A mishmash of informed snark, piquant opinions, refined nastiness, occasional schmaltz, & tawdry graphics, served up continuously since 2006 by COSMIC CONNIE, aka CONNIE L. SCHMIDT. Covering New-Age/New-Wage culture & crapitalism, pop spirituality & religion, pop psychology, self(ish)-help, alt-health hucksterism, conspiranoia, business babble, media silliness, Scamworld, politix, & related (or occasionally unrelated) matters of consequence.
Well, here we are on the Day After the End of
the World. No doubt many New-Wage ninnies are babbling about how
we've survived The Shift and are entering a bold new era for
humanity. And they have just the frauducts and flopportunities to
help us adjust to the new era. Yawn. I've heard it all before.
But today, on the Morning After, I was hit with the realization
that I have been serving an unbalanced diet for the past few
months. In focusing so heavily on Kevin True-dough and his
ex-b.f.f. Lenny Coldwell, I've been neglecting some of the other
hucksters who have colored my Whirled over the years. I'm not
through with Kevin or Lenny (despite my claim yesterday of burnout), but I came across a recent blog post from Joe "Mr.
Fire" Vitale, star of The Secret and legend in his own mind, that played on a theme I've often snarked
about... so I just couldn't let it go by.
The Obama administration has been criticized, mostly by Obama
haters of various stripes, for former White House Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel's remark, "You
never want a serious crisis to go to waste." The haters generally take that out of context,
neglecting the rest of the quotation, which is, "And what I
mean by that [is that] it's an opportunity to do things you
[thought] you could not do before." Well, I'll gladly take the incomplete version of the quote about not letting a good crisis
go to waste, and I'll apply it to
New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality gurus. Such as our Mr. Fire.
Joe's request seems simple and heartfelt on the surface. He's
simply asking you to send out good thoughts to the good folks of
Newtown. But then the megalomaniac comes out, as Joe begins to
list his previous "successes" with group intention.
Back in 2005 I asked you to help me
slow down Hurricane Rita, which was aimed at Texas right
after Katrina devastated New Orleans. As a result, Rita
dropped from a Category 5 to a Category 3. It didn’t even
rain in my area, which was under such threat that most of the
area had evacuated.
Never mind that parts of Louisiana and East
Texas were devastated by Hurricane Rita, and many people were
left homeless. It was not a benign storm. And the Texas Hill Country, where Joe lives, was
never in any real danger anyway. Joe sent a duplicate email to
stop Hurricane Ike in 2008, and while those of us who were
actually IN THE PATH OF IKE (unlike Joe) were dealing with power
outages and worse, Joe was merrily tweeting about how the storm
passed over his area once again. Here's my take on all of that.
Joe continues:
Later, I asked you to help clean up the
oil disaster in the Gulf. Shortly after my email, things
began to get better.
But Joe's powerful miracles don't end with wind-whisperin' and
oil-spill tamin'.
A year ago from this past summer I
asked you to help stop the Texas wildfires, which had
destroyed over 1,000 homes. Within minutes of my email, it
began to rain in some areas. It actually down poured over my
house. The fires all went out.
Um. Yeah. I'm SURE Mr. Fire's group intention
groupies were responsible for the rain and the immediate end (ha)
to the wildfires. Actually they didn't end immediately in his area -- and
never mind the OTHER MAJOR AREAS in Texas that were also
suffering. Like my area.
And then there's this:
A year ago, I asked you to help my
dying and bedridden other [sic; he meant his mother].
Within a week she was crawling out of her bed, unassisted,
getting into her wheelchair, and asking to watch TV. I saw
her last weekend. She wanted to sit and talk. It was
miraculous to see.
'Kay. I'm glad Joe's momma is doing better.
I've met her. She's a sweet lady. Although for a while Joe did
seem to be getting more mileage than was decent from that
"my mother is dying" theme, I cut him some slack
because I have been through this experience myself (only my
mother actually did die, five years ago, though I have
yet to be able to really write about it). I can tell you
firsthand that it is devastating to see a parent go downhill. But
still. Talking about group intentions and cause and effect in
this context just seems... well, exploitative. (And let's just
not mention that miracle yagyathat supposedly
saved Joe's "best friend of 20 years" a few years back.
That story is in his book, The Attractor Factor, along
with another story in another part of the book that mentions that
the person ended up dying, apparently not long after the yagya
miracle.)
But never mind all that. In his recent blog post, Joe assures us:
Twenty-three scientific studies have
shown that when groups of people meditate with the same
positive intention, they were able to measure positive
results in the world around them.
Yep. That's one of Joe's favorite claims, which
he has used more than once to to market his own group-intention
flopportunities. As it happens, those "scientific"
studies were all sponsored by groups and institutions related to
the late Maharishi's filthy-rich TM organization. I wrote at length about that (and Joe's "Miracles
Community") nearly four years ago.
"Oh, but Cosmic Connie, this is all a bunch of gratuitous
snarking!" a few of you may be saying. "Have you no
sense of decency? Can't you give this good man the benefit of the
doubt even for a moment? All Joe is asking in his recent blog
post is for people to use the technique of their choosing to send
love out to the people affected by the Sandy Hook school
shooting! He says it won't cost anyone a cent! He's not selling
anything!"
Well, my little naifs, first of all, Joe is always
selling something, so I win that part of the argument by default.
Secondly, if you read the post you will notice how he names several techniques for which he
sells infoproducts. Just because he doesn't provide links in that
particular blog post doesn't mean that he isn't trying to sell
you something.
And so it goes: the big sick machine hums on and on. And on. Our
big old world is still spinning, and we won't be seeing the end to
Scamworld any time soon -- even if (and it seems like kind of a
big if at this point) Mr. Fire's b.f.f. Kevin Trudeau
ends up in the joint.
* * * * *
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
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Well, Dear Ones, once again I have been away
from my Whirled for a few weeks, due to work and other
distractions. Those "other distractions" include the
adoption of still more four-legged babies. It's really kind of
amazing. At this time last year, due to the deaths in recent
years of some of our elderly animals, such as Noelle and Coca -- and the loss of one
who died of cancer before his time, Rex -- we were down to two
dogs and two cats. But 2012 has been a busy year, and we now have
six dogs, four cats, and not-quite-a-donkey (regarding the
latter, we still need to get some pasturing issues straightened
out). We're also babysitting a friend's three dogs while he's up
north for a couple of weeks, so it's very noisy around our house,
as you can imagine. And the yard is a mess.
