Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Zero Hedge: Propaganda, Lies, And War

Zero Hedge
VERBATIM POST



If I asked what the cause of the American Civil War was, would your first answer be slavery? Would it surprise you to know that slavery was only one grievance the South had with the Lincoln administration?

Up until the first bullet was fired on Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln had been leading a type of economic aggression to force the South into initiating the official version of the conflict. When Lincoln ran for president, his platform was based on Henry Clay-inspired mercantilism where he promised to maintain a high protective tariff that would serve Northern industrial interests while impoverishing the South’s still predominantly agrarian economy. This, of course, angered the South much like it did when John Quincy Adams imposed the same type of tariff in 1828 which lead to the Nullification Crisis. With the Morrill Tariff, which increased the tax on dutiable imports by about 70%, put in place by President Buchanan two days before he left office, the South stood ready to secede. After Lincoln’s inauguration, he began to maneuver the seceding South into firing the first shot by breaking a previously established agreement to not attempt to restock Fort Sumter. He secretly sent troops the Fort which escalated into what turned out to be the bloodiest war in American history. Lincoln’s close friend and confidante Senator Orville H. Browning would go on to write in his diary:

He told me that the very first thing placed in his hands after his inauguration was a letter from Major Anderson announcing the impossibility of defending or relieving Sumter. That he called the cabinet together and consulted General Scott—that Scott concurred with Anderson, and the cabinet, with the exception of PM General Blair were for evacuating the Fort and all the troubles and anxieties of his life had not equalled (sic) those which intervened between this time and the fall of Sumter. He himself conceived the idea, and proposed sending supplies, without an attempt to reinforce giving notice of the fact to Governor Pickens of S.C. The plan succeed. They attacked Sumter—it fell, and thus, did more service than it otherwise could.

Contrary to popular belief, the Civil War was not a fight over slavery but a fight over whether the South was allowed to secede from the union. Lincoln thought war would rally the North behind his special-interest driven agenda. The South sent numerous commissioners to Washington in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution to secession. Lincoln ignored all of them. As he stated in a letter addressed to Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

So why is this version of the Civil War not taught in public schools?

It’s a simple answer when you consider the driving force of statism.

When Randolph Bourne opined “war is the health of the state,” he was referring to how war is used as a means to enlarge the authority of government over everyday life. In times of war, the citizenry is told to sacrifice their material well being and freedom for the sake of winning the war and bringing the troops home. Taxes are raised, central banks inflate, governments borrow massive amounts of money, and economic resources are confiscated to be used in the war effort. War quickens the state’s march toward totalitarianism as it rallies the public into unquestioned obedience. Love of country replaces love of self and family. Mothers and fathers give up their sons (and now daughters) to fight in the state’s bloody crusade. The heads of government who initiated the conflict don’t let their offspring go and fight. Their pampered lifestyles usually don’t see the sacrifice taxpayers must endure.

Romanticized retellings of war assist in convincing the masses that the campaigns of murder carried out by political leaders were for the good of the nation. It enshrines the state as a life-saving guardian to those fortunate enough to not meet a gruesome death on the battlefield. In the case of the Civil War, Lincoln didn’t just save the union; he has forever made secession a nonviable solution to an overreaching Washington. Lincoln’s war of northern aggression turned these united States of America into the United States of America. It cost the equivalent of 6 million lives today for honest Abe to destroy the volunteerism which defined the union of the states in the decades that preceded the war.

Just as the Civil War was triggered by deceit, many of the wars or military conflicts of the past century have been fought based on the lies of a political class all too enamored with their own power and place in history.

Starting with World War I and Woodrow Wilson’s quest to “make the world safe for democracy,” the popularly spun tail is that America’s entering the conflict was in reaction to Germany sinking the supposedly innocent passenger vessel the Lusitania. After German subs sunk the ship, thereby killing women and children, popular support reversed and was now in favor of war. What wasn’t revealed immediately is that the Lusitania was really outfitted to carry armaments for the British. This was a strategy developed by then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill to bait a German attack and bring America into the fight. As classical liberal historian Ralph Raico writes:

The Lusitania was a passenger liner loaded with munitions of war; Churchill had given orders to the captains of merchant ships, including liners, to ram German submarines if they encountered them, and the Germans were aware of this. And, as Churchill stressed in his memoirs of World War I, embroiling neutral countries in hostilities with the enemy was a crucial part of warfare: “There are many kinds of maneuvres in war, some only of which take place on the battlefield. . . . The maneuvre which brings an ally into the field is as serviceable as that which wins a great battle.

