statism watch

Let’s look at this as a sort of media test case. Apparently, there’s been a low intensity war simmering on the southern border of the US for some time now. The local press covers stories of bombings, incursions, and helicopter flyovers. All of these are at least indicative of a power struggle both within the Mexican military and externally, between drug gangs and the existing Mexican establishment. So the question is – why haasn’t there been any wider coverage of this? And what is the function of the relationship between the local press and the national press? Are glaring exclusions of this sort systemic or deliberate? Does the relationship fall within the parameters of Chomsky’s ‘propaganda model‘ of the media? (A model with both systemic and deliberative elements) Or are we seeing the invisible hand of the state trying to avoid a general panic, mass xenophobia, keep the lid on a political situation, or some other intent? Clearly, the CIA is wrapped up in the drug trade, that’s practically mainstream information. Have their pet gangs gotten out of control, destined to be cast as the next ‘Al-Qaeda’ but on the southern US border? Dying states are dangerous for the same reason dying animals are. This article raises as many questions as it answers about what’s going on in Texas.

Related: Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Sarnia resident plans ‘moon’ protest of US border spy balloon | Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | New US border technology directed at insidious threat: Canadians | Predator drones patrolling border irk Manitoba MLA | U.S. set to launch Predator drones to monitor Manitoba border | Military Tech on the Home Front: Predator drones to begin surveillance of Canada-US border | Homeland Security Assuming Broad Powers, Turning Swaths of U.S. into “Constitution-Free Zone” | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | U.S. Northern Command, Canada Command establish new bilateral Civil Assistance Plan | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | U.S. to patrol Manitoba border with drone aircraft

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
March 12, 2010

Navy chopper with armed troops conducts surveillance in south Texas border town, authorities couldn’t care less

While the U.S. government and federal authorities busy themselves targeting American citizens as domestic terrorists, it seems they couldn’t care less about the fact that the military of a foreign power is flying around American airspace with wanton abandon.

Residents of Falcon Heights, a south Texas border town, saw a Mexican helicopter hovering over a house shortly after 6pm on Tuesday night. The chopper conducted surveillance for about 15 minutes before flying back to Mexico.

“They had armored individuals in the chopper, open ramp, very military looking, in style and preparation,” said Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr.

“It’s proof the Mexican military sees no boundaries,” reported local KRGV News’ Stephanie Stone, adding that the incident wasn’t the first of its kind and wouldn’t be the last.

“The markings I understand read ‘La Marina’ which is equivalent to the Mexican Navy,” said Gonzalez.

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Yes, everyone get ready for the big ‘green jobs’ boom propaganda. Problem with that idea is, money isn’t a zero-sum game. You print it and give it to Samsung, or sink it in a public rail line, you may employ some people short-term but this will be at the expense of the people standing on the taxation rug you just pulled out from under them. For more, see the broken window fallacy. Now, combine this with the fact of US states and regional initiatives signing these independent contracts with Canadian provinces on any number of things – environmental projects, carbon taxes, continental IDs, running massive highways through, etc. – and you’re looking at a situation where Canadian sovereignty is being leached away with zero input from you.

Related: West coast regionalization rears its head in ‘Cascadia’ | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Passing on the Mantle of Deep North American Integration | Think-tank calls for United States of Great Lakes | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’

Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader.com
March 12, 2010

U.S.-Canadian state and provincial integration is being achieved in areas of transportation, the economy, energy and the environment. With some national, trilateral and global initiatives being discredited, stalled or ineffective, it appears as if the strategy has further shifted to a regional and local level in an effort to lay the groundwork for new agreements.

In 2008, the Pacific Coast Collaborative was established between Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon and Washington as, “a formal basis for cooperative action, a forum for leadership and information sharing, and a common voice on issues facing Pacific North America.” Some of its key priorities include action on clean energy, regional transportation, emergency management, sustainable regional economy, ocean conservation and climate change, as well as other issues. The inaugural Leaders’ Forum of the Pacific Coast Collaborative was held in Vancouver, British Colombia on February 12, 2010. It was hosted by Premier Gordon Campbell and chaired by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The meeting was also attended by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown. Although Alaska is also a member of the group, they were not able to send a representative to the meeting. It was announced that Oregon will be hosting the next forum to be held later this year.

