The Big Winners In Skype Deal

Skype is neither a start-up nor a stalwart.
Emerging in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, the company was highly coveted in its early years for its promising technology, which routed phone calls over the Internet for a nominal cost. Despite lackluster financials, Skype was acquired in 2005 by eBay for $3.1 billion, including additional performance payments.
But Skype was not a good fit, and eBay eventually sold a controlling stake in the company several years later to a group of investors led by the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, and it took a $1.4 billion hit on the sale.

Now, several investors stand to benefit from Microsoft’s planned $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, which was announced on Tuesday. Skype’s hodgepodge of owners, including a private equity firm, a pension fund and a venture capitalist, reflects its changing fortunes over the years.
Here is a look at how investors could profit from their current stakes in Skype under the Microsoft deal. (Calculations are based on a valuation of $7.76 billion, which equals the purchase price minus outstanding debt.)
Andreessen Horowitz
In one of its first major deals, the venture capital firm — co-founded by Marc Andreessen, who helped start Netscape — bought a 3 percent stake in 2009 for $50 million, at a $2.75 billion valuation. The sale of Skype will be the first exit for Andreessen Horowitz.
Estimated Value of Skype Investment: $200 million
eBay International
While it sold off the majority of Skype to investors in 2009, eBay still owns a 30 percent stake. According to a recent filing, eBay estimated its stake to be worth “approximately $620.0 million.” As a result of the Microsoft deal, that stake is now valued at $2.3 billion. Combined with the proceeds from its earlier transaction, EBay stands to capture more than $4 billion from the sale of Skype. Not a bad pay day, considering that eBay bought the company in a heavily criticized deal for $3.1 billion in 2005.
Estimated Value: $2.3 billion
Joltid
In 2009, the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, sued Skype over patent issues. After a favorable settlement, the two founders held 14 percent of Skype and placed the investment in a holding company, Joltid.
Estimated Value: $1.1 billion
Silver Lake Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
In 2009, Silver Lake and a team of investors bought a controlling stake in Skype. After the legal settlement with Joltid, the investment group — which also included the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz — owned a 56 percent stake in Skype. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a $145 billion pension fund, often buys direct stakes in privately held companies, and holds investments in the communications company Avaya, the media company Clear Channel and the chip maker Freescale Semiconductor.
Estimated Value: $4.4 billion

The Big Winners In Skype Deal

Skype is neither a start-up nor a stalwart.
Emerging in the aftermath of the dot-com bust, the company was highly coveted in its early years for its promising technology, which routed phone calls over the Internet for a nominal cost. Despite lackluster financials, Skype was acquired in 2005 by eBay for $3.1 billion, including additional performance payments.
But Skype was not a good fit, and eBay eventually sold a controlling stake in the company several years later to a group of investors led by the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, and it took a $1.4 billion hit on the sale.

Now, several investors stand to benefit from Microsoft’s planned $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, which was announced on Tuesday. Skype’s hodgepodge of owners, including a private equity firm, a pension fund and a venture capitalist, reflects its changing fortunes over the years.
Here is a look at how investors could profit from their current stakes in Skype under the Microsoft deal. (Calculations are based on a valuation of $7.76 billion, which equals the purchase price minus outstanding debt.)
Andreessen Horowitz
In one of its first major deals, the venture capital firm — co-founded by Marc Andreessen, who helped start Netscape — bought a 3 percent stake in 2009 for $50 million, at a $2.75 billion valuation. The sale of Skype will be the first exit for Andreessen Horowitz.
Estimated Value of Skype Investment: $200 million
eBay International
While it sold off the majority of Skype to investors in 2009, eBay still owns a 30 percent stake. According to a recent filing, eBay estimated its stake to be worth “approximately $620.0 million.” As a result of the Microsoft deal, that stake is now valued at $2.3 billion. Combined with the proceeds from its earlier transaction, EBay stands to capture more than $4 billion from the sale of Skype. Not a bad pay day, considering that eBay bought the company in a heavily criticized deal for $3.1 billion in 2005.
Estimated Value: $2.3 billion
Joltid
In 2009, the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, sued Skype over patent issues. After a favorable settlement, the two founders held 14 percent of Skype and placed the investment in a holding company, Joltid.
Estimated Value: $1.1 billion
Silver Lake Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
In 2009, Silver Lake and a team of investors bought a controlling stake in Skype. After the legal settlement with Joltid, the investment group — which also included the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz — owned a 56 percent stake in Skype. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a $145 billion pension fund, often buys direct stakes in privately held companies, and holds investments in the communications company Avaya, the media company Clear Channel and the chip maker Freescale Semiconductor.
Estimated Value: $4.4 billion

Bin Laden Sons Say U.S. Violated International Law

WASHINGTON — The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama over their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating its basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea.

Enlarge This Image

Amro Maraghi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, in his apartment in Al-Rahad city near Cairo in 2008.

The statement said the family was asking why the leader of Al Qaeda “was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world.” Citing the trials of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, the statement questioned “the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated,” but the principles of presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial were ignored.
“We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems,” the statement said, adding that “justice must be seen to be done.”
The statement, prepared at the direction of Omar bin Laden, a son who had publicly denounced his father’s terrorism, was provided to The New York Times by Jean Sasson, an American author who helped the younger Bin Laden write a 2009 memoir, “Growing Up bin Laden.” A shorter, slightly different statement was posted on a jihadist Web site Tuesday.
Omar bin Laden, 30, lived with his father in Afghanistan until 1999, when he left with his mother, Najwa bin Laden, who co-wrote the memoir. In the book and other public statements, the younger bin Laden denounced violence of all kinds, a stance he repeated in the sons’ statement to The Times. None of Osama bin Laden’s sons other than Omar was named in the statement, so it was unclear exactly who else had approved the message.
“We want to remind the world that Omar bin Laden, the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances,” the statement said. “Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks.”
Condemning the shooting of one of the Qaeda leader’s wives during the assault on May 2 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the statement added: “As he condemned our father, we now condemn the president of the United States for ordering the execution of unarmed men and women.”
The sons’ statement called on the government of Pakistan to hand over to family members the three wives and several children of the terrorist now believed to be in Pakistani custody and asked for a United Nations investigation of the circumstances of their father’s death.
In addition to the statement, Ms. Sasson shared with The Times notes on what Omar bin Laden, who declined to be interviewed directly, has told her by phone in recent days. The notes describe Mr. bin Laden’s struggle, as he came of age, to understand and eventually reject his father’s embrace of religious violence.
Mr. bin Laden told Ms. Sasson the death of his father “has affected this family in much the same way as many other families in the past in the loss of a family member.”

Bin Laden Sons Say U.S. Violated International Law

WASHINGTON — The adult sons of Osama bin Laden have lashed out at President Obama over their father’s death, accusing the United States of violating its basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man, shooting his family members and disposing of his body in the sea.

Enlarge This Image

Amro Maraghi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Omar bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, in his apartment in Al-Rahad city near Cairo in 2008.

The statement said the family was asking why the leader of Al Qaeda “was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that truth is revealed to the people of the world.” Citing the trials of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, the statement questioned “the propriety of such assassination where not only international law has been blatantly violated,” but the principles of presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial were ignored.
“We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems,” the statement said, adding that “justice must be seen to be done.”
The statement, prepared at the direction of Omar bin Laden, a son who had publicly denounced his father’s terrorism, was provided to The New York Times by Jean Sasson, an American author who helped the younger Bin Laden write a 2009 memoir, “Growing Up bin Laden.” A shorter, slightly different statement was posted on a jihadist Web site Tuesday.
Omar bin Laden, 30, lived with his father in Afghanistan until 1999, when he left with his mother, Najwa bin Laden, who co-wrote the memoir. In the book and other public statements, the younger bin Laden denounced violence of all kinds, a stance he repeated in the sons’ statement to The Times. None of Osama bin Laden’s sons other than Omar was named in the statement, so it was unclear exactly who else had approved the message.
“We want to remind the world that Omar bin Laden, the fourth-born son of our father, always disagreed with our father regarding any violence and always sent messages to our father, that he must change his ways and that no civilians should be attacked under any circumstances,” the statement said. “Despite the difficulty of publicly disagreeing with our father, he never hesitated to condemn any violent attacks made by anyone, and expressed sorrow for the victims of any and all attacks.”
Condemning the shooting of one of the Qaeda leader’s wives during the assault on May 2 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the statement added: “As he condemned our father, we now condemn the president of the United States for ordering the execution of unarmed men and women.”
The sons’ statement called on the government of Pakistan to hand over to family members the three wives and several children of the terrorist now believed to be in Pakistani custody and asked for a United Nations investigation of the circumstances of their father’s death.
In addition to the statement, Ms. Sasson shared with The Times notes on what Omar bin Laden, who declined to be interviewed directly, has told her by phone in recent days. The notes describe Mr. bin Laden’s struggle, as he came of age, to understand and eventually reject his father’s embrace of religious violence.
Mr. bin Laden told Ms. Sasson the death of his father “has affected this family in much the same way as many other families in the past in the loss of a family member.”

