I was going to relax on the whole blogging thing for a while, but I just read this story at WRSA, about some rather affluent people being afraid that maybe, just maybe, Obama might lose the election, and the republican evils would continue, erupting in mass protest and spilt blood, and I just, had, to comment.
The things they don't get is that every single one of the things that rank this Administration as one of the most abusive ever to be beset upon this country, are all things Barack Obama has been silent on.
Obama will not send the 1st BCT 3rd ID out of the US, nor will he act to dissolve the Command structure of the North American Theatre of War that is NORTHCOM
Obama will not rescind the Aug 28 declaration of a National State of Emergency.
Obama will not drastically revise or unclassify the nature of our "Continuity of Government" structure, its unprecedented grant of executive powers, and will most likely let it continue forever.
He will not cease an illegal, unconstitutional, coercive wiretapping campaign, because he voted to pass the FISA bill and to concretely put it there, without the risk of citizens seeking redress in court.
You know how i know all this? Its not because i am psychic, but because he hasn't said he would, and if he was willing, he would have drug these skeletons out in to the open and painted himself as a hero setting off to slay an abusive totalitarian state. But he hasn't, and he continually dismisses any mention of it. And why? Because that leviathan state is what he voted for, It's secrecy and shadows are what he needs, and its abusive totalitarian power is what he craves.
He entered this campaign with a smoking gun, and all he could think of is how many bullets might be left in the magazine.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
And we so shamefully, still say "We Wont Get Fooled Again"
I do agree, I wouldnt be suprised at violence and bloodshed, mass protests and civil unrest if abuses such as these mentioned were to happen in the next administration. The difference is that it does not matter which despot holds the crown as he announces these measured destructions of principles such as Freedom and Responsibility, and that I am, in fact, suprised that it isnt happening now, in this administration, for the same reason.
I guess thats the difference between Ideology and Principle.
I can only hope, that when change doesnt come, for what ever reason, these people will wake up, and see that if it can come, and i can only say it must, that it has to be them that creates it, the only way real change has ever come, from the bottom up, replacing those at the top.
"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?"
Or so says Claire Wolfe in the excellent book "101 Things to do 'till the Revolution", pointing out, as a now dead, but once famous anarchist said "If voting could change the system, they would make it illegal."
Id also add that a very good piece of brain food, about the combination of freedom and democracy, is that in several very severe military style dictatorships, is that not only are their regular elections, but that participation in the voting process is compulsory.
Today, here, while I can see where Claire Wolf is coming from, after all, we voted for all those people who got us here in the first place, im not sure that is necessarily true, and the situation is not so dire, at least not yet, and i do think i would highly encourage y'all to get out and get your votes heard in direct response to the steps your representatives took in your name, in a sort of financial coup d'etatthat took part earlier this month. (in the midst of many other developments) Please, vote out those people who voted to sell you out.
This is one of the few times you really can shape the policy of the country, directly, and it is obvious something must be done.
As far as POTUS goes, which, lets face it, is what most people turn out to vote for, i have to say, we are pretty much screwed. And while I can understand why many of you will swallow your pride and vote for one of our two evils, to keep out the perception of another, i cannot so compromise myself. I have principles i support strongly, and both of these men stand in direct opposition to many of these principles, and neither will receive even the slightest amount of support from me. If you think i am only wasting my vote, that is fine, but at least i wont be compromising my integrity, and in this free for all take from the taxpayer era, that may soon be all i have left.
Columnist and South Carolina radio personality Jack Hunter, takes on the myth of the wasted vote in his latest piece for the Charleston City Paper.
I have many Republican friends who are disgusted that I'm voting third party this election year. They believe stopping Barack Obama from becoming president outweighs all else. Meanwhile, I have many Democrat friends who are equally disgusted; for them, seeing John McCain defeated is more important than who wins. They are all wasting their votes.Imagine a reckless teenager who constantly runs up his parents' credit cards, smashes the family car every Friday night, is failing in school, and has serious drinking and drug problems. Now imagine that no matter how reckless and dangerous that teenager became, his parents believed his behavior was worth tolerating simply because he was "their" kid. No reasonable person would consider this good parenting. And yet this is exactly how otherwise reasonable people vote.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday told Congress another wave of government spending may be needed following a first stimulus package earlier this year. --from Reuters
Congress and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass a terrible terrible bailout bill, setting a terribleprecedent of handing out taxpayer money and extending public debt with wanton disregard - to benefit wall street and other big business interests, not to mention the quickly accelerating consolidation of federal powers, and even worse (as if it was possible) federal ownership.
Campaign for Liberty is proud to announce the release of their new slimjim - "Congress Bails Out Wall Street" - for download.
This slimjim has information about the bailout and a call to action on one side, and an introduction to C4L (our mission statement and a statement of goals and principles) on the other side. There is a slimjim for each of the legislators who voted for the bailout - with their name in bold and a local office number for their constituents to call.
To download, click on the Campaign's "States" page and look for your state. The pdf pertaining to your district can be found beside your representative and senators' names on our list. They will be listed as "Download color handout" and "Side 2."
Last week, C4L President John Tate announced that we want to produce and distribute these slimjims in key districts.
If you haven't yet contributed to this program, please consider doing so today here. There is also a simple, short version available that can be quickly handed out. These can be found right above the slimjims, and are marked as "Download handout." Special thanks to Adam Kokesh for designing the slimjims and for his many hours of hard work, as well as to Don Rasmussen, Adam de Angeli, and Andrew Ward for all of their efforts on getting these together and ready for download. Print them out, pass them around, and spread the word! Let's make good on our promises to hold our legislators accountable.
The month of October has often held, historically, frequent and unpredicted political surprises, from Russia's transformation into the CCCP in what is now called the October Revolution, to the American tradition of October Surprises in tight election years. October, 1789, saw the women of France march on versailles, the subsequent removal of the king from palace lands, and the legitimization of the National Assembly, leading to the democratization of that country. October 1990 saw the "die Wende" and the reunification of the German state for the first time since WWII, and in October of 1956, a group of protesting students in Hungary lead a spontaneous revolution against their Soviet occupiers. They very nearly succeeded in forcing the withdraw of Soviet forces, before the Kremlin reversed their position and, with mechanical brutality, quashed the movement. In China, October 1st is celebrated (More often by the government, than by the people) as National Day, the anniversary of the creation of the leviathan People's Republic of China. A quick glance shows that more than a dozen other modern states celebrate their independence or creation in October, a historical month indeed.
While some of these histories are joyous ones, and some are not, they do have on thing in common, the coming of the month of October has often carried with it, massive, systemic, political change.
This October will go down in history books as no exception.
A coup d’état took place in this country during the past two weeks.
If you didn’t notice, perhaps you were distracted by the Dolphins whipping the Chargers, or Tina Fey’s grotesque parodies of Sarah Palin, or perhaps you were immersed in blogs trying to prove that Barak Obama is a domestic terrorist.
Regardless of the distraction, while our attention was diverted, a revolution took place. No shots were fired, but plenty of blood was shed. The United States ceased to be a capitalist economy and became a managed socialist state. The nation’s financial system has been nationalized.
The government now calls the shots on who sinks or swims, who will have credit, where money is to go, and how much the robber barons of Wall Street will be compensated for their tender ministrations.
The odds are good that the government owns the mortgage to your house. If you receive a paycheck a month from now, it will likely be possible only because the government insured the business loan that allowed your employer to cut your check.
Those who have perpetrated this coup have subjugated the financial sovereignty of the individual taxpayer to that of of banking interests, they have announced sweeping changes to the very heart of how America will function economically (and dont think much happens in this country that isnt economic), last week Paulson announced that the state will purchase a premium interest in private banks, (and possibly private corporations, or, I shit you not, State Governments) even as it continues to control the federal reserve cartel (or is it vice versa?) The free market is dead. Long live the free market.
Also of note, this October, is the surprise announcement of the deployment a domestic military police force, for the first time since the Reconstruction, and the subsequent drafting of the Posse Comitatus Act, which swore that no more would a sovereign state have to fear the occupation of a federal military force. This is mentioned HERE and, better HERE Whether this creates a serious threat, is not a subject we will touch on here, but it still, fundamentally, through the recreation of the posibility of occupation, represents a return to that age of fear, in this, the grandest age of fear of them all.
Some time ago, Naomi Wolf wrote a book called The End of America, in which she stated that, historically, ten steps must be taken in order to close a free society and institute a fascist and closed dictatorship.
Well, now that the End is here, has Naomi's viewpoint changed? (from about 4 days ago)
So, now, today, our own October Revolution is healthily underway, but is it a financial revolution or is it a military one?
Are we at risk of being servants to a financial system that is not now almost state controlled, but IS state controlled, or will we enter into a modern police state where all of our actions can and will be monitored, where no civil protections supersede state security? What about the continuing state influence over the media, the manipulation of the welfare state? Where are the front lines? As Americans, we have always been told that, in life, and in the world, there is always a clear front line, a clear enemy, and clear rules by which to engage him, but in fact reality has never been so clear or so kind.
"There are no rules in war, and that all war is total war, encompassing and consuming all aspects and facets of life. War, properly fought, is fought in the schools, social clubs, the workplace, at sports events, etc., etc. Even churches are not immune." says Paul W. Davis, just today, when commenting on this letter.
He is correct, and this war, this campaign against the free society we have always aspired to live in, has not been fought on one front.
It is fought in P.A.T.R.I.O.T. acts, and military tribunals, in the militarization of domestic police forces, in the erosion of Posse Comitatus, in the federalization of "Emergency Management" and its stacks of coffins. It won many battles in the homogenization of culture through sitcoms, in the lessons we are taught, but cannot recite, while we rotted in the school systems.
It's spearheaded in thinly veiled campaigns against individualism in the name of the war on terror, as no illustration of extreme viewpoints can exist if there are no other viewpoints. This war has soldiers active in the corporatization of America, in the engineering of perceived obsolescence and the creation of a consumer culture that cannot subsist in a closed system and requires the creation of slavery as credit and debt, simply to continue the status quo. It has fought for prison infrastructure, and for civilian forced labor camps, and the fundamentally repulsive concepts of Imminent Domain and Civil Forfeiture.
It is fought by a media that does not blink, when, this August, our great president signed an executive order extending a national state of emergency that has existed, almost undiscussed, for the last 7 years, again applying the Continuity of Government (COG) rules of NSPD-51, the details of which, by the way, are classified.
"What kind of government did we get," they asked Franklin as he walked out of those great halls, and im sorry to say, he did not answer "Im sorry, thats classified."
Many of us are not sure, and I will not discuss here, if these battles are waged by a concerted party, or simply are a result of the law of unintended consequences invoked by a long line of social do gooders and profiteers and American'ts. Whether their effects are intended or not, those actions that would deny you that aspired liberty have won, in many of these battles, but the war is not yet lost.
And so, there America stands, with its back to The Front. Not knowing which way to fight back, through this confusing and multiheaded throng of attacking forces, the principles of liberty and freedom stand, but do not move, and instead of pushing back against these real threats, they are instead pushed slowly and surely into a world that is increasingly devoid of freedom, personal liberty, or a people's right to self determination.
We are not alone in this struggle, either with our apathetic lack of real response, or in the October Revolution we have, this month, been handed. Germany and the formerly Great Britain have both vowed to offer up from their taxpayers for more than their entire national annual tax base as an offering to the now gods of the global financial network, (and i think our own learless feeders may soon offer the same) even as they also start the long process of removing any remnants of a free market and nationalize their own banks. A global community, there can be no doubt. A global community searching for a light in this age of fear and darkness.
Turn around America.
Turn around, to not only see what greatness has passed, and to learn from history's lessons, but turn around to face those forces who would, and will, if unchecked, push you into oblivion. Face The Front. For, as I said, there are many fronts, and so there are just as many ways to fight back. There is room for many battles, battles that must be fought in a war that will never be won by bitching, or pointing out what is wrong, but if not fought, can never be won, at all. We must look forward into the future, and make it ours.
So, which front will you take?
Have you minimized your pointless consumption and begun to prepare to take care of yourselves and your families? Have you looked into minimizing your exposure to financial markets and invest instead in tangible goods? Have you minimized debt? Have you looked into suspending your income tax withholding, in part or total, as a first step to dropping support for the federal reserve system and its corresponding inflationary tax? Have you started a letter writing campaign, or petition to recall a not so representative? Do you support foundations like the EFF who are willing to fight these battles in court, to protect freedom of speech and the rights of Habeas Corpus? Have you turned your TV off and started to look into things you want to learn, instead of what they want to program (teach) to you? Have you introduced yourself to a neighbor, or gone for a walk, or written an email to an old friend about what is concerning you? Have you looked into joining Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty, or Naomi Wolf's My America Project, or into getting involved in local political groups? Have you considered homeschooling your kids, or talked to someone who has? Have you looked into your rights as they relate to the police, and how best to respectfully assert those rights? Have you learned how to better cook for yourself, or preserve foods?
Have you thanked someone who is already fighting, if, even you once didnt know why?
Or will you stand, as you are, with your back to the front, as The End of America is pushed upon us?
There has been a coup,
They say,
And what,
Oh what,
Will you do?
Myself, id like to begin by thanking all those who have already begun to fight, the battle may be long, but deep down we must know:
Well, not quite, but the warnings against the banking system made in his 1837 farewell address can be directly transferred to our day.
"The distress and sufferings inflicted on the people by the bank are some of the fruits of that system of policy which is continually striving to enlarge the authority of the Federal Government beyond the limits fixed by the Constitution. The powers enumerated in that instrument do not confer on Congress the right to establish such a corporation as the Bank of the United States, and the evil consequences which followed may warn us of the danger of departing from the true rule of construction and of permitting temporary circumstances or the hope of better promoting the public welfare to influence in any degree our decisions upon the extent of the authority of the General Government. Let us abide by the Constitution as it is written, or amend it in the constitutional mode if it is found to be defective...."
"The paper-money system and its natural associations--monopoly and exclusive privileges--have already struck their roots too deep in the soil, and it will require all your efforts to check its further growth and to eradicate the evil. The men who profit by the abuses and desire to perpetuate them will continue to besiege the halls of legislation in the General Government as well as in the States, and will seek by every artifice to mislead and deceive the public servants. It is to yourselves that you must look for safety and the means of guarding and perpetuating your free institutions. In your hands is rightfully placed the sovereignty of the country, and to you everyone placed in authority is ultimately responsible."
An ominous task nowadays to be sure, but one which Jackson was confident the people could win if they stuck at it.
"But it will require steady and persevering exertions on your part to rid yourselves of the iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system and to check the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which have sprung up with it, and of which it is the main support. So many interests are united to resist all reform on this subject that you must not hope the conflict will be a short one nor success easy. My humble efforts have not been spared during my administration of the Government to restore the constitutional currency of gold and silver, and something, I trust, has been done toward the accomplishment of this most desirable object; but enough yet remains to require all your energy and perseverance. The power, however, is in your hands, and the remedy must and will be applied if you determine upon it."
There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. -Richard Feynman
From AP:
NEW YORK - In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure.
As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion.
The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars.
The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.
Sign of the times indeed, They are running out of digits, you are running out of time.
It may not be the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) yet, but a quick glance at headlines around the world is enough to make some think twice about not setting aside a little something, "Just in Case." Heres a quick rundown and just a sampling of what our fearless media is downright scared about, just the first business days after the President signs into law the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) and assures us the government has everything under control, and the shit, will not, in fact hit the fan. (SHTF)
The $55 trillion question. The article begins: "The financial crisis has put a spotlight on the obscure world of credit default swaps - which trade in a vast, unregulated market that most people haven't heard of and even fewer understand. Will this be the next disaster?" A much bigger problem than mortgage loans could ever be.
LIBOR Mystifies Americans as Mayor Reads `Doomsday' (the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) rate spiked this week, tripling. The LIBOR is the benchmark rate at which banks loan money to other banks. The spikes illustrates the absolute peril that the credit collapse has created, and the unprecedented level of distrust between banks.
More: LIBOR Soars, Commercial Paper Slumps As Credit Freeze Deepens Across The Globe (It will be interesting to see what this higher cost of inter-bank borrowing has as it trickles down to credit card interest rates and Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs). It is conceivable that monthly ARM payments could double."The global credit market has just suffered the equivalent of a massive myocardial infraction.")
Bailout Fraud (From Russia: "This is a default crisis. Banks and large corporations are going to default. The banks know that. The public does not yet.")
Meanwhile, in addition to the congressionally-funded TARP bailout, the Fed is pumping liquidity like there is no tomorrow, promising $900 billion in TAF lending: U.S. urges global action on credit crisis.
Lastly, it is quite indicative that spot gold jumped $35+ per ounce. That in itself is not too unusual, but this is happened at the same time that other commodities were dropping, and while the US dollar was gaining against the Euro and British Pound. Here, we can see that gold truly isthe island of safety in the economic maelstrom.
Germany takes hot seat as Europe falls into the abyss It begins with this ominous tone: "We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars."
As of October 1st, journalist Glenn Beck reported brisk sales of guns and home gun vaults in the US. Given the recent economic news, I wouldn't doubt it. A reader of Survivalblog.com, which is where most of this was collected, recommended that we should take a look at Beck's analysis of what caused the liquidity crisis, in a letter to his family members: What happened?
