Summary: The big financial bailout plan finally passed in the U.S. Congress Friday over the strong objections of the public. Will the bailout prevent the coming depression? Probably not. Mortgage securities are only a part of the problem.

The bailout plan is more than just a giveaway to the rich as represented by the big banks (although it is that). It probably is a panicked attempt to forestall the real potential crisis: a collapse of the huge, unregulated hedge funds based on derivatives and Credit Default Swaps (CDS).

Sleepwalking into disaster, the human race appears to have crossed the point of no return in more than one area:

- The American people are playing with fire by supporting religious extremist and political dunce Sarah Palin - and they will get burned.

- In the process they may also burn a considerable portion of the rest of the world.

- Synchronously, the financial system gets the last, gentle push over the abyss; hungry and poor people will provide lots of excuses for fascism - some will even ask for it.

- The climate is acting up, as it usually does during this time of the year, but the Sun is not behaving according to expected cycles, and together with a few clues here and there, we wonder if something in the cosmic/geophysical system has not changed for good.

A few years ago, when my book The Secret History of the World was published, I rashly promised that volume 2 would soon be completed and ready for publication. After all, I pretty much knew what I wanted to zoom in on - the topic of Moses and the creation of Judaism - and I already had a good hypothesis and had tons of supplementary support material. I even had a title: The Horns of Moses (triple entendre!) It should be a piece of cake, I thought. And so, I sat down to write.

I had a pretty good flow going, Moses was coming to life on the computer screen, and then... well, then I started to have doubts. I knew that I knew a lot about Moses from the theological point of view and from the point of view of a lot of alternative research. I even knew a lot of what the scholars knew - the people who spend their lives studying and analyzing the Biblical texts. But I still felt uneasy. So, I went searching for more source materials and discovered that there was a whole lot more I needed to read before I could complete this project. That's pretty much what I have been doing for the past year or two: reading stuff that nobody except specialists ever reads, and collecting piles of data.

What has been shocking to discover is exactly how much IS known among the scholars that is not known by the general public. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since I have discovered this to be true in other fields, but when the subject is the foundation of religion - stuff people believe in and stake their lives on and use to determine their actions in life - well, it's pretty bad.

Today is the anniversary of the Beginning of the End.

It has been seven long, bloody years since our planet was set on a path of global conflict and self-destruction by a gang of psychopaths who thought it would be a good idea to take control of the world by staging a false flag attack on the U.S.A. a la Hitler and the Reichstag. Well over a million Iraqis and tens of thousands of young men from America and its "partners," both the coerced and the bought and paid for kind, are dead.

This cabal of rapacious gangsters have shocked, raped, pillaged and plundered the patrimony of America to the extent that U.S. citizens must now make choices between whether to eat or stay warm, assuming they have a roof over their head at all. The infrastructure of a once-proud nation has rotted away, both psychologically and physically. Today, the American government is a global pariah, and the American people are headed for the trash heap of history.

At the same time, the planet is facing challenges of another kind - climate change - that, even without global war, will take a devastating toll likely in terms of billions of humans and animals, not to mention the flora that underpins life in our world. Already millions are dead and more are dying due to "human caused" global suffering and lack of foresight in respect of the climate and our resources.

Meanwhile, the US presidential election farce is rolling merrily along even though we know that none of the pathological morons seeking the highest public office in the land have any intention of doing anything significant to change the trajectory of our unhappy civilization. I find it ironic that the US election process, long known by insiders to be a contest of "electability" based on appearance, now includes a bona-fide beauty queen. It was bad enough when an actor was elected to act as president...

But I digress.

Through it all, SOTT.net has worked day and night, from around the globe, to keep you - the reader - up to date on those things crucial not only to your awakening, but your very survival. Even before it all began, before SOTT was even thought to be a necessary venue for understanding what is going on here on the BBM, I was seeking the answers to just what is wrong with our world in other respects via years of research culminating in the Cassiopaean Experiment. That experiment led to the book "High Strangeness" which has recently been reviewed by Richard Dolan, author of UFOs and the National Security State: History of a Cover-up. His encouragement has been most welcome. It was in the context of the Cs material, which dovetailed so perfectly with Richard's hard, factual, documentary research, that the understanding of our current reality was framed, and that understanding has not only stood the test of time, it has been remarkably accurate time and time again.

But it hasn't been easy. It has cost us dearly in almost every imaginable way. And it continues. I am writing today because SOTT.net is in a state of emergency and not for the first time this year, either! We have definitely been experiencing stormy weather in more ways than one. Even though it is the time for our usual fund raiser which we hold twice a year to supplement book sales (SOTT will never go commercial!), SOTT again faces additional financial burdens that we hope our readers will share with us.

As Sarah Palin's vice-presidential nomination continues to energize the religious right, the hypocrisy of right wing authoritarians becomes more apparent than ever.

According to psychologist Robert Altmeyer, authoritarian personalities are characterized by hierarchical submission to traditional authorities, aggression and conventionalism. Altmeyer has done extensive empirical research on the subject, which is summarized in his book, 'The Authoritarians'.

©Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images

"Take the pawn and I'll take your knight." "Yeah, but the Middle East will be open for check." "We'll see about that. Nice ceremony."

While the world slept through the month-long cyclic dream of the Olympic Games, the Axis of Evil took the opportunity to move its pieces onto Russia's doorstep. The Eastern bear responded, and the US/UK/Israeli propaganda machine went into overdrive.

As usual, ordinary people paid a heavy price for this deadly game of global chess.

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*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, "caca", itself derived from the Latin, "cacare". In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning "bad".)

Let me make myself clear from the outset: I am not running for President of the United States, I just am *not doing* it, though I am constitutionally fully qualified, and, truth to tell, would be much better for the country in many ways, on many levels, than the current, thug occupant of the White House (notice that I do not refer to him as "President"). But, no, I really and truly do not aspire to be President of this godforsaken Kakistan masquerading as the USA.

Now that that crucial non-announcement is out of the way, permit me to set forth a couple of the many reasons for my subdued, cyberspace non-campaign for the Oval Office.

A few days ago, I received an email from a person named "Angus" who informed me that my article "Racism not defence at the heart of Israeli politics" was causing "quite a stir" in the UK and that he would like some details about me as he was planning to write something in response. From the beginning it was pretty clear what "Angus'" agenda was, but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt, at least to begin with. The exchange that ensued has left us with a much better insight into the minds and methods of those vociferous defenders of Israel that are doing so much in British academic circles to ensure that the Israeli government continues to enjoy immunity for its human rights abuses in Occupied Palestine.

Read on, it's a real trip!

Every year since 2002 the University and College Union (UCU), the largest trade union and professional association for academics working in further and higher education throughout the UK, has attempted to implement some form of boycott of Israeli academic institutions that have been shown to be complicit in the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people. And each year, amid much acrimony and cries of "anti-semitism", boycotters meet with significant resistance from pro-Israeli members of British academia, and other institutions.

This year however, lowly Sott.net has inadvertently become involved in the melee.

©Gary Varvel

There is a well-known Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. Judging from the rapid unfoldment of "interesting" world events, it is clear that we ain't seen nothing yet and whatever providence has in store for us, it surely is going to become curiouser and curiouser.

So what went on this month, other than more bloodshed, cynical manipulation and overt war propaganda?