Despite the lack of new posts, there have been
some behind-the-scenes goings-on related to my blog and other
blogs and discussion forums on which I have participated. Some of
you may know that for the past couple of months I've been getting
some blowback (in the form of threats and actionable lies) from an angry little German man whom I first wrote about this
past May. And I haven't even written
about the worst that is known about him, but my pal Salty Droid has. (Here's a link to all of Salty's tagged posts about that
subject.) Steam has been coming out of
the little man's ears, and he has been threatening to sue all of
his critics. He even recently told a little fib about his lawyer
going after Salty, when it turns out that apparently Salty is the
one who initiated the contact. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but it appears that the conversation went pretty well for Salty.
More recently, Bernie O'Mahony of GINtruth.com wrote a piece about the
little Teutonic twerp. Since the latter
formerly considered Bernie a brother-in-arms in the fight against
serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's Global Information Network (GIN), I can only imagine the sort of waves the GINtruth
piece has been causing. Follow the link to Bernie's post -- you
really should, if you've not done so already -- and you'll see a
private message that the enraged not-doctor sent to Bernie: a
message that reveals more about the little man's true nature than
just about anything that anyone else could write about him.
Here's an excerpt from another private message from the not-doc to
Bernie (unedited):
And by the way I have hundreds of
thousands of testimonials and thank you letters emails and
video testimonials and what do these losers have??? / I am
rich like shit and everybody that gets in my way will be
paying legally the price... believe me it will finish
everybody involved financially I dont care about money --
just ask Peter how much cash I showed him in my house. I deal
with numbers that you cannot even fathom...
Meanwhile, Kevin Trudeau himself is apparently lounging somewhere in Europe
-- Switzerland, at last report -- while the FTC and other
agencies continue to build their various cases against him, as
they have been doing for years. It's like road work; it never
really getsfinished but it keeps a bunch of people employed. July through early
December of this year was just one continuance after another in
the FTC's civil case that has been going on since 2003. But so
far, Trudeau is not in jail (despite the FTC's recommendation for incarceration), and he continues to run his GIN scam
from somewhere in the Alps or wherever. Or maybe he's hiding out
in a little hole of an apartment in Chicago. Who knows?
This is not to say he won't end up in jail eventually. But up till now it's been one big long game of Catch Me If You Can... and apparently they can't.
I hate to say this, but I am almost coming to the point where I
don't really even care all that much. There have been so many
various predictions about when and where True-dough's scamming
days will end that I am suffering from a serious case of
prediction fatigue. I am coming close to getting burned out on
the whole topic of GIN and KT. For one thing, I'm not even receiving the court
documents any more, which may be because I ticked off my source
(who happens to be a pal and bidness partner of the little German not-doc). Oh,
well. Easy come, easy go. Others are on the case now, including my pal Salty, so I don't
feel such an obligation to report every little detail.
Anyway, I apologize, to any of you who might have been waiting
for something, for not tending my Whirled very frequently during
the month of December. But don't worry; I'm still here. And I'm
not going anywhere. I still have tons of stuff to write about:
half finished posts, back-burner items, and so forth. And I will
get to them, sooner or later. It's just that I do have (paying)
work to tend to, as well as all of those extra mouths to feed.
And the holidays are here. It's all good, as the people who like to say "It's all
good" are always saying.
So don't fret; it is not the end of the Whirled. I do want to
take this opportunity to wish a Happy Solstice to my friends
everywhere -- Winter to those of you in the North, and Summer to
those of you in the South. And to all a good night... or day,
depending upon where you are. Why, it's almost night here now, and in some parts of the world,
it's already tomorrow.
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
Looks like KT blew off his hearing
with the FTC, but they are cool with that, they asked him if
maybe he wouldn't mind making an appointment with them on Dec
5th, if it isn't too much trouble for him of course. They
understand how busy he is scamming gullible people, they wouldn't
want to impose on him. Guess what, he's not a fugitive, there is
no jail time pending and nobody on either side of this case seems
to care about it as much as the victims of KT's scams. ~ Tim Donohoe, on a Facebook forum
Yeah, what my friend Tim said. As many may know
by now, the latest development in the saga of Kevin Trudeau v the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is that there is yet another
continuance, this time until December 5, 2012, at 10:00 AM.
Trudeau is reportedly still in Switzerland, but all projections
and speculations and excited buzz about his being a
"fugitive" are apparently off base. Contrary to what I
had been previously told (and I did actually ask, though
apparently I didn't ask the right people), Trudeau is not
required to be present at these scheduled hearings involving this
civil case.
A criminal contempt case has been looming over his head in regard
to this case -- that seems to be the part he's specifically
fighting, in addition to that $37.6 million fine -- but
essentially it is a civil case and, even though the fugitive
scenario would make a more interesting story, at this point he
simply is not officially a fugitive from justice. Since he
has not been forbidden to travel outside the U.S., he is free to
stay in Switzerland for the time being and continue to push his Global
Information Network (GIN) scam
throughout Europe and beyond.
Here's one of the bits that bothers me about that latest docket
entry:
Trudeau's Motion to Strike Mora
Declaration (Doc. 500) is granted in part. The court strikes
and will ignore the portions of the Mora declaration that
contain improper argument.
What parts of Mora's argument will be
considered "improper," I wonder? The bit about alleged
money laundering in the casino? Or one of numerous other
suspicious activities outlined in recent FTC briefs? (See link in
next paragraph.) I breathlessly await the answer to that
question.
And in case you are wondering who Mora is, that would be one
Michael P. Mora, Attorney for the Plaintiff, the Federal Trade
Commission. You can see one of the relevant recent documents
(10/15/12) here: http://saltydroid.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kevin-Trudeau-Fake-Poor.pdf
Not being a legal eagle, I wondered what a "sur-reply"
is, so I looked it up. Here is what I found:
Sur-reply is an additional reply to
a motion filed after the motion has already been fully
briefed. For example, a legal document such as a motion
is filed by one party (filing party) requesting the court
to enter an order. The other party (responding party)
responds to the motion. The filing party then replies to
the responding party's response. Some courts allow the
responding party to file a sur-reply to the filing
party's reply to the responding party's response.
Well, that clears things up! It sounds to me like just more b.s.
and paper shuffling and stalling. This could go on indefinitely,
and probably will.
