text:
Institutions of Economic Piracy
by Terry Melanson · September 7, 2014
by Paul & Phillip D. Collins ©, May 23, 2007
The Great South American Defection
In April 2007, World Bank representative Eduardo Somensatto was instructed to leave Ecuador immediately (Behar, no pagination). Fox News characterized Ecuador's actions as a "rejection slip" to the World Bank (no pagination). Evidently, a source within the bank's headquarters agreed. According to the source, Somensatto's expulsion prompted the bank to enter into a "crisis mode" (no pagination). Moreover, the source claimed that a "communications strategy for informing the staff" was being hastily developed before any substantial media leaks could occur (no pagination). As abrupt as this expulsion might have seemed, the World Bank source candidly observed that Ecuador "long disliked the bank" (no pagination). In addition, public statements by Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa candidly foreshadowed the removal of Somensatto and the World Bank. Fox News reporter Richard Behar elaborates:
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa had announced on April 21 during his weekly radio program that he planned to expel Somensatto, but it was unclear if he would follow through on the threat.
According to Correa, the World Bank held up a $100 million credit in 2005, when he was economic minister, following concerns the bank had about a new law governing oil funds.
"They punished a sovereign country for modifying a national law," Correa charged at the time, adding that his government "won't put up with blackmail from this international bureaucracy."
"[W]e are nobody's colony," he said at the time. (No pagination)
Of course, this eviction has compounded the already existing contentions between Paul Wolfowitz and the World Bank's board of directors. According to Fox's bank source, the timing of the removal may have been designed to achieve just such an effect (no pagination). In fact, Ecuador's rejection of the World Bank might actually constitute a larger campaign being implemented by the Correa government. This campaign would not only include the reassertion of Ecuador's national sovereignty, but a "crackdown" on political opposition as well:
Ecuador currently owes $748 million to the World Bank. Correa has announced plans to cut back the country's reliance on both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He was elected president in December 2006 with a mandate to put "life before debt." Ecuadoreans want to "overcome the nefarious neo-liberal state legitimized in the 1998 Constitution," Correa said at an April 15 press conference. Correa then attacked the World Bank, and announced that his government had finished paying off its remaining debt to the International Monetary Fund. "We don't want to have anything to do" with the IMF, he said. Correa, meanwhile, continued his crackdown against opposition leaders. (No pagination)
The authoritarian nature of Correa's current "crackdown" notwithstanding, Ecuador's rejection of the World Bank and the IMF is certainly understandable. Ecuador is not the only country that has disliked these institutions. Venezuela has also joined the defection. Venezuela's socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez, has routinely sparred with the American Establishment. Now, he has dealt another blow to the Washington elite with the immediate withdrawal of Venezuela from the IMF and World Bank:
President Hugo Chavez has announced that he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "We will no longer have to go to Washington, neither to the IMF, nor the World Bank, not to anyone," said Chavez who has already canceled Venezuela's debts to the Washington-based international lending organizations.
Chavez said he wanted to formalize Venezuela's exit from the lending institutions which he said are to blame for continued poverty throughout Latin America. He reportedly plans to create a lending bank run by nations in the region.
Venezuela has recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, which saved the country eight million dollars. The OPEC country also paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. IMF closed its offices in the country last year. (No pagination)
In spite of their own oligarchical pedigrees as socialist dictators, Correa and Chavez have good reason to remove their nations from the IMF and World Bank. A cursory examination of these two financial institutions reveals a history of merciless economic warfare and social Darwinism.
Surveyors: The New Feudal Lords
Correa's remarks concerning Ecuador's gradual transformation into a "colony" underscores the feudal character of the emergent world government. The colonial model of one-world order originated with "bankers in Antwerp, and their associates, and the kings and queens of Europe" (Ratcliffe, no pagination). Galvanized by revelations concerning earth's spherical shape and finite surface area, these individuals concluded that they had to consolidate all of the planet's land and resources (no pagination). L. Fletcher Prouty elaborates on the ripple effect of this paradigm shift:
This started a significant train of thought in the educated, financial, politically powerful groups of the world, particularly the European world. It was expressed most easily in the terms of the East India Company development. They had the British East India Company, the Dutch East India Company, there was a Spanish East India Company — I think there were eight of them — and, interestingly enough, there was a Russian East India Company. I forget what they called it, but the Russians explored the coast of Alaska and California. The Russians, in conjunction with shippers from Boston in the China trade, carried out a sea otter business (in the fur of sea otters) from California back to Canton, China, and on into Europe. It was one of the most valuable, one of the most profitable, sea ventures of the time. (No pagination)
Although many nautical innovations and cultural discoveries were wrought by this period of sea exploration, many expeditions facilitated oligarchical initiatives. The elitist undercurrent of influence endemic to this era gave rise to a new, insidious institution: the proprietary colony. Prouty explains the development of this institution:
So all of these countries were doing this [sea exploration] together. They all immediately set out to explore the world, to inventory it and to own it. The leaders in this were the British. And the British East India Company became dominant in this worldwide exploration. They achieved this dominance by their view that anything they discovered was theirs, and that the king could commission them to set up a proprietary colony — wherever they discovered land — a British proprietary colony. Now what that meant was, they could introduce their religion to the colony and their armies to the colony — and then do business in the colony. But the word "colony" was not exactly accurate, because they used everything from total slaughter of the people they ran into to total friendship, depending on how they got along with those people. (No pagination)
The globalization of the colonial model, particularly the East India Company's proprietary template, resulted in the partitioning of entire regions into quasi-feudal states. Now, the oligarchs enlisted surveyors as "senior elites" in their campaigns of unfettered expansionism (no pagination). Given the earth's finite surface area, land had to be rigorously managed. The surveyor would become the chief arbiter in establishing the spatial demarcations of empires. After all, in order for one to become master of all that he surveys, he must first survey all that he wishes to master. Prouty eloquently synopsizes: "The elite people now became surveyors" (no pagination).
Militant Mercantilism: The Corporate Constables of "Private Security" Firms
Eventually, the East India Company established a system of global corporate control that would presage Transnationalism. The maintenance of this system required a special class of branch managers. Such individuals needed both business and military skills. Thus, the East India Company provided its higher employees with training as corporate constables:
These East India Companies were dominating countries like India, even countries like China. They were dominating North America, and so on, as they moved around the world. The British again led the others in training people for these jobs. They created a college, called Haileybury College, where they not only trained the people in the financial aspects of all this business work all over the world, but in military — special military, you might say. They weren't trained to be world conquerors in the Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar mold; they were trained to run a constabulary, to control these countries they took over, and to help their business partners (in the East India Company) carry out their business enterprises in those countries. (No pagination)
In a sense, Haileybury College's alumni were the precursors of the private security firms that are patronized by modern multinational corporations. DynCorp and BlackwaterUSA are merely the latest incarnations of this militant variety of mercantilism. Both manage constabularies at home and abroad. Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt once wrote: "The great strength of our order lies in its concealment: let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name and another occupation" (Robison 112). Groups like DynCorp and Blackwater USA have followed Weishaupt's prescription. By euphemistically referring to themselves as private security firms, these mercenary groups have been able to conceal a multitude of criminal activities. DynCorp's antics in Bosnia painfully illustrate this fact. Former DynCorp employee and aircraft mechanic Ben Johnston had to be placed in the protective custody of the Army Investigation Division until he could safely leave Kosovo and come back to the United States (O'Meara, pagination). In a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) lawsuit filed on Johnston's behalf, it was revealed what the aircraft mechanic had witnessed. The lawsuit stated:
in the latter part of 1999 Johnston learned that employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in] other immoral acts. Johnston witnessed co-workers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased. (No pagination)
Besides buying illegal weapons and forged passports and running sex slave rings, DynCorp was also defrauding the United States government. In an interview with Kelly O'Meara, Johnston described the fraud in elaborate detail:
"My main problem," he explains, "was [sexual misbehavior] with the kids, but I wasn't too happy with them ripping off the government, either. DynCorp is just as immoral and elite as possible, and any rule they can break they do. There was this one guy who would hide parts so we would have to wait for parts and, when the military would question why it was taking so long, he'd pull out the part and say `Hey, you need to install this.' They'd have us replace windows in helicopters that weren't bad just to get paid. They had one kid, James Harlin, over there who was right out of high school and he didn't even know the names and purposes of the basic tools. Soldiers that are paid $18,000 a year know more than this kid, but this is the way they [DynCorp] grease their pockets. What they say in Bosnia is that DynCorp just needs a warm body — that's the DynCorp slogan. Even if you don't do an eight-hour day, they'll sign you in for it because that's how they bill the government. It's a total fraud." (No pagination)
By concealing themselves under the title and occupation of private security firm, the DynCorp bandits gave new meaning to the old pirate motto: "We rape, we pillage." While in Iraq, Blackwater USA also shown that they could hold their own in the fraud game. Teaming up with the Kuwaiti-based Regency Hotel and Hospital Company, Blackwater was able to land a security contract with Eurest Support Services (ESS) guarding convoys carrying kitchen equipment to the U.S. military (Scahill, no pagination). In order to make an even greater profit, Blackwater/Regency modified their contract with ESS in a way that placed people in mortal danger. Jeremy Scahill describes the life-threatening modification:
The original contract between Blackwater/Regency and ESS, obtained by The Nation, recognized that "the current threat in the Iraqi theater of operations" would remain "consistent and dangerous," and called for a minimum of three men in each vehicle on security missions "with a minimum of two armored vehicles to support ESS movements." [Emphasis added.]
But on March 12, 2004, Blackwater and Regency signed a subcontract, which specified security provisions identical to the original except for one word: "armored." Blackwater deleted it from the contract. (No pagination)
Blackwater's cutting of the corners may have led to the deaths of four contractors in Fallujah (no pagination). Evidently, the concepts taught at Haileybury College have been crafted into a fine art by private security firms like DynCorp and Blackwater USA.
Money Missionaries: The Gospel of the Green
In addition to establishing its right through might, the East India Company also managed to procure the supposed sanction of God. Although ecclesiastical authorities were giving way to pluralistic secular states, theocratic power structures were still viable conduits for elitist interests. Because the expedience of organized religion was not lost upon the East India Company monopolists, they began to co-opt the dominant theistic faith of the time: Christianity. This relationship was particularly paradoxical, especially in light of the Scripture's numerous admonitions against greed and the love of money:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:23-24)
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:25)
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. (Luke 1:52-53)
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. (Luke 6:23-24)
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:20-21)
How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. (Luke 18:24-25)
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1Timothy 6:8-10)
Without Jesus around to run the moneychangers out of the temple, the East India Company monopolists smoothly commandeered the Christian establishment. Sadly, the systemic corruption and racism endemic to the Church made this organizational hijacking even easier. Prouty explains:
…they trained missionaries. Because they soon realized that, in the rest of the world there was, from their point of view, no religion: they were all just pagans. This reminds me of the Vietnam days — that any Vietnamese was a mere gook. Well here these people all over the world were mere pagans. And of course, you can't live in a world with pagans. You have to bring your missionaries and convert them to Christianity. (No pagination)
Now, racist priests were available to provide a theological rationale for genocide and oppression. In fact, the entrenchment of so-called "Christian missions" within areas targeted for colonization soon became requisite for corporate expansion and development:
So this became a role. And they used to go into these "proprietary colonies" with their missionary leaders first and try to peacefully set up, their arrangements for living with these people, for converting these people, and actually taking over their land and taking over their businesses. But if the missionary half of their business didn't work by itself (because they were overwhelming these people anyway with their strength and their power and their money and their imports), then they would bring in their military. So, one way or the other, they just took over land all over the world, took over business, took over people. (No pagination)
The Transnationalists of today are employing a similar strategy. Now, the religious rationale for establishing "proprietary colonies" is being supplied by Dominionism. With its conspicuously neo-Gnostic eschatology and overt militarism, Dominionism is the latest in a series of sociopolitical Utopian doctrines mandating the immanentization of the Eschaton. Re-conceptualizing objects of faith as objects of immanent experience, Dominionism inverts Ephesians 6:12. Flesh and blood becomes the enemy. Spiritual warfare becomes preemptive warfare. Ultimately, the Kingdom of God is established through a political coup. Jesus is either unwilling to or incapable of returning until such a coup is achieved. Such thinking is really nothing new. The secular Gnostics of communism and fascism also envisioned an Eschaton within the ontological plane of the physical universe. In their crusades to realize their eschatological visions, communists and fascists murdered countless numbers of people. The new Dominionist variety of Gnostic political activism promises equal volumes of bloodshed.
Because their neo-Gnostic conception of good and evil is completely confined to human history itself, Dominionists view some cultures and nation-states as the embodiment of a purely immanent Satan. A sizable portion of the evangelical establishment has been inculcated into this hideous concoction of religio-political Manicheanism. As a result, many Christians support the neoconservative-dominated Bush regime's militaristic campaigns abroad. The Transnationalists are profiting bountifully from this new theocratic arrangement. Once the infrastructure of "Godless" Muslim countries has been demolished by the neoconservative-Dominionist crusade from the West, multinational corporations conveniently present themselves to offer "assistance" in rebuilding the devastated regions. Accompanying this flood of profiteering are private security firms, which act as constables for big business.
In some instances, private security firms also act as the personal armies of the Dominionists themselves. Blackwater USA is one case in point. Blackwater founder Eric Prince's sister Betsy is married to Dick DeVos, the son of Amway founder Richard DeVos (Madsen 252-53). Both senior and junior DeVos have been involved in the secretive Council for National Policy ("The Council for National Policy: Selected Member Biographies," no pagination).The CNP is the nexus for several odd confluences. It exhibits many of the features of the traditional globalist machinations that comprise the neoliberal wing of the ruling elite. Yet, many of its members are ostensibly opposed to several neoliberal initiatives and agendas. Succinctly encapsulating this intersection of strange confluences, ABC's Marc J. Ambinder characterizes the CNP as "the conservative version of the Council on Foreign Relations" (Ambinder, no pagination). Several CNP members subscribe to Dominionism. These include Marvin Olasky, Gary North, D. James Kennedy, and Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
With the mercenary armies of private security firms at their disposal, Dominionists could be waging a proxy war against their Arab jihadist counterparts. Such a state of affairs exhibits shadows of the Thirty Years' War. Like the medieval Catholics and Protestants, the Dominionists are employing cutthroat mercenaries in their crusade to establish a global theocracy. In a sense, private security firms have become the avenging angels for a priesthood of neo-Gnostic jihadists. Meanwhile, multinational corporations thrive on the misery. Dominionism's gospel of subjugation is the perfect companion to Transnationalism's gospel of the green.
Economics: The Weapon of Choice
While brute force does play a role in the corporate feudalist schematic for world order, big business also boasts a slightly subtler weapon: economics. According to the unknown author of "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars," economics has always been the theoretical expression of the social sciences (203). In turn, the social sciences have always been technocratic in origin (Fischer 71). The underpinning theme of economics is social engineering. Manipulating the money system also allows one to manipulate modes of thought and behavior.
Those who understand and control the flow of capital can effectively transform the state into a weapon of biological warfare. The population is kept biologically dependent upon vital pieces of infrastructure, which require capital for their maintenance. Capital can be confiscated through taxation or devalued through inflation. When one or both of these forms of capital manipulation are employed, the masses find themselves too financially handicapped to maintain their gradually depreciating infrastructure. Meanwhile, any innovators that might have been able to develop self-empowering forms of infrastructure are suppressed through either defamation or a labyrinthine system of patents. Predictably, the masses turn to the state as the sole source of their salvation.
In addition to facilitating the eugenical regimentation of society, economics can also be used to fracture the social body into smaller, manageable units. Such an atomized society is integral to the maintenance of predictive control. The chief target in the campaign for achieving social fragmentation is always the family. Of course, the control of capital is central to the deconstruction of this institution. The anonymous author of "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" explains this method of divide and conquer:
In order to achieve a totally predictable economy, the low-class elements of society must be brought under total control, i.e. must be housebroken, trained, and assigned a yoke and long-term social duties from a very early age, before they have the opportunity to question the propriety of the matter. In order to achieve such conformity, the lower-class family unit must be disintegrated by a process of increasing preoccupation of the parents and the establishment of government-operated day-care centers for the occupationally orphaned children. The quality of education given to the lower class must be of the poorest sort, so that the moat of ignorance isolating the inferior class from the superior class is and remains incomprehensible to the inferior class. With such an initial handicap, even bright lower class individuals have little if any hope of extricating themselves from their assigned lot in life. This form of slavery is essential to maintaining some measure of social order, peace, and tranquility for the ruling upper class. (203-04)
Not surprisingly, Haileybury College eventually established an economics study department (Ratcliffe, no pagination). Although the study of economics seems harmless enough, the East India Company's motives for researching this field were anything but altruistic. The anonymous author of "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" observes: "…the objective of economic research, as conducted by the magnates of capital (banking) and the industries of commodities (goods) and services, is the establishment of an economy which is totally predictable and manipulatable" (203). The same rationale underpinned the research of Haileybury College's economics study department.
Malthus and Darwin: Inventorying the Human Herd
Before the East India Company could economically manage the people of the world, the organization had to develop a simple cataloguing system for the quantification of global "assets" (e.g., food, resources, wealth, etc.). To achieve such an end, Haileybury College installed Thomas Malthus as the Head of the Economics Department (Ratcliffe, no pagination). According to L. Fletcher Prouty, Malthus' mission was a daunting one:
The interesting fact was that Malthus was given the job of inventorying Earth — an absolutely incomprehensible job when you figure that this happened at the turn of the century, about 1800 (1800, 1805, somewhere in there). The East India Company had been started around 1600. So for two centuries they'd been doing this work, preparing themselves for this business. They had become an extremely lucrative company. But now they were getting serious: they wanted to inventory Earth. And Malthus was given that job. (No pagination)
Malthus authored Essay on the Principle of Population , a treatise premised upon the thesis: "Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetic ratio" (qutd. in Taylor 61). Malthus' thesis was vintage scientism. Malthus' demographic theory attempted to reduce the labyrinthine and complex machinations comprising the natural order to overly simplistic mathematic equations. Nevertheless, Malthus' theory proved to be socially and politically expedient to his corporate handlers:
That was a necessary theory for these people in this East India Company because, as they inventoried Earth, it made it an incentive for them to have the food, to have the resources for themselves but not for the other people. It began to create almost what we have in the Cold War today: an "us or them" mentality. The more friction there is in an "us or them" situation, the more motivation there is on your side to get the job done, including armies, missionaries, and all the rest of the powerful tools we have. (No pagination)
Malthus was not alone in the East India Company's project of inventorying the earth and its occupants. Another important theoretician would eventually surface in this endeavor. His name was Charles Darwin:
This moved along for another 30 or 40 years, and among the men that Malthus sent out to help inventory Earth was Charles Darwin. Darwin went all over Latin America and beyond, studying birds, butterflies, and everything he found and then he came back. He began to report that there are all sorts of life growing in and on this Earth. And he came back with picture books of all the different birds he found, the fish that he found, and a great deal else, from all over the world. Then he began to organize these species of the world. (No pagination)
Although the orthodoxy of institutionally accredited science depicts Darwin's studies as an objective examination of the natural world, the truth is that Charles was seeking to affirm a particular Weltanschauung. Several questionable parties had already shaped Darwin's personal Weltanschauung. These parties included T.H. Huxley (a Freemason, racist, and member of an oligarchical dynasty), Harriet Martineau (a Comtean sociocrat and apologist for the plutocratic Whigs), and Erasmus Darwin (a Freemason, member of the technocratic Lunar Society, supporter of the radical Jacobins, and Charles' grandfather). From this rogue gallery of elitists, technocrats, and corporatists, Darwin would derive his own radically anti-egalitarian Weltanschauung.
This hideous Weltanschauung provided a societal template for proponents of a eugenically regimented civilization. The extension of Darwinism to whole of the social body would come to be called "social Darwinism." This became the official philosophy of every scientific dictatorship of the 20th century, namely communism and fascism. Of course, these governmental systems would murder millions. While Darwinian apologists insist that social Darwinism was somehow a misrepresentation of early evolutionary ideas, the truth is that Charles designed his theory to serve such a function from the very beginning. Adrian Desmond and James Moore recapitulate:
"Social Darwinism" is often taken to be something extraneous, an ugly concretion added to the pure Darwinian corpus after the event, tarnishing Darwin's image. But his notebooks make plain that competition, free trade, imperialism, racial extermination, and sexual inequality were written into the equation from the start–"Darwinism" was always intended to explain human society. (xxi)
Yet, it was Malthus who would provide the theoretical fortification for Darwin's conviction that the natural order was a biological caste system with no place for the weak. "Survival of the fittest" is a famous mantra whose transmission "can be traced from Condorcet to Malthus, to Spencer, to Wallace, and to Darwin" (Taylor 65). The Darwinian depiction of nature as a Hobbesian "war of all against all" was premised, in part, upon Malthus' theory of carrying capacity:
Darwin gained a unique understanding from Malthus. Others such as the botanist Augustin de Candolle wrote of plants being "at war one with another." But nobody, Darwin said, conveys "the warring of the species" so strongly as Malthus. (Desmond and Moore 265)
Suddenly, oppression and genocide were scientifically dignified under the rubric of "natural selection." Ian Taylor observes that: "the political doctrine implied by natural selection is elitist, and the principle derived according to Haeckel is 'aristocratic in the strictest sense of the word'" (411). Not surprisingly, Darwin advocated the British oligarchy's genocidal campaigns abroad:
At every outpost the Beagle crew had witnessed the destruction: the Tasmanians were all but exterminated, the aborigines were dying from European diseases, General Rosa's policy was deliberate genocide. But Darwin believed that colonial warfare was necessary "to make the destroyers vary" and adapt to the new terrain. (Desmond and Moore 266)
Thus, the ruling class was able to carry out its crusades for power with the sanction of "Science." Malthus and Darwin became a veritable dynamic duo for the oligarchs. Couched in ostensibly impressive statistical and empirical observations, the ideas of these two theoreticians promised to legitimize the hegemony of a few. Prouty states:
Looking at the situation of the East India Company, these two men played an important role — a very important role for them in their day and for us 150-200 years later. The first conclusion was that mankind is increasing too fast and food is going to give out. Second, in the event there is this conflict and that we can't all live, the fittest are going to survive. If you put the two together and think about it, what it means is if you have the better army, the better business, more power, and your people can conquer the others — even to the point of genocide — that's perfectly all right. Because they're going to die anyway and, because they died, they certainly weren't the fittest, we're the fittest. What it did was to begin to inculcate in the minds of these leaders, these top leaders and these extremely wealthy people, that there's nothing wrong with genocide. Furthermore, they had their own missionaries right along with them to show that all this is perfectly all right: this was the plan, this was the way the world was made. (Ratcliffe, no pagination)
It is ironic that Darwin's ideas, which ostensibly rejected all teleological Weltanschauungs, provided a socially and politically expedient theodicy for the elite. Nevertheless, Darwinism worked in conjunction with Malthusianism to produce a scientistic myth for the corporate priesthood of the East India Company. The myth lives on and it continues to profit the Transnationalists of today.
