The market is not the best part of America. Not even close. Our government is the best part — or at least it used to be before the current gang took over.
Really? Is that why our founders believed that Government was the biggest threat to the survival of America? Govco had NOTHING to do with my success nor the success of many of my family and friends. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah, Brad Pitt, the list could go on of mega successes without the help of Govco.
Ultimately, it is government that defines who we are and lays out a path for how our society will be. The market wouldn’t have built a uniform system of roads and bridges or provided free public education. It wouldn’t have guaranteed minimum wages or insisted on safe workplaces.
Is that why the pothole on that road never gets fixed? Is that why, in some cities it takes 30 years to build a interstate loop while it only takes a few years for a private investor to build a skyscraper that reaches to, well, the sky? Oh, and public schools? Yeah, they are sooooooooo great. In fact, don’t the homeschooling kids usually win the spelling B’s? Ha!
Only government can reset the scales and make this country a fair place again, where you don’t have to be a master-of-the-universe class member to know that you can afford college for your kids and a decent retirement for yourself. When the government stopped helping the middle class, the prosperity of this land stopped getting shared.
“Fair” for whom? What is “fair”? Also, since when did retirement and college become an entitlement?
If this credit crunch and the pain to come teaches us anything, it is that when the market is allowed to operate without supervision and regulation, insuperable greed will overcome rational, prudent behavior.
And those companies are paying for it now. It’s not like they got off Scot-free. Thousands are out of jobs now because of the behavior of some. Hundreds of companies are now closed because of certain practices. I guess she doesn’t have a problem when the greed of the media overcomes rational, prudent behavior.
Of course, she has no problem at all with Govco bailing consumers out but doesn’t like them bailing out companies. What is the difference? Why should Govco help someone who bought a home they could not afford and, in some cases, did it by lying about their assets and income? I for one don’t think they should help out either the homeowner OR the mortgage companies. People make mistakes and, in many cases, they reap what they sowed and learn a hard lesson. Sometimes painfully hard.
Anyway, I vote for a moratorium on Socialism.Secret swastika flag of news nazis at the Tampa Tribune
and St. Petersburg Times Newspapers?
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Another Tampa Tribune / St. Pete Times symbol shows the Tampa Tribune's T-cross combined with the St. Petersburg Times' S-cross, the hooked-cross swastika. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-tampa-tribune.jpg Dark T-letters form the S-letters of the lighter swastika (at the interior) and encircle it. It symbolizes how the two have the same deadly dogma of socialism, similar to that under the National Socialist German Workers Party. http://rexcurry.net/elaine-silvestrini-tampa-tribune.html |
No one should wonder why the St. Petersburg Times is called "Pravda West." It has a horrid heritage. Its heritage is so horrid that the journalist and historian Dr. Rex Curry (author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets") helped launch the Pointer Institute to counter-act the Poynter Institute. http://rexcurry.net/mediapoint.html The Poynter Institute and the St. Petersburg Times are both examples of why government schools are unconstitutional, and have destroyed a free press, and must end. Nelson Poynter, son of the founder of the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, and one of the namesakes of the "Poynter Institute," was one of the "point men" in Hollywood for the USA's worst president, the socialist Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). http://rexcurry.net/socialism-roosevelt.html Nelson Poynter (1903 – 1978) moved to Florida in 1912 when his father bought the Saint Petersburg Times newspaper. Nelson Poynter began buying stock from his father in 1935, and he became an editor in 1939. He stayed in this position until his father's death in 1953 when he was appointed president. He co-founded the Congressional Quarterly with his wife, Henrietta. He established the Poynter Fund in 1954 to honor his father. Roosevelt imposed the Office of War Information (OWI) by executive order in June 1942 in order to seize even more control than FDR had from the half-dozen overlapping propaganda agencies that had operated before the war. Infusing movies with propaganda fell to the OWI’s Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP). The BMP was run by the former newspaperman Lowell Mellett. His deputy was Nelson Poynter, the 39-year-old socialist publisher of the St . Petersburg Times. http://rexcurry.net/mediapoint.html Poynter acted as a promoter of socialism in films of the day, censoring anything that was too pro-liberty, and even seeing that movies produced in that era had to pass inspection by the embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics located in New York (see MGM's 1940 movie "Song Of Russia," a blatant propaganda movie glorifying the socialist misery of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The Roosevelt administration's Office of War Information (which claimed the right to "comment" on film scripts) had the script for "Song of Russia" vetted by the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! Similar criticism is merited by Poynter's involvement with film's such as "Hitler's Children." Note that the title of the film is not "National Socialist Children" evidencing a misleading habit similar to one that is still used at the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the National Socialist German Workers Party were part of the socialist inquisition that caused the Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): ~60 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ~50 million dead under the Peoples' Republic of China; ~20 million dead under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. In 1939, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) joined as allies with the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSGWP) to invade Poland in a plan to divide up Europe. Even after the National Socialist German Workers Party ended, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics continued to pursue (and expand) the goals it had agreed to with the NSGWP. Poynter-style propaganda lives on today at the the St. Petersburg Times. http://rexcurry.net/medianazi.html The newspaper employs writers who deliberately use the word "Nazi" in the continuing effort to rehabilitate socialism and to NEVER write the actual name of the horrid Party: National Socialist German Workers' Party. On at least one occasion, after being specifically asked (during the writing of an article) to identify the actual full name of the Party, a St. Petersburg Times writer refused to do so. It is the same propaganda policy employed by Nelson Poynter regarding "Hilter's Children" and other films in order to promote deadly socialism in the U.S. http://rexcurry.net/reciting-the-pledge-of-allegiance1918.jpg For more on the topic read "Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood" by Robert Mayhew. It recalls Ayn Rand's testimony about the movie "Song of Russia" before the the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. Ayn Rand debunked the movie as pro-Soviet propaganda and deliberate lies about the miserable reality of life under socialism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The author Robert Mayhew supports each part of her testimony that indicts the historic mess of the Soviet socialists. Mayhew reveals Rand right in each respect. Dr. Mayhew even interviewed the surviving co-writer of Song of Russia, ex-"Communist" Richard Collins. The book is a scary revelation about socialist influence in Hollywood - and Washington. Dr. Mayhew goes beyond the presentation of historical facts. He discusses the political, philosophical and ethical impact of the HUAC investigations regarding free speech, blacklists, "naming names," and truthfulness regarding wartime propaganda, etc. He gives Ayn Rand's views, based in part on previously unpublished work, and his own illuminating analysis. Dr. Mayhew also reveals the hypocrisy and lies of socialists in Hollywood and of their successors their and in the newspaper business and media everywhere. He refutes their smears of Rand, which continue to this day. The book also provides even more proof (as if any were needed) that FDR and Herbert Hoover were actually of the same socialist persuasion, the so called Progressives. FDR lied (in order to gain election) about his intention to cut government and then FDR expanded the massive socialism that Hoover had previously launched. |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt imposed the Office of War Information (OWI) by executive order in June 1942 in order to seize even more control than FDR had from the half-dozen overlapping propaganda agencies that had operated before the war. Infusing movies with propaganda fell to the OWI’s Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP). The BMP was run by the former newspaperman Lowell Mellett. His deputy was Nelson Poynter, the 39-year-old socialist publisher of the St . Petersburg Times. http://rexcurry.net/medianazi.html Poynter acted as a promoter of socialism in films of the day, censoring anything that was