Pages

Friday, June 28, 2013

The Health Ranger: another phony hero in the fight against Scamworld?


While we're breathlessly awaiting the next non-developments in serial scammer Kevin Trudeau's ongoing court battle with the Federal Trade Commission -- his latest hearing began on June 26 and will continue on Monday, July 1 -- there's yet another Johnny-come-lately, or, more accurately, a Mikey-come-lately, to the growing chorus of voices against True-dough.

On Tuesday, June 25, Mike Adams, aka "The Health Ranger," owner of the popular NaturalNews.com web site,
came out with an article that was marginally critical, in a lame, hedging sort of way, about his buddy and ally in the fight for "natural" health and against government malfeasance, Kevin Trudeau. He wanted to share the news that Katie had had to surrender his passports. He wanted to show off that he too knows how to shop at PACER.gov and get legal documents so he can share them on his site and make it look like he's breaking a big story. So far so good.

But Health Ranger just couldn't miss an opportunity to politicize the piece and turn it into an anti-Obama rant.


But every time I look at the criticism of Trudeau -- ABC News says he's a "dream seller" who "sells hope" -- I can't help but think that
Obama is engaged in all the same schemes on a far larger scale. Who sells the most B.S. under the label of "hope?" It's not Trudeau; it's Obama, the President who broke his promises on GMO labeling, shutting down secret military prisons, making government more transparent, lowering health care costs, raising the minimum wage, holding government accountable (ROFL!) and respecting the Second Amendment.

In fact the main point of the piece seems to be to declare, as so many other Scamworld players have declared, that True-dough is small potatoes in comparison to the really big and really bad guys.

...Again, I'm not excusing anything Trudeau has done, but if the FTC is going to go after "con artists" who are ripping people off and taking their money, they need look no further than the White House, where the biggest con artist in American history is busy dreaming up "hope and change" schemes to defraud ALL Americans.

Precious investigative resources being wasted on small-time operators
I think it's also suspicious how the feds have deeply investigated Trudeau's past but have never investigate [sic] Obama's past. I can tell you as a simple matter of fact that the birth certificate document released by the White House was a juvenile attempt at document forgery. It had multiple layers in Adobe Acrobat, and each layer was obviously cut-and-pasted into place in order to forge a fraudulent birth certificate.

Why doesn't ABC News examine this fraud?
Here's your answer, Health Ranger: that "birther" crap has long since been debunked. That's prolly why ABC News doesn't examine that "fraud."

I'll say once again, as I have so many times before, that yes, the US government has done many dodgy and even criminal things. And Obama, for whom I voted twice, has done some things that have truly dismayed me. I harbor no delusions in that regard, though I don't regret voting for him either time. But the existence of all of that government crap doesn't exonerate the Scamworld players like True-dough. Can you say "red herring," boys and girls?

Apart from Adams' politicization/conspiracy rants, there's a huge inaccuracy in that article, beginning with the headline:

Kevin Trudeau ordered to surrender his passports as feds try to force $37 million in GIN refunds

Early on in the piece we see this:


...The FTC has spent untold millions of dollars going after Trudeau over his involvement with GIN, and they want him to pay back $37 million they claim he defrauded from 800,000 GIN members.
Totally WRONG, Health Ranger! The FTC case is not about Trudeau's current major scam, the Global Information Network, or GIN, though GIN has become a focus in the past year or so as the FTC looks for possible hidden assets. This case began years before GIN even existed.

Instead, the $37.6 million fine is about claims Trudeau made in his book,
The Weight-Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. Whether that is a fair fine or not is a matter that is open to reasonable debate. Katie says he can't pay it. But he's also said in the past that he won't pay it because it's unjust. But the point is that the fine is not related to GIN refunds, and there were never anything even close to 800,000 members in GIN. The number 800,000 is the FTC's estimate of the number of customers who were cheated and deceived by the claims in Katie's weight-loss book. At least do a little rudimentary homework before you join the fray, Health Ranger.

As it happens, though, some of Adams' fans who are ex-Trudeau fans, and who also happen to not like Obama, and who are also conspiracy fans, don't even care that he got that bit so majorly wrong. They're just glad he is on "their" side on various issues. Ex-GIN member and passionate Obama hater Abe Husein wrote that he doesn't care about the incorrect details; he's just glad Mikey nailed that "Tyrant Obama." Later on when he realized how big NaturalNews.com is he was really pumped.


Another guy who questioned Mike's possible alliance with KT indicated that it probably doesn't matter because Mike is "definitely on our side as to unveiling corruption and doing the right thing."

