Daily Archives: January 24, 2014

01/24/14

A “Train Wreck”

Arlene from Israel

I’m been so focused on Israeli issues that I haven’t written about Iran and its nuclear aspirations for a while. But now it seems very necessary.

It has been crystal clear to me that Obama – I won’t say was “had” by Iran – but rather that he was willingly permitting himself to be had. That he went along with a deal that on the face of it was not good and didn’t bargain tough.

But there’s more. An interim deal of some sort was struck with Iran and now a final deal is supposed to be negotiated. The first problem here is that the Obama administration refuses to publicly release the details of how that interim agreement – the Joint Plan of Action – is to be implemented. What is evolving is a picture in which the president has misrepresented to his own public what that Plan of Action includes. The implications here are huge.

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See here a White House “fact sheet” released when terms were arrived at in November (although the interim agreement did not go into effect then):

“President Obama has been clear that achieving a peaceful resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is in America’s national security interest. Today, the P5+1 [the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany] and Iran reached a set of initial understandings that halts the progress of Iran’s nuclear program and rolls it back in key respects.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/11/23/fact-sheet-first-step-understandings-regarding-islamic-republic-iran-s-n

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Then see a CNN interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who says the White House “both underplays [Western] concessions and overplays the Iranian commitment.”

http://freebeacon.com/iranian-foreign-minister-we-did-not-agree-to-dismantle-anything/

This interview was followed by an interview by Fareed Zakaria of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, which is the clincher: http://bit.ly/1cZJR0s. Listen to the entire four minutes and hear what Zakaria has to say. I borrowed the term “train wreck” – a description of the deal with Iran – from him.

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Then let’s see what Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, has to say about the situation, in “World Powers Surrendered to Iran” (Emphasis added):

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week tweeted a declaration of diplomatic victory: “In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iran’s national will.” In response, White House press secretary Jay Carney said not to worry: ‘It doesn’t matter what they say. It matters what they do.’

“OK, so what are they doing? Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s chief negotiator, has provided the answer. ‘No facility will be closed; enrichment will continue, and qualitative nuclear research will be expanded,’ he said. ‘All research into a new generation of centrifuges will continue.’ Iran also is sending warships into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in history — a not-so-subtle message, perhaps?

“The Geneva agreement does slow Iran’s timeline for the development of nuclear weapons — by a month. Yes, that’s right: If Iran’s rulers faithfully comply with every commitment they have so far made, at the end of this six-month period, they will be about three months — instead of two months — away from breakout capacity.

“In exchange, the U.S. and other “world powers” have given the revolutionary regime, long the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, additional time — perhaps as much as a year — to continue developing nuclear warheads, triggers and ballistic missiles. Plus there is sanctions relief sufficient to remove the threat of an impending Iranian economic crisis. Iran’s economy already is recovering.”

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7119

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Oft times I have wondered what it takes to arouse the sleeping American electorate. When will they understand that they are being betrayed by the man in the White House?

The information I have provided here should be shared very broadly.

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The World Economic Forum is currently meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Rouhani are in attendance. Netanyahu – who is a lone voice in warning the world about Iran – spoke from that setting about Rouhani’s on-going charm offensive:

“Rouhani can say something, but it doesn’t make it real. It sounds nice but it is false. [Rouhani’s conciliatory words] have no connection to what is going on on the ground.”

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Since Netanyahu has his eyes wide open with regard to Iran, and is determined that Iran, in the end, should not go nuclear, I will close here with this piece from Ilan Berman, Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council, in “Israel Keeps It’s Options Open on Iran.”

“Is an Israeli military attack against Iran truly off the table? Conventional wisdom certainly seems to think that it is. In the aftermath of the signing of an interim nuclear deal in Geneva this past November, the foreign policy cognoscenti in Washington, and elsewhere, have been vocal about the fact that they believe the bell has effectively tolled on the possibility of Israeli military action.

“The view from Israel, however, is far less settled. Take a new report in Israel Defense, a well-regarded strategic intelligence newsletter, which suggests that planning for a military option against Iran hasn’t been tabled, just postponed pending the outcome of the current negotiating track between Iran and the P5+1 powers (the U.S., France, Russia, China, Great Britain and Germany). As the analysis points out, for Israel the operative element of the diplomatic thaw now underway between the Islamic Republic and the West is whether it truly results in an end to Tehran’s pursuit of the atomic bomb.

“’For Jerusalem… the existing political circumstances allow no viable political option for an attack, but the situation can change within months,’ the Israel Defense report concludes. ‘If Israel manages to gather intelligence evidence that Iran continues to “work” on the atomic bomb, the Cabinet may convene dramatic meetings and order [an] attack in the near summer or fall months.’

“The message is crystal clear. As far as the Israeli government is concerned, the hard choices facing the international community about precisely what lengths it will need to go to in order to prevent the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran haven’t been resolved. They have only been deferred—and perhaps not for all that long.” (Emphasis added)

http://www.ilanberman.com/14335/israel-keeps-its-options-open-on-iran

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As Shabbat comes early, I will close here and return to all other issues after Shabbat.

01/24/14

Sugar Daddies for the Global Left

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

It turns out that abortion zealot Wendy Davis of Texas was put through law school by a wealthy husband who took care of her children. She had been depicted by the liberal media, including The Huffington Post, as a struggling single teenage mom who made it on her own. But the curiosities don’t end there. Arianna Huffington has her own sugar daddy—Nicolas Berggruen, a German-born billionaire who has just provided her with the big money for a new global media venture, The World Post.

