Serial scammer Kevin Trudeau: fighting to stay out of prison with yet another scam

 

Serial scammer Kevin Trudeau (aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled), whom we most recently visited on this November 2022 post (updated in early December), is still fighting to keep from being thrown back into prison. Earlier this month, according to Chuck Goudie and the gang of investigators at Chicago's ABC7 News, Trudeau promised the court that he really, really will pay the remainder of the fine he still owes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for his repeated violation of consent orders in which he'd promised to stop lying to consumers about the contents of his wacko diet book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. (That was for the civil contempt part of the case; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for criminal contempt charges related to the same book.) More specifically, he says that he'll pay the fine as soon as the government will tell him exactly how much he owes, which is the same thing he's been saying for at least the past several weeks, if not years.

But if you believe that promise, then you probably also believed that #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump really, really was going to release his income tax returns just as soon as the IRS finished their (nonexistent) comprehensive audit. In fact, if you still believe anything that comes out of the putrid pie hole of either Trump or Trudeau -- two turds of a feather -- you're setting yourself up for a yuuge disappointment when (if) you eventually emerge from your daze. Please get some professional help. I can only do so much on this blog.

In a recent federal court filing, Trudeau asked for more time to obtain the answer to the burning question of how much he still owes the government. (In fairness, he did reportedly try to find this out back in early 2020, when he was still confined at Federal sleepaway camp, but I was never able to learn whether or not his efforts were successful.) And while U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who has been presiding over Trudeau's civil case for many years, could have thrown him back in the clink following his last court hearing, the judge chose to let Trudeau stay free-ish for now. I say free-ish because, darn it, Katie still isn't allowed to travel the world to help humanity the way he's longing to do; instead, he has to stay in the Chicago area on a pretty short leash, legally speaking. Oh, why do such bad things happen to such good people?

A foundational principle of Trudeau's decades-old scampire is his claim that the U.S. government is pure evil and that he is a long-suffering hero/martyr who is being punished merely for telling the truth about that evil. One of his current claims in this vein is that the government actually owes him money, according to the ABC7 report cited above (and here's that link again):

Trudeau actually thinks the government may owe him money, even though the FTC has just filed a 347 page report in court with a very detailed breakout and balance sheet. Trudeau gave his take during questioning in a deposition by government attorneys last Friday. At one point, he told government agents there's a possibility they owe him 400-thousand dollars in expense money.

Sure, Kev. Whatever you say.

I still don't have links to share to any of the relevant court documents regarding the most recent activities, but when/if I do obtain those links, I'll share them here. In any case, it appears that not knowing exactly how much he owes the government isn't the only obstacle standing in the way of Trudeau paying his fine. He claims that he still needs to actually raise the money to do so, and towards that end, he is poised to make his
BIGGEST Announcement...Ever!

Katie made the first big announcement of this Big Announcement via his December 21, 2022 Telegram message on The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club Channel. He claimed that he actually hadn't planned to make this Big Announcement until many, many years in the future, if at all, his original idea being to make the information accessible only to the very highest ranking members of his mega-scam GIN (the Global Information Network).

The reason for the exclusivity, he splained, is that the information is just too powerful, and potentially too dangerous, to be released to the general public. So incredibly powerful is the info, Kevin claimed, that even though it was known to Think and Grow Rich author Napoleon Hill -- an old-school scammer who's still worshiped and mythologized by scammers in the modern era -- Hill never released it to the public. According to Kevin, Hill testified about these principles at a Chamber of Commerce meeting way back when, and although Hill's testimony was supposedly recorded, it was never transferred to audiocassette because the audio was of such horrendous quality.

Which means, apparently, that we will all have to take lying liar Kevin Trudeau's word that the audio even exists.

The explosive information in question is something that Katie calls the Money Processes, of which there are thirty. In his Telegram message, Trudeau claimed that the Processes were part of the "training" that he went through back in the early 1970s and the 1980s. Now, since he was born in 1963, he would have been, at most, 11 years old in the early 1970s. Then again, he has often bragged about what a prodigy he was. I guess you'll just have to take that on faith too.

At any rate, the bottom line is that these Money Processes are much too mighty for the average schlub. Nevertheless, Kevin is now going to make them available to every one of those schlubs, including you and me, simply because the FTC wants the money that they claim Kevin owes them, and if he doesn't pony up, he'll be thrown back into the clink. So really, he has no choice.

Trudeau also claimed in his Telegram message that numerous elite, mega-successful business tycoons around the world have offered him millions and millions and millions of dollars to form an exclusive company with them, meaning that he could have easily earned the money to pay the fine that way. But, goodness, if he signed an exclusive deal with any of them, he would be restricted from doing all of his books and trainings and one-on-one consulting and Zoom calls and frauduct peddling and stuff like that, so he just cannot do it, because he wants to stay true to his mission of helping the world by teaching all of us schlubs how to achieve the life of our dreams.

And because he now needs to raise a bunch of money quick, we're in luck. If you tune into his Zoom call at 1:00 EST on December 31, 2022, you will get to listen to his Big Announcement, which will not only offer you information about the Money Processes, but about other "opportunities" (or flopportunities, as my pal Salty Droid used to say) as well. The Big Announcement will last an hour to an hour and a half, but presumably it will not actually include the training itself, which will cost money, which, as Katie has explained, he needs in order to pay the FTC and remain a free-ish man.

At one point towards the end of his Telegram spiel, Trudeau said that his teaching about the Money Processes will remove all of your blocks against money -- that it will be like removing a dark cloud from your brain. I wonder if this dark cloud is anything at all like the brain cloud that Joe Banks was supposedly suffering in one of my favorite movies, Joe Versus The Volcano. Be that as it may, we have Katie's solemn assurance about his Big Announcement: "This is a wonderful blessing for you."

Bless his grifting little heart.

Several folks who are ex-Trudeau loyalists/insiders, and who in their former lives put an enormous amount of time, effort, and emotional energy into supporting his scampire, have contacted me about this Big Announcement. Fortunately, they've learned their lessons about Katie's endless capacity for bullshit, and not one of them was even mildly tempted to get sucked back into the grift funnel, despite having given over a major part of their lives to Trudeau in the past. In their own way, they all said they are profoundly relieved to be away from the cult, and that it's painfully obvious to them that this latest Big Announcement is just more of the same old same old. I applaud these folks for finally seeing the light.

Unfortunately there are vast numbers of other marks and potential marks who are still vulnerable, and I know that nothing I write here will change the minds of those who are truly determined to be led by the nose into the Katie cult. But I'll keep on trying.

Meanwhile, I'm taking the rest of the year off from blogging -- that is, unless something really big comes up tomorrow, the last day of 2022. I hope all of you have a safe and happy New Year's Eve/Day, and I'll see you next year.

 

Serial scammer Kevin Trudeau is in trouble again (or still)

This post has been updated.

Well, that sure didn't take long.

I know this will come as no big surprise to anyone who has been even marginally keeping up with the saga of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, who was recently released from federal prison after serving about eight years of a ten-year sentence, but... he's in trouble again. Or rather, he's still in trouble over a matter that never actually went away: the millions of dollars that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says he still owes on a nearly $40 million judgment from years ago; and the FTC's belief -- which I happen to share -- that he has untold wealth hidden offshore.

On Thursday, November 17, Trudeau (aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled) appeared in court before Judge Robert Gettleman, as reported in various Chicago-area media, such as ABC-TV Channel 7 (reporting by investigative reporter Chuck Goudie), and the Chicago Sun-Times (by CST wire reporter David Struett). He's due back in court on November 30, and has an FTC deposition on December 9. I'll try to retrieve some documents from PACER and share them with you.

Apart from the big question about possible (probable) hidden wealth, both the ABC7 and Chicago Sun-Times piece report that Trudeau appeared to have violated his order to notify the court when he was released from prison. From the Sun-Times:

Prosecutors said Trudeau had ignored the order. “I think they wanted this to go away,” FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen told the judge.

Trudeau’s lawyer, Giel Stein, said it was a “misunderstanding” and apologized. “He’s deeply regretful he did not show up at the end of his home confinement,” Stein said.

But I'm not buying it, especially since Katie took the time and trouble to actually write a letter to Judge Gettleman back in January of 2020, seeking clarification about what he needed to do, and what would be allowed to do, once he was released. I wrote about that here; that post also contains screen shots of the original judgment/sentencing document that outlined the restrictions Trudeau would face upon release. Even if he never received a direct answer from the judge, the matter would still have to have been on his mind. My guess is that he just blew it off, figuring he could get away with it.

As for the issue of hidden wealth, apparently there's new evidence. From the Chicago Sun-Times again:

At issue are two boxes of new evidence provided to the FTC by Trudeau’s now-ex-wife. The government wants to use those documents in Trudeau’s upcoming deposition, but the defense lawyers asked to review them for possible violations of attorney-client privilege. The judge ordered that attorneys on both sides review the documents and report back to him.

Prosecutors also allege Trudeau hid millions of dollars overseas and plans to flee there. The new evidence comes from information from Trudeau’s ex-wife’s testimony in their divorce proceedings, prosecutors said.

I imagine those divorce proceedings were... very interesting. From what I've heard, Katie's ex is well rid of him.

According to the news reports, Kevin really wants to start traveling the world for "business." But for now, he's grounded in the Chicago area. Oh, dear, if only he could just jump on that big luxury cruise ship he's been dreaming about, and sail away... Except, of course, the ship doesn't exist yet.

Kevin bites back
Naturally, Katie had something to say about his latest troubles, and he said it on the Kevin Trudeau Fan Club Telegram Channel on November 18, the day after his court appearance. Here's the direct link, if you have 15-plus minutes to waste.

If you'd rather not waste your time, I'll recap it for you here. Kevin spends the first part of his message 'splaining why it makes no logical sense for him not to have paid that $37 million years ago if he'd had the dough, thus avoiding a prison sentence. He repeatedly says that he didn't then and doesn't now have the money, and laments that it is impossible to prove a negative, so what's a poor boy to do?

Now, if you were just listening to this without the benefit of knowing Trudeau's past history, that would all sound quite reasonable. But in the years prior to his trial and conviction, he had a notorious history of claiming to be poor, while he still continued to spend lavishly on himself. It's not unreasonable for the government to believe he still has money somewhere, since he repeatedly lied about it before. While it's true that the government seized as many of his assets as they could manage to get, the question that they asked back in 2013 and 2014 has never gone away: was there more? Investigators believed then and still believe that there is more, and I think they are right.

What also sounds more than reasonable, on the surface, is Trudeau's claim that it "makes no logical sense" for him to have not paid the big fine when first ordered to do so, or at least when the threats to lock him up began, thus avoiding what ultimately turned out to be a years-long prison sentence. Again, however, you have to look at the past, and here I don't have specific links because so many of them have apparently been wiped from the Web. You'll just have to trust my long-term memory.

For I do recall the defiance that Trudeau expressed on many occasions, starting back when the fine was considerably smaller than nearly 40 mil. Even as he was telling authorities that he didn't have the money to pay up, he was also telling his followers, via videos and on his radio show and more than likely at live events too, that he was refusing to pay on principle, mostly having to do with fighting government tyranny and so forth. He was, he repeatedly assured his followers, being a brave fighter not only for his own First Amendment rights, but for the 1Arights of all of us. Meanwhile, he continued to enrich himself from his various scams and schemes.

As well, he repeatedly violated consent orders that he had signed with the FTC, which only increased penalties and his own legal jeopardy. Subsequently, when called by the gov on one violation or another, he would always claim innocence, saying that he absolutely, positively had no intention of violating anything, and that he was doing his level best to cooperate fully. That was his losing argument in his criminal trial, in fact. Yet all the while he was playing the innocent, he continued with his defiance act, using it to burnish his hero/martyr narrative. He kept this up until there was no turning back. As they like to say on social media these days, FAAFO.

As the Telegram spiel continues he spends some time in motivational master mode, offering advice on how to handle adversity and gabbing about how the special training he offers can help anyone do just that. He also, as per usual, takes a few moments to peddle some of the overpriced frauducts that he sells through the Kevin Trudeau Fan Club website and Facebook page.

But the main purpose of the message -- and once again, this will probably come as no shock -- is to beg for money, and he mentions the link to the donation site a couple of times. Katie warns that his lawyer bills could possibly rack up to millions of dollars. Frankly, I'm surprised any lawyer took on his case, after he reportedly stiffed so many previous attorneys, but perhaps it's possible that the attorney named in the news stories, Giel Stein, is working pro bono, which, if that's the case, would negate the claim about millions of bucks in legal fees.

If you follow the embedded link in the previous sentence, you'll notice that some of Mr. Stein's listed accomplishments include defending big pharmaceutical companies, big insurance companies, and government agencies, so... maybe not the best choice for a lawyer for a defendant who's been loudly speaking out against all of the above for decades? That should be interesting.

In any case, legal fees are pretty far down on the list of the Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club's list of what your donations will be used for.

Your Contributions made to The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club (ContributeToKevin.com) therefore will be used to pay for these things and more (this is just a partial list of possible uses):

• a place for Kevin to live and all his living expenses (utilities etc)
• furnishings for Kevin’s residence
• food
• nutritional supplements
• computers; cell phones; internet services; mobile phone service
• personal care items
• medical and all other insurances
• dental care, haircuts, eye care (contacts and glasses)
• car; insurance; petrol (gas); parking; maintenance
• clothes
• travel: transportation, hotels, meals 
• lawyers and other professional services
• subscriptions
• secretaries, assistants, transcribers, researchers, social media managers, booking agents, drivers, security, etc.
• and many other possible uses of the funds donated

Trudeau wraps up his Telegram message with his usual spiel about bad things happening to good people, and assures his fans, "Suffering is an option I choose not to take."

Of course. His go-to option is grifting, though over the years he has proven time and time again that he's not above playing the suffering victim in efforts to get leniency from the courts or to manipulate people into giving him money.

They've heard it all before
I think the prosecutors and Judge Gettleman are too smart to fall for Kevin Trudeau's excuses. And good for the ex for handing over that evidence. But if I were the investigators, I would also be scrutinizing the "success club" that Kevin founded back in 2009, the Global Information Network, or GIN. Back when Trudeau was officially running it, GIN was a huge scam that sucked millions of dollars out of thousands of rubes (see the link in the previous sentence for a capsule history of the scam), but technically GIN was not the reason he was charged, tried, convicted, and locked up. Even so, to this day a number of former GIN members would love to see Kevin Trudeau be held accountable for GIN; absent charges/trial/conviction/incarceration, they would simply like have their money back. That will almost certain never happen.

By the way, I've made this point and shared this link several times previously, but it bears repeating that Jason "Salty Droid" Jones strongly disagreed with the prosecutors' assertion back in 2014 that a ten-year sentence was sufficient because, according to them, no one who bought Trudeau's weight loss book was financially ruined. They may not have been ruined by the purchase alone, but for many that book, like Trudeau's numerous other loss leaders, was a gateway drug that did lead to financial and/or emotional ruin. But that's a whole other story.

Under court order, GIN was sold in May 2014 to a group of Trudeau's close buddies, and though ownership has shifted since then, to my knowledge it is still owned by pals of his, chiropractors Dr. Tom and Dr. Ted Morter, and career huckster Blaine Athorn. Reportedly Kevin is not legally allowed to be benefiting financially at all from that enterprise. My understanding is that he's not even supposed to be calling the shots, though I suspect that he's been "shadow running" it for some time now, perhaps in violation of the terms of his probation.

At any rate I think it would be wise for the investigators to look into GIN's finances -- if that's possible -- to find out if, for instance, the proceeds from the club's live events, and from some of their other income sources, are being funneled to Kevin through the official donation site or other more hidden outlets.

The inevitable recap of the larger issues
I've discussed these issues at some length in previous posts, so this is mainly for the benefit of new visitors. First off, whether Kevin Trudeau should be locked up again, if he fails to satisfy the government's and the court's demands, is a larger question that I do actually believe is pertinent, and some who are new here may be surprised that I'm not firmly in the lock-him-up camp. I've said many times before that in general, I don't believe nonviolent criminals should be locked up (those who incite violence, such as Donald Trump and numerous other republican politicians who are directly responsible for the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection, are another story, however).

Regarding Trudeau, the blunt truth is that being imprisoned never stopped him from scamming. Moreover, locking him up now almost certainly won't lead to the recovery of hidden assets. It would be punitive, and perhaps would be poetic justice or karma, if you believe in such things. And locking him up could limit his huckstering activities, but again... it won't keep him from grifting, either directly or through his loyal proxies. The bottom line is that the government would probably be no closer to reaching its stated goals of retrieving the money still owed, presumably so the remaining refunds to those who bought Trudeau's wacko diet book, The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About, can be issued. I discuss the incarceration issue in a January 2022 post, under the subhead, "Did prison change Kevin Trudeau?"

In other words, I recognize that there are nuances to this story, as there are to most stories. But the gist of it is that Kevin Trudeau is, has always been, and almost certainly always will be a scammer -- and my opinion on that issue is anything but nuanced.

Secondly, some may be asking why this obvious crook is even still important in the larger scheme of things. Isn't he so... yesterday? Rather than re-invent the wheel, I'll just direct you to the aforementioned January 2022 post again (under the subhead, "Why this still matters, after all these years"). Here's a snippet:

...one major reason that I think Kevin Trudeau is still important, apart from my concern that he has spent decades cheating people out of their hard-earned money, is that he is flagrantly symptomatic of a nearly out-of-control trend of misinformation/conspiranoia crapitalism.

Of course Trudeau was in many respects far ahead of the curve, since he has been trading in "information that 'They' don't want you to know" for decades. Most of that "information" has consisted of misinformation, distortions, exaggerations, lies, repackaged selfish-help/McSpirituality content, or, in some cases, cherry-picked data about issues that have been addressed by far more responsible consumer advocates, whistleblowers, and muckrakers. But the nebulously evil "They" were the perfect scapegoat for Trudeau's marketing strategies...

And as I wrote at the end of that post, "Caveat emptor."

Stay tuned for further reports.

Update, December 6, 2022: Jason Meisner at the Chicago Tribune reported on Trudeau's November 30 hearing. The government is still considering "coercive incarceration" (which has never worked in the past to get Trudeau to cough up the dough, but whatever).

At a hearing Wednesday, [FTC attorney] Cohen revealed newly discovered emails that he said show Trudeau was seeking to ship and store 300 pounds of gold bars and other precious metals in Switzerland in 2013, the same time he was crying poor to the court.

The FTC has also learned that around the same time, Trudeau hired two law firms in Switzerland to research what impact pending lawsuits in the U.S. would have in Switzerland as well as the logistics of legally changing your name in that country, Cohen said.

Of course, Trudeau is once again stalling for time.

Trudeau’s attorney, Giel Stein, accused the FTC of jumping the gun, saying Trudeau “is acutely aware of the consequences here” and only wants to know how much he still owes so he can figure out how to begin repaying it.

Stein also said it made no sense to put Trudeau in jail before he’s given the chance to answer questions under oath about his assets at a deposition, which is scheduled for Dec. 9.

Judge Robert Gettleman, though clearly fed up with Trudeau's lies and his stall tactics, declined to incarcerate Trudeau immediately, setting a December 15 hearing to sort things out. Meanwhile, Trudeau's lawyer, Giel Stein, says he wants to question Trudeau's ex-wife under oath about “eight suitcases of materials that (she) absconded with” from Trudeau’s storage facility in Zurich, Switzerland. Sounds like the defense is trying to blame the ex for Trudeau's crimes.

More updates to come.

Vote. Just vote.

Tomorrow, November 8, is the big day when US voters who haven't voted early make their trek to the polls for the midterm elections. At stake is nothing less than the future of American democracy. I'm nervous to the point of losing sleep about that future, as, I suspect, are millions of other folks, not least among them former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who, in a November 6 opinion piece in The Guardian, wrote:

Today I’m not particularly worried about Republicans’ policy preferences. Today I’m worried about the survival of our democracy.

I’m worried that a majority of Republican candidates are telling voters, without any basis in fact, that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

I’m worried that if elected, many of these Republicans will make it harder to conduct elections in the future, allow or encourage endless audits of election results, and even refuse to sign off on them.

I’m worried that Republicans have been spending millions to recruit partisan poll workers and watchers in the upcoming election, who could disrupt the counting process or raise false claims about it. (Michigan Republican secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo rose to prominence as a Detroit poll watcher who made false claims about election fraud.)

I’m worried that thousands of Trump supporters have been calling their local election offices requesting all kinds of public records, often using suspiciously similar wording, leading officials to believe this is a coordinated effort to prevent them from holding an election.

I’m worried that violent thugs are on the prowl, and that Republican leaders – starting with Trump – have been quietly encouraging them.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that republican policies and platforms aren't concerning. To the contrary, there's plenty to worry about, including but certainly not limited to the republicans' determination to annihilate health care coverage, benefits, and protections for millions of Americans; the reckless and dangerous forced-birth movement that is pushing the country towards an all-out abortion ban; the party's stubborn climate change denialism; and a relentless culture-war mentality that threatens to reverse important and hard-gained civil rights.

But overshadowing all of these issues is the GQP's fundamental threat to democracy.

The new owner of Twitter, Moscow Musk, has a take on the midterms that, to put it mildly, differs from Dr. Reich's and mine. Despite a previous declaration that Twitter should be politically neutral (a tweet for which he was roundly and soundly trolled, mostly for his hypocrisy), today he tweeted that he wants all of you "independent-minded voters" out there to vote for a republican Congress. Why? Well, it's because, according to his expert political analysis, "shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties" -- and since "the Presidency is Democratic," rethuglicans will provide a much-needed balance.

As absurd as Musk's advice is in light of American politix in the age of Trump, it's hardly shocking, and it's certainly nothing new for him. Nikki McCann Ramirez wrote today in a piece for Rolling Stone:

Musk’s overtures to right-wingers are not a new development. He announced that he had voted Republican for the first time earlier this year, tweeting that he had “voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican,” and predicting a “Massive red wave in 2022.” Musk also recently moved from California to Texas, posturing the change as the “last straw” regarding California’s Covid restrictions.

Flores has aligned herself with the QAnon conspiracy theory, and scores of the Republican candidates Musk wants his followers to vote for on Tuesday have peddled lies about the 2020 election. His push to put the party in control of Congress seems to be at odds with his vision for the future of the platform he now owns. “Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world,” he tweeted Sunday night. “That’s our mission.”

Even though Musk has felt compelled to 'splain on Twitter that he is an independent, mind you, and that until recently he always voted Democratic, you have to wonder what took him so long to find his new home, politically speaking. After all, it's the republicans who famously hate regulations and laws that rein in big businesses. It's the repubs whose primary mission is to help billionaires and big corporations avoid paying taxes (which is why Elon picked up his toys and moved to Texas). In addition, repubs overall seem to be pretty tolerant of grifters and scammers (professional courtesy, perhaps?), and they're the party of greed. No doubt about it: Elon and the Red Menace are a match made in purgatory.

Musk or no Musk, the rethuglican party is rapidly becoming the new American Fascist party, fueled by "The Big Lie" about the 2020 election. Here is voting rights expert Marc Elias, writing for the Democracy Docket site in October:

Republican election deniers, vote suppressors, “Big Lie” advocates and their political and legal enablers spread misinformation about elections because they believe that without public confidence, elections are easier to overturn and the results are easier to ignore. Denying the truth about the 2020 election does not just allow past grievances to fester. It lays the groundwork for Republicans to seize power in the future...

