Tag Archives: Transition

Slings and Arrows

Posted on by
1

To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing, end them.
—Shakespeare, Hamlet

Sometimes slings and arrows feel very difficult indeed. But sometimes, and I guess some would say always, they are our friends, as they help to end pernicious cycles. Our increasingly-being-shown-as-notorious financial system is experiencing its end-of-cycle as its lies and chief liars are exposed, as major world banks have been shutting down public access to their systems for days at a time, as criminal hackers have figured out how to pilfer billions from the accounts of high net worth individuals at banks, etc.

We documented the base-level lies in The financial system is based on twelve promises that are lies. But each and every week now, more of the operational lies of the system are revealed.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone reported on a court case showing that the big banks have for decades criminally deceived participants in the municipal bond market, robbing cities, towns, hospitals, etc. of interest payments due to them: The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia.

Too bad that cities and towns are going broke, the banksters must get their bonuses. And their posh offices. Drive around any city in the industrialized world. Who has the largest and fanciest buildings, whose buildings dominate the skylines? Banks and insurance companies. Check it out. But I digress. Back to the latest slings and arrows.

Everyone has probably heard about the LIBOR scandal where the big banks–and it is looking like most or all of them–colluded in criminal fashion to manipulate interest rates. The LIBOR rate is used to calculate the interest rates on myriad types of loans including mortgages, business loans, credit card rates, etc. It is used as the basis for hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of derivatives. The top executives at Barclay’s were the first to be caught, but now RBS has been fined, and Deutsche Bank is under investigation. Others will follow. And the fired CEO of Barclay’s, Bob Diamond, has publicly stated that he was told to manipulate LIBOR by the guy who is second in command at the Bank of England, Paul Tucker. How long before we find out the US Federal Reserve was giving out the same kinds of orders for illegal acts?

And speaking of investigations, how about Spain investigating the top executives of  Bankia, headquarters pictured here, I kid you not:

Photo from Mike Krieger’s site.

A year ago, when they were selling stock in the bank to the public, these executives touted Bankia’s greatness. They stated two months ago that everything was fine, in fact profitable, at Bankia. Within a few weeks, it was determined that the bank needed a $19 billion bailout.

And it looks like JP Morgan has been caught pulling an Enron, manipulating the electric power market in California and the Midwest: JPMorgan’s Role in Power Market Comes Under Scrutiny.

The Vatican can’t resist joining the financial criminality party, assisted, of course, by JP Morgan: Catholic Church Fears Growing Vatican Bank Scandal.

We also have the mystery of large banks shutting their systems to any public access. RBS, one of the biggest UK banks, had a major “system outage” for days that halted the processing of just about everything including credit and debit cards, ATMs, payroll checks, account balance inquiries, i.e., everything! See: As RBS’ ATM “Glitch” Enters Fifth Day, The Bailed Out Bank Issues A Statement.

And yesterday the largest bank in Russia stopped all public access to its systems, so no credit or debit cards swipes would work, no on-line transactions, etc.: RBS ‘Glitch’ Goes Airborne As Biggest Russian Bank Halts All Credit, Debit Card Operations.

RBS gave a potentially plausible explanation of their outage in testimony to the UK Treasury: RBS gives more detail on IT failure train wreck.

However, it seems suspicious that the biggest bank in Russia also had to shut out the public. Perhaps it had something to do with criminal hackers figuring out how to initiate wire transfers from the accounts of high net worth individuals at 60 banks! Haven’t heard of that one? It broke in the news about two weeks ago and was promptly “disappeared” from many websites. As of this minute, the story is still currently available at the Times of India: Cyber criminals may have siphoned off 2 billion euros from 60 banks. From the article:

The study highlighted a highly sophisticated, multi-tiered, global financial fraud ring that is comprised of at least a dozen groups using active and passive automated transfer systems to steal high value amounts from high balance accounts.

“This fraud empire, dubbed Operation High Roller, has impacted every class of financial institution: credit union, large global bank and regional bank, using smaller and less detectable automated transactions,” McAfee said in a statement.

Could it be that these banks recognize that they are being hacked, and their accounts drained, and they have no way to stop it other than preventing all public access to their systems? And why did coverage of this story virtually disappear? That’s an easy one: When criminal hackers hear that a class of juicy targets is hackable, it’s like pouring blood into water near sharks, they all want a piece of the action.  And we can’t have depositors getting nervous about their deposits when the whole system is based on confidence.

Perhaps the problem isn’t hacking. But then how could these large bank systems, famous for their redundancies, backups, and all-around bulletproofness, fail in such catastrophic ways? Could it be that the Sun has decided to make a statement or two about who really runs this sector of the universe? Did 18 M-class solar flares over three days cause glitches in these systems? (Eighteen (18) M-Class Flares Within Last 72 Hours) Followed by an X-class solar flare? (Sunspot Region 1515 Fires Off X-Class Flare) Or are their systems based on MS-Windows? (Joke. Sort of.)

Either way, I have to wonder how people with their savings in electronic accounts feel about that. The system is based on lies. The people who run it are pulling continuous criminal capers, and it looks like they have been doing so for decades. Hackers have figured out how to drain accounts electronically. And the Sun may even be contributing to bank computer mayhem, with NASA admitting that the Sun will be ramping up its activity into mid-2013.

We think it best to consider all of these as indications of a system that is in something beyond peril. It is going down. It will fail. It’s only a matter of time. The pace of slings and arrows impacting the system is accelerating.

Let’s recall that people value money because it is a medium of exchange through which a wild variety of good and services can be exchanged in some comparable way; and a store of value providing one way to save the energy expended in work today to meet needs at some future time. Our current paper currencies (Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, etc.) are masters of exchange, but are cascading toward failure as stores of value. Some who have studied the history of money say–and I have no way to verify this–that the longest reigning currency regime based on unbacked paper lasted 41 years. Well, the world went fully into unbacked paper currency in 1971. Add 41 years and you get 2012. Can we set a new record? Perhaps. But the system is showing so many signs of being in its death throes, why take the chance?

People keeping their savings in the banking/brokerage system reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy comedy routine where he asks about movies like Poltergeist and Amityville Horror, “When there’s a ghost in the house, why don’t white people just leave the house?” If profanity offends you, don’t go to the link.

We have all been warned. Over and over. And the warnings are increasingly clear and loud. But we can take arms against this sea of troubles, at least for ourselves. And if we do, we’ll be in a position to help when the slings and arrows end this financial system.

Where there are things to be done, the end is not to survey and recognize the various things, but to do them.
—Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

What then can we do? Part 1

Posted on by
7

Let’s talk about what we can do about the consequences implied in The financial system is based on 12 promises that are lies, dealing with these questions:

  1. How can we prepare for the collapse of the financial system?
  2. How can we prepare for supply chain outages and disruptions?

Preliminary Remarks

In our view, one principle involved here is quite simple: If you take some of the key steps outlined below, you will be in a position to help yourself and others. If you don’t, you will need help from others. At this point, there is still some time to choose your position, but that time is growing short.

Since this is a transition, we want be mindful of where we are coming from and where we are going to:

  • We are moving from old systems and structures that are detrimental to humanity; they are collapsing from their own growing uselessness and corruption, and we are hastening their collapse by eliminating or methodically reducing our participation, our complicity, in those systems;
  • We seek to protect ourselves and our communities during the period of collapse; and,
  • We want our actions to be positive steps toward the world we aim to create, thus we aim to “be the change” and to take actions that are wins for ourselves, humanity, and the planet.

Obviously, but perhaps worth stating: We don’t know how you should live. The suggestions in this post are based on our own thought experiments, research, and by watching how people have responded to change in recent years. Some people have found the changes difficult, others have found them liberating. The actions recommended here are some that a person might take if they wish to glide through the coming changes rather than struggle through them. Please consider each recommendation for action to be a summary. We will have future posts with greater detail on each recommendation.

And I would like to be clear about one thing: I am planning to be in a community where people are lending each other a hand so all can live well. I am not planning to live in a bunker with guns pointed in all directions. Local sufficiency is what I am aiming for. I am of the opinion that this can be achieved outside of the major metropolitan areas.

In terms of priorities on the Outer Work list below, do the precious metals thing first, today. After that, if there are things on the list that you’ve “always wanted to do,” perhaps it will be best to do those next, perhaps there is a very good reason that you’ve always wanted to do them.

Inner Work

As with all aims of consequence on the physical plane, some of the work is inner:

TURN FROM WANTS TOWARD NEEDS: In these times, does more need to be said about this?

EMBRACE CHANGE: It’s clear that those who have accepted the changes of the last several years have had a much easier time of it, inside and outside, than those who have resisted change at every turn. In our view, the pace of change is accelerating and will continue to do so, thus embracing change will become an increasingly important contributor to a positive inner state. Common forms of resistance are denial that anything is changing at all, wanting and expecting things to go “back to normal,” pretending that “nothing can be done about it so I’m not going to change anything,” etc. Beyond accepting change is its active pursuit: movement toward that life which truly and deeply makes sense to you. When enough of us are on that track, the world will be a beautifully different place.

MAINTAIN EQUANIMITY: Obviously, people can be thrown off kilter by both the acceleration and by the disappearance of societal structures on which they believe they are reliant. And “off kilter” seems to reach new heights—if the latest news stories are any indication, perhaps that should be depths—every week. So whatever activities people do to maintain their connection with what is real in them, whatever they do to raise their vibration—meditation, chanting, breathing exercises, sensing exercises, energetic healings, breathing the marrow of the sun through their crown chakra and distributing that energy inside to where it is needed, whatever … these need to be very high priority activities. Ignoring these is an increasingly high-risk strategy as we proceed through this transition.

WATCH THE TRENDS: Life is clearly telegraphing the coming changes by presenting examples of each and then ramping up their frequency and intensity. The trends are not mysterious, they are very clear. We are all being shown where all this is proceeding in finance, politics, the recognition of the need for inner work, weather changes, earth changes, nuclear energy, magnetic pole migration, etc. If you observe these trends without bias, you are unlikely to be shocked as they accelerate. Expecting trend acceleration is key. As some say in Tibet, “Recognition is liberation.”

Outer Work

MONEY: When the current financial system fails, the typical sources of money will be gone or the money they deliver will be nearly worthless due to over-printing. The solution is minted bullion coins obtained from reputable, low-cost dealers for storage controlled by you.

If you have savings denominated in fiat money, convert as much of it as you can into minted gold and silver bullion coins. Minted bullion coins means gold and silver US Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, Australian Kangaroos, British Kings (“Sovereigns”), Kruggerands, or so-called “junk silver,” that is, pre-1964 US dimes, quarters, and half dollars that contain 90% actual silver content. These bullion coins are typically priced at some small percent above the world spot price of the physical metal itself, though junk silver can sometimes be purchased below the spot price from a good dealer.

We are not talking about gold bars, which are far easier to counterfeit than coins. We are not talking about special proof coins, which are overpriced for their metal content. And we are DEFINITELY NOT talking about buying numismatic coins, namely those coins touted as valuable because they are old and rare. That is a world for collectors and experts. If you buy them, you are 100% certain to be overpaying for their gold or silver content, and typically overpaying by a lot. If a dealer tries to steer you toward those, steer away from that dealer.

What is wanted now are coins valued for their metal content, coins that are easily recognized for that content, coins that will have known value on the street when national currencies are dying. Avoid all “gold experts” who tell you to put 5% to 10% of your money into physical metals or who call gold an “asset class.” They do not understand the scale and scope of what’s happening. Either that or they think we are all so rich that losing 90% to 95% of our savings is somehow acceptable. If you have no savings in fiat currency and no metals, do your best to obtain what metals you can. Make it a priority to save a few dollars on a schedule and then buy a silver coin or two when you can. Your effort, perhaps your sacrifice, will be very well rewarded.

And we are talking about minted bullion coins where you control possession, not situations where you have a piece of paper that says you own some gold somewhere. Most such papers will turn out to be unreliable.

When would it be best to convert fiat savings to bullions coins? Now. Today. Here’s one method: buy as much as you can stomach buying. When you’re done, do that again. And then again. Yes, leaving a little money in regular checking accounts to cover near-term expenses is a good idea. And if you can, it is a good idea to have a few months worth of paper currency around as well since there will be a time, after the death of electronic national currencies, when many vendors won’t know the value of precious metal coins so some will still want paper currency. Our research says that it would be wise to complete this conversion process by August 2012.

If these statements on precious metals are clear, great. If they are not and you want to act soon, please e-mail and we can elaborate on tactics prior to doing a major detailed post on that topic, for which there may not be time right away.

In Part 2, we will deal with topics related to outages of the global supply chain.

How The Powers That Be become The Powers That Were

Posted on by
Reply

In a word: TRUTH! Truth in plain sight for all to see.

Here’s an article about the head of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Christine Lagarde, talking tough to Greeks, telling them to pay their taxes:

It’s payback time: don’t expect sympathy – Lagarde to Greeks

And of course she wants the Greeks to pay their taxes, and everyone else too–because she doesn’t pay any taxes at all on her salary and benefits package, which is worth way more than $500,000 per year:

Christine Lagarde, scourge of tax evaders, pays no tax

And if people didn’t pay exorbitant taxes, there wouldn’t be any IMF at all.

But if there weren’t any IMF, then that would be one less conduit for funneling tax money from hardworking people to banksters. Hmmm, can’t have that.

******************

Hat tips to the UK Guardian, Zero Hedge, and to Clif High for his repeated use of the phrase “The Powers That Were.”

Recommended: War Pigs – The Fall of a Global Empire

Posted on by
1

The is the first post in a series called “War is a Racket.”

******************

In the first post on Thundering-Heard.com, we promised to talk about several cycles that are coming to a close in support of the major transition in progress. Jim Quinn of the website The Burning Platform is a leading proponent of one of the shorter of those cycles, one that lasts four generations, or approximately 80 years. This cycle was fully described in the book The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe.

For this Memorial Day holiday in the USA, Jim has posted a great article on the USA’s dedication to war:

WAR PIGS – THE FALL OF A GLOBAL EMPIRE

The full article is highly recommended, but for those who don’t have time for that, here are some quotes from that article:

As Americans mindlessly celebrate another Memorial Day with cookouts, beer and burgers, the U.S. war machine keeps churning. As we brutally enforce our will on foreign countries, we create more people that hate us. They don’t hate us for our freedom. They hate us because we have invaded and occupied their countries. They hate us because we kill innocent people with predator drones. They hate us for our hypocrisy regarding democracy and freedom…

Any doubt that the Military Industrial Complex is as strong as ever should be removed after examining Obama’s 2012 Budget which has $900 billion dedicated to our military machine. We spent $370 billion in 2001, $620 billion in 2006, and now this liberal anti-war Democrat from Illinois is spending 45% more than that war monger Bush…

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, leaving the United States as the only remaining superpower on earth. Since 1990, the United States has depleted the U.S. Treasury of $11.5 trillion for spending on War. With no military on earth capable of challenging us why would there be a need to spend this much on the military? Over this same time frame the U.S. spent $500 billion on science, space & technology and $70 billion on energy, a mere 6% of the spending on invading sovereign countries. Military expenditures benefit humanity in no way. If these trillions had been invested by the private sector or devoted to energy and scientific research, our economy might not be a hollowed out shell, dependent on China for financing and oil exporting countries for energy. Neo-Cons argue the Arms Industry employs millions and benefits the country. These companies employ brilliant engineers and scientists who spend their days developing weapons that kill people more efficiently. If they had been employed manufacturing high tech goods to export around the world, inventing new technologies that didn’t obliterate human beings, newer safer nuclear power plants, a more efficient electric grid, upgrading our deteriorating infrastructure, or finding a cure for Alzheimer’s, would the United States be better off today?

“Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”  – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” – George Washington

There was a tremendous surge in suicides by soldiers who have been pushed beyond their limits as they increased by 80% between 2004 and 2008. There are almost as many deaths by suicide as deaths in combat…

Peacemakers are ridiculed and shunned in America today. Those who preach diplomacy and non-interventionism … are scorned and ignored. Old men who care more about their own power than the human race are willing to sacrifice the blood of young people for precious oil, phony nationalism, their own strategic interests or corporate interests disguised as philosophical agendas. The world is a game for these old men. They care about their personal legacy and rigid ideologies. War and militarism are a failure of passion over reason. Albert Einstein, whose discovery brought about this age of potential world destruction, had no love for these blind warriors:

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.”

Toward Clarity in this Time of Major Transition

Posted on by
17

People do not fall asleep at the time of a raid.
–Rumi, Mathnawi, Book V, 4099

This site is dedicated to those who are bringing light to the many places where unwelcome darkness still plagues humanity. It is dedicated to the architects of a new world.

Humanity and Earth are in a major transition in which we are undergoing transformative and accelerating change. This brings some chaos as old structures collapse, but also the opportunity to rebuild. The time is now.

Understanding the Old Patterns

We hold this truth to be self-evident: that it is not necessary that this planet have war, enslavement of many by the few, debilitating poverty, environmental devastation, counterfeit money, counterfeit food, counterfeit media, counterfeit governance steeped in secrecy and cronyism, and counterfeit religions paying lip service to love while fostering divisiveness and intolerance. Only a very small number of people want life on this planet to be arranged this way. They dominate far too many aspects of life.

We consider it to be crucial to this transition that humanity understands the current dominant structures, how and why they are as they are. Some advise that if we are seeking a world of higher vibration that we forget about the old negatives and focus only on the new, only on the positive. The Powers That Be would like nothing better. They would love to be allowed to continue their dominations. Gandhi successfully countered the British Empire, weakening it. Martin Luther King successfully countered racism, weakening its grip. If they had kept silent, would the world be a better place? Unlikely. The negative must be countered with truth, or it will continue to plague us. If Goldman Sachs, the CIA, JP Morgan, royal families, and the US Federal Reserve are allowed to continue their dominations, we will not get to a new age.

And there is much of great beauty and value in our current world. Our job is to understand what no longer serves humanity and to relegate it to the past, and to encourage that which supports people’s freedom to pursue their deepest, highest aims.

Why Now?

Why will effort for such far-reaching change succeed now when it has been so crushed in the past?

1. Truth is moving at nearly the speed of thought across the internet, penetrating formerly secret and dark corners. And people respond to truth, which is why the entrenched elite want so badly to squelch the world wide web. New channels of communication are helping to raise consciousness planet-wide, and as we all know from our inner life, increasing awareness precipitates change.

2. This transition is not limited to things human. It reverberates through our entire energetic continuum: the Earth itself is having documented increases in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, changing weather patterns, and extreme weather events; energy is dancing from the Sun as we’ve never seen before; even the Earth’s magnetic poles are on the move in accelerating fashion.

3. End-of-cycle behavior is widely visible. One can see the desperate attempts at self-preservation of institutions that are runaway trains with little track left. One can read of the current bout of mass extinctions that can accompany the close of a major cycle. We will discuss several cycles that are coming to a close.

This time of transition is the opportunity many of us thought would never arise, but it is here now! The old ways are crumbling. It is visible all around us.

Boldness is Required

Our society is dominated by the few because the many allow them to do so. But their numbers are very small. Without our participation in their schemes, their power would vanish. It is time for us to consciously refuse their dominations.

It is time to radiate the depth and breadth of your being into this plane. We are talking about transforming most aspects of life on this planet, so your unique experience set, your particular skills are required, or you wouldn’t be here now. Your work will not be for naught. Let’s get up on our horses! If not now, when? And when you get up on your horse, hopefully we can keep up, and watch your ride in amazement.

Thundering-Heard.com

Since we are talking about nothing less than the emergence of a new world, this site will deal with a wide range of topics. The whole point is to attain clarity about what is happening and what is coming. Standing in that clarity, we can meet major change with equanimity, good cheer, and generosity, all the while envisioning a world of freedom and enlightenment.

Please consider what we publish as food for thought. Please comment below any post if you have questions, something to add, or if you think we got something wrong, which we sometimes undoubtedly will. We will happily provide clarifications. What we will not do is engage in long arguments, a very poor use of time and energy. We will make our case. Perhaps you will find it useful, or interesting, or funny. We hope you enrich our view with thoughtful statements of your own.

Thundering-Heard.com welcomes and will consider guest posts for publication, either under your name or under the overall name of this site.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Bumblingly yours,
Thundering Heard