MH370: Limits of China’s Soft Power

RSIS presents the following commentary MH370: Limits of China’s Soft Power by Benjamin Ho. It is also available online at this link. (To print it, click on this link.). Kindly forward any comments or feedback to the Editor RSIS Commentaries, at  RSISPublication@ntu.edu.sg. Republication is allowed subject to prior permission from the Editor.

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No. 059/2014 dated 31 March 2014

MH370:
Limits of China’s Soft Power

By Benjamin Ho

Synopsis

Much of China’s objective to be a great power would depend on how much soft power influence it wields on the global community. But as events following the disappearance of MH370 show, Beijing has still some way to go.

Commentary

AS THE dust begins to settle on the ill-fated MH370 flight, political calculations among the countries involved would start to feature increasingly in the post-disaster work that is expected to take months, if not years, to complete.
 
With 153 Chinese nationals onboard out of the 239 people, China’s involvement and interest in the follow-up will be substantial. But given political sensitivities among regional countries over Chinese territorial ambitions, cooperation with Beijing is not likely to be straight-forward.

Salvaging face

Assuming the plane ended up in the Indian Ocean and there were no survivors, of immediate concern to China is to retrieve any debris from the plane, including bodies, which would then allow relatives and friends of the Chinese passengers onboard the plane some extent of closure. The hostile anti-Malaysia sentiments among the Chinese public is understandable, given the circumstances of the past few weeks, yet what is of greater concern to the Chinese government in Beijing would be the loss of face it has to deal with, especially among its highly vocal citizens.

The idea of face figures prominently in Chinese society and which the Chinese attach great significance to. Sociologists have pointed out that any loss of face among the Chinese is not just individually appropriated, but is also a threat to a larger collective community from which the individual derives his sense of identity and meaning. As such, the Chinese government – given its proclamation as the vanguard of the Chinese working class – would have to live up to its reputation to safeguard the interest of the Chinese people.
 
The fact the incident took place during the National People’s Congress further heightens the political relevance of the matter, as seen by the almost immediate response by the Chinese government to set up a high-level Joint Ministerial Conference on the Security Protection of Chinese Overseas (JMC) to formulate its response strategy. Last week, vice foreign minister Zhang Yesui was sent to Kuala Lumpur as a special envoy of the Chinese government to meet with his Malaysian counterparts as well as Prime Minister Najib Razak and to convey the Chinese government’s views and position. This can be interpreted as a sign of Beijing underscoring its intentions to monitor the situation very carefully.

Managing public expectations

The furore levied against the Malaysian government cuts across the spectrum of Chinese society, not just among the relatives and friends in concern. Prominent Chinese personalities such as actress Zhang Ziyi, actor Chen Kun and famous TV show host Meng Fei have sharply criticised the Malaysians for their lack of transparency and ineffective handling of the incident. Scores of angry relatives were also allowed to protest at the Malaysian embassy in Beijing with the Chinese authorities unusually passive in its response - an obvious sign of the government’s tacit support.

The tourism industry has also been hit hard as many Chinese are calling on one another to boycott Malaysia. Given that Chinese tourists represent the third-biggest source of visitors to Malaysia, behind only Singapore and Indonesia, any long term fallout between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur will affect Malaysia’s tourism dollar. Already some mainland travel agencies have reported up to a 50 per cent drop in travel bookings to Malaysia while the China Youth Travel Service, which is founded by the Youth League of the Communist Party, has also suspended travel bookings with Malaysia Airlines, citing its concerns over passenger safety.

To be fair, a number of Chinese opinion-makers have warned their fellow Chinese citizens against further stoking the flames of anti-Malaysia sentiments, urging “rational patriotism” instead and the search for truth. The Chinese government, through its Foreign Ministry, has also demonstrated considerable resolve in keeping its bilateral relations with Malaysia on an even keel, refraining from using any strong language in its press statements that will upset its Malaysian counterparts.

Given relatively good ties between both countries over the past years, the Chinese government would want to ensure that it continues to maintain warm relations with Kuala Lumpur while ensuring that it is seen by its citizens to be standing up for their rights.

Western technology over Chinese territory

Despite China’s growing regional influence, it would seem that at the end of the day, Western involvement and assistance is needed, especially when it comes to the use of technology in complex search missions. According to the Straits Times’ China specialist Ching Cheong, what the MH370 incident revealed about China’s power status in the region is not encouraging as countries were reluctant to share information with it.

Given Malaysia’s influential position in ASEAN, it is likely that the Malaysian approach – looking to the West, instead of China – is representative of an overall ambivalence of the ASEAN community when it comes to working with China, especially when it concerns sharing of technical information that could possibly impinge on national security and intelligence-gathering capabilities.

The fact that China does not enjoy the trust of its neighbours also raises the question to what extent its global aspirations are viewed favourably by the rest of the region. In the case of MH370, China has contributed considerable assets in searching for the aircraft. Yet none of these assets possess the technological sophistication needed to undertake a mission as difficult as the current search for the missing airliner - a sign that China’s much- vaunted military modernisation programme still has some way to go before it matches that of its Western counterparts.

Unless Beijing is concealing its true capabilities – something unimaginable in such circumstances - regional countries would still turn to the West, if not always, for leadership, at least for its technical competence and know-how, even on territory that China claims.

According to David Shambaugh at the Elliot School of International Affairs, China presently remains a “partial power” despite its global ambitions. Its international behaviour remains fraught with inconsistencies which will continue to play out on the world stage and its brand of soft power is insufficiently attractive. Given this, regional countries will continue to align themselves with China on their terms, and not on Beijing’s.

Benjamin Ho is an Associate Research Fellow with the Multilateralism and Regionalism Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

March 31, 2014

Noah: Hollywood vandalizes the Bible

Shawn Mitchell

3/31/2014 12:01:00 AM

 

Noah is an absurd act of intellectual dishonesty and creedal theft. It's a middling sci-fi fantasy with a typically commanding performance by Russell Crowe in the title role. If the movie didn’t hijack a sacred story from Jews' and Christians' sacred book, I wouldn't hate it.
The problem isn’t just that Noah departs from the biblical story in about the same way the ship Titanic departed from South Hampton Port. The Santa Claus account of Christmas is closer to Luke, chapter 2, than Noah is to Genesis. The real offense is that Noah is a body switch that perverts biblical themes while blaring out pagan environmentalism in their place.

Is it fair to find that offensive? Yes. Consider the volcanic fury that would erupt from liberals and media if a conservative director (work with me—it’s a fantasy counterfactual) made a movie reimagining the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks is a sultry lounge singer with shares in General Motors who only wants to strike a blow against the city bus monopoly in order to promote auto ownership. Martin Luther King is a business provocateur who aims mostly to expand market opportunities for big retailers and corporate America. It’s not just that the details are invented, it’s that they offensively strip away the essence of why the towering figures are admired and beloved by millions.
Noah substitutes its atheist, environmentalist, vegan director’s world view and values for the moral themes and theological underpinnings most believers will bring to their viewing.There is nothing recognizably Judeo or Christian about “The Creator” in Noah. Indeed, there’s nothing discernibly theistic about The Creator, either. Rather, Noah is a sort of Earth Whisperer who receives promptings, maybe from Gaia the earth goddess, or hallucinations from berry tea, or perhaps just nightmares, to purge man’s awful footprint from the Earth.
Early in the film, he’s an austere action hero, scolding his son for picking a flower, pummeling and dispatching a band of bad guys who hunt animals for food, and glowering at all around him. Near the movie’s end, he’s so obsessed with saving the earth and killing off humanity, he plots to murder his unborn grandchildren and torches the raft on which his son and pregnant daughter in-law planned to escape his malice. Noah explains his “prophetic” mission thusly: "Paradise will begin again. But this time there will be no humans. The creator has judged us. Mankind must die. But all the good things will remain."
If that’s not heresy, nothing is. The Old and New Testaments tell the story of God’s efforts to entice his children to believe, obey, and covenant with Him so he can save them. In the Genesis account, men’s sin was wickedness, violence, and continually evil thoughts, not poor environmentalism. God covenanted to save Noah and his family because of Noah’s obedience.The earth is a school room for refining God’s children.But, in Noah, natural creation is more valuable and beloved than God’s children. The Lord’s intent was not to restore an obedient lineage He could save, but to end humanity so His Eden could serve a better purpose. Man is condemned not because he disobeys the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but because he tramples the statutes of Al Gore, PETA, and the Sierra Club.
The heresy that Hollywood passes off as a Bible story! If Jews or Christians had a twitching fraction of the anger management issues of some the descendants of Esau, then the makers, funders, and cast of this ugly movie would live their days in the same peril as Salmon Rushdie. Such a spectacle is averted by the decent demeanor of the believers this movie mocks.
The film’s defenders argue all biblical epics necessarily fill in spare accounts with animating details and side stories; there’s a lot in The Ten Commandments or Ben Huryou won’t findin the Bible.
Even setting aside the sad-eyed rock angels that look like Optimus Prime’s ugly cousins, the argument is fatuous. Those classic movies added subplots and intrigue separate from, but not inconsistent with, the biblical landscape they occupied. The God and doctrines of the Old and New Testaments, respectively, permeate the stories. The god and imaginings ofDarren Aronofsky, however, give us a raving, homicidal patriarch who took his family on an ark, not to save upon the cleansed earth a tribe of believers obedient to God’s commands, but to appease a vengeful earth spirit by killing off every last human.
I think Hollywood should commission David Duke and Fred Phelps to make a movie about the Civil Rights and Gay Rights movement. It would have as much integrity as Noah. I paid admission only to be able to comment knowledgeably. I urge you not to give your money to these culturo-literary vandals.

March 31, 2014

Israel’s Time’s Running Out, Mr. President, or Yours?

Ken Blackwell

3/30/2014 11:30:00 AM - Ken Blackwell

Editor's note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison.
Henry Kissinger made Mideast “shuttle diplomacy” famous in the 1970s. The peripatetic Sec. of State then jetted back and forth between Israel and Egypt and fashioned an uneasy cease-fire in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
President Obama has added a new twist to shuttle diplomacy. It seems whenever Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the air en route to Washington, the Commander-in-Chief chooses that time to apply the screws to Israel’s democratic government.
Three years ago, Mr. Obama made a major pronouncement: Israel should return to the pre-1967 borders as a basis for negotiating with the Arabs. He delivered these prepared remarks while Netanyahu was still in the air. Once Netanyahu came down to earth, he politely but firmly took the President to school on Mid Eastern affairs. Sitting in the Oval Office, and before live TV cameras, the Prime Minister noted that Israel could never return to those indefensible borders and remain a viable country.
Netanyahu was too diplomatic to use the phrase made famous by the late Abba Eban. The lines that existed prior to the Six Day War in 1967 were “Auschwitz borders.” But he made his point.
The White House quickly backpedaled. The President meant, of course, those pre-1967 borders “with appropriate territorial swaps” with the Arabs of Palestine. It would all be agreed upon. No pressure, Israel. Don’t feel pushed.
This time, President Obama sat for an interview with Bloomberg View correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg while Netanyahu was jetting westward. Previewing their forthcoming talks in the White House, the President said he would warn the Prime Minister that “time is running out.” He saw fit to quote the Jewish sage, Hillel: “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, who?”
The time is running out for Israel to give over to the PLO major portions of the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area known for millennia as Judea and Samaria. The President will not suggest surrendering Judea and Samaria to the PLO, of course.
Too many Americans remember that the Palestinian Liberation Organization led for decades on the U.S. State Department’s list of international terrorist organizations. The late Yassir Arafat, the PLO Chairman, was the inventor of airline hijacking for terror purposes. Britain’s leftwing Guardian has noted that Arafat’s loyal lieutenant, Abu Daoud, organized the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Arafat’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded him in 1994 despite his orders to his gunmen in Khartoum in the Sudan in 1973. “Execute the diplomats,” Arafat said then. U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel was among those brutally murdered.
No, the President will refer to Israel’s negotiating partners as the Palestinian Authority. The PLO morphed into the PA twenty years ago in order to qualify for U.S. and EU recognition. And with that recognition came billions of dollars and Euros in foreign aid.
Much of that aid wound up in the Swiss bank accounts of Arafat and his PLO cronies.
Since the death of Arafat in 2004, the PA has been headed by Mahmoud Abbas. He holds a Ph.D. from Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, during the Soviet era, where his dissertation expressed the view that Zionist leaders collaborated with the Nazis. Thus, Abbas is effectively one of the leading Holocaust deniers in the world.
Abbas is routinely referred to in Western media as “leader” of the Palestinian Authority. But since 2006, when the overtly terrorist group, Hamas, won an election in the Gaza Strip, Abbas has indefinitely postponed scheduled elections in PA-controlled areas. He is, therefore, the leader of an Authority without authority.
President Obama wants Benjamin Netanyahu to yield strategic territory to Abbas, who could not guarantee compliance with any signed agreement. Start with the PLO pledge to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and cease “incitement” of the Arab masses to murder of the Jews. The PA actually names public squares for suicide bombers and teaches school children to model suicide vests. PA maps of Palestine show no territory for Israel.
In those areas that would be ceded to the PA, Abbas assures the world, no Jews would be permitted to live. We’ve seen this movie before. The Nazis sought to rid Poland and Ukraine of Jews, calling for those regions to be Judenrein—lands free of Jews.
Abbas’ friends in the PA-administered territories greeted the collapse of the flaming Twin Towers on September 11^th with dancing in the streets. They fired their Soviet-supplied rifles into the air in celebration. They gave candy to their children.
It is by no means clear why any American should want to deal with the PLO, much less the American President. Or try to put pressure on Israel’s democratically legitimated government to yield to this gang of not-quite-reformed terrorists. They are inveterate enemies of the United States.
The President is obviously feeling second term pressures. He wants to be that “transformational President” that he promised his voters he would be. When he says “time is running out,” he’s right.
President has just 1029 days left in office. The Jews have been in Judea and Samaria for six thousand years.

