American Default… and nearing to the next world war for control of planetary resources – by Paolo D’Arpini

What’s going on – One of the reasons that makes it very likely a third world war is that America is close to bankruptcy, and the only way out without having to face an internal revolution, with unpredictable consequences, rest in tryng to control these foreign states with whom he contracted foreign debt .. or that could compete with its power production and military, by creating difficulties in his economic recovery.
These nations are quickly identified: China and Russia.

Then there is the factor that oil supply is nevertheless indispensable for the maintenance of both the technology and food (all of U.S. agriculture is based in agro / industry and use of agricultural machinery), as well as transportation and global trade take place all through the petroleum … Hence the push to invade first Iraq and Libya and now Iran.

In short, the end of the system is inevitable, with what consequences? One of the indirect effects, in preparation for the next catastrophe is hard servitude of nations of strategic interest, which may serve as a basis for continental missile attack.

Obviously we can clearly see the “privileged” position of Italy, called the U.S. aircraft carriers, which suggests the need for close political control (the Governissimo) and military on the peninsula that will absorb as much of an impact of the conflict at hand.

So government Monti Mario (or his worst successor) can not but continue, in order to maintain control increasingly strong on Italy…. This explains the reluctance of italian parties to give up Monti’s government and the “judicial” action to silence all opposition.

Receipts from U.S. sources next conflict – wrote Joseph Farah, an experienced American journalist with good sources, now next to Ron Paul, confirms: “The Russian army expected an attack on Iran will take place in summer, and has developed a action plan to move Russian troops in Armenia through Georgia, which borders the Islamic republic, according to Russian sources informed. Victor Ozerov, the head of the Russian Security Council said that the headquarters has prepared an action plan in case of attack on Iran”

So as the analyst Barozzi Maurice, sayd: “International politics is subject to many unpredictable and variable turns. I personally think that if the West fails in some way to “tame” Russia, by the summer there are very strong danger of a war by incalculable consequences. The West (read USA), with all the factions that constitute it, of a financial nature and razzial-religious, is well aware of being at a historic crossroads, where it needs to eliminate, here and now, before it’s too late, interference to the constitution of an absolute world power. However, if the information we receive is correct, namely that Russia is gearing up to protect Iran militarily, this time for the US-Israel will not be the usual, convenient and safe walking military preceded by a carpet of bombs on a nation helpless … ”

Paolo D’Arpini - Circolo Vegetariano VV.TT.
Via Sacchette, 15/a - Treia (Mc) - Tel 0733/216293



P. S. As for the understanding and consequences of the economic crisis watch this short cartoon explaining the Global Economic Collapse (near future …) with a cartoon: http://www.luogocomune.net/site/modules/news/ article.php? storyId = 3977

Apple enslaves workers in China: 76 hours a week and more than 7 days straight

This is an attack on workers everywhere. When employers know that they can get away with such abuse offshore, they are empowered to abuse local workers too.


I see it in the Childers/Bundaberg farming area with foreign backpackers. Fruit & vegetable picking and packing companies which employ a high % of backpackers make it hard for local workers to claim their entitlements - they know they are dispensible.


I have often touted Apple products. But these are the old, genuine Apple computers which run OS 9; the G4 was the last true Apple computer. And G4s, although 10 years old, are still running strong - mine is; this newsletter is coming to you from a G4 running OS9, and I use it for my website too.


More recent Apple computers, and iPads and iPhones, are really NeXT machines - NeXT being the Steve Jobs company which took over Apple. The technology may be brilliant, but Apple has sold out to Mammon.


(1) Apple enslaves workers in China: 76 hours a week and more than 7 days straight
(2) Apple, Foxconn set new standard for China work conditions
(3) Apple pledge to share more of its revenue with Chinese workers


(1) Apple enslaves workers in China: 76 hours a week and more than 7 days straight


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-31/probe-finds-rights-violations-at-apple-supplier-foxconn/3923040


Probe finds rights violations at Apple supplier


Updated March 31, 2012 08:50:03


An audit of three factories pumping out coveted Apple gadgets has found abuses of Chinese labour law, including employees working more than 76 hours a week and more than seven days straight without a required 24-hour break.


Along with excessive overtime and not always compensating workers properly for extra hours that were put in, the nearly month-long investigation uncovered health and safety risks and "crucial communication gaps."


"The Fair Labour Association gave Apple's largest supplier the equivalent of a full-body scan through 3,000 staff hours investigating three of its factories and surveying more than 35,000 workers," said the watchdog's president Auret van Heerden.


"Apple and its supplier Foxconn have agreed to our prescriptions, and we will verify progress and report publicly."


With 1.2 million workers, Foxconn, an affiliate of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, is by far Apple's largest and most influential partner.


While the audit found multiple violations of labour law at the Foxconn factories, it also found many of the workers would like to work more hours and make more money.


Mr van Heerden says this sentiment is typical of migrant workers in China.


"Migrant workers go to find work with a view to make as much money as they can in the shortest time as possible," he said.


"So they do push for extra hours, especially overtime hours that are paid at a premium."


Young, male, migrant


The survey of Foxconn workers revealed the average age of workers building Apple products was 23 and over 60 per cent were male.


Less than 6 per cent of workers in the three facilities were between the ages of 16 and 18.


Almost all of the workers in Guanlan and Longhua had come from other countries or regions looking for jobs.


