Iraq Study Group Damage Control and Cover-up
Exposing the Conspiracy and Coverup of the RFK Assassination Courtesy, Online Journal
Frist Foregoes Run for President
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
MIKE RUPPERT IN CANADA, RECOVERING - LEGAL NOTICE
Nov. 26, 2006
Thanks to contributions and assistance from so many of you, Mike Ruppert was successfully moved from Venezuela to Canada on November 18th. He is currently in the greater Toronto area and receiving medical care and rest thanks to dedicated Peak Oil activists. In addition to his previously described symptoms it has been learned that his adrenal system is severely damaged and there may be toxicity of the liver. He has lost more than 20 pounds in the last ten weeks. Many of you have written suggesting possible poisoning as cause for his known symptoms. We are not pursuing that at the moment because the treatment for the symptoms would not change in either case.
Mike has received offers of residency from more than 20 countries on five continents. It will not be possible to further consider those options until his health has stablized which may take several months. In addition, Mike must also turn his attention to a number of legal issues arising from FTW's permanent cessation of operations.
LEGAL NOTICE -- Michael Ruppert has every intention of satisfying all legitimate outstanding debts of From The Wilderness Publications, Inc. Those creditors and customers with unfilled orders who have not received refunds are asked to maintain complete records. At a subsquent date, either the FTW web site or Mike Ruppert's blog will post notices about how to make contact and present claims. At present, the Ashland, Oregon offices are vacant and all phone lines have been disconnected. For the time being mail should still be sent to the Ashland address as it is being forwarded to a temporary holding area, pending new arrangements.
The first priority is for Mike to recover his health. He will, as soon as he is able, be pursuing legal and financial arrangements to satisfy all obligations but it may take several months before funds become available.
Mike sends the following message to all FTW subscribers, friends and fans:
"Over the past four months many of you have touched me with your generous and loving offers of support and encouragement. You have kept me alive. I have also understood, probably for the first time, how deeply FTW has impacted your lives and the lives of a new and younger generation. As my health and my access to your letters improves I will be writing personally to as many of you as I possibly can.
"I want to repeat something I have been saying in private emails over the last month. Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease.
"It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great. I want to assure all FTW creditors that if it takes the rest of my life we will pay off our debts. Unfortunately, any unfillfilled orders will not and cannot be shipped. We will refund them as soon as we are able. Many of the tragedies and mishaps which marked FTW's final months and necessitated its closure became a perfect storm. How they played out has already been discussed. But I am still alive and plans are underway to have the FTW web site archived in perpetuity on the internet for the benefit of future researchers and we expect that to happen soon.
"This is not the end but a new beginning."
While donations are not needed to relocate Mike to another country, there is still a need for funds to cover immediate medical expenses. Mike Ruppert will not be able to travel long distances for the foreseeable future. He will continue to work with and through his New York attorney Ray Kohlman and Jenna Orkin.
Please continue to send donations and essential correspondence to the address below. If sending a donation, please remember to put "For Mike Ruppert" in the memo line.
Ray Kohlman
300 East 71st St.
Suite 3H
New York, NY 10021
Thank you all.
Thanks to contributions and assistance from so many of you, Mike Ruppert was successfully moved from Venezuela to Canada on November 18th. He is currently in the greater Toronto area and receiving medical care and rest thanks to dedicated Peak Oil activists. In addition to his previously described symptoms it has been learned that his adrenal system is severely damaged and there may be toxicity of the liver. He has lost more than 20 pounds in the last ten weeks. Many of you have written suggesting possible poisoning as cause for his known symptoms. We are not pursuing that at the moment because the treatment for the symptoms would not change in either case.
Mike has received offers of residency from more than 20 countries on five continents. It will not be possible to further consider those options until his health has stablized which may take several months. In addition, Mike must also turn his attention to a number of legal issues arising from FTW's permanent cessation of operations.
LEGAL NOTICE -- Michael Ruppert has every intention of satisfying all legitimate outstanding debts of From The Wilderness Publications, Inc. Those creditors and customers with unfilled orders who have not received refunds are asked to maintain complete records. At a subsquent date, either the FTW web site or Mike Ruppert's blog will post notices about how to make contact and present claims. At present, the Ashland, Oregon offices are vacant and all phone lines have been disconnected. For the time being mail should still be sent to the Ashland address as it is being forwarded to a temporary holding area, pending new arrangements.
The first priority is for Mike to recover his health. He will, as soon as he is able, be pursuing legal and financial arrangements to satisfy all obligations but it may take several months before funds become available.
Mike sends the following message to all FTW subscribers, friends and fans:
"Over the past four months many of you have touched me with your generous and loving offers of support and encouragement. You have kept me alive. I have also understood, probably for the first time, how deeply FTW has impacted your lives and the lives of a new and younger generation. As my health and my access to your letters improves I will be writing personally to as many of you as I possibly can.
"I want to repeat something I have been saying in private emails over the last month. Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease.
"It is time to move on. I spent twenty-seven years as a dedicated public activist and that is something which I am no longer able or inclined to do. The price was ultimately too great. I want to assure all FTW creditors that if it takes the rest of my life we will pay off our debts. Unfortunately, any unfillfilled orders will not and cannot be shipped. We will refund them as soon as we are able. Many of the tragedies and mishaps which marked FTW's final months and necessitated its closure became a perfect storm. How they played out has already been discussed. But I am still alive and plans are underway to have the FTW web site archived in perpetuity on the internet for the benefit of future researchers and we expect that to happen soon.
"This is not the end but a new beginning."
While donations are not needed to relocate Mike to another country, there is still a need for funds to cover immediate medical expenses. Mike Ruppert will not be able to travel long distances for the foreseeable future. He will continue to work with and through his New York attorney Ray Kohlman and Jenna Orkin.
Please continue to send donations and essential correspondence to the address below. If sending a donation, please remember to put "For Mike Ruppert" in the memo line.
Ray Kohlman
300 East 71st St.
Suite 3H
New York, NY 10021
Thank you all.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Update/Mike; Earthaven; Power/Europe; CIA/ Bin Laden Unit/Guantanemo;
Deepest thanks to those who've offered help and advice for Mike and FTW; it's all been noted. I think I responded to each offer individually. Let me know if you were inadvertently omitted.
Also, we're acutely aware that you're anxious for an update. Please hang on a little longer; one will be forthcoming soon.
Earthaven
Power Failures Hit Europe
New York Times Videos on CIA Closing of Bin Laden Unit, Guantanemo, etc
Also, we're acutely aware that you're anxious for an update. Please hang on a little longer; one will be forthcoming soon.
Earthaven
Power Failures Hit Europe
New York Times Videos on CIA Closing of Bin Laden Unit, Guantanemo, etc
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Masterful FTW Webmaster Fixes Website Problem
FTW's webmaster extraordinaire, while working in a voluntary capacity, has fixed the problem mentioned on this page the other day. JO
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Disclaimer for Health Advice Offered in Comments
Thanks to all who are pouring forth offers (which are being handled separately), good will and health advice for Mike. Please note that this blog and FTW are not health professionals and do not necessarily endorse the advice contained in the comments. They're being published only as a matter of interest.
Your messages are also being passed on to Mike who appreciates them enormously. They're even having a noticeable effect.
Your messages are also being passed on to Mike who appreciates them enormously. They're even having a noticeable effect.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
EVOLUTION
Mike Ruppert
[FTW is really screwed up right now. Everybody knows it and I am not going ignore it. I am in bad shape too. I am not going to hide that either. I have been in Caracas for 14-plus weeks and am facing a serious combination of medical symptoms that were described by Carlos Ruiz in “Living with Mike Ruppert in Caracas”. They include sudden drops in blood pressure, blood sugar crashes, dizziness, weakness, paresthesis of lips and fingers, small kidney stones, heavy calcification of the urinary tract and prostate, cloudy urine and chronic fatigue. There have been four seizure-like violent tremors.
Looking back I can see that the first major signs of my illness started appearing about a year ago. The first tremor happened in January before we moved FTW out of Los Angeles. What is happening now erupted in full about two weeks after I arrived in Caracas. We do not have a firm diagnosis yet. I have just had an expensive series of blood tests run but do not have the results. Both FTW and I need your help although I must tell you that our offices are being vacated next week.
My friends and subscribers know that I have never lied to them. My enemies know that I have never lied to my friends and subscribers. That has been an unbroken bond for 104 consecutive months and I am not about to break it now.
