comncents

A DEMOCRACY?

2011-06-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

from VETERANSTODAYwebsite.com June 27, 2011: When the Public Rises, . . .

by David Swanson:

For the majority of people in the United States — a majority does not vote, a majority believes the government is broken, a majority thinks our public policy is headed in the wrong direction — the fact that we call this place a democracy is apparently outweighed by the fact that our national government almost never does what a majority of us want done. Some of the things we don’t want done include the destruction of the planet’s environment, the mass slaughter of war, the spreading of violence, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny aristocracy while millions at home and billions abroad suffer horrifically for lack of readily available resources.

from OFTWOMINDS.COM JUNE 28, 2011,by CHARLES HUGHES,

Greece is a Kleptocracy:

Strip away the bailouts and the bogus austerity plans, and the truth is revealed: Greece is a kleptocracy, and the banks and the ECB Eurocrats are both complicit.

Despite a veritable flood of financial and political analysis about Greece, nobody seems to have noticed the obvious: Greece is a kleptocracy. Just as a refresher, here is the definition of kleptocracy. Ask yourself is this doesn't fit Greece like a supple leather glove:

Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, from the Ancient Greek for "thief" and "rule," is a term applied to a government subject to control fraud that takes advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats), via the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service. The term means "rule by thieves".

He asks the next day, if it makes you squirm to admit you live in a kleptocracy too?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

MSM

2011-05-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

To all bloggers, internet contributors, fellow gripers and complainers:

If you are incensed,offended and disappointed by the crappy news presentation on TV and radio. If you' re angry at the lies of ommission,

misrepresentation, and misleading news stories. If you think Paul Krugman

is a dope and the talking heads on CNBC, CNN, CBS NBC and XYZ are

fascist, socialist, communist leaning meatheads, then why, pray why do you watch TV and listen to these jerks?

Your TV and radio have an off button, but you have to use it.

Try it, you'll like it.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

BORING, BORING Zzzzzzz

2011-05-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Will someone please write something new?

The internet is becoming a Pete and Repeat saga of nothingness squared

and then doubled.

Seemingly one guy gets a thought , Dum Dum Bernanke or The

empty suit president makes a scripted address and twelve writers pick it

up and make the same comment ( in 500 or more words).

Does anyone not know:

l. The Navy Seals killed a dead guy in Pakistan

2.Some cleric says the world will end 5/20/11 at 6 P.M.

3. The financial cabal torpedoed and is holding down the price of silver.

4. Our manufacturing base has been shipped overseas.

5. Obama's birth certificate is another forgery.

6.The war in Libya does not have congressional authorization.

7. Quantitative Easing is creating price inflation.

8. Gold and Silver are increasingly in demand.

9.The U. S. favors the repressive regimes in Yemen and Bahrain.

10.The U. S. will support Israel no matter what they do or stand for.

Give us a break! Have an original thought or tell us something we don't already know or can figure out for ourselves. Jim Rogers accurately called you guys "a bunch of monkeys with typewriters using group think".

Where did these guys come from that are so highly regarded on the net?

Chris Martenson, John Mauldin, Mike Shedlock, P. Radomski? You guys haven't been right yet. Sorry, Addison Wiggins-- but you are known by the company you keep.

These guys are wondering why I singled them out because there are

dozens, no hundreds, more like them.

The dumbest has been the "debate" as to whether we were going to have inflation or deflation or whether there would be a QE3.

Dumb and dumber!

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

ARE WE NUTS OR WHAT?

2011-05-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

More and more we who were formally sane , well balanced souls who reacted rationally to stories in and on the media, are questioning whether we live in an insane asylum with the inmates running it.

The propaganda and BS issuing forth from the government, Wall Street, the medical and pharmaceutical industry, pentagon and corporate America swallows us up in a sludge of words and ideas, from which there are no islands of truth to cling to.

From The TruthSeeker.com "When the Walking Half Dead become the Undead by Smoking Mirrors May 20, 2011

"Real life has now outdistanced Hollywood and network TV in the fabrication of unbelievable scenarios and what that means is that the engine of illusion that has spellbound the populace for so long, has now reached the limits of its possibilities. It can only get crazier and more unbelievable, until the system devourers itself just like the approaching wave of apocalyptic zombies will be devouring what’s left of whoever is left in the web nets of the engine of illusion.

You tell yourself that it can’t be as twisted as you think it is. There must be something wrong with your perceptions. Can government and religion really be barking mad? Can Butch Napolitano and the rest of the front crew of zombie fascists, really be sawing off one of the top branches on the crazy tree, while they are on the far end of it? Apparently this is true. It’s unbelievable but so has been the handling of Katrina, the Gulf of Mexico disaster, Fukushima and the wave of gratuitous wars engaged in by the former home of the brave and land of the free.

All those vaccinations and vomiting propaganda and they didn’t come up with either for the tsunami of insanity that is sweeping the globe. That’s the real pandemic of concern. The people in charge are out of their minds and you see that in the recent behavior of the Zio-Ogre head of the IMF and the general policies of every agency, governmental, religious and financial in these times. This is the doing of the cosmos. This is where you wind up after traversing all of the steps from seemingly rational to obviously bat @@@@ lunacy. Ogres and zombies share similar dietary preferences.

You can’t look for material cause here. You can’t analyze the conditions of the times and come up with any rationale, for so much of the various juntas flailing around in the deep end of the pool. There is no sanity or sense to what is taking place. It’s not so much a matter of the world ending on Saturday. The world as we thought we knew it has already ended.

If you are an individual in the midst of this and are viewing it as it very much appears to be, what do you do? You can’t do anything about the mass of it taking place in front of your eyes and at a distance. You have to react to it from within yourself and make personal adjustments in respect of it. You have to hold to your center, while all about you are losing theirs.

This is not some temporary state of aberration. This is a world wide snake dancing into the cauldron of wild improbability. It can’t be happening but it is. I don’t know if pulses from the sun are causing this; some mysterious planet that we can’t see, the shifting of the magnetic poles, alien radio waves or some inexplicable, logical progression of materialism coming into fruition. Is it any of these, something else or a combination of things already mentioned? Who knows?

. .. The insanity around us is truly matched by the evil of certain individuals and forces like Rupert Murdoch and those controlling the directions of government and religion. All of these individuals, collectives and forces have literally sold their souls to the dark side, for whatever profit they are finding there. I don’t see the payoff but that’s me.

Consider well what you are reading here and seek your center with all due diligence because just as Nature is throwing all sorts of natural events at various locations, waves of madness are also swelling in portions of the human mind and I suspect these are powerful waves that can sweep up the unwary and carry them an appreciable distance before they have any idea what has happened to them. If you’re not seeing what I’m talking about, it is time to open your eyes before you wind up an appreciable distance from all things familiar, within and without."

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

POWER SEEKERS

2011-05-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

RE: www. Goldseek.com12/20/2010 Interview of Richard Maybury by David Galliand

[Richard Maybury coined the term "Chaostan", delieneating an area in the Mideast and Asia that was destined to be unstable and atwar or civil upising for decades to come because they lacked the constraints of Common Law.

This very smart guy is astounding in his perception of reality in world affairs.

How does anyone get this smart?]

"DG: Returning just for a moment to your contention that governments need to exercise power. Is this just a psychological aberration amongst power seekers, or is there more to it than that?

RM: I regard it as a mental illness. People such as you and me and our readers are generally wealth seekers. We want to live a prosperous, comfortable life and we seek wealth in order to do that. By contrast, people who rise to the top in government are power seekers. They get their satisfaction from forcing other people to do what they want. They are essentially bullies.

Let's offer a little proof here. Practically every piece of legislation enacted in the last 100 years has involved the use of force on persons who have not harmed anyone. Anybody who wants that privilege has to have something wrong with them, so I think it's a given that when you're dealing with a high-level politician or a high-level bureaucrat, you're dealing with somebody who likes to push other people around, and that's the fundamental factor that the American founders were looking at when they created the Constitution. They understood that political power corrupts the morals and the judgment."

The United State's foreign poilicy is dictated by the power seeker mentality.

We like to push people and countries around, either with monetary and weapon bribes or military force or the threat thereof. We are partcularly fond of picking on small weak countries bur get all bent out of shape whena country like China doesn't cave in to our huffs and puffs.

Our constitution was designed to protect the citizens from these bullies, but notice how these facists are busy undermining and destroying our fundemental rights. Mr. Bush and Mr Obama: Our constitution is more than "just a piece of paper".

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

OSAMA, OBAMA and GADDAFI

2011-05-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, we all know that Osama Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attack on the Trade Center complex, because our government and complicit media told us so. We know he has been hiding from us since then except when they parade him out of the White House cellar to make a videotape whenever there was an election or popularity polls were flagging.

We didn't know that the Afghanistan government offered to turn him over to us if we would provide proof of his guilt. Our illustrious President Bushher replied that "everyone knew he was guilty so no need for proof" -- or words to that effect.

In December of 2001, Osama did an interview with a Pakistani newspaper: Daily Unmat in Urdu, in which he denied involvement in the Trade Center attacks on September 11, and further suggests that secret forces within the U.S. government

should be investigated. Now why would he deny involvement then make a video bragging that his plan had succeeded. Curiouser and curiouser. Did the Navy

Seals kill a dead man, a double or no one? Why did the CIA claim he died from natural causes years ago?

Senator Inhoffe says he saw the classified pictures of Osama's corpse and verified

that it was Osama ( The senator did not say when he had met Osama).

The U. S. government would not lie, would they?

The recent fiascos of the war upon Lybia for "humanitarian reasons", fraudulent birth certificate copy and the "murder"and burial at sea of the long-dead (2001) Osama Bin Laden illustrate the clumsiness of the Obama's group, where the ink is hardly dry on the lies before the slowest of wits perceive they have been duped.

Comes now the push to get rid of (kill) Gaddafi . Why do they want him removed from power? Quoting from Michael S. Rozeff's article: "Why the

West Is Attacking Gaddafi" RE: Lew Rockwell.com:

"The basic reason is simple. Gaddafi confronts their power. He confronts the status quo of the Empire. He demands greater power for Africa and the African Union. He demands greater power for smaller countries in the United Nations. Gaddafi calls for investigations of past wars. He is calling for a new way forward that reduces the powers of any one or a few countries to dominate the world.. . . .

Gaddafi is a shrewd man of power, who has shown pragmatic flexibility in doing what it takes to stay in power. He likes being in power. He knows how to use power, with brutality when he deems that necessary. However, no man of power is purely good or evil. He is no exception.

Like those who run Western states, Gaddafi is a statist. They all think entirely in terms of the system of states. Although this system has violence and immorality at its heart and throughout its breadth, these leaders all employ a rhetoric of justice as well as a rhetoric of utilitarianism (that they do evil things at times for the sake of a greater good).

So, it is not just about Oil, although that is apart of this willful killing spree endorsed by that great Nobel Peace Award winner, President Barack Obama.

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

INFORMATION ASSAULT

2011-05-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

"More and more human beings live in vast urban environments surrounded by other human beings and the creation of human beings. The natural world.the traditional source of self-awareness is increasingly absent.

Furthermore, within the last century we have come to live increasingly in a compelling world defined by electronic media. These media have evolved a pace that is utterly alien to our true natures. It is bewildering to live in a world of ten second spots, each one urging us to buy something, do something, or to think something. Human beings in the past were not so assaulted.

And I think this constant assault has made us pliable in a certain unhealthy way. Cut off from direct experience. Cut off from our own feelings, and sometimes our own sensations, we are only too ready to adopt a viewpoint or perspective that is handed to us, and is not our own"--Michael Crichton, "Travels" , Ballantine Books, 1998

I haven't watched TV for several years. We have a TV set, but only watch movies

or recorded programs--no live TV. Prior to finding the off button, I increasingly felt

I was being programmed and manipulated as to what to think, do or believe. They (TV producers) were conditioning me to believe and accept as normal and natural all sorts of things that I had previously rejected, such as inter-racial marriage, co-habitation without marriage, incredible profanity that added nothing to the plot or story, females in macho roles, and constant politically correct verbage and pictures.

When the North Koreans did this it was called "brain washing" i.e. repetitive exposure

to propaganda critical to patriotic opinions.

You can tell those who are TV junkies by the opinions they hold and the ignorance of

financial, global and political affairs. They think, speak and act the "party line" .

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES

2011-05-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

We are surrounded and inundated with lies, half- truths and mis-statements,originating from everywhere and all directions, from which escape is impossible.

Lies come from the President, from the federal government, state government, county and city, Chamber of Commerce and furniture stores,

Doctors, lawyers, engineers, Electric power suppliers, nuclear power

stations and regulators.

Lies come from Wall Street, stockbrokers, accountants, corporate analysts

and chart readers and of course, the Federal Reserve. Government financial regulators, hedge fund managers and even Warren Buffett.

Lies come from our employers and employees, elected officials, and unelected officials. Lies come from those who are responsible to guard our health. our safety and our shores.

I have left out NBC, CNBC, CNN. CBS, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek and many others in the Main Street Media.

Ah , but there is one sanctuary from deceit: the internet--where we can always get the truth! Baloney! and BS! The infiltration of lies grows every day.

Where is truth to be found? Only in your own perception and discernment. Get your BS filter in place and "don't leave home without it".

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE GULLIBLE MIND

2011-05-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here is one theory about gullible minds:

Mike Adams – Natural News May 5, 2011

In light of the string of the blatant falsehoods being announced by the U.S. government these days (FDA, DHS, White House, etc.) it’s interesting that so many people still believe whatever they are told by “official” sources. It brings up the question of the functioning of their brains: How could a person swallow official information so gullibly and so completely without even asking commonsense questions about the reliability or factual basis of that information?

These people, it turns out, are operating from what I called The Gullible Mind. It is a psychological processing malfunction that filters out information based on its source rather than its integrity. People who operate from The Gullible Mind tend to have misplaced trust in governments, institutions, mainstream news networks, doctors, scientists or anyone who wears the garb of apparent authority.

Whereas a normal, intelligent person would raise commonsense questions about information they receive from all sources, the Gullible Mind wholly accepts virtually any information from sources that occupy the role of apparent authority in society.

Governments never lie

But how does this work inside their heads? It’s an interesting process. Gullible Mind people do believe it is possible for a government (or institution) to lie; but they believe that governments, institutions and doctors choose NOT to lie even when it would serve their own self interests to do so.

Follow this carefully, because this is the fascinating part. These Gullible Mind people effectively believe that even though a government official could lie about something, they would never actually do so. And why wouldn’t they? Because, ultimately, the Gullible Mind crowd believes that governments, institutions and mainstream media outlets operate from a sort of honor code. So even if it were in the interests of our own government to lie to us, it would never happen because that would violate this imaginary honor code.

Where does this honor code exist? Where is it written down? Nowhere, of course. It is imaginary. But to The Gullible Mind, it seems real. Interestingly, even though this “honor code” only exists in the imagination of The Gullible Mind person, they project this honor code onto sources of authority, imagining that they abide by it.

Extreme gullibility

This is how The Gullible Mind person believes that network news always reports the truth. The news networks have a sense of “honor,” they believe, and this sense of honor requires them to always report the truth and never manipulate the news for any nefarious purposes. So news networks never “shape” the news and they only report what is factually true without any consideration whatsoever of politics or advertiser profits.

This view of the world is, of course, laughably naive. And yet it is the core belief system of at least half the population – the Gullible Mind half that believes everything it is told by its own government, media or authority figures.

Interestingly, the Gullible Mind is also inwardly gullible because it does not recognize its own gullibility. Instead, it believes it is operating as a Rational Mind. This false Rational Mind believes it functions as a critical filter of incoming information, but even this is self deception. In truth, this false Rational Mind is on “auto filter” so that it filters out any information that conflicts with the information it is receiving from official sources.

This is the key to understanding the Gullible Mind — it isn’t the quality of the information itself that matters; it is the confirmation of the story from official sources that “makes it real” in the Gullible Mind.

The Easter Bunny killed Bin Laden!

For example, let’s say a Gullible Mind person comes across an announcement that says the Easter Bunny has killed Osama Bin Laden. The report claims that colored eggs were found near Bin Laden’s body, and there was evidence of feathers being left at the scene, which proves the Easter Bunny was there

Now, an intelligent, rational mind would have a lot of questions about this. For starters, rabbits don’t have feathers. And the Easter Bunny is a piece of fiction, too. On top of that, how could the Easter Bunny kill Osama Bin Laden? An intelligent person would, upon reviewing the holes in the story, be forced to conclude the story is fiction. The only logical conclusion from that is that the government is lying to them.

A Gullible Mind person, however, would not ask whether rabbits have feathers, or whether the Easter Bunny is capable of conducting a military raid. Instead, the Gullible Mind person would first look to other confirming news sources in order to determine the reliability of the story. They would turn on the TV or surf the internet, looking for the news to be repeated through “official” sources.

Once they found CNN, or Fox News, or some other “official” source reporting that the Easter Bunny killed Osama Bin Laden, then that news report would instantly become “real” in their minds. Suddenly it has shifted from their mental processing queue to the “absolutely truth” part of their brain, and from that point forward, no one can question that reality in their heads.

Don’t bother arguing with a Gullible Mind – they are immune to facts

At this point, their rational mind is completely shut off on the topic. No accumulation of facts can, at that point, rattle their “reality.” For example, a person who believes the government’s story of 9/11 has already embraced the Easter Bunny version of terrorists flying airplanes into the World Trade Center towers. So how did this act cause the WTC 7 building to collapse in a demolition-style free-fall a few hours later, when WTC 7 was never struck by airplanes? How can a steel and concrete building suddenly and magically collapse in perfect structural synchronicity merely from being on fire?

The answers don’t matter to The Gullible Mind, you see. There is no room for facts inside their heads, because all the space has been taken up with what is essentially a cult-like belief in institutions of authority.

We saw this in the Heaven’s Gate cult in California a few years back. The leader of that cult, a man named Applegate, positioned himself as the one and only source of authoritative information among the cult followers. So HE became the authoritative source whose information was wholly accepted without questioning or skepticism of any kind. At that point, he was able to quite easily convince his followers that an alien race was going to land a UFO on the far side of a comet, and that if they killed themselves, they would be transported onto the alien ship (or something like that).

The belief in such a story may seem silly… until you realize that the governments of the world use the exact same cult-like tactics to get their own “followers” to believe everything they say, without question. So if President Obama announced that an alien race was going to land a mother ship on the White House lawn, and that people who voted for him would have their consciousness transferred to an immortal alien body, the remarkable truth is that millions of people would believe that. Perhaps tens of millions. They would even worship him as an interstellar saint.

Remember Orson Welles’ radio program that announced aliens had invaded the Earth and were destroying our cities? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wa…) Huge numbers of people believed it was really happening… and not because it made any sense, but because the information came from the source they trusted. To those people, the alien invasion was just as real back then as Bin Laden’s official death is to government followers today.

Throughout history, many conspiracy theories have turned out to be true

Government lying, of course, has been going on for as long as governments have existed. Not all conspiracies theories are true, of course, but so many of them turn out to be true that the idea of “not believing” in conspiracies makes no rational sense.

To not believe in conspiracies means you don’t believe two people have ever sat down and plotted to take advantage of others in some unethical and deceptive way. Well gee, that describes virtually every board meeting of every large corporation in the world! Conspiracies are not just commonplace; they’re practically synonymous with modern-day capitalism! Even right now, Apple is being accused of a conspiracy to keep employee wages artificially low: http://www.appleinsider.com/article

With Love and Kindnes,

THE HATMAN

WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?

2011-05-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

The mysterious history of the black man in the White House. Why have we had such a difficult time learning about the birth, education,

financial circumstances of this current occupant of the Oval Office.

This disadvantaged person somehow had a lot of advantages, including travel to foreign countries, a college education including Columbia University pre-law and Harvard Law School. Amazing for a kid with

parents of average means! He claims it was all possible through

student loans, but of course there is no public accounting for these loans and their repayment.

Quoting Devvy Kidd, April 19,2011 www.NewsWith Views.com

"After several years of watching the putative president hop on his favorite toy (Air Force One) every time a serious issue needs to be addressed, to his total dependence on teleprompters, even some of his former loyal supporters now doubt the "brainy" candidate bringing hope and change.

Besides exposing fraud, I believe his college records will reflect Barry was a less than average student of less than average intellect. Quite the opposite of the manufactured image of this hot shot lawyer who gave up his law license (who also never had a single case in court). I believe it was to avoid being prosecuted for fraud and disbarment since he lied on the application when he said he never used any other names besides his current alias, Barack Hussein Obama.

Honestly, I don't know how the usurper has kept track of all his aliases: Barry Dunham, Barack Hussein Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama and Barack Dunham - all names known to be used by Mr. Cool in the White House. It is a fact he used Barry Soetoro while living in Indonesia. It is a fact he used Barry Soetoro while attending Occidental College. His mother used Barack Hussein Obama Soebarkah on one of her passport documents; I know because I obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act."

