Posted on 06/25/2012 10:25:42 AM PDT by who knows what evil?
A little confluence of events this week has brought to the fore of my mind the sad, sick reality that most people in this culture are so far gone that they WANT to be lied to, and will seek out and attach themselves to liars. While it is nauseating to behold, it is also interesting in a clinical sort of way.
First, I helped some guys out in outing a con artist blogger earlier this week. What was fascinating was watching people cling to their "friend" even while being beaten over the head with objective evidence over and over and over again. Seeing it on a micro level was jarring, but then I realized that it was exactly the same Stockholm Syndrome variant that keeps people loyal to these scumbag politicians and cult leaders. People get themselves into such "herd" and "team" mentalities (which is just a fraction of an inch away from being a "gang" mentality) that they will do absolutely anything for the psychopath that they are attached to. Think Hitler. Think Jim Jones. Think Obama.
Which segues into my speaking engagement Thursday for a Tea Party group here in Colorado. As I was setting up my PowerPoint and clicker, one of the Tea Party fellows came up to me and told me that I shouldn't talk about islam to this group, and that I should refrain from any "extreme facial expressions." I poop you negative.
Well, as you can imagine, that was like dangling a steak in front of an already irate and half-starved Rottweiler. My interior response?
"RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!!"
It is certainly satisfying to witness to the truth to people who want to hear it. But you know what is even better? Witnessing to the truth to people who DON'T want to hear it - to people who WANT to be lied to.
By the end of my talk two-thirds of the people had gotten up and left. A third didn't want to hear the truth about islam - for fear of being called "racist" - and the other third didn't want to hear the truth about Romney and the Republican Party in general. You all have probably seen my takedown of islam - it is on my YouTube channel, link to your left - but you may be wondering what I said to infuriate the rah-rah Tea Partiers about Romney and the GOP.
I call this the "So, You Want To Be President of the United States, Huh?" lecture. It goes a little something like this:
1. Europe alone is sitting on $70 trillion in unrepayable bank and sovereign debt. That $70 trillion in unrepayable, bad debt is ITSELF the collateral on at least $700 trillion in derivatives. And that is JUST EUROPE. For perspective, the GDP of the United States is $15 trillion, and the GDP of the entire planet is $63 trillion.
What's the plan, Mitt Romney? What's the plan Sarah? What's the plan, Rick Perry? What's the plan Rick Santorum? What's the plan Ron Paul? What's the plan Michelle Bachmann? What's the plan Paul Ryan? Unless you have a detailed plan to deal with that objective reality, which can not end in anything less than a truly royal clusterbungle, you need to sit down and shut your mouth, because you're not even remotely serious. And if you DARE run for POTUS or VPOTUS and DARE raise money for your campaign and refuse to acknowledge this objective fact, much less provide a detailed plan for dealing with it, you are nothing less than a sociopathic, money-grubbing, power-hungry, carney hack grifter.
2. The U.S. Dollar is soon going to cease to be the global reserve currency, replaced by a new Sino-Russian backed and controlled currency.
What's the plan?
3. The U.S. economy is a massive debt bubble that MUST and WILL collapse by at minimum 50% of GDP. The United States government MUST spend LESS than it receives in tax revenue. Therefore, the U.S. government must reduce in size by something like 75%.
What's the plan?
4. Social Security and Medicare MUST END. These Ponzi schemes will CEASE TO BE, one way or another. If they are not ended voluntarily, they will destroy and collapse the entire government and economy.
What's the plan?
5. The "Ryan Plan" assumes massive, prolonged GDP growth for decades on end which outpaces new debt creation. FACT: Since 1980 there has not been ONE three month period in which GDP growth exceeded new debt in the United States. (This is the Denninger Axiom.) In other words, Ryan's plan is built upon a big heaping pile of unicorn manure. And he knows it.
So, what's the plan?
6. Nuclear war is now all but inevitable with Russia, China and the islamic caliphate on one side, and the United States alone on the other.
What's the plan?
7. Abortion MUST be totally outlawed in the United States. Even if every point above was to be addressed and miraculously solved, so long as this nation engages in cult child sacrifice it will be cursed to destruction.
What's the plan Mitt? Sarah? Rick? Newt? Michelle? Ron?
There is no plan. There is no plan because it is all a total and complete joke. It is theater. These people aren't competent to run a nation, much less solve the largest problems in all of human history, which are all occurring simultaneously. It is a con game to enrich the oligarchs, create the illusion of democracy, and to create false power paradigms.
The RINOS in the Tea Party simply don't want to hear any of this. They want to be on a "team" and root for "their guy" and thus delude themselves into thinking that they are actually accomplishing something. Most people, at the end of the day, want to be lied to. They want someone to stand up and tell them that everything is going to be fine just as long as "we" get "our guy" into office come November. Rah-rah-sis-boom-bah. Yay team.
