THIRD NORTHWEST ACTIVIST IS IMPRISONED FOR REFUSING TO TESTIFY AT GRAND JURY
Whistleblowers: gagged by those in power, admired by the public
How sugar may make you stupid
Congressional report warns drones could track faces, never leave sky
George Carlin Lying Politicians And Words
Native American Patriot Russell Means Passes at 72
Show Transcript
Opening: Challenges, Not Problems
Hello and welcome, ladies and gentlemen, chat room, all ages. This is October 22nd, 2012. Hopefully everyone’s come off an amazing weekend. A big week, and we plan to cover a lot of good stuff. Start with a solid Monday. Bring new things, bring new challenges every day. These are challenges, not problems. Problems by nature are hard to overcome and settle in. Overcome the challenges. Challenges are meant to be overcome. Things in your life that you don’t prefer — strive to eliminate them. Make them challenges, not problems. Problems by nature like to stay and fester and hang around. Challenges are meant to be overcome, and then new ones come along.
Today we have some interesting news to run through and jump around with. There’s some crazy stuff happening out there. Whistleblowers are continually being gagged by those in power. Anyone trying to get the message out is getting shut down. You’ll find on Decrypted Matrix — John Kiriakou, a whistleblower on torture. He’s being prosecuted. The guys who were ordered to carry out the torture? Not even barely a slap on the wrist. The guys who blow the whistle on torture? They’re looking at fifteen to twenty years in prison. This is a very important topic — torture, war crimes, indiscriminate killing. It’s happening out there, and the whistleblowers striving to get the message out are being censored, continually gagged. Gag orders mean secrecy. Secrecy means someone’s covering something up.
We also have a lot to cover on drones in the sky tracking your face, never leaving the sky. New reports indicate the drones will be tracking faces and probably never leaving the sky. We’ll touch on that. Sugar — processed sugar might be making you stupid. We’ll explore all of that.
Romney, Bain Capital, and Voting Machines
Willard Mitt Romney is in the news again, coming off debating Obama. The Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has connections to electronic voting machines used in the 2012 elections in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, and Colorado. Late last month, Free Press and FreePress.org broke the story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s investment team being involved in H.I.G. Capital, which as of July 2011 completed a strategic investment to take over the majority share of the Austin-based voting machine company Hart InterCivic.
Brad Friedman and others are not the only ones reporting on this. Bain Capital and the ownership of voting machines — TruthOut also reports that closely held equity from Romney, his wife, son, and other major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital holds a majority share, with three of five board members. The company that owns Hart InterCivic owns the electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio on November 7th. Those machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.
In other words, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, along with his brother, wife, and son, have a direct financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this election. These voting machines cannot be monitored by the public, yet they would help decide who occupies the White House. Both The Nation and the New York Times confirmed the connection between the Romney family, Solamere Capital, and Bain Capital’s investment in Hart InterCivic, whose board of directors includes H.I.G. Capital partners. Tagg Romney’s investment comes in part through the privately held family equity firm called Solamere, which bears the name of the posh Park City ski community where the family retreats and slides down the slopes.
Voter ID and voter fraud have been top issues in the 2012 race, as have claims of Republican voter suppression. Romney’s campaign has also been subject of controversy over misleading and false claims, sketchy math on tax plans, and overall vagueness on women’s rights and similar hot button issues.
Last week on Revealing Talk Radio and Decrypted Matrix, we were talking about Romney and his drug money laundering connections. Instead of simple investments, Bain Capital was getting eight percent returns — pretty good. Well, ten-point-two percent is what the eyes were on. Remember, Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme tried to get his investors a steady ten percent or so. Well, Romney’s Bain Capital was getting returns of around seventy-three percent for its investors — fueled by drug money. Any investigator who looks closely would find this. Decrypted Matrix will be updated with posts about the Romney drug laundering connections to Bain Capital.
Don’t forget — Romney put a nice shiny new image on Monsanto Corporation. One of his first jobs at Bain was Monsanto, which was this struggling chemical company telling people what to spray, especially farmers, pushing Roundup and the nightmare products they knew were harmful. Romney was there to catch them before they fell and turn them into a tremendous biotech giant, this prestigious agribusiness giant. Don’t forget who these guys really are and where they really come from.
George Carlin on Politician Speak
George Carlin sums it up pretty well. He and everyone in media have at least one thing in common, which is they deal with language all the time. He had some language complaints. There’s a certain amount of dishonesty going on in language. The problem is really with the politicians, celebrities, and lawyers. The level of insincerity is astonishing.
In particular, it’s fun to listen to Washington talk. When the issue of term limits comes up, the only term limits Carlin was interested in would be to limit some of the terms used by politicians. They speak of course with great caution because they must take care not to actually say anything. They don’t actually say things — they “indicate.” “As I indicated just today,” and “the president indicated to me.” But sometimes they don’t indicate, they “suggest.” The term that gets really overused is “judgment.” They “make a judgment.” “I haven’t made a judgment on that yet.” “I’d make an assessment, I’m not sure, I haven’t been briefed on that yet.”
Then they “strongly advise.” “I advised him that I had made a judgment, but so far he hasn’t responded.” If they don’t have to, they “respond.” “He hasn’t responded to my initiative.” The initiative is an idea that isn’t going anywhere. “When he responds to my initiative, I’ll review his response, take a position, and make recommendations.” They don’t have opinions — they take positions. They don’t give advice — they make recommendations.
After each has responded to the other’s initiatives and reviewed the other’s response, and everyone has taken a position and made a judgment and formed a recommendation, now they have to do something. But that would be much too direct. So instead they “address the problem.” They’re not solving the problem, they’re “proceeding.” That’s a big activity in Washington — “proceeding.” They don’t solve problems, they “move forward.” Or “move the process forward so we can implement the provisions of the initiative.”
Nobody has problems anymore — they have “challenges.” That’s why we need people to make “tough decisions.” Tough decisions like how much soft money one can expect to collect in exchange for “core values.” Then there’s “working in government” — politicians never say they have a good job, they’re “working in government,” “serving the nation.” Another favorite distortion is “public service.” Public service is like a utility — “the public service is terrible.” These politicians whose judgment is so poor honestly think of themselves as serving the nation.
When they occasionally indulge a little patriotism, that’s where they’re at their very best: “All across this great land of ours, the greatest nation on earth, the greatest nation in the history of the world.” In times of national crisis, you can be sure that someone in a suit in this town will call us “the most powerful nation on the face of the earth.” But in peacetime, don’t take the politicians’ word for it. People in the military would say politicians don’t speak straight. George Carlin told it like it is — exposing the lying ways of politicians, how they twist their words, take positions, and make assessments. This is ridiculous.
Northwest Activists Jailed for Refusing to Testify
Here in the Pacific Northwest right now, there are activists who have been picked up and jailed. We now have a third Northwest activist imprisoned for refusing to testify at a grand jury. This is a case that many observers have called a witch hunt. Three Northwest US activists are now in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury in processes that prosecutors have suggested pertain to vandalism at a May Day demonstration. But in fact, the grand jury investigation appears connected to events around March 2012.
For those following this, the Northwest grand jury imprisonment of these activists marks a more aggressive prosecutorial posture than what we’ve observed in related cases in other parts of the nation. No one was jailed when people in the Midwest refused to testify before a grand jury after the September 2010 FBI raids on antiwar activists’ homes. This time, however, it’s much different. Homes were raided, people dragged out of beds in early morning action — five-thirty, six in the morning, boom boom boom. They’re not exactly polite about it.
Most of those raids involved searches, and in many cases they brought dogs, whether or not the dogs were needed. Disgusting stuff that’s got to stop. The most recent raid — we have it on video, you can check it on our website. The system is now bullying people into ratting on their friends, trying to get information on other protesters, other anarchists.
