Dedicated to slothrop:
Flooding Closes Auyuittuq National Park – fast melting due to temps being 25F/12C above normal for August.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 1 2008 21:33 utc | 3

@ Dr. Yueh & plushtown,
From an engineer’s but wannabe atmospheric scientist’s viewpoint, these event are but additional datapoints in an eighteen year history of interest in global climate changes. For one more data reference, our county here in Vermont has experienced the wettest summer in my eighteen years here. Our gardens are totally saturated and my chili peppers are wilting like they are in a 2 week drought.
Doesn’t prove anything but these data follow and support my contention that climate change will occur at first as more extreme weather events happening more often and more geographically widespread.
We live in probably the most interesting times in the history of our species and are witnessing the slow motion occurrences of the results of our folly. But that is of course just an opinion.
I’ve stopped trying to follow all of the data but appreciate your pointing out what has been and still is of interest to me. Thanks. I would have missed both data points on my own.

Posted by: Juannie | Aug 2 2008 1:28 utc | 5

#5 Juannie: slow motion so far, and not from folly as usually understood.

Posted by: plushtown | Aug 2 2008 1:50 utc | 7

Thanks, plushtown…I think I was supposed to ‘dedicate’ the post to you, if you’re the one with the standing wager about climate change. Was reading my program upside-down! 🙂
Here’s another interesting one:
dust in the air – Christina Hulbe is a climatologist and has been posting a series of excellent articles at TLC.
Also, a bit more anectdotal, we’ve been having a very mild summer here in SoCal. While I’ve grown up (over 40 yrs) expecting July/Aug daytime temps to be in the 100-110F/37-43C range, most days this summer have barely cracked 90F/32C. Thunderstorm activity in the Sierra Nevada, though, has increased.
@Diogenes – Heh…Cheney…there’s one heart plug I’d like to pull!!!

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 2 2008 2:12 utc | 9

well, you can’t say that the u.n. isn’t doing something about global warming

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 — Television camera crews were waiting for the UN’s Ban Ki-moon on Friday morning; he showed off for them a short sleeved shirt and lack of tie. To set an example, he said, of action for climate change, the UN will raise the temperature in the building by five degrees.

Posted by: b real | Aug 2 2008 5:57 utc | 11

When Chavez does a bank rescue, it is bad socialism and “an effort to intensify state control over the economy through takeovers of private companies.”
When the FDIC does the same, all is fine ….
Bank Tries to Allay Fears of Instability in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — The central bank sought on Friday to calm fears of faltering banks a day after President Hugo Chávez unexpectedly announced the nationalization of a large Spanish-owned bank, his latest effort to intensify state control over the economy through takeovers of private companies.
The nationalization of the bank would extend to the financial sector a series of takeovers, which Mr. Chávez initiated last year, in industries including oil, telecommunications, electricity and steel-making.
…
Indeed, fears recently arose over the possible collapse of several banks because of rules forcing them to sell $5 billion of complex securities called structured notes. Banks bought the notes last year at values tied to high black-market rates of the dollar, exposing some of them to huge losses after the local currency, the bolívar, strengthened this year.

SunTrust Bank Acquires the Insured Deposits of First Priority Bank, Bradenton, Florida

First Priority Bank, Bradenton, Florida, was closed today by the Commissioner of the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, Georgia, to assume the insured deposits of First Priority.
…
The cost to the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund is estimated to be $72 million. First Priority is the first bank to fail in Florida since Guaranty National Bank, Tallahassee, on March 12, 2004. This year, a total of eight FDIC-insured institutions have been closed.
Congress created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 1933 to restore public confidence in the nation’s banking system. The FDIC insures deposits at the nation’s 8,494 banks and savings associations and it promotes the safety and soundness of these institutions by identifying, monitoring and addressing risks to which they are exposed. The FDIC receives no federal tax dollars – insured financial institutions fund its operations.

Posted by: b | Aug 2 2008 6:35 utc | 13

The Anthrax case has been solved! Case closed, Now we can all go back to sleep.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 2 2008 12:50 utc | 15

“What to make of this astonishing sentence in the Republican plan for “Rebuilding America’s Defenses? “Advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.”

Posted by: denk | Aug 2 2008 15:24 utc | 17

Uncle Scam at 12 and ff., so Ivins suicided, who knows exactly what it means.
He may be a convenient culprit to put the whole story to rest.
The US public will never demand any evidence of his culpability, forensic or other, request any investigation, justification, motive will not be adressed – money? sex? blackmail? Patriotism? Organized how? Why? By whom?
The evidence against him seems to be post hoc, or only inducing stress on him as he was being investigated, it is reported, but who knows if that is true after the fact. (I only read 2-3 news articles.)
sing along: It happened, it was a scary time! Get over it already.
At least Hatfill got fair compensation. Red herrings and scapegoats cashing in is rare, and Hatfill’s determination is an extrordinary example to many of us. Yes. NY times
best blog, factual and scientific, on this matter, goes to 2003 only:
link

Posted by: Tangerine | Aug 2 2008 16:50 utc | 19

here’s an unexpectedly interesting NYT article on trolls

Posted by: Lizard | Aug 2 2008 18:50 utc | 21

thanks anna missed #20, link re Joker: “He represents himself simply as an agent of “chaos.” ” Bingo.
David Berkowitz (from prison, “born again”, and I probably despise “born again” as much as anyone here) claimed he and others’ orders were to spread chaos. Chaos produces contracts for the tippy-top.