From a article by Devvy Kidd in www.Rense.com 4/28/11

"The display put on yesterday by the putative president was one of the greatest displays of unbridled hubris I have ever seen in my decades of being an activist, watching and studying political figures. It simply was breath taking in scope and so vile, you want to vomit. Backed up by an array of sycophants in the media, that cheap gangster from Chicago actually thought he could foist another forgery on the American people and go about his business of destroying this republic.

There are several excellent articles about what happened yesterday and why those who can still think are outraged by this latest horse and pony show. Many are speculating the usurper suddenly produced a birth certificate because of Donald Trump. Millions have been demanding that birth certificate for almost three years, yet, supposedly, Obama/Soetoro is so afraid of "The Donald" he flies an attorney to Hawaii to pick up the alleged document. As for Trump, I gagged watching him brag that he forced the president of the U.S. to produce a document no one else could. Donald Trump is nothing more than the modern day version of Elmer Gantry."

There are those including Hannity and O'Reilly, those great Patriots of Fox News, who label the quest for proof of Obama's U.S. birth as "birthers". To them and their ilk, violating the requirements of the Constitution the basis for all law in America, is of no importance and in concert with those who call it just a piece of paper.

So now they have produced a "Certificate of Live Birth", which is so full of goofs and inconsistencies that have answered nothing, other than the arrogance of those running our government, that the public of sheep will believe anything.

Sometimes I get so upset not about their lies, but at the gullibility of our otherwise intelligent population.

With Love and Kindness,

The Hatman

DONALD DUCK

2011-05-04T12:52:00.001-07:00

I have witnessed over the years a number of candidates for public office, some good some bad, and some incredibly unqualified for the position they sought. Some were elected, some not- irrespective of their qualifications. Think about Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, George Wallace, Hubert Humphrey, John McCain or George W. Bush.

Yet, never, I say never has such a punk as Donald the Duck been considered as a serious candidate for the president of the United States of America.

This self-aggrandized blow hard has convinced some that he should be elected ( as a Republican no less ) to the presidency.

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

As a so called billionaire businessman he has left a slimy trail of bankruptcies.lawsuits and failed business ventures all with other people's money. The uglinest of his business failures is matched by the ugliness of his buildings.

To witness his recent NH speech claiming that he alone forced Obama's hand to release a birth record is typical of a braggart without remorse. He is crude and he is rude. His ghetto styled remark to China will not be repeated here.

Given our present head of state , would Mr. Duck be an improvement?

I'm not sure.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

America IS Gone

2010-11-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

Excerpted from www.American Thinker. com article by David Deming 10/24/2010

"There is a whiff of anarchy in the air this morning. As I sit here writing, a conservative victory in the midterm elections looms. But I find no reason to be optimistic. The midterm elections will solve nothing. The plain fact is that conservatives have lost the battle for America. The country that many of us were born in has ceased to exist. And we have no one to blame but ourselves

A few days ago it was reported that an eighteen-year-old geology student at Arizona State University had starred in an online pornographic film in which she performed "explicit and degrading" sex acts for a one-time payment of $2,000. The young woman explained that she needed the money to supplement her scholarship, and then inexplicably proclaimed, "I have morals!"

We are a nation of gluttons. About one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese. To qualify as "obese," the average person has to be not just overweight, but carry an extra thirty-five pounds or more. In the last thirty years, the obesity rate in America has more than doubled. It is the sheerest irony that today, the average person has the choice of a multiplicity of fresh, wholesome, and nutritious foods, all available at the lowest prices in history. But choosing and preparing the best foods takes time and effort. We would rather stuff ourselves with fast food because it's tasty and convenient. The consequences of this slothful lifestyle include hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. After ruining our health through gluttony, we then go to our physicians and demand a quick fix in the form of a pill. Pharmaceutical companies are glad to oblige. And the government must pay, because free health care is now a "right."

here is no better index for America's moral degradation than television programming. Compare today's shows with those of a generation ago. Every episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" contained a short moral lesson, and "The Twilight Zone" challenged our intellects and stretched our imaginations. But entertainment and instruction have devolved into shock and novelty. The networks are locked in a downward spiral to see who can provide the most outrageous and offensive programming. It's not their fault. They're just giving the American people what they want.

Children are not as smart as their parents. The average child today spends thirteen hours watching television for every hour he spends reading. We blame teachers and schools for failing to educate our children. But what can they do with undeveloped and undisciplined minds that expect to be entertained and rebel at the labor of thought? The decline in intellectual aptitude is so dramatic that the authors of the SAT test have had to add a hundred points to the combined math and verbal score just to make current averages equal of those of a generation ago.

We are oblivious to the fact that our society is intellectually and artistically bankrupt. Modern art is not good enough to be bad. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci took four years to paint the Mona Lisa. He left the work unfinished because he was always seeking to add "perfection to perfection." Earlier this year, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the way Leonardo created realistic flesh tones was by building up successive layers of pigments that were as thin as a few micrometers. A micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter.

Compare Leonardo's work with that of the modern American artist Robert Ryman. Ryman began his career working as a security guard at a museum. The guard decided he wanted to become a painter, so he bought some white house paint and slathered it on a canvas. Art critics had orgasms. For decades, Ryman has continued to produce paintings that consist of nothing but monochrome white. The tones and textures vary, but most of Ryman's paintings consist of nothing but a plain white surface. Ryman has explained that he paints only white surfaces because he wants to "reduce visual disturbances." Imagine that the next time you're contemplating Michelangelo's "disturbances" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Our popular music is a painful cacophony of obnoxious dissonance. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. We have Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga. Is that progress? We have advanced technology, but do we use it to uplift ourselves? No, we indulge the animal side of our natures. The internet is mostly used for downloading pornography or playing video games.

In America today, everyone is entitled to everything. According to a recent report by NPR, the mentally retarded are now attending college and receiving grants. Professors are being advised (i.e., pressured) to modify their curricula to accommodate the new students. People incessantly demand entitlements and handouts. Every government intervention in the free-market system creates a fresh problem that demands another ruinous intervention with unintended consequences. Nobody is responsible for anything, and no one wants to pay the bills. And believe me, they're coming due.

In this brave new world, everyone has the right to not be offended, and no one can be held accountable for anything. The fundamental unit of human civilization, the family, has been caustically eroded by feminism. The divorce rate is fifty percent. Oklahoma is supposedly a conservative state. Last year, a state legislator introduced a bill that would require parents with minor children seeking a divorce to first undergo counseling. Not only was the bill not passed, but the legislator was derided and mocked. How dare anyone be required to undertake the work necessary to save a marriage for the sake of his or her children? Why, it might interfere with their pursuit of happiness.

We celebrate homosexuality and then wonder why sexually transmitted diseases are exploding. According to the CDC, men-who-have-sex-with-men make up only two percent of the population but account for 53 percent of all new HIV infections and 64 percent of all new syphilis cases.

I'm beginning to acquire an appreciation for Paul's doctrine of Original Sin. The nation that began with freedom of religion has progressed to freedom from religion, freedom from moral constraint, and freedom from responsibility. Just as Plato described in the Republic, the "horses and asses" are "marching along with all the rights and dignities of freemen," and the ultimate result can be only that "tyranny will spring from democracy."

Elections matter only in the short term. Every long-term social index I am aware of is negative. The plain fact is that the American people are too morally degenerate to be capable of effective self-government. The Roman satirist Juvenal understood. "The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and games!" I can find no reason to be optimistic. It is only our blind vanity that lets us pretend that the United States can endure forever. Rome fell, and so will America. For all intents and purposes, it is already over.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

SOCIOPATHOLOGY BECOMES NORMAL

2010-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

REF: WWW. OFTWO MINDS.COM, CHARLES HUGH SMITH. 10/16/2010

The Normalization of Sociopathology in America

October 16, 2010

The moral rot at the center of American life results from a normalization of pathologies--sociopathic and psychopathic states and behaviors are now "normal" or incentivized. Moral behavior is institutionally punished.

My entry on the moral rot which has taken hold in all socio-economic levels of America drew a number of insightful responses: Runaway Feedback Loops, Wealth Concentration and Gaming-The-System (October 13, 2010).

While the American/Western worldview holds that we are autonomous individuals exercising free will at every moment, in reality we are all heavily programmed by our socio-economic class conditions. What is so striking about present-day America is the way in which the narcissistic, no-moral-compass social pathologies of entitlement, denial and fabrication of "truth"/reality has been "normalized" (accepted as normal behavior and thinking) in all social classes.

Before we analyze that further, let's get some direct experiences from three observant readers.

First up in Freeacre, one of the proprietors of the excellent Trout Clan Campfire blog:

Here are my examples (of the feedback loops you described):

Thirty-one years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, a friend in San Francisco explained to me that I should go down and apply for welfare. He told me the the social workers basically tell you the right answers to give when applying. They ask the question and you just say agree with whatever it is. That's the game. (I didn't do it, choosing to marry the father of our child and live a life of penury instead...)

2) We finally were able to buy a house in Portland. Our next door neighbor lived in one exactly like ours. But, she was divorced and had two kids. Her kids went to church school for free, got free clothing and medical care, her mom collected her rent from the state, she got food stamps, and on and on. Her ex even got a penile implant due to an unfortunate motorcycle accident! We ended up losing our home and car and having to declare bankruptcy due to our son's medical bills for cancer.

3) Years later, when my husband got cancer and I had to pay his COBRA payments up front, I had hardly any money for food or the house payment from my job at the Tahoe Daily Tribune. When I inquired what we could do to qualify for some assistance, the social worker said, "get a divorce." We did not.

4) Time and again, I find myself donating food, clothing, toys, etc. to "single moms" who live in more attractive homes than I do, with children who have more than my grandchildren, and who live with men who make more money than mine.

5) I recently attended a Food Summit - all about supporting sustainable locally produced food. At the end of the conference, a blanket announcement went out for any of us eligible for food stamps to not hesitate to sign up. "It's good for Oregon!" they announced. It brings in more money from the federal government!

And you know what? I'm considering it. If I don't have to lie to get it, I just might do it. With social security getting no increase again this year and the banksters getting more billions in bonuses and congress getting their increases, well, I think I am having a "'f*** 'em" moment as well.

Reader Don describes conditions which show the incentives to game the system and the disincentives to be honest and hard-working are not new dynamics in the culture:

Enjoyed today's post on the abuse of the welfare system. This is old hat to the "underclass". I managed Section 8 buildings in the '80s and most of the tenants, although without assets, lived better than my working poor, non Section 8 tenants. The tenant's share of Section 8 rent was usually in the double digits (I recall one tenant who couldnt manage to pay her $19 rent more than once every 4 or 5 months...), all of them got food stamps, medical care, the kids got school lunches etc. And in the 1980s, before friends of mine had color TVs, some of these apartments had one in every room of the five room apartments.

Perhaps most frustrating to me was that in the vast majority of households, the single mother had a working man in the house, but the welfare folks werent allowed to ask about it.

From your post, it looks like the working poor and the middle class have figured out the scam as well.

Anonymous Physician provides the context to understand both the ubiquity of Corporate Welfare/entitlement/cheating and the standard-issue welfare entitlement and gaming:

I have a great deal of experience with the poor, the very poor, the rich, and a few of the ultra-rich. Some accident of fate also gave me direct clinical contact with a least 6 serial killers (in custody) for extended periods. It is certain (i.e.; self-evident to the prepared consciousness as per Aristotle's definition of truth) that our current crisis of culture, political economy and political life is fundamentally related to the long-emerging filters on the roads to power and influence that now assure that cluster B personality types (sociopathic/ pyschopathic, narcissistic and to lesser degrees borderline and histrionic) dominate, in number as well as influence, all major institutions in this "country" as well as most of the rest of the world. (emphasis added) This state of affairs, in its extent, is historically unprecedented.

This is no counsel of despair. Goodness, the ethical will, as a potentiality, is proportionally much more frequent than the evil will in humanity but it must be cultivated and it demands truthfulness and willingness to sacrifice for its actualization.

Thank you, readers, for your insightful commentaries.

Here is my analysis, which as always is drawn from the foundation established in the Survival+ critique.

The depth of our own pathology can be measured by our resistance to admitting the systemic fraud, lying, entitlement and narcissistic pathologies in whatever slice of American society we value. For example, Liberals experience an overwhelming urge to excuse or deny welfare fraud and indeed, all the pathologies of the "underclass."

That is a direct measure of their own internal normalization of social pathologies.

Conservatives experience an overwhelming urge to excuse or deny Corporate Welfare and the partnership/collusion of the Central State (which they fear) and Crony Capitalism (which they revere, even though it is only a simulacrum of classic free-market capitalism).

To the degree that an individual dismisses cheating on tests in school, fabricated resumes, bogus balance sheets and dishonest mortgage applications and tax returns because "everybody does it," the sociopathologies have been fully absorbed as not just normal but as beneficial and acceptable.

Though we like to favor ourselves as autonomous entities brimming with individuality, most of our worldview and behaviors are programmed by our social-economic status and conditioning.

Consider how easily the behaviors and values of most Americans fall into three basic classes in American culture which are remarkable predictors of worldviews and largely unconscious "values" and behaviors.

This reality is part of what I term the politics of experience: we can't experience the "water" we swim in until we consciously occupy another more objective perch which is informed by history and the awareness of who benefits from the normalization of various beliefs and behaviors.

The "working class" is programmed to rely on television for most of its "information" about life, and thus they are programmed to:

1. Consume copious quantities of fast foods and convenience foods, and consider indolence a luxury. As a result, they are programmed to become obese/diabetic.

2. The boys are programmed to favor football and basketball in sports, service in the Armed Forces as the only viable choice to low-skill, fitful employment, to drop out of four-year college if pressured to enter, and vocational training, often paid for by the G.I. Bill after military service.

3. Males are programmed to place identity value on their vehicles and real-world "manly" skills (working on vehicles, farm equipment, woodworking, etc.), but their programmed aspirations are aimed at impossibly narrow fields: professional sports, hip-hop and other entertainment, etc. As a result, their real-world skills are generally undeveloped or modest.

In essence, they are programmed to fail in the "knowledge economy" and in real-world practical jobs which are not glorified by the broadcast media. They accept low-level work and are dissatisfied, often turning to drugs to relieve their ennui.

4. Their interests are channeled by the media into extreme sports, mixed martial arts, auto racing, football, etc., but they are programmed to express these interests through passive video games rather than by real-world experience. Programmed to low confidence, they generally give up quickly when faced with arduous training, except when forced by institutions such as the Military.

5. Working class families have few resources to draw upon, and the mobility favored by Corporate America has shredded the social networks which once offered support (church membership, social clubs, neighborhoods, etc.) Family "help" is a sofa to sleep on at a relatives' house.

6. The girls are programmed to have sex and children early, as motherhood has positive identity value, even if they are woefully unprepared for parenting. Career choices tend to be "pink collar" type labor in Corporate America's sickcare system or government jobs; females are programmed to support their children and demand little of the fathers. Dependency on the State /Welfare in one form or another is the norm.

7. Politics holds little interest and most of the working class are programmed not to vote as it "never does any good anyway."

8. There are few books or other reading materials around the house, little to no original decorative art, few musical instruments that can actually be played with any joy or expertise; the lived environment is a cultural desert. The TV and a computer offer distraction and entertainment and little else. If they pursue social media, they are members of My Space and Facebook. They are deeply attached to their cellphones, which are perceived as markers of accessible status. Passports are unknown; foreign travel is experienced through military service only.

The "middle class" aspires to the "upper class" life they see on television and other media, but their aspirations are for the trappings of wealth rather than for the engines of wealth.

1. Though the middle class person clings mightily to various totems of "membership" in the middle class, and experiences tremendous loss of identity and self-esteem when these totems are lost, in reality their wealth is modest and they have few family resources.

2. Though they watch a lot of TV, they also consume massive quantities of other low-value media through the electronic devices they see as emblematic of the "middle class" lifestyle: laptop computers, iPods, etc. Their cellphones and other electronics are key identity markers: the higher the status of the brand, the more valuable the device. Apple products are de riguer "high status."

3. Books and reading materials around the house tend to be best sellers or materials assigned in class; few households receive newspapers or magazines other than National Geographic. If books are read, they are genre books such as mysteries. Dog-eared copies of the Harry Potter series abound. Those households which aspire to "upper class" education may subcribe to a few magazines which are viewed as totems of high-class lifestyles: The New Yorker, Saveur, etc.

4. "Education" is valued but mastery is not; the goal is to obtain the certificate or paper required by gatekeepers in the government or Corporate America, not the actual skillsets. Though education is "valued," few households (regardless of income, which is often high) save religiously enough to fund university educations; borrowing vast sums of student loans is the norm. Adult education is pursued to obtain the same gatekeeper certificates in whatever field the adults toil in. Learning for the pleasure of learning is unknown or deemed a waste of time when "we could be having fun."

"Enrichment" classes are provided to the children, but the purpose is to gain a veneer of respectability as an aspirant to upper-class membership; piano lessons are dutifully offered but nobody plays music in the house for enjoyment, so the lessons are soon dropped. Live performances are also attended occasionally as "enrichment." Foreign travel is experienced via college programs or packaged tours fit into 2-week vacations allowed by Corporate America.

5. Favored sports include soccer and volleyball for the girls, and skateboarding and baseball for the boys. Team sports are favored over individual competition, and adults spend significant time ferrying kids to various after-school sports, which are deemed "character-building."

6. Ownership of status brands is highly important; brand consciousness is acute. Target is favored over Wal-Mart, and designer-luxury brand purses, shoes, autos, etc. are highly desirable "markers" of success and identity. Most of the family income goes to paying for these "markers" of membership.

7. A four-year college degree is the goal, with an MBA or master's degree considered a higher-level enabler of a better career. The cherished goal is acceptance to an elite university which is viewed as a magical ticket to "fast track" advancement in the government or Corporate America. Meritocracy is accepted as the norm. Military service is shunned in favor of attending college right out of high school. Favored social media are related to career/corporate advancement: LinkedIn, etc. Foreign films and chic dining are valued as "markers" of high-class status.

The upper class has the confidence born of the knowledge that the family resources can always bail one out. High-paying jobs will be provided via networks; art-aspirant careers are highly valued, and family resources enable dilletante dabbling in acting, film-making, visual arts, etc.

Entrance to prep schools and family money/connections enable entrance to institutions the middle class must gain entrance to via meritocracy.

Favored careers include venture capital, high-status government positions, management of family businesses, plum slots in NGOs, etc. Noblesse Oblige is served via membership on boards of charities, the local symphony and museum, etc. These networks provide connections to business opportunities unavailable to the middle class.

Children already get passports and foreign travel to exotic locales is standard. Middle-class aspirants are viewed paternalistically or with scorn; they are worker-bees for the Corporate America/State owned or managed by the upper class. The working class is avoided except as servants, who are often immigrants.

My point is that to varying degrees, the normalization of narcissism and social pathologies is now embedded in the programming of all social classes. The rot in America is not limited to "deviance" in any one class; it is present in various manifestations in all social classes.

Tweaking policies and gaming the gaming will not "cure" what ails America. Moral will "must be cultivated and it demands truthfulness and willingness to sacrifice for its actualization." Until we are prepared to make those sacrifices, then the rot will only deepen.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

2010-10-09T05:45:00.001-07:00

By Lou Pritchett, Proctor & Gamble

A LETTER FROM A PROCTOR AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT.

THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America's true living legends - an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from the soap salesman to Vice President, Sales and Customer Development for Proctor and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and "class", always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the "blame America" crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer "wind mills" to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use "extortion" tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh's, Hannity's, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it. Big surprise. Since it hit the internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. It's happening right now.

AN EMPTY SUIT

2010-10-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

REPEATED IN ENTIRETY FROM LRCBLOG.COM 10/1/2010. interviewer and personality interviewed are unknown, but content confirms what we have intuitively known for some time.

A longtime Washington, D.C., insider, and former adviser to the Obama election campaign and transition team, speaks out on an administration in crisis, and a president increasingly withdrawn from the job of President.

