The Eve of 2008 – Where Do We Stand?

Written by Steven Yates

Jan 02, 2008 at 12:00 AM

The new year—2008—is at hand. For some time I’ve viewed the approach of 2008 with a certain trepidation. I see three possibilities. Two thousand and eight could be a nightmare year—with the dollar collapsing, the economy tanking, more jobs for Americans gone, more efforts at amnesty for illegal aliens, and doubtless more police-statism on the horizon. Will 2008 see a “catastrophic emergency?”   On the other hand, we could continue limping along pretty much as we have been. After all, Oprah and American Idol are still on, there will still be a Super Bowl, and we will probably see a new installment of Survivor.  Meanwhile, of course, the power elite will continue to tighten down the screws on freedom very gradually. Or, with the Ron Paul Revolution having risen to a status where mainstream media can no longer ignore it, can an exposure of the Federal Reserve as the primary culprit behind our economic woes be far behind? Is there still a chance to achieve the critical mass that will give us back our Constitutional republic? Only if we expose the superelite—and expel it from its position of global-level power. The chances for the first aren’t bad at the moment; the second is a different story. Although its members are not superhuman, the power elite has gotten close enough to its goals that its members may not even fear exposure as they “run naked to the finish line.”    The power elite may have figured out that they are not going to get their world regime without a fight. So here’s our 2007 timeline. Unquestionably again I haven’t caught everything, but these are most of the standout events of 2007—telling us what to watch (out) for in 2008. January  11. Ron Paul—Congressman from Texas and one of the few Constitutionalists in public office—announced the formation of an exploratory committee to pursue the feasibility of a run for the Republican nomination in 2008. January 16. Former border patrol agents Ignatio Ramos and Jose Compion prepare to report to prison, where they remain following their having shot a fleeing illegal alien who turned out to be a drug dealer.   January 22. Representative Virgil Goode (R-Va.) introduced HCR 40, “Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.” March 1. The Department of Homeland Security handed down a large document of regulations related to the Real ID Act of 2005, with a promise of more to come in late summer (they never appeared). March 12. Ron Paul released an official announcement of his intention to seek the Republican nomination. April 19. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act (H.R. 1955) was introduced into the House without fanfare, very likely because there was no accompanying press release. See below. April 30. U.S.-EU summit results in a Transatlantic Economic Council being formed to begin hammering out the details of economic integration between the U.S. and the EU. The agreement was signed by President Bush, EU Council President Angela Merkel (also German Chancellor) and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. May 9. The Executive Branch handed down its National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51 / HSPD-20. Its stated purpose was to establish a “national continuity policy” establishing “national essential functions” in the event of a “national emergency.” A “catastrophic emergency [is] any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.” In the event of such an occurrence, this Directive would place the president in charge of all three branches of government—making him (or her) for all practical purposes a dictator. May 31 – June 3. Annual Bilderberg group meeting in Istanbul June 7. Huge numbers of faxes, phone calls, emails, and other signs of displeasure on the part of the American people thwarted Congress’s effort to pass amnesty-for-illegal-aliens legislation disguised as “immigration reform” and “border security.” There would be three more such attempts (June 28, , all of them also thwarted. June 13. Governor Mark Sanford signed S.449, providing that South Carolina will not participate in the Real ID Act of 2005. June – July and beyond. Evidence emerged that China—still a Communist country after all—was flooding American markets with dangerous goods. “Free trade,” however, has been placed ahead of Americans’ health and safety in terms of both governmental and corporate priorities. July 17. Executive Order 13438: “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq” issued by President Bush. The order asserts the federal government’s power to confiscate the property “of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.” Including American critics of this war? August 20 – 21. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America met in Montebello, Canada, but not without unwanted attention, including protests. The spotlight had to be shone from a distance, but it was there. President Bush, when asked point blank by Fox News reporter Bret Baier whether the chief goal of the SPP was a North American Union, offered this dodge: “If you’ve been in politics as long as I have, you get used to that kind of technique where you lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn’t exist.” The mainstream media kept things as quiet as possible, of course; but now, advocates of the SPP are describing it as “dead.” September 6. President Bush opened U.S. highways to Mexican trucks over the objections of major American trucking organizations who cited a variety of concerns ranging from the safety of Mexican trucks to the inability of their drivers to read and understand English. October 8. Former President Vicente Fox appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live and  stated openly that what he and President Bush want is “a trade union for all the Americas,” adding his recommendation that we adopt a regional currency (now going by the name amero). October 12 - 14. The North American Forum met in Mexico with almost no attention (only WorldNetDaily covered the meeting). So much for the SPP being “dead.” October 23.  