Thursday, January 5, 2012
Former Senior NSA Official Says America Is Under Tyranny
Former senior NSA official Thomas Drake gave an impassioned and angry speech about the degeneration of America from a free society into a fascist police state at the 2011 Sam Adams Award on November 21, 2011.
The event was hosted in Washington by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII), a group of former CIA officers who annually select "an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics," (Wikipedia).
Drake was recognized by the SAAII for protecting the public interest by whistleblowing about warrantless wiretapping and government fraud at the National Security Agency.
Jesselyn Radack, director of the Government Accountability Project, a top whistleblower protection organization, was a co-recipient of the 2011 SAAII award. Past recipients include Coleen Rowley and Sibel Edmonds of the FBI, Lt. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, and British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray.
In his speech, Drake quoted leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, and said that the technology exists to make George Orwell's 1984 a 21st century reality.
Drake said that his fight against the government in post-9/11 America reminded him of his time in East Germany. He said, "I used to monitor East Germany when I flew a RC-135 during the latter part of the Cold War, an absolutely fascist state. Given what I've experienced over the past number of years I have a lot of bad memories."
The event was hosted in Washington by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII), a group of former CIA officers who annually select "an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics," (Wikipedia).
Drake was recognized by the SAAII for protecting the public interest by whistleblowing about warrantless wiretapping and government fraud at the National Security Agency.
Jesselyn Radack, director of the Government Accountability Project, a top whistleblower protection organization, was a co-recipient of the 2011 SAAII award. Past recipients include Coleen Rowley and Sibel Edmonds of the FBI, Lt. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, and British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray.
In his speech, Drake quoted leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, and said that the technology exists to make George Orwell's 1984 a 21st century reality.
Drake said that his fight against the government in post-9/11 America reminded him of his time in East Germany. He said, "I used to monitor East Germany when I flew a RC-135 during the latter part of the Cold War, an absolutely fascist state. Given what I've experienced over the past number of years I have a lot of bad memories."
Rifleman
Rifleslinger runs a blog over at Art of the Rifle. The writing is clear, intelligent and original. He was kind enough to allow us to run this essay on our blog with this personal disclaimer from him which I wish to honor:
“While I do not consider myself anti-government or anarchistic, I respect the free exchange of ideas, and the civil manner in which ideas are expressed in the articles published here. It is in that spirit that I humbly submit the following.”
I use the word “Rifleman” in the following text as a general term that could also be interpreted as “warrior”, “knight”, “patriot, “samurai”, “protector” or any number of other terms. At any rate, mere skill at rifle marksmanship is not what I’m talking about, and any number of other skill sets may fit the following description.
If you’re reading this for pleasure, you’re very likely a rifleman or an aspiring rifleman (I include women in the word “rifleman” because I remember what proper English is, even though I seldom speak it). If you’re a rifleman, you might have thought about what all your hard won skill might be useful for. So have I.
The rifleman in modern society is akin to a ham radio in a smart phone world.
Hospitals Stuck With Illegal Immigrants, Uninsured ‘Permanent Patients’ at Massive Cost
Via Tom
An unpleasant new report claims that many hospitals in major metro areas are struggling with the growing problem of “permanent patients.”
What’s a “permanent patient”? According to the New York Times they are mostly illegal immigrants or people who lack insurance or their own housing that the hospital cannot turn away.
The Times defines a “permanent patient”:
…[someone who has] been languishing for months or even years in…hospitals, despite being well enough to be sent home or to nursing centers for less-expensive care, because they are illegal immigrants or lack sufficient insurance or appropriate housing.
Of course, having dozens of patients hanging around that long means these hospitals are absorbing the bill for millions of dollars in unreimbursed expenses annually.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of these “permanent patients” are illegal immigrants because, as mentioned in the above, they have no housing or family in the area.
“Medicaid often pays for emergency care for illegal immigrants, but not for continuing care, and many hospitals in places with large concentrations of illegal immigrants, like Texas, California and Florida, face the quandary of where to send patients well enough to leave,” writes Sam Roberts of the Times.
What kind of cost are we talking about here?
“Care for a patient languishing in a hospital can cost more than $100,000 a year, while care in a nursing home can cost $20,000 or less [emphasis added],” Roberts reports.
Patients fit to be discharged from hospitals but having no place to go typically remain more than five years, says LaRay Brown, a senior vice president for New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.
She says that there were about 300 patients in such a predicament throughout the New York City area alone, most in public hospitals or higher-priced skilled public nursing homes, though a few were in private hospitals, according to the Times.
“Many of those individuals no longer need that care, but because they have no resources and many have no family here, we, unfortunately, are caring for them in a much more expensive setting than necessary based on their clinical need,” said Brown.
The report goes on to cite an example where one patient from Queens, NY, has been at the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility for 13 years because the hospital has no place to send him.
The patient, who is in his mid-60s, has been there since an arterial disease cost him part of one leg below the knee and left him in a wheelchair, according to the report.
Or another example:
Five years ago, Yu Kang Fu, 58, who lived in Flushing, Queens, and was a cook at a Chinese restaurant in New Jersey, was dropped off by his boss at New York Downtown Hospital, a private institution in Manhattan, complaining of a severe headache. Mr. Yu was admitted to the intensive-care unit with a stroke.
Mr. Yu remained in the hospital for over four years until he was transferred last spring to the Atlantis Rehabilitation and Residential Health Care Facility, a private center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, after the federal government certified him as a “permanent resident under color of law,” essentially acknowledging that he could not be returned to China and qualifying him for medical benefits.
“This gentleman cost us millions of dollars,” said Jeffrey Menkes, the president of New York Downtown. “We try to provide physical, occupational therapy, but this is an acute-care hospital. This patient shouldn’t be here.”
The Fabian Society
On 4 January 1884 the socialist Fabian Society was founded in London. Their coat of arms is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Think that little tidbit of history means nothing to you? Think again. You live in a socialist country & a socialist world. The Fabians won. Our job is to undo all their work.
Amen.
Passer-by shoots out window to help rescue children from icy river crash
Via Survival
Former police officer Chris Willden didn't hesitate when he realized children were trapped in an upside down car in an icy Utah river. He pulled his handgun, pushed it up against the submerged windows and shot out the glass.
Then he reached inside.
"I was trying to grab arms, but I couldn't feel anything," Willden said. "I'm thinking ... what are we going to do?'"
But he turned to see up to eight other passers-by had scrambled down the embankment to help after coming upon the accident along U.S. 89 in Logan Canyon on Saturday afternoon.
Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward said that after shooting out a window, Willden cut a seatbelt to free one child.
Punching Down
In a comment on Fjordman’s open letter to the Norwegian prime minister, Whiskey had this to say:
This is an excellent analysis of what is happening in Norway and the rest of the Multicultural West. Fear is in the air.
Fear of what Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff had to say about Islam prompted the Austrian authorities to prosecute her for “denigrating” the Religion of Peace.
Fear of Tommy Robinson’s grassroots appeal has driven the British government to suppress him and the English Defence League with all the force of the law, the state, and the media.
Fearing the truths told by Geert Wilders, the Dutch government prosecuted the PVV leader, and when that failed, prosecuted him again.
In Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Australia, and Belgium, ordinary citizens and politicians alike have been harassed or prosecuted for speaking out against Islamization and mass immigration.
Fjordman drew more wrath than most, and not just because of Anders Behring Breivik, whose murderous spree made Fjordman a convenient scapegoat and placed him in the crosshairs of the Norwegian state. Fjordman does not just criticize immigration, Multiculturalism, and Islam: he also flenses the protective skin from the modern socialist welfare state, revealing its rotten totalitarian entrails.
His core message — that the traditional nations and cultures of Europe are being systematically and deliberately destroyed by the continent’s traitorous leaders — must be suppressed and discredited at all costs. Hence the fear. Hence the “disproportionate response”. Hence the no-holds-barred attacks on people like Fjordman.
The ad-hominoids sent by the state media to do battle with Fjordman were no match for his erudition and expert analysis, so Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg himself was dispatched to denounce the young upstart in a speech to the nation.
That’s the sorry pass to which Norway has come.
And not just Norway: the rest of Europe as well.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In its attempt to destroy Fjordman and people like him, the European establishment is thwarting a last-ditch attempt to prevent its own destruction.
The PM is scared. Very scared. Why else “punch downwards” at ... a blogger?
Really? It would be like Obama complaining about... Ace of Spades or Steve Sailer.
I think Glenn Reynolds wrote about this ... totalitarian states (Norway no exception) suppress real opinions and then, when weak, suffer “preference collapse” as true opinion becomes known. See Egypt, Libya, many places in China.
The PM is scared. When the EU collapses, and China bids up food prices even higher, no one will want to die for PC and multiculturalism. Neither will they want to be poor and starve for it (so Muslims coming as conquerors can have more). The easiest solution in hard times is to kick out the outsiders — Muslims.
This is elementary, and someone on the Left claiming a national mantle will obviously claim it. Hence the fear, and making an example of Fjordman. That’s extraordinary.
Punching down.
This is an excellent analysis of what is happening in Norway and the rest of the Multicultural West. Fear is in the air.
Fear of what Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff had to say about Islam prompted the Austrian authorities to prosecute her for “denigrating” the Religion of Peace.
Fear of Tommy Robinson’s grassroots appeal has driven the British government to suppress him and the English Defence League with all the force of the law, the state, and the media.
Fearing the truths told by Geert Wilders, the Dutch government prosecuted the PVV leader, and when that failed, prosecuted him again.
In Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Australia, and Belgium, ordinary citizens and politicians alike have been harassed or prosecuted for speaking out against Islamization and mass immigration.
Fjordman drew more wrath than most, and not just because of Anders Behring Breivik, whose murderous spree made Fjordman a convenient scapegoat and placed him in the crosshairs of the Norwegian state. Fjordman does not just criticize immigration, Multiculturalism, and Islam: he also flenses the protective skin from the modern socialist welfare state, revealing its rotten totalitarian entrails.
