FRONT PAGE -
Archive File - 03-24-08 to 10-29-08
My
assessment of American politics today
A
quote...."October 28, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse - -- On one side
of our struggle is normal American imperialist conservatism represented
not by McCain, but by Obama. These are the forces of the old
constitutional business republic which the USA has been for some two
hundred years. (We euphemistically call this elite business republic a
"democracy" which of course it is not. A democracy is a republic where
the free members of society exercise the authority of government. This
is not the USA in which government has always represented business,
capital, the owning or ruling class, never the vast majority of people
in society, the people.) -- On the other side of this political contest
are forces that can be described with justice in many different terms:
the extreme right, corporatist, Wall St. thieves and black mailers,
thugs, international pirates, the military-industrial complex,
militarists, the prison-industrial complex, totalitarians, liars, or
fascists."
What Do
They Have
to Do to Lose Your Vote? -The Trail of Broken Promises
A
quote...."Watching the Democrats in the final weeks of the presidential
election has been a lesson in revisionist history. While they lament
the terrible crimes perpetrated against the American people by George
Bush and vow to keep fighting for our rights, they conveniently gloss
over the fact that they have no standing to make such claims. Indeed,
the Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, have actually voted with
President Bush’s agenda, making them complicit in his acts, not valiant
opponents defending our liberties."
The Elections and
the
Responsibility of the Intellectual to Speak Truth to Power
A
quote...."The presidential elections in the US, once again, provide an
acid test of the integrity and consequential conduct of US
intellectuals. If it is the duty and responsibility of the public
intellectual to speak truth to power, the recent statements of most of
our well-known and prestigious public pundits have failed miserably.
Instead of highlighting, exposing and denouncing the reactionary
foreign and domestic policies of Democratic Party candidate Senator
Barack Obama, they have chosen to support him, 'critically, offering as
excuses that even 'limited differences’ can result in positive
outcomes,and that 'Obama is the lesser evil’ and 'creates an
opportunity for a possibility of change.’
It's
All Caught on Videotape Colin Powell, Not Qualified for Government
Service
A
quote...."Barack
Obama would like to bring Colin Powell into his new administration. But
Americans consider Powell only marginally more credible than how the
rest of the world views him, and the rest of the world thinks he lies
like a rug. Powell either wholeheartedly backed the biggest crime thus
far this century, or he secretly opposed it but worked to make it
happen anyway. I'm not sure which is worse, but either disqualifies him
for future office." -- Also posted at
CounterPunch
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We
Have Met the Terrorists....And They Are Us - 10-27-08 - mpg
When
Will They Stop Pretending? - 10-25-08 - mpg
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What
“incredibly tough” foreign policy actions is Obama preparing?
False Flag Warning -
Gulf of Tonkin Redux Warning -- A quote..."In remarks made over
the weekend in Seattle, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph
Biden warned that Barack Obama, if elected president, would be
compelled to take deeply unpopular actions in both domestic and foreign
policy within months of taking office." -- For more on this issue see....They're
Going to do "It" Again
America
Loses Its Dominant Economic Role
A quote...."The
banking crisis is upending American dominance of the financial markets
and world politics. The industrialized countries are sliding into
recession, the era of turbo-capitalism is coming to an end and US
military might is ebbing. Still, this is no time to gloat. -- There are
days when all it takes is a single speech to illustrate the decline of
a world power. A face can speak volumes, as can the speaker's tone of
voice, the speech itself or the audience's reaction. Kings and queens
have clung to the past before and humiliated themselves in public, but
this time it was merely a United States president. -- Or what is left
of him." -- If only it would lead to
a graceful end of the New Roman Empire and the restoration of the
United States of America. But it won't, the wealthy elites who
have
totally insulated themselves from the economic calamity that will
result from their ongoing and ceaseless attempts to prop up this unholy
empire will not stop until the entire system collapses. It's the
way
they think, it's in their blood, and it’s what they are. - mpg
A
political farce, not a debate
A
quote...."Wednesday’s nationally televised encounter between Barack
Obama and John McCain was less a debate than a ritualized episode of a
peculiarly American form of political theater. -- The two candidates,
both multi-millionaire representatives of the upper crust of American
society, shared the stage with another multi-millionaire, an aging TV
anchorman who confined the subjects and questions to the banal and
predictable, excluding anything that would call into question the
overarching right-wing framework of the discussion. (Where in this
debate, for instance, was there a question on the latest figures
showing that 28 countries have a lower infant mortality rate than the
US, or on the growth in the number of working poor, or on the plunge
towards bankruptcy of state and local governments?)"
Zero: An Investigation Into 9-11
Prt1 - Prt2
- Prt3
- Prt4
- Prt5
- Prt6
-Prt7
- Prt8
- Prt9
- Prt10
- Prt11
Videos --
(YouTube - aprox 10 min each - Added: July 26, 2008)
A quote...."ZERO: An Investigation into 9/11, has one central thesis -
that the official version of the events surrounding the attacks on 9/11
can not be true. This brand new feature documentary from Italian
production company Telemaco explores the latest scientific evidence and
reveals dramatic new witness testimony, which directly conflicts with
the US Government's account." -- For
more on this issue see....9/11
& It's Fallout - Videos
9/11
Blueprint for Truth presented by Architect Richard Gage, AIA
(Google - 120 min - Oct 31, 2007)
Video - From the
history file - A quote...."Oct 31, 2007 -- 9/11
Blueprint for Truth: The Architecture of Destruction Commercial
architect Richard Gage (founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11
Truth) presents a watertight case for controlled demolition of the
three steel-building collapses at the World Trade Center, New York on
9/11/01. Includes physicist Steven Jones' updated evidence of thermite.
Gage's website, www.ae911truth.org,
is rapidly drawing building and engineering professionals to the 9/11
movement." -- See also....Speaking
Engagements -- For more on this
issue see....9/11
- WTC7 & 9/11
& It's Fallout - Videos
Keynesianism's
Last Stand
A quote...."
The new Keynesianism is Keynesianism for bankers. The logic of the new
version is this:
1. Banks lend to businesses.
2. Banks lend to other banks.
3. Loss of confidence by bankers regarding bankers has shut down the
international credit markets.
4. Governments must run deficits to bail out banks.
5. Central banks should expand the monetary base to liquify frozen
banking assets.
6. Banks will then lend to businesses.
7. Businesses will employ workers (consumers).
8. Any government money to consumers will be minimal.
This is the Keynesian version of
what used to be ridiculed by liberals as trickle-down economics.
It is hailed today as the solution to the credit crisis. The $700
billion bailout of the banks in the United States and the weekend
bailout of European banks by European governments constitute the
largest Keynesian stimulus package in history. But it was a stimulus of
a unique kind: to bail out banks.. -- bold/underline by
website editor.
-- This is totally spot on point,
tax the little guy, or worse, since he doesn't have any money, borrow
from everyone, than give the money to the big guys....it's
voodoo-reaganomics all over again. - mpg
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The
God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult
A
quote...."Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global
financial crash -- or rather, by the reaction to it -- is the
staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the
governments of the world have at their command. -- In just a matter of
days, we have seen literally trillions of dollars offered to the
financial services sector by national treasuries and central banks
across the globe. Britain alone has put $1 trillion at the disposal of
the bankers, traders, lenders and speculators; and this has been
surpassed by the total package of public money that Washington is
shoveling into the financial furnaces of Wall Street and the banks.
These radical efforts are being replicated on a slightly smaller scale
in France, Germany, Italy, Russia and many other countries.
The
Crushing Potential of Financial Derivatives
Financial Alert --
A quote...."George Soros, one of the world's foremost
investor-speculators, has said many times that he stays away from
financial derivatives because “no one understands them”. In the world
of finance, derivatives might be comparable to the theoretical study of
linear particle acceleration in nuclear physics. Such theories appear
to be “understood” mainly based on current assumptions accepted in
academic circles, often with little provable working knowledge of how
such currently-held theories might ultimately manifest themselves over
the long run in the real world. The problem with assumptions is that
they generally change…often sooner than we think."
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The
True Axis of Evil - 10-10-08 - mpg
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Behind
the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power
Some
quotes...."There is serious ground to believe that US Goldman Sachs ex
CEO Henry Paulson, as Treasury secretary, is not stupid. There is also
serious ground to believe that he is actually moving according to a
well-thought-out long-term strategy. Events as they are now unfolding
in the EU tend to confirm that. As one senior European banker put it to
me in private discussion, ‘There is an all-out war going on between the
United States and the EU to define the future face of European
banking.’" -- "Knowing that at a certain juncture the pyramid of
trillions of dollars of dubious subprime and other high risk home
mortgage-based securities would come falling down, they apparently
determined to spread the so-called ‘toxic waste’ ABS securities as
globally as possible, in order to seduce the big global banks of the
world, most especially of the EU, into their honey trap." -- See also....Debt
Doesn't Matter When the Rubes Pay 02-29-08 - mpg
Just think about it this way,
the "Savings & Loan" crisis of 1982
and the fall of the US housing market (caused by the exact same
financial mechanics as has occurred in the current crisis, debt
instruments like junk bonds, etc., unsupported by any real
underlying economic assets or fundamentals) took about two and a half
years to reach bottom and resulted in 800 bank failures. This
crisis, which is greater by an order
of magnitude or two, is only one year old and has so far
resulted in
just 10 bank failures....we have a very, very, long way to go.
- mpg
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The
Kingdom of Leprosy - 10-07-08 - mpg
The
Dollar's Spike - 10-06-08 - mpg
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Dennis
Kucinich on the Democrats’ Bailout Betrayal
A quote...." The passing of the $850-billion bailout pulled the plug on
the New Deal. The Great Society is now gasping for
air, mortally wounded, coughing up blood. It will not recover. It was
murdered by the Democratic Party. -- We are on our own. And don’t
expect any help from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who lobbied hard for
the bill and voted for it. Ignore their rhetoric. Look coldly at the
ballots they cast against us. We, as citizens, have only a handful of
representatives left in Washington, most of whom were left sputtering
in rage and frustration on the House floor. The sad irony is that some
of them were Republican."
The
New American Century: Cut Short By 92 Years
A
quote...."02/10/08 'ICH" -- - America's time as a superpower is coming
to an end. The financial crisis was just the last straw. Whatever good
faith was left after the invasion of Iraq, the shrugging off of
international treaties and the shameless disregard for human rights, is
now gone. The United States has polluted the global economic system
with worthless mortgage-backed securities and, by doing so, has pushed
6 billion people closer to a long and painful recession. That's not
something that can be easily forgiven."
Three-Card
Capitalists: The Financial Disappearing Act of 2008
A
quote...."The financial markets are in a crisis of confidence because
the US government is debasing its currency and stiffing its creditors.
Uncle Sam is a deadbeat and the world knows it. The world is worrying
what to do about the useless paper it's holding. That's what the panic
is about. -- It's a strange day when Barry Goldwater and the Chinese
Communists are in agreement ....And they are both right." -- For more on this issue see....Debt
Doesn't Matter When the Rubes Pay 02-29-08 - mpg
The
Current
Crisis: A Socialist Perspective
A
quote...."The fundamental relationship between capitalist states and
financial markets cannot be understood in terms of how much or little
regulation the former puts upon the latter. It needs to be understood
in terms of the guarantee the state provides to property, above all in
the form of the promise not to default on its bonds – which are
themselves the foundation of financial markets' role in capital
accumulation."
The
Facts Speak For Themselves -
posted at 911Truth dot Org
A quote...."Before
I begin, I would like to say that theorizing about what happened on
9/11, when you're not being given answers to your questions about that
day by the people who SHOULD be able to do so, is PERFECTLY normal. As
is suspecting that the reason these answers aren't being given is
"sinister" in nature. As Ray McGovern said, "for people to dismiss
these questioners as "conspiratorial advocates", or "conspiratorial
theorists"... that's completely out of line because the... The
questions remain because the President who should be able to answer
them, WILL NOT." When you think about everything this Administration
has done in almost 8 years, the idea that they might not be giving us
the answers we seek because of something "sinister" is not crazy. In
fact, it's the most logical conclusion one can come to at this point.
After seven plus years of obfuscation, spin, lies, and cover-ups
regarding the 9/11 attacks, it is unavoidable to think that criminal
complicity is the reason why."
A
Nation of Jerks? Culpably Accepting of Basic Dishonesty and of
Unscrupulous Big Shots
A
quote...."For it is quite easy to discount the suffering of Iraqis,
Somalis, Afghanis, or earlier, the Vietnamese, along with the poor half
of mankind who live on less than two dollars a day, but quite difficult
to stomach discomfort of Americans in America. And so this complete
bailout of corporations and banks becomes a 'real damn shame'. Its just
too close to home. -- However there is something silly about Americans
belatedly directing their outrage solely at its elected government
leaders and their corporate finance buddies, as if Americans nationwide
were pure and innocent children victimized by a big bad world; if
America is big and bad, it is Americans that have made it that way."
Robert
Fisk: ‘The Middle East Is Not a Complex Place’ - Telling it like it is. - mpg
Video Interview - A
quote...."Truthdig interviews Robert Fisk -- The acclaimed journalist
stopped by our offices this week, where he told Truthdig Editor Robert
Scheer that the Middle East is a lot less puzzling than it’s made out
to be: “It’s we who are there, not the other way round. ... It’s not
our land. It’s not our religion. Our soldiers are in the Muslim world
and they should not be there.”
The
Happening - Also telling it like
it is. - mpg
A quote...."It
seems like a belabored point, but there is just no escaping it.
Mainstream media continues to be the most critical ( and probably the
most accessible ) impediment to the evolution of the species. The
American ( and global ) populous remain physiologically corralled by
the mock reality the media delivers, which makes any attempt to impart
or understand the truth extremely difficult. -- The problem is that
once you are part of the lie, you are part of the lie. This is why I
repeatedly stress the importance of being honest with oneself at all
times. It’s not a matter of being caught in the lie, it’s the fact that
the lie will catch you. It is inescapable because you have made it part
of your reality. As long as you choose to live by that lie that you
have accepted, you have to support ( and do ) whatever is necessary to
sustain that lie. -- This country is up to its neck ( actually well
over its head ) in lies, and Obama has unfortunately accepted several
of them."
How
Economic Crises Are Overcome - Their Assets; Our Debts
A quote...."Keynes’
message about the least painful way to bring about the necessary
redistribution of economic resources sufficient to get the economy
expanding profitably is set out in his “General Theory,” where he
underscores that inflation is the safest way to lower wage workers’
consumption and their portion of production. Direct wage cuts, he
cautions, would turn the workers against their employers. Significant
injection of government spending into industrial production, rather
than into the production of “consumer goods,” results in
inflation.
The price of daily necessities goes up due to shortages or rationing,
and the real value of workers’ wages goes down. (Milton Friedman has
also advocated inflation as a most efficient tool for redistribution of
economic resources and increasing profitability.)"
European
reactions to the financial crisis -- Covering their tracks and
distancing themselves from the US -- A quote...."The
call for a form of “regulated capitalism—that can prevent risky
speculative transactions, cutting down to size the power of finance
capital and giving priority again to production and trade—runs like a
thread through the comments and statements of the press and politicians
of all stripes. But it is an illusion. -- The clock of history cannot
be rewound. The cancer-like growth of finance capital is not simply the
result of wrong decisions by individuals. Greed and criminal intentions
have certainly contributed, but these are rooted in social conditions
that can only be overcome through a revolutionary transformation of
society. -- The deregulation of the financial markets, which began
approximately 30 years ago, was the reaction of the capitalist class
worldwide to the economic crises and class warfare of the 1960s and
1970s. The abolition of existing regulations and the development of new
forms of speculation served to overcome falling profit rates. They were
accompanied by non-stop attacks on the rights and living standards of
the working class, and with an aggressive foreign policy that took on
an increasingly military direction." -- For more on this issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
Let's Play
"WALLSTREET BAILOUT" The Rules Are... Rep Kaptur
(YuTb - 5 min 35
sec - Sept. 22, 2008) -- Must View
Video - Action Alert -- She's
outstanding!! - Everybody who sees this video, please post
it and pass it on! - mpg
Coming
Attractions: War Without End, Amen
A quote...."While
our national leaders quibble and carp over just how much public money
they should ladle out to Wall Street's den of thieves, and how many
people should be in charge of divvying up this vast pork pie (one guy
at Treasury? a panel of Establishment worthies? a couple of goobers in
Congress?), the real business of the American empire -- war and rumors
of war -- goes on without let or hindrance. -- Even now, the masters of
war down at Hell's Bottom -- the fetid swamp where they planted the
Pentagon way back when -- are laying plans for decades of "persistent
conflict" against a host of targets: the poor, the young, the
desperate, the deprived, the Chinese, the Russians -- and the American
people."
America
Pays the Piper, Big Time
A quote...."After a
28-year binge of drunken optimism and blind nationalism – often
punctuated by chants of “USA, USA!” and “We’re No. 1!” – Americans are
waking up with a painful hangover, facing a grim “morning in America,”
not the happy vision that Ronald Reagan famously sold them on.
The
Mugging of
America
A
quote...."If our business leaders and government leaders had learned
from the LTCM collapse and NASDAQ collapse, we would not be
experiencing this current crisis. Instead, Wall Street, Alan Greenspan,
George Bush’s administration, and Congress attempted to put off the
pain of recession by encouraging more risk taking by companies and
citizens. We are now reaping what they have sown."
Quo
Vadis, America?
A
quote...."Contemporary America is rather like an overdosed crack addict
sprawled face-down in the gutter. For decades, our economy has been
smoking the heady drug of cheap credit, which served to "stimulate
demand" and produce pleasurable but artificial booms. Unfortunately,
each boom was followed by an inevitable bust as the credit-fueled
bubbles burst – first in internet stocks, and now in real estate. --
Like every addict who finally "hits the bottom," America now faces a
stark choice: Do we suffer through a violent, shaking withdrawal, or do
we turn away from the painful rigors of "going clean" and reach for the
bong one last time?"
E
pluribus hokum or When the gamblers bail out the casino
A
quote...."Paulson's dreadful scheme will become law, because Americans
love their bankers. The bankers enable their collective gambling habit.
Think of America as a town with one casino, in which the only economic
activity is gambling. Most people lose, but the casino keeps lending
them more money to play. Eventually, of course, the casino must go
bankrupt. At this point, the townspeople people vote to tax themselves
in order to bail out the casino. Collectively, the gamblers cannot help
but lose; individually they nonetheless hope to win their way out of
the hole.
Americans are so deep in the hole that they might as well keep putting
borrowed quarters into the one-armed bandit. They have hardly saved
anything for the past 10 years. Instead, they counted on capital gains
to replace the retirement savings they never put aside, first in tech
stocks, then in houses. That hasn't worked out."
Grasping
at Straws
Financial Warning - A
quote...."21/09/08 "ICH" -- - On Friday morning, Senator Christopher
Dodd, the head of the Senate Banking Committee, was interviewed on
ABC's “Good Morning America.” Dodd revealed that just hours earlier at
an emergency meeting convened by Secretary of the Treasury Henry
Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, lawmakers were told
that "We’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of
our
financial system.” Dodd added somberly, that in his three decades of
serving in public office, he had "never heard language like this.”
Paulson
Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle
A quote...."If Wall
Street gets away with this, it will represent an historic swindle of
the American public--all sugar for the villains, lasting pain and
damage for the victims. My advice to Washington politicians: Stop, take
a deep breath and examine what you are being told to do by so-called
"responsible opinion." If this deal succeeds, I predict it will become
a transforming event in American politics--exposing the deep
deformities in our democracy and launching a tidal wave of righteous
anger and popular rebellion. As I have been saying for several months,
this crisis has the potential to bring down one or both political
parties, take your choice."
Is
This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart? It Should Be, But ...
A quote...."By all
rights, this last crisis has brought us to the crossroads where
neoliberalism should be buried with a stake through its heart. We’ve
had thirty years worth of deregulation – the loosening of government
supervision. This has been the neoliberal mantra preached by both major
parties, the whole of the establishment press and almost every
university economics department in the country. It is central to the
current disasters. And if you want to identify symbolic figures in the
legislated career of deregulation, there are no more resplendent
culprits than the man at McCain’s elbow, Phil Gramm, and the man
standing at Obama’s elbow at his press conference, Robert Rubin."
Impacts
of the Financial Crisis: The U.S. Is Becoming an Impoverished Nation
A quote...."But
even though all the attention has been focused on “Wall Street”; i.e.,
financial institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with
Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley,
Washington Mutual, and AIG—with more to come—none of these would have
gotten into so much trouble without the nation’s banks having acted to
leverage speculative investments with money they themselves generated
as electronic ledger entries. - And it’s the banks—or at least some of
them—that may be the next to go. - You see, the catastrophe was
accomplished with money lent on margin. Only a small fraction of
funding by investment banks, mortgage companies, brokerages, equity
funds, hedge funds, commodities futures speculators, etc., comes from
actual investor capital. The rest—up to ninety-seven percent, in the
case of commodities futures contracts—is credit self-created by the
banks."
The
Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis Shattering the
Glass-Steagall Act
A quote...."If
you're looking for a major cause of the current banking meltdown, you
need seek no farther than the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act."
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$1.3
Quadrillion and Counting - 09-18-08 - mpg
Who
the Heck do They Think They're Fooling? - 09-15-08 - mpg
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Creative
Destruction: The Solid
Core Behind the Financial Crisis
A quote....."Fed’s
$85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer (NY Times)
"The bailout [of American
International Group]... effectively puts taxpayer money at risk while
protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other institutions it
does business with."
"Do you get it now? The rich and
powerful spend years making foolish deals in a market they rigged with
the connivance of utterly corrupted politicians on both sides the
aisle; their fraudulent scheme finally collapses, exposing them to some
of the most horrific financial losses in history....and YOU will have
to pay for it. For generations. Not only directly, with the tax money
straight from your pocket, but even more so in the further degradation
of national life: infrastructure, services, programs, amenities that
will be starved or abandoned as even more of the government's money is
poured out to shield the wastrel elite from suffering the consequences
of their own rapacious folly."
An Open
Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan - America is Now Rome
A quote...."When I
was baptized I continued to carry my history; but one identity was
sloughed off in the water and a new one born out of it. I write this
open letter to troops, brothers and sisters -- of all branches -- who
profess the faith of Christ. I write you to ask that you remember your
baptism, because at that baptism you declared your renunciation of
evil. * The big preposition Note the preposition. I didn't say faith in
Christ, I said faith of Christ. Christian is a diminutive term; it
means "little Christ." To be a Christian is not to merely have faith in
Christ. That's too easy, and Jesus of Nazareth was not about easy. To
be Christian is to aspire to have the faith of Christ. Christ's call is
not to go along with the program, say the magic words, then be rescued
from death. Christ did not merely command belief. Christ commands you
to follow him. That command does not wait until death for it to become
effective in your life. "Love your enemy." This is not an etching at
some altar that you visit; it is your path laid before you by the
footsteps of Christ in this world."
The
Baby Killers
A quote...."I
keep promising myself not to mention the wars for these reasons: the
invaders couldn't care less about their crimes or their critics, my
friends think I've become a ranting bore and many of today's citizens
have more pressing worries than the serial massacres of toddlers in
badlands. Bad stuff keeps happening. It keeps being denied. And is soon
forgotten. -- From the very first days of the 2001 invasion of
Afghanistan, the U.S. air force has specialised in dropping bombs on
family compounds supposedly containing "militants". Often they are not
at home, unlike the women and children and elderly, whose bodies are
eventually spread on the ground in preparation for a mass burial, while
the Pentagon issues a curt "regret". Then it bombs the funeral. It's
happened more than once. Another target is wedding parties. Back in
July 2002, snug in their AC-130 bombers, American pilots wiped out a
celebration in Uruzgan province, killing 48 civilians - mostly women
and children - and injuring 117 locals. It's happened more than once."
