
Tim Price
@timfprice
Mar 30
They are ALL going down.

Iran has suffered immensely from the virus, Stone noted in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News, but due to US sanctions the Islamic Republic is “reportedly the only country in the world that cannot buy medicines needed to fight the pandemic.”
The outspoken Hollywood legend similarly condemned Washington’s decision to maintain – and in some cases, increase – its economic chokeholds on countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as coronavirus strains healthcare systems across the globe.
In the case of Venezuela, US “coercion” led to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) denying the South American state’s request for a $5 billion loan to help fight the pandemic, Stone contended. The US has ratcheted up its pressure on Caracas amid the global health crisis, accusing the government of drug trafficking and calling for a “transition government” to replace President Nicolas Maduro.
The award-winning filmmaker and activist said that the health crisis has shown the inhumanity of Washington’s foreign policy.
The current pandemic is exposing not only our government’s utter failures to protect its own citizens, but also its profound lack of human decency in dealing with other nations
Stone called for “serious moral self-reflection” in the US, warning that countless lives were at risk unless there is an “immediate change in course.”
Iran has registered nearly 3,500 Covid-19 deaths, with 19,700 confirmed cases, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University. President Hassan Rouhani said last week that the crisis is “a great opportunity for Americans to apologize… and to lift the unjust and unfair sanctions on Iran.”
06.07.2019
Something spoken of only in whispers is talk of a military coup in Washington. Few are aware of the factions in America’s military such as “Dominionists” who run the Air Force or did until former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman JCOS Marty Dempsey “eliminated them.”
You see, since the 1980s, religious extremism took root in America’s service academies and today’s most senior Pentagon brass is deeply infiltrated with members of an apocalypse cult that took root in America’s South during the 1930s, now thinly disguised as “Evangelical Christianity.”
Though most at the head of this movement are simply charlatans and deceivers, among their number are some who could accurately be described as psychopaths, a term that a number of medical professionals have applied to Donald Trump.
The issue of Trump is more complicated than many would have it, with power bases inside the US that few if any ever see manipulating Trump, playing on his fears and grandiosity. Trump well recognized that the CIA could not be trusted and turned to the conspiracy media, perhaps not recognizing that it too was under the control of intelligence agency factions, though not necessarily American in origin.
America has not been made “great” again, no parade can undo the blithering, the incompetence, the embarrassing idiocy and the generous dose of insanity that now is the American “brand.”
To succinctly describe the point, we turn to America’s most defining July 4th event, the year is 1863, the place is Gettysburg, a town in Pennsylvania, where a battle ensued that made the world we know today. Here, a fictional quote attributed to General Longstreet, one of General Lee’s corps commanders:
“Southern women like their men religious and a little mad.”
― Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
Let’s go back to the Bush 43 presidency and an incident pushed from the history books, now veiled in lies or simply censored out of existence. Lies are the norm in America, the USS Liberty, the Tonkin Gulf, the search for imaginary WMDs or the equally imaginary “underground terror cities” former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said existed “in dozens” across Afghanistan.
Today, we think “Skripal” or “MH17.” No lie is too big. Thus, we are drawn to the summer of 2007 when an engineered try for Armageddon nearly succeeded.
On August 29, 2007, in an America at war with the world under neocon rule, an America deeply influenced by a Washington awash with Southern men, very religious and more than a bit mad, an incident now forgotten, occurred.
A B 52 aircraft, loaded with 6 AGM cruise missiles, each tipped with a 150-kiloton thermonuclear warhead, simply disappeared. It had taken off from Minot AFB in North Dakota, a base that also commanded much of America’s ICBM strike capability as well.
It was next spotted over Puerto Rico, heading for the Middle East, and sources tell us the eventual target was Iran.
The plane was intercepted by F15’s and turned back, landing at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
Eventually, in response, all nuclear missile crews were replaced and all nuclear authority for the entire United States Air Force was removed and placed under the US Army. Those involved, some were “retired,” others demoted, transferred, some charged with crimes like fraud or sexual assault. Others died in accidents or killed themselves, or so we are told.
Under Donald Trump and John Bolton, a war within the military command structure is now underway as presidential orders to use nuclear weapons against Syria and Iran have been countermanded by the military. Reports that “Trump changed his mind” are false.
July 4, 2019, America celebrates its independence. Along America’s borders, as the public is seeing in the endless photographs hitting the media, families with small children are piled into cages, fed garbage, taunted and abused, not a few people but thousands. We call this tyranny. Those who allow this are evil.
Some time ago, however, those who do such things, medical professionals intended to cure or those of us trained in “profiling,” created a methodology for expression of paradigm, a tool of analysis of what we call the “spectrum of social psychopathy.
In the business of intelligence and forecasting, such tools were applied to leaders. Which ones are crazy? How can we force this or that leader to self-destruct, using the controlled press, false flag terrorism, sanctions or even covert administration of psychotropic drugs. The few interested in such things, often self-proclaimed watchdogs, know of MK Ultra or Operation Northwoods, two names of hundreds of such endeavours.
At the heart of the problem is the nature of those who see themselves as leaders. Truth be told, no natural leader would choose American politics or even the military where “sucking up” and “selling out” is the only path to succeed. There have been exceptions, like George Patton or John Kennedy, but wait, weren’t they both murdered?
Natural leaders coach sports teams, some excel in commercial ventures. More likely, however, they will remain unseen and unknown. Perhaps there is no one worth leading and no place worth leading anyone to anymore.
This brings to mind the term Colonel David Hackworth used to describe America’s military leadership, “the perfumed princes of the Pentagon,” their chests bestrewn with medals and award for honors achieved at cocktail parties.
Crazy is as Crazy Does
As we have set things forth here, we then turn to behavioral analysis, the pseudoscience of predicting the future based on analysis of the unstable and incompetent and their actions when faced with chaos.
The toolsets used by such individuals, and I assure you there are detailed profiles out there, endless millions spent compiling them, blind rage, guesswork, blaming others, pathological deception and, as we see in Trump, likely early stage dementia.
Who are the “crazies?”
There are some notoriously sane leaders out there, Putin for one, Netanyahu for another. Many won’t like what they do or say but they aren’t insane.
Theresa May, Boris Johnson, certainly no overt signs of personality disorder but analysis of their historical reactions to issues yields a very different answer.
In the US, we find fertile ground, even Donald Trump cites Bolton and Pompeo as delusional.
With Bush 43 there were factors of substance abuse and a private life rumored to be very much at odds with his espoused values, this and extremely limited ability.
As for Trump, despite his endless efforts to prove himself unstable every time he speaks, his moments of clarity, his attacks on the press, the CIA and obvious inequities in the world’s economic system, are among the few accurate statements ever to come out of Washington.
Those who would have him turn to the “real leaders” instead of his son in law and daughter are themselves obviously insane.
“You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.” Harry S Truman
Conclusion
Would the military overthrow Trump to prevent a war with Iran that all military experts around the world agree that America would lose? Who gains if America is pushed into obscurity, Russia, China or even Israel?
America’s fragile economy, ever accelerating levels of debt, declining standard of living, rising taxes, internal strife, this is not a nation capable of a ground conflict in the Middle East with a nation whose military is a thousand times stronger than Iraq was in 2003.
Yet there are even those in America who would see their own nation laid low, stripped bare. There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded predator, in this case, a nation in collapse with a massive arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons.
These are the “mad” we speak of, they infect Washington like a virus and no institution remains that can stand against them, perhaps a “cult of sanity” in the military that none have seen or can prove exists?
To what extent do Putin and Netanyahu influence Trump? Neither are guided by love of America and little is known of their vision of a world with America “on the ropes.”
The fear many Americans have is that a powerful America may well not be such a good thing, that whatever “Americans” are, the control of America long ago fell under what is now termed the Deep State.
Past this is the real “wild card,” the madness that manifests itself each day wherever we turn.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
False hope breeds crippling apathy – This is what I have to think to myself when I see the news media fervor over the second arrest of billionaire Jefferey Epstein, or similar events which in most cases end up fading into the background and forgotten. The public’s favorite distraction has always been to watch high profile people kicked out of their castles in the clouds, but I would point out that even when the globalists sacrifice one of their own in the public eye it is usually only to satiate the masses and their hunger for justice for a very short time. The system is not designed to root out evil; it is designed to obscure and perpetuate evil.
Epstein is a perfect example of this. He was already prosecuted on pedophilia charges over 12 years ago and received a “sweetheart” plea deal which allowed him to serve a mere 13 month sentence. How many child rapists get that kind of treatment in our court system? And what about the vast array of people (including political leaders) that were close friends and associates with Epstein during his “Lolita Express” days? Are we really to believe they knew nothing about what was going on? That they visited his island and never saw any wrongdoing?
Why didn’t they come forward immediately? Why did they wait until Epstein was already being prosecuted before they publicly admonished him? Is it because they were involved in the same activities? And if so, why have they not been prosecuted as well?
My point is, people should lower their expectations that justice will be served or that the “dominoes will fall” in the Epstein case. Also, keep in mind that James Comey’s daughter, Maureen Comey, will be on the prosecution team in the case, AND , Donald Trump’s Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, is the same man who brokered Epstein’s immunity deal. Like strands of malignant cancer, these people are wrapped around every facet of government.
But this is not just about Epstein, and as much as I would also like to see the guy hang for his crimes, I have to admit that this latest event is probably nothing more than another piece of theater meant to give the public false hope that the system is changing and that elitist criminals will be treated the same as any other criminal. How often does this ever happen?
How about the Bernie Madoff scandal? Madoff runs a Ponzi scheme that devoured $65 billion in client funds and he is sentenced to 150 years in prison, but JP Morgan, the bank that HELPED Madoff move his stolen money, got nothing more than a fine.
In the wake of the 2008 credit crash and the exposure of the fraudulent derivatives market, many people thought banker heads were going to roll, yet in the US only one banker, a little known executive at Credit Suisse named Kareem Sarageldin, actually served jail time. After admitting to fraud and inflating bond prices associated with mortgage backed securities, Sarageldin was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The Financial Times went on to publish an article in 2018 on this matter, claiming they would “dispel the myth that no one was held accountable for the derivatives crash”. They came up with a list of 47 names. The article went on to admit that the vast majority of bankers arrested were in Iceland (where the prisons are like country clubs). The rest came primarily from low level banks or were mid-level employees. The number of CEO’s on the list is decidedly slim, and banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, the biggest perpetrators of derivatives fraud, are decidedly absent.
The base argument for these types of articles is in itself a kind of fraud. I don’t think that most people assume that “no one” was prosecuted over the fraud that helped create the crash of 2008, a crash the economy is still suffering from. I think that most people assume none of the elites at the top of the pyramid were prosecuted, and perhaps with the exception of former IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato in Spain who was only charged with credit card fraud, this assumption is a correct one.
The most egregious criminals are rarely ever touched by scandal or jail time because they stand in key positions within our system. You will never see central bankers in the Federal Reserve suffer punishment for consistently and deliberately fueling economic bubbles through artificially low interest rates and stimulus measures. You will never see them prosecuted for deliberately imploding these bubbles with perfectly timed liquidity tightening and interest rate hikes into economic weakness.
In fact, just this week Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told the Financial Services Committee that if Trump tried to fire him, he would simply ignore him and remain in his position for the full term. It is rather odd to me that almost no one in the alternative media covered his statement, perhaps because it runs contrary to the latest narrative that Powell is “afraid of Trump” and that Trump now has control of the Fed. This is nonsense. Even Trump’s own acting Chief of Staff noted that Trump “knows he does not have the authority to fire Powell”.
People who think the President chooses the Fed Chairman do not understand how the system actually works. The Fed board controls who the Chair is, and can simply vote to put whoever they wish in the position regardless of what the President does, according to Bill English, a former FOMC secretary and advisor to the Board. This means that Trump’s “choice” of Fed Chair is merely ceremonial. Trump has no power whatsoever over the central bank.
So why does this delusion persist? Again, because people become addicted to false hope. The banking elites will never be punished by the system they control. They would have to be punished by other means.
You will never see IMF heads punished for loan sharking nations into oblivion. Hell, the Bank for International Settlements laundered money for the Nazis and yet they were never punished and still exist to this day! The president of the BIS at the time, Thomas McKittrick, never faced prosecution after the war, went on to work for Chase Manhattan bank, and received a pleasant eulogy from The New York Times after his death in 1970, even though the New York Times also reported on admissions from the BIS that they had helped the Nazis.
Some might argue that this trend of one law for the people and no law for the money elite will finally change under Donald Trump’s presidency, but I find that sentiment to be highly naive. First and foremost, Trump is far too close the money elite to punish them, even if he wanted to. His extensive associations with Rothschild banking agent Wilber Ross, the man who bailed Trump out of his considerable debts in his Atlantic City casino project in the 1990s and who is now Commerce Secretary in Trump’s cabinet, sets a tone for Trump’s presidency that is NOT anti-banker or anti-globalist.
It should be clear to most people now that there will be no “draining of the swamp”, not even from the White House. Trump’s promises to seek prosecution of the Clintons for their criminal activities, which include mishandling of classified data, fraud, and a host of other repulsive behaviors, have fallen flat. Trump’s campaign position to hold the Federal Reserve accountable for the historic bubble they have inflated in stock markets through low interest rates and stimulus is gone. Now Trump takes credit for the bubble as if it is a good thing, and is demanding even more stimulus from the Fed.
And yet, there are still people out there that imagine this is all part of some elaborate ruse on Trump’s part; that he is playing a game of “4D Chess” with the globalists. I believe this insane delusion stems from a singular psychological malfunction that is suffered by many people – the idea that the system, no matter how corrupt, can be fixed from the inside.
Leftists believe this. Many conservatives believe this. Despite all evidence to the contrary, people WANT to imagine a world in which evil can be defeated if only the right people are put in place within the system. If they vote the right way, if they support the right party, if they rally around the right investigation, if they protest peacefully on the steps of Congress or on Wall Street, then the system will be forced to expel the evil and serve the populace once again.
I usually equate our current governmental framework to the “One Ring” from Lord Of The Rings, and I still think there is no better analogy. The core problem is that the system is not only run by corrupt people, it has also been built by them. The system as it stands today is a corruption machine that manufactures evil. Adding good people to an evil machine is not going to stop it. And, as with the One Ring, the people who think they can use an evil machine for good purposes often end up corrupted themselves. You cannot change it, you cannot exploit it for good, you can only destroy it.
In other words, conservatives in the liberty movement in particular need to throw out their illusions that the globalists will be defeated using the very systems the globalists created to serve their interests. And if you cannot change a corrupt system from the inside, then it must be dismantled from the outside and rebuilt from scratch. A constitutional framework and the Bill Of Rights can help in this effort, but these are laws on paper that cannot defend themselves. Without fierce vigilance on the part of the citizenry, laws and rights can be erased.
You will not hear the mainstream media or even much of the alternative media talk about the real solutions to elitist criminality or government corruption. You won’t hear about these solutions because they are hard; they require struggle and sacrifice. Voting is easy, which is why it does not work. Legislation is easy, which is why it does not work. And, protesting with signs on a street corner is easy, and it might spread the word on an issue, but ultimately it does not work. The corruption remains.
There are two options left; first, walk away peacefully from the system and build one that works on your own or with others of like-mind. If you are successful, then expect the corrupt system and the elites behind it to try and stop you. Second, when this happens, the only option left is to fight back and remove the threat. This is where we are inevitably headed, not because we want it, but because they will force the issue.
We can no longer deceive ourselves with notions of absorbing Washington D.C. or Wall Street and making them work for us. The hope that this is possible is poison, and the elites use that poison to weaken public resolve. While we sit around waiting for the system to police itself the Earth turns and they become more powerful. Without a dramatic change in our own strategy, without direct action on our part instead of action through political middlemen, I predict our situation will only become worse.
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Conjuring the Spirit of Columbo Against the High-Functioning, Sociopathic 1%
With permission from
JULY 11, 2019
I celebrate the late, great Peter Falk for his legendary “populist” characterization of Lt. Columbo, relentless nemesis to the Gucci’d “above the law” types who tried to use power and money to cavalierly escape responsibility for profound crimes against humankind.
I celebrate the Columbo TV series’ enactments of takedowns of the down-and-dirty high-and-mighties, since we are now seriously in the Season (or maybe we should call it Age) of the “High Functioning Sociopath” (so defiantly in your face during the Bush and Obama eras (let’s acknowledge bipartisan amorality) and now reaching epic dimensions in the ethical freakshow of Trump).
Our economy captured by them, our quality of life and that of our children and their children, etc., drastically diminished by them, our planet doomed by them, large masses of our global family killed, maimed and/or displaced by them and their “profits over human welfare” gratuitous and profound violent evil and all perpetrated with seemingly little legal, economic and even reputational consequence, thanks to crony capitalism and its post-morality, mis-informing and/or un-informing, conscience beveling, corporate media.
Maybe the only comfort we of awakened consciences and minds can glean is from a spiritual speculation of the risks to their immortal souls?
I confess, I find myself praying more and more not so much for the existence of a heaven, but a horrendous hell for the obscenely wealthy and obscenely criminal rat bastards of the universe.
We desperately need populist heroes, in real life and in art! We need them from past, present and future dimensions.
In the Columbo shows, you might remember how the amoral and murdering monsters did their best to finesse their way out of unspeakable, ends-justifies-any-means deeds. However, Columbo was like the proverbial terrier with a bone. We as viewers enjoyed the ultimate justice, the comeuppance of the smug, mendacious, callous, deadly and always privileged villains by show’s end.
Columbo wasn’t ever dazzled and conned by the money, the power or the fame of the sociopathic gamesman or gameswoman. He would sniff out their guilt early on and hover, hover, hover, question, question, question and then, that “just one more thing,” crime-cracking question.
What was such a kick was watching the elite’s preliminary dismissal of Columbo as a non-threatening, crass, working class, in-way-over-his-head, amiable schlub change to a begrudging respect and fear as the high-functioning sociopath realizes his or her ingenious, perfect-crime blueprint was not Columbo-proof.
Falk’s character counterpointed the moral shamelessness of the guilty, upscale criminal with his own, endearing shamelessness at being a non-rich, working class Joe, clunkily invading golden-gated communities to uphold justice.
Columbo would at times awkwardly gush over the opulence, the fame, the power he would stumble upon, while at the same time asserting pride over the satisfying symbols of his world — that clunker of a car, a hearty bowl of chili, or even a good deal on a less than $20 pair of shoes.
Columbo felt comfortable and entitled showing up anywhere despite, as one character declared, “looking like an unmade bed.” He was a “substance” not style kinda guy. (“Substance over style,” imagine that, Barack?)
Columbo’s ever-present and ridiculous for southern California raincoat, the ever-nursed “would you mind not smoking that here” cigar and a never-present gun!
God bless you, Peter Falk. I can use the catharsis from still seeing your Columbo give it to the smug, mendacious rat bastards, even if it is all on a small DVD or YouTube screen. Hail to your inspiring role-modeling of a strong and indomitable moral will, mischievous sense of humor and ever-dazzling display of connect-the-dots intelligence.
***
I would love to let loose a herd of us Columbo “channelers” on our millionaire/billionaire controlled Congress, courts, executive branch, and corporate gangster puppeteers with their sell out media hacks. Plain-speaking, citizen activists — people with humble life styles and a basic Golden Rule moral sensibility. People to help make that desperately needed paradigm shift from a US government of patriarchy to one of humanism. From might makes right, competition, win/lose violent engagements, profits over people killer gamesmanship to a social contract founded on humanism reflecting partnership, cooperation, win/win conflict resolution, empathy, and the manifestation of a collective soul and conscience rather than a xenophobic collective ego.
Alas, I gotta say, those are BIG, less than twenty dollar Columbo shoes to fill by those of us willing to exercise our consciences and courage.
Consider what we have to lose if we don’t take on such a fight, however.
EVERYTHING!
John W. Whitehead, Rutherford
“As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensating to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty or conquered territories) will do well to encourage that freedom.”—Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Power corrupts.
Anyone who believes differently hasn’t been paying attention.
Politics, religion, sports, government, entertainment, business, armed forces: it doesn’t matter what arena you’re talking about, they are all riddled with the kind of seedy, sleazy, decadent, dodgy, depraved, immoral, corrupt behavior that somehow gets a free pass when it involves the wealthy and powerful elite in America.
In this age of partisan politics and a deeply polarized populace, corruption—especially when it involves sexual debauchery, depravity and predatory behavior—has become the great equalizer.
Take Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund billionaire / convicted serial pedophile recently arrested on charges of molesting, raping and sex trafficking dozens of young girls.
It is believed that Epstein operated his own personal sex trafficking ring not only for his personal pleasure but also for the pleasure of his friends and business associates. According to The Washington Post, “several of the young women…say they were offered to the rich and famous as sex partners at Epstein’s parties.” At various times, Epstein ferried his friends about on his private plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”
This is part of America’s seedy underbelly.
As I documented in the in-depth piece I wrote earlier this year, child sex trafficking—the buying and selling of women, young girls and boys for sex, some as young as 9 years old—has become big business in America. It is the fastest growing business in organized crime and the second most-lucrative commodity traded illegally after drugs and guns.
Adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in the United States.
It’s not just young girls who are vulnerable to these predators, either.
According to a 2016 investigative report, “boys make up about 36% of children caught up in the U.S. sex industry (about 60% are female and less than 5% are transgender males and females).”
Who buys a child for sex?
Otherwise ordinary men from all walks of life. “They could be your co-worker, doctor, pastor or spouse,” writes journalist Tim Swarens, who spent more than a year investigating the sex trade in America.
Ordinary men, yes.
But then there are the extra-ordinary men, such as Jeffrey Epstein, who belong to a powerful, wealthy, elite segment of society that operates according to their own rules or, rather, who are allowed to sidestep the rules that are used like a bludgeon on the rest of us.
These men skate free of accountability by taking advantage of a criminal justice system that panders to the powerful, the wealthy and the elite.
Over a decade ago, when Epstein was first charged with raping and molesting young girls, he was gifted a secret plea deal with then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, President Trump’s current Labor Secretary, that allowed him to evade federal charges and be given the equivalent of a slap on the wrist: allowed to “work” at home six days a week before returning to jail to sleep. That secret plea deal has since been ruled illegal by a federal judge.
Yet here’s the thing: Epstein did not act alone.
I refer not only to Epstein’s accomplices, who recruited and groomed the young girls he is accused of raping and molesting, many of them homeless or vulnerable but his circle of influential friends and colleagues that at one time included Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Both Clinton and Trump, renowned womanizers who have also been accused of sexual impropriety by a significant number of women, were at one time passengers on the Lolita Express.
As the Associated Press points out, “The arrest of the billionaire financier on child sex trafficking charges is raising questions about how much his high-powered associates knew about the hedge fund manager’s interactions with underage girls, and whether they turned a blind eye to potentially illegal conduct.”
In fact, a recent decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals allowing a 2,000-page document linked to the Epstein case to be unsealed references allegations of sexual abuse involving “numerous prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known Prime Minister, and other world leaders.”
This is not a minor incident involving minor players.
This is the heart of darkness.
Sex slaves. Sex trafficking. Secret societies. Powerful elites. Government corruption. Judicial cover-ups.
Once again, fact and fiction mirror each other.
Twenty years ago, Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut provided viewing audiences with a sordid glimpse into a secret sex society that indulged the basest urges of its affluent members while preying on vulnerable young women. It is not so different from the real world, where powerful men, insulated from accountability, indulge their base urges.
These secret societies flourish, implied Kubrick, because the rest of us are content to navigate life with our eyes wide shut, in denial about the ugly, obvious truths in our midst.
In so doing, we become accomplices to abusive behavior in our midst.
This is how corruption by the power elite flourishes.
For every Epstein who is—finally—called to account for his illegal sexual exploits after years of being given a free pass by those in power, there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) more in the halls of power and wealth whose predation of those most vulnerable among us continues unabated.
While Epstein’s alleged crimes are heinous enough on their own, he is part of a larger narrative of how a culture of entitlement becomes a cesspool and a breeding ground for despots and predators.
Remember the “DC Madam” who was charged with operating a phone-order sex business? Her clients included thousands of White House officials, lobbyists, and Pentagon, FBI, and IRS employees, as well as prominent lawyers, none of whom were ever exposed or held accountable.
Power corrupts.
Worse, as 19th-century historian Lord Acton concluded, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a politician, an entertainment mogul, a corporate CEO or a police officer: give any one person (or government agency) too much power and allow him or her or it to believe that they are entitled, untouchable and will not be held accountable for their actions, and those powers will eventually be abused.
We’re seeing this dynamic play out every day in communities across America.
A cop shoots an unarmed citizen for no credible reason and gets away with it. A president employs executive orders to sidestep the Constitution and gets away with it. A government agency spies on its citizens’ communications and gets away with it. An entertainment mogul sexually harasses aspiring actresses and gets away with it. The U.S. military bombs a civilian hospital and gets away with it.
Abuse of power—and the ambition-fueled hypocrisy and deliberate disregard for misconduct that make those abuses possible—works the same whether you’re talking about sex crimes, government corruption, or the rule of law.
It’s the same old story all over again: man rises to power, man abuses power abominably, man intimidates and threatens anyone who challenges him with retaliation or worse, and man gets away with it because of a culture of compliance in which no one speaks up because they don’t want to lose their job or their money or their place among the elite.
It’s not just sexual predators that we have to worry about.
For every Jeffrey Epstein (or Bill Clinton or Harvey Weinstein or Roger Ailes or Bill Cosby or Donald Trump) who eventually gets called out for his sexual misbehavior, there are hundreds—thousands—of others in the American police state who are getting away with murder—in many cases, literally—simply because they can.
The cop who shoots the unarmed citizen first and asks questions later might get put on paid leave for a while or take a job with another police department, but that’s just a slap on the wrist. The shootings and SWAT team raids and excessive use of force will continue, because the police unions and the politicians and the courts won’t do a thing to stop it.
The war hawks who are making a profit by waging endless wars abroad, killing innocent civilians in hospitals and schools, and turning the American homeland into a domestic battlefield will continue to do so because neither the president nor the politicians will dare to challenge the military industrial complex.
The National Security Agency that carries out warrantless surveillance on Americans’ internet and phone communications will continue to do so, because the government doesn’t want to relinquish any of its ill-gotten powers and its total control of the populace.
Unless something changes in the way we deal with these ongoing, egregious abuses of power, the predators of the police state will continue to wreak havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives.
Police officers will continue to shoot and kill unarmed citizens. Government agents—including local police—will continue to dress and act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies will continue to fleece taxpayers while eroding our liberties. Government technicians will continue to spy on our emails and phone calls. Government contractors will continue to make a killing by waging endless wars abroad.
And powerful men (and women) will continue to abuse the powers of their office by treating those around them as underlings and second-class citizens who are unworthy of dignity and respect and undeserving of the legal rights and protections that should be afforded to all Americans.
As Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the at the University of California, Berkeley, observed in the Harvard Business Review, “While people usually gain power through traits and actions that advance the interests of others, such as empathy, collaboration, openness, fairness, and sharing; when they start to feel powerful or enjoy a position of privilege, those qualities begin to fade. The powerful are more likely than other people to engage in rude, selfish, and unethical behavior.”
After conducting a series of experiments into the phenomenon of how power corrupts, Keltner concluded: “Just the random assignment of power, and all kinds of mischief ensues, and people will become impulsive. They eat more resources than is their fair share. They take more money. People become more unethical. They think unethical behavior is okay if they engage in it. People are more likely to stereotype. They’re more likely to stop attending to other people carefully.”
Power corrupts.
And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
However, it takes a culture of entitlement and a nation of compliant, willfully ignorant, politically divided citizens to provide the foundations of tyranny.
As researchers Joris Lammers and Adam Galinsky found, those in power not only tend to abuse that power but they also feel entitled to abuse it: “People with power that they think is justified break rules not only because they can get away with it, but also because they feel at some intuitive level that they are entitled to take what they want.”
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, for too long now, Americans have tolerated an oligarchy in which a powerful, elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots. They have paid homage to patriotism while allowing the military-industrial complex to spread death and destruction abroad. And they have turned a blind eye to all manner of wrongdoing when it was politically expedient.
We need to restore the rule of law for all people, no exceptions.
Here’s what the rule of law means in a nutshell: it means that everyone is treated the same under the law, everyone is held equally accountable to abiding by the law, and no one is given a free pass based on their politics, their connections, their wealth, their status or any other bright line test used to confer special treatment on the elite.
This culture of compliance must stop.
The empowerment of petty tyrants and political gods must end.
The state of denial must cease.
Let’s not allow this Epstein sex scandal to become just another blip in the news cycle that goes away all too soon, only to be forgotten when another titillating news headline takes its place.
Sex trafficking, like so many of the evils in our midst, is a cultural disease that is rooted in the American police state’s heart of darkness. It speaks to a far-reaching corruption that stretches from the highest seats of power down to the most hidden corners and relies on our silence and our complicity to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing.
If we want to put an end to these wrongs, we must keep our eyes wide open.
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute, where this article (The Jackboots Are Coming: Mass Arrests, Power Grabs and the Politics of Fear) was originally published. He is the author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State and The Change Manifesto.
**This article (The Heart of Darkness: The Sexual Predators Within America’s Power Elite) was originally published at The Ruthford Institute and is re-posted here with permission.**
Following China’s warning this week that the United States is poised to open “Pandora’s Box” in the Middle East should it escalate military action against Iran, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has weighed in, on Thursday saying any American military strike would have “catastrophic” consequences.
Putin warned further that US attack “would trigger a surge in violence and a possible refugee exodus,” according to Reuters. During an annual televised question and answer session hosted by the Russian leader, he reiterated Moscow’s position that Tehran is in full compliance with its nuclear commitments under the 2015 JCPOA. He also slammed the US-imposed sanctions now choking the Iranian economy as “groundless”.
“I want to say at once that this would be a catastrophe for the region” — Putin said.
Meanwhile, President Trump has been briefed on Thursday morning’s dramatic escalation of an already tense stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz which involved Iran’s alleged shoot down of a US drone near entrance to Persian Gulf.
Reports say it was US Navy high-altitude drone taken out by an Iranian surface-to-air missile directly over Strait of Hormuz in what the US says was international airspace, but which Iran claimed was over its sovereign airspace. US Central Command (CENTCOM) identified the drone as one of its RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft, condemning it as an “unprovoked attack”.
“Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false. This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace,”CENTCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Bill Urban said following the confirmed drone downing.
And now, in a pattern suggesting significant US military build-up will continue in the Persian Gulf following last week’s tanker attack incident, also blamed on Iran, US naval assets have been dispatched to the “drone debris field in international waters” according to a breaking Reuters report.
Meanwhile, war drums beating, here we go…
Can a government of, by and for psychopaths exist when the vast majority of individuals governed by such a group can be said to be relatively normal? Psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski believed that it could, outlined the factors that allow for its functioning, and coined a term for such a social structure: a pathocracy. On this week’s show we will be delving deeper into the workings of pathological groupings – groupings that wield enormous amounts of power both overtly, and covertly, and over populations both large and small.
Hindsight is 20/20 when we look back at the acts of the 20th century’s most notorious and dangerous political movements. But what did those systems anticipate about certain trends we see today? What, if anything, about the psychological health of an individual – or a whole society – can be strengthened to ensure that an oppressive and inhuman power structure doesn’t take the reins completely? And if a bonafide pathocracy has assumed control of a population, how can the mere act of seeing it for what it assists us in dealing with it?
Running Time: 00:58:56
Download: MP3 – 54 MB
Previous instalments in our series on ponerology:
Harrison Koehli co-hosts SOTT Radio Network’s MindMatters, and is an editor for Red Pill Press. He has been interviewed on several North American radio shows about his writings on the study of ponerology. In addition to music and books, Harrison enjoys tobacco and bacon (often at the same time) and dislikes cell phones, vegetables, and fascists (commies too).
Born and raised in New York City, Elan has been an editor for SOTT.net since 2014 and is a co-host for MindMatters. He enjoys seeing and sharing what’s true about our profoundly and rapidly changing world.
Corey Schink was born and raised in the Midwestern United States, where he worked on farms and as a welder, musician, and social worker. His interests in government, philosophy and history led to his writing for SOTT in 2012 and to becoming a SOTT editor and SOTT Radio co-host in 2014. He now resides in North Carolina, where he enjoys the magnificent views of the Appalachian Mountains.
“That judgement by the rest of the world who remain sane and retain basic moral goodness is that the United States is a diabolical rogue regime threatening the existence of the entire planet.”
“…Trump’s re-election hopes for 2020 depend on keeping his evangelical Christian voter base happy-clappy and singing Alleluias all the way to the polling booths.”
“In a recent media interview, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his evangelical Christian beliefs make him view President Trump as a chosen instrument of the almighty. Why?
Because, in Pompeo’s view, Trump is fulfilling an apocalyptic biblical prophesy held by many evangelical Christians. This prophesy contends that Israel will be the scene for Jesus returning to Earth, bringing about Judgement Day and the end of the world, when all “good Christians” like Pompeo will ascend to heaven in glory.”
Source: Apocalypse Now & Loving It! – Sputnik International
sputniknews.com
March 27, 2019
Remember the madcap scene in ‘Apocalypse Now’, the 1979 film by Francis Ford Coppola about American genocidal rampaging in Vietnam? “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”, bellows the psychotic military commander as US choppers strafe and destroy a Vietnamese village.
The same kind of unhinged death-wishing is reminiscent in the Trump administration. President Trump is on an infernal roll and his twisted supporters are loving it.
His military forces are reportedly killing civilians in air strikes simultaneously in four countries — Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen; his officials are openly bragging about fomenting regime change in Venezuela; and now in the latest madcap dash for depredation, Trump is backing the illegal annexation of the Golan Heights captured by Israel 52 years ago in the Six Day War.
And to make all this mayhem even more horrific, Trump’s cabinet and many of his supporters are convinced that he is on a “mission from God”. In a recent media interview, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his evangelical Christian beliefs make him view President Trump as a chosen instrument of the almighty. Why?
Because, in Pompeo’s view, Trump is fulfilling an apocalyptic biblical prophesy held by many evangelical Christians. This prophesy contends that Israel will be the scene for Jesus returning to Earth, bringing about Judgement Day and the end of the world, when all “good Christians” like Pompeo will ascend to heaven in glory.
It’s not just Pompeo who indulges this “vision”. Vice President Mike Pence and several other members of Trump’s White House are reportedly of the same evangelical conviction. They are sometimes referred to Zionist Christians because their vision of divine glory is intertwined with the restoration of the “kingdom of Israel” as in reputed biblical times.
READ MORE: Trump’s Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan Heights Draws Global Anger
That’s why Trump’s fawning over Israel — from the declaration of Jerusalem as its capital, to the ditching of the Iran nuclear accord, to the latest announcement on the Golan Heights — has been cheered on at every step of the way.
The Israeli state is, of course, delighted with Trump’s acquiescence to its every demand — despite what the rest of the world sees as the gross violation of international norms and laws. But, in addition, for the Christian rightwing believers within Trump’s White House, the policy of appeasement towards Israel is literally “God sent” because it is hastening “the end of times”. And Tump himself is thus viewed by these people as an embodiment of “God’s will”. (His alleged paying off of porn stars is a slight problem for their puritanical narrative.)
That’s what makes the present White House a truly frightening entity. It doesn’t just believe in its own self-righteousness — as with many other past US administrations. Team Trump actually want more conflict and mayhem in the name of “Israelite Glory” in order to fulfill their religious fantasies of divine redemption on Earth.This week, Russia and a host of other countries, including all Arab nations, even notably American client regimes like Saudi Arabia, warned that Trump’s unprecedented recognition of Syria’s Golan Heights as Israeli territory will unleash new waves of conflict across the Middle East. But such warnings will mean nothing to the Trump administration because it believes it is on a “mission from God”.
READ MORE: Trump’s Golan Move Brings Mid East a Step Closer to New Conflict — Ex-Diplomat
There are plenty of other mundane explanations for Trump’s kowtowing to Israel without bringing God into the equation. Multi-million-dollar donations from superrich Zionist Jewish-Americans like Sheldon Adelson are part of it. So too are well-documented American oil interests in the Golan Heights. And Trump’s re-election hopes for 2020 depend on keeping his evangelical Christian voter base happy-clappy and singing Alleluias all the way to the polling booths.
The irony is that while US news media and politicians have desperately sought to prove that “Russian collusion” was not an illusion, the stark reality is that the Trump administration has been openly, shamelessly colluding with the foreign state of Israel, pandering to all its despotism against Palestinian rights and warmongering towards Iran.
The US news media and politicians don’t even see that outrageous in-your-face “malign influence” — and the few who do speak out like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar are vilified mercilessly as “anti-Semitic”.
American imperialism has always been a particularly vile global scourge due to its “exceptionalism” and self-righteous propaganda. But the Trump administration has taken the obscenity to new depraved lows. When murdering children around the world with air strikes, starving countries into submission, and blessing the outright theft of foreign land is hailed as “God’s work” then you know there is something apocalyptic in the air. But not the kind of apocalypse that Trump’s Christian zealots cheer as a glorious event.Judgement Day of a kind is already here. Indeed, has been for quite a while. That judgement by the rest of the world who remain sane and retain basic moral goodness is that the United States is a diabolical rogue regime threatening the existence of the entire planet.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik
Now we know. And just wait until the Internet of Things really takes off.
Do you have trouble with your computer? Does is freeze or shut down at the most inopportune times? Does it go haywire suddenly or arbitrarily erase important data for no reason? Does it vomit forth long dead languages in a deep, growling voice? If so, then you may have a serious problem. According to some reports, your computer or even your smartphone may actually be possessed by an evil spirit.
Demonic possession is a very well-documented phenomenon among human beings, and has been for centuries, but what of modern devices such as computers and smartphones? Can these machines serve as some sort of conduit for evil forces? One person who would say yes to that is a Reverend Jim Peasboro, of Savannah, Georgia, in the United States, who has spent a lot of time denouncing how computers are powerful tools of the Devil for corrupting our souls. So far, so standard, but Peasboro goes beyond just using the Devil working through computers as a metaphor for their bad influence on our youth, and rather seems to believe that demonic forces can literally possess computers.
Peasboro has written a whole book on this, called The Devil in the Machine: Is Your Computer Possessed by a Demon?, in which he outlines his belief that possession by demons can be experienced by anything with a mind, including humans, animals, and even the processor of your computer. According to Peasboro, “Any PC built after 1985 has the storage capacity to house an evil spirit,” with storage capacity seeming to make a difference, and he asserts that “one in 10 computers in America now houses some type of evil spirit.” He seems to take this all quite literally, and claims that these malicious spirits are responsible for seeping through our screens to exert their influence, which has led to much of the crime and gun violence among young people seen in the country. As to other effects of these malevolent cyber-demons he says:
I learned that many members of my congregation became in touch with a dark force whenever they used their computers. Decent, happily married family men were drawn irresistibly to pornographic websites and forced to witness unspeakable abominations. Housewives who had never expressed an impure thought were entering Internet chat rooms and found themselves spewing foul, debasing language they would never use normally…One woman wept as she confessed to me, ‘I feel when I’m on the computer as if someone else or something else just takes over.’
Surely this seems like it still must be just talking in metaphor. After all, the Internet can indeed be a scary, lawless badland where terrible people do terrible things, we get that, but Peasboro truly seems to think that it is not just the barrage of impure images and the limitless new opportunities to be exposed to violence and pornography online, but rather actual supernatural demons worming their way into our technology to reach out into us. The most bizarre story he tells is of coming face to face with one of these demons while inspecting a computer that was suspected of being possessed. He would say of the experience:
The program began talking directly to me, openly mocked me. It typed out, ‘Preacher, you are a weakling and your God is a damn liar.’ Then the device went haywire and started printing out what looked like gobbledygook…I later had an expert in dead languages examine the text. It turned out to be a stream of obscenities written in a 2,800-year-old Mesopotamian dialect!