Um, I don't think so. I think it's more like Adams is hedging: wanting to appear that he is "doing the right thing" and participating in the fight against fraud, but glossing over the fact that he has benefited from his association with GIN and KT (and may very well be benefiting in some way even now).

What seems particularly disingenuous to me is that he appears to be implying that he has only recently found out all of this disturbing information about KT. But he clearly knew there were problems even back in 2005, when he wrote a favorable review about the first "Natural Cures" book. He has now removed that review from his site.
As as he put it:
As more information has come to light about Kevin Trudeau in the seven years since this article was first published (including details on GIN), we have decided to remove this article.
But heck, I wanted to read the review, and a little bit of Googling led me to this post on a discussion forum. Just in case that review ever gets removed, here it is in full:

Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book review
by Mike Adams
August 24, 2005

As Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book has suddenly become the top-selling self-published book in history, a lot of readers are emailing and asking what I think about Trudeau, his book, and his commercial success. A few people are even asking whether I feel like Trudeau is stealing the spotlight and getting all the attention on the very same issues and advice I've been writing about for years.

Are they kidding me? Why on earth would I be unhappy to see someone spearhead a successful public education campaign that challenges Big Pharma and the FDA? I think Kevin Trudeau's success is outstanding. He's opening the eyes of millions of people, exposing the horrifying truth about the drug companies, the FDA and even the FTC. He's turning people on to genuine cures and remedies that work better than drugs, with zero side effects, and at very little cost. I'm thrilled with his success, and I hope he sells another ten million books.

Frankly, I'm thrilled any time a natural health author makes the bestseller list. Every time Dr. Gary Null publishes a new book, I cheer. Any time a natural health author grabs the attention of the public and teaches people the truth about this miserable system of symptom masking called organized medicine, I'm ecstatic.

It doesn't mean I agree 100% with everything in Trudeau's book (although most of it is right on). And it is true that the FTC, AMA and the FDA have been after Trudeau for years with various lawsuits and condemnations, but as I see it, nearly all these actions are rooted in our modern-day system of outright oppression of anything that competes with the profits of drugs and surgical procedures. In fact, I believe Trudeau is relentlessly attacked by the U.S. government precisely because he's exposing the lies of modern medicine and Big Pharma. They attack him for the same reason they attack me: because we open peoples' eyes to the truth of what's going on out there.
Now, I've never met Trudeau, and I don't personally vouch for anyone I've never met. I have no idea what his ethics are, nor his true passions, nor his long-term plans for achieving such commercial success. Personally, if I were making that much money on a bestselling book, I'd be founding a major non-profit organization and launching a national effort to get direct-to-consumer drug advertising outlawed. I'd use the money to affect lasting social change. What Trudeau does with his money is his own business, but in my view, if he's really passionate about this natural health issue, he would designate at least some portion of his proceeds (15% or so) to fight the drug companies head-on through public service announcements, grassroots campaigns and other similar endeavors.

But that's his decision, not mine. And frankly, I think I'm doing a decent job spreading the word about natural health (and the truth about Big Pharma) on what is essentially a shoestring budget. For the number of people we're reaching, and the volume of content we produce around here, you'd be absolutely stunned to find out how little we actually earn. Since we don't sell vitamins supplements, and we don't have national television campaigns, we basically just survive off minimal ads and our own self-published book sales.

Relentless assaults
What really amazes me about Trudeau's Natural Cures book is just how utterly ridiculous and outrageous the criticism has been towards this book. In one section of the book, Trudeau explains how sunscreen actually causes cancer -- a fact that's absolutely true! (click here to read my own articles on sunscreen) -- and yet critics charge him with "fraud" for daring to say such a thing.

I've been called everything under the sun for claiming that sunlight is actually good for you, too. And guess what? The research supports the fact that sunlight PREVENTS cancers: prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer and many other ailments. And yet the defenders of organized medicine are going after Trudeau for daring to tell the truth here. They can't stand the fact that somebody would actually dare to question the legitimacy of the billion-dollar sunscreen industry.

Other critics say the Natural Cures book is misleading, and that is distracts people from seeking "real treatment" for serious disease. Would that real treatment be... let's see... high-profit prescription drugs? Of course! Talk about misleading people, how about the whole Vioxx scandal where Merck sold deadly prescription drugs to people for years after knowing the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks and stroke. If you want deception, look at the psychiatric community, doling out powerful narcotics and antidepressants that make people psychotic and suicidal -- all while calling it "treatment" for mental illness. Did you know the Columbine massacre students were both on antidepressant drugs when they blew away their classmates?

Let's face it: you can't trust the mainstream press to provide an honest review of Trudeau's Natural Cures book. For one thing, the entire mainstream press is heavily influenced by billions in drug advertising dollars. Some people describe the mainstream news outlets as "drug whores," which is hilariously accurate. You can't seriously expect the major media outlets to offer fair and balanced coverage to a book that's threatening the profit centers of their primary advertisers, can you? Of course not. Trudeau will never get a fair shake in the eyes of the drug-supported press.

A milestone in changing times
There's a more important issue here than just Kevin Trudeau's success with his Natural Cures book, however. Trudeau knows, as much as anybody, that half the recipe for success is being at the right place at the right time... with the right product. Five years ago, his Natural Cures book would have flopped. But today, the environment is just right. And why? Because organized medicine is losing this war.

Historically, I think the runaway success of Trudeau's book, combined with the recent $253 million jury verdict against Merck over the Vioxx trial, will be seen as milestone events that heralded the demise of Big Pharma and the collapse of the highly corrupt U.S. drug racket. I think the tide has turned. The public is no longer asleep at the wheel. They realize they're being outright killed by prescription drugs.

People now recognize that antidepressant drugs will make you psychotic. Cholesterol-lowering drugs will destroy your hormones and nervous system. Diabetes drugs will destroy your liver. And anti-inflammatory drugs will kill you with a heart attack or stroke. The drug companies are no longer able to hide the truth about these dangerous drugs (although they've certainly tried), and the lies of the FDA have been blatantly exposed by its own senior drug research Dr. David Graham, who testified before Congress that, "The FDA is incapable of protecting Americans."

The game is up. Big Pharma has exploited the public health so much, for so long, that the backlash has begun. The lawsuits are in full swing. Congress is contemplating restricting drug advertising, and talk of FDA reform is everywhere. The only thing holding the drug racket in place, in my opinion, is the Bush Administration, which remains strongly pro-drug and continues to enact legislation that amounts to little more than handouts to Big Pharma.

Exposing the lies of Big Pharma
The earthquake has begun, and the success of Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book is simply a sign that the public is ready to hear this message. People have been exploited and financially ransacked by Big Pharma for so long that they're desperate for alternatives. The big lies of Big Pharma are finally hitting the mainstream. Which lies? Lies, for example, like, "every new drug takes $800 million in research to develop, and that's why we have to keep charging ripoff drug prices to all Americans."

Hogwash. In reality, each new drug requires less than $100 million to bring to market: that's less than 1/8th what Big Pharma claims. They exaggerate the numbers to justify profiteering, pure and simple.

There are all sorts of other lies by Big Pharma. I've covered most of them right here over the last 18 months or so. One of the biggest lies, I think, is well covered in my article, If prescription drugs are so good, where are all the healthy drug takers?

Big Pharma is an outright evil industry, preying upon the pain and suffering of human beings in order to pad its own profits. That's why the CEOs of Big Pharma giants walk away with $134 million in annual salaries, with $115+ million in annual stock option bonuses on top of that. Meanwhile, these drug companies are claiming they're investing all their drug revenues into research and development to, "find tomorrow's cures." Give me a break. Drug companies spend far more on marketing and advertising than research. And technically, the vast majority of drug company research is funded by taxpayer dollars through NIH grants to research universities. And by, "tomorrow's cures," what they really mean is, "tomorrow's blockbuster seller drug that may technically be no better than yesterday's generic drug."

The whole system is a giant con, folks. And if Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book helps wake people up to that reality, then I'm thrilled that it's a top seller.

Where is the spotlight for Dr. Gary Null?
In terms of sheer recognition for fighting this health information battle, though, there are individuals far more deserving of the national spotlight, in my opinion. And my list starts with Dr. Gary Null -- a genuine champion of natural health and health freedom. Dr. Null is so consistently right about health, nutrition and medicine that I personally believe if Dr. Null were in charge of the health of our nation, and could have free reign to change public policy to enact genuine health reforms, he'd have this country out of its health care crisis in less than ten years.

If there's anyone who deserves the national spotlight on health, it's Dr. Null. But he's not the only one who deserves a little recognition. Guys like Dr. Julian Whitaker, Dr. Sidney Wolfe (of Public Citizen), Dr. David Williams, Dr. Bruce West, Dr. Jonathan Wright, Dr. Elson Haas and many others have been fighting this battle for decades. Heck, even I'm a relative newcomer to this arena. My own knowledge about natural health is dwarfed by what these health authorities know.

