Update on Belle Island/Galt's Gulf "Atlas Shrugged" war on the 99.99%

Tom Perkin's comments about how "wealthy people should have more votes than poor people" actually states present reality, but it also states what looks like an ongoing plot for the wealthy to implement Ayn Rand's dream of a "Galt's Gulch" if they can't continue to dominate USA politics. That dream seems still alive and even has a website still pushing it:

http://business.time.com/2014/02/14/tom-perkins-taxes/"wealthy people should get more votes than others because they pay more in taxes. The comments by Perkins, who made his fortune as one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, provoked laughter at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, where he was being interviewed by Adam Lashinsky of Fortune."

Read more: Wealthy Venture Capitalist Tom Perkins: Rich Should Get More Votes | TIME.com http://business.time.com/2014/02/14/tom-perkins-taxes/#ixzz2u7miDXL3"

The dreams seem similar to the world depicted in Elysium or Hunger Games. And they are still dreaming of building their "Galt's Gulch" on Belle Isle:

http://www.commonwealthofbelleisle.com/

They are actually serious of building their "Galt's Gulch" Monaco style mini-country. With public money of course!

Further Reading

"The Commonwealth of Belle Island

http://www.commonwealthofbelleisle.com/

Fixing it With Public Money (of course):

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/03/03/improvements-planned-belle-isle/24323245/

Good news is that for now it's still a public park.

http://belleisleconservancy.org/

On Ayn Rand

http://www.aynrandisdead.org/

Update on Prince Bandar

A few months ago enough evidence finally hit me so I hit the six-sigma level of confidence on 9/11. The evidence has pointed to Saudi Arabia since day one thanks to the fact that the preponderance of the hijacker's were Saudi Arabians, the authorities have never denied the preponderance of the money came from Saudis, and Al Qaeda and it's sister groups were all Wahabi Salafists getting their propaganda from Saudi Arabia. Nobody has ever denied it, though they've always pretended that Bin Laden was a non-State "independent actor", and it was hard to believe that he could have been working for the Saudis, since shortly after 9/11 a series of terror bombings occurred in Saudi Arabia and the perps were arrested. But by September last year I found Prince Bandar boasting to Prince, I mean President Putin, that he controlled the Chechens and the Syrian opposition, and it became obvious that Bin Laden was at the very least his ally, and possibly his agent or tool.

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/09/so-obviously-about-oil-that-one-is.htmlI quoted from a leaked account of that meeting: "The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us" and watched with flabbergasted amazement as our Arab speaking CIA cheered Prince Bandar's "Wasta".

Nothing has changed since then, except other news reports and accounts of Prince Bandar's wasta and connections to Al Qaeda. We are asked to fight Al Qaeda while at the same time to support its efforts in Syria. To fight attacks on Sochi, while remaining friends with Prince Bandar who has boasted about orchestrating any that occur. Essentially his influence over our Arab loving CIA operatives, makes the operatives involved complicit in ongoing treachery to the USA. That is the only thing you can call behavior that advances oil interests and salafist dreams against the USA's interests in a peaceful, multi-cultural, and religiously free world. So this is a list of links to other articles:

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/09/20/324951/bandar-bin-sultan-prince-of-terrorists/

Executive Intelligence lays out part of the argument. The La Rouchies are crazy but they usually do factual research:

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3426bandar_9-11.html

Sadly, the Syrian Government is using the Al Qaeda/Prince Bandar link as an excuse to claim that it's own nasty behavior is justified in it's "war on Al Qaeda" -- and sadly they have a point;

http://www.voltairenet.org/article181930.html

There is now an entire Blog devoted to this subject:

http://911blogger.com/topics/prince-bandar

Recently Prince Bandar's dad died, who was a crown prince who had a stake on overthrowing the King:

http://911blogger.com/news/2011-10-31/recently-deceased-crown-prince-sultan-and-his-son-bandar-bush-epitomize-highly-questionable-saudi-911-connecti-0

Ironically, the USA made him our ally in our war on terrorism:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/prince-bandar

The Russians are positively rabid about this connection, to the point where they claim the CIA admitted they caused 9/11 (technically the article claims they "created Al Qaeda" which is true):

http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_31/If-CIA-MI6-NSA-and-GCHQ-disappeared-we-would-be-safer-David-Shayler-2895/

Of course we'd be better off if they added Russia's secret police, China's and a whole list of other "security" forces to that list, including the infamous French. These secret police are often a world unto themselves, traitorous to their own countries, in bed with banks and big business, and somehow continuing whatever ideology the country that hosts the parasites professes. Bay of Pigs, Kennedy's assassination, 9/11, Vietnam, etc.... all connected to intelligence as an oxymoron or a corrupt joke.

