British Conservatives respond to UKIP win; take leaf out of Aussie Liberal book

Cartoon: By Bill Leak 

During the European elections, the Conservative Party was beaten into third place behind UKIP and Labour.  They have taken this very badly as can be expected, although their response is not the logical one of assessing where things went wrong for them and taking corrective action.

Instead, they have opted for the same as Australians have come to expect of the major party cartel here, with a sleazy, self-serving attack on the democratic process.  In an attempt to manipulate the system, Cameron is inviting European parties that were previously unacceptable to join the Conservative grouping to deny UKIP party status: 

… While Cameron’s move might enrage the so-called Tory moderates, Nigel Farage will be enraged, too. He already faces the prospect of another member of his group, the Italian anti-EU Lega Nord, leaving UKIP’s group to join the Front National of Marine Le Pen and the Dutch People’s Party of Geert Wilders, two right-wing, anti-EU parties with whom Farage has said UKIP will not sit. 

Despite UKIP now being the biggest British party at the parliament, unless it can form a political group with members from at least six other EU member states, it will be denied seats on the parliamentary committees that control amendments, scrutinise legislation and question officials from other EU institutions such as the European Commission and European Central Bank. 

Moreover, UKIP will be denied the millions of euros in funding which the parliament hands over to groups to allow them to hire staff, establish a secretariat, carry out research and even set up think tanks. 

For example, in the 2012 budget, UKIP and the MEPs from ten other countries in the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, had an allocation of more than €2.5m, with €881,000 still in the bank carried over from the previous year’s grant. This was on top of all the expenses individual MEPs were given to run their offices, research and travel. 

By contrast, the giant pro-EU powers European People’s Party (EPP), from which Cameron removed the Conservative MEPs in 2009 as a sop to his party’s eurosceptic wing, was allocated €21m. 

If Cameron manages to strip away UKIP’s allies and leave Farage and his MEPs without a group, then Britain’s biggest party and Britain’s only eurosceptic voice in the parliament will be facing the power of the vastly rich EPP, and the almost-as-rich centre-left socialists (€14m), with no cash at all – and no committee seats from which to make political impact as these two mega-groups drive their permanent pro-EU majority through the parliament.

This action is similar to the actions of the Liberal party here, which on noticing the rise in the vote for minor parties has responded by forming a committee of the major party cartel and making recommendations which will prevent voters from electing anyone outside the ‘born to rule’ elite.  Despite around a quarter of voters preferring someone else, these dropkicks comfortably have come up with the conclusion that actually getting someone else is unrepresentative and has to be stopped.

Malcolm Mackerras reports on it here: 

It is not hard to find. Just go to the federal parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters and its Interim Report on the Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2013 Federal Election: Senate Voting Practices, which was delivered on the morning of Friday, May 9. 

The opening sentence of the foreword reads thus: “The 2013 federal election will long be remembered as a time when our system of Senate voting let voters down.” 

I dissent. I think what will long be remembered are the facts that I outlined a few paragraphs ago. However, there will be some in the political class who remember that election for the official reason. A bit below the above quote from the foreword we have the view that the system of voting “delivered, in some cases, outcomes that distorted the will of the voter”. 

My reaction to that is to ask for names. So I continue to read. Then on page 19 there is this: “Despite this very small percentage of first-preference votes, Senator-elect Muir was elected to the Senate for Victoria in the final vacancy.” 

In fact, there were a dozen senators elected with a smaller percentage of first-preference votes than Ricky Muir of the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party. However, their preference harvesting was within party groups (very normal and thought to be ethical) whereas Muir was harvesting the votes of other parties. So I can now give a precis of the report. It takes the form of an address to Muir from the rest of the parliament: “You should not be here. To make that quite clear we intend to enact a radical reform of the system. Your type will never again be allowed to enter the Senate.” 

On page 2 of the report we have this: “The final composition of the Senate should reflect the informed decisions of the electorate and it is clear that the Senate from 1 July 2014 will not do that, it will reflect deal-making and preference-swapping.” 

My take is to assert that 36 senators will be sworn in next month, of whom 35 clearly reflect the informed decisions of the electorate. We can agree to disagree about Muir. 

This report is a scholarly work and I encourage people to read it. However, do not be misled by its unanimity. First, three parties only were represented, Labor, Liberal and Greens. Had there been a Nationals member or had John Madigan or Clive Palmer been a member there would have been a dissenting report. 

Second, the three parties represent declining voter support. I have already given the Labor and Liberal figures, so let me give the Greens.   They received 13.1 per cent in 2010 and had six senators elected. Then they received 8.6 per cent in 2013 and had four senators elected. 

Since there is now a unity ticket of three big parties to implement reform, we can safely say there will be changes along the lines unanimously recommended. So let me say something about the present system and the next one. 

I call the present system “the fifth Senate electoral system and the second Single Transferable Vote system”. I call the next system “the sixth Senate electoral system and the third STV system”. 

History will record that the present system operated for 30 years, from 1984 to 2014 inclusive, over 12 elections.  It was a remarkably successful system, not only being popular but also being noted for the consistent fairness of the results it produced. ....

It is odd to hear the Australian government criticizing the coup in Thailand as undemocratic, while at the same time is manipulating the democratic process in order to exclude anyone outside the major party triumvirate that currently rules.

Michael Hastings investigation

The untimely death of journalist, Michael Hastings has created some controversy, not to mention getting conspiracy theorists into a frenzy.  It appears that he had concerns that he was under investigation by the FBI to do with his current investigative reports.

Hastings crashed his car at high speed into a tree after losing control of it shortly after talking to a lawyer from WikiLeaks about his suspicions: 

THE FBI has denied it was investigating Michael Hastings, the journalist who brought down America's top general in Afghanistan and who told friends hours before he died in a Los Angeles car crash that he feared he was under surveillance. 

Hastings, 33, was killed at 4.25am on Tuesday when his Mercedes-Benz C 250 spun out of control, crashed into a palm tree and was engulfed in flames. The car engine was found 30m away and it took three days to identify him through fingerprints. 

A writer for BuzzFeed and Rolling Stone, Hastings was best known for his 2010 profile of General Stanley McChrystal in which the staff of the then Nato commander in Afghanistan disparaged President Barack Obama. McChrystal had to resign. 

In his last article, entitled Why Democrats Love to Spy on Americans, Hastings wrote critically of the recently revealed National Security Agency data-gathering program. …… Hours before his death, Hastings contacted Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer with WikiLeaks, the anti-establishment group, and told her he believed the FBI was investigating him. 

Friends said Hastings was on edge. Cenk Uygur, who was close to Hastings, said on his cable television show that the US government "goes after journalists who reveal their secrets", adding: "Michael Hastings certainly went and exposed some secrets the government did not want you to know.” 

The FBI said that at "no time was journalist Michael Hastings ever under investigation". Police said Hastings was speeding before the crash and it was possible he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Given the massive surveillance of the US population by US security agencies combined with the seizure of records of dissident journalists, it would be a surprise if Hastings was not under some sort of surveillance by authorities, that is unfortunately a no brainer. 

It is possible that the FBI has been the agency to issue a denial because it may be one of those that is violating the rights of other Americans, while different agencies deal with Hastings.  He would be under some sort of investigation unless someone in the Administration has screwed up badly.

It is possible though that a smear job is underway on him, given the statement by police over it being “possible he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.”  It is quite possible that toxicology reports, when they arrive some time in the future may indicate that he was over the legal limit and may have had other substances in his bloodstream at the time, it is also possible that it was not the case.

Until that is proven, it is a disgrace ti=o the man’s memory to speculate on it.

The Boston bombing and reactions

Our hearts go out to our American cousins over the terrible events at the end of the Boston Marathon, especially to the families of the dead and the injured.  It would be difficult to imagine any real motive for such a shameful and senseless act, other than a deep hatred of the American public at large.

There was no targeting of the authorities or any other group; rather the target seemed to be whatever random Americans and visitors happened to be in the way at the time.  9/11 made more sense than this.

The worst aspect of the event other than the casualties and grief entailed has to be the disgusting attempts to politicize it by the Democratic Party echo squad in the press.

 The injured were still being picked up off the road when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof leapt onto twitter to claim that the Republican Party was to blame for blocking the appointment of the acting director of the BATF to director.  He seems to be indicating that the bureau would function more efficiently if the person currently in charge of it is promoted to being in charge of it.  Go figure.

If as he is claiming the organization screwed up and allowed the bombing, then the acting director should be fired, not promoted.  As he is the guy who oversaw Fast and Furious, he should probably be fired anyway.

