Bad American

This may sound naive of me, but I’m actually starting to believe that the White House nutbar may indeed attack Iran. I seriously didn’t believe Bush and his minions were that colossally stupid to actually do it, but it seems as though events are beginning to spin out of control.

AP: Iran Test Fires More Missiles in the Gulf

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran test-fired more long-range missiles overnight in a second round of exercises meant to show that the country can defend itself against any attack by the U.S. or Israel, Iranian state television reported Thursday.

The weapons have “special capabilities” and included missiles launched from naval ships in the Persian Gulf, along with torpedoes and surface-to-surface missiles, the broadcast said. It did not elaborate.

In the American media this is being spun as a provocative act. It is anything but. The Iranians are, like any cornered animal, merely showing their teeth: if they go down, there will be collateral damage done to the attackers. If a nation were subjected to the day in and day out provocations that the Iranian regime has been subjected, one could argue they would have done far more than launch a few missiles.

But the Iranians understand that they must not strike the first blow. They also must understand that any attempt to defend itself or retaliate once attacked by the US or Israel, will be painted as a dastardly act of aggression by the American press, doing the bidding of their governmental and corporate masters, of course.

Iran is in a no win position here. The best they can do is what they are doing - dancing diplomatically while demonstrating that they will not be rolled over as cheaply as the Iraqis - and, hope that saner heads prevail.

At the point we’re at now, sanity seems to be checking out.

AP: Rice Warns Iran US Will Defend Israel

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Thursday that the United States will not back down in the face of Iranian threats against Israel.

Iranian officials have strongly suggested the country’s missile test on Wednesday was itself a warning to Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel has left that option open.

“We are sending a message to Iran that we will defend American interests and the interests of our allies,” Rice said at the close of a three-day Eastern European trip.

As if.

Can anyone point to any threats of Iran against Israel? And please let’s not haul out that mistranslated quote about wiping Israel from the map by Ahmadinejad. I’m talking about specific military threats against Israel by the Iranian government or military forces.

And of course, Rice’s stance and that of the administration, somehow presupposes that Israel needs our help defending itself against the Iranians. This, from a country with over 200 nuclear warheads and a sophisticated and highly trained air force and defense apparatus (largely funded and equipped by the US).

Why must American blood flow for a country that is more than capable of defending itself?

AFP: Obama wants diplomacy(?) McCain wants sanctions

Here’s what Obama said yesterday:

“Through its nuclear program, missile capability, meddling in Iraq, support for terrorism, and threats against Israel, Iran now poses the greatest strategic challenge to the United States in the region in a generation,” he said in a statement.

“It’s time to offer the Iranians a clear choice between increased costs for continuing their troubling behavior, and concrete incentives that would come if they change course.

“The threat from Iran’s nuclear program is real and it is grave. As president, I will do everything in my power to eliminate that threat, and that must begin with direct, aggressive, and sustained diplomacy.“

Translation: up the threats. But these assumptions Obama makes are never questioned. Who ‘meddled’ in Iraq first? The USA. And the proof of Iranian ‘meddling’ has been sketchy at best. But the USA reserves the itself the right to meddle in the affairs of other sovereign nations as if ordained by God. And we neither understand nor care why we are hated in the Middle East. It’s easier to demonize a who region and dehumanize their populations using racist appeals than act as an honest broker that respects the rights of self-determination for other peoples.

And no one questions whether the Iranians, or any other nation, has an intrinsic right to develop a nuclear weapons program. Is Iran’s nuclear program any more or less dangerous than Pakistan’s or India’s? Or North Korea’s? Do we need to remind people of the only nation in the world that ever used nuclear weapons against civilian population centers?

And, oh by the way, as Kurt Nimmo reports, the US is using terrorists to ‘meddle’ in Iran:

According to Pakistan’s former Army Chief, retired General Mirza Aslam Baig, the U.S. supports the Jundullah terrorist group and uses it to destabilize Iran. Baig knows what he is talking about, as he was on the inside track when the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI created al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Both Baig and former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul were part of the Darul Uloom Haqqania Islamic conference held near Peshawar on January 9, 2001, significant because the conference was hosted by CIA asset Osama bin Laden. Baig rubs elbows with Pakistan’s ruling oligarchs, so he knows something about what goes down in South and Central Asia and the Greater Middle East.