Japan Scraps Plan for New Nuclear Plants

Toru Hanai/Reuters

Prime Minister Naoto Kan bowed to the Japanese national flag during a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo on Tuesday.

TOKYO — Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in creating a new energy policy. Mr. Kan’s announcement came as Japan allowed residents of evacuated areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to briefly revisit their homes for the first time since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March caused the nuclear accident.
Tuesday’s decision will abandon a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity.
The cancellation of the planned nuclear plants is the second time that Mr. Kan has suddenly announced big changes in Japanese nuclear policy without the usual endless committee meetings and media leaks that characterize the country’s consensus-driven decision making. Mr. Kan appears to be seeking a stronger leadership role after criticism of his government’s sometimes slow and indecisive handling of the Fukushima accident.
Last week, Mr. Kan asked a utility company to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear plant, which sits atop an active earthquake fault line, about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo. After three days of delays, the company, Chubu Electric Power, finally agreed on Monday to shut down the plant until a new wave wall was built and other measures could be taken to strengthen it against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan’s energy policy: renewable energy and conservation. While Japan has been a global leader in energy conservation, it lags behind the United States and Europe in adopting solar and wind power, and other new energy sources.
“We need to start from scratch,” Mr. Kan told reporters. “We need to make nuclear energy safer and do more to promote renewable energy.”
Mr. Kan had also previously called for Japan to sell its nuclear technology to emerging nations as a new source of export income. However, the Fukushima accident has prompted a global rethinking of nuclear energy and may drive customers away from Japanese suppliers to rivals in places like South Korea.
Mr. Kan also appeared to pull back from his earlier vows to remain committed to nuclear power. His apparent about-face may be driven partly by public opinion, which has soured on nuclear power since the Fukushima accident.
On Tuesday, Japan was reminded of the human costs of the disaster, when the first group of 92 people paid two-hour visits to their homes in the town of Kawauchi, within the 12-mile zone around the plant that was evacuated after the nuclear crisis.
The residents wore white anti-radiation clothing and traveled in buses under tight supervision by nuclear officials. They retrieved belongings such as photo albums and the small tablets traditionally used in Japan to honor dead relatives in household Buddhist shrines, according to local media reports.
The Kan government appeared to agonize for weeks over whether to allow even such brief trips. Officials were concerned about whether civilians could be kept safe from exposure to potentially high radiation doses around the plant.
Complicating their decision was the lack of scientific knowledge on the health effects of the radiation doses now seen in many of the evacuated areas. Some scientists say radiation levels even in many evacuated areas are too low to cause immediate illness while others worry that incidence of cancer could rise over the long term.
Last week, the government staged a trial run, in which officials played the role of returning residents, to see if the trips could be made safely, and within the time allotted. Screened for radiation on their return, those participating were found to have been exposed to a dose of up to 25 microsieverts during the two-hour visit.
That is well above the 3.8 microsieverts per hour that Japan has used in some cases as a threshold for deciding such safety issues as whether to allow children to play outside while at school.

Japan Scraps Plan for New Nuclear Plants

Toru Hanai/Reuters

Prime Minister Naoto Kan bowed to the Japanese national flag during a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo on Tuesday.

TOKYO — Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that Japan would abandon plans to build new nuclear reactors, saying his country needed to “start from scratch” in creating a new energy policy. Mr. Kan’s announcement came as Japan allowed residents of evacuated areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to briefly revisit their homes for the first time since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March caused the nuclear accident.
Tuesday’s decision will abandon a plan that the Kan government released last year to build 14 more nuclear reactors by 2030 and increase the share of nuclear power in Japan’s electricity supply to 50 percent. Japan currently has 54 reactors that before the earthquake produced 30 percent of its electricity.
The cancellation of the planned nuclear plants is the second time that Mr. Kan has suddenly announced big changes in Japanese nuclear policy without the usual endless committee meetings and media leaks that characterize the country’s consensus-driven decision making. Mr. Kan appears to be seeking a stronger leadership role after criticism of his government’s sometimes slow and indecisive handling of the Fukushima accident.
Last week, Mr. Kan asked a utility company to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear plant, which sits atop an active earthquake fault line, about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo. After three days of delays, the company, Chubu Electric Power, finally agreed on Monday to shut down the plant until a new wave wall was built and other measures could be taken to strengthen it against earthquakes and tsunamis.
Mr. Kan said Japan would retain nuclear and fossil fuels as energy sources, but vowed to add two new pillars to Japan’s energy policy: renewable energy and conservation. While Japan has been a global leader in energy conservation, it lags behind the United States and Europe in adopting solar and wind power, and other new energy sources.
“We need to start from scratch,” Mr. Kan told reporters. “We need to make nuclear energy safer and do more to promote renewable energy.”
Mr. Kan had also previously called for Japan to sell its nuclear technology to emerging nations as a new source of export income. However, the Fukushima accident has prompted a global rethinking of nuclear energy and may drive customers away from Japanese suppliers to rivals in places like South Korea.
Mr. Kan also appeared to pull back from his earlier vows to remain committed to nuclear power. His apparent about-face may be driven partly by public opinion, which has soured on nuclear power since the Fukushima accident.
On Tuesday, Japan was reminded of the human costs of the disaster, when the first group of 92 people paid two-hour visits to their homes in the town of Kawauchi, within the 12-mile zone around the plant that was evacuated after the nuclear crisis.
The residents wore white anti-radiation clothing and traveled in buses under tight supervision by nuclear officials. They retrieved belongings such as photo albums and the small tablets traditionally used in Japan to honor dead relatives in household Buddhist shrines, according to local media reports.
The Kan government appeared to agonize for weeks over whether to allow even such brief trips. Officials were concerned about whether civilians could be kept safe from exposure to potentially high radiation doses around the plant.
Complicating their decision was the lack of scientific knowledge on the health effects of the radiation doses now seen in many of the evacuated areas. Some scientists say radiation levels even in many evacuated areas are too low to cause immediate illness while others worry that incidence of cancer could rise over the long term.
Last week, the government staged a trial run, in which officials played the role of returning residents, to see if the trips could be made safely, and within the time allotted. Screened for radiation on their return, those participating were found to have been exposed to a dose of up to 25 microsieverts during the two-hour visit.
That is well above the 3.8 microsieverts per hour that Japan has used in some cases as a threshold for deciding such safety issues as whether to allow children to play outside while at school.

Ally of Assad Says Syria Will Fight Protests Till ‘the End’

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power, loyalty to family and a visceral instinct for survival, will fight to the end in a struggle that could cast the Middle East into turmoil and even war, warned Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

Enlarge This Image

The frank comments by Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has emerged in the two-month uprising as a lightning rod for anger at the privilege that power brings, offered an exceedingly rare insight into the thinking of an opaque government, the prism through which it sees Syria, and the way it reaches decisions. Beset by the greatest threat to its four decades of rule, the ruling family, he suggested, has conflated its survival with the existence of the minority sect that views the protests not as legitimate demands for change but rather as the seeds of civil war. 
“If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel,” he said in an interview Monday that lasted more than three hours. “No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
Asked if it was a warning or a threat, Mr. Makhlouf demurred.
“I didn’t say war,” he said. “What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”
His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.
Though the uprising has yet to spread to Syria’s two largest cities — Damascus, the capital, seemingly tranquil, was bereft of any military buildup this week, and Aleppo, a key conservative bastion, has been relatively quiet — the protests have unfurled in Damascus’s suburbs and across much of the rest of the country, building on longstanding neglect of the countryside and anger at corrupt and unaccountable security forces. While the government offered tentative concessions early on, it has since carried out a ferocious crackdown, killing hundreds, arresting thousands and besieging four cities.
“The decision of the government now is that they decided to fight,” Mr. Makhlouf said.
But even if it prevails, the uprising has demonstrated the weakness of a dictatorial government that once sought to draw legitimacy from a notion of Arab nationalism, a sprawling public sector that created the semblance of a middle class and services that delivered electricity to the smallest towns. The government of Mr. Assad, though, is far different than that of his father, who seized power in 1970. A beleaguered state, shorn of ideology, can no longer deliver essential services or basic livelihood. Mr. Makhlouf’s warnings of instability and sectarian strife like Iraq’s have emerged as the government’s rallying cry, as it deals with a degree of dissent that its officials admit caught them by surprise.
Mr. Makhlouf, a childhood friend and first cousin of Mr. Assad whose brother is the intelligence chief in Damascus, suggested that the ruling elite — staffed by Mr. Assad’s relatives and contemporaries — had grown even closer during the crisis. Though Mr. Assad has the final say, he said, policies were formulated as “a joint decision.”
“We believe there is no continuity without unity,” he said. “As a person, each one of us knows we cannot continue without staying united together.”
He echoed an Arabic proverb, which translated loosely, means that it will not go down alone.
“We will not go out, leave on our boat, go gambling, you know,” he said at his plush, wood-paneled headquarters in Damascus. “We will sit here. We call it a fight until the end.” He added later, “They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone.”
Mr. Makhlouf, just 41 and leery of the limelight, stands as both a strength and liability of Mr. Assad’s rule, and in the interview he was a study in contrasts — a feared and reviled businessmen who went to lengths to be hospitable and mild-mannered. To the government’s detractors, his unpopularity rivals perhaps only that of Mr. Assad’s brother, Maher, who commands the Republican Guard and the elite Fourth Division that has played a crucial role in the crackdown. Mr. Makhlouf’s name was chanted in protests and offices of his company, Syriatel, the country’s largest mobile phone company, were burned in Dara’a, the poor town near the Jordanian border where the uprising began in mid-March.
The American government, which imposed sanctions on him in 2008, has accused him of manipulating the judicial system and using Syrian intelligence to intimidate rivals.

