Shadow Government "Money" Supply Growth from ShadowStats

Chart of U.S. Money Supply Growth

20 December, 2012

"U" Now Stands for "Unlimited"; "S" is for "Serfdom"

Even the fellow's title is a little scary: "Civil Liberties Protection Officer".  Add to that his Master's information - "Office of the Director of National Intelligence" - and "the willlies" (sorry, Willie) run amok.
More disturbing is how I came to know that a ClePto exists (ok, klepto is spelled wrong, and it's a bit of a reach, but so are most of the acronyms our supposed servants use; like naming a bill "United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" (USA PATRIOT Act) just so they can call it "the Patriot Act", when it has nothing to do with patriotism). 
Seems that the guy in charge at the Department of Jus...(gets progressively harder to finish that phrase as time goes by, so I'll start again).
General Holder (has a kind of military ring, doesn't it?) issued an order "allowing" expansion of the completely anticonstitutional SURVEILLANCE of EVERYONE.
Described by Wired magazine a "a secret government agreement", this blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment (and arguably, the Fifth, in the context of the Right to Privacy - yes, Privacy is a Right, and was declared so by Congress in the Privacy Act) was, in Wired's words, "granted without approval or debate from lawmakers" (who could not, by the way, Constitutionally approve without an amendment) to the "National Counterterrorism Center".
"Oh, well," you say, "if it's to fight terrorism..."
Maybe you didn't catch what I said about SURVEILLANCE of EVERYONE.
The *beauty* of ignoring the contract that created "the government" is that any and all restrictions on the power conferred by that contract effectively disappear.  Can't tell us what to believe, say, print?  You haven't been paying attention.  Can't search without probable cause or a warrant?  You REALLY haven't been paying attention.  Due Process of Law?  Right to counsel? Right to jury trial? Protection against "cruel and unusual" punishment?  Stolen.  Pilfered.  Misappropriated.  Negated.
So, remember, when one of your more vocal friends, or family members, no longer calls, or returns yours...
YOU let this happen.

15 December, 2012

Just Us Prevails (Again)

Bloods.  Crips.  Eastside Thrillseekers.  Hell's Angels. Mongols.  Bandidos.  As diverse as these might appear, they all have one thing, if only one thing, in common:

They simply aren't big enough yet.

That's the only conclusion that can be reached.  It was curious enough that Forbes magazine published an opinion piece titled

"Is the Federal Reserve Using Money-Laundering Techniques To Cleanse Banks' Balance Sheets?" (http://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencehunter/2012/10/29/are-federal-reserve-regulated-banks-laundering-dirty-money/

Granted, it wasn't Forbes' own, but a Forbes "contributor"'s opinion, that Forbes published.  But from a non-elite perspective, my observation was that one of "them" (see the subtitle of this blog) was "eating their own":
"Immediately after the 2008 financial meltdown, the Fed laundered more than $2 trillion in worthless assets held on the balance sheets of private banks. According to a watered-down 2011 audit of the Fed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), there have been $16 trillion in Fed bailouts to banks and corporations around the world since the financial meltdown in 2008. Since that report, Bloomberg has reported on an additional $9 trillion in secret, off-balance-sheet Fed transactions that the central bank refuses to discuss. Now, Ben Bernanke is ginning up assembly-line washing machines at the Fed with QE∞ to spin an opened-ended, $40-billion-monthly cleansing campaign to purchase worthless mortgage backed securities from banks at face value, which could run to an additional $1.3 trillion loan laundering accompanied by downscale resales."
But, in case you were wondering what "THE FED" has to do with the groups mentioned above, I bring you:

HSBC pays $1.9 billion to settle US probe

@CNNMoneyDecember 11, 2012: 2:25 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Global banking giant HSBC will pay $1.92 billion in a record settlement with U.S. regulators to resolve money-laundering allegations.

The Department of Justice and U.S. Treasury said Tuesday that HSBC allowed the most notorious international drug cartels to launder billions of dollars across borders. In addition, the government said HSBC violated U.S. sanctions for years by illegally conducting transactions on behalf of customers in Iran, Libya, Cuba, Sudan and Burma.                                           
(fair use claimed under 17 U.S.C. § 107)

After a five-year investigation, involving 9,000,000 documents, and the outright admission (confession) of money laundering, there will be exactly 0 indictments. 

Oh, yes, HSBC will "pay" a LOT of counterfeit "money".  But not one bankster will see the insid of a courtroom, let alone a cell.

Which is where the bankster cartel differs from the groups named above .




 

10 December, 2012

"Will It Never End?!?" Goldfinger Laments

from the New York Times  ("fair use" authorized under 17 U.S.C. § 107):
"The nation’s largest banks are facing a fresh torrent of lawsuits asserting that they sold shoddy mortgage securities that imploded during the financial crisis, potentially adding significantly to the tens of billions of dollars the banks have already paid to settle other cases."
Apparently, investors take issue with being sold "securities" that weren't, well, "secured".

Who'da thunk? 

And they, along with "regulators" (Goldfinger personnel at SEC, etc., with whom this was all A-OK till the organic matter hit the rotating oscillator), prosecutors (ditto), and insurers (ditto, as long as they didn't have to actually pay out) are on the offensive, taking the TBTFs (BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, et al) to court over more than $1,000,000,000,000.00 (that's what "1 trillion" looks like in actual numbers) in "securities" that were, supposedly, "backed by residential mortgages."

At that, NYT reports that "some in the banking industry" think that losing ALL of these lawsuits could result in "losses" of as mush as 300,000,000,000.00 (30%; gotta love the math!).  But at least one "mucky-muck" (a term that has reached a whole new level of meaning) at Tangent Capital Partners (italics are mine - but you just can't make this stuff up)  admits
“The real price tag is terrifying.” 
Seems that the 25 billion (see how different it looks in words?) that the cartel - um, industry - put up as a "settlement" awhile back just ain't gonna cut it.

In as classic a line as I've ever read, NYT paraphrases "several senior officials in the insustry" as saying "But in the most extreme situation, the litigation could empty even more well-stocked reserves and weigh down profits..." (emphases mine). 

Think about THAT for a moment.  If 1,000,000,000,000.00 will only "weigh down profits", I guess Goldfinger really is "Too Big To Fail".  Then again, the NYT article does overlook one facet of all this, saying,
"The banks are battling on three fronts: with prosecutors who accuse them of fraud, with regulators who claim that they duped investors into buying bad mortgage securities, and with investors seeking to force them to buy back the soured loans."
What NYT overlooks is that the momentum is building from a fourth "front":  the other side.  As time passes, more and more mortgagor-victims are prevailing in their own battles against foreclosure, based upon fraud of varying types.  One recent example is a property owner who had a "securitization audit" done, and obtained verification from SEC of these findings:

"Our search of EDGAR, the Commission’s electronic database of corporate filings, for the CWABS Asset-Backed Certificates Trust Series 2006-23 (http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001381999&owner=include&count=40&hidefilings=) produced no filings referencing the loan number you provided.  We also did not locate a pooling and servicing agreement attached as an exhibit to the Trust’s registration statement.  A Form 15 to terminate the Trust’s registration was filed in January 2007."

Which, if you've been paying attention, leads directly back to the securities-victims discussed above, who, it appears, invested in mortgage "pools" that Karl Denninger, at Market Ticker, calls "empty trusts".

Giddy-up!.










:

30 November, 2012

Spinning Heads and Revolving Doors

Anyone who's ever read this blog (or Liberty's Blog, http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com) knows I'm a wee bit cynical when it comes to government, and the PTB that own it. A trip through the archives might enlighten new readers in that regard.

(If, after reading this post, any reader doesn't understand why I'm so distrustful of the medical-industrial complex, well...explaining it won't help.)

Turns out that one Gary Nabel, soon to be former head of the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center, has announced that he's leaving the VRC to become chief scientific officer in the research labs at Sanofi. http://chrisinmaryville.net/nih-vaccine-chief-gary-nabel-trades-dream-job-for-big-pharma.html

According to Sanofi's website, http://en.sanofi.com/products/human_vaccines/human_vaccines.aspx , vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur "is a world leader in...pediatric combination vaccines, influenza vaccines, booster vaccines for adolescents and adults, meningitis vaccines, and travel/endemic vaccines...assuring vaccine commercialization  in the United States and Canada, as well as 19 countries in Europe...[and] has also developed its presence in Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and in eastern Europe.."  Not bad for a little "Mom & Pop" shop, right?

Nabel won't be lonely, though. In January 2011, Elias Zerhouni, former director of the NIH, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, became the president of Sanofi-Aventis’ research labs. Zerhouni recruited him.

This is good, no? Now, we'll have 2 former "watchdogs" at the global giant, so we can rest easy.  Except, In the fall of 2003, Zerhouni, as head of NIH, faced serious accusations regarding hundreds of NIH scientists and their financial ties to the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

So, forgive me if things like a jump of over FOUR THOUSAND PERCENT in dead babies http://real-agenda.com/2012/11/26/fetal-deaths-up-4000-after-pregnant-mothers-took-flu-vaccine/ give me pause.

I know, it's not like these guys work for the PhDA (oops, FDA. I think of them as the "Pharmaceutical Defense Agency"), which agency is OK with vaccines containing mercury. http://www.naturalnews.com/037653_vaccine_additives_thimerosal_formaldehyde.html.

