Terror Suspect .com

Dear Terror Suspect,

Did you like the Olympic opening ceremonies? What about the Olympics? Do you have a favorite sport in the games?

~Tracy ….Cary, NC

I can’t remember if I wrote about this or not, but I am convinced that the opening games of the Olympics were more than they seemed. Personally, I am fairly certain they were the mark of the center of power in the world being transferred from the United States to China.

Here’s the thing. The moneyed power that sits behind all the thones and has for a long time now, moved capital and power to the United States from the Old World in Europe. Europe had been exploited and divided too many times and it was no longer a safe place to consolidate the wealth of millennia. That is what the world wars were about. They were about making the United States the center of the world where in the past it had been England, Spain, France, or Egypt.

The consolidation worked. Now after a century of using the natural wealth of the U.S. and now leveraging it to the highest degree possible, Capital is moving to a safer place where there is less chance of losing power. China is it.

It is my opinion that the opening ceremonies marked the completion of that transfer. China is now the dominant power in the world. Russia invading Georgia and the future conflict that seems to be coming between the U.S. and Russia will complete the process of turning the U.S. into a second class or perhaps even third world power. This rivalry between the United States and Russia is not to see who is the world power, it is to see who gets to be the second place power. In Olympics terms, we are seeing who gets the silver and who gets the bronze.

For a long while I thought that the E.U. was the future of capital and power, but it was a diversion that fooled many of us.They had no intention of going back to Europe.

Now is the time when the United States of America starts to come apart at the seams. Look for more war, less money, more working hours, less benefits, and an overall not as good life in the future.

Don’t be surprised if this image leaves U.S. currency sometime in the near future. In other words, it might be time for the U.S. to become the center of exploited labor it has turned so many other nations into.

I’m not a huge fan of the Olympics, but I love badminton. It’s the best spectator sport on the planet….next to curling.

Yesterday, the King of Hawaii and his followers seized Iolani palace and occupied it in Honolulu. I’m not joking. First though, you need some background in Hawaiian History.

Alright, for those of you who don’t know about Hawaiian History, here it is in a nutshell. I’ve developed this shortcut method of telling people the entire history of Hawaii on my tours, then I focus on what interests them.

70 million years ago a thin spot on the earths crust forms and begins melting the basalt of the pacific plate, since hot rock rises just like hot air does it radiates upward and forms piles on the surface (ocean floor) that get big enough to actually rise quite high above sea level.

3.5-1 million years ago. That’s when this island I live on, Oahu formed from two giant shield volcanoes. With erosion over time and a further volcanic series about 100k-300k years ago, this island moves off the hot spot and after some massive erosion is more or less geologically

About 400 AD the first humans arrive in Hawaii from the Marquessas. They find the most diverse examples of speciation and evolution on the planet. They eat the three foot turtle billed ducks into extinction.

About 700 AD the next wave of humans arrive. They eat more birds into extinction and the Marqeussans (called Menehune) also disappear.

From 700-1778, Hawaiian culture blossoms and becomes a complex, advanced social structure. Various strongmen on the different islands are vying for control. A nation-state is imminent.

1778- Captain Cook comes and throws the future of Hawaii a big left turn. Shortly after contact, one man, Kamehameha, manages to get western weapons, learn western tactics, and unite the entire chain under himself as King. He kidnaps a couple of smart Englishmen, marries them to his daughters and turns Hawaii into a very modern Kingdom.

1893- The monarchy is overthrown by mostly United States business interests. A cabal of military desiring a U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, pro-American businessmen wanting to stop paying tariffs, and greedy children of missionaries overthrow Queen Liliuokalani. Without asking the Hawaiian people, the Hawaiian Republic is born after the illegal overthrow of the Queen. Not long after this, without asking the Hawaiians, the republic decides to be annexed by the United States.

1941 - Pearl Harbor gets bombed. Hawaii starts to feel very American to those not here.

August 15, 1959- Again, without asking the Hawaiians, Hawaii is made a state. Hawaiians are so outnumbered by this point that their votes count for only a small percentage.

Now:
August 15, 2008 - A group of pro sovereignty Hawaiians under His Majesty Akahi Nui, the King of Hawaii, occupy the palace and are arrested.