9/11
and the “American Inquisition”
A
quote...."Today’s “Global War on Terrorism” is a modern form of
inquisition. It has all the essential ingredients of the French and
Spanish inquisitions. -- Going after ” Islamic terrorists”, carrying
out a Worldwide preemptive war to ” protect the Homeland” are used to
justify a military agenda. -- “The Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) is
presented as a “Clash of Civilizations”, a war between competing values
and religions, when in reality it is an outright war of conquest,
guided by strategic and economic objectives." -- Also posted at AmericanEveryman
Twenty-Six
Things We Now Know Seven Years After 9/11
A quote...."Each
year around the anniversary of 9/11, I summarize what we ordinary
citizens have learned since that awful day in 2001. This is the seventh
annual look backwards, a 2008 update that contains new information and
surmisings about those horrific events and what followed."
FABLED ENEMIES - Part1
- Part2
- Part3
- Part4
- Part5
- Part6
- Part7
- Part8
- Part9
- Part10
- (YouTube - aprox. 10
min to 11 min each - Added: August 31, 2008)
A quote...." Seven years after 9/11, the supposed mastermind behind the
attacks is still at large, and the nation is entrenched in multiple
wars in the Middle East. - Is Bin Laden the evil behind the attack or a
mere front man in a larger picture, a Bogeyman? - We are told we are
fighting a War on Terror, and that the Terrorists hate us for our
freedom. If that is the case, why do our leaders take more and more of
those freedoms away every day? - 10 part documentary by Jason Bermas
and Alex Jones release date September 1st, 2008." -- For more on this issue see....9/11
& It's Fallout - Videos
Afghan
Massacre - The Convoy of Death - (Google Video - 50 min - Apr
10, 2006)
A
quote...."Produced and directed by Irish filmmaker and former BBC
producer Jamie Doran, the film tells the story of thousands of
prisoners who surrendered to the US military's Afghan allies after the
siege of Kunduz. According to the film, some three thousand of the
prisoners were forced into sealed containers and loaded onto trucks for
transport to Sheberghan prison. When the prisoners began shouting for
air, U.S.-allied Afghan soldiers fired directly into the truck, killing
many of them. The rest suffered through an appalling road trip lasting
up to four days, so thirsty they clawed at the skin of their fellow
prisoners as they licked perspiration and even drank blood from open
wounds. Witnesses say that when the trucks arrived and soldiers opened
the containers, most of the people inside were dead. They also say US
Special Forces re-directed the containers carrying the living and dead
into the desert and stood by as survivors were shot and buried. Now, up
to three thousand bodies lie buried in a mass grave."
EXCLUSIVE:
Democrats Pre-Authorized Use of Force at RNC
Must Read (for the outrage) -
A
quote...."Explosive News: Democrats' Collaboration at Republican
National Convention Exposed. Secret meetings authorized excessive use
of force. -- We know the stories of police abuse, mass arrests,
targeting journalists, street medics, use of rubber bullets, plastic
bullets, wooden baton rounds, mace, tear gas, tasering and other
differently lethal methods of crowd control in St Paul and Minneapolis
this week. What is not known is how the local Democratic Party and
other so called progressive elected officials collaborated with
authorities in the past weeks and months before the RNC Convention in
St Paul, giving them legal authority for their excesses and abuses of
power."
The
Falling
Land
A
quote...."There is, apparently, to be no end to our falling. No bottom
to the pit of moral nullity through which we keep plunging, no act of
evil which we will not accept, and countenance, and even cheer."
Clash
in the Caucasus: Rolling Back The "Unipolar" World
A
quote...."10/09/08 "ICH" -- - For the past week, Dick Cheney has been
traveling through the Caucasus trying to drum up support for punitive
action against Russia for its role in the recent fighting in South
Ossetia. The Vice President vowed that the Moscow's action "will not go
unanswered". Cheney is determined to establish the United States as the
regional "cop on the beat", taking charge of all security operations
through it's cat's paw, Nato. Neither the Kremlin nor the EU are paying
much attention to Cheney's fulminations. The negotiations for the
security arrangements and the withdrawal of Russian troops are being
conducted without US involvement. "
9/11
and the “War on Terrorism”: Facts and myths
A quote...."This is
the talk, the article notes, in Dubai, in Algiers, in Riyadh, and in
Cairo. A Syrian man living and working in the United Arab Emirates told
the Times, “I think the U.S. organized this so that they had an excuse
to invade Iraq for the oil.” -- This kind of thinking, the Times tells
us “represents the first failure in the fight against terrorism — the
inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed,
waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.” --
For more regarding the utter
and complete mendacity of the Times, see.....US
Support of Terror
“Modern
Debt Peonage”?
A quote...."The
best that this weekend’s bailout can do is to postpone the losses on
bad mortgage debts. But this is a far cry from actually restoring the
ability of debtors to pay. Mr. Paulson talks about more lending to
support real estate prices. But this will prevent housing from falling
to levels that people can afford without running deeper and deeper into
mortgage debt. Housing prices are still way, way above the traditional
definition of equilibrium – prices whose carrying charges are just
about equal to what it would cost to rent over time."
Is it the 1930s all
over again? By William Bowles
A quote...."The parallels
with the situation in Europe prior to the
outbreak of WWII surely cannot be avoided, for not only do we have an
economic crisis that closely resembles the ‘29 Crash in its magnitude,
the US-engineered invasion of South Ossetia could very well be a
prelude to more dangerous provocations on the part of the US, in much
the same way that German support for the fascist coup in Spain served
as a testing ground not only for Hitler’s military machine but also to
sew chaos and to test the reactions of two of the leading imperialist
powers of the time, Britain and France. For what they all shared was a
hatred of Bolshevism and ultimately, that’s what WWII was really all
about, the destruction of the Soviet Union." -- Also psoted at Uruknet -- For more on this issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
A
Major War: Not Just Rumors
A quote...."The
most stable model of international relations that is both historically
recurrent and structurally repeatable in the future is the balance of
power system in which no single great power is either physically able
or politically willing to seek hegemony. This model was prevalent from
the Peace of Westphalia (1648) until Napoleon, from Waterloo until
around 1900, and from Versailles until 1933....." -- "If
one of the
powers becomes markedly stronger than others and if its decision-making
elite internalizes an ideology that demands or at least justifies
hegemony, the inherently unstable system of asymmetrical multipolarity
will develop. In all three known instances—Napoleonic France after
1799, the Kaiserreich from around 1900, and the Third Reich after
1933—the challenge could not be resolved without a major war."
Russia,
Europe and USA: Fundamental Geopolitics
A quote...."As
details of the larger strategic picture emerge over what is at stake in
the Georgia and larger Caucasus crisis, it is becoming clearer that
Moscow is not determined to roll back the borders of Stalin and the
Cold War of 1948. What Putin and now Medvedev have begun is a process
of defusing the highly dangerous NATO expansion, led by the Washington
warhawks since the end of the Cold War in 1990."
Rebel
Yell: Resistance and Renaissance in the Age of Terror
A quote...."The
"War on Terror" is a brutal and criminal enterprise launched by George
W. Bush and fully supported by John McCain and Barack Obama, both of
whom have pledged not only to continue its deadly operations but to
expand them to new killing fields. Iran, Pakistan, Russia's "soft
underbelly" in the Caucasus – these and other regions have been moved
into the cross-hairs of the voracious war machine that drives the
foreign policy of both parties. And of course, the countless "covert
ops" carried out by the plethora of secret armies and agents of
Washington's hydra-headed "security organs" will likewise continue
unabated. -- Three nations have already been destroyed (or driven
into
further ruin) by the Terror War: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. More
than a million innocent people have been murdered, either by direct
military action by American forces and Washington's various proxy
armies and hired killers, or indirectly, in the savage internal
conflicts spawned by the vast state terror of invasion and occupation."
