My posts have been less frequent
But don't be broken-hearted
My Whirled's not winding down
It's only getting started.
~CC
Put another way... Flip that "figure 8" 90 degrees, and
you have something that pretty much looks like the infinity sign.
Matter of fact, I'm thinking that theme needs to work its way
into the sub-title of my book-in-progress...
No Neat and Tidy Endings:
The Infinite Loop of Scamworld
by Connie L. Schmidt
I sort of like the sound of that. And it has, after all, been a
theme on this blog for a long time: No Neat and Tidy Endings, Or
NNaTE, as some of my dear friends, such as Julie Daniel (who has
been pushing and pushing me to get this book done) like to say.
Nothing lasts forever, of course -- except maybe scams,
unfortunately, in one form or another -- but I'm going to
continue to keep this Whirled turning for as long as I can,
despite a few recent bumps in the road (most notably, a truly deranged snarget who recently
accused me of poisoning his pit bull dog).
Maybe at some point soon I'll also finally switch over to
Wordpress, as I've been nattering on about for years, or at least I'll
update this raggedy old ugly Blogger template. It has outlived
its usefulness. Maybe I'll even put another profile pic up,
although I have to say that I am currently getting a kick out of
the comment that the aforementioned deranged snarget made about
how the pic makes me look like a druggy transvestite. While his
attempt to dehumanize me by calling me "that thing" is
disturbing, the rest of his comment is just typical silly Lenny
stuff.
Lenny apparently performs his "professional
diagnoses" just from looking at people's pictures. If he had
truly been able to read pictures and people, he might have
discerned that I chose that profile pic because... well... I like
it. I like it because it was taken on a glorious day that seems
longer ago than it really was. There was sun on my skin and
saltwater in my hair and the sound and smell of the sea all
around me. The only "drug" I was on (corny as it will
probably sound) was love -- Ron was very much a part of that day,
of course -- and possibly a Red Bull or two (straight up, no
alcohol, since unlike some of my besotted snargets, I haven't had
an alcoholic drink in decades). Life was good for Ron and me. It
is still good, but back in those days we had lost less; people
and four-legged kids who have since passed were still with us: my
mother, Ron's "second mom" and "second dad,"
some clients who became dear friends (Ed, Margaret, Sterling,
Jess, we miss you....), an old love of mine who had remained a
friend in the years since, and died of cancer earlier this
year... and in the fur-baby department, Rex and Layla and Bruce
and Sabrina and Coca and Grace and Noelle... and neither Ron nor
I had ever even heard of the most sinister snarget to
ever inhabit my Whirled, nor had most of the rest of the
planet... and even though I wasn't particularly young or naive, I
was still mostly ignorant, in those days, of how evil the type of
evil I now write about can be.
I should stop now, lest I sink to the same level
of histrionics employed by some of my more noteworthy snargets.
It really has been fun for the most part -- slinging words,
making pretty pictures (or just pretty silly pictures... the
graphic above incorporates today's Google Image results for
Whirled Musings). All I want to add is this: Thank you to all of
you for your continuing support. Feel free to take advantage of
the Donation button on the upper left. And whether you donate or
not, I appreciate you -- all of you (well, most of you, anyway)
--- more than you will ever know.
If you landed here hoping to
(finally!) see Part 2 of my five-part post on the
awful new up-again/down-again bio site of Mockter Leonard Coldwell, ex-b.f.f. of
caged serial scammer Kevin Trudeau (Part 1 of the Loony C post is here), I'm sorry to say that this isn't that
post. But don't worry: that will be coming up soon...prolly next.
I just need to do a little more tweaking, mostly for word flow.
As many of you may know, I got sidetracked by some really serious sh-t that Coldwell has
been pulling since July 14, falsely accusing me of poisoning his
pit bull Blue. But let's take a break from that little skeev for now. He is beginning to bore me.
Besides, there's a ton of amusing stuff about Trudeau, or KT as
he likes to be called, or Katie as he is fondly known on this
Whirled -- as well as some buzz about a few Katie wannabes. Let
me catch you up...
Court case updates
Civil contempt case [1:03-cv-03904, Hon. Robert Gettleman
presiding]
As you no doubt know, what is arguably Trudeau's biggest
scam of all, the Global Information Network (GIN) was sold in May 2014 to a group of Katie's buds. And on July 7, 2014, Robb Evans & Associates, the
court-appointed receiver, filed its fourth report and supporting
exhibit, as well as a request to be paid for all of its hard
work. The report is on Robb Evans' site, or you can grab it here. This doc
provides a summary of the receiver's activities since they took
over in August 2013. It's good catch-up or review for anyone,
including you reporters and producers out there who might need to
get up to speed on the case.
Here are some of the numbers from the receiver's report:
Closing the Receivership Estate and
Distribution of Cash
The Receiver anticipates that after completion of the
forensic accounting report in the near future, there will be
very little in ongoing fees and expenses associated with
collecting the amounts discussed above.
The Receiver is currently holding approximately $5.1 million.
After collection of all of the funds, the Receiver estimates
over $8 million will be available for distribution upon
future instructions from this Court.
This money, or most of it, is supposed to go to
help pay Katie's $37.6 million fine to the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), which is eventually supposed to distribute it
to the consumers who complained about losing money as a result of
buying Katie's weight-loss book years ago. But who knows where
that cash will ultimately end up?
Apropos of the above, something that is not on the Robb Evans
site is the document in which the receivers ask the court for
approval of fees and expenses, and provide an account of their
activities over the past few months. I
shared this on Facebook on the GIN Network Truth group, but you can also find it here.
On July 10 these documents were presented to the court, and
the court, as expected, approved the payments to the receiver
(Document number 867).
Criminal contempt case [1:10-cr-00886-1,
Hon. Ronald Guzman presiding]
As reported here previously, Katie finally got the money together to file the appeal for his criminal contempt conviction, which resulted in
a ten-year sentence in a Federal lockup. Currently he's at a minimum security sleepaway camp in Montgomery,
Alabama, while it's all sweetness and
light on his Facebook fan page as his
proxies continue to pretend he's having a wonderful time on his
"adventure." Frauduct peddler and GIN
"faculty" member Mary Miller wrote on a post that was
published on the Katie fan page July 20:
From Mary Miller...
Last week I had the opportunity to
visit with Kevin. He looks very healthy and is very much at
peace with his new home. He continues to grow and learn. All
of us hit bumps in the road from time to time..Seeing Kevin
reminded me that these are truly opportunities to change and
grow...I left him reminded that I am only a victim of my life
when I give over control of the driver's seat. It was just
the right day to visit..Mary Miller
"Bumps on the road?!?" Is that what
you call a ten-year prison sentence? But last time I checked, the
post had 654 "likes" and more than 50 comments, most of
them very supportive of Katie.
Even so, given the way that Katie's luck has been going with
judges in the past year or so, I am thinking that his appeal will
not be successful. And someone mentioned to me that it could
backfire, noting that if an appeals court judge decides that a
sentence wasn't harsh enough, he or she can change that.
In addition, according to this piece on trial, sentencing, and appeal...
When appellate courts review cases,
they may affirm the decision of the lower court, reverse the
decision of the lower court, or affirm only a portion of the
lower court's decision and reverse other portions of it.
