This Reuter’s photograph of  despairing Senator Chris Dodd mirrors my own despair today about most things in this world.

His despair has been caused by an inability to get regulations through which would have regulated the U.S. banking and financial industries, the ones that caused the catastrophic Global Financial Crisis.

The lobbyists have had a field day as they seek to allow banks and financial institutions and their leaders to do again whatever they like regardless of the damage they have already caused or will cause again.

‘Too Big To Fail’ has become the catch cry of the bastards who are running our world for their own selfish benefit. The people who have lost their jobs and/or houses, well…who cares about them? Not the wealthy, that’s for sure. They will make lots of money out of the situation, you know, buy houses at fire sale prices then sell when the market recovers.

The failure of achieving real financial regulation in the U.S. has highlighted the abject failure that is American democracy and, sadly, many of the European democracies. The moral of the story: the political process can be bought if you have enough money.

Buy a politician is the new game in town and those politicians who have some morals and concern about their country and the world are swept aside by the conscienceless rabble who willingly serve their corporate masters whose only interest is making mega-profits.

The only solution to this problem and many of the problems which beset out world lies with the people. When they reach a certain tipping point, then a revolution may begin, one that could purge the world of all the Robber Barons and the Militarists and the Evangelicals.

But don’t hold your breath while you’re waiting for this to happen. Just sit back, watch American Idol, drink your Budweiser beer and perhaps puff on a joint or two!

Friends, the world we live in is a dirty place. Even religion is dirty and corrupt.

I wish I could create a clean, peaceful environment in which to live, for me and my friends.

But the world always intrudes!

Friends, the announcement by the Israelis that 1,600 new settler homes are to be built for Ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem signals the death knell for the Palestinians.

With unbelievable contempt for the visiting Vice-President of the U.S., the Israelis made their imperial plans clear right in the middle of what was supposed to be yet another attempt to discuss the Road Map and the setting up of a Palestinian State. It takes a great deal of arrogance for Israel to publicly humiliate the only nation that  financially and militarily and politically supports the racist State of Israel.

I have followed and supported the Palestinians for more than ten years despite getting a lot of static. I guess a few things happened along the way that made me question whether they had a future or not. One of those things was Jenin (see top photograph). Witnessing that massacre and the destruction it caused, and how the IDF kept the media kilometres away so their evil could not be photographed, gave me the feeling that the brutal Israelis were capable of anything. As with the Americans,  it is their way or the highway.

Next was the imprisoning of Arafat (see middle photograph) in Ramallah and, soon after, his death. With him died the final hope for a Palestinian State because the only way the Palestinians were going to get any rights or throw off their occupation or achieve a State was to fight tooth and nail using any means at their disposal.  Suicide bombings weren’t pretty but they certainly rattled the Israelis for a time, gave them a taste of their own medicine.

After Arafat’s burial, then came the democratic election of Hamas, one that was rejected by democratic Israel and democratic America. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Fatah, led by the traitorous Abbas, decided that its loss didn’t count so the split in the Palestinian ranks occurred and deepened and, predictably, was exploited by the Israelis.

I guess one of the final nails in the coffin was the Gaza genocide (1400 Palestinians killed including 400 plus kids) which was followed by a cruel siege that, to date, has resulted in the deaths of 500 Gazans who are still living amid the destruction wrought by the IDF using their American arms and munitions. Of course, what happened in Gaza shows that Israel will nuke Iran and not give it a second thought even if millions are killed!

And now, like the icing on the cake, come the announcement of the 1,600 settler homes to be built in East Jerusalem for the most crazy of the crazy religious fanatics (see bottom photograph), this during a period while talks are supposedly underway to find peace!

The Jews have no intention of ever giving the Palestinians their own State. The U.S. supports this position because it wants Israel to be the pre-eminent military power in the region.

And the only way that the Palestinians could have achieved something, that is to engage in a prolonged guerrilla similar to that fought by the Vietnamese, is no longer an option.

I am saddened by this conclusion. A lot of good, brave Palestinian people have died in the struggle. They have died in vain.

And so has any chance that Israel will ever be seen as anything but a deranged pariah nation, one that will be despised forever!

The Israeli flag dwarfs the American one! Coincidence?

Where is the Palestinian flag?

Friends, the ritual meeting between America and its ugly child, Israel is in progress yet again. Joe Biden, Vice-President, has arrived in Israel to talk the talk (but not to walk the walk) and express the usual meaningless platitudes and make the usual empty promises to the Palestinians.

