Anger in the Air

 

“Strange days indeed”, one of the great songwriters once sang - so much anger and, ironically, the weather, beautiful and warm. Everyone is wearing a mask  

Stepped on the train, sat down, and opened my book. Sitting in the corner, there sat a man that looked like “Grizzly Adams” (at the end of the film); his eyes have that schizophrenic twirl, and he won’t stop staring at me with murderous intent. 

The train comes to a halt, and he remains seated and doesn’t follow. Phew! 

I come to a crosswalk, push the button and see a woman of about thirty, scabs on her face in black track pants and a Superman tee-shirt, yelling into her cell phone, shouting, “GIVE ME THE MONEY! I NEED THE MONEY! She didn’t need the phone – people would have heard her miles away. I thought, 

‘She needs to score.’ 

Get to work to calm, quiet with a productive buzz in the place. 

Finally, lunchtime arrives, and I go to my favorite Chinese shop. Eating my noodles outside, a scruffy dude kicks the tattoo guy’s sidewalk sign over, yelling racist obscenities. 

Work over and no incidents. I walk by a car where a couple is arguing at the top of their lungs. 

Get to the train station, and the loudspeaker announces: “The 5:40 train will be 20 minutes late." A well-dressed woman in her fifties starts loudly complaining about the transit system – directed at the air! The train arrives, and most people’s expressions are hostile, pushing and shoving each other to get off the train. Once on the train, a young girl dressed as a Goth – black eye shadow, black dress, black hair, black mask, and she won’t stop staring at me! As usual, I put my nose closer to my book. 

The train stops, and at the bottom of the platform are two teenagers fighting. My bus was canceled as things go, and I decided to walk home through the forest in the dark. Possums are growling in the trees. Finally, walk in the door and turn on the TV – two bodies have been found in the northern suburbs, and cases of COVID 19 are rising in NSW's 

Hope tomorrow, people will be in a better mood. 

So much ANGER in the air!

Letter’s Never Answered… Melbourne Australia, February 16, 1942 (Short Story)

My love,

I have written so many letters to you, my darling, without a single response that my hopes of you remaining alive grow dimmer as each day passes…the thought of living without you is too painful, too heart-wrenching to even contemplate. Robert, my true and only love, every day and night (mostly late at night), I pray with all my soul, heart and mind that you are alive in this terrible war.

The most dreadful news came in the morning papers: The Melbourne’s, ‘Herald-Sun’ headline read, “British Surrender Singapore to Japanese Invasion.”

What does this mean, my darling?

How can a little country like Japan win over British, Dutch and Australian forces in only a matter of months? These Japanese appear to be monsters and now the rumor is Australia is next!

I’m so frightened for you, my sweet, afraid for myself, afraid for mum and dad but mostly terrified for our baby girl, Kathleen.

Yes my darling, you have a 12-month beautiful girl who looks like an angel.

I know this may be a shock and sound like a bad romantic war novel, but our beautiful daughter was conceived on that lovely, warm night on Brighton Beach. Remember the fire blazing, and we all fell asleep. You snuggled into my “smelly” and sandy blanket…and it was the best night of my life. Because you were leaving in two months to Singapore, I didn’t want to worry you; perhaps I was wrong, but Kathleen is beautiful and is so much her father’s girl without any doubt in the world.

I wanted to tell you that just last night, while cradled in my arms nursing her, Kathleen peered up at me, and there were your beautiful blue eyes! She has your straight and also perfect aristocratic nose and high forehead, (her lovely blond hair will grow in time) but of course its Kathleen’s smile that is all yours which makes me cry with joy and sadness…because you are not here to see her wonders.

I’ve tried very hard to find you, but there are thousands of Australian soldiers in Singapore fighting in this god-forsaken war. My friend Margaret, next door, receives letters all the time from her husband. Paul is stationed in London reading suspicious letters (part of some British “secret” organization). Wish you were in London, my love.

