September 2014 – Page 175

The US Guide To Middle-Eastern Terror Groups (In 1 Cartoon)

…subject to change indeed…

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GaSNoST EXPLaiNeD…

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Asian Property Prices Are Falling “As If There’s A Global Financial Crisis”

With China’s property developers slashing prices, piling on incentives, and still seeing sales slump; it is no surprise that demand from the top to the bottom across Asia is falling. As Reuters reports, even Singapore’s Sentosa Cove (the man-made island resort billed as Asia’s Monte Carlo) is eerily silent as the billionaires seem to be staying away with prices down over 20-30% in the past year. New mortgage business is down over 40% as “the rential can’t even cover the mortgage anymore.” As one analyst notes, “the tables have turned,” adding rather ominously that, “The way prices have fallen, it’s as if there is a global financial crisis.”

China’s property plunge continues…

Source: @M_McDonough

And appears to be spreading to Singapore… (as Reuters reports)

There’s an eerie silence at night in Sentosa Cove, the man-made island resort billed as Singapore’s answer to Monte Carlo and the only place in the country where foreigners can buy landed property.

Dozens of houses – complete with their own private yacht berths and multiple swimming pools – sit empty while few lights are on in the apartment blocks overlooking the marina, a few kilometres away from Sentosa’s giant casino.

Prices in the gated community, where Australian mining tycoons Gina Rinehart and Nathan Tinkler bought properties, fell around 20 percent in the past year as lending restrictions and taxes on foreign buyers burst a bubble in the Southeast Asian financial hub’s luxury real estate market.

…

“Some of the earlier buyers are likely to have bought at prices 20 to 30 percent above current prices,” said Christine Li, head of research at property consultancy OrangeTee.

“The rental can’t even cover the mortgage for these high-end investments – they want to offload but there are no takers.”

…

Some in the luxury property industry fear foreign buyers have gone for good.

But the problems are growing rapidly…

United Overseas Bank, Singapore’s third-biggest lender, last month reported a doubling in its bad debt charges for the second quarter, saying a group of investors was struggling to service high-end property loans.

The number of residential properties being put up for sale at auction by banks after buyers defaulted on mortgages, known as mortgagee sales, quadrupled to 64 in the first half of this year from 16 in the second half of 2013, according to real estate agency Colliers.

“This is different from previous years, when owners’ sales dominated auctions,” said Joy Tan, head of auctions at DTZ.

“The tables have turned and we expect more mortgagee sales on the way.”

As bad as it gets…

“The way prices have fallen in Sentosa, it’s as if there is a global financial crisis,” said Alan Cheong, head of Singapore research at property firm Savills.

And finally – summing it all up perfectly…

“Sentosa happens to be a development targeted at a time when the world was leveraging up but now that we have deleveraged, there is a much smaller pool of people who can afford it,” Savills’ Cheong said.

That, combined with the end of the “easy money” seen before the 2008 financial crisis, may mean the quiet on Sentosa Cove’s streets is here to stay.

* * *
Nope, no state-sponsored mal-investment malaise here at all…

But do not fear – we are sure any fallout from this will be “contained”

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Ron Paul: Perhaps Obama’s “Lack Of Strategy Is A Glimmer Of Hope”

Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity,

Last week President Obama admitted that his administration has not worked out a strategy on how to deal with the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a dominant force in the Middle East. However, as ISIS continues its march through Syria and Iraq, many in the US administration believe it is, in the words of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a threat “beyond anything we have ever seen.”

Predictably, the neocons attacked the president’s speech. They believe the solution to any problem is more bombs and troops on the ground, so they cannot understand the president’s hesitation.

Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon made it clear that fighting ISIS is going to cost a lot more money and will bring US forces back to Iraq for the third time. The post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan peace dividend disintegrates.

Mr. McKeon said last week:

ISIS is an urgent threat and a minimalist approach, that depends solely on FY15 funding or pinprick strikes that leave fragile forces in Iraq and Syria to do the hard fighting, is insufficient to protect our interests and guarantee our safety in time.

What does this mean in practice? If the neocons have their way, the Federal Reserve will “print” more money to finance another massive US intervention in the Middle East. In reality this means further devaluation of the US dollar, which is a tax on all Americans that will hit the poorest hardest.

A new US military incursion will not end ISIS; it will provide them with the recruiting tool they most crave, while draining the US treasury. Just what Osama bin Laden wanted!

McKeon and the other hawks act as if they had only recently become aware of the ISIS. Or if they noticed it, they pretend US policy had nothing to do with its rise.

McKeon also said last week, “ISIS threat was allowed to build and fester over a period of time.”

