7-18-15 - DREAM -  I was helping a woman buy some beautiful birds to raise.  We got the birds which looked like pheasants with beautiful plumage and long thin necks.  They looked wonderful.  She even bought a very expensive furnace system which got installed in a closet with hoses into the room to keep the birds warm.

After about 4 days, we went to look at the birds and they looked awful - with scraggly necks and feathers missing,  I couldn't imagine what she was doing wrong.  So I asked her for the list of equipment she paid for which was thousands of dollars, so I could see what she had neglected to purchase that made her birds look so bad.

Then I realized the birds were cannibalizing each other, because she had no bird seed or water to feed them.  I knew it took 4 days to order what she needed because nobody ever told her she needed seed and water for the birds.

I woke up feeling ill because even I didn't realize I hadn't told her the birds needed food to eat.  Didn't she even think of that herself?

THE GREEK TRAGEDY - WILL IT SPREAD TO AMERICA?

by Joe Mason

In late 1995, a young man, named Brad, told me a story.  He's a very handsome 19-year old, who was working with my son on a construction job.  He was undergoing a stressful break up with the girlfriend he was living with.  He said the name "Agamemnon" kept coming into his mind over and over one day at work.  He picked up a large rock and crashed it down on a frog, then felt bad about it.  He didn't know why he did it.

I seemed to remember the name, but I couldn't recall anything about it.  He couldn't either, but was sure he had learned about it in high school.  I thought it might be related to "Armageddon," and was surprised to learn that Agamemnon was the leader of the Greeks in the battle of Troy.

Some weeks after this, I found a book in one of my storage places called Mythology, Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, by Edith Hamilton.  As I read it over a period of weeks, some of the stories seemed to connect with various dreams and ideas, especially stories about the twins, Apollo and Artemis.

A few things related to the battle of Troy.  The Greek fleet was delayed in its voyage to Troy because of the blowing of the north wind.  The gods spoke to the soothsayer, Calchas, saying that Artemis was angry because a hare and her young had been slain by the Greeks.  The only way to appease her and calm the wind was by sacrificing a royal maiden, Iphigenia, the eldest daughter of the Commander in Chief, Agamemnon.

I thought of Brad's weird experience, and wondered about the symbolism.

I found the story called "The House of Atreus" significant.

It became an ill-fated house because of the misdeeds of an ancestor, Tantalus.

I tend to "read" such stories with the possibility in mind that it carries clues about the cycle of time and the change.
This one fit pretty well.

Tragedy after tragedy plagued the progeny of Tantalus, including King Atreus.  Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, offended the gods, because she wanted to be worshiped in place of Leto.

Apollo and Artemis, the twins of Leto and Zeus, punished the arrogant Niobe by killing her seven daughters and seven sons with their arrows.  Niobe sank down on her knees, her tears flowing without end.  Her heart turned to stone, and then she was changed into a stone that was forever wet with tears.

The original misdeed of Tantalus involved cannibalism, as did the misdeed of Atreus.  Some clues to the meaning of this symbolism came to me in 1990. 

DALI - CANNIBALISM IN AUTUMN

It was related to the Dali paintings, "Cannibalism in Autumn," and "Six Apparitions of Lenin on the Piano."  After noticing the ants on the sheet of music on the piano, I knew that the cannibalism painting should also have them.  I looked at the cannibalism painting again, and saw that the ants were around the mouth of the female figure.  Her mouth looks like honey.  The strange painting seemed to be saying something about our way of thinking and believing.  The human-like figures of the man and woman look like wood, and are consuming each other.  The woman's head is in the mouth of the man, and is supported by a crutch that goes down to a wooden chest of drawers.  The man holds a spoon that is dipped into the breast of the woman.  In other Dali paintings, humans are shown with drawers as part of their bodies.

The idea I got from this is similar to the way I interpret the Garden of Eden story. 

 Drawers within the body are conditioned beliefs.  Ants symbolize the "hive mind" of existing negative and rigid beliefs being maintained over time.  Wood is associated with the Tree of Knowledge.  The woman in the cannibalism painting corresponds to Eve, the small feminine attribute in humans.  The man corresponds to Adam, who takes the fruit from Eve.  The crutch supporting the woman's head shows the unconscious effect of the existing, or older belief system.  The crutch is supported by the chest of drawers, the dead wood creating the structure.

So, the symbolic idea of cannibalism shows how we get stuck with old beliefs, as we feed them back and forth, constantly maintaining them, even though they may be rigid, outmoded, and negative.

Agamemnon was the son of Atreus, along with his brother, Menelaus, the husband of Helen.  Menelause recovered Helen after the Troy battle, and lived happily, but Agamemnon was not so fortunate.  Not only did he have to sacrifice his daughter to go to Troy, but he was killed in revenge by his wife, Clytemhestra, immediately on his return home.  In the Odyssey Odysseus encountered ghosts in his descent into Hades.  The most pitiful of all was Agamemnon.