Posted by: plushtown | Aug 3 2008 2:41 utc | 23

the most intriguing philosopher of the latter half of the 20th century? philip k. dick

Posted by: Lizard | Aug 3 2008 3:23 utc | 25

We could go back to sleep, or we could keep jabbing at Achilles’s heel.

When the Sun published these photos, the left wing online erupted into merriment and mockery. We had tremendous fun with the photos and this was tremendously embarrassing to the drunken sots within the Bush clan. Bush Sr. spoke darkly about how the Sun would be punished and how everyone else better watch out or they might also be punished. On the left, we took note of this growl about revenge and danger.

Intereting take here.

The clue as to who the assassin was lay in the nature of the very first victim: the photo editor of the Sun, a gossip rag. He was given the Jenna drunk photos and published them. All the Bushes were outraged.

.. but I suppose we could all go back to sleep. Yah! A few unsolved murders. Who gives a rat’s, eh?

I figured, the important murder was the first one. All the others were to make it look ‘random’ and this is classic in murder cases.

US Government Secret Anthrax Assassin Commits Suicide

Posted by: DM | Aug 3 2008 4:00 utc | 27

Heh, but the depressing thing about the two-ferries scene was that it was utterly unbelievable. Two individuals might behave so, but the idea of hundreds of people sitting and taking a paper vote, instead of the detonators being mobbed instantly … God, it punched a giant hole through the suspension of disbelief that I mustered in order to enjoy the rest of the pop-mythos.

Posted by: Cloud | Aug 3 2008 4:51 utc | 29

Midlake

Posted by: Lizard | Aug 3 2008 6:31 utc | 31

Examining FARC Resistance in Colombia: Not the end of Guerrilla Warfare

While it cannot be dismissed that in the past few months the FARC has experienced unprecedented difficulties, it must also be understood that, as long as inequitable socio-cultural and political-economic conditions pervade Colombian society, there will exist a population base from which the guerrilla group can recruit. The FARC remain the longest running and most powerful political-military movement in contemporary Latin America with numbers still ranging in the thousands, arguably tens of thousands. Therefore, to buy into any suggestion that Colombia finds itself in a period of increased stability or that the FARC has passed into the annals of history is to adopt a false consciousness of the realities that exist within this Andean country.
As the nation witnesses accelerated levels of inequality, displacement and exploitation, so too will the levels of opposition continue to increase. These are the consequences of instability and the true forum through which people become aware of their class positioning; hence, their subsequent engagement in acts of resistance through more extreme measures. According to political scientist Peter Calvert, political-economic disparity provides “insurgent movements a ready-made mass of disaffected supporters.”
It is accurate to suggest that the FARC is experiencing a period of tactical reformation and withdrawal. But to assess that the insurgency is over lacks an understanding of both guerrilla warfare and the material conditions that pervade Colombian society and its class struggle. To suggest that the FARC has experienced defeat illustrates a failure to understand the right of self-determination through an internal interpretation of revolutionary emancipation. The internal struggle within Colombia is far from over. It will continue to be waged through radical and antagonistic forms. As the United States and the Uribe administration continue to engage in a war against the poor, so too will they, as Hugh O’Shaughnessy and Sue Branford have pointed out, exacerbate and intensify “Colombia’s internal conflict by robbing families of their livelihoods and leaving them with little option but to join the left-wing guerrillas, particularly the FARC.”

One more gruesome month under Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe
CHIQUITA BOARD MEMBERS: TOTAL IDENTIFICATION