too pro-liberty, and even seeing that movies produced in that era had to pass inspection by the embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics located in New York (see MGM's 1940 movie "Song Of Russia," a blatant propaganda movie glorifying the socialist misery of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The Roosevelt administration's Office of War Information (which claimed the right to "comment" on film scripts) had the script for "Song of Russia" vetted by the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! Similar criticism is merited by Poynter's involvement with film's such as "Hitler's Children." Note that the title of the film is not "National Socialist Children" evidencing a misleading habit similar to one that is still used at the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. The Times appears to have a deliberately dishonest policy of covering up the actual name of the National Socialist German Workers Party, in the newspaper's efforts to rehabilitate socialism. It is as if it continues the OWI policies of promoting socialism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4 Poynter's OWI policies would have influenced the 1942 movie Joe Smith American: The title of the movie harkens to the "All American" family, as shown in the 1942 movie, which includes the early Pledge salute performed with the hand twisted somewhat in a "cleaned up" version of the gesture in order to distance it from that of the National Socialist German Workers Party (the enemy in the movie "Joe Smith, American"). The Pledge was the origin of the salute adopted later by German National Socialists, as shown in the book "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets" by the historian Dr. Rex Curry. In 1942 many Americans performed the Pledge using the the classic stiff-arm palm-down gesture. 1942 is when Congress decided to try to change it completely to the hand-over-the-heart. Many Americans did not care if German Socialists were using the salute because many Americans said it was "our salute" and "we did it first" and that was totally correct. The USA was the origin of the stiff-arm palm-down salute and mechanical chanting to flags en masse, flag fetishism and military socialism, from 1892. The video linked here shows the gesture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xipJGXUWjTU Poynter's OWI policies would have influenced the movie "The Red Pony." It shows a more "cleaned up" version in the evolution and eventual demise of the American salute from 1949 (well after WWII was over). In "The Red Pony" the Pledge is being distanced as the source of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA0A0ymd0CM Of course, government officials in the USA never comprehend that they damage society, just as no socialist government has ever conceded causing shortages of food, clothing, housing or anything. http://rexcurry.net/tagturtle1a.jpg The socialist dogma under FDR was the same dogma that was touted in the late 19th century by National Socialists in the USA. Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance") and his cousin and cohort Edward Bellamy (author of the pathetic book "Looking Backward") wanted the government to take over all food, clothing, shelter, goods and services and create an "industrial army" to impose their "military socialism." See the video documentary at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4 That was the motiviation behind Francis Bellamy's "Pledge of Allegiance" to the flag, the origin of the stiff-armed salute adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party (see the work of the historian Dr. Rex Curry, author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance2.jpg It led to the use of the swastika as S-letters for "socialism" on the flag under German National Socialism. http://rexcurry.net/swastika3swastika.jpg It is the same dogma that led to the socialist Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): ~60 million killed under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ~50 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; ~20 million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. http://rexcurry.net/socialists.html Today, the flag symbolizes authoritarianism in the USA. The historical facts above explain the enormous size and scope of government today, and the USA's police state, and why it is growing so rapidly. They are reasons for massive reductions in government, taxation, spending and socialism. |
BRAINWASHING, BERNAYS & BELLAMYS Before WWI, one of America's leading propagandists for government was Edward Bernays. Bernays openly sought to use social psychology, political persuasion and advertising to construct “necessary illusions” which were fed to the masses as “reality.” Bernays described it as “engineering of consent.” The objective for Bernays was to show government, government schools and government-regulated media outlets how to gain control. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-nazi-sozi-goebbels.html Edward Bernays' impact was similar to (and built upon) that of America's most notorious and lasting propagandists for "Military Socialism" and "National Socialism": Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance" in 1892). The "Pledge of Allegiance" produced America's stiff-arm salute and robotic chanting to flags in government's schools, where segregation was imposed by law, and racism was taught as official policy. See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4 In the United States and elsewhere, America's stiff-arm salute began to spread outside of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The gesture was directed toward government officials who were often on stage with the flag at mass meetings where the Pledge was led. Bellamy's pledge was the origin of the stiff-arm salute adopted later by the National Socialist German Workers Party, as shown in the work of the symbologist Dr. Rex Curry (author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance2.jpg By 1915, National Socialism in the USA had inspired propagandistic presentations of the American flag posed favorably with a swastika and the phrase "May our glorious flag and this lucky star guide you and keep you wherever you are." http://rexcurry.net/swastika-flag2.JPG Another piece of propaganda from the USA bears a swastika and the wording: "Lucky Star - May this emblem protect you well from every bullet, every shell." http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-protect-from-bullet-shell.jpg In 1917, Edward Bernays and Walter Lippman helped Woodrow Wilson break his campaign promises and con Americans into WWI. To that end they used the Committee on Public Information (CPI ) also known as the Creel Committee. They helped Wilson foment anti-German hate during WWI. Of course, WWI led to WWII and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. http://rexcurry.net/45th-infantry-division-swastika-sooner-soldiers.html Bernays also created the war slogan “Make the World Safe for Democracy” -a patriotic mantra that many stupid Americans embraced just as they had earlier embraced Bellamy's "Pledge of Allegiance," America's straight-arm gesture, and mechanical chanting to flags in mass and on cue. Bernays and Bellamy used the technique of manufacturing ever-present dangers and then maintaining a constant state of fear by generating false government pronouncements that endlessly re-stated and exagerated the threat. The modus operandi for Bernays and Bellamy was to give those in power greater control over what Bernay's called "the mass mind." Bernays’ books "Crystallizing Public Opinion" (1923) and "Propaganda" (1928) impressed Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister for the National Socialist German Workers Party. Germany mimicked American behavior because Goebbels learned from the behavior of Bernays, President Wilson, and the U.S. government during World War I. http://rexcurry.net/swastika3swastika.jpg In 1933, Bernays met Karl von Weigand (a German journalist) who informed Bernays that Goebbels was using Bernays' work for Goebbels' propaganda campaigns fomenting hate, robotic chanting, straight-arm salutes, the use of government schools, children, and more. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-nazi-sozi-goebbels.html Socialists in other countries wanted to know how to brainwash a nation. It was the same brainwashing dogma behind the Wholecaust (of which the Holocaust was a part): ~20 million dead under the National Socialist German Workers' Party; ~60 million dead under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; ~50 million dead under the Peoples' Republic of China. "If I approach the masses with reasoned arguments, they will not understand me," Hitler noted in Mein Kampf, "In the mass meeting, their reasoning power is paralysed. What I say is like an order given under hypnosis." To this day, laws continue to order children to hypnotically chant in the Pledge of Allegiance ritual each morning in many schools in the USA. Only the gesture has changed. Here is a video example from the World War II era. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xipJGXUWjTU Bernays' work continued as one of the engineers of the Cold War. |