2008 gave America an incredibly charismatic candidate for President of the United States. Speech after speech showed a candidate with increasing momentum as primary race after primary race concluded. And then came the nomination, more speeches, culminating in an election night victory.
According to the person sitting across from me, those were incredibly exciting times, even for one who had been a participant with three previous presidential hopefuls. Barack Obama appeared to move from one city to the next effortlessly, gaining confidence and motivation with each campaign stop. He was remarkable to watch. He took the script, elevated it with his oration, left the crowds screaming for more, and then would do it all over again, time after time after time. On the campaign trail, Obama is a machine.
When I asked this insider if the media gave candidate Obama an assist throughout his campaign, it elicits a sly smile.
Sure — we definitely had people in the media on our side. Absolutely. We went so far as to give them specific ideas for coverage. The ones who took that advice from the campaign were granted better access, and Obama was the biggest story in 2008, so yeah, that gave us a lot of leverage.
Could Obama have succeeded without the media’s help?
Yeah, I think so. As I said, on the campaign trail he is very, very good. The opposition didn’t have near the energy, or the celebrity attraction that Obama brings. Plus, the country was burned out after eight years of Bush. We knew that going in. We knew that if we won the Democrat nomination, we were likely going to cruise our way to the White House — and that is exactly what we did.”
But after Obama was sworn in, things began to change?
Almost immediately. Obama loved to campaign. He clearly didn’t like the work of being President though, and that attitude was felt by the entire White House staff within weeks after the inauguration. Obama the tireless, hard working candidate became a very tepid personality to us. And the few news stories that did come out against him were the only things he seemed to care about. He absolutely obsesses over Fox News. For being so successful, Barack Obama is incredibly thin-skinned. He takes everything very personally.
And you state he despises Joe Biden?
Oh yeah. That is very well known in the White House. Obama chose Biden for one reason — to have an older white guy with some international policy credentials. Period. If Biden has all of this international experience that Obama found so valuable, why has he buried him under the pile of crap that became the stimulus bill? What does Joe Biden know about budgets and economics? Not much — but Obama didn’t care. Give Joe a job and get him the hell out of my hair — that pretty much sums up the president’s feelings toward Joe Biden.
What about Hillary Clinton?
Obama is scared to death of Hillary. He doesn’t trust her — obsesses over her almost as much as he does Fox News. He respects her though, which might be why he fears her so much as well. He talks the game, but when it comes down to it, she has played the game on a far tougher level than he has, and Obama knows that.
How about Bill Clinton?
I never heard Obama say anything about Bill Clinton personally, though I was told he has cracked a few jokes about the former president since getting into the White House. I have heard that Bill Clinton does not like Barack Obama. That really started when Obama played the race card against him during the primary campaign. Apparently Clinton was apoplectic over that and still hasn’t gotten over it. If there is one thing I have learned in this town — don’t make an enemy of Bill Clinton.
So if Obama doesn’t appear interested in the job of president, what does he do day after day?
Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date. I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television — ESPN mainly. I’ll tell you this — if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports. That gets him interested. You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off. It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity. When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker.” Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script.
That sounds like you are calling Obama stupid to me.
No — I am not going to call him stupid. He just doesn’t strike me as particularly smart. Bill Clinton is a smart guy — he would run intellectual circles around Barack Obama. And Bill Clinton loved the politics of being president. Obama seems to think he shouldn’t have to be bothered, which has created a considerable amount of conflict among his staff.
So how bad are things at the White House these days?
I don’t know about right now, because I have not been there in over a month. But I still hear things, and I know what it was like when I left. It’s not good. As bad as it might look to voters based on what they do know, it’s much worse. The infighting is off the charts. You got a Chief of Staff who despises cabinet members, advisors who despise the Chief of Staff, a President and First Lady having their own issues…
Come again — what about the First Lady?
(The insider takes a deep breath) Ok, look, just like any other marriage, folks have issues. The Obamas are no different, except of course they are very high profile. I was told they were having issues before the campaign, and they have even more issues now. Maybe that is why Obama seems so detached — not so much the stress of the White House, but the stress of personal issues. I can certainly relate to that kind of situation.
Care to clarify some more on the Obama marriage?
No. That is all I will say about that. Don’t ask again.
Ok, back to President Obama then. In just a few words, how would you describe him these days?
Like I said, it’s been a while since I was last at the White House, but I don’t have a problem saying that the president is losing it. I don’t mean he is like losing his mind. I mean to say that he is losing whatever spark he had during the campaign. When you take away the crowds, Obama gets noticeably smaller. He shrinks up inside of himself. He just doesn’t seem to have the confidence to do the job of President, and it’s getting worse and worse. Case in point — just a few days before I left, I saw first hand the President of the United States yelling at a member of his staff. He was yelling like a spoiled child. And then he pouted for several moments after. I wish I was kidding, or exaggerating, but I am not. The President of the United States threw a temper tantrum.
The jobs reports are always setting him off, and he is getting increasingly conspiratorial over the unemployment numbers. I never heard it myself, but was told that Obama thinks the banking system is out to get him now. That they and the big industries are making him pay for trying to regulate them more. That is the frame of mind the President is in these days. And you know what? Maybe he is right, who knows?
Will Obama run again in 2012?
I don’t know. That subject was never brought up again after 2008, at least not around me. If he does, I think it would have more to do with allowing him another year and a half of campaigning again. He just loves it so much. He really needs the crowds, the cheering, the support of the people.
Can he win in 2012?
Oh — absolutely. Who else campaigns as well as Barack Obama? Nobody. What politician is more loved and supported by the media? Nobody. I don’t see the Republicans offering up a candidate as powerful as Obama. I mean Sarah Palin? Really? Obama would defeat her by a 20 point landslide! Romney? The Republicans will enjoy these midterm elections, but 2012 is Obama’s year if he chooses to run again. As a president, Obama has many flaws, but as a candidate, he is near flawless.
But would another four years of an Obama presidency be the best thing for America?
(Long pause) Now that is a much more interesting question right there, and a question I think more and more Democrat Party insiders are asking themselves these days, myself included. I am going to come right out and say it — No. Obama is not up to the job of being president. He simply doesn’t seem to care about the work involved. You want to know what? Obama is lazy. He really is. And it is getting worse and worse. Would another four years of Obama be the best thing for America? No it would not. What this country needs is a president who is focused on the job more than on themselves. Obama is not that individual. I actually hope he doesn’t run again. Looking back, as much fun as the campaign in 2008 was, Hillary Clinton should have been the nominee. Hillary was ready to be president. Obama was not ready. He had never lost a campaign. Everything was handed to him. He doesn’t really understand the idea of work — real, hard, get your heart and soul into it work. And frankly, that is very disappointing to a whole lot of us…
So you still wish to keep your name hidden from the public? Why?
I intend to remain working in this town for a bit longer. A public disclosure might complicate that just a bit given who is in power right now. But I won’t be the last one from the current administration coming forward. After the midterms, there will be a number of us speaking about what is really going on in the Democrat Party, if for nothing else because it’s such a damn mess right now.
What do you mean “it’s a damn mess”?
I mean just what I said. The Democrat Party is the most chaotic I have ever seen it — and that goes back almost 30 years.
So who is to blame?
We all are. By “we” I mean those of us who were working within the party power structure the last ten years or so. We got so caught up in the hate Bush mentality, we let the party get hijacked by our own far left. That was disaster the moment it happened. The disaster that will be the midterm election in 2010 started in November of 2006 when Pelosi and Reid took over the Democrat Party. Those two have only brought trouble to the Democrat Party since day one of that time.
How do you mean?
(A long pause…) Look, I’ve been in the Democrat Party in one way or other, be it campaigns, fundraising, lobbying, whatever…we lost our way in 2006. We put in place a Speaker of the House who is an absolute public relations train wreck. The lady is a… She’s tough. Yeah, she’s real tough. But outside of the halls of Congress, forget it. She’s a nut to the American people because America was and is a right of center country. As a Democrat I say that, because I understand it. Bill Clinton understood it. Pelosi, Reid, Obama…they don’t accept that fact.
You mention Clinton a lot.
Yeah, I do because Bill Clinton was the very best politician of our time and I got to see it up close for a period of time and I am still amazed at just how good he was. Second, I think Bill Clinton was a damn good president. He should be recognized more for just how good he really was.
And you don’t place Obama in the same league as Bill Clinton?
(Laughter) Hell no. Obama has only been in office a couple of years, so that isn’t even a fair question right now. But what I have seen of Barack Obama has not left me with the confidence to say he will be as good a president as Bill Clinton. Maybe he will get it figured out before 2012, and I sure as hell hope so because the Republicans are getting some real oddballs running their own show over there and that scares me too.
What scares you more as president — Sarah Palin or Barack Obama?
(Hands to head) Oh boy. What a choice! People would kill me for saying this — actually you know what, there are more and more of us Democrats saying what I am going to say in one form or another… Sarah Palin understands America more than Barack Obama. Yes, she has a minority of our far left who hates her, and some in our media are part of that group, but overall, she seems to get America. Americans aren’t a complicated people, and neither is Sarah Palin, so that probably works in her favor. But President Obama is just out of touch. He really doesn’t understand what America is. What it’s about. Or who it is. And that is a real problem for him — and the Democrat Party at this moment in its history.
Are you saying you would vote for Sarah Palin over Barack Obama?
No, I don’t think I could do that. As much as I admire Palin’s ability to connect with the American people, I just can’t stand her politics. I am a pro-choice Democrat. I support unions. I support welfare programs. Sarah Palin understands America, but that doesn’t mean she understands the best parts of America. That being said, I think President Obama understands hardly any of America. That is probably a big reason he appears so lost these days.
Last time you mentioned trouble with the Obama marriage. I am not going to ask you to elaborate on that specifically, but could you tell us if you like Michelle Obama?
Like is not a word we use in D.C. very much. Do I respect the First Lady? Sure. She seems like a strong woman, a good mother. I wasn’t around her really enough to say anything more than that. Or, at least, I would rather not.
Were you afraid of her?
No — not anymore than anyone else who was around her as briefly as I was. Here is what I get from the First Lady. She is very much the Chicago ideologue. Nancy Pelosi is the far left of the Democrat Party, right? Well, Michelle Obama might be to the left of Nancy Pelosi. She really doesn’t care for how things work in the country and she wants to see it all changed. I can respect that, though I would guess she is far too liberal even for me — and I consider myself a liberal Democrat.
Could she be mean?
Mean? She’s the First Lady. She is a strong, influential woman in America. I don’t know what you are trying to ask me there — though I suspect what you are trying to get at and all I will say to that is, “Don’t go there.”
If you had President Obama here right now and you could give him some advice that he would follow, what would that advice be?
(Long silence. Eyes closed — long sigh) Man, that’s a tough question right there. I have thought about it a lot lately. I know I’m not the only one who left that White House feeling really let down, but maybe that wasn’t fair to the President. Maybe our own expectations got so high that he had no choice but to let us down…some advice, huh? Hopefully without sounding disrespectful, I would tell the President to pull his head out of his ass. To man up, grow up, and start to pay attention to what the American people want and need. That is a big, big flaw with this president. He comes at it from the position of thinking he knows what we need because we don’t have the ability to know for ourselves. And he doesn’t respect any opinion that is different from his own. He just doesn’t care to know any other side to any given issue. I really believe it’s a maturity thing. I think our president needs to grow up. I hate to put it that way, but there it is. President Obama — grow up.
With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

WW3 DID NOT START AUGUST 21,2010

2010-09-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

August 2l was the day the Russia technicians inserted the fuel rods to actiivate

Bushehr [no reference to George W ] the Iranian nuclear reactor."No less a voice out of the past than John Bolton, UN Ambassador under George W. Bush, called for an immediate attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities before the reactor became operational. Bolton and his neoconservative friends reasoned that no attack against Iran would be "complete" if Bushehr were not taken out as it is part of the broader Iranian nuclear program. In their view, its destruction would have the same impact as the bombing of the Iraqi Osirak reactor by Israel in 1981, which was intended to derail Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions. "

Such screaming non sense from Bolton and the neocon nincompoops who want to push us into another bloody and pointless war with Israel's so called enemies. Axis of Evil my big fat foot. Hillary Clinton, , Dick Cheney, Joe Biden , Glenn Beck and

John Hagy form a chorus of war mongers who rely on emotion and falsehood rather

than fact and virtue. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon.

Iran is not making a nuclear weapon. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon. Iran is not making a nuclear weapon.Iran is not making a nuclear weapon.Iran is not making a nuclear weapon.. Their efforts are for power generation and medical isotopes as has been affirmed by any number experts and inspectors.

Both China and Russia are trading partners with Iran if not informal allies. Let us not wonder what their reactions would be in the event of an Israel/USA attack on a critical important supplier and ally. Is Iran defenseless? Certainly not, yet not on a par with the nuclear armaments of their antagonists, who together could level most of Iran, killing 90% of the inhabitants,(more than 25% are Christian believers, John Hagy.) Aside from the Nuclear devastation, The U.S. has 5 carrier battle groups in the vicinity which, despite modern anti-missle defense capability are in harms way,subject to air, missle and watercraft attack. We have over 100,000 troops within the strike capability of Iran's planes and missles. WWWIII at your doorstep.

REF:"Boxed Into a Corner on Iran," by Phillip Giraldi, 8/26/2010www. AntiWar.com

. . . The real problem is that the public utterances of the policy makers in Washington and Tel Aviv have backed them into a corner, reducing their options and committing them to a policy that has no real attainable objective and makes absolutely no sense. If Iran is a threat at all, which can be disputed, it can be easily contained by either Israel or the United States, both of which have large nuclear and conventional arsenals. Iran is a military midget compared to either country, though admittedly it has the capability to strike back hard in asymmetrical ways if it is attacked.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu both appreciate very clearly that Iran does not pose a serious threat and both know that the often cited claim that Tehran has called for wiping Israel off the map is bogus. Such knowledge is widespread even among hawks in Israel, though apparently less so among American neocons. In September 2009 former Israeli Prime Minister and current Minister of Defense Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that "I am not among those who believe Iran is an existential issue for Israel." A few years earlier, Foreign Minister Livni argued against the idea that a nuclear Iran would be an existential threat. This summer, ex-Mossad chief Ephraim Halevi made the same point and added that speaking of Iran as an existential threat exaggerates Iran’s power and suggests instead the false and dangerous narrative that Israel might be vulnerable.

But in spite of their certain knowledge of the fragility of the Iranian threat, both Obama and Netanyahu have unfortunately let themselves wallow in rhetoric that hypes the danger. If it sounds and smells exactly like the lead up to Iraq, it should. And, like the case of Iraq, the fearmongering does not end with the intemperate comments made by the two leaders. The US Congress with its proposed House Resolution 1553 is engaged in giving the green light for an Israeli attack on Iran, indicating in advance its support for such an action. HR 1553 comes on top of harsh sanctions approved in early July, measures that could lead to US Navy vessels attempting to board Iranian flagged merchant ships. Even tougher sanctions, steps that would almost certainly lead to war are endorsed by many legislators, particularly those who are regarded as close to Israel. Congressman Brad Sherman of California explains "Critics [of the sanctions] argued that these measures will hurt the Iranian people. Quite frankly, we need to do just that." At least Congress shows consistency when it is knee jerking spasmodically to demonstrate support for Israel. Sherman’s view of Iranians is somewhat similar to his punishing the Gazans for voting for Hamas or pillorying the Turks for trying to send aid to the Palestinians. Or, not so long ago, sending the 500,000 Iraqi children to their deaths à la Madeleine Albright.

And the White House rhetoric blends harmoniously with the congressional ire. President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have all repeatedly stated that Israel is completely free to make its own decisions relating to its security. That assertion presumably plays well in certain quarters, but as an Israeli attack will have to be enabled by the United States they also know that bombing courtesy of Tel Aviv would mean Iranian retaliation directed against American troops in the Middle East. In other words, America’s leaders have abdicated all responsibility for maintaining a rational policy in an unstable part of the world and have instead granted the authority to make key decisions to Israel. How many Americans will die as a result?

Both the Israeli and American people have been prepared for war by all of the truculent noises coming out of Washington and the propaganda appearing in the media. The conversation on Iran, such as it is, has been expressly designed to bring about a war rather than avoid it. The mainstream media disinformation campaign orchestrated by AIPAC has worked just fine. Most Americans already believe incorrectly that Iran has a nuclear weapon and most also support attacking it, a product of the steady diet of hokum that they have been fed. The moral turpitude of America and Israel’s leaders combined with the popular consensus that they have willy-nilly allowed to develop grants the concept of war with Iran a certain inevitability. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden has described the process as "inexorable."

So we have dodged the bullet on the war that might have begun on August 21st because our leaders really do know that Iran is not a threat and when it came to gut check time were ultimately unwilling to start World War III. But the bomb is still ticking because those selfsame politicians, lacking any sense of true leadership, have set the forces in play that will almost inevitably produce a war. It is somewhat reminiscent of Iraq surely, but it also recalls the 1914 European security environment in which an entangling web of alliances and arrangements virtually guaranteed that a war would take place. The only way to stop the rot is for President Obama to consider for a moment what is good for the United States rather than for his political party’s hold on power. He should act like a true statesman instead of a used car salesman. If he is uncertain how to do that there are a number of good nineteenth century political biographies that he can read up on to learn the ropes. He must stand up before the American people and state simply and unequivocally that Washington opposes any new military action in the Middle East and that the United States is not threatened by Iran and will take no part in any military action directed against it. He might add that the US will further consider anyone staging such an attack as an aggressor nation and will immediately break off relations before demanding a UN Security Council vote to condemn the action. Will that happen? Fat chance.Bushehr is not a reactor that can be used to concentrate its fuel, meaning that it can generate electricity but cannot itself produce weapons grade uranium or plutonium. The entire argument about attacking it seems to center on its symbolic value as Iran’s only soon-to-be operating reactor combined with the notion that its fuel could be removed and enriched somewhere else. The reactor is located in a relatively heavily populated coastal area and the demand to hit it before it became operational was based on the possible consequences of having to do so after it is up and running. Destroying an operating reactor would produce considerable radioactive contamination that would devastate a wide area both within Iran and in neighboring countries and would kill many civilians. Comparisons with Chernobyl and Three Mile Island spring to mind. Whoever would bomb and destroy such a target would be vilified by most of the international community, and rightly so. While Israel and the United States both regularly ignore such criticism, the deaths of thousands in a deliberate bombing directed against a country that poses no immediate threat would be a bit hard to explain, even in the New York Times and Washington Post.

THE RULING CLASS

2010-08-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Aplogy:Been on the injured list. but doing better now. More blogs coming up soon. THE HATMAN

How ashamed are we as Free Americans to admit that we are ruled by anyone

other than ourselves, tha twhen we freely elect our governors, it is but a sham of freedom, that we really had no choice but to choose between tweedle dee and tweedle dom?and further that when we send them to the oval office, congress or the state house, they abandon all pretense of serving us and our interests, but are caught up in the money, lobbyists and favoritism and are blinded by everything except getting elected again.

REF: "America's RulingClass--and the Perils of Revolution" by Angela M. Codevilla.

www. LewRockwell.com , August l4, 2010

" As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors' "toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America. They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately, by margins of three or four to one.

When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use. Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the "ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.

Although after the election of 2008 most Republican office holders argued against the Troubled Asset Relief Program, against the subsequent bailouts of the auto industry, against the several "stimulus" bills and further summary expansions of government power to benefit clients of government at the expense of ordinary citizens, the American people had every reason to believe that many Republican politicians were doing so simply by the logic of partisan opposition. After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes.[emphasis added], if only they were allowed to. Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history. No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.

Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons of California, Texas, and Florida, the industrialists of Pittsburgh, the Southern aristocracy, and the hardscrabble politicians who made it big in Chicago or Memphis had little contact with one another. Few had much contact with government, and "bureaucrat" was a dirty word for all. So was "social engineering." Nor had the schools and universities that formed yesterday's upper crust imposed a single orthodoxy about the origins of man, about American history, and about how America should be governed. All that has changed. . .

Its attitude is key to understanding our bipartisan ruling class. Its first tenet is that "we" are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained. How did this replace the Founding generation's paradigm that "all men are created equal"?. . .

Our ruling class's agenda is power for itself. While it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof. Like left-wing parties always and everywhere, it is a "machine," that is, based on providing tangible rewards to its members. Such parties often provide rank-and-file activists with modest livelihoods and enhance mightily the upper levels' wealth. Because this is so, whatever else such parties might accomplish, they must feed the machine by transferring money or jobs or privileges -- civic as well as economic -- to the party's clients, directly or indirectly. This, incidentally, is close to Aristotle's view of democracy. Hence our ruling class's standard approach to any and all matters, its solution to any and all problems, is to increase the power of the government -- meaning of those who run it, meaning themselves, to profit those who pay with political support for privileged jobs, contracts, etc. Hence more power for the ruling class has been our ruling class's solution not just for economic downturns and social ills but also for hurricanes and tornadoes, global cooling and global warming. A priori, one might wonder whether enriching and empowering individuals of a certain kind can make Americans kinder and gentler, much less control the weather. But there can be no doubt that such power and money makes Americans ever more dependent on those who wield it."

REF:"Mass Delusi0n-American Style" by James Quinn,www. TheBurningPlatform.com August 15, 2010

Based on all available evidence, it seems the American public wants to be misled. They have chosen ignorance over knowledge and understanding. They want to believe their corrupt leaders. They want to believe that things always work out in the long run. They want to believe that the economy is about to get better. They don’t want to think about unsustainable debt, unfunded liabilities, saving for retirement, or Simon Cowell leaving American Idol. Americans desperately want to be deluded into another bubble, but there are no evident bubbles left to blow. The existing American delusion is that the current fiscal path will not lead to the utter destruction of our once great Republic.

The ruling oligarchs have utter contempt for the average American, but they fear the masses. In order to retain their power and wealth, they gladly hand out two years of unemployment payments, food stamps, and welfare payments to keep the masses sedated. The working middle class foots the bill. Corruption abounds and is sustained by the passage of more laws and regulations. The sociopathic powers that control the levers of power in this country need to be brought to justice if this country has any chance at survival. The den of vipers and thieves have trampled on the Constitution, speculated with the country’s funds, risked blowing up the financial system, committed fraud on a massive scale, and continue to rape and pillage the American citizens. Vincible ignorance by the American people is no longer a legitimate excuse. The criminals on Wall Street and Washington DC must be routed out and Americans must awaken from their delusional state before it is too late. I weep for the liberty of my country.

