the opinionist

The FT published a brilliant article on Monday (May 25) entitled, “Beijing is caught in ‘trap’ over dollar.”

The article suggests the world’s fastest growing economy has placed too much of its hard-won cash reserves in the U.S. debt market and, as a result, has locked itself into a bit of a jam. As the largest holder of U.S. debt, which is by far the largest debt market in the world (and growing exponentially thanks to Obama’s borrow/spend) has now created a market whose price (value) is propped up only by China’s continued purchasing of the debt.

In other words, if China tries to unload its massive U.S. treasury portfolio, … who would it sell to? at what massive discount would it have to sell at? and what would such a divestiture of U.S. holdings do to the world debt market, currency markets, stock markets and, therefore, global economy?

If China tried to reallocate its ’safe’ portfolio the world would collapse. The dollar would be in free fall. The very consumers of China’s products would stop consuming. A tsunami of shit would hit be fan. The Dark Ages will be upon us - version 2.0 - globally. No safe havens. N pockets of tranquility. Global end-of-days.

The only solution: it appears - is to carefully extricate the world’s monetary system - based on what valuation method who knows - out of the current currency/debt/commodity blackhole and switch, somehow, to a new unit of currency; a global currency; a new measuring system and a new financial world, never again to entertain the silliness of monetary largess.

Some food for thought?

Honest China: February 11 2009 - (FT. Article)

Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said China would continue to buy Treasuries in spite of its misgivings about US finances.
“Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”

Mr Luo, whose English tends toward the colloquial, added: “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion [$1,000bn-$2,000bn] . . .we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

The Usual French: Flashback 1965 - De Gaulle vs. the Dollar (Time)

Perhaps never before had a chief of state launched such an open assault on the monetary power of a friendly nation. Nor had anyone of such stature made so sweeping a criticism of the international monetary system since its founding in 1944. There was Charles de Gaulle last week proclaiming that the primacy of the dollar in international dealings was finished, calling for an eventual return to the gold standard —which the world’s nations scrapped 50 years ago — and practically inviting other countries to follow France’s lead and cash in their dollars for gold.

In conclusion: c’est la vie, mother fuckers.

May 26th, 2009 | Category: Apocolypse, BRIC, Beijing, Budget, China, Communism, Depression, Emerging Markets, Exit Plan, Federal Reserve, Global Policeman, Global Poverty, Globalizm, Gold, Gold Standard, Great Depression, IMF, Insolvent, Lou Ping, Multipolar, National Debt, Obama, Oval Office, Spending, Stock Market, Sub-Prime, São Paulo Forum, Taxation, Trade Deficit, U.S., UN, US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unilateralism, Unipolar, United Nations, WTO, World Trade, de Gaulle, debt, economy |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

[Follow up to blog post, "China's 21st Century War to Destroy the U.S. | Wake up! We Are Losing!"]

Something is very wrong. The number of press stories / pentagon reports / think-tank assessments and arbitrary Joe Geek office cube conversations revolving around Chinese Hackers continues to escalate and very little notice (publicly) appears to be given by the Obama administration.

The topic is hardly new! You can Google any news story as far back as the late 1990’s and story after story reports on the same theme. Industrial and Military networks are probed, penetrated, and security flaws exploited as military and industrial secrets are ransacked and national security exposed and weaknesses laid bare.

Those responsible? The finger always point at China. The Chinese predictably and swiftly respond with the same line of defense - “these are mere fabrications to stir anti-Chinese sentiment” and “these stories are products of [old] Cold War mentality.”

So what is the truth? Surely the logic ‘where there’s smoke - there’s fire’ must at the very least suppose China’s Military Intelligence agency - the “Second [Intelligence] Department” of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) - must, at the very least, monitor network activities based within their nation’s boundaries? And be aware of the culprits?

The PLA’s Second Department mandate is described as supporting ‘military attaches at Chinese embassies abroad, clandestine special agents sent to foreign countries to collect military information, and the analysis of information publicly published in foreign countries.’

The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) annual report to Congress on the ‘Military Power of the People’s Republic of China‘ as far back as 2006 described [page 35] the “Formation of Information Warfare Reserve and Militia Unit” that are designed to “support active PLA forces by conducting “hacker
attacks” and network intrusions, or other forms of “cyber” warfare, on an adversary’s military and
commercial computer systems, while helping to defend Chinese networks.”

These annual DoD reports have angered the Chinese to such a degree as to raise stern Chinese denouncements and retaliatory ‘damaging economic relations’ threats. China has strongly insisted the Pentagon cease the public distribution of these annual (accurate?) assessment’s of Chinese Military strategies.
These very same Pentagon reports are “watered down so as to appear less inflammatory” according to Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center according to a great article last week by the World Tribune. In other words; what we know of sensitive cyber attacks are just the tip of the iceberg as a legitimate and damaging threat to U.S. and its allies.

Today’s [April 21 2009] Wall Street Journal front-page article entitled, “Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project“, reports that “hackers with IP address origins suggesting China, have successfully hacked into and stolen “several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the [Joint Strike Fighter] [air]craft.”

The article continues to suggest Chinese involvement by quoting, “Investigators traced the penetrations back with a “high level of certainty” to known Chinese Internet protocol, or IP, addresses and digital fingerprints that had been used for attacks in the past, said a person briefed on the matter.”

Per the regular Chinese denouncements, … the WSJ article lists the Chinese response as “The Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China “opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes.” It called the Pentagon’s report “a product of the Cold War mentality” and said the allegations of cyber espionage are “intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations.”

If China entities are to blame … perhaps they are not officially sanctioned military entities? Perhaps instead they are opportunist (and darned smart) freelance groups pseudo-ignorantly protected by the Chinese authorities as an easy to divorce resource for industrial and military espionage intelligence? An article written last year by John Vause of CNN supports this notion with an excellent article entitled, “Chinese hackers: No site is safe” in which Vause interviews - discretely - a private group of Hackers inside China that claim payments for intelligence garnered by the Chinese Government.

The bottom line: China is a threat. Its double speak, its vigorous denials and suggestions of hurt feelings over ‘bogus’ claims by the ‘Round-Eyed Devil’ cannot be trusted. Can SO many reports by SO many news agencies on SO many attacks on SO many Government, industrial and military establishments worldwide all be … the result of naughty Dr. Strangelove types in the Pentagon and Langley? I doubt it.

Google example

April 21st, 2009 | Category: Americans, Bush Administration, CIA, CNN, China, Cold War, Communism, Conspiracy, Cyber-Warfare, Defense Security Service, Domestic Spying, Espionage, F-35, Global Policeman, Globalizm, Jingoism, KGB, Lockheed, MI5, Multipolar, NATO, NSA, NeoCons, Nuclear Weapons, Obama, Oval Office, Pentagon, President Hu, Robert Gates, S-300, Security, Spying, State Department, São Paulo Forum, U.S., US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unilateralism, Unipolar, War, WikiLeaks, World Trade, counter-intelligence, freedom, hackers, journalism, patriot act, the Great Firewall |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

Texas Governor Rick Perry stirred the stick of popularism yesterday with his war-cry of secession from the Union during the Texan-chapter of the not-so-great Tea Party rallies. Alas a firebrand pitchfork and torch march on Capitol Hill was not the reality hoped for by hundreds and the mainstream media added just the right measure of pre-determined scoff.

Gov. Perry announced, with all the shock of a stale ham sandwich, that Washington had run amok with Tax Payers’ monies and gorged piggy-style on the excesses of cuddly big government. His threat - loose with innuendo and bile - suggested Texans might get really really ‘fed up’ with the Obama’isms and viciously, and with merit, secede (again [1861 failure]) from the grand Union / the fantastic experiment that is … the United States of America.

Popularism is an ugly and blunt tool that works very well on the soap box and, perhaps in front of a beer-chasing crowd flailed by the oppressive midday sun, but it is a dangerous game to play by a perhaps naive peoples’ politician? The 300m strong U.S. is paddling dangerously in the dark waters of economic and social collapse. Threats from within (no matter how puny) only adds fuel to the ugly spiral of uncertainty and introspection what has already aaded considerable damage to the reputation, image, social and economic stature of the U.S. on the world stage - amongst peers, friends and foes.

Unfortunately … the break up of the United States has already received the focus of our beloved press when Russian academia smashingly announced (and with great relish) the disintegration of the United States.

It appears Russian professor, Igor Panarin, a former KGB analyst (love that!), and the dean of an academy associated with the Russian Foreign Ministry, has been beating the drum of America’s demise for the past decade. Good stuff! Enjoy.

April 16th, 2009 | Category: Americans, CNN, Cold War, Conspiracy, Democrats, Depression, Dmitry Medvedev, Federal Reserve, Global Policeman, Global Poverty, Globalizm, Great Depression, Igor Panarin, Jingoism, KGB, Medvedev, Moscow, Multipolar, National Debt, NeoCons, Obama, Oval Office, Patriotism, Putin, Recession, Republicans, Russia, State Department, State of the Union, Stock Market, Taxation, Tea Party, Texas, U.S., US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unilateralism, Unipolar, WSJ, Washington, World Trade, congress |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

I’m at a loss for words this weekend. Having spent some time playing and exploring the Government’s General Printing Office (GPO) website (which has an amazing array of statistics, databases, raw data files and reports) - I’m seriously wondering …

- Where is the public outcry?
- Where are the pitch forks?
- When shall we march on Congress?

This is INSANITY x10 and we’re sitting on our arses doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Shame on us.

Source: GPO Budget - Historical Data

March 29th, 2009 | Category: Americans, Apocolypse, Armageddon, Arms Trade, Bill Clinton, CNN, China, Corruption, Deficit, Democrats, Depression, Eisenhower, Federal Reserve, GOP, Global Policeman, Global Poverty, Globalizm, Great Depression, Hillary Rodham Clinton, IMF, Insolvent, Jingoism, National Debt, New Deal, Obama, President, Spetsnaz, State of the Union, Stock Market, Trade Deficit, U.S., US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unipolar, WTO, Washington, World Trade, ballot box, congress, defence, economy, fiction!?, john mccain |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Source: Wikipedia

Chinese Military Power Report

March 29th, 2009 | Category: 2009, Afghanistan, Americans, Arms Trade, Axis of Evil, Britain, Bush, Bush Administration, CIA, China, Cold War, Conspiracy, Cyber-Warfare, Defense Security Service, Deficit, Democrats, Depression, Dmitry Medvedev, Espionage, Federal Reserve, Global Policeman, Global Poverty, Great Satan, IMF, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Medvedev, Middle East, Moscow, Multipolar, NATO, Nuclear Bomb, Nuclear Weapons, OPEC, Osama bin Laden, Oval Office, Pentagon, Politics, Presidential Election, Reagan, Russia, São Paulo Forum, U.S., US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, Unilateralism, Unipolar, United Nations, Use of Force, WTO, War, War on Terror, WikiLeaks, World Trade, al Qaeda, counter-intelligence, defence |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The Middle East - and Iran issue specifically - lies at the center of so many foreign policy hurdles for the United States. The pursuit of peace in the Middle East and the reestablishment of a legitimate U.N. entity can only start with a proven warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran.

- A thawing of tensions with Iran helps smooth the way for Israeli / Arab coexistence.

- The skittish global community would benefit greatly from the reduction in its daily dose of death in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Lebanon and a multitude of state-sponsored actions throughout the region

- The fracturing of regional / national allegiances either uniting against U.S. interests or floundering in miserable confusion for the status quo of U.S. dominance - is wholly dependent on the middle east question being resolved peacefully.

So will President Obama’s gentle overtures - soothing words, flamboyant gestures and smiling mannerisms be met with interest, curiosity, dismissal or derision by Iran?

Who is even in charge of Iran? the Supreme Leader - Ayatollah Khomeini - or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Some clearly and blatantly indicate the Ayatollah as the clear and indelible force within the Iranian regime - whereas others indicate a shift in power towards President Ahmadinejad.

In the eyes of the Iranian people - long exhausted by economic sanctions, the tug-of-war between the Clerics, the Government and the often confusing opposition politicians - perhaps Obama’s speech to the Iranian people on ‘Nowruz’ - the Persian News Year’s day - is the opportunity they’ve been waiting for?

Predictable Reactions from Iran (already):

- Ayatollah Khomeini: (LA Times)

“… Iran’s highest spiritual, military and political authority, told supporters in his hometown of Mashhad today that “changes in words” won’t be enough to convince Iran that the Obama administration is sincere in its outlook.

“We do not have any record of the new U.S. president,” he said in a live television broadcast. “We are observing, watching and judging. If you change, we will also change our behavior. If you do not change, we will be the same nation as 30 years ago. “

- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration: (Associated Press)

“… said “minor changes will not end the differences” between Tehran and Washington.

“Obama has talked of change but has taken no practical measures to address America’s past mistakes in Iran. If Mr. Obama takes concrete actions and makes fundamental changes in U.S. foreign policy toward other nations including Iran, the Iranian government and people will not turn their back on him,”

If Iran seeks changes in U.S. policy towards Iran as measurements of sincerity by the Obama administration then they should look no further than recent statements by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a Pentagon press conference earlier this week.

“In a television interview on March 12, Gates appeared to reverse years of U.S. warnings that it would consider all options, including military, to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Instead, Gates asserted that neither Obama nor his successor would rely on U.S. intelligence assessments on whether Iran has already reached the capability to produce atomic bombs.”

The U.S. and Iran have been fighting a proxy war against each other both inside Iranian territory and inside Iraq and surrounding nation states.
It will be interesting to see if CIA-sponsored insurgency actions within Iran - by anti-Mullah factions (such as the MEK) are ceased or at least suspended as President Obama further extends evidence of detente with the complex Iranian regime.
Similarly, will Iran suspend its funding and arming of insurgency groups fighting the U.S. and Iraqi forces inside Iraq territory? Those forces include the Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous) - a particularly nasty terrorist group notorious for roadside bombs, targeted assassinations and mass murders.

The history of animosity between Iran and the U.S. is deep and bloody. Examples include the U.S. support for once-bretheren Iraq (during the Iran-Iraq War) - which will take a lot of sugar, spice and all-things-nice to remove from the Iranian psyche.

It will be very interesting to see what the next steps are from Iran to match the hand-braking reverse course Obama seeks to take from the aggressive policies of the previous Bush administration.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad faces upcoming elections with an electorate potentially enthusiastic and excited by the warming of policies towards Iran by the U.S. The President, a coy and careful judge of political pulse may move carefully towards Obama’s outreach of diplomacy?

One thing is for sure! - It is clearly in the U.S.’s best interests to remove the major obstacle in middle east peace accords - the Iranian / US mutual hatred that has raged for over 30 years. Think tank after think tank concur with the need for diplomacy and not saber rattling.

Useful Info:
- About Iran
- Council on Foreign Relations: Restoring the Balance - a Middle East Strategy for the Next President
- NYTimes - Iranian 101 - A Lesson for Americans; the Fine Art of Hiding What You Mean to Say

March 21st, 2009 | Category: Ahmadinejad, Amanpour, Americans, Arab Americans, Axis of Evil, Ayatollah Khomeini, BBC, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Bushehr Reactor, Defense Security Service, Espionage, Global Policeman, Great Satan, Human Rights Watch, Iran, Iran Attack, Islamofascist, MEK, Mullahs, Muslim, NeoCons, New York Times, Nuclear Bomb, Nuclear Weapons, OPEC, Pentagon, President, Presidential Election, Revolutionary Guard, Robert Gates, Russia, S-300, State Department, Terrorism, U.S., US Dollar, United Nations, Venezuela, War on Terror, Washington, counter-intelligence, gasoline, gates, israel, oil |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Following Vlad Putin’s lovely ‘ditch the Dollar‘ remarks earlier this week .. the United Nations is jumping on the ‘Bash the U.S. Express’ and a panel of ‘experts’ on U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

The Reuters Story here.