The Huffington Post, a platform for advocates of abortion and homosexual rights and marijuana legalization, was named after Arianna Huffington’s ex-husband, Michael Huffington, who was born rich and then turned gay. She used his money from a divorce settlement to start the on-line news service in 2005.

One of her co-founders, the late Andrew Breitbart, left in disgust over its leftist tilt to start a conservative alternative, now called Breitbart News.

The Huffington Post specializes in covering alleged “shocking” statements by conservatives and Republicans, and demonizing those who disagree with the “progressive” agenda. It has been described by critics as a platform for “anti-Israel hate speech and anti-Semitism,” as well as a mouthpiece for Al Jazeera and various terrorist groups. It employs personnel from Al Jazeera and Moscow-funded Russia Today, and even hosts a blog written by Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

In this case, with the launch of The World Post at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Huffington is really going global.

The theme of this year’s 44th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business,” which means not only saluting China’s emergence as a global power, but facilitating Iran’s entry into the “international community” as one of the world’s future top 10 economies.

Several hundred major corporations and foundations finance the World Economic Forum, making it a powerhouse on the global stage.

Huffington’s new partner, Berggruen, also finances the Berggruen Institute. It is dedicated to “the design and implementation of new ideas of good governance—drawing from practices in both East and West—that can be brought to bear on the common challenges of globalization in the 21st century.” It also wants to create institutions to “competently manage the global links of interdependence.”

The World Post fits in nicely with the theme of this year’s meeting, outlined in the release of a document, “Global Risks 2014,” which complains that “weak or inadequate global institutions” have impeded attempts “to cooperate on addressing global risks.”

Translated into ordinary language, this means the convergence of the capitalist and communist systems, leading to some form of one world government. And The World Post is shaping up as the house organ for this new world order.

Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels, who is editor-in-chief of The World Post, have written the book, Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way between West and East.

In other words, capitalism is finished. It fulfills the vision of another billionaire, George Soros, the hedge fund operator who has declared capitalism to be the real global threat to the world. Soros is a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum and is there this time as well.

Echoing the view that America is in decline under President Obama, the home page of the Berggruen organization openly declares, “The great transition of our time is from American-led globalization” to “the interdependence of plural identities,” as “the dominance of the West recedes with the rise of the rest.”

Those “plural identities” are American adversaries and enemies.

However, the “ideas of good governance” from the East, highlighted by a lead interview in The World Post with the Chinese president, come at a time when a CNN crew has been “roughed up” in China while trying to cover the trial of a human rights lawyer.

Interestingly, a new survey shows that Chinese communist leaders preside over far more “inequality” than the “capitalist” political leaders in America.

But Chinese communism is a system the elites can work with.

This emerging new world order will also include terrorist regimes like Iran, whose President Hassan Rouhani recently delivered a “message of friendship and hope” to the global elites in Davos.

“My social, political, economic view is one of prudent moderation,” Rouhani declared. “Iran-U.S. relations have entered a new phase.”

Other leaders attending and speaking at the event come from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Korea and Britain.

Although President Obama is not attending, several Obama administration officials will be there. Plus, former Democratic Vice President Al Gore is a featured speaker on “climate change.”

Huffington’s World Post figures to be an international version of The Huffington Post, which regards new sanctions on Iran as an unseemly rush to “war.” It vigorously supports Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, which is also backed by China and Russia.

According to his biography, World Post editor Gardels was executive director of the Institute for National Strategy where he conducted policy research at the USA-Canada Institute in Moscow before the end of the Cold War, and also at the People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. The USA-Canada Institute in Moscow was a Soviet Communist Party-run organization “created solely to serve Soviet intelligence organizations and needs,” the Heritage Foundation noted in a 1982 study.

The pro-communist tone of The World Post is unmistakable: “Even many liberals in China today doubt whether one-person-one-vote multiparty democracy is the best way to govern a society as large and complex as China,” Gardels writes.

According to these “liberals,” he adds, “…the [Chinese] Communist Party, afflicted as it may be with corruption and princeling privilege, is not a dictatorship. For them it is a 78 million strong consensus-forming body that arrives at agreement on long-term policies and then grants the collective leadership the power to decisively implement them.”

“To become truly global in their outlook, the Davos elites must widen their view to take into account the path set by China’s leaders,” his article advises.

The launch of Huffington’s new publication featured Chrystia Freeland speaking “on the growing backlash against the world’s super-rich,” and the publication of her article for The World Post headlined, “Thanks to Pope Francis, Revolt Against the Global Super-Rich Is Underway.”

Yet the super-rich are running this show and financing The World Post.

In his special message to the group, Pope Francis “called on the world’s business and political leaders to use determination and far-sightedness in their efforts to promote inclusiveness and rid the world of social exclusion,” according to a press release. “I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it,” the pope said in his official remarks.

The message was read by Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who played a role in formulating a Vatican document calling for the creation of a “central world bank.”

The Vatican had previously called for a “world political authority” to be created.

Echoing a Democratic Party 2014 political campaign theme, in order to divert attention away from government failures on health care and jobs, a press release said the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2014 report “finds income disparity the most likely risk to cause an impact on a global scale in the next decade.”

Translated into ordinary language, this means more “redistribution of the wealth,” this time on a global scale. Make way for the transition from capitalism to socialism.

The Pope meets with Obama in March for what the White House calls a discussion on “their shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality.”

In addition to Arianna Huffington, whose official titles include chair, president, and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, other media figures at the World Economic Forum include:

  • Fareed Zakaria, CNN
  • Ali Velshi, Al Jazeera America
  • Stephanie Ruhle, Bloomberg Television
  • Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business Network
  • Gerard Baker, The Wall Street Journal

Despite the presence of these Big Media personalities, it is doubtful that the details surrounding the rather explicit push for global government at Davos will be reported to the American people and exposed for what it is.

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.

01/24/14

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results – 01/24/14

The Watcher’s Council

The New Progressive McCarthyism

The Persecution of Conservatives in Hollywood

Hear! Hear! Trevor Loudon at The 2014 SC TEA Party in Myrtle Beach, Warning of the ‘Enemies Within’

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” – Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto Von Bismark

“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” – Walter Lippmann

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable, Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It, is my analysis of the long delayed Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Benghazi debacle. Here’s a slice:

The bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its long-delayed report on the Benghazi attack, and based on what it said, it’s pretty understandable why some of the Democrats on the committee strung things out as long as they could and fought over the wording. But some things simply give off too foul a stench for any perfume to make a difference.

The committee’s minority Republicans criticized the White House for obstructing the report, which the committee had wanted to complete much earlier, and openly accused Patrick Kennedy, U.S. undersecretary of State for Management of shielding the Obama administration from Congressional oversight.

Of course, Kennedy was also concentrating on covering his own behind. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who normally votes with the Democrats an dis the very epitome of bi-partisanship angrily made a point of saying that Kennedy “failed to ensure that a facility he personally approved in December 2011 had the necessary security to match the heightened threat environment.”

The committee’s report said that Benghazi was entirely preventable, and that the State Department failed to increase security at the Benghazi consulate in spite numerous warnings. As I’ve mentioned on these pages before,even the Brits and the International Red Cross had pulled their people out because Benghazi, thanks to President Obama’s timely intervention had become a major headquarters for al-Qaeda and other Islamists. Anyone who knows anything about Ansar al Shariah and its connections to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) understood that a long time ago.

The report states, unequivocally: “Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.”

The very fact that mortars and other heavy weapons were used points to long time planning. A mortar isn’t like a Kalishnikov. It takes training, and it takes time to scope out ranges and angles of fire.

Georgia Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss summarized the report, saying,

“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

Another thing that came out is that the entire ‘protest over a video’ narrative pushed by the president, Mrs. Clinton, Jay Carney, Susan Rice and goodness knows how many others was an outright lie…and just like ObamaCare, they lied knowingly, although the report doesn’t put it in such blunt terms.

What we were told – conveniently after the 2012 elections- is that the original fairy tales about the video and a spontaneous protest occurred because the situation ‘was developing.’

It wasn’t.

In fact, the FBI interviewed the Benghazi survivors over a three-day period right after the attack, when they were still being prevented from speaking to anyone. None of them reported a protest or a demonstration.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) said that “The FBI confirmed to me that when they interviewed the survivors on the 15th the 16th and the 17th [of September], not one person ever mentioned anything other than a terrorist attack. No one mentioned a protest outside the consulate.”

“So, how could the Obama administration come up with a protest story if everybody on the ground during the attack said it was a terrorist attack and there was no protest?” he asked.

Trust me, the stench increases. Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, we had a tie between Neo NeoCon with “Wendy Davis: ‘empowerment’ and the poor little woman; “struggle” and the man”, submitted by The Glittering Eye and Kevin Williamson/NRO for The White Ghetto, submitted by Joshuapundit, a beautiful and haunting portrait of Appalachia.

I was torn on this one… I honestly like Wiliamson’s piece a lot more personally, but while the totals were the same, Neo Neocon got more individual votes among the Council and it’s a really nice piece, so I’m calling it that way.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in… don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!

01/24/14

The Power and Ruling Elite

askmarion

Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world

That’s right… the new report from British humanitarian group Oxfam International has revealed 85 richest people in the world own and have accumulated as much as the World’s Poorest 3.5 Billion People Combined — $1.7 trillion —

And as World Economic Forum starts in Davos, development charity claims growing inequality has been driven by ‘power grab’

The InterContinental Davos luxury hotel in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos. Oxfam report found people in countries around the world believe that the rich have too much influence over the direction their country is heading. Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/REUTERS

The World’s Billionaires

How Rich Is The Power Weilding Rothschild Family and Why Aren’t They and the Royals on These Lists?

What The British Royals Are Worth? A Lot. But They Don’t Own It All

By Marion Algier – Ask Marion

the guardian: The world’s wealthiest people aren’t known for travelling by bus, but if they fancied a change of scene then the richest 85 people on the globe – who between them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together – could squeeze onto a single double-decker.

The extent to which so much global wealth has become corralled by a virtual handful of the so-called ‘global elite’ is exposed in a new report from Oxfam on Monday. It warned that those richest 85 people across the globe share a combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world’s population.

Source: F. Alvaredo, A. B. Atkinson, T. Piketty and E. Saez, (2013) ‘The World Top Incomes Database’, http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ Only includes countries with data in 1980 and later than 2008. Photograph: Oxfam

The wealth of the 1% richest people in the world amounts to $110tn (£60.88tn), or 65 times as much as the poorest half of the world, added the development charity, which fears this concentration of economic resources is threatening political stability and driving up social tensions.

It’s a chilling reminder of the depths of wealth inequality as political leaders and top business people head to the snowy peaks of Davos for this week’s World Economic Forum. Few, if any, will be arriving on anything as common as a bus, with private jets and helicopters pressed into service as many of the world’s most powerful people convene to discuss the state of the global economy over four hectic days of meetings, seminars and parties in the exclusive ski resort.

Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos meetings, said: “It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world’s population – that’s three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus.”

