By Richard Cottrell: A former air force base near Brussels, dedicated to the His Majesty
the Belgian King, is gradually being converted at an estimated billion
dollars (for now – but just watch those numbers fly) to house the nerve
center of the biggest war machine the world has ever known.
For the best part of 50 years the legions of peace keepers have been
roughing it in a so called temporary structure, having received the
unceremonious order of the boot from the late French president Charles
De Gaulle, who grew tired with NATO’s various attempts to bump him off.
De Gaulle’s sin was the independent French nuclear arsenal. So he slung
NATO out, lock, stock and barrel with a single contemptuous wave of the
hand.
The chief command post of the Cold War lost its logical reason d’etre
in the instant that the Berlin Wall collapsed, along with the entire
Soviet Empire. Yet NATO, like Topsy, just went on growing. Thanks to membership
multiplying among converts to capitalism in Eastern Europe, NATO’s
borders now lap Russia’s, with 28 members all told and more in the
queue. This is a rather strange state of affairs given that the former
Public Enemy Number One, the old bogey of communism, gave up the ghost
back in 1989.
In normal circumstances, this spanking new structure would need to
mount a telescope the size of the one topping Mount Palomar to scour the
world for potential enemies. What happened of course is that NATO went
looking for enemies under the banner of its new self-appointed role as
global humanitarian Protector in Chief.
By Mac Slavo: Everywhere we look the masses are hurting. Whether it be the 100 million Americans dependent on the government
safety net to survive, or the millions of Europeans rioting in the
streets of Spain and Greece, a sense of serious crisis is in the air.
Over the last four years, slowly and without abatement, the economic outlook across the globe has worsened significantly.
In France, a new 75% income
tax on individuals earning over a million Euro ($1.2 million) per year
was announced today. Incomes of $150,000 will be taxed at 40%. French
business owners and citizens are scrambling to leave the country to
avoid the new legislation. This has been done to offset the billions
being used to bail out failing banks and reckless government spending.
Similarly, in the United States next year, individuals and small
business owners will be hit with massive tax increases as universal
health care is implemented across America.
Last week the Spanish Congress had to literally barricade themselves
behind police and locked doors as thousands of protesters stormed their
Congressional hall demanding the resignations of every representative.
The austerity sledgehammer is coming down hard, and everyone is starting to feel it.
Submitted by Tyler Durden: There is something very wrong with this story.
Two months ago, the world's most legendary race track, Germany's
Nürburgring filed for bankruptcy. As AP wrote then: "Germany's legendary Nürburgring racetrack and entertainment complex is effectively bankrupt. The circuit—which hosted Formula One's German Grand Prix last year—is to launch insolvency proceedings amid
fears that it could run out of cash while the European Commission
considers planned government aid. The state government in
Rhineland-Palatinate, which owns the financially troubled Nuerburgring
GmbH, decided on the move on Wednesday, the dapd news agency
reported.... A state subsidy had been in place since a disastrous
development plan left the 'Ring organization saddled with more than 350
million euros in debt. While the Nordschleife—the circuit's famous
“North Loop” which covers more than 13 miles—generates healthy operating
profits, the income does not cover the interest payments on the
enormous debt incurred when the state entered into the plan with two
developers, Kai Richter and Jorg Lindner." Sadly such is life in a world
in which not everyone is bailed out by the government, and when it
comes to the "fairness for everyone, bankruptcy for no one" doctrine,
Germany has still not jumped on the bandwagon.
One country which has is the country which many say is alive only due
to German generosity, is Greece. And in what may be the biggest slap in
the face to Germany, and its recently defunct race track, is the news
that Greece is now "unblocking a subsidy" (a subsidy which came from
Germany) for €29 billion to, get this, build a Formula 1 racetrack. The
same type of racetrack that just went belly up in Germany and cost
countless jobs.
London and Wall St. in a dangerous competition to create a more unregulated environment for finance.
Apparently since PM Tony Blair the FSA has been soliciting financial business by
advertising the loosest regulatory morals on either side of the
Atlantic. Not that the US is any paragon of virtue. Timmy is known as the go-to head boy for the biggest banks. But this is no surprise, because as Kansas City Fed governor Hoenig
said, for the past twenty five years the selection of the US Treasury
Secretary has been done by a de facto private auction to the biggest
banks.
Source
Submitted by Tyler Durden: Iranian clerics' attempts to curb speculation
in the Rial and stabilize the currency appear to have backfired as the
un-official (real) Rial rate traded as low as 34,250 Rial to the USD
this morning - a massive 20% plunge. Demand for gold is surging (as
Tehran exchange volume is up almost 18% today) as the population appears
to be readying itself for hyperinflationary death - as we wrote yesterday, it really is no fun in Iran.
The following tables/links will allow the real-time monitoring of that
market's collapse - since Bloomberg's official rates are entirely
useless.
Via Reuters:
The rial's losses have accelerated in the past week after the
government launched an "exchange centre" designed to supply dollars to
importers of some basic goods at a special rate slightly cheaper than the market rate.
Instead of allaying fears about the availability of dollars, the centre seems to have intensified the race for hard currency by linking the special rate to the market rate, meaning that even privileged importers will face sharply higher costs.
"The government's initiative ... brought to the surface a tremendous lack of confidence in its ability to manage the currency," said Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East expert at the Eurasia Group, a political risk research firm. "The attempt to fix it triggered a worse crisis via market psychology."
In recent remarks to an AIM conference, "ObamaNation: A Day of Truth,"
former Democratic pollster and analyst Pat Caddell said, "I think we're
at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the
balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we
maintain a free democracy." Caddell noted that while First Amendment
protections were originally provided to the press so they would protect
the liberty and freedom of the public from "organized governmental
power," they had clearly relinquished the role of impartial news
providers.
Nowhere was this more evident than during the tragic
death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya that was lied about for nine days,
because the press and the administration did not want to admit it was a
terrorist attack.
"We've had nine days of lies over what happened
because they can't dare say it's a terrorist attack, and the press won't
push this," said Caddell. "Yesterday there was not a single piece in
The New York Times over the question of Libya. Twenty American
embassies, yesterday, are under attack. None of that is on the national
news. None of it is being pressed in the papers."
California's proposition 37 mandatory gmo labeling measure gaining speed and more.Dr.
glidden breaks down the dangerous effects of eating gmo food and tells
alex's listeners a better, alternative choice the government hopes you
never find out about.
Morris: A very real feel and account of the situation in Turkey from a Turkish man living on the border. Source
By Minxin Pei: Last Friday's announcement in Beijing that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will convene its 18th congress on November 8
has brought much relief to those concerned that political scandals and
power struggle at the very top of the Chinese government have derailed
the once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
For all the obvious reasons, China's ruling elites will do their best
in the next few months to project an image of unity and
self-confidence, and to convince the rest of the world that the next
generation of leaders is capable of maintaining the party's political
monopoly.
That is, unfortunately, a tough sell. Confidence in the party's
internal cohesion and leadership has already been shaken by the Bo
affair, endemic corruption, stagnation of reform in the last decade, a slowing economy, deteriorating relations with neighbors and the United States, and growing social unrest.
The questions on many people's minds these days are how long the party
can hold on to its power and whether the party can manage a democratic
transition to save itself.
These questions are by no means the products of idle minds. By many measures, the party's rule is about to enter a decade of systemic crisis.
Having governed China for 63 years, the party is approaching, within a
decade, the recorded longevity of the world's most durable one-party
regimes — the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union (74 years), the
Kuomintang (73), and the Revolutionary Institutional Party of Mexico
(71). Like a human being, an organization such as the CCP also ages.
The Amber Lyon story is just the latest in a series of articles that
expose the total Joseph Goebbels like censorship rampant in mainstream
media today. The first one I posted several weeks ago exposed how the
NY Times basically just regurgitates whatever government officials tell
them, while the other showcased how an NPR reporter covering D.C. had to
leave and do her own thing out of frustration. This is precisely why
alternative media sites are taking off. They provide the only outlets
left for genuine journalism.
http://www.amberlyonlive.com/
So
back to Amber. Back in March 2011, CNN sent a four person team to
Bahrain to cover the Arab Spring. Once there, the crew was the subject
of extreme intimidation amongst other things, but they were able to
record some fantastic footage. As Glenn Greenwald of the UK's Guardian
writes in his blockbuster article from today:
"In the segment,
Lyon interviewed activists as they explicitly described their torture at
the hands of government forces, while family members recounted their
relatives' abrupt disappearances. She spoke with government officials
justifying the imprisonment of activists. And the segment featured
harrowing video footage of regime forces shooting unarmed demonstrators,
along with the mass arrests of peaceful protesters. In sum, the early
2011 CNN segment on Bahrain presented one of the starkest reports to
date of the brutal repression embraced by the US-backed regime.
By Richard Cottrell: A former air force base near Brussels, dedicated to the His Majesty
the Belgian King, is gradually being converted at an estimated billion
dollars (for now – but just watch those numbers fly) to house the nerve
center of the biggest war machine the world has ever known.
