John and Yoko funded Paul Krassner's first reports on Watergate

http://www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=9188

Krassner published Mae Russell's reports on the Watergate break-in in 1972:


The attempted burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel had suddenly brought her eight and a half years of dedicated conspiracy research to an astounding climax. She recognized names, modus operandi and patterns of cover-up. She could trace linear connections leading inevitably from the assassination of JFK to the Watergate break-in, masterminded by E. Howard Hunt, who had worked for the CIA for 21 years.

Three weeks later–while Nixon was pressing for the postponement of an investigation until after the election, and the mainstream press was still referring to the incident as a "caper" and a "third-rate burglary"–Mae completed a long article for the Realist, documenting the conspiracy and delineating the players, from the burglars all the way up to FBI Dir. L. Patrick Gray, Atty. Gen. John Mitchell and President Nixon himself.

"The significance of the Watergate affair," she wrote, "is that every element essential for a political coup d’etat in the United States was assembled at the time of their arrest."

Believing that her documented article could prevent Nixon’s reelection, she delineated the details of a plot so insidious and yet so logical that the typesetter wrote "Bravo!" at the end of her manuscript. However, instead of my usual credit arrangement, the printer insisted on $5000 cash in advance before this issue could go to press. I didn’t have the money, and had no idea how I would get it, but I was filled with an inexplicable sense of confidence.

When I got home, the phone rang. It was Yoko Ono. She and John Lennon were in town, and they invited me to lunch. At that time, the administration was trying to deport Lennon, ostensibly for an old marijuana bust, but really because they were afraid he was planning to perform for protestors at the Republican National Convention that summer. I brought the galleys of Mae’s article to lunch. Her account of the government’s motivation and methodology provided a context for John and Yoko’s current harassment.

I mentioned my printer’s ultimatum, and they immediately took me to a bank and withdrew $5000 cash.

The timing was so exquisite that Coincidence and Mysticism became the same process for me.

else here.

And it was all Mae's research, which Paul would be the first to concede.

Mae could be fairly paranoid at times, but I think its important to establish
that these were not "Paul Krassner's first reports", but the late Mae Brussell's.
She's the one who amassed the evidence, did the dangerous footwork, and etc.

and I didn't intend to say it was Paul Krassner who wrote the article (which is pretty clear if you read his column).

It was published in "The Realist" which was Krassner's newsletter, hence my allusion to the fact his newsletter was the first to report the shadier, conspiratorial angle...perhaps "publish" would be more accurate.

I realize you meant well, but Mae's not here to speak up for herself, so I stepped in
at this ungawdly hour of the morning. lol

Just goes to show that people with money can make a difference. Working class hero, indeed. :)

Maybe it was just one in a whole mountain of straws that bothered the hell out of the Blue Meanies.

I still think it has to do with the Top 10 play list for Radio Hanoi. Jimi, Janice, John, Jim (Morrison) . . .

Very interesting!

I loved George Harrison, and I thought the two most political Beatles are dead--both had attempts on their lives (well one attempt and one dead).

I find his solo albums to be as overbearingly preachy as Benny Hinn.

HOWEVER, the man could write a song )when he wasn't lazy) and he could harmonize like a motherfucker and he invented a form of slide guitar that hadn't existed before. Plus, he bankrolled the Monty Python movies, which in their own way were as subversive and mind-opening as anything Mae Brussel ever wrote.

however, some of his lyrics suggest that he was against politicized religion and hypocrites. Also, against people with power exploiting others.

This is poetry as complex as anything T.S. Eliot wrote:

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

But it's gonna take money
A whole lotta spending money
It's gonne take plenty of money
To do it right child

It's gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It's gonna take patience and time, ummm
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right child

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

And this time I know it's for real
The feelings that I feel
I know if I put my mind to it
I know that I really can do it

I got my mind set on you
Set on you
I got my mind set on you
Set on you

But it's gonna take money
A whole lotta spending money
It's gonna take plenty of money
To do it right child

It's gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It's gonna take patience and time, ummm
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

And this time I know it's for real
The feelings that I feel
I know if I put my mind to it
I know that I really can do it

But it's gonna take money
A whole lotta spending money
It's gonna take plenty of money
To do it right child

It's gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It's gonna take patience and time, ummm
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right

Set on you
Set on you


:evilgrin:

I do like a lot of Harrison's songs, but you're right...sometimes he was like Dana Carvey singing "Chopping Broccoli."

Not everyone goes out on a street corner and wears their politics on their sleeves (or needs to).
If George's work was preachy (and it was sometimes, so was John's and Paul's at times, too.)

And Paul, bless him, just got a Grammy Award nomination at the age of almost 64.

>which in their own way were as subversive and mind-opening as anything Mae Brussel

Why the knock at poor, old Mae? All three of these guys' political stances have received a LOT
more attention than Mae ever got in her lifetime.