Sociopolitical Darwinism: Survival of the Richest
Through the epistemological cartel of institutionally accredited science, Darwinism and Malthusianism have been enshrined as infallible truths. Yet, in light of advancements in man's understanding of biology and subsistence production, it is becoming increasingly apparent that these theories are hopelessly flawed. Still, Darwinism and Malthusianism are actively promulgated within orthodox academia because of the political and social capital that they afford for an elite few. L. Fletcher Prouty elaborates:
We're still operating under the principles of Haileybury College — Malthus and Darwin — even though both of them are ridiculous. It's been proved today that our ability to produce food is 70 times greater per farmer than it was in the time of Malthus. It's been proved that Darwin never did discover the origin of the species — no scientist has ever described the origin of any species. But those two doctrines were implanted by the East India Company's mind-control techniques so thoroughly that we still believe them. (Ratcliffe, no pagination)
In spite of the rational bankruptcy of Malthusianism and Darwinism, these memes have proven most useful to the ruling class. Malthus' Essay overlooked the role of human innovation in the enhancement of subsistence production methods. Nonetheless, Malthus concluded that society should adopt certain social policies to prevent the human population from growing disproportionately larger than the food supply. Of course, these social policies were anything but humane. They stipulated the stultification of industrial and technological development in poor communities. With the inevitable depreciation of vital infrastructure, society's "dysgenics" would eventually be purged by the elements. According to Malthus, such sacrifice guaranteed a healthy society. Of course, the only parties that would profit from such a societal configuration were those who occupy the highest layers of socioeconomic strata. Likewise, Darwinism's logical insolvency betrays the theory's true function as a mechanism for social control. Darwinism has never demonstrated one instance of speciation. Moreover, the theory's preoccupation with survival as the sole purpose of existence cannot account for human cultural institutions like art. However, Darwinism provided the pseudo-scientific rationale for genocide and oppression. These are two practices that elitists have refined and turned into virtual "arts." All that Darwin did was scientifically dignify the bloody medium employed by the aesthetic terrorists of oligarchy.
As the elite's traditional theocratic power structures were gradually transmogrified into technocratic power structures, the oligarchs changed as well. No longer were they simply nobles whose "divine right to rule" was legitimized by the dominant ecclesiastical authority. Now, they were Transnationalists and Internationalists whose primacy was dignified by the infallible principles of "Science." This new theocratic order would be underpinned by the religion of globalism, which exhibits the ideational thread of Darwinism. In The Keys of This Blood , Vatican [insider] Malachi Martin provides Pope John Paul's analysis of this Darwinian thread:
From Pope John Paul's vantage point, the thing that seems to bind these two groups [Transnationalists and Internationalists] most closely in practical terms is that at heart, and philosophically speaking, both are sociopolitical Darwinists. Of course, the Pope doesn't for a moment imagine that such activists as these are likely to take time out from their total immersion in world affairs to formulate their basic group philosophy in the same way that the Humanists have. There is no Internationalist or Transnationalist equivalent of Professor Paul Kurtz's Humanist Manifesto II.
Still, in John Paul's assessment, both of these globalist groups operate on the same fundamental assumptions about the meaning of human society today. Both agree on the face of it that the most important single trait that pervades the life of all nations is interdependence. And both agree that interdependence is a progressive function of evolutionary progress. Evolutionary, as in Darwin.
In practical terms, both of these groups operate on the same working assumption Charles Darwin arbitrarily adopted to rationalize his feelings about mankind's physical origins and history. If it worked so well for Darwin, they almost seem to say, why not expand the idea of orderly progress through natural evolution to include such sociopolitical arrangements as corporations and nations? In this view, the most useful of Darwin's concepts is that of human existence as essentially a struggle in which the weakest perish, the fittest survive and the strongest flourish.
When applied to sociopolitical arrangements, this Darwinist process seems almost to dictate the Internationalist and Transnationalist one-world view of things. The continuing clash and contention in the world as it has been until now has resulted in a slow evolution of those who have survived from one stage of interdependent order to another. From time to time, natural "catastrophes" have intervened, forcing "nature" to take another path. But at each new stage, interdependence has become more important and more complex.
The greater the interdependence between groups, the higher the evolutionary stage, the more the balance achieved between interdependent groups results in the common good. The view of the Internationalists and Transnationalists is that they are the ones who are equipped to bring mankind to the highest level of the sociopolitical evolution. Their effort is to bring together into one harmonious whole all those separate parts of our world that have not yet "evolved" into a natural cohesion for the common good. (Martin 314-15)
Edified by a secular faith in "progress" and the modern scientistic myth of evolutionary theory, the new oligarch was a sociopolitical Darwinian. Although it remained no less elitist in nature, the contemporary ruling class epistemology took on a distinctly evolutionary character. Social, political, and economic interdependence were all viewed as the logical corollary of man's alleged evolution. World government became the inescapable destiny of mankind and the "divine providence" of the ruling class. This sociopolitical Darwinian schematic for one-world order is riding into dominance astride "a real and living and evolving tripod that will carry us on its three legs into the globalist community of the near future" (Martin 316). International trade constitutes the first leg of this tripod, which is supported by the second leg of an international payment system (316). The IMF is part and parcel of this second leg:
As the first leg of the tripod, international trade, got its modern footing with the help of GATT, so the second leg was set on the right path by means of an international agency established in the same year, 1947. Because the basic agreements making this new monetary agency possible were signed in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, they are often referred to collectively as the Bretton Woods Agreement(s). The agency itself, however, was named for its function: the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. (318)
In the world that the sociopolitical Darwinians are sculpting, the IMF and World Bank are the enforcers of the evolutionary codex: "Survival of the fittest." Given the oligarchical pedigree of those who constitute the Darwinian elite, the socioeconomic criteria for determining who is fit becomes painfully apparent. The IMF and World Bank are designed to maintain the economic hegemony of the rich. An increasingly interdependent world economy has facilitated the enshrinement of these inherently predatory financial institutions.
Disaster Capitalism: A Case Study in Economic Warfare
For many years now, activists and people in the patriot community have been warning Americans about an emerging new world order. However, many of these individuals have a very poor understanding of the definition of the new world order. The new world order is not a monolithic conspiracy controlled by reptilian men from Zeta Reticuli or Jesuits hidden in the dark bowels of the Vatican. Instead, it is a reconfiguration of global civilization along oligarchical contours. Many methods are employed by the power elite to accomplish this reconfiguration. One of the methods used is known as disaster capitalism.
Disaster capitalism has nothing to do with Americanism or free enterprise. It is merely a recycling of the same plan used by revolutionaries, secret societies, and subversive movements going back at least as far as the Illuminati. Nesta Webster described this plan as "the systematic attempt to create grievances in order to exploit them" (31). According to Naomi Klein, disaster capitalism "uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering" (no pagination). All of this goes on under the guise of "reconstruction." However, Shalmali Guttal, a researcher with Focus on the Global South has warned the "reconstruction" is merely a euphemism, stating: "It's not reconstruction at all–it's about reshaping everything" (no pagination). Everything is reshaped to fit the colonial model of the new world order that the power elite desire to see realized. However, according to Guttal, this colonialism is not the vulgar variety of the past (no pagination). Its pretext of reconstruction makes it much more sophisticated (no pagination). The IMF and World Bank play no small role in the process. Of the World Bank's involvement in the disaster capitalism scheme, Naomi Klein writes:
"Post-conflict" countries now receive 20-25 percent of the World Bank's total lending, up from 16 percent in 1998–itself an 800 percent increase since 1980, according to a Congressional Research Service study. Rapid response to wars and natural disasters has traditionally been the domain of United Nations agencies, which worked with NGOs to provide emergency aid, build temporary housing and the like. But now reconstruction work has been revealed as a tremendously lucrative industry, too important to be left to the do-gooders at the UN. So today it is the World Bank, already devoted to the principle of poverty-alleviation through profit-making, that leads the charge. (No pagination)
The World Bank's sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, has also been involved in disaster capitalism in Jamaica. In 1972, Jamaica democratically elected a new government made up of the People's National Party and headed up by Prime Minister Michael Manley (Phillips 475-76). Manley became a problem for the elite, namely those behind four U.S. aluminum companies: Kaiser, Reynolds, Alcoa, and Revere (477). Jamaica was one of the world's largest exporters of bauxite, the mineral that is processed into aluminum (477). All four American companies and the Canadian company Alcan had dominance over the Jamaican Bauxite industry (477). Manley's government had begun to tip the power balance by negotiating for 51 percent controlling interest in Jamaica's bauxite industry (477).