The end of the cycle of the doomed House of Atreus was with Agamemnon's son, Orestes.  He was supported by his sister, Electra.  (the sacrificed Iphigenia was their sister)  Orestes was caught in a "no-win" situation.  His noble duty was to avenge the murder of his father, but killing his own mother was also a misdeed of the highest order.

In his agony of doubt, he traveled to Delphi to seek advice from the oracle.  Apollo spoke to him, advising to atone death by death.  So, he killed his mother and her lover.

Afterwards, Orestes suffered terribly, and was constantly surrounded by the Furies in his wanderings.  They appeared only to him as black women with snake-hair, eyes dripping blood. But something happened within him that had not happened before among the cursed house.  He realized that he had also been taught by his misery, and that there was no crime beyond atonement.  Even he could be made clean again.

Apollo sent him to Athens to plead his case before Athena.

Those who desire to be purified cannot be refused.  Apollo appeared beside him and admitted responsibility, because of his advise at Delphi.  The Erinyes, the Furies, had plagued Orestes with their demands for vengeance, yet he reacted calmly. Orestes admitted his own responsibility, but also declared that he had been cleansed of his guilt.  These were the words that had never been spoken before by any in the line of Atreus.  They had never suffered from guilt and sought to be made clean.
Athena accepted his plea, and persuaded the avenging goddesses to also accept it.  A "new law of mercy" was established, and the Furies themselves changed.  Instead of the frightful aspects, they became the Benignant Ones, the Eumenides, the protectors of the suppliant.

With the acquittal of Orestes, the spirit of evil that had haunted the House of Atreus was ended, and he left the tribunal a free man.  Never again would a person of that House be driven into evil by the irresistible power of the past.

This story fit so very well into my dream/coincidence experiences, I can hardly begin to explain it.  I can only give a few things here, and attempt to show how some dreams seem to support some of the ideas.

The cycle of time involves Karma or judgment.  Kali and the Harlot both have this meaning.  The dream reality is attempting to show a new interpretation of this.  It is not really a punishment/reward system based on deeds, but a creative learning experience through adversities for an important purpose.

One key verse in the Bible is James 2:13, telling how judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy, yet mercy triumphs over judgment.  Another way of saying this is that karma will be relentless to one who has not reached the heart chakra and understands the wisdom of compassion.  It is compassion that triumphs over judgment.  A Sufi mystic also put it this way - that compassion will win a victory over karma. This, simply put, is basically what the big change is all about as we go from the lower chakras to the upper.  In Revelation, the beast represents the karmic function, like "the swallower" in the Egyptian judgment scenes.  It is an eighth but it belongs to the seven (chakras) and it goes to perdition.  (Rev.  17:11)  Being "swallowed" represents being reborn back on the earth plane, as a result of not reaching the forth/heart chakra.

Another important verse about this is in Isaiah 4:4, where the filth is cleansed from the daughters of Zion by a spirit of judgment and burning.  This seems to suggest that it is not "God up there" judging and punishing, but rather a process that purifies.
The House of Atreus story could be a metaphor about this in the context of a single family line.  A key insight about the story is that we must believe that we are not guilty, or that we have atoned for the quilts of our misdeeds, and/or that the power to do this is in the present, regardless of the past. By extension, it may be that it is critical for us to also believe that humanity, en masse, can make such a transition.

In 1989, New York real estate investor Seymour Durst spent $120,000 to erect a "National Debt Clock" in Times Square to track the exact amount of money that the U.S. federal government was borrowing to pay its bills. At the time, the country had run up a $2.7 trillion tab, but that figure seems almost quaint today [source: Stephey]. In 2008, the clock briefly ran out of available digits when the debt topped $10 trillion. By January 2013, the upgraded clock — it can now display up to a quadrillion dollars — registered $16.43 trillion and some change [source: Treasury Direct].

Now, it's important to understand that U.S. doesn't owe that entire $16.43 trillion to its creditors, which is everyone that owns U.S. Treasury bonds and securities: individual American citizens, banks, corporations, state and local governments, and foreign investors. Treasury securities are essentially government-backed IOUs. In exchange for a cash loan, the government pays you interest. Only $11.56 trillion of the national debt represents the debt held by the public or public debt, the money the federal government borrows from outside sources to fund its budget. The other $4.87 trillion is tied up inintragovernmental holdings, mostly in the federal government's largest trust funds: Social Security and Medicare.

The question we want to answer today is: who actually owns that $11.56 trillion in public debt? And how does America's skyrocketing national debt rank against other industrialized nations? Find out in our global parade of America's biggest sugar daddies according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury

.