Hell, even the courts are ok with that. http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/03/23/44979.htm, although, to be precise, the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW) (I know! What the hell were they thinking?) really has no standing (a legal term that means a plaintiff must have an injury that can be redressed by a judgment (Constitutional standing), and must be the actual injured party (prudential standing)).  Apparently, none of the NCOW herd was.

Can't help but think that the attorneys who took NCOW's retainer were bought by the PTB that own Sanofi; that own, through their wholly-owned subsidiary, NIH and PhDA (sorry; habit) FDA.

Of course, I'm just a cynic.
 

26 November, 2012

Blood Money

(cross-posted to Liberty's Blog)

We’d seen his face often, on “the networks of NBC”, giving his expert opinion on what was needed for United States forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a “military analyst”, you couldn’t ask for much more.  After all, who better than a four star general to explain to the American People, and even to Congress, just what was needed to “support our troops”, and “win the hearts and minds” of Iraqis and Afghanis?  It never occurred to us to question whether or how much he was being paid to make those “news” appearances. Or who was paying him.  Some were shocked, years later, to find out he was being paid by the defense contractors whose weapons and equipment he pimped on the Today show, and NBC Nightly News.  In November, 2008, well after the quadrennial (s)election of  the new “Commander-In-Chief” of United States military forces, the New York Times described “retired general” Barry McCaffrey’s “post-service” career as “One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex”.  And for good reason.
After “rising to fame” as Bill Clinton’s “Drug Czar” (Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)) from 1996 to 2001, where he developed a program of paying millions in misappropriated tax money to five major television networks for adding anti-drug messages in their programs, including (but certainly not limited to) ER, Beverly Hills, 90210, Chicago Hope, The Drew Carey Show and 7th Heaven, he founded B R McCaffrey Associates, and became NBC’s most-frequently-seen military analyst, around the same time his company began representing  defense contractors at the Pentgon, and in Congress.  And according to the graphic published in that New York Times article, he’s done quite well, joining the boards of eight defense contractors, and “advising” four more.
For one “tiny defense contractor”, Defense Solutions, Defense Solutions, hiring McCaffrey was a watershed. Within days the company had a 15 page briefing packet in front of recently “retired” CIA Director David Petraeus, then the US commanding general in Iraq.  Of course, McCaffrey didn’t mention to Petraeus, or to Congress, that he had a financial stake in the company he recommended to provide 5,000 armored vehicles for service in Iraq.
Disturbingly, McCaffrey’s story is far from a rarity.  A report released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Brave New Foundation last week revealed that between 2009 and 2011, more than 70 percent of retired three-and-four star generals either took jobs with or became consultants for defense contractors.  Retired general James Cartwright took a paid position on Raytheon’s board of directors, and Admiral Gary Roughead went to work for NorthropGrumman, each while serving on the Defense Policy Board 
And that 70 percent? That was actually a decline. Between 2004 and 2008, while American fathers, sons, mothers and daughters, aunts and uncles were filling casualty lists, 80 percent of their “retiring” commanders became war profiteers, as consultants or executives of companies whose bottom lines rise in a sea of blood.  Many began these lucrative activities before retirement, a practice the Pentagon supports.
The path from command to certain “defense” contracting jobs is laid out like paving stones. As put on AntiWar.com, “the last seven generals and admirals who worked as Department of Defense gatekeepers for international arms sales are now helping military contractors sell weapons and defense technology overseas.”
McCaffrey does just fine “on the home front”, though. VeritasCapital, described in the NYT article as “a relatively small player in 2001”, had announced, on Sept. 6, 2001, forming an “advisory council” including McCaffrey and other “well-connected retired generals and admirals”.   Veritas gave those advisers board seats on its military companies, profit sharing,  and even equity stakes; attractive because Veritas intended to turn quick profits through I.P.O.’s.
That might have looked like a gamble at the time, since revenue growth is important to the Goldfinger entities that underwrite Initial Public Offerings, like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.  Five days later, the only question was just how big those increases would be.
McCaffrey’s banging on NBC's war drum, his rants for ongoing  increases in military spending, for a global campaign against terrorism, and for ever-greater spending for high-tech weapons, like the drones that local police agencies are increasingly encouraged to “buy” (with “Homeland Security” grants), has answered the question.
Oh, and those networks?  Imagine what they were paid for The Agency (first broadcast: September 26, 2001!); Alias (first broadcast: September 30, 2001); and even West Wing (first aired in ‘99).  But those are subjects for other posts. Maybe even another blog.

24 November, 2012

Just Who's In Charge?

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow", goes the proverb, and as Oscar Wilde is credited with saying, "No good deed goes unpunished".  And so it is with that creation of global imperialists, theUnited Nations.

Conceived, purportedly, to maintain peace among nations of the world, the UN has been the apparent source of "conflicts", "operations", and other euphemisms for war from its very beginning. Now, it may well ignite the spark of war, within and against American states.

Coloradans and Washingtonians (The People in those respective states) had the audacity to pass referenda legalizing marijuana. After forty years of a declared "war on drugs" (it started much, much earlier), resulting in a quadrupling of the prison population nationwide (since 1980), earning "the land of the free"  the dubious distinction of being the single, largest incarceration nation in the history of the world, imprisoning a larger raw number and greatest percentage of its citizenry than any totalitarian regime, anywhere, anytime,

The People of Colorado, and The People of Washington have had enough.

We already know Goldfinger's people in the branches and various departments and agencies of what began as a federation of states routinely ignore the will of those states.  Medical marijuana dispensaries, approved by the true Sovereigns of those states, The People, have repeatedly been raided by the Drug Enforcement Agency (to the financial benefit of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers), more often than not with the "assistance" of "local law enforcement", who no longer answer to their local constitutencies, but to those who provide them with off-budget cash and weapons.

Now, a UN organization is displeased with The People of Colorado, and The People of Washington. http://investmentwatchblog.com/un-impose-treaties-on-states-legalizing-marijuana/ .  Raymond Yans, President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), described as "the quasi-judicial body charged with monitoring the implementation of the international drug control conventions",  (did you know there was an "International Narcotics Control Board"? - gives new meaning to "cartel" & "kingpin", doesn't it?), wants Goldfinger's servants to "take the necessary measures to ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties within the entire territory of the United States, in order to protect the health and well-being of its citizens."

From the November 15th press release from the UN Information Service in Vienna (Austria; not Virginia): 
The limiting of the use of cannabis to medical and scientific purposes is laid out in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which was agreed to by 185 States, who by consensus decided to place cannabis under control and limit its use to medical purposes.

This raises a number of interesting questions.  First, the federal go(d)vernment has had "
an obligation" -- since 1961 -- to recognize the medical purposes of marijuana. (Another 1961"agreement" will be the subject of a post on http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com ) So why does "the" United States (a thing - not a place) insist that there is no medical benefit to marijuana?

Second, just how does UNIS expect "the" United States "to ensure [the states'] full compliance with the conventions within their entire territory, including federated states and/or provinces"?  Apparently, through perpetuating the destructive and expensive War on Drugs and the prison-industrial complex it fostered.




 





 

   

22 November, 2012

One IS the Loneliest Number, But Is It Better Than Nothing?

You'd think that I'd "take the day off" on Thanksgiving. And I will, later. But the world won't stop turning, and those who assume the power to run the world won't stop, either.
"They" - the Powers That Be - Goldfinger, in other words, have ample reason to be thankful today.
Justice in America: Systematic Document Forgery and Fabrication Yield One Criminal Plea Bargain « naked capitalism
Goldfinger's wholly-owned subsidiary law firm (trade name: "Department of Justice") stepped in when the "show me state" proceeded on its own case.  Both anounced a plea bargain in the "robosigning" scam "exposed", in part, by Goldfinger subsidiary CBS on their variety show, "60 Minutes". 
Lorraine Brown, once "chief executive" of Lender Processing Service subsidiary DocX, whose "mortgage document fabrication price sheet" established the forgery of more than a million documents used in fraudulent foreclosures, fell on her sword. Brown pleaded guilty, in the state case, to one (1) count each, of felony forgery; felony perjury; and misdemeanor making a false declaration, and to one (1) "federal" count: "Count One"; Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Which makes the news exponentially more curious.
18 U.S.C. § 371 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/371) reads: "If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States...". More curious, Brown "admits" deceiving Lender Processing Services about her illegal actions, exonerating LPS, and its clients, the banksters' empty mortgage trusts.
By "agreement", Brown's sacrifice(s) will be a maximum potential penalty of five years in "Club Fed" (where banksters typically spend their sabbatical) and a $250,000 fine, and imprisonment of not less than two years and not to exceed three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections (any odds on concurrent sentences?).
The huddled masses may now rest easy (in their tent-cities and shelters). A "bad guy" has been caught, and appropriate punishment shall ensue.
"Just us" has been served.

21 November, 2012

Gambaru

It means, acording to Ann Curry (formerly of "Today"), "Never, ever, ever, ever give up, even when, especially when, there's no chance of winning".