I want to remind listeners: anarchy — notice your mind, your energy when you hear that word. Where does that come from? The etymology of that word does not mean “no rules.” What it means is “without a ruler,” to be exact. But it has this stigma attached to it. The system absolutely wants you to believe that anarchy means no rules. “No rules” — that sounds bad, right? But it actually means without a ruler. Who wants to be ruled? Do you want to be ruled? I think we’re capable of ruling ourselves, but I certainly don’t want to be ruled, and I would bet that you probably don’t want to be ruled either. So now you know — anarchy actually means “without a ruler.”
These folks are in jail for not speaking out against their friends. They’re being punished for their silence.
Whistleblowers Gagged by Those in Power
Whistleblowing is relevant to the UK now more than ever, given the recent stream of high-profile cover-ups and the relentless clampdown on truth-tellers. Every other day practically, the Ministry of Defence is trying to stop whistleblowers from revealing wrongdoing to their own MPs. This example alone illustrates exactly why we need whistleblowers in the first place.
As a refresher, whistleblowers are those who share inside information about serious wrongdoing to someone they believe will act on it. Whistleblowers don’t have to be employees — schools, churches, community organizations, for example. A good example is the whistleblowers who stepped up to confirm incidents of pedophilia in Catholic institutions over the past decade.
Where whistleblowing used to evoke images of shady characters whispering secrets in parks, now it’s increasingly seen as central to a healthy democracy. This trend in public attitude is happening simultaneously around the globe. Thankfully, a 2012 Newspoll survey in Australia of 1,211 people showed that people view whistleblowers positively, even if they reveal inside information. The advent of online leaks sites like WikiLeaks — and Decrypted Matrix, of course, playing our role — there are more than fifteen leaks-related sites, with another officially launched by the Associated Press on September 30th.
Technologies such as anonymizing software like Tor, mirroring tools originally designed by Naval Intelligence, as well as encrypted file-sharing programs like GnuPG, TrueCrypt, and encrypted journals — these have all converged to make whistleblowing in the twenty-first century faster and easier. It doesn’t involve clandestine meetings in car parks or dangerous situations. This might be why Western governments have cracked down on whistleblowers with a vehemence rarely seen in recent history.
The Obama administration has gone hard against alleged whistleblowers, in some cases using the Espionage Act. These include NSA senior executive Thomas Drake — follow him on Twitter, by the way. Private Bradley Manning, reporter James Risen, Sibel Edmonds, John Kiriakou — the list goes on. There are too many who are no longer with us, like Dr. David Kelly.
These governments are now turning to technology to surveil their own employees, obviously in an effort to thwart whistleblowing to the media. We saw this exclusively in the FDA situation — the Food and Drug Administration was spying on their own employees who were whistleblowing information about the agency fast-tracking certain products without properly checking them. The whistleblowers have come under fire from their own employer. They get fired or laid off right away, they lose their benefits. Instead of addressing the wrongdoing, the policy now is shooting the messenger in order to keep the information secret. Ask yourself: is this the America you want your kids to grow up in, where secrets are suppressed and they keep shooting the messenger?
Sugar Is Making You Stupid
Sugar — bad news for lovers of diet soda and processed food. It doesn’t just make you fat, it makes you stupid. According to research out of UCLA, a high-fructose diet disrupts the brain’s cognitive abilities, impairing learning and memory retention. This comes from a study by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a neurosurgery professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Rahul Agrawal, a visiting UCLA postdoctoral fellow from India.
“This type of diet affects the transmission of information across cells. Learning and memory — practically any type of brain function — depends very much on how signals are transmitted across cells,” says Gomez-Pinilla. The study, published in the May 15th edition of the Journal of Physiology, looked at high sugar consumption, focusing on naturally occurring fructose and high-fructose corn syrup.
Research shows high-fructose diets lead to a slew of health concerns including obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. The US is the world’s largest consumer of sweeteners. High-fructose corn syrup, which acts as both a preservative and a sweetener, is found in a variety of processed foods — soft drinks, baby food, salad dressing, and condiments. The average American consumes approximately twenty-one kilograms of cane sugar and sixteen kilograms of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
In the Gomez-Pinilla and Agrawal study, two groups of rats both drank a fructose solution in their drinking water for six weeks. One of the groups also consumed omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to guard against disease — they’re important for heart health and for mental conditions such as bipolar disorder or depression, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Both rat groups were trained on a maze for five days before starting the new diet. After six weeks, they retested the rats on the maze to monitor brain function and memory retention. The rats that consumed the fructose solution without the omega-3 fatty acids had problems thinking clearly and recalling routes in the maze. Those rats also showed resistance to insulin, a hormone that regulates sugar levels. But the rats that consumed omega-3 fatty acids as part of their diet showed far fewer memory deficits. The maze performance was further proof: they found that a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids counteracts the negative effects of fructose. So that’s good, at least.