Perpetual Obama shill, Chris Matthews has come up with the startling statement that domestic terrorists are from the far right: 

During live coverage, the Hardball host highlighted a possible explosion at John F. Kennedy's presidential library and thought this could be a personal attack on the Democratic Party: "...But going after the Kennedy Library, not something at Bunker Hill, not something from the Freedom Trail or anything that kind of historic, but a modern political figure of the Democratic Party. Does that tell you something?" (Police are now considering the incident at the JFK library to be fire-related.) One can only guess what it tells Chris.

This will come as quite a surprise to Billy (Boom Boom) Ayers and the remaining members of the Weather Underground.  Chris and Co though, tend to regard Billy as a 'student activist', or perhaps a 'social justice advocate' rather than a terrorist.

Media personalities for want of another more appropriate word, too numerous to mention have drawn attention to the fact that it was Patriots Day, tax day, the anniversary of Waco etc, and drawing the conclusion that it had to be a home grown home grown terrorists, preferably from the right.

The fact they seem to be missing in all of this is that that day happens to coincide with the running of the Boston Marathon, which happens to create a large number of people in a concentrated area, ideal for the purpose of causing maximum mayhem.  Perish the thought, but it is just possible that the idea was to bomb the finishing line of the marathon, rather than to pursue some political agenda.

In any case, a politically motivated operative would work with the objective of attacking the establishment to the maximum, while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum in order to keep the people on side.  Primary targets would tend to be government orientated, such as the IRS, BATF, FBI, police, etc, away from the possibility of causing civilian casualties.   Even Billy Boom Boom did that.

Then you have the conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones.  Alex predictably thinks that it is an inside job. 

Added to this, there is Cynthia McKinney, who is shaping up into a nice montage of the political acumen of Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, combined with the deep and incisive thoughts of Alex, to come up with the theory that it was something to do with the police department’s controlled explosions drill.  Apparently she has the view that the police bombed the crowd in order to practice the procedures involved in a real bombing. 

Fellow conspirators, lets have less loose talk.

Image: by Baloo 

The First of April is of course the time for my annual report on our activities, the date chosen for obvious reasons.  Only true believers in our vast conspiracy aimed at world domination will be aware that this is dead serious.

Those who are not part of the movement should stop reading now.  We will know if you don’t.  That haunting feeling that someone somewhere is reading your innermost thoughts is not simply liberal paranoia as you have been led to believe.  It’s real; trust me on that.

Our new mark XIII mind warper housed in the bowels of the Republican Liberty Caucus Tower in Huston TX with its enhanced HAARP connectivity is able to penetrate more than six hundred and sixty six thicknesses of industrial grade tinfoil.  In short, not only do we know what you are thinking, we make you think most of it.

Report

From the fruited plains of Iowa, the mountain majesties of Montana, through the vast widths of Texas, and internationally our movement is achieving its goals spectacularly.  The nomination of Romney achieved the inevitable result of an Obama win, which in 2016 will result in Rand Paul taking control and leaving people alone.

In Australia where a longer-term strategy is in place, the Labor Party is divided and has lower polling results than several varieties of clap.  They are about to be replaced by the Liberals, which means that the public will get a chance to find out that that mob are just as hopeless.  Come the following election, the LDP will be poised to strike, getting rid of most aspects of government.

One little problem we have though, is the habit some of us have of ‘signing our work,’ something to be avoided in future.  While we like to leave the odd clue in our work to allow members to recognise our fingerprints, it can go too far.  The cigarette packet left in the image when we faked the moon landing is a glaring example.

Some of those out there who are not involved are no fools and notice these things.  It is purely luck that 9 11 has not been exposed a fully as it could have been.  The use of thermite and demolition charges in the Twin Towers has caused some to question whether the buildings were actually hit by aircraft.  Fortunately, those who have spoken out have been dismissed as truthers and kooks.

However in a more blatant example, releasing the stupid video on our use of HAARP rays to control Hurricane Irene has left us exposed.  Hubris among members is OK, but we have to avoid it other than for ‘in house’ stuff, as can be seen in the following video:

  While this seems like a small thing, it is significantly more serious than that. We are supposed to be a top secret group. Imagine my discomfort the other day when the little lady went online shopping for lighting, and asked me where she could find the Illuminate shop. There as first entry on whatever she Googled was our home page.

