¡Holy guacamole! True-dough's racist rants

As you may know by now, I got quite a bit of blowback from my June 25 post about infomercial huckster and Internet radio star Kevin True-dough's June 24 program, in which he talked a bit about James Arthur "Death" Ray and how the big bad government was unfairly going after Ray, True-dough, and the selfish-help industry.

I provided a link to the full program, as well as a link to the part beginning at about 36:00, which my pal Dave Cook had told me was the approximate spot in the video where the Ray defense began. YouTube gave me an option to provide a custom link beginning at the spot of my choosing, so I decided to give my readers a choice. As for me, I began listening at around 36:00, listened to about three minutes at most, and then turned the thing off and wrote my blog post. I heard just enough to substantiate the point of the post, which was that True-dough was defending James Ray and the entire self-help industry against the evil government's war on entrepreneurs.

I shared the link on Facebook. Then I shared it on Twitter, little knowing what I was getting myself in for.

The blowback I got was not, as you might expect, from True-dough's fans and followers. Instead there was a hostile uprising on Twitter among a few folks who took offense at what they saw as a deliberate oversight on my part. As it turned out, True-dough also had some racist rants in that program. That was news to me. I argued back and forth for a while with those who continued to insist that I had heard the rants but that I had simply chosen to ignore them. 

They crowed about having caught me in a fib, and seemed to have no interest in anything but branding (or, rather, hash-tagging) me a racist and a liar.
Dave apologized for getting me into the mess in the first place, but it wasn't his fault, and I told him so. I simply should have stated clearly that I hadn't listened to the whole KT program. Since I have serious Internet usage caps to deal with, I just didn't want to waste any more bandwidth. 

Dave, who is currently living and working in Afghanistan, kindly offered to give the vid another listen and transcribe the missing parts for me.
Yesterday I received another email from him, with a Word doc attached. "Good grief," he wrote. "You really owe me for this. Words can’t describe how painful this was. The words alone can’t transmit the goofy faces, dramatic pauses, etc., etc., ad nauseum." 

He's right about the goofy expressions and gestures and those dramatic pauses -- all of which are done for hypnotic-marketing purposes, no doubt. I have actually sat through entire True-dough radio programs in the past, but those were just audio, and that was more than enough to make me roll my eyes so much that I had a headache for days. The addition of video makes it many times worse (not to mention many times more taxing on my limited Internet access). I have also sat through a few True-dough infomercials on TV and am familiar with his gestures and expressions. I'm sure they're well rehearsed. And the three minutes or so that I saw of the June 24 video provided more of the same. But Dave -- just because that's the kind of guy he is -- sat through the whole thing not once, but (at least) twice.
 
I will say right now that I still haven't listened to the rest of the video, but I trust Dave's transcription skills enough to publish the transcribed text here and comment on it (however, please see my disclaimer at the end of this post). If you saw the video yourself you may not need to read the transcriptions. I've included them for those who have technical limitations as I do, as well as for those with weak stomachs or an ultra-low tolerance for stupid statements, and people who simply don't want to waste the time and bandwidth.

In his first email to me, Dave had written that True-dough began his show by talking about how he was going to run for political office. Now, in case you're thinking (as I originally did), "Hey, wait a minute! Convicted felons can't run for U.S. office!", the truth is that they apparently can run for federal positions, though the laws about state-level positions vary from state to state. http://www.factcheck.org/2008/11/felons-in-office/ True-dough would no doubt face an uphill battle, and his opponents would have plenty of "Gotcha's!", but nothing would surprise me.

So let's get to the transcription/summation document Dave sent. He began by writing that after the opening bit about running for political office, True-dough went on to talk about food scarcity and rising food prices, and the resulting global disturbances.

At around 9:20 in the video, Dave noted, True-dough lit into entitlement programs in a big way. Some of the Tribal Tweeters who got after me wondered how I could have failed to notice this racist rant. And the answer, of course, is that I didn't notice it because I didn't hear it. In any case, as I noted to Dave, while some might not see it as overtly racist, it could be construed that way because traditionally, when someone (usually privileged, usually white) complains about entitlement programs, the implication is that the recipients of the programs being complained about (usually welfare, food stamps, etc.) are people of color. I don't know if True-dough was coming at it from that viewpoint or not, although I have no doubt that some of the folks to whom he was pandering hold fast to these stereotypes. 

But the rant could also be construed as age-ist, since it attacks entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. It could even be construed as able-ist -- expressing prejudice against disabled people -- because it attacks Medicaid. 

Indeed, in more recent years, the grousing about entitlements has expanded to include the venerated Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But there are still many people who, when grumbling about handouts, are explicitly or implicitly referring to poor minorities who, in their minds, deliberately have too many children, allegedly so they can go on welfare or get food stamps. Some of those doing the griping are themselves benefiting from one or several government handout programs. They just don't see the parallel. 

People have been griping about entitlements and government programs in the U.S. for many decades. Many know about the various controversies over the Depression-era New Deal, but perhaps fewer are aware that just after World War II, there was a big flap in some corners about the free ride that the complainers thought the war-weary veterans were getting through the G.I. Bill. White-bread, mainstream publications such as the Readers' Digest featured alarmist articles about how these programs would be costly and would give rise to a whole generation of softies who would be robbed of any incentive to get a job, and would instead expect handouts for the rest of their lives.

Those softies, later aptly dubbed by Tom Brokaw as The Greatest Generation, went on to build a strong and prosperous society, and some of them couldn't have truly been a part of that grand experiment had it not been for government help. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the American Medical Association fought vehemently against Medicare. Over the years Medicare has become a bloated and inefficient program in many ways, but it has also allowed many people, including my mom in her last years, to get decent medical care that would have been all but impossible otherwise. And so on, and so forth. These issues are beyond the scope of this post and of this blog, but they interest me greatly.
But enough gabbing from me. Let's get to True-dough's words, as transcribed by Dave:

...When a person, in a country, gets on the dole - some of you don't know what that is, look it up in the dictionary - when you're on the dole. Chris, you know what that is, of course, you're from the UK. When a person gets on the dole, when a person, uh when they're sucking up out of the public trough. Let me say it another way. When a person is getting free lunches from the government. When a person is on food stamps, and social security, and Medicare, and Medicaid, and they're getting their, their, their pension and they have everything free from the government. When they, when they are just taking, taking, taking, taking, taking. When they're getting everything for free. Free housing, free bus tickets, food stamps, welfare, social security, free ambulance service, free medical, free drugs, free this, free that, free school, free lunch, free milk for the kids, free this, free that, free clothes, we need free, uh, free Nike sneakers. When everybody gets stuff free from the government, and right now, in America, more people are getting free stuff from the government than ever before in history.

More people in America today get something free from the government than any time in our history. More people globally are getting stuff free from their governments. Greece, Brazil, uh, uh, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy. All around the world, UK, governments have been giving more and more to the people. When that happens, you're not giving a hand up, you're giving a hand out, and you are disempowering the person. You're making them feel like they have no power, they have no control over their life, and they're a victim. That has occurred.

So, let's back up. The two reasons you have civil unrest and riots are #1, food prices go up or there's lack of food. That is happening now, and it's going to get worse and worse and worse. Means more and more riots, more civil unrest. More countries are going to have government problems, control issues. With the, with the governments instability is going to be out of control. Currency's going to be out of control because of the riots, but there's a second - this is a perfect storm.

The second reason you're going to have massive riots around the world, AND America, is governments like Greece, like Spain, all around the world, including the United States of America. They have no money. And since the majority of the populations now get free stuff from the government, the government is gonna announce one day, "We're cutting back." It's already happening. It happened in the UK. We're cutting back on free education, now it's triple the price. They announced it in Greece. Oops, we're cutting back. They announced it in France. Oops, your pensions are being cut. Your food stamps are being cut. Government subsidies are being cut starting next month.

It's happening in states around the United States. California. I got a check from, from the state of California, I went to the bank to cash this check from the state of California. I said I'd like to cash this check, and I'd like the cash. "Oh. This is from California. We can't cash this." What are you talking about? It's a government check. " It's California. This could bounce. We can't give you the cash. We need a three week hold to make sure the check clears. California's got no money. These checks bounce all the time. " That's what happened. I'm not making that up.

So you're gonna have. Globally. These. They call them austerity measures. Where the governments say "We're cutting the entitlement programs." "We're cutting the social security. We're cutting the Medicare. We're cutting the Medicaid. We're cutting the welfare. We're cutting the grants. We're cutting the food stamps. We're cutting the school lunch program. We're, we're, we're cutting this, we're cutting that." They're cutting everything. In Chicago. The 4th of July. Independence Day. Mark, you didn't know this. You've got your family coming in. Right? You're going to go downtown. No fireworks! They don't have the money. Oh! Let's celebrate our independence. We have no money. They can't afford fireworks. It's going to get worse, and worse, and worse.

Now. I'm not here to scare you. I'm here to inform you. That the hurricane is a coming. And then I'm going to tell you how to prepare. So not only do you survive, but you prosper. Because I, if you noticed by my face, am not dismayed. I', excited about this. This is a phenomenal opportunity. It is a great opportunity. It is an exciting opportunity. It's going to be exciting, thrilling times. And it's going to be profitable times, if you know what to do.

Certainly it will be profitable for a few serial scammers, who will always find a way to bilk even the most desperate people out of money. But I digress.
Dave didn't transcribe the next segment verbatim but summarized it for me:

From 14:45 to 17:00 he just wanders about banks, people having less money to spend, spending money on oil/gas instead of good. Increase in bankruptcies, banks failing, the government bailing them out, printing more money, FDIC, etc, interest rates go up, US currency crashes on the foreign exchange. When it crashes, (against the Ruble?) foreigners can come in and buy property like doughnuts. Foreigners will come in and own all the "landmark stuff".

Following that, Dave continued the transcription, beginning with 17:00:

And you're going to see the US Government sell things like the Grand Canyon maybe. You're laughing. And I'm being facetious, but that wouldn't surprise me if 2-3-4 years from now, the Grand canyon gets sold off. And you go there, and you have to pay a ticket, and it's some guy going "". You know, I'm not, I'm not, I am not making this up. I mean, I mean, I'm serious. Some Chinaman could be there. Taking your dollar. And welcome to the Grand Canyon. And he's going to give you a book, uh, you know, how to learn Cantonese in five easy lessons. I'm not making this up. I'm not, Chris, I'm not, I'm not. Right?

"Then," wrote Dave, "he goes into the Iraqi dinar....."

Then Dave took up around the spot where I'd left off in my own listening. He wrote, "At 39:22 – after a rant about how the government hates entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship is the bedrock of the country..."

…The immigrants who came to this country, came not for a free lunch, but for an opportunity. The immigrants who come into this country now, illegally, are coming for the free lunch. Nobody wants to admit the fact. The Mexicans who are coming in illegally, many of them are good people, but they’re still breaking the law. But the majority of them are the stupidest, dumbest, most illiterate, laziest people in Mexico. And they can’t make it in Mexico, and they’re coming here. And you know who told me that? A group of Mexicans. A group of Mexicans. Living in Palm Springs. Who came here legally. And I asked them the question. I said "What do you think about the illegal immigrants?" "How come they don’t learn English?" And they said "because the people who are coming here illegally can’t even speak Spanish." "They can’t write Spanish." These Mexicans, who came to America legally. Who I love because they came to this country legally.

And I love their Mexican food. And I always – as I told you – I always cheered for Julio Caesar Chavez and the great Mexican fighter. So I am not prejudiced against Mexicans. Oh no. Guacamole, I’m in. How can you say I’m prejudiced ? When I love Caesar Chavez and guacamole . Think about this. Mind boggling. Am I prejudiced? Yes! I hate criminals! And when I was one, I hated myself. I hate people who break the law.

Does that make me prejudiced? No. But these Mexicans in Palm Springs told me: "Kevin, the majority of Mexicans who come to this country illegally, are people who can’t speak Eng-Spanish very well. They’re illiterate. They can’t even write Spanish. They’re, they’re not educated. They’re broke and they’re poor. And quite frankly, they’re dumb and lazy. And they come to America because they want the free lunch."

Nobody wants to talk about that. And they’re some people – in that group who come here – who are intelligent, and go on to become doctors and so forth. But they’re still breaking the law. They need to either, we need to either change the law, or enforce the law. One or the other. And that’s another debate. But the fact is these people are breaking the law. And they do want the free lunch. The majority of them. And some of them are hard working. They work in the fields in California. But they take that money and they send it back to Mexico. They’re not learning English, because they don’t even speak Spanish very well. They’re not the most educated people.
Years ago, America wasn’t the land of the hand out. We were the land of opportunity. So the people that came here – the Mexicans didn’t come. Think about it. The borders were wide open back in the 1950’s. How come we didn’t have millions of Mexicans come in? Because there was no reason for them to come. There was no free lunch. Think about that. Think about it. How come all the Mexicans – millions of Mexicans – didn’t come back in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s? Because there was no free lunch back then. That’s why. Think about it. They could just walk across. There was more access to getting into a country – into America back then than there is today. Nobody came. Because there was no free lunch when they got here. Give away the free lunch, they all come . It’s not hard to figure out.

And that loathsome bit was the main point of contention with the Twitter Tribe, who took me to task for failing to mention it in my original blog post. I would have been remiss had I heard it and not at least given it a passing mention. But although I did not hear it then, I've now read it, and that's why I thought it deserved much more than a passing mention. It deserved a post of its own.