Then there is the often neglected role big business, especially JP Morgan & Co, played in the propagandizing of the war. As one of the largest creditors and underwriters to war bonds issued by the governments of Britain and France, it was in the best interest of the House of Morgan to guarantee the Allies won the war. As the American economy drifted toward one of top-down command where government cartelized industry to ensure adequate munitions for war, big business was more than happy to play along as it meant stifling regulations placed on their small-time competitors and the opportunity to keep prices elevated. This perverted form of capitalism would serve as a model to Western nations from the war’s end to the present day. Murray Rothbard believed the first World War was really a victory for the fascist state:

More than any other single period, World War I was the critical watershed for the American business system. It was a “war collectivism,” a totally planned economy run largely by big-business interests through the instrumentality of the central government, which served as the model, the precedent, and the inspiration for state corporate capitalism for the remainder of the twentieth century.

The beginnings of World War II were engulfed by the same collusion of big business and government along with underhanded tactics to further chip away at the American public’s noninterventionist stance. The Morgans still had their financial ties with Britain and France while the Rockefellers wanted war with Japan since the country competed for raw materials in Southeast Asia. Both financial powerhouses lobbied for war early on. After Franklin Roosevelt was reelected on the platform of keeping America a neutral party, he set about provoking a Japanese attack sometime around the summer of 1941. This resulted in an oil embargo, the forceful limiting of exports, and freezing the country’s assets within the U.S. It was the equivalent of an economic fatal wound to resource-poor Japan. Not only that, but in recent years it has been confirmed that Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack and actually withheld key information from commanders at the naval base. As Vice Admiral and aid to the Secretary of the Navy Frank E. Beatty noted at the time:

Prior to December 7, it was evident even to me… that we were pushing Japan into a corner. I believed that it was the desire of President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt the Allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans to declare war on us failed; the conditions we imposed upon Japan—to get out of China, for example—were so severe that we knew that nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so severely that we could have known that she would react toward the United States. All her preparations in a military way—and we knew their over-all import—pointed that way.

Following World War II, every conflict the U.S. has engaged in has been either to the benefit of wealthy special interests or in reaction to its own misguided policies. The Cold War was a four decade long gift to the military industrial complex against a supposed world power that collapsed due to its state-run economy. The various bombings and occupations of Middle Easter countries which followed have only served as excuses to not end the flow of money into the pockets of politically connected military contractors. And the Iraq War, as everyone now knows, was based on the lie of Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction.

One would think with such a rich history of political patronage in the death industry, Americans would be adamantly opposed to war. Yet the usual players in Washington are once again pounding on the war drums in the name of spreading American values. The target this time is Iran and at least one presidential candidate in this fall’s election has vowed to use military force on a nation that hasn’t bowed down and kissed Uncle Sam’s jackboot. The problem is Iran has the hubris of refusing to be bullied around by the U.S. Such an attitude undermines American imperialism in front of the rest of the world. It must be stomped out by any means necessary.

And then there is the big financial push for an Iranian war going on behind the scenes. The pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been aggressively pushing for war and appealing to top lawmakers and the heads of Washington’s warmongering apparatus. President Obama has already assured the flush lobbying group that “the United States will not hesitate to attack Iran with military force to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” Department of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made the same promise. Just last week, 44 Senators, including many Democrats, sent an AIPAC letter to the President urging him to consider military action if Iran continues with its nuclear program. The letter essentially makes war the only option on the table as Glenn Greenwald of Salon points out:

This implication is clear: a military attack by the U.S. on Iran is at least justified, if not compelled, if a satisfactory agreement is not quickly reached regarding Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, the letter itself virtually ensures no such agreement is possible because the conditions it imposes as the “absolute minimum” are ones everyone knows Iran will never agree to (closing the Fordow facility and giving up its right to enrich uranium above 5 percent).

Not only is the push for war bipartisan, but much of the media establishment has been devoid of criticism of the constant war rhetoric. Even though Israel has nukes of its own, many of its supporters portray the country as a weakling in dire need of assistance from the bully of the Middle East schoolyard. Worse is the complete disregard of the fact that there is no actual evidence that Iran is concocting a nuclear weapon. According to the CIA’s own National Intelligence Estimate of 2007, Iran put a stop to the development of nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003. Other Western nations such as Germany, France, and Britain, deny the report’s conclusion. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gotten impatient of the reluctance by the U.S. thus far to act militarily against Iran. Like a good politician, he wants prestige without the dirty work. That’s what America is for.

