Archive for January 23rd, 2008
How Did Western Civilization Get A Monopoly On “Moral Conscience” When It Has No Morality?
- How Did Western Civilization Get A Monopoly On “Moral Conscience” When It Has No Morality?
“The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.”
Five Western military leaders.
I read the statement three times trying to figure out the typo. Then it hit me, the West has now out-Orwelled Orwell: The West must nuke other countries in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction! In Westernspeak, the West nuking other countries does not qualify as the use of weapons of mass destruction.
The astounding statement comes from a paper prepared for a Nato summit in April by five top military leaders–an American, a German, a Dutchman, a Frenchman, and a Brit. It can be found here: [Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told, By Ian Traynor, The Guardian, January 22, 2008 ]
The paper, prepared by men regarded as distinguished leaders and not as escapees from insane asylums, argues that “the West’s values and way of life are under threat, but the West is struggling to summon the will to defend them.” The leaders find that the UN is in the way of the West’s will, as is the European Union which is obstructing NATO and “NATO’s credibility is at stake in Afghanistan.”
And that’s a serious matter. If NATO loses its credibility in Afghanistan, Western civilization will collapse just like the Soviet Union. The West just doesn’t realize how weak it is. To strengthen itself, it needs to drop more and larger bombs.
The German military leader blames the Merkel government for contributing to the West’s inability to defend its values by standing in the way of a revival of German militarism. How can Germany be “a reliable partner” for America, he asks, if the German government insists on “special rules” limiting the combat use of its forces in Afghanistan?
Ron Asmus, head of the German Marshall Fund and a former US State Department official, welcomed the paper as “a wake-up call.” Asmus means a call to wake-up to the threats from the brutal world, not to the lunacy of Western leaders.
Who, what is threatening the West’s values and way of life? Political fanaticism, religious fundamentalism, and the imminent spread of nuclear weapons, answer the five asylum escapees.
By political fanaticism, do they mean the neoconservatives who believe that the future of humanity depends on the US establishing its hegemony over the world? By religious fundamentalism, do they mean “rapture evangelicals” agitating for Armageddon or Christian and Israeli Zionists demanding a nuclear attack on Iran? By spread of nuclear weapons, do they mean Israel’s undeclared and illegal possession of several hundred nuclear weapons?
No. The paranoid military leaders see all the fanaticism, religious and otherwise, and all the threats to humanity as residing outside Western civilization (Israel is inside). The “increasingly brutal world,” of which the leaders warn, is “over there.” Only Muslims are fanatics. All us white guys are rational and sane.
There is nothing brutal about the US/Nato bombing of Serbia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, or the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, or the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, or the genocide Israel hopes to commit against Palestinians in Gaza.
All of this, as well as America’s bombing of Somalia, America’s torture dungeons, show trials of “detainees,” and overthrow of elected governments and installation of puppet rulers, is the West’s necessary response to keep the brutal world at bay.
Brutal things happen in the “brutal world” and are entirely the fault of those in the brutal world. None of this would happen if the inhabitants of the brutal world would just do as they are told. How can the civilized world with its monopoly on morality allow people in the brutal world to behave independently? I mean, really! God forbid, they might attack some innocent country.
The “brutal world” consists of those immoral fanatics who object to being marginalized by the West and who reply to mass bombings from the air and to the death and destruction inflicted on them through myriad ways by strapping on a suicide bomb.
Unable to impose its will on countries it has invaded with conventional arms, the West’s military leaders are now prepared to force compliance with the moral world’s will by threatening to nuke those who resist. You see, since the West has the monopoly on morality, truth, and justice, those in the outside world are obviously evil, wicked and brutal. Therefore, as President Bush tells us, it is a simple choice between good and evil, and there’s no better candidate than evil for being nuked. The sooner we can get rid of the brutal world, the sooner we will have “freedom and democracy” everywhere that’s left.
Meanwhile, the United States, the great moral light unto the world, has just prevented the United Nations from censuring Israel, the world’s other great moral light, for cutting off food supplies, medical supplies, and electric power to Gaza. You see, Gaza is in the outside world and is a home of the bad guys. Moreover, the wicked Palestinians there tricked the US when the US allowed them to hold a free election. Instead of electing the US candidate, the wicked voters elected a government that would represent them. The US and Israel overturned the Palestinian election in the West Bank, but those in Gaza clung to the government that they had elected. Now they are going to suffer and die until they elect the government that the US and Israel wants. I mean, how can we expect people in the brutal world to know what’s best for them?
The fact that the UN tried to stop Israel’s just punishment of the Gazans shows how right the five leaders’ report is about the UN being a threat to Western values and way of life. The UN is really against us. This puts the UN in the outside world and makes it a candidate for being nuked if not an outright terrorist organization. As our president said,
“you are with us or against us.”
The US and Israel need a puppet government in Palestine so that a ghettoized remnant of Palestine can be turned into a “two state solution.” The two states will be Israel incorporating the stolen West Bank and a Palestinian ghetto without an economy, water, or contiguous borders.
This is necessary in order to protect Israel from the brutal outside world.
Inhabitants of the brutal world are confused about the “self-determination” advocated by Western leaders. It doesn’t mean that those outside Western civilization and Israel should decide for themselves. “Self” means American. The term, so familiar to us, means “American-determination.” The US determines and others obey.
It is the brutal world that causes all the trouble by not obeying.