After all, this one case has been going on since 2003. I have in
my possession a PDF of the docket from 2003 through October 30,
2012, which was the date that the continuance was granted till
November 20, 2012. So far that document is 51 pages long -- 51
pages! -- which, for those who like to keep track of these
things, is nearly as long as a 2007 police report for one of
Trudeau's most infamous ex-b.f.f.s.
For the past several months, that former b.f.f. has been rooting
for Trudeau's arrest and/or the end of GIN, and he has been
making constant inaccurate predictions about when it will all
occur. His current line, given the most recent round of
continuances, is that the FTC is useless, that the American
justice system is corrupt, and that he and another ex-KT buddy
wasted several months of their precious time cooperating with the
FTC in their efforts to get justice for KT's victims (and they
apparently include themselves among those vics).
Whenever I see anything from ex-KT buds implying that they are
trying to help the real victims of Trudeau's scamming ways, I am
reminded of OJ Simpson vowing to find
Nicole and Ron's real killer. (Here's a satirical piece on that.) I really wish the ex-KT buds would just cut the crap
and admit they are out for themselves and that their agenda is
twofold: revenge against their former cash cow (not the noblest
of reasons, but understandable), and promotion of their own
schemes and scams (not at all noble, and in fact pretty smarmy,
in my opinion, particularly since they are targeting those who
have already been hurt by GIN).
But then again, what do I know? After all, I am just a neurotic
nobody with a need for "artifial" recognition and a
Napoleon complex -- a person who has never done anything of
substance, and is not even educated or intelligent enough to
grasp the big picture on anything in life. Or so says a
self-proclaimed expert on these matters, and he has the fake
Ph.D.'s in psychology to back his assertions!
Click to enlarge
As for Kevin Trudeau, he's a slippery one, as I've noted several
times on this blog and on various Facebook forums. There are
almost never any neat and tidy endings to these Scamworld sagas.
(Salty Droid gives some perspective here and here.)
Admittedly, I too have gotten caught up in the End-Times-for-GIN
frenzy. Some of that was a bit premature. But from a larger
perspective it doesn't matter. I stand by my original assertions
about Kevin Trudeau and GIN, which I have been blogging about
since 2009: Trudeau is a serial scammer, GIN is a huge scam, and
even if Trudeau continues to get away with this and his many
other scams, that is not an exoneration at all. Contrary to what
some of Trudeau's most passionate defenders assert, the continued
survival of GIN does not prove that Trudeau and GIN are
legitimate. The continued survival of GIN, and Trudeau's
continued freedom to scam, will be nothing more than another
indication that the big, sick machine has
plenty of fuel and plenty of strength -- because, unfortunately,
there will always be more scammers, more suckers, and more
watchdogs who are either unwilling or have been rendered unable
to do their jobs.
But jeez... a 51-page docket, just for one civil case against
Kevin Trudeau. Knowing Trudeau and his long history of dodgy
business dealings, it is reasonable to assume that this is just
one of many, many cases against him. So if you've been holding
your breath waiting for immediate "justice" in this
case, you can start breathing again. And whatever you do, don't
listen to the siren songs of the ex-KT buds who pretend to be
looking out for your best interests. No matter how much smoke
they blow up your a$$ and how enthusiastically they
"edify" you, some of these people are, IN MY OPINION, just as bad as, if
not worse than, Kevin Trudeau.
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
As you probably know by now, KSHB-TV, the
Kansas City, Missouri NBC affiliate, aired an investigative story
by Emmy Award winning reporter Ryan Kath on Monday evening
(November 12), regarding Kevin Trudeau's scammy scheme, the Global
Information Network (GIN). Not
surprisingly, there's been a lot of buzz, both pro and con, about
the piece and its implications. In the increasingly unlikely
event that you haven't seen this story yet, here's the link
on the KSHB-TV web site. The comments
are as interesting as the story, so be sure to read those too.
A couple of nights after the first story was aired, Ryan Kath
presented a brief follow-up. Here's that link. You can also
get to it by clicking on the graphic at the top of this post.
Since our story aired, I've fielded
questions about whether Global Information Network will be
investigated. We spoke to a former federal prosecutor about
this possibility. He looked through the court documents that
raise questions about GIN's finances (money laundering,
etc.). He also said authorities would try to differentiate
between what he described as "sales puffery" (i.e.
"This is the greatest investment ever") vs.
specific promises of money not being fulfilled (i.e. claims
about $10K bonus payments, etc.). Credible evidence of the
latter is what could determine a criminal fraud case.
Abe
Husein, the Kansas City resident and
ex-GIN member who approached Ryan in the first place about this
story, and whose own GIN tale was showcased in the piece, wrote
that he and a few others are now working with local attorneys to
explore the possibility of a lawsuit centered around GIN's false
claims. Here is my response (if you'll pardon my quoting myself
at length; I'm just too lazy to reinvent the wheel at this
point):
...where potential criminal charges are
concerned, it seems to me (though of course I am not an
attorney) that Trudeau is a slippery one. He could
potentially get himself into all sorts of trouble with the
SEC and other authorities for doling out actual investment
advice or clearly presenting GIN as an investment or business
opportunity, and I imagine there are ways he could get into a
serious legal jam for unfulfilled promises of bonuses and so
forth. But I have noticed that he also uses all kinds of
disclaimers, both written and spoken, as well as a lot of
doublespeak, so perhaps he and his attorneys are banking on
that to keep criminal fraud charges at bay. (Just look at the
disclaimers on the GIN web site, for instance. They have
apparently been there from the beginning.)
As for the other claims and tall tales about the GIN council
and Trudeau's association with secret societies and the elite
of the world, I think he is really banking on free-speech
protection there. A few years ago, when he was still giving
interviews, he told the blogger who wrote the WalletPop blog that he can write and say anything he wants,
that he should have the right to tell people in all
seriousness that the moon is made of cheese -- and that this
right should be protected.
Setting aside the legal realities concerning the limits to free speech in marketing and
advertising copy, I think
Trudeau's statement indicates that he is more interested in
testing and pushing the limits of free speech protection than
of telling people the truth about anything.
Anyway, as far as legal action against that stupidity about
the GIN council is concerned, you may be running into a brick
wall, Abe. Or you may be setting a precedent. Who knows?
