Note: I make my appearance at around 29:50....
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Spend New Year's Transcending Reality!
The raw, unedited version of my TRANSCENDING REALITIES television interview, produced by Ivolve TV, has been posted on YouTube. Watch as a quartet of cutting-edge cryptoscatologists (consisting of Melinda Leslie, Miesha Johnston, Lorien Fenton, and Skye) grill Yours Truly about such transgressive subject matter as Homeland Security Fuckery amped to the nth degree, covert invisibility technology, faked alien abductions, out-of-control government surveillance, roving amorphous energy-beings, Operation Mind Control, and my strange-but-true journalistic memoir CHAMELEO. Feel free to revel in chaos this New Year's and TRANSCEND REALITY!!!
Note: I make my appearance at around 29:50....
Note: I make my appearance at around 29:50....
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
New York Times: "Warrantless Surveillance Can Continue Even if Law Expires, Officials Say"
From Charlie Savage's 12-6-17 New York Times article entitled "Warrantless Surveillance Can Continue Even if Law Expires, Officials Say":
To read the entire article, click HERE.
"The Trump administration has decided that the National Security
Agency and the F.B.I. can lawfully keep operating their warrantless
surveillance program even if Congress fails to extend the law
authorizing it before an expiration date of New Year’s Eve, according to
American officials.
"National
security officials have implored Congress for the past year and a half
to extend the legal basis for the program, Section 702 of the FISA
Amendments Act, before it lapses at the end of the month. They portrayed
such a bill as the 'top legislative priority' for keeping the country safe.
"But
with Congress focused on passing a major tax cut and divided over what
changes, if any, to make to the surveillance program, lawmakers may miss
that deadline. Hedging against that risk, executive branch lawyers have
now concluded that the government could lawfully continue to spy under
the program through late April without new legislation.
"Intelligence
officials nonetheless remain intent on getting lawmakers to pass a
durable extension of Section 702 by the end of the month — warning that
even a stopgap short-term extension of several months, as some lawmakers
have proposed, would risk throwing the program into a crisis in the
spring.
"'We
fully expect Congress to reauthorize this critical statute by the end
of the year,' said Brian Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence. 'Not doing so would be unthinkable in
light of the considerable value Section 702 provides in protecting the
nation.'
"The
expiring law grew out of the Bush administration’s once-secret
Stellarwind warrantless surveillance program after the Sept. 11 attacks.
After it came to light, Congress enacted the FISA Amendments Act of
2008 to legalize a form of the program.
"Under
Section 702, the N.S.A. and the F.B.I. may collect from domestic
companies like AT&T and Google the phone calls, emails, texts and
other electronic messages of foreigners abroad without a warrant — even
when they talk with Americans. The program has expanded to a broad array
of foreign intelligence purposes, not just counterterrorism.
"If
Congress fails to reauthorize the law this month, Mr. Hale acknowledged
that the government believes it can keep the program going for months.
Its reasoning centers on a legal complexity in how the program works:
Under the law, about once a year, the secretive Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court sets rules for the program and authorizes it to
operate for 12 months.
"The court last issued a one-year certification on April 26.
That matters because a little-noticed section of the FISA Amendments
Act says that orders issued under Section 702 'shall continue in effect
until the date of the expiration.'
"Mr. Hale said the provision, which is recorded in federal statute books as a 'transition procedures' note accompanying the main text of the law,
makes it 'very clear' that 'any existing order will continue in effect
for a short time even if Congress doesn’t act to reauthorize the law in a
timely fashion.'
"Given
that conclusion, the government is making no plans to immediately turn
off the program on New Year’s Day, no matter what happens in Congress,
according to a United States official familiar with the Section 702
program who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive
topic."
'Directional Acoustic Phenomena' in Cuba Attacks
From The Guardian's 12-6-17 article entitled "Brain Abnormalities Found in Victims of US Embassy Attack in Cuba":
"Doctors treating the victims of mysterious, invisible attacks on the US embassy in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the damage to their hearing, vision, balance and memory.
"The most specific finding to date about physical damage from the attacks shows that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. It is one of several factors fuelling growing scepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.
"Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate, several US officials said, describing a growing consensus held by university and government physicians researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways between brain cells.
"Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect 'sonic attacks'. But officials are now avoiding that term. The sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three US officials briefed on the investigation.
