Greek corruption: Second suicide as SDOE pores over Lagarde’s List - The Slog

But Merkel’s security arrangements overshadow everything as she prepares to visit Athens

Long-suspected of having massively enriched himself at the Greek Ministry of Defence, Vlassis Kambouroglou has found dead in hotel room in Jakarta. Local medical authorities suggest that Kambouroglou committed suicide.
Kambouroglou was alleged to have been aware of – indeed an active participant in – the corrupt Defence Ministry under the PASOK government between 1997 and 2001. At the time, the Ministry was purchasing large consignments of German munitions, aeroplanes and
In addition, Vlassis Kambouroglou had in the best been in the spotlight concerning Russian arms deals under Boris Yeltsin, as well as earning huge profits in cooperation with Arab weapons merchandisers.
Principally, however, Kambouroglou was accused of being party to the bribery and money laundering network involving former Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos.  He was the managing director of Drumilan International, which was involved in the sale of a Russian-made TOR-M1 missile system to Greece. Called to testify before a parliamentary inquiry into the arms deal in 2004, Vlassis Kambouroglou  denied that his company made any money from the deal. No charges were brought against him.
Lagarde’s List continues to terrify politicians from Surrey to St Petersburg. Feeling the heat more than most, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos is now insisting that he was not informed last year by his predecessor as finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou that the latter had been given a list containing the names of almost 2,000 Greeks with large deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC.

Predictable Chaos: 'Libya ungoverned & ungovernable' - Syria tomorrow

Armed forces continue to surround the city of Bani Walid, Libya. As tension between neo government troops and opposition supporters continues to mount, residents have been left without food and other supplies -- and are calling on the UN for help. 
The siege of Bani Walid started because the National Congress wants to arrest the suspected executioners of the man credited with capturing Colonel Gaddafi.
The town refused to hand them over, but the siege is too strong a response exposing the government's weakness, says journalist James Corbett. Source

Yahya Talks About Pre Colonial Africa

By 108morris108: The colonialists seem to have erased a lot of history. Source

United Nations Calls For Global Taxation

Brandon Smith: If you want to set up a global government, you have to have a global tax.  It's not about creating funding so much as it is about manipulating mass psychology.  Forcing the citizenry to pay a global tax to a "global" entity conditions them to think in terms of global bureaucracy rather than sovereign government.  It also lures the public into accepting the idea of faceless international institutions as a fact of everyday life, rather than an abstract concept they hear about every once in a while on cable news.  Taxation is power.  Power over the financial life of a people, as well as power over the perceptions of that people.  The fact that the UN is now openly pursuing it's own taxation over the world reveals that there is an immediate intention to attain such power.  They can disguise it as a tool for "saving the environment", or putting an end to "wealth imbalances", but ultimately, a UN tax is a UN tax.  The question we need to ask ourselves as Americans is; regardless of the UN's stated intentions, do we want to answer to them? Source

Divide and Conquer Still Works in Lebanon - Lebanese Girl

By 108morris108: A good overview of all the forces at work in Lebanon - the 1975 Civil War was never resolved. Info on Hezbollah, and what happens in Lebanon cannot be separated from what is happening in Syria. Source

The Three Toughest Questions For China Bulls

Submitted by Tyler Durden: Whether you believe China is an economic miracle - or a government-sponsored fraud; and can ignore the broken growth model or believe that the CCP can bailout the world; Michael Pettis, of China Financial Markets, provides a much-needed dose of reality for bulls and bears when it comes to the future of the global growth engine. After summing up (and laying-waste to) the three mainstays of China bulls' arguments: he asks the three toughest questions any China bull must be able to answer. Analogizing China's position perfectly he cites Mills: "Panics do not destroy capital; they merely reveal the extent to which it has been previously destroyed by its betrayal into hopelessly unproductive works." Simply put, the bull argument cannot ignore the hidden bad debt.

Via Michael Pettis, China Financial Markets: How To Be A China Bull

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There seems to be a worried resistance to the idea that we may have reached a major and difficult transition. The unwillingness to acknowledge the difficulty of the transition, however, can only make the transition all the more difficult.

Why is the US government planning for ‘mass fatalities’ ?

Simon Black: Santiago, Chile

You just can’t make this stuff up.
Late last week, a bill HR 6566 was introduced on the floor of the US House of Representatives. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read it.
The bill is entitled the “Mass Fatality Planning and Religious Considerations Act,” and its stated purpose is “[to] amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide guidance and coordination for mass fatality planning…”
Hmmmm. Homeland Security. FEMA. Sounds like a fun party.
The bill was introduced a week ago, but it took the US Government Printing Office until this morning to actually make the text available to the public.
It turns out that my weeklong wait was for nothing. The bill itself is just a handful of paragraphs that merely reiterates the title… that the cracker jack team over at FEMA should be prepared to respond to mass fatalities in the United States, and to account for religious burial differences.
This is just one of those things that makes the stomach turn: the people who brought us the National Defense Authorization Act (authorizing the detention of US citizens on US soil) now deem it prudent to prepare for mass fatalities on US soil…
Moreover, they’re outsourcing it to one of the most failed government agencies in history.

Julian Assange Hit Piece In New York Times "None of them like kittens or flush the toilet!"

Julian Assange was absurdly smeared in a New York Times piece by William Neuman and Maggy Ayala. The report stooped as low as making reference to a claim that Assange did not flush a toilet, as if that were somehow relevant. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks down this shoddy journalism. Source

You may be about to lose the right to sell your stuff - Fascist U.S.A.

By Jennifer Waters: Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril It could become illegal to resell your iPhone 4, car or family antiques.

Tucked into the U.S. Supreme Court’s agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother’s antique furniture to your iPhone 4.

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products. 

Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.

Put simply, though Apple Inc. AAPL -2.13%  has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark Owen has it on the book “No Easy Day,” you can still sell your copies to whomever you please whenever you want without retribution.

That’s being challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.

“It means that it’s harder for consumers to buy used products and harder for them to sell them,”

Spain - Police Beating Everyone: A Warning To The Rest Of The West

By Alexander Higgins: Spain's police state has spiraled out of control as riot police are now running throughout the streets beating everyone in sight, men and woman, young and old.
When the people demand democracy from an oligarchy that rules their subjects trough the strong-arm of a totalitarian police state the streets fill with the madness and mayhem seen in this video.

This is not a recession it's a robbery - Artist taxi driver with Max Keiser

QEternity Explained: The Definitive Infographic