Archive for the ‘America wake up’ Category
—7) Sociopaths traffic in disturbing news, they love to pass on destructive rumors and they’ll falsify information to damage others.
The fact that they’re chronic, extremely convincing and even enthusiastic liars, who often believe their own lies, means they aren’t easy to spot, because normal people naturally assume another person is telling the truth. They rarely have handlebar mustaches or chortle like Snidely Whiplash. Instead, they cultivate a social veneer or a mask of sanity that diverts suspicion. You can rely on them to be “politically correct” in public. How could a congressman or senator who avidly supports charities possibly be a bad guy? They’re expert at using facades to disguise reality, and they feel no guilt about it.
Political elites are primarily, and sometimes exclusively, composed of sociopaths. It’s not just that they aren’t normal human beings. They’re barely even human, a separate subspecies, differentiated by their psychological qualities. A normal human can mate with them spiritually and psychologically about as fruitfully as a modern human could mate physically with a Neanderthal; it can be done, but the results won’t be good.
It’s a serious problem when a society becomes highly politicized, as is now the case in the US and Europe. In normal times, a sociopath stays under the radar. Perhaps he’ll commit a common crime when he thinks he can get away with it, but social mores keep him reined in. However, once the government changes its emphasis from protecting citizens from force to initiating force with laws and taxes, those social mores break down. Peer pressure, social approbation and moral opprobrium, the forces that keep a healthy society orderly, are replaced by regulations enforced by cops and funded by taxes. Sociopaths sense this, start coming out of the woodwork and are drawn to the State and its bureaucracies and regulatory agencies, where they can get licensed and paid to do what they’ve always wanted to do.
It’s very simple, really. There are two ways people can relate to each other: voluntarily or coercively. The government is pure coercion, and sociopaths are drawn to its power and force.
The majority of Americans will accept the situation for two reasons: One, they have no philosophical anchor to keep them from being washed up onto the rocks. They no longer have any real core beliefs, and most of their opinions – e.g., “We need national health care,” “Our brave troops should fight evil over there so we don’t have to fight it over here,” “The rich should pay their fair share” – are reactive and comforting. The whole point of spin doctors is to produce comforting sound bites that elude testing against reality. And, two, they’ve become too pampered and comfortable, a nation of overfed losers, mooches and coasters who like the status quo without wondering how long it can possibly last.
It’s nonsensical to blather about the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave when reality TV and Walmart riots are much closer to the truth. The majority of Americans are, of course, where the rot originates – the presidential candidates are spending millions taking their pulse in surveys and polls and then regurgitating to them what they seem to want to hear. Once a country buys into the idea that an above-average, privileged lifestyle is everyone’s minimum due, when the fortunate few can lobby for special deals to rake something off the table as they squeeze wealth out of others by force, that country is on the decline. Lobbying and taxation rather than production and innovation have never been able to sustain prosperity. The wealth being squeezed took centuries to produce, but it is not inexhaustible.
In that light, it was interesting to hear Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, speak about the lower, middle and upper classes recently. Romney is an empty suit, only marginally better than the last Republican nominee, the hostile and mildly demented John McCain. In any event, Romney is right about the poor, in a way – there is a “safety net,” now holding 50 million people on Medicaid and 46 million on food stamps, among many other supposed benefits. And he’s right about the rich; there’s no need to worry about them at the moment – at least until the revolution starts. He claims to worry about the middle class, not that his worries will do anything to help them. But he’s right that the middle class is where the problem lies. It’s just a different kind of problem than he thinks.
People generally fall into an economic class because of their psychology and their values. Each of the three classes has a characteristic psychological profile. For the lower class, it’s apathy. They have nothing, they’re ground down and they don’t really care. They’re not in the game, and they aren’t going to do anything; they’re resigned to their fate. For the upper class, it’s greed and arrogance. They have everything, and they think they deserve it – whether they do or not. The middle class – at least in today’s world – is run by fear. Fear that they’re only a paycheck away from falling into the lower class. Fear that they can’t pay their debts or borrow more. Fear that they don’t have a realistic prospect of improving themselves.
The problem is that fear is a negative, dangerous and potentially explosive emotion. It can easily morph into anger and violence. Exactly where it will lead is unpredictable, but it’s not a good place. One thing that exacerbates the situation is that all three classes now rely on the government, albeit in different ways. Bankruptcy of the government will affect them all drastically.
With sociopaths in charge, we could very well see the Milgram experiment reenacted on a national scale. In the experiment, you may recall, researchers asked members of the public to torture subjects (who, unbeknownst to the people being recruited, were paid actors) with electric shocks, all the way up to what they believed were lethal doses. Most of them did as asked, after being assured that it was “alright” and “necessary” by men in authority. The men in authority today are mostly sociopaths.
WHAT TO DO
One practical issue worth thinking about is how you, as someone with libertarian values, will manage in a future increasingly controlled by sociopaths. My guess is poorly, unless you take action to insulate yourself. That’s because of the way almost all creatures are programmed by nature. There’s one imperative common to all of them: Survive! People obviously want to do that as individuals. And as families. In fact, they want all the groups that they’re members of to survive, simply because (everything else being equal) it should help them to survive as individuals. So individual Marines want the Marine Corps to survive. Individual Rotarians want the Rotary Club to prosper. Individual Catholics leap to the defense of the Church of Rome.
That’s why individual Germans during World War II were, as has been asserted, “willing executioners” – they were supporting the Reich for the same reasons the Marines, the Rotarians and the Catholics support their groups. Except more so, because the Reich was under attack from all sides. So of course they followed orders and turned in their neighbors who seemed less than enthusiastic. Failing to support the Reich – even if they knew it had some rather unsavory aspects – seemed an invitation to invading armies to come and rape their daughters, steal their property and probably kill them. So of course the Germans closed ranks around their leaders, even though everyone at the top was a sociopath. You can expect Americans to do the same.
Americans have done so before, when the country was far less degraded. During the War Between the States, even saying something against the war was a criminal offense. The same was true during World War I. In World War II, the Japanese were all put in concentration camps on groundless, racially based suspicions of disloyalty. During the early years of the Cold War, McCarthyism was rampant. The examples are legion among humans, and the US was never an exception. It’s even true among chickens. If a bird has a feather out of place, the others will peck at it, eventually killing it. That out-of-place feather is deemed a badge of otherness announcing that its owner isn’t part of the group. Chicken Autre must die.
Libertarians, who tend to be more intelligent, better informed and very definitely more independent than average, are going to be in a touchy situation as the crisis deepens. Most aren’t going to buy into the groupthink that inevitably accompanies war and other major crises. As such, they’ll be seen as unreliable, even traitors. As Bush said, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” And, he might have added, “the Constitution be damned.” But of course that document is no longer even given lip service; it’s now a completely dead letter.
It’s very hard for an individualist to keep his mouth shut when he sees these things going on. But he’d better keep quiet, as even HL Mencken wisely did during both world wars. In today’s world, just keeping quiet won’t be enough; the national security state has an extensive, and growing, file on everybody. They believe they know exactly what your beliefs, desires, fears and associations are, or may be. What we’re now facing is likely to be more dangerous than past crises. If you’re wise, you’ll relocate someplace where you’re something of an outsider and, by virtue of that fact, are allowed a measure of eccentric opinion. That’s why I spend an increasing amount of time in Latin America. In truth, however, security is going to be hard to find anywhere in the years to come. The most you can hope for is to tilt the odds in your favor.
The best way to do that is by diversifying your assets internationally. Allocating your wealth into real assets. Linking up with sound, like-minded people who share your values. And staying alert for the high-potential speculations that inevitably arise during chaotic times.
[Another puzzle piece that sadly fits in place for the fall of the US is its astounding debt crisis. Those with the foresight to take advantage of the shifting trends it triggers can not just survive, but thrive during the challenging times ahead.]
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107907-2012-03-21-the-ascendence-of-sociopaths-in-us-governance.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Written by
Dave Hodges
Date: 03-21-2012
Subject:
Philosophy: Fascism
The lessons of history clearly demonstrate that dictatorial regimes, whether they be Socialists, Communists, and Marxists will not hesitate to use food as a weapon against their own people in order to solidify power and impose absolute autocratic control. Food can be withheld from the masses by preventing it from being grown and harvested, by contaminating it and rendering it unfit for human consumption or by simply preventing food from being distributed to a targeted population.
The two most notable examples of dictators using food a weapon in order to destroy the free will of their people comes from the regimes of Stalin and Hitler.
Josef Stalin engaged in his own Soviet style Holocaust when, in 1932 and 1933, and estimated six to 20 million people in the Ukraine died from starvation when Stalin implemented his prescription of “hope and change” policies in order to eliminate the Ukrainian’s desire for becoming their own nation-state.
Upon assuming power, the Stalinist Communist regime rapidly nationalized the food industry and forced all of the region’s farms into collectives. Thus, Stalin’s version of the Holocaust came to fruition in what history has dubbed, the “Holdomor,” in which millions perished in only a two year period when the Soviet government began to exterminate the Ukrainian population by taking control of food and food production.
Hitler proclaimed that food could be used as a tool “…to discipline the masses” and he did not hesitate to use the control of food as a type of carrot and stick in which he would reward accomplishment and punish failure as well as to ferment preferential class distinctions in which his armed forces received the largest food ration cards. Skilled workers who were engaged in industries critical to the building of the German war machine, received food ration cards which were slightly less in value. And, finally, the prisoners and the Jews received the lowest valued Nazi food ration cards. Food ration cards were also utilized as incentives to increase industrial production and were also increased in value when productive Nazi workers would be promoted. Food ration cards were diminished in value for the failure to meet Nazi production goals. Hitler’s use of what psychologists refer to as classical conditioning techniques reduced the will of the German population to a pack of Pavlovian dogs who were conditioned to be totally dependent upon the government for their survival.
Most recently, Somalia thug, Farah Aideed, systematically starved his people into submission as a brutal civil war raged in both Darfur and Rwanda where the Islamic regimes sought the annihilation of ‘infidels’ and the use of food was one of the primary weapons designed to force compliance. And of course, Pol Pot, Castro and Mao all used food deprivation to quarantine their political opposition and exact absolute allegiance to their respective dictatorial regimes.
I venture to say that most individuals who get their “news” from FOX and CNN would hold fast to the belief that the benevolent U.S. government would never use food as a weapon against the American people. Someone should remind these “sheeple” that this is the same U.S. government which has been caught shipping drugs into Mexico under Operation Fast and Furious which has resulted in the deaths of a half dozen U.S. law enforcement officials. Yes, this is the same government which has turned a blind eye to HSBC bank setting up fictitious bank accounts in order to launder money derived from the profits of drug trafficking and running guns and then turning around and sending this money to fund various terrorist organizations. Yes, this is the same government which permits the Federal Reserve to send trillions of American dollars in order to bail out their own personal banking interests in Europe. Yes, this is the same U.S. government , through the TSA, which commits second degree sexual assault on airline travelers under the guise of protecting Americans from the very terrorists that they are complicit in funding through organizations such as the HSBC bank. Therefore, it is prudent to ask the question, would the United States use food a tool of governmental policy in order to control its population? Unfortunately, this question has already been answered in the affirmative.
The use of food by the U.S. government has been a matter of official U.S. governmental covert policy since 1974-1975.
In December, 1974, National Security Council directed by Henry Kissinger completed a classified study entitled, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study was based upon the unproven claims that population growth in Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) constituted a serious risk to America’s national security.
In November 1975 President Ford, based upon the tenets of NSSM 200 outlined a classified plan to forcibly reduce population growth in LDC countries through birth control, war and famine. Ford’s new national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, in conjunction with CIA Director, George H. W. Bush, were tasked with implementing the plan and the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture assisted in the implementation of these insane genocidal plans.
NSSM 200 formally raised the question, “Would food be considered an instrument of national power? … Is the U.S. prepared to accept food rationing to help people who can’t/won’t control their population growth?” Kissinger has answered these questions when he stated that he was predicting a series of contrived famines, created by mandatory programs and this would make exclusive reliance on birth control programs unnecessary in this modern day application of eugenics in a scheme that would allow Henry to have his cake and eat it too in that the world would finally be rid of the “useless eaters!”
Third world population control, using food as one of the primary weapons, has long been a matter of official covert national policy and a portion of President Obama’s Executive Order (EO), National Defense Resources Preparedness is a continuation of that policy. Only now, the intended target are not the LDC’s but, instead, the American people.
With the stroke of his pen, Obama has total and absolute control over all food where his EO states:
e) “Food resources” means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. “Food resources” also means potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.
(f) “Food resource facilities” means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer…”
This unconstitutional EO is particularly disturbing in that it clearly states that the government has control over anything that is “capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals…” If you thought that you and Fido were going to get through coming food crisis by consuming dog food, think again.
How will farmers maintain the nation’s food supply when all fertilizer, their farm equipment and all of their vehicles are under the control of this sociopathic President?
The term “all food storage facilities” includes your refrigerator, your pantry and even the very food in your cabinets as well as what is on your kitchen table. In short, anywhere you keep food is now under the control of the government and can be redistributed.
Have you recently been scratching your head in bewilderment as you watch on the news as the Amish have had their farms raided, raw milk producers have been jailed and the kids running lemonade stands have been shut down and ticketed? Now you know why these abuses are being perpetrated by the government in that it represents a mere conditioning process designed to get all U.S. citizens used to the idea that the government owns all food and food production.
The most clever aspect of this EO is that no Hegelian Dialectic (i.e., false flag event) is needed as a pretense to seize food and imperil survivability. Section 201(b) of the Obama EO clearly states that this EO is enforceable under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”
Even Ray Charles could see that Obama is setting the table to take his place among Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Castro and Mao as another despot in the long line of tyrannical leaders who would grant themselves the authority to subjugate the masses by using food as a weapon. Americans desperately need to look at history in order to understand what happens every time the people of a government allows the government to control its food supplies and farms. It was with great forethought that the second part of the title of this article reads “…systematic population reduction.”
In hindsight, I have often wondered how prophetic was Obama’s campaign speech when he promised to fundamentally transform America? This was actually one campaign promise that Obama is trying to keep. NSSM 200 has come full circle, but in this case, it is specifically aimed at the American people. Continuing details on this abuse of power will be posted at http://thecommonsenseshow.weebly.com/
Prefetching Prohibited – Rapid Robot Requests Refused
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107835-2012-03-20-us-afghan-detainees-sent-to-torture-prisons.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Written by
Dave Hodges
Date: 03-20-2012
Subject:
Philosophy: Fascism
Since writing “Obama’s Legalization of Slavery and Systematic Population Reduction“, on March 18, 2012, I have been deluged with emails and a smattering of requests to do radio interviews. Most of the email content was very consistent in that I witnessed a collective heartfelt expression of profound shock, dismay and even fear as most of the individuals who emailed me, were coming to the realization that America’s descent into absolute tyranny is nearly complete. Yet, I must admit that a couple of the emails I received accused me of overreacting with regard to my conclusions about the Obama Executive Order (EO) and that his EO was merely “an updating” of a very similar EO enacted by Bill Clinton.
Among the requests I received for radio interviews, came in the form of a voicemail I received from the Denver based “Peter Boyles Show” (KHOW 630AM, a Clear Channel station). Remember, it was Clear Channel which drove prominent Phoenix talk show host Charles Goyette (KFYI) from the airwaves and banned the playing of any music from the Dixie Chicks on any of their affiliates because both Goyette and the renowned country music group dared to question the existence of weapons of mass destruction as the reason behind the pre-emptive military invasion of Iraq in the second Gulf War.
Subsequently, I was stunned that KHOW, a Clear Channel affiliate, would want to have me on the air to discuss such a constitutionally back-breaking EO in light of their previous history of practicing extreme censorship in response to any criticism with regard to the executive branch’s sense of entitlement when it comes to global imperialism on behalf of the Wall Street Financial Complex. However, my bewilderment soon faded when I visited KHOW’s website and read an article entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness” Executive Order: Power Grab Or Mere Update. After reading the phrase “or mere update,” it dawned upon me that the intent of the interview was most likely designed to discredit my conclusions by accusing me of overreacting to Obama’s newest EO. Unfortunately, I did not reach Boyles’ producer, Greg Hollenback, until after the show had ended and subsequently I did not make an appearance. I would have relished the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with a member of the Clear Channel establishment media in order to wake up a few more Americans as to the tyranny we now face.
I freely admit that I did briefly pause and wonder if I indeed was overreacting Obama’s March 16th, 2012 EO. After some brief self-examination, the clear answer was an absolute and emphatic no! Although Obama’s EO is almost an identical update to Clinton’s EO 12919 (1994), we would be wise to take note that in Section 201(b) of the Obama version, Obama inserted the phrase “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.” This enables the President, solely based upon his own authority, to declare peacetime martial law which is tantamount to the establishment of an indefinite dictatorship. Also, the intent behind the Obama EO must be considered within the context of the times that we presently live in. To that point, Eric Holder, on behalf of President Obama, is asserting the power to assassinate Americans, anytime, anywhere, for any reason or for no reason, whatsoever. Further, President Obama is asserting the power to kidnap and indefinitely imprison Americans without a trial under the NDAA. Finally, the Department of the Defense, operating under the ultimate authority of President Obama, is asserting the power to label legitimate protesting as an act of terrorism.
When one thoughtfully considers the totality of Obama’s recent and reckless actions, there can be no doubt that America is witnessing the systematic and incremental implementation of Obama’s modern day version of the Nazi Enabling Act.
The Enabling Act permitted the German cabinet to enact previously prohibited legislation, which included laws which clearly deviated from and profoundly altered the meaning of the German constitution. As with Obama’s unconstitutional actions, this was accomplished without the consent of the Reichstag. Within the parameters of the Enabling Act, the Nazis created “Special Courts” to punish political dissent in a strikingly similar manner identified in the Obama sponsored NDAA as well as a number of declarations and proclamations referenced in the previous paragraph. Also contained in the Enabling Act was a series of civil laws that barred Jews from holding civil service positions as well as jobs in the legal, medical and teaching professions.
As we collectively ponder Obama’s next move, and given Obama’s decidedly anti-Christian attitude, I have to wonder if we will not be soon substituting the word “Christian” in place of the word “Jew” in the next round of his emerging version of the Enabling Act.
In a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) regarding apparent inactivity of German citizens following the Nazi rise to power and their subsequent persecution of their chosen target groups.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
There was no one left to speak out.
If you strain your ears you might be able to hear the sound of boots marching, in unison, as they head in your direction. If clear your nostrils and inhale deeply, you may get a whiff from the odor of burning books. And if you take the time to look upon the annals of history, you may recall that Heinrich Heine prophetically stated, nearly two centuries ago, “Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people.”
Freedom Forum
News Links
Feature Articles
Opinions
Reference Links
Writers
Front Page
About Us
Contact Us
Link To Us
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Writer Log-in
FreedomsPhoenix.com
The domain and name of this website are servicemarks of Ernest Hancock.
Website is Copyright © 2012 by Ernest Hancock. All rights reserved worldwide.
Feature articles, columns, illustrations, and photographs are copyrighted and may not be
reproduced without the expressed permission of the credited writer, artist, or photographer.
No portion of this website, text, images, or source code may be framed on another website,
copied, reproduced, or distributed, by any means, without the written permission of
Ernest Hancock, 4886 W Port Au Prince Ln, Glendale, AZ 85306 USA.
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107849-2012-03-20-happy-birthday-mommy-donna-hancocks-50th-birthday-is-today.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Freedom Forum
News Links
Feature Articles
Opinions
Reference Links
Writers
Front Page
About Us
Contact Us
Link To Us
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Writer Log-in
FreedomsPhoenix.com
The domain and name of this website are servicemarks of Ernest Hancock.
Website is Copyright © 2012 by Ernest Hancock. All rights reserved worldwide.
Feature articles, columns, illustrations, and photographs are copyrighted and may not be
reproduced without the expressed permission of the credited writer, artist, or photographer.
No portion of this website, text, images, or source code may be framed on another website,
copied, reproduced, or distributed, by any means, without the written permission of
Ernest Hancock, 4886 W Port Au Prince Ln, Glendale, AZ 85306 USA.
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/080915-2010-12-27-freedoms-phoenix-and-american-precious-metals-video-how-to-buy.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Economic crises signal that the current system isn’t working as expected and needs improvement. When it comes to monetary systems, questioning their fundamentals can lead to doubts about whether the preferred medium of exchange will continue to be preferred for long. The large-scale whirlwind of economic trouble around the globe has pushed some to rethink the role of gold in the economy – and to actually move toward bringing it back.
A month ago, a rumor that India is going to pay in gold for oil imported from sanction-struck Iran sent shockwaves through the markets. It was no small deal, both in principle and volume: India is one of Iran’s largest oil buyers, responsible for about 22 percent of total exports and worth about US$12 billion per year. China is next with 13 percent, and Japan is third with about ten. All of them are having a hard time dealing with Iranian oil imports, as the country is under sanctions caused by Western fears regarding its nuclear program.
Then an Israeli news site claimed exclusive knowledge of a possible workaround between India and Iran: settling the purchases in gold. Indian government officials refused to comment, which added to the speculation.
On the surface, the arrangement looked like a great way to settle the purchases via a stable medium: Iranian currency, the rial, is not widely used outside its border, and gold’s inherent anonymity would have provided a perfect way to avoid unnecessary attention from the global community. Ironically, it was precisely the fact that the settlement was planned in gold that attracted so much attention.
It proved to be nothing but a rumor, however: the sides decided to arrange the deal in a more tactical manner. India will partly cover the purchases with its own currency, and Iran will later use those funds to acquire imports.
But gold is not out of the equation yet. The US-initiated sanctions were effective, at least in the sense of making international institutions avoid the pariah nation. Reuters reported that Iran has failed to organize imports of even basic food staples for its population of 74 million. Prices on local markets rose sharply; and as the country neared parliamentary elections on March 2, the government was taking radical steps to provide citizens with basic necessities. One of those unconventional solutions was offering gold as barter for food.
“Grain deals are being paid for in gold bullion and barter deals are being offered,” one European grains trader said, speaking on condition of anonymity while discussing commercial deals. “Some of the major trading houses are involved.”
Another trader said: “As the shipments of grain are so large, barter or gold payments are the quickest option.”
Trading in gold rather than a fiat currency is “cashless.” That may sound as if there’s no medium of exchange, but that is of course a misconception: gold is history’s longest-standing medium of exchange.
As long as the sanctions remain in force and the Iranian government has limited access to international currency markets, gold will remain an obvious way to settle transactions. Decreasing oil imports to Japan, the world’s third-largest importer, will impact the Iranian economy further, draining foreign currency inflows. Lacking foreign currency may push the country to continue using its foreign exchange reserves, or gold, to cover its international liabilities. Oil looks like a viable, though less convenient, alternative as well.
The Iranian economy is in a state of crisis, and due to the lack of trust in its currency, leaders are increasingly resorting to extraordinary offers to trading partners. The situation would clearly worsen if the country enters a state of war. While that’s still speculation, imagine what would happen to the price of gold if a part of Iran’s 29-million-ounce gold reserve becomes a medium – not an object – of exchange in international trade.
That reduction in potential supply could be a game-changer, not only because of crisis-struck Iran, but because it could open the door for other countries to follow suit. The price of gold would likely respond very positively.
This scenario, while possible, may not happen very soon: large-scale trading in gold has occurred only rarely in recent years. Traces of deals are difficult to track down due to the anonymity of the yellow metal. This re-emphasizes our point regarding gold as money in extremis: when economic push comes to shove, gold will outlast any other medium of exchange in existence. As the evidence from Iran shows, even governments – the masters of the central banks – will resort to mankind’s oldest form of money when pressed.
Which brings us to this evergreen conclusion: Gold is one of the best assets to own in both good times and bad. It can rise with inflation in a surging economy, and it can be practical for exchange when times are bad.
Gold isn’t just a hedge; it’s money.
[There are many ways to take advantage of shifting attitudes toward gold… including buying in at deeply discounted rates. Get started today.]
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107878-2012-03-20-iran-says-gold-is-money.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Written by
Stephen Lendman
Date: March 21, 2012
Subject:
MEDIA (MainStreamMedia – aka MSM)
Asking the Wrong Questions About War
by Stephen Lendman
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller now writes Times op-eds on alternate Mondays, as well as articles for The New York Times Magazine.
Too bad his columns get failing grades. Scoundrel journalism is featured. Truth and full disclosure are excluded. His March 18 article is typical.
Headlined, “Falling In and Out of War,” it began well. He admitted he’s been wrong on war and wants “to avoid repeating the mistake.” To his credit, he also said “it’s immeasurably more true for those in a position to actually start a war.”
He stopped short of explaining the vital role media scoundrels play, especially The Times as America’s most influential broadsheet. It’s major front page stories get global attention. As executive editor, and earlier as managing editor, he decided what got featured.
Many promoted war and support for wealth and power. Populism was excluded. So was and remains telling readers what they most need to know. Suppressing it is standard Times policy.
In his latest article, Keller wrote:
“What are the right questions the president should ask — and we as his employers should ask — when deciding whether going to war is (a) justified and (b) worth it?”
He asked five “plus two caveats, and some thoughts about how all this applies to” America’s wars and prospective ones.
Too bad he omitted what most need saying. More on that below. His questions included:
“1. How is this our fight?”
In 2001, he claimed protecting America’s “national interest” required “go(ing) after the homicidal zealots” responsible for 9/11, “and the Afghan regime that hosted them.”
Neither Afghan officials, bin Laden, or others there had anything to with it. Kellers knows or should. Yet he lied to readers, calling it the right thing to do.
Francis Boyle is an international law expert. His latest article is titled “End the Crime That Is the War on Afghanistan,” saying:
“….the Bush administration’s war against Afghanistan cannot be justified on the facts or the law. It is clearly illegal. It constitutes armed aggression. It is creating a humanitarian catastrophe for the people of Afghanistan.”
Bush and Obama bear main responsibility for millions of lives lost, mass destruction, unspeakable human misery, daily violence including rape, murder and torture, and Washington’s shocking indifference to extreme suffering.
After over a decade, it’s also America’s longest war. It’s unwinnable. Pentagon, administration, and Congressional officials know it. Yet no end of conflict’s planned, nor is ending an illegal occupation as Afghans demand immediately.
“2. At what cost?”
Keller claimed overthrowing Gaddafi was right and easy. Ousting Assad is also just but tough. He’s dead wrong on both counts.
Putting “a price on freedom” demands not overspending, he claims. Doing so may force Washington “to contract its global posture” like Britain and other empires had to do.
In other words, winning wars at the right price advance America’s imperium. Counterproductive ones should be avoided. Keller ignored rule of law principles, right and wrong, and other issues mattering most. It was typical NYT journalism.
“3. Or what?”
What if alternate strategies short of war fail? “The ultimate ‘or what’ question about Iran is, if sanctions and threats fail, could we live with a nuclear Iran?”
Again, Keller knows or should that Iran threatens no one. It hasn’t attacked another country in over 200 years, and US intelligence, Mossad, and IAEA inspectors find no evidence whatever of a nuclear weapons program or intention to have one.
Moreover, possessing any type weapons suggests no intent to use them. In contrast, America’s the only country ever to use nuclear weapons – gratuitously, in fact, when Japan was negotiating surrender.
Doing so was cold-blooded murder. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died. Killing them was criminal wrongdoing. Lawlessness is replicated in all US war theaters.
Today, America maintains a preemptive nuclear first-strike policy against perceived or manufactured threats, including non-nuclear states. Israel also is nuclear armed and dangerous.
In his 1997 book, “Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies,” Israel Shahak said:
“Israel (is) clearly prepar(ing) itself to seek overtly a hegemony over the entire Middle East (with no) hesitati(on) to use for the purpose all means available, including nuclear ones.”
Iran threatens no one. Neither does Syria. America and Israel menace humanity.
“4. And who else?”
Keller favors US wars when allies “share the cost to spread the risk.” In other words, he endorses coalition-of-the-willing lawlessness with enough co-conspirators.
Syria’s another matter because “no one is volunteering to join us yet.”
In other words, collective might is right no matter how wrong.
“5. Then what?”
He’s right. Unintended consequences matter, but not ones he mentioned. Invading Iraq, he said, “distracted our attention and energy from the far more important undertaking in Afghanistan.”
In other words, unwinnable quagmires are bad enough. “(R)ushing too fast for the exists” exacerbates things. Syria poses the same dilemma. What comes after Assad, and does anyone support occupying another Muslim country?
Before waging war and deploying troops, said Keller, “deploy the fact-checkers” to assure it’s done for the rights reasons.
Excluded from Keller’s equation was fundamental international and US law. They’re clear, unequivocal, and violations constitute lawless aggression.
No nation may interfere in the internal affairs of others for any reason except self-defense when attacked or if clear evidence shows one’s imminent.
Moreover, declaring war is the most serious decision nations make. America’s founders understood. As a result, they afforded Congress alone the power “to declare war,” not presidents on their own authority.
After Vietnam, the War Powers Resolution gave executives the power to act unilaterally for 60 days in response to a “national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.” They have another 30 days to disengage, short of congressional assent to continue.
All US post-WW II wars were illegal, including current ones. So will attacking Iran and/or Syria. Compelling reasons, according to law, don’t exist. No other justification’s legal.
Keller omitted what most needs explaining, highlighting, and repeating. Grade him “F” for his latest op-ed. Give him a second one for betraying his readers.
Give the Times one also for daily scoundrel journalism instead of mandating what writers are supposed to do – their job.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107819-2012-03-20-asking-the-wrong-questions-about-war.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
Written by
Stephen Lendman
Date: March 20, 2012
Subject:
Afghanistan
Rape and Murder in Afghanistan
by Stephen Lendman
On March 11, up to 20 US forces murdered 16 Afghan men, women, and nine children, aged two to 12. Children were massacred while they slept. Two women were also raped before soldiers killed them.
Major media scoundrels whitewashed the crimes by shamelessly blaming one soldier to absolve others, and most of all, higher-ups responsible for permitting a culture that condones and encourages them.
A transparent March 11 Pentagon Secretary of Defense Panetta statement said the following:
“Today I spoke to President Karzai to offer my deepest condolences and profound regret for the tragic incident in Kandahar province that resulted in the loss of life and injuries to innocent Afghan civilians, including women and children.”
“A full investigation is already underway. A suspect is in custody, and I gave President Karzai my assurances that we will bring those responsible to justice. We will spare no effort in getting the facts as quickly as possible, and we will hold any perpetrator who is responsible for this violence fully accountable under the law.”
“I condemn such violence and am shocked and saddened that a U.S. service member is alleged to be involved, clearly acting outside his chain of command. I told President Karzai that the American people share the outrage felt by President Karzai and his fellow citizens. This tragic incident does not reflect the commitment of the U.S. military to protect the Afghan people and help build a strong and stable Afghanistan.”
“As we mourn today with the Afghan people, we are steadfast in our resolve to work hand in hand with our Afghan partners to accomplish the missions and goals on which we have been working together for so long.”
“This terrible incident does not reflect our shared values or the progress we have made together. As I told President Karzai, I am fully committed to ensuring that our cooperation continues. It is essential to forging a more peaceful future for the citizens of both our nations.”
Like similar Pentagon, White House, and other official statements, Panetta’s words ring hollow. They also reflected damage control cover-up, not only of a crime too grave to ignore, but just the latest in a systematic ongoing pattern wherever America shows up.
Like others, this one included rape and murder. According to Pajhwok Afghan News:
“A parliamentary probe team on Thursday said up to 20 American troops were involved in Sunday’s killing of 16 civilians in southern Kandahar province.”
It spent two days interviewing surviving family members, witnesses, and tribal elders. They also gathered evidence where killings took place.
Two groups of US soldiers were involved. Attacks occurred in separate villages one and a half kilometers apart.
“We are convinced that one soldier cannot kill so many people in two villages within one hour at the same time.”
Most victims were women and children. Parliamentarian Hamidzai Lali demanded that the UN and international community ensure those responsible are prosecuted in Afghanistan.
Lali said the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan’s lower House of the People, won’t stay silent until prosecutions occur, adding:
“If the international community does not play its role in punishing the perpetrators, the Wolesi Jirga would declare foreign troops as occupying forces, like the Russians.”
Soldiers Committed Rape and Murder
On March 18, India’s Siasat Daily headlined, “US Forces raped two Afghan women,” saying:
The Afghan probe team said US soldiers systematically went from house to house in two villages, raped two women before murdering them, and at least 14 others.
Some victim bodies were then set ablaze.
On March 17, Russia Today called the Kandahar massacre “preplanned” murder, according to Afghan Army Chief of Staff Lt. General Sher Mohammad Karimi.
He and President Karzai said multiple assailants were involved. They also stressed that US commanders stonewalled Afghan demands to interrogate those responsible and hold them accountable locally.
Surviving family members and witnesses said assailants had air support. Helicopters brought them in and remained overhead during the carnage.
Kandahar Massacre Reflects Earlier Ones
Analyst Rick Rozoff called the incident “particularly egregious” because of its “cold-blooded, calculated” nature. It evoked echoes of past ones like Vietnam’s My Lai, Iraq’s Haditha, and two Fallujah slaughter incidents in April/May 2004, then in genocidal numbers in November/December.
Survivors and witnesses confirmed industrial scale mass murder. Children saw parents shot. Adults lost spouses and children. Homes and stores were looted.
Thousands of others were destroyed. A government committee found 26,000 houses damaged and another 3,000 completely demolished. They included 70 mosques, 50 schools, and Fallujah’s power plant. The city depended on it for electricity, 50% of its drinking water distribution, and 70% of its sewer system.
Overall, indiscriminate slaughter, destruction, and environmental contamination occurred. It was followed by looting, mass arrests, torture, and deaths from ill treatment and disease. A cancer epidemic followed and numerous previously unknown or rarely seen illnesses, severe congenital malformations, and more.
Since 2001, millions of Afghans and Iraqis died. Libya’s enduring its own nightmare. Syria and Iran are next. American wars show no mercy.
Rape as a Weapon of War
In all US war theaters, slaughter, sadism, and other atrocities are institutionalized. Rape becomes a weapon of war. On June 19, 2008, the Security Council agreed, adopting Resolution 1820.
It demanded an “immediate and complete halt to acts of sexual violence against civilians in conflict zones.” It said:
“women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.”
These offenses also “constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.”
Former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manifred Nowak said rape constitutes torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment used as a weapon of war to inflict greater pain and suffering.
Author Slavenka Drakulic described it as “slow murder.” The Nuremberg Tribunal called it a crime against humanity.
Nothing, however, stops it, and UN resolutions fall woefully short. The latest Afghan rape and multiple murder atrocity reflects countless others. It’s because US soldiers are trained to be violent in war theaters and show no mercy. Anything goes and does. Women and young girls are especially vulnerable.
In May 2009, Britain’s Daily Telegraph said former US General Antonio Taguba said the Obama administration sought to suppress images of US soldiers raping and sodomizing Iraqi prisoners.
He called photos he saw explosive, saying they “show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency. The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough. Take my word for it.”
These and similar incidents aren’t isolated. Nor are a few “bad apples” alone involved. They’re widespread, tolerated, and sanctioned up to the highest government, military, and intelligence levels in all US war theaters.
Victims are helpless targets, including young girls and boys sodomized with phosphorescent tubes, clubs, wire, and other implements to inflict pain.
Instead of holding those responsible accountable, Obama suppressed their crimes. As a result, they continue. The latest Afghan victims represent a drop in the ocean. International and US law principles are ignored. Atrocities follow others repeatedly.
Wars reflect more than hell. They manifest generations of condoned US barbarity. It’s been institutionalized to permit wanton rape, sodomy, torture, sadism, murder, and virtually all other imaginable atrocities with impunity.
America the beautiful is an illusion only young children and fools believe. Ugly war theater wickedness reveals its true dark side. Its victims attest to how monstrous.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107743-2012-03-19-rape-and-murder-in-afghanistan.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
The descent into total and abject tyranny is almost complete. With President Obama’s latest executive order, THE NATIONAL DEFENSE RESOURCES PREPAREDNESS ACT, he has granted himself the authority to declare peacetime martial law. This Executive Order was posted on the WhiteHouse.gov web site on Friday, March 16, 2012.
This executive order is particularly draconian in that it eliminates the private ownership of everything and Obama has delegated the complete control of the nation’s resources to his cabinet level department heads (i.e. Czars). The delegation of control of the nation’s resources and people is particularly troubling because the heads of America’s resources shall have this power “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” to control every aspect of our lives. And under this executive order, the President is to the sole decider of what constitutes an emergency (Section 201, paragraph b).”
Through Sections 301 b and 302, Obama’s executive order legalizes governmental cronyism in which loans/grants are guaranteed by the Federal Reserve and the related actions are not subject to any kind of review or accountability process. Further, the development and implementation of a type of economic worthiness score, related to the relative importance of companies for “national defense,” will permit the government to decide what companies prosper and will receive stimulus money and which companies will fail in a strange version of “Fabian Socialism for corporations”. This is absolute fascism in which the government will ultimately control all business activity (see Sections 302, 303, 304, 305).
Due to the outcry of massively wasteful taxpayer giveaways to the solar industry which were dispensed to companies such as Solyndra and Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar, the American people have demanded accountability for this thinly veiled misuse of the public’s money. It should be noted that both solar companies heavily donated to the Obama 2008 campaign. Pat Stryker also contributed $50,000 to Obama’s inauguration ball. Now, both companies are near bankruptcy despite the government giveaway of billions of dollars to both of these Obama donating corporations. Boss Tweed would marvel at the firmly entrenched criminal enterprise system sponsored by the Obama Administration.
Section 303 provides a nonspecific delegated power which will presumably be delegated to the President, “to enable rapid transition of emerging technologies.” This precisely ties in with what I have publicly maintained for months: One of the goals of the globalists, in their engineering of “The Great Gulf Coast Holocaust,” was to destroy the Gulf’s shrimp and oyster industries in order to pave the way for the massive development of algae farms in support of the nation’s new biofuel craze. along the Gulf Coast To this day, the Gulf of Mexico is still being carpet bombed with Corexit and this toxic substance takes the CO2 out of the water and the only substance that can proliferate in this new environment is algae. Subsequently, globalist controlled algae farms are growing exponentially in the Gulf and is beginning to spread across our country. Buffet, Gore, Stryker and Soros are only a few of the billionaire globalists to invest heavily in the biofuel algae industry.
As if the previous sections of the already mentioned executive order are not enough to inflame already aware Americans, Section 601signals the most Orwellian aspect of this executive order in which “upon request by the Director of Selective Service, and in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, assist the Director of Selective Service in development of policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services” (paragraph 2). What is particularly troubling is that the Secretary of Labor will possess oversight over the Selective Service process, instead of the Secretary of Defense. This revelation left me scratching my head as I wondered why would the Department of Labor be in charge of the coming military draft? Then it dawned upon me that we were not just talking about military conscription. I refer to the 2008 Presidential campaign in which Obama stated that “we need to construct a national civilian security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded” (as the military). Obama is clearly planning to conscript civilians, train them and send them where they are needed and will pay them whatever wage the Secretary of Commerce determines (Section 601; paragraphs 3, 4-Section 801; paragraph C). In one fell swoop, Obama has sidestepped the 13th Amendment as we are talking about the introduction of forced labor (i.e. slavery). Does anyone else find it ironic and tragic that our first black president has declared his intention to impose government sanctioned slavery upon the American people? For those that know their history, it should also remind everyone of the forced labor camps run by the Nazi’s in which Jews and other political prisoners were forced into slave labor in support of the German war effort while they were being systematically starved to death. Is this why Jesse Ventura’s FEMA camp episode was scrubbed from Television and why TruTV ‘s archives are missing the FEMA camp episode? Perhaps, America would be well advised to pay attention to the good work being done by Gary Franchi on the topic of FEMA camps.
The Secretary of Transportation has been authorized control over civil transportation which “includes movement of persons and property by all modes of transportation in interstate, intrastate, or foreign commerce within the United States, its territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia, and related public storage and warehousing, ports, services, equipment and facilities, such as transportation carrier shop and repair facilities.” “Civil transportation” also shall include direction, control, and coordination of civil transportation capacity regardless of ownership” (Section 801 part A). Can there be any doubt that the expanded surveillance program by of the TSA, in their unconstitutional, hands down our pants VIPER program, is designed to control all travel in the United States? The former Soviet Union used to have checkpoints every 20 miles in order to restrict travel and to prevent the congregation of “revolutionary forces” for purposes of opposing government control as well as to limit the ability of political dissidents to flee from their governmental pursuers. I feel compelled to ask, what is the government going to do that is so nefarious and so intrusive that they are seeking to set up a control grid which will accomplish these same goals?
The Secretary of Energy will have control over all “Energy” (which) means all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels (including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of all of these forms of energy…” This means the government will have total control over all utility prices, the installation of smart meters along with the implementation of the smart grid and the amount of energy which can be consumed by average Americans will be severely curtailed under this new system of energy feudalism which will be imposed on the new American serfs. Obama, in the 2008 Presidential Campaign, stated that “under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Previously ignorant Americans will soon come to know the true meaning and the accurately prophetic meaning of these words (Section 801, part b).
The Secretary of Agriculture will posses control over “fertilizer” (which) means any product or combination of products that contain one or more of the elements nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium for use as a plant nutrient.” The Secretary of Agriculture will also control “food resource facilities “(which) means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer.” This is the total control of all food. This will allow Monsanto which demonstrably controls the Department of Agriculture, the FDA and EPA to move forward, unabated, for the total GMO takeover of our food supply. Even more disturbing is that a few men will have total control over all food production and the dissenting masses who oppose this fascist takeover can be effectively starved into submission or starved to death (Section 801, parts c-f).
Secretary of Health and Human Services “Health resources” means drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population.” This is a declaration of a forced form of Codex Alimentarius. Under this provision, it will not matter if Obama Care is repealed, his cabinet appointee will maintain control over all health care, both pharmacological and alternative/natural (Section 801, part i). Can there be any doubt that the death panel provisions of Obama Care will be implemented and carried out with no oversight or regulation in an manner reminiscent of Logan’s Run nightmarish scenario?
I have long maintained on my talk show that there is a decided effort by a relatively few elite to control the nation’s water and this provision will be utilized as a form of both political and population control. Of this, there can be no doubt as the Secretary of Defense will be placed in charge of all water resources Section 801, part n). I can draw no other conclusion that placing the control of water under the DOD represents the weaponizing of water and the intended target of this full frontal assault are the American people for the purpose of imposing population control and complete compliance.
The title of this article and the content of the executive order speaks for itself. and does not require a lengthy summary. America, one question remains;
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS IMPOSITION OF TOTAL TYRANNY?
Article source: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Article/107725-2012-03-1
bamas-legalization-of-slavery-and-systematic-population-reduction.htm?EdNo=001&From=RSS
