Senators Threatens to Tie Self to Tracks in Response to Old Lyme High-Speed Rail Proposal
OLD LYME, CT – U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and a pair of lawmakers promised to tie themselves to the tracks if a proposal for a rail route through the center of Old Lyme is approved as is, according to media reports.
"The [Federal Railroad Association's] half-baked, harebrained proposals to reroute Amtrak through Old Lyme fail to reflect the priorities and needs of Old Lyme residents and those who work and live in surrounding shoreline communities," said Blumenthal.
These sentiments were just some of the vocal complaints voiced during a meeting Wednesday with local politicians representatives from the FRA, according to Fox 61. More than 500 people packed the auditorium of the Lyme-Old Lyme High School, where residents were seemingly unanimous in their opposition to the proposal.
"The FRA's resources would be better spent on making critical rail improvements in the region, not on unrealistic proposals that are met with strong, well-merited opposition," said Blumenthal. I hope that the FRA will fully listen to the community's concerns and drop this misguided plan."
A high-speed Amtrak bypass line connecting Old Saybrook and Rhode Island and cutting through historic Old Lyme has been proposed by the FRA, Fox 61 reported. It is considered by the agency as a better way to connect New York City, Boston and Washington D.C.
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It has also been hotly debated almost since its inception.
More than 1,800 comments against the bypass were submitted during the public comment period for the plan, The Day reported. The meeting had been requested by Sens. Blumenthal and Chris Murphy so local officials could discuss how to preserve Old Lyme's history and environment while still serving rail needs.
Proposals contemplated for the FRA's Northeast Corridor long-term plan would cost between $68 billion and hundreds of billions of dollars, according to The Day. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District brought up the long list of upgrades that are needed along the corridor.
Blumenthal was adamant that he would block the proposal as it stands by fighting as long and hard as possible to do so, CT Mirror reported. Many residents and officials made clear they are not opposed to high--speed rail, but would rather see the existing infrastructure improved.
IS VITAMIN B17 THE GREATEST COVER UP IN THE HISTORY OF CANCER?
It has been becoming increasingly apparent in recent years that there are a number of alternative cancer treatment methods which have proven to either eradicate cancer cells on their own, or even assist with the more traditional methods of chemotherapy and radiation. Many of these alternative treatments do not get the recognition that they deserve from either mainstream media or mainstream medicine. In fact, in many states alternative cancer treatments have been banned or made illegal and, according to the law, one can even be forced to undergo chemotherapy against one's will. It is important to note, however, that choosing one of these natural, alternative cancer treatments does require you to do a lot of research, because there is very little funding, or merit, allotted to their study. The cancer industry does not want to look at these alternative methods and spends very little of their funds informing people about preventative medicine. In fact, one particular vitamin that is believed to be extremely beneficial in fighting cancer cells has actually been banned by the FDA and is illegal for treatment in the United States, and that is Laetrile.
Laetrile contains one of the greatest concentrations of vitamin B-17 on the planet, and it can be found in the often-overlooked seed of a popular fruit: the apricot. Apricot seeds can be found beneath the hard pit inside the apricot, and many people are unaware that they are both edible and delicious, and that they contain a cancer-fighting agent called amygdalin within.
Amygdalin contains glucose, benzaldehyde, and cyanide, and it is the latter which is believed to be the active cancer-fighting ingredient of Laetrile. It is important to note, however, that cyanide is actually toxic to all cells, which makes the overall toxicity of Laetrile a concern. Yet studies suggest that Laetrile is more toxic to cancer cells than to normal cells. After all, your chances of getting cyanide poisoning from apple seeds or almonds are extremely slim, and we mustn't forget that cancer is toxic to begin with. (And the last time I checked, so are chemotherapy and radiation.)
You May Be Asking The Following Question
Question: "If B17 is so powerful and helpful towards cancer elimination, then why is it not prescribed by modern physicians as a treatment?"