Despite already being engaged in drone wars in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and still occupying Afghanistan, the U.S. is being duped into yet another war based on shaky evidence and at the behest of deep-pocketed special interests. This is coming even while a secretive cyber war already being waged to damage Iran’s nuclear capability. According to the Pentagon, “computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war.” Not only that, but the draconian sanctions thus far placed on Iran are doing enormous harm to the citizens who hardly have a say in what their government does. The Belgium-based SWIFT payment system that facilitates most international payments has already denied service to many Iranian banks. With the imposing of an oil embargo from the European Union just around the corner (July 1st) that will all but make it impossible for oil tankers to be insured by Lloyd’s of London, an actual naval blockade is being floated by U.S. lawmakers. Much like the Antebellum South and Japan, Iran too is being pushed into a corner.

What makes the campaign to extend the War on Terror to Iran is that the anti-American sentiment in the higher echelons of its government are only a consequence of previous meddling. After Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry in 1953, British Petroleum used the CIA to overthrow the popular leader and put the Shah back in power whose authoritarian rule would be financially supported by the U.S. up to the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Then and now, wealthy special interests are a driving force behind American imperialism. Lies will be spun till they are seen as facts. When the truth comes out, the irreparable damage will already be done. Like anything the state lays its filthy hands on, war is a racket. The beneficiaries of the ruling class’s gleeful foray into mass murder are few in number. The masses, still brainwashed into feverish nationalism, end up paying the costs with their pilfered income, eroded liberty, and, ultimately, their own lives.

As Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his seminal essay War Is A Racket

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

The only weapon against such an immoral system of mass murder and cronyism is to know the truth and to not fall ill with the fever of war.

Damn, if this ain't us.......

Via Survival


"When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt

The 11th Annual Eastern Sam Davis Youth Camp

Simply wonderful as always. The second year in a row at this location which was unusual. Activities included riflery, archery, swimming, canoeing, zip-lining, rock climbing, miniature golf, ball room dancing and really, really good Southern food. The 7 hours of classroom instruction each day included unvarnished history, leadership, etiquette and deportment. Doors were held open for the fairer sex who were never touched except when dancing. Yes Ma'am, no Ma'am, yes Sir, no Sir were compulsory. Just a wonderful yearly camp which makes everyone clamor to return. This was Dixie's sixth year. Woodman Of The Wood Family Activity Center in Thaxton, VA.

Sam Davis Youth Camp 2012 & SDYC 2011 to the music of General Lee's Grand March






































Dixieland & The Sam Davis Youth Camp


Sam Davis Youth Camp 2010 & Flora MacDonald College


Pastor John Weaver on The Death of Sam Davis


Pastor Williams on The World & Times of Jesse James


Pictures From The Sam Davis Youth Camp 2008


Pastor John Weaver's Confederate related sermons

Lightning Washington and prisoners: Good God Almighty (1933)



"Lightning" Washington and prisoners, recorded by John A. and Alan Lomax at Darrington State Prison Farm, Sandy Point, Texas, December 1933.

In 1933, with the support of Macmillan Publishers and the Music Division of the Library of Congress, John A. Lomax made the first of his field-recording trips through the American South. Joined by his seventeen-year-old son Alan, Lomax visited some of the most notorious Southern penitentiaries — among them Sugar Land in Texas; Angola in Louisiana; Parchman Farm in Mississippi — where he knew anachronistic strains of African American folk-song would be preserved away from the influence of the radio, the phonograph, and cross-pollination with whites. The Lomaxes recorded the songs of timber and ground-clearing gangs, chants of the road and railroad crews, solo field hollers with their roots running deep into the antebellum south; they also recorded comic songs, blues, and spirituals. By late 1934, they had recorded dozens of singers and hundreds of songs — "poetic expressions," as Lomax described them, "of pungent wit, simple beauty, startling imagery, extraordinary vividness and power."

"Jail House Bound," a production of West Virginia University Press, collects the earliest of the Lomaxes' prison recordings — made between July and December 1933 in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee — drawing on new remasters from the fragile original acetate discs. The album is introduced by noted American music scholar Mark Allen Jackson (author of "Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie"). Released digitally (May 15, 2012) by Global Jukebox in collaboration with the West Virginia University Press.

Attorney asks judge to have Obama vetted


Just make sure Barack Obama meets the requirements of the Constitution to be president.

That’s essentially what a lawsuit pending before a Florida judge is seeking, according to attorney Larry Klayman, who has proposed to Judge Terry Lewis an order the judge could adopt, excerpt, or reject.

Lewis, who is best known for presiding over the 2000 Bush v. Gore election dispute, is credited with making crucial rulings in that case.

Klayman filed the current challenge to Obama’s eligibility for the ballot on behalf of Michael Voeltz, who identifies himself in the complaint as “a registered member of the Democratic Party, voter, and taxpayer in Broward County.”

A video of the most recent hearing in the case, when Obama’s attorneys argued he’s not the Democratic nominee for president yet, is available online.

In a proposed memorandum opinion and order Klayman has just submitted to the judge, he asks for a determination that Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner “has an affirmative duty to determine the eligibility of defendant Obama before his name is placed on the Florida primary or general election ballots, or before the presidential electors for the state of Florida cast their votes after the 2012 general election should he ‘win’ the Florida presidential election.”

Klayman suggests that the court issue “preliminary and permanent injunctions

More @ WND

Jury Nullification Law Signed by New Hampshire Governor


With all the buzz and anticipation surrounding the final rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court the past week, there has been little attention to an interesting legal development in New Hampshire: On June 18, Governor John Lynch (no relation) signed HB 146 into law and it becomes effective on January 1, 2013. HB 146 concerns “the right of a jury to judge the application of the law in relationship to the facts in controversy.” It’s popularly known as “the jury nullification bill.” In this post, I will try to explain what impact this new law may have in the New Hampshire courts.

By way of background, Cato co-published the most comprehensive book on this subject back in 1998, Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine by Clay Conrad. So pick that up if you’re interested in the full legal and historical treatment. If you’re not ready for the book, do check out this book review by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds.

For purposes of this post, I am going to sidestep the question of whether or not jury nullification is a good idea. My purpose is not to “make the case for HB 146.” Rather, my purpose is to briefly explain what jury nullification is, provide a very brief history of the law on that subject, and, finally, explain how the recently enacted statute in New Hampshire may alter existing law and practices there.

More @ CATO

Judge Refuses To Block Florida Voter Purge



A federal judge has refused to stop Florida from removing potentially non-U.S. citizens from its rolls.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state to halt the purge, arguing it was going on too close to a federal election.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said Wednesday that there was nothing in federal voting laws that prevent the state from identifying non-U.S. citizens even if it comes less than 90 days before the Aug. 14 election.

More @ Huff Post

Clerk loses job over stand. Won’t take welfare card for cigarettes

Via III Percent Patriots

Jackie R. Whiton of Antrim had been a six-year employee at the Big Apple convenience store in Peterborough until a single transaction sent her job up in smoke.

The store clerk was fired after she refused to take a customer’s Electronic Balance Transfer card to pay for cigarettes.

Whiton said a young man came in to the store to buy two packs or cigarettes on May 29. When she asked him for his ID, he handed her his EBT card.

EBT cards are used for both food and cash assistance programs. There are two types of cards: one can only be used for food. The other can be spent on anything and used just like a debit card.

Whiton said she did not think EBT cards could be used to purchase cigarettes and refused to sell to him. The two “had a little go-around” as the line got longer behind him, said Whiton.

“I made the statement, ‘do you think myself, that lady and that gentlemen should pay for your cigarettes?’ and he responded ‘yes,’ ” Whiton said.

More @ Sentinel Source

Switzerland has established three thousand points of demolition.

Via Survival

Ticino, Switzerland

"A dictator enjoys unrestrained power over the people. The legislative and judicial branches voluntarily cede this power or it’s taken by force. Most of the time, it’s given up easily, out of fear in time of war and civil disturbances, and with the support from the people, although the dictator will also accumulate more power with the use of force."
-- Congressman Ron Paul
=======

That is the number officially printed. It has been suggested to me that to approximate a true figure a reader ought to multiply by two.

The Swiss are completely willing to do whatever it takes to make an invasion tiresome and difficult for possible invaders. They've also planned on making that hypothetical a particularly deadly one.

Where a highway bridge crosses a railroad, a segment of the bridge is programmed to drop on the railroad. Primacord fuses are built into the bridge. Hidden artillery is in place on either side, set to prevent the enemy from clearing or repairing the damage.

Near the German border of Switzerland, every railroad and highway tunnel has been prepared to pinch shut explosively. Nearby mountains have been made so porous that whole divisions can fit inside them.

Manaugh describes how the Alps have seen significant subterranean construction, and that Switzerland built titanic underground fortresses to withstand an attack, all hidden below sleepy villages.

More @ Business Insider

CADD Graphics

NC PATCON April 27 - 29 2012

David De Gerolamo's BofA presentation.

CADD Graphics is David De Gerolamo's busines

Custom gallery: image 4 0f 20 thumb
Custom gallery: image 18 0f 20 thumb

Obama excludes 11 million Hispanics from his dinner table


President Barack Obama is excluding people who lack citizenship or residency from his fundraising dinner tables, even though he is also inviting at least 800,000 illegal immigrants to compete against Americans for the few available jobs.

The president’s profiling is found in the fine print of his emailed invites to potential donors. Typically, the solicitations ask people to donate $3 in exchange for a chance to win a dinner with him, Michelle Obama and perhaps some other wealthy donors, such as Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

But his solicitations profile would-be entrants to exclude those who might damage Obama’s popularity with critical voting blocs, including blue collar swing-voters and African-Americans.

The dinner table “promotion [is] open only to U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of 50 United States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and 18 or older,” said the legalese in a June 26 solicitation.

That exclusion bars roughly 11 million Hispanics who are in the country illegally, as well as many Asians, Africans and Europeans who do not have residency or citizenship.

Obama’s fellow progressives have long argued that any exclusion of illegal immigrants is bigotry.

More @ The Daily Caller

Field Marshal Rodham

Via Western Rifle Shooters Association

"That statement is key. Hillary herself stayed out of all meetings dealing with strategy...Hillary's absence would give the impression that she had no connection to the scheme while making sure that her views were represented by Steinberg and Shapiro, both of whom were fully complicit with the details that developed concerning how to pad statistics on U.S. guns in Mexico..."
What if she played the whole thing discreetly as she could from the sidelines at State, waiting for it to blow up in Obama's face?

She's that sharp.

Never take your eye off her. Never, ever.

Police brutality worse than Rodney King - Official Robert Leone Updates



Media contacts and more information:: http://www.worsethanrodneyking.com
Actual state police dashcam video and audio of recent brutal Pennsylvania State Police beating of shackled detainee. Other than not stopping when directed, this incident involved no serious traffic violations and was simply the low speed following of a car that would not pull over.




Unplugged Metal Detector Triggers JFK Chaos. These fools are keeping us safe?!?

Gates Of Vienna
VERBATIM POST

Cultural Enrichment News

Under normal circumstances I would have left this story from The New York Post for the news feed. However, interested readers should take a look at the text and note the name of the TSA employee whose job skills do so much to enrich the security of the American homeland.

JFK is not the only airport on which the benefits of cultural enrichment have been so amply bestowed. Do a little “profiling” of TSA employees the next time you pass through Dulles, Philly, Logan, or any number of other major international airports. And if you think it’s bad here, try flying into Heathrow.
Unplugged Metal Detector Triggers JFK Chaos

These fools are keeping us safe?!?


The TSA’s bungling reached a new low yesterday when a JFK Airport terminal had to be evacuated and hundreds of passengers marched back through security screening all because one dimwitted agent failed to realize his metal detector had been unplugged, sources told The Post.

The stunning error led to hours of delays, two planes called back from the runway and infinite frustration for furious passengers.

“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source said.

“How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”

The chaos at Terminal 7 was caused by screener Alija Abdul Majed, who had manned Lane No. 1 during the morning shift with no idea his metal detector had no juice, sources said.

Amazingly, he failed to realize that alert lights never flashed once as streams of passengers filed through the dead detector, the sources said.

Majed was so clueless that he couldn’t even tell police how long the machine had been shut off or how it happened, the sources said. “It was simply an unplugged machine — the TSA doing its best,” another source said.
Higher-ups at the Transportation Security Administration finally discovered the security boondoggle at 9:44 a.m. — leaving the Port Authority with no choice but to call for a complete evacuation of the international terminal that is home to British Airways, Cathay Pacific, United Airlines and others.

The extraordinary measure meant that two jumbo jets — including a San Francisco-bound United flight — had to return to the gate so passengers could be rescreened at a metal detector that was actually turned on.

The TSA would not confirm or deny that its detector had been unplugged, releasing a statement saying only that a metal detector suffered a “malfunction.”…