Big Pharma Scores Big Win: Medicinal Herbs Will Disappear in EU

It's almost a done deal. We are about to see herbal preparations disappear, and the ability of herbalists to prescribe them will also be lost.

by Heidi Stevenson

Gaia Health 12 September 2010

Big Pharma has almost reached the finish line of its decades-long battle to wipe out all competition. As of 1 April 2011—less than eight months from now—virtually all medicinal herbs will become illegal in the European Union. The approach in the United States is a bit different, but it's having the same devastating effect. The people have become nothing more than sinks for whatever swill Big Pharma and Agribusiness choose to send our way, and we have no option but to pay whatever rates they want.

Big Pharma and Agribusiness have almost completed their march to take over every aspect of health, from the food we eat to the way we care for ourselves when we're ill. Have no doubt about it: this takeover will steal what health remains to us.

If you want to skip the text and find out what you can do, click here.

It Begins Next April Fools Day

In the nastiest April Fool's Joke of all time, the European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products (THMPD) was enacted back on 31 March 2004.⁽¹⁾ It laid down rules and regulations for the use of herbal products that had previously been freely traded.

This directive requires that all herbal preparations must be put through the same kind of procedure as pharmaceuticals. It makes no difference whether a herb has been in common use for thousands of years. The costs for this are far higher than most manufacturers, other than Big Pharma, can bear, with estimates ranging from £80,000 to £120,000 per herb, and with each herb of a compound having to be treated separately.

It matters not that a herb has been used safely and effectively for thousands of years. It will be treated as if it were a drug. Of course, herbs are far from that. They're preparations made from biological sources. They aren't necessarily purified, as that can change their nature and efficacy, just as it can in food. It's a distortion of their nature and the nature of herbalism to treat them like drugs. That, of course, makes no difference in the Big Pharma-ruled edifice of the EU, which has enshrined corporatism in its constitution.

Dr. Robert Verkerk of the Alliance for Natural Health, International (ANH) describes the problem of requiring drug-like compliance on herbal preparations:

Getting a classical herbal medicine from a non-European traditional medicinal culture through the EU registration scheme is akin to putting a square peg into a round hole. The regulatory regime ignores and thus has not been adapted to the specific traditions. Such adaptation is required urgently if the directive is not to discriminate against non-European cultures and consequently violate human rights.⁽²⁾

Trade Law

To best understand how this can be happening, one needs to see that trade laws have been at the center of the moves to place all aspects of food and medicine under the control of Big Pharma and Agribusiness.

If you've followed what's been happening in the United States regarding raw milk and the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) claims that foods magically become drugs when health claims are made, you may have noted that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been part of the process.

Rather than treating food and traditional medicines as human rights issues, they have been treated as trade issues. That makes the desires of large corporations the focus of food and herbal law, rather than the needs and desires of people. It's this twisting that has resulted in the FDA's making outrageously absurd statements, such as claiming that Cheerios and walnuts quite literally become drugs simply because of health claims made for them.

The goal of it all is to make the world safe for the megacorporations to trade freely. The needs and health of the people simply are not a factor in their considerations.

How to Fight This Encroachment on Our Health and Welfare

It's not a done-deal, at least, not quite. If you value your access to herbs, or if you care about access to vitamins and other supplements, please take action. Even if these issues seem meaningless to you, consider the people who do care. Should they be denied the right to the medical treatment and health maintenance of their choice?

The ANH has been active in fighting these encroachments. They are currently going to court in an attempt to stop the implementation of THMPD. We can hope that they'll succeed, but recent history shows that no legal maneuver is likely to stop this juggernaut. We cannot afford to sit back and wait for the results of their efforts. We need to see their endeavor as part of a whole, one in which each of us plays a role.

It's up to us—each and every one of us—to take action. If you live in Europe, please, send a letter or message to your Member of European Parliament. Go to this page to find out who is your MEP and the contact information. Then, send a letter that states, in no uncertain terms, that you strongly support the ANH's actions in trying to suspend the implementation of THMPD and that you hope they will also take a stand in support of the people's right to choose herbal treatments.

If you find it difficult to write such a letter, click here for a sample (in the universal .rtf format) suggested by ANH. Feel free to use it.

Denice Delay has kindly translated the letter into Spanish. Thanks!

Try to imagine facing your children or grandchildren when they ask why you didn't. How will you tell them that you really weren't that interested in their welfare? How will you tell them that it was more important to watch the latest fake reality show on television than to take the time to write a simple letter?

It is only by actively protesting that this travesty against our welfare can be stopped. If we sit back in apathy, then it will happen. Our right to protect our health and that of our children is hanging in the balance. If you care for your child's or grandchild's welfare, then you mustact. Speak out, for now is the moment of truth. You can sit back and do nothing, or you can speak out.

And then, once you have, talk to everyone you know. Tell them that it's time to act. There truly is no time to waste.

DARPA develops Helmet of Obedience

From Saladin:


It looks like our ever-diligent friends at DARPA have been busy creating a contingency plan for the OathKeeper movement.  Thanks to a newly-developed pain modulator and behavior modification helmet, any US troops who decide they will obey the Constitution rather than the commands of the global puppet masters will now be getting some remote-controlled motivational persuasion.
Reminiscent of the “Collar of Obedience” from Star Trek, this new helmet according to it’s creator William J Tyler at Arizona State University, will be able to non-invasively produce all the same effects that are now possible only through deep surgical implants.  Employing a form of targeted ultrasound technology, the “Helmet of Obedience” will be able to manipulate pain and motivational centers in the brain at a finer scale than even current magnetic stimulation.

It’s no mystery what agencies would be interested in this sort of technology and Tyler makes it painfully clear who his handlers are.  According to Tyler, “We look forward to developing a close working relationship with DARPA and other Department of Defense and U.S. Intelligence Communities to bring some of these applications to fruition over the coming years depending on the most pressing needs of our country’s defense industries.” [ref]
Certainly, everyone is well aware how the poor, under-equipped, under-funded largest military industrial complex in the world has such “pressing needs” for this new technology.


But wait there’s more.  Tyler is obviously a man with lots of DARPA grant money and time on his hands. When he’s not busy developing the “Helmet of Obedience”, he’s hard at work on another much needed technology that will become a boon to mankind: MyBrainCloud.net.


According to Tyler, “MyBrainCloud.net is a concept application of noninvasive brain stimulation using pulsed ultrasound, which is likely to emerge in the future. The concept is essentially to provide individual users with a personalized connection port through which various brain stimulation protocols can be administered in an open access manner using cloud computing. This technology has many broad applications ranging from at-home medicine to recreational applications such as interactive video gaming and virtual experience downloading.” [ref]

So it looks like Tyler might go down in history as the inventor of not only the Star Trek-style “Helmet of Obedience” but also the Matrix-style human-machine interface port; two dystopian science fiction inventions in one career.  Now that’s a level of achievement even the most egotistical, Harvard-educated, grant whore could be proud of putting on their CV.
—
The following image is a slide from Tyler’s Helmet of Obedience project.  Notice the “Pain Intervention” and “Behavioral Reinforcement” applications.

Millions of Computers Hit by Virus Across China

thejakartaglobe.com September 30, 2010


Bejing. A computer virus dubbed the world’s “first cyber superweapon” and which may have been designed to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities has found a new target — China. 

The Stuxnet computer worm has wreaked havoc in China, infecting millions of computers around the country, state media reported this week. 

Stuxnet is feared by experts around the globe as it can break into computers that control machinery at the heart of industry, allowing an attacker to assume control of critical systems like pumps, motors, alarms and valves. 

It could, technically, make factory boilers explode, destroy gas pipelines or even cause a nuclear plant to malfunction. 

The virus targets control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens that are commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities. 

“This malware is specially designed to sabotage plants and damage industrial systems, instead of stealing personal data,” an engineer at antivirus service provider Rising International Software said. 

“Once Stuxnet successfully penetrates factory computers in China, those industries may collapse, which would damage China’s national security.” 

Another unnamed expert at Rising International said the attacks had so far infected more than six million individual accounts and nearly 1,000 corporate accounts around the country, Xinhua state news agency reported. 

The Stuxnet computer worm — a piece of malicious software, or malware, which copies itself and sends itself on to other computers in a network — was first publicly identified in June. 

It was first found lurking on Siemens systems in India and Indonesia, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to software security firms. 

Yu Xiaoqiu, an analyst with the China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center, played down the threat. 

“New viruses are common nowadays,” he said. “Both personal Internet surfers and Chinese pillar companies don’t need to worry about it at all. They should be alert but not too afraid of it.” 

A top US cybersecurity official said last week that the country was analyzing the computer worm but did not know who was behind it or its purpose. 

 
Agence France-Presse

Norwegian and U.S. Soldiers Kill for Thrills in Afghanistan

From Bollyn.com, September 30, 2010:

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.
- Madame de Stael

Norwegians and Scandinavians are shocked and appalled to read that Norwegian soldiers actually enjoy killing Afghan resistance fighters, who are fighting the foreign occupation of their country.  The Norwegian magazine Alfa coming out this week carries an article with interviews with Norwegian snipers who brag about killing Afghans from more than 2,500 meters.  The Norwegian report mirrors a grisly ABC News report of U.S. troops "Killing for Sport" innocent Afghan civilians and cutting off parts of their bodies.  These reports reveal the false morality of the criminal war in Afghanistan.

OUR MISSION IS "TO KILL"

To kill Afghans, the soldiers say, is better than having sex.  "To fight and kill is worth three months without sex.  Maybe it sounds idiotic but it is better than sex," one Norwegian sniper said. "When you are on the field it is you or the enemy.  And when you see the 'red mist' (blood spurt from sniper victim)...it is indescribable.  It's why we are here."
"Sometimes we get lucky," one of the snipers told Alfa.  "I hit a Taliban in the neck from 2,770 meters on February 2.  That was really great."

Norwegian snipers in Afghanistan

Alfa magazine appears to be of that peculiar genre of magazines for men that mixes sex with war and violence.  Although the issue of Alfa has not yet hit the newstands the story has already caused an uproar in Norway, a land that suffered a brutal occupation under the Nazi regime during the Second World War.   This presents the fundamental ethical problem that I posed to the Norwegian government several years ago when it became clear to the public that Norwegian soldiers were not promoting democracy or building schools in Afghanistan - they were simply killing people.

"I have commanded my forces that our mission is to kill, and we have great success with it...I don't reflect any further about taking peoples' lives," company chief Kristian Simonsen in Meymaneh, near the border with Turkmenistan, told VG magazine. 

The Norwegian mission that Simonsen commands is called the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) but what are they really constructing?  What is the real purpose for the 500 Norwegian soldiers who are on a mission to kill Afghans in the province of Afghanistan that borders Turkmenistan?  Could it be that greedy Norwegian oil oligarchs (read Statoil) are invested in the criminal scheme to occupy Afghanistan in order to build the TAPI gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India - for Israel's Mossad gangsters?  (See my articles below.)

Norwegian soldiers training at the PRT base Meymaneh.  How can their stated "mission to kill" be called "reconstruction"?  Why is Norway so deeply involved in this massive crime that is directly linked to the hoax of 9/11?
(Photo - Norwegian Military)

"A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR"

“The positive achievement of PRT Meymaneh is also a result of the Scandinavian way of life and its culture. A great sense of humor, combined with a warm heart, an open mind, tolerance and consideration toward the Afghan population are the two special brands of this PRT.”
- German Brig. Gen. Frank Leidenberger on the Norwegian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Meymaneh, June 2010

How can any Christian nation that suffered a brutal occupation in its modern history take part in the illegal occupation of Afghanistan?  How could Norwegians be part of the "coalition of the killing"?  The Norwegian government did not deign to respond to my question, although I am only trying to help them out of a very bad situation.  Of the 4 Scandinavian and Baltic nations I asked about being involved in combat in Afghanistan, only Finland responded with a protest saying that ISAF soldiers were not involved in combat operations - a complete lie.  When queried about the news reports, the Finnish spokesman refused to discuss the subject any further.

Norway's Minister of Defense Grete Faremo (left) with military chief Per Sunde.  Faremo said that the soldiers' statements were unacceptable.  “I strongly oppose the soldiers' comments," Faremo said.  "Our soldiers receive great recognition for their mission. But if the types of attitudes that have come forth in VG exist, then they are best left in the dark."

No, Ms Faremo, the soldiers' comments should not be "left in the dark".  Their statements simply reflect the brutal reality of the murderous mission they were sent on by Norwegian government officials like you.  How can killing be anything but murder in such a criminal war?  What is truly unacceptable is Norway's participation in the pre-planned war of aggression in Afghanistan. 

The story that first made it quite clear that Norwegian soldiers were fighting in Afghanistan concerned German helicopter pilots who went back to base in the evening rather than continue fighting Afghans.  The Norwegians complained that they could have gone on killing if the Germans had not returned to base at dusk.

Magnus Rønningen, editor of ALFA, said he believes the real scandal is how the military has handled the matter.  “It is not the soldiers’ comments that are the most shocking here, but the military’s way of publicly stabbing its own soldiers in the back. It is for me, at best, extremely bad leadership,” he said.

Author's Note - As an American with Norwegian ancestors I have a great deal of respect for Norway and Norwegian culture.  My criticism of Norway's current participation in the war in Afghanistan should not be misconstrued as anti-Norwegian.

Rev. Thorval H. Larsen, the author's great-grandfather, was born near Kongsberg in Telemark, Norway in 1856 shortly before his family emigrated to the United States.  Thorval became a highly educated multi-lingual Lutheran minister in what is today southwestern North Dakota. 

Sources and Recommended Reading:

"Norwegian minister: Military needs more focus on ethics", EarthTimes, September 27, 2010
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/345981,military-needs-focus-ethics.html

"Å krige er bedre enn sex", VG (Norway), September 27, 2010
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10036779

"Uttalelsene er ikke sjokkerende", NRK (Norway), September 28, 2010
http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.7311686

"Killing For Sport - Confession Video: US Soldier Describes Thrill Kill of Innocent Afghans", by Matthey Cole and Brian Ross, September 27, 2010, ABC News
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26461.htm

"Northern Afghan Provincial Reconstruction Team Has New Commander",ISAF Public Affairs Office, June 10, 2010

Bollyn, Christopher, "Afghanistan - Obama's War for Israel", July 6, 2010http://www.bollyn.com/afghanistan-the-war-for-israel
Bollyn, "Dying in Vain - Why Afghanistan?", February 8, 2010
http://www.bollyn.com/11438

Bollyn, "Obama's Deception - 9/11 and Afghanistan", June 5, 2009
http://www.bollyn.com/obamas-deception-9-11-and-afghanistan

Bollyn, "The Spoils of War: The Minerals of Afghanistan", January 7, 2002
http://www.bollyn.com/the-spoils-of-war-the-minerals-of-afghanistan

"Strid bättre än sex", Aftonbladet (Sweden), September 28, 2010
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article7856108.ab

Authorities Plan To Trawl Phone Calls And E Mails For Signs Of “Resentment Toward Government”

By Paul Joseph Watson

InfoWars
Do you resent the government for enforcing Obamacare or raising your taxes? Write about it in an email or talk about it on the phone and you could be placed under surveillance as a potential terrorist, if frightening new technology being shopped to law enforcement agencies is implemented.

Forget pre-crime and get ready for face-crime, Big Brother is set to unleash a new wave of shockingly invasive and Orwellian technology on the American people if a recent symposium in Hamburg New York is anything to go by. Federal agencies, police departments and others were all in attendance to see a demonstration of a system that trawls phone conversations, emails and instant messages to detect “resentment toward government,” alerting authorities to potential “terrorists” who are then placed under surveillance.

The technology was demonstrated to law enforcement officials, mental health professionals, and military representatives at a recent International First Responder-Military Symposium held at Hilbert College.

“A Swiss professor working with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist who heads the Mind Machine Project there outlined how this program operates through computerized scanning of phone calls and electronic messages sent through e-mail and social networking mechanisms,” reports the Buffalo News.

The system works by detecting “resentment in conversations through measurements in decibels and other voice biometrics,” more specifically the emotional spikes that characterize “hatred and deep resentment toward government.”

“As for written transmissions scrutinized by the computer program, it can detect the same patterns of fixation on specified subjects,” states the report.

Once an individual has been identified as harboring “resentment toward government,” the information can be “passed along to authorities so surveillance can begin.”

Besides law enforcement applications, the program is also designed to aid mental health professionals to help “war veterans” become emotionally stable, chillingly implying that distrust or hatred of government, which was hailed by the founding fathers as a vital virtue, is now considered a mental illness.

Of course, this technology completely violates the 4th amendment, but by introducing it as a tool to fight terrorism, authorities hope to skirt around the issue – the problem being that, as we have exhaustively documented, the federal government now sees any political activity whatsoever, be it anti-war protesters on the left, or anti-big government activists on the right, as potential domestic terrorists.

The technology is rationalized by its adherents, who claim that it will help stop terrorists in their tracks, while also being used against ‘troubled veterans and first responders’.

However, the introduction of a program that closely resembles George Orwell’s “facecrime” in 1984 has little to do with fighting extremist Muslims hiding in caves in central Asia, this is all about targeting the American people with total panopticon-style surveillance, while also creating a chilling atmosphere and reminding people that their every conversation, instant message or email is being scanned by super-computers for any sign of extremism or “resentment toward government”.

As we have seen from the MIAC report, thespying case in Pennsylvania, and a host of others in recent years, the federal government defines “terrorist propaganda” as any material critical of the state, therefore any dissent against Big Brother in a phone conversation or an email would automatically trigger the new technology.

This is not only a constitution killer, it represents a hammer blow to free speech. The Internet as a forum of open discourse and free exchange of ideas will be fundamentally damaged if people live in constant fear of being raided by the feds at any minute because they sounded off about the government in an e mail or a posting on a comment board.

Of course, with distrust towards the state touching all time highs, there are millions of Americans who “harbor hatred and deep resentment toward government,” but that doesn’t mean they plan on bombing federal buildings.

The technofascism blog dug up a couple of quotes from George Orwell’s 1984 that almost precisely describe the exact same technology being used in the legendary dystopia about a totalitarian society that constantly hounds, harasses, and surreptitiously spies on its citizens.

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself–anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face…; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…”

-George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

“Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.”

- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 6

Rather than an improper facial expression or nervous tic, which was more within the purview of the equally ludicrous “gait analysis” division of Admiral John Poindexter’s Total Information Office, a program that claimed to be able to identify terrorists by the way they walk, the facecrime technology defines “abnormality” as being critical of the authorities, a frightening throwback to the Soviet psikhushkas — mental hospitals — which were used by the state as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally.

Indeed, the establishment media has intensified its dissemination of talking points that attempt to categorize distrust of authority as a mental disorder.

Although it survives under a number of different names with private sector funding, Total Information Awareness was mothballed by Congress in 2003 after widespread criticism that it would lead to the implementation of a “mass surveillance system”. Facecrime goes a step further, it not only creates a mass surveillance system of all our communications, it also corrodes and corrupts people’s confidence in being able to exercise their first amendment right to express “hatred and resentment toward government,” without being harassed and targeted as domestic terrorists.

Facecrime technology is illegal, immoral, anti-American and something that needs to be ditched permanently if the United States and indeed any free country is to heed George Orwell’s warning and resist the descent into totalitarianism.

—

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.
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Orwellian Doublethink: Tyranny is Safety 

20 Signs that the Economic Collapse Is Already Upon Us

By Michael Snyder - The Economic Collapse 

This year, millions of Americans are discovering that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table.

Alternet September 27, 2010  |  

 

 

  

 

For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else.  Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don't feel it.  But even though most of us enjoy a much closer relationship with our television sets than we do with our neighbors at this point, it is quickly becoming undeniable that a fundamental shift is taking place in society.  Perhaps you noticed it when two or three foreclosure signs went up on your street.  Or perhaps it got your attention when that nice fellow down the street lost his job, and he and his family seemingly just disappeared from the neighborhood one day.  The Census Bureau made front page headlines all over the nation this week when they announced that one out of every seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009.  Every single day more Americans are getting sucked out of the middle class and into soul-crushing poverty.   

Unfortunately, most Americans don't really care because it has not affected them yet.

But this year, millions more Americans will discover that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table.

Meanwhile, neither political party has a workable solution.  They just like to point fingers and blame each other.

The Democrats blame Bush for all the poverty and advocate expanding programs for the poor.  Not that there is anything wrong with a safety net.  But the "safety net" was never meant to hold 50 million people on Medicaid and 40 million people on food stamps.  The number of Americans on food stamps has more than doubled since 2007.  So do we just double it again as things get even worse?

The truth is that welfare programs are only short-term solutions.  Unfortunately, the Democrats do not understand this.  What Americans really need are good jobs.

The Republicans are so boneheaded that they don't even like to talk about poverty because they think it is a "liberal issue".  Some conservative commentators have even been so brutally cold as to mock the "99ers" (those who have been unemployed so long that even their extended federal benefits have run out).

Instead of showing some compassion and being the party of the American worker (as they should be), the Republicans are often very uncompassionate and they allow the Democrats to be "the party of the poor" by default.

Both political parties need a big wakeup call.  There is a tsunami of poverty sweeping the United States, and somebody better wake up and do something about it.  More handouts will help people get by in the short-term, but there is no way that the federal government can financially support tens of millions more poor Americans.

How long is it going to be before the "safety net" simply collapses under the weight of all this poverty?

The path we are on is not sustainable.

The economy is falling apart, and somebody better wake up and do something before even more Americans find themselves drowning in poverty.

The following are 20 signs that the economic collapse has already begun for one out of every seven Americans.....

#1 The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americansin 51 years of record-keeping.

#2 In the year 2000, 11.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty.  In 2008, 13.2 percent of Americans were living in poverty.  In 2009, 14.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty.  Needless to say the trend is moving in the wrong direction. 

#3 In 2009 alone, approximately 4 million more Americans joined the ranks of the poor.

#4 According to the Associated Press, experts believe that 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.

#5 The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

#6 Today the United States has approximately 4 million fewer wage earners than it did in 2007.

#7 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, whichis almost four times as many as were receiving it in 2007.

#8 U.S. banks repossessed 25 percent more homes in August 2010 than they did in August 2009.

#9 One out of every seven mortgages in the United States was either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.

#10 There are now 50.7 million Americans who do not have health insurance.  One trip to the emergency room would be all it would take to bankrupt a significant percentage of them.

#11 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid, the U.S. government health care program designed principally to help the poor.

#12 There are now over 41 million Americans on food stamps.

#13 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program increaseda whopping 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.

#14 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.

#15 California's poverty rate soared to 15.3 percent in 2009, which was the highest in 11 years.

#16 According to an analysis by Isabel Sawhill and Emily Monea of the Brookings Institution, 10 million more Americans (including 6 million more children) will slip into poverty over the next decade.

#17 According to a recently released Federal Reserve report, Americans experienced a $1.5 trillion loss in combined household net worth in the second quarter of 2010.

#18 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#19 Median U.S. household income is down 5 percent from its peak of more than $52,000 in 1999.

#20 A study recently released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College University found that Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need for retirement.

How anyone can look at those numbers and think that things are about to "get better" absolutely boggles the mind.

It is time to wake up.

Things are not going to get better.

Things are only going to get worse.

The United States is rapidly becoming a nation where poverty is absolutely rampant.

As poverty continues to spread, crime will not be far behind.

Meanwhile, the international community wants to impose a global tax on us so that they can "redistribute" even more of our wealth around the world.

The following was just reported by CNSNews.com....

A group of 60 nations will meet next week at the United Nations to push for a tax on foreign currency transactions as a way to generate revenue to meet global poverty-reduction goals, including “climate change” mitigation.

Well isn't that great?  As American descends into poverty, the rest of the world is pushing for a global tax that will drain us of wealth even more.

It is just a tax on foreign currency transactions, but history has taught us that once taxers get their foot in the door they always go for more eventually.

Sadly, it is not just the United Nations that is discussing a global tax.  In fact, the IMF and the World Health Organization have both been very open about the fact that they want to impose global taxes of their own.

Not that we aren't taxed enough already.  We already pay dozens of different kinds of taxes each year, and 2011 is already being dubbed as "the year of the tax increase".

But most Americans don't have any more to give.  Most Americans can barely make it from month to month.  More Americans than ever are slipping into poverty. 

What a mess we have on our hands.

Do any of you have any suggestions for how we should go about fixing all of this?

Michael Snyder is an attorney, a blogger, a writer, a speaker and an activist. He is currently the publisher of The Economic Collapse blog.