For more than six years, from 1997 to February 2004, Chiquita Brands International, through its subsidiary in Colombia, Banadex S.A., made monthly payments to the paramilitary structures in the regions of Urabá and Santa Marta, which resulted in more than 100 payments for more than $1.7 million dollars. Chiquita Brands began to make these payments in 1997, following a meeting between then paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño and the then Banadex general manager. The payments were transferred in part through the Papagayo Convivir. It should be recalled the US Secretary of State designated the AUC paramilitary structure as a foreign terrorist organization on September 10, 2001, which made it a crime according to US law for any citizen to knowingly provide material support and resources to said organization. This financing, which turns Chiquita Brands into one of the founders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC by its initials in the Spanish language), propelled the massive commission of crimes against humanity and grave human rights violations committed by paramilitary organizations in these two regions, including forced displacement, homicide, torture, and forced disappearance, among other crimes.
Within this context, on November 5, 2001, 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million 5.62 mm caliber rounds of ammunition were unloaded and entered into Colombia from the ship named Otterloo. These weapons were unloaded in the port of Zungo, specifically on the docks of Banadex S.A., from where the weapons were taken on 14 trucks to paramilitary organizations in Córdoba and Urabá. Then paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño publicly admitted that this incident consisted in “his best goal.” Most of these weapons were also never surrendered as part of the paramilitary demobilization process undertaken between 2003 and 2006. On January 16, 2008, the continuation of these crimes sponsored and encouraged by Chiquita Brands was exposed when 47 AK-47 assault rifles -apparently from the very same Otterloo- were confiscated by the Colombian national police from the paramilitary organization led by the “demobilized” Daniel Rendón Herrera, aka Don Mario, older brother of the former paramilitary chief Freddy Rendón Herrera, aka El Alemán.
In addition to being sustained in both the Colombian and US judicial systems, the relationship between Chiquita Brands International and the paramilitary structure in Colombia -and therefore the responsibility of this enterprise in the commission of multiple crimes against humanity and grave human rights violations- has been further corroborated over the last year by such paramilitary chiefs as Salvatore Mancuso Gómez, aka Santander Lozada, Freddy Rendón Herrera, aka El Alemán, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, aka Jorge 40, Nodier Giraldo Giraldo, aka El Cabezón or Jota, and Éver Veloza García, aka HH.
…
…in April 2008 attorney general Mario Iguaran Arana alleged that the extradition process could not yet be carried out due to not having “identified and charged” the implicated persons. “There are indeed some Chiquita Brands directors, but we are not able to ask for them in extradition, rather we have to have some information contained in the agreement reached with the US court that includes a confidentiality agreement,” asserted Iguarán.
This last statement is even more surprising when it is taken into account that since the beginning of January 2008 Case Number No. 63.625 was filed before the Attorney General’s Office, which provides specific information on the identities of the Chiquita directors, executives, and senior employees implicated in this case as the responible parties for the payments or the provision of weapons to paramilitary organizations, and as the alleged instigators and sponsors of crimes against humanity and grave human rights violations committed by these same organizations.
…
..we demand the Attorney General Mario Igaurán carry out the corresponding legal proceedings to bring about the prosecution, capture, and extradition of the previously mentioned persons from Chiquita Brands International for the crimes committed in Colombia due to their involvement in the financing of the paramilitary structure and the introduction of weapons.
The Attorney General’s Office clearly does not need to wait for the United States to respond to its request in order to make progress in the investigation of the persons most responsible for the crimes committed. The Attorney General’s Office should take effective and timely measures that reflect its will in the fight against impunity; these actions should be supported by the respective administrative and judicial functionaries from both countries.
The following is each one of the implicated persons from Chiquita Brands:
…

Posted by: b real | Aug 3 2008 6:38 utc | 33

I’m in favor of deconstructing pop culture in these threads and don’t find it any more of a time waster than some of our enlightened, but ultimately impotent, screeds about economics, political theory or transnational policies. It’s useful as a supplement to a larger picture, accessible to most and, above all, interesting.
I think pop culture is a fairly accurate barometer of the mentality of the consuming public (that is to say, the governed). Whether the pop culture in question is the embodiment of an existing sentiment of the governed or the wishes of the governors being fed to the masses to be internalized is of secondary importance. There are messages to be divined from these sources if you can condescend to do so.

Posted by: Monolycus | Aug 3 2008 11:42 utc | 35

Nearly everything that we get bombarded with in the media, from news to entertainment, is run by several big megaglomerate corporations.
They were seriously cowed into supporting or at least going along with the Bush foreign policy agenda after 9/11 – out of fear of seeming less than patriotic.
Now that they have become aware of how greviously they were lead astray, they have started to turn on Bush. I see Obamamania as part of that payback.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 3 2008 13:06 utc | 37

ghwawahahawawhhahaho!: US Government Secret Anthrax Assassin Commits Suicide, a bullshit conspiricy truther link supplied by DM. Right on cue.
M8te!

Posted by: slothrop | Aug 3 2008 15:13 utc | 39

@Monolycus et al..
Indeed, the anthropological study of pop culture and kitsch, can give very interesting insights in to the American nuerosis, or any culture for that matter. And the complete inundation and take over of psyops in television, and the influence thereof can not be stated enough.
Television, Theater, Cinema, even Broadway, are but a few of the many forms of control of the population. Where theater, plays, etc use to be a valid forms of public service and education, thinking fellers entertainment, and parody, to relieve the stresses of a hard life. Not mention the German use of T.V. during WWII. I could add more, but have house guests and need to get back to them, but wanted to acknowledge mono’s always welcome and pithy comments.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 3 2008 15:24 utc | 41

slothrop
are you a troll?
Glenn Greenwald discusses the anthrax case in a far more logical way than does Ms Supkis. perhaps you should check that out.
what exactly is it that drives you to be offensive here? and you are offensive in case you haven’t realized that by yourself.

Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 3 2008 16:07 utc | 43

Watching Dark Knight, and watching my kid’s reaction to it, reminded me of that Texas Hold’em joke, if you look around the room and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you. It reminded me more than anything of those mind-control stories from the 60’s, reverting the viewers to a reptilian brain, Manchurian Candidate.
God help us if the NeoZi.con’s broadcast the key word we’ve been programmed with!
Speaking of dark nights…
America these last two weeks just had its “Apollo 13” moment, for those who heard the “bang”, (hey, G-d even had Qantas contribute the reality check!), now we’re lost, drifting away towards a dark moon, away from life, away from home, shutting down the air and heat systems, one by one, Houston, we cry, can you hear me? But they don’t give a fark, they’re busy pimping oil and sucking blood with the prols.
What if you gave a moon launch, but nobody could afford this winter’s heating oil?
Find ‘heating oil deaths’
Shop and compare great deals on ‘heating oil deaths’
and other related products at MonsterMarketplace.
http://www.MonsterMarketplace.com

Posted by: Big Bang | Aug 3 2008 16:37 utc | 45

an interesting interview with Peter Lamborn Wilson, aka Hakim Bey

Posted by: Lizard | Aug 3 2008 18:21 utc | 47

Solzhenitsyn dead at 89 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has died. ( BBC ) The great author and opponent of totalitarianism lived to see the end of Communism in the Soviet Union and almost everywhere else. He survived WWII as a commander in the Soviet army before being put into gulags where he spent 20 years. He went on to write the Gulag Archipelago and win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.
Words can’t express how this news effects me, however, it is akin to having my favorite author die, one whose life work has predicted, wrote & railed against the calculated dehumanization of humanity, only to watch with their dying breath as their worst fears come true about humanity.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 4 2008 9:38 utc | 49

i’m left unmoved by the death of mr solzhenitsyn – – his was antisemitism as ancient as the pale & the pogroms of the 19th century. so too was his mysticism
& i can think of many many other russsian writers this century who i prefer – bulgakov, singer, pasternak – all the poets mayakovsky, blok, yessenin, ahktamova – even voyzenevsky & yevtushenko – especially his magisterial ‘babi yar’
there are many many memoirs of simple zeks from the gulag who who have written testimonies rich in both history & an understanding of humanity
i think i need to make another point here – a point made in the beautiful books of george jackson – soledad brother & blood in my eye – a history which gives us an inight into the american gulag – & gulag is the appropriate word for angola or marian or rikers where for this century alone black men have perished for nothing more than being different

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 4 2008 18:52 utc | 51

remembereringgiap, I value your thoughts commrade, and am greatful for the heads up as well as fist full of poets and authors you share above, I had no ideal solzhenitsyn was antisemitic, I have only read, ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ for a gulag and concentration camp class and have not yet read anything else by him, though would still like to. I guess I perhaps foolishly, but certainly naively, lumped him into the bracket of other authors such as Gustaw Herling, (of which I have spoken of and posted about here many times) among other authors/survivors of totalitarian regimes and ‘total institutions’. Lastly, I hope that my bumbling post hasn’t made you see me in a darkened light.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 4 2008 19:50 utc | 53

uncle
far from it. i am in your debt for the fruits you give here & i have profited from them almost without exception
my dislike of solzhenitsn has nothing to do with a support for stalin or the stultification of the system – sovietisation was quite capable of freeing people instead of imprisoning them
i just never liked his writing very much – tho like a lot of russians – he has not been served well by translators – i think there are those who are more perceptive of the soviet reality, the russian reality
& the politics he articulated were truly terrible – on a par with his pal, zhirinovsky

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 4 2008 20:08 utc | 55

dissident voice: Colombia as a Model for Latin America
hrw: Colombia: Proposal Threatens ‘Parapolitics’ Investigations

(Washington, DC, August 4, 2008) — President Álvaro Uribe’s proposal to amend Colombia’s constitution would hurt accountability for politicians who collaborated with paramilitary death squads, Human Rights Watch said today.
One of the Uribe administration’s proposed amendments would remove all investigations of members of Congress from the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which now has exclusive authority to try sitting congressmen. Instead, trials would be conducted before a local court in Bogotá, and the Supreme Court would only hear appeals. The text of the amendment is unclear as to whether prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office or judges from the Bogota court would conduct investigations.
Uribe’s proposal would undermine a series of ground-breaking investigations by the criminal chamber of the Supreme Court into the infiltration of paramilitaries in the Colombian Congress, which have come to be known as the “parapolitics” cases. More than 60 congressmen from Uribe’s coalition have come under investigation, and more than 30 of them are in prison for collaborating with the paramilitaries.
“Uribe is brazenly trying to take the power to investigate congressmen away from the one institution that has done the most to uncover and break paramilitary influence in the congress,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “This proposal serves no real purpose, other than to help members of Uribe’s coalition get off the hook.”

coha: After the Lease on the Ecuadorian Military Base at Manta Expires, Where Will the U.S. Turn Next?