REF:Same issue and author,"Ain't No Rest for the Wicked"

Money doesn’t grow on trees for most of America. We sit down at our kitchen tables and write out checks to the phone-company, electric company, credit card-company, mortgage-company, and auto finance company every month. We clip coupons and go to the grocery store every week to put food in the mouths of our children. This is what our parents did before us. We work 40 to 60 hours a week to pay these bills and feed those mouths. It’s not easy. We do it because that is what hard working American families do. We work hard, try to save some money for a rainy day and do the best we can. We had been taught that nothing in this world was free. We have been misled. If you were wicked, taking risks beyond the comprehension of average Americans and endangering the entire worldwide financial system, money does grow on trees and there is plenty for free. Money can be printed out of thin air by the wicked and doled out to the wicked. The definition of wicked is:

Evil in principle or practice; deviating from morality; contrary to the moral or divine law; addicted to vice or sin; sinful; immoral; profligate

To put it in the most basic terms, what has happened in this country in the last decade is that evil wicked people have attained positions of power in government, banking, and industry and have committed sins against humanity for their own glory and enrichment. Those who should have stood up to these evil doers are just as guilty as the engineer driving the train to Auschwitz. Albert Einstein understood this danger:

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

There have always been evil people. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Bernie Madoff, Dennis Kozlowski, Charles Manson, Charles Keating Jr., Joe McCarthy, Jeff Skilling, Bernie Ebbers, Jim Jones, Michael Milken, and Ivan Boesky come to mind. Some committed horrendous atrocities, others stole billions, others destroyed reputations, and others lived lives of decadence and immorality. The reason they are all household names is because they were able to commit their crimes because other people didn’t do anything to stop them. All of these men could have been stopped if citizens, coworkers, auditors, Prime Ministers, government regulators, Boards of Directors, Congressmen, or family members had been brave enough and moral enough to make a stand against their evil deeds. The one and only poem that ever made an impression on me in high school was The Hangman by Maurice Ogden. Below are the last stanzas. Evil can only flourish in society if we allow it to flourish. A society united against wickedness, dishonesty, corruption and wantonness could stand the test of time. I’m afraid our Great American Republic has allowed evil to flourish, and the hangman’s scaffold has grown to enormous proportions.
With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

INFLATION/HYPERINFLATION

2010-08-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

REF: Inflation: "The Last Gasp of the Obama Economic Crisis" by Monty Pelerin 8/3/2010 www. The American Thinker.com.

Mr. Perlerin calls this the "Obama Economic Crisis", where in fact it was started decades ago by encouraging credit and debt most notably when we enacted the

Federal Reserve act in 1913. Certainly the Greenspan years of reflation and bubble making was the cause of the current housing crises and the subprime securitzation

crimes. still it is not he puupose of this missive to explore the cause, but the certain result of these failed policies.

Quoting Mr Perelin "I expect inflation because it is based on a universal political characteristic: cowardice. Politicians are not going to stop welfare, social security, unemployment, and Medicare, at least not willingly. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve is not going to force the government into insolvency. The Fed, while de jure independent, is de facto not. It was created by legislation and can be disposed via legislation. The Fed must be a willing slave of the government.

Bernanke will "print" so long as the federal government is unable to support itself via tax revenues and market-based bond sales. Government as presently constituted will never regain this stasis of self-sufficiency. The Fed has been forced into an accelerating Quantitative Easing spiral which will not stop until market or political forces intervene. The timing of the end and its ultimate form are not yet knowable.

Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker understood the dangers of inflation in the early 1980s and took forceful action at a critical time. It is likely his actions prevented hyperinflation from destroying the economy. His was a personal act of courage, aided by at least two factors not present today. First, the economy was much more resilient and not overburdened with debt. Second, Mr. Volcker had President Reagan backing him. Reagan took the political heat because he considered inflation an evil: "Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man."

Today, we have no Volcker, Reagan, or functioning economy. To argue that our economic salvation depends on default is to admit the intractability of our problems. To believe that we can manage an inflationary default strategy is the height of folly. It represents more of the Keynesian arrogance that an economy can be run from the top. Friedrich Hayek aptly phrased an inflationary strategy as akin to having "a tiger by the tail." His analogy captured a situation that is neither enviable nor manageable. . .

At this point, Bernanke's rather simple goal of avoiding deflation appears to be failing. If he is unable to create inflation under the insane spending and QE of the last couple of years, why would anyone believe he can manage inflation to save the economy?

Inflation, once begun, is difficult to stop from a political standpoint. Reducing inflation always produces a slowdown in economic activity: the higher the inflation, the greater the slowdown. The recession Volcker triggered was severe and produced the usual painful effects.

An economy with extreme levels of debt would be especially vulnerable to massive bankruptcies and defaults. Such a debacle would bring debt back to sustainable levels, but at enormous social and economic costs. The term "Great Depression II" is something no politician wants associated with his legacy.

At some point, the political costs of accelerating inflation must be dealt with. Public unrest then becomes a bigger fear for politicians than making difficult spending cuts. Political action will then occur, but not because of "courage." Fear of peasants with pitchforks marching toward the Capitol has immeasurable motivational value.

When inflation is finally addressed, action will likely come too late. The problem with higher levels of inflation is that a new dynamic is encountered. Inflation is a function of both the supply and demand for money. While the Fed has substantial, but not total, control over supply, it has virtually no control over demand. As inflation accelerates, individual and business demand for money decreases. It does so because the cost of holding money goes up as its purchasing power declines.

Under these conditions, money is spent faster to get in front of expected price increases. This behavior appeared during the latter stages of the Carter administration, before the Volcker-Reagan clamps were applied. Under extreme conditions, people refuse to hold money (think Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe). They spend it as soon as they receive it.

Monetarists use the term "velocity" to describe the behavior of the demand for money. Velocity is a measure of the rate at which money turns over. In all hyperinflations, demand for money turns down and velocity turns up. This is a sign that the Fed has lost control of monetary policy and inflationary expectations. As an aside, the rather unexpected turndown in velocity in this recession has offset much of the Fed's easy money efforts.

The economy collapses in a hyperinflation when money ceases to be an acceptable medium of exchange. Barter replaces money. Trade is drastically curtailed, plunging the economy into a hyperinflationary depression.

While it is true that a hyperinflation will wipe out debts, it will also wipe out the value of savings, loans, and fixed income. The wealth of the middle class of a country is generally wiped out. Society is reduced to two classes -- the haves and the have-nots.

Inflation is not an economic strategy. It is the worst thing that can happen to a country. It is not manageable! Economists have less chance of managing inflation than they do of controlling a tiger by the tail. Great harm will come to both the tail-holder and the economy.

Inflation is a political strategy, and a damn poor and dangerous one to boot. It represents a desperate attempt to kick the can down the road one more time. It is the last hope for scoundrels. It will destroy the economy and society. . . "

The Weimar hyperinflation described in "Dying of Money" by J. Parson was a sudden shock to the German people."The tragiconomic denouement of German inflation--the workers hastening to the bake shops to spend their day's pay bundled up in billions of paper marks and carried in wheelbarrows--- Is it coming to America during our time? Most definitely

unless the people wake up to the "free lunch" crowd running our country.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

REAL MEN?

2010-08-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

REF:"Why Won't a Real Man Stand Up?" by Robert Morley, www. TheTrumpet.com.

"For the first time since the Cold War, doomsday shelters are making a comeback. As the economy collapses, builders of fortified bunkers are constructing underground facilities at the fastest pace in 30 years.

There is a sense of helplessness—that events are spiraling out of control, and that there is nothing anyone can do about it.

And it is not just average people on the street who feel this way either. At between $400,000 to $41 million a pop, it is the rich, powerful and influential who are buying their own personal escape plans—shelters that can hold anywhere from 10 to 2,000 people from one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air.

It doesn’t help that Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke recently admitted that America’s financial future is “unusually uncertain.”

People of the nation are craving a George Washington or Winston Churchill to stand up and tell them that everything will be all right—and more importantly—show them how that will be so.

Instead, they are left with compromised politicians, special interests and hidden agendas. Left fights right. New regulations to supposedly fix the economy are pushed by socialists, and then watered down by moneyed capitalists. Useless bureaucracy strangles small business. Politicians save the “too big to fail” Wall Street banks, then encourage them to grow even bigger. The small local banks collapse, and get eaten by the big banks. The biggest banking problem of all—the Federal Reserve—is handed even more power to “prevent” financial meltdown, even though it was a leading cause of the financial meltdown. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on. America can’t afford to stay, but it can’t afford to leave. America’s budget deficit is exploding. Trillions of dollars borrowed and spent to “stimulate” the economy—with seemingly little or no appreciable effect. All the while, the rolls of the unemployed grow, mortgage defaults escalate and personal bankruptcies surge. And now, for the first time since the 1960s, racial tension is becoming a national problem again.

Where are the real men? Gone are the leaders who stand up for right, for good—regardless of the political cost. Gone are the leaders who call a spade a spade because it is a spade and not because it is just politically correct. Gone are the men who lead on principle as opposed to polls.

Is it any wonder that America is falling apart so rapidly? Its men are broken.

But society is broken too. Even if such a true masculine man were to run for office, he would be rejected because people like to hear smooth things. No one likes the truth when it hurts.

No one likes to be told that America’s economic system is broken, that the dollar will lose its reserve currency status, that America will not be able to pay its bills, that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be severely cut, that standards of living will fall drastically, that people won’t have money for Starbucks anymore. That America is in irreversible decline. That people need to wake up.

In ancient Israel, some people tried to kill the prophets for such messages. But when the people headed the warning, disaster was averted and the nation blessed.

The Prophet Isaiah warned that the time would come when America would have a crippling lack of righteous, masculine leadership (Isaiah 3:2-3). During this time period, the “mighty man … the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent and the ancient … and the honourable man and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator” would be taken away.

Isaiah says that instead, women and children would rule and that conditions would continue to deteriorate until you couldn’t even give leadership positions to men if you wanted to (Isaiah 3:7)."

FromThe Vigilante.com.by Jeff Berwick8/3/2010 "The Grand Delusion of the Double Dip"

"Watching American TV news or reading American newspapers can be dangerous to your mental and financial health. Whatever information they proffer is usually bereft with inaccuracies, fallacies and propaganda.

But, in order to understand what information the public is receiving it is important to take an hour or two per month to tune in to these propaganda dispensers, such as CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and all the rest.

It is a difficult thing to do for a number of reasons. First, practically everything the talking heads say is either incorrect, a lie or something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things - an obvious diversion from the real important issues (Lindsay Lohan, seriously?) - that it is just painful to watch. And secondly, for those that are not used to imbibing this media version of raw sewage on a regular basis, the amount of flashing graphics, alerts and pace of the discussions and debates are so rapid-fire and more shouted than spoken that you can actually feel your heart start to race after watching just a few minutes of any "news" program.

But, in the interests of hearing what is being preached to the American sheeple this month, we tuned in for a few hours over the course of the last few weeks.

There is ALWAYS a buzz word that seems to be omnipresent as though it has been passed down from some overseer to all the media networks for that month to be repeated over and over. A few years ago it was the "goldilocks economy". Then a few months ago after the goldilocks economy had been eaten by the big bad wolf all the networks started yapping constantly about "green shoots".

Well, as anyone who watches this pablum knows, the green shoots are long past wilted and this month's buzzword is: THE DOUBLE DIP

Goldman Sachs' installed US Treasury Czar hit the talk show circuit to assure everyone that everything is fine. He proclaimed he not only didn't foresee a double dip, but, "an economy that gradually strengthens over the next year or two."

But, yet again, it is a classic case of propaganda and diversion. Why? Because we never even exited the last recession. It’s tough to double dip when the economy is essentially a skydiver in freefall without a parachute!"

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

BO

2010-08-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama , a failed president, an administration only the professional Democrats could love.

REF:"Obama'"by Gerald Jackson , www. SafeHaven.com 7/18/2010

"Grim is one word that surely sums up the state of the US economy. Without a doubt the Obama administration is the most incompetent since the lamentable Carter sat in the Oval office. Now there are some who sincerely believe that Obama has deliberately set out to destroy the economy. What else could explain his 'economic policies'? Ideologically-driven ignorance, for one.

When Obama first emerged into the political sunlight I warned that this character is a committed leftwing ideologue and a profoundly ignorant man. Americans are now -- apart from the true believers who evidently live in an alternative universe -- beginning to face up to the reality of the man and the magnitude of their electoral folly.

Obama did not cause this recession: the lousy monetary economics of the Fed did that. What he did is retard the potential for recovery while feverishly working to impose a regulatory structure and debt burden on the economy that could cripple it for a generation or more. (One need look no further than once-prosperous Argentina to realise what an ignorant political bigot can do to an economy in a very short time.). . .

Should the Democrats get a well deserved shellacking in November the Republicans will have to confront the consequences of Obama's criminal spending and borrowing policies while rabid Democrats and their lying mates in the media tear at their heels. (Democrats can be accused of many things but never of putting the interests of the country above their lust for power.)

Furthermore, there is the Fed to consider. Back in February I warned that "the economy is shaping up to be a disaster for the Democrats". Democrats soon hit the keyboard, accusing me of being bigoted (pretty rich from those in a political party based on bigotry) and "twisting the economic facts and history". (A clear case of projection.) It's now July, the economy has turned into a disaster for the Democrats and the emails have ceased.

While the commentariat were running around in a state of confusion about the economy some conservatives were solid in their opinion that manufacturing was heralding a V-shaped recovery, albeit one that Obama's tax policies would probably snuff out. Nevertheless, a recovery had emerged. Well, one swallow and all that stuff, except that I couldn't even see a swallow. For a start, the monetary aggregates were indicating a slowdown and not a recovery. The chart shows the money supply rapidly climbing from September 2008 until peaking in June 2009, and then falling until the following February, after which it started to climb again and then apparently start falling again.. . .

Seeking out more excuses for the absence of recovery Obama's media lackeys argue that the weak labour market is holding back recovery. Fewer jobs means less spending which means less growth, and so on. These hacks wouldn't recognise a circular argument even if you used it to string 'em up, which is what they thoroughly deserve.

The fact remains that given present conditions there is no way that Obama's policies could restore full employment without cutting real wages. And surging inflation is the only means by which he can do that, assuming Americans would stand for it. Even if full employment was restored Obama's policies would suck the life out of the economy leaving the vast majority of Americans without any hope of bettering their lives.

For those Obamatrons who believe that government spending is the road to prosperity they need look no further than Nazi Germany for a refutation. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 the official unemployment rate exceeded 25 per cent. Six years later there were acute labour shortages. As the demand for German labour rose real wages fell and personal consumption was severely cut. This fact at least refutes the popular idea that cutting consumption reduces the demand for labour. The point remains that public spending only appears to work when the government or the central bank can successfully engineer a sufficiently large inflation rate."

We are going downhill faster and faster. The old New Deal remedies didn't

work then and don't work now. Is the next solution the point of a bayonet?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE INSANITY THAT IS US

2010-07-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Einstein is said to have postulated that "insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".

Our economic models continue to repeat the mistakes that have been made again and again in history and when these efforts fail as they have recently, they are covered up by glib politicians , TV talking heads and falsified statistics.

Is it any wonder that we are a fractured, confused, angry, disappointed and disillusioned people. We voted to stop the illegal immigration and stop the wars,

what we got was more troops, more money spent and more criminal migration with a federal government suing a state for attempting to stop the inflow of illegals.

REF: "The Last Gasp bubble of Government.com " by Todd Harriison" posted on www. TheBurningPlatform.com as "Time is Growing Short" July 28, 2010

"Our Federal Reserve chairman is a student of history and well versed on the passion and plight of financial excess. We’ve witnessed extraordinary stimuli intended to shift the natural course of the business cycle, one that long ago lost its way. While policymakers conceivably “saved” the system, the resulting imbalances pose a fresh set of issues for the global socioeconomic spectrum.

I’ve repeatedly offered that the financial crisis hasn’t disappeared; it simply changed shape. It–for lack of a better analogy–has gone airborne, migrating from the tangible to the amorphous, from Wall Street to Main Street, from a distant coexistence to an emerging class war. It, like most viruses, will arrive in waves and infect those who haven’t been inoculated with a steady stream of financial consciousness.[emphasis added]

Gauge your internal reaction to every opinion you read or hear, multiply it by millions and you’ll begin to imagine the magnitude of the shifting social mood.[emphasis added] While the recent stock market rally reflects renewed optimism that can conceivably continue the chasm between perception and reality is widening; while the tape can run, we, the people are running out of places to hide."

"We’re talking potential anarchy here and I’m not prone to hyperbole.

The alternative scenario—the one the created a chasm of discord throughout the land—was the evolution of the last gasp bubble, that of Government.com. $800 billion here, $1 trillion there, numbers so enormous they seem silly; the reality is they’re anything but. (See: Will the EU Bailout Work?)

While we remain in the eye of the storm—the relative calm between the banking crisis and the cumulative comeuppance—a simple yet scary truth remains. We haven’t cured the disease; we’re simply masking the symptoms. (See: The Eye of the Financial Storm)

I will again remind you that the opposite of love isn’t hate, its apathy. We’ve noted the lower volume during rallies and the higher traffic during the declines—a sign of distribution—but a simpler truth may be emerging, that of burnout. After four—or five, or six—bubbles and bursts, folks are both bitten and shy by the gamesmanship in the marketplace."

REF:"Wall Street's Death Wish: Venus vs Alpha males" by Paul B. Farrell www.MarketWatch.com, July 29, 2010

Not really sure Mr. Farrell has captured the reality of the men of Wall Street, yet he makes a good point in that they are boys dressed up in men's clothes. The men and women of Wall Street and of Government Industrial Military Street, U.S. A are the same self absorbed Me, Me, Me people you meet everyday. They crowd queues at airports, try to pass you on the freeway ramps, won't let you in their lane of traffic when yours is blocked with construction or an accident.Totally inconsiderate lacking any grace or concern for others. These are the members of future mobs grabbing food and possessions of others when the bad times come. These generations must grow up and pass before America, or what is left of it after their ravages, can return to its' former greatness.

This referenced article is excerpted here to illustrate the separation of classes in this socio-economic breakdown of America. First with the inflation of our money, the credit/debt society and it's companion, lack of virtue and morality.

"Yes, Wall Street has a death wish, secretly trying to self-destruct. Can't stop. Don't get it. Wall Street's culture, mindset, brain, psyche -- whatever you call it -- has a saboteur locked deep in the unconscious. Not only are they hell-bent on self-destruction, they're taking America down with them.

Stephen Gandel:" "Of all the causes of the financial crisis, one of the biggest was a power shift on Wall Street that left the traders in charge," and "with a trader, the goal of every minute of every day is to make money ... So if running the economy off the cliff makes you money, you will do it, and you will do it every day of every week... . .

The Alpha-males running America are textbook examples of the Oedipus complex in action. Men? No, inside they're still little boys who secretly want to win mommy's favor by knocking off big daddy. Basic psychology, except they're overdosing the real world with too much edgy testosterone ... aggressive, arrogant, narcissistic ... bullies on the playground overcompensating for an inferiority complex ... they love games, fights, contests, winning, deals, risks, wars, anything to prove they're king-of-the-hill ... like owning truckloads of money, enough for several lifetimes ... think Liar's Poker, they play for bragging rights, to tell "the guys" how they beat "the other guys" on the playing field ... but psychologically they really are just little boys in big-boy costumes playing "grown-up" ... especially the new breed of Wall Street traders gambling in history's greatest casino, the $700 trillion global shadow banking system for derivatives. . .

little boys inhabiting the brains of Blankfein, Paulson, Summers, Bernanke, Geithner and all the other so-called leaders whose secret, collective deathwish is taking America down with their childish games: Beating daddy, winning mommy's favor. Yes, too much testosterone is killing our world."

We are a divided republic. Anger, hopelessness and fear are pervasive in America We are frustrated with our non-responsive government. We wonder who is really in charge?

RE: "The Rot from Within:Character Disorders of the Republic" by Robert Logan,

www. Antiwar .com July16, 2010

The destructive manipulative behavior of people with personality disorders seem to describe our politicians.

Since the 1960's "anything goes" and" if it feels good do it" social mores seem to have allowed or produced leaders with character flaws or personality disorders.

Underhanded and deceitfulness are presently used by the powers that be to serve

selfish and evil objectives.

These character failings seem to be manifested in empire grasping foreign policy

and power building domestic issues. So far as covert manipulation goes both political parties can claim credit--no one is sin free!

Lies, denials,selective attention/inattention, rationalization,minimization, diversion,

evasion,villification, false anger and anguish characterize this disorder.

It seems that half of the people want to kill all of the Muslims and invade any and all countries who could become our enemies without remorse or regret. Where is our national conscience? Did Christ die in vain? Is forgiveness too old fashioned for modern America?

REF: "National Insecurity Complex" by Dave Lindorff, www.Counterpunch.com,

July 29, 2010

America’s foreign policy, and particularly its policy of war without end, is critically dependent upon the government’s ability to lie with impunity. Most of the time, it gets away with this. The corporate media, for the most part, plays along, only questioning things on the margin, if at all. The basis premise, that the war is necessary, doesn’t get challenged.

WikiLeaks, with this well-planned and orchestrated dump of incriminating documents, broke through the careful web of lies by providing the material not just to that prime information gatekeeper, the New York Times, which almost certainly would have ignored or minimized the story had it been the sole recipient of the material, but to the British Guardian newspaper, and to the German magazine Der Spiegel, both of which have shown much more of a willingness to expose the harsh realities of the Afghan War to their readers. The Times had no alternative but to report more or less honestly on the documents and their significance -- though it still tended to focus less on the war’s impact on innocent civilians than on the reaction of the government and the military to the documents’ release than did the Guardian and Der Spiegel.

Secrecy has no place in a democracy. That once again is the lesson here, as it was with the Pentagon Papers.

America, much more so than in 1971, is run by a secret government. Almost anything that could embarrass the government, or that could anger the public, is kept secret on the broad grounds of “national security,” a term that has become broadened to such an extent that it can cover almost anything. Even information about the BP well disaster in the Gulf, because it has been put under the jurisdiction of the US Coast Guard, a military organization, instead of the Department of Energy or the Department of Interior, is kept secret from the public by a kind of unmentioned notion of “national security,” since the Coast Guard adopts the same approach to public disclosure as the Pentaton: zip.

We Americans have become so used to being lied to and to having information withheld from us, that even when we hear a reporter say the government isn’t answering a question because it involves “national security,” we just accept it, as in: “Oh, yeah. National Security. Well, that makes sense.”"

That America has been on the wrong path for some decades is a given; where are the leaders who will take us out of this morass is not a given. Certainly not the Sarah Airheads and Nazi NeoCons, nor the Obamas and Pelosis nor the Financiers, nor the Pat Robertsons or Kenneth Copelands and the so called Christians of the far right?

We are a fractured people living in a doomed state.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

LESS FOR MORE

2010-07-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

REF: "Americans are Getting a lot Less but it's Costing Them More" by Richard Benson, July 27, 2010 www. 321gold.com

It has been going on for awhile now, most have noticed it, some just sub-conciously. Amounts in packages have been decreasing. Some packages are getting smaller, and maybe quality is not quite what it used to be. The reason: Price Inflation--Less for More.

Those who use statistics and numbers instead of their common sense , eyes and ears may not be aware of the inflationary trend. If you rely on the bureau of Labor Statistics or CNBC news for your information, you will soon be overwhelmed by the change in reality. As the Russian living under communism said: "my eyes don't agree with what I keep hearing".

Mr.Benson writes: "Inflation is defined as the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, the purchasing power is falling. I’ve always thought of inflation in terms of what we get and what we pay, but quality and service are as important as quantity, for the price. . .

Cereal boxes are only half full; yogurt has shrunk to six ounces from eight; tuna cans are now five ounces from six; candy bars are half their size, and newspapers are shrinking and may totally disappear. (Reporters are expensive, so picking up and printing government and corporate news releases is now considered serious reporting.) A meal at a local restaurant tasted like yesterday’s leftovers and the portion size dwindled, but the price was higher.

Also, if you can afford to go on vacation, you’ll become an unpaid travel agent working for the airlines, car-rental companies, and hotel. That’s right. I recently had to spend my valuable time on the internet doing the research then booking and paying for a trip. Then, to top it off, I had to use my computer, printer, and paper at my own expense. When I got to the airport, I was strip-searched and forced to pay extra for an exit row, to check a bag, get a pillow, blanket, and a meal. Then, I had to waste an hour of my life in a long line while being forced to take off my shoes in honor of the shoe bomber and pay my respects to the TSA, who added a fee to my airline ticket. When I picked up the rental car, airport fees and taxes pushed the cost up by a third for an older car that wasn’t well-maintained. (The major rental companies are hanging on to their cars until they are close to breaking down.) When I finally arrived at the hotel, I was hit with a resort fee, internet fee, and daily telephone charge each time I looked at the receiver. I was careful, too, when approaching the mini-bar in the room because the motion detectors inside would bill me for food and beverage items that were examined and put back but not consumed (a bottle of coke was $5). The taxes were horrendous and I wonder if the maid service and extra towels or pillows were bundled in the final bill.

Every time I turn around, it seems like we’re getting less but paying more. Believe me, none of this “less for more” is appearing in the Consumer Price Index. I even heard the other day that postage was going up another two cents for a First Class letter, and Saturday delivery may be eliminated altogether. If you’re dealing with the government, there is no such thing as First Class. State and local governments have closed parks, cut back on trash collection, road repairs, library hours, and laid off teachers. Meanwhile, taxes are going up and property values are going down. In New York City, they announced a major cut in bus and subway service along with a fair increase. When it comes to public services, the collapse in services – especially in cities - will be monumental and nowhere is it reflected as a major price increase for services actually rendered.

When examining my recent cable bill, I thought back to the old days when TV was free before you had to pump your own gas and wash your own windshield. The electric bill was up again, too. (In Florida, we get a special assessment to help pay for new solar plants and the summer has had record heat.) Lastly, my health insurance will go up the usual 20% next year yet I’m told by our elected officials to have a nice summer on our beautiful beaches that are threatened by the oil spill."

Benson goes on to complain about the hedonic adjustments made in the CPI where if the product is better, faster or more serviceable, that counts for a lower price in the index.

Dream on beautiful dreamer. You are in for the ride of a lifetime-- there is much more of this to come Mordeci.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

BUTTON BUTTON WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON/3 CARD MONTE

2010-07-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

REF:" Mysterious BIS gold swaps are likely a bullion bank bailout" by Adrian Douglas 7/8/22010 www.GATA.com

The gold watching world a/k/a Gold Bugs were called to attention this month with the revelation hidden in the the financial statement notes of the BIS [Bank of International Settlements], Basel Switzerland about the swap of 306 tons of gold for cash. questions were quickly asked where did the gold come from and why swap with a central bank. Analysts figured the gold came from Portugal and was transferred through the auspices of one or more central banks to an unnamed bullion bank. Maybe yes, maybe no, but we will never know for sure because these transactions are kept secret from the true owners of the monies involved: we, the populace.

REF:www.Jesse's Cafe American .com July 19.2010

"The Federal Reserve and its friends in the European central banks, the IMF, and BIS are running a bluff against the developing nations and the rest of the world, and to their shame, the majority of their own people.
They will have to engage in wider scale monetization and 'quantitative easing,' which is a polite euphemism for the debasement of the currency, to cover the collapse of their expansion of the money supply, the misprision of felony, and the subornation of perjury, to facilitate the mass transfer of wealth from the public to their friends. This is why they must operate in the dark. Ponzi schemes must always expand, and always in secret.[emphasis added]
The increasing manipulation of gold, silver and the currency markets, and the monetization of the public debt, is a sign of the endgame for the sorcerer’s apprentices. These are the signs for our times.

In the short run things will be confusing, and difficult. In the longer term the outcome is as it has always been. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
Bernanke and his ilk will fail, not with a bang but a faltering failure, and a final whimper. But this will take time, and in the short term they will act with a con man's bravado, for con men they are, wielding power and using public funds unjustly, in secret, in an unconstitutional collaboration of financial institutions, the corporations that have risen around them, and the government."

Bill Buckler in "the Privateer", July 26, 2010 reports that from the end of the 1980's until the end of 2009, the world's holdings of U.S. debt grew from $1.9 Trillion to 15 Trillion an increase of 705%. an increase of the wold's holding to 108% of the U.S. GDP. The appetite of the world for U.S. debt seems to be waning except maybe from the mysterious off shore buyers perhaps in the Cayman Islands.

How, pray tell, are we to pay for these $Trillions which exceed our tax revenues? through the magic of Quantitative Easing a euphemism for money printing or creating from thin air. Our Federal Reserve stands ready ( and now is) to create money without end to satisfy not only our deficits, but European needs as well.

Where does the IMF and BIS get all of their bailout money? Uncle Sugar is providing with swaps, just as they provide the various central banks. Under the cloak of secrecy who knows who is lending who what. The idea is to keep everyone (deadbeat countries) afloat until "growth" solves the problem--or inflation and currency debasement makes the whole exercise academic.

Unknown reference:

"This type of human interaction works well for a time, as the last 100 years or so proves. But, it is highly unstable to say the least. It has it's own self distruct code written inside each mind. One day ( it has already started ) a type of nuclear chain reaction will occur in the currency markets as people start "unvalueing" the thoughts of others. Little by little all debts owed will be marked down"

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

LEAVE THE MIDDLE EAST

2010-07-23T04:52:00.000-07:00

REF:"America Should End Occupation of the Middle East" by Gordon Duff 7/17/2010

www. OpinionMaker.com

[Gordon Duff, spark plug of Veterans Today web site is a Marine Vietnam veteran, grunt and 100% disabled vet. He has been a featured commentator on TV and radio including Al Jazeera and his articles have been carried by news services around the world. He has been a UN Diplomat, defense contractor and is a widely published expert on military and defense issues. His banking experience includes trade and monetary policy roles in over 80 countries. Gordon Duff acts as political and economic advisor to a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East. Gordon Duff is currently working on economic development projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan to counter the effects of poverty and global extremism.], spark plug of Veterans Today web site]

"For the last decade, America has been shuffling its entire military, including hundreds of thousands of private contractors, in and out of the Middle East on little more than a “snipe hunt.” Time for a reality check. ", according to Mr. Duff.

"Reports say Al Qaeda may have fewer than 30 men in Afghanistan. The Taliban has been asking for a cease fire for months. Turkey and Brazil negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran ending any possible threat, one we strangely, very strangely ignored. “Thermo-nuclear Israel’s” continual whining and manipulation is wearing thin. America’s economy, her Army and her suffering veterans demand an end to our Bush era phony war."

AMERICA’S TARNISHED MILITARY PARTNERSHIP WITH ISRAEL

an article on Veterans Today by Gordon Duff 7/19/2010

"9/11 was like Pearl Harbor to America, uniting many, awakening bitter skepticism in a few. Where Pearl Harbor began America’s official role in crushing the Fascist juggernaut that threatened to dominate the world, 9/11 had quite the opposite effect. America’s response to 9/11 was oppression at home and a tirade of frenzied phobic reactions around the world. No American institution suffered more than the military. The team of Cheney and Rumsfeld, together since the disastrous Nixon years, began a process of purging America’s military of talent and leadership, instead building a force to serve a sinister agenda of religious heresy and extremist politics.

Nearly a decade later, it isn’t the economic collapse or the discredited military adventures that have now embittered a military leadership infrastructure that now sees itself as duped, dishonored and discarded. A number of factors can be attributed, the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” as it were but it is 9/11 where things begin to fall apart. The cover story, a group of Muslims with box cutters and a few remarkably unproductive hours of pilot training, simply hasn’t held up. America has had many airline hijackings, starting with the 1960s and was under strict terror alert on 9/11, despite the obfuscations of Donald Rumsfeld. Top military pilots, among themselves and their fellow officers, voiced doubts about the “twin towers” scenario, doubts that began reaching a quiet crescendo pointing to 9/11 as an “inside job.”

"Few Americans know that a team of Israeli intelligence agents were arrested on 9/11 after being observed using “video” equipment to record the planes crashing into the towers. After the disaster, the Mossad agents, soon to be arrested and released by the FBI, began celebrating as though they had completed a successful operation. This enraged New Yorkers who mistook them for terrorists. In fact, New Yorkers weren’t wrong.

Only top members of America’s military knew the truth, the “dancing Israelis” had remotely guided the two planes into the World Trade Center, not simply videoing, itself proof of guilt. Military pilots, in particular, knew the planes were nearly impossible to maneuver at those speeds without Israeli designed auto-pilot systems, not unlike those used on Tomahawk/Cruise missiles. Behind a flurry of “conspiracy theories,” many totally implausible, some obvious to military leaders as part of an elaborate deception plan requiring widespread control of media assets, more subtext came to light.

Though warned of “career suicide” for speaking up, members of the military and, in particular, the intelligence community began putting the pieces together. 9/11 was an intelligence operation involving the United States, Great Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Everything was there, finance, private “black ops” contractors, but mostly, a pre-staged media frenzy on the front end, counterfeit intelligence on Iraq in the middle and a rigged investigation, the “9/11 Commission coverup” on the backside. It didn’t take FBI and intelligence agency officials long to track 9/11 planning back to 1999, not in Afghanistan but much closer to home.

Not a word of this would ever hit the press and any “conspiracy” group that got close to the truth would be shut down or infiltrated quickly. By 2007, undeniable and overwhelming evidence of 9/11 wrongdoing, massive corruption in every aspect of defense and security and the attrition of America’s readiness response capabilities began turning the tide. What had been only “grumbling” about incompetence, political interference with the military and Washington’s “blind eye” to Israeli abuses became a quiet revolt.

The military and intelligence community had, for some time, stopped looking on Israel as an asset or even a benign liability. As early as the 1950s, Israel had organized terror campaigns against Americans in Egypt in order to establish the myth of a worldwide anti-American Islamic terrorist movement. The “Lavon Affair” is suppressed in America’s news, torn out of the history books as is the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. Israeli warplanes, initially disguised to appear as Egyptian, tried to sink an American warship in the Eastern Mediterranean in an attempt to force the United States to invade Syria and Egypt. When the ship failed to sink, all hands aboard, as planned, more planes, these with Israeli markings, were called in followed by torpedo boats. After hours of attack, with 201 of 296 crew members dead or wounded, the ship was still afloat, tattered American flag flying proud. Except for the actions of President Johnson and Admiral Sidney McCain, America might well have gone to war against Israel in 1967.

In 2008, President Bush signed the Naval Vessel Transfer Act, insuring that Israel have a more advanced navy than any country in the region, guaranteed by US law. Israel has only had two naval engagements in its history, one against an American ship and the other against the unarmed Mavi Marmara. Both attacks, causing the deaths of American citizens, were performed using American weapons.

In 1987, Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life in prison for the single most devastating assault on America’s security in her history. 110 CIA agents behind the Iron Curtain were captured, tortured and executed, destroying America’s intelligence network at the height of the Cold War. Military experts from the former Soviet Union claim that information they received from Israel, information stolen by Pollard, nearly pushed Russia to starting a nuclear war against the United States, a war Russia knew they could easily win using information supplied by Israel.

Then, in 2009, something utterly unforgivable happened. On May 25, 2009, North Korea tested its first successful nuclear weapon. It was confirmed to be one of the three missing nukes believed held by Israel, built in South Africa. Did Israel, third largest arms exporter in the world, sell a nuclear weapon to North Korea? Israel, known for peddling military technology to rogue nations, technology begged, borrowed or stolen from the United States, had crossed a line.

The military had long been resentful of Israel’s habit of selling off munitions the United States ”stored” in Israel for “safe keeping.” Several billion dollars worth of munitions stores had been shipped to Israel under a loose agreement allowing Israel to replenish her stocks from US supplies. This “off the books” military aid to Israel, was supposed to make Israel more secure. In fact, however, Israel has been selling these American owned munitions around the world, some to America’s potential adversaries including Venezuela.

Military contracts themselves have been a bone of contention. With US unemployment levels at their highest since the Great Depression, billions in defense and ”Homeland Security” contracts are going to Israel, a country importing labor from Africa and Asia to keep its arms factories manned. American companies that complain about being “run over” by Israeli lobbyists are quickly silenced. Not only is the American economy being negatively impacted but America’s defense industries as well. American companies, some involved in our most secret projects, are being forced by the Israeli lobby in Congress to take on partners in Israel, sharing technologies that soon end up in China, Singapore or India.

Currently, Israel has received a $1.8 billion stockpile of munitions for a war on Iran they will never fight or, perhaps a new assault on Gaza, weapons from the depleted stockpiles of the American military. Even more American munitions have been offloaded in Georgia and, perhaps shipped to forward bases in Azerbaijan to support an Israeli sneak attack on Iran. At risk, of course, are American troops in Iraq and American ships in the Persian Gulf. There are no Israeli forces within striking distance of Iran."

There is much more t0 write about this unholy alliance with an outlaw state who ignores all of the edicts from the world of nations and common decency, but it will have to wait for further articles on this blog site.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE PERFECT CON OF THE DECADE

2010-07-16T04:59:00.000-07:00

Obama: the [financial regulation bill] would make sure that “Main Street is never again held responsible for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

REF: "Say What?" by James Howard Kunstler 6/28/2010

"Whoosh….

That was the sound of something going over America’s head. Something about the size of Rodan the Flying Reptile. And frankly I don’t think the president even meant to be coy or deceptive. It just means he doesn’t get it either. . . .

Why even this time? Why isn’t there an army of federal attorneys out there, their teeth bristling with subpoenas, beating the bushes in every lane and skyscraper floor of lower Manhattan (and Fairfield County, Connecticut, not to mention a thousand office parks around the USA) to roust out the grifters and swindlers who took Main Street to the cleaners this time.

The audacity of cluelessness! And the hilarity of “next time.”

Earth to President Obama: there isn’t going to be a next time. This time was enough to git ‘er done. Wall Street – in particular the biggest “banks” – packaged up and sold enough swindles to unwind 2500 years of western civilization. You simply cannot imagine the amount of bad financial paper out there right now in every vault and portfolio on the planet. Enough, really, to sink any company even pretending to trade in things more abstract than a mud brick or an hour of labor. What’s more, the cross-collateralized obligations between them are so vast and intricate that all the standing timber in North America could not be fashioned into enough pick-up sticks to represent the hideous death-dealing tangle of frauds waiting for the wing-beat of a single black swan to come crashing down.

Go out and get a copy of Michael Lewis’s recent book The Big Short for a close-up view on one micro-corner of the investment world. You will discover that the people fabricating things like synthetic collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) had no idea what the [deleted] they were doing – besides deliberately creating documents that nobody would ever understand, that would never be unraveled by teams of law clerks or secret words or magic incantations or prayers to some dark hirsute deity, and were guaranteed to place in jeopardy every operation of the world economy above the barter level. Sorry to invoke the hoary old metaphor about the horse being out of the barn – but the larger problem is what the horse left behind in a great steaming mound clear up to the rafters. There was nothing to understand in all this [deleted], except that betting against it was a good idea, and then only for those who placed the earliest bets – because everybody else is going to get just as screwed as those who stuffed their vaults and portfolios with Triple-A rated [deleted]."

REF: "The Perfect Con" (The Con of the Decade) by Charles Hugh Smith, www.TheBurningPlatform.com July 8, 2010(Part 1)

"I've laid out the Con of the Decade (Part I) in outline form:

1. Enable trillions of dollars in mortgages guaranteed to default by packaging unlimited quantities of them into mortgage-backed securities (MBS), creating umlimited demand for fraudulently originated loans.

2. Sell these MBS as "safe" to credulous investors, institutions, town councils in Norway, etc., i.e. "the bezzle" on a global scale.

3. Make huge "side bets" against these doomed mortgages so when they default then the short-side bets generate billions in profits.

4. Leverage each $1 of actual capital into $100 of high-risk bets.

5. Hide the utterly fraudulent bets offshore and/or off-balance sheet (not that the regulators you had muzzled would have noticed anyway).

6. When the longside bets go bad, transfer hundreds of billions of dollars in Federal guarantees, bailouts and backstops into the private hands which made the risky bets, either via direct payments or via proxies like AIG. Enable these private Power Elites to borrow hundreds of billions more from the Treasury/Fed at zero interest.

7. Deposit these funds at the Federal Reserve, where they earn 3-4%. Reap billions in guaranteed income by borrowing Federal money for free and getting paid interest by the Fed.

8. As profits pile up, start buying boatloads of short-term U.S. Treasuries. Now the taxpayers who absorbed the trillions in private losses and who transferred trillions in subsidies, backstops, guarantees, bailouts and loans to private banks and corporations, are now paying interest on the Treasuries their own money purchased for the banks/corporations.

9. Slowly acquire trillions of dollars in Treasuries--not difficult to do as the Federal government is borrowing $1.5 trillion a year.

10. Stop buying Treasuries and dump a boatload onto the market, forcing interest rates to rise as supply of new T-Bills exceeds demand (at least temporarily). Repeat as necessary to double and then triple interest rates paid on Treasuries.

11. Buy hundreds of billions in long-term Treasuries at high rates of interest. As interest rates rise, interest payments dwarf all other Federal spending, forcing extreme cuts in all other government spending.

12. Enjoy the hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments being paid by taxpayers on Treasuries that were purchased with their money but which are safely in private hands.

Since the Federal government could potentially inflate away these trillions in Treasuries, buy enough elected officials to force austerity so inflation remains tame. In essence, these private banks and corporations now own the revenue stream of the Federal government and its taxpayers. Neat con, and the marks will never understand how "saving our financial system" led to their servitude to the very interests they bailed out.

