The debate sowed deep dissent amid the timber-clad homes and quiet streets of the villages dotted along the valley, where people speak Romansch, a language descended from the Latin of the Roman legions who conquered the region 2,000 years ago.
"There was a battle between the two halves of the village, for and against the mine. A lot of people don't like to talk about it," said the owner of a delicatessen selling cheeses, cured meats and sausages, who refused to give her name because of the bitterness that has been stoked up.
The referendum result was unambiguous – while 90 people were in favour of allowing gold exploration to go ahead, 180 were implacably opposed.
Many people feared that the valley, with its crystal-clear streams, coniferous forests and timber barns, would have been irrevocably scarred by the mine, from which around five million ton of rock would have been dug.
The area is the epitome of Alpine tranquillity – when The Sunday Telegraph visited Curaglia, the largest single village, it was all but deserted, the quiet broken only by the tinkling of bells around the necks of goats in a wooden pen on the main street.
Eagles soared in the mist swirling around the high peaks which form a dramatic backdrop to the onion-domed parish church.
In winter the pass leading into the valley is frequently closed by avalanches and heavy snowfall.
"The mine would have had a big impact on the valley, there would have been a huge cost to the environment," said Nicole Venzin, 17, who works in a clothes shop in the town of Chur, 45 miles away, because of a lack of jobs in the valley.
It was not just environmental worries that fuelled the 'no' vote. Young men in the villages worried that the 200 miners needed to develop the project might steal their girlfriends. Even the young women were unenthusiastic about the prospect of an influx of newcomers.
"I don't want a lot of people from another country coming to work here," said Iris Monn, 25, who works for the valley administration and voted 'no'. "It's very peaceful in the valley. But if the mine was allowed there would be a lot of cars, a lot of people."
Lorena Bundi, 17, who works in a pharmacy, said: "There would have been more children in the school, and it would have been good for the shops, but what about the rivers where we go fishing?"
But Thomas Boehm, 41, who works in the Hotel Vallastscha, which has the only bar and restaurant in the valley, said the mine would have reversed the valley's long-term demographic decline. Ninety of its inhabitants are over the age of 75 and young people leave as soon as they can because of the lack of work.
There are no ski lifts or chalets and the only tourists who come here are fishermen, cross-country skiers and hunters in search of red deer and chamois.
"The mine would have been very positive. Look at this picture," he said, pointing at a black and white print of the village from 60 years ago, showing two children in grubby smocks playing in an unpaved back alley lined with wooden-tiled houses.
"If nothing new happens here, the valley will go back to how it was then. There'll be no future for young people. The village is dying but people here are only thinking from one day to the next," said Mr Boehm, a German who has lived in Switzerland for 18 years.
The mine would have been developed by a Canadian firm, Vancouver-based NV Gold. Some preliminary drilling in the 1980s, and more recent geological tests, showed that the snowy peaks overlooking the Medel Valley are rich in gold ore. The tests showed that the local rock contained 10 grams of gold per tonne, which is double the minimum for a viable mine.
Nobody really knows how much gold there is, or where a mine would have been sited, because the referendum result squashed the chance of any further exploratory drilling. But John Watson, the company's president and CEO, estimated that the mine could have yielded around 800,000 ounces of gold, which at today's prices would have been worth $1.2bn.
The villagers would have received a share in royalties amounting to 30-40 million Swiss francs. There would also have been money spent by miners in shops and businesses during the estimated 10 year life of the project.
Local taxes and rates would have been slashed, businesses would have been offered cheap loans and there would have been bags of cash for new projects to inject life into the valley.
Mr Watson said that past negotiations had led him to believe that the villagers would approve the mine unanimously at last Sunday's referendum.
"It would have had a very small footprint but it wouldn't have been invisible. It would have required parking lots, buildings, that kind of infrastructure.
"They were asking us what it would look like. We couldn't tell them with any accuracy because we haven't done the exploration and we don't know where the ore might be. Am I disappointed with the decision? Yes."
The mine would not have been an open-cast scar on the valley. "It would have been accessed by a tunnel into the mountain," said Mr Watson, speaking by telephone from Colorado.
One of the mine's biggest proponents was Peter Binz, the mayor of the valley, whose eye for a business opportunity has been honed by his day job with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich.
"The population is declining – there were 850 people living here in the 1960s – so we are looking for new opportunities. The mine would have brought fresh blood. We cannot stay as a museum – we need a future for our young people. To do nothing is not an option – that way we will just continue to die as a community."
Such arguments failed to sway the majority of the valley's inhabitants. The conservatism for which the Swiss have been renowned for centuries ultimately snubbed out calls for change.
"The money would have been nice," said 17-year-old Nicole Venzin, sitting on a bench on Curaglia's main street as elderly women entered the tiny supermarket with shopping bags. "But what sort of future would we have if we ruined the environment?"
4/08/2012
Swiss village in Alpine valley votes to turns its back on $1.2 billion goldmine
Now is the Time
In the world we live in – my world, your world – people are still fighting. Bombed-out cities remain in ruins. Children are starving, dying.
People write me continuously and say they are on the edge of bankruptcy. They must sell their house. They have no money to eat.
It’s time to be up and working. It’s time to be building the New World. It won’t get built by itself.
It’s time to stop representing ourselves as helpless and waiting for guidance. Push back your chair. Make a survey of your community, Whatever there is to do is to be done right where you are. How many people have said to us: You are where you were meant to be.
It’s all I can do not to pick up a broom myself and simply start sweeping the streets in my vicinity. I cannot wait for the ships to get here. I cannot wait for people to join me. I cannot wait for the money to arrive.
My world is not working. It’s bleeding, starving, thirsting, dying. It has malaria, AIDS, broken limbs, aged bodies. It’s calling out to me.
Am I alone in feeling this way? Am I somehow saying this before the time is ripe? I don’t think so. The galactics told us recently, through Mira:
“As part of the ground crew, you may be required to step into action. Most of humanity is still distracted and asleep. Our fleets surround you. Our Creator has accounted for all possibilities. You will know what to do when the time arrives.” (1)
The spiritual hierarchy through Melchizedek has said:
“Many of you are now venturing out into your communities and are being looked upon in a new and accepting way.” (2)
The Galactic Federation through Greg Giles assures us:
“You have been selected out of many that expressed interest to be here as it was felt that you would respond to your call of duty and do what is that you do best. Many of you at this time are recognizing this inborn talent and are now deciding to take the reins and be the leader that you are.
“There will be in the days ahead many opportunities for you to put your talents to good use and forge paths for the others to follow. There will be many leaders among you who will make themselves known as we move forward, and there will be many who make it known who they wish to follow in accordance with what they resonate with. (3)
They tell us that soon we’ll receive the call to work alongside of them. But why wait?
“It is almost time for those of you that will be working with us to meet us in person face-to-face. We look very forward to these introductions, and look at this meeting as an historical event that will be recorded in your history books for posterity and for future readers to look back and learn how first contact was made with your celestial neighbors.
“Those of you who will be involved in this project will be remembered for your courage and your efforts to be the Wayshowers of your fellow man. Many doors will open upon our introductions and we are able to begin working together in a peaceful cooperation.” (4)
SaLuSa took the better part of a message to urge us:
“Once the advantages are announced it will result in much support, and an eagerness on many people’s part to play an active role in it. There will be opportunities to take part and we will certainly need the support of all of you who are ready to play your part with us. Community work will be required to convey the nature of the changes, and how they can be implemented with the least inconvenience. Be assured we know you all and what your particular talents are, and what you came into this life to do.
“We see a great Love and Light expanding over the Earth and it carries the energy that will lift many up out of the darkness. In the poorer countries of the world, many have lost hope as they see their plights largely ignored. They need sustenance and their basic needs covered, just so that they can survive the harsh conditions they exist in. Talk of Ascension has hardly any meaning to them and their faith in God and humanity is at a low ebb.
“There are people and organizations that care, but the task is so great it needs a coming together of those countries who are affluent and can afford to act. Humanity cannot in future stand by and allow such conditions to exist, and must grasp the truth that All Are One. Having said that, we know many of you are very compassionate and greatly desire that help is given to the world’s poorest people. You will be pleased to know that the means to remedy the hunger and desperation, is ready to be put in hand.” (5)
No, we can’t afford to stand by and allow conditions that exist in the world to continue. We’re called upon, every one of us, to shake the sleepy dust from our eyes, stretch, and get out of bed. It’s time to begin. Let’s not waste another day. This world that was so wracked by the cabal and is now being set free is now calling out to us to take our tools in hand and our willingness and courage and set to work rebuilding her.
Footnotes
(1) Mira the Pleiadian, March 30, 2012, at http://thegroundcrew.com
(2) Mechizedek, through Marlene Swetlishoff, March 14, 2012, at http://www.therainbowscribe.com
(3) The Galactic Federation through Greg Giles, March 26, 2012, at http://ascensionearth2012.blogspot.ca/
(4) The Galactic Federation through Greg Giles, March 27, 2012.
(5) SaLuSa, Jan. 23, 2012, at http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/Channeled_Messages_by_Mike_...
How the US Uses Sexual Humiliation as a Political Tool to Control the Masses
How the US Uses Sexual Humiliation as a Political Tool to Control the Masses
By Naomi Wolff, Guardian, April 5, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/05/us-sexual-humi...
In a five-four ruling this week, the supreme court decided that anyone can be strip-searched upon arrest for any offense, however minor, at any time. This horror show ruling joins two recent horror show laws: the NDAA, which lets anyone be arrested forever at any time, and HR 347, the “trespass bill”, which gives you a 10-year sentence for protesting anywhere near someone with secret service protection. These criminalizations of being human follow, of course, the mini-uprising of the Occupy movement.
Is American strip-searching benign? The man who had brought the initial suit, Albert Florence, described having been told to “turn around. Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks.” He said he felt humiliated: “It made me feel like less of a man.”
In surreal reasoning, justice Anthony Kennedy explained that this ruling is necessary because the 9/11 bomber could have been stopped for speeding. How would strip searching him have prevented the attack? Did justice Kennedy imagine that plans to blow up the twin towers had been concealed in a body cavity? In still more bizarre non-logic, his and the other justices’ decision rests on concerns about weapons and contraband in prison systems. But people under arrest – that is, who are not yet convicted – haven’t been introduced into a prison population.
Our surveillance state shown considerable determination to intrude on citizens sexually. There’s the sexual abuse of prisoners at Bagram – der Spiegel reports that “former inmates report incidents of … various forms of sexual humiliation. In some cases, an interrogator would place his penis along the face of the detainee while he was being questioned. Other inmates were raped with sticks or threatened with anal sex”. There was the stripping of Bradley Manning is solitary confinement. And there’s the policy set up after the story of the “underwear bomber” to grope US travelers genitally or else force them to go through a machine – made by a company, Rapiscan, owned by terror profiteer and former DHA czar Michael Chertoff – with images so vivid that it has been called the “pornoscanner”.
Believe me: you don’t want the state having the power to strip your clothes off. History shows that the use of forced nudity by a state that is descending into fascism is powerfully effective in controlling and subduing populations.
The political use of forced nudity by anti-democratic regimes is long established. Forcing people to undress is the first step in breaking down their sense of individuality and dignity and reinforcing their powerlessness. Enslaved women were sold naked on the blocks in the American south, and adolescent male slaves served young white ladies at table in the south, while they themselves were naked: their invisible humiliation was a trope for their emasculation. Jewish prisoners herded into concentration camps were stripped of clothing and photographed naked, as iconic images of that Holocaust reiterated.
One of the most terrifying moments for me when I visited Guantanamo prison in 2009 was seeing the way the architecture of the building positioned glass-fronted shower cubicles facing intentionally right into the central atrium – where young female guards stood watch over the forced nakedness of Muslim prisoners, who had no way to conceal themselves. Laws and rulings such as this are clearly designed to bring the conditions of Guantanamo, and abusive detention, home.
