May 1-8, Seattle is hosting the National Level Exercise 2-08 "terrorist drill".
The overall exercise scenario unfolds as a Category 4 hurricane threatens the National Capitol Region (i.e. Washington DC) while events in the Pacific Northwest include terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the state of Washington and an accidental release of a chemical agent at chemical stockpile facility in Umatilla, Oregon. The scenario culminates with the hurricane's imminent landfall combined with a credible terror threat which causes the federal government to invoke continuity plans and capabilities. (i.e. martial law)
We may recall that both New York on 9/11 and London on 7/7 were also hosting terrorist "drills".
Considering May Day is a cross-quarter day and the Feast of Beltane, (think Scotland and Ireland), which featured the crowning of the May Queen (think Carrie) as well as the Druids running their cattle through the flames of purification (think "us"), I gotta bad feelin' about this.
As luck would have it, the regional Scottish Rite Leadership Conference is to be held in Seattle concurrently - May 2. Mark your calendar.
1776 - Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
1915 - RMS Lusitania departs New York City on her final crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
1931 - The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City.
1940 - The 1940 Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war.
2003 - In what became known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares "major combat operations in Iraq have ended" on board USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California.
Matthew Delooze holds that the world is in thrall to trans-dimensional beings (trannies?) who feed on our spiritual energy. This energy is created via emotion and ‘respect’, AKA worship. The general idea being that these “reptilians” have bribed the elite with wealth and social position in order to facilitate the flow of this spiritual “spice”. The spice is created via spectacular public events (sports, concerts, religious festivals, disasters) and then siphoned off to these beings through symbols, the most powerful being monumental architecture - the spiritual milking machines of the human race.
That’s pretty wild, but no crazier than any other religion - and it would explain a lot. So lately I’m trying it on for size, and using it to analyze popular media. Which brings us to my latest victim: Thunderbirds.
Thunderbirds are GO!
Set in the 21st century, the show depicts the adventures of the Tracy family, which consists of millionaire former astronaut Jeff Tracy and his five sons: Scott (pilot of Thunderbird 1 and principal rescue co-ordinator), Virgil (pilot of Thunderbird 2), Alan (astronaut in Thunderbird 3), Gordon (aquanaut in Thunderbird 4) and John (principal duty astronaut on the space station Thunderbird 5) - each named after a Mercury astronaut - Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepard, Gordon Cooper and John Glenn, respectively.
Together with Jeff's elderly mother called Grandma Tracy, the scientific genius and engineer "Brains", the family's manservant Kyrano and his daughter TIN-TIN, the Tracy family live on a remote, uncharted Pacific island (Tracy Island). They are, in secret, the members of International Rescue, a private and highly-advanced emergency response organisation, which covers the globe and even reaches into space, rescuing people with their futuristic vehicles, the Thunderbirds. --Wikipedia
Thunderbirds is also one of my childhood favs. I loved Gerry Anderson’s “Supermarionation“ (a super-sync word evoking Superman, Mario Bros, Puppet Masters, Mary, and God knows what else) animating technique, and his vision of a high tech and high style tropical island populated by handsome young men and secret space ships was just the thing for a preadolescent gay boy.
I finally rented the 2004 live action film last week (directed by Star Trek’s Jonathan Frakes) which had my third sync eye's full attention from the very start: the production company logo spinning out of a stargate:
The opening credits are done in a computer animated cartoon 60’s style - probably the best part of this "workmanlike" movie. They prominently feature monuments from around the world (note the sun behind the Eiffel Tower), and we see that even little Seattle gets a nod with the Space Needle: long the focus of New Years Eve rituals - our own ”Chronos’ Square“.
All the sons are named after Mercury astronauts. Mercury is the Roman version of Thoth, Hermes. Getting our first good look at Tracy Island, we see the serpentine Caduceus design motif in the villa - a Hermetic ‘pied-a-terre’:
Frakes doesn’t leave us guessing regarding the secret identities of our heroes, he tells us straight out through the words of the movie’s chief antagonist - The Hood (Ben Kingsley):
”Ahhh, the chariot of the Gods. Having dabbled with the mortals, they return to Olympus.“
Chariots swinging low past the Golden (star)Gate.
The first action scene involves youngest son Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) enviously watching his family’s rescuing exploits from a private boy’s school. The entire school (including staff) is totally focused on the drama unfolding on the TV screen, and they cheer like football fans after the rescue is made - showing us the desired form of ”worship“?
