Category Archives: Guest Columns

Guest Column: Comment NOW! on New Michigan ‘Smart’ Meter Rules

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New State Rules Will Force You into Orwellian Hell!
by Shane Trejo [from column for Michigan Tenth Amendment Center]

smart_meters_take_backFriends,

I have some troubling new information to report about Smart Meters. Unaccountable bureaucrats have cooked up some new rules that will limit consumer choices to maximize profits for the utility companies. This is another example of public-private collusion that has made our state government a national laughingstock.

I was able talk to Lori Ebaugh, an expert on the topic of Smart Meters. She was able to give me the run-down on the topic, along with some action steps on what you can do to fight back.

What are the most troubling aspects of these new proposed rule changes?

There are several troubling aspects of these rules. First, there was no input elicited from actual consumers or the public until now, although work has been on-going to rewrite these rules for over two years. Secondly, these rules cement the supposed right of the utilities to shut power off from customers who refuse installation of a new AMI (“smart”) meter. Thirdly, there is no provision made for customers who refuse a smart meter for medical reasons. These people may have doctor’s letters verifying their health conditions, electromagnetic sensitivity or cancer susceptibility. They may require electrical power for their medical equipment (for instance, breathing machines). Yet, there is no provision for them to keep their analog meter. In fact, there is not even the provision to delay a power shut-off for any length of time. Compare that to the extensive provisions given to customers who risk a power shut-off in cases of non-payment. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Dump Trump… and Hillary, Too

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There is a viable third choice, and it is on the ballot in every one of the 50 States
by Thomas Greco [excerpted from Beyond Money column here]

end_of_money…The US has been on the road to fascism for a long time. Both Democrats and Republicans have for decades been advancing the same agenda of ceding power to transnational mega-corporations and the global banking cartel. So called “free trade” agreements are simply ways of allowing capital to more freely exploit labor and the environment and forcing governments to guarantee their profits.

Changes in financial regulations, like the repeal of Glass-Steagall under Bill Clinton in 1999, have enabled banking companies to grow to monstrous size (“too big to fail”) and to more easily cheat the clients they are supposed to serve. In this article, James Rickards places the blame for the 2008 financial crisis squarely where it belongs and demolishes the arguments of the big bank apologists: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis.

Many countries are caught in the debt trap and are being forced to sell off government owned assets which further concentrates wealth and control of “the commons.” Those who control the creation and allocation of money are able to control politics, economics and virtually everything else. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Michigan’s Big Brother Helper Arlan Meekhof

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Meekhof Emboldens Orwellian Surveillance State in Michigan
By Shane Trejo [Original column here in West Michigan Politics]

meekhofThe Michigan Republican establishment has been desperately trying to improve their public relations in lieu of a recent Hillaryesque streak of crushing scandals.

From the Todd and Cindy’s sexcapades to the rape of Democracy by changing the ballot rules in the middle of the process to the immense environmental calamity in Flint, the establishment is truly giving the Democrats a run for their money.

However, a chance for redemption recently emerged. A YUUUGE no-brainer was sitting the legislature and gave Republicans the perfect opportunity to save face. A binding resolution  was proposed last year by Rep. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) that would have put the question on the ballot in November allowing voters to approve common sense language in the state Constitution that would give explicit privacy protections for electronic data and communications.

If HJRN was approved, voters could have amended the state Constitution to read as follows: Continue reading →

Guest Column: Assad’s Death Warrant

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The real reasons we are in Syria and up to no good [bw’s subtitle]
By Mike Whatney [Excerpt from World News Daily column here.]

blow_the_whistle“Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria.” — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria, Politico

September 15, 2016 “Information Clearing House” – “Counterpunch” – The conflict in Syria is not a war in the conventional sense of the word. It is a regime change operation, just like Libya and Iraq were regime change operations.

The main driver of the conflict is the country that’s toppled more than 50 sovereign governments since the end of World War 2.  (See: Bill Blum here.) We’re talking about the United States of course.

Washington is the hands-down regime change champion, no one else even comes close. That being the case, one might assume that the American people would notice the pattern of intervention, see through the propaganda and assign blame accordingly. But that never  seems to happen and it probably won’t happen here either. No matter how compelling the evidence may be, the brainwashed American people always believe their government is doing the right thing. Continue reading →

Guest Column: 15 Years of a Transparent Lie

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Differentiating expert opinion from improbable explanations
By Paul Craig Roberts [Excerpt, full column here]

911_KnockoutThere are many conspiracy theories about 9/11. The US government’s own explanation of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory in which a few Saudi Arabians outwitted the American national security state. Little doubt that many of the more imaginative conspiracy theories were created for the purpose of stigmatizing any skepticism, no matter how well reasoned and supported, of the official story.

When thinking about 9/11, it is important to differentiate expert opinion from improbable explanations.

Among the expert opinion are 2,600 structural engineers and high-rise architects who comprise Architects & Engineers for 9/11 truth and have written to Congress asking for a real investigation, Firefighters for 9/11 truth, Pilots for 9/11 truth, physicists and chemists who analyzed the dust from the twin towers and report finding reacted and unreacted materials used in controlled demolitions, and former government officials who understand that a security failure as great as 9/11 would have produced an immediate and exacting investigation.

These groups of qualified and experienced people say that the official story of 9/11 is false. Architects, engineers, and scientists say that the official story is physically impossible. Firefighters and WTC maintenance personnel say that there were numerous explosions within the towers and that the first explosions were in the sub-basements prior to the buildings being hit by airplanes. Experienced military and civilian pilots say the maneuvers of the aircraft are beyond the capability of the alleged hijackers. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Labor Day

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Perhaps not many Americans any longer know, so here is my explanation
by Paul Craig Roberts [Excerpt, full PCR column here.]

Labor_MovementLabor Day—what is it?

In my time Labor Day was the unofficial end of summer, because school began after Labor Day. Today school begins almost a month before. When I was in school that would not have been possible, especially in the South. The schools were not air-conditioned. If school had started in August no one would have showed up. It was difficult enough getting through May before school was out in June.

As most Americans probably thought of Labor Day as the last summer holiday, now that Labor Day has lost that role, what is Labor Day? The holiday originated as an apology capitalists tossed to labor to defuse a standoff.

Workers understood that labor was the backbone of the economy, not Wall Street moguls or bankers in their fine offices. Workers wanted a holiday that recognized labor, thus elevating labor in public policy to a standing with capital. Some states created labor day holidays, but it wasn’t until 1894 that Labor Day was made a federal holiday.

Congress created the federal holiday in response to the murder of strikers by US Army troops and federal marshals during the Pullman strike of 1894. The factory workers who built Pullman railway cars lived in the company town of Pullman. George Pullman provoked a strike by lowering wages but not the rents charged in the company town. Continue reading →

Guest Column: CDC Doubling Down

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The CDC medical police state: the right to detain anyone
by Jon Rappoport [Excerpt, full column here.]

RappoportUnderstand the implications of new CDC rules, if you want to know where the medical dictatorship is heading.

Arbitrary apprehension of citizens, detainment, forced medical treatment, vaccination.

Let me paint a scenario:

You live in a polluted city, so you have a low-level cough. On your flight to another state, the cough becomes worse because the air in the plane cabin is foul. Unknown to you, a passenger complains to a flight attendant. The passenger is a typical meddler. When you arrive at your destination, a health-agency employee is waiting at the gate for you. He apprehends you and takes you to a room, to decide whether you have a communicable disease. His first standard question—are you up to date on your vaccinations? And things go downhill from there…

It can get worse: the same story as above, except when the detained passenger is injected with a load of vaccines, he then becomes very ill, or even dies. Using plane passenger lists, health authorities search out and detain everyone who was on the flight, claiming the deceased passenger died as a result of a disease—not the vaccinations—and now all the passengers will be detained and “treated,” because they are “infected.” Continue reading →