Read one of my previous Synthetic Armageddon posts, The Big Lie. Then write your own post, applying Hegelian Theory to the Killer Tomato Panic of Summer 2008. Come on, it’s fun!  And it’s so easy!

(Image from Chris Garret’s photostream)

Is the Fourth Estate a Fifth Column?

Friday 11 July 2008

by: Bill Moyers, In These Times

Corporate media colludes with democracy’s demise.

I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in Choctaw County in Oklahoma before my family moved to Texas. A tribal elder was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, “It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The boy took this in for a few minutes and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf won?”

The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one I feed.”

(This one is from Abo’s photostream)

I went to Wegmans today and bought all their loss leaders and nothing else, including 20 bottles of lemonade and Italian mineral water averaging about 99 cents apiece, four pounds of strawberries ($8), and fifteen pounds of ground beef ($1.89/lb) which I promptly froze. I used one pound of strawberries in my home-made ice cream, then sliced and froze the rest.

Last week I bought five cases of soda for just $11. If I keep this up they’re not going to let me shop there anymore.

(Jag-U-Are, Rich Bitch Collection)

Hey Guys! I need you to do a little creative visualization for a moment!

Imagine you have a wife who cheats on you constantly, steals all your stuff, won’t let you touch her, and then has the gall to demand maintenance pay. Wait! There’s more! You don’t even get to divorce the bitch. You have to stay married to her and continue to give her money while she continues to shag the pool boy, rob you blind and fuck you over. WHY? Because she’s become “accustomed to the lifestyle,” and the government treats your money as if a significant portion of it were hers.

How would that make you feel? Kinda bad, yes?

Ladies, you do the same, plugging in whatever gender works for you. I actually know a woman whose unemployed husband demanded a huge chunk of her 401K when they divorced. They got married, he quit his job, and then left the marriage a year and a half later with a significant portion of her stuff, because she made more money than he did, because the whole time he was watching soap operas at home. She’s a little bitter about that.

The present plan to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac? Yeah, it’s like THAT.

“A capitalist in need is a socialist indeed.”

Most of us are under the mistaken assumption that the United States of America is a capitalist democracy. Well, it’s not. It’s a corporate oligarchy, with capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich. How does it work? Oh that’s easy:

When we - you and I - fuck up our business and our finances, the bankers and the corporations take our stuff.

BUT . . .

When BANKERS and CORPORATIONS fuck up THEIR businesses and THEIR finances, the bankers and the corporations still take our stuff!

It’s a great system, if you’re a central banker or a corporatist multi-billionaire. Remember the S&L Crisis? The Bush family made a whole pile of money with that scam. This is how the wealth transfer (from us to them) is to work, AGAIN, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: The U.S. Government plans to buy a huge interest in these failing banks using OUR MONEY. Our parents’ money. Our children’s money. Our grandchildren’s money.

Imagine that they raided your bank accounts and used it to buy stock in ENRON a month before the company’s systemic collapse. Then Talking Heads on the boob tube said “ENRON is critical to the stability of our energy supply. It’s too big to fail.” You would have stormed the ENRON corporate offices to kick some corporatist ass. Am I right, or am I right?

Today we get some anti-bailout fussing from the smart people who know they’re about to get fleeced, AGAIN. Then George Bush insults us further by saying “This is not a bailout.”

[squinting] “You see, [muffled snicker] it’s not a bail-out, [inappropriate smirk] because although the public will assume their debt, [momentary confusion] they’ll remain private corporations. It’s a sell-out! [giddy pride] [poked in back] I mean, it’s definitely not a bail-out. [satisfied nod] Now watch this drive.”

I say let them ALL fail. These are privately owned banks. They made bad business decisions, so they deserve to fail. Their stock prices NEED to go down. The banks NEED to restructure, and the banking executives NEED to be punished for being a bunch of greedy criminals. THAT’s capitalism. THAT’S the “free market economy.” Perhaps the U.S. ought to try it sometime.

In the mean time, we get to support their lifestyles, and we don’t even get to divorce the bitches.

The notorious asshole Karl Rove, also known as “Bush’s Brain,” has been under pressure to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Not surprisingly, he disappeared on the 10th for an unannounced “vacation.” He’s been located in Crimea, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.

It figures. This is how they’ll all get away with it: Unannounced “vacations” to countries that don’t extradite. The Bush/Cheney henchmen were counting on pardons, but if Bush is impeached he won’t be able to issue any. The only way the U.S. will be able to keep the NeoCONS on campus, so to speak, is to ground all outgoing international flights until every last suspected war criminal is rounded up and “detained” in an “undisclosed location.” And we know THAT won’t happen.