I have watched male police and TSA members standing by side by side salaciously observing women as they have been “patted down” in airports. I have experienced the weirdly phrased, sexually perverse intrusiveness of the state during an airport “pat-down”, which is always phrased in the words of a steamy paperback (“do you have any sensitive areas? … I will use the back of my hands under your breasts …”). One of my Facebook commentators suggested, I think plausibly, that more women are about to be found liable for arrest for petty reasons (scarily enough, the TSA is advertising for more female officers).
I interviewed the equivalent of TSA workers in Britain and found that the genital groping that is obligatory in the US is illegal in Britain. I believe that the genital groping policy in America, too, is designed to psychologically habituate US citizens to a condition in which they are demeaned and sexually intruded upon by the state – at any moment.
The most terrifying phrase of all in the decision is justice Kennedy’s striking use of the term “detainees” for “United States citizens under arrest”. Some members of Occupy who were arrested in Los Angeles also reported having been referred to by police as such. Justice Kennedy’s new use of what looks like a deliberate activation of that phrase is illuminating.
Ten years of association have given “detainee” the synonymous meaning in America as those to whom no rights apply – especially in prison. It has been long in use in America, habituating us to link it with a condition in which random Muslims far away may be stripped by the American state of any rights. Now the term – with its associations of “those to whom anything may be done” – is being deployed systematically in the direction of … any old American citizen.
Where are we headed? Why? These recent laws criminalizing protest, and giving local police – who, recall, are now infused with DHS money, military hardware and personnel – powers to terrify and traumatise people who have not gone through due process or trial, are being set up to work in concert with a see-all-all-the-time surveillance state. A facility is being set up in Utah by the NSA to monitor everything all the time: James Bamford wrote in Wired magazine that the new facility in Bluffdale, Utah, is being built, where the NSA will look at billions of emails, texts and phone calls. Similar legislation is being pushed forward in the UK.
With that Big Brother eye in place, working alongside these strip-search laws, – between the all-seeing data-mining technology and the terrifying police powers to sexually abuse and humiliate you at will – no one will need a formal coup to have a cowed and compliant citizenry. If you say anything controversial online or on the phone, will you face arrest and sexual humiliation?
Remember, you don’t need to have done anything wrong to be arrested in America any longer. You can be arrested for walking your dog without a leash. The man who was forced to spread his buttocks was stopped for a driving infraction. I was told by an NYPD sergeant that “safety” issues allow the NYPD to make arrests at will. So nothing prevents thousands of Occupy protesters – if there will be any left after these laws start to bite – from being rounded up and stripped naked under intimidating conditions.
Why is this happening? I used to think the push was just led by those who profited from endless war and surveillance – but now I see the struggle as larger. As one internet advocate said to me: “There is a race against time: they realise the internet is a tool of empowerment that will work against their interests, and they need to race to turn it into a tool of control.”
As Chris Hedges wrote in his riveting account of the NDAA: “There are now 1,271 government agencies and 1,931 private companies that work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States, the Washington Post reported in a 2010 series by Dana Priest and William M Arken. There are 854,000 people with top-secret security clearances, the reporters wrote, and in Washington, DC, and the surrounding area 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2011.”
This enormous new sector of the economy has a multi-billion-dollar vested interest in setting up a system to surveil, physically intimidate and prey upon the rest of American society.
Now they can do so by threatening to demean you sexually – a potent tool in the hands of any bully.
- © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Tim Bravo’s Extraordinary Year Blogtalkradio Show – Tolec And The End Of The Space War – From Andromedan Council Perspective – 8 April 2012
By Blogtalkradio “Extraordinary Year” hosted by Tim Bravo who interviews Tolec Earths human representativ for the Andromedan Council.
link to blogtalkradio full show 5 April 2012
http://www.facebook.com/extraordinaryyear
(Lucas : I have listened to the whole show. Tolec says that the mass arrests David Wilcock and Benjamin Fulford are speaking of and the finishing off of the undersea Drako Reptilian bases are related.)
Who Says We’re Not All Awakening? 2012 April 8
Who Says We’re Not All Awakening?
Someone asked me the other day: “Do you think most people around the world are still asleep?”
It didn’t take me long to answer: “No, I think many more people than we realise are actually awake. It’s just that we – and in many cases they – don’t know it”.
And here’s why…
For many lightworkers and those of us who are consciously travelling along the path towards Ascension, we’ve been awakening at various times, in various moments and through various situations that have occurred to us in this life (or others).
It’s in these instances that we suddenly – or slowly – catch on to what has really been going on.
We may have had an epiphany that something just wasn’t right.
Maybe we just woke up one morning and realised our priorities had changed and so we suddenly perceived a shift, a change, in our individual consciousness. And then we saw that other people’s had, too.
Maybe we’ve known since childhood that there’s something SO much better than this existence and have finally decided to act on that inner knowing.
Or maybe we can’t quite put our finger on it, but we somehow FEEL different.
For some of us, this change could have come many years ago when something happened that exposed a past memory. Or it may have been last week when we decided we really wanted (or yearned for) far, far more than this way of life is currently offering. (Yes, like Steve Beckow wrote the other day: we all “Need More.”)
Maybe we joined a group or read or saw something that instantly connected and resonated with us and stirred something deep inside that said: ”Hey, all that stuff we’ve been fed all our lives via our education, the media or the corporate world just doesn’t seem right or fair to me anymore”.
So why should we think we’re alone?
Simply because someone hasn’t had an open discussion with us about disclosure, Ascension, channelled sources, the unfairness of the financial system or their right to a better life doesn’t mean they’re not thinking – or hoping – that things will change. Or that they are not praying or dreaming of a new way of living or being.
Maybe they simply haven’t had the opportunity or the circumstances have not presented themselves so they can discuss their inner-most feelings.
Maybe they don’t have the confidence or haven’t quite come to terms with their new way of thinking.
