Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As erudite and informed as I pretend to be, the fact is that there is much that is important that I either miss, or fail to see any significance in. The death of investigative reporter Michael Hastings showed me that because my first reaction to the news flash was “who is Michael Hastings?” Reading further into the story I discovered that he was the reporter who brought down General William McChrystal and that he was considered to be one of America’s premier investigative journalists. As I read that original story, the thought occurred to me that possibly Hastings’s death in an auto “accident” was not simply a case of reckless driving, but I initially dismissed that as merely the operation of my cynical mindset. Nevertheless, the thought nagged at the back of my consciousness and then I saw a story on http://whowhatwhy.com/ , my favorite investigative website, run by the renowned Russ Baker. The stories title: “The Michael Hastings Wreck-Video Evidence Offers a few Clues” http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/07/14/the-michael-hastings-wreck-video-evidence-offers-a-few-clues/
For my own benefit and perhaps yours, I’ve done a little research into who Michael Hastings was and what he did that deserves attention. I explore the possibility that his death was no accident. I admit that I have no proof beyond speculation. Hopefully I can give you enough information to make your own judgments. In a world where American Presidents openly arrogate to themselves the right to kill people deemed enemies of the United States, all things suddenly become possible. When the basic right of habeas corpus can be denied to American citizens, based upon unproven allegations of their being threats to this country, isn’t it possible for those with the power to detain and to eliminate individuals, to make decisions as to someone’s existence doing harm to this country? Finally, doesn’t this unconstitutional expansion of powers give individuals with government connections the leeway to take revenge on those who expose them? While I’m not privy to knowledge of the actions of those in power and can claim no inside information, I certainly can speculate based on the experience of my lifetime. This then is my speculation about the death and life of Michael Hastings in the context of current life in these United States.
At about 4:30am a man driving a Mercedes swerved off of the straight as an arrow North Highland Avenue, in Los Angeles and into a Palm Tree. It is known that the man was driving at a high rate of speed. That man was:
“Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone, and reporter for BuzzFeed.[4] He was raised in New York, Canada, and Vermont, and attended New York University. Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek in the 2000s. After his fiancee, Andrea Parhamovich, was killed when her car was ambushed in Iraq, Hastings wrote his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a memoir about his relationship with Parhamovich and the violent insurgency that took her life.”
“He received the George Polk Award for “The Runaway General” (2010), a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO‘s International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article documented the widespread contempt for civilian officials in the US government by the general and his staff and resulted in McChrystal’s resignation. Hastings followed up with The Operators (2012), a detailed book account of his month-long stay with McChrystal in Europe and Afghanistan.
Hastings became a vocal critic of the surveillance state during the investigation of reporters by the US Department of Justice in 2013, referring to the restrictions on the freedom of the press by the Obama administration as a “war” on journalism.[5] His last story, “Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans”, was published by BuzzFeed on June 7.[6] Hastings died in a fiery high-speed automobile crash on June 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.[7]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_%28journalist%29
It is of course possible that Michael Hastings death was an accident and that he was merely driving too fast on the wrong road. The WhoWhatWhy article linked above looks into the accident and I think fairly concludes that foul play was possible, but certainly not proven. We do know from Hastings’s friends that in the days before his death he felt he was being harassed our government:
“Earlier the previous day, Hastings indicated that he believed he was being investigated by the FBI. In an email to colleagues, which was copied to and released by Hastings’ friend, Army Staff Sergeant Joe Biggs,[45] Hastings said that he was “onto a big story”, that he needed to “go off the radar”, and that the FBI might interview them.[46][47] WikiLeaks announced that Hastings had also contacted one of its lawyers a few hours prior to the crash,[48] and the LA Times reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA at the time of his demise.[49] The FBI released a statement denying that Hastings was being investigated.[44]
Hastings was eulogized by co-workers at Buzzfeed,[50] media figures such as Christopher Hayes[51] and Rachel Maddow[52] and others.[53]
