False Hope: What the Hell is Wrong With You?

False Hope: What the Hell is Wrong With You? By Minister Louis Farrakhan

This nation is not about poor people.... This Nation is about rich people!

US: Soros is Attempting to Take Over "Occupy America" Movement

© earstohear.net

US: Soros is Attempting to Take Over "Occupy America" Movement By Wayne Madsen

Wall Street and London hedge fund tycoon George Soros sent a signal to his minions and infiltrators when he stated that he sympathized with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Soros's statement dovetailed with David Plouffe, President Obama's Senior Adviser, making contact with certain newly-minted "leaders" of the "Occupy" movement across the United States to ensure that they are as politically-manipulated by the White House as a vast majority of "Tea Party" members have been manipulated by senior Republican Party officials and the billionaire Koch Brothers.

Essentially, Soros and the Koch Brothers have ensured that the anti-corporate state movement in the United States, represented by the Democratic and Republican parties, remains split between artificially-created "left" and "right" camps and fractures into even
smaller competing blocs within the two major camps.

The "divide and conquer" strategy is frustrating real attempts to mobilize the American people against Wall Street and lobbyist-occupied Washington.

Plouffe and his operatives want to ensure that the "Occupy" street protests generically call for "jobs," "public education," "Social Security," "health care," and the "environment," as long as they do not take on an anti-Obama tone. Essentially, protesters can call for "jobs," and the Soros-funded manipulators will claim on the slight-expanding main stream media coverage of the "Occupy" protests that the protesters want the Congress to approve Obama's jobs bill. When the protesters call for "health care for all," the Soros opinion manipulators will tell the main stream media that the protesters are against any repeal of "Obamacare."

This campaign to infiltrate the "Occupy" movement has all the fingerprints of Cass Sunstein, the head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Sunstein has pioneered in the use of social networking and media technologies to engage in "cognitive infiltration" of anti-government movements. Now that the White House and Soros are engaged in joint damage control, Sunstein's policies are being applied throughout the main stream and social media. One meme that has been spread is that the protesters lack "goals" and a "single voice."

Gawker.com is reporting that now entering the scene is the top-shelf Manhattan public relations firm Workhouse Publicity, whose clients include Saks Fifth Avenue and Mercedes-Benz, hardly firms that would sympathize with unemployed protesters, which has /pro bono /started to send out press releases to the corporate media on behalf of the "Occupy" movement.

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At the progressive Democratic "Take Back the American Dream" conference in Washington, the "Occupy" movement was being hailed by many of the same groups that are funded, some to almost 100 percent, by Soros and his affiliated tax-free contrivances, including the Open Society Institute/Foundation and Tides Foundation. WMR learned that Plouffe was in contact with many of the organizations involved in the progressive conference to ensure that anti-Obama rhetoric was tamped down. The move succeeded with anti-Obama feelings only being discussed by union and other activist rank-and-file attendees and not by any of the speakers who represented such Soros-supported conference sponsors as Center for American Progress, Media Matters, MoveOn.org, and Netroots Nation.

Soros, working with the Obama White House, has called into service veterans of popular movement catalytic and infiltration movements, including "themed revolution" and social media uprisings, in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya, Iran, Ukraine, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Lebanon and other countries. The "Arab Spring" backfired on Soros and his allies because the infiltrators could not guarantee the majority of the protesters would be pro-West, pro-capitalist, and ambivalent on Israel.

The major marching orders for these infiltrators is to take over the "leadership vacuum" of the "Occupy" movement and steer it into voicing support for Obama's pro-Wall Street policies without the protesters, themselves, unaware that they are supporting the status quo. The
strategy is to ensure that no new and unrecognized leaders appear from within the movement, whether from union or political rank-and-file ranks. Leaders who are not already known quantities and who might resist control by political and financial interests will be eclipsed by those who have been on the Soros payroll for years.

The only way for the Occupy movement to ensure its independence is to begin fashioning protest signs that read:*"SOROS IS WALL STREET!"* and *"OBAMA - OWNED AND OPERATED BY WALL STREET!"

Related:  How COINTELPRO really works and destroys social movements: Open letter from former Tea Partier to Occupy Wall Street protesters

Rise Up and Support the Real Revolution

Rise Up and Support the Real Revolution by Josh Vick

"Promise, promise, lie (making money, making money, making money), lie, lie, lie, lie, promise."

Sound familiar? It should -- that's the sound of your elected politicians. Between all the false promises there is nothing more than lies and profit. It's a truth and its verification only requires the fundamental ability to read and the problem-solving skills of a 3rd grader. Let me explain.

The system that your politicians work for is no longer your system. It is their system. It is planned, modified, and controlled by them. It benefits their own interests and their own interests only. To realize this truth is very simple -- all you have to do is look at the legislation. They create it, present it, pass it, and it's written on paper for all to decipher.

So, let's look at this legislation. What does it do?

Well, for the people, it creates restrictions. It decides what you as an individual cannot do. It decides what is considered to be wrong. It decides what you can be reprimanded, penalized, fined or incarcerated for. To the people, legislation is nothing more than the continual loss of our freedoms.


Now, let's take a look at the corporate side of legislation. What does it do? It creates "regulations", not restrictions. Regulations enable corporations instead of restrict them. Regulation is nothing more than a cute word that allows corporate entities to be exempt from the very same laws that apply to the individual. Basically, regulations set standards on how much crime can be committed by corporations.

