As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a “lost decade,” the result could be a global landscape filled with economically fueled upheavals.
Indeed, if you want to be grimly impressed, hang a world map on your wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga (Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from Reykjavik, Paris, Rome and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages that remained orderly thanks in part to the presence of vast numbers of riot police. If you inserted orange pins at these locations — none as yet in the United States — your map would already look aflame with activity. And if you’re a gambling man or woman, it’s a safe bet that this map will soon be far better populated with red and orange pins.
Kuntsler says it’s one of those times when the abyss looks back at you. In that, he’s right. I mean, it definitely feels like about halfway to the Eschaton right now.
The US Army ordered millions of dollars of riot gear. U.S. Army To Buy $6 Million Of Riot Equipment Fortunately Open Government brings this to us via the Webs:
Earlier: NorthCom Denies Troops To Be Used For Crowd Control
Wikileaks cracked a batch of encrypted Public Relations / Strategic Communications / information warfare / PSYOPS items from some dumb chumps’ server. The secret password was progress!
Wikileaks cracks NATO’s Master Narrative for Afghanistan – Wikileaks
Bonus item: “Psy Ops media”!
[GIRoA actually means “Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.” Which makes the weird military press releases with people talking about GIRoA most impressive.]
We are going into more debt to gear up the cops. Including here in Minnesota. Militarizing Police Depts. With Your Bailout Money
Meanwhile there are a debt-financed $250 million for fusion centers: Stimulus bill has $250m for fusion centers — Federal Computer Week:
An economic stimulus package that the Senate is set to consider would provide $250 million for state and locally-run information sharing and coordination centers that are part of anti-terrorism efforts.
The Senate’s $888 billion measure would include $250 million to modify existing state and local emergency operations centers and intelligence fusion centers or to build new ones. The $819 billion economic stimulus bill The House passed Jan. 28 did not authorize the same funding.
The fusion centers and emergency operations centers use technology and information technology to improve information sharing, situational awareness and coordination, and the Bush administration made fusion centers central to efforts to share terrorism-related information between federal and non-federal authorities.
The centers are owned and operated by states and local governments, and many of the more than 50 centers rely heavily on Homeland Security Department grants administered by DHS’ Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Emergency operations centers” are the flip side of the Department of Homeland Security’s increasing cash/grant powers around the country – many states have “Homeland Security and Emergency Management” departments. Us Mac students heard directly one time from fomer St. Paul DFL Mayor Randy Kelly that his endorsement of Bush had paved the way to extra emergency gear getting awarded from those corrupt apparachiks in DHS.
Fusion centers are an overlooked element of the emergent nationwide law-and-order Great Leap Forward. And very important. Fusion centers are basically heavily contractor-run headquarters for different law enforcement and increasingly military-supplied outposts of Total Situational Awareness.
American Civil Liberties Union : What’s Wrong With Fusion Centers – Executive Summary
A new institution is emerging in American life: Fusion Centers. These state, local and regional institutions were originally created to improve the sharing of anti-terrorism intelligence among different state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. Though they developed independently and remain quite different from one another, for many the scope of their mission has quickly expanded – with the support and encouragement of the federal government – to cover “all crimes and all hazards.” The types of information they seek for analysis has also broadened over time to include not just criminal intelligence, but public and private sector data, and participation in these centers has grown to include not just law enforcement, but other government entities, the military and even select members of the private sector.
These new fusion centers, over 40 of which have been established around the country, raise very serious privacy issues at a time when new technology, government powers and zeal in the “war on terrorism” are combining to threaten Americans’ privacy at an unprecedented level.
Of course we are now learning that the North Central Texas Fusion Center (sounds like a lovely place) was ordered to track anti-war groups and lobbying organizations. ACLU: Fusion Center Encourages Improper Investigations Of Lobbying Groups And Anti-War Activists | CommonDreams.org
Bad kids say that Government Prepares the Public for Cradle to Grave Surveillance which references some new Lockheed Martin red light tracking systems & other schemes.
This is because there is not enough serious crime and terrorism to satisfy the great need for these people to find something to do. It is one giant perpetual data mining fishing expedition in the works.
More nascent plans for domestic militarization & the Big Service Programs o’ doom!: These have become quite trendy lately. Whether it’s Alcee Hastings’ new FEMA Camp plan or the nationalization of the whole economy, or the Rahm Emanuel Vaguely Menacing Civilian Quasi-Militarized Training Corps, well it’s all a shade weird lately.
Bad kids write: Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills such as: Dodd, Cochran, DeLauro Announce “Service For All Ages” Initiative and Service for All Ages Press Conference | servicewire.org
Everyone in tinfoil country heard about this one: YouTube – Obama Civilian Security and called it the Stasi. Ok a bit harsh, but the whole thing is weird. Bonus points to prisonplanet for the quasi-Rising Sun style artwork.
More from the bad kids: Lawmaker Warns Of “Forced Servitude” Under Obama and Analysts: New Era Of Chaos Has Taken Hold
And of course: Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage
Check out the size of ALL derivatives: Semiannual OTC derivatives statistics at end-June 2008 Download this PDF for the full data. System shocks could cause these multi trillions to fail to roll over. Data from the Bank for International Settlements, which will probably get mutated by the Great Intervention soon enough.
Don’t miss it: Wired: Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street (more on this) This is the research paper that actually caused all the fake AAA derivatives to become taken as “real.” AMAZING!!!
For your somewhat wild UK financial investigator view to the Great Financial Arson of our times, consider Worldreports.org with Christopher Story. News – CATASTROPHIC BANKERS’ RAMP TO CONTINUE UNDER OBAMA and News – GEITHNER TO LAUNCH WORLD’S BIGGEST PONZI SCAM. AKA no one wants to buy the repackaged toxic paper, which led of course to the chortling Trader Floor Conspiracy of Chicago.
FT.com / Markets / Insight – Insight: Time to expose those CDOs. Get ready. Early April will see a lot of economic turbulence I bet, because many banks’ll be proven insolvent.
Krugman’s feeling the zombie vibe: All the President’s zombies.
Hard to crash COMEX than we thought! It looks like the great paper gold reservoir is bigger than expected, which means it’ll be harder for goldbugs to ‘crash’ the paper gold system (which currently creates a huge ‘virtual supply’ to bet on). See Chart: COMEX Gold Inventory « Meltdown 2011.
This guy is bent on something about Shadow Powers. Mwahaha. And Of Layoffs & Riots… And Think Tank’s 2009 predictions. Also why not? WSJ Talks Amero.
and Cartel’s End Game Has a “Nasty Twist”.
Also some people are saying silver is due to go up – it usually hangs around about 55x smaller than gold. See The Silver Catapult Is Loaded.
Don’t Miss Global Guerrillas: BREAKING THE BANK and THE QUICK ROAD TO GLOBAL INSURGENCY and RC JOURNAL: US Foreclosures and the Tactics of Delay and JOURNAL: Swarming Attacks
Data flow notes: I have spun up a bit more twitter activity @ twitter.com/hongpong .
As Capitol press corps shrinks, government controls message | OKG Scene.com
Signed up for Jim Sinclair’s MineSet. Old school financial prognosticator. See Officially “Out Of Control”.
Time to throw a fuss: Facebook open-sources its terms of service | The Open Road – CNET News
Local Labor Revolution! Go Wobblies! Twin Cities Starbucks Workers Union
Ron Paul talkin smack: YouTube – Ron Paul’s opening statement 2009.02.25 upsets the CNBC anchors!! The usual suspects complement him. CNBC sad.
Well that’s all for now. Have fun kids!
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