Thayer Is a Philippine-Vietnam Alliance on the Horizon

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Is a Philippine-Vietnam
Alliance in the Making?
Trends indicate that cooperation
between the Philippines and
Vietnam is expanding, but is an
alliance on the horizon?
Walden Bellow, a representative of
Akbayan (Citizens’ Action Party) in the
Philippine House of Representatives,
recently wrote an opinion-editorial in
Foreign Policy in Focus (March 18)
entitled, “A Budding Alliance: Vietnam
and the Philippines Confront China.”
Bello argued that, “The Philippines and
Vietnam are natural allies in their
common struggle against China’s drive
for hegemony in East Asia. Already
partners in ASEAN, the two are likely to
be driven closer together by Beijing’s
increasingly brazen displays of power as
it enforces its claim to some 80 percent of the South China Sea.”
The Philippines and Vietnam share convergent views and concerns over Chinese
assertiveness in the South China Sea. This has led to intense diplomatic interaction
and some coordination in multilateral institutions, including the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
A review of defense interaction reveals that over the last five years, progress has been
spotty though gradual, but prospects for an alliance still remain over the horizon.
The Philippines and Vietnam reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on
Defense Cooperation on October 26, 2010. The MOU was signed in Hanoi by
Vietnam’s Minister of National Defense, General Phung Quang Thanh, and the
Philippines’ Secretary of Defense, Voltaire Gazmin, on the sidelines of the state visit
by President Benigno Aquino.
By Carl Thayer
March 28, 2014
Is a Philippine-Vietnam Alliance in the Making? | The Diplomat Page 1 of 3
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/is-a-philippine-vietnam-alliance-in-the-making/ 28/03/2014
The MOU contained generally worded provisions for reciprocal visits by military
delegations, information exchanges on counter-terrorism, cooperation in military
education and training, search and rescue assistance, and collaboration in the
development of military equipment and technology. A joint technical working group
was set up to implement the MOU.
A year later, the Philippines and Vietnam signed an agreement to strengthen the
implementation of maritime security between the Philippine Coast Guard and the
Vietnam Marine Police (since renamed Vietnam Coast Guard). This agreement was
drawn up to address problems caused by the encroachment of fishermen into the
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the other party. The agreement also included a
provision on public education of fishermen to respect EEZ boundaries.
A major boost in navy-to-navy cooperation occurred in March 2012 during
discussions held in Hanoi between Philippine Navy Flag Officer in Command, Vice
Admiral Alexander Pama, and Vietnam People’s Army Navy Commander, Admiral
Nguyen Van Hien.
Admirals Pama and Hien signed a MOU on the Enhancement of Mutual Cooperation
and Information Sharing between the two navies. The MOU included a provision for a
hotline between the operational headquarters of their respective coast guards to
monitor maritime incidents such as piracy and incursions into territorial waters.
The MOU also included possible cooperation in shipbuilding. The latter resulted from
a request by Admiral Pama following his visit to the Naval Shipyard X46 that housed
state of the art facilities for building and repair of warships and other naval vessels.
The two navy chiefs signed an agreement on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on
Personnel Interaction in the Vicinity of Southeast Cay and the Northeast Cay Island
between the Vietnam People’s Navy and Philippine Navy. Under the terms of the SOP,
the two sides agreed to conduct coordinated maritime patrols in their overlapping
waters.
China’s Foreign Ministry immediately warned against any exercises between the
Vietnamese and Philippine navies. As a result, it appears that the idea of joint naval
patrols was shelved in favor of football and basketball matches – or “fun games” –
between naval personnel stationed in the Spratly Islands.
On July 23, 2013, Lt. Gen. Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of
the Vietnam People’s Army, received Lt. Gen Noel A. Coballes, Commanding Officer of
the Philippines Army, in Hanoi. They reviewed progress in implementing the 2010
MOU and agreed to host army-to-army dialogues.
In late July-early August 2013, Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Foreign
Minister Pham Binh Minh held the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-Philippines Joint
Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in Manila. This meeting reviewed
implementation of the agreement on bilateral cooperation covering the period 2011 to
2016. These talks touched on cooperation in dealing with China over South China Sea
territorial disputes, maritime security cooperation including information related to
illegal intrusions.
Is a Philippine-Vietnam Alliance in the Making? | The Diplomat Page 2 of 3
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/is-a-philippine-vietnam-alliance-in-the-making/ 28/03/2014
In late August, Secretary Gazmin received his Vietnamese counterpart, General
Thanh, in Manila to review progress in defense cooperation. Discussions between
Gazmin and Thanh included the security situation in the South China Sea, the U.S.
policy of rebalancing towards the Asia-Pacific, and future cooperation in
humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
According to a statement released by the Department of National Defense, since 2010
“defense relations between the two countries have progressed through high-level
visits, personnel exchanges and information sharing” and reflects “the commitment of
both countries to enhance cooperation in jointly developing their defense
capabilities…”
The two ministers agreed to renew the 2010 MOU on defense cooperation and to
initiate a defense policy dialogue at deputy minister level.
As a follow up to the ministerial meeting, Vietnam’s Deputy Chief of the General Staff,
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, received Maj. Gen. John S. Bonafos, Commander of the Special
Operations Command, in Hanoi on October 9. They agreed to enhance cooperation
between their navies, air forces, armies and coast guards. No specific details were
released.
On March 21 this year, Vice Admiral Jose Luis M. Alano, led a Philippine Navy
delegation to Hanoi. Alano expressed interest in joint training of naval graduates at
the bachelor degree level. Defense Minister General Thanh suggested that the two
naval forces should raise cooperation in sharing intelligence through hotlines in their
respective defense ministries, joint Search and Rescue exercises, and professional
military education and training.
This review of Philippine-Vietnam defense relations since 2010 reveals that
cooperation is progressing but at a rudimentary level. The two countries have not yet
held practical military exercises that would enhance interoperability. The Philippines
is about to sign an agreement to enhance defense cooperation with the United States.
Vietnam has been reluctant to move from naval engagement activities to joint
exercises involving the exchange of combat skills. In sum, the Philippines and
Vietnam will develop close political-diplomatic ties to counter Chinese assertiveness
in the South China Sea. But there is no prospect that present defense cooperation will
grow into an informal anti-China military alliance.
Is a Philippine-Vietnam Alliance in the Making? | The Diplomat Page 3 of 3
http://thediplomat.com/2014/03/is-a-philippine-vietnam-alliance-in-the-making/ 28/03/2014

Shocking ’60 Minutes’ Report Will Shake Wall Street To Its Core!

Monday, March 31, 2014 7:45

0

(Before It's News)

The bombshell ’60 Minutes’ report below just released last night will shake Wall Street to its core. Exposing that Wall Street is rigged to the benefit of certain insiders who have made BILLIONS of dollars via computerized trading, this report should bring Wall Street to its knees. 2nd video also below.

POWER GRID TAMPERING WILL END AN ERA

People have asked me if I noticed any problems as a result of the splitting up of the electrical grid, and the answer is YES. There are a lot more power outages now, it's more like the 70's. This won't be fatal in and of itself, but it does prove that our power stability has been compromised See the update, which answers a question about DC connected main lines below this report. The entire premise of my report is based on the fact that you cannot run multiple frequencies simultaneously on the grid without separating it into sections and running them separately. That is what the AP report clearly implies when it says that clocks will run faster and slower in various regions. ____________________________________________________________________________
A recent AP report states that there is a proposal in place to change the frequency various parts of the national electrical grid run at. The frequency differences will be minor, but will force an end to the national grid as we know it. The only way frequencies can be different at all in separate locations around the nation is to not have a grid at all.
They are attempting to childishly play this down as something that will mess up clocks. But what it really means is that they are going to dismantle the national power grid entirely.
And now I will dissect and shred this article
First of all, they are saying that this is going to be a "year long experiment". It won't be. Since dismantling the grid amounts to an act of war, once it is dismantled we will not get it back. This "experiment" is exactly what you would want to do to a nation as a pre-emptive measure before attacking it. When destroying a nation, the basics have to go. You need to destroy the water, electrical, and food supplies to force people to surrender. By running different frequencies in different parts of the grid,the laws of physics clearly dictate that it has to be run in sections, all isolated from each other.
Many readers know that one of the strengths of the internet is it's distributed data paths, which make it very difficult to take down. If a line gets cut, you can just re-route through a different line, and all is well. Our interconnected power grid, which has been in place and running synchronously with perfect phase and frequency matching across it's entireity since 1930, is an electrical equivalent of the internet, and is a marvel of the world.
Our intact electrical grid will feed power to areas that have lost it, and keep their lights on. So let's say a hurricane takes out Louisiana and all their generating facilities are damaged - the grid will provide power from Texas to help them get back on their feet. If you want to knock out power in a war, you would need to isolate Louisiana FIRST so that Texas could not feed them after you destroyed their infrastructure. This is the only truthful reason why anyone would suggest dismantling one of our greatest national treasures.
We have in America a system which would allow Hoover dam to provide power to Boston. But those days have to end before an experiment like the one this article discusses can even happen. Here is why:
The article states: "The group that oversees the U.S. power grid is proposing an experiment would allow more frequency variation than it does now without corrections, according to a company presentation obtained by The Associated Press".
Here they say they will allow "more frequency variation". Well, that means that after most of a century of having zero frequency variation, that there will now be frequency variation. America's power grid has been perfectly synchronized since 1930 and has never varied by more than 1/10th of a cycle (1/600th of a second) from coast to coast in over 80 years. This is due largely to the fact that the grid causes generating facilities to lock into each other, and mimic each other's phasing exactly. Any deviation in any one facility against the predominant phasing of the grid will cause it to lose efficiency and in extreme cases be destroyed.
To say they will allow "MORE frequency variation" is a lie, because it implies there WAS frequency variation. THERE NEVER WAS, EVER. That is why clocks have used the grid frequency as a reference for 4 generations.
Folks, you cannot have any frequency variation on an interconnected electrical grid. This is because our 60 hz AC is a rising and falling wave form which goes from negative to positive 60 times a second. Negative and positive ALWAYS have to line up. If you deviate from a 60 hz frequency by even 0.001 hz on only one part of the grid, all it will take is ten seconds for that variation in frequency to cause it to begin rising and falling opposite to the rest of the grid. That would represent a positive to negative electrical short right from within the fabric of the grid itself. So there is no such thing as a "slightly faster running grid" out east, it's a bold faced lie completely counter to the laws of physics.
HERE IS ANOTHER LIE TO SHRED:
"The North American Electric Reliability Corp. runs the nation's interlocking web of transmission lines and power plants."
No they don't. No one company manages the grid. It is managed via cooperation and understanding of the laws of physics. This company is merely now the face of the lie. The fact that they have a long history has been SHREDDED by this proposal of theirs, buisnesses come and go, and these people need to head on out the door.
I myself have had to make calls for power allocations to avoid regional black-outs when demand was predicted to be high, and I certainly never called these folks! I just called the facility feeding us and THEY handled it. If they could not handle it, they had the power routed from another area. So for the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to say they manage it all is quite a statement! How do we know they are not a front company, set up as a bogus pre-paid corporation with a purchased "history"? I have a LOT of experience, and NEVER HEARD OF THEM.

And now the math, which proves them liars.