It requires a very limited amount of thinking to understand almost immediately that this situation alone is a recipe for disaster. I need not delve any further for one to realize that restrictions for consumers, but freedom for profiteers, equals a fascist system. You don't have to look into the specifics of the laws, or any law specifically to see that we lose freedom as corporations gain it. Nearly every piece of legislation that is created by the federal government serves to directly benefit either big business or the government itself.

Meanwhile, they use our tax monies to run rampant across the global landscape as they leverage their political powers to maximize the profits for corporations (which in turn reward them with commissions). They rape, rob, pillage, destroy, corrupt, and pollute in the name of profits. They deface the earth while simultaneously committing genocides which they then contort and present to us as either an act of liberation for oppressed peoples, or the elimination of a terror threat.

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I'm not sure about you, but I want absolutely nothing to do with a system that operates in this fashion. It's 110% absolutely and completely ludicrous for anyone to obey the laws of murderous dictators who repeatedly commit high-crime against humanity on a global level.

If you knew that somebody was going to rape a 12-year-old girl before blowing her brains out and lighting her body on fire in front of her family, would you give them 20% of your paycheck to do so? I don't think you would, and it's for that same reason that I don't believe you should pay income tax.

Our system is completely defunct, both financially and morally. It's not only insufficient for our best interests as a society, it's downright destructive. It suffers an absolute lack of reasoning and has no room whatsoever for even an ounce of human compassion.

The flags, the fake debates, the false promises, the "god bless our nation" -- it's nothing more than pure deception. It's proven to be so convincing that although its creators don't deserve the title of Human, one could easily say it's a masterpiece worthy of the title of genius. This picture of America -- a magical fairyland with freedom and prosperity for all -- is painted with blood on the dead flesh of freedom.

Do not stand up for it. Do not represent your government, just as they don't represent you. Denounce your association with them. Refuse to participate in a system that wreaks havoc on innocent human life. Refuse to play their game any longer. Refuse to believe their lies and refuse to let anyone else tell you otherwise. We are humans, living beings, individuals with souls who are born free. Refuse to be tied down by authority.

Do not be dumb. Do not be like the battered woman with broken arms who says she's in love. Do not remain loyal to a hand that doesn't feed you. Do not believe that you have to do what everyone else does, or that it's right simply because they do it. Rise above the scum who run this system, let them know that you know the truth, that you're not afraid and that you refuse to participate. Do it with your family, your friends, whoever you care about.

Rise above this oppressive regime of global control freaks. They are nothing. They are mental, physical and spiritual slumlords. They have nothing to hide behind except an illusion. They are weak, insecure and miserable.  As the days pass by, their time to remain in charge grows shorter. It's happening around the world -- people are revolting. There is a knowledge being consumed and it is empowering the people.

The biggest myth that they ever created is that "freedom isn't free".

It is free, take it. Participate. Occupy. Denounce support for politics and corruption once and for all.

Josh Vick is a freelance human being who is against all authority. He can be contacted via Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/josh.vick1

False Flag Alert: Will Obama Goons Provoke Riots Using Occupy Wall Street As An Excuse to Bring In Martial Law?

© ABC News

False Flag Alert: Will Obama Goons Provoke Riots Using Occupy Wall Street As An Excuse to Bring In Martial Law?

The globalist are in the stage of desperation being between a rock and a hard place. They can back off and allow the economy to recover. They will not get their New World Order in the time they want. The other risk they run backing off is these oligarchs might be arrested and tried. The whole fiat money scam will be exposed forever shutting down the Federal Reserve Bank. Their Front man President Obama is running out of choices. He has tried to send out the Government Union Thugs SEIU to beat up Tea Party protesters at Town hall meetings to intimidate the opposition. There has been mass protesters and agent provocateurs have been neutralized. The sale of firearms and ammunition have shot through the roof. Obama's attempts on gun control are failing. Operation Fast and Furious with the Sylindra scandal can bring down the Obama regime before election day. Some people are seeing the urgency to remove President Obama from office by the impeachment process before the 2012 election before he destroys the country.

Now we have the occupy Wall Street spreading like wild fire nationwide springing up in cities large and small nationwide protesting the government and Wall Street partnership robbing the American people blind out of their hard earned money. Move On and many other leftist activist have tried to highjack the protest saying this protest is about higher taxes and the reelection of Obama with a totalitarian police state. That did not work. Many labor unions are joining the protest to co-opt the protest to make it look like they are the real spokespeople of the movement. It seems the disdain and opposition to the Federal Reserve Bank has now started to gain a lot of momentum dominating the protest now. This central bank created by an act of congress in 1913 is the real power behind the disastrous economic policies we all are suffering under. The leftist are losing the battle to take over the protest to advance their socialist agenda,also to discourage the good people who love freedom from coming out joining the protest.

In Newmax, it has been reported that Rush Limbaugh that President Obama is going to try to turn these occupy Wall Street protest into nationwide riots creating civil unrest. I see the President can use this as an a National Emergency so he can use the excuse for Martial Law on the streets of America. This where he will try to use the force of the state to confiscate fire arms out of the people's hands. I believe this will fail also because people are pointing out the thugs trying to start riots as an attempt to demonize the peaceful protesters. Obama is desperate to hold onto power. They are not having success taking over the protest. The wars will not work as a distraction anymore, people are looking straight at the problem. This Federal Reserve System that must go. When people are looking at the real power being the central bank that has been working behind the scenes making policy without the consent of the people. People know where to look

As I see it, the US Government is losing control over the people. They see 9-11 as not Muslim attack so much. But an excuse for the government to grope us the airports, steal homes through fraudulent foreclosure methods, our phones being tapped and seeing the encroachments on our freedoms. People about had it being ripped off by the government and the corporate cronies. No wonder Obama wants to set up riots. He knows a revolution will be a fight he might lose being ousted from power. People are fed up and I do not think riots or a false flag attack will not work either because people know their tactics and devices too much. Any staged event whether it be a staged terrorist event or riots. People will know who to blame and that is the Wall Street, the White House and the Federal Reserve System.

