Guns, Ammo And Other Great Ways To Fight Inflation

Cast your mind back to the fall of 2008. Lehman Bros. had just failed, and for those in Washington, it was thought all the banks were about to go up in smoke.

Of all the radical policies that were enacted in response to the crisis, one of the stealthiest was the Fed’s decision to begin paying banks interest on their “excess reserves.”

This change, begun in October 2008, has netted the banking industry billions of risk-free dollars over the last five years. It’s been nothing more than a pure government subsidy. And the majority of the public has been blissfully unaware.

There are signs, however, that the Fed’s gift to the banks may be coming to an end. Below, we discuss the implications of such a move on you and your savings.

Before we do that, we must first explain what “excess reserves” are.

Commercial banks are required a keep a certain amount of money on deposit at the Fed based on how much a bank holds in customer deposits. Bankers normally keep as little money at the Fed as possible. They prefer to use those funds to make loans or buy securities and earn interest.

Any extra cash held at the Fed over and above what they’re required to hold is known as excess reserves.

Up until the fall of Lehman Bros. in September 2008, banks’ excess reserves at the Fed were essentially zero. Back then, lending money as fast as possible was the name of the game.

But a month later, the central bank began paying 0.25% interest to banks on any excess reserves. The result? Five years later, banks have $2.5 trillion in excess reserves sitting at the Fed.

This means the Fed pays banks $6.25 billion a year in interest courtesy of a policy change made in a panic.

But this policy may be about to change.

In October, the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting included a discussion of excess reserves. Specifically, it was noted that “Most participants thought that a reduction by the Board of Governors in the interest rate paid on excess reserves could be worth considering at some stage.”

Alan Blinder, though, who was once the vice chairman at the Fed, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he interpreted the minutes’ tea leaves to really mean the voting members “love the idea” of reducing the rate being paid on these reserves.

Changing this policy would be significant and it has the potential to unleash a torrent of liquidity through the commercial banking system.

When the Fed quits paying this interest, the banks will have no reason to leave their cash at the Fed. The most reasonable option is to lend the $2.5 trillion instead. And through the power of fractionalized banking, the money supply could then be increased by up to 10 times that amount.

Needless to say, $25 trillion is a gargantuan quantity of money. The total money supply as measured by M2, for example, was just short of $11 trillion in December. Now, it’s unlikely to see the money supply triple if the Fed were to stop paying interest on these reserves. But it’s easy to imagine a significant jump in money creation if it were lent out into the economy instead of sitting idle at the central bank.

And if that happens, inflation will follow.

Watching the Fed, however, is only part of the inflation story. Investors who want to protect themselves must also keep a close eye on what the commercial banks are doing. And we’re beginning to see that bankers, after five years of licking their wounds, are starting to say yes again after turning potential borrowers away en masse since the crash. In other words, the commercial banking system is also beginning to light the fuse to ignite the inflationary tinder created by the Federal Reserve.

This is important because, according to Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at John Hopkins University, commercial banks create 85% of the money supply, while the remaining 15% is created by the Fed.

And there’s evidence that commercial bank lending is heating up. In December, bank credit was up 5.9% according to the latest H.8 numbers from the Federal Reserve. This is the largest increase we’ve seen since the crash. Just as a reminder, bank credit fell 6.7% in 2009. The big December increases were in the commercial and industrial loan category, which jumped 14.1%, and consumer loans, which increased 6.4%.

Commercial real estate lending is also making a comeback. “More banks are now on the offense, not on defense anymore, when it comes to commercial real estate,” said bank analyst Anthony Polini.

Compass Point Research & Trading analyst Kevin Barker says that commercial real estate is “definitely becoming a significant driver of loan growth [and] to the extent that the banks can take advantage, it could be a tail wind to earnings.”

While investors worry about Fed tapering and rising interest rates, it’s exactly what banks need. Higher rates provide banks the incentive to lend, which will spur money creation in the commercial banking system.

Meaning as banks start to lend and rates begin to rise, the money supply could begin to grow, and in turn, price inflation could rear its ugly head.

While gold and silver are the traditional hedges to central bank inflation, it helps to think outside those metallic boxes. This can be as simple as stocking up on items that you know you’ll need in the future. Last month in The Daily Reckoning, for example, Addison Wiggin, made the case for buying five years’ worth of razor blades. (See “3 Ways to Make Your Portfolio Inflation-Proof”)

At last year’s Agora Financial Symposium in Vancouver, I mentioned stocking up on real things like cigarettes and liquor too. You may not smoke, drink, or shoot — but you can always sell or trade cigarettes, booze, and ammunition.

There are currently shortages of ammo (.22 caliber rounds sell out in minutes in my town each week), and bullet prices have exploded. Cigarettes and liquor are demonized, taxed, and seem to always increase in price.

All of these physical goods should be on your “buy” list.

Source: The Daily Reckoning

The Greatest Propaganda Coup of Our Time?

There’s good propaganda and bad propaganda. Bad propaganda is generally crude, amateurish Judy Miller “mobile weapons lab-type” nonsense that figures that people are so stupid they’ll believe anything that appears in “the paper of record.” Good propaganda, on the other hand, uses factual, sometimes documented material in a coordinated campaign with the other major media to cobble-together a narrative that is credible, but false.

The so called Fed’s transcripts, which were released last week, fall into the latter category. The transcripts (1,865 pages) reveal the details of 14 emergency meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in 2008, when the financial crisis was at its peak and the Fed braintrust was deliberating on how best to prevent a full-blown meltdown. But while the conversations between the members are accurately recorded, they don’t tell the gist of the story or provide the context that’s needed to grasp the bigger picture. Instead, they’re used to portray the members of the Fed as affable, well-meaning bunglers who did the best they could in ‘very trying circumstances’. While this is effective propaganda, it’s basically a lie, mainly because it diverts attention from the Fed’s role in crashing the financial system, preventing the remedies that were needed from being implemented (nationalizing the giant Wall Street banks), and coercing Congress into approving gigantic, economy-killing bailouts which shifted trillions of dollars to insolvent financial institutions that should have been euthanized.

What I’m saying is that the Fed’s transcripts are, perhaps, the greatest propaganda coup of our time. They take advantage of the fact that people simply forget a lot of what happened during the crisis and, as a result, absolve the Fed of any accountability for what is likely the crime of the century. It’s an accomplishment that PR-pioneer Edward Bernays would have applauded. After all, it was Bernays who argued that the sheeple need to be constantly bamboozled to keep them in line. Here’s a clip from his magnum opus “Propaganda”:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

Sound familiar? My guess is that Bernays’ maxim probably features prominently in editors offices across the country where “manufacturing consent” is Job 1 and where no story so trivial that it can’t be spun in a way that serves the financial interests of the MSM’s constituents. (Should I say “clients”?) The Fed’s transcripts are just a particularly egregious example. Just look at the coverage in the New York Times and judge for yourself. Here’s an excerpt from an article titled “Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”:

“The hundreds of pages of transcripts, based on recordings made at the time, reveal the ignorance of Fed officials about economic conditions during the climactic months of the financial crisis. Officials repeatedly fretted about overstimulating the economy, only to realize time and again that they needed to redouble efforts to contain the crisis.” (“Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”, New York Times)

This quote is so misleading on so many levels it’s hard to know where to begin.

First of all, the New York Times is the ideological wellspring of elite propaganda in the US. They set the tone and the others follow. That’s the way the system works. So it always pays to go to the source and try to figure out what really lies behind the words, that is, the motive behind the smokescreen of half-truths, distortions, and lies. How is the Times trying to bend perceptions and steer the public in their corporate-friendly direction, that’s the question. In this case, the Times wants its readers to believe that the Fed members “misread the crisis”; that they were ‘behind the curve’ and stressed-out, but–dad-gum-it–they were trying their level-best to make things work out for everybody.

How believable is that? Not very believable at all.

Keep in mind, the crisis had been going on for a full year before the discussions in these transcripts took place, so it’s not like the members were plopped in a room the day before Lehman blew up and had to decide what to do. No. They had plenty of time to figure out the lay of the land, get their bearings and do what was in the best interests of the country. Here’s more from the Times:

 ”My initial takeaway from these voluminous transcripts is that they paint a disturbing picture of a central bank that was in the dark about each looming disaster throughout 2008. That meant that the nation’s top bank regulators were unprepared to deal with the consequences of each new event.”

Have you ever read such nonsense in your life? Of course, the Fed knew what was going on. How could they NOT know? Their buddies on Wall Street were taking it in the stern sheets every time their dingy asset pile was downgraded which was every damn day. It was costing them a bundle which means they were probably on the phone 24-7 to (Treasury Secretary) Henry Paulson whining for help. “You gotta give us a hand here, Hank. The whole Street is going toes-up. Please.”

Here’s more from the NYT:

“Some Fed officials have argued that the Fed was blind in 2008 because it relied, like everyone else, on a standard set of economic indicators. As late as August 2008, “there were no clear signs that many financial firms were about to fail catastrophically,” Mr. Bullard said in a November presentation in Arkansas that the St. Louis Fed recirculated on Friday. “There was a reasonable case that the U.S. could continue to ‘muddle through.’ (“Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”, New York Times)

There’s that same refrain again, “Blind”, “In the dark”, “Behind the curve”, “Misread the crisis”.

Notice how the Times only invokes terminology that implies the Fed is blameless. But it’s all baloney. Everyone knew what was going on. Check out this excerpt from a post by Nouriel Roubini that was written nearly a full year before Lehman failed:

“The United States has now effectively entered into a serious and painful recession. The debate is not anymore on whether the economy will experience a soft landing or a hard landing; it is rather on how hard the hard landing recession will be. The factors that make the recession inevitable include the nation’s worst-ever housing recession, which is still getting worse; a severe liquidity and credit crunch in financial markets that is getting worse than when it started last summer; high oil and gasoline prices; falling capital spending by the corporate sector; a slackening labor market where few jobs are being created and the unemployment rate is sharply up; and shopped-out, savings-less and debt-burdened American consumers who — thanks to falling home prices — can no longer use their homes as ATM machines to allow them to spend more than their income. As private consumption in the US is over 70% of GDP the US consumer now retrenching and cutting spending ensures that a recession is now underway.

On top of this recession there are now serious risks of a systemic financial crisis in the US as the financial losses are spreading from subprime to near prime and prime mortgages, consumer debt (credit cards, auto loans, student loans), commercial real estate loans, leveraged loans and postponed/restructured/canceled LBO and, soon enough, sharply rising default rates on corporate bonds that will lead to a second round of large losses in credit default swaps. The total of all of these financial losses could be above $1 trillion thus triggering a massive credit crunch and a systemic financial sector crisis.” ( Nouriel Roubini Global EconoMonitor)

Roubini didn’t have some secret source for data that wasn’t available to the Fed. The financial system was collapsing and it had been collapsing for a full year. Everyone who followed the markets knew it. Hell, the Fed had already opened its Discount Window and the Term Auction Facility (TAF) in 2007 to prop up the ailing banks–something they’d never done before– so they certainly knew the system was cratering. So, why’s the Times prattling this silly fairytale that “the Fed was in the dark” in 2008?

I’ll tell you why: It’s because this whole transcript business is a big, freaking whitewash to absolve the shysters at the Fed of any legal accountability, that’s why. That’s why they’re stitching together this comical fable that the Fed was simply an innocent victim of circumstances beyond its control. And that’s why they want to focus attention on the members of the FOMC quibbling over meaningless technicalities –like non-existent inflation or interest rates–so people think they’re just kind-hearted buffoons who bumbled-along as best as they could. It’s all designed to deflect blame.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying these conversations didn’t happen. They did, at least I think they did. I just think that the revisionist media is being employed to spin the facts in a way that minimizes the culpability of the central bank in its dodgy, collaborationist engineering of the bailouts. (You don’t hear the Times talking about Hank Paulson’s 50 or 60 phone calls to G-Sax headquarters in the week before Lehman kicked the bucket, do you? But, that’s where a real reporter would look for the truth.)

The purpose of the NYT article is to create plausible deniability for the perpetrators of the biggest ripoff in world history, a ripoff which continues to this very day since the same policies are in place, the same thieving fraudsters are being protected from prosecution, and the same boundless chasm of private debt is being concealed through accounting flim-flam to prevent losses to the insatiable bondholders who have the country by the balls and who set policy on everything from capital requirements on complex derivatives to toppling democratically-elected governments in Ukraine. These are the big money guys behind the vacillating-hologram poseurs like Obama and Bernanke, who are nothing more than kowtowing sock puppets who jump whenever they’re told. Here’s more bunkum from the Gray Lady:

 ”By early March, the Fed was moving to replace investors as a source of funding for Wall Street.

Financial firms, particularly in the mortgage business, were beginning to fail because they could not borrow money. Investors had lost confidence in their ability to predict which loans would be repaid. Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, sold itself for a relative pittance to Bank of America. Bear Stearns, one of the largest packagers and sellers of mortgage-backed securities, was teetering toward collapse.

On March 7, the Fed offered companies up to $200 billion in funding. Three days later, Mr. Bernanke secured the Fed policy-making committee’s approval to double that amount to $400 billion, telling his colleagues, “We live in a very special time.”

Finally, on March 16, the Fed effectively removed any limit on Wall Street funding even as it arranged the Bear Stearns rescue.” (“Fed Misread Crisis in 2008, Records Show”, New York Times)

This part deserves a little more explanation. The author says “the Fed was moving to replace investors as a source of funding for Wall Street.” Uh, yeah; because the whole flimsy house of cards came crashing down when investors figured out Wall Street was peddling toxic assets. So the money dried up. No one buys crap assets after they find out they’re crap; it’s a simple fact of life. The Times makes this sound like this was some kind of unavoidable natural disaster, like an earthquake or a tornado. It wasn’t. It was a crime, a crime for which no one has been indicted or sent to prison. That might have been worth mentioning, don’t you think?

More from the NYT: “…on March 16, the Fed effectively removed any limit on Wall Street funding even as it arranged the Bear Stearns rescue.”

Yipee! Free money for all the crooks who blew up the financial system and plunged the economy into recession. The Fed assumed blatantly-illegal powers it was never provided under its charter and used them to reward the people who were responsible for the crash, namely, the Fed’s moneybags constituents on Wall Street. It was a straightforward transfer of wealth to the Bank Mafia. Don’t you think the author should have mentioned something about that, just for the sake of context, maybe?

Again, the Times wants us to believe that the men who made these extraordinary decisions were just ordinary guys like you and me trying to muddle through a rough patch doing the best they could.

Right. I mean, c’mon, this is some pretty impressive propaganda, don’t you think? It takes a real talent to come up with this stuff, which is why most of these NYT guys probably got their sheepskin at Harvard or Yale, the establishment’s petri-dish for serial liars.

By September 2008, Bernanke and Paulson knew the game was over. The crisis had been raging for more than a year and the nation’s biggest banks were broke. (Bernanke even admitted as much in testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2011 when he said “only one ….out of maybe the 13 of the most important financial institutions in the United States…was not at serious risk of failure within a period of a week or two.” He knew the banks were busted, and so did Paulson.) Their only chance to save their buddies was a Hail Mary pass in the form of Lehman Brothers. In other words, they had to create a “Financial 9-11″, a big enough crisis to blackmail congress into $700 no-strings-attached bailout called the TARP. And it worked too. They pushed Lehman to its death, scared the bejesus out of congress, and walked away with 700 billion smackers for their shifty gangster friends on Wall Street. Chalk up one for Hank and Bennie.

The only good thing to emerge from the Fed’s transcripts is that it proves that the people who’ve been saying all along that Lehman was deliberately snuffed-out in order to swindle money out of congress were right. Here’s how economist Dean Baker summed it up the other day on his blog:

“Gretchen Morgensen (NYT financial reporter) picks up an important point in the Fed transcripts from 2008. The discussion around the decision to allow Lehman to go bankrupt makes it very clear that it was a decision. In other words the Fed did not rescue Lehman because it chose not to.

This is important because the key regulators involved in this decision, Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, and Timothy Geithner, have been allowed to rewrite history and claim that they didn’t rescue Lehman because they lacked the legal authority to rescue it. This is transparent tripe, which should be evident to any knowledgeable observer.” (“The Decision to Let Lehman Fail”, Dean Baker, CEPR)

Here’s the quote from Morgenson’s piece to which Baker is alluding:

“In public statements since that time, the Fed has maintained that the government didn’t have the tools to save Lehman. These documents appear to tell a different story. Some comments made at the Sept. 16 meeting, directly after Lehman filed for bankruptcy, indicate that letting Lehman fail was more of a policy decision than a passive one.” (“A New Light on Regulators in the Dark”, Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times)

Ah ha! So it was a planned demolition after all. At least that’s settled.

Here’s something else you’ll want to know: It was always within Bernanke’s power to stop the bank run and end to the panic, but if he relieved the pressure in the markets too soon (he figured), then Congress wouldn’t cave in to his demands and approve the TARP. Because, at the time, a solid majority of Republicans and Democrats in congress were adamantly opposed to the TARP and even voted it down on the first ballot. Here’s a clip from a speech by, Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in September 2008 which sums up the grassroots opposition to the bailouts:

“The $700 bailout bill is being driven by fear not fact. This is too much money, in too short of time, going to too few people, while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren’t we having hearings…Why aren’t we considering any other alternatives other than giving $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation which triggered this? Why aren’t we putting up new regulatory structures to protect the investors? Why aren’t we directly helping homeowners with their debt burdens? Why aren’t we helping American families faced with bankruptcy? Isn’t time for fundamental change to our debt-based monetary system so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the US Congress or the Board of Directors of Goldman Sachs?”

But despite overwhelming public resistance, the TARP was pushed through and Wall Street prevailed. mainly by sabotaging the democratic process the way they always do when it doesn’t suit their objectives.)

Of course, as we said earlier, Bernanke never really needed the money from TARP to stop the panic anyway. (Not one penny of the $700 bil was used to shore up the money markets or commercial paper markets where the bank run took place.) All Bernanke needed to do was to provide backstops for those two markets and, Voila, the problem was solved. Here’s Dean Baker with the details:

“Bernanke deliberately misled Congress to help pass the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). He told them that the commercial paper market was shutting down, raising the prospect that most of corporate America would be unable to get the short-term credit needed to meet its payroll and pay other bills. Bernanke neglected to mention that he could singlehandedly keep the commercial paper market operating by setting up a special Fed lending facility for this purpose. He announced the establishment of a lending facility to buy commercial paper the weekend after Congress approved TARP.” (“Ben Bernanke; Wall Street’s Servant”, Dean Baker, Guardian)

So, there you have it. The American people were fleeced in broad daylight by the same dissembling cutthroats the NYT is now trying to characterize as well-meaning bunglers who were just trying to save the country from another Great Depression.

I could be wrong, but I think we’ve reached Peak Propaganda on this one.

(Note: By “good” propaganda, I mean “effective” propaganda. From an ethical point of view, propaganda can never be good because its objective is to intentionally mislead people…..which is bad.)

Return To Seyeda (Lady) Zeinab—Now Secured And In Protective Hands

Seyeda Zeinab, Syria – During a meeting at the Dama Rose hotel in Damascus the other morning, this observer was briefed by ‘Abu Modar,” a reputedly battle-honed field commander of the “Death Brigade,” a unit based in the northern Syria Eskanderoun region, north of Latakia. Abu Modar explained that he personally had chosen the rather peculiar name for his outfit to symbolize the willingness of its members to die for their cause—protecting Syria.

