Coming Soon....

 

The world is getting weirder.

Since 2000, the reality we all know and love has gone the way of the Dodo bird. And what has emerged in its place is more Philip K. Dick and Harlequinade by the day. Various theories have been put forward to explain this state of affairs --Simulation, the Mandela effect, even suggestions the world really did end in 2000, or 2012, or 2020...

Monotheistic religions proclaim the end of the world, as is their wont. New Age gurus speak of a new consciousness. Atheists claim it's all meaningless. All have an echo of truth, but none satisfy.

S. William Snider (alias "Recluse"), host of The Farm podcast and author of A Special Relationship: Trump, Epstein and the Secret History of the Anglo-American Establishment, unknowingly embarked upon a three-year-plus odyssey to understand the times we're confronted with. What began as an investigation into the QAnon operation gradually morphed into a centuries-spanning exploration of "The Art" --the practice of shaping reality.

Since the onset of the Westaphalian era, groups as diverse as the Rosicrucians, Surrealists, Forteans, Discordians, and various occultists have developed the Art into a science. But as the modern era set in, a new player took notice: the national security state.

Throughout the twentieth century, the soldiers, spies and operators of the Soviet Union and the United States embarked upon a competition to weaponize culture and spirituality, the likes of which humanity had not witnessed since Antiquity. Only this time with the aid and support of modern science. In the US alone, a host of bizarre and brutal projects such as ARTICHOKE, MK-ULTRA, Pandora, Camelot and Cambridge were launched with a purpose of predicting and controlling human behavior unimaginable in prior eras. This laid the foundation for a globe-spanning counterinsurgency operation envisioned by one of the most colorful and occulted operators these United State have ever witnessed. Book I is his story and the blood-stained legacy he has bestowed upon humanity.

Secret Societies, Narcoterrorism, International Fascism, and the World Anti-Communist League: Legacies

I've got some more field research for you guys. It involves one of the strangest spectacles I've ever witnessed. But first, some programming notes...

For the most recent subscribers' episode, I brought back one of my favorite researchers active today. He was the chief of graphics for Cicada 3301 during its mid-period. During this time he encountered figures such as Thomas Schoenberger and Defango, both of whom would later gain infamy thanks to QAnon. More recently his work on Q has been used by the likes of Vice and the HBO Q: Into the Storm docu-series. He also contributed to the TEDxMidAtlantic conference on Q. He is Arturo Tafoyovsky, aka Lestat. 

For this round, I wanted to delve more into Ufology and the New Age, both of which are well represented in the QAnon saga. To this end, we tackle Gaia TV, Project Camelot, Foster Gamble, MUFON, and the curious figure of Tyroan Simpson, aka Frank Bacon. The latter had been grifting in UFO circles for years before hitching his cart to the "patriot" movement. Lestat also weighs in on the current Disclosure flap. 

We cover a few other odds and sods, such as Jim Watkins, General Stanley McChrystal, and ARGs heavily utilizing themes of secret societies and the occult. The main event, however, is our epic discussion of Pizzagate. We cover Cicada 3301 (and possibly QAnon) puppetmaster Thomas Schoenberger's links to Nora Maccoby; Steve and Tanya Biss; and a host of other figures who turn up in that particular saga. For good measure, we even get into the links Sean Stone, son of the director Oliver, has to this network. 

Its one long, strange trip kids. As always, I hope you enjoy and thanks for your support. And remember, this is just the latest addition to the ever-growing roster of exclusive subscriber shows. Prior guests include Diana Walsh-Pasulka, Richard B. Spence, Christopher Knowles, Douglas Valentine, Adam Gorightly, Greg Bishop, Walter Bosley, J. Michael "Doc Future" Bennett, Erica Lukes, Patriots' Soapbox's Radix Verum, David Metcalfe, Neil Sanders, Edmund Berger and Samuel Vandiver. Next up is the parapolitical legend Russ Bellant.

And now, for the main event...

The Weird and the Eerie

That's pretty much day to day life in these United States circa 2021, right? I had thought so to, but not after events that transpired this past Tuesday. That was truly weird, and truly eerie. But before getting to that, let's set the mood: 

"I have been to one of their meetings!" a disheveled Philip Jeffries (David Bowie) pronounced to the hear-challenged Gordon Cole (David Lynch) as a confused Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) looked on. This iconic scene from the Twin Peaks movie Fire Walk With Me (1992) is one of the finest depictions of the Black Lodge and its inhabitants Lynch would grace the fanboys with until the miraculous third season of Twin Peaks rose from the ether in that oh-so-significant-of-years, 2017. Between the twenty-five years that separated the film from Twin Peaks' third season, Bowie's storied sequence and the phrase he uttered became a kind shorthand for encounters with the weird, the powerful, and the unknowable. Michael Malice enlists the "meetings" bit to describe his encounters with the Dark Enlightenment in The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics. It was as apt a use as any I've seen. 

I myself have steadfastly resisted using that expression. But after this past Captive Nations Week (July 18-24, 2021), I think I may have finally earned the right. Decide for yourselves as a I recount the annual Captive Nations summit sponsored by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC). 