Oxfam also argues that this is no accident either, saying growing inequality has been driven by a “power grab” by wealthy elites, who have co-opted the political process to rig the rules of the economic system in their favour.

In the report, entitled Working For The Few (summary here), Oxfam warned that the fight against poverty cannot be won until wealth inequality has been tackled.

“Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over crumbs from the top table,” Byanyima said.

Oxfam called on attendees at this week’s World Economic Forum to take a personal pledge to tackle the problem by refraining from dodging taxes or using their wealth to seek political favours.

As well as being morally dubious, economic inequality can also exacerbate other social problems such as gender inequality, Oxfam warned. Davos itself is also struggling in this area, with the number of female delegates actually dropping from 17% in 2013 to 15% this year.

How richest use their wealth to capture opportunities

Polling for Oxfam’s report found people in countries around the world – including two-thirds of those questioned in Britain – believe that the rich have too much influence over the direction their country is heading.

Byanyima explained:

“In developed and developing countries alike we are increasingly living in a world where the lowest tax rates, the best health and education and the opportunity to influence are being given not just to the rich but also to their children.

“Without a concerted effort to tackle inequality, the cascade of privilege and of disadvantage will continue down the generations. We will soon live in a world where equality of opportunity is just a dream. In too many countries economic growth already amounts to little more than a ‘winner takes all’ windfall for the richest.”

Source: F. Alvaredo, A. B. Atkinson, T. Piketty and E. Saez, (2013) ‘The World Top Incomes Database’, http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ Only includes countries with data in 1980 and later than 2008. Photograph: Oxfam

The Oxfam report found that over the past few decades, the rich have successfully wielded political influence to skew policies in their favour on issues ranging from financial deregulation, tax havens, anti-competitive business practices to lower tax rates on high incomes and cuts in public services for the majority. Since the late 1970s, tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29 out of 30 countries for which data are available, said the report.

This “capture of opportunities” by the rich at the expense of the poor and middle classes has led to a situation where 70% of the world’s population live in countries where inequality has increased since the 1980s and 1% of families own 46% of global wealth – almost £70tn.

Opinion polls in Spain, Brazil, India, South Africa, the US, UK and Netherlands found that a majority in each country believe that wealthy people exert too much influence. Concern was strongest in Spain, followed by Brazil and India and least marked in the Netherlands.

In the UK, some 67% agreed that “the rich have too much influence over where this country is headed” – 37% saying that they agreed “strongly” with the statement – against just 10% who disagreed, 2% of them strongly.

The WEF’s own Global Risks report recently identified widening income disparities as one of the biggest threats to the world community.

Oxfam is calling on those gathered at WEF to pledge: to support progressive taxation and not dodge their own taxes; refrain from using their wealth to seek political favours that undermine the democratic will of their fellow citizens; make public all investments in companies and trusts for which they are the ultimate beneficial owners; challenge governments to use tax revenue to provide universal healthcare, education and social protection; demand a living wage in all companies they own or control; and challenge other members of the economic elite to join them in these pledges.

• Research Now questioned 1,166 adults in the UK for Oxfam between October 1 and 14 2013.

Video: Wealth Inequality Around The World

A new Oxfram report also finds that the richest 1% holds $110 trillion in wealth — or 46% of all global wealth — which is 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the population. Wealth and power have been heavily concentrated into the hands of a few, especially in the U.S., with the percentage of income held by the richest 1% of Americans growing by nearly 150% since 1980. According to the report, the richest 1% of Americans have received 95% of the wealth created in the U.S. since 2009, after the financial crisis, while the bottom 90% of Americans have become poorer.

But America is not the only culprit. The report singles out India, where the national wealth is rapidly consolidating into the hands of a few. For example, in 2003, the wealthiest citizens of India controlled approximately 1.6% of the nation’s wealth. By 2008, this number had skyrocketed to 26%. The growing wealth gap across the globe is disastrous and unsustainable. The system is entirely broken.

But what could be even more disastrous are the wealth redistribution schemes being cooked up by the world’s elites in Davos this week. When the rich and powerful are entrusted with solving the global wealth gap, expect no solutions, only more problems. The decisions they make are all about making themselves richer and more powerful to exert total control over the rest of us.

While the masses of the progressive proletariat suffer it out in the loss of their health insurance, the beautiful people in Davos discuss wellness (theirs!), mental health, and “the potentially pernicious effects of technology on the brain”. What brain? we might loudly ask.

Canada Free Press: Bloomberg points out that the 25 health-related sessions at the 2014 World Economic Forum this week is “at least a 50 percent more wellness-related presentation than in 2008”.

“The theme shows how anxiety over stress and its impact on business is mounting among the Davos set, who’ve spent the last five years dealing with crises from the collapse of Lehman Brothers to the Syrian civil war—all connected 24/7 to their beeping, buzzing smartphones. Mental health-related illnesses may cost $16 trillion in lost output over the next 20 years, according to figures from Harvard University an the WEF.” (Bloomberg, Jan. 20, 2014).

If it’s not enough to be burdened with what the botox-boosted bimbos are thinking in Davos, the World Post will be launched at the WEF this month. Many of its wealthy and out-there contributors include opportunist former British prime minister Tony Blair and malthusian Bill Gates of Microsoft.

The World Post, to be launched by Arianna Huffington and billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen is a comment and news website that looks set to become a platform for some of the most powerful people on the planet, according to theguardian.com.

Arianna Huffington: “You can have all those heads of state and major business people, etcetera etcetera, writing right next to an unemployed man from Spain, a student from Brazil. The great heart of HuffPo is no hierarchy.”

In digital language: LOL, Arianna.

Berggruen insists that the World Post will be run for profit. “I think that’s healthy,” he said. “But if we’re going to make an investment in the most exciting areas to make an investment, it probably wouldn’t be this. If it doesn’t make money, we will still support it, he said. “We’re not in it just to make money.”

What’s filthy lucre, when you can own the world through the power of the digital press?

“The publication’s initial editorial board has deep ties to media companies around the world. Alongside Huffington and Berggruen it includes Juan Luis Cebrian, founding editor of El Pais, Dileep Padgaonkar, consulting editor at the Times of India, Yoichi Funabashi, former editor-in-chief of Asahi Shimbun, and Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay and backer of a new investigative reporting organisation, First Look Media, set up with former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald.

“The launch comes amid a wave of new money going into media ventures. Berggruen said it was clear that traditional news organizations were still struggling and that many more would fail. “I think there will be a few media voices that really have weight and will survive but fewer and fewer.”

Berggruen and Company may be overzealous in predictions that many struggling news organizations will soon be falling off the cliff.

It takes more than someone else’s money to run a successful publishing organization.

After all, Al Gore, the last rich man to be a publisher, had to sell out to al Jazeera to recoup his losses.

Besides the struggling traditional news organizations have something the World Post will never have: the readership of the proletariat.

Even if you add up the 85 richest people in the world, the International Bankers and money brokers, the world’s politicians and power brokers and their extended networks including the CFR, Bilderbergers, Trilateralists, etc. (all of which intersect), you are perhaps talking thousands, yet there are billions of us. We surround them… so why do we allow this small group to control us? It is the million dollar question that needs to be considered, asked and acted on… And it is definitely past time to think about it and make changes!! As stated above, the decisions ‘they’ (the power and ruling elite) make are all about making themselves richer and more powerful and to exert total control over the rest of us.

But don’t fall into the trap of believing the Obama Administration’s new election ploy, focusing on income equality for all, to take focus off the ObamaCare debacle and off the BenghaziGate, in an attempt by the Progressives to win in 2014 and to elect Hillary in 2016; either will just give the ruling elite more power and control and could spell the end of the United States of America as we know it. Income equality for all is an illusion, a promise fed to the low-informed by and for the power elite and their ‘useful’ friends. Just open your eyes, you don’t have to look far: Most Transparent Administration Throws Secret Party.

Video: The Tiny Dot – We Surround Them!

A situation too weird for 99.999% of people to adequately explain… but necessary for us all to realize!!

Read more here…

01/24/14

The New Progressive McCarthyism

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Persecution with a Progressive twist… here they come for the conservatives. The Left feels so emboldened that they are blatantly hunting us now for all the world to see. This week alone, in high profile they have used their primary weapon of choice, the IRS, against the TEA Party and the Friends of Abe. Cuomo in New York has bellowed that conservatives are not welcome in his state and has just filed a subpoena against James O’Keefe. Marxist media is compiling a database of concealed carry permit owners to target them as well. It is the new Progressive McCarthyism and it will be used against each of us in turn if you find yourself on the other side of the political spectrum.

It would seem the IRS has an actual BOLO (be on the lookout for) list. Friends of Abe has been told by their IRS representative that they are on that list and are being targeted. Not only are TEA Party groups also being targeted in the same manner, conservatives in general are being attacked by the IRS and various Obama Administration agencies. If you lean right, they consider you the enemy and they will come after you. It’s not paranoia if they are really after you folks. Welcome to the new blacklist era.

Let me tell you something… when I started blogging 13 years ago, others in my field were aghast. They told me I would never work again in consulting. Well, I have and I have some wonderful clients, but I have taken a huge hit on my business. I suspect it is a combination of my unapologetic conservative stance and Progressive economic policies. But I knew what I was getting into when I stepped into the arena and I don’t regret it one bit. There are many things that are more important than money and a few that are more important than life. This fight comes with a cost and I am not alone. So many in all walks of life across America, in fact, the majority, share my views. We have been cowed into silence by a relative few enemies within that we somehow let gain control. Those days are just about over. A battle for the very heart and soul of America has begun… one we must win if we are to survive. Literally and figuratively. Did you really think we could just play at this? Walk with communists unscathed? That, if given the chance, they wouldn’t physically come after us? I knew there would be a price to pay, not just in business, but in my life. I gladly pay it. And I will see this through till the end, one way or the other.

I have a quote for you from my favorite author, Dean Koontz. In his new book, Innocence, he shows great and deep insight:

When men in power decide that things need to be rebalanced at any cost, the violence is never brief and never really directed solely at the imbalance that supposedly inspired it. The rule of law becomes the rule of violence. Revenge becomes a synonym for justice. No city is safe from such horror, no nation, no time in all of history. Be ready to recognize the moment. Be always ready.

His quote is a warning to all of us and it is one each of us should heed.

Sen. Ted Cruz wants a special prosecutor to investigate misconduct at the IRS. He is right. Holder and the DOJ, will of course, ignore and deride him for such a request. But this is an important step in the fight. We must exercise every option at our disposal… exhaust every constitutional method to fight the Marxists. If that fails, the war — the fight — will be personal. It will be felt in our homes, in our work, in our houses of worship — and the price for all of us will be a price of monumental stature. This is why Trevor Loudon and I are telling you we must win the elections in 2014 and 2016. We are out of time and we must wrest control back into the hands of conservatives. From Ted Cruz:

“To date, no one has been indicted. And it has been reported that the FBI plans not to file any criminal charges. This is a sad state of affairs. The widespread perception of partisan bias, of manifest conflict of interest, besmirches the reputation of the Department of Justice. And it undermines confidence in rule of law,” Cruz wrote. ”I ask you personally to demonstrate the independence that so many of your predecessors have demonstrated, and act to preserve the integrity of the Department of Justice and immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative groups.”

His request will fall on deaf ears in this Administration, but will be heard by America at large. They see what is going on and they are beginning to realize who the real enemies are within our own walls of government.

Drudge was just full of alarming headlines this morning on the new Progressive McCarthyism. Dinesh D’Souza hit a nerve and pissed Obama off with his film: Obama’s America 2016 – Love Him, Hate Him, You Don’t Know Him. Even The Hollywood Reporter sees the hunt is on by the Progressive bloodhounds:

Dinesh D’Souza is accused of giving too much money to a candidate who sought to replace former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Producer Gerald Molen tells The Hollywood Reporter the charges are politically motivated.

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, whose documentary 2016: Obama’s America took a critical look at President Barack Obama and was a surprise hit in 2012, will be arrested in New York on Friday for allegedly violating campaign-finance laws, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Federal authorities accuse D’Souza of donating more than is legal to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton but lost to now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Long, though, is not mentioned in an indictment obtained by THR on Thursday.

[…]

Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for D’Souza, tells THR that his client “did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever … at worst this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.”

Molen added: “When American citizens begin to suspect that people are being arrested for alleged minor violations because of their vocal dissent against their elected representatives or rulers, it breeds disrespect and contempt for the law and suspicion of those officials. … If this unfortunate action against Dinesh is intended to deter the release of his upcoming film, America, that effort will fail.”

You’re damned right it’s politically motivated. The same supposed crime was committed by a donor for John Edwards. He got a misdemeanor charge. D’Souza will not be so lucky… They are throwing the book at him. This is coming straight from Barack Obama’s enemies list. This conservative witch hunt should send a severe shiver down America’s spine. This isn’t just violating the constitution, it’s setting it on fire and stomping on it for good measure.

We see De Blasio in New York refusing to plow the neighborhoods of the wealthy. A blatant communist and Progressive thug, he will be the downfall of the big apple. He shows his petty animosity towards capitalism and conservatives at every turn. From Sultan Knish’s excellent, Totalitarians of New York:

Bill de Blasio’s focus after his petty and mean-spirited inauguration was a ban on carriage horses in Central Park at the behest of a real estate developer who backed his campaign and has his eye on their stables, a tussle over who will get the credit for Pre-K with Governor Cuomo and the beating of Kang Wong, an 84-year-old man, over a jaywalking ticket.

The media had lavished praise on Bill de Blasio after his first photo op shoveling snow and celebrated his call to implement Vision Zero, a Swedish plan to cut traffic fatalities to zero, even though there was no remote possibility of reducing traffic fatalities to zero in a major city filled with cars, pedestrians, cyclists and even pedicabs.

Instead of preparing for the snow, Team De Blasio launched a crackdown on jaywalking in Manhattan where three-quarters of the residents don’t own cars. And so the Upper East Side, which didn’t vote for Bill de Blasio, became a snarled and unplowed mess and the jaywalking enforcers put an 84-year-old man in the hospital after arresting him for the tall order of “jaywalking, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.”

Jaywalking is as much a part of New York as salty pretzels and the carriage horses of Central Park. While Bill de Blasio claimed to be inspired by Mayor La Guardia, the latter had an entirely different view of the relationship between the people and the city government.

This is Progressive justice. It’s like putting a sissy mafia in charge, with all their mean-spirited, petty, childish vindictiveness unleashed on the American public. They are elitist thugs, crying for the downtrodden, while wearing Prada and sipping champagne. Forget “let them eat cake,” it’s now “let them plow snow.”

On to Cuomo who publicly stated that those that are right-to-life and conservative have no place in New York. He then of course denied it, but alas… it was already on tape. Now he’s gunning for conservative activist James O’Keefe:

Conservative activist James O’Keefe is accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration of targeting his group with document requests and a subpoena, claiming the Democratic governor’s recent comments critical of conservatives “aren’t simply words.”

O’Keefe, whose Project Veritas is behind a series of hidden-camera investigations against left-leaning groups and causes, made the claims on the heels of the controversy over a recent Cuomo interview. In it, Cuomo blasted “extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay” and said they “have no place” in New York. He later walked back his remarks, and said they were being taken out of context in the media.

But O’Keefe claimed that Cuomo’s government is acting on those words, revealing that the Department of Labor has hit his office in Westchester County, N.Y., with demands for financial documents for months. He compared it to IRS targeting of conservative groups nationwide.

“Governor Cuomo’s shocking words this past week aren’t simply words,” O’Keefe said in a statement. “Governor Cuomo and the New York Department of Labor are on a witch hunt, demanding all documents and financials since our founding. … His goal, of course, is to harass us and limit our effectiveness by tying us up in court. Just like President Obama used the IRS to target and suppress conservatives, Governor Cuomo is using his Department of Labor to do the same exact thing.”

Next up, Chuckie Schumer is publicly calling for the IRS to target the TEA Party. Surprise, surprise… Schumer is one of the most vile politicians on the face of the planet and he’s from New York. From Jammie Wearing Fool:

Wait, we thought the Tea Party was dead? So why is this chump speaking to a group bankrolled by George Soros trying to convince the Tea Party that the evil Koch Brothers are bad for them?

Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.

Schumer, one of the Democrats’ most influential strategists, will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement that grew out of the economic anxiety of the 2008 financial collapse to suit their pro-big business agenda.

He’ll lay out a blueprint for how Democrats can exploit what he argues is a weakness in the opposition in the address at the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic think tank founded by John Podesta, who just joined President Obama’s inner circle at the White House.

Schumer will argue that Democrats must defend popular government programs such as extended unemployment benefits and student loan subsidies to persuade Tea Party voters that they can benefit from federal programs.

“He will suggest specific issues for Democrats to focus on in 2014 in order to remind the Tea Party and its supporters that government can be a force for good,” his office said.

And from The Washington Free Beacon:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) proposed using the Internal Revenue Service to curtail Tea Party group funding during a speech on how to “exploit” and “weaken” the movement at the Center for American Progress on Thursday.

Arguing that Tea Party groups have a financial advantage after the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, Schumer said the Obama administration should bypass Congress and institute new campaign finance rules through the IRS.

“It is clear that we will not pass anything legislatively as long as the House of Representatives is in Republican control, but there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies—we must redouble those efforts immediately,” Schumer said.

“One of the great advantages the Tea Party has is the huge holes in our campaign finance laws created [by] the ill advised decision [Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission],” Schumer said. “Obviously the Tea Party elites gained extraordinary influence by being able to funnel millions of dollars into campaigns with ads that distort the truth and attack government.”

Once again using projection, Schumer exposes himself and the Left. It is the Left that has billions of dollars from the likes of Soros funding it to destroy America, conservatives and our way of life. Schumer just declared war between the government and America at large.

Then we have the news of Timothy Geithner threatening Standard and Poors because they embarrassed the Administration over credit ratings. It’s the Chicago way:

In this case, in August 2011, Standard & Poor’s brought an embarrassing downgrading of U.S. debt to AA+ from AAA in advance of the president’s re-election bid, the first such reduction in U.S. history.

In response, the administration brought a lawsuit in 2013 charging fraud and seeking $5 billion in fines from S&P for the credit ratings it had attached to bonds supported by subprime mortgages in the years leading up to the financial meltdown.

At the time, it smacked of vendetta. As we noted last year, S&P’s subprime securities ratings were virtually identical to those of Moody’s and Fitch, yet the government singled out S&P for prosecution simply because it was the only one of the big three to pull the trigger on the downgrade.

The vindictive nature of the government’s lawsuit was confirmed Tuesday when lawyers for McGraw-Hill, S&P’s parent, filed an affidavit from the company’s chairman, Harold McGraw III, stating that on Aug. 8, 2011, mere days after the downgrade, he got a call from Timothy Geithner saying S&P’s deed would not go unpunished.

“He said that ‘you have done an enormous disservice to yourselves and to your country,’ and that S&P’s conduct would be ‘looked at very carefully,'” McGraw said. “Such behavior could not occur, he said, without a response from the government.”

The filing to U.S. District Judge David Carter asked for an order that the Justice Department hand over all related documents for its “retaliation defense.”

S&P maintains the government was initially looking at all three major credit-rating companies and targeted S&P exclusively only after the McGraw-Hill unit downgraded U.S. debt.

“Only S&P Ratings downgraded the United States and only S&P Ratings has been sued by the United States, even though the S&P ratings challenged by the United States were no different than those of at least one other rating agency,” the court filing states.

Next you have Latina actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who is now out of play over support for a Tea Party candidate. She was fired and blacklisted. Who says McCarthyism isn’t alive and well in Hollywood?

A San Francisco arts organization has parted ways with a well-known Latina actress, who was to star in its rendition of “The Vagina Monologues,” after the thespian appeared in a political ad with a California Tea Party lawmaker who is running for governor.

“We really can’t have her in the show, unfortunately,” Eliana Lopez, the producer, told KPIX 5 of Maria Conchita Alonso’s resignation on Friday from the cast of Brava! For Women in the Arts’ upcoming Spanish performance of the Eve Ensler play.

“Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe.”

Several Latino organizations have criticized Alonso — a former Miss Venezuela who gained Hollywood fame for hits like “The Running Man,” and “Moscow on the Hudson” — for endorsing Tim Donnelly, a California State Assemblyman from San Bernardino.

I’ve barely scratched the surface and this is just in the last few days. Things are heating up and the conservative hunt is on. You are seeing the unfolding of the new Progressive McCarthyism in play. Progressives have picked the wrong prey – we’ll just see who is the hunter and who is the hunted. We won’t stand still for being targeted and persecuted. We won’t go quietly if you come to get us. You are going to have one hell of a fight on your hands. Conservatives aren’t afraid of shadow governments or Leftist monsters under our beds. You may think you are portraying conservatism as the new communism, but colors do tell and right now America is seeing red all over the place.

Hear! Hear! Trevor Loudon at The 2014 SC TEA Party in Myrtle Beach, Warning of the ‘Enemies Within’

***Note: There seems to be some confusion here that I am denigrating Joe McCarthy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe he was right on most issues and totally agree with his take on the infiltration of our government and institutions by communists.

However, to appreciate the use of “Progressive McCarthyism” as a descriptor, you have to filter the root term (McCarthyism) through the eyes of those who felt most threatened by it: the radical Left, the communists. In their eyes, McCarthy was the enemy and his effort to rid our society of its most corrosive element directly impacted their grand narrative planning. From their point of view, McCarthyism — indeed all things McCarthy — were bad. For them, it is entirely in order to characterize that movement as “persecution.” Ergo, it is entirely plausible for them to adopt the term “McCarthyism” as a justification for any purge or persecution which they, themselves, initiate.

Purge & persecution is, for them, a legitimate political tool, but they recognize that just calling what they’re doing by its proper name won’t sell, so they’re playing the justification card: “we’re just using your tool against you.” And, as a PR positioning effort, it accomplishes two things: it besmirches McCarthy’s name and (they hope) provides cover for their illegitimate “soft” pogrom against all things conservative.

Any effort to cast conservatism as the new communism is wholly dishonest, a simple matter of convenient PR positioning labels. As usual, even some of our own people have adopted the phrase, without fully appreciating what they are saying. I hope this offers some clarity.

01/24/14

Trevor Loudon Spoke at the Richmond TEA Party and All I Can Say is WOW!

By: Tom White
Virginia Right!

The word I used in the title for this post, WOW, has a double meaning. The first and most important meaning is WOW! As in this guy with the cool New Zealand accent is an amazing, edge of your seat kind of speaker.

The second meaning of the word is actually an acronym that speaks to how I came to know who Trevor Loudon was several years ago. We are both members of a small group of activists, bloggers, journalists and friends that belong to a group known as the Watcher of Weasels Council. (WoW.)

I met Trevor a couple of years ago in person at CPAC up in Washington DC but the schedule and activities didn’t allow me me much time to do more than shake hands and put a live face to the guy who’s blog – New Zeal – I had been reading since joining the Council several years ago. And I would suggest you make it a regular stop, as I do.

But this was the first chance I have had to listen to Trevor speak to a group on one of his areas of expertise – Communism and specifically it’s nasty infiltration into America. And if you were at all skeptical that the great Communist invasion was happening in this country, you won’t be after listening to Loudon. He names names and kicks ass.

And just why would someone from New Zealand give a rip about America? And what would make such a person become an expert on American politics? And while I have never had the privileged of visiting his home country, I have seen pictures and watched Lord of the Rings that was filmed there. If I lived there I doubt I would care what was happening in America. Besides, if everything goes to hell in an hand-basket here, New Zealand seems a perfectly acceptable place to move to if we can’t fix this country. I love lamb and they have amazing lamb. And I am sure they have beer.

But Trevor understands that if America falls completely down the path Obama has planned for us, the evil forces in the world will divide up most of the world and New Zealand would suffer an unimaginable reality without the US in the mix.

I really had not considered that point of view. I thought I was doing this for my kids and grandkids. but he is absolutely right.

Now I am not going to spoil his talk or steal his thunder. I don’t think I could.

But what I can tell you is when Trevor Loudon comes to your area, go out of your way if you need to, but go. And spend a few minutes listening to him list the connections between the Communists, the unions, the Democrats and how those relationships evolved into the unhealthy mix they are today.

Find out how Obama’s associations with Communists forged his point of view.

And you will find out that what Obama has in store for us is not to make us like France or Germany. No, it is much worse than that. He is aiming for an America that is run by an oppressive totalitarian government more like Venezuela or Cuba. Where we have no rights and there is only one party.

And just when you are ready to run screaming from the room, Trevor offers some solutions. Like Ted Cruz announcing he is running for president. And immediately selecting Allen West as his VP. And uniting every faction on the right by promising the Libertarians that he would name Rand Paul as Treasury Secretary. And his other possible pledged appointments would be designed to pull in Evangelicals, Home Schoolers and others on the right. (Mark Levin as Attorney General!)

If you don’t do anything else this month, go see Trevor Loudon while he is in Virginia. He will be gone in 90 days – that Visa thing. (Although he did entertain the idea of staying 91 days thinking he may get a free cell phone or food stamps by overstaying his Visa.)

If you live in the Tidewater area, Trevor will be at:

LIGHTHOUSE WORSHIP CENTER
Verge Building
4299 George Washington Memorial Highway, Hayes, VA 23072
On Route 17 in Gloucester County, 6 miles North of the Coleman Bridge. Link to directions: http://lwctoday.com/about/directions-map/

TOMORROW – Friday Jan. 24, 2014 at 7:30 PM.

And he will be in Louisa (between Richmond and Charlottesville):

Sunday, January 26th, 2014 at 2:30 pm
Best Western Crossroads Inn
135 Wood Ridge Terrace
Zion Crossroads, VA

Trust me. You need to go see Trevor Loudon. He will scare the hell out of you with what is happening now, make you feel proud of the efforts you have been making, and most importantly encourage you with the hope of a light at the end of the tunnel.

The remainder of Trevor’s Virginia Schedule:

Radio Interview LibertyNews.com
Friday, January 24, 2014 — 1:00 pm (tentative)

ACT! For America Peninsulas Chapter & Middle Peninsula TEA Party
Lighthouse Worship Center, 4299 George Washington Memorial Hwy, Gloucester, VA
Friday, January 24, 2014 — 6:30 pm

Radio Interview Host Sue Ann Penna, Common Sense NJ on BlogTalk Radio
Saturday, January 25, 2014 — 10:00 am
Call-in (718) 508-9039

Trevor Loudon Speaks Before the Louisa VA TEA Party
Best Western Crossroads Inn, 135 Wood Ridge Terrace, Zion Crossroads, VA
Sunday, January 26, 2014 — 2:30 pm

The Prince William TEA Party Lunch and Evening Events
(You must make a reservation if you are interested in attending either our lunch meeting or our evening lecture)

Brittany’s Sports Bar, 12449 Dillingham Sq., Woodbridge, VA
Monday, January 27, 2014 — 11:15 am

13525 Zachary Taylor Ct., Manassas VA
Monday, January 27, 2014 — 7:00 pm