Joel Skousen: News Headlines and This Week in the World Affairs Brief

The World Affairs Brief is a weekly news analysis service dedicated to providing an understanding of the hidden agendas behind the actions of world leaders and other powerful individuals who influence government from behind the scenes. Although the World Affairs Brief is provided to subscribers only, you can read samples of Mr. Skousen’s unique analysis in the archives section. The following daily news items are provided as a sampling of the crucial issues that Mr. Skousen may analyze in this week’s briefing.

The “control group” of adults consisted of 13,095 non-vaccinated adults who were monitored to see if they caught influenza. Over 97% of them did not. Only 357 of them caught influenza, which means only 2.7% of these adults caught the flu in the first place. The “treatment group” consisted of adults who were vaccinated with a trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine. Out of this group, according to the study, only 1.2% [caught] the flu. The difference between these two groups is 1.5 people out of 100. …More

The constitution documents the “God given” rights we as citizens of the United States already have. It also clarifies the limited rights of the government in relation to its citizens’ rights. Dr. Coldwell reminds us that President Obama’s TSAs’ actions reverse the roll of government and the people in a way that betrays the constitution. The U.S. Government does not have tyrannical freedom to do what it pleases. Freedom from indecent touching and photography are ours already, we just need to remind the government who governs them. Therefore, “I do not consent to being illegally searched and touched.” …More

U.S. stocks rose this week, driving the Standard …More

The White House directed a well-known businessman on Friday to conduct an independent review of government loans to energy companies… In enlisting Herbert M. Allison Jr., a former executive who helped the Bush and Obama administrations rescue the financial system… Mr. Allison, a former president of Merrill Lynch and former chief executive of the insurance company TIAA-CREF, was tapped by the Bush administration in September 2008, with the financial sector near collapse, to lead the mortgage-finance giant Fannie Mae when it was forced into a government conservatorship. …More

As we have tirelessly reported, the machines continue to emit radiation that respected health authorities have warned will cause cancer. Despite agency claims to the contrary, the millimeter wave machines “tear apart DNA” to produce their image, while the backscatter devices fire ionizing radiation into the body. Numerous highly respected universities and health bodies, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, the University of California, and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, have all warned that the health threat posed by the scanners has not been properly studied and could lead to increased cancer rates. …More

More than 550 days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP is back in action in the Gulf of Mexico. The company announced Wednesday that it had earned its first permit to drill for oil in the Gulf since last year’s oil spill disaster, and says that a resumption of drilling is imminent. “The current situation there is we have a drilling rig on-site, and we intend to begin drilling the well as soon as operationally possible,” said Tom Mueller, a spokesman for BP. The drill site is located about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans, in the “Kaskida Field”, and plans call for a total of five wells. BP had already drilled one exploration well and one appraisal well at the site before the Deepwater Horizon spill and the subsequent moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. …More

Quick! What’s your income-tax liability under Mr Perry’s new flat tax? Is that more or less than your liability under the status-quo tax code? Mr Perry says “This simple 20% flat tax will allow Americans to file their taxes on a postcard”, saving loads of money in compliance cost. But it looks to me that Mr Perry has come up with an ingenious scheme to force millions of prudent Americans to do their taxes twice in order to determine which of the two tax codes is the lesser evil. That is not simplification. Anyway, given all the deductions the “flat” option retains, the part you can do on a postcard is going to require a postcard the size of one of those Publisher’s Clearing House checks Ed McMahon used to disburse to fainting widows. …More

Diaz’ story, on the other hand, was consistent from the beginning, LEOAC said. Plus, he had already been cleared of wrongdoing by the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Inspector General. The court and the prosecutor went ahead with the case anyway. And pictures proving that the drug smuggler did not suffer any arrest-related injuries were sealed during the trial. After being granted immunity by the federal government, the illegal immigrant even admitted during the first trial that he had lied to the grand jury. Despite all of that, following a mistrial, Diaz was convicted. And on October 20, he was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Incredibly, the judge even asked Diaz to apologize to the drug smuggler and his fellow officers. …More

Hoping to breathe new life into his flagging presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry rolled out a sweeping economic plan Tuesday that would give taxpayers the option of paying a 20 percent flat income tax, balance the budget by 2020 and cap federal spending at levels not seen since Lyndon B. Johnson was president. …More

But in the long run, spanning decades, it is evident from the data that healthy growth in real GDP and U.S. equities go hand in hand, as logic impels. And further, that when the dollar’s value is dependably-valued and not subject to political manipulation, stronger real growth in GDP is matched by the same in equities. …More

“Economic growth – meaning a rising standard of living for a clear majority of citizens – more often than not fosters greater opportunity, tolerance of diversity, social mobility, commitment to fairness and dedication to democracy.” In contrast, when there is economic decline, the “moral character” of citizens takes a hit. …More

The ongoing crisis appears to be a failure for the fathers of the Maastricht treaty, the one that paved the road for the monetary union. Those politicians – Germany’s Helmut Kohl, France’s Francois Mitterand and Giulio Andreotti of Italy – explicitly refused to conceive a way out of the euro for individual members, and in so doing, they believed that in any crisis there could be only one solution: moving forward with more political unity. …More

Yesterday I also received an email from a newsletter subscriber that had written the CDC with my warnings about the flu vaccine and they were given the following information: “Phenol and Thimerosal (mercury) are preservatives that kill off contaminants in the vaccine, and aluminum is added to some vaccines to improve the immune system’s response to the antigen, which can be so small that our immune system would not even identify the foreign substance on its own. Aluminum is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust and is present in air, food, and water. Quantity in vaccines is roughly equal to infant formula.” It is almost laughable, if it weren’t seriously harming people, that the CDC could continue to state that thimerosal is not harmful when they issued a warning to remove it from vaccines over four years ago. And to describe aluminum as not harmful because it is abundant in the earth and present in infant formula is malicious nonsense. The CDC implies that we should consider aluminum in our trace mineral supplements. But don’t you find it curious that aluminum is so abundant in the earth but it has not yet been found to be useful for any biological systems? …More

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is looking at whether or not the flu vaccine is effective. Preliminary results indicate you’ll get just as sick (with colds, flu, flu-like illnesses) if you got the vaccine than if you didn’t. Why doesn’t the vaccine work? In order to understand the answer, you’ll need to understand some specifics about the flu vaccine and a bit about how immunity works. …More

Canada’s Conservative government has introduced legislation to abolish the long-gun registry. The registry requires owners of shotguns and rifles to register the weapons, but when Stephen Harper’s Conservative government took power in 2006, they vowed to abolish the law. Opponents of the registry say most violent crime involves handguns. While a repeal failed last year, the Conservative’s new majority has a much greater chance of success. …More

NATO originally said they would disengage their forces as soon as the regime fell. However, new missions are now being defined for foreign forces in the new system. This will have serious repercussions for the young revolution since the foreign powers will seek to establish new military bases in North Africa, with the goal of gaining more control over developments in the Middle East and North Africa. And the presence of foreign troops in Libya would deal a huge blow to the independence and sovereignty of the country. Western corporations are also looking to get a piece of the pie in the new system. The Libyan National Transitional Council has announced that that they are still not in a position to sign international economic agreements in the name of the Libyan nation as their legitimate representatives, but Western corporations seeking to secure huge oil contracts will continue applying pressure on the NTC to compel them to do so. …More

CAPTURED ALIVE, DEAD SHORTLY LATER The dramatic minutes leading up to Gaddafi’s death were chaotic, violent and gruesome — as testified by the grainy mobile phone footage seen by the world of the former leader, bloodied and dazed, being dragged along by NTC fighters. Gaddafi was still alive when he was captured hiding in a storm drain outside his hometown of Sirte, but he already had blood streaming down the side of his face and a wound close to his left ear very shortly after he had been seized. …More

The Peoria, Illinois, company said it expects full-year 2011 profit and revenue to be at the top end of its previous outlook range due to strong demand. In 2012, the company expects revenue to increase 10 percent to 20 percent above the $58 billion in sales it expects this year. Caterpillar is one of a slate of industrial companies outpacing analyst expectations during the current earnings reporting season. Like some of its peers, the company is encouraged by the strong results but remaining cautious about the wider economy. …More

Imagine if there was another 9/11-type event. What would happen if some form of Zimbabwe-style inflation hit the US? What would happen if anything disrupted the distribution of Welfare checks, or food to local grocers? Imagine a Hurricane Katrina-style natural disaster in your town. I think people everywhere are beginning to awaken to just how vulnerable we all really are. As a result, people from virtually every walk of life have asked my thoughts on how they should prepare. Therefore, I will, again, attempt to share with my readers some of the counsel I have given these folks. …More

The phrase “Wall Street” is a representative of the financial community. The only sensible reason for occupying Wall Street is for symbolic purposes. You want to call the public’s attention to the problem. What is the problem? I contend that the people occupying Wall Street do not understand the problem. If they did, they would be forming picket lines in front of the New York Federal Reserve bank at 33 Liberty Street. That is where the problem began in 1914. That is where the problem will be solved. …More

Possible Scenarios The US is at least peddling the illusion it is clearing out its holdings in Iraq, leaving a symbolic force for a reason – a reason that has to do with a final gambit to be played against Iran, the last domino to fall in the US-contrived “Arab Spring.” These are two possible scenarios: 1. Leave a small symbolic force for the Iranians to attack in Iraq after a “unilateral” Israeli airstrike. Whatever Iran decides to do, it may not be able to do sustainably, but will do viciously in the opening phases. By leaving a symbolic force in Iraq, the US can garner the necessary sympathy and anger politically at home to launch a wider operation against Iran in “retaliation.” 2. Feign as if the US is disengaging from the Middle East so when a false flag terror attack or other provocation is perpetrated against the US, it will look like an egregious act of war by Iran. While a shrinking US presence in the Middle East would logically engender even more patience in Tehran, the script writers of the latest DEA-Saudi bomb plot took special care to ensure the “Iran has become bolder” talking-point made it repetitively on air and into the minds of unsuspecting Americans. …More

Given the ruling, eyes are now likely to turn to a Republican-sponsored bill in the House that aims to gut the “roadless rule.” Even if unsuccessful, such a bill could force Democrats to defend a rule that conservatives argue is antithetical to a strong economy. The stakes have been most evident in Colorado, where critics of a federal forest road ban say it fails to take into account local environmental and business dynamics. Since former president Bill Clinton signed the rule shortly before leaving office, Colorado has lost nearly 2 million acres of trees to a bark-beetle infestation, leaving nearby areas vulnerable to wildfires if new roads can’t be cut. Federal enforcement of the rule means “management agencies will be hamstrung from providing much needed access to manage these lands in a safe and responsible manner,” US Rep. Scott Tipton (R) of Colorado told the Colorado Independent in August. …More

Given the ruling, eyes are now likely to turn to a Republican-sponsored bill in the House that aims to gut the “roadless rule.” Even if unsuccessful, such a bill could force Democrats to defend a rule that conservatives argue is antithetical to a strong economy. The stakes have been most evident in Colorado, where critics of a federal forest road ban say it fails to take into account local environmental and business dynamics. Since former president Bill Clinton signed the rule shortly before leaving office, Colorado has lost nearly 2 million acres of trees to a bark-beetle infestation, leaving nearby areas vulnerable to wildfires if new roads can’t be cut. Federal enforcement of the rule means “management agencies will be hamstrung from providing much needed access to manage these lands in a safe and responsible manner,” US Rep. Scott Tipton (R) of Colorado told the Colorado Independent in August. …More

Patrick Fiedler, the now notorious judge who ruled on September 9, 2011 that Wisconsin dairy owners have no fundamental right to drink milk from their own cows and that people do not have a fundamental right to consume the food of their choice has suddenly resigned from the bench. Instead of slithering away in shame never to be seen in public again, however, he has not so shockingly reemerged as the recently hired attorney of the Axley Brynelson law firm which defends Monsanto against numerous criminal complaints from across the globe including patent infringement. …More