Internet Censorship on the Rise — restricting free flow of information & controlling free speech

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Humor or Truth in Marketing? You decide! Superbowl ad of dystopian future

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http://www.audiusa.com/us/brand/en/models/a3_tdi/green_police.html?csref=36960466215057041

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A few selected comments:

• Hilarious. I love the pure mockery of the “green movement”. “What do you think of plastic bottles now?!” Brilliant, just a brilliant commercial. Makes me what to trade in my E-class Mercedes for an Audi A6 today.
• Let’s apply the same stupidity we see in the real world from the TSA (confiscating water bottles, harassing and intimidating harmless and frail people, etc…) and spread it to every walk of life
• The cap and trade laws will bring exactly this type of behavior. This is just giving the cops and you a script to follow when it goes down. Almost like they are making us accustomed to ‘green police’. Now where’s my tin foil hat?
• I really think it’s hilarious how big of a deal people are making over a commercial that was obviously satire.
• I actually looked over to my GF and said something to the effect of “wow, that just made me absolutely hate that particular car company and everything it stands for. Guess we won’t be buying an Audi…”
• C’mon folks … don’t be so grouchy. This commercial IS hilarious BECAUSE we can all see it coming with the looney left.
• One day this will really happen, and no one will be looking back on this commercial with such positive endearment!
• Cool! So you’re saying the way to live GREEN is to BUY MORE THINGS, like cars, right? And all this time I thought conservation meant reducing consumption. God, I am naïve. Thanks, capitalism!

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The Lynch-mob Mentality

Lynch mob mentality

Excerpted from: The lynch-mob mentality

By Glenn Greenwald: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/05/lynch_mobs/index.html

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The fact that the Government labels Person X a “Terrorist” is not proof that Person X is, in fact, a Terrorist.

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“But these are Terrorists, and Terrorists have no rights, so who cares what is done to them?” What they actually meant was: “the Government has claimed they are Terrorists,” but in their minds, that was the same thing as: “they are Terrorists.”

The Government should have to demonstrate someone’s guilt before it’s assumed (e.g., they should have to show probable cause to a court and obtain warrants before eavesdropping; they should have to offer evidence that a person engaged in Terrorism before locking them in a cage, etc.).

. . . A very long time ago, I would be baffled when I’d read about things like the Salem witch hunts.  How could so many people be collectively worked up into that level of irrational frenzy, where they cheered for people’s torturous death as “witches” without any real due process or meaningful evidence?  But all one has to do is look at our current Terrorism debates and it’s easy to see how things like that happen.  It’s just pure mob mentality:  an authority figure appears and affixes a demonizing Other label to someone’s forehead, and the adoring crowd — frothing-at-the-mouth and feeding on each other’s hatred, fears and desire to be lead — demands “justice.”  I imagine that if one could travel back in time to the Salem era in order to speak with some of those gathered outside an accused witch’s home, screaming for her to be killed, the conversation would go something like this:

Mob Participant:  Hang the Witch!!!  Kill her!!!

Far Left Civil Liberties Extremist-Purist (“FLCLE-P”):  How do you know she’s a witch?

Mob Participant:  Didn’t you just hear the government official say so?

FLCLE-P:  But don’t you want to see real evidence before you assume that’s true and call for her death?

Mob Participant:  You just heard the evidence!  The magistrate said she’s a witch!

FLCLE-P:  But shouldn’t there be a real trial first, with tangible evidence and due process protections, to see if the accusation is actually true?

Mob Participant:  A “real” trial?  She’s a witch!  She’s trying to curse us and kill us all.  She got more than what she deserved.  Witches don’t have rights!!!

Return to Question 1.

That’s essentially how I hear our debates over Terrorism, and how I’ve heard them for quite some time. And it’s how I hear them more loudly now than ever before.  And with those deeply confused premises now locked into place on a bipartisan basis (“no trials are needed to determine if someone is a Terrorist because Terrorists don’t have rights”), imagine how much louder that will get if there is another successful terrorist attack in the U.S.

For us, the mere accusation by our leaders is sufficient:  Kill that American Terrorist with a drone!

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US Government on the Hook for $23 Trillion “Total potential support” For Bailouts according to Federal oversight commission — about $220,000 per US Household

Excerpted from: http://www.geldpress.com/2010/02/bailout-237-trillion-sigtarp/?source=patrick.net

SIGTARP, an oversight commission created at the same time as TARP, produced quarterly reports that present a detailed view of the financial sector handouts bailout program.  The July 2009 Sigtarp report contains the $23.7 trillion figure, as shown in the graphic below.

It’s called “Total potential support” because not all of the money has actually been spent.  Much of the potential costs are associated to government guarantees for financial system transactions, which according to the financial institutions, are backed by a pile of worthless paper “assets”.

[Note: What's your share of this? The $23.7 trillion works out to about $220,000 for each and every one of the 105 million US Households. In other words, you and I are now on the hook for $220,000 "total potential support".]

Two additional SIGTARP quarterly reports have been released since the July report with the $23.7 trillion reference.  True to government form, there is not much consistency in the look and feel of these average 250 page reports.  The section which contained the $23.7 trillion figure – “TARP in context with other programs”- has been removed from subsequent reports.  It’s likely still possible to extract the new figure with a painstaking comb through of the report.  My hunch is that this was intentional.  SIGTARP and the government agencies that created it do not want the true cost of the financial bailout known, or at least not easily known.

(Source)

Americans who owe more than their homes are worth . . .

Death, Kiss of: When a house is 25% underwater, it stops being a home or an investment and becomes an albatross and the owner stops merely thinking about walking away and begins calling lawyers and making plans.  4.5 million have reached that magic point, more are on the way. (Source)

Walking away?

The number of Americans who owed more than their homes were worth was virtually nil when the real estate collapse began in mid-2006, but by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.

They are stretched, aggrieved and restless. With figures released last week showing that the real estate market was stalling again, their numbers are now projected to climb to a peak of 5.1 million by June — about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages. (Source)

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Hmmmmmm . . .

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Why and How the US Government Is Moving to Grab Your 401(k) & IRA Funds — care to comment?

No joke

According to widespread media reports, both the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Labor plan are planning to stage a public-comment period before implementing regulations that would require U.S. savers to invest portions of their 401(k) savings plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) into annuities or other “steady” payment streams backed by U.S. government bonds. (Source)

Why? Somebody has to cover the US Federal Government’s of $6.3 trillion in rapidly defaulting real estate mortgage liabilities: $2.8 Trillion and $1.9 Trillion of MBS (“mortgage backed securities“) guaranteed portfolios at Fannie and Freddie, and an additional $782 billion and $809 billion in company debt outstanding for the two GSEs, respectively. (Source) [Plus all mortgage backed securities now held by related Federal loan programs such as Ginnie Mae and FHA.]

Europe, Japan, China and the rest of world have their own problems and have drastically reduced lending money to the US Government. So, guess what? The “somebody” is going to be you and me–and $6.3 trillion works out to about $60,000 from every one of America’s 105 million households.

According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months. (Source)

Unless the US Government moves quickly to grab pensions or slow down withdrawals, the tidal wave of retiring baby boomers are going to take more and more funds out of their pensions. Money spent on living expenses is not available to politicians. This further limits the pool of easily plundered assets and US Government’s ability to “borrow” baby boomers’ money–as explained here:

Starting next year and increasing every year after that for more than a decade, the number of people who were buying stocks and bonds are increasingly going to be selling those stocks and bonds (the WSJ estimate $300 Billion a year, every year).

What kind of return on investment (ROI) can I really expect when the number of people only selling stocks and bonds increases by several million every single year? Some say that foreign investors will snatch up those stocks and bonds. But with almost all of the industrialized world (and China) aging at the same time, the context isn’t rational.

The simple fact of the matter is that the bull market in stocks and bonds of the 1982-2000 period isn’t going to be repeated in our lifetimes. Instead, a long-term bear market is much more likely. (Source)

It's just temporary . . .

