Globalization And Central Control

As we approach the Tribulation, things are moving along exactly as we would expect. Note the trends in recent news reports - this is an undeniable development:

Fast Track to State Surveillance - Not Just a German Issue / Sputnik International

The plan by Germany's coalition government, requiring telecoms companies to retain customer's data for ten weeks, is causing significant uproar among digital rights activists.

Telephone data, mobile phone GPS location and computer IP addresses will be retained in case security services need access to the information, as part of any investigation into terrorism, murder, manslaughter or sexual abuse. 

Judges will be given powers to grant authorities access — but no right of access will be given to lawyers, doctors, elected representatives or journalists.

"The retention times are much shorter and access to the data is much more difficult than before [in previous versions of the law]," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told a press conference in Berlin.

But the reassurances are falling on deaf ears of digital rights activists, who asked Maas at the press conference how the German government planned to justify the law. His answer was simple — the law would allow previously unsolvable crimes to be solved.

But state surveillance isn't just a sensitive issue in Germany. In Britain, controversial legislation — the Investigatory Powers Bill — which plans to allow British police the power to vet online conversations by suspected extremists is being fast-tracked into law by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. 

The government argues that the new measures will "maintain the ability of our intelligence agencies to target the online communications of terrorists, and other relevant capabilities."

Britain's new Investigatory Powers Bill is also causing uproar among privacy campaigners in the UK and has been criticized by the Islamic Human Rights Council, which says the new anti-terror law:

"…Signals the Tory government's intent to accelerate Britain's rapid descent into a totalitarian state in which the Muslim minority will be singled out for prosecution for 'thoughtcrime'."

Emergency Powers Give Barack Obama Authority Over Just About Everything During A Major National Crisis

There is not a single document or series of documents that contain all of the emergency powers that Barack Obama could potentially wield during a major national emergency.  As I mentioned above, these powers come from literally dozens of laws, regulations, court decisions and executive orders.  But in this article I will discuss a few important documents.  One of these is a presidential directive that was issued during the second term of George W. Bush.  It is entitled NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD – 51/HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD – 20, and you can take a look at it on the FEMA website right here.  This document is primarily concerned with the continuity of our federal government in the event of a catastrophic emergency.  So precisely what would constitute a “catastrophic emergency”?  The following is how the document defines that term…

“Catastrophic Emergency” means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;

That sounds quite broad to me.  It could apply to all sorts of scenarios.

If we do have such a “catastrophic emergency”, the president essentially becomes a dictator at that point.  The document certainly talks about the need to ensure that “constitutional government” continues, but during the course of the emergency there really is not much of a role for the other two branches of government to play.  Instead, the “shadow government” takes over under the overall command of the president.  The following is a short excerpt from the document…

Another document that raises a lot of red flags is an executive order entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness” that was issued by Barack Obama on March 16th, 2012.  This particular executive order updates previous executive orders, and it gives the president extraordinary authority during a time of national emergency.  Below, I have posted most of section 201 of that executive order.  As you can see, it potentially gives Barack Obama authority over just about everything during a time of national emergency if he feels it is needed for “national defense”…

Sec. 201.  Priorities and Allocations Authorities.  (a)  The authority of the President conferred by section 101 of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071, to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is delegated to the following agency heads:

(1)  the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources, veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial fertilizer;

(2)  the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;

(3)  the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;

(4)  the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;

(5)  the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and

(6)  the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction materials.

A similar executive order regarding national communications was issued on July 6th, 2012.

But the powers that Barack Obama could potentially wield during a time of national emergency are not just limited to what is written down.  This may shock many Americans, but it is true.  In the past, presidents have used their “emergency powers” to suspend habeas corpus, to place American citizens in internment camps and to seize private property.  The following comes from Wikipedia…

And it is important to keep in mind that Barack Obama now possesses far more power than any of those presidents ever did.  All it is going to take for him to exercise those powers is a major national emergency.  This is something that Jim Powell discussed in an article for Forbes…

Not long after that, we found ourselves in an open-ended national emergency declared on September 14, 2001 and extended since by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  This means the president has standby powers from hundreds of statutes that would enable him to re-introduce military conscription, seize private property and in myriad ways establish a government-run economy.

EU to get rid of cash – new economic totalitarian regime - The Daily Coin

In, Pushing You Into a Cashless Society, I made it very clear the criminals will not sleep until they take your cash. At that moment we lose everything. Any illusion of freedom or liberty or sovereignty will evaporate into the ether.

Brussels is going to bring about new steps in order to cope with the debts of European bank reserves. It decided not to undertake any further reforms to tackle the existing economic problems but rather to get rid of all cash.

To maintain the euro, they must maintain the banks. But the bank reserves consist of debts of all member states. As government becomes insolvent as in Greece, the banking system is undermined. The only way to prevent the banking collapse is to prevent people from withdrawing cash. Hence, we see this trend surfacing all the mainstream press to get the people ready for what is coming after 2015. We can even evidence this approach in major parts of Germany.

There will be no ability to buy or sell anything without government approval. That is where we are going and this may be the major event that erupts after 2015.

Thus, the European banking system may face totalitarian regime.

An American financier Martin Armstrong, best known for his economic predictions, is deeply concerned over the cash elimination.

The European countries are reportedly to eliminate cash in favour of electronic transactions, which will be easily controlled by the government.

Armstrong warns, that digital currency transactions offer total control via a seamless tracking of all transactions in the economy, and the ability to block payments if an uppity citizen dares get out of line.

Martin also reports on a secret meeting in London with the aim of getting rid of any economic privacy that remains, by ending cash.

EPA decides that pothole full of water on your property just might be a wetland

No act of Congress is involved here, but since when is that significant when we’re talking about the Obama Administrative State? The Clean Water Act of 1986 gives the EPA authority to claim jurisdiction over wetlands, and the language in the act leaves a bit of room for interpretation concerning just what a wetland is.

You know what the Obama EPA will do with that, right? Wetlands are supposed to be protected because of their importance to ecosystems. That’s why the act talks in terms of water with a significant nexus to a navigable waterway. In other words, it’s not supposed to be an excuse for the EPA to grab control over your land just because there’s a little water leftover after a rain storm, or some standing water in a pothole.

Who cares what the law says? Not your friendly EPA:

The EPA acknowledges that the “science available today does not establish that waters beyond those defined as ‘adjacent’” to these “significant” waters should be regulated. But forget science. The agency says its “experience and expertise” show there are “many” other waters that could have a significant downstream effect. Thus the EPA establishes an additional standard for significance that covers just about anything that’s wet.

So the new rule says the feds can also regulate waters within the 100-year floodplain and 4,000 feet of their claimed bailiwick or land features like prairie potholes and vernal pools that “in combination” have a significant effect. A pothole on farmer Dan’s land may not affect downstream waters, but the EPA could still regulate Dan’s pothole if regulators determine that prairie potholes collectively do.

So if you own land that occasionally features standing water, don’t let the EPA find out about it. You won’t be using that land for long. It’s a shame American citizens have to play keepaway with the federal government, but maybe people should have thought about that when they elected a president who clearly had inclinations to expand the power of the state at their expense. It’s not as if the signs weren’t there. Starstruck voters just didn’t want to see them.

Examining Trans Pacific Partnership

In an examination of what little information is available regarding this “behind-closed-doors” consensus of international political elites, the potentiality of the TPP free trade treaty being a disadvantage for American interests is alarming.  The agreement will facilitate the creation of global economic integration that will empower globalistic schemes, and place American interests at risk.  At first blush, the agreement caters to those that wish to annihilate national sovereignty, hindering America’s position on the global economic stage while redistributing the wealth of nations to other countries that may not be so far up on the world-stage ladder, while positioning global economics into a position to better enable internationalists to ultimately push aside domestic individuality while moving the planet closer to a one world model that can be more easily controlled by a worldwide centralized governing authority.

While on the surface, the Trans Pacific Partnership claims to be about free trade, it has little to do with trade, and is more about moving chess pieces around for those that have global aspirations.  The United States, in this agreement, joins 12 countries that includes Canada and Mexico, two countries we already have three-quarters of our foreign trade with - and of which is already covered by NAFTA (which has also been proving to be disastrous due to the agreement having similar globalistic provisions that places the United States at a disadvantage).  Growth exports are already covered by NAFTA, so while the TPP agreement is being heralded as a trade agreement, it actually has no significant relevance to our trade relations, or at least not in a manner that improves our position in relation from NAFTA.

The TPP agreement is not designed to grow trade because instead it is constructed in a manner designed to carry on, and double-down, on the destructive policies already in place because of the Obama administration

The statists in the federal government have been working to centralize power, and strip Congress of its constitutional authorities, since the nationalists around people like Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall began to take actions to circumvent the United States Constitution.  Under Barack Obama, however, we have witnessed an increased irrelevance of the United States Congress and a massive drive to complete the process of reducing the Constitution to nothing more than some forgotten, antiquated document that the liberal left claims was designed for the purposes of oppression, anyway.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly said he will make sure his policies are enacted, “with or without Congress.”  He has threatened to make agreements with Iran, and agreements regarding global environmental concerns, without the constitutional requirement of ratification from the U.S. Senate.  The representation of We the People is an obstacle to the statist left’s aspirations, and therefore Congressional involvement with the growth of a centralized authority maintained by a ruling elite must be eliminated. . . and TPP accomplishes just that when it comes to trade with other nations.  Under TPP, congressional oversight is largely removed, with a host of items through the agreement being transferred from the control of the U.S. Congress and the several State legislatures to international agencies and international trade courts.  To make sure the agreement is slammed into place, Obama is also using another mechanism that will allow the executive to bypass Congress called “Fast-Track.”

The realities regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership are shocking, placing more power over our trade into the hands of international overseers, and that is the reason for the secretive nature of the negotiations, and the release of little information about the agreement itself.  Like the Affordable Care Act, few know what is in the agreement, and whatever questions do arise regarding America’s role in the agreement will not be offered to be approved or resolved by American legislatures, but will be handed over to international trade courts to sort out, interpret, redefine, and control the language and overall application of the agreement.  The international courts can decide any way they want, and there is nothing, under TPP, the American People, the United States Congress, or the individual States can do about it.  This will, once the stage is set, allow players that stand against the United States to manipulate the provisions of the agreement, specifically giving China the opportunity to further erode America’s standing in international trade, and in the global economic picture.

The centralization of power into the executive branch is not the end-goal.  International rule, where wealth is redistributed in a global manner, and the individual sovereignty of nations is only a faint memory, is the long-term objective of the global ruling elites.  It is a worldwide manifestation of Jean Jacque Rousseau’s “General Will” and drive for an “Ordered Society,” where the will of the people is presumed not to be understood by the populace, but only by the ruling elite, and those that dare to oppose the laws put in place for the common good by the ruling elite must be restrained by the body politic. . . because “man must be forced to be free.”

In Washington, D.C., the system is no longer based on the constitutional construct that birthed our system.  The servants have become a ruling elite, a machine with bureaucrats and staffers that use threats and the selling of favors to accomplish the oligarchical desires of vicious masters.  Economies are manipulated by the press of a button, and the future of American liberty is being extinguished by backroom deals.

TPP allows the President of the United States to negotiate anything that falls under the TPP (which can be interpreted to mean anything) through the provision called “fast-track authority.”  Obama, under this agreement, can negotiate anything he wants.  Never mind treaties that at least require Senatorial ratification.  With TPP, “fast track” gives Congress no way to stop a power-hungry president, or tyrannical international agencies, from ripping up and tossing aside the philosophies and principles of the United States Constitution that have served as the rule of law in the United States, and has led this nation to prosperity under those principles.  TPP creates an expansive global power that is managed by a powerful few, and dismisses American interests, American sovereignty, and American exceptionalism.

If the expansion of capitalism on the world stage requires the United States to become a small speck of controlled dust in an ever-expansive global authority, never mind.  You can keep it.

Even If Patriot Act Expires, Government Will Keep Spying On All Americans Washington's Blog

Mass surveillance under the Patriot Act is so awful that even its author says that the NSA has gone far beyond what the Act intended (and that the intelligence chiefs who said Americans aren’t being spied on should be prosecuted for perjury).

Specifically, the government is using a “secret interpretation” of the Patriot Act which allows the government to commit mass surveillance on every American.

So it’s a good thing that the Patriot Act may expire, but don’t get too excited …

Wikileaks’ Julian Assange said today:

Our sources say that the NSA is not too concerned, that it has secret interpretations of other authorities that give it much the same power that it would have had under the secret interpretation of 215 and other areas of the USA PATRIOT Act.

ZDNet agrees … and notes that Congress doesn’t even know about many of the government’s spying programs. And see this.

Indeed, the government now uses secret evidence, secret witnesses, secret interpretations, and even secret laws. See this and this.

High-level NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake told us:

It’s not rule of law. This secret law, secret rule, executive authoritarianism has saddled up again.

Top NSA whistleblower Bill Binney told us that nothing will change unless we fire all of the corrupt officials within the NSA and other government agencies.

Constitutional and civil rights attorney John Whitehead agrees:

It doesn’t matter who occupies the White House: the secret government with its secret agencies, secret budgets and secret programs won’t change. It will simply continue to operate in secret until some whistleblower comes along to momentarily pull back the curtain and we dutifully—and fleetingly—play the part of the outraged public, demanding accountability and rattling our cages, all the while bringing about little real reform.

Thus, the lesson of the NSA and its vast network of domestic spy partners is simply this: once you allow the government to start breaking the law, no matter how seemingly justifiable the reason, you relinquish the contract between you and the government which establishes that the government works for and obeys you, the citizen—the employer—the master.

Once the government starts operating outside the law, answerable to no one but itself, there’s no way to rein it back in, short of … doing away with the entire structure, because the corruption and lawlessness have become that pervasive.

Also see:

Pentagon chief urges end to island-building in South China Sea | Reuters

Exclusive: Russia masses heavy firepower on border with Ukraine - witness | Reuters

Bird Flu could soon be passed from human to human, warns Cambridge professor  | Daily Mail Online

Top French diplomat to visit region to jumpstart peace talks | The Times of Israel

North Koreans in Iran to advance missile program, dissidents say | The Times of Israel

Ya'alon: Iran cynically fuelling conflict in Iraq, to ensure it remains a failed state | The Times of Israel

Why is the Arctic Important for Russia? / Sputnik International

Court bans ‘Choose Life’ license plate as ‘patently offensive’ in shocking ruling