You want more proof? Behold the ever-more-nauseating site HotAir.com, which published the results of its Who Should Be Romney's V.P.? poll over the weekend. Now remember, it is all irrelevant because the Republic is already dead, but this just shows you how utterly fake the entire system now is - including the conservative blogosphere. Do you know who won? Bobby Jindal. Again, I poop you negative. Jindal, while a pleasant enough fellow, would be just about the last guy you would want to put on the ticket. He would be ruthlessly mocked to destruction by the media, but even more importantly, and proof of how sickeningly corrupt the system is, Jindal, like Obama, is NOT constitutionally qualified. He was born to Indian nationals six months after they immigrated to the U.S. He is not a natural born citizen, meaning a citizen born to two citizen parents.
Golden boy number two over at HotAir is yet ANOTHER constitutionally unqualified for POTUS/VPOTUS politician, Marco Rubio.
HotAir is clearly pandering to the Obama regime in the nonsensical tapping of Jindal and Rubio as the "golden boys" in order to quash any discussion of the Obama usurpation.
And please don't forget my seven questions above. Do you honestly think Jindal, Rubio or ANYONE ELSE will EVER acknowledge, much less give actual solutions to any of those seven issues?
Even the majority of those who identify as conservative-right are completely deluded and just want to be lied to, pacified, entertained, and given a group matrix to dwell in, even if that matrix is a total sham.
Nails what? What is the point of this rant? Is it just to tell us that we're all screwed and there's no way out of it? Is she running for office?
What's YOUR plan, Ann?
I don’t believe she’s running for office...even if she had a plan; she is in NO position to implement such a plan. She wants to know what the POLITICIANS are planning...so far; nothing. Nothing at all.
Does the author really think that votes will be gained by having a plan to deal with the European debt crises vs. a plan to combat "global warming". (Global warming just being one of many examples of liberal made up crisis that they use to increase the size and scope of government)
You know, she may be a little over the top at times, but she is one of the all too few who realizes that we have a Marxist dictator as President, and not, as Romney says, “a nice guy who’s misguided”.
I am glad to see her back after she went missing on the web after telling off Romney in January. I concluded that she was as pissed off as Scott Ryan over the nomination of a Democrat by the republican party.
I can see she is on fire because of the failed Primaries.
Who did Ann Out this week?
Her column from a few days back discusses a blogger named ‘Paul Lemmen’, but I have never heard of him...
That crowd that walk up and out of her speech is just about everyone at the True Blue Libtards site. And just about everyone who is in the Nobody But Romney crowd.
I see. He must have been a fake tea partier or conservative activist.
I just landed on some information... Paul H. Lemmen (born 13 July 1955, Port Huron, Michigan) is a military impostor and convicted criminal, specializing in fraud.
To various acquaintainces, Lemmen claimed to have been an intelligence officer in the Irish Republican Army before coming to the United States. Later, he changed his story to having joined the United States Air Force in 1972 and serving with the 41st Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron in Saigon for six months in 1974. Other service claims include spending 1980-1988 as an intelligence agent in an AFSOC unit, including an assignment in Beirut in 1983. According to his own accounts in 2003, he was promoted to Brigadier General and retired in 2005.
Through a series of online acquaintances, Lemmen made contact with a company called Blue Iraq. Blue Iraq had won a contract to install and maintain telecommunications equipment on United States installations throughout Iraq. Lemmen was hired as an IT consultant, and obtained clearance to travel to Iraq beginning in late 2005.
While working for Blue Iraq, Lemmen befriended members of the U.S. Army 3rd Special Forces Group. He also traveled to Kuwait and, in Air Force uniform, and made claims that he had negotiated a lucrative investment deal with a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. During his time in Iraq, Lemmen started to openly wear his uniform while on U.S. bases in Iraq.
In January 2006, Lemmen was arrested by the US Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) for posing as a General Officer and ordered back to the States. At the time, he claimed the arrest was a ‘misunderstanding’ but he had been cleared of any wrongdoing. He continued to claim that he was the CEO for Blue Iraq.
After being sent back from Iraq, Lemmen attended a military funeral in full Air Force uniform displaying the rank of brigadier general. The funeral at Arlington Cemetery was of Army MSG Tony Yost, who had been killed in action in Iraq.
Upon further investigation, it was found that Lemmen had a criminal record dating back to 1985. Criminal history includes:
3 counts of Grand Theft ($300 – $20,000) - Felony - Florida, 1985
1 count Fugitive - Wanted in Other Jurisdiction - Florida, 1989
1 count of Grand Theft ($300 – $20,000) - Felony - Florida, 1990
1 count of Obtaining Property in Return for Worthless Check - Florida, 1996
1 count of Passing Worthless Check - Misdemeanor - Florida, 2000
1 count of Failure to Appear on 3 counts of Obtaining Property in Return for Worthless Check - Florida, 2000
Arrested by Army CID, Iraq on suspicion of impersonating a general officer and suspicion of embezzlement scam regarding a DoD vendor.
An investigation by the US Secret Service in 2006, related to various financial transactions, including the deposit of “some multi-million dollar checks which he had deposited in two financial institutions from the Bank of Kuwait. He admitted to the agents that the checks were fraudulent and that he was supposed to get ten percent of the proceeds from an individual he named.”
On March 21, 2007, US Magistrate Judge Joe H. Brown, in the US District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee, ordered Lemmen held without bail.
That was from wikipedia.
Then I found this on IOwn The World
Paul Lemmen was a small blogger 6 months ago, but not at An Ex-Con’s View. It was a different site called, The Right Planet (which is a good, reputable site that unfortunately got ensnared in Paul Lemmen’s world.) Paul Lemmen posed as a blogger named Willem VanBever (screen name Poison To Libs)- a black Georgian doctor who retired wealthy after his invention of Imodium. But tragedy befell Dr. VanBever. 7 months ago he developed stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and gifts and donations were accepted by Willem VanBever in care of Barb Lemmen at Paul Lemmen’s Florida address. Lemmen disappeared when discovered.
Two weeks later an Ex-Con’s View was born. Not realizing that this was Lemmen’s new site I began linking to some posts that were e-mailed to our tips line. When a reader pointed out that this was Poison To Libs I e-mailed Lemmen and informed him that iOTW could no longer link and that redemption required a bit more time than a few weeks. He understood.
Lemmen continued to blog, which is his right, and I would see some links here and there. The day I decided it was my duty to speak up was the day that Instapundit linked:
June 5, 2012
AN UNSUCCESSFUL INTIMIDATION ATTEMPT. This probably wasn’t a Kimberlin lackey. But next time, photograph the photographer. And his license plate.
Glenn Reynolds, I’m sure, is not fully aware of who Paul Lemmen was/is. I’m positive he would not have linked to this blog post had he known the full Lemmen story.
Since June 5th I’ve been very vocal about the wisdom of allowing Paul Lemmen to inject himself into the epicenter of the SWATtings as a right-wing operative. That could only end badly.
And it has -
The following are notes that were taken during a phone call I made this afternoon.The person I am talking to is Linda, the person who answers the phone at Carolwood Apartments (Lemmen’s residence.)
Keep in mind, I talked with Linda earlier last week. I called today to verify the information I learned, that is why my questions sound leading. I’m repeating back to her information that she already told me.
Carolwood, How may I help you?
BFH: Is this the person I talked to last week about the article I sent to you about the photgraphing of the apartments?
Oh, yes, uh huh.
BFH: Oh, you do remember me? I don’t know what to call you. I’m sorry, I never asked your name.
Oh, okay, it’s Linda.
BFH: Hi, Linda, this is uh, the person again, just following up. Regarding your superintendent. who informed Paul Lemmen that it was indeed the city that were burying the wires underground and that was the reason they were photographing, do I have that right?
Linda: Yes, uh huh.
BFH: One thing I’m not clear on, who initiated the contact between who? Did Paul ask the superintendent or did the superintendent just come out and tell Paul about the photographing?
Linda: Okay, to my knowledge after my conversation with the superintendent, he told me Paul asked him, “what was going on, did you see those people photographing my apartment. He then explained what he knew about the city doing work, or preparing to do work.
BFH: And they were photographing everyone’s apartment in the entire complex…
Linda: Yes
BFH: …. as surveyors preparing to bury the overhead electric system underground.
Linda: Exactly
BFH: I wished I knew if Paul published this before he knew, or after he was told… but I guess it doesn’t matter because he never updated his post.
Linda: I’m not sure of the date.
BFH: either way he should have updated his post. These weren’t guys out to get him.
Linda: True. Exactly.
BFH: Well, Linda, I feel bad calling you and bringing you into this..
Linda: I don’t mind giving information that is helpful… and accurate.
BFH: Ya, accurate. That’s the bottom line. Thank you. If anything else develops I hope you don’t mind me giving you a quick call.
Linda: Oh sure, sure. Just give me a call…
BFH: I’m not going to publish this. I’m just gathering information. Well, (laughs) I may publish it, or something, one day that says from my information, with the photographs, the story didn’t happen that way.
Linda: Alright, that’s not effecting me or harming me or anyone in any way… I don’t have a problem with it.
BFH: Well, Paul’s a good guy… he’s not gonna… right, I mean you’re friends. it’s not like he’s going… it’s not going to effect your friendship, is what I’m saying.
Linda: Oh, no no. absolutely.
BFH: Okay, great.
Oh, What is the superintendent’s first name, not his full name. just the first name.
Linda: Lee.
BFH: I just want to know so I can tell Paul that I know what I’m talking about, that there was a very innocent explanation for what the circumstances were surrounding this photographer taking pictures.
Linda: Right
BFH: Thank you, Linda, I hope the weather down there is as good as it is here.
Linda: Oh, no. We’re in the middle of some tornado warnings.
BFH: Oh, geez. Sorry, but what else is new in Florida.
Linda: Right… (laughs) Okay. Have a great day.
BFH: You too. Bye.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I take no glee in posting this. I have no hatred for Paul, no axe to grind, and no agenda other than to warn people that Paul cannot help himself. He admits that he is in therapy. I want him to be healthy and happy. Enabling doesn’t do that.
If people keep encouraging Paul he is going to do something a lot worse than just lying about being “intimidated into silence” by stalkers. I do not want to see him end up back in jail, or worse, because online “friends” think this redemption is a cool story, so they are going to declare Paul redeemed.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=138986
don’t know if this is drunk blogging or if it’s simply “speaking truth to stupid,” what I do know is that it is an ill-informed pantload.
iOTW readers were introduced to a blogger named Impolite Canadian on yesterday’s Paul Lemmen primer post. First impressions mean a lot, and lout is the kindest word that comes to mind.
So, the obligatory belly shot portion of this post is over, now I will treat IC’s latest post very seriously, because this is a deadly serious matter.
Ann Barnhardt wrote an expose’ about a blogger named Paul Lemmen. The intent of the piece was to ensure that everyone know exactly who Paul Lemmen is as he insinuates himself into the epicenter of the Brett Kimberlin saga. If Lemmen’s participation were to ultimately cause more harm than good to the people he was trying to help, Ann did not want people looking around after the fact saying, “how did we not know who this guy was?”
All Ann did was say, “this is who Paul Lemmen is. Now that you know who he is, don’t act ignorant and betrayed after any shit hits any fan. It’s your right to embrace and encourage him, my job is done.”
The rebuttal to Ann’s piece by Impolite Canadian? -
WE WILL NOT BE BULLIED INTO SILENCE!!!
This is the headline of a blog post, and right out of the gate it’s a total misfire. Who is bullying and who is trying to silence and who is being silenced?
Ann didn’t silence, she raised the volume.
No we won’t. This elitist attitude will stop. The NBC, Ali Akbar and the elitist fucks who form that miserable, sorry-ass organization engaged in a personal vendetta against ex con man Paul H Lemmen.
Ann has nothing to do with Ali Akbar, and until yesterday she had never heard of him.
Ann Barnhardt, one such elitist bastard, says she wrote the rag on Paul Lemmen at the request of friends. BULLSHIT.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=138311
Stop Drinking the Lemmen-ade
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - June 18, AD 2012 12:06 PM MST
I have written a piece at the request of a group of bloggers exposing a con-artist blogger named Paul Lemmen who is getting some serious traction in the Christian and Patriot blogosphere and could potentially do tremendous damage to the movement to stop the SWATting terrorism tactic that has emerged recently.
It is not posted here because it contains many embedded citation links, which this website does not support. It is also over 3000 words, which would require that it be chopped up into three posts here, given my character limits per post. Finally, as you all know well, this website does not have permalink capability, and the bloggers really wanted it permalinkable, so I just asked them to post it on their sites, and I would merely link to it.
This is NOT my cup of tea, and I prefer to discuss ideas and events, but the bloggers argued that for precisely that reason, my penning the piece would lend “gravitas.”
Ugh. I don’t want to have gravitas.
But, such is life.
Stop Drinking the LemmenAde – Ann Barnhardt
By BigFurHat - June 18, 2012 - 14:36 America/New_York - 4 Comments
I have been watching out of the corner of my eye a con-man named Paul Lemmen who has been operating and insinuating himself into the Christian-right and secular-right blogging community since January of this year. I even took the extraordinary step (for me) of sending out an email early in 2012 to the bloggers this con-man was playing and targeting, warning them that they were being lied to and manipulated by an incredibly dangerous sociopath. Most did not heed my warning and fell for the latest iteration of this career con-man’s “game”. The “game” has now escalated to a point where tremendous damage is possible as Lemmen is insinuating himself into the monumentally serious “SWATting” story, and I have been asked by several people to write up a post in the hopes that I can finally snap people out of the trance that this con-man Lemmen has them under, and nip his con-game in the bud before it does irreversible damage.
