Romneys vs Rockefellers

Today, few remember that the shoo-in candidate to be the Republican nominee in 1968 was a man named George Romney, Mitt Romney's father. A rarer minority recall that George was thrown under the bus, on the road to the convention, by a Rockefeller.

The background of what happened to George Romney and why he was derailed on his way to becoming the Republican candidate in 1968 is worthy of revisiting.

A Gallup Poll after the November 1966 elections showed Romney as favored among Republicans over former Vice President Richard Nixon for the Republican nomination, 39 percent to 31 percent; a Harris Poll showed Romney beating President Johnson among all voters by 54 percent to 46 percent. California's Nixon considered Michigan's George Romney his chief opponent.

Romney was pressed for his opinion on the Vietnam War, which hawk Richard Nixon supported. Finally, on August 31, 1967, in a taped interview with talk show host Lou Gordon of WKBD-TV in Detroit, Romney stated: "When I came back from Viet Nam [in November 1965], I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get." 

Romney then shifted to opposing the war: "I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in South Vietnam to stop Communist aggression in Southeast Asia." 

Decrying the "tragic" conflict, he urged "a sound peace in South Vietnam at an early time." 

Thus Romney disavowed the war and reversed himself from his earlier stated belief that the war was "morally right and necessary." It was a flip-flop placed in a disturbing context.

The connotations of brainwashing, following the experiences of American prisoners of war (highlighted by the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate), made Romney's comments devastating, especially as it reinforced the negative image of Romney's abilities that had already developed. The topic of brainwashing quickly became newspaper editorial and television talk show fodder, and Romney bore the brunt of topical humor. Senator Eugene McCarthy, running against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, commenting on the "brainwashing," said that in Romney's case, "a light rinse would have been sufficient."

Two weeks before the March 12, 1967 primary, an internal poll showed George Romney losing to Richard Nixon by a six-to-one margin in New Hampshire. Nelson Rockefeller, seeing the poll result as well, publicly maintained his support for Romney but said he would be available for a draft; the statement made national headlines and embittered Romney. Seeing his cause was hopeless, Romney announced his withdrawal as a presidential candidate on February 28, 1968. Romney wrote his son Mitt, still away on missionary work: "Your mother and I are not personally distressed. As a matter of fact, we are relieved. ... I aspired, and though I achieved not, I am satisfied."

Richard Nixon went on to gain the nomination. At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, George Romney refused to release his delegates to Nixon, something Nixon did not forget.

The battle that was thus set to be played out was one in which Cowboy Nixon would take on another Cowboy, LBJ. But LBJ would withdraw from the race, Eugene McCarthy would score some Democratic wins, RFK would set the stage for his nomination, and be assassinated.  LBJ's Vice President, a late entry, Humbert Humphrey would run as the Democratic candidate. Then George Wallace would run as on the American Independent Party, taking Democratic votes from the South. Nixon would win in 1968. 


Lost in that violent history of 1968, is what happened to Romney. But George Romney never forgot why he wasn't in the race. Romney would later claim it was Nelson Rockefeller's entry into the mix, and not Romney's own "brainwashing" remark, that doomed him.

Popular history has it wrong, insisted George W. Romney, the three-time Governor of Michigan whose run for the 1968 Republican Presidential nomination is widely believed to have been destroyed by his assertion that he had been misled or ''brainwashed'' by American generals and diplomats on a 1965 trip to Vietnam.
''That wasn't true,'' said Mr. Romney, who celebrated a nostalgic 80th birthday over the weekend by treating his four-generation clan to a fling in Washington. ''I didn't drop out of the race because of the 'brainwash' statement.''
What actually happened, he added Friday on their insiders' tour of the White House, was that Nelson A. Rockefeller retreated from a commitment to support him and decided to woo for himself the elements of the Republican Party not supporting Richard M. Nixon, who went on to win the nomination and the election.
''When Rockefeller said he'd accept a draft, that meant he was a candidate,'' Mr. Romney told his progeny, ''and I knew it was all up.''
Soon after, Mr. Romney continued, he and his wife, Lenore, encountered the New York Governor at a White House reception.
Rockefeller ''threw his arms around Lenore and said, 'Why did you let him pull out?' '' Mr. Romney remembered. ''And she pushed him back and she said, 'Well, Nelson, there couldn't be two candidates -and he turned red in the face and walked away.' ''

~ "Romney, Recalling 1968, Explains It All," Robert D. Hersey, New York Times, July 6, 1987.

How can this moment in history be brought into a larger overview?

There has been a war in the Republican Party, not just between the Yankees and Cowboys, but between those associated with J. P. Morgan and those tied to John Rockefeller.

