Sun, Aug 31 2008
NEOCON BARBIE
PALIN-tology - 45+ Problems for McCain's VP in just 35 hours
by BoBo2020
What do we know about Sarah Palin?
She's a popular governor with some mixed history of standing up to Alaskan Republicans and big oil. In the next few days we will hear a lot about her "soccer mom" lifestyle and "Miss Congeniality" awards. We'll hear about her DRILL DRILL DRILL mentality to solving gas prices and her staunch anti-choice beliefs.
We all know that she is under investigation for abuse of power and there are audio recordings to back it up. What you won't hear on the news is this list of other things you didn't know about the woman they call "Miss Baracuda."
- Sarah Palin has an Abramoff problem - a Pro-Palin illegal mailer was sent during her gubernatorial campaign on behalf of Palin by the RGA, the DC group that got money from Abramoff, Reed, etc.
- She advocated AGAINST mine safety / pollution control
- She has an ANTI-ENVIRONMENT RECORD and is on the wrong side of global warming and doesn't think polar bears should be listed as endangered because it interferes with her drilling plans.
- She's against sex education - abstinence only.
- Don't believe the whispers that she supportive of the GLBT community. She's opposed to state health benefits for same-sex partners and only vetoed a resolution that would have ended state benefits because the Supreme Court had already declared it unconstitutional.
- She's opposed to universal health care and stem cell research
- No foreign policy experience? According to the folks at FOX think she has foreign policy experience because "Alaska is near Russia." Oh, and she didn't even have a passport until last year.
- This choice is NOT helping McCain's polling numbers, especially with women.
- McCain only met Sarah Palin ONCE and talked to her TWICE making this a purely cynical and desperate political appointment by HIS CAMPAIGN not by him! She's not really HIS VP choice.
- She's deeply connected to the Bridge to Nowhere.
- She stated that she would force her own daughter to have a rapist's child.
- She has 3 houses
- Terre pointed out that she's connected to VECO - the company at the heart of Ted Stevens' troubles. She also received an endorsement from Ted that has suddenly disappeared from her webpage.
- She called candidate Clinton a whiner. Why does everyone in the McCain campaign think others are whiners?
- She apparently hasn't taken a stand on most major political issues
- Her selection has created a major rift among the Republicans, especially Romney & Pawlenty.
- Past quotes by Rove make Palin's selection look like desperation.
- Palin may have been scrubbing her own wikipedia page
- Sarah Palin, Buchanite - Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000, a fact which may alienate certain Florida voters. Hat tip to misslotus
- She was vetted too quickly and McCain only picked her the night before making the announcement.
- She's still focused on Alaska not the fact the she would be Vice President for the whole nation.
- She participated in a profane on-air attack againt the Alaskan State Senate President and giggled at the word b*tch..
- Like Bush and McCain, she can't admit when she's wrong.
- She's linked to the Dominionist movement and Joel's Army.
- The United Steelworkers have already spoken out against her.
- She was a bad mayor who left her town's economy in tatters.
- She supported Obama's energy plan, but suddenly these references are disappearing.
- Some of the PUMA's believe that John McCain is patronizing them.
- Additionally, this choice eliminates the "He's not ready" attack on Obama.
- This choice raises the issue of McCain's age (Is Palin ready to take over if he keels over).
- It also raises the issue of McCain's past unfavorable statements against women.
- Additionally, this choice reminds us that McCain is an adulterer and raises the spectre that he is just a dirty old man with wandering eyes.
- Palin's husband is on BP's payroll creating a possible conflict of interest.
- She made extremely poor use of Eminent Domain during her time as mayor.
- She favors censoring library books (Alert your local librarian!)
- Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young (both under investigation) campaigned for her in 2006.
- She didn't support McCain in the primaries.
- The top 2 ALASKAN newspapers question her fitness for the job.
- She supports aerial hunting of wolves even though it was outlawed by Congress. She's using a loophole.. Hat tip to Scarce
UPDATED: 43. She's part of Feminists for Life and is AGAINST BIRTH CONTROL. It would be awesome if someone asked her McCain's now famous "should insurance companies cover viagra/birth control" question.
- Undecideds apparently don't like the Palin pick. Thanks marabout40!
- More environmental problems - She fighting to prevent Belugas from being listed as endangered. Thanks again Terre!
- In addition to polar bears, belugas, and wolves, for the first time in Alaskan history she is supporting hunting black bear sows and cubs. Thank you for the information Bodean.
- She's either going to be distracted by being deposed soon or she is going to draw negative attention by trying to avoid being deposed.
- There have been discussion of witness tampering and possible impeachment hearings related to charges of her abuse of power
- MEME: Palin's selection provides a clear example of John McCain's hasty decision-making and poor judgement on important issues (like who would be best qualified to take his place if he could not complete his term).
- She wants to destroy 1.5 MILLION ACRES of ANWR, not the 2000 acres she has lied about on the news.
- Palin stated "I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq.."
Sun, Aug 31 2008
PIMPING SARAH PALIN
Sarah Palin is Neocon Barbie, and until last week, had never even actually met John McCain. This far-right pinup betty is a staunch evangelical, anti-abortionist, pro-ANWAR drilling, pro-war, homophobic creationist.
The sum total of her experience to lead is having been a beauty queen, mayor of a tiny (pop 8,000) podunk Alaska town, and getting elected governor of Alaska. I'm guessing there's a shitload of lonely cold boys up there, 'coz she's definitly a hottie.
Can you say PANDERING FOR VOTES?
[Neocon Barbie - 1984 and 2004]
Sat, Aug 30 2008
DON'T GIVE $50 BILLION TO GM AND FORD
The Fed is going to give General Motors and Ford $50 BILLION taxpayer dollars so that these for-profit corporations can "develop alternative energy cars".
BULLSHIT!
They don't have to invent a damned thing - THE TECHNOLOGY IS ALREADY ON THE MARKET!
http://www.teslamotors.com/ The Tesla Motor Company
Just take the engine off the luxury Ferrari body and slap it in a mid-size sedan or minivan and Presto! affordable, energy-efficient non-polluting cars! This can happen TODAY.
JUST LIKE THAT *SNAP*!
No gigantic taxpayer-funded bailout giveaway to greedy corporate factcats required.Sat, Aug 30 2008
RON PAUL REVOLUTION
Anthem for a new Revolution:
Ron Paul speaks truth:
Wed, Aug 27 2008
WHY FIAT SUCKS DONKEY DICK
The Meaning and Value of Gold
by Glen Allport, August 27, 2008
in·trin·sic (¹n-tr¹n“z¹k, -s¹k) adj. 1. Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; inherent. --in·trin“si·cal·ly adv. ~ from the 1994 on-disk edition of The American Heritage Dictionary
- 1 -
Does Gold Have Intrinsic Value? Does Anything?
In libertarian and pro-gold circles, it is common to hear that "gold has intrinsic value." That sentiment is based on an important kernel of truth, although the wording is colloquial rather than precise; like the commonplace use of "weight" in situations where "mass" is meant or saying "the sun rises in the east" (when the Earth rotates instead), the assertion that "gold has intrinsic value" is true informally but not technically – in the case of value, because a necessary element is assumed and left unspoken. Because the informal meaning seems clear, I have been surprised to find frequent and often heated discussion on the topic, but then gold itself is an emotional topic for several reasons. The argument over gold's "intrinsic value" would be simply a minor squabble over semantics except for one thing: the question of gold's value, or lack thereof, is sometimes used to support positions that are not only wrong but actively harmful. Given the importance of gold to human well-being – a subject I expand upon below – and also given that I have used the phrase "gold has intrinsic value" myself, perhaps it is time to address the topic directly and to clarify my meaning.