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Once wise politicians are controlling your money you can relax–your money will be perfectly safe, backed by the full faith and trust of the US Government. No need to concern yourself with silly little details and complicated arithmetic. After all it’s just money, so why worry?

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Safety of genetically modified foods questioned due to limitations on safety testing

A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. (Source)

One of the mysteries surrounding the spread of GMO plants around the world since the first commercial crops were released in the early 1990’s has been the absence of independent scientific studies of possible long-term effects of a diet of GMO plants on humans or even rats. Now it has come to light the real reason. The GMO agribusiness companies like Monsanto, BASF, Pioneer, Syngenta and others prohibit independent research. (Source)

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Is something rotten? If GMO foods are truly safe then why should the GMO industry and FDA prohibit independent research? [Read also: Obama bravely embraces Monsanto and genetically modified foods]

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• There is an 8 digit number on all foods, if it starts with 8 it has GMO if it starts with 9 its organic.
• Want to learn more? Go to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFXTEy13gIs&feature=related,  click on  “(more info)”, and read; and then go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGTO4csVAUs&feature=player_embedded

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US Deficit spending set to increase, look at this . . .

U.S. deficit tops record 1.56 trillion dollars in fiscal year 2010

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Barack Obama sent Congress a 3.83-trillion-dollar budget in fiscal year 2011 on Monday to boost the fragile economic recovery, with a record- breaking 1.56-trillion-dollar deficit in fiscal year 2010 ending in September. The budget shortfall in 2010 would equal an unsustainable 10.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), the basic measure of a country’s overall economic output. (Source)

C K Michaelson notes:

Next year I expect to earn $100,000, spend $170,000 and forge my granddaughter’s name to the IOU. That’s the effect of the deficit ($1.6 trillion) in Obama’s $3.8 trillion budget. (Source)

Here’s the chart to contemplate.

White House Office of Management and Budget

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Besides $150 Billion dollar bonuses for Wall St, where’s all this deficit money going to go? Here’s a clue — and it isn’t for you and me.

Stimulating the real economy to create jobs, right?

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The intelligent minority of this nation lacks the one thing that animates intelligence in the service of reality, and that is the courage to tell the truth. (Source)

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Americans vs. Their Own Freedom — The US Constitution? What’s that? — Americans sign petition to eliminate the 1st Ammendment.

An interesting experiment:

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“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato

Why Are We Donating $2,000 Per Family to Wall Street Bonuses? — Wall St. says “Thanks to each and every US family for our $150 Billion bonus.”

Les Leopold, Posted: January 27, 2010 09:06 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/les-leopold/why-are-we-donating-2000_b_438301.html?source=patrick.net

Wall Street is awarding itself $150 billion in bonus money…..and it comes from us!

That’s $500 for every man, women and child in the country — $2,000 for a family of four. (Maybe we should try deducting it from our income taxes as a charitable donation.)

Had we not bailed out the financial sector, there would be no bonus pool this year. Zip, zero, ziltch.

Wall Street, and no one else, crashed the economy through its fantasy finance extravaganza. Wall Street went begging for subprime debt in order to create and market their new financial securities, the most profitable activity in their history. As a result of their securitization casino, which leveraged bet upon bet, the housing market turned into a bubble and finally burst. Wall Street had miscalculated, big time.

We gave the Wall Street banks gigantic loans and enormous guarantees on their toxic assets. We gave them TARP. It all totaled to more than $12 trillion, with most of it still in play, even after the TARP repayments. (See Nomi Prins’s excellent accounting..)

Yep, that's it

Wall Street was saved from bankruptcy, including Goldman Sachs which now cavalierly insists that it didn’t really need the bailout money (yet it took $12.9 billion of taxpayer support via AIG, and tossed it into its bonus pool.) Wall Streeters actually think they’ve earned the $150 billion in bonuses through their own cleverness. Think again. It’s nothing more than taxpayer welfare.

Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.

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Because I Said So: Henry Paulson justifies the Wall Street bailouts by explaining that letting Goldman Sachs AIG fail would have caused “complete collapse of our financial system, and unemployment easily could have risen to the 25% level.” Instead of just 17.3% and rising.  His proof – he thought so.  He believed.  Has anybody ever challenged these hysterical fears, or do the peasantry just gather up $2,000 per family, send it to the Banksters and say thanks? (Source)

lightningbolt: We aren’t donating anything. The American people were overwhelmingly against the bailout. The money is being STOLEN!!! Our government is aiding these criminals in this theft! Both Bush and Obama are complicit and guilty in this crime.

So Much for the Sovereignty of Our Nation: Sorry, but Joe Taxpayer is not responsible for the inability of AIG to write insurance that it could not cover losses on. Fact is, the United States of America had no one in power to stop the Fed. The Fed did what it wanted to do. No one was a there to protect the taxpayer. America abdicated sovereignty. The country was actually too weak to fight the banks.

Hey Voters, We Defy You – bwahahahahah

Stewart Dougherty

Stewart Dougherty’s List (Source)

Are the following evidence of Democracy?

• When 90% of the American people vehemently rejected the $700,000,000,000.00 ($700 billion) TARP bailout plan, the Master Class put it on a fast track and approved it anyway.
• When a clear majority of the American people said no to a government takeover of Chrysler and GM, the Master Class poured billions of taxpayer dollars into those corporate sinkholes and took them over anyway.
• When the people said no to multi-trillion dollar crony bailouts for the bankers and insurers whose corruption had caused global financial mayhem, the government pledged to those elite insiders more than $13,000,000,000,000.00 ($13 trillion) of the people’s money anyway.
• When the people expressed astonishment and anger that Wall Street planned to pay itself record 2009 bonuses, in the midst of America’s worst-ever fiscal and financial crisis caused by them, Wall Street stuffed its pockets with taxpayer-supported bonus money anyway.
• When the people said no to a proposed $40,000,000,000.00 ($40 billion) bailout of AIG and its elite trading partners such as Goldman Sachs (an amount that subsequently exploded to $180,000,000,000.00+ ($180+ billion)), the Master Class went underground, covertly misappropriated taxpayer money and made the payoffs anyway.
• When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nationalized at enormous taxpayer expense, the government approved $6,000,000.00 individual pay packages in 2009 (150 times the average American wage) for the CEOs of both failed companies anyway.
• When a clear majority of the people said no to nationalized health care, even after being bombarded by a multi-million dollar, lie-drenched propaganda campaign designed to bamboozle them, the House and Senate passed nationalized health care bills anyway.
• When more than seven million American workers lost their jobs and were subsisting on unemployment benefits and food stamps, federal government employees, who now earn DOUBLE what private sector workers earn, were given another round of pay and benefits increases anyway.
• When private sector workers’ 401Ks and IRA retirement plans plummeted in value due to economic collapse and endemic Wall Street-orchestrated market corruption (including systemic front running, flash trading, naked short selling and other manipulations), government “defined benefit,” lifetime-cost-of-living-adjusted pension plans, despite already being underfunded by $2,000,000,000,000.00 ($2 trillion), were made richer than ever anyway.

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On November 30, 2009, North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Il devalued his country’s currency by 99%. The people were given one week to exchange their money at a rate of 100 old Won for 1 new Won. To keep the people in line, the military and police were put on high alert, fully prepared to kill or arrest any protesters.

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What would happen if all existing US currency and bank balances were redenominated in “New Dollars,” at a conversion rate of 1 new for every 100 old currency units? Of course, that could never happen in the US because it would be an unthinkable act. And the unthinkable is, by definition, unthinkable.

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Read Stewart Dougherty’s entire article here: http://www.kitco.com/ind/Dougherty/jan222010.html

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Induced Crisis in Higher Education?

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In the 1950s and 1960s California boasted the nation’s best school system at the K-12 level. It was the model for the country. As a result of government policies that began being instituted in the late 1970s, however, California’s schools have been sliding progressively downhill. Our K-12 schools are now at the bottom in the nation, along with Mississippi and Guam. Higher education for its part is now under threat of being transformed into something unrecognizable, damaged in the same way that K-12 has been.

Why is this happening?

