"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." Thomas Jefferson to Dr. James Currie, January 28, 1786
↧
Thomas Jefferson On Freedom Of The Press
↧
Republican Heroine, Ayn Rand, Held God, Like Most American Values, In Contempt
![]()
Alan: I can only explain conservatives' enthusiasm for athiest Ayn Rand by positing their dimwittedness or preemptive fixation on the pursuit of wealth. Rudimentary research would reveal her as a fraud, an enemy within the gates and a political propagandist intent on the destruction of every ideal they cherish except selfishess and zero-sum self-aggrandizement.
![]()
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Ayn Rand Posts
Ayn Rand Really Hated C.S. Lewis And Championed Child Murderer, Dismemberer, Edward Hickman
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of Ayn Rand Posts
Ayn Rand Really Hated C.S. Lewis And Championed Child Murderer, Dismemberer, Edward Hickman
How not to attack Ayn Rand
The popularity of Ayn Rand in Republican and Tea Party circles has given rise, fortunately, to efforts to educate people on what she believed. ThinkProgress has a three minute video showing Rand attacking Medicare as no better than robbery, extolling selfishness, attacking majority rule, conceding that very few people are worthy of being loved, and so on. It is, to my mind, entirely fair comment. (Rand’s atheism comes out, but only in a snippet from a quotation containing other points.)
And then, from the American Values Network—and recommended as an indispensable tool of persuasion by The Democratic Strategist—there’s this:
The video hammers on the single point that Rand is to be feared for advocating “a morality [cue ominous type size increase] not based on faith.” The video refers to Rand as an inspiration for Paul Ryan’s brand of economic individualism and capitalism, but strongly implies that the reason to be wary of economic individualism is that it’s secretly linked to atheism. The video carefully edits the quotation mentioned above so that only Rand’s rejection of religion, not her political and economic positions, is left in. (Transcript after the jump.)
![]()
Though I didn’t seem to convince many people when I said this about Jack Conway’s Aqua Buddha ad, I’ll say it again (and the argument applies even more clearly this time): this kind of appeal is reprehensible. We would be appalled if a fundamentalist Protestant group attacked a candidate for
reading books basing his or her world view on books by Catholics, Jews, or Muslims. As I explained in the earlier post, this is not because there’s anything wrong with being Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim but because the implication profits from the prevailing prejudice (among the intended audience) that it is wrong, holds greater force the more we can count on that prejudice’s being unshakable, and slathers an extra coat of implied respectability on the prejudice. We should find it equally appalling for a progressive religious organization to attack Republicans solely and specifically for
reading books having a worldview invented by an avowed atheist.
Attacking Rand for her politics is one thing. Attacking her for the particular value (selfishness) in the service of which Rand rejected the Christian faith is more or less the same thing (and completely fine, as in the ThinkProgress ad). Portraying Rand as ominous and evil because of her rejection of faith as such is something completely different. But that’s what the video does.
The American Values Network should be ashamed of itself. And The Democratic Strategist—to which I’ve contributed in the past—should stop blurbing its shameful appeal.
Update: A reader pointed out that the ad faults politicians for their avowed worldview, not merely for “reading books” as in the original version. Quite right—but the larger point stands.
Transcript of American Values Network ad “Ayn Rand & GOP vs. Jesus”:
Ayn Rand: I am against God. I don’t approve of religion. It is a sign of a psychological weakness…I regard it as evil.
Narrator: Who is Ayn Rand? And more importantly, why has she had such a profound impact on Republican leaders? Like Senator Ron Johnson, who called Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged his “foundation book”? And Senator Rand Paul, who said he is “a fan”?
Mike Wallace: You are out to destroy almost every edifice in the contemporary American way of life…Our Judeo-Christian religion. You scorn churches and the concept of God. Are these accurate criticisms?
Rand: Yes. I am the creator of a new code of morality…a morality not based on faith.
Narrator: Rush Limbaugh called her “brilliant.” And “Fox and Friends” declared her movie a “victory for capitalism.” And as for the author of the Republican budget, Paul Ryan…
Ryan: Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism. And this to me is what—is—matters most.”
↧
↧
Thomas Jefferson's Comment On The 6 Corporations That Control 90% Of US Media
These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America
This infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad shows that almost all media comes from the same six sources.
That's consolidated from 50 companies back in 1983.
NOTE: This infographic is from last year and is missing some key transactions. GE does not own NBC (or Comcast or any media) anymore. So that 6th company is now Comcast. And Time Warner doesn't own AOL, so Huffington Post isn't affiliated with them.
But the fact that a few companies own everything demonstrates "the illusion of choice," Frugal Dad says. While some big sites, like Digg and Reddit aren't owned by any of the corporations, Time Warner owns news sites read by millions of Americans every year.
Here's the graphic:
Source: Frugal dad
DON'T MISS: This Chart Shows Bilderberg Group's Connection To Everything In The World >
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6#ixzz3P3AaDgBX
↧
Thomas Jefferson Nails Bigotry
Deism And Founding Father Links
Deism And Founding Father Links
The Inquisition Executed Its Last Victim In 1826, A Spaniard Who Taught Deism
↧
Jefferson Knew His Countrymen Had Injured Native Americans Until No Love Was Left
"The Expedition you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations of Indians, with their associates and adherents. The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements, and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more."
George Washington's Orders To General John Sullivan, May 31, 1779
http://nailheadtom.blogspot.com/2013/07/orders-of-george-washington-to-general.html
General George Washington Orders "Complete Destruction" Of Iroquois Settlements
Reflection On Columbus: Happy To Be An American. Pissed At The Process
To whom does this land belong?
And why are the owners fleeing white people with drawn guns?
To this day, we tend to assume that Native Americans were savages, only interested in "scalping" white people.
I am quite convinced American natives were considerably more welcoming than Europeans would have been had land-hungry invaders from parts unknown shown up on Normandy's coast with vastly superior weapons.
To this day, we tend to assume that Native Americans were savages, only interested in "scalping" white people.
I am quite convinced American natives were considerably more welcoming than Europeans would have been had land-hungry invaders from parts unknown shown up on Normandy's coast with vastly superior weapons.
↧
↧
"Pope Agrees That Obviously Evil Fracking Is Obviously Evil"
Pope Agrees That Obviously Evil Fracking Is Obviously Evil
Are you looking for another reason to love Pope Francis? Of course you are.
A few days ago, he turned the Sistine Chapel into some kind of a titty-sucking Peaches song, like a baller. Not long after, video emerged of the Pope straight up flipping the bird to our old friend Colorado wingnut state senator and fracking enthusiast Randy Baumgardner, and by that we mean speaking out against fracking.
Eco Watch has posted new video of the Pope meeting with anti-fracking activists from his home country of Argentina. The meeting was in reference to the activists’ upcoming film La Guerra del Fracking, which your high school Spanish might tell you is translated The Fracking War. You can watch the full film at this link (posted online because it’s been banned in its native Argentina), but as of yet there are no subtitles, and based on your shoddy translation of the title, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath. Here’s the full Pope-terview below:
Eco Watch has posted new video of the Pope meeting with anti-fracking activists from his home country of Argentina. The meeting was in reference to the activists’ upcoming film La Guerra del Fracking, which your high school Spanish might tell you is translated The Fracking War. You can watch the full film at this link (posted online because it’s been banned in its native Argentina), but as of yet there are no subtitles, and based on your shoddy translation of the title, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath. Here’s the full Pope-terview below:
While we in the states might be familiar with fracking as the drilling technique that makes people’s tap water catch on fire, apparently the greatest obstacle the film makers of The Fracking War faced was the fact that nobody in their interviews had any clue what “fracking” was. To quote the Eco Watch article:
When I was doing research for the film, every time I’d ask someone if they knew what fracking was they had no idea….[T]he government didn’t call it fracking, they called it “non conventional gas” so no one was making the link to what was happening in Argentina to what was happening America.
“Non-conventional gas” is right up there with “clean coal” and “credit default swap” as an evil thing made to sound less evil by making it sound as boring as possible.
As of this posting no Republican has reacted to this betrayal by Il Papa, but we imagine it’s only a matter of time. We can only hope one of them will do something stupid like compare him to Hitler, or something more petty like insult the Pope’s mom, which will end about as well as you think:
“One cannot react violently, but if [someone] says something bad about my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s to be expected.”
Have we mentioned that we love the Pope?
Read more at http://wonkette.com/572436/pope-agrees-that-obviously-evil-fracking-is-obviously-evil#OFRLPda6u4qk2gyQ.99↧
Inside Alfred Hitchcock’s Lost Holocaust Documentary
Inside Alfred Hitchcock’s Lost Holocaust Documentary
In 1945, Britain’s army film unit commissioned a sprawling doc on the liberation of Nazi concentration camps
It is, perhaps, the greatest documentary never made.
Back in 1945, Sidney Bernstein, the chief of the Psychological Warfare Film Section of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, was commissioned to create the definitive documentary chronicling the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Bernstein’s aim was, in his words, to “prove one day that this had actually happened” and have it serve as “a lesson to all mankind as well as to the Germans.”
He eventually roped in his good pal, Alfred Hitchcock, to serve as the film’s supervising director. But the horrifying and heartbreaking footage of numerous concentration camps, shot by British, American, and Russian World War II soldiers as they were being liberated, became tangled up in a complicated web of politics and artistic rows. But a magnificent new HBO documentary pulls back the veil on the making of German Concentration Camps: Factual Survey.
The eye-opening film-on-a-film, Night Will Fall, will premiere January 27 on HBO. It is narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, produced by Stephen Frears and Brett Ratner, and directed by Andre Singer, who serves as president of The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and executive produced the documentaries The Act of Killing and Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss. It was made in concert with London’s Imperial War Museum, and took 18 months of poring over thousands of feet of film to trace the making of the unmade epic.
“Neat and tidy orchards. Well-stocked farms lined the wayside. And the British soldier did not fail to admire the place, and its inhabitants—at least, until he began to feel a smell...”
“When I first saw material, it was shattering to see; a horrific experience,” Singer tells The Daily Beast. “I’ve been in the film world a long time and seen lots and lots of footage and you think you’ll get anesthetized to it, but that isn’t the case. This is something that is once seen, never forgotten.”
Singer’s documentary opens with footage fromGerman Concentration Camps: Factual Survey of the British 11th Armoured Division liberating the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Northern Germany on April 15, 1945. There, the Allied troops discovered a strange sight.
“Neat and tidy orchards. Well-stocked farms lined the wayside. And the British soldier did not fail to admire the place, and its inhabitants—at least, until he began to feel a smell,” says a narrator in voiceover.
The British soldiers found tens of thousands of emaciated prisoners inside the camp, many of which were on the brink of death by starvation. The camera lingers on piles of naked, skeletal corpses stacked several bodies high, as well as line after line of dead children. A total of 30,000 corpses were witnessed by Allied troops, according to the film. Singer managed to track down several British soldiers who were there, and some break down in tears recalling the horrors.
“It’s very difficult to describe,” recalls survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was 19 when Bergen-Belsen was liberated. “You’ve spent years preparing yourself to die, and you’re still here. Every British soldier looked like a God to us.”
