Russell Brand: The Spiritual Revolution

Russell Brand talks to Alex Jones about humanity’s spiritual revolution and the source of the elite’s power.

Russell Brand: Radical Prophet, Mystical Force of Nature

>by David DeGraw

Russell Brand, that controversial, formerly drug and sex-addicted, adolescent funny man, who was spawned from UK “reality” television, became a movie star with roles in mindless comedy blockbuster hits and was briefly married to a pop princess, has evolved into one of the world’s most important radicals.

In this modern age, where the spectacle of celebrity is used to distract, bamboozle and pacify the masses, where ignorance is placed on a pedestal and repetitiously rammed down our throat, raping our young minds, enslaving us in the all-consuming cult of consumerism and a never-ending narcissistic rat race to the bottom, Russell Brand has emerged as an enlightening force.

Behold, Russell Brand: comedian / trendsetter / thought-leader / revolutionary / spiritual guru. The more you pay attention to him, the more you realize that he is a madly brilliant critical thinker, a prophet of sorts, a spiritual sage, a shaman of radical positivity. Russell knows how to dance with fame, as he sprinkles subversive mind-opening truths like pixie dust.

He is currently on a whirlwind worldwide comedy tour, fittingly called Messiah Complex. His performance weaves through famed radical icons such as Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Gandhi and Jesus. Yes, Jesus the radical, the man who cared about the poor and chased the moneychangers from the temple. Russell makes you yearn for a modern day messiah who can chase Wall Street from our lives and deliver us to freedom. Alas, as Che said, only you can liberate yourself. There is much truth to Che’s words. However, as Brand makes clear, we are bred to follow false idols and live in a “cult of the hero.” Famed social psychologist Jacques Ellul summed it up:

“The cult of the hero is the absolutely necessary complement of the massification of society…. This exaltation of the hero proves that one lives in a mass society. The individual who is prevented by circumstances from becoming a real person, who can no longer express himself through personal thought or action, who finds his aspirations frustrated, projects onto the hero all he would wish to be. He lives vicariously and experiences the… exploits of the god with whom he lives in spiritual symbiosis.”

Knowing that we have this ingrained bias built into our cultural programming, it seems clear that the propaganda-addicted masses need icons, now more than ever, who can help expand their consciousness and inspire them to new ways of thinking and living. As Brand jokes about being the second-coming (in bed, not in the biblical sense), you can’t help but think to yourself; is Brand evolving into one of these very icons he pokes fun of? It may seem like a stretch, and it is extremely high praise to even playfully ponder such a question. That being said, I see Brand as a seriously liberating force with limitless potential as a counter-cultural radical iconoclast.

As he masks his message in an intense, quick-witted, relentless rapid-fire torrent of self-deprecating humor, it subversively slips through your habitual thoughts and hits home in a profound way. Amidst all the laughs, I decipher and sum up his message this way: we are all distracted, dumbed-down and mentally conditioned by mainstream media, while corrupt politicians have been paid off by a small group of shortsighted, greed-addicted billionaires and multinational corporations, who are consolidating wealth and resources on an unprecedented scale, and destroying our future in the process.

This may be commonsense to anyone paying attention to the true state of the world, but for the overwhelming majority, to the propagandized masses, he delivers this eye-opening message in bedazzling fashion, with humorous, disheveled sex appeal, which makes him irresistible to the people who need to hear this message the most. The talented trick of it all, he does it all in a very compassionate, fun-loving, and, most importantly, non-preachy style. As Oscar Wilde once said, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Brand lives by that quote, he even has it tattooed on his arm.

Above all, Brand’s spiritual vibe comes through, radiating love and empathy for humanity as a whole. That may make the cynical among us roll their tired eyes, but he pulls it off in a genuine way. Celebrity, sex, spirituality and humor are all highly infectious. These days, they are most often used to manipulate, deceive, divide and disempower us. Brand is now flipping that script, he is using them to empower, enlighten and unite us. His hilarious and controversial bad boy attics have slipped him into mainstream consciousness, and his ever-growing celeb status ensures he will stay there for a while to come. He’s a Trojan horse inside the gates of mainstream media. The soldiers are only just beginning to sneak out, freedom seems within reach.

How many celebrities do you know who can turn a glitzy GQ swank-fest gala into an easily understood rant on the corrupting influence of money in politics? The GQ controversy was just one of several recent bursts of radical enlightenment to come from Brand. (See him school MSNBC “news” anchors here and watch this compilation of clips here.)

Russell is the editor the latest copy of the New Statesman. His theme is Revolution of Consciousness; the magazine features the work of some of the world’s most radical thinkers. In a new must see BBC interview discussing the release of the magazine, Russell is in affable battle mode matching wits and mental jabs with veteran “newsman” Jeremy Paxman. (Watch the video to the right to see one of the most radical interviews you will ever see on mainstream television.)

He opens the magazine with a manifesto of sorts, featuring gems such as these:

“Like most people I regard politicians as frauds and liars and the current political system as nothing more than a bureaucratic means for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites….~

I don’t vote because to me it seems like a tacit act of compliance; I know, I know my grandparents fought in two world wars (and one World Cup) so that I’d have the right to vote. Well, they were conned. As far as I’m concerned there is nothing to vote for. I feel it is a far more potent political act to completely renounce the current paradigm than to participate in even the most trivial and tokenistic manner, by obediently X-ing a little box.~

Total revolution of consciousness and our entire social, political and economic system is what interests me, but that’s not on the ballot….

