Secret Combinations -- Another Look

      I've noted before that we live in an odd time where conspiracy theory becomes truth. Republicans secretly plotting to block Trump's nomination? Check. Government conducting mass surveillance on its citizens? Check. The FBI conspiring with Democrats and foreign individuals or entities to take down a sitting president? Check, check, check and check. Federal law enforcement providing weapons to drug cartels in order to limit the Second Amendment and then try to cover it up after their own agents got killed with some of the same weapons? Check and check. Sex cults among the political elite, complete with branding ceremonies and a secret island getaway? Check, check and check (and, no, I'm not talking about Epstein). Thanks to the Wikileak dumps, we learned a lot of how things work behind the scene, including the John Podesta had formed a Catholic group to undermine the Catholic Church's hierarchy. Heck, we've even learned that the military had legitimate UFO sightings at the same time the military denied the existence of UFOs. (See also here). And these are not all. Black Pigeon Speaks, in the video below (start at the 6:30 mark), discusses some other topics that were once the stuff of conspiracy theory that are now known to be true, and looks at Google's attempts to secretly influence elections.

     I have previously written:

I suppose in more recent history we could point to various scandals involving the various commercial trusts and interests of the late 19th and early 20th century America (e.g., the Teapot Dome scandal), the deliberate misleading of Congress and the American people over the Gulf of Tonkin incident that catapulted the U.S. into the Vietnam War, the Rotherham scandal where civil authorities in the British government (including law enforcement) covered up the activity of Muslim pedophile gangs, and pedophile rings among the highest levels of the British government, just to name a few. Heck, Carroll Quigley's Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time is essentially a history of the behind-the-scenes mechanizations and interactions of powerful interests in government, industry, and finance during the period of roughly 1900 to 1960, which led to the global progressive institutions undergirding the West; and elections and elected representatives play very little role in that history.

I've also discussed how communism and the Frankfort School constituted a secret combination. Although, perhaps it was not too hard to turn the United States socialist. 

"The CONSPIRACY to SILENCE the MASSES"--Black Pigeon Speaks (16 min.)

     Ron Unz recently published an article entitled "John McCain, Jeffrey Epstein, and Pizzagate" that examines the issue that some conspiracy theories are, indeed, true, and that the world operates much differently than most of us believe. 

    Unz starts off with John McCain, a figure regularly vilified by the media yet strangely glorified upon his death. Unz writes:

      As the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and two George Polk awards, the late Sydney Schanberg was widely regarded as one of the greatest American war correspondents of the twentieth century. ... A decade ago, he published his greatest expose, providing a mountain of evidence that America had deliberately left behind hundreds of POWs in Vietnam and he fingered then-presidential candidate John McCain as the central figure in the later official cover-up of that monstrous betrayal. The Arizona senator had traded on his national reputation as our best-known former POW to bury the story of those abandoned prisoners, permitting America’s political establishment to escape serious embarrassment. As a result, Sen. McCain earned the lush rewards of our generous ruling elites, much like his own father Admiral John S. McCain, Sr., who had led the cover-up of the deliberate 1967 Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, which killed or wounded over 200 American servicemen.

    As publisher of The American Conservative, I ran Schanberg’s remarkable piece as a cover story, and across several websites over the years it has surely been read many hundreds of thousands of times, including a huge spike around the time of McCain’s death. I therefore find it rather difficult to believe that the many journalists investigating McCain’s background might have remained unaware of this material. Yet no hints of these facts were provided in any of the articles appearing in any remotely prominent media outlets as can be seen by searching for web pages containing “McCain and Schanberg” dated around the time of the Senator’s passing.

He continues by outlining the strange reticence of the media to discuss McCain's own Vietnam War record, which suggested that "McCain’s stories of his torture as a POW were probably fictional, invented to serve as a cover and an excuse for the very real record of his wartime collaboration with his Communist captors." At the time,  "McCain’s father then ranked as one of America’s top military officers, and it seems likely that his personal political intervention ensured that the official narrative of his son’s wartime record was transmuted from traitor to war-hero, thereby allowing the younger McCain to later embark upon his celebrated political career."

    Unz also notes that while there is evidence that McCain was abusive to his wife, this was completely overlooked by the media. Unz further explains other issues in McCain's past:

McCain had first won his Arizona Congressional seat in 1982, not long after he moved into the state, with his campaign bankrolled by his father-in-law’s beer-distributorship fortune, and that inheritance eventually elevated the McCain household into one of the wealthiest in the Senate. But ... only in late 2008 did I learn from the Times that the Phoenix beer-monopoly in question, then valued at around $200 million, had accrued to a man whose lifelong business partner Kemper Marley had long been deeply linked to organized crime. ...