For decades, the charade has continued: America pretending to be the honest broker that, cross your heart, really, truly wants to see the creation of a Palestinian State while Israel pretends it is busting a gut to give the Palestinians their own State while it steals more and more of what little is left of their land and builds even more settlements with lightening speed.

The whole circus is deeply ironic and profoundly boring. Joe, in the deeply symbolic photograph, is not wearing his skullcap yet but he will. He and Benny will swear eternal friendship once again and Joe will swear fealty to Israel no matter what it does to the Palestinians or any of its neighbours. And Israel will thank America for its continuing support via endless armaments and money and its continual blocking of U.N. Resolutions and Reports critical of Israel.

And while they pretend to be talking about the Road Map (for a road that goes nowhere) they, Joe and Benny, will discuss how the attacking of Iran with nukes can be best achieved and how it can be best justified and what lies need to be told or what  false flag operations should be carried out to give the whole tawdry thing some respectability.

And while they discuss the coming war, the Gazans will continue to starve in their giant cage in the Gaza Strip and Abbas will continue to collaborate with his peoples’ oppressors and Mossad will continue to assassinate Palestinian leaders and the IDF will continue to bomb Gaza and stop it rebuilding and the rest of the world will allow the imperial farce and genocide to continue without comment or criticism.

Surely, the situation involving the Palestinians is a microcosm of what is wrong with our world. The bullies and the wealthy run the world. Human rights are expendable. The law of the jungle applies. The worship of power and money is paramount. War we are told is a virtue. Compassion and caring and honesty are dirty words.

A pox on Joe and Benny and their whole sickening, empty, dishonest charade, I say.

Metaphorically, I spit on them both, them and their many amoral, malignant clones who infest our world.

P.S. Photograph thanks to Reuters.

UPDATE: 10/3/2010. To celebrate the arrival of Biden, 1,600 Israeli Ultra-Orthodox (the Bobbing Black Hats) Settler homes are approved to be built in East Jerusalem while several Muslim Mosques in the West Bank have been designated as Israeli heritage items.

The farce goes on and on! When are Jews going to be put back in their musty box where they belong?

“Ain’t U.S. democracy great?”

Friends, I looked at Al Jazeera this morning. Iraq featured heavily in its coverage of world events.

First thing I noticed was a lead article about explosions in Najaf and Ramadi prior to the election on March 7th which is later today. Three people had been killed and fifty had been injured (see above). There are expectations that many more people will be killed before the election is over. Remember the Shia are a minority group in Iraq and there is no love lost between them and the Sunnis.

Then in the FOCUS section there are two articles. One deals with whether or not U.S. troops should or should not withdraw from Iraq. This is because there are many questions about the ability of the war-ravaged country and its warring groups to survive without the presence of Big Brother America. The other article suggests that Iraq waits on a knife-edge as the election hour approaches with hope and fear in equal proportions.

Then, lower still, in the blog section, another article states: KIRKUK’S ARABS FIGHT AGAIN FEDERALISM. As you may recall, the highway to Kirkuk killed many Allied troops. Obviously some Arabs are not happy with the direction their country is taking under the brutal foreign invaders. Another article suggests that George W Bush brought democracy to the Middle East and this should be used as an example by other Arab countries. Surely the person who wrote this must be on drugs or in need of deep psychotherapy!

In the same section, Josh Rushing talks about the Mission Accomplished joke and suggests that the mission is Iraq is still far from over despite the stumblings of the puppet government. Similarly, in Britain, the dour Brown has been defending the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Killing. As one would expect, he justifies everything that the allies have done, the deaths, the fragmentation and massive destruction, even though the WMDs mysteriously disappeared like a desert rainbow as did Iraqi cohesion.

I think it would be fair to suggest that this amount of coverage clearly shows what a complete stuff-up the invasion of Iraq really was when viewed from the perspective of saving the world from Saddam’s WMDs and bringing the Iraqis the blessings of freedom and democracy.

But if viewed from the perspective of oil availability for the West or the shiny new scalp hanging from the belt of the U.S. or the further crushing of Arab countries to allow Israel to grow stronger, etc, it has been a complete success.

It is hard to see Iraq ever recovering from the invasion and occupation. What happened there is occurring in Afghanistan and will occur in Iran should an invasion take place.

Why doesn’t the U.S. stop creating immense problems for other nations and the world and, instead, try to fix up the huge economic, social and political problems which exist in its own country?

America has no right to impose its own massive problems on the rest of the world!

UPDATE: 38 people killed so far during the ‘democratic’ election in Iraq where 90,000 U.S. troops are still in occupation.

“When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the Rainbow” — Old Native American Prophecy.

Friends this was part of a comment from Grace. It plucked a string inside me, me who is home again, who is ready to begin a more normal life again and do more with my life.

I thought about the person who saw this vision in the midst of the annihilation of his or her people by the new ‘civilized’ white men who came in winged ships and brought death and disease and greed and destruction with them just as they did in Australia.

The Warriors of the Rainbow. How beautiful! The rainbow, a symbol of great beauty, comes after the storm when, for a moment, the earth has been washed clean and the air has been cleansed. Perhaps we who contribute to this blog and similar blogs are part of the genesis of the Warriors of the Rainbow.

Perhaps we who hold views that clash with so many of our brothers and sisters are part of the beginning of a new group of humans who desperately want a world that is peaceful, that is filled with caring and sharing, that lives in harmony with nature, that actually has values like honesty, like loyalty and fidelity, like compassion, like generosity, that seeks truth rather than the trivial and the superficial.

Warriors of the Rainbow!

Yes, please.

P.S. While searching for a suitable image I came across the one shown above plus a detailed article about the Cree Indian woman who saw the vision. If you go to the attached link you’ll be very impressed as I was:

http://www.birdclan.org/rainbow.htm

Friends, today Reuters carried news of a new book written by Liu Mingfu which said that China must challenge and overcome America’s domination of the world if it is to avoid being neutered by the war-mongering nation.

The call for China to abandon modesty about its global goals and “sprint to become world number one” comes from a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Senior Colonel, Liu Mingfu, who warns that his nation’s ascent will alarm Washington, risking war despite Beijing’s hopes for a “peaceful” rise.

“This book represents my personal views, but I think it also reflects a tide of thought,” Liu told Reuters in an interview. “We need a military rise as well as an economic rise.”

It sounds to me as if the sleeping dragon is beginning to awaken and it is aware that America, currently, is trying to out-manoevre it in terms of military strategies, military dominance and control of world resources.

Friends, the battle lines are being drawn. Where Russia will fit into this equation I don’t know. Could it be that the two adjoining countries, Russia and China, will join in a military partnership? Are we about to see a new Cold War? Will America’s need for access to the lucrative Chinese market overcome its desire for world military dominance? Will America go bankrupt soon? Will America decide that Iran is too insignificant to waste a war on?

These issues will unfold over the next few years or decades.

The struggle has begun! The dragon and the bear versus the eagle.

Who is your money on? Will this be the war that ends all wars and leaves the world a moonscape?

P.S. Read the whole article on Reuters.

Friends, Reuters is now carrying the news that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defense Minister, has told people in the U.S. that Israel is an autonomous country and does not need anyone’s permission to carry out an attack on any country seen as posing a threat to Israel (which country could he possibly mean?).

What this means is that Israel will attack any potential foe using its huge cache of armaments and munitions and nukes supplied by the U.S. without any reference to the U.S. or anyone else.

‘…Barak hinted at Israel’s willingness to go it alone, saying: “We felt very proud that we never asked the Americans to come and fight for us. We basically … to paraphrase Churchill, we said, ‘Give us the tools and we will do the job.’” ‘ What a pretentious little turd Barak is. And his country is full of his clones.

Israelis are possessed of the most dangerous delusions of grandeur the world has ever seen. This tiny tinpot country of deranged religious fanatics, one which is even more hated than the U.S., will probably, in a few months,  announce its intention, after it has nuked Iran and taken over the Middle East, to control the world!

But hang on! The U.S. is trying to take over the world and is well advanced in that aim.

Folks, I can see trouble coming. What happens if the U.S. stops giving Israel weapons? Will Israel threaten to nuke America?

But if the U.S. continues to support and arm Israel, and Israel attacks Iran unilaterally, which nation will be to blame for the nuclear holocaust?

The world’s biggest warmonger, of course!

P.S. Have you started building your nuclear bomb shelter yet?

P.P.S. Photo and text thanks to Reuters.

Friends, I’ve just arrived home and I’m feeling a bit tired, even a bit low. Perhaps it began with last weekend when my wife told me not to withdraw money from any ATMs in Sydney because scam artists were stealing the details from those who made withdrawals and making a fortune by emptying their accounts.

Then again, it might have started when I heard about Toyota, the world’s biggest car company. It seems they have been hiding faults with their vehicles for many years, faults which have led to the deaths of many people.  The Managing Director has given an apology and is to recall millions of vehicles but it doesn’t help those that have died very  much.

Then, in Australia, the Government as part of the stimulus package to help us weather the Global Financial Crisis, has given out huge amounts of money to encourage roof insulation in domestic homes. This has created a huge demand for insulation installers some of whom are dodgy or unskilled. It also resulted in substandard insulation from overseas being used. So far, four installers have been electrocuted and there have been lots of house fires. The whole scheme has been canceled.

As mentioned previously, several Australian have had their passport information stolen by Mossad who then sent 26 assassins to Dubai with their forged passports to kill one Hamas official.

So people don’t know anymore whether their passports are being used by countries which are into the assassination game (Israel, the U.S., etc). It also means that no one is safe while traveling or even in their own home, especially people like me who speak out against the Evil Ones.

As everyone would know, the Pope recently summoned a number of Irish Catholic Bishops to explain the high incidence of child molestation by members of the cloth in that country. There was a lot of bowing and kissing of hands and rings but the molestation of children by members of most religions still goes on.

Then I heard on the radio about doctors who, in order to get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies, write scripts for medications that people don’t even need. That’s not all. From my own experience, I have struck surgical specialists who urged me to have an operation for my current problem when radiology obviously can do the job without a major operation. Further, while having treatment, I have met people who have had the major operation then had to have months of radiology anyway because the operation didn’t get all the cancer. They were not impressed!

Then on the news a little while ago, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd was apologizing for various of his election promises which haven’t been delivered. Some haven’t even been started and an election is likely this year. He reminds me of Obama who made a lot of promises then broke them almost straight away or put them on the back burner.

When I go to a supermarket and buy meat, I have no guarantee that the animals who provide the meat have not been fed carcinogenic growth hormones. When I buy fish, I don’t know what concentration of mercury or other dangerous chemicals it contains. The same applies to fruit and vegetables.

Look, I could write a 10,000 word article and I wouldn’t have covered all the areas of untrustworthiness that exist in this world. For example, our cars are full of carcinogens from plastics. My wrist watch has a luminous dial. Banks took taxpayers bailout funds and now they’re paying themselves huge bonuses. Investment schemes that promise much, then go bankrupt are legion.  Kids can’t walk around the streets anymore without the risk of being abducted, raped and murdered. Schools in many countries have become places where student face drugs and the risk of being stabbed or shot. The soccer competition in Europe and even cricket is rife with rumors about game fixing. Wars have been started over WMDs which didn’t exist. Some insane governments are playing with the idea of nuking Iran because it wants to have nuclear weapons the same as they have…Yuk!

My wife, when I first met her, told me not to trust anyone, not even myself! I rejected it at the time. Now it sounds like it was good advice.

But to live in a world where nothing or no one is to be trusted is disappointing and difficult!

Are you full of trust? Do you trust anything or anyone? Do you find living without trust hard?

I do!

This is  Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Foreign Minister in charge of assassinations.

Friends, the E.U., according to Reuters, is unhappy with the Dubai killing of an Hamas official by Mossad. Apparently, what they are unhappy with is the fact that E.U. passports were used in the assassination, ones that belonged to citizens of E.U. countries.

The E.U. is not unhappy that a Palestinian was killed. They are not unhappy that Israel is occupying the West Bank or has Gaza under siege. They are not unhappy that Israel has been systematically killing Palestinians for decades and stealing their land. No, none of these things are important. But fraudulently using E.U. passports, that’s a big NO-NO!

 I wonder sometimes why I bother trying to make this world a better place. The hypocrisy, the shallowness, the criminality, the triple-standards, etc, that operate right across the world at every level makes me wonder that I wouldn’t be better employed to beat my head against a brick wall until I live in a permanent state of unconscienceness.

A coma might prove to be a saving grace!

Sharon, move over.

UPDATE. 25/2/2010

Mossad has apparently forged more passports to carry out the Dubai assassination including three from Australia. It seems 26 innocent people are involved in the passport scam.

It took 26 Israelis to kill one unsuspecting Hamas official who was visiting another country. Such bravery!

Then, after what happened in Gaza, it’s a wonder the Israelis didn’t nuke Dubai!

Perhaps they’ll do a trial run in Iran first.