I suppose the Bush/Cheney juntas have made SO many enemies that it’s only a matter of time before a family member of a tortured Abu Grahib “detainee” hunts ‘em down and shoots ‘em. I won’t cry.

H/T: The Zoo

UPDATE: The Lang Report has set up a “Karl Watch” vigil.

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

-Harry S. Truman

This week the traitors in Washington, also known as the U.S. Senate, sold out the Constitution again. Cowed by NeoCon scare tactics, with their pockets stuffed with wads of cash bribes campaign contributions from SPRINT, VERIZON and AT&T, the Senate passed FISA legislation undermining your Fourth Amendment right not to be subject to unwarranted search and/or seizure.

This is not a “compromise,” as some in Congress would have us believe. The only things they compromised are your personal privacy and your freedom.

(Check out the Billboard Liberation Front!)

The FISA Amendments Act allows for mass, untargeted and warrantless surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States. As an extra-special kick in the shorts, it hands immunity to telecommunication companies for their role in domestic spying. This means YOUR phone calls can be tapped and emails read for practically no reason at all, and there’s no chance to learn how the telecoms invaded your privacy after the fact.

Mark my words: Warrantless wiretapping is ALREADY being used to stifle dissent, blackmail politicians and destroy careers for partisan political purposes. And if you don’t think they’re reading your emails, and creating a comprehensive profile on you based upon what you write about yourself on your MySpace and Facebook pages, and especially your Plaxo profile, you have another thing coming. Are you a “Peace Mom?” Ever been to an anti-war or anti-globalization rally? There is an FBI case file on you.

In the days leading up to the House and Senate votes on the FISA bill the howling from American patriots and civil rights activists was louder than it had been in years. The Senators’ phones were ringing off the hook. Unfortunately, it was too late: The American public, Boobus Americanus, has remained parked on it’s sofa, remote in one hand and a soda in the other, for SO LONG, that once it occurred to the public that they were being spied upon Soviet-style it was too late to do anything about it. Congress had already been bought off by a bunch of paranoid, control freak plutocrats OVER A PERIOD OF DECADES, chipping away at the Constitution bit by little bit with laws and Executive Orders. Regardless, Boobus Americanus either stayed home on voting day or kept on electing it’s congresscritters over and over and over again.

Conservatives especially HATE the ACLU, turning the acronym into a synonym for traitor. What an asinine reversal. Sure the ACLU chooses some weird cases to fight, but they’re fighting on Constitutional principle, and they are doing it for YOUR SAKE. You snooze, you lose, folks. So NOW you care?

If this bugs you the way it bugs me, consider becoming an ACLU monthly donor, and stand up for your rights.This is why the ACLU challenged this unconstitutional law the moment President Bush signed it. If you’re a so-called “conservative” who EVER dissed the ACLU without understanding what it was all about, consider DOUBLING your donation as penance for being an IDIOT.

Boobus Americanus

(by Ed Griffin)

It’s more than mortal man can bear.

Those terrorists are everywhere:

on land and sea and in the air.

Network TV bill of fare

daily warns us to prepare

for bugs and bombs and poison air

and other things enough to scare

the bravest man to deep despair.

They hate our liberty, or so we’re told,

our way of life so uncontrolled,

our rich, our poor, our young, our old.

I guess their hatred just takes hold

and burrows in and makes them bold

enough to kill and die and spend their gold

and set in motion plans untold

to get us ALL . . . or so we’re told.

Seems strange to me they don’t resent

the other guys who represent

a way of life with free consent

or those who are benevolent.

The only ones they seem intent

to devastate to great extent

are those who’s aero-planes were sent

to bomb their homes with such torment.

Never mind, the war will stay.

We’re going to fight this all the way.

But there’s a price we have to pay

to keep the enemy at bay.

Let our leaders take away

our lives and liberty TODAY,

and then our fears will go away

that they’ll be lost some future day.

My phone is tapped. My mail is read.

They know the thoughts inside my head.

The money I deposited

is now reported to the Fed.

They chip my hand, dispense my bread.

I think they watch me go to bed.

I don’t object. I’m glad instead

to be controlled until I’m dead.

CHORUS

And so I very happily

let them take my liberty.

No matter what they do to me,

it’s all for my security.

You see, you see, you see?

I’m just as glad as I can be

to let them take my liberty.

No matter what they do to me,

it’s all for my security.

(Source: I thought this last image was from an article in Rolling Stone called “Fear Factor”), but I went back and it’s not there)

Moi, the Hedonistic Pleasureseeker, is fussy about my water.

I usually drink distilled water or spring/mineral water as I refuse to suffer the proven adverse mental health effects of fluoridated tap water. Yesterday I was overjoyed to discover that the township that I live in does not fluoridate it’s water supply. WOOT!!!

Unfortunately, between 60 and 70 percent of the country is not so fortunate. Americans are more likely to encounter fluoridated water in large towns and cities than in smaller, outlying townships. Since most of humanity clusters in urban areas guess what? Unless you take special efforts to remove the additives from your water you’re probably drinking crap, and a Brita filter won’t cut it, either. No matter what the ads tell you, the filters you buy at the store WILL NOT remove fluoride from your tap water.

So what’s wrong with fluoride? I’m glad that you asked.

Calcium fluoride is naturally present in some mineral waters and even some foods, but that’s not the chemical you should be worried about, because what’s being put in America’s water supplies is not calcium fluoride. Do a little digging and you’ll discover that it’s something much, much worse. In fact, the so-called “fluoride” being dumped in 60-70% of our drinking water is so poisonous that only a few parts per billion are apparently enough to lower our children’s IQs. Influential operatives sliming the corridors of power have known this all along, which TOTALLY pisses me off, SO . . . Full report after the jump, and it’s NOT a Hedonistic Pleasure.

(more…)

Vagina Spa Opens in New York

Now comes the first medi spa in Manhattan wholly dedicated to strengthening and grooming a woman’s genital area. Phit — short for pelvic health integrated techniques — is to open this month on East 58th Street.

Dr. Lauri Romanzi, a gynecologist who performs pelvic reconstruction surgery, said she came up with the idea for the spa one day while walking by an outlet of BriteSmile, the tooth-whitening chain. She liked that the stores cater to people with healthy teeth.

The spa is essentially a gussied-up examination room down the hall from Dr. Romanzi’s medical practice. At the spa, the signature treatment will be a $150 gynecological exam — in which a client contracts her pelvic muscles around Dr. Romanzi’s fingers — to determine by feel whether muscle tone is weak, moderate or strong.

And here I thought Americans had already achieved the pinnacle of narcissism. Is it really possible that women have gotten so LAZY that they’re outsourcing their Kegel exercises? Is the Apocalypse at hand? Honestly, I don’t believe it necessary that we ape Rome during it’s epic fall.

Besides, this is what intimate friends are for: To be personal trainers for our privates. Frankly, I think this kind and level of personal service requires a house call. Failing that a resourceful woman can just pull up her Puss-n-Bootstraps and use her own fingers. The DIY approach is easy and free.

I wonder: Will the good Doctor be holding Kegel aerobics classes? (I can see it now: “Come on, girls, squeeze! Squeeze! One two three four!”). She might as well go all the way and hold pong ball distance competitions and “throat pilates” while she’s at it. Any doctor specializing in something so asinine as “vaginal rejuvenation” is likely to be of the “alter your pussy to fascinate your man” mindset. If she’s going to devote her career to insulting women’s vaginas she might as well go all the way.

What’s she gonna call the place, Spagina? She should pipe Barry White muzak throughout the spa: “It feels so good . . . Oh, what a groove You have no idea how it feels, My hands just won’t keep still . . . Oh baby oh baby . . .”

Men, inquire within as to the availability of towel boy and technician internships.

One would think that if the Hedonistic Pleasureseeker were a Muppet she would be Miss Piggy, yes? But one would be oh so wrong.

Surely she has her bitchy and grand Miss Piggy moments, having pretty much nailed the seventh and most deadly sin VANITY. However, depending on the time of the month she is also a female version of either Gonzo or Beaker: Adorably weird and introspective, or a babbling freakout mess, usually over world events she can do absolutely nothing about.

The coming demise of the American economy via the debauching of our dollar currency (see: HYPERINFLATION and STAGFLATION) will soon provide the Hedonistic Pleasureseeker plenty of nothing for which to express much ado. It will take a freaking miracle to save us now. Perhaps instead of Blogging the Apocalypse the Hedonistic Pleasureseeker would be better off with a martini and a mild sedative?

NeoCons are more than just evil: They’re also a bunch of cowards.

