Eight years ago, in May 2009 MSNBC published a series of articles predicting what the world would look like in 2017. Their subheading was "Rapid pace of technology will mean wrenching changes in just a decade". 'Wrenching' changes have indeed occurred but the reality now is that the major changes our world has witnessed have been less due to technological change than to the Wars over diminishing food and water resources, the virus pandemic, cosmic bombardment and the global centralisation of economic conditions to solve the greater Depression.

In 2009 what seemed like relatively insignificant political and technological developments turned out to be the green shoots of today's Biological Environmental and Technological Convergence (BETC) Revolution. The development of Quantum nanotechnology storage systems enabled Governments to store massive amount of data on every type of communication between individuals. Every VMS (Voice Message System), call, video link, search, browse, in fact every single data transfer is stored, mined, assigned, matched and under the BETC Government control.

This author is one of many who managed to continue writing as the blogosphere removed the anonymity that citizens (now referred to as dissidents, militants, insurgents and terrorists) used to spread their warnings on the negative potential of the new revolution. Through biometric advances, having a unique CP (Citizen Protocol) address assigned to every individual regardless of the device they are interacting with, took time to get used to. I myself am one warning away from having my editing rights removed completely. Rather like the French 3 strikes law that saw the formation of initially a "new State agency [and later Global agency] that sent illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time."

How did we let it happen?

Batten down the hatches, grab your flimsy face mask!

Just as Sott.net editors were putting the finishing touches to the April's edition of 'Connecting the Dots' (a fairly standard month as months go here on the BBM), within the last five days the world has been brought to the brink (of what we are not quite sure) by something called "Swine Flu". At least, that's the impression you get when reading recent headlines. But as Sott.net readers know, there is always more to these episodes of mass hysteria than meets the eye!

Look further back into the month and you will see enough clues to figure out the nature of what we may safely call a World Government. Pay attention to details in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and you may distinguish manufactured social and political conflicts. Consider it all within the context of Mother Nature's mysteries. Indeed, there is much to comment about this month. But, in the spirit of traditional journalism, let's start with the major headlines...

Influenza - "a human respiratory infection of undetermined cause" according to Webster's dictionary. Most people have at some stage in their lives felt its effects, and while the normal human virus is not lethal to humans there exists the possibility that lethal "mutated" strains can develop.

Each winter the flu virus makes its expected appearance, commonly known as the "Flu season". The standard government response is to commission the large pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vast amounts of a vaccine.

The vaccine is essentially a dose containing several, either dead, or alive but weakened, flu virus strains (among other things as we shall see). When introduced into the body these supposedly immunise us against those particular strains. However the vaccine does not cover all the possible Flu virus strains and if the predominant flu virus in any given season is not contained in the vaccine then naturally no protection will be afforded by the vaccine. Interestingly, this was the case this 2003/4 season, yet it did not stop the government from urging the public to "get immunised!"

While initially being recommended for the elderly and young, now it is advised that everyone who wants to avoid the flu should receive the shot. The question is, how much do you trust your government, and how much of that trust is warranted. As we shall see, there is cause to be highly suspicious of government advice. In regards to this years flu virus the Government Center for Disease Control has said:

Think about it, he has to be. Anger, Jealousy, covetousness, vengeance, extreme bias towards his 'chosen people' in the Israel-Palestine conflict and against literally everyone else in creation; all these are hallmarks of the politics of a die hard Republican. Well, we should probably say were hallmarks of a die-hard Republican. Nowadays they are also the hallmarks of die-hard Democrats, the two-party system having long since given way to the unifying power of "Christo-Judaism" and the influence of their representatives on earth - the Washington Neocons and their Zionist friends.

My name is Guinn. Penn Guinn. Upon leaving my familiar environment of ice-cold Antarctica, I was determined to travel around the Earth in search of clues of the miraculous: that, as yet unidentifiable but eternally present spirit of the creative universe that resides above and below, within and without, permeates and penetrates all, but alas! is invisible to the untrained eye. But such a task is not difficult for one of Aptenodytes Forsteri genus such as I, who in the aforementioned inhospitable surroundings learned to distinguish, from an early age, the thousand different shades of white.

