Saturday, February 25, 2023

Thomas H. Lee Dead at 78

From a 2-24-23 Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute post entitled "Private Equity Giant Thomas H. Lee Found Dead in His Office":

Billionaire financier and investor Thomas H. Lee (aged 78) was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Manhattan office. Police officers responded to a 911 call at 767 Fifth Avenue at around 11:10 a.m. EMTs pronounced him dead at the scene on the morning of February 23, 2023.

To read the entire post, click HERE.

Read Chris Isidore's 2-24-23 CNN report about Lee's death right HERE.

Two on Dahl

From Tomiwa Owolade's 2-23-23 MSN.com article entitled "Changing Roald Dahl’s Words Is an Act of Cowardice and We All Know It":

This is acquiescence to an increasingly aggressive cultural mood that sanitises anything “offensive” without regard for what genuine purpose is served in doing so. The note in the new editions proclaims the decisions have been made to allow everyone to enjoy Dahl’s books. But nastiness is an integral part of Dahl’s appeal for children in the very first place.

This is not just about Dahl, though. This is also about what we mean by inclusivity. It is a good thing insofar as we recognise it for what it actually is: a compassionate attitude to human differences. Bowdlerising Dahl’s work in this heavy-handed way is not compassionate. It is an abdication of artistic and moral responsibility to the whims of a nebulous category of people: the potentially offended.

To read Owolade's entire article, click HERE.

From Imogen West-Knights' 2-23-23 SLATE article entitled "The BFG Isn’t a BFD":


This whole thing also seems like a misunderstanding about what is appealing about the world of Roald Dahl in the first place. Or not, in fact, a misunderstanding, but something closer to a cynical attempt to sanitize the I.P. before Netflix gets their hands on it to pump out a load of new Dahl adaptations, as they will be doing in the coming years after a deal with the Roald Dahl Story Company. Puffin can change lines like “so I shipped them all over here—every man, woman and child in the Oompa-Loompa tribe” to “so, they all agreed to come over—each and every Oompa Loompa.” Fine, but do we now need more detail on how the Oompa-Loompas are being compensated fairly for their work? Does any child in the world give a shit about that? I’m being facetious, but the point is that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a horrible little story in many ways. Changing specific phrases doesn’t change the shape of these books themselves. They are nasty books. Dahl was a nasty writer for adults as well: His short stories are some of the most memorable and twisted things I’ve read. The Twits is about a husband and a wife torturing each other for fun. In Matilda, a little boy is forced to eat an entire chocolate cake until he is almost sick as a punishment. In George’s Marvelous Medicine, George kills his grandmother by shrinking her out of existence. The nastiness is a feature, not a bug.

To read West-Knights' entire article, click HERE.



"A sanitized culture always on its good behavior & bleached of provocation is no culture at all. It’s a garden party where no one talks of anything but the weather, and these days even the weather is controversial. In America, culture defines politics rather than the other way around, and it remains to be seen whether the culture wrests back from our times the courage of disquieting provocations…."

--Steve Erickson, AMERICAN STUTTER, 2021

Friday, February 24, 2023

REUTERS: "White Supremacists Behind Over 80% of Extremism-related U.S. Murders in 2022"

From 's 2-23-23 REUTERS article entitled "White Supremacists Behind Over 80% of Extremism-related U.S. Murders in 2022":

Mass shootings in the United States accounted for most extremism-related fatalities last year in the country with over 80% of those murders committed by white supremacists, data released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed on Thursday.

The advocacy group labeled 25 murders in 2022 as "extremist-related," with 18 of those "committed in whole or part for ideological motives."

Two mass shootings - one in May in Buffalo, New York, wherein an avowed white supremacist fatally shot 10 Black people, and another in November in Colorado Springs wherein five people were killed in an LGBTQ nightclub - accounted for most of the extremist-related murders of 2022, the ADL report showed.