Or maybe, like the vast majority of our brothers and sisters, they’re just getting through day-by-day, one day at a time. And then the next day. And the next day after that…
Maybe they’re so caught up in the busyness of 3D duality that they get up, go to work, come home, try and spend as much time with their kids (or their pets) as possible, knowing they MUST pay the mortgage, the rent, the food and utility bills and feed and clothe themselves and then get up the next day and do it all again – which means they never, ever have a spare moment to think deeply about this stuff.
And when they do have a fleeting moment to themselves, they’re often so darn tired that they either crash in front of the television - because it allows them to escape this drudge of a life – or they fall asleep, have a snooze (and get worked on?). Or they can’t sleep and are so tired that they cannot think.
Or maybe they’re stuck in a horrendous situation – of war, violence, sexual abuse, famine, psychological intimidation, government oppression, financial hardship or drug or alcohol addiction.
I doubt any of these people are going to have the time, or the resources, to think: “I’m awakening. I’m doing all I can to live my life to its fullest potential, assist my fellow man and Gaia on her path to Ascension, and defeat the dark”.
I’m sure you’ll agree that none of those thoughts probably ever have a chance to enter many of these people’s heads. Their circumstances don’t allow it. They’re caught in the world of the dark.
But that doesn’t mean they agree with it. Not any of it.
Plus, as we all know, being a lightworker – or even moving into the light – is a job in itself. You have to have the desire, the resources and, most importantly, find and make time to read, research, feel, do and focus.
Many people around the world have no access to books, the internet or mobile phones. Or they can’t afford them.
But just because they are so caught up in the duality of 3D life – and seemingly trapped in that world of darkness – does not mean they do not have the one important thing that we all believe we have, and that continues to help the world awaken: light thoughts.
We know that every single thought has a ripple effect throughout the universe; every thought towards the light increases the light grid around and across the planet and out into the universes and the universes beyond.
I’m sure that a massive percentage (99?) of those people begrudgingly going to work each day wish they didn’t have to. I’m sure that a massive percentage of those who are unemployed wish they could have enough money to survive. I’m sure that a massive percentage of parents constantly wish they could spend more precious time with their kids and families.
I’m also sure that every single person who’s a victim of war, famine or sexual or psychological abuse, actively screams out to the universe – via prayer or just through continual hope – for the war to end; for food and water; for a world without cruelty and violence; for a way out; for a better life for them and/or their family and friends, fellow countrymen and the world. No matter what country they live in or which language they speak.
I’m sure that all of them think every day just how great their lives would be without being servants to the current system. I’m sure they have hope – even in their darkest days.
And I’m totally sure they’ll rejoice wholeheartedly with all of us when true freedom from of all this finally arrives.
Many of our sources, both on- and off-world, are telling us that our light and that of this planet increases incrementally every day.
And why? Because, like all of us, people all over the world are constantly sending their own energetically good thoughts off into the universe. They’re requesting a better life.
So let’s not believe for a moment that we’re the only ones awake (that’s also elitist). Or that we’re the only people making obvious changes.
Let’s imagine that everyone else is as “over it all” as we are!
Whenever we catch ourselves thinking that many others may be asleep, we should step into their shoes and into their hearts and give thanks.
For all those people that we may think are still asleep are possibly just as awake as all of us – they’re just shining their light in a different way.
Jesus: The Resurrection Signifies Humanity’s Awakening From the Illusion
Jesus: The Resurrection Signifies Humanity’s Awakening From the Illusion
Channeled by John Smallman
April 8, 2012
http://johnsmallman2.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/the-resurrection-signifies-huma...
Easter is an excellent day on which to bring to mind God’s Love for all His children. It is a reminder of His Intent that all of them return to Reality – eternal life with Him in the heavenly domains – as demonstrated by the Resurrection.
In Christianity, the Resurrection signifies Christ risen from the dead, but in fact it signifies humanity’s awakening from its extensive sojourn in the illusion, because within you all the Light of Christ Consciousness is burning to light your way Home, and it is now becoming impossible for you to continue ignoring it as you have done for so long.
The time you have spent in the illusion has been arduous and painful, causing you much fear and suffering. It is the divine Will that you awaken from that unhappy state. And so you will.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that your present mode of existence on Planet Earth is unsustainable, and yet those who could start to make the necessary changes to alleviate the situation and help to move you away from the brink of self-destruction are apparently insufficiently concerned with the seriousness of it to do anything about it.
However, that ongoing irresponsible behavior, demonstrated by those who are in a position to start humanity’s move away from what appears to be an inevitable world-wide ecological catastrophe, and who are refusing to act, will soon cease as they are persuaded to resign, and those with the ability, the competence, the technological means, and the intense desire to correct this untenable state of affairs replace them.
You came to Earth as guardians of the planet, but due to confusion and disagreements among you about who were the chosen ones of God, you became mightily distracted and forgot your role. Many began to believe that God showed favor to some and condemned others, and so you began to compete quite viciously for His favor. And right up to the present many continue to follow this insane but well-worn path towards mutual destruction.
As you have been told, and told, and told, God loves you all; there are no exceptions. And yet this message of divine Love has been constantly ignored as you fought among yourselves for His approval. The time for that behavior to end is finally upon you, and awareness is growing rapidly that your insane, and frequently traumatic ways of dealing with one another, person to person or nation to nation, must cease if you are to survive.
It is this awareness that makes it possible for essential alteration of attitudes and behaviors to be implemented on a planetary scale, thus enabling you to live together as always divinely intended – in loving, harmonious, and respectful cooperation.
These changes are now being implemented most effectively all across the planet, and the wonderful results that are occurring are being seen and reported on. Intend to become aware of this information, share it, and become part of it as you release all the blocks and inflexibilities of mind that have prevented you, on occasion, from acting as lovingly and fearlessly as your honesty and integrity demands.
To live in integrity, honesty, and loving harmony is to follow the path out of the illusion. And that is what more and more humans are realizing. A groundswell of awareness is flowing across the planet as more and more of you inform yourselves of the devastation that has been taking place – almost always in the name of progress and with the suggestion that it is leading to prosperity for all, poisoning your air and water and destroying parts of the ecosystem without which life on Earth cannot continue.
