Friday, August 30, 2013

Michael C. Ruppert: This is too sick

The following comment by Michael C. Ruppert has been used with permission. Originally posted on Facebook in response to this story.

THIS IS TOO SICK.

Is the world really, really going to allow the United States to carry out a limited missile strike just to save face? Really?!

The US marshaled diplomatic power, military power, and put all its prestige on the line for w
hat was intended and blasted to be a full-scale, multi-national attack including a No-Fly and regime change. The rhetoric was a five-alarm fire. The world suddenly reacted in a complete state of fear and arousal. China stated they believed this was an attempt at regime change, the trigger for World War III.

So now, as seven billion of us are reeling with a FEAR HANGOVER, we are expected to feel relief and ALLOW the US to launch a limited strike (with regime change off the table) just so that it can save face and we are not incinerated?????

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for the sake of security, deserve neither."

If the world rolls over for that then I wash my hands of the whole human race. Instead if the bully killing us outright we should all just sit back and accept it while he cuts of (just) another finger, or a foot. What a bunch of gutless, spineless, cowering wretches we have become!

I truly believe and see that there are evil ones -- The Powers That Were -- who derive their energy and power from keeping and making us afraid. They have just enjoyed a ridiculous feast.

And all of us should have had just about enough of being yanked around this way, yard by bloody yard, inch by inch, day by day, and year by year.

 Fukushima and Climate Collapse are still there. And we have just been suckered into expending the energy we need for them.

Today is one of those days when I ask whether the human race actually deserves to survive, whether our spirit has totally caved in? That may actually have been the spiritual warfare that has was waged so effectively on us this last week.

Where is the human spirit? What has become of it? When is enough, enough?

Let them that have eyes, see. Let them that have ears, hear.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

U.S. war propaganda appears to be falling flat on it's face

The U.S. is certain the Assad regime used chemical weapons, they said.

We have an "airtight circumstantial case", they said.

So now the U.S. is "preparing to declassify" their intelligence report which proves (sort of) that Assad used chemical weapons. This magical intelligence report strangely hasn't been presented to the U.N. security council which the U.S. is trying to do an end run around despite the U.S. claiming to have had this report the entire time. Not to mention, remember when the U.S. and Turkey said they "had evidence" months ago about a chemical attack? Where's that evidence again?

The U.S.'s plan to shock the world into blind support of another illegal war of aggression isn't going over too well. One would imagine that they had hoped to start "droppin' bombz" before the public stepped back and started to question events. TOO LATE! The public, especially in Britain, remembering the bad intelligence lies to start the Iraq war is a bit reserved it would seem and is not entirely convinced that the government who cries wolf actually saw one.

Of course the mainstream media (and unfortunately some mislead bloggers who I've seen refer to the idea that the "western backed" rebels would attack the Syrian people with chemical weapons as a pretense for war as a "crackpot conspiracy theory" - despite a report back in January claiming exactly that) continues to refer to Iraq as a mistake even though it was revealed long ago it was in fact a bold-faced lie by the Bush Administration and likewise continue to repeat the "it's not possible that the rebels could have deployed these weapons" mantra. Not possible eh?

Government narratives are fun. You are being lead to believe that the rebels, a "ragtag group of fighters" can not pull off a major attack yet at the same time the government narrative for the "war on terror" is that some ragtag group of "terrorists" somehow managed to pull off the largest attack in recent history. The rebels are the terrorists that pulled off that amazing attack (if you believe the government narrative). Of course to believe the current narrative you must also believe the 9/11 narrative, so which is it? Are they just a bunch of disorganized fighters or are they the evil geniuses we've been "fighting" and violating international law in the process for the last decade?

This is called double-think, holding two completely contrary opinions in your mind at the same time. They can not both be true, yet you are meant to believe they are. This narrative falls apart further when one discovers that Turkey has already caught the "rebels" attempting to carry out a chemical weapon attack there. Isn't it interesting though that when a NATO country uses chemicals to oppress dissent that's perfectly ok?

We are now being told that any strike will be "punitive" and not meant to topple Assad or "give the rebels the advantage" nor is it "taking sides". Of course we are certainly on the side of the "rebels" since we dismiss the very idea that they could be responsible without a shred of evidence to back the claim. Of course any strike is a move to topple Assad, if not directly, as the "western backed" rebels are aiming to topple Assad and it's not like a military strike on Assad will make him stronger. So yup, we're meant to believe that despite the U.S. training the "rebels" to topple Assad, that despite the U.S. becoming upset with Israel that they did not attack Syria in 2006, and that despite the U.S. moving forward with oil licenses in the highly contested Golan this strike has nothing to do with "taking sides". This is in the face of ever-increasing support of the rebels by the western nations as they continue to lose ground to Assad's forces.

As I said before, at this point how could anyone believe western governments about anything? Pretty simple: you can't.



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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Syria: Link Collection

Collection of all the links about the situation in Syria media isn't telling you about and relevant historical stories. Will update as I find useful info.

Canadian Trends investigation of nuclear weapons used in Syria (Also provides a large selection of links showing U.S. "interests" in the area)

Syria Bans Use of U.S. Dollars Amid Hyperinflation

Syria: Another Western War Crime In The Making

MOORER DEPOSITION IN TAILWIND SUITS CONFIRMS ALLEGATIONS OF SARIN USE AGAINST VIETNAM DEFECTORS, POWS - INCRIMINATES CIA, KISSINGER

A Short Guide to the Middle East

US gave Saddam blessing to use toxins against Iranians

"Military Intervention In Syria", US Training "Rebels" Since 2011 And The Complete Grand Plan - The March 2012 Leak

Russian President, Saudi Spy Chief Discussed Syria, Egypt

Saudis offer Russia secret oil deal if it drops Syria

Syrian rebels used Sarin nerve gas, not Assad’s regime: U.N. official

US 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt': Report







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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Monday, August 26, 2013

The moral high ground has never been lower

Multiple articles from different publications have been released today using a variation of the title 'the moral case for intervention in Syria". I'm not even going to bother linking any of them, if you want to read that crap just Google the headline.