Asked why he believed he was sanctioned, he replied, “Because the president is my cousin, or I’m the cousin of the president. Full stop.” He suggested that anger at him arose from jealousy and long-standing suspicions that he serves as the family’s banker.

“Maybe they are worried about using this money to support the regime,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe. But the regime has the whole government, they don’t need me.”
He said he was aware of the anger, but called it “the price I have to pay.”
More than just an icon of outrage, Mr. Makhlouf represents broader changes afoot in the country. His very wealth points to the shifting constellation of power in Syria, as the old alliance of Sunni Muslim merchants and officers from Mr. Makhlouf’s Alawite clan gives way to descendants of those officers benefiting from lucrative deals made possible by reforms that have dismantled the public sector.
He serves as an instrument, too, in Mr. Assad’s vision of economic modernization, where Syria serves as a crossroads of regional trade and a hub for oil and gas pipelines that link Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean and Europe. Cham Holdings, a vast conglomerate with a portfolio of $2 billion, in which Mr. Makhlouf owns a quarter of the shares outright, is at the forefront of that faltering scheme.
Turkey’s recent anger at Syria’s crackdown has fed feelings of betrayal in the government because Turkey was viewed as a centerpiece in that vision. Concerns are growing, too, over the uprising’s economic impact, deepened by Syria’s growing isolation and flight of capital — a legacy that may very well prove more threatening to the government than the protests.
Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
“This is a priority for Syrians,” he said. “We have to ask for economic reform before speaking about political reform.” He acknowledged that change had come late and limited. “But if there is some delay,” he added, “it’s not the end of the world.”
He warned the alternative — led by what he described as Salafists, the government’s name for militant Islamists — would mean war at home and perhaps abroad.
“We won’t accept it,” he said. “People will fight against them. Do you know what this means? It means catastrophe. And we have a lot of fighters.”

Ally of Assad Says Syria Will Fight Protests Till ‘the End’

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s ruling elite, a tight-knit circle at the nexus of absolute power, loyalty to family and a visceral instinct for survival, will fight to the end in a struggle that could cast the Middle East into turmoil and even war, warned Syria’s most powerful businessman, a confidant and cousin of President Bashar al-Assad.

Enlarge This Image

The frank comments by Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon who has emerged in the two-month uprising as a lightning rod for anger at the privilege that power brings, offered an exceedingly rare insight into the thinking of an opaque government, the prism through which it sees Syria, and the way it reaches decisions. Beset by the greatest threat to its four decades of rule, the ruling family, he suggested, has conflated its survival with the existence of the minority sect that views the protests not as legitimate demands for change but rather as the seeds of civil war. 
“If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel,” he said in an interview Monday that lasted more than three hours. “No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”
Asked if it was a warning or a threat, Mr. Makhlouf demurred.
“I didn’t say war,” he said. “What I’m saying is don’t let us suffer, don’t put a lot of pressure on the president, don’t push Syria to do anything it is not happy to do.”
His words cast into the starkest terms a sentiment the government has sought to cultivate — us or chaos — and it underlined the tactics of a ruling elite that has manipulated the ups and downs of a tumultuous region to sustain an overriding goal: its own survival.
Though the uprising has yet to spread to Syria’s two largest cities — Damascus, the capital, seemingly tranquil, was bereft of any military buildup this week, and Aleppo, a key conservative bastion, has been relatively quiet — the protests have unfurled in Damascus’s suburbs and across much of the rest of the country, building on longstanding neglect of the countryside and anger at corrupt and unaccountable security forces. While the government offered tentative concessions early on, it has since carried out a ferocious crackdown, killing hundreds, arresting thousands and besieging four cities.
“The decision of the government now is that they decided to fight,” Mr. Makhlouf said.
But even if it prevails, the uprising has demonstrated the weakness of a dictatorial government that once sought to draw legitimacy from a notion of Arab nationalism, a sprawling public sector that created the semblance of a middle class and services that delivered electricity to the smallest towns. The government of Mr. Assad, though, is far different than that of his father, who seized power in 1970. A beleaguered state, shorn of ideology, can no longer deliver essential services or basic livelihood. Mr. Makhlouf’s warnings of instability and sectarian strife like Iraq’s have emerged as the government’s rallying cry, as it deals with a degree of dissent that its officials admit caught them by surprise.
Mr. Makhlouf, a childhood friend and first cousin of Mr. Assad whose brother is the intelligence chief in Damascus, suggested that the ruling elite — staffed by Mr. Assad’s relatives and contemporaries — had grown even closer during the crisis. Though Mr. Assad has the final say, he said, policies were formulated as “a joint decision.”
“We believe there is no continuity without unity,” he said. “As a person, each one of us knows we cannot continue without staying united together.”
He echoed an Arabic proverb, which translated loosely, means that it will not go down alone.
“We will not go out, leave on our boat, go gambling, you know,” he said at his plush, wood-paneled headquarters in Damascus. “We will sit here. We call it a fight until the end.” He added later, “They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone.”
Mr. Makhlouf, just 41 and leery of the limelight, stands as both a strength and liability of Mr. Assad’s rule, and in the interview he was a study in contrasts — a feared and reviled businessmen who went to lengths to be hospitable and mild-mannered. To the government’s detractors, his unpopularity rivals perhaps only that of Mr. Assad’s brother, Maher, who commands the Republican Guard and the elite Fourth Division that has played a crucial role in the crackdown. Mr. Makhlouf’s name was chanted in protests and offices of his company, Syriatel, the country’s largest mobile phone company, were burned in Dara’a, the poor town near the Jordanian border where the uprising began in mid-March.
The American government, which imposed sanctions on him in 2008, has accused him of manipulating the judicial system and using Syrian intelligence to intimidate rivals.

Asked why he believed he was sanctioned, he replied, “Because the president is my cousin, or I’m the cousin of the president. Full stop.” He suggested that anger at him arose from jealousy and long-standing suspicions that he serves as the family’s banker.

“Maybe they are worried about using this money to support the regime,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe. But the regime has the whole government, they don’t need me.”
He said he was aware of the anger, but called it “the price I have to pay.”
More than just an icon of outrage, Mr. Makhlouf represents broader changes afoot in the country. His very wealth points to the shifting constellation of power in Syria, as the old alliance of Sunni Muslim merchants and officers from Mr. Makhlouf’s Alawite clan gives way to descendants of those officers benefiting from lucrative deals made possible by reforms that have dismantled the public sector.
He serves as an instrument, too, in Mr. Assad’s vision of economic modernization, where Syria serves as a crossroads of regional trade and a hub for oil and gas pipelines that link Iraq and the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean and Europe. Cham Holdings, a vast conglomerate with a portfolio of $2 billion, in which Mr. Makhlouf owns a quarter of the shares outright, is at the forefront of that faltering scheme.
Turkey’s recent anger at Syria’s crackdown has fed feelings of betrayal in the government because Turkey was viewed as a centerpiece in that vision. Concerns are growing, too, over the uprising’s economic impact, deepened by Syria’s growing isolation and flight of capital — a legacy that may very well prove more threatening to the government than the protests.
Mr. Makhlouf suggested that economic reform would stay primary.
“This is a priority for Syrians,” he said. “We have to ask for economic reform before speaking about political reform.” He acknowledged that change had come late and limited. “But if there is some delay,” he added, “it’s not the end of the world.”
He warned the alternative — led by what he described as Salafists, the government’s name for militant Islamists — would mean war at home and perhaps abroad.
“We won’t accept it,” he said. “People will fight against them. Do you know what this means? It means catastrophe. And we have a lot of fighters.”