And then Unz had an epiphany:

As I gradually became aware of these enormities casually hidden in McCain’s background, my initial reaction was disbelief that someone whose record was so deeply tarnished in so many different ways could ever have reached such a pinnacle of American political power. But as the media continued to avert its eyes from these newly revealed facts, even those disclosed in the pages of the Times itself, I gradually began to consider matters in a different light. Perhaps McCain’s elevation to great American political power was not in spite of the devastating facts littering his personal past, but because of them.

(Underline added). Unz reasoned:

An obvious problem with installing puppet rulers is the risk that they will attempt to cut their strings, much like Putin soon outmaneuvered and exiled his oligarch patron Boris Berezovsky. One means of minimizing such risk is to select puppets who are so deeply compromised that they can never break free, knowing that the political self-destruct charges buried deep within their pasts could easily be triggered if they sought independence. I have sometimes joked with my friends that perhaps the best career move for an ambitious young politician would be to secretly commit some monstrous crime and then make sure that the hard evidence of his guilt ended up in the hands of certain powerful people, thereby assuring his rapid political rise.

He gives some examples, including "that secret blackmail evidence of JFK’s extra-marital affairs probably played a crucial role in having his administration overrule the unanimous verdict of all top Pentagon advisors and award the largest military procurement contract in U.S. history to General Dynamics instead of Boeing, thereby saving the former company from likely bankruptcy and its major organized-crime shareholders from devastating financial losses." He notes a couple instances where it is believed that Mob blackmail changed the outcomes of Congressional investigations and criminal prosecutions, and even suggests that "Samuel Untermyer, a wealthy Jewish lawyer, purchased the secret correspondence between Woodrow Wilson and his longtime mistress, and that the existence of that powerful leverage may have been an important factor behind Wilson’s astonishingly rapid rise from president of Princeton in 1910 to governor of New Jersey in 1911 to president of the United States in 1912." This blackmail might also have lent a hand to unpopular decisions made while Wilson was president.

     Unz also observes that "[t]here seems to be a great deal of evidence that powerful organizations and individuals have successfully managed to suppress credible accusations of that practice for very long periods of time if no group with substantial media influence chose to target the offenders for unmasking." Up first is the scandal involving homosexual and pedophile priests within the Catholic Church which has only been coming to light over the past couple of years. There is also "the remarkable case of British television personality Sir Jimmy Savile, one of his country’s most admired celebrities, eventually knighted for his public service," who is now acknowledged, only after his death, to have molested perhaps hundreds of children. "Accusations by his young victims had stretched back across forty years, but his criminal activities had seemingly been protected by his wealth and celebrity, along with his numerous supporters in the media." And the highest levels of the British government.

     Unz next directs us to the curious case of Dennis Hastert, the longest serving Republican Speaker of the House in U.S. history, who struck Unz as being "a rather bland and ordinary individual, with journalists sometimes even strongly hinting at his mediocrity, so that I occasionally wondered just how someone so unimpressive could have risen to such extremely high national office." Hastert, after leaving public office, was "charged with financial crimes relating to what apparently had been his past history of abusing young boys."

      Unz notes how the media ignored rumors that Sen. John Edwards, a runner-up in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, was having an affair--even having fathered a child with his mistress--until the National Enquirer splashed photos across its front pages such that it could no longer be ignored.

      And now we have Epstein. Allegations and rumors had circulated about Epstein for years, but Unz admitted that he hadn't paid attention to them because the allegations were so outlandish. But "[t]hen these same wild, implausible claims previously found only on anonymous comment-threads were suddenly repeated as solid fact on the front pages of the Times and all my other morning newspapers, and the former federal prosecutor who had signed off on Epstein’s legal slap-on-the-wrist was forced to resign from the Trump Cabinet." After summarizing the current charges and evidence against Epstein, Unz notes that Epstein was, also, an unlikely person to rise to his social and economic position:

      As presented by these media outlets, Epstein’s personal rise also seemed rather inexplicable unless he had benefited from some powerful network or similar organization. Lacking any college degree or credentials, he had somehow gotten a job teaching at one of New York City’s most elite prep schools, then quickly jumped to working at a top investment bank, rising to partner with astonishing speed until he was fired a few years later for illegal activity. Despite such a scanty and doubtful record, he was soon managing money for some of America’s wealthiest individuals, and keeping so much of it for himself that he was regularly described as a billionaire. According to newspaper accounts, his great specialty was “making connections for people.”

      Obviously, Epstein was a ruthlessly opportunistic financial hustler. But extremely wealthy individuals must surely be surrounded by great swarms of ruthlessly opportunistic financial hustlers, and why would he have been so much more successful than all those others? Perhaps a clue comes from the offhand remark of Epstein’s now-disgraced prosecutor, saying that he had been told to go very easy on the sex-trafficker because he “belonged to intelligence.” The vague phrasing of that statement raises questions about whether the intelligence service may not have been one controlled by the U.S. government.