According to Biggs, Hastings’ remains were cremated and returned to Vermont. Biggs stated that his family did not want Hastings to be cremated. Los Angeles medical examiner and police authorities indicated that it took two days to identify Hastings because he had been burned beyond recognition, and that the cause of death was undetermined, pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests.[54]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist
We probably will never know what CIA stories Michael Hastings was working on before he died in that auto crash, or if indeed the FBI was investigating him, but given all that we have learned and are beginning to learn about the excessive use of government powers both by civilian and military intelligence, is it possible that Hastings was deemed a “threat” to our country and eliminated? Were I not a young adult in the 60’s I might have banished that type of idea with dismissive disdain. However, as I have written before, the assassinations of the 60’s and the murders at Kent State, have taught me to not be dismissive of the possibilities of conspiratorial actions by some with present or past connections to government. http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/ and: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/10/27/murder-at-kent-state/
Hastings’ article that led to the McChrystal dismissal is a detailed and nuanced story of a tough, Spartan-like General: “McChrystal is reported to run 7 to 8 miles daily, eat one meal per day, and sleep four hours a night.” The General and his hand-picked staff had disdain for civilian leadership and basically he was given carte blanche by the President, who the General felt he had cowed in their meetings together. If you read it, as linked below, it seems a fair appraisal of the man and those men who he surrounded himself with.
“Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his fucking war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss [McChrystal] was pretty disappointed.” This was a statement from one of McChrystal’s aides.
“As McChrystal leaned on Obama to ramp up the war, he did it with the same fearlessness he used to track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out how your enemy operates, be faster and more ruthless than everybody else, then take the fuckers out. After arriving in Afghanistan last June, the general conducted his own policy review, ordered up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The now-infamous report was leaked to the press, and its conclusion was dire: If we didn’t send another 40,000 troops – swelling the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by nearly half – we were in danger of “mission failure.” The White House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, was trying to bully Obama, opening him up to charges of being weak on national security unless he did what the general wanted. It was Obama versus the Pentagon, and the Pentagon was determined to kick the president’s ass.” This was Michael Hastings’s interpretation based on his access to General McChrystal and his team.
Below was Hastings assessment of the staff and culture that McChrystal surrounded himself with as taken from an evening in Paris:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority. After arriving in Kabul last summer, Team America set about changing the culture of the International Security Assistance Force, as the NATO-led mission is known. (U.S. soldiers had taken to deriding ISAF as short for “I Suck at Fighting” or “In Sandals and Flip-Flops.”) McChrystal banned alcohol on base, kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess, expanded the morning briefing to include thousands of officers and refashioned the command center into a Situational Awareness Room, a free-flowing information hub modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s offices in New York. He also set a manic pace for his staff, becoming legendary for sleeping four hours a night, running seven miles each morning, and eating one meal a day. (In the month I spend around the general, I witness him eating only once.) It’s a kind of superhuman narrative that has built up around him, a staple in almost every media profile, as if the ability to go without sleep and food translates into the possibility of a man single-handedly winning the war.
By midnight at Kitty O’Shea’s, much of Team America is completely shitfaced. Two officers do an Irish jig mixed with steps from a traditional Afghan wedding dance, while McChrystal’s top advisers lock arms and sing a slurred song of their own invention. “Afghanistan!” they bellow. “Afghanistan!” They call it their Afghanistan song.
McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. “All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622
Those three quotations can give you a feeling for why Michael Hastings article in Rolling Stone was explosive enough to lead to the end of Stanley McChrystal’s military career. Hastings was an excellent writer and whether you agree with his conclusions or not the full Rolling Stone article will give you a flavor of his competence as a journalist and I suggest to reading it in its entirety.
I’ve written much on what I call the “Corporate/Military/Intelligence/Complex” (CMIC) as I see it. http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/12/who-do-you-trust-us-or-your-lying-eyes/#more-66997 One of its’ features is that there is an interrelationship between those in the Military and Intelligence fields with those corporations who receive funding for providing supplies for them. I see this interrelationship as rather incestuous and harmful to our country, since the permeability between these entities can and often does leads to corruption of all parties. In General McChrystal’s case one can see that his Army Retirement has certainly not ended his career:
“In 2010, after leaving the Army, McChrystal joined Yale University as a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs senior fellow. He teaches a course entitled “Leadership,” a graduate-level seminar with some spots reserved for undergraduates. The course received 250 applications for 20 spots in 2011 and is being taught for a third time in 2013.[69][70][71]
In November 2010, JetBlue Airways announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[72] On February 16, 2011, Navistar International announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[73] He is also Chairman of the Board of Siemens Government Systems, and is on the strategic advisory board of Knowledge International, a licensed arms dealer whose parent company is EAI, a business “very close” to the United Arab Emirates government.[74]
McChrystal co-founded and is a partner at the McChrystal Group LLC, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm.[75][76]
In 2011, McChrystal advocated instituting a national service program in the United States. McChrystal stated, “‘Service member’ should not apply only to those in uniform, but to us all … America is falling short in endeavors that occur far away from any battlefield: education, science, politics, the environment, and cultivating leadership, among others. Without a sustained focus on these foundations of our society, America’s long-term security and prosperity are at risk.”[77][78]
McChrystal’s memoir, My Share of the Task, published by Portfolio of the Penguin Group, was released on January 7, 2013.[79] The autobiography had been scheduled to be released in November 2012, but was delayed due to security clearance approvals required from the Department of Defense. Portfolio publishers stated, “We have decided to delay the publication date of General McChrystal’s book, My Share of the Task, as the book continues to undergo a security review by the Department of Defense … General McChrystal has spent 22 months working closely with military officials to make sure he follows all the rules for writing about the armed forces, including special operations.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal This is a case of Old (General) Soldiers not only not dying but certainly not fading away. In fact one can detect a political future in the making.
Based on what I presented above let me present a hypothetical, which is only buttressed by my background as a psychotherapist, life experience and love of history. I have little doubt that the General and his cronies believe themselves to be good men and patriots all. They view the world from a perspective that arrogates to themselves knowledge not available to those who have never “walked in their shoes”. While capable of nuanced judgment, it is a judgment nevertheless informed by their world perspective and self-concept of being heroic individuals. Among his men the General is no doubt looked at as the Alpha. As he was quoted in saying: “McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team.”All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” I believe the General is stating the truth. So then hypothetically, how would he and/or his men view Hastings’s article that led to the General’s retirement? They believed that the General had the insight to bring the war to a successful conclusion. They believed that our President and his vice President didn’t have a clue as to how to successfully prosecute this war. They therefore then believed that those who opposed the General and his plans were acting against the best interests of the United States, possibly skirting treason. Finally though, Hastings’s was a person who they opened up to and allowed to sit in on their inner circle. They trusted him to produce an article that would highlight the greatness and successes of Stanly McChrystal, after all how could he not after spending so much time with them? Hastings’s article and McChrystal’s ouster probably infuriated them all and raised an angry reaction in men who were described by Hastings as:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority.”
Am I being unfair in speculating that perhaps the death of this Journalist, three years after this article, may well have been payback? Who knows, not I, but my senses tell me that there are at least two scenario’s whereby Michael Hastings death may be no accident. One could be the government itself, or certain parts of it related to the CMIC and another could be those able to take revenge on someone who in their opinion “brought a good man down to the detriment of our country”. I doubt that the public will ever know the truth if the death was not accidental and really that is not my point in writing this. What I’m trying to bring out is that beyond the unconstitutional behavior of our government in the name of “National Security”, which escalated after 9/11, a situation which in itself is terrible, is the heightened speculation and concomitant loss of faith in our government which follows in its wake. We are supposed to be a nation that exists under the rule of law and guided by our Constitution. How can we maintain faith in these institutions if we suspect that those in government or in the Corporate/Military/Intelligence Complex are able to act outside the law with impunity? What do you think?
