A senior Iranian military official has rejected the speculations that the US and Israel might launch an attack against the country.
"The enemy does not have the courage to carry out military action against our country. The risks of attacking Iran have increased dramatically in the enemy's calculations," Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) naval commander, Admiral Morteza Saffari told reporters on Tuesday.
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10.15.2008
The God That Failed: The 30-year lie of the Market Cult
This is exactly the 'aha' moment that people need to have. - Ed.
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Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global financial crash -- or rather, by the reaction to it -- is the staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the governments of the world have at their command.
In just a matter of days, we have seen literally trillions of dollars offered to the financial services sector by national treasuries and central banks across the globe. Britain alone has put $1 trillion at the disposal of the bankers, traders, lenders and speculators; and this has been surpassed by the total package of public money that Washington is shoveling into the financial furnaces of Wall Street and the banks. These radical efforts are being replicated on a slightly smaller scale in France, Germany, Italy, Russia and many other countries.Read full story
"A Coming New Currency!"
What can we say?
We are experiencing the most severe financial crisis since 1929. It hurts. There appears to be no relief in site. What began with mortgage defaults has now spread to the derivative markets.
You will hear the term “credit default swaps” by the hour as this mess deepens and worsens. What are credit default swaps?
A credit default swap (CDS) is the most common type of derivative. A credit default swap is similar to an insurance contract protecting the owner against certain financial risks. Are you confused? These types of derivative are very complicated and not even totally understood by those who create them and profit from them. Of course right now these derivatives are failing and no one is profiting. And because of the volume of these derivatives is the reason our banking system and financial institutions are falling apart.
Understanding Friday, October 10, 2008
U.S. BUYING INTO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
This move, announced today, is absolute confirmation for me that this is an intentioned shut down of the economy. Each bank or financial institution that the Treasury buys into will give it (and Goldman Sachs) the power to shut each bank down and to decide when it shuts down. It couldn't be more transparent. They're going to turn out the lights in an orderly fashion and it's obviously an attempt at a controlled fast crash. They've only got three months left in office. That would essentially make Barack Obama an economic janitor employed by the same firm. I can just hear Bush and Cheney cracking a joke about it.
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This move, announced today, is absolute confirmation for me that this is an intentioned shut down of the economy. Each bank or financial institution that the Treasury buys into will give it (and Goldman Sachs) the power to shut each bank down and to decide when it shuts down. It couldn't be more transparent. They're going to turn out the lights in an orderly fashion and it's obviously an attempt at a controlled fast crash. They've only got three months left in office. That would essentially make Barack Obama an economic janitor employed by the same firm. I can just hear Bush and Cheney cracking a joke about it.
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Civil or international war could be triggered if the pugs steal the election, McCain dies, and Palin becomes President
Actually, a civil war (whatever form it takes and however gradually it picks up momentum) could even be catalyzed if the pugs blatantly steal their 3rd Presidential election.
It’s obvious to life forms on Jupiter that the ONLY way McCain/Palin could win this presidential election (my God, look at the poll numbers!) would be if Diebold black boxes (dem in, pug out) and thousands of Republican strategies to discount, miscount, or intimidate Democratic voters, killed the soul of Democracy once again at the voting place.
McCain and Palin are playing with fire
by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Spendid Suns
I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.
Never mind that this evokes -- and brazenly tries to resurrect -- the unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind. Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama's middle name makes him someone to distrust -- and, judging by some of the crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?
But never mind any of that.
Americans' BS detectors off charts with Palin
by Garrison Keillor
We are a stalwart and stouthearted people, and never more so than in hard times. People weep in the dark and arise in the morning and go to work. The waves crash on your nest egg and a chunk is swept away and you put your salami sandwich in the brown bag and get on the bus. In Philly, a woman earns $10.30/hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at night. It's hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia that, because she can't afford health insurance, she can't get fixed, but she still goes to work because he'd be helpless without her. There are a lot of people like her. I know because I'm related to some of them.
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We are a stalwart and stouthearted people, and never more so than in hard times. People weep in the dark and arise in the morning and go to work. The waves crash on your nest egg and a chunk is swept away and you put your salami sandwich in the brown bag and get on the bus. In Philly, a woman earns $10.30/hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at night. It's hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia that, because she can't afford health insurance, she can't get fixed, but she still goes to work because he'd be helpless without her. There are a lot of people like her. I know because I'm related to some of them.
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Study finds that searching the internet increases brain function
Just think of it as trying to solve the biggest Rubik's Cube EVAH... - Ed.
UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.
The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.
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UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.
The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.
Read full story
A Cash and Investment Society
It is now time that the people truly owned government, not the other way around. A society where government worked for the people with the people being the true owners of government.
Where the wealth generated from society is kept by the people and the productivity generated therefrom directly benefited "We the people" of the United States of America as true owners.
TaxRetirement.com is the conduit that will and is making this transition happen and possible. At present we have a Cash, Taxation, and Investment society. After transition into the TRF "what will be" in place is a Cash, and Investment society. The word Taxation, rightfully so will become a word of the past.
Visit website
Where the wealth generated from society is kept by the people and the productivity generated therefrom directly benefited "We the people" of the United States of America as true owners.
TaxRetirement.com is the conduit that will and is making this transition happen and possible. At present we have a Cash, Taxation, and Investment society. After transition into the TRF "what will be" in place is a Cash, and Investment society. The word Taxation, rightfully so will become a word of the past.
Visit website
10.14.2008
Enjoy it while you can
The Dow Jones Industrials soared on Monday in their biggest one-day gain in about 70-years, but somehow, I'm not standing up applauding the market's move. Why? Because it lacks substance.
When I say substance, what does that mean? Oh, little things like a large number of new products coming to market, or being announced, that will open up a whole new kind of business. None of that was evident yesterday, other than the usual flurry of high tech incremental developments, none of which comes anywhere near making "Mr. Ure's Absolutely Gotta Run Out and Buy One" list. Not even.
Army orders pain-ray trucks, new reports show 'potential for death'
“As a consequence, the ADS provides the technical possibility to produce burns of second and third degree. Because the beam of diameter 2 m and above is wider than human size, such burns would occur over considerable parts of the body, up to 50% of its surface. Second- and third-degree burns covering more than 20% of the body surface are potentially life-threatening – due to toxic tissue-decay products and increased sensitivity to infection – and require intensive care in a specialized unit. Without a technical device that reliably prevents re-triggering on the same target subject, the ADS has a potential to produce permanent injury or death. ”
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German finance minister ambushed over settlements
IT'S NOT WYSIWYG (WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET): IT'S TWO DIMENSIONAL
There are two dimensions to the prevailing 'response' to the international financial crisis, which is really the global fraudulent finance crisis: (1) What is being promulgated for public consumption out of Washington, London, Paris and Berlin; and: (2) What is happening/will be happening behind the curtain which divides the perception fed to the world's press and thence to the general public, from the actual objective reality and solution.
Since the Editor is concerned with (2) and has been the sole outlet for authoritative information on the 'wholesale' Settlements programme, and since this matter is 'in process', it is not considered appropriate for us to elaborate on this further at this stage, except that we CAN NOW CONFIRM that matters are proceeding very satisfactorily.
The resolution of (2) is THE REAL ACTION, and so (1) is for global public consumption. HOWEVER, this theatre would be ridiculed even by the 'mainstream' media', if it did not contain SUBSTANCE. So, the theatrical display is packed with brand new 'goodies', with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, having just desported himself today at a glossy Paris Press Conference as a 'responsible leader', maximising the potential for the familiar EU knee-jerk official refrain that 'this crisis has brought Europe closer together' (the reverse is the case), and generally emphasising how 'clean' and 'responsible' the European Union Collective is showing itself to be, when in reality:
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There are two dimensions to the prevailing 'response' to the international financial crisis, which is really the global fraudulent finance crisis: (1) What is being promulgated for public consumption out of Washington, London, Paris and Berlin; and: (2) What is happening/will be happening behind the curtain which divides the perception fed to the world's press and thence to the general public, from the actual objective reality and solution.
Since the Editor is concerned with (2) and has been the sole outlet for authoritative information on the 'wholesale' Settlements programme, and since this matter is 'in process', it is not considered appropriate for us to elaborate on this further at this stage, except that we CAN NOW CONFIRM that matters are proceeding very satisfactorily.
The resolution of (2) is THE REAL ACTION, and so (1) is for global public consumption. HOWEVER, this theatre would be ridiculed even by the 'mainstream' media', if it did not contain SUBSTANCE. So, the theatrical display is packed with brand new 'goodies', with the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, having just desported himself today at a glossy Paris Press Conference as a 'responsible leader', maximising the potential for the familiar EU knee-jerk official refrain that 'this crisis has brought Europe closer together' (the reverse is the case), and generally emphasising how 'clean' and 'responsible' the European Union Collective is showing itself to be, when in reality:
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A bill that can never be paid
They were gambling on the riskiest of "investments", building worthless portfolios whose values just kept increasing; and lured by the awesome power of greed they forgot the most basic rules of the market: [1] Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose, and [2] It ain't worth nothin' if you can't sell it.
So they put everything they had into building imaginary wealth, and when the wages of their sin came due, they handed the bill to you. It's a bill that can never be paid.
Instead of admitting that they had done wrong and going to the wall with some semblance of honor, they said to the governments of the world, "Without our cooperation, your society would turn to chaos overnight."
And the governments said, "What do you want?"
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So they put everything they had into building imaginary wealth, and when the wages of their sin came due, they handed the bill to you. It's a bill that can never be paid.
Instead of admitting that they had done wrong and going to the wall with some semblance of honor, they said to the governments of the world, "Without our cooperation, your society would turn to chaos overnight."
And the governments said, "What do you want?"
Read full story
The final shoe on American consumerism is about to fall
America’s bedraggled, debt slave consumers are about to reap the final whirlwind which will finally unwind what is left of their consumer materialist society. This final shoe will come in the form of the cheaply made and cheap priced and often poisonous Chinese consumer goods. It is these very goods that not only have stuffed American households in a gluttony of soulless, Christless consumerism but have equally driven those same mindless consumers out of their middle class manufacturing jobs and into the lower class that make up the vast vast masses of service sector jobs.
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Don't be so sure this will work
Last night Trichet and other policymakers in Europe basically forced Bernanke's hand, initiating 100% guarantees of interbank lending.
This forced Bernanke to follow suit early this morning, lest the US markets and US credit system implode into a smoking hole instantly.
This was not a position Bernanke was willing to take on his own, or he would have. But when the rest of the world has done it, you literally have no choice, unless you intend to be turned into an instantaneous credit island - an event that the United States would literally not survive.
So the die was cast and Paulson and Bernanke's refusal to endorse this step in the G7 meeting Friday was literally rammed down their throat.
Now, however, we have a new problem.
The economy: good news and bad news
The stock market has reacted favorably to the European and American emergency economic plans launched over the weekend, with its biggest 1-day rise ever.
But as everyone knows, the stock market doesn't give the real picture . . . it only provides a superficial snapshot of investor mood (and - perhaps - a shove from the PPT).
So what is really going on underneath the surface?
Who is behind the financial meltdown?
The market is heavily manipulated. The driving force behind the meltdown is speculative trade. The system of "private regulation" serves the interests of the speculators.
While most individual investors loose when the market falls, the institutional speculator makes money when there is a financial collapse.
In fact, triggering market collapse can be a very profitable undertaking.
There are indications that the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) regulators have created an environment which supports speculative transactions.
There are several instruments including futures, options, index funds, derivative securities, etc. used to make money when the stock market crumbles.
The more it falls, the greater the gains.
Those who make it fall are also speculating on its decline.
The long disputed war is over
Excerpt:
- On the Plus-Side: The extremes which this crisis has produced have inadvertently shown the pubic some of the many ways that they we can effectively begin to hurt these creatures where they live-in their oh-so-sacred treasure-troves of profit!
- We can cut down everywhere, on everything that is non-essential: When we must purchase something do it at a local store, boycott every corporate chain without exception, and do whatever you can to keep your purchases within the local economy. When traveling, try walking or take a bike, if distance is involved use public transportation. This is already what has brought down the price of gasoline. You might have noticed that there is no effect on the prices at the pump that can be related to the price of a barrel of oil. The oil companies have a lot of double-talk that they use to explain this: but the fact is whenever people voluntarily use less gasoline the price at the pumps will come down. This is not some crackpot suggestion it has already been at work, and prices have come down, because people do NOT have the money "to burn" that they once thought they did.
The ongoing demonization of Arab people
Dr. James Zogby says "Enough is enough!"
We are disturbed by the degree to which 'Arab' has become the metaphorical mud to sling against your opponent. This week, for example the Republican Jewish Coalition released a document in which they use the term Pro-Arab as a pejorative accusation. For his part, Rush Limbaugh has joined in by declaring that Obama is in fact an Arab American. Then, on Friday, after a supporter called Senator Barak Obama "an Arab", Senator John McCain came to the defense of of his political opponent by saying "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man and citizen...." From this we are left to infer that an Arab man is less then a "decent family man"
10.13.2008
German finance minister ambushed over settlements
Excerpt:
THE REFUNDING PROGRAM THAT IS THE EXCLUSIVE ANSWER TO THE CRISIS WE PREDICTED
The Refunding Program involves special Capital Markets Instrument operations to be conducted transparently ON-THE-BOOKS with a group of financial institutions, centralised but in the private sector, with all proceeds fully taxed, yielding massive ongoing accruals to the US Treasury.
The United States is bankrupt and is essentially in the hands of its creditors. The Refunding Program, which should have been kick-started in June 2006, will address and rectify this state of affairs, providing both immediate and long-term relief to the American people and the whole world.
This Program was hijacked in collusion with President George W. Bush Jr. and his father, George H. W. Bush Sr., in June 2006, by the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who procured the placement with Goldman Sachs of the $4.5 trillion of funds remitted during May 2006 from China that were constantly referenced in our 'Wantagate' reports (terminated on 18th March 2008). Since Paulson had been CEO of Goldman Sachs until his sudden appointment as US Treasury Secretary in place of John Snow, this corrupt act has represented the most extreme instance of an official, criminal conflict of interest in financial history, as we pointed out at the time.
After we had kicked up a huge stink about this, Paulson had the funds abruptly removed to another institution, not least since Goldman Sachs was being accused of criminal conduct by this service.
Paulson and friends then proceeded to exploit, leverage, hypothecate, multiply and finally steal
these funds, which were intended by the remitter for The Refunding Program.
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THE REFUNDING PROGRAM THAT IS THE EXCLUSIVE ANSWER TO THE CRISIS WE PREDICTED
The Refunding Program involves special Capital Markets Instrument operations to be conducted transparently ON-THE-BOOKS with a group of financial institutions, centralised but in the private sector, with all proceeds fully taxed, yielding massive ongoing accruals to the US Treasury.
The United States is bankrupt and is essentially in the hands of its creditors. The Refunding Program, which should have been kick-started in June 2006, will address and rectify this state of affairs, providing both immediate and long-term relief to the American people and the whole world.
This Program was hijacked in collusion with President George W. Bush Jr. and his father, George H. W. Bush Sr., in June 2006, by the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who procured the placement with Goldman Sachs of the $4.5 trillion of funds remitted during May 2006 from China that were constantly referenced in our 'Wantagate' reports (terminated on 18th March 2008). Since Paulson had been CEO of Goldman Sachs until his sudden appointment as US Treasury Secretary in place of John Snow, this corrupt act has represented the most extreme instance of an official, criminal conflict of interest in financial history, as we pointed out at the time.
After we had kicked up a huge stink about this, Paulson had the funds abruptly removed to another institution, not least since Goldman Sachs was being accused of criminal conduct by this service.
Paulson and friends then proceeded to exploit, leverage, hypothecate, multiply and finally steal
these funds, which were intended by the remitter for The Refunding Program.
Read full story
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