Alan is picked up from school by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (Sophia Miles), the London agent for International Rescue. Penny is an ”international socialite“ and fabulously wealthy, so the Gods are well connected to the British aristocracy, but we already knew that. Her butler/chauffeur Aloysius ”Nosey“ Parker ferries Lady Penelope across the sky in a 6-wheeled (like Cherubim) pink chariot of fire called FAB-1, which is both amphibious and rocket propelled - perhaps a Dagon model.
"You left me to die that day, you may have broken my body, but you have no idea how powerful my mind has become. Now you will suffer, as I suffered."
The Tracy's have a pretty good thing going until a certain malcontent upturns the applecart: The Hood. The Hood (who is never seen wearing an actual hood) seems to carry a personal grudge against the Tracy’s, along with a desire to rob all the banks of the world, starting with the Bank of London.
The Tracy’s, the Elite and the Gods are all conflated - being rich, gorgeous and satisfied - defenders of the status quo faith. The elite’s wealth is stored in a bank - the Bank of London. But what really IS wealth to a god/angel (trans-dimensional being)?
As above so below, and while the dollar is symbolically the currency of Hermes, I keep musing about the possibility of there being some heavenly form of currency - the energy postulated by Matthew Delooze.
We might theorize that this energy is somehow stored in the trans-dimensional equivalent of a (battery)bank. And somehow, this treasury is almost, but not quite, secure. Perhaps a thief is lurking about? Considering how all the wealth in the Bank of London is actually milked from the suffering of the colonies, and how the aristocracy are glorified pirates, and a pattern begins to emerge.
Interestingly, Sir Ben Kingsley’s greatest role (next to The Hood) was Gandhi - the Savior of India. India was the greatest diamond in the British Crown - and a classic colonial victim. Maybe The Hood's first name is Robin.
The Hood has a formidable octagonal/pyramidal submarine from which he fires a missile at T5 - the orbiting space station. This causes the Tracy's to fly up and attempt a rescue, but instead become trapped in the station, with life support running low. The Gods return to heaven, but become trapped in Hades (the lower 4th dimension). The end of the Golden Age.
The Gods are near death in their frozen tomb, awaiting rescue. They talk amongst themselves:
”Come on dad, the situation’s hopeless.“
”No it’s not. There’s still time. We’ve got people on the ground working for us.“
The Great Work? The Tracy’s are finally revived by ”Brains“ (knowledge), who awakens Jeff from near death by loudly swearing his name. Hmmm. Once revived, the family departs Hades in the triad signifying T3 - and head straight to the bank, overcoming The Hood and safeguarding the stash.
"Thanks for waking me!"
Yea. No problem, Herm.
Video: Thunderbirds TV Theme
NOTES:
Thunderbird (from wikipedia): The Thunderbird is a mythological creature common to Indigenous peoples of North America. It is a popular concept in northwestern coastal artwork of indigenous origin, often appearing on totem poles.
There is a story that in April 1890, two cowboys in Arizona killed a giant birdlike creature with an enormous wingspan. It was said it had smooth skin, and featherless wings like a bat. Its face resembled an alligator. This description has more than a cursory similarity to the prehistoric pterodactyl. They dragged the carcass back to town, and it was pinned, wings outstretched across the entire length of a barn. There is supposed to be a picture of this event, that may or may not have been published in the local newspaper, the 'Tombstone Epitaph'. Despite numerous people who have claimed to have seen this photograph recently, no one has ever been able to produce a copy of the picture nor make historic corroboration that this event ever occurred.
F.A.B.: The characters use the radio sign-off "F.A.B." rather than "Roger" or "Out". Anderson was often asked what F.A.B. stood for, but stated it in fact simply stood for "fab" (short for "fabulous"), a 1960s catchphrase.
Mullion & Transom: The Hood's two main assistants are named with architectural terms for vertical (Mullion) and horizontal (Transom) pieces used in the construction of doors or windows.
Thunderbirds March: A crucial element of the show's success was its thrilling music score, composed and conducted by Barry Gray, who provided all the music for the Anderson series up to and including Space: 1999 series one. His instantly recognizable "Thunderbirds March" is one of the best-known of all TV themes and has become a perennial favourite with brass and military bands around the world. [Much like the Star Wars march]
Level 42: The "Thunderbirds March" and the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown from the top of the show, were adopted by the British band Level 42 for its live shows, as captured in the video release of its 1987 performance at Wembley Stadium in London. An updated version, blended with the opening fanfare to the band's own hit "Heaven In My Hands," kicks off L42's concert gigs to this day.