 John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), American financier, banker, and art collector. 

John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937), American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist.

Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research in Michigan, in 2000, noted the Morgan versus Rockefeller battles this way:

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British Empire was at it peak. Not only was there the official Empire but networks of influence in every significant country. In America, this pro-British Party was lead by the Morgan Bank, the leading force amongst East Coast Anglophile Blue Bloods. Standard Oil arose as a primarily self-financing entity by consolidating oil refinery and pipeline capacity outside the control of the Morgan orbit. (Rockefeller's financing to the extent he needed it came from German Warburgs' Manhattan Bank which later became the Chase Manhattan under Rockefeller control.) The British Imperialists dared not let such a powerful independent entity arise and challenge their control of the US Government. Thus, Morgan backed Progressives, Teddy Roosevelt, etc. trying to torpedo the "bad trusts," i.e. the Rockefeller behemoth. This scenario is also confirmed in many ways by Gabriel Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism. Kolko exposed the covert ruling class agenda behind the Progressive Era. Geopolitics explains the detail, not the other way around!

My theories on the Rockefeller-Morgan conflict stem from [Murray] Rothbard and the books of Dr. Emanuel Josephson which Rothbard recommended. For some reason, Rothbard only rarely expounded on this topic in public. Further, other conspiracy theorists, usually the anti-Semitic ones, have presented some of the same theory as the Rockefeller-Rothschild conflict theory based on the incorrect idea that the Rothschilds have controlled the "City" and "Britain" since their financial coup after Waterloo. A better theoretical framework in my view is The British Empire or Crown vs the upstart Rockefellers.

J. P. Morgan

J. D. Rockefeller

There have been subtle conflicts between the J. P. Morgan branch versus the John Rockefeller branch of the Republican Party for a long time. Both the Morgan and Rockefeller divisions are variously described, nevertheless, as "liberal," "moderate," or Yankee, as opposed to the more conservative Cowboy segments of the Republican Party.

Carl Oglesby’s Cowboys ~ whether Republicans or Democrats ~ are associated with the aerospace and petroleum industries of the South and West. They spread from Florida to Texas, and then into the SW, with the addition of the more recent electronics and Internet revolution, especially of California.

But history is the prelude to the present. Old events unfold new truths. The fight between the Cowboys and Yankees often overshadows the ongoing conflict between the Morgan vs Rockefeller parts of the Yankee Republicans. But sometimes there are glimpses of what might be occurring.

In a discussion of the deaths of Presidents in office, researcher Murray Rothbard writes of how these battlegrounds are evidenced, in the extreme:

Next president to die in office was William McKinley of Ohio, long-time Rockefeller tool. Another lone nut was responsible, the "anarchist" Leon Czolgosz, who, like Guiteau, was quickly tried and executed by the Establishment. Even though Czolgosz was considered a flake and was not a member of any organized anarchist group, the assassination was used by the Establishment to smear anarchism and to outlaw anarchist ideas and agitation. Various obscure anti-sedition and anti-conspiracy laws trotted out from time to time by the Establishment were passed during this post-McKinley assassination hysteria. Beneficiary? The vaulting to power of Teddy Roosevelt, long-time tool of the competing Morgan (as opposed to Rockefeller) wing of the Republican Party. Teddy immediately started using the anti-trust weapon to try to destroy Rockefeller's Standard Oil and Harriman's Northern Securities, both bitter enemies of the Morgan world empire. Exhume McKinley, and also start a deep investigation of the possible role of Teddy and the Morgans. Was Czolgosz only a lone nut?

Next sudden death in office was that of my favorite president of the twentieth century, Warren Gamaliel Harding, in the camp of the Rockefellers. His death was quickly dismissed by the Establishment as of natural causes, but Gaston Means, a Secret Service agent in the Harding White House, wrote a sensational book, The Strange Death of Warren Harding, charging that Harding was poisoned by his wife, for two possible, though somewhat contradictory reasons: (a) Harding's notorious womanizing, and (b) to spare Harding the scandal of the Teapot Dome revelations, which were just emerging. Means's charge was brusquely dismissed on the grounds that he was an unreliable character. Perhaps, but so what? Surely, the grounds for exhumation are overwhelming. Chief beneficiary of Harding's death? Vice President Calvin Coolidge, member of the prominent Massachusetts family long in the Morgan ambit. (Hmmm. Another sudden death that replaced a Rockefeller person with a Morgan man?!)

~ "Sudden Deaths in Office" by Murray N. Rothbard

Where are we in 2012? In the ongoing battle, who is on top? The Rockefellers or the Morgans?

