Tuesday, March 23, 2010

An attack on health care in the guise of reform

The vote Sunday night by the US House of Representatives to approve Obama’s health care overhaul was accompanied by declarations that the measure represents the greatest social reform in generations.

With predictable demagogy, Obama, in a statement following passage of the bill, hailed the measure as a historic reform a century in the making, a vindication of the “American dream” and proof that “government of the people and by the people still works for the people.”

After months of closed-door negotiations with insurance CEOs and pharmaceutical executives, Obama made the absurd claim that the measure came “from the bottom up.” In fact, the legislation was entirely dictated from the top. It represents the opening shot in a sweeping attack on health care for working people.

A staggering level of cynicism has been exhibited throughout the so-called health care “debate.” Evasions and outright lies have been utilized to conceal the real content of the bill. With its final passage, a media-led orgy of self-congratulation will no doubt follow.

In the end, what decided the bill’s passage was pressure brought to bear by the White House, acting on behalf of the most powerful sections of the financial elite.

There has always been a stark difference between the public appeal made by the Obama administration, accompanied by phony populist attacks on the insurance companies, and the fundamental strategic aims guiding the health care overhaul, which were worked out by Washington think tanks behind the backs of the American people.

Details on what is actually included in the legislation have deliberately been left vague. The public presentation by the administration and congressional Democrats is designed to conceal far more than what it reveals. Through no fault of their own, most people are largely in the dark as to what the implementation of the bill’s provisions will mean for them and their families. For all of Obama’s talk of the great debate over health care, there has been no serious or honest public discussion.

The main features of the bill include hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, and the requirement that individuals and families obtain insurance or pay a fine, thus providing a new influx of cash-paying customers for private insurance companies. Businesses are under no obligation to provide their workers with insurance, paying only minimal fines if they do not.

The government and the corporations are to a large extent absolved of any responsibility for funding health care, and the working population made to foot the bill.

Those elements of the overhaul which, within the framework of American liberal politics, were proclaimed to be absolutely essential—such as the public option—were abandoned long ago. They were initially included as a fig leaf, to make it easier for Obama’s liberal supporters to sell the scheme to the American people.

Concession after concession to the Republican Party was said to be necessary in order to obtain bipartisan support. But after it became clear that no Republican support would be forthcoming, rather than restoring the discarded provisions, new regressive measures were added.

A shameful agreement was reached with the most right-wing sections of the Democratic Party itself to further restrict abortion coverage. Final passage was secured through a deal with Democratic Representative Bart Stupak, an anti-abortion advocate from Michigan. Obama agreed to sign a last-minute executive order confirming that no federal funds would be used for abortions under the terms of the bill.

The executive order, as well as language in the bill itself, means that individuals receiving government subsidies—that is, the working class and the poorest layers of society—will be prevented from purchasing insurance that covers abortion.

This testifies to the political bankruptcy of the liberal and so-called “left” supporters of Obama. What they claimed for decades was the central issue necessitating support for the Democratic Party—the right to an abortion—was abandoned without a protest.

Comparisons to the passage of Social Security (in 1935) and Medicare (in 1965) proliferate in the media and in statements from the White House and congressional Democrats. When these landmark reforms became law, however, people were clear on their implications.

Enactment of Social Security meant that retirees would receive a monthly check in the mail. With Medicare, people knew that when they reached the age of 65 they would receive medical coverage under the government-run program. With this so-called “reform,” by contrast, nobody knows what to expect.

The earlier measures, like every social reform wrested from the American ruling class, were connected to broad social struggles. Enactment of Social Security came as a response to the mass movement of the working class for industrial unions. Medicare coincided with the civil rights movement, a wave of militant strikes, urban uprisings, and the initial stirrings of popular opposition to the war in Vietnam.

This measure has been drafted and imposed from above. It is entirely in line with the overall policy of the Obama administration.

The White House and Congress have responded with indifference and contempt as millions have been made jobless, lost their homes, and struggled to pay their rent and utility bills. While trillions of dollars have been allocated to bail out Wall Street, no meaningful measures have been taken to alleviate the catastrophe facing working class families.

All of Obama’s policies have been geared toward increasing social inequality. School closures and privatizations and mass teacher firings have been endorsed by his administration. General Motors and Chrysler were driven into bankruptcy in order to create conditions where the wages, working conditions and health benefits of auto workers could be savagely attacked.

The claim that the health care overhaul is an oasis of progress in this desert of social reaction is simply a lie. The experiences of millions of people—who have seen no sign that the government is in any way responding to their needs—have fueled well-deserved skepticism and outright opposition to the health care legislation within wide layers of the population.

The bill aims to deal with what is seen as a pressing problem for the ruling elite. While corporations, with the collaboration of the unions, have been able to drive down wages and increase productivity, they have not been able to put a brake on spiraling medical costs. These come in the form of increased costs for employee insurance coverage, as well as care for the poor and uninsured who seek medical treatment at emergency rooms and public clinics, thus driving up costs overall.

A solution to this problem for big business—one which is addressed by Obama’s health care restructuring—is to dump these more vulnerable sections of the population into bare-bones plans, where limitations are placed on more expensive and “unnecessary” tests, treatments and drugs. These will include stripped-down Medicaid plans, a gutted Medicare program where care is rationed according to “cost effectiveness,” and substandard plans available for purchase on insurance “exchanges.”

The health care legislation sets a dangerous precedent for a far broader assault on social programs, elements of which have already been put in motion by the administration. Last month, Obama established by executive order a bipartisan commission on deficits, which will propose measures to slash government spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

In the coming period, when millions become clearer on the real implications of the health care bill, the brutal reality will inevitably provoke an enormous sense of betrayal and anger. This will set the stage for the emergence of new forms of struggle as people begin to consider the alternative to a corporate-controlled health care system—that is, one based on a socialist program that begins with basic human needs rather than corporate profit.