Putin interview With CNN ~ Part 1/3 ~ Part
2/3 ~ Part
3/3
Putin interview With ARD ~ Part
1/3 ~ Part
2/3 ~ Part
3/3
(YouTube - aprox. 10
min each - Added: August 30,
2008)
Videos - A
quote re: CNN...."His famous interview from 28.08.08, which has never
been
shown in full anywhere except Russia. Will CNN show it to americans?"
Putin's
Ruthless Gambit - The Bush Administration Falters in a Geopolitical
Chess Match
A quote...."Many
Western analysts have chosen to interpret the recent fighting in the
Caucasus as the onset of a new Cold War, with a small pro-Western
democracy bravely resisting a brutal reincarnation of Stalin's
jack-booted Soviet Union. Others have viewed it a throwback to the
age-old ethnic politics of southeastern Europe, with assorted
minorities using contemporary border disputes to settle ancient
scores." -- Also posted at ICH
Super
Imperialism
A quote...."29/08/08
"ICH" -- As I
explained in Super Imperialism, [Google, Amzn, GGB, B&N , PlutoPrs -- Special Note: some of these
are the 2003 edition, some are the NEW Aug 2008 edition] central
banks in other countries buy
dollars not because they think dollar assets are a “good buy,” but
because if they did NOT recycle their trade surpluses and U.S. buyout
spending and military spending by buying U.S. Treasury, Fannie Mae and
other bonds, their currencies would rise against the dollar. This would
price their exporters out of dollarized world markets. So the United
States can spend money and get a free ride. -- The solution is
(1)
capital controls to block further dollar receipts, (2) floating tariffs
against imports from dollarized economies, (3) buyouts of U.S.
investments in dollar-recipient countries (so that Europe and Asia
would use their central bank dollars to buy out U.S. private
investments at book value), (4) subsidized exports to dollarized
economies with depreciating currency, and similar responses that the
United States would adopt if it were in the position of a
payments-surplus country. In other words, Europe and Asia would treat
the United States as its Washington Consensus boys treat Third World
debtors: buy out their raw materials and other industries, their export
plantations, and their governments. -- *Michael Hudson* -- For more on this issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Russia
- Just Relax! - 08-25-08 - mpg
9/11
the Sequel - Return of the
Jihadi - 08-23-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
The
Great Consumer Crash of 2009
Charts -- A
quote...."I hate to tell you, but the storm has reached your location
and it is a Category 5 hurricane. The levees are leaking. Ignore it at
your own peril. The 6,000 sq ft McMansion buying, BMW leasing, $5
Starbucks latte drinking, granite countertop upgrading, home equity
borrowing days are coming to an end. The American consumer will not go
without a fight." -- For more on
this issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
The
Bush Debacle: Inevitability and Consequence
A quote...."There
is a mathematical inevitability to Bush's many and consistent failures
which are as numerous as his many lies and directly related to his
certitude of all things though he is never correct about any of them!"
The
Real Cost of a Full Bailout
Financial Warning - Prediction -- A
quote...."A
recent study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has zero
credibility. It pegged likely taxpayer losses in the Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac bailouts at $25 billion. For those with a sense of history,
it is worth remembering that the S&L bailout had a $160 billion
price tag. The numbers diverge so far from reality as to be
laugh-out-loud funny. Funny, that is, except that the CBO estimate
demonstrates a willful disconnect with the actual consequences of
federal government actions. -- As demonstrated below, the real cost of
the bailouts will easily exceed $1.3 trillion. In fact, the real cost
is likely to range between $1.3 trillion to $1.6 trillion, and is not
unlikely to reach $2.5 trillion."
The
Eurasian Corridor: Pipeline Geopolitics and the New Cold War
A
quote...."August 22, 2008 -- The ongoing crisis in the Caucasus is
intimately related to
the strategic control over energy pipeline and transportation
corridors. - There is evidence that the Georgian attack on South
Ossetia on August 7 was carefully planned. High level consultations
were held with US and NATO officials in the months preceding the
attacks. - The attacks on South Ossetia were carried out one week after
the completion of extensive US - Georgia war games (July 15-31st,
2008). They were also preceded by high level Summit meetings held under
the auspices GUAM, a US-NATO sponsored regional military alliance."
Georgia
started the war -- Pat Buchanan -
(YuTb - 13m 41s - August 22, 2008)
RT - Video -- A
quote...."Did US
officials know about Georgia's plans to attack its breakaway region?
The issue deserves a special hearing in the US Congress, according to
American political commentator Pat Buchanan."
Scheunemann,
Iraq and Georgia
A
quote...."posted on 08/21/2008 @ 11:01am -- If there's any comic relief
in the war between Russia and
Georgia, it's this statement from Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top
foreign policy adviser: "In the twenty-first century, nations don't
invade other nations." Coming from America's No. 1 advocate for
invading Iraq -- Scheunemann headed the neocon-inspired Committee for
the Liberation of Iraq in 2002 -- that's rich. Or perhaps Scheunemann
thinks the US invasion of Iraq happened in an earlier century."
Crisis
in the Caucasus. What Were They Smoking in the White House?
A quote...."The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its
latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been
a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s
favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left
Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad
for two days work."
The
New Cold War Turns Hot:How Washington’s encirclement of Russia
threatens us all
A quote...."Fairytales are wonderful things – except when they are
employed by adults to supplant a complex reality. Or, indeed, to turn
that reality on its head. Nevertheless, it is precisely the word
‘fairytale’ that best describes the West’s reaction to the outbreak of
hostilities in Georgia as even a cursory look at these events, and at
the recent historical and political context of Eurasia, make abundantly
clear."
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
The
Nuclear Rights Association - (N.R.A.) - Every Little Country Should
Have One
(Or How I Learned to Love the Bomb and Kiss the N.P.T. Goodbye) -
08-17-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Scott
Horton Interviews Pat Buchanan
Audio Interview -
A quote...."August 16th, 2008 -- Pat Buchanan, conservative commentator
and author, most recently of Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War,
discusses the crisis in Georgia, why he thinks the Russian action on
behalf of South Ossetia was justified, comparisons between Russian
moves in the Caucasus to interwar Germany and Britain, the stupidity of
the war guarantees and new missile defense systems going into Eastern
Europe, the limits of American imperial power and the question of
whether the administration gave Saakashvili the green light to attack
South Ossetia."
Neocon
Crybabies
A quote...."August 18,
2008 -- Although the unfolding drama in the
Caucasus has been a tragedy for its innocent victims, the response by
America’s political and media elites has been an entertaining and
delusional farce."
US
missile deal enrages Russia - Part I - YouTube Alt
Russian
General threatens Poland over missile deal - Part II - YouTube
Alt
Russians
checkmate US in Georgia - Part III - YouTube Alt
Videos - A
quote...."Eric Margolis: It's like August 1914 - a movement of great
powers towards war - With the signing of an agreement between
Washington and Warsaw to erect a missile defence system in Poland,
echoes of the cold war between Russia and the United States are hard to
ignore. The agreement comes hot on the heels of the conflict between
Russia and Georgia."
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
American
Selective Attention Deficit Disorder (ASADD) - 08-16-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Bill
Moyers Interviews Andrew J. Bacevich - Part I
Bill
Moyers Interviews Andrew J. Bacevich - Part II
Video
- Absolutely outstanding!
- mpg -- A quote...."As campaign ads urge voters to consider who will
be a better "Commander in Chief," Andrew J. Bacevich — Professor of
International Relations at Boston University, retired Army colonel, and
West Point graduate — joins Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to encourage
viewers to take a step back and connect the dots between U.S. foreign
policy, consumerism, politics, and militarism." -- || Transcript
|| Podcast
- QT ||
Behind
politics, a philosophy of fear
A quote...."George
Orwell, in his novel "1984," described Oceania, a society in which the
prime motivating force for controlling the populace was fear, both fear
of its own government and its enemies. He wrote of continual war, of
enemies so horrendous that the public was constrained to rigid
compliance with its rulers in order to demonstrate its patriotism. Much
of Orwell’s description is found again in the teachings of University
of Chicago Professor Leo Strauss, who died in 1973." -- For more on this issue see....Fake
Intel / Propaganda - Leo Strauss
Was
9/11 an Inside Job?