Occupy Tampa – My first Protest…(Video)

Occupy Tampa – My first Protest…(Video) by Owen Myles

And not my last.

On Thursday, October 6, 2011, I received an email notifying me that Occupy Sarasota was taking place near the Bank of America, on Main Street. I quickly prepared myself and ventured out to join and report. I arrived late. Most of the protesters had moved on, and perhaps 35 remained. I began taking photographs and listening to conversations.

Amidst a discussion between Guy Fawkes01 and a fellow protester, the subject of Ron Paul versus Obama had arisen. Guy Fawkes01 was expressing that Ron Paul seemed the only reasonable candidate for election. The woman adamantly disagreed, expressing contempt for Libertarians, and that after 8 years of Bush’s “bullshit”, Obama had introduced welcome changes. At this point I interrupted to inquire.

Complete article..

The Top 100 Statistics About The Collapse Of The Economy That Every American Voter Should Know

© Mike Kegle The Denver Post

Blacklisted News: The Top 100 Statistics About The Collapse Of The Economy That Every American Voter Should Know by Michael Snyder

The U.S. economy is dying and most American voters have no idea why it is happening.  Unfortunately, the mainstream media and most of our politicians are not telling the truth about the collapse of the economy.  This generation was handed the keys to the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen, and we have completely wrecked it.  Decades of incredibly foolish decisions have left us drowning in an ocean of corruption, greed and bad debt.  Thousands of businesses and millions of jobs have left the country and poverty is exploding from coast to coast.  We are literally becoming a joke to the rest of the world.  It is absolutely imperative that we educate America about what is happening.  Until the American people truly understand the problems that we are facing, they will not be willing to implement the solutions that are necessary.

The following are the top 100 statistics about the collapse of the economy that every American voter should know….

#100 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#99 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#98 Since Barack Obama was sworn in, the share of the national debt per household has increased by $35,835.

#97 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#96 It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will hit 344% of GDP by the year 2050 if we continue on our current course.

#95 The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government debt held by the public will reach a staggering 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.

#94 In 2010, the U.S. government paid $413 billion in interest on the national debt.  That is projected to at least double over the next decade.

#93 According to one new survey, one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#92 State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP.

#91 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.

#90 U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#89 According to a new study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#88 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#87 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#86 The cost of a health insurance policy for the average American family rose by a whopping 9 percent last year, and according to a report put out by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, the average family health insurance policy now costs over $15,000 a year.

#85 One study found that approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#84 An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all at this point, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.

#83 According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States.  Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#82 Average yearly tuition at U.S. private universities is now up to $27,293.

#81 The cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978.

#80 In America today, approximately two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loans.

#79 In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.

#78 The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.

#77 One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don’t even require college degrees.

#76 In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.

#75 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

#74 In the United States today, approximately 365,000 cashiers have college degrees.

#73 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year.  Their biggest customer is the United States.

#72 U.S. oil companies will bring in about $200 billion in pre-tax profits this year.  They will also receive about $4.4 billion in specialized tax breaks from the U.S. government.

#71 The United States has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976, and since that time the United States has run a total trade deficit of more than 7.5 trillion dollars with the rest of the world.

#70 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#69 The U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#68 Today, the United States spends more than 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#67 China has surpassed the United States and is now the largest PC market in the entire world.

#66 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in “advanced technology products” of $16 billion with the rest of the world.  In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.

#65 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China was “scrap and trash”.

#64 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe?  Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.

#63 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#62 If you can believe it, more than 42,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been closed down since 2001.

#61 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.

#60 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#59 According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades.

#58 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States today, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world.

#57 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States right now than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#56 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#55 Only 55.3% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed last year.  That was the lowest level that we have seen since World War II.

#54 Today, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.

#53 The economic downturn has been particularly tough on men.  According to Census data, men are twice as likely to live with their parents as women are.

#52 According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

#51 Incredibly, less than 30 percent of all U.S. teens had a job this summer.

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#50 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

#49 Since the year 2000, we have lost approximately 10% of our middle class jobs.  In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#48 In 1980, 52 percent of all jobs in the United States were middle income jobs.  Today, only 42 percent of all jobs are middle income jobs.

#47 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#46 According to Paul Osterman, a professor of economics at MIT, approximately 20 percent of all employed Americans are making $10.65 an hour or less.

#45 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#44 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#43 New home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005.

#42 The all-time record for fewest number of new homes sold in the United States was broken in 2009.  Then it was broken again in 2010.  It is on pace to be broken once again in 2011.

#41 At one point this year, U.S. home prices had fallen a whopping 33% from where they were at during the peak of the housing bubble.

#40 U.S. home values have fallen approximately 6 trillion dollars since the housing crisis first began.

#39 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant.  That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#38 Historically, the percentage of residential mortgages in foreclosure in the United States has tended to hover between 1 and 1.5 percent.  Today, it is up around 4.5 percent.

#37 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are currently at least one month behind on their mortgage payments.

#36 According to a Harris Interactive survey taken near the end of last year, 77 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.  In 2007, the same survey found that only 43 percent of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck.

#35 Starting on January 1st, 2011 the Baby Boomers began to hit retirement age.  From now on, every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers willreach the age of 65.  That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.

#34 According to a new poll by Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of all Americans are worried about “maintaining a comfortable standard of living in retirement”.  Last year, that figure was at 73 percent.
#33 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 In 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers.  According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.

#31 According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system paid out more in benefits than it received in payroll taxes in 2010.  That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.

#30 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#29 According to one study, the 50 U.S. state governments are collectively 3.2 trillion dollars short of what they need to meet their pension obligations.

#28 A different study has shown that individual Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

#27 Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.

#26 According to a shocking AARP survey of Baby Boomers that are still in the workforce, 40 percent of them plan to work “until they drop”.

#25 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans dropped into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#24 Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.  Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#23 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.  Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#22 More than 45 million Americans are now on food stamps.

#21 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#20 Approximately one-third of the entire population of the state of Alabama is now on food stamps.

#19 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#18 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#17 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#16 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#15 In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

#14 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#13 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

#12 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#11 According to a recent report from the AFL-CIO, the average CEO made 343 times more money than the average American did last year.

#10 The wealthiest 1% of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States.

#9 The poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#8 The percentage of millionaires in Congress is more than 50 times higher than the percentage of millionaires in the general population.

#7 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#6 According to one recent poll, 90 percent of the American people believe that economic conditions in the United States are “poor”.  To put this in perspective, only 11 percent of Americans rated economic conditions in the U.S. as “poor” back in January of 1999.

#5 According to another recent poll, 80 percent of the American people believe that we are actually in a recession right now.

#4 Our dollar is being systematically destroyed by the Federal Reserve.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 will cost you $116.78 today.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 will cost you $457.67 today.

#3 The Federal Reserve made $16.1 trillion in secret loans to their friends during the last financial crisis.

#2 The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine.  Today, the U.S. national debt is more than 4700 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.

#1 According to a new CNN/ORC International Poll, 27 percent of all Americans have never even heard of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

We need to educate America.

Please share this with as many people as you can.  Time is running out for America, and 2012 is going to be an absolutely pivotal year in the history of this nation.

We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline that is rapidly accelerating.  If dramatic changes are not made very quickly, we will soon witness a full-blown collapse of the economy.

Wake up as many people as you can.

We are running out of time.

Operation Enduring Failure: Ten years of war on Afghanistan

http://thy-weapon-of-war.blogspot.com

Operation Enduring Failure: Ten years of war on Afghanistan by Lizzy Ratner

Today is the tenth anniversary of the US war on Afghanistan. Ten years. A decade. The longest war in US history*. Nearly 1700 US troops dead and more than 1000 "coalition partners" dead. Thousands of soldiers wounded, thousands traumatized. Billions of dollars spent.

And the number of Afghans dead? No one knows. No one knows. But the estimates, most likely too low, are soul-rattling. 12,000-14,000? 40,000? Tens and tens of thousands of civilians, and the numbers just keep getting uglier, as Brian Katulis of the Center for American Progress told Democracy Now! this morning. In fact this year, 2011, is on track to be the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since the war began, proving that a decade after the US invasion, life is more treacherous than ever for the men, women, and children we so altruistically went to bomb -- er, save.

Meanwhile, this country's much-vaunted nation-building efforts remain as crumbly as sand castles. The Taliban is resurgent -- or "resilient" as a new White House report phrases it. The US-installed Karzai government is a corrupt sham. Civil war is a distinct possibility. And just this week, retired-fired general Stanley McChrystal told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and NATO are only "50% of the way" toward realizing their goals in Afghanistan. Whatever that means anyway.

"We didn't know enough and we still don't know enough," he said, stating what had become baldly obvious to many of us civilian observers years ago. "Most of us, me included, had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years."

But don't just listen to McChrystal and the other experts who claim to know so much after knowing so little. Listen to the people on the receiving end of this country's precision bombs, cluster bombs, and depleted uranium-laced bombs. Listen to the men, the children, and the women -- especially the women who were the feel-good excuse for all the F-15s and Warthogs.

Here's "Reena," a 19-year-old member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, describing post-invasion life for Afghan women:

"These claims [that the war would improve life for women] were all extremely false. If they have brought to power the misogynists, the brothers in creed of the Taliban to power, who are the exact copies of Taliban mentally and have just been physically changed, then I don't think the women's situation can improve.
Today there are slight improvements in women's lives in urban areas, but again, if we look at statistics, Afghanistan remains the most dangerous place for women. Self-immolation, suicide rates are extremely high, it has never been this high before. Domestic violence is widespread. Women are poor, they don't have health care. It has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. There are, as I said, some improvements, and in some aspects it might have gotten a little better for a handful of women, but it has definitely gotten worse for others.
There is insecurity, there is threat, they always say that there are 6 million girls in schools, or the schools have opened, but nobody looks at the dropout rates, nobody looks at the attacks or the threats that the Taliban make to girls and they don't dare to go out again, nobody looks at the quality of the schools. I mean, there have been slight changes, and it has been very widely used, and they just highlight a few positive things. But overall the situation of women has gotten worse."

Heck of a job, Bushie. (And Bambi.)

