Showing posts with label lobbies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lobbies. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Why 'Israelis' Danced on 911

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

It was stated recently on Facebook that investigating 911 is a waste of time, that nothing was 'likely to be proven'. That's obvious! It is the purpose of a cover up to make of 'investigations' a 'waste of time'. On this point, whomever perpetrated 911 won when Bush made of the pursuit of justice a 'waste of time'.

The lesson learned is that if you are sufficiently rich and/or powerful, you can subvert justice, the rule of law, the truth! Our nation is lost if truth is abandoned because the pursuit of it is a 'waste of time'. In such a society, no one is free; everything is based upon a lie and, based upon a lie, is unjust. Such a society is a police state, at best a tyranny of an uninformed 'majority'! The 'establishment' is not appalled by widespread ignorance; it depends upon it and promotes it. Such a society is finished! The U.S. will fall ignominiously as did Rome of its folly, arrogance and incompetence.

Only the guilty are sufficiently motivated to cover up a crime. Just as obvious is the corollary: the innocent have nothing to cover up! If Bush covered up and/or obstructed in any way the investigation of the crime of 911, then he is guilty of acts of obstruction of justice intended to hide the truth in ways that would protect him or his 'friends' or both! 'Obstruction of justice' was one of several serious allegations against Richard Nixon, leading to articles of impeachment, eventually his ignominious resignation.

Bush personally and his administration, under his orders, covered up the crime of 911, warning 'free' Americans that they must not inquire beyond his official statements, that they must not indulge 'outrageous conspiracy theories' even as he rolled out the most outrageous, the most absurd, the most ludicrous conspiracy theory of them all. It is the pernicious legacy of 911 that it was exploited by Bush, the GOP, the U.S. right wing to justify the silencing of dissent, the silencing of America.

Certainly, the crime of 911 should have been investigated while the trail was still warm; a legitimate President would have ordered it, insisted upon it. The trail has grown cold, an outcome desired by an administration that opposed the creation of a 911 commission and put limits on it as a condition of its creation!
The evidence includes the unprecedented nature of what happened that day, the eyewitness testimonies of people present at the site, and the physical evidence demonstrated by photographs and videos. 1, 2 Evidence for explosives is also given through proof by contradiction in that seven years of ever-changing government reports could not provide a non-explosive story for destruction of the WTC buildings. 3, 4, 5 More recently, peer-reviewed scientific papers show that energetic materials were present at the WTC, as indicated by the environmental data and the dust from Ground Zero. 6, 7, 8
The forensic investigation of explosions typically aims to determine who had the means, opportunity and motive to accomplish the explosive event. 9 When that approach is taken with the WTC, we can see that those who had the greatest means and opportunity also had the greatest motive. For example, we've seen that certain tenant companies that occupied the WTC towers not only had the opportunity, but they also had the means in terms of access and expertise, to place explosives in the buildings. 10 We also know that the security companies that were responsible for planning and implementing the security plan for the towers, after the 1993 bombing, appeared to have benefited from the attacks. 11 Additionally, the companies reviewed were connected to each other through certain powerful people and organizations, and had all done major work for the Saudi Arabian government.
--KEVIN RYAN, Demolition Access to the WTC Towers: Part Four - Cleanup
In the days and weeks following 911, Bush ordered the destruction of 911 evidence --on its face obstruction of justice!

Other than subsection 1512(c), there are three federal statutes which expressly outlaw the destruction of evidence in order to obstruct justice: 18 U.S.C. 1519 prohibits destruction of evidence in connection with federal investigation or bankruptcy proceedings, 18 U.S.C. 1520 prohibits destruction of corporate audit records, and 18 U.S.C. 2232(a) prohibits the destruction of property to prevent the government from searching or seizing it.
None of the three are RICO or money laundering predicate offenses.334 There are no explicit statements of extraterritorial jurisdiction for any of them, but the courts are likely to conclude that overseas violation of their provisions are subject to prosecution in this country. None of them feature an individual conspiracy component, but all of them are subject to general federal law governing conspiracy, principals, accessories after the fact, and misprision.335 Obstruction of Investigations by Destruction of Evidence (18 U.S.C. 1519). Where subsection 1512(c) condemns obstruction of federal proceedings by destruction of evidence, Section 1519 outlaws obstruction of federal investigations or bankruptcy proceedings by such means. Section 1519’s language suggests that it reaches only executive branch investigations and does not extend to Congressional investigations or judicial investigations such as those conducted by a federal grand jury. It declares:
    Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Although its “relation to or contemplation of” clause may admit to more than one construction, the section’s elements might be displayed as follows:
I. Whoever II. knowingly III. A. alters, B.destroys, C. Mutilates
-- Obstruction of Justice: an Overview of Some of the Federal Statutes that Prohibit Interference with Judicial, Executive, or Legislative Activities By the time I saw 'ground zero' for myself, every scrap had been carted off! I peered into a deep and pristine hole! An individual cannot cover up his/her crimes on this scale. But Bushco --his administration of fellow crooks like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld --covered up the crime of 911 in 'full view of the world'. The American 'sheeple' bought it!