Although a reversal accomplishes the same thing, they also
have the power to order the whole case dismissed, as if it
didn't happen. More often, if this is the case, however, the
appellate court will remand the case, which means that it is
returned to the trial court and may be retried. If they feel
strongly about what the ultimate outcome should be in a case,
they will indicate reverse and remand. If the appellate court
indicates that there was insufficient evidence to convict in
the first place, the state trial court cannot even retry the
case because double jeopardy protection kicks in. In any
retrials the state cares to do, they cannot charge the
defendant with anything other than what they were charged
with in the original trial, but the sentence at the retrial
can be harsher following a successful appeal.
In addition, today (July 22) I stumbled upon
some letters to the court that appeared on the criminal docket
since my last visit to PACER. I'm sure that hundreds if not
thousands of letters and emails have been sent about this matter
since Katie's sentencing, but the ones that just popped up on the
docket are mostly anti-Trudeau.
One thing that people just can't
seem to understand why Katie's infomercials are still on TV.
I've explained the infomercial thing here (see
under the sub-head, "Katie is still on TV, and here's
why"), and some mainstream journos such as Jason Meisner at the Chicago Tribune have too, but it hasn't sunk in.
Look, people, you all have a perfectly valid point, but what you
need to know is that the big sick machine is so big and so sick
that scads of other scammers will continue to find ways to make
money off of the Katiescams, even though Katie's in a cage. NO
NEAT AND TIDY ENDINGS, Y'ALL.
Point is, there's a lot of anti-Katie sentiment out there. Here's
some more of it...
This is the one supportive letter that appeared on the docket.
If those five letters are representative of the ratio of anti- to pro-Katie messages coming in, it appears that sentiment is running 4 to 1 against him. But I can't say for sure.
At any rate, more than likely there won't be any decisions made
on the appeal until some time in October at the very earliest.
Katie asked for extra time to prepare his appeal brief, through
his new lawyer, Mr. Christopher M. Bruno, Esq. (another attorney
with Katie's long-time firm Winston & Strawn, LLP). Here is the link to the document requesting more time.
Bruno, who has primary responsibility for preparing this brief,
explained:
Winston & Strawn LLP was trial
counsel for Mr. Trudeau and has continued to represent him on
this appeal on a pro bono basis. I was recently admitted to
the bar of the Seventh Circuit and entered my appearance on
July 3, 2014. On June 17, 2014, the Court notified Mr.
Trudeau that all necessary fees for his appeal had been paid
in full, after Winston & Strawn LLP paid the appellate
fees.
To justify the request for more time, Bruno
cited the complexity of the case, the unique aspects of criminal
contempt, and the fact that Bruno has other projects whose
deadlines conflict with the deadline for the Katie case. He also
noted:
8. Finally, Mr. Trudeau is currently in
the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Maxwell Air
Force Base Prison Camp. Given that he is incarcerated at a
location far from my office [Bruno is in Washington
D.C.], I do not meet with him in person. Accordingly, to
provide him counsel, I am required to separately schedule
calls with him and communicate by mail. Although the Bureau
of Prisons has been accommodating, these realities create
delays in the process of effectively preparing Mr.
Trudeau’s appeal.
9. Transferring responsibility for this appeal to another
attorney at Winston & Strawn, LLP would be an inefficient
use of resources, given the time I have already spent
researching the legal issues and reviewing the record in this
matter.
Bruno anticipated that he could prepare and
file Katie's brief by August 22, 2014. Just reading between the
lines, it appears to me that Winston & Strawn, LLP does not
want to spring for air fare for Chris Bruno, since they're
already doing so much work pro bono anyway. But on July
14, 2014, the motion for extension of time was approved. So at
least Katie was granted that much.
Meanwhile, Katie's supporters continue to try to raise money for
his legal battle -- and they'd better work hard, because if the
above is any indication, those bills will continue to pile up
despite the pro bono stuff.
Meet me in St. Louis: Neo-stinkers
rally to Katie's defense
The other day someone alerted me to a discussion
taking place on the Twelve Visions Party page on Facebook. As you may know, the Twelve Visions Party (TVP) is an
invention of Mark Hamilton -- real name Wallace Ward, Jr.,
Whirled name Mark Scamilton -- a long-time buddy of Kevin Trudeau
and current head of the Neo-Think/Neo-Tech/NovaTech/Nouveau
Tech/Society of Secrets Scampire. On July 9, Jill Reed, former
U.S. presidential "candidate" for the TVP, shared the
status of a Neo-stinker named Kenneth W. Townsend. Jill
wrote:
Kenneth W Townsend
was one of the original founders of the Twelve Visions Party
Sunday Night Calls. I remember when he went to Chicago to
meet Michael Dilworth
and Jay Solether II
to check out sites for 2009. I now am in those same shoes!
Planning an event with the hopes that you will join me as we
make the next leap into the Great Technological Revolution as
this party's only goal is to "Make All The People
Wealthy Including the Poor!" The computer dynamics
(dropping prices and rising values) are here! Enjoy what
Kenneth has to say.
And here's what Kenneth had to say:
In July 2009 Kevin Trudeau
spoke at the first Twelve Visions Party national convention.
Not sure whether he did it as a favor to MH or because he
wanted to introduce the people who attended to GIN it doesn't
matter which. You see I don’t know what I don’t know and
I don’t even know if Kevin supports the Twelve Visions
Party, but what I do know is that the Twelve Visions Party
supports Kevin and everyone else who has been pushed around,
put down, called names, or bullied because force and threat
of force is unacceptable. With a Twelve Visions Party
Government Kevin would never have been prosecuted for a crime
he didn’t commit. Yes I said a crime he didn’t commit.
You see Kevin never forced or threatened to force anyone to
buy his book, The Weight Loss Cure “They” don’t want
you to know about.
I bought the book, the information in
the book was accurate and I lost weight therefore I believe
the information in the book is not fraudulent. So Kevin ended
up being sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Those
of you who “stand by Kevin” should be interested in
knowing that with a Twelve Visions Party government in place
Kevin will be granted a full pardon. I am taking action and
doing everything I can to get the Twelve Visions Party in
place.
Now, I am paraphrasing Edmund Burke here when I say,
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men and women to do nothing.” You can continue doing
nothing and go along with the ruling class government and you
will see more and more injustices being done like what was
done to Kevin or, you can Take Action and support the Twelve
Visions Party which will end the rule of man and launch the
wealth of mankind.
There is a Gateway to Prosperity Party
in St. Louis Missouri July 25th and 26th. This event is the
beginning of the end of the ruling class that put Kevin in
prison. Please join us in St. Louis. You can register for
this event by calling Jill at [phone number redacted] and
even if you cannot attend this event I strongly encourage you
to register and support a new beginning for America, a new
beginning for America where the government does not use
force, threat of force or fraud against the people. Help get
Kevin a full pardon and help yourself to a wealthy and
healthy America by supporting the Twelve Visions Party. You
can learn more about the gateway to prosperity on Facebook
@gateway to prosperity.
Take action now call Jill [phone number
redacted] and register for this life-changing event, you will
be glad you did the first one hundred people to register
whether you attend the event or not will be sent a value
worth more than what it costs to register after the event.
Call now! Jill Reed
[phone numbers redacted]
Thank You and I Hope to See You All
There
With love Kenneth
Clearly, the Neo-stinkers are supporting and
promulgating Kevin's martyr-to-the-government shtick, which I first wrote about back in August of 2011. The sad thing is that thousands of people apparently
still believe Katie's spin.
