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Why freedom and central planning can never coexist

Brandon Smith
Activist Post
Mon, 17 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
freedom tape
© twitter.com
What you can't see...you can't say.
The average person is a statist, whether he realizes it or not. It is important that liberty activists recognize and accept this fact because the truth of our limitations as a movement determines the kinds of solutions into which we should ultimately put our time and energy. The fantasy of a final grand march of an awake and aware majority on the doorsteps of power is just that: a fantasy. Some people might argue that given more time, such an event could be organized or could happen spontaneously. But these people seem to forget that the immediacy of any crisis inspires awareness and cuts the bindings of complacency for only a certain percentage of any given population. With "more time" often comes more complacency, not less.

So, history becomes a kind of balancing act, with crisis generating the necessity of intelligent and moral action in some people but rarely, if ever, in most people (even during the American Revolution, in which patriots represented a stark minority). The reason that the culture of freedom consistently plateaus and remains stuck at underdog status is because human beings are, first, often acclimated to the idea that crises are things that only happen to other people, and, second, they are obsessed with the idea that governments should retain prohibitory and administrative power over the public as a means to "prevent" crisis from occurring (the sheepdog and sheep mentality).


Comment: Quote from William Casey, CIA director, 1981: "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."


Comment: This situation only applies in a pathocracy (that is, when psychopaths have taken over a government and state/corporate functions), the US being the foremost example of such a state.

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Heart - Black

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's speech on WWII riddled with duplicity and imperial ambitions

Peter Symonds
World Socialist Web Site
Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:57 UTC
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
© AFP Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi
Japan's Prime Minister, and US regional puppet, Shinzo Abe.

Last Friday's speech by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to mark 70 years since Japan's surrender in World War II was a carefully contrived exercise. It sought to maintain a veneer of pacifism and contrition for the past crimes of Japanese militarism even as his government expands the country's armed forces and ends constitutional constraints on Japanese participation in new US-led wars of aggression.

Every word and phrase in the speech was sifted and weighed for months by a government-appointed committee of academics, officials and political advisers. Abe's cabinet formally approved the statement before it was delivered and released in Japanese and English, followed several hours later by a Chinese translation.

Governments and the media around the world carefully scrutinised the speech for any hint that Abe retreated from the words pronounced in 1995 by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the 50th anniversary of the war's end, and repeated a decade later by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2005. Murayama expressed "feelings of deep remorse" and a "heartfelt apology" for Japan's "colonial rule and aggression."
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Chart Pie

Yuan vs Dollar: Why China continues devaluing its currency


Sputnik News
Tue, 18 Aug 2015 04:39 UTC
yuan dollar
© AP Photo / EyePress FILE
China is continuing to devaluate its national currency to increase the competitiveness of its national exports causing some American experts to consider the move as "currency manipulation."

China keeps its currency very low to enforce the interests of its export industries. This type of policy would make Chinese products even cheaper and, therefore, more attractive for buyers.

"Day after day they keep devaluing their currency throwing the world financial markets into an uproar. Is this currency manipulation?" Nicole Sandler from Sputnik's radio BradCast asked US expert Dave Johnson.

Comment: The future does not look very rosy for the West. China seems better positioned to ride out the coming storm than the Western nations are:
I have hypothesized many times in the past, China has built out their infrastructure and even "ghost cities" using credit. Once the credit markets begin to default, they will be left with "stuff", in place and will last for the next 50 to 100 years. Roads, bridges, buildings, airports, ports, etc., you name it they have already built it. And yes, their stock market will crash, their real estate market is already softening, in reverse and declining. I am not saying it will be all rosy, to the contrary, there will be bankruptcies galore in China... with a caveat. The "government" of China will go through this liquidation phase with the most gold in the world.

Collapsing global economy, imploding financial system: China has only one option


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Bomb

Thailand Terror: Bangkok hit with second bombing - Explosives thrown from bridge near rail station


RT
Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:27 UTC
Image
© Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters
An explosive device has been thrown near a rail station in Bangkok, AFP reported, citing police. It comes just hours after a separate device was thrown from a bridge into the Chao Phraya River. No injuries have been reported.

