Population

Global Issues In An Age Of 7 Billion

November 24, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about Halloween this year is not the ghouls and goblins taking to the streets, but a baby born somewhere in the world. It’s not the baby’s or the parent’s fault, of course, but this child will become a part of an artificial, but still important, milestone: according to the UN, the Earth’s seventh billionth person will be born today. That’s seven billion people who require, in the very least, freshwater, food, shelter, medicine, and education. In some parts of the world, they will also have a car, an iPod, a suburban house and yard, pets, computers, a lawn-mower, a microwave, and perhaps a swimming pool. Though rarely addressed directly in policy (and more often than not avoided in polite conversations), the issue of overpopulation is central to environmentally sustainability and human welfare.

The questions of how many people can the Earth sustain is rightly a sensitive one, since it strikes at the heart of very personal decisions made by billions worldwide. What do we do if we’re pregnant? Do we want children? How large do we want our family to be? No one wants to be told how many children they can or cannot have, and discussions of overpopulation may imply such lectures. Others see any discussion of overpopulation as a call for stemming human population with any means necessary, which, of course, is ridiculous. Or they condemn the speakers as misanthropes—also ridiculous and contrary to the point of the discussion in the first place. Still these specious charges have made many wary to wade into one of the most important issues of our age: how many people can the Earth sustain? And, just as important, how many people do we want? For we ignore overpopulation at our peril—and our misery. The Earth is a finite planet; it has limits and thresholds; and according to many scientists and experts we are already passing several of those.

Currently, humans are consuming the equivalent of one-and-a-half planet Earths every year, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report. Looking at renewable resources—from fish to forests and carbon to agriculture—the report shows just how far we have surpassed the sustainability of our world. By the time the global population is expected to stabilize at 9 (or maybe 10) billion people in 2050, a total 2.8 Earths will be necessary if ‘business as usual’ continues. In other words it would take the Earth’s resources nearly 3 years to recover from 1 year of human consumption. Not surprisingly, some consume a far bigger share than others: for example, if everyone on Earth consumed as much as the average American, global society would need 4.5 Earths today to live sustainably.

To understand the impact of humanity on the world’s ecosystems, one needs to keep in mind it is made up of two factors. The first is population: the more of us, the greater our collective impact. The other, though, is consumption: the more resources we each consume, the further we move away from true sustainability. This makes some more responsible than others. For example, according to a 2009 study, a child born in the US today will have a carbon footprint that is 7 times larger than a child born on the same day in China. But it gets worse: the American child’s carbon footprint would be 55 times larger than an Indian’s and 86 times larger than a Nigerian’s. Population multiplied by consumption is the important metric in comprehending our footprint. In addition, humans are also living longer. A sign of societal well-being, longer lives also means a more difficult time stabilizing population and a larger individual footprint.

Yet tackling global overpopulation does not require draconian methods or a mass human tragedy; in fact, lowering global population and consumption now would make such events less likely in the future. With around two of every five pregnancies unwanted, research has shown that the greatest way to slow population growth— eventually leading to a population plateau and a slow decline—is to empower women. Universal access to contraceptives, better education, and family planning are some of the best ways to combat an overcrowded planet. Reducing poverty and child mortality are additional goals that bring overall population growth down. It also wouldn’t hurt to build greater awareness around overpopulation and consumption—and make such issues topics of conservation, even in polite company.

Food: Hunger is the issue most frequently brought up in conjunction with overpopulation (even though many others are just as pressing): how do we feed 7 billion people, let alone the 9 billion projected by 2050? According to the UN, a billion people in the world today don’t have enough food. However it’s not because the world doesn’t grow enough food, but because the food we produce is inequitably distributed. One third of all the world’s food is thrown out at one end of the agricultural chain or another: either spoiled by farmers, tossed out by merchants, or thrown in the garbage by consumers. Still, the FAO has estimated that food production will need to rise by 70 percent to supply the anticipated 9 billion. But how do we grow so much food without trashing the very environment that sustains agriculture? With quality arable land running out, there is a desperate need to grow more food on less land, while improving stewardship of resources such as water and soil. Experts continue to debate, sometimes fiercely, whether small-scale organic production is the only sustainable way forward, or whether industrial chemical-driven GMO farming is the answer.

Water: Like food, access to fresh unpolluted water is becoming a rising concern on our crowded planet. Over 800 million people currently don’t have access to clean drinking water, while one in three people suffer from water scarcity, reports the WHO. And its not just the poor that face water problems: the American Southwest, where it is still common to see well-watered green lawns in the desert, is facing a water crisis largely due to decades of unsustainable and wasteful consumption. Experts warn that underground aquifers are running low all over the world, which will have a direct impact on crop production, since currently 70 percent of consumed water is used for agriculture. In the face of water issues, some nations are turning to desalination plants and taking their water from the sea. However, desalination is still prohibitively expensive for many, while climate change is expected to add greater pressure on water-scarce regions.

Mass extinction: More people consuming more resources means less and less for the millions of other species inhabiting our world. Many experts believe we are in the midst of mass extinction, with rates estimated at 100 and 1,000 times the background rate. The IUCN Red Lists says that 869 species have gone extinct since 1500 AD, yet this is a vast underestimation, considering the bulk of the world’s species have probably never been named, let alone evaluated. Expanding human population doesn’t just imperil big beloved species like rhinos, tigers, and elephants, but multitudes of species that perform essential services for humanity from clean water to soil health, and carbon sequestration to medicine. A collapse in biodiversity portends ecosystem collapse.

Oceans: In 2008 a report predicted that all wild fish stocks would collapse by 2048. This year, a landmark study predicted mass extinction in the oceans due to greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. Once believed to be superabundant, the world’s oceans are being plundered of wildlife (or overfished) at a rate never seen in human history. At the same time, ocean acidification from carbon emissions imperils the ocean’s most biodiverse ecosystem, coral reefs, and dead zones, areas starved of oxygen caused by nitrogen-rich pollution, are spreading worldwide. Such synergistic impacts mean the oceans of the future could be very different than those of today, and would likely provide far fewer resources, especially food, for future generations. Despite the dire warnings, fish stocks continue to be vigorously overfished, greenhouse gas emissions remain on the rise, and the oceans are still a dumping ground for much of society’s pollution.

Deforestation: Every year over 10 million hectares of forest are lost (an area larger than Hungary) according to the FAO, and another 10 million hectares are degraded. Forests are cut for a variety of reasons, yet all of them connect to population and consumption with big agriculture and commodities playing the lead role. In South America the Amazon is being whittled away by cattle ranching, industrial soy farms, and mining. The rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are falling to plantations for paper and palm oil. Pressure by rural impoverished populations are diminishing forests in the Philippines, while foreign demand for high-end woods are degrading forests in Madagascar. Rising energy demands have led to forest destruction for biofuels, gas, oil, and hydropower. By some estimates half of the world’s intact tropical forests have been lost, and every year sees more destroyed. Besides harboring the majority of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, forests store carbon, safeguard freshwater, produce vapor that leads to rain, and sustain many rural and indigenous populations.

