Western Democracies Have Evolved Into Tyrannical Governments

Perhaps a global political apocalypse has already arrived.

Activists and dissidents should understand that evil forces and tyrannical governments have evolved. Just as human knowledge and science expand, so do the strategies and instruments used by rulers, elites and plutocrats. By learning from history and using new technology they have smarter tools of tyranny. The best ones prevent uprisings, revolutions and political reforms. Rather than violently destroy rebellious movements, they let them survive as marginalized and ineffective efforts that divert and sap the energy of nonconformist and rebellious thinkers. Real revolution remains an energy-draining dream, as evil forces thrive.

Most corrupt and legally sanctioned forms of tyranny hide in plain sight as democracies with free elections. The toughest lesson is that ALL elections are distractions. Nothing conceals tyranny better than elections. Few Americans accept that their government has become a two-party plutocracy run by a rich and powerful ruling class. The steady erosion of the rule of law is masked by everyday consumer freedoms. Because people want to be happy and hopeful, we have an epidemic of denial, especially in the present presidential campaign. But to believe that any change-selling politician or shift in party control will overturn the ruling class is the epitome of self-delusion and false hope. In the end, such wishful thinking perpetuates plutocracy. Proof is that plutocracy has flourished despite repeated change agents, promises of reform and partisan shifts.

The tools of real rebellion are weak. Activists and dissidents look back and see successful rebellions and revolutions and think that when today´s victims of tyranny experience enough pain and see enough political stink they too will revolt. This is wrong. They think that the Internet spreads information and inspiration to the masses, motivating them to revolt. This is wrong. They await catastrophic economic or environmental collapse to spur rebellion. This too is wrong.

Why are these beliefs wrong? Power elites have an arsenal of weapons to control and manipulate social, political and economic systems globally: corruption of public officials that make elections a sham; corporate mainstream media that turn news into propaganda; manipulation of financial markets that create fear for the public and profits for the privileged; false free trade globalization that destroys the middle class; rising economic inequality that keep the masses time-poor and financially insecure; intense marketing of pharmaceuticals that keep people passive; and addictive consumerism, entertainment and gambling that keep people distracted and pacified.

The biggest challenge for dissidents and rebels is to avoid feel-good therapeutic activism having virtually no chance of removing evil and tyranny. Idealism without practicality tactics without lofty goals, and symbolic protests pose no threat to power elites. Anger and outrage require great strategic thinking from leaders seeking revolution, not mere change. And social entrepreneurs that use business and management skills to tackle genuine social problems do nothing to achieve political reforms. To the extent they achieve results they end up removing interest in overthrowing political establishments that have allowed the problems to fester.

What is the new tool of tyranny? Technological connectivity achieved through advanced communications and computer systems, especially the rise of wireless connectivity. The global message to the masses is simple: Buy electronic products to stay plugged in. Connectivity may give pleasure, but it gives even more power to elites, rulers and plutocrats. It allows them to coordinate their efforts through invisible cabals, to closely monitor everything that ordinary people and dissidents do, and to cooperatively and clandestinely adjust social, financial and political systems to maintain stability and dominance.

In this dystopian world all systems are integrated to serve upper class elites and the corporate state, not ordinary people. When ordinary people spend their money to be more shackled to connectivity products, they become unwitting victims of largely invisible governmental and corporate oppressive forces. They are oblivious that their technological seduction exacerbates their political and economic exploitation. Though some 70 percent believe the country is on the wrong track, they fail to see the deeper causes of the trend. And if Americans were really happy and content with their consumer culture, then why are they stuffing themselves with so many antidepressants, sleeping pills and totally unhealthy foods? In truth, the vast majority of people are in denial about the rotten system they are trapped in (aka The Matrix). They are manipulated to keep hope alive through voting, despite the inability of past elections to stop the slide into economic serfdom.

Increasingly, the little-discussed phenomenon of economic apartheid ensures that elites live their lavish lives safely in physically separated ways. Concurrently, economic inequality rises, as the rich extract unusually high fractions of global wealth. When the rich get richer, the powerful get stronger. Does some economic prosperity trickles down to the poorest people? Perversely, the middle class is moved into the lower class. In this new physics of evil, wealth transfer is not from the rich to the poor, but from the middle class in wealthier countries to the poor in developing nations, where a few new billionaires join the global plutocracy.

Some data on economic inequality: The after-tax income of the top 1 percent of Americans rose 228 percent from 1979 through 2005, while middle class income remained flat over the last 4 decades. The richest 0.01 percent of earners made 5.1 percent of all income in 2005, up more than 300 percent from just 1.2 percent in 1960. Bad economic times like the present just exacerbate inequality. Even as most Wall Street companies lost billions in the sub-prime mortgage debacle after they had already made billions, they gave obscene bonuses to their employees: the average topped $180,000 for 2007, tripling the $61,000 in 2002. Scholars used to predict that high levels of economic inequality like we have today would lead to rebellion. But there are now insufficient tools and paths for rebellion, because the plutocracy has eliminated them. Instead, citizens are offered elections whose outcomes can be controlled and subverted by the ruling class.

The New World Order is getting what it wants: a stable two-class system, with the lower class serving the elitist upper class. The paradox is that along with rising economic inequality and apartheid is mounting consumerism and materialism that is used to pacify, distract and control the masses. That´s where easy credit and cheap products from low-wage nations are critical. The poor can have cell phones, 24-7 Internet access and increasingly cars, while the bejeweled upper class travel in private jets and yachts, vacation on private islands, and have several gated mansions maintained by servants and guarded by private police. We have a technologically advanced form of medieval society. It is working in the US and China and most other places. Elections just mask economic tyranny and slavery.

The ruling class knows how to maintain stability. Keep the masses distracted, fearful, brainwashed, insecure, and dependent on government and business sectors for survival. Train people to see themselves as relatively free consumers. Maintain the myth that ordinary people can become wealthy and join the ruling class, which theoretically is not impossible, but of no statistical significance for the masses.

There are no easy paths to restore power to the people. But here are three strategies worth considering.

First, the real power of the masses is as consumers, not as voters, workers, activists, or Internet users. Weakened unions, globalization, technology, and illegal immigration have sapped the power of workers. National economies, especially the US, depend on consumers. Suspensions in discretionary consumer spending used as a political weapon could force reforms. But curbing personal spending and saving money has become a rare form of civil disobedience. Consumers buy stuff when they want it, not when they can afford it. Rulers have replaced chains with debt and no political leader in a very long time has championed economic rebellion.

Second, because they are more a tool of tyranny than rebellion, the masses should stop giving credibility and legitimacy to faux democracies by boycotting elections. Plutocrats cleverly equate patriotism and good citizenship with voting while at the same time ensuring that no genuine change agents can succeed even if elected. All election results can be subverted by the forces of corruption. Those promising change, like Barack Obama, do not pose a lethal threat to forces of evil and corruption. Sadly, refusing to vote in corrupt political systems is another worthy but unpopular form of civil disobedience. The compulsion to vote is a political narcotic that sustains democratic tyranny.

Third, people must seek forms of direct democracy that give them political power. National ballot measures and initiatives are needed to make laws, impose spending mandates and recall elected officials. A most important tool is constitutional conventions outside the control of status quo preservationists to obtain systemic reforms that governments will never provide, as explained for the US at www.foavc.org. No greater example of ruling class power exists than the absence of massive public demands for using what the Founders gave Americans in Article V: the convention option to circumvent and fix the federal government that – amazingly – has never been used, and that no presidential candidate has supported, including constitutional champion Ron Raul.

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

http://www.delusionaldemocracy.com

Joel S. Hirschhorn has been widely published; his previous book is Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money - see www.sprawlkills.com .  He has published many articles and oped pieces in major newspapers (Washington Post, New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune) and on progressive web sites such as CommonDreams, The Progress Report, SmirkingChimp and Opednews; Google Joel S. Hirschhorn to see his writings and achievements and see link below.  Before becoming a writer and consultant, he was a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress (Office of Technology Assessment), Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources at the National Governors Association, a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and head of an environmental consulting company.

~ Link ~

 

Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

" ... A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

The Independent is launching a campaign today to secure justice for Mr Kambaksh. The UN, human rights groups, journalists' organisations and Western diplomats have urged Mr Karzai's government to intervene and free him. But the Afghan Senate passed a motion yesterday confirming the death sentence.

The MP who proposed the ruling condemning Mr Kambaksh was Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, a key ally of Mr Karzai. The Senate also attacked the international community for putting pressure on the Afghan government and urged Mr Karzai not to be influenced by outside un-Islamic views.

The case of Mr Kambaksh, who also worked a s reporter for the Jahan-i-Naw (New World) newspaper, is seen in Afghanistan as yet another chapter in the escalation in the confrontation between Afghanistan and the West.  ... "

~ Read more...  ~

How you can save Pervez

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh's imminent execution is an affront to civilised values. It is not, however, a foregone conclusion. If enough international pressure is brought to bear on President Karzai's government, his sentence may yet be overturned. Add your weight to the campaign by urging the Foreign Office to demand that his life be spared. Sign The Independent's e-petition at www.independent.co.uk/petition

 

Is CERN safe?

From Journey to the centre of the earth

" ... Bunches of protons will smash into each other - smaller than a human hair, but with the combined force of a freight train. Scientists will never have meted out such violence to objects so small. There will be a huge party. Careers will be made; new textbooks will be written. Conditions will be created that replicate the universe moments after the Big Bang. Miniature black holes will be created (but only tiny ones, millions of times smaller than an atom, and only for millionths of a second. So not to worry.) The Nobel Prize may be won, as it was by Cern physicists Carlo Rubbia and Simon Van der Meer in 1984. Most importantly, there is a significant chance that the most important mystery of the universe - what is mass? - will be solved.

One thing that occurs to me is that smashing things into each other at the speed of light might not be an entirely safe thing to do. Could there not be, as some have already suggested, a very big explosion? Might Switzerland disappear into a black hole? The answer is: almost certainly not. Why? Well, if you think about Einstein's equation, E=mc2 (where E stands for energy, m for mass and c for the speed of light), you can see that it takes a huge amount of energy to create a tiny bit of mass. That's because mass consists of minuscule particles held together by vast forces. So if you take a piece of mass (uranium is good for this) and break it apart in the right way, you release these vast forces. A nuclear explosion turns a small amount of mass into a huge amount of energy.

'We do the opposite thing,' Gillies says. 'We turn a huge amount of energy into a small amount of mass, using Einstein's equation backwards.' ... "

 From Raising the Alarm Over Massive and Dangerous New Experiment; Where Is the Oversight on CERN?

" ... Some of the world’s top scientists, including some Nobel Prize winners, are preparing to create black-hole material in a laboratory in Europe this spring. What will happen when they fire up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—the largest machine on earth? Will the black-hole material be stable? Will it be controllable? European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists say their experiment is safe, but how they are sure? Some opposing nuclear physicists have raised the alarm, including a Nobel laureate.

Scientists at LHC, outside of Geneva, have been planning for years to collide bundles of 10,000,000,000,000 (10 trillion) protons moving at the speed of light head-on into other bundles of 10 trillion protons. The LHC is a new type of accelerator, which will cause collisions to pile up at predetermined junctions into a huge dogpile of collisions that have the potential to build spontaneous black-holes.

The new material created by this collision is unknown to humanity. Its dynamics are unpredictable. The methods and requirements for containment are unknown, and if an accident occurs and an uncontrollable black-hole is created, scientists do not know how they will destabilize it. What if this experiment “succeeds” beyond their wildest dreams and becomes uncontainable? What if this black-hole begins progressively compacting all the matter near it? What will be the result? No one knows. Who has a plan to destabilize any voracious material created? There does not appear to be one.

As the author of The Dominium, a new book outlining a new scientific model on antimatter and gravity relationships, I am raising questions about the presumption that mini-black-holes are harmless. The Dominium model outlines cosmological events from Big Bang to Big Bang. This model is not plagued by anomaly as other theories are. It is coherent. It is seamless. Yet this model presents the awful implication: mini black-holes will not disappear as simply as predicted. They will persist, and they will begin compacting, which in scientific terms means they will be “stable” and uncontrollable. ... "

 

From The Potential for Danger in Particle Collider Experiments

" ... The CERN study [Ref. 1] is a remake of a similar study for the earlier Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven (RHIC) [Ref. 6] adapted to the LHC.
It is important to notice that: The study for the RHIC had concluded that no black holes will be created. For the LHC the conclusion is very different: "Black holes could be created!" !
The main danger could be now just behind our door with the possible death in blood of 6.500.000.000 (US notation 6,500,000,000) people and complete destruction of our beautiful planet. Such a danger shows the need of a far larger study before any experiment ! The CERN study presents risk as a choice between a 100% risk or a 0% risk. This is not a good evaluation of a risk percentage!
If we add all the risks for the LHC we could estimate an overall risk between 11% and 25%!.
We are far from the Adrian Kent's admonition that global risks that should not exceed 0.000001% a year to have a chance to be acceptable. [Ref. 3] .Even testing the LHC could be dangerous. Even an increase in the luminosity of the RHIC could be dangerous! It would be wise to consider that the more powerful the accelerator will be, the more unpredicted and dangerous the events that may occur! We cannot build accelerators always more powerful with interactions different from natural interactions, without risk. This is not a scientific problem. This is a wisdom problem!
Our desire of knowledge is important but our desire of wisdom is more important and must take precedence. The precautionary principle indicates not to experiment. The politicians must understand this evidence and stop these experiments before it is too late! ... "

 

 

From Risk Evaluation Forum

Recent developments in physics suggest the possibility that an experiment, scheduled to begin at the European research facility at CERN in May 2008, will destroy the Earth. CERN is installing a new high-energy particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is expected to produce particles scientists have not seen before. Two of these particles could be dangerous.

Black Holes
Several string theorists have published papers predicting that the LHC will produce mini black holes. In the worst case, a mini black hole could swallow Earth.

Strangelets
Strangelets, another potential collider product, might catalyze conversion of normal matter into more strangelets, turning Earth into a small ball of strangelets.

Safety Factors
CERN has published a paper asserting several safety factors. Black holes are supposed to dissipate via Hawking radiation. A collection of strangelets is supposed to be electrically positive on its surface, and therefore not attract other matter. However, new studies have put these safety factors in question. New physics papers question the existence of Hawking radiation. A recently published paper finds that a collection of strangelets can be negative on its surface. Other safety factors also seem subject to question. For more details, see our discussion and reference sections.

Risk Management
Proper risk management requires a formal risk assessment. CERN has done this for radiation in their tunnels, but not for black holes and strangelets. Further, a proper risk assessment requires updates when new information becomes available. We encourage CERN to do a formal risk assessment.

What You Can Do
This issue should be on the public agenda. Readers can help by thinking about, discussing, and publicizing the issue. Contact us to help with our initiatives. We also encourage more physicists to work on the issue, and we encourage funding to help them to do so. (Physicists quickly see model limiters. Consider if candidate model limiters are reliable enough to protect something as valuable as Earth. If you think you have found a sufficiently reliable model limiter, please let us know.)

More Pages:
Discussion of the problem
Help us find a limit to this model
Legal action
Forum
References and links to published articles

 

 

From Yahoo! Answers

 

Will CERN mean the end of the world?

Pretty soon the particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland will come online and scientists will use it to probe deeper into the atom than ever before, but are humans meant to probe this deep? Is there any possibility what humans will find will destroy the world, so to speak open a rift in the space time continuum that will swallow up our solar system or perhaps even our galaxy? Some scientists feared that setting off the first atomic bomb would create chain reaction in the atmosphere that would destroy the planet. While that obviously was untrue, unless you take into account the tons of radioactive material that was pumped into the atmosphere, could it possibly be true with CERN? All I am saying is that maybe the scientists at CERN should pole the world to determine if they should actually turn it on.

Answer:

No Chicken Little, the sky is not falling. While there are some dangers at CERN they are local dangers. For example the proton beam might escape the beam pipe and damaging some equipment and hurt some people. There is no danger outside the immediate vicinity. The Large Hadron Collider is no more dangerous than a busy construction site. CERN is much safer than a nuclear power plant.

Has a chef come up with a perpetual motion machine?

" ... Deep down, Heins has high hopes. But he also realizes that merely using those controversial words – "perpetual motion" – usually brands a person as batty. In 2006, an Irish company called Steorn placed an advertisement in The Economist calling on all the world's scientists to validate its magnet-based "free energy" technology.

Steorn was met with intense skepticism and accused of being a scam or hoax. Seventeen months later the company has failed, despite worldwide attention, to prove anything under scrutiny. Well-educated people, from Leonardo da Vinci to Harvard-trained engineer Bruce De Palma (older brother of film director Brian De Palma), have made similar claims of perpetual motion only to be slammed down by the mainstream scientific community.

Heins has an even greater uphill battle. He isn't an engineer. He doesn't have a graduate degrees in physics. He never even finished his electronics program at Heritage College in Gatineau, Quebec. "I have mild dyslexia and don't do well in math, so I didn't do very well in school," he says.

What he does have is a chef's diploma, and spent time as chef at the Canadian Museum of Civilization before launching his own restaurant in Renfrew called the Old Town Hall Tea Room. He has also had political ambitions. In 1999 he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Green Party of Ontario, deciding a year later to run as an independent in the federal election.

Today, Heins is focused on showing his invention to anybody willing to see it, in hopes that somebody smarter than him will give it credibility. His long-time friend, Kim Cunningham, manager of communications and government relations at the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI) is working part-time with Potential Difference to help get the message out.

Together, they have demonstrated the Perepiteia to a number of labs and universities across North America, including the University of Virginia, Michigan State University, the University of Toronto and Queen's University.

"It's generally always the same reaction," says Heins. "There's a bit of a scramble on the part of the observer to put what they're seeing into some sort of context with what they know. They can't explain it. They don't know what it is."

He'd be happy if somebody did, even if the news was bad. His wife has kicked him out. He doesn't earn an income. He can't pay child support. The certainty would be welcome. "I've tried to quit many times, and thought if I could just be a normal guy I would have a normal life ... But I had this idea and I believe it works."

[ ... ]

Just before the big day at MIT, the Star spoke with professor Markus Zahn about what he expected to observe.

"It's hard for me to give an opinion," said Zahn, who admitted he was excited to see the demonstration. "I don't believe it will violate the laws of physics. You're not going to get more energy out than you put in."

He said it's easy for people to set up their tests wrong and misinterpret what they see. "You've got to look closely."

It's now Jan. 28 – D Day. Heins has modified his test so the effects observed are difficult to deny. He holds a permanent magnet a few centimetres away from the driveshaft of an electric motor, and the magnetic field it creates causes the motor to accelerate. It went well.

Contacted by phone a few hours after the test, Zahn is genuinely stumped – and surprised. He said the magnet shouldn't cause acceleration. "It's an unusual phenomena I wouldn't have predicted in advance. But I saw it. It's real. Now I'm just trying to figure it out." ... "

~ Full article ~

 

Man behind the curtain primer: CFR, Bilderberg and the Trilateral Commission

Council on Foreign Relations

 

The Bilderbergers

 

TheTrilateral Commisssion

 

 

Hillary Clinton: A Bilderberg Presidency

“…Hillary will be good for America… we’ll be very pleased that she’s president.” — Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Portfolio magazine, October 5, 2007

While President Bush’s approval rating falls to record lows, the torch is being prepared to pass on to Hillary Clinton, with full endorsement from the global elite. With support from European nobility, Clinton has been selected as the candidate of choice for the continuation of globalist policies. Bill Clinton, being a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, as well as the secretive Bilderberg group, was the creme de la creme establishment candidate. His wife, Hillary, who likely attended the 2006 Bilderberg conference in Ottawa Canada, now promises to follow in his path. ...

~ Read on... ~

 

2008 - Rigged for Hillary?

" ... Charismatic democratic leader, Barack Obama had a stunning lead going into the New Hampshire primary, with a huge media blitz, and a lot of energy behind him. Then all of a sudden, despite exit polls showing huge leads for Senator Obama, despite no big moves for Hillary Clinton, Senator Obama looses the New Hampshire primary.

Inexplicable Last Minute Win?

The Zogby poll released Tuesday January 8th, 2008, the day of the election, gives Senator Obama a stunning 42% of votes over 29% for Hillary Clinton. The poll states, “Obama’s margin over Clinton has opened up. He leads among all groups except women and voters over 65.” (www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1417)

What is of grave concern is that these polls and other similar polls, which usually have a fairly decent margin of accuracy, stating an error rate of plus or minus 3.4%, predicted accurately the outcome of the republican race, for Senator McCain, but were totally inaccurate regarding the votes for only one candidate, Senator Clinton.

Does it surprise you to know that a majority of voting machines in New Hampshire are the infamous, Diebold optical-scan voting systems. Which is “wholly controlled and programmed by a very bad company named LHS Associates.” (www.bradblog.com/?p=5530#more-5530)

“Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in America today,” reports award winning documentary film Hacking Democracy, which shows among other things how voting machines can be tampered with (www.hackingdemocracy.com) .

 

[ ... ]

 

A huge red flag came up for me, when I heard a news announcer report that Senator Clinton's comeback was much like former president Clinton's comeback in the 1992 election. The reason being is that part of me has bought into the belief that many presidential candidates, but not all, whether Republican or Democrat, has some ties to private special interest groups that influence how our government runs. If you don't believe me that elite private groups have infiltrated our government for devious means, let me say two words for you, “Iraq War.” Which is not so much a war, but now a mass murder, with documented reports of at least 81,000 civilian Iraqi deaths (www.iraqbodycount.org) and in October, 2006 Lancet medical journal suggested that about 655,000 people had died in Iraq as a result of the 2003 invasion. Our country has also sacrificed approximately 3900 US soldiers in order to create a "democracy" in Iraq. I wonder if the democracy in Iraq comes complete with Diebold voting machines to ensure that nobodies vote will really be counted. ... "

 

~ Full article ~

 

Explaining U.S. politics to Europeans

" ... America is in the midst of an all-important electoral campaign. But, talking to Europeans, I've discovered that there is puzzlement and misinformation on your continent about what's happening on ours. Europeans feel an understandable confusion when faced with a political system consisting of two houses of Congress and a White House, and nobody is home in any of them.

Also, America's political parties are indistinguishable to the European eye. A British journalist once described the situation thus: "America is a one-party state, but just like Americans they've got two of them."

[ ... ]

After the events of the 20th century, God, quite reasonably, left Europe. But He's still here in the United States. The majority of Americans are Christians, and Christians can be divided into two kinds, the kind who think you should get Jesus and the kind who think Jesus is going to get you. Mike Huckabee is one of the latter. Then there are the Mormons such as Mitt Romney who believe some unusual things--things that no sensible European like Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Benito Mussolini, Karl Marx, Emanuel Swedenborg, or Cherie Blair would ever believe.

[ ... ]

A man can be a Democrat to the core, going into the voting booth to pull the lever with the donkey label no matter what. Then he sees Hillary's name on the ballot. And it all comes back to him .  .  . the first marriage .  .  . the time he came home a little late, it wasn't even midnight, and he'd only had four or five beers, and she threw his bowling ball down the storm sewer.

The Republicans will have a hard time coming up with someone who can't beat Hillary Clinton. But I don't put it past them. You may remember Senator Bob Dole in 1996.

At the moment Republicans seem inclined to John McCain. Everyone loves John McCain. Everyone respects John McCain. He's tough. He's consistent. He's wrong. Not that I personally agree with you Europeans that John is wrong, but the voters do. John thinks the war in Iraq is a good idea. The electorate doesn't. John's campaign slogan is "Strong and Wrong." ... "

~ From Letter to Our European Friends ~

An "indispensable means for rescuing the U.S.A."?

" ... The common delusion of victims of such pressures, such as Representative Kanjorski, is their swallowing of what they did know, or must have known were nothing but the wild lies from certain financier and related circles, that the present financial crisis is a limited problem which the Federal Reserve System and related institutions can manage. In fact, what is in progress, as the relevant world-wide pattern of evidence shows conclusively, is a two-fold trend:

1.) First, what is in progress, is not merely a mortgage crisis. It is a general breakdown crisis of the entire present world monetary-financial system, a rapidly escalating global financial crash, which must be compared with the "New Dark Age" which wiped out an estimated one-third of the population of Europe during the middle of Europe's Fourteenth Century. The present U.S.A. financial crisis is a world crisis for which there is no bottom under the world system's present organization. In such matters, setting an exact date for the catastrophe is not possible; but, the fact remains that, without appropriate forms of sweeping emergency action by cooperating leading nations, the planet as a whole is moving near to the edge of the greatest and deepest financial and economic collapse in modern history.

2) Second, there are readily available, workable solutions. Since real economies are not monetary-financial economies, but are physical economies of production and consumption, there is always a potential action by governments which could reorganize the sick monetary-financial system, and thus prevent a deep and prolonged physical collapse of national economies. President Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated that principle. Just as replacing the methods of Coolidge and Hoover saved the U.S.A. then, so, eliminating the policies which were introduced under Presidents Nixon, Ford, and, especially, the Trilateral Commission's control over President Carter, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, Jr., is an indispensable means for rescuing the U.S.A., and other nations, today.... "

~ Full article ~

 

"Nice closed last Tuesday"

" ... So there are your babies. And then there are the Diebold (or lie boldly) electronic vote-changing machines, along with Sequoia, ES&S and others, to make sure if even by some miracle the least offensive nice candidate was about to win, it could be all turned around in the night for the most offensive wolf in the pack.

So how does this, did this all happen again, this time bringing even more voters to primaries and caucuses? Hey, you gotta believe. Believe that all these contenders did not get filtered through the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, Rockefeller and allied foundations, thinks tanks, deep pocket corporatos, special interests, foreign favor-buyers, financial Titans, and uber shakers and movers like the Bilderbergers. Politics, of all things, does not exist in a vacuum, but rather like seeds in dirt in an old coffee can, grows with a persistent sprinkling of cash, promises of power, memorial libraries, etc. -- if you play ball.

So that’s the message, the post mortem. If it’s too gloomy like the damp humid sky of Manhattan, threatening to rain another 9/11 somewhere, then it’s not too late to move to Sweden, Norway, France or the moon. Or maybe it’s time to hold your ground, reread the Constitution and Bill of Rights and find a way to create the free debate, the open discussion-forum democracy was supposed to be, rather than the privatized province of an Imperial President and his courtiers. This is not a crime to say or do, as the IP & Co. would have you believe. This is your inalienable right, not to be manipulated by fear, by phony money people, corruptible politicians, holy rollers, camp-tent televangelists, the defense industry, the oil industry, Big Pharma, private armies, and other bloodsuckers. Don’t be their sucker. Talk back, fight back, think back . . .

Your Imperial President Bush has laid a $3 trillion plus budget (the biggest in history) at the feet of Congress, guaranteeing upfront a $400 billion plus deficit and war expenditures for McCain’s 100-year war. This on top of the $9 trillion national debt. This week the economy lost 14,000 jobs, in addition to the 2 million already offshored, but ExxonMobil had the most profitable quarter of any corporation in history. Yet the stock market tanked in spite of four Fed interest rate cuts within a few months.

If you and your family want to survive, stop being so nice. See it all, tell it all, to yourself and others, like it is. Even if “it” doesn’t sound nice. Even if you have to get ugly, like really ugly, and do what the people who created this incredible democratic republic did to their King George & Co. As an old ad boss of mine once said, “Nice closed last Tuesday.” ... "

~ From Manipulating America ~

 

Abu Dhabi to build eco-town

" ... Groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday for Masdar City, a nearly self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50,000 people rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabi's international airport and intended as a hub for academic and corporate research on nonpolluting energy technologies.

The 2.3-square-mile community, set behind walls to divert hot desert winds and airport noise, will be car free, according to the design by Foster + Partners, the London firm that has become a leading practitioner of energy-saving architecture.

The community, slightly smaller than the historic district of Venice, will have similar narrow pedestrian streets, but shaded by canopies made of photovoltaic panels. It will produce all of its own energy from sunlight.

Water will flow from a solar-powered seawater-desalinization plant. Produce will come from nearby greenhouses, and all waste will be composted or otherwise recycled, said Khaled Awad, property manager for the project.

The first phase, to be completed over the next two years, will be construction of the Masdar Institute, a graduate-level academic research center associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... "

~ From Car-free, solar city in Gulf could set a new standard for green design ~

 

Gates in denial over NATO crisis

" ... Defense Secretary Robert Gates, continuing his self-described effort to "nag" allies for more troops in Afghanistan without alienating them, said Thursday that NATO was not in crisis and that the Afghan mission was not failing.

Those comments, during an informal session of NATO defense ministers here, came one day after he warned Congress that the Atlantic alliance risked becoming a "two-tiered" organization, divided between "some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not." ... "

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Lessons from Nazi past for our present

" ... Which heroes we choose would be crucial. Here too Germany serves as a model from which we all could learn. It has chosen its resistance heroes, and it has chosen them wrong. Every child here knows the names of Hans and Sophie Scholl, college students who were guillotined for distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets. Most German cities have streets or schools named after them. Tom Cruise has added his fame to a new film about Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the oft-sung leader of a group of officers executed for their failed attempt on Hitler's life.

The courage of such people should not be forgotten, but the message their stories convey is grim: Their deeds accomplished nothing. It's a message that comforts the millions of Germans who didn't try to oppose the regime.

By contrast, one of the most successful acts of resistance in the Third Reich is not well known. In 1943, when the Nazis were undecided about whether to deport and murder Jewish spouses of non-Jews, they tested the waters by rounding up nearly 2,000 Jewish men whose non-Jewish wives had already withstood considerable government pressure to divorce them. These wives spontaneously gathered in front of the building in the Rosenstrasse where their husbands were being held. For one long week they refused to leave the little square in central Berlin, despite the Gestapo machine guns trained upon them.

It's often said that nonviolent resistance worked for Gandhi and Martin Luther King because their oppressors were civilized, while totalitarian regimes would simply have shot them. This not only underestimates the evils of racism, but also our possibilities of combating them.

For in Berlin's Rosenstrasse, the police backed down. The men were released. They and their families survived. And in a country that devotes so much time and energy to commemorating the victims, these brave women remain anonymous; all that really marks their story is a small clay-colored memorial in a park that few Berliners know. ... "

~ From To resist Hitler and survive ~

Depleted uranium may never leave your body

Depleted uranium (DU) has been found in the urine of
Gulf War vets as long as 20 years after exposure. A highly sensitive
test has been developed which can detect DU even when previous
screening has proven negative. This test may assist with unresolved
health claims.

We are all exposed to minuscule amounts of uranium every day. But it
would take over five tons of rock and soil to come up with a teaspoon
of the isotopic proportions of natural uranium. In contrast, the DU
used by the military is "depleted" by only one percent of the total
uranium. It remains highly concentrated.

Any form of uranium becomes exceedingly dangerous when burned, which
is exactly what happens when DU is used in weapons systems. The tiny
particles are aerosolized and can be inhaled into the lungs. These
soluble DU compounds then enter the bloodstream and from there reach
bones and organs. This DU can remain, literally radiating the body
from within, for years. ...

 

~ Read on... ~