FTW’s time of usefulness on this planet is ending. Michael Kane offered his resignation last week. Having already lost Stan Goff (due to cash shortages) and Jamey Hecht. No one person can carry it on their own. Kane made the right decision for personal reasons and I support it completely. We remain close and trusted friends with deep mutual admiration and respect for each other. The article that follows is my personal tribute to him and the entire generation of talented investigators, researchers and writers that has arisen since 9-11.
One of our former writers has expressed concern for his safety in the current political climate of the United States. I know that he is not alone and that many others feel the same. I say to you all, fight the good fight.
There is one other person I must specifically thank and that is the angelic, dedicated, and steadfast Jenna Orkin who has researched, blog-managed, and loved me so unconditionally as to affirm my belief in God when all other evidence of Him seemed MIA. To all who have made FTW and its accomplishments possible, whether we parted as friends or not, I offer a gratitude that will endure throughout all time.
We changed the world a little bit.
My time may be over too and I must now turn my attention to that. One thing we must do, however, is to save the FTW archives as a permanent fixture on the internet for future researchers and try to clean things up before we go. We must also save my personal library of around 250 books.
How this came to pass merits only a brief discussion. There are too many details that I just don’t know. In the first month after I left the states we had our strongest sales month in (I’m guessing) a year and a half. The organization I hastily put in place before leaving was working. Decisions were made in Ashland to upgrade our store and web site for all the right reasons; chiefly to cut costs by outsourcing our product shipment and warehousing. Many glitches made that process take more than two months and during that time our subscriber-only section was free and often orders could simply not be accepted. It was not that people didn’t want to buy. They just couldn’t.
Sales fell by around 60% and cash flow dried up. I was made fully aware of these details only about two weeks ago. I was out of the loop for these decisions and didn’t find out how bad things were until many well-intentioned choices had already been made; choices that could not be changed. The same is true for our long-time agent/publicist Ken Levine. We all owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who wrote for FTW after I left the United States. Some great stories and articles came out between July and November.
There were more problems of human origin. Some were definitely malicious. I won’t go into them here because they just don’t matter anymore. If there are any recriminations to be given for how things turned out I accept them. I was the glue that held FTW together all these years. I am the one who left knowing that I couldn’t continue any longer after our offices were burglarized and our computers were smashed this June. There had been one-too-many battles and, looking back, I knew my health was failing then even though I didn’t want to admit it.
As far as I know, the Ashland staff did the absolute best they could. However, one person who is no longer affiliated with FTW wrote me about a month ago that the decision to close FTW was a “fait accompli” and that it could not be prevented. I had not been consulted before that. I immediately cautioned against painting a rosy picture and continuing to sell subscriptions and products after I was told that the office was being staffed only one day per week, they couldn’t pay for inventory, and there was no money to ship product or pay staff.
I was advised on Nov. 6 that the staff, working without pay, had shipped most, but not all of the remaining orders.
What is important to me is that we try to make our obligations good. Sadly, in my present condition and position I may not be able to have much impact on that. FTW is closing its doors with many angry people who have not received their orders and vendors who never got paid for what they shipped us. I did everything I could possibly think of to prevent that, including considering returning to the States with all the risks and personal anguish that would entail.
We have jointly decided that the FTW store cease all sales of subscriptions and product immediately, remaining available only for badly needed donations. Those will be used to ship remaining back orders, pay staff save the web site and transfer my personal library to an as yet undetermined safe location – in that order.
Those are the facts. It is too soon to glibly say “let the healing begin”. There is too much wreckage scattered about. But it is certainly time to stop creating any more. Healings will inevitably occur. That is the beauty of life.
At the end of this article I will list options for those who want to help me personally and give FTW the decent end it deserves. I know you’re out there. I am nearly broke and am unable to even purchase a plane ticket if I had another country to go to or a bed to sleep in when I got there. Venezuela has kicked my butt as you will soon see. How all of that happened gave me the “inspiration” for this final FTW essay.
This is my tribute to Michael Kane and to all who have learned from FTW, taken the map we have drawn, and are now reading it for themselves. God bless you. The struggle continues. – MCR]
EVOLUTION
by
Michael C. Ruppert
Copyright 2006, Michael C. Ruppert. – May be posted or distributed freely
Cultural diversity is not only humanity’s hallmark of progress, but an insurance policy against extinction as a species. Diversity gives not only cultural and economic riches derived from different perspectives on natural resources and what it means to be human, but options to problem solving that are stifled in a homogenized society. When such a society is organized around economic goals that are measured by profit margins for private gain by powerful elites, where the demands of those who bear cash as the ticket of admission to the marketplace rule, rather than the needs of people, then those who are deprived – and those who have never been part of such a global economy – must necessarily suffer. The genocide of tribal peoples, therefore, is symptomatic of a deep malaise in the world’s metropolises. Indigenous peoples will suffer the most, but humanity as a whole will suffer the loss of some of its memory, not only of a unique knowledge of the natural world, but of its ability to cope with the future in various, diverse ways.
THY WILL BE DONE, The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett, Harper Collins, 1995, p. 685
INSERT DATELINE, CARACAS – Nature protects itself through diversity. It stands to reason then that when threatened – as it is now on so many fronts – Mother Earth will exert itself aggressively; enforcing rigid boundaries that ignore the lives of individuals – plant or animal – in order to preserve the diversity which protects all life. That human beings as a species also show such characteristics is proof of the connection between man and planet. In some ways this is not unlike the point in time when a child must break with parents in order to fulfill its own destiny, with its own unique life path, thus guaranteeing that the evolutionary process – life itself – is protected; that something better and new might follow.
All individual life ends so that that life as a whole may go on and evolve. As I have said in so many lectures, the human race is now being faced with a choice: either evolve or perish.
Americans tend to think of the Third World as “the frontier”, a place still open to settlement as if it were a divine right just for the willingness to endure a little hardship. With overpopulation and dwindling global resources, the “frontiers” are defending themselves to protect diversity in many ways; ways that are far more effective than any resistance to colonization in previous centuries. Global warming has been characterized as a planet developing a fever to rid itself of an infection. I believe that increasing global tensions might also be mirroring that process.
The human side of this resistance is also organic and, in Latin America, Venezuela is its heart. It has now taken solid root, emerging almost simultaneously in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. I do not think it can be stopped. It is an anthropological resistance.
Living in Venezuela has been an amazing, brutal, and illuminating lesson. It is a truly alien culture that I find simultaneously beautiful, hard, giving, unfamiliar, uncomfortable and definitely self-protecting to the extreme. That is why I am confident that Venezuela, and most of Latin America, will survive the coming crash of Peak Oil better than any other region of the world. I believe it is already starting to protect itself. It doesn’t need me or any outsider to survive. But as a general rule, only those who are native here will be protected by its blessings.
It is not just that I am blond haired and blue-eyed, which does get me a lot of double takes – some hostile. It is as though I am a fish used to swimming in a different kind of water. The way that I swim affects the other fish here, already swimming too much in a superimposed American cultural blanket that has been enforced by scores of coups, debt enslavement, colonization, exploitation, genocide and war over the course of the 20th century and into today. In order to understand this picture a British citizen trying to drive in super-crowded Caracan traffic where there are few rules. Under stress the Brit might instinctively react in a way that might tie up streets. Now change the image of traffic to a culture adapting to dwindling energy reserves, conflict or panic. The Brit would be singled out quickly and forced off the road so that the rest might “function” in ways they were accustomed to.
However, the powerful lessons and principles of human justice, sustainability, harmony with the land, freedom from the mandate of endless capitalist growth, openness, and localization contained in the Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez are powerful survival tools that can and must be studied and adapted to other regions. If one reads Richard Heinberg, Matt Savinar, Megan Quinn, Post Carbon Institute, FTW, or any of the great sustainability writers, one will find those same principles; arrived at through different means.
Forget labels. This is what will work.
The Bolivarian Revolution is different from the main body of sustainability literature in one key respect. It is the practical, hands-on implementation of these principles on local, national and continental levels; something all European and North American sustainability advocates know little or nothing about. How could they? While US and European sustainability advocates write about “shoulds” the Bolivarian Revolution is an evolving process of actual doing. It must be watched closely by all who would learn from it.
The irony is that for the most part, the Bolivarian revolution does not see itself as a sustainability movement but rather as a political and economic one. Now for another of my trademarked quotes: Until you change the way money works, you change nothing. The Bolivarian Revolution is doing just that.
PROTECTING DIVERSITY
The Bolivarian Revolution and Venezuelan culture inherently knows that it cannot make too many exceptions to the rule that diversity must protect itself or else the rule will have no meaning. That’s exactly what I was asking it to do (though I didn’t know it) when I came here. I am not just one migrating gringo. Mike Ruppert could not be assimilated without changing something here: the Tao of politics.
