Former UN Ambassador John Bolton believes the security of the United States is at dire risk under the Obama administration. And before a gathering of conservatives in Washington on Thursday morning, he suggested, as something of a joke, that President Barack Obama might learn a needed lesson if Chicago were destroyed by a nuclear bomb.
Read more @ Mother Jones
2.27.2009
Insider spills the beans on offshore banking centers
The oil industry created the practice of countries (SHIPS?) flying "flags of convenience" as a means of avoiding income taxes nearly a century ago. Since the 1960s the U.S. Government itself has encouraged American banks to set up branches in Caribbean hot-money centers and more distant islands as a means of attracting foreign money into the dollar. The initial aim was to help finance the Vietnam War by turning America into a new Switzerland for the world's hot money.
This policy succeeded in turning the United States into a flight-capital center for third-world dictators, Mexican presidents and Russian oligarchs. The former Soviet Union now finances a substantial portion of the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit with the flight capital that neoliberal "reformers" facilitated by backing the kleptocrats. The result has grown into a full-blown system enabling multinational corporations to evade taxes everywhere, including the United States itself. It enables domestic investors to globalize their operations by setting up offshore affiliates Enron-style in the Cayman Islands, Dutch West Indies or some small and newly notorious Pacific Island of their choice.
Iran says no military agenda in nuclear plan
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday Tehran's atomic plans were not of military nature, urging Russia to complete Iran's long-delayed nuclear power plant.
"In the Friday prayer sermon, we don't make false promises. Therefore I declare that Iran's nuclear plan is not to build weapons ... and we are ready to prove it in negotiations," he said in a sermon carried live on state radio.
Bibi still whining
Israel's prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu says talks to include the centrist Kadima party in a coalition have ended without agreement.
The Likud leader said he had faced "categorical rejection" in 90-minute talks with Kadima leader Tzipi Livni.
Minutes earlier, Mrs Livni said the meeting "concluded without agreement on key issues".
Mr Netanyahu has been tasked with forming a government in the wake of elections earlier this month.
In other regional developments, Israel's military attacked alleged smuggling tunnels in Gaza on Thursday, in what it said was retaliation for earlier rocket launches.
Treasury set to convert Citi preferred to common
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it will convert a significant share of the preferred stock it holds in struggling bank Citigroup Inc to common stock as long as others also do so.
In an early-morning announcement, Treasury said it would convert dollar-for-dollar its preferred shares to match conversions by private preferred holders in a bid to strengthen Citigroup's capital base.
Why all porn is gay
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
(originally posted in Feb. 2006)
In 2004, a woman revealed details of Hugh Hefner's sex life.
If the Playboy founder is any indication, a life dedicated to porn and promiscuity leads to homosexuality and impotence. The 60's icon of suave masculinity is, in old age, a grotesque self-parody.
Hefner, 82, pays a bevy of whores $2000 a week to be his girlfriends and have sex with him every Wednesday and Friday. He uses Viagra and watches male gay porn to stay erect while as many as ten concubines mount him in succession. The other girls simulate lesbian sex to arouse him.
"He doesn't really do anything," says Jill Anne Spaulding, author of the book "Upstairs." He just lies there with his Viagra erection. It's just a fake erection, and each girl gets on top of him for two minutes while the girls in the background try to keep him excited. They'll yell things like, "F-k her daddy, f-k her daddy!" There's a lot of cheerleader going on!"
No one becomes a playmate without having intercourse with Hefner. The "girl next door" is now a whore; and Hefner's maudlin example of arrested development is a fitting epitaph for his Playboy Philosophy.
Playboy was not a spontaneous phenomenon. It was social engineering designed to foster homosexuality and family breakdown. See my "Playboy and the (Homo) Sexual Revolution." This is why Spaulding's revelations got so little publicity.
Vatican's chief astronomer - Advanced ET life not an accident
The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations perhaps more evolved than humans.
"In my opinion this possibility exists," said the Reverend José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, referring to life on other planets.
Kenny's Sideshow: The media war on you
Excerpt:
Propaganda can serve to rally people behind a cause, but often at the cost of exaggerating, misrepresenting, or even lying about the issues in order to gain that support.
While the issue of propaganda often is discussed in the context of militarism, war and war-mongering, it is around us in all aspects of life.
As the various examples below will show, common tactics in propaganda often used by either side include:
- Using selective stories that come over as wide-covering and objective.
- Partial facts, or historical context
- Reinforcing reasons and motivations to act due to threats on the security of the individual.
Goon Squad: Israel's "special" relationship with the US
Hmm, how is it that the world's leading terrorist state, Israel, enjoys such a special relationship with the USA?
Read more @ Goon Squad
How can the US recover without manufacturing capacity?
by Glen Ford
The strength of the federal economic stimulus package is seriously diluted by the fact that many of the manufactured goods that will be purchased for the attempted recovery must be imported from outside the United States. America simply doesn't make lots of things, anymore. That means many billions of dollars that folks assumed would go towards fueling an American economic comeback, will instead provide work and paychecks to employees in other countries, that still have manufacturing bases. That's fine with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is dominated by large multinational corporations - the same guys that began stripping the United States of manufacturing jobs decades ago.
Read more @ Atheo News
The strength of the federal economic stimulus package is seriously diluted by the fact that many of the manufactured goods that will be purchased for the attempted recovery must be imported from outside the United States. America simply doesn't make lots of things, anymore. That means many billions of dollars that folks assumed would go towards fueling an American economic comeback, will instead provide work and paychecks to employees in other countries, that still have manufacturing bases. That's fine with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is dominated by large multinational corporations - the same guys that began stripping the United States of manufacturing jobs decades ago.
Read more @ Atheo News
Breathless Propaganda
The Iran-Israel nuclear endgame is now much closer
In recent days, four key developments have clicked in to edge Iran and Israel much closer to a military denouement with profound consequences for American oil that the nation is not prepared to meet.
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410719930&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In recent days, four key developments have clicked in to edge Iran and Israel much closer to a military denouement with profound consequences for American oil that the nation is not prepared to meet.
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410719930&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel's rightward shift: a history of the present
A withered left, a fragmented right, a stagnant politics and a frozen peace compose the bleak Israeli ingredients of the search for national and regional progress, says Colin Shindler.
Read more @ Open Democracy
Read more @ Open Democracy
2.26.2009
More Official Sloppiness, this time with deadly viruses
Yesterday the missing radioactive materials just being written off, today experimental deadly virus material unaccounted for. Gee. Do you think they behave like morons on purpose? - Ed.
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
What happened to the ferrets that received Baxter’s H5N1 virus material?
The animals died “promptly” according to the story below.
The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is: Did any ferrets in neighboring cages—that didn’t receive the Baxter H5N1 virus—also get sick and die? The answer to that question is conveniently missing from every story that I have found about this incident.
If the answer is ‘yes’ it means that Baxter didn’t supply standard H5N1 virus, but rather a weaponized/pandemic version that is the same as or similar to the one that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was developing.
CIA signals continuity with Bush era
WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency's new director outlined spy policies Wednesday, including an aggressive campaign in Pakistan, that underscored considerable continuity with the Bush administration.
CIA Director Leon Panetta, in his first meeting with reporters, said the agency will continue to carry out drone attacks on militants in Pakistan. He also said that while CIA interrogations will have new limits, President Barack Obama can still use his wartime powers to authorize harsher techniques if necessary.
CIA adds economy to threat update
Pay attention...this is the NWO plan unfolding before our eyes. - Ed.
The daily White House intelligence report that catalogs the top security threats to the nation has a grim new addition, reflecting the realities of the age: a daily update on the global financial crisis and its cascading effects on the stability of countries through the world.
The first Economic Intelligence Briefing report was presented to the White House yesterday by the CIA, the agency's new director, Leon Panetta, revealed at a news conference. The addition of economic news to the daily roundup of terrorist attacks and surveillance reports appears to reflect a growing belief among intelligence officials that the economic meltdown is now preeminent among security threats facing the United States.
CIA Director Panetta already talking tough
Late last year former Monterey Rep. Leon Panetta was busy giving transition advice to then-President-elect Obama's team while insisting he had no desire to leave the Carmel Valley.
"They did mention Commerce," Obama's new CIA director told reporters Wednesday. Noting Obama's troubles in filling that job, he added, "I guess I made a good decision."
The 70-year-old former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, who just a month ago was running his Panetta Institute at Cal State Monterey Bay, now is knee-deep in some of Washington's thorniest debates: Where will detainees go when Guantanamo Bay is closed? How aggressively should terrorist suspects be interrogated? Is Iran close to having a nuclear weapon?
EU trio propose tougher list of Iran sanctions
LONDON (Reuters) - France, Germany and Britain are proposing a tough list of additional sanctions to be imposed against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
A confidential document seen by the FT and Italian newspaper Il Riformista lists 34 Iranian entities and 10 individuals believed to be linked to covert nuclear or biological weapons programs, the London-based daily said.
