The Gap Between Rich & Poor Continues to Expand

By James Carroll

January 3, 2011

THE NEW year requires an inventory of the old. Mostly, this is an individual impulse, leading to resolutions and renewal. Such reckoning can seem an intensely private exercise. But what of a whole society? Can we assess the year just past with an eye on the entire land? Morally, how fares the United States of America?

If a just society is defined by the relationship between the well off and the very poor, we have big trouble. US Census data for 2010 show the widest rich-poor income gap on record. In 1968, the top 20 percent of Americans had about 7 times the income of those living below the poverty line. By 2008, that disparity had grown to about 13. By 2010, it had grown even further, to more than 14. The poverty level in 2010 was put at $21,954 for a family of four. In 2010, the percentage of Americans living below half of the poverty line (or about $11,000) had grown from 5.7 percent in 2008 to 6.3 percent. That the rich get richer while the poor get poorer can seem a timeless cliché, yet something is steadily corroding America. The mythic land of equality has the largest income disparity of any Western nation. How can that be?

These figures show that the shocking economic collapse of the last two years has been no collapse whatsoever for the most affluent, even while it remains traumatic for most, and catastrophic for many. Yet instead of generating a sense of moral urgency, this condition has produced a spirit of entitlement among the privileged, complacency among the struggling middle, and resignation among the impoverished. How else account for the most decisive judicial act of 2010 — the Supreme Court ruling in January that elite-protecting political spending by corporations must be unrestrained — and the most decisive legislative act — the December extension by Congress of massive tax cuts for that wealthiest sub-minority? And who can deny that the court decision led directly to the congressional act?

What’s worse, instead of prompting a reconsideration of the untrustworthy twin pillars on which America’s financial culture stands, the 2010 responses artificially reinforced them. The war economy is the first of these, with current annual military expenditures now exceeding $1 trillion — the most ever. Ironically, nothing undermines American security like the cuts in public spending (infrastructure, schools, libraries, etc.) made necessary by exploding budgets for outmoded weapons. Not guns over mere butter now, but over bread — and books and bridges. This monetary calculus leaves aside the most corrupting dynamic of the war economy, how the nation is driven into unnecessary wars simply by the unleashed momentum of hyper-war-readiness. Over-investment in arms leads to their use, period.

The second pillar of America’s economic culture is the reduction of the pursuit of happiness to shopping. A tragedy, classically speaking, is when something good leads to something bad. Early numbers suggest that retail sales over the last few weeks of 2010 are up significantly, as the economic stimulus pays off. This means job growth, mortgages paid, careers rescued — the Obama recovery taking hold. And who can bemoan that? Yet looking deeper, we see that consumer confidence remains a confidence game. Emerging from the economic meltdown, we are still chained to the hamster’s wheel of earning-in-order-to-spend. Manufacturing in America has faltered in all but the manufacturing of imagined needs which, once met, only manufacture more, leaving people consumed by consumption. Our idea of the good life, even as it sets up a next economic collapse, is destroying us.

This bleak inventory can extend to other facets of culture — how the once-proud institution of journalism increasingly confuses entertainment and politics, celebrity and news, with the result that, even as information explodes, the citizenry is less critically informed than ever. Hence the public gullibility to the Know-Nothing Tea Party movement, which so dangerously swamped the 2010 elections. What’s that odor in the air — harmless swamp gas, or the whiff of fascism?

The point of a dark reckoning like this is not to wallow in defeat, but to confront the actuality of the national condition. At New Year’s, the individual takes a good look in the mirror and resolves to change. So with our common life. America is better than this.

Source:   Boston Globe

Imagine the Hubris: US Approves Authorization to Control Foreign Food "Safety"

Of all the talk about US Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510), virtually no one has actually read the language in the bill -- especially not those lawmakers who voted for it. The more you read from this bill, the more surreal it all becomes. For example, did you know there's a global FDA power grab agenda hidden in the Food Safety Modernization Act? Keep reading and I'll quote text straight out of the bill itself.