Here is how you prove that the real goal is to dismantle the grid. Their claim was that they wanted an allowed deviation of 20 minutes per year on one coast in comparison with the opposite coast. So let's take 20 minutes and multiply it by 60 seconds. That's 1200 seconds. Then divide that by days in a year (365) which will give you 3.287 seconds of deviation PER DAY. Take that number and divide it by hours (24) and that gives you a deviation of 0.136 seconds per hour. Divide that by 60 minutes and the deviation is 0.0022826 seconds per minute. Divide that by 60 again. That gives you a deviation of 0.000038 seconds per second. Now MULTIPLY that by your cycles PER SECOND, which is 60. Right back to 0.0022826 phase difference per second.
Now here is where it gets interesting. Let's say I am running a 600,000 volt line. Since the frequency we are dealing with is 60 Hz, it fits perfectly into the equation. Multiply 0.0022826 as a representation of percentage by 600,000 volts. AC has a positive and negative cycle which effectively doubles that rate, for a total of 0.0045652% per second. Multiply that by 600,000 volts, and the voltage creep equals 2739 volts per SECOND. The math is pretty simple from there. One minute (60 seconds) x 2,739 volts will equal a 164,347 volt difference in phasing between interconnected coasts per minute. Major problems will happen within 15 seconds. Total phase desynchronization will occur in a little under three minutes.
This serves to prove that no frequency deviation at all can be tolerated in an interconnected grid and that this agency - the so called "North American Electrical Reliability Corp" is lying out their butt in this news release and therefore can only have been usurped by either paper trained idiots or an enemy that wants an end to the American power grid, because allowing "frequency variation" can mean only that. The AP article should finish them, OUT OF BUSINESS.
The bottom line? The American power grid, at no time ever in the last 80 years has ever been out of synchronization, by more than 0.001 second total per year coast to coast. The laws of physics will not allow it. We cannot allow ANYONE to disconnect our grid. 20 minutes a year would not cut it in tuvalu! Not even 1/60th of 1 second would. It is a mathematical impossibility to have ANY deviation on an interconnected grid.
And it gets worse . . . . .
When it comes to phase correlation, momentum can be the enemy.
The generators at electrical facilities are ENORMOUS. People may not realize how big they really are. Large electrical facilities need to be spun up before going online, it takes a long time to get the enormous mass of the generator moving and stabilized, sometimes even hours. Even modest generators are so big that the spinning mass can weigh hundreds of tons, and surface speeds of the armatures can be over 100 MPH. That's a LOT of speed on a LOT of mass. The massive size of these generators helps them be perfectly stable when running. There is so much momentum built up in a large industrial generator that even enormous peak draws from it can be soaked up without it being perceptibly slowed by the peaks at all.
If an enemy was running the government then, and people were happy to have frequencies changed for no good reason at all, electrical "tug of wars" between generators could be set up under the premise of "oops" to destroy them. Breaker disconnects under such situations are often unsuccessful due to contacts getting welded. I have seen problems happen in even tiny one megawatt units, where a controller malfunctioned and dropped them onto the same line when their phasing was only off by a fraction of a percent. One was going very slightly ahead the other, so it drove the other to go faster while the other slowed it down. The over-reactions were extreme; they ponged each other's speed up and down and the accelerations/decelerations were enormous, taking place within fractions of a second. I fully expected the windings to explode. I was blown away by how extreme their behavior was.
Even a pair of small generators can be caused to totally freak out from an initial phasing difference that is very minor. This problem would be greatly exacerbated in a power play between multiple enormous generators. Electrical explosions would no doubt result, in the case I witnessed, they both got the right bounce within a couple seconds and stabilized. It was a brief and exciting event. Things are normally not so lucky and the answer is obvious - If you want no problems in the electrical grid, a perfect standard frequency should be the norm, as it always has been for over 80 years.
However, if you were an enemy in posession of a virus like Stuxnet, a non-interconnected grid with all the switch gear from when it was previously connected still in place to play with could be lots of FUN!. To blow out two regions at the same time, all you would have to do is activate switch gear that is already in place from the old grid when both regions are out of phase with each other. Doing so would cause serious damage to equipment in both regions.
Want to blow a nuclear reactor? Here's a good way to try! SUDDENLY and without announcement, introduce a frequency difference on the grid. Suddenly that nuke plant would be forced to deal with a rapid phase inversion on the grid. With all the stored momentum in the generators available for a nice peak surge output, thousands and thousands of times higher than anything they could ever handle if suddenly the coupled phases were inverted, there would be at a minimum enormous explosions in the circuit breakers and switch gear, and most likely enormous explosions from within the generator windings themselves.
Suddenly, with the windings and switch gear blown in an instant, there would be nothing left to load the generator, which needs to be held back from accelerating by the electrical system it is feeding power into. You would get a brief period of rapid acceleration before safety shutoffs re-routed steam from the generator's turbines to an emergency bypass. Things would get sketchy after this. YOU NEED TO GET RID OF THAT STEAM.
At a minimum, safety valves should open on the reactor or whatever else (coal fired boiler) to release the sudden steam pressure buildup resulting from the turbine steam not being needed anymore. If the system was infected with Stuxnet, (85 percent of our power generating facilities can be) and Stuxnet was programmed to over ride the emergency steam release valves as was the case at Fukushima, things WILL explode. Said explosions would not be minor. The worst possible case scenario would be a nuclear reactor which was running at full output suddenly not having it's steam be needed anymore, be kept at full thermal output by a virus that also forces all the safety related equipment to not activate.
Clandestine military action is the only reason any thinking engineer would want to suggest acceptance of variances in the grid frequency. There is no possible way to derive any sort of benefit from not keeping the frequency dead on, as it has always been.
But it gets worse, even
Every motor powered device depends upon the grid frequency to regulate how hard it runs itself. All of the design characteristics involving material stress and current draw are centered around an always reliable 60 hz frequency. If the frequency was increased to 70 hz, swamp coolers would burn up from trying to run too fast, as would air conditioners, washing machines, ect. The amount they are talking about in the article would not be that high, but I believe it is the end goal and introducing the concept of tampering with the frequency is like a toe dip to see if there are any pihranas out in the public sphere to look out for while they slowly weaponize the power grid. I will happily provide the first bite. What if they choose 90 hz? 100hz? Not much would survive that, and whatever did would not be the same anymore. Welcome to the third world.
Here is a great quote to rip, this is an outright lie
Some parts of the grid, like in the East, tend to run faster than others. Errors add up. If the grid averages just over 60 cycles a second, clocks that rely on the grid will gain 14 seconds per day, according to the company's presentation."
There is zero frequency variation on the grid between east and west coasts. It is physically impossible for them to vary by even 1/10th of a cycle (1/600th of a second) per year. ANY drift will cause immediate phase cancellation with other parts of the grid resulting in immediate grid failure. The entire grid HAS TO go up or down SIMULTANEOUSLY. There is NO SUCH THING as a frequency variation in relation to another connected area.
This entire report is such a bold faced stream of BS and lies, I am blown away to think they would ever consider trying. This is downright brazen
I know many readers believe the end is near for this nation. Proposals like this prove it. Even worse is the attitude of AP. Did they not consult anyone who actually knew what this would do, other than the enemy? Are THEY the enemy?
They will do this if we do not speak up. If you want this nation to have a future, I strongly suggest you make it perfectly clear that the GRID IS NOT TO BE TAMPERED WITH.
UPDATE:
These comments are in response to people who e-mailed me telling me the grid was now running DC, which would, if true, make my main premise irrelevant.
My response follows
I know that on many of the big transmission lines they are indeed using DC on VERY LONG RUNS of 400 miles or more because it allows higher RMS throughput and minimizes inductive losses, but it is not always the case. None of the big lines in my area are that way, and AC distribution is still so predominant that playing with frequencies on a grid as great as ours is the equivalent of handing a ferarri over to a tinkering teenager. I will not budge on my major premise, that phase conflict issues will indeed force the grid to operate in isolated pockets if an experiment with different AC frequencies is allowed, and that anyone who is suggesting it should be allowed to run with frequency variations should be the subject of GREAT scrutiny and suspicion.
How much of the grid, exactly, uses DC/inverter arrangements? VERY LITTLE. And it is ALL on remotely situated lines of enormous length. You will find few of these types of lines if ANY east of the Rockies. These are mostly in the desert southwest. East of the rockies, where long runs are not needed, whether or not DC will save you money has to be calculated against cost of equipment and losses of power in that equipment. Rectifiers and inverters do not run with perfect efficiency, there are losses and if those losses add up to more than what the AC inductive losses over a stretch of line would be it makes no sense at all to use them. Furthermore, if an arc ever starts on a DC line, there HAS TO be a short power outage to extinguish it. AC lines self extinguish in one cycle automatically.
Despite a few people saying DC makes my suspicions irrelevant, upon checking for recent technology changes I found I am completely correct and I am not budging on my main premise - that there is no rational reason to tamper with the grid frequency.
Also:
Phasing is everything. Get more than 30 degrees before or behind the phase and you are toast. If you do not understand why frequency matters, stay off the subject. It's not a matter of ideal or not ideal, it's a matter of POOF!. You may think you are doing a service by going around telling people I am full of BS, but it is very common for electricians to not understand what functions frequency performs and it is beyond virtually all of them to understand that you cannot have two dominant frequencies from different sources on the same line without encountering severe problems.
Frequency matters a LOT MORE THAN VOLTAGE, INFINITELY MORE because excess voltage does not go on a continuously proceeding march forward. A high voltage on a line will stay where it is, but a different frequency will walk forward on a phase until it lands directly opposite. Things will trip out long before that happens. Any frequency deviation between two signal sources will put one source wave form negative to the other source positive very rapidly. A full phase misalignment will represent an RMS voltage difference between both sources that is TWICE the RMS voltage of each source if they are the same voltage to begin with, and they are 180 out from each other. Yes I know 3 phase is 120 degrees per phase but I was not all too excited about trying to explain three phase power in an article mostly read by people who do not deal with electricity.
I have seen countless electricians mistake harmonics for "frequency variation" and then run around saying the place runs on "70 HZ!". Harmonics can be pesky, but they are NOT the root frequency, and if your meter is telling you there is 70 hz on a 60 hz line, there is either a severe overspeed on your generator or you are picking up a harmonic. Suspect a harmonic. Meters will often do that, and it has nothing to do with root frequency. Not understanding this is very common among average electricians.
My reference was for single phase AC because I did not want to try to explain 3 phase power to average people. My report was not written for electricians, it needs to hit the masses to make a difference.
I am dead right about inverted phases and frequency creep, interconnected systems have to hit the EXACT SAME FREQUENCY DEAD ON, even being off a fraction of a percent will quickly be the equivalent of shorting opposite phases.
Leading the phase and lagging the phase DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FREQUENCY DIFFERENCE. Lots of places might try pushing the phase to get more power out or correct a lagging power factor. That is not the same thing as producing a different frequency altogether. That is something I did not put in the report because it is far too complex for average people but I know there are plenty of electricians out there who actually think that pushing the phase requires you to run at a higher frequency; it does not. It changes the shape of the ouput wave form unless too many power facilities do it simultaneously, and then they all go up together, there is NEVER a "different" frequency on the grid in one location in relation to another. The entire premise of this report is that there can never be two different root frequencies present on the grid. It is not possible to have that happen, and if the East ever does run up to a different frequency it will require being disconnected from other parts of the grid which are running slower. On an interconnected grid that should not happen, it should all stay at the exact same frequency between interconnected regions. The AP report clearly states that they want DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES ON THE SAME GRID. THAT CANNOT HAPPEN UNLESS REGIONS ARE NOT CONNECTED.
I am sure there are a few who will comment about the fact that capacitors are used to correct a lagging power factor, but there are many ways to do it. Capacitors are ONE WAY to correct lagging power factors but when it comes to heavy duty correction, they are lacking compared to running a synchronous motor with an over excited field or a generator dedicated to pushing the lag forward. Linemen do not come across anything other than capacitors. There are other ways.

And even if short distribution lines were running isolated regions by inverter only, For what reason would we have to accept frequency inaccuracies amounting to 14 seconds a day? Cheap dollar store watches can hit that accuracy, so what plausible reason could be offered to support accepting it when any inverter used on a distribution line would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars? Can't put a $30 part in it to keep the frequency to within a half second a day? HOGWASH! They ALL have the ability to output very accurately. Nowadays we should be demanding a MORE ACCURATE GRID FREQUENCY, if it can be done. Don't allow scammers to "fix" what is not broken!_______________________________________________

Deep Water Horizon likely destroyed by space based laser

I noticed this before, but did not post it because I did not realize the lights on the rig failed FIRST and then it exploded. I had this info all along, and since it's so easy to prove this I will post it while I am busy with other things.

When I studied this disaster before, I discovered that the main electrical system is indeed, BEYOND A DOUBT, below the Helipad, I just did not realize the lights failed first, which puts this story over the top into post-able credibility. I have little doubt now that a laser weapon did indeed destroy this platform, but of course it can't be proven absolutely.

However, as an experienced photographer, I am calling the blue beam in the Youtube vids camera lens flare until I see a video where it is visibly obvious it is not; Reader comment:

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The evil of compartmentalization.

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So, they checked your background, and you got that job at an intelligence agency. No doubt you are smart, and with that fancy compartmentalized clearance you have, you can truly claim to be the BIG SHOT. But perhaps there is something you failed to consider . . . . . .

There is something that I am sure most people do not realize when they talk about the NSA, CIA, FBI, ect. And that is that these agencies have no people in them that are allowed to know what their work is really used for. A tyrannical government will always seek out honest people and use them to do evil by restricting information from them. The use of honest people to do the works of evil is accomplished by only letting them see one small part of the total mission, and the reason given to them is so that one individual cannot see what is happening from start to finish and then sell out to the "enemy". Their field of knowledge is restricted to one small piece of the job, or "compartment". This restriction of information is called compartmentalization. But there is a problem with compartmentalization, and it is that it can serve a dual purpose. Because one individual is never allowed to see the entire mission, the mission can be evil and no one will be the wiser. Let's say that the corrupted elite on the top of the chain are after a whistleblower. There will be a mission born at the FBI or another agency, where they will be told they are pursuing a terrorist who plans to blow something up. They will never be told they are really after someone who found out that Baxter released a tainted vaccine and has the proof needed to stop it from hitting distribution, they will be told it is a terrorist, and national security is severely threatened.
Good moralistic people will want to defend their country, so they will work hard to keep tabs on this terrorist. Down in the lower levels, there will be a few well selected people who know the truth, no doubt paid very well to manipulate and steer the honest away from any discoveries, and if discoveries are made which are counter to the cover story, those who made those discoveries will be congratulated and assigned a new mission. You can't have morals getting in the way of a composite work of evil.
When I did the Fukushima report, I was stalked and watched continuously. It was so bad that the neighbors noticed and asked me why there were always people watching my house. I got rid of the stalkers with a unique solution. These people were ignorant to why they were assigned to watch me, and I knew that. So I began printing out the Fukushima report, going up to them, and handing it to them while telling them that THIS is why they were really watching me, and to show it to their boss. I knew by doing so I breached about 30 compartments. I destroyed good agents, several, because I knew they had morals and would NOT agree to be used the way they were being used. To prevent losses, and I am sure the losses went up the chain of command a ways, they HAD TO call off the hounds. My doing this was a direct result of knowing exactly how the compartmentalized clearance system works.
If you ever get yourself in a situation like I was in at that time, and people are stalking you because you have information that is in the public interest that certain high ranking people would want stopped, print it up and hand it to your stalkers. You'd be surprised by how fast they vanish.
To the people at the intelligence agencies, CONSIDER THIS: You were told after 9/11 that there were terrorists all over this country. You were told that there were sleeper cells, bio labs brewing up diseases, explosives experts, and all sorts of evil al-quaida rag tags running around this country, just waiting to blow up a bridge, a day care center, a stadium, and we have not seen JACK other than patsies your own agencies set up.
And in the name of doing your job of protecting that which you love from terror, you raided every e-mail box and computer in your own country of it's secrets, captured every last phone conversation and recorded it, and it did not matter if the mailboxes were for completely innocent businesses with legitimate and valuable company secrets, those of inventors with new creations and technologies, those of doctors who discovered the truth and would have acted on the truth to protect your children;
It mattered not to you that you stole every last piece of sensitive information from every innocent person in America and the rest of the world and threw it in a big pile for liars and theives to steal from, and murderers and rapists to plot from, the same liars and theives, murderers and rapists who wrote the propaganda that brainwashed you into thinking you are of honor and that your work would never be used for evil. Their lies successfully blinded you because your compartmentalized clearance hid the evil of what your work was really used for from you.
You are a death sentence for America and the rest of those who are decent in this world. Your work will be used to crush the legitimate uprising of good over evil, your work will be used to steal the life blood from those you love and claim to protect and hand it to those who will in turn destroy even you;
If you ever see the light and try to do anything to solve the real problems we all face, your peers will quickly render you irrelevant no matter how good you are trying to be, and if you succeed in avoiding being murdered or destructively drugged into permanent mental irrelevance your peers will simply render you irrelevant by doing what you did - recording all phone calls, intercepting all mails, and stopping all communication YOU YOURSELF need to survive.
Consider this the next time you are told to track a terrorist, or a threat to "national security". Consider the fact that you are not allowed to see the entire mission from start to finish, and you may very well IN FACT be spelling the doom for someone who is seeking to save YOUR child from vaccine damage, your wife from getting her brain blown out by psyche meds, or your home from being washed away by a nuclear tsunami no doubt blamed on mother nature. Consider whether or not a compartmentalized clearance should even exist, for truly, the worst of evils can be accomplished through the ignorance of good hearted people totally oblivious to the reality of what their work really represents.

