The Great Amurrican Land Grab

A few days ago a colleague sent me an email in which he wrote, "The keyword for 2017 is distraction."  Indeed.  A perfect example follows.

Here are excerpts from Heather Hansman's 1-19-17 Guardian article entitled "Congress Moves to Give Away National Lands, Discounting Billions in Revenue":

"In the midst of highly publicized steps to dismantle insurance coverage for 32 million people and defund women’s healthcare facilities, Republican lawmakers have quietly laid the foundation to give away Americans’ birthright: 640m acres of national land. In a single line of changes to the rules for the House of Representatives, Republicans have overwritten the value of federal lands, easing the path to disposing of federal property even if doing so loses money for the government and provides no demonstrable compensation to American citizens.

"At stake are areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forests and Federal Wildlife Refuges, which contribute to an estimated $646bn each year in economic stimulus from recreation on public lands and 6.1m jobs. Transferring these lands to the states, critics fear, could decimate those numbers by eliminating mixed-use requirements, limiting public access and turning over large portions for energy or property development [...].

"Essentially, the revised budget rules deny that federal land has any value at all, allowing the new Congress to sidestep requirements that a bill giving away a piece of federal land does not decrease federal revenue or contribute to the federal debt.

"Republican eagerness to cede federal land to local governments for possible sale, mining or development is already moving states to act. Western states, where most federal land is concentrated, are already introducing legislation that pave the way for land transfers [...].

"The Congressional devaluation of national property is the most far-reaching legislative change in a recent push to transfer federal lands to the states. Because of the Republican majority in Congress, bills proposing land transfers could now swiftly diminish Forest Service and BLM lands across the country.

"'We didn’t see it coming. I think it was sneaky and underhanded. It exemplifies an effort to not play by the rules,' said Alan Rowsome, senior director of government relations at The Wilderness Society. 'This is the worst Congress for public lands ever.'

"Rowsome said he’s not exactly sure how the rule will be used, but he thinks the first places to come under attack might include areas adjacent to the majestic Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Those areas hold uranium and copper, respectively.

"Rowsome said he’s worried that sensitive tracts of public land, like the oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, could soon be up for sale. Some 60% percent of Alaska is made up of national land, and the state’s representatives have tried to pass laws claiming parts of it for state use as recently as 2015. 'It’s an amazing ecosystem and worthy of protection, and it’s very likely that House Republican majority will open that up for drilling,' Rowsome said."

To read the entirety of Hansman's article, click HERE.

Mike Wallace Interviews Major Donald Keyhoe

In 1958 Mike Wallace interviewed Major Donald Keyhoe, author of The Flying Saucers Are Real and other bestselling nonfiction books, on an ABC television show imaginatively entitled The Mike Wallace Interview.  Wallace's main imperative during this interview appears to be to jeer skeptically at Keyhoe while doing his best to hawk cancer-inducing Parliament cigarettes to his loyal audience.  (Remember:  "IF PARLIAMENT'S YOUR SMOKE, YOU'RE SMOKING THE BEST!")  You can see the entire interview below:

And on a related note... Jack Womack's latest book, Flying Saucers Are Real!, the title of which is an homage to Keyhoe's most famous book, is still available from Womack's publisher, Anthology Editions (you can find my August 26, 2016 review of Womack's Flying Saucers Are Real! right HERE).  You can also read Womack's recent Omni Magazine article, "When Saucers First Flew," right HERE.

A Targeted Individual Reviews CHAMELEO

A fairly interesting and unique review of my book CHAMELEO (posted on YouTube on August 13th, 2016):

From INTERNET EYES to PYRAMID EYE

From Paul Szoldra's 12-13-16 Business Insider article entitled "This 80-year-old Woman Makes Money by Watching Internet Surveillance Cameras All Day":

"An 80-year-old woman in Northern Ireland makes money by watching internet cameras all day, and she's fighting crime in the process.

"From her home in Ballyhalbert, Barbara Morrow scans up to six different camera feeds a day, waiting and watching for suspicious activity from inside stores and on city streets more than 5,000 miles away.

