Tag Archives: World Trade Center

Diary Blog, 6 July 2025

Morning music

Reminiscences: temps perdu, and thoughts about mortality

When one is well over 60, as I now am (68; b. 1956), thoughts may naturally turn to mortality, life and death, and questions larger than the everyday concerns of life. That may be so when one notices that many people one has known in life are now defunct.

Some of the people I have known, or have merely met briefly or peripherally in the past, are still alive; many, however, are not. Some of those who are no longer alive have died from various natural causes (and are too numerous to list), others expired from unnatural causes (such as a Nigerian princess I knew, shot dead in Lagos in the late 1990s) or from causes or reasons unknown (such as the ex-husband of a lady I knew in the 1980s, which ex-husband apparently drowned in the Thames at London). A few, friends of friends rather than people I knew well, sadly died via suicide many years ago.

These thoughts came again to mind yesterday when I noticed information online to the effect that a former American colleague, a major-league American lawyer called Tim Scrantom, died some time ago, in 2021, apparently of a brain tumour. He was diagnosed in April 2021, and died 6 months later.

[Tim Scrantom, 1956-2025]

Tim Scrantom was a couple of months younger than me, a fact which sharpens my reminiscence.

I met Scrantom after a headhunter in New York suggested to him and his two main colleagues, in 2001, that I might suit his niche law firm (based in Charleston, South Carolina). I was telephoned in Turkey, where I was then resident, and we arranged to meet in London at one of my usual haunts, the Churchill Bar at the Hotel Russell in Russell Square.

I drove back to England via Greece, Bulgaria, Romania (the latter two then not EU states, and very ramshackle), Hungary (excellent country), Austria, Germany (calling in at Berchtesgaden), Luxembourg, and Belgium.

The upshot was that Scrantom and I became colleagues, he based mostly at Charleston (the office was at East Bay Street, in the conservation zone of the city), I mostly in London, though we both visited various offshore jurisdictions, once or twice in tandem, as when we went to Liechtenstein one day (well, I did; Scrantom had left his passport at the Mayfair Hotel, and only discovered that fact when we met at Heathrow, prior to flying to Zurich…).

Scrantom was a genial host. He invited my wife and me to dinner in Charleston in August or early September 2001 and, on a later solo visit, I visited his home on Sullivan’s Island, by Charleston, where he lived with his then wife (I believe they divorced later) and young daughter.

Scrantom, though a graduate from American law schools, an attorney in several states, and a professor of law as well, was also a barrister of Gray’s Inn in London. I was a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, though many years later (2016) wrongfully and unlawfully disbarred at the instigation of a pack of malicious and politically-motivated Jew-Zionists.

Scrantom, incidentally, was a modest fellow, very much a “Southern gentleman”, born in Georgia and from a wealthy background. I liked him. I never knew (until yesterday) about some of his earlier adventures, such as sailing around the Bahamas on his yacht, exploring the Himalayas, or visiting edgy places in Cambodia and elsewhere in South-East Asia, though he did tell me that he knew several of the people portrayed in the famous book and film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil_(film)], the events of which occurred in Savannah, Georgia, where Scrantom’s family members were largely based.

In September 2001, I was with Scrantom in a taxi in the Strand, London, when his wife called to say that New York was under attack. We interrupted our journey (to the Berkeley Square area of Mayfair) to get out at a Dixons store to look at the TV screens.

I well remember him later fuming that Iraq “must have” been behind the attack on the World Trade Center (that was the neo-con and American msm line at the time, of course) and that “Israel has the right idea” (i.e. bomb the hell out…). Well, he was wrong, of course, and we disagreed about that. Like most Americans, and despite his intelligence and education, he was influenced by the pro-Israel propaganda so pervasive in the msm in the USA (though his main colleague, Ron, a hard-driving former USAF officer, was more alive to the menace of Jew-Zionism, and he was, as one might expect, also pro-USA to the hilt).

Scrantom, even when I knew him, was a multimillionaire, and later become a major player in the field of “litigation insurance”, once called “champerty” and historically not lawful in most jurisdictions (including England): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champerty_and_maintenance; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champerty_and_maintenance#England_and_Wales. Now, it is considered more acceptable.

I do not much like the concept (and Jew-Zionists in England use “litigation insurance” to pursue pro-Israel “lawfare”), so maybe it is just as well that our professional connection was mainly severed in 2002, when I decided to return to the ordinary practising Bar in England. I then moved to a large country house in Cornwall, and was based professionally at Exeter.

As already mentioned, I liked Tim (though not his then wife, to be frank; I only met her once), though I should say that he and his two main colleagues had no idea at all about how to run a law firm.

Life is short, something few if any really understand when in their twenties or thirties. We all have to try to accomplish something, not in a careerist sense, but for the future of the Earth, while in any particular incarnation.

[180 East Bay Street, Charleston, South Carolina; offices of Tim Scrantom in 2001-2002]
[painting of conservation zone, Charleston, South Carolina]
[painting of the conservation zone or “French Quarter” of Charleston, South Carolina]
[The Battery, Charleston, South Carolina; a couple of my colleagues lived near there]

Tweets seen

That idiot, a (?) 30-something wannabee or occasional scribbler, tweeted something about me quite a while ago, I think in 2023 or 2024. He seems to be very pro-Jew-Zionist and pro-Israel, and his msm scribblings (it seems as part of teams, not sole bylines) were 6-11 years ago. A few more recent scribblings have been for online outlets (of which few have ever heard). https://muckrack.com/colin-cortbus/articles.

Apparently, that Cortbus person was once a UKIP activist (when a student, about 12-14 years ago).

I notice that that individual has only about 2,500 Twitter/X followers. When a pack of Jews had me expelled from Twitter in 2018, I had 3,000 followers (and that had been artificially lowered); by now I would have had tens of thousands of Twitter followers. Ah well…so much for “free speech” in this country…

Incidentally, I was unaware about that event in Zagreb. Looks as though parts of Europe are waking up.

…but look at that dishonest little Pakistani, Sajid Javid. Wrong once again. Remember his denial of the link between the migration invasion of tens of millions into the UK, and housing shortages?

Make that nearer to 10-15M, though…(plus births).

Starmer-stein is a total idiot. No idea about how to run the UK. Clueless. I predicted it, about 3-4 years ago, on the blog.

Scotland is even worse than England. Some of the idiots up there even claim to welcome being invaded by backward hordes!

The Labour Party in Scotland is actually headed by a Pakistani; so was (how ludicrous can you get?) the Scottish “National” Party, until recently.

As for that rapist, he will be out in 5-6 months. Shocking. The woman victim must be devastated and feel totally unprotected and unavenged.

Economic sanctions rarely work. When I was in Rhodesia in 1977, the roads outside the capital, Salisbury (now Harare) were empty, but that was not because of sanctions (fuel rationing only lasted 1965-1971). New cars were often seen in the city, though none were of British manufacture; French, I think Spanish, or other. Sanctions had limited effect— things such as books, Scotch whisky etc. Nothing really major. Tobacco, oranges, chrome etc were still exported (often under false flags).

Compare Putin to pathetic and dishonest Starmer-stein, or that truly ridiculous “diversity hire”, Lammy.

Not so much “wild geese” as Muscovy ducks…(only joking).

Unsurprising. Why should the peoples of Central and Western Europe (and USA) risk nuclear war for the sake of Zelensky’s brutal, shambolic, and very corrupt cabal? Most Ukrainian men are themselves trying to avoid serving in the Kiev-regime forces.

[“Israeli publication Haaretz reported that the US military used 93 THAAD interceptors in 11 days to defend Israel, revising previous cost estimates from $800 million to about $1.2 billion. With an annual production rate of about 36-48 THAAD interceptors, the US used up nearly two years’ worth of the missiles during the war.“]

Horrible. I hope they suffer for committing such crimes against the natural world. Barbarians.

Strange to think that, when I drove to the end of the almost-empty Karpas Peninsula in Northern Cyprus in early 2000, I was only 60 miles from Latakia in Syria. 60 miles, but a different world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpas_Peninsula.

[“Few people noticed why exactly Israel launched a war against Iran on June 13. Here are three hidden reasons: 1. Just days earlier, the country was rocked by its largest pedophile scandal in history—one involving several high-ranking politicians. 2. Before the war, Iran hacked three terabytes of files from Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, which is known for collecting compromising information on global politicians. 3. Israeli PM Netanyahu risked losing power due to the unpopular proposal to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli military“]

I wonder what there is in that about Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew, Dershowitz, Clinton, Trump etc.

If MOSSAD or AMAN had that stuff, does the SVR now also have it, or some of it? About Trump, for example?

“The Consolation of Philosophy”?

Allison Pearson is a remarkably stupid woman.

I presume that Lewis is hiding out in Israel. He has or had a flat in Eilat, a fact that he concealed from the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal when he was found guilty on several charges in 2018. Indeed, his Counsel told the Tribunal that Lewis should have his fine greatly reduced because Lewis’s only assets were his clothes, a mobility scooter, and a private pension worth £70 a week.

Ecce the supposed “top defamation lawyer”!

See also:

Mark Lewis is little better than a confidence trickster.

Incidentally, Lewis was an abusive husband when married briefly (one year) to the Z-list “celebrity” and, briefly, Sky News newsreader, Caroline Feraday (amusingly, best-known for having been sacked by text message by BBC local radio about 15 years ago).

Not that I care at all about Lewis’s abusive behaviour to his then wife, who now lives in a “nowheresville” in the outer regions of Los Angeles (see my blog posts).

The Feraday woman joined with Lewis in attacking me viciously on Twitter (about my opposition to the Jewish fake WW2 “reparations” scam); in fact she initiated the attacks, with which Lewis then joined in. Until then (many years ago, about 2012 or so), I had never heard of the bastard, or her.

Mark Lewis was (maybe still is) a “patron” of that evil and squalid organization, the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA”, working with its main characters, such as Gideon Falter (a proven liar and, arguably, perjurer) and the Jew-Zionist Israel fanatic, posing as “Head of Investigations and Enforcement”, whom we can call “Slitherman”.

An example below of Lewis’s abusive social media activity, which (after several years) got him into trouble (though not via me— unlike the Jew-Zionist troublemakers, I do not waste time making endless complaints to police etc):

(in fact, in 2018, it was revealed that Lewis constantly abused people on Twitter etc, even a young Jewish boy; Lewis blamed his medications for his abusive behaviour…).

Ecce Allison Pearson’s solicitor (apparently)…

My own Twitter account, as explained, was deleted by Twitter itself in 2018 at the instigation of effectively the same pack of Jews, while Caroline Feraday deleted her original Twitter account a year or two ago, mainly because it was too embarrassing for her in various ways. She has another Twitter/X account now (with only 115 “followers”, despite she herself following 166 Twitter/X accounts).

Caroline Feraday’s now-deleted Twitter account had, at one time, tens of thousands of “followers”, all fake, all bought by her and by “Mark Lewis Lawyer”, who himself bought nearly 80,000 in an attempt to seem important, popular etc. Legal business news outlets even commented, cautiously, about the dishonest fakery of Lewis and his then wife.

Caroline Feraday now works for local public radio station KCLU in Ventura County, California, a subsidized radio station (National Public Radio network) with (putting it jokingly) about half a dozen listeners.

A few years ago, Caroline Feraday was publicly begging on GoFundMe, in an attempt to raise a mere USD $5,000. Sic transit gloria mundi…(and “celebrity”)…

From last month; I missed that one.

Cor, ‘ee’s well ‘ard!” (when arresting a woman of 83 doing basically nothing; the police are, shall we say, “not so hard” when confronting, if they ever do, predators and scavengers, such as those usually found living in caravans…).

Pathetic.

Ha. Soon “we shall all be (called) terrorists”…

I have seen the odd thing over the years from Rod Liddle with which I have agreed; quite a lot with which I disagreed. Also, my impression (I have never met him) is that he is rather an unpleasant person.

I could suggest something, but would not want some Jew-Zionist troublemaker making yet another contrived complaint to the police “service” about me.

The Israeli Jews are so brave, when firing at unarmed and defenceless civilians…

Late music

Diary Blog, 11 September 2024, including reminiscence about the “9/11” attack in 2001

Morning music

11 September 2001

Well, here we are again. On the “original” 11 September, meaning “9/11” 2001 (in the American format), I was in the back of a taxi driving down the Strand in London, with an American colleague. Mid-morning. He received a call from his wife in Charleston, South Carolina. Something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

My colleague relayed the news to me, and the typically know-all London taxi driver told us that he already knew all about it.

My American colleague asked me where we could get to a TV. I replied that our office in London (off Berkeley Square in Mayfair) had one, but that there used to be a Dixons (electronics and home electrical goods store) in the Strand. We saw it, disembarked and went into that store. Hundreds of TV sets, all showing what looked like a disaster movie. A few customers wandering around, looking at the goods, seemingly unaware of the enormity of what was happening, vicariously, in front of them.

After about 10 minutes looking and listening, we left and went to my then office. The staff there were getting the latest on-the-ground and diplomatic news.

My American colleague was both grim and angry, and muttered something about how “we” should respond in the same way the Israelis always did. Needless to say, I disagreed, though as politely as I could. For one thing, the origins and motives of the perpetrators had not yet been established (he was saying that it must be the Iraqis, which of course turned out to be wrong). I do recall remarking that if a state was proven to have been behind the attack, then it was undoubtedly an act of war in terms of international law.

Of course, the 2001 WTC attack was used as the fuel for the American-led invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan.