The pre-registration bit appears to have been announced the day of the event. The event itself (and most importantly, the time and location) was not announced officially until July 15 for some strange reason...

Regular readers of this blog will probably not be surprised to learn that the VOC, like Captive Nations Week itself, is closely connected to the infamous World Anti-Communist League (WACL), an endlessly fascinating netherworld of diehard fascists, international gangsters, and "former" intelligence and military officers the world over. I've chronicled this outfit for years, beginning with a series of blogs in 2013 and continuing with a podcast series on The Farm that originally aired in 2020 and this year. If you haven't followed any of those efforts, check here to catch up on WACL. 

Even in 2021, well over 60 years after efforts began to craft what became WACL, some of the movers-and-shakers linger. The 100-year-old General John K. Singlaub, a onetime WACL chairman, sits on the VOC's "national advisory council." Lee Edwards, a mere 89-years-old and a founding member of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), first became involved with WACL around 1970. Fittingly, he was a co-founder of VOC and presently serves as its chairman emeritus. He was present for Captive Nations festivities on July 20, 2021, where he introduced a Cuban hip hop video (seriously --more on that below). 

Edwards is the bald-headed one

And then there's Paula Dobriansky. Her father Lev was a significant figure in WACL circles for decades. He was close to longtime OUN-B head Yaroslav Stetsko, arguably the premier Ukrainian fascist of the twentieth century. Stetsko was also the head of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN), an outfit with ties to Nazi Germany that later became one of the crucial components of WACL. Lev Dobriansky founded Captive Nations Week and served as the chairman of the committee behind it for years. Stetsko was his co-chairman for decades. It was out of the National Captive Nations Committee that the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation was established in 1993. 

Paula Dobriansky opted for more "mainstream" company. She served in the State Department of various Republican administrations for many years, climaxing with her appointment as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs during the administration of Bush the Lesser. She also did time at the National Security Council and the US Information Agency, which has led to speculation that Paula had a much closer relationship with the CIA than her father. During the 1990s, she became involved with the infamous Project for a New American Century. She also has longstanding ties to Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), for years the leading neo-liberal foreign policy think tank. Its arguably been superseded during the twenty-first century by the Atlantic Council, who's board of directors Dobriansky sits upon. In other words, this woman has been at the heart of the bipartisan, neoliberal foreign policy establishment for decades. 

Paula speaking at the VOC's Captive Nations Week event

She is also a trustee of the VOC, and was there on July 20, 2021 to kick off her father's legacy. The company she kept for this event was more in keeping with the circles Lev traveled in. Paula was one of a trio of speakers to set the stage for the broader event. Joining here in these efforts was Edwin Feulner, the founder and longtime president of the Heritage Foundation, one of the two most powerful conservative think tanks since the Reagan years. The other is the Council for National Policy (CNP), which Feulner is also a member and former director of. 

Feulner

I got to shake hands with a confused-looking Paula Dobriansky shortly after her speech wrapped up. I later shook hands with Feulner and exchanged some pleasantries outside the men's restroom. I tried to introduce myself to Lee Edwards as well, but the old man looked like he wanted to kill me with his bare hands. 

I'll be honest: I rather liked Paula Dobriansky. I was accompanying my fellow WACL cohort Moss Robeson on this outing. Moss has written some rather inflammatory pieces on Paula and her father. She was surprisingly good spirited about the whole thing and even took the time to say goodbye to Moss before departing for whatever else veeps such as herself do in Washington on a day-to-day basis. No doubt she warrants a lot of criticism, but the woman has class. 

Completing the introductory trifecta was Lisa J. Peterson, who was just wrapping up her time as the Acting Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights in the Biden administration. She was completely at ease speaking between Paula and Feulner, even emphasizing many of the same talking points as the more right wing presenters. Predictably, Peterson emphasized social justice and other wokism, with a slight emphasis on Russia, but on the whole her speech would have been perfectly at home at a foreign policy rally during the Reagan years. 

Peterson

Despite the fact that an unrepentant Nazi collaborator was instrumental in crafting the Captive Nations Week that this event was celebrating, President Joe Biden had few qualms about endorsing it. Indeed, everyone in attendance got a commemorative letter from the president honoring the event:

I'll always treasure my copy, as the coffee stain in the top right corner is a testament to

It must have been reassuring to many of the participants that neo-cons, neo-libs, and the far right (symbolized by the opening trio) could set aside their differences and find so much common cause. It was a recurring theme throughout the summit. 

After this rousing introduction, the panel section of the proceedings began. There were three planned for the day: "Freedom of the Press vs. State Control"; "The Role of Dissidents in Gaining Freedom"; and "Human Rights and the International Community." As one might imagine, the first panel largely centered around "active measures," a Russian phrase for political warfare. The active measures bit has become trendy in recent years among foreign policy circles. It makes the whole political warfare thing seem like it emanated from the Kremlin, or something along those lines. 

Naturally, there were resounding calls for better educating the public in detecting active measures. Myroslava Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist and "activist," filled us in one how effective public education had been against the efforts of the Kremlin in the Ukraine. Slowly but surely, the public was waking up to active measures. Elsewhere, Brian Whitmore of the Atlantic Council suggested that it was time for the United States to take the offensive as far as active measures were concerned. That played well with the audience.

Whitmore is on the left, Gongadze the right

It was around this time I gagged on my coffee, drawing unwelcome attention from the crowd. I decided it was time to take some air. i.e. go back to my hotel room and get high. What awaited me upon my return brought this scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to mind:

On the bright side, I had missed the entire panel on "The Role of Dissidents in Gaining Freedom." On the not so bright side, I walked in on the antics of Rushan Abbas. Abbas is a Uyghur American activist, and one of the foremost critics of the Uyghur genocide allegedly being carried out in China. I say allegedly, as claims of genocide there are highly controversial, to put it mildly. In fact, the VOC has been at the forefront of pushing these claims. 

Abbas and the crowd certainly wanted to leave no doubt that something was happening to the Uyghur people in the PCR. Indeed, two of the four people sharing the "Human Rights and the International Community" panel with her visibly began to sob during her presentation. And it was graphic, recounting the various tortures the PRC is allegedly subjecting the Uyghur people to. On the other hand, the outrageous hypocrisy of it all was almost to much to stomach. 

You see, Abbas served as a translator at Guantanamo Bay where she assisted in the interrogation of Uyghur men being held there. Of all the Uyghur people in the world, is Abbas really the best they could find to speak for them? Unless the giggle factor is what the VOC was aiming for. Certainly they got plenty of that later in the panel discussion when Abbas called for Chavez's removal in Venezuela. Not to be undone, Suzanna Scholte of the Defense Forum Foundation denounced China's role in spreading the Covid virus. Unsurprisingly, the played well with the audience as well. 

Scholte (left) and Abbas (right)

From there, it was finally time for the main event: the Dissident Human Rights Awards Ceremony. A certain anti-Castro sentiment had been in the air all morning. Now, we were finally going to cut loose and call for regime change like it was 1961! Lee Edwards himself took the stage for this solemn occasion. 

The 2021 Dissident Human Rights Award went to Cuba's San Isidro Movement, which Edwards informed us was driven by artists. At the forefront of these efforts was something known as "rap," which Edwards described as a "new form of communication" to the audience. Apparently, some Cuban hip hop collective was slated to receive the award, but they were unable to attend. Instead, a pre-recorded message was played over the image of a shirtless Cuban rapper. All the while, the thought "Is Lee 'Fucking' Edwards going to introduce a hip-hop video" kept flashing through my mind. 

And I was not disappointed! He did in fact bust out the video, and the mostly white and middle-aged audience tried to groove to it, in a sense. I sincerely apologize for not taking pictures of this spectacle dear reader. I confess, I was in a near trance-like state by this time. But in case you're wondering, here is the video:

Marco Rubio was supposed to drop by for this spectacle, but wisely sent roughly third seconds of pre-recorded comments instead. Pity, as I was planning on asking him if the Pentagon's UAP report justified increased defense spending. Originally, I had thought such a question may have been a little over the top during such a serious occasion, but not so after the awards ceremony! 

In conclusion, the VOC Captive Nations Week Summit provided a compelling glimpse into Washington's permanent foreign policy establishment. Having witnessed it first hand, I can say that the only fundamental differences between most Democrats and Republicans on these matters is the extent to which LGBTQ+ rights should be emphasized when regime change is advocated. 

And make no mistake about it, regime change was seen as desirable the world over: Cuba, Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, it was on the table. Other points of emphasis included how democracy could be "strengthened" in the West and how America's enemies were "weaponzinig democracy against democracy." On the whole, one was left with the distinct impression democracy could use a lot of work. Fortunately, we have institutions like the VOC to help us through this process. 

Do You Believe in Magic?

It's May Day folks, which means its also the first of the month. And that means, besides celebrating the Rites of Spring in your own peculiar way, you've also got a brand new, exclusive episode of The Farm to add to the festivities. That is if you're a subscriber, of course.  

This is an exclusive installment in The Farm's ongoing "The Secret History of Ufology" series. Joining me for this round is Erica Lukes of UFO Classified. Erica is a former member of MUFON, first working as a field investigator and later becoming a State Director for Utah. She's also been a guest on such TV shows as History's Ancient Aliens and The Travel Channel's UFOs: The Lost Evidence. 

Erica's background is especially apt for the topic of discussion: the Mutual UFO Network, more commonly known as MUFON. On the surface, MUFON may not seem like the sexiest topic, but that's probably because you haven't been paying attention. MUFON is undoubtedly one of the sleaziest and most corrupt organizations active today. The upper echelons have been deeply implicated in a host of outrages, including pedophilia, sexual entrapment, data mining, and right-wing extremism. And that's just MUFON's "Inner Circle."

Rank-and-file members are routinely exploited by the organization. Simply filing a report with MUFON can lead one to losing the copyright to their encounter account (seriously). Personal data turned over to MUFON has likely been sold to a host of shadowy companies. And if you expect anyone to be qualified who works with MUFON, forget it: Being anything from a field investigator to a member of the Inner Circle is determined by nothing other than how much cash you're willing to pony up. To cap it off, former members who have come forward have often been subjected to gang stalking and other forms of harassment. 

