Islamic State, the gift that keeps on giving

George Monbiot is spot on in his latest blog post: Beware of politicians making themselves look big by inflating security threats. But he could have taken the analysis further. If we look at what has happened in the Middle East over the last 60 years, we can see that the constant meddling of the Western powers, manipulating events, continually creating more trouble and strife, deliberately fomenting unrest.

In 1953 the UK and US governments sponsored a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran, because that government was about to nationalise the British owned Anglo-Iranian oil company (now called BP), and thereby return control and profits of Iranian oil to the people of Iran. With the full backing of the CIA, a military coup ensued, overthrowing the government and installing instead, the Shah of Iran as dictator. This was a progressive, socialist government, and Iran was fast becoming a modern, quasi-secular country. The Western intervention turned the clock back and led directly to the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the inevitable overthrow of the Shah, and the rise of the Caliphate, with the rights of women and democratic process drastically curbed.

This story is repeated across the Middle East. Western intervention has continually undermined social progress, even though the propaganda claims the opposite.

The West, particularly the US, created Saddam - they funded him, they backed him and then they toppled him when it suited them. After the two Iraq wars, the country was reduced to turmoil and rubble, and in the ensuing power vacuum, Islamic fundamentalism has once again, predictably, risen to the fore. The same happened in Afghanistan The same in Libya. Always a bogeyman is toppled, the West intervenes, chaos ensues.

And then in Syria, they West attempted to do the same. Dislikable as the Assad regime is/was, it was democratically elected and there was relative peace amongst its population as well as secular, modern values. Certainly far, far more so than in Western ally countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Cue the Western/Saudi/Qatari backed attempted overthrow of Assad, and the same pattern is repeated. Disintegration of society, massive loss of life, hoards of refugees and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Directly out of Western involvement in the Middle East, comes the rise of ISIS. These are once disparate rebels/freedom fighters/insurgents/terrorists (depending on how the West chooses to label them when it suits), who have been funded, trained AND armed by the Western allies. The creation of ISIS is no coincidence and one can only conclude it is deliberate. Why? Because the Western corporate/military complex loves nothing more than war and chaos. It always reaps from the whirlwind. It is about profit, and nothing else. And now David Cameron and the other Western allies have the perfect bogeymen, yet again, to justify even more war, military intervention, and ultimately, more profits for the major corporations who have always promoted war. And furthermore, this never-ending crusade gives governments the perfect excuse to crack down ever harder on their own citizens, to take away more basic rights of privacy and protest, to extend the power and control ever deeper.

For those who would manipulate us, the banking and oil cartels, the corporations and their puppet politicians, Islamic State is the gift that keeps on giving.

God bless Joni Mitchell

I came to Joni late, on my own, finally checking out an urge on YouTube that had lain dormant for 30 years or more. Cos I'm a guy. I never listened to Joni when I was young. I mean, you just didn't, right? Sure, I was aware of Big Yellow Taxi and subliminally grokked its environmental message, but Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin had my attention and then it was punk and New Wave and... well, the occasional woman would pierce my fatherless self-crafted manly carapace - Kate Bush certainly had my attention and my heart's wounds were touched by The Hounds of Love and I listened to Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde of course, but she was proper rock'n'roll..

...but a few years back I was sat alone in my front room, late one night, savouring a cold beer and maybe I'd smoked some spliff, I can't remember, but I thought, hmm, Joni Mitchell... what was the fuss all about? All those girls with her albums way back in the day. Was it some kind of female secret initiation rite? The album I chanced upon on YouTube was inevitably Blue. And I listened. And I was enthralled. River pierced me like no other song, brought tears to my eyes, but more, it spoke of a soul-deep sadness that perhaps all of us share, and now, as a fully fledged adult male and mature enough to have finally contacted my own heart-wound, I I was able to allow myself to open out and let Joni in. Blue, River, Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock, with it's prophetic lyrics that are mirrored perhaps in the sentiments of Jame's Cameron's movie Avatar (which is really a rip from Ursula Le Guin's The Word For World Is Forest), and again, a message that spoke to my soul. And now I discover that she is seriously ill and I've only just got to know her. God bless you Joni Mitchell.

The current reality we inhabit is a duality

In duality, you get duels. Understanding this is where the jewels are.

The collapse of the neo-liberal agenda?