That is why, after 15 weeks of waiting, after only one interview, a formal petition and a lot of pressure from influential Americans and Venezuelan-Americans (some with direct government connections) I have not heard a word on my request for political asylum. Venezuelans are inherently suspicious, let alone of a blond gringo who is an ex-policeman who came from a US intelligence family. It is possible that within the massive and glacially slow bureaucracy, some who are not loyal to Chavez have buried my request under a pile of papers. In Latin America things take much longer and I can see now that the waiting process, never guaranteed to be successful, is part of a natural selection.
My thirty year record of activism and sacrifice in the US means little in Venezuela. Those deposits were made in a bank belonging to a different ecosystem. There are no ATMs for that kind of withdrawal here.
The first real kindness shown to me by a full-blooded Latin American with government connections, came about two weeks ago as “Tano”, a bearded artist and long-time revolutionary who had worked with Salvador Allende in Chile, looked at me with true compassion and said, “Venezuela will run you through a gauntlet. It will ignore you. It will make promises and never call you back or fulfill them. It will mistrust you even if you have lived here for ten years, twenty years.”
It took me 12 weeks to get to Tano and it was not by a linear, logical path.
Tano is a famed artist and thinker knows Hugo Chavez personally. He has traveled with him. His kindness and sympathy was abundant and visible. Kittens slept on his massive belly as he spoke from behind a desk cluttered with papers. Two dogs gravitated to him as though he was a magnet. He offered to open doors and make some introductions in certain ministries. As opposed to many other unfulfilled promises since I have been here, he meant it. Promises are made quickly here and soon forgotten, even between native Venezuelans. But it was already too late. My health was gone, I could not make one important event and I had already been rejected like an invading organism; rejected by the differences in culture and an environment I had trouble adapting to.
I was introduced to Tano by my young Venezuelan friend Ivan, who, at 27, who had just quit his job as a trader at J.P. Morgan because it was too stressful. He was too Venezuelan to live the life of a Venezuelan posing as an American. Good for him.
It would be embarrassing to many people if I named the names of all of those back “home” who, learning that I had come here, told me that they had been considering the same move. They said that when things got intolerable in the States, or the UK, or Canada, they would just move here; or to Costa Rica, or to New Zealand, or to someplace else. My pains and troubles here will serve as an object lesson for all that the time to relocate in advance of Peak Oil has, for almost everyone, long passed.
DISTINCTIONS
The important distinctions about adaptivity are not racial at all. US citizens come in all colors. American culture is the water they have swum in since birth. A native US citizen of Latin descent who did not (or even did) speak Spanish would probably feel almost as out of place here as I do. They would look the same but not feel the same. And when it came time to deal collectively with a rapidly changing world, a world in turmoil, a native-born American’s inbred decades of “instinctive” survival skills might not harmonize with the skills used by those around him.
Another one of my trademarked lines is that Post Peak survival is not a matter of individual survival or national survival. It is a matter of cooperative, community survival. If one is not a fully integrated member of a community when the challenges come, one might hinder the effectiveness of the entire community which has unspoken and often consciously unrecognized ways of adapting. As stresses increase, the gauntlets required to gain acceptance in strange places will only get tougher. Diversity will become more, rather than less, rigid and enforced.
As energy shortages and blackouts arrive; as food shortages grow worse; as droughts expand and proliferate; as icecaps melt, as restless, cold and hungry populations start looking for other places to go; minute cultural and racial differences will trigger progressively more abrupt reactions, not unlike a stressed out and ill human body will react more violently to things that otherwise would never reach conscious thought.
Start building your lifeboats where you are now. I can see that the lessons I have learned here are important whether you are thinking of moving from city to countryside, state to state, or nation to nation. Whatever shortcomings you may think exist where you live are far outnumbered by the advantages you have where you are a part of an existing ecosystem that you know and which knows you.
If the time comes when it is necessary to leave that community you will be better off moving with your tribe rather than moving alone.
Evolution is guaranteed. Useful knowledge gained by ancestors is incorporated into succeeding generations. It may not be used in the same way that it was when acquired. It may lie dormant for years or decades, safely stored in DNA or the collective unconscious. But it is there, and it will always be available should the day come when it is needed.
----------
SENDING HELP
FOR MIKE RUPPERT MEDICAL CARE AND RELOCATION ONLY:
My trusted attorney Ray Kohlman in New York will be receiving all donations intended for this purpose. I really need help. At present only checks and money orders can be processed. They should be made out to Ray Kohlman and (very important) the Memo section should read, “For Mike Ruppert”.
Mail to:
Mike Ruppert
c/o Ray Kohlman
300 East 71st St.
Suite 3H
New York, NY 10021
Those with offers or information on residency in another country should contact Jenna Orkin, Jennakilt@aol.com. These must address three things: Visa and immigration considerations, access to affordable health care, and an initial place of residence. Jenna will screen these offers and forward them to Ray Kohlman for further evaluation. I can only get online for a few hours a day at best by going to an internet café.
TO SAVE THE FTW WEBSITE, RESEARCH FILES AND LIBRARY:
All contributions should be sent to FTW’s agent-publicist Ken Levine by check or money order only. Offers to store (or purchase) my personal library of 250 volumes should be made to Ken Levine (below). If I do make it into another life and recover my health, however, I reserve the right to someday reclaim the 15 or so books that are personally autographed to me by their authors. Again, checks or money orders should be sent to:
FTW
c/o Ken Levine
More Than News Productions
13500 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 301
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
818/907-9466 phone
818/907-9551 fax
ken@bighula.com
DIRECT CREDIT CARD DONATIONS, can be made at the FTW website. These will be used to fund immediate operating expenses, salaries, and other essential functions. They will not be used to help me personally.
[FTW is really screwed up right now. Everybody knows it and I am not going ignore it. I am in bad shape too. I am not going to hide that either. I have been in Caracas for 14-plus weeks and am facing a serious combination of medical symptoms that were described by Carlos Ruiz in “Living with Mike Ruppert in Caracas”. They include sudden drops in blood pressure, blood sugar crashes, dizziness, weakness, paresthesis of lips and fingers, small kidney stones, heavy calcification of the urinary tract and prostate, cloudy urine and chronic fatigue. There have been four seizure-like violent tremors.
Looking back I can see that the first major signs of my illness started appearing about a year ago. The first tremor happened in January before we moved FTW out of Los Angeles. What is happening now erupted in full about two weeks after I arrived in Caracas. We do not have a firm diagnosis yet. I have just had an expensive series of blood tests run but do not have the results. Both FTW and I need your help although I must tell you that our offices are being vacated next week.
My friends and subscribers know that I have never lied to them. My enemies know that I have never lied to my friends and subscribers. That has been an unbroken bond for 104 consecutive months and I am not about to break it now.
FTW’s time of usefulness on this planet is ending. Michael Kane offered his resignation last week. Having already lost Stan Goff (due to cash shortages) and Jamey Hecht. No one person can carry it on their own. Kane made the right decision for personal reasons and I support it completely. We remain close and trusted friends with deep mutual admiration and respect for each other. The article that follows is my personal tribute to him and the entire generation of talented investigators, researchers and writers that has arisen since 9-11.
One of our former writers has expressed concern for his safety in the current political climate of the United States. I know that he is not alone and that many others feel the same. I say to you all, fight the good fight.
There is one other person I must specifically thank and that is the angelic, dedicated, and steadfast Jenna Orkin who has researched, blog-managed, and loved me so unconditionally as to affirm my belief in God when all other evidence of Him seemed MIA. To all who have made FTW and its accomplishments possible, whether we parted as friends or not, I offer a gratitude that will endure throughout all time.
We changed the world a little bit.
My time may be over too and I must now turn my attention to that. One thing we must do, however, is to save the FTW archives as a permanent fixture on the internet for future researchers and try to clean things up before we go. We must also save my personal library of around 250 books.
How this came to pass merits only a brief discussion. There are too many details that I just don’t know. In the first month after I left the states we had our strongest sales month in (I’m guessing) a year and a half. The organization I hastily put in place before leaving was working. Decisions were made in Ashland to upgrade our store and web site for all the right reasons; chiefly to cut costs by outsourcing our product shipment and warehousing. Many glitches made that process take more than two months and during that time our subscriber-only section was free and often orders could simply not be accepted. It was not that people didn’t want to buy. They just couldn’t.
Sales fell by around 60% and cash flow dried up. I was made fully aware of these details only about two weeks ago. I was out of the loop for these decisions and didn’t find out how bad things were until many well-intentioned choices had already been made; choices that could not be changed. The same is true for our long-time agent/publicist Ken Levine. We all owe a debt of gratitude to everyone who wrote for FTW after I left the United States. Some great stories and articles came out between July and November.
There were more problems of human origin. Some were definitely malicious. I won’t go into them here because they just don’t matter anymore. If there are any recriminations to be given for how things turned out I accept them. I was the glue that held FTW together all these years. I am the one who left knowing that I couldn’t continue any longer after our offices were burglarized and our computers were smashed this June. There had been one-too-many battles and, looking back, I knew my health was failing then even though I didn’t want to admit it.
As far as I know, the Ashland staff did the absolute best they could. However, one person who is no longer affiliated with FTW wrote me about a month ago that the decision to close FTW was a “fait accompli” and that it could not be prevented. I had not been consulted before that. I immediately cautioned against painting a rosy picture and continuing to sell subscriptions and products after I was told that the office was being staffed only one day per week, they couldn’t pay for inventory, and there was no money to ship product or pay staff.
I was advised on Nov. 6 that the staff, working without pay, had shipped most, but not all of the remaining orders.
What is important to me is that we try to make our obligations good. Sadly, in my present condition and position I may not be able to have much impact on that. FTW is closing its doors with many angry people who have not received their orders and vendors who never got paid for what they shipped us. I did everything I could possibly think of to prevent that, including considering returning to the States with all the risks and personal anguish that would entail.
We have jointly decided that the FTW store cease all sales of subscriptions and product immediately, remaining available only for badly needed donations. Those will be used to ship remaining back orders, pay staff save the web site and transfer my personal library to an as yet undetermined safe location – in that order.
Those are the facts. It is too soon to glibly say “let the healing begin”. There is too much wreckage scattered about. But it is certainly time to stop creating any more. Healings will inevitably occur. That is the beauty of life.
At the end of this article I will list options for those who want to help me personally and give FTW the decent end it deserves. I know you’re out there. I am nearly broke and am unable to even purchase a plane ticket if I had another country to go to or a bed to sleep in when I got there. Venezuela has kicked my butt as you will soon see. How all of that happened gave me the “inspiration” for this final FTW essay.
This is my tribute to Michael Kane and to all who have learned from FTW, taken the map we have drawn, and are now reading it for themselves. God bless you. The struggle continues. – MCR]
EVOLUTION
by
Michael C. Ruppert
Copyright 2006, Michael C. Ruppert. – May be posted or distributed freely
Cultural diversity is not only humanity’s hallmark of progress, but an insurance policy against extinction as a species. Diversity gives not only cultural and economic riches derived from different perspectives on natural resources and what it means to be human, but options to problem solving that are stifled in a homogenized society. When such a society is organized around economic goals that are measured by profit margins for private gain by powerful elites, where the demands of those who bear cash as the ticket of admission to the marketplace rule, rather than the needs of people, then those who are deprived – and those who have never been part of such a global economy – must necessarily suffer. The genocide of tribal peoples, therefore, is symptomatic of a deep malaise in the world’s metropolises. Indigenous peoples will suffer the most, but humanity as a whole will suffer the loss of some of its memory, not only of a unique knowledge of the natural world, but of its ability to cope with the future in various, diverse ways.
THY WILL BE DONE, The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, Gerard Colby with Charlotte Dennett, Harper Collins, 1995, p. 685
INSERT DATELINE, CARACAS – Nature protects itself through diversity. It stands to reason then that when threatened – as it is now on so many fronts – Mother Earth will exert itself aggressively; enforcing rigid boundaries that ignore the lives of individuals – plant or animal – in order to preserve the diversity which protects all life. That human beings as a species also show such characteristics is proof of the connection between man and planet. In some ways this is not unlike the point in time when a child must break with parents in order to fulfill its own destiny, with its own unique life path, thus guaranteeing that the evolutionary process – life itself – is protected; that something better and new might follow.
All individual life ends so that that life as a whole may go on and evolve. As I have said in so many lectures, the human race is now being faced with a choice: either evolve or perish.
Americans tend to think of the Third World as “the frontier”, a place still open to settlement as if it were a divine right just for the willingness to endure a little hardship. With overpopulation and dwindling global resources, the “frontiers” are defending themselves to protect diversity in many ways; ways that are far more effective than any resistance to colonization in previous centuries. Global warming has been characterized as a planet developing a fever to rid itself of an infection. I believe that increasing global tensions might also be mirroring that process.
The human side of this resistance is also organic and, in Latin America, Venezuela is its heart. It has now taken solid root, emerging almost simultaneously in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. I do not think it can be stopped. It is an anthropological resistance.
Living in Venezuela has been an amazing, brutal, and illuminating lesson. It is a truly alien culture that I find simultaneously beautiful, hard, giving, unfamiliar, uncomfortable and definitely self-protecting to the extreme. That is why I am confident that Venezuela, and most of Latin America, will survive the coming crash of Peak Oil better than any other region of the world. I believe it is already starting to protect itself. It doesn’t need me or any outsider to survive. But as a general rule, only those who are native here will be protected by its blessings.
It is not just that I am blond haired and blue-eyed, which does get me a lot of double takes – some hostile. It is as though I am a fish used to swimming in a different kind of water. The way that I swim affects the other fish here, already swimming too much in a superimposed American cultural blanket that has been enforced by scores of coups, debt enslavement, colonization, exploitation, genocide and war over the course of the 20th century and into today. In order to understand this picture a British citizen trying to drive in super-crowded Caracan traffic where there are few rules. Under stress the Brit might instinctively react in a way that might tie up streets. Now change the image of traffic to a culture adapting to dwindling energy reserves, conflict or panic. The Brit would be singled out quickly and forced off the road so that the rest might “function” in ways they were accustomed to.
However, the powerful lessons and principles of human justice, sustainability, harmony with the land, freedom from the mandate of endless capitalist growth, openness, and localization contained in the Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chavez are powerful survival tools that can and must be studied and adapted to other regions. If one reads Richard Heinberg, Matt Savinar, Megan Quinn, Post Carbon Institute, FTW, or any of the great sustainability writers, one will find those same principles; arrived at through different means.
Forget labels. This is what will work.
The Bolivarian Revolution is different from the main body of sustainability literature in one key respect. It is the practical, hands-on implementation of these principles on local, national and continental levels; something all European and North American sustainability advocates know little or nothing about. How could they? While US and European sustainability advocates write about “shoulds” the Bolivarian Revolution is an evolving process of actual doing. It must be watched closely by all who would learn from it.
The irony is that for the most part, the Bolivarian revolution does not see itself as a sustainability movement but rather as a political and economic one. Now for another of my trademarked quotes: Until you change the way money works, you change nothing. The Bolivarian Revolution is doing just that.
PROTECTING DIVERSITY
The Bolivarian Revolution and Venezuelan culture inherently knows that it cannot make too many exceptions to the rule that diversity must protect itself or else the rule will have no meaning. That’s exactly what I was asking it to do (though I didn’t know it) when I came here. I am not just one migrating gringo. Mike Ruppert could not be assimilated without changing something here: the Tao of politics.
That is why, after 15 weeks of waiting, after only one interview, a formal petition and a lot of pressure from influential Americans and Venezuelan-Americans (some with direct government connections) I have not heard a word on my request for political asylum. Venezuelans are inherently suspicious, let alone of a blond gringo who is an ex-policeman who came from a US intelligence family. It is possible that within the massive and glacially slow bureaucracy, some who are not loyal to Chavez have buried my request under a pile of papers. In Latin America things take much longer and I can see now that the waiting process, never guaranteed to be successful, is part of a natural selection.
My thirty year record of activism and sacrifice in the US means little in Venezuela. Those deposits were made in a bank belonging to a different ecosystem. There are no ATMs for that kind of withdrawal here.
The first real kindness shown to me by a full-blooded Latin American with government connections, came about two weeks ago as “Tano”, a bearded artist and long-time revolutionary who had worked with Salvador Allende in Chile, looked at me with true compassion and said, “Venezuela will run you through a gauntlet. It will ignore you. It will make promises and never call you back or fulfill them. It will mistrust you even if you have lived here for ten years, twenty years.”
It took me 12 weeks to get to Tano and it was not by a linear, logical path.
Tano is a famed artist and thinker knows Hugo Chavez personally. He has traveled with him. His kindness and sympathy was abundant and visible. Kittens slept on his massive belly as he spoke from behind a desk cluttered with papers. Two dogs gravitated to him as though he was a magnet. He offered to open doors and make some introductions in certain ministries. As opposed to many other unfulfilled promises since I have been here, he meant it. Promises are made quickly here and soon forgotten, even between native Venezuelans. But it was already too late. My health was gone, I could not make one important event and I had already been rejected like an invading organism; rejected by the differences in culture and an environment I had trouble adapting to.
I was introduced to Tano by my young Venezuelan friend Ivan, who, at 27, who had just quit his job as a trader at J.P. Morgan because it was too stressful. He was too Venezuelan to live the life of a Venezuelan posing as an American. Good for him.
It would be embarrassing to many people if I named the names of all of those back “home” who, learning that I had come here, told me that they had been considering the same move. They said that when things got intolerable in the States, or the UK, or Canada, they would just move here; or to Costa Rica, or to New Zealand, or to someplace else. My pains and troubles here will serve as an object lesson for all that the time to relocate in advance of Peak Oil has, for almost everyone, long passed.
DISTINCTIONS
The important distinctions about adaptivity are not racial at all. US citizens come in all colors. American culture is the water they have swum in since birth. A native US citizen of Latin descent who did not (or even did) speak Spanish would probably feel almost as out of place here as I do. They would look the same but not feel the same. And when it came time to deal collectively with a rapidly changing world, a world in turmoil, a native-born American’s inbred decades of “instinctive” survival skills might not harmonize with the skills used by those around him.
Another one of my trademarked lines is that Post Peak survival is not a matter of individual survival or national survival. It is a matter of cooperative, community survival. If one is not a fully integrated member of a community when the challenges come, one might hinder the effectiveness of the entire community which has unspoken and often consciously unrecognized ways of adapting. As stresses increase, the gauntlets required to gain acceptance in strange places will only get tougher. Diversity will become more, rather than less, rigid and enforced.
As energy shortages and blackouts arrive; as food shortages grow worse; as droughts expand and proliferate; as icecaps melt, as restless, cold and hungry populations start looking for other places to go; minute cultural and racial differences will trigger progressively more abrupt reactions, not unlike a stressed out and ill human body will react more violently to things that otherwise would never reach conscious thought.
Start building your lifeboats where you are now. I can see that the lessons I have learned here are important whether you are thinking of moving from city to countryside, state to state, or nation to nation. Whatever shortcomings you may think exist where you live are far outnumbered by the advantages you have where you are a part of an existing ecosystem that you know and which knows you.
If the time comes when it is necessary to leave that community you will be better off moving with your tribe rather than moving alone.
Evolution is guaranteed. Useful knowledge gained by ancestors is incorporated into succeeding generations. It may not be used in the same way that it was when acquired. It may lie dormant for years or decades, safely stored in DNA or the collective unconscious. But it is there, and it will always be available should the day come when it is needed.
----------
SENDING HELP
FOR MIKE RUPPERT MEDICAL CARE AND RELOCATION ONLY:
My trusted attorney Ray Kohlman in New York will be receiving all donations intended for this purpose. I really need help. At present only checks and money orders can be processed. They should be made out to Ray Kohlman and (very important) the Memo section should read, “For Mike Ruppert”.
Mail to:
Mike Ruppert
c/o Ray Kohlman
300 East 71st St.
Suite 3H
New York, NY 10021
Those with offers or information on residency in another country should contact Jenna Orkin, Jennakilt@aol.com. These must address three things: Visa and immigration considerations, access to affordable health care, and an initial place of residence. Jenna will screen these offers and forward them to Ray Kohlman for further evaluation. I can only get online for a few hours a day at best by going to an internet café.
TO SAVE THE FTW WEBSITE, RESEARCH FILES AND LIBRARY:
All contributions should be sent to FTW’s agent-publicist Ken Levine by check or money order only. Offers to store (or purchase) my personal library of 250 volumes should be made to Ken Levine (below). If I do make it into another life and recover my health, however, I reserve the right to someday reclaim the 15 or so books that are personally autographed to me by their authors. Again, checks or money orders should be sent to:
FTW
c/o Ken Levine
More Than News Productions
13500 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 301
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
818/907-9466 phone
818/907-9551 fax
ken@bighula.com
DIRECT CREDIT CARD DONATIONS, can be made at the FTW website. These will be used to fund immediate operating expenses, salaries, and other essential functions. They will not be used to help me personally.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Banks/Data; British/Taliban; Al Qaeda/Algeria; Pre 9/11 Briefings; Net Oversight; GAO/Strategic Reserve
Europeans Berate Bank Group and Overseer for Access to Data
Has nothing to do with terrorist financing and everything to do with money flows, privacy and control of populations inside the US and abroad. It seems to me that the long, dark, night of facism is coming very rapidly now as the sunset and twilight of liberty in the US dissolve into darkness. MCR
British in Secret Truce with Taliban
Al Qaeda in Algeria
Pre- 9/11 Briefings
"Government investigations have shown that Mr. Ashcroft was briefed by other C.I.A. officials in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks."
U.S. Loosens Control Over Net Oversight Body
GAO: Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Has nothing to do with terrorist financing and everything to do with money flows, privacy and control of populations inside the US and abroad. It seems to me that the long, dark, night of facism is coming very rapidly now as the sunset and twilight of liberty in the US dissolve into darkness. MCR
British in Secret Truce with Taliban
Al Qaeda in Algeria
Pre- 9/11 Briefings
"Government investigations have shown that Mr. Ashcroft was briefed by other C.I.A. officials in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks."
U.S. Loosens Control Over Net Oversight Body
GAO: Strategic Petroleum Reserve
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Chavez/Assassination Attempt; CIA/Opposition; DoD/ Able Danger; Gulf State/Al-Qaeda; Qaeda/Pearl; Russia/Electronics
Manuel Rosales, Governor of the Venezuelan province of Zulia, who has been accused of supporting the coup attempt against Chavez in 2002 as well as of secretly fostering plans for the secession of the oil-rich province, is now being linked to the recent assassination attempt on Chavez' life.
Rosales also recently went to Miami on what he called "a private tour." However Caracas newspapers allege that the purpose of the trip was to obtain instructions and backing for his campaign "based on a proposal to directly distribute a portion of the oil revenue." JO
Chavez Says Assassination Attempt Against Him Foiled
Chavez Alleges CIA Infuses Opposition
DoD IG Wipes Hands of Able Danger
Gulf State Growth Draws Al-Qaeda
Qaeda Figure Tied to Pearl Case
Russia to Fund Military Electronics
Rosales also recently went to Miami on what he called "a private tour." However Caracas newspapers allege that the purpose of the trip was to obtain instructions and backing for his campaign "based on a proposal to directly distribute a portion of the oil revenue." JO
Chavez Says Assassination Attempt Against Him Foiled
Chavez Alleges CIA Infuses Opposition
DoD IG Wipes Hands of Able Danger
Gulf State Growth Draws Al-Qaeda
Qaeda Figure Tied to Pearl Case
Russia to Fund Military Electronics
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Energy Depletion and the U.S. Descent into Fascism
Because of the importance of this article, FTW is posting it on the blog as well as the website. Please forgive the formatting discrepancies.
Energy Depletion & the US Descent into Fascism
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Please distribute this article as widely as possible.
Contents
1. First Warnings
2. The Intervening Years
3. Documentaries of Note
4. The Withdrawal of Consent
5. Grassroots Rebellion
6. Further Reading & Viewing
First Warnings
15/10/06 www.mountainsentinel.com In October of 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, I wrote an article titled The Background is Oil. The hypothesis laid out in this article was that the 2000 US presidential election resulted in a coup of neocons and oil interests who had taken control of the US in order to prepare for the coming peak and decline of world oil production. Furthermore, this coup engineered the 9/11 terrorist attacks to further their own interests.
Before 9/11, the coup was hampered by lack of support from both the public and Congress. The tragedies of September 11th washed all resistance away in a flood of rabid patriotism. As a result, the coup was able to hijack the US political process. Over the coming years, starting with the patriot act, the coup has been able to strip us of our constitutional rights, in preparation for the civil unrest which will come from the peak and decline of oil production and the resulting economic collapse.
The day after 9/11, the junta announced that the US would undertake a "War against Terror;" that is, a war without end, directed against whomever the junta should label as an enemy state. The war was actually a cover for the consolidation of military empire and a worldwide grab for control of energy production. Never mind that terrorism can never be ended through warfare, but only exacerbated (see Restating the Obvious).
After writing the article The Background is Oil, I shopped it around very eagerly. This message needed be heard by as many as possible. There were many people, both within the US and around the world, who did not believe the official story of 9/11 and the "War on Terror," but without this knowledge of the peak oil motive, it was very difficult to understand why the junta was proceeding with such a Machiavellian scheme, nor why the power brokers behind the junta would condone this madness.
