at the link at the bottom you can discover more about the eleven companies that control most everything you buy;
Is freedom of choice an illusion?
The rapid rise of variation in everyday goods and services, from
which cereal we eat in the morning to which toothpaste we brush our
teeth with at night, gives the perception of unlimited choice. For
example, if you’re deciding which bottled water to buy, the
possibilities range from budget brands, like Deer Park or Ozarka, to
higher-end options, like Perrier or S. Pellegrino. But this appearance
of choice is actually manufactured. All of the aforementioned brands are
owned by one company: Nestle.
Despite the amount of choices in the consumer market, several big
companies own a large majority of major brands, effectively controlling
everything you buy.
So, how much of “choice” is really controlled by big business, and
how well do Americans understand which corporations have a stake in the
goods and services they rely on every day? To find out, we took an
in-depth look at the major companies that own a majority of America’s
food and consumer goods. Then, we surveyed 3,000 Americans about their
understanding of which big businesses own which major brands. Check out
our full visual below, or skip ahead to see our survey findings.............https://www.naturalblaze.com/2018/11/these-11-companies-control-everything-you-buy.html
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
turn about ain't fair play in the empire's eyes;
More
than 100 people were injured as a result of a chemical attack in Aleppo
on Nov. 24. The Syrian government asked the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a fact-finding mission to
the city. Evidently the rebels were responsible. The West’s reaction
has been surprising. Unlike in previous instances, the West has stayed
mum instead of creating an uproar after the attacks and blaming Syria
without any sort of thorough investigation to prove its guilt.
When
rebel-controlled areas came under chemical attacks, Western leaders
raised a hue and cry, but they more or less shrugged it off when
civilians living in Aleppo’s government-controlled areas became the
targets — shot by 120-mm mortars firing chlorine-filled rounds. The
shelling came from Idlib — the province where the remaining rebels are
based. There is no way the Syrian government troops could have been the
perpetrators. Nobody would believe a story claiming that they attacked
their own forces so deep behind their own lines. Russia and Syria are
proud of the fact they have established peace in Aleppo, and they have
no interest in disturbing it.
Neither
the US nor its comrades-in-arms — the UK and France — is launching
missile and air attacks to strike rebel-held positions in Idlib. And no
one is rushing toward international podiums to do any finger-pointing. No statements have been issued from either Washington or Brussels as of Nov. 27. The silence is deafening...........https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/11/28/west-stays-mum-about-aleppo-chemical-attack.html
we keep hearing how the five sided fun house on the potomac needs more money even though they have no idea about where what they've spent so far has gone or is;
On November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest single cost center—the Pentagon receives two out of every three federal tax dollars collected—after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.
Deputy secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan tried to put the best face on things, telling reporters, “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” Shanahan suggested that the DoD should get credit for attempting an audit, saying, “It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion dollar organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial.” The truth, though, is that the DoD was dragged kicking and screaming to this audit by bipartisan frustration in Congress, and the result, had this been a major corporation, likely would have been a crashed stock.
As Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, a frequent critic of DoD’s financial practices, said on the Senate floor in September 2017, the Pentagon’s long-standing failure to conduct a proper audit reflects “twenty-six years of hard-core foot-dragging” on the part of the DoD, where “internal resistance to auditing the books runs deep.” In 1990, Congress passed the Chief Financial Officers Act, which required all departments and agencies of the federal government to develop auditable accounting systems and submit to annual audits. Since then, every department and agency has come into compliance—except the Pentagon.
Now, a Nation investigation has uncovered an explanation for the Pentagon’s foot-dragging: For decades, the DoD’s leaders and accountants have been perpetrating a gigantic, unconstitutional accounting fraud, deliberately cooking the books to mislead the Congress and drive the DoD’s budgets ever higher, regardless of military necessity. DoD has literally been making up numbers in its annual financial reports to Congress—representing trillions of dollars’ worth of seemingly non-existent transactions—knowing that Congress would rely on those misleading reports when deciding how much money to give the DoD the following year, according to government records and interviews with current and former DoD officials, congressional sources, and independent experts…
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in the Nation magazine, please go to:
https://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-audit-budget-fraud/
................. https://thiscantbehappening.net/exclusive-the-pentagons-massive-accounting-fraud-exposed/
On November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest single cost center—the Pentagon receives two out of every three federal tax dollars collected—after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.