In terms of implications for humans, Gomez-Pinilla predicts such changes in the brain could happen within six months of high consumption. More research needs to be done on the specific effects in humans — they’ve been testing on rats and we don’t yet know how long the damage would last.
The war on unhealthy food choices is growing. In September, New York City announced it would ban sugar-filled drinks larger than sixteen ounces from concession stands, fast-food restaurants, and movie theaters. In Canada, obesity is on the rise — thirty-one and a half percent of children aged five to seventeen are overweight or obese, according to Statistics Canada. Type 2 diabetes is a major problem in Western society. There’s already an epidemic of diabetes, which is highly related to the consumption of foods high in sugar.
There’s more evidence that processed and artificial sugar is dangerous. The way to go is natural sugar — raw cane sugar or honey. Get as much honey as you can. It’s antibacterial. Research in Australia has shown that Manuka honey kills any bacteria they throw at it. Safer sugar is out there, but the industry wants you on the dangerous sugar because that makes you more reliant on the healthcare system.
According to the American Heart Association, the average American takes in twenty-two teaspoons of added sugar per day — a whopping 150 pounds a year. Teens pile in thirty-four teaspoons a day. The average American is basically overdosing on sugar. Connie Bennett, author of “Sugar Shock,” says even the official estimates of sugar consumption are conservative — it’s actually closer to forty-six teaspoons of sugar a day. We’ve got to try to get this under control.
Preparations for Possible Post-Election Unrest
Regardless of who you support this coming election, the possibility of post-election riots is a reality. Here are some things you need to keep in mind if you hope to stay safe should an unfortunate outcome unfold.
Number one: riots are likely to occur in inner cities. If at all possible, get out of the inner city. You might want to think about moving out altogether. Middle-class and upper-class suburbs will be safe mostly. Inner cities are likely where riots would happen.
Number two: the police will almost instantly be overwhelmed. Police officers are ridiculously short-staffed in cities across the country largely due to budget cuts. Strangely enough, departments are buying insane amounts of riot gear, tanks, and weaponry they don’t need — that actually creates a whole other problem altogether.
Number three: one of the greatest risks during riots is fires. Rioters love setting things on fire as some act of defiance against the establishment. Even worse, rioters sometimes use firearms. Remember, firefighters can’t easily respond when it’s dangerous. Fires can burn out of control, and the risk of fire spreading in inner cities is surprisingly high. Don’t try to put out fires yourself — there could be someone who would stupidly shoot at you.
Number four: innocent bystanders might be targeted with violence. Don’t be a bystander. The primary strategy is to simply not be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Number five: don’t join the riots, even if you’re angry at the election outcome. Taking part in any sort of protest or riot — even if you don’t bring weapons — is risky because the other side might be armed. People have been shot. Stay home and find other outlets for expressing your frustration. Tweet your friends and say how much the outcome stinks — which is obviously a sign of outstanding intelligence.
Number six: think long and hard about the possible ramifications of having an Obama sign or a Romney sign in your yard. Whichever candidate wins, the haters on the other side of the aisle may take revenge on you and your property. You may wish to wait until the polls close on election day before the results are publicized in order to avoid being vandalized.
Number seven — maybe the most important: stock up on at least a seventy-two-hour supply of essential necessities. We’re talking food, water, and medicine. If there are riots and fires, first responders and infrastructure could be down for three days. Get your food and water supplies figured out. Election day in the inner city is not the time to find out the pantry is empty and you need to head to the grocery store.