All of us, and especially Kevin Trudeau, are rebels. In a less civilized time, we would all be rounded up and shot for daring to challenge the authority and wisdom of the "King" -- in this case, the AMA, the FDA, Big Pharma, and the rest of the evil bunch. The FTC and FDA have attacked all of us at one time or another. Heck, Dr. Jonathan Wright even got raided at gunpoint by FDA thugs who shut down his healing clinic. (Read a full list of FDA raids here. Dr. Gary Null has fielded decades of assaults by his critics. Dr. Julian Whitaker has long been targeted by various government agencies because of his support for breakthrough cancer treatment therapies (among other brave endeavors) that actually reverse cancer.

We're ALL enemies of the status quo. And that's because we show people a better way to be healthy. We teach people alternatives that don't require financial servitude to the drug companies. We challenge the FDA. Some of us call for criminal prosecution of the CEOs and top manager at drug companies. And each of us, at some level, just cannot sit back and watch the public be lied to. We have the deep desire to stand up and shout, "The Emperor has no clothes!"

Should health information come from people who are healthy?
Tell you what. Try this for a health contest. Grab Dr. Gary Null, Dr. David Williams and myself, and put us three up against any three FDA bureaucrats, drug company executives, or old school M.D.s you can find, and compare health statistics.

It would be no contest. We'd blow those guys off the charts. Between my own publicly-posted blood chemistry, Gary Null's pulse and endurance (he's an amazing distance runner), we'd be unbeatable. You know what the three of us have in common? We don't take prescription drugs. On top of that, we all take supplemental nutrition and, of course, we all exercise regularly. Pretty simple, huh? Good nutrition + exercise + avoiding drugs = great health!

If prescription drugs made people healthy -- if Big Pharma was right about anything -- then they should be able to dig up people who are super healthy, right? Drug-prescribing doctors should be the healthiest people on the planet, right? After all, they get all the free drug samples they could ever want. If they're taking those drugs, and if those drugs actually made people healthier, then these should be icons of perfect health, right?

But they aren't. People who take drugs are SICK. Or they're DEAD. They're certainly not healthy. And doctors are the least healthy bunch of professionals you can find, in my experience. Organized medicine is a con. It's a cruel hoax. It doesn't work. And finally, the public is starting to wake up to this fact.

The great disease / profit con
You see, here's how the con works: the food companies make you sick, nutritionally deficient, and diseased. Then the pharmaceutical giants convince you to take $500 / month in pills for the rest of your life to mask the symptoms of disease caused by the foods you bought in the first place. And then some pharmaceutical giants launch vitamin companies (or buy existing ones) and sell you crap vitamins loaded with antifreeze chemicals (I'm not kidding), hydrogenated oils, coal-tar artificial colors and other chemical toxins just to make sure you never really get well from taking those cheap vitamins.

The result? You end up hooked on drugs for life. That's how the con works. And, of course, your doctor fully supports it and the FDA rubber-stamps the whole thing, going the extra mile to make sure that herbs are outlawed and deadly drugs remain perfectly legal.

I'm pretty sure Kevin Trudeau would agree with everything I've said here. His talent is that he's really, really good at getting the message out to people. If our country had ten more people with that kind of talent who could fight the propaganda of organized medicine, we'd be better for it.

Some people even say I'm one of those people. Maybe, but I'm just a regular, hardworking, everyday guy who happens to have a very low tolerance for evil in the world. If I lived in the South during the 19th century, I'm the kind of guy who would be running the Underground Railroad, shuttling slaves to freedom in the Northern states. If I lived in Germany in 1933, I'd be running an underground printing press, producing material that challenged the racial cleansing policies of the newly-elected head of state, Adolf Hitler. If I were an Indian citizen living under British occupation in the 1930's, I'd be mirroring the actions of Ghandi through peaceful non-compliance as a form of public protest. I'm just a rebel who can't stand to see evil having power and control over the people.

When I see lies, exploitation, and outright evil running amok in the free world, I just feel obliged to point it out. And frankly, except for the Nazi Germany concentration camps, I have seen no greater evil at work in this world in the last hundred years than what is happening today with our pharmaceutical companies and our corrupt system of organized medicine. Even the atrocities of Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao do not compare with the scope and depth of deception now practiced by organized medicine. It is a corrupt system that promises cures, yet delivers destitution and death. All in the name of profits, of course.

And to think that the whole thing hides behind the facade of "scientific thinking" or "evidence-based medicine" is, truly, an insult to the history of science.

The bottom line: the raging success of Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book is a milestone that signals the approaching demise of today's system of organized crime / organized medicine. Watch for the FTC, AMA, FDA, the mainstream press and others to do everything in their power to silence Trudeau to prevent him from doubling his success with a second book that reaches even more readers.