The FT quoted some European diplomats as saying the list was meant to provide U.S. President Barack Obama's administration with a "bigger stick" in a carrot-and-stick approach aimed at getting Iran to stop nuclear activity.
Egypt urges rival Palestinian factions to end divisions
Egypt urged all Palestinian factions on Thursday to work on ending their internal chasm in reconciliation talks aimed at pushing rivals Hamas and Fatah to form an interim unity government.
"Your people are looking forward to seeing the beginning of your unity," said Gen. Omar Sulieman, Egypt's intelligence head, in nationally televised comments Thursday.
Read more @ Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410726254&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
"Your people are looking forward to seeing the beginning of your unity," said Gen. Omar Sulieman, Egypt's intelligence head, in nationally televised comments Thursday.
Read more @ Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410726254&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
New US Intel Chief: Support of Israel Not a US Interest
Excerpt:
Typical of Freeman's viewpoints is a statement he made in a speech before the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs in 2007, in which he more or less blames international terrorist acts on Israel:
"American identification with Israeli policy has also become total. Those in the region and beyond it who detest Israeli behavior, which is to say almost everyone, now naturally extend their loathing to Americans. This has had the effect of universalizing anti-Americanism, legitimizing radical Islamism, and gaining Iran a foothold among Sunni as well as Shiite Arabs. For its part, Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians; it strives instead to pacify them. Palestinian retaliation against this policy is as likely to be directed against Israel’s American backers as against Israel itself. Under the circumstances, such retaliation – whatever form it takes – will have the support or at least the sympathy of most people in the region and many outside it. This makes the long-term escalation of terrorism against the United States a certainty, not a matter of conjecture."
Read more @ Israel National News
Netanyahu's Three Strategies Against Obama
Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu will need to act quickly and be highly resourceful if he is to dent Obama’s determination to turn a new page with Iran, promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, and build bridges with the entire Arab and Muslim world, says Patrick Seale.
Having been asked by Israel’s President Shimon Peres to form a government, Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, has until 17 March to try to put together a ruling coalition. Looming over his horse-trading with possible partners is the shadow of Barack Obama, America’s new President
Read more @ Middle East Online
Having been asked by Israel’s President Shimon Peres to form a government, Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, has until 17 March to try to put together a ruling coalition. Looming over his horse-trading with possible partners is the shadow of Barack Obama, America’s new President
Read more @ Middle East Online
Perils of criticising Israel
Excerpt:
In the 60 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, attempts to present in print an account of Palestinian history and Palestinian rights have usually been met by swift and highly organised protests. Protesters have written in their hundreds to journals and newspapers, often using arguments supplied by a central publicity machine and phrased in suspiciously similar terms. These campaigns, and similar campaigns launched against publications that print material critical of Israel, seem fundamentally different from the normal discourse between readers and the publications they read. The constant use of denial rather than argument; the demands for an apology or even the editor’s resignation; the enlisting of people who have never read, or even heard, of the publication in question; and the recourse to obscenity and accusations of antisemitism all go far beyond the average heated but civilised debate one expects to find in a scientific or medical journal.
Read more @ PULSE
In the 60 years since the establishment of the state of Israel, attempts to present in print an account of Palestinian history and Palestinian rights have usually been met by swift and highly organised protests. Protesters have written in their hundreds to journals and newspapers, often using arguments supplied by a central publicity machine and phrased in suspiciously similar terms. These campaigns, and similar campaigns launched against publications that print material critical of Israel, seem fundamentally different from the normal discourse between readers and the publications they read. The constant use of denial rather than argument; the demands for an apology or even the editor’s resignation; the enlisting of people who have never read, or even heard, of the publication in question; and the recourse to obscenity and accusations of antisemitism all go far beyond the average heated but civilised debate one expects to find in a scientific or medical journal.
Read more @ PULSE
2.25.2009
CLAP LOUDER
Stocks jump after Bernanke says recession may end
Obama's speech: positive reviews and some questions
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Financial Armageddon: Nowhere near a bottom....
People keep asking: Are we near the bottom in the stock market?
If history is any guide, the answer is no. That's because during similarly troubled times in the past, share prices did not hit their ultimate lows until traditional valuation measures such as P/E ratios and dividend yields reached oversold extremes.
Who you gonna believe? - Ed.
The Pedophocracy, Part I:
David McGowan
August 2001
"Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose ... I am also a theologian and as a theologian, I believe it is God's will that there be closeness and intimacy, unity of flesh, between people ... paedophiles can make the assertion that the pursuit of intimacy and love is what they choose. With boldness, they can say, 'I believe this is in fact part of God's will.'"
