Williams wrote: "All told, about 16,200 of Detroit’s 680,000 residents — almost 2.4% — are believed to be living on the streets or in temporary shelters — and that doesn’t account for other types of homelessness, such as teens going from friend to friend and families living in motels."
I know Detroit is blessed with several church groups, nonprofit organizations and community shelters which are trying to help our people. Still, it is December. The resources are always scarce at this time of year while the needs are always growing.
Most U. S. cities have similar challenges. But many have chosen different solutions.
For the most part, Detroiters are trying to do what is right by helping each other. The people of Detroit have not written laws to force our homeless out of sight and out of town. Detroit police officers are not beating the tent people, tearing down their tents and shelters, taking their meager belongings, or putting them in jail.
Perhaps it's because Detroiters know what foreclosure really means and the terrible toll that unemployment extracts from humane beings — people with souls – or the paralyzing wounds wrought by endless PTSD nightmares.
For many Detroiters, Depression.2 has endured for more than 10 years and the cold days of winter are still ahead.
But maybe, just maybe, if we can just help each other a little more, we will live to witness spring's promise and the warmth of summer one more time.
Great things are ahead for Detroit.
I know, because Detroiters are humane beings who really do care about their own.
Draft Card No. 1 to Serve two years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It is time to change our political paradigm.
It will require a Constitutional Amendment, but here is an idea:
Adopt a law which requires that all citizens must complete a two-year tour of public service.
Selective Service could be given the role of administering the program and creating a "pool" of "qualified" potential draftees.
One service, an alternative to the military or the Peace Corps, could be as an elected representative to the House of Representatives or the Senate on the state, federal or local, county levels as a council person or mayor.
Youthful representatives, without a doubt, will be idealistic in performance of their duties but perhaps less corrupted by big money and special interests as our current representatives are today.
Additionally, or alternatively, we could "draft" older people into public service for the same two-year tour of duty.
For me, that's a "draft " that might free our system from the control of the .1%. It's worth a shot don't you agree?
Dear. Sen Warren,
Please use your power on the Senate Banking Committee to stop the CRomnibus (omnibus) government funding bill until the "special privileges for special interests sections", i.e. Wall Street bailout and .1% donor sections, are removed. This is a good time to begin to change the political paradigm and make our first stand for the people of the United States.
Thank you,
Ron Baker
Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on the floor of the Senate on 12 Dec 2014 about the provision that Citigroup added to the CRomnibus budget package.
What is in your best interests right now?
If you are a normal human being, that is, not a psychopath or a sociopath, you might say: a good paying job; security for your children; a loving relationship; a secure home; a secure retirement; healthcare; the opportunity to do more and / or better in the future. The list can be lengthy.
For me, it is my own belief that, “I am under no one’s thumb” and only subject to my own self-imposed limitations or restrictions that make me feel good about myself and my future. When I feel that way I can move mountains and attain any objective. At least that’s the way it has seemed to me over my past 65 years.
When I have been denied my belief, even for a few hours or days, I became depressed, angry, hyper-aware and very motivated.
Perhaps we share that belief in common.
In the past when life became hopeless for nearly everyone, and families had little – not even the tiniest itty-bitty bit of wealth, shelter, food or clothing – bloody revolution followed. Overwhelmingly, people (the 99.9%) became convinced that they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
For me it appears we are once again on another historic threshold of great unrest, for the undeniable inequitable distribution of wealth leads to no other conclusion. (1.)
What will happen to the USA and other western nations as the formerly oblivious middle class realizes that they, too, have been reduced to serfdom? Will we, like our ancestors, stumble on into hopelessness and eventually rebel? Or, will we make history and create a new path back to hopefulness and opportunity for all?
Clearly those in charge have prepared the way to resist a revolution should it materialize, and make it very bloody. Following 9/11 Congress suspended the Bill of Rights and passed the most repressive laws in the history of our nation: the USA PATRIOT Act, the Military Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.
What did we do?
Well, we stood by as our constitutionally guaranteed rights evaporated and our hometown police were armed to the teeth with surplus military weapons, SWATT gear, armored HUMVs and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAPs) vehicles.
To me it sure looks like our government is spending our tax monies to ensure our police are ready for combat against us.
If not, then where are the domestic enemies? Are they the ones the NEOCONS created in Iraq and Afghanistan or are they those our CIA financed through out the Third World to topple governments they didn’t like?
When I was a child we thought of ourselves as the guarantors of a rebuild Europe and Japan; conquerors of outer space, and technological wizards. Our home was a land where both the American Dream and equal opportunity lived; where I could own my home, make a good and stable living, and send my kids to college.
Somewhere along the way our nation changed. We metastasized, into a Doppelganger USA selling perpetual war — dealing death to millions — and all the while trampling on our own Constitution and our citizens’ freedoms.
We became the land that assassinated its own president and civil rights leaders. And, under the spell of an irrational fear of communism, we let our Black Ops people murder, torture and disrupt with impunity; topple democratically elected governments and stymie third world nationalistic heroes; kill millions of defenseless people in predatory capitalistic wars; sell cocaine to our children to fund countless wars against people throughout the world (2.) and flushed trillions of dollars down the toilet while letting our own starve. We turned the mentally ill out in the bitter cold; allowed millions to go without proper healthcare and treated our elderly like used disposable diapers. All the while the few, the .1%, capitalized on the perpetual war machine — the Doppelganger USA — we had become.
