James Corbett of CorbettReport.com

[RunningDeer]

Freedentity: Life in the Transnational Republic

“Freedentity,” [is a] notion [that] fuzzes identity at the edges, plays with the concept as it has been presented to us, and encourages individuals to find inventive ways to subvert the traditional forms of identification that have been assigned to us.

Recorded and logged, forged and stolen, tracked and traced, in this online age our identity itself is becoming one of our most valuable commodities. But the problem is precisely that: the commodification of something so central to our personhood.

Is it a solution in and of itself? Of course not. But in an age where identity is so central to our every move and action and yet is so poorly understood and never interrogated, it certainly can’t hurt to begin to push the boundaries and ask the questions of who we are and how we prove it.

(Full video in 3 weeks.)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ErznqDpwhFk

Published on Nov 27, 2013

CONTINUE WATCHING: http://ur1.ca/g3vmv



Our identities are increasingly taking the form of 'things' separate from ourselves: passports, IP addresses, customer loyalty cards. As long as we continue to allow outside entities to control, define and distribute these tokens of identity, we yield to outside agents the power over our personhood itself. Join us this week on the BoilingFrogsPost.com Eyeopener report as we explore the concept of "freedentity" and look at how activists are using innovative methods to undermine corporate and political attempts to control our identity.

From: TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8284

by James Corbett
BoilingFrogsPost.com

November 27, 2013

Recorded and logged, forged and stolen, tracked and traced, in this online age our identity itself is becoming one of our most valuable commodities. But the problem is precisely that: the commodification of something so central to our personhood. In an era where governments are tracking our every move through the digital realm and corporations are willing to pay top dollar for ways to better “know their customers,” the concept of identity has left the realm of the philosophical and entered the realm of the political and commercial.

Our identities are increasingly taking the form of ‘things’ separate from ourselves: passports, IP addresses, customer loyalty cards. As long as we continue to allow outside entities to control, define and distribute these tokens of identity, we yield to outside agents the power over our personhood itself.

Enter Jan Wildeboer. An Open Source evangelist by day, Wildeboer is also a proponent of a different way of looking at identity. Called “freedentity,” this notion fuzzes identity at the edges, plays with the concept as it has been presented to us, and encourages individuals to find inventive ways to subvert the traditional forms of identification that have been assigned to us. Last week, he presented the topic of “freedentity” to the fOSSA 2013 conference in Lille, France.

In order to reach that ideal, Wildeboer and the other “freedentity” advocates have experimented with a number of innovative ways of undermining corporate and political attempts to control our identity.

One of the most subversive and surprisingly effective of these ideas is that of the “Transnational Republic” project. This project, recognizing that the power to issue passports is not legally limited to nation states, has gone to the trouble of creating their own identity documents, which they issue to anyone wishing to become a citizen of their “transnational republic.” Conforming to ICAO standards, these identity documents look, act, and function like any national passport, and are used by Wildeboer and others to check in at hotels, pick up mail at the post office, and even cross national borders.

So what is the point of this idea? Officially referred to as an art project because, as Wildeboer notes, artists typically enjoy greater leeway for freedom of speech and action, its advocates are quick to assure a skeptical public that the goal is precisely to raise people’s eyebrows, to cause quizzical onlookers to take a second glance, to problematize the notion of identity in order to open up the conversation about identity and its uses in our society.

Is it a solution in and of itself? Of course not. But in an age where identity is so central to our every move and action and yet is so poorly understood and never interrogated, it certainly can’t hurt to begin to push the boundaries and ask the questions of who we are and how we prove it.

[RunningDeer]

What makes US Health Care so Overpriced? It’s Not What You Think

Maggie Fox NBC News
Nov. 12, 2013 at 2:44 PM ET

U.S. medical care is getting ever pricier, but it’s not because so many old people are running up charges, experts reported Tuesday. Most of the money’s being spent on people under 65 with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

And even though the U.S. spends $2.7 trillion a year, nearly 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), on health care, it’s not keeping up with the rest of the developed world when it comes to improving people’s health.

“It does show pretty clearly that price is the culprit here,” Dr. Hamilton Moses of the Alerion Institute in Virginia and Johns Hopkins University told reporters.

“Based on this review…the U.S. ‘system’ has performed relatively poorly,” Moses and colleagues wrote in the report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Their findings echo what other experts have found – U.S. health care gives little value for the money.