I well remember my American colleague’s anger, which I think was general across the USA, from what I not only saw on TV but also what I noted once or twice in the USA not long afterward; I flew to Washington about a week or so after the attacks.

I myself was relatively unemotional about it, despite the horrible images and evident suffering etc. That’s just me, I suppose. After all, many horrible things happen in the world, and the Americans themselves perpetrate quite a few of them. Having said that, the attack was an appalling outrage from almost any point of view.

Since then, of course, the Trade Center attack has spawned a hundred “conspiracy theories”, including the so-called “Dancing Israelis”: see https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12768362.five-israelis-were-seen-filming-as-jet-liners-ploughed-into-the-twin-towers-on-september-11-2001/.

That report is really worth reading. The Israeli intelligence connection to the “9/11” attack is more than a simple “conspiracy theory” that can be simply laughed off.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks_advance-knowledge_conspiracy_theories.

After the attacks on New York and Washington, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was asked what the terrorist strikes would mean for US-Israeli relations. He said: “It’s very good.” Then he corrected himself, adding: “Well, it’s not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy for Israel from Americans.”

[Herald Scotland]

As with the Kennedy assassination, some of the “9/11” conspiracy theories, mutually contradictory as some are, cannot be entirely discounted.

One thing that I found odd at the time was that members of the bin Laden family living in the USA at the time were flown out of US airspace on private jets only a day or two after the attacks (the Pentagon also having been hit), and authorized in person, it seems, by George W. Bush, the U.S. President, and at a time before ordinary commercial flights were allowed to resume.

Of course, since the attacks of 2001, the area of the attack has been redeveloped.

The original “Twin Towers” complex was a very powerful architectural statement, partly because of the two almost identical main buildings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(1973%E2%80%932001)

In fact, there were minor differences. I went up both towers. Once only, in 1989, onto the open observation deck of the South Tower:

…and also once only to the Hors d’Oeuvrerie and Cellar in the Sky near the top of the North Tower, where I enjoyed the view and a couple of glasses of Californian Chardonnay with my first wife, an employee of the Federal Government. That would have been in 1990 or 1991.

In fact, during the years 1989-1993 I was occasionally at the World Trade Center, but only because I sometimes used the PATH line from Newark (New Jersey) into Manhattan, a service that terminated either at the WTC or at 33rd Street/Herald Square in Midtown (I more often went to Midtown).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_(rail_system)

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Silverstein#September_11_attacks

The rebuilt area is still quite striking but perhaps not quite so much as the original:

[the redeveloped area of the World Trade Center]
[by night]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(2001%E2%80%93present)

Incidentally, one of the things I noticed about the South Tower was the speed of the very large express lift/elevator (the size of a room), which transported tourists to the floor below the Observation Deck in a matter of only a couple of minutes, if I recall aright. I think 107 floors. There was a staircase from there to the outside Observation Deck.

Tweets seen

I did not see the U.S. Presidential TV debate. Such “debates” are always rubbish (going back as far as the famous Nixon-Kennedy ones). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_debates.

Having said that, such shouting matches and trivia do have their effect on voter response.

At this point, I have no idea who supposedly “won” the TV debate, or who is going to come out on top in the election.

The “Twitterati”, or Twitter/X twits, heavily pro-Kamala Harris, think that she has “won” the TV debate, but that is near-meaningless: they were also sure that the Remain side would win the Brexit Referendum, and that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

America is now so polarized that it would take a President ten times better than the two present contenders rolled together to patch it up.

Starmer-Labour is a Labour Friends of Israel project.

More reminiscences

It seems that today is a day for Memory Lane.

I notice that Larkbeare House in Exeter, not far from the barristers’ chambers where I was professionally based during the years 2002-2008 (though actually resident much of the time after 2005 and until mid-2009 in France), is up for sale.

Larkbeare House was, at that time (and, indeed, since 1876), the Judges’ Lodgings. High Court and Circuit Judges on the Western Circuit of the Bar [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuits_of_England_and_Wales] would stay there when sitting at Exeter.

I attended a couple of receptions there in 2006/2007.

Judges’ Lodgings, which go back hundreds of years, came into existence as a way of isolating judges from the opinions and potential pressures of the local populations, and also protecting them from potential intimidation or protest.

The sale is a sign of the times. The misgovernment of David Cameron-Levita and George Osborne decided to sell off most of the remaining Judges’ Lodgings. Judges now often stay in hotels when on circuit; to my mind not entirely satisfactory.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to buy the property, the “guide price” is £4M.

More tweets

More tweets

Listen to that little bastard (Hamish Falconer MP). Parroting the exact same words that many “Conservative” MPs did 2010-2024. No difference whatsoever. “Tough choices” etc. The little bastard has never had to make a “tough choice” in his life, let alone one that impacted him personally.

Incidentally:

The son of Charlie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, who served as Lord Chancellor under Tony Blair, Falconer attended Westminster School and then St. John’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 2008 in Human, Social and Political Science,[4] before joining the diplomatic service. Falconer worked in the UK government’s Department for International Development from 2009 to 2013, and then the Foreign and Commonwealth Office until 2022.[5] His diplomatic career centred on national security and humanitarian relief, including hostage recovery.[6][7] Whilst in the Foreign Office, he spent a year at Yale University as a “World Fellow”.[8]

Since leaving the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, Falconer worked as an associate fellow at the IPPR,[6] and was a Policy Fellow at the think tank Labour Together alongside standing as a candidate for Parliament.

[Wikipedia].

A horrible little System-careerist bastard, in short. Moreover, one born with a double-size silver spoon in his mouth.

Starmer and his cohorts, including the said horrible little careerist bastard, are sending £3 BILLION a year to the brutal Jewish dictatorship in Kiev, apart from anything else. More than they are confiscating from British pensioners.

The “Conservative” government of that little Indian money-juggler had to go, had to be binned, but what has replaced it (as I predicted, though not alone) is a kind of useless, pointless, sleazy, box-ticking Blair Mark Two government of would-be dictatorial idiots, headed by chief idiot Starmer.

Everyone and every organization helping to facilitate evil rubbish of that sort should be purged.

Also seen there, jeering, is bad-joke “Lord Chancellor” and Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, a Pakistani woman whose entire “legal career” (even including Bar pupillage) lasted for only about 3 years, mostly spent being a “gopher” at a firm of solicitors.

What a line-up of unpleasant individuals. Look at sour-faced would-be dictator Yvette Cooper! Has she been told that her Labour Friends of Israel subscription is due? Have some of her latest fake expenses claims been queried?

They are already worse. Starmer-Labour, Friends of Israel-Labour, has nothing it really wants to do, except sit as a “government”, get paid well, make connections with big business, and “govern “, punishing anyone who expresses alternative views of the world.

They have no policies worth a plugged nickel, and they have no mandate— only 4 out of every 20 eligible voters voted for them, and most of those were people wanting only to bin the “Conservative” Party.

[No, wait! I voted Labour!“]

Starmer-Labour has a list of people they want to kill off or at least imprison and/or silence: pensioners (hardly any of whom vote Labour now), alternative political voices, those opposed to Israeli war crimes and the UK Jewish lobby.

This is a (barely-)”elected” dictatorship, composed mainly of people who can fairly, if loosely, be described as traitors.

Talking point

Britain (and some other countries, such as Sweden) in 2024?

More tweets seen

That Dunt individual is not objective. I believe that he tweeted or retweeted about me a few times in the past. Unpleasant, and usually wrong in his views.

Starmer and his cabal think that the recent protests and their “riotous” offshoots are as bad as it gets for him and Labour. Think again. 4+ years of this type of quasi-tyrannical misgovernment and anything could happen.

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13838731/Keir-Starmer-Rachel-Reeves-energy-bill-hikes-cap-costs-Downing-Street-flats-winter-fuel.html

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are set to be insulated from the impact of energy bill hikes as pensioners face a struggle without winter fuel payments. 

The PM and Chancellor only pay a taxable benefit on running costs at the grace-and-favour apartments – capped at 10 per cent of their ministerial salaries.

It means that they contribute around £3,000 to cover all utilities and other expenses, and the sum will not go up when the Ofgem cap increases by 10 per cent next month.

…critics have warned that thousands of pensioners on low-incomes could die through lack of heating when the weather turns.”

[Daily Mail]

Late tweets

Well, here she is: aged about 28, and her only work experience has been a bit of “intern” and “volunteer” activity: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Dollimore#Political_career.

These are the know-nothings that purport to rule over us (of course, just lobby-fodder; and a kind of much better-paid advice centre worker).

As I have said, Iran’s tactics of uncertainty keep Israel off-balance, but such tactics cannot be kept in deployment forever. In the end, Iran will have to either put up or shut up.

The way things are going, Britain’s future looks very dark (literally), but I should still much prefer this country not to be blasted and irradiated by nuclear war…

The UK must withdraw all support from the Kiev regime.

Tell me about it!

A few of my own experiences of persecution over the past decade:

I shall have a little more to say about all that either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Late music

[c.1941: Wehrmacht soldier chats with a Parisienne on the promenade of the Palais de Chaillot, by the gardens of the Trocadero, and across the river from the Champ de Mars and Eiffel Tower]