This awareness is God-sent to arouse you from your slumber, and its success is assured because of its origin. To awaken is your destiny, and therefore you will awaken, and with the help that is now available to you, you will resolve the many major issues facing humanity, and repair the devastation that the planet and its ecosystems have suffered.
A new age of enlightened living is approaching when all will truly understand and appreciate the beauty of your planet as you re-assume your role as planetary guardians. You are securely on the path to a life of joy, peace, and harmony, and the Earth will rejoice in her abundant health and fruitfulness.
Your loving brother Jesus.
The Fable of the Century; the Ending is Up to You
by Robert ReichMarch 5, 2012
http://robertreich.org/post/20538393444
Imagine a country in which the very richest people get all the economic gains. They eventually accumulate so much of the nation’s total income and wealth that the middle class no longer has the purchasing power to keep the economy going full speed. Most of the middle class’s wages keep falling and their major asset – their home – keeps shrinking in value.
Imagine that the richest people in this country use some of their vast wealth to routinely bribe politicians. They get the politicians to cut their taxes so low there’s no money to finance important public investments that the middle class depends on – such as schools and roads, or safety nets such as health care for the elderly and poor.
Imagine further that among the richest of these rich are financiers. These financiers have so much power over the rest of the economy they get average taxpayers to bail them out when their bets in the casino called the stock market go bad. They have so much power they even shred regulations intended to limit their power.
These financiers have so much power they force businesses to lay off millions of workers and to reduce the wages and benefits of millions of others, in order to maximize profits and raise share prices – all of which make the financiers even richer, because they own so many of shares of stock and run the casino.
Now, imagine that among the richest of these financiers are people called private-equity managers who buy up companies in order to squeeze even more money out of them by loading them up with debt and firing even more of their employees, and then selling the companies for a fat profit.
Although these private-equity managers don’t even risk their own money – they round up investors to buy the target companies – they nonetheless pocket 20 percent of those fat profits.
And because of a loophole in the tax laws, which they created with their political bribes, these private equity managers are allowed to treat their whopping earnings as capital gains, taxed at only 15 percent – even though they themselves made no investment and didn’t risk a dime.
Finally, imagine there is a presidential election. One party, called the Republican Party, nominates as its candidate a private-equity manager who has raked in more than $20 million a year and paid only 13.9 percent in taxes – a lower tax rate than many in the middle class.
Yes, I know it sounds far-fetched. But bear with me because the fable gets even wilder. Imagine this candidate and his party come up with a plan to cut the taxes of the rich even more – so millionaires save another $150,000 a year. And their plan cuts everything else the middle class and the poor depend on – Medicare, Medicaid, education, job-training, food stamps, Pell grants, child nutrition, even law enforcement.
What happens next?
There are two endings to this fable. You have to decide which it’s to be.
In one ending the private-equity manager candidate gets all his friends and everyone in the Wall Street casino and everyone in every executive suite of big corporations to contribute the largest wad of campaign money ever assembled – beyond your imagination.
The candidate uses the money to run continuous advertisements telling the same big lies over and over, such as “don’t tax the wealthy because they create the jobs” and “don’t tax corporations or they’ll go abroad” and “government is your enemy” and “the other party wants to turn America into a socialist state.”
And because big lies told repeatedly start sounding like the truth, the citizens of the country begin to believe them, and they elect the private equity manager president. Then he and his friends turn the country into a plutocracy (which it was starting to become anyway).
But there’s another ending. In this one, the candidacy of the private equity manager (and all the money he and his friends use to try to sell their lies) has the opposite effect. It awakens the citizens of the country to what is happening to their economy and their democracy. It ignites a movement among the citizens to take it all back.
The citizens repudiate the private equity manager and everything he stands for, and the party that nominated him. And they begin to recreate an economy that works for everyone and a democracy that’s responsive to everyone.
Just a fable, of course. But the ending is up to you.
© 2012 Robert Reich
Lucas – Secret Societies Act And Free Masons In Courts Of Canada – 8 April 2012
In my comments list I found a strange reference to a court case that had been judged through the Canadian Court system in highest appeal. The case had a crucial question asked did Freemason judges help their brother Freemason. The judges have refused to reveal if they were Freemasons a question that seemed very basic in a case that claimed Freemasons had railroaded a Canadian dentist into jail for a year for tax fraud. Above question was never answered so it seems. For me it is very unlikely that this will be answered ever.
The Secret Societies Act 1799 is still law in Canada and that alone makes an accusation of being freemason a difficult case. For sure as the accusation is directed to the judges. The Applicant has asked the Canadian Minister of Justice (see page 34 of Motion – page 41 Scribd) and Canadian Prime Minister Harper (see page 36 of Motion – page 43 Scribd) to order an inquiry of the conduct of Chief Justice McLachlin and asked that she not be a part of the panel that will deal with this Motion to Reconsider for similar reasons.
A very strange case in deed.
You will find the story and the scribd 60 pages motion to reconsider at:
www.revenuecanada666.com/-motion-to-reconsider.html
Love and light,
Lucas
Saul: Be Prepared for Mighty Life-Altering Events to Happen 2012 April 8
Saul: Be Prepared for Mighty Life-Altering Events to Happen
Channeled by John Smallman
April 8, 2012 http://tinyurl.com/7fgwocg
Heaven’s intent for humanity is leading you all forwards towards this supremely auspicious event that will bring with it joy, happiness, peace, and prosperous abundance for all; and that event is, of course, your awakening into your natural and fully-conscious state.
That moment is fast approaching and will not be delayed, even though it appears that many are still not ready to release the unloving and judgmental attitudes that, by their very adoption and maintenance, preclude them from accepting the unconditional divine Love that is constantly offered to them.
However, you light-holders are ensuring, by your loving determination to do God’s Will, that the necessary awareness of the insanity of those attitudes will dawn on the vast majority.
A tidal wave of release will sweep through humanity as it at last embraces the incontrovertible truth that Love gently but inevitably conquers and replaces all that is opposed to it. Realizing that resistance is futile, and that it offers only further pain and suffering, the vast majority of humanity will surrender themselves joyfully into the loving arms of God.
And when they do, it will be a moment of supreme glory, and to use an analogy that cannot at all compare to what you will actually experience, it will be similar to the effect you might experience if you moved instantaneously from the depths of an unlighted coal mine into the brilliant midday sunshine on a tropical beach.
And then a stunning and amazing sense of wonder will clear from your minds the last few remnants of the fog of doubt and confusion in which it seems you have been embroiled for so long.
The rate at which you are approaching this magnificent event is accelerating as the divine embrace, the divine field of Love enveloping the planet and all upon it intensifies and strengthens. There is no escape from God’s Love for you! And there is no escape from the infinite ecstasy in which It will enfold you!
Be prepared for mighty life-altering events to happen and appear before you as you awaken at last into Reality, for it will provide you with everything you need for peaceful and happy living in a most glorious and inspiring environment.
All your creative talents and abilities will blossom as you start to express yourselves fully and with complete confidence in whatever field you find yourselves resonating with.
And in that field, with all the amazing possibilities it offers, you will find yourselves surrounded by many loving companions with similar talents and interests with whom you can work synergistically and harmoniously to produce dazzlingly beautiful creations for the delight of all.
Once you have awakened, you will never again encounter loneliness and all the unhappiness that goes with the unnatural slumbering state you have been in; although, when the mood takes you, you will have no trouble finding a place of inspiration in which to be alone – in love, peace, and communion with Yourself and with God.
Reality is a place of divine enjoyment where you can use to the full all the creative gifts with which God has endowed you, absolutely firm in the knowledge that everything you think, say, or do is a most beautiful creation of infinite loving intent that you will share enthusiastically with God and with all your brothers and sisters.
And their enthusiasm for whatever you choose to create will equal yours, as will your enthusiasm for whatever they choose to create.
Truly, at present, you can have not the slightest idea of the wonders that are waiting to unfold for you. Anticipate your awakening with excitement and surety because what God has promised He will deliver, and no-one will be disappointed. For in God no such possibility exists.
With so very much love, Saul.
What Does it Mean to be Human?
I’m glad so many people enjoyed the last article in this series (1) and are interested in beginning a global conversation. Let’s take another step towards starting one. A global conversation is addressed to the human race. So perhaps I can be permitted a few words on my view of what it means to be human.
I’m not an anthropologist but I worked many years as a cultural historian. Nonetheless this is meant as a commonsensical discussion and not one that’s somehow scholarly or academic.
What does it mean to be human? Believe it or not, human beings can achieve that level of evolution by different paths. David Wilcock described some of them:
“The human body shows up in the galaxy on every planet where life can form. It’s a natural evolution. Some might get there by an insect; some might get there by a lizard; some might get there by mammals like we do; some might get there by cetaceans; some might get there even by vegetation, apparently.” (2)
Even though humans can be mammalian, reptilian, or even plant-based, the humans around our planet at the present time are all of the same mammalian genetic makeup as we are; in fact they’re our ancestors, the races that first populated the Earth.
The basic human form is known as the Adam/Eve Kadmon template and is best represented in Leonardo’s drawing (above) or the Voyager Plaque (below). That template is upright, bipedal, bilaterally symmetrical, with stereoscopic vision located on the front of the face, arms, legs, opposable thumbs, a brain with hemispheres, etc. The form is human, but the soul divine. The soul is at a level of evolution called being human. As the saying goes, we are not humans having a spiritual experience but spirits having a human experience. We’re immortal and live many lives, only some of them as humans.
The physical human form has certain aspects: the biological, cultural, emotional, and spiritual. The biological aspect centers around the need to eat, drink, breathe, sleep, procreate, clothe ourselves, etc. These needs are only associated with the Third Dimension. We share this level of existence with animals, but we satisfy our needs in a peculiarly human way, through the use of culture and tools.
The cultural aspect relates to the fact that we traffic in ideas. Culture = ideas. To create an idea that can be communicated, we bestow meaning on symbols, freely and arbitrarily. This tall wooden thing before me I think I will call a “tree.” (Non, non, un “arbre.”) This barking animal I will call a “dog.” (Non non, un “chien.”) With ideas, we communicate and dream, rehearse and remember. We get the idea, make believe, and pass the word along.
When I was a cultural historian, I used to say that culture was an organization of ideas, manifest in act and artifact, though consisting of neither, by means of which we think, respond and take purposive action. We live in a world of ideas, whether animals do or do not. (Some say they do.)
There is an emotional aspect to us which builds on both biology and culture. We respond emotionally to our body’s needs and urges and to our thoughts and actions. We respond emotionally to others. We even respond emotionally to our dreams and fantasies. We love and hate, desire and reject, lean towards and away from. We’re repulsed and inspired, jubilant and depressed, encouraged and discouraged. And we then we double back and have thoughts about our emotions.
The spiritual aspect builds on the cultural and emotional, beginning with the power to make an object of ourselves. Taking cognizance of ourselves we term “self-consciousness.” It was a huge innovation. We can make of anything an object and end up making one of God as well. As we expand our consciousness more and more, moving towards the event for which all life was created (enlightenment), we move ever closer to transforming God from an object into the one and only Subject. We’ve moved from self-consciousness to Self-Realization, using object-consciousness to reach consciousness without an object.
These processes are what all of us humans share. If we want to take a human perspective rather than an American or a Catholic or a Republican one, then we’ll be looking at what we are and do relative to our biological, cultural, emotional, and spiritual selves and others.
We haven’t been speaking about these before now – not commonly. Certain scholars do, but not the mass of society. We’ve been speaking about Presidential candidates, the pound sterling, and housing prices. We’ve been speaking about the Vatican, and Burma, and space shuttles. Always we take the partial view, the specific view, the named and unique perspective. Always we focus on differences.
But we’re being obliged to become aware of ourselves as a planet by the guests who are coming to dinner. If we’re talking about Pleiadians and Arcturians, how can we not think about terrestrials? We’re suddenly finding that we need to know more about ourselves, even as we attempt to know more about them. We can see that the galactics are studying us. Just get yourselves onto Ellie Miser’s distribution list. Ellie is a conscious Pleiadian starseed who studies us like an anthropologist.
They’re studying us. We’re studying them. Now we must also study us. We have to survey us, take stock of our credits and debits, surpluses and insufficiencies, gifts and weaknesses.
As I said in an earlier article, in regard to the work that needs to be done between now and the end of the year, primarily what we address is “problems.” We aim to turn unworkability into workability.
But we also need to get to know each other from a human vantage point. After years of focusing on our differences, we now need to focus on our similarities. What ties us together? We all have the same biological needs. We all live our lives by using and communicating ideas. We all have emotional reactions to things. And many of us also feel the tug of the spiritual.
So this is what it means to be human – at least on Planet Earth. Who’s coming to dinner are more humans like us, from other dimensions and places. We already know they’ll have the Adam Kadmon form. Their bodies may have some of the biological processes that ours do or maybe fewer of them. They’ll traffic in ideas, though perhaps telepathically. They’ll react to things with emotions, though less dramatically than us. And we know they worship the same God, see the purpose of life as knowing themselves and God as one, and live their lives in service to others.
So this is a framework that we can use to see what it means to be a human being, whether we are talking about us as humans or the galactics. As we begin our global conversation, we’re talking as one human being to another and what this article describes is what we share in common.
Footnotes
(1) “Having a Global Conversation,” April 7, 2012, at http://the2012scenario.com/2012/04/having-a-global-conversation/
Project Camelot Interviews David Wilcock, Part 2 of 4, at . For more on this subject, see “We Gaians (Repost),” at http://the2012scenario.com/2011/10/we-gaians-repost/
Update from “Drake,” April 5, 2012
Freedom Reigns interviews “Drake” in an update on laying the foundation for restoring a lawful government and monetary system in the U.S. Thanks to Neil.
“People want to be free and they’re hungering for it.” He predicts that Eric Holder will be “thrown under the bus.” I’m not sure if that’s accurate, myself. “There is a plan, it is being put into place, it is being worked on. In conjunction with that there are a whole lot of things going that people may not be aware of. A lot of it you will not see in the mainstream media. … Right now we’re in a wait-and-hold pattern and I don’t like it any more than anyone does. But right now there is more going on than people realize. … Things are closer than people realize. There has been a great deal of shuffling of a combination of resources, both personnel, material, records, you name it. And it’s been going pretty much like a beehive if you took one up and shook. Consequently I’m looking for something to happen very shortly. … When they’re in position to do it, it will be done.”
“I am a position where I have arranged communication with some of these people. … If something extraordinary starts to happen, … we will contact everybody and their mother-in-law and make sure everybody is aware what’s going on. The process is simple. Get as ready as you can. Commonsensically, [get together] what is it that you’ve gotta have. Meds, diapers for the kids, toilet paper, a little food, and so on. Figure in the neighborhood of 2-6 weeks. … It’s not supposed to be, according to the plan, even that long in terms of any disruptions that may come about. …”
“This effort works in conjunction with a combination of the military and our local law enforcement. That’s the only way it can correctly be done. The idea of civilian authority is in play. It is in force. … At this point we’re looking at a transition, where the people who have been causing the general populace the problems that we are facing presently are to be removed, as peacefully and without any violence as possible. …”
“The basis of all this has been laid out on the website [FreedomReigns.com]. … My understanding is that as it becomes available, there is going to be be a Q&A section added to the website if it isn’t already up. This is going to give the general gist of what I’ve just stated and answer some of the questions. So basically the update is that things are moving and all of a sudden there is a lot of scrambling and this usually takes place just prior to some sort of action. And I hope we all know what that action is going to be. …”
“To be part of the birth of a nation, or rebirth in this case? My goodness. It gives me goose bumps. … There is one country whose prime minister told the Rothschild central banking system to take a flying leap at a rolling donut. The debt that they incurred was fraudulent and illegal and they weren’t going to pay it. I sent a hard copy of that when I saw it to Greece and my understanding is that it went pretty viral in the Greek newspapers so they are aware of it. And I would expect that these people will start handing the back to those people who made it up and see if they will pay it. …”
“Bundesbank … put a restraining order on Merkel. That means she can’t touch a dime. That means that all of these deals are done. That means there won’t be bailouts. I’m looking for some fun and games in Europe. …”
“That pretty much puts the icing on the cake in terms of the ideology of control through finance. The other part is that there is an alliance of nations that has cut off the corporate cabal or central banking system, as it is known, in terms of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, from being able to go to small countries and loot their treasuries. They can’t do that because even if they are not a member of the alliance they have offered protection to anyone who’s interested.”
A hidden world, growing beyond control
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'+social_links[i]+''); } $('#social_links').append(''); })(jQuery, this);The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.
These are some of the findings of a two-year investigation by The Washington Post that discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.
The investigation's other findings include:
* Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
* An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances.
* In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons or 22 U.S. Capitol buildings - about 17 million square feet of space.
* Many security and intelligence agencies do the same work, creating redundancy and waste. For example, 51 federal organizations and military commands, operating in 15 U.S. cities, track the flow of money to and from terrorist networks.
* Analysts who make sense of documents and conversations obtained by foreign and domestic spying share their judgment by publishing 50,000 intelligence reports each year - a volume so large that many are routinely ignored.
An alternative geography
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the top-secret world created to respond to the terrorist attacks has grown into an unwieldy enterprise spread over 10,000 U.S. locations. Launch Photo Gallery »These are not academic issues; lack of focus, not lack of resources, was at the heart of the Fort Hood shooting that left 13 dead, as well as the Christmas Day bomb attempt thwarted not by the thousands of analysts employed to find lone terrorists but by an alert airline passenger who saw smoke coming from his seatmate.
They are also issues that greatly concern some of the people in charge of the nation's security.