“He said that the US is providing training facilities to Jundullah fighters–located in eastern areas of Iran–to create unrest in the area and affect the cordial ties between Iran and its neighbor Pakistan,” reports Iran’s Press TV. “The intelligence agencies of the coalitional forces are very active in Afghanistan and work against the interests of Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia in the region, he said as quoted by Pakistan Daily newspaper.”

In other words, the neocons are busy at work on their plan, active now for well over a decade, to foment chaos in the region and ultimately reduce it to a smoldering ruin. Iran has long figured prominently on the neocon hit list.

IHT: Oil Will Soar if Iran Attacked

VIENNA: The head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warned Thursday that oil prices would see an “unlimited” increase in the case of a military conflict involving Iran, because the group’s members would be unable to make up the lost production.

“We really cannot replace Iran’s production - it’s not feasible to replace it,” Abdalla Salem El-Badri, the OPEC secretary general, said in an interview.

Iran, the second-largest producing country in OPEC, after Saudi Arabia, produces about four million barrels of oil a day out of the daily worldwide production of close to 87 million barrels.

Close to 87 million barrels. Note that figure hasn’t budged in three years. If my memory serves me, worldwide production briefly hit 88 mbd and that was it. Neither the Saudis, nor anyone else in OPEC can make that figure budge upward.

Now what would happen to the US economy, in such a scenario, that gasoline went to $10 a gallon overnight?

And yet, in the face of economic catastrophe, the madmen of Washington and Tel Aviv are still pushing for an attack on a nation that has not committed an act of war against either side.

Tell me who are the insane ones?

David DeBatto in ICH

Who is David DeBatto?

David DeBatto is a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, Iraqi war veteran and co-author the “CI” series from Warner Books and the upcoming “Counter to Intelligence” from Praeger Security International.

The gist of what may be:

Just after the first waves of U.S. bombers cross into Iranian airspace, the Iranian Navy, using shore based missiles and small, fast attack craft sinks several oil tankers in the Straits of Hormuz, sealing off the Persian Gulf and all its oil from the rest of the world. They then mine the area, making it difficult and even deadly for American minesweepers to clear the straits. Whatever is left of the Iranian Navy and Air Force harasses our Navy as it attempts minesweeping operations. More U.S casualties.

The day after the invasion Wall Street (and to a lesser extent, Tokyo, London and Frankfurt) acts as it always does in an international crisis – irrational speculative and spot buying reaches fever pitch and sends the cost of oil skyrocketing. In the immediate aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iran, the price of oil goes to $200.00 - $300.00 dollars a barrel on the open market. If the war is not resolved in a few weeks, that price could rise even higher.  This will send the price of gasoline at the pump in this country to $8.00-$10.00 per gallon immediately and subsequently to even higher unthinkable levels.

If that happens, this country shuts down. Most Americans are not be able to afford gas to go to work. Truckers pull their big rigs to the side of the road and simply walk away. Food, medicine and other critical products are not be brought to stores. Gas and electricity (what is left of the short supply) are too expensive for most people to afford. Children, the sick and elderly die from lack of air-conditioned homes and hospitals in the summer. Children, the sick and elderly die in the winter for lack of heat. There are food riots across the country. A barter system takes the place of currency and credit as the economy dissolves and banks close or limit withdrawals. Civil unrest builds.

The police are unable to contain the violence and are themselves victims of the same crisis as the rest of the population. Civilian rule dissolves and Martial Law is declared under provisions approved under the Patriot Act. Regular U.S. Army and Marine troops patrol the streets. (here, DeBatto is assuming there are enough of these troops around to do the job - ed.) The federal government apparatus is moved to an unknown but secure location. The United States descends into chaos and becomes a third world country. Its time as the lone superpower is over.

It doesn’t get any worse than this.

Then the first Israeli bomber drops its nuclear payload on Tehran.

Don’t say you weren’t warned. And, by the way, I hate to break it to some of you but there is nothing in recorded history or the Bible, for that matter, that exempts America from the maladies and misfortunes that befall every empire, especially one with the hubris this country has.

Gee I wonder how that fucking asshole Limbaugh and the rest of the know-nothings who listen to him will be making fun of Hansen’s testimony yesterday that barely registered a blip on the radar of our so-called ‘liberal’ media?

Toronto Star from CommonDreams

“We have reached a point of planetary emergency,” he said.

“There are tipping points in the climate system, which we are very close to, and if we pass them, the dynamics of the system take over and carry you to very large changes which are out of your control.”

snip

Hansen’s second Capitol Hill appearance in 1989 was before a committee chaired by a Tennessee senator named Al Gore, but the White House edited his statement before Gore’s committee, throwing into question his certainty about the link between human activity and global warming.

Hansen was told he could accept the revisions, or he would not be able to testify.

So, in advance of the hearing, he asked Gore to question him on the edited parts, he then revealed the White House edit and the story led all U.S. network newscasts that evening. Hansen then moved out of the political spotlight for 15 years.

That’s ‘free and fair exchange of ideas’ conservative style.

He also accused corporate America of a “greenwash” in which their environmentally friendly words are not backed by actions and he supported criminal charges against CEOs of corporations such as ExxonMobil who are smart enough to know the situation but are intent on continuing their fossil fuel ways.

“When their descendants look back on them, they should not to be able to pretend that they didn’t know,” Hansen said.

“They do know.”

They are also guilty of funding and promoting contrarian views from scientists, furthering a charade that confuses the public into believing there is debate among scientists in this country, Hansen said.

“There is no debate,” he said.

Only among brain dead conservative greedheads who have no problem sacrificing their children’s future for their present comfort.

As for the CEO’s, I say, just get some rope and find a nice sturdy tree.

I doubt anything will change until it’s too late and then the capitalists will say “well, it’s too late anyway so let’s just ride it down and make money.” Greed is simply too ingrained in the human DNA which is something I’d like to seriously cross-examine God about (what the HELL were you thinking? we’d grow out of it??).

George Carlin was right about humanity. At least he won’t be around to see it collapse.

Fortune Magazine interview:

He sits in the corner of a sofa, one black, tasseled loafer propped against a coffee table. We’re in the presidential suite on the 41st floor of the New York Hilton. McCain has come here - between a major speech on the economy in Washington, D.C., this morning and a fundraiser tonight at the 21 Club - to talk to us and to let us take his picture. He is wearing a dark suit, as he almost always does, with a blue shirt and a wine-colored tie. He’s looking not at us but into the void. His eyes are narrowed. Nine seconds of silence, ten seconds, 11. Finally he says, “Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we’re in against radical Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.”

Not America’s dependence on foreign oil? Not climate change? Not the crushing cost of health care? Eventually McCain gets around to mentioning all three of those. But he starts by deftly turning the economy into a national security issue - and why not? On national security McCain wins. We saw how that might play out early in the campaign, when one good scare, one timely reminder of the chaos lurking in the world, probably saved McCain in New Hampshire, a state he had to win to save his candidacy - this according to McCain’s chief strategist, Charlie Black. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,” says Black. “But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.” As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,” says Black.

Certainly another ‘Reichstag fire‘ complete with dead bodies of ordinary Americans would be greeted with glee in McCain’s war room. Why does this surprise anyone? These people are fascists and this is how fascists operate.

This line of thinking, of course, assumes Americans are too stupid to differentiate between a false flag attack, incompetence on the part of our counter-terrorist forces, or a masterminded attack by a true outside force AND the motivations and consequences of such an attack.

All they figure is that a majority of the American people, ’soccer’ or ’security’ moms, et. al., would simply stampede in fear to John McCain, begging him to take away the rest of our tenuous civil liberties and throw the entire Middle East into a nuclear cauldron.

And you know, sadly, they might just be right.

Which is why when I read stories like this I get genuinely concerned about what might happen as this election approaches or in the netherworld between Election Day and Inauguration Day.

I suspect there is quite a bit of planned mischief afoot.

NOT that I expect any less from Obama. Should some catastrophe happen between E Day and I Day after Obama wins, I would expect ‘Mr. Change’ to swear absolute fealty to the concept of massive retaliation. Like most Democrats, I would expect him to try to ‘out war’ the cons just to make sure people knew he wasn’t a weak kneed appeaser.

In any case, there’s too much smoke swirling around the latter months of the year not to be prepared for literally anything.

AP writers: Everything Seemingly is Spinning Out of Control

Wow, even the mainstream is noticing:

Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet’s weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?