This article is the kind of argument I used to reject. But recent revelations are now making me take it seriously. The author claims:

"Recent reports that Al-Qaeda militants have taken over parts of Iraq serve as a stark reminder that the United States has for decades played a crucial role in both directly and indirectly aiding in the spread of terrorists around the Middle East and North Africa as a Machiavellian tool of neo-colonialism. There’s a very good reason why Al-Qaeda now controls more territory in the Arab world than ever before."

http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-the-military-industrial-complex-needs-al-qaeda-the-best-enemy-money-can-buy/5366159

Cynical privateers need wars in order to justify their freebooting. War-profiteering loses it's profit during peacetime. Oil is not such a gold mind for the Midas's of the world if people demand to be cut in on the deal. War is a way of cutting out a least some of the stakeholders to resources. Resource wars only benefit the 1%, but that one percent is usually in charge.

The Wiki Page is outdated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandar_bin_Sultan

Privateering in the Prison system

A lot of State and County Sheriff and police offices receive money from Federal drug programs. This makes them naturally leary about drug decriminalization for a mix of legitimate concerns about impact on society and fear of it's impact on their own crime budgets. Similarly the states with the worse record for abusive oppressive policing (racism, classism, and "profiling") have privateering privately owned prisons.

This leads to privateering among some law enforcement, courts and prisons. IT's not an accident that folks are getting railroaded into private-for-profit (privateering) prisons by corrupt judges. And If you live in a state with heavily privatized prisons research the money and you may find graft and sanitized bribes going to the judges and prosecutors. There is personal gain in railroading innocent people to jail along with the guilty. If we want to do anything about such corruption, we need to follow the money and find out where money from private prisons and other sources is going. The results might be surprising to some people. Any program that provides a steady flow of cash to police can be abused; speed traps, asset forfeiture, even Federal incentives -- all can and have been abused. Such things aren't always corruption but they are almost always corrupting influences, corruptors.

One friend of mine is talking about subjects related to this now. For more TUNE IN - Here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rojsradio/2014/02/18/guest--st-rep-collene-lamonte-security-issues-at-mi-prisons-218-11am

On Today's Program:

"Michigan State Representative Collene Lamonte (D) will visit the program to discuss Security and Safety issues in Michigan Prisons. On February 2, Convicted Multiple Murder Michael Elliot escaped from Ionia Correctional Facility and took a innocent victim hostage. Elliot was caught after his victim used a phone from a locked restroom while Elliot demanded she open the door."

"-Florida Teenager Jordan Davis Murder Michael Dunn received a MISTRIAL verdict on killing the 17 year-old unarmed African-American teenager. Dunn was convicted of Attempted Murder of three other teens in Davis car. What will it take to make a Young Black Male Life, worth a conviction on murder in America?"

"-Plus we will discuss the latest in important news and information you need to know!"

"Independent Underground Radio LIVE FEATURED FOUR YEAR ON BTR -Progressive Talk Radio- podcast based out of Ann Arbor covering Michigan and National Politics, breaking news and more. As Michigan's Top Politico podcast, IU Radio LIVE had over 200K podcast downloads in 2013 alone!"