A
quote...."15/08/08 "ICH" -- Regrettably, there is considerable
evidence that elements of the Bush administration were complicit in the
9/11 attack, and may even have helped stage it. Let us now examine some
of what I regard as the most compelling evidence. However, the
following discussion makes no claim to be comprehensive.
Why
the BBC and FOX Can No Longer be Believed
A
quote...."Like a cornered dog, the BBC has lashed out at a growing
movement of organized critics of Bush 'conspiracy theories' of 911. How
credible is this offensive? BBC reporting of 911 is at the very least
'questionable', at worst, 'dishonest'. I suggest that the BBC is trying
to save face, having blown almost every opportunity to report honestly
with regard to the events of 911."
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Chopping
Down the Forest - One Law at a Time - 08-13-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Keith
Olbermann Interviews Pulitzer Winner Ron Suskind about his newest book
Video Interview - Kieth
Olbermann
interviews Ron Suskind regarding his newest book "The Way of the World:
A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism" [Powell, B&N, Alibris, Sulekha,
Costco,
Amzn, Harpers,]
A quote...."If you scoff at
the thought that the American government might actually try to
create a forged document to establish a link between Saddam Hussein and
the 9/11 attacks, and thus an excuse to invade Iraq, some snippets of
history for you...." -- *Keith
Olbermann*
It's Not The
Crime
That Gets You, It's The Cover-Up -
(YuTb - 10m 1s - July 31, 2008)
Video - A
quote...."In case you couldn't tell, I picked this song for two
reasons. It's really long. Both books are "thick as a brick," and about
as useful as one. Ha Ha. Thank you to Michael Wolsey and Justin Martell
for helping me to make this video. You may have to pause on occasion.
With regards to the cover-up of 9/11, there is so much information. I
had to reluctantly remove a lot of clips. Almost enough to make another
movie. Thanks to www.historycommons.org. Please spread this video far
and wide, and vote it up at youtube. Thank you." -- *Gold9472*
Vital
unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News
False Flag
Confirmation - Please Pass
This Story On - Some quotes...."If the now-deceased Ivins really
was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax
came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at
Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it
is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning,
there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create
a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the
9/11 attacks."
The
Military-Industrial Complex - It's Much Later Than You Think
A quote...."Most
Americans have a rough idea what the term
"military-industrial complex" means when they come across it in a
newspaper or hear a politician mention it. President Dwight D.
Eisenhower introduced the idea to the public in his farewell address of
January 17, 1961. "Our military organization today bears little
relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime," he
said, "or indeed by the fighting men of World War II and Korea… We have
been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast
proportions… We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications… We
must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether
sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." -- See video -
(YouTube - 2 min 30 sec - August 04,
2006) - mpg
The
Cost of Empire - Boom and Bust
A quote...."In
classic economic terms, an economy ought to create enough surplus
wealth to grow without resorting to excess borrowing–we ought to be
able to live on what we earn. But since 1983, we have been unable to do
that. So what differentiates the American economy from the rest of the
developed world since 1983? The only rational answer is in the chart
below which demonstrates how far beyond any possible rival our military
budgets have travelled. The fact that the DOD’s own
inventory of worldwide bases - [PDF]
is more than 189 pages long cannot lead one to any other conclusion
than the American taxpayer is supporting the infrastructure of empire."
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
You
Have a Choice - Democracy or Empire - 07-24-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
A
Turkish theater for World War III*
Geo-Political Warning -
Prediction - A quote...."Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf
is on
record
stating his ambitions to make his country a modern and secular state
modeled on the Turkish republic under Kemal Ataturk. Ironically, even
as that goal appears mind bogglingly unachievable for Pakistan, recent
events will conspire to push Turkey in the direction of Pakistan; into
becoming a breeding ground for a new class of Islamic militants. The
transition of Turkey into a new front for Saudi interests will follow
typical ideological, strategic and political trends." -- For more on this entire issue see....US
Support of Terror
Rolling
the Dice Once Again - in Iran
A quote...."So,
what do the Lords of Capital see, when they survey “their” world? They
see the final failure of their grand scheme to shift the centers of
global production to the South and East while somehow preserving the
supremacy of the de-industrializing West – an impossibility. As
arch-speculator George Soros keenly understands, power must “shift in
favor of the developing world, particularly China” – an unacceptable
outcome to the Lords of Capital. They therefore require a military
alternative to the laws of political economy and civilized relations
among nations. Their continued existence depends on their capability
and willingness to smash and rearrange the planetary reality whenever
imperialism’s illogical and wildly contradictory arrangements are
threatened. Raw military power – a global coercive regime – must be
deployed to counter the elemental logic of political economy (and
history) with the logic of terror."
Everybody
Knows!
A quote...."
22/07/08 "ICH" --- - "CHANGE" sounded like a really catchy
thought two years ago, before we began this non-stop farce of political
selections, amid the mountains of propaganda that rise from the open
wastelands of the never-ending lies. -- 'Everybody knows' that all
government's lie; the bigger the government, the bigger the lies. Most
people also lie, but only politicians and criminals seek to make a
career out of lying. Yet most Americans still believe that they live in
a free country with laws that govern this society and protect the
citizens from any and all attacks: because to fail to believe in this;
is to be "Un- American" in some way."
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
They
Won - 07-20-08 - mpg
Some
Tentative Laws - 07-20-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Time
for Some Campaignin' &
What
We Call the News
Videos - They're hilarious....they'll cheer you
up. Sort of. - mpg
The
Occupiers will not Withdraw from Iraq
A
quote...."Americans will not withdraw from Iraq however stable the
security situation, and will find pretexts at every stage to refuse to
withdraw. They entered Iraq, occupied it, and destroyed the country on
deceptive pretexts violating international law, and they will remain in
Iraq by the same mostly-fabricated pretexts. The inflated Iranian
danger serves their continuation in Iraq, serves Israel which pictures
itself the victim in the world, and serves to remove Iraq from its
community, thus weakening it. It reinforces the most important support
inside Arab lines and keeps the Arab region vulnerable to regional
conflicts and divisions which vindicate the claims of the occupiers."
Economic
Depressions: Their Cause and Cure
A quote...."An
adequate theory of depressions, then, must account for the tendency of
the economy to move through successive booms and busts, showing no sign
of settling into any sort of smoothly moving, or quietly progressive,
approximation of an equilibrium situation. In particular, a theory of
depression must account for the mammoth cluster of errors which appears
swiftly and suddenly at a moment of economic crisis, and lingers
through the depression period until recovery. And there is a third
universal fact that a theory of the cycle must account for. Invariably,
the booms and busts are much more intense and severe in the "capital
goods industries" – the industries making machines and equipment, the
ones producing industrial raw materials or constructing industrial
plants – than in the industries making consumers' goods. Here is
another fact of business cycle life that must be explained – and
obviously can't be explained by such theories of depression as the
popular underconsumption doctrine: That consumers aren't spending
enough on consumer goods." -- For
more on this issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg &
Obama,
the Yang to Bush's Yin - 06-20-08 - mpg
10+
Abuses for the Past 30+ Years
Data Base Resource
- A quote...."These 10+ abuses (below) did not all come about by mere
coincidence. -- These 10+ abuses are gradually eroding the future and
security of the nation. -- It takes a lot of abuse before a country
decays into lawlessness and economic disaster, and the past 30+ years
are evidence of that. -- That is, the U.S. is still one of the 26 best
nations (of the hundreds) in the world to live. -- But for how much
longer? -- What will the U.S. be like if these abuses are allowed to
continue much longer?"
