Saturday, April 30, 2022

FEAR OF SATAN drives the GOP evangelical base. DEMOCRATS DON’T VOTE IN MIDTERMS. GOP counts on that. PADEMS live in a la la $ land. Cash to Dem. Committees never won elections. ONLY Progressive populist Democrats can counter Republican Party FEAR

A gathering of far-right conspiracy theorists took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, last weekend for an event called “Patriots Arise.” Organized by QAnon conspiracy theorists Alan and Francine Fosdick, the two-day conference featured appearances by several Republican candidates for office, including Pennsylvania GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who is currently running for governor, Teddy Daniels, who is running for lieutenant governor in Pennsylvania; Rick Bowers, who is running for state Senate in Maryland; and Dan Cox, who is running for governor in Maryland. Kathy Barnette, who is running for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, was originally listed as being scheduled to attend but did not appear, though neo-Confederate Michael Peroutka, who is running for attorney general in Maryland, did make a surprise appearance.

Right Wing Watch 

Patriots Arise: Multiple GOP Candidates Appeared at a QAnon Conference

By Kyle Mantyla | April 26, 2022 2:33 pm

The collective fears that consumed the US in the 1980s and ’90s are still alive and well — all the way through QAnon and beyond.


Excerpts from:

Why Satanic Panic never really ended:



“The growing fascination with the occult also coincided with a number of extremely well-publicized serial killer cases that took place in the ’70s: the Zodiac killer and the Alphabet Killer, both of whom used ritualistic patterns in their killings, neither of whom were ever caught; Ted Bundy; John Wayne Gacy; the Hillside Stranglers; and David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the Son of Sam, who sparked a mass panic during the summer of 1977 in New York City…”

“Through it all, Christian fundamentalism and a literal belief in angels and devils were on the rise. Fundamentalist preachers like Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, founded in 1979, gained prominence across the country, passing along a literal fire-and-brimstone style of Christianity…”

“By the mid-’80s, a wave of seminars, tutorials, and educational videos for authorities and evangelicals on the subject of recognizing and fighting satanic cults was sweeping the US. Law enforcement in El Paso, Texas “were promptly dispatched to ‘ritual crime’ seminars,” journalist Debbie Nathan recounted in 2003. These were “classes aimed at law enforcement authorities and taught mostly by other cops, therapists, preachers and by born again Christians claiming to be former high priests or escapees from unspeakably sadistic ritual-torture cults.”

In 1992, the Justice Department thoroughly debunked the myth of the satanic ritual abuse cult. But though accusations of satanically motivated child abuse rituals had pretty much died out by the mid-1990s, law enforcement continued to treat Satan as a potential criminal indicator — as we see in this 1994 police training video, The Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults.


Clip from LAW ENFORCEMENT GUIDE TO SATANIC CULTS. Does your local park have satanists? How to tell if evil-doing no-goodnicks are infesting your park.




"Today, this video seems laughable, but the humor fades when we consider just how many real people were persecuted due to these brazen stereotypes about devil worship. Indeed, the most damaging misconception about the fallout of Satanic Panic is that it ended in the ’90s. In fact, although most satanic ritual abuse cases eventually resulted in overturned convictions, at least three people are still serving prison sentences for crimes that most likely never happened…”

“In 1997, four lesbian women who became known as the San Antonio Four were targeted and wrongfully convicted for child molestation claims. Their trial played out against a resurgence of Satanic Panic tied to homophobia in a conservative state, and their fight for justice lasted nearly two decades. All four women spent 15 years in prison before having their convictions overturned in 2015 and ultimately expunged in 2018.

But by far the most notorious criminal case of the Satanic Panic era was that of the West Memphis Three. In 1993, three teenagers in West Memphis, Arkansas, were accused and later convicted of the horrific sexual assault and murders of three young boys. The teens were accused primarily based on hearsay surrounding their goth lifestyles and rumors that they worshipped Satan, despite a lack of any physical evidence. The famed documentary Paradise Lost publicized the case, and the three men were ultimately freed in 2011, after new DNA evidence showed them to have no connection to the killings. They entered Alford pleas, which commuted their sentences to time served: 18 years in prison, each.”


“The legacy of Satanic Panic is now deeply interwoven with American culture and politics — all the way through QAnon and beyond


"Because of the high profiles of such over-the-top cases as the McMartin trial disaster and the West Memphis Three, the public gradually became skeptical of satanic ritual abuse claims. But despite the debunking of myths, Satanic Panic continued to sweep the globe and impact the lives of innocent individuals…”

Many of those conspiracies and strange murmurs of illicit child sex rings are still with us decades later. The 2016 clown hoax traded on longstanding myths about child predators lurking among us and relying on innocent-looking methods of attack. And many right-wing conspiracy theories that have ballooned into serious threats over the past five years contain overt elements of Satanic Panic. Pizzagate, which led to a believer bringing a gun to a Washington, DC, pizza parlor in 2016, held that Democratic politicians were secretly trafficking children for sex, holding them in the basement of the restaurant. (It doesn’t have a basement.)

Also in 2016, right-wing conspirators interpreted a dinner party held by performance artist Marina Abramović to be a satanic ritual. Details of the dinner party first emerged through the leaked emails of John Podesta, former campaign chair to Hillary Clinton. Although the theory was absurd, Abramović has faced allegations that she is a practicing satanist ever since; in 2020, outraged conspiracy theorists disrupted and shut down a collaboration she worked on with Microsoft.

The Abramović theory was tied to Pizzagate, in that it was also politicized and also involved the idea that Democratic politicians were secretly engaged in evil acts. Given the polarized US political climate, it’s easy to see how two similarly unfounded ideas — Democrats engaged in ritual satanism and Democrats engaged in child sexual abuse — could become linked in the minds of some members of the public. And in 2017, that’s just what happened.

In October 2017, an anonymous 4chan user going by “Q” began claiming insider knowledge about a vast satanic pedophile ring involving democrats, high-powered celebrities, and world leaders. Q’s conspiracy theory held that President Donald Trump was pretending to be incompetent so that he could more effectively apprehend the pedophiles in government around him — pedophiles who, in addition to practicing satanic rites and sexual abuse, were also trafficking children to harvest their hormones and make serums that would provide them eternal youth.

The Q conspiracy quickly became known as QAnon — the name for both the theory itself and Q’s followers. As QAnon spread, it became a textbook example of Satanic Panic in action; its followers weaponized parents’ fears of harm coming to their children to spread the message across social media. The group used hashtags like the superficially unobjectionable #SaveTheChildren, and disguised itself against takedown attempts by Facebook by masquerading as a straightforward anti-trafficking community.

But just as the original spread of Satanic Panic masked prejudice, hostility to change, and fear of the other beneath all its performative concern for the welfare of children, Qanon, too, hid something much darker. In 2019, the FBI identified QAnon as a domestic terrorist threat, citing numerous acts of violence and militant recruitment efforts being done in the name of QAnon. This pattern came to a head in January 2021, when hundreds of QAnon supporters joined the insurrection at the US Capitol.

There are some clear differences between QAnon and the original era of Satanic Panic: QAnon is a political movement with real political power. And while Satanic Panic was fueled by religious zeal, QAnon is almost a religion unto itself. Still, the tools used to spread both ideas — alarmism, fearmongering, hysteria, and reports of wildly gothic scenes of blood-drinking, children harvested for body parts, and witches — are virtually identical."


MORE AT:

VOX Why Satanic Panic never really ended

The collective fears that consumed the US in the 1980s and ’90s are still alive and well — all the way through QAnon and beyond.

Aja Romano Mar 31, 2021, 2:50pm EDT



U.S. “health insurance” is Mafia insurance. The Slacker family maker of OxiContin exposed U.S. healthcare as corrupt & criminal based. John Fetterman believes healthcare is a basic human right. Not a “benefit” an employer provides.

Everyone knows U.S. “health” insurance  is Mafia insurance:


”You've got a nice healthy body here. It'd be a shame if anything were to... happen to it.” 











The “heroin epidemic” demonstrated that pharmaceutical companies are not on the side of patients:


“Today’s resolution is the result of years of hard work by the FBI and its partners to combat the opioid crisis in the U.S.,” said Steven M. D’Antuono, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.  “Purdue, through greed and violation of the law, prioritized money over the health and well-being of patients.  The FBI remains committed to holding companies accountable for their illegal and inexcusable activity and to seeking justice, on behalf of the victims, for those who contributed to the opioid crisis.” 

MORE AT:

Justice Department Announces Global Resolution of Criminal and Civil Investigations with Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Pharma and Civil Settlement with Members of the Sackler Family


Thursday, April 28, 2022

Democratic State Committee Members on the May 17, 2022 Primary Ballot in Chester County PA. This might be helpful for Democratic voters in Chester County PA

For many people the list of names to vote for on the upper right side of the May 17, 2022 DEMOCRATIC ballot is just a list of names. 

I posted information and photos from the Chester County Democratic Committee Voter Guide




 

























































 





















































 





















































 






Friday, April 22, 2022

Curt Weldon is Pennsylvania’s own “War Dog.” It seems that former PA 7th District Congressman Curt Weldon has moved on from “a front for Russian arms sales to Iraq and Libya." Weldon, "Putin's not that bad." What is Curt doing now?

 What’s Curt doing now?

 Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence 

X2 was Purpose Built for Aerospace & Defense 

ThirdEye 

Weldon is one of the only elected US officials inducted into the Russian Federation Academy of Sciences…]

 

I think we’re going to hear more about Russia & Weldon. 



"More recently, a company led by a 21-year-old and a former masseur was offered a U.S. government contract worth nearly $300 million to sell ammunition to Afghanistan. The ammunition turned out to be outdated and of dubious origin and several people connected with the company have been indicted. A congressional investigation concluded that the company, which was on a State Department watch list, was able to take advantage of regulatory loopholes by using middlemen."


Curt Weldon took huge advantage of  "regulatory loopholes" but managed to stay out of prison.

FROM:

WIRED

U.S. Arms Dealer Tests Legal Bounds in Middle East Arms Bazaar

Defense Solutions has proposed teaming with the Russian arms-export agency, Rosoboronexport, for several arms deals, including supplying Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan. Rosoboronexport is blacklisted by the U.S. government for allegedly violating the Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act. Former congressman Curt Weldon is helping broker deals between Russian and Ukranian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments as part […]

Sharon Weinberger. Jul 3, 2008 12:00 PM


A film was made about it:



"Apparently, this enterprise centered around an American company (and Weldon) serving as a front for Russian arms sales to Iraq and Libya. Russia, for political and legal reasons, can't easily sell directly to Iraq. So Weldon's company buys from Russia, and sells to Iraq, keeping a little bit for themselves and my former congressmen.


Money quote:

"The administration, he acknowledged at the time, did not welcome the idea of an American company selling Russian weapons to potentially unfriendly countries. But two years later, Weldon, now a private citizen and chief strategic officer for Defense Solutions, appears to be working on precisely that sort of deal. And whether illegal or not, Defense Solutions' business represents a new phenomenon in the international arms trade business.

Curt Weldon should be proud that his international arms dealing may not be illegal.


MORE AT:


The official blog of the Drexel University College Democrats.

Curt Weldon, Arms Dealer?


"Still, Weldon “couldn’t help himself” when the topic of Russia came up. “He started saying, ‘Putin is not that bad. The U.S. is much worse in many ways.’ He was very cynical.” That’s when he started complaining about the peace plan’s demise, this source said.


The Ukrainian proposal has been called a “peace plan” by some, but that is a misnomer. The proposal involved unwinding Russian sanctions on favorable terms to Moscow, and the use of derogatory information against the current Ukrainian leadership.


"The reasons for the committee’s interest in Weldon are murky, but his ties to Russia are significant. Members of Congress believe, for example, that Weldon may lead to answers about why the Trump administration sought to lift sanctions on Russia in the aftermath of the 2016 election despite a public statement by intelligence agencies that the Kremlin tried to help Trump win. Weldon may also have information about the role a Russian oligarch may have played in trying to influence the Trump administration—though Weldon denied this when I asked him about it…


“In January 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Artemenko met with Cohen at a New York City hotel to discuss bringing peace to Russia and Ukraine. Also present was Felix Sater, a friend of Cohen’s and a former business partner of Trump’s. All three men confirmed to me that this meeting took place. When Artemenko pitched the peace plan, which involved lifting sanctions on Russia in exchange for Russia’s retreat from eastern Ukraine, Cohen said he would deliver it to then–National-Security adviser Michael Flynn, according to The New York Times. Artemenko told the newspaper that he had received encouragement for his peace plan from top aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Artemenko also told me that he had gotten “confirmation” that the peace plan had been left on Flynn’s desk. But Cohen walked back his story after the meeting was exposed by the Times, insisting that he had thrown the plan in the garbage. (Flynn has not responded to multiple requests for comment.