Pawns in the Game: A Satanic conspiracy to control the world

Published: MichaelJournal.org
First printed in 1954, “Pawns in the Game” is the best single work available on the evil conspiracy that has been responsible for the devastating wars and continuing conflicts of the past century, and which is now close to its ultimate goal of total world domination through a dictatorial One World Government.
Pawns in the Game is written by William Guy Carr (1895-1959), a noted author who had a distinguished career as a Canadian naval officer, including outstanding service during World War II. The book begins as follows:
“Here is a TRUE story of international intrigue, romance, corruption, graft, and political assassinations, the like of which has never been written before. It is the story of how different groups or atheistic-materialistic men have played in an international chess tournament to decide which group would win ultimate control of the wealth, natural resources, and man-power of the entire world. It is explained how the game has reached the final stage. The lnternational Communists, and the International Capitalists, (both of whom have totalitarian ambitions) have temporarily joined hands to defeat Christian-democracy.

“The cover design shows that all moves made by the International Conspirators are directed by Satan and while the situation is decidedly serious it is definitely not hopeless. The solution is to end the game the International Conspirators have been playing right now before one or another totalitarian-minded group impose their ideas on the rest of mankind. The story is sensational and shocking, but it is educational because it is the TRUTH. The author offers practical solutions to problems so many people consider insoluble.”
Here are excerpts from the introduction of this book. We may publish excerpts from other chapters in the future.
by William Guy Carr
A Luciferian conspiracy
If what I reveal surprises and shocks the reader, please don’t develop an inferiority complex because I am frank to admit that although I have worked since 1911 trying to find out why the human race can’t live in peace and enjoy the bounties and blessing God provides for our use and benefit in such abundance, it was 1950 before I penetrated the secret that the wars and revolutions which scourge our lives, and the chaotic conditions that prevail, are nothing more or less than the effects of the continuing Luciferian conspiracy.
It started in that part of the universe we call heaven when Lucifer challenged the right of God to exercise supreme authority. The Holy Scriptures tell us how the Luciferian conspiracy was transferred to this world in the Garden of Eden. Until I realized that our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with the spiritual forces of darkness who control all those in high places on this earth (Eph. 6:12) the pieces of evidence gathered all over this world just didn’t fit together and make sense. (I am not ashamed to admit that the “Bible” provided the “Key” which enabled me to obtain an answer to the question quoted above.)
Very few people seem able to appreciate that Lucifer is the brightest and most intelligent of the heavenly host and, because he is a pure spirit, he is indestructible. The scriptures tell us his power is such that he caused one-third of the most intelligent of the heavenly host to defect from God, and join him, because he claimed God’s Plan for the rule of the universe is weak and impractical because it is based on the premise that lesser beings can be taught to know, love, and wish to serve him voluntarily out of respect for his own infinite perfections. The Luciferian ideology states might is right. It claims beings of proven superior intelligence have the right to rule those less gifted because the masses don’t know what is best for them. The Luciferian ideology is what we call totalitarianism today.
The Old Testament is simply the history of how Satan became prince of the world, and caused our first parents to defect from God. It relates how the synagogue of Satan was established on this earth, it tells how it has worked since to prevent God’s Plan for the rule of the universe being established on this earth. Christ came to earth when the conspiracy reached the stage that, to use his own words, Satan controlled all those in high places. Christ exposed the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9; 3:9); he denounced those who belonged to it as sons of the devil (Lucifer), whom he castigated as the father of lies (John 8:44) and the prince of deceit (2 Cor. 11:14)… Christ gave us the solution to our problem when he told us we must go forth and teach the truth, regarding this conspiracy (John 8. 31:59), to all people of all nations. He promised that if we did this, knowledge of the truth would set us free (Matt. 28:19). The Luciferian Conspiracy has developed until it is in its semi-final stage (Matt. 24: 15:34), simply because we have failed to put the mandate Christ gave us into effect.
Weishaupt and the Illuminati
In 1784 an “Act of God” placed the Bavarian government in possession of evidence which proved the existence of the continuing Luciferian Conspiracy. Adam Weishaupt, a jesuit-trained professor of canon law, defected from Christianity, and embraced the Luciferian ideology while teaching in Ingoldstadt University. In 1770 the money lenders (who had recently organized the House of Rothschild), retained him to revise and modernize the age-old ‘protocols’ designed to give the Synagogue of Satan ultimate world domination so they can impose the Luciferian ideology upon what remains of the Human Race, after the final social cataclysm, by use of satanic despotism. Weishaupt completed his task May 1st, 1776.
The plan required the destruction of ALL existing governments and religions. This objective was to be reached by dividing the masses into opposing camps in ever increasing numbers on political, racial, social, economic and other issues. The opposing sides were then to be armed and an ‘incident’ provided which would cause them to fight and weaken themselves as they destroyed national governments and religious institutions.
In 1776 Weishaupt organized the Illuminati to put the plot into execution. The word Illuminati is derived from Lucifer, and means ‘holders of the light’. Using the lie that his objective was to bring about a one world government to enable men with proven mental ability to govern the world he recruited about two thousand followers. These included the most intelligent men in the field of arts and letters, education, the sciences, finance and industry. He then established the Lodges of the Grand Orient to be their secret headquarters.
Because Britain and France were the two greatest powers at the end of the 18th Century, Weishaupt ordered the Illuminati to foment the Colonial Wars to weaken the British Empire and organize the Great Revolution to weaken the French Empire. The latter he scheduled should start in 1789.
The conspiracy is discovered
A German author named Zwack put Weishaupt’s revised version of the age-old conspiracy into book form and named it “Einige Original-Scripten.” In 1784 a copy of this document was sent to the Illuminists Weishaupt had delegated to foment the French revolution. The courier was struck dead by lightning as he rode through Ratisbon on his way from Frankfurt to Paris. The police found the subversive documents on his body and turned them over to the proper government authorities.
After careful study of the plot the Bavarian Government ordered the police to raid Weishaupt’s newly organized lodges of the Grand Orient and the homes of some of his most influential associates. Additional evidence thus obtained convinced the authorities the documents were a genuine copy of a conspiracy by which the synagogue of Satan, who controlled the Illuminati at the top, planned to use wars and revolutions to bring about the establishment of one kind or another of a One World Government, the powers of which they intended to usurp as soon as it was established.
In 1785, the Bavarian Government outlawed the Illuminati and closed the lodges of the Grand Orient. In 1786, they published the details of the conspiracy. The English title is “The Original Writtings of the Order and Sect of The Illuminati”. Copies of the conspiracy were sent to the heads of church and state. The power of the Illuminati was so great that this warning was ignored, as were the warnings Christ had given the world.
The Illuminati went underground. Weishaupt instructed his Illuminists to infiltrate into the lodges of Blue Masonry and form a secret society within secret societies.
Only masons who proved themselves Internationalists, and those whose conduct proved they had defected from God, are initiated into the Illuminati. Thus the conspirators used the cloak of philanthropy to hide their revolutionary and subversive activities. In order to infiltrate into masonic lodges in Britain Illuminists invited John Robison over to Europe. He was a high degree mason in the Scottish Rite : Professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University; and Secretary of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. John Robison did not fall for the lie that the objective of the one worlders was to form a benevolent dictatorship. He kept his reactions to himself however, and was entrusted with a copy of Weishaupt’s Revised Conspiracy for study and safe keeping.
Because the heads of church and state in France were advised to ignore the warnings given them the revolution broke out in 1789. In order to alert other governments to their danger, in 1798 John Robison published a book, entitled “Proof of a Conspiracy to Destroy All Governments and Religions” (Link added by NWO Observer). But his warnings have been ignored, as were the others.
The creation of Communism
In 1829, the Illuminati held a meeting in New York which was addressed by a British Illuminist named Wright. Those in attendance were informed that the Illuminati intended to unite the Nihilist and Atheist groups with all other subversive organizations into an international organization to be known as Communism. This destructive force was to be used to enable the Illuminati to foment future wars and revolutions. Clinton Roosevelt (a direct ancestor of F.D.R.) Horace Greeley, and Chas. Dana were appointed a committee to raise funds for this new venture. The fund they raised financed Karl Marx and Engels when they wrote “Das Capital” and “The Communist Manifesto” in Soho, England.
In 1830, Weishaupt died. He carried the deception that the Illuminati was dead to his own death-bed where, to convince his spiritual advisers, he pretended to repent and rejoin the Church.
According to Weishaupt’s revised version of the Age-Old conspiracy the Illuminati were to organize, finance, direct and control ALL international organizations and groups by working their agentur into executive positions at the top. Thus it was that while Karl Marx was writing the Communist Manifesto under direction of one group of Illuminists, Professor Karl Ritter of Frankfurt University was writing the antithesis under direction of another group, so that those who direct the conspiracy at the top could use the differences in these two ideologies to start dividing larger and larger numbers of the human race into opposing camps so they could be armed and then made to fight and destroy each other, together with their political and religious institutions.
