I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted from the American referendum. And while all the broohaha was going on, there were other stories taking place last week and in the run-up to it, that would be good to review this week. Some of them, as we'll see, may or may not have something to do with the election, and some of them not.

But somehow, this one, I think, may have something to do with it. Or - as seems more likely - it may have something to do with the strange goings-on in Antarctica over the past few years, or possibly both. Just by way of a brief review of those goings-on, a few years ago there began to be rumors being shared that the Russians had found or discovered something in the large under-ice lake, Lake Vostok, on that continent. Whatever was going on, the Russians weren't talking, but there seemed to have been by some accounts a minor flurry of activities there as they were flying planes in and out of the polar continent. Then, of course, we've seen the strange stories of sudden illnesses over the years, and of emergency flights having to go down and fetch people and fly them back to civilization for treatment of whatever mysterious illnesses they were suffering. But we never hear any follow up to these, on exactly what these people might have contracted. Then there was, of course,the Nazi expedition to that continent in 1938-39, under the auspices of Nazi Party Reichsleiter Rudolf Hess and Reichsmarschall Herman Goering. The expedition stayed several months, made surveys of Queen Maud Land or, as the Nazis called it, Neuschwabenland (New Swabia), and the expedition returned to Germany by a curious zig-zag route through the southern Atlantic. Medallions were struck, and then everyone pretty much forgot about it, and the Nazis weren't saying very much either.

After the war, of course, was Admiral Richard Byrd's Operation High Jump expedition, outfitted for several months' stay, a battalion of specially trained Marines, some destroyers and destroyer escorts, and a small light aircraft carrier. After a few weeks, the expedition departed in a rather hurried fashion, and Admiral Byrd gave an interview - now well-known in various histories - to the El Mercurio of Santiago de Chile, in which he allegedly stated that the USA would have to prepare itself to defend against "enemy fighters" which could fly from pole to pole with tremendous speed. This in turn fueled all sorts of "Nazi UFO-flying saucer" speculations which still get a lot of traction in certain circles, though this author disagrees with it strongly, for reasons I've articulated in several interviews and in some of my books. In any case, however, it is an indicator of more high strangeness in Antarctica. And rounding out all this high strangeness, reports and stories have run in various magazines such as Nexus of post-war British and America covert operations on the southern continent, shooting it out with Antarctic SS troops in caverns deep beneath the ice. More recently, pictures have occasionally surfaced on various internet sites of alleged giant pyramids beneath the ice, and so on.

As if it couldn't possibly get any stranger, even more recently the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill III, visited the polar continent a few months ago, had his picture taken with some penguins, shortly after his historic meeting in Havana with Pope Francis I, where the two hierarchs signed a joint declaration calling for an end to the genocide of Christians in the Middle East. Ostensibly, Kirill III's visit to the continent was to bless a Russian Orthodox Church on the continent, serving the Russian contingent there. That was a story that may have had some traction for the moment, but now there's been another high-level visitor to that continent, and that was none other than the US Secretary of State, John "Ketchup" Kerry, whose visit moreover occurred during what surely must rank as one of the most hard fought and important elections in US history. This raises the question, why such a visit now? Perhaps they were planning to fund another chapter of Isis or Al Qaeda, but I doubt it.

Here's the story:

John Kerry lands in Antarctica becoming the highest US official to visit the continent

There is of course not much of any detail here, save the mention that Mr. Kerry, a former US Senator, has made "climate change" one of "his" issues, thus hinting that this may have been a possible purpose of his visit. The official announcement from the US Department of State also highlights the climate change angle:

Secretary Kerry Travels to Antarctica

Note that the State Department bulletin indicates that this is a component of a global tour... no problem, we'll just make a stop along the way in Antarctica.

You know me: I just can't help the high octane speculation impulse. Consider only the wide context here, and the strange associations of the southern continent's visitors in the past eight decades: Nazis, whose expedition was sponsored by Herman Goering and Rudolf Hess, the latter of whom flew to the United Kingdom in May 1941 to seek out a peace with that country, or so we're told. Hess -or at least, someone looking pretty much like him, though his British physician expressed doubts, since the "Spandau Prison Hess" did not have any scars from the wounds he supposedly suffered as a soldier in World War One - then spent the rest of his life in Spandau Prison, until he supposedly hoisted his frail body up and hung himself. And this was after Mr. Gorbachev apparently reversed the veto on his release, placing the ball firmly in Britain's court, and apparently they weren't buying. In any case, that's the circumstances, in a nutshell, of Hess's death. Then there was Admiral Byrd and his Marines, the Patriarch of Moscow, and now, a few months later, John Kerry. And if one believes those stories reported in Duncan Rhodes' Nexus magazine a few years ago, one can add a list of secret British and American commandos and some Nazi SS troops.

In that context, the "climate change" explanation doesn't seem to be carrying much water. I can believe Kerry might have such an agenda, but Rudolf Hess and Herman Goering? Ausgeschlossen! Patriarch Kirill of Moscow was there to indulge a secret "climate change" hobby? Nyet! Admiral Byrd a "global warming guru"? Not a chance.

The US Secretary of State is the USA's chief diplomat. And notably, his visit occurred within the context of an extended diplomatic tour to other countries, suggesting that his purpose in Antarctica might have been of a diplomatic nature. That in its turn suggests that perhaps Kirill III's visit may have had a similar purpose, ex officio. But diplomacy with whom? Well, since we're crawling way out on to the end of the speculation twig where the weight on the twig far exceeds the evidence to bear it, it would perforce have to be "with someone else", since all the countries on the continent have relations with each other. Antarctica, a continent on virtual lock down from all the nations with a presence there, would be an ideal for such "beginning negotiations" and "diplomatic relations" to be worked out.

The question is, who might that someone else be? Well, having tossed out the possibility - again far beyond any evidence supporting it - I'll leave it for you to tell me.

But one thing seems clear, whatever is taking place down there, something is going on, and we're not being told the whole story.

See you on the flip side...