Citizens, homeowners, who had the valor if not the vocabulary, have refused to give up on their homes, their investments, and their pensions.  And because they have never, ever, ever, ever given up, because kept up the pressure on their servants to investigate and prosecute the bankers that think they own them, at least someone is going to jail. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/20/us/ap-us-mortgage-services.html?hp

It's small comfort to those who already lost their homes to felonious "mortgage lenders", but to those who have carried on, even when, especially when, there was no chance of winning, the truth is trickling out, and the pressure will breach the dam.

And now that the dam is being chipped at from the other side, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/20/new-york-sues-credit-suisse-over-mortgage-securities/, the apparently insurmountable odds are changing.  Facing victim/homeowners on one side, and victim/investors on the other, the banksters' days are numbered. 

OPM-addict/politicians beware.  Media whores take note:

We, the People, are coming.

04 September, 2012

The Bank of Ruthless

This is interesting. According to an article on OccupyCorporatism.com titled "Morgan Stanley is Insolvent – Only a Matter of Time Before Total Financial Collapse", http://occupycorporatism.com/morgan-stanley-is-insolvent-only-a-matter-of-time-before-total-financial-collapse/, the cause for the 2008 bailout of the banks was that China had purchased large quantities of mortgage-backed securities, worthless securitized loans which would never be repaid, and were prepared to send their “people” to American shores to seize property.

An invasion, in other words. War.
"To stave this off, the American taxpayers were coerced by former President Bush and former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. During that incident, the US Senate was told emphatically that they had to approve a $700 billion bailout or else martial law would be implemented immediately."


Clever. Threaten "martial law", as if dealing with a "civil" problem, when all the while the fact is that a state of war was imminent.




03 September, 2012

Captives of A Scientific-Technological Elite

"Beware the military-industrial complex!" That's what many of us, in the "Post-War Baby Boom" generation, have taken from Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Speech. God knows what our parents (Brokaw's "Greatest Generation") took from it. I never heard my parents mention it at all.

Here's what only the most ardent have recovered:
“Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.

In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”
...

21 June, 2012

That "Bee-sting"? It Could Be A Drone-Installed Tracking Chip

I know what you're thinking.  Well, not exactly, but I'm pretty sure it involves phrases like "deep end", "round the bend", "drank the koolaid" (oddly inapposite), etc. 

The thing is, I don't make this stuff up.  I just see things other people don't see, and sometimes, they're really there.  (image © Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2012, included under "fair use doctrine" pursuant to authority of 17 U.S.C. 107 for educational purposes)

So why do I bring this up on a blog about Goldfinger?  If you have to ask, I probably can't explain.  But I'll try.


Money.  Lots of it.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has long been making grants for researh into "robot-insect" surveillance (as well as A LOT of other stuff that would scare the **** out of you).  Although I've read about this type of research repeatedly over the last decade or more, and I've given speeches about it (and watch eyes glaze-over, mere nano-seconds before they rolled), I decided to conduct some quick research for this post.

I'd have to go through years' worth of Scientific American and other publications (yes, I still have them) to find some of what I recall, but without much effort, I was able to find a reference to an article by a Stephen Cole, titled, "Robots in the sky", as far back as November, 2000.  A reference; the link that would supposedly take you to a summary "can't be found".

Then there's the article by Jimming Cheng, Winston Cheng, Nagpal, "Robust and Self-repairing Formation Control For Swarms Of Mobile Agents", National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI '05), July 2005.(pdf)  The pdf "can't be found" either.

Here's one blog reference from 6 years ago http://politech.wordpress.com/2006/03/20/cyborg-insect-soldiers-in-the-future/, linking to an actual, available article: http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/insect-cybug-plan-hatched/2006/03/20/1142703251984.html.  (Note the blog's closing comment re: "smart ants with bad attitudes. Or worse yet smart bees … or wasps!")

Wasn't published here, of course.

The next one is about a "seed", rather than an insect,
Most of us know, by now, about RFID chips, and how they can be implanted in humans, for a variety of reasons.  Were  even being programmed to accept that:


("Law and Order Special Victims Unit" © NBC; included under "fair use doctrine" pursuant to authority of 17 U.S.C. 107 for educational purposes)

Some of us know that RFID chips can be a small as a period on this blog (smaller, by the time I finish it).  There is no technological reason why my headline can't be, or isn't already, possible.

In fact, you can even find another reference (remember the '06 blog reference, above) to a video of "nanobees" here
http://futureoftech-discuss.msnbc.msn.com/featured, but don't expect to actually see the video.  And, apparently, you won't find it anywhere on msnbc.com.

But an example of "swarmbots" appeared on an episode of CBS' "Numb3rs":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciPpEVK62k0

And they don't have to crawl:  See:
Sleep well.

20 June, 2012

Goldfinger Issues Edict

GOLDFINGER HAS SPOKEN.  "The Fed" will "ease monetary policy".  Of course, being Goldfinger, they "hedged", saying "most likely", but the message clear; “We would be quite surprised..." (read that "Somebody's head's gonna roll...) "if we saw no easing this week,” said a Goldfinger puppet.  

Goldfinger wants its wholly-owned subsidiary to "buy assets such as mortgage-backed securities and U.S. Treasurys" because, of course, you can't do better than "government-guaranteed" (barrel-of-a-gun) investments, especially when you "wrote" those "investment" on "flash paper".

Robert Heller, former governor of the U.S. central bank, disagrees.  But, he is "former governor", and really doesn't have any authority; not even the illusion of authority that we allow the DCNY vortex-dwellers. 

Janet Yellen, on the other hand (in the other pocket, as it were) is Vice Chairman of the Fed, apparently agrees with here Master(s), also making a case for more "easing" (sounds erotic, doesn't it?)

Ironically, Heller (the guy who's no longer there), blames all of this on us.  “[Goldfinger has] plenty of liquidity, there’s a dearth of demand for good credit,” says Heller.  “There are not enough credit-worthy borrowers around at the present time in the United States, so people got to continue to repair their balance sheet.”

In case you're wondering, those would be the "balance sheets" that Goldfinger & Ass' shredded through the process of "funding" (with other people's money) the "easy credit" (non-existing) of people who honestly coudn't afford a house; creating a "housing boom" (blowing so much hot air up our ...), and then graciously allowing us to continue to pay for through Capital Hill (and don't comment on my spelling; at least 533/535 are all about "capital"); putting actual "credit-worthy borrowers" into the same "tent-cities" as the (insultingly designated) "subprimes".

His answer?  Government has to make it easier for the corporate sector to invest.  (I know! Talk about balls!) "If ... regulations are eased a bit, then the U.S. economy really has the potential to grow much faster, snap back...".

Didn't it already "snap back" when we finally heard housing "boom"?

24 May, 2012

Worth Repeating

You can see it on Zerohedge.  You can even link to Zerohedge from this blog.

But a little encouragement is always good: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/google-shows-why-status-quo-powers-be-should-be-scared-very-scared?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

Ya Gotta Love It

Ever seen "The Sting"?  Newman and Redford did a marvelous job of portraying the artistry of a good con.  As good or better than any Broadway play, a con such as the one in "The Sting" had a cast of players that was expert in "improv"; improvisation.  Their stage was the "real world" (remember, this was a movie), and their sets were the streets and alleys, and the homes, offices, and bars in that real world.

And, of course, it was okay to cheer for "the bad guys" (Newman, Redford & Co) because wrongs were righted; the con achieved justice.

But this IS the real world, and what has happened,and continues to happen, is anything but just.

Turns out that the "settlement" between Goldfinger (the "too big to fail" banks) and it's subsidiaries (federal and state governments) - you know, the one that would "provide relief to struggling homeowners - won't do that at all.

I'm shocked.  Dismayed, even.  Who would've thought that Goldfinger would artificially pump up home values to pump up loan amounts to pump up mortgages (that Goldfinger knew would ultimately fail) only to "pool" those mortgages to sell "securities" (that were anything but secure) to cities, states, pension funds, and even individual investors, knowing that when the " hit the " the only people left holding the bag would be the homeowners on the one end, and the investors on the other?  Who could've believed that Goldfinger would then hide it's "left-pocket money", and get its agents (who ceased "representing" us a lo-o-o-ong time ago) to "bail them out" with "money" taken from the very people whose jobs were lost (if not "offshored"); whose homes were stolen; whose pensions evaporated?

How could anyone fathom that when they GOT CAUGHT forging signatures, falsifying documents, and suborning perjury, their "punishment" would be to pay a "settlement" equal to pennies on the dollar back to their victims?  A "settlement" worked out by (you guessed it, I hope) their agents in the federal and state governments!!!

But at least those ravaged by this beast would get something, right?  Wrong.

Goldfinger's agents (federal and state governments) now intend to use that "settlement" to balance thier own books.  Screw the victims.

http://www.propublica.org/special/where-are-the-foreclosure-deal-millions-going

This is traditionally known as a "bait and switch". But that doesn't do this con justice. This is far better than a "bait and switch". As described in a number of not very well known (and certainly not publicized in the Goldfinger-owned "press") cases, this is "the Kansas City Shuffle".

Quoting from just one of those cases, what Goldfinger has pulled off is:

"…a corporate "Kansas City Shuffle," a complex confidence game; in the 2006 film,
Lucky Number Slevin, Mr. Goodkat, (a hitman played by Bruce Willis), explains (in memorable quotes from Lucky Number Slevin, at www.imdb.com/title/tt425210/quotes),

'A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left ... It's not something people hear about. Falls on deaf ears mostly .., No small matter, Requires a lot of planning, Involves a lot of people, People connected by the slightest of events, Like whispers in the night, in that place that never forgets, even when those people do'"
 
And now, "their people" in the states will join in the rape.

