Seems the world has changed in the last 24 hours

[McKenzie]

I have spent four years trying my level best to follow the trail that started, for me anyway, on September 11th, 2001. Along the way I have encountered conspiracy nutcases, deluded "the end is nigh" types and just common or garden idiots. Those people, I have ignored.

As I travelled further away from 9/11 I started to encounter stories that could not be dismissed so easily. I read about, and heard audio clips, and watched video footage that started to form the basis of a plausible idea. That idea was so left field I started to think it was time to question my own sanity.

The plausible idea was that two worlds exist. One is the world we have always been lead to believe in. One where there were a few bad guys who were usually caught out. The other was a world that is difficult to believe in, inhabited by hugely powerful financial interests whose power transended that of elected governments. Those interests do exist, it seems, and they have been around for a long time. A section of Eisenhower's famous speech now makes sense:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society."

The reasons for propping up dodgy regimes with vile human rights records are now clear. The reasons for scandals such as Enron, and the concomitant loss of pensions for thousands of people who had given their trust, only to see it betrayed, are likewise clear. Many other examples could be cited but these two are sufficient to illustrate the point. The rationale that underpins the "other" world is predicated upon profit for the few with warfare as one of the central drivers and enforcers.

What has emerged in the last 24 hours should convince anyone who has formerly had doubts about the mess we are in. It's a sad day but it's also a good day. Maybe this is just the start of something better because people now realise that two worlds do exist.

<edit>spelling

[sarcasmo]

1. This should be sent to every Delphi employee. McKenzie I must

say, well written. Kicked and Nominated.

[mestup]

2. Excellent post! (When worlds collide, indeed.)

[babylonsister]

3. Very well said, McKenzie. And the quote from Eisenhower,

a military man, is especially poignant. Thank you!

[Horse with no Name]

4. Eisenhower was quite the soothsayer

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Great post. Nominated.

[WiseButAngrySara]

13. Your Eisenhower quote is excellent too! How prophetic...and strange

that it would take DU to really make me an admirer of Eisenhower! Some of his quotes (on the MIC-Military Industrial Complex, human rights and democracy, etc.)have been posted here, and I would have probably never read them otherwise. Cudos to Eisenhower, a dying breed IMHO.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. I think he probably knew these people

I wouldn't be surprised if he knew of them and was warning us for what would happen now. I just wish more people knew of this warning and heeded it. We might not have been in this mess we're in. Hopefully, and I pray, that he is right.

[TomClash]

5. Excuse my ignorance

but how has the world changed in the last 24 hours?

[McKenzie]

10. sometimes a little rhetoric is necessary to convey the point.

regards TomClash

[TomClash]

11. Well, of course

I wholeheartedly agree with your post.:)

[Nite Owl]

6. Great post McKenzie

Let's hope better days are coming. I am cautiously optimistic, afraid to be any too hopeful yet. Maybe it just had to go this far before people could really understand.

edited for bad spelling

[readmoreoften]

7. I'm confused. Why the last 24 hours?

Did I miss something? The government's been actin' funny for the past 5 years as far as I'm concerned.

[McKenzie]

9. hahaaa...well said

what I tried to say was that it started to coalesce today.

You are right though; this shower has been around for more than 24 hours.

cheers

[leeroysphitz]

28. Are you being deliberately cryptic, or am I just Dense? n/t

[readmoreoften]

8. delete (double posting)

[TomClash]

12. Kicked, nominated and

it's well past time for a Popular Front.

[WiseButAngrySara]

14. K and R! Let's get the comments generated on this excellent post. I have

to leave for dinner, but I'll be back to read later. Thanks!

[democrat in Tallahassee]

15. Last time we saw the other world so clearly was November 22, 1963

I'll never believe anything else. Kennedy was in the way and had to go

[screembloodymurder]

21. Please excuse my ignorance, but what happened in the last 24 hr.

?

[HomerRamone]

22. Yes, please, what are you talking about? eom

[FreedomAngel82]

32. Exactly

There was a great JFK investigation on his assisination Sunday night on the "magic bullet theory" and they proved it was wrong. Kennedy wanted to "clean up" the CIA and they couldn't have that. If only the Secret Service were protecting him as they should've been. :cry: He'd still be with us.

[spanone]

16. Grave implications indeed. Kick & Nom

[BeFree]

17. In my best Firesign theater voice over:

"Welcome To Reality"

Even our forefathers fought the mega-conglomerate. Ike recognized it's possiblly overwhelming effects on society and we are being overwhelmed.

"Welcome to the Future"

...a world that is difficult to believe in, inhabited by hugely powerful financial interests whose power transended that of elected governments.

[FreedomAngel82]

It is hard to believe at first

That things so horrible could happen in your own country. This is what you read about that happens in other countries such as with Germany. Not your own. But once you see the truth and you know it than everything becomes clear and crystal again and you can work on change etc. I know my world has been different since I learned the truth.

[bobbieinok]

45. for me the 'end' was pictures from AbuG + post Katrina NOLA

and W eating cake and 'playing' the guitar

[eridani]

39. And never forget--

--that everything you know is wrong! And also that there's a whole dead cat in every bar of Dead Cat Soap!

[newharper]

18. As a non american

I'd just like to say that such would be much appreciated, (err, smugshitbagsmilie appears to be missing), but I would seriously appreciate a foreign affairs forum on this website.

[babylonsister]

19. There is a UK forum here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=191

[newharper]

26. Uk Forum

Ta,
just looked at it, and it's an ex-pat forum, nothing wrong with that, I was an expat myself for 13 years, roughly 10 in germany and 3 in the US; not however somewhere to discuss foreign policy.

U.S. State policy affects millions of people worldwide.

Wouldn't a forum where everyone from South Americans to South-East Asians, not exxcluding us euros can discuss matters be a plus.

[CJCRANE]

40. Anyone from anywhere

can discuss things on this site. There are quite a few British DUers already. Just pitch in.

[Olney Blue]

20. Hi newharper,

Welcome to DU. I think your idea is a great one.

:hi:

[newharper]

27. Foreign Policy Forum

Thanks,

and it does.

[The2ndWheel]

23. Power works the same in any age

"Maybe this is just the start of something better because people now realise that two worlds do exist."

That's what they probably said in 1776 too. And with all the laws, regulations, and legislations, we still have corporations working as people overpowering elected governments the world over. Power isn't stupid; it does what it must to stay alive, constitution or no constitution.

[enid602]

24. investigation

Get to the bottom of 9/11. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to New Yorkers, and I fear we owe it to the Arab World as well.

[Beam Me Up]

25. 9/11: The crack between the worlds is right there.

It may yet be their downfall. Here's hoping.

[snot]

29. If you haven't already, read "Gravity's Rainbow" --nt

I read that eye-opener 30 years ago and, sorry to say, only gradually realized how real that "fiction" is.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. I think so too

Hopefully everything with the case Fitzgerald is on will reveal the truth and than in 2006 the democrats can win back the House and Senate and hold real hearings. Cynthia McKinny has been a pioneer in the truth about 9/11. You should check out some of her discoveries etc. If anyone can lead the investigations it's her. I trust her so much. Her and Conyers and other democrats. We can make everything one again. And with the "consperiacy theories" remember something important. Hitler did it with his people so why couldn't it happen again?

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Oh, you probably don't believe Oswald killed JFK, either.

(Neither do I)

Nicely written.

[Psyop Samurai]

34. Congratulations on your epiphany...

If I understand correctly, *that's* what happened in the last 24 hours...

or is it?

How is it that your epiphany "should convince anyone who has formerly had doubts about the mess we are in"? People now realize that two worlds exist? Really? And which people might those be?

Good that you managed to ignore all those "conspiracy nutcases", and distanced yourself from all that easily dismissed 9/11 rubbish to arrive at your current vision, a vision moments from being universally embraced as self-evident truth.

:sarcasm:

[Dunedain]

35. Funny you should say that

I was thinking just the opposite.

I'm happy the doctor isn't going to take my leg, but it's going to take some time to get used to this cast.

[alittlelark]

36. 9-11 was a different experience for me.

perhaps for others here as well. Got Truth?

[rman]

37. Propping up dodgy regimes is official policy,

it's just that official policy is not the same policiy as we're being told. Two worlds indeed.


From a debate between Noam Chomsky and Richard Perle at The Ohio State University in 1988 http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=8409

"Official doctrine is quite inconsistent with the historical and documentary record. (Official doctrine) conforms to the pattern of evolving events, and is entirely inconsistent with widely proclaimed doctrine." - Noam Chomsky

Quotes from declassified State Department documents from 1948:

On the 3rd World:

"...a source of raw material and markets for the industrialist capitalist powers, to be exploited for their reconstruction"...

On Latin America:

"Prime concern is the protection of our raw materials. We have 50% of the worlds wealth but only 6% of its population, we must maintain this disparity to the extent possible, by force if necessary, putting aside vague and idealistic slogans such as human rights, raising of living standards, democratization, preferring police states if needed over democracies that might be to liberal and to indulgent to communists, the latter has lost any substantial meaning in US political rhetoric, referring simply to anyone who stands in our way."

"The primary threat to the US in Latin America is the trend towards nationalistic regimes that respond to popular demand for improvement in low living standards and production for domestic needs. That's not acceptable because the US is committed to encouraging a climate inductive to private investment, in particular guaranties for opportunity to earn and in the case of foreign capital to repatriate a reasonable return."

"We must therefore oppose what is regularly called ultra nationalism in secret documents, that means efforts to pursue domestic needs. We must foster exports or (...) production in the interests of US investors. It is recognized such programs have very little appeal to the Latin American public. So the conclusion is that we must therefore gain control over the military which can in turn control domestic opposition and overthrow civilian governments if necessary."

"One learns a lot from looking at the documentary record, and one learns a lot from the fact that certain people don't want you to look at it." - Noam Chomsky

====

"There is a declassified State Department paper from 1948 that outlines what the US intended to do with various regions of the world after World War II. The US decided to take the Middle East and Asia. When it came to Africa, the document essentially says that we're not so interested in Africa, so we'll give it to the Europeans to "exploit"-that's the word used-for their reconstruction." - Chomsky
http://www.madre.org/articles/chomsky-0801.html

====

I. Fundamental Principles: Straight Power Concepts

The fundamental aims of Western foreign policy under American leadership, were stated in a now declassified top-secret planning report produced by the US State Department’s policy planning staff, headed at the time (February 1948) by the ‘liberal’ George Kennan: "We have about 50 per cent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 per cent of its population... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain’ the ‘position of disparity’ between the West and the rest of the world. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction... We should cease to talk about vague and... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we will have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.’
http://www.transcend.org/t_database/articles.php?ida=78

[EuroObserver]

42. ¡Ufffffff! n/t

edit: punctuation.

[rman]

38. "whose power transended that of elected governments" - example:

NAFTA's chapter 11

"...gives corporations rights to sue governments in special tribunals, for unlimited compensation for profits lost due to normal governments activities."

"...there have been cases, like "Metalclad".
An American company called "Metalclad" went down to Mexico to build a toxic waste dump on an aquafer; the local supply of water. The government said "no, this goes against our environmental laws".
The people are getting poisoned from the water - what corporation has a right to poison our water? The government passed a law that said "no, you can't operate this thing".
They said "that's to bad, we have rights as a corporation that outweigh your human rights". They sued them for 17.5 million dollars saying it was a barrier to fee trade.
This US corporation takes the Mexican government to a NAFTA court, sues under this chapter eleven, and the ruling is - the Mexican government has to pay millions of dollars in "penalties", for "lost profits" of this corporation."

from the documentary "Trading Freedom" (Indymedia)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/01/284511.html

also documented at

Berkeley University
http://are.berkeley.edu/courses/EEP131/classpresentations/Metalclad.pdf (PDF)
(turns out the amount in penalties to be payed by the Mexican government was reduced, but "...the judge agreed with the NAFTA panel on the merits that the actions of the Governor constituted expropriation".

New York Law Journal
http://www.clm.com/pubs/pub-990359_1.html

Stop FTAA
http://www.stopftaa.org/article.php?id=37

"NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-to-State Cases: Bankrupting Democracy"
http://are.berkeley.edu/courses/EEP131/Nafta_Chapter11.pdf (PDF)

[CJCRANE]

41. There's always been a "double-truth"

throughout history in religion and politics: one story for the masses with the behind-the-scenes truth reserved for the elite.

With the popularity of the internet in the last 5 years it's just that it's easier for more and more people to see this "double-truth" because of easier access to official documents and info from all over the world.

Coupled with that is that the neocons have been so blatant and arrogant in the last 5 years that it's pretty easy to see what they're up to.

[Leopolds Ghost]

43. ..."the world has changed in the last 24 hours"

Hmm, for some reason this original post reminded me of
the lyrics to a Crowded House song...

Four seasons in one day
Lying in the depths of your imagination
Worlds above and worlds below
Sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain

Even when you're feeling warm
The temperature could drop away
Like four seasons in one day

Smiling as the shit comes down
You can tell a man from what he has to say
Everything gets turned around
And I will risk my neck again

You can take me where you will
Up the creek and thru the mill
Like all the things you can't explain
Like four seasons in one day

Blood dries up -- like rain, like rain
Fills my cup -- like four seasons in one day

Doesn't pay to make predictions
Sleeping on an unmade bed
Finding out wherever there is comfort there is pain
Only one step away
Like four seasons in one day

Blood dries up -- like rain, like rain
Fills my cup -- like four seasons in one day

[Seansky]

44. Thomas Jefferson's witches

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt."

But everytime the cycle repeats, the country (and this time, the world) would never be what it was...