But in recent years Foxconn has encouraged workers to move outside the infamous factory dormitories.


About 16 per cent of the workers surveyed said the dorms were "very much" crowded while another 19 per cent said "yes, a little", while 50 per cent said the question was "not applicable".


The survey revealed that 71 per cent of them do not think the factory canteens serve good food.


Nearly 48 per cent disagreed with the premise that the canteens in the factories were clean and hygienic.


Most of the workers in the three factories were employed as "operators," with engineers making up less than 4 per cent of the worker population in the two Shenzhen factories, Guanlan and Longhua.


In Chengdu, nearly 11 per cent of the workers were engineers, according to FLA.


A majority of all those surveyed said the compensation does not meet their basic needs.


One particular concern to workers was aluminium dust, which had caused an explosion in Foxconn's Chengdu factory.


Apple chief visits


In response to the report, Apple says it has agreed to work with Foxconn to tackle wage and working condition violations at the factories that produce its popular products.


Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of new workers, clamp down on illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade worker housing and other amenities.


Apple announced the moves as the company's chief executive, Tim Cook, was paying a visit to China.


State media said he had met with vice premier Li Keqiang, the man tipped to be country's next leader, who told him foreign firms should do more to protect workers.


Apple and Foxconn are so dominant in the global technology industry that their newly forged accord will likely have a substantial ripple effect across the sector.


The deal may raise costs for other manufacturers who contract with the Taiwanese company, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon.com, Motorola, Nokia and Sony.


It could result in higher prices for consumers, though the impact will be limited because labour costs are only a small fraction of the total cost for most high-tech devices.


AFP/Reuters


(2) Apple, Foxconn set new standard for China work conditions


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/10170345


Reuters, Friday March 30 2012


By Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc and its main contract manufacturer Foxconn agreed to tackle violations of conditions among the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads in a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business in China.


Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, whose subsidiary Hon Hai Precision Industry assembles Apple devices in factories in China, will hire tens of thousands of new workers, eliminate illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade workers' housing and other amenities.


It is a response to one of the largest investigations ever conducted of a U.S. company's operations outside of America. Apple had agreed to the probe by the independent Fair Labor Association (FLA) to stem a crescendo of criticism that its products were built on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers.


The association, in disclosing its findings from a survey of three Foxconn plants and over 35,000 workers, said it had unearthed multiple violations of labour law, including extreme hours and unpaid overtime.


FLA President Auret van Heerden expects the agreement between Apple, the world's most valuable listed company, and Foxconn, which supplies 50 percent of the world's consumer electronics, to have far reaching affects.


"Apple and Foxconn are obviously the two biggest players in this sector," he said in an interview. "Since they're teaming up to drive this change, I really do think they set the bar for the rest of the sector."


That could affect brand names that have contracts with the Taiwanese company, including Dell Inc , Hewlett-Packard ,Amazon.com Inc , Motorola Mobility Holdings , Nokia Oyj and Sony Corp <6758.T>.


The agreement is a sign of the increasing power of Chinese workers to command higher wages given increasing prices in China, and an ageing workforce that has led to labour shortages.


"Foxconn is proposing this better deal," said van Heerden. "Their competitors will be obliged to offer a similar package just in order to get enough workers."


Working conditions at many Chinese factories supplying Western brands are considerably inferior to those at Foxconn, experts say.


Still, labour costs are a fraction of the total cost of most high-tech devices, so consumers might not see higher prices.


"If Foxconn's labour cost goes up ... that will be an industry-wide phenomenon and then we have to decide how much do we pass on to our customers versus how much cost do we absorb," HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman told Reuters in February.


Under the agreement, Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime, while keeping total compensation for workers at its current level. The FLA audit found workers in the three factories put in more than 60 hours per week on average during peak production periods.


To keep up with demand, Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of additional workers and build more housing and canteens.


Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took over from the late co-founder Steve Jobs last year, has shown a willingness to tackle the criticism head-on.


"We fully support their recommendations," an Apple spokesman said. "We share the FLA's goal of improving lives and raising the bar for manufacturing companies everywhere."


But New York-based labour advocacy group China Labor Watch said the report failed to address the workers' primary concerns.


"Until Apple shares a larger proportion of its profits with its supplier factories, workers will receive the same pittance for a salary while working around the clock," Li Qiang, the director of China Labor Watch, said in an emailed statement.


The agreement has not gone down well with some Foxconn workers, either.


Chen Yamei, 25, who has worked at a Foxconn factory at Longhua in southern Guangdong province for four years, complained that her salary will drop to just over 2,000 yuan a month (198 pounds) from over 4,000 yuan.


"We are here to work and not to play," she said. "Our income is very important." Another worker was less concerned.


"Working here is just so-so. Working conditions and the pay are all right," said Li Wei, a 20-year-old who has worked at the Foxconn factory for about a year.


"However there are around 100,000 people in there, so sometimes the feeling can be oppressive," Li said, who works eight hours, or a maximum 10 hours, a day.


FIRST PHASE


Hon Hai shares <2317.TW> fell on Friday around 1.3 percent, underperforming a rising market. Apple shares, which hit a record high on Wednesday, dropped 1.3 percent on Thursday.


The report marks the first phase of a probe into Apple's contract manufacturers across the world's most populous nation.


Foreign firms have long grappled with working conditions in China, dubbed the world's factory because of its low wages and efficient coastal transport and shipping infrastructure.