12 April, 2012

Another Brain-Rattler for Obama, Holder, & Co.

Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals smacked down Obama, Holder & Co., ruling that an employee's (read that: "servant's") violation of an employer’s (read that: “Master’s”) computer policy cannot be prosecuted as hacking under the oft-misused Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (See:http://www.TheAmericanRepublic.com).

Today, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals landed a pile-driver, issuing an opinion regarding their February reversal of the 2010 conviction of Sergey Aleynikov, the former Goldman Sachs vice president accused of theft and espionage for downloading the source code for Goldman Sachs' high-speed trading system from the company’s computers.

Impeding the progress of the United States (government; a thing, not a place) never-ending attempts to expand power through exotic interpretations of law, the three-judge panel held that Goldman Sachs' market-manipulation code neither qualified as property under the National Stolen Property Act, nor was it a product designed for interstate or foreign commerce, an essential element in prosecution under the Economic Espionage Act.

Commenting upon the "enormous profits" (“many millions of dollars” each year, according to prosecutors), the appellate panel wrote “Because the HFT system was not designed to enter or pass in commerce, or to make something that does, Aleynikov’s theft of source code relating to that system was not an offense under the EEA.”.

As with the 9th Circuit's circumscription of the CFAA, the 2nd Circuit's newly-issued opinion "binds...down with chains" Obama, Holder & Co.’s ability to prosecute others for similar thefts of trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA).

23 February, 2012

Why This Blog Is Moving

Google will debut digital glasses by the end of the year, according to the New York Times.

By wearing Android-powered glasses, you’re giving Google unprecedented access to:
  • Your location at all times
  • Your most common interactions
  • Your closest companions through facial recognition
  • Your eating, shopping, and traveling habits

25 January, 2012

Enough Is Enough

The headline in WaPo, (Washington Post), Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out, http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b, I’ve had enough.

Google’s decision to begin combining data across ALL of its websites “to stitch together a fuller portrait of users”, who “won’t be able to opt out of the changes”, is the final straw.

So, I’ve moved goldfingerchronicles to WordPress. As soon as possible, I’ll be finding an alternative for YouTube/GeneKernan, as well as replacing my “Android” phone (though my number will remain the same).

After February 28, 2012, you'll have to find this blog at http://goldfingerchronicles.wordpress.com

21 January, 2012

Boycott Hollywood?

Kudos to Karl Denninger and Market Ticker:

Perhaps it's time for Americans to boycott the movies....

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd (recall that Chris Dodd got a sweet, below-market mortgage rate for supporting the banksters that stole the economy - Blogmaster) really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:

Chris Dodd wrote..
"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"

This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.

Well I have a solution to that: Americans need to boycott the MPAA.

That, my friends, means no more movies.

Look, I own a lot of DVDs. Like over 300 of them. I bought them all. I like movies in the theater too.

But I do not like this sort of threat, especially when what is being demanded is ineffective and does nothing to address the real issues when it comes to intellectual property and piracy.

The real problems are resolvable through trade sanctions -- and short of military action, only through that path. You cannot force another nation to adopt your laws, but you can prevent them from having free and unfettered access to your markets if they are going to behave, and allow their citizens to behave, in ways that you find offensive.

The corruption between "business" and Washington DC has always been present but this particular display is especially brazen, coming from a lobbyist and spokesperson who's last gig was screwing the American public when the banks ripped everyone off and then went and begged DC for a bailout.

To Doddering Dodd and the MPAA: That sound you hear is my wallet snapping shut.

20 January, 2012

Does "Gordon Gekko" Own Ass. Press?

In a "news" story called "Republicans stand together to oppose piracy law", an unidentified ASSOCIATED PRESS "journalist" (if you can't figure out why he's unidentified, I can't explain) writes:

"Standing in near unison, the four remaining contenders seeking the Republican presidential nomination are condemning a proposed anti-online piracy law that its critics say is overly aggressive."
OK so far. The next paragraph begins "Mitt Romney says".

Paragraph 3 starts with "
Newt Gingrich says...".

The fourth paragraph opens "
Rick Santorum says..." (and we all know what "santorum" means).

But the last paragraph...WAIT!...That WAS the last paragraph.


Can YOU figure it out?


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_DEBATE_INTERNET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-19-21-28-15

19 January, 2012

Speaking of Criminals...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

"Chase"d Out Of Court

"Robo-signing, or the high-volume production of signed legal documents, has been a key element of the governmental and media foreclosure reviews. Chase's current pullback raises at least the possibility that at least some banks may have documentation problems in other business lines."