Manley's actions incurred the wrath of some powerful people. An operation was launch to visit economic ruin upon Jamaica. James Phillips explains:
In 1975, a destabilization campaign-reminiscent of the one aimed at Allende's Chile-was launched against Jamaica. Jamaica was closed out of the international public and private lending market. Total U.S. assistance dropped from $13.2 million in 1974 to $2.2 million in 1976, and further AID assistance was embargoed. "Even though many in the State Department objected to what one mid-level official called an 'effort to cut Jamaica off at the knees,' observes one writer, the embargo on new lending remained in effect until the Carter Administration revoked it in early 1977." Jamaica's credit rating with the U.S. Export Import bank dropped from a top to a bottom category. During 1976 the Jamaican Government was unable to secure a single private bank loan. Jamaican capitalists went "on strike" along with foreign capital, closing down the factories, cutting back production, and laying off workers. Emigrating wealthy Jamaicans smuggled an estimated $200 million from the island. (478)
While attacks on Jamaica's economy were proving effective, the covert operators of the intelligence community also launched a Jacobin-style terror campaign. Phillips elaborates:
Meanwhile, toward the end of 1975 and during the first half of 1976, a concerted plan (later exposed as "Operation Werewolf") was put into effect by agencies within the U.S.-apparently including the CIA-acting in concert with forces within the JLP, the major opposition party (misappropriately called the Jamaican Labour Party). In January 1976, a series of increasingly violent events began. People by the dozens were burned out of their homes (whole areas were torched) while paid gunmen shot or threatened those trying to escape. Most of the victims were PNP supporters. Food supplies were poisoned, and rumor of poisoning of water supplies were rife. The police and defense Force uncovered guns, explosives, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition of a kind never seen before in Jamaica. The violence escalated until Manley, exercising his constitutional powers, declared a state of national emergency in June, hinting strongly that outside forces were at work. The foreign Western press, especially in the U.S., picked up on the theme of violence in Jamaica, often misrepresenting or distorting the actual facts of events. Later, Manley, his ministers, and the leaders of several other Caribbean nations (including Guyana and Barbados) charged that a plot to "destabilize" the Jamaican government was under way. (478-79)
Manley did the best he could to counter the destabilization campaign. Unfortunately, his efforts were not successful. Phillips describes the effect the campaign had on Jamaica's economic livelihood:
The campaign of fear and violence during the first half of 1976 had several important consequences for the Jamaican economy. It slowed production as fear and disturbance spread among the working population. It frightened any remaining potential foreign investors and financial leaders. It had a devastating effect upon the tourist industry, Jamaica's third most important source of revenue. In effect, the campaign of violence greatly aggravated the problems of the Jamaican economy, already in trouble because of the increase in oil prices (Jamaica imports all of its oil), the activities of the bauxite companies, and U.S. controlled or dominated public and private lending agencies. (479)
It was at this point of economic desperation that the IMF moved in to devour its prey. In 1977, Manley came to the bargaining table and began negotiating with the IMF to rescue Jamaica from its economic woes (481). The IMF granted a $74 million dollar standby loan to be paid back in four installments (481). This loan came with conditions that would have an enormous effect on Jamaica. James Phillips explains:
As conditions for the standby arrangement, the IMF demanded 40 percent devaluation of the Jamaican dollar, a wage freeze, and cutbacks in government spending on social programs. (481)
The consequences of the measures were anything but positive. With wages frozen, the Jamaican people found themselves unable to cope with price increases (481). The standard of living experience a sharp decline (481). Jamaica was made to pay the ultimate price for pulling away from the influence of companies owned by American elites. Jamaica's experience with the IMF clearly demonstrates the fact that, in the new world order, the common people are considered natives to be civilized through disaster capitalism.
The IMF and World Bank are taking part in one of the world's largest wealth transferals. First, the power elite facilitated the adoption of socialism within certain countries. Second, these socialist regimes confiscated peoples' businesses through nationalization campaigns. Through the IMF, World Bank, and disaster capitalist strategies, a predatory form of privatization is being introduced. This modus operandi is allowing the power elite to seize businesses that the state had originally stolen. Subsequently, the ruling class consolidates these ill-gotten spoils to form tremendous monopolies.
With the withdrawal of Ecuador and Venezuela from this system of economic piracy, one cannot help but wonder if these two South American countries haven't already been targeted for a destabilization campaign. To be sure, the CIA's work in Jamaica sets a disturbing precedent. The global oligarchical establishment certainly hasn't overlooked the South American deviation from the system. This deviation constitutes a serious violation of sociopolitical Darwinian principles. As the private army of the Fortune 500, the CIA may feel behooved to "restore the natural order of things." A destabilization campaign in Ecuador and Venezuela could possibly reinstate the oligarchical edict of the day: "Survival of the richest."
Ambinder, Marc J. "Inside the Council for National Policy." ABC 25 November 2006
Behar, Richard. "Ecuador Boots World Bank as Correa Continues Crackdown Against Opponents." Fox News 26 April 2007
"Council for National Policy: Selected Member Biographies." Seek God
Desmond, Adrian and James Moore. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. 1947. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1991.
Fischer, Frank. Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1990.
Klein, Naomi. "The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." The Nation 2 May 2005
Madsen, Wayne. Jaded Tasks: Brass Plates, Black Ops, and Big Oil. Oregon: TrineDay, 2006.
Martin, Malachi. The Keys of this Blood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.
O'Meara, Kelly Patricia. "DynCorp disgrace." Insight on the News 4 February 2002
Phillips, James. "Renovation of the International Economic Order: Trilateralism, the IMF, and Jamaica." Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management, Holly Sklar, ed., Boston: South End Press, 1980, 468-91.
Ratcliffe, David T. Understanding Special Operations and their Impact on the Vietnam Era. Rat Haus Reality Press, 1999
Robison, John. Proofs of a Conspiracy . Belmont, Massachusetts: Western Islands, 1967.
Scahill, Jeremy. "Blood is Thicker Than Blackwater." The Nation 8 May 2006
"Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars." Secret and Suppressed. Ed. Jim Keith. Los Angeles: Feral House, 1993. 201-14.
Taylor, Ian T. In the Minds of Men: Darwin and the New World Order. Toronto: TFE Publishing, 1999.
"Venezuela to Quit World Bank, IMF." PressTV 1 May 2007
Webster, Nesta. World Revolution. London: Constable and Company, 1921.
Phillip D. Collins acted as the editor for The Hidden Face of Terrorism and co-authored the book The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship with his brother Paul Collins. Both books are available at www.amazon.com. Phillip has also written articles for News With Views, Conspiracy Archive, and the Vexilla Regis Journal.
In 1999, Phillip earned an Associate degree of Arts and Science from Clark State Community College. In 2006, he earned a bachelor's degree with majors in communication studies and liberal studies along with a minor in philosophy from Wright State University.
Phillip worked as a staff writer for a weekly news publication, the Vandalia Drummer, between late 2007 and 2011. During his tenure with the paper, he earned several accolades.