The SWATting tactic being deployed by the hard-left is textbook terrorism, and it is truly a miracle that no one (either civilian victims or duped law enforcement responders) has yet been injured or killed. However, it is just a matter of time before one of these SWATtings ends in a terrible tragedy. The other thing the SWATting terrorism tactic will do if not aggressively ended right now is effectively destroy the 911 emergency response system itself. If the 911 system is inundated by fake distress calls, emergency response systems will have to be modified in order to somehow vet and confirm the legitimacy of incoming calls. That call vetting will take time, and in a serious situation every second counts. Every second could be the difference between someone being killed or raped or injured or kidnapped, or those attempted crimes being thwarted. The 911 system relies on trusting the population that it serves to never, ever abuse it, and coming down hard on those that do abuse it. Eric Holder has given the far-left the de facto green-light to go ahead and use SWATting as a terror tactic, and the media is backing the regime by not reporting in any way on the SWATting incidences. That means that people of good will are on their own and must coordinate with local law enforcement to educate them and their fellow citizens about this tactic, and to ensure the continued integrity of the 911 system itself from the local, grassroots level. There will be no Federal “top-down” assistance.
Now to Paul Lemmen. His latest online persona popped up in early January of 2012. His blog is called “An Ex-Con’s View” and is built around his alleged “repentance” from his life of crime and fraud. His latest “angle” is very clever, and is the ultimate prize for a con-man. Remember that the term “con-man” is an abbreviation of the term “confidence man.” While these criminals certainly have as an objective the stealing of people’s money, that is only half of it. The other half of their motivation is simply to manipulate other human beings. The greater the manipulation, the more false confidence they can engender in others, the bigger their rush, or high, which is the primordial driver. Any monies acquired from their victims are merely a derivative and tangible reminder of the root driver, which is the addiction to manipulation and fraud psychological rush.
So what is this “ultimate con?” It is to tell the victims out front that he is a convicted con artist. He lays out his lifetime of crime, claims that he is a changed man, claims that he is now a devout Christian looking to repent and make good and then asks people to TRUST him. If he can do this, if he can tell a person “to their face”, so to speak, that he is a con-man and then still rope them into his web, well, that’s the Olympic Gold Medal for con-men. That is the ultimate high. That is a sociopath like Lemmen sitting back and telling himself, “I’m so damn brilliant and charming that I can literally tell people that I’m conning them, and they will still let me do it.” Additionally, it provides a built-in hedge for Lemmen. If anyone calls Lemmen on his lies or very recent criminal history, he can simply fall back to the defense that, “I’ve already told you that I am a con-man. But I’m reformed now, and if you’re a Christian, you have to forgive and forget all of that.” He has essentially taken what should be a massive liability to him, namely his life of sociopathic fraud, wrapped it in a sheath of faux-Christianity, and now uses it as a weapon psychologically bludgeon and coerce people into being his willing victims and enablers.
Paul Lemmen is going for the gold as we speak.
Paul Howard Lemmen is a salesman and IT consultant with zero military experience who is a career criminal going back nearly thirty years to 1985 with multiple counts over the years of grand theft and writing bad checks, and he is a military imposter, still attempting to pass himself off as a retired Brigadier General as recently as the spring of 2011, and an embezzler.
Paul H. Lemmen
He got an IT job with a company called “Blue Iraq”, and beginning in 2005 traveled to the Middle East and promptly started wearing the uniform of an Air Force Brigadier General both on base and off, claiming that he was promoted to that rank in 2003. Lemmen negotiated “business deals”, which were million-dollar embezzlement scams, while fraudulently in uniform, and also claimed to be the CEO of Blue Iraq. He additionally claimed to have been involved in IED attacks while in Iraq. In November 2005, having picked up enough lingo to sound credible, and having fabricated a detailed military back-story, Lemmen insinuated himself into the Special Forces community in Iraq. Lemmen was so far insinuated into the Special Forces that he was able to attend the funeral of Master Sergeant Tony Yost at Arlington National Cemetery in full uniform, posing still as a Brigadier General. Lemmen, unmoved by even the fallen MSGT Yost and his grieving family, continued to use people as mere fodder to feed his ever-more audacious and unquenchable addiction to manipulating others.
In an interview Lemmen gave to Kevin Maurer of the Fayetteville Observer in November 2006, Lemmen told Maurer that the U.S. government had, conveniently enough for Lemmen, disowned him and his past had been wiped from all record because Lemmen had told no less than SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld that he would no longer “spy for him.” Here we see the pattern of Lemmen’s esacalating audaciousness in his claims as he was forced to cover his own lies.