It is just so frustrating reading this sort of junk as we enter the second decade of the "war on terror". One which has seen the usage of depleted uranium during a "moral intervention". One which Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning has now been severely sentenced for revealing the massacre of innocents. One which has always been enacted under the guise of lies and half-truths. Morality in the last decade of death and destruction never entered the picture; from targeted killings of "suspected militants" to the complete destruction of civilian infrastructure. What fucking moral case?

To make a "moral case" about anything you must adhere to the moral values such a case would be based on. For instance, Justin Trudeau's admittance to smoking pot as an MP and his latest push for "legalizing" pot is founded on a moral argument however his argument is null and void because he supported mandatory minimum sentences for pot growers. Hypocrisy.

A look back at the track record of "western intervention" isn't exactly a highlight wheel to exemplify western military success. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, all failures now dealing with more violence and death than they ever had before. Not that we actually give a shit about that, it was always about the oil.
Shots fired at an oil tanker and accusations of attempted thefts at port facilities have deepened a crisis in Libya's oil industry, triggering fears among major Western oil companies that one of Europe's largest suppliers could soon descend into lawlessness.
Remember what happened prior to "intervention"?
Italy's oil company, Eni, has major oil and gas operations in Libya. So does British Petroleum. 

Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi is now saying that
he may seize those operations and turn them over to India and China (and perhaps Russia as well).
Hah, the "moral case for intervention". What a joke. Yet despite all of the atrocities that western militaries have inflicted on the nations that "we're helping" we still tell ourselves how moral we are and how good we are. Iraq? Oh, well that was a mistake western nations need to "learn from", not a war crime, not an atrocity, simply a mistake.

Almost one year ago I posted my first post on the presence of al-Qaeda and "militants" in Syria, before anyone knew they were there really. Back then our western media was still feeding us the innocents and democratic protest bullshit that we don't even remember now. It was then stated by the Council on Foreign Relations that the rebellion in Syria would be dead in it's tracks if not for the "specter of al-Qaeda" in Syria. We have been helping "the terrorists" gain the foothold they now have in Syria since day 1. The violence, the chemical weapon attacks, all of it rests directly on the moral shoulders of the western nations that have "national interests" in Syria because we have continued whatever support is necessary so that the rebels can keep fighting and don't lose.

When Assad's forces began regaining territory it was then that the U.S. stepped up it's support for "the rebels". When Hezbollah got involved it was then that Israel (the U.S.?) began trying to cripple their offensive in the region.

We don't give a shit about death or chemical weapons. We love chemical weapons. We love death. We're killing people in foreign countries all the time outside of the rules of international law simply because we can and no other country is (yet) powerful enough to stop the great NATO terror force.

Not yet, perhaps, but throughout history aggressive militaries bent on world domination always tend to be defeated eventually by those they were oppressing. The major power center swings from east, to west, and back to east. Expect that one day we will be held responsible for our "moral" actions with an equally "moral" response.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Fraser Institute study a distraction from the true cost of raising kids

The Fraser Institute study excludes many of the realities faced by Generation Squeeze from its analysis

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug 26, 2013/ Troy Media/ – My hat goes off to all hard-working parents, past and present. They raise kids with love, joy, sacrifice and frustration. My parents did.

Still, the facts show that families raising young kids today are squeezed for time, income and services to a degree that is more constraining than a generation ago. Surprisingly, the Fraser Institute alleged otherwise last week, claiming “It’s never been easier, financially, to raise children in Canada.”

There are millions of parents who wish the Institute were right. So do many young people who delay starting families. Alas, wishing doesn’t make it so. Here’s what is weighing down younger generations.

We all know housing prices have increased substantially. For those who bought homes decades ago, higher housing prices mean more wealth. But what’s been good for retiring parents is generally bad for their kids. High home prices squeeze generations under age 45 with crushing debt, which they must pay with wages that have fallen compared to a generation ago, and in jobs that rarely contribute pensions.

Gens X and Y have adapted. To compete for better employment, they squeeze in years more of education and tuition. To buy a place, they accept jobs or contracts that require years more of work to save a down payment. And for many, this means they wait years longer to establish their financial independence.

Seeing their adult kids caught between time and money pressures, many Boomers also adapt. They invite their kids to live at home longer, support the cost of post-secondary education, contribute to a down payment, etc.

Even with all this personal adaptation, most in Gen X and Y can’t work their way out of the time-and-income squeeze when they start families. Since two earners bring home little more today than what one breadwinner often did in the 1970s, we’ve gone from 40 hour work weeks to closer to 80 hours. The result? Generations raising young kids are squeezed for time at home. They are squeezed for income because housing prices are nearly double, even though young people often live in condos, or trade yards for time-consuming commutes. And they are squeezed for services like child care, which are essential for many parents to deal with rising costs, but are in short supply, and often cost more than university.

The Fraser Institute study excludes these realities from its analysis. It includes NO comparative data from different time periods. So it offers no evidence with which to answer the question “is it financially easier to raise kids now compared to the past?”
The study actually addresses a different issue: what does it cost to raise a child today? The author calculates the cost is between $3,000 and $4,500 a year. He generally excludes what parents pay for housing and child care services. I’ll leave readers to assess whether they think this estimate is realistic.

All should ask, however, why does the Fraser Institute dismiss the reality that younger generations are more squeezed now than in the past? Many will know the Institute is skeptical about the value of government investment. But Gens X, Y and their kids are not the primary beneficiary of social spending. Governments spend around $45,000 a year per retiree in Canada, mostly on healthcare, pensions and retirement income subsidies. This spending is nearly four times larger than government spending per younger Canadian. Grade school, post-secondary, healthcare, child care, parental leave, EI and workers compensation all combine for a total of around $12,000 annually per person under age 45.

Younger Canadians already face a generational imbalance in government spending on top of their worsening wages relative to housing costs. By discounting the time, income and service squeeze on younger generations, the Fraser Institute distracts attention away from this imbalance. Fortunately, there are Canadians of all ages across the country who believe younger generations deserve a better deal.

Dr. Paul Kershaw is a professor at the University of BC, and the Founder of the Generation Squeeze campaign (gensqueeze.ca; @gensqueeze).

Originally posted at troymedia.com [Original link].

