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Who is Richard Heinberg?

We jump rather abruptly in our story to the present time. For cryptofascisticus is on the march in many and unexpected ways. We've recently tracked this pesky parasite within a well known popularizer of the "Peak Oil" and more general "resource depletion" school of thought. It's a complicated story and you will remain unclear, as I am, as to how much our subject, Mr. Heinberg, really understands the implications of his words. However, given his background, there's no way to know if the words are freely given in the first place. But in my jumping ahead, I've jumped FURTHER ahead. Let's slow down.

Richard Heinberg is perhaps best known among the ecologically minded for his The Party's Over , a look at how Peak Oil and resource depletion will bring our overconsumptive lifestlye to a rather jarring halt. Intuitively, this seems right. The west, particularly the U.S., consumes way more than our "share" of stuff. Surely these gluttonous chickens will come home to roost. Surely we will run out of these things we waste so irresponsibly. And surely our hypercapitalist system of wealth created from thin air or even just the promise of thin air cannot maintain itself for long. And surely it is a race to see if we destroy the earth before this madness ends.

And surely someone who warns us of this danger and wants desperately to prevent the degradation of our natural world must be one of the good guys.

Before we tackle Heinberg directly we'd better have a look at some background. I'll start with a question. Did you know Hitler was a vegetarian? You see, ecological concerns have long been the province not just of the left, but also of the right. In fact, there is an entire mythos in Nazi and other fascist ideologies of the spiritual power of the land and her people. Blood and soil. Blut und boten. And in this mythos, the idea of "cleansing of the land" can take on a LOT of extra baggage.

Here is a link to two articles that are essential reading to understand why Heinberg is a real concern. One is about the role of ecological thought in the ideology and mythos of Nazism. The second traces these influences into the present day (but only deals with Germany. Still, it is instructive.) A quote to get you started:

These latter two fixations matured in the second half of the nineteenth century in the context of the völkisch movement, a powerful cultural disposition and social tendency which united ethnocentric populism with nature mysticism. At the heart of the völkisch temptation was a pathological response to modernity. In the face of the very real dislocations brought on by the triumph of industrial capitalism and national unification, völkisch thinkers preached a return to the land, to the simplicity and wholeness of a life attuned to nature's purity. The mystical effusiveness of this perverted utopianism was matched by its political vulgarity. While "the Volkish movement aspired to reconstruct the society that was sanctioned by history, rooted in nature, and in communion with the cosmic life spirit," 8 it pointedly refused to locate the sources of alienation, rootlessness and environmental destruction in social structures, laying the blame instead to rationalism, cosmopolitanism, and urban civilization.

The mythos goes much deeper, however, and has roots way back into good ole Madame Blavatsky herself, if not even earlier. We can't go into all that here. But let us just acknowledge the fact that MUCH of so-called New Age thought is not new at all. In fact, it is completely continuous with this same Nazi mythos we'll be exploring a bit here. Does that mean all New Age practitioners are Nazis? Of course, not. But that whole line of thinking has been both developed by and exploited by far right elements for some time now. It distracts from the necessary agenda of addressing the true causes of injustice while it builds influence and credibility for ideas that have very dark roots indeed. It tells us not to look for the roots of injustice in our rulers or in our economic system or system of government. It tells us to look for the roots of evil in a secret group, an "invading force", a people not part of our "homeland." They don't HAVE to be Jews, of course, but most of the time, that is exactly who this line of thinking will end up telling us they are.

Am I overstating my case here? Could Heinberg possibly be approaching this line of thought. I'm afraid so, gentle readers. And as he is a smart man, I don't think this can be unwitting.

Our first clue was a curious blurb, right there on Mr. Heinberg's site, about his book. It is this:

The Party's Over begins with a commanding review of world history, where past and current developments including war, empire, and population growth are interpreted as functions of cheap or increasingly scarce and expensive energy. The discussion of substitutes for fast-depleting fossil fuels, and the formidable impediments to making the transition that would allow industrial civilization to continue, are important to every investor and citizen.
- Virginia Deane Abernethy, Ph.D., author of Population Politics

http://www.museletter.com/partys-over.html

This caught my attention, you see, because Dr. Abernethy is well known as a white seperatist. She writes for an avowedly racist publication called "Occidental Quarterly".

Here's their description of her. I can't link directly to the page about the advisory board as the URL doesn't change for some reason. So you'll have to go there yourself and click around! Get a sense of the kind of publication this is and wonder how ANYONE could feature a blurb from such a person right on the front page of their book's website!

Virginia Abernethy, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychiatry Vanderbilt University Medical School, and author of Population Politics: The Choices that Shape Our Future (Insight Books, 1993; Transaction 1999), Population Pressure and Cultural Adjustment (Human Sciences Press, 1979), and (editor) Frontiers in Medical Ethics: Applications in a Medical Setting (Ballinger, 1980). A former editor of Population and Environment, she is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A., 1955) and Harvard University (M.A. 1969, Ph.D., 1970).

So Mr. Heinberg...maybe we can call him Richard now? Richard thinks Abernethy is a good reference. Two mouseclicks would have revealed otherwise. This can not be a mistake. Here's what he says of her:

An ecological politics, a politics of reality. Now who's talking about this? Very few that I have seen. I think the marxist and most of the anarchists are pretty much avoiding the issue. There are a few people who are mostly scientists, people like Virginia Abernathy who wrote the book "Population Politics" and David Pimentel a professor up in Ithaca, New York, people like that are aware of the issues but these are scientists, they're not political leaders.

http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/220

My my. I'll let the reader unpack that statement as an exercise for we must move on.

You see, this is just the beginning of a strange and disturbing tale.

Richard didn't always write about peak oil. He used to write a lot of New Age spirituality books and articles. And it is these articles we will turn to now.

I found these articles right on Richard's archive pages, so he does not disavow them. They are all linked from here:

http://www.museletter.com/archive.html

If you scroll to the bottom, you'll see that there are numerous links under "Essays and Reviews." Many of these links will take you to an online magazine called "New Dawn." What, exactly, is dawning? Maybe you should go there and have a look yourself, but you may need a bit of background to interpret. I'm going to concentrate on one article on that site by Richard: "Back to Paradise - on the myth of a Golden Age." http://www.newdawnmagazine.com.au/articles/Back%20to%20Paradise.html

THE SITE OF PARADISE

Some paradise myths seem to describe a specific place, a lost homeland. Many legends speak of a sunken island or a great world mountain as the original paradisal home of humankind.

In Memories and Visions of Paradise, I mentioned the Tibetan legend of lost Shambhala — “a mystical kingdom hidden behind snowy peaks somewhere to the north” where “a line of enlightened kings is guarding the innermost teachings of Buddhism for a time when all truth in the outside world is lost in war and greed. Then, according to the prophecy, the King of Shambhala will emerge with a great army to destroy the forces of evil and bring in a new Golden Age.”

Tibetan and Western scholars have looked everywhere for Shambhala — from the Gobi Desert to the North Pole. Three recent books offer relevant new information and insight.

In Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise (Holt, 1992), cultural historian Geoffrey Ashe theorises that the idea of a lost paradise began with a goddess-worshipping cult in the region of the Altai-Baikal (a Siberian) region of northern Asia some 25,000 years ago. The book is erudite and impressively researched, touching on subjects ranging from Near Eastern mythology to Indo-European philology to modern feminism. Ashe summarises his reconstruction as follows:

“Tens of thousands of years ago, shamans in Siberia and Mongolia held the seven-star constellation [Ursa Major] in reverence. It was all the more important because the pole, which it ruled, was not marked then by a separate polestar of conspicuous brightness. ...The chief deity was a powerful Earth Mother and Mistress of Animals, with whom female shamans were closely associated. Her cult and symbolism, passing from tribe to tribe, played a part in forming the Paleolithic Goddess substratum across Siberia and Europe. Her chief animal form was a bear....