I think about you all the time. I’ve sent many letters to the government, and their reply has always come back to me in straight forward government nonsense…."Sorry, Mrs. Malone, we do not know Private Robert Malone's whereabouts… but when we hear a word...blah, blah and bloody blah.

I think about you every second of every day, my love, and imagine the moment you come home, gallantly walking off the ship with that beautiful smile and into my arms!

I imagine and dream every night of that wonderful face of yours, smiling and always so kind (you were always a kind man) and coming back to us…taking me into your arms and kissing me.

I really know, once you finally see Kathleen, your beautiful daughter, our lives will change, and we'll be a family and 'live happily ever after'…forgive me, but I miss you so.

Please come back to us, Robert.

We love you and only want one thing, this terrible war to end.

Once again, we love you and pray for the day you return so we can see that handsome and kind face.

Your love forever,

Kate & Kathleen

Our Destiny

Cruising along different websites to finally hit something interesting, a hidden BLOG, something the writer would never believe would be seriously read. The site was colored pink with, of all flowers, Daisies. So, following societal dictates, my thought was, of course, a woman…a young woman. Then I began reading her entries to discover a talented writer, a writer of sensitivity, insight into human behavior, and, it must be said, a sense of deep sadness and a yearning for love.

Despite the pink background and bright yellow flowers that adorned her page, an adolescent display of innocence, her words revealed someone with life experience, both deep despair and emotional elation. My cynical radar switched on, that gut-feeling of being conned, lied to, another “Bot" masquerading as someone else other than their true self.

The final entry was an auto-biography of a distant kind; a journal, disassociated, objective, similar to viewing oneself as a total stranger.

She wrote of her mother as an unhappy middle-class housewife married to a dubious man who lacked in all the romantic sensibilities and drunk most of the time. “Dad loved his cars.”. She blamed herself for her father leaving the twenty-two-year marriage because of something she said at a restaurant one night.

After seeing a high school play, the three walked across the street from the school into a lavish restaurant. The child was small; she stood upon the cushion to look up through the window at all the “sparkles” along the street. Then, after her father’s fourth whisky- flat; he began to complain about the food, the show, yelling at his wife about his work, his unhappiness with life in general, and marrying his “mother”…he began to turn nasty. Everything and really… all his honesty showed in those seconds, for me, as a reader: a man at his emotional bottom.

The precocious little girl turned from the window and piped up, and declared,

“We make our own choices in life, and the decisions you made, dad, were wrong. You married your mother because you thought it would be good for your career. After all, she is good-looking and fit the model as the perfect wife: “great in the kitchen and a slut in bed.” I know mother isn’t a slut in bed, and I really know she’s not a good cook, so you’ve failed. Deal with it, dad, or just leave!”

Dad slapped the little girl across the face.

Mother left the room to “powder her nose,” and dad left the restaurant and never was seen again.

After only two years, the writer’s mother died of breast cancer, blaming her daughter for saying those “awful things” and forcing her husband, her father, to leave.

As the writer continued, she summed up the “incident” as her fault.

To quote her exactly, she wrote: “A’ chacun son destiny.” "Everyone to their own destiny."

This reader believes that even one conversation can lead to tragic consequences.

“My father’s eyes shined sadness and with knowing; the decision was made.”

I truly felt this in both their hearts.

Returning from the Ladies Room, sitting down, her mother declared:

“I’m now married to a “developer”; a glorified real estate salesman. I can’t cook worth a damn, and sex with him is routine.”

A’ chacun son destiny.

Turning away from the screen, I felt my shoulders grow tense. I put the BLOG in Favourites and closed the lid, falling asleep, thinking:

How will the pink/flower BLOG girl deal with her destiny tomorrow?

 

Smedley D. Butler – War is a Racket – Review

 

Considered to be one of the more essential antiwar tracts in modern history, first published in 1935, I was astounded by how accurate General Butler's words are in describing the United States present-day imperialism and war-based economy. In essence, it is never the people who benefit from war but a small group of big businesses and Big Banks that reap all the profits and rewards from the suffering, death, and destruction these wars impose. Again, nothing has changed in corporate America. The corporations, politicians, and small groups of oligarchs make billions while the populations truly suffer from war.