Climate change: The 21st Century will be the century of climate change: a recent study predicted that regions in Canada, Asia, Europe, and North Africa will already see a rise of 2 degrees Celsius by 2030. Our warmer world will see rising sea levels, more extreme weather, higher frequency of droughts and floods, desertification, and biodiversity loss, generally creating a less stable and more unpredictable world. While rarely discussed, human population growth is invariably linked to greenhouse gas emissions, especially in wealthy and economically-rising powers: the wealthiest 7 percent produces half of the world’s emissions. More people and more consumption means more emissions, and until greenhouse gas emissions—whether from burning fossil fuels, raising food, or forest and peatlands destruction—becomes decoupled from consumption this will remain the case. In fact, efforts to slow population growth could have an important impact on mitigating global warming: a recent study found that slowing population growth could cut global emissions by 16-29 percent.

Disease: More humans could mean more disease, though evidence for such a connection thus far is often anecdotal and sometimes contradictory. However, crowded conditions, especially as the world’s mega-cities continue to grow, and rising pressures surrounding sanitation and health care, may increase or worsen outbreaks of disease. While recent fears of a devastating pandemic over avian flu and swine flu proved overblown, it does not mean rising populations may not play role in the next outbreak. Climate change is also expected to change the range of disease, possibly pushing many dangerous tropical diseases into once-temperate environments.

Resource scarcity: Overpopulation isn’t just taking a toll on renewable resources—such as forests and soils—but on non-renewable ones as well. Peak oil has become a popular term over the past decade for good reason. Since society has lagged in transitioning to a fossil fuel-free economy, energy companies are scouring ever-more distant places (the Amazon, the Arctic, and the deep ocean) for new fossil fuel sources, imperiling some of the last pristine environments. High energy prices are also contributing to higher food costs. Meanwhile, many of the world’s important manufacturing metals—such as steel, copper, platinum, nickel, and tin—are running low and becoming harder to get, pushing prices up and forcing mining companies, much like energy companies, into remoter places, risks be damned. In many parts of the world, even protected areas are no longer safe from mining, drilling, and exploitation for resources.

Economics: The world of economics is rarely looked at as an environmental problem, since many traditional economists appear quite willing to ignore the environment. Some have even forecast that the world’s economies will keep growing exponentially, with future generations far richer than we can imagine. But how can material wealth grow on a plundered finite world? Wealth, at least capital in resources, is dependent on the environment, and our environment—planet Earth—is both finite and increasingly plundered. Beyond the fact that there is a limited amount of oil, coal, gold, etc. in the world, there is only so far one can unwisely push renewable resources—such as fish in the sea, trees to log, and arable land—before they collapse. Sustainability means safeguarding renewable resources for future generations. But currently, waste and greed are plundering not just our non-renewable resources, but pushing our renewable ones to the brink. The rise of a global throwaway culture and conspicuous consumption has resulted in an economy based in part on collapsing environmental capital, creating what may be the ultimate bubble.

Poverty and wealth: Currently, over a third of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, while the top 1 percent globally holds 43 percent of the world’s wealth. Hundreds of millions don’t have access to enough food or clean water on a daily basis, while according to Forbes this year there are a record 1,210 billionaires possessing accumulated wealth of $4.5 trillion. As more people populate the planet, paradoxically the wealth disparity has been widening. Millions in developing countries are lacking the basics of human survival (food, water, shelter, and medicine) though their nations may be rich in natural resources. Meanwhile their resources, from forests to marine fish, are often unsustainably depleted for consumption abroad in wealthy nations.

Well-being: Even if we survive the environmental calamities brought on in part by overpopulation and overconsumption, even if we make it to 10 billion people and society is still humming along, how happy will we be? So many people crowding our small planet means the decline of some very human needs: privacy, wilderness, and hopefulness. It’s hard to imagine a world of beauty and happiness for our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren if they only know gorillas and rhinos from images on the Internet, if they never have a chance to taste fresh seafood or experience true silence, if they can’t see the stars for all the light pollution or know the joy of an hour of solitude in the woods.

Source: https://churchandstate.org.uk/2011/10/global-issues-in-an-age-of-7-billion/

Filed Under: Population, Poverty, Rights, Self-Sustainability

“According to the Supreme Court, money is now speech. Corporations are now people, but when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with the political [system], they’re treated as public nuisances & evicted”

November 18, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

Big Corporations Have More Free Speech than REAL People

Robert Reich sums up the 1%’s hypocrisy towards the First Amendment:

A funny thing happened to the First Amendment on its way to the public forum. According to the Supreme Court, money is now speech and corporations are now people. But when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with the political consequences of this, they’re treated as public nuisances and evicted.

Of course, the Constitution is supposed to provide the right to free speech no matter what type of threat we’re supposedly under. That was the whole idea.

And the Founding Fathers loathed big corporations. They were as suspicious of big corporations as they were the monarchy. So they only allowed corporate charters for a very brief duration, in order to carry out a specific, time-limited project.

As James Madison noted:

There is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by…corporations. The power of all corporations ought to be limited in this respect. The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses.

Indeed, while the Boston Tea Party was a revolt against taxation without representation, it largely centered on the British government’s crony capitalism – and disproportionate tax breaks – towards the East India Company, the giant company which dominated the tea market and hurt small American business.

Protesting against the government propping up today’s giant banks – who are ruining the chance for small businesses to have a fair chance at competing – is exactly the same idea.

Later presidents had a similar view. For example, Grover Cleveland said:

As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.

And Teddy Roosevelt had to break up banking trusts which had taken over the country.

Adam Smith – the founder of free market capitalism – also railed against corporate monopolies.

And conservatives as well as liberals are war loudly warning against American corporations becoming overly powerful in relation to the people.

For example, as I noted last month:

The Oathkeepers announcement zeroes in on this issue in a way that both conservatives and liberals can agree on:

When a corporation becomes larger than is useful, and seeks to concentrate financial power into the political and governmental spheres, its likeness is no longer the King Snake, but instead is more like a Rattlesnake. At a point we call such corps “Monopoly Capitalists”. By the time a grouping of such Monopoly Capitalist corps are setting U.S. foreign policy, which the arms industry certainly does nowadays, the problem becomes unbearably apparent. Bechtel comes to mind, along with Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Monsanto, General Electric, et al.

***

Monopoly Capitalism is un-Constitutional and must be opposed.

Source: https://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/according-to-the-supreme-court-money-is-now-speech-and-corporations-are-now-people-but-when-real-people-without-money-assemble-to-express-their-dissatisfaction-with-the-political-system-theyr.html

Filed Under: Banks, Campaigning, Capitalism, Censorship, Consumerism, Corporations, Corruption, Economy, Education, Employment, Imperialism, Justice, Law, Martial Law, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Occupy, Police, Politicians, Politics, Population, Poverty, Privacy, Propaganda, Protests, Revolution, Rights, Surveillance, USA, War, Weapons

The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World

November 18, 2011 By T Kelly 1 Comment

The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World was launched simultaneously on 11 November 2011 at several locations around the world.

