Stacy Summary: This all started for the West with the Leo Straussian’s of the 70s who determined that stoking religious fanaticism was the way to power. Note that the seventies was when the dollar became backed by Middle East oil.  Hence, religious fundamentalism as a means of control also started in the Middle East at this same time of the new petro-dollar.  If you look at photos from 1950′s & 60′s Afghanistan, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, for example, you will see a far more secular society where women didn’t have to wear headscarves or burkas.  With the Bush Administration came the epitome of these ideas of Straussian will to power as personified in Paul Wolfowitz. For these guys their personal aim is not religious but merely money, power and control of resources. They attain that through whipping their base into a religious fervour eager for holy war that benefits only the monarchies and dictators of the Middle East and the soft dictators of the West. The problem with the religious fanatics they use to gain and then maintain power is that just as in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the mental illness of fanaticism bleeds out and becomes uncontrollable at some point. Obviously we see this far more in the oil rich region of the Middle East; but Dick Cheney’s and George W. Bush’s promises of a Crusade did plant the seed of these ideas. And now we’re seeing the results. It’s the equivalent moment as during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait when Osama bin Laden visited the Saudi royal family to announce that he had the army to defend the country [as holy warrior, Eric Prince, currently 'defends' America in her wars]. Notice that with these two Westerners I highlight below are both seeking a sort of Christian caliphate, and yet we are told these movements are ‘libertarian’ or at least ‘small government’ in nature,’ but notice that they both wish to impose onto others their vision of what a moral society should be. And notice in history that war has not once in the thousands of wars been associated with a small government or low taxes. By the way, here is the Norwegian guy’s alleged video manifesto he released a few hours before the shootings.

• Rick Perry’s Army of God: A little-known movement of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophets wants to infiltrate government, and Rick Perry might be their man.

If they simply professed unusual beliefs, movement leaders wouldn’t be remarkable. But what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government. The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they’re intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an “army of God” to commandeer civilian government.

In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual.

• Tea party isn’t ready to cozy up to a Rick Perry candidacy [Stacy: despite the headline, the article points out that he polls ahead of other Republican candidates, including Palin, Bachmann and even Ron Paul amongst Tea Party members]

“As far as tea party supporters are concerned, they are very much at home with him both in terms of his social and economic conservatism,” Miringoff said. “Even though he’s on the sidelines, that’s sometimes when you’re at your strong point. … What tea party supporters have seen so far, they like.”

Stacy – again, you can claim ‘economic conservatism’ until you’re blue in the face but war has bankrupted almost every empire in history.

• Oslo Suspect Wrote of Fear of Islam and Plan for War

In a 1,500-page manifesto, posted on the Web hours before the attacks, Mr. Breivik recorded a day-by-day diary of months of planning for the attacks, and claimed to be part of a small group that intended to “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.”

Stacy - Also note that Rick Perry’s Christian warriors are against Free Masons, while the Norwegian warrior is a Free Mason . . . maybe we’ll once again see internal religious wars similar to those that devastated Europe for centuries? Regardless, the Christian caliphate is far, far closer in the U.S. than it is in Europe where only a small fraction of the population believes the earth is 6050 years old.

• Debt Talks Break Up After 50 Minutes

• Barack Obama warns of market meltdown if US debt talks fail

Stacy Summary: The terrorist attack (or false flag whichever you choose to believe) on Oslo killed twice as many Norwegians as a percentage of the population as 9/11 killed Americans. And yet already Norwegians are refusing to allow this attack to define them, to alter who they are as a people, thus allowing the terrorists to win. This is how America should have responded as well. Yes, it’s a terrible crime and the grief of the victims is real, but neverending war turns the population into the thing it feared.

• Oslo’s mayor has said in response to the terrorist attack, “I don’t think security can solve problems. We need to teach greater respect”
• The US response (before it became known that it was a white, Christian fundamentalist) was the opposite seeking more authority, more security, more military, “It’s a reminder that the entire international community holds a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring” and “we have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks”

• Save the Gambling Bankers

• Michael features in this upcoming Australian documentary on how economic theory was kidnapped and the policy manipulations that allowed this to happen.