Apathy is a rational reaction to a system that no longer represents, hears or addresses the vast majority of people. A system that is apathetic, in fact, to the needs of the people it was designed to serve. To me a potent and triumphant leftist movement, aside from the glorious Occupy rumble, is a faint, idealistic whisper from sepia rebels….~

Along with the absolute, all-encompassing total corruption of our political agencies by big business, this apathy is the biggest obstacle to change…. We have succumbed to an ideology that is 100 per cent corrupt and must be overthrown. The maintenance of this system depends on our belief that “there’s nothing we can do”…~

We British seem to be a bit embarrassed about revolution, like the passion is uncouth or that some tea might get spilled on our cuffs in the uprising. That revolution is a bit French or worse still American. Well, the alternative is extinction so now might be a good time to re-evaluate. The apathy is in fact a transmission problem, when we are given the correct information in an engaging fashion, we will stir….~

The revolution of consciousness is a decision, decisions take a moment. In my mind the revolution has already begun.”

In my mind, Russell hits the nail on the head when he speaks of a revolution of consciousness in political and spiritual tones with an emphasis on propaganda. To create the revolution that we need to get us off of this disastrous path and out of this obsolete paradigm, people must become aware of the processes that condition our consciousness and contract our awareness. Even the most independent minded people vastly underestimate how propagandized we all are. Just because we have repetitiously been told that we are free, doesn’t mean that we are. We live in a mental prison that we have all been bred into.

As the old line goes, you must first see the walls before you can free yourself. In this regard, Russell is a gladiator of the mind, exposing walls that the propagandized masses have rarely seen. Perhaps his dedication to meditation and yoga has tapped him into a truly divine realm. Just get within his presence, frequency, wavelength and watch him flow ~ he radiates a contagious, shockingly uplifting energy ~ and you will feel your own frequency and vibration elevate you into another dimension.

Indeed, the revolution of consciousness has already begun. Enough with the reading, let’s see the mystical maestro work his magic…

~

Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny

by David Degraw

Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny

It’s Time For A Do-It-Ourselves Revolution

“All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances.
No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time,
in fact they are all artificial and temporary.”
– Strobe Talbott

How much longer are we going to protest and post online reports, rants, videos and launch campaigns that will hopefully raise awareness on issue after issue, problem after problem, as the situation gets worse? How much longer are we going to just keep crying about the need for change and pleading with puppet politicians in hopes that they will care about anything other than what their top campaign contributors think? At what point are we going to start acting like free and responsible citizens and stop acting like disgruntled servants waiting for our masters to save us and do the right thing?

C’mon people, let’s grow up and get real! The reformers have had their chance. For decades reformers have desperately clung to the fleeting belief that they can change the system from within. Well, after the latest government shutdown fiasco, the jury is now clearly in! We cannot allow the continued delusion and denial of reformers to prolong our suffering any longer. While reformers collect their paychecks, we are dying a slow painful death.

How many more crises will we endure before we truly act upon the fact that the government is working against our interests? How much more proof do we need? The current TWO-party oligarchy is a parasite sucking the life and wealth out of us. An organized criminal class has taken control of our government and rigged the game against us. It’s an undeniable truth. Even the propagandized masses realize this now. Poll after poll shows all-time record low approval ratings for this government. The main point of the Declaration of Independence is now more relevant than it was back in 1776; the government no longer has the consent of the governed.

As Thomas Jefferson wisely said many generations ago, “Every generation needs a new revolution.” The only reason why we haven’t evolved the government or solved any of the major problems we are confronted by is because this antiqued governmental system is now wholly corrupt! Our future has been sold to the highest bidder and is now held hostage by “special interests,” by a TWO-party oligarchy. People no longer trust the government or the corporate puppets that run it. The majority has lost faith in our political, economic and legal system.

We are toiling in a country where 50% of the population is either in poverty or “near poverty,” and 75% lives paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, US millionaires have $50 TRILLION in wealth. The rich have never been richer, while we have an all-time record number of people in poverty and prison. There is no need for us to be struggling in such hardship. There is more than enough wealth to fix our problems and evolve society for the benefit of all. For all the problems we face, there are effective solutions. Solutions that are being held back due to corruption. How much longer are we going to keep banging our heads against this same old wall? THIS INSANITY HAS TO STOP!!

Banana Republic “Elections”

The electoral process is now completely rigged. The Supreme Court has become supremely corrupt. They consistently side with corruption, removing every last restraint on the corrupting influence of money in politics. You now need millions of dollars to even be considered for Congress. On top of that, the mainstream media will only give airtime to status quo supporting, paid off politicians. Both corrupt parties control the televised debates, so you can’t even get into the debate without bowing to the oligarchy. To sum it up, without millions of dollars, the endorsement of either wing of the oligarchy or the blessing of the mainstream media, you can’t achieve meaningful power. That’s not even mentioning the difficulty of getting on ballots in the first place, or gerrymandering.