Simple Answer: "A control for cancer is known, and it comes from nature, but it is not widely available to the public because it cannot be patented, and therefore is not commercially attractive to the pharmaceutical industry." — G. Edward Griffin.
Dr. Sugiura's Research
Dr. Kanematsu Suigura spent the majority of his career at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and has authored more than 250 papers; he has also received numerous awards, one of which included the highest honors from the Japan Medical Association for outstanding contributions in cancer research. He specifically studied Laetrile and discovered that it showed very positive results with preventing malignant lung tumors in laboratory mice. In control groups which received only plain saline, the lung tumors spread to between 80 and 90 percent of the mice, but in those given Laetrile, the tumors only spread to between 10 and 20 percent.
By 1974 findings for Laetrile's cancer fighting properties were so positive that the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center had signed off on clinical trials — but then everything changed. The center started to get other scientists to perform the experiments involving Laetrile and whenever an experiment showed the possibility of a positive outcome, the research was completely scrapped and disregarded. Other scientists working at Sloan Kettering who had previously been on board with the cancer-fighting properties of Laetrile started to characterize these studies, and Sugiura himself, as fraudulent, even though nothing scientifically had changed to negate Sugiura's findings.
Ralph Moss was a friend and colleague of Dr. Sugiura's and was well informed about his findings in regards to Laetrile. When things started to go downhill, Moss found himself stuck in a moral dilemma: he could lie to support his employer, Sloan Kettering, or tell the truth about Laetrile and sacrifice his job. In the end, Moss chose to tell the truth and came clean at a press conference that was held in July of 1977. This ended up being his final day as an employee of the Sloan Kettering foundation.
According to Ralph Moss, the Laetrile cover-up really only makes sense when viewed through the lens of "the politics of cancer." According to Moss: "The people on Sloan Kettering's Board of Directors were a 'Who's Who' of investors in petrochemical and other polluting industries. In other words, the hospital was being run by people who made their wealth by investing in the worst cancer-causing things on the planet."
This is only part of the story. To read the whole thing, click here.
More Information About Laetrile's Cancer Fighting Properties
Even though Laetrile is not an FDA-approved cancer treatment, there are doctors who are choosing to use it 'illegally,' like John A. Richardson. He has been treating cancer patients at his clinic in San Francisco, California and it has been working a whole lot better than the traditional methods of treatment. His numerous success stories are documented in his book, Laetrile Case Histories: The Richardson Cancer Clinic Experience.
The FDA considers Laetrile an unapproved form of cancer treatment and it is illegal for a practitioner to administer. As a result of these regulations, you cannot buy Laetrile in the United States, although you can buy Vitamin B17/amygdalin in supplement form. Apricots themselves are not illegal, of course, so you can always gather their seeds on your own, though this is immensely time consuming. If you do choose this course of action, be aware that you are doing it at your own discretion. Because I am not a doctor and cannot give out medical advice, I highly suggest that you find a doctor who practices alternative medicine and who can best direct you on how to properly use this treatment.
Your life path number can tell you A LOT about you.
With the ancient science of Numerology you can find out accurate and revealing information just from your name and birth date.
Get your free numerology reading and learn more about how you can use numerology in your life to find out more about your path and journey. Get Your free reading.
Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on Anger, Forgiveness, and What Maturity Really Means
"Our emotional life maps our incompleteness," philosopher Martha Nussbaum wrote in her luminous letter of advice to the young. "A creature without any needs would never have reasons for fear, or grief, or hope, or anger." Anger, indeed, is one of the emotions we judge most harshly — in others, as well as in ourselves — and yet understanding anger is central to mapping out the landscape of our interior lives. Aristotle, in planting the civilizational seed for practical wisdom, recognized this when he asked not whether anger is "good" or "bad" but how it shall be used: directed at whom, manifested how, for how long and to what end.