The only time in history in which such a heinous crime was perpetrated so openly was the Holocaust about which Hitler boasted "I waged war on the Jew in full view of the world!" The lesson Bush learned from Hitler was this: commit mass murder in broad daylight, order the destruction of all physical evidence, tar the opposition with a label: conspiracy theorist, and, for good measure, accuse them of being un-patriotic! How dare that cretinous murderer impugn my patriotism?! My ancestors had been on this continent for thousands of years before the likes of Bush-scum would would ever see and invade these shores.

I am of the opinion that only those guilty of crimes are sufficiently motivated to cover them up as did Bush with regard to 911. I would have entertained an innocent explanation but for the fact that the destruction itself is a crime and those ordering and complying are criminals by definition, by law!

The Bush conspiracy theory of 911 is shot-through with holes, unexplained anomalies and outright lies. Certainly, a definitive list of every falsehood, every distortion, every misstatement is beyond the scope of any article I might put on this blog. What may be done, however, is to categorize them --the three most obvious and fatal holes, the three legs without which the tripod will not stand..
  1. A 757 did NOT crash into the Pentagon! The wings and tail are huge surfaces areas --certainly bigger than the tiny hole said by official conspiracy theorists to have been the impact point! The hole would not have accommodated the fuselage, let alone the wings and tail which might have broken off to be found on the lawn. Nor was there any significant damage that might have been attributed to either wings or tail section or both. Neither was there evidence of wings or tail section! There was a 'punch out' hole in the inner ring but could not have been made by a 757!
    Even if the plane had 'shredded' --as some have claimed --'80 tons of plane is still 80 tons of debris'.
    "Wings that should have been sheared off by the impact are entirely absent. There is also substantial evidence of debris from a much smaller jet-powered aircraft inside the building. We conclude with a high degree of certainty that no Boeing 757 struck the building. We also conclude with a substantial degree of certainty that a smaller, single-engined aircraft, roughly the size and shape of an F-16, did, in fact, strike the building."
    (Source)
    Detailed analysis of the debris field, physical damage, and other factors in the alleged impact of a Boeing 757 on the Pentagon building on the morning of September 11, 2001 reveals an almost complete absence of debris expected from such an event. (Elliott 2003) The initial (pre-collapse) hole made by the alleged impact on the ground floor of Wedge One of the building is too small to admit an entire Boeing 757. In order to decide whether or not a Boeing 757 (or aircraft of comparable size) struck the Pentagon on the morning in question, a comprehensive review of all the debris and other physical evidence is hardly necessary. It turns out that a study of the wings alone suffices for the purpose.
    ...
    The analysis presented here is based entirely on standard and/or official sources, such as the engineering report issued under the auspices of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), as directed by an army engineering officer as chair. (ASCE 2003)
    --The Missing Wings, A Comparison of actual and expected wing debris resulting from the impact of a Boeing 757 on the Pentagon building (revised Dec 19, 2004), A. K. Dewdney, G. W. Longspaugh
    We are lead to believe that not only did the 757 penetrate the outer wall, but continued on to penetrate separate internal walls totaling 9 feet of reinforced concrete. The final breach of concrete was a nearly perfectly cut circular hole (see left) in a reinforced concrete wall, with no subsequent damage to the rest of the wall. (If we are to believe that somehow this aluminum aircraft did in fact reach this sixth final wall.)
    --A Boeing 757 did not hit the Pentagon, Michael Meyer, Mechanical Engineer
  2. Johnny Cochran said: "If it does not fit, you must acquit!" Likewise, if there is no wreckage, the Bush cover story falls apart.

    When all other contingencies - official theories and cover stories -fail to hold up under scrutiny, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. The truth is: Bushco lied about the events of 911. They did so deliberately, knowing that all was false. [See also: The Missing Wings]
  3. Airliners could not and did not bring down the towers of the WTC!
  4. Fires, presumably caused by airliner crashes at the Twin Towers of WTC did not melt the steel core and could not have caused the towers' collapse let alone a symmetrical collapse into the building footprint ala a controlled demolition. The fires simply were not hot enough even to have weakened steel.
    The temperatures generated by a hydrocarbon-fuelled office compartment fire are not capable of melting steel. A stoichiometric combustion of kerosene, generally regarded as dodecane, for example...
    C12H26 + 18.5O2 +69.595N2 ===> 12CO2 + 13H2O + 69.595N2 + 7518 kJ

    ...would have at best the above 7,518 kJ locked into 2.712 kg of combustion products to yield an adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) of some 2,398 K or 2,125 C (it is about 130 K less after including the inevitable endothermic dissociation reactions at these temperatures in order to reach an equilibrium state). At standard temperature and pressure, one mole of an ideal gas occupies 22.4 liters; at 2,398 K the volume would have expanded by a factor of 2398/273, i.e. nearly 9 times, to 196.8 liters/mol. The 7.518 MJ is spread amongst 94.595 moles or 18.62 cubic meters of hot gaseous products. At some 0.146 kg/m^3, these are much lighter than air at STP. In order to melt a mere 1 kg of steel that would take up a volume of only 0.127 liters, at least 1 MJ would be required. If 1/7.518 of the enthalpy (heat) in the products was directed at the kilogram of steel, the temperature rise would be reduced from 2,105 K to a little above 1,825 K which would result in a temperature of a little over 1,845 C and still potentially hot enough to melt some steel. But in real-world conditions, flame and upper layer hot gas temperatures are well below the AFT, typically barely reaching 1,000 C and certainly well below the melting point of steel.

    --WTC Molten Steel: The 911 Smoking Gun
    The following was sent to me by Michael Sanchez, Broadcaster-911 Researcher
    This Program has been permanently removed from the PBS Library.

    It goes on to explain a concrete core that was at the center of the Tower. It also mentions C-4 Plastic explosives were used to line the girders of the building (And then covered and sealed with concrete).

    As a Producer, I have edited a rather extensive (45 Minute) audio interview with Willie Rodriguez (One of the heroes and survivors of the Towers and the last man out of the Building before it fell). He explains that he heard an explosion that could NOT have been the plane hitting the tower. As he was lead out of the building through the lobby, he observed the lobby was DEMOLISHED as he stepped on several dead bodies.

    How does a plane hitting the towers cause the ground floor lobby to be COMPLETELY DESTROYED??? NO WAY does a JET PLANE cause a devastating explosion to a GROUND FLOOR LOBBY. NO WAY did a fire cause the collapse. The explosion (Rodriguez described) was done to DESTROY THE CONCRETE CORE. There have been several credible sources who have tested the remnants of steel and dust from the Towers and have found traces of Thermite.

    The thermite was more than likely planted the weekend before the demolition when there was "Maintenance" being done to the building's Security System. THE BUILDING WAS COMPLETELY OPEN. It took an average of about 18 minutes to place each of the charges via the internal phone security systems boxes (Which were NOT part of the Buildings' regular business phone systems). A BUSH Family member, Marvin Bush was a Board Member of the company in charge of the Security. There are MORE unanswered questions THAN there are "Answered Questions".

    --Michael Sanchez, Broadcaster-911 Researcher
    Also see: Muslims Suspend Laws of Physics!

  5. There is no evidence that there were Arabs on Flight 77

  6. If there were no Arabs on Flight 77, then the official theory must be completely discarded. At last, some 184 un-identified remains were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
    A five-sided granite marker bearing the 184 names will be placed over a shared grave at Arlington National Cemetery — the nation's most prestigious burial ground — holding the unidentified remains. [emphasis mine, LH]