If you somehow make it past all those barriers of corruption, good luck dealing with the fact that electronic “voting” machines produce easily hacked, unverifiable results that are tallied in secrecy. These machines are owned by private companies that are in bed with leaders of both parties and the intelligence community. If you have plans to go against the entrenched power structure, these “voting” machines will have mysterious “glitches” that make votes automatically go to one of the two puppet parties. Do you seriously think privately held “voting” machine companies and the NSA are going to let elections be won by real change-makers?

Alas, it would take a miracle for a meaningful number of candidates to ever make a serious run in the first place. Both puppet parties and the mainstream media will launch a relentless propaganda attack. Even if they could overcome that, the NSA will have enough private information on them, even if they are angels in their personal life, to blackmail or concoct false smear campaigns that will be carried out by psychological operations experts through relentless 24/7 wall-to-wall media attacks. If a critical mass of candidates somehow someway do the impossible, pull of a miracle of unprecedented proportions and break through all those barriers of corruption, then, at that point, you can be sure that there will be an assassination list with those change-making candidates’ names at the top of it.

If you’re naïve enough to think that this is all overly cynical exaggerating, you are not paying attention. Look at the assassination plans that were created for protesters during the Occupy Movement. Before they were able to crush a peaceful protest with brutal police state force, they were ready to start gunning down protesters. Just imagine what they would do if any of those protesters became serious candidates for the highest offices in the land. Whether you want to believe it or not, this is the reality of our present situation. Our political process is controlled by a tyrannical totalitarian regime.

After analyzing all options, the only real, legitimate option we have is to organize a grassroots decentralized movement that forms new alternative, self-sufficient communities. At this time, setting up autonomous communities is a commonsense solution, and the most effective way to avoid the fallout from a corrupted collapsing system.

Opt Out of the Tyrannical Regime!

“All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency is great and unendurable. And oppression and robbery are organized, I say; let us not have such a machine any longer. I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.”
– Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

We occupied in protest. We raised the awareness level of the 99%. We have had a significant impact on mass consciousness. Now, it’s time to step it up! As Jim Morrison sang, “They’ve got the guns, but we got the numbers.” Let’s start acting like we still live in a free society. Let’s opt out of the tyrannical regime!

The overwhelming majority falsely believes that we can’t create change, which is why we are in this mess. The mainstream media has propagandized most people into feeling like we can’t do anything to fix the problems we are confronted by. BULLSHIT!! We live in the richest, most technologically advanced society humanity has ever known. We don’t need the plastic puppet politicians anymore. They’re obsolete!

It’s time for us to evolve society by starting our own autonomous local communities. Occupy inspired thousands of autonomous camps. What if we reestablished those camps as permanent Sustainable Autonomous Zones? There are already many intentional communities and collectives that are organically growing all over the place. Let’s learn from them. We’ve dedicated our energy to working on a plan to create a decentralized network of Sustainable Autonomous Zones so we can begin creating self-sufficient communities that can model new ways of living that make present ways of living obsolete. As Buckminster Fuller brilliantly said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

There is now a critical mass of citizens who are aware and capable enough to start these self-sufficient communities. Take it upon yourself to organize people in your community. Create independent social networks to communicate and organize, MEET IN PERSON, set up communities of support in your neighborhood. Bring a community of aware and capable citizens together in your own way and figure out systems that work best for you.

We Need a Do-It-Ourselves Revolution

Thriving communities can model new ways of living and we can create a support system that enables them to proliferate widely. If autonomous communities want to organize on a larger scale, there are now ways for them to easily do so. We are living in an interconnected technological society. People throughout the world have been experimenting with more efficient forms of governance. Liquid Democracy is an example of a dynamic and effective information age style of government that sane societies would embrace over what we have now.

Out of these communities, we can organically grow new systems of governance. We don’t have to fire a single shot or let the present situation descend further into violence. We just need to create a better system on a local level. As we prove the effectiveness of our new systems, the current system, which is already in a state of collapse, will crumble. If the corrupt establishment resorts to violence and attacks us again, it will only further galvanize the masses in support of us. A marginalized critical mass of people are suffering. Once we roll up our sleeves, lead by example and begin to provide solutions, they will be on our side.

It all comes down to a simple question: Are you a servant or are you a free individual? This is the most serious and profound question you need to answer, for your own sake, for the sake of your family and your future.

For all you free, aware and critically thinking people who realize that our current government is in a state of collapse and are ready for a Do-It-Ourselves revolution, we have just begun organizing on an independent social network called EvolveSociety.org. We would love for you to join and let us know what you are doing. Many of you are already doing inspiring and effective solution-based work. Let’s learn from each other and take it to the next logical level: decentralized autonomous local communities, which will form new effective ways of living, free from tyranny.

– See more at:

Shutdown Solution: Opt Out of Tyranny

Technology, consciousness, and how the universe is built

May 15 by Jon Rappoport

www.nomorefakenews.com

In the early 1990s, hypnotherapist Jack True was trying to show me how perception operated in hypnotized subjects.

As a joke, well it was a half-joke, he said the following: “If you’re doing a scientific experiment on gravity, and you start dropping various objects from the top of a building, you’re going to find out some interesting things about the way gravity operates in the universe.

“But if you don’t care about gravity and science, when you drop the objects from the roof, some will fall and others will float.”