The circle is now complete: in "saving our financial system," the public borrowed trillions and transferred the money to private Power Elites, who then buy the public debt with the money swindled out of the taxpayer. Then the taxpayers transfer more wealth every year to the Power Elites/Plutocracy in the form of interest on the Treasury debt. The Power Elites will own the debt that was taken on to bail them out of bad private bets: this is the culmination of privatized gains, socialized risk.

In effect, it's a Third World/colonial scam on a gigantic scale: plunder the public treasury, then buy the debt which was borrowed and transferred to your pockets. You are buying the country with money you borrowed from its taxpayers. No despot could do better."

Mr Kunstler went on to say: "What banks and governments have been doing for the past eighteen months is a dumbshow meant to distract the public from the fact that the world financial system has been effectively destroyed. There isn’t enough money left in the known reaches of the universe to pay off the outstanding claims. In fact, not even close. Everything that proceeds from this fiasco will be in service of impoverishing most of the population and, incidentally, probably bringing down governments and, with them, convenient social usufructs such as due process of law and civil order. What remains – what you’re watching right now on CNN or Fox – is just a representation of the former structures of civilized life, what Joe Bageant refers to as “the hologram,” a kind of 3-D picture you can see around, that looks like reality, but is actually immaterial, a collective hallucination. It’s comfortable living in a hologram – until you discover that you’re in one."

We will see who survives this 'Empire of Debt' apocalypse. Bet on the bankers.They like other pestilence of the world seem to be immune to the evil they bring to others. A huge outcry against the Wall Street tycoons followed the panic and depression of 1897. As an answer, the money changers got together secretly on Jeckyll Island to scheme the Federal Reserve system, which is not Federal, it is a privately owned bank cartel.

When the credit markets got sticky in 1945, The bankers came up with Breton Woods Agreement where U.S. dollars, soon to become Federal Reserve notes were as good as gold. When we lost most of our gold, the "gold window" was closed and the golden dream of the bankers: a world system of fantasy wealth known as fiat money, based upon 'faith and good will' was realized.

The world may soon wallow in misery, but count on the Wall Street elite to suffer the least.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

GOING, GOING, G. . . .

2010-07-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

REF:" From Hope to Barely hanging on"by Gary North, www. LouRockwell.com

"The recession that began in December 2007 produced a change in Americans' perception of their economic future. They moved from the tradition of hope to one of just barely hanging on.[emphasis added] I have never seen this before. Only someone born around 1910 can recall anything like it, assuming that he recalls anything at all."

The Hatman and Mrs. Hatman have seen this several times in their careers. like a George Burns bouncing ball; way up and then way down . they were not born in 1910, but long enough to witness the Great Depression and do without hardships of WWII on the homefront.

"By 1932, that euphoria was a thing of the distant past. Unemployment was at 20%. Prices were down at least 25%. Over 6,000 banks had failed. There was no sector of the economy that was flourishing except gold mining, which had the benefit of a price floor set by law. Then things got worse. Another 3,000 banks failed. Prices continued to decline. Unemployment rose. . .By 1932, that euphoria was a thing of the distant past. Unemployment was at 20%. Prices were down at least 25%. Over 6,000 banks had failed. There was no sector of the economy that was flourishing except gold mining, which had the benefit of a price floor set by law. Then things got worse. Another 3,000 banks failed. Prices continued to decline. Unemployment rose. . ..My mother still talks about it. She remembers men in Portland, Oregon, begging for food, willing to do odd jobs just to eat. Those years scarred her. They scarred her generation, who never fully bought into the idea that prosperity is created by personal debt. They did not fully participate in the debt-driven post–World War II boom, which relied on an extension of consumer credit. Credit worked because people saved. The end of the wartime price controls, coupled with the return of the troops to civilian life, extended the opportunities for capital. Money went into new industries. It went into housing, which was revolutionized by new techniques of mass production."

Oh my. the 50's were glorious times--we thought they would ever end.. but the 60's were an awakening . The first of the post war recessions. John Kennedy saying" I want to get this country going again" after the steady hand of Eisenhower. Then the upheaval at Berkley and National Guard firing on the students at Kent State. The boomers were starting to feel their oats.

But,"All of our lives, we have seen economic progress. Television replaced radio as the technology of the future in 1949–53. Energy was cheap. Cars were everywhere. Teenagers had their own used cars, their own records, their own subculture. We stayed in school until we graduated from high school. That was something new. A lot of us went to college – also new."

Education was seen as the ticket to success and middle-class comfort. And it was for a great many young Americans, who in spite of the turbulent times managed to pull themselves up with the GI bill and their own bootstraps to capture part of the American dream. Their incomes and lifestyles exceeded that of their parents.

Somewhere along the way, we lost our direction. Ethics and morality lost out to laws and court decisions. A mans word was his bond, and you could count on him to honor his word if at all humanly possible. Million dollar Deals were struck on merely a handshake. Yes there were laws, contracts and lawyers. but who sued doctors, hospitals and their neighbors?

We went from comparative money stability to inflation, to roaring inflation after the "gold window"was discontinued; yet credit increased along with usurious interest rates and we began using credit cards to buy what we had not the cash to get. Later as real estate kept pace with inflation, second mortgages, house collateralized lines of credit became the norm.

"The American stock market peaked in early 2000. It has taken constant intervention by the Federal Reserve to prop up the economy. It is becoming apparent to people on Main Street that the people on Wall Street have been able to survive only because of bailouts. The idea that the economy is in a recovery phase is accompanied by assurances from most economists and most Congressmen that the economy would slide back into depression were it not for the courageous intervention of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System.

This has been the argument of every textbook in U.S. history regarding the New Deal. "Roosevelt saved capitalism from itself!" But here we are, almost eight decades removed from Roosevelt's famous first inaugural, in which he excoriated bankers. This inaugural address is one of only three that the textbooks cite, along with Lincoln's second and Kennedy's famous "Ask not." Here was the rhetoric of class warfare. Here was imagery of Jesus driving out the moneychangers.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men."

It is said that the American century has been one of wars. Actually it has been

the distinguishing feature of the USA since it's inception with the Revolutionary War. Americans apparently just don't feel like they are Americans unless blood is spilled somewhere, preferably not in our homeland. WWI was "a war to end all wars" that didn't live up to its' billling. Then WWII against the Japs and Hun who

wanted to take over the whole world. Korea a war that President Truman called

a "Police Action". Vietnam to stop the "march of communism", Iraq I and II, "Aggression", and "Weapons of mass destruction" and the beat goes on and on.

We, who are now the 'Old folks' have seen more war than peace; particularly if you throw in the Cold War against the Soviets, the war against inflation, the war on drugs and the war on terrorism.

So, what we have known is going, going, almost all gone. Is it time for a real change?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE DAY THAT TRUTH DIED

2010-07-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

The first casualty of any war is truth. so says Butler Shaffer in his article: "Making it McCrystal Clear" in www. LewRockwell.com. 6/2/2010

All wars are grounded in lies. Any threat to the war machine must be silenced through censorship, top secret classifications, media sound bites and outright lies and misdirection. Witness the "weapons of mass destruction", "the search for Osama Bin Laden"," to destroy the Taliban

and Al Qaeda threat to our democracy", and "Operation Freedom Iraq".

Lies and deceptions.

Shaffer writes: "The uncertainties and contradictions that attend the "fog of war" are more easily overlooked – or ignored – when the fallen soldiers, themselves, can be enshrouded in the cloak of being "unknown." If the soldiers who die are unfamiliar to us – fungible nonbeings who, like ourselves, have been conditioned to serve the state – how can the rest of us be expected to cut our ways through the cloudiness? As long as we are prepared to insist upon the protection of our ignorance; to wave our flags when the cheerleaders so direct us; and to regard war as but the expression of some imagined sense of "human nature," this evil, institutionally-profitable racket will continue unabated. The entire mess can then be synthesized into such an incoherent hodgepodge of confusing complexity that no one can be expected to make any sense of it."

. . "Gen. McChrystal has discovered what so many others before him learned – from Socrates to Thomas More to Gen. Smedley Butler to Sophie Scholl to Daniel Ellsberg to Seymour Hersh to untold governmental "whistleblowers" – even, more recently to Helen Thomas – that it is dangerous to speak truth not to power, but to ordinary people. The owners of the political establishment know the truth; they are fully aware of the lies they have fabricated; the deceptions they – along with their obliging media and academic supporters – have carefully manipulated into a perception of "truth." The owners don’t want you to know what they know. Those who would dare to so inform you get labeled as "paranoid conspiracy theorists," "disgruntled former employees," "racists," or "anti-Semitic." When I am asked if I believe in "conspiracy theories" of history, I respond – in the words of the late Chris Tame – "I am not interested in conspiracy theories, but in the facts of conspiracies."

"The institutionalized order cannot tolerate any deviation from the mindset it has worked so hard to maintain. At least since the time of Gutenberg, it has been at war with any expressions that undermine the status quo. Because life is a constant process of response to changing environments, practices that inhibit such resiliency can only diminish life. This is why there is nothing so liberating as the free flow of information which, coupled with respect for the inviolability of property, allows people to engage in self-interested adaptations to their world."

"There is one voice the establishment owners have been reluctant to silence, even years after his death. Former President Eisenhower – who personified the "hero" of World War II to such a degree that both the Republican and Democratic parties wanted to nominate him – declared, in his farewell address that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Perhaps it was his hands-on familiarity with war – unlike so many war-loving lounge-generals who never heard a shot fired in anger – that left within him such a distaste for the system.[emphasis added ] But you and I are not to think such thoughts, nor to listen to those who do. We are to believe the great lie that our family members and friends died to protect us, rather than to profit the corporate-state interests who create and manage the institutionalized carnage."

"As the political establishment continues to collapse, its war against the transformative nature of information becomes intensified. Efforts are currently being made by some politicians and governmental agencies to control the Internet; to give to the president a "kill switch" that would allow him to shut down, on his dictatorial whim, this decentralized and unrestrained engine of communication whenever he considers it necessary for the interests of national security. That Sen. Lieberman – the sponsor of such a bill – justifies the measure on the grounds that the Chinese government has such power, is indicative of just how strongly the established order feels threatened by free minds!"

"It is not that the existing power structure is concerned that "false" ideas, or "untrue" statements might be loosed upon society – it has long thrived on such practices – but that speakers and writers might step outside the permitted circle of opinion certified as "safe" by and for the guardians of our minds. It was not that Helen Thomas’s comments were objectionable – I, for one, criticized them on the grounds of the collectivist premise underlying them – but that she crossed the line about what free men and women are allowed to think about and discuss. In this, as in all other matters, I remain an anarchist: people should be free to control their own lives and property – including the content of their minds – as they find useful to their own ends.

Perhaps former President Eisenhower can once again be called upon to advise the Liebermans, the Hillary Clintons, the Sen. Jay Rockefellers, and others who have predilections for tyrannizing the minds of their neighbors: "Don’t join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed."

These deniers of truth will continue from engagement to engagement from war to war until and unless those who fight and die in the hostilities and are brought home in a body bag or a gurney are not glorified, praised for their valor and self sacrifice, honor and false patriotism. When the war mongers are the first to go into combat rather than cheer from behind the lines. When war a creation of satan is identified as that which comes out of hell to "rob, kill and destroy"truth will be absent.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE WORLD CHANGED

2010-06-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

39 years ago ( Jack Benny's age) the world changed maybe irrevocably.

It is important to know what changed in 1971 and how that event relates to our present "situation": a shifting manufacturing base to foreign soils, indebtedness, rising unemployment, poverty and malaise.

President Nixon, at the urgings of Professor Friedman, took us off the Gold Standard,

i.e. the dollar was no longer backed by our treasury of gold. You could no longer present a dollar to the U.S. Treasury and receive 1/35 oz of gold, as the official redemption price was $35/oz.

The proclamation at the time didn't ruffle many feathers, since it was common knowledge that there was a hoard of dollars in foreign hands that if presented for payment would overwhelm our remaining gold supply .The 1945 Bretton Woods agreement made the U.S. dollar the world's currency and medium of exchange and

acceptable for payment of bills and debts, since it was considered to be " good as gold" and freely exchangeable.

The fact is that with the gold standard little gold actually changed hands as payment. If a country sold you coffee and you sold them bicycles, only the difference in cost/price was settled in gold.

After the 1971 proclamation,the USA was under no obligation to surrender their gold,

so their was no barrier to increasing the $ supply. Katie bar the door!

REF:"The Gold Standard: Generator & Protector of Jobs" by Hugo Salinas Price

www,plata.com.mx June 16, 2010

"The abandonment of the gold standard in 1971 is closely tied to the massive unemployment the industrialized world has suffered in recent years;. . The world's financial press, in which leading economists and analysts publish their work, never examines the relationship between the abandonment of the gold standard and unemployment, de-industrialization, and the huge chronic export deficits of the Western world powers;. . .t is an act of self-censorship to avoid incurring the displeasure of the important financial and geopolitical interests that are behind the financial press

From the end of World War II through the 1960s, all well-governed nations in the world sought to maintain a constant balance between their exports and imports. They all wanted to maintain a situation where they exported more than they imported, so that they could accumulate growing Treasury reserves of gold . . The exception to the rule was none other than the US. All well-governed countries sought to export more than they imported, except the US.

The US was not overly concerned with maintaining a balance between exports and imports, because - according to Bretton Woods - the US could pay its export deficits by the simple expedient of sending more dollars to pay its creditors. As the sole source of dollars, the US had a clear advantage over the rest of the world; they could pay their debts in (redeemable) dollars that they themselves printed...

Economists of the day warned of the danger of this practice, which resulted in a constant loss of American gold. From over 20,000 tons at the end of World War II, US gold reserves dropped year by year as certain countries, notably France, insisted on redeeming their dollars for gold at a rate of 35 dollars per ounce of gold. France incurred intense displeasure in Washington and New York due to its demands for gold in exchange for dollars; some analysts attribute the unrest in France in the spring of 1968 to covert operations by the US intelligence services, in a show of America's disapproval of the behavior of France, led at the time by General Charles de Gaulle.

The US did nothing to slow the loss of gold. In the early months of 1971, Henry Hazlitt, a solid classical economist, predicted that the dollar would have to be devalued; he said it would be necessary to increase the number of dollars that would be needed to obtain an ounce of gold from the United States Treasury. Only months after his warning, the dam burst, and in August 1971 the US was forced to devalue its currency, because the amount of gold in its reserves had fallen to a dangerous level. (Today, many doubt that the US has the 8,000 tons of gold it claims to have in its vaults at Fort Knox and the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.). . .

Since then[1971], all world trade - or most of it, as the euro, the pound sterling, and to a lesser extent the yen all compete with the dollar - is conducted using dollars that are nothing more than fiat money, fake money. Because all the world's other currencies were bound to gold through the dollar, the immediate consequence was that simultaneously they also became fiat money, fake money with no backing.

The consequences of that fateful day have overthrown all order and harmony in economic relations among the nations of the world, while facilitating and expediting the global expansion of credit because part of the dollars exported by the US ended up in the reserves of Central Banks around the world.

Countries began to accumulate dollars as the expansion of credit in the US advanced inexorably, now free of the restraint formerly imposed by Bretton Woods. The rest of the world was forced to accumulate dollars in reserves, because having insufficient dollar reserves, or having reserves that did not grow, or worse, having falling reserves, was a clear sign for monetary speculators to attack a country's currency and destroy it with devaluation.

As the loss of gold ceased to be a limiting factor, the last restrictions on the expansion of credit were stripped away. A heavy flow of dollars to all parts of the world spurred the expansion of global credit, which did not stop until 2007. The international banking elite always strive to obtain greater profits and to that end always seek to expand credit. Starting in 1971, freed of the restraint of being required to pay international accounts in gold, or with dollars redeemable for gold, the constant unfettered creation of credit and still more credit ensued. It was boom time in the US.

The US, which paid the rest of the world with its own irredeemable dollars of no intrinsic value, lauded the adoption of "free trade" and "globalization". The US could buy whatever it wanted, anywhere in the world, in any quantity, and at any price. Starting in the 1990s, its export deficits became alarming, but nothing was done to reduce them; on the contrary, they grew year by year.. .

Down with import tariffs! Free trade with the world! The new vision offered the enthralling, seductive picture of a globalized world without borders, where everyone could buy and sell where they liked, with no limits. The 90's were years of unbridled optimism for globalization!

Free Trade is unquestionably beneficial for humanity at large. It is good to be able to buy goods where they are cheapest; some countries enjoy conditions that favor them in production of certain things; each country should produce those things in which it has an advantage over other countries. Thus, the whole world can benefit from the good things each country has to offer. It is an appealing and sound doctrine, but… there is a crucial catch: the doctrine of Free Trade was conceived for a world where the sole means of payment was gold. When the doctrines of "Free Trade" and the "Comparative Advantages of Nations" were developed, the economists of the day could not imagine a world that did not use gold, but instead relied on a fiat money that could be created at will by a single country.

The "globalization" of the 1980s and 1990s and to date is based on the ideas of "Free Trade". However, in the absence of the gold standard that existed when the doctrine was conceived, "globalization" had completely destructive results, which have caused the de-industrialization of the West and the rise to power of Asia.

In the decades prior to 2007 a massive fleet of cargo ships was created, which sailed for the US and Europe - the West in general, Mexico included - bearing all kinds of inexpensive, quality products made in Asia. The flood was so great that local factories in the Western World were forced to move to Asia, to employ cheaper labor and continue to sell their products in the West.

. . .how many industries, large and small, have ceased to exist in the US and the West in general, because Chinese competition killed them.[?] . . how hard it is to find a product that can be produced at a profit in the developed countries.[?] It is very difficult to find a niche for any product to be manufactured locally. The flight of factories to Asia to take advantage of lower wages caused unemployment where local factories were closed. For the same reason job creation is slow or non-existent.. .

These evils appeared because gold was eliminated as a) a constraint on the expansion of credit and the creation of money, and b) the only form of payment of international debt.

Under the gold standard all players in international trade knew that it was only possible to sell to a country that sold something else in turn. It was not possible to buy from a country that did not buy in turn. Trade was naturally balanced by this restriction. The "structural imbalances" so commonplace today were unheard of.

The gold standard imposed order and harmony. If President Nixon had not "closed the gold window" in 1971, the world would be radically different today. China would have taken a century or more to reach its present level. China could not buy much from the US, because it was poor; therefore, China could not sell much to the US.

All this changed radically with the abolition of the gold standard.

Everything changed because the United States, having removed gold from the world monetary system, could "pay" everything in dollars, and without the gold standard as a limiting institution, it could print dollars ad libitum - without limit. Thus, in the 1970s the United States started to buy huge amounts of high quality products from Japan, while the Japanese boasted: "Japan sells; Japan does not buy." A situation that was impossible under the gold standard became perfectly possible under the fiat dollar standard. The Japanese became gigantic producers, their country an island transformed into a factory. Japan accumulated vast reserves of dollars sent from the US in exchange for Japanese products. This in turn triggered the de-industrialization of the US.. . .

After 1971, the US embarked on a protracted, large-scale expansion of credit. As the nation was de-industrialized and high-paying jobs in industry disappeared, a lack of disposable income for the population was replaced with easy and cheap credit, to conceal the stagnation in per capita income. Consumer credit drove imports from Asia and furthered de-industrialization even more. The great expansion of American credit was made possible because the gold standard, which restrained the expansion of credit by the banking system, had been abandoned. It is no coincidence that some analysts have observed that in real terms, American workers have had no real increase in their income since 1970.

All mainstream economists consider the elimination of the gold standard perfectly acceptable. They still do not see, or do not want to see, that the "Law of Unforeseen Consequences" is at work: the enormous advantage the US gained by being able to pay unlimited amounts in irredeemable dollars has become the fatal cause of the industrial destruction of the US - and of the West in general. A Mexican saying applies: en el pecado llevas la penitencia - "sin brings with it its own punishment".

Today the situation is far worse. China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has become a formidable power. No one can compete with China in price. China sells vast quantities of goods to the rest of the world, without the rest of the world having any chance of selling similar quantities to China, and China can do so, because today trade deficits are "paid" not in gold, but in dollars or euros or pounds sterling or yen, which will never be scarce: they are created at will by the USA, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, or the Bank of Japan.

A fearful monster has been created as a consequence of the elimination of the gold standard, which imposed a limit: "You can only sell to those who sell to you; you can only buy from those who buy from you." This limit no longer applies; everything is disarray, inequality, imbalance; "structural imbalance" prevails because we no longer have the gold standard.

The credit expansion boom has ended, and in its place we have a global financial crisis. Today the problem of "structural imbalance" and the de-industrialization and unemployment it has produced in formerly industrialized countries acquires greater relevance with every passing day. What is to be done with the masses of jobless men and women? No one knows the answer, because the answer is not acceptable to the thinkers of today: the correction of "structural imbalances" and re-industrialization, in other words the creation of new jobs, lies in restoring the gold standard worldwide.

