Traders manipulated oil prices

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The government charged an oil trading firm Thursday with manipulating oil prices in the first complaint to be announced since the regulators began a new investigation into wrongdoings in the energy markets.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Optiver Holding, two of its subsidiaries and three employees with manipulation and attempted manipulation of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

“Optiver traders amassed large trading positions, then conducted trades in such a way to bully and hammer the markets,” CFTC Acting Chairman Walt Lukken said at a press conference. “These charges go to the heart of the CFTC’s core mission of detecting and rooting out illegal manipulation of the markets.”

In May, under the backdrop of record oil prices and calls from legislators to crack down on speculative oil trading and market manipulation, the CFTC announced a wide-ranging probe into oil price manipulation. The agency says it has dozens of investigations ongoing.

The complaint filed Thursday names Bastiaan van Kempen, chief executive; Christopher Dowson, a head trader; and Randal Meijer, head of trading at an Optiver subsidiary.

The CFTC said the firm attempted to “bang the close” by amassing large positions just before markets closed – forcing prices up – then selling them quickly to drive prices down and pocketing the difference.

America: Freedom to Fascism – Director’s Authorized Version – 111 min

This is a documentary about an honest search for the truth about the Federal Reserve Bank (a private bank) and the legality of the Internal Revenue System. Through extensive interviews with recognised experts and authority, the director shows an astonishing revelation of how the Federal Government and the Bankers have fooled the American public by taking thier wages and putting it in the pockets of the super-rich. The director goes so far as to interview one of the “master-minds” of the IRS Code, and you the viewer can draw your own conclusions as to how the system works. This is NOT a documentary filled with opinions, conjecture or editorial comment. It is a true documentary with a purpose, and that is to educate every wage earner about the Federal Reserve Bank, and the IRS, how they got started, and where the money goes. It is well done, and it will make you laugh, and it will make you ANGRY!

Sweet Misery – A Poisoned World

Excellent documentary showing how dangerous artificial sweetner Aspartame is. From its history, to its effects this video is enough to shock anyone into really looking at there food labels next time they shop. Aspartame is a toxic food that came into the world as an investment By Donald Rumsfeld, while ignoring the deadly effects the tests showed. Take a good look at this video, it could save lives.

Illuminati Corporate Logos

In the beginning, there was Corporate Logos. This is the very first Freeman Perspective. After you see this, your world will alter forever. Corporations do have an occultic agenda.

Everybody sweats a little

Smirnoff: Purified

LynxJet 2

Banned Mastercard Ad

Axe / Lynx Dry Advert Commercial

Volkswagen Touran – Park Assist (Spanish)

The Century Of The Self –

“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” – Adam Curtis

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their “engineering of consent”.

Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the “father of the public relations industry”. Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories.

Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

The business and, increasingly, the political world uses PR to read and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people’s rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population. He cites a Wall Street banker as saying “We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”

In Episode 4 the main characters are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the “Democracity” during the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

To quote the BBC site:

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

Part 1 of 4 – Happiness Machines – 58 min

Part 2 of 4 – The Engineering of Consent – 59 min

Swan song for Fannie; eulogy for the ‘ownership society’ (By Mike Whitney)

Online Journal Contributing Writer

The Fed’s emergency rescue plan for the financial markets is hopelessly flawed. It’s a scattershot approach that doesn’t address the real source of the problem: an unregulated, unsustainable structured finance system that emerged in full-force after 2000 and spawned a shadow banking system that creates trillions of dollars of credit without sufficient capital reserves. This is the heart of the problem and it needs to be debated openly.

The present system doesn’t work; it’s as simple as that. It makes no sense to provide trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to shore up a system that is essentially dysfunctional. It’s just throwing money down a rat hole.

The Federal Reserve and US Treasury want a blank check to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two war-horses of the mortgage industry that currently underwrite nearly 80 percent of all new mortgages in the US. But by any objective standard both of these government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are already insolvent. Thus, the taxpayer is being asked to rescue a failed industry that has been used for private gain so that speculators will not have to suffer the losses. Even worse, Fannie and Freddie have written hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgages that have not yet defaulted, but will certainly default within the next two years. This is bound to batter the already faltering economy.

The bad paper held by Fannie and Freddie are mortgages that were made to unqualified applicants who are presently losing their homes in record numbers. Their loans were approved because there was no functioning regulatory body to oversee their issuance and because the mortgages were transformed into complex securities that were sold to credulous investors around the world. The ratings were fixed to meet the requirements of their employers, the investment banks, which marketed these exotic bonds to foreign banks, insurance companies and hedge funds. That puts Fannie and Freddie at the center of a system that needs radical surgery to eradicate the bad paper. If this doesn’t happen in a timely fashion, then foreign investors will stop purchasing US debt and the dollar will crash. By creating a backstop for Fannie and Freddie, the Fed is linking US sovereign debt with mortgages and derivatives that are already known to be fraudulent. This is a big mistake. According to Merrill Lynch, the US is already facing a long-term “financing crisis” as the weakening US economy and sluggish consumer spending could signal an end to the $700 billion in foreign investment that covers America’s current account deficit. By assuming the GSEs’ enormous debts, the Bush administration is just speeding this process along and inviting disaster.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been intentionally oblique about the implications of the proposed bailout. Last Tuesday, he delivered a statement in front of the massive stone columns of the Department of the Treasury, a towering monolith that arouses feelings of confidence in rock-solid institutions. He made it clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have the “explicit” backing of the US government: “First, as a liquidity backstop, the plan includes a temporary increase in the line of credit the GSEs have with Treasury. Treasury would determine the terms and conditions for accessing the line of credit and the amount to be drawn.

FDIC Bank Deposit Insurance (United States): Some Things you did not Know (and Should)

Many people have written to us asking about the safety of banks outside the United States. Obviously, most of these questions have come from Americans who are trying to make a comparison between FDIC, or government bank account insurance, and any similar type of insurance or bank safety programs. While having a government insurance program in place to protect depositors is a wonderful idea, one should be very clear about exactly what kind of coverage exists (and if the government sponsored insurance company is financially solvent or capable of addressing a true banking crisis). We only mention this because, while FDIC allows many people to sleep better at night, as a solvent insurance company, in my opinion FDIC is somewhat of a sham. In the least, it is certainly NOT what most people think it is.
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You are correct if you say, It is better than nothing. However, one should compare apples to apples when looking at foreign banks and how much is kept on reserve to cover failed banking institutions. In many countries, the Central Bank of the country is charged with this responsibility and the reserve requirement is often as high as 5% or more of each bank’s deposits. In other words, which number is greater, 5% or 1.38%? (See the FDIC information below, whereby in reality only 1.38% is in reserve for the entire insured number of banking deposits).
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What about FDIC, with it’s US$ 29 Billion Dollars (1998 figures) in the bank insurance fund? Well, according to FDIC statistics, there are 77 commercial banks with US$ 10 Billion Dollars or more on deposit. This means it only takes 3 out of these 77 very large banks to fail, and the FDIC insurance fund is wiped out once again (See 1991 & 1992 statistics).
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The following information should be very interesting for you, if you have a bank account in the US.
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How many Americans knew that the FDIC Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) was broke in 1991, to the tune of negative US$ 7 Billion Dollars and also broke in 1992 to the tune of US$ 100 Million Dollars? Not only was the bank insurance fund insolvent in these years, it was in debt!
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A quote from 1998 FDIC Report to Congress:
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The BIF (Bank Insurance Fund) has grown steadily from a negative fund balance of $7 billion at year-end 1991 to $29.6 billion at year-end 1998. Here is the Link, so you can read for yourself:
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http://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/report/98Annual/cond.html
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Also, as of 1998, for each US$ 100 Americans have on deposit with US banks, the FDIC can only cover US$ 1.38 if all US banks (covered by FDIC) go under. Now how comforted are you, knowing your account is covered by FDIC insurance? See the FDIC’s own statistics here:
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http://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/report/98Annual/122.html
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The following has been taken directly from the FDIC web site (http://www.fdic.gov/). Some changes to FDIC coverage were made in 1992 & 1993 and it would seem most US investors are not even aware of these changes (Is it so ironic that they reduced coverage right after they were broke?):
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How is a single ownership account insured?
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All single ownership accounts established by or for the benefit of, the same person are added together. The total is insured up to a maximum of $100,000, including principal and interest.
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If I have deposits in several different FDIC-insured institutions, will my deposits be added together for insurance purposes?
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If you have deposits at the main office and at one or more branch offices of the same institution, the deposits are added together when calculating deposit insurance coverage.
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Can I increase FDIC insurance coverage by dividing my funds and depositing them into several different accounts?
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No. Federal deposit insurance is not determined on a per-account basis. You cannot increase FDIC insurance by dividing funds owned in the same ownership category among different accounts. The type of account – whether checking, savings, certificate of deposit, or outstanding official check such as a cashier’s check, or other form of deposit – has no bearing on the amount of insurance coverage. Furthermore, the use of Social Security numbers or tax identification numbers does not determine insurance coverage.
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Some other information you probably were not aware of:
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WASHINGTON (CNN) — More than 14,000 people have fired off e-mail messages and letters, most of them angry, in response to a federal proposal to track banking clients’ habits in an attempt to stem illegal money-laundering. Most of the messages expressing concern about banking privacy were sent to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The flood of angry e-mail began in December as a 90-day public comment period opened for the proposal. It closes March 8.
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http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/30/banks.privacy.01/index.html

Article URL: http://www.ascotadvisory.com/Incorporations_Directory/Bank_Insurance_FDIC.html

FDIC chair says more banks in danger of failing Predicts number of institutions to go under will be in low range ‘historically’

SAN FRANCISCO – The chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday more banks are in danger of failing, and that the government agency expects to raise premiums to restore its reserve fund after paying out billions of dollars to depositors at IndyMac Bank.