"Physicians, FBI investigators and US intelligence agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in Havana, where the US says 24 government officials and spouses fell ill, starting last year in homes and later in some hotels. The US refers to 'specific attacks' but says it does not know who is behind them. A few Canadian embassy staffers also got sick.
"Doctors still do not know how victims ended up with the white matter changes, or how exactly those changes might relate to their symptoms. US officials would not say whether the changes were found in all 24 patients.
"Acoustic waves have never been shown to alter the brain’s white matter tracts, said Elisa Konofagou, a biomedical engineering professor at Columbia University who is not involved in the government’s investigation.
"'I would be very surprised,' Konofagou said, adding that ultrasound in the brain is used frequently in modern medicine. 'We never see white matter tract problems.'
"Cuba has denied involvement, and calls the Trump administration’s claims that US workers were attacked 'deliberate lies'. The new medical details may help the US counter Havana’s complaint that Washington has not presented any evidence.
"The case has plunged the US medical community into uncharted territory. Physicians are treating the symptoms like a never-before-seen illness. After extensive testing and trial therapies, they are developing the first protocols to screen cases and identify the best treatments – even as the FBI investigation struggles to identify a culprit, method and motive.
"The AP first reported in August that US workers had said they heard sounds that were audible in parts of rooms but inaudible just a few feet away – unlike normal sound, which disperses in all directions. Doctors have now come up with a term for such incidents: 'directional acoustic phenomena'."
To read the entire article, click HERE.
"Doctors treating the victims of mysterious, invisible attacks on the US embassy in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the damage to their hearing, vision, balance and memory.
"The most specific finding to date about physical damage from the attacks shows that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. It is one of several factors fuelling growing scepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.
"Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate, several US officials said, describing a growing consensus held by university and government physicians researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways between brain cells.
"Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect 'sonic attacks'. But officials are now avoiding that term. The sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three US officials briefed on the investigation.
"Physicians, FBI investigators and US intelligence agencies have spent months trying to piece together the puzzle in Havana, where the US says 24 government officials and spouses fell ill, starting last year in homes and later in some hotels. The US refers to 'specific attacks' but says it does not know who is behind them. A few Canadian embassy staffers also got sick.
"Doctors still do not know how victims ended up with the white matter changes, or how exactly those changes might relate to their symptoms. US officials would not say whether the changes were found in all 24 patients.
"Acoustic waves have never been shown to alter the brain’s white matter tracts, said Elisa Konofagou, a biomedical engineering professor at Columbia University who is not involved in the government’s investigation.
"'I would be very surprised,' Konofagou said, adding that ultrasound in the brain is used frequently in modern medicine. 'We never see white matter tract problems.'
"Cuba has denied involvement, and calls the Trump administration’s claims that US workers were attacked 'deliberate lies'. The new medical details may help the US counter Havana’s complaint that Washington has not presented any evidence.
"The case has plunged the US medical community into uncharted territory. Physicians are treating the symptoms like a never-before-seen illness. After extensive testing and trial therapies, they are developing the first protocols to screen cases and identify the best treatments – even as the FBI investigation struggles to identify a culprit, method and motive.
"The AP first reported in August that US workers had said they heard sounds that were audible in parts of rooms but inaudible just a few feet away – unlike normal sound, which disperses in all directions. Doctors have now come up with a term for such incidents: 'directional acoustic phenomena'."
To read the entire article, click HERE.
Trump's Private Spies
From Matthew Cole and Jeremy Scahill's 12-4-17 The Intercept article entitled "Trump White House Weighing Plans for Private Spies to Counter 'Deep State' Enemies":
To continue reading the article, click HERE.
"The Trump administration is
considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik
Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North,
a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike
Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would
circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several
current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with
the proposals. The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White
House as a means of countering 'deep state' enemies in the intelligence
community seeking to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency.
"The creation of such a program raises the possibility that the effort would be used to create an intelligence apparatus to justify the Trump administration’s political agenda.
"'Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,' said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals, in describing White House discussions. 'It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books,' this person said, meaning the intelligence collected would not be shared with the rest of the CIA or the larger intelligence community. 'The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.'
"North, who appears frequently on Trump’s favorite TV network, Fox News, was enlisted to help sell the effort to the administration. He was the 'ideological leader' brought in to lend credibility, said the former senior intelligence official.
