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Category Archives: Activism
Gallery of Creepy NRO Satellite Logos
Last Thursday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence live-tweeted the launch of a US National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. What made the tweet quickly go viral was the attachment of the mission’s ominous and unsubtle logo: a giant malevolent octopus with it’s tentacles all over the planet. As reported by RT:
Along with the National Security Agency and more than a dozen others, the NRO is one of 16 federal offices under the directive of DNI James Clapper and is responsible for building and operating the spy satellites used to collect intelligence around the world. NRO-gathered intelligence was reportedly instrumental in the mission that brought US Navy SEAL’s to the home of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, and decades earlier the agency launched a school-bus sized satellite into orbit to spy on Soviets at the height of the Cold War.
This time around the ODNI says the satellite’s payload is mostly classified, but did admit over Twitter that around a dozen mini satellites funded by both the NRO and NASA will be brought along to orbit as well. Another thing they didn’t bother to acknowledge, of course, is how the lack-of-subtlety apparent in the Earth-strangling octopus emblem could quickly be used by critics of the US intelligence community as fodder to further condemn the government for admitting to their sheer and unmatched ability to control the world’s information.
…”You may want to downplay the massive dragnet spying thing right now,” Chris Soghoian, the chief technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, tweeted Thursday. “This logo isn’t helping.”
Andy Cush of AnimalNewYork uncovered a number of equally disturbing logos for past N.R.O. spy satellite missions including the following:
National Reconnaissance Office Launch 49, January 2011: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the NRO launches six satellites into space in 2010 and 2011. One of them, NROL-49, gets a black hawk rising from flames in front of the American flag for a logo. Its motto: melior diabolus quem scies, or “Better the devil you know.”
National Reconnaissance Launch 66, February 2011: One month after NROL-49, launch 66 took the devilish into goofier territory, featuring a satanic-looking minotaur flying over the Earth holding a modified Route 66 sign.
National Reconnaissance Office Launch 19, September 2003: NROL-19′s patch features the world’s most patriotic dragon clutching the globe with a diamond wrapped in its tail.
National Reconnaissance Office Launch 11, August 2000: This patch, featuring the eyes of what looks like an owl hovering over a darkened planet, could have used some cleaner design. Still, “We Own The Night” is an appropriately terrifying sentiment. Animals in space is beginning to feel like a theme.
National Reconnaissance Launch 38, June 2012: This three headed, world-destroying dragon is made only slightly less threatening by its latin motto, non morieris bello, which means something like “you will not die at war.” An alternate patch depicts the Egyptian god Anubis with a giant spear.
National Reconnaissance Office Launch 32, November 2010: The most illuminati-esque of the bunch, this terrible gradient-laden design puts an all-seeing eagle’s eye on top of a golden pyramid.
National Reconnaissance Launch 16, April 2005: The patch for NROL-16 may have marked the first time the U.S. government used a gorilla as a patriotic symbol.
National Reconnaissance Office Launch 10, December 2000: Last but not least, the “Great Bear” patch for NROL-10 is perhaps creepiest of all. What’s this jolly, star-covered guy doing as the symbol of a spy mission? We may never know.
Pearl Harbor: The Original 9/11
Yesterday marked the 72nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, which from today’s perspective can be viewed as the template on which 9/11 was modeled after. In both cases, documentation exists implicating the U.S. government. In the case of Pearl Harbor, there’s the McCollum Memo which describes in detail the strategy used to successfully provoke the Japanese government into attacking. Shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack, Secretary of State Hull presented “peace terms” to the Japanese government that all but guaranteed an inevitable attack.
In the case of 9/11, there’s a policy document from Project for a New American Century called Rebuilding America’s Defenses, which provides a clear motive to create a “catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor”. It’s not conclusive proof they were behind the attacks, but it’s suspicious to say the least that the people with established motives for conducting an event like 9/11 were responsible for national security at the time multiple unlikely and implausible coincidences made such a successful attack possible.
A number of other dubious aspects of the Pearl Harbor attack were compiled at Washington’s Blog last year, including:
Active Interference with Military’s Ability to Defend
It has also recently been discovered that the FDR administration took numerous affirmative steps to ensure that the Japanese attack would be successful. These steps included taking extraordinary measures to hide information from the commanders in Hawaii about the location of Japanese war ships (information of which they would normally be informed), denying their requests to allow them to scout for Japanese ships, and other actions to blind the commanders in Hawaii so that the attacks would succeed. See, for example, this book (page 186).