What he meant was this: if you want to find out how to build things and run things and propel things and blow up things, you can look into the universe and eventually obtain that information.

The information will seem to be definitive about how the universe is built. It will seem to be the only model. It will seem to be the truth.

But that’s an illusion. Actually, competing models about the universe are available, and depending on your intent, you can discover and put together as many as you need.

They all work. They all look like mutually exclusive systems. But they aren’t.

The picture of tiny particles whirling through space and time is fine. It works. It enables the kind of technology we have now. It can be proved with mathematics. It can be verified until the cows come home. But it’s not the only choice.

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Jack once had a patient who, three years earlier, had suddenly developed nearsightedness.

So Jack put him in a light trance and worked on it. Nothing.

Finally, after a number of sessions, Jack told him that perhaps his view or picture of the universe was standing in his way. Perhaps he needed to come up with another picture. Jack liked to try these radical approaches.

In ensuing sessions, Jack had his patient invent dozens of different models of how the universe was constructed. None of them were based on physics.

The patient was getting interested. He suddenly recalled that, as a very young boy, he’d thought the world was a kind of vacuum surrounded by extremely dense space, which was actually solid. He’d had dreams about this “reverse configuration.”

For no apparent reason, the patient now felt much better. He felt freer. His eyesight improved, nearly to its former level.

I had a chance to talk to the patient. “The most astonishing thing,” he told me, “is knowing that if I hadn’t invented these other models [of the universe], it’s likely I wouldn’t have regained my eyesight.”

Jack told me his experience with this patient was part of the reason he stopped doing hypnosis. He said that having one and only one model of the way things are is, in fact, the result of being in a core trance. He realized everyone is, to one degree or another, already in a hypnotic state. Therefore, his job should be to wake people up.

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JACK TRUE, the most creative hypnotherapist on the face of the planet, is featured in THE MATRIX REVEALED. Jack’s anti-Matrix understanding of the mind and how to liberate it is unparalleled. His insights are unique, staggering. 43 interviews, 320 pages. That is just a faction of what THE MATRIX REVEALED has to offer.

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I once had a consulting client who owned a small business. It had been successful, but it was now in an extreme condition of disrepair. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong.

His books were a mess. His records were a mess. Employees were coming and going, and they were all failing at their jobs. Sales were down, and he was in debt.

He presented me with a list of everything he’d tried, to get things back on track. The list was formidable. This was a smart man. But nothing was working.

I told him he had no choice but to re-imagine the whole business from scratch. He had to find a completely different way to build it.

At first, he had no idea what I was talking about.

Then slowly, painfully, he began to write down all sorts of scenarios by which he could reconstruct his company.

Eventually, the mists cleared, and he began to feel better. He tore down everything and started over. He came up with a radically new way of doing business. And it worked.

It was an example of the One versus the Many. The One is the way a person chronically views reality. It’s the central perception which seems to be obvious, irrefutable, and permanent. The Many is the envisioning of multiple and different views of reality. It shakes up the status quo in the psyche and shifts into new territory.

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Whether the universe is made of particles or waves, was produced by the Big Bang or the translation of lines of code from a two-dimensional surface, or as a result of vibrating Strings, it can be said to be a projection, a demonstration.

It can be viewed as an absolute unity, just as a stage play strives for absolute credibility. But of course, the stage play is wise enough to end. And then the audience walks out. But the universe is a projection that wants to impart the illusion of permanence.

This illusion is brought about by a scheme of interconnectedness, in which each particle or thing appears to be related to every other thing, or, from a different point of view, reflects every other thing, in a series of mirrors.

This is the overarching meaning of the ancient symbol of the maze. You move through the paths and arrive back at the beginning. The journey is always self-contained.

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From the perspective I’m presenting here, the horse that finishes last in the race is named Truth, when truth is sought and found inside the continuum of this particular universe.

It’s not merely, as some physicists venture, that there are universes parallel to this one. There are universes everywhere. They are infinite in number. And then there is a “greater” infinity—those universes that have not yet been created.

Taking this as a starting point, and inventing multiple scenarios, multiple worlds, universes, and futures, one gains back power. Power beyond what one thinks, at any given moment, is possible.

Jon Rappoport

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29^th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

New Matt Damon Movie Reveals Mankind’s Trans-humanist Destiny

In 2009 upstart South African director Neill Blomkamp showed Hollywood a thing or two when his $30m sci-fi thriller District 9 took more than $200m at the box office with a compelling tale of aliens as victims as opposed to predators. Four years on he’s back with a bigger budget – $115m – plus A-list stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster for a another dystopian tale – this time the cosseted rich versus the vulnerable poor – set against a global canvas.

Elysium, a new movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, depicts what many futurists have long predicted is mankind’s ultimate destiny – the division of the human race into two new class systems – a transhumanist elite that centralizes technological progress to achieve utopia, and a massive underclass left to rot on a dying planet ruled by robotic drones.  It’s 2154 and earth is one big polluted ghetto, a sun-seared hell where big cities – specifically Los Angeles – have broken down into favelas housing the dispossessed and those lucky enough get back-breaking work in factories run by faceless corporations.

The trailer for the movie, set to be released on August 9 in the US, begins by depicting an army of robot drones in control of policing that shake down and beat citizens for trivial “violations”. The year is 2154. When Damon’s character expresses anger at his treatment, he is offered a pill to calm him by a robotic bureaucrat. Any form of dissent is treated as “abusive”.

“Humanity is divided between two worlds,” reads the caption, explaining that most of humanity is left to reside on an overpopulated, collapsing earth while the super elite have developed a gargantuan and luxurious off-planet space habitat called Elysium where war, poverty, hunger and disease are non-existent.

Damon’s character is forced to undergo cybernetic enhancements before he can lead a mission to Elysium in order to find a cure for a cancer virus he has contracted. The movie is also clearly designed to be a political jibe at anti-immigration activists.

However, many of the themes of Elysium are clearly lifted from the work of futurists like Ray Kurzweil, who in his book The Age of Spiritual Machines predicted the body scanner depicted in the trailer which eliminates cancer cells.

Kurzweil’s 1999 book, which successfully foresaw the invention of the iPhone, the iPad, Google Glass, iTunes, You Tube and on demand services like Netflix as well as the Kindle, predicts that by 2029 the vast majority of humans will have augmented their bodies with cybernetic implants and those who refuse or are unable to do so will form a “human underclass” that is not productively engaged in the economy.

The wider trend of the elite seeing humans as completely expendable as their roles are taken up by machines unfolds after 2029 when, “There is almost no human employment in production, agriculture, and transportation,” writes Kurzweil.

By 2099, the entire planet is run by artificially intelligent computer systems which are smarter than the entire human race combined – similar to the Skynet system fictionalized in the Terminator franchise.

Humans who resist the pressure to alter their bodies by becoming part-cyborg will be ostracized from society.

“Even among those human intelligences still using carbon-based neurons, there is ubiquitous use of neural implant technology, which provides enormous augmentation of human perceptual and cognitive abilities. Humans who do not utilize such implants are unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with those who do,” writes Kurzweil.

One of the most prescient voices of dissent against this future – despite his murderous actions – was Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who is widely quoted by futurists like Kurzweil and Bill Joy as sagely outlining the dangers posed to the general public by the elite’s drive for technological singularity, as depicted in the Elysium movie.

“Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite,” wrote Kaczynski in his manifesto.

Alice Braga portrays the standard love interest as a childhood friend turned honourable nurse but it is Damon who provides the rich focus, a quietely determined good guy who has never been able to accept the literal gap (about 20 minutes in a space shuttle) between rich and poor.

In a disappointing season of bloated blockbusters, Elysium stands tall, a first-rate sci-fi thriller given extra heft by a heartening moral core.

The Grahams Sell ‘The Washington Post,’ and Woodward Is Sad

The sale of ‘The Washington Post’ to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has stunned the paper’s old guard. The Graham family survived Nixon but not the Internet.

If Hell froze over, sheep fell from the sky, and snow blanketed Hawaii, it still wouldn’t be as astonishing as Monday’s announcement that the storied Graham family is selling The Washington Post to a billionaire online-retailing entrepreneur.

The main entrance to ‘The Washington Post’ is seen on August 5, 2013, in Washington, D.C., after it was announced that Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has agreed to purchase the company for $250 million. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty)

Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey Bezos, whose net worth has been estimated at $28 billion, has agreed to pay $250 million in cash to take possession of the 136-year-old newspaper and several related media properties within 60 days. Bezos’s acquisition is personal, not corporate, so The Post will once again be a private entity—something it hasn’t been since the Grahams took the company public in 1971. In one of the more jarring aspects of the deal, the newspaper’s longtime parent company will be required to change its name (though it will keep its downtown Washington headquarters and several other real-estate holdings).

“It’s very sad,” said Post associate editor Bob Woodward, who, along with his partner Carl Bernstein under the leadership of executive editor Ben Bradlee, led the Post to a Pulitzer Prize for their investigation of Richard Nixon’s crime-ridden White House. “But if there’s somebody who can succeed, it’s Bezos. He’s the innovator, he’s got the money and the patience, so we’ll see. I think in some ways, this may be thePost’s last chance to survive, at least in some form of what it was.”

Woodward’s bittersweet reaction was typical of Post veterans, who were at once grief-stricken at the prospect of losing the Grahams as owners and hopeful that Bezos will find a way to save their jobs.

‘There is unquestionably some element here of a highly successful guy buying a seat at the table.Citizen Kane 2.0,’ said Jim Friedlich.

“I spent my entire adult career working for the Graham family, and even though The Washington Post is corporate, it never felt much like one. I loved that sensibility,” said associate editor David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer of Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, and Barack Obama. “That will be gone now. Some of my friends are saying that in the long run, this is a great thing, because they’ll be much smarter about using the new media and help the paper. That might or might not be true. But my feeling right now is one of loss.”

Longtime feature writer and religion columnist Sally Quinn, wife of Ben Bradlee, was one of the few who said she isn’t surprised by the decision to unload The Post, which accounts for a small portion of revenue for a public company that is largely focused on educational products and services. “I know the board has been agitating,” she said. “I think Jeff Bezos is probably the best possible choice they could have made.” As for whether she’s feeling sad, “I’m an army brat. I didn’t live anywhere for more than a year and a half in my life,” Quinn said. “Change happens. Life moves on.”

