An Early Christmas Present

 

 

There he stopped, where it was icy and it was cold. The winds were picking up out of the west, chilling and brutal, and he wasn’t quite convinced he was ready for winter. Nonetheless, he shrugged up his rifle to his shoulder and glanced up at the yawning, innocently blue sky. Isn’t it Christmas time soon?

The troops were getting rowdy and uncomfortable. The enemy seemed to be everywhere all at once. The last thing he could have imagined was Christmas. And he shrugged again a bit, as much at another gust of cold weather as at the whole idea of the holiday. It was a double edged sword, really. It’s refreshing that everyone is so nice, but doesn’t the extra effort suggest that they could have been this nice all year? In any case, out in the mountains it didn’t really matter much. Reflecting on it at all only made him think of warmth. His burning fireplace, his smiling wife, and their snuggled children all came to his mind, like some errand he suddenly realized he’d forgotten to do. He had trained himself not to think too much about them, as hard as it may sound. But it was better to do that, rather than become distracted and get yourself killed. At that moment, however, as he gazed down the mountain at the boulders and trees, logs, and streams, he indulged in a moment. A Christmas present, he decided, even if it was a little early.

The warmth of it carried him down from the ridge a ways. He could see his sergeant's colors through the lower tree line. Three or four horsemen guarded the headquarters nearby as a brigade of volunteers were pulling a line of cannon over the Delaware River.

“Everything is to be in order by 1200 hours, Captain,” he was told. “General Washington will be here for inspection.”

“Yes sir,” he answered with a salute.

Merry Christmas. Now, back to the war.

What Is The Occupy Movement About? Read This:

 

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

Posted on September 30, 2011 by NYCGA

This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011

Translations: French, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian

---

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

---

Update 10/1/11 – Minor updates to some wording in the facts.

The End Anticipated...

It’s been fashionable of late—and certainly over the last three years—to denounce and denigrate the financial sector generally and bankers particularly. It’s a fair reaction in most respects, given the circumstances, but frequently I hear some of the same dire prophecies announced by the loudest and most persistent of these detractors, prophecies that seem to me to be so much frustration and resentment but not very heavy on honest circumspection and a broad appreciation of the real state of affairs.

I can give some easy examples of what I’m talking about. Washington’s Blog, for instance(http://washingtonsblog.com/), though very good at peeling away all of the awful layers of official and corporate greed and corruption, tends to end some his analysis with the familiar dire fate that awaits the “bankers” responsible for destroying the economy. It’s a reasonable accusation, but a poor conclusion. I am reminded of the many conspiracy theorists who conclude passages about specific, heroic figures who were mysteriously killed or disappeared just before they were about to blow it wide open! Of course! And the usual point about “if the American people knew what they were planning…” All very familiar, all very nice, neat , and tidy, all the ducks in a row from problem, injustice, culprit, and the path to justice clearly outlined.

Mind you, I am not calling into question at all the crimes of the accused, and for me the accused represents the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. And likewise I am not saying that these scoundrels don’t deserve their due—I am saying they will never get their due, is all. These ideas of the people rising up and taking down their oppressor are cute little tirades, sometimes polite and other times downright crude. Take a recent example I pulled from Naked Capitalism, but originally posted on Market Ticker:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/video-the-bankers-as-the-enemy-of-humanity.html

Why intelligent critics of the status quo think this mass uprising could occur, or that the “bankers” are going to somehow roll over and die, is beyond me. What is missing, and consistently missing in my opinion, is the facts as we surmise them;

• the largest financial institutions in this country donate generously to the campaigns of our elected representatives—they have done so for decades and they do so because it is simply good business(http://www.opencongress.org/)
• these representatives shape law and policy from all three branches of the United States Federal Government—the idea that they are so easily “duped”, “deceived”, or “corrupted” independent of their own free will is a juvenile fiction at best and a willfully blind ignorance at worst. Trust me, folks, they know exactly what they’re doing
• the government of the United States under the Constitution(whether actually in force, in whole or in part, or not) is defended by the most advanced and most powerful military machine the world has ever seen. It is highly trained in combat operations of every kind and has, of late, been training specifically to deal with “domestic disturbances”(http://the-classic-liberal.com/pentagon-war-gaming-large-scale-economic-breakdown/). Again, the notion that a rabble of concerned citizens will one day, under extreme duress, overthrow “the bankers” that have driven them to poverty, when these same “bankers” are basically helping to run the table, is a lucid fantasy.
• Nothing of this sort happened in 1929, 1933, or 1937, all times when the very fabric of the nation seemed to be getting torn to pieces from every side. During the Great Depression the “bankers” were making out about as well they are now—which would be very good. There was unrest, there were strikes, the Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists saw swelling ranks, but the mass of the populace just kept on keepin’ on…
• this pervasive matrix we are all in has nine lives, and as soon you expose one or two tentacles and cut them off, six or seven more—having been seething in the underbelly waiting for air—take their place. It is all smoke and mirrors, parlor tricks, and sleight of hand(http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed). They have the media, the bread, the circuses, the left, the right, the center, and all points in between. Everything happens for a reason, and generally the reason is bad for common folks. They know how to steer the herd, people, they’ve been doing it for quite some time!
• any actual attempt to physically oppose the policies of the institution will be met with savage violence, incarceration, and/or murder outright(http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/24/G20-protests-turn-violent-in-Pittsburgh/UPI-46751253805260/). Let’s not forget that this government knows how to deal with dissidents, no matter how large their number. People in the streets is exactly what they want to happen! This only serves to accelerate the process we are in right now, which is….
• the process of creating the new world, pruning the excess population, and using the depressed energies and angers of an entire generation for the mass production of war goods and the military takeover of vast patches of a recalcitrant Earth—this nation included(http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/military-keynesianism-gone-haywire-paul.html)! For there to be global parity, there must be sacrifice in the West. You want industry? Be a slave! You want jobs? Sell away your rights! You want to keep your children from starving? Sign right here to become wards of the state where you will be housed, fed, and protected(from whom? that rabble in the streets of course, who are threatening “democracy”)

