An examination of the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands – Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement.
3.04.2010
What Would Jesus Buy?
Debt Dynamite Dominoes: The Coming Financial Catastrophe
· Assessing the Illusion of Recovery.
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17736
In October 2008, the mainstream media and politicians of the Western world were warning of an impending depression if actions were not taken to quickly prevent this. The problem was that this crisis had been a long-time coming, and what’s worse, is that the actions governments took did not address any of the core, systemic issues and problems with the global economy; they merely set out to save the banking industry from collapse. To do this, governments around the world implemented massive “stimulus” and “bailout” packages, plunging their countries deeper into debt to save the banks from themselves, while charging it to people of the world.
Then an uproar of stock market speculation followed, as money was pumped into the stocks, but not the real economy. This recovery has been nothing but a complete and utter illusion, and within the next two years, the illusion will likely come to a complete collapse.
The governments gave the banks a blank check, charged it to the public, and now it’s time to pay; through drastic tax increases, social spending cuts, privatization of state industries and services, dismantling of any protective tariffs and trade regulations, and raising interest rates. The effect that this will have is to rapidly accelerate, both in the speed and volume, the unemployment rate, globally. The stock market would crash to record lows, where governments would be forced to freeze them altogether.
When the crisis is over, the middle classes of the western world will have been liquidated of their economic, political and social status. The global economy will have gone through the greatest consolidation of industry and banking in world history leading to a system in which only a few corporations and banks control the global economy and its resources; governments will have lost that right. The people of the western world will be treated by the financial oligarchs as they have treated the ‘global South’ and in particular, Africa; they will remove our social structures and foundations so that we become entirely subservient to their dominance over the economic and political structures of our society.
This is where we stand today, and is the road on which we travel.
The western world has been plundered into poverty, a process long underway, but with the unfolding of the crisis, will be rapidly accelerated. As our societies collapse in on themselves, the governments will protect the banks and multinationals. When the people go out into the streets, as they invariably do and will, the government will not come to their aid, but will come with police and military forces to crush the protests and oppress the people. The social foundations will collapse with the economy, and the state will clamp down to prevent the people from constructing a new one.
The road to recovery is far from here. When the crisis has come to an end, the world we know will have changed dramatically. No one ever grows up in the world they were born into; everything is always changing. Now is no exception. The only difference is, that we are about to go through the most rapid changes the world has seen thus far.
[The article goes into...]
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17736
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Understanding the Nature of the Global Economic CrisisThe people have been lulled into a false sense of safety under the ruse of a perceived “economic recovery.” Unfortunately, what the majority of people think does not make it so, especially when the people making the key decisions think and act to the contrary. The sovereign debt crises that have been unfolding in the past couple years and more recently in Greece, are canaries in the coal mine for the rest of Western “civilization.” The crisis threatens to spread to Spain, Portugal and Ireland; like dominoes, one country after another will collapse into a debt and currency crisis, all the way to America.
In October 2008, the mainstream media and politicians of the Western world were warning of an impending depression if actions were not taken to quickly prevent this. The problem was that this crisis had been a long-time coming, and what’s worse, is that the actions governments took did not address any of the core, systemic issues and problems with the global economy; they merely set out to save the banking industry from collapse. To do this, governments around the world implemented massive “stimulus” and “bailout” packages, plunging their countries deeper into debt to save the banks from themselves, while charging it to people of the world.
Then an uproar of stock market speculation followed, as money was pumped into the stocks, but not the real economy. This recovery has been nothing but a complete and utter illusion, and within the next two years, the illusion will likely come to a complete collapse.
The governments gave the banks a blank check, charged it to the public, and now it’s time to pay; through drastic tax increases, social spending cuts, privatization of state industries and services, dismantling of any protective tariffs and trade regulations, and raising interest rates. The effect that this will have is to rapidly accelerate, both in the speed and volume, the unemployment rate, globally. The stock market would crash to record lows, where governments would be forced to freeze them altogether.
When the crisis is over, the middle classes of the western world will have been liquidated of their economic, political and social status. The global economy will have gone through the greatest consolidation of industry and banking in world history leading to a system in which only a few corporations and banks control the global economy and its resources; governments will have lost that right. The people of the western world will be treated by the financial oligarchs as they have treated the ‘global South’ and in particular, Africa; they will remove our social structures and foundations so that we become entirely subservient to their dominance over the economic and political structures of our society.
This is where we stand today, and is the road on which we travel.