Ralph Underwager, 'expert' witness for the defense in scores of child abuse cases and former vocal member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, in an interview in Paidika (a pro-pedophilia publication), conducted in June 1991
To the vast majority of Americans, the name Marc Dutroux doesn't mean much. Drop that name in Belgium though and you're likely to elicit some very visceral reactions. Dutroux - convicted along with his wife in 1989 for the rape and violent abuse of five young girls, the youngest of whom was just eleven - now stands accused of being a key player in an international child prostitution and pornography ring whose practices included kidnapping, rape, sadistic torture, and murder.
Scotomas in the Alt News Universe
Mike Rivero has run What Really Happened.com since 1994. WRH began as a page on Mike Rivero's business website asking questions about the death of Vince Foster.
Does Mike Rivero miss out a lot of what is really happening?
Does he do his homework?
Read more @ aangirfan
Following that Holocaust thing I wrote recently, a fellow dropped into the comments section and declared Mike Rivero of What Really Happened was a Jew and perfectly untrustworthy on the subject of the Holocaust etc. He declared Rivero a gate-keeper who only let through 90%. Jewishness aside, the former claim was specious nonsense. But the latter was true. Mike Rivero does have his 10%.
Read more @ nobody
Does Mike Rivero miss out a lot of what is really happening?
Does he do his homework?
Read more @ aangirfan
Following that Holocaust thing I wrote recently, a fellow dropped into the comments section and declared Mike Rivero of What Really Happened was a Jew and perfectly untrustworthy on the subject of the Holocaust etc. He declared Rivero a gate-keeper who only let through 90%. Jewishness aside, the former claim was specious nonsense. But the latter was true. Mike Rivero does have his 10%.
Read more @ nobody
Phoenix or Double Headed Eagle?
The double-headed eagle is probably the most easily recognizable Masonic symbol in the world, even more important than the Square and Compass/Rule.
They look like two eagles, but they are not. They are the Phoenix Bird of Ancient Egypt. Remember that the Brotherhood was known in ancient Egypt as, "The Mystery Schools."
They look like two eagles, but they are not. They are the Phoenix Bird of Ancient Egypt. Remember that the Brotherhood was known in ancient Egypt as, "The Mystery Schools."
The current Presidential Seal has an eagle in it. The eagle replaced the Phoenix(the original national bird) in 1841 as the national bird. The Phoenix has been a Brotherhood symbol since ancient Egypt. The Phoenix was adopted by the Founding Fathers for use on the reverse of the first official seal of the United States after a design proposed by Charles Thompson, Secretary of the Continental Congress.
Read more @ Dissecting the New Age
Extortion, the real reason for war and depression
"Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness"... Isaiah 5:20
"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." J. Edgar Hoover
At the end of the 19th Century, the Catholic church organized massive resistance to Illuminati Jewish domination of national life. The Illuminati instigated World War One partly to crush and punish a recalcitrant Europe.
Lenin defined "peace" as the end of all forms of resistance to Communist (i.e. Illuminati Jewish) despotism.
Read more @ SOS
"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." J. Edgar Hoover
At the end of the 19th Century, the Catholic church organized massive resistance to Illuminati Jewish domination of national life. The Illuminati instigated World War One partly to crush and punish a recalcitrant Europe.
Lenin defined "peace" as the end of all forms of resistance to Communist (i.e. Illuminati Jewish) despotism.
Read more @ SOS
How could Madoff not have made any trades for 13 years?
No problem for a sociopath. Consequences, cause and effect are far beyond the developmental stage of most sociopaths. Joe Jett of Kidder Peabody never thought the parade would end either.
Look at that “little boy lost” look.
Read more @ The Path Whisperer
You've lost all my money, you &%$^
Some people do yoga as a stress release. Others go for a long, reflective walk. Judith Cane plays the banjo.
As a financial adviser dealing with tumbling portfolios and panicky clients during the worst economic downturn in generations, she's been giving it a workout lately.
"I am playing my banjo really loudly and really hard," said Ms. Cane, president of Antara Financial Group in Ottawa. "It is really stressful."
So many questions and so little time to answer
Sometimes I have a lot of questions and sometimes I don’t have any. I think that during the times when I have questions, I am in the mode of altruism which inclines me to believe that answering certain questions will lead to solutions to longstanding problems. During the times when I don’t have any questions, it seems to me, I am seeing the world for what it is and realizing that the world itself is the problem; four antagonistic elements warring against each other forever and ever amen. Well… how and why I feel as I do doesn’t really matter.
Read more @ Smoking Mirrors
Read more @ Smoking Mirrors
Stanford a cog in the US intelligence dirty money laundering machine
By Wayne Madsen
“Sir” Allen Stanford appears to be yet another multi-billion dollar cog in a network of off-shore banks, corporate contrivances, and folding tent operations. Although Stanford is being investigated for an $8 billion fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Stanford has “extensive” holdings on the island of St. Croix, told the Associated Press that the Obama Justice Department is “not actively pursuing” Stanford.
Read more @ Atheo News
“Sir” Allen Stanford appears to be yet another multi-billion dollar cog in a network of off-shore banks, corporate contrivances, and folding tent operations. Although Stanford is being investigated for an $8 billion fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Stanford has “extensive” holdings on the island of St. Croix, told the Associated Press that the Obama Justice Department is “not actively pursuing” Stanford.
Read more @ Atheo News
2.24.2009
Cutting through the Illusion: The Grand Chessboard
It may seem blindingly obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway as we often seem to forget, that clear communication is essential to mutual understanding. Without a common understanding of what we say to each other we find ourselves adrift in Babel-land. The risks to us all from a lack of common understanding cannot be overstated.
In the midst of the deluge of bailouts, rescues and stimulus packages there is no clear communication as to just why these measures are being taken and how they are meant to improve the lives of ordinary people. It is abundantly clear that this is deliberate. If we, the normal people of the planet, were to gain a common understanding of what is really happening, we would decide that we don't approve, we would agree on exactly why we don't approve and we would likely agree on what we wish to see happen instead. Those that control our world know this so they ensure that no common understanding is reached; they need the confusion. In fact, they create the confusion.
Read more @ SOTT
In the midst of the deluge of bailouts, rescues and stimulus packages there is no clear communication as to just why these measures are being taken and how they are meant to improve the lives of ordinary people. It is abundantly clear that this is deliberate. If we, the normal people of the planet, were to gain a common understanding of what is really happening, we would decide that we don't approve, we would agree on exactly why we don't approve and we would likely agree on what we wish to see happen instead. Those that control our world know this so they ensure that no common understanding is reached; they need the confusion. In fact, they create the confusion.
Read more @ SOTT
FBI director warns of terror attacks in US cities
Classic. - Ed.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III today warned that extremists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons" to sow terror, raising the specter that recent attacks in Mumbai that killed 170 people last year could embolden terrorists seeking to attack U.S. cities.
At a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Mueller said that the bureau is expanding its focus beyond al-Qaeda and into splinter groups, radicals who try to enter the country through the visa waiver program and "home-grown terrorists."
'I was a victim of medieval torture' says freed Guantanamo detainee
The seven-year ordeal of a British resident who claims he was brutally tortured before being sent to Guantanamo Bay was brought to an end last night during an emotional reunion with his family.
Binyam Mohamed’s sister, Zuhra Mohamed, said she was “overcome with joy” as she watched her brother shuffle down the steps of the RAF transport plane which had carried him from the notorious US detention camp in Cuba to Northolt airfield, west London.
Soldiers still waiting for tour bonuses
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has not started complying with a law requiring the payment of monthly bonuses of up to $500 to soldiers forced to remain on active duty beyond their enlistment period, military officials said.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged the five-month delay in paying the bonuses and said the Defense Department is working on a plan to start paying the almost 13,000 soldiers currently under the Army's stop-loss orders. Although Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to end the policy, the number of soldiers affected has risen since the middle of 2007.
Obama seeks to 'clean out the system' with bank tests
Quaint. - Ed.
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama aims to dispel the cloud over U.S. banks that has driven their shares to a two- decade low by subjecting them to rigorous reviews and reviving the market for their toxic assets.
Officials will begin so-called stress tests of about 20 of the nation’s largest banks tomorrow with the aim of ensuring they have sufficient capital to withstand the toughest of economic times. Institutions that aren’t able to raise needed capital privately will get taxpayer money, regulators said yesterday.
World financial system in a state of insolvency
Gold now represents a flight to quality, banks being nationalizied, financial system in a tailspin, the depression we are now in is stage 2, inflation is a hidden tax, dollar stability being debauched, China wants out of the dollar, stability of EU at risk, Dow hiding its worst stocks from its index, Hosing bubble now burst puts prices back in line with incomes,
The tenor of the gold market has changed. Gold has decoupled from the dollar and at the moment it is not driven by fear of inflation or hyperinflation, but by a flight to quality. What else can be expected when the media reports that governments are deliberately creating inflation to offset deflation? Jewelry demand that normally makes up 80% of gold demand has dropped and investment demand is what is now driving buying. SPDR Gold Trust, the ETF GLD, has added 200 tons of gold over the past six weeks and 62,000 ounces last week alone. We are very skeptical regarding GLD’s gold purchases due to a tight market and no reports of their purchases. They may be using derivatives illegally and if they are and the derivatives fail the owners of the fund will be left with little of their investment.
Read more @ The International Forecaster
Citigroup, BOA: Prisoner's Dilemma, Electronic Bank Runs and Nationalization
Citigroup (C) declined 61% from a peak of $4.10 to an intraday low of $1.61 over just 10 trading days. Bluntly put: Citigroup is dead.
Bank of America (BAC) declined 64% from a peak of $7.05 to an intraday low of $2.53 over just 10 trading days. Bluntly put: Bank of America is dead.
Dead actually means dead. It is unlikely they can survive the weekend... and if they do, they most definitely cannot survive the week.
Read more @ Financial Ninja
Bank of America (BAC) declined 64% from a peak of $7.05 to an intraday low of $2.53 over just 10 trading days. Bluntly put: Bank of America is dead.
Dead actually means dead. It is unlikely they can survive the weekend... and if they do, they most definitely cannot survive the week.
Read more @ Financial Ninja
The Israelis were not in Sanai with Moses!
An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly and made the world community smile.
The Palestinian Representative's Speech at the UN
'Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Moses. When he struck the rock and it brought forth water, he thought, 'What a good opportunity to have a bath!'
He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water.
When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished.
An Israeli had stolen them.'
The Israeli representative jumped up furiously and shouted, 'What are you talking about? The Israelis weren't there then.'
The Palestinian representative smiled and said:
'And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.'
Israel undermining NPT, ElBaradei warns
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei says that Israel’s status as the Middle East’s only nuclear power and its only non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a major obstacle to efforts for global nuclear disarmament.
“What compounds the problem is that the nuclear non-proliferation regime has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of Arab public opinion because of the perceived double-standards concerning Israel, the only state in the region outside the NPT and known to possess nuclear weapons.” Though Israel has never formally admitted to its arsenal, it is widely accepted that it has a considerable number of nuclear weapons.
xymphora: A psychosexual history of the Wars for the Jews
There aren't a lot of defined minority groups that have managed to maintain their existence for millennia. In the West, I can think of but two, the Jews and the Roma (along with a few Christian sects like the Amish). Of course, there are still pockets of such people around, particularly in the Middle East, and a long history of such groups that no longer exist, either through assimilation or violence. The Catholic Church has been particularly careful to eliminate its rivals over the centuries (which is why there isn't an Albigensian Lobby!).
Read more @ xymphora
Read more @ xymphora
Killing Gazans didn't work to provoke WW III, so it's back to provoking Hezbollah
Israel’s navy commander, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom, said in a rare statement reported in Ha’aretz: "An axis of evil coordinated between Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas will require Israel to wage a campaign against it that will require our best efforts and abilities."
Read more @ Telling the History of the Twenty-First Century as It Really Is
Read more @ Telling the History of the Twenty-First Century as It Really Is
2.23.2009
Summer of Hell still on tap
So it's against this backdrop of political and financial ineptitude, made worse by CONgress abdicating on war powers, Constitutionally mandate control of money creation, and a longer than we have time for laundry list of omissions, commissions, misfeasance's and lobby-nuzzling that we can all look forward to the "summer of hell" as people global do a massive "WTF?"
The only solace in all this is that it won't be America only. It'll be a global event. The UK's Guardian headlines it this way:
"Britain faces summer of rage - police.
Middle-class anger at economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets"
Well, gee, gosh, look surprised. I've been telling you this has been in the linguistics for Summer '09 for how long? Go look at this Google cache from my Wednesday August 20, 2008 report which not only clearly predicts the October '08 meltdown but this stuff still to come that British police are awakening to: "This run is focused on events as far out as July 2009, which for labeling purposes in modelspace is called the "Summer of Hell" for reasons that you'll be able to catch up with in Part Zero which is expected to be posted around September 5th..."
Suspend military aid to Israel, Amnesty urges Obama after detailing US weapons used in Gaza
Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles.
In a report released today, Amnesty International detailed the weapons used and called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. It called on the Obama administration to suspend military aid to Israel.
Examples: Confidence Destroyed
This is exactly what I've been talking about.
First, from Reuters this morning on European indices:
""We're near the cliff's edge, very close to capitulation, the mood is very gloomy," said Jean-Claude Petit, head of equities at Barclays Wealth Managers France.
"I not sure that governments and central banks are realising what's really going on," he said.
What's "really going on" is that our entire financial system has turned into a gigantic clown car. There hasn't been any recognition that the fundamental problem over the last two decades has been fraudulent lending - giving money to people on loan that the lender knows full well has no real chance of being able to pay it back.
Czech president compares EU to Soviet Union
I really like this guy. - Ed.
The European Union has turned into an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe that forbade alternative thinking, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told the European Parliament on Thursday.
Read more @ Cryptogon
The European Union has turned into an undemocratic and elitist project comparable to the Communist dictatorships of eastern Europe that forbade alternative thinking, Czech President Vaclav Klaus told the European Parliament on Thursday.
Read more @ Cryptogon
Hoffman's letter to Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Vatican City
benedictxvi@vatican.va
Your Holiness
Is it not true that under the Second Vatican Council's doctrine of Religious Liberty, that Bishop Richard N. Williamson has the right to express his conscience and opinion on the subject of execution gas chambers in Auschwitz? Why is the Council's doctrine of liberty being suspended in his case?
Your Secretary of State has made belief in the "Shoah" a criterion for holding office in the Church. Is the rabbinic "Shoah" mysticism now a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church?
If so, on what Biblical, patristic and theological basis is the warning of the Apostle Paul in Titus 1:14 now overthrown?
Read more @ On The Contrary
Vatican City
benedictxvi@vatican.va
Your Holiness
Is it not true that under the Second Vatican Council's doctrine of Religious Liberty, that Bishop Richard N. Williamson has the right to express his conscience and opinion on the subject of execution gas chambers in Auschwitz? Why is the Council's doctrine of liberty being suspended in his case?
Your Secretary of State has made belief in the "Shoah" a criterion for holding office in the Church. Is the rabbinic "Shoah" mysticism now a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church?
If so, on what Biblical, patristic and theological basis is the warning of the Apostle Paul in Titus 1:14 now overthrown?
Read more @ On The Contrary
Mike Whitney: Trouble at Treasury
The Obama Team has a big problem on its hands; Timothy Geithner. Geithner was picked as Treasury Secretary because he is a trusted ally of the big banks and has a good grasp of the intricacies of the financial system. The problem is that Geithner can't handle the public relations part of his job. His big debut in prime-time last Tuesday turned out to be a complete dud. He was thoroughly unconvincing and looked like a nervous teenager at a speech contest. He fizzled on stage for 25 minutes while the little red box in the corner of the TV screen--which shows the current Dow Jones Industrials--plummeted nearly 400 points. It was a total disaster and one that is sure to be repeated over and over as long as Geithner is at Treasury. Not everyone can be a charismatic orator like Obama and nothing short of a personality transplant will fix Geithner. He lacks gravitas and doesn't inspire confidence. That's a problem since, the administration's main objective is to restore public confidence and get people spending again. They're just shooting themselves in the foot by using him as their pitchman. Eventually, Geithner will either have to be tossed overboard or strapped to Obama like a papoose so he can share in the president's popularity. Otherwise he will continue to be a millstone.
Read more @ Counterpunch
Read more @ Counterpunch
The Foreclosure Five
by Alan Reynolds
When President Obama discusses his $275 billion mortgage bailout, he talks as if it was a national problem, caused by a national decline in home prices. "We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans," he says. But there is no national market for homes and no national price for homes. Instead, most of the United States will pay for the folly of few.
The beneficiaries of taxpayer charity will be highly concentrated in just five states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. That is not because the subsidized homeowners are poor (Californians with $700,000 mortgages are not poor), but because they took on too much debt, often by refinancing in risky ways to "cash out" thousands more than the original loan. Nearly all subprime loans were for refinancing, not buying a home.
Robert Fisk: Obama was unconvinced by Bibi's desire for peace
Barack Obama, they say, did not get on well with Bibi Netanyahu when he met him in Jerusalem before the American elections.
Mr Obama, who figured out the Middle East pretty quickly, apparently found Bibi arrogant and unconvincing in his professed desire for peace with the Palestinians. What Mr Netanyahu thought of Mr Obama is not known, but he could scarcely have tried to hide his election line: security for Israel, but no Palestinian state.
Read more @ The Independent
Mr Obama, who figured out the Middle East pretty quickly, apparently found Bibi arrogant and unconvincing in his professed desire for peace with the Palestinians. What Mr Netanyahu thought of Mr Obama is not known, but he could scarcely have tried to hide his election line: security for Israel, but no Palestinian state.
Read more @ The Independent
US-Israel storm clouds ahead?
No no no. Just ask Joe Lieberman. Everything's going swell. - Ed.