Many of Whyte's meditations invert the common understanding of each word and peel off the superficial to reveal the deeper, often counterintuitive meaning — but nowhere more so than in his essay on anger. Whyte writes:
ANGER is the deepest form of compassion, for another, for the world, for the self, for a life, for the body, for a family and for all our ideals, all vulnerable and all, possibly about to be hurt. Stripped of physical imprisonment and violent reaction, anger is the purest form of care, the internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for. What we usually call anger is only what is left of its essence when we are overwhelmed by its accompanying vulnerability, when it reaches the lost surface of our mind or our body's incapacity to hold it, or when it touches the limits of our understanding. What we name as anger is actually only the incoherent physical incapacity to sustain this deep form of care in our outer daily life; the unwillingness to be large enough and generous enough to hold what we love helplessly in our bodies or our mind with the clarity and breadth of our whole being.
Illustration by Maurice Sendak for E.T.A. Hoffmann's 'Nutcracker.' Click image for more.
What we have named as anger on the surface is the violent outer response to our own inner powerlessness, a powerlessness connected to such a profound sense of rawness and care that it can find no proper outer body or identity or voice, or way of life to hold it. What we call anger is often simply the unwillingness to live the full measure of our fears or of our not knowing, in the face of our love for a wife, in the depth of our caring for a son, in our wanting the best, in the face of simply being alive and loving those with whom we live.
Our anger breaks to the surface most often through our feeling there is something profoundly wrong with this powerlessness and vulnerability… Anger in its pure state is the measure of the way we are implicated in the world and made vulnerable through love in all its specifics.
One need only think of Van Gogh — "I am so angry with myself because I cannot do what I should like to do," he wrote in a letter as he tussled with mental illness — to appreciate Whyte's expedition beyond anger's surface tumults and into its innermost core: profound frustration swelling with a sense of personal failure. (Hannah Arendt captured another facet of this in her brilliant essay on how bureaucracy breeds violence — for what is bureaucracy if not the supreme institutionalization of helplessness?)
With remarkable intellectual elegance and a sensitivity to the full dimension of the human spirit, Whyte illuminates the vitalizing underbelly of anger:
Anger truly felt at its center is the essential living flame of being fully alive and fully here; it is a quality to be followed to its source, to be prized, to be tended, and an invitation to finding a way to bring that source fully into the world through making the mind clearer and more generous, the heart more compassionate and the body larger and strong enough to hold it. What we call anger on the surface only serves to define its true underlying quality by being a complete but absolute mirror-opposite of its true internal essence.
Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for more.
In a related meditation, Whyte considers the nature of forgiveness:
FORGIVENESS is a heartache and difficult to achieve because strangely, it not only refuses to eliminate the original wound, but actually draws us closer to its source. To approach forgiveness is to close in on the nature of the hurt itself, the only remedy being, as we approach its raw center, to reimagine our relation to it.
Strangely, forgiveness never arises from the part of us that was actually wounded. The wounded self may be the part of us incapable of forgetting, and perhaps, not actually meant to forget, as if, like the foundational dynamics of the physiological immune system our psychological defenses must remember and organize against any future attacks — after all, the identity of the one who must forgive is actually founded on the very fact of having been wounded.
Stranger still, it is that wounded, branded, un-forgetting part of us that eventually makes forgiveness an act of compassion rather than one of simple forgetting. To forgive is to assume a larger identity than the person who was first hurt, to mature and bring to fruition an identity that can put its arm, not only around the afflicted one within but also around the memories seared within us by the original blow and through a kind of psychological virtuosity, extend our understanding to one who first delivered it. Forgiveness is a skill, a way of preserving clarity, sanity and generosity in an individual life, a beautiful way of shaping the mind to a future we want for ourselves; an admittance that if forgiveness comes through understanding, and if understanding is just a matter of time and application then we might as well begin forgiving right at the beginning of any drama rather than put ourselves through the full cycle of festering, incapacitation, reluctant healing and eventual blessing.
To forgive is to put oneself in a larger gravitational field of experience than the one that first seemed to hurt us. We reimagine ourselves in the light of our maturity and we reimagine the past in the light of our new identity, we allow ourselves to be gifted by a story larger than the story that first hurt us and left us bereft.
Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for more.
