Sunday, February 08, 2009

BOOK REVIEW
Poetry

"Limousine, Midnight Blue: Fifty Frames of the Zapruder Film"
By Jamey Hecht, Ph.D.


I am not a big reader of poetry, and given the urgent concern that you all have with the concrete facts of what's going on out there in Collapseville, you might well not be either. But you must read Jamey Hecht's new book of poetry, "Limousine, Midnight Blue: Fifty Frames from the Zapruder Film". Reading it was agonizing for me because of all the traumatic darkness and painful memories it brought to the surface. But despite that very real agony, it also paid off many times over because of the haunting beauty, power, depth, and insight of the poems. Jamey goes to the heart of the meaning of the assassination. But unlike anything I've read before, he does this in language that is hypnotic, memorable, and very, very strange.

I was twelve when JFK was murdered. I know so much more than I ever wanted to about the assassinations; personally, as a result of three-plus decades of deep diving into the world of covert operations. As mankind moves into a completely different historical epoch, the assassination of JFK could be called the beginning of the end of afive-hundred year era. The urgency of the new post-industrial paradigm makes one reticent to invest in the old. But this poetry makes you feel the winds of Dealey Plaza on the back of your neck. This book doesn't bludgeon one's mind. It skewers it selectively, deeply and sharply. For all we know, the 35th President, his Attorney General, Paul Wellstone, and Dante himself are reading "Limousine, Midnight Blue" in the Great Elsewhere right now. You should, too. You can order it from Amazon where it just went on sale. Meanwhile you can watch video trailers for the book, read sample poems from it, and check out the blurbs from Peter Dale Scott and Billy Collins, at
http://www.jameyhecht.com/.

I'll close with a cut-and-paste of the description on the back cover:

"This sequence of fifty 14-line poems uses the Zapruder Film of President Kennedy's murder as a prism through which to view America and the world. Refracted rays touch on crime and punishment; guilt and responsibility; charisma and love; the dying victim's experience during the stretched-out seconds of his violation and death; and the dark world of war profiteering, narco-traffic, and deceit where the facts of power determine history. Epic tradition (e.g., Homer, Dante, Milton) shares these pages with science, religion, and popular culture, now funny and now horrifying. " Limousine, Midnight Blue" is a haunted book about a haunted film of an event whose hungry ghosts still walk the American unconscious, rattling their chains loud erevery year."

Jamey Hecht is a good friend who edited my own book, Crossing the Rubicon. At FTW he was my Assistant Managing Editor, and then Senior Staff Writer, for a total of about three years. I know his mind. If I did not before, I sure would after this. He has the rare ability to compel a reader to feel his feelings and see his insight the way he does.

Bravo, brother.


Mike Ruppert

Feb. 7, 2009
*************************************************************************************
Jenna Orkin adds:


I'm blown away - scratch that, given the context - bowled over by the representative sonnets on the website. Jamey can do that to a person. This is a guy who learned Classical Greek in a cram course, then turned around and published a translation of Sophocles. In addition to acting and performing music. And did I mention his exhibition of paintings (which, for some reason, are not on his website?)

Of these poems the premier Kennedy investigator, poet and English professor Peter Dale Scott says: "This insightful and learned book could become a landmark, like the event it describes."

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it were not for beauty, our hard journey would crush us. Thanks for showing your vulnerable sides, along the way. This is the one side of both of you, that originally drew me in, for a closer look.

Mike, your descriptors here: "agonizing", "traumatic darkness", "painful memories","haunting beauty, power, depth, and insight" expose a man willing to become comfortable living in paradox. And Jenna, your "In the Heart of Darkness" and writings on Rosalyn Tureck show the same, adding tempering qualities to your mutual endeavors.

Thanks for not forgetting the beauty. It is very essence of our much needed hope; something to make our journey worthwhile...

Jenna Orkin said...

thank you, norm, for your observations and for reading those articles

Pandabonium said...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and posting this link. I was about the same age when the assassination went down. Though Jamey Hecht's poetry feels a little "other worldly" to me (which is fitting for this subject), it makes this murder feel real and personal.

