SOTT Focus:

Heart - Black

SOTT Focus: Paul Craig Roberts sez "We Are All Prisoners Now"

Today I read Paul Craig Robert's new essay on the state of the U.S. I couldn't have said it better, though I already figured out that 9/11 was an inside job and Roberts is having a hard time going there. Roberts points out with succinct clarity that:

Freedom and democracy in America have been reduced to no-fly lists, spying without warrants, arrests without warrants or evidence, permanent detention despite the constitutional protection of habeas corpus, torture despite the prohibition against self-incrimination--the list goes on and on.

[...]

Present and former high government officials, with top secret security clearances, cannot fly with a tube of toothpaste or a bottle of water despite the absence of any evidence that extreme measures imposed by "airport security" makes flying safer.

Elderly American citizens with walkers and young mothers with children are meticulously searched because US Homeland Security cannot tell the difference between an American citizen and a terrorist.

All Americans should note the ominous implications of the inability of Homeland Security to distinguish an American citizen from a terrorist.

When Airport Security cannot differentiate a US Marine General recipient of the Medal of Honor from a terrorist, Americans have all the information they need to know.

Heart

SOTT Focus: Winter Solstice: From Chaos to Creation



©Sott.net
A Gift from SOTT's French Editors (Thanks to all of you! It was excellent wine!)

I'm sitting here at my desk, Christmas Dinner for 17 is over and done with and the leftovers are all covered and arranged on the kitchen table. The dishes are washed and put away, and everyone but me and Ark are watching the Christmas movies. We are enjoying a second glass of a fine French wine - a gift from SOTT's French Crew. So far, it has been a relaxing and pleasant experience except for the one time I had to go out for some last minute items for dinner and had to deal with what the rest of the world is doing for Christmas... it wasn't pretty, I tell you! I was so glad that I don't do that anymore.

Better Earth

SOTT Focus: Book Review: New Light on the Black Death by Mike Baillie

Triumph of Death
Hell on Earth, the nightmare depicted by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel in his mid-16th-century The Triumph of Death reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed the plague that devastated medieval Europe. Was there a cosmic connection?


I just finished reading this one and all I can say is: Wow! This was an intense book! Not a long one, either - just 208 pages including appendices. It's tight and economical with no wasted words or idle rambling around. Every example and temporary diversion is crucial to the central argument which is - brace yourself for this one - Mike Baillie (yeah, a real scientist and not a crackpot), is saying that the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history, said to have killed possibly two thirds of the entire population of Europe, not to mention millions all over the planet, probably wasn't Bubonic Plague but was rather Death By Comet(s)!

Oh yeah! That's far out, isn't it?

Maybe not. Baillie has the scientific evidence to support his theory and his evidence actually supports - and is supported by - what the people of the time were saying: earthquakes, comets, rains of death and fire, corrupted atmosphere, and death on a scale that is almost unimaginable. Most people nowadays are not really aware of what happened just 660 years ago. (Hmmm... the inquiring mind immediately wonders what might happen when we hit 666 years after?! That would be 2012...)

Comment: Continue to Part Two: The Hazard to Civilization From Fireballs and Comets

See also:

Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus

New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

Related:

Happy New Year 2014?

SOTT Talk Radio show #70: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?


Bad Guys

SOTT Focus: Good Times, Bad Times 2: Insiders and the Hysteroidal Cycle



©Signs of the Times

In the previous article in this series, we introduced the concept of the hysteroidal cycle and saw that good times contain the seeds of bad times, while bad times invite people to return to analysis and critical thinking necessary to pull themselves out of the crisis. However, the insiders are also aware of the hysteroidal cycle. They are aware that certain shocks can serve to awaken people from their slumber, can provoke individuals onto the path for answers. To counter the positive aspect of bad times or periods of shocks, they have done vast research into how, when, and for how long shocks need to be administered in order to keep people submissive.

Butterfly

SOTT Focus: Secret History Of The World


USA

SOTT Focus: Good Times, Bad Times 1: The Hysteroidal Cycle



©Unknown

A society can be the custodian of a vast quantity of knowledge, but if that knowledge is not spread out, held, and utilized by the entire population, it can do little good. It remains theoretical and is not applied. If the knowledge remains concentrated in the hands of the few, it has the same consequences as the concentration of money, resources, or business ownership in the hands of a few. It becomes a lever of power and oppression, not freedom and justice. A monopoly of knowledge is created.

Such is the situation in the United States today. A small few have real knowledge of what is going on in the world. The others are fed a diet of lies, half-truths, and wishful thinking.

Che Guevara

SOTT Focus: The Man Behind the Curtain



I am Oz the Great and Powerful!

I have to admit that I felt fiendishly gleeful when the reports came out that Hugo Chavez had exposed the CIA's little political destabilization game in Venezuela by getting his hands on the "Operation Pincer" memorandum and publishing it! What a hoot! It was just TOO priceless that the Man Behind the Curtain was exposed as less than the "Great and Powerful Oz," being instead, a gang of petty crooks in positions of power trying to again manipulate the public into believing their lies.

Of course, at the same time, we here at SOTT are all observing France and wondering if the same tricks that are obviously being played on the French will work considering France's higher educational and literacy level compared to the U.S. where the game obviously has already been won by the Man Behind the Curtain.

Humbug!

Alarm Clock

SOTT Focus: An Open Letter To The People Of France



That wasn't on the menu!

(placard: general strike)

Citizens of France,

How would you feel if:

You had to borrow 5 or 10 times your annual salary to be able to have a home?

You had to purchase expensive private medical insurance to be sure of having any medial care?

Every hospital denied all medical care to those without private medical insurance?

There was no social safety net, no unemployment insurance for yourself, your family, and your children?

You had to work 40 to 60 hours per week with only one week of holiday per year - and even that only after you have worked for a year or two?

Vader

SOTT Focus: Insiders and Reality



©Atlanta Journal Constitution

We have already established in the first articles in this series that the insiders are psychologically deviant. What do we mean?

A healthy world view is one that sees the world as it is. Only by seeing the world as objectively as possible can we come up with plans and strategies that fit the facts and that enable us to navigate successfully. If our understanding of reality is wrong, then success can only be subject to chance. Such a view is understood in the sciences. It is obvious that an hypothesis or an experiment that does not take into account the reality being tested will fail. Of course, even failures help us to learn about the world; we eliminate erroneous possibilities and theories. Our knowledge can thus advance, but only if we recognize the error of our ways.

Better Earth

SOTT Focus: Remembrance Day: The 11th hour, 11th day and 11th month



©War Cemetery

However hard a truth is to bear, it has to be brought to light; for otherwise it will smolder in the dark and the lies that hid it will become ever more pernicious; the truth about war and the war's of the last 100 years, a hard truth that needs to see the light of day. Today's world is dominated by the most pernicious lies that history has ever known, those relating to warfare, for in truth war is the slaughter of the innocent for the benefit of the evil.