Sheila Bair was in San Francisco on Tuesday in a campaign to reassure consumers that up to $100,000 they have in a bank, failed or not, is protected by a program that’s been in place since the bank failures of the late 1920s. For certain retirement accounts, deposits of up to $250,000 are covered.

Bair said in an interview with The Associated Press that she expects turbulence in the banking industry to continue well into next year, and more banks to appear on the FDIC’s count of troubled institutions. A count for the second quarter is expected to be out by mid-August.

Of the 8,500 banks in the country, 90 were in trouble in the first quarter. The FDIC does not disclose the banks’ names.

“That number will go up and the number of assets will go up, but it will still be a fairly low range when you look at this historically,” Bair said.

Only 13 percent of banks that make the list fail, on average, Bair said. Most are nursed back to health or acquired by stronger institutions, she said.

The FDIC’s reserve fund is expected to drop after IndyMac’s losses are accounted for, but the reserve should weather future payouts, she said.

Healthy banks would have to make up the shortfall with higher fees. The FDIC is required to keep a reserve fund totaling 1.15 percent of estimated insured deposits.

“With the IndyMac projected loss, that will bring us below 1.15, which means we are required to implement a restoration plan to bring the ratio back up to 1.15 in five years,” Bair said.

“Our industry-funded reserves, which continue to be replenished through deposit insurance premiums, will be enough to cover whatever losses we will suffer as we work through this more challenging credit environment,” she said.

IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators July 11 after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures. The bank was the largest regulated thrift to fail, regulators said.

Article URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25804466/

Lawsuits threatened over forced fluoride (Attorney warns water group to preserve legal evidence)

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Concerns about fluoridation are quickly surfacing as the National Kidney Foundation withdrew its support of the chemical additive at the same time the largest association of water professionals in the world was warned not to destroy evidence that may be required in legal actions filed by individuals harmed by drinking fluoridated water.

Following reports of the NKF’s acknowledgement that patients with kidney disease “should be notified of the potential risk” to their health from drinking fluoridated water, the American Water Works Association has been given notice that it must not eliminate or tamper with documents or recordings, indicating lawsuits could be filed in the near future.

Attorney Robert Reeves delivered a fluoride evidence preservation notice to the 60,000-member water association last week. The document named AWWA’s Denver headquarters, regional offices and national and regional officers as “potentially responsible parties” who might be named in lawsuits filed on behalf of kidney patients and other individuals injured by ingesting fluoride.

Daniel Stockin of the Lillie Center Inc., a public health training firm that works to end fluoridation, said organizations should immediately withdraw support for use of the water additive.

“The letter from attorney Reeves to AWWA should make people aware that there is a rapidly closing window in which cities or health officials can act to end fluoridation without being held accountable for continuing to support fluoridation,” Stockin told WND. “The news is out that there are sensitive groups such as kidney patients, diabetics and infants who need to be protected.”

A 2006 National Research Council report indicates people with kidney disease are more susceptible to fluoride’s bone and teeth-damaging effects. Dialysis machines cannot use fluoridated water because it is known to be potentially dangerous to patients. An NKF statement indicates some people receiving dialysis treatments died or were poisoned from fluoride after it leeched through machine filters.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Everything you’ve ever been told about Global Warming is probably untrue. This film blows the whistle on the biggest swindle in modern history. We are told that ‘Man Made Global Warming’ is the biggest ever threat to mankind. There is no room for scientific doubt. Well, watch this film and make up your own mind

Global Warming or Global Governance – 80 min

Interviews of climate scientists and biologists from numerous sources who explain, step by step, why Al Gore and the global warming alarmists are incorrect. In some cases, blatantly so. It also provides evidence that the global warming agenda is being funded with tens of billions of dollars as a mechanism to create global governance. Hear from congressmen, experts and even well-known news broadcasters how global governance puts global institutions that are not accountable to the American people in control of every aspect of our economy. The U.S. government is very close to making this a reality. Very close. Every American, every citizen of the world, needs to hear the other side of the global warming story.

Alternative 3 – 120 min

Before you watch this documentary, watch the first serie “Iron Mountain Blueprint to Tyranny“

This black operation involves huge underground tunnels and cities, extraterrestrial bases on the moon and Mars, and utilizes anti-gravity flying disks and huge cigar shaped craft to shuttle between the earth, moon and Mars. This 4:40 hour video documentary offers an amazing amount of proof and concludes that Alternative Three is not a hoax, but a real program. There is evidence that Alternative Three may be at Tithonia and is excavating the site. Explores the claims of Bob Lazar and John Lear, both of whom claim we have secret bases on the moon and Mars and have had them for years. Also deeply explores Alternative One, chem-trails, the coming Ice Age and much, much more. This is a must for the serious person looking for the real truth behind many odd sightings around the world
today

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports EXPOSED

Local, State and Federal governmental institutions own over 70% of the stock market! Alex Jones interviews Walter Burien, Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) of 15 years about the biggest game in town. There are over 85,000 Federal and regional governmental institutions: school districts, water and power authorities, country and city governments — and they own over 70 percent of the stock market. This is an absolute must-see to pull back the curtain of lies on the private takeover of our society. This tape also includes an interview with Joe Banister, former IRS Special Agent exposing how the IRS is a collection agency for the private, run-for-profit Federal Reserve.

IRS Agent Exposes IRS Fraud!! – 154 min

Joe Banister, former gun-carrying, IRS Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Special Agent exposes how the IRS is robbing you! He quits his $80,000/yr. Job because the IRS failed to show him that filing & paying Income Tax is mandatory. He will tell his story and his latest efforts for restoring honesty in government.

Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population – 15 min

Hollywood director and documentary film maker Aaron Russo has gone in-depth on the astounding admissions of Nick Rockefeller, who personally told him that the elite’s ultimate goal was to create a microchipped population and that the war on terror was a hoax, Rockefeller having predicted an “event” that would trigger the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan eleven months before 9/11. Rockefeller also told Russo that his family’s foundation had created and bankrolled the women’s liberation movement in order to destroy the family and that population reduction was a fundamental aim of the global elite.

Full interview – 69 min

Alternative Links

Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population Part 1
Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population Part 2
Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population Part 3
Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population Part 4
Rockefeller Admitted Elite Goal Of Microchipped Population Part 5

Frontline – Secret History of the Credit Card (2004) – 56 min

The average American family today carries 10 credit cards. Credit card debt and personal bankruptcies are now at an all time high. With no legal limit on the amount of interest or fees that can be charged, credit cards have become the most profitable sector of the American banking industry: more than $30 billion in profits last year alone. FRONTLINE examines how the credit card industry became so pervasive, so lucrative, and so powerful. If copyright becomes an issue on this video upload, it will be deleted immediately. Please rate and comment.

The Corporation – 180 min

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation’s grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a “person” to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics – including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore – plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change. Winner of 24 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS, 10 of them AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS including the AUDIENCE AWARD for DOCUMENTARY in WORLD CINEMA at the 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. The long-awaited DVD, available now in Australia and coming in March to North America, contains over 8 hour of additional footage. The film is based on the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.

Cannabis Cures Cancer – “Run From The Cure” The Rick Simpson Story – 58 min

Rick Simpson Story After a serious head injury in 1997, Rick Simpson sought relief from his medical condition through the use of medicinal hemp oil. When Rick discovered that the hemp oil (with its high concentration of T.H.C.) cured cancers and other illnesses, he tried to share it with as many people as he could free of charge. When the story went public, the long arm of the law snatched the medicine – leaving potentially thousands of people without their cancer treatments – and leaving Rick with unconsitutional charges of possessing and trafficking marijuana!

Ben Bernanke’s Hush Money And US Insolvency

Ben Bernanke’s Hush Money

The bailout of IndyMac’s depositors will probably deplete 10% of the FDIC’s reserves.

Congress will back up the FDIC if the FDIC ever (1) runs out of T-bills to sell (2) to raise money (3) to pay off depositors of insolvent banks. But where will Congress get this money? From the Federal Reserve System, if lenders will not fork over the money.

The Federal Reserve System backs up Congress. This is the heart of the threat to the solvency of the dollar.

The $4 billion that the FDIC will pay to a handful of depositors at IndyMac is hush money. It is paid to them to silence every other depositor in the country. “Don’t spread rumors about any insolvent bank.” Why not? “Because, in a fractionally reserved system, all of them are technically insolvent.” They are all borrowed short and lent long.

NO PANIC . . . YET

The failure of IndyMac this month was unique. We have not seen a bank failure this large since 1984. In one sense, this reminded the general public that individual banks can go bankrupt.

The most common reason for bankruptcy is that the bank has lent money to purchasers of real estate, which is a long-term debt, yet depositors have the right to withdraw money at any time. The bank is lent long and borrowed short. Yet this is true of every bank. The ones that get caught, which is a rare event, have merely indulged in long-term lending more than the average bank.