Deputy secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan tried to put the best face on things, telling reporters, “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” Shanahan suggested that the DoD should get credit for attempting an audit, saying, “It was an audit on a $2.7 trillion dollar organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial.” The truth, though, is that the DoD was dragged kicking and screaming to this audit by bipartisan frustration in Congress, and the result, had this been a major corporation, likely would have been a crashed stock.
As Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, a frequent critic of DoD’s financial practices, said on the Senate floor in September 2017, the Pentagon’s long-standing failure to conduct a proper audit reflects “twenty-six years of hard-core foot-dragging” on the part of the DoD, where “internal resistance to auditing the books runs deep.” In 1990, Congress passed the Chief Financial Officers Act, which required all departments and agencies of the federal government to develop auditable accounting systems and submit to annual audits. Since then, every department and agency has come into compliance—except the Pentagon.
Now, a Nation investigation has uncovered an explanation for the Pentagon’s foot-dragging: For decades, the DoD’s leaders and accountants have been perpetrating a gigantic, unconstitutional accounting fraud, deliberately cooking the books to mislead the Congress and drive the DoD’s budgets ever higher, regardless of military necessity. DoD has literally been making up numbers in its annual financial reports to Congress—representing trillions of dollars’ worth of seemingly non-existent transactions—knowing that Congress would rely on those misleading reports when deciding how much money to give the DoD the following year, according to government records and interviews with current and former DoD officials, congressional sources, and independent experts…
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in the Nation magazine, please go to:
https://www.thenation.com/article/pentagon-audit-budget-fraud/
................. https://thiscantbehappening.net/exclusive-the-pentagons-massive-accounting-fraud-exposed/
here mr whitehead will expand on your awareness that we don't have the style of government we're told we do in school;
“The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state.”— Justice William J. Brennan, City of Houston v. Hill
What the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line.
What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.
It’s not an easy undertaking.
Weaponized by police, prosecutors, courts and legislatures, “disorderly conduct” charges have become a convenient means by which to punish those individuals who refuse to be muzzled.
“The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state.”— Justice William J. Brennan, City of Houston v. Hill
What the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line.
What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.
It’s not an easy undertaking.
Weaponized by police, prosecutors, courts and legislatures, “disorderly conduct” charges have become a convenient means by which to punish those individuals who refuse to be muzzled.
- Deyshia Hargrave, a language arts teacher in Louisiana, was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for speaking out during a public comment period at a school board meeting.
- Fane Lozman was arrested for alluding to government corruption during open comment time at a City Council meeting in Palm Beach County, Fla.
- Dan Heyman, a reporter for the Public News Service, was arrested for “aggressively” questioning Tom Price, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services during an encounter in the West Virginia State Capitol.
- College professor Ersula Ore was slammed to the ground and arrested after she objected to the “disrespectful manner” shown by a campus cop who stopped her in the middle of the street and demanded that she show her ID.
- Philadelphia lawyer Rebecca Musarra was arrested for exercising her right to remain silent and refusing to answer questions posed by a police officer during a routine traffic stop. (Note: she cooperated in every other way by providing license and registration, etc.)
- Robert Bartlett was arrested during an Arctic Man festival in Alaska, allegedly in retaliation for refusing to be interrogated by police and intervening when police attempted to question other people. His case is before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
this excerpt speaks clearly to my suspicions about how things really are;
Of Two Minds - The Politics of Debt-Serfs and Tax Donkeys: Our Only Choice Is the Least Bad Option ... excerpt:
"... there is no avenue left for advocacy, grievances or redress in a system dominated by global corporations and self-serving political insiders.The castle on the hill doesn't exist; it is diffused all over the planet, and well protected by state minions who listen only to neofeudal corporate interests. The problem for well-meaning politicos is the system cannot be reformed or repaired".......http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-politics-of-debt-serfs-and-tax.html
every tuesday ol remus posts his exploration of our current realities, and this is one quote from today's edition;
What it was like for ordinary Germans to live in Nazi Germany. An excerpt from George J. Wittenstein, M.D., "Memories of the White Rose", 1979.
"The government—or rather, the party—controlled everything: the news media, arms, police, the armed forces, the judiciary system, communications, travel, all levels of education from kindergarten to universities, all cultural and religious institutions".....http://woodpilereport.com/
i've posted things about this before and here's another. eight minute video about suspicions about the origins of the california fires;
https://youtu.be/MhHOMU-IhHA
https://youtu.be/MhHOMU-IhHA
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