His core message — that the traditional nations and cultures of Europe are being systematically and deliberately destroyed by the continent’s traitorous leaders — must be suppressed and discredited at all costs. Hence the fear. Hence the “disproportionate response”. Hence the no-holds-barred attacks on people like Fjordman.
The ad-hominoids sent by the state media to do battle with Fjordman were no match for his erudition and expert analysis, so Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg himself was dispatched to denounce the young upstart in a speech to the nation.
That’s the sorry pass to which Norway has come.
And not just Norway: the rest of Europe as well.
In its attempt to destroy Fjordman and people like him, the European establishment is thwarting a last-ditch attempt to prevent its own destruction.
Skiing Downhill Into The Lost Decade
Verbatim Post
GSTAAD—For a cultural pessimist such as myself, things have never looked rosier. With economic depression, unemployment, environmental disasters, and endless armed conflicts, modern civilization’s final destruction is nigh. As a prophet of pessimism, I can hardly conceal my glee at being right, but I pray nonstop that I’m wrong.
That there’s a cultural decay in a declining West is hardly worth debating. A powerless and increasingly cretinized citizenry has been brainwashed into a state of domesticated conformity, with unelected technocrats totally controlling their lives.
Even the super-rich are basically slaves. Bernie Ecclestone may be a billionaire four times over, but he’s a small man in many respects, chained to his BlackBerry as he drives himself around Gstaad oblivious to the fact he might get lost in a snowdrift. Another neighbor just bought his wife a $45-million Gulfstream V to go along with her latest plastic surgery. A Saudi has carved his family tree outside his chalet—thank God the tree is short and so ugly, even dogs won’t pee on it. And the poor little Greek boy has wasted three months of hard training by going on a weeklong Karamazovian binge. But rumors of Roman Abramovich having bought in Gstaad are untrue, and thank God he remains with his entourage far away in St Barts. (Further good news is that the onetime plastic-duck salesman’s hard-earned stolen moolah is not helping his football team much.)
“As a prophet of pessimism, I can hardly conceal my glee at being right, but I pray nonstop that I’m wrong.”
Gstaad’s locals can’t seem to be bothered either way. The disgustingly glitzy nouveaux riche’s motto around these parts seems to be, “What—me worry?”
What everyone’s talking about here is—surprise, surprise—the euro. The doomed currency’s latest frantic prop-up has the morons seeing glimmers of hope and plunging into stocks, bonds, and commodities, thus pushing prices higher. Then the bad news emerges and nervous investors dump their positions quicker than you can say, “sucker.” Then the whole cycle begins all over again. Yet they continue to discuss it ad nauseam everywhere, driving sensitive souls such as myself to the highest slopes to get away from these so-called Wall Street geniuses.
The Gstaad elite hasn’t noticed the latest insult the Brussels crooks foisted on us. The EU now claims to allow for blocs to make changes in order to head off veto trouble. It is yet another ploy, another trick, another big lie, as cynical as the one that saw nations vote and vote again until the Lisbon Treaty was approved. What they mean by “less EU” is there will be more Germany and France regulating our lives. Can you imagine being told how to live by an egregious megalomaniac midget such as Sarkozy and a German frau who would make love to her own husband in an orgy?
More austerity measures will only fuel political and social tensions. Take it from Taki. This will be known as the Lost Decade, with Southern Europe becoming more of a basket case, if that is possible. Global governance sounds like a grand idea, but it is a sucker’s game played by con men and would-be tinpot dictators with a small “d.” We are the cretins whose elite leaders think today’s issues are too complex for our tiny brains, much less our informed consent. Look at the diplomats around Geneva and Brussels in their limos, first-class air travel, and extravagant salaries. Not one of these bums has given up any of their material comforts, yet they demand austerity. And you-know-who pays their expenses.
When I read of a Greek mother begging for some insulin for her diabetic son because she couldn’t afford it—doctors had lucrative deals with drug manufacturers who insist on up-front payment—I came close to losing it. Greece’s fat cats continue to get fatter; not a single crook has gone to jail or even been charged, yet the obese socialist finance minister called Venizelos demands more sacrifices.
Greece will go down, as will Portugal and most likely Italy, then I hope Europe splinters and the euro goes the way of Haiti’s currency, whatever that is. Am I being too pessimistic? I don’t think so.
Take Gstaad’s latest import, Madonna, who dropped by for the holidays with some youngsters in tow who made Michael Jackson look like a gerontophile. Someone sat next to her at dinner and told me she was polite and pleasant. She even skied. Yet it’s people such as her who made their reputation by using decadent images of sadomasochism—extolling barbarism, crudeness, and anti-Christian attitudes—to generate an antibourgeois image. She deprecated and vilified most things that bourgeois people hold sacred, made her millions, and now can relax among us here in Gstaad enjoying our bourgeois comforts. And why not? Our society encourages people to deliberately invert what’s bad to good.
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