Friday, December 31, 2010

2011 By Paul Craig Roberts

The year 2011 will bring Americans a larger and more intrusive police state, more unemployment and home foreclosures, no economic recovery, more disregard by the U.S. government of U.S. law, international law, the Constitution, and truth, more suspicion and distrust from allies, more hostility from the rest of the world, and new heights of media sycophancy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27141.htm

Gag rule: on the suppression of dissent and the stifling of democracy By Lewis H. Lapham

http://books.google.com/books?id=JQj5vSHb61IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gag+Rule&source=bl&ots=AcrvbjKWmG&sig=kSi1bVxR9pzRcGeJbOvzvkXxM0g&hl=en&ei=VoEfTbWwMYGasAPm37DrCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false

or Google the title to read an exerpt from the book or buy an ebook for $5.99


HENRY STEELE COMMAGER
WHO IS LOYAL TO AMERICA?  1947

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

CHRIS HEDGES: 2011: A Brave New Dystopia

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2011_a_brave_new_dystopia_20101227/

The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” The debate, between those who watched our descent towards corporate totalitarianism, was who was right.

Almost Everything Is A Crime In America Now: 14 Of The Most Ridiculous Things That Americans Are Being Arrested For

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/almost-everything-is-a-crime-in-america-now-14-of-the-most-ridiculous-things-that-americans-are-being-arrested-for

We are throwing anyone and everyone in prison these days.  It is getting absolutely ridiculous.  Today, the United States leads the world in the number of prisoners and in the percentage of the population in prison.  The United States has 5% of the world's population, but approximately 25% of the world's incarcerated population.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, as of the end of 2009 a total of 7,225,800 people were either on probation, in prison or on parole in America.

That is a sign of a very, very sick society.  Either we have a massive crime problem or the "control grid" that our leaders have erected for us is wildly out of control.

Or both.

22 STATISTICS THAT PROVE THE MIDDLE CLASS IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY WIPED OUT OF EXISTENCE IN AMERICA

http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statistics-that-prove-the-middle-class-is-being-systematically-wiped-out-of-existence-in-america-2010-7?slop=1#slideshow-start

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate.  Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

Firedoglake Coverage of TSA Abuse of Power

http://firedoglake.com/tsa/

KNOW YOUR PASSENGER RIGHTS

DOWNLOAD AT:
http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2010/11/KnowYourRights-full.jpg

Saturday, December 25, 2010

How Washington is Far Worse off Than Rome

How Washington is Far Worse off Than Rome

leadimage
07/29/10 Alexandria, Virgina — While there have been many comparisons of how the US’ current descent from its solitary superpower status bears an uncanny resemblance to the crumbling Roman Empire, Jim Rickards, in an interview with King World News, explains how the US is actually in a far worse situation.
From Zero Hedge:

“…alas, the similarities are just far too many, starting with the debasement of the currencies, whereby Rome’s silver dinarius started out pure and eventually barely had a 5% content, and the ever increasing taxation of the population, and especially the most productive segment – the farmers, by the emperors, to the point where the downfall of empire was actually greeted by the bulk of the people as the barbarians were welcomed at the gate with open arms.

“The one key difference highlighted by Rickards: that Rome was not as indebted to the gills as is the US. Accordingly, the US is in fact in a far worse shape than Rome, as the ever increasing cost of funding the debt can only come from further currency debasement, which in turn merely stimulates greater taxation, and more printing of debt, accelerating the downward loop of social disintegration.

“Furthermore, Rickards points out that unlike the Romans, we are way beyond the point of diminishing marginal utility, and the amount of money that must be printed, borrowed, taxed and spent for marginal improvements in the way of life, from a sociological standpoint, is exponentially greater than those during Roman times. As such, once the collapse begins it will feed on itself until America is no more. Rickards believes that this particular moment may not be too far off…

“In this context, Rickards presumes, it is not at all surprising that both individual Americans and domestic corporations have set off on a massive deleveraging and cash conservation wave: the subliminal sense that something very bad is coming, is becoming more palpable with each passing day.”

As we’ve discussed in the past, when it comes to currency debasement the US hasn’t even been able to maintain the zinc standard, much less the gold or silver backing the US dollar once had. Taxes are destined to increase, debt will continue to balloon, and the printing press will whirl away day and night. How this will lead to “social disintegration” is less of a straight line but, as Ron Paul has already predicted, there could very well be riots in the streets.

As Tyler Durden concludes his post:

“If Jim Rickards is correct, however, the realization [of just how much of a destructive influence central banking truly is] will be America’s last, just before US society disintegrates.”

You can read more of the interview commentary in a Zero Hedge post on how Jim Rickards compares the collapse of the Roman Empire to the US. The actual interview is available here and here.

Best,
Rocky Vega,
The Daily Reckoning

Is A Police State Worth Fighting For?

http://dailyreckoning.com/is-a-police-state-worth-fighting-for/

"The government beast in your home country feeds on debt and taxes, and the best way to win is for bright, productive people to move away with their ideas, labor, and assets. This effectively starves the beast and accelerates its collapse. Then, when the smoke clears, you can move back and help rebuild a free society."

Friday, December 24, 2010

THREE SHORT VIDEOS ON SILVER MANIPULATION

FIRST VIDEO

SECOND VIDEO

THIRD VIDEO

GARY NORTH: CHINA: TRAPPED BY MERCANTILISM

       December 24, 2010

              CHINA: TRAPPED BY MERCANTILISM

    "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote."
    -- The Gospel According to Keynes, Chapter 1,
    verse 1.