In fact, US regime change policy in Syria was directly responsible for the rise of ISIS over these past three years. As journalist Eric Margolis observed recently, the emergence of ISIS is the “mother of all blowback.” The neocons who want us to get tougher on ISIS, including a US attack on Syria, are the same ones who not long ago demanded that we support groups like ISIS to overthrow the Assad government in Syria. US-trained and funded “moderates” from the Free Syrian Army joined the Islamist militias including ISIS, taking US weapons and training with them.

Three years of supporting any force that might overthrow the secular government of President Assad has produced a new monster in the Middle East that neocons insist the US must slay.

Why can’t they just admit they were wrong? Why can’t the interventionists just admit that their support for regime change in Syria was a terrible and tragic mistake?

If ISIS is as big a threat as they claim, why can’t they simply ask Assad to help out? Assad has never threatened the United States; ISIS has. Assad has been fighting ISIS and similar Islamist extremist groups for three years.

Why does the US government insist on aligning with theocracies in the Middle East? If there is anything that contradicts the US Constitution and American values it is a theocratic government. I do not believe that a majority in the Middle East wants to live under such a system, so why do we keep pushing it on them? Is that what they call promoting democracy?

A lack of strategy is a glimmer of hope. Perhaps the president will finally stop listening to the neocons and interventionists whose recommendations have gotten us into this mess in the first place! Here’s a strategy: just come home.

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Back to the future

September 1, 2014
London, England

[Editor’s note: This missive was penned by Tim Price of PFP Wealth Management in the UK, a frequent contributor to Sovereign Man]

“Sir, Arnaud Montebourg, the former French economy minister and the sourest note in the Hollande repertoire, dares to complain of “absurd” austerity policies ? (“Hollande purges cabinet following leftwing revolt”, August 26.) If those policies are absurd, it is because they were not accompanied by the structural reforms so badly needed to make the French economy healthy. I am speaking of long outdated redundancy and seniority labour laws, oppressive regulations for the business sector and the unbearable bureaucratic roadblocks that stand in the way of start-ups.

“To these, one can also add the traditional Gallic mindset of envy, if not outright hostility, towards those French citizens and other Europeans who are willing to work longer, harder and smarter and want to make good money; a mindset that Mr Montebourg never hesitated to parade before the world. Now that he and his cohorts on the left of the Socialist party have departed the government, perhaps François Hollande can move forward and leapfrog France from the 19th to the 21st century.”
– Letter to the FT from Stan Trybulski, Branford, Connecticut, 28th August 2014.

“There’s a great deal of ruin in a nation.”
– Adam Smith.

“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”
– Thomas Sowell.

Much of what we think we know isn’t necessarily so. The invention of the printing press with movable type? Traditionally credited to fifteenth-century Germany and Johannes Gutenberg, it was actually invented in eleventh-century China. Paper also originated in China long before it was used in the West. As did paper money and toilet paper (albeit today, these are pretty much interchangeable). English agriculturalist Jethro Tull is widely credited with the discovery of the seed drill in 1701. It was in fact invented by the Chinese 2,000 years beforehand. The first blast furnace for iron smelting is associated with Coalbrookdale – tragically close to schools in the West Midlands. It was actually introduced by the Chinese before 200 BC. The Chinese were also first to use the fishing reel, matches, the magnetic compass, playing cards, the toothbrush and the wheelbarrow. Perhaps even golf. So how did a society apparently so dynamic and innovative by comparison with the West then enter a centuries’ long decline?

Niall Ferguson, in his excellent book ‘Civilization’ (Penguin, 2012) puts forward six “identifiably novel complexes of institutions and associated ideas and behaviours” that account for the cultural and economic outperformance of the West between, say, the 16th and 20th centuries:

Competition
Science
Property rights
Medicine
The consumer society
The work ethic

He defines these trends as follows:

Competition: “a decentralization of both political and economic life, which created the launch-pad for both nation-states and capitalism”.
Science: “a way of studying, understanding and ultimately changing the natural world, which gave the West (among other things) a major military advantage over the Rest”.
Property rights: “the rule of law as a means of protecting private owners and peacefully resolving disputes between them, which formed the basis for the most stable form of representative government”.
Medicine: “a branch of science that allowed a major improvement in health and life expectancy, beginning in Western societies, but also in their colonies”.
The consumer society: “a mode of material living in which the production and purchase of clothing and other consumer goods play a central economic role, and without which the Industrial Revolution would have been unsustainable”.
The work ethic: “a moral framework and mode of activity derivable from (among other sources) Protestant Christianity, which provides the glue for the dynamic and potentially unstable society created by “killer apps” 1 to 5”.

