Monday, April 29, 2013

Grace Dent: If every man or woman’s home is their castle, who cares if it costs £1 to buy?

This is a strange, slightly hippy commune vibe mixed with the arch-Tory values of “one’s home is one’s castle” and “get out and scrub your step”. I really rather love it.

 

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Sometimes, just sometimes, councils do something that makes my heart soar with joy.
There are no magical solutions to our nation’s housing problem. No pixie dust to fling that will give every family a front door, a bed per child and a table to have jovial teatimes at. But I can’t help thinking that this week’s £1 home scheme in Stoke-on-Trent is a step in the right direction.
Stoke-on-Trent’s local authority has offered up 35 derelict homes for sale – mainly two-bedroom, terraced properties – for the pocket-friendly sum of £1. The homes, or shells of homes, are one mile from the city centre in the Portland Street area of Cobridge, currently standing boarded up, forgotten, neglected, the roads around a hot spot for fly-tipping. The corner shop and local pub disappeared in 2009.
Take away the cosmetic problems, however, and what you’ve got is rows of terraced houses. Like the one I grew up in during the Seventies. We were an army of kids playing day after day in the street on rollerskates and BMXs. Not remotely deluxe, yet secure, with a bed to sleep in, and happy. This shouldn’t be an impossible dream for new young families. Every corner of the land has houses standing empty. A similar scheme in Liverpool’s Kensington seems so far to be very successful. This is not bulldozing in the name of regeneration, but instead it’s a strange, slightly hippie commune vibe mixed with the arch-Tory values of “one’s home is one’s castle” and “get out and scrub your step”. Politically, it’s everywhere and I really rather love it.
The rules for the purchase seem refreshingly sensible. If you want to apply for a £1 home, you must have a moderate income or joint income of £18,000 to £25,000 a year. If you have kids, you are allowed to earn up to £30,000. On a salary like this, there is little way one can ever save up a deposit to buy unless you have a rich mummy and daddy who will help. This is very much a scheme to help local families get a leg up onto the property ladder; thus one must have lived in the city for the past three years. Likewise, property developers can sling their hook, and owning any other properties is strictly prohibited. Plus, your new £1 home must be your main residence for at least five years. Notably, if you do live in the homge for 10 years, then you’ll find yourself in the very freeing and zen-like position of being rent and mortgage free.
If you buy a £1 home, you will be offered a loan of £30,000 to make the house habitable. At last, all those years as a nation being dripfed Sarah Beeny have come to fruition. These £1 homes are for people who do not fear the clatter of the wallpapering table and the slap of emulsion. Or at least don’t mind making a lot of tea while a local painter and decorator does it. If you take out the loan, they want it back within 10 years – at an interest rate of 3 per cent above the Bank of England base rate, which is 0.5 per cent. Despite the strict rules, 600 people had applied for the homes within 24 hours. When something like the £1 house scheme seems as wholly reasonable and ethically watertight as this, I always try to envisage who could possibly be offended or alienated. This is what halts progress at a local level. I watched, with some fascination, a local Lib Dem councillor spend many years opposing the regeneration of a dilapidated building for flats due to his “concerns about parking”. There have been mumblings about the £1 houses, with claims that they are “patronising” and will only introduce ghettos. I’ve thought about this, and if it’s a ghetto of people who really love DIY and faffing about with soft furnishings, I should like to buy a home very near to it.
Others suggest they should give all empty homes to a co-op, which fixes them up for people with no desire “get on the property ladder”. But, I’ll whisper this, owning one’s own home, and answering to no landlord, is a wholly agreeable state. Bulldozing broken communities, then telling the £25k earning bracket they wouldn’t have wanted a £1 house anyway – now that sounds pretty damn patronising.