Global protests against Apple swelled after reports spread in 2010 of a string or suicides at Foxconn's plants in southern China, blamed on inhumane working conditions and the alienation that migrant labourers, often from impoverished provinces, face in a bustling metropolis like Shenzhen, where two of the three factories the FLA inspected are located.


In months past, protesters have shown up at Apple events - the rollout of the new iPad, the iPhone 4GS and its annual shareholders' meeting - holding up placards urging the $500 billion corporation to make "ethical" devices.


Some have also criticized the FLA for its close alignment with corporations.


The actor Mike Daisey also did much to raise awareness of the issue through his one man show in the United States, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs". His credibility was damaged though when it emerged parts of his monologue were fabricated.


NEW DORMS


The FLA in its report sought measures that will reduce working hours while ensuring that migrant labourers - often willing to pile up the overtime to make ends meet back home - do not forego much-needed income.


Foxconn committed to building new housing to ease situations where multiple workers were squeezed into dorm rooms that seemed inhumane by Western standards. It also agreed to improve accident reporting and help workers enroll for social welfare.


The FLA will conduct onsite verification visits to make sure the agreement is implemented, van Heerden said.


Apple is not the first U.S. consumer brand to respond to criticism of working conditions at factories abroad making its products.


Nike Inc implemented wide-ranging changes to improve safety and working conditions after it was rocked by reports in the 1990s that its contractors in China and elsewhere forced employees to work in slave-like conditions for a pittance.


Yet even Nike stopped short of Apple's and Foxconn's hiring and income-boosting spree. Last month, Foxconn said it was raising salaries by 16 to 25 percent, and was advertising a basic monthly wage, not including overtime, of 1,800 yuan ($290) in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province - where the monthly minimum wage is 1,500 yuan.


Future forays by the FLA over coming months will encompass Apple contractors Quanta Computer Inc <2382.TW>, Pegatron Corp <4838.TW>, Wintek Corp <2384.TW> and other suppliers, all notoriously tight-lipped about their operations.


(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing, Tan Ee-lyn in Hong Kong Editing by Gary Hill, Tim Dobbyn and Mark Bendeich)


(3) Apple pledge to share more of its revenue with Chinese workers


http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-03/D9TQQGGG0.htm


Apple pledge could lead to China wage hikes


By JOE McDONALD


A pledge by the manufacturer of Apple's iPhones and iPads to limit work hours at its factories in China could force other global corporations to hike pay for Chinese workers who produce the world's consumer electronics, toys and other goods.


Foxconn Technology's promise comes as Beijing is pushing foreign companies to share more of their revenues with Chinese employees. It follows a report by a labor auditor hired by Apple Inc. that found Foxconn was regularly violating legal limits on overtime, with factory employees working more than 60 hours per week.


"I think whatever Foxconn did will have an impact, certainly, on all Chinese workers in all trades," said Willy Lin, managing director of Hong Kong-based Milo's Knitwear, which makes clothing in three factories in China for European clients.


Foxconn, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., promised to limit hours while keeping total pay the same, effectively paying more per hour. Foxconn is one of China's biggest employers, with 1.2 million workers who also assemble products for Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.


Japan's Toshiba Group, which employs 32,000 workers in China to make goods such as refrigerators and TVs, said it too is taking measures to reduce overtime work and create safe working conditions at its factories.


China has long been a low-cost manufacturing center for goods sold under foreign brand names. But wages already were rising quickly as companies compete for workers and communist leaders try to push the country up the technology ladder to make more profitable products.


After a lull following the 2008 global crisis when Beijing froze the minimum wage to help exporters compete, Chinese workers have received big pay hikes over the past two years, though salaries still are low by Western standards.


Foxconn responded to a spate of suicides by employees at one of its mainland factory campuses in 2010 by more than doubling its basic monthly salary to 1,800 yuan ($290). The same year, Toyota Motor Corp. and other Japanese automakers granted pay hikes following a wave of strikes that had tacit government support.


Communist leaders have promised to double the country's minimum wage from 2010 levels by 2015.


The minimum wage in Shanghai, one of the world's most expensive cities, is about 1,200 yuan ($200) a month after an increase of more than 10 percent last year. The northern city of Tianjin raised its minimum wage to 1,070 yuan ($175).


Beijing has tightened enforcement of wage and hour rules "because there has been a general lack of compliance -- greater than in other countries," said K. Lesli Ligorner, head of the China employment group for law firm Simmons & Simmons.


"China is trying to make sure that at least at the lowest level of unskilled workers there are greater protections in place for them," she said.


Export-driven manufacturers along China's booming east coast also have to pay more to get and keep workers as rising living standards in the countryside mean fewer people migrate to cities for factory jobs.


U.S. and European clients might push Chinese suppliers to pay more so they look better in front of consumers, Ligorner said.


Higher wages at Foxconn "will have a ripple effect," she said.


Pay and working and environmental conditions are a sensitive issue for U.S. and European companies, some of which have been criticized by activist groups. Companies such as Nike Inc. and The Walt Disney Co. set specific standards in contracts with producers of toys, athletic shoes and other goods sold under their brands and send auditors to enforce them.


"We mind our corporate social responsibility and demand that our contract manufacturers strictly follow local as well as international rules on labor and environmental protection," said Henry Wang, public relations director for Taiwan's Acer Inc., the world's fourth-largest personal manufacturer.


Acer's laptop computers are produced by contractors in Kunshan, west of Shanghai, and in Chongqing in the southwest.


Wang said he didn't know whether the report on Foxconn by the Fair Labor Association, an American industry group, would lead to changes at Acer. He said suppliers already are required to "strictly follow" rules on wages and working conditions.


Higher wages will be easier for manufacturers to absorb if labor is a small portion of their total costs.


Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates that Apple pays $8 for the assembly of a 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S and $188 for its components. iSuppli's figures suggest that if Apple were to absorb a Foxconn wage increase to keep pay level and cut the work week from 60 hours to 49, it would pay less than $2 extra to have an iPhone made.


Other companies earn smaller profits and might find higher wages harder to pass on.


Higher costs in China already have prompted some companies in labor-intensive industries such as shoes and textiles to migrate to Vietnam and other lower-wage economies.


Lin, the garment manufacturer, said his company employs about 1,500 people in Guangdong province near Hong Kong. He said entry level pay has more than doubled over the past five years from 600 to 700 yuan ($95-$110) a month to about 1,500 yuan ($240).


"Anything lower than that, you wouldn't find the workers willing to do it," he said. ------


AP Business Writers Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo and Associated Press writers Annie Huang in Taipei, Taiwan and Foster Klug in Seoul, South Korea contributed.


--
Peter Myers
381 Goodwood Rd
Childers Qld 4660
Australia
ph. in Australia: 07 41262296
from overseas: +61 7 41262296
website: http://mailstar.net/index.html

Oltre Durban - I cambiamenti climatici come opportunità

Come faremo a vivere quando le api saranno tutte morte?


Presso la sede di Roma dell'ENEA si è tenuto in questi giorni un importante convegno organizzato dall'associazione Kyoto Club, dal titolo: "Oltre Durban - I cambiamenti climatici come opportunità."

In quella sede si sono avvicendati studiosi e scienziati di rilievo internazionale del clima, lo stesso neo ministro Clini ha partecipato ai lavori. Dai vari interventi è scaturita in maniera univoca, ma questo già lo sapevamo, che la macchina del tempo si è inesorabilmente rotta. Per il prossimo futuro ci dovremo rassegnare a subire fenomeni estremi come gli ultimi che hanno funestato tra ottobre e novembre di quest'anno molte regioni italiane.

La situazione comunque andrà sempre di più aggravandosi per il fatto che non esiste ancora una linea di accordo planetario. Il protocollo di Kyoto si esaurisce a dicembre del prossimo anno, si pensa già ad un nuovo Kyoto 2, ma da questo appuntamento si sono già defilate nazioni come il Canada, l'Australia, l'India, il Giappone e ovviamente gli USA.

Quest'ultimi, condizionati fortemente dalle lobbies dei "carbonpetrolieri", adducono come scusante il fatto che il protocollo di Kyoto attuale non è riuscito a rallentare il riscaldamento globale del pianeta e, quindi, neppure ci riuscirà Kyoto 2.

La Cina, che al momento ha superato gli stessi USA nella produzione di gas serra, vorrebbe entrare nell'accordo futuro di Kyoto 2, ma pone come "condicio sine qua non" l'ingresso nell'accordo anche degli USA..... A questo punto le speranze sono irrisorie o nulle. Restando sulla Cina si è appreso che le grandi linee guida per lo sviluppo prossimo futuro di questo colosso della nuova economia mondiale, passano tutte sul risparmio energetico, sull'uso massiccio di tecnologie che producono energia da fonti rinnovabili e sulla mobilità basata sull'idrogeno e sull'energia elettrica.

Ciononostante questo Paese contribuisce al momento al disastro climatico con le sue innumerevoli industrie e centrali elettriche a carbone. A seguire come maggiori inquinatori dell'atmosfera sono gli USA, L'India, la Russia e il Giappone.

Qualcuno dei relatori ha paventato un inevitabile Armageddon ambientale da qui a 20 anni. E questo perché nessuno al momento ha intenzione di rivedere il proprio programma di sviluppo industriale e di alternativa all'uso del petrolio e del carbone.

"Tutto quello che si è fatto e si sta facendo per mitigare il Clima, è stato detto nel convegno, e in questo l'Europa risulta la più virtuosa, serve poco. Servirebbe invece un'azione forte, molto forte per bloccare tutte le emissioni di gas climalteranti prodotte dalle attività umane, da fare subito e non domani. Ma questo, stando così le cose, risulta impensabile e allora non ci resta che annotare ogni giorno fenomeni meteo estremi, alluvioni, siccità, incendi di foreste e quant'altro ... una bella consolazione per le generazioni future ... una grande responsabilità che noi oggi ci assumiamo sulla popolazione planetaria di oggi e di domani..."

Dal 2002 ad oggi vittime accertate dei disastri climatici, che hanno sconvolto in questi dieci anni gran parte del pianeta, sono risultate 300.000, senza parlare dei milioni di feriti e senzatetto. Da oggi al 2022 secondo alcuni modelli matematici previsionali, le vittime saranno più che triplicate.

Non si capisce allora cosa si stia aspettando, agire subito vorrà dire sperare che la corsa verso il disastro globale climatico almeno possa rallentare. A tal proposito uno studio portato avanti da molti istituti di ricerca internazionali di bioclimatica, coordinati dal prof. Umberto Solimene, Direttore del Centro Ricerche di Bioclimatica dell'Università di Milano, ha dimostrato in maniera rigorosamente scientifica che in tutto il pianeta le api stanno morendo.

E questo a causa proprio dei cambiamenti climatici in atto da oltre 20 anni. Di questo passo, ci dice lo studio, tra meno di un secolo il miele sarà un ricordo. Ma la morte delle api, come hanno rilevato altri studi scientifici, vorrà dire il crollo delle impollinazioni e quindi una crisi profonda anche nel mondo vegetale ... un disastro con conseguenze ancora non chiare, ma sicuramente drammatiche anche per la vita di ogni animale, uomo compreso.

Secondo il prof. Solimene, il recente riscaldamento sta fortemente influenzando le stagioni, portando all'anticipo degli eventi primaverili, tra i quali la fioritura, la migrazione degli uccelli e la deposizione delle uova e gli spostamenti delle specie vegetali e animali verso latitudini più alte, spiega Solimene.

Il cambiamento climatico assume quindi un ruolo da protagonista nella genesi del fenomeno della moria delle api. C'e' un chiaro restringimento della stagione invernale che ha innescato, per riflesso, un probabile allungarsi della finestra di attività delle api, ipotizzabile in 20-30 giorni di lavoro in più l'anno, continua Solimene: ciò prefigura uno stress aggiuntivo a carico delle api che comprometterebbe la loro salute.

Lo stesso sincronismo tra la fase della fioritura e la ripresa delle attività di volo delle api dopo l'inverno potrebbe aver subito importanti sfasature. Inoltre, le anomalie termiche osservate negli inverni dell'ultimo decennio possono aver causato stimolazioni e segnali che hanno facilitato covate precoci, o addirittura invernali, cosa che ha rafforzato i parassiti che attaccano le api.

A questo punto il COP 17 di Durban assume un ruolo decisivo per il futuro della vita su questo pianeta .... sarà così? Oppure prevarranno ancora le logiche dei super petrolieri che fino all'ultima goccia di petrolio estirpato dalle viscere della Terra, continueranno ad opporsi ad ogni politica di salvataggio del pianeta.

Sfruttare il pianeta fino alla fine, avvelenarlo e poi far morire la gente per colpa di un clima impazzito, a questi poco importa, anche perché con le ricchezze che in decenni hanno accumulato, sicuramente avranno "qualche astronave" pronta a portarli su un altro sistema solare, quando questo sarà diventato invivibile.


Ennio La Malfa
Presidente di Accademia Kronos


............

Articolo collegato:

http://www.circolovegetarianocalcata.it/2011/11/23/preparazione-della-conferenza-onu-sul-clima-di-durban-sud-africa-per-uscire-dalla-crisi-economica-e-dalla-crisi-ecologica-cambiare-il-sistema-non-il-clima/

Welcome To Police State America! - Benvenuti nello Stato di polizia di hamburgerlandia!

Smile.... by Gustavo Piccinini

30 Signs That The United States Of America Is Being Turned Into A Giant Prison!
By Pooja

Readers, I first want to congratulate the criminals and paid shills in the US Senate for passing the bill S1867 that basically strips what is left of freedoms from the citizens of the United States once and for all. Now the US Government can call on its military to detain any US citizen on American soil without any charges at all and throw them in jail indefinitely. What is truly shocking to me is that the American public has just stood idly by, again, while this latest attack on their freedom and liberties has occurred, and has done absolutely nothing to stop this travesty!

For this article, I want to present the following report from the website: Refreshing News, at www.refreshingnews9.blogspot.com, entitled: "30 Signs That The United States Of America Is Being Turned Into A Giant Prison". The facts presented in this report are absolutely factual and very startling. I have some of my own comments to follow:



30 Signs That The United States Of America Is Being Turned Into A Giant Prison

If you live in the United States of America, you live in a giant prison where liberty and freedom are slowly being strangled to death. In this country, the control freaks that run things are obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that we do. Nothing is private anymore. Everything that you do on the Internet is being monitored. All of your phone calls are being monitored. In fact, if law enforcement authorities suspect that you have done something wrong, they will use your cell phone microphone to listen to you even when you think your cell phone is turned off. In many areas of the country, when you get into your car automated license plate readers track you wherever you go, and in many major cities when you are walking on the streets a vast network of security cameras and "smart street lights" are constantly watching you and listening to whatever you say.


The TSA is setting up "internal checkpoints" all over the nation, Homeland Security is encouraging all of us to report any "suspicious activity" that our neighbors are involved in and the federal government is rapidly developing "pre-crime" technology that will flag us as "potential terrorists" if we display any signs of nervousness. If you are flagged as a "potential terrorist", the U.S. military can arrest you and detain you for the rest of your life without ever having to charge you with anything. Yes, the United States of America is rapidly being turned into a "Big Brother" prison grid, and most Americans are happily going along with it.

The sad thing is that this used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave".

So what in the world happened?

A fundamental shift in our culture has taken place. The American people have eagerly given up huge chunks of liberty and freedom in exchange for vague promises of increased security.

Our country is now run by total control freaks and paranoia has become standard operating procedure.

We were told that the terrorists hate our liberties and our freedoms, and that we needed to fight the terrorists so that we could keep our liberties and our freedoms.

But instead, the government keeps taking away all of our liberties and our freedoms.

How in the world does that make any sense?

Have the terrorists won?

As a country, we have moved so far in the direction of communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany that it is almost impossible to believe.

Yes, turning the United States of America into a giant prison may make us all slightly safer, but what kind of life is this?

Do we want to be dead while we are still alive?

Is this the price that we want to pay in order to feel slightly safer?

Where are the millions of Americans that still yearn to breathe free air?

America is supposed to be a land teeming with people thirsting for independence. For example, "Live Free or Die" is supposedly the official motto of the state of New Hampshire.

But instead, the motto of most Americans seems to be "live scared and die cowering".

We don't have to live like this.

Yes, bad things are always going to happen. No amount of security is ever going to be able to keep us 100% safe.

We need to remember that a very high price was paid for our liberty and we should not give it up so easily.

As one very famous American once said, when we give up liberty for security we deserve neither.

The following are 30 signs that the United States of America is being turned into a giant prison.....

#1 A new bill that is going through the U.S. Senate would allow the U.S. military to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without trial. This new law was recently discussed in an article posted on the website ofthe New American....

In what may be a tale too bizarre to be believed by millions of Americans, the U.S. Senate appears ready to pass a bill that will designate the entire earth, including the United States and its territories, one all-encompassing “battlefield” in the global “war on terror” and authorize the detention of Americans suspected of terrorist ties indefinitely and without trial or even charges being filed that would necessitate a trial.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham is a big supporter of the bill, and he says that it would "basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield".

According to the PPJ Gazette, the following are three things that this new law would do....

1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and outside the United States;

(2) Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise be outside of military control, including civilians picked up within the United States itself; and

(3) Transfer to the Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement, penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department of Justice.

#2 U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman is asking Google to install a "terrorist button" on all Blogger.com blogs so that readers can easily flag "terrorist content" for authorities.

#3 Most Americans have no idea how sophisticated the "Big Brother" prison grid has become. For example, in Washington D.C. the movements of every single car are tracked using automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The following comes from a recent Washington Post article....

More than 250 cameras in the District and its suburbs scan license plates in real time, helping police pinpoint stolen cars and fleeing killers. But the program quietly has expanded beyond what anyone had imagined even a few years ago.

With virtually no public debate, police agencies have begun storing the information from the cameras, building databases that document the travels of millions of vehicles.

Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the District, which has more than one plate-reader per square mile, the highest concentration in the nation. Police in the Washington suburbs have dozens of them as well, and local agencies plan to add many more in coming months, creating a comprehensive dragnet that will include all the approaches into the District.

#4 In some American schools, RFID chips are now being used to monitor the attendance and movements of children while they are at school. The following is how one article recently described a program that has just been instituted at a preschool in California....

Upon arriving in the morning, according to the Associated Press, each student at the CCC-George Miller preschool will don a jersey with a stitched in RFID chip. As the kids go about the business of learning, sensors in the school will record their movements, collecting attendance for both classes and meals. Officials from the school have claimed they're only recording information they're required to provide while receiving federal funds for their Headstart program.

#5 Increasingly, incidents of misbehavior at many U.S. schools are being treated as very serious crimes. For example, when a little girl kissed a little boy at one Florida elementary school recently, it was considered to be a "possible sex crime" and the police were called out.

#6 But what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California earlier this year was even worse....

Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.

#7 In the United States today, police are trained to respond to even the smallest crimes with extreme physical force. For example, one grandfather in Arizona was recently filmed laying unconscious in a pool of his own bloodafter police rammed his head into the flood inside a Wal-Mart on Black Friday night. It was thought that he was shoplifting, but it turns out that he says that he was just trying to tuck a video game away so other crazed shoppers would not grab it out of his hands.

#8 Did you know that the government actually sets up fake cell phone towers that can intercept your cell phone calls? The following is how a recent Wired article described these "stingrays"....

You make a call on your cellphone thinking the only thing standing between you and the recipient of your call is your carrier’s cellphone tower. In fact, that tower your phone is connecting to just might be a boobytrap set up by law enforcement to ensnare your phone signals and maybe even the content of your calls.

So-called stingrays are one of the new high-tech tools that authorities are using to track and identify you. The devices, about the size of a suitcase, spoof a legitimate cellphone tower in order to trick nearby cellphones and other wireless communication devices into connecting to the tower, as they would to a real cellphone tower.

The government maintains that the stingrays don’t violate Fourth Amendment rights, since Americans don’t have a legitimate expectation of privacy for data sent from their mobile phones and other wireless devices to a cell tower.

#9 U.S. border agents are allowed by law to search any laptop being brought into the United States without even needing any reason to do so.

#10 In the United States of America, everyone is a "potential terrorist". According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.

#11 Most Americans are not that concerned about the Patriot Act, but that might change if they understood that the federal government has a "secret interpretation" of what the Patriot Act really means. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden says that the U.S. government interprets the Patriot Act much more "broadly" than the general public does....

"We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says."

#12 The FBI is now admittedly recording Internet talk radio programs all over the United States. The following comes from a recent article by Mark Weaver of WMAL.com....

If you call a radio talk show and get on the air, you might be recorded by the FBI.

The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.

The FBI says it is not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, but rather seeking access to what airs as potential evidence.

#13 The federal government has decided that what you and I share with one another on Facebook and on Twitter could be a threat to national security. According to a recent Associated Press article, the Department of Homeland Security will soon be "gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes".

#14 What you say on your cell phone is never private. The truth is that that the FBI can demand to see your cell phone data whenever it wants. In addition, according to CNET News the FBI can remotely activate the microphone on your cell phone and listen to whatever you are saying....

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

#15 In some areas of the country, law enforcement authorities are pulling data out of cell phones for no reason whatsoever. According to the ACLU, state police in Michigan are now using "extraction devices" to download data from the cell phones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking place even if the motorists that are pulled over are not accused of doing anything wrong.

The following is how a recent article on CNET News described the capabilities of these "extraction devices"....

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

#16 The federal government has become so paranoid that they have been putting GPS tracking devices on the vehicles of thousands of people that have not even been charged with committing any crimes. The following is a short excerpt from a recent Wired magazine article about this issue....

The 25-year-old resident of San Jose, California, says he found the first one about three weeks ago on his Volvo SUV while visiting his mother in Modesto, about 80 miles northeast of San Jose. After contacting Wired and allowing a photographer to snap pictures of the device, it was swapped out and replaced with a second tracking device. A witness also reported seeing a strange man looking beneath the vehicle of the young man’s girlfriend while her car was parked at work, suggesting that a tracking device may have been retrieved from her car.

Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.

The young man, who asked to be identified only as Greg, is one among an increasing number of U.S. citizens who are finding themselves tracked with the high-tech devices.

The Justice Department has said that law enforcement agents employ GPS as a crime-fighting tool with “great frequency,”and GPS retailers have told Wired that they’ve sold thousands of the devices to the feds.

#17 New high-tech street lights that are being funded by the federal government and that are being installed all over the nation can also be used as surveillance cameras, can be used by the DHS to make "security announcements" and can even be used to record personal conversations. The following is from a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson for Infowars.com....

Federally-funded high-tech street lights now being installed in American cities are not only set to aid the DHS in making “security announcements” and acting as talking surveillance cameras, they are also capable of “recording conversations,” bringing the potential privacy threat posed by ‘Intellistreets’ to a whole new level.

#18 If you choose to protest in the streets of America today, there is a good chance that you will be brutalized. All over the United States law enforcement authorities have been spraying pepper spray directly into the faces of unarmed protesters in recent weeks.

#19 In many areas of the United States today, you will be arrested if you do not produce proper identification for the police. In the old days, "your papers please" was a phrase that was used to use to mock the tyranny of Nazi Germany. But now all of us are being required to be able to produce "our papers" for law enforcement authorities at any time. For example, a 21-year-old college student named Samantha Zucker was recently arrested and put in a New York City jail for 36 hours just because she could not produce any identification for police.

#20 According to blogger Alexander Higgins, students in kindergarten and the 1st grade in the state of New Jersey are now required by law to participate "in monthly anti-terrorism drills". The following is an excerpt from a letter that he recently received from the school where his child attends....

Each month a school must conduct one fire drill and one security drill which may be a lockdown, bomb threat, evacuation, active shooter, or shelter-in place drill. All schools are now required by law to implement this procedure.

So who in the world ever decided that it would be a good idea for 1st grade students to endure "lockdown" and "active shooter" drills?

To get an idea of what these kinds of drills are like, just check out this video.

#21 With all of the other problems that we are having all over the nation, you would think that authorities would not be too concerned about little kids that are trying to sell cups of lemonade. But sadly, over the past year police have been sent in to shut down lemonade stands run by children all over the United States.

#22 The federal government has decided to invest a significant amount of time, money and energy raiding organic farms. The following example comes from Natural News....

It is the latest case of extreme government food tyranny, and one that is sure to have you reeling in anger and disgust. Health department officials recently conducted a raid of Quail Hollow Farm, an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) farm in southern Nevada, during its special "farm to fork" picnic dinner put on for guests -- and the agent who arrived on the scene ordered that all the fresh, local produce and pasture-based meat that was intended for the meal be destroyed with bleach.

#23 It is an absolute disgrace that all of us (including grandmothers and young children) must either go through body scanners that reveal the intimate details of our naked bodies or endure "enhanced pat-downs" during which our genitals will be touched before we are allowed to get on an airplane.

It is also an absolute disgrace that the American people are putting up with this.

#24 Invasive TSA security techniques are not just for airports anymore. Now, TSA "VIPR teams" are actively conducting random inspections at bus stations and on interstate highways all over the United States. For example, the following comes from a local news report down in Tennessee....

You're probably used to seeing TSA's signature blue uniforms at the airport, but now agents are hitting the interstates to fight terrorism with Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR).

"Where is a terrorist more apt to be found? Not these days on an airplane more likely on the interstate," said Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons.

Tuesday Tennessee was first to deploy VIPR simultaneously at five weigh stations and two bus stations across the state.

TSA "VIPR teams" now conduct approximately 8,000 "unannounced security screenings" a year at subway stations, bus terminals, ports and highway rest stops.

#25 More than a million hotel television sets all over America are now broadcasting propaganda messages from the Department of Homeland Security promoting the "See Something, Say Something" campaign. In essence, the federal government wants all of us to become "informants" and to start spying on one another constantly. The following comes from an article posted by USA Today....

Starting today, the welcome screens on 1.2 million hotel television sets in Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Holiday Inn and other hotels in the USA will show a short public service announcement from DHS. The 15-second spot encourages viewers to be vigilant and call law enforcement if they witness something suspicious during their travels.

#26 Certain "types" of American citizens are being labeled as potential threats in official U.S. government documents. An unclassified Department of Homeland Security report published a couple years ago entitled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" claims that a belief in Bible prophecy "could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons." The report goes on to state that such people are potentially dangerous.

#27 Back on February 20, 2009, the State of Missouri issued a report entitled "MIAC Strategic Report: The Modern Militia Movement". That report warned that the following types of people may be potential terrorists....

*anti-abortion activists

*those that are against illegal immigration

*those that consider "the New World Order" to be a threat

*those that have a negative view of the United Nations

#28 FBI is now instructing store owners to report many new forms of "suspicious activity" to them. According to the document, "suspicious activity" now includes the following....

*paying with cash

*missing a hand or fingers

*"strange odors"

*making "extreme religious statements"

*"radical theology"

*purchasing weatherproofed ammunition or match containers

*purchasing meals ready to eat

*purchasing night vision devices, night flashlights or gas masks

Do any of those "signs of suspicious activity" apply to you?

#29 Soon you may get labeled as a "potential terrorist" if you are just feeling a little nervous. A new "pre-crime" technology system that is currently being tested by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will soon be in use all over the nation. It is called "Future Attribute Screening Technology" (FAST), and it is very frightening. The following description of this new program comes from an article in the London Telegraph....

Using cameras and sensors the "pre-crime" system measures and tracks changes in a person's body movements, the pitch of their voice and the rhythm of their speech.

It also monitors breathing patterns, eye movements, blink rate and alterations in body heat, which are used to assess an individual's likelihood to commit a crime.

The Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) programme is already being tested on a group of government employees who volunteered to act as guinea pigs.

#30 The truth is that nobody puts more people into prison than America does. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.

To read about some of the crazy things that the control freaks running things have planned for the future, just check out this article by Natural News: "10 outlandish things the 'scientific' controllers have in mind for you in the near future".

Once again, despite all of this outrageous "security", it is inevitable that a lot of really bad things are going to happen in the United States in the years ahead.

When there are incidents of violence, it is also inevitable that there will be calls for even more "Big Brother" security measures.

We are going to be caught in a never ending spiral of tyranny where the "solution" is always even tighter security.

Eventually, we will have lost all of our liberties and freedoms, and we will probably be even less safe than we are today.

Do not be deceived. We could put a soldier on every corner, a video camera in every room of every home and an RFID chip in every citizen but that would not make us "safe".

Every single lawmaker that is backing these laws which strip our liberties and freedoms away deserves to be voted out of office.

If you love the United States of America, please stand up and say something while you still can.

Please use this article and other articles like it as tools. Share them with your friends and your family. If we can get enough people to wake up, perhaps there is still enough time to turn the direction of this country around.

Will the final chapters of the history of the United States of America be mentioned in the same breath as communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany, or will the final chapters of the history of the United States of America be the greatest chapters of all?

The choice, America, is up to you.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011

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New Entry

Senate approves indefinite detention and torture of Americans
Published: 02 December, 2011, 20:50


The terrifying legislation that allows for Americans to be arrested, detained indefinitely, tortured and interrogated — without charge or trial — passed through the Senate on Thursday with an overwhelming support from 93 percent of lawmakers.

Only seven members of the US Senate voted against the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, despite urging from the ACLU and concerned citizens across the country that the affects of the legislation would be detrimental to the civil rights and liberties of everyone in America. Under the bill, Americans can be held by the US military for terrorism-related charges and detained without trial indefinitely.

Additionally, another amendment within the text of the legislation reapproved waterboarding and other “advanced interrogation techniques” that are currently outlawed.

"The bill is an historic threat to American citizens,” Christopher Anders of the ACLU tells the Associated Press.

For the biggest supporters of the bill, however, history necessitates that Americans must sacrifice their security for freedom.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a backer of the legislation, says current laws protecting Americans are too lax. Rather, says the senator, anyone suspected of terrorism "should not be read their Miranda Rights. They should not be given a lawyer."

Graham adds that suspected terrorists, “should be held humanely in military custody and interrogated about why they joined al-Qaeda and what they were going to do to all of us,” although other legislation in the bill isn’t exactly humane. Waterboarding, sleep-deprivation and other methods outlawed in the 2005 Anti-Torture Act will be added to a top-secret list of approved interrogation techniques that could be used on suspects, American or other.

Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte said last week that "terrorists shouldn't be able to view all of our interrogation practices online,” and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) added during debate this week, "When a member of Al Qaeda or a similar associated terrorist group, I want . . . them to be terrified about what's going to happen to them in American custody.”

"I want them not to know what's going to happen,” added the senator and former presidential candidate.

Not only won’t they know their gruesome future, but they wouldn’t know their own rights — that’s because they won’t have any.

"We need the authority to hold those individuals in military custody so we aren't reading them Miranda rights," adds Kelly.

While lawmakers rallied with overwhelming support to approve the legislation against terrorists, it can also be applied to anyone, including American citizens, who are even suspected of terrorist-ties.

President Barack Obama has pledged in the past that he would veto the legislation if it made through Congress, and a White House official told the AP on Thursday that that threat still stands. As Obama is faced with a country on the brink of economic collapse so close to Election Day, however, a change of heart couldn’t be out of the question — the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 comes at a price-tag of nearly $30 billion below what Obama had asked for.


Brendan Smialowski