Manufacturing a
global economic collapse in the buildup to World War III
A quote...."There
is also one major setback to this proposal of a war with Iran: An
attack on Iran would be nothing less then World War III. But then again
maybe that is what the US economy needs to stay alive, a World War: The
Perfect Consuming Machine. After all it was World War II that
decisively ended the great depression, and since most economic
indicators are worse now then they were then, it would be reasonable to
assume that the United States will start World War III for
nothing
other then to continue the American lifestyle, maintain the
banking
plutocracy, and consolidate world assets into the corporate coffer."
Worse
than McCain
A quote...."
11/07/08 "ICH" --- For nearly a year now, the public has been
treated to regular doses of Mr. Obama's grandiloquent oratory and his
sweeping "Follow me to Shangri-la" promises. These flourishes are
usually followed by "clarifications" on the central issues which
identify Obama as a center-right conservative with no intention of
disrupting the status quo."
Barack
Obama’s Whitewashed History of U.S. Foreign Policy
A quote...."09/08/07 "Znet." -- - The United States has a solution for
avoiding discussion of the many crimes it has committed against weaker
nations: denial. “It never happened,” say the Americans, when
confronted with the facts. Barack Obama is as skilled in the denial
arts as anyone, and so are his advisors. “In Obama's world view, as in
that of his Harvard friend and former foreign policy adviser Samantha
Power, American crimes generally don't exist. They didn't happen.”
Denial is serious business. “Candidate Obama's foreign policy
pronouncements have been loaded with promises of future criminality
under an Obama administration.”
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Obama,
the Yang to Bush's Yin - 06-20-08 - mpg
The
Great Game - In 3D - 06-15-08 - mpg
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
Separatism
and Empire Building in the 21st Century
A
quote...."Throughout modern imperial history, ‘Divide and Conquer’ has
been the essential ingredient in allowing relatively small and
resource-poor European countries to conquer nations vastly larger in
size and populations and richer in natural resources. It is said that
for every British officer in India , there were fifty Sikhs, Gurkhas,
Muslims and Hindus in the British Colonial Army. The European conquest
of Africa and Asia was directed by white officers, fought by black,
brown and yellow soldiers so that white capital could exploit colored
workers and peasants. Regional, ethnic, religious, clan, tribal,
community, village and other differences were politicized and exploited
allowing imperial armies to conquer warring peoples.
War
and Inflation
A quote...."The
U.S. central bank, called the Federal Reserve, was created in 1913. No
one promoted this institution with the slogan that it would make wars
more likely and guarantee that nearly half a million Americans would
die in battle in foreign lands, along with millions of foreign soldiers
and civilians. No one pointed out that this institution would permit
Americans to fund, without taxes, the destruction of cities abroad and
overthrow governments at will. No one said that the central bank would
make it possible for the U.S. to be at large-scale war in one of every
four years for a full century. It was never pointed out that this
institution would make it possible for the U.S. government to establish
a global empire that would make Imperial Rome and Britain look benign
by comparison." -- For more on this
issue see....Effective
Fed Funds Rate 03-24-07 - mpg
Bill
Moyers addresses NCMR 2008 - (YouTube - 39 min 56 sec -
Added: June 07, 2008) -- Video
- A
quote...."Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National
Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by
FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference"
-- For some of the extracted remarks
click here
========== ========= ========== ========== =========== ======
The
Convenient Silence of Guantanamo Bay - 05-31-08 - mpg
The
Iran Game - All Over Again - 05-27-08 - mpg
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How
the US dream foundered in Iraq
A quote...."On
February 15, 2003, ordinary citizens around the world poured into the
streets to protest President George W Bush's onrushing invasion of
Iraq. Demonstrations took place in large cities and small towns
globally, including a small but spirited protest at the McMurdo Station
in Antarctica. Up to 30 million people, who sensed impending
catastrophe, participated in what Rebecca Solnit, that apostle of
popular hope, has called "the biggest and most widespread collective
protest the world has ever seen"."
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Rule
Thirteen - Go After the Money 05-14-08 - mpg
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Bush:
An 'accessory before the fact' of Mass Murder
A quote...."It's
bad enough that those courageous enough to oppose Bush's rise to
dictatorship are attacked and impugned by the right wing! That is to be
expected. But the propagation of fallacies and nonsense by those who
should know better is intolerable."
'Untimely
deaths' that benefited R. M. Scaife, the CIA, and the Bush Crime Family
A quote...."In a
twisted, right wing brain like that of Richard Mellon Scaife, murder
may be justified by endless ideological rationalizations. Not only
lives are lost but truth itself. It is a sick mentality that sacrifices
the voice of reason for lies and bullsh-t. Short-term, short-sighted
victories are pyrrhic and the very fabric of society is corrupted."
Hard
numbers: The economy is worse than you know
A
quote...."Ever since the 1960s, Washington has gulled its citizens
and creditors by debasing official statistics, the vital instruments
with which the vigor and muscle of the American economy are measured.
-- The effect has been to create a false sense of economic achievement
and rectitude, allowing us to maintain artificially low interest rates,
massive government borrowing, and a dangerous reliance on mortgage and
financial debt even as real economic growth has been slower than
claimed."
Bush's
GOP Legacy: A Third World America
A quote...."As the US faces a very real prospect of utter collapse
where millions may be may be made jobless and homeless, the GOP drags
out a tired old lie that goes like this: 'Be happy! Recession is
goooood for you!' If that were true, millions would be trying to move
to a third world country instead of trying to get out of one. Don't
worry about it; the third world is coming to you! Millions have yet to
recover from Ronald Reagan's 'recession' of some two years following an
improvident tax cut which benefited only the nation's privileged elite.
What Reagan failed to achieve was left to Bush Jr to polish off."
Repercussions
of a Just War
A quote...."The
foundation of modern international politics — the nation state — was
first laid out in the treaty of Westphalia, which put an end to
Europe’s religious wars of the seventeenth century. At its core,
sovereignty is the notion that a state has sole authority over its land
and people and is guaranteed the right of non-intervention in its
internal affairs by outside powers."
Fastened
to a Dying Animal
A quote...."Here in this crumbling empire once known as the American
Republic, here in a nation that, at present, for all practical
purposes, only produces Cheetos and killer drones, whose architecture
is being winnowed down to thriving rural meth houses and foreclosed
upon suburban mchouses, whose corrupt corporate culture has bequeathed
upon our suffering planet dying oceans and the hyper-caffeinated
tsunami of Red Bull Capitalism -- the essential question confronts us
-- how does one retain (not retail) one's humanity amid the
catastrophic machinery and inane accouterment of our age?"
Why the US has
really gone broke
A
quote...."....there is an enormous anomaly in the US economy above and
beyond the subprime mortgage crisis, the housing bubble and the
prospect of recession: 60 years of misallocation of resources, and
borrowings, to the establishment and maintenance of a
military-industrial complex as the basis of the nation’s economic life."
Shattering
the War Consensus
A
quote...."Why, for God’s sake, does nothing change? The war goes on,
the money flows, the blood flows, the lies stay exactly the same. Have
you noticed? Have you ever wondered, with a stab of transcendent
confusion, why a self-correcting rationality hasn’t kicked in by now,
why a saner awareness hasn’t made itself evident in the macro-affairs
of the nation by now?"
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Behind
TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
A
quote...."In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a
fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention
center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty
International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations
human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure."
For
much more on this entire issue see....Fake
Intel - NYT Article
Editor's
special note: - This article will take a while to work its way
into the national dialogue, to become incorporated into this nation's
consciousness, when it does the consequences may be unforeseen and
possibly quite traumatic. To say that this article will cause a
massive upsurge in cynicism would probably be an understatement
It's doubtful that those currently serving in the armed forces
who weren’t in the "know" regarding these issues or who
didn't personally profit from the defense contracts involved will feel
favorably toward the current and former officers who besmirched their
reputations and helped destroy the lives of tens of thousands of
Americans and hundreds of thousands of people who live in the Middle
East by participating in this "racket".