COPYRIGHT CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the recent epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct
Gaza – Crime israélien contre le monde
Gaza – Crime israélien contre le monde
Les seigneurs de guerre de la politique actuelle mondiale nous traitent de haut et nous démontrent ouvertement qu’ils se moquent de nos opinions, de nos choix, de nos votes ou de nos protestations.
Ils parlent avec conviction, au travers de leurs machines de propagande médiatique, des ” libertés”, alors qu’en fait, la liberté est leur ennemi et ils travaillent dur pour essayer, en vain, de la briser.
Ils ne réalisent pas que la liberté nous appartient, qu’elle n’est pas leur bien qu’ils peuvent détruire.
Par Mary Sparrowdancer [www.sparrowdancer.com]
Mary Sparrowdancer est un journaliste indépendant et l’auteur d’un livre à succès sur le retour du Messie : “The Love Song”.
Cet article est la première partie d’un rapport qui dénonce les horreurs endurées papr les Palestiniens à Gaza et en Cisjordanie.
Ils parlent de légitimité en même temps qu’ils fanfaronnent en parfait mépris de toutes les lois de la civilité. Ils parlent des terroristes et les montrent du doigt ailleurs, alors qu’ils sont les véritables terroristes qui ont assassiné et déplacé des millions de civils depuis 2001. Ils parlent de leur traitement humain des prisonniers, alors qu’en fait, ils sont consumés et attirés par la violence et la torture à un point qui ferait honte à l’Ancienne Rome. Nulle part les prisonniers sont traités de façon plus honteuse que dans la Bande de Gaza, et ce traitement est créé et rendu possible par les dollars US.La Bande de Gaza est bordée au sud par les sables et la mystique éternelle de l’Egypte, à l’ouest par la belle Mer Méditerranée, ses plages attrayantes sont un endroit où les rêves de stations balnéaires paisibles ont fleuri, à l’époque, et à l’est, elle est bordée par ce qui était autrefois la Palestine. En 1948, Israël a proclamé son Etat à l’intérieur de la Palestine et a commencé à forcer systématiquement les Palestiniens à quitter leurs terres ancestrales pour construire des colonies exclusivement juives.
Depuis presque deux ans, les forces militaires israéliennes ont complètement encerclé Gaza. Israël a construit des murs hauts, affreux, autour des frontières de Gaza, y compris à la frontière entre Gaza et l’Egypte. Les forces militaires israéliennes patrouillent et attaquent les civils de Gaza par les airs avec des hélicoptères F16 US et des drones. Les blindés et les bulldozers israélo-US attaquent par le sol, donnant l’assaut aux villages de Gaza et aux camps de réfugiés, détruisant les maisons et tuant davantage de victimes palestiniennes. Les navires israéliens stationnent dans les eaux autrefois paisibles au large de Gaza, prêts à bombarder les bateaux de pêche et à massacrer les familles qui pique-niquent tranquillement sur la plage. Avec des frontières bouclées et aucun échappatoire par la terre, la mer ou les airs, près d’1,5 million de Palestiniens sont piégés dans la Bande de Gaza, faisant de celle-ci la plus grande et la plus inhumaine des prisons sur terre.
En septembre 2007, après avoir fermé toutes les frontières, Israël a déclaré la population civile emprisonnée dans la Bande “entité hostile”, et a justifié ainsi son plan de blocus des livraisons de toutes fournitures, dont l’eau, la nourriture, le savon, le papier, le textile, le fuel et l’électricité. En ce moment, les civils bloqués à l’intérieur des frontières fermées de Gaza, dont la plupart sont des réfugiés, attendent leur sort, livrés à la force militaire israélienne. Une force militaire créée par les Etats-Unis, et dont les civils ne peuvent se protéger, ni maintenant, ni jamais.
Parlant avec les reporters photo Mohammed al-Zaanoun et Mohammed Omer par mail hier, j’ai demandé si les gens de Gaza avaient accès à l’eau potable. Les deux m’ont répondu : “Non”.”Chère Mary”, m’a écrit Mohammed al-Zaanoun, “Gaza a maintenant d’énormes problèmes, l’électricité a été coupée et ils [Israël] n’autorisent pas l’entrée de la nourriture et de l’eau, beaucoup de jeunes ont des infections et meurent à cause de la fermeture des points de passage”.
En ce moment, donc, les 1,5 million de personnes piégées à Gaza ont peu ou pas accès à l’eau potable. Les pièces et matériaux de réparation des pompes à eau et des maisons qui ont été bombardées, mitraillées et passées au bulldozer par les forces israéliennes sont interdits de passage aux frontières bouclées. Il n’y a plus d’électricité. Le marché libre au-delà des frontières est bloqué. Le transfert des fonds d’aide d’urgence entrant à Gaza est refusé.