Please sign and share widely. Thank you for your compassion and support.

The aim of this Charter is to create a worldwide movement to end violence in all its forms. The People’s Charter will give voice to the millions of ordinary people around the world who want an end to war, oppression, environmental destruction and violence of all kinds. We hope that this Charter will support and unite the courageous nonviolent struggles of ordinary people all over the world.

As you will see, The People’s Charter describes very thoroughly the major forms of violence in the world. It also presents a strategy to end this violence.

We can each play a part in stopping violence and in creating a peaceful and just world. Some of us will focus on reducing our consumption, some of us will parent our children in a way that fosters children’s safety and empowerment, some of us will use nonviolent resistance in the face of military violence. Everyone’s contribution is important and needed. We hope this Charter will be a springboard for us all to take steps to create a peaceful and just world, however small and humble these steps may be. By listening to the deep truth of ourselves, each other and the Earth, each one of us can find our own unique way to help create this nonviolent world.

Why did we choose 11 November as the date to launch The People’s Charter?

‘When I was a boy … all the people of all the nations which fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was at that minute in nineteen-hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields at that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.’
(Kurt Vonnegut Jr., an atheist humanist, in his novel Breakfast of Champions.

Organisation

So far, the organising groups in various locations have organised launch events in their localities around the world. Some groups are organising follow-up events so that other people have the chance to become involved in local, personal networks.

See ‘Future Events’ for information about the next public event nearest you.

Signing the Charter

The People’s Charter can be read and signed online: click on ‘Read Charter’ or ‘Sign Charter’ in the sidebar.

‘A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.’ Mohandas K. Gandhi

Source: https://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com/

Filed Under: Animal Rights, Banks, Campaigning, Censorship, Corporations, Corruption, Drugs, Economy, Education, Health, Human Rights, Imperialism, Income Inequality, Justice, Law, Martial Law, Media, Mental Health, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Nuclear, Occupy, Politics, Population, Poverty, Prison, Privacy, Propaganda, Protests, Radiation, Religion, Revolution, Rights, Science, Self-Sustainability, Spirituality, Suicide, Surveillance, Symbolism, Torture, War, Weapons

The large families that run the World

November 18, 2011 By T Kelly 1 Comment

Some people have started realizing that there are large financial groups that dominate the world. Forget the political intrigues, conflicts, revolutions and wars. It is not pure chance. Everything has been planned for a long time.

Some call it “conspiracy theories” or New World Order. Anyway, the key to understanding the current political and economic events is a restricted core of families who have accumulated more wealth and power.

We are speaking of 6, 8 or maybe 12 families who truly dominate the world. Know that it is a mystery difficult to unravel.

We will not be far from the truth by citing Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Loebs Kuh and Lehmans in New York, the Rothschilds of Paris and London, the Warburgs of Hamburg, Paris and Lazards Israel Moses Seifs Rome.

Many people have heard of the Bilderberg Group, Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission. But what are the names of the families who run the world and have control of states and international organizations like the UN, NATO or the IMF?

To try to answer this question, we can start with the easiest: inventory, the world’s largest banks, and see who the shareholders are and who make the decisions.

The world’s largest companies are now: Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Let us now review who their shareholders are.

Bank of America:

State Street Corporation, Vanguard Group, BlackRock, FMR (Fidelity), Paulson, JP Morgan, T. Rowe, Capital World Investors, AXA, Bank of NY, Mellon.

JP Morgan:

State Street Corp., Vanguard Group, FMR, BlackRock, T. Rowe, AXA, Capital World Investor, Capital Research Global Investor, Northern Trust Corp. and Bank of Mellon.

Citigroup:
State Street Corporation, Vanguard Group, BlackRock, Paulson, FMR, Capital World Investor, JP Morgan, Northern Trust Corporation, Fairhome Capital Mgmt and Bank of NY Mellon.

Wells Fargo:
Berkshire Hathaway, FMR, State Street, Vanguard Group, Capital World Investors, BlackRock, Wellington Mgmt, AXA, T. Rowe and Davis Selected Advisers.

We can see that now there appears to be a nucleus present in all banks: State Street Corporation, Vanguard Group, BlackRock and FMR (Fidelity). To avoid repeating them, we will now call them the “big four”

Goldman Sachs:

“The big four,” Wellington, Capital World Investors, AXA, Massachusetts Financial Service and T. Rowe.

Morgan Stanley:

“The big four,” Mitsubishi UFJ, Franklin Resources, AXA, T. Rowe, Bank of NY Mellon e Jennison Associates. Rowe, Bank of NY Mellon and Jennison Associates.

We can just about always verify the names of major shareholders. To go further, we can now try to find out the shareholders of these companies and shareholders of major banks worldwide.

Bank of NY Mellon:

Davis Selected, Massachusetts Financial Services, Capital Research Global Investor, Dodge, Cox, Southeatern Asset Mgmt. and … “The big four.”

State Street Corporation (one of the “big four”):
Massachusetts Financial Services, Capital Research Global Investor, Barrow Hanley, GE, Putnam Investment and … The “big four” (shareholders themselves!).

BlackRock (another of the “big four”):
PNC, Barclays e CIC.
Who is behind the PNC? FMR (Fidelity), BlackRock, State Street, etc.
And behind Barclays? BlackRock

And we could go on for hours, passing by tax havens in the Cayman Islands, Monaco or the legal domicile of Shell companies in Liechtenstein. A network where companies are always the same, but never a name of a family.

In short: the eight largest U.S. financial companies (JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon and Morgan Stanley) are 100% controlled by ten shareholders and we have four companies always present in all decisions: BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard and Fidelity.

In addition, the Federal Reserve is comprised of 12 banks, represented by a board of seven people, which comprises representatives of the “big four,” which in turn are present in all other entities.

In short, the Federal Reserve is controlled by four large private companies: BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard and Fidelity. These companies control U.S. monetary policy (and world) without any control or “democratic” choice. These companies launched and participated in the current worldwide economic crisis and managed to become even more enriched.

To finish, a look at some of the companies controlled by this “big four” group

Alcoa Inc.

Altria Group Inc.

American International Group Inc.

AT&T Inc.

Boeing Co.

Caterpillar Inc.

Coca-Cola Co.

DuPont & Co.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

General Electric Co.

General Motors Corporation

Hewlett-Packard Co.

Home Depot Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Intel Corp.

International Business Machines Corp

Johnson & Johnson

JP Morgan Chase & Co.

McDonald’s Corp.

Merck & Co. Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

3M Co.

Pfizer Inc.

Procter & Gamble Co.

United Technologies Corp.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Time Warner

Walt Disney

Viacom

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.,

CBS Corporation

NBC Universal

The same “big four” control the vast majority of European companies counted on the stock exchange.