And those are just a few of the topics we touch upon. Also up for discussion are the Mormon mafia, nonlethal weapons, the dark uses of the real estate industry, personality profiling, and the real possibility of a QAnon-style operation breaking out in the UFO field. It's a fascinating talk chalk full of original research and first-hand accounts of the inner workings of MUFON. As always, I hope you guys enjoy. 

Erica is the latest in an ever-growing collection of exclusive shows for The Farm's subscribers. Prior guests include Diana Walsh-Pasulka, Richard B. Spence, Christopher Knowles, Douglas Valentine, Adam Gorightly, Walter Bosley, Greg Bishop, J. Michael "Doctor Future" Bennett, David Metcalfe, Neil Sanders, Edmund Berger, and Samuel Vandiver. Coming up soon will be my interview with Radix Verum of Patriot's Soapbox, in which she will provide an insider's account of the origins of Q. 

Plantation Intrigues

Many strange things have happened before, during, and after the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of these United States. Recently, a little more light had has been shed on one of the more notable curiosities surrounding Inauguration Day. It was then that an obscure company in South Florida suddenly announced to the world that it had taken over the management of an enormous chunk of idle space of Internet owned by he Department of Defense. 

In the following weeks, speculation has been rampant concerning this move. The Pentagon was finally forced to clarify matters recently. Reportedly, these moves were made to allow the military to "assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space" and to "identify potential vulnerabilities" so as to defend against cyberattacks. 

As to the former, the Pentagon has to routinely contend with unauthorized squatters setting up shop on it's Internet space. Chasing off these squatters is likely in play, but the military may also be planning on collecting "a massive amount of background internet traffic for threat intelligence.” The end game could be to set up some type of digital honeypot to draw in hackers, or even set up an infrastructure to scour traffic for suspect activity. 

What no one seems to grok is the company selected for these efforts --Global Resource Systems LLC. Red flags abound, starting with the outfit's name. A prior incarnation of Global Resource Systems operated in the same South Florida city during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The prior incarnation dealt in spam mail and shut down more than a decade ago. The new GRS is an LLC rather than a corporation, but appears to be using the same Internet routing identifier. Naturally, no explanation has been put forth as to why a Pentagon contractor would be taking on the persona of a spam mail outfit.  

GRS Mach II has no online presence as yet. The LLC was originally incorporated in Delaware by a Beverly Hills lawyer, and only seems to exist physically in a shared workspace above a bank. And yet, it reportedly controls more Internet space than China Telecom, AT&T, or Comcast. 

The Beverly Hills attorney is one Raymond Saulino. Previously, Saulino had ties to a company called Packet Forensics. This outfit specialized in selling forged security credentials to government agencies and law enforcement so to make it easier for them to spy on people's browsing history. The company was eventually able to parlay these skills into a DARPA contract. In theory, the capabilities Packet Forensics specializes in would be ideal for staging a cyberattack false flag --something that's been a growing concern in recent years. Of course, only the Russians, the Chinese, or other "rogue" regimes would ever dream of doing such a thing. The US's interest is surely only for "defensive" purposes. 

For me, the most interesting thing about Global Resource Systems LLC is it's location: Plantation, FL. Part of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, Plantation is not known for much. While somewhat more affluent than other, nearby areas, it's not an especially rich region by the standards of Miami. Nor is it especially economically viable. 

A Magical Place

GRS may have chosen Plantation for it's headquarters because it's such an unassuming location in one of the most economically significant areas of the US. However, there just happens to be another curious company based out Planation. It goes by then name of Magic Leap (ML). 

ML was founded in 2010 by a biomedical engineer named Rony Abovitz. For a time, much effort was put forward to hype up Abovitz as the next bro tech billionaire a la Elon Musk. Almost every profile I've read of him is quick to point out his love of sci-fi. We are also assured he has a unique way of viewing the world, that he builds "wealth through people" (just as every despot throughout human history has....), and that he he values diversity. 

Circa 2016, with the neo-liberal organ Wired leading the charge, it was proclaimed that Abovitz was engaged in a "Quest to Create a New King of Reality." Abovitz and ML were going to manage this through a "new" type of technology known as "augmented reality." In reality, AR is just a variation of the same type of virtual reality tech that's been available since the late 1980s. The major difference between AR and VR is that the latter attempts to immerse the player in an entirely digital world. In the case of AR, the real world and objects in it are "enhanced" by "computer-generated perceptual information." As with VR, headsets are a requirement of AR, along with other bulky equipment worn over the body so as to more completely immerse the player in the experience. 

Magic Leap's headset and related tech were said to be the best. Numerous accounts of it breathlessly likened it to the Oasis of Ready Player One or the Metaverse of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. In fact, ML dug the Snow Crash comparison so much that the company even hired Stephenson as the company's "chief futurist." 