Some of the largest supporters of the Mitt Romney campaign are the banking executives of JPMorgan Chase. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest hedge funds in the United States. It was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. In December 2000, the combined Chase Manhattan completed the acquisition of J.P. Morgan & Co., one of the largest banking mergers to date. The combined company was renamed JPMorgan Chase. In 2004, the bank acquired Bank One, making Chase the largest credit card issuer in the US. JPMorgan Chase added Bear Stearns & Co. and Washington Mutual to its acquisitions in 2009. 

Did the Rockefellers win the war?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Pop Quiz:


Of the current 2012 Republican presidential candidates, who was aligned and use to work for Nelson Rockefeller (who would became Vice President under Gerald Ford after Nixon resigned)?


That would be Newt Gingrich. See below a 1988 clip of Gingrich saying he was “a Rockefeller state chairman in the South.” The information has also surfaced in at least one recent profile, as has his membership on the Council on Foreign Relations.

Yankees and Cowboys War

Carl Oglesby, 1989.

Carl Oglesby died of lung cancer at his home in Montclair, New Jersey on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, at the age of 76. 

I knew of Carl for decades, and briefly overlapped with his life in the JFK assassination research circles in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1970s-1980s. Yesterday, I posted of being a panelist at the A.S.K. conferences in Dallas. Carl's books Who Killed JFK?  (1991) and The JFK Assassination: The Facts and the Theories (1992), reflected those years, as well as his lifelong passion for investigating the underpinnings of the JFK assassination. (Another friend from those days, Tom Miller, author of The Assassination Please Almanac, 1977, went on to be a well-known travel writer.)

One of Carl Oglesby's often-forgotten books, which I think reveals a twilight language view of the world and should be read by students of political history, is The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate and Beyond (1976).

As you can hear, above, from Carl's own words upon looking back at the 1960s, a view of the ongoing "Civil War" in this country was a metaphor he used. It was a foundation critique.

Carl's 1976 book, The Yankee and Cowboy War describes the historical, current, and future power struggles between the old-money Eastern Establishment ruling class and the upstart new-money oil/real-estate/aerospace ruling class of the South and West. The book used Carl's (and Kirkpatrick Sale's) interpretation of Dallas (a Cowboy assassination of a Yankee president) and Watergate (a Yankee overthrow of a Cowboy president) to make his main points to a public with a short memory. Of course, it would take a Rockefeller Republican, Gerald Ford, former member of the Warren Commission, as a Yankee President, to give amnesty to Vietnam-era draft resisters and placate the Cowboys by pardoning Nixon.

The Yankee and Cowboy battle is written in our history.

Many would see later that the Cowboys won when the scion of the relatively old-money (Rockefeller-aligned) Bush family moved to Texas and pretended to be a Cowboy so Bush the Younger had a chance of succeeding his father, Bush the Elder.

The sometimes covert, sometimes overt war between Yankees and Cowboys continues into the present, during 2012.

Few today are willing to look too deeply at the ongoing "Civil War" that rages in this country, the Yankees vs Cowboys divide, or even the Morgan vs Rockefeller Yankee conflicts.  


For most Americans, the insights today of Mitt Romney, for example, hardly ever look at the moderate Yankee background of his father, George Romney, and George's defeat at the hands of the Cowboy Richard Nixon. Few will examine closely the history revealed in the undermining of George Romney by his subtle rival Nelson Rockefeller.

But Mitt Romney, try as he might, is still a Yankee fighting the Yankee versus Cowboy War in the glaring view of today's media.

When Mitt Romney was battling for a victory in the state of his birth, blue-collar Michigan in February, Romney told voters about the four cars he and his wife own, including "a couple of Cadillacs." 

In late February, Romney traveled to Florida to attend the Daytona 500 and was asked whether he followed NASCAR closely: "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans," he said, "but I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners."

Mitt Romney admitted that "it's a bit of an away game" as he struggles to secure votes in the Deep South, during a campaign stop at the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi on Thursday, March 8, 2012, in an appearance with Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, the call out by Mitt Romney, at one Southern whistle stop, was an uncomfortable Mornin' Y'All. 

"Mitt Romney, a Yankee born and bred, is trying hard for the Southern vote. Real hard. Aside from shouting out the regional greeting to a Jackson, Miss., audience, Romney shared with them his breakfast menu: cheesy grits with a biscuit on the side," wrote Michele Salcedo of the Associated Press, on March 10th. 

Later Romney talked about eating catfish, for the second time in his life. At other stops in the South, Mitt Romney attempted to play up his everyman credentials. But failed, miserably, again.

"I’ve got a lot of good friends — the owner of the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets — both owners are friends of mine," Romney said in an interview with an Alabama radio host Paul Finebaum on Monday, March 12.