But there is always the weapon (or more accurately the tool)
of education, as well as snark and ridicule. In the long run,
these may be more effective than giving more money to
lawyers. Not that I am discouraging anyone from pursuing
legal remedy if they feel they have been defrauded, but
realize that this is not KT's first rodeo and he no doubt has
most of his bases covered where his tall tales and most of
his false claims are concerned.
However, at the very least he seems to be setting himself up
for more criminal contempt charges regarding the FTC matter,
so there is that small comfort. On the other hand, he
continues to exploit that situation to make his sheeple feel
sorry for him, and give him more money.
In any event, this story is far from over, and I am glad Ryan
and his colleagues are on it.
And I am glad. But as I noted in my remark --
and as Ryan seemed to be implying in his -- successful pursuit of
criminal charges regarding GIN's false claims could be a
challenge.
The reason I mentioned the GIN council and the secret societies
in my own remark was that there had been buzz on some of the
Facebook forums a few weeks ago suggesting that these lies could
possibly constitute criminal fraud. A couple of folks were even
suggesting mail fraud charges were a possibility, since some of
the promotional material was sent via direct mail (in addition to
being posted on the Internet or broadcast via infomercials).
However, given that the people suggesting the possibility of
criminal fraud charges for the tall tales were some who had their
own agendas in sucking in the ex-GIN, I took those suggestions
with a grain of pink Himalayan salt.
In any case, my sense is that specific (broken) promises about
payouts may be a better lawsuit target than the stupid stories
about the GIN council and whatnot. Then again, I am, as I noted,
not an attorney... so who knows?
One story can only do so much (but that may be a lot)
As I mentioned above, there's been a lot of buzz about this
story, pro and con. If the snippets I've seen quoted on various
Facebook forums are any indication, GIN defenders are working
overtime to discourage their peeps from reading the story. (Can
you say, "cult tactics," boys and girls?)
But even some anti-GIN/anti-KT forces seemed disappointed and a
little let down about the investigative story. Some noted that it
was only a little over eight minutes long, and couldn't have
possibly covered all of the bases in that time. Some seemed
disappointed that the airing of this story did not devastate GIN
and Trudeau in some very obvious way right off the bat.
Apparently some were expecting a nearly instantaneous end to GIN
as a result of this one story. (No doubt that was partly because
people such as not-Doctor Leonard Coldwell,
former b.f.f. to Kevin Trudeau but one of his loudest detractors
since he was reportedly forced out of GIN, was going on and on and on about
it for weeks before the story aired. He's been yapping nonstop
about how this story will be "the end of Kevin Trudeau and
the Global Information Network.")
First off, as I've harped about many times before, GIN is a big,
sick machine that is part of an even bigger and sicker machine,
and one story is not going to drive a stake into its heart. But I
think it's a very important story nevertheless.
Secondly, the story was obviously cut to fit the format of the
local news show. And there is no doubt that the project was given
a very thorough vetting by the station's legal department, which
may have cut it even more than originally intended. But I think
the fact that it happened at all is a victory. It is going viral
and the ex-GIN are giving it more legs than your normal
"local" investigative news story. So I would advise
people not to underestimate this effort.
Of course the backlash from Kool-Aid guzzlers was expected and so
far has been predictable, and very amusing. You can see some of
that on the KSHB-TV web site. Here's that link
again.
Besides the expected babble from pro-GIN and KT fans about how
the FTC or some other evil big force must have been behind the
news story, there has also been the expected grumbling about the
KSHB-TV news crew for going "underground" at the GIN
"Family Reunion" in Nashville. They were criticized
for being sneaky and underhanded, and for invading the privacy of
attendees, including those whose faces were blurred. They were
also criticized for being biased and having an agenda.
Yawn. It's much the same brand of criticism that gets slapped on
virtually every investigative news story that has ever been aired
or published, often from the targets themselves or from their
most devoted advocates. But in this case the target -- that would
be Trudeau -- didn't agree to an interview, so the news team had
to settle for speaking with some of the GIN guzzlers in
Nashville.
I have no doubt that Ryan Kath and his team were expecting the
backlash. I also have no doubt they had all of their legal bases
covered. As for ethical debates about "invasion of
privacy" -- well, those have been going on for as long as
investigative journalism has existed.
Demagogues and demographics
The investigative news story has also been criticized by some for
showcasing Abe Husein as a victim of the GIN con. Granted, Abe
may not be the most sympathetic character in some people's eyes.
He is young, brash, and obviously ambitious. He admitted that he
knew about Trudeau's past but still jumped into GIN, assuming (or
perhaps just hoping) that Trudeau had changed. By his own
admission he tried very aggressively to get many people to sign
up for GIN. Although this was not really noted in the news story,
Abe apparently ended up "sponsoring" (paying for)
others' memberships so he could reach Platinum level and get a
promised bonus. In all, he laid out upwards of $30,000, by his
own estimate. Some GIN defenders have cried foul, saying that Abe
was "cheating" the system, and that Trudeau himself has
repeatedly warned against doing this.
Yet -- and this is something I have argued with GIN defenders and
Abe detractors -- the GIN system allowed this sort of
thing, when it could have easily been prevented. The GIN
administrators could certainly have tracked the source of fee
payments to make sure people were not "cheating." But
my guess is that the money mattered to Trudeau more than the
"ethics." Abe gambled, and apparently lost (though that
story isn't over yet either). But I still think he did a very
good thing by taking it to the media.
Moreover, as may be obvious, Abe was featured on the Kansas City
story not only because he was the one who had the initiative to
approach a reporter, who in turn had the vision to see that there
was a much larger story here -- but also because this was
originally a "local" story, with a mandate to focus on
"local" people. But, as should be obvious by now, this
story is much bigger than one station's eight-minute offering,
and much broader than the Kansas City metro area. It is going
national and international, and not just on the NBC network. That
was inevitable, given the fact that the story was already
spreading all over the Internet almost before it was aired.
People should also keep in mind that Abe's is just one story of
many. Even Ryan Kath would probably acknowledge that Abe is not
representative of the GIN demographic. Apparently there is no
representative demographic. As I have pointed out several times
on this blog (including here), GIN/Trudeau
have marketed to, and attracted, a very diverse demographic. This article from a Kansas City PR firm's site drives
the point home:
Kath and [his colleague Michael]
Butler signed up as “affiliates” for the [GIN Family
Reunion in Nashville in October], which meant they were
not members yet. Affiliates are interested in recruiting
members to GIN and receiving a portion of the commission.
“The thing that amazed me the most about the conference was
the diverse crowd: people of all ages and all demographics,
coming to Nashville from all points of the globe,” [Kath]
says. “People we spoke with at the conference had an
overwhelmingly positive take on GIN. Many told us it had
changed their lives. Some people really enjoyed the
motivational speeches and the support structure. Others liked
the networking and the ability to meet people from around the
world.”
Kath says there was no major common denominator among
attendees at the conference.
“Some people were in the midst of a career change, but
others seemed to have stable jobs,” he notes. “For
instance, there was a Kansas City area business owner at the
conference who was a Level 6 member. [It costs $25,000
to upgrade to Level 6. ~CC] This means he has probably
paid at least $40,000 in membership dues and level upgrades
(not to mention travel costs to events like the one in
Nashville). I contacted him for an interview, but never heard
back.”
I was first really struck by the broad demographics last year
when watching videos taken at GIN events. As the camera panned
over the audience I saw people of all ages, looking starstruck.
The brash young males were far from the only ones in these
crowds.
Media: a two-edged sword
Where the TV stations are concerned, the elephant in the room is
TV's longstanding complicity -- and of course I am talking about
networks and individual stations alike -- in keeping the big sick
machine running. I've mentioned this before one or two times, or
maybe a dozen or a hundred times, but it bears mentioning again.
Obviously, TV stations benefit from the infomercial revenue from
some of the very people their investigative reporters try to
expose. They also benefit from ad revenue on their talk shows and
other content that glorify self-help industry players. (Oprah,
anyone?)
I imagine that the factors listed above are a constant source of
frustration for Ryan Kath and his colleagues at the station, as
well as for investigative reporters in similar positions all over
the US. Time constraints within an evening news format are
frustrating enough, but the fact that the TV news departments
long ago became profit centers has tainted TV journalism far more
than any "liberal bias" (or "conservative bias" in
some cases) ever could. And the fact that there is a lawyer
waiting around every corner these days adds to the frustration.
And then we have to take into account that even now there is
widespread indifference about GIN-ish types of fraud. Even while
the story was airing in real time, a woman on the KSHB-TV
Facebook page threatened to change the channel if they didn't start reporting "real" news.
And of course there are the victim blamers: the ones who say that
anyone with common sense and/or critical thinking skills should
have known better than to trust Kevin Trudeau. I have said or
implied that myself, and it occurs to me sometimes how arrogant
and self righteous I must sound.
The truth is that we all have the capacity to be fooled and
manipulated and persuaded to do something that is not in our best
interests. It may not be by Trudeau. It may be by another
infomercial predator, or a politician, or an accused sex predator
masquerading as a healer. But we are all vulnerable.
I have mentioned this before on numerous forums, but it was
actually the foul-mouthed Salty Droid and some of his other
readers who helped make me more compassionate and understanding
about these things. In addition, reading and hearing personal GIN
stories reminded me again that even smart people were fooled by
Trudeau.
On the other hand, I don't cut much slack for those who
personally knew Kevin Trudeau for many years and yet still went
along with the fraud -- particularly if they are still trying to
suck ex-GIN into their new MLMs and other schemes. And I am still
not above poking fun at the most annoying and arrogant Kool-Aid
drinkers.
My point is that even though the media have helped build the big
sick machine, occasionally the mainstream journalists get in a good
dig at the predators. We should celebrate every victory as it
happens.
Even so, I still think that it is the task of grass-roots
journalists/bloggers, activists, and advocates to pound away at
these issues and show people why both the indifferent ones and
the victim blamers are off base. Which is where Abe on his
Facebook forums, and Bernie O'Mahony on his GINtruth.com blog, have come in. And yes, where accused "cosmic
sluts" and salty-tongued
little fake robots come in too. And
just for good measure, toss in Steve Salerno's SHAMblog and the ScienceBlogs and the critical
thinking blogs (there's a good index of those on Skeptico's blog). They are all out there, just waiting to put rats in
the heads of those with open minds.
But a little help now and then from the MSM is a good thing. Keep
in mind, though, that the mainstream journalists increasingly
rely on the grass-roots media and interested individuals more
than may always be obvious. And who knows how far this one story
from KSHB-TV -- this story that began with one pissed-off
individual -- will go? William White, one of the participants in
some of the private Facebook forums, wrote this (and gave me
permission to quote him), regarding the possible effects of this
single story:
...who knows how many thousands of people were
saved from being scammed, from skipping bills and house/car
payments in the name of delayed gratification, from selling
family heirlooms and expensive items to upgrade, from selling
jewelry and watches to allow Trudeau to afford his own, from
divorces and children having to grow up with divorced parents
because one parent wouldn't drink the GIN koolaid, from
thousands of people being called a "loser" to their
face by a best friend, from people's hearts getting broken
from not making huge amounts of money, from people's
professional credibility being destroyed for presenting an
MLM to serious business partners, from people draining their
life savings.... these are what we (but most credit above all
to Abe and Bernie) saved people from today.
This wasn't a victory for those of us who were frustrated and
bitter, this was a victory about stopping something
disgusting from hurting many people and families all over the
planet. The decision you all made to stand up and make noise
about it has saved many. This was months and months of effort
for a short-period of satisfaction in winning, and it was all
worth it to know how many lives were spared this greedy scam.
I guess we finally understand what delayed gratification
feels like after all these months of effort put into this,
thanks KT ;)
As Bernie O'Mahony, who also also quoted
William on a recent blog post on GINtruth.com, noted, "Trudeau often states that we should
indeed, sell what we can to get to the next level [of membership
in GIN]."
My advice, for what it's worth: Don't listen to the people who
insist that they know the day and the hour that GIN (or any other
scam) will end. But never underestimate the power of a single
story... or a dozen single stories.... or a hundred. And never
stop doing whatever you can to knock your own little dents -- or
help others knock theirs -- into the big, sick machine that is
Scamworld.
PS ~ I don't think I have given due credit to
Ryan Kath's colleague, Michael
Butler, who worked on this project with
him. Michael put this amusing and illuminating video together,
showing a GIN participant pushing a frauduct based on applied
kinesiology "muscle testing."
Now more than ever, your donation is needed
to help keep this Whirled spinning. Click here to donate via PayPal or debit/credit
card.
If that link doesn't work, send PayPal payment directly to scrivener66@hotmail.com or tocosmic.connie@juno.com If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank
you!
NOTE: In the time since this post was written, several of the links to Kevin Trudeau interviews -- links I have embedded in the body of this post -- have been removed from the Web. I apologize for the ones that don't work, but it's an occupational hazard. The good news is that my friend Julie Daniel found a good link to one of the Kate Valentine interviews with Trudeau regarding UFOs, alien DNA, and other esoteric matters. Here is that link. ~CC, 10 July 2014
The buzz continues around Kansas City investigative reporter Ryan Kath's story about serial scammer Kevin Trudeau and Trudeau's
Ponzi-ish Global
Information Network (GIN), which I
first wrote about here in December 2009. And some
pretty interesting and intense buzz it is, not only on the
KSHB-TV (NBC) Web site-- you really should expand the view so you can
read all of the comments -- but also on various anti- and pro-Trudeau
Facebook forums. There's the expected and very predictable
backlash from the pro-KT contingent, as the remaining Kool-Aid
drinkers blame everyone from ex-GIN participant Abe Husein -- who spearheaded the
story in the first place -- to the "haters" and
"naysayers" who try to put "rats" in the
heads of the GIN faithful, to the negative mainstream media, to
the government, to Big Pharma, to "Them." Actually, I
was planning to write a commentary on the buzz -- the buzz about
the buzz, I guess you could say -- and I have that post
half-finished. But I decided to serve up some comic relief first,
inspired by a couple of emails I received yesterday from someone
who had read some of my posts about Trudeau.
Actually, the more I have read about what has been taught in GIN,
and Trudeau's ramblings in general, the more I see how much he
has borrowed not only from Dianetics and Scientology -- as I discussed at length in this July 2012 blog post -- but also from science fiction movies and kooky
conspiracy theories. Of course, he has added his own proprietary
touches, as well as a heaping helping of other
self-help/motivational/pop-spirituality gurus' work. But the
biggest attractant for the GIN faithful is apparently Trudeau
himself, with his larger-than-life ego and his phony hero/martyr persona. The sheeple are just eating that stuff up, even now.
Anyway, my correspondent sent me some links to some interviews in
which Trudeau elaborated on the "alien DNA" and
high-vibe themes. This isn't GIN material, but Trudeau has used
some of these interviews to promote GIN. And these are not new
interviews; they were recorded in 2010 and 2009. So some of you
may already be familiar with them, or at least familiar with
Truduau's thoughts and beliefs on aliens and DNA and vibrations
and so on. But I did not know about these interviews at the time
I wrote my May blog post about True-dough's alien DNA. Moreover,
this post is for the benefit of those who are mainly familiar
with Trudeau as a con artist, and perhaps not as familiar with
him as a purveyor of wackadoodle tales and conspiracy theories.
My May KT-as-ET post was actually inspired by buzz from some of
the ex- and soon-to-be-ex-GIN participants, who at the time were
chuckling about KT telling his "Inner Circle" members
(who had paid either $50,000 or $75,000 for that dubious status)
that he had alien DNA, and they did too. Or something like that.
But I didn't actually provide any links to hard evidence of him
saying these things, because I really didn't have any such
evidence. I did provide links to Facebook conversations, but that
was just second- or third-hand buzz. And some of the buzz was
initiated by Lenny Coldwell, so I wondered if perhaps I should
take it with a grain of Himalayan pink salt. I casually asked
around the ex-GIN circles for something more concrete, but didn't
get anything. And there were so many other ludicrous things about
GIN and Trudeau, so many other story angles, that the alien stuff
seemed rather trivial by comparison, so I didn't really bother
with it much.
The alien material is really nothing new for True-dough, as I now
realize. He has been yammering about aliens for several years,
and wrote about his take on Area 51 and the alien bodies and so
forth in his 2006 magnum dopus, More Natural 'Cures'
Revealed. As it happens, that is also where he
"revealed" his long-time involvement with a seekrit
society called The Brotherhood. Who knew at the time that this
tall tale would, within just a few years, form the big hook for
his biggest scam of all, GIN? Well, Kevin prolly knew. He and a
couple of his marketing scam-buds such as Mark Scamilton of Neo-Tech notoriety were probably plotting GIN even then. Anyway, here's a
paragraph that appears towards the beginning of More Natural
'Cures':
As a member of this secret society I
have sat in private meetings with the heads of state from
countries around the world. I have attended secret
international business meetings where business leaders,
politicians, and media moguls coerce together to create the
new world order with global control over individual people
everywhere. I have been shown and have seen with my own eyes
secret government and corporate documents. I have heard with
my own ears how BigPharma, the food industry, and the oil
industry are working together with governments and media
outlets around the world. I have been in over sixty
countries, yet there are no stamps of evidence in any of my
passports. I have been to Area 51 in Nevada. (This top secret
military installation is still denied to exist by the U.S.
government.) This is where much of our technology has been
developed. Area 51 houses most extraterrestrial artifacts,
including a working spacecraft and dead alien bodies. I've
seen these things with my own two eyes. As a member of this
secret society I was used in covert operations around the
world.
And there you have it: many of today's most
popular conspiracy theories rolled into one big ball of whacks.
It's the kind of stuff on which True-dough and his paranoia-porn
colleagues have been capitalizing for years.
Since I am busy and distracted, I'm just going to take the
liberty of copying and pasting from the emails I received from my
correspondent, who was never a GIN member but is familiar with
Trudeau's work. I have edited a little bit for clarity. Again,
you may already be familiar with all of this content, but this is
for those who aren't, or who just want to review the looniness
for sentimental reasons. (And as you will see, I have provided
links to this interview so you can listen for yourself and see
how accurate my correspondent's summary is. I apologize in advance for the time you will never
get back.) Here goes...
Hi, Connie:
I've read a lot of your recent posts on KT, specifically the one
about Kevin claiming to his Inner Circle members that he and
they have alien DNA. You said "that does seem a little
out-there, even for KT". I don't think that is accurate.
Back in 2010 he did an interview with Kate Valentine on the
"Kate Valentine UFO Show" which is still up on his
site Here, or
more specifically here. I made some notes on the
interview, although some of the quotes are my paraphrases.
He starts by claiming he visited Area 51. When asked how he
was invited to go there, he says, "It's a long story.
but I was inducted into an organization called The
Brotherhood, which is a secret society." He continues,
"It's a group of people who have very high levels of DNA
vibration and a lot of them can do certain things." He
then references the 2009 movie Push, and says, "It's a fictitious movie but
it has a little truth behind it."
He continues, saying that some people are born naturally with
certain abilities; he says you can call them
"psychics" or "spoon benders." He says
that when these people are located, The Brotherhood takes
them in and trains them even more, and they are used in the
world for various purposes.
He continues on with all that vibration/frequency stuff and
explains how certain DNA frequencies give the person certain
gifts like cooking or singing. He says that if you have gifts
for using your mind, you are taken into The Brotherhood. He
claims that it was in The Brotherhood that he learned the
alien technology of how to use your mind.
He then makes further claims that people with this frequency
can be found "like beacons of light" and
"there is a machine that can find people on the planet
who have these "vibratory patterns."
The interview continues, and he talks about how the theory is
evolution is all wrong because "the only species that
evolves is human beings." And he gives an example of
the alligator, which has been an alligator for years.
Then he claims that humans have a DNA that is
"spliced" and adds that our DNA has been
genetically modified at some point in our history. He says
that this modification was designed to make us continue to
evolve.
He then claims that he learned his "natural
cures" from Area 51 and from
these extraterrestrial beings. And then he claims,
"The brain in your mind itself
creates spontaneous healing."
He then addresses the question of when and who did the
genetic modification on humans. He explains, "There are
a lot of theories on this but if you look at the texts from
The Bible, the Sanskrit texts, they all suggest that beings
from another planet came to earth. and did DNA modification
and thus created man, which is in line with the Biblical
account of creation that says 'we created man in our image.'
However, he says he really doesn't know who did the genetic
modification.
Then he is asked [to tell more] about his visit to Area 51,
and he answers, "I was physically there, and they have
hangars... people think it's underground but actually they
are more off of Area 51. The hangars are a part of the
mountain or hill and they are in the side." He
continues, "That is where the alien spacecraft is
housed, the one that I saw, I don't know if there are
more, but that's where the dead aliens use to be
housed." He continues, "I was there back in the 80s
but I believe that they have spread out and moved the
materials to other locations."
He also claims, "The Nazis had a spacecraft as
well." And "Because of alien technology they
reverse-engineered."
Then a listener emails in a question about vibrations. KT
answers by pitching GIN as a "private club,"
saying, "We teach our members to change their DNA
vibration." He adds that GIN members are taught
"how to use your mind to broadcast a frequency to get
what you want." He also talks about the GIN Council of
29 billionaires. Then he talks about the problems humanity
has, since their DNA vibration doesn't match the vibration
they are broadcasting. For instance, if someone says
,"I want a Ferrari" or "I can fly,"
they're not going to achieve that if their vibrations don't
match.
Then he is asked if he ever met aliens. He explains,
"There are different groups, from different planets,
they have their own flaws and are still evolving." He
then continues to talk about a particular race of aliens, and
says that "what happened with them is that
their communication was telepathic instead of verbal and
interpersonal, communication was stopped."
Then he talks about problems with our own evolution, with
kids not being able to communicate verbally, or people
constantly texting (to use one example) instead of calling
and talking.
Thenthe interviewer asks more about aliens, and
Kevin continues to explain, "The alien groups that are
on Planet Earth come and go. I have been in contact with two
from two different races, face to face." She asks
Kevin if they need any special technology to exist in our
atmosphere, and he explains, "They look just like
us," and he references the Bible quote again: "We
made man in our image."
They talk a little bit about the Bell Project
and the speculation that it was some kind of time travel
device. Although I don't think that Kevin claimed to believe
that.
After that, the interviewer asks about why the aliens came to
earth originally, and Kevin explains, "The first purpose
was to mine gold." He explains that this is the case on
other planets as well. He says, "Gold has been the metal
of the gods." He explains that it has a unique energetic
property and that when you have it in your possession -- at
least on Planet Earth -- it actually attracts more gold and
material wealth.[Maybe this is why, according to his former marketing guy Peter Wink's testimony to
the Federal Trade Commission, KT
kept all of those gold bars in his home. Too bad he hasn't
been able to attract enough gold to pay that FTC fine! ~CC]
One reason Trudeau says the aliens who were looking for
planets with gold chose ours was that they needed
slave labor. Also, they needed a place to exist in the
future in case their own planet was dying.
Kevin claims that our own DNA was [programmed for slavery],
but it would keep evolving to be closer to our alien
creators. Obviously this doesn't make sense since he first
claimed he didn't know about "when and who did DNA
modification" earlier in the interview.
Finally he makes the claim, "I have a particular
frequency, I have the ability to read other
people's frequency and affect their frequency." And
once again he references the move Push, and says
that if you watch it, you'll get a pretty good idea of
Kevin's own special skills.
I have watched the movie. Here is the plot summary from IMDB:
"Two young Americans with special abilities must race to
find a girl in Hong Kong before a shadowy government
organization called Division does." There are
some similarities between this movie and what Trudeau
claims [about his own past with the Brotherhood, etc.] In the
movie there is a secret organization called Division, which
gathers kids/teens that have special supernatural abilities
abilities, such as fortune telling ("Watchers") or
people who can plant thoughts ("Pushers.") Sound
familiar? [Several of the plot points seem] very similar to
Trudeau's narrative. In any case, much of what he claimed in
the interview is common in the conspiracy world anyway. And
I would bet he has borrowed from Scientology as well, but
haven't looked into it...
He had another appearance on that show but it seems to be
taken down, and the only way to get it is through the other
site, and you have to pay $5. It can be found here: http://www.ufoencounterslive.com/earlier_shows.htm 10/16/10 is the date to look for if you are
interested.
This interview seems to confirm his belief in
"abilities" of being able to heal people as he
talks to them -- or, as he lately is calling it,
"energetic work" [which you can experience] if you
donate [$5,000] or more to his legal defense
fund.
Whining and begging and rants, oh my! And speaking of that legal defense fund -- a
ploy Trudeau has been using for years to extract still more money
from people -- my
correspondent also commented on the recent news that Trudeau is
back with his radio show and with renewed efforts to beg for
money for this fund. Of this video posted on YouTube on November
8, my commenter writes:
He is promoting a new site for his
legal defense fund found here. He says says he is
"facing a 30 day jail sentence which is on appeal,"
and "facing a huge criminal case."Then
he begs for money with the usual [lines]: "I fight the
government for you." And, "How would you like to be
facing 10 years in jail because you wrote a book?" At
times he seems to get real mad, and constantly looks away in
other directions as he says, "I am facing 10 years in
prison." And he goes on about how, "You need to
make a donation; it's the only way I can continue with
this." And, "I know you can afford
$100, $500, $2,500, or $10,000 or $20,000 or $50,000."
The rest is just typical [KT radio show] trash.
You even have a chance make monthly donations to
the great cause. If you donate $5,000 or more, you can maybe get
a chance to do some "energy work" with True-dough and
experience some of his special abilities for yourself. Oh, boy! And by the way, my correspondent was, if anything,
understating the content of that video linked toin the paragraph preceding the block quote. Trudeau really does seem angry, and repeatedly talks about
the sacrifices he is making for us, and the fact that he has to
deal with things such as armed Federal agents knocking down his
door. It's the same thing we've heard and seen over and over and over -- though admittedly he's been looking a little more pale, thin, and scared in his latest vids. But apparently there are people who are still buying into the mythology, embracing the First Amendment Stuporhero.
Trudeau also seems to really be playing on a lot of New-Wagey-woo stuff
these days, even more than usual. And his enablers are
encouraging this every step of the way. Among other things, some
people seem to believe, or at least they are pretending to believe, that Trudeau has the ability to
"clear negative energy," and evidently he teaches
controversial techniques for doing so, some of which are based on
Dianetics and Scientology. As one of True-dough's B-team bitches,
Fred Van Liew, wrote on a
recent Facebook thread on the GIN International page (and I can't
link to it because I don't have access; for some reason, they kicked me out soon
after I joined):
KT has always had the ability to take the
good and leave the negatives behind. He has literally saved
the lives of scores of women who were going to die if they
continued their lifestyle by putting them through what has
shown itself to be a consistently effective detox and
lifestyle change mechanism. How do you fault that?
Why did he single out women? I wondered when I read
that. But maybe I don't want to know. In any case, someone else
added to the thread:
From what I know about KT, and [his]
trainings, I think he is an angel sent to us. I am very
blessed to be a GIN Member and to have KT's training audios.
Jesus Christ on a bicycle, that is
disturbing.
Nutcake or sociopath? World traveler
or fugitive? So the big question for me is this: How much of this stuff does
True-dough really believe, and how much is he just
yanking people's chains, simply because he can? Is he really
nuts, or is he just a sociopath who appeals to nuts (as well as a
surprising number of perfectly sane people)? What do you think?Meanwhile, the fate of GIN is up in the air.
Despite the great hopes of a few folks that Ryan's and Abe's
story would mark the absolute and instant end of GIN, the tale is
far from over. Even some of the ex-GIN are saying GIN was a good
idea that was ruined only by Kevin Trudeau's greed. And some say
the "club" would still stand a chance without KT at the
helm. I disagree on several counts. I disagree that GIN was a
good idea (well, as anything but a social club), and I disagree
with the notion that GIN could survive without Trudeau. To a very
large extent, GIN is and has always been about Kevin Trudeau. And
there's far too much of a culty aspect to GIN -- something
Trudeau was very careful to create and nurture. He has always
been all about selling himself as well as selling frauducts and
flopportunities.*
For the time being, he may have to stick to
selling himself from somewhere in Europe or elsewhere outside of the United States, because the Feds in the
US are after his a$$ big time. And if he doesn't show up for his
November 20 court hearing -- absent another stall by his lawyers,
or his decision to actually cough up the $37.6 million fine to
the Federal Trade Commission -- he's going to be a man on the run
for a long time to come. [See PPS, below. ~ CC]
As of now, he is reportedly in Switzerland for some
already-scheduled GIN trainings. Apparently he has a full
schedule for several weeks; there are Level II and Level III
"trainings" scheduled in Zurich for December 15. Here's the Event Information Page linked to in the email
sent out to GIN members, although
frankly, it seems to be very little information and mostly
paranoid and sinister disclaimer:
This system is the sole property of the
Global Information Network. All related resources are
provided only for authorized use of its members. All systems
may be monitored for all lawful purposes, including to ensure
that their use is authorized, for management of the system,
to facilitate protection against unauthorized access.
Monitoring includes testing to verify
the security of this system. During monitoring, information
may be examined, recorded, copied and used for authorized
purposes. All information, including personal information,
placed on or sent over this system may be monitored. Use of
this system, authorized or unauthorized, constitutes consent
to monitoring of this system.
Unauthorized use may subject you to
criminal prosecution. Evidence of unauthorized use collected
during monitoring may be used for administrative, criminal or
adverse action. Use of this system constitutes consent to
monitoring for these purposes.
Gosh, that makes me want to sign right up! By the way, all of the actual registration
information, and most of the other stuff on that site, is in
French. How very cosmopolitan.
So will True-dough stay in Europe and be a fugitive from justice? [See PPS, below. ~ CC] Or will he pay up? It doesn't seem to matter. My guess is that no matter what happens, the sheeple will
still continue to follow him, looking up to him as their high-freq leader, their
hero who is willing to take a bullet for them, their angel with
alien DNA.
And that's pretty pathetic. Here's the link again to the 2010 interview
I cited at length above:
PS ~ If you share some of those beliefs about
aliens and conspiracies and so forth yourself, I apologize for
stepping on your toes, but I respectfully suggest that you avail
yourself of some Skeptical Inquirerand
Skepticmagazine. They don't have all the
answers either -- nor do they pretend to -- but a little more
reading of the skeptical material and a little less of KT'S and
Fred Van Loony's outrageous claims (as well as the claims of various health quacks) could have probably saved a
lot of people a lot of money and emotional investment. Science
can be as much fun as science fiction, and in my opinion it does
not put a damper on the sense of wonder we all crave, but
enhances it.
PPS, November 20, 2012 ~ I prolly overstated that whole "fugitive from justice" thing, since contrary to what I had previously been told by an increasingly unreliable source, Trudeau was not necessarily required to appear at that hearing. As of now I don't know the latest status, but my guess is that there was another continuance or some other stall, and there's no immediate danger of KT being thrown in the clink. * July 2014 update: I
later changed my mind about GIN not being able to survive without
Trudeau. Though it may never enjoy the success of its glory days, there
are currently some dedicated Trudeau buds trying to carry on the proud tradition.