I am just finishing the book "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters: James W. Douglass", which I think is the best book on the subject to date. The poetry expresses much of what one feels in reading the Douglass book.

Yes, the JFK assassination was in many ways "the beginning of the end". To understand it is to understand how American government works, and the why and the who behind it. Something most people today are still in the dark about (often willingly) and why they continually are fooled by (or cling to) the same old games.

Rice Farmer said...

Pretty grim stuff. I could only read three of the samples before having to take a rest.

gamedog said...

Police State: New secret Stasi department UK

http://thejournal.parker-joseph.co.uk/blog/_archives/2009/2/8/4085439.html

"A secret police intelligence unit has been set up to spy on Left-wing and Right-wing political groups.

The Confidential Intelligence Unit (CIU) has the power to operate across the UK and will mount surveillance and run informers on ‘domestic extremists’.
Its job is to build up a detailed picture of political opponents and radical campaigners.

The CIU’s role will be similar to the ‘counter subversion’ functions formerly carried out by MI5.

The so-called reds under the bed operations focused on trade unionists and peace campaigners but were abandoned by MI5 to concentrate on Islamic terrorism.

The unit is being set up by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and will be based at Scotland Yard in Central London. ACPO is a private limited company and is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. In other words it sits outside of parliamentary and judicial oversight."

So much for a free country!

Enjoying the songs Mike!

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

I Was Spent (1984)

I was spent, left dangling in the trees, a soul-pilot ejection and casualty my parachute a mushroom halo, the plume of spirit tattered and frayed. Kissed by the sun, all the parts of my body glistening tree ornaments. I was spent, left jangling upon the hook of my righteous venom, gorged through my intestines a trail of guts, a frantic, bleeding highway. Songbirds feasted on my remains. I was regurgitated to feed their screaming, naked young. I was spent, a majestic, beached whale, my blue hole of suction torn and scratched by the sand crystals of tumbling civilizations. I decayed into the Earth, a bleached, white baby grand.

Picked clean by the cries of mariner birds I shot errant symphonies into the surf. I was spent, put out with the garbage and broken TV sets. Children flung silent arrows through my eyeball screen. Rats nibbled on my circuitry. Electric storms crashed erstwhile in another dimension to where for solitude and rejuvenation battered maidens and Incas fled.

Yea, though I bled! Yea, though I bled!

I was spent.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

The Crucified Monkey (1984)

There came a day of vigilante vengeance when they came to crucify the monkey. The wrinkled townspeople had had enough, these very concerned citizens, these boastful burgers of right. The broken windows and the damaged goods were one thing, but the monkey had taken to jerking off in the face of authority. To the cops he bared his yellowed teeth.

They implanted electrodes in the monkey's brain, techno seeds of cowardly justification. Light bulbs that spelt PAIN were sewn into the fury forehead. When the spikes were driven home the bulbs flashed and flashed like a riot-torn asylum of genius, firefly inmates. The townspeople knew that it hurt just right from the reading bleeping on the inquisitor’s oscilloscope. The monkey writhed a spring coil agony. Through his yellow teeth he spat, down the length of his wooden burden he shat while citizens stood frozen in judicial awe of the flashing forehead spectacle, in the lightshow of their guilt. One final shriek and the bulbs etched onto the demented face dimmed.

0 you simian saint, I cried, now the merchants are safe, now the jungles are quiet, now the sterile windows of metropolis are rid of your jestorial pranks.

In the aftermath of unhindered consumption the Earth heaved slightly, the sky began to crack, and no one but I, left alone with the still corpse, witnessed the space departure of the monkey on the monkey's back.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

Sky Dancer/White Cousin (1984)

I clutched at a lightening rod feather of the proud Thunderbird. What the flying spirit spoke this time I heard, 0h I finally heard.

Into the dismal night-time I soared gliding through deeply ominous clouds, out over the ocean's hissing breath, diving towards the swaying shadows of the invader's pending cultural death. From the corner of my gem's eye I recorded rodent visions of the hurrying, scurrying techno affairs far removed from where the wind tickled my feathery fancy and spirit. The frantic antics of mice amuse me. Swooping I swept inside my lightning bolt cockpit, launched into the screaming dive of the holy arrowhead. I pounced with grace, a Bushido ballerina, and curled my razor talons of benediction around the facile necks and frail institutions of mice and mice and syphilitic men. The squeaky spirit departs abruptly. It is a spent squeak upon the universe. The squeaky spirit departs abruptly, it does not linger. It does not linger like the slow death concealed behind the trigger of cancerous shame and genocidal liquor.

I clutched at a lightning rod feather of the proud Thunderbird. Stretched out over the taut bow of the wild, unruly Pacific I was released and through the harvest target of your ripe and luscious eyeballs I glide and I glide...and I come to rest.

tim said...

RanD;
Could you please explain how the dimension of death is experienced in the world you are telling us about. In this world, our egoic reaction to death produces fear, competition and war. By your wonderful explanations, I'm confused if you mean death is eliminated or is it transcended? I don't understand how any phenominal world can be without death.

RanD said...

Feb 9, 2009
The bottom line that FTW so amply forecasts and reports records the inevitable and necessary disintegration of the most recent in a succession of humankind's systemically diseased Universal Consciousness/Behavioral Paradigms. And, as we become fully aware of that fact, we free ourselves from all unwanted angst and, if so choosing, can then begin more fully consciously-intelligently replacing the things we think and do with something systemically improved and fundamentally sustainable. Once learned from, the past is a mere tired, withered, and final goodbye: indeed, knowledge of how to better be as provided by The Immeasurable All is the eternally living kind... where the blind mind's beliefs no longer exist.

*******

To Bonnie, wherever you are:

About five and a half weeks back you kindly responded to the description I (David) related to FTWers of a remarkable event I'd experienced a number of years ago. You suggested researching Tielhard de Chardin (whose name I recognized but of whose work I knew not) and what he had to say about "tuning into" the "noosphere", i.e. an "energy field" where the collective consciousness of the entirety of humankind prevailed, "something which at some point in our evolution" everyone would be able to access (and something which "the church" -- quite understandably -- apparently soundly condemned him for espousing, btw). First off I want to apologize for not having right away responded to your interest in my story... please forgive me. Secondly, I did go to Wikipedia and read what was there on de Chardin and his work. And yes, what de Chardin refers to sounds very much like what I experienced; and I also fully agree that his "noosphere" is something which at some point in our evolution (like beginning right now)
everyone will be consciously accessing/experiencing.

I would like to emphasize, however, that I choose to define my "experience" as having been one of full-blown visitation & physio-telepathic interactive-communication with the "Mind and SPIRIT of GOD" -- with Ruthie's and my (RanD's) perception of "GOD" being the sum total whole of everything that exists, at all times, everywhere -- and is something that since that/my first epiphanic "experience" (in 1973) I progressively find is actually the constant and routine state of everyone's overall daily life, whether all of us equally recognize it as such notwithstanding. Also, btw, with both of us (RanD) in this sense being thoroughly "religious persons" (in the sense of knowing full well that something fundamentally greater than ourselves is at the root of our human existence) we generally eschew humankind's up-till-now traditional so-called "religious organizations", having found them at best being little more than perhaps well-meaning but invariably/ultimately misleading to dictatorial ideo-political fountains of misinformation and often deceptive/misdirecting instruments which actually imprison the minds of the masses by effectively/'vicar'iously positioning themselves in place of GOD's Actual -- True & Intrinsically Perfect -- Creation. Ah yes, Satan is indeed the wiliest beast of them all! And from RanD's perspective, all of that sort of stuff is headed straight into the dipsty dumpster of humankind's developmental past.

And so it is with this information that we finally very much thank you for your much appreciated words to us, Bonnie; sincerely, RanD

sambahdi said...

The numbers don't add up.

Read these articles. The Kanjorski revelation is as scary as the British revelation on how close they came to being wiped out.

Then read the Bloomberg articles.

4.5 trillion almost left the USA banking system. But didn't in the end.

Now, They want to recapitalize the banks with up to 8.7 trillion if needed.

All these figures do my head in, and i'm probably not taking other things into consideration here but...

Mike, I think you got it right, it does add up to either the biggest mismanagement in history or robbery, in the middle of the day, in perfect view, on a fine clear day...

"Kanjorski: We came so close to complete financial collapse."

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090128/NEWS04/901280302

"U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailouts as Senate Votes"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok

"Stimulus Battle May Signal Tough Sell for Bank Rescue"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aOIOHVbliZdQ&refer=home

MCR said...

Rice Farmer -- No shit!

anton v said...

Since we're sharing poetry, here's a piece I wrote back in '98:

the song of our extinction

the chorus led by farmers, miners and lumberjacks
the bankers singing acapella
stockbrokers hitting the high notes and credit card companies supplying the lows
the pistons of the automotive industry beating out the rhythm while computer engineers synthesize the strings
and the workers of the world locking hands, dancing around the bonfire, singing
this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends
not with bang, but a whimper

PS - I'm not sure who passed along the urbansurvival link, but a hearty thanks! George's writing style is light and intelligent; plus, such a good source of interesting information. The reason I'm speaking of the site, is that on Friday he had a link to the following: http://www.jamesgoulding.com/Downloads/WIC.pdf

I have a strong feeling everyone will find something interesting in there; basically, its a Jungian view of the cyclical nature of repeating patterns induced by Jungian archetypes, as defined by different generations. Each generation is composed of a type of archetype, and those archetypes, in essence, create the world as we experience it. This follows very much in line with the Kennedy assination, in a way, because it illustrates how the sins of the father are passed directly to the son.

Based on the earlier article I posted positing the possibility that the universe is a giant hologram, it looks like we're all just playing our divinely ordained roles! ;)

Anonymous said...

In spite of everything, are you able to say long live America? America will not break up like China and Russia, I assure you. Come Peak Oil, Come anything...this nation is not sustained by individuals but by institutions. That is what makes us great, we dont need Ho chi Mins, Maos, or Putins...we have something that outlasts them all.

We were a union before we discovered oil, we will be one after it is all gone! At least we will all TRY...

MRC?? What do you think?

tim said...

Anton v;
The universe is a giant hologram. You can even prove it to yourself. If you try to prove that any object exists, all you will do is explain your nervous system and brain. reality is only our perception and conception of it. The explanation in "The Matrix" is pretty good.

ecosutra said...

The hard truth about green energy that the TPTB know. Is that people can get sustainable and not have to pay taxes through corporation soles, inside economies, its been around for ever. Just no one had any reason to do it. We can now with green energy. We could be there now if we all wanted to go primitive. Easy really, I guess its just, we want our technology to come with us, Its our new religion.

For the US government to exist they have to crash the economy so no one can control the sun. They stopped stimulus funds to states to keep the power. Energy power. What if a state was able to purchase the first IES pyrolysis machine and became the richest state from landfills, turning waste into products. check www.ecosoul.org for more info? Waste into energy! oh my god is Waste Management evil. I am serious. They have been on a hunt for any new technology that will interfere with there monopoly on Americas waste. 3 hostile take overs from International Environmental Solutions in Riverside Ca. alone. They are the best by the way. AQMD air quality control, is gold standard. Nothing higher in the world.

I wish someone would ask Obama one thing.

"How do you plan to defend America from the venture capitalists, wall street and the SEC corruption from short selling green energy?"

Oh and by the way that short selling is part of the ponzi scheme hedge fund crisis that is about to come crashing in March along with the credit cards. I ask my rich friends who are repugs, what are you investing in now. They have no clue where to put their money. Same goes with municipalities, their all afraid to unplug.

Oh well, I got gravity, Bees for wax, and hemp for oil. Kudzu for ethanol. Solar thermal hot water for heat in the home for winter. I can store it in insulated tanks under ground or in a basement during summer and with a solar chimney in winter send the hot thermal mass element into my home. They cant take that away from me. I know how to make natural cooling and heating.
I dont need the technology, sure would have liked to have had it though.

Great article
The $800 Billion Gamble: Economists Say Stimulus Cuts Could Be 'Disastrous',
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/09-6

When you see the first fleet of hybrid "plug in" ethanol cars. Then you will know you are free.

If you can make a plug in car, you can turn it into a plug in villge.

Pandabonium said...

ecosutra said "When you see the first fleet of hybrid "plug in" ethanol cars. Then you will know you are free. "

I would say "When you realize you don't need a car, television, or other techno-rubbish - then you will you know you are free."

-----

Middle East Quarterly: Saudi Arabia Woos China and India

Xinhua News: China-Saudi strategic friendship deepens

Robert Paulsen said...

I must be tapping into the same stream of consciousness because last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I kept thinking about the Phil Ochs song, Crucifixion. I made a note to google the lyrics the next morning. It's really a great poem about the assassination of JFK. I wonder if Peter Dale Scott might find Ochs' descriptions "decadence of destiny", "merchants of the masses" or "the giant" poetic terms for Deep Politics:

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/crucifixion.html

What a pleasant surprise to come here afterward to read more great poetry regarding that terrible tragedy. Congratulations Jamey Hecht! I'm loving the online samples and craving more!

Anonymous said...

"In a closely watched case involving rendition and torture, a lawyer for the Obama administration apparently surprised a panel of federal appeals judges Monday by pressing ahead with an argument for preserving state secrets originally developed by the Bush administration."

Administration Invokes State Secret Argument

Anonymous said...

Mexican drug violence spills over into the US

Anonymous said...

How subtly the media prepares us for what's to come.

Today on NPR there was a succession of articles that gave credence to everything brought to light on FTW. First was a piece on how 500 protestors went to the homes of bankers in buses and private cars. There's the beginning of the civil unrest. Then a piece on how great military bases are for local economies. So get ready for more all over the place and be glad there there. Then a piece on how there were over 300,000 immigration cases in the courts last year and not enough judges to hear them all. They never mention why so many cases. I guess we can surmise these folks are being deported. And finally details on the stimulus package and how the money appears to be earmarked partly for road construction (the national system mentioned here?). Why road construction if we won't have gas to drive cars anymore? Who thought that one up? Why not agriculture, green energy, plug-in cars? There is a projected massive shortage of nurses. Why not an incentive program to get people into nursing. Would give jobs to women and make a whole lot more sense.

Anonymous said...

If one had to choose a place to relocate to, given the current state of things, where would one want to go? Are there locations that are better than others? Would love to hear some suggestions from others and why. Would like to move "out" a bit, but am unsure where the best place to go would be.

Jeff said...

This is really something,now california is broke as of feb.1,now that it is no longer profitable to pack people into prisons,some special panel of federal judges rules to release
10's of thousands of prisoners.
What special panel of judges is this???
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29108435

ecosutra said...

Pandabonium, I was using my religious reverse psychology on the masses. The techno bridge to permaculture. Your perception is not a bridge. I know your wishes will be the inevitable future. When the city folk try to bridge their modernism to the village it may last over time, but in the end all cultures will navigate towards the systems and designs that are less technical. The only thing I see that might save technology for the long run is the entertainment technology element. Its the visual effects, the electronic music and film world that will preserve technology. The art world is our only hope. lol

Pandabonium said...

Interesting post from Alex Constantine: The Entire Fascist US Game Plan Exposed in a Single Minor Obama Appointment

Or, The Morphing CSIS/PNAC Transformer ... Or, The Obama Regime is the Bush Regime in Liberal Drag ... Or, When "Hope" isn't Enough ... Or, How the Future and Past Shape the Present ...

Pandabonium said...

cj - relocation is something I have studied for decades and it led me to leave California for Hawaii in 1975 and Hawaii for Fiji and Japan in 2004. I have friends who have successfully relocated to dozens of places in the USA and abroad.

But to answer your question, for you personally, it is necessary to know a lot of other things. One person's Shangri-La all too easily can be another's hell.

It also depends on whether you are talking about moving within the USA or are open to other countries. It depends on your financial abilities, cultural flexibility, and tastes. And it also very much depends on what it is you are trying to achieve by relocating.

Even within your home country it is not such a simple matter. Just ask Mike.

I'm always happy to provide free advice (and worth every penny!). But you'd need to at least answer the above before any halfway coherent answer could be formulated to that question.

Best.

grayfox said...

"The Party's Over NOW!"
Did anyone else hear Obama say that in his speech tonight? I don't think his choice of words was a mere coincidence.


On the other hand, I also noticed that he did NOT say anything about any of the proposed $800 billion stimulus package going toward rail.

grayfox said...

I guess while I'm up tonight I'll add one more thing to this thread. This is poetry to gardeners. Those of you in the northern hemisphere who are wondering what to do next, start thinking about planting potatoes and preparing the soil when the weather permits.


Copied from: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-
Food/2007-04-01/When-and-How-to-Plant-
Potatoes.aspx
"Potatoes are easy to grow, but they prefer cool weather so you should try to get them into the ground at the right time. . .
it takes potatoes two to three weeks to emerge from the ground, the earliest you should plant seed potatoes is two weeks before your last anticipated freeze date of 28 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. (If you don't know your local last freeze date, you can find it" at a link at the above website.

jhw said...

Thanks Sambabhdi for that link:

"Kanjorski: We came so close to complete financial collapse."

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090128/NEWS04/901280302

I posted another link to a video version and discussion here:
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board/viewtopic.php?t=22830

Or go direct to the video and commentary here:
http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/9/bailout-news-video-kanjorski-details-shocking-fed-treasury-t.html?ref=patrick.net

Julia

RanD said...

Tim -- I'm happily working on the answer(s) to your questions re "death". Keep watching, it'll be a while before ready to send. D

Brendan Carmody said...

Wow, things are very bad here in Oz, the fires are insane, I saw them as I flew into Melbourne as the winds picked up, not to mention our plane rocked around quite a bit, was like ascending into hell, green dark clouds and when you finally see were they come from you realize how bad it is, I counted three large fires out my window, I'm lucky nobody I know lives there however my neighbor who collected my mail while I was overseas said his father had built the Safeway in "Marrysville" and it, like everything in that town had burnt to the ground, this is the worst natural disaster in our nations history of a much greater magnitude than "ash wednesday".
and the weather is set to climb again over the weekend...

However the international offer of support has been overwhelming, not to mention all the flood victims in north Queensland dealing with their own disaster, giving their support money to the many family's that have lost loved one's in Victoria.

kiki said...

re: part of CJ's comment:

'First was a piece on how 500 protesters went to the homes of bankers in buses and private cars.'

i first saw this on CNN with the organizer of the 'protest' - it seems this all started with homeowners in CT, losing their homes who wanted to renegotiate their mortgages and they couldn't get anyone to talk with them and/or call them back

one of the interesting things that came out with the CNN interview was that police blocked off the roads for them and then as protesters were leaving, one police officer said his sister lost her home and another said he had a predatory loan and he couldn't get any response from his mortgage holder either - at some point, the police gave a thumbs up signal in support of the protesters, as they were leaving

at some point, while looking for one of the banker CEO homes, one of his neighbors specifically pointed out the 'home on the hill up there', whether to be helpful or just get the protesters away from their home wasn't mentioned

Anne said...

The only thing 'poetic' in this article is, perhaps, twisted justice. To whatever level you can afford, stock up on food and water. Soon.

Sometimes all but the most basic needs must be the only focus, if there is a chance of surviving.

You can't put up windmills or solar panels if you are starving.

I must echo MCR that if you can't afford it I have no other answers. But given the potential severity of this, I would re-prioritize all expenditures to stock pile food and water.

http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/02/2009-global-food-catastrophe.html

businessman said...

In watching Obama's address Monday night, it was obvious that he was reading from a list of reporters he was supposed to call on when it came time to take questions from the audience. I really miss the days when the reporters would all raise their hands, scream "Mr. President" in trying to be called on, and the President would then pick someone. But under Bush there was evidence showing that the reporters and their questions were screened, chosen, and rehearsed in advance of his press conferences, and it looks like the same may now be true for Obama also.

Jenna Orkin said...

businessman,

see below re who was invited to the press conf

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/us/politics/10media.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=%22helen%20thomas%22&st=cse

businessman said...

Thanks, Jenna. It's nice to see that Obama was shaking up the list of invited media for his inaugural press conference. It's also nice to see Helen Thomas sitting in the front row again after having been banned to the back row by the Bush Administration for asking too many probing questions.

businessman said...

I was having an E-mail discussion with a friend of mine in Australia about how terrorism will probably be used as a diversion from everything that's now unraveling economically. While I was thinking more in terms of what would be happening here in the USA, he told me about what he's been experiencing in Sydney:

"The possibility of something major happening here to distract people's attention away from the real problem and drive the unified world economy agenda against a common 'enemy' is increasing here too. Last week there were full scale siren warning emergency drills thru speakers positioned throughout Sydney which we were told on the radio just before was "in case of a natural disaster or terrorist attack" so the pre-framing has begun."

v said...

read & weep:

rise of fascism amid economic gloom



Google taking a step into power metering




Stimulus: A History of Folly




China monthly auto sales overtake US for 1st time



HEALTH CARE SCARE: WHAT'S BURIED DEEP IN THE BILL?



V(incent)

Kirk Ultra said...

Hi, I don't know if anybody else as mentioned this here before, but I just discovered that myspace is now blocking links to Mike Ruppert's blog. I wrote a blog entry about it to let people know - Link

You know you're doing something right wen MySpace doesn't want people reading what you write. Cheers.

Oh, and here's a little something about Oliver North that I think might put some smiles on some faces here. It's a present for you Mike! - Link

And thanks again to everybody who helped out with the gold advice for me back in december.

NB Patton said...

Hey Killers,
Long time no censor! ;)
I wanted to share this with you.
Lets just say I was intimately involved in this stuff once upon a time... And this just really sent chills up my spine when I read it. Especially the way they explain the incidents. Something guttural tells me someone needed these 3 men to be gone.(google for more articles on this.) Could be a point on the map, and then again it might really be truly accidental... But I wanted to push the pin into the cork, just in case it makes more sense later on.

http://www.military.com/news/article/seals-own-errors-led-to-chute-deaths.html?col=1186032325324&ESRC=navy.nl

God Spede

Butch said...

Mike, Jenna...you will certainly find this of interest.


The empire is crumbling.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/09/rep-kanjorski-550-bi.html

The Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair, Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, tells C-Span how the world economy almost collapsed in a matter of hours.

At 2 minutes, 20 seconds into this C-Span video clip, Kanjorski reports on a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars." According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occured over the period of an hour or two.

Kanjorski: "The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic and there. And that's what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

"It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it."

Diaspora said...

Jenna and Mike constantly remind us as we fly off the cliff to monitor not just the view to the front but to also check out the side and rear view mirrors. Tom Englehardt has done a nice bit of work for the futures file on the Empire’s obituary. It dovetails neatly with Dmitry Orlov’s wisdom.

Whistling past the Afghan graveyard
By Tom Engelhardt
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KB07Df03.html

Trobadorem said...

Hi Mike and all the contributors to this blog,

Mr. Obama came to visit us this week, it was quite amazing to see the warmth of the welcome from the Canadians... While I was moved, I could not get out of my head the fact that Obama is borrowing time...feeding the wolf so that he can make a protection for the sheeps before the collapse of this financial system. Mike, do you really think he does not know what is happening...??

The point of the matter here, is that we are heading directly towards a deeper concentration of power...when the currency will not be useful (because of the hyperinflation), then they will be heading for the total control of human behavior through the control of the means of exchange...it will take either the form of the chips or an biometric card...

Why this response....well, Mike I find your last letter to the President a bit naive...it is like if you were still holding on to old dreams...it's an other era...and this era, is about letting go of the illusions we were fed from the last centuries...

My word of advise to all is the following...the only thing that is real...is the PRESENT moment...projection to the past...to the future...

I vibrate very much to most of your posts, and I send you all my good thoughts from where II am...

Shalom...or shall I say...Namaste...