BMW announces contract to equip US police cars

FRANKFURT (AFP) - The world's leading luxury car maker, BMW, said Monday it had won a contract worth at least a billion euros (1.35 billion dollars) to make diesel motors and transmissions for high-tech US police cars.

The deal, signed with Carbon Motors Corporation, includes the delivery of "more than 240,000" six-cylinder engines, transmissions and exhaust systems, a statement said.

It estimated the contract's value in the "billions of euros" over a time frame that was not specified.

The German powertrains would help US police forces reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 40 percent, BMW sales director Ian Robertson was quoted as saying.

Carbon Motors was founded in 2003 by a former Ford executive to produce one model, the E7, which it plans to sell as a police cruiser.

No roll-out date has been set so far however for the vehicle, which is also to feature advanced video surveillance equipment, warning lights and ballistic protection.

We are being watched more than ever in the US – Jesse Ventura

“There are many of us who don’t believe the status quo of what we’ve been told,” acknowledged former governor of the state of Minnesota, actor and TV host Jesse Ventura in an exclusive interview with RT.

Ventura, who has had explosive encounters with the American mainstream media, called it “soundbite news” and said it cannot be trusted at all.

“Major news organizations have really become almost monopolized. The media today is in creating news rather than reporting it. And that’s very dangerous,” he said.

Jesse Ventura shared that “the Internet is getting super powerful now, and that is what the government has to control next.”

The ex-governor warned that “Whenever government says ‘to keep you safe’ – get ready, because you are going to lose your freedoms.”

Police: Driver Error Caused NY Prius Crash

No Mechanical, Electrical Failure in Alleged Runaway Prius; Finding in Line with Regulators' Assessment

(CBS/AP) Police who investigated the crash of a Toyota Prius in the New York suburbs said Monday they agreed with federal regulators that driver error caused it.

The investigation found that the driver, housekeeper Gloria Rosel, never braked before she crashed into a wall, Harrison police Capt. Anthony Marraccini said. She was not seriously injured.

"The vehicle accelertor in this case was depressed 100 percent at the time of collision, and there was absolutely no indication of any brake application," Marraccini said.

"She believes she depressed the brake, but that just simply isn't the case here," he said. There was no intent to deceive, Marraccini said, and Rosel won't be charged.

The finding concurs with that of U.S. safety regulators, who said last week that the car's computers showed the throttle was open and the brakes were not applied.

Rosel, 56, was driving the 2005 Prius on March 9 when she reported that it sped up on its own down a driveway and slammed into a stone wall despite her braking.

Marraccini said the car's computers showed that the Prius' top speed down the driveway was 35 mph and it was going 27 mph when it hit the wall.

Toyota spokesman Wade Hoyt said the investigation showed that the company's cars are safe, and that "if you step on the brake they'll stop, even if the accelerator is glued to the floor."

A recent spate of accidents involving Toyota's Prius model has exacerbated scrutiny on the automaker, which has recalled more than 8 million cars since last fall because their gas pedals could become stuck or be held down by floor mats.

The Prius in the Harrison crash had not been recalled for sticky accelerators. However, it had been repaired for the floor mat problem.

Technicians from Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as the police department's own consultants, examined the wreck outside police headquarters in Harrison on Wednesday. Marraccini said the NHTSA also interviewed the driver.

On Thursday, the NHTSA said information from the car's computer systems indicated that there was no application of the brakes and that the throttle was fully open. It did not elaborate.

The Prius is equipped with an event data recorder, or "black box," designed to record the state of the car at the moment of an impact.

The New York crash happened the day after a driver in San Diego reported that the gas pedal got stuck on his 2008 Prius, resulting in a 94 mph ride on a Southern California freeway.

Toyota said its tests showed the car's gas pedal, backup safety system and electronics were working fine.

Some consumer groups and safety experts have said the problems could be caused by faulty electronic throttles. Toyota has said it has found no evidence of problems with its electronics.

Kristen Tabar, an electronics general manager with Toyota's technical center in Ann Arbor, Mich., said in a video clip posted by the company that the automaker has eight labs in Japan that it uses to bombard vehicles with electronic interference.

She said Toyota ensures that "every system in the vehicle operates properly under those conditions."

Starbucks: Doing our part to IRRADIATE the planet....



Why did Starbucks use the food irradiation HAZARD symbol as their "Shared Planet" logo? Since when is food irradiation a "green" practice? What are they not telling us?

Soldiers on Sale... Who’s In Charge of These Hired Killers?

March 21, 2010 "Khaleej Times" - -A fascinating scandal has erupted in Washington over the use of mercenaries (‘private contractors’ in US terminology) that is exposing the dark underbelly of America’s foreign wars. It has been that the Pentagon and other US intelligence agencies secretly fielded mercenaries in Afghanistan, Pakistan (aka “Af-Pak”), and Iraq to assassinate tribal militants.

US law forbids murder or using mercenaries. But, as the Roman jurist Cicero said, “laws are silent in times of war.”

A former senior Pentagon official specialising in clandestine operations, Mike Furlong, set up a shell company, International Media Ventures (IMV), to supposedly provide the US military with “cultural information” about Afghanistan’s Pashtun tribes. Two obscure Pentagon outfits, the “Cultural Engineering Group” in Florida, and “Counter-Narco-terrorism Technology Programme” of Virginia funded Furlong with $24.6 million. Furlong hired a bunch of former Special Forces types and assorted thugs. These rent-a-Rambos’s real mission was to assassinate Pashtun leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and target tribal compounds for strikes by US Predator drones. Welcome to the modern version of the Mafia’s infamous contract killers, “Murder Inc.”

Thickening this plot, retired CIA types, including the flamboyant Dewey Clarridge, whom I well recall from the 1980’s Afghan war, were involved. So were other would-be bounty-hunters, eager to cash in one the Pentagon’s cash bonanza. It is uncertain if Furlong’s Murder Inc had time to go operational. But its exposure is causing uproar. In best US government tradition, the Pentagon denied backing Furlong and cut him adrift. He is now under criminal investigation. Shades of former CIA agent Edwin Wilson, whose frightful case I long followed. Wilson was set up as a deniable “independent” by CIA to supply arms and explosives to Libya and Angola in the 1980’s. When this intrigue blew wide open, Wilson was kidnapped by US agents and buried alive in federal prison for 27 years.

The Furlong scandal comes at a time of growing criticism of the US government’s use of over 275,000 mercenaries in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These hired gunmen and logistics personnel operate without any accountability, legal structure, or oversight. Lack of command and control of such free-lancers infuriates traditional military men, who detest US Special Forces and these hired gunmen as ‘cowboys.’

It certainly is no way to win over Muslim hearts and minds.

Private mercenary firms like Xe (formerly Blackwater) and DynCorp have raked in fortunes running private armies for the US. They are major donors to the far right of the Republican Party. Deeply worried civil libertarians call these private armies potential Brownshirts, after the Nazi Party’s private army in the late 1920’s.

Amazingly, US Special Forces in Af-Pak have not until this month been under the control of supreme commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. They apparently reported to his rival, Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus in Tampa, Florida.

To the Pentagons’s anger, CIA runs its own killer paramilitary units and drone assassination operations, 90 per cent of whose victims are civilians, according to Pakistani media investigations. CIA’s paramilitaries report only to HQ in Langley —which does not talk to the Pentagon. Pakistan’s feeble government is not even informed in advance of Predator strikes and assassinations on its own territory. How many of the 15 other US intelligence agencies and NATO forces are running their own little illegal private armies? US mercenaries are responsible for a growing number of civilian deaths. It’s only a matter of time before all these cowboys begin shooting at one another. Reliable sources in Pakistan report that US-paid mercenaries are staging bombings there and in Afghanistan in an attempt to incite popular anger against Islamic or tribal militants, and draw Pakistan’s army deep into the fray.

Washington brands all Al Qaeda and Taleban “illegal combatants,” denying them due process of law and the Geneva Convention’s prisoner protections. Murdering or torturing such “terrorists,” says Washington, is lawful. So what about all the US mercenary Rambos running amok, who wear no uniform, kill at will, and have no legal oversight and, as we saw in Iraq, get away with murder?

Eric Margolis is a veteran US journalist who reported from the Middle East and Asia for nearly two decades

Instant Greater Israel –Just Add Water


Lebanon's Litani River - the Israeli aim is to steal the waters of Lebanon

Lataan

The main reason that the Israelis have such an abiding interest in including southern Lebanon as a part of a Greater Israel is now becoming very apparent to the wider world as the drought takes hold in Israel and the region surrounding it.

Water has always been a highly valued commodity throughout the region and, as this year’s drought begins to bite, the importance of Israel having possession of south Lebanon up to the Litani River as part of its long-term future becomes increasingly obvious.

The Litani passes closest to Israel at Nabatiya in south Lebanon which is only some four kilometres from the Israeli border and for many years it has been the dream of the Zionists to have control of the Litani’s waters for use in Israel. The last attempt Israel made at taking the Litani River, as we know, ended in disaster for them when they were defeated by Hezbollah in 2006 despite heavy Lebanese civilian losses.

The 2006 failure of Israel to secure the Litani River for themselves was not the first time Israel had been defeated while trying to get at the Litani’s waters. When they invaded Lebanon in 1978 in an operation they actually called Operation Litani, the Israelis were forced to withdraw without removing the PLO bases that they said they were after in what turned out to be a major embarrassment to the then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. It wasn’t until the 1982 invasion that Israel found success in occupying south Lebanon and even then they were eventually forced to withdraw in 2000 when it became obvious that they were unable to defeat Hezbollah but not before having supervised the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian refugee camps in September 1982.

Now in 2008 the Israelis are itching to have another go at taking south Lebanon and defeating Hezbollah but this time they realise that they can’t do this without eliminating Iran and Syria from the equation; which, of course, brings us to the stand-off that Israel, the US and Iran find themselves at today.

Not only are the Israelis getting increasingly desperate about hitting Iran before Bush leaves office but there is now the added urgency securing a permanent water source as the drought takes hold in the region. As Israel runs out of water one wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the first people to suffer, of course, are the Palestinians who for nearly a month now have had their water diverted from their taps to Israeli taps.

The Israelis are getting desperate; not just because time is running out but it looks like the water is running out as well – and they can’t get to one without the other!

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Israel denies water to Palestinians in the West Bank
Friday, July 11, 2008
By: Travis Wilkerson

Per capita consumption only two-thirds of minimum needed

An Israeli human rights organization says the West Bank is facing a severe water crisis in the coming months. The B’Tselem human rights group issued a report July 1 linking the chronic shortage to Israeli policies.

Israel keeps a tight grip on the
West Bank's water supply.

A drought, the most serious in the past decade, is aggravating the ever-present water shortage in the West Bank, further exacerbating the already intolerable living conditions for the Palestinians.

According to the World Health Organization, the minimal amount of water per capita needed daily for household and urban needs is 100 liters, or just over 26 U.S. gallons.

Average per capita consumption throughout the West Bank is 66 liters, or just over 17 gallons—two-thirds of the minimal amount specified by the WHO. In the northern West Bank, consumption has dropped even more, to only one-third of the designated minimum.

In comparison, average daily water consumption per capita in Israeli cities is 235 liters, or 62 gallons. That amount is 3.5 times that consumed by Palestinians in the West Bank.

A total of 227,500 Palestinians in hundreds of towns and villages in the West Bank are not connected to a water network at all. Another 190,000 Palestinians live in villages that are only partially connected to a water network.

Even in Palestinian towns and villages that have a water network, the water supply is irregular and unreliable most of the year. Water is supplied intermittently, being available only for some hours and sometimes on a rotating basis. In distant areas, the water supply may be disconnected for days or even weeks at a time.

The B’Tselem report relates the testimony of Aminah Jabarin, a Palestinian mother of nine who lives in the West Bank town of Tuqu: "I fall asleep completely exhausted from effort and worry. It hurts me to see my boys hauling bottles long distances to fill them up, especially on hot days. Worrying about water has become a nightmare, so much so that if you ask me what I want most, I would say water in my house all the time."

As an occupying force, Israel is required under international humanitarian law to ensure public order and safety in the occupied territory, without discrimination. In addition, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Israel is a signatory, ensures access to clean drinking water without discrimination.

In flagrant violation of these laws, Israel holds complete control of the water sources shared by Israel and the Palestinians, primarily the Mountain Aquifer, and prohibits by army order any Palestinian drilling of wells without a permit. Israel allocates to Palestinians only 20 percent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, and prevents the development of additional water sources to enable greater water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank.

More importantly, however, the water shortages lay bare the colonial character of Israel. The Palestinian people have no sovereignty over a resource as basic as water in their own land. Access to this life-sustaining necessity is subject to the whims of the Israeli colonial state. In that context, unapologetic disregard for international law is just one of the many perks accorded to an occupying force that has the full backing of U.S. imperialism.

A kinder water policy from Israel would do nothing to change what is, in essence, a colonial relationship. Palestinians must be given full control of their land, natural resources and infrastructure. The racist character of Israel will begin to erode only when all Israeli aggression against the West Bank and Gaza is ended and the Palestinian people secure the right to return throughout all of historic Palestine.
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr009=h2a3slyrh1.app7b&page=NewsArticle&id=9545&news_iv_ctrl=1261

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Litani River and Israel-Lebanon

Water As A Conflict Issue in South Lebanon

© 2008 Damian Lataan

Beware of the Superdollar

Click this link ...... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=10889

Healthcare Bill Passes, Is This the Final Nail in the US Economy?

Click this link ..... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=10901

US’ “Greatest Generation” won WW2 against wars like the US fights today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran…

The sacrifice and victory of the “Greatest Generation” was codified in the US-created treaty of the UN Charter: invading other nations, Wars of Aggression, would be unlawful.