The work Ritter started was continued by the German so-called philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) who founded Nietzscheism. Nietzscheism was developed into Fascism and later into Naziism and used to enable the agentur of the Illuminati to foment World Wars One and Two.
In 1834 the Italian revolutionary leader Gussepi Mazzini (see picture) was selected by the Illuminati to be director of their revolutionary programme throughout the world. He held this post until he died in 1872.
In 1840, General Albert Pike was brought under the influence of Mazzini because he became a disgruntled officer when U.S. President Jefferson Davis disbanded his auxiliary Indian troops on the grounds they had committed atrocities under the cloak of legitimate warfare. Pike accepted the idea of a one world government and ultimately became head of the Luciferian Priesthood. Between 1859, and 1871, he worked out the details of a military blue-print, for three world wars, and three major revolutions which he considered would further the conspiracy to its final stage during the twentieth century.
The plan for three world wars
Most of his work was done in the 13 room mansion, he built in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1840. When the Illuminati, and the lodges of the Grand Orient, became suspect, because of Mazzini’s revolutionary activities in Europe, Pike organized the New and Reformed Palladian Rite. He established three supreme councils; one in Charleston, S.C., another in Rome, Italy and another in Berlin, Germany. He had Mazzini establish twenty three subordinate councils in strategic locations throughout the world. These have been the secret headquarters of the world revolutionary movement ever since. Long before Marconi invented wireless (radio), the scientists who were of the Illuminati had made it possible for Pike and the Heads of his councils to communicate secretly. It was the discovery of this secret that enabled intelligence officers to understand how apparently unrelated ‘incidents’ took place simultaneously throughout the world which aggravated a situation and developed into a war or revolution.
Pike’s plan was as simple as it has proved effective. He required that Communism, Naziism, Political Zionism, and other International movements be organized and used to foment the three global wars and three major revolutions. The first world war was to be fought so as to enable the Illuminati to overthrow the powers of the Tzars in Russia and turn that country into the stronghold of Atheistic-Communism. The differences stirred up by agentur of the Illuminati between the British and German Empires were to be used to foment this war. After the war ended, Communism was to be built up and used to destroy other governments and weaken religions.
World War Two was to be fomented by using the differences between Fascists and Political Zionists. This war was to be fought so that Naziism would be destroyed and the power of Political Zionism increased so that the sovereign state of Israel could be established in Palestine. During world war two International Communism was to be built up until it equalled in strength that of united Christendom. At this point it was to be contained and kept in check until required for the final social cataclysm. Can any informed person deny Roosevelt and Churchill did not put this policy into effect ?
World War Three is to be fomented by using the differences the agentur of the Illuminati stir up between Political Zionists and the leaders of the Moslem world. The war is to be directed in such a manner that Islam (the Arab World including Mohammedanism) and Political Zionism (including the State of Israel) will destroy themselves while at the same time the remaining nations, once more divided against each other on this issue, will be forced to fight themselves into a state of complete exhaustion physically, mentally, spiritually and economically. Can any unbiased and reasoning person deny that the intrigue now going on in the Near, Middle, and Far East isn’t designed to accomplish this devilish purpose?
On August 15, 1871, Pike told Mazzini that after World War Three is ended, those who aspire to undisputed world domination will provoke the greatest social cataclysm the world has ever known. We quote his own written words (taken from the letter catalogued in the British Museum Library, London, England):
“We shall unleash the Nihilists and Atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will be from that moment without compass (direction), anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer brought finally out in the public view, a manifestation which will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”
When Mazzini died in 1872, Pike made another Italian revolutionary leader, named Adriano Lemmi, his successor. Lemmi was later succeeded by Lenin and Trotsky. The revolutionary activities of all these men were financed by British, French, German, and American international bankers. The reader must remember that the International Bankers of today, like the Money-Changers of Christ’s day, are only tools or agents of the Illuminati.
Bankers finance wars and revolutions
While the general public has been lead to believe that Communism is a movement of the workers (soviets) to destroy Capitalism, Pawns In The Game proves that both British and American Intelligence Officers obtained authentic documentary evidence which proved that internationalist capitalists operating through their international banking houses had financed both sides in every war and revolution fought since 1776.
There is plenty of documentary evidence to prove that Pike, like Weishaupt, was head of the Luciferian Priesthood in his day. In addition to the letter he wrote Mazzini in 1871, another he wrote to the heads of his Palladian Councils July 14th, 1889 fell into hands other than intended. It was written to explain the Luciferian dogma, concerning worship of Satan and worship of Lucifer. In it, he said in part :
“That which we say to the crowd is ‘we worship God’. But it is the God that one worships without superstition. The religion should be, by all us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine… Yes! Lucifer is God. And unfortunately Adonay (the name given by Luciferians to the God we worship) is God also… for the absolute can only exist as two gods. Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy: and the true, and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay: but Lucifer, God of Light, and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay the God of Darkness and Evil.”
Propaganda put out by those who direct the Luciferian conspiracy has caused the general public to believe all who oppose Christianity are atheists. This is a deliberate lie circulated to hide the secret plans of the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed who direct the Synagogue of Satan so that the human race still find it impossible to establish on this earth God’s plan for the rule of the universe, as he explained it to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, told in Genesis. The High Priests of the Luciferian Creed work from the darkness. They remain behind the scenes. They keep their identify and true purpose secret, even from the vast majority of those they deceive into doing their will and furthering their secret plans and ambitions.
In 1925 his Eminence Cardinal Caro y Rodriguez, Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, published a book “The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled”, to expose how the Illuminati, the Satanists, and the Luciferians had imposed a secret society upon a secret society. He produces a great deal of documentary evidence to prove that not even 32nd and 33rd degree Masons know what goes on in the Lodges of the Grand Orient and Pike’s New and Reformed Palladian Rite and the affiliated Lodges of Adoption in which female members of the conspiracy are initiated. On page 108 he quotes the authority Margiotta to prove that before Pike selected Lemmi to succeed Mazzini as Director of the World Revolutionary Movement Lemmi was a rabid and confirmed Satanist. But after he had been selected he was initiated into the Luciferian ideology.
Satan’s goal: the ruin of souls
Learned theologians have stated that Lucifer, Satan, or call the head of the Forces of Evil simply “The Devil”, knows he did wrong and knows that he was wrong. He is a pure spirit and therefore indestructible. Knowing he is wrong he still is determined to drag as many souls as possible into hell with him to share his misery. This being a fact our duty is clear: We have to make known the TRUTH in this regard to as many others as quickly as possible so they can avoid the snares and pit-falls set by those who serve the devil’s purpose and penetrate the lies and deceits of those who wander about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Weishaupt’s plot requires :
1. Abolition of ALL ordered national governments.
2. Abolition of inheritance.
3. Abolition of private property.
4. Abolition of patriotism.
5. Abolition of the individual home and family life as the cell from which all civilizations have stemmed.
6. Abolition of ALL religions established and existing so that the Luciferian ideology of totalitarianism may be imposed on mankind.
The headquarters of the conspiracy in the late 1700s was in Frankfurt, Germany. After the Bavarian Government’s exposure in 1786, the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed established their headquarters in Switzerland; since World War Two the headquarters have been in the Harold Pratt Building New York. The Rockefellers have replaced the Rothschilds as far as the manipulation of finances is concerned.
It is our duty to make the people acquainted with the truth. Our purpose should be to put God back into politics so we may establish government in accordance with His Plan for the rule of the universe as explained to us in The Scriptures and by God’s only Son Jesus Christ. Only then will his will be done here as it is in heaven. In my humble opinion, not until this is done will God intervene on our behalf and the words of The Lord’s Prayer be accomplished.
Source: http://www.michaeljournal.org/pawns.asp

Pawns in the Game: A Satanic conspiracy to control the world

Published: MichaelJournal.org
First printed in 1954, “Pawns in the Game” is the best single work available on the evil conspiracy that has been responsible for the devastating wars and continuing conflicts of the past century, and which is now close to its ultimate goal of total world domination through a dictatorial One World Government.
Pawns in the Game is written by William Guy Carr (1895-1959), a noted author who had a distinguished career as a Canadian naval officer, including outstanding service during World War II. The book begins as follows:
“Here is a TRUE story of international intrigue, romance, corruption, graft, and political assassinations, the like of which has never been written before. It is the story of how different groups or atheistic-materialistic men have played in an international chess tournament to decide which group would win ultimate control of the wealth, natural resources, and man-power of the entire world. It is explained how the game has reached the final stage. The lnternational Communists, and the International Capitalists, (both of whom have totalitarian ambitions) have temporarily joined hands to defeat Christian-democracy.