After eight years of the closest possible relations, the United States and Israel may be headed for a period of increasing strain, particularly given the likelihood that whatever Israeli government emerges from last week's election will be more hawkish than its predecessor.
While Iran, with which Barack Obama has pledged to engage in a "constructive dialogue," and the future of its nuclear program will no doubt serve as the greatest source of tension between the two allies, the new president's commitment to achieving real progress on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict may also provoke serious friction, particularly if a reunified Arab League launches a major new push for its 2002 peace plan.
Read more @ Uruknet
After eight years of the closest possible relations, the United States and Israel may be headed for a period of increasing strain, particularly given the likelihood that whatever Israeli government emerges from last week's election will be more hawkish than its predecessor.
While Iran, with which Barack Obama has pledged to engage in a "constructive dialogue," and the future of its nuclear program will no doubt serve as the greatest source of tension between the two allies, the new president's commitment to achieving real progress on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict may also provoke serious friction, particularly if a reunified Arab League launches a major new push for its 2002 peace plan.
Read more @ Uruknet
Out of the overflow of the heart - Jesus and Mary as vulgar comedy in the Holy Land
Considering the wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth drama to which the entire world was recently subjected as a result of Bp Richard Williamson’s refusal to accept as gospel truth Jewish claims concerning that “sancta sanctorum” known as the Holocaust, one would assume that a television program featuring Jesus as a fat, balding, Jonathon Pollard look-alike and his mother Mary as a Sarah Silverman act-alike should have made headline news all around the world, not only for its outrage but as well for its obvious hypocrisy.
Read more @ The Ugly Truth
Read more @ The Ugly Truth
8 Year Mystery of Chandra Levy Slaying May End
Curious, that this should resurface now. - Ed.
AP story, Salvadoran immigrant expected to be arrested and charged with Levy's slaying.
Mmm hmm.
Mossad? What's that? Some kind of whipped, chocolaty dessert?
AP story, Salvadoran immigrant expected to be arrested and charged with Levy's slaying.
Mmm hmm.
Mossad? What's that? Some kind of whipped, chocolaty dessert?
Israel's Naked Zionfascism
The establishment in 1948 of a Zionist state on Palestinian land is often seen as constituting the greatest danger to world peace. Yet, Western powers led by the U.S. continue to support and defend Israel’s militarism and war crimes in Palestine. What has changed is the nakedness of Israeli war crimes and Western endorsement of Israeli’s Zionfascism.
Read more @ SOS
Read more @ SOS
Mel Gibson filming "Passion of the Christ, Part II"
The buzz in Hollywood is that Mel Gibson is busy filming "The Passion of the Christ" Part II, in which Jesus returns to Occupied Palestine and does some serious ass-kicking of the Pharisees, beating the holy crap out of that self-righteous bunch and tossing their sorry asses out of Palestine, for being corrupt, hedonistic heathens and worshippers of death and destruction.
The Pharisees and their brood land in Egypt's Sinai, where they embark on the real Exodus, running as fast as they can, trying to escape JC's wrath.
They steal a flotilla of boats and head for South America.
Read more @ Goon Squad
The Pharisees and their brood land in Egypt's Sinai, where they embark on the real Exodus, running as fast as they can, trying to escape JC's wrath.
They steal a flotilla of boats and head for South America.
Read more @ Goon Squad
Hyperpolitics, American Style
The power redistributions of the 21st century have dealt representative democracies out. Representative democracies are a poor fit to the challenges ahead, and 'rebooting' them is not enough. The future looks nothing like democracy, because democracy, which sought to empower the individual, is being obsolesced by a social order which hyperempowers him.
In his well-received talk at this year's Personal Democracy Forum (organized by Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry), "digital ethnologist" Mark Pesce makes the point that "we have a drive to connect and socialize: this drive has now been accelerated and amplified as comprehensively as the steam engine amplified human strength two hundred and fifty years ago. Just as the steam engine initiated the transformation of the natural landscape into man-made artifice, the 'hyperconnectivity' engendered by these new toys is transforming the human landscape of social relations. This time around, fifty thousand years of cultural development will collapse into about twenty.
Read more @ The Edge
In his well-received talk at this year's Personal Democracy Forum (organized by Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry), "digital ethnologist" Mark Pesce makes the point that "we have a drive to connect and socialize: this drive has now been accelerated and amplified as comprehensively as the steam engine amplified human strength two hundred and fifty years ago. Just as the steam engine initiated the transformation of the natural landscape into man-made artifice, the 'hyperconnectivity' engendered by these new toys is transforming the human landscape of social relations. This time around, fifty thousand years of cultural development will collapse into about twenty.
Read more @ The Edge
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