The Daily Grail's Interview with Alan Moore

What follow are a few paragraphs from The Daily Grail's 4-27-17 Alan Moore interview entitled "Alan Moore on Science, Imagination, Language and Spirits of Place":

"We live in a world that is mostly predicated on a rational and scientific worldview, which effectively means that any phenomenon beyond the physically measureable is automatically deemed non-existent, including souls, gods, ghosts and human consciousness. While I would agree that we need to recover the psychological connection that once existed between ourselves and our environment – because to do otherwise is to render us all pointless automata in a material world which, by its own admission, has no direction or purpose – I would say that the problem could be more sharply defined if we put aside contentious terms like ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’, and instead opted for the less vague but just as scientifically problematic term ‘meaning’. If by coming to know more about the historical or mythological aspects of the places in which we live we make those places more meaningful, to us at least, then I suggest that this will lead to experiencing ourselves as more meaningful in our new, illuminated context.

"The big difference between ‘meaning’ and ‘a spirit’ is that where meaning is concerned, we have to do all the necessary hard work in order to invest that place or that person or that object with meaning, whereas spirits just sort of turn up, don’t they? I believe that our world is gloriously haunted with meaning; that it’s we ourselves that are doing the haunting; and that we should be doing more of it, or doing it more strenuously. 

"In an era where supposedly hard material reality seems to shift more like vapour with every passing day, I think it becomes more evident that timeless and unchanging mythology is the actual solid bedrock on which our flimsy and temporary human realities are briefly erected. Whether you call it soul or spirit or meaning, it is the Real, as opposed to this spasming neo-conservative monetarist/materialist dream that we’re all required to share, and if we care about having a meaningful world in which to lead meaningful lives then we should all try harder to reinvest our environments with the meaning that belligerent materialism has sucked out of them."

To read the interview in its entirety, click HERE.

Alan Moore's latest novel is JERUSALEM (Liveright, 2016), which is available right HERE.

"...the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted…"

The Cryptoscatological Quote of the Day:

It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted… secretly, it was being dictated instead by the needs of technology… by a conspiracy between human beings and techniques, by something that needed the energy-burst of war, crying, “Money be damned, the very life of [insert name of Nation] is at stake,” but meaning, most likely, dawn is nearly here, I need my night’s blood, my funding, funding, ahh more, more… . The real crises were crises of allocation and priority, not among firms—it was only staged to look that way—but among the different Technologies, Plastics, Electronics, Aircraft, and their needs which are understood only by the ruling elite…

Yes but Technology only responds (how often this argument has been iterated, dogged and humorless as a Gaussian reduction, among the younger Schwarzkommando especially), “All very well to talk about having a monster by the tail, but do you think we’d’ve had the Rocket if someone, some specific somebody with a name and a penis hadn’t wanted to chuck a ton of Amatol 300 miles and blow up a block full of civilians? Go ahead, capitalize the T on technology, deify it if it’ll make you feel less responsible—but it puts you in with the neutered, brother, in with the eunuchs keeping the harem of our stolen Earth for the numb and joyless hardons of human sultans, human elite with no right at all to be where they are—”

We have to look for power sources here, and distribution networks we were never taught, routes of power our teachers never imagined, or were encouraged to avoid… we have to find meters whose scales are unknown in the world, draw our own schematics, getting feedback, making connections, reducing the error, trying to learn the real function… zeroing in on what incalculable plot? Up here, on the surface, coaltars, hydrogenation, synthesis were always phony, dummy functions to hide the real, the planetary mission yes perhaps centuries in the unrolling… this ruinous plant, waiting for its Kabbalists and new alchemists to discover the Key, teach the mysteries to others…

--Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW (1973), p. 521

Third Eye Spies

Presenting the teaser for Lance Mungia and Russell Targ's forthcoming documentary entitled THIRD EYE SPIES....

The Murder of Diana Ziegler

Here's a particularly strange story from Liz Evans Scolforo of The York Dispatch in Pennsylvania. Entitled "Police:  Jackson Twp. Man Said He Killed His Wife to 'Save the World,'" the report begins as follows:

"John D. Ziegler III told detectives he killed his pregnant wife with a sword because she was the 'queen bee' of a race of hybrid humans that was taking over the world, according to testimony from his preliminary hearing Friday morning.

"'(He said) he needed to destroy her to save the world,' Northern York County Regional Police Detective Mark Baker testified, adding that Ziegler also told him that 'he thought he did the right thing.'

"Ziegler, 31, called 911 shortly after 4 p.m. Jan. 27 and announced he'd killed 25-year-old Diana Ziegler, police have said [...]." 

To read the entirety of Scolforo's 3-17-17 report, click HERE.

Richard Schowengerdt Speaks in Garden Grove

Richard Schowengerdt, the visionary inventor who plays such an important role in my book CHAMELEO, is delivering a lecture next Tuesday night at the Garden Grove Masonic Lodge at 7:00 P.M.  This presentation is a public event that's open to any interested parties, not just Freemasons.  The title of Schowengerdt's lecture is as follows:  "Relationship of the Kabbala to the DoD Acquisition Cycle:  Ancient Esoteric Philosophy as the Root of Modern Creative Systems."  Below Schowengerdt discusses the lecture in his own words:  

"I will be making a presentation next Tuesday, 25 April 2017, at the Garden Grove Lodge on a subject dear to my heart, the creative process as outlined in the Jewish Kabbala and also exemplified in the Department of Defense Acquisition Cycle.  It is only natural and expected that the Kabbala would serve as a model for all creative acts and particularly one that spends billions every year on the most sophisticated systems in the world.

 

"I am delighted that the Masonic Education Coordinator, Brother Adam Buttons, at the Garden Grove Lodge has made this a public event because the universal exercise of creative processes are not limited to a select few.  Therefore, I hope most of you will be able to attend and participate in this most interesting and stimulating program.  Feel free to pass along this message to anyone else who you think would be interested in the event.  If you plan to arrive in time for the Refreshments prior to the presentation, please notify Brother Adam Buttons at adambuttons@hotmail.com so there will be enough for everyone."

More on Sharyl Attkisson

From Jon Rappoport's 4-16-17 No More Fake News article entitled "U.S. Presidents Can Grant Immunity to Snooping Spies":

"Sharyl Attkisson, former CBS investigative reporter, recently spoke with 'a small group of reliable, formerly high-placed intelligence officials.' They tipped her to surveillance tactics in the arsenal of intel agencies.

"Attkisson: 'U.S. Presidents have the power to issue secret presidential directives that can authorize otherwise illegal acts (theoretically in the country’s best interests). These directives may come with pre-planned cover stories to be used in the event the operation is exposed, and they come with indemnity for those involved, giving them permission to lie about the operation or their involvement without fear of prosecution… The public will rarely know about such presidential directives since most who see them must sign agreements that promise nondisclosure and consent to polygraphs.'

"That’s a blockbuster revelation.

"Guaranteed immunity for those involved in the spying/surveillance operation (and other types of operations).

"Plus permission for agents to lie about being involved.

"All in the interest of 'national security.' Unless it isn’t. Unless a president wants to enact revenge on a personal enemy, or commit a financial crime, or win an election, or protect a friend, or serve his elite bosses, or advance a corporate goal, or…pretty much anything.

"He can act like a king.

"One of Attkisson’s intelligence sources told her the following: 'If the work of targeting an individual cannot be accomplished by government intel officers, it can be contracted out to third parties or to foreign parties who aren’t bound by U.S. law.'"

To read the rest of Rappoport's article, click HERE.

HAPPY EASTER!

MIT Grad Arrested on Terrorism Charges

From Daniella Silva's 4-6-17 NBC News article entitled "MIT Grad Nicolai Mork Arrested on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction Charges" (note, in particular, paragraph seven):

"An MIT graduate was arrested on charges of terrorism and possession of weapons of mass destruction, authorities said late Wednesday — and his mother told NBC News she believes her son suffered a 'mental breakdown.'

"Nicolai Howard Mork, 40, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday in Las Vegas on charges related to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, Las Vegas police said. He was arrested without incident at his home Wednesday night, police said. 

"Bail was set a $1 million per count, for a total of $8 million, according to court documents. 

"Mork is accused of planting several incendiary devices, such as Molotov cocktails, to be ignited in multiple locations in the Las Vegas area from Oct. 24 to Dec. 31, 2016, according to the indictment. He was also charged with possessing components of an incendiary device with the intent to manufacture an explosive, and with possessing a Walther P22 .22 caliber handgun with an altered serial number and a silencer. 

"Deputy Chief Chris Jones, director of the Las Vegas police Homeland Security Division, told NBC News on Thursday that investigators found at least eight explosive devices in two residential neighborhoods in Las Vegas beginning in late October.

"'We started seeing this pattern as these devices were deployed and then similarities in the devices and the substances that they were constructed out of,' he said. 

"'It appears that his actions were basically focused on grievances that he had based on perceived wrongdoings,' Jones said. 'He thought people were following him. He thought certain groups were following him.'

"Jones said some of the devices had 'partially exploded, some had partially ignited and others were still intact.' No one was hurt, he added. 

"Mork's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

"The suspect's mother, Joan Mork, 70, told NBC News that she believed her son had suffered 'some sort of mental breakdown' and that he was acting paranoid the last time she saw him. 

"'We believe that he has had some sort of mental breakdown or an enormous shift in his usual thinking, and we hope, with all our hearts, that he will get the help he needs and not just be punished,' she said from her home in Duluth, Minnesota, on Thursday.

"'This is a young man — he's in his 40s now — but he was always brilliant and had many kinds of distinctions throughout his time and in our home and in college,' she said. 

"She said that Mork was 'extremely afraid and angry' with the Church of Scientology and that he believed he was being monitored by members of the group."

To read the rest of Silva's article, click HERE.

THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER

Edinburgh University Press has just released THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER edited by Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Singer.  THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER includes an article by Yours Truly entitled "The Box in the Desert:  Budd Boetticher, Breaking Bad, and the 21st Century Western," which covers several of Boetticher's cult classics such as Behind Locked Doors, Comanche Station, Decision at Sundown, Ride Lonesome, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, and Seven Men from Now.

Here's the jacket copy:  "One of the most important yet overlooked of Hollywood auteurs, Budd Boetticher was responsible for a number of classic films, including his famous 'Ranown' series of westerns starring Randolph Scott. With influential figures like Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood acknowledging Boetticher's influence, and with growing academic interest in his work, Gary D. Rhodes and Robert Singer present a vital collection of essays on the director's long career, from a range of international scholars. Looking at celebrated films like Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) and Comanche Station (1960), as well as at lesser-known works like Escape in the Fog (1945) and Behind Locked Doors (1948), this book also addresses Boetticher's influential television work on the James Garner series Maverick, and Boetticher's continuing aesthetic influence on contemporary TV classics like Breaking Bad."

If you wish to order a copy of THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER, click HERE.

A brief postscript for all you budding writers out there:  While researching "The Box in the Desert," I happened to stumble across an extensive interview with Vince Gilligan, creator and head writer of Breaking Bad.  The following excerpt from that interview is well worth watching.  There are many lessons here about the advantages of persistence.  More importantly, there are even better lessons about pursuing the idea you’re passionate about (even if it’s deemed “non-commercial”) rather than trying to scope out the marketplace and dream up an idea that’s merely “sellable."  Click HERE if you want to watch the interview.

Gangstalking in Battle Ground?

From Jessica Prokop's 4-6-17 The Columbian article entitled "Murder Trial Gets Underway with Opening Statements:  Battle Ground Man Accused in August 2015 Altercation at Storage Facility":


"A prosecutor told jurors Thursday that a man accused of beating another man to death with an aluminum baseball bat could not have been acting in self-defense.

"Stephen Reichow, 35, struck Brandon Maulding nearly 20 times in the head with the bat during an altercation Aug. 1, 2015, outside a storage facility in Battle Ground, Deputy Prosecutor James Smith said during opening statements in Reichow’s murder trial in Clark County Superior Court.

"The two Battle Ground men were acquaintances. Maulding, who was 36, was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.

Smith argued that the level of violence indicates it was not self-defense.

"'A picture can be worth a thousand words, and I think this picture says a lot,' Smith said as he flashed a grisly photo of Maulding’s body across a large screen. 'He beat him to a pulp.'

"Reichow’s defense attorney, Sean Downs, argued that there are two sides to every story and 'sometimes three, four, five. It’s not always going to fit together perfectly for you,' he told the jury.