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler's most famous quote from his text, War is a Racket, must be: I spent 33 years in the Marines, most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism.

Butler goes onto list the industrial companies that earn the majority of profits from the war game. They include weapons manufacturers, big steel, big copper,; chemical manufacturers, and even the leather industry that makes combat boots, gun holsters, saddles, backpacks, etc. He describes these companies' low profits in peacetime and how in some cases, they quadrupled their earnings in wartime.

These wars are never to spread democracy and freedom, as we have been told and are continuing to be told today. The United States has always been a war-based economy; therefore, war must be perpetually waged for the few to get richer while the rest of us die and suffer. This is not to mention the millions of deaths in foreign lands that the empire has committed in the name of pure profit.

Butler writes:

WELL, it's a racket, all right.

A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it with disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parlays at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

It was startling to come across today the amount of US congresspeople who has actual stock in the defense manufacturing industry? (The documents are there to be read) So is it any wonder that in both political parties, war is never voted down, if brought to a vote at all? These elected officials have a personal vested interest in perpetual war because they're personally profiting from it.

Butler goes as far as to propose to conscript capital, industry, and labor.

He writes:

Let the officers and the directors and the high powered executives of our armament factories and our steel companies and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in wartime as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted – to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Certainly without question, I would include our chicken-hawk politicians that are making money from their stocks in the weapons industries.

I have written this many times - the system is economically rigged for the few to gain and the many to suffer. And because the US is a war-based economy, the only way to profit is to wage more decimation and destruction.

This is unacceptable, and a crime against humanity.

General Butler made American forays into China, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti,”...and this is where he picked up his frequently expressed opinion that he was no more than a bully boy for American corporations.” (Intro)

If you have not read this incredible antiwar treatise, my suggestion is to do so because it certainly illustrates our current plight under these corporate/pro-war/ fascist times.

Edward Snowden – Permanent Record – Review

It was only a matter of time before Edward Snowden would publish his account of 2013, when, after several months of agonizing soul searching, his inward battle of Right and Wrong, though an American patriot in the fullest sense of this term, decided to whistle-blow about the unconstitutional crimes of his employers, the United States government.

This work is certainly personal. Indeed, not so much a justification for his actions, but a narrative about our once free internet, that since 9/11, has become Orwell's Big Brother, infiltrating all of our lives, listening and watching our private behaviors, all in the name of “National Security”; only to find this pornographic intrusion by the government wasn't about protecting innocent lives, but to acquire information on the people, to control us; it's about money and power, and that's what many people seem to miss. Snowden is not a traitor but a patriot for the people, revealing a corrupt and nasty government.

Like most memoirs, it begins with the subject's family heritage, moving towards family and upbringing as a child. We read that Snowden was really of a new generation, a tech generation, that has changed all our lives. Ed's father worked for the military as an engineer and would bring home the latest gadgets, and little Ed was smitten with the whys of the technology. In a word, he became a tech-geek like so many others his age had in developed countries during this time in history. After 9/11, this gave him an edge. Like many of us, after 9/11, he wanted to serve his country to combat the enemy. After an unlucky stint in the army, breaking a leg, he was discharged. Because of his interest and self-taught know-how of the computer, he moved through the ranks of the IC (Intelligence Community), and he writes about those experiences as a man on a mission for his country, only to find later, working for the CIA, he was a tech-spook (my term), finding those people deemed the enemy, weaknesses, faults or black-mailing actions to turn them into CIA assets. To be sure, this was not Snowden's cup of tea. Nevertheless, Snowden is a tech man.

Rather than summarise this well-written memoir, let me get to the point of why Ed Snowden decided to throw away a promising career, family, and home, to expose the crimes of his government.

