The 14 Words
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Egypt: Repression worse now than under Mubarak, says report
Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Egypt's rulers of levels of brutality that sometimes exceed those of Hosni Mubarak's regime, saying that the hopes of protesters had been "crushed" since the former president was forced to step down.
It said that Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces, which assumed control after the 18-day uprising that toppled Mr Mubarak in February, had made only empty promises to improve human rights.
Crackdowns on dissent have claimed numerous lives, including at least 33 people who have been killed in Cairo's Tahrir Square over the past few days as throngs returned to the crucible of the earlier pro-democracy protests.
Amnesty’s report was issued as protestors in the second city of Alexandria reported that tear gas had been fired on from helicopters. The health ministry said 40 people had been injured though students claimed the real number was in the hundreds.
The human rights group said military courts had tried thousands of civilians and emergency law had been extended. Torture had continued in army custody, and there were consistent reports of security forces employing armed "thugs" to attack protesters, it added.
"The SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa acting director
"Those who have challenged or criticise the military council - like demonstrators, journalists, bloggers, striking workers - have been ruthlessly suppressed in an attempt at silencing their voices. The brutal and heavy-handed response to protests in the last few days bears all the hallmarks of the Mubarak era."
With elections due to start next week in doubt, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has called on the military ruling council to abandon emergency powers, stop detaining protestors and stop trying civilians in military courts.
Crackdowns on dissent have claimed numerous lives, including at least 33 people who have been killed in Cairo's Tahrir Square over the past few days as throngs returned to the crucible of the earlier pro-democracy protests.
Amnesty’s report was issued as protestors in the second city of Alexandria reported that tear gas had been fired on from helicopters. The health ministry said 40 people had been injured though students claimed the real number was in the hundreds.
The human rights group said military courts had tried thousands of civilians and emergency law had been extended. Torture had continued in army custody, and there were consistent reports of security forces employing armed "thugs" to attack protesters, it added.
"The SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa acting director
"Those who have challenged or criticise the military council - like demonstrators, journalists, bloggers, striking workers - have been ruthlessly suppressed in an attempt at silencing their voices. The brutal and heavy-handed response to protests in the last few days bears all the hallmarks of the Mubarak era."
With elections due to start next week in doubt, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has called on the military ruling council to abandon emergency powers, stop detaining protestors and stop trying civilians in military courts.
17 Quotes About The Coming Global Financial Collapse That Will Make Your Hair Stand Up
Is the world on the verge of another massive global financial collapse? Yes. The western world is drowning in an ocean of debt unlike anything the world has ever seen before, and our financial markets are gigantic casinos that are dependent on huge mountains of risk and leverage remaining very stable. In the end, this house of cards that has been built on a foundation of sand is going to come crashing down in a horrifying manner. Usually in this column I go on and on about why things will soon get much worse. But today I am going to take a bit of a break. Today, I am going to let some of the top financial professionals in the world tell you why things will soon get much worse. Many of the quotes that you are about to read just might make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Most people out there have no idea what is about to happen. Most people out there are working hard and are busy preparing for the holidays and they are hopeful that the economy will turn around soon. But that is not going to happen. We are heading for another major global financial collapse, and when it happens the U.S. economy is going to get even worse.
The epicenter for the coming global financial collapse is almost certainly going to be in Europe. As you will see below, financial professionals all over the world are sounding the alarm about Europe. It is a disaster that everyone can see coming but that nobody seems to be able to prevent.
Of course the failure of the “supercommittee” in the United States certainly is not helping matters. There is already talk that we may soon see another downgrade for U.S. debt. It is hard to even describe how incompetent the U.S. Congress is.
There is a tremendous lack of leadership both in the United States and in Europe right now. The financial world is more interconnected than ever before, and when the financial dominoes start to fall it is going to take a miracle to keep a complete and total disaster from unfolding.
So when the time comes, who is going to step forward and provide that leadership?
That is a really, really good question.
Right now, panic and fear are spreading like wildfire in the financial world and nobody knows for sure what is going to happen next.
But one thing is for certain. Pessimism is growing stronger by the day.
The following are 17 quotes about the coming global financial collapse that will make your hair stand up….
This Is How Protesters Are Dealt With In America
How in the world can the United States condemn other nations for how they are handling their protest movements when we treat our own protesters so brutally? No matter what you may think of Occupy Wall Street and the other protest movements that have sprung up across the United States, the truth is that you should be incredibly alarmed about the tactics that law enforcement authorities are choosing to use against them. If we decide to accept these tactics now, then the exact same "police state" tactics will be used against you when the time comes that you want to protest against the government. In recent weeks, we have seen law enforcement authorities brutally dragging female protesters to the ground by their hair. We have also seen them use pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang stun grenades against protesters. If this is how protesters are going to be dealt with from now in America, then we have completely lost the moral high ground. How will we ever get other nations to take us seriously when we criticize their brutality against protesters when we are so brutal ourselves?
Yes, the Occupy Wall Street protesters have attempted to occupy some places that they are legally not allowed to occupy. Yes, some Occupy Wall Street protesters have done some things that warrant arrest. But that does not mean that the police have to act like they are working for Hitler, Mao or Stalin.
Yes, police have a very hard job. But there is no excuse for the police brutality that we have seen happen all over the nation recently. The police can enforce the laws and treat us all with gentleness and respect at the same time. If there are any police out there that do not believe that they can do this, then they should quit their jobs. There are lots of other people willing to fill them.
If you do not understand what I am talking about yet, just watch the videos posted below.
In this first video, a police officer walks up to a row of seated, unarmed protesters at UC Davis and sprays them repeatedly in the face with pepper spray. This video is almost too crazy for words....
How in the world can such brutality be justified?
Sadly, we are now seeing pepper spray being used quite liberally all over the nation. The following are a couple more very disturbing YouTube videos about pepper spray being used on protesters in recent weeks.