"Some of the individuals involved with the proposals secretly met with major Trump donors asking them to help finance operations before any official contracts were signed."
"The creation of such a program raises the possibility that the effort would be used to create an intelligence apparatus to justify the Trump administration’s political agenda.
"'Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,' said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals, in describing White House discussions. 'It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books,' this person said, meaning the intelligence collected would not be shared with the rest of the CIA or the larger intelligence community. 'The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.'
"North, who appears frequently on Trump’s favorite TV network, Fox News, was enlisted to help sell the effort to the administration. He was the 'ideological leader' brought in to lend credibility, said the former senior intelligence official.
"Some of the individuals involved with the proposals secretly met with major Trump donors asking them to help finance operations before any official contracts were signed."
To continue reading the article, click HERE.
Spontaneous Human Combustion
From Justin Davenport's 12-15-17 Evening Standard article entitled "Man Bursts Into Flame and Dies in Front of Horrified Onlookers While Walking Down London Street":
"Police today appealed for witnesses after a man died after catching fire as he walked down a street in north London.
"Passers-by saw John Nolan, 70, ablaze in a street in Haringey in the middle of the day and attempted to put out the flames before calling police and fire crews.
"The former construction worker, who was originally from County Mayo in Ireland, was taken to a specialist hospital but died later.
"Today detectives said his death was being treated as unexplained.
There were no accelerants found on his body and specialist fire
investigators could find no obvious reason for Mr Nolan to catch alight."
To read the entire article, click HERE.
"Police today appealed for witnesses after a man died after catching fire as he walked down a street in north London.
"Passers-by saw John Nolan, 70, ablaze in a street in Haringey in the middle of the day and attempted to put out the flames before calling police and fire crews.
"The former construction worker, who was originally from County Mayo in Ireland, was taken to a specialist hospital but died later.
To read the entire article, click HERE.
Sunday, December 24, 2017
H.P. Lovecraft's "The Festival"
Submitted for your Yuletide entertainment is the following classic Christmas tale by none other H.P. Lovecraft (this story was written in 1923 and published in the January 1925 issue of WEIRD TALES):
The Festival
by H. P. Lovecraft
I was far from home, and the spell of the eastern sea was upon me. In the twilight I heard it pounding on the rocks, and I knew it lay just over the hill where the twisting willows writhed against the clearing sky and the first stars of evening. And because my fathers had called me to the old town beyond, I pushed on through the shallow, new-fallen snow along the road that soared lonely up to where Aldebaran twinkled among the trees; on toward the very ancient town I had never seen but often dreamed of.
It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten. Mine were an old people, and were old even when this land was settled three hundred years before. And they were strange, because they had come as dark furtive folk from opiate southern gardens of orchids, and spoken another tongue before they learnt the tongue of the blue-eyed fishers. And now they were scattered, and shared only the rituals of mysteries that none living could understand. I was the only one who came back that night to the old fishing town as legend bade, for only the poor and the lonely remember.
To read the rest of Lovecraft's tale, click HERE.
by H. P. Lovecraft
| “Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen quasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant.”
—Lactantius.
|
I was far from home, and the spell of the eastern sea was upon me. In the twilight I heard it pounding on the rocks, and I knew it lay just over the hill where the twisting willows writhed against the clearing sky and the first stars of evening. And because my fathers had called me to the old town beyond, I pushed on through the shallow, new-fallen snow along the road that soared lonely up to where Aldebaran twinkled among the trees; on toward the very ancient town I had never seen but often dreamed of.
It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten. Mine were an old people, and were old even when this land was settled three hundred years before. And they were strange, because they had come as dark furtive folk from opiate southern gardens of orchids, and spoken another tongue before they learnt the tongue of the blue-eyed fishers. And now they were scattered, and shared only the rituals of mysteries that none living could understand. I was the only one who came back that night to the old fishing town as legend bade, for only the poor and the lonely remember.To read the rest of Lovecraft's tale, click HERE.
Saturday, December 23, 2017
William S. Burroughs: THE JUNKY'S CHRISTMAS
HO HO HO, Cryptoscatology fans! Spend this cheery Yuletide season watching William S. Burroughs in Nick Donkin and Melodie McDaniel's 1993 short film THE JUNKY'S CHRISTMAS (adapted from Burroughs' story of the same name, which can be found in his 1989 collection INTERZONE)....
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