Editors Note: This piece is an excellent breakdown of the lose/lose situation young generations face and is right in line with the content here at Canadian Trends thus I have reproduced it.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Syria: Desperate Measures

The U.S. and western nations are desperate to get "boots on the ground" in Syria and the latest conveniently timed chemical attack is suspicious to say the least. News here in the west about the situation is a lot closer to military propaganda than actual reporting. You can bet that the stories are coming right out of intelligence agencies with the goal to persuade you to support intervention in Syria. Notice how all articles covering the attack all essentially say some variation of "If Assad is found to have used chemical weapons we will have to use force". The media has already decided it must be Assad and both the Syrian and Russian claims that it is in fact the rebels responsible are being quickly dismissed.

Do we really think that the Syrian military and Assad are that stupid? That at the same time that the entire world has their eyes on Syria for chemical weapon usage and while a U.N. team is in their country investigating such usage that they would initiate a new chemical weapon attack to hand the western nations the very excuse they've been pressing as their right to intervene? Probably not.

US 'backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt': Report - Jan 2013
London, Jan 30 (ANI): The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

A new report, that contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence, showed a scheme 'approved by Washington'.

As per the scheme 'Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons,' the Daily Mail reports.
Hmm.

Turkey finds sarin gas in homes of suspected Syrian Islamists – reports
Turkish security forces found a 2kg cylinder with sarin gas after searching the homes of Syrian militants from the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front who were previously detained, Turkish media reports. The gas was reportedly going to be used in a bomb.

The sarin gas was found in the homes of suspected Syrian Islamists detained in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersia following a search by Turkish police on Wednesday, reports say. The gas was allegedly going to be used to carry out an attack in the southern Turkish city of Adana.

On Monday, Turkish special anti-terror forces arrested 12 suspected members of the Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda affiliated group which has been dubbed "the most aggressive and successful arm” of the Syrian rebels. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in December.
Hmm.

You are being lied to and treated like an idiot. Doesn't that make you angry? It makes me angry. Look at the propaganda you are bombarded with daily.

Syria's deputy PM blames foreign fighters for alleged chemical attacks
Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil's comments were part of a government campaign to use the horror over the deaths to boost its narrative about the conflict -- that Syria is under assault by foreign Islamic radicals. It is an argument that has powerful resonance with the Syrian public as the presence of militants fighting alongside Syria's rebels increases.

Rebels blamed the attack on the Syrian military, saying toxic chemicals were used in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday. Jamil did not directly acknowledge that toxic gas was used against the eastern suburbs but denied allegations by anti-government activists that President Bashar Assad's forces were behind the assault.

The murky nature of the purported attacks, and the difficulty of gaining access to the sites amid the carnage of Syria's war and government restrictions on foreign media, has made it impossible to verify the claims.

But they have fueled calls in the West for greater action against Assad's regime as amateur videos and photos showed images of the dead, including scores of lifeless children, wrapped in white cloths and lying shoulder to shoulder, while others struggled to breathe. Many pointed to the fact that their pale skin was unmarked by any wounds as evidence that it was a chemical attack.

The U.S., Britain and France along with a host of other countries demanded that a team of United Nations experts already in Syria be granted immediate access to the site. The timing of Wednesday's attack -- four days after the U.N. team's arrival -- has also raised questions about why the regime would use chemical agents now.
A campaign by the government to "use the horror over the deaths to boost it's narrative". Gee, sounds familiar doesn't it? I'm pretty sure that western nations have for the last decade been "using the horror over deaths to boost it's narrative". Haven't we? And calling them simply "militants" CTV News? Shouldn't "Al-Nursa" or "Al-Qaeda" be more accurate, to give the true sense of the geopolitics at play here? Of course it's hard to convince a population that is being told to give up their rights because of Al-Qaeda that they should believe Al-Qaeda when it comes to the usage of chemical weapons which they have been discovered several times to be producing and possess.

Western nations are getting desperate to directly support their terrorist friends as Syria is the road to Iran. A loss in Syria is a major setback for the western nations and their corporate friends and they will lie, kill, cheat, and steal and do whatever else it will take to get you to support more wars of aggression.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

At this point why would anyone believe western governments about anything?

Bradley Manning has been sentenced for showing you all the truth, and "Osama Bin Laden" - the fictional CIA created boogey man - is under the sea. Arming "Al-Qaeda" is ok, but your rights are being violated because "they might attack". You are a hamster and our civilization is the wheel.

The U.K. is now concerned after the public discovered that anti-terror laws have now been used to detain a journalist that these "important" laws may lose "public support".... OH NOES! Does anyone out there still believe that we're "fighting the terrorists"? That there are terrorists? Or are people finally discovering that the very mention of "terror" is itself a false flag?

When we say statements like "journalism is not terrorism" we are actually already 50% of the way towards the total brainwashing those in power are aiming for. Words are very much a tool for division and to define the paradigm in which you find yourselves. Simply by using the word terrorism you are giving the word credence. By comparing "normal" activities, "crimes", and "terrorist activities" even if you do not agree with the manufactured and ever-broadening definition of terrorism or the tyrannical laws passed to "handle terrorism" you are creating the mental space for the need to exist, somewhere.

Let me give a simple example of what I mean. Gay marriage. This term which has been adopted by the LGBT movement is unto itself a divisive term. Defining specific unions of marriage as "gay marriage" implies automatically that somehow gay marriage is different than simply marriage. As soon as the term gay marriage crops up the division has already occurred. the LGBT community fighting for their right to marriage is no longer fighting for the same right to marriage as anyone else. They are in fact fighting for the right to "gay marriage", specifically.

The end result or practical application of gay marriage and marriage may seem identical, but the mental aspect is not. One creates a group of people that can be singled out and the other does not. Marriage applies to everyone except those who require "gay marriage". This is a tool used by the elite to divide and conquer, to keep us separated into our own little working groups which battle other working groups, all made up of peasants which in the eyes of the elite are all equally despicable.

Terrorism and the "terrorist" works under the same premise. It is a tool being used to segregate one group of undesirables from the rest, to frame the thought process of the population that there is a special group of people which require special treatment; treatment which under "normal;" circumstances would violate the treatment everyone else expects, for you wouldn't consider yourself a terrorist, would you?