“The constellation built up a unique numinosity, partly because of its relation to the pole and hence to shamans’ ideas of comic centrality, expressed in the image of a central tree or world-mountain, which they climbed in their trances to meet superior spirits. In the Altai region, actual gold that gave the range a name, and an actual mountain cult, helped to evoke the divine world-mountain as golden....

“Late in the fourth millennium B.C., around the Altai, Indo-European groupings such as the Afanasievo came under shamanic influence and acquired a mythical ‘package’ comprising some of the ancient themes, which in the hands of these new people took on a rekindled life and energy. The package included the golden world-mountain... this eventually evolved into golden Meru, central to the universe, a paradisal abode of gods. It also included the seven stars... and something of the connected [mystique surrounding the number seven]. The mythical package was carried south and southwest in Indo-European expansion.” Ashe cites the Tibetan Shambhala legend as referring to the original Altaic homeland.

Victoria Le Page’s Shambhala: The Fascinating Truth Behind the Myth of Shangri-La (Quest, 1996) is an esotericist’s view of the same materials. Le Page has read Ashe carefully — as well as earlier scholars on the subject, such as René Guénon and Nicholas Roerich. Guénon interprets the paradise mountain — Mount Meru in Buddhist lore — as not a mountain at all, but “a metaphor for a conduit of terrestrial energy constituting the earth’s primary power source whose nature, location, and function is presently unknown to us. [Guénon] suggests that the knowledge of this fact belongs to a most arcane and little-known branch of the tantric science that is concerned with cosmic Shakti and the building of worlds, and which for that reason has been jealously guarded from the public view for many thousands of years.”

Le Page follows occultist Nicholas Roerich in his quest to find the true geographical Shambhala — in the Altai mountains. But she has more than a historical interest in decoding the myth. For her, Shambhala — the realm of jewel lakes, wish-fulfilling trees, and speaking stones — is central to the “new world model,” the ideology of the New Age. “Shambhala has had many locations, many names, many forms; over the ages it has been known as a taboo region of Paleolithic magic, a vast Megalithic sanctuary, a sacred kingdom, and underground Wisdom center, a modern complex of ashrams and training-schools.... Its credibility has probably never been so severely tested as in this age of high technology, dense population and intensive exploration; and yet in another sense we have never been more open to transcendental ideas, to the possibility of dimensions unseen, of higher-order beings and energies and presences celestial, of guidance from above.”
---------------------snip for brevity-------------------

Let me summarize for you. There is a mythical people from the North, of Indo-European descent who were highly advanced and whose time of pre-eminence was a "Golden Age". Are those alarm bells ringing just yet? Maybe some of this will ring some bells:

This is from an introduction to the book, Hitler, Buddha, Krishna by Ueberreuter Verlag discussing the ideology of Nazism and its spiritual roots.

A coterie of fascist cultural scholars sprang up (in pre-war Germany) asserting that Buddhism, the Vedas, the Puranas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, yoga and even Tantrism were intellectual remnants of a vanished, global, indo-Aryan, anti-Semitic religion. There were also borrowings from Tibetan culture and especially from Japanese Zen and Samurai traditions


--------------snip----------------

The inventors of the “Nazi mysteries”, French occultists Jacques Bergier and Louis Pauwels, and the Englishman Trevor Ravenscroft. All three authors saw National Socialism inextricably linked to the Indo-Tibetan Shambhala myth.

---------------------------snip-------------------

SS-Ahnenerbe researchers were especially interested in the Kalachakra Tantra.

The Shambala vision recorded in the Kalachakra Tantra has become a central pillar in the mythology of religious neo-Nazism.

Many of the themes raised in the Kalachakra Tantra (a cyclical view of the world, global domination, the use of super weapons, magic and ritual in sexual practices etc) are key themes in religious fascism.

Ouch. Shambala. Not only is that a big theme with Heinberg, but with the New Age in general. Better stick to Heinberg for now. Here's a bit more on the Nazi roots of the myth of a glorious Indo-European age. From Hollow Earther, Gerry Forster.

Shambhala, Agartha, and “The Hole at The Pole”.

That there was some further mystery related to the Boreal region, is indicated in the myth of Shambhala, which is supposed to have emanated from the early lamas of Tibet. It is thought to have been an ancient realm once located somewhere in Asia - possibly in the Gobi - when what is now an arid desert was still the Gobi Sea. It was thought to have been an island realm, called the “Sacred Island” which, in many respects, seems to have been strangely similar to Thule or Hyperborea.

The mystery deepens when we learn that its inhabitants were the last survivors of the “White Island” which had perished long ages earlier! According to Madame Blavatsky, the inhabitants were descended from her Lemurians, but, since this information was alleged to be from a Theosophist, spiritual origin, we might be wiser in concluding that they were more likely to have been from Hyperboria-Thule!


Shambhala.

From some of the accounts available, Shambhala appears to have been a centre of spiritual enlightenment, very reminiscent of James Hilton’s “Shangri-La”, but others say that it was a centre of occult power and arcane teaching. Its leader was thought variously to be either an evil, tyrannical Sorcerer-King or a God-like “Lord of The World”. We seem to be left with a choice as to which story we prefer to follow, and evidently which Path one desires to follow, too. The evil Left, or the good Right!

Apparently there were two factions (as in Hyperborea), one of which followed the Golden Sun, and the other the Black Sun. (The “Black Sun”, incidentally, was as prominent an emblem of the Nazi mythos as was the Swastika!) According to Jean-Claude Frére, author of “Nazisme et Sociétiés Secretès”, the people of Hyperborea, after migrating to the Gobi Desert over 6000 years ago, founded a new centre, which they named Agartha. It became a great centre of world learning, and people flocked there from all over the world to enjoy its culture and civilization.

However, a huge catastrophe supervened, and the earth’s surface was devastated, but the realm of Agartha somehow survived, under the earth. The legend continues to relate that, as with the original Hyperboreans, the Aryans now split into two factions: one group heading north-west, hoping to return to their lost Hyperborea, and the second going south, where they founded a new secret centre under the Himalayas.

Jean-Claude Frére concludes: The sons of the Outer Intellegences split into two groups, one following the “Right Hand Path” under the “Wheel of The Golden Sun”, the other the “Left Hand Path” under the “Wheel of the Black Sun”. The first preserved the centre of Agartha, that undefined place of contemplation, of the Good, and of the Vril force. The second supposedly created a new place of initiation at Shambhala, the city of violence in command of the elements and human masses, hastening the arrival of the “charnel-house of time.”

link

(a Google cache...I hope it will continue to function.)

Let's get right down to brass tacks, though. Thule, of course, is also the name of the occult society that was so influential in the formation of Nazism.



From Wikipedia:

Hyperboreans consistently play a large role in Nazi, neo-nazi, and proto-nazi mysticism.

Miguel Serrano was a Chilean diplomat and major proponent of Esoteric Hitlerism. He believed that Hitler fled to Shambhala, an underground centre in Antarctica after World War II (formerly at the North Pole and Tibet), where he was in contact with the Hyperborean gods and from whence he would someday emerge with a fleet of UFOs to lead the forces of light (the Hyperboreans, sometimes associated with Vril) over the forces of darkness (inevitably including, for Serrano, the Jews) in a last battle and inaugurating a Fourth Reich. He also connected the Aryans and their Hyperborean gods to the Sun and the Allies and the Jews to the Moon.

Julius Evola believed Hyperboreans were Nordic supermen, originating in the north pole. He felt they had a crucial hand in the founding of Atlantis.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperborea

And again, looking specifically at Thule:

A primary focus of Thule-Gesellschaft was a claim concerning the origins of the Aryan race. "Thule" was a land located by Greco-Roman geographers in the furthest north. The society was named after "Ultima Thule" — (Latin: most distant Thule) mentioned by the Roman poet Vergil in his epic poem Aeneid, was the far northern segment of Thule and is generally understood to mean Scandinavia. Said by Nazi mystics to be the capital of ancient Hyperborea, they placed Ultima Thule in the extreme north near Greenland or Iceland.

The Thulists believed in the hollow earth theory. Thule had among its goals the desire to prove that the Aryan race came from a lost continent, perhaps Atlantis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Society

Are you still with me, patient reader? This has been long, and our journey is not yet over. But let's keep our perspective here. Richard Heinberg of peak oil fame, writes about early myths of a Golden Age that resemble the very same mythology that undergirded the Nazi occult movement. As we'll see, it's even MORE significant, that like these earlier myths, the idea that the Golden Land was to the North in Eurasia is extremely important. Because, you see, intrepid reader, there's another person who writes for and praises the New Dawn magazine. And he, in turn, is mentioned approvingly by Richard and shares the same mythology with him. His name is Alexander Dugin. Here's what he has to say of New Dawn right on their "About Us" page:

"New Dawn magazine is one of the best sources of realistic information on the state of things in our world as it nears its inevitable and predicted end. For some people it could seem to be a little bit strange and weird, phantasmagoric... But the reality in which we live is itself something strange and weird... New Dawn magazine helps us to persist. And gives us hope for the better world that is coming..."
– ALEXANDRE DUGIN, leader of International Eurasian Movement

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/whatisnewdawn.html

Dugin is, as the quote mentions, the leader of the International Eurasian movement. I'll let Richard give you more info on Dugin:

Meanwhile, in Russia political theorist Alexander Dugin was gaining increasing influence with anti-American geostrategic writings. In 1997, the same year Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard appeared, Dugin published his own manifesto, The Basics of Geopolitics, advocating a reconstituted Russian Empire composed of a continental bloc of states allied to cleanse the Eurasian land-mass of US influence. At the center of this bloc Dugin posited a "Eurasian axis" of Russia, Germany, Iran, and Japan.

While Dugin's ideas were banned during Soviet times for their echoes of Nazi pan-Eurasian fantasies, they gradually gained influence among post-Soviet Russian officials. For example, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently decried the "strengthening tendency towards the formation of a unipolar world under financial and military domination by the United States" and called for a "multipolar world order," while emphasizing Russia's "geopolitical position as the largest Eurasian state." Russia's Communist party has adopted Dugin's ideas in its platform; Gennady Zyuganov, Communist Party chairman, even published his own primer on geopolitics, titled Geography of Victory. Though Dugin remains a marginal figure internationally, his ideas cannot help but resonate in a country and continent increasingly hemmed in and manipulated by a powerful and arrogant hegemonic nation on the other side of the globe.

www.museletter.com/archive/132.html

Yes, says Richard, Dugin's ideas can't help but find resonance in Russia.

Dugin has an interesting history which I would like to look more into in later articles. For now, let me say that he was the leader of the National Bolshevik Party in Russia, which is a sort of "leftwing" fascist movement. There are branches all over the world, including here in the U.S. It combines extreme nationalism with ecology and racialism. Indeed, one of the themes that keeps popping up in this journey is this attempt to merge far right and far left, or at least, to appear to do so. Dugin split with the National Bolsheviks who subsequently got into trouble with the law. His Eurasian movement, however, seems to enjoy Kremlin support.



So, great...what's wrong with a Eurasian movement? Better back off and get some perspective on Dugin. You can get LOTS more of this sort of "metaphysics" from his site: ARCTOGAIA Nearly all the articles are by him.

Here's New Dawn on Dugin's take on Hyperborea:

Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophical Society, claimed the ‘second root race’ originated in Hyperborea, before the later races of Lemuria and Atlantis. The Russian metaphysician Alexandre Dugin says that it was the home of the “solar people”, connected to what is now northern Russia. “Solar people,” Alexandre Dugin explains, are a “cultural-spiritual type” who are creative, energetic and spiritual. They are the opposite of “lunar people”, a psycho-spiritual type who are materialistic, conservative and wary of change.

link

I'll leave as another exercise to the reader to decode "solar people" vs. "lunar people."

Here is Dugin himself on Hyperborea. Remember, this is simply another name for the Indo-European utopia discussed by Heinberg. Both of these men, Dugin and Heinberg, write for New Dawn and Heinberg not only finds Eurasian geopolitics to be critical to his analysis of the future, but finds Dugin necessarily to "resonate" with the Russian masses. (Note the entire article on Eurasia. Heinberg does not say that Dugin will succeed in unifying Eurasia. In fact, it's not quite clear to me what he thinks the endgame will bring. Dugin, in the quote above about New Dawn, simply says that what's coming is the inevitable end of the world but that a New Dawn is coming after.)

The ancient Greeks spoke about Hyperborea, the northern island with capital Thule. This land was considered as the motherland of the bright god Apollon. And in many other traditions it is possible to detect most ancient tracks, often forgotten and become fragmentary, of a nordic symbolism. The basic idea traditionally linked to the North is the idea of Centre, Immobile Pole, point of Eternity around which the cycle turns not only of space, but also of time. North is the land where the sun never goes even at night, a space of eternal light. Any sacred tradition honors the Centre, the Middle, the point where contrasts appease, the symbolical place not subject to the laws of cosmic entropy. This Centre, whose symbol is the Swastika (stressing both immobility and constancy of the Centre, and mobility and changeability of the periphery), received a different name according to each tradition, but it was always directly or indirectly linked to the symbolism of North. Therefore it is possible to say that all sacred traditions are in essence the projection of a Single Northern Primordial Tradition adapted to every different historical condition. North is Cardinal Point chosen by the primeval Logos in order to reveal itself in History, and each of its further manifestations only restored that primeval polar-paradise symbolism.

http://www.geocities.com/integral_tradition/sacgeo.html

In case any of the above is a bit too subtle for my weary readers, let's try this:

The Jews are the carriers of a religious culture which is deeply distinct from all historical displays of Indo-European spirituality - from ancient Aryan heathen cults to Hinduism and Christianity. The voluntary or forced seizure of the Jewish diaspora from the Indo-European peoples cannot be a casual episode of history, and no Orthodox Jew will ever deny the theological underlying basis of Jewish "peculiarity". The Jewish question, no matter by whom and how it was put, should begin with a recognition of this fundamental fact - "the Jews are a community which keeps the secret of its radical differences from other peoples". If we do not admit distinction, then it is simply senseless to speak about the Jewish problem.

-----------------------snip------------------------------

The world of "Judaica" is a world hostile to us. But our feeling of Aryan justice and the gravity of our geopolitical situation require comprehension of its laws, rules and interests.

The Indo-European elite stands today before a titanic task - to understand those who are not only culturally, nationally and politically, but also metaphysically different. And in this case, "to understand" means not "to forgive", but "to defeat". And "to defeat with the Light of Truth".

www.arctogaia.com/public/eng/defeat.html

I hope you have followed this so far. Heinberg has put forward a mythos of a Golden Age that leads directly to this last quote from Dugin. We'll see more about Dugin in a future post. For example, we'll examine the seemingly paradoxical idea that he promotes both Russian Orthodoxy and Crowley inspired occultism. In fact, you'll see at the bottom of his ArctoGaia site a symbol that I can't seem to grab the graphic for. It is a red an black box with a Pentagram and a circle in cross symbol and reads: "Tradition. Revolution."

Dugin is an odd one, indeed. But we must return to Heinberg. Heinberg has an interesting past that may shed some light on his questionable beliefs. Interviewed on "Oildrum":

I became a writer and lived in a number of intentional communities.

SS: Which ones?

RH: One in Toronto, Canada called Society of Integrated Living, SOIL for short; one in Colorado called Sunrise Ranch…

SS: Which is a spiritual community?

RH: That’s right. In the early ‘90s my wife and I moved from an intentional community in Southern California called Glen Ivy up to Santa Rosa and I decided from that point on I would make my living completely as a writer.
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2005/9/24/233315/937

It turns out that Glen Ivy and Sunrise Ranch are both "intentional communities" of the "Emissaries of Divine Light." I can't find much about them, though some ex-members have some harsh things to say about them. The quote below is from some ex-members who go into great detail about the group, which you can read by following the link.

Sexual abuses and cover-up's were made public during the first "open" council (described earlier). Exeter (leader of group) and his wife denied knowing about the abuses, though I personally knew two people who had informed them in writing about particular abuses. Women have told me they were seduced, coerced, threatened, and even stalked by men in leadership positions. They have told me about sexual abuse of children. I have heard that in central and eastern regions of the U.S., teenagers were forced to lose their virginity to their group leaders, with the explanation that this guaranteed a spiritually sound beginning to their sex life. I don't know if this was done in all regions and in Canada.

---------------------snip---------------------------

(From Interview with former member...not Richard...no confusion) I was told it was vital to confide everything about my life, including my finances and sexual life. At first it was spelled out completely, to whom I was to tell what. Later the instructions were revised and one could communicate to anyone "upwards." After that I discovered that reports were written about us locally and sent to regional coordinators, who then reported to Exeter . Class faculties also wrote reports about each student. I don't know if these practices continue.

http://www.factnet.org/cults/Emissaries_Divine_Light/Barbara_Clearbridge.html

So what do we make of all this? That Heinberg knowingly praised a white supremacist scholar is without question. It is simply too easy to learn of her background and, to her credit, Abernethy makes no effort to conceal it.

That Heinberg is steeped in a mythic tradition of an Indo-European Golden Age, the longing for the revival of which he finds central to man's spiritual quest is also clear. And that this mythos so closely resembles, in fact actuall IS the mythology of the far-right must also surely have been known by someone who has so thoroughly researched these legends. Yet to this day, he proudly links to those articles. Not once does he profess to be bothered by the Nazi use of these same myths.

His opinion on Dugin is less clear. While he seems to discuss Dugin's role in Eurasia with approval, he ultimately suggests that "...Russian geopolitical fantasies are as vain as those of the US." http://www.museletter.com/archive/132.html He sees a cataclysm coming. Indeed, a perusal of his other New Dawn articles suggests that cataclysm, to him, has been the primary force behind human history. He sees, like Dugin, and end of the world. And, like Dugin, the possibility that this end will lead to a new beginning. A new "Golden Age."

Finally, we see that Heinberg has a long history with a group that could be called a cult, in the sense of an authoritarian community. Their actual ideology is not completely clear from what I've been able to find thus far, but it is quite likely that they, too, speak of the coming of the "end times."

We hear from ex-members of this group that sexual abuse has been alleged and that members had to reveal all of their dark secrets to higher ups. It is possible that such information could then be used against a member or former member for various purposes. Maybe Richard does not even write completely of his own free will.

But the lessons here are numerous and important. That rightwing ideology is finding its way into, and indeed, has always been one wing of the ecology movement is one lesson. That many so-called New Age beliefs come directly from the theologians of the Reich is another. In fact, it is becoming clear to me that much of the New Age movement has been created to serve a very clear agenda. Firstly, it siphons off energy from more direct political action and directs attention away from the true roots of injustice. Secondly, the rightwing ideology that the New Age is so seeped in bubbles up into all kinds of erstwhile "progressive" ideologies. It lays a groundwork for legitimizing ideas that should be horrifying but are becoming acceptable, such as the idea that the best course of action for the planet would be for most of the people to die off and for the planet to begin again, perhaps toward a new Golden Age.

Stay tuned for more on Dugin and more on the Nazi roots of the New Age.

A Pestilence Among Us, Part 2:
Blood Libel

Welcome back to our fascinating look at cryptofascisticus antijudaicus the scourge of truth-seekers everywhere. Before we continue on this necessary though highly distasteful journey, maybe a brief word is in order about why I'm focusing on anti-Semites. Why not, asks the brave political activist, focus on the true dangers to American society, such as vote fraud, or the Franklin Mint Collection (TM).



Well, there are several reasons. First, of course, is the sheer evil that is represented by this style of thinking. Hitler, if you recall, was what in sociological parlance is called a "Really Bad Dude. (RBD)". Although it can be hard to find information about it these days, if the diligent researcher works with Google for a few hours, he or she can probably uncover some information about something called "World War II." Scholars differ, but there is a growing minority of historians who believes World War II actually happened and is not just a myth passed down by oral tradition. Recent archaeological expeditions, for example, have unearthed tantalizing clues that the legendary city of London may really have existed! The new Troy! These are such exciting times!

But the species of anti-Semite that lives out in the open, undisguised, is not our main concern here. If you'd like to see some of these in the wild, collect your binoculars and handbooks and search for some of these easy to spot varieties as an exercise. I believe that David Duke has a fine collection, though sadly, he trains the vermin to return to the wild and reproduce. More on his technique later.

In order to track the c.a. organism in the wilds of internet conspiracy theory, we will need to be familiar with it's most heinous manifestation, the dreaded "blood libel." The blood libel is the ancient idea that Jews are not only secretly controlling the world but that they have been capturing and sacrificing gentile children and drinking their blood or even mixing it with flour to make matzoh (No, dear reader, I am not exaggerating. ).

Here is a link to a document called: My Irrelevant Defence being Meditations Inside Gaol and Out on Jewish Ritual Murder by A R N O L D S. L E E S E. You can download a copy here, though I don't know if you can stomach such an unaldulterated produce of the c.a. organism.

Mr. Leese was the founder, in 1928, of the Imperial Fascist League in Britain. In other words, he was one of numerous groups hoping to side with Hitler, who, as I may have mentioned, was not a good man. Here's Leese's overview of the history of Jewish riual sacrifice:

The subject of Ritual Murder has always been one that the Jewish Money Power, which controls this country as well as most others, has taken all possible steps to suppress. The reason is that Ritual Murder was the dynamite which finally blew the Jew out of England in 1290, out of Spain in 1492, and out of Germany in our time. The Jews know it; and I know it too!

So here we have the first symptom of cryptofascisticus antijudaicus, the idea that if Jews were expelled or otherwise oppressed throughout history, it must surely have been their own fault.

It is beyond the scope of this humble blog to attempt to deconstruct this early piece of fascist disinformation. Suffice it to say that it is a combination of outdated and ill-researched material combined with outright fabrication. Still, the general outlines are important to note, I'm sad to say, because we find them echoing in the hallowed halls of modern conspiracy theory today. Of course, today, sufferers of c.a. will rarely make such overt statements as the following:

I believe that the urge for human sacrifice comes not through religion but through race; the idea is, I think, an original one, and came to me from observation on one race in particular, that known as the Armenoid or Hither Asiatic race, which I consider has a decided instinct towards sadism.

It is, I believe, the strong Armenoid or Hither Asiatic strain which exists in the Jewish Nation upon which we have to lay the responsibility for many unpleasant Jewish traits and practices, among them Ritual Murder.

The Jews are a nation without a home, not a race; they are a mixture of races, and the racial constituent which is most frequently to be found among them is the Armenoid, or, as it is sometimes called, Hither Asiatic. The other races which have contributed most to the Jewish types, whether Ashkenazim or Sephardim, are the Mongoloid, Negroid, Oriental and (White) Alpine.

You can see other important themes emerging. The racial classification system, of course, so near and dear to the fascist heart (though the actual classifications may change as needed) as well as this idea of the Jews as a "nation without a home", clearly important in ideologies that suggest "homeland" is the most sacred of all ideals.

He continues on this theme, with, of course, absolutely no source material whatsoever for any of his claims, for none exists, save other such unsubstantiated claims. He goes on to point out that it is not Judaism that is the heart of the problem, it is the racial characteristics of those who are Jewish. He ends this section with something that I think may be a clue for us to follow up on later, but for now, I will let it stand on its own.

The Aryan mind grasps with difficulty the idea that any human race can have an instinct towards sadistic sacrifice, for the Aryan has himself no such instinct.

Leese then continues to mention how, despite prohibitions of sacrifice and even the consumption of ANY type of blood is disallowed, there is an "esoteric" side of Judaism.

But it is known that there have always been two methods of instruction among the Jews: one Exoteric, which openly taught the Laws of Moses and the Rabbinical traditions; the other Esoteric, or mysteries confided only to certain persons bound to secrecy. This latter, the Esoteric teaching, is associated with Occultism and what is known as Black Magic, and the Mystical Cabbala is its source, for certain rites and ceremonies blood is necessary; and secret rites exist which are known only to the few.

Aha! More clues. Notice the emphasis on Cabbala, from which, dear reader, the very word "cabal" as in secret group running things behind the scenes, actually originates. It is unclear how Mr. Leese claims actually to know any of the particular secrets of these rites and ceremonies, of course, unless one is to assume that he is one of the "few" to whom such information has been revealed.

Anyway to the sacrifices proper. Here it is, intrepid reader, the ugly truth according to Mr. Leese:

The two principal feast-days associated with Ritual Murder have been (1) Purim, and (2) Passover, the latter at Easter and the former about one month before it. When a Ritual Murder occurred at Purim, it was usually that of an adult Christian who was murdered for his blood; it is said that the blood was dried and the powder mixed into triangular cakes for eating; it is possible that the dried blood of a Purim murder might sometimes be used for the following Passover.

When a Ritual Murder was done at Passover, it was usually that of a child under seven years old, as perfect a specimen as possible, who was not only bled white, but crucified, sometimes circumcised and crowned with thorns, tortured, beaten, stabbed, and sometimes finished off by wounding in the side in imitation of the murder of Christ. The blood taken from the child was mixed either in the powdered state or otherwise into the Passover bread.

Next, after some other discussion we move to a list of actual Jewish ritual sacrifices. These are simply vague accounts of murders with accusations of Jewish guilt. No evidence, of course, is required, for it is the NUMBER OF ACCUSATIONS itself that stands as proof.

Please read this list yourself, as we certainly do not have the time or space to examine it in detail. Leese then mentions several countrywide expulsions of Jews by ruling monarchies, such as by Edward I in England in 1290 or Isabel and Ferdinand in Spain in 1492. I mention this because of this amazing example of malfunctioning logic so inherent in those infected by cryptofascisticus.

The Jews, in attempting to escape responsibility for these deaths by Ritual Murder, do not hesitate to impugn the probity of two of the Kings of England, against whose moral character no one else has dared to cast a slur. Here are some examples. From the Jewish Chronicle Supplement, April, 1936, p. 8 (speaking of the Lincoln case in the reign of Henry III):

"Henceforth and especially under the zealously Christian Edward I, the Crown and its officers became almost a worse peril to the Jews than mobs intent on loot and led on by fanatic priests and money. When 18th century writers of history began to examine the old records in a new sceptical temper, some may be found venturing on such unkind surmises as that the alleged crucifixions of Christian children only seemed to happen when kings were short of money." The foul accusation against men of upright character is repeated by the Jew Hyamson (History of the Jews in England, 1928 edition, p. 21), who writes: "It has also been pointed out that the Blood Accusation was as a rule made at a time at which the Royal Treasury needed replenishing."

To deny that the cases of St. William of Norwich and St. Hugh of Lincoln were Jewish Ritual Murders is to accuse certain English Kings, certain English Clergy, and certain English administrators, known to be men of good morals, of murdering and torturing Jews to get their money, after accusing them of horrible crimes. In the case of St. Hugh, the sentence was juridical; in the case of St. William, the mob took the matter into their own hands because the Sheriff would take no action himself.

Whom do you believe –– the Jews or the English?

No, dear reader, your eyes do not deceive you. Leese has done exactly what you think he has. He has supported his assertion that Jews are evil child killers by simply listing accusations of ritual murders by Jews. He then cites the very logical explanation that these accusations often came in handy as a way to deport Jews and absorb their riches into the royal treasury. He then refutes this argument, merely by pointing out that it comes from Jews!

Learn this pattern, dear reader. You will see it over and over again. Accusations are made and arguments made by those so accused are themselves taken as further evidence of guilt!

I must cut short this post, anxious readers, for domestic chores call. Let us quickly note the themes that are important here and meet up again in a few days to continue looking at this rather foundational document of Jewish conspiracy theory (along with the dreaded Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the name of which I shudder to even type onto this virtual page.)

Please notice what is developing here, however. Leese is developing the themes of a small minority group that has powers in this world far greater than their numbers would suggest. This group engages in black magic and child sacrifice and secretly exerts immense authority behind the scenes of world history. Toward the beginning of the document, Leese calls them: the "Judæo-Masonic Hidden Hand." He also brings in their practice of Cabbala.

A secret group of black magicians engaged in Cabbala, Masonic practices and child sacrifice who secretly rule the world? Yes, my friends, you are seeing the outlines of the heart of internet conspiracy theory. While the specific referrals to "Jews" are often left out these days, the theory has changed little. And it is still in the service of the same masters as it was in the times Hitler used it to such horrific effect. And the irony is great...for those who most loudly espouse this theory, as we shall see, are themselves part of the real "Hidden Hand" of history. But that will have to wait, I'm afraid, for I'm getting too far ahead of the story.

A Pestilence Among Us

Yes, I know. I post so infrequently my hit-counter's going to start going BACKWARDS. But I have an excuse. A TRAGIC story in fact, and one that has implications for all my fine reader(s) out there.

First, a shout-out, as those hip youngsters say, to the DOD, someone from which, for reasons I can't even begin to speculate on, comes and checks out this site every so often. 'Sup? Thanks for keeping America safe by reading my blog. You know, your reports must be the toast of your command.

Sept. 10 - still no update
Sept. 14 - still no update
Oct. 2 - still no update
Oct. 15 - request transfer to FEMA

Anyway, allow me to tell you what happened. I've been doing a lot of research...wanting to bring the world the finest quality cynicism and grouchiness that I could muster. I've been thinking hard about the BIG PICTURE, considering the most important QUESTIONS of the day:

Who's really running this world of ours?
What is their agenda?
What does it mean for our future?
Why the hell do they put electronic components in those impossible-to-open, oversized, plastic containers that you can only remove by stabbing them with a knife until the very electronic components you've purchased have been scratched and shredded beyond recognition or functionality?

These are TOUGH QUESTIONS, friends. And there are no easy answers.

So anyway, I have been journeying fearlessly on what used to be called the information superhighway but is now, I think, called WalMart and I have to say, there are plenty of answers out there...just take your pick! It's a smorgasbord of possibilities. An infinite variety of conspiracies from which to choose. Illuminati...Luciferians..Luciferian Illuminati...aliens...reptilian aliens...Luciferian reptilian illuminati aliens...why, it's a real conspiracy Baskin-Robbins out there.

Oh, but if you look deeper, my friends, deeper...deeper and deeper still, all of these various threads come together so neatly, so tightly, in a structure so coherent you could wear it as a sweater on Christmas morning.

Or at least, that's what it looks like. But before I tell you about the SAD and PAINFUL discovery I made while on this journey, I guess I need to say a bit about CONSPIRACY, lest someone read this hapless screed and think that I'm dumb enough to believe whatever those cream-puff, mousse-soaked, botoxed, pathetic excuses for journalists tell me to. (Note: since writing this, and after extensive research, I have discovered that Brad Pitt and Jenifer Anniston really did break up. So with tear-blurred eyes, I joyously say, "The media CAN be a BEACON OF TRUTH in these dark and troubled times."

But I digress...where was I? Oh, yes...CONSPIRACY. I believe in conspiracy. It is simply a mode of operation to which most sophisticated power structures turn. Politics by other means, if you will. Well, I don't believe in ALL conspiracies, you understand. I'm not THAT gullible as to accept every conspiracy theory that gets tossed over the transom. That whole Watergate thing, for example. That was just internet rumors gone bezerk (the internet in those times was not called "Walmart" as it is now, but the "newspaper.") And that whole "radiation experiments on unknowing victims" deal...clearly never happened. I can't think who on earth decided to put up information about it on the Department of Energy website. What were they thinking? And all those stupid Vietnam conspiracy theories: operation Phoenix, secret bombings of Cambodia. And that whole "Iran-Contra" business, and funding secret armies, assassinations by the CIA, alleged "COINTELPRO" operations by the FBI to infiltrate and disrupt dissenting organizations... Oh, don't get me started...TWADDLE, I say. PIFFLE and TWADDLE. Who actually BELIEVES that sort of stuff, anyhow? People are so gullible.

But clearly, there are DARK and POWERFUL forces operating behind the scenes. And I wanted to research this topic thoroughly, so I could bring you, my loyal reader(s) the truth about the way things REALLY WORK.

Oh, and I was onto it, to. ONTO IT, I tell you, like Judith Miller on the trail of those WMD's. (Judith Miller is MY HERO. And they sent her to jail for what? WHAT? I ask you. Some alleged insider trading in her home decorating company? A frame-up, I say. Trying to keep AFFORDABLE ACCENTS for ANY HOME out of reach for the average American consumer. Shame, I say. SHAME!)

I had slowly and painstakingly built up a solid edifice of evidence about who these New World Order elites really were and how they operate with impunity here in the U.S. of A!

But tragedy, gentle readers. Tragedy and woe. My edifice was infested. Infested with vermin of the lowest sort, hiding in the shadows and nibbling at the foundations of my most carefully constructed analysis of DEEP POLITICS. (Deep politics is a term coined by Peter Dale Scott that should not be confused with "politics." "Deep politics" describes the operations of a whole nexus of military, industrial, intelligence and criminal forces whose sole objective is the preservation of their wealth and power. "Politics", on the other hand, is actually the world's longest running reality program. And don't tell me it's staged 'cause it's NOT. Those guys are real people and they have feelings and problems just like you and me. I hope George and Tony get back together. They are such a CUTE COUPLE!)

What unsavory, dark-dwelling, carrion-feeding parasites were undermining the very foundations of my painstaking research into the forces which shape our world? I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit it, my friends. But we must face this together and together we shall rise above it. For the world of internet conspiracy theory is infested with these loathsome insects: I speak, of course, of the dreaded cryptofascisticus antijudaicus.

With the next few posts, I want to outline the extent of our problem. As you probably know, this poisonous and destructive pest goes by the common name "anti-Semite" and in some particularly serious infestations can lead to a thick, greenish ooze known as "Nazi scum".

I will not sugar coat it for you, patient reader. These pests are very difficult to unearth and eliminate. Their complex network of interconnected tunnels and their ability to morph into the appearance of apparently more benign creatures, can make them particularly difficult to eradicate. And that is not the end of our difficulties. For some of these creatures are TRAINED. For the mere chance to nibble the crumbs that might fall from their masters' tables, they will scurry about and do their bidding. They sow confusion and discord. They create false trails which terminate in dead ends or loop back upon themselves inducing a sort of tautological stupor upon their hapless victims. And all the while they emit a most noxious and unpleasant odor.

But there is good news, as well. They DO leave a slimy trail for us to follow. And more good news still. There is a strange property in these creatures that makes them particularly easy to study. In a sort of role reversal with their close kin, the cockroach, they actually swarm TOWARD any bright light shined in their vicinity. It is likely, thefore, that we will have a small swarm here to study in our comments section. We shall, with care, be able to pin these wiggling creatures upon our virtual styrofoam display boards (pinning them down is FAR more difficult than catching them, but it can be done.) and study them at our leisure. I would caution the reader not to engage them in their most native habitat, the anonymous post, but, instead, to observe them more objectively here in the lab that is my blog.

So join with me as we make this journey together. Be of stout heart and good cheer despite our delving into dank and gloomy places. We may actually be able to follow the trail of these vile insects back toward some of the answers to those critical questions I posed at the beginning of this missive. Except for the plastic packaging question, of course. That is a question which will never be answered. It is the darkest secret of all. And of that, we must speak no further.

"The police were in boats...laughing at us"

This article is from the UK Guardian. This is the story that needs to be told. Best summary I've seen so far...and notice how they treat the idea of "looters" and "criminals".

link

'They're not giving us what we need to survive'

Jamie Doward reports on the fury of New Orleans residents who say they were ignored and mistreated by the authorities

Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer

Only now, a week after Hurricane Katrina roared across the Deep South, leaving a trail of devastation across America's psyche, is the true story of the Battle of New Orleans emerging.

As convoys of commandeered school buses and Greyhound coaches transported tens of thousands of refugees out of the submerged city yesterday, in a belated and much-criticised relief operation, each vehicle brought with it new tales of horror.

Those trapped inside the two main shelters, the Superdome and the Convention Centre, paint a picture of a city that was subsumed beneath waves of violence, rape and death and accuse the police and National Guard of standing by, ignoring their pleas for help.

The claims are rejected by the federal and state authorities, who instead suggest the looting and lawlessness which followed the extensive flooding of the city was the result of a series of isolated incidents perpetrated by a few.

But it is clear from talking to survivors that what happened in New Orleans last week was far more extensive, bloody and terrifying than the authorities have admitted so far.

'We had to wrap dead people in white sheets and throw them outside while the police stood by and did nothing,' said Correll Williams, a 19-year-old meat cutter from the Crowder Road district in the east of the city, who waded two miles through waist-high water to make it to the Convention Centre after hearing on the radio it was being turned into a refuge.

'The police were in boats watching us. They were just laughing at us. Five of them to a boat, not trying to help nobody. Helicopters were riding by just looking at us. They weren't helping. We were pulling people on bits of wood, and the National Guard would come driving by in their empty military trucks.'

Williams only left his apartment after the authorities took the decision to flood his district in an apparent attempt to sluice out some of the water that had submerged a neighbouring district. Like hundreds of others he had heard the news of the decision to flood his district on the radio. The authorities had given people in the district until 5pm on Tuesday to get out - after that they would open the floodgates.

'We thought we could live without electricity for a few weeks because we had food. But then they told us they were opening the floodgates,' said Arineatta Walker, who fled the area with her daughter and two grandchildren.

'So about two o'clock we went on to the streets and we asked the army, "Where can we go?". And they said, "Just take off because there's no one going to come back for you." They kicked my family out of there. If I knew how to hotwire a car I would have,' Walker said.

Once inside the Convention Centre, Walker confronted a new hell. 'People were being raped, there were cries and screams, there were gunshots, but the police did nothing,' Walker said.

'The police were afraid to do anything,' said Chantelle, a black 22- year-old. 'They wouldn't come in. They took two white guys out one night but left the rest of us in here.'

Williams said: 'The floor was a swamp, you couldn't live in there. The police kept telling us buses were coming but they didn't. People started getting aggravated and then one policeman got mad, he caught an attitude with somebody and they caught an attitude back and started banging on his car, and that's how it started. He called for back-up and the next thing I know the military are down there throwing stun grenades. Everybody started running, bumping into each other, hurting each other.'

As the repeated promises of buses failed to materialise, people in the shelters started stealing cars. 'How do you expect people to act right when they're starving to death?' asked Williams. 'There were bodies all over. We were just throwing them out the front. They (the authorities) are blaming it on the people, making it look like it was the people's fault, but it's really their fault because they're not giving us what we need to survive. So now people are going and getting guns in order to fight back, in order to survive cos they don't want to help us.'

Outside the Convention Centre, where an estimated 15,000 people were seeking refuge, bodies lay ignored. A woman in a wheelchair and an elderly man on a chaise longue could be seen festering in the heat. On Wednesday, eight 11-strong teams from the Louisiana State Police entered the centre, where they were repelled by angry gangs, some of whom were armed. Yesterday scores of police officers were said to have resigned from the force, complaining their jobs had become too dangerous.

Until Friday morning only two buses had arrived at the Convention Centre to transport those inside out of the city, according to several trapped inside. The revelation suggests that the police and National Guard's inability to handle the crisis stemmed from chronic paralysis at the highest levels of the relief operation.