For many years I have struggled to explain to people how Thatcher's corrupt ideology of free-market capitalism was based on a dubious model of humanity that grew out of the flawed reasoning of game theory (cf John Nash) and the economic theories of Freidrich Hayek and the modern acolyte of both, the extremely influential economist James Buchanan.

The documentaries below will help people understand not just the horrors of Thatcherism and the legacy we are still reaping today, but how New Labour not only continued this inhumane neo-liberal agenda, but extended it to all walks of life.

We are not numbers. We are humans. But in the last 30 years politicians have ceded any last vestiges of democratic power to the totally phony idea of the 'free markets', who are supposedly 'more democratic' than any form of social franchise. This laughable concept has had tragic consequences for all humanity, as we can see only too clearly today.

As the reality of the totally corrupt banking system finally begins to come to light, with all recent revelations about Barclays fixing the LIBOR rates being but the tip of the iceberg, let us hope a turning point has been reached, where people reclaim their humanity and their democratic rights from the economic hegemony of the bankers and their corporate/industrial cabals.

The second episode in the documentary series is even more enlightening, and I encourage anyone who wants to understand the roots of our current global situation to watch and have the scales fall from your eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZt2HhFXB3M&feature=share 

ww.youtube.com/watch?v=WbRApO3k_Jo&feature=fvwrel 

On second thoughts: why everything might be all right after all..

An interesting piece of information came to me today. I'm not going into the details because I will probably be accused of being a conspiracy theorist.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: if I am honest, I have never felt entirely comfortable attacking Obama. And on other sites, I have attacked him for his policies and for the quite understandable perception that he is nothing more than a corporate puppet.

Although it is indisputable fact that he has presided over the continued sanctioning of the NDAA (please read the linked article if you want to know what the National Defence Authorization Act is all about), and that also under his aegis, the use of unmanned drones in American airspace has also been sanctioned. AND that he has appointed the head of Monsanto's GMO division as senior advisor to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which is the moral equivalent of making a paedophile a senior advisor to nursery schools. AND that he has also appointed former Goldman Sachs and MF Global chief Jon Corzine as an economic advisor (please apply the same metaphor as before)... all of which are heinous crimes in my book, but nevertheless, I still have to admit that my instincts tell me Obama isn't as bad as he's been painted and these actions imply. How on Earth could that be?

Well, the information I've been given today is that Obama is going to use these laws against the very people who thought to profit by them: the corporate elite. I don't think anyone with a modicum of intelligence would deny that what has gone on recently, under the aegis of companies like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan is nothing less that downright economic treachery, as is the whole government bailouts scenario that has seen billions of ordinary taxpayers' money go to prop up a corrupt and bankrupt financial banking system.

At the same time I hope no one would deny that the motivations of companies like Monsanto, far from being some kind of philanthropy are in fact a heinous attempt to control and copyright the very foodstuffs we all rely on to live. And to round this off as simply as possible, I also hope no one would deny that the prosecution of wars on sovereign nations, whether under the flag of retribution, or for the more plain and obvious purpose of acquisition, in which literally millions of ordinary people have been killed, is a very bad thing.

So - and here comes the second-thoughts bit - wouldn't it be something quite incredible, if after all, Obama was executing the most outrageous of all double-bluffs - and that in truth he is about to turn the tables on this cartel that has been living off the people of this world for so long? I'm not saying it's a cert, but it's a possibility. And if so, then by default, Mr 'it'll be all right in the end' could well be right after all. How ironic!

Edit, 4th January 2013: unfortunately, I have to say this hope in Obama has proved unfounded. It seems clear that Obama is still a puppet of the corporate elite. Following his suspect re-election, he continues to support the worldwide corporate agenda, continues the aggression against foreign sovereign states and nationals and fails to prevent any of the corporate fraud, or the ecological and environmental destruction that is being perpetrated by corporations across the globe.

We, the ordinary people, still live in hope that raised consciousness and the awareness of these activities will bring about a positive change in our world. In Iceland we see bankers being charged for their criminal activities, and across the globe we see the non-aligned nations uniting to bring about change and a release for humanity from the hegemony of the Western corporate elites.

The technology and ability exists within humanity for ALL of us to enjoy peace, prosperity and freedom from tyranny. It is only the old order that is holding this progress back. I hope any of you reading this will join me in helping to manifest this reality for our world.