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Other links about Hastings death and the suspicions about it:
http://www.infowars.com/friend-michael-hastings-marked-for-death/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hastings-panicked-email-fbi-death-article-1.1380539
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/elusive-details-michael-hastings-death
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-michael-hastings-hours-before-his…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-rolling-stone-muckracker-the-michael-hastings-wreck-…
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/18/19027717-journalist-michael-hastings-dies-at-33..
http://www.sandiego6.com/story/details-of-reporter-hastings-death-remain-elusive-20130708
also anyone who knows about the car that Mr Hastings was driving knows that said cars have been proven they can be controlled by remote control
==========================================================
cite your source.
Good post, Robin. You got it!
Well, its about time we used words like Illuminati. Its real & factual & says more than Bankers & Bilderburgers. Why else would Obama secretly condone the murder of children in order to decrease the American gun count in the hands of citizens? Thanks to the NRA & CCHR, he has not got very far, but the NDA Act looms over all of us, along with the Patriot Act & drone strikes. Confront the evil, people. Its the first step to challenging it. As someone said earlier (perhaps it was Alex Jones), you can cringe or deny & end up with a country not worth a hill of beans.
i know im a lesser known on this blog and as yet not privy to the inside circle but anyone who can read this article along with all the other articles concerning Michael Hastings and still believe that his death is a accident is definitely brain washed…. first of all why would Mr Hastings need to be traveling at a high rate of speed at 4:30 a.m.? if he wasnt being chased.. also there just happened to be a freelance photographer out traveling the same road at that time ? And since when does the corporation decide to cremate civilians against the families wishes? also anyone who knows about the car that Mr Hastings was driving knows that said cars have been proven they can be controlled by remote control……its not the first time nor will it be the last unless we the people begin to stand up and I DO NOT MEAN WITH VIOLENCE !!!!! violence will only give the corporation the means to do exactly what they are trying to do and institute martial law.
RobinH,
Good analysis. Please don’t think of yourself as not yet being in any “inner circle”. This blog is a free speech zone. People are judged on their comments, not their longevity. It’s true that some of us have been around for a while and so certain affinities and friendships have arisen. The guest bloggers were chosen by Jonathan based on our written production. We don’t run this place he does. Since you’ve joined us you’ve stated your viewpoint well. Therefore I’m not welcoming you to the “club”, since you’re already in it.
Illuminati, eh. Well that explains everything.
Way off topic again:
http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?MS_AdvCB=1&db=ssdi&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=2&msT=1&gss=ms_r_db&gsfn_x=XO&gsln_x=XO&msddy=2011&msddy_x=1&dbOnly=_F00032DD|_F00032DD_x&uidh=000
MB, MS, others,
I haven’t read the article below, but it does have a very relevant chart.
It’s the 1st chart up on the link, it’s of Creation of Debt in the USA to fund GDP.
As you can see GDP has been really very negative for a long, long time.
Remember Reagan making a fuss over Carter’s 65 or 85 billion a year deficit?
The Reagan went off on a drunken binge with the USA’s credit card. What’s the deficit now, 1.5 trillion or something like that?
Once one reads stuff like John Perkin’s short book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman it’s easy to see the same type scams are currently being played against Europe & us here in the US & why some of those aholes would have to pulled off events like 911/bldg7, Iraq, Hastings, etc….
What ever one’s opinions are on economics, & that’s fine by me, regardless I’ve found that zerohedge site & their msg bb a good place to find validation of you opinions & financial info.
Of course watch out for cursing & trolls, etc…
I don’t post their mainly because of time, etc..
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-22/can-us-economy-keep-exponential-chart
Mike S.,
I knew there was more to your life story. It’s about time you fessed up.
AY,
I’m looking for stats on coffin sales, funerals & cremations. Yearly rates, state by state maybe.
Most every investor knows the govt lies to us about the employment stats, other stats, so why would we believe the govt wouldn’t lie to us about the number of deaths every year?
I think the CDC says there are about 2.8 million deaths per year in the US.
I think they’ve set a target of getting rid of about 8 million of us a year & I’d like to confirm it.
That gets rid of a bunch of Wallst’s pension liabilities/SSI & we know wallst/DC has already looted those funds.