The spirit and letter of these strict limits to lawful war are clear: war is only allowed if, and only if, it is in self-defense from an armed attack from a nation’s government and/or authorized by the UN Security Council (UNSC). Self-defense from individual attacks of terror is unaffected by the UN Charter.
As a teacher of government law, I invite you to verify the legal limits to war. The investment to do so is less than an hour. Literally, millions of lives and trillions of our tax dollars are at stake on this issue. American citizens cannot have an informed opinion about US wars if they don’t know the first step of when war is and is not lawful.
The US wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and threat for more war with Iran are all clearly unlawful. This is as easy as being a baseball umpire calling balls and strikes when the pitcher pitches a ball over the batter’s head: it’s not even close to the zone of a strike and clearly a ball.
And please remember, any attack on American interests blamed on Iran should be assumed as a false flag attack by the American government. Given the history of lies for war and the interest Iran has in avoiding being attacked by the world’s super-power military, a false flag is the reasonable first conclusion.
In current US wars, the US claims “pre-emptive” self-defense, despite it not qualifying under the law. The case of “imminent threat” is different, and never claimed to be the case with Iraq with the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) in unanimous agreement that Iraq posed no imminent threat to the US. Iran is not an imminent threat according to the 2007 NIE. The rhetoric of masking an offensive War of Aggression as a “defensive” war was the tactic of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany in World War 2.
Japan and Germany both used false flag attacks to open Wars of Aggression in China and Poland. Japan used the Mukden Incident and Germany Operation Himmler. The US used 9/11 as a false flag opportunity to ride public outrage and unlawfully invade Afghanistan and Iraq. To consider if 9/11 was indeed a false flag attack, I created a class lesson with both counter-government and pro-government best evidence to compare.
Japan and Germany told the nations they invaded and their own populations that they were “liberating” their victims from oppressive governments. Japan promoted an anti-Western imperialism campaign, “Asia for Asians,” and what they called a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” They promised their united strength would create a peaceful future for them all from further imperialism. Germany pointed to French and British imperialists holding Germany down, hundreds of years of imperialist wars, and the threat of Soviet totalitarianism to the East. They promised a united and peaceful Europe.
The US said their previous puppet, Saddam, was a bad man, the Taliban were vicious to women, and Iran’s theocracy is intolerant. These are all as true as Imperialist Japan and Nazi Germany’s assessments. Also arguably true is the US level of care for the populations. The result for all three is resistance to invasion and occupation, and guerilla warfare.
The difference from WW2 Japan and Germany and today’s US is that the US is violating its own created law to forever end wars of invasion. The US therefore has to propagandize “self-defense,” as that’s the closest possible rhetoric for legal war. They have to stretch it to “pre-emptive” self-defense, as our own NIEs concluded no current threats.
Of course, self-defense is as close to US actions as a baseball pitcher’s pitch into the upper-deck is to the strike zone. If those facts aren’t crystal clear to you, revisit the first link in this article.
The US public is in a race to recognize propaganda thinly covering outrageously unlawful wars before American fascists strike again by attacking Iran. This Machiavellian strategy might include nuclear weapons and a third World War.
The stakes are high.
If the US loses this race, the fascist political philosophy the “Greatest Generation” defeated will claim victory. Our generation will be the “Worst Generation” to dishonor their sacrifice, surrender their step forward in public attention to universal and unalienable rights, and the US will continue as the world’s leading fascist and sadistic empire.
In consideration of false flag attack on Iran, please invest 7-minutes to conclude with PuppetGov’s video.
Fellow Americans: literally for the love of God, it’s time.
It’s time for our men and women in government and military to choose: either stand with the US Constitution you’ve sworn to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC, or remain complicit in ongoing Wars of Aggression, mass murder of our soldiers and our fellow humans in other lands and throwing trillions of our tax dollars to do so, pushing the world ever-closer to an apparently planned and desired nuclear Third World War (and here), and guilty of what Dr. Martin Luther King called “Silence is Betrayal” before the US government assassinated him according to the only trial conducted for his murder.
It’s time for our men and women in the military and government to refuse all orders associated with our unlawful wars and preparation for unlawful war with Iran over one gram of medical isotope worth $75,000 in 20% enriched nuclear fuel. It is hard to imagine a more ridiculous case for war.
It’s time for our men and women in the military and government to refuse all orders associated with our unlawful wars and preparation for unlawful war with Iran and stand with the American public who declare in a ratio of 9 to 1 that our government no longer represents them under the US Constitution.
It’s time: exercise your 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech and press, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Please provide this article to all Americans if you find it helpful to stop current and future unlawful wars.
Over 5,000 US soldiers have been killed so far as pawns of the civilian and military brass tyrants. Multiples more have been crippled physically and emotionally. There is no end in sight to current wars; indeed, the US is expanding them into Pakistan and Yemen and threatening more war with Iran. The dead are comforted by God; their families are devastated by the loss of their loved-ones. The crippled and their families face a range of challenges; many so severe that a total of 6,000 US veterans commit suicide every year. One-third of all US homeless men are veterans.
Our military was duped into these wars with calculated "Big Lies;" our trusting young men and women took an Oath to support and defend the US Constitution that supersedes the Nazi insert of “placing the mission first.” The Claus von Stauffenberg faction of US military and government must act to end this soulless mass-murdering; this loveless series of unlawful wars and unlawful orders, if we want a future we’re proud to build.
This choice is up to our men and women in uniform and government for leadership. I provide:
And, our men and women in uniform must take action as they see best; as will our men and women in government and citizenry. As a teacher of government and law, I conclude our government leadership is guilty of treason against the American public, and guilty of mass murder against our soldiers.
Choose well; our collective future, and your future, depend upon it.
It's time: please share this article with all who can benefit. If you appreciate my work, please subscribe by clicking under the article title (it’s free). Please use my archive of work to help build a brighter future.
I appreciate your attention to these facts and encourage your further study and action consistent with your own self-expression. My recommendations:
Policy response: Gandhi and Martin Luther King advocated public understanding of the facts and non-cooperation with evil. I’m among hundreds who advocate:
  1. Understand the laws of war (and here). These were legislated after WW2 and are crystal-clear that only self-defense, in a narrow legal meaning, can justify war. The current US wars are not even close to being lawful and are legal treason against the US. Those involved with US military, government, and law enforcement have an oath to protect and defend the US Constitution. To fulfill their oath they must immediately refuse all orders associated with unlawful wars and military-related constant violation of treaties, and arrest those who issue unlawful orders. The Oath of Enlistment to the US Constitution supersedes the fascist insertion of Nazi propaganda to "always place the mission first" of blindly following unlawful orders.
  2. Employ the obvious and simple solutions to end our economic controlled demolition and evolve to a civil economy. End poverty through global cooperation to achieve the UN Millennium Goals by developed countries investing 0.7% of their income (not that the UN is serious for their accomplishment, but the goals are what we should invest to produce). Support global security through cooperation, dignity, justice, and freedom. Create a US Department of Peace to help.
  3. Communicate. Trust your unique, beautiful, and powerful self-expression to share as you feel appropriate. Understand that while many people are ready to embrace difficult facts, many are not. Anticipate that you will be attacked and prepare your virtuous response in the spirit of competition, just as you do in other fields.
  4. Prosecute the war leaders for obvious violation of the letter and spirit of US war laws and constant lies to engage in further wars. Because the crimes are so broad and deep, I recommend Truth and Reconciliation (T&R) to exchange full truth and return of stolen US assets for non-prosecution. This is the most expeditious way to understand and end all unlawful and harmful acts. Those who reject T&R are subject to prosecution.
Local perspective: Part of my professional duties as a teacher of economics and government is to produce competent adult citizenry. This includes realization that our nation’s policies and money are managed at a broad community level, and these issues have tremendous local impact. Of course, we all want human beings to be individually successful and enjoy their unique, beautiful and powerful self-expressions. Concurrently, we recognize our commitment to local success is strongly dependent upon the success of the community, and that government policy and economics are drivers.
Our status in early 21st Century human history is that we suffer from a long history in government and money of human interrelationship well-described as vicious antagonism. Governments frequently use war as a foreign policy, despite its illegality and dependent upon public ignorance, with horrific consequences. Economic policy is still created within a “Robber Baron” paradigm to concentrate money to an elite few families. Two examples:
1. National taxes effect you dearly, especially the tax to pay interest on the national debt. This costs the American public over $400 billion every year. This is $4,000 per year for every $50,000 of income. Do the math to understand your household’s tax burden for a monetary policy invented by banks for banks to create our money supply as debt. Your competence in this area contributes to our collective voice to simply shift monetary policy to easily pay the national debt, enjoy full employment, collectively save us over a trillion dollars every year, and finally realize what our brightest American minds have been advocating for centuries beginning with Benjamin Franklin. This would have unprecedented local benefits, and requires collective power to accomplish.
2. Ending poverty everywhere on our planet would cost just 0.7% of our income and save a million children’s lives every month. This human accomplishment will cause unimaginable joy at our local level.
To consider:
"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in the world. Now the judgment of God is upon us and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools."
--Inscription on Dr. Martin Luther King’s statue, Moorehouse College, Atlanta
"The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution." -- poet Federico García Lorca
Comments policy: I welcome questions and comments that are civil and pertain to the article topic. Impolite and impertinent comments are subject to deletion. You are a guest here. It is not censorship if you violate the rules and your comment is deleted.
Please consider that I’m among hundreds of writers who have documented our own government’s disclosure of propaganda programs to support their wars. I suspect my articles are under such propagandistic attack from comments that use typical rhetorical fallacies to distract readers from the facts. I invite readers to sharpen their ability to discern such propaganda. They are characterized by a combination of: never addressing the facts, lying about verifiable facts, diverting attention through unsubstantiated belief in an alleged expert, irrelevant data, straw-man attack that distorts the facts, ad hominem attack of insults to the messenger, vile comments to repulse readers, and lies of omission and commission.
I will use such comments to point-out the propaganda or delete them at my discretion. Again, all relevant and polite questions, and factually accurate comments are welcome. As a professional educator I’m in agreement with my experience and research: we learn best from multiple perspectives in mutual commitment to understand the facts, see those facts from diverse points-of-view, and consider various policy proposals of what we should do. I will also respect professional standards and all of our time by rejecting unsubstantiated and/or distracting “comments.”
For those involved in support of US government-sponsored disinformation, I invite you to consider the quality of human relationships you wish to work toward. National security and a brighter future is not a function of fear, manipulation, and control. Our best security follows cooperation, justice under the law, dignity, and freedom. Working for your best imagined self-expression of virtue may include a unique contribution from the inside of your agency. Public attraction to the stories of Star Wars and the Harry Potter books/movies recognize that our society’s jump to civilized relations for all of us might require support from people within the “dark side” acting as covert agents for building a brighter future. Another option is becoming a whistle-blower; Project Camelot is a popular venue for people in sensitive positions. Ultimately, I recommend a Truth and Reconciliation process to exchange full truth for no prosecution, explained in detail at the link. Please consider the wisdom of your own “Scrooge conversion” to act for the benefit of all humanity rather than your self-proclaimed controlling, manipulating, and loveless “masters.”
“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

False Flags, Lies & Nuclear Bombs from PuppetGov on Vimeo.

THE Most Important Chart of the CENTURY

The latest U.S. Treasury Z1 Flow of Funds report was released on March 11, 2010, bringing the data current through the end of 2009. What follows is the most important chart of your lifetime. It relegates almost all modern economists and economic theory to the dustbin of history. Any economic theory, formula, or relationship that does not consider this non-linear relationship of DEBT and phase transition is destined to fail.

It explains the “jobless” recoveries of the past and how each recent economic cycle produces higher money figures, yet lower employment. It explains why we are seeing debt driven events that circle the globe. It explains the psychological uneasiness that underpins this point in history, the elephant in the room that nobody sees or can describe.

This is a very simple chart. It takes the change in GDP and divides it by the change in Debt. What it shows is how much productivity is gained by infusing $1 of debt into our debt backed money system.

Back in the early 1960s a dollar of new debt added almost a dollar to the nation’s output of goods and services. As more debt enters the system the productivity gained by new debt diminishes. This produced a path that was following a diminishing line targeting ZERO in the year 2015. This meant that we could expect that each new dollar of debt added in the year 2015 would add NOTHING to our productivity.

Then a funny thing happened along the way. Macroeconomic DEBT SATURATION occurred causing a phase transition with our debt relationship. This is because total income can no longer support total debt. In the third quarter of 2009 each dollar of debt added produced NEGATIVE 15 cents of productivity, and at the end of 2009, each dollar of new debt now SUBTRACTS 45 cents from GDP!

This is mathematical PROOF that debt saturation has occurred. Continuing to add debt into a saturated system, where all money is debt, leads only to future defaults and to higher unemployment.

This is the dilemma created by our top down debt backed money structure. Because all money is backed by a liability, and carries interest, it guarantees mathematically that there will be losers and that the system will eventually reach the natural limits, the ability of incomes to service debt.

The data for the diminishing productivity of debt chart comes from the U.S. Treasury’s latest Z1 data. Click here to view the Treasury report

I included Financial debt onto the end of the table, that data comes from page 14 of the Z1 report.

This table makes clear what is happening. Business, household, and financial debt is trying to cleanse itself, to bring the level of debt back within the ability of incomes to support it. Our governments, armed with people who cannot explain the common sense behind debt saturation, are attempting to compensate by producing prolific amounts of Governmental debt.

They feel they must do this because if they do not, then debt and money – since debt backs our money – would both decrease and that would cause the economy to slow. But by adding money, and debt, they have created a sovereign issue where our nation’s income cannot possibly service our nation’s debt. In just the month of February, for example, our nation took in $107 billion, but spent $328 billion, a $221 billion shortfall. That one month shortfall exceeds all the combined shortfalls of the entire Nixon Administration – one month.

This is like an individual earning $5,000 but spending $15,000 a month. Would you lend your money to such an individual?

Last year we spent just under $400 billion on interest on our current debt, plus we spend another $1.5 Trillion buying down rates via Freddie, Fannie, and Quantitative Easing. That’s $1.9 Trillion spent on interest, most of which wound up in the hands of the central banks and their surrogates. Compared to our $2.2 Trillion in income, interest expense last year nearly took it all. That means that nearly all your productive effort used to pay Federal taxes last year were transferred to the central banks.

Modern monetary theory does not understand, nor does it correctly describe the debt backed money world in which we live. Velocity, for example, slows as debt saturation occurs. This is only common sense, and yet the formulas do not account for the bad math of debt, nor its non linear function. Velocity is blamed partially on the psychology of “consumers.” What nonsense. It is as mechanical as the engine in your car, it was designed that way. Once people, businesses, and governments become saturated with debt, new money/ debt when introduced can only be used to service prior existing debt.

Thus money creation at the saturation point stops adding to productive efforts and becomes a roll-over affair with only the financial services industry profiting via interest and fees. In other words, money goes out and circles right back around to the banks instead of rippling through a healthy non saturated economy. If you cannot follow that most simple logic, then going to Harvard will not help you.

Below is a chart of the Gross Federal Debt, it is now $12.6 Trillion dollars and headed straight up, a classic parabolic rise:

Below is a chart of the Gross Federal Debt expressed in year-over-year change in billions of dollars. The same phase transition of debt saturation is clear as a bell.

Below is a chart of Federal Net Outlays, parabolic and again headed straight up:

Clearly this is not sustainable and that means that change to our monetary system is rapidly approaching. No, it will not be left to your children or your grandchildren. It is an immediate problem and fortunately there is an immediate solution. That solution is called “Freedom’s Vision.” It can be found at SwarmUSA.com.

That chart of diminishing returns is the window to understanding why humankind is trapped in a central banker debt backed money box. No money for NASA manned space flight – NASA’s total budget a puny $18 billion in comparison to the $1.9 Trillion that went to service the bankers last year. One half the schools closing in Kansas City, states whose debts and budget deficits seem insurmountable all pale in comparison to how much money went to service the use of our own money system.

It doesn’t have to be like that, in fact it’s a ridiculous notion that the people of the United States, or any country, should pay private individuals for the use of their money system. Ridiculous!

It’s difficult to see this from inside the box, so let’s look at what happened to Iceland to illustrate. The central banks of the world created financial engineered products and brought them to the banks of Iceland. These products created a boom in the amount of credit. Prices of everything rose, and the people of Iceland then had no choice but to go along for the bubble ride. Then with incomes no longer able to service the bubble debt, the bubble collapsed.

To “save the day,” the IMF and central bankers around the world rushed in to “rescue” the people, banks, and government of Iceland. They did this by offering loans… documents that create money simply by signing a contract of debt servitude. That contract demanded ownership of Iceland’s infrastructure such as their geothermal electrical generating plants. It also demanded the future productivity of the people of Iceland in that they should work and pay high taxes for decades to pay back this “debt.” Debt that they did not create or agree to service in the first place!

There were some wise people who saw through this central banker game and started a movement. They DEMANDED that the President of Iceland put the debt servitude to a vote and the people wisely said, “Central Bankers Pound Sand!”

Thus they now control their own destiny, their future productive efforts still belong to them.

It’s easy to see from the outside looking in, but it’s not so easy to see that it’s EXACTLY the same thing occurring in the United States and no one is rising up to stop it. No one, that is, except the movement of people at SwarmUSA.com.

To all the naysayers who think the people do not have the power to make the change, I say take a look at history and how humankind has overcome its obstacles to progress with each new step. Mankind is now teetering between the brink and the dawn of a new renaissance. A new renaissance is coming because mankind is about to free itself from the chains of needless debt that are holding humanity back.

Obama Pays More Than Buffett as U.S. Risks AAA Rating (Update3)

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- The bond market is saying that it’s safer to lend to Warren Buffett than Barack Obama.

Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.

The $2.59 trillion of Treasury Department sales since the start of 2009 have created a glut as the budget deficit swelled to a post-World War II-record 10 percent of the economy and raised concerns whether the U.S. deserves its AAA credit rating. The increased borrowing may also undermine the first-quarter rally in Treasuries as the economy improves.

“It’s a slap upside the head of the government,” said Mitchell Stapley, the chief fixed-income officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Fifth Third Asset Management, which oversees $22 billion. “It could be the moment where hopefully you realize that risk is beginning to creep into your credit profile and the costs associated with that can be pretty scary.”

Moody’s Warning

While Treasuries backed by the full faith and credit of the government typically yield less than corporate debt, the relationship has flipped as Moody’s Investors Service predicts the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K. America will use about 7 percent of taxes for debt payments in 2010 and almost 11 percent in 2013, moving “substantially” closer to losing its AAA rating, Moody’s said last week.

“Those economies have been caught in a crisis while they are highly leveraged,” said Pierre Cailleteau, the managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London. “They have to make the required adjustment to stabilize markets without choking off growth.”

Advanced economies face “acute” challenges in tackling high public debt, and unwinding existing stimulus measures will not come close to bringing deficits back to prudent levels, said John Lipsky, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Unprecedented Spending

All G7 countries, except Canada and Germany, will have debt-to-GDP ratios close to or exceeding 100 percent by 2014, Lipsky said in a speech yesterday at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Already this year, the average ratio in advanced economies is expected to reach the levels seen in 1950, after World War II, he said.

Obama’s unprecedented spending and the Federal Reserve’s emergency measures to fix the financial system are boosting the economy and cutting the risk of corporate failures. Standard & Poor’s said the default rate will drop to 5 percent by year-end from 10.4 percent in February.

Bonds sold by companies have returned 3.24 percent this year, including reinvested interest, compared with a 1.55 percent gain for Treasuries, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. Returns exceeded government debt by a record 23 percentage points in 2009.

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway’s 1.4 percent notes due February 2012 yielded 0.89 percent on March 18, 3.5 basis points, or 0.035 percentage point, less than Treasuries, composite prices compiled by Bloomberg show. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company, which is rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA+ by S&P, has about $157 billion of cash and equivalents and about $52 billion of debt.

P&G, the world’s largest consumer-products maker, saw the yield on its 1.375 percent notes due August 2012 fall to 1.12 percent on March 18, 6 basis points below government debt. The Cincinnati-based company, rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA- by S&P, makes everything from Tide detergent to Swiffer dusters.

New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson’s 5.15 percent securities due August 2012 yielded 1.11 percent on Feb. 17, 3 basis points less than Treasuries, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The world’s largest health products company is rated AAA by S&P and Moody’s.

Yields on bonds of home-improvement retailer Lowe’s in Mooresville, North Carolina, drugmaker Abbott Laboratories of Abbott Park, Illinois, and Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada have also been below Treasuries, Trace data show.

‘Avalanche’

“It’s a manifestation of this avalanche, this growth in U.S. Treasury supply which is under way and continues for the foreseeable future, and the comparative scarcity of high-quality credit,” particularly in shorter-maturity debt, said Malvey, whose Lehman team was ranked No. 1 in fixed-income strategy by Institutional Investor magazine from 1998 through 2007.

Last year’s $2.1 trillion in borrowing by the government exceeded the $1.08 trillion issued by investment-grade companies, the biggest gap ever, Bloomberg data show. Malvey said the last time he can recall that a corporate bond yield traded below Treasuries was when he was head of company debt research at Kidder Peabody & Co. in the mid-1980s.

While Treasuries are poised to make money for investors this quarter, they are losing momentum. The securities are down 0.43 percent in March after gaining 0.4 percent last month and 1.58 percent in January, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields will reach 4.20 percent by year-end, up from 3.69 percent last week, according to the median forecast of 48 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Two-year yields will rise to 1.77 percent, from 0.99 percent.

Relative Yields

Investors demand 0.60 percentage point more in yield to own 10-year Treasuries than German bunds of similar maturity, Bloomberg data show. A year ago, debt of Germany, whose deficit is 4.2 percent of its economy, yielded about half a percentage point more than Treasuries.

President Obama’s budget proposal would create bigger deficits every year of the next decade, with the gaps totaling $1.2 trillion more than his administration projects, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this month. Publicly held debt will zoom to $20.3 trillion, or 90 percent of gross domestic product, by 2020, the CBO forecast.

There’s “a lack of a long-term plan to deal with the federal budget deficit,” said Gary Pollack, who helps oversee $12 billion as head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG’s Private Wealth Management unit in New York. “At some point in time the market may lose its patience.”

Balance Sheets

Deutsche Bank and Barclays Plc, two of the 18 primary dealers of U.S. government securities that are obligated to bid at the Treasury’s auctions, say balance sheets of high-rated companies make them more attractive than Treasuries.

Corporate borrowers are reducing debt at a record pace. Companies in the S&P 500 cut their liabilities by $282 billion to $7.1 trillion in the fourth quarter from the prior three months, Bloomberg data show. That represents 28 percent of assets, the least in at least a decade.

Investors are accepting smaller premiums to lend to companies, with yields on bonds rated at least AA falling to within 107 basis points of Treasuries on average, Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes show. That’s down from the peak of 515 basis points in November 2008, and approaching the record low of 36 in 1997.

Adding to Corporates

New York Life Investment Management is adding to bets the difference in yields will continue to shrink.

“As the balance sheet of corporate America continues to improve and the balance sheet of the government deteriorates, that spread should narrow,” said Thomas Girard, a senior money manager who helps invest $115 billion at the New York-based insurer. “There is some sort of breaking point. The federal government can’t keep expanding its borrowing without having to incur some costs.”

For all the concern about U.S. finances, Treasuries are unlikely to lose their role as the world’s borrowing benchmark, said Michael Cheah, who manages $2 billion in bonds at SunAmerica Asset Management in Jersey City, New Jersey. The U.S. has the biggest, most liquid securities markets, said Cheah.

Speculating that Treasuries may lose their privileged position is “not a bet I want to put on,” said Cheah, who worked at Singapore’s central bank. Yields on 10-year notes are about half their average since 1980.

Losing its Status

The last time there was talk of the U.S. losing its status as the world’s benchmark for bonds was in the late 1990s, when the government began amassing budget surpluses in 1998 for the first time in almost three decades. The amount of Treasuries outstanding dropped 8 percent to $3.4 trillion in 2000, the biggest annual decline since 1946.

Treasury supply resumed growing in 2001 after two rounds of tax cuts proposed by President George W. Bush led to deficits. Outstanding Treasury supply rose 53 percent to $4.5 trillion in 2007 from 2000 as the U.S. borrowed to finance tax cuts intended to revive a slumping economy. The amount has since risen 64 percent to $7.4 trillion.

More is on the way. The U.S. will sell a record $2.43 trillion of debt in 2010, according to the average forecast of 10 of the 18 primary dealers in a Bloomberg survey.

At the same time Treasury sales are rising, the cash position of the largest corporations is swelling. Companies in the S&P 500 held a record $2.3 trillion as of the fourth quarter, Bloomberg data show.

Growing Supply

High-rated corporate bonds due in three to five years are most likely to yield less than Treasuries, according to Deutsche Bank’s Pollack. The growing supply of Treasuries with those maturities will make government debt a bigger proportion of indexes that fund managers measure their performance against, he said. Managers betting Treasury yields will rise may diversify into corporate debt, Pollack said.

“There’s no natural law that says a Treasury has to yield less than a corporate,” said Daniel Shackelford, who is part of a group that manages $18 billion in bonds at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. in Baltimore. “It wouldn’t be the first time that I would scratch my head and say ‘this doesn’t make sense, the market’s behaving irrationally.’ And it can go on for much longer than you may think.”