Mountain Sentinel: Our Current Situation & Warnings (Dale Allen Pfeiffer)

  This upcoming issue of The Mountain Sentinel (Vol. 2, No. 1) will likely be the last anyone will hear from me for a while. If things go very badly, it may be the last Mountain Sentinel.

  Dale Allen Pfeiffer -- Mountain Sentinel 

  March 6, 2007 -- Sometime in the next few weeks, we will publish a special issue of The Mountain Sentinel that will focus on community organizing tactics for relocalization and sustainability. The issue will give those who are concerned the tools they need to take their concerns off the internet and make a change in their communities. Many people have expressed an interest in this topic, and we hope that the time-tried methods and tactics we will present will be of good use. 

  This upcoming issue of The Mountain Sentinel (Vol. 2, No. 1) will likely be the last anyone will hear from me for a while. If things go very badly, it may be the last Mountain Sentinel. We are currently going through a bankruptcy that will end with us having to leave our home and find someplace else to live without an income. This situation began right after we moved to Appalachia, when I lost my position at From the Wilderness. Since that time, we have been without income. 

  There is no work in Appalachia. The poverty rates here approach 90 percent of the population. Fortunately, they do have services and charities available to help the locals. We have availed ourselves of some of this help. And the people here are very compassionate and understanding. But we simply cannot go on here since our circumstances changed so drastically right after we moved here and took a mortgage on the home where we have lived for the past couple years. 

  Carolyn Baker contacted me a couple months ago and asked me to write for her website. She could not afford to pay much, but that meager salary was very welcome and very helpful. Carolyn's efforts are being financed by a purported multi-millionaire named Harry Blazer. In the course of our dealings together, Carolyn put me into contact with Harry Blazer, and he approached me with offers of aid.

  Actually the first attempt to introduce me to Harry Blazer was made a couple months previous to this by Catherine Austin Fitts, who has also been bankrolled by Harry. My instincts at that time told me not to trust the man, and so I did not respond to the introduction. Now, this second time that I was put into contact with Harry, I was very plain and honest with him. 

  I told him I was very sick of energy depletion and the supposed peak oil community. I explained that I wanted to focus on the bigger picture. My eventual goal, as I made it quite clear, was to move away from nonfiction entirely and establish myself as a successful novelist. I politely told Harry that I had no idea of who he was and, beyond Catherine and Carolyn's personal word, I had no idea if I could trust him. Harry sent me links to his glowing bio, and assured me: "I want to support your efforts. We are folks you can trust. We will treat you fairly.  We will do what we say." 

  I do not want to dwell on this for too long, but my experiences with Harry gave me the impression that he was stringing me along. He would work out deals for books that were usurious in comparison with the rest of the publishing industry, and then back out of those deals if he felt that my views differed from his. The man was also verbally abusive. He did pay me small sums of money for my articles, on a par with the salaries of beginning journalists, but a small fraction of what I was paid per article at From the Wilderness. 

  In the end, he had offered to finance a major book deal for my novel, Giants in Their Steps. In return for a small investment, he would receive a large piece of equity in the first book of the trilogy, with an option to buy into the same kind of deal on the other two books of the trilogy. On top of the publisher's cut, and the agent's 15%, this would have left me with very little, from a book I worked on for over a decade and in some ways consider to be my first child. Fortunately, after working out a verbal deal with me and a highly placed New York editor, Harry then began to wiggle out by saying he could not come up with the money right away and the whole deal would depend on some other business he had in the works. 

  Let me state right now that if Harry wishes to contend what I have written here, I have all the emails of my correspondence with him, and I can put them up on the Mountain Sentinel website for public perusal. 

  I was lucky that I did not sign a contract with Harry. Since we have broken off contact, I have learned much more about his apparently shady and disreputable dealings. It seems Harry Blazer tried to buy From the Wilderness from Mike Ruppert, in a deal I have been told was brokered by Catherine Austin Fitts. While I cannot reveal the details of this deal, I will say that they took advantage of Mike's troubles and would have left him exiled from the country, with very little to show for his life's work. 

  Now, I have had problems with Mike Ruppert, but nobody deserves to be cheated out of their life's work like that. Mike Ruppert walked away from the deal, very wisely I might add. And, Mike, if you are listening, I sincerely offer my wishes for your good health. 

  Through the internet, Elizabeth, my wife and super-sleuth, has uncovered some of Harry's other apparently dirty dealings. You can read about Harry's original business and his abusive managerial style in the following article on Answer.com:

   http://www.answers.com/topic/harry-s-farmers-market-inc. It seems that the only thing that saved Harry's Farmer's Market from Harry was a few lucky deals.

  Since leaving Harry's Farmer's Market, it is reported that Harry Blazer helped engineer the hostile takeover of an audio business from the man who built it from scratch. It appears this takeover was overturned in the courts, in no small part thanks to contributions from concerned audiophiles. Though you have to wade through many postings, you can gather the details of this venture here: http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/t.pl?f=general&m=349340.

  It would seem that Harry's MO is to move in on a business under the guise of offering altruistic help, and then stage a takeover. And now it appears that Harry has turned his sights to energy depletion, alternative publishing, relocalization and sustainability. For my part, I trust neither Harry, nor anyone who has major dealings with him. And I would advise others to do likewise.

  Unfortunately, energy depletion, relocalization and sustainability are attracting a lot of sharks, in addition to the many swollen-egos parading around. I have to say that those actually doing the research remain the true authorities on this subject, and they are content to focus upon their work and leave the self-aggrandizement to others. Yet there a lot of people on the circuit — many of them with big names — who are merely parading their egos. For that reason, I urge everyone to be wary of the snake-oil dealers and the sharks.

LINK: Mountain Sentinel