Full article at http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_7/jpmorgan-chase-consumer-debt-collection-1045606-1.html?zkPrintable=1&nopagination=1

15 January, 2012

13 January, 2012

The REAL Gordon Gekko?

It was 1987. The height of the "me generation". Hippies and Yippies had become "Yuppies". Young. Upwardly mobile. Professional. The epitome was featured in the very popular movie, Wall Street. His name was Gordon Gekko.

Portrayed by actor Michael Douglas, Gekko was a "corporate raider". He would buy struggling companies, strip off and sell the assets, and then dump what little was left. Including employees.

In a tasty bit of irony, Douglas (one of my favorite actors) later portrayed "President Andrew Shepherd" in "The American President".

And in a perfect example of life imitating art, a real-life Gordon Gekko is running for Andrew Shepherd's real-life job, under the name Mitt Romney.

Gekko and Shepherd are fictional characters. The son of the late George Romney, Mexico-born former adversary of Barry Goldwater (and himself a candidate in 1968), Mitt Romney is all too real. And so is his corporate raider company, Bain Capital.

His single largest source of contributions (like that of the current occupier of 1600 Pennsy' Avenue) is Goldman Sachs. You might remember them. A former CEO of Goldman Sachs was Secretary of Treasury in 1998 when mortgage qualifications were "eased". Another former Gold Sachs CEO held that Office 10 years later when the inevitable, predictable, and predicted result of that "easing" came to roost upon all of us, in the form of a $700,000,000.00 "bailout".

Any bets on what happens if Gordon Gekko gets Andrew Shepherd's job?

Lieberman's Bill to Kick Off Internment Camps -- Puppet Masters -- Sott.net

I was going to thank Joe Quinn for actually scribing "USA PATRIOT Act" correctly. It's particularly irritating to see those who anoint themselves "patriot", but either don't know, or deliberately misrepresent this attack - yes, ATTACK - on fundamental American principles. Lieberman's Bill to Kick Off Internment Camps -- Puppet Masters -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/240118-Lieberman-s-Bill-to-Kick-Off-Internment-Camps#

I've often chided people when they say or write "Patriot Act", or even "USA Patriot Act". The level of ignorance that allows anyone to believe, even for a moment, that either of these mis-citations of the most Anti-American act of its time accurately describes this most-unpatriotic, ready-made act of treason boggles the mind. No patriotism exists, or was even contemplated, in "USA PATRIOT Act".

Quinn goes one better in laying out exactly how the Repugnants and Demonics came up with "USA PATRIOT Act":

"...the act's authors went to ridiculous lengths to make sure that the name of the act spelled out 'USA Patriot'. The name is a ten-letter acronym that stands for 'Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism'. 'Appropriate tools required'? Surely tools that are required are by definition appropriate? And how do you 'intercept terrorism'? And is merely 'obstructing terrorism' really enough? Aren't we meant to be defeating it, or at least smoking it out of its cave and rat and spider holes, disheveled beard and all."
Read Quinn's article. It's long, and might require some backtracking (your mind will rebel over what it's reading), but the FREEDOM of current and future generations depends, in part, on the knowlwdge Quinn imparts.



12 January, 2012

About that "Man Behind the Curtain" Thing...

As sickening as it is, sometimes I just have to laugh. This..."news item"... touting the "inevitable" GSP candidate (hint: "Goldman Sachs Party), once again almost completely ignores Ron Paul! There's Goldman Sachs' puppet, and "the three musketeers". "Ron Paul, who finished second", is no more than an afterthought in this "fair and balanced" report.

Right.

"Faux News. As fair and balanced as Enron's books"

11 January, 2012

New Chief of Staff: Former Hedge Fund Exec. at Citigroup, Made Money Off Mortgage Defaults | The Weekly Standard

What a suprise!

Obama's first chief of staff Rahm Emanuel once sat on the board of troubled federal mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Bill Daley, the president's chief of staff whose departure was announced today, was previously a top executive at financial firm J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. So of course there should be little surprise that Obama's latest chief of staff, announced today by the president himself, also has deep ties to the financial industry himself.

New Chief of Staff: Former Hedge Fund Exec. at Citigroup, Made Money Off Mortgage Defaults | The Weekly Standard

10 January, 2012

BREAKING NEWS!!! Google Masters Time Travel

It appears that Google bought Diebold.

I don't mean stock in Diebold. I mean bought Diebold!

How else could Google know, the morning before the New Hampshire Primary, who won?

http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/apparent-google-glitch-shows-new-hampshire-primary-results-20120110?mrefid=related2.

WAIT! I've got this one!

Maybe Diebold bought Google. . .

Kudos to National Journal.

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