Although, he notes, there are conjectures that Epstein might have worked for the Mossad.

     And now Epstein is dead, less than 24 hours after court documents were unsealed implicating powerful men in sex scandals. On July 23, he was found unconscious in his cell, supposedly due to a suicide attempt. He was placed on suicide watch for a period of time and then taken off suicide watch for some reason. "Epstein’s removal from suicide watch would have been approved by both the warden of the jail and the facility’s chief psychologist, said Jack Donson, a former prison official who worked for the Bureau of Prisons for more than two decades." (And since the warden would probably defer to the psychologist, it was probably the psychologist, who has not been identified, that alone made the decision). Nevertheless, "[a] person with knowledge of the investigation said that when the decision was made to remove Mr. Epstein from suicide watch, the jail informed the Justice Department that Mr. Epstein would have a cellmate and that a guard 'would look into his cell' every 30 minutes." However, that didn't happen. The cellmate was removed on Friday, leaving Epstein alone, and no one checked on him as promised. Epstein was found dead on early Saturday morning. And there is no video surveillance of Epstein's suicide because the video cameras did not look into the cells (early reports that there had been malfunctioning cameras has now been labeled as incorrect).

     The Justice Department has indicated that it will continue to investigate the charges against Epstein, with all eyes now turning to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long time confidant and friend, as well as "Epstein’s protector and procurer, his girlfriend and his madam." "Together, Epstein and Maxwell allegedly built what prosecutors, police and a growing number of women described as a sex-trafficking operation that crisscrossed the nation to provide Epstein with three young girls a day."  One of the accusers of Epstein and Maxwell is a woman named Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who contends that she was recruited my Maxwell while still a teenager.

Giuffre also said that Maxwell ordered her to have sex with Prince Andrew, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D) and former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine).

Unfortunately, Maxwell appears to have gone to ground and her location is unknown. But Epstein is rumored to have kept a diary for his protection, so this may not be the end of the matter.

     For my LDS readers, conspiracies and fake narratives to gain money and power should not be surprising. The Book of Mormon is replete with accounts of secret combinations and conspiracies. For instance, we read in Chapter 8 of the book of Ether:

14 And it came to pass that they all sware unto him, by the God of heaven, and also by the heavens, and also by the earth, and by their heads, that whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head; and whoso should divulge whatsoever thing Akish made known unto them, the same should lose his life.

15 And it came to pass that thus they did agree with Akish. And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning.

16 And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms.

17 And it was the daughter of Jared who put it into his heart to search up these things of old; and Jared put it into the heart of Akish; wherefore, Akish administered it unto his kindred and friends, leading them away by fair promises to do whatsoever thing he desired.

18 And it came to pass that they formed a secret combination, even as they of old; which combination is most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God;

19 For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man.

Frankly, the existence of secret conspiracies and societies shouldn't surprise anyone else either because history is full of other conspiracies and secret plottings. For instance, every student of history is aware that the assassination of Julius Caesar was the result of a conspiracy of several Roman senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Cassius Longinus, and Decimus Brutus. But it need not be anything spectacular: something as mundane as the networks and links that the elite make while attending the Ivy Leagues is as much a "secret mechanization" as any other when society, as a whole, is told that one's success is solely the result of merit. Another consideration to keep in mind is that there can be conspiracies within conspiracies, and secret societies within larger secret societies. As an example, I would refer you to a post I published in 2012 about a secret society of Oculists (eye-doctors) that existed within the Freemasons, but were unknown to the Freemasons.

     Darrin Andrews has published an article, "Waking Up To Secret Combinations: An LDS Perspective on Conspiracy," which is reprinted at Mormon Chronicle, and which I find very helpful. In it, he lists a number of characteristics of the secret combinations of which we have been warned, including some from the excerpt I set out above from Ether. While I'm not going to repeat all his points, there are a few that I want to emphasize:

• "The members of secret combinations believe their secret works and society to be good";
• "Secret combinations seek to overthrow government, establish kings – or oligarchies – and destroy the liberty of a republic...";
• "Secret combinations, once in government, lay aside the commandments of God, corrupt righteous laws, and administer no justice to the people, condemning the righteous for their righteousness, allowing the guilty to go free because of their money"; 
• "Secret combinations shed the blood of the saints and oppress them, threatening not only the rights and liberty of the people but also the Church"; and,
• "When any society has suffered such combinations to spread over them they will be destroyed".

(Citations omitted). Now compare this with the description of the Whore of Babylon in Revelation 17:

1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: ...

I hope to follow up on this, but I believe that the Whore of Babylon may be the great Secret Combination of our age.