The "Majority Opinion" Is An Illusion

Brandon Smith: If there is one concept on Earth that has been the absolute bane of human existence (besides global elitism), it would have to be the concept of the “majority opinion”.  The moment men began refusing to develop their own world views without first asking “What does everyone else think?”, they set themselves up for an endless future of failures.  We are, of course, very social beings, and our natures drive us to seek those of like mind and spirit in what some might call a “tribal imperative”.  However, this imperative to organize is often manipulated by those who understand the psychological mechanisms behind it.  Oligarchs and tyrants abuse and exploit the inherent social natures of the people in order to fool them into abandoning their individuality for the sake of the group, or some abstract and dishonest ideal.  When successful, the organization of a culture becomes bitter and twisted, changing from a tribe or a community of sovereign individuals, into a nightmare collective of soulless sheep.

Human beings desperately want to belong, but, they also desperately want to understand the environment around them.  Often, the desire to belong and the desire to know the truth conflict.  In some societies, in order to be accepted, one must give up on his search for truth and avoid eliciting the anger of others.  This causes a severe mental and emotional disturbance within a population.  In order to reconcile their conflicting needs within a system that does not nurture their quest for transparency, they tend to unconsciously cling to the “majority view” as if their very existence depends on it.  The idea of the majority view or the “mainstream”, gives people the sense that they are a part of a group, and at the same time, gives them the illusion of being informed.

Faber to Shiller: “You Keep Your U.S. Dollars And I’ll Keep My Gold”

GoldSeek: “Everyone should keep gold in their portfolios” as the precious metal will be able to offer value to investors even in a worst-case scenario, said Marc Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report.

“In the worst case scenario, in the systemic failure that I expect, it would still have some value,” Faber, who is also the founder and managing director of Marc Faber Ltd., said today at an event hosted by Evli Bank Oyj in Helsinki.

Faber said his outlook was so bleak that he is “hyper bearish”. He joked that “sometimes I’m so concerned about the world I want to jump out of the window.”
He wisely said that `I advise everyone to have some gold.'

Faber said that he thought there could be a flight out of cash and overvalued bonds and into equities and gold.

In response to a question from Yale University’s Robert Shiller querying the recommendation to hold gold, Faber said: “I’m prepared to make a bet, you keep your U.S. dollars and I’ll keep my gold, we’ll see which one goes to zero first.”

The Biggest Bubble In History: Fraud

Forget the Housing, Bond or Derivatives Bubbles … Fraud Is the Biggest Bubble of All Time

Bursting Gas Bubble 60 Light Years Across. Courtesy of ESA

By WashingtonsBlog: The housing bubble which burst in 2007 or so was the biggest bubble of all time.
Many argue that the bubble in U.S. bonds has surpassed the housing bubble as the largest ever.
Of course, given that the derivatives market is more than a thousand trillion dollars, and that is is backed by thousands of times less collateral, a good case can be made for arguing that derivatives are the biggest bubble.
But if you really think about it, the largest bubble in history is fraud, because it includes all of the above and more.
Specifically, the housing crisis was caused by fraud.  The government encouraged fraud, and helped cover it up.
Huge swaths of the derivatives market are manipulated by fraud.  See this, this, this and this. But instead of cracking down on the fraud, the government is backing it.
And the bubble in bonds was caused by super-low interest rates.  See this, this and this.
Low interest rates – in turn – are caused by the government’s zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing.
And how did the government sell these programs? By saying that they were necessary to help the economy and create more jobs.
But in reality, zero interest rate policy is just another stealth bailout for the big banks. 

CIA: World's biggest terrorist organization

UK and Europe Banned Press TV: A close look at the history of the CIA from its initial mission of intelligence gathering during World War II to covert subversive, counterrevolutionary, assassination operations around the world to CIA-led coups and regime changes from its backyard of Latin America to Africa, Europe, Middle East/Near East, Far East, Central Asia, ... to its present day War on of Terror.

North Korea claims they plan ‘high-level’ nuclear test aimed at United States???

By Madison Ruppert: North Korea reportedly claimed on Thursday that they plan to conduct a nuclear test as well as more rocket launches aimed at its “arch-enemy,” the United States.

The veracity of this claim is highly questionable given that North Korea regularly makes threats that they never follow through with, although, as I reported in April of 2012, reports emerged indicating “North Korea allegedly might have a missile which is capable of delivering a payload to the continental United States.”
Those reports were highly dubious since analysts couldn’t even tell if what they observed in imagery captured by satellites was an actual missile or a life-size mock-up.
According to AFP, this latest test is being done in response to new United Nations sanctions, although no timeframe has been provided for the test.
“In the new phase of our century-long struggle against the United States, we do not hide the fact that various satellites, long-range missiles that we will continue to launch and high-level nuclear test we will conduct will target our sworn enemy, the United States,” the North Korean National Defense Commission said in a statement according to reports. The statement was apparently originally reported in English by South Korea’s Yonhap.
The National Defense Commission statement came after the UN Security Council condemned North Korea and expanded sanctions over the rocket launch in December, according to the Associated Press.
While North Korea maintained that the launch was actually just a peaceful satellite mission, Western powers like the United states maintained it was actually a test of long-range missile technology.

Assange calls WikiLeaks film ‘propaganda attack’

RT: Julian Assange has lashed out at a Hollywood film about WikiLeaks, calling it “a massive propaganda attack” against the whistle blowing website, also accusing it of fanning “flames of war” against Iran.

DreamWorks Studious announced Wednesday that "The Fifth Estate," starring British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange, will be released in the United States in November 2013. The film’s director though says it will not try to pass final judgment on Assange.
The famous whistleblower, who managed to obtain a copy of the script, denounced the film as “a lie.” He spoke to students of Britain’s top Oxford University on Wednesday via a video-link from his refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
"It is a lie upon lie. The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff," he told the Oxford Union debating club.
However the video of Assange's speech has not yet been posted on the Oxford Union Society’s YouTube channel, where the organization usually publishes such videos.
"'The Fifth Estate' traces the heady, early days of WikiLeaks, culminating in the release of a series of controversial and history changing information leaks," DreamWorks said describing its project.

New Google report reveals 68% of requests from U.S. government entities submitted without warrants

By Madison Ruppert: While Google’s transparency report released in late 2012 revealed that the U.S. continues to demand far more user information than any other nation, the newest report reveals a new dimension: the majority of the requests are submitted without probable cause warrants.
While readers are likely familiar with the U.S.’s massive warrantless wiretapping program and the fact that it is growing at an exponential rate, this is the first time that Google – which has a never-to-be-revealed relationship with the National Security Agency (NSA) – has actually released the number of warrantless requests received from U.S. government entities.
Keep in mind, that this type of surveillance is only a small part of the illegal warrantless surveillance in the United States as there is a great deal conducted under the auspices of the recently reauthorized FISA Amendments Act. In addition, the government requests massive amounts of subscriber information from mobile phone companies along with location data, which the Obama administration claims is not protected.
Google, a company closely tied to the American intelligence community, received 8,438 requests for user data between July and December 2012 alone, according to the latest transparency report released Jan. 23.
Slate’s Ryan Gallagher points out that this figure is a 6 percent increase over the 7,969 requests filed between January and June of last year.
According to the report, Google complied with an average of 89 percent of requests received from the United States government during 2012, down from 93 percent in 2011.

Shit the FBI Says!

libertyblitzkrieg: This is pretty hilarious.  Be afraid my little sheeple, there is a terrorist under every bed!  Make sure you stay fearful, servile and ignorant.  Just the way the government wants you.  Hey after all “we just wanna talk.”    ...  Enjoy! In Liberty, Mike Source

Obama administration's "litmus test" for new military leaders is if they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens?

AJ: 2009 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jim Garrow shockingly claims he was told by a top military veteran that the Obama administration's "litmus test" for new military leaders is whether or not they will obey an order to fire on U.S. citizens.
Garrow was nominated three years ago for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize and is the founder of The Pink Pagoda Girls, an organization dedicated to rescuing baby girls from "gendercide" in China.

Comic Opera: Europe’s 3rd largest economy goes to the polls

It’s carnival time in Italy. With spring twinkling over the horizon, hearts beat faster and people dress up in flamboyant costumes straight out of 18th century Venice. It’s the perfect time then to stage a comic opera. It is called – drum roll please – the Italian Election.
By Richard Cottrell: Italians will vote for a new government at the end of next month. The country is stuck in the worst recession since the war, but from watching the antics of the ruling caste you wouldn’t think so. A more sober assessment would suggest that if Italians are not very careful they are about invite a re-play of Mussolini.
Now let’s sort the wheat from the chaff. The old lecher Silvio Berlusconi, who caused this erection (Freudian slip, election) by pulling the plug on the EU-IMF technocrat Mario Monti, is having a lot of fun kicking the furniture around.
He’s like a comedian making his last performance, basically to rousing applause, although almost no one wants him to be premier again. He is, however, a truly national ornament, a walking lightning storm, the festive joker with the rare gift of gaffing to the public gallery with such intimacy the blood of old maids has been known to rise to unsafe temperatures.
Millions of women admit they dream of being in bed with him. Millions of men are deeply envious of his amours and his money.
Now the story has leaked out revealing that the old scoundrel made some sort of backroom deal with Monti, which runs like this: Support for Monti in the country was sagging to epic lows, so the powers backing him (EU-IMF-ECB-Bilderberg) decided Italy needed a legit government with the professor in charge.

Revealing Business Cards of the Famous

By Emily Temple: In today’s climate of cell phone contacts, Facebook and LinkedIn, business cards may be becoming a thing of the past. Then again, they can still say a lot about you. This week, we discovered an utterly charming card used by Isaac Asimov (“natural resource” is right) and, inspired, began hunting for more famous peoples’ business cards, whether boilerplate or highly designed, staid or comical. After the jump, check out the business cards of everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Lady Gaga.

Israel Election after War

PressTV: Israelis are voting in general elections expected to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in office for a third term at the head of a coalition of Nazi style hardline rightwing parties.