Nor was Stephenson the only hipster cred ML attempted to attract. Game designer Graeme Devine, creator of The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour, was brought in as the "Chief Creative Officer." The big catch, however, was surely effects designer Richard Taylor, the founder and head of Weta Workshops. Taylor and his company are best down for providing the bulk of the effects for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. The connection to Taylor and Weta provided ample opportunities for Jackson to drop by ML to observe the future of entertainment, especially when the company happened to be doing a certain type of entertaining involving journalists. 

Remarkably, it worked. During the middle of the past decade, a lot of companies were buying into the hype around ML --literally. During it's big coming out party in 2014, ML raised over $500 million in investment. Among the contributors were Google, Qualcomm, and venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins. The most remarkable part is that none of these companies reportedly knew exactly what they were investing in when they opened their wallets. All that mattered was that Abovitz was ready to revolutionize technology any day. 

Of course, it wasn't just the entertainment industry Magic Leap was trying to revolutionize. Amidst much less fanfare, the company also set it's sites (har har) on those plush, juicy defense contracts. Nor is this surprising in the least. Despite all the bold projections about how ML would change the ways stories were told, product roll out has been problematic, to put mildly. The truth is, no one really seems to know if AR has long term commercial viability. 

Military applications are a different story. They already exist and will likely only grow in the coming years. ML appears to have been a little late to recognize this. The only brought in a big shot defense director in 2018. It didn't take long for military interest to pick up after that. By 2019, the US Navy was using ML headsets. 

ML headsets being used by the US Navy for training exercises

It all appears to have been to little, to late, however. Towards the end of March 2021, rival Microsoft was awarded a sought after contract to deliver AR headsets to the Army. This was one in a string of setbacks ML experienced beginning in 2020. In the spring of that year, it laid off nearly a thousand of its employees and dropped its commercial business. The pandemic was blamed, but it wasn't enough to save founder Rony Abovitz. After several years of media hype, he was unceremonially forced out of the company. In 2019, Magic Leap was valued at $6.7 billion dollars. By September 2020, it had fallen to $450 million, a loss of 93% of its value. The Microsoft deal this year was probably the final nail in the coffin. 

Undoubtedly, we'll never know what exactly happened behind the scenes. No doubt, there were political considerations. The Microsoft deal being green lit months after Biden took office is likely not coincidental. Its also quite ominous. One of the major issues raised concerning the use of AR in the military is the ease with which the tech can be hacked. And of course, Microsoft's security appears to have been greatly compromised by a recent cyberattack. Kind of seems like a recipe for disaster --not that anyone asked me. 

Was Magic Leap simply not as incompetent or corrupt as their counterparts in Microsoft? Possibly, but perhaps their purpose has simply been fulfilled. One of the most interesting names linked to the company is the one of Sean Stewart. Stewart has worn many hats over the course of his media career, but he is principally known for his work in the alternate reality game (ARG) field, where he is considered a pioneer. Stewart was involved in setting up early ARGs such as The Beast and Ilovebees. Stewart co-founded two companies, 42 Entertainment and Fourth Wall Studios, that were among the first to specialize in the commercial applications of ARGs. 

Stewart

Thus, I found it most interesting that Stewart put in five years with Magic Leap, first as a consultant, and later as a "creative director." Stewart's tenure with the company ended in April 2020, just as the lay offs were kicking in. Certainly, it's interesting to see a guy with this kind of background working for a company based out of what was going to be a highly contested state during the 2020 election. Just saying. 

And what of this Global System Resources outfit springing up as a major force in Plantation just as ML appears to throwing in the towel?  Is it all a feign, with a new, militarized version of ML rising from the ashes after a lifeline or two from GSR? Only time will tell, but it's truly odd these highly secretive, defense-related tech companies ended up in the same obscure Florida city in recent years. These developments certainly warrant keeping an eye on. 

Non-lethals

Since we're speculating on tech with military applications, why not cover some non-lethal weapons? This is a subject once again making headlines, and in some remarkable ways. Most notably, how casually mainstream publications are acknowledging directed-energy weapons as a thing. 

It all started with a re-evaluation of "Havana syndrome." Remember that? It occurred several years ago, and involved American diplomats in Cuban and Russia experiencing unusual system. Initially, there were rumblings of some type of sonic weapon being used. Eventually, this explanation was brushed aside in favor of more "reasonable" culprits, such as the sounds of crickets causing the unusual injuries reported. 

Fear the cricket...

Now it turns out, the cricket explanation may not have been entirely accurate either. Reports are coming out that the initial investigation was botched, and that the possibility of non-lethals being used is so probable that the CIA felt the need to create a task force to study the matter. It's interesting to note that the reports of the CIA task force on this matter first began to emerge a little over a month after Biden took office. 

Then in April 2021, the Pentagon massively raised the stakes. It alleged that US forces were targeted with directed-energy weapons in Syria. In the same breath, they blamed the Russians for these attacks. Curiously, these reports started to come out after Congressional lawmakers were briefed on these attacks by "Pentagon officials." When these same lawmakers questioned General Frank McKenzie, the head of CenCom, about these reports, he informed them that he had seen "no evidence" of such attacks against US troops in the Middle East. 

In fairness to General McKenzie, it's probably the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) rather than CenCom that's directing the war in Syria. Thus, McKenzie is not in the chain of command for this one. And the chain of command is so important in the military, unless you happen to be a member of the Flynn family. 