Stacy Summary: Yes, that old word ‘Marxist.’ Someone in the comments yesterday wrote that this must be staged because ‘why would a nationalist kill his own people.’ He killed children who attended a ‘left wing’ summer camp.  It makes perfect sense. We’ve seen this before. He was seeking purity.  This sort of thing was seen in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the right wing nationalists would especially hate those they saw as weak amongst their own and seek to cleanse this weakness from their system. On a biological level, of course, lack of diversity and adaptability dooms a species, but, hey, you’re looking at angry absolutists. You see in our comments section the angriest people are usually those who drop the word ‘Marxist’ in their tirades (because they think we are ‘left wing’) as if they understand what they are saying when all we can see is the mindless hate they have become.  Remember when some eco-crazy shot two or three people at Discovery Channel and hundreds of these right wing people flooded our site screeching that this is the TRUE mind of all environmentalists!!!  Fox News fed this frenzy of certainty.  Today, if they are not silent, they are here claiming this right wing, Tea Party styled purist is a staged attack. Of course, of course. One madman from any extreme of madness does not, however, a blanket judgment make. Someone gets consumed with ideas like Islam and Marxism into which they can bake all their frustrations, hate and ignorance.  The Rupert Murdochs of the world feed this parasite of ignorance for their own power. But anyone can step away from this need to control and impose on others. If someone else’s ideas and beliefs are a threat to your own grasp on reality, you’re hanging on too tight.  On a global scale this sort of mental illness is being stoked by the fact that the remaining oil reserves lie beneath a large population of Muslims; unless our heads of states can just admit we are actually stealing resources and not, in fact, at war with a uniquely evil ideology / religion, then these sort of mentally ill people will occasionally break out in random acts of senseless violence. Get used to it as the cost of cheap oil.

• The letters of Anders Behring Breiviks at an anti-Islam website in Norway have been posted at the site; the first one is trying to organize a sort of Tea Party for Norway where members would be vetted to make sure there was no ‘Marxist’ stain in their background – i.e., which sort of university they went to
• 84 youth killed, 7 dead from blast in Oslo

Murdoch’s Hate-Stoking Front Page:

UPDATE: A second shooter has been arrested according to reports. He is described as being Nordic with dark hair. He was arrested at a gathering of the family members of the victims. He was armed with knife. [No word yet if this guy was in fact involved or just happened to be a guy with a knife at this gathering;]. [Now reports that man had knife to protect himself].

• Phone Hacking: emails next scandal, says Tom Watson

• Horn of Africa Famine: Millions at Risk in “Deadly Cocktail” of War, Climate Change, Neoliberalism

“it’s a combination of war, climate change and very bad policy, particularly an embrace of free market—radical free market policies by regional governments that mean the withdrawal of support for pastoralists, the type of people you saw with their dead cattle. There are no programs from the government of Kenya, for example, to help them drill new wells, to help them with veterinary services for their ill animals, to help introduce new forms of livestock such as camels.

And then, on a broader international stage, there’s the tolerance for really rank speculation by firms like Glencore and Cargill, which have a lot to answer for in terms of this famine. One of the key events that has driven up food prices was climate change last year—worst drought in a hundred years in the Black Sea region of Russia, major flooding in U.S. and Canada. That helped drive up grain prices by almost 100 percent. But it wasn’t just that, because Russia then imposed an export ban. Glencore actually publicly lobbied for Russia to ban exports, much of which went to the World Food Programme. For example, 95 percent of the World Food Programme’s wheat comes from these Russian contracts. So, these speculators, Glencore, encouraged the Russians to impose this ban. They do that. Prices go up. Glencore then has a $60 billion IPO. So there are these—even far from the field, there are these factors that help exacerbate this emergency situation.”