"Host Monica RW is an owner/writer for the popular Independent Underground News website, media consultant for ROJS Media LLC, a experienced grassroots and elected local political leader, and brings her researched Independent opinions to the political issues of the day. "

Happy Valentine's day NSA

Glen Greenwald and a number of other reporters I've respected for a long time have just opened up a new website which talks about national security issues that ought to concern all of us. I feel really insecure knowing my government is spying on me, and that some of the spies are sociopaths or fanatics who might misuse information or even invent information. I grew up near Fort Meade, and admired the NSA since I first read about it's origins with the Bletchley park folks fighting the Nazis. I have no personal trouble with spying on foreign countries. It helps prevent nasty surprises. But I do have a problem with the security state, which I've followed back to 1914 and the passing of the Espionage act and the rise of the Army War College, VanDeman and his bunch all the way through the rise of J. Edgar Hoover to the present. So I used to love Fort Meade. The Place wasn't always such a secret. I used to be able to drive through it, visit military friends who lived or worked there. But now it is completely different. It's been turned into a Soviet Style Secret city, and I can't even get close enough anymore to try to remember what it looked like before it was turned into a Frankenstein Monster. Here's a picture from Greenwalds' site of what the NSA looks like now. I'm surprised the person who took it didn't get shot down.

It's turned into a bureaucratic Frankenstein's Monster. American Bureaucracy is a frightening thing of Catch 22's, privateers and profiteering. Not sure how dangerous they are to our external enemies, but they sure are dangerous to our survival as a Democratic Republic. I'm Glad Froomkin, Greenwald and the others are creating a private effort, but that also means they are being divorced from the major media, which is culpable too.

I keep telling them to investigate the Fusion Centers and FBI links, but they seem focused on the NSA. Oh well. It's worth following them here:

https://firstlook.org/theintercept

Anyway Happy Valentines day, and I hope you aren't keeping any secrets. Please send a valentine to whoever is reading your websites or email too.

Happy Valentine's day NSA

Brazen Graft

I'm a pragmatist and so my pragmatist side often is willing to compromise with my ecologist side, or my "good government" side in the interest of people around the country having food on the table. But there is a distinction between getting things done and progress and graft. And our politicians dance near that line all the time, but the Republicans lately have been erasing it. Think Progress alarmistically reports: (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/11/3277571/republican-party-state-public-lands-drilling/)

"[It] calls upon the federal government to honor to all willing western states the same statehood promise to transfer title to the public lands that it honored with all states east of Colorado; and …calls upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the imminent transfer of public lands to all willing western states for the benefit of these western states and for the nation as a whole."

But of course there is a reason the Federal Government controls these lands, and there is a reason we don't want them transferred to states: We really don't want private persons getting permanent ownership of their mineral resources, or grabbing property that shouldn't belong to them. At least with a lease the general public retains some control. But once they are transferred to private alloidal ownership they become the rule of already powerful and greedy land and extraction barons. And there is a tradition of "leases", in this country, managing to become personal property that dates back to when the Dutch leased Manhattan. But at least that can be fought in court. The claim that such sales would be for the benefit of the nation as a whole are of course typical bait and switch "trickle down" promises. If this happened it would be just graft and usurpation as private landlords would pay Government employed lawyers to hand over property that belongs to us the taxpayers for pennies on the dollar. Graft "is the personal gain or advantage earned by an individual at the expense of others as a result of the exploitation of the singular status of, or an influential relationship with, another who has a position of public trust or confidence. The advantage or gain is accrued without any exchange of legitimate compensatory services."[http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/graft

A lot of extraction in this country is accompanied by brazen graft. Graft is so common that the legal dictionary calls the word "colloquial" though it has some pretty definite meaning going way back.

Regulating Personal Business by legalizing private behavior example legalizing Marijuana

I've got doubts about the safety or health benefits about marijuana. I don't smoke it, mostly because it is illegal, but partly because I remember when i tried it it was very harsh on my already delicate lungs. Legalizing it wouldn't change those doubts for me. And it being illegal hasn't stopped the vast plurality of acquaintances of mine from smoking it. Just me because I'm hyper chicken about such things. That risk from inhaling smoke seems to me to be the same risk as from smoking cigarettes. So if it ever does get legalized I doubt I'll smoke it anyway. But all that is beside the point. It almost got legalized in the early 80's, but a PR campaign, and some evidence from Egypt, convinced people it should remain illegal. Since then the evidence shows that it's not harmless. But if one made a scale look of it's harm relative to other drugs and products the chart might look like this.

