Murders reached a historic low in NYC for 2014; overall crime was down across the board by nearly 5%; hell, even the holiday slowdown didn’t really lead to any additional crime. So clearly, now is the time when NYC really needs to implement a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. What could go wrong?
This new squad will be used to investigate and combat terrorist plots, lone wolf terrorists, and… protests. “It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” Bratton said, according to CBS.
The morphing of “terrorism” and “domestic dissent” into an all encompassing and convenient category known as “domestic terrorists” or “domestic extremists” has been a long time coming. It has always been my contention, and continues to be, that the oligarchs who have funneled all of the wealth to themselves since the 2008 banker bailouts know exactly what they are doing. They also know that it will eventually result in severe domestic unrest during the next cyclical downturn. As such, the agenda has been to utilize the entirety of the intelligence-industrial-military complex created by the “war on terror” against the domestic population once it recognizes how badly it has been looted.
There is clearly a power elite that consists of a union between big corporate and financial oligarchs and career bureaucrats in Washington D.C. These are the folks that pull the strings of all administrations. All you have to do is look at the trends that have been in place since George W Bush and continue under Obama to see what these players want. Bigger government and thus more Federal power, more wealth for the oligarchs (thank you Federal Reserve) and an erosion of the middle class, and reduction of civil liberties in the name of the 1984-like never-ending “war on terror.” I believe in a war on terror of my own. A war against the terror that Washington D.C. is constantly trying to inject into your head so that you sheepishly give away all you rights and power to them. That’s my war on terror.
The vast majority of people simply refuse to believe any of the above. They will remain in denial until the very moment at which denial becomes an impossibility. By that point it might be too late.
The relationship between those who are constantly watched and tracked, and those who watch and track them, is the relationship between masters and slaves.
– Chris Hedges
Below you will find an extremely powerful and inspiring speech by Chris Hedges. The award winning journalist has been ahead of the curve on many issues of national and global importance, including being one of the earliest critics of the Iraq war. Chris has an unshakable moral compass and a passion to match it. He has been a shining light in a sea of darkness and cowardice when it comes to public figures speaking truth to power, including having led the charge to sue the Obama administration on the right toimprison American citizens without trial.
While this one is no less interesting, it’s likely to be quite a bit more controversial. He poses questions that philosophers have no doubt pondered from the very first moment human beings came together to organize into centralized political structures.
Namely, what is the responsibility of a citizen in a society in which the majority is ruled by a small minority? By living passively within this system has a citizen de facto given his or her consent to the minority? If so, is that citizen therefore ultimately responsible for the fate of the society as a whole?
Thought the revolving door couldn’t get any worse? Think again. The Banana Republicization of these United States is now traveling at hyperloop speed. It’s one thing for folks at the SEC and Congress to jump ship for Wall Street, but the head of the country’s largest police force going to JP Morgan? This is particularly … Read more
The following is a powerful, touching and very well done video that includes veterans of various wars, ranging from World War II to Vietnam as well as some of our recent imperial adventures. It is entirely clear that this is no stunt, but rather a heartfelt and genuine expression of grief and disillusionment from Americans … Read more
Some people seemed strangely relieved in the wake of the NSA spying scandal when Obama said “no one is listening to your phone calls.” First of all, while they are clearly not listening to everyone’s phone calls, they certainly are listening to certain people’s calls and that isn’t acceptable in a free society. Second of all, it’s pretty obvious that the one reason they aren’t listening to everyone’s calls is because it wouldn’t be practical or effective. As Matt Blaze notes in this great article from Wired, the government isn’t primarily tracking metadata rather than content in an attempt to protect privacy, but rather because metadata is the most efficient and effective way in which to spy on and preempt domestic political dissent. From Wired:
We now know that every day, U.S. phone companies quietly send the government a list of who called whom and when — “telephony metadata” — for every call made on their networks, because of a secret order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. It turns out that this has been going on for seven years (and was even reported by USA Today then); the difference now is that the government — uncharacteristically for such a secret intelligence operation — quickly acknowledged the authenticity of the leaked order and the existence of the metadata collection program.
Should we be worried? At least “nobody is listening to our telephone calls” (so the president himself assured us). People breathed a sigh of relief since first learning of the surveillance because surely there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to such seemingly innocuous information — it’s just metadata, after all. Phew!
With today’s communications technology, is metadata really less revealing than content? Especially when we’re dealing with metadata at the scale that we now know the NSA and FBI are receiving?