"No one was killed or injured. Police are at the scene to investigate what kind of device it was," an officer at Yanawa police station, who asked not to be named, told AFP of the latest device.

He said the incident took place shortly after 1 p.m. local time near the Saphan Taksin BTS skytrain station.
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Eagle

Azov Battalion: NAZI ideology, NATO standards

Olena Semenyaka
Fort Russ
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
Image

Azov Battalion: The few, the proud, the psychopathic.

- Olena Semenyaka - 'Communications and Ideology Minister', Azov

[Editor's Note: We republish this in line with our mission to give our readers a broad picture of this conflict, the information war in general, and what the motivations are on the level of the 'volunteer' brigades and their related social movements. It appears to be written by Semenyaka herself, based upon her previous writing which I am familiar with from before the war. A telltale sign in part is her peculiar use of the word 'ontologically' in connection with a new national social reality of Ukraine. She is an expert in continental idealism of the 19th century, and the reference is existential and specifically Heideggerian.

The reference to a 'man of a new structure with a qualitatively new identity' refers to Nietzschean 'New Man' or Übermensch from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, who has transcended valuations In her capacity with the pre-war Cultural Club of Ukraine, she had collaborated in part with the Eurasian Movement of A. Dugin. They are now on opposite sides of this conflict; their supporters quite literally shooting at each other. - Flores]

Comment: Interesting that Azov's recruiting literature, complete with undertones of Nazi-inspired philosophy would include, as part of its appeal, aspirations to "NATO standards". One could only deduce that the author of the above piece considers NATO to be the standard bearer of Nazi-like military efficiency wedded to Nazi-like politics.

And Nietzsche has probably just rolled over in his grave yet again to see how his ideas and language have been subverted for ill.

See: The Nazi Perversion of Nietzsche

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Airplane

Pentagon to increase drone invasions by 50% over the next 4 years


RT
Mon, 17 Aug 2015 02:36 UTC
Air Force MQ-1 Predator
© U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Jeffrey Hall / Reuters
A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator
The US military will increase the number of drone flights from the current 61 a day to as many as 90 by 2019 while expanding lethal strike capabilities.

The expanded drone program, operated mostly by the US Air Force, will allow for broadened surveillance and intelligence gathering from Ukraine and North Africa to Iraq and the South China Sea.

"We've seen a steady demand signal from all of our geographic combatant commanders to have more of this capability," Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters at Pentagon.

The move would mark the most expansion within the drone program since 2011.

More than 5,000 people have been killed by US drone strikes since 2004, according to estimates by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The US government has not made public any casualty figures related to the secretive program.

The new plan would have the Air Force share drone flight duties with the US Army and Special Operations Command, as well as government contractors that would not have lethal strike capabilities.

Comment: The expansion of the pentagon's drone program is reflective of the paranoid delusions from the pathologicals ruling our world who are seeking to dominate, control and ultimately destroy humanity.

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Black Magic

Conspiracy theory or frighteningly real? A look at shadow governments

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Sat, 08 Aug 2015 20:39 UTC
conspiracy theories Bilderberg
© Flicker/Bill Bradford
Is the famous conspiracy about a secret government that runs the world completely nonsense or does the idea actually have any supporting evidence? Conspiracy theories — hypotheses claiming that historical events could have occurred due to the nefarious actions by hidden parties — still remain largely neglected by researchers and considered as implausible and irrelevant.

On the other hand, conspiracy theories usually attract a lot of attention from a wide array of people, prompting heated debate on issues ranging from the world's shadow government to the chances of an alien invasion taking place. While most researchers do not take these theories seriously, some scholars insist that they do deserve attention.

The "cryptocracy," or shadow government, concept is one of the most popular. According to this belief, real and actual political power does not reside with democratically elected public representatives, but with an elite set of individuals who exercise power behind the scenes. This secret government is not responsible to democratic institutions. Furthermore, according to conspirologists, official governments are subservient to it.