One big problem is that people have no idea what they are paying for health care services, so traditional free market forces cannot act to keep costs down. “This is not a market. It’s far from a market. Few prices are known. They are not publicized,” Moses says.

The perception is that a bigger proportion of the population is getting old and sick, and using more and more services. But Moses and colleagues say their review didn’t show that.

“In 2011, chronic illnesses account for 84 percent of costs overall among the entire population, not only of the elderly. [B] Chronic illness among individuals younger than 65 years accounts for 67 percent of spending,” they found.

“Price of professional services, drugs and devices, and administrative costs, not demand for services or aging of the population, produced 91 percent of cost increases since 2000.”

And while some opponents of health care reform have been saying the U.S. health care system is the best in the world, the statistics don’t support that.

U.S. life expectancy is getting longer, but it’s lagging behind the longer lifespans enjoyed by people in most of western Europe and Japan. And there are huge disparities across the country, with people in states like Mississippi considerably less healthy than people in Colorado or New York City. 

Moses points to a very big culprit – the standard fee-for-service system that encourages doctors and other caregivers to give lots of tests, individual treatments and to prescribe drugs, instead of keeping patients well. It’s not a new idea, but Moses says his team’s study shows it very clearly.

“This is a very myopic country,” he said. “There are lessons to be learned from other countries. Chronic illness is where the misery is, it is where the money is and it is where the greatest opportunity lies.”

Moses and his team deliberately did not look at some of the changes outlined in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. Moses said some of the issues have become too politicized. But the law does try to encourage hospitals and caregivers to move away from a system that pays for individual procedures to one that rewards for keeping patients well.

More could and should be done, Moses says, to encourage better care of people with heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

“It’s the partisanship that’s perhaps standing in the way,” he said.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama administration health adviser who now heads a health policy center at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees that focusing on patients with chronic illnesses is the way to save money. “Preventing them from getting sicker is going to be the most important thing we can do to save costs,” he told the news conference.

That might include a system that encourages home visits, since hospital visits are so expensive, he added. “(Patients) like it better and it’s cheaper," Emanuel said.

What Would Universal Healthcare Look Like in the U.S.?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jdF5S3agBa8

Published on Dec 10, 2013
Dr. David Himmelstein: The goal would be to expand Medicare to all, considering private insurance costs seven times as much to administer compared to Medicare

[RunningDeer]

Who Decides Who's Crazy? - Big Pharma and the DSM

How are disorders diagnosed? What criteria are used to establish disorders in the first place? Are the categories subjective? Do they reflect cultural biases?



Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PuH-qVjTtVA

Published on Dec 10, 2013

SUPPORT BOILINGFROGSPOST.COM: http://ur1.ca/g527g


TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8384



Commonly referred to as the psychiatric diagnostic "bible," the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has always generated controversy. How are disorders diagnosed? What criteria are used to establish disorders in the first place? Are the categories subjective? Do they reflect cultural biases?



Find out more about the DSM and big pharma influence over the modern psychiatric profession in this week's edition of the Boiling Frogs Post Eyeopener report.

[RunningDeer]

Lies, Damned Lies, and Government Statistics

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=cnXWuo9Hk8c

Published on Dec 11, 2013

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8399



Late last month former Bank of Canada governor and recently-appointed Bank of England governor Mark Carney surprised many by criticizing the quality of the economic data being provided by the UK's Office for National Statistics. To be clear, what was surprising was not that the ONS data is incomplete and misleading; everyone with an ounce of economic understanding already knew this. What is surprising is that a high-ranking bank official was admitting that the data they and the market in general is relying on is so unreliable. Find out more about the practice of cooking the books in this edition of The Corbett Report.

[RunningDeer]

How to Nullify the NSA (and every other tyrannical government agency)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mkB0sUzJ9Rk

Published on Dec 13, 2013

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8413

Hardly a week goes by that we aren't faced with some new outrageous piece of legislation from the increasingly tyrannical government. But once these bills have been passed, what can we actually do about them? What if stopping this legislation was as simple as saying "no"? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the nullification solution, a long-repressed piece of political history that offers us a way out.

[RunningDeer]

Media PTSD, Viral Truth, Hitila - New World Next Week

Suggestion: start here for 2nd story @ 7:40 quick link. GOOD ADVICE - turn it off.

(see below for specific follow up links)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rk0-gCOi6I4

Published on Dec 12, 2013

Welcome to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news.

This week:

Story #1: Reality Star Tila Tequila Converts to Nazism, Calls Herself 'Hitila' In Anti-Semitic New Song
http://ur1.ca/g6evd
Tila Tequila's open letter to the Illuminati
http://ur1.ca/g6i0s


Brittany Murphy poisoned? Samples retested find high levels of heavy metals, report says
http://ur1.ca/g6i14
MySpace Star-Turned-Conspiracy Theorist Tila Tequila Says Paul Walker Killed In "Ritualistic Murder"
http://ur1.ca/g6evf



Story #2: Can You Get PTSD From Watching Media Coverage Of An Event? Maybe.
http://ur1.ca/g6evg
Video: Can Watching Media Coverage of a Traumatic Event Be More Stressful Than Actually Being There?
http://ur1.ca/g6evi



Story #3: If A Story Is Viral, Truth May Be Taking a Beating
http://ur1.ca/g6evk
Beastie Boys Counter-Sue Toy Company GoldieBlox Over Copyright Claim
http://ur1.ca/g6evm
CIA Director Reveals He Wasn't Aware 'Zero Dark Thirty' Screenwriter Was Present at Bin Laden Raid Briefing
http://ur1.ca/g6evq
Toto Doesn't Approve of 'Africa' Playing During CBS' Mandela Memorial Coverage
http://ur1.ca/g6evs



#NewWorldNextWeek Tweets: JPMorgan Files Patent For 'Bitcoin Killer' Currency
http://ur1.ca/g6evt
Video Interview With Seymour Hersh On Syria Chemical Weapons Lies
http://ur1.ca/g6evw
Obama Administration Cherry-Picked Intelligence To Justify Strike Against Assad
http://ur1.ca/g6evz
Syrian Electronic Army Strikes Again
http://ur1.ca/g6ew3



Visit http://NewWorldNextWeek.com to get previous episodes in various formats to download, burn and share. And as always, stay up-to-date by subscribing to the feeds from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy. Thank you.

Previous Episode: Rice Smackdown, Sriracha Shutdown, Pizza Throwdown
http://ur1.ca/g6ew7

[RunningDeer]

The Open Source Solution

“And in an age where our lives are increasingly dominated by the opaque actions and pronouncements of central bankers, the fiat decrees of politicians in far-off locales, and the mass-produced consumer fodder of elite mega-corporations, this change in perception brings with it the possibility of a true change in the global economy and in human understanding itself.” (see transcript below)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LHcVZQ_v_9Y

Published on Dec 15, 2013

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8428



As governments and corporations around the world move to make their actions and products ever more opaque, a counter-movement is rallying around the opposite of flag of openness and transparency. Borrowing its metaphor from the programming creed of "open source," this movement is moving beyond the world of bits and bytes to find innovative, collaborative and open solutions to a whole host of problems confronting our everyday lives. Find out more about the open source solution in this week's GRTV Backgrounder.


TRANSCRIPT

[sub-links, sources, and podcast here]

“The Open Source Solution”

by James Corbett

Global Research TV
December 15, 2013

As governments and corporations around the world move to make their actions and products ever more opaque, a counter-movement is rallying around the opposite of flag of openness and transparency. Borrowing its metaphor from the programming creed of “open source,” this movement is moving beyond the world of bits and bytes to find innovative, collaborative and open solutions to a whole host of problems confronting our everyday lives. This is the GRTV Backgrounder on Global Research TV.

“Open source” is a concept that derives from the digital world of bits and bytes. Although the term itself originated in a strategy session in Palo Alto in February 1998 on the occasion of the release of the Netscape source code, the idea of “opening the source,” or allowing the users of a product to examine, modify, copy and share its source code pre-dates that meeting, or even the digital age itself. Hobbyists and enthusiasts of various crafts have often shared their designs for products as a point of pride or pursued the design of new products as a pastime without seeking monetary reward, but in recent decades, spurred by the open source software revolution, this idea has begun to take on a life of its own.

So what exactly does “open source” mean in the computing context?

Essentially, open source software is software that allows users to inspect, change and share the source code of the program. Instead of passive consumers of a program, users become part of a community to which they can choose to contribute if they are capable and inclined. The difference from everyday consumer culture, where shoppers simply line up to buy products that are already in their final form, and it is almost never expected that shoppers will actually try to open up or modify those products.

The open source concept is one that is well examined in the programming community and conferences around the world are devoted to discussing the implications of open source software and hardware. One of these conferences is fOSSa, an annual open source conference hosted by Inria, a public science and technology institute in France dedicated to academic research on computer science and mathematics.

fOSSA is not your average open source software conference, however. With a vision of exploring the borders of open source culture and the meaning of openness itself, the fOSSa conference explores different, non-computer oriented implementations of the open source concept each year. This year’s conference was held late last month in Lille, France, and included presentations on a variety of innovative projects and ideas, both in the digital world and in the real world.

One of those presentations involved OSVehicle, a project for an open source vehicle that has so far designed a road-legal car chassis that is downloadable for free from OSVehicle.com and which can be assembled from a kit in under one hour.

Open source evangelist Jan Wildeboer presented a lecture on open source identity.

The conference also featured a presentation from James Corbett on Open Source Journalism

The idea of openness is one that goes beyond the boundaries of software code, and is beginning to transform the way that people examine their relationship to the products that they use, and those around them.

Openness as a concept is one that has revolutionary potential, not just in the way that products are manufactured or distributed, but in the way that it transforms people from passive consumers into active members of a community. And in an age where our lives are increasingly dominated by the opaque actions and pronouncements of central bankers, the fiat decrees of politicians in far-off locales, and the mass-produced consumer fodder of elite mega-corporations, this change in perception brings with it the possibility of a true change in the global economy and in human understanding itself.

[RunningDeer]

New World Next Year - 2014

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=P0jbsomgnTo

Published on Dec 19, 2013

Welcome to http://NewWorldNextWeek.com — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week we look back at 2013 for the biggest stories of the year and look forward to 2014 with our picks for important trends for the new year:


[click here for archives discussed]

[CD7]

2013

WHhhhhAaaaaTtttttttttttT!!! What a wild ride!!!!



Dancing ... to Kings and Queens of ...to hallelujah ....to what am I witnessing? ...to what time/space am I in? ...to Dueling consciousness ...To moments of Grandeur and Magnanimous delights .... To what did I just see and hear? ...to feeling like ive been put in a wash cycle! And because I can only use 9 emoticons per message, a continuation in next post................

[CD7]

but in the end its been quite a good run And heres to 2014 !! ...may we see pigs fly and feel an overwhelming flow of



To [SIZE="4"]2014[/SIZE]!!!

[aviators]

Posted by Paula (here)
How to Nullify the NSA (and every other tyrannical government agency)

[youtube]mkB0sUzJ9Rk

Published on Dec 13, 2013

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8413

Hardly a week goes by that we aren't faced with some new outrageous piece of legislation from the increasingly tyrannical government. But once these bills have been passed, what can we actually do about them? What if stopping this legislation was as simple as saying "no"? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the nullification solution, a long-repressed piece of political history that offers us a way out.

Wow what a powerful word "nullification" This video needs to go viral !
Paula thanks for sharing. Can we start a new main thread on nullification? People need to here this and become aware of this tool. Corbett is a genius for reporting on this.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by aviators (here)
Wow what a powerful word "nullification" This video needs to go viral !
Paula thanks for sharing. Can we start a new main thread on nullification? People need to here this and become aware of this tool. Corbett is a genius for reporting on this.

Hello Aviators,

I look forward to anything James Corbett puts out. Yes! A thread with this information is a great idea. I put together the links from James nullification page. (see below) The one I'm listening to is great and added it below: "Thomas Woods: Nullification a Tool We All Have".

Feel free to use any or all of it.

Peace,
Paula

How to Nullify the NSA (and every other tyrannical government agency)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mkB0sUzJ9Rk

Published on Dec 13, 2013

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8413



Hardly a week goes by that we aren't faced with some new outrageous piece of legislation from the increasingly tyrannical government. But once these bills have been passed, what can we actually do about them? What if stopping this legislation was as simple as saying "no"? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the nullification solution, a long-repressed piece of political history that offers us a way out.

Thomas Woods: Nullification a Tool We All Have

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hxxJYbZktyQ

Uploaded on Feb 16, 2012

Best selling author Thomas Woods was Monday's keynote speaker and addressed the sheriffs and their guests at the evening's banquet, delivering a sweeping and humorous history of nullification by the states, and how it comports with the sheriffs' efforts to nullify federal and state tyranny. 



"And suddenly people are peering into the long neglected Thomas Jefferson toolkit. And they're looking for things that might work. Now some of these things, like nullification, I have to warn you, are not approved by the New York Times. And, in fact, what I tell you tonight does not fall inside that box that all good Americans are supposed to confine themselves to. We're supposed to be in that box. You all know it. It goes from Joe Biden to Mitt Romney. You're allowed to be somewhere in there. But, if you stray a little bit over here citizen, be careful, be careful - you're not respectable. Well my view is, is that it's our job as good and decent Americans to crush that box into the ground and then set it on fire."



On January 30-31, 2012 over 100 county sheriffs and peace officers, from over 30 states, united to uphold their oaths of office, protect citizen liberty, and stop state and federal tyranny. Inspired and led by the example of former Graham County Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, the meeting, which was held in Las Vegas, was funded by the generous donations of thousands of Americans from all fifty states, as well as the support of freedom loving sponsors. 


The agenda included training on the Bill of Rights, Interposition, Nullification and the importance of Property Rights versus Privileges.  Many sheriffs, a police chief and even a county commissioner shared their experiences, challenges and actions taken to uphold their oaths of office, directly with the sheriffs in attendance.



The videos of these presentations are shared here on the County Sheriff Project YouTube channel. We hope that you will share these videos with your own county sheriff and all the oath takers in your county.  To read the meeting agenda, see the event sponsors, learn more and show your own support for helping back more constitutional county sheriffs, visit http://www.CountySheriffProject.org  


From TheCorbettReport.com - Solutions: Nullification (Episode 289)

Podcast

Documentation:

Canada passes mask ban bill
Time Reference: 00:50
 
Japan state secrets law: parliament approves contentious bill
Time Reference: 01:03
 
China Passes Law for “Real Name” Internet Registration
Time Reference: 01:31
 
Obama passes law restricting free speech
Time Reference: 02:06

Virginia Nullifies the NDAA (New World Next Week)
Time Reference: 03:18
 
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (1798)
Time Reference: 09:30

TomWoods.com
Time Reference: 09:51 

Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century
Time Reference: 10:02

Thomas Woods: Nullification a Tool We All Have
Time Reference: 10:19

No Water = No NSA Data Center #NullifyNSA campaign from OffNow org
Time Reference: 18:59

OffNow.org
Time Reference: 20:45

 Michael Maharrey on The Corbett Report
Time Reference: 21:16

Humanity is Rising! – by Joshua Owens
Time Reference: 35:33

[RunningDeer]

Newsletter: vol 3 issue 47 (December 21, 2013)

To subscribe - TheCorbettReport.com: Open Source Intelligence News

I've moved the "Recommended Reading" & "Recommended Viewing" from the bottom to here:

Recommended Reading
Viva The New Journalism - The Rancid Honeytrap

Climate models exaggerate ocean warming by 66,590 Hiroshimas/day - HockeySchtick

Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code - University of Washington

Recommended Viewing
TPP: Bigger and More Dangerous Than ObamaCare

The NSA is Coming to Town 2013

Google is Going to Blackmail You

Happy New Year!

Friends,

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone. With the birth of my son in April, this has of course been the most momentous year of my life so far. It has also been an especially busy year at The Corbett Report, including a trip to Korea with GRTV, my presentation on Open Source Journalism in France, and a number of big stories, from the Boston Bombing to Michael Hastings to Russ Tice's revelations to the Syrian war that the alt media helped to avert.

As you may know, I'm planning on taking the podcast in a different direction in the new year with a "podcastumentary" series of more in-depth and polished mini-documentaries. My first attempt was released in November and the next one, taking a look at the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve, will be released in the next few days. I hope it's useful for you and look forward to your feedback on it.

After that I'll be taking some time off for a Christmas/New Year break with my family. As a result, there will be no newsletter and little if any updates to the website until January 4th. In the meantime, this might be a good opportunity to catch up with the (voluminous) Corbett Report archives. Thanks as always for your continued support, and I look forward to talking to you all again in early January.

Sincerely,
James Corbett
The Corbett Report
The International Forecaster

2013: A Look Back and a Look Forward

by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
December 21, 2013

At the beginning of the year, I decided to throw my hat into the ring with all the other analysts and make some predictions for 2013. As I warned at the time, my predictions were almost guaranteed to be wrong in their specifics, but the general trends and ideas might be more or less correct. So let's see how I did.

2013 Prediction #1: The global hyperinflationary meltdown that one would expect from this tidal wave of stimulus spending will not arrive this year. Instead, the markets-now well and truly decoupled from any sense of economic reality from all of these central bank interventions-will stage a counterintuitive rally in the first half of the year. Stocks will soar on the promise of this wave of easy money. The hangover will not kick in until the second half of the year at the least. The QE3 purchases of Mortgage Backed Securities will continue to have its intended effect of artificially propping up the US housing market, which will continue its growth from last year. This will keep the US economy looking better than it is (with a lot of help from the book cookers at the BLS and the other government number-fudging agencies). The Eurozone will start to fall even further behind in the currency war because Germany will act as a brake on the stimulus function of the ECB. Thus the Euro will lose out as currencies around the world devalue against it, and Europeans (except perhaps for the Germans, who may be able to weather the storm) will suffer even more.

Results: Mixed. Certainly the hyperinflationary meltdown did not take place and the markets did boom, culminating in all time highs for the S&P and Dow this week after the taper madness infected the markets. And I also hit the nail on the head about QE3 propping up the housing market. In fact, if anything the housing market is reaching bubble-like levels all over again. My Eurozone prediction was off, however. Not only did the EUpocalypse not reach a crescendo this year, but things went unusually quiet in the summer months as the Euro crisis was put on hold for the German election cycle. Things do seem to be taking off again now (especially in Italy with the pitchfork protests) but I'd say this part of the prediction was a miss.

2013 Prediction #2: This first wave of Obamacare/fiscal cliff tax increases in the U.S. will only set the stage for a broader national conversation on the need for higher taxes across the board in the face of the national debt crisis. The media conversation will focus heavily on the idea that these taxes are meant for the "wealthy" who will be defined as anyone earning over $250,000. By the time the taxes are hardwired into law, the meaning of "wealthy" will have been vastly downgraded (evenutally meaning anyone earning over $75,000). Look for Obama to float a plan for a VAT tax and some form of carbon tax or cap-and-trade scheme in this critical first year of his lame duck session.

Results: Miss. The grander conversation about taxing the rich has not taken place this year. Obama did not float his VAT tax plan and carbon taxes are no closer to reality now than they ever have been in the US.

2013 Prediction #3: European anti-austerity protests will reach a crescendo in late spring / early summer, and a new set of emergency measures will be rolled out by the ECB on the condition that the bank be given more power to unilaterally intervene in individual economies. Sold to the public by a mouthpiece media, most will go along with it willingly. In Asia, the failure of last year's ASEAN talks will lead to increased pressure to form a united front on the South China Sea issue. Accordingly, a meaningless, toothless code of conduct for the waterways will be issued and pushed at this year's summit. (Meanwhile, behind the scenes, American defense contractors will continue raking in the billions from the de facto military answer to China's presumed naval aggressions.) In hilariously hypocritical fashion, however, the same establishment mouthpiece media that obediently touts every globalist initiative will do their best to ignore (or ridicule) the BRICS development bank, which will get off the ground at the upcoming BRICS summit in Durban in March.

Results: Mostly miss, some hit. As mentioned above, the Eurozone crisis failed to crescendo as predicted. Having said that, the ECB prediction wasn't far off; Draghi has been campaigning throughout the year for the ECB to consolidate power through coordination of a European bank bailout fund, culminating in an appearance in Brussels this week where he urged the European parliament to create a Single Resolution Mechanism for bank crises. As for ASEAN, their negotiations with China over a South China Sea "code of conduct" have gone nowhere this year, and have given no indication that any agreement is going to be hammered out anytime soon. Having said that, the defense contractor claim was spot on; spending in the region has ballooned this year on the back of the supposed growing menace of the Chi-coms. The BRICS prediction was a complete miss. The BRICS summit was a flop and the development bank did not materialize in the way many were predicting (although it's not off the table for future summits...).

2013 Prediction #4: The "responsibility to protect" card may yet be played in Syria, depending how the conflict plays out. If and when it looks like intervention is back on the table, expect the "international community" to once again start making the case that a "no fly zone" (i.e. bombing campaign) in the name of "protecting Syrians" is just what the doctor ordered. Meanwhile, a political crisis in Africa (perhaps in Yemen or Sudan) will create similar calls for foreign military intervention...and provide a convenient excuse for AFRICOM to continue squeezing its foot through the door into the African continent.

Results: Mostly hit. Certainly Syria remained on the boil throughout the year and we all saw what happened in the wake of the chemical weapons false flag and the run up to military intervention. The most surprising part of that whole episode was the fact that the mass protests that erupted actually managed to derail the headlong rush to war and an off-the-cuff remark from Kerry was pounced on by Putin to shame the US into remaining peaceful. The 'political crisis in Africa' prediction was particularly prescient, with France becoming embroiled in Mali and the Westgate shopping mall attack serving to further the African Al-Qaeda myth that is setting the stage for AFRICOM's expansion on the continent.

All in all, my 2013 predictions didn't pan out too badly. But perhaps that's because they were relatively safe predictions. This year, let's make some insanely specific predictions. Yes, they are almost inevitably going to prove inaccurate, but they can at least allow us to run some interesting thought experiments and see what trends we can discern. So, without further ado:

Bold Prediction for 2014 #1: North Korea's government will collapse this year. Chaos will follow. China will fear millions of refugees spilling across the border and into their country, but they'll fear the US or their allies stepping in to "restore order" on their doorstep even more. This will lead to a tense impasse when China implies there will be "consequences" if US troops try to cross over the border from South Korea. The impasse will be solved when an intense round of negotiations at the UN Security Council leads to the creation of a UN protectorate interim government in preparation for a reunification process with South Korea.

Reasoning: Earlier this month it was announced that Kim Jong-un's uncle, previously thought to be a favored advisor, was executed. Like everything else in North Korea, this incident is shrouded in mystery: when did the execution actually take place? Why did it happen? Does this signal an attempt by the military to isolate Kim Jong-un and increase their own power, or an attempt by Kim Jong-un to consolidate his power and more firmly assert his control over the country? There are a lot of questions here and very few answers. It is at least conceivable that Kim does not have full control over the country right now, and I don't think observers would be any more stunned by the collapse of his government than by any other piece of news. In the wake of such a collapse, all of the simmering tensions in the Asia-Pacific region would come to the fore, and it would be a potential flashpoint for military confrontation. Looking at the larger trend, however, in which Chinese-US tension is a smokescreen for the larger globalist agenda, it wouldn't be hard to imagine how turning to the UN could be the nice globalist "solution" to a North Korean nightmare.

Bold Prediction for 2014 #2: The 'revelations' of NSA spying will continue, causing a 'solution' to emerge: 'reform'! Ideas will fly fast and furious, with some floating the idea of impeaching Obama, and others suggesting a constituational amendement to deal with the idea of 'digital rights.' Ultimately, though, the political "consensus" will settle on the creation of a new oversight committee in Congress, the appointment of a 'Privacy Czar' by Obama to mirror the 'privacy commissioners' that exist in other countries, and a new set of rules and procedures for the intel community to follow for collecting various kinds of data on Americans. Snowden himself will leave Russia when his temporary asylum runs out in August, making his way to Iceland whereupon he will become a mysterious, hermit-like icon a la Assange, issuing pronouncements on digital security from time to time while pundits and government stooges fret about what to do about him.

Reasoning: We can already see the writing on the wall. A federal judge has just called the NSA spying program "Orwellian" and ruled it unconstitutional. An "expert" advisory panel is recommending that the phone records collection program be brought to an end...as if all the NSA is doing is collecting metadata on people's phone calls (hasn't the conversation moved past this by this point?). Politicians are looking for a way to save face (and, more importantly, save their seat in the next election), so expect lots of warm and fuzzy rhetoric about privacy and the 4th amendment in the coming months from the same cast and crew that have let these programs develop under their nose for the past couple of decades. Foreign leaders will also give blustery speeches expressing outrage that this is going on, while behind the scenes they're all doing it themselves and often cooperating with the NSA outright in order to do so. Everyone is looking for a way out and 'reform' is generally the easy political answer. Meanwhile, the idea will be in the back of everyone's head that Big Brother really is watching you at all times. Welcome to the Panopticon.

Bold Prediction for 2014 #3: People will finally stop waiting for the government to label GMO foods and protect them from the banksters and regulate labor practices and manage healthcare and bring criminals to justice and direct the economy and they'll start taking matters into their own hands. The idea of self-sufficiency will go viral and this will be the year of the non-GMO project and complementary currencies and boycotts and buycotts and open source everything and pirate internet and community gardens and just generally getting off the grid.

Reasoning: One can always dream...

And on that slightly optimistic note I look forward to continuing to cover the ups and downs and setbacks and solutions and hardships and triumphs with all of you in 2014. I hope you stay warm this winter, and my best wishes to all. May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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It's a Wonderful Life