For our purposes we are most interested in Ferguson’s first “killer app”, Competition. But we will also refer to it in a slightly different context – “the lack of bureaucracy”. As the chart below shows, from 1000 AD to its high water mark in the 1960s, UK GDP relative to China’s was a one-way bet. Since then, however, the trend has gone into reverse.

Source: Niall Ferguson / Penguin Books

What can account for this dramatic reversal of economic fortunes? Economic reforms in China, led by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, are likely to be responsible for at least part of the turnaround. But the relentless and sclerotic expansion of the State in Britain has also played a role.

UK general government expenditure (green) and private expenditure (black) as a proportion of GDP

Source: David B. Smith / Steve Baker MP

As the chart above shows, at the turn of the last century, UK state spending accounted for roughly 10% of the economy and the private sector accounted for the rest. But as the welfare state has swelled, government spending has mushroomed to account, now, for something like half or more of the entire economy. And state spending, by and large, is inefficient spending – at least by comparison with the inevitably more disciplined for-profit sector. In other words, our relative economic prospects have declined in inverse proportion to the expansion (metastasis) of the State. In turn, bureaucratic parasitism likely accounts for productivity differentials in the eurozone; the German State accounts for roughly 45% of its economy, the French State 56%.

Politicians have been able to swell the State thus far only with assistance by two groups: with the involuntary support of taxpayers, and with the connivance of central bankers. Popular resentment of what is laughably termed ‘austerity’ threatens the ongoing indulgence of the first group; the almost terminal straining of market forces by the latter runs the risk of a disorderly collapse of confidence in bond markets, after which continued Western deficit spending would be virtually impossible.

We seem to be close to the endgame. Even as perversely, record-low bond yields (indiscriminately – across markets as diverse as Austria, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Finland, Ireland, Italy and Spain) have sent desperate investors scurrying into stocks instead, those same investors are, with extra perversity, displaying a similar lack of discrimination and not even attempting to locate relative value within markets. Extraordinarily, the Wall Street Journal points out that

“Investors are pouring money into Vanguard Group, the epitome of the hands-off approach to investing, flocking to funds that track market indexes and aren’t run by stock pickers or star managers. The inflow has pushed the mutual-fund giant to almost $3 trillion in assets under management for the first time. The surge is part of a sea change in the fund business in which investors are increasingly opting for products that track the market rather than relying on managers to pick winners… Investors poured a net $336 billion into passively managed stock and bond funds in 2013, handily beating the $53 billion invested in traditional mutual funds of the same type, according to Morningstar. So far this year through July, investors put a net $177 billion into those passive funds, compared with $74 billion in actively managed funds… Through July, passively managed stock funds have seen a net $128.4 billion in investor in flows, compared with $18 billion for traditional stock funds…”

Nor is this lack of judicious investment a product of bullish US market sentiment. The same arbitrary index-following – at all-time highs – is being pursued in the UK. Trade magazine FTAdviser reports that

“Retail investors put more money into tracker funds in July than in any other month since records began, according to the latest IMA data.”

Index-tracking may have merit at the bottom of the market, but at the top?

Having singularly failed to reform or restructure their dilapidated economies, many governments throughout the West have left it to their central banks to keep a now exhausted credit bubble to inflate further. Unprecedented monetary stimulus and the suppression of interest rates have now boxed both central bankers and many investors into a corner. Bond markets now have no value but could yet get even more delusional in terms of price and yield. Stock markets are looking increasingly irrational relative to the health of their underlying economies. The euro zone looks set to re-enter recession and now expects the ECB to unveil outright quantitative easing. If the West wishes to regain its economic vigour versus Asia, it would do well to remember what made it so culturally and economically exceptional in the first place.

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Cop Forced 8 Women to Have Sex With Him Under Threat of Arrest

An
Oklahoma City cop was arrested for forcing eight different women to
have sex with him. The officer, 27-year-old Daniel Holtzclaw,
allegedly told his victims that he would arrest them if they did
not engage in various sexual acts with him.

The Detroit Free Press—which covered the case because
Holtzclaw is a former Eastern Michigan University football
player—reports:

Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, 27, was charged with two counts of
first-degree rape, four counts of sexual battery, four counts of
forcible oral sodomy, four counts of indecent exposure, one count
of first-degree burglary and one count of stalking.

Holtzclaw — a former Eastern Michigan University football player
— is accused of raping at least two women while on duty and forcing
four to perform oral sex, in addition to fondling the women and
forcing them to expose themselves.

Holtzclaw reportedly forced women to expose themselves, fondled
the women, forced four of them to perform oral sex on him and had
intercourse with at least two of the women, court records show.

The Free Press notes that all of Holtzclaw’s victims
were black, which means the U.S. Department of Justice could
investigate the case as a civil rights matter.

The Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police is still supporting
Holtzclaw pending the results of an investigation. The organization
released a statement explaining that, “Officers often find
themselves unfairly targeted by all types of allegations.”

Holtzclaw’s family and friends have set up a Facebook page,

“Justice for Daniel Holtzclaw.” Supporters criticized his
extremely high bail amount of $5 million.

Read the full, horrifying story
here.

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To Everyone Saying Russia Is “Isolated”, Here’s A Map

While NATO is happy to provide Russia with geographical advice, we thought the following map of “the world” will help explain President Obama’s increased use of the term “isolated” when it comes to Russia…

h/t @PersonOfAwesome

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Inflation Pressures in Core Food Components

By EconMatters

Inflation Isn`t Moderating, It is Consolidating before the Next Leg Up

Inflation numbers of late have been helped by the drop in fuel costs, the agricultural grains have been brought down in the futures market by the overplanting of corn, but eating out for the weekend where shrimp, steak, other seafood and vegetables are consumed at dinner brings home the idea that restaurant costs are only going up on the whole, and expect menu prices to continue to be raised at your favorite restaurant.

Lean Hogs

Lean hogs are up 26% year over year even after a sizable pullback in the futures market, the pork industry really got hit by a killer pig virus, but the trend in other meats for the year indicates that costs for this segment are broader based than just the disease specific issues.

Read More >>> Mixed Emotions for the Gold Market

Cattle Herds

For example, Live Cattle futures are up 18% year over year due to a multi-decade low in cattle herds, it seems it is much harder, and the margins are much lower raising livestock compared with planting corn for farmers which makes sense when you factor in all the underlying costs from veterinary bills, feed and electricity, to transportation and regulatory related costs.

Milk Prices

The Dairy Industry hasn`t escaped the inflation pressures with a strong global demand for dairy and protein, producing cows are a robust asset these days. Milk prices have also been hurt by the drought for farmers on the West Coast to stronger demand for Greek Yogurt for alternative protein sources we see Class III Milk futures up a robust 40% year over year with no immediate pullback on the charts.

Oil & Fuel Prices

Oil and fuel prices have dropped but the costs associated with getting it out of the ground are still inflationary from the equipment costs to skilled labor and regulatory related costs so it will be interesting to see how the price of oil shakes out many crosscurrents from stronger demand on an improving economy, geo-political concerns, robust production output domestically, higher fuel efficiency in developed countries, more cars on the road in china, and global pollution and infrastructure constraints with a price that basically has moved between $80 and $120 for WTI/Brent since the financial crisis.

Read More >>> The Inflation Era Has Arrived!

Normal Trading Range

It is too early to read anything regarding the recent pullback in prices because as just some of the shorts covering caused a $4 a barrel spike in prices off the recent bottom, and the oil market goes on runs both up and down in price that can be anywhere from $10 to $30 and can happen in and out of season although they usually center around seasonal demand as a rule of thumb.

The Bull & Bear Case for Oil Prices

I can make a case for the last 6 years being the pullback in oil prices, i.e., no real price breakouts. And similarly I can make an entire other case that oil will pull back even further on production increases globally, higher efficiency standards globally, alternative fuel technologies, and changing driving behaviors.

Oil Supply Chain Inflation Alive & Well

But the costs associated with the industry should continue to rise from an inflation standpoint because component parts, equipment, labor, medical, regulatory, transportation logistics and other costs in general are rising at a steady clip for the last 5 years, and look to continue rising going forward for the next five years.

Wages Will Never Keep Up With Inflation on the Average

For some places in the economy inflation is red hot smack in the face of the consumer, in other places it slowly creeps up on the consumer without them realizing, but regardless of what the official inflation reports that the Fed follows indicates, real inflation pressures in the economy continue to rise every year, and a good steak is going to cost consumers a higher hourly wage rate.

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Dispatches from Occupied Territory – Fear is the Mind Killer

Cognitive Dissonance

This is the third in a series of fictional explorations into an individual’s awakening to the suddenly unfamiliar world around and within her while still engulfed by the day to day insanity. These short stories in letter form are intended for the more sensitive and inquisitive reader who wishes to look more deeply within and explore in depth their beliefs and perceptions as well as how to cope with a world gone frighteningly mad. It is the author’s hope to accomplish this by way of an intimate and revealing first person correspondence between two long time friends as they discuss her ongoing awakening. The first two chapters may be found here.

Dear Marie,

It was good to hear you are beginning to settle in after several months of personal turmoil and distress. The shock and awe that results from first light, that initial rush of awareness and revelation as our awakening begins to take hold, is unlike anything we have ever experienced and can at times be very frightening and quite frankly revolting. When I began my awakening I was never quite sure whom I was angrier with, the lies and liars I discovered all around me or the most egregious liar of them all, the formerly complacent and complicit liar I found lurking within.

After the first wave of fear and nausea passes we tend to go numb as a sort of psychological defense mechanism to protect our psyche from an overload that could lead to severe psychosis. Underneath this unnatural calm there remain conflicting urges to flee the insanity, to pull the covers over our head and hide from the beast, and the growing wellspring of rage at the machine and the urge to strike back. This is a very dangerous time for us and it is important for us to seek guidance and balance or we can quite literally go off the deep end. Think of it as suddenly being shaken awake from an extremely frightening dream, only to realize the ‘reality’ you have awaken too is in many respects several orders of magnitude worse than the dream you just left.

This brings me to the thrust of your last few letters and the subject which presently disturbs you so deeply. I promised you I would get back to you on this, so without further delay here I am. You speak about the horrific realization that everything around us appears to be a bald faced lie with a macabre facade painted on the surface for the benefit of our denial. In particular you mention those private, public and governmental institutions you formerly trusted, even if only up to a certain point. Often what we describe as ‘trust’ is in reality a debilitating dependency hidden by deep denial. None the less it still feels terrible when it has been violated, particularly when we enabled the violation.

There is no way to adequately describe the shock one feels when a person first learns they are sleeping with the enemy and could easily become its next victim. In many respects by awakening you disturb the beast that lay beside you, thereby risking the potential to draw unwanted attention to yourself. We learn very early in life to keep our head down and to go about our business. So when we begin our awakening, in many respects we are doing just the opposite. To discover those we have blindly trusted have repeatedly violated us in the most personal and intimate ways is so far beyond disturbing that at times it escapes accurate description.

Suddenly we see very clearly how for decades there were dozens of warning signs we deliberately ignored or flat out denied. This ugly realization alone is the primary reason so many abandon their journey before they have even begun and rush headlong back into the warm embrace of blackout living and willful denial. Our personal revelation can bring on wave after wave of self revulsion and depression. However, nothing will be gained by loitering here for long. To pull out of this downward spiral we must make a deliberate conscious decision to abandon this self defeating paralysis and move towards healing and growth.

The emotions you describe in your letter all revolve around the emotions of violation and the fear this realization generates. Or should I say the fear you are programmed to experience. Before I speak of specifics we need to pull back and find the proper perspective if we are to reach a higher understanding. It is one thing to be lied to once and done, another entirely to be lied to continuously and in many cases (in retrospect) obviously. While in the first instance you might rightly be declared a victim, in the second you cannot, at least not in the purest sense of the word because it is much more complicated than black and white, right and wrong, victim and perpetrator.

In no way is what I am about to discuss to be construed as justifying or condoning their lies, cheating and theft. These people violated, and continue to violate, a public trust and their fiduciary duty, a much higher standard of conduct than simply holding up their hands and promising they will protect and serve. They should not, and will not, get a pass from me on this matter.

But (and you knew there was a ‘but’ coming Marie) we are discussing you and your reactions to these revelations and violations. Since you cannot personally make them do anything to reverse or rectify the wrongs they have perpetrated against you, this is all about you reaching a greater understanding of yourself and why you feel the way you do in order to begin the healing. I do not wish to discuss the specifics of who did what, when and where, or of the violations to you and me because as difficult as it may seem to understand, the specifics are immaterial at this point in the awakening process.

Because we have been conditioned to do so, when we first discover the massive lies and conspiracies which are part and parcel of the world of the elite, the corporate and banking world and of course all levels of government, our first tendency is to dive into the minutia and details of the actual wrongdoing, along with the various cover stories and smoke screens. We want to believe if only the information about their heinous crimes were more widely known and disseminated the public would react in righteous indignation and throw the bums out, then burn them at the stake.

This is a mistaken belief that is tragically and endlessly repeated over and over by every newcomer and sadly perpetuated by many veterans as well. It is just another hamster wheel created to distract and exhaust us, a part of the social control system to keep us endlessly chasing phantoms rather than health and healing. Logic dictates if these people are able to pull off the level of crime, corruption and traitorous actions they clearly are capable of, they are obviously receiving protection from each other as well as from higher, more powerful people and entities. In other words, the system at this level protects its own so it can protect itself.

Peek-a-boo

That is not to say you should abandon your research into the who, what, when, where and why of these events, as well as the overall corrupt business dealings they are engaged in and which are shrouded under the cloak of misdirection and layers of deceit. No real harm can come from a greater understanding of how the sociopaths and their enablers ply their craft and why we always fall for the same stupid misdirection dog tricks. Knowing ourselves and those around us is never a waste of time if our intentions and motives are squarely aligned with our actions.

And it is here, while searching for our real motives, that we find many of our own lies clouding our intentions and distorting our thinking. After overcoming the initial fear that comes from discovering our protector is in fact our tormentor and potentially our killer, a fear we must examine more closely, we then move on to the next stage, that of sounding the alarm. But first let us explore the fear, because as we awaken we will discover our fear, in all its forms and permutations, is behind nearly everything we do, and react to, on a daily basis.

Of utmost importance here Marie is for you to recognize, and then accept, that the dangers you speak of and write about have always been there. It is you who have changed, not your surroundings and most certainly not the machine. The government has always been your enemy and not your friend; those multinational corporations have always pursued power and profit first at yours and my expense; the education system is designed to condition and indoctrinate, not liberate your mind, and your family is just as asleep as you were and maybe even more so. This was always the case with the danger partially hidden behind an obscuring lace veil. The only difference now is you have looked into the abyss and are shocked by what you have found.

What is the central difference in our mind between walking down the center aisle of our local supermarket and walking down a dark downtown street at 2 AM? I would argue that seen from the point of view of personal danger there isn’t much difference from moment to moment, though over longer periods of time there most certainly is. Yet in practice these two worlds are far removed from each other, with the supermarket perceived to be much safer than the darkened late night street.

It stands to reason you will act more openly and freely in the supermarket then on the street, particularly if you always shop at the market and rarely if ever walk the late night street. So the level of danger you feel is more perceptional than actual with the familiarity of the market, along with many other people present who are just like you, greatly reducing one’s perception of danger. It is not the actual danger that is alarming to us as it is our perceived proximity to danger that gets our blood racing. We use rationalization and subtle denial, in all its petty forms and functions, to distort our perception of many the dangers which in practice are always present and all around us.

Thus while shopping in the supermarket you aren’t overly concerned with who is behind you or walking past, who is standing next to you while you select a steak or reach for the frozen peas. Nor who is waiting in the checkout line directly behind you and within two feet of your purse. While this might all seem obvious, the point is you are not concerned to any great extent with your personal safety while in the supermarket, yet you would be on the late night street, even if statistically from moment to moment you might be equally as safe. People are robbed or assaulted in the supermarket and have their wallets and purses stolen while in the mall, retail store or parking lot.

On a day to day basis we go about our business giving very little thought to our personal safety or even to those around us. While we know crime does exist and we may even know a friend or family member who has been ‘victimized’, it all takes place at a distance from us physically, mentally and emotionally. We take for granted, barring extraordinary circumstances, that we are not presently in danger. In many ways this is a naïve approach to life and it certainly sets us up for a real shock to the system when the inevitable violation occurs.

But since we are not trained or conditioned to view the world much beyond the next few hours, maybe days at the most, we simply assume what happened last minute will happen this minute and again during the next. And make no mistake about it Marie, how we are trained to see and perceive reality makes all the difference when creating and interacting with reality.

The odds are very high nothing will happen to us from moment to moment, which simply acts as real time confirmation of our conditioned bias. But it also breeds complacency within us and the emotional perception of safety we so desperately desire when we do not wish to assume responsibility for our own personal safety or sovereignty.

This is why we often bemoan the lack of police or some other authority figure when the inevitable happens. While intellectually we know the police react to crime, not prevent crime, since we have sub contracted out the responsibility for our personal and emotional safety, clearly it must be the sub contractor’s fault when we are harmed. It does not matter if the sub contractor was incapable of doing the job in the first place or even wanted to do so. Since we have abdicated our own personal responsibility we must now find emotional cover when things go wrong. And they always go wrong, thus proving the lie we can avoid accountability in the first place.

Fear Is The Mind Killer

Sitting there while reading this, you might be tempted to intellectualize this discussion and claim you don’t engage in this behavior. And it is so easy to explain it all away because everyone else is doing the same thing at the same time. But Marie we have talked in the past about how in practice many of our decisions are emotional or impulse based and only afterwards do we rationalize them, thus validating our own ‘intelligent’ choices. This in and of itself is the core function of denial, separating the emotional animal from the rational being as if they are two different entities, when in reality they are just two dissimilar faces of the same beast.

Before moving on let me emphasize once again that all of us to some extent or another expect external authorities to protect and serve us. We have been conditioned to believe this is why we pay our taxes instead of those taxes being tribute to the state the payments really are. That is supposedly why we gather as large loosely connected tribes within clearly defined physical and cultural borders, for our collective and individual benefit and self defense.

But this also leaves us particularly vulnerable to the collective as well as to individuals within the collective who do not abide by the rules and who, while doing so, are protected by the collective to further other people’s individual or collective goals. This is the corrosive effect of systemic and wide ranging corruption, to turn nearly all ‘law abiding’ members of the collective into a pool of captive victims waiting to be exploited. For those individuals who depend upon the collective for sustenance, protection and emotional support, thereby becoming dependents of the collective, they are seen as little more than fish in a crowded pond to the predators.

I contend this love/hate relationship is responsible for much of the underlying fear we experience from day to day. While we rarely acknowledge our vulnerability to the collective, on a subconscious level it is blatantly obvious, thus we always live in a state of low level fear and apprehension. But our fear is hidden from view because it has been culturally assimilated by us within us. It is given different, more pleasant sounding names in order to be widely accepted as part of modern life, thus natural, normal and no big deal.

For example, while we are conditioned to believe the local police are there “To Protect and To Serve” in reality they are the local armed enforcement division of the protection scam called government. They are the armed revenue generating agents of the local tax ‘authority’ and the private security force for the financial elite. They protect the property of those who control their salaries while violently subduing peaceful protestors of the elite in response to their agent provocateurs inciting a riot.

When we see flashing lights in our rearview mirror we can safely say our heart does not leap for joy with the prospect of another encounter with those who protect and serve, but rather a rush of fear flashes over us as we quickly assess what the damages will be during this latest bald faced extortion exercise. After the officer has pulled us over and run our plates for wants, warrants and outstanding protection payments, he doesn’t walk to our car with a hand casually draped over his service weapon because he wants to give us a warm welcoming hug.

When the IRS comes calling with a notice of extortion demanding payment, saying we owe more of our ‘voluntary tax’ than we have declared, suddenly we realize the IRS has the legal right to assume we are guilty while the burden of proof of our innocence falls upon us. Worse, if we protest too much we are hauled into a special ‘tax’ court where the rules of evidence and self incrimination are stacked against us. It is then we realize the smart move is just to pay the cost of defense (the penalties) plus the original levy rather than fight the rigged system. Chalk up another personal violation.

But even these examples are obvious when given serious thought and a clear eyed assessment of what is really going on. What is chillingly frightening to you is the realization nearly everything you believed in, the basis by which you lived your life and pursued your interests, vocation and entertainment, is the polar opposite of what you thought was true and correct. Worse, not only is your government not your protector but it might just be your mortal enemy.

Essentially you are discovering you live in a dream world Marie and most of what you believed real is not only false and fake, but deliberately conceived to deceive our perception of reality in order to control and exploit. This strikes to the very heart of what we are conditioned to believe “We the People” are as well as our small part in this promoted reality. Rather than the shining beacon of global truth, justice and the American Way, you are beginning to recognize those who run this country are true psychopaths and ‘our’ country is closer to a banana republic than a representative republic. Worse, it appears we are the biggest rotten banana in the global bunch.

Relatively early in life, say around mid to late teens, we have already created an internal world view which, while flexible enough to be changed slightly to accommodate the movable feast of world events, is still firmly anchored in cement by fundamental ‘beliefs’ indoctrinated into us from birth by well meaning fellow ‘believers’ and/or captive wage slaves dependent upon the machine to create their reality and feed their family.

Make the world go away

The propagandized illusion of national wholesomeness and moral certainty, while increasingly under assault by the growing mass awareness that something stinks in the wood pile, basically remains intact precisely because our semi flexible worldview accommodates selective reasoning, denial and narcissistic fantasies. But when viewing the full Monty of the police state and its control apparatus, combined with the clarity of a growing awakening, nearly all of us suffer some sort of breakdown on both a psychic and spiritual level, leaving us isolated and broken and desperate for fellow support and affirmation.

For nearly all of us this is simply too much to bear and we rapidly retreat to the sweet bliss of feigned ignorance. Don’t ask, don’t tell works quite well for most individuals who have previously peaked into the abyss and are desperate to forget not only what they saw, but the social implications it has for them. Obviously an emotional and psychological transition must take place here if we are not only to recover our feet, but to move forward towards recovery and rejuvenation.

And it is here dear Marie that I return to the subject of sounding the alarm. By this I mean any attempt by us to warn and/or rally those around us in order to facilitate systemic change and reform as well as to develop allies for personal protection and empowerment. Our instinct when leaving one tribe is to either join or create another one if for no other reason than to replace the collective affirmation we no longer receive from the tribe we abandoned.

As in all things in life our intent is often more important that our actions. If we are sounding the alarm out of personal fear, then fear is precisely what we will project, consciously and subconsciously, when talking to others. Since the people we talk to also harbor an internal discomfort and disconnect which they do not acknowledge, thus they are on edge if only on a subconscious level, they will sense our projected fear and react with revulsion and rejection. Nobody wants to get too close to the crazy person, especially when that person is proclaiming ‘truths’ contrary to their consensus belief.

Because of this projected fear, along with the prevailing denial of those being ‘warned’, many newly awakened make almost no headway when sounding the alarm which in turn increases their sense of isolation and desperation and thereby their fear. It is a vicious positive feedback loop which usually ends in emotional exhaustion and possibly even a mental breakdown. At the very least many become depressed and despondent which, when combined with their inevitable social withdrawal, further encourages others to label them as malcontents or even mentally ill.

Marie……this is why we must suppress the instinct to fight or flight and immediately begin the work within. Only after we have come to grips with this terrible emotional trauma and are settled not only with our prior participation, but also the inevitable personal changes we must enact if we are to embody what must be done in order to facilitate our partial or full withdrawal from the insanity, can we move forward with our life. How much and to what extent only you can determine, but certainly no settled decision can be made until and unless you have begun the personal soul searching work of self discovery.

Many of the newly awakened, as well as countless veterans, spend nearly all their time bargaining with their awakening instead of focusing on their healing. For far too many the awakening itself is the nightmare rather than what they are awakening to. While some will claim otherwise, often those who are awakening just want the system to be ‘fixed’ so they can go back to sleep. I know many who feel it is an injustice they must be the ones who are awakening, thus the carrier of the burden of contrary information and knowledge, rather than recognizing the wonderful gift they have been bestowed.

Once you arrive at a fork in the road you must make a decision. Make a choice, be settled with it and move on. If need be Marie you can always revisit that decision, though oftentimes if you attempt to do so you will find yourself so fundamentally changed from the journey itself, either you won’t need to revisit or once back there the same choices will no longer be there. It is only when we continue to bargain with our ‘self’, either before, during or after our (in) decision, that the damage is done and reinforced. It is this constant state of tension, this unwillingness to seek centering and to be settled in our new role in life, that exaggerates and inflames our fear and isolation.

Obviously this is easier said than done and ultimately no matter how much encouragement and support you receive along the way, your journey is a solo affair. As difficult as it may seem for you now, please recognize you have entered the beginning of the end of your mindless dependency upon the collective machine and external authority. From this point forward how well you handle yourself and your recovery depends entirely upon how willing you are to step away from the herd and explore the space within. I promise you this much; once you recognize the only thing you have to fear is fear itself the emotional release you experience will be life altering.

Go ahead and take that first step. If you are committed and have faith the process will be life changing and healing, it will be all that and so much more.

Beside you always,

Jonathan

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Cognitive Dissonance

09-01-2014

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Fearless

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Saudi King Warns ISIS “Will Reach Europe In One Month, US In Two”

As if the fearmongery and vitriol of UK, Europe and the US were not enough, the Middle-East’s ‘allied’ leaders are now opining on the threat of ISIS. As FOX News reports, The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that jihadists could target the United States and Europe if leaders across the globe do not react to growing terrorist threats as Islamic State militants make advances across Iraq and Syria. “If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America,” blasted King Abdullah, adding Cameron-esquely, “they know no humanity.” Of course, this is quote ironic given the Saudi’s funding of various terror groups throughout the region.

As FOX News reports,

The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that jihadists could target the United States and Europe if leaders across the globe do not react to growing terrorist threats as Islamic State militants make advances across Iraq and Syria.

While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah’s statement appeared aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against the Islamic State terror organization and its supporters in the region. Saudi Arabia openly backs rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, but is concerned that the breakaway Al Qaeda group could also turn those very same weapons on the kingdom.

“If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America,” he said at a reception for foreign ambassadors Friday.

“These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street,” the king said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state.

The Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, has been fighting moderate rebels, other extremists and Assad’s forces in Syria for nearly three years. Iraq has faced an onslaught by the Sunni extremists and their supporters since early this year, and the country continues to be roiled by instability.

While providing arms and support to Sunni militants in Syria, Saudi Arabia has denied directly funding or backing the Islamic State group.

…

Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing the Islamic State group. Earlier this month, the country’s top cleric described the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda as Islam’s No. 1 enemy and said that Muslims have been their first victims. State-backed Saudi clerics who once openly called on citizens to fight in Syria can now face steep punishment and the kingdom has threatened to imprison its citizens who fight in Syria and Iraq.

A decade ago, Al Qaeda militants launched a string of attacks in the kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown that saw many flee to neighboring Yemen. In the time since, the kingdom has not seen any massive attacks, though it has imprisoned suspected militants and sentenced others to death.