"What the attorneys do seem to agree on is that Reichow and Maulding had been hanging out earlier in the day. They were picked up by another friend, Anne Tanninen, from Maulding’s house and went to a storage unit that Tanninen had rented.

"The trio was inside the storage space when Tanninen received a strange phone call, Smith said, from someone talking about $5,000, drugs and picking something up. He said both Reichow and Tanninen shared paranoid beliefs about the world, and they thought they were being 'gang stalked.' Gang stalking can include being harassed by an organized group of people."

To read the rest of Prokop's article, click HERE.

Jon Rappoport on the the Sharyl Attkisson Case

From Jon Rappoport's 4-6-17 article entitled "Bombshell:  How Far Did Obama Spying Go?":

...former CBS star investigative reporter, Sharyl Attkisson [...] has sued members of the Obama team and several federal agencies. That lawsuit has just been referred to another venue by the judge in the case. He could have dismissed the suit, but he didn’t. He wants it to proceed. He wants Attkisson to have her day in court. 

You might remember Attkisson was uncovering highly embarrassing details about the gun-walking operation, Fast & Furious, and the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi. She was making the Obama administration extremely uncomfortable. 

But let me quote Judge Emet Sullivan’s recent order transferring Attkisson’s suit:

“In 2011——at the same time that Ms. Attkisson was conducting investigations and issuing certain of her high-profile news reports——the Attkissons ‘began to notice anomalies in numerous electronic devices at their home in Virginia.’ These anomalies included Ms. Attkisson’s work-issued laptop computer and a family desktop computer ‘turning on and off at night without input from anyone in the household,’ ‘the house alarm chirping daily at different times,’ and ‘television problems, including interference.’ All of these electronic devices used ‘the Verizon FiOS line installed in [the Attkissons’] home,’ but Verizon was unable to stanch the anomalous activity despite multiple attempts. In January 2012, the Attkissons’ residential internet service ‘began constantly dropping off’.”

“In February 2012, ‘sophisticated surveillance spyware’ was installed on Ms. Attkisson’s work-issued laptop computer. A later forensic computer analysis revealed that Ms. Attkisson’s laptop and the family’s desktop computer had been the ‘targets of unauthorized surveillance efforts.’ That same forensic analysis revealed that Ms. Attkisson’s mobile phone was also targeted for surveillance when it was connected to the family’s desktop computer. The infiltration of that computer and the extraction of information from it was ‘executed via an IP address owned, controlled, and operated by the United States Postal service.’ Additionally, based on the sophisticated nature of the software used to carry out the infiltration and software fingerprints indicating the use of the federal government’s proprietary software, the infiltration and surveillance appeared to be perpetrated by persons in the federal government.”

“An independent forensic computer analyst hired by CBS subsequently reported finding evidence on both Ms. Attkisson’s work-issued laptop computer and her family’s desktop computer of ‘a coordinated, highly-skilled series of actions and attacks directed at the operation of the computers.’ Computer forensic analysis also indicated that remote actions were taken in December 2012 to remove the evidence of the electronic infiltration and surveillance from Ms. Attkisson’s computers and other home electronic equipment.”

“As Ms. Attkisson’s investigations and reporting continued, in October 2012 the Attkissons noticed ‘an escalation of electronic problems at their personal residence, including interference in home and mobile phone lines, computer interference, and television interference.’ In November of that year, Ms. Attkisson’s mobile phones ‘experienced regular interruptions and interference, making telephone communications unreliable, and, at times, virtually impossible’.”

“Additionally, in December 2012, a person with government intelligence experience conducted an inspection of the exterior of the Attkissons’ Virginia home. That investigator discovered an extra Verizon FiOS fiber optics line. Soon thereafter, after a Verizon technician was instructed by Ms. Attkisson to leave the extra cable at the home, the cable disappeared, and the Attkissons were unable to determine what happened to it. In March 2013, the Attkissons’ desktop computer malfunctioned, and in September of that year, while Ms. Attkisson was working on a story at her home, she observed that her personal laptop computer was remotely accessed and controlled, resulting in data being deleted from it. On April 3, 2013, Ms. Attkisson filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice. The Inspector General’s investigation was limited to an analysis of the compromised desktop computer, and the partially-released report that emerged from that investigation reported ‘no evidence of intrusion,’ although it did note ‘a great deal of advanced mode computer activity not attributable to Ms. Attkisson or anybody in her household’.”