There is so much utter stupidity in the above rant -- or, perhaps more accurately, so much deliberate catering to fearful and ignorant people (for True-dough is emphatically not stupid) -- that one hardly knows where to begin. Since this isn't a political blog, and I am not an expert on history or immigration law, I won't go into a long blow-by-blow rebuttal of every lame point True-dough made. I will say, however, that I noticed that when True-dough talked about the "good" Mexicans to whom he allegedly spoke in Palm Springs, he did not mention the class struggles and elitism in many traditional Latino cultures, which make U.S. class differentiation look like egalitarianism by comparison. Google or Bing it if you're interested. For now, here's a recent piece: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2011/0520/Latin-America-s-middle-class-grows-but-with-a-tenuous-grasp-on-status
And here's another one: http://en.mercopress.com/2010/03/27/gap-between-rich-and-poor-in-latinamerica-is-largest-in-the-world-says-un

And I have no doubt that there are wealthy Latinos who look down their noses at their poor and/or "illegal" fellows. I once knew a very aristocratic Central American woman, highly educated and the product of a wealthy family, who often expressed contempt for the campesinos. She would bristle when someone referred to her as a "Mexican" because of her thickly accented English. Yet to many of True-dough's fans, she probably would have been considered a Mexican by virtue of that accent, and the fact that her native tongue was Spanish (a language that originated in Spain, not Mexico, but try telling that to some people). 

True-dough either can't comprehend or, more likely, has deliberately glossed over, the subtleties and nuances of various cultures and societies. "Mexicans" are not a homogeneous group, any more than Latinos in general are, and to pretend otherwise is either profoundly ignorant or deeply racist. I have no idea what True-dough actually thinks or if he truly harbors any racist feelings. But his statements were racist, and it seems to me that he was making them in an effort to stir the melting pot. 

My main point here is that just because "a group of Mexicans" in Palm Springs told him that most illegal Mexican immigrants are lazy and uneducated, this doesn't make such a statement any more likely to be true than it would be if it were coming from Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. In any case I suspect that True-dough is not telling the whole story about his Mexican friends, but whether he was or wasn't, his anecdote and lame attempts at humor add little to the legitimate conversation about immigration law reform.

Moreover, while I happen to agree with the general point that nations with cumbersome and expensive entitlement programs -- and no real way to pay for them -- are heading for crisis, I noticed that when True-dough was ragging on entitlements, he apparently overlooked the corporate welfare/entitlement programs in the U.S.: the subsidization of mega-corporations who have their hands in everyone's pocket, and who are much less in need of a free lunch than a struggling single mom or an ill migrant worker. The corporate welfare programs make social welfare programs, even those from which illegal immigrants benefit, look like petty cash disbursements by comparison. Perhaps True-dough has ranted about these other programs on other shows, but he didn't seem to mention them on this one. 

Offensive as it is to many folks, this is just one more example of True-dough's rabble-rousing. He frames it all as "information that THEY don't want you to know about," or stuff that "no one else" is talking about, overlooking the fact that hate-mongers such as Rush Limbaugh talk about these things all the time. True-dough, of course, is both of and above mere politics, as he is both of and above the selfish-help industry. As I noted in a post a couple of years ago, he is playing both to the (mostly politically liberal) New-Wage/McSpirituality crowd (he has to get a piece of that lucrative pie), and the fans of paranoia porn, who politically lean more towards the neo-con FOX-TV News end of the spectrum. I wrote (if you'll pardon my quoting myself):

The Kevin Trudeau Radio Network site is a clearinghouse not only for political wingnutty stuff that would make Rush Limbaugh and FOX-TV proud, but also for healthnutty stuff – which is only fitting, since Kevin is a noted health expert [that was sarcasm ~CC] – and, increasingly, New-Wage stuff. (Take a look at the banner ad that's currently on top of the page [it was at the time I wrote this. ~CC] and you'll see what I mean, regarding the latter. The ad shows the mugs of Rev. Michael Beckwith and Dr. Wayne Dyer, and bears the tag line, "For health and happiness, you must be balanced!" And then look around at the other New-Wagey stuff on the site. This kind of invalidates some bloggers' longstanding observation that the New-Wage is inexorably bound to the liberal left. There doesn't seem to be much room for libs on Kevin's site, but there's plenty of room for New-Wage loons and hustledorks.)

In his immigration rant, True-dough pretends that it's all about the letter of the law -- that either we need to change our immigration laws or enforce them fairly. On the surface that sounds rational, until you explore the whole immigration issue in more depth (including the Draconian laws that are being passed or considered in some states), and until you examine True-dough's righteous invocation of "the law" in the context of his own ongoing dodgy business practices, which continue to this day. They may not be technically illegal, but some of them skirt perilously close to it.

Anyway. Back to our friend Dave, who wrapped up his transcribing duties thusly:

43:10. Then he goes back to "entrepreneurship". End of racist rant. Back on how the guv'ment is attacking James Ray, Tony Robbins, poor little Kevin True-dough, even Donald Trump. And that’s why he needs to be in Congress, so he can stand up for the personal development and self-help industry. Those of his ilk deserve to be rewarded. They can’t be bad. Somebody has to support the people who are trying to help themselves and SUPPORT the gurus…. Yak, yak, yakkity yak. Enough.

The entire silly little drama around my original blog post, was, as they say, a learning experience. However, I'm more convinced than ever that my original post could very well have stood on its own, since it was specifically about one selfish-help felon making a public statement in defense of another selfish-help felon and the entire industry of which they are a part. But I'm glad to have been informed about the rest of the KT Radio program from June 24, 2011, even if I had to take a lot of flak in the process.

At this point I feel it necessary to add a disclaimer. I'll remind you that I still have not listened to the entire KT video. I never went back and played any more than those three minutes or so that I originally wrote about. Those of you who listened to the entire video may have heard more, or heard things differently, than Dave did. If so, you can let me know about it. Those of you who feel I was not angry enough about True-dough's apparent racism, or that I did not adequately explore the complexities of the immigration issue, or that I am giving short shrift to one or another ethnic or cultural group, can also let me know about it. Feel free to write a comment to this blog, or email me privately at cosmic.connie@juno.com. Or you can simply go on Twitter and #hash-tag me as a liar or racist.

It's up to you.

I do think we all owe Brave Dave a round of applause here. "I am going up to my cave," he concluded in his email to me, "to wash my eyes out with bleach and quench my desire to stab myself in the forehead with my knife with a shot of good single malt instead."

I hope you had one for me too, Dave. And thanks for helping me out with this.

PS ~ The immigration issue has been a particularly divisive one in the U.S. But there's hope for optimism, I think, in the fact that more folks are coming to see that we need to look more realistically at the part that immigrants, including and especially illegal ones, play in our society. Rationality about this matter came from an unexpected corner just the other day: a Southern Republican mayor, Georgia's Paul Bridges, has confirmed his decision "to be the mayor for everybody, including people who have no voice otherwise." He takes his responsibility to serve the citizens of his small town seriously, and as far as he is concerned, citizenship has little to do with passports or residency papers. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/28/immigration.georgia.mayor/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

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For he's a jolly good felon: True-dough speaks out for Death Ray

Note: The bits in orange type below are additions to the original post.
Huckster extraordinaire Kevin Trudeau, star of idiotic infomercials and rabble-rousing radio, has long been one of my favorite snargets (see links at the end of this post). Well, Dear Ones, True-dough has just reached a new level of snarget-worthiness with yesterday's KT Network show, in which, according to the blurb on his site, he "reveals what is really causing civil unrest and riots around the world and how the government is trying to crush free enterprise and anything that could empower YOU!!" True-dough can speak quite well to the topic of being "crushed" by the government, as he has been playing the role of martyr for many years, ever since he served prison time for larceny and credit card fraud, which are felonies.

Now he wants to paint the entire selfish-help industry as a martyr to the government and the "criminal" mainstream media.

Yes, among the things that the big bad gummit is trying to crush, according to True-dough, is the selfish-help industry, as indicated by how they went after poor James Arthur Ray, recently convicted of three counts of negligent homicide, which are also felonies, despite some of Ray's defenders trying to pretend otherwise. My friend Dave Cook alerted me to this segment, which starts at about 36:00. "Yes," he wrote, "I listened all the way to that point to hear what he had to say about JAR, so you didn’t have to… You’re welcome." (Thanks, Dave!)

Dave added: "Oh, if you listen to the first part, 'KT' talks about his running for office and how you can help him. What a douche."

Here's the link to the entire segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97PZY1--Eq4&feature=youtu.be

And in case you don't care to hear all of KT's grandstanding and the usual ads for stuff "they" don't want you to know about, here's the link to the part that starts at about 36:00: http://youtu.be/97PZY1--Eq4?t=36m

Addendum, 26 June 2011: As you may know by now, I did not listen to KT's entire rant. And that has earned me some harsh criticism and accusations of willful blindness and/or various sins of omission.

Since I wrote this I have been informed that True-dough included some racist rants in this program. I was not aware of this at the time I wrote this post, because I only listened to a very few minutes of the video -- just enough to support my basic point that KT was defending James Ray. And then I pushed the "stop" button. I have listened to entire KT shows before when they were only audio. But video is a larger download and my satellite Internet service has a strict Fair Access Policy. Once you go over a certain amount for the month you are seriously slowed down or all but cut off. Ron and I were reaching our limit. We cannot afford to be without Internet. Our livelihood depends upon it.

And that's the truth, though apparently not a good enough truth for those who have Issues, and who think that I willfully chose to ignore the racism because I'm "all about the whiteness."

Had I actually heard the racist remarks I would certainly have mentioned them as one more criticism among many that I have of KT. You can choose to believe me or not. For those of you whose judgment is not clouded by your own agenda: do you honestly think I would miss a chance to snark about and criticize True-dough?

I may do a follow-up post on his ignorant, racist remarks as soon as I hear the relevant parts and know more of what I am talking about. 

For now, this blog post purposely focuses on Kevin True-dough's defense of James Ray and the selfish-help industry. I have no doubt there were many other objectionable bits in that KT show even beyond the racist remarks; as far as I'm concerned, almost everything KT says or does is objectionable.

In my original post I mentioned that his video elicited fawning comments from supporters who apparently look upon True-dough as one of the last great heroes. I got called on that too, accused of ignoring the people of color who had criticized his racist rant. At the time I wrote this blog post, however, I saw four comments, and they were all favorable to True-dough. I did not see any critical comments. That is why I did not mention them.

Over the years many people have criticized Kevin True-dough for many things. But he still continues to stay in business, because even though he has severe critics he also has many, many supporters. This is one of the points I have repeatedly made about him on my blog. Again, I did not see the remarks criticizing his racism. Had I seen them, I would have investigated further to see what they were talking about.

[Back to the original post] As I have noted before, it's not that I am any big fan of big government. The U.S. government has done and continues to do some dodgy, oppressive, and downright criminal things. That's one reason True-dough is able to attract so many followers (that, and his endless stream of frauducts and flopportunities, such as his Global Information Network pyramid scheme).

However, as I have also noted many times before, the government's misdeeds do not exonerate True-dough and other hucksters.
 
To me, KT's rant, and the fact that he has so many supporters -- plus the fact that Death Ray still has many supporters -- are just a few more indications that we shouldn't count Ray out of the selfish-help game any time soon. People want heroes, and many are willing to overlook the felonious deeds and serious character flaws of some of those "heroes."

Speaking of scoundrels sticking together, Scientist Bob Proctor had supportive words about James Ray in response to news about Ray's conviction. According to a piece on the Arizona Republic site:

"Anybody had the right to leave there (the sweat lodge), and they didn't. Some did," Proctor said. "It was a tragic thing that happened, but I don't think (Ray) should be the one that's held responsible.

LaVaughn wrote a good post about this, and Scientist Bob's amazing gift for rationalization, on her Celestial Reflections blog. 

I'll be waiting to see if True-dough starts a fund to help Death Ray. Perhaps some of what he raises for his own defense fund will go to help Ray's cause. Turds of a feather...

Addendum 19 July 2011 ~ While Googling around I came across this interesting March 2010 discussion on Cecil Adams' Straight Dope Forum, regarding True-dough's Ponzi-like Global Information Network, as well as his past with motivational infoproducts giant Nightingale-Conant. I don't know how I could have missed it previously. Particularly fascinating is a comment from a participant named banjoDavid (03-04-2010, 03:01 AM ), who said he was a studio engineer with N/C back in the day when they were selling True-dough's stuff. Though I suspect that the full story of True-dough and N/C has yet to be told, banjoDavid offers some insight that jibes with other information I've heard:

A PUBLIC APOLOGY

I worked with Kevin Trudeau for a couple of years. I was a studio engineer at Nightingale-Conant during the late 80's until I got sh%&t-canned 13 years ago. I recorded Mega Math and Mega Speed Reading. I condensed Mega Memory from 6 a hour program to a 2 hour program. In order to do that, I had to get Trudeau's OK for the edits, as stipulated in his contract. I had to work through his attorney, because he was in the Federal pen for credit card fraud. I recorded the training tapes for the Nutrition for Life multi-level marketing scheme he was involved with.

I was the low man on the totem pole at Nightingale, and Kevin Trudeau was part of the sh%it detail I had to deal with.

He told me one day, just as an aside, "I spend most of my time in court with lawyers."

The speed reading program with Howard Berg was really bad. This was in the day they were publishing 6 cassette programs. Side 12 was Kevin pitching his other products. The program needed a lot of editing, but I was told to push it through fast, and skip the editing. Some distribution company heard it and refused to sell it the way it was, so I was told to re-edit.

There was time to do it over, but not time to do it right in the first place.

When I joined Nightingale-Conant in 1987, there were about 250 employees. It was a well respected motivational and sales training tape company, the best. I was proud of the stuff I worked on, and I learned a lot.

When Trudeau got out of the pen, he and his cellmate Jules got involved in Nutrition for Life, an Amway-style pyramid scheme scam, and we produced the tapes they sold.

Not we, I. I recorded him in Studio A for 2 or or 3 years, i don't remember many details. Jules did a Yoda impression that he thought was hilarious. I had to record this crap, it was my day job. Trudeau did TV infomercials with Danny Bonaduce about some health products around that time. Nightingale housed the Trudeau Marketing Group in the building for a while, and the company's morale slid downhill.

People were laid off from Nightingale in a few waves. Mike, Rose, Roger, Steve, and many others. When I was laid off in March of 1997, they fired 50 people that day. The personnel director had a sign on his desk that could be moved around to say, "Have a nice day," or " Take a hike."

Guess what it said that day?

I took a hike. I'm still pissed off and bummed. It was a good company, and buying into Trudeau's bullsh%t cost them their reputation and a lot of jobs, mine among them. I think there are about 75 people working there now. Trudeau is long gone from Nightingale, and they don't even sell his stuff anymore. He does that on his own.

Before you buy from Kevin Trudeau, read on the internet about the complaints against him.

I'm not making this sh%t up. Thanks for letting me rant
David

I find several points in this comment interesting. To begin with, I've heard from various sources that True-dough nearly drove Nightingale-Conant into bankruptcy due to his tendency to...um... party hardy on their dime. (By the way, Peter Wink, who worked for N/C in the early to late 1990s, and who now works for True-dough, and with whom I had several conversations that resulted in a series of blog posts -- here's the first one -- was NOT one of these sources. He did not seem to know much about KT's previous association with N/C when I asked him, and since we had agreed not to converse about KT, to whom he is steadfastly loyal, I did not push it. Peter did, however, tell me that his own marketing and negotiating skills helped save N/C when they were in trouble in the early 1990s. You are free to believe that or not.)

What really interests me about banjoDavid's remark is that it would appear N/C was making lots of money selling True-dough's stuff even while he was doing time in the Federal Pen, and they continued to sell his stuff and associate with him after he was released. (Apparently True-dough did not learn his lesson in prison, judging by the business ventures he and his cellmate got into once they'd been released.)

Particularly since N/C has long been associated with Scientist Bob Proctor and other New-Wage hustledorks, it's hard for some of us to shed tears for them, and easy, perhaps, to speculate that they may have gotten a bit of what they deserved from their choice to associate with True-dough. However, I do feel bad for people such as banjoDavid and other employees who apparently lost good jobs because of N/C's poor choices and KT's shenanigans.

*********

Related Whirled links about Kevin True-dough:

• I first blogged about KT at length when Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale wrote a gushing blog post about meeting his hero True-dough.
• Subsequently I wrote about a radio conversation between Mr. Fire and True-dough, in which they praised themselves and their industry at length, while dismissing skeptics as losers.
• A while later I wrote about one of True-dough's major ongoing cons (you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the part about him).
• And the following month, I elaborated about this scheme on my "Illuminutty" post.

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Justice for Kirby Brown, Liz Neuman, and James Shore?*

As you probably know by now, James Arthur "Death" Ray has been found guilty on three counts of negligent homicide (and not guilty on three counts of reckless manslaughter) for the deaths of Kirby Brown, Liz Neuman, and James Shore.

Here's a link to the CNN story.

A statement by Kirby Brown's family can be found on her cousin Tom McFeeley's Web site.

The story isn't over, of course. The case will continue this coming Tuesday, June 28, when the jury will reconvene to reach a decision about aggravating circumstances. Among the witnesses will be family members of James Shore, Liz, and Kirby, so the jury should get a good sense of victim impact.

Meanwhile, the conversation continues over at Salty Droid's blog. (Here's his post about the verdict.)

* Unfortunately, this trial could not deliver justice for Colleen Conaway, who died at a James Ray event in San Diego a couple of months before Death Lodge, and whose death was apparently covered up by Ray and his top minions so the event could continue and the participants could party on. But the people who have been following these stories from the beginning will not let Colleen's story be forgotten.

Jerry Hicks on chemo: Abrascam gets a little help from Western medicine

Those of you who have been hanging around this blog for a while -- or who have been following New-Wage scams via other forums -- are probably pretty familiar with Jerry and Esther Hicks, whom I've called the George and Gracie of the New-Wage world. (The main difference between the Hicks and Burns & Allen is that the latter were intentionally funny.)

Esther and Jerry -- whom Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale has credited with inspiring him in his own "spiritual marketing" shtick (he says he even wrote the intro to the original edition of their first Sara book) -- have had a smashingly successful imaginary-friends scam going since the late 1980s. As many of you may also recall, they were big stars of the original version of The Secret. Then when The Secret got too big for its bitches...I mean, britches...Rhonda Byrne got greedy and had her lawyers try to manipulate the Hicks into signing away more rights than they were comfortable with signing away. They refused, so she cut them out of the moviemercial entirely and released a new version sans Abe-Hicks. I blogged about this back in December 2006. And on his old blog, Mr. Fire himself wrote that despite the elimination of his dear friends, the new version of The Secret was even better than the original.

At any rate, being ousted from The Secret was no skin off the Hicks' backs. Their initial public proclamations about the incident were the typically "loving" -- that is, euphemistic but secretly seething -- New-Agey pap you might expect, but as time went by they got a bit snippy about it. They even released a revenge DVD. (I may have doctored that cover a little, but not much.) I don't blame them for being p.o.'d at Rhonda, but in the larger scheme of things I also don't think it's as outrageous for scammers to get scammed as it is for regular people to get scammed.

In any case the Hicks continued to rake it in with Gracie's... I mean Esther's... hammy Abe performances. They churned out books and frauducts, they presented workshops, they hosted lavish cruises for their faithful following of seagullibles. And the money just kept streaming in, often surprising even them, according to some of their own comments over the years. Of course I would always read between the lines: "Jeez, we can't BELIEVE we're getting away with this crap." "Jeez, we can't believe we're STILL getting away with this crap." And so on.

But all good scams must come to an end...or must they? Some people are predicting the end of the Abraham-Hicks empire in light of the fact that Jerry Hicks, who first pushed Esther into channeling -- um, I mean "receiving" -- has been undergoing chemotherapy to correct an "exaggerated" white blood cell count. I was first alerted to this by my friend Kyra, who runs a couple of Abe-skeptic sites. She pointed me to her blog post about the matter: http://kyrasdiary.blogspot.com/2011/05/jerry-hicks-undergoing-chemotherapy.html

The problem -- and the point that threatens to shake the Abe-Hicks community to its core (or not) -- is that "Abraham" has consistently advised against resorting to doctors and conventional medical treatment. While some of the "teachings" of Abe seem to take a neutral stance towards medicine, the overall message is that the body knows how to heal itself, and that the Abe teachings can help you prevent or cure any ailment by getting your vibes in tune with health, abundance and joy -- all without medical intervention, thank you very much. To many Abe followers, this apparently translates into a mandate to stay away from doctors and medicine altogether.
Kyra shares a revealing quotation at the beginning of her blog post:

"In reality, we have never encouraged Jerry or Esther to take any sort of medication or medical treatment because we know it is easier to teach them with what they know how to find their vibrational harmony with energy." - Abraham Hicks 03/02/1997 San Francisco, CA

It isn't Schadenfreude that motivates Kyra to write about this matter, and while you may find it hard to believe, that's not my chief motivator in this case either. Let me make it clear: I don't wish illness on anyone, not even a professional scammer like Jerry Hicks.
 
I do think it's a bit premature to talk about the end of a good scam like Abe-Hicks. On a recent Squidoo conversation Kyra wrote, "I think Jerry and Esther will run out of steam before their gimmick does." And I think she's right. For now, Jerry and Esther seem to be doing what they can to keep the scam alive by framing the entire chemo incident in a casual, lah-de-dah tale of a possible spider bite that may have occurred while the Hicks were camping next to a yacht marina in Florida. (Yep, those foreign yacht spiders will get ya every time. Yet another argument in favor of arachnophobia.)

In a recent update Jerry Hicks wrote -- or, more likely, had someone write for him:

On March 12, 2011 we flew from Del Mar to Boca Raton, Fl where we slept next to the dock with many yachts from many different parts of the world in the slip right outside our window. When I awakened the next morning I had a large welt on the inside of my wrist that looked like a giant fire ant bite. The most unusual thing about it was instead of the usual circular puss-like head that comes up from many insect bites it was a strangely cube-like head. It looked more like a spider bite. I put a Band-Aid on it and we continued the Panamanian cruise. It seemed to resolve into itself as time went along forming a pea-shaped nodule on my wrist. On April 18, I showed it to a dermatologist in Del Mar and she immediately decided to scrape it off and sent it in for a biopsy. We continued our seminar tour and returned to San Antonio getting ready for our spring East Coast run when we heard back from the biopsy results that there was something amiss relative to my white blood cell count and she put us in touch with a dermatologist in San Antonio who was an old school friend of hers. The subsequent blood test in San Antonio showed that my white blood cell count was extremely exaggerated and the physician insisted that I undergo immediate treatment with no delay. He pointed out a number of options, one of them was to use the “big guns” (heavy chemotherapy) and so we decided to go along with that and checked into the hospital on May 6th.

We were swept up in such an obvious current of amazing “path of least resistance” events unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before. The strong feeling that we were proceeding in exactly the right direction continued as my response to these “big guns” was a week of no discomfort and none of the highly forewarned side effects. Everyone around us at the hospital kept speaking their surprise at my unusually comfortable experience. We are now in day 18 of a 28 day regimen of bringing my blood counts back into perfect balance...

...P.S. One of the most wonderful things that I’ve experienced was the following revelation that I had while in the hospital with all of those wonderful people taking care of us: Every person with whom we seemingly have a chance encounter while here upon this planet has the potential of exerting a purely angelic influence upon us if we will but allow it.

There's a good discussion about this matter on this Squidoo forum hosted by another Abe-Hicks critic, Dave Stone: http://www.squidoo.com/death-of-abraham-hicks-esther-and-jerry-hicks-creation

I am not nearly as familiar with the teachings of Abe as Kyra and Dave Stone are. But there does seem to be a disconnect between "Abe's" teachings on conventional medical treatment and Jerry's decision to pursue same -- and many might see this as hypocritical. Even so, true believers will always find a way to rationalize. F'rinstance, there's this comment, from Dave Stone's Squidoo page linked to above:

Crumb Bukowski May 27, 2011 @ 6:22 pm

Jerry said in his blog that the chemo trip was a path of least resistance for him. This only implies if he didn't treat the condition with medicine he would've perhaps worried that he couldn't recover his well-being by just aligning his energy. The dude is 80 or older and must've figured he would take the chemo AND do his best to stay in the vortex in order to recover his well-being ASAP. Just because Abraham would not recommend medical treatment doesn't mean either Jerry or Esther or anyone else need follow their recommendation. I admit I was taken aback when Jerry didn't say "Screw the chemo, I'm just gonna chill out from the workshop schedule and do some fishing and trust that the white cell count will return to normal in proportion to how easygoing I make things inside my head." But he sort of emphasizes that the decision was a path of least resistance and that is quite respectable. Who is anyone to criticize or sneer at someone basing a decision on the path of least resistance? Esther and Jerry only ever claim to do their best to benefit from the teachings; they have never claimed to be the ultimate ultra-shining examples of said teachings. Cheers.

Dave replied:

Uh, yes, they did. They have access to Abraham, if such an entity exists 24 X 7, and they quote them every step of their lives. Esther has been quoted, posing as Abraham, as saying that the prognosis could be changed in a single afternoon session with Abraham. I can give you the quote, if you insist, but maybe you should wonder why they just didn't do that.

More importantly, you might ask yourself why Jerry doesn't just come clean, instead of dancing evasively all around the point. He has a teaching opportunity here, a chance to genuinely help others. Instead, he's staying on the money track. And, oh, by the way, if you are not one of the A-H emissaries they occasionally float my way in disguise, you are a sucker, ready to concoct rationales to excuse them of questionable conduct.

But people who want to believe will continue to believe. As Kyra wrote on Dave's forum:

...I don't think that in the end this will matter to Abers... Seth supporters managed to excuse Jane Robert's slow, painful death and Christian Scientists found ways of diffusing Mary Baker Eddy's morphine addiction. I'm sure that the same thing will happen here. I do have to say, though, I'm relieved because I think this will encourage people who listen to Abraham's teachings to seek traditional medicine when something goes wrong (rather than intending to rely on Abraham processes). At the least, they won't beat up on themselves so much when they get sick. They'll say, if it can happen to Jerry, it can happen to anyone. And that's good to know because one of my biggest worries about the teaching was with people who were trying to use Abraham processes because they didn't want to go the path of traditional medicine.

One point seems clear, whether you believe in LOA and Abe or not: Jerry and Esther's long-running imaginary-buddies scam has earned them millions of dollars -- more than enough money, I'd imagine, to buy the very best in medical treatment and after-care. Thanks to thousands upon thousands of gullible souls, Jerry Hicks, former Amway exec and current pimp for Esther's folly, is able to afford to take that "path of least resistance" and employ all of the "big guns" he needs to help him maintain or regain his health, and perhaps even buy him a few more good scamming years.

The same probably cannot be said of many, if not most, of his followers, and, for that matter, millions of other people who can't even afford basic medical care. So in that sense, I guess LOA and imaginary pals work very well indeed for some folks, not so well for others.

Something about that just doesn't seem right.

• Related post: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2007/07/you-really-gotta-want-it-but-you-better.html
• And here's a song -- still without a tune -- for all of you who wish you, too, could find a scam that really works: http://cosmicconnie.blogspot.com/2009/05/all-thats-missing-is-music.html

PS ~ For those who want to wear their Abe-Hicks skepticism, there's this T-shirt. Click on the pic for a slight enlargement, and here's the link to order.
(Note: I am not an affiliate -- just a sympathizer.)

* * * * *

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Calling all trannies! (and Harry Potter fans)

The headline for the Access class description was provocative, to say the least:
"Are You Willing to BE the 9 Trannies?"

To tell the truth, I've never really had any desire to be one tranny, to say nothing of nine. But Access -- the cultishly wacko sex-and-money org that was born when the ghost of Rasputin whispered into a bored/failed real estate agent's ear more than 20 years ago* -- is always challenging people to stretch beyond their wildest imaginings. 

The 9 Trannies is/are one of Access' hot new schemes, and it fits right into the group's ongoing promotional theme of "Hogwarts for grownups."

The phenomenal success of the Harry Potter books and movies surely demonstrated that these books struck a very deep chord in their audiences of adults as well as children.

Could it be that the deep chord was the acknowledgment, somewhere in people’s universes, that what has been dismissed, as “magic” is actually more real than much of what we call the “reality” around us?

Are you one of the adults who wasn’t fooled that these were stories for children? Do you long to attend Hogwart’s yourself?

Now you can!

Of course Access isn't the first supposedly adult org to grab onto the Harry-Potter-style-magick-is-for-realz theme; Marcy From Maui's Law of Attraction forum members were all over that a few years ago when The Secret was just hitting its stride. (I've provided links on this blog to those discussions, but I'm not going to go back and hunt for them because I can almost guarantee you that the links won't work any more. Seems like every time I mentioned a Marcy From Maui link on this blog, it disappeared soon after.)

And the Harry Potter theme isn't the first one to have been exploited by Access. They've been all over The Matrix and Avatar as well. Avatar really captured their imagination with that whole human v. humanoid motif.
Anyway. I know this might come as a disappointment to some, but Access claims that the 9 Trannies class has nothing to do with a sex change operation -- although it appears that at least a couple of the Trannies are related to changing one's gender at will. Here's the breakdown of the 9 Trannies you'll learn how to do or be or whatever, if you take the upcoming Access class:

• Transformation: the ability to change anything from what it is now into something different (demolecular manifestation is an example) [e.g., that dimwitted Ocean 300 scheme ~ CLS]
• Transmigration: the ability to move from one location to another without transport, or faster than “regular” transport could take you
• Transfiguration: the ability to morph something from what it appears to be into something different
• Transsexualness: the ability to change the sexual energy of any moment or any thing at will
• Transpiration: the ability to change what is going to occur into a different event
• Transmutation: the ability to change something from what it is into something greater
• Translocation: the ability to move something from one location to another
• Transliteration: the ability to talk and understand any language
• Transmogrification: the ability to change your appearance into something different

And here are more explanations, just to get you really excited and inspired:

Transformation is the ability to change anything from what it is now into something different.

Transmigration is the ability to move from one location to another without a car, plane, train, or bus – migrating across space.
Transfiguration is the ability to morph something from what it appears to be into something different.

Transsexualness is the ability to change the sexual energy of any moment or anything at will. It means you don’t function from your sexuality as the source of your reality. (Sexuality always requires judgment.)

Transpiration is the ability to change something that is going to transpire in the future and change it into something that doesn’t have to be, so something else can occur.

Transmutation is the ability to change something from what it currently is into something you would like it to be. It is a mutation from what it is into something greater.

Translocation is moving something from one location to another.
Transliteration is about talking in any language and understanding all languages.

Transmogrification is shifting what you look like into something different. You could for example switch your shape from being a man to a woman. [In other words: a sex-change operation without the knives, stitches, implants, and hormones. ~CLS]

But does all of this Access Tranny stuff really work? Does it yield measurable, observable results? As it turns out, that doesn't matter, because Access has a fail-safe built right into the scheme:

What if you used the 9 trannies for the joy of it? What would be possible then? What it [sic] was just fine for you to be magic everyday? Would anybody notice? No – because it doesn’t fit their reality!

In other words, just because the rest of the world doesn't acknowledge your achievement of tranniness, that doesn't mean it isn't real. It simply means that your magickal results do not fit the Muggles'...um...the humans' reality.
And to my lucky pals in the Denver area: y'all will have a chance to attend a Tranny class in June -- that is, if you have taken Access Levels 1 & 2 within the past twelve months, and you have $1,350 to blow on the Tranny class. Alternatively, maybe y'all could just apparate or use a Portkey.
I will be waiting for your reports.

* The Rasputin origins of Access are downplayed these days, to the extent that my little composite above would be more accurate if I had placed Rasputin's visage on Voldemort (He Who Must Not Be Named) rather than Gary Douglas's.

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Mean ABC 20/20 skewers (and crucifies!) gorgeous fitness model

“Being filmed in a Rolls-Royce with a gorgeous fitness model at your side is a lot different than being interviewed by a sharp mainstream TV news reporter.”
~ Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale, February 7, 2010

"Being filmed in a Rolls-Royce with a boastful buffoon whose mailing list you paid THOUSANDS to get your hands on in order to expand your own scams is a lot different from being accosted in a parking lot by some bleeping mainstream TV news reporter wanting to quibble about the claims you've made in your infomercials."
~Jennifer Nicole Lee, gorgeous fitness model*

Y'all probably remember that last year Joe "Mr. Fire" Vitale had an actual celebrity guest on one of his famous Rolls-Royce Phantom ride-alongs, as opposed to the usual lineup of irrationally hopeful wannabes with more money than sense. The celeb in question was "Bikini Diva" Jennifer Nicole Lee, aka JNL, who's most famous for hawking an exercise machine called the Ab-Roller Pro, and the ride took place in early 2010. This was a true breakthrough for Joe. And it was right in keeping with one of his own passions, fitness; after all, besides being the Buddha of the Internet, he is also the Charles Atlas of the Internet. What made the whole thing even more thrilling was that ABC News went right along and filmed the historic ride.

In a March 2010 post, Joe breathlessly blogged:

I confess that when Jennifer booked her evening with me for the Phantom Rider experience, I wasn’t sure how I could help her. After all, she’s already successful. And she’d already read all my books and listened to all my programs.

What was left?

But she later told me — as well as ABC News — that she got her money’s worth within the first 15 minutes of our conversation. We generated new ideas and came up with money-making plans she hadn’t thought of before. She loved it.