Because at such a scale, people’s intuition about the relative invasiveness of content and metadata starts to fail them. Phone records can actually be more revealing than content when someone has as many records and as complete a set of them as the NSA does.
America really has become the “land of the thief, home of the slave.” While a minority of awake citizens desperately tries to shake their neighbors from their deep slumber, the masses continue to sit in front of the television, suck their thumbs and watch Desperate Housewives, while the oligarchs laugh incredulously at them all the … Read more
Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), we have details for the first time of how government intelligence organizations and the corporate state worked together in secret to battle the Occupy Wall Street movement. The best report I have read on this story comes from the PCJF themselves. Here are some of their key findings:
“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement.
FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protestand did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests.
My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of god and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars
D’you wear a black armband When they shot the man Who said “peace could last forever” And in my first memories They shot Kennedy I went numb when I learned to see So I never fell for Vietnam We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all That you can’t trust freedom When it’s not in your hands When everybody’s fightin’ For their promised land And
I don’t need your civil war It feeds the rich while it buries the poor Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers In a human grocery store Ain’t that fresh I don’t need your civil war
The Tipping Point
Serfdom has simply been pushed too far. Globally. What we are about to witness, incredibly, is not just a change in the way that one or two countries or even a specific region of the world operates. No, what we are about to witness is a complete transformation globally, a change that I believe will be incredibly positive and will ultimately free us from the shackles upon the minds of humanity as a species. The internet has allowed us to connect with one another in a manner never before possible, and this tool has permitted us to blast through the lies of the global elite that is desperately trying to hang on to control. Whether it was the intention from the outset or not, what globalization has created is a very small class of incredibly wealthy people that are extraordinarily corrupt as a group and also above the law. They are able to hide enormous amounts of money. They are able to insider trade. They are able to deal drugs. They can do whatever they want, yet if anyone below them does the same they are prosecuted in a manner that resembles Medieval torture.
Many people say to me, “but Mike, aren’t things always corrupt, hasn’t it always been this way?” To this I answer yes and no. Of course within any complex societal and political structure there will be elements of corruption. This is obvious. However, there are cycles of corruption and degrees. At some point, particularly toward the end of a cycle where globalization creates this “super corrupt class” of individuals roaming the planet doing as they please with us pawns, you reach a tipping point. That tipping point has already been reached. What we are witnessing now all over the world are merely the effects of that tipping point clashing with the corrupt global elite that refuses to budge an inch and reform even though it is in their best interest to do so. No, they are so arrogant and criminal after decades of doing what they please with zero consequences they would rather attempt to implement a global police state rather than deal with the nightmare of their actions and make the world a better place. Therefore, it is up to us, as a species, to reclaim what is our birthright. Freedom.
As I wrote the other day on twitter, what we have today is not Socialism or Capitalism, it is Ponzism. I am talking on a global level. Basically every country and every region. The biggest pitfall we must avoid as a species is allowing the global power structure to pit us against one another. These guys don’t fight wars, they send you to fight them. Don’t fall for it. Their number one trick once things get bad within their own nations is to attempt to create a war. This checks two very important boxes for them. First, it creates a distraction for the general public and even makes them think that they are part of a team that needs to be cheered. It’s like a big football game but with thousands or millions dying on the field. Second, it allows the government to do pretty much anything they want in the name of “winning the war” or “national security.” This is exactly why the “war on terror” was the perfect war for a kleptocratic elite. It is a war with no end, so theoretically they can constantly claim war as an excuse for taking away civil liberties. The problem for them at the moment though is that the American people are waking up to this scam. Therefore, a larger and much deadlier war is in their best interests. If it is in their best interest you can be sure it is in our worse interests. Therefore, we must do everything we can to prevent it.
The Global Spring
When the “Arab Spring” broke out early last year, many simply took it to be an outburst of rage and frustration from a region that has been shackled by autocratic regimes, lack of economic opportunity and cultural stagnation. While it was the surge in global food prices that catalyzed the event that we now refer to as the Arab Spring, what I think was under appreciated and continues to be, is that fact that this was merely the first major outburst in what is certain to be a Global Spring. The world’s population centers in general are increasingly able to identify with the frustration of those in the Middle East, so far removed from our psyches just a decade or so ago. The most important thing for us all to realize is that there is another way. We have infinite potential as a species to create, innovate and evolve. We just need to collectively remove the gigantic jackboot from our face.
