Book Review: The Creature from Jekyll Island

A second look at the Federal Reserve
by G. Edward Griffin
Review by Brian R. Wright

1994, American Media , 601 pages

Reposting of original review, 8/29/07.

A friend of mine—who is one of those rare fellows who actually worries about the national debt (which according to this link is ~$9 trillion and counting… fast)—laid Creature on me last time we broke bread together.  In this tome, author Edward Griffin delivers a devastating expose on the background, execution, and remedies to the Federal Reserve Banking system (FRBS).

The system, which amounts to a national bank under control of (surprise) the money interests who dominate the government of the United States, was rather sneakily enacted into law by Congress just before Christmas recess in 1913.  Creature shows how this surreptitious meeting on Jekyll Island, a private resort off the coast of Georgia owned by J.P. Morgan and associates, led to the FRBS and its seemingly unlimited license to steal continuously from the productive class.

The well-dressed thieves on the inside track were as follows:

  • Nelson W. Aldrich, Republican Whip in the Senate, chairman of the National Monetary Commission, business associate of J.P. Morgan, father-in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
  • Abraham Pitt Andrew, Assistant Secretary to the United States Treasury
  • Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, the most powerful of the banks at that time, representing William Rockefeller and the international investment banking house of Kuhn, Loeb, and Company
  • Henry P. Davison, senior partner of the J.P. Morgan Company
  • Charles D. Norton, president of J.P. Morgan’s First National Bank of New York
  • Benjamin Strong, head of J.P. Morgan’s Bankers Trust Company
  • Paul M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company, a representative of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France, and brother to Max Warburg who was head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany and the Netherlands

Continue reading

Movie Review: The Aviator (2004)

Short version of Howard Hughes’ remarkable life and times

Written by John Logan
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Leonardo DiCaprio … Howard Hughes
Cate Blanchett … Katharine Hepburn
Kate Beckinsale … Ava Gardner
John C. Reilly … Noah Dietrich
Alec Baldwin … Juan Trippe
Alan Alda … Senator Ralph Owen Brewster
Ian Holm … Professor Fitz

This review stems from a “rewatch,” the first viewing occurring on New Year’s Eve.  It’s a fairly long movie and our group was there through the ending into the new year in a nearly empty theater.  But this is worthwhile moviemaking; the writers give us a true American hero who takes on the State and, at least for a while, wins.

Hughes was the son of a Texas oilman-inventor who set up a company and earned a fortune; the old man died when Howard was 18, leaving Howard as a multimillionaire engineering student.  The Aviator follows Howard from 1930, when he produced the movie Hell’s Angels, to 1947 when, at the age of 42, Howard flew the H4-Hercules aircraft he had designed and built (aka the Spruce Goose).

Following the death of his parents, Hughes moved to Hollywood and to become a movie producer.  He was instrumental in the launch of Jean Harlow’s career, and he took a special interest in other celebrity movie femmes in those days.  He produced and directed Hell’s Angels (Harlow) as well as The Front Page, Flying Leathernecks, and ScarfaceContinue reading

Guest Column: The War Party vs. Trump

The Witch Hunt for Donald Trump Surpasses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-93
By Paul Craig Roberts [Full original post here.]

Editor’s Note: Not following the Mainstream Noise any longer, I can only imagine what’s going on and the level of brainwashing/trance-inducement of the general public in play. It has totally amazed me how otherwise reasonable people have surrendered all independent judgment and common sense by buying the unadulterated nonsense—pure War Party propaganda—Big Media is trying to shove down our throats. Thus Dr. Roberts’ post is exquisitely timed, please spread to everyone you know who retains half a brain cell’s chance of thinking for himself. The real problem is the continuing baiting of and assaults against Russia and the rush toward war.

We should be scared to death that Sally Q. Yates served as a prosecutor in the Justice (sic) Department for 27 years. In the New York Times Sally takes high umbrage to Trump’s criticism of his attorney general, Sessions, and blows Trump’s disappointment with Sessions into an attack by Trump on the rule of law. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/28/opinion/sally-yates-protect-the-justice-department-from-president-trump.html

Sally has it backwards. The rule of law is being attacked by the appointment of a special prosecutor to find something on Trump in the absence of any evidence of a crime.

