Princeton Professor, Former U.S. Marine Colonel On Terrorist Watch List for Criticizing Bush
April 9th, 2007Via: Balkanization:
“On 1 March 07, I was scheduled to fly on American Airlines to Newark, NJ, to attend an academic conference at Princeton University, designed to focus on my latest scholarly book, Constitutional Democracy, published by Johns Hopkins University Press this past Thanksgiving.”
“When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk. At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was wounded, and decorated for heroism. I remained a professional soldier for more than five years and then accepted a commission as a reserve office, serving for an additional 19 years.”
“I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: “Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that.” I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. “That’ll do it,” the man said.”
Pearls Before Breakfast
April 9th, 2007Most people are trained, from a very early age, to stop noticing goodness and beauty. People who don’t notice goodness and beauty don’t notice evil and lies either. 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.
Life is difficult for people who refuse the programming. The path of least resistance is to embrace the ignoramus zombie scripts and hope that the resulting mental illness, chronic disease and financial ruin don’t make things too unpleasant. But that’s what the drugs and gadgets are for…
I’m struggling a lot with the commentary on this, probably because this article is an absolute shocker. The phenomenon described just might be the key to understanding the whole damn show. It shook me up quite a bit. It’s the total oblivion of modern life, on the one hand, and the realization that absolutely anything is possible, in terms of mass deception and psychological operations, on the other.
Ironically, many of you will want to read this article at work, but try to resist the urge to do that. The piece is too important (and long) to read in your cubical between phone calls and emails, etc.
Via: Washington Post:
If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?
Yeah, and who are we serving?
Related: Change Blindness
Failed States in General, and Then a Look at Zimbabwe
April 8th, 2007For most people, preparing for collapse is impossible because they have absolutely no idea what collapse would be like, and no framework within which events may be assessed. Dmitry Orlov writes, “Collapse will not be televised, you will not know that it has happened. You will only know that it has happened to you.” Learning about failed states, though, can help us do a bit better than that.
“Failed state” is a clinical sounding term, an academic term for what many of us colloquially refer to as collapse. Of course, lots of individual states have failed in the past, and several are either in a state of failure now, or moving in that direction. Knowing where your state is on the path to failure can provide you with powerful insights and the ability to make strategic plans that might improve your chances of surviving, or better yet, avoiding the worst of what’s nearly upon us.
In my opinion, all Cryptogon readers should study the nature of failed states.
States don’t usually fail overnight. (Iraq is a notable exception, thanks to the U.S.) Several interrelated factors tend to spiral increasingly out of control, over years or decades, until the state’s power declines to a point at which internal actors (warlords), or other states, will attempt to fill the vacuum. If you are interested in reading a graduate level text on this process, see People, States and Fear by Barry Buzan. (I’ve provided a link to that book on Amazon, but I wouldn’t suggest buying it. It’s WAY too expensive for something that old and arcane. Any university library should have it.)
The specifics of how states fail are as varied as the states themselves. As you read about individual failed states, though, note what they share in common. This would be a fascinating and terrifying exercise for any Americans who happen to be paying attention.
The collapse of the U.S. will, most likely, be punctuated by variations on several failed state themes. The U.S. is too big and complicated of a place to read effectively as a single unit, but when it finally fails, my best guess is that it’s going to be a morphing mass of statelets, fiefdoms and confederacies, fighting against what remains of the federal corporate plutocracy, and each other.
It’s probably safe to say, with a high degree of confidence, that the collapse of the U.S. will be extremely violent.
Why?
Look at failed states with multiple ethnic and religious groups and what you will find is that genocide and other atrocities are routine. Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Russia (Chechnya) are recent and extreme examples.
How many ethnic and religious groups are represented in the U.S.?
No failed state in history has been comprised of such a heterogeneous mixture religions and ethnicities as the United States. In better times, diversity might be seen as an advantage to a society. In failed states, however, the warfare typically occurs along ethnic and religious lines.
Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace have come up with a Failed States Index that is pretty good, although their assessment of the U.S. is off—too low—by easily 10 points. Take your pick on which indicators are too low for the U.S., but the scores for I6, I7, I8, I10 are outrageous (full index).