For the next month, I sent this essay out to every alternative news service and periodical I could think of. None of them would touch it. I had just about given up on having the article published. As a final option, I would put the article out on the web myself, through email groups and my own website. As a last chance, I tried sending the article to From the Wilderness, a newsletter that I knew little about but which seemed to be putting out information about 9/11 that no one else would touch.
Whatever my subsequent thoughts and feelings about From the Wilderness, I owe Mike Ruppert a debt of thanks for publishing this article, and all of the material that followed it. Within the next few months, The Background is Oil traveled all over the web and was translated into many different languages.
In January of 2002, I followed up on this article with another entitled What Next for the Oil Coup? In this article, I proposed that if the US had suffered an oil coup that was using 9/11 to make a global energy grab, then we should be able to make some predictions based on this hypothesis. Looking at the top oil producing countries, I stated that the most likely targets of an oil coup would be Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia would also be important, but its ties to the US could be shored up by the occupation of Iraq and the military bases established in the surrounding area. I also threw in a few other countries devoid of energy resources, but which the US considered to be enemy states — countries such as North Korea and Cuba. Within a week of the publication of this article in From the Wilderness, Bush gave his infamous "axis of evil" address. And in the years since, the countries listed in this article have been the almost exclusive focus of the "War on Terror."
The Intervening Years
Over the years since I first wrote about the oil coup, the Bush junta has fulfilled all of my worst expectations. The junta has invaded Iraq, though it is now clear that Iraq represented absolutely no terrorist threat to the US. US military bases now surround the Middle East and the Caspian region. And now the junta is very eager to invade Iran. Only in their attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuelan Presidente Hugo Chavez has the US junta been thwarted. And it is hoped that Presidente Chavez can continue to outmaneuver the junta.
The junta has also managed to mothball the Geneva Convention and the US Constitution. The US now has an official policy of sanctioning torture, concentration camps, and limitless detention without filing formal charges. The junta has instituted a policy of pre-emptive strike known as the "Bush Doctrine." The US can now attack any country that it perceives to be a threat, without provocation.
At home, the junta can conduct domestic spying without court approval. It can label US citizens as terrorists and then imprison them without charge. If you think this only applies to naturalized citizens, think again. In the last few years, the junta has made it very clear that it views environmental activists as terrorists. Environmental activists are now languishing in prison (and in some cases, even dying there) for destruction of property, while right wing militants are allowed to continue plotting murder. (See Sourcecode: Eco Dissent/Not Terrorism.) And the junta has announced that anti-war activists and others who vocally dissent will be monitored for possible terrorist activities.
The Bush junta has wracked up more high crimes than any previous administration. Yet Congress has granted them full immunity. Any attempt to impeach Bush and Cheney for lying about the reasons for invading Iraq is dead in the water. And the junta is now pursuing the very same tactics with regard to Iran.
In preparation for the economic havoc that will follow the decline of energy production, the junta has made sure that bankruptcy proceedings will not excuse the general public from their consumer debt. The stage is set for the working class within the US to become indentured servants (see Peak Oil & the Working Class). Yet, very few are aware of what is in store for them, and most would not believe if it were mentioned to them.
Internment camps have been prepared within the US, capable of housing many thousands of dissenters. And plans are now being formed to beef up border security, including building and maintaining fences along the southern border. The entire US is being transformed into a prison. Repressive immigration legislation is being pursued by Congress, supposedly on behalf of the US working class. Yet a "War on Immigrants" will be no more successful at halting illegal immigration than the "War on Terror" will stop terrorism. The premises of both wars are false, and the junta knows this. The "War on Immigrants" is ultimately about repressing the working class, both internationally and within the US (see Energy Depletion and Immigration).
Documentaries of Note
The perspective presented several years ago in The Background is Oil has become the thesis for a new documentary, Oil, Smoke and Mirrors, which can be viewed freely online courtesy of Google videos, or which can be purchased on DVD directly from the producers (http://www.oilsmokeandmirrors.com/). I heartily recommend this documentary; it should be watched by every citizen of the US. There is little time left to prevent our descent into fascism, and far too many people are not even aware of it.
For those who require more convincing that 9/11 was an inside job, I recommend 9/11; Press for Truth. In this documentary, the 9/11 Family Steering Committee tell their own story, using Paul Thompson’s 9/11 timeline to make it very clear that we have been lied to about the tragedy of September 11th. This documentary is only available for purchase as a DVD, but it is well worth $15.
Finally, the story of the attempted Venezuelan coup is told in The Revolution will not be Televised. This documentary can also be found on Google videos. Most US citizens do not even know that the US supported the attempted overthrow of duly elected Venezuelan Presidente Chavez. In the US, Chavez is portrayed as a madman, a terrorist, and a dictator. This documentary makes very clear that he is none of these things. Presidente Chavez, in fact, has a much better record than George W. Bush for supporting democracy and free speech.
Upon viewing this documentary, it becomes very clear that the reason the coup failed was because of the people. The people rose up against the coup, and it was their uprising which encouraged loyalists within the military to stage a counter-coup. Without a doubt, Chavez is an excellent tactician. But he is also sincerely a man of the people. And without popular support, his government would have succumbed long ago to US intervention.
The Withdrawal of Consent
The Venezuela documentary also explains that what is lacking in the US is an informed and active public. The oil junta has succeeded because the US public remains uninformed and indifferent, locked into a state of denial that is almost psychotic in its disconnection from reality. If the US public would rise up, the game would be over.
Certainly, the majority of US citizens are dissatisfied with Bush, but they are not truly aware of how close we have come to fascism. Those who are now waking up still place their faith in the electoral system. By the time they realize that democracy is dead in the US, it may very well be too late for them to rise up. The system does not serve us. It is high time that we took our founding fathers’ advice and rebelled against this corrupt system and the plutocracy that controls this country.
It is quite likely that the Republicans will retain control of Congress in an election rife with irregularities. However, even if the Democrats manage to take control of Congress, we can expect no changes from them. Both parties are owned by the power brokers behind the oil junta. Whoever is in power, the US will continue its slide toward fascism and totalitarianism.
We do have a chance yet. It will take a few more years before the junta has completely transformed our society. We have to act now.
The age of consumer capitalism is at an end. It will most likely dissolve into some form of debt servitude or corporate feudalism. Yet, even this will be a dying system in the face of energy depletion, global warming and many other problems resulting from over a century of conspicuous consumption. If we continue to support this system, then the blood is on our hands.
We can, instead, turn to a system based on relocalization, democratic decentralization, community and quality of life. But we will have to break free of the plutocracy to do so. They would never tolerate any change that might strip them of even a portion of their power. They would rather live in a dying police state where they remain at the top. We cannot continue to go along with the plutocracy. Whether we are indifferent, uninformed or in denial, the blood will be on our hands. Our only option is to withdraw our support from this system and actively seek to replace it.
In a past article (Peak Oil and the Working Class), I suggested that what was needed was a new working class movement. The working class, within the US and elsewhere, had to stop serving their masters. A true general strike would take back all power from the plutocracy and stop the junta dead in their tracks.
When I wrote that article, I was attacked on several fronts. Mike Ruppert and Jamey Hecht contended that because of outsourcing, the working class in the US could no longer carry off an effective general strike. They said that nobody would be bothered by a strike of hairdressers and salespeople. I still insist that a real general strike, encompassing the entire working class — blue and white collar, truckers and salespeople, farm workers and engineers — would shut down the system. It was because of this disagreement that I left From the Wilderness to put out the article on my own.
In that article, I suggested that the IWW might be the ideal union to organize such a movement. I was then very surprised to be attacked from within the IWW. Perhaps some members of the IWW are too misinformed to see what is happening, or perhaps they are blinded by denial. If the IWW does not want to foster a true worker’s movement then it can no longer call itself a revolutionary union. In that case, it is little more than a worker controlled business union. Due to my great admiration of the IWW, such a failure saddens me.
Grassroots Rebellion
It is up to you and me to defeat the junta and the plutocracy. We must act, and we must act quickly. Failing, we will be lucky if we only fall into debt servitude. If the coup succeeds, then it is quite possible that many of us, myself included, will simply disappear.
The government and the media are both against us. And they are intent on reigning in the internet just as soon as possible. We have a very brief window of opportunity remaining — a few years at most. It is time to do what we can.
I urge you to read all the materials listed at the end of this article, and view the documentaries I have mentioned. Then I urge you to pass this article along to everyone you know.