We, the 99.9%, remained oblivious, even while nearly 3,000 of our own were murdered before our eyes on one September day.
Finally, our metastasized Predatory Capitalist system went too far and Depression .2 happened. That’s when millions of us lost everything — our homes, our savings, our jobs and our dreams. We began to awaken because these things were now actually happening to us, the middle class, the everyday Joes and Janes who go to work, pay our mortgages, take care of our kids and believe our government is working in the best interests of us all.
No longer were just the “minorities” being abused, disenfranchised and stolen blind. We were too. We became the “them”, “the despised others”, in the .1%’s “Us vs. Them” nightmare formula.
Now, with our belief in our political leadership eroded to the very bottom of the Gallop confidence scale, we are literally clinging to our last and most precious dream – our hope for a better tomorrow.
Millions of us, whether or not we understand it, teeter on the edge of a frightening abyss of hopelessness.
I consider myself a political party nobody. I’m not a member of the Democrats, Republicans, nor the Tea Party – whatever that means.
However, I do see myself as a member of the 99.9%.
In my mind that makes me a follower of my ancestors’ path, some of whom came to the colonies prior to the War for Independence and actually fought for their freedom. My guess is that they believed that independence would help them obtain the most out of life, no longer a serf, slave or indentured servant, subject to the whims of the ruling class, but truly free to live under no man’s thumb.
There are millions of us who still walk that path. We share freedom’s dream and believe ourselves to be free men and women, living in a land of opportunity which has no boundaries save only those we impose upon ourselves.
Family lore says that at least one on my father’s side survived the Revolution and like hundreds of other serving patriots, found Congress unwilling to pay for services rendered. Instead, some 30 years later, Congress finally awarded some lucky few a parcel of Indian land in lieu of the promised wages.
Many years later, his descendent, my grandfather, somehow ventured into commercial trucking and hauled coal from Southern Ohio to the tire factories in the Akron, Ohio. When the Great Depression came he lost everything, his trucks and his business, to the Banksters of his time.
He may have thought himself free and under no man’s thumb. But that was not the case. The bank repossessed his dream.
After that he fell back on his horsemanship skills learned on the old family farm in Southern Ohio and became a farrier for Reiter Dairy, located a stone’s throw away from my alma mater, the University of Akron.
Over a hundred years ago and in the days of his youth, Grandpa Baker served with the U.S. Marine Corp.
He was one of “The Few” sent early on to Nicaragua to ensure that U.S. interests (Read U.S. business interests) were maintained during the ongoing unrest in that nation.
(Please see Part I, Lies Too Big To Fail, (below) and Stephen Kinzer’s book, The Brothers, for a clear description of the Dulles brothers role as advocates for their Sullivan & Cromwell law firm corporate clients in what became known as the Banana Wars. I see this point in time as the “modern” beginning point for when our nation began to metastasize into the Doppelganger USA we have now become.)
So life goes on — one might think.
But in fact that was not the case for Grandpa Baker. Today we know that the fickle nature of life had nothing to do with his tour of duty in Nicaragua, nor the Banksters taking back his coal-hauling trucks during the Great Depression.
Back then, the game was rigged against my grandfather, just as it is in our time today. The .1% — the Robber Barons, Banksters — controlled the government, the economy and waged war for their profit, just as they do today.
So here we are. Unless the .1% have an epiphany and throw a bone to the 99.9%, we are clearly on the historical blind alley which ends in bloody revolution and chaos as the inequities continue to grow with each passing day. (3.)
How do I know this to be true and that our clock is about to strike midnight (Remember that Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock which the government would trot out every once in a while? Its minute hand was poised ready to strike midnight – the symbolic end of the world – when we would all be burned up in nuclear holocaust. Originally, in 1947, it was set for seven minutes, but, due to climate change, the clock was reset to five minutes in 2014.)
Perhaps time will run out for mankind and we will all disappear because we did nothing about climate change. Realistically though, I believe it’s more likely that our system will fail us before the climate does. We will either starve or freeze because we no longer have the means to sustain ourselves and our families or we will perish at the hands of some 19-year-old National Guardsman, who, while doing his duty, shoots us down while we are attempting to steal that last loaf of stale bread.
Still, there remains a modicum of hope for all of us, the 99.9% and the .1% — because a revolution will surely destroy the .1% as well as the rest of us combined. There are five minutes still left on our modern day digital Doomsday clock.
How do we know this? Well, even the Council on Foreign Relations (4.) now says it’s time to helicopter drop some money to the teeming masses and relieve their agony a little bit. So there is a spark of hope still out there.
Our Task – Restore Parity of Opportunity
I’ll venture a guess that all of us expect to live “a good life”, one which not only ensures the basics — comfortable home, healthy food, decent clothing, a good education — for ourselves and our loved ones, but also a life which offers a chance at attaining even more. We all want a shot at that “American Dream”, whatever that means to us.
Further, most of us believe that the chance at attaining more in life is not exclusive. Rather, we believe that all of us should have a chance at that Dream — to be and have whatever we want. We believe that the American Dream is inclusive and not limited to a select few.
When we believe that way, we can accept whatever life has dealt us, because we know, in the end, it’s up to us to make our dreams come true. So, because I believe I can attain most anything I desire, that there is nothing holding me back save my own initiative, then I’m O.K. with the results. Some of us will have more… a lot more… and others will have less. But, it’s up to each individual to make it so.
What I have just described is Parity of Opportunity. It’s when the playing field is level and does not favor one person over another for any reason, such as: race, sex, age, ethnicity or wealth.
The Time of The Great Awakening
I believe the most recent election results (Nov 2014) will usher in The Time of The Great Awakening in the U.S. because the winning elected officials will now become even more emboldened to speed up their disassembly of the rights guaranteed the 99.9% by the Constitution. Their efforts will directly lead us into The Age of Parity of Opportunity as the 99.9% defend against the loss of their remaining rights.
What can we do – the everyday Joes and Janes - to help stop the Pendulum of Opportunity at Parity, i.e., opportunity for all? How will we ensure we walk the path toward parity and not swing past toward bloody revolution and that we move away from our current form of predatory capitalism toward a more humane form of capitalism?
As one of the millions of American boys, in 1970, I made a choice to enlist rather than be drafted into the U.S. military. I especially remember that day because even as a “nobody” recruit, I had to swear an oath: “I, Ronald Baker, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Millions of us have taken that oath, or one similar, declaring to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, it is that oath which gives me the confidence that, together, we will correct the wayward course of our nation by moving the Pendulum of Opportunity back toward Parity of Opportunity for all which is guaranteed by our own Constitution.
Seven Initial Steps to Guarantee Parity of Opportunity and Resurrect Our Democracy
Here are seven concrete actions steps we can take to resurrect our democracy and move away from the Doppelganger USA which we have become.
Reverse Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission
Repeal three, Bill of Rights busting laws: the USA PATRIOT Act, the Military Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.
Re-establish the Glass-Steagall Act
Abolish the CIA
Establish a national public works program and fix our infrastructure
The election results I read today are not the ones I had
hoped to see. I fear for our nation, our people (the 99.9%) and humanity for our
Doppelganger USA may now be totally untethered, unrestrained and unleashed on
the world.
Most hometowns in the USA can do something that will help everyone of their residents and businesses. Do you know what that is? Build our own community-owned broadband system.
"Cities and towns have come to understand that 'having world-class bandwidth is maybe even more important than having an NFL football team,' said Blair Levin, a former FCC official who oversaw development of the National Broadband Plan under President Obama and is now executive director of the Gig.U fiber initiative."
"Levin has gone around the country helping cities understand why action at the local level is so important. While Internet service providers often don’t compete against each other in individual cities and towns, the cities and towns are in effect competing against each other because broadband infrastructure fuels growth.
“I was in front of College Station, Texas, and I remember a city councilor saying something to the effect of ‘Oh I get what you’re saying—our cable company doesn’t compete with South Korea Telecom, but we compete with Seoul, Korea,’” Levin told Ars."
"Communities are recognizing that broadband "impacts their ability to do everything, whether it be traffic control or schools or civic engagement,” he said. “The biggest change is people are starting to notice how things they do today affect the network they have 10 years from now. You can’t do this overnight. Networks take a lot of time to plan, engineer, and build.”
Are you as tired as I am of being screwed over by Comcast and AT&T? Well we have an alternative, don't we. Google is showing us the way to tie into world class Internet connectivity without Comcast or AT&T.
Let's make it so!
WE Are Megalopolis Detroit and Opportunity Lives Here!
Can't you feel it? Detroit is moving forward. Bet on Detroit now. Don't miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Put up the signs that say: “Welcome, You Are Now Entering Megalopolis Detroit”.
*That's The Megalopolis Detroit - which includes the counties of: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Monroe, Washtenaw, Livingston, Lapeer, Genesee, Lenawee and Lucas (Ohio). It's time to think the way it really is. Our town is massive and stretches from and includes Toledo in the south and Windsor in the east to Flint in the north and Ann Arbor in the west. And, the D is THE CITY magnet.
The heavens opened up for Megalopolis Detroit* these past couple of weeks gushing forth with several major, game changing events. So many, in fact, that it seemed the gods were finally letting us have a bit of our allotted good fortune which has been bottled up for over 50 years.
First, the massive 45-block renewal project, the Detroit Sports and Entertainment District, was officially launched and is now underway in downtown Detroit.
Importantly the new project brings together new and existing entertainment venues with new restaurant, residential and retail business space designed as five new neighborhoods. The total project connects downtown Detroit, the major sports facilities with the newly already emerging Midtown Detroit area and the under construction Woodward Ave M1 Light Rail Line, which connects downtown with the Metro Region northern ‘burbs. Go here for excellent coverage of the whole story.