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of time travel, so I've taken to the Star Trek Time Travel Fan Collective like a duck to water. Star Trek made the multiple universe/timeline theory a pop culture fact, and the religious ramifications of that idea are never far from the surface. The Original Series was perhaps truest to the concept of a Secret Sunday School, and watching those old episodes with newly grown symbolic sensors never fails to send me directly down the rabbit hole.
Tonight, I’m examining The City on the Edge of Forever, "the penultimate episode of the first season of Star Trek". Episode 28, production 28, first broadcast April 6, 1967. This episode introduces themes explored again and again in time travel fiction - the core idea being that it is possible to visit the past, make historical changes, and then return to the present to experience a different reality than when you left. This episode also explores entheogenic drugs, self-conscious stargates and ritual blood sacrifice... fun for the whole family!
As a heads up to the reader, I have come to view Star Trek (and many other sci-fi movies and books) in the same way that I view the bible - as metaphor and mythic allegory. To me, Star Trek isn’t necessarily a vision of the future, but an akashic memory of the past - the Ages of Gods and Heroes.
We join the crew of the Enterprise as they are drawn to a mysterious planet from which time displacement waves are emanating. The waves jar the Enterprise as she passes through, causing an electrical malfunction on the bridge, injuring Sulu, perhaps mortally. Doctor McCoy is summoned to the bridge, who decides to “risk” a few drops of “cordrazine” to revive him.
“It’s tricky stuff, are you sure you want to risk it?”
Which is an odd thing for a Captain to be asking his chief medical officer, especially one he holds in such high regard. What makes this stuff “tricky”? We’re about to find out. Sulu “miraculously” recovers after the injection, but as the Enterprise is struck by another temporal bubble, McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of cordrazine. He begins exhibiting signs of paranoia and madness. Delirious, he beams himself down to the planet’s surface.
"Hi ho, hi ho!"
Cordrazine = entheogenic drugs, the magic mushroom, the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Everything that subsequently happens to the crew is a result of McCoy’s “trip”.
Kirk and a landing party soon follow McCoy to the surface, where they meet “The Guardian of Forever” - a living time machine/stargate. “I am my own beginning, my own ending.” says the Guardian in a commanding masculine voice, which is close enough to “I am the Alpha and the Omega” to make the point.
The Guardian shows earth’s history (beginning with ancient Egypt) like a movie - in black and white - which is a nice reverse of Dorothy’s mushroom trip - like looking at Kansas from a TV in Oz.
The landing party is too late to stop McCoy from leaping through the stargate, “incarnating” himself on three dimensional earth. McCoy becomes Adam, the first “angel” born as a mortal man. Immediately afterwards, the Enterprise ceases to exist, and the landing party is stranded. McCoy went back into earth’s history and changed it, thereby altering the future. In other words, the creation of Adam resulted in the destruction of Oz, or at least the angel’s exalted place in it. They find themselves imprisoned on a desolate planet, with no past and no future.
"Captain... I'm frightened!"
Captain Kirk and Spock go through the stargate after McCoy, to attempt a rescue and to set the timeline right. They tell the rest of the landing party that if they do not succeed, they are to follow them through the gate and “incarnate” into the earth’s past as well, each attempting the rescue.
The stargate lands them in Depression era New York City, which has symbolically become Eden - the home of Adam/McCoy.
Kirk and Spock materialize in front of a poster promoting a boxing event at Madison SQUARE Garden, (Interesting how boxers box inside a “ring”) and noting that Mike Mason is on the bill, I'd say we’re in the middle of another Masonic ritual drama.
Meanwhile, McCoy incarnates on Earth as a milkman does his rounds, frightening a bum into dropping a milk bottle from the WIDIN Dairy Farm in the alley. I’m not sure what milk represents, but I’ll take a stab that it represents Manna (eternal life).
McCoy meets his first NYC native, and remarks on his small stature, yet good cranial development. “No doubt considerable human ancestry”. Spoken like a true Nephilim.