    Keynesianism is an economic philosophy based on the
idea that the free market required intervention from the
civil government in order to maintain justice and
efficiency.  The free market is both inefficient and unfair
to the common man, Keynesianism teaches.

    So does mercantilism.

    Keynesianism is almost universally believed today.
Therefore, mercantilism is almost universally believed.
This connection is not intuitive, but it is nonetheless
true.  What the economics textbooks do not say, because
they are written mostly by Keynesians, is that Keynesianism
is mercantilism with equations. 

    The textbooks are officially anti-mercantilistic.
There is a reason for this.  Mercantilism is officially
wrong, because it is undeniably old.  Textbooks promote
that which is new: "The latest is the greatest."
Mercantilism was believed from 1650 to 1750.  It is
therefore outmoded. 

    Yet it is in fact the dominant economic philosophy
today.  But it operates under cover.  The cover is called
"managed trade."  It is sometimes called "fair trade."  The
high priests of mercantilism baptize the new convert in the
name of free trade, but then they catechize him in terms of
modified mercantilism.  Modern mercantilism is "free trade
with modifications for justice's sake."  "Justice" is
defined operationally as "protecting a politically favored
voting bloc."

    Keep your eye on the modifications.  Here is where the
sleight-of-hand operates.  Here is where slick-talking
fellows from the best economics departments separate the
rubes from their money.


BAIT AND SWITCH

    There is a gigantic bait-and-switch operation going on
in economics textbooks and history textbooks.  The
textbooks sell beginning students on mercantilism, but in
the name of anti-mercantilism.

    All collegiate textbooks promote mercantilism in
monetary affairs.  They all promote the cause of central
banking
.  They all refuse to apply the logic of the chapter
on cartels to central bankingCartels are recognized as
mercantilism for trade.  But central banks are not
presented as cartels, despite the fact that they are, both
in theory and practice.

    Whenever that which should be obvious both logically
and historically is never mentioned by a promoter, keep your
hand upon your wallet and your back against the wall.

    The few textbooks written by Chicago School economists
all rest on Milton Friedman's statement of faith back in
1965: "We are all Keynesians now."  As he later explained,
he meant only methodologically.  But that is the whole
point, as any good Austrian School economist will tell you
. . . if you can find one.

    Textbooks are fat, boring books written in a way to
get through a committee.  The committee is hired by the
publishing firm to act on behalf of other committees: the
departmental committees that assign textbooks to freshmen.
A book that does not promote the reigning methodology does
not get through the publisher's committee.

    "We are all Keynesians now" means "the publishers'
screening committees are all Keynesian now."


TWO MERCANTILISMS

    Original mercantilism was a widely believed and
invariably incorrect theory of trade that insisted that a
nation grows rich by exporting more than it imports.  David
Hume
, the Scottish philosopher, refuted this logic over 250
years ago.  His fellow Scot, Adam Smith, refuted it in
detail in 1776.

    A nation gets rich only if its residents get rich.
Residents get rich by increasing their productivity.  They
stay rich by being allowed by the government to do whatever
they want with their wealth, whether counted in gold, bank
accounts, or goods.  Liberty is the #1 basis of increasing
people's ability to become more efficient and therefore
more productive.  That was Smith's argument in 1776.  This
is denied by Keynesianism.

    Modern academic mercantilism in the West has reversed
the emphasis on exports.  It holds that a nation grows rich
by importing more than it exports.  The difference between
the value of exports and the value of imports is made up by
debt.  The system might be called "spend and grow rich,"
which means "borrow and grow rich."  This is Western
Keynesianism.

    It is balanced by Asian mercantilism, which is the
older mercantilism: export and grow rich.  There is this
difference.  In 1750, the mercantilists argued that gold
should flow into the domestic economy to pay for the
exports.  Asian mercantilism teaches that IOUs from
governments are to flow in, not gold.


    The older mercantilism made a lot more sense.

    Western academic Keynesian mercantilism and Asian
mercantilism are Siamese twins.  Each supports the other.
The Asians' central banks lend newly created fiat money to
buy Western currencies, which is then lent to Western
governments.  This holds down the value of Asian
currenciesWesterners can therefore buy more Asian goods.
Western governments run up huge debts to Asian central
banks
, so that domestic interest rates can be kept low,
lots of economic growth will result, and politicians will
be re-elected.

    The mercantilism of the American voter is the older
mercantilismWorkers want protection from foreign
imports.  They want an export-based economy, with sales
taxes imposed on imports.  They get little support from
academic Keynesian mercantilists, who want more imports
funded by debt issued by Asian governments and central
banks.

    Politicians and bureaucrats on both sides of the
border do not accept free market economics, for the
implication of free market economics is that the government
should have less power over the economy, including the
money supply.  It is not in their self-interest to see the
government's control over people's lives reduced.  Their
gain as citizens would be minimal: the per capita increase
in liberty and wealth.  Their per capita losses as sellers
of influence and as extenders of personal power would far
outweigh their per capita gains as citizens.

    But what of Western voters?  Don't they understand
that tariffs are sales taxes, and increased taxes are bad
for them?  No, they do not.  They see tariffs as a way to
tell all those foreigners to get lost.  They think of their
wealth as citizens of a protected country -- protected by
sales taxes -- as increasing when they have less after-tax
money to spend on what they want to buy.

    Are they crazy?  No; they are traditional
mercantilists.  They are immune to economic logic.  They
cannot think through the logic of their position.  They
think that less is more: less after-tax income for them as
private citizens means more wealth for them as members of
the nation.