Former executive editor Leonard Downie told The Daily Beast, “I’m obviously in shock and stunned,” adding jokingly that “it’s helping a lot being interviewed by people. At least I’m doing something. It’s therapy, I guess.” But Downie insisted, “I’m cautiously optimistic about this. I think this is a big sacrifice on Don’s part, because he loves the paper so much. But I think he believes he’s doing the best thing for it and for its future … I have no reason to doubt that.”

So ends 80 years of Graham-family control through the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy Era, the Pentagon Papers, and the Watergate scandal, the event that transformed journalism, toppled a presidency, and established The Washington Post as a national institution.

Monday afternoon’s revelation, which came hours after the Post Co. board ratified the sale, totally blindsided the financially battered news industry that is feverishly trying to crack the code on how to squeeze money from the Internet and other technological innovations, while still digesting The New York Times Co.’s $70 million sale of The Boston Globe and The Worcester Telegraph & Gazette last week to Red Sox owner John Henry for a tiny fraction of what the Times Co. paid for them decades ago.

Times Co. chairman and publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., who recently told The Daily Beast that a robust and competitive Washington Post is essential to the long-term health of his own family-controlled newspaper, was said to be “stunned” by the sale, which the Post Co. secretly initiated with the Allen & Co. investment bank to find qualified bidders.

The negotiations for the Post were closely held, and the deal “seriously progressed,” according to a knowledgeable source, when Washington Post Co. chairman and CEO Donald Graham sat down with Bezos during last month’s Allen & Co. annual media-and-technology conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“Every member of my family started out with the same emotion—shock—in even thinking about” selling the paper, Graham told the Post’s Paul Farhi in an interview. “But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings.” Graham, who has been friendly with Bezos for the past decade, added: “The Postcould have survived under the company’s ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future. But we wanted to do more than survive. I’m not saying this guarantees success, but it gives us a much greater chance of success.”

Prominent digital-media adviser Jim Friedlich agreed with that assessment. “Bezos brings a combination of digital-commerce savvy and deep pockets,” said Friedlich, who is president of Empirical Media (which has advised The Daily Beast). “His history at Amazon was to sustain extended losses to buy commanding market share. He is demonstrably someone willing to invest for the long term. This is precisely what great newspapers in transition require in order to come out the other side as thriving digital brands.”

Friedlich added that Bezos, who recently invested $5 million in the Business Insider Web site, is well positioned at the Post to take advantage of the promising trend of readers being willing to pay for quality digital content at outlets such as the Timesand The Wall Street Journal. Bezos also might be thinking of adding other properties to his portfolio “in both digital and legacy media. He has both the money and the vision to think big.”

A possible downside, Friedlich said, is that “there is unquestionably some element here of a highly successful guy buying a seat at the table. Chris Hughes at The New Republic, John Henry in Boston, Jeff Bezos in Washington. Citizen Kane 2.0.”

Mort Zuckerman, a billionaire real-estate developer who for the past two decades has had a seat at the table as owner of The New York Daily News, also was hopeful that Bezos will work to keep The Washington Post ahead of the digital curve. “I can’t imagine that he got involved without having a lot of positive ambitions for the paper,” Zuckerman said (although Bezos, notably, has not really said what drove him to enter the newspaper business). “He’s really a very talented man.”

Executive editor Marty Baron, who joined the Post seven months ago from theGlobe, has known about the impending sale since last week and proved that he can keep a secret. He’s also bullish on Bezos, who, after all, will soon be his boss. “If we’re getting a new owner, we couldn’t ask for a better one,” he said, adding that he’s hoping soon to actually meet Bezos, who was not on hand for Monday’s announcement. “He certainly understands how technology is changing, how consumer preferences are changing. He is a damn savvy business person, and he can contribute a lot to the Post as it navigates a very different media landscape.”

The 68-year-old Graham—son of legendary publisher Katharine Graham and grandson of Wall Street financier Eugene Meyer, who bought the paper in 1933 for $825,000 at a bankruptcy auction—choked up as he announced the sale to dumbfounded employees in the converted pressroom that serves as the company auditorium.

Graham’s momentary loss of composure came as he was finishing up reading from a prepared statement about the transaction, unusual for a man accustomed to speaking off the cuff. Graham was a D.C. cop and combat soldier in Vietnam before he worked his way up in the newsroom, and is adored by many of his employees; his sentiment was reciprocated by the tearful overflow crowd gathered at the Post Co.’s downtown Washington headquarters.

“The whole place was very emotional,” a witness told The Daily Beast, noting that Graham’s brief talk was followed by his niece, Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, sharing an encouraging letter from the 49-year-old Bezos to his future employees, in which the mogul pledged to maintain the paper’s “values,” stick to his day job in Seattle, and leave the day-to-day running of the Post to the “excellent leadership team that knows more about the news business than I do”—including Weymouth, Baron, and editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt.

“The other extraordinary thing that happened,” the witness recounted, “is that after Katharine and Don answered some questions, Don said, ‘It’s time to get back to work. We gotta put out a paper.’ There was a pause, and then long, sustained applause, which was, for Don, a very emotional moment.”

Chip Brown, a former Post reporter who interviewed Graham in 1999 for a study of how various legacy newspapers were preparing for the digital age, recalled that the Post Co. chairman was both knowledgeable and excited concerning the advent of online journalism.

“He was really on top of this thing early,” Brown said, “and he still didn’t understand what hit him, I guess. It’s like a batter not being able to get away from this fastball coming right at his head … Nobody cared about the paper more than Don Graham. It must kill him to have to let it go.”

Brown added: “The Grahams were incredibly proud of their family ownership. They fought to maintain family ownership. At the height Watergate, when it went public, and they were possibly losing control, the Nixon administration came after them. They survived the Nixon administration, but they didn’t survive the Internet.”

Forensic findings: ‘A 100 percent forgery, no doubt about it’

There is a problem with President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate: It’s a forgery, say multiple forensic experts who have examined it. A report detailing the evidence will soon be presented to Congress.

On April 27, 2011 the White House released Mr. Obama’s long-form birth certificate in an attempt to quell a public firestorm over the validity of the shorter version he provided prior to his 2008 election. A group of concerned citizens in Arizona suspected the Certificate of Live Birth produced in 2011 by the administration was fabricated; they asked Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County to investigate.

Lead Investigator Lt. Mike Zullo.

“We have obtained an affidavit from a certified document analyzer, Reed Hayes, that states the document is a 100 percent forgery, no doubt about it,” said Cold Case Posse Lead Investigator Lt. Mike Zullo in an exclusive interview with WorldTribune.

This is a key development, asserts Lt. Zullo, because Mr. Hayes is a certified handwriting analyst and forensic document examiner who worked repeatedly for Perkins Coie, a reputable law firm, and was deemed a dependable professional in their legal cases. Moreover, Perkins Coie has defended Mr. Obama in his legal jousts on the birth certificate matter over the past five years.

“Mr. Obama’s operatives cannot discredit him,” said Lt. Zullo. “Mr. Hayes has been used as the firm’s reliable expert. The very firm the president is using to defend him on the birth certificate case has used Mr. Hayes in their cases.” In addition, Mr. Hayes is a Democrat whose business is based in Hawaii. He cannot easily be accused of having a political axe to grind in this matter, explains Lt. Zullo.

Mr. Hayes initially agreed to simply take a cursory look at the document. Yet, within one hour, he called Lt. Zullo. “There is something wrong with this,” said Mr. Hayes.

A few weeks later, the expert, who has over 20 years of experience and has authored five books on his craft, presented a detailed 40-page report with a stark assessment: “…based on my observations and findings, it is clear that the Certificate of Live Birth I examined is not a scan of an original paper birth certificate, but a digitally manufactured document created by utilizing material from various sources,” writes Mr. Hayes. “In over 20 years of examining documentation of various types, I have never seen a document that is so seriously questionable in so many respects. In my opinion, the birth certificate is entirely fabricated,” states Mr. Hayes.

The report by Mr. Hayes is now an affidavit that belongs to the Cold Case Posse and cannot be retracted, regardless of any political or social pressure he encounters, explains Lt. Zullo.

“There has been a very effective media campaign to discredit anyone who tries to work with us,” said Lt. Zullo. “It is impossible to discuss this issue without being lambasted.”

Those who defend Mr. Obama say inquiries into the president’s birth certificate are based on conspiracy theories; these are “birthers,” they insist, who simply refuse to accept the credible evidence presented by Mr. Obama.

As a precaution against others misusing or manipulating Mr. Hayes’s report, Lt. Zullo has copyrighted it.

Mr. Hayes’s report has provided yet another certification — among a resounding 1,200 computer software tests undertaken by Lt. Zullo’s team — that demonstrates, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the long-form birth certificate has been fabricated. Lt. Zullo appointed two reputable computer science professionals, working independently of one another, to examine the long-form birth certificate. Both experts confirmed the document is inauthentic.

“Somebody made this,” said Lt. Zullo, referring to the long-form birth certificate as a nine-layer, computer-generated PDF document. “Someone spent days doing this.”

“The recreation of an official document is a crime,” said Lt. Zullo. “Either there is no original birth certificate or there is something in the original that is being concealed.”

The Maricopa County Cold Case Posse consists of an all-volunteer unit of accomplished individuals with experience in criminal investigations and legal professionals working under the law enforcement authority and direction of Sheriff Arpaio.

Sheriff Arpaio asked Lt. Zullo in August, 2011 to quickly quell the concerns of about 250 citizens who asked for an investigation. Yet, to his dismay, Lt. Zullo was unable to do so, having concluded within five days of his work that the document was compromised. He has since traveled to eleven states in eleven months, relying on public donations, on a grueling campaign to gather information about the certificate.

He filed an affidavit on May 14, 2013 to the Supreme Court of Alabama chronicles much of the evidence he has compiled thus far. In particular, he depicts a two-day meeting of investigators, attorneys, and information technology professionals, including Mara Zebest, a nationally recognized computer expert.

“All in attendance agreed unanimously that the White House computer image .pdf file contained anomalies that were unexplainable unless the document had been fabricated piecemeal by human intervention, rather than being copied from a genuine paper document,” states the affidavit.

The Cold Case Posse has determined that the certificate of live birth the White House presented is not a photocopy of an original document but one that “was pieced together electronically from multiple sources,” according to the affidavit. The registrar’s signature stamp and date stamp are from different layers of the document and are imports from other sources.

“The fact that the stamps can be picked up and moved about the document leaving a white background…is evidence enough of tampering,” states the affidavit.

During our interview, Lt. Zullo narrated his encounter in Hawaii on May 21, 2012 with Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine, who after repeated questions, failed to confirm the document released by the president is the same as any that might exist in their records.

“If you make a copy of your driver’s license and alter it, is it still a copy?” asked Lt. Zullo. She did not directly answer the question, and instead replied: “But you still have a driver’s license.” She agreed to confirm only specific items on a list, not that the document the White House produced is identical to any in the Hawaii archives. This incident “sent all the alarm bells ringing,” said Lt. Zullo.

“If an official document is altered in any way, it must be stated that it is an amended version,” said Lt. Zullo. “Failure to do so is a crime.”

The Cold Case Posse continues to gather evidence. The current report, consisting of 300 pages and likely to balloon to 400, will soon be delivered to Congress.

“We can’t send it to the Department of Justice for obvious reasons,” said Lt. Zullo, referring to the lack of credibility of current Attorney General Eric Holder who has been embroiled in multiple scandals, and is accused by leading Republicans of lying to the American people.

“I am working on this 24/7,” said Lt. Zullo. He has endured long hours on the case, under intense pressure from Obama administration operatives and supporters who seek to discredit Lt. Zullo and anyone who cooperates with the investigation.

When I asked why he persists, he replied, in the terms of a devoted officer of the law:
“I know it’s a felony.”

“The entire United States has been defrauded by a document that is usually automatically issued to every person in America. This is a blatant manipulation. If President Obama can’t be honest about his birth certificate, he can’t be honest about anything,” Lt. Zullo said.

“The original ‘birther’ is President Barack Obama himself,” said former Deputy Sheriff of Florida County and current talk-show host Carl Gallups in an interview with WorldTribune.

“It was Barack Obama who said for 16 years, along with his publisher that he was ‘Kenyan born,’” said Mr. Gallups, referring to the promotional materials for Mr. Obama’s book by his literary agency Dystel & Goderich prior to his presidential election that referred to him as having been “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia.” Mr. Obama’s bio was changed on the agency’s website in April, 2007, stating he was born in Hawaii. When Breitbart News broke this story, Miriam Goderich issued a press release stating that “a fact-checking error” occurred while she worked as an agency assistant. In other words, for sixteen years, the “error” had gone undetected.

Mr. Gallups, host of Freedom Friday, a pastor for 30 years, author of the Amazon best seller The Magic Man in the Sky, is now the premier media reporter covering the investigation. He has been given a unique position of trust and confidentiality in the case due to his extensive law enforcement background. Mr. Gallups also accompanied Lt. Zullo to CPAC and Capitol Hill earlier this year in order to present the evidence to politicians.

“Barack Obama has not been vetted,” said Mr. Gallups. “It is the responsibility of Congress to determine the eligibility of any candidate to hold office. The Senate examined whether Senator John McCain was qualified to run for president and concluded that he was. Yet, no one has done the same for Mr. Obama.”

Mr. Gallups explained that he, like most Americans who first hear about this, assume someone, somewhere has determined that a candidate running for office, especially the highest office in the land, has documents that have been thoroughly examined. “Yet, the procedure to run for office is for a political party to endorse a candidate,” said Mr. Gallups. “The Democratic National Committee determined that Mr. Obama was eligible. Once a party endorses a candidate, the individual states are not required to do any examination. The only other agency required to do the vetting is the Electoral College. But in this case, they did not do so either.”

“Everyone feared a public backlash of some kind,” explains Mr. Gallups of attempts to thoroughly vet Mr. Obama prior to 2008. Yet, based on his expert analysis as a former law enforcement officer, the long-form birth certificate document is indeed a fabrication.

“From the beginning, I have always said, as a law enforcement officer and patriot, if I can be proven wrong, I will back down, will declare my mistake and apologize.” He has issued numerous public challenges for anyone with credible evidence to come forward.

“This is not fun; it is not easy,” he said. “I have been marginalized and insulted simply for stating the truth of the matter. As a patriot, ex-cop, father and grandfather, I know what I know. Please prove me wrong. I will back away.”

Mr. Gallups echoes the sentiment of many who have looked at the evidence: initial dismissal, then shock, disbelief, an assumption that it is all a mistake that will quickly be debunked and then the horror of concluding that the certificate Mr. Obama has presented is fake.

What many in the media fail to grasp is that so-called “birthers” would rather be wrong than right. It is more upsetting for many of them to believe that this kind of crime can be committed than that it was not.

The difference between a conspiracy theory and a crime is that a conspiracy theory cannot stand against the test of forensic evidence. Those who dismiss this investigation as merely “kooky” must answer these questions: Are leading experts in their field who have provided their professional assessment to a criminal investigation merely to be ignored?

Why would these experts risk their reputation and also commit perjury? It is therefore kookier to disregard these assessments summarily than to view them with an unbiased eye.

The evidence currently being accumulated by the Cold Case Posse requires consideration. It is time for Congress to do its constitutional duty and examine all this hard evidence in the clear light of day.