In January 2006 he was arrested by the US Army Criminal Investigation Division and shipped home to the U.S. Lemmen was convicted in U.S. District Court in Nashville on March 21, 2007 and was released from prison on March 1, 2010. Lemmen claimed in a telephone interview just one week ago on 6/11/2012 that despite having heart disease, diabetes, being heavily medicated, having a double bypass and no less than five stents, that he was made to perform hard labor, namely “swinging a sledgehammer, breaking up concrete all day.” There is no forced hard labor in U.S. prisons today – the image of men smashing concrete with sledgehammers in “Camp Cupcake” U.S. prisons is laughable, much less the forced hard labor of the grievously ill, as Lemmen claims he was and is. Either way, the sewage of lies is thick and deep out of the “reformed” Lemmen just one short week ago. Here is the link to the podcast. The audacious lies about being gravely ill and being put to hard labor begins at the 6:00 mark. The money quote is at 7:00. I warn you, you’re going to have the uncontrollable desire to bathe in Clorox after listening to this guy. “Oily” is the only descriptor that comes even close:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23255134
On March 21, 2007, US Magistrate Judge Joe Brown ordered Lemmen held without bail, and Judge Brown’s order ended with this priceless quote:
“The Magistrate Judge is firmly convinced that if this individual were released, he would be attempting to perpetrate a fraud on someone before the sun set that same day. The Defendant would also flee at the first opportunity. He has done so repeatedly in the past and undoubtedly would do so again.”
This information is all known and can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H._Lemmen
The Fayette Observer piece, while no longer cached by the Fayette Observer website, can be found cached in full at http://www.arrse.co.uk/multinational-hq/27194-foreign-walts-2.html at comment #19
Now, some more background that I don’t think the blogging community is fully aware of – at least I hope they are not aware of it.
In the spring of 2011, just over a year ago, blogger “Sard”, founder of the blog TheRightPlanet.com, was contacted through the FoxNation blog by a commenter handled “lemmen.” As an aside, I have spoken with “Sard” and originally wrote this piece using his real first and last name. He requested that I use only his handle, as he fears being targeted by the career criminal and sociopath Lemmen, as well as the far-left SWATters. The commenter “lemmen” claimed to be a retired flag officer who served in Iraq. When Sard replied, Lemmen sent Sard a photograph of himself in Iraq in USAF uniform, claiming the rank of Brigadier General. Sard then Googled Lemmen’s name, and promptly discovered his criminal past, saw that Lemmen was again picking up his old scam of impersonating a USAF Brigadier General, notified FoxNation, and Lemmen’s profile was promptly removed.
Soon after, in the summer of 2011, a new commenter handled “PoisonToLibs” appeared on the FoxNation blog. Sard noticed the “PoisonToLibs” posts as they were well-written, and “PoisonToLibs” claimed to be a black, conservative, multi-millionaire physician. “PoisonToLibs” gave Sard his email address and requested that they start a blog together. “PoisonToLibs” revealed his name to Sard as Willem Van Bever. “Willem Van Bever”, despite claiming to be a retired physician, aged 66, was proficient in web design and IT, and the blog TheRightPlanet.com was launched, and experienced a successful, brisk build-up in traffic.
However, the “Willem Van Bever” posts soon became increasingly suspicious. Bizarrely, Van Bever claimed to have invented the over-the-counter medication Imodium, which was really developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium in 1969. Given “Van Bever’s” stated age of 66 in 2011, that would have made Van Bever 24 years old and in his second year of med school at most when he invented the drug Loperamide – in Belgium. He also claimed that he had been called a “nigger” by a parishioner after daily Mass. Remember this, as we’ll come back to making false accusations in a moment. “Van Bever” also provided a reader from Atlanta with a meticulously detailed backstory of his childhood in the Cabbagetown area of Atlanta, complete with a story of witnessing at age 13 the castration and lynching of his 15 year-old cousin as he cowered underneath his grandmother’s porch.
With Lemmen, it is all about the details. He researches his victims and his cons meticulously, and wins people’s confidence largely by dropping key words, phrases and details in order to appear credible. He researches and learns whatever jargon he needs, and then wields it to engender trust from his victims. This is how he infiltrated the U.S. Military in Iraq. This is how he was able to pass himself off as black retired physician “Willem Van Bever” on TheRightPlanet.com And, as we will see, this is how he is now attempting to pass himself off as a devout and pious Catholic, and also as a conservative patriot.
Finally, in the fall of 2011 “Van Bever” claimed to be dying of stage IV pancreatic cancer. Some RightPlanet readers, crestfallen at the news of “Van Bever’s” illness, began sending him gifts, which “Van Bever” happily accepted. Suspicious, Sard now vetted “Willem Van Bever”, albeit belatedly. He could find no record of anyone named Willem Van Bever anywhere in Florida, much less in Van Bever’s claimed residence of St. Petersburg.
Days later on November 24, 2011, TheRightPlanet.com received a $5 donation via PayPal from a “Paul Lemmen” of St. Petersburg. Sard called “Willem Van Bever” and told him that Paul Lemmen, the notorious fraudster, had just made a donation to TheRightPlanet. At this, “Van Bever”, who was Lemmen, once again trying to cover and simultaneously escalate the audacity of his latest con, told Sard that Lemmen was his ex-brother-in-law. Van Bever/Lemmen then told Sard that it was simply one of those “six degrees of separation things.”
