MCA: The Octopus' Tentacle That Wraps Around The World
Reaching terminal velocity at the fulcrum of entertainment and (non-)governmental crime
The Octopus Murders docuseries has caused quite the sensation since it was released February 28th on Netflix. This article will assume the reader has some familiarity with Danny Casolaro’s investigation into the murky alliance between intelligence operators and global organized crime.
Danny’s entry point into the Octopus’ tentacles purportedly began with the government sanctioned heist of the PROMIS software, which included the active participation of the Department of Justice in the cover-up. A good summary of this complicated tale can be found in chapter 17 of Mary Seymour’s book The Last Circle.
I got sucked into the grip of the Octopus by the bizarre case of Britney Spears’ conservatorship. Immediately, I knew that the story being spun was completely implausible. I’m three years into my investigation; my conceptual model of the conspiracy is anchored in bedrock facts.
Can you have a parasocial relationship with a dead journalist? My social network fully identifies with Danny Casolaro’s friend’s perspective that tentacles of his investigation were suffocating the life out of him. This statement from echoes across the decades right into my eardrum:1
Who am I to think I’m a better investigator than Danny? My investigation has consumed my RAM and my life circumstances have fared the same: broke and without a book deal. Yet, my ultimate prize feels just around the next corner; I feen my next breakthrough and feign interest in any topic that does not pertain to my hunt.
For the record, I’m a notorious fainter during blood draws. You will find it noted multiple times in my medical records.
My entry point into this deep sea dive was a product of being intensely subsumed by my Parkinson’s symptoms. My miswired body operates with different laws of physics; this exponentially increases the time required for routine daily tasks. The only thing I can do efficiently is read, watch, listen, and think. Now my body of work? - Well, it is a pristinely calibrated interface to synthesize data in an era of information overload.
Danny’s work is a far off outpost where I have been prospecting for truth. I just came to learn Danny felt he was developing symptoms of multiple sclerosis and he believed it may be due to being targeted by a bioweapon. My Parkinson’s can feel like a form of torture - both in its physical symptoms, as well as fruitlessly ruminating on its' etiology.
In 1991 a journalist asked Michael Riconosciuto about Danny’s concern he was developing a brain disease:
[Michael Riconosciuto] promptly said, “Oh, yes. He, uh, was concerned. And that was one of the reasons he had such an obsession [with this story]. Because he felt he had been hit by these people.”
“Hit by them?”
“He confided this to me to try to get me to talk further” about biological warfare projects he’d discovered, Riconosciuto explained.
It is a circuitous route to get from stolen software to bioweapons or a pop star’s conservatorship to the Octopus. Nonetheless - the goal of embarking on a deep dive is to resurface with your findings. Don’t forget to breathe or you might pass out.
MCA: The Severed & Regenerative Tentacle
The only way people earn a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” is if they are associates of some kind of monopoly. Isn’t the U.S. federal government best suited to dole out unofficial pardons? By my estimation it would be preferable to a presidential or governor’s pardon - as the governmental sanctioning of those crimes is a matter for the public record.
Upon viewing The Octopus Murders I was very surprised there was no content regarding MCA. This Substack was specifically created to dive into the history of the entertainment industry. You see - I have to tell the story of MCA in order for people to understand that Live Nation-Ticketmaster is its offspring. So I shall call them “The Squid” and I fixated on them because of the inordinate amount of power they had to profit from Britney’s conservatorship.2
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