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  This is the main navigation page.  The top section with 'recent headlines' are links to recent current events that are important to the national political and economic scene. They change occasionally, but not as the daily changes in the 'archived headlines'.  The    is used to sinify navigation to other related topic pages on this site.  This is basically a link site, making access to many different news sources more convenient.   The bottom section is for navigating to segments of the society to organize different topical areas.  

Franklingate, now is an important focus of NewsFollowUp.com.  It's the convergence of all the pedophile, sex, greed and other disgusting scandals by the predatory fifth in Washington D. C.  who 'lead' this country.  Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are not included in that bunch.

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About the author: Steve Francis, Graduate of University of Illinois, Sociology, Vietnam era veteran, musician, peace activist, accounting software specialist, individual investor and musician (electric violin).  I'm proud of my Chapter 22 discharge from the Army in 1971.....mainly from facing court martial for disobeying the direct orders of four officers to get on a bus on Veteran's Day 1969.  The commander of Fort Ord wanted to get rid of some of the trouble-maker troops stationed there so they couldn't participate in the anti-Viet Nam war demonstrations being held at the main gate.  God Bless America.  It's our patriotic duty to protest against what we believe is injustice. 

Staff members: Susan ___ , a precious resource of professional knowledge in social science and ex-military personnel rehabilitation.  I think of her as the board of directors of NFU.  

And  ... some personal beliefs  that help guide the content of this site:  Humans are obviously the most sophisticated form of life on earth....but they are still performing the basic functions of all animals: survival.   Competition and the struggle to survive has led to natural layers of 'success'. But that 'success' appears to be connected to catastrophic degradation of the environment and the loss of lives of millions from starvation and disease.  A small minority, and the most 'powerful', have gained an oppressive advantage over the masses, and have great ingenuity in keeping their power and a skilled ability to keep their wealth from defenseless populations of poor people.  Bush's 'Freedom Agenda' is really just predatory capitalism.  

  I believe there are some fair political / economic systems based on a healthy mixture of  freedom and regulation and  would allow for the differences and abilities of individuals, but they are overwhelmed by globalization efforts of that small layer at the 'top'.  A small number of humans exhibit appalling 'legal' economic predation on the masses, and must be regulated, or we won't survive.  The gap between the rich and poor is growing and is harming the planet.  Even the Pope (who belonged to the Nazi Youth, supported South American right wing dictators and is the point man on covering up priest pedophilia) recently said "unbridled capitalism is widening the gap between the world's rich and poor and threatening the future..." This site examines this issue from many perspectives.  

Isn't it  reasonable to compare the average variation in the standard of living to the average variation of intelligence of human beings?  Given equal nutrition, education, nurturing. and an equal chance to compete, would there be less disparity in standard of living? Yes. Checks and balances would curb severe differences in income and standard of living.  So the differences you see in the standard of living of people is proof of unfair advantage and exploitation of one group over another.  Science has all but proven there is no genetic difference between races or classes in regards to intelligence and capabilities. Recent articles decoupling intelligence and financial success were more headlines than substance. Again this site focuses on this subject.

All wars are fought over resources, territory and/or defense of greedy imperialists.  The richest countries have the most guns to protect their riches and are the most violent.  There is overwhelming evidence of media manipulation of public opinion to support wars throughout history.  George Bush's lies during his State of the Union Address in January of 2003 was just the tip of the iceberg.  The mainstream media was effectively used to launch the imperialistic (Greenspan said Iraq War about oil) invasion of Iraq, but the internet must be eroding the power of this force.  Cheney and his neo-con henchman would have bombed Iran by now, something stopped them.  As yet this story has not been born out.

An emerging theme in NewsFollowUp is the Bush / Clinton crime family wars and their relationship to world affairs ... Iraq,  Iran, Balkans...etc: Go to Clinton / Bush /  crime families index  The March 2008 revelation that the passport files of Barack Obama were rifled brings back the issue of both Clinton and the conservative camps doing same in the late nineties...more

The influence on American government policy decisions of the 'Religious Right' is of paramount importance.  Most CEOs are conservative Republicans, and organizations such as the Institute on Religious Democracy and many others like it have an enormous 'behind the scenes' influence over those conservatives.  Issues such as the environment are considered 'lefty' issues and are a 'distraction' from the religious 'talking points' they want to maintain in the public conversation.  They have steered us into inefficient houses that are too big, cars that guzzle too much gas, cooked up wars to stoke an unnecessary defense industry, ignored pollution, ignored global warming, still treat women like they're just sex objects, spend money like it grows on trees to the tune of a $9 trillion debt load.  They have handed our kids a huge pile of dung.

How is it that a significant portion of rural poor folk include themselves in the Republican Party (red states, blue states issue) and that the more educated you are the more likely you are to live in urban centers and avoid the Republican Party?  Why do those rural folk seem to be more politically interested in abortion, gay marriage, flag burning, Christianity...etc than their own economic well-being?  The corporate owned mass media has been very successful in molding this agenda. Mass media is no longer a check on corporate power, it is now a tool to shape public opinion.  

There are many more distractions now than even a decade ago.  Governments can execute long reaching plans without public knowledge.  In  invading Iraq, is Bush trying to outdo Reagan and change the Middle East in the scope and scale that Reagan changed the Soviet Union and Communism?  Like Reagan, Bush paid no attention to the mass protests of his policies... and very few people really understood either one of their motivations.  Very few are aware of the implications of programs like the 'North American Union' or the use of 'caging lists' by Republicans in elections.  Again the internet is important in exposing the real intentions of the corporate elite.

The will to survive in human beings is somehow being transferred to the corporation.  In their quest to compete and gain market share, the environment and the poor are sacrificed.

Free enterprise in a competitive market place is a great system but needs regulation to keep the rich from concentrating power, contaminating the earth with pollutants and exploiting children.   Millions of children died in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution before strict child labor laws finally saved them from greedy capitalists who are still killing them  (McDonalds hamburgers).  The rich finally figured out that they could get even richer if they improved the living standard of the masses....it's called consumerism.  Latin American dictators and the elite have been slow to figure this out.   So imperialism is still going strong, it's just cloaked in artificial legalities and complexities.  The law of the jungle is alive and well with the added twist of the human free will to take what they don't need.

Conspiracy theorists are silly.  Illegal activities such as rigging voting machines or cult-like power nets are risky and inefficient.  The Republicans knew they had won the 2004 election  three  months before it ever happened.  Simple statistics programs that correlate credit card, demographic and election data can very accurately predict elections.  Campaign commercials can be efficiently targeted based on the statistical analysis of the data only available to the Republicans.  Stoke the electorates fears to justify data collection on 'terrorists' and bingo...you've got all the data you need.  And all accomplished within the laws that any war-mongering greedy republic can produce.  Throwing in a few barriers to voter participation of minorities is just an insurance policy to an engineered outcome. Oh...I forgot Ohio and Florida...I guess there is blatant illegal election corruption.  Elections campaigns:  Corporations fund  Democratic and Republican candidates unequally.... about 60/40 Republican to Democrat....this way they control who the Democratic  candidate is....the sums are so vast that no candidate outside this system can participate...thus its not an election at all....the choices are made far in advance of our voting.

Communism is an inefficient misguided form of government and is dying under its own weight....too much central control, regulation and corruption.   Initially, it was an uprising of poor workers against the Russian Czars, but all that was corrupted by dictatorial monsters. The 'Cold War' and the 'Reds' provided the capitalists with a great distraction from all their pollution and corruption, and greatly expanded the military-industrial-religious-congressional complex.  

But now that 'Communism' is no more a threat, the Conservative leaders needed a new demon.  They needed a new way to redefine and destroy any opposition to imperialism.  "Terrorism' is now that new demon.  But, according the the their own estimates, the chances of being killed by a 'terrorist' in the US are far less than being struck by lightning, but you wouldn't know that by reading the newspapers or watching TV.   Despite worldwide protests by 10's of millions of people, the invasion of Iraq was executed through the use of an effective campaign of fear and an effective 'legalization' process carried out in a cooperative and limp U.S.  Congress.    

9/11 has been thoroughly exploited to cover imperialistic agendas.  It is common knowledge now that the 19 hijackers were discovered far in advance of the attacks and 'dark' forces in Israel the Neo-con U.S. regime piggy-backed an elaborate military strike correlating with the middle-easterners attackers mission.  A complicit U. S. Congress will not look into the real efforts to launch the war.  And now ... the prison abuse scandals, the post-war chaos in Iraq, and the questionable actions in Afghanistan all have served to greatly increase the real threat of extremists who really do want to inflict violence on Americans.   In the conservative term 'strong defense' are code words for the concept of using overwhelming force against violent opponent actions many of whom have simple, rag-tag weapons that effectively counter the most powerful army in the world which has created another 'Viet Nam' like quagmire.  The interesting question now remains is why the (neo-cons) have not attacked Iran.  What went wrong?  What political / economic forces actually stopped this plan?

Now that US oil sources are more diversified, the US is not as dependent on Middle East oil, it can prop up Israel much more openly.   Sure, most Middle Eastern governments are undemocratic, corrupt, lazy.  But there is a very active progressive Islamic movement that is completely ignored by the Western mainstream press. That main stream 'press'  would much rather bash 'Islam' and perpetuate demons for the profit for the major corporations who own them.

And again ... a very clandestine effort to create a 'North American Union' is being waged.  ...to merge Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.  We must understand it, expose and stop it.  Our very lives depend on it.  It is incomprehensible what greedy predatory conservatives and DLC democrats will do wage their skills on unsuspecting people. Beware.  And don't be fooled by the Clintons.  The Clintons and the Bushes are just peas in a pod.  Republicans tried to get rid Clinton only because he is so much smarter than they are and could 'outBush' them.  Compare the numbers of untimely deaths of people close to Bush and Clinton administrations and you will find very similar numbers.

Red State, Blue State myth:  Blue states may be Democratic but most CEOs of large corporations are Republican and exist in the heart of large metropolitan cities in Blue states.  They control the majority of red state Republicans in all those smaller towns across the heartland of America.  Large corporate interests have successfully made that 'heartland' complacent and distracted.  From TV, sports, booze, blatant propaganda, fear mongering, Christian brainwashing,  and the hectic pace of an industrialized life in America, people have become highly controlled 'sheep'.  They so predictably elected George Bush to be President.  

There is a direct link between poverty and 'terrorism'. Poor countries are breeding grounds for 'terrorists'.  But aren't some terrorists just people who have finally come to the conclusion that they are helpless against an oppressive imperialist power and use the only means they know to fight back.  Investigate Halliburton's admitted bribes in Nigeria for examples of modern imperialism or Right Wing South American dictators or constricting Islamic monarch's activities.  They have all created intense enemies.   Islamic fanatics have been able to enlist the poor  into their ranks.  There are important links between imperialism, poverty and radical religious extremism.  It's all very complex and dependent on whose perspective one looks from.

But the 'terrorist's'  violence is as obscene as the economic rape the poor face every day, and gives the Conservative leadership an important distraction to focus on to keep our attention off the real causes of societies problems.  And the radical Islamists who want to kill anyone that is not Islamic are no better than greedy capitalists that will go to any length to hoard wealth or power.  Billions of people across the globe accuse Bush of invading Iraq for the oil.  Are they all wrong? What is the real story with Saudi Arabia?  Are they financing the Sunni insurgency in Iraq? In the late 1980's, the Saudis were buying Stinger missiles from the US to help jihadists in Afghanistan push out the Soviets.  Now, the Saudis are buying Strela missiles from Russia to help jihadists in Iraq push out the Americans!  ...   But then look at the Saudi / Bush connections around 9/11.  Violence is a symptom of unfair imbalances in societies. Who's killing who for what?

But then can you say that anyone who sympathizes with the poor is a possible extremist.  That would mean that any antiwar activist in America who sympathizes with poor people, is on the road to being a 'terrorist'.  (Study the Military Commissions Act and recent Presidential directives that define martial law preparations).  I get the feeling that the Conservative leadership are not too far from believing this and are definitely using it as a political tool.   The military-industrial-congressional complex (Republicans and Democrats) has amassed large modern armies,  but all they have accomplished is the expansion of the ranks radical violent terrorists mentioned above.  And their subtle efforts to paint Progressives as sympathetic to 'terrorists' are backfiring.  They started with Bush's speeches right after 9/11 that mentioned the words 'your either with me or against me'.  The outrage of this tactic is evident and very few of these ads get through but not for a lack of trying.  Republican / Neo-con fear mongering will eventually backfire.

Transparency of government and business is of vital importance because people won't harm others if they think they will get caught, thus survivability.  The internet has changed everything.  Television viewership is down as well as newspaper readership.  Thousands of people who care about this planet and are not bent on hoarding wealth are trying to get the truth out.

Joke:  How to get rich quick. Flood the earth with pollutants, drive down regulation and taxes, push voluntary compliance to environmental issues and cast doubt on  existence of global warming .  Then  invest in hospitals and healthcare to take advantage of profits gained from 'curing' all the cancer victims produced by the pollution and sweep in to take advantage of political and economic changes due to by global warming and health crisis.  Your safe....government agencies designed to protect citizens are rife with corporate trained stooges to cover any liability from dangerous chemicals (remember Vioxx).  Stack the courts with conservative judges who will protect conservative main causes (tax reduction, regulatory reduction and war), and continue to keep the cost of litigation high.  Court battles take years, plaintiffs will die before getting a settlement (Exxon Valdez).  Then, invest in the military, you'll need it, to protect your new found riches.  As you invest in US/EU (Republicans and Democrats included)  imperialistic companies, you will be ever increasingly targeted by lesser advantaged people.  But that's ok, if they get violent (which is completely counterproductive), use the media to focus on their violence, accuse them of something to justify your violent response, then shoot them with your overwhelming fire power.  Remember, kill ratios are still about 100-1 by imperialists over the oppressed; they never were a threat.  Whatever, you still have your money, who cares.   (Iraq War).  Just joking around....sorry, this couldn't really be true....would GOD (Him) allow this?