“The cover design shows that all moves made by the International Conspirators are directed by Satan and while the situation is decidedly serious it is definitely not hopeless. The solution is to end the game the International Conspirators have been playing right now before one or another totalitarian-minded group impose their ideas on the rest of mankind. The story is sensational and shocking, but it is educational because it is the TRUTH. The author offers practical solutions to problems so many people consider insoluble.”
Here are excerpts from the introduction of this book. We may publish excerpts from other chapters in the future.
by William Guy Carr
A Luciferian conspiracy
If what I reveal surprises and shocks the reader, please don’t develop an inferiority complex because I am frank to admit that although I have worked since 1911 trying to find out why the human race can’t live in peace and enjoy the bounties and blessing God provides for our use and benefit in such abundance, it was 1950 before I penetrated the secret that the wars and revolutions which scourge our lives, and the chaotic conditions that prevail, are nothing more or less than the effects of the continuing Luciferian conspiracy.
It started in that part of the universe we call heaven when Lucifer challenged the right of God to exercise supreme authority. The Holy Scriptures tell us how the Luciferian conspiracy was transferred to this world in the Garden of Eden. Until I realized that our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with the spiritual forces of darkness who control all those in high places on this earth (Eph. 6:12) the pieces of evidence gathered all over this world just didn’t fit together and make sense. (I am not ashamed to admit that the “Bible” provided the “Key” which enabled me to obtain an answer to the question quoted above.)
Very few people seem able to appreciate that Lucifer is the brightest and most intelligent of the heavenly host and, because he is a pure spirit, he is indestructible. The scriptures tell us his power is such that he caused one-third of the most intelligent of the heavenly host to defect from God, and join him, because he claimed God’s Plan for the rule of the universe is weak and impractical because it is based on the premise that lesser beings can be taught to know, love, and wish to serve him voluntarily out of respect for his own infinite perfections. The Luciferian ideology states might is right. It claims beings of proven superior intelligence have the right to rule those less gifted because the masses don’t know what is best for them. The Luciferian ideology is what we call totalitarianism today.
The Old Testament is simply the history of how Satan became prince of the world, and caused our first parents to defect from God. It relates how the synagogue of Satan was established on this earth, it tells how it has worked since to prevent God’s Plan for the rule of the universe being established on this earth. Christ came to earth when the conspiracy reached the stage that, to use his own words, Satan controlled all those in high places. Christ exposed the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9; 3:9); he denounced those who belonged to it as sons of the devil (Lucifer), whom he castigated as the father of lies (John 8:44) and the prince of deceit (2 Cor. 11:14)… Christ gave us the solution to our problem when he told us we must go forth and teach the truth, regarding this conspiracy (John 8. 31:59), to all people of all nations. He promised that if we did this, knowledge of the truth would set us free (Matt. 28:19). The Luciferian Conspiracy has developed until it is in its semi-final stage (Matt. 24: 15:34), simply because we have failed to put the mandate Christ gave us into effect.
Weishaupt and the Illuminati
In 1784 an “Act of God” placed the Bavarian government in possession of evidence which proved the existence of the continuing Luciferian Conspiracy. Adam Weishaupt, a jesuit-trained professor of canon law, defected from Christianity, and embraced the Luciferian ideology while teaching in Ingoldstadt University. In 1770 the money lenders (who had recently organized the House of Rothschild), retained him to revise and modernize the age-old ‘protocols’ designed to give the Synagogue of Satan ultimate world domination so they can impose the Luciferian ideology upon what remains of the Human Race, after the final social cataclysm, by use of satanic despotism. Weishaupt completed his task May 1st, 1776.
The plan required the destruction of ALL existing governments and religions. This objective was to be reached by dividing the masses into opposing camps in ever increasing numbers on political, racial, social, economic and other issues. The opposing sides were then to be armed and an ‘incident’ provided which would cause them to fight and weaken themselves as they destroyed national governments and religious institutions.
In 1776 Weishaupt organized the Illuminati to put the plot into execution. The word Illuminati is derived from Lucifer, and means ‘holders of the light’. Using the lie that his objective was to bring about a one world government to enable men with proven mental ability to govern the world he recruited about two thousand followers. These included the most intelligent men in the field of arts and letters, education, the sciences, finance and industry. He then established the Lodges of the Grand Orient to be their secret headquarters.
Because Britain and France were the two greatest powers at the end of the 18th Century, Weishaupt ordered the Illuminati to foment the Colonial Wars to weaken the British Empire and organize the Great Revolution to weaken the French Empire. The latter he scheduled should start in 1789.
The conspiracy is discovered
A German author named Zwack put Weishaupt’s revised version of the age-old conspiracy into book form and named it “Einige Original-Scripten.” In 1784 a copy of this document was sent to the Illuminists Weishaupt had delegated to foment the French revolution. The courier was struck dead by lightning as he rode through Ratisbon on his way from Frankfurt to Paris. The police found the subversive documents on his body and turned them over to the proper government authorities.
After careful study of the plot the Bavarian Government ordered the police to raid Weishaupt’s newly organized lodges of the Grand Orient and the homes of some of his most influential associates. Additional evidence thus obtained convinced the authorities the documents were a genuine copy of a conspiracy by which the synagogue of Satan, who controlled the Illuminati at the top, planned to use wars and revolutions to bring about the establishment of one kind or another of a One World Government, the powers of which they intended to usurp as soon as it was established.
In 1785, the Bavarian Government outlawed the Illuminati and closed the lodges of the Grand Orient. In 1786, they published the details of the conspiracy. The English title is “The Original Writtings of the Order and Sect of The Illuminati”. Copies of the conspiracy were sent to the heads of church and state. The power of the Illuminati was so great that this warning was ignored, as were the warnings Christ had given the world.
The Illuminati went underground. Weishaupt instructed his Illuminists to infiltrate into the lodges of Blue Masonry and form a secret society within secret societies.
Only masons who proved themselves Internationalists, and those whose conduct proved they had defected from God, are initiated into the Illuminati. Thus the conspirators used the cloak of philanthropy to hide their revolutionary and subversive activities. In order to infiltrate into masonic lodges in Britain Illuminists invited John Robison over to Europe. He was a high degree mason in the Scottish Rite : Professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University; and Secretary of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. John Robison did not fall for the lie that the objective of the one worlders was to form a benevolent dictatorship. He kept his reactions to himself however, and was entrusted with a copy of Weishaupt’s Revised Conspiracy for study and safe keeping.
Because the heads of church and state in France were advised to ignore the warnings given them the revolution broke out in 1789. In order to alert other governments to their danger, in 1798 John Robison published a book, entitled “Proof of a Conspiracy to Destroy All Governments and Religions” (Link added by NWO Observer). But his warnings have been ignored, as were the others.
The creation of Communism
In 1829, the Illuminati held a meeting in New York which was addressed by a British Illuminist named Wright. Those in attendance were informed that the Illuminati intended to unite the Nihilist and Atheist groups with all other subversive organizations into an international organization to be known as Communism. This destructive force was to be used to enable the Illuminati to foment future wars and revolutions. Clinton Roosevelt (a direct ancestor of F.D.R.) Horace Greeley, and Chas. Dana were appointed a committee to raise funds for this new venture. The fund they raised financed Karl Marx and Engels when they wrote “Das Capital” and “The Communist Manifesto” in Soho, England.
In 1830, Weishaupt died. He carried the deception that the Illuminati was dead to his own death-bed where, to convince his spiritual advisers, he pretended to repent and rejoin the Church.
According to Weishaupt’s revised version of the Age-Old conspiracy the Illuminati were to organize, finance, direct and control ALL international organizations and groups by working their agentur into executive positions at the top. Thus it was that while Karl Marx was writing the Communist Manifesto under direction of one group of Illuminists, Professor Karl Ritter of Frankfurt University was writing the antithesis under direction of another group, so that those who direct the conspiracy at the top could use the differences in these two ideologies to start dividing larger and larger numbers of the human race into opposing camps so they could be armed and then made to fight and destroy each other, together with their political and religious institutions.