Beginning to put two and two together, Sard contacted one of his regular readers who had sent gifts to the “dying” “Willem Van Bever.” Sure enough, the gifts were sent, at “Van Bever’s” instructions, “to Will, care of B. Lemmen”, at Lemmen’s address as shown on the PayPal donation profile form. The initial “B” stands for Lemmen’s purported wife, Barbara. Horrified, Sard immediately began eliminating and blocking Lemmen from TheRightPlanet.com. This purging of Lemmen, alias “Willem Van Bever” happened roughly around Christmas of 2011.
Approximately two weeks later in early January 2012, Lemmen’s latest persona iteration, “An Ex-Cons View” was born.
Apparently, Lemmen expects the world to believe that in the two weeks between being discovered as a fraud and ejected from TheRightPlanet.com blog and launching “An Ex-Con’s View” that he “came to Jesus” and is now a contrite, repentant, straight arrow who is now being targeted by SWATters, oh, and is also descending into renal failure, but is conveniently “improving a little bit in some areas.” That’s always how it is with the con-artist playing the “I’m dying” ruse. They have one foot in the grave, but are “doing better”, which is a narrative that allows them to string the con out for an indefinite period of time.
Oh, but there is more. Here is the little nugget that, in my estimation, is the working definition of “hoisting yourself with your own petard.”
Lemmen, trying to pick up lingo and jargon and become passable in conversation about Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, in order to con Christians into his scam, has begun lurking and commenting on Fr. John Zuhlsdorf’s excellent blog, WDTPRS.com . As an example, Lemmen has picked up Fr. Z.’s oft-used phrase “Nota Bene”, which is Latin and Italian for “Note well, “ or “pay attention.” Is that a sin? No, it isn’t. We all pick up words and phrases that we like and integrate them into our daily vernacular. But, most of us aren’t sociopathic con artists, either. Lemmen’s posts on WDTPRS.com are utterly transparent in their attempts to sound bona fide, but are utterly textbookish. I love how he claimed to have started praying the Breviary, which is quite time-consuming, “a few years ago”, er while he was in prison working at hard labor while morbidly ill? And, presumably he was likewise devoutly praying the Breviary all the while he was impersonating a black doctor dying of stage IV pancreatic cancer over on TheRightPlanet.com just last year? Apparently it wasn’t sinking in very well. Here is a link to that specific comment:
While doing Google searches to pick up key words and phrases to use in blog posts isn’t a sin in and of itself, what is a sin is telling big, steaming lies – bearing false witness about who you are and what your motives are. And, I believe Lemmen has done just that more than once on the WDTPRS.com blog. Get ready for this: On April 1, April 5 and April 16, 2012, Paul Lemmen stated on WDTPRS.com that he was an ordained Orthodox Bishop. Here are links to those three comments:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/04/a-reader-returns-to-confession-after-15-years/#comment-333770
You know, it’s funny, but I can’t find anything regarding an Orthodox bishop of any stripe, anywhere, at any time, named Paul Lemmen. Being a bishop is a big job in the Orthodox church. I wonder when, exactly, Paul Lemmen had the time to be an Orthodox bishop? Was it while he was bouncing checks in Florida, or while he was working as an IT guy for all of those years? Was he defrocked before he got the job with Blue Iraq? Surely he must have some pictures from the old days, in his robes and skufia? Given that Lemmen is all about “going big” and being as audacious as possible in his cons, and seeing that he clearly likes wearing uniforms and claiming the highest rank he possibly can, it is no surprise that Lemmen is going big and audacious in his latest con – claiming to be a defrocked, illicitly ordained Orthodox deacon, priest and BISHOP! Brigadier General, Bishop, all that is left for Lemmen now is claiming to be hereditary royalty. Archduke of Lichtenstein, perhaps?
Lemmen has clearly identified Christians as the “perfect targets” for his grandest and most audacious con yet. As I laid out earlier, to prove to himself that he is the “slickest, most brilliant S.O.B. on the face of the earth,” he has decided to see if he can con the Body of Christ itself – or as close as he can get to it – using Christian doctrine as his primary weapon. He has laid out all of his past history of fraud and deceit, effectively handicapping himself from the get-go merely as a personal challenge to make the “game” more difficult, and now is telling Christians that if they do not accept him, believe everything he says and embrace him fully that they are “bad Christians” who do not “forgive those who trespass against us.” Lemmen thinks that if he can scam a bunch of Christians even after handicapping his own starting position, using their own doctrine against them, that he will be, in effect, conning God Himself. Behold the sociopath’s Olympic Gold Medal.
If Paul Lemmen experienced a Pauline-level conversion in the two weeks between being discovered and kicked off of TheRightPlanet.com and launching “An Ex-Con’s View”, then I’m Sidney Greenstreet.