Key Military Players Incommunicado
In addition, the heads of the Army and Navy suddenly disappeared and remained unreachable on the night before Pearl Harbor. And they would later testify over and over that they “couldn’t remember” where they were (pages 320 and 335).
Gagging Whistleblowers
Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Navy classified all documents top secret, and the Navy Director of Communications sent a memo ordering all commanders to “destroy all notes or anything in writing” related to the attacks. More importantly, all radio operators and cryptographers were gagged on threat of imprisonment and loss of all benefits. (page 256).
Media Complicity
Amazingly, the Army’s Chief of Staff informed the Washington bureau chiefs of the major newspapers and magazines of the impending attacks before they occurred, and swore them to an oath of secrecy, which the media honored (page 361); and listen to interview here (we personally spent an hour speaking with Stinnett, and find him to be a highly credible and patriotic American.)
Postscript: Coincidentally, Philip Zelikow – the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, the administration insider whose area of expertise is the creation and maintenance of “public myths” thought to be true, even if not actually true, who controlled what the 9/11 Commission did and did not analyze, then limited the scope of the Commission’s inquiry so that the overwhelming majority of questions about 9/11 remained unasked – also happened to be the main guy defending the alleged unforeseeablity of the Pearl Harbor attack, who wrote a hit piece on Pearl Harbor historians like Stinnett.
Just like 9/11, Pearl Harbor was used as a tool to focus mass hatred on a race demonized by propaganda. The attack created a culture of fear allowing for suspension of civil liberties while crushing opposition to the war. Most importantly (for powerful interests pushing for war) the attacks were a pretense for pursuing and expanding global political and economic hegemony.
For a comprehensive compilation of evidence of U.S. government involvement in the Pearl Harbor conspiracy, see: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl/www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html
Thailand: Who are the Anti-Regime Protesters?
By Tony Cartalucci for Land Destroyer Report
December 3, 2013 – After clashes with police in Bangkok and the taking of several government buildings, anti-regime protesters prepared for the next phase of their resistance – the protracted encampment of key governmental centers. Thousands of protesters are now permanently entrenched in an area winding for nearly a mile through the capital city. They have built up a city within a city at three main locations that are linked by the constant stream of protesters coming and going to and from the protest sites.
Image: It appears that the anti-regime protesters know exactly who they are dealing with. While it is easier in speeches and sound bites to describe Thaksin Shinawatra and his hereditary dictatorship as the central source of Thailand’s problems, it is well understood amongst protesters that a vast network of foreign-funded NGOs are propping up the Shinawatra regime. Freedom House, for instance, lists as a trustee Kenneth Adelman, who concurrently served as Thaksin’s lobbyist. Pro-regime news website Prachatai, is directly funded by US State Department NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
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But who are these protesters and what do they want? Are they, as the Western media portrays them, anti-democratic elitists who refuse to to concede power to awakened rural masses? Or are they dangerously informed, socially and politically aware groups that are actively opposing the designs of foreign corporate-financiers and the proxy regime they have put into power in Thailand?
Who are Thailand’s Anti-Regime Protesters?
Walking from one end of the protest to the other can become an all day affair. The sites are spaced out slightly, but occupy long stretches of road turned into permanent encampments complete with food, water, medical services, bathrooms, shower stalls, exhibition booths and support points, media centers, stages, and hawker stalls. There are thousands of permanently encamped protesters and thousands more who come and go – even at low points in the day.
The extensive infrastructure of these protest sites resemble a fair or an exhibition. While a single theme has brought them together, a large number of diverse groups have marshaled their resources to build the sprawling encampments. There of course is the main camp and stage set up by a group of political parties including the main opposition party, the Democrats, the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, and the Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand.
The “Yellow Shirt” People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) also maintains a camp, as does Santi Asoke, a group that practices the Thai-equivalent of organic farming, homesteading, and grassroots community development.
Images: Labor unions have a strong showing in the anti-regime camps. While the Shinawatra regime has hijacked the color red for his mobs as well as the socialist rhetoric that goes with it, real labor unions flying the color red actually engage in the protection of workers’ rights.