    --Arlington National Cemetary
    Of the 184, sixty-four were said to have been passengers of Flight 77, the flight which is said to have crashed into the Pentagon.
    A list of names on a piece of paper is not evidence, but an autopsy by a pathologist, is. I undertook by FOIA request, to obtain that autopsy list and you are invited to view it below. Guess what? Still no Arabs on the list. In my opinion the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable.
    When airline disasters occur, airlines will routinely provide a manifest list for anxious families. You may have noticed that even before Sep 11th, airlines are pretty meticulous about getting an accurate headcount before takeoff. It seems very unlikely to me, that five Arabs sneaked onto a flight with weapons. This is the list provided by American of the 56 passengers. On September 27th, the FBI published photos of the “hijackers” of Flight 77
    Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), does a miraculous job and identifies nearly all the bodies on November 16th 2001.
    The AFIP suggest these numbers; 189 killed, 125 worked at the Pentagon and 64 were “passengers” on the plane. The AA list only had 56 and the list just obtained has 58. They did not explain how they were able to tell “victims” bodies from “hijacker” bodies. In fact, from the beginning NO explanation has been given for the extra five suggested in news reports except that the FBI showed us the pictures to make up the difference, and that makes it so. 
    --Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D, Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
    The numbers will never add up. Arlington National Cemetary says it interred 184. But AFIP says there were a total of 189 bodies --125 worked at the Pentagon and 64 were “passengers” on flight 77. Arlington claims that the unidentified remains of 184 victims share a grave at Arlington National Cemetery.
    A five-sided granite marker bearing the 184 names will be placed over a shared grave at Arlington National Cemetery — the nation's most prestigious burial ground — holding the unidentified remains.
    Arlington National CemeteryI interpret that to mean that this "shared grave" is the final resting place for unidentified victims from both the Pentagon and Flight 77. Five are unaccounted for --presumably the "terrorist" hijackers. But that does not account for the discrepancy for several reasons. Both Arlington and AFIP claim that there were 64 Pentagon workers. AFIP provided a list of 56 passengers of Flight 77. That''s only 120! If you exclude 5 terrorists from the AFIP's total of 189, you are still left with 64 "people" completely unaccounted for. Who the hell are they?
    No Arabs wound up on the morgue slab; however, three ADDITIONAL people not listed by American Airlines sneaked in. I have seen no explanation for these extras. I did American [Airlines] the opportunity to “revise” their original list, but they have not responded. The new names are: Robert Ploger, Zandra Ploger, and Sandra Teague. The AFIP claims that the only “passenger” body that they were not able to identify is the toddler, Dana Falkenberg, whose parents and young sister are on the list of those identified. 
    --Thomas R. Olmsted, M.D, Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
    These are just a tiny few of the myriad of facts that Bush loyalists cannot explain away or rationalize with the official conspiracy theory. The silver bullet is this: there were no arabs on the flight manifests when "officialdom" maintains that all the said hijackers were Arab. Johnny Cochran won a famous murder trial with a single phrase which summed up his defense: "If it does not fit, you must acquit!" I rather think that a guilty party might be indicted just as simply: "No Arabs on flight! You must indict!"
These are fatal discrepancies in Bush's official conspiracy theory of 911. Any one of these glaring faults is enough to collapse the official 'theory', the official bald-faced lie.

Show me the wreckage!

'Wreckage' was carted off under a blue tarpaulin. Hardly 255,000 lbs of airliner wreckage. I doubt that white shirted government goons could have lifted 200 pounds let alone 255,000 lbs! Those believing that some 255,000 lbs of wreckage was recovered must prove their assertion but obviously cannot. If the wreckage of an airliner had been recovered, it is reasonable to expect that with a proper investigation, the aircraft would be re-assembled.

When an airliner blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in the 1980s, leaving debris over the township and surrounding countryside, every scrap was gathered, the aircraft re-assembled in a hangar. Likewise, the Space Shuttle Columbia which left wreckage over 3 states after breaking up in the stratosphere at speeds much, much higher than those of any airliner said to have been involved on 911. If anything were going to vaporize, it would have been Columbia. Bit it did not and neither would have any flight alleged to have been involved in 911. Show me the wreckage! Until that is done and the wreckage identified by experts, 911 is a pure bullshit!

Why was flight 911 an exception?

Why was it not re-assembled?

Why was the crime of mass murder not investigated?

Why was 911, in fact, covered up and justice subverted?

Why were the crimes of felony destruction of evidence and perjury never investigated?

It was widely believed and disseminated via the internet that the fuselage of Flight 77 vaporized in the intense heat! What intense heat? Kerosene (jet fuel) fires are relatively 'cool'! I looked up the temperature at which Aluminum vaporizes. It is 11000 degrees F which NASA states is almost 1000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun.
The part of the sun that we see has a temperature of about 5500 degrees C (10,000 degrees F). Astronomers measure star temperatures in a metric unit called the Kelvin (abbreviated K). One Kelvin equals exactly 1 Celsius degree (1.8 Fahrenheit degree), but the Kelvin and Celsius scales begin at different points. The Kelvin scale starts at absolute zero, which is -273.15 degrees C (- 459.67 degrees F). Thus, the temperature of the solar surface is about 5800 K. Temperatures in the sun's core reach over 15 million K.

--The Sun, NASA
Other facts are easily verified if one is courageous enough to be honest. Most notably: Aluminum will not penetrate steel at any speed! That fact alone will rule out the many 'animations' and/or cartoons that you will see on YouTube, the most egregious is said to have been produced by Perdue University. The producers --whoever they really are --presume to call it 'accurate'. It was so 'accurate' that it entirely omitted a dense, steel core clearly depicted in construction photos.

The official cover story does not work. An aluminum fuselage will not penetrate the hard steel outer 'cladding'.

Kinetic energy is absorbed by the softer body.

Don't take my word for it. Just try hurling a marshmallow wad with a Trebouchet against either a brick wall or metal garage door. Guess which object gets 'smushed-up" into a 'splat'. Not the brick wall; NOT the garage door. Hurl the marshmallow at either at Mach 1, 2, 3 or even higher. It makes no difference. The additional kinetic energy gained by velocity is absorbed by the softer body. In this 'thought experiment', the softer body is the marshmallow. In the real world, the softer body is the largely hollow, aluminum fuselage that did not and could not have penetrated the outer steel cladding, let alone the dense steel core depicted at right during construction.

A 757 has two engines each containing a Titanium-Steel alloy rotor with a diameter of about 12 feet. Titanium-steel alloy is chosen so that it won't melt inside the engine. But this elementary fact is utterly lost upon those intent upon perverting, distorting or lying about the laws of physics in order to cover up the crimes of mass murder and high treason! Those defending the Bush theory must prove their assertions that these rotors were recovered. Where are they? Show me the wreckage!

In fact, there is no such evidence, no such proof. Had there been such evidence, had Bush been innocent of 911, he would have made that evidence public! It would have been a priority. It might have legitimized a 'war on terror' which is otherwise a mere act of imperial terrorism, an act of mass murder by a rogue nation. Had Bush been a legitimate President he would have made this information available immediately. Had he been 'innocent', above suspicion, he would have made public the evidence; he would have insisted upon it! Instead, he ordered 'evidence' covered up in a blue tarpaulin, hauled off, to be destroyed! An innocent man does not destroy evidence that would exonerate him! Bush's orders and actions in the wake of 911 are the actions of a culprit, a perpetrator, a mass murderer!

Now --there was wreckage at the Pentagon but not wreckage traceable to a 757 nor was such a trace attempted. The scant wreckage left behind is evidence of a much smaller craft --a missile --striking the Pentagon. Only one engine rotor was found; it was about one third the size of two much larger rotors that would have been found had a 757 done the damage. If an airliner of some 200 tons had crashed and burned at any temp less than that of a nuclear explosion, it will leave behind 200 tons of wreckage. Those are the laws of physics, specifically, the Law of the Conservation of Matter and Energy.

I doubt that the 'white-shirted' office schmucks who carted the wreckage off under a blue tarpaulin were capable of lifting upon their wimpy shoulders some 200 tons. Why was the wreckage not re-assembled? Was the Bush administration afraid of revealing by re-assembly what it was that actually struck the Pentagon? I am sure of it. They dare not re-assemble the meager wreckage as was, in fact, done when an airliner exploded over Lockebie, Scotland in the 1980s. In the case of Lockerbie and, much later, the Space Shuttle Columbia the wreckage, the evidence was gathered.

Only one engine rotor was found among the few scraps at the Pentagon. About one third the diameter of a 757 engine, it was most certainly left behind by the U.S. Global Hawk which uses a Rolls-Royce engine with specs consistent with what can be learned from the only photograph showing any sort of rotor on the Pentagon lawn whatsoever. The bad news for Bush partisans is that the single rotor that was found is but about one-third the size of the rotors such rotors that would have been found had a 757 crashed the pent. But the ONLY rotors that was found is about the right size of the SINGLE rotor that is used in the U.S. Global Hawk, evidence of an inside job.

Conan Doyle by way of his character Sherlock Holmes said:
When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however implausible must be the truth!
Today, the truth is reviled. At least since GWB, possibly since Ronald Reagan, the government has been controlled by a nexus of liars and self-interested opportunists and militarists. There is money to be made killing people abroad, 'death and destruction' have become America's biggest exports!

The Military-Industrial Complex is the fancy name given to the venal cooperation between Pentagon Brass and the makers of killing machines --automated drones, robots, and de-humanized 'soldiers'. The deals are cut on K-street, that on-going auction in which the 'empire' is sold or more properly pimped! The most powerful lobby is the so-called Jewish Lobby, called thus because the 'foreign' government of Israel is, we are told, prohibited by law to lobby the government of the United States. Subterfuge! The results are what counts. As long as money buys souls the government of the U.S. is 'owned' by the state of Israel. What was that I read about Israelis 'dancing' on 911?

Addendum
Adieu, Daniel Schorr, a real journalist, a CBS legend.
Most people listening to NPR the last twenty years have come to know the name Daniel Schorr as the commentator who gave sage advice and observations of an increasingly shrinking world. But if you grew up in the 1950's and 60's, Schorr was the correspondent who had first hand knowledge of the Cold War, was the first to do a live on-air interview with Nikita Khruschev and who ran afoul of Richard Nixon's White House during the Watergate era.

Schorr, like all the correspondents during that great age of reporting at CBS News, was the cool observer who reported and never spun, sought answers and shared a vast amount of knowledge. His was one of the many voices that came to be trusted in times of uncertainty.

And it was during the Cold War that Schorr had some of his greatest moments. In 1962, when tensions between the West and the Soviet Union were at their highest, Daniel Schorr reported on the newly constructed Berlin Wall, taking a crew to East Berlin in search of answers.

The result was the CBS Reports documentary Berlin: Wall of Shame, which aired on January 4, 1962. A vivid picture of just how bad relations had become between East and West.

It is doubtful we'll see or hear his kind again anytime soon. It is a tragedy that no heir apparent is on the horizon to take his place. More tragic that CBS News has become a lifeless shell of its former self. It is probably the time his words of calm and his keen observations are the most needed.

But all we can do at the moment is be reminded and perhaps strive.

RIP - Daniel Schorr.


Monday, March 15, 2010

The War on Terrorism is a Racket!

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

At the beginning of every fiscal year, the U.S. makes a lump sum payment of cold hard cash to Israel, a procedure not duplicated for any other nation receiving U.S. 'aid'. It looks like a payoff in response to a shakedown because that's what it is! What leverage, we wonder, is used by Israel on the U.S? The Carvellian quick response: terrorism! Terrorism is a racket! Israel exploits 'terrorism' to shake down the U.S. tax payer. Now we know why Israelis danced on 911.

Israel is among the world's richest nations. Nevertheless, Israel receives more U.S. tax payer money than any other 'single recipient' of what is euphemistically called 'U.S. aid', more, in fact, than all of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa combined. Though Israel is barely larger in population than metropolitan Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston, it receives more aid than two continents. Those areas include some of the poorest regions which receive much less U.S. aid than does wealthy Israel who clearly does not need it.

Then what does U.S. aid to Israel consist of? At the top of the list is, of course, the aforementioned cold, hard cash. Other 'aid' includes the weapons of war themselves.
The U.S. administration has notified Congress of the following proposed government-negotiated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements, export licenses for industry-negotiated Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), or leases of military equipment to Israel. The Arms Export Control Act requires only that the administration notify Congress of FMS and DCS valued at $14 million or more. Sales below that threshold are not recorded here.

--Arms Transfers to Israel: 1993 to Present
Former Secretary of State Shultz 'credited' Netanyahu for 'effecting a change in American policies on terrorism'. That's 'political speak' for 'Israel extorted billions of dollars in aid by raising the specter of 'terrorism'. Fear of 'terrorism' is responsible for the transfer of billions of dollars to Israel because the U.S. tax payer is brainwashed, literally trained to fear anyone with a tan wearing a turban. Terrorism is how the moneys 'given' to Israel are officially justified. What is 'terrorism' but the practice by the U.S. and its client state, Israel, to extort billions from U.S. taxpayers?
The set of deliberately misleading and discredited assumptions followed by the proponents of the War on Terror must be repudiated. The government is wasting 10s of billions of dollars, propping up this sham, in the wake of the enforced fearmongering that has crept in since 9/11. In return for the tax dollars that pay for blooding our hands, we had habeas corpus struck down, arbitrary “no-fly lists” are implemented, our government is perpetrating terror hoaxes on the people, and over 100 Canadian soldiers have died fighting what Stephen Harper admits is an unwinnable war.

Despite the obvious ill effects on society, the tenets of the GWOT are still off-limits for inquiry, or you are a ‘troofer’ and subject to derision and ridicule. It doesn’t matter that you are speaking truth. Ask Lesley Hughes.

Canada seems to be under the ideological and political grip of a foreign power, that is leveraging control over Canadian parties and politicians. Many powerful Israeli lobby groups operate in Canada bending the government’s ear to the Isr-elis.

They need the pretense of the “existential threat” to Western Civilization represented by Arab terrorism to justify what was a long-standing plan to invade the middle east. Thus, we are following a set of deliberately misleading erroneous assumptions that have manipulated us into war.

--Origins of the War of Terror: Bush, Netanyahu and the CIA
It was in 1979 that Netanyahu organized an international conference against terrorism, under the auspices of the Jonathan Institute — a private foundation dedicated to the study of terrorism. Hard to believe that it was not the very purpose of that 'foundation' to frighten the U.S. into coughing up the billions for Israel which habitually milk the U.S. tax payer. Yet recently, Netanyahu is said to 'defy' the U.S. over Israeli settlement policies that have clearly destabilized the Middle East. See: Netanyahu defies U.S. over Jerusalem settlement

Leo Strauss, the so-called 'intellectual' godfather of neo-conservativism, believed that neocons ought to 'lie' to the unwashed masses because, it is said, they 'can't handle the truth'. Well --the truth is Benjamin Netanyahu believes he owns the NEOCONS. Tails wag dogs. I say: a pox on both their houses. Israel should be 'cut off' now. No gradualism, no time for therapy sessions! Cut them off now and balance the budget with the savings. (BTW, the last balanced budget was in a Democratic Regime)

The prime minister's speech last night returned the Middle East to the days of George W. Bush's "axis of evil." Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a patriarchal, colonialist address in the best neo-conservative tradition: The Arabs are the bad guys, or at best ungrateful terrorists; the Jews, of course, are the good guys, rational people who need to raise and care for their children. In the West Bank settlement of Itamar, they're even building a nursery school.