PRESCRIBED DELETION - the truth about antidepressants.

This is a massive subject, and I am living a very difficult life at this time which is interfering with my writing. So, I have to rough this out. This report is based mainly upon information I gathered during a study of antidepressants I did in 2008/09. This was the study that netted the classified documents from GSK This is the first section of this report.
I will do this report one section at a time, and the steps will be:
1. Testimonies of people destroyed by antidepressants
2. The chemistry of the various antidpressants, and which dangerous substances in everyday life they deliver directly to the brain - Yes, you heard that right, there are several that do nothing more than deliver modeling glue and other nasty aromatic hydrocarbons straight to your brain, and KEEP THEM THERE. Several would be replaced well by a gasoline inhaler attached to a backpack that you carry with you - (pill form is easier though) and others, like Prozac, are derived from fluoride. Antidepressants deliver a very stable but FILTHY high until you fry, and the hydrocarbon based ones cause exactly the same damage you get from working in a paint booth without a respirator. I HAVE PROOF.
3. The visible physical damage antidepressants cause and how and why it occurs, including osteo porosis, calcification of the brain, brain shrinkage, destruction of white matter, corkscrewed axons, liver and other organ damage, and some interesting ancedotes related to this;
4. The motivation for attempting to destroy the entire population of a nation with these substances, and an expose of the corruption in the FDA, the medical community, the Jewish connection, the banker/Rothchild/Rockefeller/facist connection, the future slave state, how the research SSRI's are based on was done in Russia and imported to America in the form of Prozac, and the proposed finalization of the destruction of Western civilization which "antidepressants" will play a central role in.
5. A detailed exposure of why antidepressants destroy bonding relationships, and make it impossible for anyone to fall permanently in love for REAL, with a little side attachment explaining the reasons for why specific brands destroy sex in different ways. - I actually have the line by line answers for EACH BRAND, and which part of the brain they ruin to often permanently destroy sex in different ways. Different brands destroy different pathways, but all are effective in wrecking sex.
6. How they get away with hurting so many people under the supposed cover of doing good, and the methods put in place to avoid being sued, imprisoned, and hung. What WE need to do to forever expose this scam, and make sure they are sued, imprisoned, and hung. I have the answer to EXACTLY how we can blow this open and hang them.
SO, due to the hacks and deletions I am constantly fighting, here is a rather rough start. It's obvious from all that has transpired that this is a stab at the root of the worst evil, this is going to piss them off more than anything.

Prescribed Deletion - testimonies of the destroyed.

These are the words of those who have been destroyed by antidepressants. If you are among them, STOP listening to your P-doc telling you it never happens; the reality is that they ALL know it happens and they are lying to you. View this chart, and READ THE RESULTS THAT FOLLOW.
These are testimonies of people destroyed by antidepressants.