USA: “Occupy With Guns” In Response To Violent Attacks In Indiana
According to Fox-59 WXIN, “A group of gun permit holders have vowed to walk the streets of Broad Ripple with their guns next Saturday night in response to three recent violent attacks.
In support of what may be one of the more meaningful “Occupy” movements, Johnathan Hallgarth created a Facebook page called “Occupy Broad Ripple (With Guns)” in which he called on gun permit holders to gather in Broad Ripple November 26. Hallgrath said he decided to organize the event in order to let others know how they can obtain a gun permit.”
From the Occupy Broad Ripple (With Guns) Facebook page:
In support of what may be one of the more meaningful “Occupy” movements, Johnathan Hallgarth created a Facebook page called “Occupy Broad Ripple (With Guns)” in which he called on gun permit holders to gather in Broad Ripple November 26. Hallgrath said he decided to organize the event in order to let others know how they can obtain a gun permit.”
From the Occupy Broad Ripple (With Guns) Facebook page:
The American Third Position is pro-Second Amendment and supports the right to bear arms.As the result of several violent robberies and sexual attacks in the Broad Ripple Village, we would like to draw public attention to the importance of carrying a firearm. We would also like to send a message to the criminals that perpetrate these crimes that they are playing with fire when they commit these cowardly crimes.THE WHERE AND WHAT: The plan is that we will meet in the parking lot of The Smoking Iron Alterations Shop, just north of the canal. We will be carrying holstered handguns in open carry. At that time we will distribute our informational packets (things like Gun Permit Applications and locations of gun stores) and break off into small groups of 2-3 and walk around the bar areas of the strip and talking to all who are interested about the need for responsible adults to become licensed to carry a handgun.WHO: This event is open to all people who can legally carry a handgun in the State of Indiana. Those supporters who cannot are also welcome to help distribute gun permit information. This event is strictly a pro-carry, pro-second amendment event. Signs are welcome.Everyone will need to dress warm and be ready to talk to the public about current issues, especially recent attacks in Broad Ripple and the importance of females to either carry or be accompanied by someone who does.
If Chemtrails And HAARP Didn’t Disturb You Enough, Wait Until You Hear About Morgellons
For those unaware what chemtrails are, I will do my best to give you an accurate breakdown of how I found out about them and what I’ve learned since. I will also include some health remedies that I’ve come across which may be of some use.
Around October of 2009 I heard that our government was spraying us with chemicals from airplanes. I should have immediatelyinvestigated further, but I didn’t until many months later.
Why? Many reasons, not least because I was consuming high levels of fluoride and my diet was basically, “eat what comes my way”. As this began to change I gained enough sanity to start to notice the chemtrails more and investigate further. I experienced so many synchronicities around this time, typically indicative of change in one’s life.
Eventually, what I uncovered baffled and disgusted me. I would like to stress that I do not seek to alarm anyone with the information presented here. Morgellons is downright creepy and exhausting to even think about. I’m really not surprised why I just found out about Morgellons now, despite having researched and filmed chemtrails for over a year. I only seek to encourage much needed-debate and research. Many of you will already be familiar with a lot of this, but if you bear with me it eventually gets more interesting. For the newbies, proceed with caution. This is just a brief overview but there are graphic videos linked in this article. Some of you might not want to be eating when you watch some of these.
If you exhale in the winter you can see your breath because the surrounding air is cold. Planes are closer to space and it’s cold up there, so you get these trails coming out of the engines of the planes. However, in the past when the planes would leave contrails (condensation trails), those trails would disappear quickly, within minutes. Now, as a result of government projects around the world many planes are leaving trails which linger, persist, expand and turn into what people then tragically refer to as "clouds."
Tests show gargantuan levels of aluminum, barium, strontium, among other strange ingredients like red blood cells and fungus. This is altering our atmosphere day by day, taking away the sky’s deep blue colour, replacing it with an ominous and poisonous, sometimes blindingly fluorescent white haze.
You are being attacked in this “modern” age and that much is certain. Whether you agree that the chemtrails exist or represent this, it is obvious that you are being attacked via your water and food. Personally, I don’t think adding air to the list seems far fetched at this point. And that’s just for “physical” stuff. I haven’t yet reminded you about the bombardment on our minds and souls via school and the soul-sucking mainstream media.
Skeptics would be wise to note that one of the reasons that it’s not always just condensation trailing behind the planes is that the spraying often turns off and on. It is very revealing that one can see the planes spray and then stop spraying and then spray again (especially while the plane does not change speed or anything like that). To me that’s about as obvious as the demolition of the twin towers and building 7, but I digress.
There are seemingly thousands of other valid points confirming the fact that we’re being sprayed. If I wrote this a year ago, I might have included many more of those but the data is out there. The internet abounds with analysis on this subject.
Zen Gardner succinctly writes, “If this is news to you, see the US Military paper Owning the Weather by 2025. Says it all. Like chemtrails, just the patents for all this technologyis a total giveaway.”
The denial is very close to being over. This expensive project, in its many various forms, is happening. The ominous programs are supposedly to fight global warming but global warming is a hoax and the chemtrails are making us sicker. Mystery shrouds this branch of knowledge and even for those who’ve gotten their feet wet the invitation to investigate further is often lost in a gigantic sea of information, wars, protests, chaos, distractions, routine, and an endless bombardment of crisis after crisis.
In a sad and hauntingly effective effort to curtail the truth, we are told that there are simply newtypes of clouds these days. These new types of clouds just popped up now? Just like this fire tornado and this death ray? Give me a break. This would be laughable if it wasn’t disturbing.
As for the meteorologists, they seem to either not care or are ignorant. Them not reporting on this is like a nutritionist or a personal trainer recommending you eat at McDonald's. Meanwhile, television and cute little computer-generated Disney films and other Disney propaganda gets children used to seeing the weather behave in strange ways. Images of chemtrails are being found in many commercials, advertisements, and products just to pacify us. Introduce it to us slowly enough and nobody will notice. Sure, some of it must not be intentional, as there’s so many chemtrails it’s hard to take a sky shot without them sometimes, but many of them are intentional.
People can barely salvage memory of Osama being a CIA asset or that western powers used to be friendly with Saddam Hussein. One decade Saddam is a friend; the next he’s getting hanged medieval-style. Does anybody even remember the West speaking fondly of the Egyptian dictator one week and then not fondly the next? No. Most people have no memory (at our current stage of evolution) and don’t care or pay attention. Few remember that the sky didn’t always look this freakishly wavy:
Many can’t even imagine an aerosol project so evil, so they try their best to avoid thinking about it or discussing it with anybody. For many others who are a little less cowardly, all they need to wake up is to look up. I don’t know if that’s something to be proud of, or if it’s a shame that people even have to be told to look up -- it’s probably both. If you’re reading this, go look outside right now. There’s a good chance you’ll see a plane spraying your sky. I’m not even exaggerating. I used to keep a tally of the days they were spraying until I noticed it was almost every day (even at night). And if you don’t see something being sprayed, there’s a good chance you’ll see lots of bizarre straight lines that we did not used to see in the past.
I eventually took many photos and shot time-lapse videos of the flagrant bio-chemical attack and the associated scalar electromagnetic waves (discussed in more detail later):
Less Sunlight
Discovering the chemtrails proved to reveal a lot more than I originally thought it would. For one thing, it became clear that many people did not care about sunlight. For most people busy resisting the idea that chemtrails even exist, they completely miss out on noticing the fact that our skies have less sunlight. You don’t need a study to tell you this.
Whether or not you think the chemicals they’re spraying are bad for us, it would really be something else to say that you have no problem with losing your sunlight. Sunlight allows our bodies to produce Vitamin D, after all. Vitamin D deficiency causes a lot of problems. Natural News reports that, “Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is reduced 50% – 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3 times each week.”
If you’re going to be talking about throwing microscopic bits of aluminum into our sky to deflect sun rays you better make sure you know the full health implications.
The Anthropogenic Global Warming Hoax
When people finally admit to themselves that this spraying is actually happening there are those that then gravitate towards the assertion that this is an effort to deal with “global warming” / "climate change," and that may indeed be the case with respect to many of these programs.
However, I repeat – human-made global warming is a giant hoax. Look at the geo-engineering section of my website and you’ll see lots of data backing up my assertion. Climate Depot is also a good source of info on this.
I don’t buy the lies about CO2 being the devil. Studies show plants would love more CO2. I don’t want to be a guinea pig. If people are already throwing metals into the air to deal with this, then I’m already a guinea pig. It’s quite simple.
This subject deserves as much investigation as possible, and even more courage if one wants to stomach what is uncovered. It’s useful to keep in mind that just because you wouldn’t harm large masses of populations that doesn’t automatically mean that somebody else wouldn’t harm large masses of populations. I will expand on the health impacts of these chemtrails later, but for now remember that you’re better off knowing about these things. Stick your head in the sand at your own peril.
Here are just four videos that should get a lot of people thinking, with respect to the hoax (especially the first video):
Trickle-down tyranny
I watched all this with a sense of sadness and disgrace for the human race. And then a realization hit me like a sledgehammer...
People are only following by example
These random acts of tyranny aren't really random acts at all. They are the infantile acting-out of behaviors the childish American public has witnessed being demonstrated by their "leaders." The TSA sexually molesting air travelers isn't just a violation of fundamental human rights -- it's also a demonstration to the mindless masses that this is now "normal" behavior in society, you see.
When the American people see George Bush set up secret military prisons and condone waterboarding torture techniques, they called for Obama to stop the practice. Obama promised he would, and then not long after becoming President, he expanded Gitmo and actually presided over an increase in funding for the military and all its secret torture facilities.
The message to the American people? If Obama supports it, then torture must be okay. After all, he won a Nobel Peace Prize, so "peace" must be something that can be achieved through torture. Thus, we should not be at all surprised when an 89-year-old woman gets water-boarded in a nursing home. After all, those staffers are only doing to her what they've watched the U.S. leaders do to other human beings, too. (And yet, for some reason, the nursing home staff were arrested while all the high-level government operatives who engage in the exact same torture techniques are never even questioned...)
This phenomenon of everyday American people mirroring the behavior of federal "authorities" who act as tyrants needed a name, and as I began to ponder this issue, the name came to me in a flash:
I'm calling this phenomenon Trickle-Down Tyranny.
NYT Tries to Blame Political Film for White House Shooting
On Sunday, The New York Times said Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, the schizophrenic accused of shooting at the White House, watched Alex Jones’ The Obama Deception.
Ortega-Hernandez bought the semi-automatic rifle he allegedly used to fire on the White House from a man named Jake Chapman. William Yardley writes for the Times:
In 2009, the establishment media attempted to link Jones to the murder of police officers in Pittsburgh. The ADL said the convicted shooter, Richard Poplawski, had posted on Infowars.com and supported Alex Jones. In fact, Poplawski was a critic of Alex Jones.
The Ortega story jives with the lone wolf narrative now unfolding in New York. Earlier this year, Obama cautioned Americans to be vigilant and on the lookout for lone wolf terrorists.
In addition to Jones, Christian leaders are taking heat for Ortega’s alleged shooting incident because the mentally deranged Ortega allegedly believes Obama is the anti-Christ.
From the Christian Post:
Please spread the word about The Obama Deception and help keep it online:
Get your copy of the DVD today.
Ortega-Hernandez bought the semi-automatic rifle he allegedly used to fire on the White House from a man named Jake Chapman. William Yardley writes for the Times:
The AK-47 that Mr. Ortega is accused of using to fire on the White House was registered to Mr. Chapman, who said in an interview that he is known to friends as “the gun guy.” He said that he sold the gun to Mr. Ortega in March for $550 and that he believed it was the first gun Mr. Ortega owned.
Mr. Chapman, 21, said he had not heard Mr. Ortega talk of taking violent action. But more than a year ago, he recalled, Mr. Ortega and others watched an antigovernment film on the Internet called “The Obama Deception,” which was written, directed and produced by Alex Jones, a Texas-based conservative talk show host who has espoused a number of conspiracy theories involving the federal government. (Emphasis added.)The insinuation is obvious – Ortega was influenced by Jones’ film and Jones is a dangerous anti-government conspiracy theorist.
The Ortega story jives with the lone wolf narrative now unfolding in New York. Earlier this year, Obama cautioned Americans to be vigilant and on the lookout for lone wolf terrorists.
In addition to Jones, Christian leaders are taking heat for Ortega’s alleged shooting incident because the mentally deranged Ortega allegedly believes Obama is the anti-Christ.
From the Christian Post:
Conservatives and faith leaders warned Christians to be more careful of how they criticize political opponents after court documents revealed that the suspect in the White House shooting, Oscar Ramiro Ortega- Hernandez, believed President Barack Obama to be the “antichrist.”Chilling the free political speech of Christians and others is particularly important for the establishment now that the 2012 election season is gearing up. It is also important to link anti-government opinion to the incident.
Please spread the word about The Obama Deception and help keep it online:
Get your copy of the DVD today.
Shock: 100 Million Americans In Poverty or Right on the Edge
We can play these “recovery” games in the media all we want, but the truth is starkly different from what our benevolent leadership would have us believe.
If the abhorrent unemployment numbers, the nearly 50 million on government food assistance, dwindlingsavings accounts, collapsing real estate values, and negative economic growth (when adjusted for inflation) are not enough to convince you that we are in a long-term depressionary cycle, then maybe these latest statistics of “near poor” Americans will:
Down but not quite out, these Americans form a diverse group sometimes called “near poor” and sometimes simply overlooked — and a new count suggests they are far more numerous than previously understood.
When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.
After a lost decade of flat wages and the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the findings can be thought of as putting numbers to the bleak national mood — quantifying the expressions of unease erupting in protests and political swings. They convey levels of economic stress sharply felt but until now hard to measure.
“These numbers are higher than we anticipated,” said Trudi J. Renwick, the bureau’s chief poverty statistician. “There are more people struggling than the official numbers show.”
Source: NYT
Things are not going to get better any time soon. This is a sustained downward depressionary environment and all of the key indicators for economic well-being suggest it’s only going to get worse.
One hundred million people are barely able to keep themselves fed, sheltered and clothed. Tens of millions more will join the ranks of the near poor over coming months and years.
As more people become part of the near poor, more debt will need to be issued. Coupled with rising prices in essential goods like food and energy, which are outpacing emergency assistance payments, there is simply no way to support everyone who needs help.
Government safety nets can only handle a finite amount of stress and weight before they experience complete failure.
As the nets unravel and fail we’ll be looking at catastrophic consequences for our social and economic systems as we know them today. The worst case hypothetical scenarios of debt driven currency collapse, food riots, and the degradation of law and order are very much becoming reality.
USA: Romney: Cut health care for the poor, not defense spending
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Monday suggested using drastic cuts to health care for the poorest Americans to fund the Department of Defense.
Speaking to employees of BAE Systems, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors, the candidate said that President Barack Obama and members of the “super committee” should agree to scale back the Medicaid program in order to prevent $600 billion in cuts to defense spending over ten years.
“A doomsday scenario for our military is not the right course, given where the world is headed,” Romney remarked. “I would call on the president — and do call on the president — to immediately introduce legislation which says we will not have a $600 billion cut to America’s military. We should not cut any funding from our base Department of Defense budget. That should not occur.”
Since President Barack Obama took office, the defense budget has actually grown from $513 billion to $530 billion, according to The Associated Press. Additional spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased from $153 billion to $159 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates (PDF) that the total base defense budget will increase to $665 billion by 2028 if there are no cuts. Because the triggered cuts are spread over a 10-year period, overall defense spending would still grow each year, albeit at a slower rate.
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Nov. 21, 2011.
Bloomberg blows up bomb scare to distract from OWS? - RT
[You couldn't make this up, it's just laughable]
During a press conference in New York this weekend, officials alleged that a Manhattan man has been plotting a series of terrorist attacks across the city using homemade bombs. The FBI, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with it.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Sunday that Jose Pimentel, a Dominican Republic-born American citizen residing in upper Manhattan, had been arrested a day earlier and charged with a series of terrorism-related crimes following a police investigation. According to city officials, Pimentel was plotting to use pipe bombs to strike locales across the city in an onslaught of would-be crimes inspired by al-Qaeda insurgents.
The NYPD says that they spied on Pimentel for two years, conducting clandestine surveillance and meeting with informants to infiltrate the man’s daily life and get insight into the alleged attacks. When they raided his Manhattan apartment on Saturday, Kelly said that a camera installed in an informant's dwelling had clued the Police Department in to the fact that Pimentel was working at that moment on a weapon.
Pimentel was drilling holes in a piece of elbow piping when the cops stormed the apartment. According to the NYPD, Pimentel was making a bomb because he had recently acquired a discounted clock and Christmas lights.
“We had to act quickly yesterday because he was in fact putting this bomb together, drilling a hole, and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with the bomb,” Kelly told reporters on Sunday.
During the two years of NYPD-sanctioned surveillance, the Department had repeatedly approached the FBI about opening an investigation of their own in order to pursue terrorism-related charges against Pimentel. Maybe the FBI didn’t feel threatened by the Christmas decorations — or maybe it was something else — but despite their ongoing pleas, the FBI refused to take on the case.
The Crisis of Reality
November 21, 2011
The clock is running out on the “Super Duper Congress,” and of course we have no deal. No shocker there, because making any cuts would mean having to go before the camera and owning up to your decision.
It is far easier to let the clock run out so auto-cuts kick in – no fuss, no muss, no ownership. Collective hands can be thrown up; shoulders can be shrugged; and everyone can declare how it is not their fault. (See this.)
So the name of the game is ‘stall and blame.’ ( See this.) But have no fear, because the outstandingleadership in D.C. will make sure that the war machine will not fall under the ax of austerity. (See this.)
The mainstream media, and perhaps rating agencies, will do their best to convince the populace that this darn democracy thing just doesn’t seem to work and that THIS crisis must be resolved with some new extraordinary action. After all, that is how we got the unconstitutional gang of twelve in the first place. (See this.)
Our government has been completely co-opted by special interest, and governing one crisis to the next is the preferred method of destroying what is remaining of the Constitution, as well as providing cover to our “leaders” to disregard the wishes of the people.
Since the first bailout, we have been subjected to one world-ending crisis after another, and what has it brought us? A nation that has been beat down and government that has let the people be submerged in trillions of dollars in fraudulent failure.
When we as a nation wake up, we’ll find that we’ve been sold out for the want of saving a financial system that is beyond corrupt, beyond the law , and thanks to the govern by crisis model, beyond control. The ‘too big to fail’ have become the economy.
With the help of bought-and-paid-for representation, they have managed to transfer, by crisis, their failure onto the people of the world. So when the technocrats have completed the largest transfer of wealth in human history, and the music stops, we will see a true crisis, the crisis of reality.
Cameron copies Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae. Yeah, that'll work
Cameron bullingdon club photo
Not, you understand, that I have any evidence that this story is true. But Cameron must have a skeleton in his closet of that magnitude, surely? It's the only explanation for the extraordinary grip exerted on him by the house building industry, which has just persuaded him to embark on the most harebrained scheme of his political career: the recreation, in Britain, of President Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act and of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Of course, this isn't how the man charged with implementing it – Housing Minister Grant Shapps – is selling the scheme this morning. To read his excitable Tweets – Sample: "Increased Right to Buy discounts making home ownership affordable for social tenants. Cash used to build affordable homes" – you'd imagine what the government is doing is soundly Thatcherite. No it ain't. What the government is doing is introducing Britain to the horror of subprime mortgages and making sure the taxpayer foots the bill.
Here's Allister Heath's analysis:
This subprime revival is part of an alleged "growth package" which will have exactly the opposite effect to the one intended. It will further stoke inflation, inflict more misery on savers (pensioners especially) and further distort the market mechanisms whose proper functioning is vital to our economic recovery. One might expect this kind of crazed Keynesian recklessness from President Obama: he does at least have the excuse of being a Marxist, hell bent on destroying the US economy, with Paul Krugman as his adviser. But Cameron? Please can someone, anyone, explain what exactly the point is of voting in a conservative prime minister if he won't cut taxes, won't deregulate, won't support free markets, won't promote sensible energy policies, won't defend Britain's interests in Europe, won't in fact do anything that Ed Miliband wouldn't have done in the same position. And at least Ed Miliband has the decency to admit to being a socialist, so we'd know more or less what we were getting.There are massive problems in the housing market – but today’s announcement that the government is going to partly underwrite mortgages for first time buyers and move some risk onto taxpayers is a terrible, short-sighted blunder.Developers will also be able to bid for public money to finish stalled developments: this implies yet more corporatism to fund projects nobody really wants. Have we all forgotten the sub-prime crisis in the US? Over there, politicians concerned that many poor people couldn’t afford homes forced and bribed lenders to lower credit standards and extend mortgages to those who couldn’t afford them. In the short-term, this boosted home-ownership; but it all ended in tears. It is good to care about the poor and young people who can’t get onto the housing ladder; but it is bad to give people false hope, to create moral hazard or to privatise gains and socialise losses in the housing market.
UK: The real reason Britain is not growing
By Daniel Hannan
Why is the Britain growing more slowly than other developed nations? Why have we been outperformed over the past 12 months by every EU state except Portugal and Romania?
Let's start by dismissing the Labour-Guardian-BBC explanation: the idea that the economy is shrinking because of 'the cuts'. As this blog never tires of pointing out, net government expenditure is higher now than it was under Gordon Brown. We are set to borrow at least £122 billion this year. Spending is above 50 per cent of GDP. How much more 'stimulus' do critics want?
What the international league tables show is that the countries which decreed the biggest bailouts experienced the sharpest contractions. Far from 'stimulating' the economy, these various programmes have taken money out of the productive sector. If stimulus spending worked, the Soviet Union would have won the Cold War.
Why is the Britain growing more slowly than other developed nations? Why have we been outperformed over the past 12 months by every EU state except Portugal and Romania?
Daniel Hannan in the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg
What the international league tables show is that the countries which decreed the biggest bailouts experienced the sharpest contractions. Far from 'stimulating' the economy, these various programmes have taken money out of the productive sector. If stimulus spending worked, the Soviet Union would have won the Cold War.
Syria: Exclusive: Syria- Secret US-NATO Training & Support Camp to Oust Current Syrian President
Using al-Assad vs. Assad
I want to bring to your attention a crucial case (operation) largely blacked out or significantly lightened up by the popular press. Here is the sanitized version, twisted, and reported by the mainstream.
“News reports that appeared on a number of Internet sites that I had crossed into Syria to command troops there are false. I am in Turkey at the moment in a safe place,” Col. Riad Al Assad told the Anadolu Agency on Tuesday. Al Assad said an estimated 15 thousand Syrian soldiers had deserted and joined the Free Syrian Army to fight against the Damascus regime.
“Four hundred troops quit the Syrian army yesterday alone. Last week, 15 officers including colonels have pledged their allegiance. The Syrian regime is scared of the Free Syrian Army now,” Al Assad said.”The fall of the Syrian regime is unavoidable.”
First, let me tell you right off the bat: the above article is in the ‘lightened up’ category. While the article doesn’t provide its own false information, it does showcase a main premise based on a subject who is in fact issuing a false denial. Further, the article purposefully doesn’t delve into why and how Col. Riad Al Assad ended up in Turkey, and what he’s been doing there.
Here is another brief mainstream paragraph on Col. Al Assad:
Dissident colonel Riad al-Asaad, organising defectors in Syria from his new base in southern Turkey, denied government allegations that adjacent states were allowing arms smuggling into Syria. “Not a single bullet” had been smuggled from abroad, he told Al Jazeera television.
Again, as in the previous piece, this article stops short purposefully. It doesn’t get into logical questions such as: What exactly is ‘organizing defectors’? How do you organize defectors in Syria from across the border? Is it a coincidence that his HQ is right inside the US Incirlik Base in Adana, Turkey?
USA: NYC 'Lone Wolf' is Just Another Patsy Entrapped by a Paid Informant
Reuters reports, "A U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic, (Jose) Pimentel was arrested on Saturday in a Manhattan apartment while putting the bomb together, police said. They called him a 'lone wolf' who had converted to Islam and became a radical."
New York City police said that Pimentel has been under surveillance for two-and-a-half years, since May 2009 and was monitored by a paid informant who helped him acquire materials for a bomb.
Although the police released the deranged and sordid details of the plot to applaud their investigative work, as usual "the information from the police could not be independently confirmed."
Once again, counter-terrorism heroes claim this new patsy to be a protege of American Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who was assassinated by a drone strike without formal charges or evidence provided by the White House.
Remember Fox News and others reported that al-Awlaki himself was a known government patsy who dined at the Pentagon with top military brass only a few months after September 11th. Therefore, it's fairly easy to assume that every time his name comes up, even postmortem, that the story is pure entrapment and terror propaganda.
Even the cartoonish plot where an Iranian-American was allegedly attempting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador involved an informant on the payroll of the U.S. Government. Attempts to link the car salesman perpetrator to the Iranian government in order to call for war were even more comical than the plot itself.
Even those in the mainstream media are calling BS on these staged arrests. Not too long ago, Geraldo Riveraschooled Bill O'Reilly about patsies and fake terror.
And as recently as last week, the Guardian ran an article exposing FBI entrapment cases of recent terror patsies where the same pattern of "the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI."
Despite the insincere nature of these terror plots, each time they make headlines they serve to echo the narrative that lone nuts are out to do harm to America; terrorists could be American citizens; and information on the Internet is a threat.
As hammered home by Reuters at the end of the article; "Counterterrorism officials in the United States and Europe say 'lone wolf' militants are of particular concern because they can become radicalized via the Internet and prepare for an attack without leaving traces that might draw attention."
Yet, it seems that if a genuine terror attack was ever successful in the future, we should not look into hunting down some shadowy terrorist organization in the Middle East, but rather find out which U.S. government agency provided the handler for the mentally-challenged patsy they blame it on.
Obama deploying 20,000 troops inside U.S. to prepare for "event" ?
THINK ABOUT IT. Is US bringing its troops back, so that they can control its own citizens opposition to its establishment? A more militarized 'Police State' if u will.
USA: I refuse to vote in another phony election
I refuse to allow people to claim that I have only myself to blame if Evil-doer #1 (R) got elected and they think that I voted for the bum, and now he is breaking every campaign promise and doing exactly the opposite of what he said he would do, and now this is somehow my fault….my personal failing…..because the guy turns out to be a jerk. I voted for him (supposedly) so I have only myself to blame if I don’t’ like the way things are. I refuse to vote. I can’t win. We can’t win.
I don’t want to hear how our fore-fathers died in countless wars of aggression so that I could have the right to vote. That’s not what they died for. Voting was never what they died for unless voting has [.Inc] after it. (I guess it does)
I refuse to be made complicit in selecting the next New World Order flunky. Not that my vote would count; our votes are not counted. Diebold, Sequoia and other electronic voting machine manufacturers have seen to it that no matter how we, the public, fill out those ballots the machines magically produce the candidate selected for us prior to the election. Electronic voting machine manufacturers were well paid for their uncompromising commitment to rigging elections. After all, why leave anything to chance and leave open the possibility that the people’s choice might actually get elected. That could really mess things up if we actually had a legitimate candidate that hadn’t been vetted and pre-approved by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberger’s, the Trilateral Commission and various shadowy figures that seem to slip in and out of the shadowy halls of government insisting on having their way.
And besides, we might be depriving those highly connected controllers of elections of the simple pleasure of watching us walk away from another election in a state of shock, knowing that the voting was decidedly in favor of one candidate and yet someone else “won”.
'Gaddafi's son knows too much, will be silenced' [Blair breathes a sigh of relief]
Muammar Gaddafi's fugitive spy chief, one of the last key figures from Libya's old regime still on the run, has been captured in the country's south. It comes just days after Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam was also caught. The National Transitional Council has since said it won't hand him over to the Hague Tirbunal.
Instead it's vowed to try him at home for crimes against the Libyan people, that could result in the death penalty. Muammar Gaddafi's most influential son was also seized in the south of the country on Saturday along with his aides as they tried to escape to neighbouring Niger.
Following the toppling of his father at the end of an 8-month civil war, many questions about the regime remain. Saif is believed to be one of the few who could answer them. Political analyst and author Adrian Salbuchi says Saif al-Islam will be silenced by either the Hague or the National Transitional Council.
Rothschild NWO Puppet George Osborne cuts off Iranian banks over nuclear weapons
All British financial institutions have ceased business with Iranian banks, including the country's Central Bank, over [False] evidence they are funding the country's nuclear weapons programme, Chancellor George Osborne said.
George Osborne said it was the first time the British government had cut an entire country's banking sector off from the UK's financial sector. He said he acted after the International Atomic Energy Agency highlighted fresh concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme.
"We are doing this becauseof international evidence [Israel has ordered us to telling us] Iran's banks are involved in the development of Iran's military nuclear weapon programme," the Chancellor said. "We're doing this to improve the [in]security, not just of the whole world, but the national security of the United Kingdom," he added.
A US official meanwhile anounced that the Obama administration will hit the Iranian economy with new sanctions on Monday, teaming-up with Britain and Canada in an effort to pressure Tehran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program.
George Osborne said it was the first time the British government had cut an entire country's banking sector off from the UK's financial sector. He said he acted after the International Atomic Energy Agency highlighted fresh concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme.
"We are doing this because
A US official meanwhile anounced that the Obama administration will hit the Iranian economy with new sanctions on Monday, teaming-up with Britain and Canada in an effort to pressure Tehran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program.
UK: Austerity for 10 years as no 'quick fix' for Britain, Reform warns
Britain needs 10 years of austerity to fix its economic problems, a leading think-tank has warned as it questioned Coalition plans to restore growth by unleashing a building boom and urged George Osborne to stick to his spending cuts.
Painting a bleak picture for the recovery, Reform said that "slow growth is inevitable given the levels of debt in the economy". It added: "Even under the best economic scenario, the programme of austerity should be at least a 10-year project with the first parliamentary term achieving deficit reduction and the second consolidating the gains."
Declaring "austerity is the new normal", the think-tank stressed that the Government "must avoid the temptations of quick fixes and inconsistency" if it is to attract the business investment that will drag the country back to health.
"There is a view that the recovery from the financial crisis should have been largely instantaneous and painless. But this is clearly unrealistic," it said. "An excessive emphasis on quick fixes – prioritising immediate wants while postponing hard decisions – is one reason the UK economy is in the mess it is in. Inconsistency increases uncertainty and uncertainty reduces firms' incentives to invest and expand."
In its paper, The Long Game, Reform argued that there is little the Chancellor can do to stimulate the recovery bar holding a strict line on fiscal discipline, simplifying taxes and regulations, and maintaining consistent policies. Patrick Nolan, chief economist, said: "Mistakes made over the last decade mean that the UK now needs to go through a period of low growth."
The think-tank also raised questions about plans to reschedule £200bn of infrastructure spending, saying that "taking a 'build it and they will come' approach is a dangerous and potentially wasteful stance". The Prime Minister yesterday confirmed that the Chancellor will announce incentives for infrastructure investment in his autumn statement next week.
"austerity is the new normal" [For some]
Painting a bleak picture for the recovery, Reform said that "slow growth is inevitable given the levels of debt in the economy". It added: "Even under the best economic scenario, the programme of austerity should be at least a 10-year project with the first parliamentary term achieving deficit reduction and the second consolidating the gains."
Declaring "austerity is the new normal", the think-tank stressed that the Government "must avoid the temptations of quick fixes and inconsistency" if it is to attract the business investment that will drag the country back to health.
"There is a view that the recovery from the financial crisis should have been largely instantaneous and painless. But this is clearly unrealistic," it said. "An excessive emphasis on quick fixes – prioritising immediate wants while postponing hard decisions – is one reason the UK economy is in the mess it is in. Inconsistency increases uncertainty and uncertainty reduces firms' incentives to invest and expand."
In its paper, The Long Game, Reform argued that there is little the Chancellor can do to stimulate the recovery bar holding a strict line on fiscal discipline, simplifying taxes and regulations, and maintaining consistent policies. Patrick Nolan, chief economist, said: "Mistakes made over the last decade mean that the UK now needs to go through a period of low growth."
The think-tank also raised questions about plans to reschedule £200bn of infrastructure spending, saying that "taking a 'build it and they will come' approach is a dangerous and potentially wasteful stance". The Prime Minister yesterday confirmed that the Chancellor will announce incentives for infrastructure investment in his autumn statement next week.
UK: High Pay Commission: most people believe executive pay 'out of control'
Most people believe pay and bonuses for top executives are ''out of control'', according to a new study to coincide with a report which describes excessive high pay as ''corrosive'' to the economy.
A year-long inquiry by the High Pay Commission finds the pay of some top executives has soared by more than 4,000 per cent in the last 30 years, undermining productivity and ''damaging'' trust in British business.
The report criticised ''stratospheric'' pay increases which have seen wealth flow upwards to the top 0.1 per cent of people in the UK. Average wages in the UK today are a ''modest'' £25,900 - up from £6,474 in 1980 - a three-fold increase.
The commission called for a number of reforms, including a ''radical simplification'' of executive pay, putting employees on remuneration committees, publishing the top 10 executive pay packages more widely, forcing companies to publish a pay ratio between the highest paid executive and the company median, and making firms reveal the total pay figure earned by executives. The commission also said a new national body to monitor high pay should be established.
The report, Cheques With Balances: Why Tackling High Pay Is In The National Interest, showed that decisions to award huge pay packages are set by a ''closed shop'', shrouded in highly complex detail, effectively hidden from shareholders, staff and the public.
''Stratospheric increases in pay are damaging the UK economy - distorting markets, draining talent from key sectors and rewarding failure.
''There appears to be little truth in the myth that pay must escalate to halt a talent drain in executives. The growing pay gap between the top 0.1 per cent and everyone else is increasing public disillusionment, damaging trust and fuelling the view that business leaders are in it for themselves,'' said the report.
High Pay Commission chairman Deborah Hargreaves said: ''There's a crisis at the top of British business and it is deeply corrosive to our economy. When pay for senior executives is set behind closed doors, does not reflect company success and is fuelling massive inequality, it represents a deep malaise at the very top of our society.
''The British people believe in fairness and, at a time of unparalleled austerity, one tiny section of society - the top 0.1% - continues to enjoy huge annual increases in pay awards. Everyone, including each of the main political parties, recognises there is a need to tackle top pay.
''That's why we are saying there must be an end to the 'closed shop' that sets top pay and that pay packages should be clear, open and published to shareholders and the public.''
A poll of more than 2,000 members of the public to mark publication of the report found that four out of five believed pay and bonuses for top executives were out of control.
A year-long inquiry by the High Pay Commission finds the pay of some top executives has soared by more than 4,000 per cent in the last 30 years, undermining productivity and ''damaging'' trust in British business.
The report criticised ''stratospheric'' pay increases which have seen wealth flow upwards to the top 0.1 per cent of people in the UK. Average wages in the UK today are a ''modest'' £25,900 - up from £6,474 in 1980 - a three-fold increase.
The commission called for a number of reforms, including a ''radical simplification'' of executive pay, putting employees on remuneration committees, publishing the top 10 executive pay packages more widely, forcing companies to publish a pay ratio between the highest paid executive and the company median, and making firms reveal the total pay figure earned by executives. The commission also said a new national body to monitor high pay should be established.
''Stratospheric increases in pay are damaging the UK economy - distorting markets, draining talent from key sectors and rewarding failure.
''There appears to be little truth in the myth that pay must escalate to halt a talent drain in executives. The growing pay gap between the top 0.1 per cent and everyone else is increasing public disillusionment, damaging trust and fuelling the view that business leaders are in it for themselves,'' said the report.
High Pay Commission chairman Deborah Hargreaves said: ''There's a crisis at the top of British business and it is deeply corrosive to our economy. When pay for senior executives is set behind closed doors, does not reflect company success and is fuelling massive inequality, it represents a deep malaise at the very top of our society.
''The British people believe in fairness and, at a time of unparalleled austerity, one tiny section of society - the top 0.1% - continues to enjoy huge annual increases in pay awards. Everyone, including each of the main political parties, recognises there is a need to tackle top pay.
''That's why we are saying there must be an end to the 'closed shop' that sets top pay and that pay packages should be clear, open and published to shareholders and the public.''
A poll of more than 2,000 members of the public to mark publication of the report found that four out of five believed pay and bonuses for top executives were out of control.
Monday, 21 November 2011
How long before the grey dictators march on London?
Civilian juntas have seized power in Rome and Athens. Soon, similar gangs of grey men may be sweeping aside national governments in Madrid and Lisbon. Nobody much is protesting. In time – don’t rule it out – it could be our turn here, with Lords Patten and Mandelson forming a cabinet of none of the talents.
Our ruling Left-wing elite seem oddly untroubled by the ruthless snuffing-out of national sovereignty across southern Europe. If the same thing had been done by a bunch of colonels, they would have been piously outraged.
But of course these putsches are the work of the European Union, a project the Left have long supported. And the EU is more subtle than any colonels. There is no need for midnight arrests or tanks on the streets. The enormous invisible power of the EU’s law and institutions gets its way without any need for such things.
Once again, please pay close attention. This is the best warning you will ever get of what the EU is really about. It is an empire, in which the great nations of Europe, including ours, are intended to disappear for ever.
It has from the start been based on a grave mistake – the idea that national differences and independence no longer matter and are obsolete. It is this mistake which led it into creating the mad single currency that is now ruining it. But people who are driven by ideals can seldom see when they are wrong.
UK: Taxpayer to take on mortgage risks of first-time buyers
Taxpayers will underwrite mortgages totalling hundreds of millions of pounds under plans to “unblock” the housing market and revive the flagging economy.
The Prime Minister and his deputy, Nick Clegg, will unveil proposals to help first-time buyers of new homes by carrying part of the risk of their mortgages. They also propose subsidising the construction of 16,000 homes by giving £400 million of taxpayers’ money to property developers.
In a further move, ministers are working on a scheme under which billions of pounds of money in pension funds will be used to finance the construction of power stations, wind turbines and roads.
In the foreword to the Coalition’s new housing strategy, which is published today, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg say that Britain has been “under-building” for decades [As a result of ours and our predecessors policy to flood the country with immigrants] and that a “radical and unashamedly ambitious strategy” is needed to shake up the housing market.
“The housing market is one of the biggest victims of the credit crunch: lenders won’t lend, so builders can’t build and buyers can’t buy,” they say in the report.
In a further move, ministers are working on a scheme under which billions of pounds of money in pension funds will be used to finance the construction of power stations, wind turbines and roads.
In the foreword to the Coalition’s new housing strategy, which is published today, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg say that Britain has been “under-building” for decades [As a result of ours and our predecessors policy to flood the country with immigrants] and that a “radical and unashamedly ambitious strategy” is needed to shake up the housing market.
“The housing market is one of the biggest victims of the credit crunch: lenders won’t lend, so builders can’t build and buyers can’t buy,” they say in the report.
AFP: 'Time has come' to act on Iran, Israel says
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak cites the report by IAEA, headed by Japanese bureaucrat Yukiya Amano.
From AFP via Yahoo News (11/20/2011):
From AFP via Yahoo News (11/20/2011):
The "time has come" to deal with Iran, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday, refusing to rule out military action to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions.
Barak, speaking on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS program, indicated that Israel's patience was wearing thin -- and provided an ominous response when asked about the growing speculation of an Israeli military strike.
"I don't think that that is a subject for public discussion," he said. "But I can tell you that the IAEA report has a sobering impact on many in the world, leaders as well as the publics, and people understand that the time has come."
The International Atomic Energy Agency published a report on November 8 saying there was "credible" information that Iran was carrying out "activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
On Friday the IAEA's board passed a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear activities, but stopped short of reporting Tehran to the United Nations and issuing no deadline for compliance.
...The IAEA report -- based on "broadly, credible" intelligence, its own information and some input from Iran itself -- said that Iran had examined how to fit out a Shahab 3 missile, with a range capable of reaching Israel, with a nuclear warhead.The UK military is already getting ready for the US action (whatever it will be, will be...), by the way.
Tehran rejected the report "baseless," denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian energy purposes.
Washington, Paris and London however jumped on the report as justification to increase pressure on Iran, already under four rounds of Security Council sanctions and additional US and European Union restrictions.
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