Stephen Gordon, a Republican consultant based in Birmingham, Alabama, told the Boston Herald that the former Bay State governor is a Yankee, and will always face skepticism no matter how many catfish filets he raves about.

"People in the Deep South have a bit of a natural distrust for Northerners, especially folks from the Northeast," said Gordon, who is not affiliated with any campaign in the Republican presidential contest. "There are cultural differences, stemming all the way back to the Civil War, and they affect the way people perceive Mr. Romney."

Avoid being distracted by the media game with the Yankee versus Cowboy jokes. There is a much more serious background battle being played out here. Romney appears to be the Republican Yankee here, with various other Republicans trying to appear to be Cowboys. Some may be. 


Meanwhile, President Barack Obama seems to be firmly entrenched as a Yankee Democrat, with ties to the Zbigniew Brzezinski camp. 


Ask yourself, what are the real histories behind these current political candidates, and who are their advisors, their mentors, and their fiscal supporters?


Carl Oglesby was correct. 

A.S.K. (Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy) ~ 1992

The first annual Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy (known as the A.S.K. or ASK conference) was held in Dallas in November 1991.


I began examining President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in the late 1950s. Then in the 1960s, I was impacted by JFK's death and read intensively about it.  Much later in my career, as a university fulltime researcher, due to my projects on suicidal psychology in the mid-1980s through early 1990s, I began, concurrently to my university work, to research and write about the alleged "suicides" and mystery deaths of JFK assassination eyewitnesses. 

Mary Ferrell (October 26, 1926 - February 20, 2004)

Being a friend and correspondent of Mary Elizabeth McHughes Ferrell, who first wrote to me because of my Fortean articles, I was invited to speak on one of the panels ("Strange & Convienient Deaths") at the second A.S.K. conference, and a later one. I met lots of individuals important to JFK assassination research at the 1992 conference. I was able to join researchers/authors similar to myself, like Jim Marrs, there for the first time. (Later, years later, I would talk to Jim again at an entirely different kind of conference in Nevada.) 

Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald, with their daughter, October 1963.

I found the 1992 gathering to be a remarkable experience. For a JFK assassination researcher, I appreciated that Mary Ferrell personally introduced me to Marina Oswald-Porter and Jim Leavelle. I was able to have individual, personal chats with them. Nothing deep and insightful was discussed, but it is always good to meet people outside the glare of the media focus. Oswald-Porter, Leavelle, and others whom I got to know there, separately and quite differently, of course, appeared to be similar, seemingly ordinary people whose "moment in history" had forever thrust them into an entirely changed life. 

Dallas Police Department Homicide Detective Jim Leavelle (in light hat and light suit) is handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald, as Jack Ruby shoots Oswald, November 24, 1963.

I want to recapture, for my records, the names of as many people whom I was able to meet at that conference - an incredible list to look at, 20 years later. (I found the following overview written by Kathy Cunningham.) Therefore, wishing to share it with the readers of this blog, here is a flashback to that significant gathering's agenda and speakers:

Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy, Dallas, Texas: 1992
Bus tour of related sites                              
  JFK 101-an overview for the novice                      
  Investigative techniques workshop-lead by Mary Ferrell  
  Keynote-Mary Ferrell with Marina Oswald-Porter          
  Eyewitness Panel-featuring Jean Hill, Jim Leavelle,    
Beverly Oliver, & Mr & Mrs Phil Willis                    
  Medical Evidence Panel-featuring Gary Aguilar, Dr Charles
Crenshaw, David Lifton & Paul O'Connor                    
  Tippit Workshop-lead by Larry Ray Harris                
  Vietnam Workshop-lead by John Newman                    
  Oswald in Russia, Japan & Mexico City Panel-Bob Dorff,  
Mary Ferrell, Dick Russell and Hal Verb                  
  Ballistics Workshop-lead by George Michael Evica        
  Zapruder Workshop-lead by David Lifton                  
  Mafia/CIA/Cuban Panel-Jim Oliver, John Davis, George    
Michael Evica & Gordon Winslow                            
  Dallas Police Workshop-lead by Jerry Rose              
  Medical Evidence Workshop-lead by Wallace Milam        
  Strange & Convienient Deaths Panel-Dave Tucker, Robert  
Chapman, Loren Coleman, Jim Marrs and Matt Smith          
  Cuban Exiles Workshop-lead by Gordon Winslow            
  Research Techniques Worshop-lead by Mary Ferrell        
  FBI/Hoover Cover-up Panel-Bob Dorff, Mark North, J Gary
Shaw and William Turner                                  
  Garrison Workshop-lead by Jim DiEugenio                
  Oswald Workshop-lead by Dick Russell                    
  Media Cover-up Then & Now Panel-Jim Oliver, John Newman,
Allan Stone, Jim Marrs & Roger B. Feinman                
  CIA & JFK Workshop-lead by William Turner              
  Medical Evidence Workshop (repeated)-lead by Wallace Milam
   Several of the workshops were repeated. There was also a
reception for the panelists, a presentation by a forensic
handwriting expert, a presentation by forensic artist Lois
Gibson, there was a dance Saturday night, a huge formal  
meeting designed to give the group as a whole direction, and
a tour of Dealey Plaza hosted by the Assassination Informa-
tion Center in Dallas. Then there was ASK Mart-where various
researchers and vendors sold related materials of support.