In 1940 US attorney general Robert Jackson warned federal prosecutors against “picking the man and then putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm—in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense—that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views or being personally obnoxious to, or in the way of, the prosecutor himself.” Continue reading

Brian’s Column: The (USS) Liberty Meme

Probably a major tool to hard stop the Men of the Power Sickness
By Brian R. Wright

Many of my readers know I have taken up another vital cause recently, at least to the extent of spreading the word for truth and encouraging justice for all parties: the USS Liberty incident of June 8, 1967… this being the 50-year anniversary of the blatant Israeli war crime that officials in Washington and their Israeli masters have hushed up. Let me first give you the context for further reading and viewing, then make the killer meme proposal and offer reasons why such a meme does promise to be killer:

Basically, I’ve done a lot of reading and writing, and discovery, so far, on the USS Liberty incident, and am in the process of becoming even more knowledgeable on the subject. Moreover, I have my own life’s mission and self-created universe in progress represented in my work and writings on the http://global-spring.org site. As individuals self-liberate by raising themselves as Independents—ref. my novel, The Truman Prophecy—it will be necessary to put an end to the Men of the Power Sickness (MOPS) once and for all. Continue reading

Book Review: Assault on the Liberty (1979)

The true story of the Israeli attack on an American intelligence ship
By James M. Ennes, Jr. (Fourth edition, Raintree, 2013)
Reviewed by Brian R. Wright

This is the second full book[1] I’ve read since coming into the fray of justice for the USS Liberty—justice (and recognition) for its victims and justice (and retribution) for its perpetrators—only recently. [I became aware in March or April of this year, 2017, that the 50th anniversary of the deliberate, unprovoked attack on the ship by the Israeli armed forces on June 8, 1967 was coming right up. I kicked myself for never adequately paying attention to the reality of this horrific war crime against American servicemen and resolved to catch up and pitch in to the cause.]

I’ve gotten to the point of having actually made a presentation to my local Oakland County, Michi-gan, Campaign for Liberty group. Video here courtesy John Irvine productions. [The online pdf of the presentation from which you may derive many useful links for further research is located here.] Further, from June 8-10, 2017, I attended the 50th anniversary event in Norfolk, Virginia, meeting several of the survivors and other supporters. I am working on a followup presentation to the C4L group, on that event, to which I shall provide links, when finished.

Assault is the first and, arguably, the most authoritative of the books on what happened that fateful day. The Liberty was an intelligence gathering ship, with a crew of 294 total, of which a major portion was devoted to secret or at least confidential intelligence work, mainly communications. Ennes was higher-level officer on the intelligence side, who had important line responsibilities for ship personnel and navigation. He was seriously injured during the initial strafing of the Liberty, and drew most of his information from extensive interviews with officers and crew, also from research with official agencies, libraries, and other public sources. Continue reading

Movie Review: The Confirmation (2016)

Humor and caring richly imbue this inspiring ultimate modern family movie 10/10
Review by Brian R. Wright

No fewer than four actors in this exceptional film deserve Oscar nominations, including, of course, Clive Owen (Walt), then the others: Jaeden Lieberher (playing Walt’s son Anthony), Patton Oswalt (Drake: the meth addict with a heart of gold who embarrassingly tries to help the father-son team), and Robert Forster (Otto: Walt’s friend and confidant thru Walt’s struggles with alcoholism). Then you can toss in Maria Bello (Walt’s ex, Bonnie who wants Anthony to find moral grounding in her Catholic faith—hence the title, referring to Anthony’s impending confirmation—and even Matthew Modine (Kyle: Bonnie’s kindhearted yet fluttery new husband) for Academy recognition as well.

As we’re doing nominations, let’s also not forget writer/director Bob Nelson, either. Nelson takes the father-son personal, mutual journey to new heights, and reminds us that simple humanity can be sublime, even divine. The movie is pure magic, everyone involved simply hits the artistic target dead, solid, perfect. Every viewing reveals a subtle new truth.

Confirmation

Of what? This is the central metaphor that leaps right off the screen. We know from the first scenes when Walt comes to pick up Anthony (via visitation arrangements of the divorce), that Bonnie is making a special move to have Anthony attend church and ‘get with the program’ so to speak, by the rite of confirmation (which is designed to initiate a child into spiritual adulthood in many Christian denominations).  Continue reading

Guest Column: The Israel Lobby

Time for a second edition
By Paul Craig Roberts [full original column here]

A decade ago in 2007 John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and codirector of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Academic Dean of the Kennedy School from 2002-2006, published The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. The publisher was the prestigious publishing house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The authors made a convincing case that Israel operating through its American lobbies, which are not registered as foreign agents, succeeds in using US foreign policy in Israel’s interests. The authors conclude that the use of US foreign policy in Israel’s interests is damaging to both America’s national interests and to Israel’s long-term security.

Many were pleased that two distinguished experts had breached a taboo issue. But the Israel Lobby was not among them. Instantly, the authors and the book were denounced as anti-semitic. The demonstration that Israel had influence was misrepresented as the claim that Israel controlled the US government. The authors were denounced for their “extremism” which some alleged could result in a new holocaust.

Other critics took a different approach and claimed that there was no difference between Israeli and US interests and that anything that served Israel also served America. Some evangelicals added: “and also serves God.” Continue reading