Comment: Interesting that, considering the events in his own country that Mr. Fursov still manages to conclude that the idea of shadow government is overblown.

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TV

South Front Crisis News: Attacks on Donbass, Israel turns off water for West Bank residents


South Front
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 21:31 UTC
south front
Yesterday Donetsk was hit by a record 800 artillery shells. The Telmanovo suburb was hit particularly hard, but the shelling was also very violent in the airport region. At least one local was killed and 2 wounded by the shelling. Meanwhile, Kiev has been continuing to pull its forces to the contact line. These forces include tanks and artillery systems, even multiple rocket launchers. The vice-speaker of the People's Council Denis Pushilin informed that if Kiev escapes from the Minsk agreement the war will blaze up at any moment and it can touch not only Donbass. However, the vice-commander of Defense Ministry Corps Eduard Basurin didn't confirm the information about full alert of the DPR's Army.

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Horse

Paramoralisms abound: Amnesty International calls for decriminalization of prostitution to protect human rights of sex workers

Chris Hedges
Truthdig
Sun, 16 Aug 2015 20:12 UTC
Image
© Rodrigo Abd/AP
After a government raid last year on an illegal mining camp in La Pampa in the Madre de Dios region of Peru, a discarded bra lies on the ground outside an informal bar that allegedly employed sex workers.
The decision by Amnesty International's decision-making forum, the International Council Meeting, to call for the decriminalization of prostitution is another in a long line of triumphs for heartless neoliberal economics and the grotesque commodification of human beings that defines predatory capitalism.

Salil Shetty, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said: "Sex workers are one of the most marginalized groups in the world who in most instances face constant risk of discrimination, violence and abuse. Our global movement paved the way for adopting a policy for the protection of the human rights of sex workers which will help shape Amnesty International's future work on this important issue."

In the sickness of modern culture, the ability to exploit with impunity is distorted into a human right even by a renowned and respected humanitarian organization. That is quite a card trick. We live in a global culture where the wretched of the earth are chattel and where sexual slavery—which is what most prostituted women and girls around the globe endure—is sanctified by market forces. These women and girls are among our most vulnerable. After being crushed by poverty, racism and sexism, they are unable to find other ways to make a sustainable income. They are treated little better than livestock transported to markets for consumption. That a so-called human rights organization parrots vile justifications is emblematic of the depth of our moral degeneration and the triumph of misogyny.

Women and girls who are prostituted should be treated not as criminals but as victims. The criminals are the johns and the pimps and traffickers who profit from the sale of human flesh. Decriminalizing prostitution, which allows these modern slave masters to openly ply their trade, means the exploitation will grow explosively. We must work to create a world where those who are dispossessed of their human rights are not forced into this dilemma. We must not accept a world where poverty destroys the lives of the weak and the vulnerable, including children. Those who profit from prostituting women and girls must be driven out of business.
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Wall Street

Goldman Sachs global domination continues

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Mon, 17 Aug 2015 20:11 UTC
Image
Here's the press release from the Fed:
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas today announced the appointment of Robert Steven Kaplan as president and chief executive officer. In this role, Kaplan will represent the Eleventh Federal Reserve District on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and will oversee the 1,200 employees of the Dallas Fed.

His appointment is effective September 8, 2015.

Kaplan, 58, is the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School. He is also co-chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing non-profit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues.

[...]

Prior to joining Harvard in 2006, Kaplan was vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. with global responsibility for the firm's Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions. Previously, he served as global co-head of the Investment Banking Division. He was also a member of the firm's Management Committee and served as co-chairman of the firm's Partnership Committee and chairman of the Goldman Sachs Pine Street Leadership Program.

Upon leaving the firm in 2006, he was given the honorary title of senior director.
It appears some are finally waking up...


Comment: How much more blatant can it get? Goldman Sachs alumni are spreading out like tentacles of an octopus, hence vampire squid.

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