White supremacists commit the highest number of domestic extremist-related murders in most years, but in 2022 the percentage was unusually high: 21 of the 25 murders were linked to white supremacists, according to the ADL report.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

DAILY MAIL: "Arkansas Cops Rule Suicide in Death of Clinton Aide Linked to Jeffrey Epstein"

From Daniel Bates' 2-22-23 DAILY MAIL article entitled: "Arkansas Cops Rule Suicide in Death of Clinton Aide Linked to Jeffrey Epstein - Who Was Found Shot and Tied to a Tree with an Electrical Cord Around His Neck - Despite No Sign of Weapon":

The grisly scene where a top Bill Clinton adviser was found hanged from a tree with a gunshot wound to his chest has finally been revealed nine months after he died.

But the sheriff's report into Mark Middleton's mysterious death raises more questions than answers as it rules he died by suicide – despite no sign of the weapon that killed him.

Middleton, 59, was found dead last May at the Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas, an hour west of Little Rock.

Release of the report was held up after members of his family petitioned a judge. They were worried that pictures from the gory scene would be made public.

The judge eventually ruled that details could be released but photographs could not.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

SUN RA: "UFO"

In honor of recent events.... 

SUN RA: "UFO" 

from the album

SUN RA AND HIS ARKESTRA: ON JUPITER (1979)

Friday, February 17, 2023

John A. Keel & the Saga of the Fugo Balloons

What with giant spy balloons, octagonal UFOs, and various and sundry "mystery objects" being shot out of the skies of America left and right these days, perhaps this would be a good time to familiarize yourself with John A. Keel's now infamous 1990 FATE MAGAZINE article entitled "The Fugo Balloons," in which Keel proposed his theory that the July 1947 "UFO crash" in Roswell, New Mexico was actually an explosive "Japanese fire balloon." Keel included this article in the final book to be published in his lifetime, THE BEST OF JOHN A. KEEL, VOLUME 1 (Galde Press, 2006). It can also be found on pages 19 to 32 of the March 1990 issue of FATE MAGAZINE.

Nick Redfern, author of BODY SNATCHERS IN THE DESERT, offered his own analysis of Keel's theory in a 7-27-22 MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE article entitled "John Keel and the Japanese Connection to the Roswell 'UFO Crash.'"

Thursday, February 16, 2023

UFO Triptych

1) From Kathryn Watson's 2-16-23 CBSNews.com report entitled "Biden Says Last Three Flying Objects Were Likely Tied to Private Companies, Recreation or Research":

Mr. Biden noted part of the reason why the U.S. is observing more of these objects is because the military recently increased the sensitivity of its radars.

"We don't have any evidence that there has been a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky," the president said. "We're now just seeing more of them partially because [of] the steps we've taken to increase our radars, to narrow our radars. And we have to keep adapting our approach to dealing with these challenges."

The president has created a new interagency group to determine a strategy moving forward on how to handle such aerial objects. But the president emphasized Thursday that [he] won't hesitate to take down aerial objects that pose a threat.

"Make no mistake," Mr. Biden said. "If any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down."

To read the entire article, click HERE.

2) From CNN (2-15-23): "UFOs Are Making Headlines. See New Image that Allegedly Shows an Unknown Object in a Conflict Zone."

3) From Caitlin Doornbos and Steven Nelson's 2-14-23 NEW YORK POST article entitled "Last Three UFOs Shot Down Likely Weren’t Chinese Spy Devices, US Says" (2-14-23): 

US intelligence officials do not believe the three UFOs shot down over the weekend were tied to China’s spy balloon program, a National Security Council spokesman told reporters Tuesday.

“Our initial assessments here, based on talking to civil authorities in the intelligence community, is that we don’t see anything that points right now to these being part of the PRC spying program or, in fact, intelligence collection against the United States of any kind,” John Kirby said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

The US Air Force downed airborne objects over Alaska on Friday, northwestern Canada on Saturday and Lake Huron on Sunday. None has been tied to China or any other country, but Kirby said more information will be gleaned once their remnants are retrieved [...].

If the objects were not Chinese spy balloons, they could have been any number of different craft used for benign research and monitoring, Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said Sunday.

“A range of entities — including countries, companies, research organizations — operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research,” she said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no private companies or nations had come forward to claim any of the recently downed objects, Kirby said.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

From Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali's 2-13-23 Reuters.com report entitled "Ruling Out Aliens? Senior U.S. General Says Not Ruling Out Anything Yet":

The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts.

Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by U.S. warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."

To read the entire report, click HERE.

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers Trailer (1956):

Monday, February 13, 2023

Active Shooter in Michigan

From a 2-13-23 WRAL.com news report entitled "Active Shooter at Michigan State University; 1 Dead, Multiple Injured":

At least one person is dead and multiple injured in an active shooter situation at Michigan State University. Students were told to shelter in place immediately after shots were fired on campus Monday evening, campus police said.

"There have been shots fired near Berkey Hall on the East Lansing campus. Please secure-in-place immediately. Police are active on scene. More information to follow," MSU police tweeted.

To read the entire report, click HERE.

Ten Years Since Christopher Dorner's Killing Spree

Ten years ago yesterday, former Navy reservist and LAPD officer Christopher Dorner died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after committing a series of killings across Southern California that began on February 3 and ended on February 12.


What follows is a brief excerpt from Melissa Mecija's 2-4-23 10News.com report entitled "Meeting a Murderer: One Man's Encounter with Former Cop Christopher Dorner":

[San Diego fisherman Mike] Flynn met Dorner in early February in Pt. Loma. “He came down… maybe about two in the afternoon. He was just kind of walking around the docks,” Flynn said. “I guess he was trying to find a boat.”

At that point, Flynn knew nothing of the murders or the search to find Dorner in a nearby hotel at the [Pt. Loma] Navy base.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Meeting a Murderer: One Man's Encounter with Chris Dorner


 

Here's an excerpt from Kyla Calvert's 2-7-13 KPBS report entitled "Mountain Manhunt For Ex-Cop Accused Of Killing 3 Continues":

In San Diego, where police say Dorner tied up an elderly man and unsuccessfully tried to steal his boat Wednesday night, Naval Base Point Loma was locked down Thursday [Feb. 7] after a Navy worker reported seeing someone who resembled Dorner.

Navy spokesman Kevin Dixon said a Navy person reported someone matching Dorner's description in the area. Dozens of local police, sheriff's deputies and federal agents were at the base.

The Navy reports Dorner checked into the Navy Gateway Inn on the [Point Loma] naval base on Tuesday, Feb. 5 and was supposed to check out the next day, but never did. [According to Wikipedia, Dorner "skipped checkout procedures when leaving."] Brad Fagan, another Navy spokesman, said Dorner was honorably discharged from the Navy Reserve on Friday, Feb. 1.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Déjà Vu: Flying Saucers on the Attack

What follows is an excerpt from Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade, and Eugene Daniels' 2-12-23 POLITICO article entitled "Playbook: UFO Fever Grips Washington":

— On Friday, President JOE BIDEN ordered a balloon with a car-sized payload destroyed after it violated U.S. airspace over Alaska. It was flying at just 40,000 feet, roughly the altitude of civilian airliners, and was destroyed by an F-22 over a frozen portion of the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. The Pentagon noted that the UFO “does not resemble in any way the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this week.”

BUT they don’t know what it is — or at least they’re not saying.

“We have no further details about the object at this time, including any description of its capabilities, purpose or origin,” said the Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Brig. Gen. PAT RYDER.

— Later that same night, NORAD detected another object over Alaska and two American F-22s began tracking it. On Saturday, the UFO drifted into Canadian airspace and the F-22s were joined by two Canadian aircraft.

Biden’s national security advisers saw the UFO as a serious enough issue that the president was “continually briefed by his national security team since the object was detected,” according to the White House. The “high-altitude airborne object” soon merited a phone call between Biden and Canadian Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU, and the two leaders agreed to take it out.

A U.S. F-22 shot down the object over the Canadian Yukon using an AIM 9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile around 3:41 p.m. ET. As with the Friday night UFO, we still don’t know what it was we shot on Saturday. Biden and Trudeau “discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin,” according to the White House.

Canadian Minister of Defense ANITA ANAND said the object was similar to the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, “though smaller in size and cylindrical in nature.”

— Perhaps because everyone is a little on edge with all the UFOs, a few hours later on Saturday the FAA temporarily shut down airspace in central Montana after the military saw something unusual on radar. There was little explanation about what it was. “NORAD detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate,” NORAD said in a statement. “Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation.”

Click HERE to read the entire article.

As 1950s-style "UFO fever" grips the nation, I recommend taking this opportunity to acquaint (or reacquaint) yourself with Harold T. Wilkins' classic 1954 book, Flying Saucers on the Attack, particularly Chapter Six ("Colossal Death Ray Aeroform"), in which the author attempts to blame various unsolved air disasters on the hostile actions of UFOs. Almost seventy years after its initial publication, Wilkins' eccentric reportage still commands the reader's attention. Delving into Wilkins' entire book (which can be purchased HERE) would not be a waste of anyone's time. You can also find the entire text at Archive.org right HERE.

Weatherboy on UFOs

From WEATHERBOY'S 2-12-23 report entitled "Chinese Military Preparing to Shoot-Down Mysterious UFO in Eastern China":

State media in China is reporting a mysterious unidentified flying object (UFO) flying over eastern China’s Shandong Province and is warning people in the area to “stay safe” as officials prepare to shoot it down. According to The Global Times, an English media outlet run by China, local maritime authorities on Sunday said that they had spotted an unidentified flying object in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao in the province and were preparing to shoot it down, reminding fishermen to be safe via messages. Outside of this Chinese government report, there is no other third party confirmation of this incident and/or if it is ongoing.

There has been an abundance of UFO chatter in recent days as the United States took to the skies to shoot-down foreign aircraft over its airspace for the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. As of press time, the United States shot down three suspicious aircraft around North America over the last week....

To read the entire report, click HERE.

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Into the Fringe: Christopher O'Brien and David Perkins

Recommended Viewing: This past Thursday night, Christopher O'Brien (author of STALKING THE HERD) and writer/journalist David Perkins appeared on INTO THE FRINGE to discuss cattle mutilations, UFOS, mystery drones, and all manner of High Strangeness:

Into The Fringe #96: Christopher O'Brien & David Perkins 

Saturday, February 4, 2023

The Daily Show: Jordan Klepper Crashes Trump's First 2024 Campaign "Rally"

I recommend watching Jordan Klepper of THE DAILY SHOW as he interacts with some of the brightest bulbs of the Trump batch (posted on 1-31-23)....

Jordan Klepper Crashes Trump's First 2024 Campaign "Rally" | The Daily Show:



Friday, February 3, 2023

The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic

What follow are brief excerpts from Jessica A. Botelho's 2-2-23 ABC News report entitled "Satanic Temple Launches Abortion Clinic Named After Catholic Supreme Court Justice":

The Satanic Temple announced the launch of a telehealth abortion clinic [...] named “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.” [Alito is a Catholic judge who serves on the U.S. Supreme Court.]

In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened,” Malcolm Jarry, who is the cofounder of the Satanic Temple, said in a news release on Wednesday. “Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.”
In June, Justice Alito, along with the rest of the Supreme Court, overturned Roe v. Wade [...].

The Satanic Temple's website includes a cartoon image of a woman — presumably Alito's mother — saying, "If only abortion was legal when I was pregnant."

To read the entire article, click HERE.


Thursday, February 2, 2023

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES JOYCE!

On what would have been James Joyce's 141st birthday, I recommend checking out Terence McKenna's lecture entitled Surfing Finnegans Wake (delivered to The Esalen Institute in 1995)....