"'I just like catching shoplifters,' she says. 'I think I should have been a vigilante or something.'

"Morrow uses a service called Internet Eyes, an online system that helps companies in Brazil thwart crime, such as shoplifting, in their stores. Companies sign up and place their security cameras online, and people like Morrow log in and watch — alerting the companies if there's something they need to know about.

"The service, and Morrow, were recently featured on Codebreaker, the podcast Marketplace produces with Business Insider, which explored the use of surveillance cameras and how they are being used throughout society.

"On the show, Morrow explains that she watches the feeds for activity, and hits the a big red alert button if she sees something suspicious. For example, she explains, one report might say, 'lady in red coat put chocolate in her pocket.'

"Her report then goes to the store owner, who may catch the shoplifter in the act. And for her report, she gets a few bucks.
"'Barbara is way up there on the watcher leaderboard,' Codebreaker host Ben Johnson says, 'usually in the top three.'"

In related news, see Dustin Volz's 12-16-16 Reuters article entitled "U.S. to Disclose Estimate of Number of Americans Under Surveillance":

"The U.S. intelligence community will soon disclose an estimate of the number of Americans whose electronic communications have been caught in the crosshairs of online surveillance programs intended for foreigners, U.S. lawmakers said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.

"The estimate, requested by members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, is expected to be made public as early as next month, the letter said.

"Its disclosure would come as Congress is expected to begin debate in the coming months over whether to reauthorize or reform the so-called surveillance authority, known as Section 702, a provision that was added to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008.

"'The timely production of this information is incredibly important to informed debate on Section 702 in the next Congress— and, without it, even those of us inclined to support reauthorization would have reason for concern,' said the letter signed by 11 lawmakers, all members of the House Judiciary Committee.

"The letter was sent on Friday to National Intelligence Director James Clapper. It said his office and National Security Agency (NSA) officials had already briefed congressional staff about how the intelligence community intends to comply with the disclosure request."

From the 1-9-17 edition of The Hill comes this article entitled "Intel Agencies Ask Americans to 'Trust, Don't Verify' in New Cold War" by Mark Weisbrot:

"Just as the first casualty of war is said to be the truth, the first casualty of the new Cold War is irony. Our most prominent journalists seem to have missed the Orwellian irony of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper at Friday's Senate hearings if Julian Assange has any credibility. Assange has maintained that the hacked or leaked emails of Democratic Party officials did not come from the Russian government, or any other government.

"As is well-known, Clapper lied to Congress about a serious violation of the constitutional rights of tens of millions of Americans. This lie is a crime for which he actually could have been prosecuted. In March 2013, Clapper falsely answered, 'No, sir' to the question, 'Does the NSA [National Security Association] collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans?'

"He later admitted that his answer was untrue.

"Clapper lied again in Friday’s testimony, saying that Assange was 'under indictment' for 'a sexual crime.' In fact, Assange has not been indicted for anything, and the government of Sweden has never even charged him with a crime. (He was initially questioned by Swedish police but allowed to leave the country.)

"In reality, he is a political prisoner, and the United Nations Working Group on arbitrary detention has found that he has been arbitrarily detained since 2010 by the United Kingdom and Sweden, and ordered his release and compensation."

From AP News comes this peculiar little news item (dated 1-10-17) entitled "Italy Arrests Siblings Accused of Huge VIP Hacking Campaign" by Frances D'Emilio and Raphael Satter:

"Police have arrested a brother-and-sister team suspected of conducting an ambitious, years-long campaign of hacking that targeted thousands of accounts belonging to some of the leading political and business figures in Italy.

"The motive of the sprawling campaign, which carried Masonic overtones, remains a mystery. But those in the crosshairs included Matteo Renzi when he was Italian premier, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and much of the cream of Italy's elite.

"'In the eight months we have been investigating, we haven't registered any evidence of extortion activity, or attempts to (use hacked data) to obtain influence,' Roberto Di Legami, who directs the Italian national police division that specializes in combatting internet and other communications network crimes, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday.