In the end, though, they can't silence us all. In the end, truth will prevail, and like the downfall of Nazi Germany in 1945, Big Pharma will soon find itself stretched too thin, hated by all for the pain and suffering it caused, and clinging to a desperate, discredited existence.

It will be a glorious day, indeed, when people can walk this earth with true freedom: freedom to choose the healing method they desire for themselves and their children, freedom to learn about herbs, vitamins or prayer, and freedom to access all the relevant information they need in order to make their own private health decisions.

It is the vision of that day that keeps me writing.
 

Cue heroic music. It's the same old "us few rebels against the big bad corrupt powers-that-be" anthem that we've heard from Kevin, from Loony Coldwell, and from numerous others. And of course, Nazi Germany had to be brought into the mix. Apart from the fact that this was not really a review of the content of Trudeau's book as much as another chance for Adams to hold forth on the issues dear to his heart, the point is that he acknowledged Kevin's "problems" even back then. But instead of looking at them as red flags, he heralded those challenges as a badge of honor, and welcomed Kevin to the noble war against evil.

At some point, Mike Adams did apparently meet Kevin Trudeau, and over the years
was a guest on his radio show a few times. A Facebook friend of mine who is an ex-GIN member also said that Adams did at least one GIN audio regarding prepping for the coming changes (gold, silver, storable food, etc.).

Lenny Coldwell even recently claimed that Adams actually ghostwrote Natural Cure's sequel,
More Natural Cures Revealed, for Kevin, but that seems kind of... well, loony. Nevertheless, here are some screen shots of a Facebook conversation where Lenny makes some claims in his usual loose-cannon fashion. This convo took place on May 21, during Kevin's court hearing.

Of course you have to consider the source, and the fact that it is in the context of Loony's declaration that Kevin had just "pleated" the 5th and "now he is DONE!" -- as well as Loony's claim that he wrote most of Kevin's other books. Since Loony Coldwell can barely cobble together a coherent sentence of written English prose (I don't know how his written German is), I seriously doubt that he "wrote" any of Kevin's books. Lenny himself uses ghostwriters for his English language books (again, I can't say one way or the other about his German books). Kelly Wallace is the ghostwriter he has used most frequently. The two have had a working relationship for years. Kelly is also into all kinds of alt-health and New-Agey type things. Anyway, here's Lenny holding forth on the authorship of Kevin Trudeau's books.




Ghostwriting or not, it is clear that True-dough and The Health Ranger have been allies.

The Health Ranger also seems to be a fan of Loony Coldwell, and vice versa. Here's a 2011 endorsement of Lenny on Mike Adams' site, though Adams does not appear to have written the blurb himself. 
It describes Lenny as "one of the greatest physicians of our time."

A Coldwell vid is also included in the vast library on Adams' Natural News "TV channel."
http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=50343BD01BCD514656AF5D71811E1689

And of course the two have hung around together, at least for photo ops, at various health expos.


They were both repeat speakers at the Health Freedom Expo, at least until Loony threw the HFE under the bus earlier this year (quite possibly because they threw him under the bus first. Just guessing...). This is from February 19, 2013:



Speaking of which
, Loony and Mikey also righteously banded together last year when they and a few other alt-health heroes got bamboozled by a couple of scammy expo masterminds, Josh and Anna Scurry, regarding a proposed celebrity-infested health event, Alive New York. Mike had a whole host of articles about the little scandal on Natural News. He was justifiably outraged by the Scurrys' criminal records. And apparently Mike and Loony, who were both scheduled to be speakers at the doomed event, were being harassed by the Scurrys' attorneys for a while. But Loony was up to the challenge.

Dr. Coldwell was also contacted by [the organizers of ALIVE New York's] attorney and characterized the call as "criminal harassment." His Facebook post reads, "Their lawyer just called me - looks like criminal harassment to me if she calls again I have her answering to the Bar and the Court since I have an in house lawyer now it does not cost me anything."
I wonder if that "in house lawyer" is Bill Hanahan, the guy who later kind of became buddies with Salty Droid.

In the process of slamming Alive New York and the Scurrys,
Adams managed to endorse Loony and the "American Anti-Cancer Institute," or AACI.

Unlike ALIVE New York, the AACI actually is a tax-exempt non-profit with a legitimate 501(c)3 designation by the IRS. They associate with some of the top people in the industry who understand cutting-edge cancer therapies, including Dr. Leonard Coldwell, Dr. Thomas Lodi, Dr. Nicholas Gonzales, and many others.
Loony just happens to be on the Advisory Board of the AACI, and that fact alone seriously compromises the organization's credibility. Another thing that seriously compromises their credibility, besides the dubious creds of various principals, is the fact that the site very much exists to sell select alt-health products.

In regard to the Alive New York debacle, don't get me wrong: I'm not excusing the Scurrys for anything. But I hope you will forgive me for being a little amused -- just a little, mind you! -- when scammers get scammed.

But back to Mikey. I'm not even going to try to get into all of the ways Mike Adams distorts, overstates, cherry-picks, and allies himself with other hucksters and nut cases -- mostly with those in the alt-med field but also with those in the booming conspiracy-nut/paranoia-porn (I call it Pornoia) industry. Like Alex Jones, for instance (who is also a favorite of Loony Coldwell).
Mike is a big Alex fan, and vice versa. (And Alex, as y'all probably know, is a big Kevin Trudeau fan.)

Anyway, other writers who are much more qualified and knowledgeable than I am have already deconstructed Adams. I'll get to them in a few moments.

I suppose now is as good a time as any for me to insert another one of my customary qualifiers. I don't disagree with Mike Adams' broad points that government, Big Pharma, the medical profession, the food industry, big agribusiness, and big corporations of all types have done a great deal of harm in the name of profits. I don't disagree with the notion that people should be able to have a wide variety of choices in health care regimens and protocols. And, contrary to certain Loony claims, I am not a paid shill of Big Pharma and/or the medical establishment.

I will also say again, as I've said before, that I too am concerned about how our quality of life has been compromised as much as enhanced by so many "modern" developments in medicine and the food industry. I am not blind to that stuff. I would simply rather get my information from better-researched, less agenda-driven, and less shrill sources, such as
Mother Jones, for starters. I'll take Mother Jones over Alex Jones any day.

My big point is that Mike Adams is no selfless soldier for truth. Far from it. He clearly has no problem aligning himself with all sorts of hucksters and loud-mouthed fame whores, and he clearly has no particular allegiance to truth, either -- recent evidence of the latter being that he suggested Coldwell protege and business partner Abe Husein's YouTube channel as a source for more details on the ways that "members of GIN have been defrauded, scammed, lied to or financially exploited by Trudeau
."

Granted, Abe has the basic points right: i.e., GIN is a scam and KT is a scammer. And I used to be quite the Abe supporter because of that. But it doesn't take much reading or listening to figure out that he is far from an unimpeachable source, particularly when you consider that according to many reports he tried to game the GIN system, which was already on shaky ethical and legal ground anyway. More recently, his predictions about GIN and KT, like his buddy Lenny's, have repeatedly failed to come true. Those predictions are based in large part on wishful thinking and on Abe's own imaginary role of the big hero who has almost single-handedly brought down GIN and Katie. And did I mention that Abe is in business with Loony Coldwell?



So yes, watch the videos, but consider the source, and if you want more insight into what's really going on with the court cases, read the court documents yourself and don't take either Abe's or Lenny's word for it. If you are in the US, you can avail yourself of PACER.gov. (This May 2013 blog post of mine has more details about how you can use PACER to access the available court documents in the Trudeau cases.)

And a much better source for information on GIN (and a few related) scams is
Bernie O'Mahony's GINtruth.com. Omri Shabat has a few things to say about Trudeau on Glancingweb. So does Salty Droid. And you can probably poke around on this Whirled too and find a few useful things.

As for the Health Ranger, if you want some additional insight into Mike Adams' body of work from a more scientific point of view,
Orac's Respectful Insolence blog is a good place to start. I am fully aware that those of you who automatically reject any utterance by an actual M.D. will not be convinced. This is for the rest of you.

Mikey also rates his own page on RationalWiki -- which is, as I am also fully aware, part online "encyclopedia" and part skeptics' editorializing, so you have to take the obvious bias into consideration. I find it mildly annoying myself at times. However, the statements about Adams are sourced so that readers can make up their own minds. Here is that link:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/NaturalNews

There is, as you might imagine, an ongoing battle between Mikey and "the skeptics." In January 2010 he wrote a conspiracy-infused piece on what he imagines "skeptics" to believe
about vaccines, medicine, consciousness and the universe.

The next day
Steven Novella at the Neurologica blog had an excellent point-by-point response, which is well worth reading.I have to say that unlike some of the hardcore skeptics and critical thinkers, I don't consider Mike Adams "dangerous." I think that's overstating, and frankly, skeptical overstating isn't any more attractive to me than believer or conspiracy-nut overstating. Besides, Adams just eats that kind of thing up, and so do his most ardent admirers. The Health Ranger has his own martyr/hero shtick going, after all, as he has for years.

Bottom line for all of you anti-GIN, anti-KT folks: Don't be fooled by The Health Ranger weakly waving the anti-scam banner on his blog. He is just as much a part of the Big Sick Machine that is Scamworld as any others I've written about. As Orac noted
on a recent blog post:
When it comes to One Crank To Rule Them All, there’s only one right now that I can think of, and it’s Mike Adams... Adams has mastered every form of quackery and crankery.
And I am willing to bet that at heart, Mike Adams is still pretty much rooting for his buddy Kevin Trudeau.


More True-dough on this Whirled:
* * * * *
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 to
cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Kevin Trudeau in court again: Something big... something really big!... or maybe not

From courtship to the court room: it's been a whirlwind five years
for Kevin Trudeau and the lovely Nataliya Babenko,
who celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary June 26!

Today, beginning at 10:00 AM Central Daylight Time, serial scammer Kevin Trudeau is appearing in court for a hearing related to his long-dragged-out civil case with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). [Case number 1:03-cv-03904, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman presiding.]

The last time he was in court regarding this case was a little over a month ago, on May 21. Today the court will be hearing from Marc Lane, one of Kevin's former legal eagles who helped him form his huge scam, the Global Information Network (GIN). It remains to be seen whether Marc will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights a few hundred times, as KT did in May.

Even though Kevin Trudeau is presumably not the star of this show, he has been ordered to appear in court for this hearing, and is currently prevented from traveling outside the jurisdiction.

And it's this latest bit that has excited ex-GIN member Abe Husein, who gleefully shared the news on his Facebook forums yesterday. The news apparently invoked a multi-sensory experience for Abe, who could just "smell the sweet taste of justice and victory."


Several people had questions about Brandy's "testimony." Abe replied:


My own first response was that I wasn't surprised that Brandy might eventually turn on Kevin. I think Kevin has placed her in an untenable position. However, that assessment was a bit premature. It seems that Brandy -- "mistress" or not (officially she has been Trudeau's producer and assistant) -- is still loyal to her Katie, at least on Facebook.



Here, if you can get to it, is the Facebook thread from earlier today, indicating that Brandy is still supporting Kevin -- and that at least a few people are willing to "testify" on Trudeau's behalf, if only by email. https://www.facebook.com/brandy.kt/posts/618748794816990

Meanwhile, Loony Lenny Coldwell, whose name change from Bernd Klein just celebrated its fifteenth birthday yesterday (we had a Quinceañera fiesta on this very Whirled, and we're still celebrating!) has been crowing about the prospect of his ex-b.f.f. being in jail. He just can't quit talking about Katie and Bubba... or Babba, as the case may be. Loony seems to have an almost unnatural obsession with jailhouse rape, which I don't actually think is anything to joke about.


I know this will come as a huge shock to you, Dear Ones, but the actual court documents seem to tell a slightly more nuanced story. First off, Kevin hasn't actually had his passports "revoked" (or "revocked," as the blurb on Abe's newest vid says) -- he has simply been ordered to surrender them, at least temporarily, because the court deems him a flight risk at the moment. The same thing happened back in
February of 2010 after a contempt issue revolving around a Kevin-fueled email blast to the judge in his civil case, Robert Gettleman.

Here are the June 25 documents that Abe and Lenny were so excited about. You can judge (so to speak) for yourself, though I have it on good authority that the judge himself is not expected to make any decisions today. As usual, click on the pics for an enlarged view.


Kevin's next scheduled court appearance will be on July 8 at 11:00 AM. Subject to change, of course -- as always.

What does seem clear in these latest documents, as well as numerous other recent court docs, is that the plaintiffs -- that would be the Federal Trade Commission -- as well as the judge, are running out of patience with Trudeau. But whether he will end up in jail or not, thus giving some of the faux-heroes of this saga their fake happy ending, is anyone's guess. And whether he will stay in jail -- again, that is anyone's guess, though right now I am pretty much doubting it. All the FTC is really interested in is getting their $37.6 million fine from Kevin, or satisfying themselves that he really, really, really does not have the money, as he has been claiming for a while now (when he wasn't busy claiming that he is not going to pay it because it's simply an unjust fine).


Abe originally said that he would be in the court room giving live updates via Facebook, but apparently he will not be there after all, although he will still be giving frequent updates via Facebook. Unfortunately Facebook has temporarily blocked him again, so he may be posting under one of his Facebook aliases, "Angel Sharp." He'll also be posting via a Facebook event page he set up specifically for this hearing. Here's his first video update.