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There are throughout the camps, smaller student groups from across Bangkok, and a large number of labor unions. Some of the bigger unions include those working for state enterprises, THAI Airways, and the country’s nationalized telecom company, CAT.
And despite the most vitriolic and perhaps even racist accusations leveled against the protesters is that they represent ethnic Chinese-Thais. While there certainly are a lot of Thais of Chinese descent at the rallies, mainly because they have called Bangkok their home for generations, still the vast majority of the protesters are ethnic Thais and include people drawn to the capital to find better lives from Thaksin Shinawatra’s northeast political stronghold.
What Do They Want?
We are told by the Western media that this is a “people’s coup,” an attempt to overthrow democracy. In reality, and entirely unlike Thaksin’s red shirts who simplistically demand “democracy,” the anti-regime protesters have a list of cogent demands.
1. No Amnesty – This refers to an amnesty bill designed by and for Thaksin Shinawatra to absolve himself of a decade of plundering, lying, and mass murder. While the government eventually backed off, it was only because massive street protests were mobilized. When the Constitution Court declared the bill unconstitutional, the ruling regime announced that it no longer recognized the authority of the court – even while using constitutionality to condemn the protests. Even though it is considered “dead,” Thaksin’s entire future depends on it eventually passing. Protesters feel the only way to truly kill this bill, is to remove entirely the regime attempting such an absurd abuse of power.
2. Rollback Article 190 – Article 190 of the Thai constitution requires that all treaties be approved by the parliament before they can be signed. In 2004, this mechanism had prevented Thaksin Shinawatra from unilaterally passing a US-Thai free trade agreement, and was one of many attempted circumventions of the law that led to his ouster in 2006. His nepotist-appointed sister Yingluck Shinawatra, has now managed to amend it making it possible for her to unilateral approve treaties (specifically unpopular FTA’s). Protesters would like to see this reversed.
3. The Re-Nationalization of Thailand’s Oil – Thailand’s oil giant, PTT, was privatized and sold off to foreign multinationals under Thaksin Shinawatra in late 2001. Tremendous wealth has been siphoned out of Thailand and sent overseas, particularly to Chevron, one of the many sponsors on the US-ASEAN Business Council that directly supports the Shinawatra regime.
Image: Another issue protesters have is with the changing of article 190 which allows the regime to now unilaterally sign treaties without the parliament’s approval. This will be used specifically to pass through a series of extremely unpopular free trade agreements with the regime’s Western sponsors.
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4. Keep Thailand Anti-GMO, Anti-IP – The current Thai establishment resisting the regime has been stalwartly defending against GMO and “intellectual property” (IP) laws pushed on them by the United States, the UK, and the EU. In fact, one of the main points of attack by Thaksin Shinawatra’s Washington lobbyists, was attacking the military council that ousted Thaksin for ignoring US pharmaceutical patents while producing cheaper drugs for poor patients. Regarding GMO, Monsanto has been desperately trying to overrun Thailand’s food security but to no avail. Would it surprise readers to know that the US-ASEAN Business Council directly supporting Thaksin Shinawatra and his political machine also includes Monsanto?
It becomes abundantly clear why corporate media houses like the BBC, Reuters, AP, AFP, CNN, MSNBC, and Australia’s ABC have attacked the protesters as “anti-democratic,” “elitist,” and “violent.” They represent for them a population they cannot trick, manipulate, and have their way with. They would like to see it marginalized and removed from Thailand’s political landscape so they can grind Thailand into the ground like so many other nations across the developing world. Thailand’s anti-regime protesters are making their stand – those that support true freedom and progress should stand with them.
Drone camera footage of the protests:
War on the Poor Continues With Planned Pension Cuts in Detroit and Illinois
Yesterday Federal bankruptcy court judge Steven Rhodes ruled that Detroit is insolvent and eligible for a Chapter 9 debt restructuring. This gives the city the go-ahead to cut retirement benefits as part of its restructuring plan, despite pensions being explicitly protected by the state constitution.
Learn more about the situation in Detroit at Detroit Inquiry.
Judge Rhodes’s decision serves as a precedent for city and state governments across the country to carry out a similar policies. Just hours after the Detroit ruling, both chambers of the Illinois legislature also passed an unconstitutional pension reform bill that would steal money from the pension plans Illinois state workers paid for, reduce and suspend cost-of-living increases and limit their salaries.
Such acts of class warfare demonstrate how the government/corporate machine views the 99% as merely a source of wealth and cannon fodder. Once they find cheaper labor and more prosperous markets elsewhere and once soldiers return home after fighting their wars, we’re worth even less to them. Judging from their actions, the corporatocracy has no loyalty, trust and respect for us. Why should we give them any loyalty, trust and respect if it’s not reciprocated?
Detroit Bankruptcy Timeline:
2011
March 16: Michigan’s Public Act 4 emergency manager law goes into effect.
Nov. 16: Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says the city could run out of cash by April 2012 and have a potential shortfall of $45 million by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
Dec. 2: State Treasurer Andy Dillon orders a preliminary financial review of Detroit. The move sparks protests against Michigan Public Act 4, the emergency manager law that expanded EM powers.
Dec. 21: Dillon announces “probable financial stress” in Detroit and recommends Snyder send a team to review city finances.
2012
Jan. 10: Former State Treasurer Andy Dillon gives Mayor Dave Bing until the first week of February to submit a financial plan to avoid an emergency manager.
March 13: A 25-page proposed consent agreement is given to the City Council.
March 21: A state review team declares Detroit in a “severe financial emergency.”
March 23: The Michigan Court of Appeals reverses an Ingham County judge’s ruling that barred the state from entering a consent agreement with Detroit.
April 4: The City Council, 5-4, approves a consent agreement.
April 5: Gov. Rick Snyder and Bing sign the agreement.
June 15: A nine-member oversight board created under the consent agreement holds its first meeting.
Aug. 2: A proposed repeal of Public Act 4 is placed on the Nov. 6 ballot and the law immediately is suspended. Public Act 72, the prior 1990 law that grants fewer powers to emergency financial mangers, is reinstated.
Nov. 7: Public Act 4 is repealed in the general election.
Dec. 10: Detroit’s Financial Advisory Board calls for a 30-day review of the city’s finances under Public Act 72.
Dec. 14: A state review of Detroit finances finds “a serious financial problem.”
Dec. 27: Snyder signs a new emergency manager bill, Public Act 436, which is to take effect March 28.
2013
Jan. 3: An audit shows Detroit has a $327 million accumulated deficit as of June 30.
Feb. 19: A state team reviewing Detroit’s finances determines the city is in a financial emergency with “no satisfactory” plan to resolve it.
March 1: Snyder announces plans to bring an emergency manager to Detroit.
March 9: The council makes a formal request for an appeal hearing in Lansing.
March 12: Detroit officials fail to convince the state’s Emergency Loan Board that a satisfactory plan in place to address Detroit’s fiscal crisis without an emergency manager.
March 14: Snyder appoints Kevyn Orr as Detroit emergency manager. He takes office March 25 for the job, which pays $275,000 per year. State officials hope he can complete his job within 18 months.
March 26: Public Act 436 goes into effect and opponents file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit, arguing the legislation deprives citizens of “constitutionally protected rights” and dilutes their vote.
May 13: Orr submits a preliminary financial and operating plan to the state Treasury Department, saying Detroit’s cash-flow crisis makes it “insolvent.”
June 14: Orr unveils to creditors his plans to restructure the city’s finances and avoid bankruptcy.
June 20: Orr holds closed-door meetings with union officials to discuss a restructuring proposal that includes health care and pension cuts and launches a probe of the city’s pension funds amid concerns about corruption, spending and management.
July 5: The city files a lawsuit against Syncora Guarantee Inc., in an attempt to recover $11 million a month in casino payments and taxes that Detroit claims are being improperly withheld by the insurance company.
July 15: Orr submits a quarterly financial report to the state saying the city’s financial condition “continues to be dire.”
July 17: The city’s two pension funds sue Snyder July 17 to block him from authorizing what would be the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history on claims it would violate retirees’ constitutional right to a pension.
July 18: Orr files a petition for municipal bankruptcy in U.S. District Court’s Eastern District in Detroit.
July 19: The case is assigned to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes.
July 24: Rhodes freezes all lawsuits against the city challenging the legality of Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.
Aug. 2: Rhodes creates a committee to represent city retirees.
Aug. 5: Orr announces he has contracted with Christie’s, the New York-based international auction house, to appraise the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Aug. 13: Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen is appointed to mediate disputes between the city and creditors.