But it's not surprising that Neo-stink would come out in support
of Katie, although to my knowledge Scamilton himself -- who really cleaned up in GIN's defunct-for-now MLM, as
reported here back in September 2013 --
has been mostly silent. I've heard he is expected to be at the
St. Louis wingding later this month, though. Some ex-GIN folks,
who are still loyal Neo-stinkers, intend to confront him about
GIN. But something tells me he won't be very confrontable,
provided he even shows up.
As you no doubt remember if you've been a Whirled visitor for any
length of time, I've written about Neo-stink and Scamilton and
Katie several times. Apart from the September 2013 post linked to
in the paragraph above, there's this May 2013 post elaborating on the Neo/GIN
connections, and this December 2013 post about a new Neo-stinkin'
flopportunity.
And before that, way back in August 2011 (that was a busy month for me), there were these:
Everybody was Kung Fu fighting
If attending a Katie party in St. Louis in July won't work for
you, maybe a martial arts flopportunity in Park Ridge, Illinois
in August will make your qi quiver. On July 6, 2014, an invitation was issued on Katie's Facebook fan page.
Hello,
I am Grand Master Tsai and I am hosting a Life Changing Qi
Gong workshop to help my dear friend and Kung Fu student
Kevin Trudeau. I have known Kevin Trudeau for over 25 years.
He is a very unique mentor to a lot of people. Although I
taught Kevin Kung Fu I have also learned life changing
knowledge from him.
I want to share the priceless life changing benefits of my Qi
Gong studies experience and knowledge with people like you
and take this opportunity to rally donations to assist Kevin
Trudeau’s court case.
I believe my tiny effort with our workshop will show Mr.
Trudeau our heartfelt appreciation for all that he has done
for us.
The workshop will take place on Sunday, August 9th from
1p-5:30p in Park Ridge, Il. The exact location will be
emailed once you have made a contribution of $200.00 or more
at the link below. Just put "GMT" in the memo box.
I sincerely look forward to meeting you there and supporting
our dear friend!
[Link to KT Legal Defense page]
Here's a little bit about Grand Master Tsai. Here's a lot more about Grand Master Tsai. I'm no martial arts expert (truth be told, I'm one of
the miniscule number of people on the planet who find the whole
martial arts thing rather boring -- so shoot me), but one thing
seems clear to me: Grand Master Tsai and Kung Fu Katie are
practitioners of that most venerated martial art of all: Ka-Ching.
Lamp unto my feet
While Katie cools his heels in sleepaway camp and
the minions cry for his release and think up new ways to try to
get suckers to fork over to pay his legal bills, business goes on
in the newly purchased GIN, which has apparently resumed its
weekly calls to the suckers, and is excitedly planning the next
Family Reunion in September in Phoenix, Arizona (any symbolism in
that? Phoenix? (See January 24, 2014 update on this post.)). There's been some excited buzz on the Facebooks
recently...
Bidness seems to be going on as well as in the GIN Store, which, besides
selling the usual GIN-branded merchandise, is busily promoting
its frauducts as per usual. For instance, a post from the GIN Store
popped up on my Facebook timeline in June. It was a promo for a frauduct called The Mind Lamp, "THE WORLDS FIRST MIND MATTER INTERACTION
DEVICE," according to a promo pic that was posted on July 1.
"YOU THINK... IT RESPONDS," promises
the copy on the July promo. The June 24 post from the GIN Store
Facebook page 'splains it all:
What color is your chief aim?
For the first time ever in the history of GIN, we now have a
device that PROVES and demonstrates before our very eyes that
our minds really do affect matter! We have hinted about this
here on Facebook before, but we felt this was so big that we
weren't ready to divulge the details UNTIL NOW! We are
thrilled to introduce THE MIND LAMP!
In case you're tempted to think this is some fly-by-night
gadget, or something like the old "mood rings,"
we'll explain a little bit about the origins of the Mind
Lamp. A team of scientists from Princeton University began
exploring mind-matter phenomena several decades ago, and now
have DECADES of extensive, documented PROOF that our thought
vibrations really do affect the physical universe and can
influence events in our lives! Basically, they are proving
scientifically what we GIN members have known all along!
Known as The PEAR lab, or Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research, these Princeton Engineers began constructing
devices called RANDOM EVENT GENERATORS (or REGs) which allow
you to see in action how your mind can affect a physical
machine. The Mind Lamp is just one of the devices that we
have partnered with PEAR to offer to GIN members. PEAR's
research was virtually unknown to GIN members prior to its
discovery by one of GIN's Inner Circle members. The research
they have published, and the products they have invented, we
believe, are ESSENTIAL to understanding the concepts we are
taught in GIN, as it firmly grounds it in quantifiable
reality!
The premise of the Mind Lamp is simple: The lamp starts out
white (neutral) and changes color when the computer inside of
it picks up various thought vibrations. The lamp may turn a
lighter color if the thought vibration is a little weak, or
it may turn a deep, vivid color if the broadcast is really
intense. One other observation is that with a bit of
practice, the lamp seems to turn one specific color for a
specific thought. One of our staff members observes that when
he thinks about his chief aim, the lamp turns pink; another
staff members observes the lamp turning yellow when he this
about his chief aim. Because of this, the Mind Lamp is a
PERFECT Intention Training device! Just think...if you can
train your thoughts to turn the Mind Lamp one specific color,
and hold the thought pattern as long as possible, using the
Mind Lamp as your gauge, you could virtually train yourself
to blast out 68 second vibrations virtually all of the time!
There are less than 200 Mind Lamps available and the
manufacturer is not sure WHEN or IF they will be available
again. Be sure to own one TODAY while supplies last, and take
your GIN training to a whole new level!
And kids, it's only $249! And the words
"quantum" and "nano" are used in the promo copy on the GIN Store web site, so you know it's real scientifical.
Because of the Mind Lamp's technology,
its behavior is not predetermined, and is ultimately driven
by probabilities derived from the nanoscopic realm.
The most interesting feature however, is that probabilistic
devices and systems like the REG used in the Mind Lamp can be
influenced by the human mind. In other words, our MINDS which
includes our thoughts, intention, emotion, and our
subconscious processes can influence the colors of the lamp.
And now indulge me for a little
bubble-bursting. Contrary to what the June GIN Store promo copy
implied, PEAR -- the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab
-- wasn't "virtually unknown" until a GIN Inner Circle
member "discovered" it. In fact there's a lot of info
about it online. Start with Wiki, which notes,
"Despite the name, the project had little to do with
engineering but rather was dedicated to the study of
parapsychology."
Then there's this, from
Skedic:
Perhaps the most disconcerting thing
about PEAR is the fact that suggestions by critics that
should have been considered were routinely ignored. Physicist
Bob Park reports, for example, that he suggested to Jahn two
types of experiments that would have bypassed the main
criticisms aimed at PEAR. Why not do a double-blind
experiment? asked Park. Have a second RNG determine the task
of the operator and do not let this determination be known to
the one recording the results. This could have eliminated the
charge of experimenter bias. Another experiment, however,
could have eliminated most criticism. Park suggested that
PEAR have operators try to use their minds to move a
'state-of-the-art microbalance' (Park 2008, 138-139). A
microbalance can make precise measurements on the order of a
millionth of a gram. One doesn't need to be clairvoyant to
figure out why this suggestion was never heeded.
Skeptical Inquirer/CSI published a
couple of articles about PEAR as well, one in 2006 and one in 2007.
So there's that, for those who don't
automatically filter out anything that contains the word
"skeptic." In any case, I think my friends and I can
out-lamp those GIN store hucksters. I have a lamp shaped exactly
like that, and even though it doesn't change colors it's pretty
cool. Ron bought it for me at Ikea for twenty bucks years ago. I
leave it on at night in our office because it emits a soft blue
glow for the dogs who sleep there.
I also have an LED nightlight that does change colors
randomly, and that little gem has been going strong, 24/7, for
more than seven years. I got it for 99 cents at a 99 Cent Only
Store in Houston. It's plugged into a room in the cats' part of
the house. I wonder if they use their nefarious feline brains to
influence the color changes. I wonder if they know about quantum
tunneling and whatnot! Oh, my, I think I could build an entire
scam around this thing.
My Facebook friend Jonathan wrote that he has a pyramid salt
stone lamp that changes colors randomly. It cost him $14 at
Earthbound Trading Company in the mall. Another friend named
Roger had some sage advice: "If you grab a single white
glove, fill it with rocks, and slap yourself with it every time
you do something dumb, it will influence your thoughts (you are
guaranteed to be horrified of white gloves too). Info brought to
you by my fake medical team."
Elron would be so proud... maybe: SciWINtology
updates
One of my favorite GIN ripoffs, the World
Information Network (WIN), released an
update video on June 18, naming WIN's
board of directors and regional directors. Head honcho Perry
"I don't need no stinkin' combination" Kiraly has
neither gained any charisma nor lost any of the creep-out factor
since his last video update.
And as for that Scientology connection I've been blogging about (here and here, for instance), credible
sources tell me that WIN is going to hook up with WISE, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, which, according to Wiki, promotes the ideology of
Scientology and its wackadoodle late founder, Elron. One source
told me:
The Church has a business branch called
W.I.S.E. that allows businesses to become members or buy/sell
church services. If a business becomes a member, depending on
their membership level, they pay either a flat fee for
services or ten percent of income. The course that Perry
wants everyone to take is a $50.00 course. WIN would buy
these in bulk, and then resell them to everyone. The church
will eventually push to get people's personal
information...When someone joins WIN, and wants to move up
the levels, they will have to buy this course. They will NOT
be told [beforehand] that it is from the Church of
Scientology. They will see it is indeed from the C of S once
they get the course pack as it is written all over it,
etc....the church will give a 10% "commission" to
Perry for each person in WIN that takes any service from the
C of S.. Even Kevin Trudeau did this with GIN--- and was
caught....I just wanted you aware that whatever is being put
on your site is getting to Perry--and will eventually get to
the C of S so that they can figure out PR on how to get
around it all with the members...
'Nuff said. But y'all have been warned. And so
have I. If any Xenu's pals come knocking on my Whirled door, I
will let you know. For lots more about Scientology's wacky
horridness and horrible wackiness, see Tony Ortega's fine site, The Underground
Bunker.
Another Katie wannabe ends up
behind bars
Finally, Eric Plantenberg, another "successful" GIN
speaker, was sentenced earlier this month to a year in Federal
prison for failing to report $1.3 mil in income. He wasn't really
on my Whirled radar that much, but in any case the news wasn't
all that surprising. Here's a vid Eric and his dear wife made
about his "adventure."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hykAcMVNuqE&feature=youtu.be
Here's a blog post he wrote a few days before his sentencing:
http://www.blog.ericplantenberg.com/choice/
"Above all, find gratitude in each moment.
be free!
eric"
Here's his GIN Store page:
http://www.theginstore.com/category_s/121.htm
Here's an October 2013 story about the indictment.
Here's an April 2014 news story about Plantenberg pleading
guilty.
And here's a July 8, 2014 story about his sentencing.
From the July 2014 story:
Starting in 2000, Plantenberg became
involved in the Church of Compassionate Service, taking a vow
of poverty to avoid paying taxes. Plantenberg’s income, and
that of other church 'ministers,' was given to the church,
which then gave the money back to its ministers.
Wow. Nice work if you can get it, eh? Those
crazy kids and their "churches."*
Someone who told me about Plantenberg's
sentencing said they had been to one of his workshops, promoted
by GIN and costing $99, a discount from $495 (or so GIN said. But
Scamworld is always offering those amazing
"discounts."). This person also said there were rumors
that Eric's company bought Mega Memory. I don't know if this is
true but it does seem that many of Eric's infofrauducts are about
memory and brain-training. My correspondent added, "Also in
his video he claims he used the money for schools instead of
taxes. What schools? His 4-day 'life changing' seminar that
cost $4995 or so? I'm calling bullsh-t. He was simply greedy
and got caught."
Yep, that sounds pretty accurate. Although this source (which exists to promote one of
those Scamworld books about inspirational "heroes") says Eric started "a language school for children
in Egypt."
Okay, so that makes it all right.
Le me say that in general, I do NOT believe in prison sentences
for tax evasion. That said, this story is one more example of the
M.O. of so many Scamworld players. (Maybe Eric should have run
away to Thailand or some place.) But hey... a year in the clink
and he can come right back out and start hustling again, perhaps
adding some "lessons learned in the lockup" content to
his shtick.
Well, that's it for now (isn't that enough?). Stay tuned for
more. Soon.
* Another example of a spurious
"Church," which of course I have mentioned before, is
The Church of Inner Healing: http://www.churchofinnerhealing.com/
THAT church may not have been a tax evasion thing so much as a
way to dish out medical advice without getting into trouble. In
any case it is apparently now dissolved as a corporation,
according to this: http://www.bizapedia.com/nv/CHURCH-OF-INNER-HEALING-LLC.html. (BTW, Jens Anskohl is the real name of
"Nicholas Coldwell" -- Lenny Coldwell's half-brother.)
Also, regarding The Church of Inner Healing as a fake church,
there's also this listing on the Universal Ministries site: http://universalministries.com/charter.php#SC
Fake doctor Leonard Coldwell, ex-b.f.f. of imprisoned
serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, has finally gone too far in his attempts
to silence me. He has publicly and falsely accused me of poisoning his pit bull Blue, or of being somehow behind the deed,
and since July 14, 2014 he has been running a campaign on social media to get people to pity
him and rally behind him against me. Most dangerously of all he
has published my name and address in conjunction with these false
accusations several times. The picture above speaks for
itself, and deserves addressing here on this very public blog,
since I am not allowed a voice on the social media pages on
which it appears.
Various people have
posted on those social media pages in my defense -- of their own accord, not
because I asked them to -- and their comments have soon been
deleted, after which Coldwell falsely accused me of signing up
under fake Facebook accounts, or ordering or paying others to
speak up for me. In some cases he lied about the content
of the deleted posts, apparently being unable to accept the idea
that I might actually have some support.