March Madness 2012

Sometimes the phrase "March Madness" lives up to its name.

There was a Full Moon at 04:41:42 AM EST on March 8, 2012. One of this year's more extremely high tides called Spring Tides occurs in March 2012 from Friday, March 9 through Monday, March 12, 2012. Significant "random" human events have taken place, thusfar, during this full moon-spring tide cycle.


A psychiatric person shoots up a psychiatric institute. A flight attendant disrupts a flight. A frequent court inquirer stabs a judge. An American solider kills civilians in Afghanistan.


If you step back from these incidents, you will observe the unusual irony underlining each of their roles in the sites of their actions. They all actually are extreme behavioral outbursts of people merely doing what they have routinely done, but this time, abnormally and violently.


(1) Oklahoma

Guns in the streets: Tulsa, March 7, 2012.

On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, a man shoot and wounded several people at the Tulsa, Oklahoma courthouse before he was brought down by law enforcement officers' bullets.


Authorities on March 8th were investigating whether the suspected gunman wounded in a shootout near a Tulsa courthouse was trying to commit "suicide by cop" when he drew fire from sheriff's deputies, and they confirmed his brother was shot and killed in 2005 by police officers seeking to question him about a murder.

Investigators said they still didn't know exactly why Andrew Joseph Dennehy fired a handgun into the air Wednesday afternoon in a crowded plaza outside Tulsa County District Court. Dennehy, a sheriff's deputy and a bystander were wounded in the shootout.

"Clearly `suicide by cop' may enter into it," Tulsa police spokesman Jason Willingham said. "Anytime someone goes to a location where you know law enforcement is going to be present and takes out a weapon and fires shots, you have to know you're going to garner attention."

Dennehy's brother Brian Dennehy was shot and killed in August 2005 after investigators say he fired at an officer in the parking lot of a Tulsa apartment complex, Willingham said. Police said then that he was suspected in the beating death of his grandfather, Bernard Dennehy, in Oklahoma City.

Andrew Dennehy, 23, remained in critical condition Thursday, March 8th, at a Tulsa hospital, Willingham said. Police have said he is technically in custody but hasn't been formally charged with a crime.

Authorities identified the wounded deputy as David Fortenberry and the bystander who was shot as Ricardo Manuel, 28. Willingham said both had non-life threatening injuries, but their medical conditions weren't immediately known on Thursday. According to sheriff's office, Fortenberry was shot in both hands and arms.

In the case of Dennehy's brother, Brian, Tulsa police had received a request from Oklahoma City investigators for help in finding a homicide suspect who may have been in Tulsa. An officer found the vehicle of the suspect, identified as Brian Dennehy, and was approaching it when a man who was lying down in the back seat pointed a revolver and shot at the officer.

The officer returned fire, hitting Brian Dennehy twice in the upper torso and once in the head. He died at the scene.

As for Andrew Dennehy, who would have been a teenager when his brother was killed, investigators "may never know why he did what he did," Willingham said.

With brisk winds and unseasonably warm temperatures, it didn't seem too odd that Andrew Dennehy, shoeless and clad in a short-sleeve shirt and short pants, had sauntered onto the plaza between the courthouse and the Tulsa Central Library.

A wedding had ended on the plaza, and about seven family members were still gathered when shots rang out, said Angela Reudelhuber, 36, who ministered the wedding.

"The wedding just finished, and the bride and groom headed upstairs to turn in their marriage license," Reudelhuber said.

Reudelhuber dropped to the ground when she heard the gunshots about 20 feet away and then rushed inside.

Andrew Dennehy lay wounded and bleeding from his upper body onto the patchwork of concrete tiles.

"I'm thinking this is not the downtown I remember working in," said John Fancher, a communications specialist at the regional library who photographed the incident and shared his photographs with The Associated Press and other media outlets. "I start snapping off some shots, and he sits down, just casually sits down, gun in his hand and three sheriffs (deputies) come out of the courthouse and I can't hear what they're saying."