“Before each battle or each mission I ask my God to let me die defending Syria”, he explained. “If we are involved with a joint operation with Hezbollah, who are much admired because of their honesty and trustworthiness, I lead my men to the front line and ahead of Hezbollah troops out of respect for them and because we Syrians believe that as their grateful hosts we have this duty.”

The gentleman began explaining the history of his militia, one of thousands (both pro-and anti-government) operating in Syria these troubled days. It is a history that included some of his predecessors fighting with the PLO in Beirut during the summer of 1982, but as he was relating all this, his phone rang. The conversation was not long. The caller, he informed this observer upon ringing off, was his “contact,” advising him that certain intelligence sources had received information overnight that an individual had been observed in the vicinity of Zeinab’s shrine placing a parcel of explosives into a vehicle, presumably with the intention to detonate it near her resting place. This riveted my attention, in part because this observer was scheduled by chance to join an army escort the next day and visit the historic site, located about 40 minutes south of Damascus. Nearly two months ago the government regained control of the area, but there are still some snipers around, I had been apprised by friends. Abu Modar’s specific mission was to take some of his commandos and kick in the door of the suspect’s house sometime during the night, arrest him, and turn him over to someone for interrogation. His mission struck me as simple enough and he was matter of fact in outlining his plan.

“We do this sort of mission often. This is part of our expertise, and we do it whenever we are asked by Resistance friends and Syrian authorities. It spares the army for their normal work on battlefields, and our unit is specialized, and from long experience we have acquired certain useful skills.”

I demurred when he invited me to join him, explaining I was a bit out of shape and did not want to get in the way of his men’s work or potentially hamper their operation. But he insisted, saying that I could stay in his jeep and just observe, and he doubted that I would be in any serious danger. I was tempted to accept his invitation, and agreed to his proposal to meet after lunch to finalize our plans for that night’s outing. At this point, however, I called a trusted and knowledgeable Syrian friend, who knows a lot about these matters, and she seemed exasperated I would even consider tagging along with the Death Brigade.

“Absolutely not Franklin! Khalas! (finish!) You are visiting Seyeda Zeinab bokra with the army and you are not going with anyone else!”

Frankly, I was a bit relieved by my friend’s unequivocal counsel, and my new pal from the “Death” militia (who is acquainted with her) sportively understood. An interesting anecdote was at this point related by my interpreter: that Abu Modor had laughed and claimed a badge of honor upon recently being shown YouTube videos regarding his macho, George-Patton-style exploits in Qusayr, and in villages around Qalamoun, and rebel claims that he and his brigade were “the number one pro-regime murderers in Syria.” I might also mention that the “Death” unit is part of the not-well-known-in-the-West Popular Front for the Liberation of Iskanderun (PFLI), currently fighting rebels north of Latakia, in the mountains bordering Turkey, and whose forces have also periodically spent time guarding the resting place of Zeinab.

The geographical place name “Seyeda Zeinab” can be confusing for an untutored foreigner, the reason being that it may refer to a group of five small cities in the governorate of Damascus—Al Zeyabeya, Hujayr, Husseiniya, Akraba and Babila—or, alternately, to the sacred burial place and shrine for Zeinab bint Ali, the daughter of Ali, the first Shia Imam, and his first wife Fatima. Zeinab was also the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and the sister of Husayn and Hassan. Her shrine and pilgrimage destination are located in the small town of Seyeda (Lady) Zeinab, but given its fame, the name also refers to a wider area. As a holy shrine and place of prayer and scholarship, one imagines this place to be in the category of perhaps Qoms in Iran, and Najaf in Iraq. All three attract thousands of pilgrims and tourists, and since the area surrounding Seyeda Zeinab was liberated and essentially pacified by the Syrian Army recently, visitors are again arriving daily from countries including Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan and Lebanon, among others.

The Mayor of Seyeda Zeinab, this observer’s gracious host, is Mohammad Barakat, a Sunni engineer from Homs, roughly in his early 50’s. His staff is of mixed religious backgrounds, and, as with most Syrian citizens I have met over the past three years, was essentially blind to and uninterested in sectarian differences in existence before the current crisis. All the mayor’s staff members are working long hours these days, responding to numerous requests for post-liberation help, appeals which they try their best to accommodate with their limited available resources. My three-hour discussion with Mayor Barakat was interrupted perhaps as many as a couple of dozen times by the appearance of an aid often seeking his signature or mayoral stamp on citizen petitions covering anything from requests for food stuffs, problems with housing, or attempts to find employment with a municipal project now getting started.

In his bee hive of an office, the mayor used a pointer to highlight locations on a large wall map hanging next to his desk, the map illustrating areas where repair and construction projects are being readied. Mr. Barakat enthusiastically proclaimed, “2014 is the year we intend to start and finish area restoration work, and we take pride in the prospect that what we achieve here in Seyeda Zeinab can be a model for restoration work all over Syria that hopefully can begin soon.”

Barakat and three of his staff members accompanied this observer on an informative and inspiring tour of the Mosque and Shrine of Saeyda Zeinab. The shrine, our hosts informed us, is an example of Shia architecture, and the dome is made of pure gold. The grave of Zeinab is enclosed within a raised, crypt-like structure centered directly beneath the massive golden dome. The doors of the shrine are apparently also made of pure gold, with mirror works on the roof and walls. The minarets and the entrance gate of the holy shrine are covered with Iranian moarrahg tile designed by the famous Iranian architect and tile artist Ali Panjehpour. My colleague from the mayor’s office allowed me to finger one and explained that each 4 x 4 inch tile, of which there were hundreds of thousands in the complex, cost more than $100 USD. There is also a large mosque adjoining the shrine which this observer was advised can accommodate more than 1,300 people and a further 150 in the attached courtyards. The two tall minarets, one of which was damaged by a rebel mortar, dominate the architecture of the mosque as well as a large souk on the other side of a newly-built security wall.

In the cavernous nave of the Seyeda Zeinab, just next to the beautifully inlaid, elevated crypt holding her remains, approximately 50 men were performing mid-day Salat al Duhr prayers. Some were in camouflage uniforms and appeared to be on military leave or from the security units guarding the inside and perimeter of Zeinab’s Shrine.

This observer did not want to awkwardly press his hosts for details regarding the identities of the armed men guarding Seyeda Zeinab or where they are from. Some Western media sources have speculated that Shia fighters from Iraq and Lebanon came to Syria to protect Seyeda Zeinab following the desecration in Iraq of the tomb of Hajar Bin Aday. Several sites on the Internet published reports claiming that a takfiri group exhumed the tomb of Bin Aday, who was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and who was loyal to Imam Ali bin Abi Talib. Bin Aday’s remains were reportedly taken to an unknown location. This observer infers that Hezbollah is currently a prominent presence guarding Seyeda Zeinab, and my Syrian companion noted Lebanese accents in the guard station at the entrance.

At the entrance to the women’s area, several women were praying and others appeared to be part of the shrine’s Women’s Auxiliary, or Guild, as they directed visitors while graciously assisting and providing female visitors with black chadors upon entering the sanctuary. One charming middle age woman, who appeared to be Iranian, smiled knowingly at me, and with a twinkle in her eyes jokingly offered this visiting American a chador as “a gift and souvenir from our Holy Shrine and from our community—to take back to your country, in appreciation of you not bombing us…yet!” And she laughed at her own joke, as did all who heard it, including the mayor, some nearby soldiers, and teen-aged visiting students.

Update on the capture of the bad person sought by Abu Modar

Well, did Abu Modar and his “Death Brigade” get their man?

They did indeed, and it was the night before this observer’s arrival at Seyeda Zeinab. Abu Modar detailed to this observer and a few of his militia guys the evening’s events as we made plans to leave the next morning for the Iskandroun region and an interview the PFLI President, Ali Kyali. The capture, it seems, came about not by kicking in the alleged bad guy’s door, American SWAT team-style. Rather, the suspect was stealthily followed and, during the early morning of 2/25/14, apprehended at one of the Syrian army checkpoints that surround the village of Seyeda Zeinab.

Such incidents make it clear that Seyeda Zeinab is still a target of some jihadist types given its great importance to Syria, the region, and among Muslims globally. Yet across sectarian divides here there are growing signs of the great majority of the exhausted populations being ready, to a degree, to forgive and forget at least some of the events of the past nearly 36 months.

Visiting Seyeda Zeinab is a wonderful, solemn, exhilarating and inspiring ecumenical experience—one highly recommended to all tourists planning to come to the Syrian Arab Republic as improving security conditions begin to allow for the return of international visitors.

May the Sainted Martyr, Zeinab bint Ali, whose life was devoted to charity and to nursing others, and who is a model for all humanity of resistance and defiance against oppression and all forms of injustice, forever rest in peace.

Fasten Your Seatbelts: The Coming Global Monetary Reset

The big currency reset. It’s not a case of ‘if’ – it’s a case ofwhen.

Don’t expect your provincial Secretary of Treasury or Chancellor Exchequer to warn you about what is coming around the corner, because they are either too stupid to know, or too busy covering their own backsides.

To understand where we are, it’s very important to understand how we got here (another point which bureaucrats and backers do not want the general populace to know).

A quick history lesson then…

The Opposite of Emerging is Submerging

Lulled and distracted by the antics of developed country central banks and emerging economy central banks – to constantly “pump-up the jam” and flood the economy with paper casino chips from either Fort Knox or Mount Gox, the real tectonic shift of the global economy since 2008 has been more or less ignored by financial gurus and sages. It is taken as “normal” that deflation, ordisinflation is operating in the developed economies, but now we can see that rip-roaring inflation operating in the emerging economies.

Supposedly, this is ‘Muddle Through’, but since 2008 the North-South paradigm has all but dissolved – the developed OECD economies are locked in a death embrace with the Emerging economies. The developed economies are now locked into chronic globalization – exporting monetary inflation while importing cheap industrial goods, services and resources.

Since 2008 the always-promised ‘world shift’ of the economy from west to east, and from north to south has happened, but the net result is a shock. Pretending “we didn’t know” is comforting, but ultimately stupid.

This is an unstable equilibrium, or an interregnum – even a sideshow, because the current global economic context and process is the exact opposite of sustainable. Harm to both North and South is now the main impact of the post-2008 process of overreach and intense fiat paper shuffling. Listing the consequences and causes of this overreach is not easy and always open to argument, but possibly the best summary is to suggest that since 2008, ‘Ricardo’s comparative advantage‘ paradigm has been inverted. Economic and above all monetary globalization is now the path to ruin and poverty. From win-win to lose-lose. The worse it gets, expect the architects of ruin – establishment politicians, central bankers and financial pundits, to retreat into even deeper denial.

The Production Bubble That Triggers the Collapse

Another simple way to argue the global economy has overreached is that industrial and economic production capacity in the Emerging economies (EMs), starting with the BRICs, is now massively over-sized. This means the EMs can and will saturate the post-industrial, deflating North with industrial supply at every stage and opportunity as technology, design and product development throw up a new market openings everywhere. Examples like the car and cellphone, fashion wear and off-shore call center industries are relatively “classic”. All of these are already saturated with capacity – but the EMs are still adding more. Previous historical “classic examples” of this process for example included the ship building industry, but the scale paradigm has been woefully ignored.

Since 2008, the process has intensified, creating an increasingly certain outlook for a forced and fiat end to the willingness of the EMs to accept the fiat currency endlessly printed to finance the deflating, de-industrializing DMs (developed economies).

This will not necessarily be a politicized process, of the type hinted at by India’s central bank governor (see http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/tag/raghuram-rajan/), due to the rapidity and scale of the crisis, but instead trigger the collapse of the current global fiat monetary orderdictated by national economic self-defence and survival in the EMs.

The economic jump start of the Ricardo model, which has run riot for the last quarter-century, and went into over-drived from 2008 – will be abandoned.

Deflation/Inflation: Two Sides of the Same Bitcoin

Ricardo’s original model held sunny Portugual as a producer of cork and sherry, while rainy England could produce wine casks from its oak forests and wool from its sheep flocks. The money used in a basically resource-based exchange using then-rapidly growing maritime transport capabilities was held to be stable and gold-linked (or based). Later on, low-cost labor resources were built into Ricardo’s paradigm called “comparative advantage”. The EMs since the 1980s have played the role of resource providers while the DMs were the solvent market suppliers.

While there was a clear limit on cork, wine, oak casks and woolens supply and demand, this does not really apply to modern global fiat money and modern industrial technology. These are high gain positive feedback processes which only stop when they hit a brick wall.

The Ricardo comparative advantage model does not apply to post-1980′s globalization and super economies – like those of China and India, where industrial technology has raced ahead of infrastructure development. This is simply a bomb waiting to explode, alongside the industrial capacity growth, the EMs engaged massive growth of credit, mushroom growth urbanization, neglect of the agriculture and food sector, and turning a blind eye to rampant or even “structural” corruption. Inflation was the sure and certain result.

The results do not stop there. While inflation took off inside the EMs, with their economies producing more than they can consume, and exporting to the DMs which consume more than they produce, the EMs are also exported deflation to the developed market economies. At the same time, the emerging market economies mined out their capital bases to maintain their breakneck growth of industrial capacity.

On an almost daily basis now, the EMs are all shifting to current account deficit with the inevitable consequences of national currency devaluation, further inflation, and of course – higher interest rates.

Win-Win to Lose-Lose: Global Fiat Currency Crisis

The post-1980′s economic globalization paradigm can be called an initial ‘Win-Win’ model which eventually morphed to Lose-Lose.

The industrial nations of the DMs, which formerly benefited from the resource nations of the EMs under the previous ‘Ricardo-type’ model, are now mired in debt and de-industrialization, making it impossible for them to “grow their way out of crisis”. The EMs on their present industrial expansion path can only grow themselves into rapidly-deepening crisis.

The “money-in-the-middle” especially concerns the US dollar and its subsidiary partner, theeuro, both of which are vastly overvalued fiat currencies – but against what? Almost inevitably, this will feature a big rebound for gold, playing the starring role of in this latest episode of “Canary in the Monetary Coal Mine”. From a personal standpoint, or national (for those who have any), physical gold and silver could end up providing solid protection against the exposure of a monetary reset.

Conversely, commodities are unlikely to profit on an enduring sustained basis, due to economic restructuring, re-centering and contraction being almost certain.

Commenting on the IMF’s latest report on global capital flows since 1980, Reuters on 30 January said that while the IMF estimates net capital inflows to emerging economies as $7 trillion or more only since 2005, this was a “legacy trend” hinged on the EMs running a much higher GDP growth differential above the DMs than present. The IMF report noted that for 2014, economic growth in the BRICs will go on declining, and for Russia and Brazil, they will be less even than the GDP growth of the US and Britain. While the IMF’s economists do not allow themselves to project break-of-series change to the global economy, the process of what Gordon T. Long calls “Global collateral impairment” can easily default as the net result of apparently ‘unrelated and complex’ runaway processes.

This collateral impairment will inevitably trigger multi-national currency protection measures, a situation already clear in countries like Turkey, India, Argentina and other EMs.

For DMs in the North, plans are likely already underway. Will the reset feature a brand new reserve currency, or the introduction a fledgling single global, or virtual currency? If so, what will it be backed by (or maybe it won’t). It’s hard to know right now, but a shift of that magnitude could provide for the introduction of something new in the mix.

It’s a case of problem, reaction, solution, and one can assume that this Hegelian equation has already been mapped out on the back of a napkin in an executive dining floor of the one of the world leading central banks, possibly written using Christine Lagarde’s lip stick.

As a result, sacrificing GDP growth to protect the national money in the EMs will be inevitable. In turn, this will send a severe shock wave North to the DMs ,which have surfed on the latter-day version of the Ricardo paradigm for the last 30 years, and are now left unable to adapt.

The basic conclusion is that a global monetary reset is now overdue.

There will be shock waves, and haircuts too.

Brace yourself for impact, because it’s coming.

Source: Andrew McKillop | 21st Century Wire

“Firesales” Could Trigger Another Financial Crisis

“The repo market wasn’t just a part of the meltdown. It was the meltdown.” – David Weidner, Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2013.

Ask your average guy-on-the-street ‘what caused the financial crisis’, and you’ll either get a blank stare followed by a shrug of the shoulders or a brusque, three-word answer: “The housing bubble”. Even people who follow the news closely are usually sketchy on the details. They might add something about subprime mortgages or Lehman Brothers, but not much more than that. Very few people seem to know that the crisis began in a shadowy part of the financial system called repo, which is short for repurchase agreement. In 2008, repo was ground zero, the epicenter of the meltdown. That’s where the bank run took place that froze the credit markets and sent the financial system into freefall. Unfortunately, nothing has been done to fix the problems in repo, which means that we’re just as vulnerable today as we were five years ago when Lehman imploded and all hell broke loose.

Repo is a critical part of today’s financial architecture. It allows the banks to fund their long-term securities cheaply while giving lenders, like money markets, a place where they can park their money overnight and get a small return. The entire repo market is roughly $4.5 trillion, although the more volatile tri-party repo market is around $1.6 trillion. (Note: That’s $1.6 trillion that’s rolled over every day.)

Repo works a lot like a pawn shop. You bring your rusty bike and your imitation Van Gogh “Starry Night” to Rosie’s E-Z-Pawn, and the guy with the gold earring behind the counter gives you 15 bucks in return. That’s how repo works too, the only difference is that repo is a loan. The banks post collateral –mostly pools of mortgages (MBS) or US Treasuries– and get overnight loans from a cash-heavy lenders, like money markets, insurance companies or pension funds. Borrowers repay the loan with interest added to the original sum.

The problem that arose in 2008, and that will likely crop up in the future, was that the value of the underlying collateral (subprime MBS) was steadily downgraded forcing the banks to take steep haircuts. (which means they couldn’t borrow as much on their collateral) The bigger the haircuts, the less money the banks had to fund their securities which forced them to sell assets to make up the difference. When banks and other financial institutions deleverage quickly, asset prices plunge and capital is wiped out forcing the Fed to step in and backstop the system to prevent a full-blown meltdown. And that’s exactly what the Fed did in 2008. It slashed rates to zero, set up myriad lending facilities and provided unlimited backing for both regulated and unregulated financial institutions. It was the biggest financial rescue operation of all time and it cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 13 trillion dollars in loans and other guarantees. Under the provisions of the Dodd Frank financial reforms, the Fed is forbidden from carrying out a similar bailout in the future, although you can bet-your-bippy that Yellen and Co. will bend the rules if there’s another catastrophe.

Fixing repo is not a left-right issue. Among the people who follow these things, there is general agreement about what needs to be done to make the system safer. Even New York Fed President William C. Dudley –who’s no “liberal” by any stretch–admits that the system is broken. In October, 2013, at a bank conference Dudley opined, “Current reforms do not address the risk that a dealer’s loss of access to tri-party repo funding could precipitate destabilizing asset fire sales, whether by the dealer itself, or by the dealer’s creditors following a default.” In other words, the chances of another 5-alarm fire sometime in the future are pretty darn good.

Dudley’s description of what happened during the acute phase of the crisis is also worth reviewing. He said:

“Higher margins on repo and increased collateral calls due to credit ratings downgrades reduced the quantity of assets that could be financed in repo markets and elsewhere, prompting further asset sales. As wholesale investors started to exit, this set in motion a bad dynamic—a fire sale of assets that cut into earnings and capital. This just increased the incentives of investors to run and for banks to hoard liquidity against the risk that they could themselves face a run. This downward spiral of fire sales and funding runs was a key feature of the financial crisis …”

And, that, dear reader, is a first-rate account of what happened in 2008 when panic gripped the markets and the dominoes started to tumble. Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s version of events is also worth a look if only because he describes the crash in terms of what it really was, a modern day bank run. Here’s what he said:

“What was different about this crisis was that the institutional structure was different. It wasn’t banks and depositors. It was broker-dealers and repo markets. It was money market funds and commercial paper.”