Creditor Name: Hong Kong

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $142.9 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.2 percent

When British-occupied Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese in 1997, the free-market enclave became a "special administrative region" of China [source: CIA World Factbook]. Hong Kong remains economically sovereign from China, but depends heavily on revenue from exports to the Mainland.

Hong Kong ships approximately 10 percent of its exports to the U.S., supplying some of America's largest national brands, including Wal-Mart and Target. The U.S., for its part, exports even more goods to Hong Kong in the form of high-value items like aircraft, spacecraft, diamonds, telecommunications equipment and computer processors [source: U.S. Dept. of State]. Because of its close economic ties to the U.S., Hong Kong's economy reacts quickly to American financial upturns, downturns and policy decisions. Like many foreign countries, Hong Kong invests in American debt because it is a reliable security held in the world's most stable reserve currency, the dollar. Sixty-two percent ($3.72 trillion) of the cash held in the world's central banks is in dollars [source: Cox].

Another reason so much U.S. debt is purchased in Hong Kong is because Hong Kong is a major Asian banking center. In fact, 20 percent of Hong Kong's GDP comes from the financial services sector [source: Garcia-Herrero]. That means that investors across Asia use Hong Kong banks to buy U.S. securities. As we'll discuss with our next country on the list, offshore banking makes it harder to tell who exactly owns the U.S. debt.

Creditor Name: Belgium

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $143.5 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.24 percent

We know what you're thinking: Belgium? Really? The gross domestic product (GDP) of this small European nation tucked between France, Germany and the Netherlands ranks No. 32 in the world, behind Nigeria and Malaysia [source: CIA World Factbook]. So why is Belgium one of the top 10 purchasers of U.S. debt?

The secret is something called "custodial bias" [source: U.S. Treasury]. Belgium has made a name for itself as one of Europe's most vibrant international banking centers. Like Switzerland, bank accounts in Belgium historically offered a high degree of secrecy, although that changed in 2011 when the Belgian government began disclosing account information to improve tax transparency [source: Hyslop]. Still, Belgium offers big tax breaks for foreign companies that create Belgian subsidiaries and benefits for investors who choose Belgium for offshore accounts [source: Henley].

Belgium's status as a tax haven makes it a popular place to buy U.S. debt, even if the investors aren't from Belgium. The U.S. Treasury tracks purchases of U.S. debt by geographic origin, not the specific nationality of the buyer [source: U.S. Treasury]. This is where custodial bias distorts the debt figures. Belgium is a custodian (or holder) of U.S. debt from investors living in nearby France and Germany or as far away as China and Japan. How much of that debt is owned by actual Belgians is difficult to tell.

We'll talk more about custodial bias with our next entry: teeny tiny Luxembourg.

Creditor Name: Luxembourg

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $144.7 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.3 percent

Luxembourg is smaller than Rhode Island, and it owns the equivalent of $281,046 of U.S. public debt per person. A nation of bankers, itsy-bitsy Luxembourg has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world at $80,700 in 2012, and it has no reservations about investing in other nation's cheap debt [source: CIA World Factbook]. Luxembourg's own economic stability is up for debate. While it owns $144.7 billion in U.S. debt, Luxembourg owes more than $2.15 trillion to its own foreign creditors. That ranks tiny Luxembourg at No. 11 on the global list of total foreign indebtedness [source: CIA World Factbook].

Like its neighbor Belgium, Luxembourg is a tax haven for wealthy foreign investors. For example, Apple has set up a "conduit" company in Luxembourg through which it funnels iTunes earnings to avoid higher U.S. taxes [source: Morgenthau]. Also like Belgium, investors from around the world buy U.S. debt through accounts based in Luxembourg. Since the U.S. Treasury doesn't distinguish between debt bought by bona fide Luxembourgians and debt bought by foreigners, Luxembourg's debt ownership figures may be artificially inflated.

Creditor Name: Russia

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $162.9 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.4 percent

In 2011, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denounced the United States as a "parasite" on the global economy [source:Chechel]. At the time, the U.S. Congress was embroiled in a debt-ceiling debate that many believed would result in a default on the government's loans from foreign countries. With hundreds of billions in U.S. Treasury securities, Russia had a lot to lose from a massive American default. But even the debt-ceiling debacle didn't scare Russia away from the relative security of American debt. Since the day Putin called America a "parasite," Russia has increased its holdings in American debt by tens of billions of dollars.

Where does Russia get all of its buying power? The answer is oil. Russia is the world's largest oil producer, and has used the commodities markets -- and investment in U.S. Treasury bonds -- to build impressive cash reserves in foreign securities [source: Iosebashvili]. Some world economists believe that Russia could be facing its own serious debt crisis by 2030, unless the country decreases spending. Bullish-minded ministers within the Russian government still urge growth, including huge infrastructure projects like the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup.