The work Ritter started was continued by the German so-called philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) who founded Nietzscheism. Nietzscheism was developed into Fascism and later into Naziism and used to enable the agentur of the Illuminati to foment World Wars One and Two.
In 1834 the Italian revolutionary leader Gussepi Mazzini (see picture) was selected by the Illuminati to be director of their revolutionary programme throughout the world. He held this post until he died in 1872.
In 1840, General Albert Pike was brought under the influence of Mazzini because he became a disgruntled officer when U.S. President Jefferson Davis disbanded his auxiliary Indian troops on the grounds they had committed atrocities under the cloak of legitimate warfare. Pike accepted the idea of a one world government and ultimately became head of the Luciferian Priesthood. Between 1859, and 1871, he worked out the details of a military blue-print, for three world wars, and three major revolutions which he considered would further the conspiracy to its final stage during the twentieth century.
The plan for three world wars
Most of his work was done in the 13 room mansion, he built in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1840. When the Illuminati, and the lodges of the Grand Orient, became suspect, because of Mazzini’s revolutionary activities in Europe, Pike organized the New and Reformed Palladian Rite. He established three supreme councils; one in Charleston, S.C., another in Rome, Italy and another in Berlin, Germany. He had Mazzini establish twenty three subordinate councils in strategic locations throughout the world. These have been the secret headquarters of the world revolutionary movement ever since. Long before Marconi invented wireless (radio), the scientists who were of the Illuminati had made it possible for Pike and the Heads of his councils to communicate secretly. It was the discovery of this secret that enabled intelligence officers to understand how apparently unrelated ‘incidents’ took place simultaneously throughout the world which aggravated a situation and developed into a war or revolution.
Pike’s plan was as simple as it has proved effective. He required that Communism, Naziism, Political Zionism, and other International movements be organized and used to foment the three global wars and three major revolutions. The first world war was to be fought so as to enable the Illuminati to overthrow the powers of the Tzars in Russia and turn that country into the stronghold of Atheistic-Communism. The differences stirred up by agentur of the Illuminati between the British and German Empires were to be used to foment this war. After the war ended, Communism was to be built up and used to destroy other governments and weaken religions.
World War Two was to be fomented by using the differences between Fascists and Political Zionists. This war was to be fought so that Naziism would be destroyed and the power of Political Zionism increased so that the sovereign state of Israel could be established in Palestine. During world war two International Communism was to be built up until it equalled in strength that of united Christendom. At this point it was to be contained and kept in check until required for the final social cataclysm. Can any informed person deny Roosevelt and Churchill did not put this policy into effect ?
World War Three is to be fomented by using the differences the agentur of the Illuminati stir up between Political Zionists and the leaders of the Moslem world. The war is to be directed in such a manner that Islam (the Arab World including Mohammedanism) and Political Zionism (including the State of Israel) will destroy themselves while at the same time the remaining nations, once more divided against each other on this issue, will be forced to fight themselves into a state of complete exhaustion physically, mentally, spiritually and economically. Can any unbiased and reasoning person deny that the intrigue now going on in the Near, Middle, and Far East isn’t designed to accomplish this devilish purpose?
On August 15, 1871, Pike told Mazzini that after World War Three is ended, those who aspire to undisputed world domination will provoke the greatest social cataclysm the world has ever known. We quote his own written words (taken from the letter catalogued in the British Museum Library, London, England):
“We shall unleash the Nihilists and Atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will be from that moment without compass (direction), anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer brought finally out in the public view, a manifestation which will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”
When Mazzini died in 1872, Pike made another Italian revolutionary leader, named Adriano Lemmi, his successor. Lemmi was later succeeded by Lenin and Trotsky. The revolutionary activities of all these men were financed by British, French, German, and American international bankers. The reader must remember that the International Bankers of today, like the Money-Changers of Christ’s day, are only tools or agents of the Illuminati.
Bankers finance wars and revolutions
While the general public has been lead to believe that Communism is a movement of the workers (soviets) to destroy Capitalism, Pawns In The Game proves that both British and American Intelligence Officers obtained authentic documentary evidence which proved that internationalist capitalists operating through their international banking houses had financed both sides in every war and revolution fought since 1776.
There is plenty of documentary evidence to prove that Pike, like Weishaupt, was head of the Luciferian Priesthood in his day. In addition to the letter he wrote Mazzini in 1871, another he wrote to the heads of his Palladian Councils July 14th, 1889 fell into hands other than intended. It was written to explain the Luciferian dogma, concerning worship of Satan and worship of Lucifer. In it, he said in part :
“That which we say to the crowd is ‘we worship God’. But it is the God that one worships without superstition. The religion should be, by all us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine… Yes! Lucifer is God. And unfortunately Adonay (the name given by Luciferians to the God we worship) is God also… for the absolute can only exist as two gods. Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy: and the true, and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay: but Lucifer, God of Light, and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay the God of Darkness and Evil.”
Propaganda put out by those who direct the Luciferian conspiracy has caused the general public to believe all who oppose Christianity are atheists. This is a deliberate lie circulated to hide the secret plans of the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed who direct the Synagogue of Satan so that the human race still find it impossible to establish on this earth God’s plan for the rule of the universe, as he explained it to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, told in Genesis. The High Priests of the Luciferian Creed work from the darkness. They remain behind the scenes. They keep their identify and true purpose secret, even from the vast majority of those they deceive into doing their will and furthering their secret plans and ambitions.
In 1925 his Eminence Cardinal Caro y Rodriguez, Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, published a book “The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled”, to expose how the Illuminati, the Satanists, and the Luciferians had imposed a secret society upon a secret society. He produces a great deal of documentary evidence to prove that not even 32nd and 33rd degree Masons know what goes on in the Lodges of the Grand Orient and Pike’s New and Reformed Palladian Rite and the affiliated Lodges of Adoption in which female members of the conspiracy are initiated. On page 108 he quotes the authority Margiotta to prove that before Pike selected Lemmi to succeed Mazzini as Director of the World Revolutionary Movement Lemmi was a rabid and confirmed Satanist. But after he had been selected he was initiated into the Luciferian ideology.
Satan’s goal: the ruin of souls
Learned theologians have stated that Lucifer, Satan, or call the head of the Forces of Evil simply “The Devil”, knows he did wrong and knows that he was wrong. He is a pure spirit and therefore indestructible. Knowing he is wrong he still is determined to drag as many souls as possible into hell with him to share his misery. This being a fact our duty is clear: We have to make known the TRUTH in this regard to as many others as quickly as possible so they can avoid the snares and pit-falls set by those who serve the devil’s purpose and penetrate the lies and deceits of those who wander about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Weishaupt’s plot requires :
1. Abolition of ALL ordered national governments.
2. Abolition of inheritance.
3. Abolition of private property.
4. Abolition of patriotism.
5. Abolition of the individual home and family life as the cell from which all civilizations have stemmed.
6. Abolition of ALL religions established and existing so that the Luciferian ideology of totalitarianism may be imposed on mankind.
The headquarters of the conspiracy in the late 1700s was in Frankfurt, Germany. After the Bavarian Government’s exposure in 1786, the High Priests of the Luciferian Creed established their headquarters in Switzerland; since World War Two the headquarters have been in the Harold Pratt Building New York. The Rockefellers have replaced the Rothschilds as far as the manipulation of finances is concerned.
It is our duty to make the people acquainted with the truth. Our purpose should be to put God back into politics so we may establish government in accordance with His Plan for the rule of the universe as explained to us in The Scriptures and by God’s only Son Jesus Christ. Only then will his will be done here as it is in heaven. In my humble opinion, not until this is done will God intervene on our behalf and the words of The Lord’s Prayer be accomplished.
Source: http://www.michaeljournal.org/pawns.asp

