http://www.sott.net/signs/list_editorials Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2012 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:42:10 -0600 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/152271-Chaos-and-Consent-The-Logistics-of-the-One-World-Government Reading "Columnist Calls for Internet "Quality Control" to Quash Dissent sent absolute shivers up my spine. As I posted on my Facebook Wall: "Is it just me noticing the increasing lock-down, the increasing propaganda FOR lockdown and abrogation of human rights, and the masses seem to be sleep-walking through it all?" But what is happening has happened before in many times and places; it's just that now it seems to be spread over the entire globe. Just so you know, I'm not one of those who is taken in by the saber-rattling war propaganda. That too, has happened before and before and before. It's a ruse, a drama played out between ostensible adversaries to keep the masses afraid and loaded with stress so that they will welcome draconian controls everywhere. Another thing that has happened before is the end result of such dramas: mass death and destruction AKA "collateral damage". A few comments on my FB wall indicate that I am not alone in what I see. One poster wrote: "Not just sleep-walking, but sycophantically justifying their own abuse and mindlessly trying the same failed methods to "solve" it over and over. It's been said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting it to come out different." (HB) That's it, exactly. Psychopaths in power never seem to be able to get it that the end result is always and ever the same: the germs do not realize that they will be burned alive in the fire to which the body they have infected and killed will be consigned. Another comment was: "This is the long-planned and meticulously coordinated recrudescence, on a global scale, of Nazism." (DST) Exactly. And that is why I am resurrecting this topic which I wrote about back in 2008, back when Bush - remember Bush, the guy who was the puppet who got all this mess started? - was still president of the U.S. The article was focused mainly on Bush and the U.S., but since then, so many other world leaders and nations have gotten on the Totalitarian/Fascist/Nazi bandwagon that I have done a little re-working of the piece to bring it up to date. Back then I wrote: Reading Robert Parry's When a Great Power Goes Mad gave me the shivers especially when I read: With the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War and the grim milestone of 4,000 US dead, the nation has been awash with news retrospectives on the war and speeches by politicians, mostly offering sanitized versions of what's transpired. [...] In the news media, there were specials, including a much-touted PBS "Frontline" two-parter on "Bush's War" which followed the mainstream line of mostly accepting the Bush administration's good intentions while blaming the disaster on policy execution - a lack of planning, bureaucratic rivalries, rash decisions and wishful thinking. [...] Remaining outside the frame of mainstream U.S. debate was any serious examination of the [Iraq] war's fundamental illegality. During the post-World War II trials at Nuremberg, the United States led the world in decrying aggressive war as "the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." Yet, "Frontline" and other mainstream U.S. news outlets shy away from this central fact of the Iraq War: by invading Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council and under false pretenses, the Bush administration released upon the Iraqi people "the accumulated evil of the whole" - and committed the "supreme" war crime. An obvious reason why the mainstream U.S. press can't handle this truth is that to do so would mean that President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, a host of other U.S. officials and even some prominent journalists could be regarded as war criminals. To accept that reality would, in turn, create a moral imperative to take action. And that would require a great disruption in the existing U.S. power structure, which hasn't changed much since Bush won authorization from Congress in October 2002 to use force and then invaded Iraq in March 2003. Not only are Bush and Cheney still in office - and two of the three remaining presidential candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, voted for the war - but the roster of top Washington journalists remains remarkably intact from five years ago. We realize, of course, since the above was written, that even Barack Obama - supposed to be the NKOTB who was not part of the insiders was, in fact, very much an insider and selected to carry on the Bush/Neocon/Fascist legacy. The only "change" that Obama has brought has been more of the same and worse. It is obvious to many, though certainly not to everyone, that the World Body Social, following the Pied Pipers of the Body Politic have increasingly lost their ability to think rationally and perceive psychological reality with even a modicum of common sense. Almost the whole planet has descended into half-wittedness with its growing intellectual deficiencies and moral failings. Any group of people that can sit down and discuss the Iraq War as though it were anything other than a War Crime of the highest order, or debate whether or not waterboarding is torture, or whether or not torture is acceptable in this or that situation, has lost not only their moral compass, but their qualification as sentient beings on the evolutionary scale. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/152271-Chaos-and-Consent-The-Logistics-of-the-One-World-Government Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:40:29 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240826-New-Sott-Report-Strange-Noises-in-the-Sky-Trumpets-of-the-Apocalypse- From as far back as 2008, video recordings of strange and disturbing noises that seem to come from the sky have been appearing on the internet. In the last 12 months, many more of these 'strange noise' videos have been recorded and uploaded by people from many different parts of the globe. The precise origin and meaning of this phenomenon is, as yet, unknown. Are we dealing with a cosmic version of the 'bell tolling' for life on planet earth, or is there a more mundane explanation? The Sott Report investigates. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240826-New-Sott-Report-Strange-Noises-in-the-Sky-Trumpets-of-the-Apocalypse- Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:40:17 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240587-The-Cs-Hit-List-05-Dr-Greenbaum-and-the-Manchurian-Candidates Comment: Before reading this installment, we suggest you watch these horrifying clips from the 6 part documentary, Evidence of Revision, detailing the MKULTRA program and some of its applications. On 25 June 1992, Dr. D. Corydon Hammond of the University of Utah delivered a talk at the Fourth Annual Eastern Regional Conference on Abuse and Multiple Personality at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. It was entitled 'Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse'. In it, he described a strange set of symptoms that he and other clinicians had discovered (often independently) in patients, which indicated a massive, nationwide, well-coordinated program of systematic abuse and mind control, which was often, although not always, indicated in family members of NASA, CIA and military personnel. Using ideomotor responses elicited under hypnosis, Dr. Hammond and his colleagues uncovered layers of 'programs' that were installed in victims (often starting in infancy) via repeated abuse (really amounting to torture), sensory deprivation, disorientation, hypnosis, hallucinogens and other drugs. Many different layers of programming were found, each with a different purpose, e.g. sexual, suicidal (i.e., 'self-destruct'), ritual and 'psychic killing' programs, as well as built-in shutdown codes, among others. Victims were also programmed with booby traps (called the 'green bomb'), so that if they ever began to recover they would go insane. Incidentally, the number and frequency of individuals 'going off' and killing for no reason seems to have been increasing in recent years. Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho in 2007; Vince Li, the man who decapitated another man on a Greyhound bus in Canada in 2008; and the Fort Hood shooter(s) of 2009 are just a few examples who have made big headlines and show indications of possible mind programming. The story Hammond pieced together in his practice goes as follows. At the end of World War II, Allen Dulles and others from the U.S. intelligence community recruited Nazi scientists and doctors who were conducting mind control research in concentration camps and brought them to the United States, where they began doing similar research for military intelligence in military hospitals. A teenager raised according to Hasidic Jewish tradition and with a background in Kabbalistic mysticism (themes from the Kabbalah turned up repeatedly in the programming), saved himself by collaborating and assisting in the death-camp experiments, and he was brought to the United States as well. The boy Americanized his name, obtained a medical degree, became a physician and continued work that appears to be at the center of cult programming today. Patients throughout the country know him by the name 'Greenbaum'. Of course, this is just a story. Hammond apparently had no means of verifying what he was able to piece together from the victims. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240587-The-Cs-Hit-List-05-Dr-Greenbaum-and-the-Manchurian-Candidates Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:38:24 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240578-War-On-the-Obese-aka-Blaming-the-Victim The topic of obesity is popular in mainstream media. We are constantly warned of the dangers of being overweight, and while many groups have been targeted for 'health advice' in the past, it seems those labeled as obese bear the brunt. While having more weight than one is physically comfortable with can be unhealthy, the fact that our governments and media have chosen to take a parental role by constantly telling us what we should and shouldn't look like, should give us pause. To add insult to injury, people are made to feel bad or guilty for not fitting into a restrictive and arbitrary body size. It can actually discourage people who are trying to effect change when they feel demonized. The way information is presented can sometimes be an impediment to those genuinely seeking assistance. Take, for instance, the word 'diet'. It's one of the most hated words. There are several meanings, but the most popular seems to be understood as 'an habitual way of eating'. Viewing it this way can, and has, led to thoughts of having to restrict what we eat, but the word's original definition, according to the Oxford dictionary, means 'way of life'. If we view it as a lifestyle, perhaps it won't feel as oppressive. The word 'obesity' is a good example of how language can change abruptly. Don't think this can happen? Back in 1998, with the adoption of the Body Mass Index (BMI), it did. The National Institute of Heath (NIH), the primary governmental health related and biomedical research agency, made changes to the definition of this word that affected 25 million Americans who, under the old guidelines were considered of average weight, but who suddenly became obese. What's interesting is that just prior to that change: The American Heart Association recently added obesity to its list of major risk factors for heart disease and heart attack, along with smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a sedentary lifestyle. From that moment on, not only was a percentage of the population suddenly classified as obese, but they were now considered at risk from other diseases. Was all of this just the result of good intentions gone awry? http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240578-War-On-the-Obese-aka-Blaming-the-Victim Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:22:08 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240308-Dark-Ages-and-Inquisitions-Ancient-and-Modern-Or-Why-Things-are-Such-a-Mess-On-Our-Planet-and-Humanity-is-on-the-Verge-of-Extinction This is going to be a long one so get a cup of tea or coffee and settle down. Those of you who like your information in short bytes, this article is not for you! I've been reading a lot lately. I mean a LOT. Well, so what else is new? Anyway, the range of topics I've been covering are varied; I tend to follow my nose. I often will read one book that suggests another book, and off I go, but lately, it's been very eclectic and seemingly unconnected. Let me give you a sample going back just a couple of weeks: I picked up You Are Not So Smart by David McRaney because I read a snip of it on my husband's kindle reader. I don't do kindle because I underline and make notes, so I bought my own copy. That led to Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change by Timothy D. Wilson which then led to another of his books: Strangers To Ourselves. That then led to Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality by Samuel Barondes. Some books I had ordered some time ago then arrived: Amarna Sunset by Aidan Dodson; Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet by Nicholas Reeves; Akhenaten & Tutankhamun: Revolution & Restoration by Silverman, Wegner and Wegner; Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt by Dominic Montserrat. Then came The Fall of Rome And the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins. Next: Dark Ages: The Case For a Science of Human Behavior by Lee McIntyre, followed by The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness by B. Alan Wallace. Here and there I've been reading snatches of Bertrand Russell. (I also read three mysteries by Gladys Mitchell, but that was just fun reading.) And now I'm reading War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage by Lawrence H. Keeley alternating with Does the New Testament Imitate Homer? By Dennis R. MacDonald. As I said, this all may seem unconnected, even to me, but the strange thing is that all of the above books circle around a particular theme: Science/academia - has really lost the plot, and the thing that was proclaimed to be the answer to all of humanity's problems has turned into the probable means of our destruction. This is no small matter, I can assure you, and deserves some consideration. In the book Dark Ages: The Case For a Science of Human Behavior, we read: What would it feel like to live in a Dark Age? Would you realize it? Or would you just see the achievements of the day - perhaps even feeling lucky to live in such "modern times" and fail to see all that had not been achieved. Of course, no one living in a Dark Age would call it that; rather this label is placed on a backward era only by a later one, in which the state of human civilization is more advanced. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easier to see what has been missed. But isn't there nonetheless some way to judge one's own era? Look around you. We live in a time of enormous technological achievement, when we are able to bend nature to our will, and yet we suffer from the same social problems that have plagued the human race for millennia. Despite the enormous progress that we have made in our understanding of nature, who can honestly say that the bulk of the problems that are the cause of human misery today are not of our own creation? And yet what have we done about them? The comparison between our success in understanding nature and our failure to understand ourselves is vast. We have satellites and fax machines that transmit stories of barbarous cruelty that could have been told by our ancestors. We have ever more sophisticated weaponry of war and yet no true understanding of what causes war in the first place. ...We are as ignorant of the cause-and-effect relations behind our own behavior as those who lived in the eighth or ninth centuries ... [we're ignorant of the causes] behind disease, famine, eclipses, and natural disasters. We live today in what will someday come to be thought of as the Dark Ages of human thought about social problems. (McIntyre, MIT, 2006) http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240308-Dark-Ages-and-Inquisitions-Ancient-and-Modern-Or-Why-Things-are-Such-a-Mess-On-Our-Planet-and-Humanity-is-on-the-Verge-of-Extinction Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:38:33 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240118-Lieberman-s-Bill-to-Kick-Off-Internment-Camps For those readers who are part of the 40% of human beings who think Ignorance is Bliss, stop reading now. This article is about a truth so hard that it was actually depressing to write it. You might think that working on SOTT for many years, most of us are pretty tough and can deal with the hard stuff. But sometimes, you see something that rings a bell, and you know that you've had a glimpse behind the curtain, because somebody went before and left a map to show you the way. In this case, that person was Hannah Arendt. The modern world can't be an easy place to live in for those who are born genetically predisposed to crave absolute power over others. I mean, these days, any would-be totalitarian has only a very small chance of being born into one of the world's few remaining overt dictatorships, and a much greater chance of being born into a large Western nation that is nominally democratic. While fulfillment of the megalomaniac's innate drive is a walk in the park in a dictatorship, it requires all sorts of protracted subterfuge in a democracy. Bummer. The main problem with giving free reign to one's dictatorial leanings in a democracy is the whole 'citizen's rights' and 'Rights of Man' thing. How is any self-aggrandizing despot to lord it over the masses, and watch them squirm and suffer and beg, when everyone seems convinced that there are not only democratic and legal rights but also natural 'inalienable' rights that come with just being a human being? Ideas that everyone is 'created equal' and has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness etc. can cause a lot of problems for the average authoritarian. Naturally then, in any democracy, all those rights would have to be removed before any oligarchy could transform citizens into subjects, and they'd have to be removed under the cloak of 'protecting' the very rights that were slated for extinction. A tall order indeed, but there are ways to do it. One tried and tested way is to create a foreign or external threat from which the people of a democracy must be protected. All sorts of draconian laws that subvert civil rights can be passed to combat this 'threat', and if the 'threat' can then be made internal or domestic, and suspicion of 'siding with enemy' cast over the citizens, you're well on your way to banishing those pesky legal and natural rights. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240118-Lieberman-s-Bill-to-Kick-Off-Internment-Camps Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:32:55 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240064-Fukushima-For-All-of-Us-Deception-Monopoly-Profit-Weapons-Death At 2:46 pm on a Friday afternoon in March last year, residents in the prefecture of Fukushima in Japan were jolted by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake centered off the Pacific coast at a depth of approx 15 miles. Almost immediately, three of the six reactors which were in operation at that moment in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant - located on the eastern shore of Honshu Island - automatically shut down as a result of the shaking. The plant automatically switched to its backup diesel-fueled generators to supply the uninterrupted electric power required to keep the plant's reactors cooled. Approximately one hour later, a 46 foot tall tsunami wave swept over the seawall between the Fukushima plant and the Pacific Ocean, flooding and disabling the backup generators and washing away their fuel tanks. The seawall had been designed to withstand a 19 foot wave and was considered sufficient to protect the plant from the worst possible tsunami that could ever happen. We know now that within days, fuel rods in three of the reactors melted and breached the reactor containment structures designed to keep radioactive material from escaping into the environment, though nothing of the sort was revealed at the time. We are still not certain how much airborne radioactive contamination escaped. There were violent explosions and multiple fires at the plant which some observers now indicate were far more serious than how they were initially portrayed. There were, and continue to be, unspecified large releases of extremely contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean, but no data on what the results of that might be. It took several months for TEPCO, the Japanese utility company running the plant, to publicly admit the severity of the accident. There have been repeated 'explanations' that downplayed, understated or outright ignored the risks to the public and hid the reality of what was actually happening at any given time. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240064-Fukushima-For-All-of-Us-Deception-Monopoly-Profit-Weapons-Death Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:09:51 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239640-2012-On-The-Eve-Of-Destruction- Here we are, New Year's Eve 2011, and a whole lot of folks on this planet believe that the World is going to End - one way or another (again) - sometime in December of the coming year: 2012. All I can think is "Geezus! Here we go again!" Back in 1996 and 1997, there was the Hale-Bopp Flopp that resulted in the mass suicide of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate Cult. I was out there at the time desperately trying to convince people that most of what was flying around the internet was a load of Horse Hockey, and all I got for my trouble was flamed and defamed. But I was right. Then, there was the Millennial Madness that was gaining steam in 1999. By this time, we had a website and I wasn't just doing battle on discussion lists, so I published an article in November of that year trying to calm things down a bit. Things were so weird then that even my cousin, who was (at that moment) an aerospace engineer employed by NASA, told me in full confidence that things WOULD get squirrely because there was a flaw in computer dating systems and the global computer systems would glitch up in unpredictable ways, causing chaos. Not even that happened! Anyway, the take-home message of my article at that time was pretty clear: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239640-2012-On-The-Eve-Of-Destruction- Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:53:43 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239361-Laura-Knight-Jadczyk-Arkadiusz-Jadczyk-Q-A-Session-Barcelona-Conference-Oct-2011 Over the course of 90 minutes, Laura and Ark answer questions from the audience at their day-long, World Trade Center, Barcelona conference, October 15th 2011. As always, many fascinating topics were covered and vital information conveyed. Happy Holidays To All. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239361-Laura-Knight-Jadczyk-Arkadiusz-Jadczyk-Q-A-Session-Barcelona-Conference-Oct-2011 Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:28:19 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239307-The-Cs-Hit-List-04-Nature-Nurture-and-My-Monkey-Genes The reader should probably be getting the idea by now: the approach SOTT.net takes to the Cassiopaean Experiment really is a case of 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. One question asked, or one answer given, is often enough to inspire a whole line of research leading to data and conclusions that might only be tangentially related to the original question. That's the whole point: discovery, and in that sense, the data in the Cs transmissions is more like the thread of Ariadne than a book of 'Divine Revelation'. The clues given lead those interested to take up the search through a vast labyrinth of information and 'disinformation' to what I like to think of as the heart of the matter: those areas of study that are not only highly relevant to coming to an understanding of the human condition and the nature of the cosmos, but which are also closely interrelated and always seemingly one step beyond what is currently accepted as 'common knowledge'. In other words, one mystery reveals another, then another. It's a never-ending journey of discovery, which is what I think lies at the heart of science and mysticism. Anything else, like the belief that 'we finally know all there is to know on this subject', only leads to intellectual stagnation and the death of curiosity. As we like to say around here, there's no such thing as free lunch... nor infallible texts. For those curious to know, the research inspired by the Cs experiment has led the SOTT team to many of the topics that we focus on. Without them, and the life experiences that we surely wouldn't have had if not engaged in this project, we probably never would have learned what we have about the history and danger of cometary catastrophe, the electrical nature of the universe, psychopathy, ponerology, polyvagal theory, and separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the vast number of 'conspiracy theories' on the market. Or at least, it would have taken us a lot longer. After all, all of these fields have their respective authorities and advocates, those scientific mavericks who have come to the conclusion all was not right in their particular field of study, whether in history, politics, psychology, ufology, astrophysics, meteorology, or any other science. But this is usually done on their own, disconnected from the bigger picture and how to tie it all together. Often a lifetime of research will go into this process, with the downside that other possible areas of research are left untouched. (Witness researchers into the paranormal who deride 'conspiracy theories', or '9/11 conspiracy theorists' who deride ufologists.) But we try to bring as many of them as possible together, to give as comprehensive as possible a view of reality as we can. One of these areas, the one I'll deal with below, has to do with genetics, and the possibilities inherent in that mysterious building block of life: DNA. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239307-The-Cs-Hit-List-04-Nature-Nurture-and-My-Monkey-Genes Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:28:13 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239258-Christmas-DisGraced This year, as I bear witness to the quickening changes in our world, I find that I also can't ignore the various reminders of the holiday season. I face an interesting conundrum as I attempt to walk the line of allowing those around me the free will to celebrate carelessly as if all is well while knowing it is not. This situation gave rise to thoughts of Christmas traditions as we know them today and how they began. What's the story behind the Christmas tree? Going a step further than Virginia O'Hanlon, I wondered if Santa was really an actual person. In short, why is Christmas - Christmas? Perhaps with some digging, we can get a bit closer to the truth. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239258-Christmas-DisGraced Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:49:55 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239161-This-is-Where-the-American-Illusion-Comes-to-an-End-2012-The-End-of-the-World-As-We-Know-It "As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression.... There is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we must be most aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." -- William O. Douglas, US Supreme Court Justice from 1939--1975 Ever since the US Senate approved the infamous FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act I have been in a very pessimistic mood. A few days ago there was hope that Obama would veto it - not because the man and his lawyers had concerns about the beating that civil and human rights would take thereby, but because the language would "challenge or constrain the president's ability to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists, and protect the American people"; in other words, because the authority of the president could somehow be limited (God forbid). Now that slim hope is gone; Obama has withdrawn the threat of veto and nothing stands in the way of an iron boot kicking any of us, American or not, all the way to Guantanamo Bay. Could it be any worse than that? The situation was bad already with Bush and his gang of neocons pushing the envelope on shredding the U.S. Constitution. Remember how naive we were to entertain the idea that a change of administration would put all that draconian nonsense to an end? That Barack Obama really was about "Change" and would put things to right that had gone so wrong under the Bush Administration? Some people still hold on to that hope because they genuinely believe that the United States is an essentially democratic country which works on solid principles of morality and justice, even if now and then it gets sidetracked. Surely good-looking, well-spoken Barack would make things right, yes? As someone who was born and raised south of the border, I always found the myopic belief of the American people in their institutions and government quite alien to my own experience. In my country people also believe in democracy and justice, but only as principles that hopefully can be materialized one day. The overwhelming majority is naturally distrustful of their government, thanks to its long history of corruption and the social inequalities that come with it. Likewise, they are distrustful of the US government which so much likes to get involved in the affairs of other countries. In contrast, the American culture that reached me through the mass media portrayed people quite proud of their government and the military. (The military! Where I come from the military is only thought of in the most derogatory terms when, at 17-18 years old, you are trying your best to avoid military service, and you would certainly be considered to be out of your mind or in desperate need if you chose a military career.) When I was younger this American pride produced in me a mixture of admiration and jealousy. Later, as I got better acquainted with politics and American intervention, I regarded this attitude with puzzlement and contempt. In recent years I have felt mostly sorry for the ignorance most US citizens are forced to live in, and admiration for those precious few who can see the true nature of their authorities and have the courage to speak up, and who have taught me so much. I have also tried to understand that many Americans, having enjoyed excellent living-standards for generations, never got bitten by the consequences of the corruption, greed and imperialism of their leaders. Until now, that is. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239161-This-is-Where-the-American-Illusion-Comes-to-an-End-2012-The-End-of-the-World-As-We-Know-It Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:19:27 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239090-Monsanto-Poison-the-World-Let-Them-Know-it-s-Christmas-Time There's a world outside your window And it's a world of dreaded fear Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom "Do They Know It's Christmas Time" by Band Aid After a recent Christmas carol service, I got chatting to a local farmer who dropped into conversation something that not only alarmed me in regards to the corruption in the commercial food industry, but also just how vulnerable we are to the profiteering of the 'food' producing multinationals: When you buy a roasting beef joint from one of the major chains in the UK, were you aware that the beefy part is sourced locally but the fat around it - essential for cooking the roast - is flown all the way over from Brazil, cut up and slapped around it before sale? The reason for this, I'm told by the farmer who has full knowledge of these absurd practices, is that the large supermarket chains squeeze local farmers by insisting that the fat content of the procured meat must be below a certain level. In doing so they greatly reduce the price at which meat is purchased for the supermarket shelves. It would stand to reason that the pressure would also encourage the use of hormones/feeds/varieties that produce lower fat carcasses. If I understood correctly, the consumer ends up paying a similar price for the beef that's been transported locally and the fat that's been shipped halfway around the world. Now, I don't know, how it can be cheaper for the supermarkets to import the fat from Brazil, perhaps it is a by-product from some food-processing monolith. This isn't uncommon, as we know, in the globalized planet in which we now live. For their Christmas dinner, undiscerning consumers will enjoy turkey from Brazil and dog salmon from China. However, what really concerns me is just how little we are told about where our food comes from and what's in it. We are unwittingly part of the world's largest experiment and in this example we don't know whether the Brazilian fat comes from cows fed on GMO's or not. The likes of Monsanto are using their vast wealth and lobbying power to obfuscate important information that rids us of the freedom to make choices that could save our lives. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/239090-Monsanto-Poison-the-World-Let-Them-Know-it-s-Christmas-Time Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:51:02 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238997-Iraq-War-The-End-Or-Is-It- Here we are, almost at the end of the year 2011. After eight and a half long years, millions of lives lost, leaving a country visibly unrecognizable from 2003, trillions of dollars gone, Obama has called an end to the Iraq war, so that must be it then? Baghdad Before After View another webinar from Peety G How it all began After the 9/11 attacks, spun by the Powers That Be (PTB) as "terrorist attacks" by Muslim extremists, the War on Terror™ began. As a 'subwar', the invasion and occupation of Iraq was initiated after the governments of US and UK accused Iraq of employing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and that it imposed a threat to their "sovereign nations". Of course, the claim that Iraq was harboring WMDs was later completely dismissed and no such weapons were ever found. After the questionable capture and execution of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Western governments began justifying their occupation of Iraq as "bringing democracy" to the country. Now, almost nine years later the US army are exiting the country after being asked to leave by the Iraqi government for several years. One would assume that if the Iraqi government wasn't so adamant that the US leave Iraqi soil, the US would probably never leave. But this "leave" is only on the surface and most likely a political stunt by the Obama administration before the 2012 presidential elections; so as to state that Obama actually ended the war. But in actuality the US has no intention of leaving Iraq and they are most definitely maintaining a presence there. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238997-Iraq-War-The-End-Or-Is-It- Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:29:44 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238913-Ignatious-O-Reilly-Newt-Gingrich-is-an-Invented-Person In an exclusive interview with Sott.net, political analyst and intrepid journalist Ignatious O'Reilly went on record to say that, based on years of personal observation, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is an "invented person, who is in fact the product of a mediatic experiment of mass perception and has historically been a puppet of the Israel lobby. He has also been a member of the non-Reality based community and as such cannot be said to exist in the full sense of the word. This is the most plausible explanation for Gingrich's other-worldly declarations of late." "I do have an alternative theory", Mr O'Reilly stressed, "but it involves parallel universes and Bizarro Worlds where wrong is right, black is white, and predator drones are fluffy bunny-rabbits, but I am still waiting on the informed opinion of my contacts at the Large Hadron Collider Particle Accelerator facilities". Mr O'Reilly added unapologetically: "Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes." However, O'Reilly left open the possibility of a friendly settlement with Gingrich by pointing out that he had no ill feelings towards the former Speaker. "I don't have much anger to spare on a daily basis - I usually spend it all on public transport - so I choose to reserve whatever I have left for real people. Being angry at Newt would be like being angry at the Eiffel Tower or the color blue. In fact, I am thankful for the amusement that such a character can bring me every time he opens his mouth and releases jewels of nonsense capable of inspiring dadaist artists back into the creative process. Heck, I like Barney the Dinosaur too for similar reasons, and he also can hardly be called a person!" http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238913-Ignatious-O-Reilly-Newt-Gingrich-is-an-Invented-Person Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:26:26 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238796-Policing-the-Herd-Domestic-Drones-for-Domestic-Terrorists- And so it begins... with news of the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with the help of a Predator spy drone. The unmanned Predator B drone was called from an Air Force base in North Dakota (along with Highway Patrol, a SWAT team, a bomb squad and deputy sheriffs) to locate three men accused of pinching some cows. Yes, that's right, cows. To some it may sound like a neat way to track criminals, but I'm not sure they fully understand the implications that the forthcoming rapid deployment of drone technology in 'civilian' skies will have. Drones have been developed and designed not to track American cow thieves but primarily for military applications on the battlefields of imperialistic aggression. The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases and it has already built 60 bases around the world for its unmanned, remotely controlled killer drone warplanes. With more bases under construction, defence contractor behemoths like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are competing for slices of the big fat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) pie. These companies can look forward to the profit windfall that the increasingly likely and long-planned military incursions into Syria and Iran will bring. They are now also exploiting new local markets that over-hyped illusory threats of domestic terrorism will bring to their balance sheets. It's almost as if the contractors are colluding with Government and media to ensure they have a lucrative future for their shareholders... http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238796-Policing-the-Herd-Domestic-Drones-for-Domestic-Terrorists- Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:31:12 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238636-Defying-the-March-of-Fascism-in-the-Degenerating-United-States-of-Euramerica "In a regular sequence, new 'emergency decrees' appeared every six months, each yet again reducing salaries, pensions, social benefits, and finally even private wages and rates of interest. Each was the logical consequence of the last one, and each time Bruning [German Chancellor 1930-1932], clenching his teeth, imposed the painful logic." From: Defying Hitler: a memoir, by Sebastian Haffner, written in 1939, discovered by his son after his death, published in 2000 The above haunting words were written by Sebastian Haffner in his 1930s memoirs as a young lawyer in Berlin who experienced first-hand the Nazi takeover. The economic circumstances that Germans were subjected to seem an eerily relevant description of what we are experiencing today. History seems to be repeating itself as we encounter the current repetitive fiscal emergencies and imposition of 'austerity measures' ad-nauseum. If you listen carefully to the emotional, fatalistic language of 'desperate' politicians, you'll hear a not-so-faint echo of the vitriol of the Third Reich's infamous chancellor. Through Government media agents, we're told "we need to make sacrifices" or the world and everything in it, will implode and die a painful, agonising death. The new 'emergency decrees' of our times all sound necessary in the 'life-raft' manner they are announced. New legislation or amendments are touted as the saviours of global security, fiscal responsibility or financial stability, but the true, freedom-crushing impact of a few carefully chosen, ambiguous words on a legislative manuscript is only fully understood when it is far too late as Haffner carefully explicates. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238636-Defying-the-March-of-Fascism-in-the-Degenerating-United-States-of-Euramerica Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:25:20 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238530-Economic-Armageddon-Crisis-LIVE-As-it-Happens-and-Will-Continue-to-Happen President Obama meets European Union leaders, shakes hands, puts on some smiles for the press, pretends he doesn't already know what the plan is and shakes his head thoughtfully. Obama says the US is willing to use its magic wand to help put smiles on European faces in time for Christmas. Markets climb despite a warning from several three or four letter acronyms lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings that Europe will slide into a 10 mile deep sink-hole - and Britain will follow - unless each Eurozone country delivers 13.4% of its peasants minced, lightly seasoned, vacuum packed and oven-ready to JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in under 45 minutes. This page will automatically invent apocalyptic scenarios of catastrophic proportions every 90 seconds - OFF - Obama says even though he is married he will spend the night with Mrs Merkel if he has to - Fitch says US downgrade possible if anyone from the Rothschild family sends an SMS - IMF's Lagarde says their new technocrats in Italy and Greece are behaving themselves - Despite having bad dreams, world markets go up a bit and down a little, pretty much like they normally do - Europe 'in sink-hole' - and could take global economy with it - JP Morgan says it's tired of waiting for downtrodden European peasants and import its own from China 21.35 It's been a long day of satirical expose of Debt Crisis Live and other such live-blogging. They don't half like creating a drama out of a crisis and it can only mean one thing... 21:25 We're currently in YAMC - Yet Another Manufactured Crisis http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238530-Economic-Armageddon-Crisis-LIVE-As-it-Happens-and-Will-Continue-to-Happen Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:40:21 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238478-The-Return-of-the-Great-Depression-and-The-Establishment-of-a-Police-State "True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." - Franklin D. Roosevelt The United States is transitioning to the days of the Great Depression. The Great Depression of the 1930s was defined as "Great" because it affected so many places in the world. Considering the state of world economics today, this description is not far from what is happening now, especially in EU and North America. I'm going to be speaking mostly about what's happening to the US economy rather than worldwide. I will assume that if you're reading this, you by now realize that the state of the economy in the US is dire. But if you haven't yet, let's review some key issues: The US national debt is over $15 trillion and rising. Unemployment is at an all-time high. By March this year, nine million Americans had lost their health insurance since 2009, due to job loss. Americans are losing their homes in foreclosures and the housing market is not improving. Americans have been steadily losing their pensions since 2008. Even veterans have been hit hard by the economy. The above points are just some of the things going on right now that immediately affect a vast number of Americans, and this is just the beginning: I read something the other day that made me realize that things have gone from bad to worse and there is no more denying it. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238478-The-Return-of-the-Great-Depression-and-The-Establishment-of-a-Police-State Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:39:51 -0600 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238433-On-the-First-Day-of-Christmas-the-MSM-Tells-Us-Katherine-Heigl-Hates-Balls-Alternative-News-Reports-the-End-of-Civil-Liberties It's that time of year again, a time for forgetting all that's bad in the world and instead opening the little doors on an advent calendar and putting some tinsel up around the house. That is, of course, just one of the ways that the PTB use this 'festive season' to the max to keep us distracted as they nonchalantly strip away our civil liberties, living standards and dignity. Those who rely on the mainstream media for their news will be unaware that the US Government will soon be able to declare pretty much anyone a potential 'Terrorist', but they will know why Katherine Heigl hates testicles. As I write, The top search term on Yahoo is Katherine Heigl. I must confess, I've never heard of her, but I think that is a good thing. According to the New York Daily News, she is an actress who stars in a 'hilarious' Public Service Announcement entitled 'I Hate Balls'. The video is to promote a spay-and-neuter animal campaign, in which she jokes that the real reason she's such an advocate for spaying and neutering animals is because she simply hates "terrible, terrible testicles." She goes on to say: "Hate balls, fix pets, save lives. It's just that simple,". I suppose if we just read the MSM then life would be simple. But take a tour around the alternative news media sites and they are reporting on something that might just be a little more important to the average American than dogs' balls: the new legislation in process that will enable the U.S. Government to declare a suspect U.S. Citizen a terrorist, who can then be taken to foreign prisons without a court process. The new signs of terror include those who have food storage for more than 7 days, missing fingers, or own guns and ammo! http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238433-On-the-First-Day-of-Christmas-the-MSM-Tells-Us-Katherine-Heigl-Hates-Balls-Alternative-News-Reports-the-End-of-Civil-Liberties Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:04:27 -0600