There are a few important reasons we might want to know the truth.
1. I’m not ready to check out yet! 🙂 Screw the govt’s plan.
2. If your an investor & like Real Estate, public traded cemeteries/crematoriums/tombstones might be worth looking for a well run companies.
3. Investing maybe in Walgeens(Wag) or pharmaceutical co’s.
Oky1,
Funny….
🙂
MS,
I found this piece yesterday & saved it to cut the demographic stuff out of it later.
I thought it might cheer you younger people up about the future.
When our time comes & it will all of us, I suggest extra wine, dimming the lights & a good imagination.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-22/boomer-sex-with-dementia-foreshadowed-in-nursing-home.html
ROFL
Elaine M. 1, July 22, 2013 at 8:33 am
A new study is the latest research failing to find a connection between autism and vaccines.
Liz Szabo
USA TODAY
March 29, 2013
**usatoday**
**
Study authors say they sought to address the fear that multiple vaccines are “overwhelming” children’s immune system, possibly contributing to long-term problems. Twenty years ago, children were vaccinated against nine diseases. Today, they’re vaccinated against 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the study. **
**, says Frank DeStefano, lead author of the new paper and director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. **
Elaine,
Why should anyone believe this new study funded by a bureaucracy, an out of control outfit that has consistently been caught lying to the people/kids & has sold out to corporate interest?
ie: Per MS synopsis.
The people are so foolish/lazy they can’t even get the Rat Poison/sodium Fluoride out of the water with plenty of good studies & the EPA admitting that it’s deadly.
And then there’s this angle of your post.
Is this new study part of the govt’s new propaganda program they are rolling out that rafflaw’s piece here exposes?
Is everyone starting to see the trouble with the govt lying to us all the time now? It violates the intent of the Preamble of the Bill of Rights.
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/21/is-freedom-of-the-press-dead/
I can understand why conspiracy arguments have been advanced about Michael Hastings, 911, Paul Wellstone, JFK Jr., JFK, RFK, and MLK because the official explanations don’t fit the facts, there were no real investigations of those deaths, there were cover-ups of the facts that did not comport with the official explanations, and other myriad issues.
But the most powerful conspiracy case to date is the recent news that George Zimmerman, who had been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue a family who was trapped in an overturned vehicle. According to the report, Zimmerman was one of two men who came to the aid of Dana and Mark Gerstle and their two children, who were trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Fla. at approximately 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The crash occurred at the intersection of I-4 and route Route 46, police said. The crash site is less than a mile from where Zimmerman shot Martin. By the time police arrived, two people – including Zimmerman – had already helped the family get out of the overturned car, the sheriff’s office said. No one was reported to be injured. Zimmerman was not a witness to the crash and left after speaking with the deputy, police said.
Clearly, the evidence points to this being a staged accident, and Dana and Mark Gerstle and their two children are actually unknowing coconspirators in this staged event. The Gerstles were actually captured by a black operations subgroup of the NRA and given special drugs and a series of hypnotic treatments following the procedures learned from the MK-Ultra program of mind-control. The Gerstles were obviously programmed to believe that they were in an accident, so that when Zimmerman “rescued” them, they would tell the story of how “heroic” Zimmerman was, and what a good Samaritan he was.
The black ops unit then had the Gerstles ride in their SUV along I-4 and Route 46, at which time they seized electronic control over the Gerstles vehicle, causing it to overturn. The NRA blacks ops unit and Zimmerman had obviously conspired to “reinvent” Zimmerman as a hero and good Samaritan, to counter the real truth about him. So far, the media is very smart though, and they aren’t giving this story anywhere near the same follow-up that they did on the Trayvon Marton death, and that is a good thing. Zimmerman and the NRA blacks ops were very clever in creating and executing this scam, but the media has seen through it all, and is not following up on the story to find out how the Gerstles are doing or to get their side of the story. I personally, however, would like to see interviews of them, as I believe that the evidence will show that they have been hypnotized through the MK-Ultra program.