Weldon, who has known Artemenko, the Ukrainian politician, for more than a decade, was furious that The New York Times had learned about the meeting, according to a person who spoke with him at a separate gathering last March, two weeks after the story in the Times had been published. “We were so close,” Weldon complained, this source recalled. Then Weldon dropped a bombshell: “He said[he and Artemenko] had already secured funding for the promotion of the plan from Viktor Vekselberg’s fund in New York City…


Artemenko, the Ukrainian, told me that he and Weldon have known each other for more than 10 years, but tried to minimize the significance of their appearance together at an event, in February 2016, about “how Americans can promote peace and stability in Ukraine.” Last year, Weldon asked his colleague Tommy Allen, the founder of Allen Tactical Security Consultants, to vet Artemenko’s plan, Allen told me. “We were at a meeting in Washington, and Artemenko walked in because he was meeting with Curt,” Allen said. “We tried to warn him off of Artemenko, because you never know who the oligarchs are behind these guys, and the players behind the players tend to stay pretty static.” Allen said he did “not recall” Weldon ever asking anyone for money. “The individuals I know of who were providing funding were all U.S. entities.”

Fast forward to another meeting in Washington, the one in March 2017, where Weldon told my source about Vekselberg’s role in the peace plan. Only four or five people were in the room, and the gathering “had nothing do with politics—it only had to do with Curt [Weldon]’s businesses,” this source said. Still, Weldon “couldn’t help himself” when the topic of Russia came up. “He started saying, ‘Putin is not that bad. The U.S. is much worse in many ways.’ He was very cynical.” That’s when he started complaining about the peace plan’s demise, this source said.



MORE AT:

The Atlantic

Senate Investigators May Have Found a Missing Piece in the Russia Probe

An ex-congressman allegedly has ties to the Trump campaign—as well as to powerful figures in Russia and Ukraine. Finding out what he knows is crucial, a top Democrat in the Senate says.

Natasha Bertrand June 7, 2018

Updated June 8, 2018 at 5:28 p.m. ET


***


“For 6 years Weldon initiated and worked to develop a long term plan to create a strategy for peace on the Korean Peninsula. His development of the PNG Project was designed to build an energy pipeline from Eastern Russia at Sakhalin to supply petroleum products to South Korea along the bi-lateral rail corridor. Weldon championed this initiative in the US, Russia, South Korea, China and in North Korea on both of his visits to Pyongyang.”

https://curtweldon.net

    FROM Curt Weldon Korean Initiatives 

 


Thursday, April 7, 2011

I can imagine how the conversation between Curt Weldon and Moammar Gadhafi would go:



Philadelphia Inquirer

Curt Weldon says he's meeting with Gadhafi today



 Curt Weldon and his old buddy Moammar Gadhafi:


Conversation at Moammar’s place in Libya:


“Moamy baby, us Republicans are shutting down the US Government and the guys flying the F-16s that busted up my, I mean your, tanks won’t bother you for a while.


Meanwhile, I’ll cut you a deal on more of my Defense Solutions  BTR-80 Armored Personnel Carriers and T-72 Main Battle Tanks to replace the ones F-16 jockeys busted up. I’ll throw in some MT-LB Personnel Carriers, BMP-1/2 Infantry Vehicles, and Self Propelled Howitzers to round out the deal. 


Then at the same time you throw out some kind of olive branch to the treasonous bunch of criminals that went against you. 


Just be sure to tell Barack and Hillary you won’t use my stuff on Libyans just the al-Qaeda guys, wink, wink. Us Republicans know who our real friends are. 


When you get things calmed down in Libya and the oil starts flowing again I might have some more T-72 for you.”




 U.S. Arms Dealer Tests Legal Bounds in Middle East Arms Bazaar


By Sharon Weinberger 07.03.08


“Ex-Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pennsylvania, is helping broker deals between Russian weapons suppliers and the Iraqi and Libyan governments through his company, Defense Solutions.”


Defense Solutions, 707 Eagleview Boulevard, Suite 100, Exton, PA 


 


Posted by James Pitcherella at 8:33 PM

 


“Weldon has an AAS Degree in Fire Protection/Risk Management, a BA in Russian Studies and Political Science, Honorary Doctorate Degrees in Public Service from Drexel, Widener, West Chester, Neuman and the Technical University of Budapest. Weldon is one of the only elected US officials inducted into the Russian Federation Academy of Sciences as well as the Eurasian Club of Economic Scientists and is a Board Member of the Dubai Royal Club. Weldon has been recognized with 100+ Awards and Commendations and is a frequent speaker at International Forums.”

FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Wayne Curtis Weldon


https://www.linkedin.com/in/curt-weldon-4aa877b/

 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

“Lourenco Goncalves, the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, said his company’s coal-fueled blast furnaces were ‘here to stay.” Cleveland-Cliffs is Coatesville PA's steel company. Green hydrogen electrolyzers can make sponge iron for AMERICAN, not Russian steel

Cleveland-Cliffs Coatesville PA steel plant, formerly ArcelorMittal, Bethlehem Steel & originally Lukens Steel Company is a steel plant that operates an electric arc furnace 


 Way back in Cretaceous Microsoft time of 1975 we used a water fueled hydrogen soldering torch in the dental lab. It offered pin point control & exact temperatures. Not this one but similar: 







“In December, Kobad Bhavnagri, head of industrial decarbonization at Bloomberg NEF, highlighted how the global steel industry is at an inflection point. 

‘The global steel industry is poised to begin a titanic pivot from coal to hydrogen, this transition will cause both great disruption, and great opportunity,’ he said. ‘Companies and investors don’t yet appreciate the scale of the changes ahead.”



"The global steel industry accounts for 8 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and consumes approximately 15 percent of the world’s coal. By far the most emissions-intensive part of the steel production process is making pig iron. U.S. steelmakers claim to be the cleanest in the world, but that claim does not take into account the emissions that are simply being outsourced to countries like Russia and Ukraine along with the production of pig iron.

The solution to the dirty pig iron problem is not to build more coal-based, pig-iron production facilities in America, but to use green hydrogen — which can be produced emissions-free using renewable energy — to turn iron ore into direct reduced iron (also known as sponge iron). Green hydrogen (in contrast to “gray hydrogen” made with natural gas) is derived from water, split into oxygen and hydrogen by units called electrolyzers.

Sponge iron can replace pig iron as the feedstock for steel production. This is a proven technology, with the European steel industry leading the way in transitioning its steel industry to hydrogen fuel. In Germany, the government is directly funding the replacement of pig iron-producing coal-fired blast furnaces with green hydrogen technology to produce sponge iron. In December, Kobad Bhavnagri, head of industrial decarbonization at Bloomberg NEF, highlighted how the global steel industry is at an inflection point. “The global steel industry is poised to begin a titanic pivot from coal to hydrogen, this transition will cause both great disruption, and great opportunity,” he said. “Companies and investors don’t yet appreciate the scale of the changes ahead.”

Energy costs will also drive this transition. The cost of renewable electricity used in green hydrogen technology continues to fall while the cost of coking coal — the kind of coal used to make pig iron — is at an all-time high. In January, management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggested that these higher prices could hasten the transition to green hydrogen replacing coal in steel production noting that the high coking coal prices “could become the norm rather than the exception.”

Major U.S. steel producers have no plans to invest in clean steel production, nor do they have an incentive to in the current high-price and high-profit environment.

Replacing dirty pig iron imports with clean sponge iron production directly supports the existing U.S. steel industry, creating new steel industry jobs and protecting existing ones. Overall, it is estimated that transitioning to a net-zero emission economy would create 20 million jobs, including many well-paying jobs in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, and renewable power plants.

Yet, major U.S. steel producers have no plans to invest in clean steel production, nor do they have an incentive to in the current high-price and high-profit environment. As with the oil and gas industry, U.S. steel producers profit from high-priced steel. The industry is unlikely to change without an incentive, so the U.S. elected officials and policy makers must create an industrial policy to make it happen.

The steel industry’s carbon emissions have historically been considered “hard to abate.” That is no longer true. The United States has the opportunity to lead the transition from coal-fired blast furnaces to hydrogen-fueled sponge iron production. Without it, we will be unable to complete the transition to a clean energy future."

MORE AT: 

Russia-Ukraine War Is Another Reason to Break Free of Dirty Steel, but U.S. Companies Still Chase Profits Over Green Future

The war in Ukraine has broken the pig iron supply chain, creating an opportunity for the U.S. to lead the transition to green steel production.

Justin Mikulka, Zack Exley

April 19 2022, 12:21 p.m.