Who is getting conned here? Are we sure we know?
We have sob story after sob story about the people who were conned by the big con artist, Bernie Madoff. Wha wha wha!!! They fill many, many tissues.
Mmm hmm. Are some of these people con artists too? Is that possible? Is their money actually safe in Israel right now?
Will they be compensated by the US taxpayer for money supposedly lost to fraud, but which is not lost at all?
Who is the real victim of fraud here? The wealthy investors of Bernie Madoff or, once again, the American people?
Will we ever find out the truth? Who can we depend on to expose the corruption?
Who indeed? Nobody!!!! Who would ever confirm such a thing for us? Even if they wanted to, they'd be likely to get whacked or suicided for their trouble. So it's just another wacky conspiracy theory from all those wacky conspiracy theorists who perceive corruption everywhere but can never "prove" it. Right? It's not enough that corruption is obviously everywhere. We must have actual proof, like documents or something. You know, Proof! Which we will not get because there is corruption everywhere. Oh ha ha ha. It must be so fun to be corrupt.
But anyway, we all know that things are never as bad as the conspiracy theorists say. Right? Right. They're always much, much worse. When was the last time corruption turned out to be not as bad as initially suspected? Why would this time be any different?
12.20.2008
Anatomy of a Con Artist
The Trust Equation describes the components of trustworthiness. The equation is:
T = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) / Self-orientation
Of course, any such recipe worth its salt will also serve as a template for reverse engineering--a "how-to" manual for a con man. Measuring Bernie Madoff by the trust equation shows just what an effective job he did at mimicking genuine trust.
Personality - Bernard Madoff
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Two weeks ago, Bernard Madoff stopped by the Everglades Barber Shop off Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida, for the usual: a $65 haircut, a $40 shave, a $50 pedicure and a $22 manicure.
“For me, he was a gentleman,” said Senio Figliozzi, 72, the owner of the three-seat barber shop who has been cutting Madoff’s hair for the past 17 winters. “What he did outside, it was news to me.”
Read more
“For me, he was a gentleman,” said Senio Figliozzi, 72, the owner of the three-seat barber shop who has been cutting Madoff’s hair for the past 17 winters. “What he did outside, it was news to me.”
Read more
Madoff Assets: Judge signs order protecting Madoff's art, houses, money, jewelry
NEW YORK — Facing a growing chorus of angry investors, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff lost his right to leave his home Friday and was ordered to hire private around-the-clock security guards to protect him. U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz approved the revised bail conditions after prosecutors sent a letter requesting them earlier in the day. The letter, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc O. Litt, did not explain why the bail conditions needed to be tightened.
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Bernie Madoff, probable sociopath, following in the steps of Charles Ponzi, definite sociopath
Ah, the fruits of an economy that gives corporations sociopathic freedoms. The economy is such a perfect match to sociopathic skills that it is hard to believe it wasn’t designed by sociopaths. If a corporate liars culture is allowed to develop, sociopaths will take it to the limit and beyond. Sociopaths are incapable of self regulation, they need adult supervision (literally, due to their existing in an arrested development state — morally, judgementwise, personality, sexually, etc.).
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Publicizing the threat of personality disorders among those in positions of power
As some of you may know, I often rail about the abundance of sociopaths and people with Narcissistic or Borderline Personality Disorder in positions of power in our culture. There has been ample evidence of this problem in the news recently. Yet rarely do analyses of these cases go beyond charges of corruption to asking the crucial question of whether they involve an actual psychological disorder.
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12.19.2008
The Madoff Double Bluff
Here's Rafeeq's take on the Madoff Swindle:
Excerpt:
So why plead guilty? The answer is simple. Look on the net and you will see that because this case is being labelled a fraud, it would appear that investors are going to be able to claim their investment back under the US government's financial fraud protection scheme. A judge has already given his approval in principle for compensation, without any evidence having been presented and financial fraud being demonstrated in a court of law. And it would appear that there will never be such a demonstration in a court of law. Why? It would appear that all the funds financial records are mostly "missing" (rather like Dov Zakheim's US$1.4tn) and those few records that do survive are in a terrible mess.Fallon chimes in on Iran and Israel
Israel is one of the strongest countries in the Middle East and needs to stop giving in to a "fear factor" with regard to the prospect of a nuclear Iran, Adm. (ret.) William Fallon, the former commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
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The Emperor’s New Clothes
Our strutting, imperial president
paid his farewell visit to Iraq
where he appeared with puppet, Nouri al-Maliki,
not expecting to find himself under attack.
read full article
(photo courtesy of Mickey Z)
paid his farewell visit to Iraq
where he appeared with puppet, Nouri al-Maliki,
not expecting to find himself under attack.
read full article
(photo courtesy of Mickey Z)
George Ure: Global 'news control' starting?
Not to begin your day with a bummer, but I've been expecting this for a long time - and today I'm worried that global/corporate/government news control may have arrived in a subtle way.
Before I get to the specifics, first the 'big picture' stuff: You may be aware that our friends with the predictive linguistics project have been seeing out some ways into the future, perhaps mid 2009, we will all slowly lose our ability to communicate freely and openly at the 'global' (hive?) level as corporations and governments begin to lock down the internet. Might be on a phony 'terror' prevention pretext or a 'copyright' red herring, or whatever.
Laura Bush: George freed 50 million people
US First Lady Laura Bush has hailed President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan ahead of the White House farewell.
"Fifty million people are free from tyranny because of the United States, because of my husband's policies," Laura Bush said in an interview with USA TODAY on Thursday.
Get a bucket and read more
"Fifty million people are free from tyranny because of the United States, because of my husband's policies," Laura Bush said in an interview with USA TODAY on Thursday.
Get a bucket and read more
Iran, India resume peace pipeline talks
Iran and India have resumed negotiation over the long-awaited 7.4 billion dollars Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project in New Delhi.
Read more
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Cerberus leveraging connections
It is agonizing to watch Congress publicly stumbling through its analysis and qualification of the auto industry, providing appearance that it is doing its homework on a bailout. Over 40% of Congress is made up of lawyers, with little grasp of finance, economics or business. Congress should not be negotiating the bailout.
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Israel and Iran scramble in the shadows
December 16, 2008: Israeli intelligence organization Mossad has failed in its campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program. So far. Six years ago, Mossad said it would stop the Iranian efforts to build nukes. Mossad admitted that it had devoted a substantial portion of its resources to that effort since then. This included establishing companies that appeared to be willing to supply Iran with essential equipment they needed. This had some success in slipping specially modified gear into Iranian nuclear weapons facilities.
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Former general: Israel can't defeat Iran
Israeli officials have been repeatedly warning that Israel may end up attacking Iran, yet former National Security Council Chairman Giora Eiland says such strike would not eliminate Tehran's nuclear program.
Speaking at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, Eiland says Israel cannot defeat Iran's regime via a military operation.
"To our regret, there is no Israeli military capability that would enable us to reach a situation whereby Iran's nuclear capabilities are destroyed without the possibility of recovery," he said. "The maximal achievement that Israel can accomplish is to disrupt and suspend Iran's nuclear program."
Read more
Speaking at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, Eiland says Israel cannot defeat Iran's regime via a military operation.
"To our regret, there is no Israeli military capability that would enable us to reach a situation whereby Iran's nuclear capabilities are destroyed without the possibility of recovery," he said. "The maximal achievement that Israel can accomplish is to disrupt and suspend Iran's nuclear program."
Read more
Wyoming lawmakers oppose Constitutional Convention
A team of lawmakers in Wyoming, alarmed by WND reports that the U.S. is only two state votes away from having a new Constitutional Convention, has begun work to make certain that if a convention is held, it would have to convene in the face of their opposition.
Wyoming previously called for a Constitutional Convention but rescinded the votes in 1999.
GEAB: Tipping point March 2009
LEAP/E2020 anticipates than the unfolding global systemic crisis will experience in March 2009 a new tipping point of similar magnitude to the September 2008 one. According to our team, at that period of the year, the general public will become aware of three major destabilizing processes at work in the global economy, i.e.:
• the length of the crisis
• the explosion of unemployment worldwide
• the risk of sudden collapse of all capital-based pension systems
Read more
• the length of the crisis
• the explosion of unemployment worldwide
• the risk of sudden collapse of all capital-based pension systems
Read more
Arizona police prepared for civil unrest
A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.
Read more
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Eyewitness says foreign troop buildup in Wisconsin
Have foreign troops deal with US citizens, US troops deal with foreign citizens. Makes it easier, see? - Ed.
12.18.2008
Unconfirmed: Madoff moved the money to Israel
I have no idea if this is true. - Ed.
As more info comes in regarding the Madeoff scheme, news from several sources
say that Madeoff and his clients were the largest bank account holders listed
on a computer disk leaked by a Swiss bank worker regarding US persons with
hidden Swiss bank accounts.
Read more
As more info comes in regarding the Madeoff scheme, news from several sources
say that Madeoff and his clients were the largest bank account holders listed
on a computer disk leaked by a Swiss bank worker regarding US persons with
hidden Swiss bank accounts.
Read more
The Dollar as Toilet Papers
This article should be mandatory for central bankers: by Matthias Chang - Global Research, December 17, 2008
It Is So Stupid To Borrow US Dollar “Toilet Papers” For Trade Finance.
There Can Be Only A Credit Crunch For Dollars If You Are Stupid Enough To Want To Be Paid And To Pay In Dollars.
Otherwise, There Is Only An Illusion Of A Global Credit Crunch. This Is The Global Con Game By Bernanke, Paulson.
It may have made some sense, post-World War II to dollarise international trade when the so-called “Free World” was supposedly threatened by the “Communist Bloc” and the Imperial United States was offering “protection” in exchange for financial dominance.
The imperial design for financial dominance was the Bretton Woods dollar reserve currency scheme.
Since those days, the US has been abusing its financial power by the use of its greatest invention, the “toilet paper printing press” (now, the modern “electronic printing press”) to issue irredeemable fiat money.
Much waste in US reimbursements to Pakistan
"Lost to waste and mismanagement" being a euphemism for "stolen." - Ed.
WASHINGTON: A large proportion of the $6.7 billion paid to Pakistan since 2001 by the United States as Coalition Support Funds (CSF) funds may have been lost to waste and mismanagement, given a dearth of adequate controls and oversight, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The report says that Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to reimburse Pakistan and other nations for their operational and logistical support of US-led counter-terrorism operations. These funds account for the bulk of US financial transfers to Pakistan since 2001.
Read more
WASHINGTON: A large proportion of the $6.7 billion paid to Pakistan since 2001 by the United States as Coalition Support Funds (CSF) funds may have been lost to waste and mismanagement, given a dearth of adequate controls and oversight, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The report says that Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to reimburse Pakistan and other nations for their operational and logistical support of US-led counter-terrorism operations. These funds account for the bulk of US financial transfers to Pakistan since 2001.
Read more
Access to OLC opinions still in contention
Lots of other good stuff at this Secrecy News site. - Ed.
Legal opinions issued by the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel that interpret the law for the executive branch on questions of surveillance, detention and other disputed national security policies are among the Bush Administration records that are most urgently sought by members of Congress and others, and are often among the records that are most tightly withheld.
More than four years after it was first requested by Congress, the Justice Department last week finally delivered a copy of a 2001 opinion issued by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on the “Legality of the Use of Military Commissions to Try Terrorists” (pdf) to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Serbia: "Mother Courage"
A few months ago, Serbian blogger Krugolina Borup published (SRP) a series of posts titled “Why should Serbs die out of “white plague?” on B92 blog. They were about her own very bad experience of giving birth, about unfriendly behavior and inhuman treatment of medical staff, about corruption in maternity hospital. Hundreds of readers from Serbia and the diaspora commented on her posts and many of them shared their own experiences.
Soon after publishing of these texts, Krugolina Borup started a civil initiative named “Mother Courage” and created a website with the same name. Its primary idea is to encourage all women (mothers) to describe their experiences, regardless of when they gave birth.
Knickers in a twist??
Nicolas Sarkozy attacks Czech refusal to fly EU flag
The French president sided with federalist Euro-MPs who are engaged in a bitter feud with Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president and a Eurosceptic.
Senior MEPs, including the president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, caused a diplomatic incident ten days ago after demanding that Mr Klaus hoist the European flag over his residence during bad tempered talks in Prague.
"It was a wound, it was an outrage to see that flags had been taken down from public buildings," said President Sarkozy, the current holder of the EU's six-month rotating presidency which he hands over to the Czech Republic in January.
Scott Ritter: Dick Cheney's Fantasy World
In yet another attempt at revisionist history by the outgoing Bush administration, vice-president Dick Cheney, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, took exception to former presidential adviser Karl Rove's contention that the US would not have gone to war if available intelligence before the invasion had shown Iraq not to possess weapons of mass destruction. Cheney noted that the only thing the US got wrong on Iraq was that there were no stockpiles of WMD at the time of the 2003 invasion. "What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock."
Read more
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German Snark: Those TV Terrorism Experts
More and more television networks now keep in-house “experts” to whom they can refer anytime a major terrorist attack occurs. The credibility of these “experts,” on the other hand, is rapidly deteriorating.
In the past, whenever a person was introduced as an “expert” on a television news program or talk show, that was usually a kind of advance apology on the part of the network. It generally meant, here is someone who isn’t good looking enough to be on-screen all the time because he looks like he just woke up; somebody who gets bogged down in uninteresting details and who can only be brought back to the interesting stuff if there’s someone there to keep him focused, and when he’s finished, we think all he did was babble some kind of un-intelligible junk. No matter. He was giving us the benefit of knowledge none of us would have otherwise had; he’s an authority on the subject, and that’s why he appears as a foreign object in the body of our program.
Read more
In the past, whenever a person was introduced as an “expert” on a television news program or talk show, that was usually a kind of advance apology on the part of the network. It generally meant, here is someone who isn’t good looking enough to be on-screen all the time because he looks like he just woke up; somebody who gets bogged down in uninteresting details and who can only be brought back to the interesting stuff if there’s someone there to keep him focused, and when he’s finished, we think all he did was babble some kind of un-intelligible junk. No matter. He was giving us the benefit of knowledge none of us would have otherwise had; he’s an authority on the subject, and that’s why he appears as a foreign object in the body of our program.
Read more
Vilsack and Monsanto: likethis
Grim humor via Cryptogon. - Ed.
We have just lost cabin pressure, and I don’t mean on the Monsanto corporate jet that Tom Vilsack uses.
What’s next? Obama Re-Animates Josef Mengele for Health and Human Services?
Supersonic fighters could snuff out hurricanes
A Russian professor at an Ohio university has applied to patent a method for snuffing out hurricanes by flying jet fighters around the eye of the storm at supersonic speeds.
Professor Arkadii Leonov and his collaborator Atanas Gagov, both of Akron Uni, actually filed their patent application "Hurricane Suppression by Supersonic Boom" last year. It was unearthed by the New Scientist patents column this week.
A Flurry of White Powder Stories
h/t CLG
Reuters: White Powder mailed to 16 US embassies in Europe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Envelopes containing white powder that later tested negative for toxins were mailed to 16 U.S. embassies in Europe this month, the State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday.
FBI: Suspicious white powder letters received around the US
Since Monday, December 8, letters containing a note and suspicious white powder have been received by the offices of more than 40 governors across the country. Additional letters have been received at several U.S. Embassies overseas, said Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Dallas FBI.
Letter with white powder opened in Governor's mailroom
Reuters: White Powder mailed to 16 US embassies in Europe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Envelopes containing white powder that later tested negative for toxins were mailed to 16 U.S. embassies in Europe this month, the State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday.
FBI: Suspicious white powder letters received around the US
Since Monday, December 8, letters containing a note and suspicious white powder have been received by the offices of more than 40 governors across the country. Additional letters have been received at several U.S. Embassies overseas, said Robert E. Casey, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Dallas FBI.
Letter with white powder opened in Governor's mailroom
HARRISBURG -- A letter containing white powder was opened in the mailroom of the governor's office today, a spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell said.
The FBI was called in to investigate.
Feds: Suspicious packages sent to Guards, Reserves
Ooops, AP story. We don't link to those here. Here's the URL:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hRXPAI74ls3KjW2x2uc_l-UtBfhwD954HNCO0One bad apple or a whole rotten barrel?