Politico further hints at a SOCOM link when it noted that the Pentagon's Office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) initiated an investigation into directed-energy weapons being used against US troops in Syria during 2020. The Assistant Secretary of Defense who heads the SO/LIC is the principal civilian responsible for oversight of the SOCOM. 

This is interesting on a few levels. For one, it further reinforces the interest SOCOM has in non-lethals. But beyond this, there's who headed the SO/LIC during 2020: Eventual Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller; and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a notorious lackey of Michael Flynn's. We've already explored some of the recent intrigues involving the Miller/ECW duo during the final week's of Trump's presidency. If either or both of these characters are the ones who initiated this investigation, it raises some interesting possibilities. 

Batman and the Boy Wonder: Miller (top) and ECW (bottom)

Effectively both the CIA and SOCOM, the two principal bodies responsible for covert operations in the national security state (and at times, intense rivals of one another), are actively investigating the use of non-lethals on US personnel by "foreign actors" (aka the Russians). This is all quite fascinating in light of the looming UFO Disclosure, which will be unfolding soon. Hype has apparently built to the point that Forbes had pondered whether 2021 will be the year of the UFO. 

Certainly, there have been a lot of interesting developments during the run up. Shortly before the COVID bill was signed, the bizarre monolith LARP broke out, first nationally, then internationally. But it started in the state of Utah, which is highly significant to modern Ufology due to the Mormon connection. Popular Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has been flogging the UFO Disclosure narrative on a regular basis. John Ratcliffe, Trump's former Director of National Intelligence, has been hyping reports collected by the military. And of course, the military played in a role in the hype after it confirmed the authenticity of several dubious videos in the spring of 2020. 

In certain circles, there has been speculation that the UFO Disclosure narrative will be used as a means of rolling out the US Military's new, high tech toys --toys that may (this will surely never be confirmed) be based upon reverse engineered alien tech. I suspect these toys will be based upon concepts that have been researched in the non-lethal field (i.e. directed-energy weapons) for some time. 

In this context, it makes a lot of sense to have the CIA and SOCOM investigating the non-lethal tech of China and Russia. If I'm correct, then it can be claimed their weapons derive from a similar source, further bolstering the claims of the US intelligence community. And just imagine the kind of escalations that could occur with those types of weapons of massive destruction. 

Mind you, I really hope I'm way off base on this one. The temptation is always to chalk UFO Disclosure up as another round of confidence games. But there's just something about this one that seems ever so slightly off. And with recent develops in Ufology (see today's interview with Erica Lukes) that's led to increased fanaticism, a perfect storm-type scenario could be unfolding before our eyes. 

Again, I hope I'm way off base, but stay alert folks and don't buy into the hype during the coming weeks. And with that I shall sign off for now. Until next time, stay tuned. 

UFOs, Cults, and Confidence Games

Hat Tip: "Larry," Denim, S90

It's the first of the month once again, which means it's time for a new subscriber's show for The Farm's patrons section. My guest this time round is Diana Walsh-Pasulka. She is a writer and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has co-edited the anthologies Posthumanism: The Future of Homo Sapiens and Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural as well as being the author of Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture and American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. 

This is a wide reaching conversation largely exploring the rise of the postmodern paradigm. Through this prism, we explore a host of topics: Videodrome, In the Mouth of Madness, and the science fiction reality we find ourselves living in; the strange, nonsensical behavior reported by contactees as a form of depatterning; how the rise of channeled communications coincided with the technological revolution in the West; synchronicity as a form of depatterning; Randonautica; and even the Mandela effect. 

We also consider the possibility that there is something genetic about families with multiple "Experiencers." From there, we delve into whether personality profiles have been applied to Experiencers, and the rather disturbing implications of this in a post-Cambridge Analytica world. On the topic of disturbing implications, we address whether a "meta-narrative" involving the UFO phenomena will be rolled out by the military during the next year. 

To close out, I have Diana cover one of the more curious aspects of the famed SRI remote viewing experiments: the influence of the French Jesuit anthropologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Further, this also involved SRI's Augmentation Research Center, the same one that played such a crucial role in launching the modern PC revolution. It's a fascinating, and fitting, note to wrap up on. 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Diana is the latest in a ever growing collection of guests on The Farm's patron section. Others include Christopher Knowles, Richard B. Spence, Douglas Valentine, Greg Bishop, Adam Gorightly, Walter Bosley, J. Michael "Doc Future" Bennett, Neil Sanders, and David Metcalfe. Next up is "The Secret History of 1980s Counterculture." It's going to be awesome. 

UFOs

We might as well talk some UFOs with this one as there are no shortage of headlines and sound bites making the rounds of late. Just this past week, Senator Mario Rubio paused at Reagan National Airport to discuss the matter with TMZ. It was probably a sound move by Rubio, who has all the charisma of a paper bag. Merely mentioning UFOs gives him the finest sound bite of his political career. But you know it's the end of something when encountering headlines like: "SENATOR MARCO RUBIO: LET'S I.D. THE UFO'S FLYING OVER MILITARY BASES ..." and they're not being taken from The Onion. 

Rubio

Disclosure is in the air again, as it is every few years. It's supposed to be different this time because of the provisions placed in a Trump-era COVID relief bill. But it's all supposed to be different. And then, it's more of the same old crap.

But there is one compelling circumstance this time around, and it has nothing to do with COVID, Cold War 2.0, or pending economic collapse. Rather, it has to do with the UFO racket teetering on the verge of collapse due to a recent lawsuit. 

It's goes by the name of Kiviat vs Marriott. The saga is every bit as strange as one may imagine. Many of the usual suspects are present. They include: Hal Puthoff, who co-directed the famed SRI remote viewing program and later helped found To the Stars Academy (TTSA) with Blink 182's Tom Delonge; Silicon Valley entrepreneur and longtime Ufology sugar daddy Joe Firmage; former Utah state congressman Daniel Marriott, also a member of the hospitality dynasty; Utah real estate mogul and current Skinwalker owner Brandon Fugal; and former CIA Deputy-Director, Division of Science and Technology honcho Ron Pandolfi. 

Pandolfi is a crucial figure in this racket. Reportedly, he ran the CIA's "Weird Desk," which was tasked with UFOs and other strange doings. Pandolfi is a part of "The Aviary," an informal network of mostly former spooks that have been gaming the Ufology field for decades. 

possibly Pandolfi

As for Kiviat vs Marriot, the story goes something like this: At some point in the '90s, Hal Puthoff acquired a strange gyroscopic devise from Russia that was (allegedly) capable of producing anti-gravity energy. Naturally, it was claimed to be reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology. At some point, Firmage acquired this wonderful toy and brought Pandolfi on as his "scientific adviser." Eventually, this all led to a company called the International Academy of Science and Arts, or InterNASA for short. Pandolfi assembled a CIA team of "physicists, engineers, and mathematicians" to examine the devise. Financial backing came from Dan Marriott, and possibly Fugal. 

Enter Robert Kiviat, a TV producer best known for the Alien Autopsy "specials." Kiviat went to work at InterNASA for nearly a year handling "Communications, Public Relations, and Studio projects" for the company. All Kiviat saw for his efforts was five grand, considerably less than what he signed up for. 

Kiviat

While Kiviat's lawsuit was launched nominally to recoup his pay, it had a another purpose: to expose this group of hucksters. Specifically, it would have forced Pandolfi to go on record concerning his claims of continual intelligence support. These claims would have in turn been submitted to the inspector generals for the CIA and DIA. Needless to say, the results of those inquiries could have caused a considerable amount of trouble for Pandolfi and company. Most likely, they would have revealed that Pandolfi was using his status as a former senior CIA officer to bilk gullible investors for these fantastic technologies. 

A key early figure in all of this, Hal Puthoff, is a co-founder of TTSA, a major force behind the current Disclosure push. Interestingly, many of the heavy hitters in TTSA such as Christopher Mellon, Luis Elizondo, and Steve Justice recently departed this past December. Beyond this, TTSA is also rebranding itself as an "entertainment company," and largely abandoning it's research into science and technology in the process.

Gee, could that be due to the fact that the gyroscopic devise Puthoff pawned off to Firmage is hardly the only piece of dubious tech he's backed over the years? Like Pandolfi, Puthoff is another Aviary huckster who's been working behind the scene for decades now. These men have made impressive livelihoods for themselves off of using their intelligence credentials to rope in people with too much money and too little common sense. 

Puthoff

But what about men like Firmage, Marriott, and Fugal? These men already had fortunes well before entering the UFO field. Surely there are easier ways for them to expand these fortunes than the otherworldly confidence games men like Pandolfi and Puthoff specialize in. 

This is where the strange beliefs of the elites come in to play. Want to know something interesting that Firmage, Marriot, and Fugal all have in common? Besides the UFO racket? The Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). 

Yes, all of these men are Mormon. And they are hardly alone in the UFO field. Indeed, members of the LDS have been covertly pushing the extraterrestrial narrative since at least the 1970s. Consider, for instance, Sunn Classic Pictures, a production company located in Salt Lake City and dominated by Mormons. During the 1970s, it had some success with a series of documentaries it released. These documentaries either dealt with Biblical narratives or UFO/paranormal subjects, especially the ancient alien trope. This was also the era of the original Battlestar Galatica, created by Mormon Glen A. Larson and loaded with Mormon cosmology. The 21st century version toned down the Mormonism greatly, but several of the crucial elements. 

Glen A. Larson

Since the 1990s, a Mormon presence in Ufology has been much more pronounced beyond Hollywood. Firmage was once one of the principal investors. Fugal has picked up some of the slack in recent years. Elsewhere Harry Reid, the former Democratic Senate Majority leader who procured funding for the Pentagon's 21st century UFO inquiries, is also a Mormon. 

Reid

Personally, I don't think it's a coincidence at all that there has been such an influx of Mormons into the UFO narrative since at least the 1970s. This is likely a glimpse into true ideology that dominates in certain circles --not the wholesome, Leave it to Beaver image of Mormonism that's been carefully cultivated for decades now, but an esoteric variety with a truly bizarre conception of the chosen people. It's faith that few are probably ever brought into fully, least of all rank-and-file LDSers. And Mormonism is surely not the only flavor available in such circles, but certainly one of the most overlooked ones. 

Suffice to say, this is the type of thing that no one in these circles wants coming out. A guy like Pandolfi cashing in on his CIA credentials to run a confidence game or two on dupes is one thing.  Financial gain is a motive the public can easily grok. The implications of the belief systems driving the continual funding for this stuff is not so easy to digest.

But with the heightened attention the UFO narrative is currently generating, the moneymaking schemes of many of the "experts" in the field could become a major issue. Fortunately for all involved, Kiviat's lawsuit appears to have been ill-conceived. It appears to be winding down with no major revelations forthcoming. But it is very illustrative of how fragile the mythos around Ufology truly is. The combination of flim-flam men and religious fanatics at the heart of Ufology is not something certain quarters want John Q. Public paying too much attention to. 

Cults

On the topic of cults and UFOs, I've got a great one to share with you guys! We already discussed some of the strange symbolism present at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Let us now consider one of the speakers, a certain Hiroaki “Jay” Aeba of the Happiness Realization Party (HRP). This outfit helped establish Japan's own version of CPAC.

Aeba

Predictably, Aeba and the HRP have an anti-PRC stance, and the threat China poses to the American Empire was at the heart of his address. This is all pretty textbook for a right-wing Japanese politician addressing his US counterparts for the past 75+ years. What really stands out about Aeba and the HRP is the body behind both. 

It is known as "Happy Science" and has been described as a cult by some commentators. Founder Ryuho Okawa reportedly believes himself to be the reincarnation of a god from Venus who created all life on earth millions of years ago. So yeah, cult sounds about right. These Happy Science folks should fit right in with Falun Gong and the remnants of the Unification Church in the GOP's Asian section. 

Happy Science...

Predictably, neo-liberal outlets like Vice are having a field day with the GOP's increasingly open relationship with various cults. No doubt they feel secure in knowing the Democrats would never publicly align themselves with an outfit like NXIVM or the Satanic Temple or some weird UFO cult...

Neo-liberal cults have an easier time flying under the radar. They typically attract celebrities and feature glowing accounts in Rolling Stone or whatever constitutes a chic/hip publication in 2021. There's no way GOP cults can compete in terms of gloss. Fortunately, they more than makeup for it in sheer batshit insanity. 

Case in point, the whole Shaunawaz and Sabmyk thing. There have been some interesting developments in this offshoot of QAnon since I last touched upon them. Rumblings indicate that the "visionary" behind the "Sabmyk network" has been unmasked. Reportedly, he's a Berlin-based artist known as Sebastian Bieniek. 

Bieniek

As one might imagine, Bieniek is an interesting guy. In the twilight zone of Q, strange figures appear endorsing the purported crusade against the Pedophocracy. Figures like General Paul Vallely, Michael Aquino's old Mind War buddy. And something maybe in the works for Sabmyk as well. Turns out Bieniek worked with none other than Marina "Spirit Cooking" Abramovic, she of Pizzagate infamy. Apparently, Abramovic was an influence on Bieniek's approach to performance art. Don't expect many discussions on that to emerge among the Safmyk network. 

Abramovic

Another interesting aspect of Bieniek is his long history of making fake social media accounts to promote his art. Indeed, it seems as though the Sabmyk network grew out of various characters Bieniek created to promote his work. Bieniek even published a book in 2011, RealFake, that detailed his use of social media and fake identities ("sock puppets") to promote his efforts. As the title implies, the book takes the Baudrillardian perspective that the lines between reality and fiction have been blurred to the point of being non-existent. Is Bieniek a practitioner of theory-fiction? I've found nothing online to suggest such, but it would hardly be surprising if he were aware of the concept. 

Bieniek's connection to Abramovic puts developments in conspiritainment over the past five years in a curious perspective. As was noted above, there are compelling indications that various Aviary types having been crafting UFO mythos to promote their own confidence games. For more on the strange dealings of the Aviary, I'd suggest picking up a copy of Adam Gorightly's most recent work, the groundbreaking and brilliant Saucers, Spooks, and Kooks. 

If Ufology has been used as a field for various confidence games for decades now, are mainline conspiracy theories any different? Certainly Bieniek appears to have been using QAnon to promote a hoax for the purpose of selling his art. Michael Flynn has already cashed in on QAnon. He is hardly alone in these efforts. And what of Pizzagate, a crucial foundation stone in QAnon? While there were clearly political motives for leaking Podesta's emails, did someone start playing up Abramovic's art as a marketing gimmick, one that quickly got out of hand? 

But would someone use the Pedophracy and conspiracy theories in general to sale their art? Well, if you've seen any number of music videos made in the twenty-first century, or skimmed a website like Vigilant Citizen, then the answer to the question should be a resounding "yes." This isn't to suggest that there aren't strange beliefs present in these circles --see my above musings on esoteric Mormonism. But there's a lot of humbug as well, and that's what sales. And certain folks are living very well off of these efforts.