Sept. 26: An audit commissioned by Orr reveals the city’s pension funds lost more than $125 million on real estate deals and gave questionable bonus payments to employees.
Oct. 9: Gov. Rick Snyder is questioned under oath about his decision to authorize the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Snyder is the first sitting governor in modern Michigan history to face a sworn deposition.
Oct. 11: Orr announces the city has secured a $350 million loan agreement with Barclays to pay off a pension related-debt and finance city service improvements while Detroit is in bankruptcy.
Oct. 15: In a report to Dillon, Orr says the city’s financial condition remains dire but cash flow improved during the first quarter since the bankruptcy filing.
Oct. 25: Detroit’s eligibility trial begins before Judge Rhodes in Detroit’s federal courthouse.
Nov. 6: Judge Rhodes denies the NAACP’s request to pursue a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration over the constitutionality of the emergency manager law.
Nov. 8: The city’s nine-day eligibility trial ends.
Nov. 8: Orr postpones a proposed health care initiative for retirees until Feb. 28 under an agreement with the city and retiree committee created through bankruptcy proceedings.
Nov. 13: A city union representing Detroit’s EMTs reaches a five-year, out-of-court contract agreement with Orr.
Nov. 25: Rhodes in a court filing announces he will decide Dec. 3 whether Detroit can proceed with its Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing.
Nov. 26: A group of creditors ask for an independent evaluation of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection.
Nov. 27: Judge Rhodes halts Detroit’s efforts to fix its broken streetlight system after discovering one of the city’s law firms involved in the bankruptcy case also represents the new Public Lighting Authority, a potential conflict of interest.
Nov. 27: A trial over Detroit’s plan to seek a $350 million bankruptcy loan is pushed back amid new objections by creditors. Judge Rhodes and attorneys representing the city and several creditors agreed in principle to delay the trial to Dec. 17-19.
Dec. 3: Rhodes delivers decision on bankruptcy eligibility.
(Timeline: Associated Press)
Chanukah Message From Jewish Voice For Peace
You can give a gift in honor of a loved one and on behalf of dignity, human rights and equality for Israelis and Palestinians at Jewish Voice for Peace.
Economic Bubbles Take From the Poor, Give to the Rich
At the Economic Populist Blog, Robert Oak posted an excellent analysis of the Pew Research report, A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93%, based on Census data on wealth taken since the so-called economic recovery after 2009. Oak highlighted one of the most important findings of the report:
During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%.
In other words, what the report shows is that there was never an economic recovery for most people other than the wealthy 1%. The economic bubble and resultant policies effectively served as a mechanism to transfer wealth from the poor to the wealthy.
According to Michael Snyder at the Economic Collapse blog, it’s extremely likely that we’re about to witness another massive transfer of wealth to the 1% judging from the following 15 signs:
#1 Bob Shiller, one of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize for economics, says that “bubbles look like this” and that he is “most worried about the boom in the U.S. stock market.”
#2 The total amount of margin debt has risen by 50 percent since January 2012 and it is now at the highest level ever recorded. The last two times that margin debt skyrocketed like this were just before the bursting of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and just before the financial crisis of 2008. When this house of cards comes crashing down, things are going to get very messy…
“When the tablecloth gets pulled out from under the place settings, you’re going to have a lot of them crash and smash on the floor,” said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners hedge fund. “That margin’s going to get pulled and everyone’s going to have to cover. That’s when you get really serious corrections.”
#3 Since the bottom of the market in 2009, the Dow has jumped 143 percent, the S&P 500 is up 165 percent and the Nasdaq has risen an astounding 213 percent. This does not reflect economic reality in any way, shape or form.
#4 Market research firm TrimTabs says that the S&P 500 is “very overpriced” right now.
#5 Marc Faber recently told CNBC that “we are in a gigantic speculative bubble”.
#6 In the United States, Google searches for the term “stock bubble” are at the highest level that we have seen since November 2007 – just before the last stock market crash.
#7 Price to earnings ratios are very high right now…
The Dow was trading at 17.8 times the past four quarters of earnings of its 30 components, according to The Wall Street Journal on Friday. That was up from 13.7 times its earnings a year ago. The S&P 500 is trading at 18.7 times earnings. The Nasdaq-100 Index is trading at 21.5 times earnings. At the very least, the ratios are signaling that stock prices are rich.
#8 According to CNBC, Pinterest is currently valued at more than 3 billion dollars even though it has never earned a profit.
#9 Twitter is a seven-year-old company that has never made a profit. It actually lost 64.6 million dollars last quarter. But according to the financial markets it is currently worth about 22 billion dollars.
#10 Right now, Facebook is trading at a valuation that is equivalent to approximately 100 years of earnings, and it is currently supposedly worth about 115 billion dollars.
#11 Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital recently stated that he believes that “markets are riskier than at any time since the depths of the 2008/9 crisis”.
#12 As Graham Summers recently noted, retail investors are buying stocks at a level not seen since the peak of the dotcom bubble back in 2000.
#13 David Stockman, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, believes that this financial bubble is going to end very badly…
“We have a massive bubble everywhere, from Japan, to China, Europe, to the UK. As a result of this, I think world financial markets are extremely dangerous, unstable, and subject to serious trouble and dislocation in the future.”
#14 Bob Janjuah of Nomura Securities believes that there “could be a 25% to 50% sell off in global stock markets” over the next couple of years.
#15 According to Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge, the U.S. stock market is repeating a pattern that we have seen many times before. According to him, we are experiencing “a well-defined syndrome of ‘overvalued, overbought, overbullish, rising-yield’ conditions that has appeared exclusively at speculative market peaks – including (exhaustively) 1929, 1972, 1987, 2000, 2007, 2011 (before a market loss of nearly 20% that was truncated by investor faith in a new round of monetary easing), and at three points in 2013: February, May, and today.”
Read the full article here: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/15-signs-that-we-are-near-the-peak-of-an-absolutely-massive-stock-market-bubble
At the Point of No Return
By Julian Rose for Waking Times
The wrong people are in charge… that’s pretty obvious. But what is not so obvious is how they got there? And once having found an open gate, why have we left them to graze the best pastures while we grovel around in the barren fallow?
A very strange phenomenon…
This World is run by those of whom the great majority have absolutely no qualifications to be at the helm of anything – not even a small rowing boat. Yet, somehow or other, there they are perched in their palaces, surveying their empires – while simultaneously engaging in the systematic degradation of planet Earth.
Doesn’t matter whether they are generals, headmasters, corporate executives, CEOs of banks, media moguls, ministers or prime ministers, or just about any big bosses – they have the distinction of all acting in unison. While by contrast, the great majority of intelligent and able bodied citizens of this planet, only manage to act – or react – in sporadic and discordant bursts; if at all.
The current controlling masters – and it hasn’t changed much over many centuries – have a commonality of intent: to extract the last ounces of profit and prestige from any and all assets and opportunities that fall into their grasp.
Yet even that isn’t enough for some of them. Profits get a bit boring when they come in the tens of millions year after year, and one has occupied the prime suite at Claridges for the past six months. No, there always needs to be just one more thing that can be ‘owned’ and brought under control, so as to satisfy the false agrandissement that is part and parcel of an endless, and ultimately fruitless, attempt to become omnipotent and untouchable by ordinary mortals.
Such is the aphrodisiac called ‘power’.
Time and again, those who suffer most from a sense of being inwardly dispossessed are the very ones to seek, as compensation, the maximum level of outer possessiveness. And this is the mechanism whereby the wrong people get to be in charge.
Ironically, many who do not suffer such delusional power urges are quite happy to just tick along fulfilling their aspirations and daily needs as best they can. Yet in doing so, they unwittingly allow the magalomaniacs a direct route to the seats of power.
Those who are secure enough in themselves to take a responsible attitude towards the life around them seldom come forward to take-on positions of authority and civil responsibility. Their preference is to leave it to others – and in too many cases these ‘others’ often harbour barely disguised ulterior motives.
Yet we look on, aghast, as our world is torn apart by duelling crooks and madmen, each more desperate than the other for the top job in the race for planetary ecocide. Each more desperate than the other to fill any power vacuum that might emerge. Each more desperate than the other to hold a cosh over the disinterested daily workers who struggle on, trying not to notice how bad it’s gotten.
Where do you belong in this mad scrum?
The wrong people are in charge and the right people don’t want to bother themselves unduly to do anything about it. That just about sums-up the dire state of our post industrial ‘civilisation’. Something has to give…
The question is what?
Will a critical mass of the 99% finally act to bring back some genuine self autonomy through wresting control from the 1%?
Or will the 1% finally complete their annihilation job, trashing our planetary assets and crushing our human propensities once and for all? That is the question.
But none of us are free to sit back and play at second guessing the outcome. We are all in there. We are part of the pack. Our every move, whether we see it or not, is either promoting or resisting the despot’s master plan. There is no such thing as being ‘in between’ in this game. The fence you once sat on is broken. The wires are hanging limp. There is no no-man’s-land left to hide in.
At some point soon, those who are fit to lead must take over from those who are unfit. It may be a bloodless coup – or it may be a bloody insurrection. One way or another, the shift has to happen.
Forget about Divine intervention. There will be no Divine intervention unless and until there is a very visible human determination already out of the starting blocks and heading for the finishing line. Only then is it possible that higher energies will join the race to bring justice back to this battered World.
We are approaching the point of no return. If we don’t respond to the myriad calls for help that are echoing around this World at an ever-increased velocity each day, then we will be condemning ourselves – and those who call upon us – to being forever stranded upon a desolate and barren shore.
That help starts with helping each other to break free from our learned and self-induced state of fear and pacifism. A combination that pretty much guarantees an unwillingness to act. An unwillingness to act even when presented with the choice of participating in a mass genocide or opposing it.
This unwillingness is giving voice to the notion that ‘no action’ is the spiritual choice of the knowing. That to retire into a cul-de-sac of meditation and inward-looking self examination can ‘change the world’ by dint of a shifted value focus. Can serve to hermetically seal the self away from the trials and tribulations of the outer world and thereby help avoid any confrontation with that which demands a full and spontaneous response.
Confrontation, in this view, is a negative, reactionary manifestation that undermines ‘peace’ and the supposed tranquility of a chimeric world, which takes over from rational observations and becomes the new reality. A ‘virtual reality’.
This is a deeply flawed and dangerous ethos. For it splits in half that which is whole and sets the two halves in opposition to each other.
We are ‘of nature’ not above or outside it. We go forth and we return. That is the Tao. Universal forces all dance to this tune. Breath, ocean waves, cycles of birth and death, growth and decay, all is in motion and at rest, all the time. There is no contradiction.
Outward action and inward contemplation are two halves of one whole. They are synonymous. One should move between the two constantly and joyously.
“When injustice become law, resistance becomes duty”
Well, injustice has become law – yet resistance remains doggedly muted, and the search for an escape route remains the preferred option.
Cultivate spirit, wisdom and deep awareness – yes. Yet not as an alternative to toppling our oppressors from their corporate thrones, but as part of it.
Don’t be fooled. There is a war on. We are all called to the front. Just as the white corpuscles of our bodies are fighting off attempts by the pathogens to take hold – all the time. We should be doing the same – all the time.
Everyday we should be conjuring-up and putting into affect actions to end the draconian government/corporate dictatorship that continues to herd great swathes of humanity ever faster towards a sheer and genocidal cliff.
We can have no ‘peace’ until the criminals at the master control consulate are ejected from their padded leather chairs and are forced to confront the true price of their obscene power games.
Peace and enlightenment, at the individual level, are only possible if we are engaged in this battle. The battle to rid both ourselves and this planet of that which seeks to dominate and destroy the true well-spring of life.
The road to victory also requires the wise and aware to form a council of responsible oversight to step-in to the void once the despots are dethroned. That is an essential ingredient of any uprising determined to manifest genuine justice.
The lessons of history teach that fickle rebellion simply replaces one bunch of power predators with another. That is no longer an option; we are now at the point of no return. This time we have to get it right.
Footnote: some may see this as being at odds with my essay “Reverse Engineering the Illuminati Mind Set,” I don’t believe it is. The action I speak of here does not eclipse the need to draw deeply upon compassion. However, to exercise compassion one needs to be in a position of strength, not slavery.
About the Author
Julian is a committed international activist, writer, farmer and actor. He is an early pioneer of UK organic farming methods and is currently involved in the front line of efforts to keep Poland free from genetically modified organisms. Julian is President of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside. His book Changing Course for Life can be purchased on www.changingcourseforlife.info. His latest book In Defence of Life – a Radical Reworking of Green Wisdom is available at Amazon or can be requested on http://www.julianrose.info/
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After the Crash 