The "globalization" so highly praised by the financial press in recent years, has become the worst imaginable nightmare. It is no longer possible to support the unemployed with government handouts. The Sovereign State is close to bankruptcy. Thus, nature takes its revenge on those who dared violate its laws by seeking to impose false money on the world.

How did we stray so far from our heritage? Something for nothing, easy credit, no money down,buy now, pay later. Credit first seduced us, then it killed and buried us.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE UNRAVELING

2010-06-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

REF:"Two Decades of Greed- the Unraveling" www.theburningplatform.com

The reader is not going to like this recap of how we got into this mess, but perhaps in looking back will help form our future:

"We are currently in the midst of a Fourth Turning. This twenty year Crisis began during the 2005 – 2008 timeframe with the collapse of the housing bubble and subsequent repercussions on the worldwide financial system. It is progressing as expected, with the financial crisis deepening and leading to tensions across the world. It will eventually morph into military conflict, as all prior Fourth Turnings have. The progression from High to Awakening through the Unraveling took from 1946 until 2006. The most treacherous period of the Saeculm [A saeculum is a length of time roughly equal to the potential lifetime of a person or the equivalent of the complete renewal of a human population.] is upon us.. . The last Unraveling period in U.S. history from 1984 through 2005 was symbolized by Boomer greed, materialism, debt and selfishness. . .[classified by Strauss and Howe as the third turning.]

The Unraveling began during the 2nd Reagan term with the “Morning in America” feel good landslide re-election campaign. The Dow Jones Average on January 1,1984 was 1,259. The National Debt was $1.6 trillion. The oldest Baby Boomer turned forty-one in 1984, with the youngest just twenty-four years old. This generation of 76 million over-indulged spoiled social activists is the proverbial pig in a python. Whatever path this generation chooses to take transforms the country for better or worse. The term Yuppie was coined in the early 1980’s as the egocentric Boomers poured onto Wall Street beginning their upwardly mobile perfectionist careers. The country was exhausted from the 1960s turmoil and the depressing 1970s. Failed presidencies, oil shortages, raging inflation, and American hostages had left an America that was looking for a renaissance.. . .

Ronald Reagan’s first term required extreme measures by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to break the back of inflation. By raising interest rates to 18%, Volcker set the stage for a 20 year bull market in stocks and bonds. Reagan survived an assassination attempt, the U.S. military conducted a successful operation in Grenada, Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers, and an unprecedented peace time military buildup was initiated. This created an atmosphere for economic revival, led by the Boomers. A new laissez faire era heralded by Ronald Reagan was based on his belief that government was the problem, not the solution. His goal was to cut the size of government while slashing taxes and unleashing the animal spirits of the free market.

The 1980’s proved to be a confidence building decade after two decades of tumult. With the most egocentric self centered generation in the history of the world entering the prime of their careers, a double shot of renewed confidence and debt accumulation began a cycle of greed and hubris like none ever seen on earth.

The Boomer heroes of unbridled greed were Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Carl Icahn and Boone Pickens. Leveraged buyouts, where corporate raiders used huge amounts of debt to takeover companies, taking them private, firing thousands of workers, spinning it off as an IPO, and reaping enormous profits, were hailed as the savior of free markets by Wall Street. These deals generated gigantic fees for the firms advising on the LBOs. This Boomer led societal mood of wealth accumulation at the cost of gutting corporations and screwing the working class became ingrained in the fabric of America.. . .

The 1980’s proceeded as expected with strengthening individualism and weakening institutions. The GI Generation Heroes began to depart from the scene. This steady, cautious, risk adverse generation that built American industry and finance were being pushed into retirement by the Baby Boomer Generation. The old civic order was cast aside and the cultural revolutionaries stormed the gates. Baby Boomers seized control of Wall Street, having never experienced a bear market, never faced adversity, and never having to care about anyone but themselves. A brooding sense of pessimism began to creep into the mood of the country. Fiduciary responsibility towards your clients and proper risk management was considered old school. Maximizing profits, generating fees, and getting rich was the mantra of the new Wall Street generation. As the Boomers grew rich and cynical on the street of dreams, moralistic charlatan frauds like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton exacted their share of profits for themselves and their constituents. The working middle class sunk deeper into despair as their wages continued a two decade long stagnation. Real hourly earnings were the same in 2005 as they were in 1984, and 10% below the level of 1972. . . .

The trickle down crowd, mostly Republicans, contended that a rising tide lifts all boats. In theory that sounds great. In practice, it has proven to be a lie. During the 1980s and 1990s, all boundaries regarding compensation were obliterated by the “Me Generation”. Executive pay packages began to skyrocket as they were viewed as rock stars and masters of the universe. The ratio of CEO’s pay to the average worker’s pay leaped from 30 to 1 in 1980 to 250 to 1 by 2005. If CEOs had performed phenomenally over this time period, a case could be made for this leap. But, corporate America and certainly Wall Street had brought the US economy to the brink of disaster by 2005. This outrageous pay disparity contributed to the deepening anger in the country simmering below the surface.. . . .

The appearance of progress on some issues overshadowed the underlying deterioration of societal institutions and practices. Social Security was “saved” by Alan Greenspan and his commission. Essentially he manipulated the CPI calculation downward, screwing future generations of seniors out of their rightful payouts. Politically difficult decisions regarding Medicare and Medicaid were deferred to sometime in the distant future. With oil prices averaging $20 per barrel through the 1980s and 1990s, a coherent long-term energy strategy seemed unnecessary to the next election cycle politicians who control this country. The deregulation of the Savings & Loan Industry gave them many of the capabilities of banks, without the same regulations as banks. Imprudent real estate lending, fraud and insider transactions by S&L executives, protected by high powered Washington politicians, led to the first financial crisis. The failure of 747 thrifts and losses of $160 billion to the taxpayer can be attributed to lax oversight and fraud. . .

The delusion of the American populace cannot be underestimated. Their worshipping at the altar of materialism and adoration of Hollywood created pop culture was crucial to the societal delusion. Without the corporate consumerism marketing machine, an unlimited amount of credit provided by bankers, and ultra-low interest rates supplied by the Federal Reserve, the delusions of grandeur could not have been realized. Credit cards didn’t even exist until 1968. Until the 1990s mortgage lenders followed the 28/36 rule. Your mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance, couldn’t exceed 28% of your monthly gross income. All of your debt payments couldn’t exceed 36% of your monthly gross income. Homebuyers rarely put down less than 10% of the home’s value. Home equity loans were virtually non-existent. The subprime loan market for homes and automobiles was miniscule. In the early 1980s auto loans averaged 45 months and buyers put 12% down on the purchase. By the mid 2000s auto loans averaged 64 months with only 5% down on the purchase. By 1999, 40% of all cars on the highway were leased. The proliferation of easy credit allowed average people to live a life of excessive opulence, occupying 7,000 sq ft McMansions, driving BMWs, and wearing Rolex watches. Americans bought so much stuff on credit they couldn’t fit it all in their oversized abodes. So they needed to rent outside storage for their stuff. In 1984 there were 6,601 facilities with 290 million square feet of rentable self storage in the U.S. In 2009, there were 46,000 self storage facilities with 2.21 billion square feet, a 762% increase. . .

The “creativity” of Wall Street was complimented by corporate America instituting “free trade” and “globalization” policies (NAFTA) supported by politicians in Washington DC. The terms free trade and globalization were code for corporate CEOs shipping US manufacturing jobs to China, India, and Vietnam, while expanding their corporate earnings per share 3 cents above analyst expectations per quarter. As reward for gutting American industry, the CEOs demanded their Board of Director toadies give them stock options for 1 million shares and $10 million raises. Does it require a Harvard degree and ingenious brilliance to fire 100,000 American workers making $20 per hour and build a plant in China paying peasants $1 per hour and depending on cheap oil to inexpensively ship the goods back to America? Only one problem, people without jobs have trouble buying stuff. Without middle class jobs, corporate CEOs turned to their Harvard buddies on Wall Street to create $1.2 quadrillion of financial derivatives to convince the middle class they really had wealth to spend on cheap Chinese goods. This corporate/banking collusion was fully supported by their paid for representatives in Washington DC. This unholy alliance between big business and big government enriched the ruling elite, while impoverishing the middle class. . .

The nation had an opportunity to come to our senses with the election of George Bush in 2000. The gravity of the coming Saecular Winter could have been moderated through prudent actions taken on the fiscal, political, and defense fronts. The autumnal Unraveling is a time of foreboding and a brooding pessimism. As a howling wind begins to blow, leaves turn brown and wither, determined squirrels scurry around collecting acorns in preparation for the bitter snowy Winter ahead. The opportunity to judiciously prepare was wasted after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America. The colossal overreaction to an attack by a terrorist organization consisting of a few thousand members, ensured that the coming Winter will be harsh, deadly, and more bitter than any ever experienced in U.S. history. Prudence, caution, intelligence, and sound judgment were required. Recklessness, haste, stupidity, and hubris were employed. The result was that the Crisis that arrived in 2005-2008 will be more painful and possibly fatal for the United States. The multiple wars of choice, immense housing bubble, stunning government deficits and unaddressed unfunded liabilities have created a nation weakened and unprepared for the harsh reality ahead. The Empire of Debt has reached epic proportions."

We are undoubtedly reaping what we have sewn. Our financial and unemployment problems are but mirrors of the moral and manners of our population. The 76 million Boomers have multiplied themselves with the generations X and Y. A group more self involved has never been before.

Are they capable of rebuilding this country; probably not, because they are a know-nothing, underline the correct answer group who should have been left behind if only to grow up and take responsibility for their own actions, not just take from others. Stop whining you louts, grow up and show up.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

LIBERTY

2010-06-11T05:55:00.000-07:00

REF: "A Fair Probe Would Attack Liberty Misinformation" by

Thomas Moorer, Admiral U.S. Navy,former Chief of Naval Operations, former

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , published in the 1/16/2004 edition of the Stars and Stripes

June 8, 1967, 43 years ago, Israel attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. The wounded were left to die, being betrayed by our government, specifically the Lyndon Johnson administration and the now infamous Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense.

"U.S. military rescue aircraft were recalled -- not once, but twice -- through direct intervention by the Johnson administration. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's cancellation of the Navy's attempt to rescue the Liberty, which I confirmed from the commanders of the aircraft carriers America and Saratoga, was the most disgraceful act I witnessed in my entire military career.

A 1967 investigation by the Navy, upon which all other reports are based, has now been fully discredited as a cover-up by its senior attorney. Capt. Ward Boston, in a sworn affidavit, recently revealed that the court was ordered by the White House to cover up the incident and find that Israel's attack was "a case of mistaken

Some distinguished colleagues and I formed an independent commission to investigate the attack on the USS Liberty. After an exhaustive review of previous reports, naval and other military records, including eyewitness testimony from survivors, we recently presented our findings on Capitol Hill. They include:

* Israeli reconnaissance aircraft closely studied the Liberty during an eight-hour period prior to the attack, one flying within 200 feet of the ship. Weather reports confirm the day was clear with unlimited visibility. The Liberty was a clearly marked American ship in international waters, flying an American flag and carrying large U.S. Navy hull letters and numbers on its bow.

* Despite claims by Israeli intelligence that they confused the Liberty with a small Egyptian transport, the Liberty was

conspicuously different from any vessel in the Egyptian navy. It was the most sophisticated intelligence ship in the world in 1967. With its massive radio antennae, including a large satellite dish, it looked like a large lobster and was one of the most easilyidentifiable ships afloat.

* Israel attempted to prevent the Liberty's radio operators from sending a call for help by jamming American emergency radio channels.

* Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned lifeboats at close range that had been lowered to rescue the most-seriously wounded.

As a result, our commission concluded that:

* There is compelling evidence that Israel's attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew.

* In attacking the USS Liberty, Israel committed acts of murder against U.S. servicemen and an act of war against the United States.

* The White House knowingly covered up the facts of this attack from the American people.

* The truth continues to be concealed to the present day in what can only be termed a national disgrace.

What was Israel's motive in launching this attack? Congress must address this question with full cooperation from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the military intelligence services.

The men of the USS Liberty represented the United States. They were attacked for two hours, causing 70 percent of American casualties, and the eventual loss of our best intelligence ship."

Israel, a nation created by inserting it into palestine territory has enjoyed the favor of the world because of the holocaust in WWII. The displaced Jews of Europe were allowed to settle into a formally declared state in 1948. So we have the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

It is difficult for the Israel supporters, including Christian leaders, to get around the idea that the created state and the people are two separate things. New testament writings clearly state that the Christians are but a branch of a Jewish tree.

Yet the state of Israel does not worship the God of Abraham and Isaac, but

the god of death and destruction. Their ruthless and murderous attack on the residents of Gaza and the May 31 ,2010 attack on the Gaza relief ships, are clear examples of an outlaw state, totally without mercy, humanity, or common decency.

In the 1950's We were consumed with the notion of communist infiltrators

in our government influencing our policies. Today we need to get aware

of the power of Israel agents in position of influence in our government,

media, corporations and finance. The bullets and bombs that Israel uses to commit these atrocities are furnished by the U.S.A. We provide them with $3 billion dollars of aid each year plus weapons and equipment.

Admiral Moorer called the attack on the USS Liberty and the calling off our support a national disgrace. Certainly the lack of outrage at the attack on the Gaza peoples and aid ships is hardly a credit to our virtue. That the Obama administration has responded with the usual doublespeak is not surprising. When we look back to former administrations, we see the continued blind eye toward the Zionists.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to rage against Middle East countries, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and others without let-up. Why should the United States be a trumpet for the real aggressor: Israel?

How disgraceful is it that we persuaded the UN Security council to vote sanctions against Iran who is operating within the guidelines of the Atomic Energy Commission, while remaining silent on the Zionist aggression against Gaza?

Kenneth Copeland, Pat Robertson, John Hagee The Trumpet, TBN

Wake Up!

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE END OF A YEAR

2010-06-07T05:16:00.001-07:00

A year has rolled around since THE HATMAN first posted a blog, June 7, 2009. As promised, the blogs have been to the point, and largely the author's opinion about events, world conditions, economic principles, spiritual perceptions and social conditions.

Some blogs you agreed with, some you did not. Some were perhaps repetitive and boring, but hopefully all to the point and germane to the issue or issues we face or faced in this year of our time as citizens of this age.

When the blog started all that was desired was to speak {or write} out about these things, but as we look back we see the drama of one year in the pursuit of collapse, unfolding in printed form. This year represents the results of decades of foolish policies and leadership lack in America and the rest of the world. We don't seem to learn from previous mistakes, but continue to repeat the errors recorded in history.

Although not intended in the beginning, apparently it is possible to gather all these

missives into one bound book, which we intend to pursue. The cost is now unknown ,

but as soon as we get the first one, we will advise you as to our cost plus shipping and make copies available to you for your libraries.

One other comment, as an aside, THE HATMAN has learned what a lousy speller

he is and without the aid of Mac's spelling check, you wouldn't believe how bad a

supposedly literate person can spell.

The plan for future: Blogs will be submitted weekly or more often if the need to speak out on an issue seems needed.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

A CARDBOARD PRESIDENT

2010-06-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

Unknown Source:

No amount of posturing, buffing up, or Q&A briefing book drills could hide the reality that this man is on a raft at sea accompanied by an equally bewildered boatload of companions who have no idea how they arrived in such deep water, hundreds of miles from land, and with no clue that they are in trouble, let alone what to do about it.

What we've received instead from the ideology of identity politics and big government has been the spread of competency and accountability so thin that the federal government is utterly incapable of defending our shores and borders from invasion -- one by sea in the form of a massive crude oil slick, the other by land in the waves of illegal immigrants flooding Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. In utter exasperation, the citizens of Arizona finally took matters into their own hands, only to be vilified by Obama and his cohorts, who have neither the will nor the capacity to do anything about it.

REf: "Anatomy of a Failing Presidency" by Geoffrey P. Hunt, www American Thinker.com

"Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we’ve seen several failed presidencies–led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait– they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China .

But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people.. . . Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.

But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What’s going on?

No narrative. Obama doesn’t have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn’t connect with us. He doesn’t have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don’t align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.

But not this president. It’s not so much that he’s a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task–all contributory of course.[emphasis added] It’s that he’s not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn’t command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don’t add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don’t make sense and don’t correspond with our experience.. ."

The above is a cogent writing about this no-nothing, do-nothing, public speaker of other's words, phony contrived individual who occupies the highest office in our land.

It has been said that God protects babies, drunks and fools. Our foolish American people need divine protection from this impostor and his whoring congressional cohorts.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

MORE CRACKS AND CRACKUPS AHEAD

2010-06-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” — Ayn Rand

Excerpted from: Leap2020.eu" GEAB N°42, February16,2010

". . . behind the « sophisticated » dissertations on the exit from the crisis and the end of the policies of support for the economy and the financial sector hides a very simple truth, but one which governments and central bankers are unable to express: they don’t know what to do? when to do it? how to do it? and if they should do it alone or with the other big global players? Indeed if the lack of preparation to the start of the crisis resulted from world leaders inability to imagine a crisis could happen, for many months now, it has been their inability to correctly judge the true situation of the world economy and the interaction of the large number of extraordinary measures taken everywhere on the planet which now condemns them to remain passive. Between now and the end of this semester, this lack of action will simply leave the place to mere reactions to social, economic and political events. All this will take place within a framework of complete disorder, reinforcing everyman-for-himself trends which have become clearer and clearer since the end of 2009.

his situation of intellectual paralysis explains why, for months now, from bankers’ meetings to G20 conferences, one only hears positive statements on the inevitable end of the emergency measures taken in 2008/2009, whilst still observing that these extraordinary measures remain in place. As always happens in these cases, the impetus for the decision will be caused by a reaction to a sudden event and not by strategic, pro-active, carefully calculated thinking. The refusal during 2009, to face up to the crucial question of the recasting of the international monetary system (1) creates a constantly shifting situation and the eventual systematic shattering of the community of interests between the big global players: disparate priorities between the Euro and Dollar zones, growing tensions between Beijing and Washington on the Yuan-Dollar exchange rate, etc… which, henceforth, encroach more and more upon the spheres of commerce and diplomacy.

On the same simple truth: the short term financing needs of the world’s banking system and Western states are now much, much larger than available savings. We are currently at the beginning of a huge wave of repayment and/or refinancing of loans made at the end of the pre-crisis period (2005/2007) that is, loans made during this period of complete financial irresponsibility, especially for schemes where profitability has collapsed due to the crisis or where the value attributed by the counterparties becomes increasingly fanciful. Simply put, it is time to pay the « bill » for all those commercial real estate investors, loans to governments, states, barely solvent cities, etc.) who believed they could have a « free lunch » in the years 2005/2007. The circumstances of a lasting economic crisis creates the worst situation possible for any repayment or refinancing.

. one the one hand the crisis has caused the collapse of average profitability of almost all economic activities (for those which have avoided bankruptcy), profitability now hovering around 2% to 5% rather than above the 10% expected for most financial transactions entered into in the 2005-2007 period.

. on the other hand, the competition to access financing has become, as is always the case in times of crisis, a real grabbing match, with households, businesses, financiers (classic), as well as Governments (and local authorities) and banks themselves. As LEAP/E2020 anticipated over two years ago, with the crisis causing the disappearance of around 30 trillion in « ghost assets », 2010 will see the start of « the ball of the damned » where, in order to repay or refinance their debts, every household, business, authority, financial institution and country will be desperately looking for resources or profits that it no longer has (due to loss of employment, falling profits, lower tax receipts, or increasing costs related to the crisis) or even trying to obtain new credit terms at a time when there are limited offers of credit for a large number seeking it.

One of the most glaring examples of this situation is, without doubt, the exclusion effect caused by US public financing huge needs: internally, businesses and households are marginalised in the face of the increasing need for credit by the American state; externally, those countries in the weakest financial condition will be excluded from accessing credit or indeed be obliged to pay huge additional financial charges, when they are unable simply considering to just ask for aid. . .

In the United States, where all possible scenarios exist in an election year, we also note a growing disconnect between pronouncements (and the statistics) and reality. If one takes the only indicator of US Treasury bond buying, one finds on the one hand a Federal government and the Fed explaining that they are selling like « hot cakes whilst the need to sell more doesn’t stop growing due to increasingly bigger deficits; and on the other, where the main buyer of US Treasury bonds over these last few years (China) has steadied its purchases and even undertaken the task of reducing its holdings ). Knowing that American households have no savings and that deficits of all kinds weigh down the major countries of the planet which are therefore unable to substitute to Chinese purchases. . .

The LEAP/E2020 team expects a rapid increase in tensions between Washington and Beijing in the coming months : it was, in effect, just what the United States had promises not to do to the Chinese, very concerned over the growing risk of their Dollar denominated assets losing value. Add to that the sale of arms to Taiwan, the meeting with the Dalai Lama, commercial spats and Iran, and we consider that the second half of 2010 will be favourable to the beginning of a settling of scores between Washington and Beijing, which will only aggravate the crisis.. .