For the second year, an outstanding and fun attraction was held in Midtown Detroit - Dlectricity - took place 26-27 Sept. You should consider going next year! Some 150,000 experienced the nighttime festival this year. The Midtown Detroit press release explained: “DLECTRICITY is modeled after other Nuit Blanche festivals known for bringing the best of contemporary light and technology-based arts to the streets of major cities like Paris, Rome, Toronto, Minneapolis and New York. The event featured more than 35 internationally-acclaimed, local and emerging artists from around the world, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Detroit.” Go here for the full release.
And, go here for the official Dlectricity site.
Mayor Duggan and Detroit City Council - working together – took back control of the city from Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, who has also done an excellent job on behalf of the people of Detroit. Council voted to keep him as emergency manager until Detroit's bankruptcy exit plan is approved.
With the Mayor and Council’s leadership, the City of Detroit is now doing its job for the people of Detroit - meaning neighborhood renewal is underway; vacant homes are being reoccupied or demolished; new streetlights are being installed and illuminated; the police are policing; and the schools are beginning a comeback. Why is that so important?
NPR recently ran a story about Detroit Cody High School. In one way it's a storybook story you've head before about a team coming together to win an important game. But, in the most important way, it's an unusual story because its about a family that gave a keystone donation of $300,000 to complete the major project for a Detroit neighborhood revitalization. The family did not ask that the field be named for
them. Rather they asked that the field be called, Hope Field.
It's Time Tell it Like it is. WE ARE MEGALOPOLIS DETROIT!
Can't you feel it? Detroit is moving forward. Bet on Detroit now. Don't miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime. Put up the signs that say: “Welcome, You Are Now Entering Megalopolis Detroit”.
*That's The Megalopolis Detroit - which includes the counties of: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Monroe, Washtenaw, Livingston, Lapeer, Genesee, Lenawee and Lucas (Ohio). It's time to think the way it really is. Our town is massive and stretches from and includes Toledo in the south and Windsor in the east to Flint in the north and Ann Arbor in the west. And, the D is THE CITY magnet.
Tryla Ryan, Colleen's mom, passed 30 Sept 2014, at home, Grosse Ile, MI., USA. She turned 96 on 4 June 2014. Trula lived her life to the fullest to her last breath. Go here for her memorial website.
For the Vietnam War and the 9/11 Wars – Afghanistan & Iraq, a free world could judge the leaders of the United States for crimes against humanity just as we, the victors, judged the leaders of Nazi Germany (Nuremberg) and the Empire of Japan warlords (Tokyo) upon the conclusion of WWII.
Clearly there are considerable and major differences between the atrocities which were perpetrated by the Nazi / Japanese leaders vs. the administrations of U.S. Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Geo. H.W. Bush and Geo W. Bush. Yet, as leaders, with the power to do otherwise, these U.S. leaders, including cabinet members and other appointees under their control — both Democrat and Republican — led our nation and our allies into unnecessary wars and condoned heinous atrocities, such as murder, mass murder and torture, in violation of the Geneva Convention, based upon false and deliberately misleading propaganda which they used to justify their actions.
These U.S. leaders never paid a price for their roles in planning, permitting, carrying out and condoning the various deceptions, intrigues, murders of democratically elected heads of state and coups d’état to say nothing of unleashed terrifying weapons causing death, dismemberment and unimaginable destruction upon innocent civilians.
However, millions of everyday people did pay the ultimate price — with their lives — and millions more are still paying due to the weapons of carnage – agent orange, spent uranium munitions, napalm, landmines, and many more.
Additionally, trillions of dollars were squandered feeding the war machine, enriching the cadre of war broker beneficiaries and a multitude of small time criminals.
Alone, a president, cabinet member, department head or a general could not have created the original lies plus the sustaining mechanism to fan the flames of destruction we have witnessed over the past 60 plus years.
That has taken a plethora of specially honed psychopathic talents brought together under the auspices of an unrestrained, unaccountable, intelligence community led during the 1950s by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, Secretary of State and Director of the CIA; then perpetuated by subsequent leaders of the U.S. intelligence department (s) and Secretaries of State.
Together, the Dulles brothers were responsible for creating, contributing to and exploiting anti-communism hysteria in the U.S. during the 1950s (Please see my previous post: below: Lies Too Big to Fail, Part I, How We Lost Our Naïveté.) and paving the way for the “Black Ops” atrocities - which are on going - right up to today.
Why do I believe these things? What has changed over the past 60 years and more? The answer is:
JFK Records Collection Act (1992);
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA);
Most importantly, the historically unequaled courage, compassion, professionalism and “applied” intelligence of Dr. Joan Mellen, Douglas P. Horne, James Garrison, Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann (and many others), for shinning the light of truth on those who conspired to murder President Kennedy;
And likewise, the historically unequaled courage, compassion, professionalism and “applied” intelligence of Dr. Judy Wood and UK researcher Andrew Johnson, for uncovering what really took place at the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
As a result of the documents made available through multiple FOIA requests, the JFK Records Collection Act and a handful of courageous souls, information long held secret has come to light exposing our Doppelganger past and sadly, our present, as well.
I was attending a junior high school biology class the day President Kennedy was murdered. If you were alive at that time, I’ll bet you remember where you were that day, too.
The nation was in shock the day President Kennedy was shot – well, many of us were, I guess. Since that day in 1963, I’ve learned that a whole lot of people wanted the President dead.
Because of the JFK Records Collection Act, Dr. Joan Mellen explained, “The CIA released thousands of documents, not all about the JFK assassination. I believe the CIA does not know what is included in the documents that they released many of them are about peripheral issues.”
What was released that’s so important? How about Lee Harvey Oswald’s FBI and CIA payroll records?
“There is no mistaking that Lee Harvey Oswald was connected to CIA, US Customs and the FBI,” said Dr. Joan Mellen. (1. )
“I believe they (CIA) think they are invulnerable. They release a lot of these documents and they have no idea what is in their own documents.”
Dr. Joan Mellen
"CIA’s politics are clear: destabilize the governments of countries that are not inclined to do business with U.S. corporations under conditions advantageous to the U.S. This includes destabilizing those not amendable to the imprecations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Arm the militias willing to help do the destabilizing. Then kill them when they turn against us. Is Benghazi a surprise?", explained Dr. Mellen. (2.)
“What I discovered,” she said, “is CIA has the power; the military is their arm; defense contractors are their clients; the government, elected officials are for show.”
In another recent presentation (3.) Dr. Mellen, said, "My belief is that the more we know about who was behind the murder of President Kennedy, the more empowered we are to combat the present assault on the Constitution. The more cogently we can analyze who profited by the death of President Kennedy, and by that I don’t mean the beleaguered Lyndon Johnson, a pawn in the hands of those who put him into office, long-time CIA assets Herman and George Brown, but not only the Browns, but D. H. Byrd, the Klebergs and others, the better able we will be to determine what is to be done. The more we uncover the similarities between the three Texas Presidents, the better equipped we are to reverse the authoritarian direction the government of this country has taken, if it isn’t already too late."
As painful as it is and so very difficult to accept, Dr. Mellen has found the truth for us.
Finally, after all the years of absolute denial about Oswald’s obvious connection to the CIA and FBI, we also now know, without a doubt that the CIA altered the Zapruder film, produced a “doctored” version, and swapped out the original film. This revelation alone negates countless investigations which were based upon the Zapruder film as an indisputable record of the President’s murder. Sadly, it also reveals formerly respected media giant, Time, Inc., an agent of the CIA, and its executive’s role in suppressing evidence. (4.)
On 1 Dec 2005, the National Security Agency “released hundreds of pages of long-secret documents on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, which played a critical role in significantly expanding the American commitment to the Vietnam War.”
“The material, posted on the Internet overnight, Wednesday, included one of the largest collections of secret intercepted communications ever made available. The most provocative document is a 2001 article in which an agency historian argued that the agency's intelligence officers "deliberately skewed" the evidence passed on to policy makers and the public to falsely suggest that North Vietnamese ships had attacked American destroyers on Aug. 4, 1964.”
“Based on the assertion that such an attack had occurred, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered airstrikes on North Vietnam and Congress passed a broad resolution authorizing military action.”
“The historian, Robert J. Hanyok, wrote the article in an internal publication and it was classified top secret despite the fact that it dealt with events in 1964. Word of Mr. Hanyok's findings leaked to historians outside the agency, who requested the article under the Freedom of Information Act in 2003.” (5.)
Although a few thousand brave souls tried to stop this war, the majority of our people allowed our leaders to perpetrate a multitude of horrendous acts against humanity. Unashamedly, wrapping themselves in an anti-communist shroud, they propelled our nation into killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people; squandering trillions of dollars; and destroying the lives of millions of people.
Needless. All of it, needless.
There is no way to bring the back the dead; restore the lost limbs or salve-over the napalm burns; nor retrieve the bombs, landmines or even the countless tons of agent orange we wantonly sprayed over the countryside, the civilians, the “enemy” and our own troops.
Similar to the day President Kennedy was murdered, I remember where I was and what I was doing when the World Trade Center Towers the other five WTC buildings were destroyed, 11 Sept 2001, don’t you?
Much more… Please see the previous www.Downriver USA posting below - Remembering 9/11 – 2,974 WTC Murders.
Today we are living with the consequence of our 9/11 Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Not only are We the People responsible for the horrendous loss of life as well as blindly permissive of the stupid, lackadaisical squandering of our national wealth to the tune of at least $4 trillion dollars – that’s $13,120 for every man, woman and child in the USA.(6.) – we have, with not so much as a whimper, handed over our constitutionally guaranteed rights as American citizens to the soulless entities which claim to be our leaders and sworn defenders of that same constitution.
Honestly, in my mind, it looks like we went to war, killed a lot of people, trashed our economy, surrendered our rights as U.S. citizens, ripped up the Geneva Convention and then said, "O.K." to torture like it was just another episode of some fictitious “reality” TV show.