Now to the reason why I saw fit to go ahead and write this all up at the behest of some terribly distraught bloggers. Lemmen appears to be setting up a very big and very audacious escalation. Lemmen is spinning a yarn that people are photographing him and that he is being threatened in association with his writing about Brett Kimberlin and the SWATting terrorism story. The fear that many people have is that Lemmen is going to claim or stage a SWATting event or some other dangerous escalation (perhaps arson), paint himself as a victim, perhaps then start begging for money, be exposed as a liar who SWATted himself or was otherwise responsible for whatever escalation event he has in mind, and then poison the well of public opinion and make impossible the gaining of any traction on the issue. Beyond that, he will hand the leftist-terrorist movement a massive propaganda coup. Look! This crazy conservative wingnut SWATted himself! They’re all a bunch of liars and con-artists!
As we have seen, Lemmen has a history of concocting wild victimization stories. He claimed under the “Willem Van Bever retired black doctor from Atlanta dying of stage IV pancreatic cancer” persona last year to have been called a “nigger” at daily Mass, and told a reader of witnessing the lynching of his cousin as a child. He previously accused Donald Rumsfeld of wiping his identity and his past in retaliation for “refusing to spy” for Rumsfeld. This, of course, was a cover story while he was trying to talk his way out of his crimes in Iraq. While in Iraq impersonating a General, Lemmen claimed to have been in three IED attacks. Guys, the “Van Bever” lies were just a few months ago. Come on. Lemmen’s act of inserting himself into the SWATting story is fully congruent with his past history of escalating and increasing the audacity of his cons while trying to cast himself as a victim.
Our Lord told us that we must be wise as serpents as we negotiate this world. Gullibility is not a virtue. Naiveté is not a virtue. Getting rolled by con-artists doesn’t make you a good Christian or prove any theological point about redemption. It makes you dumb, and it makes the con-artist happy. Justice is a virtue. Prudence is a virtue. The Holy Spirit gifts us with Wisdom, Understanding and Right Judgment. We all need to apply those virtues and gifts right now and nip this Paul Lemmen nonsense in the bud, and not be put on some guilt trip when we do it. You people who are linking to this guy are being played like concertinas, and I can promise you that if Lemmen continues to be linked, supported, praised and enabled, this mess is going to escalate and end very, very badly. I suspect that Lemmen’s motives are slightly more about asserting his sociopathic, narcissistic manipulations on other people just to prove to himself that he can, and to feed his ego, than they are about money, but I wouldn’t put anything past him. And if our suspicions are correct, this guy could ultimately put lives at risk by sending the whole movement to stop the terror tactic of SWATting butt-over-teakettle.
Wise up, people. End the Paul Lemmen con once and for all. Stop drinking the Lemmen-ade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note from BigFurHat:
Sard and TheRightPlanet contributors and readers were severely damaged by Paul Lemmen in many ways, and are continuing to try and repair their rightful good name. As a champion of the young site I corresponded via e-mail with Poison To Libs often. When I got word of his diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer it hit me unusually hard. Sometimes these internet acquaintances effect you more deeply because we tend to fill in the missing parts with bits and pieces of known characters in our lives.
When I learned that it was all a hoax I became even more cynical and misanthropic. This is what Paul Lemmen leaves in his wake.
To date, Paul Lemmen has never contacted Sard to apologize, explain, redeem or make amends.
Ironically, I was an early champion of an Ex-Con’s View, linking often. When it was revealed to me that this site was actually run by the man who led me to believe he was dying of pancreatic cancer I e-mailed Lemmen and explained exactly why he was being cut off from iOwnTheWorld. Specifically, it was because redemption takes time.
This is a portion of an e-mail I sent to Paul Lemmen last night -
Frankly, I think you are probably the last person that should be recruited for intel gathering considering that the right is trying to make the case that Kimberlin is an ex-con that has been foolishly embraced by the left establishment and hasn’t displayed enough repentance to be trusted.
And if you’ve done this entirely on your own it’s not really helping things because you add another dozen or so layers to an already difficult story to sort out, and it opens the right up to a similar charge that we are leveling at the left – that cozying up to operatives with baggage is not exactly draining the swamp.
At the very least it muddies the swamp.
To be fair, the Ali (Akbar) revelation was distressing in that all of that info should have been aired openly when he was vetted and cleared by the powerbrokers. Having the left seemingly break the story can only help the Kimberlin cabal. But, honestly, it was strange to hear you asking him to step down for the good of appearance. “Step-off” is something that could be asked of you without be too far afoul.
Whatever shakes out for you I hope it doesn’t cause you distress if you are truly repentant.
But I advised you way back when, in so many words, to move slowly. You’re going way too fast here considering where you have been no more than a year ago, and the particular circumstances and current events you’ve seized upon is the perfect storm to make things more complicated for you at a time when you should be thinking about your ills, your wife’s health and your road to redemption.
Just my two cents. You once said you respected me as a blogger. I hope you respect this opinion as well.
-bfh
Ye gads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.