To summarise the United States, the Eurozone, the United Kingdom, Japan and China are going to see their dreams of growth reduced to nil from the second half of 2010 onwards."

Fumble and Foolishness are the hallmarks of our leaders and regulators. As they go, they

are singing "it is not my fault".

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

2010-06-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Copied from:www.ColoradoGold, by Don Stott, May 20, 2010

"Argentina, Venezuela, and America"

In 1902, Argentina was one of the wealthiest, most industrialized, prosperous nations on earth. Automobiles, electricity, and telephones were common. Millions of acres of rich farmland, navigable rivers, and accessible seaports, graced Argentina. It made and grew what it consumed, and exported goods throughout the inhabited world. It was second only to the United States in wealth, and second only to Britain in sea power.

In 1916, running under the promise of "Fundamental Change," Hipolito Irigoyen was elected as president. He immediately mandated pension insurance, health care insurance, a minimum wage, and began building public housing, and all sorts of what he called programs of "stimulus." Union membership was encouraged, and union protection laws were passed. Quickly, income from taxes was far less than government spending. Taxes were raised, but spending continued, as Argentina's economy slowly crumbled, although Irigoyen did keep Argentina out of World War One. He left office in 1922, and was re-elected in 1928, when he nationalized the oil industry and a few others as well. By 1930, Argentina was in such a deplorable state, that a military coup overthrew him. He died shortly after that. Argentina, through a 14 year period, had degenerated slowly but surely, due to the exact same things which have killed most, if not all economies. Reckless spending, welfare, plus feeding and housing what became an underclass. In every nation, due to politicians passing laws to assure their re-election by giving monies out of various public treasuries.

When WW II broke out, Argentina proclaimed neutrality, and refused to break relations with Germany and Japan. After the war, Nazi's felt quite at home in Argentina. In 1946, Juan Peron was elected, and quickly became a harsh ruler, imprisoning those who disagreed with him, a-la, Abraham Lincoln, 85 years previously. Peron instituted a new constitution, giving previously unheard of powers to the government. His wife, Evita was put in charge of labor relations. Under Peron, the middle and upper classes were targeted with high taxes, and a VAT was instituted. Spending by government, and proliferation of bureaucracy continued, until inflation reached 3,000% finally, and Peron was overthrown by a military coup. He later came back, like a bad check, to do more damage. Today, Argentina seems to be fairly stable.

Venezuela is doing the same thing now, under a communist dictator. Venezuela is the pits, and getting worse, with power blackouts, and huge unemployment. Venezuela is copying Argentina, Zimbabwe and Cuba, with the same results. Worthless currencies, huge government, seizing and nationalizing private businesses, inflation, suppression of freedoms, and eventually I assume, riots. Venezuela's Chavez is destroying a once proud, capable, prosperous nation, with collectivism, and harsh dictatorship. Cuba's Castro has turned a once happy, warm, hospitable nation, into a crushing communistic dictatorship. America is traveling down the same road as did the above nations.

Greece is having more riots today as I finish this, and rumor has it that Germany wants out of the euro, and is secretly printing marks. Spain and Portugal, both euro nations, are in deep doo do because of exactly the same things that killed other economies. Stupid politicians giving away the public treasury to the unworthy. America's official debt is now close to $13 trillion, plus another $60 trillion in promised payments in future years, and it is absolutely unpayable other than with printed scrip, known as dollars. Depression over? Not by the skin of your chinny chin chin! 477,000 new applicants for unemployment insurance last week, and the stock markets around the world are fading. Tough times ahead, I believe.

This begs a simple question. Is government a way to prosperity? Is government in any nation, in any year, or under any circumstance, an efficient or cost effective way to accomplish anything? Throughout history, and hundreds of years, and even thousands of years, no government has ever been able to 'help' anyone or group by subsidizing them or handing out other people's money by means of high taxes. Governments which are good, protect, and do not subsidize! Subsidization steals from Paul to pay Peter, and both Peter and Paul are harmed. Paul is de-capitalized, and Peter learns how to live on someone else's work and effort. Now, we have the Obama regime, trying to take over every facet of America, ruining the prosperity producing Pauls, making millions of dependent 'Peters,' and destroying America. The masses are revolting, as witnessed by Kentucky, Utah, and Massachusetts, with more to follow. It's all the result of the Tea Party Movement. God Bless the Tea Party Movement!

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

CRACKS ARE STARTING TO APPEAR

2010-06-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

REF::LAST TRUMPET NEWSLETTER ,June 2010 "The Coming Spiritual Twilight"

". . There are many who never look at things from a spiritual standpoint, and there are those that have the God-given ability as true Christians to look into the depth of what is happening in the corresponding unseen world. It is essential that we understand that since the beginning of the world there has been a conspiratorial adversary called Satan. Satan knows that his time is limited. History is filled with the activities of this rebellious dark prince, and Bible prophecy guides the children of God every step of the way and helps them to understand what is truly happening.

. . .We are now at the end of the age at the very end of time when Satan makes his final grand attempt to seize upon the entire world and set himself up as the one world dictator in the form of a man. As he does this, it become ever clearer to Christians what is happening. However, to the undiscerning and unbelieving, there is confusion, anxiety, and misunderstanding.[emphasis added]

Never has there been a time in our nation's history when the people of America have been so alienated from their own government, and everything now seems to be happening at once. The huge budget deficits, the astronomical national debt, the senseless wars, and even the many disasters have left people wondering.

Our nation of the United States of America is populated by approximately 300 million people. All of these people are governed by a relatively small group of elitist rulers including the President, Vice President, Cabinet members, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court. America has always taken great pride in stating that the government is "by the people, for the people, and of the people." We have noticed, especially since Barack Obama became President, that the ruling class believes that the vast majority does not know what is good for them. The people of the United States are continually being ignored by those governing them. This concept is not new but is found within the writings of Dr. Albert Pike, the infamous Freemason, who wrote the book Morals and Dogma. In his book, he made it clear that the great populations must be micromanaged and that they do not know enough nor do they possess the ability to make decisions physically, spiritually, economically, and so on. We are watching in horror as Obama and his administration completely and absolutely function independently, being completely out of touch with the American people. No matter how great the protests, Obama pushes forward to what is now clearly identifiable as Marxist socialism.

Many people have wondered why Obama has such a driving force toward government run health care. The answer is that there are so many things built into that massive bill that have nothing to do with health care. Obama has used this to push forward his agenda in many and varied ways. We remember hearing his campaign pledge when Barack Obama clearly stated that he wanted a national security force, not the National Guard or anything like that, but a civilian one. If people were listening, they would know that on July 2, 2008, in a speech made in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Obama called for a police state. Buried within the revisions of the health care bill in subtitle C, entitled "Increasing Supply of the Health Care Work Force," under section 5210 is a provision establishing a ready reserved core. This is Obama's private army. In this ready reserved core, all commissioned officers shall be appointed by the President of the United States. Commissioned officers of the ready reserved core must at all times be subject to the call of active duty by the surgeon general."

We keep up the pretense of a democracy, but we are hardly even a republic. The many are governed by the few. Government, federal, state, county and city now consume more than 49% of our nations total income, plus compliance with the regulations ordered by government regulations account for an additional 15%. Our government takes almost 2/3rds of our money. Who are the slaves and who are the slave owners?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

ONE-WORLDERS ARE AT IT AGAIN

2010-06-01T04:27:00.000-07:00

REF:"Mexican President wants to disarm Americans" by

Aaron Dykes www.Prison Planet.com

Philipe Calderon, the President of Mexico, when addressing our congress, to reenact the ban on assault weapons. He wants to disarm us before we are integrated into the North American Union system. Calderon, who has had little or no success

dealing with the drug cartels in his country, placed the blame on American's weapons.

". . Calderon who wants to tell us how to run our country audaciously criticized Arizona's new immigration law. If that doesn't fry your burgers, then think about our President Obama, who should have expressed righteous anger at these uncalled for remarks, joined the assault on our sovereignty by the statement "we are not defined by our borders."

Calderon, was elected in the middle of the night amid protests of a crooked election. Our President serves under a cloud of doubt that he was born in the United States.

These are insignificant issues to those who would put us under foreign control.

This whole idea of a North American Union treaty has never been brought before congress or the people, but just a scheme cooked up by Busch and others who would enslave us.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

GENERATION X ,Y OR Z

2010-05-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

REF: www.Wikipedia.org

GENERATION X byJennifer Jochim Outpost contributor

"Generation X can technically be defined as the generation following the Baby Boomers. Xers were born between 1965 and 1980, 1961 and 1981, 1964 and 1979, 1963 and 1979, 1965 and 1975 or since the mid-1960s, depending on which source you use. For practical purposes we will say that Generation X was born between 1965 and 1980, now ranging in age from 17-32 and usually judged by characteristics assigned to them by the media.

Generation Xers were brought up on television, Atari 2600s and personal computers. They are the generation that was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, and saw this country undergo a selfish phase that they do not want to repeat. Generation Xers were brought up on television, Atari 2600s and personal computers. They are the generation that was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, and saw this country undergo a selfish phase that they do not want to repeat.

The term Generation X came from a book written in 1991 by Douglas Coupland by the same name. It is a fictional book about three strangers who decide to distance themselves from society to get a better sense of who they are. He describes the characters as "underemployed, overeducated, intensely private and unpredictable."

REF: www.Wikipedia.org

". . The term Generation Y first appeared in an August 1993 Ad Age editorial to describe teenagers of the day, which they defined as separate from Generation X, as well as the teenagers of the upcoming ten years. "Generation Y" alludes to a succession from Generation X

The name "Echo Boomers relates to the size of the generation and its relation to the Baby Boomer generation. A single source has referred to the generation as the MTV generation although MTV Generation is also a term used to refer to people heavily influenced by the advent of MTV, and even a catch all term for youth of the late 20th century, depending on the context.

Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe have been influential in defining American generations in their book Generations:The future of America's Future1584 to2604 (1991). Howe and Strauss maintain that they use the term Millennials in place of Generation Y because the members of the generation themselves coined the term, not wanting to be associated with Generations X .

Almost a decade later, they followed up their large study of the history of American demographics with a new book specifically on that generation, titled Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (2000). In their books Generations rising (1991) and Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (2000), Wiliian Strauss and Neil Howe use the start year as 1982 and end year of the generation as 2001. They believe that the coming of age of year 2000 high school graduates sharply contrasts with those born before them and after them due to the attention they received from the media and what influenced them politically.

The Millennial Generation, like other generations, has been shaped by the events, leaders, developments and trends of its time.The rise of instant communication technologies made possible through use of the internet, such as email ,texting and IM and new media used through websites like YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook and My space may explain the Millennials' reputation for being somewhat peer-oriented due to easier facilitation of communication through technology. Members of this generation tend to use Google and Wikipedia uncritically as sources of information and to freely share information online without regard to copyright.

Expression and acceptance has been highly important to this generation. In China, with a total population of a billion people, the urge to stand out and be individualistic has become a staple of the Chinese youth culture. . . Generation Y is more radically and culturally tolerant than previous generations The majority of Generation Y is cultural liberalwith many respecting same sex marriage rights among other politically liberal stances, but, in spite of the new dominant liberal growth, new youth clubs and groups have been created in developed countries (such as the US, UK, Japan, Australia and Italy) to take the task of promoting and preserving conservative views and beliefs.

This generation is also sometimes referred to as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation because of their perceived penchant for delaying some of the rites of passage into adulthood longer than most generations before them, and because of a trend toward living with their parents for longer than recent generations."

RE:"Salute our Future" by Stephen Flurry, www.TheTrumpet.com

Mr. Flurry writes "Today’s world, on the other hand, is full of unhappiness and misery—competition and strife. It makes for a dangerous and evil world to raise children in. Most parents are failing miserably at this God-given task.

You’ve probably seen the pitiful results now streaming in from numerous studies about Generation Y—the self-indulgent, narcissistic generation to emerge out of the self-esteem movement. Their lives are empty and fruitless. They often fill their spirit-starved souls with every form of illicit indulgence.

Not everyone agrees about generation Y and the future. If they correspond to the meekness seen in them heretofore, we have a happy future. If, however they correspond to the WWII people, they will react forcefully to the events of dollar collapse and war. Mainly they will not take the intrusions of government without protest.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

WHAT EVERY MAN NEEDS

2010-05-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

Ladies, please do not read further, this is for men. To proceed further could cause you distress and unnecessary aggravation, since your collection of intelligent synapses will have difficulty appreciating the males need from time to time for solitude.

It is in the nature of man, hard-wired from birth if you will, to need to retreat or escape from his female dominated existence. At birth from mother to teacher to wife and/or companion, the male specie is constantly loving, putting up with or despising some feminine influence. From time to time, he needs to get away. He probably values these possessors of feminism, but from time to time, he needs to get away.

What every man needs to keep his sanity and balance is a hideaway, cave or den. Be it a separate room in the attic, cellar or the shed behind the garage, it does not have to be fancy or stylish, just separate and solely and exclusively his. In this place of refuge, he needs not a telephone, computer or fax machine. He can bring in all of his smelly sporting goods, stack his aromatic fishing and hunting gear in the corner, his favorite greasy hats along with other trophies he may treasure.

A refrigerator to keep his beer would be nice, even if he doesn't imbibe, his male friends may visit from time to time. A comfortable chair --maybe a recliner would be nice along with a wide screen television, so he could watch his favorite football game un-interupted. A stereo player would also be nice so he could listen to his favorite Jazz or symphony concert with unrestrained volume. And maybe a girly calendar like they have in Automobile repair shops.

A bit of a warning, gentlemen. Females cannot be allowed in this retreat, because they will start with small improvements in the decor, which will ultimately make your place of hiding into a decorator's showplace.

To all men in search of retreat--Good Luck!

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

UGLY BUT TRUE?

2010-05-28T05:06:00.000-07:00

REF:"Was Rambo Right?"by Ron Unz, www.LewRockwell.com 4/28/2010

For more information about the following story , see the following links:

Sydney Schanberg's exposé "McCain and the POW Cover-Up"

Why small media breaks the big stories

The evidence doesn’t stack up

Will Iraq be forgotten as well?

How the D.C. media covers for the establishment

Sometimes conspiracy theories are true

'None dare call it a conspiracy', yet why is the major media so incapable of telling the truth

and exposing the lies of the American leaders? This article, UGLY BUT TRUE?, deals primarily about the prisoners of war left behind in Vietnam and the shame of America in disregarding these unfortunates who were there because of our misadventure.

The mainstream media , who have cried endlessly that the" people have a right to know" are patently guilty of ignoring information that does not agree with the official statements and policy. In a government of the people, the need to know is critical to maintaining a free and self-governing society. Is the fact that the major media, i.e. Cinema, TV, Radio and Print are owned by just six people and those same people are major holders and cross represented on the boards of major corporations including armament makers and pharmaceutical companies? Why wasn't the Weapons of Mass Destruction lie exposed before the Iraq invasion? Many legitimate questions have been raised by scientists, engineers and architects about 911, why have these issues been addressed by the media? Why are we still involved with the war and occupation in Afghanistan?

Americans want to forget about the tragedy of Vietnam, but the real story of our POW and MIA abandonment still has not ben addressed by the mainstream media. John McCain and

his role in prisoner betrayal has been covered up.

". . .In 2008, John McCain’s heroic war record and personal patriotism were central to his quest for supreme power – a goal he came very close to achieving. But when one of America’s most eminent journalists published an exhaustive report that the candidate had instead served as one of the leading figures in a monumental act of national treachery, our media took no notice. McCain’s public critics and the operatives of his Democratic opponent might eagerly seize upon every rumor that the senator had had a private lunch with a disreputable corporate lobbyist, but they ignored documented claims that he had covered up the killing of hundreds of American POWs. These allegations were serious enough and sufficiently documented to warrant national attention – yet they received none.

. . Following the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the Vietnamese refused to return their French POWs unless Paris agreed to pay financial compensation for the war. The French leaders paid the money and got their men back. Similarly, the Vietnamese refused to return their American POWs unless the U.S. government agreed to pay reparations. Nixon signed a document promising to do exactly that, but the Vietnamese, being cautious, kept many of the POWs back until the money was delivered. Then Congress refused to authorize the funds because “America doesn’t lose wars.” Nixon and later U.S. leaders never acknowledged the fate of these captives lest the American people become outraged. And as the years and decades went by, and various schemes to ransom or rescue the POWs were considered and rejected, their continued existence became a major liability to numerous powerful political figures, whose reputations would have been destroyed if any of the prisoners ever returned and told his story to the American people. So none of them ever came home.

The "owners of our country", as George Carlin described mega wealthy and influential

people, have been and are manipulating our collective destinies for their own self interest.

These individuals remain largely in the background and use others such as Hillary, Barack

or Sarah to front for them. The Powers that be are masters at ridicule, blackmail and deception, and we and our magnificent country are their victims.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

AGAINST THE GODS

2010-05-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

UP UP AND AWAY

the world's largest airship is ready for takeoff. According to an article on www. MailOnLine.com,"Blimps will take to the skies again with the launch of the world's largest inflatable craft.

The pioneering Bullet 580 is a 235ftlong and 65ft in diameter ship that can lift payloads of 2,000lbs up to 20,000ft in the air.

It was inflated this week inside the Garret Coliseum in Alabama - one of the few facilities large enough to host the ship. The process took the developers at E-Green Technologies just over six hours. With a top speed of 80 mph, It usually glides along at about 35 mph, so the passengers can enjoy the scenery. It's utility, however is the ability to hover over a location for hours, while lifting loads.

Filled with nonflammable helium and a Kevlar skin, the airship seems invulnerable to disasters such as with the Hindenburg catastrophe

REF:"Against the Gods" by Richard Russell, May 26, 2010 Dow Theory Letters

". . Once the bankers (the Fed) realized that they could control the money of nations, they realized they could control nations." Mr. Russell views central banks and fiat money as "against the gods".

" Central Banks create fiat money, denigrate gold, and try to convince the people that the money they print is wealth.. . No man . . can create wealth

with the click of a computer. That's the great immoral fraud underlying this bear market."

He views the developing bear market as "a great moral drama. "It's the market's answer to man's greed and his ability to brain-wash his fellow

citizens. The gigantic fiat house of cards is slowly coming undone. . .

To create 'wealth' by fiat money is fraudulent and against both man and the gods. Great bear markets invariably uncover great crimes"

fiat : a noun, a formal authorization or proposition; a decree; an arbitrary order. Origin is from latin, "let it be done".

Real news and thought is scarce today, with most lamenting about the dropping stock market( or bragging about all the money they made while it was going up). Few occurrences have been forecast more than the bear

nature of this market and the imminent crash. For most people, the

stock market is a mere abstraction, not a controller of their monetary

fate. "The meek shall inherit the earth", spoke the Christ of God. Yet

for those who did not heed the warnings of the sages, it is a dramatic loss.

One more absurd thing from Obama land. The president is sending a group of nuclear physicists to the Gulf oil spill, to determine how to nuke

the well bore!

He will not be laying the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier this Memorial Day, since he remembers that he promised to return to Chicago

from time to time. Maybe the heat in the kitchen is getting hotter.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

STORMY SEAS

2010-05-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

"Stormy season the Atlantic" by John Browne www.321gold.com 4/4/2010

"The European Union's debt crisis, the threatened collapse of its fledgling 'euro' currency, and the uncertainties created by the UK elections may seem very far removed from the American ship of state, but, in reality, this turbulence threatens to capsize our fragile economy.

Greece is in the most immediate danger of default, followed closely thereafter by Portugal, Spain, and perhaps Italy. As the European Union overrides its own treaty agreements to offer bailouts to these 'PIGS,' global financial markets have panicked. Essentially what has happened is that the covenants and assumptions underlying one of the bedrock reserve currencies of international finance - and the presumed successor to the US dollar as primary reserve - have been broken. This requires a global re-rating of purchasing power risk. The problem is today's investors have few havens left.

The essential political model of most of the developed world has been to promise, promise, promise, and push any costs on to the next generation. These Mediterranean countries are starved for growth because their coddled union laborers sit around waiting to hit age 50, so they can collect a pension that pays as much as their working wage. It wasn't always this way, but politicians always find it safer to add benefits than take them away. Only a taxpayer revolt can install a reformer like Lady Thatcher or Ronald Reagan, and in Club Med, the belief is that only suckers pay taxes." [emphasis added]

Doug Wakefield,4/30/2010 www.safehaven.com

"When the Federal Reserve System was founded in 1913, the national debt stood at $2.91 billion, approximately 10% higher than the debt level in 1865; 48 years earlier. The generations living prior to the founding of the Federal Reserve (the entity whose purpose according to their own website "provides the nation with a safe, flexible, and stable monetary and financial system") elected leaders at the national level who believed that if your outflow exceeded your inflow, then that was the signal to stop spending and reevaluate your programs. So what happened in the two generations AFTER the Federal Reserve was founded

By 1964, the birth of the baby boomer generation was complete. The national debt now stood at $311 billion, more than 100 times what Americans had seen in 1913. Now I ask you, is this a "stable monetary and financial system"?

Just look at us.

Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality."
-Michael Ellner

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN