13 Much of America’s economy has been built and financed with the profits of organized crime, so, in one sense, organized crime was nothing new in the 1980s. However, there was a meanness to this new ascendancy of organized crime that was contributing to a rising “creep factor.” It was one of the reasons I left New York to go to Washington—to find out why it was happening and what could be done. Organized crime was one aspect. Another was technology. I associate what was happening to the growing introduction of cell service and the power of the NSA and U.S. intelligence and enforcement to centralize surveillance and data capture through back doors in software and telecommunications. Technology was fueling the ascendancy of the national security state and the fusion of organized crime profit margins and cash flows with the lethal power of a sovereign state, whether expressed by military, intelli- gence, or enforcement means. The black budget and hidden system of finance were growing. The number of federal agencies authorized to carry guns, make arrests, and impose civil and crimi- nal fines was also growing rapidly. My time in Washington helped me dig deeper into the source of the creep factor. After leaving the Bush Administration in 1990, I started a company with the goal of figuring out how to reengineer investment in places in a manner that would end poverty and heal the environment. Ultimately, a healthy society pro- duces greater wealth than one being liquidated by organized crime. What I discovered is that those goals are doable, if we could just persuade the national security state to go along—which is easier said than done. I left Washington in 1998 and gave up my temporary apartments (in New York shortly thereafter and in Philadelphia in 2003), primar- ily in an effort to avoid covert operations and physical harassment. Although there is plenty of organized crime in rural areas, the covert opera- tions, in my experience, are less intense there. My concern regarding the fusion of or- ganized crime with the application of digital technology—including mind control technolo- gy—to centralize political and economic control has continued to grow for the last two decades since I left Washington. It is one of the reasons that I avoid large cities or megacities in the U.S. and many areas of the world, particularly those that played a leadership role in engineering a financial coup d’état at taxpayers’ expense. The criminals and illegally subsidized are arrogantly ascendant in these cities, in a manner that continues to grow the creep factor. Ex- amples include the steady deterioration of San Francisco, the rise of homelessness, and the fires that I believe are being used to clear land for future development. I just spent a week in New York City. The homelessness there, combined with the ex- traordinary investment in luxury living and goods, was extremely disturbing—not that I hadn’t seen that in the 1980s. Back then, I was on the board of the New York City Food Bank and regularly worked with activists involved in homelessness. However, what I found most disturbing during my recent visit was the mind control. I find living close to nature helpful in offset- ting EMF radiation and entrainment, sublim- inal programming, and other mind control technologies. I also find it helpful to live with people who deal with concrete functions—such as truckers, farmers, electricians, and builders. The result is a culture grounded in practical real- ities—as opposed to the culture now created by the abstract functions of finance, information technology, and media and entertainment. Consequently, I now live in the country. Among other things, technology has permitted rural access to products and services that once were only available in the great cities. I also have many opportunities to visit and spend time in cities that are livable and rich with cultural offerings. This summer I was in Vienna—often voted the city with the best quality of living. Its reputation is well deserved and is a reminder that every city is unique and that some will get things right. Vienna, Austria at sunrise