It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs — turning corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.

Residents of the nation’s capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought.

And it ends with this ominous note:

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

Now back in the late 1960s there was a similar unraveling going on. People displayed little signs - “plan ahead” with the e-a-d part falling off the line downward.

A lot of it had to do with a more slipshod attitude toward things with American car manufacturers leading the way. There was also problems with teething troubles in new computer technology.

But we didn’t have the problems with the basic supply of oil and food that we have now. And although we had the first signposts of environmental degradation, we didn’t do enough to ensure that we wouldn’t run into the problems we are running into today. Capitalism uber alles and now the generations that followed the 60s are now having to deal with the mess.

Yes we had the air pollution problem - and we went to unleaded fuel and put scrubbers on some smokestacks. But it wasn’t enough.

Yes we were warned about overpopulation, food and the Malthusian mathematics - but the cheap price of oil made it seem like we could cheat nature and science.

We were warned about the fragility of the environment and the animal species of the world - and we had Earth Day and greenwashed the whole movement so Corporate America could make money.

M. King Hubbert warned us about oil depletion. And we laughed at him.

Now we pay. And pay dearly.

But when you’re lying to right wing Americans you can get away with it. They’ll believe anything.

Media Matters

On the June 17 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that “drilling in ANWR alone would yield 100 million barrels a day.” In fact, according to Energy Department researchers, if the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is opened for drilling for oil in 2008, the estimated peak production would yield, at most, 1.45 million barrels a day in 2028.

According to the Energy Information Administration’s May 2008 Analysis of Crude Oil Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

In all three ANWR resource cases, ANWR crude oil production begins in 2018 and grows during most of the projection period before production begins to decline. In the mean oil resource case, ANWR oil production peaks at 780,000 barrels per day in 2027. The low- resource-case production peaks at 510,000 barrels per day in 2028, while the high- resource-case production peaks at 1,450,000 barrels per day in 2028. Cumulative oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR from 2018 through 2030 amounts to 2.6 billion barrels in the mean resource case, 1.9 billion barrels in the low resource case, and 4.3 billion barrels in the high resource case.

From the June 17 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck:

BECK: Like I told you yesterday, gas is up 35 percent. Electricity is up 30 percent. Natural gas, which most Americans use to heat their home, will hit a record high next month, up 43 percent from last year. Oh, boy. What happens when we hit November and December?

Even with all of that, domestic drilling is still stalled by Congress. It’s like these people don’t even — they don’t even live on the same planet. And this is really too bad, since drilling in ANWR alone would yield 100 million barrels a day.

OK kiddies let’s do the math about how ANWR will save us.

Currently, the United States uses 20.6 million barrels of oil every day.

Which comes out to about 7,519,000,000 barrels of oil every year. That’s 7.5 billion barrels. And the total best case scenario from ANWR gets us 4.3 billion barrels TOTAL and then it’s ALL GONE.

So.

That means ALL of the oil in ANWR in the best case scenario can meet ALL of our oil needs in the USA for approximately 7 1/2 MONTHS. That’s all folks. And that doesn’t take into account how our consumption might continue to increase by the time that oil comes online. It may only give us the equivalent of 4 months of US consumption.

Now think of what we get for that oil. The quite possible destruction of ANWR.

So go ahead idiot Americans and let the oil companies take their last orgy of profits by drilling ANWR, drilling off shore - go ahead DRILL THE WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY and you STILL won’t get enough oil to make this country “energy self-sufficient.” EVER.

But that’s OK. Flail about in our usual fashion. Beats changing our “non-negotiable lifestyle.” Beats conservation, collective action and serious investment in alternative forms of energy, public transportation, etc. etc.

In the end, we’ll get exactly what we deserve. History and science have a way of making sure of that.

In the meantime just listen to lying jackasses like Glenn Beck. America is full of them.

London Daily Mail

Sometimes my frustrations spill out into family matters. I have tried, sometimes patiently, sometimes not, to inform people I care about of how perilous our grasp on civilization is in light of possible disruptions of fuel, food and electricity.

Last night I played the little played trump card with two family members who continued to pooh pooh everything I say (and it’s generally women who do this, sorry). I said, “imagine a world where people are killing their neighbors for what’s in their kitchen.”

They refused, of course, to consider such a possibility.

Well. no less a media outlet than the Daily Mail has done so using Lord Cameron’s expression “nine meals from anarchy,” that is, three days without fuel and, therefore, food deliveries.

Long before many others, Cameron saw the potential of a real food crisis striking not just the poor of the Third World, but us, here in Britain, in the 21st Century.

The scenario goes like this. Imagine a sudden shutdown of oil supplies; a sudden collapse in the petrol that streams steadily through the pumps and so into the engines of the lorries which deliver our food around the country, stocking up the supermarket shelves as soon as any item runs out.

If the trucks stopped moving, we’d start to worry and we’d head out to the shops, cking up our larders. By the end of Day One, if there was still no petrol, the shelves would be looking pretty thin. Imagine, then, Day Two: your fourth, fifth and sixth meal. We’d be in a panic. Day three: still no petrol.

What then? With hunger pangs kicking in, and no notion of how long it might take for the supermarkets to restock, how long before those who hadn’t stocked up began stealing from their neighbours? Or looting what they could get their hands on?

There might be 11 million gardeners in Britain, but your delicious summer peas won’t go far when your kids are hungry and the baked beans have run out.

It was Lord Cameron’s estimation that it would take just nine meals - three full days without food on supermarket shelves - before law and order started to break down, and British streets descended into chaos.

So ask yourself, in a nation as well-armed as America, how long would such a breakdown of law and order happen here under similar circumstances?

This scenario is actually possible if the asshole in the White House attacks Iran. Regardless of how effective the Iranians may be in closing the Straits of Hormuz, all they have to do is try and Lloyd’s of London and other insurers will pull the insurance from all the tankers.

And then the ‘fun’ begins. That’s when American find out what the oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is really for - not your gas tanks but for the forces of martial law that would be needed to control a desperate population in the event of an emergency.

So we’re the breadbasket of the world? Yes so the farmers will eat. But how will we service a city the size of Chicago if we don’t have the fuel to get the grains from the silos to the processors and then to the market? And at a cost that people in the city can afford?

More good news - Lowest Food Supplies in 50-100 Years

Look, you can say I’m crazy, I no longer care. One has to put this in front of the people for their consideration somehow. Again, if the British media have the guts to talk about this, why shouldn’t we?

My greatest worry about Americans is that if and when this sort of emergency occurs, the vast majority of people will be completely unprepared for it - not just physically but just as important, psychologically.

Right now coal and oil industries are running wall to wall propaganda PSAs on news channels to get Americans to turn the rest of Alaska and West Virginia into giant coal and oilfield so we don’t, in the words of one of the most egregious PSA’a “say goodbye to the American lifestyle that we all know and love.”

What they don’t tell you is where the so-called facts and figures come from and that the cost of that extraction will make every barrel of oil, ton of coal, and cubic yard of natural gas an eventual energy loser. But those industries will make a small fortune riding into the twilight of our ‘non-negotiable way of life.’

But there are naive and foolish Americans who believe that if we drill the entire Alaska National Wildlife Refuge we’ll be ‘energy self-sufficient.’ It’s nonsense to any geologist that has studied the issue. But that won’t stop an increasingly desperate, cold and hungry population from demanding that their government ‘do something.’

Right now, the overture is turning into the first act of the play as, on this Sunday morning, the average price of gas now goes above $4 a gallon. And, as a corollary, the price of everything that uses oil to get to market (which is pretty much everything) goes up as well. The ripple effect of all the other things made or derived from oil - mass agriculture, plastics, computer parts, etc., also rises.

From the Daily Mail article:

At its most basic, the reasons for this food inflation are twofold: increasing demand (particularly in the emerging economies of India and China) and spiralling production costs.

The former had been predicted for years, but the latter is more unexpected.

Conventional wisdom had it that in an age of mechanisation, the cost of producing the food that we eat would decrease as technology found new ways of improving yields and minimising labour costs. But there was a problem that hadn’t been factored in. Production methods are now such that 95 per cent of all the food we eat in the world today is oil-dependent.

The ‘black gold’ is embedded in our complex global food systems, in its fertilisers, the mechanisation necessary for its production, its transportation and its packaging.

For example, to farm a single cow and deliver it to market requires the equivalent of six barrels of oil - enough to drive a car from New York to LA.

