It was fantastic to watch a possible crisis flare up (unnecessarily) with the assassination of a government official and all that followed – thankfully, much to our surprise – calmer heads prevailed – personally, we believe that it was an investment ploy to control the direction of markets – as well as a trial balloon to see if assassination can be added to the democratic totalitarian toolbox.
Thankfully, the loss of life in this case was limited to those killed in the initial assassination and the stampede at his funeral – as well as an accidental missile hit to a passenger jet in Tehran from ‘friendly’ fire from Iran itself.
The most interesting part for us – was the panic in the markets. There was a brief window to make a lot of money if one had insider information about the U.S. response – and not completely unexpectedly – investors fled to the safety of Bitcoin. We can expect that any future international conflicts will bring more of this behaviour. Investors also fled to gold – but this seems to have been more of a temporary move.
From 2017 onwards, Bitcoin appears to have been manipulated with news, social media, and movements that could only be pulled off by institutional or governmental whales – in our opinion, all planned out and executed to give said government and institutional bitcoin powers, greater control and power in the bitcoin marketplaces.
One thing we are certain of is that the ‘measured’ Trump response was planned in advance and that Antichrist and his cronies increased their wealth on a massive scale during the seemingly imminent ‘crisis’ that never happened.
Personally, I think they should have dressed up like Native Americans, broken into a warehouse and stolen tea, and turned the rivers into a giant tea party. Although, I do like the idea of throwing marbles into the street too. This is why discussing even ridiculous things is no longer safe in America.
cd
ST. PAUL (Reuters) – Anarchists discussed kidnapping delegates and practiced throwing Molotov cocktails to disrupt the Republican National Convention, according to court documents released on Wednesday.
Eight people, described as leaders of the “RNC Welcoming Committee,” an anarchist group, were charged with felony riot, which carries up to a five-year prison sentence as St. Paul courts processed the 300 people arrested in protests during the presidential nominating convention’s first two days.
Separately, U.S. authorities said they had charged a 23-year-old from the state of Michigan with possessing Molotov cocktails, which they said he had planned to use to cut off power at the convention hall.
The documents painted a chilling picture of the plans behind Monday’s unrest, when a few hundred black-clad protesters smashed store windows and threw rocks and bottles at police, marring an otherwise peaceful antiwar march in the Minnesota capital.
“We have watched as a few lawless people tried to overshadow the peaceful protests and the exercise of free-speech rights by thousands of law abiding citizens,” Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said at a news conference.
Over the course of a year before the convention, the self-described anarchists appealed to like-minded groups in more than 67 cities and met several times to hash out plans, according to the charges.
A separate affidavit from undercover agents who infiltrated the group said members had discussed stretching chains across a nearby highway, kidnapping delegates and disrupting the convention with burning tires, urine and feces, and explosives including Molotov cocktails.
Other plans included posing as workers or volunteers to sneak into the convention hall and block its outside air intake vent. They discussed using street puppets to hide weapons, and throwing marbles to trip up police horses and pedestrians, the affidavit said.
Gaertner said her office had charged 16 adults and 5 juveniles with felonies ranging from destruction of property to obstruction of legal process.
Felony charges were dismissed against 27 of those who had been arrested, which Gaertner said was a function of the difficulty of building a case given the chaos of the confrontations. Another 47 were charged with lesser gross misdemeanor crimes, St. Paul city attorney John Choi said.
Roughly 20 of those arrested had refused to give their real names, Choi said.
More protests are expected on Thursday, when John McCain will accept the Republican nomination for the November 4 election.
Remember when Obama said that within 18 months of being sworn in he would have the troops home? Well, that was just the kind of bullshit we hear from other politicians. Really, you should vote for Ralph Nader if you believe in change, here is what Obama says now. He says he wants to bring the troops home except for 50,000 of them! He says he wants to bring the other troops home to Afghanistan.
Barack Obama’s plan to build up U.S. forces in Afghanistan while keeping perhaps 50,000 troops in Iraq has triggered a deep rift among antiwar activists, a reminder of the difficult tasking facing the presumptive Democratic nominee as he tries to broaden his appeal.
The Illinois senator wrapped up three days of tours and talks in the war-ravaged nations Tuesday, stressing in a news conference that the “situation in Afghanistan is perilous and urgent” and that “we should not wait any longer” to provide additional troops.
In Iraq, Obama won a tacit Iraqi endorsement of a plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops in 2010, but he also said that he backs leaving a residual force in Iraq to help train military personnel, provide security for U.S. interests and thwart terrorist threats. The residual force might total up to 50,000 troops, his campaign advisers have told reporters.
And as if that isn’t enough, he stands firmly on the side of the war mongering Israeli government. Frankly, I’m tired of my government and my tax dollars going to support a police state that is guilty of flagrant human rights abuses. The Israeli government doesn’t even have the decency to pretend that they are ashamed of the children and families they are slaughtering, starving, and causing to die of disease. As long as our government continues to send untold billions (maybe even trillions all told) of dollars to Israel, we deserve whatever happens to us in the United States. Let Israel pay for their own genocide and let me keep the 1/4 of my taxes that go towards killing people I have nothing against.
O! Boy! O! Bama! O! Bah-humbug!
Meanwhile 1 in 20 homes were foreclosed on in Merced county this year (166,000 + in the past year in California alone!) Do all these foreclosures mean the banks are holding a lot of real estate now? Does anyone know the answer to this?
And at least one prominent cancer researcher is saying that cell phones may indeed cause cancer, so use those headsets and speaker phone. By the way, just stop driving and holding the cell phone to your ear. It should be illegal and the fine should be huge, but beyond that, it’s dangerous to everyone including you and on top of that…you look incredibly stupid talking on your cellphone while you drive your massive bulldozer of an SUV with one hand…so listen tiny asian lady that can barely see over the wheel and old white guy with super thick glasses and tattoo covered hipsters…just stop it. It’s embarrassing to see you degrading yourselves this way….besides, to us that new i-phone you are trying to show off looks like it might be a remote control…the thought makes you look even more ridiculous.
I’m going to stop using the word awesome. Here’s some pretty good reasons why I’ve made this choice.
I’m pissed that I didn’t get one of those $300 checks that the government sent out to everyone. I know, I filed $0 on my taxes, didn’t pay any taxes, and still got $50 back (That’s fifty dollars that doesn’t go to killing people, instead it goes to buying watermelon and pizza). They should of sent me a check, I would have bought an i-Phone! Or joined the Masons! Or bought more watermelon and pizza. Or donated some of it to Ralph Nader. Maybe it’s still on the way.
Compare the issues among candidates here.
I had been considering voting for Obama. It’s created this sort of nauseated feeling in my gut as I’ve watched him swinging to the mainstream (sic. moderate Republican) view of things lately. A few examples are his recent support of a conservative supreme court decision regarding gun ownership, his kowtowing to religious and patriotic nutters, and his statements about how withdrawing troops from Iraq would be left up to field commanders. Not to mention his abandonment of his pledge to use public financing. I’ve never been in love with candidate Obama but I was considering voting for him as the least worst of the candidates available.
Until last night that is. Luckily for my integrity and churning guts, Ralph Nader showed up and spoke at the University of Hawaii last night. I voiced my fears to Nader, told him I had voted for him twice before (once writing him in on the Hawaii ballot in 2004) and that I wanted to vote for him but I was scared by what 8 years of Republican rule have already done to our country and that I felt we might not be able to survive another four years of it.
Nader asked where I was voting this year. I told him Hawaii. Then he laughed.
“You’re actually worried about Obama losing here? As long as we are in the electoral system, your vote only counts in Hawaii.”
I was confused at first but he explained it in further detail and I realized he was right. It is virtually impossible for Obama to lose in Hawaii and besides that, I’m not convinced that Obama is as big a change as he would have us believe anyway.
So I’m voting for Ralph Nader for the third time in three elections. For the record, here is my presidential voting record. In 1992 I voted for Ross Perot, this was my first election. I was voting not so much for Perot as for change and the inclusion of more than Republicans or Democrats in U.S. politics.
In 1996, I voted for Bill Clinton, I was drinking a lot in those days and couldn’t see far enough to find a viable third party candidate. Besides, I had just read Al Gore’s book and thought it was pretty cool that a Vice President could be an environmentalist.
In 2000 I voted for Bush…haha. Just kidding, I voted for Ralph Nader of course. Having just come off the highs of the WTO protests in 1999 and then having gone to the North American Anarchist Convention in L.A. during the Democratic Nominating Convention, I was not going to back the Democrats or Republicans despite the fact that I still had a soft spot for Al Gore. It was at this time that I really fell in love with the radical idealism of Ralph Nader. I saw him speak at several venues and everything he said resonated with me. In 2000, I am proud to say I voted for Ralph Nader. My vote for Nader was for Nader and everything he stands for…I wouldn’t change it.
In 2004, I voted for Nader again even though it virutally negated my vote here in Hawaii. I wrote him on the ballot here in Hawaii where he didn’t appear on the ballot and we don’t have a write in line. It’s my vote and it went to the man who I felt (and feel) is the most likely and able to put the United States back on the track of being a country I can be proud of.
And in 2008, I almost forgot that. A vote for Nader is not a vote for McCain, nor was it ever a vote for Bush. A vote for Nader is a vote for radical change in American politics. A vote for Nader is a vote for a man who has never had a credit card, never been in a McDonalds or Walmart (really!), and a vote for a man who started his life of public service by hitchhiking to Washington D.C. and getting autos made safe because he was tired of seeing his friends die in unsafe automobiles and who has continued to fight for principle, for truth, for liberty, and for justice for all, not just the few.
If Ralph Nader can show that he has 10% support in the country, he will be included in the Google debates with the major party candidates. If you want to see the candidates shaken to their core, pray for this to happen.
The event last night made me sad in a way, sad because I look at this great man and listen to his words and realize that my country could be great again if he were able to take the helm–and I see him being ignored by the mainstream media, being marginalized, and being villainized.
At the same time I feel this stirring of fire in my belly as I recognize that Ralph Nader has not given up, that he has not lost hope, and that he never will. This feeling that I get from this man who doesn’t hide from the nasty truth of our politics and yet who refuses to compromise his own values, politics, or ideals. This feeling is hope being born again, this feeling that is replacing the nausea I’ve been experiencing as Obama becomes like Clinton who is not really all that different from Bush…not really.
I’m going to vote for Nader…again. So should you. Ralph Nader is not a spoiler. In fact, he might be the only candidate that can prevent this entire country from going sour. Find out more and look at his platform at
Votenader.org
Nader in Hawaii- Link http://starbulletin.com/2008/07/04/news/story07.html
On a side note, if you haven’t seen Ralph Nader speak, you need to. He is funny, inspiring, and approachable. He knows the issues, he knows the dynamics of foreign politics and policies, and he is the only guy that cares about everyone…not just the members of his party.
I was just totally surprised and stoked to see this story from the AP. The obvious reason is that if you follow this blog, you have probably noticed that I am in favor of limited use of psychedelics. The less obvious reason is that when I started to read this story, I found that my friend Dede was quoted throughout and Dede is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Dede and I were members of the same writing group in Kailua a few years ago. Dede left the group when at 62 she met the love of her life, married him, and moved to his hometown in Rhode Island.
Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience.
Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they’d ever had.
Anyway, the short version of the news story is that the long term effects of taking magic mushrooms are positive. Read the long version here and know that Dede is one of the most savvy business people out there. She is not some trippy hippy despite her being friends with me.
Next up on the agenda today is to remind everyone in America that July is about much more than just Independence from Britain day. (And was that really such a good idea anyway? We’d be earning pounds if we were still British…) Here are just a few things that happened on July 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th
July 1: In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel reveal Evolution to the world.. The battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War began in 1863. In 1867- Canada almost got it’s independence from Britain- formally in 1982 though.
July 2: Ameilia Earhardt disappeared somewhere over the Pacific in an attempt to fly around the world in 1937.
President James Garfield (who ok’d the illegal overthrow of Hawaii) was assassinated by an anarchist in 1881.
Ernest Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun in 1961.
July 3: An Iranian passenger airline was shot down by U.S. missiles in 1988 290 civilians including 66 children were killed.
In 1971, Jim Morrison of The Doors died on this day.
July 4: Independence declared from the British by the 13 colonies in the New World.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe (U.S. Presidents all died–later on this day- that’s patriotism…come on John McCain!)
Speaking of McCain…General Wesley Clark is causing quite a stir by suggesting that being a soldier and a prisoner of war doesn’t make McCain qualified for President…the Republicans are making a big stink about this but give me a fucking break here… it definitely doesn’t. If that were the case a lot of the guys I see holding cardboard signs in big American cities have what it takes…maybe we need to look at them as other options here.
In fact, don’t listen to the blowhards because during an interview with National Journal in 2003, John McCain said that he ‘absolutely don’t believe’ that military service was necessary for the presidency, echoing Clarks comments. Shove that up your ass Fox News and then you decide if it needs more lube or not.
Well in any event, if you are having fun on the 4th and you drink a few too many, try not to:
1) Crash into the store you are going to buy beer from
2) Assault anyone with the hot dogs
3)Take the rowboat home
Have a Happy July Everyone and be safe. Remember..it’s all about the fireworks.
First of all, I’d like to invite everyone to bid on a bunch of books I’m selling on ebay. 35 books straight from my shelves in one lot starting at $9.99. Link is here.
Next I’d like to talk about fasting. The first three days of a ten day fast are the hardest. I’m not certain yet that I’m doing a ten day fast but this is the end of day 2 and let me tell you, I want to fucking eat. I’ve done the ten day master cleanse three times before so I know I can do it, but I remember from each time that this is the hardest part. After the third day, eating starts to seem…distasteful. Of course the worst part about these cleansing fasts is the part the cleanse refers to. You drink a lot of laxative tea at night, drink plenty of liquids, have a big glass of salt water in the morning and the result is…I need to go buy more toilet paper. The good thing is the feeling of increased energy, mental acuity, and overall goodness of flushing all the toxins out. I need to do this at the moment because during my walk around the island, I smoked, drank, and ate too much junk food. It adds up. So here I am…we’ll see how long I last.
As to tours, I’ve started my new job with Oahu Nature Tours. The tours are about a tenth as expensive for the customers as those I used to do for Carey Hawaii, and there are pluses and minuses to that. On the plus side, I never did a tour for pretty single European girls when it was $500 per day. On the minus side, well, a 10% tip at $50 instead of $500. I used to end my day with a hundred in tips, somehow I don’t think that is going to happen at the new job, but maybe I’ll sometimes end it hanging out with fun new people (in hot tubs?). Somehow the rich folks never bothered to get to know me since I was just their driver and guide.
Now, on to the news. Here is my favorite story of the day: The Chicken Bomb
SIMSBURY, Conn. – Authorities in Connecticut are wondering who stuffed a raw roasting chicken with a pipe bomb and left it on a roadside.
Simsbury police Capt. Matthew Catania says a motorist noticed the chicken Friday morning. He says the bomb was large enough to harm a person if it went off.
The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department’s bomb squad came and blew up the chicken.
Nobody was injured. No arrests had been made Monday night.
I wish I could have watched them blow up the chicken.
Speaking of chickens on Monday the US Fish and Wildlife department announced that they expect the Lesser Prairie Chicken to become endangered unless something changes in the way the bird is managed. Game and Fish lesser prairie chicken biologist Grant Beauprez said the department’s spring survey found that nearly 7,000 birds were counted. He said that number could rise once surveys done on BLM and private lands are added. Last year’s population was estimated at 6,300 birds.
There’s more news of course, but that’s all I have the energy for. The energy boost doesn’t kick in on this fast until after Day 3.
On Monday, Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. “Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” he said.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Tuskegee experiment, it involved 400 black men that the U.S. Public Health Service used as guinea pigs to see what the long term effects of syphilis were.
Wright recently retired from the church. He became an issue in Obama’s presidential bid when videos circulated of Wright condemning the U.S. government for allegedly racist and genocidal acts. In the videos, some several years old, Wright called on God to “damn America.” He also said the government created the AIDS virus to destroy “people of color.”
Wright and every other black person in the United States ( along with all the red, brown, pink, tan, yellow, and white persons) has more than enough of a reason to distrust the United States and to consider it capable of the most nefarious crimes against humanity. From the CIA selling drugs in inner cities to the assassination of MLK to genocide committed against Native Americans, Blacks, Japanese, Iraqis and Vietnamese. The United States has committed some of the worst crimes in history and continues to put profits ahead of people, to push a neo-conservative and racist agenda, and to use it’s ‘blood and treasure’ to destabilize governments and ideologies that it does not agree with. Hell yeah the chickens came home to roost and to Reverend Wright’s “God Damn America” this white man gives a hale and hearty “A-Men, Brother Wright.” Do I buy that the U.S. government started the AIDS virus or had a part in the bombing of the World Trade Center? No. As a veteran and once proud citizen, I can’t believe that, but I certainly acknowledge the possibility of both and that should be enough to exonerate Reverend Wright.
God bless you for saying what you believe Reverend.
Chris Damitio
For those interested below is a slightly more full context of Wright’s roosting speech than you’ve probably seen in the media..
“America’s chickens are coming home to roost! We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism! We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism! We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers. We bombed Gadafi’s home and killed his child. “Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against a rock!” We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hard-working people; mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima! We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye! Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians – not soldiers – people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yards! America’s chickens are coming home to roost! Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism.”
Number 9, your escort is ready!
Regardless of guilt or not, this entire thing is simply a way to keep you from thinking about things that matter: like the fact that Bush just vetoed a bill that would make it illegal for the United States to continue torturing prisoners; or the fact that oil continues to make new record highs while the dollar continues to make record lows; or the fact that the economy is in a flat spin and just might crash before summer is through; or that bombs are becoming more deadly in Iraq and body counts are going up again; or that Chinese researchers have just discovered that bird flu is mutating into something more deadly than it has been; or that a Key West street performer known as “Gold Man” was busted this week on a warrant charging him with selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer.
I love bicycles. Nice that no one was hurt or injured.
cd
NEW YORK – A small bomb caused minor damage to a landmark military recruiting station in the heart of Times Square before dawn Thursday, and police were searching for a hooded bicyclist seen on a surveillance video pedaling away.
The video shows the bicyclist getting off a bike at 3:40 a.m. Thursday and walking toward the building. A minute or so later, the person returned to the bike and rode away. A brief flash and a cloud of white smoke follows.
A bike, believed used in the crime, was later found in the trash on West 38th Street, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
