SHADOWS OUT OF TIME

From across the pond, courtesy of Pete and Nicky Crowther's PS Publishing (who released my second book, SPIES & SAUCERS), comes a brand new Lovecraft-themed anthology entitled SHADOWS OUT OF TIME. The anthology includes my latest short story, "Toward a General Theory of Yithian Psychology," as well as stories by such writers as Gordon Linzner, Will Murray, Robert M. Price, Harry Turtledove, and Don Webb. Featuring a cover painted by award-winning artist Bob Eggleton, the book is available in a limited hardcover edition as well as a trade paperback.

Censorship in Texas

From Jordan Smith's CBLDF.org article entitled "Texas School Investigated by Office for Civil Rights After Books Pulled":

Granbury ISD, a district roughly 60 miles west of Dallas, is under federal investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after 131 books were removed from the school library in January of 2022.

Before the start of the semester last year, the superintendent asked librarians to remove books that didn’t align with the conservative community. Graphic novels swept up in this removal included Jerry Craft’s New Kid and Class Act, Raina Telgemeier’s Drama, a collection about famous women entitled No Girls Allowed, and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd [...].

This investigation by the OCR is particularly notable because it is the first time the federal government has become involved in the recent school bans and challenges outside the House Committee on Oversight hearing. The fact that it has gotten to this point speaks to the escalation of book challenges in the United States.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Censorship in Florida (Part 2)

From Christopher Wiggins' 1-23-23 ADVOCATE article entitled "DeSantis Blames 'Queer Theory' for AP African American Studies Course Rejection":

Monday morning, Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ Republican governor, Gov. Ron DeSantis, addressed questions about his education department’s recent rejection of an AP African American Studies course, claiming its inclusion of queer theory made it inappropriate for Florida’s students to learn.

According to DeSantis, the advanced placement course on Black history included a lesson on “queer theory,” which runs afoul of the governor’s “don’t say gay” law.

“This course, when I heard it, didn’t meet the standards. I figured, ‘Yeah, they may be doing CRT,’” DeSantis told reporters in Jacksonville. “It’s way more than that. This course on Black history, what [is] one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that’s an important part of Black history, Queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids” [...].

“If those like the Florida governor would educate themselves first, before hindering the education of our young people, they might realize that great thinkers and writers like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, as well as a host of others, are the progenitors of what is now Black Queer Theory,” [E. Patrick] Johnson tells The Advocate.

“It would be best that those who are not scholars of African American history to leave the question of what should and should not be included in that history to those scholars,” he says.

Press Secretary for Equality Florida, Brandon Wolf, agrees with Johnson’s assessment.

“It sounds like Ron DeSantis would himself benefit from taking AP African American Studies, as he has no knowledge of the critical role that queer people have played in Black history in our country,” Wolf tells The Advocate. “Bayard Rustin, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many others helped shape American history, and learning about the contributions of Black LGBTQ people absolutely has educational value, despite the governor’s objections.”

Wolf adds: “DeSantis has staked his political career on book banning, government censorship, and replacing lessons on arts, culture, and our history with whitewashed, anti-LGBTQ propaganda. Educational institutions deserve better than his politically-motivated assaults on truth. Students deserve better.”

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Censorship in Florida

From Will Potter's 1-25-23 DAILY MAIL article entitled "Florida District Removes Novel by Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison - the Fourth Most Banned Book in America - from Classrooms and Libraries After Christian Mom Blasted Public Schools as 'Marxist Indoctrination Camp'":

A Florida school board has become the latest to remove a book by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison from its classrooms and libraries after a mom slammed it for 'exposing kids to pedophilia' and running 'Marxist indoctrination camps'.

Michelle Stille blasted the Pinellas County school board for including Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' in her child's advanced literature course.

Stille, a teacher at a Christian school in the district, said she was 'shocked any adult would expose 15-year-olds' to the book's 'explicit descriptions of illegal activities'.

Stille emailed school board members disturbing excerpts from the book, which led the authority to review and ultimately ban the novel across the county.

The controversial 1970 novel tells the story of a young African American girl who believes she is ugly as she doesn't have blue eyes.

The book includes elements of abuse, pedophilia, sexual assault, racism and incest, and has consistently been one of the most banned books in school districts across America.

Stille claimed she would be pulling all seven of her kids out of the area's public schools in protest.

'When I first read The Bluest Eye back in September 2022 I had a freeze response to it,' she said her in her YouTube clip, titled 'Marxism in Education' [...].

Pinellas County chief academic officer Dan Evans responded by banning the book from libraries and classrooms, telling school board members the district was 'erring on the side of caution'.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Devin Stone: "Trump's Criminal Referral from the January 6 Committee"

In this 18-minute video, Devin "Legal Eagle" Stone presents a useful and succinct overview of Donald Trump's Criminal Referral from the January 6 Committee....

DAILY BEAST: "Anti-Liberalism in America Is a Delusion of ‘Freedom’ That Will Only Lead to Violence"

From Bonnie Kristian's 1-17-23 DAILY BEAST article entitled "Anti-Liberalism in America Is a Delusion of ‘Freedom’ That Will Only Lead to Violence":

“Suppose the election was declared free and fair,” American diplomat Richard Holbrooke worried of Bosnia in 1996, but the winners are “racists, fascists, separatists, who are publicly opposed to [peace and reintegration]. That is the dilemma,” he said, in a decade when ascendant illiberalism was a relatively distant prospect, a problem for faraway places like Peru, Slovakia, and the Philippines.

And though that sentence could be pasted verbatim into any number of articles about former President Donald Trump from the last half-decade, I’m not so sure we have the same dilemma now, when illiberalism is rising on left and right alike here in the United States. Ideological anti-liberals—the sort of people who know what “David French-ism” means, who explicitly reject liberalism’s insistence on tolerance and want to fundamentally change how our government works—don’t have the numbers to sweep to power as Holbrooke’s comment anticipated.

That means their plan to overhaul American politics depends, at best, on a delusional belief that if we toss out liberalism, their party will somehow come out on top. At worst, however, it depends on something much darker: forcible subjugation of the many Americans who haven’t embraced their vision for a post-liberal United States. And that’s a plan which could only appeal to those who have forgotten the centuries of horrific violence that led the West to liberalism [...].

So how do these illiberal groups expect to win? Let’s take the blasphemy law crowd—Christian nationalists—as a case study. Writing to self-proclaimed Christian nationalists in the pages of World Magazine, a conservative Christian outlet, Southern Baptist ethicist Andrew T. Walker raised the key question: “Tell me,” he said, “how are you going to achieve sufficient enough majorities in a nation where Christianity is in decline?”

Realistically, they won’t. Christian nationalism isn’t a decades-long evangelism program. It’s an illiberal politics supported by a minority of a minority of a shrinking demographic. The answer to Walker’s question, then, isn’t conversion and persuasion. It’s delusion—or force.

Like other advocates of illiberalism, Christian nationalists typically don’t spell this part out. They don’t acknowledge the comparative unpopularity of their cause, and they certainly don’t openly endorse a return to the ideological violence that fueled demand for liberalism in the first place. Let’s get back to creed wars is not an attractive message to anyone who knows that history.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

GIZMODO: "The Enduring Mystery of an Aggressive FBI Raid Near Area 51"

From Lucas Ropek's 1-19-22 GIZMODO article entitled "The Enduring Mystery of an Aggressive FBI Raid Near Area 51":

[Joerg] Arnu shared pictures with Gizmodo of the damage caused by the feds as they stormed both residences. They clearly showed door frames that have been violently impacted. Arnu says that agents also tracked mud all over his carpeting, broke a desk and a lamp, and left his homes in a state of disarray. The damages from the raids total approximately $5,000, he said.

The biggest loss that the blogger suffered, however, was the assets that police seized during the raids: approximately $20,000 worth of electronics, according to him. This included five computers, multiple phones, external hard drives, digital cameras, and an expensive drone, among other items.

“I’d really like to have my stuff back,” Arnu said in an interview. “I lost all of the backups. I lost literally all of the information that I had saved on my computers, including tax information, financial information, medical records—all of that is gone and is basically being held hostage by the FBI right now.”

As of this week, it’s been more than two months since the government raided both of Arnu’s properties, but he still hasn’t been charged with a crime. He was served with a search warrant that was missing dozens of pages and gave no reason for the raid; the case records related to the warrant have been sealed, so there’s no way of telling what the point of the search was. He also hasn’t been able to get in touch with the FBI, aside from a letter from the agency’s legal department denying reimbursement for the damage caused during the raids, he said. And, it goes without saying, he never got his stuff back.

“I believe the search, executed with completely unnecessary force by overzealous government agents, was meant as a message to silence the Area 51 research community,” Arnu recently wrote on his website.

The lingering questions around the case have yet to be answered: what were federal agents after when they ransacked his residences in Rachel and Las Vegas? Why did they feel the need to conduct their raids with such force? And what exactly did Arnu do to incur their wrath?

To read the entire article, click HERE.

WASHINGTON POST: "Three Active-duty Marines with Intelligence Jobs Charged in Jan. 6 Breach"

From Spencer S. Hsu and Alex Horton's 1-20-23 WASHINGTON POST article entitled "Three Active-duty Marines with Intelligence Jobs Charged in Jan. 6 Breach":

Three active duty members of the Marine Corps assigned to intelligence-related jobs, including one at the National Security Agency headquarters in Maryland, have been charged with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to court filings unsealed Thursday and military service records.

Cpl. Micah Coomer, Sgt. Joshua Abate and Sgt. Dodge Dale Hellonen were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday near Camp Pendleton, Calif., Fort Meade, Md., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., respectively, and appeared in local federal courts [...].

The sergeants’ occupations as special communications signals analysts and the corporal’s job as an intelligence surveillance reconnaissance system engineer were first reported by Military.com and were confirmed in their service records [...].

The men are the first active-duty military members to be charged in the Capitol attack since Maj. Christopher Warnagiris of the Marine Corps was arrested in May 2021. He is awaiting trial on felony counts including assaulting or impeding police and obstructing an official proceeding. About 120 of the roughly 940 people arrested in the Capitol breach served in the military, reserves or National Guard.

According to charging papers filed Tuesday and unsealed Thursday, Coomer posted photographs on Instagram taken from inside the Capitol during the breach, captioned “Glad to be apart of history.” Data provided by Facebook in connection with an August 2021 federal search warrant showed that in a Jan. 31 direct message on Instagram, Coomer allegedly “stated his belief ‘that everything in this country is corrupt. We honestly need a fresh restart. I’m waiting for the boogaloo.’”

Coomer described the term as “Civil war 2,” according to an FBI arrest affidavit. U.S. prosecutors have described “boogaloo” as a term taken up by fringe groups referring to a racially or ethnically motivated civil war [...].

Separately, another Washington-area military reservist assigned to the U.S. intelligence community and facing a charge in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was convicted Wednesday on unrelated felony weapons offenses.

Hatchet M. Speed, a Navy Reserve petty officer first class assigned to Naval Warfare Space Field Activity at the National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Va., was found guilty of possessing three unregistered firearms silencers by a jury in Alexandria federal court.

Speed has pleaded not guilty to federal misdemeanor charges in Washington after being described by U.S. prosecutors as a heavily armed Nazi sympathizer with top-level U.S. government security clearance who breached the Capitol with members of the Proud Boys extremist group. A new indictment this month added a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress against Speed, who until recently worked with a U.S. defense and intelligence cyberoperations contractor based in nearby Vienna, Va.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Censorship in North Dakota

From a 1-18-23 NBC News report entitled "North Dakota Weighs Ban on 'Sexually Explicit' Library Books":

Books containing “sexually explicit” content — including depictions of sexual or gender identity — would be banned from North Dakota public libraries under legislation that state lawmakers began considering Tuesday.

The GOP-dominated state House Judiciary Committee heard arguments but did not take a vote on the measure, which applies to visual depictions of “sexually explicit” content and proposes up to 30 days imprisonment for librarians who refuse to remove the offending books.

The proposal comes amid a national wave of Republican-backed laws to ban books that feature LGBTQ subject matter — though usually those bills have been limited to school libraries, not public ones.

Supporters of the bill said it would preserve children’s innocence and reduce their exposure to pornography.

But critics said the measure is “steeped in discrimination” and would allow government censorship of material that is not actually obscene.

To read the entire report, click HERE.

GUARDIAN: "US Government Logs More than 500 UFO Reports with Hundreds Unexplained"

From THE GUARDIAN'S 1-12-23 article entitled "US Government Logs More than 500 UFO Reports with Hundreds Unexplained":

The US government is examining 510 UFO reports, more than triple the number in its 2021 file. While many were caused by drones or balloons, hundreds remain unexplained, according to a report released on Thursday.

The 2022 report (pdf) by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said that 247 “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAP reports have been filed with it since June 2021, when it revealed that it had records of 144 sightings of suspicious aerial objects under examination.

In addition, the report said, another 119 reports that had been buried in old records from the past 17 years had been unearthed, leaving it with 510 in total.
Most of the new reports come from US navy and air force pilots, it said. 

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Another MAGA Shooter

From Gina Martinez's 1-17-23 CBS News report entitled "Former GOP Candidate Arrested in Shootings at Homes of Democratic New Mexico Elected Officials":

Albuquerque police arrested a former Republican state House candidate in connection with recent shootings at the homes of Democratic lawmakers.

At a news conference on Monday night, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina announced that Solomon Pena, 39, was in police custody following a SWAT standoff in Southwest Albuquerque Monday afternoon.

"It is believed that he is the mastermind behind this and that was organizing this," Medina told reporters in front of a projected picture of Pena wearing a red hoodie that reads "Make America Great Again" in front of two Trump flags [...].

Pena is accused of conspiring with and paying four other men to shoot at the homes of 2 county commissioners and 2 state legislators, police said.

Investigators said that five people were involved in the conspiracy and that Pena was directly involved in the final shooting.

To read the entire CBS News report, click HERE.

From POLITICO'S 1-18-23 article entitled "Failed New Mexico Candidate Appears in Court in Shooting Case":

[Solomon] Peña had posted on social media after the November election that it was “rigged” and he would not concede despite losing his bid for the statehouse by a landslide.

According to a criminal complaint, the political newcomer allegedly paid for four men to shoot at Democratic officials’ homes, including one house where a 10-year-old girl was asleep.

The case of Peña, who had posted photos of himself online with Donald Trump campaign material, is one of dozens across the United States where people have threatened, and in some cases attempted to carry out, violence against members of Congress, school board members and other election officials.

A self-proclaimed “MAGA king,” Peña expressed discontent with the election and the certification of the results in a text message sent to one of his alleged coconspirators in November.

To read the entire POLITICO article, click HERE.

EXPANDING FRONTIERS ON YOUTUBE

In case you missed my interview with Erica Lukes on EXPANDING FRONTIERS, you can catch the entire two-hour-plus show on YouTube....

 

EXPANDING FRONTIERS (1-13-23)

Seattle Book Mama Reviews Operation Mindfuck!

OPERATION MINDFUCK has just been reviewed by Seattle Book Mama:

"If you are still dazed from this [QAnon] business, then Robert Guffey has written a book just for you. In readable yet well researched fashion, he lays it all out: where it began, who, why, how. He can’t make it go away for you—or me, for that matter—but he can make the whole bizarre business a bit less confusing... [T]his book is what you need. Get your fire lit, your cup of coffee (or something far stronger), curl up (in fetal position, if necessary), and prepare to learn."

To read the entire book review, click HERE. 

By the way, here are some photos of OPERATION MINDFUCK in the wild (at my local Barnes & Noble).... 

OPERATION MINDFUCK ON EXPANDING FRONTIERS

NEWS FLASH!!!: I’ll be discussing OPERATION MINDFUCK with Erica Lukes on the EXPANDING FRONTIERS podcast later today (Jan. 13) from 4:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M PST. Tune in, Cryptoscatology mavens!  

For further info regarding the show, click HERE.

OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP is available from OR Books right HERE, and it's also available from Amazon HERE.

 

The Day the Crazies Came to Town

Operation Mindfuck QANON AND THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP   ROBERT GUFFEY "Voltaire suggested that those who can make us believe absurdities can make us commit atrocities, and QAnon provided the practical demonstration. Robert Guffey’s razor-sharp postings illuminate how a collage of Shaver mysteries, Discordian prankster politics and recreational conspiracy theory played out as dissociative American fugue. Jaw-dropping and essential." —Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen

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