Seriously guys, we have to take conspiracy and world domination more seriously if we are going to get where we want to go. While it is desirable for members to be able to see our presence in world events and know we are on top of things and responsible for them, we don't want everyone to know. It just doesn't work that way if we are to remain a shadowy secretive group.

Islamic truthers more nutty than Western ones

Image: Is Sigfried running Mossad?

Western truthers are a bottomless pit of amusement to most of us with their insistence that everything that goes wrong is the result of devilish and sinister plots.  From the Kennedy assassination plot to the faked moon landing, right through to George Bush ordering 9/11, they provide us with non-stop entertainment.

Islamists though come up with some doozies, the latest being the claim by Sudan that the Israelis have mobilized Zionist vultures to spy on their facilities: 

Sudanese officials announced Monday that they have captured an electronically-tagged vulture suspected of being dispatched by Israel on a spying mission. 

The suspicious bird was found to be tagged with an Israeli GPS chip, which is capable of broadcasting images via satellite, as well as a leg band labeled "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem", the Egyptian El Balad newspaper reported. 

Israel's National Parks Service dismissed the allegations, saying that both the band and the GPS chip were standard migration trackers. 

Tensions between the two countries become increasingly tense after Sudan accused Israel of carrying out the bombing of a munitions depot near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in October.  The depot was reportedly supplying Hamas terrorists with weapons to use against the Jewish state. Israel has not commented on the raid.

Islamists have a habit of finding the hand of Israel in just about everything they see, although most totalitarians have a tendency toward paranoia: 

Turkish authorities believe they have found a bird used by Israel for espionage purposes, the country’s media reported. 

According to reports, a Turkish farmer found the already dead bird, commonly known as the European Bee-Eater, with markings indicating it came from Israel.   The bird’s left nostril was reportedly three times the size of its right nostril, leading Turkish officials to believe the Israel had implanted the animal with a surveillance device in its beak. …

In 2008, Mahmoud Abbas's official news agency, Wafa, reported that Israel had released poison-resistant rats to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes. … 

In October of 2008, Iranian officials captured two 'spy pigeons' near the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, alleging that the birds were being used to spy on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear advancements. In 2007, the regime detained over a dozen squirrels believed to be spies of Western powers seeking to undermine the Iranian regime. 

In June of 2010, Egyptian officials blamed a wave of shark attacks on Israel’s foreign ministry intelligence, asserting,” We must not discount the possibility that Mossad threw the shark into the sea, in order to attack tourists who are having fun in Sharm al-Sheikh.” 

Furthermore, in January of 2011, Saudi Arabian security forces detained a vulture carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words "Tel Aviv University." Officials exclaimed that the creature was part of a "Zionist espionage plot.

It is to be hoped that these fanatics come to their senses and release the bird rather than put it in front of a firing squad as a spy.

HRC investigator limited to only Israeli ‘violations’

Image: Richard Falk, the U.N.’s “special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. (Looks like a right little bundle of joy)

The UN HRC current investigator for human rights in the Palestinian territories professor emeritus of international law Richard Falk (Princeton) has made a call for an international boycott of a number of US and European companies for trading with Israel.  Israel tends to be a big focus for the HRC with something close to 50% of disparaging resolutions from it being focussed on what is essentially a small nation in the Middle East: 

Dominated by countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Libya, the HRC is known to be hostile toward Israel. For this reason, the Bush Administration refused to take part in the HRC, yet the Obama administration has fully participated.  

The HRC is calling for "legal and economic warfare" on Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard, because these companies refuse to quit doing business with Israel. Companies in Europe targeted for boycott include Volvo, the Dexia Group, and Group 4 Security. 

The Obama-approved HRC keeps an investigator who monitors so-called violations of "human rights" by Israelis in "the Palestinian territories." … 

The latest report from the HRC attempts to frighten companies into anti-Israel compliance by warning that individual employees of Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard may be targeted if the pressure on company execs does not succeed.

Some of the unblinkered thinkers in society tend to notice that human rights violations are not strictly one-sided in that region.  Some notice the tendency of terrorist groups to fire rockets and conduct raids into Israeli towns aiming to kill civilians and wonder why only Israel is called to account for its response. It turns out, that only Israeli actions are to be investigated: 

Reporter Benny Avni of the New York Post took Falk to task for solely focusing on Israeli actions in the West Bank, while he ignored Palestinian violations of human rights. 