The number of events happening at the moment that provide evidence of the emerging Global Spring are almost too many to keep track of, but in the following paragraphs I will try. I assume that most everyone reading this piece is aware of these events, but what I am trying to do is explain my thesis that all of them are essentially related to the same theme. A massive global uprising against the current status quo and the economic and political systems that it has put in place. People are becoming increasingly aware that these systems are run by the few and for the few, and the boiling point is being reached. Community by community and nation by nation. Let’s start with China.
China
Unless you have been living under an economic rock for the past six months, you are aware that China is in the midst of a serious economic slowdown. As I have said for years and continue to say, this is not a small bump in the road. This is a major contraction. Similar to the U.S., China had a choice in the 2008 slowdown. They could have taken the hit and moved toward measures to rebalance the economy away from an over emphasis on investment and construction spend and toward consumption, but they did nothing of the sort. Rather, they doubled down on their prior mistakes and mal-investments in an epic bet on the ponzi economy. After a brief sugar high, this has now failed.
So with the economy back in steep decline, the authorities fear pumping massive stimulus in as they did four years prior due to their justifiable fears of sparking rampant inflation. Meanwhile, thanks to social networking, citizens have become more aware of the incredible corruption and theft of their leadership, whether in the political or business world. They are increasingly acting out about it and it is becoming so blatant that even China’s legendary control of media is unable to direct the plot. The most recent outburst came from the Foxconn (a major supplier to Apple) factory in Taiyuan, China which employs 79,000 people. While details are sketchy, most accounts point to the riot, which reportedly involved 2,000 people, being sparked by a fight between security guards and workers. From the Washington Post:
When guards beat up workers from Shandong province, others from the same region fought back, igniting a full-fledged riot, according to the news agency’s (China News Service) account.
The young migrant workers whose labor has fueled much of the growth of China’s economy and the global manufacturing sector have begun to change in demographics and desires. That labor pool is shrinking, according to experts, as workers from China’s provinces have become better educated and hold higher expectations for their lives.
Foxconn, in particular, has drawn attention in recent years because of its connection to Apple and the increasingly visible signs of unhappiness among its workers. A string of employee suicides in 2010 pushed the company to install netting to catch jumpers and take other steps.
Anyone think this is an isolated event? Didn’t think so. While this is the most high profile riot as of late, the New York Times in its coverage of the incident wrote:
Many of the protests this year appear to be related to the country’s economic slowdown, as employees demand the payment of overdue wages from financially struggling companies, or insist on compensation when money-losing factories in coastal provinces are closed and moved to lower-cost cities in the interior.
Of course, China’s leadership was well aware of all of this before the Foxconn incident came onto the scene, so what is a good authoritarian regime to do? Well, you attempt to direct the rage and angst to an outside enemy. In this case Japan. Zerohedge has a great report on the anti-Japanese violence and hatred that burst onto the scene recently. The link to their piece Postcards from a Furious China really says it all.
Europe Like the Middle East, the Southern countries of Europe have been in and out of rage now for almost two years. The most recent explosions onto the streets of Greece and Spain are particularly disturbing since the inept clownish leadership on the Continent had supposedly “solved” the crisis for the third time just a few weeks ago. Or was it the fourth time? Really, who’s counting anymore…
Let’s start with Spain. While Greece is still on fire, Spain is where the real action is due to the size of its economy and the importance it has to the political EU hacks. Not only were there enormous protests this week in the capital Madrid in reaction to austerity measures, but there is also a very significant secession movement picking up steam in Catalonia. This isn’t about leaving the euro, this is about leaving Spain! For those that aren’t aware of Spanish geography, Catalonia is the wealthiest region in Spain and it is where Barcelona is located. First, we saw enormous protests in Catalonia about a month ago, which I covered here. Now we see that last night the regional parliament approved a referendum on independence that will apparently be voted on during regional elections on November 25. Reuters covers the story here.
While this is hugely important, let’s not overlook the massive demonstrations in Madrid this past week. I will let this powerful video below do the talking. Draghi says “the euro is irreversible.” Don’t make me laugh.
Now let’s talk Greece. I think a lot of people brushed off this week’s protests as “oh it’s just the Greeks in the streets again.” This is a mistake. These demonstrations were different and here is why. From the UK’s Guardian:
Murders reached a historic low in NYC for 2014; overall crime was down across the board by nearly 5%; hell, even the holiday slowdown didn’t really lead to any additional crime. So clearly, now is the time when NYC really needs to implement a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. What could go wrong?
