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Recent global events give me the distinct impression that those at the top of the pyramid of political and economic power want to see as much trouble in the world as possible. Assuming that to be the case, I find it very strange and counter-intuitive. I mean, you would think that self-interested leaders would prefer to maintain a status quo that provides them with so many privileges and luxuries that the rest of us only dream of. For them to act in ways that appear to stimulate revolutions, economic collapse and regional or global wars is extraordinary, at least to me, because it jeopardizes their position. But maybe it's my fault for forgetting that most at the top think and feel very differently than "the 99%", and that they have trouble with emotions that come naturally to the rest of us. When you're motivated by thrill-seeking and a thirst for power that knows no bounds, empathy and aversion to conflict don't exactly play a part in your worldview. Granted, they have their own psychopathic standards, but, nevertheless, something about their schemes does not sit right with me.

By now you are aware of the American-made trailer of a mysterious movie called The Innocence of Muslims that appeared on YouTube and depicted the prophet Muhammad as a murderous paedophile, and that is said to be the reason for recent riots and demonstrations across the Muslim world against the United States which resulted in the death, among others, of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador in Libya. Let us point out, first of all, that this simplistic explanation overlooks decades of imperialistic intervention of the US in the Middle East, either indirectly or directly through military involvement in Iraq, Libya and currently Syria; its support for dictators and regimes in the region notorious for the abuse of human rights, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia; and its demonization of Arabs and Muslims in general. It also ignores the very low economic and social standards of living that are common in the Middle East - and much of the world - that are a direct result of the US 'management' of its areas of influence. By sweeping all this history and social context under the rug, the Western audience is left to conclude that Muslims are irrational extremists.

Take Yemen as an example, the US embassy of which was one of those stormed during recent protests. Did you know that 10 million Yemenis are starving as a result of a food crisis, while 267,000 children are facing life-threatening levels of malnutrition? The US considers this hungry people threatening enough to frequently target it through drone attacks. Would that not make you feel motivated enough to riot against your aggressors at the slightest opportunity?

Yemen Protests
© Yahya Arhab/European Pressphoto AgencyChanting “Death to America”, hundreds of protesters stormed the US Embassy in Yemen’s capital of Sana’a on Thursday.
So if a YouTube trailer had anything to do with rioting, it was that it provided an excuse - the straw that broke the camel's back by adding insult to injury - rather than being the primary reason for discontent. Whoever was hoping to provoke Muslims seems to have gotten much more than they bargained for; the anger was already simmering and had manifested during the so-called 'Arab Spring' against local tyrants. Now it is directed against the enablers of such tyrannies.

Let's consider the trailer itself. It is an American production but nobody knows if the movie it was supposed to be promoting even exists. If it doesn't, then this confirms that it was created for the sole purpose of provocation and providing a simple narrative for the media to repeat. No one seems to agree on the name of the director. According to some reports, it was made by Sam Bacile, a California real estate developer, Israeli Jew and American citizen. There is also speculation that Bacile is a member of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Christian diaspora in the US. That suggestion seems to imply that as a Christian in Egypt he wouldn't get along with Egyptian Muslims - in spite of the fact that Egypt is one of the most tolerant countries in the Middle East when it comes to religion. Other versions point to Terry Jones, a 'preacher' who has made anti-Islamic gestures in the past and who is said to have links to CIA and Mossad. The latest version is that Sam Bacile's real name is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and he is no director but a producer. The real director, we are told, is Alan Roberts, who has a history of making soft porn and whose real name is either Robert Brownell or Robert Brown.

Get all that? Don't worry if you didn't. I think that was the whole intention: to create such obscure rumours about the origins of the trailer that no one could find its real origin. That in itself should be suspicious, just as suspicious as the fact that a YouTube video managed to stand out from the rest and be spread wide enough to upset people in multiple countries. Excuse me for pointing out the obvious, but there must be millions of YouTube videos tailored to insult every sensitivity on the planet, in one way or another, yet they don't trigger mass revolt. In addition, it appears that the initial stimulus for the riots was not exactly spontaneous. We have the following from the case of Libya:
[A] U.S. counterterrorism official said the Benghazi violence was "too coordinated or professional" to be spontaneous. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

[...]

Parliament speaker Omar al-Houmidan suggested the attack might have been planned, saying the mob "may have had foreign loyalties" - an apparent reference to international terrorists. "We are not sure. Everything is possible," he said.
Another source adds:
An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News that there was no demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi prior to last week's attack -- challenging the Obama administration's claims that the assault grew out of a "spontaneous" protest against an anti-Islam film.

"There was no protest and the attacks were not spontaneous," the source said, adding the attack "was planned and had nothing to do with the movie."

The source said the assault came with no warning at about 9:35 p.m. local time, and included fire from more than two locations. The assault included RPG's and mortar fire, the source said, and consisted of two waves.

[...] The Libyan president also said Sunday that the strike was planned in advance.
I am not alone in suspecting that the trailer was part of an intelligence psy-op and that the attack in Benghazi was initiated by agents provocateurs, allowing for the probability that the unrest was carried on for legitimate grievances of a social, economic and political nature. Assuming this is the case, the question becomes: why would the Powers That Be deliberately bring trouble on their heads? Is it their intention to set the world on fire?

Heading for Showdown

Netanyahu, Gen. Benny Gantz
© Government Press, European Pressphoto Agency Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, with Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, observes an army infantry exercise taking place on the Golan Heights. Netanyahu has been publicly criticizing the Obama administration for refusing to issue a more specific ultimatum to Iran over its nuclear program.
In recent weeks we have heard Israel's drums of war beating harder against Iran, with a few references to others on its hit list, such as Hizbollah, Lebanon and Syria. Of course, Israel likes to cry war twice a week. It's part of its national identity to feel threatened and to threaten, and Israeli politicians have made it scaring the masses a national sport. The problem with Israel is that sometimes they do mean it. That the Israelis don't go to war more often may simply because they don't feel like they have the unconditional support of the 'international community' (the US and EU in particular). This time around, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak's threats sound louder than usual, which is cause for concern. After all, these people are mad men.

Most of the time Israel will do its best not to go into a war that the US can fight in its place - unless it is a war against enemies who cannot afford tanks, helicopters or missiles and who are for the most part armed with homemade rockets and stones, as in Gaza or the West Bank. Regarding Iran, the Israelis would like nothing better than to see the US take it down while they watch from the sidelines. At the moment, however, Barack Obama is much more distracted by the coming presidential election and would rather not get involved in another military adventure. Indicating that Obama is not ready to go all the way, the US recently scaled back a programmed military exercise with Israel. The discourses of these nations regarding Iran's nuclear program both fail to acknowledge that there is no evidence that it is anything other than peaceful - and if it isn't, neither have the moral authority to criticize - however the Americans sound less aggressive than the Israelis for the moment.

Interestingly, the talk coming from Israel suggests that this time they are ready to do it alone if necessary. Whether this is just bluffing or they mean it, I find this fascinating. It's yet another example of how our leaders seek chaos even at the risk of their own destruction. Does Netanyahu not realize that even with the most powerful army in the Middle East his tiny state is very vulnerable? There is not much space to run to in a country the size of New Jersey. How much incoming fire does he think their territory can accommodate? No matter how much damage they can inflict on others, major wars are suicidal for Israel.

I find it a bit too coincidental that in the context of this situation, in which Netanyahu lusts for blood and Obama is making him wait a little longer, Muslims are expressing their anger against the US and the media is spinning it as religious fanaticism. With great timing, and even greater hypocrisy, Netanyahu gave an interview to NBC News in which he warned of Iran's "leadership with an unbelievable fanaticism... You want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?" Now imagine what would happen if a (false flag) terror attack took place in the next week or two in the Western world ...

Off the Cliff

There is another character in the global scene who makes my head spin with his determination to push the world over the edge: the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, and his habit of solving economic problems by printing more green pieces of paper, aka 'Quantitative Easing'. Blogger Erik Hare writes:
What's a few more billion dollars a month in today's money? On Thursday, the Federal Reserve announced that they were going to purchase $40B more mortgage backed securities every month, a total of $85B, with money they more or less print themselves. It's the third round of Quantitative Easing, or QE3, but this time they left the dollar amount open ended. We can guess that by the time they stop the total amount printed will be around $2T. That's more like the insane numbers we've gotten used to the last four years. [...]

[One] problem that will have to be dealt with is that this kind of money has to eventually become inflationary. More money chasing the same number of goods means the money is worth less, so it takes more of it. As long as the velocity of money stays low, as it has for years, but at the first sign of recovery we can expect inflation. Then again, serious inflation is the easiest way to make our debt much more manageable, paying it all off in the future with much cheaper money. Is it all part of a big plan? How does that fit with the European action to do more or less the same thing?

The value of the US Dollar is already dropping against all currencies, which is a good thing for our manufacturing sector. But it means that the price of oil is likely to head back over $100 per barrel (West Texas Intermediate), putting immediate pressure on inflation. The Fed knew this, of course, and started its press release by saying that prices have been very stable - that is, there is room for a little more inflation. Expect $4 at the gas pumps shortly.

But what really happens when we have to reel this $2T in money printed through three rounds of Quantitative Easing? As the global standard "reserve currency", US Dollars show up all over the planet. It's been estimated that 2/3 to 3/4 of all printed money is overseas now. If inflation runs away and we start to wish we never printed all this, how do we call it back? What happens when a nation completely loses control of its own currency? That is the 2-trillion dollar question!
Bernanke
© ReutersAfter the first round of QE in March of last year, the Federal Reserve, chaired by Ben Bernanke, embarked on controversial second round in November
Now here's the thing. Bernanke announced on Thursday 13th of September that the Federal Reserve will be printing as much money as it sees fit from now on. In theory this way of cheating the economy would work for the US because there is always demand for dollars around the world (since everyone uses them as reserve currency and for buying and selling stuff, such as oil). This fact has always given the US tremendous economic advantages over all other countries. It turns out that one week earlier, on Thursday 6th of September, China announced its intention to bypass the dollar for global oil customers and begin selling oil using their own currency, the yuan. This is big news, as it effectively means that the dollar is no longer the primary oil currency.

If all those dollars floating around the world are no longer used, sooner or later they exchange hands and get back to the US. More pieces of green paper against the same amount of goods means inflation. There are way too many dollars out there and now China is replacing them with the yuan. So what does Bernanke do? He prints more dollars! Can somebody please explain to me how this is supposed to solve the economic mess we are in? I think it will kill the dollar, and the US economy along with it, then infect the rest of the world's economies by contagion.

This is happening in a context in which consumer prices have been up by the most in three years in the US. More alarmingly, the UN and the World Bank have both issued warnings about the food inflation that is coming. If such inflation gets past a certain point the next stage is riots and revolutions. Imagine that for a world already angry and ready to go on the streets. You would think that the likes of Bernanke want to see their own heads roll. Amazingly, some speculators at the top fail to see what is going to get them in the end and instead only think of profiting out of the suffering of the hungry.

Prisons need prisoners

One possible explanation for the elite's quest for chaos is simply that psychopaths do not realize that the suffering and destruction they inflict on others will destroy them too. As Andrew Lobaczewski put it in Political Ponerology, pathocrats are like germs, "not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the ground along with the human body whose death they are causing".

Another explanation - which does not conflict with the one above - is that the pathocrats think that revolts, wars and conflict provide them with the perfect excuse to respond with an iron fist and enslave us all. It is a formula similar to the Shock Doctrine; it is the creation of a problem in order to get the desired reaction, then offer a solution; and it is what the so-called 'war on terror' of the last 11 years has been all about.

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© Flickr/Lauriel-ArwenAn anti-NDAA protest in Portland, Oregon, in January 2012.
Where to begin with all the changes in laws and practices that have turned many countries in the Western world into police states? For a couple of recent examples, look to the UK where council and police authorities grabbed extraordinary powers for the sake of 'security' during the Olympic games, and are now quite reluctant to give them back; then to the US, where the White House is appealing a decision by a federal judge so that the president's power to indefinitely detain US citizens without charge is reaffirmed immediately. In the case of the US, the issue is the infamous National Defense Authorization Act, which would grant the government the power to arrest citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists ... and hold them without due process. Suspected is the key word here. If people were routinely imprisoned on the basis of mere suspicions, no one would be left to lock the gate from the outside. This is the kind of insanity promoted by Obama, who is, inexplicably, still a 'good guy' in the eyes of many.

Add to that Obama's National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16th, which grants powers to the government to impose Martial Law as follows:
The new Executive Order states that the president and his secretaries have the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic resources, including food and water, as well as seize all energy and transportation infrastructure inside the borders of the United States. The Government can also forcibly draft U.S. citizens into the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not even any Congressional oversight allowed, only briefings.

In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated through the president to the secretaries that run the Government itself:
  • The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;
  • The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;
  • The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;
  • The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;
  • The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;
  • The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.
Considering that political and economic elites already rule our lives as they please, and that it is in their interest to have the masses believe they have at least some measure of personal liberties - even if it's just the 'freedom' to choose Apple over Windows or Coke over Pepsi - it's puzzling that they have plans to squeeze what remains of civil rights, not just from the usual targets 'over there' in the Middle East and the developing world, but also 'over here' in the heart of the empire. It begs the question: what sort of situation are they expecting that would require them to virtually put shackles on everybody?

We get a clue from a policy article written by several dozen scientists that appeared in the journal Science on March 15th. The article argues that the only way to fight 'man-made global warming' is to solve it through global government, one that should be "heavy-handed (in its) transnational enforcement powers." 'Global warming', of course, is just one aspect of the larger phenomenon of climate change that may result in exactly the opposite, i.e. an ice age. On top of that, the arguments for man-made global warming are sloppy science at best, plain fraud at worst. But what I find interesting about the article in Science is the idea that something external, well beyond the control of human beings, is threatening life on the planet and that iron-fist rule is needed to weather the storm.

The Reason

How do we come to terms with our leaders acting in such destructive and self-destructive ways of late, sowing the seeds of war, riots and discontent? I have already acknowledged that this can simply be the result of their bizarre and reckless (psychopathic) psychology, and that to some extent it could be part of a plan to impose stricter global order through chaos. But that doesn't explain why they are pushing harder in this direction at this point in time, and why they seem to be in such a hurry to do it.

The reason is, I suspect, is that they are aware (to some extent or another) of their inability to fend off the combined threat of climate change, cosmic climate change and a food crisis threat that is beyond human capabilities to deal with.

extreme us weather
© AFP/Getty Images/Kevork DjansezianSmoke rises around the Lee Valley Recreational area in the Apache National Forest during back burn operations as the Wallow Fire continues to burn in Big Lake, Arizona on June 12. Epic floods, massive wildfires, drought and the deadliest tornado season in 60 years are ravaging the United States, with scientists warning that climate change will bring even more extreme weather.
Countless indicators in recent months and years point to a major imminent climate shift. The torrential rainfall and floods, record droughts and wildfires, violent storms and hurricanes, blizzards happening when they shouldn't, tornadoes happening where they shouldn't, an increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity ... just check out SOTT's Earth Changes section on any given day and you'll see what I mean. Although the food crisis is in part a direct result of the mishandling of the economy by our financial elites, it's also largely the product of changes in the climate. The US is the largest exporter of food in the world, and it has just suffered its worst drought in half a century. Corn farmers have had to abandon fields the size of Belgium and Luxembourg. As you can expect, this has had an impact on food prices and will result in food shortages in the coming year. The Balkans too have suffered their worst drought in 50 years, with the expected result on food prices. In fact, it is happening across the globe:
Dire warnings of water scarcity limiting food production come as Oxfam and the UN prepare for a possible second global food crisis in five years. Prices for staples such as corn and wheat have risen nearly 50% on international markets since June, triggered by severe droughts in the US and Russia, and weak monsoon rains in Asia. More than 18 million people are already facing serious food shortages across the Sahel.

Oxfam has forecast that the price spike will have a devastating impact in developing countries that rely heavily on food imports, including parts of Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. Food shortages in 2008 led to civil unrest in 28 countries.
The riots and civil unrest that will follow the spike in food prices and food shortages are inevitable. It's a mathematical certainty: not enough tons of food produced, plus the same amount of hungry people around the world, equals yet more hungry (and angry) people. Even if we don't factor in the other potential global catastrophes, how could the food crisis not hit us? In fact, it has already started.

It seems to me that the level of global madness ramped up at the beginning of September, for all the reasons I have given above. I think it is a very interesting coincidence that during this time we had several signs of unusual cosmic weather. Most notably, there was a flash on Jupiter which was most likely an asteroid or cometary impact. Although some of the reports attempted to minimize it by claiming it was a "small" asteroid or that it didn't leave any impact marks as comet Shoemaker-Levy did almost two decades ago, the fact is that the flash was quite noticeable - whatever was responsible for it would have wiped out civilization had it hit our small planet.

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© George HallThe flash on Jupiter is visible as a bright spot on the left edge of the planet's disk, as seen in this video image.
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© Trish Van HousenPhoto taken near Phoenix, Arizona of the trail left behind by an incoming meteor/comet fragment that exploded above southwestern US on September 13th 2012.
There was also an interesting comet fragment exploding above southwestern US, which was claimed to be, in a rather lame fashion, a "missile". Read here for a full report on the case. Ask yourselves why the government would like to cover up a natural event such as this, if not to keep the population from realizing that the frequency of such hits seems to be increasing. Indeed, two Near Earth Objects (asteroids) swept past us last week, prompting the following comments:
"Near Earth Objects have been whizzing past us lately, undetected until they have been practically on top of us. This illustrates the need for continued and improved monitoring for our own future safety," Bob Berman, a Slooh editor and Astronomy Magazine columnist, said in a statement. "It is not a question of if, but when such an object will hit us, and how large and fast it may be going."
The lack of publicly-available statistical data makes it difficult to assess just how much more frequently we are encountering space rocks, but we have a further clue with the increase in noctilucent clouds. NASA recently admitted that one of the key components of these night-shining clouds is the "smoke" or dust left behind by incoming meteor or cometary fragments (MoCFs) as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Of late, noctilucent clouds have become brighter and are being observed at extended latitudes from the poles. Although we are told this is a 'mystery', you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that the flaming obvious fireball in the living room is an increased number of MoCFs bombarding the planet, which indicates that our planet, and the solar system itself, is passing through a region in space with a higher density of cosmic debris.

There may be a lack of publicly-available statistical data on MoCFs, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the elite have people keeping track of these things. Is it possible then that our leaders are aware of the extraterrestrial threat and are wary of both the likelihood of catastrophe resulting from the current cosmic minefield Earth is spinning through and the socio-economic breakdown that will follow when people discover that we are in the firing line? Have the elite calculated that the masses will no longer take any nonsense from them once they are faced with such an extreme life-or-death situation? Have they figured that spreading chaos through wars, riots and economic crises distracts us from the real threat out there, while tightening the screws through managed social instability controls us for the eventuality of a catastrophic brush with cosmic reality?

We may find out soon enough.