Several alternative news sites, news aggregators and web logs critical of U.K., European, U.S. and Israeli governments are frequently hacked or victims of Denial-of-Service attacks. These onslaughts are so pervasive, large-scale and aggressive that they are likely financed by people with very deep pockets: Either the governments themselves, their private sector puppeteers, or their hired henchmen.

(What we call NeoCons here in the U.S. are called NeoLiberals in the U.K. I suppose that in this context “neo”= “new” = “has nothing to do with the original.” Basically, they are all frauds.)

In my opinion, frequent cyberattacks are a pretty good indicator that these news and opinion sites are telling the truth: Why else would such extreme efforts be put into shutting down the discourse or silencing free speech? What are the financiers of these hacking attempts afraid of?

Think about it: If the information posted at these alternative sites is misguided or incorrect, honest representatives of the blameless governmental body should counter with: “You are mistaken, here is the truth, and here are the links to our evidence.” Why? Because it’s the cheapest, most effective way to counter an unfavorable message with a better one. It takes an awful lot of money, time and people-power to just plain shut down the opposition.

Bottom line: NeoCon attempts to stifle alternative websites are pathetic and will fail in the long run. NeoCons may be evil, sneaky and rich, but they are outnumbered by regular folks hellbent on telling the truth.

The letter to America that can be read after the “jump” is written by bestselling author Congressman Paul. His latest book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for months without a peep from the mainstream media. Imagine how popular the book would be if the man got some press! I have the book; it’s blessedly concise (read: short), and it’s good.

From the Campaign for Liberty, SOMETHING BIG IS GOING ON. Dr. Paul has written another letter that lays it all out for us. There’s a big storm brewing and it’s a comin’ our way, and we will be faced with some important choices. What will we do? Will we:

1. Look to the governments and bank controllers of the world to “save” us (ahem: Hurricane Katrina anyone?)

OR

2. Put our OWN thinking caps on and get busy OURSELVES. Maybe authoritarian government, fiat money and centralized banking control weren’t such good ideas after all.

(more…)

(Fox News closes the barn door after the livestock escapes)

To find out what’s really going on in the economy, the LAST place you want to look is the mainstream news channels! Two places I like to visit are shadowstats.com to see how the U.S. Government “lies with statistics,” and the Daily Reckoning to laugh at the Mogambo Guru’s rants.

Here’s something interesting: Three market crashes, including the one we are presently suffering, superimposed. During the bubble periods shown here stocks rose more than 350% in 6 years. During the crash the market fell more than 50% in 3 years. After the crash markets were volatile for at least 10 years.

Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve’s credibility crumbles

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 28/06/2008

Have your say Read comments

US central bank accused of unleashing an inflation shock that will rock financial markets, reports Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall “below zero”.

“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, the bank’s chief equity strategist. “There is an inflation shock underway. This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth.”

Barclays Capital said in its closely-watched Global Outlook that US headline inflation would hit 5.5pc by August and the Fed will have to raise interest rates six times by the end of next year to prevent a wage-spiral. If it hesitates, the bond markets will take matters into their own hands. “This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that’s possible. It has lost all credibility,” said Mr Bond.

RBS issues global crash alert

Read more by Ambrose Evans Pritchard

(more…)

PAT MARFISI carries bales of alfalfa hay and straw into the center aisle of his Hollywood Hills vegetable garden and begins tearing off pieces of the stuff. He doesn’t have any animals to feed, just his “no-dig” landscape: raised beds using lasagna-like layers of fodder, bone and blood meal and compost — and remarkably little water.

Now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a statewide drought, Marfisi’s 300-square-foot patch seems more relevant than ever. It’s his personal horticultural laboratory for a low-water, sustainable technique he learned working on organic farms in Australia last year.

Since he began gardening in this fashion, he says, he has been “inundated” with food. With the exception of some recent losses to raccoons drawn to the soil’s abundant grubs and earthworms, Marfisi’s garden is thriving with beets, collard greens, chard, celery, tomatoes, chives, peppers, basil, chives, lettuces and leeks. He estimates he grows enough food to feed three people daily.

When asked how much he waters, Marfisi shoves his hand deep beside some Swiss chard and pulls out moist, decomposed soil laced with remnants of straw. “I haven’t watered in 10 days,” he says. “This is what I want people to know: You can have beauty and abundance without a lot of water.”

(more . . .)

(Image from the No Dig Vegetable Garden website: This is great fun for kids, too!)

(Priceless: A creative and entertaining protest at a Halliburton shareholders meeting, the year Halliburton moved it’s headquarters to Dubai. Great soundtrack!)

UPDATE!!!  The military activity may have been no more than dickwaving during a highly tense day when the Bush/Cheney/Clinton crime family was caught raiding the cookie jar (at a bank in Ireland), and subsequently forced to give up their Bad Man Ways.  Whatever happened that day appears to have triggered the massive international settlement process that’s been dragging ass for decades.  From World Reports: 

SETTLEMENT PROCESS TRIGGERED BY LAST WEEK’S EVENTS
BRUSSELS, 24th June: The ‘happenings’ that took place during the week ending 20th June 2008 finally triggered the Settlements payment process. They also reconfirmed that Bush, Cheney and the other criminalist operatives never had the slightest intention of paying out a single cent, while at the same time raiding the funds as often as they could for self-enrichment purposes, to restore the Bush Crime Family’s decimated finances, and to sustain the spigot that is used to finance the World Revolution, and the secret financing of the world governance structures, and to finance the secret projects of the US Intelligence and Military Power apparats, as well as covert operations in Iraq and elsewhere by the oil corporations and their associates.The most senior tier of payments, to the 160 countries, was completed on Saturday 21st June 2008. On Tuesday 24th June, a certain ‘licensed’ US information source mentioned that money was being pulled out of banks in New York City. Specifically, Wayne Madsen reported:

‘[Our] United Nations sources report that there has been a sudden rush in requests for foreign exchange wire transfer requests from the New York City banks’.'The sudden demand for transferring funds abroad has resulted in a 24-hour to 48-hour processing delay due to the sheer volume of requests’.

‘Foreign employees at the United Nations are transferring their money from accounts at the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) and other New York City banks, both domestic and foreign-owned, and the move has been sudden’.

‘There has been no explanation for the sudden wire transfer activity, although the [US] rumor mill suggests fears of a sudden economic collapse and/or a US and Israeli military attack on Iran, which could touch off a wider regional conflict’.

The rumour mill was talking rubbish, illustrating how crass and inaccurate it usually is. The reason for the sudden surge in requests for foreign exchange wire transfer requests was that the country payees had at long last received their payments and were now transferring their funds out to their respective governments and central banks.

Is this GOOD news?  Well, it is good for people in 160 countries! Other payments to the aggrieved are being paid out of these 160 new accounts, so the U.S. will also be effected. Some of these settlements go back to the U.S. Farm Claims lawsuits, back in the 80’s.  I know nothing about the matter I was just a kid back then . . .

*****************************

Well! I guess I need to start a new category, since there seems to be a lot of this going on: From behind the Wayne Madsen Report subscription wall, United Nations sources are reporting a sudden rush in requests for foreign exchange wire transfers out of New York City banks. The move is sudden and without explanation.

Are mass transatlantic flights out of the U.S. next? What’s about to hit the fan?

Things that make you go HMMMMMMMM. Last year I moved Bunny’s college fund into gold and silver, and my own retirement account into international stocks, because I knew “it” - whatever “it” was - was going to hit the fan eventually. It’s a wonder our Corporatist Overlords managed to kick-the-can down the road for this long.

Bets, anyone? Stock market crash, false flag terrorist attack on “Das Homeland,” (wince) war, or both? For what it’s worth, Wall Street has been buzzing ALL DAY about an Israeli attack on Iran, which IMHO would be a colossally STUPID thing to do. Why? Because Russia will come to Iran’s defense, and then the U.S. will come to Israel’s defense, and then - BLAMMO! Bye bye Tel Aviv, bye bye Fifth Fleet, bye bye American soldiers in Iraq, bye bye what’s left of our civil liberties and our prosperity.

UPDATE: Ham radio operators worldwide were picking up extremely high level encrypted military transmissions from the U.S. and Soviet controlled territories last Friday. Reportedly things have settled down, so . . . ? Why the U.N. bank run now?

Sitting ducks. All of us, everywhere in the world, but what can we do? Let us pray that it’s a false alarm, get drunk, screw, and listen to the Steve Miller Band. Hit it!

(Steve Miller, “Take the Money and Run”)

Overstock CEO offers $75,000 for Wall Street’s soul

(HPS Note: The original article was found at the UK Register. How interesting: It’s written by a dude who lives in San Diego.)

Posted Jun 23, 2008 08:25 PM PST AT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
Category: COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
Category: ECONOMY