Creditor Name: Switzerland

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $192.7 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.7 percent

Switzerland is a lot like Luxembourg, a small but incredibly wealthy European nation made famous as an offshore tax haven for wealthy investors. A stunning 27 percent of the world's privately held assets are managed by Swiss banks. In comparison, U.S. banks manage 8 percent [source: Federal Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland]. The Swiss enjoy high employment, longer-than-average life expectancy and rank among the happiest nations in the world [source: OECD]. The Swiss — or at least Swiss banks — are also one of the most reliable buyers of U.S. debt, routinely among the top 10 investors in U.S. Treasury securities.

The country may not hold onto its tax haven status for much longer, though. Thanks to a 2009 agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice, the IRS and the Swiss government, Swiss banks must disclose information about their clients and their holdings. In January 2013, a Swiss bank pled guilty in a New York court to conspiring with its clients to evade U.S. taxes [source: U.S. Dept. of Justice]. To avoid criminal charges, tens of thousands of Americans with secretive Swiss bank accounts have come forward as part of a voluntary disclosure program set up by the IRS.

Creditor Name: Taiwan

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $196.6 billion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 1.7 percent

This small island nation makes nearly all of its money exporting goods to Europe, the U.S. and China. So, when the world economy is good, the Taiwanese economy is very good [source: Shapiro]. But to hedge for the bad times, Taiwanese investors put their money in the safest securities in the world: U.S. debt.

Taiwan is a democracy with a constitution and a freely elected president. After World War II, the Communist party wrested control of the government from the Nationalist party and created the People's Republic of China. But many Nationalist leaders and sympathizers relocated to Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China [source: Bloomberg]. In essence, there were two Chinas. And the crazy thing is, there still are!

Both mainland China and Taiwan considered themselves the "one China," and the U.S. finds itself in awkward diplomatic territory. On one hand, America recognizes Mainland China as the "real" China, but it sells fighter jets to Taiwan. (Taiwan is also the fourth largest buyer of U.S.-made arms). In recent years, the relationship between Taiwan and China has warmed over the two nation's shared economic success. Money from Taiwanese investors has helped fuel the economic boom on the Mainland [source: CIA World Fact Book].

We should mention that the U.S. Treasury ranks "Caribbean Banking Centers" as No. 5 on its list, but since the position is held by six islands that hold almost exclusively offshore accounts, we're giving the spot to Taiwan.

Creditor Name: Brazil

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $253.4 billion

Percent of U.S Public Debt (January 2013): 2.2 percent

Technically, "oil-exporting nations" are ranked as owning the fourth-largest chunk, or 2.3 percent, of American debt. That 15-country collective includes Algeria, Bahrain, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. But if we examine U.S. public debt on a country-by-country basis, Brazil wins the No. 4 spot handily [source: Congressional Budget Office].

According to the World Bank, Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy. Its explosive economic growth has been fueled by aggressive investment by the Chinese. Starting in 2010, China signed lucrative trade agreements with Brazil to buy massive amounts of raw materials like iron ore and crude oil [source: Pomfret]. In addition to exporting natural resources, Chinese firms have built huge factories, farms and manufacturing plants on Brazilian soil.

After recording an impressive growth rate of 7.5 percent in 2010 — while the rest of world was still emerging from the recession — the Brazilian economy is finally showing signs of slowing. The growth rate for 2013 is expected to be a humble 3.2 percent, due in part to China's own cooling economy [source: Boyle].

Creditor Name: Japan

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $1.12 trillion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 9.6 percent

We've been talking a lot about America's debt problem, but how does U.S. indebtedness compare to other industrialized nations? The most useful debt measurement is to calculate the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP). At the end of 2012, U.S. public debt totaled 73 percent of GDP, meaning the U.S. borrowed the equivalent of nearly three-quarters of what it earned in 2012 [source: [source: CIA World Factbook].

Although a 73 percent debt-to-GDP ratio isn't ideal, it's a heck of a lot better than the situation in Japan, where public debt represents a mind-blowing 219 percent of GDP [source: CIA World Factbook]. How can the Japanese economy support such a lopsided debt-to-earnings ratio?

It turns out that Japan's debt, while incredibly high, is not unsustainable. The Japanese economy is still very strong. It boasts the world's fourth-largest GDP, and unemployment is below 5 percent. But the biggest difference between Japanese and American debt is that Japanese citizens own 95 percent of their country's debt, with only 5 percent in the hands of foreigners [source: Sauter]. In contrast, around 47 percent of U.S. debt is owned by foreign investors, a far riskier proposition.