These revelations are unfortunate, necessary, and most likely are just
the beginning of what's to come. - mpg
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Ramzy
Baroud - Where are the Iraqis?
A quote...."Five
years after the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, mainstream media
is once more making the topic an object of intense scrutiny. The costs
and implications of the war are endlessly covered from all possible
angles, with one notable exception – the cost to the Iraqi people
themselves. -- Through all the special coverage and exclusive reports,
very little is said about Iraqi casualties, who are either completely
overlooked or hastily mentioned and whose numbers can only be
guesstimated. Also conveniently ignored are the millions injured,
internally and externally displaced, the victims of rape and
kidnappings who will carry physical and psychological scars for the
rest of their lives. -- We find ourselves stuck in a hopeless paradigm,
where it feels necessary to empathize with the sensibilities of the
aggressor so as not to sound "unpatriotic," while remaining blind to
the untold anguish of the victims....."
Bush's Conspiracy to Create an
American Police State:
Part
I -- Part
II -- Part
III --
Part
IV -- Part V
-- Part
VI -- Part
VII -- Part
VIII
A quote from Part III...."Had we wanted a monarchy, we had
one! It didn't work out! Moreover, the one we had —King George III —was
better than the cretinous would-be King who now arrogates unto himself
powers he doesn't have and doesn't deserve. King George III was wrong
and mad, but George Jr, a shrub, a lesser Bush, is merely ludicrous and
slow witted. -- The truly intelligent are not threatened; in fact, they
are found among Democracy's most staunch defenders. Rather, it is the
dull of wit who are threatened by truth. Unable to win with reason, the
Bush regime wages war on truth with lies and propaganda. Failing even
that, Bush has made truth itself illegal. He need only 'deem' you a
terrorist to shut you up for good."
The End of the
World as You Know It…and the Rise of the New Energy World Order
A quote...."Oil at
$110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at
$4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating
oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that
three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is
just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in
how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live
-- trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become more
pronounced as energy supplies dwindle and the global struggle over
their allocation intensifies."
Too
Much of Nothing: Crime Without Punishment, War Without End
A quote...."The
President of the United States has openly, proudly admitted that he
approved the use of interrogation methods that are by every measure --
including the measure of United States law -- criminal acts of torture.
It is one of the most brazen and scandalous confessions of wrongdoing
ever uttered by an American leader -- and it has had no impact
whatsoever. No scandal, no outcry, no protest, no prosecution. -- This
pattern has recurred over and over throughout the Bush Administration.
Bush and his minions commit crimes and atrocities in secret; they move
heaven and earth to conceal their filthy deeds; they squirm and squeal
like panicked rats when some small portion of their evil comes to
light; they belch forth a relentless series of self-contradictory lies
to cover up, obfuscate or explain away the crimes; and when at last
their malefactions can no longer be denied, they trot out the president
himself to say: "Yeah, we did it; so what?" And then....nothing
happens."
American
Hegemony Is Not Guaranteed
A quote...."14/04/08
"ICH" -- Nonsensical on its face, the
Petraeus/Crocker testimony is just another mask in the macabre theater
of lies that the Bush regime has told in order to justify its wars of
naked aggression against Muslims." -- See also...
Boycotts
of U.S. Brands Affecting Economy
A quote...."One of
the contributing factors driving the U.S. economy’s sharp downturn is
the anger of foreign consumers boycotting American brands over the Iraq
war. -- It’s not just many of the 1.5 billion Muslim
consumers, either, that have quit buying Made in America. It’s people
from France to Brazil to Canada to India, and it is a trend that began
even before Bush invaded Iraq---remember all those millions of
demonstratorsthe world over urging him not to do it?"
If Muslims were truly serious
about trying to stop the ongoing
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by US forces, they wouldn't allow
their leaders to buy Boeing aircraft, US commodities, or US military
equipment. They wouldn't allow US oil companies or any US based
corporations for that matter to operate on their nation's soil. -- It's the only message the US elites
understand, they don't care about
the millions of "rag heads" they kill or injure....they only care about
one thing....their own money. – mpg
-- posted 01-22-08
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The
Coming War with Iran: It's About the Oil, Stupid
A quote...."World
civilization is based on oil. The world is running out of oil. The oil
companies and governments are not telling the truth about how close we
are to the end. Dick Cheney knew about peak oil back in 1999 when he
spoke to the London Petroleum Institute as Halliburton CEO. He
predicted it would come in 2010. After that it's just a matter of years
before it runs out. Whoever controls the remaining oil determines who
lives and who dies."
See also....The
Strategic Provinces & The
US's Centro-Asian Ring.
Wanta
Save the Economy? Give Workers a Raise
A
quote...."13/04/08 "ICH" --- -A specter is haunting Wall Street---the
specter of insolvency. One major player, Bear Stearns, has already gone
under, and from the looks of it, another may be on the way. It's
getting ugly out there. The so-called TED spread---which measures the
willingness of banks to lend to each other---has begun to widen
ominously suggesting that the money markets believe another body will
be floating to the surface any day now."
Jim
Rogers: Abolish The Federal Reserve
Video - A
quote...."Somebody at CNBC, billed as "America's business channel,"
made a mistake. They allowed Jim Rogers, investor and buddy to George
Soros, to get on and slam the Federal Reserve. -- "I will ask you
this," one of CNBC's talking heads asks Mr. Rogers, "what would be the
first two things you would do if you were in Mr. Bernanke's seat
tomorrow morning?" "I would abolish the Federal Reserve," avers Rogers,
"and I would resign," a response that brings nervous laughter all
around at the CNBC studios."
Saving
the American Left - The Case for a New Progressive Creed
A quote...."
07/04/08 "ICH " -- -- The American left is in the throes of an
existential crisis. Some say it's a failure of nerve, others a loss of
belief. It is the latter. Neoliberalism has sucked the oxygen out of
the left by deflating the political sphere to the economic one. The
left must articulate a new creed around three principles: empowerment
(the economic is ancillary to the political); social justice (the
disadvantaged have an unconditional claim upon the collectivity); and
decency (the state may not humiliate anyone). To make its case, the
left must redefine that most exalted form of self-interest, patriotism,
as pride in a society that grants all of its members the means to
belong."
American
Grand Delusions - Why the Testimony of General Petraeus Will Be
Delusional
A quote...."Yes,
their defensive zone is the planet and they patrol it regularly. As
ever, their planes and drones have been in the skies these last weeks.
They struck a village in Somalia, tribal areas in Pakistan, rural areas
in Afghanistan, and urban neighborhoods in Iraq. Their troops are
training and advising the Iraqi army and police as well as the new
Afghan army, while their Special Operations forces are planning to
train Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps in that country's wild,
mountainous borderlands."
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He
Stood on Top
of the Mound - 03-30-08 - mpg
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Network -
Money
speech - (YouTube - 4 min 19 sec - Added: August 26,
2007)
From
the movie "Network"
- 1976 satire - Here, made known to
you lowly mortals as inscribed in the Great Book of Lex Duodecim
Tabularum, contained within the secret Thirteenth Table “Amor Nummi”,
is written the sacred prayer of the Neo-Liberals -- Praise the
Almighty Corporation!! For I have seen the coming of His glory, the
shining of His guiding light. He is here to punish the
unbelievers who doubt His powers, He is here to show His infinite
strength of arms against those who are wicked, those who do not worship
the blessed token He has placed here on Earth to serve His needs, the
Mighty Dollar. Behold as He unleashes His righteous wrath against those
who trespass against His bottom line, as He spares not the rod, the
Mighty Military Industrial Complex, against all those who are led
astray from the true path of endless profit by their lack of
faith. Watch in wonder as His blessings rain down upon this world
bringing fire and death to those Corporatless heathens who still occupy
His lands. Witness their terrible downfall for their retched
failure to recognize His Holiness and pay proper tribute. Tremble in
Awe and Rapture as thee Almighty Corporation rightly assumes complete
dominion over this earthly plane....Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!....praise
thy Corporation for His Kingdom has come and we are finally saved my
brothers and sisters...we are all finally saved!! - mpg