Substance	Severity (1-10)
Arsenic	10
Lead	10
Cigarettes	9
Alcohol	8
Opiates	8
Marijuana	7

The right way to regulate cigarettes is by keeping them legal but restricting access. The same has been found for alcohol. Prohibition sends use underground and actually enhances popularity. Restricting sales to drug stores, liquor stores and similar outlets keeps them where law enforcement can watch them, and lets the government recover some of the health costs of their use. It seems to me that marijuana should be legal, sold in a restricted manner requiring ID, and use in public, while driving, or at work restricted. This works (more or less) for alcohol and cigarettes. I suspect it would work for Marijuana.

And it is insane to prohibit growing hemp.

People should have the right to do their private business without fear, and I suspect that includes the right to drink or get high. That changes when people's rights infringe on others as in common spaces like work, which is a privately governed commons.

Why the right was able to put the country in such deep Kimchee

Someone was asking me about why the Right has been so successful and what we can do to put things right, and that reminded me of some comments I'd heard on the Thom Hartman show. So tonight I'm listening to a "Democracy Now Interview" and they are talking about Caesar Chavez and his mentor, whose mentor had been "Saul Alinsky." So I had my laptop going and I googled "Saul Alinsky" and what do I find, pretty much the Right took their instruction from Saul Alinsky and other leftists. Of course they ignored the chapter about analyzing whether the "end justifies the means" but Glen Beck and other Righties organized the Tea Party as the culmination of organizing based on (and aimed at) the efforts of Union Activists like Ceasar Chavez who'd been trying to do something to help workers. Glen Beck has a book that is a homage to Saul Alinsky; http://www.bestofbeck.com/wp/activism/saul-alinskys-12-rules-for-radicals, so they demonize Saul Alinsky and then take pages out of his book. Essentially the modus operandi of the right is to hijack any strategies or rhetoric they can focus group test to work for them.

So the leaders of the far right read Saul Alinsky, love his ideas, and then try to warn folks to not actually read him in his own words because he's "Evil, but brilliant." John Hawkins quotes his ideas and how to "use [them] against "liberals" He's not the first but here's the list he uses:

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/04/13/12_ways_to_use_saul_alinskys_rules_for_radicals_against_liberals, only he makes it 13 rules and kind of ignores Alinsky's own words to make him a straw devil:

Always remember the first rule of power tactics:

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people.

…The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.

…the fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.

…the fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

…the sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

…the seventh rule is: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

…the eighth rule: Keep the pressure on.

…the ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

…The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

…The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

…The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. — Rules for Radicals

He doesn't mention Alinsky's commandment to consider ends versus means, and he doesn't note that the Tea Party considers his book a bible. Wikipedia reports:

"Adam Brandon, a spokesman for the conservative non-profit organization FreedomWorks, one of several groups involved in organizing Tea Party protests, says the group gives Alinsky's Rules for Radicals to its top leadership members. A shortened guide called Rules for Patriots is distributed to its entire network. In a January 2012 story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, citing the organization's tactic of sending activists to town-hall meetings, Brandon explained, "his [Alinsky's] tactics when it comes to grass-roots organizing are incredibly effective." Former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey also gives copies of Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals to Tea Party leaders."

The Tea Party is really the culmination of a movement that goes way back, but got it's formation in the "Right to Life Movement." Those members read Saul Alinsky. They run for office to offices from Dog Catcher to Party jobs. And they follow Saul Alinsky's advice. When the Republicans organized the Tea Party they were focused on Economic issues. They were using social issues like abortion as a means to get "simple people" to vote against their economic interests. The Right to life Activists were then recruited (With lots of money from a few billionaires) to fight against Barack Obama when he was elected by forming the Tea Party.. So the Tea Party is essentially an anti-Left, anti-Labor, anti-women's rights brand of radicalism. Unfortunately they get their energy from racism, fighting women's rights, and other social issues -- and that irritates their funders whose real concern is effing workers. So when John calls Alinsky "evil" he's really engaging in projectionism.

So to fight the Tea Party and the right's appropriation of Alinsky. The best thing we can do is to read him and adopt his strategies.

Further Reading:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679721134/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=2477290328&ref=pd_sl_7oa4nfkg5z_b