* There's an important caveat to the claim that the Afghan war is the longest in US history and that is the fact that the US was unofficially mucking around in Vietnam for many years before it officially sent in ground troops. If you add all the official and unofficial years together, Vietnam is still the longer war (as were several of the American-Indian wars of the 19th Century).

The Wrath of Hatred: Witness The Nazis Of Our Time

The Wrath of Hatred: Witness The Nazis Of Our Time

COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of an internet forum

COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of an internet forum

It's rare to encounter a forum that is not overrun with shills.  This is their modus operandi.

Posted by MikeWB at The Information Underground:


COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of an internet forum:

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a 'uncontrolled forum.'

Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING'

If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by 'forum sliding.' In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to 'age.' Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a 'forum slide.' The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a 'forum slide' and 'flush' the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then 'replying' to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting 'slides' down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.

Technique #2 - 'CONSENSUS CRACKING'

A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at http://www.abovetopsecret.com) is 'consensus cracking.' To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger 'evidence' or disinformation in your favour is slowly 'seeded in.' Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then 'abort' the consensus cracking by initiating a 'forum slide.'

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Technique #3 - 'TOPIC DILUTION'

Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a 'RESOURCE BURN.' By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a 'gossip mode.' In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to 'drive in the wedge.' By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.

Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favourite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favourite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - 'ANGER TROLLING'

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to 'stage' a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to 'lead' the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you 'do not care what the authorities think!!' inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - 'GAINING FULL CONTROL'

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavourable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the 'ultimate victory' as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a 'honey pot' gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.

Stopping the Insanity

October 6, 2011: Stopping the Insanity by David Sirota

Like most people living through this jarring age of economic turbulence and political dysfunction, you can probably recall a moment in the last few months when you thought to yourself that our lawmakers and corporate leaders are all crazy. And not just run-of-the-mill crazy, a la George Costanza’s parents, but the kind of crazy that makes films like “Silence of the Lambs” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” so frightening.

The good news for you is that you aren’t insane for thinking this. The bad news for all of us, though, is that according to two new scientific analyses, you are more correct in your assessment than you may know.

The first revelation came from Dr. Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University. In his recent book, “A First-Rate Madness,” he went beyond merely restating the old adage that anyone crazy enough to run for public office probably shouldn’t occupy that office. Instead, the book sheds light on what Ghaemi calls an “inverse law of sanity,” whereby tumultuous times like these actually reward and promote political figures who are “mentally abnormal (or) even ill.”

Now comes a new study from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen showing that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.

As the website Newser reported, the researchers “pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative.” Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive “to damage their opponents.”

The findings build on similar research in the recent past. In 1996, investigators at Glasgow Caledonian University discovered connections between psychopathy and successful financial speculation, concluding that “with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers.” Likewise, in 2004, researchers at the University of British Columbia reacted to similar findings and created a test to help firms detect “corporate psychopaths” within their ranks. That same year, the award-winning documentary “The Corporation” used World Health Organization metrics to show that if companies really are “people,” as our Supreme Court insists, then many of them are mentally ill.

Obviously, these results reflect the not-so-surprising fact that the extreme nature of the modern political process and of today’s casino economy inherently self-select for certain kinds of traits. And no doubt, wholly changing that dynamic may be impossible or undesirable—or both.

However, the findings are a reminder of why now—more than ever—we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery. Indeed, it’s time to redouble our commitment to strengthening checks on political and corporate power because that power is often being wielded by the most unstable among us.

So what does that mean in practice? It means that when we see a wild-eyed White House ignore the Constitution and claim the despotic right to assassinate American citizens without criminal charge, we demand that Congress stop the madness—rather than quietly acquiesce. It means that when we see a spontaneous grassroots movement physically occupy Lower Manhattan and challenge banks’ deranged rapaciousness, we applaud the effort as long overdue—rather than scoff at it as unrealistic. It means, in short, that we refuse to stay silent in the face of insanity.

And frankly, if we have scientific proof that the inmates are running the Wall Street and Washington asylums, this is the least we should do—and we really should do a whole lot more.

David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book “Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com.

R. Mark Sink: The Case for the Lotus Eaters

Came across this video below posted at Activist Post from Freedomain Radio's Stefan Molyneux where he talks about the Occupy Wall Street Manifesto that was written for the nationwide protests. He makes many good points about the way in which it is written that reflect poor judgment in placing too much emphasis on corporations and not the state as the primary problem.



Stefan certainly knows what he is talking about but defends the corporations as just lotus eaters who have become indolent subjects of power. These subjects float between top corporations and political affiliation in the merry-go-round of fascism and Monsanto is a good example.

Fascism is a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator (may be secret), stringent socioeconomic controls (forced labor, subsidized bunds), suppression of any opposition through (false-flag terror, torture) and censorship (M$M), and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism advocating a political philosophy.

If good government were possible, corporations would be again bound not to but by laws that prevent the horrible circumstances we currently face. I can only speak for myself and say that after 25 years in business, I am 100% going to lose everything I own including my home and will be left with nothing. This is at an age of 55 with no health insurance, no retirement, no food stamps ever, no welfare ever, and no assistance from anyone. On top of this I am expected to pay for the mistakes of others and to have a right to life itself.

I can remember a day when people actually cared about each other and my business thrived because people would tell other about me, and the system seemed to work. However, since the false-flag of 9/11, people have been brainwashed and consider everyone a suspect of the state of affairs, a blatant lie perpetrated by those in power.

I stand with the protesters even though this movement is in great need of focus. Wikipedia has already deleted the manifesto and we may now begin to understand the insurmountable battle ahead to dismantle the rigging of fascist political control.