The present crisis did not come about just because of the deep recession. This recession and this crisis in education are the logical outcome of policies that privilege those with a lot against those with much less. These policies trump private interests and private goods over public goods and public interests.

This crisis, in other words, is an induced crisis.

California is the only place in the nation that doesn’t tax oil companies for extracting petroleum. If AB 656 in the state legislature passes, the funds from this extraction tax would fully fund the entire California university system.Wouldn’t you think then that the CSU and UC administrators would be lobbying Sacramento hard for AB 656? Guess what? They oppose it. The oil companies are making record profits in the tens of billions per quarter. That’s profits, not revenue. Profits of tens of billions every three months. The money is there.

CSU Chancellor Charley Reed say that there is no money for the CSU in Sacramento, but somehow there is the money to pay his salary of $452,000 plus a free house and free car and gas. . . . while lecturers and tenure track faculty ranks are whittled away and our pay is cut and student fees and class sizes balloon each year.

(Source)

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US Supreme Court overturns political campaign spending limits on Corporations–even ones owned by foreigners

US landmark Supreme Court decision yesterday (1/20/2010) ends a ban on businesses using money from their own funds to pay for campaign ads and re-affirms “Of the Corporations, By the Corporations, For the Corporations”. According to the NY Times, “The Supreme Court  threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections Thursday, ruling that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.”

Can you fill in the blank?

_______ is a political ideology that seeks to combine radical and authoritarian nationalism^[1][2][3][4] with a corporatist economic system,^[5] and which is usually considered to be on the far right of the traditional left-right political spectrum.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}. (Source)

Here’s the BBC News report:

The ruling could transform the way political campaigns are fought

The US Supreme Court has rejected long-standing limits on how much companies can spend on political campaigns.

The ruling is likely to change the way presidential and congressional campaigns are funded, including this year’s crucial mid-term elections.

The court’s 5-4 vote ends a 20-year ban on businesses using money from their own funds to pay for campaign ads.

But US President Barack Obama condemned the decision, pledging to work with Congress for a “forceful response”.

He said the court had “given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics”.

“It s a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans,” he said in a statement.

(Source)

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The decision essentially kills a sizable portion of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, better known as the McCain-Feingold Act.

Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer noted, “In a stark choice between the right of American citizens to a government free from “influence-buying” corruption and the economic and political interests of American corporations, five Supreme Court Justices today came down in favor of American corporations.”

According to The Hill, New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer noted: “The bottom line is this: The Supreme Court has just pre-determined the winners of next November’s elections. It won’t be Republicans, it won’t be Democrats, it will be corporate America.“

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Bottom Line “A Disaster“:  Corporate law imposes no citizenship, or even residence requirement on stockholders or company officers.  So what is to prevent a country– say China – from buying controlling interest in a company and using its free-speech millions to elect the senators from 10 or 12 small states, who would then control what laws were passed by the US Congress.  The strict constructionists have constructed a disaster. (Source)

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Johann Hari comments:

For over a century, the US has slowly put some limits – too few, too feeble – on how much corporations can bribe, bully or intimidate politicians. On Tuesday, they were burned away in one whoosh. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations can suddenly run political adverts during an election campaign – and there is absolutely no limit on how many, or how much they can spend. So if you anger Goldman Sachs by supporting legislation to break up the too-big-to-fail banks, you will smack into a wall of 24/7 ads exposing your every flaw. If you displease Exxon-Mobil by supporting legislation to deal with global warming, you will now be hit by a tsunami of advertising saying you are opposed to jobs and The American Way. If you rile the defence contractors by opposing the gargantuan war budget, you will face a smear-campaign calling you Soft on Terror.

Representative Alan Grayson says: “It basically institutionalizes and legalizes bribery on the largest scale imaginable. Corporations will now be able to reward the politicians that play ball with them – and beat to death the politicians that don’t… You won’t even hear any more about the Senator from Kansas. It’ll be the Senator from General Electric or the Senator from Microsoft.” In 2008, Exxon Mobil made profits of $85bn. So if they dedicated just 10 percent to backing a President who would serve their interests, they would have $8.5bn to spend – more than every candidate for President and every candidate for Senate spent at the last election. And that’s just one corporation.

As Senator Dick Durbin says simply: “The banks own the Senate,” so how do you reregulate the banks, if the Senate is owned by Wall Street?

Yet the corporations that caused this crisis are now being given yet more power. Bizarrely, the Supreme Court has decided that corporations are “persons”, so they have the “right” to speak during elections. But corporations are not people. Should they have the right to bear arms, or to vote? It would make as much sense. They are a legal fiction, invented by the state – and they can be fairly regulated to stop them devouring their creator. This is the same Supreme Court that ruled that the detainees at Guantanomo Bay are not “persons” under the constitution and are deserving of basic protections. A court that says a living breathing human is less of a “person” than Lockheed Martin has gone badly awry.

Obama, in his reaction to the Supreme Court decision, said: “It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies, and other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americas.”

(Source: Johann Hari)

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Illinois Races Towards Insolvency – and may be the 1st State to default in 2010

or . . . ?

Although there is no provision for states to file bankruptcy, Illinois is clearly insolvent, unable to pay its bills. Please consider the NBC News article, Illinois Careens Toward Bankruptcy:

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Some fear the state [Illinois] is a hair’s breath from (gasp!) bankruptcy. Indeed, Illinois is not taking in cash, its liquid assets have dipped below $1 million at times, Comptroller Dan Hynes said.

“We would like all the stakeholders of Illinois to recognize how close the state is to bankruptcy or insolvency,” Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog in Chicago told Crain’s Chicago Business.

The latest count puts Illinois’ unpaid bills at around $5 billion. Unfunded liabilities and pension debt are projected to reach $95 billion by June 30.

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Despite an immediate budget shortfall estimated to be as high as $5.7 billion, state officials haven’t shown the political will to either raise taxes or cut spending sufficiently to close the gap.  (Source)

Why, you ask, are State Legislatures dragging their feet? One  commentor observed,

We are “governed” by a political class that has made the calculation that letting problems get worse is more in their best interest than working on solutions. (Source: Onthego)

Illinois bailout?

It looks like Illinois will be the first State to default in 2010. Many thought it’d be California.

Illinois’ default will become Obama’s dilemma . . . bailout or bankruptcy. Given that Obama is from Illinois he may have to help his “friends” with a nice fat bailout.

Who could have known?

America’s Spreading Foreclosure Pandemic — use Google’s foreclosure maps to expose the extent of foreclosures nationwide and in your neighborhood

Foreclosure Nation . . .

US foreclosure map - each red dot represents a cluster of homes in foreclosure

As of December 1st, 2009, more than 13% of US homeowners were either delinquent or in foreclosure. (Source)

You can use Google Maps to watch the spreading toxic red dots of real estate foreclosures and defaults multiplying across America.

Here’s how:

Select Real Estate -> Foreclosures

Google Maps search feature can show houses in foreclosure or default (missed at least one 1st mortgage payment).

• Go to maps.google.com.
• Click on the “More” box (located on the map itself in the top right of the Google map).
• A pull down menu will appear.  Click on “Real Estate”.
• Now, in the selection box on the left, check “Foreclosure” to select it, and remove the check in “For sale” to unselect it (just click on the check box).
• Now, the map will show foreclosures. Search for any city or zip code in the search box, or zoom in on any area of interest.

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For example, here is a fairly sobering graphic. The map shows ONE ZIP CODE on Chicago’s South West Side, 60629.

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Chicago - foreclosures

This neighborhood has been gutted. The red dots represent all of the properties in that zip code that are either in pre-foreclosure or are already bank owned. They are each individual tragedies. Take another look at this map for a moment. Consider the words of Fr. Stan Rataj, Pastor of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish, located in the center of this community: “If several hundred families lost their homes to a fire or a tornado, we would rush to help them,” said Fr. Stan. “This tragedy is just as serious, yet people feel that they have to face it by themselves”. (Source)

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Here’s a few other cities . . .

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Washington DC - foreclosures

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Miami, Fl - foreclosures

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Nashville, Tn - foreclosures

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Los Angeles, Ca - foreclosures

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Zoom in to see individual properties in foreclosure

. . . or use Street View to see foreclosures

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US Dept of Justice Shoots the Messenger — Why Is the Whistleblower Who Exposed the Massive UBS Tax Evasion Scheme the Only One Heading to Prison?

A former banker for the Swiss giant UBS who blew the whistle on the biggest tax-evasion scheme in US history is preparing to head to prison tomorrow to begin serving a forty-month federal sentence. Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss accounts.

Bradley Birkenfeld first came forward to US authorities in 2007 and began providing inside information on how UBS was helping thousands of Americans hide assets in secret Swiss accounts. UBS pleaded guilty last February and paid a $780 million fine.

Government prosecutors have admitted the massive fraud scheme would probably not have been discovered without Birkenfeld blowing the whistle on UBS. So why is he the only one going to jail?

Read more here. (Source)

Want more information? Check out the Wikipedia article about it:

Brad Birkenfeld is an American banker who formerly worked for UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank.^[1] He is the first person ever to expose what has become a multi-billion dollar international tax fraud scandal over Swiss private banking.^[2] Despite his unprecedented, extensive and voluntary cooperation, and registering as an IRS whistleblower, Birkenfeld is the only U.S. citizen to be sentenced to jail . . .  (Source)

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UPDATE, as of 1/24/2010, The Swiss will NOT provide data on the UBS tax cheaters:

UBS Client Wins Case on Transfer of Tax Data to U.S. (Update4)

By Joseph Heaven, David Voreacos and Klaus Wille

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — A UBS AG account holder won a Swiss court case preventing data from being disclosed in a ruling that may impede a U.S. crackdown on overseas tax evasion. (Source)

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Iceland Does What the US Should Have Done — stands up to bankster terrorists

Size Matters: It is refreshing to see the 326,000 citizens of Iceland tell the British and Dutch – and their own elected capitalists – that they have no desire to pay for the greed of Icelandic bankers or the stupidity of European investors.  The $6 billion “owed” comes to $18,000 a person, which is a ridiculous amount for innocent bystanders to have to come up with.  In the US, the each citizen now owes $40,000 to bail out the bankers – enough to keep us all in debt for decades.  But we’ll pay up and keep envying Icelanders for doing what we are too cowed to contemplate. (Source)

Angry Iceland defies the world (of banksters)

Iceland’s president has blocked a Bill to pay Britain and Holland up to £3.4bn for Icesave depositors, acknowledging that popular feeling in the island nation is too strong to proceed without a referendum. (Source)

Background:

Iceland had 3 main banks who all, albeit to various degrees, made unrealistic profits for investors and depositors in early 21st century times, and then went bust. One bank, Icesave, which had many clients in England and Holland, owes these clients some $6 billion. The people of Iceland, all 320,000 of them as it were, have started questioning why they should pay for foreign investors’ losses with banks with whom they have no connection other than that they happen to be located in their country. (Source)

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Unlike Iceland, in the US Banksters Get What They Want and MORE In its draft regulatory filing, AIG revealed that it had passed TARP bailout money on to several banks, notably paying Goldman Sachs 100 cents on the dollar.  Tim Geithner, then President of the NY Fed, told them to withhold that sort of detail from the public record, so they did. (Source)

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Meanwhile, Obama in a recent speech about banker’s bonuses the underwear bomber said, “”We will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the values that have made us great,” he said. “That is exactly what our adversaries want, and so long as I am president, we will never hand them that victory.”

That is good to know.

US Stock Markets — get me out of here

Have you heard this one? “Stock markets are up . . . the recession is over . . . the economy is strong . . . blah, blah blah . . .  “

We’ve developed a little bit of a problem in this nation. We believe everything we’re told, and that line in “Duck Soup” comes to mind: who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?

We’ve fallen for an awful lot of stories that in retrospect were clearly lies. That baseball players weren’t taking steroids. That the market’s efficient. That earnings don’t matter, a chestnut from the dot-com boom. That home prices can never fall. That Iraq had something to do with 9/11. Now, of course, we’re being told the markets are healing, that the economy’s recovering, that we can as a nation get tens of trillions into debt and somehow manage it all without so much as raising taxes.

It’s time to stop buying fairy tales. (Source)

Here’s a reality check courtesy of Rosenberg – Katana Capital. (Source)

From David Rosenberg of Gluskin+Sheff.

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Prefer a detailed discussion? Check out this related article posted 1/11/2010: http://www.safehaven.com/article-15459.htm

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Pensioners in UK burn books for warmth

Hard-up pensioners have resorted to buying books from charity shops and burning them to keep warm.

Burning books is now cheaper than coal

Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves.

Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal. One assistant said: ‘Book burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves. A lot of them buy up large hardback volumes so they can stick them in the fire to last all night.’

A 500g book can sell for as little as 5p, while a 20kg bag of coal costs £5.

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Will the Euro Collapse?

European Commision Warns: Eight Countries Charging Off A Sovereign Debt Cliff In 2010

//

The European Commission (EC) itself has warned that the finances of half of the Eurozone’s sixteen economies are at risk of becoming ‘unsustainable’, essentially bankrupt. As shown in the Wall Street Journal graphic below, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Greece are all teetering on the brink.

While relatively better off European nations would prefer not to bail out their flailing neighbors, the problem with the euro currency union is that their fates are ultimately all tied together via the euro, even if politically they believe themselves to be separate countries. (Source)

In US politics it is fear of so-called “terrorists” that predominates — other competing values not recognized

Fear Itself: American’s childish sniveling – fed by the 24/7 hysteria of Fox and the rest – continues to make it a simpleton’s task to scare the US into giving up ever more of what it pathetically still thinks of as its liberties and freedoms. To preserve same, the scared multitudes beg the storm troopers at Halfbaked Security to take ever more of our dwindling privacy, eavesdrop on ever more of our conversations, tighten travel restrictions, imprison us without charges or the right to trial. Anything to keep us safe in our paranoia. (Source)

As John Adams noted, political leaders possess an inherent interest in maximizing fear levels, as that is what maximizes their power.  For a variety of reasons, nobody aids this process more than our establishment media, motivated by their own interests in ratcheting up fear and Terrorism melodrama as high as possible. . . .

The Constitution is grounded in the premise that there are other values and priorities more important than mere Safety.  Even though they knew that doing so would help murderers and other dangerous and vile criminals evade capture, the Framers banned the Government from searching homes without probable cause, prohibited compelled self-incrimination, double jeopardy and convictions based on hearsay, and outlawed cruel and unusual punishment.  That’s because certain values — privacy, due process, limiting the potential for abuse of government power — were more important than mere survival and safety.  A central calculation of the Constitution was that we insist upon privacy, liberty and restraints on government power even when doing so means we live with less safety.

Michael Chertoff is demanding that we stop listening to “privacy ideologues” — i.e., that there should be no limits on Government’s power to invade and monitor and scrutinize.  Republican leaders have spent the decade preaching that only Government-provided Safety, not the Constitution, matters.  All in response to this week’s single failed terrorist attack, there are — as always — hysterical calls that we start more wars, initiate racial profiling, imprison innocent people indefinitely, and torture even more indiscriminately.

Fear is always the enabling force of authoritarianism:  the desire to vest unlimited power in political authority in exchange for promises of protection.  (Source)

Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to implode:

Does the left want to Impeach Obama too? ImpeachObamaCampaign and What to Expect While We’re Expecting: Politics in the Time of Obama (hat tip Ed Harrison). These are must reads. The first article has been making the rounds and is painfully funny and accurate. The second is to show to those few who continue to defend Obama how badly he has blown his presidency. And they were both written by the same writer, David Michael Green. Obama is over and will probably be the last to figure it out.  (Source)

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The research is here — processed sugars and fructose are much worse for our health than we ever thought possible

Sugar —the bitter truth
Robert H. Lustig, M.D.
Division of Endocrinology
Department of Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco

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Processed sugars and high fructose corn syrup, when consumed at the current US average rate, lead to Metabolic Syndrome–and Obesity:

• hypertension
• de novo lipogenesis, dyslipidemia, and hepatic steatosis
• inflammation
• hepatic insulin resistance
• obesity
• hyperglycemia
• CNS leptin resistance, promoting reward

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Research shows the exact bio-chemical processes that explain why consumption of processed sugars and fructose are much worse for our health than we ever thought possible.

If you care about your health, if you are fighting metabolic syndrome or fighting obesity, then you need to see this video:

- See the video presentation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
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The health solution is given as well.

WHO chief yet to be vaccinated against swine flu

Maybe the head of the World Health Organization didn’t feel it was important to get her vaccination . . . yet the rest of us were all told repeatedly it was a “crisis” and that it was soooooo very, very important to get our H1N1 vaccine immunization. Curious, isn’t it?

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GENEVA — World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan revealed Tuesday that she has yet to be vaccinated against the swine flu virus, which has killed over 11,500 people world-wide.

“I have asked my medical service to enquire where I can go to get my vaccination,” she told reporters in Geneva, pointing out that she has just returned from leave. (Source)

WHO Chief, Margaret Chan, has yet to get the H1N1 vaccine

2009 has been a crazy year for health and medicine — Mike Adams’ scathing review is one worth reading

Agree or disagree, I encourage you to read Mike Adams’  Health News.  He asks important questions.

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2009 in review: A year of FDA censorship, Big Pharma crimes and celebrity drug deaths

Mike Adams
Natural News

January 1, 2010

2009 has been a crazy year for health and medicine. It was the year that Congress rammed through a mandatory health “reform” bill that violates the U.S. Constitution in forcing all Americans to buy government-mandated products and services from greedy corporations. Although it hasn’t been signed into law yet, the very fact that it has been passed by both the House and the Senate is alarming: America is just one signature away from becoming a medical dictatorship.

	No overview of 2009 would be complete without covering the Swine Flu scam and the ensuing mass vaccination con.

But that’s not the only big health news that happened in 2009. In all, 2009 was a year of corruption, scientific fraud and health freedom oppression. Here are some of the highlights:

The FDA

The FDA was hit hard in 2009 was accusations of corruption and criminal behavior. In January, the FDA’s own scientists accused management of committing crimes (http://www.naturalnews.com/025298_t…). And in August, the FDA abandoned even the appearance of standing up for safety by declaring that mercury fillings are safe for everyone (http://www.naturalnews.com/026822_m…).

In order to protect its authority and boost Big Pharma’s sales, the FDA also went after numerous natural health companies in 2009. Stephen Heuer was arrested by the FDA in January (http://www.naturalnews.com/025347_n…), and by June, the FDA had threatened to seize all natural products that boost immune health and protect against the swine flu (http://www.naturalnews.com/026473_t…).

The FTC also joined the tyranny bandwagon, engaged in a war of threatening tactics against a ministry selling anti-cancer herbs (http://www.naturalnews.com/025303_t…) and ultimately ordering them to lie to their customers about their products (http://www.naturalnews.com/026970_t…). The FTC even went after Dr. Weil, threatening him with arrest and imprisonment for daring to accurately describe the immune boosting effects of the astragalus herb (http://www.naturalnews.com/027303_t…).

Topping off the year of tyranny and oppression, in December the FDA staged an illegal kidnapping of herbal formulator Greg Caton who was threatening the cancer industry with his anti-cancer salve products made from Ecuadorian herbs (http://www.naturalnews.com/027750_G…).

Big Pharma corruption

2009 was also a bad year for Big Pharma. All kinds of new findings came out that show the dangers of pharmaceuticals. For example, did you know that HRT drugs shrink women’s brains? (http://www.naturalnews.com/025354_d…)

The drug industry was also shown to be engaged in blatant scientific fraud. AstraZeneca, for starters, taught its sales reps how to lie to doctors (http://www.naturalnews.com/025744_d…), and throughout the pharmaceutical industry, many clinical trials were exposed as being entirely fraudulent (http://www.naturalnews.com/025833_B…).

On the researcher side, Big Pharma scientist Dr. Scott Reuben was caught fabricating 21 studies (http://www.naturalnews.com/025852_a…) — most of which were widely quoted by other doctors to push dangerous pills onto children. Also in 2009, Pfizer actually admitted to committing felony crimes over its marketing of Bextra (http://www.naturalnews.com/026963_P…).

Merck was found to have created a “hit list” of doctors targeted for destruction — doctors who were speaking out against the safety of the company’s drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/027116_M…). The company was also busted over its hiding of data about the dangers of Vioxx (http://www.naturalnews.com/027582_M…).

Not to be out-frauded by Merck, Pfizer paid a record $1.3 billion fine in 2009 for intentionally misbranding its drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/027276_P…).

Similarly, the Dept. of Health and Human Services was caught backing a medical device “review board” that was actually led by a dead dog (http://www.naturalnews.com/025955_h…).

Big Pharma destroys the environment

Big Pharma was also caught destroying the environment throughout 2009. In India, for example, drug companies were caught dumping toxic pharmaceuticals into rivers (http://www.naturalnews.com/025415_w…).

Not surprisingly, lots of studies published in 2009 revealed that fish are contaminated with pharmaceutical chemicals (http://www.naturalnews.com/025933_p…).

Pharmaceuticals are even contaminated with chemicals themselves, we discovered. Some medications, for example, contain phthalates that “feminize” young boys (http://www.naturalnews.com/027514_p…).

Psych drugs and shootings

The psych drug industry received yet more bad news in 2009 as its drugs were shown to be even more dangerous than previously thought. ADHD drugs, in particular, were found to cause all sorts of bizarre side effects including making children hallucinate (http://www.naturalnews.com/025433_d…). Speaking of children, the FDA went out of its way to actually approve antipsychotic drugs for children (http://www.naturalnews.com/026429_h…), opening the doors to even more mass drugging of our nation’s youth.

Thanks to the psych drug industry, there were of course more shootings in 2009 (http://www.naturalnews.com/025826_a…) and more sudden deaths from Ritalin (http://www.naturalnews.com/026459_a…). Both the Orlando and the Ft. Hood shooters were also linked to psychiatric drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/027425_d…).

Food dangers

2009 was also a huge year for findings about the contamination of the food supply. High Fructose Corn Syrup (”liquid Satan”) was found to be contaminated with mercury (http://www.naturalnews.com/025442_m…), and “natural” soy protein was found to be bathed in toxic hexane solvents (http://www.naturalnews.com/026303_h…).

Infant formula was routinely found to be dangerous to infants, including a finding that infant formula was contaminated with hexane (http://www.naturalnews.com/026315_h…). It was also revealed in 2009 that the USDA openly allows e.coli-contaminated meat to be sold as hamburgers (http://www.naturalnews.com/027414_d…). (They can also legally be made with beef from cows that are fed chicken feces.)

Also in 2009, the “Smart Choices” food labeling gimmick was revealed as a total fraud (http://www.naturalnews.com/027077_n…), discrediting Tufts University and its hilarious nutritionist who thinks processed sugary cereals are good for you.

Celebrity news

On the celebrity side, in 2009 Michael Phelps got caught smoking a bong (http://www.naturalnews.com/025489_s…), Oprah stirred up trouble by recommending KFC chicken dinners (http://www.naturalnews.com/026234_O…), Michael Jackson was killed by FDA-approved pharmaceuticals (http://www.naturalnews.com/026511_c…), and Patrick Swayze was killed by chemotherapy (http://www.naturalnews.com/027030_c…).

Actress Brittany Murphy was killed by “acute pharmaceutical toxicity” after taking a lethal combination of FDA-approved prescription drugs that nobody thought to test in combination (http://www.naturalnews.com/027781_B…).

