CYNTHIA McKINNEY TAKEN INTO CUSTODY, GAZA RELIEF SUPPLY SHIP BOARDED BY ISRAELI NAVY -- McKINNEY AND COLLEAGUES DETAINED IN ISRAEL
June 30, 2009, 12:30 PM PDT -- This morning at 0915 I received a call from Cynthia McKinney aide David who advised that a ship en route from Cyprus to Gaza filled with relief supplies including medicine and much-needed cement had been fired upon and boarded by naval vessels of the Israeli Defense Forces. On board were dozens of peace activists and aide workers including Nobeal Peace Laureate Maired Maguire. I had last heard from Cynthia on Sunday June 28th when she called me from Cyprus at around 0930 my time to advise that she and her band of international peace activists were finally departing from Cyprus for Gaza after many delays.
David advised that as far as he knew, no one had been hurt in the Israeli attack and that Cynthia was physically OK. However, he added that her safety and whereabouts inside Israel were unknown at this time.
I am encouraging all of my fans and followers to reach out by any means to the White House, to the international media, to the Israeli embassy in Washington and by whatever means they can to protest this attack on a humanitarian relief effort and to ensure the safety of all aboard. The plight of the Gazans is epic and brutal. It is time that voices were heard and all of us who have known and loved Cynthia McKinney for so long need to rally behind her uncompromising courage. We need to make our voices heard on this.
For more information, please visit http://www.FreeGaza.org.
Michael C. Ruppert
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From Jenna Orkin:
Americas/UK
Obama could mull second stimulus if needed: adviser
Fears over UK debt
Britain's national debt is in danger of quadrupling, Standard & Poor's warns
Brown to keep spending high despite recession
Atta boy.
Why the Dow Is Headed to 6000
TIPS Are Untested: What Happens When Inflation Takes Over?
US Approves IMF Gold Sales; What Does It Mean?
Volcker Gets Less Than He Wants From Obama in Curbing Wall Street Excesses
New Home Sales Market Share Drops to Record Low of 7.4%: Chart of the Day
Regulators Shutter five banks
- two in Georgia, two in California and one in Minnesota - bringing the year's total to 45 bank failures
Don't miss "The Crumbling of America" documentary news (from Rice Farmer)
The U.S. Military is Going Green
Rebellion on the Range Over a Cattle ID Plan
Supreme Court Finds Bias Against White Firefighters
Honduran President Removed in Coup
Gold Heist at the Canadian Mint?
Energy
Iraq oilfields up for grabs in 'extraordinary' TV auction
Japanese Biomass Powerplants Struggle with Shortages
Big Oil's Answer to Carbon Law May Be Fuel Imports
Solar power faces early sunset in Australia
Coal-Eating Bugs May Solve Energy Crisis
Three from Rice Farmer:
The Coming Mystery Of The Missing Barrels Of Oil
Rare Metals Could Trigger Next Trade War
Black Markets for Rare Earth Metals
Water
Positioning for When Water Runs Out: Part II
It's Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado
Low Rainfall Cuts Hydro Power Generation
India turns to 'cloud seeding' to make rain
Russia
Russia considers bail-out for banks
...that will go further than measures taken by the US, as fears grow that bad loans could paralyse the economy.
Russia’s Putin welcomes oil and gas cooperation with Royal Dutch Shell in Sakhalin
South Stream Exports May Sideline Ukraine
NATO & resumed military cooperation with Russia
Mullen Calls for New US-Russian Military Relationship
Attack from breakaway Abkhazia damages Georgian power grid
Ukraine coalition 'close to collapse'
Russia Signals It Will Stay Out of OPEC
Credit crunch forces Russian climbdown.
Number of Russian wealthy drops 28.5%, report finds
Asia/Africa
North Korea Threatens to Shoot Down Japanese Spy Planes
S. Korea boosts defense spending, warns of first-strike capability (from Rice Farmer)
US Abandons Efforts to Eradicate Poppy Plants
Drug crop cultivation plummets in Afghanistan
Opium poppy production fell 19 per cent in Afghanistan
US confirms U-turn in Afghan counter-narcotics policy
Somali children being forced into war, says leader
Four from Rice Farmer:
Alarming Death Rate of Foreign Trainees Reported in Japan
Is China Faking Economic Recovery?
Japan's public pension assets suffer record yearly loss, erasing all profit made in last eight years
North India reels under power shortage
Science
When a Hybrid Takes Hold, the Outcome Can Be Bad
Worm Charming
Just what it sounds like.
Sanofi to donate 100m swine flu vaccines
The hidden cost of giving away vaccines
One-off gifts of childhood vaccines can cause more harm than good.
Intelligence
Secrecy News reports:
The Defense Department has issued a newly updated policy statement (pdf) on reporting "questionable" intelligence activities. "It is DoD policy that senior leaders and policymakers within the Government be made aware of events that may erode the public trust in the conduct of DoD intelligence operations," the June 17, 2009 memorandum states. Some such questionable activities are to be reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board, a component of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. However, the efficacy of any such reporting is limited by the fact that that Board currently has no sitting members. ("White House Intel Advisory Board Has No Members," Secrecy News, June 15, 2009).
Blog of Bill Leonard, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under Clinton and Bush II.
The Slope of Dysfunction
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent post from Dmitry Orlov....
...fear not - a solution to Peak Oil and the collapse of modern civilisation is at hand...
...Phew!!!
Since the topic of this thread is "When the Medicine Doesn't Work, Increase the Dose", I'm offering my simple solution to providing health insurance to many of us living here in the United States...
ReplyDeleteSince the major insurance companies offer great plans to companies who employ thousands or tens of thousands of people, let's have our government get the insurance companies to give them bids on providing health insurance to the more than 300 million people living here in the United States, all as one single group. Heck, I'd even be willing to pay my own portion of the premium on that one, and I know I'd be paying a lot less than I'm paying right now, and I'd be getting much better coverage for both me and my family, too.
But that would be denying the insurance companies all the additional profits they make from us having to pay for individual and family plans ourselves, and it would make it a lot tougher for them to deny us their medical payments when we file for treatment for major illnesses on our own individual policies also.
Hmmmmm...Sometimes a simple solution can get very complicated.
Israel navy intercepts boat with ex-U.S. Rep. McKinney
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_drug_allegations
ReplyDelete"The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States.
"Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol."
(Jenna, although the following is connected to a thread from FTW's previous comments post, I sensed it might best be posted with your new page... the title of which does seem at least nominally synchronistic.)
ReplyDeleteSebastian,
Please read carefully; and please know I mean you no offense whatsoever when saying: 1.) I do see a specifically "global" body of growing consciousness beginning to take place as evinced by commentary coming together here at FTW that originates from numerous locations across the globe. 2.) I cannot give you the names of any exclusively homeland China residents who are involved specifically in bringing themselves into consciousness of global realities -- but am nonetheless certain that such a thing is indeed occurring. 3.) Not altogether unlike any other systematically self-indoctrinating group of ideological fanatics -- whether fundamentalist Christian zealots, Hitler saluting fascists, or incorrigible died-in-the-wool whatevers -- the Muslim Ummah do themselves very little to no good whatsoever by shrinking their minds to fit in a tightly closed bottle; as we're blessed to realize by observing such types, and for whom I bear no malice nor contempt. 4.) Anyone who would call the USA the "Great Satan" has studied neither the original literature on this subject/term nor studied human socio-psychological behavior well enough to have figured out what Satan actually is & does. 5.) As for whether the issue of Satan "mix[es] in with [my] global perspective [sic] on [what I perceive you might mean by] the great awakening?"; yes, it does. 6.) Have I "ever actually travelled outside of the pop culture womb of the U.S.?", I really have no clue what you mean there; so I cannot honestly say I have or haven't. But I have travelled everywhere I've needed to to know what I know.