Under Woodrow Wilson, the first American president to embrace the new cult of pragmatism and power that had overtaken "enlightened" thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic (and the first American president to openly disdain the U.S. Constitution), the progressives unleashed a crackdown on freedom that makes the supposed fascism of the McCarthy era and the Bush years seem like a teach-in at Smith College. Wilson established the American Protective League, a group of domestic fascisti charged with crushing dissent, beating "slackers," and intimidating average Americans. Wilson's Committee for Public Information was the first modern propaganda ministry. Indeed, according to the late sociologist and intellectual historian Robert Nisbet, the "West's first real experience with totalitarianism - political absolutism extended into every possible area of culture and society, education, religion, industry, the arts, local community and family included, with a kind of terror always waiting in the wings - came with the American war state under Wilson.""Wilson began his book: The State. Elements of Historical and Practical Politics: A sketch of institutional History and Administration with a study of Aryan politics. Woody's book does not appear to be available anywhere online..." It is reproduced in an Appendix to the article at the following link with some extracts from it about Aryans and such matters. http://knol.google.com/k/john-ray/the-american-roots-of-fascism/1a2p9co02fh9a/3#
The government in the United States was using the fasces symbol before it was adopted by Mussolini when he was a well-known socialist writer and leader. In 1915, fasces appeared on an Indian head gold coin in the talons of an eagle. In 1916, fasces appeared on the Mercury dime. It was propaganda to con Americans into another one of the many stupid wars that the USA's government either started or joined: WWI (the war to make the world safe for democracy, har har). That propaganda supplemented flag waving, the Pledge of Allegiance (with its stiff-armed salute) and similar silliness. http://rexcurry.net/fascism=socialism.html During WWI, Mussolini was a well-known socialist leader and writer. Mussolini also wanted Italians to join the USA and the allies in World War I against the Austro/German forces. http://rexcurry.net/mussolini.html Mussolini mimicked military socialism in the USA as touted by Francis Bellamy (author of the "Pledge of Allegiance") and Edward Bellamy (author of "Looking Backward"). http://rexcurry.net/pledge-allegiance-pledge-allegiance2.jpg Edward Bellamy's book was an international bestseller translated into every major language, including Italian. http://rexcurry.net/edward-bellamy-national-socialist.html The fasces symbol appears in Congress http://rexcurry.net/fascism=socialism4a.jpg It is used in other government seals and symbols http://rexcurry.net/fascism=socialism3b.jpg The fasces is on the seal of the Rome Academy where Francis Bellamy (1855-1932) attended school. http://rexcurry.net/fascist-flag.jpg |
Leni Riefenstahl's film "Triumph of the Will" is shown in a poster that also shows the UFA symbol for Universum Film AG. http://rexcurry.net/filmrev-triumph-of-the-will.html The UFA was the principal film studio in Germany during the Weimar Republic and through World War II. http://rexcurry.net/Universum_Film_AG_UFA.jpg The UFA symbol reflects similar stylized alphabetical symbolism to that of the swastika's use as crossed S-letters for "socialism" under the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSGWP), as shown in the work of Dr. Rex Curry (author of "Swastika Secrets"). http://rexcurry.net/swastika3swastika.jpg UFA was created in November 1917 in Berlin as a government-owned (socialist) producer of World War I propaganda and public service films. It was created through the consolidation of most of Germany's commercial film companies, including Nordisk and Decla. In 1921 UFA was de-socialized (privatized). UFA work included that from the studio of the bergfilm, a German genre that romanticized mountain climbing, downhill skiing, and outdoor activity. Examples of the bergfilm genre are The Holy Mountain (1926) and White Ecstasy (1931), notable for the appearance of Austrian skiing legend Hannes Schneider and a young Leni Riefenstahl. UFA was taken over by Alfred Hugenberg in March 1927. Hugenberg was connected to Krupp and sympathetic to the National Socialist German Workers Party, and the company became a producer of propaganda films for Socialism after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Joseph Goebbels' ministry of propaganda controlled the content of UFA films through political pressure and threat. Because of that environment, Fritz Lang, like many of his UFA colleagues, would soon leave Germany to work in Hollywood. During the 1930s, as the National Socialist Party gained power, UFA produced odious examples of anti-Semitic and socialist propaganda. In 1937 the Nazis bought up 72% of UFA's shares. In 1942 the company was totally nationalized/socialized by the Third Reich as a socialist monopoly under which were absorbed all other production and distribution companies and studio facilities active at that time. A photograph shows writer-director Fritz Lang and his wife, writer Thea von Harbou, who together created many of UFA's most noted films, in their Berlin apartment in 1923 or 1924. Note the Hakenkreuz/swastika motif in the wall-hanging and in the table. http://rexcurry.net/Universum_Film_Ufa_Fritz_Lang_Thea_von_Harbou1923.jpg
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Another Tampa Tribune / St. Pete Times symbol shows the Tampa Tribune's T-cross combined with the St. Petersburg Times' S-cross, the hooked-cross swastika. http://rexcurry.net/swastika-tampa-tribune.jpg Dark T-letters form the S-letters of the lighter swastika (at the interior) and encircle it. It symbolizes how the two have the same deadly dogma of socialism, similar to that under the National Socialist German Workers Party. http://rexcurry.net/elaine-silvestrini-tampa-tribune.html |
Idiots write absurd things about Lincoln Steffens. Here is an example from a popular anonymous bulletin board that masquerades as an "encyclopedia": Joseph Lincoln Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was an American journalist and one of the most famous practitioners of the journalistic style called muckraking. He is also known for his 1921 statement, upon his return from the Soviet Union [that's the FORMER Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics, har, har]: "I have been over into the future, and it works." A better known version of his famous quote, "I've seen the future, and it works," can be found on the title page of the 1933 edition of Red Virtue, written by his wife, Ella Winter. Steffens specialized in investigating government and political corruption, and two collections of his articles were published as The Shame of the Cities (1904) and The Struggle for Self-Government (1906). He also wrote The Traitor State, which criticized New Jersey for patronizing incorporation. [And can you believe someone wrote those last two sentences and -with a straight face- placed them near the preceding sentences? Lincoln Steffens visited the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and said "I've seen the future, and it works" and Steffens specialized in investigating government and political corruption and wrote "The Struggle for Self-Government" et cetera. ROFLMAO]. People are so blind and stupid that they are hilarious. In other words, Lincoln Steffens was no different from most news repeaters today. That is a reminder of people who compare the views of Andrew Carnegie and Edward Bellamy and never point out that Carnegie actually created untold jobs for people, supplied them with steel, machinery, wealth et cetera. Bellamy only MOUTHED OFF to dupe the same people into embracing Soviet-style socialism and poverty, and never provided any jobs, machinery or anything of value to anyone. In other words, Edward Bellamy was no different from most news repeaters today. |
Glimpse into a secret regime and into mental illness This is a classic demonstration of how the St. Petersburg Times
newspaper will not identify for readers the dogma of the subject written
about by the Times Staff Writer. Note that the following words
do not appear in the article below: socialism, communism, police state,
et cetera. Instead the word "totalitarian" is used to cover-up for socialism.
This article also demonstrates the mental illness and insanity that is
fostered by socialism (See the work of Dr. Rex Curry at http://rexcurry.net/mental-illness-psychopaths-sociopaths-socialists-insanity.html
) HERE IS THE ARTICLE (with comments interspersed in upper-case letters
as Editor's notes): I was one of the few who got in. Two years ago, as a reporter for an Austrian newspaper, I went to North Korea to cover a women's hockey world championship. I was much more excited about getting a peek inside a country that at the time had been resisting world pressure to cease its nuclear weapons program. The moment the crew opened the door on the aging Soviet-era plane at Pyongyang International Airport, I got a reception as chilly as the wind blowing across the tarmac. [Editor's note: MOST NEWSPAPERS IN THE USA AVOID IDENTIFYING THE ACTUAL NAME OF THE "UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS FOR THE SAME REASON THEY WILL NOT USE THE WORD SOCIALIST (unless favorably) BECAUSE THEY COVER-UP FOR SOCIALISTS AND FOR SOCIALISM. INSTEAD THEY SUBSTITUTE THE WORD "SOVIET" KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE TAUGHT THEIR READERS TO FORGET THE ACTUAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE DOGMA BEING DISCUSSED]. Soldiers peered up the stairs. Minutes later they stripped me of my cell phone (even though North Korea claimed it had no network) and my passport. [Editor's note: IT IS INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT AND UNPLEASANT TO TRAVEL INTO, OUT OF, OR WITHIN THE USA DUE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BssWWZ3XEe4 ] "You speak when asked to," one of the border guards told me. Instantly, I had been turned from a guest into a closely guarded visitor. In a country consistently ranked last in the world in press freedom, a foreign reporter is a potential risk. Two guides ushered me to a bus. Nothing would happen without their approval during my 10-day stay. I couldn't talk to anyone without their consent. Nevertheless, while we drove from museum to museum and from monument to monument, I tried frequently to learn how much North Koreans know about the world outside. "Oh, we have news," one of the guides would say, "people know what they need to know." Most people there don't even know the Internet exists, much less have access to it. What did they think of the United States? "It was the American imperialists who drove the fatherland apart," was the standard answer. As far as they are concerned, the United States is always poised to invade. Asking questions about the nuclear crisis was a no-no. To them there was no crisis. The country's isolation is reinforced by the state ideology of self-reliance or juche, which was crafted by North Korea's deceased but nevertheless "eternal president," Kim Il Sung. When a famine struck the country in the mid '90s, North Korea's leadership accepted foreign aid only reluctantly. It came too late for the estimated 600,000 North Koreans who died of starvation. [Editor's note: THE CREATION OF STARVATION BY GOVERNMENT IS SIMILAR TO HOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN THE USA WANTED TO DIVERT CORN TO ETHANOL http://rexcurry.net/socialism.html ] "Why would you want to leave my country? It's beautiful here," one of our guides answered when I asked if the average North Korean would be allowed to travel abroad. What he didn't say was that any North Korean caught trying to leave the country without permission would most likely be imprisoned. It took me a while to understand that I wasn't the only one being watched. My guards were watching each other, too. When I began to speak German with one of them, the other interrupted, demanding that we speak English so he could understand. On only one occasion did the door seem to open to more intimate conversation. I was pulled into a little office by a friendly guy to whom I had given cigarettes earlier. He closed the door behind us and sat down. "I have been abroad," he said. "I know what you think. But it will do no good to our people to know about the world out there." I didn't say anything. I was too afraid. In North Korea you never know for certain the room you're in is not being watched. Whenever I would use the ridiculously expensive Internet connection at the "International Press Center," two to four pairs of eyes behind me would follow my every click. It was impossible to escape my guides for very long, but parts of the capital seemed empty of people. I stood in the middle of a road once to take a picture of a monument; there weren't any cars to worry about. [Editor's note: SHOW ROADS WITH NO CARS. YET, THE EMPTY ROADS ARE GREAT FOR TANK PARADES UNDER MILITARY SOCIALISM] Driving through Pyongyang one day, a towering concrete pyramid came into view. I knew that it was the 105-floor Ryugyong Hotel and that work had ceased in 1992. It was empty. "What is it?" I asked innocently. "A hotel, but it's still under construction," the guide said. "Where are the workers?" "They are working inside," he barked, turning away. Later I learned that officials deny its existence, though it's by far the city's largest building. It was the same kind of denial I noticed at a museum where representation of the Korean War stopped at the moment the North captured Seoul. They didn't mention that it was recaptured by southern troops. [Editor's note: THIS IS SIMILAR TO HOW GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT-REGULATED MEDIA IN THE USA HANDLE THE HISTORY OF THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. See http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html ] After 10 days I felt exhausted, nodding at stories I knew were fabricated and "facts" that weren't true. I could see a reality the North Koreans pretended doesn't exist — that many people wouldn't have jobs if the government didn't force them to practice for parades months in the future. [Editor's note: PRACTICING FOR TANK PARADES GLORIFYING SOCIALISM ON THE EMPTY SHOW ROADS THAT HAVE NO CARS]. People are so poor they cut branches from trees around the city just for firewood. [Editor's note: THOSE ARE CONDITIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, SHOWING HOW SOCIALISM CAUSES TIME TRAVEL IN REVERSE, OR REGRESSION]. If they wouldn't acknowledge what was right next to them, it was easy to ignore the world outside. -- From the St. Petersburg Times "Glimpse into a secret regime" By Stefan Jaeger, Times Staff Writer Published May 29, 2009.http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1005774.ece |