In addition, all these people run the large financial institutions, such as the IMF, the European Central Bank or the World Bank, and were “trained” and remain “employees” of the “big four” that formed them.

The names of the families that control the “big four”, never appear.

Source: https://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/18-10-2011/119355-The_Large_Families_that_rule_the_world-0/

Filed Under: Banks, Big Pharma, Biotechnology, Campaigning, Capitalism, Codex Alimentarius, Consumerism, Corporations, Corruption, Employment, Imperialism, Income Inequality, Law, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Oil, Politicians, Politics, Population, Poverty, Prison, Propaganda, Rights, Science, Symbolism, USA, War, Weapons

Prepare for Armageddon

November 18, 2011 By T Kelly 4 Comments

Armageddon (commonly known as the battle against the anti-Christ) according to the Bible, is the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end-of-the-world scenario.

According to some Muslim and Christian interpretations, the Messiah will return to earth and defeat the Antichrist, Satan the Devil, in the battle of Armageddon. According to the Muslim belief, it would be Imam Mahdi who would precede Prophet Isa (Jesus) who would fight the one eyed beast called Dajjal (Anti Christ). Then Satan will be put into the “bottomless pit” or abyss for 1,000 years, known as the Millennial Age. After being released from the abyss, Satan will gather Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj - peoples of two specific nations) from the four corners of the earth. They will encamp surrounding the “holy ones” and the “beloved city” (this refers to Jerusalem). Fire will come down from God, out of heaven and devour Gog and Magog after the Millennium.

According to the Muslim belief, the forces to battle the one eyed beast would rise from the area of Khurasan that comprises of portion of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and part of Central Asia. If the anti-Christ forces have assembled in Afghanistan, it’s not a coincidence but well thought out Zionist strategy to take on Pakistan, the nuclear power of the Muslim world so its free to advance other Muslim territories without any fear.

Most historians and scholars believe that the present stretching of the US and NATO Forces far and beyond their legitimate areas of interests, is a sign of final showdown. The placement of US forces in Afghanistan is seen as the final build up to attack the Muslim lands. This could well become the graveyard of the US troops from where they may never escape death. Presently, the grouping of pro and anti Christ Forces is seen to be taking place. The US and NATO clearly appear to be on the side of the Anti-Christ and siding with the Zionists the real anti-Christ Forces. Zionists are known to be Satan worshipers in their secret hideouts therefore are working to create a godless world and control the entire resources.

Sensing these developments, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin prior to his departure for China, cautioned his generals to prepare for Armageddon. A similar message was also delivered to the Chinese leadership that has the Chinese Forces also on high alert. Apparently in the same context, Putin has resolved all differences with China to forge a clear unity for times ahead.

Sino-Russian alliance is very timely, seeing the hard threatening statements of Hillary Clinton that she fired at Pakistan from Kabul before flying to Islamabad is very alarming. Pakistan has some hard decisions to make.

Commander William Guy Carr, in his book ‘Pawns In The Game’ probably written in 1948 stated that third revolution and third world war are in the offing for which the grouping is taking place. He also stated categorically that the third world war would be against Islam.

Plans for this “Total Global War” or the war against Islam the Americans are preparing to launch were first revealed to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) by a former Blackwater agent Bryan Underwood who has been apprehended by the US authorities for spying.

If one observes the way the US and NATO are waging their wars in Muslim countries proves William Carr to be correct.

Blackwater, the global contractor for CIA is operating in almost all the target countries, arrest of Raymond Davis in Pakistan did expose the US designs; had he been retained and grilled for some indefinite time, much more would have been revealed. Pakistan is infested with Blackwater, they have made inroads in ethnic political parties more so in Karachi, the port city of Pakistan. Balochistan has also become a hotbed where secessionists forces are being patronized by CIA, MI6, Mossad and RAW. As believed now, the US has also launched biological warfare in Pakistan where dengue is killing people on daily basis.

On reading the situation of the coming US plans for Total Global War, Putin spelt out an alliance to integrate the former Soviet Republics into closer cooperation. He scheduled an emergency trip to China to meet with Hu, and ordered the FSB (Russian Agency) to notify China’s MSS of the arrest and detention of their spy Tun Sheniyun who was captured last year for attempting to steal sensitive information on Russia’s most powerful anti-aircraft system.

Today Libya has fallen, how the Libyans would benefit from it only time would tell but one thing is sure that US and her allies have formed a bridgehead in Africa. Further deployment of the US troops in Africa are taking place, its China encirclement there where China has friends in the Muslim countries. Sudan has been split, and Obama plans to occupy some other countries like Uganda, Somalia, Morocco etc. In Africa, says Obama, the “humanitarian mission” is to assist the government of Uganda defeat the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA), which “has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa”. Incidentally, Africa also happens to be the Chinese success story therefore by taking over Africa, China would also be chocked. Libya was one of the major oil suppliers to China now that hangs in air. Gaddafi was trying to dump dollar for gold that instigated the US to attack her through a cleverly manipulated and orchestrated moves.

After having been deceived in Libya where the US assured both Russia and China that it will not attack but did quite contrary to what was promised. Sensing that US plans to attack Syria, Russia and China were quick to veto the American resolution in the security council that infuriated the US Ambassador Susan Rice who left the session in rage.

Dick Cheney pointed out in his 1990s “defence strategy” plan, America simply wishes to rule the world so that’s forging ahead following the Nixonian doctrine, ‘seize the moment.’

Reported by the EU Times, the “New Great Game” moves being planned by the Americans is to strike fear into both Russia and China that includes:

1.) The deliberate implosion of both the US and EU economies in order to destroy the Global Financial System that has been in place since the ending of World War II

2.) The launching of a massive conventional war by the US and EU on the North American, African and Asian Continents to include the Middle East

3.) During this all-out war the deliberate releasing of bio-warfare agents meant to kill off millions, if not billions, of innocent civilians

4.) At the height of this war the US and its allies will sue for peace and call for a new global order to be established in order to prevent the total destruction of our planet.

Confirming the fears, an unidentified source within the US Department of Defense (DOD) warned that the Obama regime was preparing for a massive “tank-on-tank” war and that US military forces are “expecting something conventional, and big, coming down the pipe relatively soon.”

To how close this war may be the FSB in their report states that it will be “much sooner than later” as the Americans have pre-positioned in Iraq nearly 2,000 of their M1 Abrams main battle tanks, have pre-positioned another 2,000 of them in Afghanistan, and between the Middle East and Asia have, likewise, put into these war theaters tens-of-thousands of other typed armored vehicles. This should be a grave cause of concern for Pakistan.

Being at war, the US can also effect “Full Mobilization” of over 1.5 million American reserve forces which can occur at “at a moment’s notice” for which US needs no Congressional approval to expand their areas of operation is also being examined when America is fully poised to advance in Asia and Middle East.

Now that Hillary Clinton is on her Pakistan visit accompanied by the new CIA Chief, David Petraeus, Chairman US Joint Staff, General Martin Dempsey and Marc Grossman. Keeping the armoured buildup in the region and having an Armour Officer as the new Chairman of Joint Staff, could one say it a coincidence or a planned strategy?

Hillary, as expected that I mentioned in my CNBC News analysis on 19th October, has arrived with a tough warning for Pakistan, saying, “We will do it with or without you.” This has certainly placed Pakistan in a very trying situation. Pakistan has other options to join the third force that is in formation led by Russia and China to counter the US moves in the region. If Pakistan, Iran, Syria and other Muslim states including Saudi Arabia join this alliance, that would certainly deter the US and her allies, if not then every Muslim country would fall one after the other without exception and their assets would be frozen.

Important to note about the American plan for global domination through massive warfare is that it is not really a secret, and as (curiously) revealed on the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks upon the United States when the US National Security Archive released a memo written by former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in September 2001 wherein he warned “If the war does not significantly change the world’s political map, the US will not achieve its aim.”

To what the “aim” of the United States is as their war against the world has now entered its 10th year, the FSB says, is to prevent “at all costs” the implosion of the US Dollar as the main reserve currency of the present global economic system before the West’s envisioned “New World Order” can be established.

The first threat to the Americans “master plan” for global hegemony came in November 2000 when the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein quit accepting US Dollars for oil and, instead, stated his country would only accept Euros. In less than 10 months an attack on the US was engineered and used that as an excuse to topple Hussein and reestablish the US Dollar as the world’s main reserve currency.

Interesting to note is the failure of Libya’s former leader Gaddafi’s plan to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency that would serve as an alternative to the US Dollar and allow African nations to share the wealth, but which like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein “plan” brought a swift and brutal invasion by the Americans and their Western allies to keep it from happening.

The only nation that has successfully abandoned the US Dollar is Iran, who since February 2009 abandoned all American currency opting instead to value their oil and gas in Euros. Iran, however, and unlike oil rich Iraq and Libya, has not been attacked due to the Iranians having acquired from Ukraine between 6-10 nuclear armed X-55 missiles (range of 3,000km [2,000 miles]) in 2005. Although the former Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko denies that the missiles contain their nuclear tips, a statement disputed by the FSB who states they were armed and “ready to fire.”

As a preemption, to counter the planned American blitzkrieg into Central Asia and Pakistan from Afghanistan, Indian Army Chief General VK Singh warned yesterday that thousands of Chinese military forces have now moved into Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir joining an estimated 11,000 more of them believed to have entered that region in the past year.

Before the US ventures into other Muslim lands, the US would want a submissive or a broken and denuclearized Pakistan. In both the scenarios it would mean Pakistan’s death. In such a scenario, Pakistan maybe compelled to go for non conventional weapons; if such a development takes place, India, Israel and the US installations in the region would not be safe. Can the US risk such a situation would only depend on the arrogance and sanity level of the US leadership.

Source: https://www.thosepeoples.tk/2011/11/prepare-for-armagedon.html

Filed Under: Banks, Corporations, Corruption, Imperialism, Islam, Israel, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Nuclear, Oil, Politicians, Politics, Population, Propaganda, Radiation, Religion, Revolution, Rights, Science, Spirituality, Symbolism, USA, War, Weapons

The Power of Words

November 17, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Population, Self-Sustainability, Spirituality

Is empathy in our genes?

November 16, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

A large part of how we relate to people emotionally may be hardwired into our DNA. A new study suggests that character traits such as being open, caring, and trusting are so strongly linked to a certain gene variation that a total stranger, simply by watching us listen to another person, may be able to guess whether we have the variation with a high degree of accuracy.

Previous studies have linked several personality traits to variations in this gene, which acts as a docking station (or receptor) for the brain chemical oxytocin — often referred to as the “love hormone” because it plays a role in social behaviors such as bonding, empathy, and anxiety.

People who have two “G” variants of this oxytocin receptor gene tend to have better social skills and higher self-esteem, research has shown. Conversely, those with at least one “A” variant tend to have a harder time dealing with stress, worse mental-health outcomes, and a greater likelihood of being autistic.

“We’ve known that genotype can influence personality, but we’d only ever studied what goes on inside a person — things like behavioral scales and heart-rate measurements,” says Serena Rodrigues Saturn, Ph.D., a senior author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University, in Corvallis. “This is the first time anyone has observed how different genotypes manifest themselves in behaviors that complete strangers can pick up on.”

To explore the relationship between a person’s genetics and demeanor, Rodrigues Saturn and her colleagues recruited 23 romantic couples, and videotaped them while one partner recalled and discussed a time of suffering in their lives. The other partner, who had given a saliva sample to determine his or her genotype, was simply asked to sit and listen.

The researchers then showed 20 seconds of each video clip to a group of 116 people. None of the viewers knew the video subjects, and they watched the clips with the sound off so they had no knowledge of the situations being discussed. They were then asked to rate how kind, caring, and trustworthy the listening partner seemed, based only on visual cues.

“They looked for things like nodding along with their partner, holding eye contact, keeping an open body posture,” Rodrigues Saturn says. “Those people were judged as more social and caring, as opposed to others who seemed much more aloof.”

Although they expected to find some association between the subjects’ genotypes and their rankings, the researchers were “blown away” by how accurate the observers’ intuition actually was, Rodrigues Saturn says. Out of the 10 people who were ranked as “most prosocial,” six had the GG genotype, and of the 10 ranked “least trusted,” nine were carriers of at least one A variant.

The findings were published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Keith Kendrick, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, in Chengdu, says it’s important to note that genes besides the oxytocin receptor gene — not to mention other, non-genetic factors — influence social behavior as well. Oxytocin receptors have been shown to be modified by a person’s environment, for example, so life experiences presumably play a large role too, he says.

“Just because you have an ‘A’ version of this one receptor gene clearly does not mark you down as a completely unsocial individual,” says Kendrick, who was not involved in the study. “Obviously many different genes contribute to something as complex as social behavior, but it is interesting that this particular one appears to be so influential.”

One genotype isn’t necessarily better or healthier than the other, Rodrigues Saturn says. Although scientists used to refer to the gene’s “A” variant as a “risk” variant (because it increases risk of autism and social dysfunction), many experts now think of the variations as just that: variations that may—along with many other forces — play out in personalities.

“It’s important to understand that some people are… naturally more held back, or may be overcome by their own personal stresses and have a hard time relating to others,” Rodrigues Saturn says. Putting these people in more comfortable environments that naturally induce the production of oxytocin may help to coax them out of their shells and help them feel more “warm and fuzzy,” she says.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/15/health/empathy-genes/index.html

Filed Under: Corporations, Drugs, Education, Genetics, Health, Money, Neuroscience, Politicians, Politics, Population, Psychology, Science

The coming pandemic: Expect all protective systems to fail

November 16, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

The attacks of September 11 were quickly followed by a biological weapons attack in which government-grade weaponized anthrax killed five people and sickened numerous others.

This attack, the genesis of which remains unsolved ten years later, was used to justify the United States Congress pumping over $60 billion dollars into a “biodefense “ program which has failed in every parameter that can be measured.

In fact, it appears that all purportedly protective measures, developed nationally and internationally, have fatal flaws in their design which may function to ensure the likelihood and success of a biological weapons attack.

On The Domestic Front

Even the commission created by Congress in 2007 to evaluate all defenses for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats gave our biodefense program a failing grade.

Ten years after the anthrax mailings (which went to Congressmen who might have voted against the USA Patriot Act, as well as to certain media outlets), the US has not even developed a second generation anthrax vaccine. Over 100 million dollars has been allocated to develop this vaccine, but ten years after the biological weapons attack on our country our vaccine stockpiles consist of smallpox vaccines as well as the original anthrax vaccine (reputed to cause Gulf War syndrome) and little else.

Authorized under the Bush administration, Project BioWatch has developed and placed sensors in a number of large cities to serve as an advance detection system for an airborne biological attack, but this program has come under scrutiny and critics have alleged that this may be useless due to prior knowledge of the sensor locations by terror groups.

Since 9/11, there has also been a proliferation of what are called “biosafety labs” (BSL’s) level threes and fours. The 3’s and 4’s, so designated because of the enhanced safety protocols at use in the advanced level labs, handle the most dangerous bugs known to man. There are at least 17 such BSL-4’s now in the US and, according to documents released by the DOJ and DOE, over 1350 BSL-3’s. These numbers are dramatically up since the events of September 2001.

The US government maintains a list of pathogens and toxins which have the potential of causing grave harm to human or plant life. The Center for Disease Control is mandated to keep track of labs handling select agents, but is very cagey in terms of releasing the information about the numbers and locations of these facilities, preferring instead to tender denials and offer false information when confronted with the proliferation of these labs.

There is evidence that the US has developed an aggressive biological weapons program, despite our government’s insistence that we abandoned our bioweapons program forty years ago, under President Nixon. The evidence may be found at Sierra Army Depot (and other military bases) where these weapons appear to be stockpiled.

Locking in on the Threat

There is growing alarm among certain sectors that the US may be planning another “event” using biological weapons, and may attempt to either blame this on terrorists or on some sort of “natural” epidemic. It therefore becomes imperative to determine what sort of attack we may be facing and what we can do to protect ourselves.

According to Dr. Kenneth Alibek, a Russian scientist who came over to this side of the fence and is now working on biological weapons issues at Battelle, there are essentially three ways in which a biological attack could be launched. Writes Alibek:

Biological weapons can deployed in three ways:

contamination of food or water supplies, which are then ingested by the victims

release of infected vectors, such as mosquitoes or fleas, which then bite the victims

creation of an aerosol cloud, which is then inhaled by the victims (or if the targets are plants, the cloud then settles on and infects the plants).

The probability of a general airborne attack is unlikely. An airborne attack could not be easily controlled and carries the strong likelihood of affecting unintended targets. One must therefore look at other delivery systems that carry an ability to lock onto the desired targets and pass over those who have been predesignated to survive.

Work on reconfiguring the water system, countrywide, began right about the same time as the US signed onto the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in the early 1970s. This reconfigured “double line” water system provides the opportunity for a nearly “surgical” attack on predetermined targets.

Possibly advancing to the top of the list in terms of all-time government deception was President Nixon’s public announcement in 1969 that the US was ending its biological weapons program. It is now apparent that at the same time that President Nixon disavowed our bioweapons program and the US ratified the BWC, plans were being developed and executed to lay down a second main line in cities and towns throughout America, and plans to use the water system as a delivery system were cemented.

A chemist in Eastern Washington State, Dave Duncan, had volunteered in 2006 to run chemical analyses on samples of water which had ostensibly come from the mixture of the two water mains. His initial tests revealed that the specific gravity of the sample was significantly skewed when compared to normal tap water. Duncan, a fundamentalist Christian, became concerned about the implications of his work, declaring that “if people were going to be killed off, it must be God’s will.” Shortly after vacating his work on analyzing the water sample, Duncan succumbed to an aggressive form of colon cancer.

Another delivery system has been uncovered, which may dovetail with the double line water system, for the delivery of a lethal dose of toxins or chemicals. For numerous medications being manufactured by Big Pharma, there are now imposter “death drugs” being quietly manufactured, as well. These look-alike doppelgangers, which appear identical to the antibiotic, analgesic, hormonal, cardiac or other common medication, will produce a heart attack and/or stroke and — most likely — subsequent death.

Both water as a delivery system and the imposter pharmaceuticals bear the necessary targeting capability. The double line water system provides the ability to selectively target households and the pharmaceutical delivery system provides the ability to selectively target individuals.

None of the 60 billion dollars pumped into biodefense in the last ten years appears to be designated to address waterborne attacks. A recent announcement from DHS Chief Janet Napolitano declared that “dangerous terrorists” had infiltrated the utility companies and were planning an attack. The Department of Homeland Security was subsequently contacted and details were turned over to that agency as to how this could very well occur via water utilities, given the vulnerability inherent in the double line water system. There has been no response from Napolitano or the DHS.

On the International Scene

It appears the wagons have also circled around the involvement of the pharmaceutical companies in biological weapons work. As there are no weapons inspectors or any other implementation vehicle for the BWC, the pharmaceutical companies can carry on their death work without the intrusion of any Peeping Tom inspection team. The glaring failure of the BWC to provide a means of implementing the treaty has resulted in a complete lack of oversight as to what is going on in pharmaceutical labs. In the past, attempts to set up an inspection capability for the BWC have been vigorously opposed by the United States and also by . . . you guessed it — the pharmaceutical companies.

The development and production of biological weapons would necessitate, of course, a laboratory to produce them. Certain industries maintain such labs, such as pharmaceutical companies and some food production companies. Big Pharma has consistently objected to the spectre of weapons inspectors coming into their labs, stating that such weapons inspectors could, in fact, be industrial spies bent on stealing proprietary drug information. Bending to the stated necessity of keeping the profits of the pharmaceutical companies secure along with their proprietary formulas, the BWC has so far accommodated the pharmaceutical companies in their insistence on the priority of maintaining their privacy and profit margins, granting this imperative more weight than the need to keep the world safe from biological weapons.

However, given the revelation of the “death drug” imposter pill program, we can see why the pharmaceutical industry would balk at weapons inspectors peering over its shoulders.

This December, the BWC will be meeting again in Geneva, as it does only every five years. On the table will be strengthening the “confidence building measures,” (CBM’s) which have taken the place of inspection teams as a means to ensure treaty compliance. The problem is that the CBM’s rely on the integrity of each nation to accurately report on its own programs. In plain language, that means that we must “trust” the word of countries such as the United States, Russia, Great Britain, Iran, Pakistan and South Africa to accurately report what is going on in their labs.

The very term “confidence building measures” is possibly one of the most offensive and misleading parts of the staged drama that is the BWC. Forty years after the BWC treaty originally came into existence, we still have no means of ensuring any kind of compliance with the mandates of the treaty, other than the “word” of a possible offender. In a recent interview with a former CIA contractor, who has asked his name not be used here, this top-level scientist who worked for years as a CIA asset admitted that it was known in intelligence circles that the old Soviet Union under Yeltsin was violating the BWC. This was never brought to the attention of the international community through the BWC.

The three nations which serve as depositories of the BWC are Russia, Great Britain and the United States. Great Britain may have recently ducked an international scandal when a South African physician, Dr. Wouter Basson, was exonerated of war crimes charges for his work developing biological weapons with Project Coast during the apartheid years. Basson was purportedly involved in developing a “blacks-only” bioweapon, which would only kill native Africans and leave white people unscathed. Sources in the US government have contacted this reporter alleging that such a weapon is now at play and has been leaked into processed foods. The substance allegedly bonds with melanin (which is present in darker skinned peoples) producing hypertension and diabetes. Indeed, the present epidemic of these two “silent killers” is nearly unknown in Africa, where the native population does not eat such a preponderance of processed foods, relying instead on more natural food sources. Africa, as we know, is being emptied out by the AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Basson, it appears, was chummy with Dr. David Kelly, the British biological weapons inspector whose sudden “suicide” may well have been an effort to obscure the evidence of a cooperative effort between the South African bioweapons program and England ().

Come December, the Big Three — Russia, Great Britain and the US — will meet with other nations to convene their deadly serious effort of making the world safe from biological weapons. Or, that is what they want us to believe, anyway.

The reality is that, through its failure to enact implementation protocols, the BWC is enabling the development of precisely the type of weaponry that it is mandated to curtail.

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/coming-pandemic-expect-all-protective.html

Filed Under: Big Pharma, Consumerism, Corporations, Corruption, Drugs, Health, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Monsanto, Politicians, Politics, Population, Propaganda, Protests, Revolution, Rights, Science, USA, Weapons Tagged With: Biochemical

Incriminating - Zuccotti park: Its owner; Mayor Bloomberg & Wall St

November 15, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

INCRIMINATING INFORMATION ON “MAYOR BLOOMBERG” AND ZUCOTTI PARK

Gives a new meaning to the term “Public-Private-Partnership”:

-MAYOR BLOOMBERG’s longtime, live-in GIRLFRIEND, Diana Taylor, sits on the BOARD OF BROOKFIELD

-BLOOMBERG’S GIRLFRIEND, Taylor is ALSO an investment BANKER & prominent New York City fundraiser. Interesting ‘connections’. Wall Street…Banks…anyone?

-BROOKFIELD was given a dispensation from ZONING PERMISSION in relation to another *property*, on condition that Zuccotti Park was created.

-The connection should confirm, in case there was any question, that Bloomberg & the owner of the park, Brookfield, are in CONSTANT COMMUNICATION

The Public-Private Partnership Behind Zuccotti Park

There are growing signs that the powers that be feel threatened by #OccupyWallStreet and the movement it has inspired. Yesterday, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s assignment editor at the New York Times big bank CEO friend asked him to check out the protests to see if they were a threat.

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg was asked if he would let the protesters stay in the park, and he responded with an ambiguous “We’ll see” before absurdly taking the protesters to task for protesting “people who make $40,000 and $50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet.” And today, WNYC reported that NYPD sources are saying that an “INDEFINATE” occupation of the Zuccotti Park is not an option, based on their talks with the park’s owner.

If the city moves to squash the revolt by evicting the protesters, Mayor Bloomberg and the owner of Zuccotti Park, Brookfield Properties, will be inviting a lot more attention from the occupiers, the press, and the public. The public-private partnership that controls the park has not received much scrutiny so far. An eviction would change that dramatically.

It has not been reported, for instance, that Bloomberg’s longtime, live-in girlfriend, Diana Taylor, sits on the board of Brookfield. The relationship gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “public-private partnership.” Numerous articles have noted that Brookfield owns the park and is in close contact with the city about the situation there, but oddly enough no one seems to have looked at its board (not hard to do). The connection should confirm, in case there was any question, that Bloomberg and the owner of the park are in constant communication.

Taylor is an investment banker and prominent New York City fundraiser. She joined the board of Brookfield in 2007 following a stint as New York State’s Superintendent of Banks. She currently works at Wolfensohn, an investment firm run by former World Bank head James Wolfensohn, and also sits on the board of Citigroup.

Taylor and Bloomberg met, fittingly enough, at a Citizens Budget Commission luncheon in 2001. The Citizens Budget Commission is a committee of elites committed to financial austerity, i.e. tax cuts for the 1%, service and job cuts for everyone else. A group of bankers founded it during the Depression to fight for this brand of fiscal seriousness in New York City.

Coincidentally, Taylor has been the subject of a spate of puff pieces in recent weeks, including a New York Times article, a Talk of the Town piece in the New Yorker, and a New York Observer feature. None have mentioned her ties to the owner of Zuccotti Park (though the Observer piece mentions that she sits on the board of Brookfield).

Taylor has taken some flack for criticizing Obama in the Observer piece, at one point invoking Sarah Palin by saying that he hasn’t come through on his “hopey-changey stuff.” According to Crain’s, her comments “surprised insiders” given her partner’s more neutral position and the protocol that typically governs high-powered fundraisers for charity. One lobbyist speculated that her comments positioned her for a role in a Republican administration, which may explain all the press. She also sounded off about the Dodd Frank financial reform legislation, speaking from the neutral standpoint of someone who made $286,250 last year as a director Citigroup.

The cozy, overlooked relationship between Bloomberg and Brookfield, and Brookfield’s ownership of Zuccotti Park, highlights the very dynamic #OccupyWallStreet is protesting: the control of public resources, and government itself, by the wealthy and powerful – the 1%.

The occupiers have taken an important first step towards correcting this imbalance. The message is resonating and the movement is growing.

If Bloomberg & Brookfield (LLP) move to re-assert 1% control of the park, it could really backfire on them. If they attempt to shut down the protesters by cutting off supplies, or implementing restrictions designed to make life in the park impossible in cold weather, it could really backfire on them.

And Andrew Ross Sorkin’s assignment editor would not like that.

Source: https://deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?8739-The-Public-Private-Partnership-Behind-Zuccotti-Park

Filed Under: Banks, Capitalism, Censorship, Consumerism, Corporations, Corruption, Democracy, Economy, Environment, Income Inequality, Law, Martial Law, Media, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Occupy, Police, Politicians, Politics, Pollution, Population, Poverty, Propaganda, Protests, Rights, USA

How to Survive the Second Depression

November 14, 2011 By T Kelly Leave a Comment

I don’t think that there is any denial from the working class that we are still in the throes of a recession. And many also believe that if we are not in an actual depression now, we will be soon. The rising cost of food and health care, the elimination of the single-family home from the American Dream, the lack of jobs for the unemployed, and the wholesale underemployment of many with jobs . . . well even an economics dunce like me can see the writing of the wall.

Luckily, I am prepared. And even though some of my peers get tired of my continued emphasis on preparing for an uncertain future, the reality is that the door on the old way of life is closing and families of all types need to be ready. But my intent here is not to preach.

Instead, I have a special treat. My longtime friend George Ure has given me permission to repost his muse on the Perfect Modern Depression Family that was previously shared only with his $40 per year subscribers at Peoplenomics.

A Perfect Modern Depression Family

Don’t know as I’ve ever given you a sketch of where I’d be if I could design a perfect family situation for weathering a Great Depression, but it might be a family set up something like this:

• Dad works as a lineman for a utility company. He’s going to have a fairly steady job because people will want their lights on, but with people getting lights turned on and off, as they pay their bills, or not, he’d have lots to do pulling meters and so forth. Since climate change means more violent weather, lots of potential for pick-up hours, too. And at double time in some cases. Or, maybe dad is an x-ray tech, or runs an ultrasound or MRI machine in medicine. Lights and meds will still be around.

• Mom works as a grocery checker, or works as a meat cutter in the local store. Many still have meat cutters and they make good money, get good vacations and, yep, have an inside line on food stocks even when things start to run short.

• Johnny, their boy, has a paper route. He’s going to have a hot business on his hands because as people drop Internet connectivity, the small local newspaper could make a big come back, especially because people will be looking for local deals on everything. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up and since he’s on the honor role, he has a good chance of making it.

• Suzy, the daughter, has been really active in 4-H – so much so that she’s been getting hints from the teacher that she might get a full-ride scholarship to a state Ag school. She seems set for a good career and she’s thinking about becoming a veterinarian.

• The family house was purchased 19 years ago and has been refinanced recently, not to pull out equity, but to reduce the monthly payment to the smallest possible amount since the family knows tough times are coming. Resetting at 20 years, even though they had only 10 years to go, helps. I might not do it, but I don’t have to pay for kids, except for the ongoing school taxes.

• The family has slowly acquired about 100 ounces of silver and 10 ounces of gold.

• Did I mention Suzy has been doing a backyard garden and that Mom has been canning the past couple of years? Nothing fancy; some dill pickles, a few fruits and beans and tomatoes from the garden. These past few weeks, she’s been blanching and freezing other varieties.

• Dad’s gone off the deep end, putting a solar cooking rig in the back yard – sun-driven BBQ and oven while Mom’s order of a year’s worth of grains in nitrogen-packed containers came in a few weeks back.

• Uncle Bob is a dentist, and everything in the mouth is done and paid for with cash. The family’s 3 cars are all in good repair and in the area of 50,000 miles each, including the subcompact the kids share. Fresh tires on them all, too, since overseas sources may dry up in the Depression.

• The family all have library cards and have rediscovered reading. As a result, family dinners are lively and thought provoking conversation gatherings which build the family bond. Neighborhood kids come over, too, since the food is so good and it’s not like their homes at all.

The Worst Family Profile

If you think the first family has it made, you got it right! Contrast how an adverse time is going to work out for this family:

• Dad works for a financial services company selling annuities. He’s on the verge of losing his job because people aren’t buying that kind of financial product anymore.

• Mom was selling real estate, but since she just got into that in the fall of 2008, she hasn’t made hardly any money at it, and though she keeps hoping to get a few sales, like most agents, she’s only able to make $23,000 per year because of the downturn.

• Billy, their son, is totally immersed in video games and Goth. He’s on expensive ADHD medication and has a 2-second attention span on a good day. He’s eating almost exclusively a high-fructose corn syrup laced diet which has made him fat and his attitude is horrible. His grades are failing and he’s talk about dropping out in his junior year of high school. He spends a lot of time on the cell phone running up his phone tab alone north of $100 per month.

• Christy, the daughter, has turned into a drug-smoking slut, popular with gang-types, and lately with mom and dad at work, several items around the home have turned up missing, including Billy’s last cell phone which cost $350 to replace because he threw fits about needing a stylish phone.

• The family home is one payment from foreclosure most of the time. Dad hasn’t been able to bring down credit card debt, and with all seven cards the total is more than $60,000.

• They refinanced the house at the peak in 2008 and pulled out money for a new SUV, but that was wrecked the month after they bought it and the insurance didn’t pay off well, so they drive a four-year-old SUV with high miles. It’s going to need tires soon, but there’s no money for them, since they put custom 24″ wheels on it for appearances and those tires are $350 each now.

• At the end of each month, they are about $300 cash negative, but the bank cards have “helped”. The parents are praying for better jobs and sending resumes everywhere.

• Dad got called into the office next Thursday to meet with HR. He’s one step from fiscal disaster.

• The family doesn’t eat together, no one reads, and meals are expensive as a result with a high ‘fast food’ cost. Neighborhood kids come over to smoke dope, make a run at Christy, and see if Billy’s checked out so they can swipe some of his game cartridges.

Given a choice, I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out which family is going to survive a further 50% reduction of income. One is actually a family team, while the other is a haphazard collection of social ills residing under a common roof that may be ‘called’ any time.

. . . George Ure, August 2011

Now I am sure that many families fall somewhere in between the “perfect” family and the “worst” family. The point, though, is to figure out where you are in this continuum and to begin taking the steps to move closer to a perfect family dynamic.

So what are some of the decision and choices?

One that sure comes to mind has to do with housing. Depending on your financial condition, age, and employment status, where you live may indeed become one of the most significant changes you can make to ensure your security in the second depression. Should you live in a single-family home, or a multi-generation shared residence? Should you move to a “cheap” state where property taxes are low and the cost of living is reasonable? How about moving to the country where you can grow your own food and raise chickens? Or, what about being geographically independent by living in a large motor home (dirt cheap right now) and roaming from one Wal-Mart parking lot to another?

Okay, I admit the latter option is a bit extreme but still, if all of your money is presently going toward housing, you need to rethink your situation and come up with alternatives, even if it means finding housemates or becoming creative in some other manner.

With the goal of becoming the Perfect Modern Family, I heartily endorse learning as much as you can about personal survival skills. Learn to cook, learn to sew, learn to build a fire and learn to fix stuff.

The other thing? Learn to become self-entertaining, and by that I mean learn to be happy with books, walks in the woods or the park, and the company of others who share like-minded and spirited conversations about things that matter.

Gut feelings are a funny thing – sometimes right and sometimes wrong – but as you age, you begin to trust those instincts more and more. There is no doubt in my mind that the old ways of doing things are long gone, and if you are “old as dirt” as I am, you just know that old ways will never return.

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/how-to-survive-second-depression.html

Filed Under: Banks, Campaigning, Capitalism, Consumerism, Corporations, Economy, Environment, Family, Health, Military Industrial Complex, Money, Politics, Population, Poverty, Propaganda, Protests, Revolution, Rights, Science, Self-Sustainability, Spirituality, USA