Il n’a plus de ciment, laissant les Gazans dans l’impossibilité d’enterrer correctement ceux qui ont déjà été assassiné par les forces israéliennes. Il n’y a plus de savon. Il n’y a plus de services postaux. Il n’y a plus d’eau en bouteille. Il n’y a plus de médicaments. Les malades se voient refuser l’accès aux soins médicaux au-delà des frontières bloquées, comme le souligne Mohammed. Au cours des trois derniers mois, 70 personnes désespérément malades et innocentes, qui attendaient d’Israël la permission de traverser la frontière pour des soins médicaux, sont mortes. Dans la seule année 2007, les forces israéliennes ont tué sur le coup 290 personnes à Gaza, dont des enfants (ce chiffre ne comprend pas les assassinats en Cisjordanie, ni les morts des suites des blessures). Maintenant, Israël est en train d’affamer les 1,5 million qui restent à Gaza, en même temps qu’il leur refuse l’accès à l’eau potable (Btselem, statistiques 2007)On peut se demander ce qu’ont bien pu faire les habitants de Gaza pour provoquer une telle démonstration barbare de haine, de rage raciale et de torture collective de la part des forces militaires israéliennes.Alors que la raison invoquée est que quelques palestiniens à Gaza ont tiré des roquettes Qassam artisanales et rudimentaires vers des colonies israéliennes (en passant sous silence le fait que ces colonies ont été construites sur des terres volées aux Palestiniens), nous savons maintenant que la plupart de ce qui est mis en avant aux informations des grands médias US est loin de la vérité. Une recherche plus minutieuse révèle que le Ministre israélien de la Défense, Yaakov Toran, a dit : “Nous devons nous souvenir que les Qassams sont une menace plus psychologique que physique. D’un point de vue statistique, elles causent peu de pertes…”Les Qassam, qui ont été tirés sur les colonies israéliennes pour la première fois en 2002, sont extrêmement inefficaces, des roquettes artisanales à courte portée, et lorsqu’elles sont tirées depuis Gaza, elles sont généralement tirées en direction de la colonie israélienne de Sdérot. Sdérot est situé sur les cendres du village palestinien de Nadj. Selon le Docteur Walid Khalidi, les habitants palestiniens de Nadj ont été chassés lors du nettoyage ethnique du village par les colons israéliens en 1948, l’année où Israël a annoncé la création de son Etat. Dans le livre du Dr. Khalidi : “Tout ce qui reste : les villages palestiniens occupés et vidés de leur population par Israël en 1948″, Nadj fait partie de la liste des 418 villages ethniquement nettoyés. Plus aucune trace ne demeure de cette communauté paysanne paisible, mais dans les cendres de ce village et des 417 autres racialement nettoyés, on entrevoit la véritable raison derrière le massacre perpétré par les Israéliens, sa rage forcenée et sa violence raciale contre les réfugiés palestiniens.
Selon les lois internationales relatives au Droit au Retour des réfugiés dans leurs maisons, les réfugiés palestiniens doivent être autorisés à revenir sur leur terre ancestrale ou être indemnisés pour ce qu’Israël leur a volé. La vérité toute simple est qu’Israël, avec ses frontières en perpétuelle mutation, ne peut pas continuer à exister si cette loi est appliquée. Israël ne peut pas rendre tout ce qu’il a pris aux réfugiés palestiniens parce chaque colonie israélienne qui tache ce qui était la Terre Sainte, est construite sur la terre volée aux Palestiniens. Aussi incroyable que cela puisse paraître, la seule loi de “Droit au Retour” que reconnaît Israël est le droit de tous les juifs de la terre à “revenir” sur une terre où ni eux ni le moindre de leurs ancêtres n’ont jamais mis le pied, et à l’appeler “chez moi”.
On en vient donc à poser une question critique. Pour protéger “l’Etat” d’Israël dispersé ainsi que toutes ses colonies illégales, et plutôt que de se soumettre aux lois internationales du Droit au Retour, les forces israéliennes essaieraient-elles plutôt de détruire le plus de réfugiés palestiniens possible ? L’une des plus importantes concentrations de ces réfugiés palestiniens est maintenant en captivité, affamée, privée d’eau, bombardée quotidiennement et assassinée lentement par le manque et la rétention des produits de base à Gaza.
Bush a récemment visité Israël, où Olmert l’a “remercié” pour sa promesse d’une aide de 30 milliards de dollars.
Pour ceux d’entre nous qui s’opposent de plus en plus aux activités de l’Etat d’Israël (ainsi qu’aux activités de la machine de guerre US à l’étranger), ce “paquet cadeau” équivaut à obliger tous les Américains à aider et à encourager ce qui apparaît maintenant être un véritable Etat terroriste. Forcer les Américains à soutenir l’armée sioniste israélienne et ces activités terroristes illégales est une abomination. Les Américains ne devraient pas avoir à assister, impuissants, au spectacle des politiciens sionistes de leur gouvernement envoyant de l’argent US à l’Etat brutal et raciste chouchouté par tous les sionistes. C’est particulièrement insigne parce que de nombreux hommes politiques US ont la double nationalité US et israélienne et bénéficient de fréquents voyages et vacances dispendieuses en “Israël”, la terre prise par la force aux Palestiniens. Personne ne peut soutenir l’Etat d’Israël et en même temps revendiquer d’avoir fait le serment de soutenir et de défendre la Constitution des Etats Unis.
Noël a été sinistre à Gaza. Pas de vêtements d’hiver ni de jouets, et si peu d’argent pour faire quelques achats. Pas de sucreries pour les enfants. Pas beaucoup de nourriture. Très peu de médicaments. Pas d’eau potable. Mais il reste quelque chose en abondance, quelque chose qu’on n’a jamais pris aux Palestiniens. Quelque chose qu’on peut voir en eux si on prend le temps de regarder. Quelque chose qui continue de m’impressionner profondément et me remplit d’un respect grandissant.