Let me quote from the last chapter that truly encapsulates why Snowden whistle-blower on the crimes of his country:

If at any point during your journey through this book you paused for a moment over a term you wanted to clarify or investigate further and typed it into a search engine – and if that term happened to be in some way suspicious, a term like ZKEYSCORE, for example – congrats: you're in the system, a victim of your own curiosity.

During this time, the NSA and the UK had the capability to enter your device, laptop, Phone, etc., track your movement, and by way of ZKEYSCORE, view and listen to your personal life in the most intimate ways. If by chance the algorithm indicates you might be a threat: Your entire life is on audio and video, capturing your every action, keystroke, photo-taken, phone call, most intimate connections – everything. And this information is stored in a cloud forevermore. Truly, forever. And can be used against you at any time.

If you do not care about this intrusion by our governments, you must be part of the plan, or simply stupid, not understanding a citizen's freedom, liberty, and privacy Rights as an individual living in a: democracy.

Of course, in 2013, this information turned into Right-wing talking points. The Military-Industrial Complex went into panic mode. “Snowden is a traitor.” “Snowden has put our soldiers in harm's way.” But, even Obama stated, Snowden should have followed proper lines. Rubbish! Because the antiquated Espionage Act, misused to prosecute whistleblowers, is a one-way ticked to Maxim Security. In fact, Snowden attempted to go on proper lines and was told he was crazy to attempt whistle-blowing on his superiors. Never a good career move, indeed.

Snowden lists some of the changes in legislation regarding massive surveillance on Americans and people around the world. To my way of thinking, writing this review in 2019, I believe nothing has changed. Our governments are rogue, including the corporations that bribe them. I believe these invasive and pornographic infiltrations of our lives continue. Yet, these people, IC, government, and corporate media have quashed it. Pulling our attention to pulp scandals and Trump's big mouth.

We can encrypt our lives against Big Brother. After reading Ed Snowden's book, I know we can. But technology, like all issues in the realm of ethics, technology has surpassed our time to pull back, analyze, debate, and finally decide, as a people, what is good for all of us.

US/UK Sadism – Julian Assange

 

The one aspect of life that triggers me the most is the active cruelty of people towards their fellow humans or any sentient being. To inflict psychological or physical pain upon another is inexcusable in any circumstances. In the case of Julian Assange, this cruelty or outright sadism, as he has essentially been in solitary confinement for over seven years. Solitary confinement is considered in many countries to be “cruel and unusual punishment.” Yet our two most developed nations on the planet, the United States and the United Kingdom practices this savage, medieval punishment daily.

In a recent interview of Julian Assange's father, Richard Assange, by The GrayZone journalist, Anya Parampil conveyed two experiences while visiting his son at the infamous Belmarsh Prison in the UK. On the surface subtle, however, these anecdotes displayed the blatant sadism and conditions that Julian must experience while incarcerated.

The first visit included Julian's fiance and his two toddler children. One of the guards insisted on searching the inside of the three-year-old's little mouth. According to Richard Assange, the action was done forcefully, causing great distress for the child who ended up crying. Julian witnessed this vile action and was unable to protect his daughter from the cruelty. I know as a father, this would trigger a physical reaction to protect my daughter. Julian had to stand by and do nothing. Otherwise, guards would pile on him and drag him away from his family back to his dark cell. He needed to see his children.

The second incident included his children as well. Because it was the height of the pandemic, Assange was required to wear a full PPE suit and told if his children ran to him, he would be put in total lockdown. This, of course, is ridiculous and ironic considering Assange is in solitary 23 hours per day with one hour of exercise. In reality, just from these two instances, we can imagine the day-to-day cruelty and sadism that Julian Assange must have to endure every day. It's almost a cliche to call prison guards sadistic, but it is clearly apparent in these two examples.

Julian Assange is in prison only because the United States State Department deems it so. The charge is hacking into classified information revealing American military war crimes. In fact, the information was leaked to him by Chelsea Manning. Interestingly, Manning was Pardoned at the end of the Obama regime. Though Assange continues to suffer in solitary confinement.

The UN and major medical professionals around the planet have united in a petition to release Assange based on his serious medical condition, both physical and psychological. This has all been ignored except for the last UK court ruling that extraditing Assange to US prisons would only subject him to more egregious torture. This is positive but doesn't address the prosecution's case of lies, lack of due process, and false witnesses. To be fair, in any other court, this case against Assange should have been thrown out long ago, and Assange set free.

 Assange's case is not about the LAW. It's about punishing a journalist for revealing the war crimes of a powerful warmonger empire.

This should disturb anyone with an IQ slightly above that of a chimpanzee. The propaganda about Assange has been so prevalent and relentless, we continue to even have high-profile celebrities spouting nonsense on social media. Personally, I find this astonishing and realize the utter power of the MSM.

Apart from the sadistic bombings on middle east countries by the US and UK killing innocents, and the sadistic treatment by Israel on the Palestinians, the unfair and blatant illegal prosecution and persecution of Julian Assange reveals the sadism of the powerful and the rich, proclaiming they can do whatever they want as long as it suits their respective agendas.

We live in a totalitarian world, run by a sadistic oligarchy, where the criminals run free and are rewarded, while the truth-tellers are thrown into dark holes and hopefully forgotten.

Matt Taibbi - Hate Inc. - Review

 

Back in early 2018, at the beginning of the Trump administration, I published a piece on my BLOG titled: “The Purveyors of Propaganda and Divisiveness – Maddow vs. Hannity – two sides of the same Coin?” ( https://sychronicity1.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-purveyors-of-propaganda-and.html .

Interestingly, in just over 500 words, I manage to touch a few of the same themes in Taibbi's HATE INC. And that is, generally, news has become a contact sport, “silo'ed” into only two binary clubs. Never offering any real news as such, but speculation, trauma-laden “breaking news.” troupes, designed to keep us riveted as consumers without reporting anything of real value in terms of our day-to-day lives.

This cable news phenomenon, first designed by FOX magnate, and sexual predator, Roger Ailes, narrowed the demographic to a very distinct group: white men over 50, conservative, and fearful of any new progressive idea. MSNBC soon caught onto this winning formula of entertainment masking as real journalism, focusing on an uninformed liberal audience, gone feral over the Trump presidency, and hammered conspiracy theory after tall tale about Trump being a traitor and Russian puppet, doing Putin's every bidding. This “Left” leaning target market, these seething Trump haters gobbled these fairy tales up in mouthfuls, pushing Rachel Maddow's ratings through the roof. Making millions for the network, and leaving a wake of un-thinking Trump-hating-conspiracy theorists, that now, even since the Mueller Report revealed otherwise, has remained in the minds of many, who continue to spout Russian nonsense.

Taibbi recalls the neocon push for the Iraqi war, when the NYT's and other mainstream news outlets rattled the sword for a full-blown invasion. He goes into specifics, how the establishment hacks of MSM, never investigated but merely acted as stenographers for the military-industrial complex. And most of us know how this turned out.

MSM, Taibbi argues, 'You'll find virtually every story checks certain boxes”. (p.41) In chapter 2, “The Ten Rules of Hate,” he lists these rules with a short definition with persuasive examples. As follows:

1. There are only two ideas.

2. The two ideas are in permanent conflict.

3. Hate people not institutions.

4. Everything is someone else's fault.

5. Nothing is everyone's fault.

6. Root, don't think.

7. No switching teams.

8. The another side is literally Hitler.

9. In the fight against Hitler, everything is permitted.

10. Feel superior.

Reading through this list, after three years of watching cable news, I believe you get the idea. The notion here is to instigate a sports fan mindset, my team is absolutely correct, and the other is absolutely wrong. In this limited game of politics, there is no room for nuance. There is no room for thinking outside the box. MSM has molded us into intellectual imps, waving only blue or red flags, spitting at each other as we pass each other in the hall. Even more disturbing, any attempt at a bi-partisan idea for, let's say, no more regime change wars, each side would be screaming from their respective silos that we are all Russian bots or socialist-loving wet blankets – Assadists, Putin puppets, or traitors to American exceptionalism. Most of us on social media, for example, have experienced the *hate* first hand.