The aliens quickly locate clothes to help them fit into Depression era NYC. Kirk wears red and black checkered flannel, and Spock is in wizard blue and grey. They encounter a social worker, Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), who helps them find work to pay for the equipment Spock requires to build a tricorder interface (crystal ball).
"...and one day, soon, man is going to be able to harness incredible energies..."
Edith Keeler runs the 21st Street Mission, and while feeding the hungry, she preaches a vision of man’s eventual enlightenment and ascension via star ships, and little does she know that she is soon to be harboring refugees from her future utopia - entertaining angels unawares. Edith is Eve, and she has two suiters...
Unknown to Kirk and Spock, Edith has taken in the recently-arrived and ill McCoy. Kirk promptly falls in love with Edith and is devastated when Spock completes his tricorder and discovers that in order to repair history, they must let Edith Keeler be killed in an auto accident. If they allow McCoy to save her — as he did before — she will start an effective pacifist movement that will delay the United States' entrance into World War II, thus allowing Hitler's Germany to develop the atomic bomb first and conquer the planet. --StarTrek.com
It really IS All About Eve. So we have Adam and Eve in the Garden, and who else in this ancient triangle? The serpent. It’s interesting that even though McCoy was first through the stargate, and thus the cause of all that then occurred, it was Kirk who landed first in the garden.
Spock’s tricorder needs a computer interface in order to extract the data it contains (the true history of mankind). Spock endeavors to create the interface using “stone knives and bearskins” - primitive technology. The tricorder is an ancient angelic/Atlantean artifact (the Hall of Records), requiring Hiram’s “key”. Spock’s revelation is given via a newspaper of the day called the “Star Dispatch”, which is perhaps a clever reference to astrology. Spock is a Magi and alchemist of high degree.
"Edith Keeler must die."
Unfortunately, the key reveals that Edith must die in a traffic accident in order to restore the timeline. The accident is "allowed" to happen.
After the ritual sacrifice, all is returned as it should be, and the angels are restored to their proper places in heaven. Edith is mute. As the landing party departs the God forsaken planet, Kirk exclaims “Let’s get the hell out of here.” Hell being Sheol. Telling us quite literally where these fallen angels have been doing time.
There are two things I love about this little story from CNN. The first is that it showcases the dowry as the husband's source of political power (even reminding us of Teresa Heinz and John Kerry), echoing Jasmin from Aladdin as well as the grail. The other is that Cindy has apparently become a member of the Vulcan High Council.
(CNN) — John McCain and wife Cindy do not file joint tax returns, and the campaign said Friday they will not release her 2006 and 2007 tax returns along with the candidate's.
The McCain campaign notes John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, did not release her tax returns during the 2004 campaign.
An heiress to her father's stake in Hensley & Co. of Phoenix, Cindy McCain's worth has been estimated to be around $100 million.
This pic showed up in the pornosphere last week: French pornstar Francois Sagat in a hot pink candy thong. Syncsters will note the pinwheeling lollipops. Francois has focused the attention of the Gosporn all seeing eye due to his ability to “act out” syncs in the flesh, the candy man pic is only the latest in a long line.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Gay culture has always been plagued by drugs, even before The Plague. We famously do everything to excess: drink, smoke, fuck, disco, steroids and hair color. The gay mantra is the more the merrier. We gorge ourselves on sensual experience, and when that totally screws us, we gorge on suffering. Go figure.
The latest plague is Crystal Meth. Tweeking. Which is sorta like crystal myth. I have a friend who got a little too into meth, and it nearly killed him, not to mention the agony of of his friends and lovers. The agony and the XTC (with apologies to Michelangelo, and yea it’s not the same drug, but I like the sync, so shoot me). The crazy thing is that meth rots your teeth, just like candy.
In WWII, the Germans handed out meth to their troops like candy, literally. They gave meth impregnated chocolate to all, and Hitler even took daily meth injections! WTF?
Crystal Meth is the ultimate candy. It’s like something our spirits crave (or remember?) but that our bodies can’t handle. The spirit is willing, but not the flesh. Christianity is fond of talking about the weaknesses of the flesh, and I suspect this is a good example. But don’t turn it around into a weakness of the spirit.
I think that maybe heaven is like a crystal meth orgy. With no downside, and no dentists.
"The human male cock is the tentacle tip of a joyous multidimensional shapeshifting multi-modality ecstacy experiencing BEAST of enormous proportions..." more