...The GOP no longer presents voter suppression and election subversion with a wink and a nod. It enthusiastically embraces these anti-democratic tactics. There are no dog whistles left in the GOP; they have been replaced by blaring sirens of authoritarianism.

No matter which party prevails tomorrow, we're in for a rough ride leading up to, and beyond, 2024. This November 4 piece in the Harvard Gazette -- in which three scholars of government and politics share their views about the future of American politics and democracy -- is worth a read. One of the interviewees, Professor of Government and Sociology Theda Skocpol, summed up what many of us are feeling:

We’re in a very serious crisis, in my opinion, the most serious since the coming of the Civil War. The reason for that is there are a lot of levers that, if pulled together and combined with violence and threats of violence, make it possible for minority authoritarians who feel threatened to change the regime — really change the system — in de facto and quasi-legal ways. I point to the fact that a minority of the country — particularly those living outside of metropolitan and more racially and ethnically diverse areas — do feel profoundly threatened by the changes that have occurred in American society. They can obstruct things or even control court appointments through the Senate with a third or less of the American population. Gerrymandering is now an art and, combined with the Republican sweeps of state legislatures in 2010, allows anti-majoritarianism there, and the federal courts have really bowed out of defending any kind of voting rights and access, and, probably worse than that, may be on the verge of strengthening the hand of minority authoritarians. Combine all that with the fact that people are now threatening violence at the local election workers that most Americans take for granted and that most Americans, I think, choose between two parties according to current economic conditions. They don’t perceive the threat, and they won’t perceive it until it’s too late.

That's exactly right. Candidates from both major political parties have been gabbing nonstop about "kitchen table issues," purported to be the matters that voters really care about. Generally these are the issues that affect them directly on a day to day basis, and, yes, they usually are economic issues. It would appear that in this election cycle, the republicans are scoring the most points by pounding their fists on that proverbial kitchen table as they scream about record-breaking inflation and high gas prices and soaring food prices and, for good measure, rising crime and shaky border security. It's all framed in a spurious blame-the-Dems narrative, of course, with inflation and high gas prices being the most popular bogus GQP talking points.

But you want to know what my husband Ron Kaye and I talk about the most at our actual kitchen table? Sure, we're concerned about higher costs, as is nearly everyone we know, but what we talk about the most at our table is the growing threat to democracy in America, courtesy of the GQP's love affair with right-wing authoritarianism (as demonstrated by, among other things, their yuuuge crush on Hungary's Viktor Orban). We're also worried about the global expansion of authoritarianism. And I seriously doubt that we are the only ones who are deeply concerned about these matters, and who feel that President Biden was spot-on in his warnings about MAGApublicans.

Ron and I voted last week -- not that our votes will do a lot of good in our deeply toxic red state of Texas, aka Gilead. Texas, unfortunately, has become a leader in the headlong race to an illiberal dystopia. But we continue to vote anyway, because we still have hopes for the future of our state and the country.

And if you're eligible (and registered), I hope you vote too.

Moscow Musk and the "new" Technocracy

Q: So this is why Musk seemingly “overpaid” for Twitter? He and his backers want to use it as a tool of information warfare, to kill off the dollar and help usher in Putin’s “multipolar world?”

A: Yes, that’s why they “overpaid” for Twitter. Because the end goals have nothing to do with Twitter or its ad model by itself. It’s merely a means to an end. Musk is likely to join forces with Trump’s Truth Social and Kanye West’s Parler to try to control much of the information space. And they’ve got the threat of Putin’s nukes to force the issue.
~ Investigative journalist Dave Troy, explaining Elon Musk's true motives for buying Twitter

Fourteen years ago, just ahead of the 2008 US presidential election and in the midst of a terrible global financial crisis, I published a post about the Technocracy movement, and I facetiously suggested Technocracy as a possible bailout plan for the modern day, or at least as a basis for the New-Wage scams I used to write about so much. In light of recent developments, perhaps it's time to drag that old post out again.

Technocracy had its roots in the years immediately following World War I, but didn't really come to fruition until the Great Depression, when folks were desperate for solutions to their financial misery. In essence, Technocracy proposed the control of society by an elite corps of technical experts, who would determine what was best for everyone else. Everyone would be taken care of, and all of their needs met, through the application of sound scientific and engineering principles. Yet Technocrats weren't motivated by altruism, morality, or ethics, and they scoffed at the idea of democracy. And although their stated goals included equality and fairness (by their definition of fairness, anyway), they were disturbingly elitist. At its core Technocracy, like the various forms of autocracy also scorned by Technocrats, was still about power and control in the hands of a few.

Technocracy was a raging fad among many elites and elite wannabes during the lean Depression years and even into World War II, but its star dimmed considerably in the prosperous years after the war. But Technocracy never really went away. In fact it could easily be said -- and it actually has been said -- that egomaniacal multibillionaire Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, is a Technocrat.

It would seem to run in the family. Musk's grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, was very big in the Technocracy movement in Canada back in the day. From a November 2021 piece on the Business Live site:

Believing that science and technology could cure all ills, Haldeman campaigned for the capitalist monetary infrastructure to be replaced by a new universal currency, based on a unit of heat, to be known as the erg. The technocrats even wanted an end to prices, in the view that scientists could handle distribution within society far better than the market.

Such concepts seemed dangerous to the Canadian government, which banned the movement over its opposition to World War 2. The belief system faded away with the growth of prosperity after the war. But similar ideas are inspiring the current excitement over meme stocks, cryptocurrency and the man who now calls himself “Technoking”.

To [Harvard University historian Jill] Lepore, Musk’s ideology seems to flow from these outlandish — and outmoded — views. In Lepore’s words, his ambition is an “extravagant, extreme” even “extraterrestrial capitalism, driven by fantasies that come from science fiction”.

Professor Lepore's theory is that Musk's stated mission to colonize Mars is a reflection of Technocratic philosophy. That makes sense. What also makes sense is the notion that Musk's recent takeover of a popular social media platform is rooted in Technocratic philosophy, among other related motives that are even more disturbing.

"The bird is freed" (and even if it crashes into a window, Musk will probably get fatter on the splatter)
As almost everyone must surely know by now, Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter finally went through this past week. This was a hotly discussed and debated topic for many months, and I even tackled it on this Whirled, though in a broader context than the basic will-he-or-won't-he-go-through-with-it debate.

Not surprisingly, the right wingnuts and conspiranoids and hatemongers have been giddy with delight since Musk liberated the bird: they are rolling over and wetting themselves praising their Overlord as they celebrate the "return of free speech" and the "end of wokeness" on Twitter. Many have expressed their great joy by reportedly flooding the forum with the N-word, just because, like naughty kindergartners, they can. The Neo-Nazis and their ilk seem to be having a field day too.

Many others, not so happy, are just waiting for Twitter to fail, and are taking great gulps from their chilled bottles of schadenfreude because they believe Musk made a laughably horrible deal, paying far more for Twitter than it is worth. Many are also vowing to leave Twitter, perhaps migrating to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's nascent Bluesky forum, as if that'll show Elon.

I'm holding off on the schadenfreude myself, because I think Musk is invested in a long game that has little to do with the success or failure of Twitter, by conventional standards of success and failure (e.g., ad revenue and whatnot). And I plan to stay on Twitter -- after all, I'm pretty much of a nobody there anyway, and everyone just leaves me alone. I certainly have no plans to hop onto Bluesky. That would only be helping the dude who played a key role in Musk's deal to take Twitter private, and who happens to be good friends with Musk rather than his rival: Jack Dorsey.

Everyone who is at all concerned about Twitter, the future of actual free speech (online and off), and especially about the future of democracy, should read investigative journalist Dave Troy's October 29, 2022 piece on Medium, 'No, Elon and Jack are not “competitors.” They’re collaborating.' Troy explains that he has followed Twitter closely since its inception, and has had a chance to talk in depth about technical topics with Jack Dorsey and the company's other founders over the years. Accordingly, he has views that differ from the "well-intentioned but poorly-informed commentary and analysis" that we've seen all over the media.

To those who think Musk's purchase of Twitter is crazy because he's sure to lose tons of money, Troy counters that Musk and his backers have far broader goals than making a profit.

The goals are more ideological in nature. Musk and his backers believe that the global geopolitical arena was being warped by too much “woke” ideology and censorship, and wanted to fix that by first restoring voices that had previously been silenced —and then implementing technical and algorithmic solutions that allow each user to get the experience they want. They think this can “solve” the problems that people cite about social media content. Making money, they figure, will come from the secondary effects of enabling “free speech” and the possibility of building other services like payments and replacing government on top of such an app. Plus the company’s social graph data is a goldmine for other businesses that may wish to benefit from detailed knowledge of the makeup of society.

And that's where the Technocracy angle comes in, where Twitter is concerned. Dave Troy believes it's completely naive to think that there is a technical solution to harmful content, which is likely to lead to more radicalization and cultish behavior.

...they are being willfully ignorant of the harmful side effects of content. It is a kind of tech fundamentalist solutionism that posits that for any difficult problem, there must be a technical solution. Many sociologists and cultural scholars would argue differently.

But the Technocracy aspect goes far beyond Twitter, and out into the further reaches of Space. Troy points out that back in April of this year, Dorsey wrote:

In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.

Wow. That sounds pretty spiritual, especially for a sociopathic ego-tripper like Musk -- although, come to think of it, this blog is littered with posts about sociopathic ego-trippers who talk a good game about "light" and "consciousness" (this guy and this guy, for instance), so never mind. In any case, Troy explains what Dorsey really meant by "the light of consciousness."

This is a reference to “longtermism,” the heavily marketed philosophy being promoted by Musk and his friend William MacAskill that asserts the only thing that matters is humanity’s future in space, and that the only goal of the living is to maximize the number of future humans alive, as well as the number of artificial intelligence instances that could possibly exist in the future. This mandate is most often used to brush aside calls for improving conditions and alleviating suffering among the living here on Earth now. Because, the theory goes, giving a poor person a blanket isn’t likely to be as useful for the future of humanity as building a rocket to Mars. Longtermism is heavily influenced by “Russian Cosmism” and is also directly adjacent to “Effective Altruism.” Musk’s stated mission, which he intends to fulfill in his lifetime, is to “make humanity a multiplanetary species.” The anti-democratic urge in longtermism is rooted in the belief that “mob rule” will lead to nuclear annihilation; we should, Musk thinks, be guided by “wiser” minds — like his and Putin’s apparently.

What it all seems to boil down to is that Elon Musk is a Technocrat of the worst sort, putting all of his faith in technological solutions to everything, but caring far less about applying those solutions to the suffering masses on Earth today than to future generations of multiplanetary humans. And making him an even worse sort of Technocrat -- and human being -- is his malignant narcissism. All of his grandiose plans and pronouncements seem to be chiefly a means of drawing attention to himself, enabling him to suck all the oxygen out of the room, much like another malignant narcissist we know of promised, in so many words, to do years ago. (That guy has fulfilled his promise, or rather his threat, many times over, of course.)

In any case, Elon's Mars thing is in the future. Meanwhile back on Earth, in the present day, Moscow Musk is cozying up to Vlad and the MAGAs and other foul characters.

Musk also seems pretty interested in helping advance Putin’s “multipolar world order,” which is why he plays footsie with QAnon and MAGA accounts, and pals around with Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. “How are things going in Bakhmut?,” Musk asked Medvedev.

Nice guy.

Troy ends with a warning to all of us:

Ultimately what we are dealing with is the fact that social engineering through control of the information environment is an inevitable reality—the only question is who has the means and moral authority to do it.

If democracy-minded people don’t seize control of the information environment, powerful sociopathic autocrats will do so instead. We leave a power vacuum open at our peril, and at the moment, Musk and Putin are the ones with the most will to fill it.

Again, I urge you to read Troy's entire piece on Medium. Here's that link again. Read it. And don't forget to vote, if you're eligible and registered.

 

13 years after James Arthur Ray's deadly sweat lodge, cults are still a danger

Today, October 8, 2022, is the 13th anniversary of the day that sociopathic New-Wage/McSpirituality guru/cult leader James Arthur Ray killed two of his followers: Kirby Brown and James Shore, and set in motion the death, nine days later, of a third follower, Liz Neuman. The instrument of their deaths was a fake and utterly reckless "sweat lodge" ceremony in Sedona, Arizona, that also injured dozens of other participants. The phony sweat lodge was the "final challenge" at Ray's pricey "Spiritual Warrior" workshop.

Ray, who had shot to fame following his appearance in the simplistic and crassly materialistic New-Wage moviemercial The Secret, was convicted of negligent homicide for the three deaths in Sedona -- and consequently served less than two years in an Arizona state prison -- but he was never criminally charged in the death of yet another follower, Colleen Conaway, at a San Diego Ray event a couple of months before Sedona.

Every year since October 8, 2009, I've commemorated the horror in Sedona on this blog, and this year is no exception. But this year, I'm going to inject some politics into my annual observation, because, unfortunately, cults and cultishness have slithered their way into American (right-wing) politics, and I don't think the threat that they represent can be overstated.

In a way, this is a tale of two Virginias, and I only hope that the Virginia I greatly admire will not be insulted by appearing in the same blog post as the "other" Virginia, for whom I have nothing but contempt. Let's get that "other" V out of the way first.

Virginia Thomas: there and back again -- from cult member, to anti-cult crusader, back to cult member
Today Virginia "Ginni" Thomas is best known as the conspiracy-mongering -- and possibly seditious -- wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence "Long Dong Silver" Thomas. But not everyone is aware that Ginni was once a member of a cult, and at some point became aware that it was a cult, and underwent "deprogramming," after which she became an anti-cult crusader for years.

The cult with which Ginni, then known by her maiden name of Virginia Lamp, was involved was a Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT): the now-defunct Lifespring, a product of the "human potential movement" that began in the late 1960s and came to fruition in the 70s and 80s. Lifespring was founded by several colleagues of Werner Erhard, the perpetrator of the even more infamous Erhard Seminars Training, or est (which later became The Forum, which later became Landmark Forum, which later became Landmark Education, which is now Landmark Worldwide).

NBC News was one of several media outlets covering Ginni's journey there and back again. A June 14, 2022 article on the NBC News web site offers a brief summary of what Lifespring was and did (and in the process, I couldn't help but notice, mentions Ray's "sweat lodge").

Lifespring, like NXIVM and “Sweat Lodge Guru” James Arthur Ray’s course that led to three deaths in 2009, are what some experts call Large Group Awareness Trainings, New Age self-help programs that paradoxically promise to deliver almost superhuman mental abilities that can be achieved only through total submission.

Lifespring put inductees through grueling multiday “educational” sessions where they were psychologically broken down. In a 1987 Washington Post exposé of the group, Thomas gave an interview describing one session in which trainees were made to strip down to bathing suits and subjected to body shaming.

“The emphasis was upon abandonment to an undifferentiated, unknowable other,” psychologist Janice Haaken and sociologist Richard Adams wrote in an academic journal article on Lifespring. They participated in a 1981 training in Seattle where they witnessed a man have a psychotic break while organizers berated him, concluding that the impact of the training “was essentially pathological” for even the people who enjoyed the experience.

Several trainees died, including a 27-year-old model who was refused medical attention during an asthma attack, leading to a $450,000 settlement with her family, according to a 1987 article in The Washington Post. The group, which claimed to have trained hundreds of thousands, went defunct in the 1990s after a series of lawsuits.

Following Ginni Lamp's realization that Lifespring was a destructive cult, and her escape/deprogramming, she became a force for good -- for a while, anyway. From the NBC piece cited above:

“When you come away from a cult, you’ve got to find a balance in your life as far as getting involved with fighting the cult or exposing it,” Thomas told attendees at a 1986 Cult Awareness Network panel in Kansas City, Missouri. “And kind of the other angle is getting a sense of yourself and what was it that made you get into that group. And what open questions are there that still need to be answered.”

It’s difficult to reconcile Thomas then and now, four people who worked with her at the height of her anti-cult activism through the late 1980s said in interviews. After she spent years trying to expose cults, these people found Thomas’ efforts to promote outlandish plans to overturn the 2020 results, particularly the text messages and emails in which she referenced false election conspiracies that originated in QAnon circles on the internet, surprising. Democrats and Republicans alike have said QAnon supporters exhibit cult-like behavior.

“Ginni Thomas was out there active in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and then she really went a different path,” said Rick Ross, a prominent expert on cults and a former “deprogrammer” who knew Thomas through their anti-cult activism. “I admire the work she did back in the ‘80s. And she should be given credit for that.”

No disrespect intended to Rick Ross, whose work I've long supported, and I've always been willing to give credit where credit is due, but isn't there a point at which today's awful deeds cancel out yesterday's good ones? In any case, at the risk of overstating the obvious, Ginni Thomas née Lamp is in an even worse cult now -- not just QAnon in particular, as noted by various media outlets that have explored her curious journey, but the Trumpcult in general. Ginni loves her Trump, and apparently the love is returned.

While Ginni Thomas is a high-profile example, her story isn't all that unusual; for many folks, susceptibility to cults and manipulation is apparently a lifelong condition, somewhat like traditional recovery circles claim is the case with alcoholism and other drug addictions. In my previous post, and in a different though related context, I quoted myself quoting my pal Jason "Salty Droid" Jones, but I think another quotation of a quotation of a quotation is in order here.

...None of this is really surprising.... As my pal Salty Droid has both documented on his blog and has mentioned in private correspondence, quitting one manipulative scam or scammer doesn't cure one of the thinking pattern errors that got them sucked in in the first place. "Manipulation causes susceptibility to manipulation as a side effect," sez Salty.

Indeed. A July 24, 2022 piece on the Business Insider site not only suggests that Ginni Thomas has "fallen back into old habits" but also offers some insight from cult expert Steven Hassan, himself a former cult member who worked with Ginni back in her anti-cult activism days. Hassan said he actually wasn't surprised by Ginni's apparent infatuation with QAnon.

"Ginni Thomas was in a cult, and anyone who has ever been in a cult is vulnerable to another cult if they haven't properly counseled and done their homework," Hassan said...

..."I haven't called [Ginni Thomas] stupid or crazy, which the media does, because I know that she's been unduly influenced into these beliefs. She's a very intelligent, educated person, but her brain has been hacked," [Hassan] claimed. 

With all due respect to Steven Hassan, while Ginni is almost certainly not stupid, she is, in my unprofessional opinion, bat-crap crazy.

Unfortunately, she's far from the only American who believes in QAnon's batty conspiracy narratives. A PRRI Report from February of this year revealed that nearly one in five Americans in general, and one in four republicans in particular, still believe in QAnon conspiracy theories. And Americans who most trust far-right "news" are nearly five times more likely to be QAnon believers than those who lean towards mainstream news media. It would be all be merely humorous, were it not for the fact that this deep toxic ocean of irrationality threatens to drown American democracy.

So you really can't talk about cults in general without injecting a little bit of politix in the mix.

Virginia Brown: turning profound grief into a force for good
Now we come to the Virginia I admire: Virginia "Ginny" Brown, mother of one of James Arthur Ray's death lodge victims, Kirby Brown.

The families and friends of the four people killed by Ray have all learned to cope with their losses in their own ways. One of the ways that Kirby Brown's family chose was to found a nonprofit organization, SEEK Safely to help educate the public, hold self-help leaders accountable, and hopefully avoid more deaths and injuries at the hands of reckless gurus.

Given the context of this post, I should probably emphasize that SEEK Safely is not a partisan political organization, the only connection with politics being an ongoing campaign for responsible legislation to rein in the self-help industry. Nor, contrary to what some might expect, is the organization anti-self-help. Rather, its message and mission center around empowerment, in the best sense of that egregiously overused word, i.e., by helping people make informed decisions when choosing to go the self-help-seminar route. I urge you to visit the SEEK Safely site, which is continually expanding. You will find a wealth of useful information, as well as opportunities to get involved if you're so inclined.

Yet another way the Brown family found to come to terms with Kirby's death, while helping many other people who are dealing with profound loss and pain, was through the 2020 memoir, This Sweet Life: How We Lived After Kirby Died, by Ginny and her younger daughter Jean. It is truly a lovely and haunting book, which I read shortly after it came out and have yet to keep my commitment to fully review here -- but never mind my own negligence; I urge you to read the book.

Before I wrap this up I also want to make the distinction between self-help cults (or cultlike organizations) and the whole QAnon/Trumpcult phenomenon, particularly regarding their respective followers. I think that many if not most of the people who get sucked in, to the point of harm, by charismatic self-help gurus have good intentions themselves, despite the malevolent intentions of the "leaders" they look up to, and that their original motivation for becoming involved is simply to improve their lives in some way. (This of course applies to those who get involved voluntarily and not because they were required to do so by employers or coerced by loved ones.) Many LGAT attendees are highly educated, high-achieving, even adventurous souls who like to challenge themselves and be challenged. Even Ginni Lamp Thomas, who was highly educated when she got into Lifespring, was reportedly drawn to the LGAT by a desire to improve her life.

QAnon, on the other hand, attracts a wide range of fringe "thinkers" and nutcakes, many of whom aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and it's also a convenient weapon wielded by power-hungry cynics who don't actually believe the wackadoodle conspiracy theories pushed by Q but are all too happy to exploit the gullibility of those who do believe. Unlike many LGATs, and for that matter the Trumpcult, QAnon doesn't have a single specific high-profile cult leader at the helm, but the conspiranoid narratives pushed by Q advocates are in many ways more destructive than anything any LGAT guru could wreak. And the Trumpcult, which is fed by and feeds into the Q cult, poses an even greater danger than Q alone.

That said, it would be a mistake to underestimate the danger of self-help cults led by malignant narcissists. Like James Arthur Ray, for instance.

For Ray, the daze of the four- and five-figure live events such as the Spiritual Warrior travesty that culminated in the death lodge would seem to be over, and that's a good thing. Though he has been struggling to make a comeback since his release from prison, framing the whole Sedona thing as a super-major trial and tribulation for him, his audience has shriveled like the balls of a long-time steroid user.

Today Ray merrily tweeted about something he calls "Steps to the Economy of Mind #5," which is apparently part of his "Modern Alchemy" shtick. He advises, "ONLY put things in your mind that cause YOU to improve." Spoken like a true narcissist. He didn't even mention the death lodge anniversary, not that I would expect him to, since putting that thought in his mind and out in the Twitterverse would most likely not cause him -- or his bottom line -- to improve, at least not by his definition of improvement. In any case, today's tweet, like most of his nuggets of wisdumb on Twitter, has earned very few likes, and zero responses so far. Even so, James Arthur Ray still has a fan base, and as long as he is in the business, he remains a danger, no matter how minor that danger may seem at the moment.

The takeaway: Whether it's a McSpirituality/selfish-help cult or a far-right political one, cults remain a threat. Do what you can to protect yourself and those you care about from their influence. (And make sure you're registered to vote, if you're eligible.)

And... never forget.

Related musings from the Whirled archives:

• March 2010: Self-help regulation: necessary safeguard, or Nanny-state nonsense?
  A long (and long-ago) post that explores questions raised in the wake of the death lodge debacle, regarding the need to regulate the self-help industry. Of particular interest for overall context of the "human potential movement": the segment under the subhead, "Going back in time: a little 'historical perspective." Several of the links are no longer active, but this is, after all, the Internet, and 2010 was a long time ago.
• October 2010: Musings on a tragedy and its meanings
  Another long post, published on the one-year anniversary of Sedona and doubling as a review of former James Ray follower Connie Joy's book, Tragedy in Sedona: My Life in James Arthur Ray's Inner Circle.

Kevin Trudeau: keeping a low profile since release from prison, but still grifting, begging, cult-building (and yes, enabling fascism)

 

Earlier this month, someone wrote to this blog asking me if I'd seen a recent-ish video of formerly imprisoned and newly released serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled. Here's the link to the vid in question, which shows a July 16, 2022 interview on a show called "All Things Rex Worldwide," hosted by one Rex Sikes. Sikes, whom, I confess, I'd never heard of prior to the heads-up from my reader about this video, is self-billed as an "NLP Trainer and Authority on the Law of Attraction." (His Twitter handle is I'mRexcellent. Modest fellow.)

Rex may be an NLP trainer and an "authority" on the Law of Attraction, but his bread and butter, the area in which he truly appears to Rexcel, seems to be making videos of himself kissing up to far more successful Scamworld luminaries that people have actually heard of, such as mega-hustler "Dr." Joe Vitale, one of this blog's former favorite subjects. I say "former" because even I, who am so easily amused, get bored after a while. But clearly, Rex is not bored at all with Vitale. Quite the opposite: he seems utterly enamored.

He appears equally enamored with Kevin Trudeau, as you'll quickly see if you watch his interview with Katie. Here's that link again, but I warn you, as I often do with such offal offerings, that it will be time that you'll never get back, in this case, 1:20:52. Rex is in full-blown hero-worship mode on this one, beginning his intro by listing all of Katie's many "achievements" -- acclaimed best-selling author; worldwide media star; widely revered marketing genius; one of the foremost authorities on success and goal-setting and the Law of Attraction; and to top it off...

Today he is known as an enlightened spiritual leader, helping people attain a state of joy and happiness in addition to manifesting material success...

Rex fails to mention a few of Kevin's other major achievements, most notably: lifelong grifter who has scammed thousands of people out of millions of dollars; notorious liar; and several-times-convicted felon who recently completed a ten-year(ish) federal prison sentence.

The long conversation between Rex and Kev focuses mainly on "spiritual" stuff, in keeping with Kevin's efforts over the past few years to rebrand himself as "GuruKev," which I first wrote about back in December of 2019. It's also congruent with Kevin's apparent and reported longtime desire, and ongoing efforts, to become a true cult leader in the manner of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the evil cult Scientology. I've mentioned that several times over the years, one of the more recent offerings being this March 2021 post, which links to previous Whirled posts on the topic.

In any case, I'm glad my anonymous commenter wrote to me about the video, which was also announced on a September 22, 2022 post on Katie's public Facebook page, The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club. I hadn't posted about Trudeau in several months, in large part because I've been busy with other matters, such as concentrating on a very challenging book manuscript. Any energy I've had left over for blogging and social media engagement has been devoted more or less to political issues, particularly the very serious threats presented by the rise of fascism in various and insidious forms, in America and other parts of the world .

But I've certainly not forgotten Kevin Trudeau. For that matter, concerns about the rising tide of authoritarianism and fascism are not irrelevant to Trudeau and scads of other grifters who prey on gullible and unhappy people who are desperate not only for scapegoats, but for heroes. More about that momentarily.

We've detected a blockage in your social media pipeline
Anyone who still cares enough to follow the saga of Kevin Trudeau has probably noticed that he seems to be keeping a very low profile these days. This is likely because the terms of his release/probation dictate what he can and cannot do in order to avoid being thrown back in the clink. But he is still hustling, though in most cases making it appear that others are doing the hustling on his behalf while he occupies himself with humbly serving humanity. It's all in the service of lining Kevin's pockets so he can resume his formerly gaudy lifestyle as quickly as possible.

Trudeau has apparently been quite active on Telegram, that haven for scammers and far-right wingnuts, and no telling what all he's doing there. Sure, there's The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club Channel, which is more or less publicly accessible, but he is reportedly on several other Telegram channels that aren't so accessible, as well as using deeply encrypted email services that are all but untouchable by US or any other authorities. I would assume that the judges who presided over both his criminal and civil cases are paying attention.

Previously, when I wanted to get an idea of what Trudeau was up to, I would check the aforementioned public Facebook page, The Official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club. That's a little more difficult now, though, because it appears that I have finally been thoroughly blocked from the page. It no longer shows up as an option for me in the Facebook search field, and when I click the link to the URL, I get a "content not available" message. I know that the site is still up there, and that the posts are still listed as "public," because I checked via another route. So it's still available to the public generally, just not my part of the public specifically.

I suppose that blocking me was the next logical step in the process of isolating the cult from the nefarious influence of what one faithful KT ally warned the fans is "that nasty woman" (according to another former KT ally, who told me as much on the phone a couple of years ago). Earlier this year the admins of the fan page blocked me from commenting or responding or doing anything but share posts from that page, but now it appears that I have been completely locked out. The blocking happened very recently, occurring only this month, which I thought was rather odd timing, as I hadn't even blogged about Fearless Leader since June 12. But maybe the admins are simply procrastinators.

Of course, they have every right to block anyone they want to block, and as I've noted previously, I can be rather annoying when trying to make or belabor a point, particularly points about scammers and grifters. But in this case, I suspect that something more than mere annoyance led to the blocking. I have to ask a largely rhetorical question I've asked before: what are Katie and the minions so afraid of?

Trudeau's fans (and Trudeau himself) are always talking about how brave and bold he is, how completely unafraid he is to face government tyranny and whatnot. But one little blogger, whose blog is read by almost no one... what threat am I? After all, I'm just one of those "rats in your head" that Kev has been warning the cult followers about for years. Or, to put it in other terms, I'm a "Suppressive Person."

Who, apparently, has to be suppressed.

(Right-wing) politix and Scamworld: more than ever, a match made in hell
Earlier in this post I mentioned a connection between Scamworld grifters such as Kevin Trudeau, and the rise of authoritarianism and fascism in America and other parts of the world. Notwithstanding the fact that Kevin has spent decades presenting himself as a fearless fighter for freedom and individuality, and against tyranny, his brand of hustle is actually taken from the propaganda playbooks of any number of historical and contemporary tyrants (and wannabe tyrants).

Over the years I have written many posts about the alliance of politics (mainly right-wing American politics) and Scamworld. In a September 2021 Whirled post titled Scamworld & politix: Eric Trump set to join alt-health/conspiranoid scammers in Nashville in October, one point I made was that the strengthening bond between alt-health hucksters and the American right is not only spreading misinformation that endangers public health, but is also endangering democracy. While Trudeau wasn't featured at the event discussed in this post, a couple of his alt-health/conspiracy-mongering/right-wing brothers-in-arms were, such as Mike "The Health Ranger" Adams.

Two of my original and most significant points of reference for the Scamworld/politix theme on this blog have been Kevin Trudeau and #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump, for good reason. First off, the two have much in common, even down to a mutual disdain for "Mexicans" -- here's Trudeau, and here's Trump. As well, for years Trudeau expressed a fawning admiration for Trump, using that as a basis for unsuccessfully begging Trump to commute his sentence and pardon him.

All of which provided rich fodder for numerous blog posts. It wasn't long before I discovered that these posts had alienated a substantial base of my former readers who had been screwed to a greater or lesser degree by Trudeau's mega-scam the Global Information Network (GIN) and enthusiastically supported my endless critical posts about him -- but who turned out to be ardent Trump supporters, and were totally put off by my critical posts about Trump. This came out during the 2016 US presidential campaign, and I wrote about it in this October 2016 post, in which I pondered the curious fact that so many who had seen Trudeau's true colors seemed so blind to Trump's. I had come to realize that for many, their liberation from the KT/GIN delusion did not inoculate them against similar, or even worse, delusions.