7.) "[R]e-localization, fragmentation and collapse" are definitely features of the in-flux state in which we find ourselves today; but I do not see these currently significant happenings as being "the name of the game". If there is any particular overall "name" for what's right now going on on planet Earth, from my perspective I see it as just "another natural & inevitable episode of life being life, itself". 8.) I have no interest whatsoever in "saving the world"; that objective is already accomplished. I'm just here experiencing what's taking place and continuing to do my part in it, just like everybody else is doing what they're doing. This is the "work" we do, ultimately, as I see it.
9.) I do not see that "there will likely be some kind of spiritual counterpart to run parallel to the collapse of industrial civilization". From my perspective there already is, always has been, and always will be an uninterrupted & uninterruptible overarching-underpinning spiritual essence systemically suffusing throughout and thereby actualizing the ultimately quantitatively incomprehensible field of existence. Of course that's just RanD's perspective, and not necessarily anybody else's... which perhaps has something to do with why RanD's words tend to piss some folks off? I'll leave it to whomever needs to to answer that one.
RanD
Re: "Japanese Biomass Powerplants Struggle with Shortages"
ReplyDeleteA good example of one problem that is killing large-scale biomass exploitation: logistics. It's easy to sit at a desk with a calculator and figure out how much corn stover is left on corn fields, or how many thinned trees are lying in the mountains, but quite another to gather up huge amounts of it and truck it to biofuel plants or power plants. Unlike coal and oil, biomass has a low energy content per unit volume, requiring one to amass colossal amounts.
You can sign a petition for the release of Ms. McKinney and the other passengers of the Spirit of Humanity here:
ReplyDeletehttp://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27540
Let me know if the link doesn't work. I'll try to track down a different way of getting at it.
Sorry Jenna, but you may as well shut down the site. Our energy problems are over... yet again. (sigh)
ReplyDelete‘Coal-eating’ bugs may solve energy crisis
From a recent Brookings Institution Report:
ReplyDelete"For purposes of this analytic exercise, we assume that a U.S. invasion of Iran is not triggered by an overt, incontrovertible, and unforgivable act of aggression—something on the order of an Iranian-backed 9/11, in which the planes bore Iranian markings and Tehran boasted about its sponsorship. First, this seems exceptionally unlikely given Iran’s history of avoiding such acts, at least since the end of the Iran-Iraq War. Second, were that ever to happen, the circumstances of an invasion would become almost easy—the United States would suddenly have enormous domestic and (perhaps grudging) international support for undertaking an invasion. Indeed, the entire question of “options” would become irrelevant at that point: what American president could refrain from an invasion after the Iranians had just killed several thousand American civilians in an attack in the United States itself?"
Click Here for More, including a link to a PDF file of the entire 170-page report.
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteI know this has been discussed before, but is there a way to see if my last posting didn't get there or got there and was blocked?
Thanks.
Namaste
The US Treasury Moves the Goal Posts
ReplyDeleteFrom Chuck Butler:
Basically, as we all know the U.S. Treasury Auctions have been getting “covered” easily recently, and foreign demand was listed as the reason… Which would have been the exact opposite of what I was saying about foreigners shying away from Treasuries.
Here’s the skinny… But I’ll let Min Zeng tell it, since he did the research and brought this to the public, even though it was tucked away so no one would notice!
“But in a little-noticed switch on June 1, the Treasury changed the way it accounts for indirect bids, putting more buyers under that umbrella and boosting the portion of recent Treasury sales that the market perceived were being bought by foreigners.
“The new definitions are deep in the arcane world of Treasury auctions. The change involves buyers who place orders through primary dealers. Those had been counted as direct buyers, but as of June 1 they were classified as indirect buyers, making that group larger than before. Because investors view that group as being dominated by foreign buyers, they assumed foreign demand was higher.”
I signed the petition, although I have never found bulk, form letters, chain letters, or Internet Petitions to carry much weight.
ReplyDeleteName recognition, an exchange of some kind, or/and a Title gets more attention than a thousand faceless names.
I had a Friend, neighbor who was an engineer for Martin
Marietta. He had a wall full of pictures, taken with powerful people, one with Pres. Johnson, another with Pres. Reagan. He had dozens of letters thanking him for his contributions to--whatever! All I ever got was a poorly
written form letter from some flunkie, in effect,"Kiss off".
But I have received a nice hand written thank you card from Sen.
John Barrasso, not machine generated, for his copy of "A Presidential Energy Policy". No comment as to if he would read it!
Please!!
Where are we at; Who are WE?
Everyone with a maturity over 18 has to watch " Lust Caution ", a shocker of a movie! Reflect on what is not said.
I was uneasy throughout the movie, even before I became aware of the extreme sexual content, because of my knowledge of the history glossed over. I had the sense that the context was present tense
more than the time frame it was filmed in.
Assume the place of one of those created; remember this is fiction, or is it?
Where does FTW, Mike, Jenna, those of us that post, & those who just
observe fit in? Am I the Rickshaw driver, or the lead; the abuser, or the abused? Have we "marked" ourselves through carelessness; through our actions or lack of forcefulness? Will we be as ineffective, have we defeated ourselves before the action begins?
Cynthia has the balls to put her life where it counts, DOES IT MATTER??
Watch for the word "run"!
I have written WAY too much already!? THINK-ACT??
Amae.
WTO admits some trade limits may be necessary to stop climate change.
ReplyDelete"GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization acknowledged Friday that some limits on free trade may be necessary to stop runaway climate change — provided the restrictions aren't a cover for protectionism....Import taxes on goods coming from countries that fail to meet environmental standards might be among the measures exceptionally permitted under global free trade laws, WTO said....China this week defended its curbs on exports of industrial raw materials by saying the measures are meant to protect the environment.
The United States and European Union filed WTO complaints Tuesday accusing Beijing of unfairly favoring its domestic steel, chemicals and other industries by restricting foreign rivals' access to key materials."
http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-eu-wto-climate-change,0,2145944.story
The irony of protectionism that's not protectionism!
I would like to take this opportunity to do a first: repeat myself from one post to another. This is how important I believe the breakthrough of the Net Hubbert Curve to be.
ReplyDeleteThe socio-political implications contained within the Net Hubbert Curve constitute the most important breakthrough in the Peak Oil movement in several years. It is a whole new ball game. Time lines for action, to prepare, from the micro to the macro, have been compressed by a degree of several decades.
For an analysis that is so simple, so common sense, so obvious, one has to wonder why it took so long for the breakthrough of the Net Hubbert Curve to be identified. Hats off to David Murphy for having done so.
For anyone who was filled with horror upon viewing the Gross Hubbert Curve, i.e. the original, and what it portends for society, to cast like perspective onto the Net Hubbert Curve can only magnify those concerns. The condition is compressed, shot to the forefront of social consideration and corresponding action. In the span of a very simple mathematical analysis, we are confronted with a paradigm shift within a paradigm shift.
The only political maxim that ever really matters is crystallized for consideration: What must be done?
Rice Farmer;
ReplyDeleteLogistics has always been a major problem with biomas and ethanol. I remember a meeting when the manager of loading terminals laughed out loud when he was told that for every 10 trucks delivering 10% ethanol-blended fuel from the terminal, 1 truck would have to bring an ethanol delivery to the terminal. Ethanol/biomass cannot be delivered by pipeline, only truck/rail, which is more expensive.It chemically combines with the water instead of riding on top, like oil/gas. Hence tax subsidies to whomever blends the ethanol. Add its impressive ROEI, and you can see what a silly boondoggle it is.
Good eyes, Businessman!
ReplyDeleteI downloaded the Brookings Institution PDF , and predictably the authors are war hawks. The Saban Center itself was founded in 2002 by American Zionist Haim Saban and it functioned as the neocon wing of Brookings during the Bush Administration. It’s director, Martin Indyk, is also a Zionist and former US Ambassador to Israel. He started his career at AIPAC and has directed its Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a major neocon think tank. Ken Pollack published, in 2002, a book called: The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq. Bruce Reidel has had a major role in ramping up the Af-Pak Debacle.
The very title of the Brookings (Saban Center) document is: "Which Path to Persia?", by which is meant “How to Make Iran Do What We Tell Them?” After a relatively brief discussion of diplomatic channels, about twice as much space is devoted to discussion of such options as letting the Israelis attack Iran and fomenting regime change. Pros and Cons are weighed, but the introduction of such topics (in the absence of any non-interventionist option) frames the question, such that all the paths to Persia are about some kind of force. Indeed the document is reminiscent of PNAC statements leading up to the invasion of Iraq.
Would they do it again? If they did, would they get the same traction that 9/11 gave them? Or would it blow up in their faces this time? Perhaps even corporate warhawks can see the Limits looming in the mist. It’s at least possible that the document is mainly bluster in a complex attempt to de-nuke Iran. Not a bad goal, nor is de-nuking North Korea. Now, if we could extend that trend to the United States and Russia, perhaps some serious good might result.
Though doom is staring us down, we were born with it leering at us. It’s good to remember that worst case scenarios do not always emerge. How we use our own energies may yet have a decisive influence.
I completely concur with Sebastian when he states....
ReplyDeletequote
The socio-political implications contained within the Net Hubbert Curve constitute the most important breakthrough in the Peak Oil movement in several years. It is a whole new ball game. Time lines for action, to prepare, from the micro to the macro, have been compressed by a degree of several decades.
unquote
Not only are we experiencing a dramatic decline in energy production because of geological factors, there is an increased rate of decline due to the energy cost of extracting what is left.
But in addition (according to Dmitry Orlov's experience in Soviet Russia) there will ALSO be a dramatic decline because of social/political reasons
quote
What actually happens to an economy and a society under such circumstances? With oil in short supply, industrial production plummets, the economy stalls, there is a financial crisis because of debts going bad, followed by a commercial crisis because of falling demand and lack of credit, followed by political collapse caused by dwindling government revenues, followed by social collapse as unemployment rises and crime becomes rampant. After a while of this, the idea of you and your friends going out to the oil field and pumping some more oil starts to seem rather odd, and so oil production heads to zero.
unquote
here in the UK we are already experiencing political collapse - the Govt has announced several major policy projects are to be cancelled - presumably due to lack of funds.
Not only are we on a slippery slope, it appears to be steeper than even we in the peak oil movement expected!
I was really wondering why the story of a former US Congresswoman being taken into custody on a humanitarian mission isn't all over MSM.
ReplyDeleteA Google search did find a few articles from FOX news, but essentially nothing of substance.
The Government seems strangely silent on the issue.
HOWEVER, the blogs attached to some of those articles were filled with unbelievable hate, rage, profanity and just plain scary stuff!
There are those who wish the Isreali Nave had blown Cynthia and the ship out of the water? They claim the ship is on a spy mission, jamming Isreali radar, etc. etc. etc.
Many are hugely anti-semitic, anti-christian, anti-any religion!
Very sad to see we've come to this. The cleansing coming with the transition to a new world age may be a good thing ...
namaste
ps I did sign the petition and sent e-mails to President Obama, Vice President Biden and my state's representatives urging action in getting the release of the ship, supplies and those on board. We'll see, eh?
Agape wins!!! Splendid word-smithing... splendid self-interrogatory! NOW I DO understand what your "problem" is! You're "suffering?"... Ha!... from the exact same "mind disease?"... Ha!... that I am!
ReplyDeleteI'll soon be back with comments re your poignant concerns. In the meantime, in addition to taking care of routine chores that demand attention, I want to issue a post of thanks to Sebastian for his equally splendid post re the Net Hubbert Curve.
this is much more important than cynthia mckinney or MJ, pardon me...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naturalnews.com/026503_pandemic_swine_flu_bioterrorism.html
I just wanted to add my two cents in on the whole free healthcare deal. One point that I've brought up to my friends time and time again is the fact that people do not take care of themselves. If you can't take the time to learn about how your body works, and how to take care of it, you should NOT be getting free health care. Constantly eating fast food/junk food/preservatives and trying to offset it with an 2 hrs/week of exercise will not work out in the long run... Why should I pay taxes towards peoples healthcare when I'm spending tons of money on organic food, and tons of time exercising and in the gym?
ReplyDeleteAnd now...back to the Merlot.
Mr. Ronin -- That news about the net Hubbert curve is indeed worth repeating. It ranks high with the Export Land Model as one of those things so obvious (once you see it) that it induces a forehead-slapping moment, and it's also one of those immediately self-evident truths that change the whole game.
ReplyDeleteI too urge people who haven't done so to read about the Export Land Model and the net Hubbert curve.
About the survival of human species - I think, that the survival has allready been decided upon and guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteOur problem with this topic is not how to survive as a species, but how to individually survive the "decision about the survival of human species".
If we (individually) are a part of the "solution", than we are screwed...
...
To Businessman about Iran:
- write this down someplace, because I can guarantee it to you:
USA WILL NEVER INVADE IRAN!!!
The reason?
CHINA is importing 30% of ALL of it's oil from Iran. They also trade with them in industrial parts and machinery (on a large scale). You think they will let themselves be cut off by the USA? Not likely.
There is Also Russia, who deals heavily in arms with this country.
The only (unlikely/unplausible) scenario would be for USA, Russia and China to invate together with prior agreement about the division of spoils of such a venture. However, I can see no positive revenue in this for Russia (it has it's own oil - would loose one hell of a customer)
Greetings.
Net Hubbert Curve, Addendum:
ReplyDeleteAlong with my comment here, I also shotgunned an email. I stand corrected on having giving credit for the NHC breakthrough solely to David Murphy.
Nate Hagans (Oil Drum editor), Ken Mulder and others have pioneered this work to where it sits to-day.
Hi to you dear peacefull wariors, it's been a while I did not come to the FTW websites and gosh, what great work done by many of you. Thank you its encouraging!
ReplyDeleteHere's more water on "Agape wins" seeds (think-act):
"Will is one of the fundamental principles of existence.
Intention is the ethereal component of will.
Volition is the condensation of that intention.
Movement is it's material expression.
Knowing, being and doing are the primary aspects of life. Intention is the glue that joins being and doing. Intention was necessary to allow our spirits to express how best we must conduct our affairs. Realizing that these directives are subverted and diverted by our thought processes is the key to ourselves." See PJB: http://www.blogger.com/profile/11404602550746957237
Hope it can be useful.
PS: Cynthia, I am sending you warm thoughts and thank you deeply for your courage, inspiration and dedicated efforts towards the achievement of peace on this earth
Great find, brell, on that article about the journalist's lawsuit over bioterrorism!
ReplyDeleteMy intention in posting that link to the Brookings Institution study on Iran was not to suggest that the U.S. will be invading Iran. It was to show how a highly-regarded U.S. think tank is focused on destabilizing Iran and thinking about ideas like "What would happen if a 9/11-type event happened again and we could blame Iran for it all this time?"
And regarding healthcare, there's a lot more that goes into whether or not someone gets sick than how well they take care of themselves with both diet and exercise. There are people who are in better condition than most all of us, who are lean, who exercise, and who eat very healthily, but who still die from diseases like cancer and leukemia. So I just want a healthcare system that's really fair to the people, and doesn't look out for the profits of the insurance companies far above and beyond the care of its own citizens.