    But what of Asian voters?  Don't they see that
policies subsidizing exports reduce their ownership of
goods?  Don't they see that they are made poorer?  No, they
don't.  They think of themselves as workers.  They see
exports to the West as benefits.  They do not consider
sales to each other as equally the basis of jobs
domestically.  They focus on what is seen -- income from
exports -- and ignore what is not seen: lost demand
domestically.

    Keynes went mercantilist in the early 1930s, and he
carried the younger economists with him.  By then, he
promoted the idea of state economic planning, for he was a
Treasury official.  He trusted the judgment of other
Treasury officials, just so long as they followed his
advice.

    We find that most economists are Keynesians, because
most economists think that the government -- when advised
by them -- is wiser than the mass of producers, who then
act as consumers.  The masses act in their own self-
interest, and most economists think that Ph.D.-holding
economists have far better judgment as advisors to
bureaucrats than citizens do.  The economists are trained
to think macroeconomically, whereas the masses think
microeconomically.


WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

    They all think microeconomically.  They ask: "What's
in it for me?"  Economists look at all that tax-funded
money they can tap into as advisors, and they conclude: "I
must support big government."  The voters look at their
vulnerability to foreign producers, and they think: "I must
support big government."

    This is why mercantilism persists.  Economists believe
that people act in their own self-interest, and most people
believe that they can use state coercion to feather their
nests more than other people can use state coercion to pick
them clean.

    Mercantilism is the economic philosophy that says, "I
can use political power to get into your wallet deeper than
you can use political power to get into mine."  It appeals
to men's egos.  Men think of themselves as very clever
politically.  They do not think of themselves as equally
clever in the competitive free market.  They see, day after
day, that other men can compete against them as producers.
They see the results of political competition only vaguely.
They cannot trace the effects of political interference
with the economy.  Even when they see that politics is
stripping them of their liberty and their wealth, they
reassure themselves: "Our side can do better at the next
election."

    All sides find that they are losing their liberty, but
all sides have confidence that the next election will bring
them the victory they need to make the government act in
the interest of their political party.

    Those few groups that benefit from ever-greater
government spending staff the political parties.  They
cannot lose, because they always promise the same thing:
"More booty next time.  More free lunches next time.  More
fame, honor, and glory next time.  Trust us."  The voters
do just that.

    Mercantilism is an easy sell.  It sells to people who
believe that badges and guns are the basis of wealth, if
the good guys can somehow get their hands on badges and
guns.

    The trouble is, bad guys always seem to have the
larger guns.  But the faithful do not conclude that it
would be better to issue fewer badges and fewer guns.  They
call for more laws, more taxes, and more badges and guns.
Next time, next time, next time: the good guys will win.

    The rich and influential people who sell to the
government smile and nod in agreement.  "We will help you
toss out the bad guys next time."  The voters on all sides
believe.

    The economic philosophy of this religion of "Next Time
for Sure" is mercantilism.  This religion is widely
believed.  It appeals to the larceny in men's hearts, of
which there is a never-ending supply at zero official
price.  It has a statement of economic faith: "Thou shalt
not steal, except by majority vote."


CHINA'S MERCANTILISM

    The headline on Google News announced that China has
promised to provide support for Portugal and other hard-
pressed PIIGS.  The story was run by numerous sites.

                  http://bit.ly/ChinaEuro

    The stories were all brief.  They were based on a
statement by a lone female bureaucrat.  It turns out that
she is employed by the foreign ministry.  But this ministry
has no authority over the People's Bank of China, which is
sitting on $2.6 trillion in foreign currency reserves,
meaning IOUs from other governments.

    The woman did not say how the central bank would get
the money to buy PIIGS bonds.  Obviously, it would print
the money, buy the currency and buy the bonds.

    Why would the central bank do this?  She did not say.
She did not have to say: to support the euro.  The euro is
being threatened by the ever-rising bills facing the
European Central Bank and the European Union itself.  The
International
Monetary Fund is also involved: loans to
PIIGS.

    Why would China's central bank support the euro
indirectly in this way?  To keep the euro-yuan ratio high.
Why would the bank want this?  To subsidize exports from
China to Europe If the euro stays high, then Europeans
will buy more goods from China.


    The policy of subsidizing European exports is good
news and bad news for bureaucrats in Washington.  It is
good news for Timothy Geithner, who is constantly
haranguing the Chinese government for holding up the
dollar-yuan ratio as a way to subsidize American imports
from China.  If the Bank of China uses newly counterfeited
yuan to buy euros, so that it can buy PIIGS government
bonds, it cannot use that counterfeit money to buy U.S.
bonds, thereby holding up the dollar, so that Americans can
buy more goods from China.  The dollar will tend to fall in
relation to the yuan.  Geithner will be seen as a tough
negotiator rather than a feckless whiner whom the Chinese
can safely ignore, just as they have for two years.
   
    On the other hand, the announcement is bad news for
Timothy Geithner, who is facing a $1.6 trillion deficit in
fiscal 2011, and who needs China's purchase of Treasury
debt to hold down interest rates.


   
THE DILEMMA FOR CHINA AND GEITHNER

    The Chinese decision-makers face a dilemma: they must
buy the IOUs of Western governments that will inevitably
default The PIIGS will go bust.  This includes the U.S.
government, whose debts dwarf those of the PIIGS.  When the
default comes, the People's Bank of China will be sitting
on top of a mountain of bad debt -- the worst kind of bad
debt: the kind that is openly in default, not merely
incapable of repaying, as is the case of Treasury debt
today.

    The American decision-makers also face a dilemma: the
dependence of the U.S. government on Chinese decision-
makersThe U.S. Treasury needs China's central bank to
buy Treasury debt.  If that bank ever refuses, the U.S.
central bank will have to buy the debt in order to keep
interest rates from rising on Treasury debt.  But the
continuing purchase of Treasury debt by the Chinese central
bank
means that the United States will continue to import

more from China than it exports to China.  This is bad news
for mercantilists.  It's the dreaded negative balance of
trade.

    This is great for American consumers, of course.  The
goods that the Chinese citizens cannot buy, because we buy
them, benefit American consumers.  When you walk into Best
Buy or Wal-Mart, and you see a wall of wide-screen TVs, you
know this: they were not made in the USA.  They were made
in China, labeled by a Korean or Japanese company, and
exported to the USA.

    China's central bank can create fiat money, and it does.
It can buy foreign currencies with this newly created
money, and it does.  It can buy IOUs from foreign
governments, and it does.


    Why does it do this?  Because its staffers are
Keynesians.  They were trained in the best foreign
universities.  The professors of economics in China's best
universities are also Keynesians. 

    Keynesian economics rests on two premises: (1)
economic growth comes from deficit spending by the central
government; (2) central banks can create sufficient money
to buy government IOUs at low, economically stimulative
interest rates.  To this is added traditional mercantilism:
national wealth is attained by exporting more goods than
are imported.

    Bureaucrats and politicians on both sides of a border
cannot achieve this goal.  Both nations, meaning producers
on both sides of an invisible line, cannot export more
goods and services than it imports from the other side.
One side or the other will export more goods.  To do this,
it must buy more investment assets on the other side.

    If China's exporters are to export more than the
Chinese people import, then someone must lend foreigners
the money to buy those "excess" goods.  The payments always
balance, unless one side is giving away goods.  If China
exports $500 billion more in goods than it imports, someone
in China must lend $500 billion to the foreigners who
import all those goods.  China's central bank is the
lender.  It creates the computerized money to make those
loans.

    If China's decision-makers were all committed to
Austrian School economics, they would tell the central
bankers to cease buying or selling assets.  The best
central bank policy is to close up shop, meaning shut down.
The second-best policy is to do nothing.  But central
bankers ask: "What's in it for us?"  They conclude that it
would be unwise, career-wise, to shut down or do nothing.
They sell the decision-makers on the need for more loans to
the West, thereby funding more exports to the West.  They
preach mercantilism.

    Austrian economics is a hard sell.

    This is not to say that it is an impossible sell.  It
is selling to Chinese citizens who read Austrian School
sources
on the Web.  The main ones are www.Mises.org and
www.LewRockwell.com.  But the market for this outlook is
limited in governmental circles. 

    The market for liberty is decentralized and therefore
politically diffused.  The market for power is centralized
and therefore politically concentrated.  The individual
payoff from political power is greater than the individual
losses from any increase in political power, but only for
those who survive the screening process.  Those who survive
are the decision-makers.  They decide to pursue more power.
The coin of the realm of the politically screened is power.
The coin of the realm for their victims is liberty.  But
their victims do not see this clearly.  They trust the
screened and the system of political screening.  It takes a
leap of faith to abandon this trust.

    In an economic collapse, the politically screened must
blame something else than the existing system of
government.  The victims may at last blame the screening
system.  But this has not happened in the West for a
century.  The more that governments fail to deliver the
goods, the more that voters call for more government
intervention.  That is the Austrian School's dilemma, best
expressed six decades ago in his essay, "The Middle of the
Road Policy Leads to Socialism."

CONCLUSION

    For as long as China's decision-makers hold to
Keynesianism, they will be trapped by mercantilism.  They
will buy the IOUs of implicitly bankrupt PIIGS, which
includes the biggest pig of all, the United States
government.  Eventually, the implicitly bankrupt issuers of
IOUs will default, one way or another.

    Until then, we can buy all those wonderful goods from
China, produced from resources, both human and mineral,
inside the invisible border of China.  The Chinese people,
still poor by Western standards, will continue to subsidize
Western consumers.  Their central bank will buy our
government's IOUs, thereby leaving us free to buy wide
screen TVs.

    Every time I turn on my TV, I ought to thank the
central bankers of the People's Bank of China. 

    Let us hope that Geithner the hawker of IOUs will
succeed, whereas Geithner the nagging critic of managed
yuan fails to make any headway.  As long as the U.S.
government is going bankrupt, which it clearly is, I might
as well be able to buy those Chinese imports cheap.

    I am hoping that 3D TVs without polarized glasses will
get here before Uncle Sam goes bust.  That is what's in it
for me. 

    Since we are stuck on the Titanic, we might as well
enjoy all the entertainment.

START LEARNING WHAT THE WORDS MEAN AS YOU READ, JUST HIGHLITE THEM AND USE 'DEFINE WITH GOOGLE'

MERCANTILISM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

Mercantilism is an economic theory, thought to be a form of economic nationalism,[1] that holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable". Economic assets (or capital) are represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state, which is best increased through a positive and healthy balance of trade with other nations (exports minus imports).
(READ MORE...use link above)

THERE IS MUCH MORE THAN THIS, SO READ IT ALL...AND LEARN!

FREE TRADE

Thursday, December 23, 2010

President Obama’s Christmas Gift to AT&T (and Comcast and Verizon) By Amy Goodman

"Campaign money is now more than ever the lifeblood of U.S. politicians, and you can be sure that Obama and his advisers are looking to the 2012 election, which will likely be the costliest in U.S. history. Vigorous and innovative use of the Internet and mobile technologies is credited with helping Obama secure his victory in 2008. As the open Internet becomes increasingly stifled in the U.S., and the corporations that control the Internet become more powerful, we may not see such democratic participation for much longer."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27114.htm

OR
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/president_obamas_christmas_gift_to_att_and_comcast_and_verizon_20101221/

TO THINK ABOUT...

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... O sir, we  should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" -- Patrick Henry - (1736-1799) US Founding Father

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Understanding America's Class System By Joe Bageant

A BRILLIANT ARTICLE BY A BRILLIANT WRITER

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/08/understanding-america.html#more

"The higher truth is something we recognize when we encounter it. We may not have the right words, or all the facts, but we can feel it in our bones. Intuition is the first glimmer in the distance. It goes unsaid that we always have the choice of not looking in truth's direction, or not looking for it at all. Seldom is it a pleasant sight, which is the chief sign that it is truth. Even the best of it arrives to the sound of ominous bells."

TOLSTOY ON WAR


More than a century ago, an aging man, staring his own death in the face, spoke the truth of our times:
Again war. Again sufferings, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for. Again fraud, again the universal stupefaction and brutalization of men. 

Men who are separated from each other by thousands of miles ... are seeking out one another, in order to kill, torture, and mutilate each other in the cruelest way possible. What can this be? Is it a dream or a reality? Something is taking place which should not, cannot be; one longs to believe that it is a dream and to wake from it.

But no, it is not a dream, it is a dreadful reality!

...How can so-called enlightened men preach war, support it, participate in it, and worst of all, without suffering the dangers of war themselves, incite others to it, sending their unfortunate defrauded brothers to fight? These so-called enlightened men cannot possibly ignore ... all that has and is being written about the cruelty, futility and senselessness of war. They are regarded as enlightened men precisely because they know all this. The majority of them have themselves written and spoken about it. ... No enlightened man can help knowing that the universal competition in the armament of states must inevitably lead them to endless wars or to a general bankruptcy, or else to both the one and the other. ...

Everyone knows and cannot help but knowing that, above all, war, calling forth the lowest animal passions, deprave and brutalize men. ... All so-called enlightened men know this. Then suddenly war begins and all this is instantly forgotten, and the same men who but yesterday were proving the cruelty, futility, the senselessness of wars, now think, speak and write only about killing as many men as possible, about ruining and destroying the greatest possible amounts of human labor, and about exciting as much as possible the passion of hatred in those peaceful, harmless, industrious men who by their labour feed, clothe, maintain these same pseudo-enlightened men who compel them to commit those dreadful deeds contrary to their conscience, welfare or faith.

Something is taking place incomprehensible and impossible in its cruelty, falsehood and stupidity .... Stupefied by prayers, sermons, exhortations, by processions, pictures and newspapers, the cannon-fodder -- hundreds of thousands of men, uniformly dressed, carrying divers deadly weapons, leaving their parents, wives, children, with hearts of agony but with artificial bravado -- go where they, risking their own lives, will commit the most dreadful act of killing men whom they do not know and who have done them no harm. And they are followed by doctors and nurses who somehow imagine that at home they cannot serve simple peaceful suffering people but can only serve those who are engaged in slaughtering each other. Those who remain at home are gladdened by news of the murder of men, and when they learn that many [enemies] have been killed, they thank someone whom they call God.

All this is not only regarded as the manifestation of elevated feeling, but those who refrain from such manifestations, if they endeavour to disabuse men, are deemed traitors and betrayers, and are in danger of being abused and beaten by a brutalized crowd, which in defense of its insanity and cruelty can possess no other weapon than brute force.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, 1904 (trans. by Evgeny Lampert, in 
Essays From Tula, Sheppard Press 1948)

Monitoring America by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/print/

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

Monday, December 20, 2010

SHOULD HANK PAULSON BE IN JAIL?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/12/why-isnt-hank-paulson-in-jail.html

EITHER THAT, OR SWINGING FROM ONE OF THE CHERRY TREES IN D.C.

CHASE HIT WITH SEC WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT OVER CREDIT CARD PRACTICES

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/chase-sec-whistleblower-complaint-credit-card/19768015/?icid=sphere_copyright

THE BANKSTERS ARE LYING ABOUT EVERYTHING THEY'VE DONE,
NOT JUST MORTGAGES

US Wealth Distribution: Where Zombies Go to Feast

FROM BILL BONNER AT THE DAILY RECKONING:

A warning... Bad stuff coming!

We've come to the warm latitudes for our Christmas holiday. Your editor didn't really want to do so. He travels so much for business, he longed to stay home for Christmas. He imagined himself sitting in front of the fire...happily drinking eggnog and eating fruitcake. Or, cutting down trees and mending fences.

It was not to be. He was outvoted. Here we are in Florida...on our way to Nicaragua...where we will spend Christmas not too far from the scene of an incipient border war...

We haven't been down there for 2 years. We're going to find out what is going on.

First, we have to warn readers. Bad times are coming. Our Indian colleagues alerted us. The Hindu era of Kalyug is beginning.

What's Kalyug?

It's the "age of bad stuff...about 432,000 years of it!"

Whoa. Well, that kind of puts our worries about de-leveraging debt crises into perspective, doesn't it? By our calculation, de-leveraging will end and we'll still have about 431,992 years of Kalyug to get through.

Those Hindus really do think long-term, don't they?

We Episcopalians are more short-term oriented. We'll worry about things 6 months out. Maybe 24 months. But that's about it.

Not much action on Friday. The Dow was down 7. Gold was up $8.

What do we see 24 months into the future? Well, you'll probably think we're kidding about this, but we're actually very serious:

The zombies are taking over.

We're not joking about this zombie thing. Look at what is happening. Here's a report from Bloomberg:

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) - The gap between the haves and have-nots in the US is being drawn along geographic lines, Census Bureau data showed yesterday.

The number of counties where median household income decreased is almost 10 times the number that saw an increase, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Census figures comparing an average of the years 2005-2009 with 2000. The government figures also showed a concentration of wealth and education in coastal states.

The Washington metropolitan area emerged as the wealthiest and most educated region of the past five years. The only three communities with median household incomes higher than $100,000 are in suburban counties in Virginia. Maryland, which also borders the nation's capital, saw income levels in Howard County increase at the eighth-fastest pace in the US since 2000.

The Washington suburbs are home to government contractors such as Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense company, and General Dynamics Corp., the Falls Church, Virginia-based maker of Abrams tanks and Gulfstream business jets.
The Washington Post, the zombie paper, gave the news a positive tune:

"Area Counties Richest in Nation," was the headline...or something like that.

So you see, this "geographical" distribution is really a zombie distribution. If you work for the feds - directly or indirectly - you get more money. Most likely, you're no longer creating wealth; you're consuming wealth that others created. That's what being a zombie is all about.

And as a society becomes more corrupt and degenerate, there are more and more zombies and fewer wealth-creating citizens.

But wait. There's more...below.

And more thoughts...

The zombification process runs deep. It changes the nature of what most people regard as "wealth." Instead of wanting to own a profit-making business, or lend to a wealth-increasing enterprise, more of what passes for wealth is actually a claim against the government. It is a promise by sitting politicians to rip off the future on behalf of the present.

Let's look at how it works...

In an economy like India's, a man who wants to prosper will start a business of his own...or invest in someone else's business. If he wants a decent retirement, he will have to save real money. He'll need real capital...which supports him by producing real interest or real earnings. He has a claim against future increases to the world's wealth. But that is wealth that he helped create...by saving and investing.

But in the US, more and more people depend on the government for their retirement financing. The government pledges to take money from future earnings too. But it is a zombie claim; it does not depend on adding to the world's wealth. It merely takes away the wealth of others.

If an American wants a good-paying job, he looks to the government itself, knowing that its salaries are higher than those in the private sector, and more reliable. And even if the American invests in a private business, the enterprise is more and more likely to depend on the government for contracts, subsidies, tax breaks, regulatory approval or bailouts.

Gradually, "wealth" itself becomes zombified. Insurance policies are backed by government bonds - local or federal. Pensions are heavily dependent on claims against the government. And don't forget that 42 million people in the US depend on government handouts just so they can eat. Food stamps - the breakfast, lunch and dinner of zombies - have never had so many takers.

This process is completely predictable. The more you subsidize zombies, the more zombies you get. And as the zombie population grows, it becomes more difficult to support. Finally, the paper zombie claims - US Treasuries/welfare/government employment/the US dollar - fall in value. There are too many of them for the private sector to sustain. PIMCO chief and bond expert Bill Gross says the Fed's purchases of US Treasury bonds "will likely signify the end of the great 30-year bull market in bonds." That's just the way it works. As the parasites grow, the host weakens. The more you borrow, the lower your credit rating. The more women you date, the harder it is to remember their names.

*** The poor Irish. Moody's downgraded their debt. Not just one level. Five levels. Irish debt is now rated at the same level as Russian debt.

Isn't it obvious that the Irish problem is not just a cashflow crisis? The problem is solvency, not liquidity. Irish banks got in over their heads. Then, the Irish government jumped in the water after them, taking on the debt of the banks.

The solution? Simple. Default.

But zombification continues in Europe as in America. Claims against profit-making (though reckless) private banks are now claims against the government. And governments can print money as well as lend it. The European Central Bank is doing the same thing the Fed is doing. It is buying up bonds issued by Ireland and other nations - at the rate of about $1 billion per week.

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
for The Daily Reckoning

Sunday, December 19, 2010

TO THINK ABOUT...

"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy.

The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.

The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.

The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." 
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on U.S. 713 New York Times Co. v.. United States

Laughing at Fiscal Absurdity By The Mogambo Guru

http://dailyreckoning.com/laughing-at-fiscal-absurdity/

"...
we get a Theater of the Absurd with a weird, Kafkaesque nightmare of gigantic governments, where spending by local, state and federal government is fully half of GDP, become frantic when confronted with the inevitable bankruptcy and total ruination due to their stupid fiscal policies, which were only possible in the first place because the evil Federal Reserve created the money that made it possible!"

Saturday, December 18, 2010

SOME THINGS REQUIRE NO COMMENT AT ALL

Federal Government Cuts Off Recession Relief Money To States

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/government-ends-recession-relief-money_n_798055.html

Despite soaring unemployment and the 19 million Americans currently living in "deep poverty," federal funds for the Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) program have entirely dried up for the first time since 1996, leaving states with an average of 15 percent less federal funding for the coming year to help an ever-increasing number of needy families.

Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame By Matt Taibbi

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bernie-sanders-puts-barack-obama-to-shame-20101215

Sen. Sanders Held a Tax Cut Filibuster

http://cspan.org/Events/Sen-Sanders-Held-a-Tax-Cut-Filibuster/20338/
VIDEO OF SENATOR SANDERS ON CSPAN

US empire could collapse at any time


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/untitled-chris-hedges-interview/

America's military and economic empire could collapse at any time, but predicting the precise day, week or month of its potential demise is unattainable, according to a former New York Times war correspondent who spoke with Raw Story.

"The when and how is very dangerous to predict because there's always some factor that blindsides you that you didn't expect," Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges said in an exclusive interview. "It doesn't look good. But exactly how it plays out and when it plays out, having covered disintegrating societies, it's impossible to tell."

MARTIN ARMSTRONG: SAVING THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

CREDIT TO WERNERUL FOR THE LINK
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Saving%20the%20Day%20After%20Tomorrow%2012-7-2010.pdf

NOT ARMSTRONG'S USUAL ECONOMIC ARTICLE.
THIS ONE'S ABOUT WIKILEAKS, OUT OF CONTROL GUV'MINT
AND OUR LOST FUTURE.
A THREE PAGE READ.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Blackwater Founder in Deal to Sell Company

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/blackwater-founder-in-deal-to-sell-company/?hp

The sale, which is expected to be announced on Friday, came after the State Department threatened to stop awarding contracts to the company as long as Mr. Prince owned the firm, people involved in the discussions said. These people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the confidential talks. The sale is intended to help shake the stigma associated with its ownership under Mr. Prince.

U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks
LIST OF RELEASED DOCUMENTS

A US Army Counterintelligence Agency report into Wikileaks, which recommends destroying the reputation of the whistleblower web site, has been published by, appropriately enough, Wikileaks.http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2259550/military-plan-destroy-wikileaks
U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks PDF
http://mirror.wikileaks.info/leak/us-intel-wikileaks.pdf

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention By Glenn Greenwald

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning/

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime.  Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. 

America Warned Is Just Months Away From Financial Armageddon

“Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves.”
7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson

Sadly, today, and as over 50 million Americans are reported are in danger of starving, the lessons of their ancestors have not been heeded, creating the strong likelihood that these once great people have in effect become nothing more than slaves to their new bankster masters. 
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1431.htm

Aldous Huxley Would Be Proud

British novelist Aldous Huxley was a social critic and futurist, who is best known for penning Brave New World, which, aside from being a nearly 80-year-old science fiction masterpiece, is both an allegory and prophecy for 21st Century western society.

Huxley’s finger was on the pulse of human freedom, and he warned us over 50 years ago that it was fading fast.
VIDEO OF HUXLEY
http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/12/13/aldous-huxley-would-be-proud/

Monday, December 13, 2010

Truth is the Greatest Enemy of the State By Paul Craig Roberts

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant Secretary to the US Treasury, is Max's guest for today's show to talk about the WikiLeaks. Max asks Dr. Roberts about what he thinks of what is happening to WikiLeaks story, in particular the US, led by Joe Lieberman, which has been forcing WikkiLeaks offline.

Press TV's On the Edge
Posted December 13, 2010

VIDEO IN THREE PARTS
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27054.htm

Sunday, December 12, 2010

THE GREEDY RICH DON'T EVEN TRY TO HIDE IT ANYMORE

Executives keep health perks while workers' benefits are cut
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-12-10-rw_ceohealthplan10_ST_N.htm

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

LONG ARTICLE, BUT VERY INFORMATIVE
http://www.thenation.com/article/156851/decline-and-fall-american-empire

"when Washington's global dominion finally ends, there will be painful daily reminders of what such a loss of power means for Americans in every walk of life. As a half-dozen European nations have discovered, imperial decline tends to have a remarkably demoralizing impact on a society, regularly bringing at least a generation of economic privation. As the economy cools, political temperatures rise, often sparking serious domestic unrest."

MALCOLM REALIZED THIS BACK IN THE 1960s

 "In the eyes of posterity it will inevitably seem that, in safeguarding our freedom, we destroyed it. The vast clandestine apparatus we built up to prove our enemies' resources and intentions only served in the end to confuse our own purposes; that practice of deceiving others for the good of the state led infallibly to our deceiving ourselves; and that vast army of clandestine personnel built up to execute these purposes were soon caught up in the web of their own sick fantasies, with disastrous consequences for them and us". - -- Malcom Muggeridge - May 1966

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Julian Assange in the Honey Trap...How they snared him

"Anyone who doubts the unmitigated evil of the US government and its international enablers has only to look at the disgraceful persecution of Julian Assange to see Washington’s brazen malevolence in full flower. As the WikiLeaks web site continues to release daily examples of US incompetence, bullying, venality, and corruption, the response from the Imperial City has been a coordinated campaign of lies, smears, and what can only be described as utter filth."
by Justin Raimondo, December 08, 2010
 

WIKILEAKS HAS FOREVER EXPOSED GUV'MINTS FOR THE HEINOUS MURDERING CRIMINAL THIEVES THEY ALL ARE

WE ALL OWE A DEEP DEBT OF GRATITUDE TO JULIAN ASSANGE FOR HIS COURAGE TO EXPOSE THE CRIMINALS FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND THE POISE WITH WHICH HE HAS DONE IT.

Global Rebellion Erupts After “Unprotected Sex Meets Disrobed Governments”
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1428.htm

The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) co-founder John Barlow

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Arrest of Julian Assange Truth in Chains By CHRIS FLOYD

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the target of several of the world’s most powerful governments, turned himself into British authorities today and is now at the mercy of state authorities who have already shown their wolfish – and lawless – desire to destroy him and his organization.

It has been, by any standard, an extraordinary campaign of vilification and persecution..."

"how many thousands of people, how many tens of thousands, have been killed by our bipartisan Terror Warriors in the four years of WikiLeaks’ existence?

 How many millions have been “harmed” not only by the direct operations of the Terror War, but by the ever-widening, ever-deepening violence, hatred and turmoil it is spreading throughout the world? (Not to mention the accelerating collapse of American society, which has been financially, politically and morally bankrupted by the acceptance of aggressive war, torture, elite rapine and authoritarian rule.)

But none of the perpetrators of these acts, past or present, are in jail, or have even been prosecuted, or investigated, or inconvenienced in any way. Yet Assange is in a British prison tonight – and it is certainly not for the “sexual misconduct” charges..."

Indecent Exposure: WikiLeaks Hounded for Showing Power Its True Face

CHRIS FLOYD IS ONE OF THE  BEST, AND PROLIFIC, WRITERS EVER.
READ HIM WHENEVER YOU GET THE CHANCE.
HIS WEBSITE IS: EMPIRE BURLESQUE AT http://www.chris-floyd.com/

"it is remarkable that the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables has provoked a far more virulent and draconian reaction from government officials -- and from their craven sycophants in the mainstream media -- than we ever saw after the earlier releases about Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet many of those Terror War releases provided detailed, eyewitness accounts of horrific acts of murder, brutality, and depraved indifference toward the slaughter of innocent people. It seems the American elite are more outraged at being caught in various diplomatic faux pas than being shown to be perpetrators and facilitators of murder, repression and state terror. That's because they know that their cowed and passive subjects -- continually stoked with the hatred and fear of foreign demons -- don't care how many darkies get killed on the other side of the world. And so the Terror War leaks occasioned no more than a few days of Beltway bluster.

But the new releases put a bit of a crimp in business as usual for our backroom operators, exposing some of the rank hypocrisy and all-pervasive corruption of our great and good -- and of their clients and partners around the world. All this might -- just might -- give the rabble unseemly notions ... such as the idea that their interests are perhaps not being served all that well by a system run by and for a handful of liars, tyrants, killers and thieves. We can't have that.

And so Julian Assange is now being hounded -- perhaps to his eventual death -- not for revealing war crimes and atrocities, but for showing us a glimpse of our leaders as they really are: stupid, vain, petty and savage."

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2059-indecent-exposure-wikileaks-hounded-for-showing-power-its-true-face.html

HAPPY AS A HANGMAN By Chris Hedges

"Innocence, as defined by law, makes us complicit with the crimes of the state. To do nothing, to be judged by the state as an innocent, is to be guilty. It is to sanction, through passivity and obedience, the array of crimes carried out by the state.
To be innocent in America means we passively permit offshore penal colonies where we torture human beings, some of whom are children. To be innocent in America is to acquiesce to the relentless corporate destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species. To be innocent in America is to permit the continued theft of hundreds of billions of dollars from the state by Wall Street swindlers and speculators. To be innocent in America is to stand by as insurance and pharmaceutical companies, in the name of profit, condemn ill people, including children, to die. To be innocent in America is refusing to resist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that are not only illegal under international law but responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of people. This is the odd age we live in. Innocence is complicity."

Monday, December 6, 2010

Western Civilization Has Shed Its Values By Paul Craig Roberts

Western Civilization no longer upholds the values it proclaims, so what is the basis for its claim to virtue?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27012.htm

Ron Paul: Don't Blame Wikileaks!

Wikileaks Reveals U.S. Government's Delusional Foreign Policy
This allows ordinary people to actually know and talk about what the government does. But state secrecy is anathema to a free society. Why exactly should Americans be prevented from knowing what their government is doing in their name?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27011.htm



Sunday, December 5, 2010

RECENT STUDY OF AUTHORITARIANISM

http://www.socionomics.net/PDF/Authoritarianism-Free-Update.pdf

17 PAGE PDF

THIS STUDY IS RELATED TO ROBERT PRECHTER AND HIS
USE OF ELLIOT WAVE THEORY.
SINCLAIR DOES NOT AGREE WITH PRECHTER'S PREDICTIONS
GO TO THE SOCIONOMICS HOME PAGE FOR MORE INFO ON THIS ORGANIZATION
http://www.socionomics.net/

Fed Names Recipients of $3.3 Trillion in Crisis Aid

The Federal Reserve, under orders from Congress, today named the counterparties of about 21,000 transactions from $3.3 trillion in aid provided to stem the worst financial panic since the Great Depression.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/fed-names-recipients-of-3-3-trillion-of-aid-during-u-s-financial-crisis.html

The Proper Response to WikiLeaks by Karen Kwiatkowski

KAREN  K. IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS ANYWHERE.
READ HER ARTICLES ANYTIME YOU SEE THEM.
LEWROCKWELL.COM HAS HER ARCHIVES LINK AT THE
BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski259.html

The Proper Response to WikiLeaks by Karen Kwiatkowski

An alert and informed citizenry, valued by presidents from Washington to Eisenhower, is now deemed by D.C. to be a nascent domestic terrorism threat.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski259.html

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Who, Precisely, Is Attacking the World? By Paul Craig Roberts

To reveal truth is equivalent, in the eyes of the U.S. government, to an attack on the world.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26957.htm

Fabricating Terror By Paul Craig Roberts

The United States of America, “the city upon the hill,” “the light unto the world,” has become Nazi Germany.

Nazi Gestapo policy is now the declared policy of the US Department of Justice (sic).

Anyone who thinks the United States is a free society where people have liberty, “freedom and democracy” is uninformed.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26954.htm