Video: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/17/inside-alfred-hitchcock-s-lost-holocaust-documentary.html?google_editors_picks=true
While Soviet intelligence had uncovered the existence of concentration camps in Poland as early as July 1944, because of the Soviet’s alleged record of falsifying atrocity reports, these warnings went largely ignored. However, once Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Bernstein decided to include footage of Russian troops liberating the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland.
While Soviet intelligence had uncovered the existence of concentration camps in Poland as early as July 1944, because of the Soviet’s alleged record of falsifying atrocity reports, these warnings went largely ignored. However, once Bergen-Belsen was liberated, Bernstein decided to include footage of Russian troops liberating the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland.
“We opened one warehouse. Women’s hair,” says Matvey Gershman, a member of the Soviet’s 8th Guards Army at Majdanek. “We opened the second warehouse. Children’s shoes. The third warehouse, something else: Zyklon gas in barrels. And ashes, ashes. They stored people’s ashes the way they stored women’s hair.”
Footage from Bernstein’s documentary shows Russian soldiers opening stacks of large packages the size of duffle bags and removing piles of human hair, as the camera rests on a young girl’s ponytail amid the pile in close-up. You see crematoriums filled with ashes, still burning, and long rows of human bones.
Also included is footage of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz, including a fascinating sequence wherein Soviet soldiers are captured clad in white, camouflaged snowcoats crawling across the wintry tundra towards the Nazi death camp while clenching ski poles, with skis attached to their feet. Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of the sadistic Mengele experiments, tears up watching footage of her younger self being freed from captivity.
American soldiers, meanwhile, captured the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau, and since American films began using 16mm color footage in January 1945, Bernstein’s film includes haunting color shots of heaps of withered corpses at Buchenwald, as well as shrunken Jewish heads inside jars. The American troops made local German citizens from the nearby city of Weimar visit the camp and witness the genocide firsthand. A German woman is seen fainting and being carried away, while other women casually turn their heads away in disgust.
“They had been aware of the camp and had been willing to make use of the cheap labor it provided—as long as they were beyond smelling range of it,” the narrator says.
While Bernstein’s opus was first commissioned in April 1945, it wasn’t until June that his pal, “The Master of Suspense” Alfred Hitchcock, came onboard after being released from his Hollywood duties. “I had felt that I needed at least to make some contribution,” Hitchcock says in an interview from 1962. “There wasn’t any question of military service—I was overage and overweight at that time—but nevertheless, I felt the urge.”
Since Bernstein was only given three months to complete the film, by the time June rolled around, he felt the need to recruit Hitch to help him piece it together. “Bernstein knew he needed some leverage,” says Singer. “He thought if they had a big name director it would help not just because it was better for the film, but it would give credibility to the film.”
So, Hitchcock served as a “director’s advisor,” supervising the way the footage was edited. He demanded that the documentary emphasized long shoots and frequent pans, so that people wouldn’t question its authenticity. He was also blown away by the stark contrast between the quotidian (the lives of Germans living near the camps) and the ghastly (the nightmare within), and requested that the film use maps to highlight their proximity, driving home the message that these German citizens knew exactly what was going on.
“Hitchcock himself is reputed to have been very nauseated by the footage,” says Singer. “He saw it in the cutting room and then didn’t want to watch it again.”
Bernstein’s time, however, soon ran out. According to a June 1945 memo from the Psychological Warfare Film department, Bernstein, lost in an artistic quagmire, was relieved of his duties. “Here he was trying to make a propaganda film, and he ended up making a great documentary,” says Singer. “And that’s not really what the government wanted.”
The Americans then installed acclaimed Double Indemnity filmmaker Billy Wilder as supervising director, and used some of Bernstein’s footage to create a short propaganda film entitled Death Mills. Whereas Bernstein’s film was artistic and captured the full breadth of suffering, Wilder’s version is described as a “hectoring short film” that “merely accused the Germans of committing these crimes.” Still, to the Americans’ credit, the film premiered in Germany.
“We must show it to as many Germans as possible,” Wilder says in a 1988 interview. “They will say: it’s a lie. These are extras with makeup. This is Hollywood… made by Jews. But where would we have got them from? They were just skin and bone!”
While Bernstein’s footage was eventually used as evidence against Nazi officials during the Nuremberg trials, his original, uncensored vision never saw the light of day. Singer’s film claims that the British government chose to kill Bernstein’s comprehensive documentary largely for two reasons. First, that Britain didn’t want to “further alienate the German people,” who were in a rebuilding phase and, with hints of the Cold War starting to appear, were seen as a potentially ally against the Soviets. And second, that the British were worried about the budding Zionist movement and weren’t interested in galvanizing support for a Jewish state.
“I don’t think that in government they were concerned about whether the German people were denying it ever happened,” Singer says of the film’s cancellation. “Morally and ethically it should be done, but in practical terms, it was just bad, bad timing. Churchill had just been kicked out of government and was more sympathetic, and there was a new foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, who was virulently anti-Zionist. I don’t think it was a conspiracy, or that any censorship was going on.”
As for his own documentary Night Will Fall, Singer feels it’s vital to inform audiences of what really happened at the Nazi concentration camps in order for the wounds of the past to heal, but not be forgotten.
“A lot of people are worried about whether we should be showing atrocity footage like this to people, is it meant to shock, and is there a pornography element to it,” says Singer. “I believe the opposite. Put in context, it’s incredibly important.”
↧
AARP: "Movies For Grownups"
↧
Hyper-Linked List Of 2015 Oscar Nominees From The LA Times
Oscar nominations: Complete list of nominees
↧
↧
"Mexico’s Insane Plan to Give Gangs Guns," The Daily Beast
Alan: If maximizing the number of guns in a society contributes to personal security,
then why does the United States lead "developed" nations in firearm homicides and suicides?
The litmus that separates Civilization from Barbarism
is whether a society believes that violence is the default solution to all "problems."
then why does the United States lead "developed" nations in firearm homicides and suicides?
The litmus that separates Civilization from Barbarism
is whether a society believes that violence is the default solution to all "problems."
80% Of All Firearm Deaths In 23 Industrialized Countries Occurred In The U.S.
http://paxonbothhouses.
"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"http://paxonbothhouses.
Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People
"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
http://paxonbothhouses.
Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People
Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People
Mom Killed By 2 Year Old Child Described As "Responsible." NOT!http://paxonbothhouses.
“Toy Guns Outlawed At Republican Presidential Convention. Real Guns Allowed”
http://paxonbothhouses.
“Toy Guns Outlawed At Republican Presidential Convention. Real Guns Allowed”
http://paxonbothhouses.
Mexico’s Insane Plan to Give Gangs Guns
MORELIA, Mexico—In the beginning, and until a year ago, a drug cartel called the Knights Templar ruled over the peaks, valleys, and coastline of Michoacán, on the Pacific coast of southwestern Mexico. The Knights controlled not only the poppy and marijuana plantations, and the meth superlabs in the hills, and the cocaine routes up from the coast; they also controlled large shares of the lime and avocado crop, and, most important, they mined precious metals from the sierra and exported them to China.
The Knights took other liberties. They extorted protection money from local business owners, condoned the occasional kidnapping, and expropriated land and livestock. The cartel had infiltrated the local and state governments to the extent that there was no outlet for the buildup of popular resentment. Then, in February 2013, bands of men, many of them lime farmers, formed dozens of armed “self-defense guards” across the state to combat the Knights.
On closer inspection, some of their rifles were automatic weapons; not exactly the antiquated bolt-action shotguns that humble farmers are known to carry around these parts. Some of their pickup trucks looked pricey and new. There was, even then, a sense that criminal gangs with grievances against the Knights were taking advantage of public discontent, in some cases even pulling the strings.
Eleven months later, in January 2014, with vigilantes mounting ever bolder offensives against the cartel, the Mexican government stepped in. Newly elected President Enrique Peña Nieto sent thousands of Mexican Federal Police to pacify the disturbances in Michoacán, with a special focus on the lime-growing region known as Tierra Caliente. Michoacán was placed in federal trusteeship, and a federal prosecutor named Alfredo Castillo was appointed to administer justice, his power superseding that of local and state authorities.
Bold and decisive in the language of its proponents, an authoritarian throwback to the days of the viceroy under the king of Spain to its detractors, the Commission for the Safety and Internal Development of Michoacán was born. Its first order of business was to channel the vigilante activity into a newly minted Rural Police Force. Commissioner Castillo gave an ultimatum to the self-defense forces: Join with the government or else. Nearly all submitted voluntarily. There was a righteous minority that refused to submit, and the commission had them arrested and jailed.
For the people of Michoacán, the issue then, as now, is whom to trust. From the very beginning of its reign, the commission made overtures to the leaders of local mafias open to the prospect of an overthrow of the Knights. In Castillo’s first month as commissioner, a photo of him appeared in the daily newspaper Reformawith an infamous capo, known as El Abuelo, who is an enemy of the Knights Templar. El Abuelo and the commissioner were photographed together at a recruitment event for volunteers to the Rural Police Force in the village of Tepalcatepec.
Commissioner Castillo said the photo was misleading; he denied knowing who El Abuelo was. But Reforma dug up an old press release from 2009 in which Castillo’s employer, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, refers to the same individual as “the boss of the plaza of the village of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán.” El Abuelo turned up in another photo at a press event three months later; this time he was photographed standing in the ranks of the new Rural Police Force of Tepalcatepec. The commission denied that the capo, who has a criminal record of drug and weapons charges, was a member of the Rural Police. But a picture is worth a thousand words, and El Abuelo scooted away in an SUV immediately after the press event, not stopping to answer any questions.
The elected mayor of Tepalcatepec, Guillermo Valencia Reyes, says he was forced to leave town around this time because El Abuelo sent a team of commandos to city hall with a message that he was no longer welcome. Mayor Valencia fled the capital of Morelia, where he was living in hiding when he learned the city council had replaced him in what he called an illegal maneuver endorsed by Commissioner Castillo.
“I was replaced by a town councilman named Sergio Rodriguez Mora, a close associate of El Abuelo Farias,” Valenica told The Daily Beast. “I live in exile. It’s like they carried out a coup d’état, and the federal government will provide me no protection.”
El Abuelo is not the only dubious company the commission has been keeping. In May 2014, video appeared showing a commander of the Rural Police Force in the town of Buenavista meeting with the leader of the Knights Templar. The commission removed the commander, whose alias is Simon El Americano, from his post but reinstated him three months later. By way of explanation, the commissioner said the man in the video was not Simon El Americano. Reporters who covered the story told The Daily Beast that El Americano broke away from the Knights during the initial wave of disturbances in the state.
“The commissioner went to every county in the state and did the same thing,” Valencia said. “He met with the criminals. He empowered them, he gave them weapons, he gave them uniforms, he gave them resources like pickup trucks, and he put them under his orders, while permitting them to continue looking after their own criminal interests.”
“What they are doing is cleaning out the plaza for another cartel.”
Nothing quiets criticism quite like success. In 10 months, the Rural Police Force, together with the Federal Police, killed or captured a dozen of the most feared leaders of the Knights Templar. The only major capo still on the lam is the leader of leaders, Servando Martínez, aka La Tuta. Not only gangsters but the gangsters’ friends in politics went down as well: An ex-interim governor of the state, a governor’s son, the mayors of Apatzingán, Lázaro Cárdenas, Huetamo, Patzcuaro, Aguililla, and Tacámbaro, among others, are behind bars. A million tons of illegally extracted minerals were seized, along with 50,000 tons of illegally logged wood.
The problem now is that the Rural Police Force has itself become a bastion, not only for gangsters hostile to the Knights but for lower-ranking Knights themselves, sneeringly referred to among the ranks as “the repentant ones.” The term “legitimate self-defense force” was coined as a way to distinguish from corrupt elements within the Rural Police Force.
A YouTube video posted on Sept. 30 announced that self-defense forces were taking up arms again in the town of Aguililla. The reason, said the group’s founder, Jorge Vázquez, was the growth and consolidation of a dangerous cartel from out of state called Los Viagras, and, more specifically, the lack of a response from the commission to requests to arrest and jail members of this cartel.
Vazquéz said Los Viagras had infiltrated the Rural Police and were using the impunity of their badge and uniform to extort people all over Michoacán. He added that plenty of “repentant ones” who are part of the Rural Police continue to work for La Tuta, the cartel’s leader.
Today the security situation in Michoacán is unraveling quickly. The Rural Police as an entity is each day more openly derided by the citizenry as criminals. Sources in various parts of the state told The Daily Beast that criminals are everywhere. Historic feuds between villages and towns have escalated to bloody confrontations between heavily armed units of Rural Police. The commission appears to many to be losing its handle on the Rural Police Forces that were its own creation.
In November, the bodies of two commanders of the Rural Police were found decapitated in Uruapan. The commission will not confirm what locals are saying, that 11 members of the force were also disappeared. A month later, Simon El Americano led an assault against the Rural Police, his erstwhile comrades, in the neighboring town of La Ruana; 11 men were killed.
The leader of the Rural Police in La Ruana, Hipólito Mora, is a founder of the self-defense movement in Michoacán. Among the dead was his son. Mora and Simon El Americano are both in custody.
At a press conference, Commissioner Castillo stressed that the confrontation “was not against the government in the first place nor was it against organized crime but rather had to do with an internal division, which is why I have been emphatically stressing that what has happened has nothing at all to do with questions of public safety.”
In response to the killings in La Ruana, Castillo moved to disband the roving SWAT Unit of the Rural Police. The Rural Police Forces are now legally bound to remain in their towns and villages of origin.
A motley crew of protesters identifying variously as Rural Police and “legitimate self-defense forces,” in response to the killings and arrests in La Ruana, staged an unarmed takeover of city hall in the nearby city of Apatzingan.
At a press conference on Dec. 23, Commissioner Castillo had referred to them as “interest groups, some of a political nature, others with personal or group interests which seek to try to pressure under one pretext or another, and the focal point has been Apatzingan, which unlike any other place, Apatzingan was always under the yoke of organized crime, in particular the Knights, so there is a diversity of leaders who are seeking to assume power as the one who can truly guarantee the safety of the town.”
The democratic rights of the protesters, the commissioner added, will be respected so long as no crime is being committed.
At 3 a.m. on Jan. 6, Federal Police stormed the city hall in Apatzingan and ejected the protesters occupying the mayor’s office. The Federal Police seized a number of pickup trucks, which they claimed were reported stolen. Castillo reported one casualty during the expulsion, a protester who was run over by a truck while attempting to flee.
One eyewitness, a government official in Apatzingan, told The Daily Beast he suspected there were many more wounded than the commissioner acknowledged. “There had to have been gunshot wounds because there is blood all over the place and I saw it for myself. We know there were many wounded because there was blood all over the city hall.
The vehicles in question, the official said, were indeed stolen, with many stolen from members of the Knights Templar during the crackdown or prior months. He added that the Rural Police had separately been stealing trucks from ordinary citizens in the area.
A video shot at 8 a.m. that day from a telephone pole camera shows a formidable procession of Federal Police trucks escorting tow trucks that are transporting the repossessed trucks to the impound lot in Apatzingan. In a flash, 15 or so pickups stop short of the rear of the police procession and the men jump out of the trucks and go running after the police; they can be seen quickly reversing course and sprinting in the opposite direction.
The same local government official, who agreed to speak only on the condition that his identity remain a secret, said he lives two blocks from the second confrontation and was an eyewitness. He said the protesters were armed with sticks and stones, not firearms.
“I can tell you what I saw for myself right here on Constitution Avenue, where it all happened,” he said. “At approximately 7:45 a.m., we heard gunshots and we saw the people from the self-defense groups jump down from their trucks, and before you knew it they were screaming, ‘We’re unarmed, don’t shoot!’ and they put their hands up like that. And the police didn’t give a damn. They killed one poor kid right then and there. There were women and children around and they didn’t give a damn.
“They killed them all like that. One of them screamed, ‘Don’t shoot! We’re unarmed!’ Please don’t kill us!’ And they didn’t give a damn. Like it was all done on purpose, under orders. Disgusting. Worse than a shootout. This was a massacre.”
The official said there was a shocking amount of blood spilled on Constitution Avenue, and he put the death toll at 11 protesters, with many more likely wounded. The death toll is one of several points in dispute. Mayor Valencia set the number of dead at 15 or more. Padre Gregorio Lopez, an outspoken parish priest in Apatzingan, set it at “over 17.” Commissioner Castillo declared that nine were killed and said seven of those perished in “friendly fire.” The commission maintains the firefight was initiated by the protesters and that seven of the protesters died because, in effect, they shot each other.
In a separate video, shot some time after the confrontation, several victims can be seen lying in a circle around a stopped pickup truck. The truck is riddled with bullets, and the individuals lying around it appear to have been shot while attempting to escape from the cab and rear bed of the pickup. One of the men flails his arms about in a pool of blood; he is still alive. The crime scene has been cordoned off in yellow crime scene tape, but no official can be seen tending to the wounded man.
Commissioner Castillo responded to reporters’ inquiries on the subject by saying the Federal Police tended to the wounded as best they could, claiming there is video footage to attest to that. He said he could not answer for the tardiness of the paramedics.
But the eyewitness, who is a government official in Apatzingan, said the Federal Police prevented paramedics from reaching the scene of the crime and administering first aid:
“They said the bodies were not to be moved until they were surely dead. They corralled them while they were still alive and waited for them to bleed out.”
Commissioner Castillo was called to appear before the Mexican Congress on Jan. 13 to address the recent rise in violence. He told reporters in Morelia that he would be proud to appear before the legislators “to show them the actions and the pending actions we have taken in the state of Michoacán.”
On the same morning as Commissioner Castillo’s press conference, five self-defense force members were murdered and eight wounded in an ambush while on patrol in the municipality of Aquila, on the Pacific coast. Among the self-defense members killed was the commander of self-defense forces in the indigenous village of Huahua. It was the second ambush in a month in the coastal region of the state.
It is election season in Michoacán, and the politicians from the opposition parties are stepping forward like never before to offer their harshest criticisms of Commissioner Castillo. Selene Vázquez Alatorre, a city councilwoman in Morelia running for governor with the left-of-center Citizen Movement party, referred to the commissioner as “a corrupt cop” and went so far as to accuse Castillo of working in league with criminal interests.
From his exile in Morelia, the constitutional mayor of Tepalcatepec, Guillermo Valencia, is working the phones to get the latest news about what is happening around the state. He says he is trying to put the recent violence in context.
“The context is that Commissioner Alfredo Castillo at first used these people, he used them, he authorized them, he gave them uniforms, he gave them firearms, and now that they don’t serve his interests anymore he is sacrificing them, murdering them, to foment divisions between them and take advantage of the divisions,” he said. “What they are doing is cleaning out the plaza for another cartel. So the commissioner made a pact with El Abuelo Farias, and that is what is going on in Michoacán.”
↧
Pope Francis Braves Tropical Storm To Offer Consolation To Phiippine Typhoon Victims
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Braving pouring rain and 60-mile an hour winds to stand with those most affected by a typhoon that left thousands dead and millions homeless, Pope Francis said Saturday he did not know what he could say to address their pain.
"I don't know what to say to you," said the pontiff in a strikingly heartfelt and personal homily at a Mass in Tacloban, an area some 500 miles southeast of the Philippines capital that was struck hardest by 2013's Typhoon Haiyan.
"Many of you lost part of your families," the pope continued, setting aside his prepared English text for the occasion to speak in his native Spanish. "All I can do is keep silence. And I walk with you all with my silent heart."
Francis was speaking Saturday in dramatic conditions in Tacloban, which is enduring another weather event -- a signal two tropical storm that is releasing 3/4 of an inch of rain per hour. Traveling from Manila Saturday morning, there were concerns that that the Mass might have to be canceled or that the pope's plane might not even be able to fly into the area.
But Francis told the some million people at the Mass -- many of whom had waited for the pope for hours outside with no cover from the rain -- that as he watched the catastrophe unfold from Rome 14 months ago, "I felt that I had to be here."
"I'm here to be with you," he continued. "A little bit late, I have to say. But I'm here."
One of the strongest typhoons in history, Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people and caused almost $3 billion in damage. In the storm's wake, 90 percent of the structures in Tacloban were destroyed. Some 1.9 million people were left homeless and another 6 million displaced.
Evincing the pain of those who suffered so much from the event, Francis he had come to Tacloban "to tell you that Jesus is Lord" and that he "never lets us down."
"Father, you might say to me, 'I was let down because I've lost so many things, my house, my livelihood; I have illness,'" said Francis.
"It's true if you would say that," he continued. "And I respect those sentiments. But Jesus is there nailed to the cross and from there he does not let us down."
"For this we have a Lord who is capable of crying with us, who is capable of walking with us in the most difficult moments of life," said Francis.
"I have no more words to tell you," he said. "Let us look to Christ. He is the Lord. He understands us because he underwent all the trials that we, that you, have experienced."
Speaking to local media before the pope's Mass Saturday, Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez said that "easily one million" people came out to celebrate with the pope. Because of the weather conditions, Romualdez said, there were concerns that some might be suffering from Hypothermia due to the intense rain.
One woman was killed while leaving the Mass as scaffolding holding one of the speakers for the amplification system fell on top of her. The woman, a Filipino named Kristel Padasas, worked in the regional office of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' relief agency.
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said at a press briefing Saturday evening that the pope was saddened by the woman's death and would be expressing his sadness to her family.
The spokesman also said the pope had been told Friday that conditions in Tacloban might be difficult because of the weather, but responded: "I have come to the Philippines before all to be in Tacloban tomorrow. We have to fly there in any case."
Lombardi said people in Tacloban had also suggested the pope might celebrate Mass somewhere inside, with use of large television screens to show the Mass to crowds outside.
"Absolutely no," Lombardi said the pontiff replied. "It is impossible. Where are the people? They are outside. We have to be with them and celebrate with them."
Despite the conditions, Francis descended from the papal plane Saturday without any protective rain gear or even an umbrella. Later, as he processed through crowds covered in plastic yellow ponchos, the pontiff donned a similar poncho over his vestments.
In order to try and protect Francis, organizers of the event at the last minute moved the altar under a slightly sheltered area. They also moved distribution of Communion to the end of the Mass, to allow the pope to return to the sacristy more quickly.
But the pontiff instead took to the popemobile following the Mass, traversing the rain to greet people in the crowd.
While some had hoped Francis might use the occasion in Tacloban to address global climate change, to which some scientists have attributed to the unusual fierceness of Haiyan, the pope instead kept his homily personal -- choosing to try and address the pain of many who had suffered through the storm.