While most analysts agree about the origins of the crisis and the type of changes that are needed to avoid a repeat, the banks have blocked all attempts at reforming the system.

But, why?

It’s because the reforms would cost the banks more money, and they don’t want that. They’d rather put the entire system at risk, then cough up a little more dough to make repo safer. Here’s how the New York Fed summed it up in a paper titled “Shadow Bank Monitoring”:

“One clear motivation for intermediation outside of the traditional banking system is for private actors to evade regulation and taxes. … Regulation typically forces private actors to do something which they would otherwise not do: pay taxes to the official sector, disclose additional information to investors, or hold more capital against financial exposures. Financial activity which has been re-structured to avoid taxes, disclosure, and/or capital requirements, is referred to as arbitrage activity.” (“Shadow Bank Monitoring”, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Reports, September, 2013)

That says it all, doesn’t it? They don’t want to pay taxes, they don’t want to hold capital against their collateral, and they want to continue to run their businesses in the shadows so nosy shareholders and regulators can’t see what the heck they’re up to. So, what else is new? The banks are running a crooked, black box operation, and they aim to keep it that way come hell or high water.

The banks can’t be reasoned with, that’s obvious from the position they’ve taken. They’ve put profits above everything, even the viability of the system. How can you reason with people like that? Just get a load of what the New York Fed said on the matter:

“Intermediaries create liquidity in the shadow banking system by levering up the collateral value of their assets. However, the liquidity creation comes at the cost of financial fragility as fluctuations in uncertainty cause a flight to quality from shadow liabilities to safe assets. The collapse of shadow banking liquidity has real effects via the pricing of credit and generates prolonged slumps after adverse shocks.”

This sounds more complicated than it is. What the Fed is saying is: “Hey, guys, you’re creating all this fake money (credit) by loading up on leverage (borrowing), and that’s pushing us closer to another crisis. Once the money markets figure out that all those nifty subprime CDOs you’ve been trading for overnight loans aren’t worth Jack-crap, then they’re going to cut you off at the knees and move into risk-free assets like US Treasuries. So why don’t you wise-the-hell-up, and start playing by the rules like everyone else so we don’t have to deal with another big, freaking meltdown. Okay?”

(Of course, I’m paraphrasing here.)

The only way to fix repo is by backstopping collateral with more capital, forcing all trading onto central clearing platforms (where regulators can see what’s going on), and regulating shadow banks like traditional, commercial banks. The editors at Bloomberg said it best nearly a year ago. They said: ” If an entity engages in banking activity… it must register as a bank, with all the backstops and capital requirements that entails.”

Right on.

If we’re not going to nationalize the banks and turn them into public utilities, which is what we should have done in 2009 when we had the chance, then we need to put safeguards in place to keep them from crashing the system every few years.

Regulate, Regulate, Regulate. That’s the ticket.

Stricter regulations could have prevented the last crisis, and stricter regulations can prevent the next one. It’s just a matter of finding the political will to get the job done.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Do You Really Want To Know?

G. Edward Griffin is a leader in the effort to inform the public about the dark blanket of imperialism being stretched across the Globe.  The blanket is still light and much of the free world is still breathing the air of peace, prosperity, and freedom.  But the Specter of the blanket can be seen in the long thin clouds of spray that fill our skies and in the United Nations signs that appear outside our parks.  Strands have invaded our town meetings where the phrase “Sustainable Development” has become common.  It can be affirmed by the death of privacy in Swiss Banks, by massive purchases of arms and ammunition by Homeland Security, and by the burgeoning piles of information being accumulated at the National Security Agency.  As light gives-way to darkness a solitary flame of freedom still burns brightly.

Informative messengers like the John Birch Society, G. Edward Griffin, Paul Craig Roberts, Rev. Chuck Baldwin and dozens of other talented internet speakers and writers have been conveying the message of clandestine danger for decades but the sparks have been too weak to ignite a fire.  The sweet wine of propaganda has sated many of our citizens and the evils of centralization have been erased from their self-censored minds.

Though most of our citizens claim to be Christian there is wide spread ignorance of the government our Christian God demands.  Preachers stress pietism and evangelism and assure their congregations that God’s Law is no longer valid.  Efforts to please God by studying and seeking to obey His commandments have been replaced by church Bible studies where in wicked arrogance God’s children critique their Creator and King.  Real Christianity has been left like a pot of gold in the middle of a Harlem street – defenseless and vulnerable.

Libertarians resist the looming tyranny with considerable energy.  They monitor the strands of control and publish informative warnings.  Their goal is a form of freedom with few moral restraints.  Some Christians are sprinkled through their midst and a few seek a Godly legal structure but the party contains a strong band of license seeking anarchists.

R. J. Rushdoony describes this problem: “The great illusion promoted by the United States and others is that freedom, by which they mean voting, will bring wealth and prosperity, but it does not.  What is required is character, moral standards put to work, a governing faith that creates its own environment.  Lacking that, the people will curse freedom and democracy as much as they did Marxism and dictatorship.  Freedom is a relative good: freedom can have an evil use as well as a good one.  The faith and morality of a people determine their use of freedom.”

A righteous, unchangeable, overarching legal structure and an obedient people provide the basis for maximum freedom.  Human beings were designed to live under the Will of their Creator; they are intrinsically unable to maintain peace and freedom any other way.  Without willing obedience to The Higher Authority diverse human opinion always produces tyranny

There are several concerns with current dissenting solutions to the world’s problems.  The major complaint against the progressive American entanglement in world government has been obedience to the Constitution.  The Constitution encodes religious freedom.  Rushdoony comments on this problem: “A multiverse of values means that men can choose their values and their lifestyles.  Homosexuality, necrophilia, incest bestiality, theft, murder, lies, and more all gain an equal validity as lifestyles.  In a world that affirms democracy, this means that all men have an equal right to play god and to live according to the morality of their choice.  Our present moral decay is a product of this polytheistic faith.  We cannot recover as a people and a culture without obedience to this first commandment. “Thou shalt have none other gods before me.”

In United States voting is considered a virtue in itself and hundreds of thousands of uninformed voters cast a ballot hoping to support their self-interest.  The entire process is conducted in a sea of slanted propaganda spewed through a biased media that seeks to keep voters ignorant and thinking they can actually influence the Federal Government.

Many citizens who fail to understand the malignant nature of both political parties become addicted to the process and continue year after year to believe the contrived lies that make up political campaigns.  If their candidate is elected and does exactly the opposite of what was promised they speak and write vigorous complaints. Some are so severely captivated that they make excuses for rank mendacity.  It is a form of insanity!

Dislike for the existing system provides fertilizer for numerous alternatives.  Waiting in the wings are powerful Communistic and Socialist organizations.  In unsettled times adrenalin begins to flow through the veins of despots of all stripes.  Promises of peace and prosperity come from every direction but the history of anarchic overthrows of repressive regimes is almost always another, that is often worse.

Distracting two party politics was not a product of the Constitution but was incipient before it was written.  The original division was between those who favored a strong, authoritative federal government and those who championed limited federal power.  This division created two political parties from the outset.   Humanism had seeped into the minds of our founders.  Biblical principles still lurked in their heads and though they crafted a document that showcased their desire to preserve freedom it was maligned with their prejudices.

Power seekers centralize; freedom seekers decentralize.  Biblical government decentralizes power into individual families.  The federal government should be a servant to the family which is overseen by the father.  The law should support the family and the church should arbitrate righteousness.  With God’s unchanging law standing supreme this governmental pattern could provide utmost freedom for the world and its citizens.

The United States of America has been overcome by powerful people who are willing to go along to get along.  Political parties are tightly controlled by their leaders and by a handful of shadowy but powerful owners of banks, corporations, press, and media.  Voters have been convinced that compromise is a component of good government.  When a nation functions without absolute rights and wrongs compromise allows politicians to legislate change.   Tragically, by allowing consistently inferior decisions, the change produces a constant deterioration in excellence.

Existentialism is a bane.   Widespread foreboding contributes to our concern for the moment; get all the gusto we can, for tomorrow we die!   The God of the Bible is concerned with the past, present, and future.  God reminds His people regularly of His former merciful and miraculous actions and has designed His commandments to produce a peaceful, prosperous and free future.  Rushdoony writes, “The anarchistic individualism of our time makes us mindless of the importance of our past and of our histories as people.”

God’s intentions for His people cannot be realized under a civil government that destroys the past with names like “Presidents Day”, threatens property ownership with ever increasing taxation, and the family structure by flaunting God’s directives.

Aggrandizing and distorting history sets society on a foundation of shifting sand.  Our first president, George Washington, is a hero to Americans and particularly to Christians.  He was, indeed, an admirable man.  Nevertheless, he was not without faults and some seriously injured the future of our nation.  Income to finance the Revolutionary war was always a problem to General Washington.  His ability to find funds to feed and equip his troops was hampered by the lack of a legal tax structure and when His considerable power was brought to bear on the construction of our Constitution the ability to tax was successfully included.  He was also very active in the Masons and religious freedom was another serious concern.  He sought to create a nation of free citizens but, ultimately, his prejudices have hampered its existence.

Lou Rockwell’s internet site and a host of Libertarian writers and speakers are doing a commendable job of ferreting out the dangers our imperial government is creating but their solution is not only vague but often utopian.

Freedom is a product of a righteous and obedient society.  God knows that we are sinners who require the rod and the staff of the Law if we wish to live in peace and freedom.  As our Creator and King He knows us better than we know ourselves.  When we become obsessed with our importance we need to consider that we had nothing to do with our entrance into this world and will not be able to control our exit.  We are sojourners in a wonderful world that we did not create but that we have a responsibility to contribute to, to enjoy and preserve.  We are tiny in relation the vast universe and unable to comprehend the infinite nature of its creator.   We have obeyed God’s command to subdue the earth but for our own ends not for those of our Ruler

The God of the Bible is sovereign and there is no doubt that the captivity that threatens the earth is a form of punishment.  We are self-ruled rebels who have forsaken God’s Commandments and thumbed our noses at His Person.  We need to thank Him for his mercy since the penalty for treason is death.  The Bible reports that when people repented and changed their ways He forgave them and restored them.  When all else fails will we repent?

Gentle reader, do you understand that when God fights on the side of righteousness victory is assured and numbers mean nothing.   We have people praying but God will not answer the prayers of a people who are under judgment.  Christians who use the end times as an excuse for disobedience bring God’s judgment on themselves and on our nation.  Every Christian must seek to obey God’s Commandments and to bring the nation and the world under His authority by the same obedience.  Much of our law has already been changed from righteousness to evil.  Changes in the law enforce confiscatory taxation, staggering debt, illegal wars, despotism, abortion and homosexuality.  We must support God’s Law.  The Constitution is ancillary; it is God’s Law that both we and our government must obey.

The legal codes contained in the Bible seem utopian by today’s standards but before the Constitution was ratified they were the foundation of our nation; though lonely, they are still the gold medal solution.

The Rushdoony quotes are from his book “Deuteronomy”.

Sinister Illusions: Masking Tragedy In Ukraine

It is no secret that Barack Obama is one of the supreme illusionists of modern times. The disconnect between his words and his deeds is so profound as to be almost sublime, far surpassing the crude obfuscations of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Their projections of unreality were more transparent, and in any case were merely designed to put a little lipstick on the pig of policies they were openly pushing. For example, they openly wanted to conquer Iraq and expand the militarist state, they openly wanted to redistribute national wealth to the elite, so they just gussied up this unhidden agenda with some fantasies about WMD and the occult magic of “tax cuts,” whereby enriching the rich and degrading all notion of the common good would somehow create a utopia of prosperity (for deserving white folk, at least).

There was a disconnect between their rhetoric and reality, to be sure, but it was easily seen through (except, of course, by the highly-paid credulous cretins of our national media). Indeed, the Bushists seemed unconcerned by how threadbare their lies were; they delivered their lines like bored performers at the end of a long stage run, not caring whether they were believed or not — just as long as they got to do what they wanted.

But Obama has taken all this to another level. He is a consummate performer, and strives to “inhabit” the role and mouth his lines as if they make sense and convey some sort of emotional truth. Also, most of the time his rhetoric, his role, his emotional stance are in stark opposition to his actual policies. He is not just gilding his open agenda with some slap-dash lies; he is masking a hidden agenda with a vast array of artifice, expending enormous effort not to prettify an ugly reality but to create an entire counter-reality, an alternate world that does not exist. Again, no one one was in any doubt about the Bushists’ militarism, their dedication to the financial elite or their disdain for anyone who was not, in their view, a “normal American” (white, traditionalist, bellicose, greedy). In fact, that’s exactly why millions of “normal Americans” voted for them. But Obama’s image — cool, compassionate, progressive, peace-seeking, non-traditionalist, anti-elitist — is so far at odds with his actual policies, and with the world as it actually exists, that you can get severe whiplash turning from his rhetoric to reality.

Take his astonishing attack on Vladimir Putin for “interfering” in Ukraine. That Obama could make this charge with a straight face — days after his own agents had been exposed (in the infamous “Fuck the EU” tape) nakedly interfering in Ukraine, trying to overthrow a democratically elected government and place their own favorites in charge — was brazen enough. But in charging Putin with doing exactly what the Americans have been doing in Ukraine, Obama also fabricated yet another alternate world, turning reality on its head.

Speaking at a summit in Mexico, Obama unilaterally declared that Ukraine should overturn the results of its democratic election in 2010 (which most observers said was generally “fair and free” — perhaps more “fair and free” than national elections in, say, the United States, where losing candidates are sometimes wont to take power anyway, and where whole states dispossess or actively discourage millions of free citizens from voting). Instead, the Ukrainians should install an unelected “transitional government” in Kiev. Why should they do this? Because, says Obama, now channeling all Ukrainians in his own person, “the people obviously have a very different view and vision for their country” from the government they democratically elected. All of the people of Ukraine have a different vision, you understand; every last one of them. And what is their vision, according to Obama the Ukrainian Avatar? To enjoy “freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, fair and free elections.” Something you might think they had enjoyed by having fair and free elections in 2010, and exercising freedom of speech and assembly to such a degree that a vast opposition force had occupied much of the central government district for months. But the Avatar knows better, of course.

Now, this is not a defense of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government. It is, by all accounts, a highly corrupt enterprise given to insider deals for well-connected elites who influence government policy for their own benefit. I guess this might be a reason for overthrowing a democratically elected government with an armed uprising supported by foreign countries, but I would be careful about espousing this as a general rule if I were an American president. The old saw about stones and glass houses comes to mind.

The reality (if anyone cares about such a thing) is that the situation in Ukraine is complex. Opposition forces have a legitimate beef against a corrupt and heavy-handed government. The Kremlin is obviously trying to manipulate events and policies in Ukraine, just the United States is doing.  (Obama’s remarks on this topic are comedy gold: “Our approach in the United States is not to see [this] as some cold war chessboard in which we’re in competition with Russia. Our goal is to make sure that the people of Ukraine are able to make decisions for themselves about their future.” Yes, as long as they make the right decisions, unlike in 2010, when they voted for the wrong person.) Ukraine is polarized along several different lines — political, ethnic, historical, religious, linguistic — but these lines are not clear-cut, and often intersect, intermingle, are in flux. The pull away from Russia’s orbit is strong in many people; the desire to retain close relations to Russia is equally strong in others. (Although any attempt by Russia to quash Ukraine’s independence would likely unite all factions in resistance.) Many people look to the West as a model, even a saviour, although the EU deal that Yanukovych turned down, precipitating the outpouring of opposition, actually offered Ukraine very little other than Greek-style financial servitude, while the Kremlin, at least, proffered cash on the barrelhead. The opposition itself is not a monolith of moral rectitude; one of its driving forces is an ultra-nationalist faction that happily harks back to Ukraine’s fascist collaborators with Nazi invaders and spouts vile anti-Semitic rhetoric. It is likely that the ultra-nationalists are chiefly behind the opposition’s turn toward violent resistance, overshadowing the young, moderate, West-yearning, anti-corruption factions that have been the face of the uprising thus far.

And the fact is, not a single one of the Western governments now denouncing Ukraine for its repression would have tolerated a similar situation. Try to imagine thousands of, say, Tea Partiers, having declared that the elected government of Barack Obama was too corrupt and illegitimate to stand, setting up an armed camp in the middle of Washington, occupying the Treasury Building and Justice Department for months on end, while meeting with Chinese and Russian leaders, who then begin demanding a ‘transitional government’ be installed in the White House. What would be the government’s reaction? There is no doubt that it would make even Yanukovych’s brutal assault this week look like a Sunday School picnic.

So the situation in Ukraine is many-sided, complex, filled with ambiguity, change, nuance and chaos. Protest against a specific unpopular government policy first turned into a broader opposition to the government in general and is now threatening to turn into civil war. Such things do happen in the world, and yes, great powers do seek to influence and direct these events to their own advantage. It would be good if Ukraine could be rid of rule by corrupt elites; it is not all clear that a civil war led, at least in part, by racist nationalists, would lead to this happy outcome. But one thing that is not happening in Ukraine is Barack Obama’s fantasy that the entire Ukrainian people is rising to rid themselves of a tyrant so they can hold fair and free elections. They had such elections in 2010; and if the entire Ukrainian people now wants to get rid of their president, there are free elections scheduled for 2015. It is highly likely that Yanukovych’s corrupt and maladroit performance in office — not least his reaction to the protest movement itself — would have guaranteed his peaceful defeat at the ballot box next year. But it is also likely that these elections will not be held now. One way or another, Yanukovych will be forced out of office by the violent chaos that he, and sections of the opposition, and the machinations of Moscow and Washington have together produced. In any case, there is almost certainly more needless suffering in store for ordinary Ukrainians.

This is the reality, and tragedy, of the situation. But in the artfully hallucinated world of Barack Obama – a fantasy-land in which the entire American political and media elite also live – none of this matters. All that matters is the real agenda (which was also the agenda of George W. Bush, and Vladimir Putin for that matter): advancing the dominance of a brutal ruling class through manipulation, militarism, and deception, whenever the opportunity arises.

Chris Floyd is an American journalist. He is the author of Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium, and is co-founder and editor of the “Empire Burlesque” political blog. He can be reached at . 

Missing Military-Industrial-Complex Money

When Major General Smedley Butler made his case,”War is a Racket” he did not pull any punches. “The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! That is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let’s get it.” The business of military procurement has multiplied since his fateful revelations.Not satisfied with fair profits or feasible competition, the practices of the defense corporatists illustrate one aspect of waste, graft and systemic bribery. William D. Hartung describes the consolidation and expanse of a select group of companies in the paper, The Military-Industrial Complex Revisited: Shifting Patterns of Military Contracting in the Post-9/11 Period

“Many of the same companies that benefited from increased Pentagon and war spending were top contractors for other security related agencies. For example, Lockheed Martin was not only the top contractor for the Pentagon, but it also ranked number one at the Department of Energy; number eight at the Department of Homeland Security (Boeing was number one); number two at the State Department; and number three at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Contracts let by these agencies were only a fraction of the levels awarded by the Pentagon, but they were significant nonetheless. For example, the Department of Homeland Security issued $13.4 billion in contracts in FY2008, NASA $15.9 billion, the State Department $5.5 billion, and the Department of Energy $24.6 billion.”

This dramatic growth in budgets is even more significant, when viewed in the context of world expenditures of other counties. Leaving aside the relative merits of the dangers and risk of external threats, the gigantic enterprise of fostering the biggest military apparatus in history has made select factions rich at the expense of the many.