No empathy for the refugees from Jaffa who lost their entire world, not a word for the Muslim connection to Jerusalem - neither a fragment of a quote from the Koran, nor a line of Arabic poetry.

--Netanyahu and a Return to the Axis of Evil

Category of Terror


Monday, November 23, 2009

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Albert Einstein said: "the men who possess real power in this country have no intention of ending the cold war." It is one of the most incredible 'coincidences' in history that as the Berlin Wall fell and communism ceased to be the global threat we had been told it was, a new 'bogey man' would arise, as if on cue, to take its place. World terrorism', like a good steward, is now on the job, keeping the crooks on K-street and the Pentagon in firm control of one of the largest, most dangerous empires since Rome.

Like the U.S. today, the Roman economy was 'militarized', the empire over-extended, the battles fought by mercenaries. The currency might get you into the Coliseum for the 'games' but little else. Thus --bread and circuses were popular. When the Praetorian Guard auctioned the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus the sale was completed in Greek Drachmas --not worthless Roman Sesterces.

Some two decades ago, it was decided by the global financial elites that the framework for the global economy shall consist of:

1) A global derivative-based financial system, controlled by the US Federal Reserve Bank and its associate global banks in the developed countries.

2) The re-location from the West to the East in the production of goods, principally to China and India to “feed” the developed economies.
The entire system was built on a simple principle, that of a FED-controlled global reserve currency which will be the engine for growth for the global economy. It is essentially an imperialist economic principle.

Once we grasp this fundamental truth, Bernanke’s boast that the “US can produce as many US dollars as it wishes at no cost” takes on a different dimension.

I have talked to so many economists and when asked what is the crux of the present financial problem, they all respond in unison, “it is the global imbalances… the West consumes too much while the East saves too much and consumes not enough”. This is exemplified by the huge US trade deficits on the one part and China’s massive surpluses on the other.

--Red Alert: The Second Wave of The Financial Tsunami
The U. S. is routinely pimped on K-Street and, like Rome's sesterces and denarius, the dollar is all but worthless; China boasts the Worlds largest POSITIVE current account balance; the US the largest trade deficit. China props up the US dollar but only because it has to. This Faustian bargain was first cut by Bush Sr who paved the way for Nixon's famous trip to China's Forbidden City.
In December 2008 Lawrence Summers, soon to become the administration’s highest-ranking economist, called for decisive action. “Many experts,” he warned, “believe that unemployment could reach 10 percent by the end of next year.” In the face of that prospect, he continued, “doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much.”

Ten months later unemployment reached 10.2 percent, suggesting that despite his warning the administration hadn’t done enough to create jobs. You might have expected, then, a determination to do more.

--Paul Krugman, The Phantom Menace
Some have said that the stiumli were not enough, in other words, 'too small'. It was not that the stimuli were too small but that those getting the stimuli were the banksters who had created this mess to begin with. Alas --nothing is learned from the lessons of history.

Most economists agree: the West consumes too much and the East, primarily China does not consume enough. Compounding the problem --China props up the dollar but only because it had to dump cheap product upon the American market via Wal-Mart, it's retail 'arm' in the U.S.


Rome


The Rise and Fall of an Empire
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Friday, November 06, 2009

How the Iraq War Destroyed the US Economy

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Wars reduce the GDP, destroy jobs, reduce productivity, and increase the trade deficit! If wars are 'bad' for the economy, then how are they sold so easily? The quick response: they are sold with focus group tested bullshit!

There's a 'living' in killing, we are told! There is a more opulent living in the commission of mass murder which requires the construction of tanks, smart bombs, and fighter jets --the MIC, in other words. But that's all just snake oil for idiots and Republicans!

That wars are good for the economy is just a bald-faced lie cooked up by the defense lobby for whom killing IS a living but only for the shrinking one percent who benefit: the Military/Industrial complex, truly MURDER INC. Fact is war is most often disastrous for the economy.
In fact, most models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment. In this way, military spending is comparable in most models to any other form of government spending, such as spending on public goods or improving the environment.

This paper shows the projections of the impact of an increase in annual military spending equal to 1 percent of GDP (approximately the actual increase in spending compared with the pre-war budget) of the Global Insight macroeconomic model (see Appendix). The Global Insight model was selected for this analysis because it is a commonly used and widely respected model.1 Other models will show somewhat different projections, but it is unlikely that the direction of the long-term impact on any of the key variables will be different. In fact, because of the structure of the Global Insights model, it likely understates the negative impact of military spending relative to other models.