"Police said Tuesday that it was an assist from the FBI that helped cracked the 'cyberespionage headquarters' and led to Monday's arrests of Giulio Occhionero, 45, and his 49-year-old sister Francesca Maria Occhionero. They are being kept in isolation in two different jails in Rome, police said.

"The two live in the Italian capital, where they are reportedly well known in the world of high finance. They also have a legal residence in London, where at one point they registered a securities company, Di Legami said.

"Prosecutors' requests for the arrest warrants alleged that the duo tried to hack into Renzi's personal email twice in June, when he was still premier, and into Draghi's email account once in June and again in July.

"A person familiar with the matter said there was no indication any European Central Bank account was successfully breached. The person spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

"Italian police were generous with praise for the FBI's help. Di Legami said the FBI found the servers despite the suspect's use of the online anonymity tool Tor to mask their electronic movements.

"The FBI did not return a message seeking comment on the nature of its assistance, confirming only that it had helped with the investigation through the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

"All but one of the servers the Occhioneros allegedly used in their scheme were located in the United States, Di Legami said. He added that, until the Americans hand the servers to Italian investigators, it will not be known if any of the hacking attempts succeeded and if so, what data might have been extracted from the targeted accounts.

"Police said investigators would be analyzing 'an enormous mound of sequestered material' in the United States.

"The motive for the hacks was unclear, although lines of code in the software — including the English-language string 'Pyramid Eye' — suggest a Masonic connection.

"Giulio Occhionero was a high-ranking member of a Masonic lodge, Di Legami said.

"An email sent to Giulio Occhionero's personal address was not immediately returned; a LinkedIn message left with Francesca Maria's account also was not returned.

"Other prominent Italians whose accounts allegedly were targeted include Fabrizio Saccomanni, a former Italian economy minister who also served as a top official of Italy's central bank; a Catholic cardinal holding Vatican posts; Mario Monti, an economist who wrestled with Italy's financial crisis as premier from 2011 to 2013; former top officials of the Italian tax police squad; and Italian politicians from across the political spectrum.

"Politicians expressed relief that a cyber-spy operation had been unmasked and demanded investigators get to the bottom of it.

"'Everything must be rapidly cleared up, avoiding news leaks,' Debora Serracchiani, a top official with Renzi's Democratic Party, said. 'Certainly, a criminal plan has been uncovered upon which many hypotheses can be made.'

"The alleged hacking operation came to light as Italian politics already are roiled over Renzi's stepping down as premier last month after a referendum defeat and maneuvering ahead of likely early elections that could come this year.

"Ignazio La Russa, a right-wing lawmaker who was among the cyber-spies' targets, was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying that he did not feel anguished about information of his that may have been taken.
"'A member of Parliament must be transparent. If they asked me, I would have given them the info gratis,' La Russa said.

"La Russa added: 'I'd be sorry however, if they spied on my private life, entering in the accounts of my wife or children.'

"Giulio Occhionero co-founded a boutique Roman investment firm named Westlands Securities SpA, according to his LinkedIn profile and a former employee of the company who didn't want to be identified in connection with the investigation.

"Di Legami said investigators think the firm might have been set up largely as a cover for criminal activities, although they found evidence Westland Securities provided legitimate financial advising, including for construction at a southern Italian port, and also had some dealings in stocks and bonds.

"Giulio Occhionero was the main force in the duo, drawing on his background as an engineer -- he has a degree in nuclear engineering -- as well as formidable talent as a quantitative analyst, the police official said.

"Francesca Maria Occhionero, whose LinkedIn page shows she served as Westland Securities' managing director, mainly helped with support logistics, Di Legami said.

"Di Legami said the investigators' big break came when a security manager at a government office dealing with computer security received an email from a law office he didn't recognize.

"Alarmed, the manager asked a security firm to trace the IP address. When the IP address didn't match the one used by the law office, police investigators picked up the trail.

"Di Legami said the hackers used sophisticated and complex malware and were able to access their victims' networks for long periods of time, remotely harvesting emails, communications and other documents from targeted computers.

"In all, the suspects allegedly obtained some 18,000 usernames and nearly 1,800 passwords.

"The suspects created numerous folders to divide up their targets. Among the more creatively named ones was a folder dubbed 'Bros' that included persons who supposedly belong to a Masonic lodge and another folder dubbed POBU — for politicians and business — in which various individuals from high-level politics and business were listed.

"Investigators moved to have the suspects arrested because of the 'concrete danger' they could flee abroad, police said."

Jon Rappoport on "The Psyop to Neuter The Rebel"

Highly recommended:  Investigative journalist Jon Rappoport's most recent blog post, "The Psyop to Neuter The Rebel," a brief excerpt from which can be found below:

"'THIS or THAT' is the history of Earth: choose reality program A or B. The choice was always a con.

 

"We're well into a time period when the experts and scientific authorities are settling on the human being as a biological machine that can only respond to programming. That's their view and their default position.

 

"It's sheer madness, of course, but what else do you expect? We're in an intense technological age, and people are obsessed with making things run smoother. They treat their precious little algorithms for control like the Crown Jewels. They're terribly enthusiastic about the problem they're solving, and that problem is us.

 

"We're the wild cards, a fact which they take to be the result of our improper and incomplete conditioning. They aim to fix that."

 

Click HERE to read the entirety of Jon Rappoport's "The Psyop to Neuter The Rebel."

Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King

In September of 1995, political researcher Dave Emory recorded the following episode of his radio show, For the Record (#46), in which he analyzes William F. Pepper's book, Orders to Kill:  The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King (Carroll & Graf, 1995).  According to Emory's website, Spitfirelist.com, this series "discusses, among other things:  an organized crime arms-smuggling ring, which maneuvered accused assassin James Earl Ray into position to take the fall for the crime; the member of that arms-smuggling ring who boasted of actually [having] done the shooting; the Army intelligence program to surveil and neutralize black American leaders (including King); the 20th Special Forces Group 'A team' that, according to Pepper, served as a backup sniper team poised to kill Dr. King and his then-aide Andrew Young (in case the organized crime marksman missed); and the apparent role of elements of the National Security Agency in helping to set Ray up for the assassination."  You can listen to the entirety of For the Record #46 right HERE.  You can also hear the show on YouTube:

Florida Airport Assailant

From Lizette Alvarez, Richard Fausset, and Adam Goldman's 1-6-17 New York Times article entitled "Florida Airport Assailant May Have Heard Voices Urging Violence, Officials Say": 

"Federal law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether the gunman who opened fire on Friday at the airport here, killing five people and wounding eight, was mentally disturbed and heard voices in his head telling him to commit acts of violence.

"According to a senior law enforcement official, the gunman, identified as Esteban Santiago, 26, walked into the F.B.I. office in Anchorage in November and made disturbing remarks that prompted officials to urge him to seek mental health care.

"Mr. Santiago, appearing 'agitated and incoherent,' said 'that his mind was being controlled by a U.S. intelligence agency,' the official said."

To read the entire New York Times article, click HERE. 

From Shepard Ambellas's 1-6-17 Intellihub article entitled "Airport Shooter Admits He Was 'Mind Controlled' By Intelligence Agency, Eyewitness Claims There Were At Least Three Other 'Sleepers,' Shooters, With High-powered Rifles Shooting Into Crowd":

"...an eyewitness to the actual event maintains that after they caught the first guy 'there had to be three sleepers [three other shooters].' 

"'[…] we could see inside literally where the windows — you could see the fire coming from the barrels. There was like at least three people in there still shooting. Like it was like a high-powered rifle, like an AR or something […]. They was non-stop shooting. Like they just started hitting different people inside the crowd. We had to leave. We had to get on the roof.'"

To read Ambellas's entire article, click HERE.

The Cryptoscatology Top Ten: The Best Comic Books of 2016!

1. Patience by Daniel Clowes (published by Fantagraphics):

I've been reading Daniel Clowes's work since the publication of The Adventures of Lloyd Llewellyn in 1986.  Since that time I've been amazed by the fact that Clowes continues to top himself with one masterpiece after another:  Live a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron (1993), Ghost World (1997), David Boring (2000), etc.  Patience, a convoluted plunge through conflicting layers of memory and loss, somehow combines the complex narrative structure of a Philip K. Dick novel with the pseudo-psychedelic visuals of a 1960s Jack Kirby superhero comic book and the intense emotional impact of a time travel story by Jack Finney.  

2. Mooncop by Tom Gauld (published by Drawn & Querterly):

Tom Gauld's latest graphic novel, Mooncop, is an absurd but wistful journey through a desolate lunar landscape where law and order does not need to be maintained... and yet our title character dedicates his life to maintaining it anyway.

3.  The Longest Day of the Future by Lucas Varela (published by Fantagraphics):

A seemingly endless war between two mega-corporations in the near-future is made even more chaotic by the sudden intervention of an alien spaceship.  This nearly wordless satire combines the cultural criticism of Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth's The Space Merchants with the visual imagination of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

4.  Panther by Brecht Evens (published by Drawn and Quarterly):

If Jonathan Carroll, author of The Land of Laughs (1980) and many other excellent dark fantasies, somehow reached across time and space to collaborate with Val Lewton, producer of Cat People (1942) and numerous other groundbreaking horror films, to create a children's book that no child in their right mind should ever read, the result might very well be Panther by Brecht Evens, one of the most disturbing and creepy horror stories I've read in many, many years.

5.  Motor Girl by Terry Moore (published by Abstract Studios):

A very funny series that, in Moore's own words, centers on "a girl and her best friend, a gorilla.  The pair work together fixing cars at a gas station in the desert, and one day, they're approached by an alien with a damaged UFO.  She helps him on his way, and word of mouth about her excellent services makes her little garage a UFO hot spot...."  The fact that the objective reality of both the gorilla and the alien is constantly in question makes the series even more fascinating and humorous.

6.  Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (published by Dark Horse):

This revisionist superhero series, clearly taking its initial inspiration from Marv Wolfman and George Perez's Crisis on Infinite Earths (published by DC Comics from 1985 to 1986), is about a group of super-powered beings who find themselves inexplicably exiled from their world after having survived an epic battle with a gigantic alien called "the Anti-God."  The five main characters, Abraham Slam, Golden Gail, Colonel Weird, Madame Dragonfly, and Barbalien, must adjust to an introspective life spent dealing with the day-to-day mundanities of a rural farm community in the middle of nowhere.  Essentially trapped in limbo, they must conceal their true identities from all those around them while trying to figure out how to return to their homes in Spiral City.  This dark comedy, or comedic drama, is far better than any mainstream superhero comic book published by DC Comics during the past ten years. 

7.  Providence by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows (published by Avatar):

The best analysis of H.P. Lovecraft's impact on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries takes the form of journalist Robert Black's episodic journey from quasi-innocence to unalterable, unholy awareness in a meta-horror-story that turns Lovecraft's original narratives upside down and inside out, changing forever the way the readers will perceive Lovecraft's fictional pantheon of demi-gods, demons and their (often too-human) acolytes here on Earth.

8.  #24 and #25 by Steve Ditko (published by Robin Snyder & Steve Ditko):

In last year's Top Ten list, I mistakenly identified Ditko's latest series as "A Ditko."  Publisher Robin Snyder soon pointed out to me that Ditko's anthology doesn't actually bear a specific title. Though A Ditko was indeed the title of an early issue in the series, the fact is that the series can only be identified by each individual issue number.  I find this wonderful.  What other series can make the same claim?  It's a rare example of anti-advertising.  It's as if Ditko is going out of his way to make finding his latest series a quixotic experience... a labyrinthine journey that's well worth the effort.  This remains one of the most unique comic books being published today.  Nothing else on the stands looks like this at all.  2016 saw the publication of two more issues of the series:  #24 and #25, featuring brand new stories about such bizarre Ditko characters as "The !?," "The," "Outline," "The Madman," and course "The Avenging World."  Though comic book fans and historians naturally lavish praise on Ditko's early masterpieces such as Spider-man and Doctor Strange, I think it will be very clear in the not-so-distant future that this series is among Ditko's most important works.  Do not miss it.

9.  The Silver Surfer by Dan Slott and Michael Allred (published by Marvel):

Though just as much a bastardization of Jack Kirby's original concept as Stan Lee and John Buscema's watered-down space epics from the late 1960s, Dan Slott and Michael Allred's interpretation of The Silver Surfer nonetheless remains one of the most charming mainstream comics being published today.  Filled with both humor and heart, essential qualities sorely lacking in most mainstream comics being foisted off on the public these days, this series is a constant delight to read.  If Robert Sheckley--author of The Tenth Victim (1965), Mindswap (1967), Dimension of Miracles (1968), and numerous other brilliantly satirical novels--had ever written a Marvel superhero comic book, it probably would have read like this.  

 

10.  The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta (published by Marvel): 

Here's a true rarity:  a mainstream comic book, written by an ex-CIA agent no less, that feels intensely personal, breathes new dimensions into characters that were never intended to be anything more than action adventure icons, creates minor supporting characters who also possess deep emotions, and manages to success at all this while never forgetting to be exactly what it has to be--a Marvel superhero comic.  Readers unfamiliar with the history of Marvel comic books will still be able to enjoy this series as a self-contained story.  As Cory Doctorow recently wrote on Boing Boing: 

"Though [the Vision] is still a member of the Avengers, he and his family -- a robot wife, a pair of robot children -- have settled in the DC suburbs, determined to live their lives as normal humans, despite being able to fly, walk through walls, and kill at a blow.

"So Vision becomes a story about assimilation, about wanting to be like everyone but not fitting in. But as King's storytelling makes clear from the first page, it's a story about fate and destiny, about the knowledge that it can't possibly work, that there is a world out there of people who will never accept you, regardless of your merits or accomplishments -- and certainly not because they owe their lives to you.

"In places, Vision reads as a parable about the lives of demobilized veterans of color, hated by the country they risked everything for. In other places, it's a story about simple prejudice. All throughout, it is a story about love, and fury.

"I was never enough of a Marvel comics fan to be able to keep the various pantheons and incarnations clear in my head, but it's clear that King has brought a deep knowledge of the material to this story [...].  I'm here to testify as someone who was virtually totally ignorant of the setting and history: Vision is a moving and gripping story you won't soon forget."

By the way, several important archival collections were published in 2016 as well, all of which are also highly recommended:

The World of Edena by Moebius (published by Dark Horse):

Suicide Squad:  The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru (published by DC Comics):

Supergirl:  The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 1 by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney (published by DC Comics):  

Devil Tales edited by Steve Banes (published by IDW):

Snake Tales edited by Mike Howlett (published by IDW):

The Complete Voodoo Vol. 2 edited by Craig Yoe (published by IDW):  

Machine Man:  The Complete Collection by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko (published by Marvel Comics):

Marvel Masterworks:  The Black Panther Vol. 2 by Jack Kirby (published by Marvel Comics):

The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu Omnibus Vol. 1 by Steve Englehart, Doug Moench, Len Wein, Jim Starlin, Paul Gulacy, and John Buscema (published by Marvel Comics):

World Without End:  The Complete Collection by Jamie Delano and John Higgins (published by Dover):  

"What's At the End of Main Street?" Part Three in NEW DAWN #160

It's here at last!  The most recent issue of New Dawn Magazine (No. 160, January/February 2016) contains the THRILLING CONCLUDING CHAPTER of my three-part series entitled "What's At the End of Main Street?:  The Struggle Between the Artificial and the Real in Recent Gnostic Cinema."  The two previous installments analyzed key examples of "Gnostic Cinema" (films that explore the illusory nature of reality within a fictional framework) ranging from 1924's Sherlock Jr. to 2002's The Mothman Prophecies.  Part Three begins in 2003 with Francisco Athie's overlooked surrealist masterpiece, Vera, and ends in 2014 with Jennifer Kent's critically acclaimed debut film, The Babadook.

New Dawn Magazine, available from a well-stocked newsstand NEAR YOU, is also available from the New Dawn website HERE.