Andrew Neil calls Alex Jones an idiot in Sunday Politics clash
US shock jock lambasted by BBC TV presenter after interrupting fellow guest to warn viewers over ‘Bilderberg Group puppeteers’
Alexandra Topping
guardian.co.uk
Sunday 9 June 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/09/andrew-neil-alex-jones-sunday-politics
Excerpt:
The BBC’s Sunday Politics show is generally a rather sedate affair, heavy on serious interviews and light on controversy. But viewers were treated to a highly charged confrontation between host Andrew Neil and US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, which saw the latter labelled the worst person to be interviewed on the show and an idiot.
The shock jock had been invited on the show alongside journalist David Aaronovitch to discuss the secretive Bilderberg conference, which has been taking place near Watford over the past week.
But having been asked on several occasions to let his co-guest speak, Jones launched into a tirade about several conspiracy theories detailed on his website…
After being told several times to try not to dominate the conversation, Jones appeared to lose his temper, shouting: “Hey listen, I’m here to warn people; you keep telling me to shut up. This isn’t a game. Our government, the US, is building Fema [Federal Emergency Management Agency] camps…
Taking to Twitter after the show Neil said Jones had played up for the camera. “The moment Alex Jones knew he was no longer on air he stopped,” he wrote. Jones is renowned for his “shock jock” tactics and came to the attention of the British public after calling for Piers Morgan to be deported from the US for his views on gun control.
Oky Mike ain’t got no facts. Mike ain’t got no law. Mike has speculation and “definite possibilities”.
Mike reminds us of the counter-intelligence tactics used by the FBI. A favorite was the destroy and divide by rumor. Those rumors that Mike recalls have a “definite possibility” of having been initiated by the FBI.
Mike often writes passionately and with much empathy about truth and justice. He also suspects/suggests, or something, Alex Jones of being an agent provacatuer. On what evidence? He just sorta fits the pattern (in Mike’s worldview)? Strikes me that that was the way Zimmerman’s mind worked when he first spotted Trayvon.
There was a guy in the 50’s who worked in a similar way. Except he wrote a list of names on a piece of paper, waved it around, and said these men all worked at the State Department. He wasn’t harmless. And this piece isn’t harmless either. And I don’t think I need to spell out why.
@Just~ : which Mike are you referring to? Mike S. the poster, or the Hastings, the “victim”. And what world view?
And why are we still debating, or/and making Infowars the subject? It does seem to me that regardless of source of information, infowars or national enquirer, eventually anything that is of value must be also part of the public domain outside these sources that are, do we not all agree, if not tainted, at least easily dismissed.
Rush Limbaugh might actually say something true and in the odd chance even worth while from time to time. But if it happened I would expect the point to be also available in other places.
Anyway.. that’s my take on the alex jones debate. Take it for what it is worth (not much) , but don’t try to validate the whole from any particular part.
“Oky Mike ain’t got no facts. Mike ain’t got no law. Mike has speculation and “definite possibilities”.
Mike reminds us of the counter-intelligence tactics used by the FBI. A favorite was the destroy and divide by rumor. Those rumors that Mike recalls have a “definite possibility” of having been initiated by the FBI.
Mike often writes passionately and with much empathy about truth and justice. He also suspects/suggests, or something, Alex Jones of being an agent provacatuer. On what evidence? He just sorta fits the pattern (in Mike’s worldview)? Strikes me that that was the way Zimmerman’s mind worked when he first spotted Trayvon.”
Justateacher you’ve got me dead to rights I can’t go on with this any more, though it will cost me lots of money. I’m really a thirty five year old bi-sexual woman, who works for the ultra secret Agency known as AUNT (Americans United for National Tribulations). My grade there was Dissembler III and I was up for the position of Supervising Dissembler I, until you exposed me. I’ve been drummed out of the service, literally and now will have to fall back on my Master’s Degree in Automobile Salesmanship (MDAS) from George Mason University Online. I have been offered a franchise to sell Russian Volgas in Salt Lake City and I’m pondering it. This will be backed financially by my friends in the Illuminati.
