Friday, March 30, 2018

Sirius Rising In the Days of Synchromysticism




"John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were not assassinated; they were ritually sacrificed."


So begins the liner notes of Jim Brandon's newly released 2018 revised edition of his audio book from 1974-1975, Sirius Rising, which has a new subtitle, Mr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson.

The time does seem correct for Sirius Rising. Specifically, the work, by "coincidence" appears now, on the anniversary of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan (March 30, 2018), right before Easter Sunday (April 1, 2018), and on the way to the anniversary of the killing of a King, Martin Luther King (April 4, 2018). This all is an appropriate temporal sync.

Before Brandon became well-known in Fortean circles for his classics, Weird America (1978) and The Rebirth of Pan (1983), he had created and shared with associates a now long-unavailable and difficult-to-obtain tape of his interviews with James Shelby Downard (March 13, 1913 – March 16, 1998). Yes, it was a reel-to-reel tape.



Brandon characterizes Downard as a "quasi-spiritual visionary who pioneered or advanced the mind-bending and spellbinding disciplines of 'mystical toponomy' and 'synchromysticism.'"

While some have talked only of Downard's work as that of a "conspiracy theorist" and a "mad genius," there is a core group, including Jim Brandon, Adam Parfrey, Michael Hoffman, Jim Keith, Adam Gorightly, Greg Bishop, Michael Bell, SMiles Lewis, Kenn Thomas, and me, Loren Coleman, who have framed Downward in the broader context of a Fortean examining the mysteries of the world cryptopolitically.

Jim Brandon, with all due credit to me and others, will soon expand the ranks of those discussing Downard to include a growing generation of synchromystics. I predict this CD will be played and pondered by a wide range of thoughtful researchers and followers of twilight language, cryptokubrology, sync worlds, name games, discordian works, and more.



The power of Brandon's previous audiobook, Sirius Rising (1974-1975) remains apparent in modern materials about Downard, as evidenced, for example, by a recent documentary series by Mandate33 to Adam Parfrey's published output from Feral House.

(Update: Will the shocking death of Adam Parfrey at 61 on May 10, 2018, have a quieting effect on Feral House's published works? Parfrey was the first to publish Downard's "King Kill 33" in the first 1987 edition of Apocalypse Culture, but it was not in subsequent editions.)

Adam Gorightly's recent book on Downard has much to do with Sirius Rising, as well:


Downard contended that the Illuminati arranged that the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, would be a 33rd degree Mason.
Downard’s King Kill 33° draws upon a larger conspiratorial canon, which surfaced in an audiocassette series produced by Downard protégé William Grimstad in the mid 1970’s entitled Sirius Rising. According to author Robert Anton Wilson, Grimstad’s Sirius Rising presented the theory that “the Illuminati were preparing Earth, in an occult manner, for extraterrestrial contact.” Part of this magickal preparation consisted of the founding of Cal Tech, the home of Parson’s JPL, on the 33rd degree latitude, near the SoCal town of La Canada. Located in the same vicinity is the fabled Devil’s Gate Dam, where Parsons conducted O.T.O. rituals. ~ Adam Golightly (James Shelby Downard's Mystical War)

It is remarkable how many of the subjects in Sirius Rising have become the background and foreground talking points for today's synchromystics and Forteans, in print, online, via social media, in podcasts, and in visual contexts.

For example, nowadays most people take it for granted that Aleister Crowley, the events at Boleskine House, and Loch Ness would appear in the same linkages. The association  appears, perhaps for the first time, in the midst of Brandon's talking book. There are several gems to be mined in Downard's words.



Sirius Rising (2018) covers many topics that serve as dots that Downard and Brandon connect in their free-ranging discussions. These include:
- the killing of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King;
- sex magic;
- CERN;
- the killing of the king ritual;
- William Shakespeare's MacBeth/ Barbara Garson's MacBird;
- the Black Watch;
- Miss Chudleigh, the "Great Whore";
- Sir Francis Dashwood's Hellfire Club;
- Aleister Crowley;
- Loch Ness;
- "Scarlett Woman" Leila Waddell;
- Zorro;
- Ordo Templi Orientis;
- Jack Parson;
- Jet Propulsion Lab;
- Moon Child ritual;
- Lee Bouvier;
- Jacqueline Kennedy;
- Tres Hermanas / Three Sisters
- Kennedy Mountain;
- Johnson Mountain;
- Ruby Road;
- Alchemy;
- Jornada del Muerto / Journey of Death;
- 33 degree of latitude;
- Dealey Plaza;
- Dallas, Texas;
- Trinity River;
- Egyptian Masonry;
- Memphis;
- Mizraim;
- Little Egypt;
- Rite of Memphis;
- Scottish Rite of Freemasonry;
- Albert Pike;
- Coyote;
- Mt. Palomar;
- Orange Court;
- Phoenix;
- Rancho Sante Fe;
- Hotel del Carco;
- J. Edgar Hoover;
- Knights Templar;
- Ley Lines;
- Cal Tech;
- Jules Verne;
- Cape Canaveral;
- Star Cities;
- Jupiter;
- Sirius;
- Apollo 11;
- Trinity Site;
- Homunculus;
- Vacaville;
- SLA;
- Naga; and
- Patty Hearst.

Quite a list, and the connections to items of interest that continue to be discussed today are significant.


Highly recommended. (LOOK FOR COPIES ON EBAY.)

Sirius RisingMr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson (© 2018) by Jim Brandon.

A new CD, with a new introduction and new eight-page booklet by Jim Brandon. Contains the original 1974-1975 recordings obtain by Brandon of several interviews with James Shelby Downard.

The titles of the 8 tracks are:
1. Mr. Downard speaks - Jim Brandon updates.
2. The matrix of symbols.
3. 'Voici le temps des assassins' (A. Rimbaud)
4. 23 Skidoo...plus 10.
5. Little Egypt is bigger than ever.
6. Memphis belle to Scarlett Woman of Revelation.
7. Amerika Alkhemika?
8. A spyshop Phoenix.

SORRY....

Sirius Rising (2018) is NO LONGER available THROUGH JIM BRANDON.



[This review is an independent critique. ~ Loren Coleman.]




Monday, March 26, 2018

The Most Dangerous Time of Year

The April 2, 2018, issue of Time has on the cover the image of five of the student survivors who organized the March for Our Lives. They are among the twenty students who cofounded Never Again MSD (MSD refers to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) in the wake of the death of 17 on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2018.

Details about each of the pictured individuals are to be found in "The New Children's Crusade," that I wrote on March 2.


Jaclyn Corin, Alex Wind, Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, and David Hogg


The March for Our Lives was a student-led demonstration that took place on March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C., with over 800 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world. According to data from Getty Images, more than 830 demonstrations took place.

With two million marching across the United States, it was the largest student protest in American history, one of the largest marches on Washington in history, and the second largest march in American history, with millions more estimated to have marched throughout the world.

Wikipedia summarizes the rally, thusly:





The speakers—all of whom were high schoolers or younger—included Marjory Stoneman Douglas students Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, Delaney Tarr, Sarah Chadwick, Alex Wind, Jaclyn Corin, Ryan Deitsch, Aalayah Eastmond, Sam Fuentes, and Emma González. Other participants included Naomi Wadler, who is an elementary school student in Alexandria, Virginia​, Trevon Bosley from Chicago whose brother was shot and killed leaving church, Edna Chavez, a high school student from Los Angeles, and Zion Kelly, whose twin brother was shot and killed during an armed robbery. Yolonda Reene King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., also made an appearance along with Mya Middleton, a student from Chicago, Matt Post, a senior from Montgomery County, Christopher Underwood, an 11-year old from New York, Alex King and D'Angelo McDade from Chicago, and Matthew Soto, brother of Sandy Hook victim Victoria Soto.
González, after briefly speaking and naming the 17 victims, stood silent for over four minutes, after which a cellphone alarm went off and she announced that it was the six minute and twenty second point in her speech, equal to the length of the Parkland shooting. Her speech and emotional moment of silence was praised by many media organizations as one of the "most memorable" and "powerful" moments in the day's events. González ended her speech by saying:
Since the time that I came out here, it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds, The shooter has ceased shooting, and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job. [The footnote is #237, thus giving this quote a bit of cryptokubrology magic. ~ Loren]
Singers Ariana Grande, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, Andra Day, Common, and Demi Lovato joined student-led marchers in Washington, D.C. Source.













The next mass student demonstration comes on April 20, 2018, the anniversary date of Columbine (1999). Traditionally, this week in April has is the most dangerous week of the year for school shootings and mass violence. 

The Red Zone of April: A Dangerous Time

April 14-5

1865 – On the eve of the fifth day of Passover, April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and died of his wounds in the early morning of April 15th, which had already been scheduled as a national day of prayer to mark the end of the Civil War. Jews across the land were gathering in synagogues to give thanks. When news of Lincoln's death arrived, the synagogue altars were quickly draped in black and, instead of Passover melodies, the congregations chanted Yom Kippur hymns. Lincoln had been protective of American Jewry, overturning General Grant's infamous General Order #11 expelling Jews from the Department of the Tennessee and supporting legislation allowing Jewish chaplains to serve in the military.


April 15

2013 – The Boston Marathon bombing was a terrorist attack, followed by subsequent related shootings, that occurred when two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Six died in the events, and 280 injured, some with loss of legs and arms.

April 16
73 – Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Great Jewish Revolt.
1947 – French freighter S.S. Grandcamp explosion loaded with ammonium nitrate docked at the Port of Texas City, Texas, and erupted in flames, causing a massive explosion that killed at least 581 people.
1995 – George W. Bush names April 16 as Selena Day in Texas, after she was killed two weeks earlier.

2007 – Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho guns down 32 people and injures 17 before dying by suicide.

April 17

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1978 – Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking a communist coup d'état in Afghanistan.
1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People's Bureau (Embassy) in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.
2006 – A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

April 18

1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere, William Dawes (above) and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements. (The syncinematic film, 2009's Knowing has student Caleb Koestler - a name game there - going to the fictional William Dawes Elementary, located in 1959 Lexington.)
1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
2007 – A series of bombings, two of them being suicides, occur in Baghdad, killing 198 and injuring 251.
2013 – A suicide bombing in a Baghdad cafe kills 27 people and injures another 65.
2013 – Fertilizer plant explosion, West, just north of Waco, Texas, killed 15 killed and about 200 injured. Eighty homes and a middle school are leveled.

    April 19

    Blood Sacrifice to the Beast. Fire sacrifice is required for this specific date.
    1775 – Battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. This is the actual anniversary of the battles, even though the observance has become a date tied to the third Monday in April.
    1897 – First running of the Boston Marathon, with marathons named after the Greek Battle of Marathon. 

    1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
    1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
    1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
    1995 – Richard Wayne Snell, a convicted murderer, member of the white supremacist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), is executed in Arkansas. Snell was involved in filming the planes that landed at the restricted airport in Mena, Arkansas, believed by many conspiracy theorists to be used in a CIA-sanctioned cover-up to smuggle drugs into America. Snell had been accused of plotting to bomb the Murrah Building in the 1980s. Snell reportedly watched televised reports of the Oklahoma City bombing on the day of his execution and nodded in approval. 
    2013 – Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured while hiding in a boat inside a backyard in Watertown, Massachusetts.

    April 20 

    1889 – Adolf Hitler, Austrian-German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1945) is born
    1939 – Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday is celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany.
    1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
    1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
    1971 – According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, he found the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School in 1971, among the Waldos. They would meet every day after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. One of the Waldos notes, "We did discover we could talk about getting high in front of our parents without them knowing by using the phrase 420." By extension now, April 20 ("4/20" in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. 
    1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 is shot down by the Soviet Union. 

    1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 13 people and injured 21 others before dying by suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
    2007 – Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.

    2015 – A substitute teacher was killed at the Joan Fuster School in the La Sager neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain, by a 13-year-old student with a crossbow and machete. Four other people were injured.

    April 21 
    1506 – The three-day Lisbon Massacre comes to an end with the slaughter of over 1,900 suspected Jews by Portuguese Catholics.
    1985 – The compound of the militant group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord surrenders to federal authorities in Arkansas after a two-day government siege.

    April 22 
    2004 – Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
    2013 – Six people die in a shooting in Belgorod, Russia.
    2013 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrest and charge two men with plotting to disrupt a Toronto area train service in a plot claimed to be backed by Al-Qaeda elements.
    2014 – More than 60 people are killed and 80 are seriously injured in a train crash in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Katanga Province.
    2016 – The one-month anniversary of three suicide bombers killing 35 people and injuring 316 in the 2016 Brussels bombings at the airport and at the Maelbeek/Maalbeek metro station.

    April 23
    303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and martyr (b. 275) dies
    St George's Day (England) and its related observances
    1343 – St. George's Night Uprising commences in the Duchy of Estonia.
    1968 – Timothy James McVeigh, who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in 1995, on April 19, was born. He is executed on June 11, 2001.

    April 24
    1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.

    April 25
    1946 – Naperville train disaster kills 47 in Naperville, Illinois.
    1965 – Teenage sniper Michael Andrew Clark kills three and wounds six others shooting from a hilltop along Highway 101 just south of Santa Maria, California.
    2005 – One hundred seven people die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.
    2010 – Joseph McVey, 23, from Ohio, is arrested with a shotgun, in a car made to look like a police vehicle with working lights and sirens in the Asheville, NC airport parking lot, when President Obama and his family were departing in Air Force One.

    April 26
    1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.
    1894 – Birthdate of Rudolf Walter Richard Heß, also spelled Hess, who was a prominent politician in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, he served in this position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland. Neo-nazi "celebrations" have been held for him in Germany, on the date of his death, August 17, but some indications are that his birthdate is acknowledged, as well.
    1982 – Fifty-seven people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.
    2002 – Robert Steinhäuser, 19, infiltrates the Gutenberg-Gymnasium (a secondary school) in Erfurt, Germany. He stalked the halls, and killed 12 teachers, an administrator, two students, one policeman, and wounded 10 other people before he killed himself. Seventeen people in total died.

    April 27
    711 – Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
    1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (The "shores of Tripoli" part of the Marines' Hymn).
    2011 – The April 25–28 tornado outbreak devastates parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Two hundred five tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.
    2012 – At least four explosions hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk with at least 27 people injured.
    2014 – A tornado outbreak over much of the eastern United States kills 35 people.

    April 28
    1192 – Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin.
    1949 – The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.
    1978 – President of Afghanistan, Mohammed Daoud Khan, is overthrown and assassinated in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
    1996 – Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.

    April 29
    1429 – Joan of Arc (tied to name game, Fay/Fairy/Beech) arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans.
    1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun died by suicide the following day.

    April 30
    1945 – World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun die by suicide after being married for less than 40 hours. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building. 

    2009 – Eight people are killed and another ten injured at a Queen's Day parade in Netherlands in an attempted assassination on Queen Beatrix and members of the Royal Family. The attack occurred at the De Naald (in English The Needle), which is the obelisk monument in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn. The car of the assailant, identified as Richard Karst Tates, ended up crashed at the base of the obelisk.


    2009 – Azerbaijan State Oil Academy shooting: Twelve people were killed (students and staff members) by an armed attacker.

    Beltaine Festival - April 30-May 1. Walpurgis Night. This is the highest day on the Druidic Witch's Calendar. May 1 is the Illuminati's second most sacred holiday. Human sacrifice is required.
    +++++++++++++++++

    Bridget Brown of Toronto's Canadian TV online edition wrote the following on October 4, 2006:
    Coleman says violent offenders, intent on shocking the public, sometimes "compete for the highest body count."...the copycat crimes will likely slow down as we near winter. He says spring, and the anniversary of Columbine, could be enough to spark another cycle of tragedy.
    Here's a snippet from Montana's Daily Inter Lake, for October 5, 2006:
    There is also the influence of cable news to be accounted for, as wall-to-wall coverage of shootings and murder could easily sway sick minds to think of killers as culture heroes. Indeed, researcher Loren Coleman believes copycats imitate previous violent attacks on a regular basis. He says school attacks follow a pattern after a media event in a day, a week, two weeks, a month, a year, or 10 years. "Vulnerable humans have internal media clocks," he maintains.
    "Killers often pick special dates for their attack," April 17, 2009 by Trish Crawford, in Toronto Star
    ...Loren Coleman is worried, because mass killers often choose special dates and anniversaries for their carnage. The killers at Columbine did, by picking the birthday of one of history's monsters.
    The author of The Copycat Effect (Simon & Schuster) says the amount of attention this anniversary gets may determine whether any other disaffected males bent on vengeance pick April 20 for their act of destruction.
    "Anniversaries can be dangerous," Coleman says. "These individuals compete with each other."
    ...Coleman called schools "a fish bowl setting with a vulnerable population."
    ...The killers are uniformly "homicidal, suicidal, sexually dysfunctional males" who feel powerless and blame others for their problems. Attacking school students – young girls are favored targets – makes these people feel powerful and strong, Coleman says.
    Michael Hoffman III, being interviewed for "Cereal Murder and the Group Mind" in 2000, notes:
    There is an occult nose-thumbing at the bottom of many of these twilight language cereal murders, such as Jack the Ripper - poking fun at the investigators and the public because so many don't get the black comedy at the heart of it. It's a feeling of superiority magnified exponentially. 


    Sunday, March 25, 2018

    Tulum/Zama: Dawn Again



    Tulum (Yucatec: Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city serving as a major port for Cobá, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a tourist mecca. I journeyed there in the early 1980s, to interview Mayans and Mexicans about their sightings of the little people, the Alux. (See my and Patrick Huyghe's field guide.)

    This Maya site may formerly have been known by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn, because it faces the sunrise. Tulum stands on a bluff facing east toward the Caribbean Sea. Tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for fence, wall or trench.

    Dawn Name Game

    The name Dawn has been in the news lately. 

    Blast #4 of the Austin, Texas, bombs, taking place on Sunday, March 18, 2018, took place in the 4800 block of Dawn Song Drive

    Also on March 18, an Israeli security guard Adel Kolman was killed by a Palestinian terrorist near the entrance to Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. The guard was from the West Bank settlement of Kochav Shachar. Shachar means '"dawn" and kochav means "star." The meaning in English is "Dawn Star."

    As readers here are rather aware, bizarre accidents, weird crimes and mass violence has touched lives through the names Aurora (which means "dawn") and Dawn.

    Some recent Aurora examples are:

    Aurora Genai Sheffel, March 25, 2017. Crushed by a log.

    Aurora Buol-Smith, March 5, 2017. Her son, who said he was a werewolf, stabbed his mother, whom he said was a vampire, to death.

    Aurora Avenue, Urbandale, IA, November 2, 2016. Two police officers are gunned down.

    Of course, my many examinations of this thread go back to "Aurora: Synchromystic Wonderland" and "Red Dawn Again" in July 2012.

    Zama/Tulum



    On March 23, 2018, a family of four were from Creston, Iowa, found mysteriously deceased in a Tulum condo.  They may have been dead for 36 to 48 hours. The condo was at Tao, near Akumal, a tourist-friendly beachfront community. Located between Tulum and Playa del Carmen, Akumal mean "Land of turtles."

    Kevin Wayne Sharp, 41; wife Amy Marie Sharp, 38; Sterling Wayne Sharp, 12, and Adrianna Marie Sharp, 7, were found dead inside the condo Friday, March 23, 2018, after their immediate family members had reported them missing to local police when the Sharps did not return to the United States on Wednesday as originally planned.

    Please note, Kevin and Sterling both have the "classic middle name" of "Wayne" that Weird News' Chuck Shepherd ties to sinister matters.

    On March 24, 2018, after autopsies by Mexican authorities, the cause of death was declared to by asphyxiation of toxic gas. “Any violent act or suicide has been discounted,” authorities said.


    h/t S. Hunter

    Thursday, March 22, 2018

    I-35: Highway to Hell

    People have emotional relationships with the highways on which they have to drive often. Interstate 35 is one such road. Writer Sherry Claypool Kuehl once called I-35 "Satan's Parking Lot."



    Let's look at it as a "highway to hell" in the wake of the Austin bombings and a quick reflection on its troublesome history.



    This map by "Jenny Almond" was originally published on February 5, 2018, on Merovee's blog.  It showed predictive insights regarding the Austin bombings. For example, bomber Mark Anthony Conditt's suicide occurred in Round Rock, which is visible on her map.



    Other items that Jenny Almond and Tom Mellett have noted should be added to the map include:



    ~ The Alamo, The Battle of the Alamo, San Antonio, February 23 – March 6, 1836;



    ~ The Ebola outbreak at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, October 12, 2014;

    ~ The Smiley Face Balloon Crash, near Lockhart, 30 miles south of Austin, July 30, 2016.

    Considering how finite the limits of Almond map are, it is intriguing to note how many of the Boyms' "Buildings of Disaster" are represented on her graph.


    Texas School Book Depository, November 22, 1963.




    University of Texas Tower, Austin, August 1, 1966.




    Waco, Texas, April 19, 1993.





    Oklahoma City Federal Building, April 19, 1995.



    Texas A&M Bonfire Tower, November 8, 1999


    Interstate 35 is closely tied to the controversy surrounding the so-called NAFTA superhighway. 

    "The proposed Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road project included one proposal (TTC-35) to primarily parallel I-35 from the Mexican border up to the Oklahoma border." Source.



    Interstate 29 and Interstate 35, described by the Ministry of Transportation for the province of Alberta as the "NAFTA superhighway."

    Perhaps we need to watch I-35 a bit more closely.

    For example, notice Ardmore, Oklahoma is on I-35. That's the childhood home of James Shelby Downard, which blogger Matt Forney wrote was "a town straight out of a David Lynch movie: wholesome on the outside but hiding deep dark secrets."

    Between 1967 and 1972, "The Enema Bandit" (see Michael H. Kenyon) terrorized Norman, Oklahoma (which sits right on I-35).

    The I-35 corridor in this part of the country may be "Satan's Parking Lot," after all.






    Wednesday, March 21, 2018

    Mark Anthony Conditt ~ Why?

    Why did the Austin bomber set off his bombs? It appears to be a question that will linger for days.

    One clue may exist in the map, and various maps of the bombing in context have been created.

    Source: Secret Sun






    A man who police believe carried out a string of package bombings in Austin is dead, putting an end to a weekslong hunt to track down and stop the bomber who had the Texas capital and its residents on edge. 

    Conditt at the FedEx counter.


    Law enforcement officials, who identified the suspect as 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt, said they traced the white male to a hotel in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, about 20 miles north of the city. In a confrontation with the police, the suspect detonated a device and died, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. Shots were fired during the encounter with police.

    Conditt, via Facebook.

    Conditt detonated one final bomb in his car.

    The Round Rock motel where Conditt was staying.


    Mark Anthony Conditt

    Mark Anthony Conditt Reportedly ID'd as Austin Bomber

    Blew himself up after police chase early Wednesday morning.



    Mason-Dixon

    “I have this idea I haven't been putting out publicly...but screw it. The guy doesn't have time to watch FB with all he's doing. If you didn't catch, the 3rd one was meant for Erica Mason, across the street from the lady who's doorstep it was on (she was carrying it to her). 1st was House family, son of Rev. Dixon. 2nd and 3rd--Mason. "Mason-Dixon" as in line :-( and 4th was on a street that was hidden well enough from traffic to set it up...traffic from the feeder street, Republic of Texas Blvd. So...yeah.” ~ Debbie Russell (with comments)

    Mark

    Mark is a common male given name and is derived from old Latin "Mart-kos", which means "consecrated to the god Mars", and also may mean "God of war" or "to be warlike". Marcus was one of the three most common given names in Ancient Rome. See Roman given names.

    Aries dates in astrology are March 21 to April 19. If your birthday falls in this date range, you have an Aries Sun sign. Although Aries horoscope birth dates can change depending on the year, these are typically the Ariescalendar dates. For about 30 days each year, the Sun travels through the part of the zodiac occupied by ...

    Marcus Antonius (Latin: M·ANTONIVS·M·F·M·N; January 14, 83 BC – August 1, 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony or Marc Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from an oligarchy into the autocratic Roman Empire.

    Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar, and served as one of his generals during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War. Antony was appointed administrator of Italy while Caesar eliminated political opponents in Greece, North Africa, and Spain. After Caesar's death in 44 BC, Antony joined forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another of Caesar's generals, and Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, forming a three-man dictatorship known to historians as the Second Triumvirate. The Triumvirs defeated Caesar's murderers, the Liberatores, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, and divided the government of the Republic between themselves. Antony was assigned Rome's eastern provinces, including the client kingdom of Egypt, then ruled by Cleopatra VII Philopator, and was given the command in Rome's war against Parthia.

    Conditt

    Condit(t) may be a topographical name for a dweller by a water channel, from the Old French word "conduit," Middle English "condit, cundit," which was originally an artificial channel or pipe for conveying water, and later was the term applied to a structure from which water was distributed, a fountain or pump. Source

    Mark

    Mars (mythology)

    Not to be confused with the planet Mars.
    Mars: Pater of the Roman people, Guardian of soldiers and farmers, God of War, Destruction and Masculinity
    The Statue of Mars from the Forum of Nerva, 2nd century AD, based on an Augustan-era original that in turn used a Hellenistic Greek model of the 4th century BC, Capitoline Museums
    Symbol The spear of Mars ♂ (Spear and shield iconography)
    Personal information
    Consort Nerio and others like Rhea Silvia, Venus, Bellona
    Parents Jupiter and Juno
    Siblings Vulcan, Minerva, Hercules, Bellona, Apollo, Diana, Bacchus, etc.
    Greek equivalent Ares

    In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars (Latin: Mārs) was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming.

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    h/t SL, SM, CLK, SH

    Tuesday, March 20, 2018

    The Name Is Austin: Beware Texas and Maryland



    On March 20, 2018, news concentrated on two fronts tied to the name Austin in Texas and Maryland.

    The name Austin is an English name. Austin was developed in the Middle Ages from the Latin Augustine, meaning magic dignity, or venerable

    Austin Bombings Continue: FedEx Certainly, Goodwill Maybe


    From March 2 through March 18, 2018, four package explosions have occurred in Austin, Texas, resulting in two deaths. (See details here.)

    The earlier deaths of two men named House (March 2) and Mason (March 12) were from families who knew each other, and involved in community organizing.

    The location of the Dawn Song Drive explosion was near the home of a Latina activist.



    From the New York Times: "Eliza May said she was watching a TV show in her home when she heard what sounded like a transformer blowing up in her backyard. 'It sounded like when the transformers go out, but it was five times magnified that,' said Ms. May, who lives about 200 feet from where the explosion was said to have occurred."

    Bomb #5


    On March 20, during the hour after midnight, a package exploded on a conveyor belt at a FedEx shipping center at Schertz, near San Antonio, Texas. One employee was injured. 

    Bomb #6


    Hours after the San Antonio blast, police sent a bomb squad to a FedEx facility outside Austin's main airport to check on a suspicious package that was reported shortly before sunrise. Authorities roped off a large area around the shopping center in the enclave of Sunset Valley.

    The ATF Houston tweeted that the "two packages located at two separate FedEx facilities in Austin/San Antonio are on 3/20/2018 are connected to the four previous package explosions that occurred between 3/2 and 3/18 in Austin, TX."

    Device #7


    Around 7:00 pm, an incendiary device exploded, injuring one male, at a Goodwill Store in south Austin, on Brodie Lane, near Slaughter. 

    The police appear to be downplaying this incident, and some authorities are saying it was unrelated to the previous bombings.







    School Shooting

    A gunman who opened fire on students at Great Mills High School in Maryland was killed on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, after engaging an armed school resource officer.



    The shooter, Austin Wyatt Rollins, 17, was the only fatality. Police said Rollins used a handgun to shoot a 16-year-old female student, who was identified by family members as Jaelynn Willey. She remains in the ICU with life-threatening, critical injuries. A 14-year-old male was also shot by Rollins or the school resource officer, and is in stable condition.

    The school's resource officer, Deputy Blaine Gaskill, was alerted of the shooting, immediately responded, and killed Austin Wyatt Rollins.

    Great Mills High School is a comprehensive public high school of 1600+ students in grades 9-12. Great Mills High School was founded in 1929, as one of the original high schools in St. Mary's County, Maryland. It serves students at the confluence of the Potomac River, Patuxent River, and Chesapeake Bay. The ethnic population of the school reflects the community: 51% Caucasian, 40% African American, 5% Asian, 4% Hispanic, 1% other. At Great Mills High School, student athletes are known as the Hornets.



    h/t SHunter, SMiles, NVoid