10 Reasons Obama is Just As Bad or Worse Than Bush

George W. Bush was clearly a mentally-challenged puppet of the military/banking/oil elite. The policies put it in place at breakneck speed after 9/11 were provably predetermined by think tanks well in advance. Not that other presidents were any less controlled by this hidden agenda, but there was a noticeable in-your-face quickening of corporate-government tyranny under Bush.
These policies like wars of aggression, illegal surveillance of Americans, torture of detainees indefinitely held without formal charges, unfair “free trade” agreements, and bank bailouts rightfully enraged many progressives during the Bush years. Yet, not only have these policies accelerated under Obama, even more of the draconian playbook is unfolding.

After 8 years of Bush’s reign that ended with a record low presidential approval rating in the low 20s, Obama’s promise of hope and change inspired many beyond mainline progressives. His campaign speeches were so powerful that they landed him the Nobel Peace Prize without having done anything for world peace except to offer the idea in order to get elected. As a Constitutional law professor and attorney, Obama appeared to have a greater understanding of rights and the balance of power than did flunky Bush.
Although policies being implemented under Obama’s leadership exhibit the continuation of Bush’s tyrannical agenda, his stunning betrayal of populist and Constitutional principles in support of these actions makes him the ultimate hypocrite. Additionally, because Obama is a much more influential orator than Bush, his service to the puppet masters is far more dangerous to the American people he’s supposed to serve.
There have been many articles written about Obama’s unkept promises and outright lies, but here are 10 actions that prove Obama is just as bad if not worse than Bush:
Bank/Corporate Bailouts: Although the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), otherwise known as the bankster bailout, occurred on Bush’s watch, Obama fully supported it as necessary.  Obama then followed up this massive wealth grab with a gargantuan stimulus bill which has basically been absorbed by the financial crisis as well.  All said,Bloomberg and others reported the taxpayer guarantees for Wall Street are upwards of $23 trillion. Additionally, the best part of Obama’s cabinet and appointed czars are directly connected to big banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, Obama and Democratic leaders gave the Federal Reserve even more regulatory power over the economy. The Administration hails the Financial Reform bill as a big political accomplishment, but the bill never addressed the three major problems:  doesn’t break up or reduce the size of too-big-to-fail banks, doesn’t remove the massive government guarantees to the giant banks, and it won’t even increase liquidity requirements to prevent future meltdowns.  The inmates are too clearly running Obama’s asylum.
Betrayal of the Poor: Bush never pretended to give a damn about the poor and the systematic mechanisms that keep them poor; openly calling the “haves and have mores” his “base.” But Obama has been portrayed as different, mainly because the Democratic party is viewed as more empathetic to the poor.  Obama promised affordable healthcare, to create new jobs, and to increase access to a college education.  However, the mandated healthcare bill has proven to actually hurt the poor, the “jobs” bill HIREwas nothing but a smokescreen to pass capital controls, and college loans are increasingly worse than useless since record numbers of students can’t find work to pay them off.  So far he only seems to be helping the poor by extending food stamps to a record number of needy Americans — which is currently on the spending cut chopping block by the way.  Obama also extended Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while the poor suffer the dramatic effects of inflation and the approaching austerity cuts demanded to prevent a government shutdown.

Expansion of Free Trade: Obama excoriated NAFTA, GATT and other so-called “Free Trade” agreements that were put in place under Clinton and Bush (with CAFTA). One of Obama’s campaign mailers to Ohioans read “one million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio.”  And Obama told unions that “he has always opposed NAFTA, and said the trade deal should be amended and renegotiated.”  It is abundantly clear that free trade agreements have not done well for American manufacturing and its workers (just like Obama told us during his campaign).  These free trade agreements are designed to only help the multinational corporations who wrote them, and who Obama now works for.  In contrast to being “opposed” to such agreements, the government moves forward with many new similar agreements.
Escalating Wars of Aggression:  Whoever thought it couldn’t get worse than Bush in regards to wars of aggression — especially by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient — have been proven dead wrong. Obama has now unilaterally attacked more countries than Bush, notably bombing inside Pakistan, Yemen and now Libya without Congressional approval. Obama is worse than war-mongering Neocons because he moved the war bar from requiring a real or manufactured threat to justify American military intervention, to vague humanitarian justifications. In other words, if a secular dictator is stamping out a handful of jihadists that threaten his regime, we will now bomb the dictator and support the jihadists when it serves corporate interests. By all counts Obama is serving the same military/oil masters no matter what labels or excuses are given.  It is truly a hideous display to watch progressives support Obama’s wars as if they’re more righteous than Bush’s.
Torture and Sport Killing: Bush accepted some blame for the Abu Ghraib torture debacle. Rightly so, as it was his Administration that set forth more enhanced interrogation permissions down the chain of command that ultimately resulted in such disgusting behavior.  Obama used the notion of closing Guantanamo prison to score political points and to appear as “anti-torture.”  Not only does Guantanamo remain open two years into his presidency, the detainees have less rights than they did under Bush.  Additionally, Obama has allowed the torture of American soldier Bradley Manning simply for being a suspected whistleblower.  If he allows this type of treatment to an American citizen, we can only imagine the tactics that are still being used against enemy detainees.  If it’s fair to blame Bush for Abu Ghraib, then it seems fair to blame Obama for allowing an environment where the U.S. military is engaged in sport killing of innocent civilians — which also seems to negate his calls for humanitarian purity in other nations.
Illegal Domestic Surveillance:   It seems the monster surveillance-industrial complex that was kicked off under Bush remains in full swing under Obama.  Obama voted for the Bush/Cheney FISA-telecom immunity after vowing to support a filibuster of it while he was a Senator.  Glenn Greenwald reported: “So candidate Obama unambiguously vowed to his supporters that he would work to ensure ‘full accountability’ for ‘past offenses’ in surveillance lawbreaking.  President Obama, however, has now become the prime impediment to precisely that accountability, repeatedly engaging in extraordinary legal maneuvers to ensure that ‘past offenses’ — both in the surveillance and torture/rendition realm — remain secret and forever immunized from judicial review.” And Carol Rose added, “The link between secrecy and surveillance is critical: in effect, our government is increasing its power to watch its citizens, while diminishing the power of citizens to watch their government – the very antithesis of democracy.”  It’s telling how out of control illegal surveillance has become when private foreign companies are hired to spy on American environmental activists.  This is in addition to the TSA’s roll-out of naked body scanners and intrusive pat-downs selectively enforced at airports and fiercely defended by Obama’s DHS.
Rule of Law is Dead: The Rule of Law is an ancient concept that means a society is governed by rational, objective written laws, as opposed to the personal whim or arbitrariness of some king. Under this pretext, no one is above the law, not even kings.  Yet, we have seen this concept steadily erode from reality over many decades, but not so blatant as under George W. Bush whose team permanently subverted the rules in favor of the elite. Under Bush and now Obama, the corporate elite clearly get away with massive crimes against humanity and overwhelming fraud, while the little people are still routinely punished for all minor offenses.  With not even a hint of punishment, banks can openly loot and defraud the public, the government can spy on Americans, the TSA can grope our private parts, while large corporations continue to poison us and the environment with impunity.  The Feds, under Obama, have even raided legal medical marijuana dispensaries and private organic cooperatives.  In addition, Obama signed an Executive Order to indefinitely detain ”terror” suspects even after acquittal — while other lawmakers seek to remove Miranda Rights.  Who is prosecuting these crimes and injustices?  When the criminal corporations with their government partners continue to run the system, there will be no rule of law, or justice.
Free Speech Restrictions: Bush mainly used fear, intimidation, access and fake reporters to control the establishment message.  He and the media cartel acted in concert to sell gigantic lies to the public.  Now, as more people replace their television service with the Internet, “news” has been more difficult for the establishment to control.  As the global awakening takes place, the crackdown on free speech intensifies under Obama.  The crackdown has been most obvious on the Internet (see next section) and on peaceful protesters.  In a comically hypocritical moment that exemplifies how tyrannical this administration has become, Hillary Clinton was giving a speech about supporting the right of peaceful protesters while her security thugs violently removed a “veteran for peace” from the audience for standing in silent protest.  Additionally, there was an absolute police state put in place during the 2009 G20 meeting in Pittsburgh to shut down peaceful protests.  Finally, we know what direction the current Administration is headed in terms of free speech, given the recent White Papers revealing their desire to “outlaw” or “tax” conspiracy theories, and to make it a felony offense to share copyrighted information even when no money is involved.
Internet Rights Eroding: The open and free Internet is under full assault under Obama’s leadership.  It has become obvious that there has never been much in the way of Internet privacy, especially since the Patriot Act went into full effect. But now, free access to information via the Internet is the target of legislation such as The Protecting Cybersecurity as a National Asset Act, aka the “Internet Kill Switch” bill, and the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), aka the domain “Blacklist” bill.  The free Internet is also being threatened by market-based “net neutrality” agreements, civil lawsuits, technical censorship via search engines, and yes, blogging taxes too.  Finally, the DHS has been arbitrarily seizing domain names, which is clearly unconstitutional.  Given that Obama is completely in bed with Google and others in the corporate information cartel, you can bet he will show his support for these endeavors even if only by remaining silent as they are debated then implemented.
Obamacare Fascism:  Even many progressives view Obamacare as a purely fascist policy. When a progressive tries to defend Obamacare these days, the best argument they can give is “at least Obama tried to fix the problem.” It’s their way of subtly deflecting blame to Bush for ignoring it because he was too busy “smokin’ turrurists outta their holes”.  Healthcare reform was meant to increase competition and affordable coverage for all Americans. Yet, the private insurance monopolies remain and citizens are mandated to buy from them under penalty of jail, while 1000 of the most connected corporations are exempt from the law.  Furthermore, the FDA remains under the full control of Big Pharma/Chemical giants and the giveaways to the drug companies have only increased.  Finally, when there are huge profits involved in deciding if people live or die, and budgetary rationing of services, you will always have “death panels.”  So, yes, the corporate government healthcare merger is complete with for-profit “death panels.” Folks, if you want to know what the modern-day definition of fascism is, you just read it.
We can sense the hate mail is coming from die-hard “team blue” fans here, but America doesn’t stand a chance without an honest assessment of what she represents and where she is heading under the policies outlined above.  The Bush-Obama evolution is as blatant as it gets that the current two-party system has morphed into one that would more properly be labeled The Corporatist Party.  We might do better to look beyond the two teams that so many root for, and realize that there is one central clubhouse from which they both operate.