“You are charged with the responsibility to judge Israel’s behavior in the occupied territories, but your title is special rapporteur of the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” Avni said. 

“As such have you noticed during your travels to the region any violation of human rights by the Palestinian Authority that is controlling most of the cities in the West Bank, and even more so by Hamas that controls all of Gaza? “Do you think that the last three days of [rocket] attacks from Gaza into Israel constitute any human rights violations?” Avni asked. 

Falk responded that this mandate limited him to Israeli violations in the occupied territories. …

This on its own demonstrates extreme and extraordinary bias, but the selection of an investigator indicates a total disinterest on behalf of the UNHRC in even appearing to be unbiased.  Falk is a 9/11 truther who claims that senior US officials are culpable for what happened, and has accused Israel of actions comparable with the Nazi regime.  His prejudice is so extreme, that Israeli authorities don’t even bother to let him into the country, as it would only vindicate his attitudes.

The support that the US offers for this organisation by membership of it is a sign of weakness.

Andrew Sullivan; ‘keeping the skeer’

The left hand side of politics, both here and in America tend to follow the aphorism of General Nathan Bedford Forrest, "Git 'em skeered and keep the skeer on 'em." 

While not admitting to being terrible in government, they recognize that the public thinks so and as result resort to tactics based on painting the opposition as worse than they are.  The main method of doing this is to use scare tactics, by painting the opposition as misogynists, racists, maniacs, destroyers, old people killers, slayers of Bambi’s mother, and eaters of puppies and kittens while demanding to be treated with civility themselves.

Leftard political commentator and gynecological conspiracy theorist, Andrew Sullivan has come up with the rather exotic theory that if Virginia and Florida go to the Republicans, the South will rise again with a new Confederacy: 

SULLIVAN: If Virginia and Florida go back to the Republicans, it's the confederacy, entirely. You put the map of the Civil War over this electoral map, you've got the Civil War. 

GWEN IFILL, PBS: I don't know. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: You're rolling your eyes, George. 

SULLIVAN: Am I wrong? 

George WILL: You are, and I'll say why. 

WILL: Democrats have been losing the white vote constantly since 1964, so that's not new. 

IFILL: John Kerry lost the white vote. 

WILL: Here's -- right. Here's what we're trying to talk about. 2008, from Obama, gets that many white votes. This time, the polls indicating may get this many. We're trying to explain this difference. Now, there are two possible explanations. A lot of white people who voted for Obama in 2008 watched him govern for four years and said, "Not so good. Let's try someone else." The alternative, the confederacy hypothesis, is those people somehow for some reason in the last four years became racist.

The left have been pursuing gutter politics for some time, parsing and spinning every statement, comment, event, and possibility through filters of racism, misogyny and anything else that has a nasty sounding ism they can use.  Sullivan tends to hyperventilate while being hyperbolic about wild conspiracy theories that exist only in his own mind, presuming that he is not just making it up as he goes along (and that he has a mind.)

Democrats would be well advised not to fret about all those Rebs down below the Mason Dickson Line digging out their old Civil War arsenals and stashes of Confederate dollars in anticipation of a new ‘War of Northern Aggression.’ 

The Huntsman’s values ad.

The rather amateurish ‘ad’ below has gained a lot of attention in the media and the net and has sparked all sorts of conspiracy theories as to its real origin. There can be no doubt as to the fact that neither Paul nor his campaign had anything to do with it; attacking an opponents children is not his style:


It reminds me of an incident at a polling booth during the late 70s/ early 80s when the political divide was particularly polarized. In Australia for the most part, party booth workers get along just fine and tend to have mutual respect and even genuine friendship. It was not uncommon during the slow periods for the workers to get together under the best shade, then divide up when voters came in.

While I was enjoying a National Party drink, and a Labor Party scone, the National party local federal member rocked up to thank the people handing out his cards, and greeted all of us. A Labor supporter arrived and went into a tirade of abuse toward him, finishing up with, “You look like a Jap, you bastard” then walked off. An embarrassed Labor guy told me he had never seen him at a meeting and none of them knew who he was.

The reality probably is that someone like that made the video, thinking in his own dumb way that he was making a brilliant contribution. The Paul supporters who are pursuing the conspiracy theories about Huntsman making the thing himself in an effort to make Ron look bad, are beginning to appear decidedly silly themselves.