Section 305 is entitled "BUILDING CAPACITY OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS WITH RESPECT TO FOOD SAFETY" and it gives the FDA authority to set up offices in foreign countries and then dictate the food safety plans of foreign governments. It says, specifically, on page 217 of the bill:
SEC. 308. FOREIGN OFFICES OF THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
(a) IN GENERAL. - The Secretary shall establish offices of the Food and Drug Administration in  foreign countries selected by the Secretary.

It then goes on to say:
(a) The Secretary shall, not later than 2 years of the date of enactment of this Act, develop a comprehensive plan to expand the technical, scientific, and regulatory food safety capacity of foreign governments, and their respective food industries, from which foods are exported to the United States.  

Huh? The FDA is now going to run the food safety programs of foreign governments? Look out, world: I'm from the FDA and I'm here to help!


Homeland Security and U.S. Treasury also involved

So who is involved in creating this? Believe it or not, the global "food safety" plan is to be developed under consultation to the Department of Homeland Security as well as the U.S. Treasury. As the bill states:
(b) Consultation - In developing the plan under subsection (a), the Secretary shall consult with the Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Trade Representative, and the Secretary of Commerce, representatives of the food industry, appropriate foreign government officials, nongovernmental organizations that represent the interests of consumers, and other stakeholders.

You might reasonably wonder "What does the Department of Homeland Security have to do with the FDA's food safety plan?" Or "Why is the U.S. Treasury involved in the food supply?" Learn more about the Federal Reserve and you'll have the answers to these questions. I don't have space for all the details here, but read Ed Griffin's book and visit http://www.realityzone.com if you really want to know what's behind a lot of this.


Codex harmonization, data sharing and more

So what does this global food safety plan actually entail? It's all spelled out right in the language of the law. You can view this yourself on page 195 of the bill text in the PDF file athttp://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-...
(c) Plan - The plan developed under subsection (a) shall include, as appropriate, the following:
• "Provisions for secure electronic data sharing."

This is so that the FDA can electronically track and monitor the food production activities of foreign nations. That way, if somebody in Spain tries to sell raw almonds to the USA, the FDA can make sure those almonds get irradiated or fumigated with chemicals first. Because raw almonds are so dangerous they have actually been outlawed in America (http://www.naturalnews.com/021776.html).
• "Training of foreign governments and food producers on United States requirements for safe food."

This is designed to shove the FDA's "dead food" agenda down the throats of other nations. The FDA, you see, believes thatthe only safe food is dead food-- that's why, along with the USDA, they have declared war on raw milk, raw almonds and many raw vegetables (http://www.naturalnews.com/023015_f...).

Now, with this law, the FDA will begin pushing its dead foods agenda globally, essentially exporting the FDA's agenda of death and disease by making sure other nations destroy the nutritive qualities of their food supply in the same way the U.S. is doing. It's all great for the global Big Pharma profiteers, of course. The more disease they can spread around the world, the more money they'll make from selling medications.


Codex Alimentarius is also promoted in the bill

The "Plan" described in this bill continues with the following:
• "Recommendations on whether and how to harmonize requirements under the Codex Alimentarius."

This is included so that the FDA will "harmonize" the U.S. food and dietary supplement industries with global Codex requirements, which outlaw virtually all healthy doses of vitamins and minerals. Under full Codex "harmonization," America will be left with a dead food supply and the health food stores will be virtually stripped bare of dietary supplements. Selling vitamin D at a reasonable dose such as 4,000 IU per capsule will be criminalized and products will be seized and destroyed by FDA agents who recruit local law enforcement to bring in the firepower.

All this will, of course, ensure a diseased, nutritionally-deficient U.S. population. This actually seems to be the goal the FDA has been trying to achieve all along because the more diseased the population, the more money gets collected by Big Pharma for "treating" sick people with medication and chemotherapy.


It's all right in the bill!

The text mentioned in this article is taken straight from the bill itself. You can search for it at http://thomas.loc.gov by searching for "S.510" as the bill number.

It makes me wonder why some food book authors so wholeheartedly supported this bill. Why were so many progressives on the left so enamored with this law? Didn't they realize this was a huge FDA power expansion that would destroy many small farms and put farmers out of business while subjecting the USA to possible Codex harmonization?

Did they even know the FDA is now on a global food-killing agenda that will seek to pasteurize, fumigate, cook or kill virtually every piece of food that enters the United States?

Did they not know that the bill does absolutely nothing to limit the use of chemical pesticides on imported food? According to the FDA's stance on all this, foods laced with DDT and other pesticides are perfectly "safe" for human consumption, but foods teeming with probiotics -- such as raw milk -- are deadly and dangerous! (Seriously...)

How is it that popular food book authors and food documentary producers could possibly support this bill? Do they also think small dairy farmers who sell raw milk should be criminalized? Do they agree with the Codex harmonization agenda? Do they think the FDA should run the world's food safety systems and that the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Treasury should be shaping our global food safety agenda?

You really just have to shake your head and wonder about the true intentions of some people. I just have to ask: Were the supporters of this bill really so naive that they could somehow believe the FDA would actually seek to protect small, local organic farms?  What about raw milk producers? What about the single-family farms that must now apply to the FDA for exemption status by authoring research reports, collecting tax returns and producing a pile of documentation the FDA will soon require?

Let me just say it bluntly:The Food Safety Modernization Act is the destroyer of local organic farming. It will gut small farms and local farms, greatly increasing the price of local organic food while decreasing America's food security. Farmers' Markets will be targeted by FDA agents who raid the operations of local farmers and imprison them for not having the right paperwork. Families will be destroyed, and those who have been successful at local food production will scale back their operations in a desperate effort to duck under the $500,000 / year rule (which can easily be surpassed by producing just ten acres of organic carrots, by the way).


The real agenda behind the bill

From another point of view, however, this bill is doing exactly what it was supposed to do: Destroy small farms, wipe out family farm operations, imprison raw milk producers and centralize food productionin the hands of the big corporate food producers whose operations are steeped in pesticides and soil degradation.

This bill should have been called the "Big Agriculture Monopoly Act" because that's what it does. It will ensure that America's food supply will be controlled by Monsanto, DuPont and other agricultural giants who have been at odds with small organic farms for years.


The global food control agenda is a conspiracy, not a theory

It's all part ofthe global food control agenda that we now know to be 100% true based on the leaked Wikileaks cables which revealed that the U.S. government conspired to push GMOs into Europe and "create a retaliatory target list" for any nation that resisted GMOs (such as France). 

Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know that the global GMO conspiracy is quite real. It's something that U.S. diplomats and government officials scheme on in order to appease their corporate masters in the  agriculture industry. Now, with the Food Safety Modernization Act, this global conspiracy extends beyond GMOs and encompassesthe global food supply, too.

It has become clear that U.S. lawmakers and bureaucrats will not stop until they have killed the entire global food supply, rendering living foods, raw foods and dietary supplements illegal or impossibly difficult to grow. You can thank your U.S. Congresspeople and Senators for all this, of course. In the end, every Senator in office today caved in and voted to pass this bill. You can also thank those who publicly promoted this bill even while having no real idea of the horrors they were supporting.

Such begins a new era of global food destruction headed by what can only be called the most dangerous government agency in North America: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If they do to your food what they've done to prescription drugs, annual food deaths will increase to over 100,000 a year.

Watch for the FDA to now set up enforcement offices in nations all around the world and start outlawing living foods on a global scale (if they can get away with it).

Also, watch for a new push for Codex harmonization, which is a truly evil agenda to criminalize healing foods and nutritional supplements that prevent and evenreversechronic disease.

Source:  Natural News


Note:   I for one am glad I'm living in Europe -- and especially in Italy, where the "old ways" of growing things are still valued and people insist on fresh foods.   Heaven forbid that that the US can force it's terrible GMO and institutionalized "food processing" on the rest of the world.  


I for one - am not a fan of big government.   Especially, of a "world" government run the USA. After all - this group thinks of everything in terms of war: war on drugs, war on terror,  the war on freedom of information, now the war on good food?   What's next? 


What do you think -- should the USA have the authority to control the "safety" of the world's food supply? 