Thanks to Andrew Griffin for the tip.

___

(2) Pennsylvania

Domestic War Zone: March 8, 2012, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.

John Shick, 30, opened fire shortly after entering the lobby of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic on Thursday afternoon, March 8, 2012. The assailant walked through the psychiatric hospital's front door with a pair of semi-automatic 9mm handguns around 1:40 p.m. The gunman walked into the Pittsburgh psychiatric hospital and started shooting. Shick was shot and killed by police Thursday, but not before he killed hospital employee. Shick was killed by police officers who told the media they had trained for a Virginia Tech-style shooting.

One of the two 9mm handguns recovered was traced to New Mexico and the other was traced to Texas, the law enforcement source said. It was not known whether the weapons were legally purchased or how Shick allegedly came to have them. Investigators also recovered an extra box of ammunition. The guns generally hold about 15 rounds. It remained unclear how many rounds were fired before the suspect was killed by police.

Four people remained hospitalized on Friday, including a 46-year-old man listed in fair condition, a 64-year-old woman in serious condition, a 35-year-old man in good condition and a 49-year-old man in serious condition. A 54-year-old woman was released from the hospital Friday.

"This is a tragic day, a sad day, a senseless day," Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said after the shooting Thursday at the medical center.

Shick apparently had a history of legally changing his name. Records in Oregon, where he once lived, show he changed his name to either William Hudnpere Schols Kan or William Huhnpere Scholskan – it appears two different ways in court documents – in 2009. In early 2010, a person with that name and the same address as Shick was charged with assaulting a public safety officer. Then, in May 2010, Scholskan petitioned to change his name back to John Frederick Shick.

Calls to homes listed in the names of Shick's parents in Green Cove Springs, Florida, and San Jose, California, went unanswered Saturday.

Duquesne University spokeswoman Bridget Fare said Saturday that Shick was expelled from the school last November after harassment complaints. Shick enrolled in August as a graduate biology student, but soon numerous female students filed a formal complaint. The harassment never contained any threats or indication of violence.

"It was making them uncomfortable," Fare said of his persistent requests for dates or social contact.

Shick was relieved of his duties as a teaching assistant on October 21 and there was a hearing on the harassment charge on November 3. The school told Shick that he was prohibited from campus and from making contact with any of the women.


(3) Flight 2332, over the Midwest USA

Flashbacks of 9/11: Chaos Abroad Flight 2332.

An American Airlines flight attendant disrupted American Airlines Flight 2332, Friday morning, March 9, 2012, as it was about to take off from Dallas-Fort Worth en route to Chicago, saying over the aircraft intercom system that the plane was going to crash, alluding to 9/11 terrorist attacks and ranting about the airline's bankruptcy reorganization, passengers said.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed there was an "altercation" involving American Airlines Flight 2332, which eventually landed at Chicago O'Hare at 11:46 a.m., more than an hour late.

According to reports by passengers, the trouble began Friday morning as the plane taxied to the runway for takeoff. A flight attendant who had been giving preflight safety instructions began speaking incoherently over the intercom system, confusing and startling passengers.

American Airlines Flight 2232 had left the gate in Dallas and was taxiing when the flight attendant started a 15-minute rant over the plane's PA system.

"She said, 'I'm not responsible for this plane crashing,"' Bethany Christakos, passenger, said. "And that's when everybody started freaking out."

"She spoke in and out of Spanish. Talked about the flight crashing, that we were going to go back to the gate," Carolyn Kazmi, passenger, said.

"We were pretty frightened. We knew something was wrong. It was almost like she was talking and didn't realize the PA was on," Stephen Termunde, passenger, said.

"She had said, 'I'm the number one in charge,' something about 23 years being there, started talking about bankruptcy. But it really got everyone's attention when she said, 'There's a problem. We have to go back to the gate,'" Christakos said.

Other flight attendants interrupted and said there were no mechanical issues and that the plane was preparing for takeoff.

The upset flight attendant then said over the public-address system that it would not be her fault if the plane crashed. She began speaking in incomplete sentences, using the words "bankruptcy" and "American Airlines," passengers said. She also referred to the 9/11 terrorist attacks at one point, passengers said.

Some passengers then began using mobile phones to call 911.

Other flight attendants on the plane attempted to calm the woman, but she continued to be agitated. Three or four passengers then left their seats and went to the front of the plane to help restrain her as the plane returned to the gate, a move requested by the pilot, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.

An airport official in Dallas said he does not expect any charges to be filed against the flight attendant.