The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act passed the House 404 – 6, and went to the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (as S. 1959). This bill creates a federal commission to “study” the supposed causes of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism, although it does not offer any examples of either. I penned an article on this bill a few weeks back, noting the circular definitions that go nowhere. Example: violent radicalization: “the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious or social change.” What’s an “extremist belief system”? Does the bill mean CAIR? Does it mean Muslims generally (there are many Muslims in America who are law-abiding citizens who have lived here all their lives). Or does it mean those of us who wax on and on about how the federal government has departed from the Constitution and would like to take the nation back there? I was recently reminded by Dr. Stanley Monteith, who writes about these issues from the Monterrey Bay area out on the West Coast, that there is an FBI internal memo, dating from a few years ago, that specifically identifies the latter as a potential terrorist threat. As for the meaning of “violence,” a few weeks ago I received the following email from a reader: “At the middle school where I was a sub the sign in the hall described violence as ‘any WORD, LOOK or action that harms or HURTS THE FEELINGS of another” (emphasis his).” Draw your own conclusions. It is true that the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act “in no way restricts thought or speech” and does not “create any new crimes, criminal penalties, nor does it encourage the Commission to do so,” as a disinformation piece just released by the Committee on Homeland Security correctly observes. What it does is lay a groundwork. If this bill becomes law, we can expect surveillance of Americans involved in Patriotic activities—promoting Constitutionally limited government—to increase if this bill becomes law in 2008. November 5 (“Remember, remember the fifth of November …”). The Ron Paul Revolution raised over $4.2 million.   November 15. The federal government raided the Evansville, Ind., offices of Liberty Dollar, confiscating its stockpiles of coins of gold, silver, platinum, including almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars, as well as documents and computers, and freezing Liberty Dollar’s bank accounts. The Federal Reserve does not like the competition. November 17. With gold having reached $800/oz. and the American stock market yoyoing, Saudi Arabian foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal warns of a possible dollar collapse. SPP/NAU watchers warn that the collapse of the dollar might herald an economically integrated North America’s embrace of the amero. November 20. Lt. Governor John Harvard of Manitoba revealed in a major speech that his province is working closely with the Canadian government, several states in the U.S., and major corporations to create a Mid-Continent Trade Corridor that would connect Port of Churchill (in Manitoba) with Mexico through the U.S., with Winnipeg as an “inland port.” Again, so much for the idea that the SPP is dead, or that proposed NAFTA Superhighway systems are “conspiracy theories.” December 15. Major banks (e.g., Morgan Stanley) began issuing full U.S. recession alerts following up the collapse of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage lending mess (both of which Ron Paul attributes to Federal Reserve policy). December 16. The Ron Paul Revolution set a record for fundraising in one day with over $6.4 million, surpassing John Kerry’s $5.7 million set in 2004. Dr. Paul’s tally for the 4th quarter is zeroing in on $19 million, more than the elite-anointed “front runners.” Over 107,000 individual donors have contributed with an average donation of $50—exposing the lie that Dr. Paul’s extensive grassroots support is the work of “spammers” on the Internet. Interestingly, December 16 is the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.   Mid-December. Reasons began to surface for thinking that Ron Paul’s increasing popularity, having moved from the Internet into the mainstream, might be placing him in physical danger. Intrepid journalist Daniel Estulin, author of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group who has been following that organization for years and who clearly has a source on the inside, reported the existence of discussions at the highest levels of power of the possible consequences of assassinating Ron Paul. This, of course, deserves an article in its own right, and so I stop here. -------------------------------------------- Steven Yates teaches philosophy at the University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College, and is on the board of the South Carolina chapter of Citizens Committee to Stop the FTAA. The views expressed in his columns are his own, and do not reflect official views of any of these institutions or organizations. His latest book World-views: Christian Theism versus Modern Materialism, was published last year by The Worldviews Project (for more information call 864-288-0043). He is at work on a new book tentatively entitled The Real Matrix. His email address is: