Art Bell Was The Best + The CIA Denied My Appeal + Trump Is Toast

Wow. Whenever Friday The 13th rolls around, I usually repeat my standard remark that "it's always a good day for me". Not this time. Just to put you at ease, nothing terrible happened in my life. It's just that the news hasn't been the greatest.

Holy smokes - less than five minutes ago I got the news that Art Bell has died. That came totally out of left field on an already weird day. Art Bell has been a presence in my life since 1995, when I first heard his radio show "Coast To Coast AM". I was living at the Burton Street house at the time, just a half mile up the street from where I am now. 1995 was a wild and crazy year, and I shared the experience with my housemates : the late, great Mr. D, and Ryan (aka The Prime Minister) and later in the year my Dad. We were a Motley Crew for sure, but one thing we liked to do was paint, and one night during the Summer of '95, I went out to the back patio to watch Mr. D work on his latest creation. He had a radio sitting near his easel, and as I watched him paint, I heard this Voice coming out of the speaker.

"Yesss.........and so, did you then imagine that you might have stumbled upon something of".........

"My, my, my"........

That was the first time I ever heard Art's voice, and the first time I heard his show. I could devote a whole blog to Art, and today I need to write one of those All Day Long Blogs that I used to write at the Oviatt at CSUN, before I had my job with Pearl. In those days, ten years ago, I would write umpteen pages worth, every single day. This is one of those days, but unfortunately I don't have as much time as I used to.

For now I will say that Art Bell was a big influence on my life. Actually, I should just use the single word "influence", because I don't know right now the extent of Art's influence on me. It might have been more than "big". It might have been huge. Or it might have been less than that. I don't know right now because I am shocked and sad. His death came on an already crazy day.

We used to listen to Art when he would talk about the Bob Lazar story, which you can Google if you wish. Bob Lazar was the guy who made Area 51 a semi-household name. Art Bell was so far ahead of the alternative radio/conspiracy theory/alien disclosure game, that it took all the wannabe paranoid types like Alex Jones twenty years to attempt to catch up. But neither Jones nor anyone else had the intelligence and curiosity of Art Bell.

Man, those were the days. The mid-90s, when I was right smack in the middle of my own period of discovery, of something that had happened in my life. My memories of 1989 came back during that time period, so I was blowing my mind to begin with, and then I would listen to Art Bell every night while I painted. 1995 & '96 were the years of painting at Burton Street.

Art Bell was in his heyday then, and he was our late night soundtrack.

Art was the guy who came into my life at the exact time I remembered what had happened to me. Listening to him gave me hope that even the weirdest things had a chance of being heard, on national radio no less, and that somebody out there cared about The Truth. Through Art I discovered Whitley Streiber, and Richard Hoagland. I later wrote to Whitley Streiber about What Happened In Northridge, and he called me on the phone at my Mom's place in 1998. Later that year I began writing about What Happened, and here we are today, twenty years later. 

Thanks, Art, for caring about the truth and for your boldness. You were original, unforgettable and irreplaceable.

He just posted on FB about three days ago........man, oh man. Life is too weird, I tell ya.///

Well, before I heard the news about Art Bell, the main subject of the blog was going to be the letter I received today from the CIA. Yep - finally, after five months (and on Friday the 13th) I got a determination on my Freedom Of Information Act and Privacy Act appeal. My original FOIA/PA inquiry was denied last October as you know, and I sent the Agency my six page appeal in November.

Just the other day I wondered aloud, right here at the blog, what was taking them so long to send an answer. Maybe they heard me, I dunno, but as I took the letter from my mailbox I was dismayed to see that the envelope was thin. It felt like there was only a single page inside, a cursory denial of my appeal.

I had expected as much, to be honest, but I had hoped that the Agency would at least give me something to work with; some clue in the ultra-legal wording of the denial. All I had hoped for was just a morsel, even just a molecule of a hint.

But they just flat out denied my appeal, after five months of waiting, using the same Glomar Response ("we can neither confirm nor deny") that they used in their negative response to my original inquiry. If I had more time tonight, I'd get into a longer description of the Glomar Response, but as always you can Google it if interested.

I have always been shocked at the lack of interest from people who were directly involved in 1989, in knowing what had happened to them. But then I thought, later on, "they probably already know".

It is just me who doesn't know, and nobody will tell me. Not the CIA, and not the people who I have considered to be my friends.

But anyway - hey! This country called The United States Of America, which - when I was a child was believed in as the Best Hope For Civilisation, a truly Monolithic Force for the Progression of Humanity, has now descended to the depth where we have an Organised Crime Figure as our President, and not only that, but an Organised Crime Figure who doesn't even have the stature of the crime bosses of the Mafia. This is a guy who is being blackmailed by the criminals in Russia who have a videotape of him getting peed on by hookers in that country.

And if you think that isn't true, you should hear James Comey's thoughts on the matter.

He just so happens to have been the Director Of The FBI, who Trump fired.

Have you heard what Comey has said about the Pee Tape?

I am sorry to write about such crudeness, because as you know it is not my usual subject matter.

But today Art Bell died, and the CIA denied me my right to know what happened to me in 1989, an event that involved both Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown, for real, and in which I was the central victim.

I have been telling the same story since 1998, when I first wrote about it on paper, and when I first wrote about it on the Internet.

I've been telling the same story, and I've been writing occasional letters to different agencies. Once, I wrote a very long letter directly to Robert Mueller, when he was the director of the FBI.

Yep, and I mailed it in a 9 X 12 envelope, addressed in black Sharpie to "Robert Mueller, FBI Director" with the rest of the address following. That was in about 2014, before Robert Mueller was famous.

All I have ever wanted was to know what happened to me, and why.

That's all. But I have never been given an answer, nor even an acknowledgement.

Now we have a Straight Up Major Criminal as our President, a guy who doesn't just deserve to be impeached but who should spend the rest of his life in prison.

This is what has happened to America in the time since 1989, or perhaps 1963 when JFK was assassinated.

I am grateful for men like James Comey and Robert Mueller, because they seem to care about the United States Of America. And I would like to admire the CIA, but they seem to hide behind their secrets.

And it is secrets that are taking this country down, and now we have Donald Trump as our President.

Please think about all of this for a moment, and ask yourself if telling the truth is important.

Thanks.