Another reason the Japanese economy remains so stable is that Japan is heavily invested in U.S. debt securities, some of the most financially sound investments in the world. The only foreign country that lends more money to America is Japan's massive neighbor to the West, and No. 2 on our list: China.

Creditor Name: China

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $1.26 trillion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 11 percent

With 1.3 billion people, the world's second-largest economy, and the fastest economic growth among industrialized nations, China is an undisputed economic powerhouse [source: World Bank]. China is also the foreign country that owns the most U.S. debt, breaking the trillion-dollar mark in 2011 and never looking back [source:CBS News]. The question is: is it bad for the U.S. economy or national security that one of America's biggest rivals owns more than 10 percent of its debt?

You might compare it to the arms race between the former Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. Sure, either side could have launched its warheads and inflicted terrible damage on the enemy, but an act of aggression would have ensured an equally punishing retaliation.

If China wanted to economically injure the U.S. by selling off its debt securities, the result could be dramatically higher interest rates and a steep devaluation of the dollar. But the Chinese would also shoot themselves in the foot. The Chinese have close to half of their cash reserves invested in U.S. debt [source: Davidson]. For China, it's the safest, best investment the growing nation can make. China's economic growth is fueled partly by the return on their U.S. investment. Poisoning the dollar would take the Yuan right down with it [source: Capaccio].

Creditor Name: American Public and State and Local Governments

Amount of U.S. Debt Owned (January 2013): $4.14 trillion

Percent of U.S. Public Debt (January 2013): 36 percent

Surprise! The country the United States is most indebted to is ... itself. Actually, the federal government borrows from a host of domestic investors, including private citizens, banks, corporations, local and state governments, and investment funds. Here is a breakdown of the top domestic investors in U.S. public debt as of September 2012, the latest figures available [source: Financial Management Service]:

• Insurance companies: $263.8 billion
• Depository institutions (commercial banks, credit unions): $337.4 billion
• State and local governments: $492.2 billion
• State and local government pension funds: $190.3 billion
• Private pension funds: $615.6 billion
• Mutual funds: $889.1 billion
• U.S. savings bonds: $183.8 billion`
• Other investors (Includes individuals, government-sponsored enterprises, brokers and dealers, trusts and estates, businesses, and more): $1.172 trillion

Why would individual Americans, businesses and local governments continue to loan money to the United States? Doesn't it seem risky to put money into an institution that's already $16 trillion in the hole? Believe it or not, investing in the government isn't a high-risk proposition. While the federal government is hemorrhaging thousands of dollars by the second in order to pay interest on its debts, the U.S. has a vested interested in not defaulting on its loans. America's credit rating would drop. and the booming market for U.S. debt could dry up. How would the U.S. government function without its international credit card? Let's hope we never find out.

Most Americans, whether they complain about the government or not, have at least a passing interest in it remaining in existence for a variety of benefits they seldom bemoan receiving. What that means is that most Americans are in conflict with Republicans and their masters the Koch brothers who have made no secret they want the government eradicated with extreme prejudice from the top down. Republicans have duly served the Koch's’ interests by taking every opportunity to destroy every aspect of the government, except the military-welfare complex, by starving it of funding just to bolster their “government does not work” agenda.

A favorite target of Koch-Republicans is the National Park system that Republicans have so drastically underfunded that a Koch and ExxonMobil-funded organization is calling for an end to national parks and privatization of all federally-owned land. The argument being put forward by the executive director of Koch fossil fuel organization, Reed Watson, is that since the National Park system is hurting for funding, the only option is to first stop creating national parks and then cheaply sell off those already in existence. Why? Because according to the Koch brothers’ organization calling to sell off all public land and national parks, “True conservation is taking care of the land and water you already have; we can protect it properly.”

The group pushing to sell off (privatize) the national park system to the fossil fuel industry, and indeed, sell off all public land to the highest corporate bidder, is the Koch and ExxonMobil-funded Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). PERC, Exxon-Mobil, the Koch brothers, and Republicans across the nation contend that no state, federal, or local government has any right  to own any land within America’s borders; it is precisely the same argument trumpeted by seditious anti-American rancher Cliven Bundy. Although Bundy’s contention is that he, Cliven Bundy, retains “sole stewardship rights over government-owned land,” he clearly fails to comprehend that the Koch's have a different vision of what their stewardship as private corporate owners will entail. Unless Cliven Bundy owns monumental drilling, mining, or lumber operations, he should make no mistake that when the Koch's own all government land, he will have no stewardship rights, grazing rights or input into how the land is managed whatsoever.