And so my seeking has led me to awareness enhancing journeys through the coastal Tel Aviv, the Italian Apennines, the French Riviera and Hendaye, the English Countryside. It was while spending some time with elderly British folks in my last travels that I heard about the island of Cyprus: a small troubled place shrouded in mystery, intimately connected with the birth of the Greek Goddess of Love and the birth of the Christian Orthodox church. Following some preliminary research, it dawned on me that both Aphrodite and graceful Mary would need to be dressed à la mode in order to fit in in modern day Cyprus. Not that I care too much for appearances you see. But wishing to blend in with the crowds, I spent the winter at my chilly home awaiting the unappealing molting of my pelage to take its course before setting off for the sunny island. Come springtime, all dapper in my new velvety plumage, I was ready for my next adventure!

Harrison Koehli is interviewed by Kevin Barrett from Truth Jihad Radio. The discussion is on Political Ponerology, the nature of evil, and psychopaths.

A recent article on Sott.net about Alex Jones' possible negative influence on a man who shot three policemen in the US last week has generated some interesting commentary from readers and brought into sharp focus a question that goes right to the heart of the problems facing humanity today.

The article in question by Max Blumenthal of Alternet states that the 22-year-old gunman Richard Poplawski "was a neo-Nazi wannabe who railed against blacks, Jews, Zionists and gun control" and also seemed to find common ideological ground with Alex Jones. Poplawski appears to have been particularly incensed by Jones' reports that Obama was planning to institute a socialist dictatorship wherein all guns would be outlawed. While grouping Jones with White Supremacist Neo-Nazis may be doing the thing too brown, it is true that Jones has repeatedly stated that "the first step in establishing a dictatorship is to disarm the citizens."

The last week in March started with the coordinated call from Russia and China for a new non-national reserve currency, an idea that was greeted as one would expect with some derision until US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he supported such an idea. We can only speculate that he forgot his role in this Act 2 of the international stage tragedy "Global Financial Crisis" and used his lines from Act 4 which has of course yet to come. In this Act the role of the US is to resist such calls.

The week ended with the G20 summit and more importantly with the G20 final communique which promises a dark future; for wrapped in the cloth of "free trade", a trillion dollars for the IMF and "trade finance" and the regulation of banker's pay is the formation of a global overseer, the Financial Stability Board and the announcement that "the era of banking secrecy (which means privacy) is over."

There is a great deal in the G20 final communique and what with the general goings on this coming week with the NATO summit following the G20 and US President Obama's visit to Ankara that we will be providing an analysis of the G20 summit and its context during the course of next week.

This week we take a closer look at who really benefited from the AIG bailout and the true size of the US governments financial commitments to the "Global Financial Crisis". With apologies to Winston Churchill and the fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain:-

Never in the field of human history has so much been taken from so many by so few

A year has passed since we began Connecting the Dots. We have made an effort to keep this little Lighthouse alight amidst the darkness as events unfold relentlessly, charting their line of force in the daily battle against subjectivity.

The Romans named this month Martius after the god of war, Mars. Before the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, March was considered the first month of the new year. War, greed, plague and destruction marked the end of the Roman imperial adventure. Today's empire looks set to meet a fate essentially the same. Symbolic perhaps of its tenacity in the face of imperial pressure to conform, Iran still celebrates Nowruz, or 'New Day' on the 21st of the month, the Spring Equinox.

A busy two weeks in the global economy as the taps were opened by governments busy creating new money. Sadly they decided to use it to buy government bonds and worthless "toxic assets" rather than employ and train citizens and build much needed national infrastructure.

Inevitably, with new money flowing into the system inflation will grow further eroding the value of savings and wages, while mobile money will seek a home in commodities thereby adding a double boost to the cost of living for us all. Governments seem to be clinging to the hope that excess supply will dampen the inflationary pressure; a forlorn hope. China and Russia called for a new global reserve currency clearly losing patience with the US pretense at global economic leadership.

The US Congress became "a rat's nest of grandstanding" on the issue of AIG bonuses while remaining silent on the secrecy of the Federal Reserve as to who's been receiving the trillions in bailout money and on Goldman Sachs receipt of over $12 billion in AIG bailout money.