Fantastic essay, Domenic. The official response to 9/11 was the point where I realized that the Republican Party was simply the right wing of a Uniparty vulture. That was a painful truth but it was necessary to endure in order to leave the safety of approved opinion and start thinking more independently. Sounds like you had a similar journey.
I kept looking for deeper, sharper thinking and sturdy principles about human dignity . . . the pop-culture political climate kept going in the other direction.
Having an open mind reminds me of Socrates, who said, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, that is that I know nothing.” Socrates knew that the human mind could error and had only limited ability. He welcomed dialog and had an open mind to improve his knowledge. We know how his life ended. Socrates was the ancient good neighbor and bad citizen.
My own journey from “gradually” began on July 21, 1993 and reached the “suddently” point on October 10, 1997. I knew even then, that Brett Kavanaugh would rise to become a Supreme Court Justice. Trump eventually placed Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court in 2018. The story of my own journey is at my website FBIcover-up.com
By the time 9/11 arrived, I already knew that the official version reported by the news media was not true.
With my mind open I would see things that most people did not notice. Since you once worked for a Gannett newspaper, you may find an example from USA Today interesting. On July 20, 2004, USA Today reported that cell phones were successfully tested on passenger airplanes.
This was a contradiction because three years earlier on 9/11 the public was told that cell phone calls were made from the hijacked airliners. It is a principle of rational reasoning that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time. How could cell phone calls be made from airplanes on 9/11 when the technology did not exist?
On 9/11, I already knew that those cell phone calls never happened. One cell phone call was reported to have been made by a passenger locked in a restroom. Others must have known that this was not true, but our press and officials would stick to the official lies, just as they do today.
I flew on an airplane after 9/11 and noticed that the signal to make a call disappeared soon after takeoff, at about 500 feet. At that time calls would be dropped on an Amtrak train between Washington and New York, as the train passed between towns. Calls could not be made in the mountains of western Maryland where there were no cell towers. There were no cell towers in the sky, so no calls were made from planes in 2001.
The new technology in 2004 beamed cell calls from the plane to a satellite and then back down to the cell tower network on the ground. This technology did not exist in 2001.
I didn’t know your background as a researcher in the Vince Foster. Thanks for linking your website and the USA Today article. Yes, USA Today was Gannett’s prized news property during my newspaper days. Gannett affiliates had started taking more and more content directly from USA Today during the 2000s.
You got there earlier than I did — I was still a hopeful college quasi-Republican in the 1993-97 period — but I made it there eventually!
Listening to the interview you embedded on your site now (the one with William Ramsey).
If you listened to my interview with William Ramsey you will know how I met David Martin. Later, David Martin and I co-authored two books on the secret assassination of the Catholic monk Thomas Merton. (see http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com )
I will have to carve out some time for Thomas Merton. I saw, but wasn't able to listen right away, a thumbnail for an interview you did on Merton.
And I didn't mention it in my previous reply, but I like your description of Socrates as a pre-Christ example of a good neighbor and bad citizen. Agreed!
I wasn't really patriotic so much as naive, as most kids were back in the day. I ended up bored with college and half my scholarships were only good for two years, they were running out and I didn't want to take on any debt, so I dropped out and joined the Army. They had just started the expanded GI bill and it was big bucks if you joined the infantry.
I ended up in S2, battalion level intel, (scouts), then we invaded Panama and that was my "Suddenly".
I wasn't exactly shocked to see all the lies being told by the government or the press about the invasion, by then I'd had a security clearance for a while and wasn't nearly as naive. And while I wasn't shocked, I was severely pissed and downright sickened. I did my best to warn people against the Bush and Cheney criminal cabal, but to no avail.
I was against the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq but I had a ten year head start on you. I have a feeling that if you had taken part in the Panama war, that you wouldn't have fallen for the Afghan war either.
I was skeptical of the press even longer, my father had two runs in's with them, one in the 70's and again in the early 80's, so I knew they would lie.
You being critical of your industry (the military) is like me being critical of my industry (mainstream media). Not lying to yourself about your own situation is generally a good thing.
Fantastic essay, Domenic. The official response to 9/11 was the point where I realized that the Republican Party was simply the right wing of a Uniparty vulture. That was a painful truth but it was necessary to endure in order to leave the safety of approved opinion and start thinking more independently. Sounds like you had a similar journey.
We each got here, in our own way :-)
I kept looking for deeper, sharper thinking and sturdy principles about human dignity . . . the pop-culture political climate kept going in the other direction.
Domenic-
Thank you for sharing how your mind was changed.
Having an open mind reminds me of Socrates, who said, “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, that is that I know nothing.” Socrates knew that the human mind could error and had only limited ability. He welcomed dialog and had an open mind to improve his knowledge. We know how his life ended. Socrates was the ancient good neighbor and bad citizen.
My own journey from “gradually” began on July 21, 1993 and reached the “suddently” point on October 10, 1997. I knew even then, that Brett Kavanaugh would rise to become a Supreme Court Justice. Trump eventually placed Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court in 2018. The story of my own journey is at my website FBIcover-up.com
By the time 9/11 arrived, I already knew that the official version reported by the news media was not true.
With my mind open I would see things that most people did not notice. Since you once worked for a Gannett newspaper, you may find an example from USA Today interesting. On July 20, 2004, USA Today reported that cell phones were successfully tested on passenger airplanes.
This was a contradiction because three years earlier on 9/11 the public was told that cell phone calls were made from the hijacked airliners. It is a principle of rational reasoning that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time. How could cell phone calls be made from airplanes on 9/11 when the technology did not exist?
On 9/11, I already knew that those cell phone calls never happened. One cell phone call was reported to have been made by a passenger locked in a restroom. Others must have known that this was not true, but our press and officials would stick to the official lies, just as they do today.
I flew on an airplane after 9/11 and noticed that the signal to make a call disappeared soon after takeoff, at about 500 feet. At that time calls would be dropped on an Amtrak train between Washington and New York, as the train passed between towns. Calls could not be made in the mountains of western Maryland where there were no cell towers. There were no cell towers in the sky, so no calls were made from planes in 2001.
The new technology in 2004 beamed cell calls from the plane to a satellite and then back down to the cell tower network on the ground. This technology did not exist in 2001.
See the USA Today article here.
https://x.com/HTurley6/status/1833876784330272819
I didn’t know your background as a researcher in the Vince Foster. Thanks for linking your website and the USA Today article. Yes, USA Today was Gannett’s prized news property during my newspaper days. Gannett affiliates had started taking more and more content directly from USA Today during the 2000s.
You got there earlier than I did — I was still a hopeful college quasi-Republican in the 1993-97 period — but I made it there eventually!
Listening to the interview you embedded on your site now (the one with William Ramsey).
If you listened to my interview with William Ramsey you will know how I met David Martin. Later, David Martin and I co-authored two books on the secret assassination of the Catholic monk Thomas Merton. (see http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com )
David Martin has his own website, https://www.dcdave.com
His website can test your tolerance for truth. There is a search box on his home page. Insert any subject and he may have written about it
I will have to carve out some time for Thomas Merton. I saw, but wasn't able to listen right away, a thumbnail for an interview you did on Merton.
And I didn't mention it in my previous reply, but I like your description of Socrates as a pre-Christ example of a good neighbor and bad citizen. Agreed!
And I've learned you're a magician! The things you find in interviews 🤯 😎
I wasn't really patriotic so much as naive, as most kids were back in the day. I ended up bored with college and half my scholarships were only good for two years, they were running out and I didn't want to take on any debt, so I dropped out and joined the Army. They had just started the expanded GI bill and it was big bucks if you joined the infantry.
I ended up in S2, battalion level intel, (scouts), then we invaded Panama and that was my "Suddenly".
I wasn't exactly shocked to see all the lies being told by the government or the press about the invasion, by then I'd had a security clearance for a while and wasn't nearly as naive. And while I wasn't shocked, I was severely pissed and downright sickened. I did my best to warn people against the Bush and Cheney criminal cabal, but to no avail.
I was against the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq but I had a ten year head start on you. I have a feeling that if you had taken part in the Panama war, that you wouldn't have fallen for the Afghan war either.
I was skeptical of the press even longer, my father had two runs in's with them, one in the 70's and again in the early 80's, so I knew they would lie.
You being critical of your industry (the military) is like me being critical of my industry (mainstream media). Not lying to yourself about your own situation is generally a good thing.
Glad you made it :-)