(4) Washington State

Domestic War Zone: March 10, 2012, Washington State.

In 2008, Steven Kravetz was convicted in Lewis County, Washington State, of third degree assault and making false or misleading statements to a public servant. He served 102 days on the charges. In that incident, Kravetz was arrested after he refused to cooperate with police after being kicked out of a Centralia public library.

On Friday, March 9, 2012, Kravetz was reported to be acting strangely at the Grays Harbor District Court. Around lunchtime Friday, Deputy Polly Davin responded to a report of a suspicious person at the courthouse and confronted a man (Kravetz). During a struggle, she was stabbed with either a small knife or scissors. Judge David Edwards intervened, striking the assailant, who then stabbed him. Davin reached for her gun, but it was wrestled away by Kravetz, who shot twice, striking her in the shoulder before fleeing.

Both the judge and the sheriff's deputy were treated and released from a hospital hours after the attack. 

Kravetz fled the courthouse with the officer's .45-caliber handgun after the attack and showed up about an hour or so later at the office of his former attorney and asked to the use the phone, who didn't known anything was wrong. He got a ride from his mother, to her home, where police on Saturday, March 10, 2012, arrested the 34-year-old suspect.


(5) Afghanistan

Foreign War Zone: March 11, 2012, Afghanistan.

A United States service member (an Army staff sergeant) walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on early Sunday, March 11, 2012 (local times) and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 16 civilians, including several children, local villagers and provincial officials said.

Villagers in Belandi in the Panjway district of Kandahar, where the shooting took place, said the service member had attacked three houses, killing at least 16 in total. Five other villagers were wounded, they said.

The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, condemned the shooting, although he could not immediately confirm the number of people killed. A coalition spokesman in Kabul, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that it was not clear what had led to the incident. He said the civilians wounded in the shooting were taken to a coalition hospital where they were being treated.

One of the houses attacked in the village belonged to a tribal elder, according to a person from the village. “We don’t know why he killed people,” said the villager, Aminullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name. Aminullah said the soldier was alone. “There was no fighting or attacks.”

The soldier has not yet been identified.

"I Like Icke" Fans, T. J., and the Chardon Shootings

T. J. Lane, the alleged shooter at Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio.

You have read much here lately of the Chardon shootings. Twilight Language may have been one of the first sites to note that according to the Facebook profile of T. J. Lane, one of Lane's favorite books is The David Icke Guide, and a person who inspired Lane is noted as "David Icke."

This blog's publishing of the initial Icke details caused quite a reaction among David Icke followers, who left comments filled with anger and disgust that this blog would merely report these facts and other hidden data.

Yet, not even the surface of the David Icke phenomenon was touched.

David Icke (above) reminds some folks, in appearance and in his cult following, of Marshall Applegate (below, seen as part of UFO's Bo and Peep) of later Heaven's Gate infamy.

Furthermore, T. J. Lane left other clues about his David Icke affection that were not mentioned.

Deeper exploration of T. J. Lane's "likes" reveals that many of his preferences reflect his David Icke (born April 29, 1952) leanings. For example, the only other person who "inspired" T. J. Lane is listed as Credo Mutwa (born July 21, 1921), a Zulu Sangoma or Shaman from South Africa. David Icke produced an interview of "his friend" Credo Mutwa, in which the Zulu shaman reveals "the story of the reptilian takeover of Planet Earth."

The February 27th notes on this blog about the Icke "favorites" of T. J. Lane resulted in fiery remarks (see comments here). To gain more insights about the Icke fan reaction, I interviewed the authors of a new book, Ritual America that is getting much attention among twilight language and conspiracy readers:

Adam Parfrey's and Craig Heimbichner's Ritual America.

Adam Parfrey & Craig Heimbichner

Loren Coleman (LC): In your new book, Ritual America, you mention a guy named David Icke. The alleged school shooter in Chardon, Ohio, T. J. Lane wrote on his Facebook page that one of the people who inspired him is David Icke. No one has blamed Icke for the Chardon shootings, but nevertheless, in a preemptive strike, there's been an amazing outpouring of Icke fans who have come to Icke's defense even though he's not been accused of anything. Why do you think this has occurred? 

Adam Parfrey (AP): It seems to me that the charismatic and compelling speaker David Icke mixes up believable concepts of high corporate crime with strange conceits that open up those risky ideas to derision—the reptilian alien villain, for example. The result of all this is to isolate Icke's audience into a cultic group of truth seekers who feel privileged to know and believe this strange mashup, and as cults are want to do, protect their charismatic truth-sayer from people who just don't "get it."

