©Unknown

We ran an article recently on the Signs page about the elite that run the world. It is from a mainstream publication, about as mainstream as they get in the US: Newsweek. It is about the group of people the author calls the "Superclass" and who are:

"part of a new global elite that has emerged over the past several decades. I call it the 'superclass.' They have vastly more power than any other group on the planet. Each of the members is set apart by his ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide. Each actively exercises this power, and often amplifies it through the development of relationships with other superclass members. This new class of elites is both more permeable, and more transient, than elites of the past...

The top 10 percent of all people, for example, now control 85 percent of all wealth on the planet.

That such a group exists is indisputable. It includes the heads of the biggest financial institutions, the 14 families Blankfein joked about, and then some; the top 50 control almost $50 trillion in assets. The heads of the world's biggest corporations are also members; the top 2,000 support perhaps 500 million people, generate almost $30 trillion in sales and have well over $100 trillion in assets. The list also includes top government officials with real cross-border influence... media barons...religious leaders...cultural icons..."

©Reuters

Haitians look at the damages caused by looters at a gas station in Port-au-Prince.

Rising food prices are in the news, as riots occur in many countries in reaction to the doubling of the price of wheat and rice. Of course, it isn't the rich, the politicians, or the heads of the multinationals; it isn't any of the Pathocrats who are suffering.

It is people who are struggling to make ends meet, to find food for their families, their children, their elderly parents.

In February 2004, the Pentagon, in a secret report, predicted food riots as the result of the changing climate. It looks like they have arrived, although quite a few years before the Pentagon predicted. The article linked above includes:

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The famine has begun. Will their other scenarios come about as quickly?

The following are a selection of articles from around the world discussing rising food prices:

On 21 October 2006 I wrote The Mystic vs. Hitler The remainder of this article will be that item in toto with additional commentary added.

~~~ ~~~

Recently, the formerly highly respected web essayist, John Kaminski, wrote a new piece entitled "Parasite alert: Outing those who pretend to be friends of the truth" in which he took a strange jab at yours truly as follows:

©Les Visible

Les is More!

One of SOTT's favorite essayists, Les Visible of Smoking Mirrors, was interviewed by Mike Rivero of WhatReallyHappened on April, 12, 2008. A SOTT Forum member has provided a rush transcript where we read the following:

Mike Rivero: Getting back to the lessons of history and to the remembrance that our President's grandfather was business partner with what's his name?... We have all heard about that type of a good German who, just went along and helped Hitler, became a cliché of somebody who thought of being good while doing incredible evil. It seems like in our society we have the same thing going on. We have a good American who supports the president, no matter what he does; he turns the blind eye on torturing people. You mentioned Kafka before. My image of that, of course, is we have tortured Iraqis to find weapons of mass destruction which didn't exist! What do you think about Americans? What is going to happen to them?.

Les: You know, I'm going to have to like qualify that in metaphysical terms. You are an atheist, right, Mike?

Mike: Yes, I thank God

Les: Anyway, I am anything but... but I am not religious at all. I am not into religions at all, but I have daily experiences of another power, a greater power that surrounds us, that penetrates us as a living force. And it is what is responsible for my ability to write.

In fact anything I say or do it's just a matter of me getting out of the way. I am sort of a toreador who dances away from my own bull and somehow the sword is able to penetrate and this sword is one of the light and it then fires up the bull and uses it for fuel, and the next thing you get warmed.

But anyway I believe that my point in bringing all of it up is everything is under control. It's always has been under control. You look, you see stars, you see the planets, you see orderly configurations. You look at the sequences of nature, you look at all different cycles that we observe in the natural world... There is the force that holds all of this together and one day science will actually discover this. It is on the verge of it already. And my belief is that every human being is more or less in contact with this, but when they are willfully not in contact with it like when they are a good Germans and when they are good Germans they are moving increasingly into temporal or the materially based. Now, you know, pressure creates heat, right?

Mike: Right

Les: OK. Well, when you press a whole lot of people together, people move deep into a materialistic darkness, more and more heat, more fire occurs. And this has a good point too - hopefully - one would hope. But for people moving into that state of darkness unfortunately certain karmas, certain laws apply.

For instance, if you live in a particular hurricane zone, you know, you are going to get hurricanes. If you live there, that's something you have to factor in. If you are going to live out in a jungle, you've got to be aware of tigers and other things. There are natural dangers that exist and that is a kind of a lifestyle or a place of living. So, when people put themselves into a situation when they have given power, their will, to forces which are unfortunately not very life-affirming, they in some way share that destiny. But for people who are moving towards the light I will put it this way: as the world is being torn down and recycled, a new world is rising up.

I am always extremely optimistic. I know that bad things are going to happen and it's possible that millions and millions of people will die. But I do believe that something very very good is going to happen.

I see the whole of life, Mike, as a Shakespearean play in which the same stories are told over and over again and people are given the opportunity to learn from them. If they do not learn, then there are certain pains that happen. Pain is the great instructor. For those who do learn, they do move away from pain.

Today Sott editors came across a short entry on Boingboing.net featuring a photograph of Dick Cheney posted on the "Outdoors" section of the official US government Whitehouse.gov website.

The photograph is captioned "Vice President Dick Cheney spends an afternoon fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho."

See for yourself:

©WhiteHouse.gov

And a close up:

©Whitehouse.gov

The poster on Boingboing.net suggested that the reflection in Cheney's glasses bears a resemblance to a naked human being, which brings to mind that story of Cheney shooting his "friend" in the face. The explanation that Cheney shot Whittington "by accident" being something of a joke. It is clear to the careful observer that the reflection really is just Cheney's hand, however, since the topic has been raised, we simply could not, in all conscience, turn down the opportunity to point out Dave McGowan's article from The Center for an Informed America, where he muses on the idea that perhaps Cheney really does enjoy playing "The Most Dangerous Game" from time to time.

©Red Pill Press

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves." - Dresden James

In part one, I promised I would get pure and simple with the truth about the war on terror. I posited that if the average person were to be furnished with real facts about the war on terror, conditions necessary for a radical change in the status quo on this planet could be created. What form such a change would take is not readily determinable, although a decent amount of chaos could be expected.

I understand that many people have trouble believing that the average person can ever wake up to the reality of the world around them. Nourished almost since birth on a diet of lies and disinformation, not to mention chemical-laden food and drink, we could be forgiven for concluding that their destiny as cannon fodder for the pathocrats is all but assured. The problem with this theory however is that there is no way to prove it.

Original Title: "Pinguino delle Meraviglie Parla e Scompare"
Gazzettino dell'Avicolo
21st March 2008 - Genoa, Italy.

©Sott

An Italian male was found in a state of shock by one of our correspondents who received a call at home requesting investigative and moral support. The story he was about to recount was kind of odd but backed by an impressive amount of corroborating evidence. Mr. Piero V. allegedly saw a penguin materializing into his house, an Emperor Penguin of sort considering its size, and told the reporter that the bird was communicating with him using telepathy. Although nearly incomprehensible at first, the bird, after a series of buzzy signals casted into Mr. Piero's brain, succeeded by making its intentions clear.

The nearly alienated Genoan then rushed on a specific place by following the directions given by the penguin, who was apparently in the need to share its findings, only to pop away in the blink of an eye, behind a tree. Mr. Piero said that after the initial shock he now feels energized and it's like he's living a new life. After having recapitulated all what happened in that weekend that ultimately looked like a lifelong time adventure, he now thanks wholeheartedly the mysterious bird.

P.V. said that the penguin started 'talking' to him only after having stopped near a tree with a red mark on it. He was already 300 miles away from home, in the nice town of Pontremoli (Tuscany).

Here's the transcription of the words given by the penguin. He named himself as "Pen Guinn", P.V. later told the reporter.

Michael Hayden - loves a good conspiracy

For years "conspiracy theorists" have suffered the ignominy of exile on the fringe of political debate, not to mention social acceptance. "Conspiracy" was not necessarily a 'dirty word', but form the phrase "conspiracy theory" and you could almost hear the shutters coming down on already closed minds. Stories of the lies and secret machinations of the political military and corporate elite were ridiculed as fantasy and a virtual impossibility. Indeed, the very existence of a political, military and corporate elite was widely disavowed. Changes are afoot however - big changes. The lies and abuses of the directors of the American empire project and their associates in collective Western government over the past few years have become so egregious, so flagrant, that it is now virtually impossible for the average citizen to accept the official version of reality and still lay claim to their own sanity.

©William Kentridge

"[...] the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you [...]" Character V, from V for Vendetta

Yes, V is right. There is something terribly wrong with this country - and this could be referring to almost any country on the globe, since Pathocracy has taken global control. It actually makes sense for psychopaths to act as they do as such is their nature. But what about the rest of us? How is it that "fear got the best of us", and why is it that a paralyzing fear descends upon us when we consider resisting? Why is it that thoughts of "them" coming for us and locking us away, overshadow our truest human desires for Freedom, Love, Truth?

How can anybody be sure of anything in this day and time when the world seems to have gone mad and we find ourselves collectively in the position of the hero/heroine of the horror movie who hears a noise. Indeed, the audience can see that the monster is lurking in the bushes (no pun intended) just outside the door, the soundtrack is heavy with ominous portent, and with innocent naïveté and a handy flashlight, the star of the movie puts his or her hand on the doorknob. The audience groans with the agony of knowing and collectively shouts "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!" But, unfortunately, the movie world is not connected to the world of the audience, and no warning can cross that divide.

In the old days, movie heroes and heroines generally always survived such mistakes by dint of clever scripting. In more recent years, you can never be sure anymore: the hero or heroine is likely to die - reflecting real life - because of their stupidity.