Paltrow’s recipe for eating disorders

Being a woman is very often hard. You may have heard me occasionally mention it. Thank heavens we’ve got Gwyneth Paltrow’s new quack-science, semi-starvation recipe book, It’s All Good, being shoved down our throats on every TV show to keep us zinging with energy.
Paltrow is a lovely, watchable actress. She has a likeable sense of humour in interviews. I like her husband Chris. I am not anti-Gwyneth. However, I am against the wholly cynical, harmful machine-pushing of a famous woman – who has endless Hollywood-style food allergies and phobias, and who arguably needs to fit into size 0 costumes to earn her living – into the role of food expert. I am not alluding to the idea that Paltrow barely eats; that’s there as fact in full colour with hundreds of feeble dinner-dodging words. Doctors – of whom she has seen many – have decreed Paltrow to be allergic to pretty much everything, including peppers, corn and aubergine. The book’s recipes are designed to facilitate a short-term elimination diet that eschews processed foods, coffee, alcohol, dairy, eggs, sugar, shellfish, deep-water fish, wheat, meat, and soy. Sometimes she lets loose and has pomegranate and quinoa. Behold the dinner suggestion – featured on last week’s Goop newsletter – of a small poached egg, three grilled spring onions and two small steamed pieces of broccoli. Two hundred calories of pure sustenance. Yummy. Back in the real world, if I was queuing up in the office canteen and saw a young girl with that on her plate, I’d think: “That’s an eating disorder. I hope she’s got someone keeping an eye on her.” But with an Oscar and an Emmy under her belt, suddenly we’re asking her for weight-loss tips. Life is short: get some macaroni cheese and a glass of red down your throat. I can assure you, it won’t kill you.

The Financial Tyranny of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)


Crossroad KJos Ministries
“There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent in the way the radical Right believes the Communist act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups [called the CFR in the USA], has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so. I know of the operation of this network because I…was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records.” [Professor Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p.950]  
“The powers of financial capitalism has another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” [Quigley, pp.324]
The “wise” Insiders who have been guiding the CFR toward global control include familiar names such as David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Bill Clinton, Brent Scowcroft…. These men have led and instructed our presidents’ cabinets again and again. They and countless others work silently behind the scenes to accomplish their goal of a socialist/communitarian world government. They may call themselves Republican or Democrats; it doesn’t really matter. They control the financial resources needed to manipulate the economy and accomplish their goals.
Their tyrannical form of “capitalism” destroys the personal incentive, moral guidelines and free enterprise that made America great.
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil…
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes..” Isaiah 5:20-21

History
In the 1870s, Oxford professor John Ruskin persuaded his elite British students that “they had a moral obligation to disseminate English culture and unite the world under British rule. [1] By early 1900s, many of his students held strategic positions in the English Government. None of his students would spread the vision more effectively than Cecil Rhodes, who accumulated the needed wealth in African gold and diamond mines. Rhodes wrote,

“The Society ['of the Elect'] should inspire and even own portions of the press for the press rules the mind of the people. The Society should always be searching for members who might by their position in the world by their energies or character forward the object…”[2]
In 1987, Rhodes sent his friend W. T. Stead a letter explaining his plan for world government:
“The key of my idea discussed with you is a Society, copied from the Jesuits as to organization [rising levels of secrecy as in Freemasonry]… an idea which ultimately (leads) to the cessation of all wars and one language throughout the world…. The only thing feasible to carry this idea out is a secret one [a secret society] gradually absorbing the wealth of the world to be devoted to such an object.”[3, p.13]
To fulfill his global vision, Rhodes established the Rhodes Trust. The inner circle of this “secret society” – “The Society of the Elect” — included freemason Lord Alfred Milner, William T. Stead and Reginald Baliol Brett (titled Lord Esher). When Rhodes died in 1902, he left the “Society,” the Rhodes Trust and the leadership primarily in the “hands” of Lord Milner. This Round Table Group would eventually establish numerous international branches. In the U.S.A, it would be called the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).
Few have done more to expose this revolutionary agenda than Carrol Quigley, the history professor at the Foreign Service Schools of Georgetown University whom Clinton honored in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, July 16, 1992. In his 1300-page tome, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Quigley wrote:

“By 1915, Round Table Groups existed in seven countries, including England…(and) the United States…. Since 1925, there have been substantial contributions from wealthy individuals, and from foundations and firms associated with the international banking fraternity, especially… organizations associated with J. P. Morgan, the Rockefeller and Whitney families….” [5-Quigley, 950-951]

In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson expressed his concern over this secret movement toward world government his book, The New Freedom:
“We are in a new world…. In the new order, government and business must be associated closely…. We stand in the presence of a revolution…. (which) will come in peaceful guise…”[That sounds like Fabian Socialism!]

“Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it…. We have been dreading all along the time when the combined power of high finance would be greater than the power of government….