I suppose it's just as well that he won't be in the court room, since his high vibrations -- as noted in a June 24 Facebook post -- apparently upset the proceedings on May 21, causing KT's attorneys to kick him out.


Of note, that email blast, though kind of lame and last-minute, was actually only directed to people who had bought Kevin's weight loss book, had successfully tried the hCG protocol Kevin recommends in his book, and did not feel deceived. After all, the book's claims are at the center of this longstanding civil lawsuit. A German Facebook friend of mine received a copy of the email, and here is what it said:
Kevin needs your help
As you may know, Kevin is being sued by the FTC for saying the weight loss protocol in his book, “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to know About,” was easy. Kevin has another court date coming up soon in Chicago.

Here’s how you can help .... if you saw information about his book, and you bought the book, did the diet and did not feel misled, would you be willing to come to Chicago to testify on Kevin’s behalf?

If you are willing to help, please email [redacted by me] for more details.

Thank you for your continued support!

Global Information Network

The point is that unless there was another email blast that I don't know about, this email was not an open invitation to "all the zombies" who support Trudeau to come to court "and testify on his behalf about how good of a man he is." The email was directed to a specific subset of Trudeau customers. It's the same campaign in which Brandy is apparently still engaged.

Anyway. It's a bit past 10:00 AM as I finish this, and I'm sure that somewhere in Chicago, a court room is buzzing in antici....pation.

But I don't want to let this day go by without wishing Kevin and the lovely Nataliya Babenko a happy, happy fifth wedding anniversary. Yep, '
twas five years ago on this very day that the lovebirds tied the knot in an extravagantly unromantic ceremony at a Massachussetts courthouse. Kevin stressed at the time that they wanted it to be a U.S. marriage, and they chose that courthouse because it was so lovely, and so near to the little town where Kevin had grown up and where his parents still live. He also said that at some point they would have a much more elaborate ceremony overseas.

Well, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. Not long after the touching courthouse ceremony, Kevin presented his lovely bride with a huge shot of GIN for a wedding present, a present she may currently be regretting. But no matter what happens today in court... no matter what the fate of Kevin and Natalie and a possible third in the threesome, Brandy... they'll always have Paris.

 And contrary to the graffiti on Jim Morrison's grave, what happens today will almost certainly not be... The End.

Update, PM:
My source was correct; no ruling was made today. It was not, after all, Doomsday for Kevin or GIN. Both judges -- Judge Gettleman for the civil case, and Judge Ronald Guzman for the related criminal contempt case -- are expected to make rulings some time on Thursday morning, June 27. Meanwhile,
here's a clip from Chicago's ABC 7 (it may not play on all devices). Those rascals stole my "True-dough" pun, which I've been using on this Whirled for more than four years.



Update, 27 June 2013: This just in from the Facebook page of Ryan Kath at KSHB-TV (Kansas City), who had just posted an update earlier today:

UPDATE FROM MY PREVIOUS POST:
Folks in the courtroom in Chicago are telling me that Trudeau's hearing is continued until Monday morning. In the meantime, he's been asked by Judge Gettleman not to transfer assets "outside of ordinary and customary living expenses." Trudeau has been asking to make a trip to Canada, but they want him to surrender his passports and post a collateral bond first.

Also--it sounds like Marc Lane spent a considerable amount of time on the stand yesterday, and even more today. FTC attorneys would've asked him about what kind of advice or knowledge he had about shielding money in offshore accounts.

The saga continues next week...

So it would appear that June 26 really wasn't Doomsday and GIN didn't end and Katie wasn't thrown in jail. (I know you're as shocked as I am that Loony Coldwell and his little buddy could be wrong.) And today wasn't "huge" either. Maybe Monday, July 1, which is currently KT's next scheduled court appearance... maybe THAT will be the huge day that everyone has been waiting for. And maybe not. And so the story goes.. on and on and on and on...
 
Addendum, a little later...
Chuck Goudie at Chicago's ABC-7 posted
a follow-up story about Kevin's latest court woes. Seems that the court is not going to be getting its hands on Katie's Italian passport. Trudeau told the court that he had left the passaporto in his Swiss residence inside a biometric safe that requires his fingerprint to open. Something tells me that Katie, though on a short leash for now, will not be ending up in a cage any time soon. Unless of course the Feds decide to escort him back to that safe in Zurich to get the passport.



More True-dough on this Whirled:
* * * * *
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 to
cosmic.connie@juno.com
If PayPal, be sure to specify that your contribution is a gift. Thank you!