“The Attkissons allege that the ‘cyber-attacks’ they ‘suffered in [their] home’ were perpetrated by ‘personnel working on behalf of the United States.’ Accordingly, they have asserted various claims against the United States and against former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, and unknown agents of the Department of Justice, the United States Postal Service, and the United States, all in their individual capacities. Those claims include claims against the United States under the FTCA and claims against the individual federal officers for violations of constitutional rights under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971)…”

To read Rappoport's entire article, click HERE.

"That Was Some Weird Shit"

From Yashar Ali's 3-29-17 New York Magazine post entitled "What George W. Bush Really Thought of Donald Trump's Inauguration":

"The inauguration of Donald Trump was a surreal experience for pretty much everyone who witnessed it [...]. Following Trump’s short and dire speech, [George W.] Bush departed the scene and never offered public comment on the ceremony.

"But, according to three people who were present, Bush gave a brief assessment of Trump’s inaugural after leaving the dais: 'That was some weird shit.' All three heard him say it.

"A spokesman for Bush declined to comment."

 To read Ali's entire post, please click HERE.

Cory Doctorow on Stasi Tactics

What follow are a few relevant excerpts from Cory Doctorow's 3-29-17 Boing Boing post entitled "How East Germany's Stasi Tried to Drive Activists Insane, and How They Resisted": 


"East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, were the most aggressive surveillance force of their day -- at the Stasi's peak, one in 60 East Germans was snitching for the agency.

"The tactics that the Stasi deployed to recruit informants -- blackmail, cash, patriotism, immunity from prosecution, and gamification -- are less interesting than the things the Stasi did to their adversaries, inflicting mental torture of various types to drive the opposition to attack itself, or simply give up.

"Just by spreading rumors about the existence of informants, the Stasi were able to drive a wedge into the opposition, as activists turned their suspicions on one another.

"But by forming circles of trust and mutual aid, demonstrating intergroup solidarity, and deploying active countermeasures, a resistance was able to form and, eventually, depose the hated, oppressive government and its army of spies."

To read Doctorow's post in its entirety, please click HERE.

Bunny Rabbits and Nuclear Armageddon: The Misadventures of Dr. Sidney Gottlieb

What follow are the first few paragraphs of Sharon Weinberger's 3-21-17 article entitled "The Bunny, the Witch, and the War Room" (an excerpt from Weinberger's new book, The Imagineers of War:  The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World):

"Among the Stanford Research Institute’s many classified research projects in the early 1970s was a contract supported by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of Technical Service, a division headed by Sidney Gottlieb, perhaps the most notorious scientist ever to work for the spy agency. The secret program was testing different forms of parapsychology, such as whether humans had the ability to use their minds to visualize or even influence remote objects. Believing the work was showing promise, Gottlieb one day invited the director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Stephen Lukasik, over to his CIA office to discuss it.

"Gottlieb, a chemist by training, was both an unconventional thinker and an unwavering patriot, who believed his work served the good of the nation. 'Friends and enemies alike say Mr. Gottlieb was a kind of genius, striving to explore the frontiers of the human mind for his country,' read the 1999 New York Times obituary of Gottlieb, 'while searching for religious and spiritual meaning in his life.' In the end, however, Gottlieb would be remembered most for what looked like a willful contempt of common decency.

"As the head of the Office of Technical Service, Gottlieb led a wing of the CIA whose failed innovations to assassinate the Cuban leader Fidel Castro included poison pens and exploding seashells. He also worked on one of the agency’s most notorious projects: the use of LSD as a mind-control drug. Under Gottlieb’s supervision, LSD was tested on unwitting human guinea pigs, including, among other unfortunate victims, the mentally ill, prostitutes, and even one army scientist who later committed suicide. When the program was first exposed in 1975 by the Rockefeller Commission, and then detailed by the congressional Church Committee, Gottlieb’s public legacy as some sort of mad scientist was all but assured.

"The day Lukasik went to visit Gottlieb—in 1971, as Lukasik recalls it—the CIA scientist was in fine form. What Gottlieb wanted to discuss was bunny rabbits and nuclear Armageddon."

To read the rest of Weinberger's article, please click HERE.