Western governments everywhere are insisting that these extended spy powers (not to mention those used for indefinite detention, etc) are needed to battle the "terrorists" and are not being abused however the very acceptance by the people and establishment media of the vaguely defined "terrorist" is the abuse itself which once accepted sets the stage for all sorts of abuse.

The people, everywhere, are *waiting* for a documented and admitted abuse of these "laws" which of course ever since 9/11 induced our anti-terror fever has happened time and time again. And what will we do once an abuse is finally out in the open? What will we do when our tyrannical governments finally drop the curtain entirely and "officially" become tyrannical? Will we then stop believing their bullshit? Will we then finally turn off the always wrong experts on the evening news? Or will we allow it to continue while thinking "it won't happen to me, I'm not a terrorist" as one by one every person's life is slowly encumbered by it?

Everything about everything the government and their affiliated corporations tell you is bullshit. In the face of the truth of today their lies of yesterday are revealed for what they truly are. Everything being sold to you as important for you is 10 times more important for them. When the government talks about your jobs and the need to "create jobs" in reality what they are telling you is you are an economic unit needed to service their debt. When they talk about your health and pot being "dangerous" and the need for more taxes on cigarettes (notice how it always comes back to money? Your money, for them?) just remember that your health is the last thing on their mind. We've cured cancer but because there's no money in it you will not be allowed to have this treatment.

You are a cog in the economic gears and you need to keep turning. Not so that you can eat or support your family or live the "American Dream", but rather so you can keep feeding real productive energy at the bottom back to the top and keep the elite's who produce nothing nice and comfy. Anti-terrorism is important for you because it's what keeps those non-productive parasites safe from those of you that have been used up, abused and terrorized by an establishment whose sole purpose is to continue itself.

We are all Bradley Manning, we are all people, we are all the enemy, we are all terrorists. We always have been the target of the build up of abuse enacted by the criminals we call 'politicians' and 'bankers'. Who would believe these criminals and liars about anything anymore?

Fool me once, shame on you... If you're fooled you can't get fooled again!

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Changing trajectory

Just a quick one today as I'm seriously running out of things to say. I've written about most of the important current trends that will effect Canada and their paths have already been set and thus unless something changes the trajectory the events already set will play out. There is one area where the trajectory is changing and that's in regard to oil price and availability.

We are at a point now where oil will make a major break either up or back down depending on events though right now I would say up is looking a lot more likely which is in contradiction to my original forecast from the beginning of the year which predicted oil would top out at $110.

WTI has been bouncing between 105 and 109 for the last little while on target with my forecast (though by about a month later than I expected). Originally I had expected oil to now begin retreating as the price of oil began eating into profits which we are seeing now in weaker consumer confidence, retail sales and industrial numbers. However despite this several factors are keeping the price high.

U.S. crude inventories have fallen more than expected at the same time that a lot of Egypt's production is about to be put on hold, and Libya's oil exports are currently disabled due to protestors shutting down their sea ports and new protests are brewing in Saudi Arabia.

The combination of these events sets the table for the possibility that oil may exceed $110 with enough force to go against the resistance of slowing global economic growth. If this occurs we will be looking at the setup for the next major financial crash as affordability goes completely out the window. The continued trend of rising interest rates despite central bank intervention to keep them low, moderately high unemployment, and rising energy costs paint a pretty grim picture for anyone heavily indebted at the moment (such as the Canadian consumer).

Of course Canada will likely celebrate the rise in oil price as a sign of "boom times ahead" but don't fall into this thought trap as the succeeding crash will be changing that tune quite quickly. Remember back in 2008 that oil dropped all the way from $147 to $40 when demand collapsed, the higher we go the further we'll fall. The difference being this time Canada's governments and people are already heavily indebted from the last round. We haven't had our financial problems yet! EVERYTHING we've been feeling thus far are effects of the American and European collapses! I can't stress this enough. The external forces have been so strong that we've been left in a fairly weak position to withstand our own collapse. I anticipate that Canada's "weak unstable banking system" is going to be surprising a lot of Canadians; hopefully you're not one of them. :)


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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Hope for the best, expect the worst

Star Trek DS9 was by far my favorite Star Trek and mostly due to one character in particular, Garak. He had some of the best one-liners in the series. Garak says in response to be called a pessimist that he is in fact an optimist.
"I always hope for the best. Experience, unfortunately, has taught me to expect the worst."
This is an important distinction. I personally really hope that the world pulls it's head out of it's ass but experience in this regard has taught me to expect the worst. The trends set now are utterly destructive to a point I don't think many are yet willing to admit.

The mass extinction events all around the world are absolutely depressing to observe. It is mind-blowingly insane how much marine life is dying now. It's frightening how quickly the bees are going extinct. Can you imagine losing almost your entire livestock? The pain that must inflict? My heart feels heavier and heavier every day but we must pay homage. We must remember the beauty that was our world. We must remember. I am absolutely dying inside as I witness what may as well be described as the 6th mass extinction event in the history of our planet.

Want to see where we're at? read this. Still not enough? then try this too. And it's only getting worse.
"There is a risk of an inadvertent criticality if the bundles are distorted and get too close to each other," Gundersen said.

He was referring to an atomic chain reaction that left unchecked could result in a large release of radiation and heat that the fuel pool cooling system isn't designed to absorb.

"The problem with a fuel pool criticality is that you can't stop it. There are no control rods to control it," Gundersen said. "The spent fuel pool cooling system is designed only to remove decay heat, not heat from an ongoing nuclear reaction."

The rods are also vulnerable to fire should they be exposed to air, Gundersen said.

The fuel assemblies are situated in a 10 meter by 12 meter concrete pool, the base of which is 18 meters above ground level. The fuel rods are covered by 7 meters of water, Nagai said.

The pool was exposed to the air after an explosion a few days after the quake and tsunami blew off the roof. The cranes and equipment normally used to extract used fuel from the reactor's core were also destroyed.

Tepco has shored up the building, which may have tilted and was bulging after the explosion, a source of global concern that has been raised in the U.S. Congress.

The utility says the building can withstand shaking similar to the quake in 2011 and carries out regular structural checks, but the company has a credibility problem. Last month, it admitted that contaminated water was leaking into the Pacific Ocean after months of denial.