As you might have guessed we have been targeting Alex Jones for quite awhile now since he is the only person in America who has decoded the Rosetta Stone of the American government using a Buck Rogers decoder ring he stole from the Library of Congress, where it was hidden in plain sight. That ring has been handed down for over 5,500 years by the Illuminati. Though it has undergone many name changes, its original name was “The Ring of Lilith” (consort of Yahweh) and Queen of Eternity. Curses.
Michael,
I haven’t seen all the video below.
Sgt Biggs is a friend of Hastings.
He didn’t seem to like the way other media treated him so he went to Infowars.
Sgt Biggs & Jones worked out details for Biggs & infowars reporters to go to Cali & dig around.
They should be there now & reports soon.
@MikeS. I hope you’ll keep the thread posted as to your finds.
Curious what you think of my questions and intention to run at least 2 tracks on this conversation. ie, 1) determine the actual physical evidence , in cluding getting v.clear on what is actually possible and impossible from a physics POV as a way to shape and frame 2) the more subjective, conspiratorial aspects/possibilities.
Someone in this thread, maybe you?, declaimed the tendency for everything to be a conspiracy. I get the sentiment. I also get that the gov and its assigns seems to be capable of anything if it suits their needs, however limited and blinkered they may be. (“Invade Iraq!? Why sure… no problem, they’ll be tossing flowers in no time…” … oops… now what? — Just say’n sometimes the actions are not well thought out. ).
Anyway… I like the idea of having all the obvious evidence line up and be consistent with any more soft theories, no matter how juicy they may be otherwise.
For example, until we get quite clear on how that engine got where it was it seems we are missing foundational information.
Sometimes I think we go the other way in this progression: Start with the conspiracy and then fit the data to what we want or need to believe.
—
Finally, I will make another nod to your original, larger questions. I don’t think those are “conspiratorial” at all. But are essential. I wonder how a thread could be engaged that attempted to parse the meaning and implications of that line of thinking. That would be rich.
And finally, finally: as a result of all that stomping about I did yesterday I found a way to go back and find some of your prior writing. Good stuff. Esp some of that stuff re Kent State.
Michael
“Curious what you think of my questions and intention to run at least 2 tracks on this conversation. ie, 1) determine the actual physical evidence , in cluding getting v.clear on what is actually possible and impossible from a physics POV as a way to shape and frame 2) the more subjective, conspiratorial aspects/possibilities.”
Michael B,
As far as the physical evidence goes I’m not at all sure that more will come out and this is also what I was getting at in my piece. If it was murder, than my assumption is that as many tracks as possible have been covered by the murderers and we will see little more physical evidence. If it was an accident then who among us will believe any further physical evidence produced. This is because with the Snowden revelations, with Wikileaks and with Manning, we have seen enough to know that things are going on out of sight of the public and therefore the government is not to be trusted on any matters they deem vital to national security.
“I like the idea of having all the obvious evidence line up and be consistent with any more soft theories, no matter how juicy they may be otherwise.”
I think most of us would like that but one of the things I’ve found in life is that the answers and evidence often are impossible to put in clean logical patterns.
“And finally, finally: as a result of all that stomping about I did yesterday I found a way to go back and find some of your prior writing.”
You can access everything I’ve written here by typing: Mike Spindell into the search box at the upper right. You can do that for all the guest bloggers. Professor Turley’s is harder to get through without a specific topic since he has written so much on so many different subjects.
MikeS : thanks for the search hint. Will do. As others (OScribe) have said , there is a wealth of good stuff in this blog. I am beginning to believe it.
But, i confess to a certain wanting to turn some of this good info into something also actionable.
That aside, but maybe by way of example, re this “I think most of us would like that but one of the things I’ve found in life is that the answers and evidence often are impossible to put in clean logical patterns. ”
I think it is best, when examining cases like this hastings one that we make sure to not let preconcieved notions be the lead. At least not to the exclusion of obvious things.