Dr. Mehmet Oz, a very visible vaccine promoter, was also scrutinized for his financial relationship with a vaccine technology company that hilariously denied having anything to do with vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/027451_D…). NaturalNews readers conducted research on the company in question (SIGA Technologies) and found a huge amount of evidence linking the company to vaccines (including patents). (http://www.naturalnews.com/027483_S…)

On the bright side, I was fortunate to be able to conduct interviews with several courageous, outspoken celebrities including Jane Goodall (http://www.naturalnews.com/027714_J…) and Suzanne Somers (http://www.naturalnews.com/027526_S…).

Health freedom

Health freedom was under a major assault this year as sellers of raw milk found themselves targeted in state-run sting operations (http://www.naturalnews.com/027675_r…).

In order to try to enhance health freedom, I worked with the Life Extension Foundation (and other groups) to create the Health Revolution Petition (www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org), which offers a freedom-based health care reform system that restores health freedom and even would help save America from financial destruction by sharply reducing sick-care costs. It has so far been signed by over 35,000 people.

The H1N1 swine flu

Of course, no overview of 2009 would be complete without covering the Swine Flu scam and the ensuing mass vaccination con. We covered this in numerous articles: Why vaccines harm children (http://www.naturalnews.com/025595_v…), 10 things you’re not supposed to know about vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/026717_s…), and how tissue from diseased African monkeys is used to manufacture vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/026779_s…).

A leaked memo, never covered in the mainstream media, even revealed that the swine flu vaccine was linked to paralysis (http://www.naturalnews.com/026866_s…). It wasn’t long before the vaccine was linked to other dangerous side effects, too, and it eventually put one young athlete in a wheelchair (http://www.naturalnews.com/027473_G…).

The vaccine propaganda relied on a barrage of false and misleading statistics, so I published a popular story exposing the statistical fraud used to promote these vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/026955_s…).

Swine Flu propaganda was nothing short of astonishing in 2009, and part of that propaganda included information urging consumers to avoid using herbs, vitamins or natural products to protect themselves. Remarkably, even the Natural Products Association got in on the disinformation campaign (http://www.naturalnews.com/026215_n…). The mainstream media, of course, pushed the pro-vaccine hype to new levels by lying to their viewers and readers on a regular basis (http://www.naturalnews.com/027055_s…).

By mid-October, it was obvious that swine flu vaccines were outright quackery (http://www.naturalnews.com/027239_v…). Further supporting the idea that vaccines are based on total fraud, doctors, journalists and health authorities refused to answer ten commonsense questions about flu vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/027258_v…) — questions that remain unanswered today. And nobody — including the CDC or WHO — dared recommend vitamin D as a way for people to prevent swine flu infections (http://www.naturalnews.com/027385_V…).

The FDA did, however, allow Cocoa Krispies cereals to make claims for boosting immunity. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027387_C…)

At the same time, the public soon learned that the conventional drug being pushed for swine flu — Roche’s Tamiflu drug — was complete quackery too (http://www.naturalnews.com/027734_T…).

The fizzling out of H1N1 swine flu didn’t stop President Obama from declaring a national emergency by late October (http://www.naturalnews.com/027323_s…). This “emergency” was entirely fabricated, of course. The only real emergency taking place was the loss of money by drug companies who were unable to sell their swine flu vaccines as profitably as they had hoped.

Deadly Merck vaccines

On the vaccine front, Merck was under extreme fire for its Gardasil cervical cancer vaccines. We promoted a petition to investigate Gardasil-related deaths (http://www.naturalnews.com/025646_G…), and we published stories about young girls who died after receiving Merck vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/027151_c…). One girl suffered permanent brain damage after a Gardasil injection (http://www.naturalnews.com/027188_N…).

In October, 2009, a top Gardasil researcher went public with information warning about the dangers of the vaccine (http://www.naturalnews.com/027196_c…), but she immediately retracted her story after being pressured by… guess who?

By the end of 2009, it was revealed that long-time head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, had been in discussions with Merck about taking the job of president of Merck’s vaccine division. She soon accepted that job and now works at Merck. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027789_D…)

This leap of such a high-profile government executive to a top position in Big Pharma underscored the ongoing “revolving door” between industry and government.

Making the vaccine topic even more convoluted in 2009, Baxter shipped vaccines materials containing live avian flu virus to 18 countries (http://www.naturalnews.com/025760_B…).

New information came out in 2009 about the link between autism and vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/027178_v…), and autism rates continued to skyrocket even while the conventional scientific community denied any and all links to pharmaceuticals or vaccines (http://www.naturalnews.com/027175_v…).

The mammogram scam exposed

2009 was also a terrible year for the mammogram industry, which found itself unable to hide the truth about its “detection” scam any longer. The world learned that mammograms cause cancer and actually harm more women than they help. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027742_m…)

Suzanne Somers bravely spoke out in an exclusive NaturalNews interview where she told the full truth about the dangers of mammograms and the fraud of the cancer industry (http://www.naturalnews.com/027526_S…).

The cancer industry, not surprisingly, still refuses to answer the 21 questions I posed in a widely-read article about the mammogram scam: http://www.naturalnews.com/027549_m…

The cancer industry was also pounded by new research showing that chemotherapy causes long-term neurological damage. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027600_c…)

Profiteering was a big theme in the cancer industry this year. One drug company announced it would start selling a new cancer drug that costs $30,000 a month (http://www.naturalnews.com/027705_c…).

CT scans and medical imaging procedures were also exposed in 2009 as Americans learned the truth about how dangerous they are to your health (http://www.naturalnews.com/025767_c…). It turns out that being subjected to multiple CT scans is a lot like standing in the blast radius of an atomic weapon (http://www.naturalnews.com/027648_C…).

Health care reform

The health care reform debate took a turn for the worse in 2009 as nutritionally illiterate lawmakers passed a health care reform bill that seemed designed to bankrupt America (http://www.naturalnews.com/026628_h…) and destroy U.S. jobs (http://www.naturalnews.com/026643_h…).

While there was lots of talk about how to reform health care, the entire debate turned out to be nothing but a scam to force Americans to buy into rip-off conventional medicine services and insurance scams. All the important conversations about real health care reform never took place (http://www.naturalnews.com/026887_h…).

The entire future of America looked rather bleak as accelerating national debt collided with increased sickness and disease. In assessing the situation, I published a widely-read article about the “New Mr. America” — diseased and bankrupt. (http://www.naturalnews.com/026693_d…)

Following that, I posted a highly popular special report called Nutrition Can Save America! in which I laid out a plan for saving America by unleashing the healing power of food and natural remedies across the population. (http://www.naturalnews.com/027569_n…)

AIDS myths exposed

2009 was also the year in which the AIDS myth was exposed by a breakthrough documentary called House of Numbers (http://www.naturalnews.com/027355_A…).

It turns out that conventional AIDS theories are based on complete hogwash, and all a person really needs to prevent AIDS is a strong, healthy immune system (http://www.naturalnews.com/027354_A…).

The legal front

In 2009, Big Pharma sought to win blanket immunity for all drugs, but the U.S. Supreme Court surprisingly shot down the idea (http://www.naturalnews.com/025778_S…).

Throughout 2009, the courts continued to order parents to poison their children with chemotherapy (http://www.naturalnews.com/026283_c…). Young cancer patient Daniel Hauser was poisoned (virtually at gunpoint) by chemotherapy doctors acting on court orders (http://www.naturalnews.com/026305_m…).

Technology and DRM

On the technology front, Amazon.com pulled a huge Big Brother event by remotely deleting copies of the book 1984 from users’ Kindle devices. NaturalNews responded by calling for a boycott on the Kindle (http://www.naturalnews.com/026804_D…).

We’ve since learned that the Kindle’s security has been hacked, allowing users to copy off all their Amazon Kindle books as PDF files (yet another victory for the hackers over Big Brother).

Subatomic physics and the search for the God particle

In the realm of subatomic physics, 2009 was the year that people really started talking about the new Large Hadron Collider (a supercollider) and the search for the Higgs Boson particle. I wrote several important commentary pieces on this topic, explaining why there’s no such thing as a Higgs Boson “particle” (http://www.naturalnews.com/025486_H…),

Also in the realm of science, 2009 was the year that U.S. Navy researchers finally admitted that cold fusion is, indeed, quite real, reversing decades of denials about this “free” energy technology which has been suppressed since 1989 (http://www.naturalnews.com/025925_c…).