Rod Blagojevich's caught-on-tape horse-trading stands only a few degrees of separation away from business as usual in U.S. politics.
The transcript of wiretaps that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald released the day he nabbed Blagojevich provide an enlightening--not to say entertaining--window into the way government really works in the "world's greatest democracy."
read full article
The transcript of wiretaps that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald released the day he nabbed Blagojevich provide an enlightening--not to say entertaining--window into the way government really works in the "world's greatest democracy."
read full article
Theory vs. Reality: Why Market Absolutism Fails
The collapse of market fundamentalism in economies everywhere is putting the Chicago School theology on trial. Its big lie has been exposed by facts on two levels. The Chicago Boys’ claim that helping the rich will also help the poor is not only exposed as not true, it turns out that market fundamentalism hurts not only the poor and the powerless; it hurts everyone, rich and poor, albeit in different ways . . . The fruits of Friedman test are in - and they are all rotten.
read full article
read full article
In Praise Of Muntather Al Zaidi
Bush bidding his last goodbyes in occupied Baghdad. Bush the president of the United Asses reaping the fruits of his labor and that of his American people from my Beloved.
Bush congratulated his stooges, the extra-large Zionist/Kurdish buffoon Talabani and the other Kurdish pimp Barazani. The puppet Tareq Al-Hashemi who was all smiles, and guess whom Bush kissed on the cheeks ? None other than the son of a bitch from Iran, A.Al-Hakeem, head of the Supreme Iranian Butt Council and head of the Badr death squads, whose hands are inundated with the blood of innocent Arab Iraqis.
The criminal psychopath, Bush last stop, was at a press conference with his other puppet, the sectarian dictator, from Iran, PM Nuri Al-Maliki.
And whilst Bush was pontificating from his ass, Muntather Al-Zaidi, a 28 years old journalist, a leftist, from the independent anti-occupation, anti-sectarian TV, Al-Baghdadia, stood up and threw not one shoe but TWO pair of shoes at Bush, calling him at the top of his voice YA KALB - YOU DOG.
Al Jazeera’s excellent news anchor the IRAQI Layla Al-Sheikhly was the only one to report the slur and insult to the President of the United Asses. His last visit indeed and a souvenir from a patriotic Iraqi. Subsequent news censored the insult - YA KALB-YOU DOG.
read full article
Bush congratulated his stooges, the extra-large Zionist/Kurdish buffoon Talabani and the other Kurdish pimp Barazani. The puppet Tareq Al-Hashemi who was all smiles, and guess whom Bush kissed on the cheeks ? None other than the son of a bitch from Iran, A.Al-Hakeem, head of the Supreme Iranian Butt Council and head of the Badr death squads, whose hands are inundated with the blood of innocent Arab Iraqis.
The criminal psychopath, Bush last stop, was at a press conference with his other puppet, the sectarian dictator, from Iran, PM Nuri Al-Maliki.
And whilst Bush was pontificating from his ass, Muntather Al-Zaidi, a 28 years old journalist, a leftist, from the independent anti-occupation, anti-sectarian TV, Al-Baghdadia, stood up and threw not one shoe but TWO pair of shoes at Bush, calling him at the top of his voice YA KALB - YOU DOG.
Al Jazeera’s excellent news anchor the IRAQI Layla Al-Sheikhly was the only one to report the slur and insult to the President of the United Asses. His last visit indeed and a souvenir from a patriotic Iraqi. Subsequent news censored the insult - YA KALB-YOU DOG.
read full article
My Dog or Your Child? Ethical Dilemmas and the Hierarchy of Moral Value
Too often, animal rights advocates (ARAs) are challenged with the hysterical hypothetical of the “burning house dilemma.” It runs something like this: If you were caught in a burning house, were running out the door to save your life, and only had time enough to save a dog in one room and a human being in another, which would you choose?
Invariably, the question is asked with the intent to find an inconsistency in the value scheme or commitments of the ARA, such that for all their talk about animal rights or species equality, they would still save the human. Deep down, therefore, the ARA is like everyone else and a speciesist at heart. When faced with the burning house question, you are always damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you answer that you would save the human being, your interlocutor glibly and gleefully derides you as a hypocrite. If you answer you would save the dog, you are vilified as a miscreant and deviant misanthrope with warped values.
read full article
Invariably, the question is asked with the intent to find an inconsistency in the value scheme or commitments of the ARA, such that for all their talk about animal rights or species equality, they would still save the human. Deep down, therefore, the ARA is like everyone else and a speciesist at heart. When faced with the burning house question, you are always damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If you answer that you would save the human being, your interlocutor glibly and gleefully derides you as a hypocrite. If you answer you would save the dog, you are vilified as a miscreant and deviant misanthrope with warped values.
read full article
12.17.2008
Post-Holiday Reality in Capitalism
While the holidays are supposed to be a time to gather together with family members and reflect not only on the accomplishments of the past year but on the possibilities of the future, to many it is a crushing reminder of just how much this brutal system we live under can make our lives miserable. As capitalism, which depends on constant growth to survive, depends increasingly more on the winter holiday season meet its yearly profit goals, so too does the pressure increase on the working class to spend their hard earned discretionary income or go deeper into debt to satisfy the incessant consumerist orgy sponsored by the owning class.
read full article
read full article
Setting the Trap
IMF Chief warns of violence if financial system benefits only the rich
From George Washington's blog. Important!! Read the comments. They want people to riot because that triggers the crackdown.
Problem: blatant grand larceny
Reaction: riots
Solution: martial law
The challenge: Find reactions that short-circuit their pre-planned solutions. - Ed.
From George Washington's blog. Important!! Read the comments. They want people to riot because that triggers the crackdown.
Problem: blatant grand larceny
Reaction: riots
Solution: martial law
The challenge: Find reactions that short-circuit their pre-planned solutions. - Ed.
Last night, the head of the IMF warned of violence from financial policies which only benefit the elite:
"If we are not able to do that [jump-start economic activity], then social unrest may happen in many countries - including advanced economies," Strauss-Kahn said.
He added that violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite.
He joins Senator Dodd, a leading economist, a leading trend forecaster and others who have issued similar warnings.
Read moreBoomtown
Settler population growing three times faster than rest of Israel, study says
From Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046766.html
The population growth among West Bank settlers was three times higher than that of the rest of Israel during the past 12 years, according to a report by the Ariel College Center of Samaria.
The statistical annual report shows that the Jewish population in the West Bank more than doubled during that time, with a growth of 107 percent. The report also shows that the settler population has surged from 130,000 in 2005 to 270,000 by the end of 2007.
Meanwhile, the entire population of Israel grew by 29 percent over the same period.
...The report further notes that the West Bank settler population is a generally young one, its median age being 20.6, compared to 28.7 in the rest of Israel.
Crime rate in the West Bank is also disproportionately high, with the number of criminal cases being 22 percent above average.
BUT:
Viewpoint: Boycott of settlements' industries is taking its toll
Also from Haaretz: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047154.html
Excerpt:
These days, factories located in settlements are becoming more risky and less profitable. This wasn't always the case. Four years ago, Eti Alush, the man behind the Barkan industrial center, presented a rather rosy picture: "There is no ideology in economics. Entrepreneurs come here for the money, not for political reasons. Barkan is accessible and relatively cheap, and businesses pay discounted city tax (arnona). It's an area under development, the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry offers substantive assistance under the law for encouragement of capital investments, and Palestinian labor costs are low as well."
Export to Europe didn't seem like a problem for settlers back then, and Alush described the deception quite openly. "Companies that operate in the area have a number of factories, some of which are located within the 'Green Line,' aside from the one in Barkan. They label exports to Europe as coming from Kiryat Gat or Petah Tikva, not Barkan - because of the European boycott, and also because of settlement boycotts by various groups, like Gush Shalom."
From Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046766.html
The population growth among West Bank settlers was three times higher than that of the rest of Israel during the past 12 years, according to a report by the Ariel College Center of Samaria.
The statistical annual report shows that the Jewish population in the West Bank more than doubled during that time, with a growth of 107 percent. The report also shows that the settler population has surged from 130,000 in 2005 to 270,000 by the end of 2007.
Meanwhile, the entire population of Israel grew by 29 percent over the same period.
...The report further notes that the West Bank settler population is a generally young one, its median age being 20.6, compared to 28.7 in the rest of Israel.
Crime rate in the West Bank is also disproportionately high, with the number of criminal cases being 22 percent above average.
BUT:
Viewpoint: Boycott of settlements' industries is taking its toll
Also from Haaretz: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1047154.html
Excerpt:
These days, factories located in settlements are becoming more risky and less profitable. This wasn't always the case. Four years ago, Eti Alush, the man behind the Barkan industrial center, presented a rather rosy picture: "There is no ideology in economics. Entrepreneurs come here for the money, not for political reasons. Barkan is accessible and relatively cheap, and businesses pay discounted city tax (arnona). It's an area under development, the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry offers substantive assistance under the law for encouragement of capital investments, and Palestinian labor costs are low as well."
Export to Europe didn't seem like a problem for settlers back then, and Alush described the deception quite openly. "Companies that operate in the area have a number of factories, some of which are located within the 'Green Line,' aside from the one in Barkan. They label exports to Europe as coming from Kiryat Gat or Petah Tikva, not Barkan - because of the European boycott, and also because of settlement boycotts by various groups, like Gush Shalom."
Doomsday Report & Commentary by SOTT
Again, they are telegraphing their plans. Corruption is rampant. They make your problems, they get your reaction, and then they give you their solution. Then you are expected to thank them. - Ed.
The United States could be sleep-walking into its next crisis, a military report said.
The report by the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Institute, said that a defense community paralyzed by conventional thinking could be unprepared to help the United States cope with a series of unexpected crises that would rival the Al Qaida strikes in 2001, termed a "strategic shock."
The report cited the prospect of the collapse of a nuclear state leading to massive unrest in the United States.
Read more
The United States could be sleep-walking into its next crisis, a military report said.
The report by the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Institute, said that a defense community paralyzed by conventional thinking could be unprepared to help the United States cope with a series of unexpected crises that would rival the Al Qaida strikes in 2001, termed a "strategic shock."
The report cited the prospect of the collapse of a nuclear state leading to massive unrest in the United States.
Read more
CIA embedded in every state government
....and every corporate media outlet. - Ed.
Former Governor Jesse Ventura exposes he was interrogated by more than 20 CIA agents during his term of office in Minnesota. Despite the CIA's mission statement which states they are not to be operational within the Unites States, Ventura stated that he had embedded CIA agents working in high level positions of the Minnesota state government. Ventura also said that when these agents retired, their replacements were already chosen for him by the CIA.
From The Last Outpost
Former Governor Jesse Ventura exposes he was interrogated by more than 20 CIA agents during his term of office in Minnesota. Despite the CIA's mission statement which states they are not to be operational within the Unites States, Ventura stated that he had embedded CIA agents working in high level positions of the Minnesota state government. Ventura also said that when these agents retired, their replacements were already chosen for him by the CIA.
From The Last Outpost
Terrorists (air quotes) in Pakistan planning over 20 attacks on Britian, says Gordon Brown
It's just much easier, whenever you see a government official cite terrorists, to mentally insert the following definition of terrorist: corrupt intelligence operatives from CIA/MI6/Mossad/KGB/GRU and whoever else they have ensnared and co-opted, in service of the Illuminati agenda to make chaos in the world so that they can justify their NWO agenda. That way you can have a better idea what's going on. - Ed.
The Prime Minister named Pakistan as a haven for terrorists planning attacks in Britain, revealing that around three quarters of the most advanced plots monitored by MI5 are have Pakistani links.
Officials say that the Security Service is aware of around 30 serious plots at any given moment, suggesting that at least 21 of them are tied to Pakistani groups.
And is Pakistan wising up?
Pakistan tells UK to stay out of terror investigation
And sometimes people get caught being where they shouldn't be, but then they're on their own. Everyone is completely shocked, of course.
Scotland Yard Anti-terror advisor wanted by Interpol for terrorist offenses
Conspiracies and Confabulation: Tale of Two Naomis
Learning about self-deception is important for all people today. That's because many of our problems, both as individuals and as a society, are rooted in self-deception, and many of the ways in which others abuse us relate to our inherent tendency to self-deceive. We can overcome these problems, and have a decent chance at long-term survival as a species, only if we learn about such limitations, and strive to control them. One great way to rapidly learn about self-deception, and other forms of deception, is to learn about the events of September 11th.
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Judge signs order to protect Madoff investors
Un-flipping-believable. Cheated investors who need protection?!?!?!? We got your cheated people who need protection right here with the US taxpayers. Where is OUR RELIEF?? - Ed.
NEW YORK – A federal judge on Monday threw a lifesaver to investors who may have been duped in one of Wall Street's biggest alleged frauds, saying they need the protection of a special government reserve fund set up to help investors at failed brokerage firms.
U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton ordered that clients of Bernard Madoff's private investment business seek relief under a federal statute created to rescue cheated investors. Stanton also ordered that business be liquidated under the jurisdiction of a bankruptcy court and named attorney Irvin H. Picard as trustee to oversee that process.
Read moreMPAA (Hollywood) asks Obama for more copyright surveillance of the internet
As part of their commitment to transparent and open government, the Obama Transition Team is posting the lobbying agendas of the groups it meets with for public review and comment. One of the more interesting documents to be found there is the Motion Picture Association of America's "international trade" agenda.
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Morgellons connected to GM food
The Natural Solutions Foundation, the leading Global Health Freedom organization, is proud to present this information to you. We protect your right to know about - and to use - natural ways to maintain and regain your health, no matter where in the world you live. Among your freedoms is the right to clean, unadulterated food free of genetic manipulation, pesticides, heavy metals or other contaminants and access to herbs, supplements, frequency devices and other means as therapies that may benefit or to protect your well-being without drugs and other dangerous interventions, if you choose.
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Social responsibility and corporations
Millions, billions even, are spent by corporations in PR attempts to green up their images. Not spent to improve conditions for their workers, not spent to find alternative, better methods of production less harmful to the environment, not spent to seriously reduce consumption of the world’s shrinking non-renewable resources, not spent to significantly reduce pollution of the planet’s earth, air and water; simply spent to present an illusion of green, caring, altruistic, socially responsible business. One may even be lulled into believing that profit is the least of their worries.
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Grand Theft America
Industrial capitalism is eroding and kleptocracy is replacing it. If the system is saved it will only be temporary, and an even greater financial crisis will emerge. This article is called Grand Theft America to warn that a criminal elite class runs this country, and they are rewarded by you for their crimes.
The crime of the century. The greatest one ever. Author Danny Schechter calls it "Plunder." The title of his important new book on the subprime and overall financial crisis. Economist Michael Hudson and others refer to a kleptocracy. A Ponzi scheme writ large. Maybe an out-of-control Andromeda Strain. An economic one. Deadly. Unrecallable. Science fiction now real life. Potentially catastrophic. World governments trying to contain it. Trying everything but not sure what can work. Maybe only able to paper it over for short-term relief. Buy time but in the end vindicate the maxim that things that can't go on forever, won't.
The world as we know it is changing. Industrial capitalism. The entire global economic system. Interconnected. What affects one nation touches others. If the troubled country is America it reaches everywhere, and if the crisis is great enough, the disease may be fatal and human wreckage catastrophic. Precisely the current dilemma that world leaders and financial experts are scrambling to figure out. Desperate to contain, and not sure what, if anything, can work. How did this happen and why?
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The crime of the century. The greatest one ever. Author Danny Schechter calls it "Plunder." The title of his important new book on the subprime and overall financial crisis. Economist Michael Hudson and others refer to a kleptocracy. A Ponzi scheme writ large. Maybe an out-of-control Andromeda Strain. An economic one. Deadly. Unrecallable. Science fiction now real life. Potentially catastrophic. World governments trying to contain it. Trying everything but not sure what can work. Maybe only able to paper it over for short-term relief. Buy time but in the end vindicate the maxim that things that can't go on forever, won't.
The world as we know it is changing. Industrial capitalism. The entire global economic system. Interconnected. What affects one nation touches others. If the troubled country is America it reaches everywhere, and if the crisis is great enough, the disease may be fatal and human wreckage catastrophic. Precisely the current dilemma that world leaders and financial experts are scrambling to figure out. Desperate to contain, and not sure what, if anything, can work. How did this happen and why?
read full article
12.16.2008
Wall St Coup D'etat by Ceri Shepherd, Trend Investor
Original here.
The Bailouts now stand at $8.5 trillion Dollars and the vast majority of this money has been stolen by the Wall Street insiders, as I will now demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt.
The Bailout money will be financed in three ways
1. More taxation.
2.
3. The money will simply be printed therefore devaluing the purchasing power of all your existing Dollars.
So you will be taxed more, and you will have to suffer poorer government services. As far more of the government’s income via taxation is used to pay the interest on all the existing and new debt, and finally your Dollars will buy a lot less.
That is the future, and it is the future because the vast majority of the $8.5 trillion Dollars of bailout money has simply been stolen.
We were originally told that the whole problem was a sub prime mortgage problem. Unfortunately this is a LIE. The amount of all sub prime mortgages in
So lets look at it another way the total value of all residential mortgages in the USA prime, ALT A , and Subprime as of August 2008 according to the Federal Reserve is $10.6 trillion Dollars THAT IS EVERY MORTGAGE IN AMERICA. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association at this same time 9.2% of all mortgages were either delinquent or in foreclosure. So let’s assume that 100% of all these mortgages eventually go into foreclosure and that at auction the total proceeds for the foreclosure sales are zero. I am sure you will agree this is once again a highly unlikely outcome!
$10.6 trillion X 9.2% = $975 Billion Dollars
So a total of $975 Billlion Dollars would be required as an absolute maximum to bail out every single foreclosed mortgage in
If you buy a futures contract you can either buy it LONG or SHORT. If you are LONG you believe that the price of the underlying asset will rise, if you are SHORT you feel that it will fall. It is a zero sum game somebody wins and somebody loses. If the winner wins $1000 then he takes this $1000 from the loser. The amount of contracts outstanding or open interest is always in balance. All transactions and trades take place within a regulated and transparent exchange.
OTC derivative contracts are basically the same as regulated futures contracts. They are also zero sum, BUT they do not take place within an exchange. So they are not regulated and they are not transparent. What has happened is that a band of insiders have taken such huge OTC derivative bets that they have been able to push the markets, so that many of these OTC derivative contracts have triggered. Because the amount of leverage used or the notional value of these contracts is so high it takes very little movement for the outsiders to become insolvent, it is leverage gone mad. The Insiders knew that this would happen, but they also knew that the Government would not allow this corrupt system to fail.
Hence the $8.5 trillion Dollars of bailouts, this money is simply being transferred or funnelled from the taxpayers to a select band of Wall Street insiders. Remember it is a zero sum game the outsiders Bear Stearns, Wachovia, Citigroup LOST but somebody gained an equivalent amount. As Gordon Gecko stated in the film Wall Street.
“Money is not lost that’s the illusion, it is simply transferred”
The Politicians and media go on, and on, about how this is necessary to save the system, too big to fail, etc, etc. It is all rubbish they are nothing more than paid salesman for the bankers, it is a Government of the few and only for the few. The banks had huge unregulated bets amongst themselves and all kept in secret, the outsiders inevitably lost, and your money is now being funnelled directly to the bet winners. It is theft pure and simple. If you take a bet with somebody and you win BUT the loser cannot pay then that bet is worthless, and it dies. Why should American taxpayers pay for these failed bets? Surely the insiders had completed their “due diligence” on the counterparty risk? The reality was that they had not because they knew they would win, and they also knew that the government would pay the winnings via the taxpayer.
What people cannot accept is that
You think I maybe wrong? Then I leave you with a very sobering thought.
$8.5 Trillion Dollars would buy exactly 80% of all the mortgages outstanding in
If your mortgage was now 80% paid off, would it not provide quite a “stimulus” for the real economy? And it would not cost $1 more than what they have already committed to the bankers.
It is an $8.5 Trillion Dollar and growing daily, solution to a $975 Billion Dollar problem. The surplus has simply been “transferred”. It begs the question, why are the Government paying off the gambling bets of Wall Street? These bets had no purpose, they added no value, and provided no jobs they were simply symptomatic of the unregulated and opaque casino that wall street has unfortunately become. This again is a matter of deliberate policy otherwise the thieves will be identified. Let them fail, if 80% of all the outstanding mortgages were paid, we would not need much of a credit or finance industry. New start banks and foreign banks could easily provide this facility.
So I leave you with one thought this Christmas. The bailouts if redirected could pay 80% of every mortgage in
Ironic that a few bankers have engineered the biggest robbery in history.
Iraqi group files 200 lawsuits against Rumsfeld, US security firms for torture
AMMAN, Dec 15, 2008 (AFP) - A Jordan-based Iraqi rights group said on Monday it has filed 200 lawsuits against US former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and American security firms for their alleged role in torturing Iraqis.
Ali Qeisi, head of the group the "Society of Victims of the US Occupation in Iraq," said the cases, relating to torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners, have been recently filed in federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and Maryland.
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Ali Qeisi, head of the group the "Society of Victims of the US Occupation in Iraq," said the cases, relating to torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners, have been recently filed in federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and Maryland.
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Greenwald: Senate report links Bush to detainee homicides, media yawns
The bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report issued on Thursday -- which documents that "former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" and "that Rumsfeld's actions were 'a direct cause of detainee abuse' at Guantanamo and 'influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques ... in Afghanistan and Iraq'" -- raises an obvious and glaring question: how can it possibly be justified that the low-level Army personnel carrying out these policies at Abu Ghraib have been charged, convicted and imprisoned, while the high-level political officials and lawyers who directed and authorized these same policies remain free of any risk of prosecution? The culpability which the Report assigns for these war crimes is vast in scope and unambiguous:
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And let's not forget this asshole:
Cheney admits authorizing detainee torture
Monday, outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney made a startling statement on a nation-wide, televised broadcast.
When asked by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whether he approved of interrogation tactics used against a so-called "high value prisoner" at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, Mr. Cheney, in a break from his history of being press-shy, admitted to giving official sanctioning of torture.
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Send these fuckers to the Hague.
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And let's not forget this asshole:
Cheney admits authorizing detainee torture
Outgoing VP says Guantanamo prison should stay open until end of terror war, but has no idea when that might be.
Monday, outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney made a startling statement on a nation-wide, televised broadcast.When asked by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whether he approved of interrogation tactics used against a so-called "high value prisoner" at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, Mr. Cheney, in a break from his history of being press-shy, admitted to giving official sanctioning of torture.
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Send these fuckers to the Hague.
It's not just the Israelis who murder kids and steal their land
From The Guardian 16 December 2008:
"The first bomb hit a large group of children who had run on ahead of the main procession.
"It killed most of them instantly.
"A few minutes later, the plane returned and dropped another bomb, right in the centre of the group.
"This time the victims were almost all women...
"I was still holding my grandson's hand but the rest of him was gone..."
('I was still holding my grandson's hand - the rest was gone')
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The Federal Reserve's Ponzi Scheme
"We are this close to swindling the whole world and we can't quit now"
"We control the media and all the politicians we need. Once we collapse the economy, eliminate the Constitution, end all decent human values and disarm the populace, we will have the control we have waited so long for. We are almost there."
Madoff’s Fraud is Nothing Compared to U.S. Treasury’s
By James West
Monday, December 15, 2008
Back in 1989, Forbes Magazine published an article painting Vancouver, Canada as the “scam capital of the world”. As evidence he cited a few debacles which certainly caused investors to lose money, but the amounts are trifling compared to the trillions that have suddenly become part of the daily news lexicon.
Israel's crimes against humanity. Is anyone listening?
“This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality,” I was told by Richard N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the Council on Foreign Relations to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer. “I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic. Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this. The Israeli manipulation of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took place against civilian populations fifty years ago.”
The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, calls what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza “a crime against humanity.” Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as “a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” He has asked for “the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law.”
Preparations underway for a full scale invasion of Gaza
December 14, 2008
This has been quite a week in Israel. On Tuesday, The United Nations’ Human Rights Rapporteur claimed Israel’s current policies toward the Palestinians are tantamount to 'crimes against humanity’. Citing specifically the deteriorating situation in Gaza, and the ongoing human rights violations of a State army over its own people, UN Envoy Richard Falk claimed the UN must 'implement the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a crime against humanity.’
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This has been quite a week in Israel. On Tuesday, The United Nations’ Human Rights Rapporteur claimed Israel’s current policies toward the Palestinians are tantamount to 'crimes against humanity’. Citing specifically the deteriorating situation in Gaza, and the ongoing human rights violations of a State army over its own people, UN Envoy Richard Falk claimed the UN must 'implement the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a crime against humanity.’
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Cryptogon: The desperate final hours of the world's biggest ever (exposed - ed.) financial fraud
UPDATE: Madoff Claims to Have Acted Alone
Impossible.
It’s like I said when the news first broke. He’s trying to stay alive. This one goes all the way up the ladder. One wrong word and he’s dead, his family is dead, etc. He knows it. He’s sticking to a script.
For the first time, I’m preemptively adding a story, this story, to the Assassination category. People involved with this, at the levels we don’t even know about yet, mainly, the management of day-to-day operations, are probably already dead. I could be wrong, but far less serious situations than this have produced corpses.
Iraqi detainee, 25, dies in US custody from heart attack
An Iraqi detainee has died after apparently suffering a heart attack inside a US detention facility near the Baghdad International Airport.
"A 25-year-old Iraqi man died late Sunday from a heart attack after being moved to a special hospital for detainees inside the Cropper jail," the advisor of the public affairs office on detainees affairs, Kriek al-Sayab, told Voices of Iraq .
The official explained that the man was not suffering from any heart disease, and went to a doctor two weeks ago for a minor ailment.
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Nov 2008: Documents obtained by ACLU show abuse systemic
Details: Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody
See summary reports
"A 25-year-old Iraqi man died late Sunday from a heart attack after being moved to a special hospital for detainees inside the Cropper jail," the advisor of the public affairs office on detainees affairs, Kriek al-Sayab, told Voices of Iraq .
The official explained that the man was not suffering from any heart disease, and went to a doctor two weeks ago for a minor ailment.
Read more
Nov 2008: Documents obtained by ACLU show abuse systemic
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union released Department of Defense documents today that provide further evidence that prisoner abuse in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq was systemic. The documents, obtained as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, also show that Army investigations of abuse in Iraq were compromised by missing records, flawed interviews and problems with witness recollection.
"The Bush administration created a climate in which abuse was tolerated even when it wasn't expressly endorsed," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "With a new administration entering the White House, we should remember that the tone set by senior military and intelligence officials has very real implications for what takes place in U.S. detention facilities overseas. The new administration should make clear from the outset that it won't turn a blind eye to torture and abuse."
Read moreDetails: Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody
See summary reports
US government bailouts: poverty wages for auto workers, trillions for bankers
In the debate over federal assistance to the failing Detroit automakers, the clear consensus has emerged within the corporate, political and media establishment that auto workers must accept sharply lower wages and benefits as part of any industry bailout.
The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits "fully competitive" with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.
Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s.
The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September's bailout of the Wall Street banks.
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Related:
A Socialist Policy For Auto Workers
The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits "fully competitive" with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.
Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s.
The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September's bailout of the Wall Street banks.
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Related:
A Socialist Policy For Auto Workers
Wall Street Banks are Robbing Us Blind
President Obama: You have set up a web site and invite comment from your supporters. Here is something we are profoundly concerned about. We your loyal sovereign supporters and voters are being robbed blind by Wall Street. Professor Michael Hudson tells us that Two Trillion Dollars have been given to 15% or so of the wealthiest banks on Wall Street, investment banks like those that Robert Rubin, Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Chris Dodd and Vice President Biden and many other Senators have long supported. Our money is still being poured out to Wall Street. There is no end in sight. The phony rationale has been that we all will fall into a deep economic depression unless we make it possible for these banks again to extend credit, to make loans. First off, they are not doing this. These banks are, according to Professor Hudson, hoarding the money so that they can deal with their huge, but as yet unaudited, liabilities on collateralized debt obligations, credit default stops and the like. The Bank of America even used bailout money to buy a bank in China. Moreover, the stated objective makes no sense. No sane person wants to jump start the real estate bubble, the Silicon Valley bubble or any other bubble. Yet, that is the stated objective. These few banks seek to “solve” the real problem of our insufficient purchasing power in an awkward indirect tickle down way by transferring public money to the top 1% in the hope that the top 1% will find profit making opportunities and lend, invest, create employment, pay existing or lower wages, and thus finally “restore” our purchasing power. If these Wall Street banks mean what they say, this “solution” was not working before the crisis, has not worked since 1980, and especially will not work now. If these Wall Street bankers are spinning the facts to cover an outright theft of our money as appears to be the case, they should be prosecuted. These banks should be allowed to fall into bankruptcy, and a more direct, creative and effective use should be made with our bailouts.
Who Do You Think You Are Anyway?
So you think you have a say in this country? Think that it’s your vote that puts our leaders in power. Do you believe that writing letters to Senators and Representatives actually make any kind of difference? I’m happy for you if you believe that. I used to think that way until I started watching the government doing things that were beyond my wildest imagination. What kind of people dream up some of the schemes that we’ve seen in the last 30 years? How did they get into power? How could people have been so misled? Where are the Americans that just want to be left alone to live their lives and raise their families?
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Send your old shoes to George Bush
America: We were unable to give President [sic] Bush the boot, but we *can* give him the shoe!
"This is a farewell kiss, you dog!"
It is time to carpet the lawn of the White House and carpet both the lawns of Bush's new homes.
What better way to stand in solidarity with Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi?
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
10151/10141 Daria Place
Dallas, TX 75229
40% US GDP comes from CA, TX, NY, FL, IL
Our gross domestic product contracted in the third quarter of 2008 and is contracting in the forth quarter. There is very little doubt surrounding that. The National Bureau of Economic Research put the start date of our current recession at December of 2007. Simply looking at the employment patterns and trends it appears that this recession will be the worst on record since World War II. Another reason why this recession will be so painful is that 40 percent of our national GDP comes from 5 states, many that are in painful contractions.
The United States received 40 percent of its GDP from California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. California accounts for over 12 percent of national GDP and currently has a state unemployment rate of 8.2%, the third highest in the nation. If we dig deep and look at the California housing market, it is abysmal and shows no signs of bouncing back. This weekend 60 Minutes talked about the Alt-A and option ARM crisis that will hit us in the upcoming years. The 2 states with the largest concentration of these loans are California and Florida.Read more
Wall St Shock as G-Sachs losses mount
As the shock waves of former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff's arrest over an alleged £33.5billion fraud continues to reverberate around Wall Street, dealers in New York are braced for yet more grief from the battered banking sector.
For the first time in a decade as a publicly listed company, Goldman Sachs is expected to report a loss for the fourth quarter tomorrow.
Read more
The Causes of Human Suffering and a Solution
At the top of the list is monetary greed and megalomania
Along with this comes ruthless exploitation of human beings, the environment, plant and animal species. Greed grinds up our earth and all life. Millions of innocent human beings are killed in wars that profit the international Federal Reserve banking system, the military industrial complex and the oil companies. The vast wealth created by war and human exploitation is not in any way used to benefit humanity or our earth. The super rich buy mansions all over the world, fleets of private jets and dozens of expensive cars, but most of the money they accumulate is stashed away in vast hoardes and used to acquire more slaves more power and more wealth. The cycle of power and exploitation is perpetual, and for humanity it is self-consuming. Obviously a world based on war and greed will end in a World War fought over dwindling commodity resources.
Support for Likud soars before Israeli Ballot
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The rightist Likud party could claim victory in the upcoming legislative election in Israel, according to a poll by Shvakim Panorama released by Israel Radio. A prospective tally shows that Likud would get 34 seats in the Knesset, up nine since October.
The governing Kadima is second with 20 mandates, followed by the Labour party with 14 seats, the International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas) with 12 mandates, and Israel Our Home with 11 seats.
Greece-style riots coming to the US?
Frighteningly accurate trends forecaster Gerald Celente says that America will see riots similar to those currently ongoing in Greece and that the cause will be a hyper-inflationary depression, leading to the inevitable use of troops and mercenaries to deal with the crisis as Americans are incarcerated in internment camps.
As we have highlighted before, Celente’s accuracy is stunning - he predicted the 1987 crash, the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the “panic of 2008,” and is routinely cited even by mainstream news networks as highly credible.
The cause of the riots would be a hyper-inflationary depression, Celente told interviewer Lew Rockwell, causing Americans to revolt in similar circumstances that we have witnessed recently in Iceland and Greece. The trouble would be sparked off by Obama declaring a “bank holiday” whereby people won’t be able to withdraw their money.
The Real Story (suspicion alert - ed.) behind the rushed Blagojevich bush
From WSJ, if you didn't see it yesterday. - Ed.
Conventional wisdom holds that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ordered the FBI to arrest Rod Blagojevich before sunrise Tuesday in order to stop a crime from being committed. That would have been the sale of the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
But the opposite is true: Members of Fitzgerald’s team are livid the scheme didn’t advance, at least for a little longer, according to some people close to Fitzgerald’s office. Why? Because had the plot unfolded, they might have had an opportunity most feds can only dream of: A chance to catch the sale of a Senate seat on tape, including the sellers and the buyers.
12.15.2008
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The Bush Family: They Just Don't Get It
News from China Youth Daily. - Ed.On December 3rd, after Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez announced that he will not seek another term, an aid revealed that Jeb Bush, President Bush’s younger brother, is considering running for Senate in 2010. Republican Party members welcomed this announcement, but Democrats were not as enthusiastic. What really interests analysts is the possibility of Jeb becoming the third president in the Bush family.
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The Mark of the Beast? Oh, Silly. It's an "exciting" new "option" to keep your family "safe." See?
Microsoft’s HealthVault, the medical records database, is to be integrated with VeriMed’s human-embedded RFID tags, allowing doctors to access the medical records of unconscious patients with a quick scan of the arm.
VeriMed consists of an RFID tag that is embedded in the arm of a hopefully willing participant, and responds with a 16-digital identity code when queried at 134KHz. This code can then be used to identify the person through VeriChip’s website, and will soon be able to link to their medical records as stored on Microsoft’s HealthVault system.
“VeriMed adds an exciting RFID-based option for HealthVault users trying to keep themselves and their families safe,” says Sean Nolan, the chief architect for HealthVault, quoted in RFID Journal. If you’re excited about the idea of being electronically indexed then this is probably the technology for you.
Marines establish military presence in San Bernarndino County, CA
Branson Hunter, writing for the Big Bear Observation Post blog, reports that the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) and the local California Highway Patrol will be working together over the holiday “in a joint effort to reduce accidents and drinking and driving” in San Bernardino County.
Hunter contacted Corporal Knuesn of the MCAGCC Provost Marshal office and MCAGCC Public Affairs Chief, Gunny Sgt. Chris Cox. Both confirmed the USMC will be present on public roads in order to setup a military presence during routine DUI check stops. “They will be working closely over the month to cut down of traffic accidents,” said Cox, “the Military Police will observe DUI check points and watch for their own guys. The intent is to have military presence out there.”Read more
Also note this story from SOTT:
Psychopaths in police uniform: "I've never lost any sleep when I've had to take someone's life."
I've never lost any sleep over when I've had to take someone's life,' says Ray, a 25-year veteran of Scotland Yard's specialist firearms unit, CO19.
'I don't want to sound callous but that's what you're trained to do. So when it does happen, why would you be surprised? I'm sure there are blokes who get involved in a shooting and find it does affect them. But most will go on to have good careers in the department, and that means that maybe they will be in other incidents where someone gets shot.
'Psychologically, the first shooting is the barrier. Once you get past that...' Ray tails off, leaving the sentence unfinished. 'Ultimately it's down to your training. The more realistic it is, the less likely you are to be affected.'
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Maybe Blagojevich has a few shingles blown off his roof
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich believed in 2004 that he would be selected by Sen. John Kerry as his running mate, former employees told a newspaper reporter Monday -- and even considered turning Kerry down, though Kerry aides say he was never under consideration.
"Whatever else may have come apart within Mr. Blagojevich in recent months, one quality, unabashed ambition, has been a constant, his colleagues and his critics say," Times reporter Monica Davis wrote Monday. "Even with approval ratings that had sunk to 13 percent as details of the federal investigation into his administration had seeped out over the past three years, Mr. Blagojevich, incredulous prosecutors say, still spoke in his recorded conversations in the past six weeks of the possibility of remaking his political future and running for president, perhaps in 2016."
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"Whatever else may have come apart within Mr. Blagojevich in recent months, one quality, unabashed ambition, has been a constant, his colleagues and his critics say," Times reporter Monica Davis wrote Monday. "Even with approval ratings that had sunk to 13 percent as details of the federal investigation into his administration had seeped out over the past three years, Mr. Blagojevich, incredulous prosecutors say, still spoke in his recorded conversations in the past six weeks of the possibility of remaking his political future and running for president, perhaps in 2016."
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'Arab-superpowers talks not anti-Iran'
I see the invisible hand of Israel in these talks. - Ed.
Bahrain's foreign minister rejects speculations that an upcoming meeting between Arab officials and world powers would be a move against Iran.
"[The meeting's aim] is to talk about our security," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Khalifa said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The senior Bahraini official had earlier said that representatives of several Arab states would meet the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, for discussions about the security in the Middle East.
According to the foreign minister's announcement, the talks will take place at the invitation of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and on the sidelines of the Middle East diplomatic quartet meeting-between the European Union, Russia, the US, and the United Nations.
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Bahrain's foreign minister rejects speculations that an upcoming meeting between Arab officials and world powers would be a move against Iran.
"[The meeting's aim] is to talk about our security," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Khalifa said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The senior Bahraini official had earlier said that representatives of several Arab states would meet the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, for discussions about the security in the Middle East.
According to the foreign minister's announcement, the talks will take place at the invitation of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and on the sidelines of the Middle East diplomatic quartet meeting-between the European Union, Russia, the US, and the United Nations.
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Rahm, feeling the heat
BARACK Obama's chief of staff is under pressure over reported contacts with Illinois's corruption-tainted governor, who faces impeachment proceedings this week.
Rahm Emanuel, a combative congressman from Illinois who will serve as Obama's political gatekeeper in the White House, was reported to have been in touch with Governor Rod Blagojevich about Mr Obama's Senate seat.The Chicago Tribune and New York Times did not suggest any wrongdoing by Mr Emanuel, citing sources as saying he had presented suggested names to take over the seat without offering any inducements to Mr Blagojevich.
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What's this crazy blog post doing in a major newspaper?
Excerpt:
It is impossible for someone who scored a U in his economics A-level to grapple with the consequences of all this but I’m told that in simple terms money will cease to function as a meaningful commodity. The binary dots and dashes that fuel the entire system will flicker and die. And without money there will be no business. No means of selling goods. No means of transporting them. No means of making them in the first place even. That’s why another friend of mine has recently sold his London house and bought somewhere in the country . . . with a kitchen garden.
These, as I see them, are the facts. Planet Earth thought it had £10. But it turns out we had only £2. Which means everyone must lose 80% of their wealth. And that’s going to be a problem if you were living on the breadline beforehand.
Eventually, of course, the system will reboot itself, but for a while there will be absolute chaos: riots, lynchings, starvation. It’ll be a world without power or fuel, and with no fuel there’s no way the modern agricultural system can be maintained. Which means there will be no food either. You might like to stop and think about that for a while.
In Athens, middle class rioters are buying rocks
How much tear gas can a nation take? How many stones can it collect? To ask such questions of an EU member state that is supposed to be as sophisticated as it is modern might seem far-fetched, even silly.
To ask them four years after that country basked in the glory of staging one of the most successful Olympic Games might be considered absurd. But yesterday, as Greece entered a second week of pitched battles between rock-throwing protesters and riot police - with security forces turning to Israel and Germany to replenish depleted reserves of toxic gases to contain the angry crowds - such questions did not seem foolish. Or, I'm sad to say, remotely absurd.
