31 Jul 2012

Good night with George Galloway MP Episode 2 "World of pirates" + Episode 1 "Lame stream media"


Have you noticed this very deceptive form of inflation? "You will when your stomach starts growling" - Sovereign Man

: Bergen, Norway.
Every summer, my colleagues and I invite young people from all over the world for an intensive 4-day workshop about freedom and entrepreneurship.
This year’s workshop just concluded yesterday afternoon, and it was, without doubt, the best one ever.
58 students attended from countries as diverse as Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Venezuela, Singapore, Russia, the Philippines, Greece, Malaysia, Turkey, Australia, China, Belarus, Switzerland, England, Poland, Canada, the US, and many more.
These are highly motivated young people. They get it. They know that the system has completely failed them. They know that the old path of ‘study hard, get into a good school, get a good job, work your way up the ladder, and retire’ is no longer valid for their generation.
They understand that they will not be able to count on their governments for anything. They realize that they only have themselves to rely on. They’re eager to learn, and to execute.
The experience of helping shape these sharp young minds is truly invigorating. And for many of the students, it can be life changing.
Something interesting happened this year, though.
For the past several years, we have been conducting this event at a lovely resort in the Lithuanian countryside. It’s a pretty place– a nice, comfortable, relaxing environment away from all the noise and distraction of daily life.
Now, I pay for the whole thing myself. I rent out the entire resort and pick up the total cost of food, lodging, entertainment, etc. For this year’s event, my staff was able to negotiate the same price as last year, and I was happy about this.
But after the first two days, we began to notice something different: the resort was actually skimping out on our food portions!

Hydrino? Electrical Power from Water Vapor Fuel

Blacklight Power, Summery: BlackLight has achieved a proprietary breakthrough power-producing system continuously operating that converts ubiquitous H2O vapor directly into electricity as confirmed by six separate independent individual or groups of leading scientists from academia and industry with Ph.D.s from prestigious universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology [validation reports].
Specifically, BlackLight has developed a commercially competitive, nonpolluting source of energy that forms a predicted, previously undiscovered, more stable form of hydrogen called “Hydrino” that releases two hundred times more energy than burning hydrogen enabling ubiquitous H2O vapor to serve as the source of H2 fuel [Hydrino characterization/Hydrino spectrum].

(Left: 1999 Dr. Randell Mills says he can change the face of physics. The Scientfic Establishment thinks he's nuts.)

 

The Catalyst Induced Hydrino Transition (CIHT) electrochemical cell invented to harness this fundamentally new primary energy source as electrical output uses a catalyst to cause hydrogen atoms of water molecules to transition to lower-energy, Hydrino states by allowing their electrons to fall to smaller radii around the nucleus, resulting in a release of energy that is intermediate between chemical and nuclear energies [CIHT cell].
Essentially all power sources: thermal, electrical, marine, rail, aviation, aerospace, as well as, automotive sources become untethered from an electrical distribution or fuel infrastructure and are also independent of the sun, wind, or other external variable power sources at capital cost of 1 to 10% that of historic systems

Petition to put bankers behind bars. More than 687,000 signed

Virtual Virtual Economy - Max Keiser with Teri Buhl + "Post Capitalist Central Bank Command and Control Cronyism i.e. Theft." Eurozone "make or break" - Max Keiser, Simon Dixon and Paul Barrow

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the virtual virtual economy getting hit by a dustbowl and there are no gully washers or toad stranglers on the horizon to bring reliefe; meanwhile out in the virtual real economy it's all the bath-salts and beer you can drink and scalps for sale in California as eminent domain falls into the hands of private bankers. In the second half, Max interviews Teri Buhl about the possibility of San Bernardino county using eminent domain to seize mortgages from one set of rich private investors to give them to another set of rich private investors.

Bill Gross: "The Cult Of Equity May Be Dying, But The Cult Of Inflation May Only Have Just Begun"

Tyler Durden's picture Want to buy stocks on anything than a greater fool theory, or hope and prayer that someone with "other people's money" will bail you out of a losing position when the market goes bidless? That may change after reading the latest monthly letter from Pimco's Bill Gross whose crusade against risk hits a crescendo. Yes, he is talking his book (and talking down his equity asset allocation), but his reasons are all too valid: "The cult of equity is dying. Like a once bright green aspen turning to subtle shades of yellow then red in the Colorado fall, investors’ impressions of “stocks for the long run” or any run have mellowed as well. I “tweeted” last month that the souring attitude might be a generational thing: “Boomers can’t take risk. Gen X and Y believe in Facebook but not its stock. Gen Z has no money.”.... Now in 2012, however, an investor can periodically compare the return of stocks for the past 10, 20 and 30 years, and find that long-term Treasury bonds have been the higher returning and obviously “safer” investment than a diversified portfolio of equities. In turn it would show that higher risk is usually, but not always, rewarded with excess return."
So what is a cult chasing figure supposed to do? Well, the cult of equities may be over. But the cult of reflating inflation is just beginning: "The primary magic potion that policymakers have always applied in such a predicament is to inflate their way out of the corner. The easiest way to produce 7–8% yields for bonds over the next 30 years is to inflate them as quickly as possible to 7–8%! Woe to the holder of long-term bonds in the process! Similarly for stocks because they fare poorly as well in inflationary periods. Yet if profits can be reflated to 5–10% annual growth rates, if the U.S. economy can grow nominally at 6–7% as it did in the 70s and 80s, then America’s and indeed the global economy’s liabilities can be “reflated” away. The problem with all of that of course is that inflation doesn’t create real wealth and it doesn’t fairly distribute its pain and benefits to labor/government/or corporate interests. Unfair though it may be, an investor should continue to expect an attempted inflationary solution in almost all developed economies over the next few years and even decades.

Taibbi, Spitzer: LIBOR, Too Big To Fail, and the 'Upside-Down World' of Wall Street

Oregon Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail - for Collecting Rainwater on His Property???

A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater.
Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.
“The government is bullying,” Harrington told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday.
“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
The court has given Harrington two weeks to report to the Jackson County Jail to begin serving his sentence. (audio interview>)

Escape From Economics - Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Readers ask me from time to time to recommend a book from which they can learn about economics.
The problem with reading a book to learn economics that is taught in the universities and practiced in Washington is that economics is now a highly formalized subject based on abstract models and assumptions and has been mathematized. It is not that the subject is totally useless and without any applicability to real world problems. Rather, the problem is that the discipline both lags an ever-changing world and got some things wrong at the beginning. Consequently, learning economics places one inside a box where some of the tools and understanding provided are outdated and incorrect.
For example, every textbook will draw a picture of agriculture as the perfect example of competitive markets in which “no producer’s output is large enough to affect price.” This made sense when one-third of the US work force was on family farms. Today, American agriculture is dominated by corporations and agribusiness. Additionally, part of the disastrous financial deregulation pushed by no-think economists and special interests was the removal of position limits on speculators. Formerly, speculators smoothed agricultural and commodity markets by buying and selling in order to stabilize price over periods when supply and demand were out of balance. Now speculators can dominate markets and rig prices to the benefit of their profits.
There are many such examples where economics no longer speaks to the real world.

The age of inequality: The 1 per cent and the rest - New Scientist

An appeal for fairness in society
ANYONE who has children - or, for that matter, anyone who's ever been a child - will testify that we appreciate the importance of fairness from an early age, or at least its usefulness when appealing to authority. "But that's not fair!" is one of the earliest indications that a child is developing a moral sense - even if their conception of fairness doesn't always accord with their parents' view.
We know that this commitment to fairness persists into adulthood. Experiments in behavioural economics demonstrate that we will punish "free riders" - those who benefit from others' efforts without contributing equally themselves - even if that means we end up worse off ourselves. To put it another way, our cognitive biases mean that we punish perceived unfairness even when that conflicts with our narrow economic interests.
And narrow is the operative word. Considered within the context of isolated transactions, such apparently self-defeating behaviour is hard to rationalise. Set within a social context, however, it makes more sense. Societies which prize fairness and egalitarianism may actually be more stable; these values appear to have been held dear by our distant ancestors (see "Inequality: Why egalitarian societies died out").
But we seem to have abandoned this emphasis on equality when it comes to the design of modern civilisation (see "Inequality: Who are the 1 per cent?"). Inequality is rife both within and between modern societies. Western societies, in particular, are profoundly skewed, by almost any measure you care to name.
And yet for much of the past 40 years, inequality has remained a topic of serious discussion for just a small cadre of academics. Only recently has the Occupy movement, among other developments (e.g. Fathers 4 Justice), brought it to the forefront of public attention.

Troops to fill Thousands of supposedly 'sold out' seats vacant across events in the 'UK Orwellian Nightmare Olympics'

The sane and even a majority of corporate sponsors themselves are avoiding the Olympics like the plague. Better to watch at a safe distance away from the depleted uranium tipped rooftop adornments and anal cavity searches whilst filling the pockets of human rights violators. Nice. Are we switching off, or on, or both?

The Fed On Gold Price Manipulation

Tyler Durden's picture: Lately various media outlets have been swamped with stories and allegations of precious metal manipulation ranging from the arcane, to the bizarre to the outright ridiculous. At issue is not that these claims of price fraud are unfounded - they very well may be completely true - but without a notarized facsimile of an actual trade ticket signed by Brian Sack, or his replacement Simon Potter, or any of the BIS traders confirming they are indeed selling gold on behalf of the Fed, BOE, ECB, SNB or BOJ simply to keep the price of the metal down, what such constant factless accusations (and no, sorry, a chart showing that the price of gold may go up or go down sharply indicates merely that and nothing about the underlying factors for such a move) do is to habituate the broader public to the real issues surrounding precious metal, and other asset class, manipulation. So instead of searching for circumstantial evidence which one can easily find everywhere, we decided to go straight to the source. To do that we go back to a post we wrote back in September of 2009, based on an internal previously confidential Fed document, which conveniently enough explains everything vis-a-vis gold manipulation and leaves nothing to speculation or misinterpretation. 
Zero Hedge presents the smoking gun that may provide responses to all the various open questions regarding the Fed's Modus Operandi in the gold arena which answer the core question - motive - courtesy of a declassified memorandum, written by none other than the then Fed Chairman, and addressed to the president of the United States.

30 Jul 2012

Drawing back the Financial Iron Curtain to a Beautiful Anarchy - Jeffrey Tucker

The CEO of RBS warned about a huge fine facing the bank due to the Libor scandal; meanwhile HSBC set aside $2 billion to cover regulatory problems, including Libor-rigging and money laundering. We often cover regulation violations by the big banks, but today will talk about a litany of absurd small business regulations that could be crushing entrepreneurs. We ask our guest Jeffrey Tucker, Author of "A Beautiful Anarchy: How to Create your own Civilization in the Digital Age," about the impact of small business regulation.

Steve Jobs Lost Interview 1990 - A must watch for any entreprenuer

Steve Jobs is a perfect icon for the the modern entrepreneur. A orphan from middle class America living in Silicon Valley becomes a global icon.
"We didn't build Apple to be a company, We started it to make computers for our friends."
Source

Greece: the Washington v Berlin poker game returns…to Athens’ advantage. The Slog

US Treasury Secretary Geithner may yet wind up being Greece’s saviour.
A few airy vapours emerged in the way of rationales for US Federal Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s session with German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble today. The two men ‘expressed confidence in euro-area member states’ efforts to reform and move towards greater integration’, ‘welcomed the Irish example of placing successfully longer-term bonds last week and Portugal’s continued success in meeting program commitments andzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…..’
Bazooka Geithner was scheduled to travel on to Frankfurt Monday afternoon for a session with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, and no doubt at that time they will talk about Borussia Dortmund’s women’s soccer friendly against Inter-Milan’s mixed-sex 2nd XI next Thursday. It promises to be a storming game, but most people watching ClubMed developments (especially those in Athens) could be forgiven for suggesting that Greece’s future location as a sphere of vital influence was the main reason Mr Geithner was talking to two of the most powerful financial players in Europe.
The eurozone has been a pimple on the backside of global money for two years now, but while the buttock-blemish just keeps on getting bigger, nothing seems to bring it to a head. My theory is that the problem is now so big, it has expanded far beyond the fiscal arse, and is about to launch an assault on the head: but whether I’m right or wrong, there’ve been so many jigsaw bits, clues and signs falling into place of late, you’d have to be Mr Magoo in a tank not to notice them.
What’s going on here is a high-stakes poker game between Washington and Berlin. And once again, we are talking Greek default into the welcoming arms (in every sense) of America v Merkel’s FiskalUnion vision wherein Greece stays in the eurotent…along with its strategic, mineral, and energy importance to Brussels.

The world’s gold is moving from West to East - Tim Staermose

Did you know that, according to Capgemini and the Royal Bank of Canada’s latest World Wealth Report, there are now more millionaires in Asia than North America…?
An estimated 3.37 million individuals in the Asia-Pacific region have a liquid net worth of over US$1 million. That compares to 3.35 million in North America.
The same trend is evident in the gold market.
While the current world hubs for gold trading and storage are London, Zurich, and New York, stores of physical metal are also beginning to migrate east. Gold storage facilities are springing up all over Asia like mushrooms after a summer rain.
Back in 2009, the Hong Kong Airport Authority set up the first secure gold storage facility inside the confines of the Hong Kong Airport.
This September, Malca-Amit, the Tel Aviv-based diamonds and precious metals company is opening a second state of the art facility at the airport, which will have capacity for 1,000 metric tons of gold.
That compares to the 4,582 tons that the US government claims is in Fort Knox, and the record 2,414 million tons that the world’s exchange traded gold funds collectively held – mostly in London– as of July 5th.
Malca-Amit also has a facility in Singapore’s Freeport complex, and the company is planning a third Asian precious metals storage facility in Shanghai in the near future.
Speaking of Singapore, Simon has written before that the government there recently announced a series of incentive measures aimed at grabbing as much as 15% of the world’s physical gold trade within 5 to 10 years.

West provoking civil war in Syria: Jonathan Steele

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 and many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

The Syrian government says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings.

Dave Mustaine: We Are In The Fight of Our Lives

This is one of the most powerful interviews Dave Mustaine has ever given. He stopped by the Infowars.com studios last week to talk about the Fast and Furious, The Batman Massacre, The Future of Megadeth, and his thoughts on President Obama. You don't want to miss this, Dave is on fire and holds nothing back. Source

Citibank-sters in India threaten customers with the removal of their organs or death if they do not pay! - The Scandal Deepens As Convicted Debt Collectors Go Missing

Citibank Debt CollectorsBy The fugitive debt collectors were interrogating an Indonesian Citibank customer at the time of his death.
Irzen Octa, an Indonesian businessman, died in a Citibank office under mysterious circumstances last March, while debt collectors were questioning him about money he owed on a Citibank credit card. Now, two of the three collectors convicted in Octa's death are reportedly on the run from the law.
Arif Lukman and Henry Waslinton, who were each sentenced to five years in prison last month for their role in the March 2011 interrogation, have failed to answer a court summons for detention, according to the Jakarta Globe. On Wednesday, both men were declared fugitives.
Octa, who owed Citibank more than $11,000 at the time of his death, met with third-party collectors on March 28, 2011, in an attempt to negotiate a settlement. He was found dead in the Citibank office that afternoon. Following Octa's death, there were conflicting reports as to the cause. Medical professionals have disagreed on whether hypertension played a role in Octa's death, and whether he was physically assaulted before he died. Post-mortem reports from various doctors have given his cause of death as asphyxiation, brain hemorrhage and "blunt violence,"

Rick Ackerman on the Next Market Meltdown

By Professional trader Rick Ackerman thinks "the next market meltdown is going to look like the flash crash" of a few years ago. Who knows what could cause the next calamity, but Ackerman says, "War in the Middle East would be a severe shock to the system . . . and the system is pretty fragile right now." Please join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Rick Ackerman. Source

Anaheim USA rally video: Cops Arrest and Intimidate Protesters, Disperse Crowd on Horseback with Shotguns In Your Face

At least nine people have been arrested by Orange County Police as they pushed protesters back during a street rally in outrage over the recent officer-involved shootings that left two locals dead - FULL STORY

NUMBERS NEVER LIE, BANKERS OFTEN DO. SO MAYBE IT’S TIME TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY BY BUILDING BIGGER JAILS?

"For every million dollars that banks fiddle, or manipulate, or launder, or miss-sell, one banker should spent one year in jail. And recall that HSBC laundered billions. We can stimulate the economy by building bigger jails.

Another day, another banking scandal.
Barclays’ LIBOR cheats exploited an arcane and out-dated rate-setting mechanism to fix rates in their favour – which means to your detriment.
But just ripping off ordinary people and ordinary investors doesn’t win many points in the Bankster’s Cheat Olympics. If you really want to shoot for those medal places, you need to do more. You need to get down and dirty with the drug lords and the terrorists, the narcotics cartels and the failed states. That’s what HSBC did. It laundered money on an industrial scale. In the words of one commentary: ‘HSBC’s subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers’ cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts.’

Just think for a moment what that means. Don’t think about the financial implications of these things. Think of the human ones.

Sniffing the cool-aid: Surveillance & Harassment - Coast To Coast AM

Shellshock: War, blockade traumatize Gaza's children

The children of Gaza continue to bear the brunt of Israel's wanton aggression during the Gaza war and its frequent air-strikes and incursions. Israel ended its war on Gaza in 2009, an all-out war which claimed the lives of many people including innocent children and injured thousands others. According to psychiatrists, Children who make up nearly 60 percent of Gaza population are still traumatized and psychologically scarred. Source

29 Jul 2012

Update: WikiLeaks, A Post Postscript - Potential financial blockade against the New York Times by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express?

Stacy Summary: WTF??? Paypal ‘investigating’ NY Times and whether to punish them for publishing Wikileaks? Visa & Mastercard to make it impossible to pay online for NY Times?
The backroom pressures by the Obama Administration’s State Department to expand its financial blockade targeting WikiLeaks to include news organizations that host information from their trove of pilfered documents goes too far.
UPDATE: Bill Keller just tweeted that the above (and Below) opinion piece is FAKE? If that is true, then presumably the paypal one is as well? Your thoughts on what is going on? Yes Men? Presumably it would have taken quite a bit of technical know-how to create a fake NY Times, which I believe the Yes Men have created in an analogue form in the past?
UPDATE 2: The strange thing is that, according to Greenwald, it was Bill Keller himself who retweeted a link to the hoax NY Times page. And only later did he issue a statement saying that it was not him. At the moment, you can still see this retweet of the hoax on his tweet stream.
UPDATE 3: I’m pretty sure it’s Yes Men succeeding once again in forcing a major corporation to deny responsibility for doing the responsible thing. But mark my word, this will one day be a true headline.
UPDATE 4: NY Times lead tech writer was also taken in by fake op-ed and tweeted that all should read this ‘important’ piece. Note, he’s now deleted it, but picture is below of his tweet encouraging all to read the Op-Ed.

Will Kurds Fight Kurds - Roy Gutman + Christians flee Al-CIA-da - Afshin Rattansi

Morris: The Kurds of Northern Iraq have the most Independence of all Kurds and they are closely aligned with Turkey, will they allow the newly found autonomy for Syrian Kurds to be become a springboard for Anti Turkish activities?

The Julian Assange Show: Cypherpunks Uncut (p.2)

You can't do much online or with your phone without someone, somewhere, knowing what you're doing. But there's one group on your side. They're called the Cypherpunks Movement, and they're on Julian Assange's show here on RT to talk about their plans to keep your private data, private. Source

Olympic destruction and resignation - Afshin Rattansi

Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke thinks gold maybe better than Libor rates after all. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joins al-Qaida in Syria. We also talk to Meredith Alexander, Policy Chief at Action Aid, about why she resigned as a London Olympics 2012 Commissioner over sponsorship of the London games. These and much more are all reviewed in this edition of Double Standards with Afshin Rattansi. Source

Bypassing Government Roadblocks to Your Personal Prosperity

By David Galland, Casey Research: Recently I helped out with some delivery chores. As I drove about, I discovered that one of the roads I would normally use was closed by roadblocks. It was, I imagine, due to road repair work. I had to reverse course and take a substantial detour.
I wondered why the road crew hadn't put up a sign indicating the road was closed back at the main intersection, but I shrugged and muttered something like "Typical government operation."
Driving back home, this idea of roadblocks took root in my mind. The thing is, only governmental entities can set up roadblocks – at least, legally.
Obviously, there are times when such roadblocks are entirely appropriate... for example, when a bridge is found to be dangerous.
In that case, putting up a roadblock to let drivers know that the road is a no-go makes perfect sense.
For example, a temporary warning sign to let people know that there is a road crew fixing potholes ahead makes sense and that sort of thing.
Otherwise, unless a road is damaged to the point where driving is either impossible or ill advised, there should be no roadblocks set up. Makes sense, right?
The decision to set up a roadblock should be taken only by people who are close to the problem, who understand the issues, and can deal with the problem on the road, fix it, and open it up again as quickly as possible.
Imagine then a world where government officials, as often as not operating hundreds or even thousands of miles away, are in control of the roadblock rules.

West Bank under fire "repeatedly stabbed by 'New York' settlers after just being shot by Israeli soldiers" - Remember Palestine

Nazi Death Gulag Frenzy: A number of NGOs including UNICEF and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as Palestinian Al Haq and the Israeli Yesh Din, issued yet another statement on the continued rise in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The statement which states there has been an astounding 150% increase in settler violence since 2009 comes just a few days after a lethal attack on a Palestinian who was repeatedly stabbed by settlers after just being shot by Israeli soldiers.

Shahrzad - A Lady in Iran explains Iran's position + Iran culture and Kurds

From Women's Rights to Military Intervention.

TSA agent: “America is nothing, I don’t get paid from tax payers, I get paid by the federal government!” TSA Checkpoints Exposed: Journalist Tracked, Targeted and Harassed

Following my video back on July 5th "TSA Invades Chicago's Union Station", I went back to Chicago's Union Station on July 18th to meet with the Director of "Why in The World are they are Spraying Mike Murphy". Before I met with Mike; I walked around Union Station to see if TSA was still lurking around the Union Station Grounds. As I approached Metro's Union Station Restaurant I spotted a group of TSA agents about to eat lunch, so I decided to document them again at Chicago's Union Station.

Protesters Slam £24 Billion "militarized and corporate London Olympic games"

London has showcased the Best of British at the Olympics opening ceremony but it's the morning after the night before. And those who aren't so happy with the games are showcasing their reasons why. They wouldn't let them anywhere near the Olympic Stadium but hundreds of protestors have gathered down the road in mile end against what they call a militarized and corporate Olympic games. Source

Media Blackout: The Mexican Spring "Against 70 years of oppression" THE LARGEST PROTEST THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

THE LARGEST PROTEST THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN IS GOING ON NOW 
 LAME STREAM MEDIA HAS IT BLACKED OUT

'Addicted to WAR' The Pentagon Budget: Largest Ever and Growing

By Sara Flounders: On Oct. 28, President Barack Obama signed the 2010 Defense Authorization Act, the largest military budget in U.S. history.
It is not only the world's largest military budget but is larger than the military expenditures of the whole rest of the world combined. And it is growing nonstop. The 2010 military budget--which doesn't even cover many war-related expenditures--is listed as $680 billion. In 2009 it was $651 billion and in 2000 was $280 billion. It has more than doubled in 10 years.
What a contrast to the issue of health care!
The U.S. Congress has been debating a basic health care plan--which every other industrialized country in the world has in some form--for more than six months. There has been intense insurance company lobbying, right-wing threats, and dire warnings that a health care plan must not add one dime to the deficit.
Yet in the midst of this life-and-death debate on medical care for millions of working and poor people who have no health coverage, a gargantuan subsidy to the largest U.S. corporations for military contracts and weapons systems--a real deficit-breaker--is passed with barely any discussion and hardly a news article.
Physicians for a National Health Program estimates that a universal, comprehensive single-payer health plan would cost $350 billion a year, which would actually be the amount saved through the elimination of all the administrative costs in the current private health care system--a system that leaves out almost 50 million people.
Compare this to just the cost overruns each year in the military budget. Even President Obama on signing the Pentagon budget said, "The Government Accountability Office, the GAO, has looked into 96 major defense projects from the last year, and found cost overruns that totaled $296 billion."

CLOUD NEIN! Wolfgang Scheuble + AMERIKAN BORAT - WilliamBanzai7

28 Jul 2012

James Holmes' Likely Murders Overshadow Father Robert Holmes' Libor Testimony Or Does It?

By : I keep looking but cannot independently verify this. If it is a hoax, who did it, because that could be an even bigger story. The money-laundering info. is definitely verified.
5:30am EST update: After intermittently searching late last night I find that Tree of Liberty reports that the initial source for the testimony claim was Sorcha Faal, and if so I am glad for my disclaimers. I am also glad I ran this because now we can start to get to the bottom of why these things happen and *perhaps* who is behind them......
OR NOT.....

Marc Faber: Market Forces Will Prevail

Colorado Shooting Patsy Was Under Air Force Shrink


This whole tragedy is covered with all the hallmarks of a staged event. Now we learn that the "shooter"AKA the clown patsy was under the care of a top air force psychiatrist. Source

Hang 'Em High! "The Banksters and the Lame Stream Media" Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert + On the Edge: Fictitious capital with Michael Hudson

Max Keiser presents a 'double header' with co-host, Stacy Herbert, to discuss crime and punishment in the financial sector.

Harvard Study Finds Fluoride Lowers IQ

"Significantly lower IQ than those 
who live in low fluoride area."

Should Crimes of Capital Get Capital Punishment?

By Jason Zweig: Overheard in midtown Manhattan at the lunch hour:
“Another day, another financial scandal. New regulations, prosecution, getting hauled up in front of Congressional hearings – nothing seems to stop it.”
“Maybe we need to try something more drastic.”
“Like what?”
“Well, there’s always the death penalty.”
Unfortunately, that’s been tried, too – and found wanting. Financial criminals throughout history have been beaten, tortured and even put to death, with little evidence that severe punishments have consistently deterred people from misconduct that could make them rich.
The history of drastic punishment for financial crimes may be nearly as old as wealth itself. The Code of Hammurabi, more than 3,700 years ago, stipulated that any Mesopotamian who violated the terms of a financial contract – including the futures contracts that were commonly used in commodities trading in Babylon – “shall be put to death as a thief.” The severe penalty doesn’t seem to have eradicated such cheating, however.
In medieval Catalonia, a banker who went bust wasn’t merely humiliated by town criers who declaimed his failure in public squares throughout the land; he had to live on nothing but bread and water until he paid off his depositors in full. If, after a year, he was unable to repay, he would be executed – as in the case of banker Francesch Castello, who was beheaded in 1360. Bankers who lied about their books could also be subject to the death penalty.

Current Liquidity In System Risks Hyperinflation - Art Cashin on KWN

“By standards, the amount of liquidity that’s around the globe should be hyperinflationary.  It is not.  It is because when Bernanke flies over your house and drops millions of dollars in fresh cash on your lawn, you are so terrified you pick it up and store it in the garage.  They’ve got to find a way to unlock all of that liquidity in the garages around the globe. 

This is a very, very different time than virtually anything we’ve seen before.”

The Upside of Default - The Archdruid Report

Writing The Archdruid Report has its pleasures, and one of them is the wry amusement to be had when some caustic jab of mine turns into an accurate prediction of the future.  Longtime readers may recall a comment of mine late last year to the effect that ordinary investors would surely find some way to pile into the shale gas bubble before the next year was out. Thanks to an anonymous reader and the August 2012 edition of SmartMoney Magazine, which arrived from said reader in yesterday’s mail, that comment can now be moved over into the "confirmed" category.

The prediction, to be sure, didn’t require any particular clairvoyance on my part.  Its sources are, first, a decent grasp of the history of economic stupidity, and second, a keen sense of the levels of desperation in what we might as well call the investmentariat, the people who have a little money and are looking for a safe place to put it.  The investmentariat has been told for decades that their money ought to make them money, but nobody told them that this only works in an economy that experiences sustained real growth over the long term, and nobody would dream of mentioning in their hearing that we don’t have an economy like that any more.

Doug Casey on Crisis Investing, Political Risk, and a Benign Anarchy!

The US economy slowed in the second quarter: GDP rose at 1.5% on an annualized basis according to the Commerce Department. The Wall Street Journal points out that this current economic 'recovery' is the second weakest rebound post World War II. Cue speculation about the Federal Reserve taking more action, or talk of how government GDP numbers aren't reliable anyway.

Olympics 2012: Policeman assaulting and pepper-spraying a disabled man on a tricycle - Mass arrests as London Police Attack cycle ride

London police have used pepper spray against a “Critical Mass” cycle ride as the British capital holds the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Games. “Large number of people” arrested said a police tweet. "A number of people in breach of regulations imposed on a monthly cycling event have been arrested," a spokesman for Scotland Yard said. According to some reports at least 50 people have been detained and their bicycles loaded onto special buses parked nearby.
Critical Mass is a cycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month all around the world. Earlier there have been calls on the Internet to stage the London ride on July 27 as an anti-Olympics protest.
Scuffles occurred near the Olympic Stadium on the outskirts of the Olympic Park with participants saying they were being “kettled”.

G4T: Not Just Christian Bale, We All Have Blood on Our Hands

My Response to a Gold Hater - Michael Krieger

So this morning, I woke up to an email forward from someone that used to be a client.  The forward was an anti-gold rant from a sell-side (Wall Street) broker who will remain unnamed.  The piece was so biased and ridiculous I took the time to write a somewhat lengthy response.  I am not going to include this person’s message since it is the property of his employer, but you can tell his arguments based on my answer.  Hope this helps anyone that feels the need to make the bull gold argument cogently to a sheeple should you run into one in the wild.
My email:
Only someone on Wall Street could write something so foolish.  It is so easy to pick this guy’s arguments apart it is not even funny.  First, he claims gold has no intrinsic value.  I’d love for him to define what “intrinsic” value is?  So let’s say a painting is just a piece of canvas with a blue solid image on it.  It may look like nothing or garbage to me but others may see brilliance and pay $5 million for it in the market.  Because I look at it and see junk does that mean it has no intrinsic value?  Gold has been the money of Kings for 5,000 years and even in the “modern” world it remains the asset people gravitate to as a store of value.  I’d say having high value consistently for the entire span of human civilization gives it intrinsic value.  It has value as alternative money and a store of wealth.  That is the value of gold.  Also why are regulators considering making gold a Tier 1 asset if it has no value and is archaic.  See here.  Finally, no one put it better that the fiat pimp himself Alan Greenspan in his article “Gold and Economic Freedom.”

27 Jul 2012

JOHN HARRIS : It's an Illusion "Economic Slaves"

John Harris gives us his perspective on what's going on. He describes how we are economic slaves to a debt dependant system, notably achieved through the deception of the birth certificate and the creation of a legal fiction known as your 'PERSON'. It is this PERSON that the government then wields it's control upon. Although John points out that this arrangement only works when we consent.

Unfortunately inaction is taken as consent, hence we have unwittingly surrendered our inalienable rights through identifying with the PERSON. Remember you are a human being with god given rights, all you have to do is claim them. Source

Gold and Economic Freedom - by Alan Greenspan "...the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold"

Published in Ayn Rand's "Objectivist" newsletter in 1966, and reprinted in her book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, in 1967.

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense — perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire — that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.
In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society.
Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.
The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible.
What medium of exchange will be acceptable to all participants in an economy is not determined arbitrarily.

Collapse of Al Saud becomes imminent

Saudi security forces have opened fire on anti-regime demonstrations in the eastern city of Qatif, injuring several protesters. Interview with Ali al-Ahmed, director of IGA Source

Bernanke and Draghi Are Dangerous - Charles Hugh Smith

What is being sacrificed to maintain the euro and the E.U./U.S. banking cartel? Everything of value: liberty, democracy and sovereignty.
Today we present the culmination of the previous entries ( Global Crisis: the Convergence of Marx, Orwell and Kafka and Are You Loving Your Servitude Yet?): A brief commentary by longtime correspondent Harun I. on Mario Draghi's market-moving statement: “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough.”
Nice, Mr. Draghi, but at what cost? And who will ultimately bear this cost? It is already far beyond the measure of mere money; democracy, truth and sovereignty have all been destroyed to prop up the central bankers' Status Quo. We can presume Mr. Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are in on the propaganda campaign, and so we need to examine the words and promises of these two central bankers, as well as what they have not said.
Is talking about printing money as good as actually printing money? It would seem so. Is promising to "do whatever it takes" as good as actually doing whatever it takes? Once again, it seems so; global markets leaped at the "news" that the financial Status Quo was going to be "saved" yet again.
What if it is beyond saving?
What if the cost in treasure, blood, liberty, sovereignty and truth is not worth the 'saving" of a broken, unsustainable, corrupted, parasitic, predatory system? Do we get to choose, or are we just passengers on the train as the central bankers accelerate toward the chasm ahead?
Here is Harun's commentary:
Words have meaning and people should choose them carefully. Nigel Farage commented that what he saw in the faces of EU officials was "madness". We should not underestimate his assessment. At some point these individuals have to be viewed as dangerous.

The Absurdity of Sandy Weill - azizonomics

"I’m suggesting the big banks be broken up so that the taxpayer will never be at risk, the depositors won’t be at risk and the leverage will be something reasonable."
Aziz: This from the guy who provided the impetus and the funds to end Glass-Steagall? Totally absurd — akin to Joe Stalin renouncing Marxism-Leninism and the gulag archipelago on his deathbed.
Glass-Steagall’s separation between depository and speculative institutions — especially during the Bretton Woods period — was a relatively robust system; there was never a large-scale banking calamity of the nature of 2008 or 1929 under its regime. Certainly, it had its imperfections — above all else that it never prevented bankers like Weill from chipping away at it up to the point of repeal — but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Glass-Steagall presided over a period of growth and stability.
While the data tends to show that the end of Bretton Woods in 1971 was the real catalyst of the financialisation, globalisation, deindustrialisation and debt buildup that ultimately flung the US into a depressionary deleveraging trap, the end of Glass-Steagall was profound.
Depositors’ funds became a medium for the creation of the huge and sprawling shadow banking and derivatives webs.

John Williams of Shadowstats: The Next Crash Will Be A Lot Worse!

By Anyone who thinks the U.S. is in recovery should stop listening to the mainstream media and listen to John Williams. He heads up Shadowstats.com, and is one of the few economists who crunches the numbers to give unvarnished true statistics. Adjusted for real inflation of about 7%, Williams says, "GDP has plunged, and we have been bottom bouncing" ever since the financial crisis started. Williams says, "The next crash will be a lot worse (than 2008) because it will push us into the early stages of hyperinflation." He predicts this will happen "by the end of 2014" at the latest.

Up to 20% of Aleppo is FSA controlled - Mr Aleppo

The future of Syria's Government will be decided in the flashpoint city of Aleppo citing its economic importance and proximity to Turkey.Aleppo is the largest city in Syria Source

JOKER KILLS AGAIN - FKN Newz

Police State West: Federal Protective Service orders around 150 sets of riot gear to be delivered in 15 days + Rooftop Missile Controversy in London 2012 Olympics

By Madison Ruppert:
The Federal Protective Service a child agency of the behemoth Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is tasked with protecting property owned, occupied or secured by the federal government, seems to be getting ready for a riot or riots in the very near future.
This is the same Federal Protective Service which reportedly “drafted plans to send armed agents into downtown Chicago to patrol the city and prepare for protests” during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit earlier this year.
This quite sizeable procurement of 150 sets of riot gear is especially noteworthy since it is being filled on a highly accelerated timetable.
The solicitation was posted on July 25, 2012 with a response date of July 26, 2012 and delivery a mere 15 days later.

The USA is Rolling into Fascism and Interest Free Money - Rodney Shakespeare with Morris + Paul Craig Roberts with Alex Jones - US Police State Hell

The world is not going to forgive the USA for its warring and Torture
Half of the US military budget is hidden in other budgets
Homeland Security has just purchased 100's of millions of dumb dumb bullets
The Banks have lost any sense of what it means to be productive
In the USA 10,000,000 jobs have been outsourced
The bankers are arrogant self satisfied complacent and stupid
Plots are afoot around the world to wreck the US$ reserve status

From Natural Resources to Currency Wars - Rick Rule & Jim Rickards

Not only do we have commodities and resource expert Rick Rule on the show, but fan favorite Jim Rickards is guest co-hosting with our dear Lauren Lyster!

In today's news, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policymakers will do what is needed to save the Euro. This comment was enough to spur a bout of market euphoria. But how do you invest around what a policymaker may or may not say?

Izhar cardboard bike project - By Giora Kariv

26 Jul 2012

The Draghi Put Will Be Stillborn - Biderman

Members of the French parliament have thrown out a proposal to audit their allowances as the government prepares austerity measures for the economy.

They voted four to one to reject the bill which would have each deputy account for his or her annual allowance of 76,944 euros (£60,000; $93,000).
One deputy who opposed the bill said it would impinge on parliamentary freedom.
The bill's sponsor predicted an eventual expenses scandal like that which gripped Westminster in 2009.
A French study conducted in June suggested that, on average, those working for the French parliament enjoyed a 77% higher income than their counterparts in the British House of Commons or the German Bundestag.
The French are fiercely defensive of the benefits they have earned and none more so than the members of the National Assembly, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from Paris.
Bars and cigars 
There have been several recent rows over expenses.
Last month the Mediapart website exposed the Socialist member for the Ardeche region, Pascal Terrasse, who had reportedly charged to his expenses account foreign holidays for his family and private bar bills. Mr Terrasse said he sometimes muddled his credit cards.
Under the last, conservative government, Christian Blanc, state secretary for the Paris region, was forced to stand down when it emerged he had put 12,000 euros spent on Cuban cigars on expenses.

Jellyfish Rat-Heart Robot Bankers - Max and Stacy with Mark O'Byrne + Max Keiser, Shabbir Rasvi and Ravi Batra: West bankers destroy global economy

Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the jellyfish robot with a rat heart, aka The Perfect Banker. They also welcome the audience to the world of banking 2012 and introduce the silver dosimeter that signals exposure to toxic financial products and bad economic policies. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Mark O'Byrne of Goldcore.com about silver, gold, manipulation and the crooks put in charge of cleaning up Ireland.

Are You Loving Your Servitude Yet? - Charles Hugh Smith

Aldous Huxley imagined a world in which the Status Quo satisfies its lust for power by "suggesting people into loving their servitude."
Yesterday I discussed the Convergence of Marx, Orwell and Kafka as a means of understanding the global crisis. It's not just financial fraud on a vast scale, or debt or leverage or derivatives or a hundred other arcane mechanisms of parasitic predation; it's the partnership of a mindlessly expansive Central State with Monopoly Capital and the media machine that serves them.
I considered including Aldous Huxley in the convergence, as he too anticipated the essential nature of modern life. But perhaps his insights are more complementary than convergent, for he understood the media and State's capacity to not only present a deranged and destructive Status Quo as "normal" but to persuade the serfs to embrace it.
Aldous Huxley foresaw a Central State that persuaded its people to “love their servitude” via propaganda, drugs, entertainment and information-overload. In his view, the energy required to force compliance exceeded the "cost" of persuasion, and thus the Powers That Be would opt for the power of suggestion.
He outlined this in a letter to George Orwell:
"My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience."