Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for October, 2008

Living in a Corrupt World

Oct 20

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime | No Comments

So much corruption…

X-Small: The “real” Sarah Palin sucks all the oxygen out of SNL studios.

Small: Prepared with snips, boy scout style, dedicated political sign stealer caught on videotape.

Medium: TSA agent Pythias Brown steals $200K of travelers’ belongings, resells it on eBay, yet has the nerve to register at Crate and Barrel for his wedding.

Large: Reported in Europe but not the US that top financial executive salaries and bonuses are actually inversely related to performance.

X-Large: Your Life as a Human Test Subject

….

XXXXX-Large: JPMorgan Responsible for the destruction of US financial system

Life today is all about recognizing and grasping corruption, at ever greater levels, and opposing it whenever possible, while still functioning with integrity as a human being. If you can do that, you win.

Something could be up with Dick

Oct 15

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Media | No Comments

Dick Cheney has been absent lately, which may or may not mean anything. I have seen unconfirmed reports on deep conspiracy sites that he has been at death’s door for several weeks now, but who knows?

Though, of course, if that were true, and if he was near death or actually dead, unbeknownst to the American people, at some point we would probably see stories like this preparing us for his ’sudden’ demise.

“Vice President Dick Cheney, who was scheduled to make a fundraising appearance today in Homer Glen, has canceled, according to Andy Seré, spokesman for 11th Congressional district GOP candidate Marty Ozinga,” the Chicago Tribune reported early Wednesday morning. …According to the Tribune, Cheney was slated to attend a private, closed to the media fundraiser at Ozinga’s house in Homer Glen in Illinois.

So what’s next? Routine trip to George Washington University Hospital ends in tragedy as Dick Cheney’s heart collapses into a gravity sucking black hole, pulling the entire hospital complex and thousands of unsuspecting citizens into a parallel universe?

Just Because

Oct 15

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, Economy | No Comments

Over at UrbanSurvival.com they track linguistics on the web to make predictions. And the predictions have been really good. One thing they’ve been pointing out is the use of the term bailout, which we know the government no likey, and the strongly encouraged use of alternative terms like rescue plan. This would be your spin. The latest spin, a rare Quadruple Lutz, is to call the bailout a….wait for it….a buy-in!

Hmm. Umm…no. The correct term is:

bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout bailout BAILOUT Bailout bailout BAILOUT damned bailout Bailout

BAILOUT!!

Think about it

Oct 10

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship | No Comments

Bush has struck down Posse Comitatus. He has gutted the US Constitution. He has stationed US military units on American soil. From Wayne Madsen:

WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

What can save us from this outcome? The military would have to disobey Bush’s orders.

They would have to go against the Commander in Chief, in support of their oath to defend the US Constitution and in spite of Bush’s many signing statements and other shenanigans designed to circumvent the US Constitution.

“Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?”

“Every senior military officer’s loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President.”

“But if these are now legal. If they say, ‘Don’t obey the Commander in Chief,’ what happens to the military?”

“Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That’s what would be considered a coup.”

“But it’s a coup already.”

“Yes.”

Yes. Exactly. All the things that have happened already to dispose of the US Constitution, that annoying piece of paper, must be considered a coup. The Bush Regime has already overthrown the Republic, otherwise none of this would even be happening. As George Washington explains:

Remember that, for years, Congress has operated under “martial law” provisions which force Congress members to vote on legislation without having time to adequately read and review it.

Remember also that the U.S. has been in a declared state of national emergency for 7 years, and normal constitutional provisions were probably long ago superseded.

As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott has warned:

“The systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution would seem to be failing.

To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating [Congress' requests], then [the declared state of emergency] has arguably already superseded the Constitution as a higher authority.”

And remember that U.S. troops are being stationed inside the U.S. to suppress “civil unrest”.

Whether or not there is martial law in name, there is martial law in fact.

So this has become a game of semantics. Resisting a coup which has already occurred against the US Constitution, is simply resisting a coup. Resistance is an act of patriotism in defense of the US Constitution, which has been ruthlessly attacked. Again, the coup has already taken place by the Bush Administration and its Congressional and Judicial Enablers, Media Tools and Corporate Minions. They just didn’t call it a coup. They are saving that very speficic, emotionally loaded term to use against the American People and People in the US Military Who May Decide to Uphold Their Oaths to Protect and Defend the US Constitution from All Enemies Foreign and Domestic once those enemies start attacking the American people In Earnest.

But we have seen this all before. In exactly the same way that racist Zionist supremacists loudly accuse anyone who confronts them of being anti-semites, the Bush government will loudly accuse anyone resisting its tyranny as tyrants and violent upstarts trying to overthrow the Government, and Democracy, and Western Civilization, and All that is Good and Just in Creation. Ha. Such propaganda.

Ethically Rigorous

Oct 10

Posted by Marlena in Injustice, McCain/Palin, Religion | No Comments

How we got here, and how we get out of here and to someplace new and better, depends on each person individually.

Imagine the scales of justice, and imagine yourself as a grain of sand. You have exactly two choices. You can place yourself on one side of the scale, let us call it Truth/Good, or you can place yourself on the other side of the scale, Lies/Evil. Every decision you make, regardless of its complexity and trade-offs, ultimately results in you placing yourself on exactly one side of the scales of justice. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Now what has happened here, over a long period of time, was that a great many people began to focus on the complexity and trade-offs of their decisions. Decisions became complicated because the world became complicated, and one thing led to another, and we lost our way. People began to excuse themselves from ending up on the Lies/Evil side of the scales of justice. After all, we each are only one grain of sand. What difference does it make what one person decides? God will forgive you anyway in his mercy, don’t you suppose?, because he understands how complicated it has all gotten? I am going to pick on Sarah Palin for illustrative purposes, but this phenomenon is hardly limited to the Religious Right. It also finds expression in the teachings of the Talmud, and in the financial world, and in countless little ways throughout our daily lives. A corner cut here, a little shirking there…

Here it is writ large:

The Republican leadership and John McCain are counting on Palin’s grass roots sincerity that most Republican leaders no longer have. Palin is a true believer. And true believers put the mission they sincerely believe in — that God has “laid on their hearts” — above mere details such as truth or honesty, let alone honor. They also speak with conviction.

Palin doesn’t actually believe the rehearsed smears she’s telling about Obama, but she does believe that she is morally right in lying.

If lies will help her win, Palin believes God’s will is being done. McCain just wants to win an election. Palin has bigger fish to fry. Her “call” is to restore America to its “Christian heritage.” In that sense Palin is the product of my late father Francis Schaeffer, who helped politicize the Evangelicals into the Religious Right through his incendiary books such as A Christian Manifesto (1980) wherein he called for the takeover of America in the name of Christ if, need be, by force if all else failed.

This is Machiavellian thinking — the ends justifies the means, and it is an evil lie. The ends do NOT justify the means, and truth, honesty and honor are NOT mere details to be brushed aside when it seems convenient. What a travesty these people make of Christianity, and a mockery of God.

How does one possibly reconcile God’s will with lying, especially on this scale, to hundreds of millions of Americans? How does one possibly, with a straight face, believe that God would be forced to rely on blatant liars to bring about his will on earth, in contravention of every valuable teaching in scripture, especially the teachings of Jesus Christ? Do we think God does not have better servants to pick from? I assure you he does. They may not be in politics, but that is only because too many people have given themselves far too many excuses to be selfish, and so we get the politicians we deserve, those who reflect our own mockery and rejection of God and his will in our burning desire to affirm our own wills, and to hang our sins and crimes on the necks of our chosen scapegoats.

Each individual person must begin to hold himself or herself to ethically rigorous standards. We must do the right thing simply because it is the right thing, and in spite of possibly negative personal consequences.

Truth is radical right now, but it becomes less so with each passing day. Why is that? It’s because more and more people have placed themselves on the right side of the scales of justice, and as that shift takes place, the scales begin to move. And one of these days, one person will be the grain of sand that shifts the scales decisively in our favor. Will it be you?

Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The Release

Oct 7

Posted by Marlena in Citizenship | No Comments

As it appears (so far at least) that nothing really major, meaning no one big event like a terrorist attack, etc., triggered the language release discussed and predicted at Urban Survival. The day isn’t done yet, but so far so good.

So what does it all mean? The release language has started, and the guys over there have a theory:

well, Igor informs me that we shifted over into release language sometime around 6:15 am UTC this morning. [go read the items]

…Our best guess as to scenario goes to a continuing, inexorable, grinding down of the global economy as a result of the dying of the usofa dollar. We expect that each day brings more release language, and more behavior alteration which begats even more release langauge as it all piles on…day after day after day for months. With a few exciting release gasps thrown in just as seasoning on the mix.

Yes. I think to be even more specific, what started happening today is that many people are being released from their mind-prisons. They are waking up. Suddenly their eyes begin to focus. Suddenly they begin to comprehend that we really are getting screwed, and that it actually does matter! Who knew?! All those people bitching and pissing and moaning…they were right!

Well Good Morning, People! Come have a cup of coffee. There’s lots of work to do.

So…what shall happen next? I do not know, of course, but I predict that — scary as all the frightening possibilities are with the police state, etc. — that the suddenly awakened people will not walk like zombies into traps. In fact, I think people will create a relatively peaceful chaos as they attempt all sorts of things, independently and in small groups, to cope with the financial destruction. It shall be for the mighty powers lording it all over us like herding cats, as some people go this way, and others go that way.

You see, we are on our own. This is what has become and will increasingly become very obvious, even to those disinclined to believe such things. Bush doesn’t care about us. The bankers don’t care about us. Congress doesn’t care about us. The presidential candidates don’t care about us. Nobody with power cares about We the People, and nobody in power has any credibility whatsoever to tell us what to do. All they have is force, and should they be foolish and cruel enough to take that route, even that will fail.

Since nobody is leading, you are hereby released from following. Go in peace and find a way forward.

Naomi Wolfe: The Coup Began 10/1/08

Oct 7

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship | No Comments

Waiting to Exhale

Oct 6

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Economy, Israel, Obama/Biden, Sustainability | No Comments


What is really going on? I mean really. Under all the covers. Damned if I know. But perhaps we will find out this week.

The bailout or rescue or whatever the hell they want us to call it did not work, can not work, will not work. Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, et. al. used their last Get Out of Jail Free card to sell us this monstrosity. Any people thinking that this bailout fixed our problems will have a furrowed brow as the economy tanks. And since anyone who believed the bailout would work in the first place did not avail themselves of the alternative news universe, that simply means that the big lie will get mainstream exposure. Ruh roh, Shaggy.

The markets have done nothing but go down ever since we got “rescued.” (Click to enlarge, original here.) Now whether or not this has been pre-arranged, and if so by who, and for what purposes exactly, that’s where it all becomes very interesting. I have seen many theories and accusations, and I’m not sure which one to believe yet.

For instance, are the countries of the world united in desiring our comeuppance, as Mike Whitney suggests?

The US is about to join the family of nations and learn how to get along with its neighbors whether it wants to or not. There’s simply no other choice; the dollar is falling, the deficits are soaring, and the financial markets are in a shambles. America will either learn to cooperate or become isolated in a world that is rapidly integrating. It’s “get along or get out”; a message that Washington needs to learn quickly so it can adapt to a new power-paradigm.

Yes; plenty of money will still go into covert operations and CIA-sponsored dirty tricks just to keep alive the hope the Superpowerdom will be restored. That is to be expected. The well-heeled rogues in the British royal family still dream of rebuilding the Empire, too. But realists know that it’s just a harmless fantasy. Nothing will come of it. Empire’s have a short shelf-life and they’re impossible to stitch-back together. They usually end on a corpse strewn battlefield or in a towering financial bonfire which leaves nothing behind but a pile of ashes and shards of broken glass. We can only hope that the yawning economic chasm ahead of us all, will involve less hardship than we anticipate. But when a nation sows dragon’s teeth, it shouldn’t expect a harvest of sweet plums.

No mention of Israel anywhere though…I mean, it would be really rude to point out Israel’s profound influence over American foreign and domestic policy at a time like this (when it has all failed miserably), besides their power and ownership within the totally corrupt banking system (please don’t mention their connection to that abysmal failure), and certainly, Israel has not been too much in the news lately, you know, as they’ve been at other times…with everything turning to shit and all over here. The focus seems to be strictly on the US. Is that appropriate? I don’t know. It’s just something I happen to notice.

But don’t you worry. If Obama wins, he promises to increase US aid to Israel!

Obama would honor existing agreements concerning aid to Israel and would work toward “increasing aid to Israel to USD 30 billion over 10 years,” a spokeswoman for Obama told Israeli business daily Globes.

In the vice presidential debate last week, Obama’s running mate Senator Joe Biden said their administration would have to hold back on plans to double foreign aid in general, in light of the financial crisis in the US.

Most of US aid to Israel is in form of military aid and Israelis have received more US military assistance than any other nation. Since 1987, the US has provided an annual average of USD 1.8 billion in military assistance to Israel.

Right. Don’t know where the hell we’re gonna find that money to give to poor Israel, but if all else fails hopefully we can borrow it from the Chinese, like the $700 billion we borrowed to bail out the greedy speculators on Wall Street, and your great great grandchildren can pay that back by digging ditches with teaspoons or something.

But nevermind all that. The thing right now is to think positive thoughts. And I say that because in all seriousness, this entire situation has become so laughably out of control, and utterly unsustainable, that it cannot go on much longer. We must sink or swim, and we must do it now.

Well, I guess we’re all set then?

Oct 3

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, Economy, Injustice | No Comments

Right?

They got their way. They got their billions and billions, and we were told this had to happen or else!

So now the threat has been lifted, right? Isn’t that the deal?

Because surely we are all paying close attention from here on in. We just paid dearly for things to be put back in working order. And if things do not go directly to working order, then I’m pretty sure we’re all going to notice. And that will be very problematic for the people who just promised to fix all the problems if only we paid them enough money.

Don’t think of this as a liability on our balance sheet. Think of it as a liability on their balance sheet. It will be rather obvious when they screw us next week.

I’m suggesting that might be a good thing, as all pretenses will soon be finally and irrevocably discarded. The truth is going to come out for all to see, and the tables are going to turn. We have something very powerful on our side, and it’s not money.

Hostages

Oct 2

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, Economy | No Comments

I could be completely wrong, please understand. I am merely giving you my opinion, which has not been arrived at by any scientific process whatsoever. It would almost be fair to say I am pulling this out of my ass, except for the fact that before I did I ran around the interweb block 1000 times. In any event, I think we’ll all find out soon enough.

I’m not going way out on a limb here to say that we have a criminal rogue government. Just recently some people met in Massachusetts to discuss ways to bring the criminal rouge government to justice for their war crimes, so this is hardly a groundbreaking development.

And the leaders of our rogue government at this point in time, namely Bush, Cheney, Paulson, Pelosi, Reid, etc., have some serious problems on their hands. Foreign investors are owed money, which apparently they feel was stolen, and they want to be paid, and they are running out of patience waiting. But our rogue government does not want to pay out of their own pockets, which are full of said stolen money, so they have bound and gagged and pushed forward the beleaguered American people to mollify the foreign investors. That’s your Hank Paulson Bailout Plan, or “Rescue,” as in we are supposed to rescue the rouge government from the consequences of their own stealing.

This tense situation could evolve in a couple of directions. People pushing the bailout think that the foreign investors will go away muttering under their breath and be somewhat satisfied to take a hunk out of each one of us and our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Supposedly that ’solves’ the ‘problem,’ meaning they get away with their crimes. But if the bailout is rejected, either the foreign investors will pull the plug on the US financial system to get at the rogue government, OR, our rogue government will pull the plug on us to force us to pay the foreign investors under duress. They are clearly not above using a little torture to elicit the desired response from their captives. Or there may be some kind of false flag terrorist attack to provide cover. Basically, we are about to become human shields as they plan the biggest getaway of all time.

And should we let them get away with that? I think not.