Les Palestiniens ont demandé au monde, patiemment, de les aider à mettre fin à l’occupation israélienne de leurs maisons et de leur terre depuis 60 ans maintenant. En dépit du peu d’aide qu’ils ont reçu et bien qu’ils restent réfugiés sans droits humains sur leur propre terre, il y a en eux quelque chose de particulier. Même 60 ans après, leur esprit n’a pas été brisé. Ils sont restés stables, patients, avec un sens de l’humour et un sourire toujours prêts à jaillir, et ils n’ont pas honte de pleurer quand leur cœur est brisé. Ils n’ont jamais renoncé et ils sont déterminés à vivre encore en paix sur leurs terres ancestrales ; mais il y a encore autre chose, c’est leur élégance. Empêchés de vendre leurs magnifiques fleurs à l’étranger par les fermetures inhumaines des frontières par les USA et Israël, frappés par la pauvreté, sans emploi malgré eux et n’ayant maintenant pratiquement plus rien, ils se sont offerts les uns aux autres ces fleurs invendues pour Noël.Noël à Gaza a aussi été morne pour mon ami Mohammed al-Zaanoun, même si jusqu’à ce jour je ne l’ai jamais entendu se plaindre de sa propre situation, même lorsque je lui ai posé des questions. Avec l’élégance typique de beaucoup de Palestiniens, il n’attire pas l’attention sur lui-même, ni sur sa propre souffrance. A de rares et brèves exceptions, je ne l’ai jamais entendu parler qu’au nom des autres dont il avait été témoin des souffrances et qu’il avait photographiés.
Je connais cependant ses souffrances personnelles. Alors qu’il photographiait et documentait l’attaque militaire israélienne de juillet 2006 sur les civils de Gaza, il a d’abord été touché par les tirs israéliens au visage et à la main, mais il a continué à prendre des photos. Il a ensuite été visé et touché au ventre par un missile israélien.
Lors de l’impact, la charge s’est fragmentée en plus de 100 éclats à l’intérieur de son corps. Mohammed est tombé par terre, et alors que les sauveteurs se précipitaient pour l’aider, il leur a demandé de faire attention à son appareil de photo.
“Il y a dans l’appareil des photos qui témoignent de la vérité”, a-t-il dit. “Elles aideront à réveiller le monde”, a dit Mohammed.
Elles ont aidé à me réveiller.
Source : Rense
Traduction : MR pour ISM
Mercredi 23 Janvier 2008
Mary Sparrowdancer
La stupidité des gouvernements et de banquiers centraux aggrave le krach
La stupidité des gouvernements et de banquiers centraux aggrave le krach
L’autre cause de l’aggravation de la crise et de la panique fut la déclaration de Christian Noyer qui, dans une interview au International Herald Tribune du 17 janvier, a voulu à la fois avertir des pertes à venir de banques françaises, tout en se voulant rassurant par rapport à leur santé globale. Noyer s’est dit « raisonnablement confiant que les banques françaises allaient traverser l’orage sans trop de dégâts, même s’il est clair que, comme toutes les banques du monde, elles sont au milieu du processus de dévalorisation des actifs ».
Les propos de Christian Noyer viennent à la suite de déclarations faites par les Ministres des finances des quatre principaux pays européens – France, Italie, Grande Bretagne et Allemagne – réunis à Paris le 17 janvier dernier pour préparer les sommets à venir de Londres et de Tokyo. Les responsables financiers ont fait pression sur les établissements bancaires pour que ceux-ci fassent toute la transparence sur l’état de leurs bilans. Et bien que tout ceci soit, bien sûr, absolument nécessaire, sans projet de rechange visant à remplacer ce système par un autre qui interdise les folies spéculatives et oriente l’argent vers la production de biens utiles, ces mesures ne feront que mettre de l’huile sur le feu de la crise.
Or, l’Europe est belle et bien entrée dans le Maelstrom du crash financier, contrairement à ceux qui avaient eu l’illusion que seuls les Etats-Unis et l’Angleterre en seraient frappés. Le dollar qui a atteint ses plus bas niveaux à 1,49 contre l’euro, se renforce soudain face à un euro qui retrouvait une parité à 1.44 par rapport au dollar. Cette chute est due, selon Ramo Klawitter de la Dresdner Kleinwort cité par Les Echos, à des « ventes massives d’actions européennes par des Hedge Funds basés aux Etats-Unis ». Pour BFM, ces ventes massives font parti d’une guerre entre truands au sein d’un système en voie de disparition, les Hedge Funds cherchant à gagner la partie en éliminant les gestionnaires de fortunes en Europe…
The Coming Financial Collapse of America (and Why Today’s Market Bloodbath is Only a Small Taste of Things to Come…)
The Coming Financial Collapse of America (and Why Today’s Market Bloodbath is Only a Small Taste of Things to Come…)
(NewsTarget) Americans have always been fond of the idea of getting rich without effort by putting their money in things that produce no profits and then magically being able to ride those investments, milking them for spending cash that supports a drunken spending lifestyle. From 1998 – 2001, that profit vehicle was, of course, dot-com stocks. From 2001 to the present, it’s been housing. Never mind the fact that a house produces nothing real, earns nothing real and actually loses utility with each successive year of its existence (roof repairs, anyone?) — Americans have been convinced over the last seven years that housing prices would rise forever, allowing people to simply extract money from their home equity as if their house were some sort of giant ATM machine.
As the markets are finally demonstrating today, the “economic good times” spurred by a runaway housing price boom (and powered by astonishingly fraudulent lending practices by dishonest banks) are over. A day of reckoning has arrived, and the unwinding of this false wealth that has been propping up the U.S. economy for so many years is about to be unleashed upon the American people. (Today’s stock market meltdown is only the beginning…)That this day of economic reckoning would arrive has been obvious to me for years. On December 29, 2005, I published a two-part article series entitled, “Don’t get caught in the housing bubble crash.” Part two is available HERE.