--The Economic Impact of the Iraq War and Higher Military Spending>

At the link (a PDF file) look for Table 1 which shows the key differences in projections, at five year intervals, between the baseline model and the simulation assuming higher levels of defense spending.
The decline in GDP projected for the twentieth year in the high military spending scenario is $42.1 billion. This corresponds to a projected loss of 668,100 jobs. Inflation is projected to be 0.7 percentage points higher in the high military spending scenario, with the interest rate on the 10-year Treasury note 1.1 percentage points higher than in the baseline scenario.

The higher interest rate is associated with a reduction in industrial production of 1.8 percent compared with the baseline scenario. Car and truck sales are projected to be 731,400 in the high military spending scenario compared to the baseline scenario. Residential investment is projected to be 3.5 percent lower, which corresponds to 38,500 fewer housing starts and a reduction of 286,500 in the number of existing homes sold.

--The Economic Impact of the Iraq War and Higher Military Spending>
Given those facts, should anyone be surprised that the US is at the very bottom of the CIA's World Fact Book with the world's largest NEGATIVE currnet account balance. China, which props up the declining dollar, is not surprisingly on top with the world's largest POSITIVE Current Account Balance.

One should not be surprised when millions of jobs are lost as GDP declines. Yet, as a result of right wing/militaristic/jingoistic propaganda and FOX, many people still believe that war and military spending creates jobs. That may be true in the short-term. But, in the long run, increases in military spending cause job loss.
the policy would likely lead to a rise in interest rates and inflation, as higher levels of demand begin to push against the economy’s capacity. The rise in interest rates will lead to less investment, and less demand for cars and houses.
Higher interest rates will also push up the value of the dollar. This will increase demand for imports, since foreign-made goods will be cheaper for consumers in the United States, and decrease demand for exports, since U.S.-made goods will be more expensive for people living in other countries. The result will be that the United States will run a larger current account deficit. Over time, this will lead to a larger foreign debt.

--The Economic Impact of the Iraq War and Higher Military Spending>
As I have maintained for years --military spending is a waste. Millions spent building a tank, for example, is money sucked down a black hole. The rank returns nothing on the investment and will, inevitably, be blown up! We could just throw our dollars upon a heap, set fire to them, and cut out the middle man!

Military spending slows economic growth, increases the budget deficit, increases the trade deficit as can be seen, in fact, in US's NEGATIVE Current Account Balance, formerly called the 'balance of trade deficit'.
Why I moderate comments

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

How Foreign Lobbies and Elites 'Bought' the US

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

FASCISM is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political policy defined by a corporatist economic ideology enforced by a dictatorial regime which, in turn, is supported by a symbiotic business/corporate community.

In pre-war Germany, Hitler held a meeting with his corporate backers. He cut them all a 'deal' and, in turn, was rewarded with their enduring support and they by his LUCRATIVE DEFENSE CONTRACTS. It was I.G. Farben which manufactured Zyklon 'B' used to murder Jews, gypsies and non-Nazis in concentration camps.

In the US just one percent of the nation's population has benefited from GOP (right wing) tax cuts. I have charged that the 'tax cuts' are, rather, an elaborate money laundering scheme in which the 'ruling elite' is paid a return on its investment, that is, the purchase of the US government by way of its pimps on K-Street.

Read the US govt stats re: income inequalities. Income inequalities in the US are instructive, the result of an ongoing auction of the US government to domestic and foreign lobbies. Glaring correlations not accidental: terrorism is worse under GOP regimes and --at the same time --income disparities increase. US tax policy, for example, favors the rich and, of late, just one percent of the US population which is enriched by those policies.
The area around K Street in Washington, D.C., abounds with lobbyists, many of whom represent foreign governments or entities. Although some major foreign governments continue to work mainly through their embassies in Washington, nearly one hundred countries rely on lobbyists to protect and promote their interests. The subculture of public relations and law firms that do this kind of work reflects a steady decline and privatization of diplomacy -- with an increasing impact on how the United States conducts its own foreign policy.

The strongest lobbies promoting foreign interests are driven by cohesive ethnic population groups in the United States, such as Armenia, China, Greece, India, Israel, Taiwan, Ukraine, and, historically, Ireland. Even countries that have strong bilateral relations with the United States, such as Australia, Japan, and Norway, need lobbyists as well as embassies. Lobbyists can operate within the system in ways that experienced diplomats cannot. A lobbying group can identify with a domestic ethnic bloc even though it is paid by a foreign government. Ethnic politics can trump corporate interests and, more important, influence what agencies within the U.S. government may see as the national interest.Illustration by Ib Ohlsson

The United States is a nation of immigrants -- a strength that has also created vulnerabilities. Although ethnic population groups have at times offset isolationist tendencies in the United States, they also can find themselves conflicted on issues that could divide the motherland from the adopted country, the United States. In other cases, these so-called hyphenated groups unhesitatingly side with the United States and, in effect, become more royalist than the king.

--Diplomacy Inc., The Influence of Lobbies on U.S. Foreign Policy