And how about putting the FDA in charge ... where in a confidential and independent survey more than 16% of the FDA scientists have stated that they were asked to overlook, omit, or cover up scientific studies that showed that certain products being submitted for approval or review were actually more dangerous than claimed.  Do you want to trust this group?


I for one want to have the choice of what to put in my body and hope the rest of the people outside the USA agree with me.

How to put things right in America

Let's see...

We can allow ourselves to be treated like criminals - harassed, degraded, and humiliated at airports while our mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters and mates are molested by government employed perverts...

Or we can go after a real criminal and restore the rule of law and self respect to the nation.

1. Stop flying...and tell the airline CEOs and their bankers why

2. Insist that Bush and everyone else responsible for the lies that led to Iraq go to jail

3. Then after that garbage is cleared, hit Wall Street with long prison sentences and total asset seizure for every banker who was involved in the sub prime fraud which has already cost the country over $1 trillion 


Here's a video from one of the most successful prosecutors in America announcing his plans to prosecute George W. Bush for what happened in Iraq.   Should a President be held responsible for going to war - under a false premise?



Source:   Brasscheck TV

Harry & Bess

Harry Truman was a different kind of President.  He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him.. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and,  later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale.."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honoron his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician.. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

Bed Bug Infestation Is Scaring Millions Of Americans

Outbreaks of bed bugs, soaring in the most unexpected places -- like CNN's headquarters -- stoke some of our deepest fears.

Peter Krask stepped out of his New York City apartment one day last year, shut the door, and walked away forever, leaving behind almost everything he owned.

He carried away only a few items of clothing, personal records, and his computer.

Krask's apartment was infested with bedbugs. Savoring warmth, they swarmed in his DSL port, light fixtures, carpets and furniture. They'd feasted on him nightly for a year — which he spent visiting doctors in an increasing state of panic over the rashes inflaming his buttocks and other body parts before finally ascertaining the cause.

It was Cimex lectularius, the flat, cockroach-colored, lentil-sized pest whose favorite food is not just warm blood but human blood. Bedbugs are back, bigtime. According to a National Pest Management Association study, outbreaks have soared 81 percent nationwide since 2000. Their sudden resurgence in all fifty states of a formerly bedbug-free nation has caught off-guard not just the medical and pest-control industries but millions of ordinary people who now apply costly, time-consuming, potentially toxic and inconclusive strategies for slaughtering insects that inhabit indoor environments both soft and hard and can lie in wait without eating for up to a year. Finding hosts, they feed by night, doubling in size as they suck.

Lending a whole new meaning to the phrase "home invasion," the very idea stokes our deepest fears of swarming hordes and sleeper cells and sneak attacks.

Bedbug infestations at Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret and other trendy Manhattan stores last month — and last week in Manhattan's Time Warner Center, home to CNN — cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each in lost sales, furniture, equipment and merchandise, plus the wages of dozens of workers transporting, fumigating and destroying tainted goods. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

America's bedbug problem, says University of Florida entomology professor Philip Koehler, "has reached epidemic proportions."

It's getting worse, he says. And there's no end in sight.

"Especially in the Northeast, bedbugs are becoming a common part of everyone's lives" — in homes, stores, offices, hotels, hospitals, vehicles, schools, theaters, and restaurants.

"Did you ride home in a car, bus or train? You might have been feeding bedbugs while sitting in your seat."

Koehler has seen bedbugs infesting deluxe retirement condos and VA-hospital waiting rooms, crawling out of purses and backpacks, and "pouring by the thousands" from wheelchairs whose paralyzed riders could not feel the bites. Almost any environment under 120 degrees Fahrenheit can support bedbugs. A single pregnant stowaway on a sleeve, say, or in a thrift-shop cushion could turn you into the next Peter Krask.

He spun those few clothes salvaged from his abandoned apartment in a hot dryer, one of the few tactics known to kill bedbugs and their eggs. Before the self-employed writer and floral designer could use his computer again, "it was placed in a sealed bag with poison-gas pellets for a week."

Source:  AlterNet ... to read the full article click here.