- - - - - -
"Whoever said that they lost most their ability to love; MAN, that is the thing I miss the most. I was a very, very, very passionate person prior to celexa. I was passionate about everything, my marriage, my job, my country. I couldn't hear our national anthem without stopping and feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. 14 years in the Army National guard, I was very into my career with them too. I was passionate about running, about my relationship with (and this will probably sound wierd) my dog. I miss all of these things. I hope they all come back to me. They were very much the bricks in the foundation of my life and I feel like they are gone. When I say I want the old me back, I mean the person who was passionate, the person who loved and was loved. The driven person who saw what he wanted and went out and got it. That was all taken from me with the introduction of Celexa in my life. I just want it back."
- - - - - -
"I've been in an extremely peculiar state for the past 8 months after stopping Wellbutrin/buproprion. I have literally lost everything inside of me and no longer have a sense of "inner being". My personality has been completely erased, along with the inner psyche I've spent a lifetime building. When I attempt to "look inside", it is impossible because there is literally nothing there. Everything that made up my specific sense of personal being is gone, including including my hopes, fears, dreams, goals, opinions, values, morals, likes/dislikes, and most strikingly, all emotions and feelings.
I have no feelings associated with past events, and no emotional connections with anything in the world. Specific emotions that defined my personal sense of being are no longer there. People, places, things and events that I thought were etched in my soul as having significance no longer mean a thing. Absolutely nothing, I can't stress this enough.
I am unable to look backward or forward, have no sense of past accomplishments and no desire for future ones. The strangest thing is, I cannot feel anything toward being in this state, as that part of me is gone too. It's like a recursive erasure of everything I ever was, am, and will be.
It doesn't feel like life is a conscious experience that I am having anymore, as there is no inner construct within me to absorb an experience on any level. I see, hear, touch, and smell, yet each of these is so devoid of emotional content that they don't coalesce into anything meaningful I can call a human consciousness. My sense of being has been replaced by a constant void of nothingness that is unchanging, 24/7, I feel nothing towards the nothingness. It is not like feeling empty inside, there is no inside to feel empty within.
Getting to this state was a long process that started with gradually losing my emotions. This started when I decided to withdraw from the antidepressant Wellbutrin/Bupropion which I'd been on a high dosage of for 5 years. Strangely, going back on it did not help, but made things worse. When I stopped and started the drug a second time, I experienced one tremendous day of improvement followed by a seizure while sleeping, and woke up in a confused state. After this I regressed and felt completely dead inside.
This waking up in a confused state happened 2 more times, once in May 2010 and once in September 2010. Both of these were preceded by sudden improvements. But upon waking I felt like I had lost a basic part of my self. Not just feelings, but the core of my being. What I felt to be the complete and final destruction of my inner being happened on September 7th, 2010, and there hasn't been a change since (it has now been 8 months).
- - - - - -
"I tell you, I never had a problem before celexa. I just want to be back to me. I want to no longer be the pitiful creature it made me. I want to be me. The old me. I want myself back. Life isn't worth living with this new person holding my thoughts and feelings hostage. I have been off Celexa since last year. I JUST WANT ME BACK."
"I have been on 0 mgs for almost a year, and my emotional state has yet to come back to normal. (normal me). I have been from Psyc doc to Psyc doc (never needed before celexa) to try to figure it out. They point the problem back to me. I found out by reading around the Internet, and buying the book "Prozac: Panacea or Pandora" by doctor Ann Blake Tracy, and I found out that several people, if not all people, who go off these drugs experience exactly what I have experienced. When Natalie wrote what she wrote, you can go back to some of my earlier posts and the withdrawal effects are written down almost verbatim. These are bad for our brains, they change our personalities. I want my life back, and don't want even my worst enemy to experience what I have been through. These people have no love for their fellow man. We need to, no matter how emotionally messed up we are, we need to band together and prevent them (a commercial for Cymbalta just came on the tv, made my blood boil) from prescribing them to ANYONE. Depression hurts said the commercial, I never knew depression till after celexa. I have been through hell, therefore hell exists."
- - - - - -
"What I don't understand is how a drug could completely erase me as a human being. What I'm experiencing is not depression, anhedonia, or flat affect, but a permanent change in my consciousness that literally destroyed my humanity. All the parts that made up my being are literally gone. I don't understand how this is even possible, or what (if anything) I can do to change it."
- - - - - -
"I'm 25 yrs old. I used to be a bodybuilder, avid fisherman, used to drag race, and enjoy the great outdoors. USED TO.
I was on effexor for about 3 yrs, 75mgs. I decided I wanted to stop taking it, I felt fine. Im 25 I said and I can deal with lifes problems.
I told my doc if I may discontinue the drug he said sure, if you want to. Doctor didn't even ask me if I wanted to wean off, I suggested him to give me the 35mgs, but he gave me only a weeks worth.
I have never in life felt so sick. I would not wish this on anyone, not even my enemy. The first 3 months were hell. dizziness, nausea, fatigue, bad memory, brain zaps, you name it I had it. I couldnt even walk sometimes.
I fought and fought and it is now 7 months that I am clean off this horrible so called drug.
To this day, 7 MONTHS later, I am left with weakness, bad memory, and horrible coordination.
I can no longer workout, all my muscles went down, I have no energy to do what I liked to do in my life. I cannot function or remember things at work. I am useless. If it wasn't my cousins place, I would have been fired along time ago.
I am not depressed, I don't have panic attacks.
In my opinion, Effexor has left me permanent damage. I have been through more tests than you can think of. blood tests upon blood tests for every disease known to man.
This drug has changed my life for the worse and everynight i cry, because I feel that this medicine has severly left me damaged. My doctor has no idea what to do."
- - - - - -
"I was prescribed Zoloft 25-50mgs 9 years ago while I was in college.
Before I begin with the nightmare, let me stress I WAS NOT SICK when I started this drug. I had anxiety (situational )and was a little tired. That is it. Other than these issues, I was as healthy as a horse, never been in the hospital, rarely if ever needed to go to the doctor. I was very active and on the go.
Well, Zoloft worked immediately, what can I say. I loved it. Loved it loved it loved it. I thought it was a gift from God, saved me and my college career. I wasn't as shy as I had been. I felt more social.
But then I found I could not get off without severe head pain and brain zaps. So, I stayed on it. Every few months I would think about going off again, but the symptoms I would get kept me on it, and very afraid to come off. So, I stayed on it for 8 long years. (I forgot to mention I gained 25 pounds within the first 3 months on it. That was another reason I wanted off).
After 8 years, I'd had enough. I felt like I no longer needed it, I had been long out of college and the original situations that gave me anxiety were long gone. So, at my doctors advice, I tapered over about 3-4 weeks.
Then my life was shattered. Completely shattered.
I was told the withdrawal would only last a week or two at most, so I rode it out. It never went away and only kept getting worse. So, I gave up and tried to go back on. I couldn't take the symptoms anymore. But my body was having none of that. Strangely, now when I took Zoloft, my body and brain reacted badly, as if it were rejecting it. I got a fever and felt like I was dying. I had no choice but to get off again. I was given other SSRI's, but none of them helped either, and all of them made me worse. I no longer tolerated meds like I did prior to Zoloft.
I kid you not, here I am 3 YEARS later and still very ill, and it all began when getting off Zoloft. Here is what I suffer 24/7.....
severe head pain and pressure
brain zaps/ electrical zaps shooting through brain down to toes
burning in extremities and brain
severe fatigue and weakness
dizziness/vertigo
severe depression ( never was depressed, ever, until coming off Zoloft )
severe anxiety
panic attacks...BAAAAD
daily crying jags
skin eruptions and
bone and muscle pain
burning tongue
insomnia
digestive pain
cramping on right side under rib cage
hair loss
sensitivities to food and medications previously tolerated well
extremely sensitive to vitamins and minerals previously tolerated well
no motivation / severe apathy
loss of career and income/ on disability
derealization/ depersonalization
back and neck spasms
unable to drive, shop, or eat out
increased allergies to things once tolerated well ( smoke, dust, cats )
suicidal thoughts....pretty regularly and very scary
nightmares
jaw pain from clenching teeth ( I guess from severe stress )
agoraphobia...very heartbreaking since I used to be so busy
ears ringing
feeling like being hit it the back of the head with a shovel
pressure in chest, like a 100 elephants are sitting on me
racing pulse, even when resting
increased blood pressure and cholesterol
metallic taste
bladder spasms
loss of cognition/ mental function ( feels like I lost 50 IQ points )
difficulty concentrating and recalling facts
I wrote a letter to Pfizer, detailing my story and my symptoms. They blew me off and wanted a doctors opinion of what my illness is from. No doctor will admit to Zoloft being the cause of this illness, so Pfizer pretty much told me they take no responsibility. They ruined my life, and take no responsibility. They train their drug reps to educate doctors that these drugs are harmless. They know better, but rake in too much money to do anything about it.
They do not care how many lives they destroy, as long as they continue making their billions off innocent victims."
- - - - - -
"My withdrawal from Seroxat/Paxil (a few years ago, now). I became very aggressive on the stuff (many arrests and court appearances), and on some days I could pop valium like smarties without it making the slightest bit of difference. When I decided it would be a clever move to stop taking it and put up with a few days of flu-like symptoms, I found out what withdrawal was really like.
I slashed at my arms, I rolled around on the floor, screaming, because everything felt raw (my theory is that we 'normally' perceive the world through a comfortable haze of endorphins--which was stripped away) and when the police were called I freaked out completely and brandished a knife at them.
My husband referred to that state as being 'animalistic'.
Needless to say, I escaped jail by a hair's breadth. When I ended up in ER, following a dose of pepper spray in my face, I begged for Seroxat and the doc just laughed in my face and said they weren't running a pharmacy. They did not believe there was such a thing as SSRI/SNRI withdrawal syndrome. I think they still don't.
In the cell, waiting for the court appearance, I had the worst shakes and weird feelings (derealisation, having two heads, having my head swell to the size of a water melon). The junky I shared the cell with said: "Wow, what are you on?"
- - - - - -
I was put on zoloft, and when I stopped taking it I became disoriented didn't remember anything for 3 days. Lost my systems design engineering job I had for 7 years with 21 succesful projects. Lost my income, lost my mind, lost my home, cars, family heirlooms retirement, etc.etc. It all happened after taking ZOLOFT. I was finally diagnosed with a form of epilepsy and put on anti siezure meds..Lamictal. The Zoloft stuff took place In the 3rd world state of Louisiana..no recourse..Louisiana SUCKS. I now live in Florida, I'm 100% disabled and doing somewhat better thanks to my wife and my 2 wonderful kids that stood by me during those nightmarish days. By the way..the state of louisiana does not recognize the brain as an organ according to one ambulance chasing Lawyer. It only counts as an organ during a lawsuit right after an accident. If there are problems 10 years later...too bad it is no longer relevent.
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The first time I tried to get off cymbalta, I tapered over two months. Three weeks after the last dose, I was still extremely affected. I almost lost my job (doctor-level position), I almost quit my job.
I had about two months of hell trying to get off it.
So I'd be trying to pick up my clothes to get dressed in the morning and it was like zap zap zap grip wall zap pick up shirt zap zap nausea zap sit back down zap. Then I'd be talking to someone at work and i'd have the zaps and want to say 'oh just dont mind my nystagmus, nothing to worry about'
I don't feel that pissed off about it all right now, I just wonderhow long it will take before the brain zaps go away for good
I think I might donate some money to some organization this year that lobbies for more disclosure to patients about this shit because my dr who first prescribed it to me said 'Really? It causes vertigo in you? I am on it too and I get that too--I wonder what's up with that.'.