Francis said that besides Jesus, people who are suffering also have the support of the Virgin Mary.
"In the moments where we have so much pain, where we no longer understand anything, all we can do is grab hold of her hand firmly and tell her, 'Mom,' as a child does to her mother when he or she feels fear," said the pope.
"It is perhaps the only word that we can say in such difficult times, 'Mother, mom,'" he continued. "Let us look to our mother, and like that little child let us grab hold of her skirt, and with a true heart say: 'Mother.'"
Francis also thanked the many who had offered support to those suffering from the typhoon.
"We also have many brothers who in this moment of catastrophe came to help you," said the pope. "And also we, because of this, we feel more brothers and sisters because we helped each other."
"This is what comes from my heart," the pope concluded. "And forgive me if I have no other words to express this."
"But please know Jesus never lets you down," he said. "Please know that the love and tenderness of mother Mary never lets you down."
Francis is visiting the Philippines, Asia's largest Catholic nation, Thursday-Sunday in the second visit of a two-part Asian voyage that first saw him visit Sri Lanka earlier in the week.
The pope is returning to Manila on Saturday afternoon, after having lunch in Tacloban with victims of the 2013 Typhoon.
While Francis was originally scheduled to stay in Tacloban for several more hours, primarily to have a meeting at the city's cathedral with priests and religious, he returned much earlier so as to try and avoid the brunt of Saturday's storm.
On Sunday, the pontiff will celebrate a public Mass in Manila's Rizal Park, an event the Vatican has called a "mega Mass" that is expected to draw crowds in the millions.
[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org.]
↧
"La Casa De Diavolo," Tour De Force Final Movement Of Boccherini's Opus 12 No. 4
Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini
Wikipedia
***
Luigi Boccherini, Symphony in D Minor, Op. 12 No. 4
Finale: La Casa del Diavolo
***
The Entire "Diavolo" Symphony
↧
As Oceans Heat Up, a Race to Save World's Coral Reefs
The only barrier reef off the continental U.S. stretches 300 nautical miles along Florida's coast, protecting the shore and bringing in billions of tourist dollars every year.
As Oceans Heat Up, a Race to Save World's Coral Reefs
Will efforts to save corals be overwhelmed by the quickening pace of climate change?
PUBLISHED JANUARY 15, 2015
MIAMI—Early one December morning, Chris Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami, zipped up his wet suit and dropped overboard just off Key Largo to inspect a section of Florida's ailing coral reef. His living "laboratory," 15 feet down, is the size of several football fields. Last summer a large bleaching event turned much of the coral white.
Langdon's morning dive was part of his continuing work to understand the effects of climate change in the oceans, such as rising water temperatures and rising levels of acidity. He has focused on coral reefs because of their critical role in feeding the world's populations. (Can Miami Be Saved? Read the February issue ofNational Geographic magazine.)Bleaching occurs when water temperatures rise or fall. Even a slight fluctuation can set it off. The result is dramatic and often fatal. The coral polyps expel their source of food—the algae that live within the coral and provide its vivid hues. Without food, the coral turns white and eventually dies.
Reefs, known as the rain forests of the seas, occupy one-tenth of one percent of the ocean floor, but they provide habitat for a quarter of the world's fish. With the world so dependent on the oceans for food and natural resources, Langdon wants to understand how marine life could adapt to a changing environment.
"When you talk to people about climate change, first there is denial," he says. "Once you convince them, most people snap straight to defeatism. They go from denial to defeatism without stopping at problem solving. Humans are natural problem solvers. It looks grim. But the future does not have to be. My question is, What can that future be for corals?"
Chris Langdon of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science peers into tanks of coral he's monitoring to see how well they can recover in water of varying pH and temperature.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER MILLSAP, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Reef Biology 101
Coral reefs are built by colonies of millions of tiny coral polyps, animals that harbor algae-like organisms called zooxanthellae within their tissue. Coral and their zooxanthellae are mutually dependent. The coral provides a protective haven for the algae; the zooxanthellae provide essential nutrients to the coral.
Reefs grow in tropical waters. The largest is Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which stretches for more than 1,200 miles off the Queensland coastline. Florida's reef, the continental United States's only barrier reef, is modest by comparison, but its impact on the local economy is significant. It extends 300 nautical miles, from just north of Palm Beach to the Dry Tortugas below Key West, and it generates about $6.3 billionannually in tourism.
For the past 40 years, the news about coral reefs has been generally bad. Agricultural runoff, overfishing, coastal development, and overuse by tourists have damaged habitats and imperiled the corals' ability to survive.
Because of climate change, ocean surface temperatures have been higher in the past three decades than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1880s, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
High school students work alongside staff from the Coral Restoration Foundation, choosing staghorn coral from an offshore nursery for planting on ailing reefs near Islamorada.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER MILLSAP, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
As carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere, the world's oceans, which cover 70 percent of the globe, absorb it like a sponge. Once in the sea, the carbon dioxide reacts with the water, raising the acidity of the ocean and threatening the ability of corals and other marine life, such as oysters, to form shells and skeletons. (Read "The Acid Sea.")
Last September, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) listed 20 new species of coral as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, including 15 in the Indo-Pacific and 5 in the Caribbean. (Two other species were already on the list.) Staghorn and elkhorn corals, two of the most prevalent and sturdiest reef-builders among Caribbean corals, have been listed as "threatened" since 2006.
Efforts to reverse the deterioration have met with some success. The reef surrounding Bermuda recovered after a 1990 government-imposedfishing ban on parrotfish, which provide essential support to reefs because they eat algae and seaweed that would otherwise overgrow and suffocate the coral.
The Coral Restoration Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by conservationist Ken Nedimyer and based in Key Largo, raises coral in nurseries and transplants it to the Florida reef. On Summerland Key, the Mote Tropical Research Laboratory is working on ways to grow coral faster and larger.
But the accelerating pace of climate change may overwhelm attempts to mitigate the damage. The rate of warming and acidification is now faster than at any time in history, Langdon says.
Meet Ken Nedimeyer, conservationist at Coral Restoration Foundation, and Chris Langdon, a biological oceanographer at the University of Miami. See how they are working to protect coral reefs in Florida.
That spells trouble for corals, which often take 15 years to reach sexual maturity and reproduce only once a year. In 2005, according to a NOAA study, half the corals in the Caribbean died after warming waters triggered a massive bleaching. As ocean temperatures continue to rise, such events will occur more frequently.
"Coral has been around for 200 million years," Langdon says. "They have survived huge extinction events. But the event that precipitated the last extinction happened a hundred times more slowly than the event that is going on now."
By the end of the century, Langdon says, ocean acidity may increase by as much as 250 percent. "Every year is bigger than the year before, because it's exponential," he says. "We suspect coral reefs' rate of adaptation to climate change is going to be on the slower end of the species'. It is reason for concern that they may not be able to keep up with climate change."
Erica Towle helps Langdon monitor the tanks of coral.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER MILLSAP, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Reef Research in the Desert
Langdon did groundbreaking research on coral reefs and ocean acidification, oddly enough in the middle of the Arizona desert, as part of a 1990s experiment to re-create the Earth's ecosystems in a three-acre enclosed facility known as Biosphere 2.
Initially hailed as cutting edge science—one futuristic goal was to determine whether Biosphere 2's environment could be re-created on Mars—the experiment had run amok by 1995. Soaring levels of carbon dioxide and dropping levels of oxygen forced scientists to abandon the structure. Biosphere was then taken over by Columbia University, where Langdon was working as a research scientist. He was assigned to figure out what to do with the Biosphere's "ocean."
"People were telling me that I was going to destroy my career," Langdon says wryly. "But I'm a risktaker, and I jumped at the chance."
Langdon's work, detailed by the New Yorker in 2006, involved testing the impact of elevated carbon dioxide levels on the corals inside the Biosphere. He found that those levels harmed the corals' ability to calcify and grow. "So this started a whole new field of research—once I was able to convince people that tiny changes in pH did affect their ability to calcify," he says.
In 2004 Langdon moved to the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, where the Florida reef provides better opportunities for research.
On his December dive, Langdon was accompanied by several graduate students, who used numbered stakes to mark corals to be monitored and clipped small samples to study. Back in the lab in Miami, the coral samples were put in tanks of water of varying degrees, where they were fed, weighed weekly, and monitored for signs of recovery.
The loss of coral reefs would be devastating. They cover one-tenth of one percent of the ocean floor—but provide habitat for a quarter of the world's fish.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SPENCER MILLSAP, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
This winter, Langdon and doctoral student Erica Towle will publish new findings showing that corals that adapt, survive and grow despite increasing ocean acidification—as long as the polyps are able to feed. Earlier researchers had focused primarily on the zooxanthellae that live inside coral polyps; Langdon and Towle looked at the polyp itself.
"We're finding resilience in a critically endangered species," Towle says. "There is a glimmer of hope that this species, with exposure to natural food abundance, can continue to grow."
That may not sound like much given the coming catastrophic change caused by warmer seas, but it could have huge implications for current reef recovery efforts. For example, coral nurseries could be established in areas where more food is available for coral polyps. That in turn could help coral grow faster to the size needed to reach sexual maturity.
Langdon compares his research efforts to providing first aid to accident victims. "Can you keep the patient alive until the EMTs get there?" he says. "So a lot of our efforts are to give first aid to buy time until we can fix the big problem, like CO₂ [levels]. We can make a difference. It's not that hard."
↧
↧
Irish Joke
An Irish CourtThe judge says to a double murder defendant, "You're charged with beating your wife to death with a hammer."
A voice at the back of the courtroom yells out, "You bastard!"The judge says, "You're also charged with beating your mother-in-law to death with a hammer."
The voice in the back of the courtroom yells out,"You rotten bastard!"The judge stops and says to Paddy in the back of the courtroom."Sir, I can understand your anger and frustration at these crimes, but no more outbursts from you or I'll charge you with contempt. Is that understood?"Paddy stands up and says, "I'm sorry, Your Honour, but for fifteen years I've lived next door to that arsehole and every time I asked to borrow a hammer, he said he didn't have one."
↧
So Much Malarkey: Best-Seller About 6 Year-Old Boy's Journey To Heaven Is Pulled
Near Death Experience Author, Melvin Morse M.D., Accused Of Torturing Daughter
The Road To Hell Is Paved With Paralytic Fear Precluding The Experience Of Heaven
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/people-go-to-hell-by-being-so-fearful.htmlBest-Seller About 6 Year-Old Boy's Journey To Heaven Is Pulled
NEW YORK (AP) — A best-selling account of a 6-year-old boy's journey to heaven and back has been pulled after the boy retracted his story.
Spokesman Todd Starowitz of Tyndale House, a leading Christian publisher, confirmed Friday that Alex Malarkey's "The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond This World" was being withdrawn. Earlier this week, Malarkey acknowledged in an open letter that he was lying, saying that he had been seeking attention. He also regretted that "people had profited from lies."
"I did not die. I did not go to Heaven," he wrote. "When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough."
"The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" was first published in 2010 and told of a 2004 auto accident which left Malarkey in a coma. According to the book, co-written by Alex's father, Kevin Malarkey, he had visions of angels and of meeting Jesus. In 2014, Tyndale reissued "The Boy," which on the cover includes the billing "A True Story."
The facts of "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" have long been disputed in the Christian community, which has challenged reports of divine visions in Malarkey's book and other best-sellers such as Todd Burpo's "Heaven is for Real." Last June, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution declaring "the sufficiency of biblical revelation over subjective experiential explanations to guide one's understanding of the truth about heaven and hell." One of the leading critics has been Malarkey's mother, Beth. In April 2014, she wrote a blog posting saying that the book's success had been "both puzzling and painful to watch" and that she believed Alex had been exploited.
"I could talk about how much it has hurt my son tremendously and even make financial statements public that would prove that he has not received moneys from the book nor have a majority of his needs been funded by it," she wrote.
"What I have walked through with Alex over the past nine years has nearly broken me personally and spiritually. I have wept so deeply for what I have watched my children go through, been made aware of how ignorant I was of some things, how selfish I was, and how Biblically illiterate I was which allowed me to be deceived!"
↧
Why Fairy Tales Are Not Only True But More Than True
Pax On Both Houses: Compendium Of G.K. Chesterton Posts
G.K. Chesterton On Charity, Hope And Universal Salvation
↧
Chesterton: "Let Your Religion Be Less Of A Theory"
↧
↧
"Former Scientist" Tom Luongo Makes Money On Global Warming By Claiming Real Scientists Make Money On Global Warming
Alan: People who deny global warming are so intellectually deficient -- either by endowment or lack of training -- that they cannot imagine people motivated by love of truth.
They are entirely disabled in this regard because they can only conceive the world through their own lens which is a lens that only sees lucre.
***
My name is Tom Luongo.
I am a former scientist with the University of Florida
and currently run the Resolute Wealth Letter program.
https://w3.newsmax.com/LP/Finance/CTI/Dark-Winter?dkt_nbr=pa4sinzo
Date: 11/12/2014
Imagine, for a moment, sitting at a prestigious steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida, a hot spot for some of the most wealthy and famous — Donald Trump, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, Rush Limbaugh, and hundreds more.
And, imagine dining with a handful of men you’ve only read about. Some of them are worth millions, others published best-selling books, and some have held prominent positions at the White House.
In essence, you’re sitting at a five-person table of VIPs.
You’re about to take a bite of your New York strip when one of the men, a top U.S. intelligence agent, slams a 164-page document in the middle of the table.
This document, you soon find out, contains damning evidence that a network of politicians, corporations, and scientists have conspired together to promote the fear of “global warming” . . . despite evidence clearly stating no such “global warming” exists.
The motive: $22 billion per year.
To be clear . . . that’s $22 billion of taxpayers’ money . . . the amount that our government pays to stop the “global warming” epidemic.
That comes out to $41,856 every minute.
Or, to put it in perspective, that is twice as much as what our government spends on securing our borders.
Then, imagine this top U.S. intelligence agent turning to you, and asking for you to join him on a mission to out those involved in the “global warming” lie.
Doing so would cost a lot of money, a lot of time, and could cost you your reputation. But, pretending you never saw the document, and carrying on with your life, would allow the scandal to continue and actually put lives at risk.
So, imagine if you were at that table, and the scenario I just described happened to you.
Alan: Methinks Mr. Luongo is making money by claiming to be a "former scientist."
Alan: Methinks Mr. Luongo is making money by claiming to be a "former scientist."
My name is Tom Luongo. I am a former scientist with the University of Florida and currently run the Resolute Wealth Letter program.
My name is Tom Luongo, and I’ve recently had this exact experience.
In the following few pages, I am going to show you the alarming research in the document that was laid before me that night in Palm Beach.
I will tell you why this network of politicians, corporations, and scientists tried to hide this research . . . and how you can be part of a newly formed initiative with the aim of getting this research into the hands of every American.
This research proves, once and for all, that “global warming” is a sham . . . a sham perpetuated by a network of dirty government officials, greedy corporations, and bought-off “scientific” organizations.
How you respond will be up to you.
I can guarantee you one thing: After reading the next few pages, you will never look at government officials the same way . . . you will never trust what you hear in the media again . . . in fact, you will become skeptical of any and all authority figures going forward.
It’s unfortunate, but the betrayal you’re going to discover today runs very deep, and revealing the truthabout “global warming” comes with great risk.
As a scientist for over 20 years, I’ve always upheld the truth.
I’ve worked with the University of Florida to do some amazing things . . . I’ve helped make crop yields more productive for third world countries . . . I helped create an intermetallic coating for gun barrels that dropped maintenance requirements on firearms by half . . . and I’ve helped cure diseases.
I have seen a lot of research go across my desk. But none of it can compare to the 164-page document that landed in front of me that night in Palm Beach.
That’s why I’m going to lay the facts from this document before you today, and then I’m going to ask that you join me, and the man who composed this document, on our mission to defund the “global warming” sham . . .
All it will take is a click of your mouse.
With one click, you’re going to put more momentum behind what I hope to be the largest effort . . .ever . . . to annihilate the “global warming” lie and defund the government’s multibillion-dollar spending frenzy to keep it alive.
Now, before we begin, I ask that you excuse any “rough” elements in this letter. What I’m sharing with you today is so urgent that I’ve made a huge effort to get the research in this 164-page document available to you as quickly as possible . . .
With President Obama’s recent speech about getting tougher on “global warming” issues I think it’s critical that we don’t waste a minute in getting this information out.
The sooner we get this information into the hands of the public . . . your hands . . . the more informed voters will be when they cast their ballots.
First, you should know who put this document in my hands — a man whom Al Gore is personallyattacking . . .
John Casey is a former White House space program advisor, consultant to NASA Headquarters, and space shuttle engineer. He is now one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts.
John is a former White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA headquarters, and space shuttle engineer. He is now one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts.
In short, John is the very definition of a government insider. He spent 35 years conducting classified research, examining confidential documents, and directing critical scientific programs.
For example: In 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger tragically exploded, killing seven crew members, John testified before Congress on the cause of the accident. After the testimony, Congress instructed NASA headquarters to bring John in to chair a special internal investigation into why these critical systems failed.
Now, keep that in mind for a moment: Capitol Hill and NASA trusted John’s detailed analytical approach and his engineering credentials so much they asked him to investigate the cause of one of our nation’s greatest tragedies.
After 35 years of serving his country, John quietly retired in Florida. He planned on living peacefully, spending time with his wife, children, and grandkids.
But on one April afternoon in 2007, John made an “unfortunate” discovery that changed everything.
When the space shuttleChallenger crashed in 1986, the U.S. government asked John Casey to investigate.
The discovery would ultimately lead him to abandon his plans for retirement in order to support a cause that was bigger than himself . . . that was bigger than anything he had done in his 35-year career.
In fact, this discovery would result in him becoming hated by all those who once heralded him as their friend and adviser.
After this outright rejection, John realized that despite his science not changing, despite the thousands of pages of irrefutable data, and despite millions of lives at risk . . . he was alone.
The responsibility of letting the world know about this discovery rested solely on his shoulders, and those who would listen to him.
Indeed, what he has to say goes contrary to everything you have been told about “climate change.”
I initially rejected what John had to tell me. But when he showed me what was in his 164-page document, I couldn’t argue with him.
Facts are facts.
What John discovered that fateful afternoon was . . .
You see, John found evidence — buried right in the government’s own environmental studies — thatdestroys their argument for “global warming.”
Using their own data, John has proven, once and for all, “global warming” is a sham. And perhaps the most expensive — and lethal — sham in American history.
A sham that our government spends $22 billion a year financing. Think about that: our government spends $22 billion a year financing “global warming” initiatives.
Again, that’s almost double what the government spends on securing our borders.
Or, to break it down to real numbers . . .
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
John’s research also uncovered a different looming cataclysm that will ruin every nation that’s not prepared . . . a calamity that has been accelerating for the last 17 years . . . and brewing for over 200 years.
This impending catastrophe is as natural as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. And just as unstoppable.
I’m talking about a tectonic shift in the world’s economies that will . . .
- Send oil to over $300 a barrel
- Cause food prices to triple and in some places make food completely unavailable
- Lead to violence erupting in the streets of your suburban neighborhood
- Cause governments to topple, nations to descend into chaos, and international wars to break out.
In the 164-page document John handed me, he went to great lengths to explain exactly how serious this crisis will be. It’s going to be worsened by the fact our politicians are bullheadedly ignoring it.
The result will be every American being blindsided . . . unable to see it coming because of Al Gore and his cronies preaching false dogma.
As I said before, I didn’t believe it either until I saw the evidence in John’s dossier. And even then, it took me hours of talking to John afterward to digest it.
John’s research has now been corroborated by 17 independent scientific individuals and organizations. These are some of the top scientific minds in the field of climate science . . . in the world.
When John retired, he had many allies and supporters in the government.
However, when he turned that same analytical approach Washington loved so much on Washington itself . . .
He became, in essence, their “public enemy No. 1.”
Let me explain.
As mentioned, in April of 2007, already into a comfortable retirement, John began examining some solar and environmental physics research (these are his hobbies).
The “unfortunate” discovery he made would make any honest American sick to the stomach. John immediately took the evidence and called his colleagues and fellow government insiders to alert them to the situation.
He even sent notices to the White House warning them of the crisis.
The response?
Silence.
Silence, and then rejection.
And every year since, John has continued to notify every state governor, every U.S. senator, the House of Representatives, state attorneys general, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Obama’s Science Adviser Dr. John Holdren, and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, then head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
You see, all of John’s “friends” suddenly “forgot” his name and number when he revealed the inconvenient truth about Uncle Sam’s most expensive sacred cow . . . and showed them solid, scientifically sound research that obliterates the idea of “global warming.”
You’ve heard how the earth is rapidly heating up . . . causing drought and mayhem.
For sure, the media jumps on the “global warming” story every time there is a heat wave and each time a hurricane hits the East Coast.
But how much has the world really warmed?
Well, according to NASA’s own data, the world has warmed .36 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 35 years (they started measuring the data in 1979).
I think you would agree that a .36 degree increase in temperature over the last 35 years is hardly anything to get in a panic about.
Granted, that does mean the world is warmer, right?
The problem with that argument is that we experienced the bulk of that warming between 1979 and 1998 . . . we’ve actually had temperatures DROPPING ever since!
The reality is this: The world is 1.08 degrees cooler than it was in 1998.
Just take a look at this chart from Remote Sensing Systems, which provides data to NASA, NOAA, and other scientific organizations.
If you’re like me, this makes a lot of sense.
We’ve had cooler summers and longer winters.
Again, take one more look at the chart above — global warming reversed its rise in 1998. In the dossier John handed me, he explains exactly why this happened . . . and what’s going to happen next.
But for now, just keep this fact in your back pocket: the case for “global warming” is dead in its tracks.
“Global warming” proponents have said for a long time we’d see a heating of the oceans.
This proposition is necessary, since it means all those big chunks of ice are supposed to melt, killing off polar bears and causing states like Florida to get swallowed up by water.
In 2007, while accepting his Nobel Prize for his “global warming” initiative (and quietly pocketing millions of dollars), Al Gore made a striking prediction . . .
“The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff. It could be completely
gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.”
gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.”
The arctic ice caps have increased in size by 43% to 63%.
It is seven years later, and recent satellite images show that not only have the icecaps not melted . . . but they’ve expanded in size by 43% to 63%.
Here’s what a Globe and Mail article had to say: “An area twice the size of Alaska — America's biggest state — was open water two years ago and is now covered in ice.”
I think we know who’s using actual science, and who’s fear-mongering their way to wealth and fame.
Since 2002, the ocean temperatures have fluctuated less than 1 degree Fahrenheit. There is no warming.
Again, there is nothing to get hysterical about here.
You’ve heard for years how climate change has been caused by . . . well, you!
Al Gore and his liberal friends have stood onstage blaming you and your “gas-guzzling” car, standard four‑bedroom house, and the factory downtown.
Al Gore spreads “Global Warming” propaganda for his own profit.
Shame on you, right?
Of course, the hypocrisy of the claim is that Al Gore himself racks up annual electric and gas bills of $30,000, more than 20 times the national average.
Now, while I am all for keeping the environment clean (I recycle, drive a fuel-efficient car, and reuse materials), humans have not caused “global warming” . . . nothing can be further from the truth.
Indeed, “global warming” alarmists and their allies in the liberal media are famous for saying that scientists agree that man has caused “global warming.”
President Obama even tweeted on May 16, 2014, “97% of scientists agree: climate change is real, man-made and dangerous.” John Kerry, Al Gore, and a host of others have championed this statistic.
NOTE: I’ve shared a quick snapshot of the facts in John’s controversial 164-page document. Truth be told, John has 33 scientifically reviewed reasons that “global warming” is more than just a farce . . . it’s the product of bad, botched science. In John’s own words, the research in this document is “something you have not been allowed to hear for almost 20 years.” That is, the truth about our climate, the politicians manipulating the science, and the real key that controls our planet’s temperature — the sun.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, “The assertion that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is a man-made, urgent problem is a fiction.”
When further review was done, it was discovered that a mere 1% of scientists believe human activity is causing most of the climate change.
In outrage, a petition was signed by more than 31,000 scientists that states “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of . . . carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."
Indeed, even a founding father of the man-made “global warming” theory — Claude Allegre — recently came out and renounced his position by admitting, “The cause of this climate change is unknown.”
The reality is simply this: The climate changes over time.
When Alexander the Great was conquering Persia, climate change was a big factor. And we all learned in high school that the “little ice age” that rocked Europe killed hundreds of thousands of people from the 1600s through the 1800s. Additionally, we know about the heat wave and drought that wiped out much of America during the 1930s. Thousands of people were dislocated in search of survival.
Were those events caused by man-made “global warming”?
Of course not.
And, the reality is, most scientists who advocate “global warming” today know mankind has nothing to do with climate change.
Remember: Temperatures have only risen .36 degrees since 1979 . . . and the bulk of that happened during the 1990s! We haven’t seen any warming for the last 17 years . . . in fact we have seen a drop in temperatures.
Well, think about it.
Every year, the temperatures rise and fall with spring, summer, fall, and winter. A year is simply a 365-day cycle.
The sun is 1.3 million times larger than the earth. When its temperature changes, our temperature changes.
Every day, the temperatures rise and fall with daytime and nighttime. A day is simply a 24-hour cycle.
These two cycles happen automatically. We can neither change them nor stop them any more than we can stop the Earth’s rotation. It’s impossible. The temperatures fluctuate based on these cycles.
So clearly, the Earth’s temperatures rise and fall based on its exposure to . . . the sun.
Well, here’s the breaking news. And you must pay close attention . . . because what I’m about to tell you has been deemed a “forbidden theme” in the scientific community.
Talking about it gets you a black mark at the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or the World Meteorological Society.
You see, there are larger cycles of the sun . . . “solar cycles.”
This may not seem earthshattering, but solar cycles are — bar none — the most devastating argument against man-made “global warming.”
Essentially, there are times when the sun gets hotter and times when it cools off as measured by “sunspots.” And John Casey found multiple solar cycles that determine the temperatures of the Earth.
The thing about these cycles is that they are predictable, and therefore it’s not difficult to see what is coming in the years ahead.
Indeed, if scientists were paying attention to these “solar cycles” years ago, they could have told you that the Earth would get warmer during the 1990s, and then it would cool . . . just like it has.
In fact, this climate cycle, along with several other cycles, has allowed John to make 11 accurate predictions about the Earth’s climate over the past few years, and it has allowed him to make a catastrophic prediction which I will share with you in a moment.
Ironically, as John released his data on these solar cycles, the ugly lie about man-made “global warming” started leaking out.
You probably already knew somewhere deep inside that something wasn’t right about the “global warming” theory.
Sure, during the 1990s, we all noticed it getting warmer. But, to say that it is directly tied what humans are doing seemed to be a stretch, and, we have all noticed it getting a LOT cooler lately.
So it might not come as a surprise to say that “global warming” is a sham. But what does come as a surprise to many is the evidence of outright lying that is now leaking out of trustworthy scientific agencies.
Shortly after John exposed the truth about “global warming,” 1,000 emails and 2,000 documents from leading “global warming” scientists were found . . . revealing potential conspiracies, collusions, data manipulation, destruction of information, and even admission of flaws that were buried.
For example:
- One leading scientist — Kevin Trenberth — admitted “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty we can’t.” A travesty simply because they were worried about losing their government funding.
- In another email, Dr. Phil Jones — a leading “global warming” advocate at the United Nations — admitted that he used “Mike’s Nature trick” in a 1999 graph to “hide the decline” in temperature.
- And another study done by Stephen Goddard at Real Science revealed just how ridiculous “climate scientists” can get with data manipulation. Here is what he had to say: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been “adjusting” its record by replacing real temperatures with data “fabricated” by computer models.”
There are several other documents just like these.
More recently, Professor Robert Stavins — who helped write the 2014 United Nations Climate Report — came out to Breitbart News . . . and revealed that politicians demanded he change and edit parts of the report to fit their needs!
In short, governments, and government-funded scientists, want to make sure that any “global warming” research published . . . will say exactly what they want it to say.
Now, everyone knows from their high school education that the No. 1 rule of doing scientific research is that it cannot be undertaken with an end goal in mind because you will only use the data points that support your end goal.
That’s not real science.
But that’s exactly what “global warming” scientists are doing! They are only using partial data . . . the data the supports their end goal . . . to make their point that there is man-made “global warming.”
So, we’re being told that the survival of our planet, of the human race, relies on tackling “global warming” . . . yet the whole thing is a sham.
Why would this network of politicians, corporations, and scientists do such a thing?
Well, think about it.
Our federal government spends $22 billion on “global warming” research each and every year (twice as much as we spend on protecting our border!).
Again, that is $41,856 every minute.
If government-funded scientists came out and said “global warming” didn’t exist, their funding would be cut immediately.
But “global warming” has been kept on life support for another crucial reason: It has been a practical ATM for every in-the-know political figure.
The media is catching on to Al Gore’slies, but he is not going down without a fight.
Al Gore, for example, has been one of the most vocally aggressive crusaders for “global warming.”
In 2001, before leaving office as vice president, Gore was worth less than $2 million. Since then, he has grown his wealth to $100 million . . . almost entirely by investing in a handful of “green-tech” companies . . . 14 of whichreceived more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants, tax breaks, and more from the Obama administration.
The Telegraph reports Al Gore could become the “world’s first carbon billionaire” thanks to his investments in green companies . . . all of which benefit from tax dollars and government loans to “prevent global warming.”
And he’s not alone.
After accepting $1.25 million in campaign contributions, President Obama made sure to include his “global warming” plans in his victory speech: “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”
You are likely familiar with the story of the failed Solyndra green energy initiative, which cost taxpayers $500 million; President Obama took a lot of flak for that.
But here’s a little-known side of the Solyndra story I bet you haven’t heard: Obama, in essence, used taxpayer money to finance his re-election campaign . . . by funneling it through Solyndra.
You see, when Solyndra fell on hard times, it passed into the hands of two large private equity investors . . . Goldman Sachs and George Kaiser. When $500 million in taxpayer money was given to Solyndra, both Goldman Sachs and George Kaiser benefited. Coincidentally, both have made contributions to Obama’s election campaigns adding up to roughly $1.25 million.
It doesn’t stop there.
- In 2010, another federal loan of $400 million went Abound Solar. That resulted in a bankruptcy as well. But investors in Abound Solar seemed to do just fine . . . investors like billionaire heiress Patricia Stryker. Stryker has famously contributed $500,000 to the Coalition for Progress while throwing $85,000 toward Obama’s inaugural committee. It’s just a coincidence that the government handed a company she invested in $400 million just before bankruptcy . . . right?
- There’s also A123 Systems, which paid one lobbying firm $970,000 to secure money from the government — and received $279 million in federal assistance. The CEO of A123 Systems went on to fund multiple Democratic senators and contributed to Obama’s campaign.
- First Solar received $646 million in government loan guarantees, and has since contributed more than $180,000 to Democratic campaigns.
- GE is notorious for spending tens of millions of dollars a year to “buy” green energy credits for its wind turbines and other green technologies — credits which helped the firm pay ZERO taxes in 2011.
There are a host of other examples of liberals getting wealthy off “global warming” initiatives just like these.
You can see why green energy is such a profitable business — CEOs and executives get to rake in millions of dollars, while politicians get lucrative donations for their campaigns . . . and scientists get all the funding they need to keep them going . . . all on your dime.
But here’s the cherry on top . . .
While $22 billion of our money is being redistributed every year to greedy scientists, politicians, and corporations . . .
$22 billion is just what is spent on these “global warming” initiatives.
The reality is, these initiatives have ripple effects . . . mainly the regulations (from government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency) that shackle free enterprise and force us to rely on foreign energy.
According to Forbes, the total cost of these ripple effects is a staggering $1.75 trillion annually.
I want you to really think about that for a moment.
We’re watching $1.75 trillion per year . . . $3,329,528 per minute . . . go to waste.
It’s worse when you note that the U.S. Energy Information Administration says these regulations could ultimately cause gasoline prices to rise 77% over baseline projections . . . send 3 million Americans to the welfare line . . . and reduce average household income by a whopping $4,000 each year.
Washington knows all of this . . . and is still barreling forward with its nonsense policies!
They’re just letting you foot the bill, while they pocket the benefits.
Fact is, organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency have handcuffed capitalism . . . based on a theory even its staunchest supporters (like the aforementioned Dr. Allegre) have already renounced.
The result: reduced business, higher energy and food costs, higher taxes, lost jobs, and more money going overseas.
With $1.75 trillion in annual costs, you would think someone out there would listen to John and his research, but . . .
When John discovered that the world was indeed cooling, he urgently shared his findings, only to get lambasted.
Al Gore himself specifically called John a “pseudo-scientist” and discarded his findings.
“Global warming” advocate Dr. Benjamin Kirtman simply dismissed John’s warnings as the “usual nonsense.”
Media Matters has published two personal attacks against John — saying he has “no background in climate science” (which isn’t true) and calling him a “scam artist.”
But think about something for a moment.
Why would John take on this mission to expose the truth about “global warming” if he didn’t fully know that his evidence was fact? Why would he risk his reputation, his retirement, and his way of life?
It would have been much easier to walk away.
But John isn’t the type to walk away from the truth . . . especially when it would put his family, country, and even the world at risk.
That is why John has taken on this mission, even if it means doing it alone.
It is why he has exhausted his savings and retirement funds to spread the word about his research through his organization, Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC).
He will let nothing stop him.
John’s persistence is finally paying off.
A small movement is starting . . . one that I am proud to be a part of, and one that I will invite you to join in a moment.
Helping fuel this movement has been the series of cold winters and cool summers that John predicted would come. The media no longer could ignore the irony in front of them. Here is what they have reported recently.
And now, a small but distinguished group of scientists and researchers are publically aligning themselves with John Casey and his organization.
One such organization recently named John . . .
Perhaps that is because unlike some of the “global warming” darlings and proponents — NOAA, NASA, and the IPCC — John’s research has consistently predicted weather patterns correctly.
John has spoken at conferences across the United States . . . making 11 accurate predictions.
Since he first began sharing this work in 2007, John’s 11 predictions have come true (mind you, these are MAJOR events, not predicting that tomorrow will be slightly cloudy with a chance of rain).
I could walk you through all 11, but they are very extensive and heavy on the science. John has accurately predicted everything from a drop in solar activity (NASA later adjusted their own projections to fall in line with his) to a rise in historic earthquake activity (10 months before the earthquake that hit Japan and caused the Fukushima meltdown).
Please know, all 11 of his predictions of have been verified — by myself and other third parties. All of them have been attacked by government-funded scientists, only for those same scientists to eat their words later.
Each and every one of John’s predictions have been made publicly and shared with top government officials and the mainstream media for the last seven years.
John has made every effort to share this information. But instead of listening, the media and the left treated him like a leper and have done their best to smear his name.
Science and politics have worked this way for hundreds of years.
Galileo was ridiculed by scientists invested in the idea the sun revolves around the Earth.
Robert Goddard — the man who ushered in the Space Age and rocket ships — was ridiculed endlessly during his life for proposing . . . traveling to the moon.
William Harvey was ostracized for proposing the theory of blood circulation . . .
Opponents could never refute the science — they could only attack the man behind it. Just like they do with John today.
But there is a small group of scientists that are starting to listen, and take action!
Unlike the “scientists” who want to present information that has been twisted to fit a political agenda, and slam anyone who rebels against the accepted dogma . . .
John has done nothing but put his research up to public scrutiny for the last few years.
And now some of the top scientific minds in the world are rallying to him. Here’s what they have to say . . .
- Dr. Fumio Tsunoda, professor emeritus of geology at Japan’s Saitama University, testified, “ [John’s] work is quite a revelation that marks a step toward a new scientific civilization ” and his findings “add a brilliant page to the history of science.”
- Dr. Natarajan Venkatanathan, professor of physics, SASTRA University, said, “ [John’s] ideas may be opposed by conventional scientists, but they will have to accept his theory because the truth prevails.”
- Dr. Boris Komitov, one of Europe’s top solar physicists and a professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was so impressed with John’s work, he reached out to John and joined the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC). Here’s what Dr. Komitov had to say: “These problems brought on by this next climate change that Casey ably discusses . . . are more important than ever. ”
- Dr. Ole Humlum, professor of physical geography at the University of Oslo, said, “The history of science is filled with examples of individuals with new ideas being met by the current scientific establishment not with enthusiasm, but rather with disregard and sometimes, even ridicule. These hypotheses were considered outrageous by many contemporary scientists, but today they represent the very foundation for much of our present understanding of planet Earth’s dynamics. New hypotheses based on empirical observations should always be welcomed warmly. This also applies very much to [the work] by John Casey.”
- Dr. Giovanni Gregori, who has served on the National Research Council of Italy since 1963 and serves on multiple astronomical councils and in several societies, went so far as to say that John Casey is the modern day Leonardo da Vinci. He also said: “[John Casey’s work] is an important contribution for understanding and facing the environmental challenge, in its multifaceted and often disquieting manifestations.”
- Dr. Dong Choi, editor-in-chief of the New Concepts in Global Tectonics newsletter, calls John’s work“earth-shattering.”
Each of these scientists has reviewed John’s work and had no choice but to agree with his conclusion after seeing the evidence, just as I did.
John even confided in me that several other scientists secretly support his work. They agree with his conclusions. They think “global warming” and the accepted climate science is hogwash.
But they can’t say anything about it.
In John’s words: “If you work for the government and you stand up and say, ‘Man-made climate change is all nonsense’ you can kiss your government job goodbye. They’ll either make it hell to work there, or fire you outright.”
It’s easy to get upset with these scientists, and we should be, but in reality, they are just trying to keep their jobs. We should put the bulk of the blame on our government.
We have a government that prefers comfortable delusion to uncomfortable truth.
I am proud to be an American and I think God has really blessed this country.
When it comes down to it, no other nation has ever given every man, woman, and child the chance to enjoy so much prosperity.
And more importantly, so much control over their lives.
However, our nation has made a hard turn over the last few years — we’ve spent more time furthering agendas of a handful of politicians than actually protecting the American people.
John’s research is just one example.
Rather than being, as he says, “one of hundreds” sharing this information . . . John and his small organization have been doing it all.
And as a result of their tremendous effort, a small movement has started.
However, this small movement is at risk of dying in its tracks without help from bold Americans like you.
That’s why . . .
As I said earlier, my name is Tom Luongo.
I’ve been a scientist for the better part of my life.
I’ve worked to make crop yields higher in third world countries, I’ve done hundreds of chemical tests to make firearms less maintenance-intensive, and I have worked to help cure diseases.
I used the “scientific” approach in other areas of my life as well.
For example, I’ve been able to turn every $5,000 into $34,000 using a scientific approach to investing.
I used the scientific method to teach myself economics . . . and, as a result, started buying gold in 2001 — watching it jump 473% since.
I even used it to deduce the housing bubble was coming, three years in advance (and, along with my wife, took special precautions to avoid the fallout).
My point is, I’ve seen and done many things with my scientific background. I’ve used it to help myself and help others.
John Casey knows I have a knack for getting things done, and done right.
That’s why, at a dinner in Palm Beach not long ago, John set a 164-page document in front of me. This document is the culmination of his years of work — it’s all his research in one bound volume.
John knew I would validate his claims, and upon doing so, take action.
Since that fateful night, John and I have teamed up to take that document and rewrite a good bit of it into a simple-to-read and easy-to-understand book, so that we could publish it, and get it into every home in America.
The book is called Dark Winter . . . and I want you to have a FREE copy of it!
In it, John holds nothing back. He names names. He shows the evidence. And he reveals the cold truth about “global warming.”
- This book includes every alert, every warning, every scrap of information he has sent urgently to our government.
- John reveals the science behind his 11 accurate predictions in simple-to-understand terms, and why he foresees more significant events like tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
- John also reveals 33 crushing scientific dissections he performs which make “global warming” even more of a farce.
- Most importantly, Dark Winter makes an alarming prediction. There is a looming cataclysm that will ruin every nation that’s not prepared . . . a calamity that has been accelerating for the last 17 years . . . and brewing for over 200 years. This event will cause international wars as governments topple and nations descend into chaos.
- John even exposes why we may soon see oil rise to $300 a barrel and food prices triple (and in some places, food will become unavailable).
- Best of all, John reveals a three-step plan to protect yourself if his latest predictions come to fruition just like his last 11.
Again, I want you to have a copy of this book . . . for free.
I want to get it in your hands . . . and in the hands of every other American out there!
And that is why we need your help.
You’ve seen for yourself how “global warming” is a farce. You’ve seen how an entire community of scientists, politicians, and corporations are padding their pockets with $22 billion of taxpayers’ moneyevery year in the name of “global warming.”
And you have seen how John has made 11 accurate predictions and a team of scientists are rallying around him.
Most of all . . . you have seen how John has spent his retirement time and money preaching this message to anyone who will listen. Yes . . . they are few and far between. But some are now listening.
John’s not doing this for money. As I said, he’s actually exhausting all of his savings to get this message out.
But we can’t stop here.
And John can’t do it alone.
He is facing a $22 billion budget along with years of “global warming” brainwashing. Some battles have been won, but the war is far from over.
John is on the left. I am on the right. We have worked hard on putting together theCold Truth Initiative, and we appreciate your support.
I have personally poured my own blood, sweat, and tears into putting this initiative together.
I figured it was the least I could do for my good friend John Casey after all he has done for us.
The Cold Truth Initiative will send an audacious message to those who have perpetrated this blatant lie called ‘global warming’ — a message that will stop their malicious deceit in its tracks.
We will achieve this mission by completing three bold goals before January 1.
Goal No. 1: Spread the Truth About ‘Global Warming’ to Every American
We will reveal the fraud, the bought science, the government manipulation, and the outright deceit so that EVERY American can see the deception in broad daylight. We want everyone to know that the little hunch they have about “global warming” being hyperbole . . . is the right hunch. We want to expose just how foolish these “global warming” policies are that cost us trillions of dollars. We want every man, woman, and child to see that “global warming” isn’t science — it’s a get-rich-quick scheme for politicians. And it must stop immediately!
Goal No. 2: Place a Copy of John Casey’s BookDark Winter in Every Home in America
The government’s favorite way to control the population is to keep them misinformed. The last thing Al Gore would want you to see are the truths that are revealed in this book. When every American has a copy of Dark Winter, they will be freed from the control of man-made “global warming” lies. In order to do this . . . we have decided to give the book away for free at a huge expense.
Goal No. 3: Defund the ‘Global Warming’ Initiative
We will take back the $22 billion of taxpayer money the government is misappropriating every year, and let people use their money the way they would like to . . . rather than watch it burn up on pointless legislation. Once the “global warming” enterprise folds, the American economy can grow again . . . by as much as $1.75 trillion per year.
We have ambitious goals, no doubt.
Thankfully, because of good people like you, within the last week we have raised tens of thousands of dollars. We have used that money to reach an estimated 2 million people with the truth.
John Casey and I have been working day in and day out, shoulder to shoulder, to spread this message.
But now we need your help!
You can join the Cold Truth Initiative right now.
All we ask is that you make a one-time contribution of $5 that we will use to fulfill our mission.
Once you join, you will receive a free copy of John Casey’s book Dark Winter (a $29 value): This 164-page document is a death sentence for the dogma of the “climate believers.”
This book reveals the groundbreaking research that forced John to reverse his belief in “global warming.” He spent most of his life buying into the dogma . . . that is, until that fateful evening in April, 2007.
Once he saw the truth, there was no going back.
I am willing to bet this information will have the same effect on you.
However, your FREE copy of Dark Winter is just the first item you will receive today when you join theCold Truth Initiative.
John and I want to give you an arsenal of weapons to help spread the truth.
That’s why the book Dark Winter is just the first item we will be arming you with today. We are holding nothing back for this initiative.
You will also receive . . .
- The Lost Video Interview (a $29 value): This is the private conversation I had with John after reading his 164-page document. During the course of this interview, John revealed more cold hard facts about the end of “global warming.” I think you’ll be just as floored as I was (particularly when John explains the real reason Russia is invading Ukraine, and why it could be very bad for America).
- The Dark Winter Survival Guide (a $49 value): In John’s book, Dark Winter, he goes beyond blowing “global warming” out of the water . . . he reveals a calamity far worse than most climate scientists can imagine — all based on proven solar cycles. I worked hand in hand with John to create a DETAILED action plan for you to avoid the biggest pitfalls and even thrive during this coming era of chaos.
- The Dark Winter Investment Guide (a $49 value): As a seasoned investor, I feel it’s important to help you get all your ducks in a row. Money makes the world go round — and having enough of it, especially during the potential dark days ahead, can make your life much easier. I’ll show you how to effectively invest your money — and possibly, like me, turn every $5,000 into $34,000.
- A 3-Month Subscription to My Resolute Wealth Letter (a $24 value):I write a monthly newsletter that is distributed to about 10,000 people. Think of this newsletter as your monthly road map not only to wealth (I hand-pick several home-run investments every month for my readers) . . . but also to honest science, real economics, and alternative, practical ways of living outside of Uncle Sam’s reach. I bring in top experts to help me share little-known strategies for protecting your privacy, slashing your taxes, and even living “off the grid.” You get all of this information delivered straight to your inbox every single month — free — for three months. And then, if you choose to renew the subscription, it is only $97.95 for the full year.
Every dollar you contribute will be spent to spread the truth about “global warming” and on equipping you with the tools you need to tell others about this lie . . . so that you and your fellow citizens can be prepared for what is to come.
None of the money will be kept.
Zero.
To be clear, the minimum contribution when you join the Cold Truth Initiative is $5. But you are allowed to contribute more . . . in fact, I estimate that every $5 you contribute helps us reach 20 more people with this message through online advertising, media buys, and campaign speeches.
That’s 20 more people who will know the truth and who will spread the truth.
Just think . . . if it were not for somebody else’s previous contribution, you wouldn’t be reading this message right now. You likely wouldn’t know that the Earth’s temperatures have risen a mere .36 degrees over the last 35 years, that the icecaps were actually increasing in size by 43% to 63%, or that our government is wasting $41,856 every minute in the name of “global warming.”
However, because of one of your fellow Americans . . . an anonymous contributor you will never meet . . . you are now getting the information you need.
John has put 100% of his life into spreading this message.
I have made a commitment to print thousands of copies of Dark Winter along with the other critical items in your Cold Truth Initiative Introductory Kit . . .
Thousands of others have already financially supported us through contributions to the Cold Truth Initiative.
Liberals like President Obama and Al Gorehope you remain silent on what you have read today.
So what will you do now that you have seen the evidence for yourself?
My hope is that you don’t walk away in silence as a network of dirty politicians, greedy corporations, and bribed scientists rob you year in and year out.
That’s exactly what they want you to do.
They want you to think that your contribution won’t make a difference. They want you to think your voice is too small to change things.
Remember, this information isn’t just important, it is vital!
$22 billion of your money is being spent every year to keep the “global warming” lie alive . . . consumers and corporations take a blow of $1.75 trillion a year because of useless legislation.
Imagine how the American economy might look if we weren’t effectively flushing this money down the toilet . . . imagine how much your taxes could drop if the government wasn’t spending your money on nonsense programs . . .
The only way we can win this war is if we unite together.
Thousands have already contributed to the Cold Truth Initiative. We are making headway, but we have a long way to go.
Now is your chance to make a difference.
Today, you can strike back at the lies, and more importantly, you can help other Americans protect themselves.
I urge you to click the button below and make a small contribution of $5 or more today.
We’ll rush you a free Cold Truth Initiative Introductory Packet that includes John’s book Dark Winteralong with The Lost Video Interview, The Dark Winter Investment Guide, The Dark Winter Survival Guide, and a three-month subscription to my Resolute Wealth Letter.
Sincerely,
Tom Luongo
Proud Member of the Cold Truth Initiative
↧
Face Of Aging Serial Rapist?
"Presumed Innocent Until Proven Guilty"
I will give Mr. Cosby the benefit of the doubt.
I will also declare the doubt.
↧
Equal in Paris? On James Baldwin and Charlie Hebdo
Equal in Paris?
On Baldwin and Charlie Hebdo
JAMES BALDWIN WROTE that although William Faulkner might not accurately be called a racist, the novelist “could see Negroes only as they related to him, not as they related to each other.” For Baldwin, Faulkner’s depictions of blacks had far less to do with them as people than with “the torment of their creator” who was “seeking to exorcise a history that is also a curse.”
In these nightmarish days in Paris since the astonishing massacre of cartoonists, black and Arab police officers, and random hostages in a Jewish épicerie, it is Baldwin whose words echo loudest in my mind—more than Voltaire or Rushdie or Christopher Hitchens or any other exemplar of satire and blasphemy to be repeatedly quoted (and misquoted) in the press and on social media. In the above lines, taken from No Name in the Street, Baldwin is writing not only about Faulkner, but about France and his growing understanding of the country’s vexed relationship to its homegrown underclass.
Like Baldwin, I was almost totally unaware of the details of “the French-Algerian complexity” prior to arriving in Paris. But as a black American who—like Baldwin—was delighted to have escaped my own American pigeonholes in France, I couldn’t help but feel compelled to rectify my ignorance. As a 22-year-old barely out of college, I read Baldwin’s essay “Equal in Paris” over and over again in my cramped mezzanine in Lille. At the time, I was commuting several days a week to the drab slum of Roubaix, where I taught introductory English to whites of modest means and Muslim fourth graders. Looking back at that essay, I see I starred and underlined this:
“I considered the French an ancient, intelligent, and cultured race, which indeed they are. I did not know, however, that ancient glories imply . . . present fatigue and, quite probably, paranoia: that there is a limit to the role of intelligence in human affairs; and that no people come into the possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it. This price, they cannot, of course, assess, but it is revealed in their personalities and in their institutions.”
THE SATIRICAL WEEKLY CHARLIE HEBDO is one such thoroughly French institution. That is what you hear again and again if you criticize the content this paper trafficked in. “But you cannot understand Charlie Hebdo if you are not French”; “Charlie Hebdo has been a pillar of the French popular culture that shaped us; It is our tradition!” dozens of friends have insisted, as if somehow all traditions are noble and worthy of upholding. One of my oldest and kindest friends from Paris, a man with a beautifully aristocratic last name, made a point the other day that seems to have become one of the default rationales: “But Charlie Hebdo offended everyone the same. My grandmother, who is a practicing Catholic, will tell you they are harsher with the Pope than with anyone else.” While this may even be true, Anatole France had the right of it when he said, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
In this era of facile hashtag activism, it is no wonder that a music journalist at a free weekly magazine was able to launch the now globally ubiquitous #jesuischarlie campaign. What is surprising is that no one seems quite able to define what these three words are supposed to mean. On the most anodyne level, they express a justified sense of grief over the senseless loss of life we all share. Beyond that, some people maintain that the slogan is itself a defense of free speech and a defiant stance against any tyrannical power that would silence it. This seems to be what the French government wishes to convey by projecting the phrase Paris est CHARLIE across the top of the Arc de Triomphe and on the face of the Hotel de Ville. But this same government, which only recently silenced the popular anti-Semitic comic Dieudonné by preemptively banning some of his shows (and is currently seeking to silence him again) is hardly intellectually consistent on the issue. Nor, for that matter, is Charlie Hebdo itself—the publication notably forced the departure of the cartoonist Siné for a column that was deemed offensively anti-Semitic in 2009.1
On another level, #jesuischarlie seems to inevitably carry the implication that one tacitly agrees with—or at the very least doesn’t actively object to—the nature of the magazine’s content. On this last point, I have been amazed by the sheer tenacity with which so many French people I know insist on clinging to their belief in the validity and innocuousness of these cartoons. It is one thing to say that we mourn the people killed at Charlie—which I certainly do—and quite another thing to allow oneself to be identified with the publication’s mission, which was frequently an ugly one. What gets lost in all the sudden reflexive sentimentality is the degree to which #jesuischarlie creates a false binary between legally permissible bigotry and murderous terror—a virtually impossible political bind for many of the already marginalized targets of the publication’s relentless ire.
IN THE FIVE YEARS that I have lived in France, I have more than once been welcomed into well-furnished rooms where I have been left to silently puzzle over colonial detritus—Sambo-like dolls and figurines, thick-lipped, bug-eyed, disembodied brown porcelain heads—cavalierly displayed on illuminated shelves and marble tabletops. The first few times I saw these mementos I was jarred, though it is also possible for me to talk and laugh and drink in such spaces, because I am with friends, and I am comfortable in my status as an American who has made his home in Paris but is always free to leave. And yet, I would be lying if I denied that there is some small part of my consciousness still tender with ancestral ache, which cannot ever allow me to lose sight of these outlandish trophies and souvenirs. They seem to somehow comfort or amuse my hosts, reminding them of nothing at all or of some far less complicated and stressful past, and fit smartly in the décor alongside equestrian prints, layered “oriental” rugs, and grandfather’s antelope heads from Africa mounted on the wall.
To my mind, in addition to the French tradition of anti-authoritarian satiric wit, this is also very much a part of the context of our current crisis, whether we want to talk about it now or not: France has a violent, racist, and unexorcised past. There is no self-respecting way for me to identify with these objects that I sometimes see, just as there is no self-respecting way for me to hear the still-in-use French word for ghostwriter—nègre (literally an unacknowledged, unpaid laborer: a nigger)—without flinching; and there is no self-respecting way for me to gaze on that hideous Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting France’s first black Justice Minister, Christiane Taubira, as a monkey.
Considering the incontestably great cultural monuments of the former colonial powers—whether Descartes or Chartres —Baldwin maintained that the Algerian blue-collar worker in Paris has no reason to genuflect before them (let alone before the infinitely lesser cultural achievements, such as satirical cartooning). Instead, Baldwin says, he has, “once these monuments intrude on [his] attention, no honorable access to them. . . . To bow down before that history is to accept that history’s arrogant and unjust judgment” of him.
THIS IS AN ISSUE and a debate that has already transcended the nation of France. Much of the mainstream opinion in the US more or less seems to mirror what Philip Gourevitch wrote on the New Yorker website in the immediate aftermath, when he likened Charlie Hebdo’s offense-giving mission to the heroic, self-sacrificing strategies of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Or when the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy that lionized the caricaturists as “war reporters of a sort” on the front lines of a global contest between radical Islam and the West. There can be absolutely no excuse for acts of terrorism, but these are examples, respectively, of rhetorical and political hagiography and blackmail and should be rejected as such. As Susan Sontag put it, “by all means let us mourn together; but let’s not be stupid together.” To that, we might add, let us not be callous, reckless, or oblivious together, either.
Last Friday, Albert Uderzo, the 87-year-old cartoonist behind the beloved French Asterix comics came out of retirement to publish an illustration declaring Moi aussi je suis CHARLIE. The image, which has been widely circulated online, depicts the Gallic mascot rushing forward to deliver a vicious uppercut to a figure that has been knocked almost entirely out of the frame. The only means the viewer has for discerning who exactly was on the receiving end of such a blow are the shoes that remain behind. They are pointy-toed slippers of the variety one might be forgiven for associating with traditional Arab dress, but which certainly were not what either the Kouachi brothers or Amedy Coulibaly had been wearing.
A crucial component of any joke or narrative can be found in who exactly is doing the telling. Until the underlying conditions depriving so many from being able to laugh together are addressed, a very sizable portion of the population will continue to have no honorable means of everbeing Charlie.
↧