shoddy diploma mill, whose diplomas are worth precisely as much as your other regular spam.

Numerology

Virtue is also longtime student of numerology – very longtime, as she did, during a past life, study under Pythagoras himself. Numbers have special significance or vibrations or something, and numbers you see on clocks, license plates and the like are really messages from angels (“’Why do I always see the numbers 444 (or 111, 333, etc.) everywhere I go?’ is one of the most frequently asked questions that Doreen Virtue receives at her worldwide workshops”). Angels arrange for specific number sequences to appear around us or subtly “whisper in” our “ear” so we notice particular numbers, and if we keep noticing the same number sequences, it is because the angels are giving us a message through those numbers (not confirmation bias). But here is the clincher: We cannot interpret these messages unless Virtue shows us how, and she does this in the books you can buy (she’s written a stunning shitload of them) – she covered some numbers in Healing with Angels, but Angel Numbers provides an interpretation of more complex number sequences;” that “new book focuses on numbers such as 123, 337, 885, and so on.” She also has a special “Angel Number Calculator” for identifying your personal angel number. Dimly aware of potential conflicts between various forms of bullshit, she does have an FAQ showing how her nonsense is Christianity compatible.

According to Virtue, we’re all also alchemists, though it is not entirely clear what that is supposed to mean.

Healing

Apparently there is occasionally friction between the path that our guardian angel wants us to walk and the path we want to walk, and that manifests itself in a range of psychological and physical illnesses. And of course, Virtue can help “heal” the rift between you and your guardian angel, though the price is pretty steep. Fortunately, there are other “certified spiritual councilors” (CSC) and “angel therapy practitioners” (ATP) who have been certified by the American Board of Hypnotherapy – which is headed by Virtue. And yes, you can take courses and become a certified therapist, too. If you are really fortunate, perhaps you can get a session with Susan Stevenson, a hypnotherapist who practices past life regression therapy and sees angels absolutely everywhere.

Indigo children and their ken

We have mentioned indigo children and crystal children before, and Virtue is excited about them. So excited, in fact, that she has come up with her own designation, “rainbow children.” Since humans evolved from what Virtue calls “ape-like postures,” crystal children prove humanity can evolve further. “Evolution” here means not evolution, though, since it is God who is sending these various children as a gift to us. Like the indigos and crystals, the rainbows are highly sensitive and psychic, and often diagnosed as autistic, but they are really just communicating telepathically instead of using ordinary means. The spirit world told Virtue remarkable things about all these wonderful children while she was asleep, and she consequently published a lucrative, spiritually-informed book about them.

Her current husband, Steven Farmer, fancies himself a shaman of some sort and calls himself an expert in “power animals.” He also tends to refer to himself as “Doctor Farmer”, and his PhD is from Madison University, an unaccredited diploma mill located in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Anna & Don Warrick

Anna and Don Warrick are the leaders of the fundamentalist ministry Cadets for Christ, which operates (or at least used to operate) at the Air Force Academy. Some suggest “cult” is a more appropriate term – their tactics are at least cult-like, and includes brainwashing techniques and separating victims from their families or any other factors that could potentially interfere with their mission. The ministry is part of the “shepherding” movement, where females are “sheep” and males “shepherds,” and a woman’s sole purpose in life is to be a good wife and mother, subordinating herself to her male shepherd. No, seriously – take a look at this. One of the Warricks’ main goals is accordingly to prevent women from pursuing careers in the Air Force. Other than that, it is surprisingly hard to find any reliable information about the group.

Bob Silverstein

A.k.a. Ahmen Heaven

A.k.a. Goodman Livingwell

His aliases (invented by himself) are dead giveaways (unless he’s an elaborate poe), and Bob Silverstein delivers crazy in abundance. Here, for instance, he advises you to “stop eating” (yes, Silverstein is an advocate of inedia) “…because fasting and elimination are more important – and more worthy …than eating!” It is backed up by some unrelated Bible verses and celebrity quotes, and Silverstein’s own testimonial (“I keep telling my family and friends how good it feels to have an empty stomach […] There’s even a feeling of renewed strength and energy, which is an empirical observation that most people experience after a good bowel movement.” Which is, you know, rather irrelevant. Indeed, he advocates breatharianism, and apparently views Wiley Brooks as a great prophet. Those who have ever visited his website should have some idea of what levels of crazy this implies.

On the other hand, Silverstein also advocates the “Jesus’s diet! For your sins”, so who knows. His section “Urine – The Fountain of Youth!” needs little comment (Silverstein calls himself “naturopathic urine therapist”), and he is not the only one of those out there). Here is a list of bumper stickers he’d “like to see”.

Greenland’s ice melt accelerating as surface darkens, raising sea levels

Winnowing away of the ice, ecacerbated by soot blown on to the ice from wildfired, means Greenland’s ice sheet is stuck in a ‘feedback loop

March 3, 2016

by Oliver Milman

The Guardian

Greenland’s vast ice sheet is in the grip of a dramatic “feedback loop” where the surface has been getting darker and less reflective of the sun, helping accelerate the melting of ice and fuelling sea level rises, new research has found.

The snowy surface of Greenland started becoming significantly less reflective of solar radiation from around 1996, the analysis found, with the ice absorbing 2% more solar energy per decade from this point. At the same time, summer near-surface temperatures in Greenland have increased at a rate of around 0.74C per decade, causing the ice to melt.

This winnowing away of the ice, exacerbated by soot blown on to the ice from wildfires, means that Greenland’s ice is stuck in what is known as a “feedback loop” that will make it ever more vulnerable to warming global temperatures. The study predicts that the ice surface reflectivity, or albedo, will drop by 10% or more by the end of the century, which will trigger further melting.

It’s melting cannibalism, basically – it’s melting that’s feeding itself,” said lead author Marco Tedesco, of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “Rising temperatures are promoting more melting, and that melting is reducing albedo, which in turn is increasing melting.

It’s worrying because if the ice sheet continues to get darker, it becomes more sensitive to atmospheric warming. The impact of two weeks of sunshine with no clouds, for example, is far greater than it was 20 years ago. The ice is going to melt much more quickly, with more water flowing off on to the sea.”

In recent years, scientists have began to pick apart the complex, interrelated forces at play in the Arctic, which has experienced a 13.4% drop in minimum ice extent per decade, on average, since the 1980s. More than half of the Greenland ice sheet melted last summer, the largest annual melt since 2012 and well beyond the average melting seen over the past 35 years.

Tedesco’s research shows that as the surface of Greenland’s ice melts, old impurities, such as dust from erosion or soot that has been entombed for years, start to appear, darkening the surface.

If the summer is warm enough to remove all the snow, these dark impurities begin to spread across the surface, providing a far more heat-absorbent environment. At the same time, as this snow melts and then refreezes, the grains of snow get larger. These larger grains, invisible to the eye but detected by satellite’s infrared instruments, also create a less reflective surface.

These two processes are turning Greenland into a store, rather than a reflector, of solar energy, with consequences far beyond the icy wilderness. Water from the melting flows into the sea, contributing to rising oceans around the world. This process is unlikely to reverse given the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

As warming continues, the feedback from declining albedo will add up,” Tedesco said. “It’s a train running downhill, and the hill is getting steeper.”

The research, published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere, looked at satellite data from 1981 to 2012. The drop in reflectivity from 1996 was probably due to a change in atmospheric circulation that favoured warmer, moist air from the south. The scientists found there was no significant increase in soot from forest fires since 1997 to explain the darkening of the surface.

This article was amended on 3 March 2016. An earlier version referred to the European Geophysical Union, instead of the European Geosciences Union.

Home ‘flipping’ exceeds peaks in some hot U.S. housing markets

March 3, 2016

by Edward Krudy

Reuters

New York-Home flipping – buying and reselling a home to make a quick buck – has risen in some hot U.S. housing markets, prompting concerns that local housing bubbles could be developing, according to a report published on Thursday.

The report by RealtyTrac found that home flipping in 12 active metropolitan areas last year was above a peak set in 2005, just two years before the U.S. mortgage market started to collapse, leading to a banking crisis and the Great Recession.

Profits generated by home flipping also hit a 10-year high, with home flippers netting an average $55,000 per sale before renovation and transaction costs. Profits topped $100,000 in expensive markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

There were also indications smaller investors were starting to pile in on the action. The number of home flippers rose to levels not seen since 2007, while the number of home flips per individual investor fell at the same time.

“When home flipping numbers go up, it is usually an indication that the housing market is in trouble,” said Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate, who was quoted in the report.

“These sales artificially inflate home prices, making housing even less affordable for buyers and increasing the risk of a bubble,” said Gardener.

Nearly 20 percent more homes were flipped than in 2005 in Pittsburgh and Memphis. Home flipping was above 2005 levels in Buffalo, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Cleveland, and San Diego. Seattle and San Diego, however, saw a decrease from 2014 levels.

Three metro areas in Florida, a housing market that has been prone to overheating, saw the largest increase in home flips. Lakeland, Jacksonville, and Homosassa Springs all saw home flips rise 40 percent to 50 percent.

The Miami metro area had the most homes flipped of any market nationwide. In 2015, 10,658 were flipped in Miami, representing 8.6 percent of all Miami-area sales for the year and up 4 percent as a share of all sales from 2014.

The report defines a home flip as any transaction that occurred on the same property twice within 12 months. It surveyed 110 U.S. metro areas.

Home flipping grew nationally as 179,778 homes were flipped last year, the highest level since 2007. The number, however, was well under the 2005 peak of 259,192. The share of flipped homes edged up to 5.5 percent of sales from 5.3 percent in 2014.

(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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