Scaramuccia Keeps Our Eyes Wide Shut

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." ~ Oscar Wilde

"Virtue has a veil, vice a mask." ~ Victor Hugo

Scaramuccia is linked to one specific mask, which is similar to to the Plague Doctor mask.

In terms of Cryptokubrology insights, masks are significant in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

Scaramuccia (literally "little skirmisher"), also known as Scaramouche or Scaramouch, is a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. The role combined characteristics of the zanni (servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman). Usually attired in black Spanish dress and burlesquing a don, he was often beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice.

Although Tiberio Fiorillo (1608–1694) was not the first to play the role, he greatly developed and popularized it. He removed the mask, used white powder on his face, and employed grimaces. He had a small beard, long mustache, and wore a predominantly black costume with a white ruff. In France he became known as Scaramouche.

In the 19th century the English actor Joseph Grimaldi and his son J. S. Grimaldi made numerous appearances as Scaramouche.

Scaramouche entertains the audience by his "grimaces and affected language". Salvator Rosa says that Coviello (like Scaramouche) is "sly, adroit, supple, and conceited". In Molière's The Bourgeois Gentleman, Coviello disguises his master as a Turk and pretends to speak Turkish. Both Scaramouche and Coviello can be clever or stupid—as the actor sees fit to portray him.

One strange aspect of the character Scaramuccia is that at the end of his act, he "loses his head," by it being hit and coming off his shoulders or being beheaded.

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Anthony Scaramucci (born January 6, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, financier, political figure, and author.

In 2008, Scaramucci served as a fundraiser for President Barack Obama. In September 2010, Scaramucci asked Obama at a CNBC Town Hall meeting when he was going to "stop whacking Wall Street like a piñata."

Scaramucci was a member of the New York City Financial Services Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2012. He is a registered Republican and served as a National Finance Co-Chair for Mitt Romney for President in 2012.

During the 2016 presidential election, Scaramucci first endorsed Scott Walker and later Jeb Bush. In May 2016, after both Walker and Bush had withdrawn from the race, he signed on to Donald Trump's political campaign by joining the Trump Finance Committee.

On July 21, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed him the White House Communications Director.

Anthony Scaramucci

Scaramucci was soon gone from the White House.

On July 28, 2017, Reince Priebus' resignation as chief of staff was announced; Priebus said that he had resigned on July 27. Also on July 28, Trump announced that he had named retired general John F. Kelly as his new chief of staff.

On July 31, 2017, Trump dismissed Scaramucci from his role as communications director on the recommendation of Kelly, who wanted him removed because he did not think Scaramucci was disciplined and believed Scaramucci had burned his credibility.

h/t Robert Schneck

Decapitations, Dawns, Masked Men, and Tridents

September 9-11 Alert:

How is it that we find ourselves here? At this juncture of history, after recent years of writings on red dawns, auroras, beheadings, dark knights, masked men, and tridents, we rush towards an exact moment in time foreshadowed in our nightmares (predestined for madness?) by the Libyan Dawn, the Masked Men Brigade, ISIS, and indirectly, the Rapid Trident exercise.

An Islamist fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition flashes the V sign for victory at the entrance of Tripoli international airport on August 24, 2014 - and his truck has an enigmatic "17" painted on its door. (For more on the synchromystical significance that some give to the number 17, see here.)

What hellish path brings us to this temporal point, with September 9th to September 11th on the horizon for the Mideast? And what is to occur with a mid-September "Rapid Trident" exercise in the Ukraine?

Masked men belonging to various Palestinian factions announced in Hebron on Dec. 15, 2012, the establishment of the National Unity Brigades and the beginning of a third intifada against Israel. Source.

Decapitations

Beheadings are in the news, thanks to ISIS. And thanks to tabloid journalism. These acts of terror have been placed to the forefront of news reportage for over a decade. They are graphic, individual attacks of terror. The list is growing long.

Steven Joel Sotloff, abducted August 4, 2013, beheaded around September 2, 2014.

James Foley, abducted November 22, 2012, beheaded around August 19, 2014.

Kenneth John "Ken" Bigley, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on October 7, 2004.

Jack Hensley, beheaded on September 21, 2004.

Owen Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on September 20, 2004.

Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr., abducted June 12, 2004, beheaded around June 18, 2004.

Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg, abducted around April 9, 2004, beheaded on May 7, 2004.

Daniel Pearl, abducted January 23, 2002, beheaded on February 1, 2002.

Are you aware there have been three US/UK decapitations/beheadings in the last few days? (There have been several, historically, needless to say.)

On August 29, 2014, an unidentified man, formerly of Chicago, conducted a self-decapitation (with a cable tied to a tree, wrapped around his neck) in Yorktown, Virginia. Source.

On September 1, 2014, using a similar method - a cable, a wooden pole, and a car - Tomas Rivera, 51, of Port Jervis, New York, decapitated himself in Hunts Point, Bronx, New York. Source.

Both news reports used exactly the same wording that the men "hit the gas" before killing themselves.

An unnamed elderly woman was beheaded in the garden of a north London, UK, house, and her body found on September 4, 2014. Source.

Tragic and horrible, of course. Perhaps the American suicides are related to the copycat suicidal atmosphere in the USA, in the wake of the Robin Williams self-hanging? Perhaps the UK beheading is stimulated by the beheadings in the news of Sotloff and Foley?  But is there something more wicked this way coming?

Libyan Dawn/Masked Men Brigade

Eleven - yes, 11 - commercial airliners have been stolen by the Masked Men Brigade or the Libyan Dawn or both in Tripoli. And where does ISIS fit in this picture?

Tripoli International Airport was overtaken by the group Libyan Dawn in August 2014, and now 11 aircraft for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways are missing. 

Members of the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition guard the entrance to the Tripoli International Airport on August 24, 2014.

September 9-11 Anniversary Syndrome

There is great concern for what might be ahead for next Thursday, on the anniversary of September 11.

But the focus on the 11th could be a danger, in and of itself.

This year's Supermoon on September 9th is metaphorically creating a tidal wave of human emotions in ways unimagined. But astronomy is not the key. It is the human elements in play that will cause what we see unfold.

The 13th anniversary of 9/11 is reinforced with the second anniversary of the attack on the American embassy on September 11, 2012, and killing of former Navy SEALS and American diplomats at Benghazi, Libya.

Human behavior forecasting is not a parlor game. It is a real life exercise to attempt to predict real time behaviors (actions, conduct, performance) that call forth protective factors that should be put in place, and prevention measures to employ to keep our friends out of harms' way.

The anniversary syndrome is strong at this time of year. You can actually "feel it in the air," with the changing seasons.

Here are some events tied to incidents in the past that jumped out during my examination of the dates September 9-11:

September 9 ~
1970 – A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and flown to Dawson's Field (a remote desert airstrip near Zarka, formerly used as a British Royal Air Force base) in Jordan.
2001 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.
2004 – A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.
2012 – A wave of attacks kill more than 108 people and injure 351 others in Iraq.

September 10 ~ 
1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
1939 – World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss.
1976 – A British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.
2000 – Operation Barras successfully frees six British soldiers held captive for over two weeks and contributes to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.
2001 – Antonio da Costa Santos, mayor of Campinas, Brazil is assassinated.
2003 – Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is fatally stabbed (assassinated) while shopping, and dies the following day.

September 11 ~

1922 – The British mandate of Palestine begins.

1939 – Iraq and Saudi Arabia declares war on Nazi-Germany. 

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers and 6 crew.
1970 – The Dawson's Field hijackers release 88 of their hostages. The remaining hostages, mostly Jewish and Israeli citizens, are held until September 25.

The origins of the Black September movement began with Arafat's clashes with Jordan, intriguingly due to hijacked planes. On September 6-12, 1970, four TWA, Swissair and BOAC planes were hijacked (the El Al one failed), destroyed, and this was directly tied to Palestine civil uprisings and the resulting suppression that was to be called Jordan's "Black September." 