MSM has turned the news into a contact sport, using superficial, anti-intellectual stances, pushing us into just two camps.

Taibbi writes:

“A political party may be preferable to another. A news channel, though, can't be a vehicle for a political party and be anything but a bad thing.” (p. 272

At the end of Hate INC., in Appendix 2: An Interview with Noam Chomsky, Taibbi asks Chomsky about his famous text “Manufacturing Consent,” and its relevance to today's toxic binary media. I found this section of the book to be insightful on many levels. A good interview indeed.

For a greater understanding of today's corporate media, its biases and all-to-easy slip into pure marketing as opposed to real journalism, you would be egregiously remiss not to crack the covers of HATE INC.

Viereck/Eldridge - My First Two Thousand Years - Review

This is the story of Cartaphilus, the wandering Jew, who begins his life in the holy land of Jerusalem over two thousand years ago during the time of Jesus Christ. A Hebrew man turned Roman solider, childhood friends with Mary Magdalene and the beloved apostle John, Cartaphilus refuses to join his friends and follow this new and rebellious prophet. Although he loves Mary and John more than life itself, and despite their pleads to accept Jesus and his teachings, he remains steadfast in his convictions that Jesus is no more than a clever magi, a false prophet, jealous perhaps, that this man has taken away the two people he loves most in the world. 

Cartaphilus attends the trial of Jesus as Pontius Pilate hands the final judgment to the crowd, where the crowd unanimously call for the crucifixion of the "King of the Jews." As Jesus carries the cross to the Place of Skulls and falls for the third time, Cartaphilus calls out and mocks him. Jesus lifts his head, looks at Cartaphilus direct in the eyes, and utters:

"I will go, but thou shalt tarry until I return."

Thus begins this man's immortal journey through two thousand years of history, tirelessly searching, attempting to find the meaning of his existence, constantly protesting at his plight, escaping torture and death, witnessing hundreds of religions and great civilizations rise and crumble, though the central thread of his long existence remains constant - his search for the truth.

Most would agree that the Christian legend of Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew is a metaphor, some would go as far as to say, a cosmic symbol of the plight of humankind. Cartaphilus asks the same questions we all ask at one time or another. He recognizes the absurdity and humor of our lives on earth - our suffering, constantly seeking happiness, our search for the divine, our confusion over life's many contradictions, the great love, and the great evils that appear to live side by side. Is life merely an illusion, a sadistic trick played on us by some mischievous god? Does our existence abruptly end at death, or do we continue on in some other form? As Cartaphilus moves through the centuries, he recognizes people, friends, and lovers who lived before in other guises, only to return to him again. He asks, is existence merely circular, recurring again and again? These are profound questions that the cursed one, made to tarry the earth until Christ's return, attempts to answer throughout the ages.

Throughout Cartaphilus' journey, we meet great historical personages such as Marcus Aurelius, Nero, Attila the Hun, and Mohammed, Leonardo da Vinci, Spinoza, Peter the Great, and many others. One becomes so immersed in this intriguing narrative that these historical figures truly come to life. In the end, however, does Cartaphilus finally make peace with Jesus?

The great German writer Thomas Mann called this novel "Audacious and magnificent." I would have to say that it is the most  original novel, encompassing religion, philosophy, history, and psychology, et al., which has ever been written. 

“Julian Assange is NOT a Journalist”

Over the course of a few days on social media, I was astounded to find several tweets claiming that Julian Assange is not a journalist. Since we are halfway through 2021, and the amount of real journalists covering his extradition hearing in the UK, revealing the unprecedented corruption in the court, including the amount of revelatory information showing war crimes and political machinations that Wikileaks has published around the planet, you would think these pundits would have had some sort of enlightening experience regarding Assange. Or at least, over time, understand that the Assange case rests on the Constitutional Right of freedom of the press. To be sure, these people who make this infantile claim are certainly not journalists, but mouthpieces for the criminal establishment.