In those articles, I stated:There’s no question whatsoever that this housing market will experience a correction. …It’s eventually going to come tumbling down. The only question is whether it’s going to be a correction or a crash.Friends, I believe it is time to take your money and exit the speculative real estate market. The average person doesn’t understand anything about finances and never will. The average person can’t even calculate a 15 percent tip at a restaurant, and he or she is buying real estate because he or she wants to double his or her money. Are you kidding me? Take your money and run; that’s my advice. Run from the inflated real estate marketplace before you become another victim. These super hot, speculative housing bubbles and stock market bubbles cannot continue. They always correct. Gravity kicks in, and, eventually, things unwind. A lot of people get hurt. They lose their money. To some of those people, I say, “That’s a really expensive education you just paid for.” A lot of life’s lessons are hard to learn, but some of them can be rather expensive.
So, it’s December 2005. I’m going on the record as saying this bubble is going to pop, folks, and you can call me a pessimist or a doomsayer if you want. The fact is, if you understand math, you know I’m right. If you want to protect your own finances, you’d better take a good, hard look at this and make some decisions about what you’re going to do. Do not leave yourself over-leveraged in speculative real estate. You thought you were going to retire on the beach, and it ends up you’re flipping burgers as a second job to pay off what you owe the bank, and they garnish your wages on top of that. That’s what happens to people who don’t get out in time.
Two Years Later, the Housing Crash is On
I point out these predictions not to prove I was right, but rather to demonstrate how easy it was to see these things coming. The inevitable bursting of the housing bubble was a no brainer to any rationally-minded person, and yet everywhere I turned back in 2005, I kept hearing (from apparently intelligent folks) things like, “Housing prices have never fallen,” or, “Buying a house is the best investment you can make!”Nonsense. Any fool could see that while housing prices were rising 15 – 25% a year in some regions, there were no underlying fundamentals that would justify such an increase in the value of the property. The population, for example, wasn’t increasing by 25% per year. Houses weren’t becoming 25% more useful. Land wasn’t becoming 25% more scarce. So what could possibly explain the rapid rise in housing prices? Easy money, of course.
That easy lending practices were being so aggressively pushed could only mean that more money was being artificially injected into the housing market, causing a fictitious rise in the value of homes based on the fact that there was too much money floating around in the hands of people who probably wouldn’t qualify for such loans under normal, rigorous lending conditions. And once you realize that, it’s not difficult to figure out that such lending practices will sooner or later backfire with a massive round of bankruptcies and bank repossessions.
And that, of course, will inevitably lead to a sustained drop in housing prices that, as I predicted, could ultimate see many homes drop to 50% of their peak values.
That’s what’s coming. I don’t even have to offer a prediction of it: It’s just a natural reaction to the economic practices that have been so unwisely pursued in this country for years.
The Domino Effect on the U.S. Economy
The U.S. economy, as any astute financial observer has noted for years, is running on artificial wealth that has been manufactured by the Federal Reserve and swallowed by gullible consumers chasing that pot of gold at the end of the easy money rainbow. An alarmingly large percentage of U.S. economic activity is driven by consumer spending and the taxation of such activities. So when housing prices plummet and consumer bankruptcies start piling up, here’s what we’re going to see next:My prediction for 2008 – 2012 is a massive wave of municipal bankruptcies, state bankruptcies and escalating national debt. We are going to see cities and states go belly up, pension programs terminated (or watered down), and financial institutions teetering on the brink of disaster.
And the worst part of it all? The only way out of this financial mess is for the Federal Reserve to steal yet more money from the American people by printing more money and hyperinflating the currency.
This is the part where the late Aaron Russo and his film Freedom to Fascism comes into play. If you haven’t already watched this documentary on the massive fraud of the Federal Reserve and the IRS, watch it now at Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5355374476580235299
This is also the part where Ron Paul comes in (www.RonPaul2008.com), since Ron Paul is the only Presidential candidate who understands the financial destruction being caused by the Federal Reserve and has pledged to end the Fed’s control over the U.S. money supply. (The Fed, by the way, is a privately-owned corporation that isn’t even controlled by U.S. lawmakers.)But given that most Americans are still likely to vote for status quo candidates and not for the radical changes required to bring economic sanity to our nation, it seems inevitable that this nation won’t learn its lessons about the laws of economics until the currency is near-worthless, the population is destitute, the banks are owned by wealthy foreigners and the neighborhoods are boarded up and abandoned due to a massive wave of foreclosures.
While all that’s happening, of course, the Federal Reserve is going to be trying (in vain) to print its way out of the debt implosion by creating hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air — an act that quietly steals money from the people due to the loss of purchasing power (inflation). The amount of money needed to bail the U.S. out of its impending financial crisis will be so large that the real value of saved money in U.S. currency (i.e. dollars) could be reduced anywhere from 30% to 80%. Imagine: One day you have $25,000 in the bank that buys a car, and the next year, that same $25,000 only buys half a car. Nobody stole dollars from your account, but the Federal Reserve stole your purchasing power by inflating the currency while trying to print its way out of a national debt crisis! This is what’s coming next.
The mathematically-impaired American masses, largely unable to follow basic economics, are destined to watch all this unfold with bewilderment, not knowing why their dollars are becoming worthless, but being rightly outraged by the turn of events at the same time. The MSM (Mainstream Media) will be no help, of course, since it’s in on the scam. It will likely find some foreign scapegoat like blaming China’s currency or Middle East oil prices for the disastrous effects of stupid domestic economic policies that have been pursued by Democrats and Republicans alike. (Of course, nobody has put the U.S. more deeply into debt than George W., largely thanks to spending on war.)
