Revolutionary Fervor to Spread Beyond Arab States; Europe Next

Gerald Celente
Trends Research
Feb 2, 2011

When the Tunisian government toppled, the mass media and their stable of experts ­ who were blindsided by these events ­ quickly stepped in to proclaim the obvious: that citizens of other Arab nations would be emboldened to challenge autocratic and corrupt governments.

Now Egypt is in the throes of insurrection, and Algeria, Jordan, Morocco and Yemen are already targeted for revolutionary change. The richer and more tightly controlled Kingdoms of the Middle East will not be immune to challenges from their citizenry to break the chains of royal rule.

But, as I had forecast in the Trends Journal, it is not solely the Middle East that is destined to experience episodes of violent upheaval. What is transpiring in the Arab world will spread throughout many European states. While the call to arms will be spoken in different tongues, the underlying causes will be the same.

In December 2010 (before Tunisia made the headlines) we issued a Trend Alert® titled, “Off With Their Heads!” in which we predicted a “long war between the people and the ruling classes.” We noted that, “Anyone questioning the intensity of the people’s seething anger is either out of touch or in denial.”

It wasn’t Arab anger that led us to that forecast ­ it was the student and worker revolts spilling into the streets of Europe. The imposition of draconian austerity measures ­ higher taxes, tuition hikes, lost benefits, curtailed services, public sector job cuts ­ had young and old raging against a rigged system that paved the way for the privileged and punished the proles.

Though millions marched through the streets of Athens, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, London and Madrid, when the protests ended, the governments were barely shaken, let alone toppled. Unlike the autocratic Arab regimes, where the tight grip of repression could only be broken by violence, in the “democratic” West the illusion of representation and placating government promises mitigated the violence.

Both the press and politicians assumed the protests would run their course, people would accept their fate, and, like it or not, suffer the consequences. The protests, however, have not run their course. The economic toll of austerity and unemployment continues to ravage the lower and middle classes. As we wrote in the Winter 2011 Trends Journal, “It will only be a matter of time before a series of final straw events breaks the public’s back, setting off uncontrollable uprisings, coups (bloodless and/or military), riots and revolts throughout the financially battered world.”

Trend Forecast: The unintended consequences of the regime changes in North Africa and the Middle East, and the uprisings we forecast that will roil Europe will be as fully dramatic as their intended consequences: the overthrow of governments. The calls by Presidents, Prime Ministers, cabinet officials and foreign policy experts for “orderly transition of power” are nothing more than diplomatic doublespeak and pure windbaggery. There is no such thing as a clean and simple revolution.

As we will see in Egypt, military coups will be disguised as regime changes. Already the public is being conditioned to view the Egyptian military as beloved liberators. But in fact they are simply another arm of the autocratic government, no more familiar with democratic ideals than the dictator they replace … who had himself been drawn from the ranks of the military.

The world leaders and world media are not recognizing the Egyptian uprising for what it is: a prelude to a series of civil wars that will lead to regional wars, that will lead to the first “Great War” of the 21st century. (See “The History of The Future: Trends 2012: The Great War,” Trends Journal, Spring 2010)

America Might Be a More Gilded Cage than Egypt … But It Is Still a Cage

Washington’s Blog
Feb 2, 2011

As the New York Times’ Lede wrote yesterday:

Here is an excerpt from “Why It Is Wrong to Believe a Word Mubarak said,” one Egyptian activist’s detailed response to President Hosni Mubarak’s speech on Tuesday:

What has Mubarak left out in his speech:

1. Emergency law is still effective, which means oppression, brutality, arrests, and torture will continue. How can you have any hope for fair democratic elections under emergency law where the police have absolute power?

America is obviously very different from Egypt. Or is it?

Let’s honestly compare and contrast the situation in the United States.

State of Emergency
The United States has been in a declared state of emergency from September 2001, to the present. Specifically, on September 11, 2001, the government declared a state of emergency. That declared state of emergency was formally put in writing on 9/14/2001:

A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001 . . . .

That declared state of emergency has continued in full force and effect from 9/11 to the present. President Bush kept it in place, and President Obama has also.

For example, on September 10, 2009, President Obama issued his continuation of the declaration of national emergency:

CONTINUATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED BY PROC. NO. 7463
Notice of President of the United States, dated Sept. 10, 2009, 74 F.R. 46883, provided:

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2009. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency the former President declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.
Barack Obama.

An on September 10, 2010, President Obama declared:

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year.

The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.