Jonathan Turley in Pentagon Plugs: New Study Finds Pentagon Has Hidden Trillions In Missing Money And Equipment, references an example on how the overall avoidance of financial accountability, outright fraud and intentional concealment operates.

“A new report has detailed how the military has cooked the books to hide trillions, that’s right trillions, in missing money and equipment. The military calls them “plugs,” a curious term for fraud. These are knowingly fake figures used to hide the fact that there is no accurate record of the money.

The plugs are generally the work of the office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Required to complete an audit, the staff simply faked the numbers.”

Reuter’s reports on a Special Report: The Pentagon’s doctored ledgers conceal epic waste.

“Over the past 10 years, the Defense Department has signed contracts for the provision of more than $3 trillion in goods and services. How much of that money is wasted in overpayments to contractors, or was never spent and never remitted to the Treasury, is a mystery. That’s because of a massive backlog of “closeouts” – audits meant to ensure that a contract was fulfilled and the money ended up in the right place.”

Now trillions are sums that are unimaginable The Department of the Treasury acknowledges that U.S. gold reserves (if you believe their figures) total $11,041,059,958.16 as of their Current Report: January 31, 2014.

An eleven billion dollars equivalent is a mere drop in the bucket to the monies allocated to the military and homeland security. Taxpayers are regularly deceived about the costs. Congress is kept in the dark about black programs. And the war racket keeps funneling and siphoning off unknown sums to accounts that only a super computer can track.

 

Corporatocracy: How the Corporate Welfare State Divides and Conquers is a video by James Corbertt that provides an insightful analysis which establishes a surreal account how the oligarchy operates. The financial shenanigans of corporatists contribute to the interlocking directorates, which run the money pit that keeps the empire operating.

A rational reform of a depraved money laundering arrangement is impossible without a fundamental repudiation of the internationalist foreign policy doctrines that permeates the State Department. Funding advance technological warfare platforms that are unheard of to even congressional oversight is profoundly unconstitutional.

When such practices become routine, the economic incentives breed crooked abuses. The obligations for responsible public policy are methodically destroyed, when transparency is eliminated.

The Washington Blog provides several useful sources that document the extent of the problem in “$8.5 TRILLION In Taxpayer Money Doled Out By Congress To The Pentagon Since 1996 … Has NEVER Been Accounted For” and sums up with a bleak assessment.

“The Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China’s economic output last year.”

Evidently, the elites that benefit from bilking appropriations and the board members that steer the defense contractors want the con to continue. For all the money directed towards maintaining the war machine, our actual security become less secure.

Banks laundry ill-gotten gain, as prevailing practice, in the normal course of business because the arm merchants are protected players in the trade. The reprehensible circle that the dogs of war unleash the cash flow from their illicit drug sales, through arms sales, allows for the smooth transfer of hidden blood money into number accounts.

Such an organized system of mutual payoffs greases the ever growing industry of fear and destruction. All the missing money is buried in the unknown cashes of subterranean tyranny. Creating false flag threats allows for imaginary scourges to be new enemies. Protection from such manufactured foes is the real business of the military-industrial-complex.

So, when more details surface about the lost and unaccounted military funding money, it is just part of the price of keeping you safe.

Greed + Cartels = US Sickcare/ObamaCare

Sickcare/ObamaCare is fundamentally broken at every level.

The incremental nature of change makes it difficult for us to notice how systems that once worked well with modest costs have transmogrified into broken systems that cost a fortune. Exhibit # 1 is higher education: 40 years ago, four-year public universities were affordable and two-year community colleges were almost free. Now students have to borrow $1 trillion to pay for the exorbitant privilege of higher education.

And no, the difference isn’t that states don’t provide the same funding–the difference is costs have soared while the yield on the investment has plummeted. Please read:

The Mafia State of Mind

Our Two Most Onerous Taxes: College Tuition and Healthcare Insurance

Our Middleman-Skimming Economy

America’s Make-Work Sectors (Healthcare and Higher Education) Have Run Out of Oxygen

Longtime correspondent Ishabaka (an M.D. with 30+ years experience in primary care and as an emergency room physician) responded to this article with an insider’s account of what happens when greed and cartels take over healthcare.After reading What’s wrong with American hospitals?, a scathing deconstruction of for-profit healthcare, Ishabaka submitted this commentary:

I could have told you what was wrong with our hospital system by 1989 – nobody would listen to me back then.

Up til the ’70’s, almost all hospitals in the United States were not for profit COMMUNITY HOSPITALS. They were LOCAL. The Board of Directors was made up of some senior doctors, maybe the head nurse, and various other prominent local businessmen and professionals. Others (mostly Catholic), were run as non-profits by religious orders. A very few, mostly very small hospitals were for profit, usually owned by a group of doctors, or even one doctor.

The mission of these community hospitals was to provide for the LOCAL COMMUNITY – one and all. Payment was various – private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, self pay – and the idea was to collect just enough money to keep the hospital going, and provide care for the poor who had no money to pay. If your grandma got bad care – you could go – in person – to the local, say, banker, on the Board of Directors, and tell him – and he would CARE.

THIS SYSTEM WORKED, and kept costs DOWN. Remember, the hospital just needed enough money to stay in the black. Often local wealthy people would will money to the hospital in which they had been cared for.

In the ’80’s – there was the arrival of the for-profit cartels – and I use the world cartels specifically – these were run by people with the sociopathic Goldman Sachs type mentality – their sole goal was to acquire huge sums of money for themselves, their hospital directors, and their SHAREHOLDERS. They used a typical sneaky technique – they’d come into town, and tell the locals they could run the hospital much cheaper, because of their economy of scale. People believed this, and the cartels bought out most of the community hospitals.

I worked at one such for-profit hospital and had a 21-year old indigent man come in who’d been struck by a car while walking, and was rapidly bleeding to death. The hospital administrator refused to open the operating room, even though I had a surgeon right there, willing and able to operate for free to save this young man’s life. The surgeon threw a fit, and he was a big wheel at the hospital and the administrator backed down – otherwise I firmly believe the young man would have died. This was LEGAL back then, before the EMTLA law was passed because similar abuses were rampant NATIONWIDE.

Around this time, the administrators of the remaining community hospitals found out the administrators of the for-profit hospitals were making tens of times their salaries – and bonuses based on profits – and started demanding similar salaries and bonuses based on PROFITS – a contradiction of the old concept of community hospitals (the article does touch on this).

How do you increase hospital profits? Number one – avoid any care for the poor you can weasel out of. Number two – cut staff to the bone and beyond (one of hospital’s biggest expenses). Most American hospitals now have UNSAFE nurse to patient ratios because of this.

As far as patient care goes, nurses are the most important people in hospitals. I know of one lady who DIED while in a monitored bed, and wasn’t found dead until several hours later due to the criminally low nursing staff ratio in a hospital I worked in. I HAD complained about the dearth of nurses, and was threatened with the loss of my job. Another side effect of this is, nursing in hospitals has become unbearable for nurses who really cared about their patients – many good hospital nurses have left hospital work for other fields. The results are appalling.

I saved the life of a patient an unqualified, under-educated nurse gave the wrong medicine to – a medicine that IMMEDIATELY MAKES YOU STOP BREATHING, because it was cheaper for the hospital to hire her than a knowledgeable and experienced nurse. The medicine is pancuronium bromide, if you want to Google it. The nurse didn’t know one of the effects was cessation of breathing – this is Pharmacology for Nurses 101, this drug is used all day long in every operating room in America (where doctors WANT patients under anesthesia to stop breathing, and put them on breathing machines during the surgery – which is very safe if done correctly).

I could go on and on. Simple things, like the instruments you use to suture cuts – community hospitals used to buy Swiss or German made ones that were of the finest quality, sterilize and re-use them over and over. This changed to disposable instruments that sometimes literally fell apart in my hands. Bandage tape that didn’t stick, instead of quality Johnson and Johnson tape – anything to save a buck.

It is not getting better, it is getting worse. The nurses I know tell me hospitals are cutting staff even MORE now in preparation for Obamacare.

I will end with a story that illustrates the difference between Old School and New School hospital administrators.

I had the pleasure of working five years in a real community hospital. One of the senior administrators (R.I.P.) was a gentleman who’d made his fortune in the grocery business. In his late 80’s, he would arrive at the emergency department entrance every morning between seven and eight am, and proceed to walk throughout the hospital. He would ask various and sundry staff how they were getting along – everyone from janitors to senior physicians. If something was amiss – HE RECTIFIED THE SITUATION. Tragically, this hospital was bought out, and is now part of a chain.

I had the displeasure of working in a “community” (really for-profit) hospital with a middle aged administrator who NEVER set foot outside his office or conference rooms – he NEVER appeared in the (very large and busy) emergency department once. This was in the early 90’s, and one year it was revealed that his compensation was $600,000 – and a brand new Lexus as a “performance bonus”. He was on the golf course by three pm every single day. That was the hospital where the woman who was being “monitored” (alarms and all that) was found very cold and dead after a delay of who knows how many hours.

Thank you, Ishabaka, for telling it like it really is. Needless to say, ObamaCare (the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act–ACA) purposefully ignores everything that is fundamentally broken with U.S. sickcare and extends the soaring-cost cartel system, essentially promising to stripmine the taxpayers of however many trillions of dollars are needed to generate outsized profits for the cartels.

Only those with no exposure to the real costs of ObamaCare approve of the current sickcare system. Government employees who have no idea how much their coverage costs, well-paid shills and toadies like Paul Krugman, academics with tenure and lifetime healthcare coverage–all these people swallow the fraud whole and declare it delicious.

Only those of us who are paying the real, unsubsidized cost know how unsustainable the system is, and only those inside the machine know how broken it is at every level. Greed + cartels = Sickcare/ObamaCare. Love your servitude, baby–it’s affordable, really, really, really it is.

Source: Blacklisted News

You Are The Enemy

There is now a New American War.  It is inside America. It is called the “War on Terror”. The enemy is YOU!

It is a staged, Phony War that has been created by the International Zionist Crime Syndicate (IZCS).

This New War on Terror has an enemy. That enemy is the American People, You and Me.

Every Military Force needs an enemy. Without an ongoing or perpetual war, the War profiteers quickly go bankrupt.

In order to keep their profit stream going from war, war-profiteers need to create successive new wars or a significant threat of impending war.

Creating pretexts for these much needed wars is very hard work and quite expensive too. But war is a business, a very big business, and war-profiteers need to invest big money to make even more in return.

Members of Congress must be bought, and top Generals and Admirals of the Military High Command too.

This costs a great deal of hard cold cash, but that’s okay because the IZCS gets all it needs from fat US foreign aid to Israel, fat contracts with Israeli Defense providers, and fat donations from those wealthy zionist businessmen that the IZCS manipulates, guilts or shakes down.

At this point, a select group of 70,000 K-Street Lobbyists go to work distributing funds to get elected officials on Board. The several select Generals and Admirals are handled more covertly.

If this is not enough revenue to pay off the necessary officials, the IZCS gets the rest directly from its private Central Banksters who can create all the money they want digitally, anytime they want, and give it to tribal brothers or anyone else, anytime they want.

Of course the key thing here is a significant portion of these fat revenues are kicked back to the corrupt, bought and owned members of Congress who voted for them, and to select top Generals and Admirals of the High Military Command who support the IZCS intended proxy wars by America on their behalf.

Under President Obama’s Administration, for whatever reasons, the High Military Command has not been willing to take payoffs and favors and has not been blackmail-able by the IZCS.

[Note: this is a long article and one option is to read the caps first and then any areas you are interested in if you have time]

Here is the new game in the so-called American Defense Industry.  It is a stateside game and it involves magically transforming any and all innocent, Constitutional, law-abiding citizens into Domestic Dissenters, aka “Domestic Terrorists” or something close enough to declare war on “Potential Domestic Dissenters, aka “Potential Domestic Terrorists”. This is an occult, alchemical symbolic processing of the American people (aka “we the people”) into an defined domestic enemy that can be waged war against on many fronts–phone and email tapping, massive spying and infiltration of all domestic groupings, even neighborhood coffee parties or local church charities–you name it, everything.

This new redefinition of normal law-abiding Americans into “Enemies of the State” and its internal security apparatus as a threat to national security IS a magical conversion or transformation of the normal American Society, mainstream law abiding America, into a huge domestic national security market. This is all an horrendous BIG LIE.

Actually the real situation is just the opposite–it is the USG and specifically the Fusion Centers and the Department of Homeland Security run by perverts and enemies of “we the people” that are the real risk to the true and actual national security of America the republic and to all honest, law abiding, Constitutional Americans. And the USG and DHS and Fusion Center officials are nothing less than world class criminals committing both High Treason and Sedition against America the Republic. The USG has been hijacked and is being run by those who have turned everything upside down.

This redefinition of course involves placing cameras and microphones on almost every street corner in the light-poles and pulsed beam psychotronic generators in many street lamps, turned on full power during rush hour to sedate and subdue the populace in order to keep the masses in line.

Some say that the new Chairman of the JCS, General Martin Dempsey, is a breath of fresh air, a real American Patriot who honors his Oath to defend the US Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.

So far, General Dempsey has resisted major efforts to coerce him to support and engage in any new major American Mideast Air and Ground invasion (another American proxy war for Israel).

And many believe that our new Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is another America-firster who takes his oath to defend the US Constitution seriously also.

JCS Chairman Dempsey’s independence and commitment to America on this matter has elevated him to the status of a “rock star” in the view of many who appreciate his steadfastness, and he is regarded as a true America-firster.

Some experts view JCS Chairman Dempsey’s integrity and commitment to America the Republic as a major turning point, signaling the realization by the High Military Command that the 9/11 attacks were an inside-job, a false-flag attack run by the IZCS with the help of several Traitors within the USAF, JCS, and NORAD.

And that it also signals a shocking realization, for the first time, that most of the Institutions of the USG have been deeply hijacked by the IZCS and their Cutouts have included the Bush Cabal which is now struggling to maintain a thin hold on power.(1)

Obviously, Chairman Dempsey’s and Defense Secretary Hagel’s steadfast resistance to being manipulated by the IZCS into fighting another major Mideast ground and Air proxy war for Israel appears to be driving the IZCS to desperation.  So far these America-firsters are holding fast against any and all IZCS manipulations and pressure and doing an excellent job staying on course.

The IZCS knows that unless it gets another American proxy war in the Mideast for Israel, they are finished.  They also know that if the American masses ever start finding out that 9/11 was planned and controlled by those owned by the IZCS, they are done too.

Actually the 9/11 attacks of the IZCS were in a sense a going-for-broke gamble of everything they have against the House (America the Republic). There is a very strong new American Populism which is emerging rapidly as a spontaneous by-product of the world-wide Internet and the Alternative news it carries, which provides truth to the masses for the first time.

Top insiders know all the names of who did the 9/11 inside-job false-flag attacks and are are ready to testify if an independent prosecutor is assigned and a special Grand Jury is called, and appropriate  immunity agreements are offered for “coming clean”. At least one, Steve Pieczenik, MD, Ph.D., (former Assistant Secretary of State and father of many deep cover black ops, and also the main character in many Tom Clancy books) has already gone public and named names and has said he is willing to testify in a Federal Court as to who did it.(2) Obviously Dr. Pieczenik is another great American Hero.

Some top insiders close to to the High Command have suggested that America is so deeply hijacked by the IZCS that it will take some years of the actions of high officials like JCS Chairman General Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to turn the tide and neutralize the rampant influence peddling of the IZCS over almost every member of Congress and many officials in the Department of Justice and the Alphabets.

Certainly the Department of Homeland Security is now recognized as a major IZCS beach-head inside America and part of a long term plan to establish a foreign controlled IZCS neo-Bolshevik military force inside America to Tyrannize, wage war against, and eventually serially mass murder most Americans.

This is why some top insiders refer to DHS as the New American Gestapo or Stasi.  Some see it now morphing into a New Red Cheka mass-murder machine for dispensing Bolshevik-style Red Terror and mass-murder to Americans.

The Cold War was a great boon to the defense Industry even though it never went hot anywhere but Korea and Vietnam, which were limited to prevent an all out nuclear exchange.

The first Iraq War (aka the Gulf War) under Bush1 resulted from covert trickery using Kuwaiti cross drilling, which was reported to Saddam Hussein by April Glaspie, who convinced him that the USG wouldn’t care if he invaded Kuwait to stop the theft of his oil from his main oil field. The second Mideast war was an Invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to get even with the alleged perps who supposedly did the 9/11 attacks, but actually never were involved at all.

President Obama is now unwilling to deploy American troops in any major new American land war or massive air bombardment campaign in the Mideast. Nor is the current US Military High Command willing to allow it at this time. In order to appease the so-called Defense Industry and their lobbyists, he has apparently deployed numerous teams of “special operators” and mercenaries but these have been fighting terrorists supported by America, a self-defeating exercise.

He has also continued to deploy drones with air-to-ground missiles to mass murder numerous innocent women, children and non-combatants. All these Mideast and African wars are illegal, unConstitutional, undeclared and unprovoked.  They have been sold to the American People and the Congress based on the BIG LIE that they are preemptive strikes necessary to prevent any more 9/11 attacks.

The need for preemptive strikes to prevent terrorist attacks inside America is an obvious lie for numerous reasons. Anyone who examines all the available evidence on 9/11, including the BBC live TV announcement by Jane Standley that WTC7 fell to the ground 20 minutes before it happened (due to top MI-6 control officers forgetting about American Daylight savings time (too much personal coke use perhaps?).(3)

In addition, if DHS’s main concern is spying on normal Americans who dissent and crushing them because DHS believes they are “domestic terrorists or “potential Domestic terrorists” or “lone wolf” spontaneously emerging domestic terrorists, this obviates any lies about the need for preemptive foreign attacks. The reason?  Because DHS now claims that the emergence of these ordinary lone wolf domestic terrorists inside America is a spontaneous phenomenon, as well as a completely independent problem that has nothing to do with foreign terrorists in the Mideast.

And beside DHS allows open borders, “sanctuary cities” where illegals can not be checked for legal immigration status, given traffic tickets for minor violations, and must be granted drivers licenses and social security cards without any proof of residency. Plus, thousands of Mideast Immigrants are allowed in to America when there is already a shortage of jobs, and the Muslim Brotherhood is invited into the White House to meet with President Obama.(4)

It is obvious that as the major American Defense Contractors who are either owned or controlled by the IZCS have realized that American Mideast war efforts are waning and have worked hard to create their phony War on Terror, first in foreign countries and now in America.

They have worked hard to generate massive public fear in reaction to the 9/11 attacks in order to engender public support and vast expenditures of taxpayer dollars for a large national security market and internal security apparatus, like the Fusion Centers and its specialized assassination teams disguised as corporate or political protection squads, the DHS and the TSA with its Vipr Teams.

This phony, staged War on Terror has been very craftily engineered to be an unending war that will assure perpetual war profits for Defense Contractors and a perpetual supply of artificially created enemies inside America to feed that war. How is this possible you might ask?

This new War on Terror has been socially engineered to provide a continual stream of degradations and provocations against the average American, provoking many in a never-ending stream to resist, and causing them to be labeled dissenters.

Once they have been labeled dissenters they are put on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Main Core Terror Watch List, which top insiders know is a targeted assassination list for later eradication of all Freedom-loving Americans who want to restore the American Constitutional Republic.

At present the Main Core list has over ten million Americans on it, and it is growing every day with thousands of new additions. Get a ticket for a driving offense or any arrest (even if later proven innocent) and it is highly likely you will be placed on this Main Core Terror Watch and Assassination list.

If you have a prior drug arrest many years ago or any arrest, it is likely you have already been placed on this list. If a USG web troll or fusion Center Officer comes across any patriotic postings or anything they consider subversive like the East German Stasi, that poster will likely be placed on this list.

Over time these provocations are designed to result in a continuing stream of America dissenters that want to take their Republic back from the zionist hijackers and will meet DHS tyranny and force with the like. Any and all Dissenters are now being defined as “Enemies of the State”.

And anyone who wants to restore the American Republic will also be defined as a “Domestic Terrorist”. DHS is a terrorist group, hand assembled by American/Israeli dual citizen Traitors and is designed to tyrannize, capture and eventually be deployed against Americans to serially mass murder them.  This is why they have been called the New American Gestapo of the Neo-Bolshevik Red Cheka Terror Machine.

If you were a Ron Paul supporter or a Libertarian, you are likely on the Main Core list. If NSA routine scans of any and all of your digital emissions and have picked up enough key trigger words, then you have perhaps already been placed on the List. After all, Marcus Wolfe the former head of the East German Stasi, a vicious torturer and murder of innocent Germans, was hired as a USG consultant to set up DHS two years before he died.(5)

Note the recent admission by US Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia that it is without question that the Prison Camps now being built by the USG will eventually be used just like they were in WW2 when innocent Japanese Citizens were wrongly captured, completely asset stripped and placed in USG Prison Camps. (6)

President Eisenhower was an insider placed in position by the Rockefellers early in his Military career and eventually propelled into the Presidency by them. But even Ike started being bothered by strong pangs of Patriotism and became alarmed at the undue influence of the Military Industrial complex over Congress. In his final public speech as President, he delivered a warning to Americans.

Ike never imagined that the Israelis would serve as the chief action agent for the City of London zionists and would eventually hijack, buy off, bribe, compromise or honey-trap almost every single member of Congress and also use their vast Central Bankster and manipulated donor funds to hijack almost all American defense and Intel contractors and American communication companies, many of which have been moved to Israel or have been located there in the first place.

Originally his speech included the phrase Military, Industrial, Congressional Complex.  He took out “Congressional” after his political aides informed him that this could end up harming the Republican Party. When he referred to “Military” in the phrase “Military Industrial Complex”, he was actually thinking of the whole new peacetime defense Industry, which was driving the Military Industrial Complex and formation of a permanent armament industry.

Ike became concerned that this permanent armament industry could assert undue influence on the American political process and could hijack American society and harm its spiritual character.

Disarming the public is a key goal of the IZCS for everyone in America but them and their stooges at the DHS and the Alphabets or their militarized police now trained by the ADL.

Many Police Chiefs are taken to Israel on all-paid Anti-Terror training Junkets where they drink the Kool-aid and are subjected to some of the most sophisticated Psi powered and Psychotronic mind-kontrol ever deployed. In years past, many were given lavish gifts and provided personal escorts of their age and choice. Perhaps this practice continues?

Any Tyrannical Government must always get rid of we the people’s guns in order to be able to stay in power and concentrate it. A major goal of any tyranny, like what we have in IZCS-hijacked America now, is to gain maximum power by eliminating (as in serial mass-murdering) all political opponents and dissenters. Doubt this? Then check world history the last couple of hundred years.

The USG and DHS is now ramping up the militarization of the Police of American Cities and Suburbs under DOD Program 1033 under the ‘Transfer of Excess Military Property to Local Police Program”.

According to a video from ‘TheLipTV’, “Over the last decade, we have seen over 5,000 people killed by police in the United States,” when “4,489 soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the Iraq war. Since 9-11, you are 29-times more likely to be killed by a police officer than you are by a terrorist.”(7)

Most local urban and suburban police departments have been “militarized”, that is, received heavy armament including armored cars, MP5 and M-16 fully-automatic machine guns, grenades, grenade launchers and ballistic shields.

We the people are the new enemy of the militarized police. The police were set up to “protect and serve”, but their new mission is to wage war against “we the people” on behalf of the IZCS and the ADL.

Every military force must have a designated enemy. The common American is the new enemy of the now militarized police in their new war against Americans on behalf of the IZCS and the ADL.

Whether they realize it or not, the ADL has trained most police to view most Americans (we the people) as the enemy of the police and the Nation State. Ever attended a police training seminar put on by the ADL? Often they hide who really is running it. It’s the biggest bunch of twisted, sick paranoid crap one can ever imagine, and all designed to make police trigger-happy murderers of any citizen who questions their authority in any way or questions any detainment or arrest. Yes, ADL training is a crafty set of lies that produces trigger-happy cops who believe there is a domestic terrorist hiding behind every bush who want to murder them so the police cannot go home to their family at night.

This paranoid belief system will eventually produce this result as a self-fulfilling prophecy, as police tyranny and trigger-happy police continue to murder the innocent and use grossly excessive force for minor offenses. Almost all police abuse of the citizen is delivered “for your own safety”, when that is another big lie.  It is done for the arrogance and authority complex of the police officer–an artifact of over 25 years of ADL training for your local police, who have almost all sold out to the feds in order to get military weapons and gear.  All in return for signing over jurisdiction to DHS and the Feds.

Police are instructed to “charge up” anyone who questions them in any way, and any slight hesitation must be met with false charges of assault and/or battery towards the officer. Officers are told, an arrestee can beat the rap, but they cannot get out of the “ride” (i.e. the arrest and hassle of it.) They are taught that this deters deviance and crime, when actually it provokes the American people to hate police officers.

The new militarized police have one new main function.  It is to continually provoke law-abiding, honest citizens with acts of selfishness and tyranny in order to “role force” them to act out so that “punishment” can be delivered.  The goal, especially with inner urban kids is to make sure they are sold all the drugs they want, in order to dirty them up and get them into the system for life. Big prisons are a private business–a very big business–and quotas or guaranteed imprisonment rates are in place to reduce costs.

Since the IZCS is actually functioning as a neo-Bolshevik political block with East German Stasi and Nazi undertones, this reveals the actual goal of DHS–to serially mass-murder all American dissenters and political opponents. Doubt this?  Then consider the purchase of over 2 Billion 40 Caliber hollow-point rounds and 7,000 M-16 fully-automatic (real assault rifles, not the mere look-a-like AR-15) and thousands of armored vehicles and armored booths, raised spy-towers and grenade launchers.(8) Many of these armored vehicles have been given to local police who have Police Chiefs who are Traitors to America the Republic in exchange for complete submission to Federal Jurisdiction of DHS.

Some of these traitors are just stupid and overly impressed by Feds or DHS Spooks, others have been paid off in very large cash donations (hundreds of thousands of USD in military duffel bags, untraceable CIA drug profits. Some have been sexually compromised by Pedophile or Honey Traps and then blackmailed into submission. Some have succumbed after being threatened or having their families threatened. This is the lowest scum-bag manipulation (aka Humint) ever deployed, and it is everyday stock and trade for the IZCS, the world’s biggest sexual compromisers, and pedophile and sex-slave operators.

Lessons of History: Any serious study of History quickly shows that war is a vehicle for a nation’s leaders to maintain control over their nation-states. The infamous Iron Mountain Report gave an inside glimpse of how the super-elite criminal Psychopaths running America thought about the need for ongoing war or a suitable state crisis to unify the society and solidify their control over society.

Wars are craftily engineered by criminal super-elites who rule nation-states and their advisers. There are various, crafty ways for a nation’s leaders to covertly start wars. The well-established standby is to stage False-Flag attacks and then wage war on the nation state or entity that you have framed for the attack that you did.

Another way to create a terrorist with a long and successful track record is to capture abandoned children in Mideast Countries, provide for their daily needs, while mind-kontrolling them to become terrorists with psychotic suicidal delusions of revenge toward what has been identified to them as their religious enemy which needs destruction to please their god.

The British, the Israelis, and the Saudi are experts at this, and American Taxpayers have unknowingly provided a large portion of the funding for this. One trick well known among intel insiders is the practice of acts of terror against the nation of the mind-kontrolled children to create an enemy for them to later attack in revenge.

Lots of American Taxpayer dollars were covertly dispensed to create and finance terrorists for future Mideast wars. American Intel has spent a great deal of money paying others,  such as the Israelis, to do this. Otherwise, American Intel has not been very successful themselves.  Their only real success is their arming, funding and training of the Mexican Drug Cartels and the training and deployment of the disgusting mass-murdering death squads in Central and South America, who murdered over one hundred thousand innocent women, children and young men.(9)

The 9/11 attacks were an inside job by the USAF and the IZCS. The staged Gladio-style False-Flag attack was the choice selected for the attack on the Twin Towers in NYC and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on 9-11-2001. This attack was done by the USAF, under the authority of a zionist-controlled Criminal Cabal inside the JCS and the Secret Shadow Government (SSG).(10)

The 9/11 attack was planned, set up and run by NeoCon top Policy-Makers, Israeli Intel and their stateside Sayanims, utilizing a small criminal cabal inside the USAF, NORAD and the JCS. These are facts that can no longer be disputed by any reasonable person who has examined all the available evidence.

And it is exceedingly clear to any reasonable person who examines the pre-announcement of WTC-7 destruction that the whole attack was pre-scripted in London and Israel, and that WTC-7 was wired in advance with conventional demolition charges.

Typically, it takes a considerable amount of time and labor to wire up a building, which suggests complete access at the security level.  This means that since it was a federalized building, with CIA and NYC Emergency Center occupants, building security had to be involved one way or another. And now that it has been proved that WTC-7 was wired up beforehand and demo’ed on 9-11, this means the Twin Towers had to have been pre-wired, too.

The War on Terror is obviously a Phony. But it has been the greatest boon to the American Defense Complex ever, with many times more net American Taxpayer dollars spent on this war than any other war in history, including WW2 or the Vietnam War.

Another way to establish a war is to create and fund so-called foreign terrorist groups. This is a costly exercise that take years and can involve as much work as fighting a war.  Yes, creating terrorist groups is very hard and expensive work.

But enemies for necessary wars can be created if you have the technological help of a nation that has hundreds of years experience in creating its own enemies. This nation is the City of London (Financial District), a separate nation state like the Vatican, located within England.

There is a reason England has been referred to as “Perfidious Albion” for centuries. They have been known for their ability to instigate chaos inside nations they want to control by their standard well-developed strategy of “Divide and Conquer”. They are experts at creating long term provocations between different nations that have competing economic interests.

They do this in order to establish a beach-head from which to control the removal of natural resources and accrued wealth.

Remember the Opium Wars (Boxer Rebellions) where England brought opiate addiction to China as a covert act of war in order to recover all the silver and gold paid to import Tea, spices and silk from China? This was low intensity (covert) warfare that twice led to a short hot war.

The creation of the nation state Israel was created to serve as a long term provocation for numerous Mideast perpetual wars. This is why the Balfour Declaration was made, why the Nazi sent the “low Jews” to the labor camps, while the “High Jews” were able to either emigrate elsewhere or become collaborators like George Soros.

This is why the City of London created the New Israel and took land away from the Palestinians to set up a nation of Khazarian Judaic converts (aka “fake Hebrews”), a racially paranoid group mind-kontrolled to believe the delusion that they were of ancient Abrahamic Hebrew Blood.

The IZCS believes in preemptive strikes against Goyim and their institutions. Judaics have also been mind-kontrolled by Zionists (many of whom are not Judaics at all) to believe that they must hijack the American political system to preemptively crush Christianity and American Goyim Culture.

And that if they didn’t succeed in this, they would be persecuted again, just like what they call the “holocaust”–translated from Old English as “a fiery sacrifice”.

This philosophy of striking first and eliminating the Goyim to prevent another “holocaust” from ever occurring” is a Bolshevik ideology based on the “End Justifies the Means”.

This paranoid strike-first obsession will produce push back and persecution eventually, thus serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course the Zionists who control Talmudic, Noahide Judaism know that the 6-million-dead figure is untrue, because this had appeared in the late 1800′s andearly 1900′s in Judaic literature long before the work camps of WW2.

New Genetics research exposes a vast, paranoid race-based delusion. Recent Johns Hopkins genetic research has shown conclusively that approximately 80% of the Palestinians are of Hebrew (Abrahamic) bloodlines, and approximately 90% of Judaic converts living in greater Israel are not of ancient Hebrew (Abrahamic) bloodlines. Thus, the world’s greatest anti-Semites appear to be Israelis who have stolen Palestinian land and continue to do so against all UN rulings and International Law.

The nation of Israel was set up as the private nation state and Tribal Intel front for the City of London Zionist private Central Banksters, to serve as a beach-head to control the production and distribution of Mideast oil. This delusion that the Khazarian Judaic converts were God’s Chosen People (ancient Hebrews from the Ten Tribes) was then en-cultured into these Judaics who were sent to Palestine and armed so they could use terrorism to expand their region of control.

Greater Israel has no real boundaries and is ever expedient, as Israeli militants keep taking land and murdering unarmed Palestinians.

A serious spell, a racial delusion of superiority has been cast on many Judaics no matter where they live, but especially so among those living in greater Israel, where the Luciferian Hex Flag flies. Whether true or not, the flag signifies the merger of demonic fallen angel Beast-Bloodlines from above, bred with Human female bloodlines below.

If we accept this Hex Flag at face value, does this mean that the top Zionists running the IZCS are perhaps alien/human hybrids, or at least claim to be in their own secret ceremonies that Stew Webb has exposed numerous times in articles and radio appearances over many years?

It is obvious that the IZCS has hijacked the US Department of State and the US Military Defense Complex as well as Congress. Listen to what Kay Griggs had to say about this.  She was married to a top USM officer and mind-kontrolled “wetboy” who became out of control and beat her and then tried to have her shut up. He and/or his controllers serious stalked and harassed Kay Griggs for years.

She went to live with Sarah McClendon for protection and was interviewed by Pastor Rick Strawcutter, which probably raised her profile so much that it saved her life.  Kay is another Great American Hero and is a courageous standup person, one of the best you could ever meet anytime, anyplace. If you get a chance, be sure and listen to her 8-hour video affidavit with Pastor Rick Strawcutter, who is another Great American Hero. You will be amazed and angered at who has been running the USG and the Military.(11)

Kay’s video affidavit is packed with insider secrets known only by top Intel insiders. How much do you want to know about what is really going on in the background? How much do you dare to pull the curtain back to expose the Wizard Of Oz (as in Ounce)? You will need a great deal of courage to handle what Kay Griggs reveals. By the way, a great deal of her testimony has been cross-corroborated by experts.  Any errors she makes are minor and not directly related to her main claims.

Two sides of the same coin: Of course those on the inside of the Ruling Cabal know that Nazi-ism and Zionism are two sides of the same coin and run by the City of London Central bank controllers. This entity is the Old Black Nobility (OBN), which prefers to stay in the background.

The IZCS controls Private Central Fiat, Fractional Reserve Banking: This reality that the IZCS owns and controls private Central Banking means that they have access to and can utilize Babylonian Money-Magick to make the money they need to control the USG officials and Congress from nothing.  This access provides vast sums of money in seemingly endless quantities.  Thus, they have access to all the cash they need to buy, own, compromise or blackmail almost every single Congressman/woman and Senator in America.

The serious down-side of this system of Babylonian Money-Magick is that it is based on fiat or fake-money with nothing but debt behind it. Actually this debt is imaginary, but has a stranglehold on most of the members of the societies it has hijacked. But it cannot go on without catastrophic readjustments, which will occur at some point.

A worldwide Web of Debt: The private Central Banksters in America have been so adept and successful at extracting wealth in America and all over the world, replacing it with debt, that nearly the whole world is now engulfed in extreme debt.

And this debt has now reached the point it cannot be paid off. This of course is the IZCS’s age-old plan which will result in massive chaos that engulfs the world and destroys all social systems, family systems, sex roles, and systems of government.

After this destruction of conventional society occurs, it is expected by the IZCS top leadership that a pure Luciferian NWO System will arise from the globalist framework they have put in place.  They expect this NWO System emerging from the ashes to be their Phoenix, like the legendary Phoenix of Greek and Roman mythology.

All this tidal wave of debt is phony and a big charade.  If all the people of the world unite, nationalize their monetary systems and declare all debt null and void, and if they assign all such debt directly to Central Banksters responsible for creating it, prosperity to “we the people” can return like it did to the Colonists who left England.

Babylonian Money-Magick has been used to create a debt based economy.  It does this by producing “onerous usury” and allows the easy transformation of “all the money created from nothing which is worth nothing at face value” into the vast amounts of ever-increasing wealth.  This wealth–fiat money–is covertly stripped from the common man these Banksters provide the money for and use as a means to extract real value and wealth from.

The Zionist IZCS vehicle used to gain control over almost every single member of Congress and to buy, compromise and control almost every top USG official and Judge, is the 70,000+ K Street Lobbyists, AIPAC and others who distribute the money to their marks, often through campaign contributions, cash to offshore accounts, and various other expensive luxury perks, such as ridiculously high honorariums for meaningless propaganda speeches.

And AIPAC, the ADL, the SPLC and the like are also zionist tools of espionage against America the Republic.

They should all be investigated by the FBI and fully prosecuted and convicted and sentenced for espionage by the Department of Justice. Note, espionage in many cases is a Capital Crime.

If the Rosenbergs were prosecuted, convicted and executed for their espionage against America, why should these IZCS Cutouts go free without identification and full prosecution?

These entities are really Intel fronts for espionage against America the Republic on behalf of the IZCS which includes the City of London zionist Central banksters, Israel, American NeoCons, and Israeli-American dual citizens who have betrayed America, putting Israel first over America.

Vast Funding for zionist Cutouts. These entities receive vast funding from the zionist Central Banksters and from the wealthy Judaic businessmen they shake-down or manipulate for large donations by playing on their paranoid tribal delusions.

These tribal delusions are that donations are necessary to prevent excessive antisemitism and future persecutions or “holocausts” by Goyims and Christians.

Many Judaics in America and elsewhere have been en-cultured with the false ideation that Nazi-ism was a Christian phenomena and Christians and Goyim must be destroyed.

This of course this is as far from the truth as possible because Hitler was a British Agent and Nazi-ism was created by the Tavistock Institute and the City of London Central Banksters and a counter-force to the Bolshevism they created and deployed in Russia in 1917.

What does the International Zionist Crime Syndicate (IZCS) run out of the City of London through its main Cutouts Israel and the hijacked USG attain? Obviously the IZCS’s unlimited funds and the fact it owns and/or controls almost every member of Congress and most USG officials and Judges, means that the ICS has been able to determine USG Policy.

It can do this because it owns and/or controls all USG top Policy-Makers, most of whom just happen to be outside of the visible USG and within the Secret Shadow Government (SSG).

Obviously the crimes of the IZCS and their espionage fronts like AIPAC, the ADL, SPLC and the like against the American Republic are far worse than the Rosenbergs.

Listed below are some of the IZCS crimes against America:

1. The NSA and all American Intel has been completely hijacked by the IZCS and all NSA intel data goes directly to Israeli Defense Contractors and Israeli communication Corporations that process all American phone calls and data transmissions. This means that the Five Eyes International Intel System is really a Six Eyes System controlled by Israeli Intel entities and proprietaries.

Thus, America has no real Intel, and Israeli Intel has control over all American politicians, judges and officials by use of this Intel for human compromise, blackmail and sophisticated mind-kontrol operations. Any time factions within American Intel agencies (there are 37 and growing) form opposition to the IZCS, this is readily discovered through Israeli Intel intercepts of NSA raw Intel and actions to neutralize such efforts are quickly deployed–whatever is required.