Unbelievable? One analysis of the fodder pellets which are fed to the vast majority of beef cows to supplement their grazing found that they were made up of ingredients that had originated in six different countries. Think of the fuel required to transport that lot around the world.

Now factor in the the diesel used by the farm vehicles, the carbon footprint of chemical fertilisers used by most nonorganic beef farms and the energy required to transport a cow to the abattoir and process it. The total oil requirement soon adds up.

Picture an anaconda snake squeezing the American economy. At what point does the system give way? $5 a gallon, $6? At some point, knowing that wages will NOT rise to keep up with the now rapidly rising costs of everything, our society begins to break down. What happens when it takes more for someone to drive to their minimum wage job than what they earn that day?

IF that job is still there, not strangled by the rising costs of goods and raw materials?

Is anyone wondering where all this will lead?

Nine meals from anarchy.

Meanwhile on this Sunday morning, Howie Kurtz on CNN is going on in a serious vein, about the misreporting on Angelina Jolie’s pregnancy.

American life is madness. But the fun hasn’t even started yet.

Bet you didn’t know that. Nothing to see here, just move along.

Paul Joseph Watson in Infowars

Ben Bernanke, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton amongst a host of other global power brokers have all convened in Chantilly Virginia to secretly discuss the future of the world - yet not one mainstream U.S. corporate media outlet has uttered a single word about the 2008 Bilderberg conference.

snip

A Google News search on “Bilderberg,” which is now in its third day, returns 47 results, all of which consist of reprints from this website and a smattering of other alternative media reports, in addition to a few snippets out of the Netherlands and Turkey.

Compare that to a Google News search about “G8″ and you’ll get over 4,000 results a month before Bilderberg’s sister conference has even begun.

Even if you accept the ludicrous claim of the debunkers - that Bilderberg is a mere “talking shop” that contributes nothing towards actual policy - do you still not think it odd that not one mainstream U.S. press outlet has even mentioned it in passing?

Alex Jones has some fun with the true ‘elite‘

If no one else in the mainstream media care then why should I?

Well I have always made the point that these are very busy people of wealth and power. They simply do not take time out of their busy schedules to jet off to the Bohemian Grove and enjoy each other’s company without some serious reason to do so.

And they also do not have the kind of security that rings the grove just because they want to have a fun bonfire.

If you do any other reading on Bilderberg (and Alex Jones’s material is a good place to start), you’ll see that there’s a good deal of weird symbolism and imagery that goes on inside the grove. Read about it and make up your own minds. My reading tells me that there is something sinister going on there and the complete press blackout only adds to the speculation.

Yes the media is in bed with what goes on there as well. In fact, some of the biggest names in the corporate media have attended Bilderberg.

Now what do I think is the result of these meetings?

Imagine a place where people like this could network in complete secrecy without fear of anything they say being reported in the press. Is it an agenda setter for whatever new world order schemes are out there? No more so than any Trilateralist or G-8 meeting. There is a recreational function of the grove but it is a major venue for information sharing and plan setting.

If it were anything else, why all the security and secrecy. If it quacks like a duck. . .

London Independent

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq’s position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

CommonDreams/InterPress Service

And when it came to Iran — Public Enemy Number One at the AIPAC conference — Obama said he had no illusions about pursuing diplomacy with Tehran but would reintroduce diplomacy as a tool of statecraft to succeed, not just to contain “failure”.

“Our willingness to pursue diplomacy will make it easier to mobilise others to join our cause. If Iran fails to change course when presented with this choice by the United States, it will be clear — to the people of Iran, and to the world — that the Iranian regime is the author of its own isolation,” he said.

“We will present a clear choice [to Iran]. If you abandon your dangerous nuclear programme, support for terror, and threats to Israel, there will be meaningful incentives — including the lifting of sanctions, and political and economic integration with the international community. If you refuse, we will ratchet up the pressure.”

snip

While Jews account for only three percent of the population, they are concentrated in such key swing states as Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California.

Financial contributions from Jewish donors account for as much as 20 percent of Republican campaign funds and as much as 40 percent of Democratic funds, according to a recent article by the Forward, the largest nationally circulated Jewish newspaper in the U.S.

Full text of AIPAC address here

including this:

That starts with ensuring Israel’s qualitative military advantage. I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat — from Gaza to Tehran. Defense cooperation between the United States and Israel is a model of success, and must be deepened. As president, I will implement a Memorandum of Understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade — investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation. First, we must approve the foreign aid request for 2009. Going forward, we can enhance our cooperation on missile defense. We should export military equipment to our ally Israel under the same guidelines as NATO. And I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself in the United Nations and around the world.

snip

We will also use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That starts with aggressive, principled diplomacy without self-defeating preconditions, but with a cleareyed understanding of our interests. We have no time to waste. We cannot unconditionally rule out an approach that could prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We have tried limited, piecemeal talks while we outsource the sustained work to our European allies. It is time for the United States to lead.

snip

My presidency will strengthen our hand as we restore our standing. Our willingness to pursue diplomacy will make it easier to mobilize others to join our cause. If Iran fails to change course when presented with this choice by the United States, it will be clear — to the people of Iran, and to the world — that the Iranian regime is the author of its own isolation. That will strengthen our hand with Russia and China as we insist on stronger sanctions in the Security Council. And we should work with Europe, Japan and the Gulf states to find every avenue outside the U.N. to isolate the Iranian regime — from cutting off loan guarantees and expanding financial sanctions, to banning the export of refined petroleum to Iran, to boycotting firms associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, whose Quds force has rightly been labeled a terrorist organization.

snip

Finally, let there be no doubt: I will always keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our security and our ally Israel. Sometimes there are no alternatives to confrontation. But that only makes diplomacy more important. If we must use military force, we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts.

Pardon me if I come to the inescapable conclusion that any move towards peace and reconciliation is “off the table.” What the USA has set up is a perpetual warfare state that will continue to enslave the Iraqi people - people we supposedly ‘liberated’ but instead are turning into serfs.

What a legacy for the so-called ‘land of the free.’

And it seems clear that as Barack Obama swears fealty to AIPAC and Zionism first rather than the interests of the people of the United States, that we can expect all facets of our lives in the USA to continue to get worse regardless of this farce we call a free and fair presidential election.

I have no idea what to do or say about this situation. I cannot leave the country as much as I would like to. An attack against Iran will set a chain of events in motion that should crater the US economy. While certain factions in Israel and the US may cheer, the resulting economic chaos in the US should impoverish millions of Americans who are hanging by a hair now.

Eternal warfare - it seems to be the American birthright.

I am ashamed of my nation and I care not who knows. We are not a free people but a people enslaved by a hideous rapacious trans-national capitalist elite that views us as nothing more than worker bots for their own enrichment. While we spread war and misery around the world for the profit of a few, we cast aside millions of our own citizens whose skills are no longer of any use to the military-industrial complex. The founding fathers would cry bitter tears if they could see America today.

So get ready my fellow Americans - for more and more butchery done in our name. And get ready for an increasingly fascist state - already in Washington DC they are ‘experimenting’ with closing down neighborhoods and instituting the building blocks of a future martial law state.

And when it all hits the fan remember - we stood by playing our Nintendos and sucking down our Budweisers and, though our well-fed silence, were complicit in the crimes committed by our leaders - both Republican and Democrat - against the world in our name.

And whatever finally happens to us, we will have richly deserved.

Let me make a prediction you will see in your lifetime. Perhaps next year.

This prediction is based on THIS story and the following stories:

At some point, a dwindling number of gas stations will be protected by guards armed with submachine pistols. All cars will have to stop at a distance from the station to be searched for weapons. You will pay for whatever gas you want through electronic debit or cash at the checkpoint. Then you will proceed to the pump and pump your own fuel under the watchful eye of guards.

and/or

You will have a gas ration card and sticker on your car not unlike the World War Two “A” cards. Guards at gas stations will carefully log the number of gallons you buy and cross check your card against their database.

Since most Americans read nothing outside of their own controlled media, here’s a well written run down of just what we face that our glorious President, Congress and media haven’t told us about.

London Independent

I won’t except it here - just read it. You NEED to READ this.

And remember, all the bad stuff accelerates at incredible speed if the Warmonger in Chief attacks Iran as many predict will happen by the end of the year or next January. Or some other kind of terrorist attack is launched during the transition.