Just for a moment, let's put aside the fact that way before G.W. Bush took office, in the late 1990s, nearly all of the members of the future G.W.Bush administration supported and in several cases, were the authors of, the NEO-CON manifesto, Statement of Principles of the Project for a New American Century, which demanded that Iraq be invaded because Saddam Hussein had piles of Weapons of Mass Destruction.(7.)
Now, consider that ten years later we learned (through Freedom of Information Act requests) (8.) that the G. W.Bush administration wanted war so much that they were compelled to dig up some thread of apparent legitimacy on which to hang their invasion, yet gave little to no thought or planning to what would happen after the killing stopped:
“An “Eyes Only” British government memo succinctly summarizes the climate leading to war by the summer of 2002: the U.S. saw military action as inevitable; George Bush wanted military action to be justified by linking Iraq to terrorism and WMD; to that end “intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy,” while as to discussion in Washington of the aftermath of invasion, ‘There was little…’” ( 10 yrs after) (9.)
The G.W. Bush people wanted war with Iraq so badly that they were willing to disregard reliable intelligence provided by the Germans and the British which told them that they were being “sucked in” by some guy codenamed “Curveball”.(10. )
You may know the "rest of the story". Curveball turned out to be an “undependable” source. The stockpiles didn’t exist and Curveball made everything up.
As for the real reason we went to war with Iraq, well, I guess we must ask the CIA. They seem to be running things at the moment.
What did we gain from the 9/11 wars?
We now know that the Bush administration sold the 9/11 Wars to the world based upon “intelligence” gather from an “unquestionable source” that Saddam Hussein had piles of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Unbelievably, while 99.9% of our population was suffering Depression.2 and watching the Too-Big-To-Fail banksters foreclosed on our homes, we gave (and are still giving) our wealth to the friends of Rumsfeld, Cheney and an untold number of thieves because G.W. Bush wanted to believe a guy named “Curveball” to justify his decision to go to war.
From the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University as reported by Reuters: “The report concluded the United States gained little from the war while Iraq was traumatized by it. The war reinvigorated radical Islamist militants in the region, set back women's rights, and weakened an already precarious healthcare system, the report said. Meanwhile, the $212 billion reconstruction effort was largely a failure with most of that money spent on security or lost to waste and fraud, it said.”
Conclusion
An evil doppelganger USA is running amok throughout our world. It’s not our parents’ or grandparents’ USA. It’s not our USA. Is this the USA you want for your children?
Next, Part III The Time of The Great Awakening: How We Can Resurrect Our Democracy
After 60 years of struggle we may be beginning to pull ourselves up out of the quagmire born of two psychotic relics of blindness, hatred and ignorance who wrapped themselves in the American flag to reap the rewards of predatory capitalism. What they began was followed by more than half of a century of government sponsored and media complicit misinformation campaigns; a multitude of false flag campaigns which would make the Nazi’s swell with pride; accumulation of enough wealth to give every American a financially secure life or otherwise described as - trillions of dollars - flushed down the toilet waging genocidal wars motivated by, managed by and benefiting the global banking / corporate / CIA “controllers”.
Powell UN Iraq presentation, alleged Mobile Production Facilities On November 4, 2007, 60 Minutes revealed Curveball's real identity.[7] Former CIA official Tyler Drumheller summed up Curveball as "a guy trying to get his green card essentially, in Germany, and playing the system for what it was worth."[2]
In a February 2011 interview with the Guardian he "admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war."[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curveball_(informant)
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, “Curveball”
2. "Iraq war source's name revealed". BBC News. 2007-11-02.
5. George W. Bush. "Third State of the Union Address"
6. "Iraq: The spies who fooled the world". BBC News. 2013-03-18.
7. "Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed"". CBS News 60 Minutes. 2007-11-01.
8. Chulov, Martin and Pidd, Helen (2011-02-15) Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war, The Guardian
I turned the TV on that morning to see if there was some reason why my Internet connection had suddenly frozen up. Perhaps, I speculated, someone had demolished the Comcast cable somewhere close by.
Instead of a car accident, I learned that the one of the WTC towers was on fire. I didn’t know it then, but our world had changed again, once more in a very bad way.
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths .
In shock, I suspect, after seeing several people jump from the WTC, I later accepted our government’s explanation of the collapse of the impossibly huge buildings. After all, I’d seen it all on TV, hadn’t I?
Never, for a second, did I question where the mammoth tons and tons of rubble went that day - the steel and the building contents. Nor did I question why they fell so quickly and without damaging the building close by.
Years later, during the 9/11 10th anniversary, I was overcome with sorrow and empathy listening to the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ beautiful rendition of Sarah McLacklan’s song, I Will Remember You.(1.) In my mind I kept replaying the tragic scene: the jumpers… hundreds of first responders… and thousands of WTC workers… all lost their lives while I sat, horrified, in my office and watched via TV.
Something ignited my mind that day. Perhaps the catalyst was the replay of the buildings collapsing or the emergency personnel recounting their stories – whatever it was, I began to look back at 9/11. I started reading all I could find about how both of the towers could have collapsed so quickly due to a fire located so high up in the structures. I found that the official report really didn’t explain the collapse at all, and especially, nothing was offered to explain the lack of rubble on the day of the collapse.
Steel turns to dust in mid air.
Dr. Judy Wood
Then I discovered Dr. Judy Wood’s (2.) videos, her website and her case against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the people Congress hired to file the explanatory report.
Here is how UK researcher Andrew Johnson explained the NIST report in his book, Finding the Truth: “NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), was tasked with analysing the cause of the destruction of WTC towers 1,2 and 7. When studied objectively, their report for WTC 1 & 2 fails to answer how the “pancake” collapse theory explains the evidence observed on the day – such as the complete pulverisation of most of the towers – including hundreds of steel girders – in about 10 seconds each. Readily available photos also illustrate the glaring lack of any “pancakes” in the WTC rubble pile.”
“Elements of the final NIST WTC reports have been the subject of a Legal Challenge (3.) by Professors Morgan Reynolds (Emeritus, Texas A & M University) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Judy Wood (formerly of Clemson University, South Carolina). Their challenge was first made as a “Request for Correction” and then in two “Qui Tam” cases. These cases, unsealed in 2007, outlined how, as it is framed, the NIST study of the WTC collapse was fraudulent and deceptive. Indeed, the very title of the main report “The Collapse of the World Trade Centre Towers” is itself misleading, because the towers did not collapse, they turned to dust.”.( 4.)
Once clear of the shock of learning that the NIST report seemed eerily similar to the Warren Commission report, i.e. both avoided discussing clearly important aspects of the crimes they were charged to investigate, I devoted countess hours to studying what Dr. Wood had uncovered.
What happened to the two tallest buildings in North America, the WTC towers, and the other five WTC buildings on 9/11?
I did not want to accept Dr. Wood’s findings. Frankly, it was simply too shocking for me to believe the forensic evidence she had complied and the truth she uncovered. Now, nearly three years later as I write this article, I have come to the place in my life that I can, once again accept the facts of life. This time, ferreted out by Dr. Wood, at considerable personal cost to her, the evidence clearly shows that the towers did not fall… they were not taken down by two aircraft. No, something much more sinister took place on 9/11 and the “cover up” continues to play out to this very day.
What “weapon” could possible “dustify” those two massive towers, WTC 1 & 2 - 110 stories each, and make them disappear into clouds of dust in less than 10 seconds, leaving relatively little rubble on the ground? How did that happen?
For certain, no matter how big and how fast they were flying upon impact, not even two massive Boeings with resulting fires could have “disappeared” those two massive buildings, PLUS destroy the other five WTC buildings which were also obliterated that day, WTC 3 – 22 stories; WTC 4 – 9 stories; WTC5 – 9 stories; WTC 6 – 8 stories; and WTC 7 – 47 stories; AND create a plethora of never-before-seen phenomena as far away as one mile from the WTC.
Dr Judy Wood has assembled the forensic evidence.(5.) If we allow ourselves to see, hear and read it we may be on the path toward discovering the horrific truths about 9/11.
We begin by considering the question she asks: Do you know of anything that can turn a building to dust in mid air? And, then some of the principal data that must be explained, please go to Dr. Wood's website, wtc page. section: B. Some of the principal data that must be explained.
Second, at the 2012 Breakthrough Energy Movement (BEM) conference in Holland (6.) (and a number of other presentations and interviews), Dr. Wood explained, “The towers did not slam to the ground. If they had slammed to the ground (following a controlled demolition or as a result of catastrophic structural failure resulting from airplanes hitting the buildings):
1. There would be over 1,250,000 tons of debris piled on the ground. (Didn't happen)
2. Manhattan would have been flooded. (Didn't happen)
3. The seismic recordings would have reflected two 500,000-ton buildings and one 230,000-ton building slamming to the ground. (Didn't happen)”
So, what brought the towers down? The evidence, Dr. Wood has concluded, points to a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW). Dr Wood offers a clear, easily understood comparison of summary of the evidence in her book and in her presentations. Her findings are well documented and directly on target, especially given that she has been the trailblazer in describing an exceedingly complex, entirely new and, until 9/11, publicly unknown destructive force used with impunity upon innocent people whose only mistake was going to work that day.
Really? Directed Energy Weapons - Star Wars? I'll bet your first thought was that Star Wars weapons really don't exist, except in Hollywood. If that's your thought, well, you'd be wrong. Not only do they exist, they are in operation today. There's even a professional association devoted to the craft, the Directed Energy Professional Society. What kinds of weapons do we have? There are many. Check out this video from the U. S. Air Force Research Lab's Directed Energy Directorate Directed Energy Directorate:
Of course what you see above is one of the weapons we are using today in public view. We have no idea what the classified weapons are or what they can do.
In one of Dr. Wood’s most recent interviews (and also one of the best to date) George Noory, Coast to Coast AM (7. ), doggedly worked to understand the technology used to destroy the WTC. Finally, after being asked several times to name the type of directed energy weapon used to destroy the WTC on 11 Sept 2001, Dr. Judy Wood answered, maintaining her forensic scientist position:
Dr. Wood: “What the evidence shows is that you can eliminate kinetic energy as a destructive mechanism. Kinetic energy means that the buildings were beaten to death, like a gravity collapse, wreaking ball, missile or bomb. Thermal energy means the buildings were cooked to death, lots of heat. Those two things the evidence rules out. But, directed energy, as I define it, is energy that is instructed to do something differently than it normally does. Instead of the bonding forces of matter being attracted to each other, they are directed to repel each other. It is not like something physically hitting it or cooking it. And, within that, it's a big umbrella of things.”
Dr. Wood: “A lot of people are uncomfortable about that. They want to have a device - Acme model whatever it is. But, we can look at parallel evidence that produces the same thing. The source of the energy, she explained, "...could have been anywhere... it could be the energy comes from the material. I want to get away from a point and shoot laser beam. It was more of a field effect."
George Noory: How much energy was needed to destroy these buildings?
Wood: It could even have been negative energy. If you can understand the mechanism – that’s the beauty of this – if there is a silver lining in this – it is that this technology was used for destructive purposes, but it doesn’t have to be (used that way). It can be used for good purposes… for providing free energy to the world.”
Dr. Wood: “If you have the ability to affect the nature of matter – instead of atoms attracting each other, they are repelling each other – if you give it that instruction… it isn’t like you have to put in a lot of energy, create bonds and use energy that way, it could be that the energy come from the material.”
Dr. Wood: “Actually, (regarding) the dust cloud that rolled down the street, first responders that I talked to said, that it was cooler than ambient temperature, in other words, not hot. It was cooler. Then it began feeling warm…you know when you put acid on your hand it feels like it’s burning up but it could be room temperature. There was something in the dust that was eating on their skin. They were scrubbing in the shower afterward; they just couldn’t get it off.”
Dr. Wood: "I want to get away from the idea of a point and shoot laser beam, it’s more of a field effect, like the coverage range of your cell phone… it’s a zone of effect.”
George Noory: Do you ever, Dr. Wood, get into the Who?
Dr. Wood: No, but I got closer than anyone has, in the public domain, that is. I pretty much know who knows. And that is who I tried to take to court. These were contractors on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) report. They were mandated by Congress to find why and how the towers collapsed. They didn’t do that. I wrote a request for correction to NIST saying that their contractors were leading them astray. You can’t sue a government agency but we can sue contractors for fraud of a government agency. There are a couple of the contractors, one in particular, which had the most number of people on the contract, on the NIST report. They are developers and manufacturers of energy weapons. Not only that, they also had and still have, I believe, a contract with the U.S. government to know everything about any weapon of mass destruction that exists or is being developed anywhere. So, not only do they know what technology there is, they know whose technology it is. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have them under oath?
Third, from that day in September 2001, Dr. Wood has taken tremendous personal risk to voice her findings both to her peers, the general public and via the judicial system. After shifting through huge amounts of forensic evidence and literally overcoming a barrage of character assassination attempts to discredit her, Dr. Wood continues to stand alone, well above her critics, as the qualified expert with the correct academic and professional credentials, training and experience. In other words, she really does know what she is talking about because she has the interdisciplinary education, training and experience to pull the forensic evidence together.
I don’t know why Dr. Wood left her position at Clemson. But, what I can say is that the alumni, faculty, administration and student body of Clemson should honor her and restore her status as a full professor, with full back pay and benefits, for her years of trail blazing forensic scientific work, applied engineering expertise and dedication to ferreting out the truth about the crime of the century. Clemson should be honored to be associated with Dr. Wood. Dr. Judy Wood is an American Hero - a World Hero. She is also something rarer today. She is a member of a breed which I feel is nearly extinct - Dr. Judy Wood is a Patriot.
Who benefited from 9/11?
Certainly the usual suspects – the armaments industry and the financiers of war, the bankers – have gained immeasurably from 9/11.
Who obstructed justice?
According to the Washington Post, 7 May 2004, “Six air traffic controllers provided accounts of their communications with hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, on a tape recording that was later destroyed by a Federal Aviation Administration manager…But months after the recording was made… another FAA manager decided on his own to destroy the tape, crushing it with his hands, cutting it into small pieces and depositing the pieces into several trash cans.”(8.) For more about 9/11 and obstruction, please go here.
Who has lost because of 9 /11? We the People lost. Just consider the civil liberties we have given up under the USA PATRIOT Act. (USA PATRIOT Act) is actually an acronym for: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001), the Military Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits any person, citizens included, to be arrested without charge and held indefinitely without access to a lawyer or a trial. It even permits torture. This is not to mention the loss of more than $4.5 trillion spent on the “War on Terrorism”, the loss of close to 2 million innocent Iraqis and Afghans and 6,000 of our sons and daughters.
Again, we have lived through acts of unspeakably evil. To this very day, this very minute, the monstrosity which occurred on 11 Sept 2001, frightens me; fills me with compassion for those who lost their lives and for their loved ones who must carry on without them; and empowers me with a sense of duty to ferret out the soulless beings responsible for this heinous crime against humanity.
Now, knowing with absolute certainty that not one of us is safe in our own homes or businesses, we all should fear that once again we will discover that the trail of the soulless evil beings who perpetrated this crime will bring us back to our own government.