There will be another crash. I don’t argue that. It is obvious that the situation in Europe is not only unsustainable, but irretrievable as well. The situation in the US is much worse, but we are not as pressured by outside influences—yet. Nonetheless, expect the market crash to occur some time in October of this year. This will complete the pillage of all the pensions, the health care benefits, the stock portfolios, the Medicare and Social Security funds, EVERYTHING!

Don’t get too upset, though, because you will be begging them to do it, just like you will be begging them to raise taxes, to curtail or eliminate so many clean air, clean water, and environmental regulations. When the majority of the population is starving and the government can do little or nothing to “save” them, drastic measures will be taken to save the economy, save the nation, and save the future---and the beauty of it all is that the bankers become the saviors, the politicians become the saints, and we all grovel at their feet begging for what little scraps we plead from them. Why? Because it will just be that bad.

Not the endgame you were expecting? Sorry. But if you think these clever folks haven’t worked this all out in their heads already, if you think the mass media is suddenly going to report Truth and demand Justice the way the guardians of liberty should, and if you think the largest corporations and special interest foundations that have manipulated laws and regulations for private profit for over one hundred years are simply going to pack up and go home, then you are sadly mistaken!

Ponder it.

Understand it.

Prepare for it.

Things don't always happen the way the experts expect them to, especially premature announcements about the demise of the status quo. The powers that be are way too clever for that!

The Essence of Anarchy

I am not a citizen.

In the same way that I was not born a laborer or a commodity or a percentage factor in a calculation, I was not born a citizen. I do not wish to be a citizen, to act as a citizen, or to harbor the dreams and aspirations of a citizen. To have citizenship of any kind one accepts certain laws and obligations in exchange for certain rights and opportunities. There are things that I value, and what I am asked to surrender is more valuable than what I am expected to accept.

I do not honor Law. This doesn’t mean I am lawless. I know it is selfish to steal from others, to take from another person what isn’t mine, and I don’t need a law to keep me from doing that. I know that what is not mine belongs to someone else—life, dignity, respect, honor, money, a home, a car, etc. Governments write laws to enforce behavior, to underline mores and morals, but I don’t need a law to tell me these things. In fact, once one begins to write laws governing behavior, they never stop. That is because once an individual, or group of individuals, is appointed to make decisions for the general population they become automatically exempt from those decisions. The creation of law demands the creation of lawgivers, which demands the creation of an elite that has the power of determination for all.  First it was priests, then it was kings, and today it is Congress.

Of course the original intent of the creation of an elite was to guide the masses. It was important, in the United States, for the law-givers to be a respected and educated class of people, the best and the brightest, and as it happened the best and the brightest were white, male landowners. So a group of white, male landowners overthrew the British crown and made a club called the Continental Congress. And the members of this core group laid laws governing the holdings of the white, male landowners. Over time they enlarged the franchise to include all white, male citizens, then all male citizens, and finally all citizens, male and female. As the franchise grew the elite became more entrenched and laws more complex. Today we have several hundred individuals from specific societal strata continuing to hand down legislation to a nation of 300 million people, and the heart of all legislation continues to favor the white, male landowner. In 200 years things have not changed very much
.
There is no honor or privilege in being a “citizen”. It only means you can be taxed, drafted, imprisoned, and killed. Of course, you have the prestige that comes with being an “American”, but other than eating McDonalds and driving fast cars, what does being an American really do for you? The Constitution? It is basically the framework for the administering of a central government for a limited, democratic republic, or a “representative democracy”. The Bill of Rights? It is a loose afterthought of the original Constitution purported to outline the specific rights of the individual citizen. That these rights are so easily subverted, opined out of force, and changed reveals the ultimate value of the Bill of Rights. That is, it is only as powerful as the ability of the citizen to preserve it.
I don’t need a Bill of Rights to tell me that I can speak, to tell me that I can think, or to tell me that I don’t have to house US military persons in my home. These are rights that everyone has a human being, among any number of other rights we have as human beings. We are not born as citizens, we are born as human beings.

I have no compulsion to wave any mans flag, to sing any mans song, or take my sense of self and stick it to some supposedly hallowed tradition of nation and culture and populace. I can see clearly what is real and what is not. Land is real, guns are real, food and cars and buildings and resources and people are real. Ideologies, institutions, concepts, theories, conjectures, and beliefs are not real. To fashion a legal entity and accord it powers according to the laws fashioned by men is to worship a false god, a false creation, a false reality. Yet this creation of ours we call government has more power than we do, even the power to kill any one of us that it wishes. I don’t know of many data processors that program their computers to kill them if they violate the laws written into that computer, but I know there wouldn’t be very man computer programmers left if they did do that. So it is with government.

I am not a citizen.

I am not an employee
.
I am not a cog in a machine.

I am a human being, first and foremost, and I surrender no rights to any man or man made creation that would seek to make me less than that.

That is my right, and I can take it from no one, nor can anyone take it from me.

This is the essence of Anarchy.

Outright Farce

The current news item concerns the deficit, raising the debt limit, and finding a way to manage the nation with less money than is currently required for it to function. At the moment the debt limit for the US Federal Government is about $14.3 trillion. Currently the annual Federal deficit is running roughly $1.5 trillion. If the debt limit is extended it will provide several billions more in spending for the Federal government, yet it will in no way solve the critical problem of chronic over-spending.

At this point it is worth noting some of the obvious "omissions" involved in what amounts to a total farce of a "crisis" where Federal spending is concerned. First, unless the level of Defense spending is severely curtailed, any discussions about annual deficit reduction are meaningless, and thus a complete lie. Likewise, discussions that do not involve a restructuring and overall increase in taxation ON EVERY LEVEL are likewise a farce, and an admission that this entire "crisis" is in fact a distracting charade perpetrated by our leaders to keep our attention away from the serious problem actually facing the country. Further, if discussions fail to include a comprehensive evaluation of trade imbalances, tax loopholes, tax breaks, and subsidies(as well as the now viral acquiescence to private contracting) where corporations are concerned, there is nothing to discuss about a "balanced federal budget", "mortgaging the future", or the "validity of the US federal debt".

The problem is that while millions of American workers are making do with less in a depressed economy corporations are sitting on billions of dollars in profits, banks are sitting on billions--even trillions--in reserves, and the federal government that should be working "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" has effectively forfeited it's authority in this regard to those whose influence in government is both greater and more effective than the interests of the "people". When representatives in government are promoted by powerful interest to run for office, gain office by the funding of those interests, and then proceed to enact, enforce, and rule on particular laws that favor those same interests, the entire system of public service has been perverted because the definition of the "the people" becomes a subjective object, and thus "serving the people" means whomever that elected individual chooses  to listen to. Because by US law a corporation is regarded as an "individual" or a "person" these also are considered among the "people" that government representatives serve.

 
In light of the above, it is no mistake that when the critical issues of the day are discussed between corporations and government the average working family is left out of the negotiations. It is no mistake that tax breaks, subsidies, and loopholes invariably favor the extremely wealthy, or that industry and finance have become a kind of aristocracy that effectively absorbs  the public wealth via federal laws and out-right profits. It is not a mistake that the new Health Care law basically serves up every individual in the US to both the health care industry and the pharmaceutical corporations. That is, the law has created customers for an industry rather than effectively addressing the health care needs of the population as a whole. In similar fashion, the financial industry has stripped the nation of $13 trillion of it's wealth, created 25 million unemployed Americans, and then proceeded to throw these newly unemployed out of their houses because a housing market that they manipulated was inflated and summarily deflated by a corrupt and unregulated market to the benefit of those same banks.

Today we are without justice. We are without domestic tranquility. We are without a common defense, especially as law enforcement has been handed greater authority to arrest, to detain, or to simply burst into a home unannounced and begin to shoot and kill Americans without due process--that is, the charge of wrong doing is now sufficient to allow home invasion by paramilitary units of the local police or any number of agencies that have somehow been given--without the knowledge or consent of the American people--the right to deprive US citizens of their person and/or property without the due process of law. We are without the general welfare as well, and surely the blessings of liberty, in light of the crisis that has so clearly overcome our nation, are no longer secured for ourselves or our posterity.

And now, aside from all of this, we are hearing about the squabbling over raising the debt limit. While children starve, while the elderly suffer , while families are thrown out of their homes and people are subjected to blatant and grotesque violations of their persons by the Transportation Safety Authority, and while we, as working class citizens, struggle with inflation, with joblessness, and with an obvious continued erosion of the overall economic health of the country, we are treated to the agonized debates over how BILLIONS and TRILLIONS of dollars of OUR MONEY can be spent in such a way as to please the wealthy, punish the poor, and satisfy temporarily the insatiable greed of the banking industry.
Our nation is $200 trillion in debt based on current and unfunded future liabilities.
Our military absorbs $700 billion annually--more than every other nation in the world COMBINED.

Our banking industry, by virtue of it's outstanding liabilities, is effectively insolvent, and requires ever increasing sums of hard cash simply to satisfy interest on maturing debt obligations, bad investments, failed ventures, and the ever growing $250 trillion derivative speculations.

The United States is insolvent.