Craig Heimbichner (CH): One of the phenomena of American ritual culture, including the larger sociological "ritualizing" of response described in our book, is the intense emotionalism surrounding both secret brotherhoods and those who criticize them. We include several dramatic examples of this in our chapter, "Raising Tubal-Cain," which title is a play on the Master Mason password derived from Genesis 4:22 in the Bible, referencing the descendant of Cain, first killer. We also include David Icke in this chapter along with an excerpt representing his thinking on the Illuminati, the Matrix, the Lower 4th Dimension, and Satanism. 

Icke positions himself as an uber-critic of the Brotherhoods, tying them in to accusations of Zionism and alien intrigue. Those who are devoted to his thinking would naturally see criticism of Icke as part of that grand plot and hence I am not surprised that they are reacting as though a battle is on. Icke has cultivated that high-stakes mind-set, although I hasten to add that I don't blame him for any violence or shootings.

LC:  Despite what Icke admirers state about Icke being peaceful in his writings, doesn't Icke promote some bizarre notions that some humans are shape-shifting reptilians? 

CH: David Icke certainly does. We quote Icke in our book: "The reptilians and other manipulating entities exist only just outside the frequency range of our physical senses. Their own physical form has broken down and they can no longer reproduce. Thus they have sought to infiltrate human form and so use that to exist and control in this dimension. They chose the Earth for this infiltration..."

Kent Tayler cartoon

LC: How might a teenager internalize Icke's theories?

CH: Throw in hormones, video-games, drugs, social/family problems, and the belief that some X-Files style nightmare is the truth--aliens are leading the country--maybe even the classroom--and it's anyone's guess. It's conceivable that someone might decide to fight a nightmare by creating another one. It's a great tragedy however we finally explain it.

LC:  In what context does your Ritual America place David Icke?

AP:  Ritual America includes David Icke's material to show the modern day version of the anti-Mason, a lot of it risky and believable, and some of it is just so "out there" to cultivate its believers as wacky and isolated cultists. 

CH:  As I mentioned above, we place David Icke in a context of over a century of anti-Masonic authors, specifically quoting him on the Illuminati (after quoting James Wasserman, a current Epopt of the Illuminati in the OTO who gives an entirely different perspective). We write: "People don't quite know how to interpret the work of David Vaughan Icke, the 1952-born speaker and writer who famously describes leaders like George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II as being reptilian aliens. For Icke, borrowing from Nazi literature, situates Freemasonry as a Zionist-Illuminati structure with unlimited resources to drain human beings' energy and resources."

From Alex Cards: Parody Magic the Gathering Cards

Chardon Melonheads

"One can't be of an enquiring and experimental nature, and still be very sensible." - Charles Fort, Wild Talents (1932).


Credit: Weird Ohio.

There was an unfortunate school shooting at the Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, on February 27, 2012. My two overviews on this incident were previously posted here and here. See those for other details and decodes.

Forget the distractions. It is a deeper analysis of the place in association with the local legend of the Melon Heads that brings our attention into focus.



"Melon Heads" is the generic name given to legendary beings and urban legends in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Connecticut, generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding places to attack people. Different variations of the legend attribute different origins, but we need not get bogged down in those usual elaborate twisted origin myths.

In many ways, melon head sightings mirror the Dover Demon accounts of Dover, Massachusetts, and other large-headed cryptid encounters from the Midwest. 

Today, I'm only interested in the specific site of the Ohio sightings, in the context of the school shooting.

In the book I coauthored, Weird Ohio, there is more information on the Melon Heads. One quote from that article directly relates to this Chardon High School: "It's apparently a popular thing for local high school kids to do to drive around the area late at night, looking for them." "Them" are the melon heads, of course.

The alleged shooter T. J. Lane was caught on Wilder Road, Chardon, which is right down the Grand Army of the Republic Highway from Wisner Road, Chardon Township, Ohio.

It is along Wisner Road where sightings of "melon heads" have been reported.

The melon head stories of Ohio are primarily associated with the Cleveland suburban areas of Kirtland, Chardon, and Chardon Township. Chardon Township is the location of the Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio, site of the recent school shooting.


Bridge on Wisner Road, Chardon Township, Ohio. Photo credit: Deadohio.com

Legend holds that the melon heads may be sighted along Wisner Road in Kirtland, and Chardon Township, Geauga County, Ohio. The melon head legend has been popularized on the Internet, particularly on the websites Creepy Cleveland and DeadOhio where users offer their own versions of the story. As mentioned above, the Weird Ohio entries are to be found here, Melon Heads.


Legend of the Melonheads was released in 2011. It is a horror fiction film loosely based on the Ohio legend of the melon heads in the Kirtland-Chardon area.