1972 – The Munich Summer Olympics end. At this Olympics the "Black September" terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes, on the 5th.
1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers and two crew.
1976 – A group of Croatian nationalists plant a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal. After stating political demands, they reveal the location and provide instructions for disarming the bomb. The disarming operation is not executed properly, killing one NYPD bomb squad specialist.

1994 – A private plane attempts to crash into the White House.
2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Altogether, 2,996 people are killed.
2003 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies from her assassination stabbing of the previous day.
2012 – The U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya is attacked, resulting in four deaths. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during the series of raids, commencing at nightfall and continuing into the next morning.

11s

There is something special about the number 11 to terrorists, no doubt about it. Such incidents as the 3/11 [2005] Madrid, 7/11 [2006] Mumbai, and 9/11 [2001] terrorist attacks serve as misnamed “celebrity events” that become models copied by other Islamic extremists.

Pakistani Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing, was quoted as saying after the failed 1993 attempt that they would do it right the second time. He was also the brains behind the elaborate Bojinka, translated as “the explosion.” This was a plot to place bombs on 11 American jetliners and have them all explode on the same day, over the Pacific Ocean. 

Yousef carried out a test run for Bojinka by planting a bomb that detonated on Philippines Airlines Flight 434, on December 11, 1994. One tourist was killed, ten injured. Yousef called the Associated Press after this bombing, to give credit to Abu Sayyaf. His friend Khalid Sheik Mohammed would launch the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks, which were built from parts of Operation Bojinka.  

It does not seem to be a coincidence that the first airliner to crash into the Twin Towers (a symbolic 11) was American Airlines (AA = 11) Flight 11.

The flight number for the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon was 77.

As noted in the opening of my 2004 book The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, September 11th was the date of an assault by a private plane on the White House, in 1994, although the attack is little remembered today. 

September 11th is not to be ignored. But is there a growing "danger zone" around that date now?

For this September 2014, avoid letting your guard down on the 9th and 10th, just because you know you should be on alert on the 11th. Also, realign the hot spots of awareness from land-based sites, and think outside the box. While watching Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, be careful of soft symbolic targets linked to those that are identified with, for example, the U.S. Navy (tridents), political figures (dark knights/assassinations), and auroras (red dawn attacks). 

A storm is coming. The Dark Knight still rises. We are at a concurrence of circumstances that will be revealed, soon enough. It is up to you to prevent them. Yes, you. Be alert, be safe, and be proactive.

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Upon reading the above, the following was sent in response:

"Sometimes these days when I wake up, I think I must have

been dreaming, and it is still the 12th century." ~ Brad Steiger, September 5, 2014.

Red Hook's Mask + Van Incident

Killers in ski-masks, and as clowns, Jokers, and Bane haunt this year.

Masked mass shooters in vans, theaters, malls, and schools are nothing new.

Now comes a report from last week of the old classic masked uncaught potential child kidnapper (akin to the "phantom clowns"), this time from Red Hook, New York.

Sandy Hook, Red Hook.

Masks. White vans.

On December 19, 2012 at approximately 8:41 pm the Red Hook Police Department were dispatched to West Market Street for a report of a suspicious vehicle with the driver wearing a black ski mask.
A parent and her child were traveling Westbound on West Market Street returning home from a school event when she began to notice a white full-sized van she was following was traveling at an extremely slow speed past the schools. The caller stated that when she began to follow the white van he pulled over on Rt. 199 just south of the Red Hook High School. The caller stated that when she and her daughter drove past the white van they notice the driver wearing a dark jacket and wearing a black ski mask. Source.

BTW, some really scary masks are being produced out there.

Thanks to Anonymous for alerting me to this report.

11th of 9/11: V for Vengeance

by Loren Coleman ©2012

The 11th anniversary of 9/11 was dangerous and tragic. The symbolism of 11s has been significant to terrorists for years (which I detailed in The Copycat Effect). Thus, I was upset to see what unfolded, but I was not startled.

The sign reads, "Remember Your Black Day 11 September," 

placed during protests in Cairo, Egypt, on September 11, 2012.

That the Guy Fawkes mask should show up in the middle of the new Arab protests is synchromystically surprising, as well. (I am pondering, again, what I wrote in my exchange with Guy Edwards about these Guy Fawkes/V for Vendetta masks, see here, under #1.)

Egyptian protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks pose for a photo 

in front of graffiti on a wall of the U.S. embassy during a protest 

in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, September 11, 2012. Photo Nasser Nasser.

By the end of September 12, 2012, the official Obama administration position was that an allegedly spontaneous mob in Libya, said to be angry over an YouTube video criticizing Islam, was used as a cover. A coordinated, planned terrorist attack on the Libyan diplomatic mission on the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks allegedly occurred. (On September 12th, protests in the Muslim world had spread to Tunisia, Morocco, and Sudan, with upcoming worldwide gatherings planned for Friday, September 14, 2012. The embassies in Armenia, Burundi, Kuwait, Sudan, Tunisia and Zambia, along with the embassy in Egypt, which was hit by a protest on Tuesday, all issued warnings on Wednesday advising Americans to be particularly vigilant.)

Sadly, the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, 52, was killed when he died from smoke inhalation in the fire begun by rocket attacks causing the burning of the embassy. Two (as yet) unidentified U.S. Marines and a Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, 34, were apparently shot and died.

The timing of the attack appears to happened after, first, a protest occurred at the US embassy in Egypt. Although four were photographed together, at least one Guy Fawkes masked individual appears in various photos of that event (below).

Clearly the Guy Fawkes mask was part of these 9/11 Egyptian protests.

Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, September 11, 2012. Egyptian protesters, largely ultra conservative Islamists, have climbed the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, went into the courtyard and brought down the flag, replacing it with a black flag with Islamic inscription, in protest of a film deemed offensive of Islam, according to the Associated Press. 

Photo: Mohammed Abu Zaid.

Were any demonstrators seen with Guy Fawkes masks in Libya?

A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask during an anti-war demonstration on March 13, 2012, in Beirut, Lebanon. The sign reads: "War again? Are you serious?" 

Photo: Marwan Tahtah.

A protester, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, stands in front of Egyptian military police standing guard near the Ministry of Defense in the Abbassiya district of Cairo on April 20, 2012. 

Photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghan.

A Palestinian protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask gestures as he stands near a burning effigy of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during a demonstration against the high cost of living on Tuesday, September 4, 2012, in Hebron, Palestine. 

Photo: Mussa Qawasma.

The Guy Fawkes masks have come into use since 

the 2006 film, V for Vendetta, was released. 

Little imitation of the "V" character occurred after the Alan Moore graphic novel began appearing in 1982. It was the movie adaption V for Vendetta's mass-produced masks that began the copycats. "V" was portrayed as a mysterious masked revolutionary who worked to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encountered.

The "vendetta" has merged into vengeance, revenge, and anarchy protests of all kinds. The masks have been used to hide the identities of Occupy Wall Street protesters, as well as people representing Anonymous at Scientology demonstrations in Los Angeles, London, and other locations. Now it has moved into the Arab Fall protests.

The first Guy Fawkes masks were employed to depict the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot who attempted to blow up London’s Palace of Westminster in 1605. Although the original plotters were unsuccessful, Fawkes has remained infamous due to the yearly festivals in the United Kingdom, where effigies of Guy Fawkes (often with homemade masks) are burnt on fires across the nation. 

The famed children's rhyme, along with the yearly November 5th bonfires, was an official government attempt to have the population realize that terrorism and treason would be harshly punished. But in recent years, Guy Fawkes has become a folk anti-hero.

Don't you Remember,

The Fifth of November,

'Twas Gunpowder Treason Day,

I let off my gun,

And made'em all run.

And Stole all their Bonfire away. 

(1742)

Thanks to CLK for the initial idea for this sync photo essay.