Number eight: if you’re in a riskier area, stock up on pepper spray — maybe even bear spray. Pepper spray devices are not my favorite self-defense item, but they can be surprisingly effective for crowd control. Pepper spray grenades can clear out a room in just a few seconds and might give you time to call for help and get away.
Number nine: 911 will be flooded with calls and police will be slow to respond. You might want to have a personal self-defense option at the ready just in case you’re threatened with violence.
Number ten: stay tuned in — not just to the mainstream media, but also to alternative media. Mainstream media may censor what’s really happening. Alternative news websites might be reporting throughout the day. If something’s going down that you need to know about, you might not see it on the mainstream news sites. Be tuned in to both.
And a bonus: don’t be stupid enough to actually make threats against anybody on your Twitter feed or Facebook page. Threatening anyone, especially at that level, is of course a felony. Those who make such threats should obviously expect a visit from the US Secret Service.
Neither Obama nor Romney has a monopoly on moronic supporters. From what we can see so far, Obama supporters have been making a lot more violent threats online. Obviously, yours truly would not be voting for either one. What you could do is write in your desired candidate, whoever that may be. A lot of people are writing in Ron Paul — you won’t see him on the ballot, but you can write him in.
Additional predictions: if Obama wins, expect gun sales to immediately surge to all-time highs. Watch for revolt by small business owners fed up with the healthcare mandates. Watch for a surge in gold prices. If Obama wins, get ready for mass arrests of government whistleblowers and journalists — critics will be rounded up under the NDAA and sent to military prisons. Watch for a massive increase in the signing of executive orders covering everything from gun control to immigration.
If Romney wins, expect to see inner-city riots in cities like LA, Detroit, possibly even Houston. Watch for a joint US-Israeli military attack on Iran, probably before February. Watch for a temporary drop in gold prices as the business sector experiences a short-lived surge in confidence. Expect a temporary surge in mortgage activity reflecting optimism in the business and finance sectors.
No matter who wins, remember this: expect more wars, more expansion of government, more prosecutions against farmers and home gardeners, more fiat currency creation by the Federal Reserve, more welfare handouts to the masses, more TSA roadside checkpoints, more abuses of civil liberties by the government, and more erosion of the Bill of Rights — already largely ignored by the government. More drones. More cellphone spying.
Drones Tracking Faces, Never Leaving the Sky
Drones are all up in your business. A Congressional report confirms drones will track faces and will never leave the sky. The increasing use of drones in American skies raises new questions about privacy and the extent of government surveillance, according to a report released last week by the Congressional Research Service. It’s not clear yet how courts will apply constitutional privacy protections to drone surveillance. In the meantime, Congress could amend or restrict the ability of police to use the technology for domestic purposes.
For now, the Federal Aviation Administration has projected that within twenty years, thirty thousand commercial and government drones could be flying in US skies. Drones are cheaper to build and fly than manned aircraft, making them more useful to the government for surveillance. Some drones are the size of small jets, but others — called nano drones — can be as small as insects. Pictures of them are up on Decrypted Matrix in the technology category.
Drones can be equipped with cameras and sensors used to identify people and license plates. In the near future, facial recognition software might be deployed on drones — biometric software that can recognize and track individuals based on physical traits like height, age, gender, skin color, and even gait. This is from actual news reports.
The software on drones can be recharged from the ground using lasers. The report projects that in the future, drones could theoretically stay in the sky forever. Based on past court cases, the researchers concluded police would likely need warrants to use nano drones or heat-sensing technology to spy on people within their homes. But it’s unclear how courts will treat drone surveillance of a person’s backyard, swimming pool, deck, or porch. The Supreme Court has ruled that police do not need warrants to fly helicopters or planes over people’s homes and observe evidence. The justices concluded that those areas were in public view and people should have a limited expectation of privacy.
Also in the news: Russell Means, American patriot, passed away at seventy-two. And there are rising concerns about cellphone snooping via Stingray devices — fake cell phone towers being used to spy on your cell phone. More on that next time. Thanks for tuning in. This has been Max Maverick on Revealing Talk Radio, Decrypted Matrix. Make sure to find us at RevealingTalkRadio.com.
