Earth Changes Bulletin Update As Of January 29 2003
You have heard of the Weather Report? Here exclusively is this week’s "Earth Report" - a short review of the “big picture” about how the dynamic changes in the Sun and the Earth are effecting our lives more and more intensely, with the latest prognostications and predictions for weathermen, farmers, investors, businessmen, and every man.

This update is keyed to the Earth Changes 2003 Almanac Calendar. The framework for understanding these updates and much of the current status information is maintained in capsule form in the Almanac at the locations cited in the text of this Update.

As predicted the geophysical vortex is and will batter the world with more extreme weather through much of February.

For the geopolitical front….PERHAPS THE DIE IS NOT CAST. Hope grows stronger that an unwise war will be avoided by enough people waking up to the realities of what is at stake. As reported last week, things are afoot in the international community to bring a great countervailing pressure on American policies. And some American politicians are beginning to articulate a new line of thinking which bypasses the war threat arguments. Diane Feinstein, California Senator, observes that Saddam Hussein is a “WORLD PROBLEM” and she notes that virtually the entire world (outside of the hawks in the Bush Administration and the Republican ranks) wants Saddam and his disarmament dealt with as a WORLD SOLUTION, imposed by and through the U.N. – NOT the U.S This is the best single defining argument. Spread it everywhere. Now is the best of times to pray as copiously as the stars in the heavens. Pray for emotions to calm and reason to prevail. Though high sunspot counts will cause many over-reactions and cloud many minds through a good part of February, pray that Diane Feinstein, the French, Germans, and Russians can be more persuasive than ever in the halls of American government this next month.

I am not kidding, PRAY AS COPIOUSLY AS THE STARS IN THE HEAVENS. If the U.S. marches like the Lone Ranger into Iraq without solid U.N. backing, it will end up as trajedy far worse then Vietnam. I suspect it is exactly what Osama Bin Laden, the real enemy, is waiting for, a chance to split the Western world right down the middle.
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Program Thesis: What are we trying to do with the Earth Changes Bulletin?

Most news media do not handle technical and scientific subjects like geology and earth sciences very well. They don't understand the causes and effects of activities in the Sun and Earth. Accordingly, they often do not understand if, when, how, why to report earthquakes, volcanic activity, global warming effects The treatment often sounds absent-minded, poorly qualified, and frequently contains various technical errors. Seldom is the treatment entertaining and genuinely educational.

Based on new scientific principles which have emerged during the past thirty years, many of the dynamic activities of the Sun and Earth can be linked together to see how a range of effects are linked together. This makes it possible to paint "the big picture" into a perspective which explains many diverse events and processes, especially climate and weather patterns such as global warming and El Nino. From the "big picture", long range predictions can be made for weeks and even months ahead.

The result is sophisticated cutting-edge information which is objective, balanced, astute, relevant, and can be easily seen and appreciated by lay audiences. The perspective is generally global, seldom parochial.

For the framework of concepts, terms, and current conditions which are used or described in the these Bulletins, see the Earth Changes 2003 Almanac Calendar.

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POLAR MOTION
What is happening to the motion of the Earth.

AS REPORTED LAST SEVERAL WEEKS: Steady as she goes. As reported for the past few months, the current track of Chandler’s Wobble (the observed locations of the spin axis at the North Pole) continues to show an acceleration in the shifting of the average location of the spin axis. The recent acceleration may be in the approximate range of 6.5%. FOR A DESCRIPTION OF THIS DISPLACEMENT, SEE THE EARTH CHANGES BULLETIN OF NOVEMBER 13, 2002.

For additional current details: see http://www.michaelmandeville.com/ebooks/calendar2003/currentconditions.htm#polarmotion

FOR NEWBIES: The vortex tectonics paradigm of the earth holds that polar motion in the 6.5 year wobble cycle (Chandler’s) creates the major stress in the Earth’s crust which is released by lunar tidal forces each month in the form of earthquakes and volcanism. The acceleration in the motion of the drift of the poles and its relocation forces an increasing tempo in the shape shifting of the Equatorial zone, where 70% of tectonic activity occurs. Accordingly, earthquakes and volcanic activity should increase in frequency and magnitude.

PLANETS

Nigh on double set of alignments coming up February 1-4

Jupiter | Earth alignment and Mercury | Mars

Expect an explosive peak in sunspots and extremely bad weather in high latitudes for the next three weeks.

See Earth Changes 2003 Almanac Calendar for additional details
http://www.michaelmandeville.com/ebooks/calendar2003/
The Almanac lays out the entire year in advance to allow you to find the best and worst periods of weather.

Concerning Venus, NASA reports: “The planet Venus is so bright that you can see it in broad daylight--the trick is knowing where to look. Try this: find Venus in the eastern sky at dawn. Look again every half hour or so as Venus rises. You'll be able to spot the planet--a pinprick of white light in the blue sky--well into the day. Some sky watchers have seen Venus high in the sky at noon! Photographer Michael Bührke captured this movie of Venus rising over the city of Muenster, Germany, on Jan. 23rd.”

SUNSPOTS
The events in the solar atmosphere which impact weather and climate patterns, the magnetic field and auroras, including forecasts for the week, month, and year ahead.

The rollercoaster ride continues but the Sun is subdued today and the sunspot count has not yet responded very strongly to the Earth | Jupiter alignment. After highs of 240 and 185 for the past two Mercury alignments this month, the count dropped to 105 a few days ago and has only slowly recovered to about 133 as of yesterday.

Nonetheless at the moment the Fluxgate Monitor at the U of Alaska shows a modest magnetic disturbance during the past 12 hours in the Earth’s Atmosphere. Today’s Solar Wind Speed is a modest 432.5 km/s pushing a high density of 9.3 protons/cm. NASA reports that we are approaching a coronal hole in the Sun’s atmosphere which will expose the earth to magnetic storms and a continuation of this robust ionic energization. This will probably be strongest during the first few days of February in synchronicity with the double planetary alignments. Expect Aurora watching to pick up this coming seven days and become awesome right around the first of February.

AS PREDICTED: In accordance with the escalation of solar activity brought by the Mercury | Earth alignment, extreme and exceptional weather patterns stuck rapidly in the Northern latitudes as immense fire storms raged in bone-dry, drought-stricken Australia. Very cold temperatures in Northerly latitudes have left a new crop of historical records for snowfall in North America, exceptional unpleasantness in flooding and damage to Western Europe, and extreme cold in Russia and even in Northern India, which is causing large numbers of deaths. These patterns moderated somewhat the last few days.

WATCH FOR: Now the weather will turn suddenly worse, turning February into one long terrible winter month. Expect snow in lots of places which rarely get it. Expect terrible damage to the eco-systems of Australia, Southern Africa, and India, and expect drought areas of the Western Hemisphere to stay quite dry.

AS PREDICTED LAST WEEK: By the beginning of February, Mercury’s alignments will be over with Earth and Venus but Earth will be moving into alignment with Jupiter on February 2. Since the Earth|Saturn alignment in December was so potent, I expect this alignment could be even more so. Accordingly expect another major surge in sunspot counts and solar storms to begin during the last few days of January and to persist for a couple of weeks during this long lasting alignment. As with the weather with attitude which appeared in December, expect another huge surge of storms with exceptional attitude by about February 5 or so to last a good two weeks. Western shores of North America and Europe most likely will be slammed repeatedly.

Continue to expect anything with this Solar Cycle 23, but, despite the current escalations in sunspot counts, I think that the peak is nearly done. By mid February I expect sunspot counts to stay in the under 80 range most of the time, except for the Earth | Mars alignment in August and September, and slowly fade away throughout the remainder of the year. Peaks above 100 will occur during each of the planetary alignments and they may well soar very high once again during August and September.

To follow these numbers, view the Solar Cycle 23 Chart at

http://www.michaelmandeville.com/earthmonitor/topten_monitor.htm

GLOBAL DROUGHT AND FLOOD WATCH
Stories and assessments about drought and flood conditions around the world; global information which provides the ability to assess the impacts to agriculture and the natural environment.

STANDING PREDICTION: The current pattern of recurring huge storm fronts and extensive precipitation is likely to continue well into February and then begin to dissipate. Storm fronts will tend to be the most severe four to seven days after the major inner planet alignments discussed above. Anything could happen to the weather this Winter but at the current time the odds seemed stacked to chaos and many extremes which will emerge in the weather suddenly after a major solar flare or appearance of a new coronal hole. The storm fronts against North America will NOT be a repeat of December’s activity against California. The distribution of the energy will change. The El Nino conditions are aleady gone and thus the circulation patterns are now different.

Drought prone areas in the lower latitudes will see less rain than normal. Summer monsoons will be late, are not likely to be normal, and will be ended by the Mars | Earth alignment at the end of August

For additional details, see
http://www.michaelmandeville.com/ebooks/calendar2003

EL NINO WATCH:

The good news continues. AS PREDICTED HERE AND NO WHERE ELSE, the El Nino syndrome along the equator is almost gone. The upsurge in warm water (above average in the range of 8 degrees F.) along a very wide expanse of the Equator in the Pacific peaked in early November and now is only a small of fraction of what it was. As of 10 days ago, the El Nino “patch” on the Equator is about the size of the Island of Borneo and is centered at Longitude West 170. The decline apparently has slowed this month but the El Nino Weather Syndrome is essentially gone.

CHEMTRAILS
I am still looking for a volunteer to write a weekly update paragraph on Chemtrail activity and politics. Activists groups are beginning to emerge calling for world wide citizen action this year to expose the activity and out the Dr. Strangelove’s who are doing this. A most excellent idea. I believe that each and every individual who is involved in the activity should become publicly known and exposed to crimes against humanity lawsuits. One good aspect about the Bush administration’s polarizing ways, people are getting angry all over the place in increasing numbers on a broad front of issues connected with lying and manipulation by the Empire. If there is anyone who would like to volunteer to send me a paragraph update once a week on this front for inclusion in this newsletter, I am all for it. I don’t have time to canvass any more than what I am doing.

EARTHQUAKES
Around the world to see the current and potential patterns of seismic activity, with coverage of the windows of danger.

I prepared this section by pulling out the Earth Changes 2003 Calendar which has everything plotted on it. You should too. Check out the Almanac as well, it discusses all of the windows for the year and even spotlights the two most dangerous windows.

The next seismic syzygy window appears January 31 through Feb 3. This Window is halfway between Lunar Apogee and Perigee. Until then, expect little in the way of major quakes.

Expect a period with only modest levels of seismic energy but perhaps a higher count in frequency than the last Full Moon Syzygy. The next big quake danger zone will appear mid February in the Full Moon Syzygy which is very close to the Lunar Perigee. Perigee = the Moon’s closest approach to the Earth during its monthly orbit which increases gravitational influence of the Moon by as much as 15%).

An examination of the USGS database of quakes greater than 3.0 in magnitude for the past week shows a typically muted “between windows” time. Quakes down in frequency and in magnitudes from the previous week with three or four discernable patterns. There were a high number of these quakes in the Aleutian Island trench (where Asian Plate is over-riding Pacific Plate) and a few 4.0 plus quakes in Southern California near the Wolf (San Andreas) Fault (more than normal). There were also three modest quakes in Italy, two of them near Firenze, which were probably precursors to the 6.2 quake in Turkey. The Italian quakes portend and spell TROUBLE with the letters VOLCANIC EXPLOSIANS.

There was one definite pattern, which connects directly with our watch on the upheavals in the “frigid zones”. There were two quakes at about latitude 60 on the REYKJANES RIDGE (extension of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, all part of the same Dragon Line great rift in the bottom of the oceans which encircles the globe like a yingyang baseball seam) near the South end of Greenland. There was another 6.5 quake at about latitude 45 on about Longitude East 35, very close to Heard Island, which is very close to the upheaving, growling volcano of McDonald Island. Though this latitude is not all that high, it IS right on the margin of the Antarctic Tectonic Plate, at a zone where it compresses against the Indian Ocean Tectonic Plate.

So as you an see, this pattern of an increase in activity at the edges of the polar zones continues…I expect more activity this year to set records for these zones. I will get into a more long winded explanation of why in a later update or report. As well, Longitude East 40, as you may know, is one of my key markers, it is the projected Line of Fall for the avalanche of the crust and so anything tectonic close to that line is of tremendous interest to me.

Most of the quakes reported above, except for the South Cal quakes, are in PRIMARY VOLCANIC ZONES. Are we seeing the Earth’s crust breaking and grinding in these zones as precursors to increased volcanic activity this year?

The USGS chart (such charts show all quakes 1.0 and above) for the U.S. and Alaska show 554 quakes for the past seven days (which is down only slightly from last week’s 572) with the USGS chart for California showing 316 of these in California during the past seven days (up from last week’s 289), which is back to normal. The USGS Chart for the Pacific Northwest reveals 35 quakes (two week sum, down from 46 micro quakes last week) widely scattered mostly in the Puget Sound Basin with seven of them at the foot of Hood, which is widely regarded as the most dangerous volcano in Oregon.

The USGS chart for Long Valley Cauldera (Area) shows a running total of 16 for the past week (down from 36 small quakes running total last week), typically in the range of 1.0 in magnitude, while the USGS Chart of Yellowstone Cauldera Area shows 26 small quakes during the last week (same as last week) and 20 quakes scattered throughout Utah. Hood seems to have ended its quiescence, the USGS showed 6 micro quakes and 7 quakes for the past two weeks (up from virtually no activity for the past several months).

AS PROPOSED LAST WEEK: January (the Earth’s Perihelion month) is always a dangerous month for destructive Earthquakes in the Pacific area, most especially the Western Pacific, especially in Japan, the Philippines, China. I believe this is due to the uplifting pressure of Antarctica (the Sun pulls Antarctica up to its most northerly position during January) against the Pacific and Asian tectonic plates.

We are nearly past this zone of time and I see nothing in the wind to suggest strong activity in this coming New Moon. Probably, the greater danger will come in mid-February.

REMEMBER THE COSTA NOSTRA DAMUS PREDICTION: We will watch Coos Bay, San Andreas, Colima, Popo, very carefully. Let us watch as well for a pattern of increase during the succeeding Full Moon Perigee Syzygies. Centered near the middle of the month for February, March, April, and May, the Full Moon and Perigee draw tighter together to be virtually dead on in April, then start to draw apart. Their mutual influence should combine exponentially, not linearly. Along about the middle of April, we can expect the worst quake season which has been felt in many months. See the Earth Changes 2003 Almanac Calendar for timing details.

VOLCANOES
Around the world with the most interesting and relevant volcano stories; briefs on the likely eruptions as well as coverage of on-going activity.

Hood is not so quiescent with seven microquakes this past week and El Popo was yesterday up to a 32 puff day. Centrapred reports for January 29nd (16:00 GMT) that “In the last 24 hours the monitoring system detected 32 small exhalations of steam and gas and sometimes small amounts of ash. In addition, there were episodes of harmonic low-amplitude tremor during less than one hour. The other monitored parameters remain without important changes. During this morning the volcano has shown a small emission of steam.(see image). Due to the presence of the lava dome inside the crater (see image), and the activity reported on January 22, there is a probability of explosive activity, ash emissions, and incandescent material ejections around the crater.

The Southwest Volcano Centre reports 36 volcanoes on the alert status list (down one from last week), 4 volcanoes on the restless list (same as last week), and 24 on the active eruption list (up two from last week) with 7 activity change updates posted for the latter during the last few days

It would seem that volcanic activity overall is slightly up this week but not enough to make anyone’s news.

AG INDUSTRY WATCH
Because of the high load of stress which the current peak in the sunspots have placed on the Ag industry, we alert on the changing scene in agriculture and how these are likely to effect the broader economy.

AS PREDICTED LAST WEEK: I believe that the drought is now ending and that this ending will be apparent by March. BUT, drought conditions are likely to return in August during the Mars | Earth alignment and persist for perhaps several weeks, perhaps late into September. This will not provide crop relief for farmers in the Southern Hemisphere. The drought will not end for them until the growing season is over.

ECONOMIC WATCH

It is doubtful that any economic recovery will begin to be felt until much later in the year, probably not until Fall of 2003. Republicans talk about the recession as if it were over. Anybody who does is probably not mistaken, they are probably consciously lying.

GEO-POLITICAL WATCH
How the sunspots are likely to most effect human affairs during the weeks and months ahead?

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Ken Lay, just a good ole boy Texan, the Presiding Officer of the rape of California Consumers, otherwise known as Enron, is still scott free with his crooked billions. Guess what corporate jets were used to ferry the Bush campaign officials and lawyers around during the recounting of the ballots in Florida and the petitioning of the courts to stop the recounts? Enron’s.

OBSERVATION: The Enron Wicked Web of greed and gross and egregious “taking advantage of everyone” has hardly been explored but it encompasses a huge portion of the Republican establishment in Washington DC. National level groups are now becoming visible to focus on this wicked web of deception and deceit. Let us hope that newly engaged citizen activists can unravel this web as it is apparent that the Justice Department is sandbagging it.

AS PREVIOUSLY ENCOURAGED, if you have never read 1984, now is the time. All the strategies and techniques of Hitler’s and Goebbels’ agitprop and disinformation technology is currently being employed everyday in massive doses against you. You had best wake up to how the mantras work. Check out the Media Lens organization. They are providing some really good wake up antidote. http://www.medialens.org

There seem to be some good signs at the moment. It has been said generations ago that you can lie to some of the people some of the time but you cannot lie to all the people all the time. Eventually, you get caught in the webs of deceit. So it is, America The Dominant (because we can) the world’s one great superpower (use it or loose it) line of reasoning is getting caught and hauled before the court of world opinion.

Prominent Republicans are now beginning to argue that the U.N. must be fully engaged in any action vis a vis Saddam Hussein. Stormin’ Norman, the Commander of Gulf War I, says he is not convinced that another war is necessary. This is the tip of a military iceberg of opinion which is probably much larger than we can know. A reasonably centrist Democrat, Diane Feinstein from California, seems to have boiled down the entire international debate in a few pithy lines which are good enough and reasonable enough to carry the day forward on a reasonable basis. She observes that Saddam Hussein is a “WORLD PROBLEM” and she notes that virtually the entire world (outside of the hawks in the Bush Administration and the Republican ranks) wants Saddam and his disarmament dealt with as a WORLD SOLUTION, imposed by and through the U.N. – NOT the U.S. She further observes, along with Joe Biden, another Democratic Senator, almost nobody abroad is buying the idea of the Lone Ranger from Texas riding alone into Dodge to route out the evil gang, nobody outside the U.S. is buying into America The Dominant (because we can) argument.

These “radical” thoughts about international law and the primacy of the U.N., in case you hadn’t noticed, have been the ribcage of American Foreign Policy since the Atlantic Charter was created in early 1942 by REAL wartime leaders, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, probably the two most effective leaders of the past 1000 years. The actions of these men have shaped all of our lives to this very day, including the current U.N. They preserved democracy and LED THE WAY TO THE CONSCIOUS LIQUIDATION OF IMPERIALISM.

With the exception of a few minor actions, the U.S. has made international law and processes work, even during the long polarization of the cold war. The one major exception was Vietnam, which ended up as you bloody well know, a bitter defeat at horrendous cost which still stains the moral integrity of those still living in the U.S.

Since the collapse of communism, we now see vested cold-war interests and mentalities increasingly surface to advocate more and more in many ways a return to a de facto and not very subtle IMPERIAL ORDER under the U.S. The arguments for America The Dominant, the world’s one great superpower, has the effect of making the U.S. President AS a Roman Pro-counsel, able to initiate war and conduct military operations at will without regard to the human rights and national rights standards which the Euro, American, and other peoples have so laboriously created through the past several centuries of blood and which they finally implemented widely through a succession treaties which began after the Napoleanic Wars and which culiminated in the creation of the League of Nations and then the United Nations.

Attorney General Ashcroft has done much to promulgate government decrees creating a legal “black zone” for people who are arbitrarily designated as the equivalent of “enemies of the state”, regardless of their citizenship status. It is breathtaking to watch current-day American attorneys, in possession of political hack jobs, make mincemeat of what so many died to obtain to benefit both Americans and the world. It is absolutely amazing to observe that this culture has become so degenerate in its educational system that such monstrous stupidity can hold power on this continent, be socially acceptable in news forums and mass media, and buffalo the public with the grossed kinds of Orwellian Double-talk.

Fortunately the Euro peoples at the current time have assumed leadership to work towards peace. The overly aggressive actions and verbal bullying by various members of the Bush Administration have polarized a remarkable unanimity among both the Euro peoples and the Chinese, from Ireland to Vladivostok and Shanghai. They have, apparently, decided to take a lesson they received from an earlier, more idealistic generation of Americans and implement, with an amazing consensus which has formed up during the last few months, a determination to stand against any IMPERIALISM created by unilateral attacks by nation against another.

Against this rather substantial international wall, many right wing activists are still attempting to hurl the Bush Administration, fists first, stridently proclaiming that the issue is “terrorists” and the only good ones are dead ones routed out by American unilateral attacks (“because we can, we will”). Even Bush is still discussing the issue in terms of the purported “evidence” of “material breeches” which justify a Texas hang-town style of justice imposed on the world (because we can). Unfortunately these evidences continually evaporate into “inferences” from second hand sources, or interpretations of what could be explained in a dozen ways, which boil down to arguments which are “not compelling enough to convince” when professional intelligence analysts discuss the purported evidence .

Bush also continues to discuss Saddam Hussein as being able to use Al Qaeda as a shadowy terrorist network to do harm for him, despite the well known and widely accepted truth that Saddam Hussein runs a secular, socialist, Stalinist or Bolshevik state, which has no regard for Islamic fundamentalism and trusts Bin Laden about as much as does Rudy Guiliano, the former Mayor of New York. And this of course causes Osama Bin Laden and his fundamentalist legions to hate Hussein and the Baathists as part of the Western corruption of a formerly pan-Islamic culture in the Middle East. This is a well organized international terrorist connection, ya shure ya betcha. And they got some snake oil cures for cancer out back to sell as well. Step right up folks, just one thin dime and we guarantee the most amazing show in the circus tonight.

So we can see that credibility remains an issue, the twisty ways of Washington are getting pretty threadbare. Sitting Bull says, crazy white men in Washington who speak with forked tongues are going out of style.

But more importantly, we can see that American foreign policy is careening at a high rate of speed against a rather thick and large wall composed of an enormously large part of the world’s population, which is signaling that it intends to DEMOCRATICALLY veto American proposals concerning war in Iraq.

Domestically, many Americans are also finally getting some of the picture and even centrist Republicans are getting squirrelly about supporting the Bush Administration.

The issue in the U.S. is also beginning to get into the real issue of regime change Some have talked about spending one and a half years to three years with 75,000 troops and lots of money to rebuild a stable, democratic nation. They wonder if the U.S. wants to do this.

This is of course nonsense. It took 15 years of occupation in formally autocratic Japan and Germany after World War II before the democratic nations were satisfied that they could leave them to their own elections to govern themselves. Are we to suppose that we can do this faster now? Biden better stop using such figures or Sitting Bull Conservatives will think he has forked tongue as well. Do you think TV might make a difference? Fat chance, says Sitting Bull, it probably will take longer with all the idiocy which the tube spreads.

More probably than not, Iraq will fragment into chaos because it is a completely arbitrary set of boundaries created by Imperialists in the first place. The Kurds in the North will declare two independent states, the Shiites in the South will declare an independent state and attempt to grab the oil fields, and God knows (does he?) about the rest. They will all go to the U.N. and demand legitimization. The U.S. will be sitting there in one of history’s sick jokes trying to impose, in a completely tyrannical fashion, another Imperialist solution for one Iraq which NO ONE wants. As Saddam knows, we will need a lot more than 75,00 troops dealing with this quagmire from which no collection of armies of the world will be able to leave for a minimum of 10 years.

If the U.S. under the right-wing wannabe imperial pro-counsels go into this without the U.N. it will be an even more hideous mistake than Vietnam. Eventually, tragically, it will end forever immature ideas in North America about America The Dominant. It will inflame the Arab fundamentalists and the radical secularists who feel on the short end of the oil money. They will palpably sense a huge split in the opinion of the world about the legitimacy of American activity and they will do everything in their power in every conceivable way to exploit it. They already are. And then they will do the unthinkable. They will fuse in practical alliances against what they will see as the common menace.

MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS THE TRAP WHICH OSAMA BIN LADEN HAS SET AND IS PATIENTLY TENDING. HIS ENTIRE STRATEGY OF STRIKING THE WEST WAS AND IS, AS CLEARLY STATED IN HIS STRAGEGY MANUAL, TO PROVOKE POLARIZING REACTIONS FROM THE U.S. THROUGH WHICH HE CAN APPEAL TO AN EVEN WIDER SEGMENT OF MUSLIM OPINION. He was much more successful in the twin towers than he hoped. He may get really lucky with a U.S. invasion of Iraq. It destroys his secular rival in the Arab world and will scare the hell out of the rest.

More probable than not, a large theatre of the Middle East will become a combination of Lebanon, Northern Ireland, and Palestine. The bombings, murders, and terrorism will not stop for a generation.

Let us hope and pray that Bush, who does have many redeeming virtues, can be led to Diane Feinstein’s definition of the issue: this is a world problem and only the people of the world as a unity, in combination with the Arab and Muslim peoples, can deal legitimately and soundly with this issue.

Unfortunately, the sunspots will very high the next several days and will bounce up and down during the month. This will make all conditions and emotions unsettled and minds very squirrely. We may remain on the cusp of unknowingness staring at the abyss right through to the end of the Month.

Media Lens editorialized today with the following, which provides another ray of hope despite the cynicism:


Three striking features of our society are being starkly revealed by the current crisis:

1) Mainstream politicians will distort common sense and deceive the public without limit so long as they know they will not be publicly corrected by the media.

2) Mainstream journalists have unlimited reservoirs of faith in the essential benevolence and sincerity of our leaders, no matter how cynical and corrupt their arguments, motives and allies. The combined result of these two factors is, as American writer Dennis Hans writes, that politicians know they are free to "lie and rely" on the media to cover for them. Thus, George Bush is happily racking up his "frequent liar miles", most recently with his tragi-comic claim of newly discovered links between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

There is a third feature of our society that is also being revealed:

3) The first two features are in dramatic collision with the public's inherent rationality and common sense, such that large numbers of people are seeing through the crazed political/media version of world events. Be clear that this version is always being imposed on us, but it is only now, in such extreme circumstances, becoming blindingly obvious to everyone. The mistake of the US hawks is that they have gone too far. They have forgotten the golden rule that no matter how cynical and authoritarian you might be, you have to +look+ like you're a democratic force for good. Machiavelli, we can be sure, is turning in his grave. ~end of quote

I suspect that this third item is beginning to manifest in the increasingly obvious queasiness of reporters and anchors in mass media broadcasts in the U.S. Reporter’s questions are getting more stressed and incredulous about some wingnut claims, international correspondent’s are losing patience with editorializing anchors and getting blunter in letting people know that the U.S. is virtually isolated in its own ego-bubble, hard-edge riposte questions about credibility are appearing more and more. Despite the strong bubble of jingoism which the mass broadcast media began to propagate early in 2002, the rest of the world is beginning to be seen under the covers around the edges.

For additional background information on the current international situation

Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org

Be sure to read January 29th’s Newsletter. It is excellent.

A Martian View of The Media's Pro-War Propaganda Bubble

Goebbels - A Beginner's Guide

State of the Union Address: A Case Study in Projection
By Stephen Gowans
http://www3.sympatico.ca/sr.gowans/projection.html
Psychoanalysts call it projection: attributing one's own attitudes and motives to others. George W. Bush's State of the Union address last night was a case study in projection.