"There has been so much growth since 9/11 that getting your arms around that - not just for the
In the Department of Defense, where more than two-thirds of the intelligence programs reside, only a handful of senior officials - called Super Users - have the ability to even know about all the department's activities. But as two of the Super Users indicated in interviews, there is simply no way they can keep up with the nation's most sensitive work.
"I'm not going to live long enough to be briefed on everything" was how one Super User put it. The other recounted that for his initial briefing, he was escorted into a tiny, dark room, seated at a small table and told he couldn't take notes. Program after program began flashing on a screen, he said, until he yelled ''Stop!" in frustration.
"I wasn't remembering any of it," he said.
Underscoring the seriousness of these issues are the conclusions of retired Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who was asked last year to review the method for tracking the Defense Department's most sensitive programs. Vines, who once commanded 145,000 troops in Iraq and is familiar with complex problems, was stunned by what he discovered.
"I'm not aware of any agency with the authority, responsibility or a process in place to coordinate all these interagency and commercial activities," he said in an interview. "The complexity of this system defies description."
The result, he added, is that it's impossible to tell whether the country is safer because of all this spending and all these activities. "Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste," Vines said. "We consequently can't effectively assess whether it is making us more safe."
The Post's investigation is based on government documents and contracts, job descriptions, property records, corporate and social networking Web sites, additional records, and hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and corporate officials and former officials. Most requested anonymity either because they are prohibited from speaking publicly or because, they said, they feared retaliation at work for describing their concerns.
The Post's online database of government organizations and private companies was built entirely on public records. The investigation focused on top-secret work because the amount classified at the secret level is too large to accurately track.
Today's article describes the government's role in this expanding enterprise. Tuesday's article describes the government's dependence on private contractors. Wednesday's is a portrait of one Top Secret America community. On the Web, an extensive, searchable database built by The Post about Top Secret America is available at washingtonpost.com/topsecretamerica.
Defense Secretary Gates, in his interview with The Post, said that he does not believe the system has become too big to manage but that getting precise data is sometimes difficult. Singling out the growth of intelligence units in the Defense Department, he said he intends to review those programs for waste. "Nine years after 9/11, it makes a lot of sense to sort of take a look at this and say, 'Okay, we've built tremendous capability, but do we have more than we need?' " he said.
CIA Director Leon Panetta, who was also interviewed by The Post last week, said he's begun mapping out a five-year plan for his agency because the levels of spending since 9/11 are not sustainable. "Particularly with these deficits, we're going to hit the wall. I want to be prepared for that," he said. "Frankly, I think everyone in intelligence ought to be doing that."
In an interview before he resigned as the director of national intelligence in May, retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair said he did not believe there was overlap and redundancy in the intelligence world. "Much of what appears to be redundancy is, in fact, providing tailored intelligence for many different customers," he said.
Blair also expressed confidence that subordinates told him what he needed to know. "I have visibility on all the important intelligence programs across the community, and there are processes in place to ensure the different intelligence capabilities are working together where they need to," he said.
Weeks later, as he sat in the corner of a ballroom at the Willard Hotel waiting to give a speech, he mused about The Post's findings. "After 9/11, when we decided to attack violent extremism, we did as we so often do in this country," he said. "The attitude was, if it's worth doing, it's probably worth overdoing."
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Live Q&As
Q&A Transcript for Part 1 of Top Secret America (July 19)
Q&A Transcript for Part 2 of Top Secret America (July 20)
Q&A Transcript for Part 3 of Top Secret America (July 21)
Q&A Transcript for Part 4 of Top Secret America (December 20)
Your Take: Crime vs. Homeland Security (December 20)
Part 1: July 19, 2010
- A hidden world, growing beyond control
July 19, 2010
- Photo gallery: An alternative geography
July 18, 2010
Part 2: July 20, 2010
- National Security Inc.
July 20, 2010
- Photo gallery: The role of private contractors
July 20, 2010
- Video: Help Wanted: Professionals with security clearances
July 20, 2010
Part 3: July 21, 2010
- The secrets next door
July 21, 2010
- Photo gallery: In our back yards
July 20, 2010
Part 4: December 20, 2010
- Monitoring America
Dec. 20, 2010
- Photo gallery: Counterterrorism on Main Street
Dec. 20, 2010
Reference
- Types of top-secret work
July 19, 2010
- Gallery: Anti-deception technologies
July 18, 2010
- Methodology and credits
July 18, 2010
- A note on this project
July 18, 2010
- Frontline video
July 18, 2010
- The Washington Post's press release
July 18, 2010
- Updates, changes, corrections
July 18, 2010
"Top Secret America" is a project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. | Read More »
More than a dozen Washington Post journalists spent two years developing Top Secret America. | See the details »
Video
Top Secret America on Frontline
A short video from PBS’s FRONTLINE on The Post’s two-year investigation. An hour-long documentary film is forthcoming. Watch the trailer »
The reporters
Dana Priest
Investigative reporter Dana Priest has been The Washington Post's intelligence, Pentagon and health-care reporter. She has won numerous awards, including the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for public service for "The Other Walter Reed" and the 2006 Pulitzer for beat reporting for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations overseas. She is author of the 2003 book, "The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military, (W.W. Norton).
William M. Arkin
William M. Arkin has been a columnist and reporter with The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com since 1998. He has worked on the subject of government secrecy and national security affairs for more than 30 years. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books about the U.S. military and national security.
Project Credits
Stephanie Clark, Ben de la Cruz, Kat Downs, Dan Drinkard, Anne Ferguson-Rohrer, Justin Ferrell, David Finkel, Jennifer Jenkins, Robert Kaiser, Laris Karklis, Jacqueline Kazil, Lauren Keane, Todd Lindeman, Greg Manifold, Jennifer Morehead, Bonnie Jo Mount, Larry Nista, Ryan O’Neil, Sarah Sampsel, Whitney Shefte, Laura Stanton, Julie Tate, Doris Truong, Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso, Michael Williamson, Karen Yourish, Amanda Zamora.
Contact Us
Phone: 202-334-9300
E-mail: topsecretamerica@washpost.com