The screen shot above shows
a July 15, 2014 re-post of a screed that was originally put on
Facebook on July 14, 2014. The post was published on Coldwell's new
page, The Only Answer to Cancer, as well as his personal
profile page, Leonard Coldwell Nmd PhD., which have a combined
following of several thousand. It was immediately shared by
numerous people on their own Facebook pages, including a fan page for
a conspiracy-nut radio show. Several folks complained about the
original post to Facebook and Facebook took it down, and then
Coldwell's gang put it right back up, and Facebook took it down
yet again.
This did not stop him. Sometimes pretending to be his brother
"Nicolas" (though his brother's real name is Jens Anskohl, aka Nicholas (with an h) Coldwell), sometimes pretending to be someone named "Barbara," sometimes pretending to be an assistant named "Katie," and sometimes writing as himself, Coldwell continues even now to spread the lies about me on other
Facebook posts. Some have not contained my address but still state my name and
say I had something to do with the poisoning of his dog. I am blocked from participating on these public conversations.
This post has turned out to be much longer than I originally intended. And I have added quite a bit to it since I first published it on July 16. It may seem that I am overstating my case, and certainly some of the information here is redundant -- in other words, I've covered most of the background issues on previous posts. For those of you who have been with me a while, I apologize for the redundancies.
I think they're important, though, because unfortunately, some people still apparently believe Coldwell's lies. I
am getting emails from people asking me if I poisoned the dog or
know who did. For instance, this one came in as a private Facebook message...
But most aren't even questioning me; they're simply
rallying to Coldwell's side and making all sorts of speculations
about me and implied threats, and calling me an animal murderer (even though I had nothing to do with it, and even though the dog has apparently made a full recovery). Nevertheless I hold out a little
hope for rationality, so here is my open letter to any Leonard
Coldwell fans who have the broadness of mind to read it. (And I
promise I'll get back to my intended and mostly-finished posts
soon!)
Dear unquestioning Leonard Coldwell fans who
believe Coldwell's lie about who poisoned Coldwell's dog Blue:
I respectfully ask that you read this June 30, 2013 blog post-- and follow all necessary links -- and perhaps then you will
see why Leonard Coldwell, whom I've never met and never tried to
meet, is on a rampage against me, rather than the other way
around. If you don't want to follow that link, just keep on reading on this post, because most of the story is now here.Everything Coldwell has been telling you fans
about me is a lie and he knows it, and I think his assistants and
most loyal fans know it, and everyone who knows me or has
followed my blog knows it too. As a lifelong animal lover who has
several dogs and cats, I would NEVER poison a dog, condone
poisoning a dog or be part of anything so atrocious.
Moreover, despite Coldwell's grasping-for-straws tale about his dog being poisoned right after I supposedly did a search for his home address, that's pure poppycock. In the slightly more than two years since I have been writing about him on my blog, I have casually searched numerous times, utilizing the limited public resources that are available for free via the search engines. I have seen many past addresses, and in fact several are listed on the 2007 police report too (more on that below). I imagine lots of other people have searched as well, including curious reporters. But I have never paid for any online or offline
resource, nor made any serious effort to find out Coldwell's home
address, because I simply do not care that much. I have no idea
what Coldwell's home address is. He keeps that very private and
wouldn't even give it to the courts in his recent major fail of a lawsuit against another blogger
(Salty Droid). I did discuss that fact
publicly on Salty's April 3, 2014 blog post
about the failed lawsuit, however, so maybe Coldwell construed
that as a "search" for his address. (It's comment
number 222939, April 6, 2014 at 9:29 am, on this post.) As I said...
Coldwell is grasping for straws.
More than likely, if the
dog was indeed deliberately poisoned as he claims (and we only
have Coldwell's word for it at this point), it was one of his
neighbors. Unfortunately many people hate pit bulls, a breed I
happen to be quite fond of (though I am fond of all dogs).
In fact, I've written about my dogs and cats a few times on this
blog. I've deeply mourned the ones I have lost (such as Rex and Noelle and Coca), though I have yet to
write about our sweet Layla, a pretty hound-terrier mix who died
last August as a result of eating tainted dog food. (I still need
to blog about that. It's hard.) Layla's was a terrible death, the
worst dog death I have ever seen, and I have seen too many
four-legged loved ones through their final hours over the years.
The sounds of Layla's cries and the smell of her blood (she was hemorrhaging from both ends) will haunt Ron and me forever. I
would never wish such an experience on an innocent dog or on any
of the people who love that dog -- no matter how vile the people
themselves are.
Assuming that Coldwell still lives in Mt.
Pleasant, South Carolina (as his oft-published mail box address
on Hungryneck Boulevard would indicate), it would seem that if he
felt his dog had been deliberately poisoned, he would have
reported it to the Mt. Pleasant Police Department within a
reasonable time of the occurrence. Looking
at the daily crime reports around July 14, 2014 -- the first day
Coldwell began reporting on Facebook about his dog's poisoning,
and blaming me for it -- I see no such reports. Perhaps such reports are filed in a different division and
are not available online with the other crime reports. I see that the Police Department also
maintains an Animal
Control division composed of uniformed
civilians who provide investigative support and followup
regarding allegations of animal cruelty.
On the other hand, if Coldwell lives in Charleston, South
Carolina, he might be served by a different law enforcement
department. The Charleston PD also maintains an Animal Services
department. The point is that if he had
truly thought his dog had been deliberately poisoned, you'd think
there would be an official report somewhere. If there is, and one
of you can find it, please send it to me.
The other point, once again, is that I don't know where Coldwell
lives. And frankly I don't want to know.
As for some of the other lies...
Coldwell has accused me of hacking into his new web site, a site
that I wrote about at length in my previous blog post. I am
too technically inept to hack anyone's web site, not even my own. I do not condone hacking because I do not believe in playing
dirty. So Coldwell's and his little web-girl's claims or
insinuations that I had ANYTHING to do with "hacking"
are simply absurd. His pages were no doubt removed because of
numerous complaints from the people he lied about, such as Bernie
O'Mahony, whom he falsely accused of being a child rapist (as
well as falsely accusing him of hacking into his web site -- and, more recently his Dr. C Opinion Radio show).
Bernie has some more about that; his links are at the end of this post.
Anyone who has been following Coldwell for any length of time
knows that "hacking" is his most frequent defense. If
you're to believe him, that man's sites get hacked more than all
of the banking, government, military and other major sites in the
world. Even the disclaimer at the bottom of his main web page says that site was hacked. He must be a very important little man!
For the benefit of those of you who aren't familiar with me
or my blog -- and if you believe Coldwell's stories, you
obviously are not familiar with me or my blog -- I am a
professional writer but I blog as a hobby. I have been blogging
since July 2006 and have written about many Scamworld artists,
not just Coldwell. Coldwell came on my radar only because of his
close ties with the above-mentioned serial scammer Kevin Trudeau. In fact if it
hadn't been for Kevin Trudeau promoting Coldwell's shtick in
Trudeau's first Natural Cures book, and then later elevating him
to such lofty status via Trudeau's huge Global Information Network (GIN) scam, Coldwell would
almost certainly still be scrabbling around in obscurity. Coldwell deeply owes
nearly his entire platform and any prominence he might have in
the U.S. to Trudeau -- and when Coldwell was fired from GIN in
spring of 2012 his wallet took a huge hit from which he is
clearly still trying desperately to recover.
Coldwell would have remained just an amusing sideshow to the big KT circus, and I probably would have stopped at just one post about him. But then more unsavory information surfaced, and not because I went looking for it. It came to me. And the rest is... well, I'll go into more detail below.
The point I wish to make right now is that I have only ever written about
Leonard Coldwell on this very blog, which as you can clearly see
has my real name, and on various Facebook forums, also under my
real name (my current avatar is the well-known symbol for
marriage equality), and on other people's blogs, usually under
the name "Cosmic Connie" because that is an online name
used on my blog, but everybody knows it is I. So when Coldwell
says I have created hundreds of fake accounts and spent thousands
of hours "defaming" him, he is lying. Well, maybe he
really believes that is true, but I seriously doubt it. He is desperate
and searching for any way to silence me.
The infamous 2007 Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina police report on Leonard Coldwell
Coldwell can pack a lot of lies and misrepresentations into one short Facebook rant. The screen shot below is yet another case in point.
First off, Alexandra Nouri (not
"Nuori," as Coldwell spells it) is a real and separate person
who runs her own blog and writes books and helps people deal with
the narcissists and sociopaths in their lives. She wrote one
blog post about Coldwell -- one! -- and he intimidated her
into taking it down. But her blog is still up there, big as life.
At first Coldwell said Alexandra was Bernie O'Mahony. Now he says
she is I. Go figure. It's not the first lie he's told, or even
the worst lie, and it won't be the last.
Speaking of worse lies than the accusations that I blog under fake names... Coldwell's statements and implications about that "false
police report" are truly daft. First off, it's not a false police report. It's very real. As I have noted numerous times on this blog, it did NOT result in any charges against Coldwell (for various reasons), but in my opinion it is a smoking gun and part of his permanent record.
Yet in an effort to discredit the report (and by extension me), Coldwell cites one woman who, in
April 2014, retracted her 2007 accusation against him, which was
recorded in that very real police report. Seven years later, she was
apparently persuaded to file an affidavit recanting her
accusation, and Coldwell is now milking that for all it's worth.
He fails to mention that this woman was just one of numerous
women filing complaints. In saying that she admitted it was a
false report that she filed under pressure, Coldwell adds,
"guess from whom?" By context, the clear implication is
that I pressured the woman to file the report at the
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Police Department (case number 2007-04652) in the first place.
Really, Leonard?!? That report -- and again, it is a REAL report,
not a fake one -- was (as I noted) filed in 2007, and that was years before I'd ever even heard
the name Leonard Coldwell. Back in those blissful days I was
occupied with joyfully skewering The Secret. I had no
idea of the evil that was in my Whirled's future.
Or perhaps by "guess from whom," Coldwell means that
the woman filed the complaint under pressure from Big Pharma. Or
the medical profession. Or any of his other imagined enemies. As
is usually the case with his incoherent rants it is difficult to
determine.
What is truly awful is that on his "Bio" web site and in a subsequent Facebook post he mentions another woman who supposedly committed suicide because she could not live with herself after making the false accusations against Coldwell. That is codswallop, and one of the crassest and most cynical things he has ever written. According to documents attached to the police report this woman -- actually a teenage girl -- was murdered under mysterious circumstances a few months after the alleged incidents with Coldwell. Reportedly she was never the same after her alleged encounters with him, and she started hanging around a bad crowd. The full story of her murder has not been told.
My "obsession" with Coldwell: the real reason
Here's an important point that you Lenny fans need to assimilate: The only
reason I am "obsessed" with Coldwell is that he
provides so much easy material. To suggest that I have any sexual
interest in him whatsoever is a lie -- a highly amusing one, but
a lie nevertheless.
But as indicated above, I cannot defend myself on
the forums Coldwell is using to incite people to hate me and take
action against me. He has blocked me from seeing most of them or
from participating in any way. He does not want to give me a
chance to speak up for myself and provide links that tell the
truth about HIM. Similarly he does not want to give a voice to
people who write supportive comments about me. Comments
supportive of me have been immediately removed from his pages and
then have been subsequently misrepresented to his small and
shrinking fan base. To me that reeks of cowardice. That is what
bullies do. So much for the courageous "Dr." Coldwell.
Again, read this blog post (or, at the very least, the rest of the one you're on now) and try to
consider what you are doing by supporting the man who is
spreading these outrageous lies about me and several other
people.
Coldwell is angry because ever since May 2012, when I wrote my first blog post about him, I have been asking questions he does not want to
answer. Questions about his credentials, his medical
qualifications, his cure claims, and the REAL reasons that he
changed his name from Bernd Klein (aka Bernd Witchner) and moved
from Germany to the United States.
The first lies he told about me were that I am an
AIDS-infected ex-prostitute who gave bad STDs to her clients, and
am now being paid by Big Pharma to discredit and defame him. When
nobody believed those lies (not even his closest fan-girls) he
switched to the story that I tried to have sex with him. That
tale first surfaced in November 2013; see screen shot below. The person named "Peter" whom he mentions in the non sequitur is his close friend and business partner Peter Wink, who knew Coldwell was lying about my asking Peter to set me up with Coldwell, but said nothing publicly, at least to my knowledge (he has me blocked so I honestly don't know). This screen shot was taken on November 6, 2013:
More recently Coldwell has been saying I tried for more than two years to have sex with him. Soon after he changed that to
nearly three years. He can't even be consistent with his lies.
He is also saying that I have been
"defaming" him for three years now. I did not write my
first blog post about him until May 2012, as noted above. As of
July 2014 that has been only a little over two years. Maybe they
do years differently in Germany.
Coldwell panders to the most deranged people
The bottom line is that Coldwell's latest
campaign to silence me -- by crassly and cynically using his dog
to incite people to action against me -- has put me in serious
jeopardy because he published my address in conjunction with the
false accusations, and he all but invited people to come and get
me. And you fans accept his baloney without question.
You're ready to come hunt me down and poison and shoot me
(well, some of you are). Check out that deranged woman with the
caps-lock problem in the two shots below:
(You've been reported, Haiah.)
You're all ready to condemn me as a crazed, sex-obsessed stalker
-- or "a relentless zionist sub-human scum" (well, some
of you are).
Later in the same conversation, a woman named Gloria Winters Anderson wrote, "I would LOVE to catch her and defame her the way she defamed Blue!" Duly noted and reported, Gloria. I may have to re-think the relatively respectful tone of this blog post.
And some of you are willing to believe beyond-the-pale, crazy stupid stuff (talk about being mentally ill):
Perhaps you're somehow getting off to Coldwell's disturbing, disgusting porn fantasies, such as this one from July 21, 2014:
Maybe you support Coldwell's highly disturbing
attempt to dehumanize me by referring to me as "that
thing" (this one was also taken around July 21, and Lenny's former wife, Wendy Witchner, also an animal lover, chimed right in):
And you guys don't even know me. If you believe what Coldwell is
saying about me you are clueless about the real context here, and
you won't even bother to try to do a little rudimentary research
(well, most of you won't).
Instead you'll believe conspiracy-infested whoppers like the rant below, where Coldwell imagines that I am some almighty controller who is making other bloggers, such as Bernie O'Mahony, Omri Shabat at GlancingWeb (the guy in Israel), and a "wannabe lawyer" do my bidding. In reality we're all independent bloggers who write what we want, when we want. We just happen to know scum when we see it.
I wonder if Coldwell was referring to his "4
lawyers" when he said, in the sentence immediately following
the 4 lawyers reference, that "they are 4 crazy and criminal
people." At this point any lawyer who takes any case that
Lenny thinks he has against me would have to be crazy, criminal,
or both, so maybe this is something on which Lenny and I can
agree.
Coldwell and the Droid
For the benefit of those who haven't heard all of this before, I want to explain something about that "mentally ill wannabe
lawyer without a license" who has been "hiding two
years," according to Coldwell. That would be the above-mentioned Salty Droid, aka Jason Jones,
whom Coldwell comically confused with Omri in Israel. Here is a direct link to Coldwell's complaint. Coldwell has told numerous lies on Facebook about this, including the lies he is telling in his current social media campaign. For instance, in the shot above he says he has been trying for two years to hunt Jason down to serve him with court papers. In a subsequent post he said he has been trying for one year to serve him. Both are lies. As of now, it hasn't even been a full two years since Coldwell even heard of Jason/Salty Droid. Salty did not write about Coldwell until late August 2012. [Language advisory for all of Salty's posts.] He wrote about Coldwell again -- a more damning post -- in early September 2012. He wrote about him again a little later that same month, in response to Coldwell's hilarious attempts to track down "that Salty Droid loser."
And then Salty wrote about Coldwell yet again in early November 2012, in response to my concerns about some threatening things Coldwell said about me (but not directly to me). Shortly after that, on November 4, 2012, Coldwell sent a private message directly to me via Facebook, pretending to be his "brother" and using the fake name Rudi Kauder. It was a threatening message which you can read on this blog post if you don't mind another brief diversion. I didn't actually see the message until January of 2013, however, because it went directly to my "other" folder, which I rarely check. In that message Coldwell-as-Rudi threatened to do exactly what he has now done: report my personal information to Coldwell's "millions of friends, fans, patients, readers etc to make sure that they know that you caused harm..."
But back to Salty. In truth Coldwell could not serve Salty/Jason papers because Jason had moved to another state a little over a year before Coldwell filed the suit on February 10, 2014, but not to "hide" -- he just moved. People do. (Coldwell himself has moved numerous times since he came to the U.S. in the late 1990s -- he started out in Virginia but in the year 2000, according to an account on the 2007 police report, he felt he had to leave that state, and ended up in South Carolina, though he is cagey about his home address, of course.) Coldwell's lawyer obviously did not bother to do any research to find out if the address Coldwell gave him for Jason -- which had previously been a valid address -- was still good. Nevertheless Coldwell went on Facebook and bragged about the suit. I got wind of it, and someone who is still in Chicago went down to the courthouse and got a copy of the filed lawsuit, which she forwarded to Jason. He promptly replied to the suit with papers of his own, even though all of the blog posts that Coldwell cited in his defamation complaint weren't even Jason's.
But that sham of
a lawsuit that Coldwell filed was dismissed for want of prosecution on April 17, 2014. In fact Coldwell's own lawyer, Dennis J. Kellogg
(actually a personal-injury guy that Coldwell found through one
of those Lawyers-R-Us services) removed himself from the case
early on, no doubt because he realized he'd made a major career
blunder by taking the case in the first place. Here's Salty himself writing about it. And here's the Lexis-Nexis link indicating the thing was dismissed. So once again, Coldwell is lying. And he knows it.
But most of you fans probably aren't
questioning his claims.
Coldwell puts a price on my head... sort of
On the other hand, if you're here, and you've
read this far, maybe you will be the exception. Maybe you'll be
brave enough to open your mind to the possibility that Coldwell
is lying about me, and about his other critics as well.
And if he tells such outrageous and extreme and blatantly
desperate, legally actionable lies about us, what else is he
lying about? "I'll take 'VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING' for
$10,000, Alex!"
That $10,000 figure isn't just something I pulled
out of my hat. Coldwell actually put a bounty on me on July 15. Or
rather, on information about me that links me to whatever it was
that happened to his dog (who reportedly and thankfully is now
recovering).
A missed opportunity to educate people about pit bulls and pet poisoning
Coldwell could have actually used his dog's
suffering in a positive way. If his dog truly was deliberately
poisoned by someone -- and again, we only have his word for this
-- he could have used this as a pulpit to raise awareness about
the irrational hatred of pit bulls (if he had reason to believe
that this was the impetus for the act). He could have embarked on an education campaign about
the breed. (Here's a more recent and rather unsettling piece about pit bulls and pit bull hatred.)
He could have launched an
awareness campaign about the importance of keeping an eye on your
dog, because there are horrid people everywhere who do not like
specific breeds of dogs, or dogs in general, or cats, or any
animal. The story linked to in the
previous sentence was published in April 2014. It concerns a
woman in the Baltimore, Maryland area whose pit bull was
apparently fed a poisoned treat when the dog was left unattended in
her yard. Reportedly numerous other area residents' pets were poisoned too. Investigators noted that similar stories are all over social media. Apparently it happens everywhere. It even happens in South Carolina.
And by the way, one of Coldwell's recent claims (pretending to be
his assistant "Katie" writing on behalf of his dog
Blue) is that the dog was "poisoned with strychnine and some
form of neuro-toxic chemical in an oatmeal cocky!" (Which I originally thought was a cutesy way of saying "cocktail.") But in a subsequent posting on another page, it was corrected to
"oatmeal cookie." So, Coldwell, was any of the cookie
left as evidence? Did you save it and hand it over to the police?
For that matter, have you reported this incident to the police
department at all? Or are you afraid to even go there, because,
like the TV bar Cheers, it's a place where "everybody knows
your name" -- but not in a good way?
Here's a thought: Is it possible that somebody
at the Coldwell Mansion baked oatmeal cookies with raisins, and
fed some to the dog? Raisins and grapes are VERY bad for dogs, raisins especially, because the toxins (toxic for
dogs, anyway) are more concentrated than in grapes. Clinical
signs of raisin or grape toxicity:
Vomiting and jittery (hyperactive)
behavior are seen immediately to within the first 24 hours
after ingestion. Diarrhea may also be seen, and the vomitus
and feces may contain partially digested grapes or raisins.
After 24 hours, the dog may be come
anorexic, lethargic and depressed. Additionally the abdomen
may be painful, the dog may stop drinking and urinating.
Ultimately, the kidneys fail, and without aggressive
treatment, many dogs will die.
At any rate Coldwell's stories are more and more NOT adding up.
Coldwell could have also run an awareness campaign if his dog had
been poisoned accidentally, e.g., because the food he ate or a treat
or chew toy he was given was tainted at the manufacturer's
facilities (it happens even with the most exclusive, expensive,
made-in-the-USA brands). Or if the dog got into something around
the Coldwell Mansion, such as rat poison or bourbon (could it be possible that someone at the Coldwell Mansion put
out a poisoned oatmeal cookie to lure rats, and poor Blue got
into it?), Coldwell
could have raised awareness about the importance of keeping toxins out of the reach of your precious pets. [PLEASE SEE PS BELOW. ~CC]
Instead of doing something constructive, though, he chose to use his dog's suffering to
make this about his suffering at the hands of the
"criminal" forces that he imagines are out to get him. He chose to
turn the spotlight on me and not just imply, but actually accuse
me of doing this or being behind it. He chose to publish my
address in this context. And it does not matter if my address
appears on some of my other sites. The context in which
Leonard Coldwell published my address shows a clearly malicious
intent to incite violence against me.
That is unconscionable. It is one of the
lowest things I have ever seen any Scamworld guru do to combat criticism.
If you've read this far, I thank you for your time, Coldwell
fans. I realize there's probably no hope that some of you will be
convinced, and I know of at least one Coldwell fan-girl who is
deliberately promoting these lies even after she privately
apologized to me for "accidentally" sharing the post
that had my address.
But again, this post is for those of you who don't
have so much of a stake in believing Coldwell's lies that you are
unwilling to see another side. I suspect there are many more of
you in the open-minded category than Coldwell is willing to
acknowledge.
Conspiracy radio crowd
weighs in
Still, he has his ill-willed allies. I know of at least one
enthusiastic supporter and sharer of Coldwell's screeds against
me -- including the ones with my address -- who has not blocked
me from seeing the fan page for his conspiracy-nut radio
show, but had at one point apparently blocked me from commenting.
But as I later found out -- after first posting
the above screen shot on this blog -- the host of the radio show Late
Night in the Midlands, Michael Vara, had actually tried to
contact me via private message on Facebook when the kerfuffle first started. I did not see his
message because it came into my "other" folder, which I
rarely check. But instead of responding to me civilly, Michael
had this to say (and my response to his comment appears ABOVE his
comment):
I went to my "other" folder, and sure
enough there was a PM from Michael Vara, which
he sent to me on
Tuesday, July 15. I did not see it until July 17, after the rancorous exchange pictured above.
I have to wonder if by "great work" Vara
meant great work on my blog, great work in getting an obvious
lunatic stirred up, or great work in the poisoning of an
innocent dog, which of course I had nothing to do with. Or maybe
just "great work" in stirring up sh-t, which is the
bread and butter of hosts of sensationalist radio shows. I think that "Dr." C and his friends and followers should know, however, that Michael Vara of the Late Night in the Midlands radio show apparently thought the whole dog drama was a big, LOL-worthy lark.
In any case I cannot ask him to clarify because Vara
isn't speaking to me anymore. He shut down the private
conversation he started from his personal-page account, disallowing me to respond to it. Via his Late Night in the Midlands fan page, I sent
him not one but two private messages apologizing if I was wrong
about him continuing to spread messages with my name and address
in them. But he has not responded to me. For the record, here are the two private messages
I sent to his Late Night in the Midlands fan page (Vara is now
apparently accusing me of harassing him, or perhaps Lenny is just
making up that accusation as he has made up everything else):
To clarify: Vara had indeed shared the first post -- the post that Coldwell
wrote on July 14, 2014 -- on both his personal page and on his Late
Night in the Midlands fan page. I had publicly commented on
the latter page, as had Ron and some of my friends. The original post
was removed by Facebook, and Vara's share post was as well, so
the point became moot. However, I saw indications that Vara was
continuing to share Coldwell's posts, which is why I tried to
post again on the Late Night fan page. Apparently Vara
has a short fuse.
But enough about that. The only reason I went
into it in such detail is that Vara's radio show seems to promote
sensationalist, "out there" ideas, and to pander to
paranoia-porn fans and conspiracy nuts. And these are some of the
very people who have been posting the most disturbing comments
about me. Some of these people seem certifiable, and by that I don't mean that they have earned a phony
certificate in some questionable alt-health practice like their
beloved "Dr." C. Understand
that I am not saying that Vara himself is certifiable. But
clearly he knows his audience and plays to them and their
beliefs. At any rate for several reasons I felt the radio-host
exchanges needed to be documented publicly. If this makes me a
"f----g psycho troll," or someone who can't get over
herself, so be it.
* * * * *
I hope all of the above is enough to make at
least some of you devoted Coldwell fans start asking questions
about his stories, which are constantly changing even now. I hope
at least some of you will realize how nefarious he is for using
his dog's suffering to go after someone whose only
"crime" is asking questions about his life of lies and
deceptions. He's all about free speech when it comes to the
questionable content he spews out, but all about trying to
suppress free speech when the speech turns an unflattering
spotlight on him. You guys need to think about that.
Just one more thing: as promised above, here's
Bernie O'Mahony at GINtruth.com weighing in. He goes more into the false accusations about the
critics hacking Coldwell's web sites, and has screen shots to
prove that Coldwell and his fan-girl are lying about the site being "hacked."And
here is Bernie's subsequent post about the matter; I think this one is even better. Both are well worth reading, as it appears that Coldwell's
actionable lies and threats just keep escalating.
I warn you that Bernie will not be nearly as kind as I have been, but then, he has been
falsely accused by Coldwell of being a child molester, and his
picture was pasted on Coldwell's new (and currently removed)
site, in conjunction with that atrocious accusation, so he has
every right to be angry.
Sincerely,
Connie L. Schmidt
aka "Cosmic Connie"
PS added 26 July 2014 ~
There's an update on the Coldwell dog poisoning story. Someone
alerted me to the fact that oddly enough, on July 22, 2014,
Coldwell posted a list of plants toxic to dogs. He posted it on his
main Facebook page, which I cannot see
(but -- even odder -- not on his Only Answer to Cancer
or IBMS Master's Society pages, which I can see). He
said that he had learned about this list while trying to save his
dog's life. To save space I am only posting the first part; I
have three other screen shots that simply have the rest of the
(poorly-spelled) alphabetical toxic-to-dogs plant list.
Have any of you Coldwell fans asked
him why he posted that list of toxic plants on his Facebook page? Are we now to infer that perhaps the dog
accidentally got into a toxic plant on the premises of the
Coldwell mansion? Could it be that Coldwell and/or assistants were wracked with guilt over the possibility that their own negligence was responsible for their dog's near-death experience? Matter of fact, Coldwell hasn't mentioned me at all in the
past few days. Odd, huh? Maybe he hopes this whole thing will just go away.
But it will not go away, particularly since one of
his worst screeds yet -- posted on July 17, 2014 -- is still on
his IBMS Master's Society Facebook page and his Only Answer to Cancer page.
The screen shot below is from the dialogue on the IBMS page. (And
by the way, I have no idea who "Abe Dusein" is.
Obviously an alias, it was used by someone who simply posted a
link to this blog post on the IBMS page. The post was immediately
removed, and of course I was blamed.)
Also on July 22, and despite the previous week's wailing
histrionics about fearing that his dog was going to die in his
arms, Coldwell posted that the dog is nearly back to total health. That's good news, of course. On the screen shot below you will notice
how he thanks his Facebook "family" and a woman who
sent him some "healing and detoxifying" frauducts for the dog, but fails to
thank the emergency vet clinic that presumably saved the dog's
life. In fact I don't remember seeing him mention the doctor's name or the name of the clinic in any of my posts, though if someone saw that info on one of his screeds and can share it, I'll happily make a correction. I"m just saying that usually when "pet parents" have such a harrowing experience with their beloveds, they will gladly give a shout-out to the dedicated staff who worked so hard to save the animal's life. Either Coldwell is horrendously ungrateful, or terribly thoughtless, or there are even more holes in his story than I've thus far imagined.
In any case, this story is not going to go away,
no matter how Coldwell tries to slink out of it, blame hackers or an
assistant, or blame Big Pharma.Update post: Dog dies, Coldwell resumes attacks on me (published 5 September 2014)