In 2011, he was inducted into the Media Honor Roll by the Ohio School Board Association for his extensive coverage of the Vandalia-Butler School District. That very same year, the Ohio Newspaper Association bestowed an Osman C. Hooper Newspaper Award upon Phillip for Best Photo. In addition, the City of Vandalia officially proclaimed that November 7, 2011 would be known as "Phillip Collins Day." This honor was bestowed upon Phillip for his tireless coverage of the City and community.
Shortly after bringing his journalism career to a close, Phillip received another Osman C. Hooper Newspaper Award in the category of In-depth Reporting. This award was given to Phillip for his investigative work over the death of U.S. Marine Maria Lauterbach and the resultant Department of Defense reforms concerning sexual assault and rape. The case drew national attention and received TV coverage by major media organs.
Phillip currently works for the Wyoming Department of Corrections, where he earned the distinction of Employee of the Quarter for the third quarter of 2013. Phillip still works as a freelance journalist and is currently collaborating with his brother on a follow-up to The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship.
Paul David Collins is the author of The Hidden Face of Terrorism and the co-author of The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship. In 1999, he earned his Associate of Arts and Science degree from Clark State Community College. In 2006, he received his bachelor's degree with a major in Liberal Studies and a minor in Political Science from Wright State University. He worked as a professional journalist for roughly four years.
From 2008 to 2012, Paul covered local news for several Times Community News publications, including the Enon Messenger, the New Carlisle Sun, the Tipp City Herald, the Kettering/Oakwood Times, the Beavercreek News Current, the Vandalia Drummer, the Springboro Sun, the Englewood Independent, the Fairborn Daily Herald, and the Xenia Daily Gazette.
Paul also wrote for other local papers, including the Enon Eagle, the New Carlisle News, and the Lusk Herald. In addition to his work in the realm of mainstream, Paul has published several articles concerning the topics of deep politics and elite deviancy. Those articles have appeared in Terry Melanson's online Conspiracy Archive, Paranoia magazine, Vexilla Regis Journal, and Nexus magazine. He currently works as a correctional officer with the Wyoming Department of Corrections.
', enableHover: false, enableTracking: true, buttons: { pinterest: { description: 'Institutions of Economic Piracy',media: 'https://www.conspiracyarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Featured-East-India-Company.jpg' } }, click: function(api, options){ api.simulateClick(); api.openPopup('pinterest'); } }); // Scrollable sharrre bar, contributed by Erik Frye. Awesome! var $_shareContainer = $(".sharrre-container"), $_header = $('#header'), $_postEntry = $('.entry'), $window = $(window), startSharePosition = $_shareContainer.offset(),//object contentBottom = $_postEntry.offset().top + $_postEntry.outerHeight(), topOfTemplate = $_header.offset().top, topSpacing = _setTopSpacing(); //triggered on scroll shareScroll = function(){ var scrollTop = $window.scrollTop() + topOfTemplate, stopLocation = contentBottom - ($_shareContainer.outerHeight() + topSpacing); $_shareContainer.css({position : 'fixed'}); if( scrollTop > stopLocation ){ $_shareContainer.css( { position:'relative' } ); $_shareContainer.offset( { top: contentBottom - $_shareContainer.outerHeight(), left: startSharePosition.left, } ); } else if (scrollTop >= $_postEntry.offset().top - topSpacing){ $_shareContainer.css( { position:'fixed',top: '100px' } ); $_shareContainer.offset( { //top: scrollTop + topSpacing, left: startSharePosition.left, } ); } else if (scrollTop < startSharePosition.top + ( topSpacing - 1 ) ) { $_shareContainer.css( { position:'relative' } ); $_shareContainer.offset( { top: $_postEntry.offset().top, left:startSharePosition.left, } ); } }, //triggered on resize shareMove = function() { startSharePosition = $_shareContainer.offset(); contentBottom = $_postEntry.offset().top + $_postEntry.outerHeight(); topOfTemplate = $_header.offset().top; _setTopSpacing(); }; /* As new images load the page content body gets longer. The bottom of the content area needs to be adjusted in case images are still loading. */ setTimeout( function() { contentBottom = $_postEntry.offset().top + $_postEntry.outerHeight(); }, 2000); function _setTopSpacing(){ var distanceFromTop = 20; if( $window.width() > 1024 ) { topSpacing = distanceFromTop + $('.nav-wrap').outerHeight(); } else { topSpacing = distanceFromTop; } return topSpacing; } //setup event listeners $window.scroll( _.throttle( function() { if ( $window.width() > 719 ) { shareScroll(); } else { $_shareContainer.css({ top:'', left:'', position:'' }) } }, 50 ) ); $window.resize( _.debounce( function() { if ( $window.width() > 719 ) { shareMove(); } else { $_shareContainer.css({ top:'', left:'', position:'' }) } }, 50 ) ); });
Tags: East India CompanyFeudalismPaul and Phillip CollinsTransnationalism
Next story The Covert Origins of ISIS
Previous story From Séance to Science: A Brief History of Social Control
The Last Wake Up Call
Their Kingdom Come: Dominionism's Quest for Political Capital in the Emergent World Order
brad p. says:
This is an enlightening article, well done and researched. It's not that different from my local churches. An extension of a neo-east India trading company corporate propaganda branch. Deacons and commitees populated with well connected chamber of commerce Masons and eugenists govern them. They now make little effort to conceal their Darwinistic mentality as the Prosperity gospel dominates ecclesiastical thought. The social media hypnotized church is either oblivious to or in total agreement with these men. Leaving the remnant of the remaining working class Christians disenfranchised or outside the inner government of the modern mega church.
Skull and Bones "Crook" for the Tomb
C. D. Jackson's Bilderberg Remarks, Sept. 1958, in Buxton UK
Bilderberger Jonathon Porritt: "having more than two children is irresponsible"


This is how SMC cleaning services accomplishes residential gutter cleaning in Houston,Tx. For professional residential gutter cleaning in Houston,Tx call SMC cleaning services at 281 899-0402 for all your gutter cleaning needs.
First, you need to have the proper equipment and tools to do the job right. We use extension ladders from 24 feet in length to 36 feet in length. Also, we use extension poles with a good soft bristle chemical brushes for hand scrubbing the gutters. We put rubber guards to cover the end of the ladder, so we don't scratch the gutters. The chemical we use is a special gutter cleaning chemical made specially for gutter cleaning and it is environmentally friendly. The pressure washers we use on all our rigs are 4gpm @ 4000 psi. We have an extension that connects to the wand on the pressure washer to extend it from 6 feet all the way to 24 feet for those higher gutters. It is always safer to do all gutter cleaning in Houston, Tx from the ground with an extension wand if possible. We start gutter cleaning your home in Houston Tx by first choosing the proper length ladder for the job. We make sure to check for any overhead obstructions like power lines or over hanging limbs. Always make sure the ladder is level before climbing and use the proper climbing angle. Before applying the chemical, always wet down all plants by applying water on them. At SMC Cleaning Services, all chemicals we use is environmentally friendly. When applying the chemical, we run the chemical directly through the chemical injector and soap about a 10 ft section. Always test a small area first to make sure the chemical won't remove the paint. If the gutters have been repainted, the chemical can remove the paint so always test a small area first. Soap the area with the gutter cleaning chemical, then pressure wash the black streaks off the gutters. If the streaks are really heavy, use the extension pole and brush to scrub the gutters clean by hand. So, for professional residential gutter cleaning in Houston,Tx call SMC cleaning services at 281 899-0402. You can also fill out the form below for a free quote. Call Today!


text:
Twitter Dominating The Mediascape
3 news stories that appeared on Twitter before mainstream media
With 316 million users sending half a billion messages everyday, the importance of Twitter from a communications point of view can't be ignored. Regardless of the industry your organisation operates in, there's an enormous user base ready and willing to engage with brands that play their cards right.