This system is suicidal, nor can it be reformed from within the system. It is time to withdraw our consent. The bookstore at our website (www.mountainsentinel.com/store.php) offers a number of books that will help you to do this. I apologize that the bookstore is an Amazon affiliate, but many of these books are hard to come by otherwise.
Personal withdrawal from the system is a start, but it is not enough. We must organize and work toward a complete general strike. Only if the entire working class refuses to serve can we take back our own power and return this world to sanity.
So far as sabotage is concerned, right now it is probably too early for major acts of sabotage. At present, the government and the media would likely spin such acts against us. Only when we have gained the understanding and support of the public can we successfully engage in sabotage. Yet, it is the duty of the sane and conscientious person to do whatever he or she can — short of harming other people — to stop a system bent on the destruction of the planet and the increase of injustice and human suffering.
And, after all, sabotage will never be as effective as a successful general strike. We must take back our power and stop the madness. Anything less is suicide.
Further Reading & Viewing
The Background is Oil
This was the first published article stating the thesis that the US 2000 electoral coup and 9/11 were both about energy depletion. The arguments contained in this article are as valid today as they were in 2001.
What Next
This article helps explain what the "War on Terror" holds in store for us.
Eating Fossil Fuels
This article helps to explain just how important energy depletion will be to all of us. It has been expanded into a book from New Society Publishers. The book also contains many resources for those seeking solutions to this problem (CSA’s, farmers markets, food banks, community agriculture organizations, etc.) The book is available in bookstores or directly from the publisher, New Society Publishers.
Imminent Peril, Part 1
Imminent Peril, Part 2
This 2-part article explains just how drastic our situation is on this planet.
The Collapse of Complex Systems
Presentation to the New York Local Solutions Conference, April 2006
These articles explain why there are no technofixes for energy depletion. And they explain that, at best, technofixes would only buy us a little time and likely make the situation worse in the long run.
Peak Oil and the Working Class
What is ahead for the working class, and what can we do about it?
Energy Depletion and Immigration
Why closing the borders would not work and would ultimately hurt US workers.
Restating the Obvious
Why the War on Terror will only lead to more terrorism.
Oil, Smoke and Mirrors
An excellent documentary expanding the thesis of The Background is Oil. This documentary should be viewed by everyone.
9/11; Press for Truth
You owe it to the victims of 9/11 to watch this video. And, as we are all victims of 9/11, you owe it to yourself
The Revolution will not be Televised
Riveting. Watch this if for no other reason than to see an example of the sort of informed and active public which is the best insurance of continuing democracy.
Please support the website by purchasing The Mountain Sentinel.
Energy Depletion & the US Descent into Fascism
by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Please distribute this article as widely as possible.
Contents
1. First Warnings
2. The Intervening Years
3. Documentaries of Note
4. The Withdrawal of Consent
5. Grassroots Rebellion
6. Further Reading & Viewing
First Warnings
15/10/06 www.mountainsentinel.com In October of 2001, a little over a month after 9/11, I wrote an article titled The Background is Oil. The hypothesis laid out in this article was that the 2000 US presidential election resulted in a coup of neocons and oil interests who had taken control of the US in order to prepare for the coming peak and decline of world oil production. Furthermore, this coup engineered the 9/11 terrorist attacks to further their own interests.
Before 9/11, the coup was hampered by lack of support from both the public and Congress. The tragedies of September 11th washed all resistance away in a flood of rabid patriotism. As a result, the coup was able to hijack the US political process. Over the coming years, starting with the patriot act, the coup has been able to strip us of our constitutional rights, in preparation for the civil unrest which will come from the peak and decline of oil production and the resulting economic collapse.
The day after 9/11, the junta announced that the US would undertake a "War against Terror;" that is, a war without end, directed against whomever the junta should label as an enemy state. The war was actually a cover for the consolidation of military empire and a worldwide grab for control of energy production. Never mind that terrorism can never be ended through warfare, but only exacerbated (see Restating the Obvious).
After writing the article The Background is Oil, I shopped it around very eagerly. This message needed be heard by as many as possible. There were many people, both within the US and around the world, who did not believe the official story of 9/11 and the "War on Terror," but without this knowledge of the peak oil motive, it was very difficult to understand why the junta was proceeding with such a Machiavellian scheme, nor why the power brokers behind the junta would condone this madness.
For the next month, I sent this essay out to every alternative news service and periodical I could think of. None of them would touch it. I had just about given up on having the article published. As a final option, I would put the article out on the web myself, through email groups and my own website. As a last chance, I tried sending the article to From the Wilderness, a newsletter that I knew little about but which seemed to be putting out information about 9/11 that no one else would touch.
Whatever my subsequent thoughts and feelings about From the Wilderness, I owe Mike Ruppert a debt of thanks for publishing this article, and all of the material that followed it. Within the next few months, The Background is Oil traveled all over the web and was translated into many different languages.
In January of 2002, I followed up on this article with another entitled What Next for the Oil Coup? In this article, I proposed that if the US had suffered an oil coup that was using 9/11 to make a global energy grab, then we should be able to make some predictions based on this hypothesis. Looking at the top oil producing countries, I stated that the most likely targets of an oil coup would be Iraq, Iran, and Venezuela. Saudi Arabia would also be important, but its ties to the US could be shored up by the occupation of Iraq and the military bases established in the surrounding area. I also threw in a few other countries devoid of energy resources, but which the US considered to be enemy states — countries such as North Korea and Cuba. Within a week of the publication of this article in From the Wilderness, Bush gave his infamous "axis of evil" address. And in the years since, the countries listed in this article have been the almost exclusive focus of the "War on Terror."
The Intervening Years
Over the years since I first wrote about the oil coup, the Bush junta has fulfilled all of my worst expectations. The junta has invaded Iraq, though it is now clear that Iraq represented absolutely no terrorist threat to the US. US military bases now surround the Middle East and the Caspian region. And now the junta is very eager to invade Iran. Only in their attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Venezuelan Presidente Hugo Chavez has the US junta been thwarted. And it is hoped that Presidente Chavez can continue to outmaneuver the junta.
The junta has also managed to mothball the Geneva Convention and the US Constitution. The US now has an official policy of sanctioning torture, concentration camps, and limitless detention without filing formal charges. The junta has instituted a policy of pre-emptive strike known as the "Bush Doctrine." The US can now attack any country that it perceives to be a threat, without provocation.
At home, the junta can conduct domestic spying without court approval. It can label US citizens as terrorists and then imprison them without charge. If you think this only applies to naturalized citizens, think again. In the last few years, the junta has made it very clear that it views environmental activists as terrorists. Environmental activists are now languishing in prison (and in some cases, even dying there) for destruction of property, while right wing militants are allowed to continue plotting murder. (See Sourcecode: Eco Dissent/Not Terrorism.) And the junta has announced that anti-war activists and others who vocally dissent will be monitored for possible terrorist activities.
The Bush junta has wracked up more high crimes than any previous administration. Yet Congress has granted them full immunity. Any attempt to impeach Bush and Cheney for lying about the reasons for invading Iraq is dead in the water. And the junta is now pursuing the very same tactics with regard to Iran.
In preparation for the economic havoc that will follow the decline of energy production, the junta has made sure that bankruptcy proceedings will not excuse the general public from their consumer debt. The stage is set for the working class within the US to become indentured servants (see Peak Oil & the Working Class). Yet, very few are aware of what is in store for them, and most would not believe if it were mentioned to them.
Internment camps have been prepared within the US, capable of housing many thousands of dissenters. And plans are now being formed to beef up border security, including building and maintaining fences along the southern border. The entire US is being transformed into a prison. Repressive immigration legislation is being pursued by Congress, supposedly on behalf of the US working class. Yet a "War on Immigrants" will be no more successful at halting illegal immigration than the "War on Terror" will stop terrorism. The premises of both wars are false, and the junta knows this. The "War on Immigrants" is ultimately about repressing the working class, both internationally and within the US (see Energy Depletion and Immigration).
Documentaries of Note
The perspective presented several years ago in The Background is Oil has become the thesis for a new documentary, Oil, Smoke and Mirrors, which can be viewed freely online courtesy of Google videos, or which can be purchased on DVD directly from the producers (http://www.oilsmokeandmirrors.com/). I heartily recommend this documentary; it should be watched by every citizen of the US. There is little time left to prevent our descent into fascism, and far too many people are not even aware of it.
For those who require more convincing that 9/11 was an inside job, I recommend 9/11; Press for Truth. In this documentary, the 9/11 Family Steering Committee tell their own story, using Paul Thompson’s 9/11 timeline to make it very clear that we have been lied to about the tragedy of September 11th. This documentary is only available for purchase as a DVD, but it is well worth $15.
