The Ancient Parable
2 hours ago
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This is the way the world ends for the OECD, the nations that affected to be developed and civilized.The Amazing Dissolving Nation - James Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation
This phase of globalism is certainly not the end of history, but it is looking like the end of accounting tricks, and possibly democracy, which has discredited itself with accounting tricks.
At a certain point in time, the sickening recognition sets in that appearances are not the same as reality - and then, all of a sudden, you're in a political maelstrom. Citizens of the various lands will discover that the money being argued over, shifted around from column A to column B, assigned to this or that actuarial table or budget line or account or obligation or vault or "structured vehicle"- that money is just ... not ... there.
There's no money. It was pretend money. From now on, none of you will get paid. Imagine a world where nobody gets paid.
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The National Lawyer's Guild has directed me to notify those arrested today in the U.S. that the organization is prepared to provide assistance; several of its lawyers are familiar with the ongoing case and have already provided free consultations to several of those raided in January. In particular, they have lawyers on hand for those in New York State; I'm not yet sure about other states. The NLG may be contacted at its hotline at 888.654.3265. I'm also working on arranging assistance for those outside of the U.S. Anyone with questions can e-mail me at [REDACTED... See link]Thanks #BarrettBrownLOL. You De Man! (derp derp derp)
Update: I've just been contacted by a lawyer in California who can arrange for legal assistance for the 12 of the 16 arrested who will presumably be tried in the Northern District of California. Those to whom this applies should e-mail me as soon as possible.
"The budget plan produced by the Senate’s “Gang of Six” offers the promise of huge tax breaks for some of the wealthiest people in the country, while lowering Social Security benefits for retirees and the disabled. Despite claiming that they will "reform" Social Security on a "separate track, isolated from deficit reduction," the plan includes cuts to Social Security that would be felt in less than six months, as the plan calls for a new inflation formula that will reduce benefits by 0.3 percentage points a year compared with currently scheduled benefits. The plan also calls for a process that is likely to reduce benefits further for future retirees.» The floods in the Midwest are decreasing but the waters are spreading out across the region causing a massive amount of high humidity in combination with high temperatures, and it's expected to continue for at least a week. It IS possible that the Wheat and Corn harvests which did get planted will be seriously damaged... for the long term, if the climate continues to change in a similar direction over the years.
"The proposed cuts to Social Security are cumulative. This means that after ten years, a beneficiary in her 70s will see a cut of close to 3 percent. After 20 years, the cuts for beneficiaries in their 80s will be close to 6 percent, while the reduction in annual benefits will be close to 9 percent by the time beneficiaries are in their 90s. For a beneficiary in her 90s living on a Social Security income of $15,000, this means a loss of more $1,200 a year in benefits.
"The plan also calls for large cuts in tax rates including a targeted top rate of between 23-29 percent, which will be at least partially offset by elimination of tax deductions. For the highest-income people, this is likely to mean a very large reduction in taxes. For example, Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, the CEOs of J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, respectively, are both paid close to $20 million a year at present. If this pay is taxed as ordinary income, then they would be paying close to $7.5 million a year in taxes on it after 2012. However, if the top rate is set at 29 percent, they may save as much as $1.9 million a year on their tax bill. If the top tax rate is set at 23 percent then the Gang of Six plan may increase their after-tax income by more than $3 million a year.
"It is striking that the Gang of Six chose to respond to the crisis created by the collapse of the housing bubble by developing a plan that will give even more money to top Wall Street executives and traders..." [CEPR's Analysis In Full]
On the afternoon of Friday, July 15, the Steve Irwin was detained in the Scottish Shetland Islands by the British courts due to a civil lawsuit brought against us by Maltese fishing company, Fish and Fish Limited. They are claiming damages for the bluefin tuna we rescued from their nets in June 2010, fish that we believe were illegally caught after the season has closed, without an inspector onboard, or any paperwork documenting the legality of their catch...
[SOS! Read More And If Possible, Assist]
California Prisons Bar Media Access to Hunger Striking PrisonersA posting yours truly did a while back on the horribly overcrowded conditions at ALL of California's state prisons here.