People: time to wake up from the hegemony

(An answer to the so-called debt crisis in Europe)

Let's look at the bigger picture for a moment: since 2008, Western governments have used billions and billions of tax-payers money to bail out the failing banks. And now the banking system, of which these very same banks are a part of, is demanding austerity measures in order to recoup 'their' debts.
Can anyone see anything slightly dodgy in this picture?
On paper, governments are meant to serve the people. In reality, the opposite is true. While the politicians, banks and their associate lackeys persist in perpetrating the illusion that ordinary people must pay to keep them in power, isn't it time we all woke up and threw off the shackles of this despicable despotism?

In my humble opinion, every single sovereign country should default on any debts they 'owe' to banks, immediately. Why, you ask (and I imagine some of you screaming)? Because it's time to end this hegemony, once and for all.
The 'money' that the banks 'lend' is nothing they themselves have earned. It is nothing of tangible value. It has simply been created out of thin air. This fiat money system, that really took a hold on our planet when the Federal Reserve was created in the US 100 years or so ago, has taken a stranglehold over the lives of everyone. It has been backed by a consumerist agenda that divides communities, induces people to chase after illusive, meaningless dreams, and simultaneously rapes, loots and plunders the natural world of its resources, depriving millions around the world of their basic rights to food, power and water.

Yes, I hear some of you still screaming, 'but it will be chaos, anarchy, everything will collapse!' Yes, that is what you've been told. You've been told that you, we, all of us, are incapable of running things without these governments and institutions to look after us. The reality is, of course, the complete opposite. We do not need these parasites, they need us.
People, we seriously need to wake up. We do not want perpetual war, destruction, slavery and violence perpetrated in our name. We want, and we deserve, peace and prosperity. This will NEVER happen under the current system.

People, it's time to wake up.

And yes, I can offer you tangible alternatives. We can trade without governments and banks controlling currency. Banks are simply utilities that should only be there to facilitate the flow of currency and exchange. That is ALL. The rest, the debt, the usury, the fiat money system, these have all been foisted upon you, and you've been told there is no alternative. There is.
And the first step is transparency. Total transparency in all administration that relates to any form of taxation or business. To empower ourselves, we demand to be informed. Knowledge is power. Time to share that among all of us.

Europe: one step closer to a fascist super-state

It's hard for people to see the wood for the trees in this week's proposed Eurozone treaty change, and that's down to the heinous lack of transparency in European politics. However, the facts speak for themselves: what is certain is that this German/French inspired plan to allow unelected eurocrats the right to veto the budgets of Eurozone members is one step closer to making Europe an outright fascist super-state. That an unelected body, based in Brussels, should have the power to interfere in, and even dictate the budgets of sovereign nations should be unthinkable; but so mired are European politicians in the 'Merkozy' fronted, banker-backed illusion, they have lost sight of reality.

Let's look at a few recent facts. Greece and Italy no longer have democratically elected premiers, instead they have had accountants foisted on them (Lucas Papademos, former vice-president of the European Central Bank and Mario Monti, international advisor to Goldman Sachs and European head of the Trilateral Commission). Why? To oversee the smooth transfer of wealth from these formerly sovereign nations to the politician-fronted banking cabal that currently pulls the strings in the US, UK and most of Europe.

When you understand the bigger picture, Merkel and Sarkozy's plan begins to make sense; it has nothing to do with democracy, and everything to do with enforcing outright control over the affairs of sovereign nations. Whether Merkel and Sarkozy were onside from the very start is debatable, but it can no longer be in question, they are not acting for the people of Europe, but for an unelected, economic oligarchy (i.e. bank owners and their ilk).

So what's Cameron's role in all this? It's actually quite interesting; in bald political terms, he has undoubtedly done the right thing. No sane, unaligned Premier could have acted in any other way when the sovereign rights of their own country, and indeed of other countries, is threatened. In the bigger picture, his actions are almost irrelevant: France and Germany will push this plan through anyway, giving almost total power to an unelected body over the affairs of sovereign nations. What Hitler failed to do, France and Germany in 2011 are close to achieving. At least the UK has retained some kind of independence. Whether that's to the benefit of her citizens, or purely to the bankers, remains to be seen.

That Miliband (leader of the Labour party), could even think, let alone say, that this treaty-change is something the UK should be a party to is frightening. Either he simply has no grasp of what's at stake, or he's simply another puppet, enslaved to this totalitarian vision, or he's an idiot. You decide.