It appears to me that these good ex-GINfolk simply cannot see that Donald J. Trump is an even worse -- and potentially more dangerous -- scammer than Trudeau ever could be (although granted, Trump and Trudeau have a few things in common). Though a few people have acknowledged that Trump is far from an ideal candidate, they insist that all of his shortcomings, wrongdoings, and deep character flaws pale in comparison to Clinton's alleged "life of crime."...

...None of this is really surprising, though. As my pal Salty Droid has both documented on his blog and has mentioned in private correspondence, quitting one manipulative scam or scammer doesn't cure one of the thinking pattern errors that got them sucked in in the first place. "Manipulation causes susceptibility to manipulation as a side effect," sez Salty. I know he's right, but I am still capable of being surprised by the phenomenon, especially when it occurs among folks whom I'd thought were friends, or at least allies.

But I digress. One of many examples, and a relatively recent one, of ruminations on the Trump-Trudeau connection, is a July 2021 post in which I compared Kevin's ridiculous narrative about the many sacrifices he had voluntarily and selflessly made in order to serve humanity; and the Trump crime family's equally ridiculous narrative about how they had voluntarily and selflessly sacrificed nearly everything in order to serve the American people. In both cases, the narratives owe their success and longevity to the support of various dodgy allies and a zealous fan base. I wrote:

None of these grifters could effectively spread their myths without the ready assistance of their respective armies of faithful enablers. Matter of fact, Trump and Trudeau share a significant fan base -- which is not surprising since the two inveterate hucksters have a lot in common.

And that brings me to a question that some may be pondering, and which I've actually been asked: why am I still going on and on about Kevin Trudeau after all these years? Isn't he kind of passe? Haven't I made the point, over and over, that he's a huckster? Can't we just move on? The simple answer to that has to do with the aforementioned point that Trudeau has so much in common with Trump, and that their respective and mutual fan bases are veering more and more towards existing in a universe of "alternative facts." In both cases, there's a big cult mentality going on. Trump is Trudeau, writ large, and while many of us may wish that both would just go away, that seems unlikely to happen any time soon. With Trudeau, the appeal to alt-reality may just mean that more people will get snookered out of their hard-earned money, to greater or lesser degrees. With Trump... well, as [the January 6, 2021] insurrection/day of rage demonstrated, those "alternative facts" -- and cult mentality -- could spell the death of American democracy.

Trump, unfortunately, is far from the only political figure threatening American democracy, as noted, among many other sources, in a July 2022 Brookings blog post.

One of the problems we have now is the rise of copycat candidates who parrot Trump’s moves and endorse his anti-democratic tactics. Possible presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley as well as dozens of congressional candidates spread the Big Lie about 2020 election fraud and some Republicans show a willingness to have electors chosen who do not respect the popular vote winner within particular states.

One of the worst things Trump has done is to show many other aspirants how to engage in power politics using unethical steps. Between his unorthodox behaviors challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 results and his continuing efforts to push Republicans in illiberal directions, he has become a role model for many candidates around the country. Rather than seeing Trump as a dangerous demagogue who threatens our democratic system, many Republican candidates are mimicking his tactics and pushing the country down the road towards illiberalism.

"Illiberalism?" Why mince words? Maybe a better word is "fascism." On the larger world stage, fascism and other forms of totalitarianism, both historical and contemporary, are built upon many of the same tactics used by the contemporary American right (or reich, as the case may be). Perhaps political philosopher and Holocaust survivor Hannah Arendt's 1951 work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is worth a revisit. From a September 2019 liberalarts.org.uk piece that discusses this work:

Fake news, people versus elected officials, trashing of democracy, ridicule of truth, relativism of values, nationalism with its love of loyalty and oaths and its aesthetic of self-sacrifice and violence, the hatred of internationalism and its humanist liberal values, accusations of international (Jewish) conspiracies, charismatic malevolent leaders shunning accountability and saying whatever would be popular one day, only to be reversed the next day, and supporters who don’t care at all about the behaviour of their leaders. These were fascisms then. Are they also fascisms now?

Spoiler alert: Yep.

Masses of people succumb to fascism, without realizing what is happening, due to a combination of factors, including gullibility, cynicism, dissatisfaction with their lives, a desire to find someone or something to blame for their unhappiness, and a longing for a hero.

And these are precisely the factors exploited by skillful hucksters such as Kevin Trudeau, whose longtime ticket to riches has been the scapegoating of an amorphous enemy he has repeatedly referred to as "They," while painting himself as the white knight who rushes in with the life-changing, life-saving information that "They" don't want you to know.

But Kevin Trudeau is no hero, no white knight. At the time of his sentencing in March of 2014, the sentencing judge, Ronald Guzman, noted that since at least the age of 25, Trudeau "has attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain." And prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo that Trudeau was...

...an unrepentant, untiring, and uncontrollable huckster who has defrauded the unsuspecting for 30 years. He is the type of person the Court should expect to defraud his fellow inmates while in custody, and to continue to commit fraud into old age. He appears capable of nothing else.

That just about says it all.

And Trump? Like Kevin, he has mastered the art of the neverending grift. Kevin is mainly doing it these days through his proxies, who are constantly begging for money on Kevin's behalf, using the false narrative (or outrageous lie, if you prefer) of Kevin as the self-sacrificing hero/martyr who has risked life and limb for all of us, despite the forces of evil that are out to get him. (Of course, Kevin is directing all of these propaganda campaigns, and very likely is writing a lot of the copy himself.) And Trump is currently doing it through his PACs, mainly in the form of relentless, aggressive fundraising emails that use pretty much the same false narrative (or outrageous lie, if you prefer).

And apparently that strategy is working, for both of these craven grifters.

But... fascism? Isn't that carrying things a bit too far?
Perhaps you're thinking that I'm being a bit histrionic (or hysterical), and that I exaggerate the threats to cherished freedoms posed by Trudeau and other scammers. Possibly you even think I'm overstating the threat of Trump and Trumpism. I'm not. Both Trumpism and "Trudeau-ism" feed into, and are fed by, many of the same base aspects of human nature, particularly the aforementioned need for scapegoats and the yearning for a hero.

And both Trumpism and Trudeau-ism rely -- and I can't state this often enough or forcefully enough -- upon the cult of personality: Kevin with the laughably transparent GuruKev shtick, among several other longer-standing ruses; and Trump with a Messiah-ish scam that has sucked in millions of gullibles. As progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann wrote in a September 23, 2022 opinion piece in Daily Kos:

Donald Trump has built a cult around himself. This is dangerous to America and dangerous to democracy.

Cults of personality in governance are broadly incompatible with democracy. They usually erupt in dictatorships where the Great Leader’s face and sayings are splashed all over public places. Think Mao’s China, Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s Germany, Kim’s North Korea...

...Rational people know that messiahs don’t molest women and brag about it, don’t fleece people with a phony school who just want a college education, don’t encourage racial hatred, and don’t get crowds to try to overturn democracy and kill a policeman.

But Trump isn’t after the rational people. He’s a predator, and his prey are the psychologically and emotionally vulnerable, people crushed by 40 years of Reagan’s neoliberalism, now desperate for simple answers to complex problems.

We should have known when Trump said, in a Charles Manson moment, that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and his followers would still support him.

Charismatic con men can make some people believe anything.

For example, nearly a third of all registered Republicans believe that top-level Democrats are running international child trafficking rings to torture and abuse kids before draining their blood...

Again, Trump is just Trudeau, writ large. Or, for anyone who needs to have the point hammered home, Trudeau is just Trump, writ smaller. Both are ruthlessly exploiting, and profiting from, the inherent irrationality of humans.

And ultimately, that's not good for freedom or democracy.