It was all one big party. A little over a month before he wrote that post, Joe had written another blog post about "attracting ABC news. This is the one in which he praised the sharp reporter who grilled him, Dan Harris. Some of us haters and naysayers saw it as kind of a proactive move: we figured he was thinking that if he kissed up to Dan (after all, they have so much in common! They both love indie music!), the report that ultimately aired would show Joe in a flattering light. And if things didn't go his way, Joe could always blame the mainstream media for stubbornly refusing to see all the good that the selfish-help industry does, or for editing out all the good bits. Either way, he had his bases covered.

Meanwhile, there was all that link love between JNL and Joe (not to mention the probable list love going on in the background). I'm sure JNL did pick up some marketing tips from Joe, and if so I'm guessing -- but only guessing -- that they centered on a few basic hustledork/hustledorkess principles:

1. Say anything you think you can get away with. People WANT to believe (well, except for those nasty mainstream reporters and those hater bloggers).
2. Don't be afraid to change your story as frequently as possible to make your marketing more effective. People love stories, and they have short memories (well, except for those nasty mainstream reporters and those hater bloggers).
3. Don't be afraid to pick your customer's pockets.** Find out your customers' credit limits and work around that. Forced continuity is the key to a healthy bottom line. And remember: Upsell, upsell, upsell!

Months passed, and finally ABC aired the results of those interviews in June 2010. The first one seemed like a fluff piece on the surface. One could almost hear Joe breathing a huge sigh of relief as some of his critics wondered WTF. But some saw the piece as a straightforward depiction of the facts, and the facts spoke for themselves. ABC didn't have to expend any effort make a buffoon out of Joe or out of the people who really pay $5,000 or more to ride with him. (JNL, as you'll see below, claimed she paid TEN grand. If that's true, methinks it's that list-love thing again.) 

Anyway, as I've noted here before, despite all of Joe's kissing up by describing Dan Harris as tough but fair ("and I really liked him!"), ABC did not return the favor . The segment they finally aired on June 29, 2010 was mostly about James Arthur "Death" Ray, but it was also about the selfish-help industry in general, and Mr. Fire was showcased briefly and not flatteringly towards the end. (Here's Salty Droid's take on it: http://saltydroid.info/death-ray-mind-games/ ) 

So I imagine Joe rued the day that he ever agreed to be interviewed by ABC. But he showed them. As another proactive measure, he'd had his wife Nerissa record the entire interview with her flip camera. And he provided a link on his podcast blog on July 12, 2010, in a brief post entitled, "ABC News TV interview -- not aired." He wrote:

ABC news interviewed me for almost an hour early this year. But what they aired six months later was about one minute of the 47 minute interview.


Of course, they did their best to mislead, distort and stay negative. You can listen to the entire unedited interview right here. It's sincere, positive, and complete. This was recorded by Nerissa as she held a flip camera in my office.
Enjoy.
Joe

And now, after watching last night's 20/20 segment, I'm thinking that maybe the lovely fitness model Jennifer Nicole Lee doesn't like ABC so much either. She even threatened to have them arrested.

20/20 and Consumer Reports teamed up for a report on infomercials and some of the top infomercial stars. One of the ABC reporters caught up to JNL in a parking lot outside of her tanning salon to ask her about some of the claims on her infomercials for the Ab-Roller Pro.

She apparently did not like the questions.

"You're obviously trying to skewer me!" the distraught but gorgeous fitness model cried, more than once. She also said more than once that ABC was trying to crucify her. Or at least it appeared that she said these things more than once. It could be that the nefarious ABC editors looped it back around to make it appear that she was just repeating herself because she didn't have any credible answer to the reporter's questions. You know how those "gotcha" media types like to twist people's words around and take them out of context. It's too bad Nerissa wasn't there with her flip camera.

Of course Salty Droid had already skewered and crucified JNL -- as well as her Phantom mentor -- nearly one year previously, but important gorgeous fitness models like Jennifer Nicole Lee don't pay attention to those negative naysayer hater blogs. Evidently gorgeous fitness models, like New-Wage hucksters, are too busy inventing new frauducts and flopportunities, and then making up new stories about how they became successful by using the new creation. The stories they tell vary depending upon the frauduct or flopportunity they're promoting. 

F'rinstance, a few short years ago Jennifer said, on Oprah, that she got skinny partly by an exercise routine that included "Baby Squats." She used her toddler Dylan as a weight while she did squats. Later when she began peddling the Ab-Roller Pro she ditched the kid from the backstory and said she she got skinny and fit just by using the Ab-Roller Pro. (That word "just" was apparently one of the main points ABC questioned her about.)

And even though ABC didn't mention this bit, I'd like to point out that even later, JNL decided to make it sound as if she got skinny and rich by hanging with overpriced success gurus, as quoted by Salty in the "Phantom Menace" blog post I linked to above:

“My name is Jennifer Nicole Lee, and I went from fat to fabulous, from poor to rich all from coaching and watching those who succeeded in their own lives, and then applied their trade secrets to my own life.

I recently enjoyed a chance of a life time being coached by Dr. Joe Vitale …

I gave myself the treat to visit with him, and purchased his “Rolls Royce Mastermind Meeting”, which I paid a hefty price of $10,000. And it was worth every penny!”

Alas, ABC had to go spoil things by asking her about the inconsistencies in her various success stories, as well as grilling her on whether or not the before and after pics in her promo material were Photoshopped -- and, to add insult to injury, questioning her claims that she got her fab body by working out a mere three minutes a day. That darned mainstream media again. 

During the parking lot "grillfest," JNL finally said she'd had enough, and told the crew they could schedule a sit-down interview that very day. So, according to the reporter, the ABC folks waited...and waited...and waited... (apparently JNL simply sat in her car and drank bottled water while they were waiting). Finally ABC heard from Jen's lawyer, who told them never to contact her again, and if they even tried to do so, Jen would have them arrested.***

Take that, mainstream media!

"Dr." Joe Vitale, who of course is also known for changing his own "success" stories as the mood suits him, could have told her there would be days like this, and he probably did. In fact, another star of The Secret, David Schirmer, aka Shameless Schirmer, aka The Mini-Madoff of Melbourne, aka The Wanker of Oz, could have told Jen the same thing. After all, he got skewered by the equally mean Australian media, which resulted in some investigations into his business affairs by the ASIC (the Oz equivalent of the SEC), which ultimately resulted in his getting banned for life from practicing in the financial trade in Australia.

Maybe Jen and Joe can take another ride in his Rolls and whine about it together over Vitale steaks in the Vitale Cigar Bar. And if there's room for two more, maybe they can invite David Schirmer.

* She hasn't said it, but I bet she's thinking it. And in all fairness, Joe probably wanted her list too...or something.
** "Don't be afraid to pick their pockets" is actually advice that Joe gave me years ago, more than once.
*** Interestingly enough, though, some of the questionable claims (and photos) have since been modified in the Ab-Roller Pro infomercials. This is probably a combined result of numerous consumer complaints and the ABC grillfest.

PS ~ Here's the vid of JNL and ABC. You can also watch it (and the rest of the infomercial episode) on http://abcnews.go.com/2020/.

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