The fuel assemblies have to be first pulled from the racks they are stored in, then inserted into a heavy steel chamber. This operation takes place under water before the chamber, which shields the radiation pulsating from the rods, can be removed from the pool and lowered to ground level.

The chamber is then transported to the plant's common storage pool in an undamaged building where the assemblies will be stored.

Tepco confirmed the Reactor No. 4 fuel pool contains debris during an investigation into the chamber earlier this month.

Removing the rods from the pool is a delicate task normally assisted by computers, according to Toshio Kimura, a former Tepco technician, who worked at Fukushima Daiichi for 11 years.

"Previously it was a computer-controlled process that memorized the exact locations of the rods down to the millimeter and now they don't have that. It has to be done manually so there is a high risk that they will drop and break one of the fuel rods," Kimura said.

Under normal circumstances, the operation to remove all the fuel would take about 100 days. Tepco initially planned to take two years before reducing the schedule to one year in recognition of the urgency. But that may be an optimistic estimate.

"I think it'll probably be longer than they think and they're probably going to run into some issues," said Murray Jennex, an associate professor at San Diego State University who is an expert on nuclear containment and worked at the San Onofre nuclear plant in California.

"I don't know if anyone has looked into the experience of Chernobyl, building a concrete sarcophagus, but they don't seem to last well with all that contamination."

Corrosion from the salt water will have also weakened the building and equipment, he said.

And if an another strong earthquake strikes before the fuel is fully removed that topples the building or punctures the pool and allow the water to drain, a spent fuel fire releasing more radiation than during the initial disaster is possible, threatening about Tokyo 200 kilometers (125 miles) away.

When asked what was the worst possible scenario, Tepco is planning for, Nagai said: "We are now considering risks and countermeasures."
Is it any wonder governments are concerned about "eco-terrorists". Eco-terrorists are simply going to be people fighting for their lives. All of our lives are in danger and the government certainly isn't going to be telling you about it. They are going to be protecting what's left of the "status-quo".
Those who do not accept services at the 240-bed shelter face being jailed on public nuisance charges such as loitering, public urination and other offenses, Runyan said. That’s the tough love part of his brash plan.

The shelter also would become a central location for serving meals and for transporting homeless people to services they need such as job placement, doctor appointments or treatment for mental health or substance abuse problems. People released from the county jail or state prisons also might be dropped at the shelter instead of in the city center.

The shelter is a stop-gap effort toward a longer-term solution. Leaders will be looking for a site outside of downtown to house those services.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/08/14/2919112/plan-to-keep-homeless-from-downtown.html#storylink=cpy
Here's my favorite part.
Council voted unanimously early Wednesday morning to endorse a plan driven by complaints from businesses and residents that homeless adults increasingly are upsetting homeowners, office workers, shoppers and tourists. That’s bad for commerce as well as neighborhood tranquility, they said.
The pesky homeless, getting in the way of commerce. A blight on the city and on the brand name of recovery. This is just the beginning, with the mass extinction under way "hunger" is surely going to become a much more prominent part of North American and world culture (though much of the world is already there).

This situation is becoming unbearable to observe, but we must observe it. We must remember it all in vivid detail so that we can pass the stories down thru history and if possible stop the next stable civilization from following in our footsteps.

Take time every day to appreciate and respect all we have. Clean(ish) air, clean(ish) water, beautiful green trees and luscious fruits. Bees and marine life interacting in a wonderfully complex ecosystem that we have so carelessly destroyed. Live every day like it's your last and hope for the best, but expect the worst. Accept the worst, because the worst is yet to come.


Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Oh Petro, I stand on guard for me

Graham Thomson of the Edmonton Journal put out a great piece a few days ago on the Cold Lake bitumen leak which I would recommend you give a read. Yesterday he wrote a new piece titled 'Is being critical of bitumen spill un-Albertan?' which was prompted by a letter he had received to his first piece on the subject.

Here is what Thomson says of the letter:
My email writer, who said he is from northeastern Alberta, suggested that by being critical of the spill I wasn’t just being unfair to the oilsands industry, I was being un-Albertan.

“Alberta’s media needs to start exercising more patriotic reporting practices and they can start by reporting more on the actual environmental conditions that are so unique to the region,” said my correspondent, who then pointed out naturally occurring bitumen is so prevalent that on hot summer days “the valley smells like diesel and oil is seeping down the sides of the river into the water.”

The writer was thoughtful and articulate. His point seemed to be we shouldn’t get so bent out of shape over leaks and spills in the oilsands because Mother Nature is leaking and spilling contaminants in the area all the time.
 I'm all about differing opinions and the sharing of ideas however for me, calling an Albertan journalist "Un-Albertan" for simply reporting on what is most definitely a serious situation and important news story because the way the story was presented isn't "patriotic" enough and doesn't parrot the government line which has been proven to be false and inaccurate crosses a serious line.

When I think of patriotism I think of the longevity of the state. The state above all else. Not the state's politicians, not the state's industries, but the state itself and the people that are a member of the state. This person who called Thomson Un-Albertan is actually the one I would deem Un-Albertan and not patriotic. It is every patriotic Albertan's duty to ensure the longevity of the province of Alberta, that doesn't mean preserving your paycheque and pension that means sacrificing those luxuries if they harm other Albertans or future generations. This idea that we don't have to do that is the biggest "entitlement" of them all.

In reality this person is the one that is Un-Albertan, putting their own personal success above the success and longevity of the province and it's people. It is this person that is unpatriotic by suggesting that we need a little more propaganda with our news because the industry he likely works in might look bad. This is the type of ignorance those of us who put life above the religion of infinite growth and fiat currency are facing.

Both the industry and the government have been caught time and time again lying. They dump millions into propaganda campaigns to hide the sad fact that it's always been the "Alberta Disadvantage" masked by an escalation in oil prices we hadn't seen before and will never see again. It is those people who want the rest of us to put all of our eggs into their risky 3:1 EROI energy basket that can't even get the government out of debt at a record high average oil price for their own personal benefit that are Un-Albertan. Hell most of the people who work in the industry aren't even Albertan!

I am born and raised here, lived here all my life, and I am certainly ready to lay it all on the line so that future generations can enjoy the beautiful province we once had and quite frankly any patriotic Albertan (and by extension Canadian) should and ultimately would.

Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Monday, August 12, 2013

“Millennials are not better or worse” - They are just different, and will need to adapt to management.

The title of this piece is an adaptation of the last line in this piece titled "What Gen Y needs to know to become leaders ". As you can imagine the irony was not lost upon me! After thinking about it for awhile I decided this fit in perfectly with the post I was originally going to attempt to write tonight about food.

This piece which more or less reads as an instruction sheet on "how to become a leader just like me" I think really illustrates the box within a box where we find ourselves. It predefines as a "leader" as a manager when what the world really needs right now are drastic revolutionary changes. This piece also perfectly illustrates the disconnect between generations with over-generalized psycho-analytics. I'll start with the obvious:
As for those working for millennials, expect them to break down walls – literally, for open-concept offices – and break down the hierarchy. They don’t believe in the “up or out” promotional premise of the past in terms of climbing the ladder, and see value in skipping sideways if it offers a fulfilling role. Equality is their instinctual approach; witness the difference between social movements of the 1960s with clear leaders and those such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring where action occurred without leaders.
The analysis of the "results" such as breaking down walls, etc, are fairly accurate if not understated. I anticipate as the real situation becomes clear for Gen-Y the situation presented will simply require a new way to "do business". It's not like there will be a choice in the matter. This brings me to the reasoning: "Equality is their instinctual approach", like Gen-Y is a species on the Discovery Channel or something. Uhh hello? OWS was in response to severe financial crimes which to this day still have not been properly accounted for. It was much less an "instinct of equality" and more so "a deep distrust of anything authoritative" and with good reason. You "leaders" of the day might just be finding out about all this NSA stuff now but the OWS people have known for much longer and anyone who didn't quickly learned all about the security state; they lived it.

What the hell is wrong with people? An "instinct for equality", hah, no it's an instinct to not get financially raped and enslaved. One thing at a time. Priorities.

Gen-Y is looking at a retiring generation right now who have all the leadership qualities of a teleprompter. But in the mainstream media you can't put all of these points in one article you see. It's becoming pretty bizarre that at the same time cities and countries are going bankrupt, housing is unaffordable, pensions are disappearing, etc etc, never mind the obvious environmental problems staring Gen-Y in the face while their resources to deal with them are sucked dry beside articles like this which psycho-analyze the generation and consider none of that! There's that disconnection for ya.

I'm pretty confident that the people who will emerge as the leaders of Gen-Y already have some sort of an idea what to do, or if not what to do at least what may be coming. By all I don't necessarily mean from a knowledgeable about current events point of view but perhaps more an "instinct" that things clearly are not getting better.

It's clear that we're going to have to throw out the conventional book on how things are done but what that means is different for different people. What the world needs right now are not groomed managers but rather roughneck adventurers. People who are willing to put it all on the line and do something different in entirely new directions and hope some people follow them there.

Last night on Twitter Someone posed the question 'How on earth do you tackle the fact we're increasingly fat and inactive? Free leisure centres and restrictions on junk food sales?' to which I responded 'How about everyone grows food?'. To me this seems like a perfectly natural step forward for us, for a generation facing limited resources, high costs, and an uncertain climate; redundancy is needed. It's already happening:

Detroit embraces urban farms to create jobs
Riverbend Gardens has opened up land to inner-city agencies to provide fresh vegetables, work together

Afterwards a time-displaced pirate responded in disbelief. I just don't get it, why as a species are we so opposed to putting our sweat into our food? There is such a repulsion to this idea that in the 21st century we'd have anything to do with the production of our food, this is changing of course as the above examples have noted and of course there's people with gardens, etc. But why isn't food production solidified in our policy? In our society? As a community activity, and a valuable skill. Why are the basics of food production not taught in school? Of course dependence is the answer, dependence on the system, on the dollar.

Going back to the article about Gen-Y and leaders.
Another millennial impulse is transparency. Again, within limits, it’s fine. But as managers, they will have to be careful not to divulge company information that needs to be kept secret – say, that layoffs are coming next week. That seems obvious. But millennials don’t like to keep secrets from teammates, and will have to learn to hold back.
Millennials tend to lead blended lives, in which work and personal lives mesh, which means they view workmates as friends and want to share. Mr. Karsh noted that, for older generations, when someone asks colleagues how their weekend went, the answer is usually one word. “Great.” “Fabulous.”

Not millennials. They go on and on about their weekend, seeming to spare no details, starting with the ride home from work. “They need to watch that they don’t give too much information in such situations,” he said.

Millennials often have many close friends at work. But as they become managers, like those in generations before them, they will have to renegotiate relationships.
Haha, great advice eh! I interpret this as "Right now Gen-Y doesn't really like to fuck each other in the ass, but they'll have to learn that's the way business is done.". I think we need a little more community, not less. Not just a little, a lot. The workplace doesn't have to be a rigid just-in-time authoritarian nightmare and as the absurdity of Gen-Y and many generations to come slaving away to pay off fiat banker debt to keep the infinite growth paradigm alive while dealing with ever more catastrophic disasters, depleting water, food, and energy supplies they will come to realize what the real priorities in life are and all of this "manager etiquette" will seem inhibitive to a true leader of our society, of our species.

The older generations have been without a real leader for so long they can't even remember what leadership means anymore.

We are the insurgents.


Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Ingenious lies and little white truths

Everything is ridiculous.

Everything.

No, seriously, like have you ever just sat back and looked at our stupidity? We're not 'technologically stupid', no, what we are is possibly something much worse; a stupidity that derives purely from our ego. Like Boris in Goldeneye, every time we do something kind of cool we start thinking 'we're invincible' and when we discover we're not we feel cheated and manipulated and it hurts more than it has to generally because our over-confidence leads to a lack of preparation.

I come across this perspective of a magical "human ingenuity" which will solve all our problems, as soon as those problems get bad or expensive enough. This train of thought is derived from need leading to innovation which is prominently displayed on the front pages of history beside our war victories. Scientific innovation and scientific discovery I find in this context are often confused; the discovery of oil and it's properties and the subsequent cheap innovation and motorization of an entire continent in short order being an example.

The other aspect of human ingenuity that's often overlooked is that we are very good at innovating false, easy non-solutions to our problems. The current crisis in Fukushima right now is perhaps the most glaring example. TEPCO for two years covered up the true state of the disaster, now that's human ingenuity if I've ever seen it! Maybe corporations are people after all; they sure have the sense of self-preservation that people do, that governments do.

Pump and pray: Tepco might have to pour water on Fukushima wreckage forever

This is the dirty little secret of human ingenuity, always overlooked as we're so fucking busy patting ourselves on the back for how ingenious we are. Truth is without preceding discovery and availability of the needed resources our innovation stops dead in it's tracks and we instantly turn to whatever measures are needed for self-preservation even if it's destructive to others and even if it's highly unlikely it will succeed. Here is what the Japanese government is considering as an "ingenious solution".
Ripped from the pages of Marvel Comics, Japanese Anime, or Game of Thrones; the latest cunning solution to what the Japanese admit is an ongoing emergency in Fukushima is, well, creative... Now that TEPCO has been shown to be inept, Abe and his government have sanctioned the funding of a 1.4km wall of ice to surround the building that holds Reactors 1 to 4. No this is not Pacific Rim; as Kyodo reports, chemical refrigerants will keep the underground wall frozen to stop the 400 tons of ground water being pumped into the reactors to cool them from leaking further into the sea water surrounding the catastrophe. This must be a positive for GDP, if 'broken windows' can help the Keynesians (and digging and refilling holes) then why not build a giant ice wall that will require unending energy to refrigerate what is a constantly melting-down core of nuclear awfulness. We wish them luck.
Let that sink in.

A similar ingenious situation which should be watched closely right here in Alberta is taking fold though of course no where as globally threatening as Fukushima the general properties are the same. It should be watched because what's occurring now may have long lasting repercussions for the technology that Alberta has bet it's entire future on: In-Situ mining. It is not just Alberta's automatic response to anyone pointing to the tailings ponds it's also required to even reach 80% of the bitumen buried underground.

CNRL has declared that the in-situ method is not responsible and rather that some "poorly capped well heads" have caused this leak. Notice that? Their reasoning is also blame on the oil industry, ultimately. "It's not our well, it's someone else's well heads". The situation must be pretty bad if they are willing to lay the blame on the industry to save their own face. Pretty ingenious solution to a problem they can't fix.

I'm sure the Albertan government is perfectly fine with this excuse though (they certainly are not doing anything to draw attention to this disaster are they?). Of course should this in-situ method prove to be at fault this could put Alberta's industry at risk. The cleanup efforts are already projected to be $40 million and they don't know when it will stop. Fun times. Should CNRL actually be held liable for the full cleanup cost (unlikely but one can hope!) this might send an interesting message to investors funding in-situ projects.


We are quickly discovering that our lust for growth is resulting in mega-disasters many times beyond what we can afford and naturally as what's left of real growth continues to die and the fiat production-less economy takes over this will only get worse and worse. MM&A declared bankruptcy because all of their assets combined can not pay for the results and lawsuits of Lac-Mégantic. TEPCO can't pay for Fukushima. BP can't pay for the Gulf. It goes on and on.

Human ingenuity is on display for all to see. We are coming up with ever more ingenious rationalizations for increasingly destructive behaviour. We are trapped in the concept of countries, in the schedule and illusion of politics, held back by the scarcity of currency, and trapped in a prison of constant fear fed to us through the television set. The discussion of solutions is facilitated by experts who definitely are not you as they analyze bullshit data and growth projections into the dying age.

The question of the day posed by the experts fed to you on your T.V. is not how do we save ourselves? but rather how do we save and protect growth? Our solutions to this problem are as ingenious as our solutions to environmental problems, lie about it. So we tell ourselves our houses "increase in value" as though they shit out oil or each comes with it's own money tree. "So long as our imaginary housing bubble doesn't come down, we'll be ok", we say. With real affordability out the window anything is game.

Telling you what you want to hear

You all of course are being told exactly what you want to hear about everything and that's why it's all so ridiculous and unbelievable both in the content of the day's events and the seemingly unending hope we have that it all just couldn't be true. That one day constantly begging governments and corporations to stop being douche bags is somehow going to work. I mean the idea that anyone would for a second believe Obama when he said that the "NSA programs are not being abused" is just pure lunacy when you look at all of the "abuse" that's going on in anything to do with "national security". Then he says he's going to launch a website so you all can learn more about it! You all know this has been the plan all along right? It's a really ingenious way to make something previously illegal, legal.

Lately there has been a huge propaganda campaign themed around "North America, oil sands, fracking and 'energy independence'". Exactly what everyone wants to hear. There's only one problem, the "boom" has just begun and already some major problems are being hit:
Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.

"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'dear God help us. That was the first thought that came to mind." 
Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.

Three years of
drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.
 That's human ingenuity for you. Do you see any magical solutions cropping up to these problems? They're right here, right now, on the doorsteps of people everywhere and the best we have is ice walls and fracking. The bees are getting wiped out, ocean acidification is already beginning, and the discussion of the day? Growth. There is one, and pretty well only one problem we are interested in solving.

Oil majors trapped in cycle of spending more but finding less
The majors seem trapped in a downward cycle of spending more and more to find and produce less and less oil. Increasingly, investors are ditching them for smaller, more nimble rivals, especially those in the vanguard of North American shale.

“It’s a real challenge for them to grow volumes, despite the strong oil price,” says Dan Pickering, co-president of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. “The independents are growing 30 per cent a year and the majors are struggling to stay flat.”
 Of course the independents also can't afford to fix the problem if something goes wrong, if the majors can't they certainly won't.

All of the powers of the world, those who stand on the backs of you and I and stand the most to lose should the status-quo fall are telling you exactly what you want to hear and that is their ingenious solution to their common problem, the control system known as economic growth is over and all that remains is in decline. I don't give a fuck if the data says it's not, the reality of current and future unfathomable cost says it is. Begging politicians isn't going to change any of this.

Times up folks. Don't you get it? Party's over, now survivalism is the name of the game.



Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

RED ALERT! The threat of rationalizing your own oppression is at an all time high

So who around the world is still believing in the magical terrorist threat? Show of hands? When will the public start calling out news agencies that refer to "terrorists" with a straight face as bullshit artists?

In typical, predictable, bad Hollywood script style the U.S. has invented the next sudden crisis to strike the globe. There might be a terrorist attack, by Al-Qaeda, look out! Oh, and by the way this like totally 100% proves that we need the NSA spying on you. The program has like stopped 50 terrorist plots (though no mention on how many of those were hatched by the FBI) on par with the toothbrush fence in New Zealand; over 50 toothbrushes! Can you believe it?

That's right, the U.S. has signalled it's on "high alert" over the Al-Qaeda terrorist threat which it supposedly learned about through it's NSA spying programs, you know those programs they wouldn't admit existed not 6 months ago. Now, call me crazy, but one really has to wonder where the U.S. would have claimed their intelligence came from had Snowden not released this information about NSA spying programs? Hmm. See, now that the programs are out in the open courtesy of Snowden the U.S. can freely use these illegal secret programs to justify any action anywhere, how convenient! And use it they shall..

For it is already being revealed how the terrorist (and criminal) "trials" in the U.S. are likely about to "become more transparent".

Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans
A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

"I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

"It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations."
For now media is going to carry on the pretense that there is some sort of magical separation between agencies and their databases (hello.. "fusion centers"?), whatever I think we all know this is all the same encompassing, encroaching entity.

Of course, "information sharing" doesn't stop there...

Eavesdropping agency has OK to exchange info despite risk of torture
OTTAWA - The Harper government has quietly given Canada's electronic eavesdropping agency approval to exchange information with foreign partners even when it may put someone at risk of torture.

Communications Security Establishment Canada is following a federal policy on the risks of ill-treatment when sharing information with other countries, says Ryan Foreman a spokesman for the spy service.

The policy is intended to guide security agencies when seeking or sharing information puts someone in foreign custody at serious risk of being tortured.

Human-rights advocates and opposition MPs have roundly criticized the policy, saying it effectively sanctions torture and violates Canada's international commitments.

Records released through the access-to-information law have shown that several agencies — including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, RCMP and federal border organization — were directed to follow the policy.

However, until now there was no explicit confirmation that the policy applied to the Ottawa-based eavesdropping agency, known as CSEC.
The way the global spy-net works is everyone just spies on each other, thus bypassing any pesky laws that a sovereign body might have against the sort of behaviour described best as "Stasi 2.0" or "The United Stasi of America".

Anyway, back to the terrorists! AL QAEDA!!!!! Why do we hate terrorists? They're bad! And what do terrorists do? Umm.. suicide bomb stuff?
Since launching the surprise assault at dawn on Sunday, the mainly Islamist rebel brigades led by two al Qaeda-linked groups have captured half a dozen villages on the northern edges of the Alawite mountain range, the activists say.
...
The command headquarters, the last section still held by Assad's troops, was overrun on Monday by ISIL rebels after a suicide bomber drove an armoured personnel carrier packed with explosives into the building.
Yes, that's right. The U.S. has issued a global terrorist red alert over the group that mainstream media now casually refers to directly as the names of the terrorist groups we're afraid of. The terrorist group that they are using to justify NSA spying is the terrorist group they are supporting. And when it comes to their show of force and capability in Syria, where is the critical analysis? It's a good thing that Al Qaeda has assured us it hasn't used chemical weapons, no need to stop supporting them in Syria! Al Qaeda would never lie to us! They want freedom, and democracy. But those Al Qaeda guys? You gotta look out for them, they never tell the truth! Lies lies it's all lies! They hate our freedom. They hate you and they hate your little dog too. This is all while we bar the evil Assad from accessing global resources to feed his people.

Of course the U.S. and the minions of global empire really do need these NSA systems of surveillance and the new criminal code we call "terrorism" to protect themselves, from you, in case you get angry.
Just last month, unilateral changes to US military laws formally granted the Pentagon extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic "emergency" or "civil disturbance":
"Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances."
Other documents show that the "extraordinary emergencies" the Pentagon is worried about include a range of environmental and related disasters.
In 2006, the US National Security Strategy warned that:
"Environmental destruction, whether caused by human behavior or cataclysmic mega-disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or tsunamis. Problems of this scope may overwhelm the capacity of local authorities to respond, and may even overtax national militaries, requiring a larger international response."
Two years later, the Department of Defense's (DoD) Army Modernisation Strategy described the arrival of a new "era of persistent conflict" due to competition for "depleting natural resources and overseas markets" fuelling "future resource wars over water, food and energy." The report predicted a resurgence of:
"... anti-government and radical ideologies that potentially threaten government stability."
The preparation and equipment buying spree seen at the Canadian G20, like Boston, were training for the inevitable. One day, in the not too distant future, you're going to be really, really, really mad.

It might be because like Greece or Detroit, the government is selling overnight everything you worked your whole life to achieve. Or perhaps like in Cyprus where all of a sudden almost 50% of your savings disappear. Maybe you're one of the lucky 40% of Americans who is making less than minimum wage.. in 1968. You might be the lucky winner of living in a city that's running out of water, right now. Or because you're burning up in a heat wave. It might even be because your government has been lying to you about the containment and cleanup of a cataclysmic event (take note Alberta!). Whatever the reason, you're going to be angry, no doubt about it!

I don't know what we can do about all this. We can start by not even entertaining the bullshit Hollywood script played to us everyday. Well timed crisis and the terrorist threat. A strawman focus on "climate policy" and "carbon taxes" as if paying someone for the shit makes everything ok. Of course it would make a convenient and much needed financial boost, the creation of a new bubble! Finally somewhere to sink all of the "financial instruments" we've been inventing and holding atop our house of cards before it all comes crashing down on us. If not, hey, at least we have something for the peasants to debate. Not whether or not they are getting poisoned by their society, but whether or not they should pay a tax on getting poisoned. Brilliant stuff, I tell ya.

The next time you see bullshit, just yell it out! "BULLSHIT!" If you see bullshit, say bullshit. Maybe it'll catch on and if enough people start doing it... my God; there's so much bullshit out there that even a politician atop their pedestal might finally hear the growing chorus of the peasant class.

Click here to recommend this post on progressivebloggers.ca and help other people find this information.

Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.