There’s little question that hard economic times are coming, and not one in a hundred people has any real clue what to do about it. Not even many mainstream investment professionals, by the way — they’re the same idiots who probably told you to buy into the housing bubble in the first place, am I right? (Remember, through 2006 and 2007 when I was urging everybody to get OUT of the housing market, many investment “professionals” were urging people to keep on buying and leveraging their money in yet more housing! We’ll all get rich! [Insert Howard Dean scream here...] Yaaaargh!)
So what can YOU — the intelligent reader — do with all this information? You’re the exception to the idiocy of the masses, as is evident by the very fact that you get at least part of your news and information from non-mainstream sources. So how can you protect yourself from these hard economic times?
Here are some sensible solutions:
Solutions for Surviving the Economic Downfall of America
First off, let me share with you one of the best books on what’s coming in terms of the U.S. economy. (It’s also loaded with financial investment recommendations in the last chapter.) The book is called The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 A Barrel by Stephen Leeb.
Leeb is right on the money when it comes to understanding economics trends (and telling the truth about what’s coming). He was one of the first to predict oil would reach $100 a barrel (which it did just a few weeks ago), despite the raucous laughter from the investment community following his prediction. (He predicted that price when oil was hovering around $25 a barrel, by the way…)His book gives outstanding investment recommendations for those who have savings or retirement funds they wish to protect from the coming economic fallout. Rather than repeating that investment advice right here, I would prefer that you get his book, read it and the follow his recommendations that best suit your risk vs. reward goals.
Secondly, let me say that the great drunken spending orgy is nearly over for everybody involved: Households, cities, states and even the U.S. federal government. Although there may be a few remaining grunts and gasps of debt spending that manage to squeeze through the cracks, the bottom line is that this debt bubble party is essentially over. This means we’re going to see a contraction in spending at all levels, and a significant lull in the national economy.
You see, until now, we’ve actually been partying on China’s money. It’s true! China has been lending the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars, and the U.S. has been using that money to finance wars and lousy health care spending policies that keep the American people perpetually diseased. This nation has actually been partying like a rich banker’s daughter on her 21st birthday who borrowed daddy’s credit card and hit the town for a night of (finally) legalized drinking. It’s largely been someone else’s money that has financed our drunken-sailor spending spree, and that line of credit will soon be significantly slowed (or made a whole lot more expensive to finance).
Why? Because the United States will, I predict, lose its AAA credit rating in international debt markets. With the U.S. in debt far more than ever before — and hemorrhaging wealth by the second through spending on war and disease (health care) — it won’t be long before the serious lenders of the world (China, Japan, Abu Dhabi, etc.) figure out that loaning money to the U.S. Treasury Department at low rates of return is an idiot’s gamble. They’ll hike up the rates for future loans to the U.S., and that will cause the U.S. federal government’s debt spending addiction to suddenly become a more expensive habit than a D.C. Mayor’s crack addiction.
Overnight, the U.S. could become a sub-prime borrower. Its banks have already landed in that category, thanks to the huge cash injections from wealthy foreigners we’ve seen taken on by U.S. banks in the last few weeks!
And all this, of course, means yet more contraction of the U.S. economy.
Getting back to how you can protect yourself in these hard economic times, this is a time to control your own spending. Here’s what I’ve consistently recommended to intelligent people over the years:
1) Own your car. Don’t borrow money to drive a car. It’s better to own a beater than to make payments on something you can’t really afford.
2) Own your home. Instead of moving to a larger home when you qualify for loans, work to pay off your existing home mortgage and own your home outright. At the very least, pay down your loan so you have 50% equity in your home, which should insulate you from all but the very worst housing bubble price drops.
3) Stop spending money on stupid overpriced things like Starbucks coffee, soda, brand-name laundry detergent, diamond jewelry and processed foods. Stretch your money by buying low-cost, bulk food ingredients like lentils, brown rice and quinoa.
4) Protect your health! Mark my words: There will be no such thing as a national health care system that’s any good; not under ANY future president. Why? Because our entire health care paradigm is focused on treating disease rather than promoting health. If you’re waiting around for a health care system to make you healthy, you’re on a fool’s errand. Take charge of your health right now and use nutrition, superfoods, sunlight, exercise and avoidance of all toxic chemicals to boost your health (and thereby insulate yourself from future health care minefields).
5) Own some productive land. Can you actually grow at least 10% of your own food? How about 25%? Owning productive land that actually generates fruits, nuts or edible herbs and plants is a form of permanent wealth. Regardless of what happens to the world economy, land that can produce food and medicine will always hold value (to yourself and others). Climate matters. An acre of land in wind-swept South Dakota isn’t worth much. That same acre in Southern California or Hawaii is a whole lot more useful in terms of producing things that people value.6) Own a good bicycle (and know how to repair it). There’s no form of transportation that’s more affordable. Too out of shape to pedal? No worries: Get yourself an Electric Bike from Electric Bikes Northwest (they ship all over the country). Electric bikes cost almost nothing to operate (far less than a penny per mile) and still give you a bit of exercise.7) Don’t save all your money in one bank! And certainly don’t save it all in U.S. currency. Diversify. Banks may fail. The currency may even fail. Be prepared to wake up one day and see your green U.S. dollars declared worthless.
Disclaimer: I’m not offering you financial advice. Do your own research on this and make informed financial decisions using the help of financial professionals. My information here is offered as-is, with honest intent but no promise of accuracy. You’ll have to decide for yourself what’s really ahead in terms of a bankrupt nation and a depressed economy.
It’s not all bad news, by the way…
The Good News
The good news in all this is that the U.S. government simply won’t be able to afford its campaign of imperialism and war mongering against the nations of the world. Troops will eventually have to come home for one good reason: The government will no longer be able to afford to pay them! (What? No Pay? Watch all those soldiers turn around and head directly home when the money stops. The proper term for such employees is “mercenaries,” by the way…)Much the same will happen to Big Pharma and the massive medical scam right now masquerading as health care in the United States. When the U.S. government can no longer acquire easy debt money, the monopoly-priced spending on pharmaceuticals through Medicare and Medicaid will have to be halted or significantly reformed. Somewhere along the line, somebody might get the idea that we could halt health care spending by 90% in a single decade by simply investing in disease prevention and health education rather than pushing pills and disease. So the good news is that a bankrupt nation will eventually be forced to just say no to Big Pharma’s monopoly-priced drugs.
So far, not bad, huh? Ending stupid wars and dangerous health care practices is definitely a step in the right direction, and it’s all coming our way soon thanks to the inevitably bankruptcy of the U.S. government and the downfall of the U.S. economy. There’s nothing like a sobering economic wake-up call to force nations to either reform their ways or face extinction.
From there, lots of possibilities exist. The centralized U.S. government might become so weak that regions of the country would declare their independence and begin self-rule. (Happens all the time: See the history of the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, post-Spanish rule in South America, etc.). Each region might then invent its own currency to replace the disastrous dollar. Tip: Only those currencies backed by gold reserves will ever work in the long term. Paper money simply doesn’t hold value (as we’re all seeing quite clearly right now…)
U.S. Spending Top Three List: War, Disease and Debt
I see 2008 – 2012 as being very tumultuous years for the United States of America. This nation is technically bankrupt right now. And do you know where the spending is going? Check this out: The top three things that the U.S. government spends money on are: (figures from 2006)1) WAR: Department of Defense + Veterans’ benefits ($580.5 billion)
2) DISEASE: Medicare + Medicaid ($614.1 billion)
3) DEBT: Debt to the people (Social Security + Welfare) and to debt holders (interest on national debt) ($1,115.4 billion)
What’s fascinating about all this is that these three things take up 85% of the federal budget! (Total 2006 federal budget was $2.7 trillion.)
Yes: 85% of the federal budget goes to pay for war, disease and debt.
Need I say more? That fact right there should tell you all you need to know about the future of this nation:
The U.S. is about to become history.
In the history of the world, no nation that spends 85% of its budget on war, disease and debt has ever survived for more than a few years.
(Rome spent far less on war and still couldn’t keep its republic together…)
For all those readers who agree with me on my anti-war stance, don’t worry: We’ll all get our wish soon! The U.S. is so bankrupt that waging war will soon no longer be an option. President Bush has done what the terrorists could have only dreamed of doing: destroying the future of an entire nation and watching it implode under the weight of its own debt. (If you thought the collapse if the Twin Towers was something, just wait until you see the fall of Wall Street…)
Sobering Economic News Wins You No Friends in a Delusional Nation
I tend to be a little early in taking precautions against financial disasters. I warned the public about the dot-com crash several years before 2001, and my warning about the housing crash was, as you can see, two years early as well. I’ve learned several things about making public predictions based on economic reality:1. Nobody wants to believe your prediction when the bubble is hot and people are operating under the illusion that “We’re all getting rich!” In offering sobering predictions of economic fallout stemming from the blatantly obvious financial disasters being pursued in this country, I’ve been called a doomsayer, a pessimist and someone who fails to understand the “new economics” (a fictitious branch of economics that’s used to hype every new market boom to a gullible public).
2. The public isn’t interested in financial reality. The public wants to believe whatever fictions support their current investments. If they’re invested in houses, they will dismiss any news (no matter how factual) that goes against the decision they’ve made to hold those investments. It’s a common type of investing myopia: Once an investor places his (or her) faith in a stock, an option or a house, they will selectively filter out all information that runs counter to their currently-held position. (It’s sort of like the way doctors see the world of conventional medicine vs. natural medicine…)
3. Few Americans can even imagine the collapse of America. (Most Romans couldn’t imagine the fall of Rome, either.) They think America is so strong and dominant on the world stage that it can weather any storm. Do you know why these people hold such myopic views? Because they watch the U.S. media, of course! There is no nation with a mainstream media capable of reporting the truth about that nation’s own political or economic policies. In truth, America is just one experiment in a history of failed debtor nations spanning millennia. The number of empires in world history that have risen and fallen due to uncontrolled spending or war mongering is truly staggering (something like 100+). Like any other nation, the U.S. is not immune to the effects of stupid management (although it has achieved numerous historical milestones such as being the nation with the largest national debt in the history of the world…)
4. Being ahead of the masses in your observations of economic trends is no way to win a popularity contest. If you’re 30 days ahead of the masses, you’re considered a genius; but if you’re two years ahead, you’re considered insane. It makes me wonder about the experiences of historical geniuses like Nikola Tesla, since they were at least a hundred years ahead in their understanding of science.
5. The mainstream never agrees with you until it’s all over, and then they blame you for causing it by “scaring everybody.” Hilarious.
Final predictions:
This financial situation won’t head straight down. The Plunge Protection Team in Washington (and at the Fed) will do their best to keep propping up this economy like a Weekend At Bernie’s.
So you’ll see short-term recoveries and stock prices jumping up and down probably all year. The markets may even reach new highs as the Fed hyperinflates the currency by injecting easy money into the system.
As usual, it’s all a scam. The unavoidable trend is the ultimate downfall of the debt-ridden U.S. economy and a massive recalibration of this nation’s economic behavior, which may or may not include the dissolution of the nation itself. American may somehow survive this unprecedented debt crisis. Then again, it may not.
2324 Fever Cases in Birbhum West Bengal Cause Concern
2324 Fever Cases in Birbhum West Bengal Cause Concern
Recombinomics Commentary 21:44
January 22, 2008
About 2,324 cases of people suffering from fever have been reported from the Birbhum district — Ground Zero of the bird flu outbreak in the state — in the last five days.
“The West Bengal Government is failing to understand the gravity of the situation,” said Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare P Lakshmi, during a visit to Birbhum on Tuesday.
The above comments on “fever” cases are causes for concern. If these patients have fevers, then there is an etiological agent associated with the fever. “Fever” is not a diagnosis.
The negative testing means little, since India has never reported a human H5N1 case, including cases from earlier outbreaks which included highly suspect patients in 2006
H5N1 need not produce lower respiratory infections. In Egypt last year, most of the patients in the spring were mild cases that did not involve lower respiratory infections, even tough the infectious agent was the Qinghai strain of H5N1.
More information on the cause of the viral fever in Birbhum would be useful.
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Lorsque le Foreign Office envisageait un coup d’Etat en Italie
Lorsque le Foreign Office envisageait un coup d’Etat en Italie
Des documents récemment déclassifiés en Grande-Bretagne montrent qu’en 1976, le gouvernement de l’époque avait considéré l’option d’un putsch militaire à Rome, afin d’empêcher l’éventuelle participation du Parti communiste italien (PCI) au gouvernement.
Si l’option d’un coup d’Etat fut finalement écartée, en 1978, le démocrate-chrétien Aldo Moro, alors président du Conseil, fut enlevé et assassiné par les Brigades rouges (BR).
Pour mieux protéger l’Italie des ingérences étrangères, Aldo Moro voulait transformer le PCI en un parti pleinement démocratique, indépendant de Moscou.
Ainsi, il n’y aurait plus eu d’obstacle à un changement de pouvoir politique, autrement normal dans les démocraties occidentales, ni de prétexte pour imposer à l’Italie la politique impériale anglo-américaine au nom de la lutte contre le communisme.
Bien que le PCI ait effectivement évolué dans le sens voulu par Moro, Londres et des forces anglophiles à Washington et dans certaines capitales européennes complotèrent les moyens de torpiller ce plan par tous les moyens, y compris un putsch. Ceci est confirmé dans des documents publiés par La Repubblica du 13 janvier dernier, retrouvés dans les archives de Londres par le chercheur Mario J. Cereghino.
Le plus choquant est un document classé secret du Planning Staff du Foreign Office, en date du 6 mai 1976, intitulé « L’Italie et les communistes : les options pour l’Occident ».
En page 14, sous le titre « Action en soutien à un coup d’Etat ou à d’autres actions subversives », on peut lire : « Par sa nature même, un coup d’Etat pourrait aboutir à des résultats imprévisibles. Néanmoins, théoriquement, on pourrait l’encourager. D’une manière ou d’une autre, il pourrait venir de forces de droite soutenues par l’armée et la police.
Pour différentes raisons, l’idée d’un coup chirurgical sans effusion de sang, permettant d’écarter le PCI ou d’empêcher son arrivée au pouvoir, peut sembler attirante.
Mais il s’agit d’une idée peu réaliste. » Pour les motifs suivants : poids du PCI au sein du mouvement syndical, perspective d’une guerre civile « longue et sanglante », éventuelle intervention de l’URSS, opinion hostile en Occident. Cette option fut donc rejetée.
Par contre, empêcher le PCI d’entrer au gouvernement en Italie était une priorité majeure de la diplomatie anglaise, du Département d’Etat américain, alors dirigé par Henry Kissinger, et de l’OTAN. Le 25 mars 1976, le ministère britannique de la Défense écrivit au Foreign Office qu’un gouvernement de coalition comprenant le PCI serait une « catastrophe ».
John Killick, alors ambassadeur britannique auprès de l’OTAN, estimait que « la présence de ministres communistes dans le gouvernement italien créerait immédiatement un problème de sécurité pour l’Alliance. (…) Par conséquent, une amputation nette [de l’Italie] est préférable à la paralysie interne. »
L’ambassadeur à Rome, Sir Guy Millard, a été plus franc sur les motifs réels en déclarant que la participation du PCI au gouvernement signifierait « la fin immédiate du système de libre marché ».
Sir Guy est aussi critique à l’égard d’Aldo Moro : « Parfois il semble très ambigu sur le compromis historique », c’est-à-dire la proposition communiste de s’allier aux démocrates-chrétiens.
Pour Henry Kissinger, le « réformateur » Berlinguer serait « plus dangereux que Cunhal », le dirigeant léniniste du Portugal.
Etrangement, on ne trouve dans ces documents aucune référence au terrorisme en Italie alors qu’on se trouvait en pleines « années de plomb ».
Le 8 juin 1976, les Brigades rouges assassinaient à Gênes leur première victime, le juge Francesco Coco.
Giovanni Fasanella, un expert du terrorisme, a récemment fait remarquer que l’Italie traverse une phase de « répétitions de stratégie de tension », où des troubles sociaux sont manipulés par des forces extérieures « pour les orienter dans une direction violente ».
