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Taser Creates New Crowd Control Weapon
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/archives/2008/10/07/taser_creates_new_crowd_contro
Depression Deepening
By : David Vaughn
Editor, Gold Letter, Inc.
www.goldletterdv.com
We definitely live in interesting times, huh?
I believe future historians will allocate Monday, September 29, 2008 as the start of the second Great Depression. That is not to say we may yet see exciting corrections and even occasionally a stronger US dollar. Still, the ultimate trend is down, down, down.
Worth the read:
http://www.24hgold.com/viewarticle.aspx?langue=en&articleid=325368_Depression_Deepening_David_Vaughn
NEXT COMES WAR.
US cool to Israeli strike on Iran
By Peter Hirschberg
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JJ07Ak01.html
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will travel to Moscow this week for talks that will focus largely on Iran's nuclear program at a time when there seem to be growing signs that the US is unenthusiastic about the idea of an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Since President George W Bush's visit to Israel in May to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state, there have been reports that Washington is sticking to its policy of sanctions on Iran and that, for now, Israel does not have a green light to strike at its nuclear sites.
Media reports emerged about two months ago that the US had denied an Israeli request for a weapons package that would have
increased its capability of launching an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Last month, the daily Ha'aretz reported that the security aid package included "a large number of bunker-buster bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, an advanced technological system, and refueling planes".
The Guardian newspaper has quoted European officials saying that the US had turned down an Israeli request earlier this year for permission to hit at Iran's nuclear sites. The report quoted "senior European diplomatic sources" saying that "Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency".
The US decision, the report said, was based on the concern that Israel would not be able to sufficiently damage Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread out and well-protected, and also that Iran's retaliation "would probably include a wave of attacks on US military and other personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as on shipping in the Persian Gulf".
Both the US and Israel believe Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing an atomic bomb. Iran insists its nuclear endeavors are purely civilian in nature and are aimed at generating nuclear power. When quizzed about Israel's policy toward Iran, Israeli leaders often reply that all options are on the table - a clear reference to the military option.
Without US consent, says Ephraim Kam, deputy head of the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, it is highly unlikely that Israel would carry out an attack. But, he adds, if the US does not give Israel the green light, then they need to offer an alternative.
"Some have mentioned the possibility of a [US-Israel] defense treaty," he told Inter Press Service. "We need a clear-cut statement saying that any nuclear attack on Israel will be considered an attack on the US. That America would respond with nuclear weapons against Iran. This would be an important deterrent."
There has been much speculation over the point at which Iran will go nuclear. Earlier this week, David Kay, who was in charge of the US team that searched for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said Iran was two to five years away from being able to produce an atomic bomb.
According to Kam, who served as a colonel in the Research Division of Israel's Military Intelligence, the assessment of when exactly Iran will go nuclear is "moving all the time". He puts this down to a combination of a "lack of intelligence and maybe the Iranian timetable changing because they are meeting many technological difficulties".
But in considering the timetable for a possible attack by Israel, there are other considerations besides when exactly Iran will reach the nuclear tipping point - like whether the Iranians will receive an advanced air defense system they have requested from the Russians. The delivery date of such a system could factor into Israel's timetable, if it were to carry out an attack. "This would make it much more difficult and costly to attack those [nuclear] sites," says Kam, referring to the Russian anti-aircraft missile system.
Kam does not rule out the possibility that ultimately Israel will have to face the reality of living with a nuclear Iran. If that happens, he says, "we will be living under a much more severe threat ... But will Iran use the bomb against Israel? Logically, it won't".
Israel is reported to have a second-strike capability. Millions of Iranians, says Kam, could be killed in an Israeli counter-strike. This potential for massive devastation would not be lost "even on a fundamentalist regime like Iran", he says.
But, he adds, there are no guarantees. "My concern is that we don't have any dialogue with Iran. When you have two nuclear actors who don't talk to each other, there can be a miscalculation. This is a recipe for deterioration. For uncontrolled escalation."
The Next Moment of Truth
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/
The lightly-regulated hedge fund sector is known for its lack of transparency and liberal use of borrowed money. Given that, most people would naturally have assumed that these operators would be at the forefront of the kind of epic financial disaster that has unfolded over the past year or so.
Yet up until recently, that has not been the case. In fact, despite some notable failures and hiccups -- including the meltdown of Amaranth Advisors two years ago and upheavals among the "quant" funds in August 2007 -- hedgies have not really taken center stage in the current crisis (except, perhaps, for those who managed to bet correctly on which banks, brokers and insurers would suffer the most for their prior sins).
Still, given how contagious the crisis has been since since it first began -- you know, back when people like the Fed Chairman were reassuring everyone that problems in the subprime sector would remain "contained" -- there was never really any question about whether many of these Masters of the Universe would eventually get sucked into the vortex of the Great Unraveling and add to the chaos.
Based on the following Financial Week report, "Hedge Funds Wilt in Credit Drought," it looks like that particular moment of truth will soon be upon us.
Investor redemptions could cull herd of hedgies; 700 to 1,000 funds may disappear by year-end
The hedge fund industry is poised for a massive shake-up as investors demand the return of billions of dollars from both struggling and thriving funds.
Hedge fund investors had until Sept. 30 to notify managements that they wanted to recall their money by the end of the year. While it's not yet clear how many investors submitted redemptions, the number could be sizable given the relatively poor performance of the sector lately.
The squeeze on hedge funds from the credit crunch is two-fold: a recent ban on shorting instituted by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a result of the crisis eliminates an important trading tactic, while the crunch itself limits their ability to use credit to add leverage.
The industry as a whole was down 4.85% for the year at the end of August, according to a key index at Hedge Fund Research, which tracks hedge fund strategies. A wave of redemptions could lead to the largest industry culling since 2005, the last time it experienced mass redemptions.
Struggling hedge funds could translate into more bad news for corporate America, which is already reeling from the credit crunch and dismal consumer spending, among other things. As the hedge fund industry has ballooned to $2 trillion in the last several years, it has become a vital source of capital to corporations in the form of debt and equity, said Mitchell E. Nichter, partner in the corporate practice of law firm Paul Hastings.
“Hedge funds are just one possibility on the liquidity menu,” Mr. Nichter said. “If their capital dries up, then that's another source of capital that won't be available to corporate America.”
For instance, a report last year from consulting firm Greenwich Associates found that hedge funds were responsible for nearly 30% of all fixed-income trading in the U.S. That market, and others, could take a hit as hedge funds shrink, said Mr. Nichter.
Some 700 to 1,000 funds are expected to disappear this year, depending on how bad things are through December, estimates Ken Heinz, president of Hedge Fund Research. The industry shrunk by about 10%, or 850 funds, during a rough patch in 2005.
The total scope of redemptions in 2008 won't be known until funds start reporting their assets in the coming weeks, Mr. Heinz said. A look at the first half suggests more pain ahead, though. About 350 funds closed as the industry raised $30 billion in new capital through June, down from $117 billion in new capital during the first half of 2007, according to his data.
“We've seen an increase in the rate of liquidations,” Mr. Heinz said. He expects a flight from low-performing to high-performing funds, as recent research from his firm shows an historic performance disparity between average and top-tier firms. He also expects money to bleed from arbitrage funds, and relative-value funds, among others.
Charles Gradante, managing principal of hedge fund adviser Hennessee Group, is even more pessimistic than Mr. Heinz when it comes to the toll the current economic woes will take on hedge funds. He said the reduction could be as high as 2,000 funds, as restrictions on short-selling and lack of leverage cut into the industry's returns.
Given the recent failures among prime brokers, most notably Lehman Brothers, hedge funds have found it more difficult to borrow more from brokers to cover margin calls. Meanwhile, his firm has found that investors drew down about $80 billion, or 4%, of their money from the hedge fund industry in the latest quarter, the largest redemption in any quarter since his firm started tracking such data in 1987.
Anecdotal evidence that redemptions now are ahead of even that pace started to emerge last week. In announcing an operating loss for the first half of the year, Swiss hedge fund Absolute Capital Management said last week that it expected more of its clients to withdraw their money.
British fund manager RAB Capital last week took steps to stem redemptions from its struggling special situations fund. The firm announced that investors in the fund, which has lost more than 60% of its value since last year, agreed not to withdraw their money for three years in exchange for more favorable rates.
“We're wondering ourselves if the hedge fund model is as viable as it was before,” said Mike Guarasci, chief operating officer at Indus Capital Partners, a hedge fund that primarily uses a long-short equity strategy in the Asia-Pacific and European markets.
In the wake of the shorting ban, hedge funds have been looking to alternative strategies. Among the strategies on the upswing, experts say, are distressed debt (in which a fund buys bonds issued by a company about to file for bankruptcy so it can “call the shots” during the company's liquidation) and global macro (in which a fund takes long or short positions based on the economic or political outlook for particular countries).
These strategies were on the upswing already, but the ban on shorting has added wind to their sails, experts say. Distressed debt had become big in 2000 and 2001, after the tech bubble burst, then fell out of favor until recently. Macro was one of the earliest hedging strategies, but has been seen as too volatile. However, with energy prices spiking, macro strategies are back in vogue.
Yet even some of these alternative strategies may feel the pinch. The Managed Funds Association, which represents hedge funds, has been lobbying hard against the SEC's ban on shorting.
In a letter last month, the MFA said the ban could lead to scenarios in which “some sectors that abruptly rise in value due to temporary restrictions on shorting cause sharp sell-offs in other sectors.” The association pointed to the spike and subsequent drop in energy stocks earlier this summer as an example of “sector rotation.”
Convertible bond arbitrageurs, for instance, have taken an average 4% hit in value recently, according to data from Hedge Fund Research. Convertible bond investors often trade options to convert bonds into shares, but under the current shorting ban they would no longer be able to hedge their risk in financials, which could dry up the convertible bond market, the MFA wrote.
Late last month, many funds were hurt by the ban because they had short positions that were sitting idle and then had to be closed out quickly, with little advance notice from the SEC.
“It's like driving down the highway and then you find out that your brakes don't work,” said David Friedland, a principal at Magnum Funds, which manages a number of hedge funds and funds of hedge funds.
Shock and Awe: Bipartisan Beltway Terrorists Launch Economic 9/11 on the American People
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m47722&hd=&size=1&l=e
Chris Floyd
October 3, 2008
You've seen the news. You know the score. The House of Representatives has now completed the economic terrorist attack inflicted on the American people by the nation's elite.
The bailout bill -- or as Arthur Silber more rightly terms it, the "Extortion Bill" -- is already law, thanks to the Democrats in Congress, and to Barack Obama, who spent the day working the phones and twisting arms to make sure the $700 billion bonanza for the filthy rich passed without any more of the hiccups that held it up earlier this week.
The plan that Obama made his own -- despite its origins in the poison kitchen of the Bush White House -- is far worse than the version voted down on Monday. Every reputable economic expert says that the plan is unworkable; it will not solve the problems at the root of the current economic crisis, but will only make them worse. It entrenches many of the fraudulent practices that led to the meltdown in the first place, and rewards the perpetrators for their misdeeds with a gargantuan amount of public money, which they can now use to carry on largely as before, albeit with a few new toothless "oversight" mechanisms operated by their own Wall Street cronies, and their bribed-and-bought hirelings on Capitol Hill.
There were many viable, reasonable, eminently centrist alternatives to the radical, plutocratic Bush-Obama scam -- alternatives which would have been politically palatable to a broad spectrum of the electorate. One of the best ones of this ilk that I've seen was outlined in the eminently mainstream Washington Post earlier this week by two eminently respectable Yale economists. (You can find it here.) There were many other such practical and effective plans offered by reputable experts, any one of which could have gone a long way toward protecting ordinary citizens now exposed by the meltdown, supporting the banks, and stabilizing the markets -- all without effecting one of the largest single redistributions of wealth since the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917.
None of these plans were considered or debated or even mentioned, not even for a single moment, by the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. Instead, they joined the Republican leadership and the Bush Administration in repeating, over and over, the Big Lie that there was NO OTHER CHOICE but some basic version of the unworkable Bush plan. The Democrats -- led by Barack Obama -- not only threw a political lifeline to the most despised president in American history (in the middle of an election year!), they deliberately took ownership of a measure widely rejected by the American public -- a class war weapon of mass destruction whose malign effects will reverberate through American society for years, perhaps generations to come.
Why have they done this? Why would they do such a thing? Why would they commit such an egregious offense against their own people, when they could have very easily NOT done it, and had the near-unanimous support of the American electorate in standing up to the Bush plan and choosing some other completely mainstream alternative?
You already know the answer. It's because they do not serve the American people. They serve a very small yet brutally powerful ruling class. And this elite wanted the Bush-Obama extortion plan, and no other, to make sure their power and privilege were not unduly threatened by the debacle that their own monstrous greed and fraud have made.
II.
Let's go back to Arthur Silber on this, as we have done so often during the financial crisis. As always, he goes behind the heated headlines to see the deeper threads of connection knitting the bipartisan economic-domestic Terror War with the bipartisan foreign policy Terror War that is now wrapping the world in flames. And he traces one of the prime roots of this sinister web: the American elite's belief that whatever they do to maintain their primacy -- however many people they kill, how much destruction and suffering and degradation they cause, at home and abroad -- it is all reasonable, rational and right...because they are doing it. Here is Silber in "Terrorist State, At Home and Abroad." [And again, you should read the whole thing, with the many links that broaden and deepen the scope of the argument.].
First, he quotes William Pfaff on the U.S. government's "aggressive, neverending global interventionism":
Militarized or otherwise, American policy remains under the influence of an unacknowledged and unjustified utopianism. This is the unanalyzed background to the work of all Washington's foreign policy agencies. It permeates the rhetoric and thinking of Republicans and Democrats alike. It is the reason Americans can think that history has an ultimate solution, and that the United States is meant to provide it.
Now Silber:
It has long been apparent to an honest observer that "utopianism" of this kind is immensely and unforgivably destructive, just as it is obvious that the belief that one person or one nation has the "ultimate solution" constitutes murderous arrogance of the kind we properly associate with the greatest monsters in history. One of the most deeply pathetic aspects of the tragedy of Iraq is that not a single element of this belief system has been dislodged in even the smallest degree. Thus, we continue to hear Obama, along with every other prominent national leader, proclaim: "The American moment has not passed. The American moment is here. And like generations before us, we will seize that moment, and begin the world anew."
Where it matters, on the ground, the American drive to world hegemony translates into brute force used to make others behave in the manner the U.S. government demands. Such force will often be deployed in the form of economic assistance, but offered only on certain conditions, which therefore more accurately means economic intimidation. On other occasions, the interference becomes harsher, while it is still kept under wraps to some extent: thus, we have numerous covert operations, sometimes used to engineer the overthrow of duly constituted governments. When all else fails, military force will be employed openly and with carefully crafted righteous anger.
It will also be cast as a "favor" to the victims, as Silber notes:
...just as the genocide unleashed by the U.S. government in Iraq constituted a benevolent, disinterested gift to more than a million slaughtered Iraqis, and to many more millions made homeless refugees. "Freedom isn't free," our viciously stupid propagandists announced to the dead, maimed and displaced Iraqis, neglecting to note that it was beneath our lofty status to inquire whether the gift was desired in the smallest degree, especially when acquired by these methods and with the associated costs. (This assumes that "freedom" was, in fact, the goal, which of course it was not. All of this is propaganda, remember.)
The fundamental lesson is unmistakable, and unmistakably evil in intent and execution (a word made horribly appropriate in more than one sense by our government's actions): you will do exactly as we say -- or else.
Now comes the turn to the domestic scene:
Just as it is not possible for an individual to restrict what constitutes a fundamental psychological methodology to only one area of his life, so a ruling class will not employ one approach in foreign policy while dealing with matters of domestic politics in a radically different manner. In any case, the U.S. ruling class never had such a desire: in one way or another, other nations would be made to submit to the demands of the U.S. government -- and the same is true for U.S. citizens. The citizens of America will do exactly as the ruling class demands -- or else. As far as the ruling class is concerned, you have as little reason to complain as the murdered Iraqis do: the ruling class only wishes to improve your life. The ruling class acts only on your behalf, and "for your own good."
You now witness these tactics of intimidation and of the most transparently, viciously manipulative fear-mongering deployed by almost every member of the ruling class in connection with the bailout bill....I have several other news articles offering comments from other members of the ruling class, and I could easily find many, many more, all to the same general effect: be terrified and do what they say. Or else. If you don't understand the urgency and necessity of doing exactly what they say, you're just stupid. In that case, you should obviously turn your life and your money over to your betters. Let them dispose of all of it as they see fit. That's why they're your rulers, isn't it? They know what's best for you.
...The system is now set up so that when the ruling class is particularly intent upon a certain objective, even your obedience isn't required any longer. After all, what are you going to do? Move to another country? Not vote for any of these bastards in November?
Most Americans won't do that. They protest now; once the deed is done, they'll go back to their lives, such as they will be at that point, and devote themselves to making the ruling class more wealthy and more powerful.
To a terrorist government, you're irrelevant, as irrelevant as a slaughtered five-year-old Iraqi girl. But they'll continue to try to scare you to death. You're easier to rule that way.
I suggest you get used to it. This is your future...
In a later piece, written as the House was passing the bailout, Silber hammered home to the grim implications of the key role played by Barack Obama in its passage. [Again, see the original for copious links]:
First, Obama and the Democrats fully own the extortion bill. Obama and the Democrats, as much as the Republicans, are nothing but whores for the sickeningly corrupt financial and corporate interests that control the U.S. government. I've been pointing this out about Obama for some time. Furthermore, in their determination to make certain that the ruling class's affluence and power are maintained with the work, blood and lives of "ordinary" Americans for generations to come, both Republicans and Democrats have turned their terrorist tactics on Americans with close to full force. All that is missing are the bullets -- but they may not be long in coming as conditions deteriorate. It should be illuminating (read: nauseating) to see most of those who would condemn brutal police state actions when ordered by Republicans watch identical events in total silence -- and in this context, silence means consent -- because a Democrat orders them.
Second, and see an earlier essay for much more on this subject, Obama's election will ensure the death of significant political opposition in this country for the foreseeable future as much as any single development can....
To sum up: the triumph of the ruling class, again, the destruction of the present and future for all other Americans, and the annihilation of political opposition, all within a matter of months.
Remember: there were viable alternatives to the Bush-Obama scam. It did not have to go down this way. It happened because the bipartisan political elite WANTED it to happen. And they wanted it to happen because those who have bought and paid for them wanted it to happen. As the old saying goes, you dance with the one that brung you.
But an even more apt quote, perhaps, is one we have used here many times, referring to the remark that the Emperor Tiberius once made when a groveling Roman Senate gave in once more to his authoritarian dictates: "Men fit to be slaves."
:: Article nr. 47722 sent on 04-oct-2008 06:36 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=47722
Link: www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1622-shock-and-awe-bipartisan-belt
way-terrorists-launch-economic-911-on-the-american-people.html
:: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Uruknet .
Impending Economic Collapse in the U.S. and Death of Democracy...
Clive Maund
Oct 6, 2008
Politicians worship money and power. Every politician worth his salt secretly aspires to be a dictator, although they dare not admit this as it is not exactly politically correct. The ultimate goal of the consummate politician is to have absolute power, and be able to boss everyone else about, to have unlimited access to public funds for the purposes of profligate personal consumption and more importantly self aggrandizement, as well as to bribe and reward supporters, and to kill or otherwise neutralize anyone who disagrees or creates any opposition. The reasons that General Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, has become such a pariah are a combination of envy and hypocrisy. General Pinochet lived the politician's dream - he cleaned up Chile with an iron fist, and those who opposed him at times found themselves on a short one-way flight over the Pacific, which did not involve the expenditure of much fuel as Chile has a 5000 km long coastline.
The natural tendency of politicians to aspire to dictatorship and all the advantages it confers is of course at odds with the concept of democracy, which involves taking into account the views of others, or at least the views of the majority, so it could be said that politicians and the electorate they rule over have a permanent conflict of interest. It is for this reason that people who live in a democracy, and wish to continue to doing so, must maintain vigilance at all times and keep their politicians under close scrutiny and demand that they account for their actions. Failure to do so invites eventual dictatorship. Politicians are well aware of this and in the United States in particular they have developed sophisticated techniques to discourage citizens from holding them to account, some of which involve the exploitation of human weakness.
The principal technique employed in the US is to get people so busy that they don't have time to think about anything, and it is important to remember that with one person, one vote, this doesn't have to be everyone, just the majority. Thus, both men and women are encouraged to work long hours and coerced into accepting work with virtually no vacation time, and a sizable proportion of their free time is eaten up by bureaucratic concerns, such as paying bills etc. With what little time they have left they are often too fatigued to do much else and end up doing something like watching a movie. The long working hours and lack of vacation time also mean more profits for the politicians' pals and associates in the business world. Another technique involves what is called atomization in order to undermine the sense of community and the empowerment that a sense of community brings. This is achieved again through distraction, the principal weapon being the television, but also trivia such as video games.
A simple example of the way this works would be a person choosing to stay home and play a video game rather than going to have a chat with a neighbour. Still another important technique employed is obfuscation - making it hard for ordinary citizens to connect them with particular actions by acting as a group or through intermediaries. Perhaps the greatest factor contributing to the concentration of power and impending end of democracy in the US however is comfort. The majority of citizens have lived comfortable, affluent lives for many decades. This has led to unquestioning trust in politicians and a "leave it to them" attitude. Many people have more important things to do than keep tabs on what their politicians are up to, such as watching the ball game, drinking with their pals or going to the racetrack. The attitude has also been cultivated amongst all classes of society that "money talks" and "might is right".
Just a year or two ago when you stopped people on the streets of Chicago or New York and asked them what they thought of the huge salaries and bonuses of Wall St executives, a common reply was "What's wrong with it if they get results?" - the result of this attitude of course was that those with the power to do so voted themselves ever greater pay increases until the companies they worked for became little more than vehicles to funnel money into their pockets. Ordinary employees within corporations and companies felt powerless and that it was inappropriate and risky to question the actions of their "superiors", thus they gave their power away to business leaders in the same way that voters have given their power away to politicians.
The consequence of this progressive abdication of personal power on the part of the electorate and on the part of ordinary workers over many decades is the dangerous concentration of power into the hands of those whose goals in life are very different to those of the man in the street, a process which has been greatly accelerated by politicians and business elites gaining almost total control over the media who are now their servants and work assiduously to mould public opinion in whatever direction serves their masters' best interests.
The concentration of power in the United States into the hands of the elites and the concomitant disenfranchisement of the masses has now reached such extremes, that the elites no longer have to disguise themselves or even use subtlety. This was made clear by the passing of the "bailout plan", which most citizens were vehemently opposed to. After a few days of paying lip service to the voting public, they went ahead and passed it. The purpose of the plan is to sell vast quantities of near worthless financial sludge to the taxpayer at top dollar and the controlled media went into overdrive telling the masses that the system would collapse without the bailout, but they neglected to add that Wall St has known that this would happen for months or even years and that they will be back for another similar handout later, pointing a gun at citizen's heads in exactly the same manner.
The elites have almost arrived at their nirvana of dictatorial control in the United States. Milestones along the road to the servitude of the masses have included the takeover of the media, already mentioned, which was achieved by a process of syndication, the elimination of political choice by the reduction of political parties to just two, who maintain the thinnest facade of democracy, behind which the same masters rule, the endless mergers and acquisitions in the corporate world which have resulted in an immense concentration of financial and thus political power, the lobbying system through which politicians are bought by big business, whose interests they then represent, which accounts for, among other things, the vast defense budget, the events of 9/11, which provided the excuse for the predatory takeover of key strategic and/or resource rich countries in the Mid-East and also for the draconian Patriot Acts, that consigned the US Constitution to the dustbin of history and which have conferred dictatorial powers upon the leaders of the United States, which they can implement any time they like.
A crucial point to grasp is that the ongoing concentration of power and wealth over many years, both in the corporate world and in the political sphere, and the collusion between them has resulted in inevitable arrogance and resulting hubris, which is why, for example, the US Fed thought that it could override normal recessionary forces in 2003 and slashed interest rates to near zero, igniting the housing boom. This interference in normal market cycles has been going on for many years and its destructive effects are cumulative, resulting in massive distortions and misallocation of capital that have brought about the disastrous situation that now exists whose end results are likely to be hyperinflation followed by a deflationary implosion. The outright criminality fostered by the prevailing corporate environment in the US is what led Wall St to collude with the rating agencies to intentionally swindle foreign banks and institutions out of billions with their spliced and diced mortgage paper, and Wall St has been irreparably damaged by this debacle.
Payback time for Wall St and Washington will be when foreign investors fail to turn up at the bond auctions to finance the bailout plan, whose $800+ billion will have to be created out of thin air. So the bonds will have to be monetized, which will mean an immediate spike in inflation, which will cause the rate of corporate bankruptcies to soar as failing companies take down others in a chain reaction because the losses will be highly leveraged by credit default swaps etc. This is the underlying reason why banks won't lend to each other - they can't calculate the counterparty risk. All of this will set off a massive derivatives meltdown that will bring the whole system crashing down. At this point Martial Law will be declared in the US which will effectively be a lockdown police state.
There are similarities to the early 30's, one of which is that the collapse will present the elites with opportunities to buy physical assets at pennies on the dollar, and they may buy vast tracts of real estate, for example, for prime land, in full knowledge that the properties on them may get burned to the ground. However, unlike the 30's when families huddled together and helped each other out, and many people had basic skills and could make and grow things, the modern citizen is comparatively helpless and faced with a shuttered bank and empty shelves at the supermarket may panic and resort to desperate measures. For these reasons it is thought wise to have some cash stashed away and a supply of tradable gold and silver in a safe place or safe places.
Soon we will consider the likely impact of all this on gold and silver prices, both on the paper prices and on the prices for real physical gold and silver that you can hold in your hand, and consider the merits of gold and silver versus gold and silver stocks. Another subject we will turn our attention to is measures to improve security in conditions of anarchy or near anarchy.
Oct 5, 2008
Clive Maund
How to create the ultimate encrypted flash drive
http://www.anewmorning.com/2008/10/06/how-to-create-the-ultimate-encrypted-flash-drive/
thanks THG,
the shot gun does sound good, but wouldn't mind something for hunting also. slojon had some good info too. will do a bit more dd hopefully this week i'm armed
kairos
Kel-Tec SU-16 Review
http://www.equipped.org/Kel-Tec_SU-16_Review.htm
Looks pretty decent to me. If you are actually going to use for hunting...
Otherwise, shot guns win for "all purpose self defense", just pumping I am told can deter and intruder...
And you can get a good shotgun for 150 bucks or so...
http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/2005/09/home-defense-shotguns.html
Just a plain ol' wood stock shot gun...but I'm old school.
The other one is some AK-47 variant...ammo is cheap and plentiful although a big clue is pretty much all ammo has doubled in price this year...AK's take a beating and still fire, easy to break down and clean, etc...
Avoid most M-16 variants...
Hand gun: .45 medium sized is still my favorite but ammo is not as cheap or as common as 9mm has become, but for stopping power at close range .45 wins, for long range accuracy 9mm wins...again .45's will take more abuse than a 9mm...
SloJon is the guy to get to weigh in on this topic...
I"m looking to get my first gun. looking for all purpose self defense/hunting rifle. so far liking what i'm reading about the kel-tec su-16. advice and opinions welcome ....
Russia Invades Latin America
by Brad Macdonald
From theTrumpet.com
October 2, 2008
Russia’s dalliance in Latin America is part of the Kremlin’s broad campaign to undermine and oppose the United States.
Brad Macdonald You know there’s a lot going on in the world when one of the greatest geopolitical events in decades goes from being dramatic news to marginal news in a matter of weeks.
Sometimes news can be its own worst enemy.
Although Russia’s recent monopoly of the headlines has been replaced by America’s precipitous slide into economic oblivion, its resurgence on the global stage is no less significant or frightening today than it was the day Russian tanks rolled into Georgia. On August 8, a deep-rooted wedge was driven between the United States and Russia. That invasion, as has now become apparent, was a preliminary battle in a broad, calculated campaign to oppose and undermine perceptions of U.S. global hegemony!
“Russia’s attack on Georgia,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry, “marks the beginning of a dangerous new era in history.” We should not consider it a minor incident or an anomaly. That attack was a watershed event in a larger, history-altering campaign—a campaign that redefines Russian foreign policy, and which Russia continues to pursue!
Here’s what Stratfor founder George Friedman wrote not long after the events of August 8: “U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton had promised the Russians that nato would not expand into the former Soviet Union empire. That promise had already been broken in 1998 by nato’s expansion to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic—and again in the 2004 expansion, which absorbed not only the rest of the former Soviet satellites in what is now Central Europe, but also the three Baltic states, which had been components of the Soviet Union” (August 12).
For years, America’s dabbling in Eastern Europe and the Balkans infuriated the Russians, but Moscow was too weak to do anything about it. “The Russians … tolerated all that,” continued Friedman, “but the discussion of including Ukraine in nato represented a fundamental threat to Russia’s national security. It would have rendered Russia indefensible and threatened to destabilize the Russian Federation itself. When the United States went so far as to suggest that Georgia be included as well, bringing nato deeper into the Caucasus, the Russian conclusion—publicly stated—was that the United States in particular intended to encircle and break Russia” (emphasis mine throughout). For years, America prodded what it thought had been reduced to a cub. But in August 2008, it woke a bear!
Russia’s invasion of Georgia was a message to America: We are tired of you living in our backyard!
Since August, the breadth and depth of the Kremlin’s campaign to oppose and destabilize American power has come into sharper focus. Among the primary goals of the newly empowered Russian state is the resurrection of its Cold War-era influence, particularly in America’s backyard: Latin America.
“Russia must keep U.S. efforts dispersed and captured by events as far away from the Russian periphery as possible,” wrote Stratfor’s Peter Zeihan recently, “preferably where Russian strengths can exploit American weakness. So where is that? … No place better reflects Russia’s intelligence strengths and America’s intelligence weakness than Latin America” (September 15). Americans would do well to watch Latin America closely: For years we danced in Russia’s backyard; now the Kremlin is beginning to dance in ours!
Consider the Kremlin’s recent dalliances in South America, particularly Venezuela, with this broader campaign in mind. The Russians and Venezuelans have had friendly relations for years, but since August, activity between the two has surged. On September 10, two Russian Tu-160 “Blackjack” bombers landed in Venezuela. Not long after, the Russian government announced that it was also sending a fleet of Russian Navy ships, headed by the 25,000-ton nuclear battle cruiser Peter the Great, to participate in war games with Venezuela in the Caribbean in November.
Why would Russia go to the financial and political expense of sending its military all the way to the Caribbean to participate in war games with a relatively insignificant military power? Simple. Moscow is reminding America it has friends in the region, and that it is capable of causing trouble inside America’s neighborhood.
That message was punched home last week when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez met with Russian President Medvedev and other Russian leaders for two days of discussions. Among other agreements, Russia agreed to lend Hugo Chávez $1 billion to implement a military cooperation program and offered to help Venezuela develop and construct nuclear energy.
Talk about ironic. During the 1990s, when Russia was relatively powerless, Washington danced unimpeded around Eastern Europe and the Balkans, welcoming countries into nato, writing agreements for military cooperation and courting former Soviet satellites. Now America, by dint of its demonstrable lack of political will, is being reduced to the status of a geopolitical runt, and a strong, emboldened Russia is waltzing around Latin America, writing checks to petty dictators, seemingly selling weapons to anyone who wants them and generally fomenting anti-Americanism throughout the region.
“The Russians’ goal is to create a threat for the United States on its periphery in retaliation for nato expansion to the very doorstep of Russia,” Stratfor wrote last week. “Without any constraining ideologies, the Russians are free to shift their focus to creating wholesale chaos in Latin America” (September 26). U.S. military and intelligence resources are occupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of Iran, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Now Russia is seeking to precipitate “wholesale chaos in Latin America.”
It’s the Cold War all over again, except with some key—and, for America, sobering and painful—differences. Today, because Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and even Bolivia are already steeped in anti-American sentiment, the Russians have several easily exploitable safehouses at their disposal from which to disrupt America’s neighborhood.
Stratfor continued: “Where once massive state subsidies were necessary for creating a threat on the U.S. periphery, now Russia … need only send a few extra shipments of light arms to spark a little extra destabilization in a region already rife with strife. For the Russians, a billion dollars to empower a country already working to undermine U.S. influence is money well spent. And if the influx of arms destabilizes Venezuela itself …? Well, Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States. Either way it goes, Russia wins.”
Anti-Americanism throughout Latin America is providing the Russians with splendid opportunity. “It is abundantly clear,” wrote Stratfor, “that the Russians have a real interest in making trouble in the Western Hemisphere. And with the Russians actually spending money in the region, Moscow’s promises have suddenly become more credible” (ibid.). It’s the perfect symbiotic relationship. Russia, for a relatively small cost, gets like-minded anti-American minions willing to assist it in undermining and distracting America. Meanwhile, Latin America’s rogues, marginalized by Washington, get money, trade benefits, political support and credibility from an international power for merely intensifying their anti-Americanism.
The most alarming agreement announced last week was that Russia would support Venezuela’s efforts to acquire nuclear energy. “There is, perhaps, nothing more unsettling for the United States,” wrote Stratfor, “than Russian promises of nuclear technology in Venezuela” (ibid.). For years, the Russians have been a central player in the Iranian nuclear program, not just assisting with construction of nuclear technology and facilities but also proving to be a spoiler in the West’s efforts to stop the program and punish Tehran for its rogue nuclear activities.
Now the Kremlin is talking about doing the same with Venezuela, a similarly anti-American state just a three-hour flight from Miami.
What interest, other than helping create a major threat in America’s underbelly, does Russia have in helping oil-rich Venezuela develop nuclear energy?
Here’s something else to consider. Under Hugo Chávez, Venezuela has been transformed into a thriving hideout, breeding ground and staging point for terrorism and the black-market nuclear trade. Venezuela’s president counts the world’s most noxious terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (farc), among his friends, and uses state resources to provide them sanctuary. He is also close to Iran, the number-one state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Venezuela is already a recipe for disaster. Toss Russia into the mix, and the likelihood for catastrophe soars!
South American drug groups or Islamic terrorist cells in Latin America don’t need Russia’s money, “but they do need weaponry and a touch of training—needs which dovetail perfectly with the Russians’ strengths” (ibid., September 15). You can be sure the Russians would be more than happy to help out if it means creating havoc on America’s home turf. “Obviously, Russian state involvement in such areas will be far from overt …. But this is a challenge the Russians are good at meeting. One of Russia’s current deputy prime ministers, Igor Sechin, was the ussr’s point man for weapons smuggling to much of Latin America and the Middle East. This really is old hat for them” (ibid.).
How concerned are you about Russia’s efforts to reassert its power in Latin America?
The Kremlin now considers that region a battleground in its sworn campaign to undermine and oppose American interests! In fact, Russia is positioning itself to besiege the United States, just as God prophesied would happen to America: “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trusted, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee” (Deuteronomy 28:52).
Russia’s growing presence in Latin America is an indication that this biblical prophecy is on the way to being fulfilled!
We must watch Russia! As Gerald Flurry warned, Russia’s attack on Georgia “marks the beginning of a dangerous new era in world history.” That event was not an isolated outburst of aggression. Russia has embarked on a campaign to undermine and oppose American interests—and that’s what the Kremlin’s latest ventures in Latin America are all about.
But you also need to understand how this development fits with the overall picture of end-time biblical prophecy. Throughout the Cold War, Herbert W. Armstrong showed, based on revealed Scripture, that Russia was not the enemy America needed to be primarily concerned about!
There is another part of this equation. As we have indicated in previous articles, the European Union, Latin America’s long-time trading partner, has a vital interest in securing increasing access to the continent’s rich raw materials resources, in addition to capturing it as a vital outlet for EU exports. Ideologically, Latin America leans to Rome, not to Moscow. Its continental language is European at its roots. Watch for tensions to mount in the competition for Latin America’s riches as Russia and China’s efforts are increasingly met by overt action from the EU. Such tensions, added to the basket of woes the English-speaking nations already face, will stretch the U.S. and its allies beyond the capacity to cope.
With international ructions, such as are foreshadowed by current events in Latin America, rising toward boiling point, now, more than ever, is a time to watch world events. There is a way for you to escape the seemingly innumerable catastrophes that literally increase day by day amid this broiling world disorder. The Trumpet can help you do this. Stay tuned to this website; dig into our archive and investigate our literature. The faster world stability unravels, the more we’d like to help you understand the chaos increasingly overtaking this planet—and to escape it!
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=5573.3882.0.0
Indigenous Native American Prophecy (Elders Speak part 1)
Parallels Between the Hopi and the Sumerian Cultures
by Robert Morningsky [Comments on Hawaiians by THG]
The Hopi believe the Creator of Man is a woman. The Sumerians believed the Creator of Man was a woman.
The Hopi believe the Father Creator is KA. The Sumerians believed the Father Essence was KA.
[Hawaiian's Kane (KA NAY) Father creator god. Also their word for MAN.]
The Hopi believe Taiowa, the Sun God, is the Creator of the Earth. The Sumerians believe TA.EA was the Creator.
The Hopi believe two brothers had guardianship of the Earth. The Sumerians believed two brothers had dominion over the Earth.
The Hopi believe Alo to be spiritual guides. The Sumerians believed AL.U to be beings of Heaven.
The Hopi believe Kachinas (Kat'sinas) are the spirits of nature and the messengers and teachers sent by the Great Spirit. The Sumerians believed KAT.SI.NA were righteous ones sent of God.
The Hopi believe Eototo is the Father of Katsinas. The Sumerians believed EA.TA was the Father of all beings.
The Hopi believe Chakwaina is the Chief of Warriors. The Sumerians believed TAK.AN.U was the Heavenly Destroyer.
The Hopi believe Nan-ga-Sohu is the Chasing Star Katsina. The Sumerians believed NIN.GIR.SU to be the Master of Starships.
The Hopi believe Akush to be the Dawn Katsina. The Sumerians believed AK.U to be Beings of light.
The Hopi believe Danik to be Guardians in the Clouds. The Sumerians believed DAK.AN to be Sky Warriors.
The Hopi believe Sotunangu is a Sky Katsina. The Sumerians believed TAK.AN.IKU were Sky Warriors.
The Hopi name for the Pleaides is ChooChookam. The Sumerians believed SHU. SHU.KHEM were the supreme Stars.
The Hopi believe Tapuat is the name of Earth. The Sumerians believed Tiamat was the name of Earth.
The Hopi call a snake Chu'a. The Sumerians called a snake SHU.
The Hopi word for "dead" is Mokee. The Sumerians used KI. MAH to mean "dead."
[Hawaiian's say Maki (MAH KEY) means dead...]
The Hopi use Omiq to mean above, up. The Sumerians used AM.IK to mean looking to Heaven.
The Hopi believe Tuawta is One Who Sees Magic. The Sumerians believed TUAT.U was One from the Other World.
[Kahuna or Tahuna (TAH WHO NA) and TU AH TA are close linguistically...]
The Hopi believe Pahana was the Lost Brother who would one day return to assist the Hopi and humankind. The Sumerians would recognize PA.HA.NA as an Ancestor from heaven who would return. (Pahana is the purifier or the guy who comes at the end...)
[Hawaiian PauHana (POW HA NA) means finshed or end...]
The Web source for this article is no longer active. It was originally attributed to Robert Morningsky.
http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/parallel.htm
This rare collection of Mother Shipton's prophecies was sent to us by a NEXUS reader who told us that, thirty years ago, she painstakingly transcribed them and managed to smuggle them out of the Mitchell Library, Sydney (now the State Library of New South Wales). The originals were kept in a locked room, along with many other volumes of prophetic writings deemed unsuitable for viewing by the general public.
To our knowledge, this particular translation has never been made available to the public before appearing in NEXUS Magazine. While NEXUS published these transcriptions in an earlier issue (Vol.2, #3), we thought them worthy of repeating for the benefit of our newer readers, particularly in light of recent world events.
Mother Shipton reputedly was born Ursula Sontheil in 1488 in Norfolk, England, and died in 1561. She exhibited prophetic and psychic abilities from an early age. At 24, married to Toby Shipton, she eventually became known as Mother Shipton. Many of her visions came true within her own lifetime and in subsequent centuries. These rare verses from Mother Shipton seem to have prophetic indications for our times, but of course are open to interpretation.
PROPHECIES:
And now a word, in uncouth rhyme
Of what whall be in future time
Then upside down the world shall be
And gold found at the root of tree
All England's sons that plough the land
Shall oft be seen with Book in hand
The poor shall now great wisdom know
Great houses stand in farflung vale
All covered o'er with snow and hail
A carriage without horse will go
Disaster fill the world with woe.
In London, Primrose Hill shall be
In centre hold a Bishop's See
Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And water shall great wonders do
How strange. And yet it shall come true.
Through towering hills proud men shall ride
No horse or ass move by his side.
Beneath the water, men shall walk
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall even talk.
And in the air men shall be seen
In white and black and even green
A great man then, shall come and go
For prophecy declares it so.
In water, iron, then shall float
As easy as a wooden boat
Gold shall be seen in stream and stone
In land that is yet unknown.
And England shall admit a Jew
You think this strange, but it is true
The Jew that once ws held in scorn
Shall of a Christian then be born.
A house of glass shall come to pass
In England. But Alas, alas
A war will follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk
These states will lock in fiercest strife
And seek to take each others life.
When North shall thus divide the south
And Eagle build in Lions mouth
Then tax and blood and cruel war
Shall come to every humble door.
Three times shall lovely sunny France
Be led to play a bloody dance
Before the people shall be free
Three tyrant rulers shall she see.
Three rulers in succession be
Each springs from different dynasty.
Then when the fiercest strife is done
England and France shall be as one.
The British olive shall next then twine
In marriage with a german vine.
Men walk beneath and over streams
Fulfilled shall be their wondrous dreams.
For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze
To dress like men, and trousers wear
And to cut off their locks of hair
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomstick now.
And roaring monsters with man atop
Does seem to eat the verdant crop
And men shall fly as birds do now
And give away the horse and plough.
There'll be a sign for all to see
Be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And men live much the same as hogs.
In nineteen hundred and twenty six
Build houses light of straw and sticks.
For then shall mighty wars be planned
And fire and sword shall sweep the land.
When pictures seem alive with movements free
When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea,
When men like birds shall scour the sky
Then half the world, deep drenched in blood shall die.
For those who live the century through
In fear and trmbling this shall do.
Flee to the mountains and the dens
To bog and forest and wild fens.
For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds die and new be born.
A fiery dragon will cross the sky
Six times before this earth shall die
Mankind will tremble and frightened be
for the sixth heralds in this prophecy.
For seven days and seven nights
Man will watch this awesome sight.
The tides will rise beyond their ken
To bite away the shores and then
The mountains will begin to roar
And earthquakes split the plain to shore.
And flooding waters, rushing in
Will flood the lands with such a din
That mankind cowers in muddy fen
And snarls about his fellow men.
He bares his teeth and fights and kills
And secrets food in secret hills
And ugly in his fear, he lies
To kill marauders, thieves and spies.
Man flees in terror from the floods
And kills, and rapes and lies in blood
And spilling blood by mankinds hands
Will stain and bitter many lands
And when the dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself - too late, too late
For mankind has earned deserved fate.
His masked smile - his false grandeur,
Will serve the Gods their anger stir.
And they will send the Dragon back
To light the sky - his tail will crack
Upon the earth and rend the earth
And man shall flee, King, Lord, and serf.
But slowly they are routed out
To seek diminishing water spout
And men will die of thirst before
The oceans rise to mount the shore.
And lands will crack and rend anew
You think it strange. It will come true.
And in some far off distant land
Some men - oh such a tiny band
Will have to leave their solid mount
And span the earth, those few to count,
Who survives this (unreadable) and then
Begin the human race again.
But not on land already there
But on ocean beds, stark, dry and bare
Not every soul on Earth will die
As the Dragons tail goes sweeping by.
Not every land on earth will sink
But these will wallow in stench and stink
Of rotting bodies of beast and man
Of vegetation crisped on land.
But the land that rises from the sea
Will be dry and clean and soft and free
Of mankinds dirt and therefore be
The source of man's new dynasty.
And those that live will ever fear
The dragons tail for many year
But time erases memory
You think it strange. But it will be.
And before the race is built anew
A silver serpent comes to view
And spew out men of like unknown
To mingle with the earth now grown
Cold from its heat and these men can
Enlighten the minds of future man.
To intermingle and show them how
To live and love and thus endow
The children with the second sight.
A natural thing so that they might
Grow graceful, humble and when they do
The Golden Age will start anew.
The dragons tail is but a sign
For mankinds fall and man's decline.
And before this prophecy is done
I shall be burned at the stake, at one
My body singed and my soul set free
You think I utter blasphemy
You're wrong. These things have come to me
This prophecy will come to be.
These verses were on the outer wrapping of the scrolls.
I know I go - I know I'm free
I know that this will come to be.
Secreted this - for this will be
Found by later dynasty
A dairy maid, a bonny lass
Shall kick this tone as she does pass
And five generations she shall breed
Before one male child does learn to read.
This is then held year by year
Till an iron monster trembling fear
eats parchment, words and quill and ink
And mankind is given time to think.
And only when this comes to be
Will mankind read this prophecy
But one mans sweets anothers bane
So I shall not have burned in vain.
Mother Shipton
-----------------
This section was kept apart from the other and it appears to have been written together yet was in a separate jar.
The signs will be there for all to read
When man shall do most heinous deed
Man will ruin kinder lives
By taking them as to their wives.
And murder foul and brutal deed
When man will only think of greed.
And man shall walk as if asleep
He does not look - he many not peep
And iron men the tail shall do
And iron cart and carriage too.
The kings shall false promise make
And talk just for talkings sake
And nations plan horrific war
The like as never seen before
And taxes rise and lively down
And nations wear perpetual frown.
Yet greater sign there be to see
As man nears latter century
Three sleeping mountains gather breath
And spew out mud, and ice and death.
And earthquakes swallow town and town,
In lands as yet to me unknown.
And christian one fights christian two
And nations sigh, yet nothing do
And yellow men great power gain
From mighty bear with whom they've lain.
These mighty tyrants will fail to do
They fail to split the world in two.
But from their acts a danger bred
An ague - leaving many dead.
And physics find no remedy
For this is worse than leprosy.
Oh many signs for all to see
The truth of this true prophecy.
Vanga predicted break out of Third World War in 2010
http://english.pravda.ru/society/anomal/106459-1/
Front page / Society / Anomalous phenomena
25.09.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru
Pages: 12
There are not many people who believe in clairvoyants’ predictions. However, such beliefs stay strong until those predictions begin to come true. As for the predictions of the Bulgarian remote-viewer and healer Vanga (Vangelia Gushterova), people began to listen out for her words long ago. Vanga presumably became known for her predictions of global disasters.
For example, Vanga predicted the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, when she said that American brothers would fall under attacks of birds of steel. The clairvoyant also predicted the beginning of WWII, the perestroika in the USSR, the death of Princess Diana and even the sinking of the Kursk submarine.
Specialists also say that the renowned fortune-teller also predicted the events connected with the armed conflict in South Ossetia. Vanga supposedly said that the Third World War would break out as a result of attempts on the lives of four government heads and after a conflict in Hindustan.
Also read: Vanga predicted most horrible catastrophes
The presidents of four countries – Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland department to Georgia in the middle of the conflict to see the situation with their own eyes.
Vanga predicted that the Third World War would break out in 2010.
Vanga, born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova, after marriage Vangelia Gushterova, was a Bulgarian alleged clairvoyant who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh Mountains, Bulgaria. She convinced many followers that she possessed paranormal abilities.
Vanga was illiterate or semi-literate and she did not write herself any books. Her speech was difficult to distinguish and she spoke a heavy dialect (recent TV recordings used subtitles for the Bulgarian audience). What she said or allegedly said has been captured by staff members. Later numerous esoteric books on Vanga's life and predictions were written.
Vanga claimed that her alleged extraordinary abilities had something to do with the presence of invisible creatures, but she couldn't clearly explain their origin. She was saying, that those creatures were giving her information about people, which she could not transmit to them, because, distance and time didn't matter. According to Vanga, the life of everyone standing in front of her, was like a film to her, from birth till death. But changing "what was written on the generation" was beyond her power.
Apart from prophesying, Vanga was believed to be a healer, but only through herbal medicines. According to her, people had to heal themselves only with herbs from the country they live in. She prescribed washing with an infusion of herbs and spices, claiming some beneficial effect on the skin. Vanga did not oppose mainstream medicine, although she thought that taking too many medicines is bad, because "they close the doors, through which nature restores the balance in the body with herbs".
Vanga attempted prophesies of newborn or unborn children. She claimed that she was "seeing" and "talking" to people, who had died hundreds of years ago. Vanga talked about the future, although she did not like to. In her words, in 200 years man will make contact with brothers in mind from other worlds.[citation needed] She said that many aliens have been living on the earth for years. They came from the planet, which in their language is called Vamfim, and is the third planet from the Earth.
Followers of Vanga believe that she knew the precise date of her own death, and shortly before that she had said that a 10-year-old blind girl living in France was to inherit her gift, and that people would soon hear about her.
Legendary Bulgarian prophetess Vanga predicted most horrible catastrophes
Front page / Science / Mysteries
03.02.2006
Pages: 12
Her most shocking prediction was made in 1980. The blind old woman said: “At the turn of the century, in August of 1999 or 2000, Kursk will be covered with water, and the whole world will be weeping over it."
The prediction did not make any sense back then. Twenty years on, it made a horrifying sense. A Russian nuclear submarine perished in an accident in August of 2000. The sub was named after the city of Kursk , which by no means could have been covered with water.
Does the gift of foreseeing really exist?
Gone with a tornado
Vanga (Vangelia) Pandeva was born on January 31, 1911 . She died on August 11, 1996 . She lived in the city of Petrich , Bulgaria . She was buried in a churchyard of the Saint Petca Bulgarian Church in the Rupite region.
Vanga lost her sight when she was 12. She was swept away by a mighty tornado. Later she was found alive, covered with dirt and stones, with sand in her eyes. She became blind as a result.
Vanga started making predictions when she was 16. She helped her father find a sheep stolen from the flock. She provided a detailed description of a yard where the animal was being hidden by the thieves. Her powers of foreseeing took shape after she turned 30.
Many a statesman visited Vanga. Adolf Hitler called on her one day. He left her house looking rather upset.
The predictions
“Horror, horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush, and innocent blood will be gushing.” (1989)
Happened as predicted. The World Trade Center Towers in New York collapsed following terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 . The WTC Towers were dubbed “Twins” or “Brothers.” The terrorists drove passenger planes –“the steel birds”- into the towers. “The bush” obviously relates to the surname of the current U.S. president.
“Numerous catastrophes and disasters will shake the world. The mentality of the people will change. They will be divided by their faith…” (date unknown)
Happened as predicted. Bad times have arrived. Something is happening to the mentality of the people. Out time is rife with catastrophes and disasters e.g. last year’s tsunami, which clamed thousands of lives. We might as well cite numerous terrorist attacks and ethnic riots
“We are witnessing the events of paramount significance. Two big leaders shook hands.
(manifest reference to Gorbachev and Reagan). But we have to wait for a long time before the Eighth One will come forth and sign a final peace agreement on Earth.” (January 1988)
The predictions are beginning to come true with regard to the Eighth One at the very least.
By the way, during the Yeltsin presidency, Vanga already hinted at the next Russian president though she never called him by the name. “It will be a totally new figure. Zyuganov and Lebed are ruled out.” The Eighth One has already arrived: Russia joined the Group of Seven. Now it is the G-8. Making peace all over the word should be the next step.
“Everything will melt away like ice yet the glory of Vladimir , the glory of Russia are the only things that will remain. Russia will not only survive, it will dominate the world. (1979)
Still has to come true. At the same time, Russia did survive. The prediction was made in Soviet times when just a few people were using the term “ Russia .” It remains to be seen which Vladimir Vanga referred to. There are three real candidates: The Prince Vladimir, Vladimir Lenin, and our current president a.k.a. the Eighth One.
“The trains will start flying in 2018. They will be powered by the Sun. Earth will take a rest since they will stop extracting oil.” (1960)
The prediction is about to come true. Scientists intend to extract helium-3 from the lunar soil. The plans regarding helium production on the Moon were made public a few days ago. Helium-3 is both a product of the solar activity and a fuel for nuclear reactors. Nuclear reactors will produce electricity to power “flying trains.”
A piece of advice from Vanga
“Never take on the fools. They are not so dangerous as they seem, do not try to change them. Morons can do you more harm. They can do something that will cause quite a stir among all the people.”
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/75360-1/
Russian Navy Squadron heads to Venezuela: Deployment to Western Hemisphere unprecedented since Cold War
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10308
Are you high enough up the volcano to keep out of the way of the tsunami?
Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
Swiss Man's Prediction of 9.0 NW Earthquake Now Echoed by U.S. Scientists
Government officials in the designated areas urged to immediately create evacuation plans for the predicted resulting tsunami.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 22, 2008 -- Recent findings by scientific experts echo a prediction, from 2005, of a mammoth earthquake that will be centered in the Pacific Northwest. The prediction by Billy Meier, a 71-year old Swiss man with a remarkable, 58-year record of specific, accurate predictions, and the report from 2008 by Oregon State University scientists (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826124413.htm) agree on the likelihood of an enormous natural disaster occurring. However, Meier's warning also specifically mentioned a gigantic tsunami that would produce unimaginably devastating consequences for residents of the Pacific coast.
On June 25, 2005, over three years before the OSU report was issued, Meier published the following warning, "According to our preview there will be a seaquake of 9 points on the Richter Scale in the region of the North Pacific not far from the American coast, from Portland to the south of California up to Washington in the north. As a result there will be a gigantic fault of several hundred kilometers, when as never before, a seaquake-tsunami will spread in a ring form and produce immense devastation on the main land and on the islands, which will cost many human lives. The seaquake will last for about five minutes, to be followed by additional and less forceful quakes, which will trigger another but less severe tsunami. Some facts about this threatening danger are known to terrestrial scientists, but they are not capable of realizing the really/factually developing catastrophe."
OSU scientists don't foresee a tsunami and have a lower estimate of the magnitude of the quake than Meier. Neither they, nor Meier gave a specific date for the predicted events. Even with advance warning and monitoring of natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, the resulting damage and loss of life can be massive. But since the exact time, location and magnitude of earthquakes and tsunamis is rarely, if ever, precisely predicted, the resulting losses in life and property are often far more catastrophic.
It is incumbent upon all pertinent government agencies and officials in the designated areas to immediately create evacuation plans and to warn the population in the areas most at risk of the possibility of a tsunami, so that they can make their own escape plans for their families and themselves.
Links to Some of Meier's Prophetic Information:
The fall of the U.S. dollar, dangers of attacking Iran:
ALMOST ARMAGEDDON
MARKETS WERE 500 TRADES FROM A MELTDOWN
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09212008/business/almost_armageddon_130110.htm
By MICHAEL GRAY
Last updated: 6:20 am
September 21, 2008
Posted: 4:16 am
September 21, 2008
The market was 500 trades away from Armageddon on Thursday, traders inside two large custodial banks tell The Post.
Had the Treasury and Fed not quickly stepped into the fray that morning with a quick $105 billion injection of liquidity, the Dow could have collapsed to the 8,300-level - a 22 percent decline! - while the clang of the opening bell was still echoing around the cavernous exchange floor.
According to traders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, money market funds were inundated with $500 billion in sell orders prior to the opening. The total money-market capitalization was roughly $4 trillion that morning.
The panicked selling was directly linked to the seizing up of the credit markets - including a $52 billion constriction in commercial paper - and the rumors of additional money market funds "breaking the buck," or dropping below $1 net asset value.
The Fed's dramatic $105 billion liquidity injection on Thursday (pre-market) was just enough to keep key institutional accounts from following through on the sell orders and starting a stampede of cash that could have brought large tracts of the US economy to a halt.
While many depositors treat money market accounts as fancy savings accounts, they are different. Banks buy a variety of short-term debt, including commercial paper, with the assets. It is an important distinction because banks use the $1.7 trillion commercial-paper market to fund their credit card operations and car finance companies use it to move autos.
Without commercial paper, "factories would have to shut down, people would lose their jobs and there would be an effect on the real economy," Paul Schott Stevens, of the Investment Company Institute, told the Wall Street Journal.
Cracks started to show in money market accounts late Tuesday when shares in one fund, the Reserve Primary Fund - which touted itself as super safe - fell below the golden $1 a share level. It had purchased what it thought was safe Lehman bonds, never dreaming they could default - which they did 24 hours earlier when the 158-year-old investment bank filed Chapter 11.
By Wednesday, banks sensed a run on their accounts. They started stockpiling cash in anticipation of withdrawals.
Banks, which usually keep an average of $2 billion in excess reserves earmarked for withdrawals, pumped that up to an astounding $90 billion by Wednesday, Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrighton ICAP, told The Journal.
And for good reason. By the close of business on Wednesday, $144.5 billion - a record - had been withdrawn. How much money was taken out of money market funds the prior week? Roughly $7.1 billion, according to AMG Data Services.
By Thursday, that level, fed by the incredible volume of sell orders pouring in from institutional investors like pension funds and sovereign funds, had grown to $100 billion. It was still not enough to stem the tidal wave.
The banks knew something drastic had to be done. So did Paulson.
The injection of capital into the market was followed up by calls from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to major money market players like Bank of New York Mellon and State Street in Boston informing them that federal money was in the market and they should tell their clients the Feds would be back with a plan to stem the constriction in the credit market.
Paulson knew the $105 billion injection was not a real solution. A broader, more radical answer was needed.
Hours after Paulson made his round of calls to calm the industry, word leaked out that an added $1 trillion bailout of banks was being readied. Investors cheered. At about 3 p.m., news of the plans was filtering up and down Wall Street, fueling a 700-point advance in the Dow Jones industrial average through 4 p.m. Friday.
By that time, Paulson had announced the plan. It included insurance on money market accounts, a move that started in quiet Thursday morning, when the former Goldman Sachs executive saved the country from a paralyzing meltdown.
mgray@nypost.com
Syrian Tripwire For WWIII
http://europebusines.blogspot.com/2008/09/syrian-tripwire-for-wwiii.html
Russian Rear Admiral Andrei Baranov has disclosed that 10 Russian warships are already anchored at the Syrian port of Tartus. Russian engineering crews are widening and dredging the port to accommodate additional Russian warships.
The Russians are making clear their intentions of using the large Russian naval presence in Tartus as a deterrent to Israeli air strikes against Syria using the powerful anti-air missiles on-board the Russian naval warships. These missile systems can sweep the sky over most of Syria and knock down Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighters. This changes the balance of power in the air over Syria.
This also places a tripwire for World War III in place in the Middle East. Any attack on Iran will also involve a war with Syria and Lebanon. This will now involve Russian military forces in direct support of the Iranian/Syrian alliance. Russia is a major nuclear power with the power to destroy every American and NATO city. George Bush has just agreed to sell Israel 1,000 very advanced American bunker buster bombs for use in the coming war with Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.
The neo-cons are going to get most of us killed.
Stirling
Apocalypse Now?: New world order could have devastating implications for Western nations
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058601/Apocalypse-Now--New-world-order-devastating-implications-Western-nations.html
All manner of pics and great comment...
Algae As Fuel...
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=12572
Wish I had a transcript of this vid...very cool...
Compare this one tech with so many others out there and then read this piece:
An urban legend to comfort America: alternative energy will save us
http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/myth-3/
Some of us have faith in man and some of us don't...
Has there every been a time when the government didn't use economic crisis as an excuse to go to war?
Going back to the civil war...
We will have depression AND WAR...
Fabius Maximus
http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/myth-3/
Be sure to read some of the comments....
Good vids:
http://www.mcalvany.com/podcast/?p=41
It's all beginning to come apart now...
Rightly says this is thee largest/worst crisis in the history of the world...
Takes a wrong turn with respect to GOD...but you get the idea...forgotten GOD? (sigh)...take the good with the bad.
Says WaRshington...comes from the mid-west...overall good take on what's going on...markets are rigged...says it out loud.
WE WILL HAVE DEPRESSION:
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32209484
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=32208873
PREPARE.
Colemans are NOT desirable because they need mantles...so buy mantles lot's and lots of mantles, then get lanterns that don't need mantles...and use the matles for barter if things really get as bad as they could...
Which is why I need to get some better ones too...
Here read this:
http://www.endtimesreport.com/lighting.html
Thanks for the info. I have a Coleman's outlet less than 10 miles away I'll be visiting.
Regular ol coleman's and some great old fashioned hurricane wick lamps...I need to get some better ones too...
THG: What kind of kerosene lamps do you have? I need to get some.
Kosmos
B&H
P&A
Construction of Simplified Wood Gas Generator (actually put out by FEMA in 1989 believe it or not)
http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/support-files/wood_gas_generator.pdf
Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum emergency
http://www.gengas.nu/byggbes/index.shtml
Wood gas generator construction details
http://www.windward.org/notes/notes63/wal63_b.htm
You may take a ribbing, but all are welcome.
I am a firm believer in "let them speak..."
Constitution not just a goddammed piece of paper...
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Reading makes a full Man, Meditation a profound Man, Discourse a clear Man.
I will never be a convert, nor will I try to convert you...but you may be offended here so I'm warning you ahead of time. But like I said, ALL are welcome.
Those who surround me know I have a thick skin, and you need one too...otherwise feelings get hurt or inflamed even when no one intends to do it...
Still only 11 board marks says ain't many lookin' here...lol
thg, as you surely know, your's is a premium board and that is why there are not any outside posts. I am not sure if Christian posts are invited or mocked here, but if welcome I would advise all to be prepared. In my research the following site and person has the right approach towards understanding the times in which we live. They support their efforts by teaching materials which many find interesting if not amazing. If we all must make a choice, it is in our own self interest to make an informed choice.
http://www.jvim.com/
I am working on emergency food and other plans for if I am indeed "saved" some in my family are not. If it is all a crock, the world situation is reason enough to get ready for some trouble. Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Regards
Intruders shot after Texas couple wrests shotgun
17 hours ago
Loading... Must Read?Thank YouYes 627
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20080904/Intruders.Shot/
BLUE MOUND, Texas — When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice.
The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.
"I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms.
Although the intruders told her to keep quiet, she screamed for her husband. She told her 12-year-old son, who was awakened by the sound of the shattering glass front door, to get his 5-year-old sister and hide.
"It was like a horror movie," her husband, 32-year-old Keith Hoehn, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I thought I was a dead man. We're fighting for our lives."
With Kellie Hoehn clinging to the weapon's muzzle, her husband tackled the man who held the shotgun. She knocked the intruder in the head with a jar candle, giving her husband a chance to wrest the shotgun.
By then the tussle had spilled out onto the front lawn. Keith Hoehn shot one of the men who had a pistol, police said. Wounded, that man ran away.
Then the intruder who initially had the shotgun charged Keith Hoehn.
Kellie Hoehn told The Dallas Morning News that she screamed at her husband, "Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him."
Her husband fired the shotgun and the man fell to the ground. Then the shot man lunged a second time.
"Well, I shot him again, and I guess that was it," Keith Hoehn said.
Dakota Scott Benoit, 20, of Richland Hills, was pronounced dead at a hospital. John Garland Pierson, 25, of Haltom City, was in critical condition and in police custody at the hospital.
"I am not happy that someone is dead," Kellie Hoehn said. "But I am glad that my family is alive."
Police said Pierson was shot in the left arm and the bullet pierced his diaphragm and other organs but his condition was improving. He will face charges of burglary of habitation with intent to commit another felony, police said.
Investigators say the couple were just defending their family and probably won't be charged.
In Hawaii they'd be charged with manslaughter at leaste, murder of sort at worst. God bless Texas where you still have the right to defend your home and family...~THG
Historian Demands Action on Powerful Doomsday Cults
http://www.henrymakow.com/
September 4, 2008
eggert.jpg
by Henry Makow Ph.D.
A Munich-based historian Wolfgang Eggert, 46, has launched an Internet petition to demand action on powerful Jewish and Christian cults that want to instigate a nuclear holocaust to fulfill Biblical prophesy.
He thinks religious fanatics must be exposed and removed from power. He points to the Jewish Chabad Lubavitcher sect who want to hasten Armageddon to facilitate the intervention of the Messiah. Eggert quotes a Lubavitcher rabbi who says:"the world is waiting for us to fulfill our role in preparing the world to greet Moshiach" (i.e. Messiah.)
Their members include Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the Iraq War which began with an attack named after a Cabalist diety, "Shekinah" ("Shock and Awe"). Especially worrisome now is Chabadnik Joe Lieberman who visited Israel in March with his buddy John McCain. There is concern over Sen. Carl Levin who is Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Other prominent Orthodox Jews who might be part of this cult include Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and former Pentagon Controller Dov Zakheim, implicated in the disappearance of "trillions" of dollars.
While the Chabad Lubavitchers are his focus, Eggert is also concerned about Christian Evangelists like Jack Van Impe and Timothy LaHaye who are close to the Bush administration. Their desired scenario includes the destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque, the restoration of the Third Temple on its site; the rising to heaven of the 144,000 Chosen Ones; the battle of Armageddon; mass death among Israeli Jews and the Final Coming of Jesus Christ.
The power of the Lubovitchers seems uncanny. (Apparently they are rich.) On March 26 1991, the US Senate commemorated the birthday of founder Rebbe Menachem Schneerson as "National Education Day." It also acknowledged the validity of the Talmudic "Seven Noahide Laws." This at a time when all Christian symbolism is being assiduously removed from society.
When Schneerson died in 1994, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his contribution to "global morals." According to Eggert, Schneerson taught that Jewish and Gentile souls are fundamentally different. "All Jews are good by nature...Jews are the pride of creation, the Goyim (Gentiles) are the scum."
According to Schneerson, the Goyim still have a role in serving the Chosen ones. The Jews are the Priests while the Noahide Laws provide "a religion for the rank and file." Quoting the Lubavitcher rabbi: "When examining the chain of frightening events [since 9-11] with a Chassidic eye, we see that the US is being pushed toward fulfilling its historic role of teaching the Sheva Mitzvos [i.e. Noahide laws] to the world."
According to Eggert, Freemasons have always called themselves "Noachids" and incorporated the statutes into their Constitution as early as 1723.
obamachabd.jpgHere is a 2004 picture of Barack Obama meeting with Rabbi Yossi Brackman, Director of the Chabad Jewish Center in Chicago. If you look, you can find pictures of many major politicians in the West posing with this sect. There was a website that featured more than a dozen of them but it has been taken down. In this You Tube the current Chief Rabbi of the Chabad boasts of his rapport with Vladimir Putin. Eggert says Putin's mother is Jewish, which makes him Jewish, and that President Medvedev is Jewish on both sides. It's hard to say if they are beholden to the Chabadniks.
Eggert, who studied History and Politics at universities in Berlin and Munich, is the author of eight books on hidden history. He believes that all of modern history is influenced by Cabalistic plot to fulfill Biblical Prophesy. However, he is careful to distinguish between the Lubavitchers and other Hasidim who think it is a crime to "force God's hand" and "hasten the redemption."
Nevertheless, as Eggert surveys modern history, the Lubavitchers seem to be in control.
"Every part of modern history is linked to another and in itself to Zionism, state intelligence, lodges and alike. Without the Balfour declaration, there would have been no democratic revolution in Russia and no America into World War One ... We may start at any historical point (even with the American revolution or more far back Oliver Cromwell) [and] we´ll see, that the maker (or profiteer) of all this is Cabalistic Judaism. All serves their plan, to implement biblical prophecy."
Eggert cites World Zionist VP Max Nordau's speech at the 1903 Zionist Convention predicting "a future World War [and] peace conference where with the help of England a free and Jewish Palestine will be created." ( Eggert, "Israel's Geheimvatikan" Vol.2, pp.21-22)
He says the Zionists sabotaged Germany in WWI (strikes, revolts) because it wouldn't play ball on Israel. He cites a book in Hebrew, "The Historical Moment" by M. Gonzer: "We even find nations who are slow on the uptake and who find it difficult to understand certain relations unless the rebbe--that is world history--gives them some sensible bashes which makes them open their eyes." (Israels Geheimvatikan, vol. 1, p.47.)
Eggert is approaching prominent Jewish figures personally because he believes their support is most needed. So far he has a few prominent signers but has met with some official interference. Eggert wrote to me last week:
"My attempts to find prominent signers in advance were duped. I´ve written to 120 Jewish dissidents in America and Israel; everyone got a separate personal mail. It took me three days. in the first, say two or three hours of my campaign there were regularly mails coming back, with thanks or criticism or messages, that the addressee was absent. quick answers came from Noam Chomsky and the nuclear "spy" Vanunu and a high ranking security officer of the United Nations ordered all my books - but then, immediately after and within one moment all resonance stopped. and since then i haven't received any more answers, although i kept on sending one mail after the other. I think, that some guys are blocking or filtering my mailbox."
CONCLUSION
As we weather the election hurricane season, it is useful to remember that the same people control both parties. Sarah Palin is a distraction. A confection. A cosmetic blush. Her convention speech was written by one of George W's stable of speech writers. She was vetted and approved by AIPAC and Rabbi Joe Lieberman. Rothschild cut-out George Soros funds and controls Obama.
That's why I'll be signing Wolfgang Eggert's petition. It's important that they know we aren't all rubes, mesmerized by their tired old shell game.
---------
Wolfgang Eggert will be my guest Sunday on "Male Mentoring" 10 PM CT www.republicbroadcasting.org
Related: "The Jewish Crew Behind John McCain"
and my "What Every Jew (and Non-Jew) Should Know"
You can find this article permanently at http://www.henrymakow.com/historian_demands_action_on_do.html
September Surprise
Get ready for it…
by Justin Raimondo
hypertext:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13401
While the rest of the pundits opine about the meaning and implications of Sarah Palin's ascension from small town mayor to prospective vice president – and whether or not her daughter's private life is fair game for any media outlet other than the National Enquirer – those of us whose job it is to stand watch on the ramparts and report the real news are wondering when – not if – the War Party will pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat. For months, I've been warning in this space that an American attack on Iran is imminent, and now I see that the Dutch have reason to agree with my assessment. Their intelligence service reportedly has pulled out of a covert operation inside Iran on the grounds that a U.S. strike is right around the corner – in "a matter of weeks," according to De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper.
As the story goes, the Dutch had infiltrated the purported Iranian weapons project and were firmly ensconced when they got word that the Americans are about to launch a missile attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. They wisely decided to close down the operation and pull out.
Remember, the Israelis have been threatening to strike on their own for months: what's changed is that now, apparently, the U.S. has caved in to what is a blatant case of blackmail and has agreed to do the job for them.
We haven't heard much about Iran lately, at least compared to the scare headlines of a few months ago, when rumors of war were swirling fast and furious. The Russian "threat" seems to have replaced the Iranian "threat" as the War Party's bogeyman of choice. What we didn't know, however, is that the two focal points are intimately related.
According to this report by veteran Washington Times correspondent Arnaud de Borchgrave, the close cooperation of the Israelis with the Georgian military in the run-up to President Saakashvili's blitz of South Ossetia was predicated on a Georgian promise to let the Israelis use Georgia's airfields to mount a strike against Iran.
The main problem for Tel Aviv, in making its threats against Iran at all credible, has been the distance to be covered by Israeli fighter jets, which would have a hard time reaching and returning from their targets without refueling. With access to the airfields of "the Israel of the Caucasus," as de Borchgrave – citing Saakashvili – puts it, the likelihood of an Israeli attack entered the world of real possibilities. De Borchgrave avers:
"In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter-bombers in the event of pre-emptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter-bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran. And to reach Georgian airstrips, the Israeli air force would fly over Turkey.
"The attack ordered by Saakashvili against South Ossetia the night of Aug. 7 provided the Russians the pretext for Moscow to order Special Forces to raid these Israeli facilities where some Israeli drones were reported captured."
Reports of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 Israeli "advisers" in Georgia do not bode well for the situation on the ground. With the Israelis already installed in that country, the logistics of carrying out such a sneak attack are greatly simplified. Israeli pilots would only have to fly over Azerbaijan, and they'd be in Iranian airspace – and within striking distance of Tehran.
Faced with this fait accompli – if the Dutch are to be believed – the Americans seem to have capitulated. In which case, we don't have much time. Although de Borchgrave writes "whether the IAF can still count on those air bases to launch bombing missions against Iran's nuke facilities is now in doubt," I don't see why the defeat of the Georgians in Saakashvili's war on the Ossetians has to mean the plan to strike Iran via Georgia has been canceled. Indeed, reading de Borchgrave's riveting account of the extent of the Tel Aviv-Tbilisi collaboration, one finds additional reasons for all concerned to go ahead with it:
"Saakashvili was convinced that by sending 2,000 of his soldiers to serve in Iraq (who were immediately flown home by the United States when Russia launched a massive counterattack into Georgia), he would be rewarded for his loyalty. He could not believe President Bush, a personal friend, would leave him in the lurch. Georgia, as Saakashvili saw his country's role, was the 'Israel of the Caucasus.'"
Saakashvili, a vain and reckless man, now has even more reason to go behind Uncle Sam's back and give the Israelis a clear shot at Tehran. With this sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the Americans, the rationale for a more limited, shot-across-the-bow strike by the U.S. becomes all too clear.
After all, if the Israelis attacked, the entire Muslim world would unite behind the Iranians. If, on the other had, the U.S. did Israel's dirty work, with Tel Aviv lurking in the background, it would conceivably be far less provocative, and might even generate sub rosa support among the Sunni rulers of America's Arab allies. It's going to happen anyway, goes the rationale, and so we might as well do it the right way, rather than leave it to the Israelis, who have threatened – via "independent" commentators like Israeli historian and super hawk Benny Morris – to use nuclear weapons on Iran's population centers.
In terms of American domestic politics, the road to war with Tehran was paved long ago: both major parties and their presidential candidates have given the War Party a green light to strike Tehran, McCain explicitly and Obama tacitly, albeit no less firmly.
The stage is set, rehearsals are over, and the actors know their lines: as the curtain goes up on the first act of "World War III," take a deep breath and pray to the gods that this deadly drama is aborted.
~ Justin Raimondo
Wood gas:
Use grease or used cooking oil. USED. Not new.
Posted by: asus Date: Monday, September 01, 2008 11:32:56 AM
In reply to: None Post # of 21971
This is my friend's website: http://www.greaseandgo.com/
He sells a video of how to make your own used restaurant oil filtration and priming system to make automobile fuel. It's the real deal, he's been driving around for years on the stuff...
The one major requirement is that you have a mechanically diesel injected engine. The old Benz had one and that is what he drives.
I have some dear friends here on Maui who have converted a riding lawn mower, a Mercedes (which he also got for about 2K and it's SWEET, gold paint, clean interior) a little ford truck, a big ford truck, a JD tractor and a generator to run on SVO. (Straight Vegetable Oil, as opposed to gay vegetable oil)...they carefull convert each item after searching for high and low for them on the net...the diesel lawn mower was a real coup...I hooked them up with another friend of mine who owns a Mexican restaurant and they almost never have to buy fuel...the restaurant owner is happy because he used to have to pay to have his grease trap pumped...now they do it for free...every time they do it they get about three months worth of fuel...
I STILL DON'T HAVE AN SVO VEHICLE BUT I KEEP LOOKING. Everytime I find one they talk me out of it, like I found this sweet super nice Suburban but they tell me the engine won't do well with SVO and the conversion is pricey and iffy if I want a reliable vehicle...if I just want to run it till it dies go ahead...plus replacing the parts that need it is pricey and a pain in the ass.
So far all their SVO's run great except for the little ford truck but it was beat up when they got it..
Police raid headquarters of RNC protesters
ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- Police raided a rental hall used by a group organizing protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Friday.
Police on Friday raid the hall rented by a group planning to protest the Republican National Convention.
The RNC Welcoming Committee, which describes itself as "anarchist/anti-authoritarian," accused St. Paul police of trying to disrupt their protest planned for Monday, the day the GOP convention is set to begin.
Although no one was arrested, the group said police temporarily detained and photographed at least 50 people who were inside the building.
St. Paul Police spokesman Tom Walsh said they were executing a search warrant.
"The cause for the search warrant is not public at this time," Walsh said.
As many as 30 police officers entered with guns drawn, according to witnesses in the building. Watch members of the group at the scene of the raid »
Don't Miss
Republican National Convention viewer's guide
ElectionCenter2008
"The convergence center is simply a gathering place and is not used for illegal actions -- it is a place for workshops and trainings," a statement from the protest group said. "Tonight, we were watching films and sharing food.
"We are now accused of a simple fire code violation," the statement said.
Oddie Miller, a 19-year-old from Fort Collins, Colorado, said it was "just a space to get food, free Internet, community organization."
"There were no bombs or anything in there," Miller said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/30/rnc.protest/index.html
Russia wins backing from China
By Alexander Osipovich
August 28, 2008 08:00pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24256861-401,00.html
RUSSIA today won support from China and Central Asian states in its standoff with the West over the Georgia conflict as the European Union said it was weighing sanctions against Moscow.
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped the "united position'' of a summit of Central Asian nations would ``serve as a serious signal to those who try to turn black into white.''
The West has strongly condemned Russia's military offensive in Georgia this month and Medvedev's decision to recognise the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Ratcheting up pressure on Russia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union, said the 27-nation bloc was preparing sanctions on Moscow.
EU leaders meet on Monday in Brussels for an emergency summit to press demands for a further Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
"Sanctions are being considered, and many other means,'' Kouchner said in Paris.
China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan voiced support for Russia's "active role'' in resolving the conflict in Georgia, according to the draft of a joint statement released by the Kremlin.
Leaders from the countries met in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional group set up in 2001 to counter NATO influence in the strategic Central Asia region.
Yesterday, the Group of Seven industrialised powers strongly condemned Russia's recognition of the two rebel regions.
"We deplore Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia,'' said the statement from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith today summoned Russia's ambassador to Canberra to urge Moscow to pull its troops in Georgia back to the positions they held before the conflict began.
Smith told Ambassador Alexander Blokhin that Russia's decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent was unhelpful for Russia's ties with the world.
"They had a frank exchange of views,'' the spokeswoman for Smith said.
"Mr Smith stated that Australia respects the territorial integrity of Georgia and believes that Russia should abide by ceasefire arrangements and return to the positions they occupied (before the conflict began).''
Former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze warned meanwhile that Russia's recognition of the regions would boomerang on Moscow.
"They will live to regret it,'' Shevardnadze said in an interview in Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, adding that the move would "encourage separatist movements within ethnically diverse Russia.''
Russia claims it had to act after Georgia on August 7 launched an offensive to retake South Ossetia, an attack that South Ossetia's prosecutor general said today had killed 1,692 people, according to the Interfax news agency.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today called on Moscow to allow an international probe into the allegations of abuses.
''(Moscow) alleges that there atrocities were meted out on the South Ossetian population. Russia or South Ossetia must document whether this is the case and to what extent,'' Steinmeier told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.
On a visit to Ukraine yesterday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned Russia not to start a new Cold War.
But he also conceded that isolating Russia would be counterproductive because the West relied on cooperation with Moscow to tackle global problems like climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.
"The Russian president says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't want one,'' Miliband said, adding: "He has a big responsibility not to start one,'' he added.
Russia has lashed out at the West for ratcheting up tensions in the Black Sea and warned that attempts to isolate Moscow could lead to an economic backlash.
Officials said they were monitoring a growing NATO naval presence in the Black Sea, as the second of three US ships sent to deliver aid arrived in Georgia.
Moscow has accused the West of using aid shipments as a cover for rearming Georgia after the Russian military surge into Georgia this month left much of the Georgian military in tatters.
"Certainly some measures of precaution are being taken,'' said a spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov.
"It's not a common practice to deliver humanitarian aid using battleships.''
In a reminder of Russia's energy muscle, he also warned against trying to isolate Moscow.
"Any attempts to jeopardise this atmosphere of cooperation ... would not only (have) a negative impact for Russia but will definitely harm the economic interests of those states,'' Peskov said.
Russia moved its own naval forces to the Abkhaz port of Sukhumi, where they got a rapturous reception from Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh.
In Tbilisi, the secretary of the Georgian national security council, Alexander Lomaia, said Russian troops would leave the key Black Sea port of Poti today or tomorrow "as a result of international pressure.''
No confirmation of such a move was forthcoming from the Russian side.
In the Georgian port of Batumi, the second of three ships sent by Washington arrived with aid for some of the 100,000 people that the UN refugee agency estimates have been displaced in the conflict
ABC Reporter Arrested Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors
story
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1
video
DEVELOPMENT: Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging
By Thalif Deen
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43641
STOCKHOLM, Aug 22 (IPS) - A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.
"It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.
"I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.
Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water is outpacing supply.
The world's current population of over 6.0 billion is expected to rise to about 9.0 billion by 2050, with more than 60 percent living in mega cities.
"Since water consumption goes up where there is development and improved lifestyles, we can expect even greater demands on fresh water," Thunell said.
The most water-intensive sector, agriculture, is expanding and industrialisation and energy production are further driving demand, he added.
The conference, which was attended by over 2,400 water experts and government officials, ended with an ominous warning: that water and sanitation are not far behind the food, energy and climate crises.
Summing up the weeklong proceedings, the Stockholm International Water Institute said that slow progress on sanitation will cause the world to badly fail the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, weak policy, poor management, increasing waste and exploding water demands will push the planet towards the tipping point of a global water crisis.
According to U.N. estimates a little less than one billion people worldwide still don't have access to clean drinking water while over 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation.
The MDGs aim at a 50 percent reduction both in the number of people without drinking water and without basic sanitation. The deadline has been set at 2015. But most of the world's poorer nations are likely to miss the deadline.
Colin Chartres, director general of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said the causes of water scarcity are essentially identical to those of the food crisis.
"There are serious and extremely worrying factors that indicate that water supplies are close to exhaustion in some countries," he said.
He pointed out that current estimates indicate the world will not have enough water to feed itself in 40 years time, "by when the current food crisis may turn into a perpetual crisis."
Chartres said he and his water science colleagues have raised a warning flag that significant investments in both research and development and water infrastructure development are needed, "if dire consequences are to be avoided."
IFC's Thunell said providing clean water and sanitation services are not only business opportunities but also opportunities to improve lives. He said investors see an opportunity in the 450-billion-dollar global water sector, where stocks are performing strongly worldwide.
Private firms also regard water supply as a business risk and are tackling it as an integral part of their risk-management strategy.
"I believe the moment is right," Thunell said. "We can avert a crisis -- as partners, working together."
He said IFC will do its part by investing in companies that pursue opportunities in water conservation and quality, and by fostering public-private partnerships in the water sector.
But Patti Lynn, campaigns director of Corporate Accountability International, has a different take on the role of the private sector.
"The crisis stems from a confluence of problems, but perhaps no contributing factor is more insidious and correctable than the privatisation of the resource," she told IPS. "When people's access to clean drinking water is reliant on the profit interests of a handful of transnationals, all of us pay a premium and because of this many of the world's poor go thirsty."
Asked if the international community will meet the MDGs relating to water and sanitation by 2015, she said: "Not if we don't change immediate course."
For one, she said, the World Bank needs to stop making water privatisation a condition for their loans.
"If the Bank is truly interested in alleviating poverty, its conditions should take a longer view," she said.
Keeping water under local, public and democratic control is the most just way to insure the greatest degree of water access for the greatest number of people, Lynn added.
(END/2008)
Let's talk about World War III
By Nikolai Sokov
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH26Ag03.html
It is time to seriously contemplate World War III. The most important elements are already in place. Just as so many experts on the Caucasus have predicted, the region has become a power keg and the main source of great-power rivalry.
Obviously, disagreements between great powers go far beyond this region and, in fact, conflicts and war in the Caucasus are rather insignificant in their grand games and calculations. Yet the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Russia all have important symbolic stakes there - there are promises to local players and fears that abandoning them might hurt reputation and global standing.
Paradoxically, the chances of a major, global armed conflict have increased since the probability of a large-scale nuclear war has
declined to zero, in all practical terms. No one fears that the world will be annihilated, and thus the world is now deemed reasonably safe for a conventional war.
Let us try to imagine how World War III might start. World War I started with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand by Serbs in Sarajevo. The act was senseless - Franz Ferdinand was widely believed to be the more sensible and moderate member of the Austrian imperial family. Russia - the ally and patron of Serbia at the time - certainly did not authorize it, although there are rumors that some Russian diplomats and intelligence officers knew about the plans. Yet Russia felt compelled to intervene on the side of Serbia when Austria - predictably - responded with all its military might: just a few years earlier Russia had abandoned Serbia to the mercy of Vienna, and doing this a second time was deemed untenable. This is, in a nutshell, how World War I unfolded.
Let us move to the South Caucasus now. There is talk in Washington and Brussels that, following what is classified as Russian aggression, Georgia will soon receive a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for joining NATO. The prospects of membership are quite uncertain, however, because some members of NATO (aptly classified by Donald Rumsfeld as "Old Europe") are not enthusiastic. Yet in the United States the idea about "defending Georgia" is very popular, thanks to a large extent to the preidential election campaign in which candidates have been able to use the war in Georgia to their advantage.
In fact, Georgia does not have to become a member of NATO - a long process fraught with many impediments. It is much easier to simply deploy two or three battalions of US troops in Georgian territory to convert it into a new version of West Germany during the Cold War. Fifty years ago US troops in West Germany served as hostages: American deaths as a result of a Soviet attack would have inevitably drawn the United States into a shooting war with the Soviets. This was one of the more brilliant schemes. We do not know whether it actually worked because we do not know whether the Soviet Union actually planned to attack, but the logic seems sound.
The advantage of unilateral American guarantees of this sort is that the decision can be made quickly, it will score major political points, and avoid the inevitable squabbles of alliance politics.
Now, the truly wild card in the game of defending Georgia is whether the Georgian leadership - in the near future this means Mikheil Saakashvili - will be prepared to play as part of a team. One irrefutable fact about what the Russians now call the "five-day war" is that for years the United States very clearly and forcefully warned Georgia to avoid direct conflict with Russia. Yet, Saakashvili and his team went to war, and when they realized they were losing they asked Washington to interfere militarily. This truly casts doubts about whether the same people will care about the US's interests when they obtain "automatic" security guarantees.
Now imagine the repetition of exactly the same scenario a year from now. With troops in Georgia, the US government will not be able to stay away or back down. Whatever actually provokes hostilities, the US's pro-Georgian and anti-Russian version will prevail. This means America will be at war.
The Russians cannot back down either, and their pretext will be the exact opposite of Tbilisi's and Washington's. They will be at war as well.
Obviously, Russian troops can overwhelm the Georgian military, but they do not stand a chance against the United States. Active military doctrine has an answer to that - limited Russian use of nuclear weapons against the military bases from which Americans mount attacks and against command and control centers. We are talking about an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and perhaps a few US bases in Europe. Welcome to World War III - mostly conventional and spiced with a few nuclear mushrooms here and there.
The truly fascinating aspect of this gloomy scenario is that the two leading emerging economic and political powers of the world, China and India, are completely outside the game. For them, there are no interests and no stakes, whether real or imaginary, in a US-Russian war over the South Caucasus.
This is cause for hope. If we can safely live through the transition period as economic and eventually political power shifts from traditional capitals toward Asia, we might avoid a direct clash between major powers and nuclear weapons use. The way economic trends run these days, we only need to be lucky for a few years.
Dr Nikolai Sokov is senior research associate at James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies. He is an expert on post-Soviet security politics.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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A Collection of articles and posts that prepare the gentle reader for the disruption that comes.
Pure Ugly Ahead. May as well make the best of it.
"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." ~ Dresden James
"Men think in herds, go mad in herds, but recover their senses one by one." ~ Charles Mackay
There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. ~ Henry David Thoreau
OF COURSE:
http://www.loompanics.com/
http://www.canningpantry.com/
This is must a read site, has a bit of everything:
http://www.endtimesreport.com/
You can spend days reading it. The other thing you can do to prepare is "spend a week with the Amish"....
100 Items to Disappear First
1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy...target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
3. Portable Toilets
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 - 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
10. Rice - Beans - Wheat
11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY - note - food grade if for drinking.
16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.
17. Survival Guide Book.
18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
22. Vitamins
23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
31. Milk - Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
34. Coleman's Pump Repair Kit
35. Tuna Fish (in oil)
36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
37. First aid kits
38. Batteries (all sizes...buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
41. Flour, yeast & salt
42. Matches. {"Strike Anywhere" preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, "No. 76 Dietz" Lanterns
47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels)
49. Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
51. Fishing supplies/tools
52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
53. Duct Tape
54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
55. Candles
56. Laundry Detergent (liquid)
57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags
58. Garden tools & supplies
59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
64. Bicycles...Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
67. Board Games, Cards, Dice
68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)
74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
76. Reading glasses
77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
78. "Survival-in-a-Can"
79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens
80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
85. Lumber (all types)
86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
87. Cots & Inflatable mattress's
88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
89. Lantern Hangers
90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts
91. Teas
92. Coffee
93. Cigarettes
94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
95. Paraffin wax
96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
97. Chewing gum/candies
98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
100. Goats/chickens
From a Sarajevo War Survivor:
Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war - death of parents and
friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing cold, fear, sniper attacks.
1. Stockpiling helps. but you never no how long trouble will last, so locate
near renewable food sources.
2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden.
3. After awhile, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war
quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold's.
4. If you had to go without one utility, lose electricity - it's the easiest to
do without (unless you're in a very nice climate with no need for heat.)
5. Canned foods are awesome, especially if their contents are tasty without
heating. One of the best things to stockpile is canned gravy - it makes a lot of
the dry unappetizing things you find to eat in war somewhat edible. Only needs
enough heat to "warm", not to cook. It's cheap too, especially if you buy it in
bulk.
6. Bring some books - escapist ones like romance or mysteries become more
valuable as the war continues. Sure, it's great to have a lot of survival
guides, but you'll figure most of that out on your own anyway - trust me, you'll
have a lot of time on your hands.
7. The feeling that you're human can fade pretty fast. I can't tell you how many
people I knew who would have traded a much needed meal for just a little bit of
toothpaste, rouge, soap or cologne. Not much point in fighting if you have to
lose your humanity. These things are morale-builders like nothing else.
8. Slow burning candles and matches, matches, matches
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