In this case it is not necessary to know why, or even how the car blew up. It is sufficient just to know that it did and then make sense of the evidence left behind. From this solid foundation one can then begin to get into the darker parts of the issue as it is warranted.
So in this case it seems that it does not require much more than a good physics instructor/professor to detail the conditions and forces that would have been in play in order to eject the engine as it was. Cold fact.
No “conspiracy” needed.
Now if it is determined that such an outcome is impossible in normal circumstances…including speeds of > 100mph then the other questions start imposing themselves.
That’s the progression that makes sense to me. Any physicists here? I looked for this level of analysis on the web and did not find anything. Would love it if someone here does find that sort of info re this case that it would get posted.
Here’s a can of worms, (I shouldn’t do this!) but by way of a different example: Without having to make assertions about who or how the buildings in the WTC happened to come down, I do think it is a compelling question, along the lines I am positing here, to ask how it is that Bldg7, with nothing more than local fires did come down so cleanly, and so fast?
Ie, I don’t have to care about motive just basic facts.
Once the attention to the facts start getting muddled and those asking the questions start getting less than straightforward responses and/or distractions, it is fair, it seems to me, to ask why. Which can then lead to the other part of the story of Who and How and perhaps even Why.
This much, it seems to me should be able to be put into some “logical order”. Logical patterns may be a different level.
Too much?
“Plus you and Oky are on the same page. I guess that means more Infowars and prisonplanet.”
Justateacher,
You rush too quickly to judgment. Oky and I were on the same page on his specific comment at 8:19pm. As to the others I’ve disagreed and agreed with him in specific comments. That’s how I operate. I try not to exclude the thought of people because of their politics, if their thoughts make sense to me. to do otherwise would be to close my mind. As I’ve stated before, I don’t believe in “Isms”.
Gnite
Back to the mechanics of this case:
I have been looking for current info re this and did not find any (yet?). I presume some day there will be an official report?
I did find this
http://metabunk.org/threads/debunked-michael-hastings-crash-engine-found-north-of-crash-going-south.1964/
which, while debunking the notion that the engine was not actually behind the vehicle still leaves other, better questions unanswered.
It has some good maps of the site as well.
A few questions seems relevant:
> How does the engine get thrown out of the engine compartment at all? What force is required? How much energy is required?
> Others have noted that engines don’t typically rip out of the engine compartment. I couldn’t find any stories/info that addressed the necessary conditions for this to happen. And especially on a very well built Mercedes.
> Presumably the engine had to exit the engine compartment forward, ie, not out the side over the tire well. The photos show the car is pointed into the tree…. How did the engine get out of the compartment before it hit the tree? And if it happened when it hit the tree, how did it exit in a straight line to the original direction of the car and not with the inertial movement of the car at time of impact?
I suppose these are simply questions that could be answered with some basic physics. So far I haven’t seen anything on these points.
Do they seem relevant questions?
On the fire:
> What was burning so furiously? The flames could not have been gas or only gas could they? It seems too much, to bright to be the cloth and flammable materials in the cockpit.
And it seems to last too long. Something burning that hot would consume the seats et al, pretty quick leaving perhaps a smoldering fire. The video shows the fire lasting a long time.
What was feeding the fire?
And then of course there are the other bits already adduced about why they chose to cremate the body; the email , Richard Clarke, and other details that seem to support some foul play.
Supposedly someone from WikiLeaks was a confidant on his last email, and presumably his work. What would happen if Wikileaks were to release damning information?
I wonder if it would displace Snowden as public enemy #1 and reinstate WL/Assange?
It doesn’t seem out of bounds to think this was an assassination. It does seem unlikey that Obama would have had anything to do with it, as has been suggested in other posts. Even if he did, what are the mechanics of this event? And what are the learnings for us “out here”?
Those are the consequent questions on my mind.
I wonder if these questions about the apparent facts of the crash are relevant to the larger discussion? And if anyone has seen anything that addresses them. Even on the simple physics basis.
Michael B.,
Thank you for turning me on to the Metabunk website, so far it looks very promising and I’ve bookmarked it for continued reading.