Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps
April 27th, 2007I hate it when an otherwise good article contains rat poison, but that’s just the nature of the beast nowadays. Wolf writes, “Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree…as many other nations,” and, “Of course, the United States is not vulnerable to the violent, total closing-down of the system that followed Mussolini’s march on Rome or Hitler’s roundup of political prisoners. Our democratic habits are too resilient, and our military and judiciary too independent, for any kind of scenario like that.”
WTF!?
These are shocking clangers from someone who purports to be writing about American fascism.
No living American has been born in anything like freedom, and try telling a Native American person that the United States is not vulnerable to the types of hideous violence that occurred in Germany and Italy. With regard to our resilient democratic habits, excluding the uncomfortable bits about genocide (at home and abroad), slavery and the camps… Well, you could try to have that conversation with victims of current American “extraordinary rendition” programs, if they were still alive, and if you knew where they were, which you wouldn’t.
On the one hand, I feel like we should all to tell Wolf to wake the F up, but on the other hand, her list is good. An even more important lesson than the points below would be to consider what it means when the people sounding the emergency klaxons have amnesia about their country’s own history.
As usual, it’s not that bad, it’s worse.
Via: Global Research:
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens’ groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law
Research Credit: Life After the Oil Crash
System Planning Corporation Involved with Virginia Tech Investigation
April 26th, 2007System Planning Corporation is such a profoundly spooky outfit that it creeps me out just thinking about it. But I’m sure that it’s just another coincidence that one of DARPA’s largest contractors—a private company involved with some of the U.S. Government’s blackest projects—is involved with the investigation into the Virginia Tech shooting.
Update #4 on Virginia Tech Shooting: I’ve Already Seen Enough
The 4-Hour Workweek
April 26th, 2007This book seemed ridiculous, at first glance, but as I read more, uhh… My wife and I seem to have implemented at least some of this, more out necessity and common sense than anything else.
So, how much of this is really useful? Or is it more of that frightening Kiyosaki/Robbins/”Secret” clap trap KoolAid?
The 4-Hour Workweek is within the top ten best selling books on Amazon right now. At a minimum, this is interesting because it shows the desperation and hunger of people to escape the rat race. While several of those Amazon reviews seem fake to me, I’ve never read a self-help book. Maybe the tone of that crowd is just, different, if you know what I mean.
Have any of you read this? What do you think? I’d believe you guys over the Amazon reviews.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss:
What do you do? Tim Ferriss has trouble answering the question. Depending on when you ask this controversial Princeton University guest lecturer, he might answer:
“I race motorcycles in Europe.â€
“I ski in the Andes.â€
“I scuba dive in Panama.â€
“I dance tango in Buenos Aires.â€
He has spent more than five years learning the secrets of the New Rich, a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the “deferred-life plan†and instead mastered the new currencies—time and mobility—to create luxury lifestyles in the here and now.
UPDATE: High Quality Review of The 4-Hour Workweek Over at David Seah
Thanks to commenter “peter” for that.
U.S. Department of Defense Shills: Prepare for Alien Invasion
April 26th, 2007They managed to convince people that al-Qaeda is real. Why not shoot for the stars?
How many billions of dollars would Lockheed Martin get to build space weapons to defend us from “the aliens”?
Blackwater USA Space Command?
Oh sure. Why not?
Via: Daily Telegraph:
WHEN the aliens finally invade Earth, you may wish you had listened to Travis Taylor and Bob Boan.
And if the invasion follows the plot of a typical Hollywood blockbuster, they might also be the guys called in at the last minute to save the day.
After all, they have written An Introduction to Planetary Defence, a primer on how humanity can defend itself if little green men wielding death rays show up at our cosmic doorstep. And, yes, they’re serious.
“The probability is there that aliens exist and are old enough to have technology to enable them to come here,” Taylor said.
Taylor and Boan are hardly basement-dwelling paranoids obsessed with tinfoil hats and Area 51.
Taylor holds advanced degrees in astronomy and physics. He and Boan have done consulting work for the Defence Department and the US space agency NASA.
Taylor acknowledges alien invasion is hardly a mainstream concern but says it is naive to assume that any beings advanced enough to master star travel will have evolved beyond war.
“It’s a wonderful idea that has no basis in reality,” Taylor said.
Taylor and Boan plugged in what they felt were conservative estimates, such as that aliens cannot travel faster than 10 per cent of the speed of light.
After crunching the numbers, they say it is possible that our Milky Way galaxy harbours thousands of intelligent alien species and that there is a “high probability” that one or two of them visit Earth every century.
But if there are so many aliens out there, why haven’t we heard from them already?
That is the question famously posed by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 to dismiss speculation by his colleagues that intelligent life should be routine.
Taylor and Boan are convinced Fermi got it wrong. Even if aliens used god-like technology to jump across thousands of light years in a single day, they would still need millions of years to explore all the star systems in the galaxy.
They simply may not have stumbled across our neck of the woods yet.
Taylor and Boan started thinking about how to respond to an aggressive extraterrestrial attack during a 2001 discussion about defending against terrorist attacks.
Failure to prepare may mean mankind will have to dig in and fight with improvised weapons and hit-and-run tactics, much the same way Islamic extremists have battled the US military in Iraq, Taylor says.
“You’d have to create an insurgency, a mujahideen-type resistance,” Taylor said.
Correspondence with Paul Tustain, Director of Bullion Vault
April 25th, 2007Here’s an interesting update to the Bullion Vault post.
I wrote the following email to Paul Tustain, Director of Bullion Vault:
Paul,
My readers (and I) are concerned with the possibility that the U.S.
regime could make gold ownership illegal again for Americans.
Since you require fiat money transfers in and out of Bullion Vault to
occur via bank accounts, what would happen to your clients’ holdings in
the event that the U.S. government banned or limited gold ownership again?
Feel free to respond on or off the record. Unless you tell me that it is
ok to publish your response, I will NOT publish it.
Thanks,
Kevin Flaherty
cryptogon.com
Click through to read his response.
Wal-Mart to Open 400 In-Store “Health” Clinics
April 25th, 2007Will people show up to be diagnosed for diabetes and high blood pressure and then waddle over to the in-store eatery to dine on some tasty freedom fries, reconstituted chicken parts and 100% synthetic cheeze food? Wash it all down with a slurpee? Pick up prescriptions for ineffective and dangerous pharmaceuticals from the in-store pharmacy on the way out the door…
In Pearls Before Breakfast, I wrote:
The Machine doesn’t want you dead, per se, but it wants to rewire your brain so that you forget that you’re alive. It wants you undead, because you’re really only useful to it as an easily programmed zombie.
Walmart’s business model is based on a quasi vertical integration of the main components of the zombie consumer lifestyle; garbage, empty calories, entertainment and illness. But Walmart style healthcare will really have Joe and Jane Six Pack coming and going.
Peddle crap that makes people sick: PROFITS
Once they’re sick, tell them which disease or diseases they have: PROFITS
Sell them dangerous drugs that might kill them, maim them, disguise the symptoms, or something in between: PROFITS
Why not take the business model even further?
In-store crematoria: PROFITS (Deluxe Diamonoid and Gold Plated Urn, Free with Cremation!)
In-store hatcheries/maternity wards: PROFITS (25% Off Toxic Soy Baby Formula with Unnecessary C-Section)
In-store worship centers/churches: PROFITS (What Would Jesus Buy Today in the Garden Center?)
In-store elementary schools: PROFITS (Buy One Sponge Bob Square Pants Teaches Math Doll, Get Another One for Half Price!)
In-store libraries: PROFITS (Walmart Shoppers Library Patrons Have the Option to Buy Books at Deep Discounts!)
What other sensible in-store, “market driven” solutions can you think of?
Via: Reuters:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday that it will contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics in the next two to three years.
Should current market forces continue, the world’s largest retailer said up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years.
Wal-Mart said the effort marks an expansion of a pilot program it started in 2005, when it leased space within its stores to medical clinics. Currently, it said 76 clinics are operating inside Wal-Mart stores in 12 states.
t has said the clinics are expected to boost the health of its shoppers and should also help sales by drawing consumers into its stores.
“We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need — affordable access at the local level to quality health care,” said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott in a statement.
The Plot Against the First Amendment
April 25th, 2007It was painful for me to quote the bits about the so-called, “freedom of the American press,” but if you can grit your teeth through that part, this is an interesting and terrifying piece. The U.S. doesn’t need D notices, for the most part. Editors are pretty good and censoring themselves.
But fascists always want more control, and the current U.S. regime is especially rabid.
Via: Harper’s:
In June, a case is slated to go to trial in Northern Virginia that will mark a first step in a plan to silence press coverage of essential national security issues. The plan was hatched by Alberto Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty—the two figures at the center of a growing scandal over the politicization of the prosecutorial process. This may in fact be the most audacious act of political prosecution yet. But so far, it has gained little attention and is poorly understood.
In the summer of 2005, Alberto Gonzales paid a visit to British Attorney General Peter Goldsmith. A British civil servant who attended told me “it was quite amazing really. Gonzales was obsessed with the Official Secrets Act. In particular, he wanted to know exactly how it was used to block newspapers and broadcasters from running news stories derived from official secrets and how it could be used to criminalise persons who had no formal duty to maintain secrets. He saw it as a panacea for his problems: silence the press. Then you can torture and abuse prisoners and what you will—without fear of political repercussions. It was the easy route to dealing with the Guantánamo dilemma. Don’t close down Guantánamo. Close down the press. We were appalled by it.†Appalled, he added, “but not surprised.â€
Britain has of course never had a media with the freedom of the American press. John Milton railed against the abusive requirements of licensing without making headway. Britain had the tradition of Royal Prerogative, a tradition of branding political rabble rousers with the mark “SL†for “seditious libeler.†Of course, many of those seditious libelers emigrated to America, which helps explain why this was an issue contributing to a revolution that broke out in 1776. The erstwhile colonists heard Milton’s appeal and followed it, producing a decisive parting of the ways in the English-speaking world. But that’s all very inconvenient history, which is certain soon to be expunged from the history books. After all, those who control the present, control the past. And Gonzales had come down with a very bad case of Official Secrets envy.
New Cryptogon Sponsor: Financial Web
April 25th, 2007I’d like to thank Financial Web for their generous sponsorship of Cryptogon.
Financial Web covers a very wide variety of topics, many of which we all have to deal with at some point or another. With financial matters, and overall strategic planning, my advice is: Get into a situation that eliminates your reliance on luck and minimizes the impact of factors that are completely beyond your control. Since part of your planning almost certainly involves financial assets that are denominated in fiat national currencies, you must understand the nature of those assets. Financial Web looks like a great place to not only learn about what you have, but to learn about various options on how to proceed.
All of you know how I feel about paper assets, but I’m forced to play these games, just like you are. Relocalization and security based on a sane existence with the natural world aren’t free. You have to make it your mission in life to accomplish these goals. Everything about this society is designed to prevent you from doing this. But if you do decide to go for it, you must play games with paper.
Maybe you have already experienced some success with paper games. If, however, you don’t have solutions to your water, shelter, food and security/community situations, you don’t have anything, in my opinion, regardless of how much paper wealth the computers say you have.
Educate yourself, make thoughtful strategic plans—that provide you with many tactical pathways to maneuver—and execute.
What’s Toxic In Toyland
April 23rd, 2007Via: Time:
They line the nursery section children’s toy stores like brightly colored candies: rubber duckies for bathtime, chewable rings for teething, soft-covered books for pawing and mouthing. Parents shopping for their babies can be forgiven if they assume that everything on those shelves is 100% child safe. So why did the city of San Francisco issue a ban last week on the sale of certain plastic toys aimed at children under 3? And why are activists warning holiday shoppers in the most alarming terms against buying them? “Sucking on some of these teethers and toys,” says Rachel Gibson of Environment California, a nonprofit, “is like sucking on a toxic lollipop.”
At issue are contaminants in plastics used to make the toys. Environmentalists have long argued that some of these chemicals can leach out and harm children, pointing to animal studies that link the substances to birth defects, cancer and developmental abnormalities. Those warnings are hotly disputed by the chemical industry and toy manufacturers, which cite stacks of scientific studies that have found the plastics to be safe at federally approved levels. But the issue has gained traction on the strength of new evidence from independent and university-sponsored studies. The European Union has banned some chemicals in toys since 1999, and now half a dozen state legislatures are considering similar laws.
Research Credit: AT
Oblivion: National Survey Reveals More than 70% of Americans Don’t Know Plastic is Made from Oil
April 23rd, 2007The fact that some ADM-related thing purports to have “solutions” to the plastipocalypse just enhances the sense of oblivion that pervades these issues. On the one hand you have knuckle dragging people who will trample each other for bargains at WalMart, and on the other hand, you have ADM with “solutions.”
In other news, 79% of Americans believe in virgin birth, and 55% believe that every word of the Bible is literally accurate.
Have a nice day.
Via: BusinessWire:
According to a nationwide online survey released today, 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum products, primarily oil. The survey was conducted by national online market research firm InsightExpress for TellesTM, a joint venture of Metabolix, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX), a company using bioscience to provide clean solutions for plastics, fuels and chemicals, and Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM), one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and the world leader in BioEnergy.
Plastics are everywhere and most Americans have come to rely on plastics in all aspects of their lives. However, very few people realize that plastics are made from oil, further contributing to the problems of energy dependence, greenhouse gas emissions and depleting resources. In fact, nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption – approximately 2 million barrels a day – is used to make plastic.
The survey also revealed a misunderstanding about another important characteristic of traditional plastic – it never goes away. Despite the fact that petroleum-based plastic will never biodegrade, 40 percent of respondents believe that it will biodegrade underground, in home compost, in landfills, or in the ocean. Plastics will not biodegrade in any of these environments. In fact, the only way to rid the planet of existing plastic is by incineration in those cases where it can be recovered.