The western world has been plundered into poverty, a process long underway, but with the unfolding of the crisis, will be rapidly accelerated. As our societies collapse in on themselves, the governments will protect the banks and multinationals. When the people go out into the streets, as they invariably do and will, the government will not come to their aid, but will come with police and military forces to crush the protests and oppress the people. The social foundations will collapse with the economy, and the state will clamp down to prevent the people from constructing a new one.
The road to recovery is far from here. When the crisis has come to an end, the world we know will have changed dramatically. No one ever grows up in the world they were born into; everything is always changing. Now is no exception. The only difference is, that we are about to go through the most rapid changes the world has seen thus far.
[The article goes into...]
- Assessing the Illusion of Recovery
- Crying Wolf or Castigating Cassandra?
- Empire and Economics
- The Hegemony of Neoliberalism
- Building a ‘New’ Economy
- The 2007-2008 Financial Crisis
- The Bailout
- The Collapse of Iceland
- Dubai Hit By Financial Storm
- A Sovereign Debt Crisis Hits Greece
- A Global Debt Crisis
- China Begins to Dump US Treasuries
- Is a Debt Crisis Coming to America?
- Imperial Decline and the Rise of the New World Order
- ‘New Capitalism’
- Could Martial Law Come to America?
- In Conclusion
The Militarization of Science and Space - Noam Chomsky
Chomsky launches a savage, two-pronged assault on national economic policies and efforts at “global domination….By now the stakes are so high that issues of survival arise,” says Chomsky.
The basic principle underlying our current economy is “to make rich people happy and make everybody else frightened.” Chomsky lays particular blame for this doctrine on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan-- “Saint Alan”-- who claims the economy is working well because of private entrepreneurial initiative and expanding consumer choice. Chomsky disagrees. He claims that in the last 30 years, it has been public spending on such technologies as computers, satellites, the Internet and lasers that has fed the economy. And the wealth derived from these technologies has gone primarily into the hands of corporate masters, who represent a fraction of the American people. The government has used a succession of bogeymen—the Soviets, Communist insurgents around the world, and now global terrorism—to scare taxpayers into supporting core defense programs whose technologies ultimately spin off into private hands. The current administration advocates not merely controlling space, but owning it, with a new missile-based system and satellite-guided unmanned drones. This expensive strategy, combined with the doctrine of striking first at perceived enemies, may well bring global calamity.
Noah's Ark Is (Still) in Turkey
http://www.viewzone.com/noah.html
by Dan Eden
I'm often amazed at our lack of knowledge about history. Ordinary people are hungry for this information, yet the organizations responsible to disseminate these facts seem to have an agenda to keep us in the dark. This is especially true when it comes to our ancient human history.
I won't hold you in suspense with this article: The Ark of Noah has been found. It's real. I'll describe the evidence in some detail and end with the historical and religious implications.
["Noah's Ark?", LIFE, 1960]
"This data does not represent natural geology. These are man made structures. These reflections are appearing too periodic... too periodic to be random in that type of natural pace."
-- Ron Wyatt of SIR Imaging team.
by Dan Eden
I'm often amazed at our lack of knowledge about history. Ordinary people are hungry for this information, yet the organizations responsible to disseminate these facts seem to have an agenda to keep us in the dark. This is especially true when it comes to our ancient human history.
I won't hold you in suspense with this article: The Ark of Noah has been found. It's real. I'll describe the evidence in some detail and end with the historical and religious implications.
["Noah's Ark?", LIFE, 1960]
In 1960 the picture [above] was published in LIFE magazine under the heading of, Noah's Ark? That same year a group of Americans accompanied Capt. Durupinar to the site for a day and a half. They were expecting to find artifacts on the surface or something that would be unquestionably related to a ship of some kind. They did some digging in the area but found nothing conclusive and announced to the anxiously waiting world that it appeared to be a natural formation.
The discovery
#1 -- the Visual Evidence
[Ark's measurements from bow to stern 515 ft, or exactly 300 Egyptian cubits]
#2 -- Ground Penetrating Radar
[Ground Penetrating Radar survey]
"This data does not represent natural geology. These are man made structures. These reflections are appearing too periodic... too periodic to be random in that type of natural pace."
-- Ron Wyatt of SIR Imaging team.
[Schematic of GPR results]
#3 -- Artifacts retrieved from the Ark
[Laminated planks with nails]
[Iron-aluminum-titanium alloy rivet]
[Stone anchors]
Read more...
Gold Counterfeiting: German TV discovers 500g Tungsten bar from bank
[YouTube does not allow 'embeding' of this video, so just follow the link! Speaking of which, look for the number of 'views' this video has... odd, to say the least. YouTube must be "feeling the pressure" to keep its content 'NWO-Approved', or is this type of 'soft censorship' official YouTube policy? In any case, the info in this video has colossal consequences... We already know paper-debt-money is worthless, but now gold?!]