Their indicators are very good, but as with all of the social sciences, fitting numeric values to matrices like these lies somewhere between snake handling and reading tea leaves. Those criteria are worth keeping in mind, though. At least they are looking at solid referents to sociopolitical cohesion. Again, read Buzan if this interests you.
Now, see how much you can learn about the future of America by looking at the present situation in Zimbabwe.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
We ask the villagers whether they know what happened here. Someone says something about soldiers. Jonathan explains: “Everyone lost parents and family. No one wants to remember the camp.”
Everyone agrees that the bodies were dumped in the mine shafts that honeycomb the hills.
Smallholders say the hills are haunted and that skeletons prowl, carrying guns.
Power Out Again
April 7th, 2007UPDATE: We’re back on the air here.
– – – End Update – – –
Ok, we just lost power here again. It can’t be weather related because it’s clear and calm.
The power hasn’t gone out for more than 24 hours since I’ve been here, but just in case… You’ll know what happened if posts start to get stale.
It’ll be cooking by Petzl Tikka and dinner by candle light tonight.
One bar left on the battery. Goodnight.
Two Cryptogon Readers Each Contribute $30; Question About Chemtrails
April 7th, 2007Thanks AS and EP!
Along with his contribution, AS wondered: “Do you see chemtrails over the farm? If so how often?”
The total lack of chemtrails in the Far North of New Zealand is one of the weirdest things about adjusting to life here. After seeing such extreme chemtrail activity over the Southern California area since the late 1990s onward, I became almost used to their hideous and ominous presence. I haven’t seen a single chemtrail since being in New Zealand, although, lots of other people have seen them.
It’s big news when we see any aircraft at all up here. There’s virtually no air traffic over us here. There’s a small air strip about 25km from us. Air New Zealand runs a turboprop air taxi service from there; it goes to and from Auckland a couple of times per day, but we never see or hear that thing. In over a year of living here, I can list all of the air traffic I’ve seen here:
One sighting: New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion.
One sighting: Cop plane looking for pot growers.
One sighting: Helicopter – air ambulance.
Two Three sightings: Helicopter – flown by a guy who lives out on the east coast. (He just flew over!)
One sighting: Something weird in the Eastern sky at night – But never mind about that. This isn’t the Jeff Rense show.
That’s it for aircraft.
When I was back in Southern California, I’d see the aerosol crap billowing out of the aircraft, and think to myself, “Just try to forget about it. You can’t do anything about it. Just pretend you’re not seeing that.” On two occasions, on the day following the activity, I came down with upper respiratory problems that lasted for weeks. The first time, I thought it was a coincidence. The second time, I felt like a lab rat. Weirdly, I don’t recall getting sick like that following repeated exposures. But the times I did get sick—following the spraying—were unlike anything I’ve experienced before (or since).
When I’d try to explain this to people , I would only do it outside, in the theater of the real, if you know what I mean.
I’d wait for a VERY heavy checker-board day, as opposed to horizon-to-horizon-parallel-lines or X-marks-the-spot days. Subconsciously, I’ve found, people have noticed these things, and have just suppressed how bizarre the phenomenon is by trying to believe the condensation nonsense.
Anyway, the silly condensation explanation is easily dashed on most heavy checker-board days.
First, show the person what a normal condensation trail looks like. You should be able to easily identify those during chemtrail spraying. Ideally, you will catch the checker board pattern mid way through its construction.
Have the person watch the chemtrails being sprayed closely, and note the point at which the billowing spray is turned on and off.
That’s when you say:
“If it’s normal condensation, how does the aircraft manage to turn it on and off to form the grid pattern?”
That can be a hard lesson for people.
I’ve heard everything from shocked silence to, “What the f*ck is that, man?!”
Oh course, I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s just one thing.
It might be part of the HAARP program, but if it is, lots of governments are in on it. There is no way a U.S. high energy weapon program is being deployed in the skies above friendly European countries without those governments being in on it.