Followup: I'm up to about 6 months since I was taking Cymbalta every day and I still have weird effects like those described above. It has gotten to be kind of a joke now and mostly I just get the weird vertigo zaps. I wonder if it is 'permanent' a lot.
It is a very distinct 'zap' and it feels way more sketchy and scary than the depression that caused me to go looking for an antidepressant.
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"The worst kind of hell imaginable. I was off of this drug for 4 months without a hint of relief from the withdrawl symptoms. I was scared for my life and at the same time wanted to die..... Furthermore, every doctor I saw told me that Paxil isn't addictive. **FRUSTRATION** Hated it!"
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"Please consider this before commenting on antidepressants in a positive way.
About 10 years ago, the medical school at a major university began to notice a large number of cadavers coming in (for the medical students to work on) which had indented and calcified frontal lobes in their brains.
Puzzled by this, they went through the life history of each cadaver that had this anomaly, and discovered that in every case, the person had been on SSRI antidepressants.
The level of brain damage indicated that each of the cadavers had been lobotomized.
The people who drew the connection between the calcified and collapsed frontal lobes (the part of the brain which contains your soul) and antidepressants received offers of money to keep it secret, and when they chose to go public anyway, received anonymous death threats against their families and children if they ever went public.
I have seen many people get destroyed by antidepressants, all the while they said all was well. Invariably they go down the toilet as they eventually move toward complete and total emotional and personality flatline."
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"I decided I did not want to be ruled by this drug. Under the supervision of my doctor over a two month period, I weened myself from cymbalta forever. Each time I went down to a smaller dose I got sick. I had headaches, brain zaps, nausea, flu-like symptoms, I blacked out, my memory would get worse, until the culmination of taking no Cymbalta at all. Fortunately my mother is retired and was able to stay with me- I was withdrawaling like I assume people do on heavy street drugs! I would go to sleep hoping I would not wake up and be in pain throughout the day. My pain would get worse as the day progressed and by 4:00 I could barely stand the headaches, nausea, the ear ringing, and brain zaps. It has been a year since I have been off of Cymbalta and I continue to have horrible headaches that get worse as the day progresses; my ears ring, and my vision is screwed up. I see little lights at night time. My memory is not what it used to be and when I tell my doctors that I think I was permanatley poisoned by cymbalta they look at me like I am crazy (and isn't that the reason I went on the cymbalta in the first place?)"
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"I am on my 7th day of no Cymbalta after being on it for only 3 weeks. I went from 60mg to 30mg, no problem. Then 30mg to 15mg, by making my own pills from the 30mg. Brain Zaps started. Now since I am clean for 7 days the Brain Zaps are hell, I think I even blink when they hit me. Inside my head the Zaps sound like a chattering angry squirrel. The people that made this drug must have never tested it for withdrawals. I have terrible back pain, have trouble sleeping, and have even cried twice this week. I just took 50mg of benedryl and 1000mg of tylenol hoping I can sleep tonight. I also gained weight on the drug. Has anyone that dealt with the Brain Zaps stopped having them all together? They are so bad, I am afraid to drive, I now understand why some folks kill themselves coming off drugs like this one. If there is a happy ending, I would love to know about it. Almost forgot, Blood Pressure has gone thru the roof coming off this stuff."
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"I will name the countless symptoms and probably unreversable brain damage I am living with after Effexor. There are good days in wich some of the symptoms won't arise for exception of the pain. Those are the days I can be a mother and wife but still the shadow of the energetic person I was. Back in July all the symptoms hit me all at once. Blury vision, dizzy, letargic, high pitch ringing in my ears, exhaustion, pain all over my body, joints and muscles. Muscle twitching, slurred speech, urinary incontinence at times, hair lose in patches. It is impossible for me to normally work at any type of job now. I have states where I would forget what I am doing. I have times in wich I have a hard time controlling voluntary motor functions in my legs and arms (such as not being able to write, open a bottle or carry anything). Every now and then muscles will begin to twitch, then just stop, out of the blue. I became lethargic and have no energy to do anything. Not to mention times or days when I can not drive due to the chance that I would have an accident beacuse of the sudden blury vision or dizzines that make it dificult to see. Not to mention when I suddenly forget where I am going or doing."
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Since I started taking effexor, My memory is going out the window. I am having trouble remembering things from yesterday, granted I haven’t always been the best to remember things. I have noticed that I am forgetting tasks at work, this has never happened. I find myself using an entire pad of sticky notes, and forgetting to complete the notes written.
I’ve been taking Effexor since last November, and I’ve been having memory problems. Even yesterday I can barely remember. It’s so difficult. Usually, I had a good memory but now it has gone down hill.
I’ve been on it for about 9 months, and the SAME thing is happening to me. i forget things daily, lose things often, and my attention span is like a 3 year old boy. my doctor also told me theyre not connected, but i KNOW they are, which is the main reason i’m coming off the drug now. i wishi would have been informed of all this before i got hooked on the stinking drug.
I have been experiencing memory loss for awhie also. I started taking Effexor spring 2005. Before that I had been taking Zoloft, which was not working for my anxiety and depression. I notice about 3-6 months into taking Effexor that my short term memory was playing tricks on me and the more I think about it the more I realize this drug has something to do with that. What should we do now? Does anyone else think we should be contacting the company and find out the truth about this being a side effect???
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"I have been on Celexa for almost three years. the results: lost a job and a marriage due to being so non complacent but gained 20 lbs. I skipped a few doses several weeks ago and decided it was time to wean myself off. I tapered down very quickly and am now dealing with the following withdrawal symptoms:
Anxiety
Dizziness
Fatigue
Headache
Insomnia
Diarrhea
Nausea
Restlessness
Blurred vision
Jolting electric "zaps" (at bedtime)
Tingling sensations
Abdominal discomfort
Flu symptoms and general malaise
agitation
Vertigo
Gait disturbances
Sweating
Irritability
Aggression
Sleep disturbance and insomnia
Nightmares
Vivid dreams
Confusion
Memory and concentration difficulties
Crying spells
Lethargy
Weakness
The aggression is the scariest part but now that I know almost everyone experiences this I feel better. From reading most of the posts it doesn't seem to matter if you wean yourself or go cold turkey, the withdrawal symptoms appear the same."
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I believe SSRIs "cause" neurogenesis through the brains compensatory mechanisms. By inducing a massive chemical imbalance at the synaptic level, SSRIs force the brain to respond by shutting down these connections and creating new ones (which then get shut down, and the cycle continues). Unfortunately, these new connections (axons) often resemble the type of new axonal growth (swollen/corksrew appearance) seen after recovery from a neurotoxic MDMA regimen. (editor's note - MDMA is Ecstacy) These axons also often grow and/or project into areas where they did not before, and the significance of this is as of yet unknown.
7. The most troubling permanent lasting adverse neurological effects you may experience after prolonged SSRI usage (and consequent STOPPING) are :
a). Word finding troubles
b). Absolute emotional flatness and deadness
c). Permanently reduced sex drive
d). An odd, pervasive social anxiety/awkwardness
e). Trouble with coordination
f). Bad memory
g). Trouble retrieving words
h). Overall paucity of thought and expression
i). Lack of creativity and intellectual fluidity (mental fog)
j). A lack of ability to "steer" or control the tone of your voice
(I've noticed this- that I sound shaky and agitated no matter what my
mood is, and people think I'm upset when I'm really not)
8. After these brain damaging effects have sunken in, you may have great difficulty finding support anywhere. Talking to a p-doc may be an exercise in futility. They will want to protect their own interests and shield themselves from a possible lawsuit, hence you may be told continually to get back on meds/up your dosage. The more you protest, the less credibility you have, thus the more evidence in your p-doc's mind that you need to go back on SSRIs.
9. Once you realize the extent of the damage, and it sinks in beyond the denial you may initially face, it will be hard to explain to others exactly why you are not the same person you used to be. The damage is similar to a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) yet it might be better termed DBI (Diffuse Brain Injury).
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Cymbalta
"Oh, how the withdrawal wrecked me. The only thing worse than taking Cymbalta was withdrawal from Cymbalta. Added to all the side effects I was already having, I very much wanted to cut myself, and got as far as sitting down with a blade, but instead I bit myself on the hand as hard as I could stand. I think I also punched myself in the thigh that same day, but it's all sort of hazy. The first day off Cymbalta, I hallucinated, felt like my arms were really far away from the rest of my body, dissociated for most of the day, and in general, thought I was going to have to call for an ambulance. A benzo would've really helped, but I didn't have a pdoc yet at the time; I had to wait three weeks and let me tell you, those were three of the most hellish weeks of my life, including feeling very much like I was having a mixed episode. Out of desperation, I took diphenhydramine because it helped the vertigo and the sleepy feeling sort of passed for "calmer." It took at least three weeks for the withdrawal symptoms to calm down to a dull roar. When I saw my new pdoc, I was still agitated."
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Your doctor is your worst enemy. Welbutrin is an SNRI. It blocks the metabolites in the liver that metablilze seretonin and noepinephrin. Switching to celexa, which is an SNRI is not going to help you. Doctors just have no clue as to what they are doing. You go to them with a problem, they consult ther PDR, and hand out some drugs that the pretty little pharma rep gave to them. They will give you something to destroy your brain, then give you a benzo like xanax, to combat anxiety. You cannot sleep, you are always on edge, you end up with some sort of psycological "disorder" (manufactured by the drug companies), and you are left a buned out shell of what you used to be. They tried to give my mother-in-law prozac because she was sad when her father was dying of cancer, and she was starting to go through menopause. I SCREAMED. This lady didn't need prozac, or any other mind altering drugs. She needed to reduce her stress.
I told her to take topical progesterone, and she turned around just fine.
Fact: Doctors don't know what ssri's do to the brain
Fact: There is no evidence of a lack of neuro transmitters.
Fact: There is no way of measuring the level of seretonin in the brain...
I pray for anyone in distress anywhere, and God bless and help those whose lives were destroyed by doctors who dished out meds that they know nothing about.
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WITHDRAWAL
did anyone else get tapered off zoloft from a doctor but still having withdrawal?
this is how my doctor did it and I am still trying to understand why it was just down to 50mg and not less after a while: starting with my 100 mg
week 1- 50 mg every day
week 2 and 3 50 mg every other day
week 4 50 mg every two days
week 5 50 mg every three days
week 6 off (on this week now)
I took my last on sunday and it's now Wednesday. last night I could not sleep, I felt very cold and I was shivering and had interrupted sleep and then got too hot all over like I was burning. I've had the brain zaps all along on the days I didn't take it and some of the shivering and feeling a little dizzy too , very restless sleep on and off for these last few weeks. also some irritability, and very depressed and hopeless feelings and anger, some crying spells for no reason. I don't want to call the doctor because obviously they don't know what they are doing or I wouldn't have withdrawl symptoms at all.
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My daughter began having petit mal seizures. Coincidentally, she was just recently placed on zoloft. I am sure it was only a coincidence, right? What did zoloft do to you?
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YES, ZOLOFT IS EVIL. IT RUINED MY LIFE. IT MADE ME ACT TOTALLY OUT OF CHARACTER AND I MAIMED MYSELF IN AN INDESCRIBABLE WAY.
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Zoloft destroyed my life, and my Dr. and therapist stood by and watched it all happen right before their eyes, it was like I was a project for them. I am sorry to those I affected during that time, I regret it everyday.
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