Social media analytics may be able to help you identify your key influencers and report the types of content they engage with, usage trends among your target audience and a range of other metrics that can ultimately increase your brand's exposure.
However, it's not only consumers who are using Twitter on a daily basis. The platform's instantaneous nature, combined with the fact that anybody can effectively 'report' on the goings on around them at any time, means that Twitter has rapidly emerged as an indispensable tool in the news world. Increasingly, journalists, reporters and other media professionals are using the micro blogging service to get the scoop on stories as and when they break.
"Journalists use Twitter ever day to research stories and locate sources"
In fact, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford did a comprehensive examination of 135 journalists to determine just how pervasive Twitter use has become in the news room. The study found that of the 135 participants, 80 used social media on a daily basis to conduct research, develop contacts, search for interviewees and sniff out potential sources.
This particular piece of research was carried out in 2010, and it's easy to imagine that the media relies even more heavily on social platforms today.
These statistics support the notion that the scope of news sources is widening, and this affects all communication professionals who are looking for ways to help their organisation's news pieces gain traction. While professional press release distribution services are still usually the most effective way of getting information into the public eye in a timely manner, there have been a few instances when major news stories broke out on Twitter before they were picked up by major media outlets.
Here are three of the most notable:
1. Boston Bombing
On April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon ended in tragic fashion when multiple bombs were set off near the finishing line, killing three and injuring more than 260 others, according to CBS News. With so many at the scene of the explosions – perhaps with smartphones already in hand, ready to take snaps of the runners – it may come as little surprise to learn that news of the event first broke on Twitter.
In fact, the social media platform proved itself as a valid journalistic tool throughout the disaster, with reporters on the ground publishing constant updates of what was happening in the city. The event quickly saturated news sources, as social media monitoring services could have showed. The number of Boston-related tweets hit six million on the day of the disaster.
Staff members of the Boston Globe, the city's newspaper, were taking part in the marathon and they quickly transitioned from running into news coverage, according to Twitter, further demonstrating the flexible and dynamic nature of the platform. The newspaper sent out 150 tweets on the day of the bombing (up from an average of 40 tweets per day), with both their social account and website commanding an incredible amount of traffic in the days that followed.
2. Whitney Houston's death
Singer and actress Whitney Houston's passed away on February 11, 2012. Celebrity deaths naturally attract a lot of attention, and as a result the events are often covered extensively by media outlets. What was different about Whitney Houston's death, however, is that the news first broke on Twitter.
Business Insider explained that Brittany J. Pullard (@BarBeeBrit), a frequent figure in the Hollywood nightclub scene, tweeted the news of the pop star's death an hour before Whitney Houston's publicist issued an official statement confirming the tragic event. You can see the tweet below:
Is Whitney Houston really dead?
— Brittany J Pullard (@BarBeeBritt) February 12, 2012
Details never surfaced about how Ms Pullard gained knowledge of Whitney Houston's death, but the news quickly went viral once pop culture heavyweights such as Katy Perry, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj retweeted the official press release.
3. Twitter goes public
While most companies announce their stock market launch via conventional press release distribution channels, Twitter did something a little different. Leveraging the very technology that has enabled it to succeed, on September 12, 2013 the company tweeted that it had filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.
— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013
This highlighted the ever-changing relationship between new and old media and was another step forward for Twitter proving itself as a legitimate and valuable news source.
In summary, Twitter continues to play an important role in the lives of both consumers and journalists. Communications professionals who make use of media monitoring tools may be able to identify their key influencers and increase the chance of their news stories gaining traction in the digital sphere.
Keeping pace in the digital age
A look into the changing consumption of news, and believability

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Idiot's Guide to Chinagate
RichardPoe.com ^ | May 26, 2003 | Richard Poe
Posted on 05/26/2003 9:43:13 AM PDT by Richard Poe
CHINA WILL LIKELY replace the USA as world leader, said Bill Clinton in a recent Washington Post interview. It is just a matter of time. Clinton should know. He has personally done more to build China's military strength than any man on earth.
Most Americans have heard of the so-called "Chinagate " scandal. Few understand its deadly import, however. Web sites such as "Chinagate for Dummies" and its companion "More Chinagate for Dummies" offer some assistance. Unfortunately, with a combined total of nearly 8,000 words, these two sites – like so many others of the genre – offer more detail than most of us "dummies" can absorb.
For that reason, in the 600 words left in this column, I will try to craft my own "Idiot's Guide to Chinagate," dedicated to all those busy folks like you and me whose attention span tends to peter out after about 750 words. Here goes.
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, China presented no threat to the United States. Chinese missiles "couldn't hit the side of a barn," notes Timothy W. Maier of Insight magazine. They could barely reach Taiwan and would likely miss their targets once they got there.
Thanks to Bill Clinton, China can now hit any city in the USA, using state-of-the-art, solid-fueled missiles with dead-accurate, computerized guidance systems and multiple warheads.
China probably has suitcase nukes as well. These enable China to strike by proxy – equipping nuclear-armed terrorists to do their dirty work, while the Chinese play innocent. Some intelligence sources claim that China maintains secret stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons on U.S. soil, for just such contingencies.
In 1997, Clinton allowed China to take over the Panama Canal. The Chinese company Hutchison Whampoa leased the ports of Cristobal and Balboa, on the east and west openings of the canal respectively, thus controlling access both ways. A public outcry stopped Clinton in 1998 from leasing California's Long Beach Naval Yard to the Chinese firm COSCO. Even so, China can now strike U.S. targets easily from their bases in Panama, Vancouver and the Bahamas.
How did China catch up so fast? Easy. We sold them all the technology they needed – or handed it over for free. Neither neglect nor carelessness are to blame. Bill Clinton did it on purpose.
As a globalist, Clinton promotes "multipolarity"– the doctrine that no country (such as the USA) should be allowed to gain decisive advantage over others.
To this end, Clinton appointed anti-nuclear activist Hazel O'Leary to head the Department of Energy. O'Leary set to work "leveling the playing field," as she put it, by giving away our nuclear secrets. She declassified 11 million pages of data on U.S. nuclear weapons and loosened up security at weapons labs.
Federal investigators later concluded that China made off with the "crown jewels" of our nuclear weapons research under Clinton's open-door policy – probably including design specifications for suitcase nukes.
Meanwhile, Clinton and his corporate cronies raked in millions.
In his book The China Threat, Washington Times correspondent Bill Gertz describes how the system worked. Defense contractors eager to sell technology to China poured millions of dollars into Clinton's campaign. In return, Clinton called off the dogs. Janet Reno and other counterintelligence officials stood down while Lockheed Martin, Hughes Electronics, Loral Space & Communications and other U.S. companies helped China modernize its nuclear strike force.
"We like your president. We want to see him reelected," former Chinese intelligence chief General Ji Shengde told Chinagate bagman Johnny Chung.
Indeed, Chinese intelligence organized a massive covert operation aimed at tilting the 1996 election Clinton's way.
Clinton's top campaign contributors for 1992 were Chinese agents; his top donors in 1996 were U.S. defense contractors selling missile technology to China.
Clinton recieved funding directly from known or suspected Chinese intelligence agents, among them James and Mochtar Riady who own the Indonesian Lippo Group; John Huang; Charlie Trie; Ted Sioeng; Maria Hsia; Wang Jun and others.
Commerce Secretary Ron Brown served as Clinton's front man in many Chinagate deals. When investigators began probing Brown's Lippo Group and Chinagate connections, Brown died suddenly in a suspicious April 1996 plane crash.
Needless to say, China does not share Clinton's enthusiasm for globalism or multipolarity. The Chinese look out for Number One.
"War [with the United States] is inevitable; we cannot avoid it," said Chinese Defense Minister General Chi Haotian in 2000. "The issue is that the Chinese armed forces must control the initiative in this war."
Bill Clinton has given them a good start.
