Edgar J. Steele Survives A Heart Incident... Barely

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." --- Mark Twain

The Road to Hell is Paved with Bailout Money

My name is Edgar J. Steele.

Life is funny. Death isn't. Trust me on this one. I died on November 21, 2009.

Ironically, just two weeks prior to my death I sent a message out to this list that said, in discussing my sabbatical from any sort of public speaking or appearance during the latter part of the year: "It actually has grown kind of fun to watch the speculation over whether or not I died this summer." It seemed amusing at the time. Little did I know.

On November 21 I was sitting in my study, reading, when I felt a little "pop" in my chest. I sat there for 15 minutes, fearing that I would pass out if I dared try to stand. Finally, I staggered to my feet, got help and rushed to the local hospital emergency room, where I was quickly diagnosed with a condition serious enough to justify being "choppered" to the nearest cardiac specialty hospital unit. In fact, they told me that I very likely would not live long enough to get there. Fortunately, there just happened to be a helicopter parked on the roof at that very time.

The surgeon's team met me in the elevator at the receiving facility and began work then and there, so far gone was I. My blood pressure had gone to zero - technically, I was dead. Nip and tuck, as they say, but somehow they managed to snatch me back. "Seconds," the surgeon later told me, was all that then separated me from eternity. I spent several hours on a heart-lung machine that day, then 9 days unconscious and on a respirator, then another two weeks in the ICU, barely able to move. It has been a long, slow, painful journey back.

Turns out that the 15 minutes I spent sitting at my desk when this first occurred likely saved my life. My surgeon remarked upon the extensive clotting at the point of rupture that served to direct the blood for a time, clotting that would not have occurred had I been moving around immediately.

I didn't have a heart attack, but what is called an "ascending aortic aneurism." The main artery, the aorta, blew out just where it exited my heart, kind of like a garden hose suddenly failing right at the faucet. The surgeon replaced a large section, together with the main heart valve, and has pronounced me "good as new." The odds of my survival were very, very slim - on the order of 3 or 4 per cent. No explanation as to why this happened. Some things just happen.

It wasn't my time, apparently. All my life, I have known that something important is coming - something I just have to live to see. It hasn't happened yet. I had a very significant dream about this when I was 4 years old. Big things are coming. I've told you this repeatedly.

So I have a good excuse for having been silent all this time, folks. Thank you for the inquiries and the kind words expressing support. Will I be back? Yes, eventually. Will I be just as acerbic? Probably worse. Familiarity breeds contempt. After I beat prostate cancer 12 years ago, I became very unimpressed with the disease when others contracted it.

Now that I have visited the land of the dead (sorry - no touchy-feely "near-death" experiences for me, not a one), I find that I am unimpressed with a good deal of the suffering that takes place in the world. Let me illustrate my lack of sensitivity for you: Have you noticed the similarity between the aftermaths of the Katrina hurricane and the Haiti earthquake? TV films show hordes of Blacks just standing around or looting and hurting each other, doing nothing except complaining about the lack of aid forthcoming from the rest of us. They could be cleaning up, digging out bodies, burying their dead, helping each other, just as seen in similar disasters at other times and in other places. But, no. Ask yourself why. Read my book for a detailed explanation.

Yes, I will be back eventually.

New America - an idea whose time has come.

My name is Edgar J. Steele. Thanks for listening. Please visit my web site, www.NickelRant.com, for other messages just like this one. -ed

Copyright ©2010, Edgar J. Steele

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Intelligence Agencies Are Their Achilles Heel

Lynchpins hold the various elements of a complex structure together.

America's intelligence agencies are the lynchpins, used by the International Monetary/Banking Cartel to enforce their various agendas on the US government.

Decades ago, Congress lost control of our intelligence agencies, making a parody of the system of "checks and balances" envisioned by our founding fathers. Today, the foreign Monetary Cartel controls all three of our branches of government through their ownership of what has never really been "our" intelligence services.

Meanwhile, the Cartel's mass media deflects our attention away from the unconstitutional and secret powers of the underground intelligence community with petty exposes of how the K Street gang of lobbyists buy off our elected and appointed officials.

Do they really expect us to believe that what is reported on during the light of day exceeds thatwhich transpires during the dark of night?

The usual tools of enforcement used by intelligence agents on our elected officials and appointed bureaucrats are various, depending on what's needed: Fixing elections, bribes, blackmail, and assassinations are their usual instruments of forcing compliance from our national leaders.

Subvert a nation's intelligence services and you're one step from subverting a nation's government, something long ago accomplished by the International Monetary/Banking Cartel in America.

The thousands of outrageous and unconstitutional governmental orders, directives, laws, judicial interpretations, and actions taken by our federal government has made America no better than any other Banana Republic in history; for some time, we've been ruled by a self-appointed, corrupt and exceedingly small group of private financial oligarchs through their control of intelligence agencies. And as long as Americans continue to believe they live in a democracy, the longer this foreign Monetary Cartel will have their way with us.

The very first realization the majority of people must have to regain control of their respective nations is coming to know with certainty that the private Monetary/Banking Cartel, not only controls the central banks of the world, they own them. This ownership allows - probably no more than a few hundred financial capitalists - to create money, of any country, out of the thinest of airs, control all credit, and to then enforce into indebtedness all nations and peoples of the world.

Such edification, however, may prove to be difficult in a world wherein its super-power - the USA - is largely composed of people who believe the Cartel's US central bank - the Federal Reserve System - is a American federal government institution. The American government has more control over Federal Express than it does over the Federal Reserve System.

And before the American government can issue its own currency and credit (without debt), she must defang its intelligence community of sixteen bloated intelligence and security agencies, starting with the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency; but doing so will not be easy or without danger.

Toward the end of his term as president, John F. Kennedy swore he was going to tear the CIA into a thousands pieces: He paid the ultimate price for his patriotic intention. Disempowering US intelligence agencies will not be an easy job, as they have never been more powerful.

And under the cover of the "national security" ruse, intelligence agencies have grown even more influential and authoritative, as they turn us into a rogue nation, intent on destroying all of our liberties at home, while expanding our terrorist attacks on innocent people abroad, complete with the torture of our fellow human beings. One can only hope that the majority of Americans will stop opting for security over their freedoms.

Ben Franklin wrote, "They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

But ironically, the so-called "national security" and "consumer protection" measures taken by the US government have made our country more insecure than ever before in our history. From a plummeting economy, to wide-open borders, to dangerous full-body scanners, to poisonous vaccines, to chemtrails, to GMO foods, to the loss of habeas corpus, to the bombing of women and children, to the depleted uranium poisoning of our own troops (and the entire world), Americans have never been so insecure, all thanks to the ruling moneychangers of our world and their covert use of national intelligence agencies.

Robber barons have thrown us back into the Middle Ages and into a neo-feudalism, all superimposed with poisons, radiation, and a fascistic government, largely in the name of "national security."

But if we can defang the intelligence agencies, we will have defanged the nemesis of mankind - the alien, archfiends of the International Monetary/Banking Cartel. Intelligence agencies are their Achilles' heel - perhaps a small, but a potentially mortal weakness.

J. Speer-Williams

Haiti earthquake: death toll may hit 200,000

Anger has turned to violence on the streets of Haiti as survivors lose patience with the painfully slow process of getting international aid after the earthquake that authorities say may have killed 200,000 people.
Haiti's shell-shocked government gave the United States control over its main airport to bring order to aid flights from around the world and speed relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Trucks piled with corpses have been carrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city but thousands of bodies still are believed buried under rubble.
"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, Haiti's interior minister told Reuters. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."

Around 40,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves.

Although doctors, rescue teams and supplies had been flying into the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, a series of bottlenecks meant aid was not getting to those who needed it most.

The sound of gunfire echoed around Port au Prince as looters fought over scarce food supplies, hijacked vehicles and raided a UN warehouse where 15,000 tons of food had been stockpiled.

Even the most stoic Haitians began to express frustration at the continued lack of help on the fourth day of their ordeal, and in one part of the capital corpses were piled up to build roadblocks in protest at the delays.

David Wimhurst, spokesman for the Brazilian-run UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, said: "They want us to provide them with help, which is, of course, what we want to do. But they're slowly getting more angry and impatient."

Brazil's defence minister Nelson Jobim, who spent two days in Port au Prince, said: "As long as the people are hungry and thirsty, as long as we haven't fixed the problem of shelter, we run the risk of riots."

The problem has been worsened by the complete destruction of Port-au-Prince's main prison, where almost all of the 4,000 inmates survived the earthquake and are now roaming the streets.

Rescuers have been told to stop work when it gets dark because of fears they will be attacked.

"Our biggest problem is security," said Delfin Antonio Rodriguez, rescue commander for the Dominican Republic. "Yesterday they tried to hijack some of our trucks. Today we were barely able to work in some places because of that. There's looting and people with guns out there, because this country is very poor and people are desperate."

Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for TIME magazine, said he saw at least two roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake victims and rocks.

"They are starting to block the roads with bodies," he said. "It's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help."

Pierre Jackson, who is desperate for medical help for his mother and sister who both have crushed legs, said: "We've been out here waiting for three days and three nights but nothing has been done for us. What should we do?"

The main pinch point is at the small airport in Port au Prince, which lost its control tower in the tremor. It became so clogged with aid aircraft that many of them had to wait hours to be unloaded and it had to be closed to new arrivals for eight hours. A shortage of jet fuel also meant some could not take off again.

"There's only so much concrete," said US Air Force Col Buck Elton. "It's a constant puzzle of trying to move aircraft in and out."

Once supplies had been unloaded, blocked roads meant progress in getting them to where they were needed was desperately slow. "People have been almost fighting over water," said aid worker Fevil Dubien as he distributed water from a lorry in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.

The situation improved with the arrival of the American aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, with 19 helicopters on board, which will be used to transport supplies by air. The US is also sending more than 10,000 soldiers and marines to keep the peace.

Charities have managed to set up several field hospitals, and 17 search and rescue teams were picking through the rubble of collapsed buildings with sniffer dogs, pausing every so often to wait for aftershocks to pass.

Most Haitians, however, are still having to use their bare hands to search for survivors.

"We hear on the radio that rescue teams are coming from the outside but nothing is coming," said Jean-Baptiste Lafontin Wilfried, as he helped dig through the remains of an office building. "We only have our fingers to look for survivors."

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was drawing up plans to feed two million people for a month.

Emila Casella, of the WFP, said: "The physical destruction is so great that physically getting from point A to B with the supplies is not an easy task. Pictures can get out instantly ... and that's important because the world needs to know. But getting physically tons and tons of equipment and food and water is not as instant as Twitter or Skype or 24-hour television news."

The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said "thousands" of people in Haiti were waiting for surgical treatment. The UN was looking at the possibility of using the national soccer stadium in Port au Prince as a base for a giant field hospital.

Meanwhile, with bloated corpses posing an increasing risk to public health, mass graves were being dug to get the bodies off the streets.

Aid workers from as far afield as China, France, Iceland and Venezuela are among those already deployed on the ground in Haiti.

Some of the wounded, including Spain's ambassador to Haiti and some staff from the US embassy, were taken to the nearby US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba – site of the controversial prison camp for terrorism suspects – for medical treatment.

Liony Batista, project manager of the charity Food for the Poor, said: "I don't think that a word has been invented for what is happening in Haiti. It is a total disaster."

‘Blazing ring' eclipse plunges Africa, Asia into darkness

A solar eclipse that reduced the sun to a blazing ring surrounding a sombre disk plunged millions of people in Africa and Asia into semi-darkness on Friday.

A combination picture shows the sequence of an annular solar eclipse as observed in Suining, Sichuan province, China

The spectacle, visible in a roughly 185-mile band running 8,060 miles across the globe, set a record for the longest annular eclipse that will remain unbeaten for more than a thousand years.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun but does not completely obscure it, thus leaving a ring - an annulus - of sunlight flaring around the lunar disk.

The moon's shadow first struck the south-western tip of Chad and western Central African Republic at 5.14 GMT and then reached Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia before racing across India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.

Local media in the affected areas issued warnings about the dangers of looking directly at the sun, but fascinated onlookers thronged streets to witness the celestial phenomenon.

In India, where the eclipse was visible from the southern-most tip, astronomers and curious spectators watched in awe, using sunglasses and even ultra-dark welding masks as day turned into darkness.

The maximum duration of "annularity" - the time the moon is in front of the sun -- was 11 minutes, eight seconds at 706 GMT, making it "the longest annular eclipse of the 3rd Millennium," according to Nasa.

Only on December 23, 3043 will this record be beaten, Nasa said.

Cuba is Missing...From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake

There are only two US media outlets that have reported on Cuba’s response to the deadly 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti. One was Fox News, which claimed, wrongly, that the Cubans were absent from the list of neighboring Caribbean countries providing aid. The other was the Christian Science Monitor (a respected news organization that recently shut down its print edition), which reported correctly that Cuba had dispatched 30 doctors to the stricken nation.

The Christian Science Monitor, in a second article, quoted Laurence Korb, former assistant secretary of defense and now based at the Center for American Progress, as saying that the US, which is leading the relief efforts in Haiti, should “consider tapping the expertise of neighboring Cuba,” which he noted, “has some of the best doctors in the world--we should see about flying them in.”

As for the rest of the US media, they have simply ignored Cuba.

In fact, left unmentioned is the reality that Cuba already had over 400 doctors posted to Haiti to help with the day-to-day health needs of this poorest nation in the Americas, and that those doctors were the first to respond to the disaster, setting up a hospital right next to the main hospital in Port-au-Prince which collapsed in the earthquake.

Far from “doing nothing” about the disaster as the right-wing propagandists at Fox-TV were claiming, Cuba has been one of the most effective and critical responders to the crisis, because it had set up a medical infrastructure before the quake, which was able to mobilize quickly and start treating the victims.

The American emergency response, predictably, has focussed primarily, at least in terms of personnel and money, on sending the hugely costly and inefficient US military--a fleet of aircraft and an aircraft carrier--a factor that should be considered when examining that $100 million figure the Obama administration claims is being allocated to emergency aid to Haiti. Considering that the cost of operating an aircraft carrier, including crew, is roughly $2 million a day, just sending a carrier to Port-au-Prince for two weeks accounts for a quarter of the announced American aid effort, and while many of the military personnel sent there will certainly be doing actual aid work, delivering supplies and guarding supplies, many, given America’s long history of brutal military/colonial control of Haiti, will inevitably be spending their time ensuring continued survival and control of the parasitic pro-US political elite in Haiti.

Otherwise, the US has basically ignored the ongoing day-to-day human crisis in Haiti, while Cuba has been doing the yeoman work of providing basic health care.

But that’s not a story that the American corporate media want to tell.

James Turk-The US on the Cusp of Hyperinflation

Click this link ...... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=9505

Peter Schiff - The Lunacy of Government

Click this link ....... http://eclipptv.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=9509