German TV station, ProSieben, finds what appears to be proof of gold counterfeiting, in the form of tungsten gold substitutes coming to the W.C. Heraeus foundry, which is the worlds largest privately-owned precious metals refiner and fabricator, located in Hanau, Germany.
The foundry has isolated at least one 500-gram tungsten bar due for melting, originating from a (so far) unnamed bank, which, as the head of the foundry stated, made the unpleasant discovery that not all that glitters is gold.
3.03.2010
EU Approves Amflora, BASF's Genetically Optimized Starch Potato
According to 'The Chemical Company',
- BASF plans to start commercial cultivation in 2010[!!]
- Amflora will increase the competitiveness of the European starch industry[?!]
http://www.basf.com/group/pressrelease/P-10-179
"After waiting for more than 13 years, we are delighted that the European Commission has approved Amflora," said Stefan Marcinowski, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE. “We hope, that this decision is a milestone for further innovative products that will promote a competitive and sustainable agriculture in Europe.”
"The way is now clear for commercial cultivation of Amflora this year," said Peter Eckes, President of BASF Plant Science. "Amflora will strengthen the international position of the European potato starch industry."
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) confirmed on several occasions during the approval process that Amflora is safe for humans, animals and the environment.[!!!]
Please, read more...
Jimmy Sabori's Papp Engine
A two-cycle engine demonstrates power output up to 500 HP on a dynamometer; and a one-cycle engine with Plexiglas cylinder shows ignition of noble gas in vacuum process, which current physics says is impossible.
Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth-20100301.html
The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.
JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).
Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).
By comparison, Gross said the same model estimated the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth's axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).
Gross said that even though the Chilean earthquake is much smaller than the Sumatran quake, it is predicted to have changed the position of the figure axis by a bit more for two reasons. First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth's mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chiliean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective[Strange word to use...] in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective[...and here it is again!] in shifting Earth's figure axis. [Is someone actually trying to do this? On purpose??]
Read more...
The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.
JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).
Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).
By comparison, Gross said the same model estimated the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth's axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).
Gross said that even though the Chilean earthquake is much smaller than the Sumatran quake, it is predicted to have changed the position of the figure axis by a bit more for two reasons. First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth's mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chiliean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective[Strange word to use...] in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective[...and here it is again!] in shifting Earth's figure axis. [Is someone actually trying to do this? On purpose??]
Read more...
NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon's North Pole
· Additional evidence of water activity on moon.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html
Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon's north pole. NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice.
Read more...
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/multimedia/feature_ice_like_deposits.html
Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits near the moon's north pole. NASA's Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters with water ice. The craters range in size from 1 to 9 miles (2 to15 km) in diameter. Although the total amount of ice depends on its thickness in each crater, it's estimated there could be at least 1.3 trillion pounds (600 million metric tons) of water ice.
Read more...
Earth Hour 2010
[Remember, volcanic and solar activity drive global weather patterns. Our day-to-day does not affect the weather (HAARP-style 'ionospheric heaters' can, but regular people have no access to those, do they?). The planet's problem is not 'climate change', it's POLLUTION... but this Earth Hour thing might have a big impact]
3.02.2010
Are conspiracy theorists infiltrating the media? [Finally!]
· Suspicious minds question what's behind Torontonians' fascination with late-night radio rebels.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/are-conspiracy-theorists-infiltrating-the-media/article1475414/
According to conspiracy theorist Nelson Thall, the recent tragedy visited upon Haiti was no mere earthquake. It was something more sinister. In his view, High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) technology destroyed the island. Why? Because it's a pawn in the ongoing battle between what he calls the Old World Order (loosely, the Anglo-American Empire) and the New World Order (loosely, the European Union and the Vatican).
George Freund, a colleague in the city's booming conspiracy brotherhood, stops short of attributing the Haitian quake to tectonic weaponry. But he notes that the country's "potential oil and mineral wealth make [it] plum for the picking," and that a bright plasma ball (doubtless caused by a HAARP weapon) was photographed on the eve of the quake in the skies over Haiti.
Mr. Thall, a.k.a. Lenny Bloom, and Mr. Freund are just two of a growing group of Torontonians who reject the "facts" they say we're spoon-fed, in favour of more unsettling truths.
They're not alone. As British writer David Aaronovitch observes in his new book, Voodoo Histories, the Western world now lives in an age of "fashionable conspiracism," its garments feverishly promoted via Internet forums, blogs and, increasingly, mainstream media. C oast-to-Coast - a late-night radio talk show - is syndicated on more than 500 North American stations. Conspiracy culture has even infiltrated TV prime time with Conspiracy Theory, courtesy of former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, and The Conspiracy Files from the BBC, erstwhile bastion of establishment thinking.
But conspiracy theory seems to be nowhere more fashionable than in Toronto.
[...]
If Toronto is, in fact, the urban hotbed of conspiracy theory, it may be explained by the same theory that accounts for why so many Canadian comedians were able to find success in the United States: We live close enough to the empire to understand it and critique it, but are never really part of it.
Read more...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/are-conspiracy-theorists-infiltrating-the-media/article1475414/
Ever heard of a Haarpicane? How about a Haarpiquake?
by Michael Posner
According to conspiracy theorist Nelson Thall, the recent tragedy visited upon Haiti was no mere earthquake. It was something more sinister. In his view, High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) technology destroyed the island. Why? Because it's a pawn in the ongoing battle between what he calls the Old World Order (loosely, the Anglo-American Empire) and the New World Order (loosely, the European Union and the Vatican).
George Freund, a colleague in the city's booming conspiracy brotherhood, stops short of attributing the Haitian quake to tectonic weaponry. But he notes that the country's "potential oil and mineral wealth make [it] plum for the picking," and that a bright plasma ball (doubtless caused by a HAARP weapon) was photographed on the eve of the quake in the skies over Haiti.
Mr. Thall, a.k.a. Lenny Bloom, and Mr. Freund are just two of a growing group of Torontonians who reject the "facts" they say we're spoon-fed, in favour of more unsettling truths.
They're not alone. As British writer David Aaronovitch observes in his new book, Voodoo Histories, the Western world now lives in an age of "fashionable conspiracism," its garments feverishly promoted via Internet forums, blogs and, increasingly, mainstream media. C oast-to-Coast - a late-night radio talk show - is syndicated on more than 500 North American stations. Conspiracy culture has even infiltrated TV prime time with Conspiracy Theory, courtesy of former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, and The Conspiracy Files from the BBC, erstwhile bastion of establishment thinking.
But conspiracy theory seems to be nowhere more fashionable than in Toronto.
[...]
If Toronto is, in fact, the urban hotbed of conspiracy theory, it may be explained by the same theory that accounts for why so many Canadian comedians were able to find success in the United States: We live close enough to the empire to understand it and critique it, but are never really part of it.
Read more...
"Fire couldn't demolish WTC in 11 seconds"
Architects for 9/11 Truth inquiry.
The question isn't who, or why anymore, so much as how. How could 200 thousand tonnes of steel have dropped to the ground -in under 11 seconds- because of a fire? Over a thousand engineers and architects say it simlpy couldn't, not the way it happened on September 11, and now they want a new investigation. Tim King has been following this issue for quite some time.
[More info...]
- 9/11 Conspirators Are Right
When using open source makes you an enemy of the state
· The US copyright lobby has long argued against open source software - now Indonesia's in the firing line for encouraging the idea in government departments.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/23/opensource-intellectual-property
It's only Tuesday and already it's been an interesting week for the world of digital rights. Not only did the British government changed the wording around its controversial 'three strikes' proposals, but the secretive anti-counterfeiting treaty, Acta, was back in the headlines. Meanwhile, a US judge is still deliberating over the Google book settlement.
As if all that wasn't enough, here's another brick to add to the teetering tower of news, courtesy of Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh.
Guadamuz has done some digging and discovered that an influential lobby group is asking the US government to basically consider open source as the equivalent of piracy - or even worse.
What's Special 301? It's a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet - effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure - often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods - to try and force governments to change their behaviours.
Read more...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/feb/23/opensource-intellectual-property
It's only Tuesday and already it's been an interesting week for the world of digital rights. Not only did the British government changed the wording around its controversial 'three strikes' proposals, but the secretive anti-counterfeiting treaty, Acta, was back in the headlines. Meanwhile, a US judge is still deliberating over the Google book settlement.
As if all that wasn't enough, here's another brick to add to the teetering tower of news, courtesy of Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer in law at the University of Edinburgh.
Guadamuz has done some digging and discovered that an influential lobby group is asking the US government to basically consider open source as the equivalent of piracy - or even worse.
What?It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software.
What's Special 301? It's a report that examines the "adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights" around the planet - effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism. It often gets wheeled out as a form of trading pressure - often around pharmaceuticals and counterfeited goods - to try and force governments to change their behaviours.
Read more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