First: technically, value is a judgment, not a property. Value thus requires a conscious being to assess whatever is being valued. Value has two components: the thing which is valued and the person (or other being) who makes the valuation. Value cannot exist without consciousness; "X has value to a rock" is a meaningless statement, for example. Rocks cannot value; rocks are inanimate, insensate, and without consciousness. Nothing can be said to have value to a rock, or to most of the universe; ergo, nothing has intrinsic value in the sense of value-within-itself without reference to any living thing. But "Love and freedom have value to human beings" – now that is a different story, because humans are designed in such a way as to desire and to benefit from love and freedom. Even more obvious, because tangibles and short-term survival are involved, would be the statement "Food and water and air have value to human beings." Such things have value not least because they are required for life itself.*
Life, then, values – must value – some things over others. Value is sparked into being by life itself; the value is bound up in the characteristics of the valued thing and in how those characteristics interact with the needs and desires of the living. To set value on things is an inescapable part of life; to assign value is a necessary thread in the process of being alive and even slightly conscious. Bright objects have value to magpies, which gather such objects for their nests. Mice have value (as food and as playthings) to cats. Seeing value in mice is inherent in the nature of being a cat, because cat DNA creates cat bodies with instincts to chase mice and other small animals, and the tools (eyes and ears, claws, legs for running, etc.) to do so. Without these tools drawing a cat to prey, cats would have gone extinct long ago. Mice thus have intrinsic value to cats, based on the inherent natures of cats and mice. Note that "intrinsic value" in this case requires both the cat (the assigner of value) and the mouse (the thing being valued); thus, the value of mice (in this case) is actually intrinsic to the intertwined properties of cat-and-mouse, not to the mouse itself.** More simply, mice have properties that are valuable to cats.
Back to gold: does gold, can gold, have anything we might reasonably term intrinsic value? In the sense of an absolute, the answer is – as we have already seen – no. Properties are intrinsic, but value is a judgment. Value can only exist in reference to the one who values. Most of the universe cannot value anything, any more than it can enjoy the taste of cinnamon or appreciate the smile of a young child. But you can value gold, or cinnamon, or an innocent and charming smile. You are a human being, the preeminent appraiser of value in the known universe. Your biology, your needs, your desires, and your mind all bring value into being in this world. You create value by your very existence; the rock which cannot value anything – a gold-flecked quartz nugget, say, found in a stream – and which has no value on its own, becomes valuable if you value it, for nothing has meaning of any type until life creates that meaning.
As with every human activity, assessing value can be done well or poorly; those who bought stock in Pets.com near its peak of $14/share did a poor job of assessing the stock's value – the stock crashed and the company soon vanished. Likewise, those who bought gold near its peak of $850/oz in 1980 were buying at the peak of a mania and their gold was soon worth much less, at least in dollar terms (value exists in other frameworks as well; as the saying goes, money isn't everything). One big difference between gold in 1980 and Pets.com in 2000 is that unlike Pets.com, gold's monetary value diminished but, as always, did not vanish. Gold hit a dollar low of roughly $250 in 1999, and has been in a strong if bumpy uptrend ever since – an uptrend with years left to go, as I have described in several previous columns.
Not only has gold's value never vanished,*** it has remained high (relative to most physical things on a per-weight basis) for thousands of years; ancient Egyptians and other s mined and used gold over 5,000 years ago. This brings us to the second answer for our question: yes, gold does have what can loosely or colloquially be termed intrinsic value, because gold has intrinsic properties that humans value – and the "to humans" part of the statement is obvious, inherent to the nature of value, and may therefore be assumed. The reasons for humans to value gold, while not as fundamental as the reasons for cats to value mice, are nonetheless powerful and inherent in the nature of man and in the ability of gold to satisfy certain of man's needs and desires. There are many such needs and desires that gold satisfies better than anything else, and unlike paper money or tech stocks or most other things one might name, gold is also nearly indestructible – the gold you own today will likely still be here on Earth when the planet itself is destroyed by our dying, expanding sun billions of years from now (or by whatever does destroy this planet). Near-universal and timeless appeal combined with near-indestructibility and genuine rarity make gold special indeed. To the extent the phrase "intrinsic value" means anything at all, gold thus qualifies. The commonplace, informal, shorthand use of the phrase may be technically inaccurate, but it nonetheless conveys a basic truth, and an important one, where gold is concerned.
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Specific Reasons for Valuing Gold
Contrary to the arguments of many anti-gold commentators, gold is an exceptionally useful material. Gold is incredibly malleable, does not tarnish, is an excellent conductor of electricity, can be drawn into extremely thin wire, and has many other useful proper ties. As noted, gold is also nearly indestructible; it does not disappear through corrosion as iron does, does not vanish into smoke in a fire, and is not dissolved or ruined by water, including salt water.
A one-ounce gold coin from a ship lost at sea in the time of ancient Rome has precisely the same value (plus any numismatic value it may have attained) as does an ounce of gold mined yesterday – and after cleaning, the coin will be in the same condition it was 20 centuries ago. A simple list of gold's better -known uses makes the point that this metal has exceptional qualities that give it value to human beings for many reasons: see 8 Unusual Uses for Gold for some interesting lesser -known uses of the metal, and for a more general look at the topic consider The Many Uses of Gold, which cover s these categories of gold usage:
- Jewelry (The Primary Use of Gold)
- Financial Gold - Coinage, Bullion, Currency Backing
- Electronics
- Computers
- Dentistry
- Medicine
- Aerospace
- Awards and symbols of status
- Glassmaking
- Gold Gilding and Gold Leaf
"The Many Uses of Gold" (worth reading in full, with interesting details) contains an insightful comment about future uses of gold:
"Gold is too expensive to use by chance. Instead it is used deliberately and only when less expensive substitutes can not be identified. As a result, once a use is found for gold it is rarely abandoned for another metal. This means that the number of uses for gold have been increasing over time.
"Most of the ways that gold is used today have been developed only during the last two or three decades. This trend will likely continue. As our society requires more sophisticated and reliable materials our uses for gold will increase. This combination of growing demand, few substitutes and limited supply will cause the value and importance of gold to increase steadily over time. It is truly a metal of the future." [Emphasis added]
Many of those newer uses for gold involve tiny amounts of gold in staggeringly large numbers of consumer products – in millions of cell phones, computers, LCD panels, and other electronic devices of many types, for example. Because the amount of gold per item is so small, reclaiming the metal when the product is discarded is not economical, yet because the number of such items is very large, the net result is to steadily remove a significant stream of physical gold from usable world inventory. This gold may someday be recovered (and a small amount is being recover ed now) but for the most part, now and in the foreseeable future, such now-common and expanding uses of gold represent a growing erosion of what would other wise be a near-eternal above-ground inventory. These newer uses of gold thus put price pressure on gold in a way that traditional uses (e.g., jewelry or coinage, where later recovery and recycling of the metal is not a problem) do not.
Further more, gold is difficult and expensive to mine (although some gold may be found on the ground or in streams) and most of the easily and economically mined gold has already been mined, which means that, yes, "peak gold" is a near-future likelihood – in fact the peak may have already occurred. Combine that with the expanding number of uses for gold, and the supply/demand situation for gold will tighten considerably in coming years.
The difficulty and expense of mining gold adds to gold's value in two ways: the more obvious way is to make gold expensive in dollar (or other currency) terms: scarce + expensive to obtain new supply + useful and highly desired = high dollar value. The second and more important way in which the difficulty of increasing the supply of gold adds to the metal's value is that when used as a nation's money, gold cannot be easily inflated – much less hyper inflated – which greatly restrains the growth of government. In short, gold can be used in a way that restrains the growth of tyranny, and which thus dramatically improves human well-being.
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Gold's Most Valuable Property
The intrinsic proper ties of gold (and to a lesser extent, of silver) make it a natural choice for use as money. Christopher Weber outlines the reasons why in A Short History of International Currencies:
"Anthropologists, archeologists and historians have discovered that for most every group of people that have ever existed, what was chosen as money had at least five proper ties to it.
"1. It had accepted value to everyone. That's obvious. But what is less obvious is that in all societies, what emerged as money was some commodity that was valued by people for itself first, before it became money.
"2. It was durable. What's the use of money if it falls apart in a short time? It had to hold its value as long as possible. That's why lettuce has never been money, though in America during the 1930s, this word was used as slang for money since dollars were green, thin and 'leafy'.
"3. It was easily divisible. It could be broken down into small pieces or amounts for small purchases.
"4. Even when it was broken down into small pieces, however , it still had to be consistent in value and quality. One unit of it, gram, ounce or whatever , had to be the exact same as any other unit of the same weight or appearance. Otherwise, there would be chaos.
"5. Finally, money had to be convenient to use."
Gold has one more property that makes it a compelling choice for use as money: "new gold" cannot be created easily or rapidly, as can paper or electronic money. Significant monetary (and thus price) inflation is impossible when gold is the currency – an incredible boon to human well-being – but even more important is that gold-as-money limits government expansion and power. This property is crucial to the protective function of gold; indeed, when gold is used as money, this property saves more lives and prevents more misery than do even measures of public sanitation, modern medical care, and other projects or policies specifically aimed at human well-being.
To understand that truth, one must be willing to see at least the vague outline of coercive government's true nature; to face, if only briefly and tangentially, the outright evil and the horrifying, inhuman power of systematic coercion by government. Henry David Thoreau put it well in Civil Disobedience: "That government is best which governs not at all" – another way of saying that the only good coercive government is no coercive government. Why is that true? Because government is nothing but systematic coercion against the people, and coercion is a crime. The results are known to all of us, but the truth it is too horrifying for most to accept:
War: the direct and purposeful mass-murder of human beings and the destruction of villages, towns, cities, or even entire nations, entire regions – or, her e in the 21st Century, perhaps of the Earth itself.
Tyranny: the cold and often violent suppression of human rights and freedoms, including such stunningly-cruel features as torture, unjust imprisonment, confiscation of income and property, and the erosion, corruption, or outright destruction of market freedoms necessary for human well-being – leading to widespread poverty and hunger or even famine. Simple murder by governments, perpetrated in a thousand ways, was responsible for 262,000,000 deaths in the 20th Century, according to research by R. J. Rummel. Attempting to give that mind-numbing number some impact, Professor Rummel adds:
"Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5', then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century. Finally, given popular estimates of the dead in a major nuclear war, this total democide is as though such a war did occur, but with its dead spread over a century." [Emphasis added]
Rummel also points out that this horror is almost invisible in both popular and academic literature: "the ignorance of the incredible murder by government is a moral, intellectual, and academic scandal. It is the biggest and most significant black hole in our educational system and literature."**** The State and its captured media do everything possible to minimize public awareness of the State's cruelty and to actually make the State appear benevolent, and the natural human tendency to defend against knowledge of such horror makes people eager to believe the propaganda.
Can gold prevent such horrors? No, not entirely, but gold can and does reduce the likelihood of such horrors when used as a nation's money. Gold as money provides a strong limiting factor on the resources available to government, and in so doing, gold saves and improves the lives of millions. War, for example, is incredibly expensive – America's Iraq adventure has already cost per haps $3 trillion, counting the future costs of care for wounded soldier s and replacement of materiel. Without the Federal Reserve to constantly expand the supply of money, it would have been impossible for the already-bankrupt and dramatically indebted U.S. to have begun wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan – neither of which had attacked America or even threatened us.
World War I provides an obvious example of central banking's dangers: this sudden and dramatic escalation of America's militarism abroad began shortly after the creation of the fiat-currency-cancer called, misleadingly, the "Federal Reserve" – along with the income tax, both of which were signed into law in 1913. (The gold standard was still nominally in place; creating the Fed was a stealth attack, the economic effects of which only became too obvious to ignore in 1933, when FDR took American's gold coinage from the people by force).
The income tax and the Fed gave President Wilson the money to pursue his insane policy of "war for peace," which he cleverly called "making the world safe for democracy." Instead of making the world safe, one result of our entry into this European war – a war we had no reason to join – was to crush Germany so completely that it was unable to avoid being forced into paying staggering reparations. (Without America's participation in the war, Germany would likely have been able to negotiate a more favorable surrender). Paying those reparations was beyond the country's ability, and so the Weimar government began inflating its currency – printing up money from thin air to pay its bills, in other words. The resulting hyperinflation destroyed the middle class, making their life savings worthless in a matter of months, and leading to the turmoil that, in due time, helped bring the National Socialists and their charismatically insane leader to power . This is how one great evil begets another: illegally bypassing the gold standard in America brought about (with help from other factors) Adolph Hitler 's rise to power and the subsequent deaths of perhaps 60 or 70 million people in war, in death camps, and in other ways.
Gold-as-money could have saved those millions. It could also have prevented the incredible pain and misery of hundreds of millions of other victims who were maimed, crippled, blinded, or other wise wounded; who were systematically tortured or terrorized; who lost loved ones or were orphaned; whose homes or businesses were destroyed by violence or economic turmoil.
To be clear: central banking (the Fed and other central banks around the world) has the sole function of siphoning vast sums of wealth from the people to the power elite in and out of government, and the eventual result is always pain, poverty, and misery – and frequently war. The Pentagon and its mutually-parasitic network of hundreds (thousands?) of war-related corporations, small companies, and contractors can exist in their present, bloated form only because the twin evils of the Fed and the income tax funnel (one by stealth and one by coercion) an ocean of wealth from the American people to the American government and to those feeding at the government trough.
The U.S. government spends roughly half its entire budget paying for past, present, and future war. Is there any chance that this is "the will of the people"? Of course not; when asked, Americans consistently oppose war and most war-related spending. Americans want a national defense; they do not want foreign military bases in over a hundred countries and other programs that cost billions or even trillions of dollars for no good or honest purpose.
There are problems with the manner in which gold standards have been implemented, but there is no arguing the historic reality of the effectiveness of a gold standard; hyperinflations (as in Zimbabwe today and dozens of other times and places in history) have never occurred with a gold standard in place, and military adventurism is far less likely (and when it occurs, is more likely to be brief) when government cannot simply print up money to pay for assaulting other nations. In contrast, episodes of fiat (non-gold-standard) currency fueling tyranny and war would fill a book.
In the term "fiat currency" I include debasement of precious metal coins in ancient Rome and elsewhere – which turned what had been a gold standard into a fiat currency – pointing to the major problem with the typical implementation of a gold standard: government is involved, and since government is naked power and coercion, every government attracts sociopaths who want power over other s and who want to own and control more of everything.
Fiat currency is the holy grail for those sociopaths: the One True Ring of power , of control, of wealth stolen in secret and drained from the people silently and constantly, hour by hour, year after year. It is fitting that the other monetary metal, silver , is in some stories a protection against vampires, for only the monetary restraint of gold or silver as money can prevent this vampire-like, stealth form of theft and the resulting spiral of tyranny.
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The Meaning of Gold
The most important meaning of gold in human life is this: integrity, safety, and well-being.
Gold is, for all practical purposes, eternal. Gold is wealth in direct form that cannot be defaulted on. Gold-as-money replaces the scams of money-changers and of central banks with direct and honest value by weight. When used as money, the dollar value of gold is, by definition, unchanging, and the money thus has integrity. Because gold cannot be printed up or other wise dramatically and constantly increased in supply, price inflation is typically zero or less under a gold standard (as was true in America from the late 1700s through the early 1900s); your savings are thus safe in a way they can never be when central banks are at work inflating a fiat money supply. Even that most dangerous and violent of institutions, coercive government, is restrained and forced into a semblance of honesty by a functioning gold standard. Gold-as-money cannot prevent war and tyranny – for that, a large increase in both widespread emotional health and in understanding of and respect for liberty will be necessary – but gold-as-money absolutely does reduce the ability of coercive government to inflict death, poverty, and other misery. Less war and tyranny would be – if not enough – at least a powerful step in the right direction.
Integrity, safety, and well-being: if you sense a lack of these characteristics in the world, it is in part because the most important role of gold has been over thrown by the dishonesty and corruption of central banking. That tragedy happened a century ago, as one nation after another abandoned the gold standards that had kept money honest and governments partially restrained for more than a century. America's total government expense went from under 5 per cent of GDP in 1913 to a monster that now consumes close to half the entire GDP (although number s vary depending on source and assumptions). America's on-book federal debt is closing in on ten trillion dollars. As for inflation of the money supply, recall that a $20 bill could be exchanged, by law, for a $20 gold coin containing nearly an ounce of gold. Imagine how much counterfeit money it would take to dilute the nation's money supply to the extent we see today, where it takes $819 to buy an ounce of gold! (For the current gold price, see top of page at 321gold.com). The Federal Reserve is a scheme so devious and complex that it can scarcely be believed, and indeed few people understand it. If you have not yet educated yourself about this abomination, I suggest starting with the 41-minute Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve (41 min) by the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
The income tax and the Federal Reserve have together transformed America from a reasonably free nation, with a small government answer able to the people, into a leviathan of tyranny larger than anything the world has ever known. A quick way to see how much of our lives and wealth has been appropriated by government – even since after World War II, when government had already grown to staggering size – is to look at the size of the private versus government sectors:
Today, the entire world financial system is in crisis because of central banking – which is to say, because we have allowed the power elite to replace the integrity and safety of gold-as-money with the fraud and theft-by-inflation of the Federal Reserve, and by other central banks in nations around the world.
The present crisis will not end well – episodes of fiat currency never have, throughout history – but there is hope, at least, that in the after math, enough people will understand the problem to force a return to honest money: that is, to gold.
Bob Chapman of The International Forecaster describes our situation with characteristic flair and directness:
"Anything is better than what we have now, which is a military-industrial-financial complex run by satanic trillionaires who denude citizens of their earnings with rampant fraud and corruption, who slaughter our children, and what should be our foreign friends, with continual wars for profit and who are trying to make us all into serfs in the ultimate feudal system to be run by the would-be lords of the universe, but not until they wipe out billions of useless eaters with pogroms, plagues, wars, famine and eventually nukes, biochemical warfare and other weapons of mass destruction."
Because that will sound inflammatory, alarmist, and downright paranoid to many readers, let me point out that Chapman and his newsletter have a strong record of being right, and ahead of the curve, in their projections.
Will people demand a return to the integrity, safety, and resulting well-being of a genuine gold standard? Our children's fate, and indeed the fate of the Earth itself, is at stake. We won't last much longer in the 21st Century with our present system.
- - - - -
This column was suggested to me by Victor Aquilar's Gold Does Not Have Intrinsic Value.
Notes:
* There is a well-known "subjective theory of value" which includes the idea (as the Wikipedia article on the topic puts it) that "goods that are in unlimited supply, or in a greater supply than that demanded, would have no value." This is primarily a theory of monetary value – which explains why such a theory would place no value whatsoever on clean air or healthy food, assuming plentiful supplies of both. There are problems with such a theory, but I am not discussing them in this column. Here, I am interested in "value" in a broader sense.
** Note also that "intrinsic" in this sense is a sliding scale, in that some things are only slightly of interest to a particular species and other things are only of interest to a few members of the species, based on unusual quirks in those individuals. Fresh air has universal value to human beings, but most other things do not, including things which are fairly popular at some place and time (various forms of fashion, for instance).
*** Naturally, by tightening up definitions and limiting time and place, one can find situations where gold has no value. (The same may be said of even something as essential as food, for that matter ). Someone alone in the mid-Atlantic whose small boat has just capsized has no immediate use for gold, and the density of the metal would be a significant liability if one were trying to remain afloat.
**** Personal correspondence.Wed, Aug 27 2008
GOODNIGHT, DEL
Grandmother Dyke. Seriously brave human.
[Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin]
Dorothy L. (Del) Martin (May 5, 1921 - August 27, 2008)
Died on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at UCSF Hospice, San Francisco, California. Survived by spouse Phyllis Lyon, daughter Kendra Mon, son-in-law Eugene Lane, granddaughter Lorraine Mon, grandson Kevin Mon, sister-in-law Patricia Lyon and a vast, loving and grateful lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family.
An eloquent organizer for civil rights, civil liberties, and human dignity, Del Martin created and helped shape the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and feminist movements. She was a woman of extraordinary courage, persistence, intelligence, humor, and fundamental decency, who refused to be silenced by fear and never stopped fighting for equality. Her last public political act, on June 16, 2008, was to marry Phyllis Lyon, her partner of 55 years. They were the first couple to wed in San Francisco after the California Supreme Court recognized that marriage for same-sex couples is a fundamental right in a case brought by plaintiffs including Martin and Lyon.
Born in San Francisco on May 5, 1921, Dorothy L. Taliaferro, or Del as she would come to be known, was salutatorian of the first graduating class of George Washington High School and went on to study journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. At 19, after transferring to San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), she married James Martin and two years later gave birth to their daughter Kendra. The marriage ended in divorce.
Del Martin met the love of her life, Phyllis Lyon, in Seattle in 1950 when they worked for the same publication company. They became lovers in 1952 and formalized their partnership on Valentine’s Day in 1953 when they moved in together in San Francisco. In 1955, they bought the small home that has been theirs ever since.
In what would prove to be an act that would change history, Martin, Lyon, and six other lesbians co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in San Francisco in 1955. DOB, which was named after an obscure book of lesbian love poetry, initially was organized to provide secret mutual support and social activities. It became the first public and political lesbian rights organization in the United States, laying a foundation for the women’s and lesbian and gay liberation movements that flowered in the early 1970s and continue today.
More yaddah...Wed, Aug 27 2008
WHY THE KLEPTOCRACY MUST GO
"Freedom, as people enjoyed it in the democratic countries of Western civilization in the years of the old liberalism's triumph, was not a product of constitutions, bills of rights, laws, and statutes. Those documents aimed only at safeguarding liberty and freedom, firmly established by the operation of the market economy, against encroachments on the part of officeholders. No government and no civil law can guarantee and bring about freedom otherwise than by supporting and defending the fundamental institutions of the market economy.
Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty. Government is a guarantor of liberty and is compatible with liberty only if its range is adequately restricted to the preservation of economic freedom. Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter."
- Ludwig von Mises, Human ActionWed, Aug 27 2008
NEXT DOMINO: BANK INSURANCE GOING BROKE
Smart econowonks saw this happening last year - when you have a mere $58 billion to insure a trillion in deposits, the math just doesn't work. FDIC burned up $23 billion just bailing out a single bank last month (Indy Mac) - that leaves very very little for the "expected wave of bank failures" to come.
Bank implosions coming? My bet is Washington Mutual is next, with Wachovia close behind.
FDIC may borrow money from Treasury: report
(Reuters) - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The borrowing could be needed to cover short-term cash-flow pressures caused by reimbursing depositors immediately after the failure of a bank, the paper said.
The borrowed money would be repaid once the assets of that failed bank are sold.
"I would not rule out the possibility that at some point we may need to tap into (short-term) lines of credit with the Treasury for working capital, not to cover our losses," Chairman Sheila Bair said in an interview with the paper.
Bair said such a scenario was unlikely in the "near term." With a rise in the number of troubled banks, the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund used to repay insured deposits at failed banks has been drained.
In a bid to replenish the $45.2 billion fund, Bair had said on Tuesday that the FDIC will consider a plan in October to raise the premium rates banks pay into the fund, a move that will further squeeze the industry.
The agency also plans to charge banks that engage in risky lending practices significantly higher premiums than other U.S. banks, Bair said.
The last time the FDIC had borrowed funds from the Treasury was at nearly the tail end of the savings-and-loan crisis in the early 1990s after thousands of banks were shuttered.
The fact that the agency is considering the option again, after the collapse of just nine banks this year, illustrates the concern among Washington regulators about the weakness of the U.S. banking system in the wake of the credit crisis, the Journal said.Tue, Aug 26 2008
WAKE UP, AMERICA
Our favorite democrat keebler elf get's 'em hopping at the DNC:
He's 100% right - WAKE THE FUCK UP, AMERICA!Tue, Aug 26 2008
NATION OF WHINERS
Just needs is a good whippin', that's all...
Sun, Aug 24 2008
NOT EVEN CROOKS WANT THE CRAPPY DOLLAR
Dollars? We don' need no stinkin' dollars!
Criminals dumping weak US dollar for euro
OTTAWA (AFP) - The weakened US dollar has fallen out of favor with organized crime groups to pay for drug shipments or to settle scores, a Canadian government report said Friday.
And if the greenback continues its slide in 2008, as expected, more and more criminals are likely to exchange euros for illicit goods, said Criminal Intelligence Service Canada in its annual report.
More yaddah...Sun, Aug 24 2008
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT
"During Ramadan, which starts on September 1, observant Muslims eat a light pre-dawn meal and fast until sunset, a practice aimed at fostering self-discipline, sacrifice and empathy for the poor."
Isn't it a pointless exercise if it requires no self-discipline, no sacrifice, and since there is no hungerpangs, no empathy with the plight of the hungry poor? A serious WTF.
Religion Lite: new Diet Islam!
Turks turn to diet patches to ease Ramadan fasting
ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Muslims plan to resort to appetite suppressing diet patches to help them get through the daily fast during the Ramadan holy month, Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.
One of the most popular questions asked on a helpline run by Turkey's religious affairs directorate is "whether diet patches are suitable for fasting" and "whether the use of diet patches will amount to foul play," the report said.
Theologists have reassured them they have nothing to worry about.
"Fasting is a way of disciplining the body. Those who use diet patches try to achieve the same. That's why diet patches are not objectionable," said Mehmet Baris, the muftu, or highest Muslim authority, in the southern province of Adana.
The patches, which release appetite-supressing ingredients to the body through the skin, cannot be considered as corrupting the fast because their effect amounts to "showering or applying a pomade on the skin" rather than eating, theology professor Kerim Yavuz said.
During Ramadan, which starts on September 1, observant Muslims eat a light pre-dawn meal and fast until sunset, a practice aimed at fostering self-discipline, sacrifice and empathy for the poor.Sun, Aug 24 2008
BUFF AT 50
Damn, the Material Girl still looks good! At an age where most housfraus have given in to their McJumbo asses, Madonna is RIPPED:
Sun, Aug 24 2008
PUTTING ON A BRAVE FACE AND SPINNING THE HELL OUT OF THINGS
Lots of very very calculated words coming out of the mega-econowonk summit at Jackson Hole yesterday (Saturday). "Clear yet somber thinking" about the "tough times ahead" is the assesment.
In English: We are totally fucked, people, NOBODY PANIC THE SHEEPLE..
View of economy somber from Fed mountain retreat
JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming (Reuters) - A towering grizzly bear guards the doorway to the Federal Reserve's annual policy retreat in this Teton Mountain resort, serving a reminder to central bankers of the battle to sooth the credit crunch.
"This turmoil is not going to go away quickly and will require serious efforts to overcome it," a top official of the International Monetary Fund, John Lipsky, told Reuters.
"A year ago there was a real sense of uncertainty and confusion. People were perplexed by the turmoil that had come on quite suddenly. I would say the mood this year is one of greater clarity...let's call it a bit more somber," said Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director.
More yaddah...Sun, Aug 24 2008
I GET THE SAME REACTION
...plus, my IQ temporarily drops 5 points for every sentence that comes out of his mouth I'm forced to listen to.
Sat, Aug 23 2008
HOMEGROWN MORONS
"They've heightened the levees. They're raised up. It makes me feel safe,"
I'm not bailing out these fools with my tax dollars - let the idiots drown!
New Orleans repeating deadly levee mistakes
NEW ORLEANS, Associated Press - Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.
In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.
Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated.
"People forget, but they cannot afford to forget," said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. "If you believe you can't flood, that's when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don't think they talk about the risk."
More yaddah...Sat, Aug 23 2008
NO RECESSION, RIGHT
Fri, Aug 22 2008
TRUE THEN TRUER NOW
"The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. "
--Cicero, 55 BC
Thu, Aug 21 2008
HUGE DISCONNECT
Thu, Aug 21 2008
BIG BROTHER TO GET EVEN MORE FASCIST POWER
This time, they don't even need a reason. Meaning any old reason will do. Like, say, for instance, you're the wrong color or wrong religion or you said publicly you don't like what government is doing.... Constitution? We don' need no stinkin' Constitution!
New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader Powers
WASHINGTON, New York Times — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.
The plan, which could be made public next month, has already generated intense interest and speculation. Little is known about its precise language, but civil liberties advocates say they fear it could give the government even broader license to open terrorism investigations.
Congressional staff members got a glimpse of some of the details in closed briefings this month, and four Democratic senators told Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey in a letter on Wednesday that they were troubled by what they heard.
The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
More yaddah...Thu, Aug 21 2008
WHEN YOU'RE BEING RUN OUT OF TOWN...
...turn around and lead the parade.
CNBC Financial Tool Jim Cramer goes off on all the corruption in the markets. Way to go, sherlock - you're only like, I dunno YEARS FUCKING TOO LATE, ASSHOLE! Remember "Don't Sell Bear Sterns!" and "buy, buy BUY WorldCom!" And now you're veritably verklempt to realize that the rich kids not only rigged the game but stole the ball a long time ago? You total jackass! Ahahahahahahahaha!
Funny anyway:
Thu, Aug 21 2008
THEN AND NOW: OUR DYSFUNCTIONAL SOCIAETAL EVOLUTION
Ah, for the good old days... ran across this from a while back, it's still good food for thought:
School -- 1967 vs. 2007
Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1967 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1967 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.
Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1967 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.
Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1967 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.
Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1967 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.
Scenario: A foreign student fails high school English.
1967 - He goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 – His cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. He is given a diploma anyway.
Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1967 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1967 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
Thu, Aug 21 2008
BIG OIL PERSPECTIVE
Wed, Aug 20 2008
AND DON'T THINK THEY AREN'T!
"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of dollars in circulation, or even credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is the equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation."
Bernanke, Ben S.- November 21, 2002Wed, Aug 20 2008
SERIOUS SERIOUS TROUBLE
This is the most serious geopolitical problem on the planet right now. These crazy ratfuckers might not actually fire off a missile, but they will sell them off to even bigger nutjobs who will!
Wed, Aug 20 2008
JOE VOTER, ALL-AMERICAN DUMBASS
Mon, Aug 18 2008
HOW THE MONEYBOYZ MANIPULATE REAL MONEY
Amazingly good article on How and Why a few big Boyz can and are manipulating what is currently a very small market in precious metals. A long read but completely worth it. Walks you right through the nefarious scheme.
"Bottom line: Enough people were buying, when the price was high, to exhaust the supply. Basic economics says that, in a free market, this means the price must rise."
When the US Mint suspends minting gold and silver coins because it cannot obtain the metal, when all metal orders in the huge summer jewelry market in India are suspended because there is no metal available, when brokers will take your money and put your order into a months-or-years waiting list because there is no metal available, when prices are barely above what it costs to get the metal out of the ground to begin with, and yet prices are balatntly and openly forced down by computerized trading algorithms, then you know THERE IS NO FREE MARKET AT WORK, only manipulations by a few superbly connected powerhouses in a small market.
Which makes this little mouse think, I'm gonna jump where the big Boyz jump. I ain't selling nothing in this sucker market, and I'm shaking the piggybank and looking under the couch cushions for change to buy more gold at these artificially depressed prices, 'coz you know if the Boyz are making money pushing it down, they intend to make even more money letting it bounce back up to real valuation levels.
The Disconnect Between Supply and Demand in Gold & Silver Markets
by: James Conrad
There is a huge demand for both gold and silver right now in India and North America. North American shops are completely bare of silver. Indian shops are empty of both silver and gold. Even the Indian banks don't have any gold or silver. The big western bullion banks, based in New York and London, control both the gold and silver trade. Reports from India are that they are refusing to extend Indian bank lines of credit, forcing the small banks to deliver to clients, collect money, and pay down lines of credit, before being allowed to take delivery of another gold or silver shipment. This is very abnormal. Normally, if a banker’s bank knows that its customer-bank has firm orders, it would extend the smaller bank a bigger line of credit. Not now.
[Continue reading this extremely insightful "must read"] --> More yaddah...Mon, Aug 18 2008
THE IRAQ BOTTOM LINE
"We know the Iraq War and occupation was not about oil because the administrations in London and Washington have assured us it wasn’t. What they had to say turns out to be lies because BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total have written contracts that have been signed by the Iraqi government. They have 2-year contracts and have the inside track on at least 60% of the cheapest oil to extract in the world. Big oil has again had its way and it is back with a vengeance. The result as well is that Iraq has become a long-term vassal state. The US is authorized to conduct military operations and to detain anyone they want arbitrarily. America will also have 50 military bases in Iraq, full control of Iraqi airspace, legal immunity for US military and private security firms, and the right to conduct armed operations throughout the country without consulting the Iraqi government. Our Congress has no say in this matter because George and the neocons didn’t call this a treaty. Great Britain received a similar treaty in Iraq in 1930. America is now about to feast, as Britain did in the 1920s, off of Iraq’s wealth in another famously exploitative deal. "
- Bob Chapman, 'Billions In Lossess Will Become Trillions In Losses'Mon, Aug 18 2008
MEDIA PUPPETRY - GOSH, YA THINK?
The biggest, most important story to every single American right now (and by extension, to most of the world) is the disintegration of the economy and its ancillaries, the outright looting of the treasury and concerted erosion of the Constitution. What do we get? Michael Phelps.
"There are no easy ways to wean journalists from depending on government statistics, Rosenstiel said.
"We need to create other listening posts than the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Labor Statistics," he said."
Media coverage of the economy lags, study finds
NEW YORK, Associated Press - Media coverage of the economic downturn in the U.S. has lagged behind both economic activity and public interest, according to a study being released Monday by a Washington, D.C.-based research group.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism analyzed more than 5,000 economic stories in 2007 and the first half of 2008. The stories, by 48 different news outlets, were delivered by cable news channels, network television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.
The study found that reliance on government data to track the economy is leading to scattershot coverage that, at times, lags months behind actual economic conditions.
"We can see little flashpoints in gas prices or a spike in joblessness but getting the whole picture is extremely difficult, in part because we're depending on government collected data, which could often be three months later," said Project Director Tom Rosenstiel.
At times, this has meant that reporters were writing about weakening economic trends at the very moment that conditions were starting to improve or vice versa.
Meanwhile, various media have focused on different aspects of the economy at different times. Television coverage has tended to focus on gas prices, while newspapers have leaned toward banking and housing stories.
As a result, it is difficult for the casual news consumer to understand the story of the economy, Rosenstiel said. "Is it a housing story? Is it a gasoline prices story? Is it an inflation story?"
The study also found that Americans' concern about the economy has far surpassed the media's focus on the topic. The economy has been the number 2 story of 2008 so far — ahead of the war in Iraq. But media coverage of the presidential race has outstripped economic coverage by a five-to-one margin, although the economy has ranked as Americans' top concern.
There are no easy ways to wean journalists from depending on government statistics, Rosenstiel said.
"We need to create other listening posts than the Treasury Department and the Bureau of Labor Statistics," he said.
"Overall, this is a hard story for journalists to tell because it isn't an event, it isn't a person," Rosenstiel said. "And yet, where they can get a handle on it, it's a story that people are eager to hear."
Sun, Aug 17 2008
CRANK UP THE MACHINE
Sun, Aug 17 2008
SIEZING THE POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY
Seriously. We SO can't get up for another war, dude...
Sat, Aug 16 2008
FOUR MORE YEARS
Fri, Aug 15 2008
I WANT MY STUFF!
Jesus would be livid if he were alive today.... the moneychangers in the temple and all that.
SUGAR DADDY GOD
by Bill Bonner, Daily Reckoning
"Daddy God," is how Victoria Osteen refers to Him. Honestly. We're not making this up. When Mr. Joel Osteen took a wife, it was Victoria that he got, for better or for worse. And now the two of them preside over a mega-church in a suburb of Houston. Mr. Osteen is the author of a super bestselling book, Your Best Life Now. God wants us to be prosperous, he argues, in front of thousands of worshippers. How does he know what God wants? He speaks "face to face" with God, says his wife, making him the first person ever to do so. (What did He look like? Has anyone asked?)
Over in Atlanta, the Rev. Creflo Dollar Jr., seems to be doing even better. He and his wife, Taffi, entertain at another huge church, drive around in a Rolls Royce, and have a private $5 million jet to move them from one speaking engagement to another.
Mr. Dollar, like Mr. Osteen, believes in the power of God to move mountains, but they trust in the Almighty Dollar to smooth out the little foothills in their way. Last year, for example, Mr. Dollar sent 100 of the local Fulton County police officers checks for $1,000 each - a month after two traffic tickets the Reverend Dollar had received had been downgraded to warnings.
And back in the Lone Star State, Kenneth Copeland and his main squeeze, Gloria, have done even better - with 4 jets at their disposal. Mr. Copeland, the subject of a MoneyWeek article last month, is also said to have a parsonage the "size of a hotel," probably more like a huge Motel 6 than a Crillon.
This might be just another part of the baroque spectacle that makes America such an amusing place. But there is more to the story, which is - as you might guess - the subject of today's column.
Gibbon blamed the fall of Rome at least in part, on Christianity; it encouraged a retreat from the battle for money and power, he said. Now, Kevin Phillips, in a new book, Bad Money, charges the pentecostal wing of American Christianity with undermining the U.S. empire in the opposite way. He argues that the evangelicals pushed the Republicans down-market. There, the yahoo voters brought them temporal power - 30% of Republican voters identify themselves with an evangelical sect. But they also hollowed out Republicans' traditional respect for sensible finances.
Among the many frauds of the Reagan-Bush II period, few were gaudier than the "prosperity gospel." Preached in America's gamy religious outposts, the concept does for religion what the neo-conservatives did to conservatism, what modern portfolio theory did for Wall Street, and what Keynesianism did to the economics profession - it a made a monkey of it.
Continue this excellent essay on politics and preachers ---> More yaddah...Fri, Aug 15 2008
SELL GOLD? PITY THE FOOL
I'm getting more than a little sick of the know-nothing talking heads on teevee going on and on about how gold is dead. Has ANYTHING fundamental changed on the world stage?
Not only no, but hell to the no, things have gotten much much worse. The spin gets louder and furiouser, and the algorithm-driven trading computers make buy/sell decisions with absolutely no understanding of the real-world factors at play.
Not only is gold not dead, there will be a LOT of people sorry as all hell that they didn't back up the truck during this moneyBoyz interventionist-engineered opportunity.
All is most definitely NOT well, I don't give a fuck what Jim Cramer says. He's an idiot.
Stage two of the gold bull market is just beginning
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK - A war breaks out in the Caucasus, pitting Russia against a close ally of the United States. Inflation reaches a new peak in the euro-zone. The CPI reaches the highest in Britain since Bank of England independence. Rampant inflation sweeps the developing world.
All that glitters is not reliable in these uncertain times
Yet gold crashes. It has failed to deliver on its core promises as a safe-haven and inflation hedge, at least for now. Why?
Four possible answers:
1) Nobody seriously believes that Russia will over-play its hand. The world could not care less about Georgia anyway. Ergo, this is a bogus geopolitical crisis.
2) The inflation story is vastly exaggerated in the OECD core of countries that still make up 60pc of the global economy. The price of gold is already looking beyond the oil and food spike of early to mid 2008 (a lagging indicator of loose money two to three years ago) to the much more serious matter of debt-deflation that lies ahead.
3) The seven-year slide of the dollar is over as investors at last wake up to the reality that the global economy is falling off a cliff. Indeed, the US is the only G7 country that is not yet in or on the cusp recession. (It soon will be, but by then others will be prostrate). As an anti-dollar play, gold is finished for this cycle.
4) The entire commodity boom has hit the buffers. Looming world recession (growth below 3pc on the IMF definition) trumps the supercycle for the time being.
More yaddah...Thu, Aug 14 2008
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
"(Neocon favorite) Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili would never dream of launching a massive military attack unless he got explicit orders from his bosses at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. After all, Saakashvili owes his entire political career to American power-brokers and US intelligence agencies." - Mike Whitney
Something like the Georgian action that provoked the Russians takes months of planning, and in fact, it's been telegraphed for over a year now. This bullshit didn't "just happen". Especially when it didn't have a chance in hell of succeeding, after all, the Russians have like 50 times the firepower. No sir, this is the tail wagging the dog for sure.
You would think the neocons could come up with a more original early "October Surprise" than another frikkin' war...
McCain adviser got money from Georgia
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue.
McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks "the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world."
On April 17, a month and a half after Scheunemann stopped working for Georgia, his partner signed a $200,000 agreement with the Georgian government. The deal added to an arrangement that brought in more than $800,000 to the two-man firm from 2004 to mid-2007. For the duration of the campaign, Scheunemann is taking a leave of absence from the firm.
"Scheunemann's work as a lobbyist poses valid questions about McCain's judgment in choosing someone who — and whose firm — are paid to promote the interests of other nations," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. "So one must ask whether McCain is getting disinterested advice, at least when the issues concern those nations."
"If McCain wants advice from someone whose private interests as a once and future lobbyist may affect the objectivity of the advice, that's his choice to make."
Wed, Aug 13 2008
JULIA CHILD COOKS NAZI GOOSE
Famous "and a little for the chef!" food yoda Julia Child turns out to be a WW2 secret agent.
Child. Julia Child.
Documents: Julia Child part of WWII-era spy ring
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.
The secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.
They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.
Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.
More yaddah...Wed, Aug 13 2008
OUR RULING MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children."
- Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations. "
- Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
"Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad."
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. "
- Five-star General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
Wed, Aug 13 2008
RATATOULLIE
If you think about it, it's actually a very pragmatic and sensible solution. Lower grain losses and add protein to the food base. Ratsicles, ratfritters, ratburgers et pomme frites, ratshimi... the list is endless...
Rat snacks can solve world food price crisis: Indian official
PATNA, India (AFP) - Eating rats is the best way for rich and poor people to solve the global crisis of rising food prices, an Indian official said Wednesday as he unveiled his plan to put rodents on menus.
Regular rat snacks would translate into fewer rodents eating precious grain stocks -- 50 percent of which are lost in the northeastern state of Bihar every year to the animals, said Vijay Prakash, secretary of the state's welfare department.
"This will help in mitigating the global food crisis. We are sure that it will work wonders," Prakash told AFP. "It will save half our grain, and will also reduce villagers' dependence on food stock."
Prakash's plan promotes consumption of rat meat in homes, street stalls, restaurants and even international five-star hotels.
He said he was also holding talks with prestigious hotels outside India to encourage them to put rat meat on their menus, but admitted his scheme had to overcome public prejudice.
"The only issue is how people react to rat meat, but I think it will not be a problem," he said.
"Some socially deprived people in Bihar have always consumed rat meat. If they can eat rats, why can't the rest of the people?" he said.
Members of the Mushar community and some other impoverished groups have traditionally eaten rats in India.
"Rat meat will make up nutrition deficiencies among villagers, since rats are a major source of protein," Prakash said.Tue, Aug 12 2008
IF I WERE A FATCAT....
"About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts."
And they pay NO taxes? I bust my ass at a crappy little company I own with my wife that barely makes ends meet and I'm taxed at a disgustingly high rate! WTF is wrong with this picture?
Most companies in US avoid federal income taxes
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.
The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.
Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO's estimate.
More yaddah...Sun, Aug 10 2008
BEWARE VD, THE HOMOSEXUAL AND TEEN MOMMY DARCI
Vintage PSA hilarity.
Careful, Jimmy....:
Teen Daddy Darren not available:
All time greatest PSA from the 70's, "VD Is For Everybody":
Sun, Aug 10 2008
THE MISMANAGEMENT OF AMERICA, INC.
America has been failed by its government, and the nation now faces economic and security catastrophes unless its leaders change their ways RIGHT NOW. Professor Hrebiniak lays it all out, showing exactly how the upper management of USA, Inc (White House & Congress) have utterly ruined the finest company in the world and completely screwed its shareholders (the citizen taxpayers, that is, you and me).
Lawrence G. Hrebiniak - The Mismanagement of America, Inc:
Sat, Aug 09 2008
THE HERD IS FINALLY GETTING NERVOUS
Sat, Aug 09 2008
THE .72 BITTER BUTTER BATTLE
Here's a chart for the US Dollar Index (USDX) since BushCo took office.
As noted in an earlier post, our foreign overlords will be mightily pissed and dump their outrageously large stash of dollars like the steaming turds they are if the moneyboyz allow the value to drop below .72.
Intervention is our only hope, and will work until the chumps get wise and stop buying into our bullshit.
Which is why Hank, Ben and all the other Central Bank Stooges are jawboning, manipulating and INTERVENING like there is no tomorrow. Because there isn't. If we can't keep this rickety house of cards upright, the US dollar as the world's reserve currency is history, the bill then becomes due in full, and we are well and truly screwed amigos.
Notice how the 'battle' is actually just a freaking BLIP on the avalanche slide to zero valuation. Got gold?:
Fri, Aug 08 2008
BUSHCO: RANSACKING THE HENHOUSE
Below is a chart detailing the mind-boggling growth in the custodial accounts at the New York Federal Reserve during George W. Bush's administration. The amounts being held at all Fed banks, not simply New York alone, are staggering in their magnitude.
"Foreign custodial accounts" is what we call the ledger entries at the Fed when the government borrows money from foreign governments and promises to repay with "the full faith and credit of the United States", meaning taxpayer dollars that have not yet been collected. This is one of the ways how the Fed prints money out of thin air, and this is how we are now so far on the hook to foreign powers that they can pretty much dictate our foreign policy.
The BushCo brazenness in looting the people's treasury is absolutely beyond belief . Still think this is the "Land of the Free"? Don't bet on it!
Fri, Aug 08 2008
KLEPTOCRAT'S STUPID ENERGY POLICY HAS US BY THE SHORTIES
Where we get 70% of our oil. The black shades scale is countries that are friendly towards us, by degree of friendliness (from Canada, black to Iraq, light gray), while the red shades scale shows countries that are hostile to us (from Venezuela, red, to Saudi Arabia, creamy pink).
Why the fuck would we do business like this? Seriously, why the fuck would we put ourselves in such a vulnerable position, where hostile nations can hold us hostage?
Could it be because the people that actually run the country don't give a flying rat's ass about its welfare or its people? Could it be because they are making, oh, I don't know, RECORD PROFITS year after year?
Thu, Aug 07 2008
PERSPECTIVE: A BILLION
- A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
- A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
- A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
- A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
- A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate our government is spending it.Thu, Aug 07 2008
PRAISE THE LARD: DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM, PEASANT?
"Co-pastor", gimme a freaking break, she's nothing more than a spoiled entitlement freak. Bet this sanctimonious, self-absorbed queenbee spends enough on her manicurist every week to feed a whole village in Zimbabwe.
According to Joel, god wants us to wear Rolex and drive Lexus. According to Victoria, Joel speaks "face to face" with Daddy God (kid you not, that's how she refers to the Almighty). First person EVER to see God face to face! What's He look like, we wonder? Joel ain't saying.
What is it with these greedy pig "gospel of prosperity" televangelists? Isn't fleecing the gullible out of gazillions enough? What these moneychangers need is to be bullwhipped right out of the temple.
Since God wants me to have lots of moola, how come He won't give me the winning Lotto numbers, Joel? And what the fuck is up with poor little christian kids in Africa, all baptized and everything and still dying of malnutrition and firearm lead poisoning? What about all the umpteenth-generation devout christian kids in Latin America, same deal? Where's their "prosperity"? I think you two are full of shit snake oil salesmen, that's what I think.
[Entitlement Barbie & Ken: Victoria and Joel Osteen,
uberrich megachurch Anointed Ones. Thank you, Jeebus!]
Flight attendant: Osteen's wife pushed co-worker
HOUSTON, Associated Press - The wife of renowned evangelical pastor Joel Osteen got physical when her demands that a small spill on her seat be cleaned up were not immediately met, a flight attendant testified Thursday at a civil trial over the incident.
Continental Airlines flight attendant Maria Johnson testified that Victoria Osteen grew increasingly agitated and pushed her co-worker Sharon Brown, though the flight attendants had remained professional and reassured her a crew had been called to clean the spill, which was about the size of a 50-cent piece.
"She was demanding that attention be given to her immediately," Johnson said. She added that Victoria Osteen kept saying: "This is ridiculous. I'm a first-class passenger."
Brown is suing Victoria Osteen, alleging that she threw her against a bathroom door and elbowed her in the left breast before the start of a 2005 flight to Vail, Colo.
Johnson confirmed Brown's claims that Victoria Osteen became so upset she tried to get into the cockpit and had to be physically restrained.
More yaddah...Thu, Aug 07 2008
DEPENDS ON HOW YOU DEFINE 'TORTURE', RIGHT?
How long would Americans stand for a government that did this to OUR citizens? Can you say "simulated coffin" (to go with the "simulated drowning")?
U.S. puts Iraqi prisoners in boxes
August 7th, 2008. Posted: 11:31 AM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.
The military released three grainy black-and-white photos of what it calls the “segregation boxes” used in Iraq. They show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials. They did not release a picture of a box that size.
The military said the boxes are humane and are checked every 15 minutes. It said detainees, who stand in the boxes, are isolated for no more than 12 hours at a time.
The photos were made public after a blogger filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2005.
–From CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
--------------
Bear in mind, Iraq is a desert country where heat routinely hovers in the triple digits farenheit most of the year. Now imagine being forced to stand in a sealed wooden box for 12 hours in that heat. If you were a dog and the box was an SUV at a supermarket parkinglot, your owner be hauled off to jail for extreme cruelty. At least in the car you can lie down on the seat while you are being slowly cooked alive.
Wed, Aug 06 2008
I.O.U.S.A.
Tue, Aug 05 2008
PARIS FOR PREZ
See you at the debates, bitches.
Tue, Aug 05 2008
NO RECESSION YET!
Mon, Aug 04 2008
IRAQ: DISASTER BY ANY MEASURE
Whether the goal was democracy, oil, terrorism, regional control, or the economy, Iraq has been one great big steaming pile of FUBAR.
United States Defeated in Iraq?
Politics / Iraq War Aug 02, 2008, by Mike Whitney
The United States did not invade Iraq to "stop the violence". That was never the goal. So, it's foolish to say that the surge achieved its objective. It hasn't. Nor has the surge "created the space for a political solution"; another meaningless slogan regurgitated endlessly by the Bush troupe. The political agenda in Iraq has failed utterly. We know that because the Shiite-led government has asked the US to leave "as soon as possible" and for the Bush administration to set a "timetable for withdrawal". Not a "time horizon" as the administration-spinmiesters like to say; a Timetable, which means a fixed time when the United States must leave. So, if the Iraqi government has asked the US to leave; where is the "political solution" the surge was supposed to create? There isn't one. The mission has failed; it's as plain as day. This is not an arguable point.
What the surge really proves is that ethnic cleansing works. Baghdad was a city of roughly 65% Sunnis. Now it is nearly 75% Shiites. Most of the million or so Iraqis who have been killed in the conflict, and most of the 4 million who are either internally displaced or have become refugees, are probably Sunnis. This is an important point and one that Americans should understand. The surge was created to disguise what was really taking place on the ground; ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. No one disputes this. The Sunnis have been effectively purged from the capital. That's not a "political solution". It is a war crime.
More important, the United States military has helped the Shiites win their war against the Sunnis. The Shiites control Baghdad now; the Sunnis will never get it back. That is why they are moving on to the next phase of their strategy, which is to demand that the foreign troops leave. So, at least in one respect the surge has worked; it has helped the Shiites and their allies in Tehran win the war. Bush has helped to strengthen Ahmadinejad. Was that the objective?
The Shiites have no experience running the government. That's always been the Sunnis role dating back hundreds of years. That does not mean they are incapable of leadership, it simply means that the Bush administration decided to break with traditional imperial policy to pursue their colonial ambitions. Normally, imperial powers choose to remove just a few hundred of the top political leaders and leave the existing system in place so the society keeps functioning with as little disruption as possible.
Not Bush. Bush chose to raze the country to the ground; rip-apart the social fabric, destroy the critical infrastructure, and spread chaos far and wide. Now, as author Nir Rosen says, "Iraq no longer exists". By conceding control of the government to the Shiites, Bush has not established democracy, but anarchy and sectarian hatred. The idea of creating a "Shiite Crescent" in the Middle East is part of a wacky theory cooked up in a Washington think-tank. Imagine if the Russians invaded the United States and decided that the quickest path to political stability was to wipe out the government, disband the bureaucracy, and appoint inexperienced people from the poorer sections of the inner-cities and barrios to run the country. This is the level of stupidity in the Bush administration. The strategy has cost the lives of over a million Iraqis. That's a high price for stupidity.
There was never the slightest chance that the US would succeed in establishing strategic outposts in the heart of the Arab world. It was doomed from the get-go. The Bush administration points to the temporary lull in the violence as a sign of progress, but they are mistaken. They're using the wrong yardstick. The Iraqi resistance has achieved what every guerrilla army hopes to achieve; they have undermined their enemy's ability to wage war. The US is facing growing resistance to its imperial policies around the world, but it can't address those problems because its army is tied down in Iraq. This is quickly becoming one of the main areas of disagreement in the 2008 political campaign. The world is drifting away from the United States and it isn't coming back whether Obama or McCain are elected. The superpower model of global government is on its way out.
The real way to measure success or failure in Iraq is to look at the US fiscal budget which has suddenly skyrocketed to nearly $500 billion. This is mainly due to the exorbitant costs of prosecuting an open-ended conflict in the Middle East. The American consumer is not confused by the surge rhetoric; he knows we are losing. He's not blind. He sees evidence of defeat every time he pulls up to a gas-pump. Tell me: Is $4 dollar per gallon gas a sign of victory or defeat? This isn't rocket science.
Once again, the individual battles and skirmishes in Iraq are meaningless; what matters is that America's ability to wage war has been greatly undermined. By the end of 2009, the troops will begin to withdraw or they will be left to fight with sling-shots and bows-and-arrows. The housing market is collapsing, the financial system is in meltdown phase, and the country is facing the greatest funding crisis in its 230 year history. Don't look for proof of America's defeat in Iraq. Look for it at home. Look for it at the pawn shops, the homeless shelters, and the growing number of empty sub-divisions which have turned into ghost towns. This is where one can see the true costs of the war; a war that was lost before the first bomb was dropped.
By Mike Whitney - Email: fergiewhitney@msn.comMon, Aug 04 2008
OLYMPIC CALIBER
Sun, Aug 03 2008
THERE GOES YOUR RIGHT TO PROTECTION FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCH AND SEIZURE
Now that your right to privacy is dead, here goes the rest of the 4th Amendment:
US Border Agency Says It Can Seize Laptops
IDG News Service - Travelers beware: U.S. agents now have the authority to seize and retain laptops indefinitely, according to a new policy detailed in documents issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
As part of border search policy, government agents are now authorized to seize electronic devices and inspect documents in them, the document states. The electronic devices might include laptops, cell phones, portable music players or storage devices such as portable hard drives.
Agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection will also be allowed to translate and share documents with other government agencies.
The DHS document, issued July 16, appears to state publicly a policy that has already existed. Laptops and electronic devices have been subject to search in the past, and travelers have reported not getting their devices back. The policy has drawn strong criticism from lawmakers and nonprofit groups, who charged that the searches were invasive and a violation of an individual's privacy rights. Computers contain a vast amount of private information about family, finances and health, which could be easily copied and stored in government databases, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has complained.
The policy document states that being able to examine documents and electronic devices is crucial for "detecting information concerning terrorism, narcotics smuggling... contraband including child pornography, and... other import or export control laws."
The new DHS policies allow customs agents to analyze the contents of laptops without any suspicion of wrongdoing, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold said in a statement.
"The policies that have been disclosed are truly alarming," Feingold wrote.
The policy could blur the distinction between "search" and "seizure," which could also allow DHS officials to steal personal documents from laptops it has retained, Feingold wrote.Sun, Aug 03 2008
HOW WE HAVE TIPPED OVER THE EDGE OF THE PRECIPICE
"The legislation also creates long-term uncertainty with regard to the extent and form of government assistance. In effect, Treasury Secretary Paulson now has an open-ended mandate to bail out the nation's troubled housing finance market, the largest single capital market in the world.
If any other country announced that its finance minister could print unlimited debt to do something similar, financial markets around the world would dump both the country's debt and the country's currency."
- Lawrence B Lindsey (former assistant to the president for economic policy and a respected economist, writing for today's Wall Street Journal.)
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That's it right here, kiddies. The shift has occurred and the landslide is in motion, nothing to be done except try to manage the downward flow. The disconnect is that Joe Sixpack is still blissfully unaware of the doom picking up steam as it rolls down to engulf him, and the kleptocrat-owned media is doing its best to keep Joe stupid and uninformed so he won't get off the couch and revolt.
The Chinese, Russians, Saudis and Japanese hold the bulk of our debt dollars. How long before they dump all that worthless paper? About two seconds after they have bought as many US hard assets as they can with it. One way or another, they will get a much more sizeable control of this country's infrastructure and power structure (government) than they already own.
All of you betting on Obama, you better hope he is NOT a politician already bought and paid for, because the overlords are looking to collect.
Sat, Aug 02 2008
WHEN BLACK FRIDAY COMES
I really like this guy -- telling it like it is: http://collateralnews.tv
Fri, Aug 01 2008
SERF'S UP
The Fed, a private corporation owned by the likes of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, has rammed through the nationalization of US mortgages. Henceforth, citizens will pay not only their taxes to the government, but their mortgage payments too.
And since the goobermint is essentially owned by the large central banks (private for-profit corporate entities) that also run the credit card, auto loan and business loans markets, the entire country is now, in effect, in indentured servitude to these corporate entities.
Basically, the Kleptocrat Lords own the land you till, bucko, and the fruits of your labor are theirs.
How does it feel to be a serf?
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