This question of maturity, so intimately tied to forgiveness, is the subject of another of Whyte's short essays. Echoing Anaïs Nin's assertion that maturity is a matter of "unifying" and "integrating," he writes:
MATURITY is the ability to live fully and equally in multiple contexts; most especially, the ability, despite our grief and losses, to courageously inhabit the past the present and the future all at once. The wisdom that comes from maturity is recognized through a disciplined refusal to choose between or isolate three powerful dynamics that form human identity: what has happened, what is happening now and what is about to occur.
Immaturity is shown by making false choices: living only in the past, or only in the present, or only in the future, or even, living only two out of the three.
Maturity is not a static arrived platform, where life is viewed from a calm, untouched oasis of wisdom, but a living elemental frontier between what has happened, what is happening now and the consequences of that past and present; first imagined and then lived into the waiting future.
Maturity calls us to risk ourselves as much as immaturity, but for a bigger picture, a larger horizon; for a powerfully generous outward incarnation of our inward qualities and not for gains that make us smaller, even in the winning.
Maturity, Whyte seems to suggest, becomes a kind of arrival at a sense of enoughness — a willingness to enact what Kurt Vonnegut considered one of the great human virtues: the ability to say, "If this isn't nice, what is?" Whyte writes:
Maturity beckons also, asking us to be larger, more fluid, more elemental, less cornered, less unilateral, a living conversational intuition between the inherited story, the one we are privileged to inhabit and the one, if we are large enough and broad enough, moveable enough and even, here enough, just, astonishingly, about to occur.
Global Design Superteam (Dieter Rams, Norman Foster et. al.) Supporting Apple in Pivotal Copyright Case
It's rare to see so many members of the global design community unite for a common cause, but this is a big one that directly affects their fields--and could have an impact on the future of industrial design. Before we get to the brief that was signed today, we need to explain the background.
Here's what happened: In 2007, shortly before launching the original iPhone, Apple filed for a quartet of patents that covered the iPhone's form. Later that year, they filed a battery of patents covering the GUI (graphical user interface).
Three years later Samsung, well-known as a component supplier for Apple, began releasing a line of smartphones deemed similar by Apple, including the Nexus S and Galaxy S smartphones.
Apple cried foul and sued, claiming Samsung had copied Apple's user interface and style. The claims included trademark infringement, unjust richment and unfair competition. Samsung countersued. But in 2012, the jury awarded Apple just over $1 billion in damages. A judge later knocked this down to about $600 million.
Samsung wound up paying Apple $548 million. Then their lawyers went over the wording and changed their mind: They now reckon that "the $399 million of that amount that was awarded for copying the designs of the iPhone's rounded-corner front face, bezel and grid of icons is excessive and contributed only marginally to a complex product," according to Reuters. So Samsung appealed.
Last year came the result of the appeal: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington upheld Apple's patent infringement claim--but also ruled that "the iPhone's appearance could not be protected through trademarks."
Uh-Oh
Folks, that last ruling is a big deal. "Appearance" is such a vague term that with this precedent set, it means that in the future, it may be up to judges and juries to interpret and decide what that constitutes. Sometimes we designers cannot even agree on whether two things "appear" similar; will laypeople fare any better?
Samsung's next step was to contact the Supreme Court, which has agreed to review the case.
An Industrial Designer Leads the Charge
Industrial designer Charles Mauro, founder of the NYC-based Mauro New Media design consultancy, decided he had to act. Mauro succeeded in rounding up over 100 prominent designers, educators and influencers to sign a court brief, drafted by IP lawyers, supporting Apple in their claims. The list includes Dieter Rams, Norman Foster, Parsons Industrial Design Director Rama Chorpash, Bentley Director of Design Stefan Sielaff, Wallpaper Editor-in-Chief Tony Chambers, Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein, Paul Smith, as well as executives from Dyson, Knoll, McLaren, Microsoft and Louis Vuitton, among others.
Mauro collected 111 signatures in total, on a brief where "The designers [are agreeing] that in the minds of consumers, the 'look of the product comes to represent the underlying features, functions, and total user experience,'" according to Reuters.
Why The Ruling Could Be a Big Problem for Designers
So what prompted Mauro to do this? "It became clear to some of us with more experience in the IP space that [with the appeal ruling] we were looking at a very serious potential problem," Mauro told London's Business of Fashion.
"Those who have signed the brief have a serious concern about what's happening with Samsung, and they are also completely dedicated to design as a way of achieving business success," Mauro told BoF. "Apple is obviously a prime example of that and in that regard they are aligned with Apple. But I think it was important to those individuals who signed the brief that design is properly positioned in this major case."
Speaking of business success, Mauro gave a more pointed quote to The Financial Times:
Mr Mauro told the FT that if Samsung prevailed in the Supreme Court, it could unleash a new wave of copycats and create a "massive problem" for US patent holders by making litigation much more complicated.
"We would see the return of exact copyists and a flooding of the US market of copycat products because nobody would be afraid any more," he said. "It would become a cost-benefit equation."
Samsung isn't alone on their side, by the way; they've got big dogs Google and Facebook backing their claim. A spokesperson expressed Samsung's side of the argument:
We have received overwhelming support for overturning the ruling in favour of Apple, including from leading patent experts, numerous concerned companies, and the US government. If left uncorrected, the Appeals court's ruling could lead to diminished innovation, pave the way for design troll patent litigation and negatively impact the economy and consumers.
The Supreme Court is set to hear the two sides argue starting on October 11th of this year. Stay tuned.
Actual food is being grown underwater in these ridiculously sci-fi biosphere pods
Think that the sea only provides fish and seaweed for us to eat? Soon we could be harvesting way more munch from the oceans thanks to super-smart scuba divers and a story that's crying out to be made into a movie called 'Deep Carrot'
Sergio and Luca Gamberini, an Italian father and son team who run scuba diving gear company Ocean Reef Group, are pioneering a new kind of hydroponics, by growing plants under the sea. The research project, dubbed Nemo's Garden – a nod to the main character in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – certainly has more than a twist of sci-fi to it.
In Noli, a bay in northern Italy, balloon-like biosphere structures that retain air inside of them while underwater have been anchored to the seabed, around eight metres down. Plants, including basil, strawberry, and tomatoes, have successfully grown inside of these pods from seeds. The air within the pods evaporates sea water, distilling it into fresh water, which keeps the plants constantly hydrated.
An underwater biosphere for growing plants. Makes your parents' greenhouse seem pretty lame, huh?
These plants aren't exposed to many of the hazardous weather extremities they might experience on land, such as droughts or flooding. Being underwater provides them with a consistent temperature, water supply and humidity. They also are protected from parasites and vermin, although apparently a few sneaky crabs and curious octopuses have been found congregating around the pods.
Longtime scuba diver Sergio Gamberini came up with the idea while on holiday and got to work straightaway, making small mock-ups of the biospheres, which he placed in fish tanks.
"I see possibilities for developing countries, where harsh conditions make it difficult for plants to grow"
The team have been growing plants underwater for a few years now. A successful Kickstarter campaign enabled them to expand their research, and now the biospheres have been fitted with sensors so they can collect real-time data on temperature, light and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. The team also installed a webcam, so that people can watch the underwater setup when it runs between May and September each year.
But it's not all been plain sailing. Or smooth diving. Or whatever. Rough seas have destroyed crops, and protecting the plants from currents and tides is one of the biggest challenges the team faces. But when the team does successfully harvest the crops, they celebrate by having a party and breaking out the herb – we mean the underwater basil they've been growing, of course, which is then used to make pesto.
Seriously, this isn't a still from a new sci-fi flick – this is happening. Right now.
This may seem like an elaborate way to grow plants when a pot on the windowsill does the same job, but the Gamberinis have grand ambitions for the project. They're hoping it will be a new, environmentally friendly and sustainable way to help ensure food security. They're even encouraging fans of the project to create their own underwater gardens.
"In the future, it'll definitely be something that's economically sustainable," Luca Gamberini told the Washington Post. "I see possibilities for developing countries, where harsh conditions make it difficult for plants to grow."
Looks like underwater could soon be the new above-ground as far as crop growing is concerned. Now, don't bogart that basil pesto, and pass it on – to the left, of course.
Chincoteague Ponies enter the water for the 89th annual swim across Assateague Channel to Chincoteague, Va. on Wednesday, July 30, 2014.
Monday, July 25, 2016
The Beach Walk
The Chincoteague ponies of the northern coral are led down the beach to join the ponies of the southern coral. Parking is available on Assateague. Park and follow the crowd!
Time: 6 a.m.
Location: Assateague Island
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Pony Swim
The ponies will swim across the Assateague Channel during the period of time between high and low tide, referred to as slack tide. The official time will be announced at the carnival grounds the week of the swim. The swim can be viewed by water via private touring companies or for free by land at Memorial Park. The only parking at Memorial Park is for handicapped individuals, and visitors are encouraged to utilize the free shuttle from Chincoteague Combined School (4586 Main St. Chincoteague Island, Va. 23336).
Be sure to pack plenty of water, bug spray and sunscreen and to anticipate a crowd!
At this point in history virtually every human on this planet is enslaved whether they know it or not. This is not the crude and primitive slavery of ancient times, it does not rely on whips and shackles to keep the oppressed in their place. These tools have been rendered obsolete by much more sophisticated methods. That most of the enslaved are unaware of their condition and would in fact argue fiercely that they are free is a testament to the effectiveness of these invisible chains. You've heard the expression "Money makes the world go round". There's truth in that. Money is the prime motive for human labor in modern civilization. If you want food, shelter and clothing you must have money, and unless you are part of the tiny minority who have more money than they could ever spend in their lifetime, then you must work, beg or steal for that money. That's why you get up in the morning to go to work even if you hate your job, and that's why the specter of unemployment is more terrifying for most people than the prospect of spending 50 years of their life performing menial tasks within the confines of a florescent lit cubicle. Of course in western countries some are fortunate enough to have pulled away from the brink and do not live in fear that their basic needs will be met, at least for now, yet they keep spinning the hamster wheel. Why? Because money and the bling it buys have become symbols of status and prestige. Money offers an illusory form of social validation, but even those who are not caught up in distinguishing themselves by how much they accumulate still must acknowledge the social stigma that comes with poverty. The combination of these primal motivators: the need for food, shelter, clothing, and social validation, is a very powerful force. It's enough to drive humans to engage in all forms of activity, even to the point of harming themselves or others in the process. The accumulation of money is therefore an accumulation of social and psychological power, and those who control the creation of money control this power at its source. So who controls the creation of money? Well in the case of the U.S. dollar, it's not the government. This shouldn't be an earth shattering revelation. The fact that the Federal Reserve is a private institution owned by a cartel of the world's most powerful banks is quickly becoming common knowledge; even the mainstream media doesn't deny it at this point. However the full extent of what this means is only clear when you understand how the banking system really works, and unfortunately this is something we aren't taught in school. Once you have it explained to you in simple terms you'll understand why. Every dollar in circulation is loaned into existence by a bank. The process begins with the Federal reserve when they loan out money to the U.S. government and to other entities. You've probably heard this talked about before, especially in regards to the interest rate on these loans which the Federal Reserve raises and lowers depending on economic conditions, but what is never talked about in the mainstream is the fact that the Fed isn't actually loaning out money that they have, they are merely typing those dollars into existence on a computer. You may be inclined to believe that this money is based on some physical backing like gold, but you would be mistaken. The Federal Reserve hasn't owned any gold since the 1930s. When the Federal Reserve loans money to the U.S. government, the U.S. government gives the Federal Reserve government bonds in exchange. These bonds are simply written promises to pay back the money that was loaned to them with interest through taxation. So to be clear here, the government is taking out a loan from a bank that is creating the money out of thin air, and they're expecting you the tax payer to cover that loan. The absurdity of this arrangement is even more obvious when you realize that up until 1913 the U.S. government created its own money, and had no need for a bank to play the part of a middle man. That new money loaned out by the Federal Reserve enters circulation through banks, accumulates in banks, and in the end the banks end up holding all of the cards, but not necessarily for the reasons you may imagine. Contrary to popular belief the majority of money in circulation isn't actually created by the Federal Reserve, but rather by the ordinary banks that businesses and individuals use for their checking, savings, and mortgages. How is this possible? Well, like the Federal Reserve, ordinary banks are allowed to loan out money they don't have. There are of course restrictions. Banks are only allowed to loan 10 times the amount that they actually have. So if Wells Fargo has 1000 dollars they can loan you 10,000 dollars, and they expect you to pay back that 10,000 dollars plus interest. This is called fractional reserve banking; 75% of all money in circulation is created in this manner. Now as bad as this may seem it's really only the tip of the iceberg. Most banks structure payment plans so that for many years you are paying almost nothing but interest and only start paying down the principle gradually. The result of this strategy is that in most cases you pay far more in interest when you purchase a house than the house itself is worth. So here's the real question: If all money is created through loans, where does the money come from for to pay for the interest? Let's say we reset the system to zero, loan 1000 dollars into existence and charge 7% interest. We now have 1000 dollars in the system but we owe 1000 dollars plus interest and that's more. The money to pay the interest doesn't exist, never has, never will. This would be obvious if there were only one loan being issued to one person in this manner, but when performed on a global scale the reality is hidden, and is transformed into a game of musical chairs where the person ending up without a seat faces bankruptcy and financial ruin. The interest insures that there is always more debt than money in circulation. Because every dollar in existence is tied to a debt this creates an unseen force that draws those dollars back to the banks, like gravity attracts a physical object to earth. The catch here is that it is the work of the people that moves that money. Every hour that you work to pay back a loan or to keep the government from throwing you in jail over income taxes is an hour worked for the banks. The total receipts from personal income taxes just barely covers the interest on the national debt, and even the principle on that debt all ends up back in the hands of the banks. Once you understand that the money that the banks loans out isn't actually an asset, but is in fact a piece of legal fiction it should be clear that you are working for these banks for free. This is a cleverly disguised form of slavery. If you manage to maintain your monthly payments then you are a successful slave, and you are allowed to keep the material comforts that come with that status, but if for some reason you fail to make your monthly payments then the bank or the IRS comes takes your house, your car and anything else you have of value. If somehow even with this enormous financial advantage the banks still manage to get themselves into trouble you the taxpayer will be forced to bail them out. No matter what the banks win. To say the game is rigged is an understatement. You might be inclined to think that if you live outside the United States and don't use dollars then this situation has no bearing on your life, but you would be wrong. The dollar is both the world reserve currency and the only currency in which oil is sold on the global markets (this is often referred to as the petrodollar status). This means that where ever you live, whether your country is an oil exporter or an oil importer you are affected. If your country is an oil importer you are effected by the fact that in order to keep your country running you have to acquire dollars. To acquire those dollars you have to send goods and services to the United States or to someone else who did. You too are a slave to the bankers. Likewise if your country is an oil exporter you are affected by the fact that you send your oil to the U.S. in exchange for this debt based money. You are exchanging something of real and tangible value for digits on a screen. If for some reason the leadership of your country grows tired of this arrangement and tries to pull off of the dollar you'll quickly find the United States military at your doorstep ready to open up a can of democracy on you. Iraq learned this the hard way when they switched their oil sales to Euros in 2000 and Libya when they tried to organize a gold based currency for Africa. Debt based money is a masterpiece of social engineering, the ultimate tool of the ruling elite, and yet in reality the whole thing is nothing more than a construct of belief. Our chains are chains of the mind, and the path to freedom must also begin in the mind. If we want a better future for our children and grandchildren we must work right now to reach a critical mass of awakening.