Outside the Superdome, which was at one stage home to some 25,000 people, a member of the National Guard was shot in the leg by his own gun as he was rushed by a crowd angry at the wait for buses to take them to Houston.

The authorities' failure to respond to the situation has prompted outpourings of national revulsion and calls for high-level resignations.

There was confusion yesterday as to why thousands of people had made for the Convention Centre. Officials said it was never intended that the centre be used as a refuge.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the much-criticised body charged with coordinating the relief effort, told US television networks they had not been aware of the crowds in the centre until Thursday.

'The federal government did not even know about the Convention Centre people until today,' New Orleans major Ray Nagin told CNN on Thursday evening.

The shock confession prompted calls for Brown to be fired. 'That was just a boneheaded statement,' said Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson. 'The President will have to change the leadership so that a response this bad will never, never happen again for the American people,' Thompson added.

On Friday evening 1,000 members of the National Guard and 60 police officers arrived outside the centre to restore order.

The chronic failure to resolve the situation in the Convention Centre - and to a lesser extent the Superdome, where the situation was apparently more calm - was described as a 'national disgrace' by the increasingly angry Nagin.

'You would think that on day five of the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, and possibly the world, we would not still be waiting for troops and buses,' Nagin said on Thursday.

FEMA and CNN listing charity of Pat Robertson for Hurricane Relief

Last night I saw that, among the charities listed on a CNN graphic was "Operation Blessing." Sounded a little iffy to me. Boy was that an understatement.

Turns out that Operation Blessing is an operation of Rev. (sic) Pat "Kill chavez" Robertson. Here's an article about it. I will add to this article that I have checked the mailing addresses of both the Christian Broadcast Network and Operation Blessing and they are both the same:

Operation Blessing International
977 Centerville Turnpike
Virginia Beach, VA 23463


You can check yourself:

CBN (scroll down to bottom)

Operation Blessing (on right toward top)

Please DO NOT credit me with this discovery. The article that I found this on is here: Sploid

I post the whole article below. I've written the author and I'll remove the article if he asks me to, but I'm hoping since I have the link, he won't mind.

SPLOID EXCLUSIVE: FEMA is directing Katrina donations to none other than the Rev. Pat Robertson …

Millions of Americans and people around the world have rushed to donate money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which is shaping up to be one of the worst U.S. disasters in history, if not the worst.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the lead federal agency in the rescue & recovery operation at work in New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast.

FEMA has released to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the storm’s hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the list.

The Rev. Pat Robertson’s “Operation Blessing” is next on the list.

“It’s an outrage,” said privacy watchdog Bill Scannell, who alerted Sploid to the FEMA / Robertson scam. “Operation f**cking Blessing? And it’s right underneath the Red Cross link!”

Scannell, currently campaigning against the Transportation Security Administration’s refusal to turn over personal information illegally collected from 100 million U.S. air passengers, noted that Operation Blessing’s board of directors is dominated by the televanglist and his family.

The chairman, “MG Robertson,” is none other than the Rev. Pat — Marion Gordon Robertson is his real name — while Pat’s wife DeDe is vice president and son Gordon Robertson is also on the board.

The front operation for the radical, pro-assassination televangelist and Republican power broker is also based in the Rev. Pat’s headquarters, Virginia Beach.

Robertson’s shell organizations have already collected more than $25 million from the federal government under various “faith based” federal-handout programs. And with millions of distraught citizens looking to FEMA for help in finding reputable organizations to help Katrina survivors, Robertson stands to profit magnificently from the horror that has fallen on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Here's a link to the FEMA site where they recommend Operation Blessing.

Here's a link to the CNN list of suggest charities. To their credit, at least they have a larger list!

Please spread this news to all whom you know.

What are we seeing here?

I think the key is in the mysterious gunshots.

At several times today, key operations were stopped because of alleged shots at rescue workers. On at least two occasions, FEMA itself was said to be directly responsible for the orders to cease the vital services. For example, a literal flotilla of volunteers on boats were poised to go in. Allegedly someone shot at a boat and FEMA then told them it was too dangerous to continue rescue operations.

A Salvation Army officer explained to CNN that they had hundreds of volunteers and lots of food to distribute but FEMA would not allow them in. Too dangeous.

A hospital was in the middle of airlifting patients when someone took a shot at an ambulance. (by the way, these stories change quite a bit, so I'm putting them out as the media is last I heard it.)

Finally, the actual bus caravan from the Superdome was halted for awhile due to a shot being fired at a helicopter. This story was later denied by the FAA.

Chilling, isn't it? These "criminals" in the streets are taking time out from their busy schedule of stealing things they cannot possibly transport out of the city to take shots at relief workers at strategic moments which cause important rescue operations to halt.

If you believe this is actually what is happening, please move to another article somewhere...this one is not for you.

Why is this really happening? Several reasons.

First off, I was simply appalled at the level of incompetence at this operation. But it got so bad that clearly, incompetence is not enough to explain what we are seeing. Simple matters such as dropping water and food to those at the Convention Center, from which reporters have been broadcasting all day, were not taken. There were no helicopters with loudspeakers explaining to people where to go to receive aid and transport out. Again, a trivially simple operation avoided even as Shepherd Smith from FOX News was pleading with officials for hours yesterday to send someone to his easily accessible location to tell the thousands massed there where to go for help.

No food or water was airlifted into the Superdome, despite FEMA Head Brown saying food and water had been collected ahead of the storm while explaining how well prepared they were and how efficient this operation was going. (Seriously, he said that.)

Several press conferences are held while CNN and others split screen with images that directly contradict the statements being given by these various Secretaries and Department heads. The reporters openly laughed at one point to FEMA statements.

Another element that we need to understand before coming to our hypothesis about what is really going on, is the drumbeat about looting. Yes, racism is an element and an important one (see the "white people find things, black people loot" gem circulating all over the internet). But this started yesterday. News reporters kept talking about looting but providing few images and making no careful or quantitative distinctions between "looting" of life sustaining necessities and looting of luxury items. And, of course, no one questioned the rationale of protecting property to the extent of pulling all of the NOPD off of rescue work and onto looting prevention.

A funny thing happened on the way to martial law, however. There was a slight hiccup. Reporters starting last night and continuing through today were noticing the very profound difference between FEMA and DHS statements and the facts on the ground. Some grew angry, such as Cafferty and Coooper. Some wept openly. Some simply shook their head in shock. You could see some of these carefully coiffed anchors suddenly realize they were being lied to live on the air. They began to understand that this was the beginnings of a massive coverup. I'd like to welcome them to journalism.

This hiccup seems to be coming under control, however, despite Cafferty's talking about the overwhelming number of emails condemning the government's handling of this democracy demolishing disaster.

For it seems the looting drumbeat goes on. The Louisiana Governor (sic and sick) announced that 40,000 troops at least would be deployed. The purpose: to bring the civil unrest under control. Now, you can define civil unrest many ways, but one part of the definition must always be this...civil unrest is visible from helicopter height. There have (unless the rebellion at the stadium has begun yet...been away from the TV) been NO shots of widespread anything resembling unrest. Some looting shots, yes. So what, then, is she really wanting to bring under control?

So these 40,000 troops are coming and she said they are to use whatever force is necessary to restore order. Open season on African-Americans.

You think I exaggerate, I'm sure. Well, there's actually more to her plan than that.

For one thing, she wants troops which are not just National Guard. That means regular military involved in Law Enforcement. And that means martial law.

And she wants these troops not only in New Orleans but in the surrounding communities taking in refugees. I assume that the southern half of Louisiana will end up under martial law soon.



But back to our story. Why would the government stage those shootings or spread the distorted rumors about them? For that is surely what has happened.

There are several reasons. They've had time to think about this, you see, for the CNN scroll informed me a few hours ago that this exact scenario had been a tabletop exercise a year ago. yeah, those "exercises" turning into reality again.

So the reasoning includes some or all of the following.

1. The most obvious is that they simply cannot save these people...not without making the kinds of choices that put people ahead of all other considerations. They aren't going to make those choices on the side of humanity but the shootings give an excuse for why there are so many "delays". And, right on cue, this evening CNN and FOX both began running the soundbytes over and over of "the relief work cannot continue until the city is safe." (By the way, are you like me? If you were there, would you not risk a few stray gunmen to attempt to rescue people trapped in their houses, which, by the way, are away from areas of looting and shootings? And would you not turn on the TV and see that that FOX reporter is not getting shot and load up your supplies and head there? I'm sure the volunteers on the scene feel the same way. They are being forced NOT to go in.)

2. Another purpose served here is to set up the next phase. What do we know about military operations and the press (oh, you didn't hear...the situation is now being described as "urban warfare"). The press must go. The shootings will allow the military to bar the press from anywhere it sees fit and, in fact, I see from CNN's current lead that this is already happening.

Oh look. I think CNN is reading this as I write:

I never want to compare anything to what's happening in Iraq, but there is one similarity in that the ability to move about as reporters is slowly becoming compromised. To be as safe as possible, we have to sacrifice some of our ability to go out and confirm information and verify stories. And right now, with this safety situation in the city of New Orleans, that's just not possible.

And this:

It was unclear what had occurred. Police said there had been a shootout as they forced a reporter and a photographer out of a passing car at gunpoint, pushing them face first against the wall. They took away a reporter's notebook and tossed the photographer's camera on the ground before returning them and telling the pair to leave.

link

3. Once the press and rescue workers are contained, the work of looter shooting and body disposal can begin. The looter shooting must take place off camera, because gosh darn it, those looters refuse to wear identifying insignia and sometimes stubbornly refuse to brandish weapons. However, we MUST have LOTS of shots of men and women in uniform jackbooting around the city. This is essential. It is to accustom us to this site as a normative affair, to be welcomed in our own cities and towns.

Also, the bodies must be disposed of rather discretely because simple arithmetic tells you the following:

80% of the 1.5 million who live in NO and environs evacuated.

That leaves 300,000.

There are 25,000 at the Superdome or whatever hell they are being shipped to.

There are another 20,000 or so at the Convention Center (now receiving food a CNN scroll informed me, so all that press coverage saved some lives).

There is a nebulous number of 70,000 in shelters, but I don't know if that's in addition to the Superdome nor do I know if it's part of the original 80%.
We'll count them as part of the left behinds for now.

Some 3000 have been plucked from rooftops.

Add it up. I come up with some 200,000 missing. Some may have gotten out, but there are not too many other places in the city with large crowds. One LSU expert, as has been noted on this site, estimated that 1/3 of these total remaining 300,000 had drowned. This simply CANNOT be made public.

4. So the rescue efforts are sabotaged to cause delay and the drumbeats for martial law and "shoot the looters on site" (O'Reilly) can become policy. But it doesn't end there. Much of the disruption in oil supply as well as other factors from the hurricane are going to stress an already greatly strained economy. The gas prices alone will cause unrest as a recent truckers action BEFORE the hurricane clearly demonstrates. We will told to consider this hurricane a national disaster that will be made worse by disruptive dissent. We will be urged not to "politicize" this crisis. Dissent and unrest will become synonymous as has already happened in New Orleans.

Where's the silver lining? Well, there are one or two, actually.

First, the press came out of its stupor for a moment. We'll see if it lasts. I am reminded of the Ukrainian press's mea culpa in which they vowed to stop repeating lies. Okay, not quite there yet, but you should have seen the ligthbulbs going off in the normally empty heads of the CNN spokesmodels. It was almost tangible. As I mentioned, they are being reigned in as we speak, but there have been important moments.

Secondly, we are poised on a razor's edge. Bush's popularity was plummeting BEFORE all of this. And while the forces of reaction are not isolated within the Bush administration, he is the current goal tender. And he is going down in flames. If this were a thriving democracy, he'd be gone in a matter of weeks. Alas, it is not a thriving democracy, but I can't see any way he can maintain power without openly declaring the dictatorship he's always wanted.

In this flux, we can thank the gods of Chaos that no one can control all variables, especially of the complexity of rebellions. There is some hope in that. These people are NOT all powerful. In addition, the overt arrival of fascism is a signal to the rest of the world that they can stop pretending we are a democracy. Most of the world had already done that anyway.

There are many possible outcomes.

1. Widespread martial law and a tenacious Bush and co. clinging to power.

2. Limited hangouts chucking a few of these folks to the wolves but attempting to keep business as usual.

3. The military savior option. Martial law is declared and Bush is removed from office as the military rescues the nation. I'm not sure that this isn't the ultimate plan anyway, as there've been hints of this before...when you see a "why the left should welcome a military coup d'etat" article in Counterpunch, you know that there are serious games being played.

That's all for now. That's the best I can do at making sense of all this. See if any of your own observations support my analysis here and let people know what is really going on.

Looting or Jubilee?

CNN has been hitting the looting theme so hard in their Katrina coverage, I actually wrote to ask if the psyops folks they got busted for employing back in 2000 were still around. Needless to say, they won't answer. But what's it all about?

Well, first, we have to define looting. Evidently, the mainstream media defines in this way: The taking of items, whether necessary to sustain life or not, without payment in a disaster torn area. Oh yeah...and looters are black.

You think I'm exaggerating, don't you, you optimistic reader, you. Sorry. A poster named "Human" over at Rigorous Intuition made this incredible find. Two pics on yahoo.

First:




And the caption:

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/photos_ts_afp/050830071810_shxwaoma_photo1

Now the second pic:



And the second caption:

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530

Some editor somewhere is going to get a letter, so I can't guarantee that these images will stay in this location captioned in this way for long. But you, clever reader, have spotted the telling differences in these photos and captions, haven't you?

I'm afraid this goes beyond racism, as most issues in our country often do. But racism plays a part, make no mistake.

What are they playing at as we await 10,000 national guard to arrive and keep order by any means necessary? I think it is this: the death toll is known to be high and that it will be higher. Their best chance at limiting the backlash at the obvious lack of preparation, not to mention the possible preventive measures on the levees that have been pleaded for for years, is to dehumanize the victims. And, since most Americans are white and that pic of white people wading in water is one of the few I've seen (unless the white people had a Weather Channel or CNN jacket on) the task is easier. You see, black people are looters.

And I saw on CNN the same footage rolled over and over again of black people coming out of a grocery store. Would I be hauling my white ass to that grocery store if I were in their shoes? You bet your Home Depot stock, sugar. And I'll tell you what else. I might grab a Rolex on the way, if I had a mind to. Seeing as how no one thought it important to prevent the destruction of my entire city/family/life, I'd call it a downpayment on my future. Especially since Fema went around recently asking for their money BACK from victims of the last hurricane.

But now we learn that police have officially been..no...let me print the official story:

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin ordered 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue mission Wednesday night and return to the streets of the beleagured city to stop looting that has turned increasingly hostile.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9063708/

But it doesn't end with some blatant racism and the protection of property that will likely never be recovered anyway in stores already written off. Nope. You see, what the theme really is, with all these looters "causing chaos" (gee, I thought it was the hurricane and flooding that did that) is that we need someone to come in and bust some heads during times of unrest.

Oh, and my friends, we are headed for some unrest. This attempt to dehumanize the victims will not work. First off, too many are still alive, as are their relatives,despite the best efforts of the Army Corp of Engineers to keep that water flowing into New Orleans. Secondly, the middle classes are going to get hit by the gas gouging fairly soon. In Atlanta, gas is up to 5 bucks a gallon at the moment. Welcome to what is about to become the new standard for discussing economic "ripple effects." Hey that "just in time" delivery system didn't turn out to be so clever after all, did it?

And I think that this anger may actually end up heading in the right direction. Soon, some wealthier pissed off Americans are going to print the picture of Bush laughing it up, eating birthday cake and playing the guitar with the date of the photo in big letters: August 30, 2005.

Any questions?