At about midday on Wednesday 17th November, a member of the public reported hearing a loud explosion from the area of Garadhban forest in Gartocharn, near Loch Lomond (near Glasgow) Scotland. Ten years ago, authorities would have responded to a report of an explosion in a forest with puzzlement and an at least semi-open-mind. But the bogus 'terror threat' has closed minds all around the world, and yesterday's event was immediately responded to by the 'anti-terrorism' police. Upon observing the scene and seeing damage to trees over a wide area, explosives were suspected (naturally!)

SOTT.net podcasts return with a discussion of toxic foods. From the hidden truth of Genetically Modified Organisms, gluten, and fats, to the sharing of research that can literally end your physical pain and help you recovernHeart surgeon and researcher Dr. Gabriela Segura interviews David and Erika Burt, Organic Farmers dedicated to educating the public about food safety and security in Hawaii, annTogether they share their research and professional experience in helping people become aware of the myths about diet and the solutions available to each one of us. After listening to this podcast, whether you suffer from a serious illness or from aches you consider to be normal, you will have the tools you need to feel better than you've ever felt in your life!

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Ten years of rule by the Bush and Obama regimes have seen the collapse of the rule of law in the United States. Is the American media covering this ominous and extraordinary story? No the American media is preoccupied with the rule of law in Burma (Myanmar).

The military regime that rules Burma just released from house arrest the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The American media used the occasion of her release to get on Burma's case for the absence of the rule of law. I'm all for the brave lady, but if truth be known, "freedom and democracy" America needs her far worse than does Burma.

I'm not an expert on Burma, but the way I see it the objection to a military government is that the government is not accountable to law. Instead, such a regime behaves as it sees fit and issues edicts that advance its agenda. Burma's government can be criticized for not having a rule of law, but it cannot be criticized for ignoring its own laws. We might not like what the Burmese government does, but, precisely speaking, it is not behaving illegally.

In contrast, the United States government claims to be a government of laws, not of men, but when the executive branch violates the laws that constrain it, those responsible are not held accountable for their criminal actions. As accountability is the essence of the rule of law, the absence of accountability means the absence of the rule of law.

Irish Gaza aid activist Ken O'Keefe has been abducted along with companions and a dozen Libyan policemen by the captain of their chartered ship (which was supposed to transport the activists and their cargo of humanitarian aid to Al-Arish port in Egypt, from where the convoy would continue their journey by land to the besieged people of Gaza). The captain apparently pulled out of port in such a hurry that mooring ropes were snapped and one of the convoy's vehicles was left stranded at a 45 degree angle on the ship's loading ramp. Somebody, it seems, got to him at the last minute. The 'Road to Hope' organisation had paid $75,000 to the captain to sail their cargo of humanitarian aid to Egypt. Below O'Keefe speaks to Hasan Ghada of Press TV about the incident.

According to Ken's facebook updates, the aid workers are now being held by Greek authorities on suspicion of terrorism, even though it was THEY who were abducted from Libya!

The United States Department of Justice (sic) routinely charges and convicts innocents with bogus and concocted crimes that are not even on the statutes book. The distinguished defense attorney and civil libertarian, Harvey A. Silverglate, published a book last year, Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, which conclusively proves that today in "freedom and democracy" America, we have punishment without crime.

This same Justice (sic) Department, which routinely frames and railroads the innocent, argued in Federal Court on November 8 that the US government, if approved by the president, could murder anyone it wishes, citizens or noncitizens, at will. All that is required is that the government declare, without evidence, charges, trial, jury conviction or any of the due process required by the US Constitution, that the government suspects the murdered person or persons to be a "threat."

The US Justice (sic) Department even told US Federal District Court Judge John Bates that the US judiciary, formerly a co-equal branch of government, has absolutely no legal authority whatsoever to stick its nose into President "Change" Obama's decision to assassinate Americans. The unaccountability of the president's decision to murder people is, the US Justice (sic) Department declared, one of "the very core powers of the president as commander in chief."

If we cannot trust what the government tells us about weapons of mass destruction, terrorist events, and the reasons for its wars and bailouts, can we trust the government's statement last Friday that the US economy gained 151,000 payroll jobs during October?

Apparently not. After examining the government's report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were "phantom jobs" created by "concurrent seasonal factor adjustments." In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS.

As usual, the financial press did no investigation and simply reported the number handed to the media by the government.

The relevant information, the information that you need to know, is that the level of payroll employment today is below the level of 10 years ago. A smaller number of Americans are employed right now than were employed a decade ago.

Think about what that means. We have had a decade of work force growth from youngsters reaching working age and from immigration, legal and illegal, but there are fewer jobs available to accommodate a decade of work force entrants than before the decade began.

A lot of people can see that today's politicians and corporate heads are a pretty corrupt bunch. At the same time however, most people don't worry too much about that particular problem because, at the end of day, those guys still work for 'we the people', right? I mean, they're not called 'public servants' for nothing and we put them in office! ... right? If things get really bad we'll just expose them through the media or, if things get really bad, we might even start a revolution! ...right?? ... Or failing that, God will save us??!

The extent of the corruption in our world today goes far beyond what most people know or could even imagine in their darkest, most politician-phobic nightmares. And arming ourselves with the simple idea that 'power corrupts' hasn't exactly acted as a check or balance to the excesses of these 'captains of industry'. In order to even hope of standing up for and protecting our rights and lives in this increasingly draconian world, we need to understand the nature of the problem we are facing, or, to be more specific, we need to understand the nature of those corrupt leaders. We need, to some extent, to get inside their heads and know what makes them 'tick'. We need to ask ourselves, 'do their actions match their words'? If you have been paying attention, you know that the answer is 'hardly ever...if ever'. Many answers to this question can be found in Andrew Lobaczewski's scientific study on the nature of evil, Political Ponerology. His work identifies the pathological nature of our leaders and the governing bodies that they create around themselves. Although it is written in the framework of politics, Political Ponerology just as easily applies to all the structures that make up our global society.

The unfortunate result of humanity being invaded by pathological thought, is a weakness in discerning healthy conditions from pathological ones. Our tyrants follow no rules to maintain their position of control over humankind, yet they set the conditions that men and women follow 'for a better life'. Revolution, protest, elections, free speech, and religion are just a few things touted as means by which me might find our humanity. And yet we exist as we have for millennia, suffering at our own hands, at the hand of our fellow man and, at the source, at the hands of pathocrats.

Despite all the talk over the past 15 years or so about the US and coalition forces being engaged in various 'wars', there haven't actually been any. To have a war you need two sizable armies representing two opposing nation states both with the capability to wage war on each other. I'd be impressed if anyone can point to the US or any Western nation being involved in such a conflict over the past 15 years, anywhere in the world.

During those last 15 years however, a very different type of war has been waged. It has been a much more subtle, stealthy and insidious war, and the mind of every Western citizen with two active neurons to rub together has been the target.

Do you know who Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is? She's a American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist and mother of three children, but she hasn't seen her children for 7 years. Aafia and her children were abducted in Pakistan in 2003 by US and Pakistani intelligence agents and incarcerated on trumped up 'terrorism' charges.

During her long 'rendition' she was held in various locations, including the infamous US Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan, where she was regularly tortured, raped and ultimately shot and wounded.

The British House of Lords is commonly understood as the place where career politicians get to snooze away their twilight years on plush red-leather seats to the faltering drone of their fellow Lords and Ladies. Things proceed at a slow pace in the 300 year old chamber, particularly given that its members have no real influence over the government and limited power to veto any bills sent their way from the lower House of Commons.

It was with some surprise therefore that the remarks of 'Lord James Blackheath' aka plain old David James were received on Nov 1 2010.

Lord Blackheath began his 15 minute speech with a breakdown of the woes of the British economy and the retail sector in particular and appeared to forecast a "massive collective bankruptcy". The most intriguing elements of his discourse however were, a reference to a "Foundation X" which, he claims, is prepared to bail out the UK economy to the tune of hundreds of billions of British pounds, and a very candid admission that, on behalf of the Bank of England, he, Lord Blackheath, had laundered money for the IRA and "North African terrorists". As regards the latter group, Blackheath claimed that he could not say any more because it was "still a security issue".

Transcript and video below:

In his historical novel, The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa writes that things have to change in order to remain the same. That is what happened in the US congressional elections on November 2.

Jobs off-shoring, which began on a large scale with the collapse of the Soviet Union, has merged the Democrats and Republicans into one party with two names. The Soviet collapse changed attitudes in socialist India and communist China and opened those countries, with their large excess supplies of labor, to Western capital.

Pushed by Wall Street and Wal-Mart, American manufacturers moved production for US markets offshore to boost profits and shareholder earnings by utilizing cheap labor. The decline of the US manufacturing work force reduced the political power of unions and the ability of unions to finance the Democratic Party. The end result was to make the Democrats dependent on the same sources of financing as Republicans.