The failure of an individual bank does not produce mass panic any longer. It has been so long since Americans have seen a bank run that they pay no attention to a rare bank failure. Because the FDIC presently does have sufficient reserves in Treasury debt to sell and compensate depositors, depositors around the country are not tempted to go to their bank and demand currency.

The fact that the FDIC could cover the deposits of no more than a dozen banks the size of IndyMac does not disturb them.

They know nothing about the FDIC, other than the crucial fact: the United States government stands behind it. The government will re-capitalize the FDIC.

Usage of Capitalization in Modern Society, are you a Freeman or a SLAVE?

Gage Canadian Dictionary 1983 Sec. 4 defines Capitalize adj. as. “To take advantage of – To use to ones own advantage.”

Blacks Law Dictionary • Revised 4th Edition 1968, provides a more comprehensive definition as follows .
Capitis Diminutio (meaning the diminishing of status through the use of capitalization) In Roman law. A diminishing or abridgment of personality; a loss or curtailment of a man’s status or aggregate of legal attributes and qualifications.

Capitis Diminutio Minima (meaning a minimum loss of status through the use of capitalization, e.g. John Doe) – The lowest or least comprehensive degree of loss of status. This occurred where a man’s family relations alone were changed. It happened upon the arrogation [pride] of a person who had been his own master, (sui juris,) [of his own right, not under any legal disability] or upon the emancipation of one who had been under the patria potestas. [Parental authority] It left the rights of liberty and citizenship unaltered. See Inst. 1, 16, pr.; 1, 2, 3; Dig. 4, 5, 11; Mackeld. Rom.Law, 144.

Capitis Diminutio Media (meaning a medium loss of status through the use of capitalization, e.g. John DOE) – A lessor or medium loss of status. This occurred where a man loses his rights of citizenship, but without losing his liberty. It carried away also the family rights.

Capitis Diminutio Maxima (meaning a maximum loss of status through the use of capitalization, e.g. JOHN DOE or DOE JOHN) – The highest or most comprehensive loss of status. This occurred when a man’s condition was changed from one of freedom to one of bondage, when he became a slave. It swept away with it all rights of citizenship and all family rights.
Diminutio. Lat. In civil law. Diminution; a taking away; loss or depravation.
Capite. – Lat. By the head.
As Black’s Law Dictionary explains, the full capitalization of the letters of one’s natural name, results in a diminishing or complete loss of legal or citizenship status, wherein one actually becomes a slave or an item of inventory.

Read the Full Article
http://www.slaveshipamerica.com/

Media – Mediums Relationship

Critics interested in the histories of modernity, media, and spirituality would be advised to consult Helen Sword’s and Jeffrey Sconce’s recent works on these subjects. Both works represent what has become the most intellectually fruitful strain of cultural studies: the historically rich, thick-descriptive approach favored by anthropology and the new historicists. Sword’s book sets out to prove a thesis that deconstructs, using the example of modernist spiritualism, the high/low divide in culture studies. While numerous studies have shown how modernist writers borrowed from popular culture to enliven their writings, Sword argues something a bit more radical: “Like modernist literature, popular spiritualism sought to embrace both authority and iconoclasm, both tradition and innovation, both continuity and fragmentation, both the elitist mystique of high culture and the messy vitality of popular culture”(x). Thus, instead of arguing that certain modernists such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H.D., or William Butler Yeats were either “credulous” or “adventurous” enough to partake of spiritualism, Sword reads contemporary spiritualist texts to show how, at times, they embodied the very experimental ideals of the avant-garde. William Butler Yeats, for instance, “sought in the netherworld of the séance room not easy enlightenment but a confirmation of his belief in the slipperiness of human consciousness, the precariousness of language, and the overwhelming complexity of modern life”(104). Sword’s citations range from primary spiritualist texts to the musings of modernist writers to popular secondary sources. She even devotes, for instance, a chapter to discussing library cataloguing practices with respect to spiritualist texts allegedly dictated by famous dead authors. The resulting mosaic provides valuable information that amuses and surprises as much as it informs.

My only concern about Sword’s approach involves its lack of attention to the relationship between “mediums” and “media.” Aside from occasional allusions to an Ouija board being like a “radio set,” this relationship is largely ignored. Not only does the history of 20th-century automation often harken back to the séances of the Victorian period, but Victorian mediums also based their practices on a growing sense that human beings were as much defined by their relationships to machines as in their interactions with one another. Furthermore, media technologies are themselves uncanny in nature, as Jeffrey Sconce argues in his recent book Haunted Media. Such technologies “evoke the supernatural by creating virtual beings that appear to have no physical form”(4) — ghosts, in short. Rather than focusing on spiritualist texts and demonstrating their relevance to modernity, Sconce starts with the technologies which have undisputed modernist credentials and then sounds out their spiritualist qualities. Sconce does rely, however, on what one might call “exceptional” evidence (such as a man who actually shot his television), unique but well-documented instances when the relationships between technology and animated spirituality became excessive. These anecdotes earn their place through the argument that exceptional historical moments represent the eruption of repressed social forces, but are also normalized through Sconce’s wide-ranging and insightful readings of literature, radio-programs, and television shows from the late-nineteenth century onward.
Timothy Materer has observed (in the early 1990s) that spiritualism has been repressed in scholarly accounts of modernity. With the publication of more and more books like Ghostwriting Modernism and Haunted Media, however, it is apparent that this is no longer the case. Instead, both Sword and Sconce demonstrate that not only must we not fail to consider the history of modernist spiritualism, we can not even consider spiritualism to have a marginal relationship to modernity.

Revival or Apostasy?

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
[Matthew 24:11]

There will be a revival of religion that will sweep the world in the last days. It will not, however, represent the truth – instead, multitudes will be deceived by false gospels, false prophets, and false messiahs.

The church in America, and indeed the entire world, is sinking deeper into the last-days apostasy foretold by Christ and His apostles. Jesus warned that false prophets will appear and deceive many people and today as the last days draw nearer to a close, false teachers and preachers are gaining in popularity.

Satan is well on the way to success in his goal of enslaving the world. To accomplish his dark objectives, he has reestablished his Church, Mystery Babylon [Rev. 17].

Counterfeit Christianity
False forms of Christianity have become increasingly popular in our culture and it seems there is a resurgence of interest in things “spiritual.” The media has been compliant with its recent offerings of everything from Brad Pitt scaling a Tibetan mountainside in search of divine inspiration to Nothing Sacred, the controversial TV drama that features a sometimes fallible priest. Joan Osborne sings “What if God Was One of Us,” while Michael Jordan, jogging in Tibet in a Gatorade commercial, encounters a holy man who tells him “Life is a sport: drink it up.” Then there are the millions throughout the world who are involved in the occult, astrology, witchcraft, spiritism and Satanism. The Harry Potter series of seven fantasy novels promoting witchcraft among children, written by English author J. K. Rowling. have sold more than 325 million copies and have been translated into more than 64 languages.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. [1 Timothy 4:1]

The most obvious sign of the spiritual decline of the church is apathy – apathy towards the house of God, the Word of God and the presence of God. Apathy sometimes overtakes a believer – even an entire body of believers – before they are even aware anything is wrong. The fruit of apathy is apostasy.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. [2 Timothy 4:3-4]

The appearances of these false gospels, false Christ’s and false prophets is only a prelude to the final apostasy. They are only preparing the way for the ultimate antichrist who will set himself up in the temple and declare himself to be God. You might say he is preparing his followers to accept his ultimate lie.

What fuels this apostasy?

Unbelief:
Implicit or explicit rejection of the authority of God’s Word is being spread throughout the Church, often, it seems, with the explicit purpose of leading God’s people away from His Word, and sometimes to the active encouragement of immorality. Pulpits across America are silent about sin and do not tell their congregations of their need for repentance. Rather, they preach a politically correct gospel of “tolerance” of sin.

According to Ralph Martin, “Even when the unique and absolute claims of Christ are not clearly rejected on an intellectual level, syncretism often fosters an emotional hostility to such claims. This creates an atmosphere that saps the strength of Christianity as effectively as explicit apostasy. If belief about the unique and absolute claims of Christ is unclear, then faith is corrupted, worship becomes enfeebled and distorted, and evangelism ceases.” [Ralph Martin, A Crises of Truth (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1982), pg. 21.]

According to a recent survey by the Barna Research Group, while 88% believe Jesus Christ was a real person, what they believe about Him differs sharply from scriptural teaching. Forty-two percent of those surveyed believe that while He lived on earth, Jesus committed sins, just like other people. Even among born-again Christians, one-quarter believe Jesus sinned during His time on earth.

In the book, The Da Vinci Code, author Dan Brown claims “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.” For example, Brown suggests that Jesus married Mary Magdalene as he raises doubts of the origins and legitimacy of orthodox Christianity. The Da Vinci Code was a worldwide bestseller with more than 60.5 million copies sold.

Other pulpits are silent about sin because those sitting in the pews do not want to hear anything that might shatter their perceived security. Or, maybe the preacher is more interested in the collection plate and he believes that if he preaches anything controversial, he will lose some large contributors.

Ignorance:
Without regular communication with God through prayer and regular, systematic study of God’s Word, we are at the mercy of the doctrinal storms that are raging in the church today. Much of Christendom is now in an apostate condition as professing believers accept “new revelations” even though it conflicts with the revealed Word of God. New Age occultism of every variety is exploding not only in the secular world but also in the church in what is indeed the greatest worldwide revival of paganism ever known. Spanning the globe and encompassing hundreds of millions of teachers and disciples, it has within its fold thousands of individual cults, churches, groups, and organizations. Those who preach a distorted gospel are even gaining strategic leadership positions in denominations and theological schools, enabling them to deceive and mislead many within the church.

All kinds of radical groups claim some affinity to the gospel of Jesus Christ and only serve to confuse the non-churched and borderline Christian. The KKK for example has as one if its rallying cries, “We are Warriors fighting for our great white race, our families and our savior Jesus Christ.”

In many ways the Church has turned to the beliefs, teachings and practices of the world and the cults, from the penchant for humanistic psychology among conservative evangelicals to the cultic affinity for godhood and the demonstration of godlike powers among more extreme charismatics. Popular movements and teachers are influencing the Church to take dominion over the earth, to set up the Kingdom as a requirement for Christ to return, to produce signs and wonders, and to solve its problems through unbiblical methods such as self-esteem therapies, 12-step recovery programs, inner-healing rituals, “binding demons” strategies, and “Christian” mysticism. Many professing Christian leaders promote unity by demoting doctrine and encourage ecumenism to include even overt paganism.

Fear:
A large part of the church is held in bondage because of fear of the unknown. They don’t know their Bibles and they don’t know about the promises of God. Rather, they rely on what others tell them. Self help books flourish and authors fill bookshelves with titles extolling every kind of human wisdom – but they do not contain the truth of Scripture.

Fear drives some to seek knowledge in places where truth is the most distorted. New Age teachers abound with messages from ascended masters and spirit guides. For example, one popular quasi-christian movement surrounds the writings of Helen Schucman who penned “A Course in Miracles,” which teaches that the world, sin, sickness are all illusions which can be overcome with the power of the mind. Where you find the “Course” you will often also find teachings about reincarnation, Yoga, dream rap, channelling, Christ consciousness, pyramidology, astrology, meditation, metaphysics, shamanism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. You might expect to find these teachings at some remote New Age retreat center, but incredibly “A Course in Miracles” is the text being used by many Sunday School classes in some mainline Christian churches. I personally was introduced to the study at one of Wichita’s leading evangelical churches.

For many Christians caught in the web of fear, they profess faith but looks to works for their salvation for they have no faith. They judge others according to their works as well for that is their only barometer, i.e. that which they can see. They walk by sight exclusively and not by faith. What can I do for God? And, what are you doing for God? They can be very busy workers, but they do not listen to the voice.

Carnality:
There is little focus on Christ’s second coming because that would end the pursuit of pleasure and prosperity. Instead of Christ as the object of affection, the popular church is attracted to a celebrity, an evangelist, a project, a political cause, a fund-raising campaign, a new building, or supposed miracles and healings. Faith has turned to fantasy with a message of health, wealth, and comfort. In that kind of environment “easy believism” flourishes and many people who associate themselves with the church aren’t even Christians. They may have a form of godliness, but they deny its power. Satan is still using this form of deception, and often his representatives are being disguised as ministers of righteousness. While propagating that which brings death and darkness to the mind and heart of the sinner, they profess to be representatives of enlightened living. This is satanic deception.

Theology in many modern churches is focused on meeting people’s needs, on solving one’s own problems so one can live more comfortably. Few churches hold to a Christ-centered faith that helps a believer stand in the midst of his trials. “For all too often the twentieth-century church takes its cues and defines its role by the ways of the world. It accommodates a consumer-oriented culture that wants, above all else, to feel good. And it focuses on action at the expense of character, on doing rather than being. There is nothing wrong with seeking to meet people’s needs or creating programs to do so. The church setting should be an environment where non-Christians feel welcome. The church should grow. But when programs and growth become the central focus, the church is in danger of profaning her first Love… In danger of trivializing the holy.” [Charles Colson, The Body, pg. 381.]

Are you prepared?
Are you armed with the truth so as to recognize the lie and extinguish the firey darts of satan? Are you burdened with a sinful past that weighs you down and makes you feel unworthy? Maybe you’ve lived a good life, went to church every Sunday, and followed the Ten Commandments as best you could. But, you’re still unsure of what right you have to enter heaven. Friend, there is an answer you can find right here!

The Coming Crisis And The End Of Days
Soon this world will be thrown into a time of great tribulation. God’s word tells us that, before the end, there will only be a small number who will stand firmly on the Rock of Truth in preparation for the crisis that is soon to over-take the earth.

Modern Ecumenical Movement (Apathy, and Syncretism)

There is great emphasis in the church today on uniting professing Christians of all denominations and beliefs. The message is that we’re not so different after all… we can work together. Setting aside theological differences, we can help each other in the things we all agree upon. That effort is commonly referred to as “ecumenism,” which is defined as “the organized attempt to bring about the cooperation and unity of all believers in Christ.”

The foundation for this ecumenical trend has been laid and built upon over many years. We saw the beginning of institutional ecumenism in the 1960’s, with The World Council of Churches, mostly liberal mainline Protestant denominations who denied such essential doctrines as the inerrancy of Scripture and a literal, bodily resurrection of Christ. For years, Evangelicals distanced themselves from this institutional ecumenism because of the unsound theology of the groups involved.

Today, however, that spirit of compromise has invaded Evangelicalism. The more recent Catholic-Evangelical accord is an example of such compromise. In this accord, Evangelicals compromised essential doctrines such as justification by faith alone and the sufficiency of Scripture in order to unite with Roman Catholics on issues such as abortion and school prayer.

Compromising the Truth
The undiluted preaching from God’s Word and an authoritative stand on truth seem to be on the decline. What we’re seeing instead is a broadening of the gospel, a redefining of what it means to be a Christian, and a growing emphasis on inclusion and tolerance. Ecumenism has come to mean “reducing all elements of faith to the lowest common denominator. God’s Word is neglected, experience is valued above truth, a false and selfish “faith” is promoted, and sound doctrine and correction are despised as “divisive” and “unloving.”

Ignoring the Scriptures, numerous evangelical leaders today claim that a concern for doctrine causes division and therefore should be avoided for the sake of love and unity among the brethren. The Scriptures, however, couldn’t be more specific in its opposition to such a teaching.

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. [Romans 16:17]

Divisions are created by teachings that are contrary to sound doctrine.

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” [2 John 1:9].

Unity in the faith is impossible without the doctrine of Christ. Without such a foundation we have no basis for the faith, for the gospel, for knowing Jesus, or for knowing anything pertinent to the Truth.

The glittering terminology of ecumenical is seen, on close examination, to be as hollow as a soap bubble and just as slippery and hard to hold onto. Where is the “common ground” between belief and unbelief? A believer cannot ignore the “major theological differences” between him and an unbeliever. Instead, he should be cutting through those differences with the Sword of the Word to win the unbeliever to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I cannot agree to ignore an unbeliever’s condition without, by that very act, compromising my beliefs. For my beliefs include the Great Commission, which requires me to tell the world of the gospel of Jesus.

Modern Christian Ecumenical Movements
Even a cursory review of what has taken place in the Church during the last 25 years will reveal a fierce underming of the faith. Precisely as the Bible warns (Mt. 7:21-23; 24:4,11,24; 2 Thes 2:3; etc.), today’s most effective enemies of Christ are those who claim to be Christians and call mankind not just to any old false religion but to a counterfeit Christianity. Consider some of the following:

(ECT) Evangelicals and Catholics Together

Freemasonry

The New Age Movement

Baha’i World Faith

Pro-Life Movement

Promise Keepers

The Christian Response to Ecumenism
Nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon was known for taking unpopular positions as he ministered God’s Word, and faced the same arguments confronting many Bible teachers today. His response to the seductive power of compromise for popularity’s sake was especially poignant: “What have you and I to do with maintaining our influence and position at the expense of truth? It is never right to do a little wrong to obtain the greatest possible good … Your duty is to do the right: consequences are with God.”

How, you might ask, can a Bible-believing church accept many of teachings held up today? Simple. Few read the Bible any more. Far too many people simply go along with whatever they are told as biblical, with no particular interest in checking it out for themselves. For those whom the Lord equips, He sets forth an essential for discernment:

“…If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [John 8:31-32]

For the sake of our growth in the faith and our development of discernment, we must “hold to” the teachings of God’s word. “Hold to,” or “continue” (KJV) means to submit to Christ’s teachings, to abide in them (i.e., to let our mental, physical and spiritual life be governed by them), and to remain in them, becoming steadfast in the faith. If we do this, then we are His disciples, we will know the truth, and will be set free by the truth.

How many times have you heard that somebody was “causing division in the church?” Well, maybe they were supposed to! After all, there are two things that cause division according to the Bible: truth and error.
Haven’t you heard the scripture,

“Do you suppose I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, rather division!”

That’s right! Jesus said that…

“from now on five members in one household will be divided three against two, and two against three” (Luke 12:51-52).

Hard words to hear! Yet, harder to accept. But, that’s what Jesus said and is preserved in the Holy Scriptures. He said that whole families would be divided over Him. And there are many occasions in the New Testament when whole assemblies of people were divided because of Jesus (John 7:43, 9:16, 10:19, Acts 23:6-7).

People who love the truth will divide from people who love lies.
Today, when there are so many who are professing religion, is it any wonder that some of the deepest truths in the Bible – repentance, faith, holiness, etc. – are also some of the greatest objects of debate in the Church. It must be said that those who truly want to know God’s views on these great pillars of Christian doctrine, will appear to be divisive – and rightly so, in an age when the great gospel message of salvation can be reduced to such a sugar-coated, bakery-item as, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!”

Can ecumenists by uniting, set the standards for the rest of the world? “Who’s kingdom is the earth anyway?” This worldly kingdom belongs to Satan until Jesus Christ returns. Jesus said in John 18:36,

“My kingdom belongs not to this world…”

He said he did not come to bring peace, but rather division.

Division that comes from the proclaiming of the truth will usually include some intense reaction and opposition, but it will also produce good fruit and the advancement of God’s kingdom (not to mention the conversion of souls.)

The Scripture is unmistakably clear: the primary attribute by which God wants to be known is holiness–He is totally separate from all that is sinful or defiled. Fifty-five times God refers to Himself in Scripture as the “Holy One.” Fifty-nine times He is called or described as being holy. There are only forty-three times where God is said to love or that He Himself is love. Interestingly enough, the word “holy” (or a form of it) occurs 651 times in Scripture. The word “love” (or a related form) whether human or divine is mentioned only 546 times. Although no attribute of God is mentioned more frequently in the Bible than that of holiness, there is perhaps no other characteristic so ignored and misunderstood as this one. Many seem to view holiness and love as being contradictory: holiness is too negative and divisive while love seems to be positive and accepting. But contrary to God’s nature is the notion that love must tolerate or even refuse to expose error. God’s love is compatible with His holiness. As believers follow the command to imitate their God (Eph. 5:1), they are not free to pick and choose which characteristics to copy. The modern day definition of love largely sets aside God’s demand to His children,

“Be ye holy for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:15,16).

Holiness is the hub of the wheel from which all other divine attributes radiate. Anything that is genuinely at the heart of God should primarily reflect that same characteristic of holiness. With the blatant rejection of the Bible doctrine of separation (which finds its foundation in the holiness of God), Promise Keepers cannot be legitimately considered “at the very heart of God.” Whenever a movement becomes engrossed in compromise with error, it ceases to reflect that core attribute which God has chosen as His name (Isa. 57:15).

Still some would try to ignore the wrong of compromising methods and point out only the good that is seen. Some would even say that those who dare criticize a movement (as PK) which has enjoyed such phenomenal success are being nit- picky. If there can be an agreement on the “major” doctrines of Scripture, then why not get on the bandwagon of a good cause? To this Albert Dager makes the following remarks:

“The evidence of God at work is not outward results, but conformity to Scripture, which in turn results in outward change. Outward change without conformity to Scripture is merely human righteousness. Change of mind does not always equate to change of heart. A genuine change of heart results in the holding of Scripture in high esteem. Nor does it distinguish between so called `essential doctrine’ and `secondary doctrine’ … (2 Tim. 3:14- 17)… When the Holy Spirit says that all Scripture is given for instruction in righteousness, He isn’t speaking only of the so-called `Big Five’ doctrines the ecumenists are claiming as reason for unity. He means all of Scripture itself is the essential doctrine of the Faith” (Media Spotlight Special Report, p. 14).

He then continues with these comments:

“The end does not justify the means. The proper focus must be on the means itself, as well as on the end. . . Results are not the final arbiter of truth; one’s pious demeanor is not the final arbiter of truth; one’s ability to call fire down from heaven is not the final arbiter of truth. God’s Word is the only and final arbiter of truth” (Ibid.).

Behold the emergence of the ecumenical apostate church, the bride of Antichrist!
“Positive Christianity” is the enemy of the cross.
The truth offends those who don’t want to hear it. Yet to speak anything less is to trifle with the eternal destiny of souls. Ecumenism’s promise of “unity” is tempting, but it denies Christ and paves the way for the Antichrist and his new world religion. It is a unification that will ultimately lead to destruction.

True unity is not sought by pretending that there are no differences, as modern ecumenists have done, but by recognizing and respecting those differences, while focusing on the great orthodox truths all Christians share. Articulated in the classic confessions and creeds, it embraces such fundamentals as the Virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the authority of Scripture, and the Second Coming.

Man-made unity is not what God desires. He wants a holy people. Many Christians believe that unity in itself will bring about a holy revival. But unity cannot bring holiness, only holiness can bring about true unity. For when God’s people start seeking to live, worship and pray according to the Holy Word of God, then God Himself will answer Jesus’ prayer and make those who seek Him, truly “one!” THEN God will unite the hearts of those who love Him, and hate sin and error, and He will truly shine forth from the midst of such a people – the true people of God!

The unification of the various national identities, races, and religions can only be achieved through the eradication of sin. That means only through the Lord Jesus Christ can we become perfectly one. The other avenue to unite people, the program of the Antichrist, will only be accomplished temporarily through deception.

The abuses of the Federal Reserve System

Louis T. McFadden (1876-1936): An American Hero
by Richard C. Cook

Dr. Ron Paul, the Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential nomination, is not the first U.S. politician to point to the abuses of the Federal Reserve System and call for its abolishment. Similar pleas to get rid of the Fed were made by Reps. Wright Patman (1893-1976) and Henry Gonzales (1916-2000), both Democratic congressmen from Texas and chairmen of the House Banking Committee.

Few recall, however, how controversial the Fed was when it was first proposed and then maneuvered through a recessing Congress just before Christmas 1913. Rep. Charles Lindbergh, Sr., R-MN and father of the future aviator, called the Federal Reserve Act “the worst legislative crime of the ages.”

But the strongest opposition came later, during the Great Depression. The source was Rep. Louis T. McFadden, a Republican representative from Pennsylvania who, as a former bank cashier and president, knew the financial system intimately.

McFadden was born in Granville Center , Bradford County , Pennsylvania , on July 25, 1876, just three weeks after the nation celebrated its centennial at the Philadelphia Exposition. He graduated from Warner’s Commercial College in Elmira , New York , and went to work at the First National Bank of Canton , PA , in 1892.

McFadden was elected to Congress in 1920 and served until 1934. Though a Republican, he moved to impeach President Herbert Hoover in 1932 and introduced a resolution to bring conspiracy charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

He also made a 25-minute speech on the House floor accusing the Federal Reserve of deliberately causing the Depression. At the time, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board was Eugene Meyer, who resigned after Frankin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as president in 1933 and purchased the Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction.

Later in 1933, McFadden introduced House Resolution No. 158, Articles of Impeachment for the Secretary of the Treasury, two assistant Secretaries of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and the officers and directors of its twelve regional banks. This was McFadden’s political swan song. In the election of 1934, he lost his reelection bid to a Democrat by 561 votes.

Let’s fast forward to 2008. We are in the early stages of an economic collapse that Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at the NYU Stern School of Business, calls “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

Once again the Federal Reserve is implicated, this time for having enabled the creation of gigantic investment bubbles in home mortgages, commercial real estate, equity funds, hedge funds, and derivatives that are now bursting. Mayhem is now starting to be sown within the producing economy of working men and women after having wreaked devastation on Wall Street and within the banking industry despite massive Federal Reserve bailouts over the past year.

The chief culprit would appear to be Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, who presided not only over the ongoing subprime mortgage fiasco, but previously over the dot.com bubble of the 1990s. This blew up when the stock market crashed in 2000-2001, obliterating $6 trillion of investor wealth.

The subprime conflagration of the 2000s was ignited by an orgy of application fraud that commenced just after George W. Bush became president. According to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, the investigation of this fraud by state attorneys-general was blocked by Bush’s Treasury Department. Perhaps Louis T. McFadden was onto something. After his premature death, his words faded into history as he was derided for being anti-Semitic when he said such things as, “ America has to choose between God and the money changers who have unlawfully taken our gold and lawful money into their possession.” Today he is dismissed, sneeringly, as “one of the heroes of the Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists.” (Edward Flaherty, PublicEye.org)

But maybe McFadden said some things that are still worth listening to. In his June 10, 1932, address on the House floor, he declared, as reported in the Congressional Record:

“Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Board, a Government board, has cheated the Government of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. The depredations and the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve banks acting together have cost this country enough money to pay the national debt several times over. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the United States , has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our Government. It has done this through defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it.”

Hydrocarbons versus carbohydrates (The real reason behind 1930s Alcool Prohibition)

by David Morris of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Recent political and technological changes have enabled plant materials to replace some of the petroleum compounds used by industry. Farmers will only benefit significantly, though, if they own the companies that turn their crops into the chemicals that industry requires.

Vegetable matter and minerals have competed with each other to become the dominant industrial input for almost 200 years. For the first 150 years, significant advances occurred in the use of both types of material. Then, for a quarter of a century after World War II, hydrocarbons took over almost completely but since the 1980s, carbohydrate-derived industrial products have been sweeping back as a result of technological and political developments.

In 1820, the United States was a carbohydrate economy and Americans used about two tons of vegetable matter for every ton of minerals. Fifty years later, 70 percent of the country’s energy was still generated by burning wood. Even as late as 1891, only two of 161,000 miles of railroad tracks were made of metal.

The battle between hydrocarbons and carbohydrates began when scientists developed methods to recover and purify organic chemicals such as phenol, benzene, naphthalene from the tars and gases produced when coal was turned into coke for the steel industry. On the carbohydrate side, scientists relied on cotton lint (the short fuzz left on ginned seeds), and after the mechanical process for making paper was introduced, wood pulp.

Before the Civil War, ethyl alcohol (ethanol) from grain was one of the nation’s leading chemicals, used chiefly as a solvent and an illuminant. In 1828 Michael Faraday made ethanol from coke-oven gases but making alcohol from agricultural feedstocks was much cheaper.

In 1869 two New Jersey printers, John and Wesley Hyatt modified nitrocellulose to make a highly successful commercial plastic they called celluloid, a word derived from cellulose, the largest single component of plants. A modified celluloid became the basis for the photography industry and films. To this day Hollywood still calls its movies “celluloids” although one would doubt that even Steven Spielberg knows why.

In the 1890s the first synthetic fibre, rayon, was made from wood pulp. In 1910 Leo Baekeland began commercial production of Baekelite, the world’s first thermoset plastic. Charles Kettering later declared he would not have perfected electric starting, lighting and ignition systems, devices that revolutionized motoring in 1911, without this plant-derived plastic. The first film plastic, wood pulp-derived cellophane, was introduced in the 1920s.

TAXING BIOCHEMICALS TO DEATH

One reason that carbohydrates lost ground to hydrocarbons is that they were handicapped by one of their most desirable features – products derived from them often can be pleasurably ingested. In 1861, to pay for the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln imposed a $2.08 spirits tax on alcohol and, almost overnight, the ethanol industry disappeared. Forty-five years later, The New York Times 1 editorialized, “It is only the heavy tax imposed by the United States that has prevented the use of a large number of vegetable products for the manufacturing of an exceedingly cheap and available alcohol”. In 1906, under pressure from Theodore Roosevelt, one of big oil’s most prominent critics, Congress finally freed industrial alcohol from the onerous tax. The ethanol industry revived and made rapid progress only to be killed off again in 1919 when the US adopted a constitutional amendment that banned the production and sale of beverage alcohol. The amendment was overturned in 1933.

Although at the end of the 19th century, Americans used about one ton of carbohydrates for every one ton of hydrocarbons, by 1920 the ratio had changed dramatically to about two tons of hydrocarbons for every one ton of carbohydrates. But the fight was not over.

World War I had brought major advances in industrial fermentation techniques for making products like acetone. By 1918, ethanol production rose to a new high of 60 million gallons a year. In 1920, Baekelite constituted 30% of all plastics made in America and an additional 25% were made of cellulose acetate.

Advances in both hydrocarbon and carbohydrate chemistry came quickly. The average price of non coal tar chemicals dropped by a factor of three from the 1921 level. Production of organic chemicals derived from petroleum rose from 21 million pounds in 1921 to 3 billion pounds in 1939.

On the carbohydrate side, the price of acetic anhydride dropped from $1.25 a pound in 1930 to 35 cents in l939. That spurred the growth of acetate plastics. Injection molding of cellulose acetate was introduced in the early 1930s. By the start of World War II production exceeded 50 million pounds per year.

In the mid 1920s, a remarkable coalition of scientists, farm leaders and industrialists came together to promote a carbohydrate economy. It began with the publication of a long article entitled ‘Farming Must Become a Chemical Industry’ in the Dearborn Independent in 1926. The author was William Hale, the husband of the daughter of the founder of Dow Chemical and a renowned organic chemist. The number of reprints distributed rapidly exceeded 500,000, spawning what came to be known as the chemurgy movement. 2

Dr. Hale summed up the reason for the movement from the chemists’ perspective when he wrote: “We chemists felt sincerely that the whole sphere of chemical activity had become distorted. What waste and destruction in the birth of coal tar! What frightful losses in breaking of seals to valuable hydrocarbon reservoirs! Surely an all-seeing Providence has provided man with better means of advancing chemically and in simpler fashion and with no depletion of resources.”3

SUPPORTING THE FARMER

Henry Ford summed up the reason for the movement from the perspective of industry. “If we industrialists want the American farmer to be our customer, we must find a way to become his customer. That is what I am working for.”

Hale realized that theirs was an uphill struggle. “The prohibition plague set this country back fourteen years in organic technical progress”, he observed. “It is absolutely impossible for us to advance in organic chemical operations without low-priced basic organic compounds such as alcohol.”

In 1935 the First Conference of Agriculture, Industry and Science took place. By the late 1930s some 30 regional chemurgic councils were studying crops peculiar to their areas. In 1941 Congress appropriated $4 million to establish four regional centres to research industrial applications for plants. These centres still operate today.

As early as the Model A, Ford cars were equipped with an adjustable carburettor designed for alcohol as well as gasoline. By 1940 the Ford automobile plant included one of the largest plastic molding facilities in the country. More than 21,000 tons of soybeans were used to make the plastics that went into Ford cars. In 1941 Ford unveiled a cream colored car whose body was 70 percent cellulose and 30 percent resin binder. It needed no painting or polishing. Minor bumps sprang back into shape. The cellular organic material was cooler in summer and warmer in winter than its steel equivalent. It also reduced noise.

In 1942 the government awarded $650 million in contracts to 25 major oil and chemical companies to produce 800,000 tons of oil-based synthetic rubber. When these companies failed to produce the materials needed, the government ordered the nation’s whiskey distilleries to make industrial alcohol. By 1944 the U.S. was producing nearly 600 million gallons of alcohol a year. About one half was used for making synthetic rubber. The rest was used for aviation and submarine fuels and medicines. The federal rubber director, William Jeffer declared at the time that without alcohol produced from grain “the invasion of France could not have been accomplished at the time it was.”

“As late as 1944″, writes W.J. Reader in his history of the giant British chemical corporation, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), “ICI apparently gave relatively equal weight to coal, oil, and molasses as feedstocks for the production of heavy organic chemicals” 4 After World War II, however, the battle for supremacy between the carbohydrate and hydrocation appeared over. Federal support for carbohydrate chemistry disappeared. The chemurgy movement faded out. By 1949 less than 10 percent of industrial alcohol was made from grain. By 1970 two thirds of US textile fibres were made from petroleum, over 80 percent of electricity was generated from fossil fuels and not a drop of transportation fuel was derived from plants. The result? By 1980 Americans were consuming 8 tons of minerals for every ton of material derived from plants. 5

And then the pendulum began to swing back for political and technological reasons. Politically, the introduction of environmental regulations made plant-derived products increasingly competitive. For example, when jurisdictions began banning non-degradable plastics for certain applications, starch-based plastics entered the market. Technologically, advances in the biological sciences reduced the cost of producing bioproducts. The cost of making industrial enzymes, for example, dropped by more than 75 percent between 1980 and 1995. The cost of absorbable sutures made from milk-derived lactic acid was as much as $250 per pound in 1991. By 2002, the cost of corn-derived polylactic acid dropped to less than $1 per pound.

These changes meant that natural fibres’ share of the textile market had moved above 50 percent again by 1989. By 2002 over 2 billion gallons of grain-derived ethanol were being used in vehicles. Moreover, vegetable oils were replacing mineral oils in inks and hydraulic fluids.

In 1998 President Clinton declared a goal of tripling the quantity of biofuels and bioproducts used in the country by 2010. In 2002, the U.S. Congress’ Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee which advises the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture and whose members were mostly appointed by President Bush, established even loftier goals 6.

In 1990, 55 years after the first chemurgic conference, another was held. Fittingly, Wheeler McMillen, President of the Farm Chemurgic Council in the 1930s and chair of the first conference, delivered the keynote. “We have experienced nearly six decades of political attempts to strengthen agriculture, with much hope hanging on foreign markets”, he declared. “But we know them to be fragile, susceptible to competition or to collapse from other causes. In contrast, new industrial markets for our crops will have the virtue of permanence.”

I coined the term “the carbohydrate economy” in the 1980s to describe an industrial economy where farmers would participate in the value-added step in the production chain. “A carbohydrate economy walks on two legs: a dramatic expansion in the market for industrial products and fuels made from plants; and an equally dramatic expansion in local and farmer-owned manufacturing capacity”.

LOCAL OWNERSHIP

This idea – that in the carbohydrate economy, ownership matters as much as market expansion – began to guide certain public policy makers. In 2002, the Biomass Advisory Committee delivered its first report to the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture. Among its conclusions was, “Expanding the use of biomass for nonfood and feed purposes will benefit farmers and rural areas only indirectly and modestly. A more significant development would occur if farmers themselves were able to produce the biofuels or bioproducts, either on the farm or as owners in a local production plant.”

The best example of this theory put into practice occurred in Minnesota. In the early 1980s Minnesota created an incentive that mirrored that of the federal incentive-a partial exemption from the state tax on gasoline. That incentive succeeded in creating a demand for ethanol, but the demand was met entirely by ethanol imported into the state from very large plants owned by global agribusiness corporations like Archer Daniels Midland.

In the mid 1980s Minnesota converted its state ethanol incentive from a market-oriented excise tax exemption to a producer payment. Rather than reduce state gasoline taxes by a couple of cents a gallon, the state instead paid the equivalent directly to the producer, 20 cents a gallon, for ethanol produced within the state. The incentive was paid only for the first 15 million gallons produced (a typical ADM-owned ethanol facility produces over 100 million gallons a year). The incentive encouraged the formation of many small and medium-sized plants, the scale of which enabled widespread farmer ownership.

By 2002 Minnesota boasted 15 ethanol plants, 12 of which were owned by more than 9,000 Minnesota grain farmers. These were providing the fuel for almost 10 percent of all Minnesota transportation. And the state was moving into the next phase: the use of 85 percent – ethanol/gasoline fuel blends rather than 10 percent ones. So the race between carbohydrates and hydrocarbons is on. Again.

ENDNOTES
1. New York Times. May 22, 1906
2. Hale, William. The Farm Chemurgic. The Alpine Press: Boston, 1934.
3. Borth, Christy. Modern Chemists and their Work. The New Home Laboratory: New York, l942
4. Spitz, Peter. Petrochemicals: The Rise of an Industry. John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1988
5. Morris, David; Ahmed, Irshad. The Carbohydrate Economy: Making Chemicals and Industrial Materials from Plant Matter. Institute for Local Self-Reliance: Minneapolis, 1992
6. Vision for Bioenergy & Biobased Products in the United States. United States Department of Energy: Washington, D.C., October 2002

URL: http://www.feasta.org/documents/wells/contents.html?six/morris.html

Profit From the Trillion Dollar U.S. Budget Deficit

Martin Hutchinson writes: The federal budget deficit hasn’t received a lot of press lately, what with all the worries about the U.S. financial system, the home mortgage market, and the rescues that might be necessary to save both. In fact, it’s a bad sign, since the Bush administration and the Democrats in Congress have joint responsibility for keeping the budget deficit under control, so they would both be crowing about it if they were doing a good job.

We already know the budget deficit is going to return to the $400 billion level – actually $410 billion – in Fiscal 2008, which ends in September. But what is only just now becoming clear is that the $410 billion figure is likely to mark a trough, not a peak, and that a budget deficit of $1 trillion is likely as early as Fiscal 2009 or Fiscal 2010.

The main reason for the probable swing in the deficit is the current period of slow growth and the impending recession.

Evidence of the US Banking System Teetering on the Brink of Collapse

1. Paulson appears on Face The Nation and says “Our banking system is a safe and a sound one.” If the banking system was safe and sound, everyone would know it (or at least think it). There would be no need to say it.

2. Paulson says the list of troubled banks “is a very manageable situation”. The reality is there are 90 banks on the list of problem banks. Indymac was not one of them until a month before it collapsed. How many other banks will magically appear on the list a month before they collapse?

3. In a Northern Rock moment, depositors at Indymac pull out their cash. Police had to be called in to ensure order.

4. Washington Mutual (WM), another troubled bank, refused to honor Indymac cashier’s checks. The irony is it makes no sense for customers to pull insured deposits out of Indymac after it went into receivership. The second irony is the last place one would want to put those funds would be Washington Mutual. Eventually Washington Mutual decided it would take those checks but with an 8 week hold. Will Washington Mutual even be around 8 weeks from now?

5. Paulson asked for “Congressional authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE)” just days after he said “Financial Institutions Must Be Allowed To Fail”. Obviously Paulson is reporting from the 5th dimension. In some alternate universe, his statements just might make sense.

U.S. Foreclosures Double as House Prices Decline

July 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. foreclosure filings more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier as falling home prices left borrowers owing more on mortgages than their properties were worth.

One in every 171 households was foreclosed on, received a default notice or was warned of a pending auction. That was an increase of 121 percent from a year earlier and 14 percent from the first quarter, RealtyTrac Inc. said today in a statement. Almost 740,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, the most since the Irvine, California-based data company began reporting in January 2005.

“Rising foreclosures are putting downward pressure on prices, increasing the possibility that homeowners will go upside- down on their mortgages,” said Sheryl King, chief U.S. economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. “That will cause more losses in mortgage portfolios and less willingness from investors to securitize mortgages and therefore fewer mortgages.”

Motivational Posters

Jahcoustix – New World Order

Jahcoustix – New World Order

I always wonder eventhough I believe everything is meant to be
when life go up and down it`s not only fate but responsability
why do we do the same mistakes over and over again
when already at the first time we cause so many problems

In this New World Order
Guide and protect us Jah holy Father
In this New World Order
Shine on my way fe cross every border
Cause love a mi power

Wel me know Jah could a never ever dead HIM couldn`t dead and gone
He live in the hearts of all man the stone that the builder refuse shall be the headcornerstone hold unto your faith and be strong

Sometimes when I think back to the days, when I was a young boy in youthfull ways bring back all opf dem memories come come the sign when jah set me free but donw inna Babylon racial separation is taking place where has the love gone where it all begun

Mistry Babylon me I come fe destroy thy plan
And a then whipe way the heathen chase dem out a di land
instead on a solid foundation you build your house upon sand
well de wicked man dem a go tremble when de rastaman chant
dem a dealin with the wrong conception so them gwan end up inna dem own frustration revolutionary we a di younger generation there´s no love inna dem heart so the bound haffe go down

everyday can bring a whole new situation
sometimes disappointment then again sweetest surprise
when I come down rely and concentrate will I be able and ready to face the truth behind the fate

Music Various Really Cool

New World Order – Cocoa Tea

Luciano – Eve Of Destruction Jah

Pavarotti & James Brown – This is a Man’s World

God’s Gonna Cut You Down

God’s Gonna Cut You Down Lyrics
Artist(Band):Johnny Cash

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down

Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths

(NaturalNews) The great mystery of bee deaths has been solved. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin. Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die offs in Germany and France.

Although the bee die offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit is pending against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with Imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer’s request to sell Clothianidin.

Clothianidin and Imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees. The spokesperson for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, stated, “We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn’t be on the market.”

Not a Surprise

That neonicotinoids are potent neurotoxins, especially in insects, is unsurprising. They were developed for precisely that purpose. Bayer says that their use is safe for bees, when used according to instructions. This involves using a glue that keeps the pesticides stuck to the seeds on which they’re used.

There are many problems with this. Agribusiness corporations are known to evade anything that costs them money. The glue costs money. The equipment and personnel required to apply it costs money. More careful pesticide application to try to keep it from becoming airborne costs money. Obviously, both unscrupulous agribusiness farmers and unknowing small farmers — not to mention home gardeners — will, at least occasionally, not use the glue.

Even then, it’s impossible to believe that a fair amount of these pesticides won’t become airborne. Further, their residue will poison the soil. It will be passed on into foods, which means that insects will come into contact with it there.

Pharmaceutical Connection

Isn’t it interesting that a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, Bayer, also makes a product that is a poison by design? Bayer is not an exception. Many, if not most, do business in both arenas. That alone should give pause for thought.

Here’s a list of corporations — not expected to be complete — that profit in both pharmaceuticals and pesticides:

* American Home Products

* AMVAC

* Astra Zeneca

* Aventis

* BASF

* Bayer

* Dow Chemical

* Dupont Chemical

* Merck

* Monsanto

* Novartis

* Pharmacia

Is it an accident that most of Big Pharma also manufactures pesticides? Is there a connection between the two types of products? Do the pharmaceutical arms of these corporations profit on the illness caused by the pesticide arms? These questions are rhetorical. We’ll let the reader decide.

Mythical Disease

Mike Adams has humorously shown with his Disease-Mongering Engine ((http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-mong…), which creates new diseases at the push of a mouse button, how easily phony diseases can be created to sell pharmaceuticals and fatten the pocketbooks of the medical world. The same technique has been used to cloak massive bee die-offs with an air of mystery.

Are the ice caps melting?

The headlines last week brought us terrifying news: The North Pole will be ice-free this summer “for the first time in human history,” wrote Steve Connor in The Independent. Or so the experts at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado predict. This sounds very frightening, so let’s look at the facts about polar sea ice.

As usual, there are a couple of huge problems with the reports.

Firstly, the story is neither alarming nor unique.

In the August 29, 2000 edition of the New York Times, the same NSIDC expert, Mark Serreze, said:

“There’s nothing to be necessarily alarmed about. There’s been open water at the pole before. We have no clear evidence at this point that this is related to global climate change.”

During the summer of 2000 there was “a large body of ice-free water about 10 miles long and 3 miles wide near the pole”. Also in 2000, Dr Claire Parkinson at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center was quoted as saying: “The fact of having no ice at the pole is not so stunning.”

Submarines regularly surface at the North Pole
Secondly, the likelihood of the North Pole being ice free this summer is actually quite slim. There are only a few weeks left where the sun is high enough to melt ice at the North Pole. The sun is less than 23 degrees above the horizon, and by mid-August will be less than 15 degrees above it. Temperatures in Greenland have been cold this summer, and winds are not favorable for a repeat. Currently, there is about one million km2 more ice than there was on this date last summer.

So what is really going on at the poles?

American physicists warned not to debate global warming

By Andrew Orlowski (andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk)
Published Monday 21st July 2008 16:04 GMT

Bureaucrats at the American Physical Society (APS) have issued a curious warning to their members about an article in one of their own publications. Don’t read this, they say – we don’t agree with it. But what is it about the piece that is so terrible, that like Medusa, it could make men go blind?

It’s an article that examines the calculation central to climate models. As the editor of the APS’s newsletter American Physics Jeffrey Marque explains, the global warming debate must be re-opened.

“There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S concerning that conclusion,” he wrote (http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/editor.cfm).

American Physics invited both believers and sceptics to submit articles, and has published a submission by Viscount Monckton questioning (http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/monckton.cfm) the core calculation of the greenhouse gas theory: climate sensitivity. The believers are represented (http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/hafemeister.cfm) by two physicists from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who state that:

“Basic atmospheric models clearly predict that additional greenhouse gasses will raise the temperature of Earth. To argue otherwise, one must prove a physical mechanism that gives a reasonable alternative cause of warming. This has not been done. Sunspot and temperature correlations do not prove causality.”

But within a few days, Monckton’s piece carried a health warning: in bright red ink.

The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review. Its conclusions are in disagreement with the overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community. The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions.
Not so much Medusa, then, as Nanny telling the children what not to think.

“The first sentence is nothing more or less than a deliberate lie,” writes (http://numberwatch.co.uk/2008%20July.htm) Professor John Brignell on his Numberwatch blog. “The second is, to say the least, contentious; while the third is an outrageous example of ultra vires interference by a committee in the proper conduct of scientific debate.”

Monckton has asked for an apology. In a letter to the APS President Arthur Bienenstock, he writes:

“If the Council has not scientifically evaluated or formally considered my paper, may I ask with what credible scientific justification, and on whose authority, the offending text asserts primo, that the paper had not been scientifically reviewed when it had; secundo, that its conclusions disagree with what is said (on no evidence) to be the “overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community”; and, tertio, that “The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions”? Which of my conclusions does the Council disagree with, and on what scientific grounds (if any)?”

The Road to Perdition: Visualizing Dow 6,000 – By MIKE WHITNEY

Visualizing Dow 6,000
By MIKE WHITNEY

Last Wednesday, at an improvised press conference, George Bush gave what may have been the most comical performance of his eight year presidency. Looking like the skipper on the flight-deck of the Hindenburg, Bush tried his best to reassure the public that “all’s well” with the economy and that everyone’s deposits were perfectly safe in the rapidly disintegrating US banking system. Leaning lazily on the presidential podium, Bush shrugged his shoulders and said,

“My hope is that people take a deep breath and realize that their deposits are protected by our government. We’re not seeing the growth we’d like to see, but the financial system is basically sound.”

Right. “Breath deep” and chill out; no need to panic. One shouldn’t let the long lines of anxious depositors who are presently trying to extract what’s left of their life savings from the now-defunct Indymac Bank upset one’s basic equanimity. The banking system is perfectly safe, you heard it from President Trickledown himself.

At the same time Bush was offering his soothing words on all the major TV news networks, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was on the other side of Washington giving a decidedly grimmer assessment of the economy:

“The contraction in housing activity that began in 2006 and the associated deterioration in mortgage markets that became evident last year have led to sizable losses at financial institutions and a sharp tightening in overall credit conditions. The effects of the housing contraction and of the financial headwinds on spending and economic activity have been compounded by rapid increases in the prices of energy and other commodities, which have sapped household purchasing power even as they have boosted inflation. Against this backdrop, economic activity has advanced at a sluggish pace during the first half of this year, while inflation has remained elevated.”

Keep in mind, that these two events were perfectly coordinated to take place at exactly the same time; 10:20 AM Wednesday. Quite a coincidence, eh? Just another masterful public relations coup engineered by the Bush PR team, the last functioning agency in the entire bureaucracy. To no one’s surprise, the collusive media managed to divert attention from the impending financial firestorm long enough to lull the American people into believing that nothing is really wrong; the economy is just hunky-dory.

Fed-chief Bernanke again:

“The economy continues to face numerous difficulties, including ongoing strains in financial markets, declining house prices, a softening labor market, and rising prices of oil, food, and some other commodities….The deteriorating performance of subprime mortgages in the United States triggered turbulence in domestic and international financial markets as investors became markedly less willing to bear credit risks of any type….Many financial markets and institutions remain under considerable stress, in part because the outlook for the economy, and thus for credit quality, remains uncertain.”

As Bernanke delivered one hammer-blow after another, our engaging Commander in Chief was busy swapping funny stories and rough-housing with his pals in the Washington press corps. The media confab turned out to be a typical Bush frat-party with plenty of back-slapping and hee-haws to go around.

“You had a question, Stretch?” (Ha, ha)

And that was that. Bernanke’s candid and (frankly) scary assessment of the economy was dwarfed by Bush’s diversionary palavering and bravado; another stunning victory for the White House spinmeisters. Even so, the Fed chairman’s testimony should be dug up and examined by anyone who is interested in knowing how bad things really are so they can prepare themselves for the hard times ahead. (Find it here: Bernanke’s Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress)

Bernanke again:

“In the housing sector, activity continues to weaken…Home prices are falling, particularly in regions that experienced the largest price increases earlier this decade. The declines in home prices have contributed to the rising tide of foreclosures; by adding to the stock of vacant homes for sale, these foreclosures have, in turn, intensified the downward pressure on home prices in some areas….The declines in home prices have contributed to the rising tide of foreclosures; by adding to the stock of vacant homes for sale, these foreclosures have, in turn, intensified the downward pressure on home prices in some areas……Surveys of capital spending plans indicate that firms remain concerned about the economic and financial environment, including sharply rising costs of inputs and indications of tightening credit, and they are likely to be cautious with spending in the second half of the year.”

Moon Landing Hoax Unbelievable Facts

Loose Change 2nd Edition

Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe, and Jason Bermas bring you the most powerful 9/11 Documentary yet

Wachovia Joins the Financial Apocalypse

Written by Dennis Behreandt

Tuesday, 22 July 2008 14:51

It’s beginning to look as if Fortis was right. In June the Belgium-Dutch financial giant, itself beset by financial woes, warned, according to a Dutch paper, that the “complete collapse of the U.S. financial markets” was in the offing, just days or weeks away.Maybe it won’t be a “complete” collapse, but the dire warning is beginning to appear more credible daily. Just days after the Fortis warning, letter from Senator Charles Schumer speculating about the “possible collapse of big mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc.” set off a run on that ailing mortgage lender with depositors withdrawing more than $1.3 billion in just 11 days. In the weeks since there has been increasing speculation about the stability of both the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). These holdovers from the Roosevelt Administration’s ill-conceived New Deal presently own or guarantee half of the $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market, yet they were characterized recently as “insolvent” by former Federal Reserve President William Poole. In a free market, when you perform poorly your business might fail. But Poole, a consummate government regulator, thinks Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are too big to fail. “Clearly they must be supported,” he said according to a July 11 Reuters report. “They (the U.S. government) cannot allow that amount of assets … to go into limbo.” In other words, according to Poole, the federal government must take money (a lot of money!) from some and give it to others. As economist Frederic Bastiat eloquently pointed out, that is socialism, the law run amok and turned on its head. On top of IndyMac and Fannie and Freddie, the bad news from the financial sector keeps coming. On Tuesday, Wachovia Corp. reported striking losses totaling nearly $9 billion for the quarter. “Our reported results today are clearly a disappointing performance for which we take responsibility,” Wachovia CEO Bob Steel told analysts on a conference call. The nation’s fourth largest  bank also noted that it would eliminate as many as 10,750 positions. There’s not much question as to where to assign blame for this mess. Inflationary monetary policy creates bubbles that eventually burst. The question is, what is the solution? Two possibilities present themselves. The first is that championed by William Poole: let the government bail out the failing banks. The second solution is to let banks reap the consequences of their poor business practices and fail. Proponents of big government want the American people to believe that government can solve the problem through bailouts and other remedies without consequence, while also arguing that doing nothing and letting the market work is too dangerous. But the fact is that government bailouts and regulations actually introduce further distortions in the market. Fannie and Freddie are prime examples of this themselves. By looking to further government expansion to save the tottering banking institutions, we are likely only prolonging our collective financial misery, or postponing it a short while. By contrast, the best solution would be to get government out of the market. Sure Fannie and Freddy would probably fail. So might others. That’s the market for you. The weak and the foolish fail and the quick, the smart, and the strong survive and prosper. This is what made America the world’s greatest economic powerhouse and it is the only solution for our current economic woes. The alternative is statism and stagnation.

Walter J. Veith – From Evolutionist to Creationist Testimony

The Secret Behind The Secret Societies

A Revelation Seminar

Total Onslaught – Changing the Word part 1 and 2

In this video a hands on approach of the Bible is followed, exposing the blatant changes that have been made in modern translations to rob Christ of His pre eminence. See for yourselves and prove whether these things are so.

Total Onslaught – Just Another Man

In this video, Biblical evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is presented in multimedia format. The ancient prophecies are unravelled, particularly the prophecy in Daniel 9 on the seventy weeks which pinpoints the exact time of the Messiah’s arrival on Earth. The study of this prophecy has even been cursed by some theologians who do not wish to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Study the evidence revealed in this video and you make your own conclusions

Total Onslaught – The Crime of All Ages

In this video, the behind-the-scenes activities of the Antichrist power are revealed – he how places himself in the temple of God claiming to be God with power even over the Almighty, claiming to have the capacity to alter even the precepts of Christ. The implication of these changes whereby the whole world is to be led astray is made plain. Once again, the Bible and the Bible alone are used as sources to expose his activities

Total Onslaught – The UN and the Occult Agenda

Professor Walter Vieth demonstrates the UN’s occult agenda, and how they intend to set up a global religion.