1. The Devil’s Advocate
Time Stamp: 24:29
- Letters from the Devil – April 11, 1971
- Becky R. from Dallas TX wrote in to ask Herr Doktor for a spell to counteract a curse her girlfriend put on her, making her want her. You know, a love curse.
- She has turned to drinking and taking drugs in an effort to counteract the curse, even cast magic spells and incantations.
- LaVey replies that Becky seems to think homosexuality is repugnant and is trying to hide her natural feelings toward her friend.
- He suggests admitting to herself what she is, and recognising that there is nothing wrong with it.
- She should confront her friend in a non physical way and explain her feelings.
2. Infernal Informant
Time Stamp: 39:55
- FBI releases 9/11 investigation document that scrutinized Saudis
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/fbi-911-document-declassified/2021/09/12/fa37b584-13c9-11ec-9589-31ac3173c2e5_story.html
- The FBI has released the first of what are expected to be several documents from its investigation into whether agents of the Saudi Arabian government provided support to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot, a move heralded by victims’ families, though it yielded no tangible proof of official involvement.
- The Saturday night release was the result of an executive order issued by President Biden earlier this month ordering government agencies to review, declassify and release more information regarding the investigation.
- Some families of 9/11 victims have sued the Saudi government, alleging the Saudis knowingly provided financial and logistics support to the terrorism plot, something that country’s government has long denied. As part of that lawsuit, lawyers for the families have fought for years to force the FBI to share what it knows about possible connections between the 9/11 hijackers, most of whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and any Saudi diplomats or intelligence operatives.
- Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the attacks, said it was “particularly meaningful” that the first document in response to the executive order was released on the 20th anniversary of the attacks. “Today marks the moment when the Saudis cannot rely on the U.S. government from hiding the truth about 9/11,” he said in a written statement pledging to “hold the Saudi government fully accountable for the tremendous pain and losses we suffered.”
- Biden signed the executive order after families of hundreds of 9/11 victims said he would not be welcome at this year’s events marking the anniversary unless he declassified evidence.
- In 2019, the Trump administration said it would share some of the relevant information with the families, but would not provide other details about the bureau’s findings, invoking the rarely-used state secrets privilege to argue that some elements of the investigation into the 9/11 attacks would damage national security if they were revealed.
- Justice Department lawyers said last month they had recently closed an investigation related to the attacks, making it easier to share documents like the one released Saturday.
- That document shows that FBI agents were still investigating as recently as 2016 possible ties between two of the hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, and those who may have helped them after they arrived in the United States in 2000.
- Investigators were particularly interested in details about the Saudi government’s connections to Fahad al-Thumairy, a former Saudi consulate official, and Omar al-Bayoumi, a person the FBI once investigated as a possible Saudi intelligence officer.
- After the 9/11 attacks, Bayoumi told investigators that he met the hijackers by chance in early 2000 in a Los Angeles restaurant and that they became friends. Bayoumi said he helped them navigate their new lives in the United States, but denied any knowledge of their terrorist intentions.
- The newly released FBI document says some of Bayoumi’s statements in that 2003 interview “are directly contradicted by eyewitness statements.”
- The 9/11 families suspect those interactions were not accidental, but directed by a senior Saudi government official.
- The FBI document released Saturday contains significant redactions, but nevertheless shows FBI officials were skeptical of claims by various witnesses that Saudis in the U.S. who met with the two hijackers did so accidentally through chance encounters.
- It was “difficult to reconcile” the connection between the hijackers and those who gave them support, the FBI document states, noting that one individual claimed he met the hijackers at a 7-Eleven convenience store in northern Virginia “during a ‘chance meeting’, in a uniquely similar fashion to the way Bayoumi described his ‘chance meeting’ with Hazmi and Midhar in Los Angeles.”
- The report also said Bayoumi’s “logistical support to Hazmi and Midhar included translation, travel assistance, lodging and financing.”
- In 2004, the 9/11 Commission said: “Saudi Arabia has long been considered the primary source of al Qaeda funding, but we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization,” but added: “This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al Qaeda.”
- New Yorkers react to Biden’s vaccine mandate: ‘It’s going against everybody’s will’
- https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-city-react-bidens-vaccine-mandate
- People in New York City shared their thoughts on President Biden’s sweeping new COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which instructs employees at companies with over 100 workers to either get vaccinated or get tested for the virus weekly.
- The individuals that Fox News Digital spoke with in Manhattan were largely split on the announcement, despite nearly 70% of New York County residents being vaccinated with at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. More than 60% is fully vaccinated.
- “I agree with the mandate,” said one woman. “I think in order to get back to anywhere near normal we need a vaccine mandate in place, and I think to keep other people safe it’s really important to get vaccinated.”
- “It’s going against everybody’s will,” a man exclaimed.
- The rule will likely affect millions of workers and will also levy substantial fines, up to $14,000 per infraction, against companies that refuse to comply.
- Another man took it a step further and asserted that Biden’s mandates even fell short, adding that a nation is “responsible to get people vaccinated” because people who are not vaccinated pose a “public risk and a threat to every other person.” He later said he wasn’t angry with the unvaccinated like Biden appeared to be in his Sept. 9 speech—he just thought they were idiots.
- The man added people who are not vaccinated should be “compelled” to do so and voiced his approval for more stringent mandates.
- Another man disagreed with Biden’s mandate, saying that the rule should only apply to businesses that take federal funds.
- Another woman felt Biden’s requirement for 100 and up employee businesses was a good idea because of the “influx” of COVID cases occurring.
- “You gotta follow the law, I guess,” she added.
- New York City is seeing its borough-level vaccination mandates nearly coinciding with Biden’s announcement on the federal level.
- Mayor Bill de Blasio said back in July that he was requiring all New York City employees to be vaccinated or tested once per week for COVID-19 by Sept. 13.
- Some restaurants and businesses began enforcing vaccination identification check back in August, with the number steadily growing.
3. Creature Feature
Time Stamp: 1:16:29
- Empire of the Summer Moon
- https://amzn.to/3lePqF3
- Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- by S. C. Gwynne
- May 10, 2011
- Awards
- *Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award*
- *A New York Times Notable Book*
- *Winner of the Texas Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award*
- In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.
- S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
- Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.
- The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.
- Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the “White Squaw” who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.
- S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.