Highlights:

Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.

Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

“It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency,” he said.

Central banks hold their reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated as the most convincing store of value — though its rate has wavered in recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external deficits.

Some analysts said news of the U.N. panel’s recommendation extended dollar losses because it fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar holdings.

Meanwhile:

The Banana Republic - the United States of America - under the illustrious guidance of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve - has just plucked $1,200,000,000,000 out of it’s arse to prop up the floundering economy.

With the loss of confidence in the US Dollar building - things are going to get out of hand very very quickly.

Essentially - the U.S. has just bought it’s own debt. How is that even possible? No wonder the world has lost faith in the Greenback.

March 19th, 2009 | Category: Bernanke, Deficit, Democrats, Federal Reserve, Global Poverty, Globalizm, Great Depression, Putin, Russia, Stock Market, UN, US Dollar, US Treasury Bonds, United Nations, WTO, Washington, World Trade |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

The scent of blood is in the water. The U.S. is on its knees and its enemies are taking bite-sized chunks out of the perception of the invincibility, stability, and confidence that has been the United States of America circa 20th Century.

In the nine years that have passed since the millennium, the ‘beloved’ Bush administration and, of course, 9/11, … the U.S. has been bled to near oblivion by two simultaneous, expensively protracted, and wickedly contentious wars inside Afghanistan and Iraq.

The U.S. has lost its stature in the world thanks to ‘Gitmo’, the very viable perception of double-standards, torture, secret CIA renditions, and the soothing rejection of global-warming hysteria that was the Kyoto protocol.

The spike in oil - be it artificially inspired, based on political uncertainty, or merely inspired by the U.S.’s enemies - Iran, Russia, and Venezuela - started a run on commodity prices that precluded an even worse economic crisis - that of the financial unwinding of Wall Street, Main Street and every leafy and over-mortgaged corner of American suburbia!

With a newly elected President Obama who has, it seems, declared yet another war front - on the very capitalist foundations of America - Greed, Credit and Consumerism - the sunset on Global Americanism has arrived and it’s bloody ugly to be sure.

And what of the evidence of our demise?

Russia’s dark prince - Vlad Putin - suggests the rise of a global currency - a reserve currency to replace the almighty U.S. Dollar!
The meeting of the G20 - the top economies of the world - on April 2nd will inspire an avalanche of globalism at the expense of Obama’s America.

At the very moment the potentially insolvent U.S. economy slashes and burns military expenditure … the Petro-Dollar rich and despicably horrible Russians are throwing insane amounts of money at rearmament in proportions unseen since the pre-Glasnosted Soviet Evil Empire.

China? Our potent new slave masters! Our bankers; our fiscal conscience; the manufacturing base and holders of our proverbial wallets for oh … the next thousand years - will soon be deciding how we spend our money!

Our very budgets will soon be decided by Beijing. Our taxation policies, our spending habits, our savings plans and bigger-Government coddling shall be managed and dictated by an evil Communist Cabal motherbase.

We are to be consumer slaves - bred as wage drones to consume and support an expansive Chinese industrial empire. We’ve already received the first round of ‘tsssk tsssks‘ from Chinese President Hu! Their massive Treasury Bond holdings need to be protected from the high taxing economic crucification of Obama Socialism. All Hail Chinese Economics - coming soon to a Central Bank near you!

Our moronic and yet ridiculously scheming Venezuelan irritant - el Presidente Hugo Chavez - is the sand paper wrapped around the privates of Obama’s foreign policy initiatives. Chavez consumes attention and distracts U.S. attentions from Iran, Russia and China. Chavez and his Cuban flunkies offer strategically-pricky airfields to Russian long-range tactical Russian bombers in yet another way to kick President Obama in the nuts.
Chavez is going to be very naughty indeed in April as Latin American leaders meet with President Obama - and why not!? He is hardly scared of the fur-shaven Lion that used to be American power!

The U.S. is on its knees in a potentially unending economic quagmire. It continues on the path of political naval gazing, of partisan bickering and introspective self-destruction and is bizarrely drunk on the Keynesian economics of spending insanity … using buckets of credit it can no longer afford. Obama’s America cannot afford Obama’s fiscal policies neither economically nor from a perspective of once-cherished national security! Something now seemingly ignored!?

Bottom line: the 20th century closed and was labeled (much to the annoyance of the French) as the American Century. Thus far … the 21st century has seen the rapid plunge in fortunes of the U.S. in every way. The rapid demise of THE stalwart of global power. The U.S. proudly presented to the world the qualities of economic strength, military reach and social stability cuddled gently with a proud arrogance of self-righteousness. All that has gone!

Here comes the Dark Ages Version 2.0! We’re screwed!

March 18th, 2009 | Category: 9/11, Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, Americans, Apocolypse, Axis of Evil, BRIC, Barack Obama, Bush Administration, China, Chávez, Cold War, Communism, Crazy Ivan, Defense Security Service, Dmitry Medvedev, Emerging Markets, Federal Reserve, Global Policeman, Globalizm, Great Depression, Homeland Security, Hugo Chávez, Jingoism, Medvedev, Moscow, Multipolar, NeoCons, Nuclear Weapons, OPEC, Obama, Oval Office, Pentagon, Politics, President Hu, Putin, Recession, Rosoboronexport, Russia, Thatcher, U.S., WTO, War on Terror, Washington, World Trade, Zhirinovsky, climate change, gorbachev |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

So I have this week off work. Reason? To spend time with my beautiful four year old daughter - we let our kids’ nanny go (ugly fiscal reasons) - and it’s late, everyone is asleep, the Mrs included … and I’m full of beans - wide eyed, bushy tailed and in a bloody good mood.

Reason? Not sure. Perhaps a psychosomatic counter-reaction to all the shite hitting every facet of Life! - the news, blues and all things rude! hahah! The Ying to the stress of Yang!?

Either way - it is a feeling that I’ve missed - or rather … have artificially induced with that old-off-the-shelf mood-altering generic stimulant chestnut! Hardly the same as the Real McCoy - the real ‘Buzz’! - that natural high … that ‘everything will work out just fine’ you see feeling! The Jimmy Stewart drug of optimism in the face of adversity! The heart-pumping, deep-breathing, scent of happiness that lies around the corner - just a teasingly fingertip distance from the status quo!

It’s close to midnight. I took a paint-sodden roller and took a hefty chunk of my daughter’s (new) bedroom wall to task with a strip of very busy pink!

The dog, clearly confused by my nocturnal good mood, demanded a walk and off we went - iPod, leash and a both walked, neigh skipped, a stride and a random rythm-inspired strut! [Rock and Roll!]

Sixty degrees outside (in Chicago in March! Wow!) and what a staggeringly refreshing walk was had by me and Hound! If Scout could smile (and how she tries!) she’d cry out … ‘About bloody time you miserable Git!!’

Clearly I felt obliged to share this … most rare of emotional highs. Endorphin rush baby! Bottle it!, label it!, and sell it wholesale to Costco. The World needs a kick in the nuts. A wake up call that the day-to-day dogma of doom and gloom is but a distraction from the Spring smell of opportunity, contentment and, perhaps, acceptance that it ain’t as bad as perception belies! Fuck it! I’m breathing! That’s a bloody miracle based on recent emotional swings!

Ha ha ha! I have this terribly canny inclination that, when the rush dies and I crash … the morning will inspire another Orwellian day of drone chasing the proverbial honey pot! Kill me now! God, … please, make it swift! What a high!

And Daniel Powter says it best:

Jimmy you know, everybody hates you when you’re living off rock ‘n roll
So you get high tonight
And Jimmy you lied, I wonder if you ever get yourself back here alive
So you get high tonight

Jimmy you know, everybody hates you when youre living off your rock ‘n roll
So you get high

March 11th, 2009 | Category: Politics |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

If skepticism is a defense mechanism - I am one heck of a sceptic when it comes to prophetic ‘End of Days’ / apocalyptic / doomsday stories often pressed into circulation as ‘and finally‘ news items footnoted into an already crappy news broadcast.

So when ‘Famed‘ Reverend David Wilkerson, an American Christian evangelist - (who’s substantial reputation in Holy Circles must be derived from his North Eastern (New York City) locale and not your typical crazy southern pastor ilk) - shares, via his Blog, that an ‘Earth-shattering calamity is about to happen‘ that is ‘going to be so frightening‘ that ‘we are all going to tremble‘ including ‘the Godliest among us‘ it is easy to shrug one’s shoulders and declare … ‘Psssaw! Whatever rocks your boat mate!’

Sometimes, however, such warnings prick you … like a particularly annoying splinter and forcibly stick in your head for a few days … as you stew and ponder the reasons behind such warnings from such an … obviously ‘non-Pope’ish’ character! What is the bigger picture? Why would such a happy-go-lucky Holy-Moly bang the painful drum beat of the apocalypse?

Well, things do look pretty crappy at the moment!
Our modern temples of worship - our financial institutions, banks, brokers, money changers - have collapsed and the very basis of our existence - that Almighty Dollar - looks mighty shaky! Heck, even Michael Jackson is forced into unlikely come-back tours - so things must truly be unbelievably bonkers-bad!

Wilkerson continues:

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires — such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath.

These be fighting word!

My initial reaction … the recession has severely affected the old man’s coffers! Clearly his 401k is hurting, the Church contributions must be down … and some publicity (and theres’ lots of it!) must surely be good for his charitable balance sheet - BUT - this geezer has been preaching doom and gloom with relative consistency, I might, for over thirty years now!

Per Wikipedia:

In 1973, Wilkerson claimed to have received a vision regarding the future of the United States and subsequently gave a sermon on the vision and published a book called The Vision. Wilkerson believed that God had revealed to him a great calamity which was going to befall America due to increase in sins such as homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, and greed.

Some of the details of this 1973 vision were:

- “Worldwide recession caused by economic confusion”
:- “At most a few more fat flourishing years, and then an economic recession that’s going to affect the life style of every wage-earner in the world. The world economists are going to be at loss to explain what’s happening. It’s going to start in Europe, spread to Japan and finally to the United States.”
:- There will be a move toward a worldwide, unified monetary system. The US dollar will be hit bad and it will take years for it to recover.
:- The only real security will be in real estate (until a somewhat later stage, at which point this apparent security will also disappear).

- “Nature having labor pains”
:- Environmentalists will come under heavy criticism.
:- There will be major earthquakes.
:- There will be a major famine.
:- Floods, hurricanes and tornadoes will increase in frequency.
:- “A new kind of cosmic storm appearing as a raging fire in the sky leaving a kind of vapor trail.”

- “A flood of filth and a baptism of dirt in America”
:- Topless women will appear on television, followed by full nudity.
:- Adult, X rated movies will be shown on cable television. Young people will gather at homes to watch this kind of material in groups.
:- Sex and the occult will be mixed.
:- There will be an acceptance of homosexuality, and the church will even say that it is a God-given gift.

- “Rebellion in the home”
:- “I see the new number one youth problem in America and the world as hatred towards parents.”

- “A persecution madness against truly Spirit filled Christians who love Jesus Christ”
:- There will arise a world church consisting of a union between liberal ecumenical Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church, using Christ in name only.
:- There will be a hate Christ movement.
:- There will be a spiritual awakening behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains.

- Others
:- There will be another wave of riots.
:- There will be a fall in moral conduct.
:- There will be a new drug that will be popular with teenagers that will break down resistance and will encourage sexual activity.
:- Homosexual and lesbian ministers will be ordained and this will be heralded as a new breed of pioneer.
:- There will be nude dancing in church, but this will never be widespread.
:- There will be occult practices in churches.

OK, so I’m not sure I have a problem with the carnal warnings! - who wouldn’t enjoy one long excessive orgy … but - perhaps that’s just me. BUT the economic meltdown? Of Economics getting it wrong!? Hardly a shock! The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart has had a lot of fun poking the ignorance of our beloved ‘business experts!’.

In the past thirty years - we’ve had three recessions and, well … I’m not happy about the prophesy but time was clearly on Wilkerson’s side!

Meanwhile - one of those freak coincidences - loud booms have been reported across the eastern seaboard! A sign of impending doom? Could these preclude Wilkerson’s ‘cosmic storms or earthquakes ?’

First unaccounted for boom - story
Second unaccounted boom - story

Time to stock up on drinking water, food reserves and shotguns?

God - I hope not! (pun absolutely intended!)

March 10th, 2009 | Category: Apocolypse, Booms, CNBC, CNN, CT, Christian, Comedy Central, Conspiracy, Depression, Evangelist, Global Poverty, Globalizm, God, Great Depression, Great Satan, Hell, Jon Stewart, Ministries, New York City, Pope, Stock Market, Sub-Prime, War, Wilkerson, World Challenge, climate change, coverage, economy, fiction!?, global warming |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

The Guardian Newspaper (UK) yesterday reported on a confidential report leaked to the Press that outlines a ‘bleak picture of a counterinsurgency effort undermined by intelligence failures that at times border on the absurd.‘

This is on topic of recent comments by Army General David McKiernan - the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan - that equally offered a grim view of military efforts to counter Talian and al Qaeda forces in southern Afghanistan.

Key points from the Guardian article:

Based on scores of interviews with British, US, Canadian and Dutch military, intelligence and diplomatic officials - and marked for “official use only” - the book-length report is damning of a US military often unwilling to share intelligence among its military allies.

It depicts commanders in the field being overwhelmed by information on hundreds of contradictory databases, and sometimes resistant to intelligence generated by its own agents in the CIA.

… [the] effectiveness of the intelligence effort being quantified by some senior officers solely in terms of the amount of “tip money” disbursed to sources.

… reveals the case of Dutch F-16 pilots in Afghanistan who were ordered by the US to bomb targets, only to be refused access to American “battle damage assessments” showing what they had hit, on the grounds that the Dutch were not “security cleared” to view them.

It calls for a substantial overhaul of how military intelligence is gathered, organised and acted on.

I’m not wholly - again - that this is a surprise - based on the 7+ years the U.S. has be fighting inside and around Afghanistan; the staggering amount of money thrown at the conflict; and the continuing rise in numbers of deployed U.S. boots on the ground.

Clearly the war is not working - despite the continued bravery and sacrifice of U.S. and Coalition forces from some 15+ countries / allies and NATO members alike.

- The Guardian Article : March 6 2009 - by Peter Beaumont: link
- The WikiLeaks leaked content - link

March 7th, 2009 | Category: Afghanistan, Americans, Axis of Evil, British Sailors, Bush Administration, CIA, Espionage, Gitmo, Global Policeman, Guardian, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islamofascist, Jack Bauer, Middle East, Mullahs, Muslim Brotherhood, NATO, NSA, Obama, Pentagon, President, Robert Gates, Rumsfeld, Russia, Security, Spending, Spying, Terrorism, U.S., UN, United Nations, War on Terror, Washington, WikiLeaks, al Qaeda, counter-intelligence, interviews, john mccain, journalism |  Email This Post | Leave a comment