The Koch's and ExxonMobil have already committed PERC to publicly call for an end to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) because it is one of America’s most successful parks programs. LWCF is not in financial jeopardy yet because Republicans have failed to end its budget-neutral status.  LWCF is budget-neutral as a result of using funds from offshore oil and gas development fees to fund projects across the country at the federal, state and local levels. The LWCF program supports some of nation’s “most iconic” national parks such as Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. It has also created tens-of-thousands of outdoor projects the general public uses regularly such as local parks and baseball diamonds in all 50 states. The Koch's want those local parks, like national parks, wilderness areas, and all federal land transferred to corporate ownership because “It just kills the fossil fuel industry and its allies that there’s any scrap of land that they can’t get their hands, or drilling rigs, on.” However, it is not for a lack of Republican efforts.

For example, last year as part of the ongoing Koch-funded and

 driven initiative to seize control of public lands from the federal government,

 Colorado Republicans, like Utah Republicans, introduced legislation calling for

 jurisdiction over federally-owned national forests, wilderness areas, national

 parks, and all Bureau of Land Management land. Now with PERC’s blatantly

 public involvement and push to privatize National Parks and federal lands, it

appears the concerted effort is fully underway to seize government property to

 satisfy the greed of the Koch's and Exxon-Mobil by exploiting all federal land

, including federally-protected wilderness areas and national parks, for fossil fuel

 government cede its ownership, and immediately turn over the titles of all federal

 lands in Utah including all wilderness areas and national parks the state planned

 to sell to the Koch brothers to “manage” as “owners” exempt from federal

 environmental regulations and oversight.

The concept of selling off federal land to the fossil fuel, mining, and lumber industry began in earnest in 1999 when the Koch's’ PERC complained publicly that “fully a third of the land area of the United States is owned by the federal government. Although many Americans support the preservation of those lands, the failure of socialism in the realm of resource economics is as evident as other areas of the economy.” Resource economic failure in Koch parlance means they cannot yet drill, mine, or log wherever they want and without being held to environmental regulations. So PERC offered some Koch reform criteria to convince the American people and disabuse the United States government of the idea it has any right to own any land in America. PERC asserts that, “land should be allocated to the highest-valued use, transaction costs should be kept to a minimum because auctioning off all public lands will enhance environmental quality and economic efficiency through private rather than public ownership.”

Americans should seriously start worrying, and pushing back against, these vile attempts by the Koch brothers and Republicans to sell off what is effectively the American people’s public land; particularly the 282 million Americans who visited the National Parks in 2011 alone. That figure does not include visits to state and regional parks, wilderness areas, or the many, many national monuments around the country or in and around the nation’s capital that are owned and operated by the people’s  government; the government the Koch's and Republicans want eliminated.

It is true that on their own, the Koch brothers are incapable of taking over all

 federal, state, and local government land and properties, but with Republicans

 doing their bidding in Congress and state legislatures, and Koch-funded groups

 like PERC, Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation and many others

 openly calling for the end of government land ownership, the concept of public

 land, national parks, or wilderness areas free of drilling, mining, and logging

 operations is in jeopardy. It is not enough for the Koch's to take Americans’

 government, workplace protections, pensions, healthcare, safe roads, schools,

 and bridges to privatization and eventual ruin, they are jockeying even now to

 take over Americans’ public land with little to no outrage or push-back from the

 people.

Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. Starvation may also be used as a means of torture or execution.

According to the World Health Organization, hunger is the single gravest threat to the world's public health. The WHO also states that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Undernutrition is a contributory factor in the death of 3.1 million children under five every year. Figures on actual starvation are difficult to come by, but according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the less severe condition of undernourishment currently affects about 842 million people, or about one in eight (12.5%) people in the world population.

The bloated stomach, as seen in the picture to the right, represents a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor which is caused by insufficient protein despite a sufficient caloric intake. Children are more vulnerable to kwashiorkor whose advanced symptoms include weight loss and muscle wasting.

Circumstantial causes

• Famine – for any reason, such as political strife and war.
• Fasting – done without proper medical supervision.
• Poverty

The main causes of starvation are as follows:

1. The most common cause of starvation is the economy; poor people sometimes cannot buy enough foodstuffs and thereby fail to fulfill the caloric demands of the body.
2. Starvation may be due to food scarcity in the society. This causes decreased supply of food to the whole of the population, and thus mass starvation may occur.
3. Starvation may be due to diseases that can cause rapid weight loss either due to the nature of the disease or the inability of the person to either eat or eat enough due to symptoms including, but not limited to: fatigue, nausea, or vomiting. The person may also be the host to a parasite such as an intestinal worm which may take a significant amount of the calories ingested by its host. This effect is exacerbated if the human host is already ingesting far less food than is required to meet their daily caloric intake needs.
4. There are some clinical conditions such as recovering from surgery or burns etc., in which the person may be too fatigued or incapacitated to eat enough during their period of convalescence.

Signs and symptoms

There is insufficient scientific data on exactly how long people can live without food. Although the length of time obviously varies with an individual's percentage of body fat and general health, one medical study estimates that in adults complete starvation leads to death within 8 to 12 weeks. There are isolated cases of individuals living up to 25 weeks without food. Starvation begins when an individual has lost about 30% of his normal body weight. Once the loss reaches 40% death is almost inevitable.

Individuals experiencing starvation lose substantial fat (adipose) and muscle mass as the body breaks down these tissues for energy. Catabolysis is the process of a body breaking down its own muscles and other tissues in order to keep vital systems such as the nervous system and heart muscle (myocardium) functioning. Vitamin deficiency is a common result of starvation, often leading to anemia, beriberi, pellagra, and scurvy. These diseases collectively can also cause diarrhea, skin rashes, edema, and heart failure. Individuals are often irritable and lethargic as a result.

Early symptoms include impulsivity, irritability, hyperactivity, and other symptoms. Atrophy (wasting away) of the stomach weakens the perception of hunger, since the perception is controlled by the percentage of the stomach that is empty. Victims of starvation are often too weak to sense thirst, and therefore become dehydrated.

Starving Russian girl during the Russian famine of 1921

All movements become painful due to muscle atrophy and dry, cracked skin that is caused by severe dehydration. With a weakened body, diseases are commonplace. Fungi, for example, often grow under the esophagus, making swallowing painful.

The energy deficiency inherent in starvation causes fatigue and renders the victim more apathetic over time. As the starving person becomes too weak to move or even eat, their interaction with the surrounding world diminishes. In females, menstruation ceases when the body fat percentage is too low to support a fetus.

Biochemistry

When food intake ceases, the body enters the starvation response^{[citation needed]}. Initially, the body's glycogen stores are used up in about 24 hours.^{[citation needed]} The level of insulin in circulation is low and the level of glucagon is very high. The main means of energy production islipolysis. Gluconeogenesis converts glycerol into glucose and the Cori cycle converts lactate into usable glucose. Two systems of energy enter the gluconeogenesis: proteolysis provides alanine and lactate produced from pyruvate, while acetyl CoA produces dissolved nutrients (Ketone bodies), which can be detected in urine and are used by the brain as a source of energy.

In terms of insulin resistance, starvation conditions make more glucose available to the brain.

Prevention

For the individual, prevention consists of ensuring they eat plenty of food, varied enough to provide a nutritionally complete diet. Short of sitting in front of a potentially starving person and offering him or her food, addressing societal mechanisms by which people are denied access to food is a more complicated matter.

Supporting farmers in areas of food insecurity through such measures as free or subsidized fertilizers and seeds increases food harvest and reduces food prices.

Historically, starvation has been used as a death sentence. From the beginning of civilization to theMiddle Ages, people were immured, or walled in, and would die for want of food.

In ancient Greco-Roman societies, starvation was sometimes used to dispose of guilty upper class citizens, especially erring female members of patrician families. For instance, in the year 31, Livilla, the niece and daughter-in-law of Tiberius, was discreetly starved to death by her mother for her adulterous relationship with Sejanus and for her complicity in the murder of her own husband, Drusus the Younger.

Another daughter-in-law of Tiberius, named Agrippina the Elder (a granddaughter of Augustus and the mother of Caligula), also died of starvation, in 33 AD. (However, it is not clear whether or not her starvation was self-inflicted.)

A son and daughter of Agrippina were also executed by starvation for political reasons; Drusus Caesar, her second son, was put in prison in 33 AD, and starved to death by orders of Tiberius (he managed to stay alive for nine days by chewing the stuffing of his bed); Agrippina's youngest daughter, Julia Livilla, was exiled on an island in 41 by her uncle, Emperor Claudius, and not much later, her death by starvation was arranged by the empress Messalina.

It is also possible that Vestal Virgins were starved when found guilty of breaking their vows of celibacy.

A Mongolian woman condemned to die of starvation c. 1913

Ugolino della Gherardesca, his sons and other members of his family were immured in the Muda, a tower of Pisa, and starved to death in the thirteenth century. Dante, his contemporary, wrote about Gherardesca in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.

In Sweden in 1317, King Birger of Sweden imprisoned his two brothers for a coup they had staged several years earlier (Nyköping Banquet). According to legend they died of starvation a few weeks later, since their brother had thrown the prison key in the castle moat.

In the English county of Cornwall in 1671, John Trehenban from St Columb Major was condemned to be starved to death in a cage atCastle An Dinas for the murder of two girls.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a martyred Polish friar, underwent a sentence of starvation in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941. Ten prisoners had been condemned to death by starvation in the wake of a successful escape from the camp. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a man with a wife and children. After two weeks of starvation, Kolbe and three other inmates remained alive; these were then executed with injections of phenol.

The Makah, a Native American tribe inhabiting the Pacific Northwest near the modern border of Canada and the United States, practiced death by starvation as a punishment for slaves.

Starving patients can be treated, but this must be done cautiously to avoid refeeding syndrome. Rest and warmth must be provided and maintained. Small sips of water mixed with glucose should be given in regular intervals. Fruit juices can also be given. Later, food can be given gradually in small quantities. The quantity of food can be increased over time. Proteins may be administered intravenously to raise the level of serum proteins.

Organizations

Many organizations have been highly effective at reducing starvation in different regions. Aid agencies give direct assistance to individuals, while political organizations pressure political leaders to enact more macro-scale policies that will reduce famine and provide aid.

Starvation statistics

According to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization there were 925 million under- or malnourished people in the world in 2010. This was a decrease from an estimate of 1023 million malnourished people in 2009. In 2007, 923 million people were reported as being undernourished, an increase of 80 million since 1990-92.^[16] It has also been recorded that the world already produces enough food to support the world's population.

As the definitions of starving and malnourished people are different, the number of starving people is different from that of malnourished. Generally, far fewer people are starving, than are malnourished. The numbers here may provide some indication, but should not be quoted as a number of starving people.

The proportion of malnourished and of starving people in the world has been more or less continually decreasing for at least several centuries. This is due to an increasing supply of food and to overall gains in economic efficiency. In 40 years, the proportion of malnourished people in the developing world has been more than halved. The proportion of starving people has decreased even faster.

Famine and Death Are Coming to America

Famine and death are not the will of God for America. He has a much better plan. However, His will is not always done on earth. If it was, Jesus would not have taught us to pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

God’s voice has been almost totally silenced in our schools, our government, our news media, our public lands, our shopping malls, and even in our churches. He has not rejected us, but we have rejected Him. So we should not be surprised when His hand of protection and provision is removed from our land.

Jesus warned us the end times would be marked by specific events that would be signs letting us know the great day of the Lord is drawing near. He said these events would come upon the earth like birth pangs, meaning they would come with great intensity for a season then they would go away only to return again with greater intensity. One of those events is famine (Matthew 24:7).

Severe famines have already come in many parts of the earth, but not in America. For that reason, many Americans don’t believe it could ever happen here. However, many of God’s people are now seeing and hearing warnings from the Lord regarding a great famine coming to America, followed by death for many people. As bad as that sounds, it is better to hear it now than to get blind-sided by it later. At least we have time now to repent and get right with God. That is our best hope for this life and the next.

The following are several warnings about famine and death coming to America. The first one is a vision I received about two months ago.

During my prayer time, I saw a vision of a man standing in front of me. I saw his bare back. He was so thin I could see all of his ribs. As I watched he turned into a skeleton. I believe the interpretation is a warning of famine coming, which will be followed by death for many people.

In April 2011, prophetic minister Terry Bennett had the following vision encounter.

I was also warned, by the appearing of the black horse and its rider, about famine. The angel said, “There will be a famine of food in your nation!” Not only this, but also the prices of food, particularly grains, will dramatically rise. We will see not only shortages and high prices, but I was shown significant starvation occurring during this time. Death followed this black horse!

Linda Newkirk, author of the Mountain Prophecies, received the following word from the Lord.

Through the lack of rain to much of this nation, which would have come to you through the Gulf Stream, I will take away your independence, oh America; and soon you will grunt and struggle to find, even the grains, which were once plentiful in your nation!

For, my eyes are set upon you, oh America; and My heart is set upon you, oh America, to take away your liberties. And, yes! The lady of liberty has fallen in the Gulf of Mexico. For, not only have you derived much of your food from the Gulf of Mexico, you have derived much of your rain and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico!

Now you see droughts and soon you will see the results of the droughts! For, famine shall surely come upon you like a thief in the night!

Prophetic minister John Paul Jackson was shown many different news headlines from the future. Among them he saw the following headlines:

Drought Continues to Cause Prayer to Rise

Record High Temps Accompany Record Drought-Swept South

Demand for Classic Seeds Skyrockets

Food Prices Lead Nation’s Escalating Inflation Woes

Sysco and Kraft Consider Guards on Delivery Trucks as Food Nears 40% of the Family Budget

Although the situation sounds bleak, it is not hopeless because we have a solution available. We can turn to the Lord concerning the problems facing our country. That is the only solution that will work. We must return to the Lord by repenting of everything that has come between Him and us. I believe our problems will continue to get worse until we repent. However, those who repent will receive His loving presence and His promises of protection and provision. Believers do not have to be victims of the failed systems of this world. God’s plan is for His people to be over-comers in this life.

In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

Author: James Bailey

James Bailey is an author, business owner, husband and father of two children. His vision is to broadcast the good news of Jesus Christ through blog sites and other media outlets.

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