“We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated, governments in the civilized world—no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men….We stand in the presence of a revolution… (which) will come in peaceful guise.”[4-Cuddy, pp.24-25]
That same year, President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act with the guidance of Frank Vanderlip, president of Rockefeller’s National City Bank.”[4-Cuddy, p.25]

The CFR was founded in 1921, mainly through the “mysterious” Round Table “Insider” Col. Mandel House, President Wilson’s “counter-ego.” It would be the U.S. equivalent of Britain’s Royal Institute of International Affairs. Professor Quigley explains:
“At the end of the war of 1914, it became clear that the organization of this system had to be greatly extended… the tasks was entrusted to Lionel Curtis who established, in England and each dominion, a front organization to the existing local Round Table Group. This front organization called the Royal Institute of International Affairs, had as its nucleus in each area the existing submerged Round Table Group. In New York it was known as the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a front for J. P. Morgan and Company….
“In fact, the original plans for the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations were drawn up at Paris.” [5-Quigley, 951-952]

To build the envisioned network of global support, it would spend tens of millions of dollars annually from the major tax-exempt foundations such as the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations. [6, page 54]
Keep in mind, the CFR as a whole is not made up of secret conspirators. Its membership list is available to the public. “Most CFR members are not involved in a conspiracy,” wrote Anthony C. Sutton“and have no knowledge of any conspiracy. However,
“there is a GROUP WITHIN the Council of Foreign Relations which belongs to a secret society, sworn to secrecy, and which more or less controls the CFR. CFR meetings are used for their own purposes, i.e., to push out ideas, to weigh up people who  might be useful, to use meetings as a form for discussion.”[7]

In other words, the layered organizational structure might be compared not only to Jesuits, as Cecil Rhodes indicated, but also to the Freemasons with its inner core of secret masters and occultists. Describing this monstrous financial structure with power to bribe and command governments around the world, New York city Mayor John Hylan gave this warning:

“…the real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, State and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of self-created screen. It seizes in its long and powerful tentacles our executive officers, our legislative bodies, our schools, our courts, our newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.”[4]
In Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, Professor Quigley wrote:

“The argument that the two [political] parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to the doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead the two parties should be almost identical, so the that American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.” [5-Quigley, pp.1247-1248]

“One of Professor Quigley’s most shocking revelations,” wrote Dr. Monteith,
“was the fact that the American Communist Party was partly financed by J. P. Morgan and Company…. J. P. Morgan and his associates financed the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, conservative groups, liberal organizations, communist groups and anti-communist organizations. Thus we should not be surprised to learn that someone purchased Professor Quigley’s publisher and destroyed the plates to the first half of his book so it couldn’t be reprinted.” [1, pp. 99-100]

That sounds like communitarianism, doesn’t it? Banks and tax-exempt foundations were essential to this global vision:

“The powers of financial capitalism has another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole…

“The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Bale, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks [including the US Federal Reserve] which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards….”

“In 1924, the chairman of the board of the Midland Bank said, “…banks can and do create money… And they, who control the credit of the nation, direct the policy of Government and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people.” [5-Quigley, pp.324-325]
“During the early decades of the 20th century,” explained Dr. Monteith, “the three largest banks in the US were owned by the Rockefellers, the Morgan’s, and the Mellon’s.” Contrary to popular speculations, the powerful European central banks preceded the House of Rothschild. Jewish banks “never controlled the financial institutions of the world.” [1, p. 35]
There you have a glimpse into the hidden Anglo-American power structure and its European branches. To see how all the pieces fit together, we suggest you read Brotherhood of Darkness] by Dr. Stan Monteith.


CFR president Richard N. Haass: “Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a position he has held since July 2003. The Council, based in New York with an office in Washington, DC, is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas so that individual and corporate members, as well as policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens in the United States and other countries, can better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other governments….

“Until June 2003, Richard Haass was director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Haass served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan….
“Haass also has been vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution… a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes Scholar, Haass holds… both a Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Oxford University.”

CFR’s Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada (Phyllis Schlafly) : “The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has just let the cat out of the bag about what’s really behind our trade agreements and security partnerships with the other North American countries.
“…the CFR document calls for ‘a seamless North American market’ and for ‘the extension of full labor mobility to Mexico.’…  adopting a ‘tested once’ principle for pharmaceuticals, by which a product tested in Mexico will automatically be considered to have met U.S. standards…. putting illegal aliens into the U.S. Social Security system, which is bound to bankrupt the system. ….a major fund to finance 60,000 Mexican students to study in U.S. colleges…. supervision by a North American Advisory Council of ‘eminent persons’.”
Building a North American Community (Council on Foreign Relations Press May 2005): “…a tri-national, Independent Task Force on the Future of North America has developed a roadmap to promote North American security and advance the well-being of citizens of all three countries…. The Council-sponsored Task Force applauds the announced ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,’ but proposes a more ambitious vision of a new community by 2010 and specific recommendations on how to achieve it.”

Big steps toward global control:
Creating a North American Community: Chairmen’s Press Briefing for an Independent Task Force on the Future of North America: “…last fall the Council of Foreign Relations, together with the Mexican Council of Foreign Relations and the Canadian Council of CEOs, launched a Task Force on the future of North America to examine our trilateral relationship and to suggest opportunities for deeper collaboration…..
“We talk about deeper cooperation, both law enforcement and defense….And we’ve opened the door to greater military cooperation on a trilateral basis, including with Mexico.
“…we ought to be looking to a North American energy strategy….
“…this is an opportunity for the three leaders of North American governments to build on a vision of the future, to try to capture what the architecture of a North American community in the 21st century in which China and India are becoming major economic and perhaps military players; in which Europe has coalesced around 25 members, a common currency, and little, if any, border controls internally.” Revelation 13
Panel Urges Greater North American Integration: “The privately-funded Council on Foreign Relations task force says the future of North America would be stronger, safer and more competitive if the three nations [Canada, Mexico & the U.S.] were to institutionalize their partnerships…. The task force also proposes a North American border pass for easier movement between the nations, and a ‘North American preference’ that would allow North American citizens to work anywhere in the region with far fewer restrictions that other immigrants. This would require reversal of the current U.S. policy calling for restrictions on travel in and out of the United States. The task force also calls for the creation of an investment fund aimed at narrowing the development gap between Mexico and its northern neighbors.” See The Merging of the Americas in a New Global Orde
Joint security perimeter for North America by 2010: “The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States will discuss a plan to beef up continental security and speed up movement across their borders when they meet next week.
” A report calls for the creation of a common economic and security community by the end of the decade. The document’s proposals would try to create a secure perimeter around the continent, while making it easier for people and goods to move across the shared borders….
“The report was jointly sponsored by the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. Among its chief recommendations: Unified visa and refugee regulations. Joint inspection of container traffic at ports. An integrated terror watch list. Biometric border passes to allow freer movement at borders…. A strategy to stimulate Mexican economic development.”
Immigration/US Borders: “Mexico will pursue legal action against plans by a U.S. citizens’ group to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in search of illegal immigrants, the country’s foreign minister said on Monday. Luis Ernesto Derbez said he asked lawyers in Los Angeles to draw up a legal strategy to fight the Arizona-based initiative called ‘the MinuteMan Project’ that has signed up hundreds of volunteers for border patrols.” See Re-zoning the World: The Merging of the Americas in a New Global Order
Mega Cartels Headhunting US Sovereignty: “What is the FTAA? Answer: You’re not supposed to know….. The FTAA moniker for this legislation itself is a deception: Free Trade Area of the Americas….
“Negotiations on this agreement were initiated… during the Clinton Administration. They are now being vigorously pursued towards completion under the Bush Administration….
“…like its European prototype the FTAA has been carefully constructed as a framework not just as an economic union but also as a political union such as the European Union is in the final stage of becoming. Or, as the Wall Street Journal put it in a recent article: ‘For the U.S., a collapse (in FTAA talks) would be a big defeat in Washington’s efforts… to weave together the hemisphere politically.’
“Shall we weave then our political structure into harmony with the likes of Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela? These are socialist governments at best. In the end the FTAA is not about trade as much as it is about political disintegration of an old order… a non-elected, supra-national political entity that in its first phase calls for our US Congress to turn over its authority (and our nation’s sovereignty) in matters of trade, labor and environmental law….
“It does seem incredible that in this era of bashing the United Nations, particularly from GOP quarters, the Bush Administration is pushing headlong into a political arrangement that is rife with transfers of US Congressional power to UN bodies and initiatives. … Talk to your friends in Britain and Germany, who are waking up too late to the fact that the European Union really is a political merger that ends hundreds of years of their national independence.”
Global Banking: The Bank for International Settlements: “When David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski founded the Trilateral Commission in 1973, the intent was to create a ‘New International Economic Order’ (NIEO). To this end, they brought together 300 elite corporate, political and academic leaders from North America, Japan and Europe….
…the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)…that controls the vast global banking system with the precision of a Swiss watch…. was founded in 1930…. In the aftermath of World War I and the impending collapse of the German economy and political structure, a plan was needed to rescue and restore Germany, which would also insulate other economies in Europe from being affected adversely…. In 1924 the Allies appointed a committee of international bankers, led by Charles G. Dawes (and accompanied by J.P. Morgan agent, Owen Young), to develop a plan to get reparations payments back on track….
[According to] Carroll Quigley: ‘The Power of financial capitalism had another far reaching plan, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks, which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank… sought to dominate its government by its ability to control treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence co-operative politicians by subsequent rewards in the business world.”

Irreversible Consequences?
Beware the Secret Heart of the EU [by Ashley Mote, an independent member of the European Parliament]: “Even the EU’s public face – the unelected commission – is part of the charade. Power does not lie with them. It lies with the senior staff running their departments, entrenched by some 3000 working groups and committees on which no elected MEP sits…. We do not know what their budgets are, how they are financed, or who approves their costs. Indeed, we do not even know what powers they have been given, nor by whom. And we cannot get rid of them….
“The EU would no longer be the servant of the member states. It would have become their master. Every previous treaty was a small step along that road…. The other 24 commissioners, each appointed by the other member states… are figure-heads. They take the flak in the public arena, and make announcements decided for them by their senior staff, with the guidance of the secret committees.
“…officially above the commission sits a Council of Ministers…. But the council is just more of the same elaborate illusion of accountable government. … The European Parliament sits below this vast superstructure… designed to create an illusion of accountable democracy. A condescending pat on the head for voters held in contempt.
“…the EU’s parliament has a built-in majority in favour of the social market. It is the repository of an unspoken agreement between the left and the multinationals. … In effect, the left has said to the multinationals: you can have your markets stitched up for you, if we can indulge ourselves in endless social engineering. Big business has agreed. The result is a largely supportive parliament both from the left and right of the political divide.” The “Americas” is moving in the same direction!  See The Revolutionary Roots of the UN and the next link:

Confronting Climate Change A Strategy for U.S. Foreign Policy: “…recent failure of the Senate to advance the Lieberman-Warner climate bill, and preparations for this summer’s G8 summit, a CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force recommends an overhaul of U.S. domestic and foreign policy to confront the challenge. …the Task Force says that the United States must leverage ambitious, comprehensive, and equitable action at home to advance an effective policy abroad. It lays out a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global climate accord, outlining what the United States should be willing to offer and what it should expect others, including the rapidly emerging economies, to do in return….
Here a some of the Task Force Members (and CFR leaders):
  • Michael A. Levi is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and environment at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of its program on energy security and climate change…..
  • William K. Reilly is a founding partner of Aqua International Partners, LP, a private equity fund dedicated to investing in companies engaged in water and renewable energy, and a senior adviser to TPG Capital, LP. Mr. Reilly served as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, president of the World Wildlife Fund, and president of the Conservation Foundation. He was head of the U.S.delegation to the United Nations Earth Summit at Rioin 1992…..
  • David M. Rubenstein is a cofounder and managing director of the Carlyle Group>….
  • Timothy E. Wirth…. As president of the UN Foundation (UNF) [founded and funded by Ted Turner, who has expressed his desire for the death of most of the world's population]  since its inception in early 1998, Wirth has organized and led the formulation of the Foundation’s mission and program priorities, which include the environment, women and population, children’s health, and peace, security and human rights. [It seems that those most involved in "human rights" are least concerned about actual humans. Could they be there to steer global decisions on whose "rights" should be favored?]  Senator Wirth served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1987 and in the Senate from 1987 to 1993. Following these two decades of elected politics, Wirth was national co-chair of the Clinton-Gore campaign, and served in the U.S. Department of State as the first undersecretary for global affairs from 1993 to 1997. He chaired the U.S. delegation at the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development and was the lead U.S. negotiator for the Kyoto Climate Conference until late 1997. He was recently honored as a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme…..
  • James D. Wolfensohn is chairman of Wolfensohn & Company, LLC, a private investment firm, and an adviser to corporations and governments…and to Citi’s senior management on global strategy and on international matters. Mr. Wolfensohn was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.<

The Fabians, the Round Table, and the Rhodes Scholars: “The aims of the Fabian Society were developed by Webb from what Englishman John Ruskin (1819-1900) taught at Oxford University. Ruskin, a teacher at the Working Men’s College (founded in 1854 by Christian-Socialist philosopher J. F. D. Maurice), a professor of Fine Arts at Oxford, an artist and writer, based his views on those of Socialist Robert Owen. He advocated a utopian society….
“The Fabians were working towards a new world by indoctrinating young scholars who would eventually rise to power in various policy-making positions throughout the world by infiltrating educational institutions, government agencies, and political parties. Their strategy was called the ‘doctrine of inevitability of gradualism,’ which meant that their goals would be gradually achieved. So gradual, that nobody would notice, or ‘without breach of continuity or abrupt change of the entire social issue.’…
“In 1905, American Fabians established the Rand School of [Social Science] in New York City. On September 12, 1905, five of the Fabians met at Peck’s Restaurant in New York’s Lower Manhattan: Upton Sinclair (well-known author and socialist), Jack London (well-known fiction writer), Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (a Unitarian minister), J.G. Phelps Stokes, and Clarence Darrow (legendary lawyer). They incorporated the Intercollegiate Socialist Society for the purpose of promoting ‘an intelligent interest in socialism among college men and women,’ and established chapters at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Their true purpose was to begin de-Christianizing America. One of its founding members was John Dewey, the father of progressive education, whose philosophy consisted of ‘atheism, socialism and evolution.’”

Surrounded by threatening armies, King Jehoshaphat  prayed for God’s help:
“O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? …O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
Then God answered his prayer:
“Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s…. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, Who is with you…
Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”  2 Chronicles 20:6-17

Notes:
1. Stanley Monteith, MD, Brotherhood of Darkness (Oklahoma City: Hearthstone Publishing, 2000).
2. http://dev.prenhall.com/divisions/hss/app/BW_TEST/Western_History/documents/Cecil_Rhodes_Confession_of_Faith_.htm
3.Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., Secret Records Revealed (Oklahoma City: Heartstone Publishing, 1994), pages 30, 32.
4. Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., Chronology of Education with Quotable Quotes (Pro Family Forum, Highland City, FL 33846, 1994); pages 24.
5. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1966).
6. William Jasper, Global Tyranny (Appleton, Wisconsin: Western Islands, 1992), pp. 51-54.
7.  Anthony C. Sutton, America’s Secret Society,1986, p.3.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Exxon Earns $9.5 Billion Q1 Profit One Month After Arkansas Oil Spill That It Pays No Taxes To Help Clean Up

One month after dumping 500,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil from a ruptured pipeline in Arkansas, the most valuable and profitable corporation in the world ExxonMobil announced higher first quarter profits. Exxon earned $9.5 billion in the first quarter, compared to $9.45 billion last year, and Exxon’s total oil and natural gas production declined 3.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Exxon is exempt from paying taxes toward the oil spill liability fund that helps clean up spills like in Arkansas, where wildlife have been killed and covered by oil. The 1980 law exemption applies to diluted bitumen so companies escape paying the 8-cents-per-barrel fee to the fund that helps clean up hundreds of spills each year. At the federal level, Exxon’s tax rate comes to only 13 percent.
Here is how else Exxon spends its dollars, and what it receives in return:
– Exxon spent $12,970,000 on lobbying in 2012 to protect low tax rates and block pollution controls and safeguards for public health. In the first three months of 2013, Exxon spent $4.84 million lobbying.
– The company sent $3.6 million in total political contributions to PACs, candidates, and outside groups for the 2012 election cycle, and 89 percent of contributions went to Republicans. It has spent over $76,000 for the 2014 cycle so far.
– Exxon receives an estimated $600 million in annual federal tax breaks. In 2011, Exxon paid just 13 percent in taxes. The company paid no federal income tax in 2009, despite $45.2 billion record profits.
– In the first quarter, Exxon bought back $5.6 billion of its stock, or 59 percent of its profit, which enriches the largest shareholders and executives of the company.
– This year, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson received a 15 percent raise to a $40.3 million salary.

8 Revisions to Canada's Anti-Terrorism Bill That You Need to Know About

image source
Joe Martino
Activist Post

The House of Commons passed the new anti-terrorism bill on April 24th 2013 and received royal assent on the 25th. The bill revived provisions from the Anti-terrorism Act passed just after the Sept. 11 attacks and adds some new ones that can very easily violate civil rights.

It is no secret that since 9/11 the increase in security and the sheer removal of civil rights and freedoms has been extensive. This of course comes under the guise of protection and safety, but still we fail to see any major terror attacks that have not been either 1. caused by the FBI themselves 2. have had government and other agency groups heavily involved or 3. have had a large number of factors suggesting the event was a staged attack. In fact, it was recently disclosed that of the 22 terror related attacks since 9/11, 14 of them have been created and caused by the FBI themselves. [1]

Some new provisions such as investigative hearings and preventive detentions have been added to the new act and are creating quite a controversial stir as many begin to question the real intention behind the passing of these bills. These came after an suspected terror plot was foiled where two men were allegedly plotting to derail a train in Toronto. Another shady accusation.

1. Investigative hearings are reinstated

An individual can be forced to appear at a secret hearing without any charges being laid if authorities believe he or she has knowledge of a terrorist activity. The individual must appear and answer questions or risk being jailed for up to 12 months.

2. Preventive detentions are reinstated

An individual can be held for up to three days on suspicion of being involved with terrorism. Upon release, he or she can be ordered to uphold probation-like conditions, such as not contacting certain people, for up to 12 months, without ever being charged with any offence.

3. Both provisions are ‘sunsetted’ again

Both investigative hearings and preventive detention are “sunsetted” to expire in five years, as they were under the original 2001 law, and which is what happened in 2007. Under the new law, the government must explain annually why it’s necessary to extend these measures.

4. New offences target foreign travel

An individual can be charged with leaving or attempting to leave the country with the intent of committing an act of terrorism. This provision could apply if someone travelled from Canada to attend a terrorist training camp overseas.

5. Acts committed outside Canada can be prosecuted

An individual can be prosecuted for hijacking an aircraft or endangering safety on a plane or at an airport in another country if that person is found in Canada.

6. Facilitating terrorism in another country is illegal

For instance, anyone who knowingly facilitates the communication of false information — such as by knowingly lending someone his or her cellphone, outside Canada, to make an emergency call about a false bomb threat against an aircraft — could, if found in Canada, face up to 14 years imprisonment.

7. Wiretapping provisions stay in place

In a terrorism case, authorities do not have to prove that electronic surveillance is a last resort. Wiretaps can stay in place for up to a year. People don’t have to be informed they’ve been wiretapped for up to three years after the surveillance took place.

8. Some penalties are toughened

The penalty for harbouring or concealing a person known to have committed a terrorist act has been extended from a maximum of 10 years to 14 years in prison.

As you can tell, the media and government continues to use fear as a means to remove more and more rights from citizens. We sometimes believe this is for our own safety, but very seldom does any real and legitimate event take place. I think as a people, it’s important to not allow the fear to take over and be such a factor in not being able to properly view the events taking place.

Fear is one very effective way the media has been able to use our emotions to cover up our intuition and logic when it comes to critically thinking about what is taking place. See past the fear, find the calm and neutrality that is within you. This is a great tool in navigating through the interesting times we are in.

Sources:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

JPMorgan Accounts For 99.3% Of The COMEX Gold Sales In The Last Three Months

Submitted by Mark McHugh from Across The Street
Jamie Dimon Has Issues
When just one firm accounts for 99.3% of the physical gold sales at the COMEX in the last three months it’s not what most of us on this side of the rainbow would consider “broad-based” selling.  Of course discovering this kind of relevant information requires an internet connection, 2nd grade math and reading skills, and the desire to do a teeny-weeny bit of reporting.  Sadly they’ve wandered so far down the rabbit hole that the concept of “physical demand” (i.e. people actually wanting to take possession of the stuff) is puzzling to them because the vast majority of the world’s so-called “gold-trading” takes place in the realm of make believe (which is their natural habitat).  It’s all fun and games until somebody loses their metal and “somebody” has lost one hell of a lot of metal in the last 90 days.
This is the CME Group’s COMEX metals issues and stops year-to-date report, which can be found here everyday for free.  It chronicles the physical delivery notices of various metals, including gold.  Let’s have a look:

“I” is for “Idiot”
That’s how I remember it, anyway. “I” actually stands for “issues,” meaning the firm parted with its metal (@ 100 troy ounces a shot), and “S” stands for “stops,” meaning the firm took delivery of gold. “C” is for customer accounts, “H” is house accounts.  The first thing you should notice is that most transaction net out to zero in a given month (blue boxes), meaning the firm’s gold holdings didn’t change. What they delivered one day they got back the next, or vice versa.  The green boxes show firms who received more than they delivered and the red boxes indicate firms who coughed up gold for Bernanke bucks (aka idiots). Note that Deutsche Bank’s massive take in February more than offsets its deliveries in December and April.
Notice one more thing before we move on: Despite Goldman’s much ballyhooed “Gold Sucks!” call a few weeks ago, the squid has not parted with any yellow metal whatsoever in 2013.  Hmmm.
Now for the main event:

J P Morgan has fumbled ownership of 1,966,000 Troy ounces of gold since February 1.  That’s 74% more gold than the US mint delivered through the US mint’s American Eagle program in all of 2012.  I mention this because there’s little doubt in my mind that the US government is one of JPM’s gold “customers.”  So (if I am correct) the same US government who just let the Morgue dump its gold on the COMEX floor will once again be suspending gold sales to peasants.
Maybe Jamie Dimon figures he’ll buy back all that gold on the cheap when the rest of the world realizes how smart he is.  Or maybe he’s once again displaying that his firm doesn’t have the slightest idea what “hedging” is and is teetering on the brink of collapse.  That would explain the April 11th meeting between President Obama and the Pig 5 bank CEOs, wouldn’t it?  And you just have to get a little misty that Lloyd Blankfein was nice enough to provide some hot-air cover for his competitor, don’t you?
One thing’s very clear: When it comes to selling physical gold, J P Morgan is acting alone.  The 130 contracts NOT delivered by JPM in the last three months (of which  110 were fromABN AMRO) are but a footnote.  If Jamie’s right, he’ll look like a genius in a few months, if not he should be able to recycle his quote regarding the infamous “London Whale” losses: “Just because we’re stupid, doesn’t mean everybody else was.”  Time will tell.
100 years ago John Pierpont Morgan famously testified to Congress, “Money is gold, and nothing else.” (Note: That is the exact quote, the full testimony can be found here).  One has to wonder what the big guy would think of his legacy’s disregard for sound money, $70 Trillion derivatives book, and "House of Cards" "Fortress" balance sheet.
One more very, very important thing.
Anybody who says there’s been gold selling in the GLD is a freaking moron (Bob Pistrami, I’m looking in your direction).   The GLD works much like a coat check.  Unless you think checking your coat constitutes a real transaction of some kind you shouldn’t think of changes in the GLD’s gold holdings as sales. They’re not. When you check your gold into the GLD you get shares (like a claim check). Where it gets wierd is you can sell these claim checks to nimrods who seem to think they’ve bought your coat, but aren’t actually allowed to wear it.
What nobody seems to appreciate is that every share of GLD is allowed to be sold TWICE (long and short, and it’s really important to understand that).  If you’re foolish enough to doubt me (and foolish enough to short gold), go short GLD shares and see if anyone knocks on your door demanding gold.  Saying the GLD is 100% backed by gold is a bold face lie because they’re can be twice as many shares in play as gold backing them, which means GLD shares may be only 50% backed by gold before any rules are broken.
When GLD (or any ETF for that matter) shares sold exceed the existing shares PLUS all the shortable (double-sold) shares, legitimate shares can not be found for settlement and that must be reported to the SEC’s “Fails to Deliver” list, which is published twice a month with about a four-week delay (here).
April 15, 2013 was this biggest volume day ever for GLD (93.7mm) and I’ll guarantee you right now that record fails to deliver will be reported on or around that date, which should have required more gold to be deposited with the GLD (but that didn’t happen).  So instead of the half-assed explanation Pistrami offered (here) of how he thinks the GLD works, he should have raised the question of whether or not there were enough legitimate shares of GLD to facilitate trading (I say no way in hell).
Gold continues to be pulled from the GLD (which really means people want their coats back) and still no one’s concerned about the number doubled-owned shares.  Worse yet, the responsibility for sorting this unholy mess out falls to SEC chief Mary Jo White who is celebrating her 16th day in office.
I can’t wait to see what happens next….
Notes for Nerds:  This piece is not intended to describe the inner workings of the COMEX or GLD in detail, so don’t bust my balls with minutiae, unless it is relevant to the discussion of JPM’s massive gold sales or the double-ownership of ETF shares. Double-owned ETF shares are huge problem with ETFs in general, but the misrepresentation (by omission) of this fact by ETFs supposedly backed by tangible assets like gold and silver seems more egregious to me.  
In addition to the YTD CME Group metals report, you can track the hilarity on a day-by-day basis here.
The February 1 to April 25 delivered gold contracts info referenced included only transactions between firms.   For that reason Morgan Stanley’s 307 contracts transferred from  house account to customer account was excluded from the calculations.
Total Net gold deliveries Feb 1 to April 25:
Vision Financial – 1 contract
R J O’Brien – 2
ADM Investor Services INC – 2
Marex – 5
Citigroup Global Markets – 10
ABN AMRO – 110
JP Morgan – 19,660

Highest fallout levels in Tokyo since soon after Fukushima crisis began

Title: 環境放射線測定結果 – 1か月毎の降下物の放射能調査結果
Source: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health
Date: April 2013
h/t Fukushima Diary

See also: Japan Study: Fukushima fallout "unlike the past nuclear accidents" -- Radioactive silver prominently observed

In 1912, J. P. Morgan stated that only gold was money.

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