Hondurus Coup, the CIA and two American Corporations

John Perkins, the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, argues convincingly that the recent coup in Honduras was engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. He begins by saying:

I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.

Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.

Read the entire article on the Tikkun website.

Judge Rules that Airlines Cannot Question FBI in 9/11 Lawsuits

Judge: Airlines can’t question FBI in 9/11 suits
7/16/2009 • by Harry R. Weber – Associated Press
A federal judge ruled airlines and other companies in the industry that are being sued by families of terrorism victims can’t question FBI agents about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The defendants wanted to depose the agents and sought access to other evidence related to the investigation of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in order to show at trial that the government’s failure to catch the terrorists and prevent the attacks mitigates and excuses any alleged fault on the aviation companies’ part. The government objected.
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What’s Going on in Iran?

There may be good reason to be suspicious of the present Iranian government and their handling of the recent demonstration, but I’m sensing that what we’re seeing on the nightly TV news and even Twitter, may be somewhat less than relaible reports. The drum beat against the present government appears eerily reminiscent of what we heard prior to the Iraq invasion and other attempts by the Western Powers for “regime change” in diverse countries over the years. The other day I was watching CNN at the health club and they went on and on with images and allegations but little in the way of factual reporting. The showed on Iranian woman who actually referred to president Ahmadinejad as a “dictator,” which is an obvious absurdity. The U.S. has demonstrated over and over again that it is willing to tolerate dictators, and even install them, if they will play along with the agenda.

This article by Eric Margolis provides some relevant facts that are useful to anyone willing to consider the bigger picture of geo-politics. — t.h.g.

War is a Racket!

U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler was a true patriot. According to, Wikipedia, he was at the time of his death (1940), the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

He refused to be corrupted by money and power, or to use his position to overthrow elected government, and he was courageous in waging the battle to expose the true reasons for war. This dramatization of one of his speeches brought me to tears. I urge everyone, especially people in military service, to watch this video.

Here is the introduction to it:

The real speech re-created by an actor

If you know your history, you know that in 1934 there was an attempted coup in the United States that was thwarted largely due to the efforts of U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler (ret.) Look it up.

Among other things, Butler was only one of 19 people ever awarded the Medal of Honor twice and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.

After it dawned on him how his heroism and the heroism of the troops under his command had been misused, he wrote a book called “War is a Racket” which I can virtually guarantee you never heard about in school.

Butler concluded there are only two reasons to ever take up arms:

1. To defend the country against real – not manufactured – attacks

2. To defend the Bill of Rights

Sounds good to me.

Who Rules America?

Paul Craig Roberts served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the “Father of Reaganomics,” but don’t hold that against him. I have great respect for his insights and utterings on the present state of democracy in America and in the world. This article from Countercurrents.org  is a “must read.”

Here’s Roberts’ bottom line:

“Why is the US making itself impotent fighting wars that have nothing whatsoever to do with its security, wars that are, in fact, threatening its security?

The answer is that the military/security lobby, the financial gangsters, and AIPAC rule. The American people be damned.”

A Better Bailout Plan

Stimulate This!

Here is an article said to be from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday (I presume March 29). The Business Section asked readers for ideas on “How Would You Fix the Economy?” This response seems to hit the bull’s eye.

Dear Mr. President,

Patriotic retirement: There’s about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.

2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.

3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

what a great idea and I would add to this…..if you do this you can have my social security back -another problem solved.  [Item from the Rumor Mill News]

Of course, from the standpoint of the oligarchs, that plan benefits the “wrong” people and solves the “wrong” problems. – t.h.g.

Report on the US Secessionist Movement

Kirpatrick Sale provides the following Declaration in his report on the Third Secessionist Convention that was held in Manchester, New Hampshire on November 18, 2008. It’s hard to argue with the Declaration’s contents, but the big question remains: What might be an effective strategy for achieving the “restoration of democracy” and independence from the imperial megalith? Is political secession a feasible approach? It is my view that economic secession is much safer, easier, and more likely to achieve the necessary re-empowerment of the people and their communities. What that might involve is outlined in my Bioregional Economic Development Plan, which forms the basis for the ACCESS (Auroville’s Conscious Community Exchange System for Sustainability) proposal in India. That Plan, which will be elaborated in my upcoming book, can be applied to virtually any bioregion. – t.h.g.

The Manchester Declaration follows:

We, the delegates to the Third North American Secessionist Convention, meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, do declare the following:

• The recent election in the United States, far from signaling a change in the imperial system or a restructuring of the essential political order, unfortunately perpetuates the two-party system and its old familiar politicians that for decades have promoted the interests of the corporate/financial elite whose willing servants they remain.
• The recent financial flailing and machinations in the U.S., including the trillion-dollar bailout of the institutions that created the economic meltdown in the first place, provide ample and blatant evidence of Wall Street’s control over U.S. politics in the interest of trying to see that the rich get richer and the rest get nowhere.
• Together these two processes, along with a long string of abuses and usurpations over the past decades, unmistakably indicate that the U.S. is bankrupt in every way-financially, economically, politically, socially, academically, militarily, spiritually, and morally.
• This fact should demonstrate to the North American public, and the world, that it is the very scale and complexity of the various interlocking political and economic systems that is the fundamental cause of their failure-as well as the reason that no one on the scene has any idea whatsoever of how to fix it.
• That being the case, it is necessary, for the restoration of democracy-not to mention sanity, prosperity, sustainability, governance, and peace-that the imperial system be dismantled, and various states, regions, and elements of North America exert their right to secede into independent regimes laying their foundations on such principles and organizing their powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

It is to this end that the secessionist movement will dedicate its energy, time, talents, moneys, and sacred honor, and we invite, indeed implore, the participation of our fellow citizens.

Passed this day, the fifteenth of November, 2008.

Oil and War: A stage show by Robert Newman

This video (45 min.) by Robert Newman is the best, most entertaining, commentary on contemporary geo-politics I’ve seen yet. Come on take your medicine; watch it, you’ll like it. – t.h.g.

U.S. Already at War Against Iran

Preparing the Battlefield – The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran, is the title of an article by journalist, Seymour M. Hersh, in the July 2 issue of the New Yorker magazine. Watch this five minute CNN interview with Seymour Hirsch, in which he describes U.S. government covert operations against Iran.

One More Step Toward Positive Personal Identification – US Begins Issuing Electronic Passports

The United States Department of State has begun issuing passports that contain an RFID chip that carries personal information in digital form. Other countries have done the same.  The  implementation of this technology is accompanied by a new Visa Waiver Program that bypasses the visa application process. Below is the official description of the e-passport from the State Department website.  read the rest  of the story here.  -t.h.g.

What is an Electronic Passport?

An Electronic Passport is the same as a traditional passport with the addition of a small integrated circuit (or “chip”) embedded in the back cover.  The chip stores:

• The same data visually displayed on the data page of the passport;
• A biometric identifier in the form of a digital image of the passport photograph, which will facilitate the use of face recognition technology at ports-of-entry;
• The unique chip identification number; and
• A digital signature to protect the stored data from alteration.