Finally, the story of the attempted Venezuelan coup is told in The Revolution will not be Televised. This documentary can also be found on Google videos. Most US citizens do not even know that the US supported the attempted overthrow of duly elected Venezuelan Presidente Chavez. In the US, Chavez is portrayed as a madman, a terrorist, and a dictator. This documentary makes very clear that he is none of these things. Presidente Chavez, in fact, has a much better record than George W. Bush for supporting democracy and free speech.
Upon viewing this documentary, it becomes very clear that the reason the coup failed was because of the people. The people rose up against the coup, and it was their uprising which encouraged loyalists within the military to stage a counter-coup. Without a doubt, Chavez is an excellent tactician. But he is also sincerely a man of the people. And without popular support, his government would have succumbed long ago to US intervention.
The Withdrawal of Consent
The Venezuela documentary also explains that what is lacking in the US is an informed and active public. The oil junta has succeeded because the US public remains uninformed and indifferent, locked into a state of denial that is almost psychotic in its disconnection from reality. If the US public would rise up, the game would be over.
Certainly, the majority of US citizens are dissatisfied with Bush, but they are not truly aware of how close we have come to fascism. Those who are now waking up still place their faith in the electoral system. By the time they realize that democracy is dead in the US, it may very well be too late for them to rise up. The system does not serve us. It is high time that we took our founding fathers’ advice and rebelled against this corrupt system and the plutocracy that controls this country.
It is quite likely that the Republicans will retain control of Congress in an election rife with irregularities. However, even if the Democrats manage to take control of Congress, we can expect no changes from them. Both parties are owned by the power brokers behind the oil junta. Whoever is in power, the US will continue its slide toward fascism and totalitarianism.
We do have a chance yet. It will take a few more years before the junta has completely transformed our society. We have to act now.
The age of consumer capitalism is at an end. It will most likely dissolve into some form of debt servitude or corporate feudalism. Yet, even this will be a dying system in the face of energy depletion, global warming and many other problems resulting from over a century of conspicuous consumption. If we continue to support this system, then the blood is on our hands.
We can, instead, turn to a system based on relocalization, democratic decentralization, community and quality of life. But we will have to break free of the plutocracy to do so. They would never tolerate any change that might strip them of even a portion of their power. They would rather live in a dying police state where they remain at the top. We cannot continue to go along with the plutocracy. Whether we are indifferent, uninformed or in denial, the blood will be on our hands. Our only option is to withdraw our support from this system and actively seek to replace it.
In a past article (Peak Oil and the Working Class), I suggested that what was needed was a new working class movement. The working class, within the US and elsewhere, had to stop serving their masters. A true general strike would take back all power from the plutocracy and stop the junta dead in their tracks.
When I wrote that article, I was attacked on several fronts. Mike Ruppert and Jamey Hecht contended that because of outsourcing, the working class in the US could no longer carry off an effective general strike. They said that nobody would be bothered by a strike of hairdressers and salespeople. I still insist that a real general strike, encompassing the entire working class — blue and white collar, truckers and salespeople, farm workers and engineers — would shut down the system. It was because of this disagreement that I left From the Wilderness to put out the article on my own.
In that article, I suggested that the IWW might be the ideal union to organize such a movement. I was then very surprised to be attacked from within the IWW. Perhaps some members of the IWW are too misinformed to see what is happening, or perhaps they are blinded by denial. If the IWW does not want to foster a true worker’s movement then it can no longer call itself a revolutionary union. In that case, it is little more than a worker controlled business union. Due to my great admiration of the IWW, such a failure saddens me.
Grassroots Rebellion
It is up to you and me to defeat the junta and the plutocracy. We must act, and we must act quickly. Failing, we will be lucky if we only fall into debt servitude. If the coup succeeds, then it is quite possible that many of us, myself included, will simply disappear.
The government and the media are both against us. And they are intent on reigning in the internet just as soon as possible. We have a very brief window of opportunity remaining — a few years at most. It is time to do what we can.
I urge you to read all the materials listed at the end of this article, and view the documentaries I have mentioned. Then I urge you to pass this article along to everyone you know.
This system is suicidal, nor can it be reformed from within the system. It is time to withdraw our consent. The bookstore at our website (www.mountainsentinel.com/store.php) offers a number of books that will help you to do this. I apologize that the bookstore is an Amazon affiliate, but many of these books are hard to come by otherwise.
Personal withdrawal from the system is a start, but it is not enough. We must organize and work toward a complete general strike. Only if the entire working class refuses to serve can we take back our own power and return this world to sanity.
So far as sabotage is concerned, right now it is probably too early for major acts of sabotage. At present, the government and the media would likely spin such acts against us. Only when we have gained the understanding and support of the public can we successfully engage in sabotage. Yet, it is the duty of the sane and conscientious person to do whatever he or she can — short of harming other people — to stop a system bent on the destruction of the planet and the increase of injustice and human suffering.
And, after all, sabotage will never be as effective as a successful general strike. We must take back our power and stop the madness. Anything less is suicide.
Further Reading & Viewing
The Background is Oil
This was the first published article stating the thesis that the US 2000 electoral coup and 9/11 were both about energy depletion. The arguments contained in this article are as valid today as they were in 2001.
What Next
This article helps explain what the "War on Terror" holds in store for us.
Eating Fossil Fuels
This article helps to explain just how important energy depletion will be to all of us. It has been expanded into a book from New Society Publishers. The book also contains many resources for those seeking solutions to this problem (CSA’s, farmers markets, food banks, community agriculture organizations, etc.) The book is available in bookstores or directly from the publisher, New Society Publishers.
Imminent Peril, Part 1
Imminent Peril, Part 2
This 2-part article explains just how drastic our situation is on this planet.
The Collapse of Complex Systems
Presentation to the New York Local Solutions Conference, April 2006
These articles explain why there are no technofixes for energy depletion. And they explain that, at best, technofixes would only buy us a little time and likely make the situation worse in the long run.
Peak Oil and the Working Class
What is ahead for the working class, and what can we do about it?
Energy Depletion and Immigration
Why closing the borders would not work and would ultimately hurt US workers.
Restating the Obvious
Why the War on Terror will only lead to more terrorism.
Oil, Smoke and Mirrors
An excellent documentary expanding the thesis of The Background is Oil. This documentary should be viewed by everyone.
9/11; Press for Truth
You owe it to the victims of 9/11 to watch this video. And, as we are all victims of 9/11, you owe it to yourself
The Revolution will not be Televised
Riveting. Watch this if for no other reason than to see an example of the sort of informed and active public which is the best insurance of continuing democracy.
Please support the website by purchasing The Mountain Sentinel.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Climate Change/GDP, Insurance, Wars; Sust. Living/Whipple; Laptops Search; Diebold; Chavez/Reading
The articles below on climate change attempt novel approaches: People may not be concerned about their own lives or consider the threat to their children's lives real, but they always respond to a threat to their pocketbooks. The third article focusses on war which, since 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, has also become a more real presence in the life of the average citizen.
But it's debatable whether the articles achieve their ostensible purpose of scaring the reader, thereby galvanizing him or her into action. By maintaining that the disastrous consequences of climate change may not unfold for decades, the articles will more likely lull the reader into believing we have time to turn things around; decades during which, no doubt, 'they' will think up a solution as they always have. But those who read James Lovelock's words on Monday will not forget them: "They think we have decades left. We don't." JO
The Cost of Climate Change
Per Cent of GDP
Insurance
Wars
Sustainable Living Conference with Tom Whipple
Laptops May be Subject to Search After Overseas Travel
Princeton Computer Scientists Hack Diebold ***************************************************************************
This is why some people get to be president and other people who can't pronounce 'nucular'..... never mind. JO
Chavez' Bedtime Reading
But it's debatable whether the articles achieve their ostensible purpose of scaring the reader, thereby galvanizing him or her into action. By maintaining that the disastrous consequences of climate change may not unfold for decades, the articles will more likely lull the reader into believing we have time to turn things around; decades during which, no doubt, 'they' will think up a solution as they always have. But those who read James Lovelock's words on Monday will not forget them: "They think we have decades left. We don't." JO
The Cost of Climate Change
Per Cent of GDP
Insurance
Wars
Sustainable Living Conference with Tom Whipple
Laptops May be Subject to Search After Overseas Travel
Princeton Computer Scientists Hack Diebold ***************************************************************************
This is why some people get to be president and other people who can't pronounce 'nucular'..... never mind. JO
Chavez' Bedtime Reading
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