The pro-sovereignty group identified its leader as King Akahi Nui, who was among those arrested. An “occupation public information bulletin” distributed by a member of the group began: “Majesty Akahi Nui, the King of Hawaii, has now reoccupied the throne of Hawaii. The Kingdom of Hawaii is now re-enacted.”

Akahi Nui claims to have been coronated in 1998.

The takeover of the palace — built in 1882 when the islands were ruled by a monarchy — came on Admission Day, a state holiday marking Hawaii’s admission to the United States on Aug. 21, 1959.

Several Native Hawaiian organizations have rival claims to sovereignty over the islands. Another group calling itself the Hawaiian Kingdom Government occupied the palace grounds April 30 and has been getting permits to set up on the grounds each week since then. That group claims to be operating a functioning government from the palace grounds.

The ornate palace is operated as a museum of Hawaiian royalty. King Kalakaua built it, and it also served as the residence for his sister and successor, Queen Liliuokalani, the islands’ last ruling monarch. Liliuokalani was imprisoned in the palace after the 1893 U.S.-supported overthrow of the monarchy.

After falling into disrepair, the palace was restored in the 1970s as a National Historic Landmark. It now includes a gift shop and is open for school groups and offers tours.

Hawaiian activists have long used the site for protests against the U.S. occupation of the islands.

Letter from the acting government of the Hawaiian Kingdom here.

Okay, i admit it. I was one of the many thousands that waited in line at an open casting call for hours today hoping that I can be the next cast member on the show. There were probably a thousand people there…maybe more. Anyway, my morning tour actually went out and then my afternoon tour was cancelled. While I was riding towards Manoa to go Banyan climbing I remembered that Ryan Ozawa had sent out a notice that they were having an open casting call at Ala Wai elementary for Lost. So I went. It was fun, I stood in line next to a bunch of fun moms, kids, and fans of the show. We were in line about three hours…below is a little film I made with my phone. Who knows, she could be the next child star? Or I could be the next Spielberg…either way…I present…”Dinosaurs attack” (you may want to turn off the sound, it’s better that way)

16-08-08_1305.mpeg

Originally uploaded by chrisdamitio

Waiting in line to try out for lost and dinosaurs attack.

The implications of this story are staggering…consider these factors:
1) Northwest Passage is no longer mythical
2) National Defense especially with things heating up with Russia
3) Global Warming
4) Economic development, transportation, and new centers of importance

Okay, now read the story:

BARROW — It’s not that easy for hundreds of outsiders to suddenly sneak up on Barrow, considering how the northernmost town in the United States has neither a port nor a road to help them get here. Newcomers pretty much have to arrive on a big noisy plane.

Which is why nearly everyone in this historic Inupiat community was surprised last fall when they woke up to find about 400 German tourists walking around town. How the heck did they get here?

The answer?

They sailed from Europe to Barrow the short way — via the suddenly ice-free Canadian Arctic — after the fabled Northwest Passage opened completely last summer for the first time in recorded history.

“Yes, that was a surprise,” North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said Thursday, standing on the Barrow airport tarmac.

But not just for the townspeople. Commanders with the U.S. Coast Guard stationed far to the south in Juneau and Kodiak were surprised as well.

“They said, ‘What Germans? What cruise ships?’ ” Itta recalled with a laugh. “And I said, ‘They’re here.’ ”

Nowadays, the Coast Guard is here too — responding to mounting evidence that the Arctic is becoming more navigable each summer by extending regular patrols into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas for the first time ever.

For now, it’s still an experimental effort, Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, the commander of Coast Guard operations in Alaska, the North Pacific and the Arctic, said to members of the media — who’d just stepped off a Coast Guard C-130 cargo transport plane in Barrow to observe the new effort firsthand.

The mission right now is to secure the coast, assist in rescue operations, inspect evidence of coastal erosion due to climate change — like the devastation at Kivalina — and track the ice pack, Brooks said.

Assisting in that effort are occasional trips by the C-130 crew, based in Kodiak, and the USCG Cutter Healy, a relatively small ice-breaker, which can interrupt its Arctic research for the National Science Foundation to respond to emergencies.

Two smaller boats are also patrolling the Arctic coast, Brooks said. And about 36 Coast Guard personnel are temporarily stationed in Barrow, including two helicopter crews.