On July 29, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry officially notified the U.S. Embassy that Washington’s ten-year lease on the Ecuadorian military base at Manta would not be renewed after it expires in November 2009. The statement, which declared that U.S. military aircraft and personnel must vacate the Manta air base starting in August 2009, echoed a recent revision of the nation’s constitution, which bans foreign military bases in the country. The declaration released by Ecuadorian officials has recently revived speculation over the future of U.S. military presence in Latin America as a number of progressive regional leaders continue to distance themselves from any form of U.S. military presence on their territory.
The U.S. recently denied that it was pursuing any alternative to Manta, specifically referring to rumors of deals with neighboring allies like Colombia, Panama and Peru. Yet Admiral James Stavridis, the Commander of U.S. Southern Command, stated in April 2008 that if the Manta lease was not renewed, the U.S. military would replace Manta with another drug-surveillance facility, known as “Forward Operating Locations” (FOLs). On that occasion, Stavridis added that both Colombia and Peru had expressed some interest in housing a future U.S. base. During recent negotiations between the U.S. and the aforementioned countries, local authorities disclosed that such facilities were not on the agenda, which contradicted some U.S. officials’ statements.
On July 25, Colombian defense minister Juan Manuel Santos traveled to Washington to engage in talks with the U.S., purportedly to discuss the possibility of a U.S. military base on Colombian territory, an allegation Santos has since denied. In June, the well-known Buenos Aires daily, Página 12, claimed that, despite Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s denial of negotiations with the U.S., a representative of the country’s armed forces stated that the construction of a facility was being negotiated for the area of Ayacucho. Panama also recently has expressed interest in welcoming a U.S. military base in the country as part of a broader remilitarization effort now under way. On May 6, Panamanian President Martin Torrijos traveled to Washington to meet with President Bush, allegedly to discuss increasing U.S. military presence in Panama in order to fight drug trafficking in the region.

—
ips: Q&A: ‘All Political Violence Is Not Terrorism’: Interview with Gustavo Gorriti, author of The Shining Path

Posted by: b real | Aug 5 2008 4:47 utc | 57

@Cloud, #42:
I read the Dune series (repeating a couple volumes) beginning in high school, and didn’t get around to Herbert’s other works until I recently read The Eyes of Heisenberg. This work seemed like the birthplace (forgive the pun) of many of the themes in the Dune series. Genetic manipulation, the Long Project, ‘hydraulic despotism’ (though in “Eyes” it may be unintentional). Also in “Eyes” are heavy treatments of powerful elites, the panopticon, extreme stratification of society, and an utterly disposable proletariat – so disposable the elites decide to wipe out a whole populated region so they could ‘start with a clean slate.’ (Sound familiar?)
My former boss (who turned me on to Niven) had recommended The White Plague, so that’s probably the next Herbert work I will read.
Could rattle on about SF all day, but I’ll stop now and relinquish the mic…

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Aug 5 2008 6:20 utc | 59

This summer fantasy may be pure disinformation, but at least it does tickle many of the right keys, including the still popular (and still in Thailand “fighting extradition” with a smile) Viktor Bout.
The Belgian case against Bout was dropped on May 29, 2007
by reason of a 10 year statute of limitations on prosecution: one can only wonder what prevented the Belgian investigators from producing a convincing case. Was it lack of evidence, or lack of political will to prosecute and dredge up tawdry affairs involving local potentates?
Of course, stories like this, or this too , or all those involving compromised U.S. telecommunications security at the hands of the unmentionable ally rapidly slip into the memory hole for all except the inveterate conspiracy theorist.
Question in passing raised by the second link: can anyone document the assertion that Urban Moving Systems was involved in the Zim American-Israeli Shipping Co. transfer from the World Trade Center to Norfolk, Virginia between April 25 and September 1, 2001?
I find this unlikely for various reasons, including simple good business sense and (alternatively) poor tradecraft. The main firm handling details of the transfer was Hunter Management Corp.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Aug 5 2008 8:42 utc | 61

monolycus @35: yes! though i often get scoffs from people who claim to have cut the cord of pop culture, but i still find value in keeping up with how the majority of the population is mentally sculpted (though often stare blankly when someone tries to bring analyses to the product they’ve lazily consumed).
batman broke 300 million the fastest, so is like the bestest ever, right!, and then you’ve got this quickly perceived weirdness? sprouting up, thanks to the speed our drivel can travel, like in JUMPER with Hayden whatever who was only partly responsible for killing star wars
i’m sure there are many different levels of, what is it? gullability? when it comes to acknowledging superstitions, curses, and other unprovable phenomena. like election results and free markets and stuff.
—
thanks b, although felt sort of guilty with that last link, since you just “gave props” for the valuable ones (giving “props” is what white suburban kids trying to mimic the gangsta’ culture big media coopted from hip hop say)

Posted by: Lizard | Aug 6 2008 3:03 utc | 63

thanks HKOL #64 for link, looking at what he had on Illuminati connected to this
Rothschild timeline, though I think he shouldn’t be calling this family or allies “Jews” (also would like footnotes, not just bibliography.)
These people are enemies of Jews as they are of everybody else, as made clear from “1897” Herzl quote below. The other quotes add up to Luciferianism, not Jewishness, Protestantism, Catholicity or anything else. (Actually, think Christianity is a setup from the get-go whose major purpose is to engender anti-Semitism, a very useful tool as Herzl says.)

1881: President James A. Garfield (The 20th President of the United States who lasted only 100 Days) states two weeks before he is assassinated,
“Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce…and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate.”
1897: The Rothschilds found the Zionist Congress to promote Zionism (a political movement with the sole aim of moving all Jews into a singularly Jewish nation state) and arrange its first meeting in Munich. However due to extreme opposition from local Jews, who are quite happy where they are, this meeting has to be moved to Basle, Switzerland and takes place on 29 August. The meeting is chaired by Ashkenazi Jew, Theodor Herzl, who would state in his diaries,
“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews….become worse….this will assist in realization of our plans….I have an excellent idea….I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth….The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-Semites shall be our best friends.”
Herzl is subsequently elected President of the Zionist Organisation which adopts the, “Rothschild Red Hexagram or Sign,” as the Zionist flag which 51 years later will end up as the flag of Israel.
1920: Winston Churchill (whose mother, Jenny (Jacobson) Jerome, was Jewish – meaning he is Jewish under Ashkenazi law as he was born of a Jewish mother) writes in an article in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, dated February 8th,
“From the days of Illuminati leader Weishaupt, to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky, this worldwide conspiracy has been steadily growing.
And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America, have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”
1948: In the Spring of this year, the Rothschilds bribe President Harry S. Truman (33rd President of the United States 1945 – 1953) to recognise Israel (Rothschild owned Zionist not Jewish territory) as a sovereign state with $2,000,000 which they give to him on his campaign train.
They then declare Israel to be a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine and within half an hour President Truman declared the United States to be the first foreign nation to recognise it.
The Flag of Israel is unveiled. Despite tremendous opposition the emblem on the flag is a blue coloured version of the Rothschild, “Red Hexagram or Sign.”
This angers many Jews who realise this Hexagram was used in the ancient mystery religions as the symbol of, “Moloch,” (described as a demon of unwilling sacrifice and is also interestingly the name of the stone owl the elite worship at Bohemian Grove), and, “Astaroth,” (described as the Lord Treasurer of Hell).
The Hexagram was also used to represent Saturn, which has been identified as the esoteric name for, “Satan.” This indicates that anyone killed in the name of Israel is actually a sacrifice to Satan. These dissenting Jews believe the, “Menorah,” the oldest Jewish symbol should be used and pointed out that the Hexagram is not even a Jewish symbol, but of course as the Rothschild Zionists use it that is what ends up on the Rothschild, I mean Zionist, I mean Israeli flag.
And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America, have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”
1948: In the Spring of this year, the Rothschilds bribe President Harry S. Truman (33rd President of the United States 1945 – 1953) to recognise Israel (Rothschild owned Zionist not Jewish territory) as a sovereign state with $2,000,000 which they give to him on his campaign train.
They then declare Israel to be a sovereign Jewish state in Palestine and within half an hour President Truman declared the United States to be the first foreign nation to recognise it.
The Flag of Israel is unveiled. Despite tremendous opposition the emblem on the flag is a blue coloured version of the Rothschild, “Red Hexagram or Sign.”
This angers many Jews who realise this Hexagram was used in the ancient mystery religions as the symbol of, “Moloch,” (described as a demon of unwilling sacrifice and is also interestingly the name of the stone owl the elite worship at Bohemian Grove), and, “Astaroth,” (described as the Lord Treasurer of Hell).
The Hexagram was also used to represent Saturn, which has been identified as the esoteric name for, “Satan.” This indicates that anyone killed in the name of Israel is actually a sacrifice to Satan. These dissenting Jews believe the, “Menorah,” the oldest Jewish symbol should be used and pointed out that the Hexagram is not even a Jewish symbol,

Posted by: plushtown | Aug 6 2008 15:26 utc | 65

Squirelly indeed, am now worrying that timing of Olympic beginning for 8:08 pm Beijing time 8/8/08 (8:08 am NY time) because Chinese consider 8 lucky because pronounced it sounds like “wealth” (other numbers similarly ranked, “4” sounds like “death”) may not prove fortuitous for Chinese, or in fact anyone but those with the most wealth.
Evangelicals may not be pleased either, though 888 in Greek apparently equals Jesus:

Each letter of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets has a numeric value. Click here to see a table listing these letter-number equivalents. The numeric sum of the letters spelling Jesus in Greek is 888.
Iesous = I (10) + e (8) + s (200) + o (70) + u (400) + s (200) = 888

link
But back to China, from article after the 5/12/08 earthquake.

In China, it’s about numbers: add up the dates of the snowstorm (1-25), the Tibet riots (3-14) and the earthquake (5-12) individually and you get “8” normally an unusually auspicious number and the reason the Olympics will kick off on 8-8-08 (and why it costs significantly more to get a phone number with multiple 8’s).

Anyway don’t know if what I expect sometime soon (coasts gone etc.)will happen then, have been publicly wrong twice before, but am definitely in squirelly mode.

Posted by: plushtown | Aug 6 2008 16:04 utc | 67

plushtown
the link re the rothschilds is anti semitism of the vilest kind
shit like that makes anti zionist critique almost impossible & a real critique of zionism, of the state of israel is required. conspiracies are for the large part criminal therefore, simple
it is far more important to use the methodologies of history – to see how the state of israel has in fact dishonoured jewish history rather than celebrate it. how everything from roman catholicisms edict against the jewish people for centuries, the pogroms of the poles & the russians, the exterminatory anti semitism of the baltic countries & ukraine, how western europe initiated & allowed an exterminatory anti-semitism to take place – how all these factors have been transformed into a policy towards the arab people in general & the palestinians in particular which are – genocidal
to me that is far more useful to understand the parallels between how a victim becomes the master
for example, in russia where the russian who were jewish were the most courageous of bolsheviks but were also represented in what was called the ‘vor’ – the criminal gangs that preceded the revolution, function under soviet russia & transformed in one way or other into the post soviet oligarchy in either form or fact. & how the state of israel has instrumentalised the oligarchs as they have instrumentalised the state of israel. they represent the most extreme right positions in israeli politics. a study of that reality needs to be absolutely free of anti semitism & requires a close reading of history
jewish mysticism probably represents one of the highest aspects of specultive thinking – why has it become brutalised by a politics that is brutal, simple & cruel
the ruling classes in most societies are just another form of criminal gangs & their ‘conspiracies’ are usually of a short term benfit – based on getting the result in the quickest time imaginable
but any critique which implies 500 years, 100 years of planning is ahistorical & is quite simply stupid
i would rathe understand wy at the end of the 2nd world – southern germany, bavaria for example & parts of austria was not transfromed into a jewish state – that for me appears on the surface far more logical
what i am saying – is that today the state of israel represents a critical problem for humanity & not the jewish people, not even the jewish elites (who are in fact intermingled with other elites) &that any critique must be free of even the hint of anti semitism

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 6 2008 17:17 utc | 69

HIV, AIDS & Gallo’s Egg
Filed Under: Academia, Science, Health Care, Race, Author: Clark Baker, Corruption
Last June, I posted this report about US hospitals and how many rely on fraud, preventable injuries and infections to patients to compensate for losses due to our government’s insistence that private hospitals treat and care for uninsured and underinsured citizens, indigents, and illegal aliens.
I learned how hospitals destroy good physicians and how predatory hospital chains like Tenet, Kaiser Permanente, and Adventist pressure local physicians already in successful private practice to join their groups. Those who refuse are targeted for sham peer review by corporate administrators and MDs who accuse non-compliant physicians as dangerous, incompetent, or disruptive.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 7 2008 3:27 utc | 71

MIT catalyst breakthrough debunked at the Oil Drum…
Link

Posted by: biklett | Aug 7 2008 4:33 utc | 73

fair’s extra: Selling the Colombia Trade Pact: Papers spin deal into a ‘no-brainer’
—
coha: The “Bridge” in the Coup: the IRI in Venezuela

• Senator McCain’s “hands on” chairmanship; IRI President calls organization the “bridge” in April 11, 2002 coup
• NED and IRI exert conservative influence in Venezuela
• The Bush Administration’s limited commitment to democratic legitimacy

—
john pilger: The lies of Hiroshima live on, props in the war crimes of the 20th century
The 1945 attack was murder on an epic scale. In its victims’ names, we must not allow a nuclear repeat in the Middle East

The question begs: are the rest of us to be mere bystanders, claiming, as good Germans did, that “we did not know”? Do we hide ever more behind what Richard Falk has called “a self-righteous, one-way, legal/moral screen [with] positive images of western values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a campaign of unrestricted violence”? Catching war criminals is fashionable again. Radovan Karadzic stands in the dock, but Sharon and Olmert, Bush and Blair do not. Why not? The memory of Hiroshima requires an answer.

—
The two earliest justifications for the European presence in North America were materialism and idealism. And the marriage of capitalism and democracy is a way to bring those two conflicting impulses together and ignore their inherent contradictions. … ..that age-old conflict between our material goals and our spiritual justifications … lie[s] at the heart of the American Dream, and also now at the heart of American history. That conflict has made us murderers over and over again. Thus the true American is a killer. The true American is a cynical, materialistic grabber on the one hand, reaching for gold, yet he has an idealistic, even religious, sense of mission. When you tell yourself that big a lie and you call it a dream, you’re going to end up committing acts of violence. It’s the nature of human psychology. If it’s part of our mythology as a people, then as a people we’re going to act violently. And we have historically done exactly that…
— russell banks, dreaming up america

Posted by: b real | Aug 7 2008 5:10 utc | 75

thanks Biklett @73 – anna missed, who I first didn’t get, was right: “cold fusion II”

Posted by: b | Aug 7 2008 5:56 utc | 77

and to tell it like it is, McCain so far is still a babe in the woods wrt employing race, compared to the Clintons

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Aug 7 2008 6:51 utc | 79

Another success for the Surge: Iraqi parliament adjourns without setting elections

After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month.
The failure to pass the law, which would govern elections in provinces across the country, may push the elections into next year. If elections don’t happen by the end of this year, it could be July before the balloting could be carried out, U.N. spokesman Said Arikat said.
…

Posted by: b | Aug 7 2008 8:18 utc | 81

@80 –
i really don’t know much about mauritania. waded through some of the coverage yesterday. the only blog that really seemed to be covering it is western sahara info, but there was no info to bring in the role of u.s. & mauritania military-to-military relations
during the 2005 coup i remember that wayne madsen was writing alot on the u.s. involvement there – August 4, 2005 — Mauritanian coup has Bush adminstration/Big Oil fingerprints (scroll down)
the notion that there was a democracy in mauritania is considered a joke, as one paragraph in an IRIN article yesterday alludes

Mauritanian graduate student Boubacar Datt, studying in neighbouring Dakar, Senegal, says some in Mauritania might feel relief in the wake of the coup, because they are eager for change. “What they don’t see is that Sidi [Mohamed ould Cheikh Abdallahi] was only a mascot and never had power. People talk about Mauritania being a democracy, but Mauritania has always been led by military. This [coup] comes as no surprise. Democracy does not exist. It is only on papers. In daily life, Sidi [Mohamed ould Cheikh Abdallahi] could not realise his campaign promises.”

saw similar opinions yesterday (e.g., follow links & coverage @ western sahara blog link above)
inner city press reported that news on mauritania was being downplayed at the u.n. yesterday

The echo of the coup d’etat in Mauritania was faint indeed at the UN. At Wednesday’s noon briefing, Spokesperson Michele Montas read out a statement beginning that “the Secretary-General deeply regrets the overthrow on 6 August 2008 of the Government of President Sidi Mohamed Ould Chiekh Abdallahi.” Why, she was asked, did Ban Ki-moon not “deplore” the coup?
U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff raised the stakes at the stakeout in front of the Security Council, stating that “coups against democratically elected constitutional governments are to be deplored.” But when asked if the U.S. would raise the matter in the Council, he said “we are looking into the matter and assessing its implications for international peace and security… we’ll be able to give you further details as the day progresses.”
Later in the day, an African diplomat coming out of the Council told Inner City Press that the issue still hadn’t been raised. Some wondered, with the Council’s recent interest in elections, why nothing was yet said about an outright coup d’etat.

haven’t started reading today’s news yet. would also help to review oil & u.s. military activities/assistance/funding in the region

Posted by: b real | Aug 7 2008 15:01 utc | 83

also, the story @ #74 about u.s. involvement in the colombia rescue operation would make a great front page story – every wire service yesterday only picked up on the red cross angle & entirely left out the part about the u.s. role revealed so far. i don’t have time to write up anything coherent, but we’ve documented alot of it already in various threads here

Posted by: b real | Aug 7 2008 15:26 utc | 85

b real
the boats have landed. merci

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 7 2008 18:07 utc | 87

some more on (moron?) mccain
narcosphere article by bill conroy on mccain, freedom house & kyrgyzstan — Beware of politicians bearing gifts for the Cold War Hydra
pepe escobar on Old Wrinkly’s Roverian cancer

Posted by: b real | Aug 7 2008 19:01 utc | 89

The pot painting the gynormous kettle black.
Can there be any more egregious example of NeoZi.con exceptionalism, the ‘superior race’ meme, than this soft porn interview with Ms. Rice, my friends?
Now maybe you understand what John “Birch” McCain meant, when he said the Fed government should only support the “well-intentioned and deserving”.

Posted by: Long Shanks | Aug 7 2008 19:47 utc | 91

it’s not quite the w/e yet, so…
entirely gratuitous musical interludes
telepathique – eu gosto
samba mapalanga & l’ochestre virunga – malako

Posted by: b real | Aug 7 2008 22:19 utc | 93

is it just me or is it more than a little infuriating to listen the mass-murdering, torturing, global gulag creating War Criminal in Chief lecturing other countries about “human rights”? what utter horseshit.

Posted by: ran | Aug 7 2008 22:35 utc | 95

while his goons put Iraqis in upright coffins

Posted by: ran | Aug 8 2008 1:13 utc | 97

michael weinstein’s latest analysis on the cyclical phases of political affairs in somalia sees that nation now back in a state of political entropy. it would appear that as the imposed TFG is finally collapsing beyond salvation while its external supporters are giving up on the ex-warlord yusuf, further decentralization provides new opportunities for somalis to determine their own future.
Somalia’s Transitional Institutions Snap
it’s a good analysis, w/ the most objective overview of the past two years i’ve seen from weinstein, who no longer hesitates to point out the u.s. role, and while i agree w/ most of it, observing the rhetoric of the pending dem admin in the u.s., taking into consideration their history wrt somalia & the HOA, and given the geostrategic importance of somalia on the regional stage, which it has suffered from throughout its history, i’m not ready to concede that outside intervention will play a diminished role anytime soon, allowing somalia enough breathing space to recover. attrition may be setting in on some now, but the new admin will bring new (& some not-so-new) faces w/ new solutions or motives to try out

Posted by: b real | Aug 8 2008 5:08 utc | 99