24 Mar 2013

Banks Move To Enslave Humanity - Former US Treasury Official

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: This crisis is being used by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels to destroy the financial sovereignty of the individual countries.... 




Trichet, the (former) head of the European Central Bank, he made this clear in all of his public speeches that this is where it was going.  So what you see is the whole bailout, at the expense of the public, the purpose is to destroy the sovereignty of the individual members, and to concentrate the power in Brussels and in the private banks.






Dr. Roberts also added:  “The Russians may simply say, ‘It’s our money that they are after.  Back off.’  You can’t predict how the Russians may respond.” Full audio interview KWN

Thousands march in Paris against same-sex marriage and adoption

RT: Over 300,000 French families and activists have marched in Paris protesting against a bill that if passed would allow same-sex marriage and adoption. Police fired teargas to prevent protesters from entering the Champs Elysees.

Demonstrators gathered Sunday in the center of the French capital for a final mass protest against the controversial bill that if backed in the Senate during April’s, vote may become law as early as the summer. So far the draft has been passed in the lower house of parliament.
Currently French gay men and women are allowed to adopt as individuals if approved by social services.
Protestors demand the government withdraw the bill instead putting the issue to the public through project a referendum.
The law was a key electoral pledge by Hollande to the powerful gay lobby, but his critics say he has tried to push it through without broad public consensus.

Despite chilly weather, thousands opposed to French legislation lined a five-kilometer route leading to the Champs Elysees, from the Arc de la Defense to the Arc de Triomphe. Many were holding banners and chanting slogans against the introduction of the bill.
Flags unfolded from the balconies along the protesters’ route read "We want work not gay marriage," and "No to gayxtremism."

Why German politicians need a reality check - EL PAIS SLUR AGAINST MERKEL

“Another boy did it and ran away” simply isn’t going to cut it any more for Berlin. History is repeating, and the German government must moderate its actions.

Merkel, like Hitler, has declared war on the rest of the continent now to secure their economic living spacewrote Spanish newspaper El Pais this morning. “You started it – you invaded Poland,” said Basil Fawlty in the famous British sitcom. The Germans will never live down their past if they continue to relive it in the present.

The Slog: Just as, for many decades, it was impossible to suggest that the Jews might be wrong about something, some time around 1980 it became infra dig to mention Germany’s past. These two matters are in the same territory as suggesting that Black rule in Africa hasn’t exactly been an unqualified success, large parts of Islamic belief are misogynist, and British soldiers committed atrocities in Korea.

I read this afternoon that El Pais has withdrawn its headline. I truly do not know why, beyond pressure from all the usual gangsters in the EU.

I am an empiricist who hopes for better human behaviour, and a revival of civilised culture. Fluffies are denialists who pretend horrid things didn’t happen and nasty people are nice. They believe that if you stick ‘peace flotilla’ on an obviously arms-laden and aggressive armada designed to cause flashpoints, that’s fine. Sociopaths are people who use Fluffies. Lenin called Fluffies “the useful idiots”. For years from 1965-1985, Fluffies insisted the Soviet Army and the KGB had no designs upon the West. When the KGB files revealing they’d been useful idiots were released after the collapse of the USSR, the Fluffies were silent on the subject. They have been ever since….as they are on the corruption in South Africa.

DISL AUTOMATIC - KILLUMINATI - X Art vs The OWO


 Globalfaction: From DISL's debut mixtape 'Power To The People Vol.1'

El Pais Retracts Article Reporting "Merkel, Like Hitler, Has Declared War On Europe" + Cyprus' Laiki Bank Lowers ATM Withdrawal Limit To €100

Tyler Durden's picture What does it take for the Spanish "first amendment" journalistic override to kick in? Apparently, in the case of local media leader El Pais, putting up the following in print: "Merkel, como Hitler, ha declarado la guerra al resto del continente, ahora para garantizarse su espacio vital económico." For the Spanish-challeneged this translates as follows: "Merkel, like Hitler, has declared war on the rest of the continent now to secure their economic living space." Ah yes, the touchy verboten topic of German "Lebensraum" - its invocation, and ostensibly the unflattering Merkel comparison (seen so often in Greece) were enough to get the article by Juan Torres López in the Andalusia version of El Pais titled simply enough "Alemania contra Europa" taken down.
Is it perhaps because unlike in Greece, where articles like that are a daily occurrence, Spaniards still have something to lose should they also lose the good graces of the German chancellor? Something that is more than one Spiderman towel per depositor in the nation's just as insolvent banking system, where apparently unlike in Cyprus, the ESM actually does work to preserve liquidity and stability?...

DRAGHI DISAPPEARANCE SCOOP + GERMAN BANKSTER FRAUD WORSE THAN NICOSIA’S, LUXEMBOURG BANKING SECTOR @ 24X GDP

hollmerkHypocrisy in the Round as Germany enforces its 20% solution

“We’re in the money. we’re in the money….”

The Slog: Spiegel is reporting in its early online editions that a compromise has been reached between the Troika and Cyprus whereby small depositors are let off a haircut, but the big accounts will have 20% of their funds confiscated levied robbed. Cyprus has been suitably neutered. And Putin’s enemies have been punished. Somehow it feels like the jigsaw is rapidly falling into place. But behind the spin is revealed a colossal act of bullying hypocrisy by Berlin and the Eurogroup.
This is what Wolfgang Schäuble told the world ten days ago:

“Cyprus lives off a banking sector with low taxes and lax regulation that is completely out of whack. As a result, Cyprus is insolvent and no one outside of Cyprus is responsible for that…We’ve taken measures in all countries to protect ourselves against contagion effects.”

The eurozone is actually entirely responsible for it, as without having their heads shaved by Draghi over Greek bonds, the Cyprus banking system would be just fine.

This is what Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, head of the Eurogoup, said in January this year about bank debt:

“The euro zone must use its rescue fund to inject money into banks with past debts. I think there must be some degree of retroactivity in the mechanism, otherwise it will lose most of its sense.”

Both men have since said that, at three times the GDP, Cypriot banking has an unbalanced share of the economy there. Both have accused Cyrpus of money laundering and lax controls. They may be right: but let’s see how their record on this holds up.

Confident In The Security Of Skype And Other Encrypted Services?

By Wolf Richter: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, et al. get to know practically everything about us over time. But unlike humans, their servers never forget, and data mining tools only get better. Advertisers, ID thieves, insurance companies, employers, whoever, and of course law enforcement are trying to get their hands on this data. Each in its own way. But law enforcement—we use the term loosely because we’re talking about countries around the world—can simply bully its way to the data.
Now Microsoft has suddenly decided to “respect human rights and the principles of free expression and privacy” and display a “commitment to transparency,” as it wrote, under pressure from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and coalition partners (letter). And so it joined Google, Twitter, and others in disclosing not what kind of voluminous user data it collects or which companies and affiliates have access to it, but how many law enforcement requests for user data it received.
Hence its new—and all cynicism aside, laudable—2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report. But Microsoft obfuscates about how often it gives out cryptographic secrets that would open up even encrypted user content to governments around the world.
Microsoft has operations in more than 100 countries but only surrenders data in those 46 where it has “the ability to validate the lawfulness of the request.” Hmmm.

Why central banksters and fiat currency are not the root problem - Ben Lowrey - WAKE UP CALL

benlowreyhimself: The root problem in society. Why law treats the symptom not the problem. And why central banking and fiat currency are not the root.

The dangers of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

By Joseph Quiroz: On March 18, 2013, Andrew “weev” Auernheimer was sentenced to 41 months in prison and has been order to pay $73,000 in restitution to AT&T for his role in Goatse Security’s AT&T hack.
This incident involved the theft of over 100,000 email addresses gained due to a flaw in AT&T 3G iPad userbase. Auernheimer passed the information about the flaw along to Gawker.
After finding out what happened, AT&T took Auernheimer and Daniel Spitler, Auernheimer’s associate during the hack, to court.
They were eventually charged under the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the same law used to prosecute late activist Aaron Swartz. This was a moment of major embarrassment for AT&T.
The CFAA was originally passed in order to punish those that entered government and financial industry computer systems.  However, throughout the years this law has been amended several times in order to keep up with internet and technology developments
Some have stated that the CFAA is now being used by the United States government to intimidate journalists, activists and security researchers with long prison sentences.
Aaron Swartz, for instance, faced 35 years in prison for downloading 4.8 million documents from the subscription-based academic research database JSTOR in 2011.
Think about that for a moment, getting 35 years in jail for downloading a bunch of academic documents illegally?

Solution to Student Debt is to Get the Banks Out of the Education Business

TheRealNews: Michael Hudson says Crippling student debt, which is also a drag on the whole economy, developed as governments pushed the burden of higher education costs onto students and pushed them into the arms of the banks. Source

Why Cyprus Matters (And The ECB Knows It)

photoMark J. Grant:
WHEN THE RED QUEEN IS AFTER YOUR HEAD
When Zig turns to Zag and the Red Queen is after your head then extraordinary care is necessitated. To quote Holmes, "The game is afoot" on the Continent.

I have been asked, with some frequency, why the bondholders have not been tagged in the Cyprus fiasco. That answer is simple. Most of Cyprus's bonds are pledged as collateral at the ECB or in the Target2 financing program. Then one may also ask why the bonds of the two large Cypriot banks are not being hit. The answer is the same; most are held as collateral at the ECB or Target2. In both cases, remember uncounted liabilities, the government of Cyprus has guaranteed the debt. Consequently if the two Cyprus banks default it is of small matter as the sovereign has guaranteed the debt. However if the country defaults and leaves the European Union then it will matter and matter significantly as the tiny country of Cyprus would wipe out the entire equity capital of the European Central Bank. While it is not a matter of public record it is estimated that Cyprus has guaranteed about $11.6 billion of collateral at the ECB.

On Friday Cyprus made provisions for the re-structuring of its banks. They also imposed capital controls. However what they have not done yet is decide how they will reach the funding demanded by Europe. That decision was postponed until after a meeting with the Troika that will take place today and a meeting of the EU Finance Ministers that will take place on Sunday.

The last go-round on this issue, as you may recall, resulted in not one single vote for the imposition of the expropriation of people's bank accounts or what Europe misguidedly calls a tax.

The Battle of Cyprus: The Long-planned Deposit Confiscation Scheme + Unsecured Depositors Of The World, Unite... And Get The Hell Out Of These Countries

The deposit confiscation scheme has long been in the making.  US depositors could be next . . . .

On Tuesday, March 19, the national legislature of Cyprus overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout.  Reuters called it “a stunning setback for the 17-nation currency bloc,” but it was a stunning victory for democracy. As Reuters quoted one 65-year-old pensioner, “The voice of the people was heard.”
The EU had warned that it would withhold €10 billion in bailout loans, and the European Central Bank (ECB) had threatened to end emergency lending assistance for distressed Cypriot banks, unless depositors – including small savers – shared the cost of the rescue. In the deal rejected by the legislature, a one-time levy on depositors would be required in return for a bailout of the banking system. Deposits below €100,000 would be subject to a 6.75% levy or “haircut”, while those over €100,000 would have been subject to a 9.99% “fine.”
The move was bold, but the battle isn’t over yet.  The EU has now given Cyprus until Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to clinch an international bailout or face the threatened collapse of its financial system and likely exit from the euro currency zone.

The Long-planned Confiscation Scheme
The deal pushed by the “troika” – the EU, ECB and IMF – has been characterized as a one-off event devised as an emergency measure in this one extreme case. But the confiscation plan has long been in the making, and it isn’t limited to Cyprus.