There’s the weather modification theory as well. Yep. Maybe that’s part of it. Several chemtrail patents.
There’s the biowar/innoculation argument. Yep. That’s possible too.
There are endless chemtrail biogoo chemtrail stories.
Again, I don’t know.
Useful Google Searches:
The most horrific gallery of chemtrail images I know of is: Strange Days Strange Skies
Since Cryptogon readers started discussing chemtrails on New Restrictions on U.S. Climate and Ocean Scientists: Any Scientific Statements “Of Official Interest†Must be Pre-Approved, post any chemtrail comments you might have over there.
Rudy Rattles Some with Vito Corleone’s Voice
April 7th, 2007The guy just can’t maintain appearances properly. The mask comes down on occasion.
Via: News Day:
Rudolph Giuliani launched into a California campaign speech recently with an opening line the crowd surely didn’t expect — his husky-voiced impersonation of Don Corleone in “The Godfather.”
“Thank youse all very much for invitin’ me here tuh-day, to this meeting of the families from different parts’a California,” Giuliani said, recycling his old New York gag to laughter and scattered applause.
Then this week, Giuliani used the reference again, invoking the mob’s code of honor to explain why reporters should lay off his wife. “I am a candidate. She’s a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction,” he said.
Other Italian-American politicians have shunned references to organized crime, fearful of being tarred unfairly by anti-Italian stereotyping. Not Giuliani, who has in the past embraced such talk to remind voters he helped bust up the New York mob as a federal prosecutor. Plus, he’s an unabashed “Godfather” fan.
But some political analysts are puzzled why a man seeking to become the first Italian-American president would dabble so blithely with the darkest stereotypes of his heritage, especially before voters really get to know him.
New Restrictions on U.S. Climate and Ocean Scientists: Any Scientific Statements “Of Official Interest” Must be Pre-Approved
April 6th, 2007Via: peer.org:
Federal climate, weather and marine scientists will be subject to new restrictions as to what they can say to the media or in public, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under rules posted last week, these federal scientists must obtain agency pre-approval to speak or write, whether on or off-duty, concerning any scientific topic deemed “of official interest.â€
KIWI SOLAR PANEL BREAKTHROUGH
April 6th, 2007Full text follows, because I expect to never hear about this again.
Via: stuff.co.nz:
Friday, 06 Apr 2007
Solar power breakthrough at Massey
New solar cells developed by Massey University don’t need direct sunlight to operate and use a patented range of dyes that can be impregnated in roofs, window glass and eventually even clothing to produce power.
This means teenagers could one day be wearing jackets that will recharge their equivalents of cellphones, iPods and other battery- driven devices.
The breakthrough is a development of the university’s Nanomaterials Research Centre and has attracted world-wide interest already – particularly from Australia and Japan.
Researchers at the centre have developed a range of synthetic dyes from simple organic compounds closely related to those found in nature, where light-harvesting pigments are used by plants for photosynthesis.
“This is a proof-of-concept cell,” said researcher Wayne Campbell, pointing to a desktop demonstration model.
“Within two to three years we will have developed a prototype for real applications. “The technology could be sold off already, but it would be a shame to get rid of it now.”
The key to everything is the ability of the synthetic dyes to pass on the energy that reaches them – something that mere coloured water could not do.
“We now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world,” said the centre’s director, Ashton Partridge.
“It is the most efficient ever made. While others are doing related work, in this aspect we are the world leaders.”
The development of the dyes has taken about 10 years and was accomplished with funding from the Royal Society of New Zealand for fundamental work and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology in the later stages.
Now the team is seeking extra funding to go commercial.
“This particular technology does not require the large infrastructure required for silicon chips and the like,” said Professor Partridge. It lends itself to being taken up by local and New Zealand industries.
Other dyes being tested in the cells are based on haemoglobin, the compound that gives blood its colour.
Dr Campbell said that unlike silicone-based solar cells, the dye- based cells are still able to operate in low-light conditions, making them ideal for cloudy climates.
They are also more environmentally friendly because they are made from titanium dioxide – an abundant and non-toxic, white mineral available from New Zealand’s black sand.
Titanium dioxide is used already in consumer products such as toothpaste, white paints and cosmetics.
“The refining of silicon, although a very abundant mineral, is energy- hungry and very expensive,” he said.
Professor Partridge said the next step was to take the dyes and incorporate them in roofing materials, tinted window glass and wall panels where they could generate electricity for home owners.
The aim was to develop a solar cell that could convert as much sunlight as possible to electricity.
“The energy that reaches Earth from sunlight in one hour is more than that used by all human activities in one year.”
Bank of America Delays BullionValut Deposits
April 6th, 2007In Money: Going Tactical, I discussed how I wanted to immediately move some of our money into gold using the BullionVault system. I did, indeed, try to move some money to BullionVault. I used the electronic payment option for customers with U.S. bank accounts and followed BullionValut’s instructions exactly. Since I haven’t used BullionVault before, I decided to try it out by moving a small amount of money at first.
I’m a Bank of America customer and BullionVault uses Bank of America to receive funds from clients with U.S. bank accounts. If you were to use BofA’s system to pay anyone, a slow payment would take four days. I’ve never had it take longer than that. It has been a week since I made the payment to BullionVault, and Bank of America finally said that it was complete on April 3rd.
The money STILL hasn’t shown up in BullionVault.
I emailed BullionVault:
I should be showing a deposit of US$ to BullionVault user account [DELETED]. Do you know what the story is with this?
I sent this payment several days ago, and my bank only indicated that it was delivered to BullionVault’s Bank of America account on 3 April.
Transaction Description: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A. Bill Payment
Date: 04/03/2007
Reference Number: [DELETED]
Amount: $[DELETED]I’m a Bank of America customer so I didn’t expect delays like this.
Thanks,
Kevin Flaherty
BullionVault promptly wrote back:
Dear Mr Flaherty,
Thank you for your email.
I can see your deposit pending on our Bank of America system – it should clear in the afternoon of the next working day (this will now be Tuesday 10th April, as we have Easter bank holiday Friday and Monday).
We have complained to BOA about these delays, but it seems they process these particular payments manually. We are currently looking into ways to improve this system.
Let me know if you have any questions, or if I can help in any way.
Regards
I must say, even I wasn’t paranoid enough on this. I expected the transaction to simply be noted in some Homeland Security database. Obviously, it’s all being archived in some crypt, forever. But held up and an inspected for manual processing? Again, even I wasn’t paranoid enough.
There is obviously a national security component to this type of transaction. While Bank of America processes millions of transactions per day in an automated manner, moving a few hundred dollars into a physical gold trading account requires manual processing… If you are inside the U.S., or have assets there, this type of nonsense represents a clear and present danger to you and your money. Only criminal regimes behave like this.
If this is happening now, what will be your chances of getting money out of that thing in the wake of a crisis? It’s like someone said it a comment on the post, “Zürich seems like a long swim to get your assets.”
Before even mentioning BullionVault, I warned people to TAKE PHYSICAL POSSESSION OF THE STUFF. Pay cash for it at a coin shop. The only reason I didn’t take my own advice is because New Zealand has less than a thriving precious metals market. However, that wasn’t a good enough excuse to break my own rule.
I honestly feel that BullionVault is a first class operation and that they are sincerely doing their best. I cannot, however, recommend this service for U.S. bank account holders, unless you are prepared to physically travel to your Brinks vault of choice to recover your gold in the event that the U.S. government bans gold ownership again, (BullionVault explicitly allows this in case the regime in your banking country turns overtly criminal). The U.S. has gone too far down the path of fascism for a service like this to be viable for Americans. If you have a bank account in a free country, BullionVault might be ok, if you’re willing to pay the FOREX fees. I wouldn’t, however, recommend it for U.S. bank account holders, since the Bank of America branch of the Department of Homeland Security is manually inspecting each transaction and could easily decide, at some point, to put a stop to this.
This post is actually an update to Money: Going Tactical. Please post comments there.
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
April 5th, 2007They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer
“To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it… Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning… one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”