Wake up, people!

In 2009, I also tried to educate people about the linguistic trickery used by modern medicine (http://www.naturalnews.com/025396_d…), but this topic turned out to be far too advanced and not many people “got it.” This led to the publication of a very popular article asking why smart people are so stupid when it comes to issues like vaccines, nutrition and vitamin D (http://www.naturalnews.com/026843_h…).

In an effort to try to share natural health knowledge with the world, I personally built and launched the world’s largest online encyclopedia of quotes from natural health authors, called NaturalPedia (http://www.naturalnews.com/026902_N…).

Positive news

Also on the good side, our non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (www.ConsumerWellness.org) handed out numerous grants to schools and education centers around the world that invested the money in teaching children (and some adults) about gardening, self-care, healing foods and more. Here are links to some of the awards we gave out:
http://www.naturalnews.com/025235_f…
http://www.naturalnews.com/025391_n…

And here are a few of the success stories from this grant effort:
http://consumerwellness.org/GrantSu…

Natural remedies revealed in 2009

We covered lots of news about natural remedies in 2009. Here are just a few of the ones we published on NaturalNews.com:

• Grapeseed extract kills leukemia cancer cells
http://www.naturalnews.com/025248_c…

• Vitamin D halts growth of breast cancer tumors (http://www.naturalnews.com/025495_c…)

• Blueberries lower cholesterol (http://www.naturalnews.com/025866_b…)

• Resveratrol prevents cancer and heart disease
http://www.naturalnews.com/025977_r…

• Astaxanthin is a natural anti-inflammatory nutrient
http://www.naturalnews.com/026325_a…

• Natural anti-viral remedies can protect you from swine flu
http://www.naturalnews.com/026378_a…

• Yellow pea protein lowers blood pressure
http://www.naturalnews.com/026406_b…

• Vitamin D lowers health care costs
http://www.naturalnews.com/026770_V…

• Selenium helps prevent cancer
http://www.naturalnews.com/027158_s…

• Cinnamon helps prevent diabetes
http://www.naturalnews.com/027168_c…

• Garlic treats high blood pressure
http://www.naturalnews.com/027195_g…

• Chaparral treats cancer
http://www.naturalnews.com/027247_c…

• Omega-3 oils beat depression
http://www.naturalnews.com/027285_o…

• Oregano oil eliminates parasites
http://www.naturalnews.com/027333_p…

• Magnesium prevents heart disease
http://www.naturalnews.com/027392_m…

• Cabbage stops stomach ulcers
http://www.naturalnews.com/027454_c…

• Acupuncture reverses infertility
http://www.naturalnews.com/027467_a…

• Colloidal silver works better than antibiotics
http://www.naturalnews.com/027474_c…

• Green tea prevents brain disorders
http://www.naturalnews.com/027757_g…

2009 in summary

Well, there you have it! Those are the highlights of what NaturalNews covered in 2009. It was a year of outrageous quackery, FDA tyranny, censorship and criminal acts on the part of the pharmaceutical industry.

At the same time, it was also a year when more people finally woke up to the dangers of mammograms and CT scans. NaturalNews readership climbed substantially through 2009 as more people got turned on to the truth about natural remedies and the healing power of nutrition.

The FDA and Big Pharma is now increasingly under fire as a result of the events of 2009, and I suspect that in 2010 and beyond, the pharmaceutical industry is going to find itself under increasing scrutiny as more and more of its criminal operations are exposed.

But don’t expect the mainstream media to have anything to do with that. All the really smart reporting is now happening on blogs and independent news sites. The mainstream media continues to play its “Truman Show” game of broadcasting a fictional reality to the people, hoping no one will notice what’s really going on.

Thank you for reading NaturalNews in 2009, and we have a lot more in store for you in 2010 and beyond! With your help, perhaps we can see some real breakthroughs in health freedom in 2010. One day, we might even get to witness the arrest and criminal prosecution of Big Pharma’s top executives who are guilty of crimes against humanity for continuing to wage chemical warfare against the people (while poisoning the environment at the same time).

Stay tuned for more news from NaturalNews.com throughout 2010!

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Congressional Legislation Introduced by Barney Frank Pre-Approves $4 Trillion for next free cash give away to his friends on Wall Street and the banking industry

People are calling Congressional Legislation introduced by Barney Frank, which will pre-approve $4 Trillion for the next free cash give away, “the US Economic Suicide Bomb“:

Barney Frank, "Trust me, my friends need a few trillion dollars a lot more than you do."

- Read the Bloomberg news article here: Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank

- Read the 1279 pages of the legislation here: HR 4173

- Read a preliminary analysis here: Congressional Legislation Introduced By Barney Frank Pre-Approves $4 Trillion For Next Crisis

Here is a sampling of online comments about it:

- $4 Trillion works out to about $40,000 from every US household. This US dollar economic suicide bomb is so far beyond all-things-rational… and makes me double-check my supply of tinfoil.

- Current efforts to stave off the financial crisis are doomed to fail and are preparing for the next rescue. A very bad collapse is coming…..it’s just a matter of when. I suspect Frankie is preparing for a bank run.

- There can only be one reason for a sum of money this large, as the Fed only liquidates paper for banks and to some extent for the government. Frank is preparing for a run on the banks. The FDIC is broke. The Fed will buy as many good assets as they can buy and let the rest collapse.

- $4 trillion in liquidity in a year will add 8000 points to the Dow. I guess when you are headed over a cliff you might as well floor it and see what happens.  (Jump the Grand Canyon Dukes of Hazard style.)

- “The bill is 1,279 pages long.” I have a hard time believing Barney wrote that legislation. I bet it was handed to him already typed up, spell checked, and placed in a nice glossy 3 ring binder by a friend of a friend.

- When I was a kid corruption like this was described as only happening in places like Mexico. We are Argentina on steriods.

- Our country isn’t doomed just the way of life we have lived before.

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Of course Obama may do the opposite but Obama says:

We Can’t Continue to Waste Tax Dollars Like ‘Monopoly Money’

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One TRILLION dollars… (Source)

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What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I’d take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
We’ll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

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A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2″ thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet…

And $1 BILLION dollars… now we’re really getting somewhere…

Next we’ll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we’ve been hearing about so much. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it’s a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeros.
You ready for this?
It’s pretty surprising.
Go ahead…
Scroll down…
Ladies and gentlemen… I give you $1 trillion dollars…
(And notice those pallets are double stacked.) Hey, that’s me standing at the lower left hand corner, thinking this must be my stimulus package…
So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase “trillion dollars”… that’s what they’re talking about.

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The Richest 1% — What (Who?) They Own

The Top 1% in US earn most of their income from owning assets, while the middle and lower classes work at jobs to earn their income.

In 1963 Malcolm X clarified the difference between owners, overseers, and workers . . . (see video clip below)

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Inquiring minds might ask if Malcom X’s speech still relevant today?

Not sure?

Here are some more details:

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Top 1 Percent Control 42 Percent of Financial Wealth in the U.S. – How Average Americans are Lured into Debt Servitude by Promises of Mega Wealth

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Reposted from mybudget360.com:  http://www.mybudget360.com/top-1-percent-control-42-percent-of-financial-wealth-in-the-us-how-average-americans-are-lured-into-debt-servitude-by-promises-of-mega-wealth/

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Many Americans are not buying the recent stock market rally.  This is being reflected in multiple polls showing negative attitudes towards the economy and Wall Street.  Wall Street is so disconnected from the average American that they fail to see the 27 million unemployed and underemployed Americans that now have a harder time believing the gospel of financial engineering prosperity.  Americans have a reason to be dubious regarding the recovery because jobs are the main push for most Americans.  A recent study shows that over 70 percent of Americans derive their monthly income from an actual W-2 job.  In other words, working is the prime mover and source of their income.  Yet the financial elite have very little understanding of this concept.  Why?  42 percent of financial wealth is controlled by the top 1 percent.  We would need to go back to the Great Depression to see such lopsided data.

Many Americans are still struggling at the depths of this recession.  We have 37 million Americans on food stamps and many wait until midnight of the last day of the month so checks can clear to buy food at Wal-Mart.  Do you think these people are starring at the stock market?  The overall data is much worse:

Source:  William Domhoff

If we break the data down further we will find that 93 percent of all financial wealth is controlled by the top 10 percent of the country.  That is why these people are cheering their one cent share increase while layoffs keep on improving the bottom line.  But what bottom line are we talking about here?  The Wall Street crowd would like you to believe that all is now good that the stock market has rallied 60+ percent.  Of course they are happy because they control most of this wealth.  Yet the typical American still has negative views on the economy because they actually have to work to earn a living:

The above daily poll asks Americans about their view on the health of the economy.  Only 13 percent believe the economy is good or excellent.  Funny how that correlates with the top 10 percent who control 93 percent of wealth.  Many Americans were sold the illusion of the bubble.  They were sold on the idea that their homes were worth so much more than they really were.  And many used this phony wealth effect to go out and spend beyond their means.  They started spending as if they were part of this elite 10 percent crowd.  But once the tide rolled out, it was clear they were not.  And the horribly built bailouts demonstrate who is controlling our political system.  This was not the rule of a capitalist system but a corporate run government.

Just think about the bailouts and which companies were saved.  We ended up bailing out the worst performing and troubled companies thus keeping alive companies that should have completely failed.  Did we bail out Google?  Proctor and Gamble?  Of course not.  These companies actually produce something that people want.  Banks and especially the Wall Street kind merely keep that 42 percent happy by making sure their stock values stay high so they can keep on making money while the average Americans is sold up the river.

Yet many were brought into the easy money fold by going into massive amounts of debt.  And who has most of the debt?  That is right, the average American:

The bottom 90 percent have been saddled with 73 percent of all debt.  In other words much of their so-called wealth is connected to debt.  Debt is slavery for many especially with egregious credit card companies taking people out with absurd credit card tricks and scams.  Yet the corporate propaganda machine is strong and mighty.  Have you ever received an inheritance?  A large one?  Probably not because only 1.6% of all Americans receive an inheritance larger than $100,000.  If this is the case, why in the world do politicians worry so much about the tax impacts of this?  Because they want to keep the corporatocracy alive and well so their spawn can get a piece of their pie.  They give the illusion to average Americans that if you only work hard enough you too can join this elusive club of cronies.  The data shows otherwise.

But if we start looking at investment assets, the true wealth in the country, we start realizing why Wall Street is all giddy about the recent stock market government induced rally:

Of investment assets 90 percent of Americans own 12.2 percent.  The rest goes to the top 10 percent.  Welcome to the new serfdom.  The bailouts that went out to the filthy rich were more about protecting their tiny corner of the world than actually making the economy better.  That is why it is interesting to see companies fire people and Wall Street cheer for the increase in earnings per share.  Good for the few at the expense of the many.  Yet the propaganda out of Wall Street and our government is what is good for Wall Street is good for you.  Just like that 1.6% inheritance issue, the vast majority of Americans won’t deal with that and their primary concern is simply a job.  A job that has provided stagnant wages for a decade while the ultra wealth get richer and richer in a phony form of corporate socialism.

If you break down the data you realize that most Americans don’t have time to speculate in stock markets:

Only 34% of U.S. households make more than $65,000 per year.  What is that after taxes?  Let us use a state like California for example:

Now if we breakdown this data further you will realize that most of the money is consumed by cost of living necessities, not Wall Street speculation.  Just to show this example let us look at a family budget for someone in California making $100,000:

Notice after running the budget we are in the hole for $1,000?  That is because of many costs that typical families have.  We can debate the merits of where they are spending money but the point is this; are these people really making beaucoup money from the stock market?  They are putting away $12,000 a year into their 401k.  As we have now found out, 8 percent a year is never guaranteed in the stock market although the corporate powers would like you to believe that so they can have other suckers to unload stocks onto.

“Yet the median household income in the U.S. is $50,000 and not $100,000.  They have even less to invest.”

They are more concerned on working to have a paycheck to pay for necessities.  They are more concerned about paying their house off by the time they retire and hopefully, have a little bit of retirement funds coming in.  The sad fact is most Americans rely on Social Security when they retire.  All those ads of unlimited golf and daily trips to Tahiti are propaganda of how Wall Street lives and they want to sell you the sizzle, and clearly not the steak.  They live their lives paper pushing and sucking the life out of the productive part of our economy.  The average American should now realize this since this financial crisis was primarily caused by them.  They are now on a massive campaign to blame Americans for this.  This is hypocrisy to the next level.  Many Americans have paid for their mistake by losing their home through foreclosure.  We have 300,000 foreclosure filings a month.  Many have taken a hit to their overall stock portfolio (if they have one).  Yet the corporate cronies have protected their horrible economy crushing debts at the taxpayer expense.  Unlike you, many hold bonds on the companies and not common stock like many Americans.  Bondholders have been protected at all costs during this crisis.  Goldman Sachs through AIG received 100 cents on the dollar for their horrible bets.  The banks have unlimited back stops thanks to taxpayers.  This is how the top 1 percent rule the new feudal state.

Welcome to the 2010 serfdom.  Time to wake up and restructure the system.  Many people are starting to wake up to this massive scam.

Merry Christmas

Jen,

I think there’s some good stuff here. It’s too bad that it’s buried under a pile of holiday clichés and trite generalizations. You’ve been a “good girl?” What is the reader supposed to gather from that? Is that the author’s subjective opinion about her behavior over the past twelve months, or rather a more objective assessment based on society’s standards of what qualifies as a “good girl?” A little clarification would go a long way and most likely garner better results for what the author is trying to get, which, at the most superficial of levels, is apparently a Teddy Ruxpin doll.

With love,
Mom

PS. All your “J’s” are backwards.

(Source)

Proving the obvious . . . politicians are for sale

US Democracy of Dollars–political decisions should be made based on whatever gets the majority of political contributions. In America your million dollar contribution and my million dollar contribution each count equally. The dollar majority rules:

A new study from University of Michigan Professors Ran Duchin and Denis Sosyura found that the financial institutions who has the strongest political “ties” received the largest bail outs.

Read the study here or here . . .

Caution: Do not read “The Oligarchs’ Escape Plan”.

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IMF: Riskiest Mortgage Lenders Biggest Lobbyists

In its new “A Fistful of Dollars” report, the International Monetary Fund concludes that the riskiest mortgage lenders were also the most active lobbyists in Washington.

IMF researchers found that during 2000 to 2007, lenders lobbying more intensively on mortgage-related legislation — such as consumer protection laws and securitization — made more hazardous mortgage loans than those who lobbied less.

“These results suggest that lobbying may be linked to lenders expecting special treatments from policymakers, allowing them to engage in riskier lending behavior,” the report notes.

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Who could have known?

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Rest in Peace: 2009

2000-2009:

The decade now closing, the Bush era that started with the overthrow of the Constitution and ended having overturned human decency, was the decade of the American oligarchs. The US has always had robber barons, but now they have become the entrenched, controlling social class. The current impoverishment of the American public can be directly traced to their rapacious enrichment. It wasn’t about “wealth creation”, it was a dramatic upward transfer of society’s wealth from the many to the few.  (Source) [More here . . . ]

2009:

2009 was the Year of the Zombie. The system for capital formation and allocation basically died but there was no funeral. A great national voodoo spell has kept the banks and related entities like Fannie Mae and the dead insurance giant AIG lurching around the graveyard with arms outstretched and yellowed eyes bugged out, howling for fresh infusions of blood… er, bailout cash, which is delivered in truckloads by the Federal Reserve, which is itself a zombie in the sense that it is probably insolvent. (Source)

The Hippies Were Right

Turns out that . . .

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Who could have known?