There is no debt deal, nor compromise, nor "way out" that will change the fact that our way of life has been destroyed, our future decimated, and our livelihoods obliterated by the failed economic and fiscal policies of three generations.

This is why the debate in Washington is a farce. This is why the entire charade is a huge insult to the intelligence of working people everywhere.

This is why faith in this government is at possibly it's lowest point in United States history. The people know there is no way out. Our government continues to pretend we don't know, to act like we don't know, and to pat our little heads and say, "You just keep working and let us solve this problem. You can trust us."

No, we can't. And we never should have in the first place.

They Will Crush Us All

It's obvious to the global elite that the world is broken and it needs to be fixed. The current crisis in economics, ecology, and energy is their announcement that they intend to wipe clean this current post-industrialist system of political and financial control and replace it with another. They are effectively tearing the crown from the Emporers' head and forcing it down upon another brow....China's perhaps? or Russia's?
The logic is simple. Because these post-industrial nations can no longer afford to offer open wallets to cheap, disposable goods, nor continue the debt-slavery system, they would have to be reconstructed and "downsized" as it were. Others have voiced their warnings about a coming "world war", and to some extent they are right. However, it is more likely to begin like that of 1789 rather than 1914 or 1939. In order for such a sudden shift of power from one sphere to another to take place, there must be a decisive defeat of the intended victim, the very will of the people to resist having to be completely eroded. It spells utter ruin. And it is their way of exacting from us what they believe we owe them; a "settling of the books" you might say.
They are determined to crush us, we the people of the western world. Whether we fight back or not, they will crush us just the same.
They will crush us all, just the same.

BATTLECRY

Today we are standing at a crossroads. Behind us is the worst economic tragedy to ever occur in human history. With it has come the worst environmental catastrophe to ever occur. As we look forward, we look forward to continuing trials, continuing crisis, and ever more insurmountable challenges.

Do not think as you look back from this point that you are looking back at the night and are approaching morning. You are not approaching morning. You have barely yet seen the night, let alone midnight.

You are in darkness. You are entering night, and the day is far from you. You will not see daylight for a long time, and for those of you who have been paying close attention, those who have looked for the truth, those who have cast off the deceptive rhetoric of our corporate and government leaders and worked hard to untangle all manner of lies, diversions, and deceptions, you know this is true! You have studied your history, your economics, your globalization. You know what's going on. But for many, many people it is a great shock, a disappoint, even a terrible fear, that we have not yet begun to see the full consequences of a crisis that began ever so innocently in 2006-2007 and came to a head in the Fall of 2008.

Now these "professionals" are going to tell you that the stock market is up! Don't worry! We are actually in recovery! They will point to growth forecasts, to jobless numbers, to hiring practises, to manufacturing numbers. Yeah, okay. For an average citizen you look at this data and think that maybe there is something to it. Maybe you are just one person out of a few who is struggling. Maybe it isn't all that bad, right?

No, it's not that bad--IT'S WORSE! The numbers they give are skewed. The facts they present are lies. The data they provide is cooked like the financial books the banks use to say they aren't insolvent, and believe me, they are insolvent! Here we are with the home team down 53-0 and we keep dropping passes and fumbling the ball away. It feels like it's the fourth quarter, but it's only the FIRST HALF! Yeah, it's going to get worse, and it sucks to say that. It sucks to say, and you know why?

I'm saying our leadership is not incompetent, our banks are not reluctant, and corporations are not cautious. For any of that to be true, we would have to think that these guys have their heads under the hood and they are tweeking every spark plug and every wire and every spring and every gasket to get this car started. But that isn't what's happening. What they're doing is sitting down at the bar with the money you paid them to fix your car and they are drinking it away! They have no intention of fixing that car! They will do anything BUT fix it, because they are getting paid NOT to fix it, even as they insist that it's the first thing on their mind!

Our leadership can only be incompetent if they are attempting to do something, and then only if we really think they are. They told us they were going to turn the economy around and get people back to work, right? Technically they didn't lie. They never said how far they were going to turn it around or exactly how many people were going to get back to work. And in all honesty they have done a lot to help the people in trouble. Trouble is, we aren't those people. We're not CEO's, we aren't chairmen, owners, interests, managers, or any of that. In other words, we are at the bottom of this two-tiered society, and they are at the top. So, yeah, they are helping out the people---the people that count!

But what's worse than that is that instead of even trying to solve the problem, they are actually making it worse. They are forcing the dollar down, they are edging us closer to insolvency as a nation, closer to a lower overall rating, and closer to reneging on our national debt. They are making it worse, and they are making it worse because their patrons are the very people who destroyed our lives and destroyed our economy in the first place. These are campaign contributors. These are the folks paying $15,000 a plate to have dinner and maybe a little "face time" with the president. This is their game. This is their show.

This is their country.

It's always darkest before the dawn, right? Man, it aint even dark yet. It's not morning, it's not 3 am, it isn't even midnight! We are only just now entering the night and it will be a LONG night, it will be a DARK night, and it will be a HARD night. And we don't know when we're coming out of it!

They keep saying that this is the new normal.

Unemployment at 8%, 9%, or even 10% is NORMAL? Homelessness is the new normal! Poverty is the new normal! Foreclosure, food stamps, poison fish, and Fukushima radiation is the NEW normal!

Okay, so they have the night, right? They have the cards, they have game, they have the future, right?

I say, NO WAY!

They don't have my house! They don't have MY job! They don't have MY future! They are on the side of GREED, on the side of DISPAIR, on the side of DESTITUTION, on the side of WRONG!

It is WRONG that we should suffer these indignities, it is WRONG that we should starve while golden toilet seats and multi-million dollar yachts and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th homes are bought and sold and filled with the most ridiculous items at the most ridiculous prices, and WHY?

BECAUSE IT'S OUR MONEY!

They are taking OUR money and gambling on Wall Street, OUR money and building new slave factories in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philipines, OUR money they use to grease the wheels of "democracy" in their favor, OUR money they use to keep us DOWN, to keep us DISTRACTED, and to keep us DEPRESSED!

I DONT'T WANT TO BE DEPRESSED!

I DON'T WANT TO BE DISTRACTED!

I DON'T WANT TO BE DOWN!

They aren't gonna take me down, I'M GOING TO TAKE THEM DOWN! Let THEM suffer penniless in the back alleys and abandoned parking lots, and under bridges and patches of woods, in tents, and cardboard cities, standing in line for a meal, for a handout for a better SOMETHING on any given day! Let them be EMBARASSED, HUMILIATED, SCORNED, and DENIED!

Let THEM go down!

Because I'm not going down! And no one SHOULD go down. Not one of us. Not today. Not tommorow.

Stay in your homes, hide your car around the corner, and stop them any way you can. If the choice is to go down because GREEDY WALL STREET POLITICIANS AND ECONOMIC TERRORISTS WHO STOLE $14 TRILLION ARE DEVALUING YOUR EXISTENCE, or to STAND, I say STAND!

This is MY life, this is MY future, this MY tommorow, and don't let anyone take that away. We don't have to bow our heads, we don't have to retreat, we don't have to buck up and take it, WE HAVE TO SPEAK, we have MARCH, we have to GET LOUD!

It's YOUR country, damnit, so TAKE IT! Stop listening to their lies, stop believing their nonesense, stop LETTING THEM DECIDE!

It's our country.

It's our world.

It's OUR decision.

And it's time to stand up and MAKE A DECISION.

Cardboard

It seems like the surging Dow Jones has finally hit a significant rut. Consider the period from 9/08 to 9/09 where it was steady decline followed by the sputtering from QE1 ramping things up a bit. I recall that around this time last year(really 2nd Quarter) it started to drop back, followed by significant stagnation in the economy as a whole heading into last summer. This year has repeated for the most part the same ups and downs, only the months above 12k have been short. As of last Friday the Dow is back under 12k again after spend most of 2011 above that.

Thought it might be a good time, therefore, to eyeball the nations ten largest banks and where their "assets" are at. I use quotations because these assets are really liabilities--that is, on the balance sheets and potentially redeemable, but who knows what they really are. At this point, the paint coloring the bricks on the outside of a banks headquarters could be somehow fixed into a security and collateralized for a quick turn on the repo market. Funny, huh? Yeah, well don't laugh too hard because that is about where it's at. For all intents and purposes our entire financial system is insolvent. These so-called assets couldn't be liquidated or even redeemed because they have already been leveraged against the banks debt. Thus the house of cards gets bigger, but it still couldn't support a single resident. 

 

Largest Banks in U.S.

(in thousands of U.S. dollars)

Rank Institution Headquarters Assets 1. Bank of America Corp. Charlotte, N.C. $2,340,667,014 2. J. P. Morgan Chase & Company New York, N.Y. 2,135,796,000 3. Citigroup New York, N.Y 2,002,213,000 4. Wells Fargo & Company San Francisco, C.A. 1,223,630,000 5. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. New York, N.Y. 880,677,000 6. Morgan Stanley New York, N.Y. 819,719,000 7. Metlife, Inc. New York, N.Y. 565,566,452 8. Barclays Group US, Inc. Wilmington, Del. 427,837,000 9. Taunus Corporation New York, N.Y. 364,079,000 10. HSBC North America Inc. New York, N.Y 345,382,871

As of Mar. 31, 2010.

Source: Federal Reserve System, National Information Center.

Read more: The Top Ten: Largest Banks in U.S. — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/toptens/usbanks.html#ixzz1P6xCUXuP

Check out a website called RepoWatch and read up on the repurchase market--the "shadow banking system" that everyone has been talking about. You might walk away a little disillusioned, but better educated as well. After all, if you're on a boat in the middle of the ocean heading for a storm, you want to know what the hull is made of right? Sorry to be the guy who whispers "cardboard" in your ear.



Iniquity

The evidence of Man’s iniquity is in religion.

From the moment of his awakening through writing, Man has acknowledged a higher power. Perhaps this Power is called by “God”, or some similar Prime Deity, and Man in spite of his own ability has consistently bowed to this perceived “greater-ness”.  From where did Man derive guilt but from consciousness, and where from consciousness but knowledge of oneself.

Sin is when ability supersedes necessity.

Man finds guilt in desire, knowing he Can take even if he does not Need to. Man is what he is on account of desire. Knowing his guilt he acknowledges God, not as an idea, but as an Entity, Perfection in a Person.

All Would Speak Truth But For Fear.

Truth has always been the standard of Man.

Every voice could speak truth openly, yet other powers exist to induce Fear that they should. Those powers are both internal and external. Man’s God has reinforced the notion of Truth as an Absolute, and a measuring of his own standing. In this it is an acknowledgement of forces other than God that operate. We hold back knowing the consequences of Absolute Truth.

What is Mankind for, but God?

The existence we have here is inexplicable to naked facts. It doesn’t make any sense. Six thousand years after his Awakening Man has yet to understand from whence he came. What is Truth? What is God? What is Love? These ideas have been at the core of every human civilization. They are universal questions that Man will always struggle with. That Man struggles is not the issue. It is whether anyone else is taking notice.

Setting A Dangerous Precedent

With 112 missiles fired in the opening hours of this police action by a new UN Coalition against Libya, one might be feeling a little bit like its 1999. In that year a NATO Coalition attacked Serbia in response to that government’s retaliation against the subversive Kosovo Liberation Army. A three month campaign ensued that weakened the Milosevic regime and prevented—theoretically—an “ethnic cleansing” by Serbia of its’ Albanian people. No direct invasion, just an air campaign that can paralyze the victim, rendering them susceptible to domestic insurrection or any future ground assault that might be needed.

At the time of the Kosovo conflict it was a devious move by a thus far non-interventionist NATO.  Clearly    the voice of this suffering minority mattered more than others in that these sovereign nations saw fit to apply strict military discipline to a nation and leader suspected of committing genocide. Today we are engaging Libya in the same way, only this time it is to “protect civilians”. By a revealing “twist” on the logic of this particular “crusade”, the Darfur region of Sudan is just a few thousand miles from Libya and is directly south of Egypt. The people of Darfur have been pleading for years for someone to help them as the Sudanese government continues to employ Janjaweed death squads and massacres to intimidate the population. Estimates of the total casualties since the Darfur rebellion began in 2003 are 200-400,000.

In other words, the stated aim of the current coalition is obviously prejudiced and self-serving. On one hand the UN gets to kill some people while scaring the crap out of Quaddafi, and on the other the oil companies and their investors not only have their stash protected, but they get bonus dollars made off of the conflict due to the increase in oil prices. We haven’t even begun to discuss the obvious currency effects that can be played for additional profit! Why does the United Nations have a right—or even a mission—to arbitrarily intervene in matters where civilian lives are at risk? If we go by such a measure, how is the non-intervention in Darfur justified? Even as NATO jets were sending innocent civilians to their deaths to protect them, the US and Britain were maintaining their own “no-fly zone” over Iraq, an exercise that provided their pilots the opportunity to attack anything moving and let the politicians sort it out.

Of course, the aggression is mutual in Libya. There is a civil war going on, just like in Sudan. Only this time, the UN has decided to add aggression to aggression rather than mediate a cessation between both sides and promote a solution. If civilian casualties are a serious concern of the UN, so much so as to single out one aggressor over another, why are the repeated drone missile strikes by the US against civilians in NW Pakistan and Afghanistan “off the table”? Why do the Columbian military and the Israeli military not suffer reprisal from the UN when they are clearly killing their own civilians?

Consider yourselves warned—once again the UN has demonstrated   the amazing power of selective memory and selective response. Any weak, unliked, or uncooperative nation could face the wrath of the manipulated United Nations, and equally the arcane Security Council of the Allied Powers of World War Two. If I were Iran, I would be sitting most uncomfortably.

As it is, we can expect further violence out of Israel and the Occupied Territories as well as outright crackdowns and wipe-outs in other Middle East nations. Not only do we have the Libyan attack on the TV, we have the nuclear crisis in Japan, the descent of Charlie Sheen, the ruin of the world economy, and eventually a war of epic proportions.

How so, this war?

Many African and Middle East nations are finding a more just and respectable association with China than they had with the West. Sooner or later the events in the Middle East are going to invite a response from China, and when that happens, China will have seized the richest oil areas on Earth and made itself—with relative ease—the new Superpower. That’s what happens when a bankrupt system of debt crushes the global economy. Wealth evaporates, governments collapse, and the world becomes a different place.

It’s been a while since such a change. Maybe 1989-90, only this time on a larger scale. These days, it seems like the entire world is just boiling under the surface, waiting to explode.



The Age of Perpetual Disaster

Perpetual Disaster seems to be the new normal, at least in those disasters whose resolution hinges on man made structures. This current crisis is similar to the Gulf oil fiasco that seemed to get worse and worse everyday. It is the same slow motion escalation of events, moments of fear met by long periods of silent foreboding. In the case of the Gulf oil spill, it's magnitude wasn't appreciated early on, yet when investigations were made in earnest, the earliest estimates were found to be severely off the mark.
How could it not be the same here, where potentially six nuclear reactors may all be leaking radiation in the course of meltdown? The question is not if it could happened, but "Can we trust them to tell us if it already has happened?" Clearly a number of foreign governments do not trust the spokespersons for either the Japanese government or the Tokyo electricity company that runs the reactors. That so many are readily dismissive can only mean that the disaster is a clear threat, not only for the immediate time, but potential weeks or even months into the future.
WE ARE STANDING IN THE HEADLIGHTS!
A wave of radiation is about to sweep perpetually over the United States, California specifically! Our nation is in REAL DANGER and our government seems to be doing very little about it aside from coaching on the sidelines. No, the chance to smack around Qaddafi is too good to miss, and there are other issues besides the possible radioactive destruction of the northern hemisphere, like a trip to South America or sparring with the Congressional Budget Office.

Ask yourself, "What is being done, or needs to be done, to secure the reactors in Japan, and who is in charge of doing it?"
"What actions are being taken by the Federal Government on this crisis, as it is a clear threat to the United States?"
"Are there procedures in effect to deal with any quarantine of radiated areas or facilities that might assist in the care and supervision of victims of radiation exposure?"
"Are we taking the situation seriously enough, given ramifications that are absolutely detrimental to the country as this drama continues?"

One thing can be asked: if there is able to be seen imagery from satellites that could clearly illustrate the growth and path of the radiation around the reactors as winds take it to and fro? Then we would have an accurate estimate of dose and proximity for each wave of radiation. Whether or not this has been done, can be done, or is available elsewhere--let me know!
But thus far there is no indication that a "cloud" or concentration of radiation is imminent. although the risk increases with each passing day, especially as there is no clear "endgame" in sight. With the Internet and social media, such a revelation would spread like wildfire.

For now,  just like the Gulf oil spill, we are paused and watching, fearful of the reality we're told about, yet more frightened for what isn't being said. In this case, it is the health of our people, our economy, and our well-being as a continent that is at stake.
Anxious, I watch and I wait...

Black-Holing In On Itself

It is in times such as these, more so than in "better" times, that all we perceive comes down to Truth.
On either side of political beliefs there is the conviction of one's own truth as opposed to the other's, each certain that they are holding to the "truest" principals. Law is stretched this way and that in order to make enforce one or other "truths", so to speak. And religion, the heartbeat of a human beings most intimate concept of order in the universe, hinges solely upon Truth.
It all boils down to who and what we believe in.
If our times could speak any one word, that it could echo across the coming decades, that word would be "deceit". Deceit in the media, deceit in the leadership, and deceit in the marketplace. All else plastic and recyclable is held up in grinning faces, pacifier films, and colored charts to the background of primitive music. It must be accepted that words from any government can not be trusted. If they have proved so futile up until now, why should any new promises, declarations, or reports change what has already been established as a trend?
Now we are hearing that the financial tsunami is rolling and our shores are ill-equipped to withstand it. A tsunami? Indeed, of abandoned Dollars coming in from the Middle East, Europe, and China. A literal flood of excess money, which is the absolute cause of inflation. Oil is going up, as there is a critical energy producing region being fed flames by it's western masters. The effect should certainly instigate the already savage eventuality of a fragile global economic construct black-holing on it's own enormous debt.
This is scary stuff.
If I could ask one thing, however, it is for our truths to be our own. We take comfort in it, and it shelters us from collapsing into the basest of creatures in the worst of times. I will take pride in my God, and you should all do the same. Don't worry about our opinions, because as this unfolds it is our shared humanity, our shared sense of self and others that our faith tells us to cherish. We have a truth, and it is our foundation.
Our own Truth, be it religion or no, our own personal truth is our guide. We must not allow our society, our neighborhoods--our civilization--to be devoured by the corrupt. If our collective law has failed us, it is not because we do not have Law even among ourselves. It is already part of our fabric as human beings. Our law is a law of freedom, justice, and truth. Not for myself, but for others. We will need this. We will need to cling, at times desperately, to our humanity.
When the pundits drag in the cameras and their commentary to the burning streets of the United States of America, show them the honor, show them the integrity, and the strength of our people that we held together. In towns and villages, rural and urban, let them find the working man, the working woman, the people of the land, organizing for their own general welfare. Not because we will want to, but because we will need to.

Peter Schiff Blog: CNBC Video: The Rug Is Going to be Pulled Out

Peter Schiff Blog: CNBC Video: The Rug Is Going to be Pulled Out: "Peter Schiff`s comments on the economy, stock markets, politics and gold. Schiff is the renowned writer of the bestseller Crash Proof: Ho..."

Notice the last comments by the host:
"Corporate profits have never been higher, so we can disregard his view."

Why have corprate profits never been higher? Is because they are operating at 50% of their workforce from two years ago and steadily increasing their productivity--while not paying sick days, holidays, or vacations? Is it because the Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke has used his quantitative easing scheme to bolster commodity prices in order to "jump start" the economy(or, more clearly, create a false sense of recovery?)?

It's a sham, and shame on CNBC for perpetuating this BS while federal and state governments are trying vainly to pump all this debt water out of their flooded basements!

Why are these states in so much debt?
Because they refuse to tax the wealthiest citizens, and instead are attempting to cut their budgets by making everyone else suffer.

God bless America--our leaders sure haven't!

This Empire Must Fall

We will know people, Jesus said, by their fruit. There is no more obvious indication of a persons’ disposition than their outward manifestations, in the same way that an apple tree can only produce apples. It should be obvious to anyone watching the events in Egypt that Mubarak and his regime are every bit as vicious and vile as the protesters have been claiming in their demonstrations over the last nine days.  Not only has the Egyptian president refused to acknowledge that his time is at end as leader of that nation, but he has basically toyed with the peoples’ aspirations for change by tinkering with his cabinet and offering not to run for re-election in September. Such “concessions” are clearly little more than lip service, but of more than passing interest is the manner in which he finally spoke to the people late on Wednesday night.

In Tahrir Square, Cairo, in the midst of the anti-government protests, a large screen television was put up and at 11 pm Egypt time President Mubarak gave his ten-minute speech. It was late at night and delivered during the “curfew” that he has imposed to try to end the protests. At seven hours behind Egypt time, it was 4 pm on the US east coast—Washington time—when the speech came, and clearly the timing was meant to appeal to western interests, likely more especially European as their hour would have been closer to prime time.  Yet what occurred in the hours after the speech did more than anything else to expose the tyranny that Mubarak represents.

Suddenly, busloads of pro-Mubarak supporters arrived at Tahrir Square armed for confrontation. What ensued was prolonged street fighting between pro- and anti-government mobs and a clear resort to violence on the part of the Mubarak regime that left three dead and 1,500 injured. It is the way of the tyrant to resort to force when all else fails—that is, when you have failed to deceive, obstruct, or swindle your opponent, you must attack him. Now it will be a struggle not of words but of force, and it seems that Mubarak will simply weaken the will of the protesters enough to permit the military to finally act in sweeping them away.

The fruit of this US-backed dictator is clear to see.

Likewise, the fruit of the US leadership is also clear. These are the types of people the United States employs in order to maintain their global empire. Mubarak is certainly not the worst of the puppets the US has supported over the years. Latin America has had its’ share of murderers who held presidential office after violent military takeovers, ushering in years of brutal rule under the thumb of US corporations and death squads trained by the American military. This is the nature of US economic policy outside the US. This is the standard operating procedure for US interests to gain control of valuable resources in foreign countries and not only harness those resources but subject the civilian population to virtual slavery as “employees” of those corporations. It is no different in the Middle East where oil is more precious than gold and the lives of the people only that much more expendable. This is illustrated clearly by the US invasion of Iraq in 1991 and the twelve year operation conducted by the “western allies” to cripple, humiliate, starve, and some say decimate via genocide the Iraqi population.

When, after the 9/11 attacks, the US decided to launch their coup de grace against a sufficiently crippled and defenseless state, it was under the guise of “bringing democracy” to Iraq. The years 2003-2008 give no better indication of the US attitude toward democracy and Arabs as the ensuing events revealed the US to be a brutal and indifferent force for oppression and corruption. Instead of democracy, the Iraqi people were given bombs, cancer, starvation, torture, desolation, and fear.

This is the kind of empire that is run from Washington, DC. It is an empire that serves corporate power. It is an empire that has spent decades sacrificing the lives of working people for corporate profit and using its vast resources of money and guns to bolster one corrupt and hideously brutal regime after another, whether it is in Indonesia, Haiti, the Philippines’, Israel,  Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, or Saudi Arabia. The US Empire occupies 177 countries and has surface fleets patrolling every major ocean on the planet. Even when US leadership is professing its support of democracy and human rights it is busy torturing jihadists at Guantanamo Bay or protecting the interests of leaders they need in other nations who do the same—such as China, Russia, Great Britain, and Pakistan.

The United States may well think of itself as the guardian of peace and democracy to the world, but the world knows better. It may think of itself as a tree bearing the fruit of prosperity, freedom, and human rights, but all that the world can see is the rotting fruits of greed, corruption, exploitation, fear, violence, deceit, hate, humility, brutality, and destruction.

For America’s own people, this is becoming only more apparent. After approving trillions of dollars of bailouts for criminally active financial entities such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, AIG, and Wells Fargo, against the demands of millions of voters, the US government has ignored the 27 million workers unemployed, the millions of families foreclosed upon, and the 46 million people on food stamps. Instead, the government has gone ahead with more money for failing banks, more US dollars invested by the Federal Reserve in stocks to create the illusion of recovery, and more deficit spending for Wall Street and the Pentagon to continue draining the American people and perpetuating wars of greater violence and cost overseas. This continues even as the US steps up spying on its people, restricting their rights through more legislation that makes more and more people “terrorists” or “national security threats”, and doing little or nothing to create jobs and a better future for the millions of homeless, poor, unemployed, and under employed who have ALL been swindled by the big banks and corporations. Meanwhile the Gulf of Mexico has turned to toxic stew and hydraulic fragging has continued to poison the waters of lakes, rivers, and streams across the United States, all with the approval of US legislators and bloated energy companies.

Even the American people can see the truth, with or without the Egyptian example.

This Empire must fall.