Its time to let go guys.

Conservatives discover “Ron Paul plot.”

For some years we have been hearing about the New Hampshire Free State Project, which aims to persuade liberty lovers to move to that state. Its aims are stated here:

Their mission statement says:

The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property. The success of the Project would likely entail reductions in taxation and regulation, reforms at all levels of government, to expand individual rights and free markets, and a restoration of constitutional federalism, demonstrating the benefits of liberty to the rest of the nation and the world.

National Journal has picked up on it and published a report, in which it notes that Ron Paul can expect to gain some traction there in the primaries, if he stands.

Social Conservatives, who have a tendency to see themselves as the heart of the Republican Party tend to view libertarians and the Tea Party with deep misgivings, and are concerned about what they see as a libertarian or Paulist plot to hijack the election. The fact is that the FSP has been going for around ten years and long before Paul stood for President, unless you count 1988 in which he stood for the Libertarian Party.

There are only around 1000 free staters who have moved there, and 10,000 who have committed to do so within five years if 20,000 people commit to doing so, which indicates that with those numbers they will at best be a support group for his campaign, if he stands. Ron would probably approve of the project, but I have yet to see any evidence that he is directly involved in it.

SoCons tend to be alarmed and irritated at the massive and enthusiastic support Ron gets from young people, and do not understand it. What they fail to realize is that big government is oppressive and based on the illogical assumption that the state is there to rule the people rather than merely protect their rights to be free and do what they like, free from coercion. Ron Paul is a straight talker, (which is also a factor,) who exemplifies this.

There is really little other than this to understand, the man is 77 years old, and it is not about young chicks having the hots for him. Their enthusiasm is in some ways a double-edged sword. Their tendency to rally supporters to even the scent of a straw poll may give a great deal of encouragement to supporters, to the eternal angst of the organizers of these, causes him to win them. Unfortunately though, these false results tend to cause unrealistic expectations.

It would be a great thing to see a strong showing for Ron in New Hampshire, as that would be a great encouragement to some of the new candidates in the field this time around, and might convince some of the repeat performers who couldn’t beat McCain last time that they are flogging a dead horse.

Hang onto your tinfoil hats; yesterday mind control, today earthquakes.

Image: Laika the space dog.(From The Peoples Cube.)

For some time there have been rumors of a Karl Rove mind control ray, prompting a number of satirical posts such as, “Sunspot Activity Causes Brief Interruption of Karl Rove's "Mind-Ray" - Democrats Claim Rare Moment of Sanity.”

This although generally claimed to be carried out from some secret location, possibly his basement now in view of some of the current statements around the blogs there is a strong possibility that the HAARP site in Alaska is somehow implicated. HAARP or High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program appears mainly to be an effort at research the ionosphere using low frequency waves.

There seems now to be some suspicion among conspiracy theorists though, that it is actually designed to cause mental disturbances among liberal minded folks, possibly paranoia being a prime candidate among these.

Another reasonably bizarre suggestion is that it is actually designed to change the Earths climate. There are a number of posts out there suggesting that there is a program of seeding the contrails of highflying jets with heavy metals. Two that have been mentioned are aluminum, (I wouldn’t have called it heavy), and barium.

It is then claimed that by bombarding contrails with HAARP rays the climate can be changed. One post goes so far as to suggest that the recent Copenhagen global warming conference was sabotaged by this means, causing record low temperatures. The writer claims that by causing the coldest winter on record in the Northern hemisphere, the US was able to prevent any meaningful agreement taking place.

This means that it must have been carried out by some secret cabal, separate to the government as a whole, as the government seemed quite anxious for a solid agreement on GW, along with all those controls they could put in place as well as punitive taxes.

Now if you Google HAARP earthquakes, you will be met with a fascinating array of theories that most recent quakes were caused, (in most cases deliberately) by the governments targeting of fault lines with these rays. Seemingly the US government is giving subtle warnings to China, Haiti, the Kiwis, and Chile among others, using a weapon that is disguised as a natural disaster.

It is not understood how such events would be taken as a warning if the victims are unaware that a weapon has been used.  If you are trying to cause enough fear that nations will stop pissing you off, you really need to ensure that they know that you did it to them and they better pull their heads in or they will get it again, right where the chicken got the axe. A year or so ago Bush could have been blamed but all that has changed now.