Mayan Calendar: Day six during the nine underworlds
During Day Six of any one of the Nine Underworlds, the creation of that Underworld flowers or blossoms; meaning, the whole purpose of that Underworld is revealed.
During Day Six of the Cellular Underworld (2.5 to 3.8 billion years ago), the first unicellular life (Prokaryotes) emerged; during the Mammalian (126 to 190 million years ago), Pangea began to break apart and continents began to form while brain lateralization (left and right) formulated in mammals; during the Familial (6.3 to 9.5 million years ago), the earliest human lineages split from apes and chimpanzees and we stood up on two feet, freeing up our hands; during the Tribal (216,000 to 474,000 years ago), Neanderthal appeared as a species that was close to our current form; during the Regional (15,800 to 23,700 years ago), the Global Maritime civilization (Atlantis) sailed the seas and colonized the shores; during the National (AD 829-1223), the European and Islamic medieval awakening brought Europe out of the Dark Ages.
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During Day Six of the Cellular Underworld (2.5 to 3.8 billion years ago), the first unicellular life (Prokaryotes) emerged; during the Mammalian (126 to 190 million years ago), Pangea began to break apart and continents began to form while brain lateralization (left and right) formulated in mammals; during the Familial (6.3 to 9.5 million years ago), the earliest human lineages split from apes and chimpanzees and we stood up on two feet, freeing up our hands; during the Tribal (216,000 to 474,000 years ago), Neanderthal appeared as a species that was close to our current form; during the Regional (15,800 to 23,700 years ago), the Global Maritime civilization (Atlantis) sailed the seas and colonized the shores; during the National (AD 829-1223), the European and Islamic medieval awakening brought Europe out of the Dark Ages.
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Mystery illness paralizes girl given Gardasil vaccine
A 12-year-old schoolgirl has been left paralysed from the waist down by a mystery illness that came on 30 minutes after she was given the new anticervical cancer jab.
Ashleigh Cave suffered dizziness and headaches soon after the vaccination at her school and then deteriorated rapidly, collapsing several times over the following days.
A week later she was admitted to hospital after losing all strength in her legs and, two months on, there has been no improvement.
More information on the vaccine business here.
Brilliant Response to FT Editorial on world government
Excerpt:
The answer to that can also be easily understood – for we know far too much from recent history, if only one is reminded of it. Notice how Rachman begins his editorial “I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US”, such that in a single opening sentence, he puts to rest why he might now be saying the same thing that the so called conspiracy theorists have been asserting for many years. He presents his version as a new emerging necessity to the global problems. What is this – other than a very sophisticated intelligence psy-op to now make it acceptable to take the conspiracy out of the previously discredited realm of 'tin-hatters' and start discussing it as the preferred solution-space? But coming from a respectable news media like the Financial Times(?) they are hardly a tabloid newspaper, one might ask. Such psyops and disinformation is the norm rather than the exception, as the following two articles disclose: Carl Bernstein's 'THE CIA AND THE MEDIA', and Richard Keeble's 'Hacks And Spooks'.
Indoctrination Central
Scroll down. Look at the names. Look how this program has grown year to year. - Ed.
Hadassah's Influentials to Israel (a.k.a. "I to I") Program encourages elected officials, policy makers, and public opinion leaders to visit Hadassah sites in Israel in order to forge stronger bonds with Israel. It also serves to educate these "influentials" about Hadassah.
The Facts:
In December 1999, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Hadassah Medical Organization at Ein Kerem. In November 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Hadassah's Mt. Scopus Hospital. In recent years, an assortment of governors, members of Congress, business leaders and state legislators have visited various other Hadassah projects in Israel.
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http://www.hadassah.org/pageframe.asp?section=education&page=influentials_israel.asp&header=influentials_israel&size=60
Hadassah's Influentials to Israel (a.k.a. "I to I") Program encourages elected officials, policy makers, and public opinion leaders to visit Hadassah sites in Israel in order to forge stronger bonds with Israel. It also serves to educate these "influentials" about Hadassah.
The Facts:
In December 1999, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Hadassah Medical Organization at Ein Kerem. In November 1998, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Hadassah's Mt. Scopus Hospital. In recent years, an assortment of governors, members of Congress, business leaders and state legislators have visited various other Hadassah projects in Israel.
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http://www.hadassah.org/pageframe.asp?section=education&page=influentials_israel.asp&header=influentials_israel&size=60
Why Blagojevich might be acquitted
With regard to the claims of crime that Patrick Fitzgerald spoke of in his press conference, and only with regard to those matters, don't be utterly shocked if ultimately Blagojevich is acquitted on those particular claims. Maybe Fitzgerald can make a conspiracy to commit those crimes stick, but, on the other hand, maybe even conspiracy charges will lose.
Two things should be said about all this preliminarily. One is that I am sour on Fitzgerald. The cause of this disgruntlement is the Libby case. There Fitzgerald came on very powerfully at his initial press conference, where he made it appear that he was after really big game. But he was the lion that roared but then belched forth only a mouse, not going after or convicting Libby for what was done to Plame and not touching a hair of the head of the arch-criminals Cheney and Rove -- not to mention Bush. So when Fitzgerald came on so strong about Blagojevich, this writer's reaction was that it was wise to be skeptical unless Fitzgerald showed a lot more than he apparently could.
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Two things should be said about all this preliminarily. One is that I am sour on Fitzgerald. The cause of this disgruntlement is the Libby case. There Fitzgerald came on very powerfully at his initial press conference, where he made it appear that he was after really big game. But he was the lion that roared but then belched forth only a mouse, not going after or convicting Libby for what was done to Plame and not touching a hair of the head of the arch-criminals Cheney and Rove -- not to mention Bush. So when Fitzgerald came on so strong about Blagojevich, this writer's reaction was that it was wise to be skeptical unless Fitzgerald showed a lot more than he apparently could.
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Rahm ensnared in Blagojevich scandal
THE bullish, foul-mouthed but effective Chicago arm-twister Rahm Emanuel has come under pressure to resign as Barack Obama’s chief of staff after it was revealed that he had been captured on court-approved wire-taps discussing the names of candidates for Obama’s Senate seat.
Emanuel’s presence at the heart of the scandal threatens to roil the president-elect’s administration as a Chicago prosecutor builds his corruption case against Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor.
Blagojevich arrest could send Jewish rep to senate
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had absolute power and apparently was enjoying it.
Senate Candidate 1, according to the federal complaint that led to the governor's arrest Tuesday, was close to President-elect Barack Obama, whose newly vacant U.S. Senate seat Blagojevich was constitutionally required to fill. That fed Blagojevich's hopes of extracting a Cabinet position or a high-salaried nonprofit job from Obama.
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http://jta.org/news/article/2008/12/09/1001437/blagojevichs-arrest-improve-chances-for-jewish-lawmakerMadoff Ponzi scheme dwarfed by Illuminati Rubin's
Keep your eye on the ball! - Ed.
The arrest of financier Bernard Madoff Thursday for operating a "Ponzi scheme" costing investors $50 billion made the TV network news. Curiously, a lawsuit the same day against Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for defrauding Citibank shareholders of more than $122 billion, also described as a "Ponzi scheme," got no airplay whatsoever.
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The arrest of financier Bernard Madoff Thursday for operating a "Ponzi scheme" costing investors $50 billion made the TV network news. Curiously, a lawsuit the same day against Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for defrauding Citibank shareholders of more than $122 billion, also described as a "Ponzi scheme," got no airplay whatsoever.
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Hyperinflation and then the Second Great Depression
A future out of control, bankrupt financial institutions trying to hold on, limitation on credit severely limits ability of the economy to start up again, debt totally embraces our lives, handouts a state secret, soon cash infusions wont work for banks anymore, banks hold too much toxic garbage to even know if they are solvent We are now 17 months into a credit crisis that continues to expose the corruption and incompetence of government, banking, Wall Street and transnational corporations. The situation has not stabilized and it won’t anytime soon. All we see are sweetheart deals for elitist corporations for which American taxpayers will pay for years to come. The future of our nation is totally out of control. For the last eight years our economy has been running on something for nothing, lies and deceit. The result will be hyperinflation and then the Second Great Depression.
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