Will a base there become permanent? It could if the Arctic ice pack continues to retreat and more foreign vessels pay surprise visits on Barrow, Brooks said — recalling the words of his boss, Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

“He said, ‘You know, I’m agnostic on the science, and I’m agnostic on the politics. All I know is there is more water up here than ever. And I have to provide marine safety and marine security to that water.’ ”

“Welcome to the top of the world,” Itta said, beaming.

APPRECIATION IN THE NORTH

Later, the mayor noted that Coast Guard assistance in search and rescue operations in the Arctic will be thoroughly appreciated. Until now, the North Slope Borough could only count on itself when someone went missing north of the Brooks Range.

“We’re it,” Itta said, “and we only have one helicopter crew.”

That’s begun to change.

In just the last week, Coast Guard crews were called in to assist in two emergencies — first when a 13-year-old boy dove into stormy waters in the Beaufort Sea near Kaktovik in an effort to save his dad, who’d fallen overboard. Both father and son disappeared. The Coast Guard searched for the pair for three days, until their bodies were eventually recovered.

The Coast Guard received a second call mid-week when three seismic vessels under contract to an oil company got stuck in the shifting ice pack about 50 miles northwest of Barrow. The Healy was on its way, but the wind shifted again and the vessels were able to free themselves.

More incidents like those are probably inevitable, Itta said. And more visits by foreign eco-tourist groups from Europe and Canada are expected too, considering the Northwest Passage is due to open again this month.

“We need traffic cops here for our oceans,” Itta said. “And we’re looking at them now — the Coast Guard. We welcome their presence.”

Dear Terror Suspect,

I know your name is Chris Damitio, but what is your middle name?

signed,

just curious

I’ve never liked the middle name my mom tacked on me. It’s never really felt like mine. I’ve never used it. It doesn’t fit my religion or my family background. It isn’t a name anyone in my family ever had. I renounce it. I don’t really believe in the validity of the government to tell me it’s okay to have a different name so I won’t pay them to change it. They can keep the one they have for me. But for everyone else, my middle name is ‘The’. Yes, my name is Chris The Damitio. It’s a nice middle name. I may start going by it. Go ahead, yell it. It wreaks havoc on search engines. Thanks for asking.

~C. The Damitio

Now…on to other things…from small skirmishes great wars grow…look how a minor scuffle in Georgia has grown to conflict in the Ukraine and Poland. This won’t get any bigger…really…and the economy is just fine…watch this like right now! (Thanks Releveler!)

Thursday’s report on consumer inflation confirms that rising prices are forcing consumers to lower their standard of living to make ends meet. U.S. consumer prices have taken the biggest year-over-year jump in more than 17 years, according to the latest government data. Prices were 5.6 percent higher in July than they were a year earlier. Energy prices were up 29.3 percent and food costs 6 percent higher.

by the way…the above numbers are far too soft. It is definitely worse…don’t you think?

Dear terror suspect,

What do you think the future of America looks like?

love,
The Hillster

White Americans will no longer be the majority by 2042 and by 2040 if trends continue all Americans will be obese.

The funny part about this is that it presupposses that there will be such a thing as an American at that time.

Not very likely.

Thanks for sending this yummy story my way Denise. I would definitely eat there. Even if they served penis shaped shrimp.

cd

Modern Toilet is a Taipei restaurant. It accommodates 100 seats with each made from toilet bowls. The specialties at the restaurant accompany sink faucets and gender-coded “WC” signs that appear on the three-story structure. The food is served in mini plastic toilet bowls. The toilet rolls that serve for wiping hand and mouth are hung above the tables, which may resemble glass-topped jumbo bathtubs.

Another day, another tour cancelled….

While I haven’t been selling very much of my stuff, because let’s face it, the economy is crap and no one really wants to shell out their depreciating dough for my possessions, I have been getting rid of a lot of it.

I’ve been bringing bags full of wine glasses, dvds, books, knives, pens, magazines, empty yogurt containers, cell phone chargers, etc etc etc to the free store on the UH campus. Thrown in with this stuff has been some of my own art, strange things I can’t really identify, and other things I’ve accumulated through the years.

It’s all getting picked up by various people. I’ve also taken to leaving interesting books on the bus, putting cds and dvds at bus stops where the homeless can find them (and either push them around in their carts or sell them for a $1 or $2).

Anyway, the end result is that I have less and less stuff every day…the amazing thing is that I still have plenty. Mostly now though it is the stuff I use at least once a week. My closets are pretty much empty.

Now, I just need an invisible cloak and a faster than light spaceship.

Dear Terror Suspect,

What is your life like? Is it good?

Regards- JJ

I live in a nice little place in Hawaii that has most of what I wanted when I found it. It has a skylight, I don’t have roommates, it has a nice little garden space and a spot to hang my hammock, and it is close to school. In living there a year though, a few things have become issues to me. There is no parking nearby and the road I live on is very busy. This has made it virtually impossible to invite people over. It is connected though separate from my landlord’s house and only a very thin wall separates my living room and kitchen from the landlord’s grandson, an engineer who goes to bed early and wakes up early. This also makes having people over a problem. While it is close to school, it is far enough from the beach that without a car, I rarely go because the bike ride back is almost all uphill…even when I had a car, I had to park several blocks away and as a result wouldn’t use the car very much. Since my neighbors are so close, I hear them fairly often, brushing their teeth, cooking, etc. So I am pretty sure that they hear me too….this is an issue too… I don’t like it very much.

So while I got most of what I wanted in the place, I found that there were new things that I didn’t want. At this point, I’m not sure if it is good or not. Lately I’ve been looking at rental ads and what I see in Hawaii is that rental rates have actually gone up while the real estate market has gone down…so for the $725 a month that I pay, I definitely couldn’t find a place of my own again, or a place with a garden, but for $500 I could share a room with a gay freshman undergrad…lol. I guess my place is good enough for now. The benefits of my place outweigh the downside. So I have a nice place, but I can’t really entertain or share it with other people and I live in a valley that rains a lot instead of going to the beach…either way I get wet.

As to simplifying my life…at this point, not using the phone very much (I have a prepaid cell that I use basically just for work and rarely carry around with me), I don’t have the internet at home, I don’t have a TV, and I don’t have a car (though I do have a bike and a pretty slow and beat up scooter). I end up watching a couple of movies a week on my laptop (free from the library) and usually on Sunday’s I go watch a movie and smuggle in some taco bell, an iced tea, and some sweets (so usually about $14 for dinner, new movie, and snacks). I’ll invite people sometimes, but most of the time when I invite people it is last minute and most people can’t make it, so I’ve resolved to going by myself, about 80% of the time if I wait for people they flake out, so it’s just better to go by myself. Less stress and less angst and anger when they flake out. Besides, I actually enjoy going to the movies by myself. I watch what I want, immerse myself in the films, and leave according to how urgent my bladder feels…or sometimes…leave and go to five or six movies in the cineplex until I find one I like.

At home, I paint, read, garden, cook, eat, write a little bit and basically get what I need to get done done. I’ve read a dozen pretty thick books in the past month. Increasingly though, I find myself just sitting on the couch or lying in my hammock and doing nothing…I’m bored of it. I’ve been thinking about getting another TV or the internet.

Used to be that when I was feeling bored like that I would go to a bar or pick up a six pack but since I haven’t been drinking that’s not really an option any longer. I don’t miss it, I just miss having something to fill in the void. The modern coffee shops just aren’t that good of third places today…I admit to spending a fair amount of time at the coffee bean, but it’s not too different from sitting alone at home…it’s just sitting alone in public. Which I don’t have a problem with by the way, it’s more interesting to watch people than not.

I was smoking more but I’ve knocked that off and I was doing a lot of yoga and pushups but I knocked that off too. I should probably start doing the yoga and pushups again…

I actually played a five player game of Risk all by myself the other night…lol. I won once and lost four times. Believe it or not though…it was fun and interesting. At least as good as playing a video game by one’s self. Slightly more pathetic though.

Of course I do get out to work. I thought this would be my dream job. It sounded so good. Pick your own schedule based on the tours you are qualified on and then take people hiking and show them the beauty of natural Hawaii. The problem is that the schedule we pick is subject to cancellation based on the tours not getting filled and we don’t know that until two hours before the tour or the night before for morning tours. Since we have had about 1/3 of tours cancelled, that means that this is a no income producing, life sucker of a job that doesn’t allow one to make plans. I was scheduled for two tours yesterday and two today. One of them went out. Maybe I need to increase that 1/3 number. The tour that did go out was a divorced husband and wife and their three kids. He and one son live here and the wife and two other sons are in Texas still. They were on a redneck dysfunctional family vacation and didn’t care about anything they saw. In fact they complained volubly that they saw no waterfalls on a tour that does not include waterfalls. Also along were a fundamentalist christian missionary couple just returned from Rwanda who were not interested in hearing about evolution or geology since the “theories are not proven” and don’t mesh with their belief in a 58,000 year old earth. And then there was the nice Indian family of 6 from Boston who were interested in everything but got to come on tour with the other 7 party poopers. Full tour and did the best I could, but you might be willing to guess that the tips were less than stellar. lol. What a disaster!

So this is a long rather introspective post. I’m not unhappy. My life is pretty good. I’m satisfied with my choices, rather satisfied enough, but I can honestly say that my home, work, geography, and social life are not good enough for me to rest on my laurels. I’ll stick around here long enough to get my degree in December and then…well…then something else.

It’s funny to hear my classmates talk about what they will do with the graduation money they will get. At times I’ve forgotten that it isn’t something everyone gets. Just like not everyone gets their parents to pay for their education. Especially when one is in their mid-thirties. When I graduate I will have accumulated about $35,000 in debt to get the degree and honestly, I can’t expect to get any graduation money gifted to me. None the less, I will be leaving this land of $7 per gallon milk and $35 a gallon honey and heading to somewhere else…. I’ll get the money. Maybe I will go find Bernest Ernstein…..

First of all…I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night and I have to admit…they were amazing. Of course, great empires usually do things in amazing ways. And that is really what this post is about. Current empires, rising empires, and empires that are not as dead as some would have us believe.

First of all China…one thing that is necessary to maintain an empire is to suppress all dissent and destroy those elements of society that refuse to be assimilated. Protest is not allowed in empire. Protest was alive in 1999 in Seattle in the U.S, but it died shortly after that, it died with the idea of protest pens. This idea says that if you want to protest, you do it in a designated area. This is not protest. This is not civil disobedience. This is putting yourself in a headlock and then making demands.

Well, the Chinese have taken things to the next level. Not only do you protest in a certain area, but you must register to protest there, and when you register…you get arrested! So no one makes it to the official protests…pretty neat huh?

Now, what is there to protest about? Well, the right to self determination, freedom of religion, and small things like the right to eat, sleep, work…you know…same old shit.

Of course everyone thought the Soviet Empire was dead, but come on, did you really buy that shit? Gorby and Yeltsin were simply a phase of empire. They regrouped, they got more millionaires than anywhere else, they put the KGB man Putin in charge and they are back in business my friends. Will it be the Cold War again…probably not…

Tensions between the United States and Russia sharpened as the Bush administration suggested that Russia’s objective goes beyond securing South Ossetia to the ousting of President Mikhail Saakashvili, who has close ties to the United States and is seeking admission to NATO.The tiny former Soviet republic, nestled between Turkey and Russia, is considered strategically important because it is located on key energy and trade routes to central Asia. Russia, which ruled Georgia for nearly two centuries before the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, considers the region as its backyard and opposes Georgia’s admission to NATO.

We probably won’t get involved in this since our military is worn out and spread out…but it will still affect the U.S even as we let our ‘allies’ get their asses handed to them.

Oil traders on Monday shrugged off Russia’s widening invasion of neighboring Georgia, but if the conflict spreads further it could threaten nearly 1 million barrels per day of needed global crude supplies from the Caspian Sea, most of it bound for Europe. Like many global hotspots, the conflict in the Caucasus region is in large measure about oil, specifically who controls its flow and who derives its benefits.

The BTC pipeline was built at a cost of $4 billion with support from the Bush administration. It is one of the important sources of new oil to offset falling production in Mexico and elsewhere.

But Russia, the world’s second largest oil producer, was upset about competition from Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, and its hostile, U.S.-backed neighbor, Georgia.

Now on to the U.S empire and the fact that many of us don’t think that those in power are going to give it up willingly…did you know that there are emergency powers that can be taken by the President (and Vice President) that would keep the country from having a presidential transition during a time of crisis? What do you think it will be…terrorist attack? War with Russia? Problems in Iraq? Or something else?

Hard to know, isn’t it?