Perhaps it is supposed to work by harnessing karma.

Danny Glover and other Hollywood celebrities are smart enough to understand that earthquakes are not caused by movements in the Earths tectonic plates, at least not since Bush was elected. They however claim they are caused by global warming.

Conspiracy

By Jim Fryar

This post is best read to the strains of the Tears for Fears song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”.

An acquaintance asked me the other day, ”Do you think the US government destroyed the World Trade Centre so they could have an excuse to attack Afghanistan? I have a group of friends who say they did”.

As I felt that ridicule was in order I replied, “About as likely as the Port Arthur Massacre being carried out by the Australian Government to get gun control passed”.

“They say they can prove that too”.

“And the moon landing”?

“They say that they have evidence that it was definitely faked, what would you say to convince them they are wrong”.

“Nothing, I wouldn’t waste my time”.

I have heard this type of stuff all my life, and while the people promoting it seem genuine though deluded, I have long considered trying to convince them otherwise is like flogging a dead horse. The problem with conspiracy theories is that belief in them automatically confers a superior intelligence on the believer.

The logic is that the government, world leaders, business leaders, mafia, CIA, secret Zionist organizations, etc. are all out to get us, yet despite their incredible devilish cunning and deviousness, as well as the complicity of the press, not to forget “The Establishment”, they have been unmasked by people of higher intellect. No prizes for guessing who that might be.

This in turn creates the illusion that anyone disagreeing with them is a poor deluded fool, who has been taken in by the above and worthy at best, of only their sympathy and condescension. It must be great to be a higher form of life; I just have to get into that stuff.

Most of these theories are proposed by people who are analysing information from well outside their areas of expertise (if any), and so are vulnerable to suggestions that things aren’t as they seem. Take for example the WTC collapse. Two “facts” keep cropping up: - That the windows were blowing out ahead of the collapse, indicating that a controlled explosion was used, and that the buildings fell at terminal velocity, confirming this.

The buildings were weakened, first by very large aircraft crashing into them, then by the heat of the ensuing fires causing them to lose their structural integrity. In such circumstances the first parts to fail would be the horizontal structure (floors), unless the collision caused the walls to go first. It didn’t.

The floor that the aircraft ended up on would be carrying vastly more weight than it was ever intended to do, the heat weakening it and those above it, causing one to collapse into the other in a chain reaction, the resultant air blast appearing to the observer a series of explosions.

When an object falls it accelerates at 32 feet per second per second until it reaches terminal velosity, so it simply could not fall at terminal velocity all the way.

This also fails to take account of Osama and his mates slapping each other on the backs and congratulating each other on a job well done in a video, unless of course the CIA got Kubric to produce this like some claim he did for the moon landings, or if they did, why Bin Laden would be dumb enough to go along with it.

I am not sure why, if the government did it, that they did not get me to arrange it for them, I could have done it much better. Take for example the absence of the President. If you fake being attacked, intending to start a war, it is terribly important to have the leader on the spot, well, at least close by, so he can be seen calmly directing rescue efforts, and instilling confidence in the people.

I would have had George Bush coming out of the smoke and flames, covered in dust and supporting an injured fire fighter with each arm, then give an impromptu speech. (I hope this doesn’t start one that Rudy Giuliani set it up).

And as for the Pentagon, I wouldn't have fired a cruise missile into it and then do the impossible task of moving all that aircraft wreckage in, before anybody who was not in on it got there. Fair go! why not just get the co-operative terrorists to just crash a bloody plane into it.

The only good thing coming out of it, the way it is claimed it was done, is that the conspiracy theorists havent realised yet that this means that an aircraft and all of it's passengers have simply disappeared off the face of the earth. Oh I get it, the Pentagon attack was used by the CIA to cover up the fact that the plane went missing some where else.

The fact that governments get caught trying to cover up things, is seen by the theorists as clear proof that they do it, I see it as clear proof that they are not very good at it.

I mentioned this to Richard Nixon on the grassy knoll in 63, and he said “Don’t worry Jim, if anyone finds out they’ll blame LBJ”.

This is what Douglas Adams had to say, in The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“You know”, said Arthur thoughtfully, “all of this explains a lot of things. All through my life I have had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, something sinister, and no one would tell me what it was”.

“No,” said the old man, “that’s just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that.”