Now, I have run out of any hope for the future of the world. Notice that most of the Western nations we spit on publicly as effeminate cheese-eating surrender monkeys are doing their best to encourage and require (by law) conservation and conversion measures.

Not so in our land of the “non-negotiable lifestyle.”

And for that, we are well and truly fucked and deservedly so.

And we can spend the time on the downward spiral not leading, but blaming the Chinese and the Indians for being the REAL CAUSE of the end of industrial society. That might make the Rush Limbaughs and Lou Dobbs feel better for a few months but the bottom line is, in the end, we will be left psychologically unprepared and economically undefended against what will hit us.

At that point, I guess the entire Bush Crime Family takes off for their ranch in Paraguay. The rest of us will be contending with a society tearing itself to pieces. There will be blood, oh yes, there will be blood.

Look, nothing is going to happen on the political front. Even the sainted Obama isn’t talking about any of this because he knows that to tell the American people the truth would doom his chances of winning. And the corporate boys are content to ride the economic collapse wave all the way down where they will either flee to their private islands or their armed compounds (like the Walton family has built).

The liars are leading the blind to oblivion.

So my advice to all of you is simply this: go out and blow the ranch on having a good time. Want to take a great dream vacation in your life? Take it now. Right now. Just drop everything, max up the cards and go. Seriously. We’re all going to be poor and scraping by to some degree in the future anyway so you might as well enjoy yourself now. The memories of this last great time may be all you have to keep you warm someday.

Read the article again: the writing is on the wall and there will be not be any movieland deus ex machina to stop it.

OK, if it helps, pretend some doctor told you you have inoperable cancer and have a year to live. The self-help gurus always told you you should live your life like that. Well, now you can! And with good reason.

If you feel like living beyond Armageddon, go ahead and get the basement filled with non-perishables. Buy some gas cans and, right NOW, store a few tankfuls of gas in the garage. Yes, get all the nifty guns and ammo you want now. Charge them - no one a few years ago is going to pay those balances anyway. And no one will be able to collect on them either.

Where we’re going as a nation a sterling credit record is not going to matter. Neither will all that ugly looking fiat currency you’re stuffing in your wallet or purse.

You might, just might, want to look at all the stuff you’re selling on Ebay and think about what you might get for locally in barter. Just saying.

Want it? Want it bad? Get it now. Enjoy it now, especially if no one will buy it from you later. Hell, it may even give the US economy one more dead cat bounce and make the boys on Wall Street happy enough until the end of the year.

Everything is simply going to get more expensive in the near and long term future, starting now. And in the case of things like gasoline and heating oil, they may go out of sight instantly, in the event of an attack against Iran.

And, by the way, do you think your employer is going to raise your pay to cover the sharp rising costs of living?

(rolling on the floor laughing)

As as the Independent article points out - most of your durable goods, food and medicines owe their existence to oil. As oil soars, so do all of them.

(As an aside, with so many millions of Americans brain chemistry now totally dependent on SSRI type anti-depressants, what happens when the shit hits the fan and they can’t get their drugs anymore? There won’t be nearly enough police to contain the carnage.)

Survivalism

Now that brings up another issue covered last Saturday by the Associated Press: Survivalism.

Yes, I’ve mentioned food, weapons and all of that. And the people the AP interviewed are serious about what they’re doing and preparing for.

But consider what they believe is going to happen:

“There’s going to be things that happen when people can’t get things that they need for themselves and their families,” said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.

Lynn-Marie asked to be identified by her first name to protect her homestead in rural western Idaho. Many of these survivalists declined to speak to The Associated Press for similar reasons.

snip

Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They’ve begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they’ve learned to slaughter them.

The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents’ era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door. (with what, a few kind words or an AK-47? - ed.)

“People will be unprepared,” she said. “And we can imagine marauding hordes.”

So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.

“I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that’s a possibility,” said the former executive recruiter.

Which brings up the next question: not so much how many American could conceivably live like that but how many would want to? Slaughtering chickens and pigs? Yechhh!!! Tending a garden by hand? No HBO? Why live?

They had a solution for this in Soylent Green.

So look, you’ve got maybe 6-8 months in the event of an attack on Iran to live it up. Without an attack, 2-3 years tops before other things happen I don’t have the time or patience to talk about here.

Now get out there and enjoy life!