Most recently, a story was published in Stundin, breaking the news that a central witness for the US DOJ, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, a documented fraudster and sex crimes offender, gave false testimony in the Assange indictment. As the story goes, he was “recruited” by US authorities “to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of (Assange)” “Sigi,” as he is known to the DOJ and his own criminal circles have retracted his statement about the publisher/journalist. In a Just World, this and simply this would cause the prosecution's case to fall into the abyss. However despite many unprecedented crimes that go against due process, like illegal surveillance of Assange, spying on visitors and his lawyers while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy, the US has filed against the UK judge's ruling not to extradite Assange based on health reasons.

Once reading this case, any barrister worth their degrees and experience would tell you that this case should have been thrown out years ago.

In fact, the laundry list of human rights violations and violations of due process according to the letter of the law, on top of the recent news that their central “witness,” a known sex offender against children, Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, lied to the FBI and the DOJ, this alone should shelve the case. But the prosecution has doubled down, extending the case with nonsense appeals and courtroom doublespeak. Why?

Indeed the western world does not operate on the Rule of Law anymore. It appears they take their orders from the powerful to achieve their unsavory ends.

For well over a decade, I have followed Wikileaks and their publications, which has revealed to me the crimes and machinations of a psychotic oligarchy. I see Human Rights flushing straight down the toilet all around the planet. Those who fight for our Civil Liberties are now shown to be fringe dwellers, terrorists, or actors against the State.

So to read a journalist bring the same old same old assertion that Julian Assange is not a journalist; on the one hand, it makes me laugh, however, the other side frightens me, that a “journalist” is that stupid or simply a mouthpiece for warmongers.

Michael Crichton writing as John Lange...

Scratch One

Michael Crichton writing under the pseudonym John Lange penned eight pulp-style novels while a student attending Harvard Medical School. Scratch One was first published in 1967 later renewed in 2007. It was only in 2014 that I discovered these novels and have managed to read four of them. One can tell this novel is one of his early ones because the plot is a bit messy and takes a while to start engaging in the story. That said, it remains a “page-turner', including all the pulpish characters like a handsome protagonist, an elegant yet psychopathic villain, and stereotypical, beautiful women with perfect bodies and sensual charm. Personally, I call these types of novels my 'great escape' from my somewhat normal existence: pure non-thinking entertainment.

The beginning of the tale presents several assassinations that only come to make sense later in the story. The reader doesn't meet the main actors for many chapters. Although the short chapters on the assassinations were meant to hook the reader, the book dragged until introduced to the main character, Roger Carr, and the evil Doctor Liseau. In terms of interesting villains in the pulp universe, Liseau didn't come across as too cartoonish: elegance, intelligence, style, and pure evil have always been popular attributes of a modern antagonist. Liseau is particularly psychopathic as his methods of torture and murder are especially sadistic and cruel.

Roger Carr is a handsome and slick corporate attorney on a business trip to the South of France to purchase a Villa for his client. Similar to a Hitchcock film, the central thrust is the literary device of 'mistaken identity'. Carr is mistaken by the bad guys and the good guys as a major player in an international gun-running organization and the planned execution of a top seller. Carr is way too slow to realize he's being mistaken for someone else once arriving in France, a slew of meetings and attempted abductions, including the foiled seduction of a buxom agent. I heard myself saying, “Hell Carr, for such a smart lawyer, you're a bit slow off the mark.” To be fair, our protagonist is too week and self-absorbed to be aware of his immediate surrounding. Roger Carr is not your typical pulp hero, but an innocent bystander flowing any way the wind takes him.

Reading this novel on a rainy and cold afternoon, I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Nice and the Cannes Film festival: sunny weather, beautiful people, and visions of the sparkling ocean.

Although certainly not one of the better Lange novels; as a lover of the genre for pure escapism, Scratch One was an entertaining ride.