Twelfth Bough

Watch this video. About seven or eight minutes in you can see bound detainees being forced off the top of a three story building. It appears that American soldiers are doing this, though you can't see them clearly from the video. People in military uniforms come and whisk away the detainees after they fall. It would be nice to think that American soldiers are all wonderful, brave people who would never stoop to such depravity, but that is what we call a "fantasy ." Given the many other sickening things that have broken through the media firewall (soldiers tossing puppies over cliffs, tormenting Iraqi children, testimonies of war crimes at Winter Soldier hearings, Haditha, drop weapons, etc.), it would be totally irresponsible and cowardly for any American to dismiss these actions as impossible. There it is on video. Somebody is doing it. Does that mean that everyone in the military is sick? Of course not. But the military, as an institution, has a civilian leadership; ...

Watch interesting videos at Cryptogon and check out the comments. I have no particular insight except to say that it feels like something is imminent. Something not pleasant. BRUSSELS / AMSTERDAM (DFT) - Fortis expects within the next few days to weeks to complete the collapse of the U.S. financial markets. That explains the bank insurers interventions of the series Thursday at dealing with € 8 billion. “We are ready at the last minute. It goes in the United States much worse than thought, “said Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens, who maintains that CEO Votron to live. Fortis expects bankruptcies of 6000 U.S. banks that now lack coverage. “But Citigroup, General Motors, there begins a complete meltdown in the U.S..” The trickiest thing about current events is figuring out which things are planned and/or under some hidden group's control, and which aren't. Most importantly, do events spinning out of the hidden group's control make us more or less vulnerable? This is a great ...

Well, well, well. It appears that a little kerfluffle has broken out among some muckety-mucks over whether certain American Jews in the upper crust may have dual loyalties to Israel, and if so, whether or not these loyalties have anything to do with the shameful, immoral War in Iraq and some other stuff that may or may not happen. They are flinging food. That's because this dual loyalty issue goes directly to the heart of the matter. You can read about the history and extent of the situation here. Dual-loyalty is the piece of the puzzle that explains everything. Take a look for yourself and see if you don't come away thinking, WTF? Is this anti-semitic? Is it anti-semitic to notice that Israel's interests are constantly in our faces? Maybe we're just frikking annoyed. Enough already. Why do Americans have to constantly put Israel's interests before our own? It's not right. It's just not right, and it's as simple as that. If you are an American, be an A...

You don't have to take my word for it. I'm nobody. Paul Craig Roberts, on the other hand, has qualifications. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington, Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of ...

This is for all you hard-working, honest people who encounter problems in your professional lives. Case Study #1: You are accused of war crimes You are accused of leading a group of Marines who massacred 24 innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed one of your men and injured two others. No one disputes that the civilians were killed. Testimony draws a horrific picture of gratuitous violence and Marines run amok. All the charges against your other men have been dropped, but you are now being held accountable as squad leader. What do you do? Redefine: Massacre. Wuterich said that he didn’t consider killing 24 people a massacre and that he did what he did to protect his Marines from what he perceived to be a threat. “I remember there may have been women in there, may have been children in there,” he told 60 Minutes. “My responsibility as a squad leader is to make sure that none of the rest of my guys died … and at that poi...

Lots of news about Iran has been floating around the past few days. Over the weekend some neocon flunkies did the tv circuit to helpfully explain that if we stupid Americans do something as reckless as vote for Obama, then Bush will be forced to attack Iran. (This is not to say I heart Obama, only to point out the incredibly blatant manipulation and fear-mongering.) WALLACE: So, you’re suggesting that he might in fact, if Obama’s going to win the election, either before or after the election, launch a military strike? KRISTOL: I don’t know. I mean, I think he would worry about it. On the other hand, you can’t — it’s hard to make foreign policy based on guesses of election results. I think Israel is worried though. I mean, what is, what signal goes to Ahmadinejad if Obama wins on a platform of unconditional negotiations and with an obvious reluctance to even talk about using military force. Is this Israel's election or is it America's election? There's even more juicy neo...

We could be approaching the moment when everything will change (again). We've got the economic unraveling in full swing, obviously affecting every American and being widely discussed in the corporate media. What to do....what do do? That would be one thing for Bush to deal with, and he is trying to blame it on the Democrats; but there's more. There's all this torture business. Chris Floyd covers it here . And what does Bush have to counteract that? Nothing but a 'limited' hangout and a heavy reliance on corporate media shills to keep focusing on the elections. That's it. I mean, they'll do it; but it's a pretty flimsy cover-up. They'd like you to think you're seeing a size ten beauty in a size six bikini, but in reality this is more like a 350 pound hairy goon in an ill-fitting loincloth. People need to politely avert their eyes or else they might see things they really don't want to see...oops...too late. Now this is serious because some pe...

