U.S. foreign policy has consistently changed over the last few years since Obama/Biden/Clinton took over. We saw it in Egypt where not only did President Obama and the U.S. government verbally support the political uprising but they assisted, along with big Tech, in perpetuating the events and called for a U.S. ally in the Middle East to relinquish power while simultaneously ignoring a similar uprising in Iran. In fact, Obama administration fingerprints are all over many of the events in the Middle East and his speech before the visit by Israeli leader Bibi Netanyahu, pronouncing it U.S. policy that the negotiations start at the 1967 Arab-Israeli lines with land swaps, signified a massive shift in U.S. policy in the Middle East. But yesterday, while watching the dreaded "Fox News Channel" I witnessed a pool video of Hillary Clinton speaking on the topic of the uprising in Yemen (ABC News Story here) where she said the following:
“We cannot expect this conflict to end unless President Saleh and his government move out of the way to permit the opposition and civil society to begin a transition to political and economic reform,”
Now, this struck a cord with me. I wasn't sure why at the time but the phrase "civil society" sent up red flags in my mind. Just a few short clicks later and I realized why I was thinking this way. It turns out that the definition of Civil Society varies slightly but the one most used is the one from the London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society (closed in Septe,ber 2010) which describes it as:
Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organizations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organizations, community groups, women's organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.
So basically, Civil Society refers to Community Organizations and unions (ACORN, SEIU, etc.) who operate independent of government and independent of the market systems. They are groups (non-profits, NGOs, faith based groups, etc.) that the left has used to advance their agenda over the years. So, Hillary Clinton is calling for Yemeni President Saleh to step down so that the community organizations and unions can begin to take over and reshape the country. The same unions and community organizations that have instigated revolts all over the Middle East. They are a mix of Socialist and Islamist groups with differing end goals who are uniting for the short term. Hmm...that sounds oddly familiar.... but I digress.
In Yemen, the groups vary from Al-Qaeda and Houthis, rival islamic jihadist groups to The South Yemen Movement and the Yemeni chapter of The Muslim Brotherhood. There are also influences from Middle Eastern, European and American left wing Socialist groups as there are in almost all of the Middle Eastern movements. Fundamental transformation indeed.
In Exodus 13:17, "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt." Instead, the Lord led the Israelites through the Red Sea (this is where Moses commands the waters to part..etc.)…God then leads the Israelites to Mt Sinai which is in the center of the Sinai Peninsula. It is here that the Jews are given the tablets containing the 10 Commandments and are taught God’s laws, and his rules for their worship of him (there was much more than just the tablets…Exodus is the book that explains this)…in Chapter 23 of Exodus, the following occurs:
God's Angel Will Prepare the Way
"I am sending an angel ahead of you. He will guard you along the way. He will bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him. Listen to what he says. Do not refuse to obey him. He will not forgive you if you turn against him. My very Name is in him. Listen carefully to what he says. Do everything I say. Then I will be an enemy to your enemies. I will fight against those who fight against you.
"My angel will go ahead of you. He will bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites. I will wipe them out.
"Do not do what they do. Do not bow down to their gods or worship them. You must destroy the statues of their gods. You must break their sacred stones to pieces.
"I am the Lord your God. Worship me. Then I will bless your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you. In your land no woman will give birth to a dead baby. Every woman will be able to have children. I will give you a long life.
"I will send my terror ahead of you. I will throw every nation you meet into a panic. I will make all of your enemies turn their backs and run away. I will send hornets ahead of you. They will drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.
"But I will not drive them out in just one year. If I did, the land would be deserted. There would be too many wild animals for you. I will drive them out ahead of you little by little. I will do it until your numbers have increased enough for you to take control of the land.
"I will make your borders secure from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. They will go from the desert to the Euphrates River.
"I will hand over to you the people who live in the land. You will drive them out to make room for you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land. If you do, they will cause you to sin against me. If you worship their gods, that will certainly be a trap for you."
So, the Lord ended up giving the Israelites (Jews) all the land from the Euphrates River (runs from the Mediterranean in the west (then South) to the Persian Gulf in Iraq (this would be the northern/western most boundary of the land known as “the Fertile Crescent” which God forbade his people from entering after Adam and Eve were tossed out for eating the forbidden fruit) and from the Red Sea to the Arabian Desert (present day Saudi Arabia)…At that time, the Philistines inhabited a very small sliver of land about 8 miles long x 8 miles wide along the Mediterranean Sea (due west of the Dead Sea) and beneath them were the Amalekites whose lands encompassed MOST of the Sinai Peninsula. David later conquers the Amalekites and the Philistines and fulfills God’s promise…
So I can hear you saying “Evan, you know what I meant…what does it mean to US.” Well look at what we now have here brewing in the Middle East. We know that Turkey, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and now Egypt (and arguably ALL of the North African countries) are all anti-Israel which now leaves them absolutely alone. Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally but they will not stand against ALL their Muslim neighbors, they will join them. Look at this map:
The Muslims have been corrupted by a version of Islam that perverts the Quran and they have become the Philistines and the Amalekites. They are uniting against Israel (and us)…and now OUR PRESIDENT is supporting the Islamic Extremists and NOT Israel…he is calling Israel the occupier. Yet the Bible (which Obama says he believes in) tells us different. Even the religion of Islam instructs its followers to believe the word of the Bible and the Torah, both of which contain the scripture above that shows God granting the "Promised Land" to the Jews. We have switched sides as a nation…these are bad times…Beck has been very right…
On the one hand, this is such a slap in the face to Christians and Jews around the world and in America that it is likely to not only wipe out the "bin Laden bounce" but to ensure Obama's 2012 defeat on foreign policy alone but on the other, if the current situation accelerates...we may not be around to see him lose.
I was included on an email thread by a friend about the reason oil prices are going up. I know my good Friend Rick Jensen (1-4PM on 1150WDEL www.wdel.com) has a bug up his butt about "speculators" and that he's had numerous "money people" from Peter Schiff to Stephen Schork on his show in an effort to prove his theory right and they have all pretty much said the same thing: Speculators ARE driving up the price...but that's their job. They are not the CAUSE and regulating them more won't do anything to reduce the price, in fact it might increase it. Anyway, back to the original thread, the email contained a piece by Brian Wesbury (click here to read the piece) in which he calls the theory of speculators to task.
Brian makes excellent points and points that I have been making for a long time. Stop looking at the difficult answers...the easy ones are where the "beef" is. Here is my response to the email thread:
Amen! I’ve been talking about this for a LONG time now. There are three main causes of the spike in oil prices: The Fed, lack of domestic drilling and the Middle East
The Fed – I think all of us on this thread understand that more money printed, drives down the value of the money in circulation just like more widgets drives down the price of all widgets (unless you add in union labor…but that’s another story ;]) which is nothing more than SIMPLE Econ 101 (most of our problems would be solved if we just went BACK to Econ 101) and the law of Supply and Demand. In the currency markets (again as you know) this is called inflation. The more you print, the less it’s worth. The reason is because our dollar isn’t BACKED by anything…really since the Fed was created, the dollar, that is to say the federal paper note, has been unpegged from hard assets like Gold. It’s no different than a personal loan, if you have collateral, for instance, you ask the bank for a loan for $100,000 to make a large purchase… if you give them the deed to your home in case you don’t pay it back, you are far more likely to get the loan than if you showed up with nothing. Why? You’re less likely to walk away from your home than you are from a promise alone. Our currency was once issued based on the amount of gold we had. The denomination of the currency was changed based on the finite resources of gold. Since paper notes relied on the issuing bank (remember, we had no central bank for large chunks of our history…currency was issued by local banks and based on their gold supply) maintaining gold reserves, bank runs and travellers redeemed their notes in physical gold (more often coins and bullion than gold nuggets). Now, our dollars are backed by what? The word of Congress. The word of politicians who lie to their wives, who lie to their GODS and who lie to US. Heck, the word of politicians who don’t even UNDERSTAND these basic truths. If there’s nothing behind the paper, what stops them from printing as much as they want? Nothing, and that is EXACTLY what they are doing now. They’ve gotten to the point where we now have more printed dollars in circulation than we create in revenue each year. That means we are actually backing up our money supply not with gold, or with revenue, but with IOU’s from the government. This is what they call “monetizing the debt”. This causes commodities that are PEGGED to the dollar, like oil, gas, food, etc. to rise in price as it takes more of the dollars to buy the commodity but what will happen is that intrinsically valuable items (gold, silver, etc.) will eventually replace the dollar as the peg for commodities and the market will reset. Speculators will shift to the gold market.
Lack of Domestic Drilling – Simply put, if we CREATED more supply at home, where WE had a stable source, and for that matter if our energy policy relied on proven sources of energy instead of Wind/Solar/Battery tech that doesn’t even yet exist, speculators would have no gloom to doom about. Or at least less. American energy RESOURCES are actually keeping speculators from driving the price up FURTHER because we do HAVE the coal, oil and natural gas that we can use for power if we need it (and we need it bad!) in an emergency and in the longer term with an administration with a better energy policy. Next time you drive by an oil derrick, coal mine or gas well, thank a gas company for keeping America running (even if the engine DOES need some work).
Middle East – If you don’t think the instability in the Middle East is contributing to speculator concerns, I’ve got some Oceanfront property in Arizona for you to check out ;) and it’s goin cheap! The Middle East is on fire, not just one or two countries either, I mean the ENTIRE thing. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Somalia (pirates) are all on fire and taking anti-American/anti-Europe/anti-Israel positions. It’s counter intuitive to think that people buying a product for the long term, wouldn’t look at what’s going on over there and say “Gee, oil might be hard to come by later, I think it’s going to be something I should take a chance on.” Any smart business person would plan for the future. So what goes on in the Middle East makes a difference, of course it doesn’t help that our American economy is also on fire and our credit limit is being downgraded.
It’s absolutely THIS simple. If we had a decent energy policy, drilled for our own oil, fixed our economy, got out of debt, cut spending and stopped printing money, the price would shrink.
No doubt you are aware by now that the Middle East has erupted in protests in the last few weeks. First, Progressive Democrats and the Workers Communist Party organized anti-government protesters in Tunisia who this week forced the RCD party out of power. That regime change sparked a revolutionary fire in other Middle Eastern and North African countries. As of today there are reports of protests from Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, and Jordan.
Yemen In Yemen the protest leaders are again cloudy. The country is split between north and south as the terrorist group Al Qaeda has all but taken over the southern half of Yemen. One of the lead organizing groups is the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom (HOOD). HOOD has defended Yemeni Jews who family members were murdered or imprisoned by the government and have worked to repatriate former Guantanamo detainees back into the Yemeni population. There work for human rights of ALL individuals suggests that they are not an Islamic theocracy based organization but it is yet to be determined if these protests are indeed pro-democracy.
Jordan
In Jordan the anti-government protests are being organized by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian Communist Party. In the video below you will see thousands of protesters carrying the flags of the Muslim Brotherhood and those of the Jordanian Communist Party.
The protests in Jordan are scary because Jordan is currently one of 2 Middle Eastern nations who have peace accords with Israel and one of a handful of real American allies. The other nation in the Middle East with a true peace accord with Israel is Egypt which is also in turmoil (more on that below). The Muslim Brotherhood is NOT currently on our list of state sponsored terrorist organizations but many believe they should be. They are the forerunners to Al Qaeda and are quite active in trying to create pro-jihad Islamic theocracies around the world. Hamas is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and is the second most successful MB attempt to hold power (the Sudan being the other). The Muslim Brotherhood, through Hamas, has shown that they are no friends to Israel and by extension other western nations (like America).
Egypt
Finally we will discuss Egypt. The protests in Egypt appear to be what we in America call "grassroots". They were inspired by the results in Tunisia and pro-democracy leaders who are tired of 30 yr incumbent "President" Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has suggested that he would be President for life and is suspected of grooming his sons to replace him. Only in the last 24-36 hours have the Muslim Brotherhood become vocal supporters. The MB is banned in Egypt largely because of their support of terrorism and its use as a political weapon. The movement in Egypt should be described as a pro-democracy uprising and not co-opted by the MB and their Islamic theocracy goals. Former IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and his support of the protests are cause for some concern. ElBaradei was handed a Nobel Peace Prize for ALMOST inspecting Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. He ALMOST helped the world avoid the Iraq War and in the world of the UN that is enough to deserve a Nobel Prize. Evidence of the pro-democracy slant can be seen in the people who are both Coptic Christians and Muslims and who have guarded each others houses of worship while the other prayed during the protests last week. All reports from the ground have been that these protests are mostly peaceful and that men, women AND children are involved. Babies and young children are part of the protests as well. I would call them Egyptian TEA Parties.
The government in Egypt has released prisoners from jail in an attempt to create chaos and blame it on the protesters and they have furthered the false premise that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind these protests and enjoys enough support to takeover the country. All reports about the MB in Egypt are that it is in fact a player but that it would not enjoy enough support to become a majority government. American TEA Party groups have seen this before. Government officials and supporters of the government in the media and on the American left rushed to claim Jarrod Loughner as a right wing TEA Party member when he shot Gabrielle Giffords in Washington just a few weeks ago. Loughner of course, turned out to be a lunatic who was closer to the left than the right but it didn't stop the media and the American left from attacking the TEA Party as the cause of the shooting. The same thing is happening to the Egyptians. Their movement is one of young and old, Muslim and Christian and men and women who are pretesting forcefully but peacefully. The violence should be denounced and is by the protesters but we cannot attribute it to the majority of the protests.
Support in America
Protests and demonstrations in support of the Egyptian people took place all across America this weekend. Fox News covered the events which drew tens of thousands across the country and thousands alone at the UN in New York City. Most of the protesters and demonstrators are showing support for the Egyptian people without another agenda but the Egyptian people must be careful not to allow their peaceful pro-democracy movement to be co opted by Communist revolutionaries. On Saturday we had the following image from FoxNews' coverage of a rally in support of the protesters in Egypt:
The demonstrators are holding anti-Mubarak signs but it's the banners that tell the real story. These are groups with major questions. The banner on the far right (only a small part is visible to the right of the JC Peace Movement banner) is from a group called Veterans for Peace:
I became a radical political activist in college in 1968 and was kicked out in 1969 for accidentally getting my picture plastered on the front page of the New York Times, Life, etc. as we escorted a dean out of a building we occupied at Harvard while protesting ROTC and the Vietnam War. I was drafted in late 1970. I didn't do things to avoid the draft and went into the army to organize against the war. The fact that I avoided the stockade probably meant I wasn't that effective, but we started a GI paper in Germany. They had just stopped sending grunts like me to Vietnam a few months before, although I would not have gone. I went back to school and had two kids who I helped raise as a half-time single parent. I worked as an electronics engineer and retired a few years ago. I do volunteer and VFP work now.
I was active in the Smedley Butler brigade in Boston in the 1980's around Central America issues, but then lapsed until 2005. I'll never make that mistake again. As Smedley coordinator, I helped plan the event that got 18 of us arrested on Veterans Day 2007 for being excluded from the American Legion event, and was one of those arrested. I coordinated the effort that raised $70,000 nationally for Winter Soldier. I hope to make a difference in VFP by serving on the Board.
This guy is proud to have been arrested and to have raised money for an event and a documentary film that portrays a group of military disruptor's as martyrs. VFP is full of these same types of individuals and their alliances are questionable.
THE PEACEMAKERS DEMAND a better world. Only a massive, united, inclusive and independent movement has the power to bring it into being.
WE DEMAND Bring U.S. Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan! End the sanctions and stop the threats of war against the people of Iran, North Korea and Yemen. No to war and plunder of the people of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Native People! End U.S. Aid to Israel! End U.S. Support to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the Siege of Gaza!
WE DEMAND trillions for jobs, education, social services, an end to all foreclosures, quality single-payer healthcare for all, a massive conversion to sustainable and planet-saving energy systems and public transportation and reparations to the victims of U.S. terror at home and abroad.
WE DEMAND an end to FBI raids on antiwar, social justice, and international solidarity activists, an end to the racist persecution and prosecutions that ravage Muslim communities, an end to police terror in Black and Latino communities, full rights and legality for immigrants and an end to all efforts to repress and punish Wikileaks and its contributors and founders.
WE DEMAND the immediate end to torture, rendition, secret trials, drone bombings and death squads.
JCPM and UNAC are radical anti-military pro-social justice organizations. Their affiliations with Socialists and Communists are tight and scary as is their support of cop killers like Mumia Abu-Jammal.
The final standard seen in the image above is as of yet unconfirmed. I've done some research and what I've found is that the symbol in the center of the flag is the Filipino symbol for Ka and the flag itself appears to be related to the Communist Party of the Philippines. I will admit that I have not yet been able to find the flag anywhere but I have found enough evidence to suggest that this flag is in fact related to the Philippine Communist movement.
People Power Revolution http://newphilrevolution.blogspot.com/
If you find more information about these protesters and supporters please post here and let us know.
The group that led the protests in support of Egypt nationwide is the Egyptian Association for Change. EACUSA is a progressive social justice organization pushing pro-democracy reforms in Egypt. Here is their logo.