Well, that seems like it’s definitely not your typical computer virus. If your computer starts berating you and spewing forth ancient Mesopotamian, then you probably have a bigger problem than just using Windows 10. You may be thinking about what you can do if that is the case, and Peasboro has the answer for you on that, saying that if you suspect that your computer is possessed by the Devil then all you have to do is consult a clergyman, or if that doesn’t work he says “Technicians can replace the hard drive and reinstall the software, getting rid of the wicked spirit permanently.” Hope you have that warranty handy.
The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn’t Exist.
Don’t just take Paesboro’s word for it all, though. There are some other pretty spooky cases out there that seem to point to real demons actually lashing out and pushing through our computer screens, and one weird account comes from a poster on the site dreamsofdunamis, who says that as she was surfing the net one evening she came across a car ad that was filled with what seemed to be sinister and cryptic Illuminati symbolism. As she scrolled down, she found more creepy symbols and a line of spectral black and white figures, and that at that point she claims to have actually felt a demon physically leap out from the screen and actually pass through her. This is all strange enough as it is, but whatever presence had come through the computer had apparently gone on to prowl around the house, as her son soon came into the room complaining of having been woken up and attacked by some sort of terrifying entity. She said of what happened next:
It sounded just like the black and white ghostly picture that I had just seen on that web page just moments before. The symbols were the same, so I knew it had to have come from that site.
As I apologized to my child, I realized that I may have to stop surfing the web late at night, for I did not want to disturb my kids sleep like this any more.
I shared this with my child, and told him that as soon as I had sensed the demon come through the screen, I cast it out in the name of Jesus, exited the page, and closed up the computer. I was surprised that the demon did not leave once it had been cast out. I was also surprised (and a bit frustrated,) that the demon attacking him was almost instantaneous; there was no pause or time elapse from when it went through my computer screen to when it entered into my child’s bedroom to attack him.
My child then reminded me, that the demon that I had cast out had probably left, but there were numerous demons that could come through just one demonic doorway. And in this case, viewing the photo was the doorway into our house.
She then goes on to speculate that the demon had come through the image on her computer, and that others might have entered her house as well. This caused her to go about praying to cast out any residual demonic forces lurking within the home. As they did this she claims to have heard a startling, loud noise like something wet hitting the floor nearby, and they looked to see a shadowy figure about 4 feet in height and possessing wings, which crouched there for a moment before screaming as if in pain and falling backwards to seemingly phase right through the wall. She goes on to claim that her family has been attacked on several occasions by such supernatural forces coming through their computer screen or even TV. She says of this:
Our first encounter with demons coming out of computer and TV screens, happened several years ago, when one of my kids had clicked on a video that promised the viewer a glimpse of a real alien. We were all sitting there at the kitchen table, with the kids doing their school work, and this one kid had finished early, so as a reward, I told him he could use the computer while he waited for the rest of the kids to finish.
Well, most of the youtube video that he had decided to view, was silent and dark, which caused one to lean in closer to the computer screen, to see if you could see anything. Suddenly, a drawing of an alien’s face flashed upon the screen, and a loud roar came from the speakers, and as everyone there at the table turned to look at the computer screen, a large black ghost-like hook, (reminiscent of Peter Pan’s Captain Hook, but very very black and wraith-like,) reached out through the computer screen and tried to stab itself into my child’s forehead. It glanced off the surface of his skin, and then gave an even louder roar of frustration, once it realized it had failed in its attack. The claw then evaporated back into the computer screen. Laughter was then heard coming from the video, as the perps laughed out loud at their supposed joke.
As you can imagine, we were all left quite shaken, after seeing such a thing. It was a lesson none of us have forgotten!
Negative emotions are food for inimical spirits.
Source: Rudolf Steiner Describes the Hostile Spiritual Beings Who Feed Off Your Fear and Anxiety
Dylan Charles, Editor
Anxiety, depression, and fear ravage so many today, but few pause to consider that in addition to the material influences in our lives, we may be also under the influence of beings which exist in dimensions outside of our ordinary perception.
But there is much more to reality than what we can see. feel, hear, taste and touch. In fact, an accounting of the matter that makes up the universe reveals that some 73% of it is made up of dark energy, and another 23% is made up of dark matter, neither of which can we see, nor understand. Furthermore, the human eye is only capable of seeing around .0035% of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. When we look into the heavens, 96% of it is invisible to us. Include in this the spiritual realms and there is an entire universe of possibilities which exists beyond our five senses.
Very few scientists today are willing to explore metaphysics to examine life beyond ordinary perception in order to make a connection between the seen and the unseen.
Rudolf Steiner, though, one of the most prolific and gifted scientists, philosophers, and esotericists of his time, devoted much of his work to the task of peering behind the veil, sharing his insight into the deeper nature of life and of the world beyond.
Regarding anxiety and depression, Steiner spoke of hostile beings in the spiritual world which influence and feed off of human emotion; a concept flatly rejected by most today. Yet this also analysis holds true for shamans and others who access the spiritual dimensions in order to alleviate mental suffering for their patients.
Many are familiar with the notion of energy vampires, or people who suck your energy and feed off your negative emotions. On the existence of similar entities which exist in other dimensions, Steiner wrote:
“There are beings in the spiritual realms for whom anxiety and fear emanating from human beings offer welcome food. When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve. People not yet sufficiently convinced of this statement could understand it to be meant comparatively only. But for those who are familiar with this phenomenon, it is a reality. If fear and anxiety radiates from people and they break out in panic, then these creatures find welcome nutrition and they become more and more powerful. These beings are hostile towards humanity.
Everything that feeds on negative feelings, on anxiety, fear and superstition, despair or doubt, are in reality hostile forces in supersensible worlds, launching cruel attacks on human beings, while they are being fed. Therefore, it is above all necessary to begin with that the person who enters the spiritual world overcomes fear, feelings of helplessness, despair and anxiety. But these are exactly the feelings that belong to contemporary culture and materialism; because it estranges people from the spiritual world, it is especially suited to evoke hopelessness and fear of the unknown in people, thereby calling up the above mentioned hostile forces against them.” ~Rudolf Steiner
Negative emotions are food for inimical spirits.
A concept such as this isn’t readily accepted into the everyday conversation steered by rigid skepticism and scientific materialism. The traditions of today have sought to expel ancient metaphysical wisdom and its practical application from our lives, and though scientific inquiry is exceptionally valuable, spiritual perception has always been a part of our experience.
“And yet, despite the cynical skepticism, all of the ancient mystery schools, true shamanic insights, and esoteric teachings (much of which have been suppressed and/or distorted over thousands of years for obvious reasons) have conveyed this truth for ‘the ones with eyes to see and ears to hear’, using their own language and symbolism, be it “The General Law” (Esoteric Christianity), Archons (Gnostics), “Lords of Destiny” (Hermeticism), Predator/Fliers – “The topic of all topics” (Shamanism, Castaneda), “The Evil Magician” (Gurdjieff), The Shaitans (Sufism), The Jinn (Arabian mythology), Wetiko (Native American Spirituality), Occult Hostile Forces (Sri Aurobindo & The Mother, The Integral Yoga), etc.” ~Bernhard Guenther
Dealings with extra-sensory or hyper-dimensional beings have long been a part of our history, and are directly accessible to any of us when proper practice and attention is given to the matter. I know this to be true from my experiences with plant medicine shamanism where it is entirely possible to enter into states of consciousness where entire cosmologies of life exist and are available to interact with.
Finding oneself in the rut of spiraling negative self-talk, depression, crippling anxiety, or uncontrollable, irrational fear, is a sign, as Steiner points out, of a disconnection from our true spiritual nature, exacerbated by beings who operate in the spiritual realms. This is why some consider disorders like this to be spiritual illnesses, and until the rift is healed with proper attention given to the development of spirit, the feelings tend to exacerbate and drive one further into distress.
“When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve.” ~Rudolph Steiner
Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and co-host of Redesigning Reality, both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation, societal awakening, and planetary renewal. His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Yoga. After seven years of living in Costa Rica, he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family. He has written hundreds of articles, reaching and inspiring millions of people around the world.
Boycott everything Israeli! Or relocate Israel to Florida!
Hollywood celebrities raised a record breaking $60 million for the Israeli army last week.
(MEMO) — Hollywood celebrities raised a record breaking $60 million for the Israeli military at the Friends of the Israel Defence Forces (FIDF) annual gala last week.
This year’s sold-out Western Region event at the Beverly Hilton Hotel welcomed more than 1,200 supporters of Israel, including prominent actors and singers like Ashton Kutcher, Pharrell Williams, Gerard Butler, and Katharine McPhee.“We are thrilled that so many members of our community, including major Hollywood figures, are coming together to help us support the brave men and women of the [Israeli army].” said FIDF National Board Member and Chairman of the event, Haim Saban. “Standing behind these heroes is one of my greatest honours in my life.”
The event featured a programme that told the 70-year history of Israel through the accounts of soldiers and the military’s various campaigns against the Palestinians.
It also included several contributions from former and current Israeli soldiers.
Last year, FIDF raised $53.8 million at the same event; contributions have been increasing annually for the past three years. In 2015 the gala raised $31 million, half of this year’s total.
According to a press release by the organisation, the funds raised will be used to “provide much-needed and well-deserved services such as academic scholarships to combat veterans, financial assistance for soldiers in need … crucial aid for wounded veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, weeks of rest and recuperation for entire IDF units, as well as educational, cultural, and recreational facilities.”
Last month, the FIDF’s New York event raised $32 million for members of Israel’s occupation forces, attended by many of the city’s most prominent business people and philanthropists.
Among the biggest donors to the gala were Or Lachayal – an organisation which works to “strengthen the Jewish identity of the Israeli army” – which pledged $2.5 million and Nefesh B’Nefesh – which promotes Jewish immigration to Israel – which pledged $1.3 million.
FIDF has a long history of fundraising for Israel’s occupation forces; it operates 20 offices across the United States and Panama, according to its own website.
Support for the army from US organisations and the US government has been a cornerstone of Israel’s ability to continue its ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In October, the largest ever US military aid package to Israel – worth $38 billion over a ten year period – entered into force.
A Debate on Demonic Possession by Darkmoon Commenters
edited by Lasha Darkmoon
These selected comments on exorcism and demonic possession are directed at the sceptics. At least two of our commenters claim to have had personal experiences of the Devil.
ETHAN HUFF (by way of introduction) : An Ivy League-educated psychiatrist is convinced that there’s a growing epidemic of demonic possession in the world today, and that most everyday people now recognize the dark reality of this scary situation.
Dr. Richard Gallagher, who boasts degrees from both Princeton University and Yale University, says that, despite conflicting opinions within mainstream medical science, demonic possession is both real and rampant.
With 25 years of experience under his belt as a private psychiatrist that complements his two teaching positions at both New York Medical College and Columbia University, Dr. Gallagher believes he holds a unique vantage point in discerning between human and non-human, or satanic, behavior.
HP (aka “Homer”) : “They’re very, very smart,” Dr. Gallagher is quoted as saying about the beings that occupy the demonic realm. “The intelligence level of a fallen angel, which is what I call them, is far superior to human beings.”
There are many classes of demons in the Hindu pantheon. Indian sages have been discussing these esoteric matters for millennia. Thus it is written:
“Mother Yasoda was firmly convinced that she should protect her child from different kinds of evil spirits and ghosts: namely Dakinis, Yatudhanis, Kusmandas, Yaksas, Raksasas, Vinayakas, Kotaras, Revatis, Jyesthas, Putanas, Matrkas, Unmadas and similar other evil spirits, who cause persons to forget their own existence and give trouble to the life airs and the senses.
Sometimes they appear in dreams and cause much perturbation; sometimes they appear as old women and suck the blood of small children. But all such ghosts and evil spirits cannot remain where there is chanting of the holy name of God.”
(Krsna Book, Chapter 6, Classes of Demons)
LD : Homer is an American expert on Vedanta and Hindu metaphysics who has been studying this subject for decades. I have known him for many years and regard him as my mentor. While firmly rooted in the great Oriental religions, Homer is deeply sympathetic to Christianity and its fundamental moral precepts. He firmly believes that after his crucifixion, the risen Christ, still bearing his physical wounds, made his way to the Himalayas and settled in Kashmir where he spent the rest of his life teaching and dispensing wisdom.
MADAME BUTTERFLY : Thanks, Homer. Most enlightening! I had no idea there were so many different types of demon. Sitting on the bus and train every day, all I see is the demon-haunted eyes of my fellow passengers.
I wish I had the Magic Sunglasses to see if THEY LIVE! The demon faces behind the human ones.
Sometimes when I look at myself in the mirror, a demon looks back at me and snarls, “Why are you staring at me, bitch?”
It’s scary. I am afraid of looking in mirrors. I haven’t looked at one for six months now. At this rate, I won’t know what I look like soon.
I can’t even remember if I’m beautiful or ugly any more. Guess I’ll have to ask someone. I dread the answer.
HP : Madame B, by the sound of things you see well enough without the glasses. But we knew that…
MADAME BUTTERFLY : Flattery will get you somewhere! 🙂
SARDONICUS : Demons are much more than metaphors for evil people. They inhabit an unseen realm of their own, undetectable by 99.9% of the population. There are high frequency sounds, beyond the reach of the human ear, which can be heard quite distinctly by cats and dogs.
So it is with demons.
They can detected by others, either directly by sight and sound (called “hallucinations” by most psychiatrists and skeptics) or, as in LD’s case, by the sense of smell.
JOHN KIRBY : Mumbo Jumbo!
PAT : A belief in demons would require a belief in witch doctors. I dismiss all of that nonsense!
GILBERT HUNTLY : Pat – like Thomas Beckett said: “We really cannot argue that which will only become known after we expire. Physicals law tells us that for every action, there is a reaction. Likewise, I believe that for there to be Good, there must be Evil.”
How good and evil are manifested is a matter of perception. No one has the same perception of these phenomena. Some people are more “in tune” than others, seeing things that others cannot see.
KENDRA BLEWITT : Lately I have been reading the martyred Nazi philosopher, Rosenberg, who was martyred in that his only crime was his writing, yet he was hanged. According to Rosenberg, belief in demons has come to us from the inferior race and culture of the people of the ancient Near East. I personally find Rosenberg refreshing in many ways.
ARCH STANTON : “All truth can be tested” – Sufi saying
SARDONICUS : LD [Lasha Darkmoon] has had personal experience of demons for many years. Though she prefers not to talk about it, and never has in public, as far as I know.
Demonic possession, she once told me in an email, is exceptionally rare. But there are degrees of demonic possession, ranging from full possession (as in “The Exorcist”), to medium and low possession at the other end of the spectrum. Full possession requires an exorcist for a cure; medium possession, prayer and fasting — “This kind (of demon) cometh not out but by prayer and fasting”, Christ notes in the Gospels; and light possession, cured by regular meditation and constant vigilance.
(See this excellent article on demonic possession, originally published on Truthseeker and later featured on the Darkmoon site with comments.)
LD has the “gift of smell”, a rare faculty analogous to the “Nose” in wine testing, whereby those who are possessed by demons can be detected by being literally “sniffed out”. They emanate an unmistakeable odour, a sickly sweet smell like the smell of burning tyres. Or sometimes like rotten eggs laced with honey or molasses. It’s always a “cloying” smell, she tells me. Sweet but sickly.
GILBERT HUNTLY : John Henry Newman preached the most beautiful piece of prose I have ever read, and William Peter Blatty featured it in his book The Exorcist. I had the good fortune to meet Blatty at a Georgetown party one evening, and he told me he incorporated part of Newman’s sermon into his novel for that very reason. I had committed it to memory when I was in high school. For any of you who have read it, you will understand. I will not recite it here, but the gist of it is the never-ending renewal of life, a perpetual struggle between Good and Evil.
SARDONICUS: I wish Gilbert had given a link to this “most beautiful piece of prose” or Newman sermon he is referring to. Never mind! Perhaps he is referring to the most beautiful Christian hymn ever written, a hymn so outstanding that even Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, would keep quoting it all the time — particularly the line: “One step enough for me.” In other words: “Let’s take each day as it comes, one step at a time. I’m referring to Newman’s hymn, originally a poem written in 1833.
The classic poem came to Newman in a burst of inspiration while he was travelling in Italy as a young priest and fell so desperately ill that he was unable to continue his journey for three weeks. In his own words:
Before starting from my inn, I sat down on my bed and began to sob bitterly. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, “I have a work to do in England.” I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed for a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that I wrote the lines, Lead, Kindly Light, which have since become so well known.
This poem, Lead Kindly Light, later to become a world-famous hymn, is highly relevant to any discussion of demonic possession because it was written by a demon-haunted man at a highly sensitive moment of his life:
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,—
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene,—one step enough for me.I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on:
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish days, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
Suffice to say that Newman would have had no problem believing in demons and demonic possession. He had his own demons, as Dostoevsky was to have later. Indeed, one of Dostoevsky’s greatest novels was called “The Demons”, otherwise translated as “The Possessed.”
Ed: And now the star comment of this series, written by a man who has actually had personal encounters with the demonically possessed and moved in exorcist circles:
UNGENIUS : I happened to remember that I had commented on casting out devils four years ago on the Darkmoon site, so I am reposting it again with appropriate date changes. During 2012, I investigated casting out devils. Being a follower of the teachings of Jesus, my investigation was in the Gospels. From that investigation, I learned the following:
1. Jesus only spoke of casting out devils in general, not of casting out the devil, Satan.
2. Jesus cast out devils in person and without the person being exorcised necessarily present.
3. Jesus did not pray to cast out a devil, he commanded it to leave.
4. Jesus told us to cast out devils in our fellowman.
5. It must not be difficult or requiring elaborate instructions to do this, since a man not associated with Jesus and his disciples was casting out devils using the name of Jesus.
6. If a devil is not cast out with a command, the person attempting to cast out a devil needed to pray and fast. Obviously, this was to increase the faith of the person commanding the exorcism ceremony.
7. The person possessed by a devil or devils displays symptoms of wanting to do bodily harm to themselves like cutting themselves or falling into a fire.
8. Permission of the possessed person is not needed before casting out a devil(s).
During June of 2016, I encountered a woman that witnessed a devil being cast out of her mother. She said she saw it leave. I wanted more informational detail from the person that did it. The woman refused to give me contact info on the woman that did the casting out until I read the woman’s book about how to do it. Jesus’ words of “give freely that which is freely given” came to mind.
Shortly afterward, I did bring up the topic of casting out devils on my weekly conference call with fellow Christian truth seekers (one being a biblical scholar), but did not learn anything that I did not know from my investigation four years earlier. The biblical scholar said that he believed that everyone has a devil. A point I rejected, given that Jesus did not cast any devils out of his Apostles.
During October of 2016, a friend and I were discussing possessions by a devil. This friend is the same one that raised a man from the dead in the middle of a church sermon in the presence of medical witnesses in 2012. I asked him why he was asking and he said he thought that a friend of his might be possessed. He said that she was scratching herself to the point of bleeding in reaction to bugs that did not exist. He also said that his friend had lead a life of sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse all of her adult life, that he had known her since she was a child, and that they had kept in touch throughout their life.
He said that she has spent three months living in his house after becoming homeless, but that she had relocated two hours away. They continued to stay in frequent contact after she relocated. He said that she was suffering from constant headaches, back pain, and digestive problems to the point of being miserable. His attempt to perform a healing on her did not work.
We discussed him casting out a devil from his female friend. I told him everything I knew about it from my investigation and assured him that he could do it with a verbal command using Jesus’ name. That same evening, he prayed to the Heavenly Father for increased faith, and then commanded:
“Jesus, remove all devils from (her name) and cast them into Hell!”
The next day, his friend called him and said that something totally unexpected had happened. She awoke from sleep and all her pain was gone. She also said that all she wanted to do after waking was to pray, which she did.
Apparently, a person possessed by a devil also has health problems.
Since my first post on this topic in 2016, I have not discovered anything that would alter my perception.
LD : An outstanding comment in every way. This deserves the widest possible circulation. I have never personally seen a demon in my life, but my mother has: a demonic entity haunting our house in East Dulwich, London, when I was in my teens. He used to show up at odd times, lurking on the stairwell or on the landing, grinning horribly through the yellow stumps of his teeth and with a distinct harelip, often dribbling at the mouth and cackling inanely. My mother even had a name for this disgusting creature: “Harelip”.
“Harelip” suddenly left the house when an eccentric lodger living on the top floor was removed to a mental institution. I’m sure “Harelip” was this weirdo’s personal demon. What became of the man? I have no idea. I know only this, from many experiences over the years: if a demonic realm does not exist, the world makes no sense whatever. We sometimes need Satan to pitchfork us into God’s arms. Many reach Mons Mysticus, the Mystical Mountain bathed in eternal sunlight, only after passing through the Valley of Darkness.
The great French poet Charles Baudelaire said it best: La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu’il n’existe pas. — “The devil’s finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.”
With permission from
vidrebel.wordpress.com
April 21, 2018
The Bilderberg 2018 meeting is scheduled for July 7 – 10 in Turin Italy. David Rothkopf in Superclass told us that the West is run by Thirty Families and their 6,000 Minions. Rothkopf used to be CEO of Kissinger Associates.
The Steering Committee sets the agenda for Bilderberg meetings. Participants discuss the agenda items (whether publicly acknowledged or not) until a consensus is reached and the participants go back to their native countries and implement Bilderberg decisions. But notice the agenda and the Steering Committee membership are determined at a higher level.
Below is a list of the Bilderberg 2018 members and brief bios. These people run our governments for the benefit of Billionaire Bankers so we ought to study who they are. I will publish bios on all 2018 Bilderberg participants as soon as they are available.
CHAIRMAN Castries, Henri de (FRA), Chairman of Institut Montaigne. Former Chairman and CEO, AXA; President of Institut Montaigne. AXA,the insurance giant is the 9th largest company in the world. An American unit of AXA was involved in the Wall Street fleeces Main Street scandal which was investigated by the New York state Attorney General. Member of the Steering Committee. The Institut Montaigne is a French tank funded by Bankers A former AXA chairman founded it in 2000. It is an AXA operation. They favor social cohesion (meaning they don’t want the rabble to revolt.) They have studied in depth race riots in the Paris suburbs but have since brought in millions of unvetted refugees. Either not very bright or are working to destroy Europe.) Castries was replaced as CEO of AXA on Sept 1, 2016.
Achleitner, Paul M. (DEU), Treasurer, Bilderberg Meetings; Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Deutsche Bank AG. Deutsche Bank has long been a favorite of Bilderberg. They helped fix interest rates and gold and silver prices. Remember Gordon Brown’s disastrous sale of UK gold? It was designed to drive down the price of gold and to save Deutsche Bank. It was contrary to British interests to sell gold for below market prices. He went to Harvard and worked for Goldman Sachs. He is on the Board at Bayer and Daimler (Mercedes.) He was the second Jewish CEO of Deutsche Bank in recent years.
Altman, Roger C. (USA), Founder and Senior Chairman, Evercore. He used to be with Lehman Brothers and Blackstone Group. He was a key supporter of Hillary Clinton. He was an adviser on the GM bankruptcy collecting $46 million in fees for Evercore. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Democratic party and Clinton insider. Speaking of infrastructure ripoffs, he helps run the Hamilton Project which is focused on rebuilding America’s infrastructure. They are linked to Brookings. Since they are liberals, the corporate press will not call them thieves if they steal a trillion dollars.
Barroso, José M. Durão (PRT).Former EU president, Chairman, Goldman Sachs International. He used to be a frequent object of Nigel Farage’s wrath at the EU parliament. Farage used to name Barroso as one of a long list of EU commissioners who were former Maoists and Communists or were either convicted felons or under indictment for felonies. He was a member of the underground Maoist MRPP . I am more concerned about his relationship with Goldman than his college days in a Maoist action group.
Barbizet, Patricia (FRA), CEO, Artemis. (Actually just stepped down but is still on the board) She is also the head of Christie’s auction house. Her husband is an investment banker at Barclays. She is board member and vice president at Gucci owner Kering She has a strong history in French business. Recently elevated to the Steering Committee.
Botín, Ana P. (ESP), Executive Chairman, Banco Santander. Formerly head of Santander UK. This is an old drug money laundering bank with ties to Latin America and the Rothschilds. Her mother is of Irish descent (O’Shea). She worked for J P Morgan for 8 years.
Brandtzæg, Svein Richard (NOR), President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA. It is the fourth largest integrated electrical generation and aluminum producer in the world.
Elkann, John (ITA), Chairman, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. He owns part of the Rothschild Economist magazine. He is the grandson and heir of Gianni Agnelli. Fiat owns Lancia, Ferrari, Maserati and Chrysler. Elkann is Jewish and was born in New York. He also runs the Agnelli family investment firm Exor which owns Juventus F.C., Cushman & Wakefield and SGS. Henry Kissinger, Carla Bruni, and Ell McPherson attended his wedding. He has moved his Exor investments out of Italy. He moved their headquarters to the Netherlands. Italy is suffering and could bring down the EU.
Enders, Thomas (DEU), CEO, Airbus SE.Airbus is important to Bilderberg. Forbes called Airbus an industrial symbol of European unity. EU might soon be reduced to symbols if not ashes. This is apparent to people understand the implications of having more Unpayable Debts than at any time in world history’
Gruber, Lilli (ITA), Editor-in-Chief and Anchor “Otto e mezzo”, La7 TV. She is a native speaker of Italian and German. She was critical of Berlusconi, quit her state TV job and became a Euro MP. She returned to TV. She is fluent in English and has worked as a war correspondent. She became a Member of the Steering Committee in 2016. She is older now but she is very sexy and well liked at Bilderberg. The Steering Committee recommends new members. She is in media and is close to Italian politicians, bankers, businessmen and celebrities.
Halberstadt, Victor (NLD), Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Chairman Stichting Bilderberg Meetings.Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings.
Hedegaard, Connie (DNK), Chair, KR Foundation. She worked as a journalist for many years. She is also a Danish politician who was EU Commissioner for Climate Change serving under Bilderberg Steering committee member Barroso. She is a member of the Danish Conservative party. She had been a minister for the Environment in Denmark. The KR Foundation (http://krfnd.org/) They want to phase out coal. They say they want sustainable energy and sustainable finance. Not sure what sustainable finance means to a Bilderberger. They do want taxpayers to pay a couple trillion dollars in taxes and fees to them so they will save us from Climate Change. How about the Wigner Effect? Look it up. It says that nuclear power plants should be expected to enter into a final stage of discomposition after 30 year of service. News Flash: The US has 99 nuclear power plants with an average age of 36 years which is already 6 years beyond the Use By Date. That is not good!! Her Foundation has a program to teach us commoners how to learn to love and accept poverty.
Hobson, Mellody (USA), President, Ariel Investments LLC and the current Chair of the Board of Directors of DreamWorks Animation. She is black. First meeting was 2016. Ariel is a Chicago investment firm that manages over $10 billion in assets. She married George Lucas and had a child delivered by a surrogate birth mother. Attractive. New to Steering Committee.
Jacobs, Kenneth M. (USA), Chairman and CEO, Lazard. Lazard describes themselves as Financial advisors and asset managers. No mention of their connections to the Rothschilds.
Karp, Alex (USA), CEO, Palantir Technologies. Palantir spied on computer users for the CIA and NSA. Co-founder is Peter Thiel also a member of the Steering Committee.
Kleinfeld, Klaus (USA), CEO, NEOM. NEOM is a fanciful $500 billion project to build a mega city in the Saudi desert that will connect to Egypt via a bridge over the Gulf of Aqaba. Former Chairman and CEO, Arconic He has a spotty business career. He had to quit Siemens over corruption charges. He was CEO of ALCOA and then Arconic. He used to be a member of of the board of directors of Citigroup and Bayer. I doubt that is still true. For some reason he is popular with the Bankers at Bilderberg.
Koç, Ömer M. (TUR), Chairman, Koç Holding A.S. He was the only son of Turkey’s wealthiest man. He graduated from Johns Hopkins in the USA. His company is the largest in Turkey and partners with many foreign corporations making light bulbs and cars. He is a member of the New York Yacht Club. He hired Peter Sutherland a former Head of Bilderberg Europe.
Kravis, Marie-Josée (USA), President, American Friends of Bilderberg; Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute(founded by Herman Kahn). It is funded by Eli Lily. She is from Montreal, Quebec, and is the third wife of financier Henry Kravis. She is an economist and serves on the board of major corporations. Returning member of the Steering Committee. Head of US Bilderberg.
Kudelski, André (CHE), Chairman and CEO, Kudelski Group. Member of the Steering Committee. He serves on many corporate boards. He wrote this: Together with incredible opportunities come new risks, as the virtual and real world become one in the fourth industrial revolution. Read more here: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-dark-side-of-the-fourth-industrial- revolution The asymmetry of risks that we are starting to face reinforces the need for an integrated and holistic view of security issues, and a strong synchronization between business and political action. (So what does that mean to a Bilderberg member?)
Leysen, Thomas (BEL), Chairman, KBC Group. This is a large European bank based in Brussels which has expanded along with the EU into eastern Europe.
Minton Beddoes, Zanny (GBR), Editor-in-Chief, The Economist, a Rothschild publication. New to Steering Committee.
Mundie, Craig J. (USA), Principal, Mundie & Associates. Mundie advocates that individuals be licensed before being allowed to use the Internet. Used to be part of Microsoft leadership. He was a scientific advisor to Obama.
O’Leary, Michael (IRL), CEO, Ryanair D.A.C. Must have liked him at his first meeting in 2015 because he was elevated to the Steering Committee in 2017. This guy is out spoken and funny. O’Leary jokingly described the airline’s planned business class travel experience as featuring “whores and rum”.
Papalexopoulos, Dimitri (GRC), CEO, Titan Cement Co. Third year Member of the Steering Committee. Titan cement is a large international company which is expanding into the US and eastern Europe. He also appeared at Davos and likes to talk in public.
Sabia, Michael (CAD), CEO, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. He earned his graduate degrees from Yale University. His wife, Hilary Pearson, is the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Lester Pearson. In 2016, he was appointed as a Officer of the Order of Canada. First meeting for him was 2016. He is a billionaire regarded as a savior in Montreal where he is building a light rail system. Another man from a small country who is keeping a struggling nation united. Have not heard much from Quebec separatists of late. Elevated to Steering Committee. Heather Reisman, a fellow Canadian, was dropped from the Steering Committee. She owned Indigo Books and might have been too belligerently pro-Israel.
Sawers, John (GBR), Chairman and Partner, Macro Advisory Partners. He was Chief, Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He was a professional diplomat being neither a spy nor a warrior. Has first hand knowledge of Iran. First meeting in 2015. Joined Steering committee in 2016. They like him.
Schmidt, Eric E. (USA), Executive Chairman, Alphabet Inc.Google owners Alphabet Inc. Member of the Steering Committee. Google is big at Bilderberg. They like to spy on us but he makes women wear masks in public when he is dating. Google execs have a bad history of relations with women. He thinks self-driving cars and trucks will be here in 5 years. Maybe not. They have a lot of crashes. Seems computers can’t figure out human drivers. Computers expect rationality from humans.
Scholten, Rudolf (AUT), President, Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue. He is a Social Democrat. They lost control of Austria. He was head of the Austrian Central Bank. The Great Depression did not get going until the Rothschild owned Credit Anstalt bank of Vienna collapsed on May 11, 1931. It had too many eastern European bad debts. This man is not a professional banker.
Sikorski, Radoslaw (POL), Senior Fellow, Harvard University. He made uncomplimentary comments about the US in a bugged conversation. He was in charge of the Oxford Debate club. He was a member of the Bullingdon group, a very despicable bunch.David Cameron was a member. They are sons of the wealthy and cannot be arrested when they tear up bars and beat patrons at Oxford. He worked at AEI while in America. They are pro-Globalist and supposedly conservative group.
Thiel, Peter A. (USA), President, Thiel Capital. He is bringing in the younger crowd of high tech billionaires the CIA and NSA will need to end anonymity on the Internet and then close down free speech. It should be noted that he is not an engineer. He is a lawyer and Stanford graduate. He worked as a derivatives trader and runs a Hedge Fund. He owned 10.2% of Facebook pre IPO. Thiel is a founder of PayPal which shuts down service to those who practice free speech on the Internet. He was an early investor in Facebook which legally should never had been offered as an IPO at anything above a dollar a share. PayPal has been linked by John Cruz to money laundering. He is a Libertarian. He defended Trump during the elections. He said: “Everyone says Trump is going to change everything way too much,” says the famed venture capitalist, contrarian and member of the Trump transition team. “Well, maybe Trump is going to change everything way too little. That seems like the much more plausible risk to me.”
Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE), Chairman, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB. He is a member of the famous Wallenberg family which was Jewish at one time. He is a Director of several banks and of Coca-Cola.
For reasons of health Henry Kissinger has been dropped from the Steering Committee. Richard Perle, extreme Zionist and founding member of PNAC used to be on the Steering Committee until 2 years ago but was dropped and in 2018 scrubbed from the list of previous Steering Committee members. Another extreme Zionist, Heather Reisman, the billionaire owner of Indigo Books and Music was dropped from the Steering Committee.
Related Articles:
Catherine Austin Fitts: Real Danger Of The Deep State
https://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/catherine-austin-fitts-real-danger-of-the-deep-state/
Update: America’s Secret Multi-Trillion Dollar Black Ops Slush Fund
The Thirty Families Made Plans For A Future Without You.
https://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/the-thirty-families-made-plans-for-a-future-without-you/
Israel Killed JFK And Has Ruled America Ever Since.
https://vidrebel.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/israel-killed-jfk-and-has-ruled-america-ever-since/
No one dares to speak as smoke from a massive bonfire billows and twirls into a thick haze in the remote mountain town of Mamoiada. Flaming logs crack open, echoing through central Sardinia‘s rugged massifs and twisting valleys, shooting sparks toward a solemn mass of spectators. We’re huddled together on a piercingly cold January night, bracing for something wild in the darkness that’s lurching ever closer.
I peer through the smoke, searching for any signs of life beyond the glow of the blaze when I see several mothers suddenly pull their children in close. Just then, Ruggero Mameli, a lifelong Mamoiada resident who had invited me to come witness this event, whispers, “They’re coming.”
Within seconds, a distant rattling sound shakes the night awake, building slowly with each heavy step until it erupts into a deafening clatter. The sea of spectators parts, I see them, and a chill runs up my spine. Twelve menacing figures in jet-black masks with jutting, ghoulish features and dark sheepskin tunics are inching toward me, weighed down by up to 65 pounds of cowbells strapped to their backs. Their hunched frames slowly drag forward in two rows, eyeing the crowd as they heave themselves into a series of synchronized convulsions that cause the sheep bones inside their copper bells to clang in a thunderous chorus.
“These are not men,” Mameli tells me, as the creatures approach the bonfire. “They’re mamuthones.”
According to Mameli, every year on January 17, a group of men in this sleepy mountain town awake from their slumber and transform into masked, monstrous mamuthones and lithe, rope-wielding issohadores. From the late afternoon deep into the night, the two groups slowly parade around some 40 bonfires roaring throughout the streets of Mamoiada in a delicate dance: The black-masked mamuthones symbolize the darkness, grunting and stomping as they burst into violent pseudo seizures; while the white-masked issohadores (“rope-carriers”) are the light, leading the beasts from flame to flame while launching their wiry reed sohas into the crowd to lasso young women in an ode to fertility. The creatures reappear on Carnival Sunday and Fat Tuesday before then hibernating until the following winter.
“We feel their presence all year long, and when we speak of them, it is always hushed,” says Mameli, who has been hand-carving grimacing and pain-stricken masks out of wild pear, walnut, and chestnut trees for the mamuthones for more than 35 years, since he was 12. “On il continente [mainland Italy], the Carnival is light-hearted, but here it is full of suffering and mystery. It’s a part of us. I can’t explain it.”
No one really can. Some scholars believe the mamuthones and issohadores date back some 3,000 years to the island’s mysterious Bronze Age Nuragic civilization and represent a banishment of the dark winter and welcoming of spring. Roman invaders considered the anthropomorphic beasts a form of sacrilegious animal worship that threatened the Christianity they tried to spread. When their repeated attempts to subdue the region failed, they dubbed the area Barbagia after the “barbarian-like” practices of its inhabitants-a name that has stuck and includes much of the island’s rural interior. Remarkably, the Barbagia communities near Mamoiada were among the last in modern-day Italy to convert to Christianity, continuing to worship wood and stone until the seventh century.
In fact, away from the island’s cosmopolitan capital, Cagliari – where I lived for two years – and the puttering yachts of the Costa Smeralda, Sardinia’s craggy interior has historically been one of the most isolated and impenetrable pockets in the Mediterranean. Residents here still speak Sardo, the closest living form of Latin; veiled grandmothers and bands of nomadic shepherds gaze warily at outsiders; and residents fiercely proclaim that Sardinia isn’t Italy. This is a hard, uncompromising place-a fact that is announced loud and clear upon entering the village, where the welcome sign in Sardo is left pristine, while that in Italian is ripped through by bullet holes.
Today, the most accepted theory is that the mamuthones represent evil beings from the underworld, while the issohadores are believed to have captured these threatening spirits and are driving them out of town in a sort of pagan exorcism. In a post-Christian Barbagia, the ritual has received a Catholic gloss and now starts outside Mamoiada’s parish church on the feast day of Sant’Antonio Abate, the protector of animals and fire who is believed to have stolen a spark from the underworld to bring light and warmth to the living. Not only is participation in this archaic rite tolerated by the church, it’s encouraged: The wood that villagers collect to burn in the bonfires is blessed by the parish priest, the men who transform into monsters and convulse by firelight are well-respected members of the community who show up to Sunday mass, and this cult – Catholic syncretism has fused into a holy matrimony.
But the scene I’m witnessing is raw, primal, and trance-like. Twelve mamuthones in two even rows representing each lunar cycle stagger forward in unison, their wooly bodies pulled to the ground by the weight of the bells. They shuffle and rattle, first to the left, then to the right, as eight herders in red tunics guard the creatures, jumping around lightly in contrast and launching their reed lassos around squealing women in the crowd as an omen of rebirth and renewal, not just for their families, but also for their fields and flocks. When the issohadore setting the pace in the front of the pack raises his hand to the beasts and lowers it, they obediently shudder three times, as if expelling some evil deep within them, before returning to their hunched, hypnotic state.
We follow this otherworldly spectacle from fire to fire well into the night. When the procession finally encircles a flaming pyre on the outskirts of the village, the parade suddenly stops. The mamuthones double over in exhaustion, several falling to their knees and gasping for air. They slowly remove their masks, returning to their earthly bodies and once again becoming shepherds, shopkeepers, and men.
The mass around me bursts into applause and this once-solemn spectacle quickly shifts into an all-night celebration.
The mamuthones are each weighed down by up to 65 pounds of cowbells, strapped tightly across their ribcages and hanging down their backs. The bells’ clappers are made from the thigh and neck bones of sheep.
As the winds whip through the mountains, Mamoiada’s faithful welcome us into their dimly lit kitchens, brewing hazelnut coffee, serving sandwiches made with wild boar, and opening their homes to guests in a tradition known as cortes apertas (“open houses”). Next come the fried ox testicles, followed by the pours and pours of homemade grappa. Just when everything is starting to blur, I spot Mameli, who I had lost in the commotion.
“Follow me,” he says, leading me from Mamoiada’s squat homes through a series of doorways into the stone courtyard of the Associazione Culturale Atzeni. The association is one of two groups committed to keeping Mamoiada’s ancient rite alive, selecting and training more than 200 men and boys to take part in the sacred custom, only a few of whom will ever perform.
“You have to be strong and willing to sacrifice and suffer,” says Pino Ladu, the group’s president, pointing toward two aspiring mamuthones struggling to unbuckle a harness of bells strapped so tightly around a man’s back that he is nearly collapsing. “This thing has existed since the dawn of time. But only some of us ever become it.”