Go here. Read. Look at the pictures. Click on all the links. Find yourself on the State of Consciousness chart. Think about the people you interact with every day. Consider where they are on the chart. Consider whether it is better to move up the chart, or down the chart. Consider the many ways one might accomplish moving up or down the chart. Consider who encourages us to move up, and who encourages us to move down. Think about that carefully. Act accordingly.

There are some really great reads out on the interwebs today. You can browse my top ten picks here , but this one in particular deserves wide circulation . You know all those nagging cognitive dissonances we live with every single day, like how the system seems to be totally broken and yet we feel compelled to participate so as not to give up 'hope'? Isn't that annoying? Don't you want to have some answers that will let you put down at least one heavy bag so you don't have to carry around both bags all day, every day, year after year? If elections really were a solution, then why hasn’t the Democratic majority in Congress, ended the war, the torture, and the massive, warrantless surveillance over all of us and impeached the sorry excuses for human beings in the White House? Pelosi and Reid claim that they haven’t had the votes to stop the war. Nancy and Harry: that’s what your leadership posts are for. You don’t need the votes. All you have to do is block the fundi...

Is there some possibility that the truth has leaked out enough over the interwebs that Bush/Cheney/Israel cannot execute their plans because 1) they’d have to really crack down hard to make it work and 2) that would prove all their critic absolutely correct…immediately…which would lead to 3) massive pushback and chaos and 4) their eventual but certain failure? They really are in a bind. They want to start something nasty, but how will they get away with it? That’s the problem. If they can’t get away with it, they can lose everything. And they’ve already gotten away with a great deal. It’s still possible that they could walk now, go off in hiding somewhere with their billions, and live out their days chortling over us stupid saps. Personally I think it’s unlikely, but it’s definitely possible if they play their cards right. But the ultimate prize of world domination is so close. It’s right…..there………. It must be absolutely killing them to hold back. Except they know that enough peo...

In a recently exchange with someone who vehemently disagreed with me, the person said, “It’s just baffling to me how anyone could misconstrue something like this.” Well, it is equally baffling to me how some people can still fail to suspect our government’s motives. Let us borrow this phrase to describe it: The Fallacy of Insufficient Cynicism. Just in today’s news over at Global Research, you can read two pieces from established scholars that should bring a shadow across even the most trusting brow. My challenge to anyone who persists in believing that our government will not do horrible things to us, the American people, is this: show me what would prevent them? If it’s true that we have been operating under a Continuity of Government (COG) plan since 9/11, then our Constitution has been effectively suspended. Who is then capable of stopping NSPD 51 and the latest, NSPD 59? And even if that isn't true, what has stopped them from doing anything we don't like? (crickets) The ...

Here are lots of pictures showing the reality of life in the Middle East, in Lebanon and in Gaza. This carnage is wrought by Israel; and basically, we pay for it. There are powerful people in America who never, ever, ever want you to see these things because then you might not be willing to pay for it anymore. But just because you don't see it, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. And it doesn't mean we're all not paying. Everybody is paying for this. Much too much. Especially the people in the pictures.

You know we've turned some sort of hellish corner when the NYT has a big graphic titled "Six Points to Remember for your AIPAC Speech" and which is, naturally, full of Zionist propaganda. Are they proud of this? Is it a cry for help? One can only hope that a few Americans will read it and have some sort of epiphany that there's something desperately wrong with our country. This reminds me of the etiquette rules for meeting Queen Elizabeth. Behold how the candidates for President of the United States have to grovel in front of AIPAC. And look, the NYT has helpfully illustrated how McCain and Obama have successfully accomplished this critical though humiliating ritual.

Shorter: "We can't control this body, so fu@% that sh^&." In a State Department briefing on Friday , it was announced that the United States will no longer be regularly attending meetings held by the United Nations' Human Rights Council unless specifically compelled to, citing the Council's stance on relations between Israel and Palestine. Read full story.

I won’t have too much time for blogging for a few weeks, starting now. I hope, at a minimum, to follow the news and at least call out a few worthwhile stories without necessarily adding my two cents. Today I pick this one , a Wayne Madsen story (subscription only) via Godlike Productions. Between August 24 and September 6, 2007, the U.S. Air Force’s nuclear chain-of-command was severely compromised by a rival chain established out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and extending through the offices of the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff, the Air Force’s Cyber-Warfare element, and into the strategic bombing commands located at Minot and Barksdale Air Force Bases. In the weeks before and after this time period, there is ample evidence to suggest that the security of nuclear weapons, particularly at Minot, was placed in severe jeopardy by the rival chain-of-command. …On April 21, 2008, Gates, speaking to young Air Force officers at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Bas...

Richard Cook and George W Bush entered the same freshman class at Yale. Bush took one road, and Cook took another . How different would our world be had a man of Cook's caliber, instead of the insipid twit George W Bush, ascended to the US presidency? I cling to the hope that someday we will live in a world with worthy and honest leaders. Meanwhile, I think Cook has touched upon an important detail in this recollection of Thomas Jefferson. Today, back in Williamsburg , I can see even more clearly that Jefferson was one of the great men of history. He wrote in the Declaration of Independence the now-familiar words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty , and the pursuit of Happiness.” This statement has never been surpassed as a summary of democratic principles or in expressing our God-given right to freedom, whether from governments, tyrants...

Many a time have I linked to James Howard Kunstler's wicked commentary on his blog, Clusterfuck Nation (link to the right...check it now because it's coming down). Sharp, brilliant, bitterly sarcastic, prophetic weekly posts. Until this week. Evidently Jim has decided to 'come out' and reveal where his true loyalties lie: Israel. Who knew? And now we know that Jim has taken his amazing intellect, which has delighted so many for so long with his caustic analysis of American oil-consuming culture, and he has written a long post about 9/11 in which the State of Israel is studiously and meticulously avoided. He makes one mention of Israel, sandwiched in between Europe and Russia, as providing intelligence, some of which was wrong . Tsk tsk. You don't say. Yes. Jim, brilliant though he may be, cannot see any connection whatsoever to Israel when he looks over the explanations of 9/11, aside from a few lapses in intelligence. Nope. It's all Arab, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, ...

Rarely is the question asked, "Is our adults learning?" Sometimes I wonder that. Pretty much every day I wonder that. Occasionally I get a little testy and write things like this . Today I found a nice post at George Washington's blog which deals with this very topic, and I hope you will go and read it. Polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe that our country is going in the wrong direction. That the Iraq war was a mistake. And polls show that the majority of Americans questions the government's version of 9/11 and other basic tenets of the "war on terror". So why aren't people doing anything to fix things? It is largely because people are hopeless . . . they don't think there is anything they can do to turn things around and improve our situation. Also, many people believe that they should just "lay low" until things get better, and that the only thing that standing up will accomplish is getting whacked in the head....

Welcome to America. Is there anything I can help you find, like a detention facility perhaps? 60 Minutes did a story on Raytheon's ray gun back in March, and now they just had to do another story on it. Now why would that be necessary, one might ask. Well, the Pentagon really needs this ray gun technology to enjoy the Walmart smiley face seal-of-approval with the American public. Because some people (cough) have suggested that this technology can be abused, and before that suggestion gets around, the DOD had better make sure that everybody knows that the US military is just a bunch of boy scouts who would never do anything to harm innocent civilians, and they only want to save lives, and...well... let's see what they say . The Pentagon has been developing a raygun which can harmlessly repel enemies by causing a burning sensation in the top layer of the skin. However, according to CBS's 60 Minutes, the military is unwilling to actually trust this weapon enough to deploy ...

This is what happens when we’re too busy to pay attention and we let our government lie us into an illegal war with no clear mission. The ‘Rules of Engagement’ fade away, innocent people are murdered, American soldiers become haunted, and we are all diminished. When will we learn? You can’t be too busy to pay attention this time.

Those of us who traipse around in the messy and bizarre alternative news world, also known as reality, must seem very strange to those sliding blissfully around the surface of the bubble. The people on the surface of the bubble, being so many and still essentially comfortable, can yet afford to look at us with a little pity, perhaps, or bemusement. “Do you really think something bad will happen?”, they ask, incredulously. Why yes, yes I do. (Pause here to bang head against wall.) Could it be any easier to find alternative news? I don’t know how, unless of course it comes over the television. Ha! Thousands of people organize alternative news into convenient lists every single day, and blog about it, and analyze it, and connect obscure events together for your convenience. The information has not been hidden. All one needs to do is sit at a computer and look around, and read, and think, and bear with the confusion and the discomfort of having your entire world view dismantled and reass...