Richard Poe is a New York Times bestselling author and cyberjournalist. His book The Seven Myths of Gun Control is due out in paperback in August 2003. Poe's forthcoming book, The New Underground: How Conservatives Conquered the Internet will be available soon.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bahamas; billclinton; billclintontantrum; billgertz; charlietrie; chihaotian; china; chinagate; clinton; clintonlegacy; hazeloleary; hillary; jamesriady; janetreno; jishengde; johnhuang; johnnychung; lippogroup; longbeach; mariahsia; mochtarriady; moctarriady; panama; richardpoe; ronbrown; tedsioeng; treason; vancouver; wangjun
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-67 next last
1 posted on 05/26/2003 9:43:13 AM PDT by Richard Poe
2 posted on 05/26/2003 9:44:44 AM PDT by Rocko
Succinct and on target. Great post.
3 posted on 05/26/2003 9:53:34 AM PDT by LisaFab (Free Miguel Estrada!)
To: Richard Poe; Alamo-Girl
Thanks for this greta post. China and the abject treasonous support given that regime by our own leaders is going to lead to very big trouble IMHO. I try and warn of it in my Dragon's Fury Series
Also, please check out Alamo-girl's ...
There is great info about Chinagate at the DSL too.
4 posted on 05/26/2003 9:55:42 AM PDT by Jeff Head
5 posted on 05/26/2003 9:59:20 AM PDT by Freee-dame
Perhaps the media have it all wrong, then. Maybe Bill Clinton was our first Chinese president, rather than the first black one.
6 posted on 05/26/2003 10:39:12 AM PDT by Major Matt Mason (np Richard Thompson, "The Old Kit Bag")
I am currently reading Bill Gertz's "The China Threat". As the quote from Gordon Liddy on the back cover states "...this will scare the hell out of you".
The Clintons should be tried for treason, period.
7 posted on 05/26/2003 10:45:55 AM PDT by americanSoul
It's only May, but this article gets my vote for the most important article of the year. This is both THE most important AND underreported story of the entire 20th Century. An American President sells out his own country for illegal campaign cash he wound up not being able to use!!! But because it lacks sex, brevity, and because it takes an above 75 IQ to understand,(and because it is about the leader of the Democrat party) the story was not given the attention it deserved.
The excuse making and buck passing and spin doctoring will continue, even after the first couple of cities on the West Coast are obliterated by Chinese missiles.
THank you Richard for the websites, and KEEP ON FREEPIN' ON!!!
8 posted on 05/26/2003 10:48:05 AM PDT by Captainpaintball
To: Richard Poe; All
"Has that clinton "legacy" made you feel safer yet?"
Lest Americans ever forget why the clintons, and all their enablers need to be hectored, hounded, and harried into silence, until "clintonese is only spoken in Hell," look here:
The Clinton Files
various links | 10-08-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
Liars-- and Sleaze, Incorporated... ( my files on the clintons and friends )
various links | 7-27-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/611951/posts
Hodgepodge O' Hillary
various links | 01-20-02 | backhoe
The Atomic Genie- what we have about North Korea's Nuclear program
various FR posts | 10-17-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
There are, of course, what I consider my "most damaging" set of hard-core links:
The Cost of Life (Clinton/Gore Sellout of Security for Campaign Contributions) **FR EXCLUSIVE** #2
CIA Officials Reveal What Went Wrong – Clinton to Blame
Is Bill Clinton Responsible for September 11?
Catastrophic intelligence Failure - Clinton's Bin Laden GATE
-Murder, Inc.--
-The number of "suicides" for people linked to this and other Clinton-related cases--
-ATTENTION BLOODHOUNDS--
-Women in the Clinton Era: Abuse,Intimidation and Smears--
-SEND JUANITA BROADDRICK VIDEO TO THOSE WHO WANT CLINTON TO SPEAK--
Nothing phony about response to Hillary at fete
Hillary's delegates spit on and taunt Police Honor Guard at her Convention
-Hillary Clinton-What America Needs to Know--
-Sen. Hillary Clinton--NewsMax.com Hot Topics--
Boo Hillary! The Video***
9 posted on 05/26/2003 10:58:27 AM PDT by backhoe (A nuke for every Kook ( NK, Iraq, Iran, Pak, India... )- what a Clinton "legacy...")
a boon to those of us who like to keep records. thanks.
10 posted on 05/26/2003 11:13:29 AM PDT by demosthenes the elder (If *I* can afford $5/month to support FR: SO CAN YOU)
To: Jeff Head
Thank you so much for the heads up and for linking to the DSL! Hugs!
11 posted on 05/26/2003 11:13:50 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
MEGA BUMP!!
12 posted on 05/26/2003 11:42:58 AM PDT by conservativecorner
Two corrections. First, China probably doesn't have suitcase nukes. If they've achieved that level of miniaturization in bomb-making, their new ICBMs should be MIRVed with 6-8 warheads. To the best of my knowledge they're only able to mount 3 or 4 on an ICBM.
Second, it's ridiculous to say that before Clinton, China's missiles could "barely reach Taiwan". Their first limited-range ICBMs were operational by the mid-70s. The first full-range ICBM was tested in 1971, though it wasn't successfully tested until a decade later. However it is true that the accuracy (CEP) of their warheads and reliability of their rockets has improved exponentially in only the last decade.
13 posted on 05/26/2003 12:28:28 PM PDT by Filibuster_60
An excellent thumbnail sketch, Mr. Poe! Here's my question: In light of the gross and obvious treason that took place, why is it that the entire Republican establishment, George W. Bush included, has done absolutely nothing to either prosecute those involved or halt the sale of sensitive military technology to China? A report surfaced on Frontpage magazine last month that detailed the transfer of a munitions plant in Indiana responsible for the "smart bombs" used in Iraq to China - evidently with the full approval of Bush and the Republicans. While I sincerely hope that Bill Clinton is one day brought to face the tip of a needle for his treason, he is certainly not alone.
14 posted on 05/26/2003 12:42:38 PM PDT by Bogolyubski
"Pantex" is the final assembly plant for nuclear weapons,and is located in the Texas Panhandle, near Amarillo, Texas. It is under contract from the government to a company called BWXT (Mason-Hanger, Silas Mason Co., Inc. used to be the contractor). A couple of years ago, I was listening to a talk radio program about the Chinese company Hutchison Whampoa and how it leases the Panama Canal. The female caller said that she had been told BWXT ALSO was owned by Hutchison Whampoa! Not a great thing, if true!
I have searched every way I know to prove or disprove this, and haven't been able to find much out. If anyone knows anything about this, I'd appreciate hearing it.
15 posted on 05/26/2003 2:20:26 PM PDT by Maria S
To: Filibuster_60
China probably doesn't have suitcase nukes.
Good point, though this is disputable. The Chinese may consider miniaturization technology more vital for terrorist use than for MIRVing, in which case they might refrain from mounting more warheads on an ICBM, for now, in order to prevent us from discovering their capabilities.
...it's ridiculous to say that before Clinton, China's missiles could "barely reach Taiwan."
Thank you for the correction. You are right, of course. I have fixed the error in the other published versions of this column, on NewsMax.com and RichardPoe.com.
16 posted on 05/26/2003 2:42:19 PM PDT by Richard Poe
Excellent post! bump'n'keep
17 posted on 05/26/2003 2:49:15 PM PDT by CGVet58 (I still miss my ex-wife... but my aim is improving!)
To: Mia T
18 posted on 05/26/2003 2:50:26 PM PDT by Incorrigible
Corrected version...
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, China presented little threat to the United States. Chinese missiles "couldn't hit the side of a barn," notes Timothy W. Maier of Insight magazine. Few could reach North America and those that made it would likely miss their targets.
someday billy boy will pay for his treason........
20 posted on 05/26/2003 2:56:34 PM PDT by The Wizard (Saddamocrats are enemies of America, treasonous everytime they speak)