The conclusion here is that America no longer has any real Intel of its own–none at all–it is all compromised and hijacked by Israeli and City of London Cutouts and contractors.

2. Because the IZCS has hijacked all American Intel directly from NSA feeds, the IZCS has a long history of stealing American intellectual property and providing it to their corporations. The IZCS can also hijack American corporate bids and defeat them repeatedly until many companies go out of business.

3. The IZCS has compromised almost every single member of Congress, US Supreme Court Judges, most Federal, and almost every single USG official and American Intel Director.

4. The IZCS’s new DHS is a zionist terrorist front, a new Internal American Army that has been deployed against YOU as their NEW ENEMY. The IZCS has created and deployed DHS as the New American Stasi and a New American Neo-Bolshevik Red Cheka. It is controlled by an Israeli-American dual citizen who made millions of USD from selling unshielded X-ray machines to the TSA, which is creating numerous cancer clusters among TSA officers.

5. The principal goal of the IZCS in America is to deploy DHS to tyrannize and degrade Americans and then eventually to start a live “shoot to kill” war against ordinary Americans who organize to take their government back and restore the American Constitutional Republic. This tyranny by DHS is planned to culminate in serial mass-murder of up to 80% of Americans–one way or another.

6. The IZCS has set up and deployed AIPAC, the ADL, the SPLC and others to serve as agents of espionage inside America, to work to destroy its institution of government, dirty up Americans and to destroy the American Family, America’s language borders and culture and to destroy Christianity and Deism in general.

7. The IZCS has hijacked top factions in the CIA, DEA and other American Intel and uses them to traffick illegal narcotics and drugs into America to raise money for deep-cover covert ops.

8. The IZCS has compromised almost every major Urban and Suburban police Department, coercing them to sign secret transfer of jurisdiction agreements giving the Feds, DHS and the Fusion Centers complete jurisdiction in any matter they choose.  In return, they are bribed with “stolen” war materials, machine guns, rounds, armored cars and, even in some cases, grenade launchers.

9. The IZCS has stolen numerous loads of nuclear materials from US DOD contractors and refiners for their Dimona Plant and nuclear storage center.

10. The IZCS has used NSA-provided intel to murder hundreds of witnesses to their crimes and federal Whistleblowers. The rest that they don’t murder are watched and often become victims of targeted harassments, placed on DHS and Fusion Center “Terror Watch Lists”, “No-Fly” Lists and “No work lists”. Take the example of Ronald Reagan’s Secret Agent, the Great American Hero Lee Wanta who was instrumental in “bringing down” the Soviet Union. Lee Wanta has been wrongfully imprisoned, tortured, and endures ongoing harassment.

Or consider Mark Novitsky, another Great American Hero who refused to do wrong and coverup crimes while working for an NSA contractor. Both of these American Heroes have paid a terrible price for obeying the law and for putting the welfare of the American People first.

11. The IZCS has hijacked the America Monetary Production and Distribution System and transformed Americans into debt-slaves, drastically reduced the Middle Class and the standard of living, and done this by massive asset-stripping of American wealth and prosperity.

12. The IZCS has used its Cutouts to debase American culture, take the God of our Founding Fathers out of the schools and institutions where they had certain Bible verses and phrases etched in stone, destroy traditional male and female sex roles, destroy the family, promote sexual perversion, promote promiscuity and sexual irresponsibility and addiction, promote diversity and political correctness and illegal immigration and multi-culturalism.

13. The IZCS has completely compromised all of the Major Mass media, transforming it into a propaganda dispenser for the USG and the Central Banksters which are completely under their control. Thus the Major media is now the Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM).

14. The IZCS has hijacked American seed companies and most major food processors and is in the process of deploying sophisticated GMO’s which will, over time, radically increase the death rate of Americans.

15. The IZCS has hijacked Big Pharma and Big medicine and has used it to deploy vaccines containing monkey viruses like SV40 and numerous harmful adjuvants like squalene and aluminum or formaldehyde, as well as so-called preservatives like ethyl mercury.

16. The IZCS has hijacked many large Insurance Companies and used them for its own designated purposes.

17. The IZCS has deployed contract aircraft through their hijacked intel groups like the CIA that are spraying toxic weather and eugenic substances in the atmosphere. They have also been able to covertly add these toxic substances to ordinary jet fuel.

Numerous samples of these substances have been collected by researchers and scientists who have had them analyzed.  What they found were toxic levels of nano-particulized aluminum, barium slats, Hemophilus Influenza, red blood cells, white blood cells, toxic molds, and other strange fiber like substances and compounds.

18. The IZCS has used its vast criminal networks and resources to launder its drug money by buying up large real estate entities and banks and is able to finance almost every new major corporate building with laundered drug money.

19. The IZCS has used a great deal of its money from illegal drug trafficking to build deep underground military bases (DUMBS). Some of these bases are claimed by top insiders to be joint ventures with alien entities and have special genetic labs involved in the development of alien ET/human hybrids.

20. The IZCS is the world’s top Mind-kontroller.  It has used hijacked American Intel and its defense contractors to develop and deploy advanced high technology for psychotronic, direct brain entrainment and sound-based subliminal mind-kontrol.

21. Israel used advanced mind-kontrol on those who accept its all-paid junkets. Visitors end up drinking their special Kool-aide and are hit with sophisticated psychotronics, becoming significantly mind-kontrolled to operate as functional zionists without even being aware of it.

22. The IZCS has created what they call the federal family. They have done this by creating Fusion Centers, the DHS, the TSA and numerous armed (previously unarmed) agencies like the Department of Education. Unduly large salaries and extremely liberal benefits have been provided, as well as a special anointing with authoritarian powers to kill with very little accountability if any, due to the War on Terror.

Many of these federal Family folks have been mind-kontrolled by shoulder-held constant on pulsed beam microwave radios and other highly advanced psychotronics, which increases their tendencies to tyrannize and become violent with the public and minimizes their ability to control violent impulses which may crop up.

23. The IZCS has militarized local police departments and many Sheriff’s departments. Their ADL provides most of the police training and drives a hard line against any public dissent, describing it as “domestic terrorism”. It controls what the Fusion Centers and DHS put out as war propaganda which labels the public as “Domestic Terrorists”.

Here is the first part of one of their confidential lists of Domestic Terrorists or Suspected Domestic Terrorists:  Catholics, Evangelical Christians, Veterans, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Tax protestors, Gun owners…..These reports of course are pure ADL propaganda lies and complete smear jobs, all intended to provoke police and Federal Family officers to tyrannize and easily become violent with innocent ordinary Americans or anyone who decides to peacefully protest, an American Constitutional Right.

Remember that the operational goal of the top Policy-Makers who are tools of the IZCS is to provoke a full scale shooting war between ordinary Americans and their police and Federal family Members such as DHS.

Conclusion:  The IZCS has hijacked America and has deployed numerous weapons against it now culminating in a phony, staged War on Terror, and if you are an American or live in America, one way or another YOU will soon become THEIR NEW ENEMY. Yes, from here on out if you live in America, you are the designated enemy in this new War On Terror.

If you are a member of the federal family, it is suggested that you read and study up on the Night of the Longknives (Operation Hummingbird) and the various purges under Lenin, Stalin and Mao. Maybe you should reconsider the oath you took to UPHOLD the US Constitution from ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.

Now for some good news about all this.  Despite how bleak this all seems it is far from hopeless and American are beginning to wake up in mass. This is due to the worldwide Internet and the massive dissemination and diffusion of the alternative news.  Once facts are published they sink into the hearts of “we the people” with a certain resonance that makes them take hold.

It’s almost instinctive how truth sticks like glue in people hearts and minds and spreads like wildfire all around the Earth. At least 1% of the American population has woken up. Some estimates are 11%. Proof of this is the massive first time gun buyers, the massive sales of high powered handguns, rifles and 12 gauge shotguns and massive ammo sales.

Guns and ammo have literally been flying off the shelves the last several years and there have been serious ammo shortages due to the massive DHS and USG stockpiling of 40 Caliber Hollow Pints and M-16 ammo rounds.

Once 12% of the population wakes up a critical mass turning point will spontaneously occur and through various very strange mass societal changes will occurs and new very powerful, unstoppable populism will emerge and the IZCS will be driven out.

If they are stupid enough to take us into a live shooting war, Internal Civil War with mass killing, the public will suffer great losses but the Federal Family will split and it and the IZCS and any of their forces will be defeated.

All wars are always won by what is in the hearts and minds.  In America the American Spirit lives and is getting stronger every day. Soon the foreign filth and their Cutouts run by the Kingpins from City of London and Israel, the perps that have hijacked America, the IZCS, will be completely exposed, stopped, or routed out, one way or another.

And there is good evidence that many retired Intel Cowboys have gone back to work to bring the IZCS Beast down and destroy its grip on American Intel and private Central Banking. Some of the covert operators have long records of success and can create and use numerous different identities.

Many of these Intel Cowboys can use make up and make their own credentials to impersonate officers, draw military and USG paychecks from multiple sources, all at the same time and hack into any computer system anywhere in the USG or American Intel, anywhere anytime. Most of them just did not realize that the IZCS has taken control because of unlimited money provided by zionist Central Banksters and Judaic supporters.

And the best news of all is that more than a few seasoned Intel Cowboys that served the Bush Cabal at its center as well as the IZCS, have now woken up, pulled away from the Bush cabal and are targeting the IZCS with deep cover covert ops that would make your hair stand on end if you were allowed to know.

Some of these Intel Cowboys have now admitted that they were kept so narrowly compartmented that they did not realize the whole picture until the Internet and the numerous Federal Whistle-blowers coming forward and spilling the beans. the simple fact is this, the worldwide Internet and the alternative news it provides spreads truth like a wildfire that cannot be put out even with the application of military force.

The Internet is the New Gutenberg Press, the Achilles Heel of the IZCS.  The Internet will turn out to be the greatest trick in history played on the IZCS by the young men at Drapa.  They sold the Internet to the IZCS and its SSG promising the greatest spying and surveillance system imaginable.  Yes the IZCS got much of what was promised but also a very big hidden surprise which assures their complete exposure and destruction, piece by piece. And this disassembling of the IZCS is already well under way.

The IZCS is now in its death throes and is like a rabid, cornered dog.  That makes it very dangerous for the next year or two until it is completely defanged which is coming. If they use the Samson option which they have been threatening numerous nation-states with (they already used it on japan with the nukes planted in the sea bed and in the security camera on site because Japanese turned against them).

New factions within the Military High Command and the USN have already taken note and are working carefully in the background to defang Dimona by utilizing secret satellite activated back-doors in various hardware circuits.

During the height of the bush Cabal (Bush1) those Intel Cowboys that did know were arrested and jailed on trumped up charges to discredit any possible testimony before Congress or in the courts. Now that many have been informed of what really happened on 9-11-01, they are hopping mad that America has been hijacked and the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law has been suppressed and ignored by this world’s largest criminal cabal.

The IZCS attacks on America on 9-11-01 have proved to have been a “going for broke” attempt to build a expanded Israeli in greatest intended form. We now know that it was the greatest and final reckless mistake of Israel so far. Even far worse than Israel’s False-Flag attack on the USS Liberty in their attempt to draw America into a Mideast War at the time which even President Johnson, their crypto Judaic stooge refused.

And now many Americans have finally been informed that the Murrah Building attack as well as the first NYC Twin Towers attack using a 55 drum of cyanide stolen from Louis Champon’s Natural Cherrie Flavoring Plant in Boca Raton, Florida, financed by Dr. Ishan Barbouti, the IZCS Cutout that has died at least three times and always come back to life.

As few know, only the top NeoCons 911 Planners, Dr. Barbouti rose again and came back to life to assist with many of the 9/11 attacks subplots which were designed to provide numerous false leads. A few of the most Patriotic Intel Cowboys who have “traveled” very close to the very “top of the pyramid” now believe that Israel provided the anti-matter positron micro-nukes which were installed in the Twin Towers elevators approximately every ten floors.

Most retired Intel Cowboys had previously thought Israel was a supportive Intel partner but didn’t realize that Israel murdered 135 Americans on the Liberty ship as a False-Flag attack and also murdered another 3,000 humans being in NYC and at the Pentagon on 911, assisted by Traitors within the USAF, NORAD and the JCS.

Now that these Intel Cowboys know the truth, they have woken up and back at work serving America’s true “National Security”. I don’t know exactly what they will do but I would expect some very, very crafty covert moves to expose, drive the IZCS out of America or demo it irreparably if necessary.

References:

(1) http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/11/10/was-ronald-reagan-the-last-duly-elected-president/

(2) 

(3) Jane Standley BBC announcer, 

(4) http://freebeacon.com/muslim-brotherhood-leader-meets-obama-in-white-house/

(5) http://thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/04/19/dismantle-the-department-of-homeland-stasi/

(6) http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37553.htm

(7) http://americanfreepress.net/?p=15289

(8) http://rt.com/usa/dhs-ammo-investigation-napolitano-645/

(9) http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/11/was-cia-behind-operation-fast-and-furious/

http://www.corbettreport.com/the-cia-and-the-drug-trade-eyeopener-preview/

(10) http://ehpg.wordpress.com/israel-did-911/

(11) Part 1: 

Part 2: 

Part 3: 

Part 4: 

Note: Kay Grigg’s video affidavit has numerous other backup versions.  Some have more than four parts and some additional material lost due to editing.

Source: Preston James | Veterans Today

Why The US Cannot Be Saved

I receive many emails from well-intentioned and intelligent readers who hold up Iceland as a shining example of what America must do in order to save herself. I agree, in principle with the people who wrote to me that we should emulate Iceland. The Icelanders have demonstrated tremendous resilience, courage and vision to overcome and, at least temporarily, defeat the banksters while restoring their economy.

The people of Iceland have more courage in their little finger than America has in its entire being. Iceland’s financial failure forced its government to resign or be removed, and it also caused citizens to re-evaluate the merits of their reckless spending, borrowing and consumption. Just how did Iceland do it?

Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimmson was interviewed earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos on why Iceland has enjoyed such a strong recovery after it’s complete financial collapse in 2008, while the rest of the West is still mired in debt, poverty and hopelessness to go with empty promises of an economic recovery.

When asked whether Iceland’s policy of letting the banks fail would have worked in the rest of Europe, Grimsson stated:

“… Why are the banks considered to be the holy churches of the modern economy? Why are private banks not like airlines and telecommunication companies and allowed to go bankrupt if they have been run in an irresponsible way? The theory that you have to bail-out banks is a theory that you allow bankers enjoy for their own profit their success, and then let ordinary people bear their failure through taxes and austerity. 
People in enlightened democracies are not going to accept that in the long run. …“

Imagine that, let the banks fail! Let the criminal bankers take the same risk as any other business venture. Can we imagine Obama ever speaking this way in public? In fact, if the United States was Iceland, President Obama, John McCain, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Lindsay Graham, Hillary Clinton, Valerie Jarrett, G.W. Bush, G. H. W. Bush, Lloyd Blankfein, Tim Geithner, Hank Paulson, Jon Corzine, Peter Sutherland, Ben Bernanke, et al., would all be in prison.

And nearly six years later, where is Iceland at today? In just the first year following the repudiation of the debt, the Icelanders economy grew by 2.6%. Banks failed, bankers and politicians were jailed and these brave people wrestled control of their lives back.

If the Icelanders could get their hands on Goldman Sachs officials they would. They impeached and convicted corrupt politicians who were in league with Wall Street, many of whom are serving prison sentences. Iceland is on its way to a full economic recovery while still saying no to the corrupt Goldman Sachs influences in Europe. Iceland is saying no to the Bank of International Settlement. Iceland is a beacon of hope for the rest of the G20 nations including the United States. Yet, the courage on display by the Icelanders will never be on display in the United States.

Americans Aren’t Icelanders

There are a number reasons that America will never throw off the shackles of the Bastards from Basel. First and foremost, we, as a country, are just too plain stupid. Through repeated and failed education programs, such as Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind and now the substandard Common Core, Americans lack the basic sense to organize against anything, much less a virulent pack of banksters.

Additionally, at the end of the day, the Icelanders victory will prove to be inconsequential and very temporary. When the international forces align against Iceland for some contrived excuse, their government will collapse like a house of cards and the banksters will be back in control. We have seen it in Egypt, Libya and soon it will be Iceland’s turn.

The Duck Dynasty worshiping, American Idol watching country can’t even find England on a map 65% of the time. A whopping 80% cannot find Iraq on a map, 55% cannot name the Vice President and America reads nearly two whole grade levels lower than they did only a 40 years ago. In short, the rank and file of our citizenry lacks the intelligence to organize their collective shoes in the closet.

Change can be painful and America has become a soft nation. We are not only an ignorant nation, we are the most obese nation on the planet. Most of the people in this country could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag. My military sources tell me that there have been serious discussions among the military leadership about how they would fight a guerrilla war against the bankster occupation forces which will consist mostly of the Chinese and the Russians. What is holding them back is that they do not feel that they can count on the support from the rank and file of this population. The military believes that maybe, on a good day, 2-3% of the adult males would stand with dissident military forces. I never thought I would write this, but the American people are no tougher than the French and the French haven’t won a war in over 200 years.

I do expect that the factions of the military are going to rise and put up some resistance. However, no revolution can be successful without the support of the people.

Conclusion

Well-intentioned people write to me and tell me how 250 million gun owners are going to throw off the chains of slavery. If that were going to happen, it would have happened nearly six years ago. In 2008, the banksters, led by Hank Paulson, helped themselves to our nation’s money and our economy went into free fall. And what did we do to stop the greatest bank robbery in world history? We did nothing!!! Subsequently, we are a defeated nation. With the growing foreign troop presence and the rise of America’s version of the East German Stasi (aka the  DHS), we are also an occupied nation. Americans have lost the war and most are unaware that anything has even happened. Hillary Clinton is selling off the assets of this country to the Chinese. The EPA is stealing a million acres of land at a time. Your retirements, IRA’s and bank account will soon be gone. And what will most of America do, change the channel and open another beer.

This is why my analyses and subsequently my writing style changed to more of an adaptation approach. Americans need to be worried about having enough resources to survive the induced social chaos that is coming. Our people must also be able to defend their resources. And finally, you and your family need to develop strategies on how to avoid being induced or forced to into a detention camp. These events are not far away.If you do not know how to pray, now is the time to learn.

Source: The Common Sense Show

How Economists And Policymakers Murdered Our Economy

The economy has been debilitated by the offshoring of middle class jobs for the benefit of corporate profits and by the Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing in order to support a few oversized banks that the government protects from market discipline. Not only does QE distort bond and stock markets, it threatens the value of the dollar and has resulted in manipulation of the gold price.

See http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/01/17/hows-whys-gold-price-manipulation/

When US corporations send jobs offshore, the GDP, consumer income, tax base, and careers associated with the jobs go abroad with the jobs. Corporations gain the additional profits at large costs to the economy in terms of less employment, less economic growth, reduced state, local and federal tax revenues, wider deficits, and impairments of social services.

When policymakers permitted banks to become independent of market discipline, they made the banks an unresolved burden on the economy. Authorities have provided no honest report on the condition of the banks. It remains to be seen if the Federal Reserve can create enough money to monetize enough debt to rescue the banks without collapsing the US dollar. It would have been far cheaper to let the banks fail and be reorganized.

US policymakers and their echo chamber in the economics profession have let the country down badly. They claimed that there was a “New Economy” to take the place of the “old economy” jobs that were moved offshore. As I have pointed out for a decade, US jobs statistics show no sign of the promised “New Economy.”

The same policymakers and economists who told us that “markets are self-regulating” and that the financial sector could safely be deregulated also confused jobs offshoring with free trade. Hyped “studies” were put together designed to prove that jobs offshoring was good for the US economy. It is difficult to fathom how such destructive errors could consistently be made by policymakers and economists for more than a decade. Were these mistakes or cover for a narrow and selfish agenda?

In June, 2009 happy talk appeared about “the recovery,” now 4.5 years old. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear, “the recovery” is entirely the artifact of the understated measure of inflation used to deflate nominal GDP. By under-measuring inflation, the government can show low, but positive, rates of real GDP growth. No other indicator supports the claim of economic recovery.

John Williams writes that consumer inflation, if properly measured, is running around 9%, far above the 2% figure that is the Fed’s target and more in line with what consumers are actually experiencing. We have just had a 6.5% annual increase in the cost of a postage stamp.

The Fed’s target inflation rate is said to be low, but Simon Black points out that the result of a lifetime of 2% annual inflation is the loss of 75% of the purchasing power of the currency. He uses the cost of sending a postcard to illustrate the decline in the purchasing power of median household income today compared to 1951. That year it cost one cent to send a post card. As household income was $4,237, the household could send 423,700 postcards. Today the comparable income figure is $51,017. As it costs 34 cents to send one postcard, today’s household can only afford to send 150,050 postcards. Nominal income rose 12 times, and the cost of sending a postcard rose 34 times.

Just as the American people know that there is more inflation than is reported, they know that there is no recovery. The Gallup Poll reported this month that only 28% of Americans are satisfied with the economy. http://www.gallup.com/poll/166871/americans-satisfaction-economy-sours-2001.aspx?version=print

From hard experience, Americans have also caught on that “free trade agreements” are nothing but vehicles for moving their jobs abroad. The latest effort by the corporations to loot and defraud the public is known as the “Trans-Pacific Partnership.” “Fast-tracking” the bill allowed the corporations to write the bill in secret without congressional input. Some research shows that 90% of Americans will suffer income losses under TPP, while wealth becomes even more concentrated at the top.

TPP affects every aspect of our lives from what we eat to the Internet to the environment. According to Kevin Zeese in Alternet, “the leak of the [TPP] Intellectual Property Chapter revealed that it created a path to patent everything imaginable, including plants and animals, to turn everything into a commodity for profit.”

The secretly drafted TPP also creates authority for the executive branch to change existing US law to make the laws that were not passed in secret compatible with the secretly written trade bill. Buy American requirements and any attempt to curtail jobs offshoring would become illegal “restraints on trade.”

If the House and Senate are willing to turn over their legislative function to the executive branch, they might as well abolish themselves.

The financial media has been helping the Federal Reserve and the banks to cover up festering problems with rosy hype, but realization that there are serious unresolved problems might be spreading. Last week interest rates on 30-day T-bills turned negative. That means people were paying more for a bond than it would return at maturity. Dave Kranzler sees this as a sign of rising uncertainty about banks. Reminiscent of the Cyprus banks’ limits on withdrawals, last Friday (January 24) the BBC reported that the large UK bank HSBC is preventing customers from withdrawing cash from their accounts in excess of several thousand pounds.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717 

If and when uncertainty spreads to the dollar, the real crisis will arrive, likely followed by high inflation, exchange controls, pension confiscations, and resurrected illegality of owning gold and silver. Capitalist greed aided and abetted by economists and policymakers will have destroyed America.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

Source: Paul Craig Roberts

HSBC Bank on Verge of Collapse: Second Major Banking Crash Imminent

Concerns about an imminent bank crash were further fuelled today at news that HSBC are restricting the amount of cash that customers can withdraw from their own bank accounts. Customers were told that without proof of the intended use of their own money, HSBC would refuse to release it. This, and other worrying signs point to a possible financial crash in the near future.

HSBC is scrambling to manage a seemingly terminal liquidity crisis (a lack of hard cash) that could see the bank become the next Northern Rock – and trigger a bank crash.  The analyst’s advice is for shareholders to sell HSBC investments, and customers to move their accounts elsewhere before the crash.

This from the :

Forensic Asia on Tuesday began its coverage of Britain’s largest banking group with a ‘sell’ recommendation, warning the lender had between $63.6bn (£38.7bn) and $92.3bn of “questionable assets” on its balance sheet, ranging from loan loss reserves and accrued interest to deferred tax assets, defined benefit pension schemes and opaque Level 3 assets.

According a report by the BBC’s MoneyBox Programme, HSBC customers have gone to withdraw cash from their accounts, only to find HSBC would not release the funds.  Customers were told to make a bank transfer instead, unless they provided documentation proving the intended use of the money. Stephen Cotton attempted a withdrawal and told the programme:

“When we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation for what the money was for. They wanted a letter from the person involved.”

Mr Cotton says the staff refused to tell him how much he could have: “So I wrote out a few slips. I said, ‘Can I have £5,000?’ They said no. I said, ‘Can I have £4,000?’ They said no. And then I wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, ‘OK, we’ll give you that.’ “

He asked if he could return later that day to withdraw another £3,000, but he was told he could not do the same thing twice in one day.

As this was not a change to the Terms and Conditions of your bank account we had no need to pre-notify customers of the change”

He wrote to complain to HSBC about the new rules and also that he had not been informed of any change.

The bank said it did not have to tell him. “As this was not a change to the Terms and Conditions of your bank account, we had no need to pre-notify customers of the change,” HSBC wrote.

Mr Cotton is not alone, with other customers seeking to withdraw cash amounts over £3,000 facing the same obstacles.  While HSBC argue there is comes customer security interest here, the story simply doesn’t add up.  Customer identification is required for large withdrawals, not customer intentions – a person’s cash is theirs to withdraw and place wherever they so wish.  Instead, HSBC has been found to have a capitalization black hole (gap between actual cash and obligations) of$80bn.  The message is simple, get your money out now.

The major banks and states appear to be preparing for impending crisis, while pretending to the public that the economic situation is improving.

There is a gold rush underway, with Banks and States frantically buying up as much gold reserve as they can, stoking fears that confidence in currency is at an all-time low.  In recent months and weeks, banks like HSBC and JP Morgan, and states such as the US, Germany and China have joined the gold rush, making vast purchases of stocks.

Investment analysts at Seeking Alpha have been monitoring the strange activity on the COMEX, stating:

“keeping track of COMEX inventories is something that is recommended for all serious investors who own physical gold and the gold ETFs (SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), PHYS, and CEF) because any abnormal inventory declines may signify extraordinary events behind the scenes.”

The crash is in some ways a replay of the last one.  The US dollar is a fiat currency (as is the pound sterling, the euro and most other major currencies).  This means, it is monopoly money.  There is no gold reserve that its values are pegged to.  It is simply made up.  So how does money get made? A private, for profit central bank prints it and lends it to the government (or other banks) at an interest rate.  So the Central Bank prints $100, and gives it to the government on the basis that it returns $101.  You may have already spotted the first flaw in this process.  The additional $1 can only ever come from the Central Bank.  There is never enough money. The second issue is that all money is debt.

This used to be the way pretty much all of the money in circulation came to be.  That is, until Investment and Retail Banks got tired of this monopoly on debt based currency, and kicked off thecommercial money supply.  You might assume that when you take out a loan or other form of credit, a bank gives you that money from its reserves, and you then pay back that loan to the Bank at a given interest rate – the Bank making its profit on the interest rate.  You would be wrong. The Bank simply creates that loan on a computer screen.  Let’s say you are granted a loan for $100,000.  The moment that loan is approved and $100k is entered on the computer – that promise from you to the bank creates $100k for the bank, in that instant.  This ledger entry alone creates the $100k, from nothing. Today, over 97% of all money that exists, is made this way.

This is what drove the dodgy lending practises that created the last crisis.  But since then, the failure to regulate the markets means that while bailouts hit public services and the real economy – banks were free to continue the same behaviour, bringing the next crash.

The world’s second richest man, Warren Buffet warned us in 2003 that the derivatives market was ‘devised by madmen’ and a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ and we have only seen the first blast in this debt apocalypse.

The news that should have us all worried is: the derivatives market contains $700trn of these debts yet to implode.

Global GDP stands at  a year.  This means that (primarily) Wall Street and the City of London have run up phantom paper debts of more than ten times of the annual earnings of the entire planet.

Not only can the Bankers not pay it back, the combined earning power of the earth could not pay it back in less than ten years if every last cent of our productive power went solely to pay off this debt.

This is why answering the issues with our currencies, our banking practices and economic system are not theoretical or academic – they are a matter of our very survival.

Source:  http://iacknowledge.net/hsbc-bank-on-verge-of-collapse-second-major-banking-crash-imminent/

Ben Bernanke’s Banksters Legacy

With Ben Shalom Bernanke set to depart on the last day of January 2014, the critique and speculation of his tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve begins. The mainstream financial press is giving mostly favorable accounts. Heretofore, such praiseworthy acclamations strike a shape contrast with the actual record of the state of the economy. However, the admirers of the Fed and his specific enactments live in a time warp that only masters of the universe encounter. For the remaining population, an intense struggle for survival is the actual experience, remembered from the Bernanke years.

Investopedia expresses a complimentary score of The Legacy Of Ben Bernanke, and cites distinguished highlights and concludes that “Under Bernanke’s stewardship, the Fed became the most transparent it has ever been in its history.”

Yet, they are compelled to mention that from 2008 onward, Bernanke and the Fed embarked on a series of unparalleled – and often unconventional – rescue programs and stimulus measures. These included:

• ratcheting interest rates down to the lowest levels in American history;
• force-feeding the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars through successive rounds of “quantitative easing”;
• bailing out troubled Wall Street firms and institutions;
• orchestrating the rescue of other troubled financial institutions through shotgun weddings; and
• lending funds to diverse sectors of the U.S. economy to revive stalled credit markets.

, is an assessment that one would expect from the Mother Jones publication.

“Bernanke’s problem is pretty simple here: he almost certainly wants higher inflation . . . Once the Fed has reduced interest rates to zero, it can’t go any further. But what if the economy is so bad that all the standard models suggest you need negative interest rates to get the economy back on track? The only answer is higher inflation. If inflation is running at 2% and interest rates are at zero, the real interest rate is -2%. If you borrow money, you’re effectively being allowed to pay back less than you borrowed.”

Then there is the valid point made by Bill Sardi in LewRockwell.com. “The Fed been printing new money at the rate of $85 billion a month which is being distributed to close member banks who are gambling it on the Wall Street stock market to recapitalize themselves rather than lending it out into the economy so citizens can buy new homes, automobiles.”

The example of Paying back retirees with cheaper dollars illustrates the real costs of built in systemic inflation, not just for citizens on a fix income, but for everyone. This lost in purchasing value of the currency is obvious to any honest person.

“The average social security check was $321 in 1980 and in 2011 it was $1183 (adjusted for inflation). But if that $321 pension check were to be fully adjusted for inflation according to way inflation was calculated in 1980 (cost of gasoline and food included), then that $321 should be $3636 to have the same purchasing power today.”

The severity of income disparity has reached staggering levels. Elite insiders game the system with insider speculation certainty, while the constructive producers that keep the real components of the economy functioning, are pushed to the margins.

Bernanke’s real legacy produced the following outcomes. The always-reliable ZeroHedge site states some undeniable facts under Bernanke’s watch.

•  The US has never experienced 3% GDP growth.
•  The labor participation rate has fallen to levels not seen since the ‘70s.
•  Inflation-adjusted median incomes have fallen 7%.
•  The US’s debt load has risen from $8.4 trillion to over $16 trillion.
•  The Fed’s balance sheet has increased from $800 billion to over $4 trillion (larger than the economies of Brazil, France and even Germany).
•  Food prices have hit record highs fomenting revolutions in the Middle East and untold suffering around the globe.
•  The Fed has funneled trillions of Dollars into both US banks and European banks.
•  The Fed has allowed fraud, insider trading, and corruption.

The banksters demanded a bailed out because their derivative greed exacted losses that required an immense infusion of liquidity to rescue their balance sheets. Under Bernanke, the titans of finance have an unlimited line of near zero rate interest of new credit. When the establishment financial press applauds the savior of the economy, their loyalty towards corporatist governance, dictates that the economic interests and the public welfare of ordinary people is expendable.

Look to a prime example of this concentration of wealth and control. The Global 1%: Exposing the Transnational Ruling Class by Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro, focus on BlackRock.

“BlackRock is one of the most concentrated power networks among the global 1 percent. The eighteen members of the board of directors are connected to a significant part of the world’s core financial assets. Their decisions can change empires, destroy currencies, and impoverish millions. Some of the top financial giants of the capitalist world are connected by interlocking boards of directors at BlackRock, including Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, PNC Bank, Barclays, Swiss Reinsurance Company, American International Group (AIG), UBS A.G., Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley.”

These crony capitalists are the prototypes that benefited from Bernanke decisions.

During the Bernanke era, the debt bubble entered the point of no return to solvency. His place in the history of shame sets the stage for further economic turmoil. The Federal Reserve after Ben Bernanke article indicates that the Fed is boxed into a pattern that is likely to escalate out of control.

“With the uninterrupted, increase in federal debt, much of which is held by the Federal Reserve, the prospects of achieving prosperity by growing the economy, when interests rates have been near zero, failed miserably. It becomes almost absurd to believe that higher rates on Treasury Bonds will succeed. The new chair of the Fed will be hard pressed shutting down Quantitative Easing.”

A depression in the real economy is foreordained with the retraction of credit to most enterprises. This starving of access to funding is a conscious and deliberate strategy to force competition out of business. The grand scale that the banksters operate on has little room for upstarts or hanger-on’s. At the end of this very destructive Bernanke term, the rich got fabulous more wealthy, as the country sinks into decline on so many levels.

10 Compelling Reasons You Can Never Trust The Mainstream Media

A poll last year showed that trust in the mainstream media is increasing, which should worry all of us who value truth, integrity and press freedom. Why? Here are 10 disturbing things everyone needs to know about the global media giants who control our supply of information, wielding immense power over the people- and even over the government.

1. Mainstream media exists solely to make profit

What´s the purpose of the mainstream media? Saying that the press exists to inform, educate or entertain is like saying Apple corporation´s primary function is to make technology which will enrich our lives. Actually, the mass media industry is the same as any other in a capitalist society: it exists to make profit. Medialens, a British campaigning site which critiques mainstream (or corporate) journalism, quotedbusiness journalist Marjorie Kelly as saying that all corporations, including those dealing with media, exist only to maximize returns to their shareholders. This is, she said,  ´the law of the land…universally accepted as a kind of divine, unchallengeable truth´. Without pleasing shareholders and a board of directors, mass media enterprises simply would not exist. And once you understand this, you´ll never watch the news in the same way again.

2. Advertisers dictate content

So how does the pursuit of profit affect the news we consume? Media corporations make the vast majority (typically around 75%) of their profit from advertising, meaning it´s advertisers themselves that dictate content- not journalists, and certainly not consumers. Imagine you are editor of a successful newspaper or TV channel with high circulation or viewing figures. You attract revenue from big brands and multinational corporations such as BP, Monsanto and UAE airlines. How could you then tackle important topics such as climate change, GM food or disastrous oil spills in a way that is both honest to your audience and favorable to your clients? The simple answer is you can´t. This might explain why Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times-   by Goldman Sachs-  is so keen todefend the crooked corporation. Andrew Marr, a political correspondent for the BBC, sums up the dilemma in his : ´The biggest question is whether advertising limits and reshapes the news agenda. It does, of course. It’s hard to make the sums add up when you are kicking the people who write the cheques.´ Enough said…

3. Billionaire tycoons & media monopolies threaten real journalism

The monopolization of the press (fewer individuals or organizations controlling increasing shares of the mass media) is growingyear by year, and this is a grave danger to press ethics and diversity. Media mogul RupertMurdoch´s  neo-liberal personal politics are reflected in his 175 newspapers and endorsed by pundits (see Fox news) on the 123 TV channels he owns in the USA alone. Anyone who isn´t worried by this one man´s view of the world being consumed by millions of people across the globe- from the USA to the UK, New Zealand to Asia, Europe to Australia- isn´t thinking hard enough about the consequences. It´s a grotesquely all-encompassing monopoly, leaving no doubt that Murdoch is one of the most powerful men in the world. But as the News International phone hacking scandal  showed, he´s certainly not the most honorable or ethical. Neither is AlexanderLebedev, a former KGB spy and politician who bought British newspaper The Independent  in 2010.  With Lebedev´s fingers in so many pies (the billionaire oligarch is into everything from investment banking to airlines), can we really expect news coverage from this once well-respected publication to continue in the same vein? Obviously not: the paper had always carried a banner on its front page declaring itself  ´free from party political bias, free from proprietorial influence´, but interestingly this was dropped in September 2011.

4. Corporate press is in bed with the government

Aside from the obvious, one of the most disturbing facts to emerge from Murdoch´s News International phone hacking scandal (background information here ) was the exposure of shady connections  between top government officials and press tycoons. During the scandal, and throughout the subsequent Leveson inquiry into British press ethics (or lack of them), we learned of secret meetings, threatsby Murdoch to politicians who didn´t do as he wanted, and that Prime Minister David Cameron has a very close friendship with The Sun´s then editor-in-chief (and CEO of News International) Rebekah Brooks. How can journalists do their job of holding politicians to account when they are vacationing together or rubbing shoulders at private dinner parties? Clearly, they don´t intend to. But the support works both ways- Cameron´s government tried to help Murdoch´s son win a bid for BSkyB, while bizarrely,  warmongering ex Prime Minister Tony Blair is godfather to Murdoch´s daughter Grace. As well as ensuring an overwhelming bias in news coverage and election campaigns, flooding newspapers with cheap and easy articles from unquestioned government sources, and gagging writers from criticizing those in power, these secret connections also account for much of the corporate media´s incessant peddling of the patriotism lie-  especially in the lead-up to attacks on other countries. Here´s an interestinganalysis of The New York Times´s coverage of the current Syria situation for example, demonstrating how corporate journalists are failing to reflect public feeling on the issue of a full-scale attack on Assad by the US and its allies. 

5. Important stories are overshadowed by trivia

You could be forgiven for assuming that the most interesting part of Edward Snowden´s status as a whistleblower was his plane ride from Hong Kong to Russia, or his lengthy stint waiting in Moscow airport for someone- anyone- to offer him asylum. Because with the exception of The Guardian who published the leaks (read them in fullhere), the media has generally preferred not to focus on Snowden´s damning revelations about freedom and tyranny, but rather on banaltrivia – his personality and background, whether his girlfriend misses him, whether he is actually a Chinese spy, and ahhh, didn´t he remind us all of Where´s Waldo as he flitted across the globe as a wanted fugitive? The same could be said of Bradley Manning´s gender re-assignment, which conveniently overshadowed the enormous injustice of his sentence. And what of Julian Assange? His profile on the globally-respected BBC is dedicated almost entirely to a subtle smearing of character, rather than detailing Wikileaks´s profound impact on our view of the world. In every case, the principal stories are forgotten as our attention, lost in a sea of trivia, is expertly diverted from the real issues at hand: those which invariably, the government wants us to forget.

6. Mainstream media doesn´t ask questions

´Check your sources, check your facts´ are golden rules in journalism 101, but you wouldn´t guess that from reading the mainstream press or watching corporate TV channels. At the time of writing, Obama is beating the war drums over Syria. Following accusations by the US and Britain that Assad was responsible for a nerve gas attack on his own civilians last month, most mainstream newspapers- like the afore-mentioned New York Times- have failed to demand evidence or call for restraint on a full-scale attack. But there are several good reasons why journalists should question the official story. Firstly, British right-wing newspaper The Daily Mail actually ran a news piece back in January this year, publishing leaked emails from a British arms company showing the US was planning a false flag chemical attack on Syria´s civilians. They would then blame it on Assad to gain public support for a subsequent full-scale invasion. The article was hastily deleted but a cached version still exists. Other recent evidence lends support to the unthinkable. It has emerged that the chemicals used to make the nerve gas were indeed shipped from Britain, and German intelligenceinsists Assad was not responsible for the chemical attack. Meanwhile, a hacktivist has come forward with alleged evidence of US intelligence agencies´ involvement in the massacre (download it for yourself here ), with a growing body of evidence suggesting this vile plot was hatched by Western powers. Never overlook the corporate media´s ties to big business and big government before accepting what you are told- because if journalism is dead, you have a right and a duty to ask your own questions.

7. Corporate journalists hate real journalists

Sirota rightly points out the irony of this: ´Here we have a reporter expressing excitement at the prospect of the government executing the publisher of information that became the basis for some of the most important journalism in the last decade.´ Sirota goes on to note various examples of what he calls the ´Journalists against Journalism club´, and gives severalexamples of how The Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald has been attacked by the corporate press for publishing Snowden´s leaks. The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin called for Greenwald’s , while NBC’s David Gregory´s declared that Greenwald has ´aided and abetted Snowden´. As for the question of whether journalists can indeed be outspoken, Sirota accurately notes that it all depends on whether their opinions serve or challenge the status quo, and goes on to list the hypocrisy of Greenwald´s critics in depth: ´Grunwald has saber-rattling opinions that proudly support the government’s drone strikes and surveillance. Sorkin’s opinions promote Wall Street’s interests. (The Washington Post´s David) Broder had opinions that supported, among other things, the government’s corporate-serving “free” trade agenda. (The Washington Post´s Bob) Woodward has opinions backing an ever-bigger Pentagon budget that enriches defense contractors. (The Atlantic´s Jeffrey) Goldberg promotes the Military-Industrial Complex’s generally pro-war opinions. (The New York Times´s Thomas) Friedman is all of them combined, promoting both “free” trade and “suck on this” militarism. Because these voices loyally promote the unstated assumptions that serve the power structure and that dominate American politics, all of their particular opinions aren’t even typically portrayed as opinions; they are usually portrayed as noncontroversial objectivity.´

8. Bad news sells, good news is censored, and celebrity gossip trumps important issues

It´s sad but true: bad news really does sell more newspapers. But why? Are we really so pessimistic? Do we relish the suffering of others? Are we secretly glad that something terrible happened to someone else, not us? Reading the corporate press as an alien visiting Earth you might assume so. Generally, news coverage is sensationalist and depressing as hell, with so many pages dedicated to murder, rape and pedophilia and yet none to the billions of good deeds and amazingly inspirational movements taking place every minute of every day all over the planet. But the reasons we consume bad news are perfectly logical. In times of harmony and peace, people simply don´t feel the need to educate themselves as much as they do in times of crises. That´s good news for anyone beginning to despair that humans are apathetic, hateful and dumb, and it could even be argued that this sobering and simple fact is a great incentive for the mass media industry to do something worthwhile. They could start offering the positive and hopeful angle for a change. They could use dark periods of increased public interest to convey a message of peace and justice. They could reflect humanity´s desire for solutions and our urgent concerns for the environment. They could act as the voice of a global population who has had enough of violence and lies to campaign for transparency, equality, freedom, truth, and real democracy. Would that sell newspapers? I think so. They could even hold a few politicians to account on behalf of the people, wouldn´t that be something? But for the foreseeable future, it´s likely the corporate press will just distract our attention with another picture of Rhianna´s butt, another rumor about Justin Bieber´s coke habit, or another article about Kim Kardashian (who is she again?) wearing perspex heels with swollen ankles while pregnant. Who cares about the missing$21 trillion, what was she thinking?

9. Whoever controls language controls the population

Have you read George Orwell´s classic novel yet? It´s become a clichéd reference in today´s dystopia, that´s true, but with good reason. There are many- too many- parallels between Orwell´s dark imaginary future and our current reality, but one important part of his vision concerned language. Orwell coined the word ´Newspeak´  to describe a simplistic version of the English language with the aim of limiting free thought on issues that would challenge the status quo (creativity, peace, and individualism for example). The concept of Newspeak includes what Orwell called ´DoubleThink´-  how language is made ambiguous or even inverted to convey the opposite of what is true. In his book, the Ministry of War is known as the Ministry of Love, for example, while the Ministry of Truth deals with propaganda and entertainment. Sound familiar yet? Another book that delves into this topic deeper is , a must-read for anyone interested in language and power and specifically how words are distorted for political ends. Terms such as ´peace keeping missiles´, ´extremists´ and ´no-fly zones´, weapons being referred to as ´assets´, or misleading business euphemisms such as ´downsizing´ for redundancy and ´sunset´ for termination- these, and hundreds of other examples, demonstrate how powerful language can be. In a world of growing corporate media monopolization, those who wield this power can manipulate words and therefore public reaction, to encourage compliance, uphold the status quo, or provoke fear.

10. Freedom of the press no longer exists

The only press that is currently free (at least for now) is the independent publication with no corporate advertisers, board of directors, shareholders or CEOs. Details of how the state has redefined journalism are noted here and are mentioned in #7, but the best recent example would be the government´s treatment of The Guardian over its publication of the Snowden leaks. As a side note, it´s possible this paper plays us as well as any other- The Guardian Media Group isn´t small fry, after all. But on the other hand- bearing in mind points 1 to 9- why should we find it hard to believe that after the NSA files were published, editor Alan Rusbridge wastold by the powers that be ´you´ve had your fun, now return the files´, that government officials stormed his newsroom and smashed up hard drives, or that Greenwald´s partner David Miranda wasdetained for 9 hours in a London airport under the Terrorism Act as he delivered documents related to the columnist´s story? Journalism, Alan Rusbridge lamented, ´may be facing a kind of existential threat.´ As CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather wrote: ‘We have few princes and earls today, but we surely have their modern-day equivalents in the very wealthy who seek to manage the news, make unsavory facts disappear and elect representatives who are in service to their own economic and social agenda… The “free press” is no longer a check on power. It has instead become part of the power apparatus itself.’

Sophie is a staff writer for True Activist and a freelance feature writer for various publications on society, activism and other topics. You can read more of her stuff here.

Source: True Activist

Putin Scores A New Victory In The Ukraine

What really happened in the Ukrainian crisis?

It is freezing cold in Kiev, legendary city of golden domes on the banks of Dnieper River – cradle of ancient Russian civilisation and the most charming of East European capitals. It is a comfortable and rather prosperous place, with hundreds of small and cosy restaurants, neat streets, sundry parks and that magnificent river. The girls are pretty and the men are sturdy. Kiev is more relaxed than Moscow, and easier on the wallet. Though statistics say the Ukraine is broke and its people should be as poor as Africans, in reality they aren’t doing too badly, thanks to their fiscal imprudence. The government borrowed and spent freely, heavily subsidised housing and heating, and they brazenly avoided devaluation of the national currency and the austerity program prescribed by the IMF. This living on credit can go only so far: the Ukraine was doomed to default on its debts next month or sooner, and this is one of the reasons for the present commotion.

A tug-of-war between the East and the West for the future of Ukraine lasted over a month, and has ended for all practical purposes in a resounding victory for Vladimir Putin, adding to his previous successes in Syria and Iran. The trouble began when the administration of President Yanukovich went looking for credits to reschedule its loans and avoid default. There were no offers. They turned to the EC for help; the EC, chiefly Poland and Germany, seeing that the Ukrainian administration was desperate, prepared an association agreement of unusual severity.

The EC is quite hard on its new East European members, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria et al.: these countries had their industry and agriculture decimated, their young people working menial jobs in Western Europe, their population drop exceeded that of the WWII.

But the association agreement offered to the Ukraine was even worse. It would turn the Ukraine into an impoverished colony of the EC without giving it even the dubious advantages of membership (such as freedom of work and travel in the EC). In desperation, Yanukovich agreed to sign on the dotted line, in vain hopes of getting a large enough loan to avoid collapse. But the EC has no money to spare – it has to provide for Greece, Italy, Spain. Now Russia entered the picture. At the time, relations of the Ukraine and Russia were far from good. Russians had become snotty with their oil money, the Ukrainians blamed their troubles on Russians, but Russia was still the biggest market for Ukrainian products.

For Russia, the EC agreement meant trouble: currently the Ukraine sells its output in Russia with very little customs protection; the borders are porous; people move freely across the border, without even a passport. If the EC association agreement were signed, the EC products would flood Russia through the Ukrainian window of opportunity. So Putin spelled out the rules to Yanukovich: if you sign with the EC, Russian tariffs will rise. This would put some 400,000 Ukrainians out of work right away. Yanukovich balked and refused to sign the EC agreement at the last minute. (I predicted this in my report from Kiev full three weeks before it happened, when nobody believed it – a source of pride).

The EC, and the US standing behind it, were quite upset. Besides the loss of potential economic profit, they had another important reason: they wanted to keep Russia farther away from Europe, and they wanted to keep Russia weak. Russia is not the Soviet Union, but some of the Soviet disobedience to Western imperial designs still lingers in Moscow: be it in Syria, Egypt, Vietnam, Cuba, Angola, Venezuela or Zimbabwe, the Empire can’t have its way while the Russian bear is relatively strong. Russia without the Ukraine can’t be really powerful: it would be like the US with its Mid-western and Pacific states chopped away. The West does not want the Ukraine to prosper, or to become a stable and strong state either, so it cannot join Russia and make it stronger. A weak, poor and destabilised Ukraine in semi-colonial dependence to the West with some NATO bases is the best future for the country, as perceived by Washington or Brussels.

Angered by this last-moment-escape of Yanukovich, the West activated its supporters. For over a month, Kiev has been besieged by huge crowds bussed from all over the Ukraine, bearing a local strain of the Arab Spring in the far north. Less violent than Tahrir, their Maidan Square became a symbol of struggle for the European strategic future of the country. The Ukraine was turned into the latest battle ground between the US-led alliance and a rising Russia. Would it be a revanche for Obama’s Syria debacle, or another heavy strike at fading American hegemony?

The simple division into “pro-East” and “pro-West” has been complicated by the heterogeneity of the Ukraine. The loosely knit country of differing regions is quite similar in its makeup to the Yugoslavia of old. It is another post-Versailles hotchpotch of a country made up after the First World War of bits and pieces, and made independent after the Soviet collapse in 1991. Some parts of this “Ukraine” were incorporated by Russia 500 years ago, the Ukraine proper (a much smaller parcel of land, bearing this name) joined Russia 350 years ago, whilst the Western Ukraine (called the “Eastern Regions”) was acquired by Stalin in 1939, and the Crimea was incorporated in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic by Khrushchev in 1954.

The Ukraine is as Russian as the South-of-France is French and as Texas and California are American. Yes, some hundreds years ago, Provence was independent from Paris, – it had its own language and art; while Nice and Savoy became French rather recently. Yes, California and Texas joined the Union rather late too. Still, we understand that they are – by now – parts of those larger countries, ifs and buts notwithstanding. But if they were forced to secede, they would probably evolve a new historic narrative stressing the French ill treatment of the South in the Cathar Crusade, or dispossession of Spanish and Russian residents of California.

Accordingly, since the Ukraine’s independence, the authorities have been busy nation-building, enforcing a single official language and creating a new national myth for its 45 million inhabitants. The crowds milling about the Maidan were predominantly (though not exclusively) arrivals from Galicia, a mountainous county bordering with Poland and Hungary, 500 km (300 miles) away from Kiev, and natives of the capital refer to the Maidan gathering as a “Galician occupation”.

Like the fiery Bretons, the Galicians are fierce nationalists, bearers of a true Ukrainian spirit (whatever that means). Under Polish and Austrian rule for centuries, whilst the Jews were economically powerful, they are a strongly anti-Jewish and anti-Polish lot, and their modern identity centred around their support for Hitler during the WWII, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of their Polish and Jewish neighbours. After the WWII, the remainder of pro-Hitler Galician SS fighters were adopted by US Intelligence, re-armed and turned into a guerrilla force against the Soviets. They added an anti-Russian line to their two ancient hatreds and kept fighting the “forest war” until 1956, and these ties between the Cold Warriors have survived the thaw.

After 1991, when the independent Ukraine was created, in the void of state-building traditions, the Galicians were lauded as ‘true Ukrainians’, as they were the only Ukrainians who ever wanted independence. Their language was used as the basis of a new national state language, their traditions became enshrined on the state level. Memorials of Galician Nazi collaborators and mass murderers Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych peppered the land, often provoking the indignation of other Ukrainians. The Galicians played an important part in the 2004 Orange Revolution as well, when the results of presidential elections were declared void and the pro-Western candidate Mr Yuschenko got the upper hand in the re-run.

However, in 2004, many Kievans also supported Yuschenko, hoping for the Western alliance and a bright new future. Now, in 2013, the city’s support for the Maidan was quite low, and the people of Kiev complained loudly about the mess created by the invading throngs: felled trees, burned benches, despoiled buildings and a lot of biological waste. Still, Kiev is home to many NGOs; city intellectuals receive generous help from the US and EC. The old comprador spirit is always strongest in the capitals.

For the East and Southeast of the Ukraine, the populous and heavily industrialised regions, the proposal of association with the EC is a no-go, with no ifs, ands or buts. They produce coal, steel, machinery, cars, missiles, tanks and aircraft. Western imports would erase Ukrainian industry right off the map, as the EC officials freely admit. Even the Poles, hardly a paragon of industrial development, had the audacity to say to the Ukraine: we’ll do the technical stuff, you’d better invest in agriculture. This is easier to say than to do: the EC has a lot of regulations that make Ukrainian products unfit for sale and consumption in Europe. Ukrainian experts estimated their expected losses for entering into association with the EC at anything from 20 to 150 billion euros.

For Galicians, the association would work fine. Their speaker at the Maidan called on the youth to ‘go where you can get money’ and do not give a damn for industry. They make their income in two ways: providing bed-and breakfast rooms for Western tourists and working in Poland and Germany as maids and menials. They hoped they would get visa-free access to Europe and make a decent income for themselves. Meanwhile, nobody offered them a visa-waiver arrangement. The Brits mull over leaving the EC, because of the Poles who flooded their country; the Ukrainians would be too much for London. Only the Americans, always generous at somebody’s else expense, demanded the EC drop its visa requirement for them.

While the Maidan was boiling, the West sent its emissaries, ministers and members of parliament to cheer the Maidan crowd, to call for President Yanukovich to resign and for a revolution to install pro-Western rule. Senator McCain went there and made a few firebrand speeches. The EC declared Yanukovich “illegitimate” because so many of his citizens demonstrated against him. But when millions of French citizens demonstrated against their president, when Occupy Wall Street was violently dispersed, nobody thought the government of France or the US president had lost legitimacy…

Victoria Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State, shared her biscuits with the demonstrators, and demanded from the oligarchs support for the “European cause” or their businesses would suffer. The Ukrainian oligarchs are very wealthy, and they prefer the Ukraine as it is, sitting on the fence between the East and the West. They are afraid that the Russian companies will strip their assets should the Ukraine join the Customs Union, and they know that they are not competitive enough to compete with the EC. Pushed now by Nuland, they were close to falling on the EC side.

Yanukovich was in big trouble. The default was rapidly approaching. He annoyed the pro-Western populace, and he irritated his own supporters, the people of the East and Southeast. The Ukraine had a real chance of collapsing into anarchy. A far-right nationalist party, Svoboda (Liberty), probably the nearest thing to the Nazi party to arise in Europe since 1945, made a bid for power. The EC politicians accused Russia of pressurising the Ukraine; Russian missiles suddenly emerged in the western-most tip of Russia, a few minutes flight from Berlin. The Russian armed forces discussed the US strategy of a “disarming first strike”. The tension was very high.

Edward Lucas, the Economist’s international editor and author of , is a hawk of the Churchill and Reagan variety. For him, Russia is an enemy, whether ruled by Tsar, by Stalin or by Putin. He wrote: “It is no exaggeration to say that the [Ukraine] determines the long-term future of the entire former Soviet Union. If Ukraine adopts a Euro-Atlantic orientation, then the Putin regime and its satrapies are finished… But if Ukraine falls into Russia’s grip, then the outlook is bleak and dangerous… Europe’s own security will also be endangered. NATO is already struggling to protect the Baltic states and Poland from the integrated and increasingly impressive military forces of Russia and Belarus. Add Ukraine to that alliance, and a headache turns into a nightmare.”

In this cliff-hanging situation, Putin made his pre-emptive strike. At a meeting in the Kremlin, he agreed to buy fifteen billion euros worth of Ukrainian Eurobonds and cut the natural gas price by a third. This meant there would be no default; no massive unemployment; no happy hunting ground for the neo-Nazi thugs of Svoboda; no cheap and plentiful Ukrainian prostitutes and menials for the Germans and Poles; and Ukrainian homes will be warm this Christmas. Better yet, the presidents agreed to reforge their industrial cooperation. When Russia and Ukraine formed a single country, they built spaceships; apart, they can hardly launch a naval ship. Though unification isn’t on the map yet, it would make sense for both partners. This artificially divided country can be united, and it would do a lot of good for both of their populaces, and for all people seeking freedom from US hegemony.

There are a lot of difficulties ahead: Putin and Yanukovich are not friends, Ukrainian leaders are prone to renege, the US and the EC have a lot of resources. But meanwhile, it is a victory to celebrate this Christmas tide. Such victories keep Iran safe from US bombardment, inspire the Japanese to demand removal of Okinawa base, encourage those seeking closure of Guantanamo jail, cheer up Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, frighten the NSA and CIA and allow French Catholics to march against Hollande’s child-trade laws.

***

What is the secret of Putin’s success? Edward Lucas said, in an interview to the pro-Western Ekho Moskvy radio: “Putin had a great year – Snowden, Syria, Ukraine. He checkmated Europe. He is a great player: he notices our weaknesses and turns them into his victories. He is good in diplomatic bluff, and in the game of Divide and Rule. He makes the Europeans think that the US is weak, and he convinced the US that Europeans are useless”.

I would offer an alternative explanation. The winds and hidden currents of history respond to those who feel their way. Putin is no less likely a roguish leader of global resistance than Princess Leia or Captain Solo were in Star Wars. Just the time for such a man is ripe.

Unlike Solo, he is not an adventurer. He is a prudent man. He does not try his luck, he waits, even procrastinates. He did not try to change regime in Tbilisi in 2008, when his troops were already on the outskirts of the city. He did not try his luck in Kiev, either. He has spent many hours in many meetings with Yanukovich whom he supposedly personally dislikes.

Like Captain Solo, Putin is a man who is ready to pay his way, full price, and such politicians are rare. “Do you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an Englishman’s mouth?”, asked a James Joyce character, and answered: “His proudest boast is I paid my way.” Those were Englishmen of another era, long before the likes of Blair, et al.

While McCain and Nuland, Merkel and Bildt speak of the European choice for the Ukraine, none of them is ready to pay for it. Only Russia is ready to pay her way, in the Joycean sense, whether in cash, as now, or in blood, as in WWII.

Putin is also a magnanimous man. He celebrated his Ukrainian victory and forthcoming Christmas by forgiving his personal and political enemies and setting them free: the Pussy Riot punks, Khodorkovsky the murderous oligarch, rioters… And his last press conference he carried out in Captain Solo self-deprecating mode, and this, for a man in his position, is a very good sign.

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