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Iceland has spanked the global central banks that engineered the crisis it now suffers from. As covered here, Icelanders are justified in their anger. It remains to be seen how Iceland is spanked in turn. Iceland, apparently, will not bow to IMF debt slavery, it has not yet been pacified in the way that some developing nations have been. The consequences will reverberate throughout the economic system. One of the most interesting questions to be resolved is whether or not Iceland will be able to survive outside of the nascent ‘new world order‘ should the IMF and the EU treat it as a pariah state. Will new local economies and trans-border trade arise outside of the centrally controlled economic system? Will barter trade in local resources short circuit any future banking tax or carbon taxation for this region? Wish them luck, and stay tuned.

Flashback: Icelanders to vote no on debt deal | Iceland stares into Icesave abyss | EU executive recommends fast-track membership for Iceland | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Icelandic parliament rolls over, votes for EU membership | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | Iceland’s government collapses | In Iceland, the heat is on | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Icelanders storm central bank in protest | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown

Gudjon Helgason,Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press
March 6, 2010

By overwhelming margin, voters turn down repaying Netherlands and UK for Internet bank failure

A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest against a government referendum in Reykjavik. Iceland’s voters on Saturday resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to pay off Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank, according to initial results. (Bob Strong/Reuters)

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND—Iceland’s voters on Saturday resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to pay off Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank, according to initial results.

Results returned from around 74,150 ballots counted so far in a country of about 320,000 showed that 93 per cent of voters said “no” in the referendum, compared to just 1.6 per cent who said “yes.”

The referendum results are indicative of how angry many Icelanders are as the tiny island nation struggles to recover from a deep recession. The global financial crisis wreaked political and economic havoc on Iceland, as its banks collapsed within the space of a week in October 2008 and its currency, the krona, plummeted. The Icelandic government was the first to fall as a result of the meltdown. [Ed. Note: This was no systemic, blame-free crisis. It was engineered by criminals working in the Icelandic banking system.]

Icelanders were deciding whether to approve the payment of $3.5 billion to Britain and $1.8 billion to the Netherlands as compensation for funds that those governments paid to around 340,000 of their citizens who had accounts with the collapsed bank Icesave, an Icelandic Internet bank that offered high interest rates before it failed along with its parent, Landsbanki.

“This result is no surprise,” Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. “Now we must turn to the task of finishing the negotiations on Icesave.”

The debt owed to Britain and the Netherlands is a small sum compared to the massive amounts spent to rescue other victims of the global meltdown — $182.5 billion was paid out to keep U.S. insurance giant American International Group Inc. alive — but many taxpayers in the country say they can’t afford to pay it.

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It’s a disturbing development that this meme has cropped up in the media now, considering the first steps to West Coast cross border integration were taken hours before the Olympics. Might North American integration come about through piece-meal application of cross-border trade law, and manipulation of regional sentiment? It seems as though the process is already well underway.

Flashback: B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Think-tank calls for United States of Great Lakes | Toronto part of ‘transnational mega-region’

Peter Preston, The Guardian
February 28, 2010

There are calls for Oregon, Washington and British Columbia to split from the US and Canada. Cascadia is not a bad idea

Iceland has been completely screwed by the criminals that bought and ran Landsbanki as a massive ponzi scheme. See here and here and here. The people there know this, and they do not want to pay this tab, because they know it’s not theirs to pay. Here’s a radical idea – why don’t the UK, the Netherlands, and Iceland all get together and hunt these individuals down in whatever paradisical Caribbean island state they’ve made off to? EconomicDisasterArea.com has further details.

Flashback: EU executive recommends fast-track membership for Iceland | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Icelandic parliament rolls over, votes for EU membership | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | Iceland’s government collapses | In Iceland, the heat is on | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Icelanders storm central bank in protest | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown

Simon Johnson, Reuters
February 26, 2010

Iceland is now staring at twin crises, one economic and the other political, after it failed to strike a new deal on repaying debts to Britain and the Netherlands.

Iceland President Olafur Grimsson has angered Britain and the Dutch

As long as the so-called Icesave dispute hangs over the island, it can expect the economy to be starved of cash. Add to that the chance of political instability as the government has to take responsibility for a mess which will leave Icelandic taxpayers with a huge bill for years to come.

“Nobody dares invest anything in Iceland until this issue is resolved,” said Danske Bank senior analyst Lars Christensen.

Talks collapsed this week on a new deal to replace one agreed late last year, which proved to be deeply unpopular on the island. Britain and the Netherlands say Iceland owes them more than $5-billion after they compensated savers who lost money in Icelandic “Icesave” deposit accounts.

A referendum has been scheduled for March 6 on the old accord, and it is expected to be soundly rejected. Angry Icelanders believe the terms are unduly harsh.

Had a new agreement been forged, Reykjavik might have been able to get financial aid flowing again.

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Flashback: Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Canada part of Copenhagen climate deal | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | Copenhagen climate summit releases draft final text | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Canada agrees to contribute to $10-billion climate change fund | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Everyone in Britain could be given a personal ‘carbon allowance’ | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | EU agrees to pay developing countries ‘climate aid’ to pass Copenhagen | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
February 26, 2010

Massive $45 trillion transfer of wealth to fund creation of “global governance structure”

Leaked policy documents reveal that the United Nations plans to create a “green world order” by 2012 which will be enforced by a structure of global governance and funded by a gargantuan $45 trillion transfer of wealth from richer countries, as the globalists’ insidious plan to centralize power, crush sovereignty while devastating the economy is exposed once again.

As we warned at the time, the failure of Copenhagen in December did not spell the end of the global warming heist, but merely a roadblock in the UN’s agenda to create a world government funded by taxes paid by you on the very substance you exhale – carbon dioxide.

Using the justification of the vehemently debunked hoax that carbon dioxide is a deadly threat to the planet, the UN is already working to resurrect the failed Copenhagen agreement, with a series of new Copenhagen process negotiations set to take place in April, May and June.

Leaked planning documents (PDF) obtained by Fox News lift the lid on the UN’s plan to impose global governance by the time of their 2012 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio, which will mark the 20th anniversary since the notorious “Earth Summit” held in the same city.

“The new Rio summit will end, according to U.N. documents obtained by Fox News, with a “focused political document” presumably laying out the framework and international commitments to a new Green World Order,” reports Fox News’ George Russell.

“Just exactly what that environmental order will look like, and the extent of the immense financial commitments needed to produce it, are under discussion this week at a special session in Bali, Indonesia, of the United Nations Environment Program’s 58-nation “Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environmental Forum,” which oversees UNEP’s operations.”

The document outlines the globalist’s mission to enact a “radical transformation of the world economic and social order” by putting “a new treaty in place as the capstone of the Green World Order”.

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Flashback: No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Icelandic parliament rolls over, votes for EU membership | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | Iceland’s government collapses | In Iceland, the heat is on | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Icelanders storm central bank in protest | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown

Reuters
February 24, 2010

European Union member states must still approve accession, which could come as early as 2012 if the troubled island can make the needed economic reforms

Flashback: Indigenous groups left out of Arctic leaders’ summit | Canada an ‘energy superpower’ in Arctic, Foreign Minister says | Arctic borders will be defended: MacKay | Arctic expert questions Canada’s northern strategy | Northwest Passage surveillance study halted | Military’s ‘Polar Breeze’ cloaked in secrecy | Ignatieff on Obama visit: Crisis an opportunity for continental, global integration | Harper plays down threat to Arctic sovereignty | New policy emphasizes U.S. interests in Northwest Passage | UN Given Power to Mediate in Arctic Disputes | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | Remote-controlled aircraft would patrol Arctic: military

CBC News
February 22, 2010

Canada’s national Inuit organization says it’s unacceptable for Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon to exclude indigenous groups from an upcoming Arctic summit, even though Cannon has offered to consult them in advance.

Cannon has invited foreign ministers from Norway, Russia, Denmark (which includes Greenland) and the United States to Chelsea, Que., next month to discuss economic development and other issues faced by Arctic coastal nations.

But Cannon did not invite Arctic indigenous groups, such as the Inuit Circumpolar Council, nor did he invite Iceland, Sweden and Finland, which are members of the Arctic Council.