Financial Polarization and Corruption: Obama’s Politics of Deception Don’t Let Him Get Away With It...

Financial Polarization and Corruption: Obama’s Politics of Deception
Don’t Let Him Get Away With It... by Prof. Michael Hudson

The seeds for President Obama’s demagogic press conference on Thursday were planted last summer when he assigned his right-wing Committee of 13 the role of resolving the obvious and inevitable Congressional budget standoff by forging an anti-labor policy that cuts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and uses the savings to bail out banks from even more loans that will go bad as a result of the IMF-style austerity program that Democrats and Republicans alike have agreed to back. 

The problem facing Mr. Obama is obvious enough: How can he hold the support of moderates and independents (or as Fox News calls them, socialists and anti-capitalists), students and labor, minorities and others who campaigned so heavily for him in 2008? He has double-crossed them – smoothly, with a gentle smile and patronizing patter talk, but with an iron determination to hand federal monetary and tax policy over to his largest campaign contributors: Wall Street and assorted special interests – the Democratic Party’s Rubinomics and Clintonomics core operators, plus smooth Bush Administration holdovers such as Tim Geithner, not to mention quasi-Cheney factotums in the Justice Department. 

President Obama’s solution has been to do what any political demagogue does: Come out with loud populist campaign speeches that have no chance of becoming the law of the land, while quietly giving his campaign contributors what they’ve paid him for: giveaways to Wall Street, tax cuts for the wealthy (euphemized as tax “exemptions” and mark-to-model accounting, plus an agreement to count their income as “capital gains” taxed at a much lower rate). 

So here’s the deal the Democratic leadership has made with the Republicans. The Republicans will run someone from their present gamut of guaranteed losers, enabling Mr. Obama to run as the “voice of reason,” as if this somehow is Middle America. This will throw the 2012 election his way for a second term if he adopts their program – a set of rules paid for by the leading campaign contributors to both parties. 

President Obama’s policies have not been the voice of reason. They are even further to the right than George W. Bush could have achieved. At least a Republican president would have confronted a Democratic Congress blocking the kind of program that Mr. Obama has rammed through. But the Democrats seem stymied when it comes to standing up to a president who ran as a Democrat rather than the Tea Partier he seems to be so close to in his ideology. 

So here’s where the Committee of 13 comes into play. Given (1) the agreement that if the Republicans and Democrats do NOT agree on Mr. Obama’s dead-on-arrival “job-creation” ploy, and (2) Republican House Leader Boehner’s statement that his party will reject the populist rhetoric that President Obama is voicing these days, then (3) the Committee will get its chance to wield its ax and cut federal social spending in keeping with its professed ideology. 

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President Obama signaled this long in advance, at the outset of his administration when he appointed his Deficit Reduction Commission headed by former Republican Sen. Simpson and Rubinomics advisor to the Clinton administration Bowles to recommend how to cut federal social spending while giving even more money away to Wall Street. He confirmed suspicions of a sellout by reappointing bank lobbyist Tim Geithner to the Treasury, and tunnel-visioned Ben Bernanke as head of the Federal Reserve Board. 

Yet on Wednesday, October 4, the president tried to represent the OccupyWallStreet movement as support for his efforts. He pretended to endorse a pro-consumer regulator to limit bank fraud, as if he had not dumped Elizabeth Warren on the advice of Mr. Geithner – who seems to be settling into the role of bagman for campaign contributors from Wall Street. 

Can President Obama get away with it? Can he jump in front of the parade and represent himself as a friend of labor and consumers while his appointees support Wall Street and his Committee of 13 is waiting in the wings to perform its designated function of guillotining Social Security? 

When I visited the OccupyWallStreet site on Wednesday, it was clear that the disgust with the political system went so deep that there is no single set of demands that can fix a system so fundamentally broken and dysfunctional. One can’t paste-up a regime that is impoverishing the economy, accelerating foreclosures, pushing state and city budgets further into deficit, and forcing cuts in social spending. 

The situation is much like that from Iceland to Greece: Governments no longer represent the people. They represent predatory financial interests that are impoverishing the economy. This is not democracy. It is financial oligarchy. And oligarchies do not give their victims a voice. 

So the great question is, where do we go from here? There’s no solvable path within the way that the economy and the political system is structured these days. Any attempt to come up with a neat “fix-it” plan can only suggest bandages for what looks like a fatal political-economic wound. 

The Democrats are as much a part of the septic disease as the Republicans. Other countries face a similar problem. The Social Democratic regime in Iceland is acting as the party of bankers, and its government’s approval rating has fallen to 12 percent. But they refuse to step down. So earlier last week, voters brought steel oil drums to their own Occupation outside the Althing and banged when the Prime Minister started to speak, to drown out her advocacy of the bankers (and foreign vulture bankers at that!). 

Likewise in Greece, the demonstrators are showing foreign bank interests that any agreement the European Central Bank makes to bail out French and German bondholders at the cost of increasing taxes on Greek labor (but not Greek property and wealth) cannot be viewed as democratically entered into. Hence, any debts that are claimed, and any real estate or public enterprises given sold off to the creditor powers under distress conditions, can be reversed once voters are given a democratic voice in whether to impose a decade of poverty on the country and force emigration. 

That is the spirit of civil disobedience that is growing in this country. It is a quandary – that is, a problem with no solution. All that one can do under such conditions is to describe the disease and its symptoms. The cure will follow logically from the diagnosis. The role of OccupyWallStreet is to diagnose the financial polarization and corruption of the political process that extends right into the Supreme Court, the Presidency, and Mr. Obama’s soon-to-be notorious Committee of 13 once the happy-smoke settles from his present pretensions.

Michael Hudson is a frequent contributor to Global Research.  Global Research Articles by Michael Hudson

Haiti, Occupied Country

Haiti, Occupied Country by Eduardo Galeano

Consult any encyclopedia. Ask which was the first free country in America. You will get the same answer: the United States.

But the United States declared its independence when it was a nation with 650,000 slaves who remained so for another century, and its first Constitution said that a black slave was equal to three fifths of a person.

And if you ask any encyclopedia which was the first country to abolish slavery, you will always get the same answer: England.

But the first country that abolished slavery was not England, but Haiti, which is still expiating the sin of its dignity.

The black slaves of Haiti defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s glorious army, and Europe never forgave the humiliation. For over a century and half, Haiti paid France a huge compensation for being guilty of its freedom, but not even that was enough.

This black insolence still hurts the world’s white masters. Of all that, we know very little or nothing.

Haiti is an invisible country. It only attained fame after the earthquake of January 2010 that killed more than 200,000 Haitians. The tragedy put the country fleetingly in the media spotlight.

Haiti is not known by the talent of its artists: scrap magicians capable of transforming garbage into beauty. Nor is it known for its historical feats in the war against slavery and colonial oppression.

It is worth repeating it once again, so that the deaf can hear: Haiti was the founding country of the independence of America and the first one that defeated slavery in the world. It deserves much more than the fame sprung from its misfortunes.

At present, the armies from several countries, including mine, are occupying Haiti. How is this military invasion justified? By alleging that Haiti endangers international security. Nothing more.

Throughout the 19th century, Haiti’s example was a threat to the security of countries that still continued practicing slavery. Thomas Jefferson said: “From Haiti came the pest of rebellion.”

In South Carolina, for example, the law allowed imprisonment of any black sailor while his ship was at dock, because of the risk that he could contaminate with the anti-slavery pest. And in Brazil, this pest was called “Haitianism.”

In the 20th century, Haiti was invaded by the U.S. Marines for being an insecure country for its foreign creditors. The invaders began by taking possession of the customs offices and giving the Haitian National Bank to the City Bank of New York. Since they were already
there, they decided to stay for 19 years.

The crossing of the border from the Dominican Republic to Haiti is named: “The wrong step.”

Maybe the name is a call to arms: Are you entering the black world, black magic, witchcraft... Vodou, the religion that slaves brought from Africa, was nationalized in Haiti; it has no right to be called a religion. From the point of view of proprietors of civilization, Vodou is a black thing, ignorance, backwardness, pure superstition. The Catholic Church, with plenty of followers capable of selling the saints’ fingernails and the Archangel Gabriel’s feathers, enabled this superstition to be officially forbidden in 1845, 1860, 1896, 1915, and 1942, without the
people paying any mind.

But for a few years now, evangelical sects have been in charge of the war against superstition in Haiti. Those sects come from the United States, a country that does not have a 13th floor in its buildings, nor row 13 in its airplanes, and that is inhabited by civilized Christians who believe God made the world in one week.

In that country, the evangelical preacher Pat Robertson explained on television the earthquake of the year 2010. This shepherd of souls revealed that the Haitian blacks had won their independence from France with a Vodou ceremony that invoked the Devil’s help from the depths of the Haitian jungle. The Devil, who gave them their freedom, sent the earthquake to collect.

How long will foreign soldiers remain in Haiti? They arrived to stabilize and help, but for seven years, they’ve been eating their breakfast and destabilizing this country which does not want them.

The military occupation of Haiti is costing the United Nations more than $800 million a year.

If the UN dedicated these funds to technical cooperation and social solidarity, Haitians could get a good boost to develop their creative energies. Then they would be saved from their armed saviors who have a certain tendency to violate, kill, and give fatal illnesses.

Haiti does not need anyone to come and multiply its misfortunes. Neither does it need anyone’s charity. Or as an ancient African proverb goes: “The hand that gives is always above the hand that receives.”

But Haiti does need solidarity, doctors, schools, hospitals, and a true collaboration that makes possible the rebirth of its food sovereignty, killed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other philanthropic societies.

For us, Latin Americans, that solidarity is a debt of gratitude: it will be the best way to say thanks to this little great nation that in 1804 opened for us, with its contagious example, the doors of freedom.

(This article is dedicated to Guillermo Chifflet who was forced to resign from Uruguay’s Chamber of Deputies when he voted against sending soldiers to Haiti.)

Eduardo Galeano is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist, whose best known works are “Memoria del Fuego” (Memory of Fire Trilogy, 1986) and “Las venas abiertas de America Latina” (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971). He gave this speech on Sep. 27, 2011 at the National Library in Montevideo in a panel debate entitled Haiti and Latin
America.

Ring, Ring - This is a Police State

Ring, Ring - This is a Police State by T.F. Stern

© unknown

Yesterday my attention was drawn to an article written by Buck Sexton which appeared on The Blaze, "Calif. Appeals Court Approves Cell Phone Searches During Traffic Stops". I didn't know cell phones were that big a deal; okay, maybe we shouldn't text while shifting and most of us would agree that hands free is better than having half your field of view blocked.

"In a case explicitly decided to set a precedent, the California Appellate court has determined police officers can rifle through your cellphone during a traffic violation stop."

There is a problem with granting police powers which extend beyond protections built into a citizen's God given right as covered under the 4th Amendment.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Times may have changed since this wonderful document was penned; however, the intent to protect a person's "papers and effects", which would now include digital information housed in any number of devices, shall not be violated. Police officers have been empowered to enforce the law and when needed to search suspects for weapons or illegal contraband; but have never had the power to go on "fishing expeditions" under the color of "inventorying" a prisoner's property.

Speaking from the standpoint of a retired police officer, the rules of evidence were put in place to secure individual rights; not to empower a police state. Items found during a lawful inventory which were clearly prohibited such as weapons or illegal substances could be entered into a court of law as evidence; however, there is a limit to what can be considered "in plain view" or what items might be considered "hazardous" and a risk to the safety of either the public in general or the officer's immediate safety.

"On December 6, 2009 Reid Nottoli was pulled over for speeding by Santa Cruz County Deputy Sheriff Steven Ryan. Sheriff Ryan then suspected after pulling Nottoli over that the 25-year-old was under the influence of drugs.

As Nottoli's license was also expired, the Sheriff decided to impound the vehicle. Nottoli requested to leave his car parked on the side of the road. Sheriff Ryan refused, and decided to conduct an "inventory" search prior to the towing."

Up until this point the police were acting in the interests of the public, taking the suspect into custody as a possible DUI and an expired driver's license is a lawful arrest. The officer was obligated by law to inventory items in the suspect's vehicle prior to having it towed to an impound; again, for the benefit of the suspect and to protect the officer from unwarranted accusations of theft or neglect in the event items later turned up missing or were claimed to be missing.

"A fully legal Glock 20 pistol with a Guncrafter Industries 50 GI conversion that should have been stored in the trunk of the vehicle. He also noticed Nottoli's Blackberry Curve which, after it was turned on, displayed a photograph of a mask-wearing man holding two AR-15 rifles akimbo."

Aside from that first sentence being incomplete, the court was informed that a legal weapon was found during the inventory. Depending on the laws in California the officer either would file additional charges for improperly transporting a weapon or, since this was a lawful weapon, the officer might have stored the weapon in a proper manner until such time as the suspect was released.

Pay attention; this is where the court has stepped over the line and violated the 4th Amendment rights of every citizen via this one case. The officer stated the suspect's cell phone was not on during the inventory process; this was not a "search incident to arrest". The officer turned the cell phone on and at that time observed a photograph which caused him to believe photographs contained therein may link the suspect with an unrelated crime.

Read the intent of the 4th Amendment once again.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

If the officer stated he feared for his personal safety or perhaps the phone was hollow and contained illegal drugs it might have been reasonable to play with it. If the suspect could be connected with terrorist activities in which cell phones were used to trigger explosive devices from a remote location; at that moment the officer might have the authority to turn on the device even if such actions would be fool hearty considering the possibility that the simple act of activating the cell phone might be enough to trigger an explosive device depending on how it was programmed.

Idle curiosity caused the officer to turn the cell phone on; nothing more. No warrant could be obtained under such circumstances regardless of what images where presented to the officer's view since he had to turn the device on when it was no threat in its present state. There was no probable cause to believe the officer was arresting anyone but a DUI traffic violator who failed to secure a legal weapon in the trunk.

"...the appellate court's decision, written by Franklin Elia, which read in part:

"The deputies had unqualified authority under Gant (*) to search the passenger compartment of the vehicle and any container found therein, including Reid's cell phone. It is up to the US Supreme Court to impose any greater limits on officers' authority to search incident to arrest."

[...]

"This case demonstrates that the scope of exception to the Fourth Amendment's protection against governmental searches and seizures relating to searches incident to arrest is still unclear. Both parties address Belton's bright-line rule to the Fourth Amendment allowing warrantless vehicular searches incident to a lawful arrest. If the Supreme Court adopts Arizona's position on Belton, police will have broad discretion to search the vehicle of any arrestee, subject only to the limitation that the arrestee was a "recent occupant" of the vehicle. A decision for Gant, on the other hand, would require an officer to reasonably fear for his safety or the integrity of the evidence before he could search an arrestee's vehicle without a warrant. In either case, the Supreme Court's decision may further define the extent of police authority to perform warrantless vehicular searches incident to a lawful arrest."

I'm sorry Franklin Elia, opening a closed container which may or may not hide from plain view weapons or contraband is not the same as opening a closed digital file belonging to a citizen. This no different than extracting information directly from the suspect's mouth and is most definitely a violation of the 4th Amendment.

As a concerned citizen and retired police officer it is my duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States. In the long run we are trading security for liberty; and those who do so deserve neither security nor liberty; isn't that what Benjamin Franklin warned?

Our judiciary system is being used to transform America into a police state; troubling to say the least. The rule of law which holds our society together appears to have been abandoned in favor of the police state. Our founding documents and the limits placed on government act to protect individual God given rights. Our courts now act with impunity violating individual rights, and with each new decision advance the notion that such actions are justified; not by our Constitution but through each amended court decision linked one upon the other. It would appear we have already become subjects of the state rather than citizens.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The Moral Lib­eral asso­ciate edi­tor, T.F. Stern, is a retired City of Hous­ton police offi­cer, self-employed lock­smith, and gifted polit­i­cal and social com­men­ta­tor. His pop­u­lar and insight­ful blog, T.F. Sterns Rant­i­ngs, has been up and at it since Jan­u­ary of 2005.