American Job seekers wait in a queue, their resumes in hand!

A woman in France collects food from the garbage!

Friends, these sobering photographs from Reuters may well be connected. As the world’s economic and financial problems drag on and the ranks of the unemployed swell even further, the number of people foraging in garbage bins will inevitably increase.

The trend is for firms and corporations to fire workers in a recession because no one is buying their products and services so their income and profit stream diminish to a trickle. In turn, this means that less and less people can afford to buy anything and  it also means that Governments have less tax money to spend on welfare support payments and the other financial demands that they face.

This progression can have only one outcome and it’s shown in the bottom photograph. Of course, the path the world was on, the craziness of stimulating excessive demand (greed)  for good and services by extending credit to all and sundry whether they could pay it back or not, could have only one outcome as well. The bubble has burst and now the world is trying to pick up the pieces and put them back together.

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Friends, this may come as a shock to some of you but God has spoken to me, an atheist. This means I have joined the exalted ranks of the likes of George W Bush and, like him, I’m on a mission. How did it happen, you ask?

The details are sketchy but, during my sleep last night, I had a dream, a vivid dream, one unlike any I’ve ever had. I was walking along this forest track when suddenly a frog jumped on my leg. It was red and its eyes were scary.

Patiently, I waited while it climbed up to my chest where it rested, never once taking its eyes from my face. Then it spoke. “I’m God!” it said in a thunderous voice.

Of course, I feel to my knees as one does in the presence of God. “For…for…forgive me…me my sins,” I stammered.

“Get up, human. You’re making a complete fool of yourself.”

“Not an unusual thing for humans,” I said meekly, rising to my feet. “But it comes as a shock to find that God is a red frog, your esteemed Eminence.”

“I know. It really pisses me off the way humans have misrepresented me down through the ages. All those ugly paintings of me with a massive human body and unkempt hair. I have accorded the deceivers special punishments,” he said and winked.

“Like what?” I asked tremulously.

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Friends, you may think that this is a scene from off the coast of Somalia but in fact it’s not! It’s off the coast of Gaza and the Israeli Navy has boarded this vessel and is taking it to their port in Ashdod.

Was this vessel bulging with weapons of mass destruction you may ask? No, it was filled with humanitarian supplies for the besieged Gazans, things like food and medical supplies like blood plasma.

Were the people on board terrorists? No, 20 in number, they were peace activists and half were  journalists.

Was it a peaceful boarding? No! According to Reuters and Al Jazeera, shots were fired at the freighter. Then, soon after, correspondent Salam Khoder said, “Three of them are pointing their weapons at us…They are beating those on the vessel, they are beating and kicking us.”

The passengers had their mobiles taken and the ship’s communication systems were smashed. The passengers are to be questioned in Ashdod. Their crimes? They tried to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.

What is going to happen to them? “Once the questioning is completed we will make a decision on their fate,” an Israeli military spokesman said.

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Is that the beginning of a small mustache under his nose?

Friends, the Israeli election is only days away and the man who would be king, Benny Netanyahu, who has already vowed to get rid of Hamas in Gaza and to neutralize Iran,  has declared he will use the U.S. Administration to do it, according to Al Jazeera! His exact words were, “It will oblige us to work on all fronts, including harnessing the US administration to stop the threat.”

Now I know that the words of politicians at election time are notoriously wayward but to say at a public forum that you intend to ‘harness’ the Administration of the world’s teetering superpower as if it were a donkey, seems to go beyond the pale.

It speaks volumes for the power that the Jewish lobby wields in the U.S. and for the influence that Zionists wield at all levels of American government to say nothing about their virtual control of the media. As well, of critical importance, is the Israeli awareness that it provides the U.S. with an important military base in the Middle East for the spread of American imperialism.

At the same forum, Benny also said, “We must unite the entire nation and I will turn to all Zionist parties because, in the face of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, the social and economic challenges, we will have to stand together.”

So there you have it. The Zionists and Benny, armed to the teeth with nukes and the latest military technology, will harness the U.S. Administration to further the ambitions of themselves: a group of deranged theists and ultra-right-wing nationalists and insatiable imperialists.

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Friends, Iran launched a domestic satellite today and America is having kittens.

Yes folks, the world’s military Superpower, the one with the ability to destroy this world many times over,  is shaking in its boots at the idea that Iran has managed to achieve the technology to launch an object like a satellite into space.

Reuters reports that, in Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “Efforts to develop missile delivery capability, efforts that continue on an illicit nuclear program, or threats that Iran makes toward Israel and its sponsorship of terror are of acute concern to this administration.” Acute concern, eh? Almost reason enough to launch a nuclear attack tomorrow, isn’t it?

In London, some pointy-head from some Strategic Institute has said, “…this civilian capability will soon be transformed to a military reconnaissance and intelligence gathering capability.”  Fancy those Iranians having the gall to think of that. I mean no other countries in the world use satellites to gather intelligence, do they? What a joke. In outer space, there’ s hardly room for the number of satellites whizzing around spying on all of us.

And America’s ugly child, Israel, has gone even further. Isaac Ben-Israel, a former head of The Israel Space Agency, told Reuters in Jerusalem: “If they managed to fire a satellite into space it means they can also reach Western Europe.” Shock, horror!

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So resplendent! So bright! But can they actually DO anything?

Friends, the world is in a bit of a mess and that may well be an understatement, perhaps the biggest understatement of this century.

As the world grinds to a halt, important people are running about like headless chooks calling out, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Now to my knowledge this does little to ameliorate the financial, economic and political problems that seem to have come together in a perfect storm.

Now I have used the word ‘knowledge’  in the last paragraph deliberately. Writers do things like that. And from this deliberateness arises a serious question: given the fact that there are plenty of people in the world who have Degrees, Honours Degrees, Masters Degrees, Doctoral Degrees, Post-Doctoral Degrees and quite a few with the whole lot, how come they aren’t coming forward with wonderful plans that would turn the world around and, even better, make it a great place to live?

I mean, these people, academics and intellectuals,  have spent their lives with their heads stuck in books. They have participated in debates and forums with pointy-heads like themselves. They have written papers, had articles published, created books, thesis. They have worn a progression of ornate robes as they climbed the academic ladder and some have reached positions like Chancellor and Dean.

Yet when it comes time for them to step up to the plate and demonstrate how smart they are, how  much they know, how well their minds work, how creative they are, how good at problem-solving they are, they vanish into the woodwork like shy white ants. They’re nowhere to be seen, not on television, not on radio, not in the press.

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This was outside the Forum!

This was inside. The sign should read:

Committed to improving the state of the world (for us)!

Friends, they say that every picture tells a story. This story come from Davos where people were protesting against the Capitalist Crooks who were holding a conference in a luxury Swiss Resort. What the photograph shows is that the Police State is just around the corner because what is happening here is common now around the Western world should the proles protest.

This protester seem to think that those at the World Economic Forum were the ones who created the current economic and financial crisis. Where would she get that idea from? She is being man-handled (or is it woman-handled?) by riot police. One thug stands menacingly over the prostrate woman while another heads off with his baton in hand ready to convince other protesters that protesting is bad, that questioning the Masters of the Universe is an activity which won’t be tolerated even if a democracy like Switzerland is supposed to allow free speech.

Meanwhile, inside the Forum, things are much more refined. The Crooks of many economic and political colours sipped wine, attended lavish dinners, ate caviar, patted each other on the back, made deals, exchanged commiserations over the financial losses they have experienced, perhaps even shed a few tears over their favorite blue chip stocks, but none of them discussed the elephant in the room: the one that symbolized that the world’s economic and financial system is stuffed and they, the so-called Gurus, haven’t got the faintest clue how to fix it.

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DUMB    AND   DUMBER

Friends, there is an election in Israel in a week or so and the two main contenders for the honor of leading the world’s leading rogue nation, Livni and Netanyahu, are battling each other in a chest-beating competition.

Olmert, a man facing criminal charges, in the last few days of  office, is doing a ‘George Bush act’ and vowing he will use the IDF to create some more Gaza genocide and destruction to mark his departure. Like Bush who rushed through laws allowing for the rape of the environment, Olmert, ignoring world condemnation, wants to rape and pillage Gaza again using America weapons and munitions to endear himself to the Israeli public and to leave another  lasting memory for the Palestinians.

(UPDATE: 10.am. Bombs have been falling on Gaza again. Olmert’s goodbye gift is being delivered!)

Then Livni, though her chest is different to Netanyahu’s, on the campaign trail is promising that she will use ‘disproportionate force’ against the Gazan people, force that will make what Olmert did look like a Sunday School Picnic.  This is in response to a few homemade rockets that have been fired over recent days, ones which have caused no destruction and no casualties.

Al Jazeera reports she has said: “Israel will respond whether the Qassam [rocket] causes injuries or not, and this is how I will act as prime minister as well. We must use force and a lot of force.”

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Compare the destruction shown here with previous posts of Gaza!

Friends, in Venezuela, in Caracas to be precise, a Synagogue has been attacked! Yes, you heard it right.

According to Al Jazeera, more than 15 unidentified men overpowered a couple of security guards and occupied the building for several hours. They sprayed graffiti on the walls like: “We don’t want murderers,” and “Jews, get out.” Some scriptures were damaged and the unknown assailants also called for all Jewish people to be thrown out of the country.

Jewish leaders say tensions have risen since Venezuela cut off diplomatic relations with Israel in January over its recent attack on Gaza. “The climate is very tense,” Elias Farache, the president of Venezuela’s Jewish Association, said and angrily expressed the words shown in the title.

Of course, across the world, there has been a predictable, dare I say justifiable rise in anti-Jew sentiment and there have been some acts of violence against Jewish people and property. Not everyone it seems agrees with Israeli methods, things like occupation, sieges, blitzkrieg,  ‘disproportionate force’, phosphorous bombs, etc.

Now look, I don’t want to be controversial, but I guess that probably 99.9% of Gazans, the ones who survived the recent 22 day massacre, probably felt: ‘Threatened, Intimidated and Attacked’ too! After all, their whole country was heavily bombed and over 6,000 of them were killed or injured.

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