Ive been paranoid about this situation for years just based on my rudimentary understanding of government economic interference and its effect on our current (corrupt) system, but even if you werent, all these headlines, coupled with our own government passing a bill mandating the assignment of 850 billion dollars of debt (more like 1.9 trillion, as i covered here, with a potential cost that is even greater, and not counting the billions of dollars the Fed is Lending out every single day in intra-bank loans, which serve as an inflationary tax, as well as increasing the ammount of debt the GOVMNT will seize and hold YOU liable for, when even more of these banks fail) to american Taxpayers with absolutely ZERO effect on overall market trading and in fact a huge drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Index today (see Can it Work?), would be enough to make you think about packing up and moving to and living in a cave in Idaho.
See you there.
I hear they havent cancelled thanksgiving there, yet.
No, Really, i saw him at the airport... Well, his passport, at least...
In a stunning demonstration of the governments continuing failure to secure anything but the ability to invade the privacy of law abiding citizens, a member of the group The Hacker's Choice (THC) has provided proof of concept of a hack first introduced by Jeroen van Beek in las vegas two month ago. Below is a video showing a machine in Amsterdam's airport reading Elvis Presley's personal information off a hacked RFID passport chip.
You will notice the lack of alarms or errors.
The process, as described by someone going with the handle VonJeek, is pretty straightforward. Software that emulates passport RFID behavior, apparently written by van Beek, is uploaded onto a blank card. Using a free Python application, an existing passport's chip is read and the data transferred to the emulator. In the process, the bits that call for active verification of the encoded information can be shut off, limiting the verification process when the card is read in the future. Instructions for modifying the information prior to uploading it are also provided.
These are the same RFID chips now used around the world in passports, that were previously proven to be insecure to invasions of privacy at distances of up to 30 meters. This is also the same system that has been proposed for the now delayed REAL ID act, which would gradually replace the current drivers licence system with a national identification system and database.
Agian, this proves, quite obviously, that the systems they are designing are only intended to track (and possibly restrict) those who have no reason or will to evade them, and will in fact, as automated checkpoints become more and more in use, facilitate the free movement of criminals and international persons of interest. They will in no way protect you, as it is said, from the invasion of those who might do you harm, or to discourage identity theft, as now the highest form of identification in the land, the passport and proof of citizenship of the country of your birth, can be comprimised for a mere $120.
The old, manual, system was far more secure, but it did not facilitate or provide cause for a national database or tracking system for law abiding citizens.
For more information on the techniques used, or to find out how you can duplicate the experiments, see the following links.
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat will start a new mission in a new theatre this October. They have served several tours of Iraq and spent time in Afghanistan, are currently training at home, and now they will be doing that thing they do, but with a twist.
They will do it in their own country.
This is the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and to coordinate civil authorities. Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes various scenarios they may be called upon to help with such as civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios like terror attacks or plague.
The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded, referring to a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”
The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets. The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced “sea-smurf”)
is a self aclaimed adventurer and poet of the revolution, while he would like to explore journalism, fiction writing, open his own business, return to painting and try his hand at pizza delivery, he has no plans for the future, and little hope that he will acomplish any of it. While he has no home he currently resides in Central Arizona, where he is constantly told to sell out and buy in, resulting in deep psycological trauma and personality seperation.
Thus, while I do still own my ideas and words, and ask that you respect that ownership, I do highly encourage to do your duty as a modern robin hood and steal a portion of that ownership back for the public good.
In the same vein, I rarely show concern over whether some tidbit i post here is properly cited and in fair use, I try and be respectful, nothing more, nothing less. I will not ask you to do anything more. If you can take anything from here, be it an idea, or a sentence, and build upon it to make something better, please do. If you think it will not detract from that idea or sentence, or whatever, you, an individual has made, please pass some credit back to me, or even post a link to the original. If however, your achievement would suffer to acknowledge its roots, do not detract from it, as the world as we know it was built not by giants, but but by many men, standing on the shoulders of other men.
If you take this as as notice of permission, you are mistaken. It is a human right to process the information we are given, and to try and improve it. A right is something you don't have to ask permission for.
If I have posted something here from someone else, not in accordance with your wishes either in citing or use, please feel free to ask me to correct it, if you show me that respect, I MAY return the respect you ask for.
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