The Washington Times wrote on September 18, 2001:

Simply by proclaiming a national emergency on Friday, President Bush activated some 500 dormant legal provisions, including those allowing him to impose censorship and martial law.

Is the Times correct? Well, it is clear that pre-9/11 declarations of national emergency have authorized martial law. For example, as summarized by a former fellow for the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Gary Schlarbaum Award for Lifetime Defense of Liberty, Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties, Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty and Templeton Honor Rolls Award on Education in a Free Society:

In 1973, the Senate created a Special Committee on the Termination of the National Emergency (subsequently redesignated the Special Committee on National Emergencies and Delegated Emergency Powers) to investigate the matter and to propose reforms. Ascertaining the continued existence of four presidential declarations of national emergency, the Special Committee (U.S. Senate 1973, p. iii) reported:

These proclamations give force to 470 provisions of Federal law. . . . taken together, [they] confer enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal constitutional processes. Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communications; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens.

(Most or all of the emergency powers referred to by the above-quoted 1973 Senate report were revoked in the late 1970′s by 50 U.S.C. Section 1601. However, presidents have made numerous declarations of emergency since then, and the declarations made by President Bush in September 2001 are still in effect).

It is also clear that the White House has kept substantial information concerning its presidential proclamations and directives hidden from Congress. For example, according to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy:

Of the 54 National Security Presidential Directives issued by the [George W.] Bush Administration to date, the titles of only about half have been publicly identified. There is descriptive material or actual text in the public domain for only about a third. In other words, there are dozens of undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S. national security policy and task government agencies, but whose substance is unknown either to the public or, as a rule, to Congress.

Continuity of Government

Continuity of Government (“COG”) measures were implemented on 9/11. For example, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, at page 38:

At 9:59, an Air Force lieutenant colonel working in the White House Military Office joined the conference and stated he had just talked to Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. The White House requested (1) the implementation of continuity of government measures, (2) fighter escorts for Air Force One, and (3) a fighter combat air patrol over Washington, D.C.

Likewise, page 326 of the Report states:

The secretary of defense directed the nation’s armed forces to Defense Condition 3, an increased state of military readiness. For the first time in history, all nonemergency civilian aircraft in the United States were grounded, stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the country. Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders had been implemented.

The Washington Post notes that Vice President Richard Cheney initiated the COG plan on 9/11:

From the bunker, Cheney officially implemented the emergency continuity of government orders . . . .

See also footnotes cited therein and this webpage.

CNN reported that – 6 months later – the plans were still in place:

Because Bush has decided to leave the operation in place, agencies including the White House and top civilian Cabinet departments have rotated personnel involved, and are discussing ways to staff such a contingency operation under the assumption it will be in place indefinitely, this official said.

Similarly, the Washington Post reported in March 2002 that “the shadow government has evolved into an indefinite precaution.” The same article goes on to state:

Assessment of terrorist risks persuaded the White House to remake the program as a permanent feature of ‘the new reality, based on what the threat looks like,’ a senior decisionmaker said.

As CBS pointed out, virtually none of the Congressional leadership knew that the COG had been implemented or was still in existence as of March 2002:

Key congressional leaders say they didn’t know President Bush had established a “shadow government,” moving dozens of senior civilian managers to secret underground locations outside Washington to ensure that the federal government could survive a devastating terrorist attack on the nation’s capital, The Washington Post says in its Saturday editions.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) told the Post he had not been informed by the White House about the role, location or even the existence of the shadow government that the administration began to deploy the morning of the Sept. 11 hijackings.

An aide to House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said he was also unaware of the administration’s move.

Among Congress’s GOP leadership, aides to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), second in line to succeed the president if he became incapacitated, and to Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (Miss.) said they were not sure whether they knew.

Aides to Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said he had not been told. As Senate president pro tempore, he is in line to become president after the House speaker.

Similarly, the above-cited CNN article states:

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, said Friday he can’t say much about the plan.

“We have not been informed at all about the role of the shadow government or its whereabouts or what particular responsibilities they have and when they would kick in, but we look forward to work with the administration to get additional information on that.”

Indeed, the White House has specifically refused to share information about Continuity of Government plans with the Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress, even though that Committee has proper security clearance to hear the full details of all COG plans.

Specifically, in the summer 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio, on the Homeland Security Committee (and so with proper security access to be briefed on COG issues), inquired about continuity of government plans, and was refused access. Indeed, DeFazio told Congress that the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the plans by the White House (video; or here is the transcript). The Homeland Security Committee has full clearance to view all information about COG plans. DeFazio concluded: “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right”.

As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott warned:

If members of the Homeland Security Committee cannot enforce their right to read secret plans of the Executive Branch, then the systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution would seem to be failing.

To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating DeFazio, then Continuity of Government planning has arguably already superseded the Constitution as a higher authority.

Indeed, continuity of government plans are specifically defined to do the following:

• Top leaders of the “new government” called for in the COG would entirely or largely go into hiding, and would govern in hidden locations

• Those within the new government would know what was going on. But those in the “old government” – that is, the one created by the framers of the Constitution – would not necessarily know the details of what was happening

• Normal laws and legal processes might largely be suspended, or superseded by secretive judicial forums

• The media might be ordered by strict laws – punishable by treason – to only promote stories authorized by the new government

See this, this and this.

Could the White House have maintained COG operations to the present day?

I don’t know, but the following section from the above-cited CNN article is not very reassuring:

Bush triggered the precautions in the hours after the September 11 strikes, and has left them in place because of continuing U.S. intelligence suggesting a possible threat.

Concerns that al Qaeda could have gained access to a crude nuclear device “were a major factor” in the president’s decision, the official said. “The threat of some form of catastrophic event is the trigger,” this official said.

This same official went on to say that the U.S. had no confirmation — “and no solid evidence” — that al Qaeda had such a nuclear device and also acknowledged that the “consensus” among top U.S. officials was that the prospect was “quite low.”

Still, the officials said Bush and other top White House officials including Cheney were adamant that the government take precautions designed to make sure government functions ranging from civil defense to transportation and agricultural production could be managed in the event Washington was the target of a major strike.

As is apparent from a brief review of the news, the government has, since 9/11, continuously stated that there is a terrorist threat of a nuclear device or dirty bomb. That alone infers that COG plans could, hypothetically, still be in effect, just like the state of emergency is still in effect and has never been listed.

In addition, investigative reporter Larisa Alexandrovna (lead journalist at Raw Story), writing about the 2001 Department of Justice memorandum that found that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations, wrote:

It seems to me that this administration has justified its crimes by NOT suspending the state of emergency that went up on September 11, 2001. They are using emergency powers if you look at the whole of the spying, military actions inside the US, etc. I would wager that if asked, this administration will admit that we have been in a state of emergency for their tenure in office.

Alexandrovna not only believes that we have been in a state of emergency since 2001 (which the White House itself has verified, see above), but that the government has been using its emergency powers — i.e. powers justified by a state of emergency — in spying, carrying out military actions inside the U.S. (see this), and taking other extra-Constitutional actions.

As Tim Shorrock wrote at Salon:

A contemporary version of the Continuity of Government program was put into play in the hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when Vice President Cheney and senior members of Congress were dispersed to “undisclosed locations” to maintain government functions. It was during this emergency period, Hamilton and other former government officials believe, that President Bush may have authorized the NSA to begin actively using the Main Core database for domestic surveillance. One indicator they cite is a statement by Bush in December 2005, after the New York Times had revealed the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping, in which he made a rare reference to the emergency program: The Justice Department’s legal reviews of the NSA activity, Bush said, were based on “fresh intelligence assessment of terrorist threats to the continuity of our government.”

In 2007, President Bush issued Presidential Directive NSPD-51, which purported to change Continuity of Government plans. NSPD51 is odd because:

• NSPD51 was passed without Congressional input
• Even the New York Times wrote in an editorial:

Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the President may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack, or to any ‘other condition.’ Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new Presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate.

Everyone from “conservative activist Jerome Corsi [to] Marjorie Cohn of the [liberal] National Lawyer’s Guild have interpreted [the COG plans contained in Presidential Directive NSPD-51] as a break from Constitutional law ….“

As a reporter for Slate concluded after analyzing NSPD-51:

I see nothing in the [COG document entitled presidential directive NSPD51] to prevent even a “localized” forest fire or hurricane from giving the president the right to throw long-established constitutional government out the window

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that “because of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the American public needs no explanation of [Continuity of Government] plans”

Much Ado About Nothing?

This may seem like much ado about nothing. But as I pointed out last September:

According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this.An FBI memo also labels peace protesters as “terrorists”.

Indeed, police have been terrorizing children, little old ladies and other “dangerous” people who attempted to protest peacefully.

And a 2003 FBI memo describes protesters’ use of videotaping as an “intimidation” technique, even though – as the ACLU points out – “Most mainstream demonstrators often use videotape during protests to document law enforcement activity and, more importantly, deter police from acting outside the law.” The FBI appears to be objecting to the use of cameras to document unlawful behavior by law enforcement itself.

The Internet has been labeled as a breeding ground for terrorists, with anyone who questions the government’s versions of history being especially equated with terrorists.

The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and this.

Claims of “national security” are also used to keep basic financial information – such as who got bailout money – secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.

The state of Missouri tried to label as terrorists current Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters, former Congressman Bob Barr, libertarians in general, anyone who holds gold, and a host of other people.

And according to a law school professor, pursuant to the Military Commissions Act:

Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

And see this.

So the U.S. might be a much more gilded cage than Egypt … but it is still a cage.

Didn’t 9/11 Change Everything?

Many have claimed that 9/11 changed everything, and Americans can no longer abide by the idealistic ideas set forth in the Constitution.

However:

• The government’s spying on Americans began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here. And see this)

• The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11 (see this and this)

• The decision to launch the Iraq war was made before 9/11. Indeed, former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted “crap” in its justifications for invading Iraq. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill – who sat on the National Security Council – also says that Bush planned the Iraq war before9/11. And top British officials say that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change one month after Bush took office

• Cheney apparently even made Iraqi’s oil fields a national security priority before 9/11

• Cheney dreamed of giving the White House the powers of a monarch long before 9/11

• Cheney and Rumsfeld actively generated fake intelligence which exaggerated the threat from an enemy in order to justify huge amounts of military spending long before 9/11. And see this

• The decision to threaten to bomb Iran was made before 9/11

• It was known long before 9/11 that torture doesn’t work to produce accurate intelligence, but is an effective way to terrorize people

Nothing Is Stable Anymore

The Economic Collapse
Feb 2, 2011

The world is becoming a very unstable place, and the pace at which things are changing all around us has become absolutely mind-numbing.  In fact, change has become one of the only constants in today’s world.  Once upon a time, people in the United States could actually make 20 or 30 year plans and feel confident about achieving them.  But now, nothing is stable anymore.  The financial crisis showed us that some of the biggest corporations on the globe can collapse in a single day.  The events of the past few weeks have shown us that entire governments can be brought down in a single week.  We live in a world where there are now very few “guarantees” that you can count on.  One of the only things that is guaranteed is that technology and information will continue to grow at exponential speeds.  This year, the total amount of information produced on electronic devices around the globe is projected to bemore than a zettabyte.  A zettabyte is equivalent to one sextillion bytes.  In other words, imagine a one with more than 21 zeroes following it.

Many of the things that we take for granted today didn’t even exist a few short years ago.  Facebook has only been with us since 2004.  YouTube has only been with us since 2005.  Can you imagine a world where those two websites did not exist?

We live in a world of information overload.  Once upon a time it would have been possible to go to sleep for a decade and wake up and everything would still be pretty much the same.  But today if you were to do that you would be in for a case of severe culture shock.

Do you remember when you could buy a set of encyclopedias and the information in them would still be good a decade or two later?

Well, things do not work that way anymore.

In fact, most of the articles on this website will be obsolete a month from now.

In today’s world, you really have to think twice before you say that something is “not possible”.

A few months ago, it was absolutely inconceivable that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would declare to the world that he has “spent enough time serving Egypt“.

Yet here we are.

One week the government of Tunisia seemed perfectly stable and the next week it was toppled.

Do any of you out there still think that you can make realistic “plans for the future” in today’s world?

Once upon a time in America, many of us were taught that if we worked really hard in school we could get a great job with a great company.  We were promised that if we were faithful to that company for 30 or 40 years that we would be treated fairly and given a good pension.

Well, in today’s world you might as well crumple up that plan and throw it into the wastebasket.

There is no such thing as a stable job anymore.  Businesses are coming into existence and going out of existence faster than ever before.  Today, one out of every four Americans workers has been with their empl0yer for less than a year.

Most Americans still don’t really understand that they are now part of a global economy.  They keep thinking that things were the way they used to be.  They keep thinking that the U.S. economy is invincible.

Well, those days are long gone.  The United States is being deindustrialized at lightning speed.  Tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of jobs have been sent overseas.  China, once a complete economic backwater, is now kicking the crap out of us on the global economic stage.

Our financial system is certainly on incredibly shaky ground.  Will any of us ever forget what happened in 2008?

Do any of us actually believe that it can’t happen again?

Our health care system is also incredibly unstable.  Today, 46 million Americans have absolutely no health insurance.  That means that 46 million Americans are just one major injury or illness away from financial ruin with no protection whatsoever.

Not that those that actually have health insurance are protected.  According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States.  Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that did have health insurance.

So just because you have health insurance does not mean anything.  One bad accident or one really bad disease and you could be totally wiped out.

Isn’t that comforting?

But the truth is that our entire economy is on the verge of total collapse.

World famous investor Harry Schultz recently published the last issue of his legendary financial newsletter.  After 45 years, the following is how Schultzsummed up the economic collapse that we are now facing….

“Roughly speaking, the mess we are in is the worst since 17th century financial collapse. Comparisons with the 1930’s are ludicrous. We’ve gone far beyond that. And, alas, the courage & political will to recognize the mess & act wisely to reverse gears, is absent in U.S. leadership, where the problems were hatched & where the rot is by far the deepest.”

David Stockman, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan was quoted by Schultz as saying the following about how desperate things are about to become….

“Get some gold, beans, water, anything that Bernanke can’t destroy. Ron Paul is right. We’re entering a global monetary conflagration. If a sell-off of U.S. bonds starts, it will be an Armageddon.”

Millions of Americans have become “preppers” in recent years as they have come to realize that our economy is headed down a very dark road.

But sadly, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans are not prepared for any kind of economic or natural disaster.  As this week has shown us, just the threat of a major snow storm can wipe out store shelves in a single day.

So what would this country look like if a major disaster fundamentally changed life in America and suddenly people were desperate for food and supplies?

It is a frightening thing to think about.

As the pace of change has accelerated dramatically, the U.S. government and other governments around the world have responded by trying to get a tighter grip on everyone and everything.

To get on an airplane in the United States today, you either have to allow a security goon to use a scanner to look over your completely exposed body, or you have to allow a security goon to feel up all of your private areas with the fronts of his or her hands.

Not only that, but the U.S. government has now deployed VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams to set up security checkpoints at bus terminals, subway stations and on major highways.

The America that so many of us once loved is rapidly disappearing.

But it is not just our man-made systems that are rapidly changing.  Something seems to be happening to the entire planet.  Flooding of biblical proportions has hit Australia, Brazil, China and Pakistan over the past 12 months.  Scorching heat caused massive crop failures all over Russia last summer.  Record-setting cold temperatures and snowfalls all over the northern hemisphere have scientists scratching their heads.  On top of everything else, mass deaths of birds and fish are suddenly being reported all over the globe.

Even the crust of the earth is becoming increasingly unstable.  Did you see that volcano go off in Japan the other day?  Over the past two years it seems like volcanoes have been suddenly erupting all over the world.

Not only that, but sinkholes have become an absolute epidemic all over the planet.  Some of these sinkholes have been so large that they have swallowed entire apartment buildings.

In addition, it seems like there is a magnitude 6 or magnitude 7 earthquake somewhere in the world almost every day now.  They have become so common that the mainstream media barely even takes notice of them anymore unless one happens near a very populated area.

None of us really knows what the world is going to look like ten years from now.  What will the “new” Facebooks and YouTubes be?  Will Ben Bernanke’sreckless money printing destroy our economy by then?  Will our U.S. dollars still be of any value ten years from now?  Will there even still be a U.S. dollar?

Will we still be able to feed most of the people in the world by 2011?  Will shortages of food, water and oil start driving people crazy?  Could some amazing energy discovery completely transform society?

Who will be the president of the United States?  Will there even be a president of the United States?  Will war have erupted in the Middle East by that point?  Will the United States be in another war by then?

The truth is that things are changing so fast that it is hard to even come up with the right questions to ask.  The world is going to change faster this year than it did last year.  In 2012 the pace of change will be even faster.

So buckle up and hold on tight because this is going to be one wild ride.

For much more on how incredibly fast the pace of change is in our modern society, check out the video posted below.  It is entitled “Did You Know?” and it has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube….

The Meddling of Global “Thinkers”

Now here’s something interesting. Every year, Foreign Policy magazine produces a list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in the World. We picked up the list…looking for our own name.

But wait…

The key is that these are “global” thinkers. They’re not just thinkers, in other words, they are people who are thinking about how people on the other side of the planet should conduct their business.

We were suspicious even before we looked at the list. “Foreign Policy”? We’re against it. Why should we worry about things that don’t concern us?

“Well… You can’t put your head in the sand,” you might reply. “You have to be concerned, because things that happen overseas do affect you.”

Yes, that is true. They affect us. But so does the price of whiskey, the traffic on the Beltway, and the weather. None of them is worth thinking about. We can do nothing about them. And it would be indecent for us to try.

Imagine if we took an interest in the whiskey distiller’s business. What could we do? Try to force him to lower his prices? Try to show him how to operate more efficiently – as if we could know? Set up a buyers’ cartel to negotiate for lower prices? At best, we’d be wasting our time. At worse, we might succeed! Then, whiskey producers would be responding not to market forces…but to meddlers’ forces. What a mess that would be!

Meddling with things close at hand is bad enough. Meddling with things far away is worse. Remember our Daily Reckoning dictum: ignorance increases by the square of the distance. The farther you get away the harder it is to tell what is going on. The details disappear. All you can make out are the rough outlines. Shadows…reflections…silhouettes… In the darkness, you step on every rake and fall into every hole.

The next thing you know, you are calling for “reforms” in countries you’ve never even visited…setting the price of China’s money…and invading Iraq.

But let’s look at who Foreign Policy magazine thinks are the 100 Top Global Thinkers.

Uh oh. In the first and second place are Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Hmmm… They’re smart guys. But what makes them “thinkers”? What have they been thinking about? And what are their thoughts on the subject?

FP says they are there, not for their contributions to the wealth of mankind, but for their philanthropic activities. Wait a minute. What’s philanthropy got to do with thinking?

Okay… We’re stumped on that one… So, who’s the number 3 thinker? Barack Obama! Hold on… This is getting silly. Have you ever heard Barack Obama come up with an original thought? Or any kind of thought worthy of the word? No. That’s not his thing. He’s a politician. Politicians are not thinkers. They may be doers…but they’re not thinkers. Obama gives us plenty of empty expressions and hollow words – “change you can believe in”…“hope”… “winning the future” – but real thoughts? Original ideas? Nope.

Generally, politicians are not thinkers. Occasionally, you get a politician who pretends to be a thinker – such as Princeton University chief Woodrow Wilson. But he almost invariably turns out to be a jackass and a fool.

There must be exceptions – Marcus Aurelius and Thomas Jefferson come to mind. But they seem ill-suited to the political profession and probably should have eschewed public office in the first place.

So let’s keep moving. There must be someone on this list who is a real thinker.

Let’s look back at last year…let’s see…who was FP’s top thinker?

Ben Bernanke!

Well, that does it for us. What’s the matter with these people? Can’t they tell the different between tired hacks with worn-out, crackpot ideas…and real thinkers?

The Foreign Policy editors should do some real thinking of their own. Then, maybe they’d mind their own business.

Read more: The Meddling of Global “Thinkers” http://dailyreckoning.com/the-meddling-of-global-thinkers/#ixzz1CnqPTFxx

The Fear Created by Fractional Reserve

Szandor Blestman

I don’t have to tell you that things are bad. You know that things are bad. Unemployment is rampant. The cost of food and energy is skyrocketing. A police state is encroaching across the land. People across the globe are rioting. Wars are never ending. Hunger and starvation are realities for far too many people. Too many houses are in foreclosure. Too many families are living in tents or worse. Currencies worldwide are collapsing. Everything seems to be falling apart and there doesn’t seem much anyone can do about it. It seems the best we can do is to keep on keeping on.

Why is this happening? That’s a valid question. People have their own opinion on who to blame, but what’s at the heart of the matter? I think it’s fear. I think we have allowed these things to happen because of fallacious fears that have been forced upon us by those who wish to control the mass of humanity.

We have all been lied to. We have all been deceived. We are lied to by politicians who claim to be looking after our best interests. We are deceived by corporations who claim to be providing us with safe, state of the art products. We are lied to by the establishment scientific community who claim to be providing us with facts to help sustain our future. We are lied to by the medical establishment (especially mega pharmaceutical corporations) who claim to cherish the health of their patients above the desire to profit. We are deceived by the corporate media who claim to be open, honest and objective. We are deceived by the central banking cartel who claim to wish to provide us with economic stability and full employment. In short, we are lied to and deceived by any entity or organization who believe that by doing so they will be able to fleece money and gain power from the common folk.

We have allowed this to happen because of fear. We are afraid of terrorists lurking around every corner and planning on blowing up airplanes, trains, malls, government buildings, our homes, kidnapping our children or any number of nefarious things. We are afraid that our neighbors who own guns will suddenly become raving lunatics who will hunt down the nearest congress critter. We are afraid that Islamic fundamentalists will suddenly take over our governments and force us to obey sharia law. We are afraid of what will happen should currencies collapse. We are afraid of having to face life without a societal “safety net.” We are afraid of everyone and everything we are told to be afraid of by those who pull our strings.

It seems to me that the vast majority of us are afraid of the truth. The truth will set us free, so maybe we’re afraid of freedom. We are afraid of having to look after ourselves, of having to make our own way in the world, of having to live independent without mommy government there to hold our hands. We demand security without being willing to do the hard work of securing our own selves. We demand protection while forgetting how to protect or most precious principles. What good is surviving as a society when the principles we hold dear do not survive with us? We live in fear, cowering from shadowy enemies, sniveling before the masters, obeying their every command no matter how humiliating, hoping that they’ll be done with us quickly and leave us alone to crawl back to our sheltered lives. But they won’t leave us alone, they just get more intrusive. We bleat and grumble and moan about the circumstances but find it so difficult to just simply disobey, to simply refuse to go along with their plans, following the flock on the path to who knows where.

We know something’s wrong. We can feel it in our guts. There’s a creeping malaise out there, sending feelers into every aspect of society. This is the fear. This is the unease in the back of your mind as you go on with your everyday life. You may think to yourself, as I have, that nothing bad can happen to you. You’ve been a good person all your life. You’ve worked hard. You’ve played by the rules. Yet this feeling in the pit of your stomach grows. The uncertainty metastasizes. You find yourself worrying about what the future will bring. You may realize that maybe you’re not so invulnerable after all.

This has happened, in my opinion, by design. The fractional reserve system that is in place in the modern world is one designed to funnel wealth to a very few privileged and extremely wealthy elite masters. They are stealing the wealth the common folk create. They offer no tangible production for the betterment of humankind. It seems obvious to me when they are already the super wealthy and yet they can take hundreds of billions or even trillions in so called bailouts that our progeny will be paying back for generations. Those at the top have designed the system. They control all aspects of it. They can manipulate it as they want. When they see that people have figured it out and are starting to advance and compete, they change the rules. They create the fear, threatening even our very congress with martial law, and then they feed off it like parasites.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We can refuse to go along with their system. We can insist on auditing their system, discovering the fraud and slowly dismantling their monopoly to allow competition to bring in a more fair system where the common folk actually have a say in where their money goes. We need to stop being afraid to look at reality. We need to admit to ourselves that we’ve been played and stop being afraid of what they will do when we point out their crimes. We can stop living in the fear they create and start creating a positive future based on love, respect and faith in humanity.

We need to remember that we are the economy, you and I and the rest of the common folk. We are the ones who create real wealth, not those who print portraits of dead presidents, despots and tyrants on pretty paper. We can set up alternative systems like the precious metal systems that are springing up organically across the land as opposed to the fractional reserve system that is intrinsically fraudulent. Copper, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, etc. have intrinsic value. They cannot be created from thin air. It takes labor to mine and process metals, so they are a measure of the value of labor rather than a promise for payment and a measure of indebtedness. This is the type of system needed to keep the greedy from going overboard. This is the type of system that would keep those in check who would create the pyramid type scam we see today.

Things are bad and they are likely going to get worse. But that doesn’t mean you should just duck your head and go along to get along. You can no longer afford to ignore the problem. You can no longer to remain apathetic. You need to get involved, to add your voice to the growing chorus demanding freedom. You need to add your voice to the growing masses who understand who the real puppet masters are and wish to see them no longer in charge. You need to stop being afraid to speak up and let those at the top know that you will no longer live as a slave to their system. They want you to live in fear, but they are likely quite afraid of you, for we outnumber them thousands to one. They know that if enough of us realize this fact and reclaim the power we have, that they will have to relent to our demands. One can only hope this can be done in a peaceful and constructive manner.

I don’t know how much longer I can keep writing like I have been. I am weeks away from being homeless. I currently don’t have the money to pay this month’s rent. I have been out of work for over two years now. I have done my best to make a living writing, but it isn’t working. The sales of my ebook haven’t taken off as I hoped they would. I’m still waiting for publication of another book and it’s looking like that may never happen. I’ve gotten a couple of very generous contributions and I’ve made some money, but it hasn’t been enough to support myself. I haven’t been able to find work even at McDonald’s or Walmart. Still, I believe in a brighter tomorrow. Still, I have faith in mankind. Still, I realize that the vast majority of people are good and kind. If you have any leads for me, if you know anyone looking for help, please email me so I can look into it. Like so many others, I am willing and able to work, I just need to find someone who is willing and able to let me.

My archived articles are available at szandorblestman.com. Please visit there to help support me and my efforts. I also have an ebook available entitled “The Ouijiers” by Matthew Wayne.

New Government Standard Operating Procedure: Step Out of Line and We’ll Cut You Off

Simon Black

The need for most species to gather into larger collectives is a primal, animalistic instinct. Whether flocks of birds, schools of fish, colonies of ants, or packs of wolves, it is a natural inclination for animals to form larger units for their mutual protection and productive benefit.

Human civilization has shown the same tendency. Mankind’s first collectives were families and tribes based on common language, customs, lineage, and geography. As tribes grew and formed into kingdoms and vast empires, though, the core power in a civilization became concentrated in the hands of a few.

History is filled with examples of tyrants who mercilessly oppressed their people; in fact, the entire concept of the feudal system which dominated the earth for over 1,000 years was based on this idea that the masses exist to serve the ruling class, not the other way around.

We like to think that civilization has evolved far beyond that point… that the modern world is one in which, for better or worse, the will of the majority dictates the rules. Unfortunately, this notion is nothing but an elaborate illusion– feudalism is still alive and well today.

Certainly, there are varying degrees of it, and some nations are far more open about it than others. Western democracies decry brutal dictatorships in Burma, North Korea, and Cuba, all while a small cadre of bankers and bureaucrats sets up a system designed for their personal gain at the expense of everyone else.

Incredibly, the ruling class has managed to establish a society in which ‘the majority’ demands their rule, capitulates to their authority, and fills their coffers with taxes, bailouts, and loans. Maintaining the status quo is their ultimate objective, and we can see that in today’s headlines.

As waves of food riots have spread across the world, the various ruling establishments have reacted by digging in and defending their own interests… turning police and military forces loose on the people to put down insurrection under the ridiculous pretense of “keeping the peace.”

The tactics that have taken place in Egypt over the last several days are particularly telling: the government has taken out Internet and telecommunications architecture, at least at the consumer level, in an effort to quell the rebellion… and I think Egypt is a preview of things to come.

Governments will now neutralize any asset that civilians can use to unify their efforts and establish command & control. This includes cutting communications architecture, sending troops in the streets, and enforcing curfews.

I suspect that other measures on the table include cutting critical infrastructure like water and power, and contriving ‘security emergencies’ and dubious terror threats.

Unsurprisingly, lawmakers in the United States are getting ready to reintroduce a bill that gives President Obama the power to seize control over, and even shut down the Internet.

So long as we’re all obedient servants and don’t rock the boat too much, they’ll keep the lights and the phones on. The moment we stop digesting their imploding paper currencies or pour into the streets demanding accountability, they’ll flip the switch and go into self-preservation mode.

Ironically, such measures can be surprisingly effective. It’s psychological warfare, really– the establishment can demonstrate with surgical precision how dependent we are and how much control it can exert over us. (it’s like that old joke “the beatings will continue until morale improves…”)

This is feudalism, plain and simple, and it doesn’t really matter who’s in control. If the established ruling class fails to preserve their power, they will only fall to a new ruling class… but the mentality will remain: “do as you’re told, and we’ll keep the machine running.”

Modern society has evolved to the point that there are numerous, complex networks in place to take care of our basic necessities, freeing up our own individual capacities to focus on other productive interests– our careers, leisure activities, etc.

We don’t have to worry about producing our own food or generating power anymore because the system does that for us… so instead, we can focus our time and energy on things like professional endeavors which help us to afford our platinum cards and houses full of Chinese manufactured knick knacks.

This dependency, however prosperous it may feel, comes at an opportunity cost… and I think the recent events in Egypt and around the world underscore very clearly that this opportunity cost is freedom.

Real freedom, after all, has nothing to do with a bank balance full of fictitious zeros, or a credit score that gives people the means to further indebt themselves… but rather the degree to which one can be unplugged from this dependency.

Understanding the nature of the opportunity cost is critical, as is taking steps to reduce it. This can include planting multiple flags, investing in agricultural property, stocking up on food and water, installing solar paneling at your home, alternate RF or satellite communications, etc.

Measured preparation is the key. There is no reason to panic or expect the end of the world… but merely to identify vulnerabilities and risks, and then devise a plan to mitigate them. This will be a guiding principle for the resilient, sustainable community that my team is now planning.