“If the government is going to be talking about economic development, then the people of the Arctic should be invited to discuss economic development in the Arctic,” Pita Aatami, acting president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in Canada, told CBC News in an interview.

“Government can’t just unilaterally make decisions on our behalf without consulting us properly or inviting us to be in this meeting.” [Ed. Note: You want to put some money on that?]

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Of course – you’ve got “to make sure North America is in sync”, after all. Lament for your nation, Canada – it would be good to review George Grant’s farsighted book on continentalism, penned in 1965 – as treaties and agreements at all levels of government accelerate the country towards a North American union. Remember, the Europeans didn’t see integration coming either – they were told time and time again that what was on the table was simply a set of economic accords when the Treaty of Rome was signed, then *snap* – 50 years later, the trap sprang shut in accordance with the long term planning that had been going on behind the scenes.

Flashback: B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Passing on the Mantle of Deep North American Integration | The time has come for North American monetary union | (More, see below)

CBC News
February 19, 2010

Sask. Premier Brad Wall says making sure North America is in sync on issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions is a priority. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Seven Canadian premiers descend upon the U.S. capital this week for the winter meeting of the influential National Governors Association, where they’ll sit down with their stateside counterparts and some key members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet.

The premiers of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island will attend the first-ever meeting of the governors association and its Canadian counterpart, the Council of the Federation.

The centrepiece of the visit is two roundtables being held Saturday to discuss energy and the environment.

Alberta’s oilsands, which are unpopular among some key congressional Democrats, are certain to be a hot topic of discussion. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach isn’t attending the meeting, citing a previous commitment.

A meeting Friday with Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, could prove the most fruitful for the premiers. With greenhouse gas legislation stalled in Congress following the Democrats’ recent loss of their filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate, the EPA is threatening to regulate carbon emissions if lawmakers won’t.

That leaves Canada in a state of limbo regarding its own greenhouse gas standards, since it’s been waiting to implement climate-change legislation in lockstep with American legislators.

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“Greece is a living example of why you should never give up control of your own currency,” said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the British Taxpayers’ Alliance. “The British economy and public finances are in a bad enough state as it is, without dishing out yet more of our money to solve the EU’s self-inflicted problems.” Are Soros, Sarkozy, and Dominique Strauss-Khan listening?

Flashback: EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Consumer debt loads are the new concern | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Why Did the ‘Stimulus’ Fail to Help the US Economy? | Could Greece drag down Europe? | Record surge in UK inflation | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Canadians struggling to dig out of debt | Can’t say if federal stimulus is working: watchdog | UAE markets dive on Dubai debt woes | Dubai’s ‘big pyramid scheme’ grounded by debt load | A world awash in debt | U.S. banking troubles far from over | Ottawa on track for largest-ever deficit | U.S. markets fall on Dubai crisis | 1 in 10 Americans delinquent in paying mortgage | Personal bankruptcies still soaring | Credit card debt balloons | US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Credit delinquencies up 24% in June | Bank of Canada declares recession over | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | More Canadians in arrears on credit payments | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Canadian credit card delinquencies rising | Iceland’s government collapses | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates

Matt Moore, Arthur Max, The Associated Press
February 12, 2010

‘It will crack sooner or later, because it’s impossible to have a common currency for such a big, and diverse area’

Can the frugal and the profligate cohabit the euro currency zone?

With Greece overdrawn and no one eager to foot the bill, Europe’s messy debt crisis has exposed a fundamental weakness among the 16 countries that share the euro: Different and often diametrically opposed approaches to spending don’t make for a happy union.

By telling Greece they stand shoulder-to-shoulder as it struggles to rein in a runaway deficit and impose severe austerity measures, but offering little more than moral support, the European Union’s biggest hitters — Germany and France — only slowed the market contagion afflicting Greece, and did not cure it.

As a result, analysts, politicians and observers contend, that may brake momentum for countries like Latvia adopting the beleaguered euro. More broadly, it could force Europe, already in a winter of growing discontent, to reconsider how much of a union it really wishes to be.

Its spending rules — limiting deficits to 3 per cent of economic output — have turned out to be more an honour system than a fiscal anchor. Can they be toughened to stop funny business like that in Greece, which faked budget numbers for years?

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