The L.A. Times reports that it has sought to visit and interview the striking prisoners, but the California prison system has denied the request.
Does this denial raise a First Amendment issue?
It’s a question that Ohio State University law professor Douglas Berman poses at his Sentencing Law and Policy Blog.
The Supreme Court, Berman points out, has said that prisoners have limited First Amendment rights while in the slammer. Still, “these rights are not completely extinguished,” he writes. “In addition, I would think the traditional media might be able to assert some of its own First Amendment rights to try to get access to at least a few of the hunger-striking prisoners.”
A California prison spokesman told the Times the state was restricting media access “due to security and safety issues.”
Berman counters that security issues likely do not justify restricting access to every one of the striking prisoners. [More, and links @ The Wall Street Journal H/t: Findlaw]
US Standing Plunges Across Arab World - Institute for Policy StudiesThe West's diplomatic 'support group' for their ILLEGAL war on 90% of the Libyan population issues a statement...
The United States' popularity in the Arab world has plummeted to levels lower than the last year of the George W. Bush administration, according to a new survey of public opinion in six Arab countries released here July 13.
The "Arab Attitudes" survey found that favourable ratings of the United States have fallen by nine percent or more in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the past two years.
In Egypt, they fell from 30 percent to a meagre five percent. Only in Lebanon did positive views of the U.S. (23 percent) remain consistent.
Consisting of 4,000 face-to-face-interviews conducted by the Zogby International firm between mid-May and mid-June, the survey also found that 10 percent or less of Arabs in all the countries polled approve of President Barack Obama's policies.
Obama's favourable ratings were the lowest by far among the five national leaders covered in the survey... [In Full @ the Institute For Policy Studies]
The Contact Group reaffirmed that the Qaddafi regime no longer has any legitimate authority in Libya and that Qaddafi and certain members of his family must go...Just... Like... That...
"...participants stressed the importance of international support to help the NTC to resume the production and export of crude oil."Yew Betcha! Their Full statement Here
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The operation was designed to track small-time gun buyers up to major weapons traffickers along the Southwest border. Critics estimate that 1,800 guns targeted in the operation are unaccounted for and that about two-thirds of those probably are in Mexico.Meanwhile, at the Just-Us Department. The person accused of the Anthrax attacks on congress and elsewhere in the wake of 9/11 is having the evidence against him re-examined... posthumously:
Fast and Furious is one of thousands of U.S. law enforcement investigations launched since 2006 aimed at stemming the flood of weapons across the Southwest border.
At a congressional hearing a month ago, three ATF agents said they were repeatedly ordered to step aside while gun buyers in Arizona walked away with AK-47s and other high-powered weaponry headed for Mexican drug cartels. So far, 20 small-time gun-buyers have been indicted, but the investigation is still under way.
Melson told the congressional investigators that after the criticism emerged he assigned a task force of agents to review the operation and he personally read all the operations' investigative reports that pertained to one defendant.
"I read through those and found ROIs (reports of investigation) that indeed suggested that interdiction could have occurred, and probably should have occurred, but did not occur," Melson said. [AP via Google]
Justice Department lawyers contradict FBI findings in anthrax case» The Space Shuttle has un-docked from the International Space Station for the last time and is expect to return to Earth on Thursday morning. They left a year's worth of 'groceries' and an American flag... the same one that traveled on the first Shuttle flight.
By Mike Wiser, Greg Gordon and Stephen Engelberg
McClatchy Newspapers, ProPublica and Frontline
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has called into question a key pillar of the FBI's case against Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist accused of mailing the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and terrorized Congress a decade ago.
Shortly after Ivins committed suicide in 2008, federal investigators announced that they'd identified him as the mass murderer who sent the letters to members of Congress and the news media. The case was circumstantial, with federal officials arguing that the scientist had the means, motive and opportunity to make the deadly powder at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.
Now, however, Justice Department lawyers have acknowledged in court papers that the sealed area in Ivins' lab — the so-called hot suite — didn't contain the equipment needed to turn liquid anthrax into the refined powder that floated through congressional buildings and post offices in the fall of 2001... [In Full @ McClatchy]
KABUL — A senior adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a member of parliament were killed Sunday night in Kabul, dealing a blow to an administration still reeling from last week’s assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s half brother.From Wikipedia
The attack took place in the apartment of Jan Mohammad, a Karzai adviser and former governor of Uruzgan province, according to an Afghan security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Three gunmen wearing explosives killed Mohammad and Hashem Watanwal, a parliament member and Karzai ally from Uruzgan. Several security guards were also killed, according to the official, who did not say whether the men were shot or killed in an explosion.
The Taliban, through spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, quickly asserted responsibility for the attack. “We’ve been following Jan Mohammed for a long time to carry out such an attack,” Mujahid said. [More @ The WaPo]
"Khan became governor of the Orugzan province in 2002. He was replaced by Maulavi Abdul Hakim Munib on March 18, 2006, at the request of the Dutch government, who led NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Oruzgan. The Dutch didn't want to cooperate with a man who had a reputation of long-standing corruption, involvement with drugs and incompetence. He then moved to Kabul..." [In Full]
California Prisons Bar Media Access to Hunger Striking PrisonersSpeaking of imprisonment and police states, next year there's going to be a NATO conference in Chicago, and Chicago is getting ready.
A California prison spokesman told the Times the state was restricting media access “due to security and safety issues.”
...Ohio State University law professor Douglas Berman counters that security issues likely do not justify restricting access to every one of the striking prisoners. [In Full H/t: Findlaw]
NATO Summit: Chicago Trains 13,000 Police For Mass Arrests
By Frank Main Chicago Sun-Times/Global Research
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Joe Iosbaker, spokesman for the United National Antiwar Committee, said Thursday that he was scouting marching routes to McCormick Place, where he said the city might host the summits...“People are saying this will be larger than our RNC protest, which drew 30,000 people,” Iosbaker said, referring to the 2008 Republican National Convention held in St. Paul, Minn
About 50 groups have pledged their support for the demonstrations against NATO and will hold a planning meeting in Chicago on Aug. 28, Iosbaker said.
Battle lines between protesters and the police are already being drawn for the NATO and G-8 summits that Chicago will host next spring... [More]
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Julian Assange appeared at a press conference in London today to talk about WikiLeaks’ legal challenge to Visa and Mastercard, which have been blocking payments to the whistleblowing service for months in what its founder describes as an “economic blockade”.Yours truly comments:
He contrasted the payment firms’ stance on WikiLeaks – which he claims comes after political pressure from the US – with the phone hacking case at Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers.
“WikiLeaks and its employees have not been charged with any illegal activity,” he said. “Compare that to News International who has had employees and contractors imprisoned for illegal activity and yet still we do not see US financial companies cutting off their services to News International. Why not?” [Financial Times UK (free signup required)]
» On the fringe Right of American politics, the Freedom Jamboree, a big rally which is supposed to occur in Kansas City Kansas for the three hundred and fifty or so local chapters of the Tea Party and it's supporters, has only received 62 RSVPs."Mr Assange appeared to suggest that the nature of the target justified the means – ruling a murdered schoolgirl’s mobile phone out, but governments in..."There IS a difference you know? If you don't you have no business in the journalism business.
Further, IF that IS what Julian Assange indeed suggests, I back him in that assessment of 'who does what, with which, and to whom" one hundred percent.
A murdered schoolgirl's phone is NOT subject to 'whistle-blowing' by a newspaper... It's subject to "Sensationalism".
A government which allows MURDER (the Collateral Murder video in particular) IS subject to what is commonly known as 'Whistle-blowing'. Since the US government provides no SAFE (as in 'you won't get found dead in a ditch in New Jersey' safe) way for anyone in the country to do so, there HAS TO BE another way for a citizen to participate.
Julian Assange has provided it. It will not go away.
It's supporters are 'legion' (snicker)
Vancouver Sun
July 14, 2011
Cash may be at root of Ahmed Karzai's murder
Locals say disputes within president's clan over the distribution of spoils from corruption - not a Taliban plot - led to his assassination
By William Marsden, Postmedia News
The streets of Kandahar City lay empty and ghostlike Wednesday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai wept over the body of his half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, whose reign as the strongman of Kandahar ended abruptly this week when an associate pumped three bullets into him.
Ahmed Karzai's funeral brought out several thousand mourners -all men -including senior Afghan ministers. As military helicopters hovered overhead, the dignitaries joined a cavalcade of buses and cars in a procession to the tiny Karzai family village of Karz, about 30 kilometres outside Kandahar.
Here Karzai stopped momentarily to appeal to the Taliban "to join us and work together for the prosperity of the country."
Back in Kandahar City, the cradle of the Taliban, coalition and Afghan soldiers and police patrolled the streets, throwing such a heavy security blanket over the city that most Afghans remained home. Yet as Ahmed Karzai's body was lowered into the ground, there were increasing doubts about the Taliban's claim that they are responsible for his assassination... [In Full]
Minn. Grandma Shot at Wild West Re-EnactmentAnd for you "Anonymous" people out there...
by Cynthia Hsu
Minnesota grandmother Carrol Knutson, 65, was shot in the leg during a Wild West re-enactment shooting that used real bullets instead of blanks in South Dakota. The re-enactment was put on by Wild Bunch Reinactors, reports the Rapid City Journal.... [More @ Findlaw]
Can Your Laptop Plead the Fifth Amendment?I must know a hundred... You see them in the morning at Starbucks valiantly trying to find a job, or having given up, spend their morning gambling their last dollars away "Day Trading" in the vain hope of restoring what little wealth they had previously attained...
by Stephanie Rabiner
Can the government compel you to decrypt your laptop? Ramona Fricosu says no, which is why she's fighting federal prosecutors in Colorado who want access to her encrypted laptop, which they believe contains information relating to her alleged criminal activities... [In Full, Findlaw]
Never Mind Grover Norquist, Mark Ames Unveils The RATFOCR Revolution On MSNBC’S Dylan Ratigan Show!Which leads, without too much of a stretch, to this last item:
exiledonline.com
Mark Ames unveiled on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show the long-awaited answer to waffentwerp Grover Norquist’s anti-tax crusade: It’s called Real Americans For Tax Reform. Already, RATR has formed a coalition with the Foundation On Constitutional Reform to create a new mega-movement of grassroots activists...
The goal: To force every single Democratic Party candidate to sign a pledge to raise taxes on the top .1% riches Americans, so that they pay the same tax rate they would have paid under President Eisenhower, during the Golden Years for America’s middle class. In other words, the richest Americans would have to pay a 91% tax rate again... [In Full @ The eXiled]
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
by Adbusters
A shift in revolutionary tactics.
Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,
A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people." — Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, SpainThe beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.
The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.
On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.
Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?
The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for REPRESENTATION NOT CORPORATION...
[In Full @ Adbusters... The journal of the mental environment]
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At least four people were killed at one of Kandahar's largest mosques this morning, including the chief cleric for the region's provincial council, Hikmatullah Hikmat, when a teenaged suicide bomber with an explosive concealed in his turban struck a memorial service for Ahmed Wali Karzai (Guardian, NYT, BBC, Tel, AP, Reuters, WSJ). The attack comes after Afghan president Hamid Karzai worked to bolster his family's power and authority in Kandahar, naming his brother Shah Wali Karzai to take Ahmed Wali's place as the head of the family and the Popalzai tribe (WSJ, NYT, McClatchy).Note that the further on in the article, the indigenous Haqqani network is now being referred to as "al-Qa'ida": "Wonk Watch: "The Haqqani Nexus and the Evolution of al-Qa'ida" (Combating Terrorism Center).". Must keep the myth alive!
The killing comes at a time when Karzai is faced with a number of challenges, and removes a crucial bulwark of support for the embattled president in Afghanistan's south (AP, NYT, TIME, Reuters). The BBC examines the violent state of Kandahar, while the Post notes that Ahmed Wali's killing has prompted other Afghan leaders to question their own security (BBC, Post). And Thom Shanker has a must-read on the U.S. effort to gather biometric data on insurgents and others in Afghanistan, as the first U.S. troops to leave the country transferred their authority Wednesday for an area outside of Kabul to another regiment (NYT, AP). [More, and all links]
(Cantor Says) Obama warns Cantor: 'Don't call my bluff' in debt talksMeanwhile, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the 'economy will strengthen over the remainder of the year' but acknowledges little certainty that the aforementioned forecast will materialize.
By Russell Berman, Erik Wasson and Molly K. Hooper
Republicans said a tense negotiation over raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit at the White House ended when President Obama stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.): “Don’t call my bluff.”
“It ended with the president abruptly walking out of the meeting,” Cantor told reporters upon returning to the Capitol.
Democrats immediately disputed the GOP account, saying Obama had sought to end a meeting when Cantor interrupted him to get a final word.
“No. Absolutely not,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told The Hill when asked about Cantor’s description. [The Democrat's side and more @ The Hill]
"As of last Thursday night, small restaurants in Newark, New Jersey must hire and post armed security guards on their premises if they wish to remain open at night..." More @ FindlawAbbie Hoffman said:
"America is scared of it's children."More recently I added:
"...and with damn good reason. They've been sold-out so their parents could have it all."James Kunstler:
"America is fascinated with Casey because Casey IS America. America, just like Casey, is too busy looking for the latest party to take care of its children...
Clusterfuck Nation
America's Sweetheart
By James Howard Kunstler
July 11, 2011
Forget Michele Bachmann... how about Nancy Grace for President? - that little firecracker of retribution with the carnivore gleam in her eyes, the pouty lips concealing fangs of vengeance, the wafting perfume of scorn and opprobrium, a very exterminating angel among the lumbering dark hairy beasts of Sodom America. I cringe a little, frankly, when I click through the CNN gauntlet and glimpse Nancy in full dudgeon, her delicate nostrils quivering with rage. Does she want to kick my ass, too? Who put the testosterone in that girl's Red Bull?
All last week it was Casey Anthony 24/7 on the cable news stations - and Nancy Grace's nostrils were flaring so wide I was afraid her head might explode. But let's face it: America is fascinated with Casey because Casey IS America. America, just like Casey, is too busy looking for the latest party to take care of its children. But just you wait. The court of public opinion is going to lay a million-dollar book deal on Casey Anthony, and a Made-for-TV movie deal, and a "reality" show on the Food Channel ("101 Meals You'll Never Have to Serve To Your Annoying Child Because You Killed It"), plus cars, luxury homes, personal watercraft, a wardrobe of phosphorescent tube-tops and hot-girl skirts, and sixteen untapped credit cards that have been prayed over by qualified preachers twenty-four hours a day.... I'm sure glad I don't live in Florida.
Did you ever get the feeling that your country was melting down into a puddle of toxic goop? And presiding over the meltdown, under that sturdy, bomb-proof, gleaming, platinum helmet of perfectly plasticized hair... the stern visage of Nancy Grace, beaming disapproval across every hill and mole-hill of this land. Sometimes I fear Nancy would like to wrap duct tape over America's head and just throw the damn thing in her fabulous backyard pool.
I couldn't help thinking last week that this Casey Anthony verdict business was the odd "tipping point" incident that would finally shove the zombified American public into some mode of animate engagement with the reality that lies beyond reality TV. But so far it's still just reckless housewives and monster trucks as far as the eye can see across this tortured landscape... [In Full @ Clusterfuck Nation]
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The blasts hit the crowded Dadar neighborhood, the famed jewelry market Jhaveri Bazaar and the busy business district of Opera House, an official at the city's Police Control Room said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policy.More At BBC
Why the Rich Fear Violence in the StreetsIn full @ Auntie Imperial's News & Blog Review
July 6 2011
By Robert Frank
Caption: An auto lays on its side
and crowds gather after a bomb exploded
on Wall Street on Sept. 16, 1920. (Getty)
Last year, I was at a billionaire’s home in California and I asked him to describe his biggest worry. He pointed to a 19th century painting on the wall, which depicted a female beggar receiving alms from a wealthy gentleman and giving her patron a flower in return.
“That’s what I worry about,” he said. “But instead of flowers, she’s got guns.
Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”
It turns out he wasn’t alone. A new survey from...
[...]
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