tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744648395211225772024-02-18T19:53:42.741-10:00GoldfingerChroniclesCommentary relating to the ultra-rich megalomaniacs
bent on world empireGene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-18083954576097507302016-06-11T06:46:00.001-10:002016-06-11T06:46:36.286-10:00Some Things Never Change, and Some, Only for the WorseIt's been almost 2 years since posted. I've been... busy. And it's not like the majority of you don't know what's going on; that "the ultra-rich megalomaniacs bent on world empire" do what they do, and that their "assets" placed "in office" will find a way to justify anything they can, and basically ignore the rest.<br />
<br />
But I was prompted to post today by <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/10/02/as-google-becomes-alphabet-dont-be-evil-vanishes/" target="_blank">this article</a>, which relates (more directly, I think, than you might) to my next-to-last post from November, '13.<br />
<br />
That's all for now. If you've read this far (or at all), and choose to maintain your willful blindness, I won't be surprised. I just wanted you to know:<br />
<br />
I'm back.<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-88122887272858519812014-08-01T06:47:00.004-10:002014-08-01T06:47:51.189-10:00To My Fellow Inmates:“[T]here is no constitutional right not to become an informant.”<br />
<br />
That's what "Simple Justice" (subtitled, "A Criminal Defense Blog") quoted the federal government as saying.<br />
<br />
I like "Simple Justice". Most often, I agree with what Scott Greenfield has to say about the current (in)judicial system. And that's why I'm disappointed with his July 31 post "Snitch or Suffer". <br />
<br />
The backstory, that FBI agents put individuals on the "No Fly List" for refusing to become snitches, can be read in detail on <a href="http://blog.simplejustice.us/2014/07/31/snitch-or-suffer/">http://blog.simplejustice.us/2014/07/31/snitch-or-suffer/</a>, and it should be. And, for clarity, the full sentence to which I refer is "The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss [<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1237202-tanvir_v_comey_20140728.html"><span style="color: #0066cc;">PDF</span></a>] plainly argues 'there is no constitutional right not to become an informant.'” <br />
<br />
Although that particular language is found in the government's Memorandum Of Law In Support of Motion to Dismiss ("...courts have found, in other contexts, that there is no constitutional right not to be an informant"), it is the argument that follows that disturbs me, and should disturb you. <br />
<br />
On pages 53 and 54 of the "gee whiz, they didn't know" Memorandum, the United States' attorney supported the argument that the FBI defendants "are entitled to qualified immunity because it was not clearly established that submitting an individual's name [for inclusion on the "No Fly List" <em>because they refused to snitch</em>] violated any constitutional right"***, followed the language Greenfiled quoted on "Simple Justice" with numerous case citations that "[n]either the Supreme Court nor (any Circuit Court) has ever held that a prisoner enjoys a constitutional right not to become an informant...".<br />
<br />
But - and I'm surprised Greenfield didn't make this connection - <u>these men <strong>were not</strong> prisoners</u>. They were never charged. They were "free".<br />
<br />
The government's argument clearly demonstrates that, regardless of our accomodations, in the government's opinion, we're ALL prisoners.<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br />
***BTW, a large percentage of Fibbers are law school grads,if not members of "The Bar".<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-89129349779361209922013-11-05T12:28:00.000-10:002013-11-05T12:28:55.900-10:00The Creepy Line
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Poor baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go ogle’s executive chairman isn’t
happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seems the criminal organization
with which Go ogle has been “sharing” ogled information got him drunk and tool
advantage of him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let’s recap:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Goldfinger (consisting of ultra-rich
megalomaniacs bent on world empire, from whence organizations including ), fronted by the Bush Crime Family, “began” collecting
“metadata” on everyone’s phone calls, etc., as early as ’02 (“Echelon”, the
cooperative program collecting phone calls, faxes, telexes, etc., <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>well before Y2K, and complained of by the
European Parliament as early as ’98, is not addressed in this post), and set up data-collection "at the source" in '06.*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Go ogle began its
“wi-fi sniffing” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in ’07, and claims it
only “discovered” that it was stealing private information (that’s the proper
description) in 2010, when Germany’s Data Protection Authority expressed a
desire to examine wifi network data collected in Germany. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Right. Because Go
ogle wasn’t smart enough to review its code before it launched the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go ogle said as much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that in ’06: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code
that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data,” the company
wrote. “A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic
WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street
View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project
leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/google-street-view-cams/"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/05/google-street-view-cams/</span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Go ogle was stealing
private information (again, that’s the proper description) for approximately
three years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are expected to believe
that Go ogle didn’t know it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For 3
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>36 (or so) months. 1, 095 days,
each consisting of 24 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to
belabor the point, but how many gigabits can Go ogle transmit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in a second</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Now, Eric
Schmidt, one of the originators of Go ogle, says "It's really outrageous
that the National Security Agency was looking between the Google data centers,
if that's true," <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/04/eric-schmidt-nsa-spying-data-centres-outrageous"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/04/eric-schmidt-nsa-spying-data-centres-outrageous</span></a>,
citing a Wall Street Journal article. <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/11/04/googles-schmidt-on-nsa-china-and-north-korea/"><span style="color: blue;">http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/11/04/googles-schmidt-on-nsa-china-and-north-korea/</span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">As stated in a
Guardian article, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/04/eric-schmidt-nsa-spying-data-centres-outrageous"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/04/eric-schmidt-nsa-spying-data-centres-outrageous</span></a>,
Go ogle “itself has faced repeated accusations of privacy violations, including
illicitly tracking web browsing”, and “Schmidt has made no secret that the
company tests boundaries of what is acceptable. ‘[Company] policy is to get
right up to the creepy line and not cross it,’ he said in 2010”; the year Go
ogle “discovered” it was stealing private information (again, that’s the proper
description) obliterating a line so it needn’t “cross it”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">I now do my best
to avoid Go ogle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even to the point of
replacing my “Android” phone with a BlackBerry (and no, I don’t expect that BB
will be “much” better, but minimal improvement is more than none). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The only reason,
in fact, that I post this here, on a property of Go ogle (indeed, the only
reason I maintain this blogspot blog at all) is because I want Go ogle to know
just how disgusted I am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want Eric
Schmidt to know that businesses I contemplated starting, websites and other
internet-related projects, likely won’t be started now, because of Go ogle.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">And for all of
those who believe “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide”, I
suggest you look into your ancestry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
might be related to Goebbels.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">* I laugh when I see "smart house" commercials in which the parent locks/unlocks doors, turns lights and appliances on/off, and generally "enjoys the security" provided by AT&T. That's a special kind of stupid.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-25314423431846950772013-10-27T21:37:00.002-10:002013-10-27T21:37:58.039-10:00“Miss Direction! Paging Miss Direction!”
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 7.5pt 0pt 0.5in; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The lie can be maintained only for
such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic,
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the
mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest
enemy of the State.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 27pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">– Dr. Josef M. Goebbels</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Finding itself (themselves?) unable
to put the issue of NSA’s blanket surveillance of all Americans phone calls,
emails, internet activity – even photographing U.S. Mail envelopes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– completely out of the electorate’s mind (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perhaps because so many Americans so
distrust “the media” (sic) that even planned distractions like a “government shutdown”
didn’t keep the issue in the background</i>), the “media divisions” of all six multinational
corporations that own “the media” (from now on, well just call them “THE multinationals”)
changed tactics last week, as the news “broke” of ongoing revelations that NSA,
on behalf of “the” United States (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">grammatically
correct in certain circumstances; politically important with respect to “these
United States”</i>) has “dragnetted”, “vacuumed”, and otherwise consumed the phone
calls, emails, and internet activity of, for all intents and purposes, the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Breathlessly (with relief?), we’re
told that the leaders of Brazil, France, and now, Germany, are very upset, but
we’re simultaneously reassured (by a <u>Senator</u>, no less (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gasp!</i>)) that such “upset” is “for the domestic
consumption of their own public”; “code” for “‘s OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re not really mad.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a great setup for the message to follow,
delivered by an “assistant to the president for homeland security” in an *editorial*
published Friday:<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
“[N]o one disputes
the need for careful, thorough intelligence gathering. Nor is it a secret that
we collect information about what is happening around the world to help protect
our citizens, our allies and our homeland. So does every intelligence service
in the world."<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
We’re supposed to be relieved, ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somebody else is outraged!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they’re
governments!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely <u>they’ll</u> put a
stop to this!</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
We’re also to be resigned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, didn’t Senator Rubio (no friend of
the party in power!) just tell us on a multinational media division “ ...
Everyone spies on everybody. That's just a fact.”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should just understand that it's no BFD. As he said, striving for a Texas metaphor, “at
the end of the day, everyone knew there was gambling going on in Casablanca.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a thought!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why would the leaders of Brazil, France, and
now, Germany, or any (every?) other country want – no, <u>need</u> – to “respond[] to domestic pressures in
their own country”; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>why would Brazil, France, and Germany, or any (every?) other country want
– no, <u>need</u> –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to provide for “domestic
consumption of their own public”?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
On the face of it, the “domestic pressures”
to which Senator Rubio off-handedly refers are the anger of Brazilians, Frenchmen,
Germans, and people of any (every?) other country, at “the” United States’ outright theft of <u>their</u>
privacy, too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they want to know how
and why their own governments let it happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Of course, that’s not what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> story, the <u>new</u> story, is
supposed to be about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because even “angry
allies” hasn’t been working the way it should.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The <u>new</u> story is how “documents obtained by former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden…might expose [Brazil’s, France’s, and now, Germany’s] own
intelligence operations…and their level of co-operation with the U.S.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I find it hard to believe that Brazilians,
Frenchmen, Germans, or any other people, would impose “domestic pressures” over
their governments’ “intelligence gathering” about “the” United States. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That makes the blackmail hard to understand. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Could it be that Brazil, France, and
Germany, or any (every?) other country, are doing blanket surveillance of all their own countrymen’s phone calls,
emails, internet activity – perhaps even photographing mail envelopes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>too?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
We could ask Senator Rubio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we don’t have to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He already told us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
“ ... Everyone spies on everybody.
That's just a fact.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
There is a subtler, but equally
important fact lying in the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Senator Rubio’s reassurances that the leaders of Brazil, France, and Germany are
merely “responding to domestic pressures”, providing for the “domestic consumption
of their own public”, there are two stark truths:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
1. The government “ ... spies on everybody." Every<em>body. Every</em>body<em>. </em><u>Even you</u>; <em>and</em> <u>your kids</u>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
2. The “leaders” of governments <u>manufacture
news</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>That second one is good for “the media”,
giving “<em>Goebbles’ Gerbils</em>” a product to bring to market, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
It's good for the “multinationals”
that own “<em>Goebbles’ Gerbils</em>”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
But it’s not good for America.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-77048487025736379622013-08-20T15:45:00.000-10:002013-08-20T15:45:10.151-10:00You've Got To Give Them This: They're TryingOh, how they're trying. The problem is that *they* simply can't stay in front of all the revelations, scandals, and expos<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">é</span>s. And John Kerry (you remember him: the Vietnam vet turned war protestor who married into the Heinz fortune) has actually admitted (though not in <em>this</em> country...inbreeding makes *them* a little slow sometimes): “[T]his little thing called the Internet...makes it much harder to govern...much harder to organize people...”. <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/08/213088.htm">http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/08/213088.htm</a> (Heads up, Johnny! Saying it in Brazil no longer means we don't hear it!)<br />
<br />
It's come to the point where even those who usually look askance when I walk into the room are now commenting on how ironically transparent things have become. (Somehow, I don't think this was what he meant when he promised "the most transparent administration in history".) Al quaida (queda? qaida? qaeda? Jeez, people, figure out a spelling and stick with it!) plans to attack "our" embassies? Really?<br />
<br />
And this "new danger" has <u>nothing to do</u> with the ongoing alphabet soup scandals? <u>Nothing to do</u> with NSA/IRS/NSA (again)/DEA/NSA (again)/CIA/DOJ//NSA (will it ever stop?)/IRS (again)/NSA, <em>ad infinitum</em>? This is nothing like "bad news"/threat level orange? Completely different from "seal your house with duct tape and (suffocate, but) you'll be "safe"?<br />
<br />
So, let's look at "recent events": The government contends that there is a "Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone" that <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/10/aclu-assails-10/">stretches 100 miles</a> inland from the borders. And coastlines. A map of where YOU HAVE NO RIGHT to be free from an unwarranted search looks like this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://benswann.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ConstitutionFree1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://benswann.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ConstitutionFree1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
That's not so bad, though, is it? After all most of the "geography" is outside that "Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone"; in "the heartland" (where "real" Americans live!).<br />
<br />
But *they* consider airports to be "borders", too. Live within 100 miles of an airport?<br />
<br />
But, like the NSA/IRS/NSA (again)/DEA/NSA (again)/CIA/DOJ//NSA (will it ever stop?)/IRS (again)/NSA invasions of privacy, you "got nuttin' to worry 'bout if y'ain't doin' nuttin' wrong", right?<br />
<br />
Because <em>you know</em> ALL of the tens-of-thousands of federal laws and regulations, right? <em>You know</em> that a famous guitar manufacturer was raided, and <u>fined</u>, for using rosewood of "unauthorized" origin, <u>and you're OK with that</u>, <em>right</em>?<br />
<br />
You're OK with "your" government claiming FIVE TIMES the number of criminal mortgage fraud prosecutions it actually filed, <em>right</em>? <br />
<br />
You're OK with JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley running the Treasury Department, the State Department, the S.E.C., the C.T.F.C., and the entire financial system of the country, <em>right</em>? <br />
<br />
You're OK with them running - <a href="http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/08/congress-has-lost-control-of-the-big-banks/" target="_blank">owning - Congress</a>?<br />
<br />
Do you not wonder why every "good person" elected to office becomes "one of <em>them</em>"?<br />
<br />
Look what happened to Eliot Spitzer. HE was going to take the bankers to task. HE was going to make them comply with law, and regulation, and what most of us would consider simple decency. <br />
<br />
And you KNOW what happened to him. And you wouldn't want that - or anything like that - to happen to you. But HE's fighting back. HE's running for New York City Comptroller. <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/not-too-big-to-jail-why-eliot-spitzer-is-wall-streets-worst-nightmare/5346230" target="_blank">READ THIS</a><br />
<br />
We've come a long way. In the <a href="http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2013/08/yes-we-live-in-communist-country.html" target="_blank">wrong direction</a>.<br />
<br />
Most don't know, and they don't want to know. To know would impart responsibility to do something about what they know. And no one wants that.<br />
<br />
After all, we won't be around that much longer, in the scheme of things. And who cares that our grandchildren will never know a world where they didn't have to "submit" to every uniformed cretin who wanted to cop a feel?<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-69167065488101791442013-07-23T16:32:00.001-10:002013-07-23T16:32:37.853-10:00It's A Sight To BeholdThe headline is catchy: "A Legal Bane of Wall Street Switches Sides". Makes it seem almost as if - after a lifetime of "public service" - the noble champion is ready to partake in the benefits of the "frontier" that he (single-handedly, don'tcha know) "tamed".<br />
<br />
It's also bullshit.<br />
<br />
If you read the article <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/a-legal-bane-of-wall-street-switches-sides/">http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/a-legal-bane-of-wall-street-switches-sides/</a> (I suggest that, like swimming, you should wait awhile after eating), you'll grasp that the headline isn't <em>exactly</em> false. It's just that "the hero" in this particular story, like pretty much everything about the cartel that is "Wall Street", isn't quite what you might think. <br />
<br />
About a third of the way through, you'll read that "[his] name has circulated around Wall Street for decades. After putting himself through [school], this truck driver / overnight dockworker went to law school and ultimately became a junior lawyer at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadwalader,_Wickersham_%26_Taft" target="_blank">Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft</a> in New York, where he handled securities cases and commercial disputes."<br />
<br />
"Ultimately". Gotta love the irony. Not that being "a junior lawyer" at a law firm that began during <u>George Washington's first term</u> isn't a big deal ("Paging Mr. Alger, Horation Alger..."). It is. <br />
<br />
And the facts that 1) <strong>the Cadwalader</strong> in Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft had to "wait" to join the partnership " due to his appointment as assistant secretary of state; and, 2) <strong>the Wickersham</strong> (of...) was appointed United States Attorney General by President William Howard Taft, brother of 3) <strong>the Taft</strong> (see a pattern, here?) explains how a "junior lawyer" job "paved the way" to the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan; which led to becoming general counsel for Deutsche Bank (which, as you might remember, GOT SUED by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan for fraud), where he "steer[ed] the bank through the financial crisis and an investigation into its tax shelters"; which, remarkably, resulted in the S.E.C., "reeling from the crisis..." turning to him (Deutsche Bank's general counsel) "to revamp its enforcement unit".<br />
<br />
I'm reminded of how, a little over a century ago, another "BIG MONEY" lawyer, Philander C. Knox, "gave up" private practice to become Teddy Roosevelt's A.G., and later, Secretary of State (which is another story altogether).<br />
<br />
His boss at both Deutsche Bank and Cadwalader, <em>and a former S.E.C. enforcement official himself </em>(did I mention patterns?) praised him for joining S.E.C. "at a time when some lawmakers wanted to abolish" it. (Hmm. I wonder if any of those lawmakers were Wall Street investors...?)<br />
<br />
While he was at its head, "the enforcement division logged a record number of actions, including a case against Goldman Sachs. <br />
<br />
At his new job, he'll head up S.E.C. enforcement cases (gasp!), white-collar criminal matters (daily operations) and crisis management (getting caught) with a former federal judge and United States deputy attorney general; a former senior lawyer in the Clinton White House and a former United States attorney.<br />
<br />
But he expects no "favors". “You don’t undertake a historic restructuring of the enforcement division and bring a record number of cases if you’re trying to curry favor with the industry,” this bastion of rectitude said. Apparently, a job that pays more than $5 million a year is standard practice for "creating units to track complex corners of Wall Street and applying prosecutorial tactics to civil cases".<br />
<br />
Like "our hero" Robert S. Khuzami, TR's A.G. Philander Knox took most of his former clients (Morgan; Harriman, <em>et al</em>) to court during The Great Reformer's) administration.<br />
<br />
That worked out well, didn't it?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-69900673930456423512013-03-25T11:30:00.002-10:002013-03-25T11:30:47.591-10:00You WILL Be "Safe", If They Have To Kill YouYou knew it would come to this. It always does. It always will. <br />
<br />
It's in their nature. In their DNA. Like bacteria, adapting to antibiotics (more like viri/antivirals, given the way they reproduce), "they" (liberals; progressives, etc., and their "bearded" fellows, "law and order" types) just keep coming.<br />
<br />
On CameraFraud's blog, at <a href="http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/tag/american-traffic-solutions/">http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/tag/american-traffic-solutions/</a>, one can see what can be accomplished by undaunted, unyielding Freedom activists. In a period of 18 months, "approximately 1,700 volunteers" took on the "red light cameras"; and won. The network of Redflex <a href="http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/tag/american-traffic-solutions/#" id="_GPLITA_0" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6MjkyOTU6MTMwNDpzcHkgY2FtZXJhczoyMTJiZjg3MDkwYzIxNjU0YTg4NGY0ZjQ5YmMyZTJkNjp6LTEwNDEtMTA3NTUzOmNhbWVyYWZyYXVkLndvcmRwcmVzcy5jb206MjQ1OTk6OTk1YjZjNTVkYjQ2Y2YwMWViZDhiNDk2Y2FhODhkZTM" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance">spy cameras</a> installed by Janet Napolitano (yes, <em>that</em> Janet Napolitano) on Arizona interstates and highways came down. Jan Brewer canceled the state’s contract with Redflex, one of the two biggest surveillance - sorry, "safety" companies in the business.<br />
<br />
But "Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar" wasn't able to get an initiative on the ballot, to ban the rest of Redflex and American Traffic Solutions’ (the other pickpocket - oops) automated ticketing machines. In fact, an Arizona "lawmaker" has teamed up with an ATS lobbyist to stage a Transportation Committee hearing "so ridiculous that <a href="http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/tag/american-traffic-solutions/#" id="_GPLITA_1" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6MzAxMzk6MTYyMTphdWRpYmxlOjBhZjI3M2U4NjBlYjQ0NGQxMzUxOTRiM2I1NzAwMzQxOnotMTA0MS0xMDc1NTM6Y2FtZXJhZnJhdWQud29yZHByZXNzLmNvbToyNjI5MDoxNTVjYmU2ZTRjNTZhMjIyZjFiMDc4ZTI4NTdlZjVhNw" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance">audible</a> laughing could be heard ".<br />
<br />
Whatever must "they" do to <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><strike>keep
ATS in business</strike></span> keep us safe in Arizona?<br />
<br />
Cue: "The National Coalition for Safer Roads". Thwarted in their "stated mission ... to 'save lives and protect communities by demonstrating how
red light safety cameras can improve driver behavior'", NACSAR (no, they're not calling <strong>Na</strong>tional <strong>C</strong>oalition for <strong>Sa</strong>fer <strong>R</strong>oads that, <u>yet</u>, but it's probably too good to pass up) "announced ... a new <a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/red-light-cameras-stop-crime/#" id="_GPLITA_1" in_hdr="" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6MzYxMzI6MjE1NTpzdHVkeToxYjE4ZjUxMTdhN2ZhYTIzZDY3ZGVmMzM3NTNiODZlNzp6LTEwNDEtMTA3NTUzOnd3dy53aXJlZC5jb206Mzk0NTY6ZmE1ZDE3YmM0MzYzMTBkMTYyZWEzMWJhZmM2YTdjMzE" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="Click to Continue > by Text-Enhance">study</a> that contends the cameras can catch criminals guilty of
infractions far greater than rolling through a red light.” <br />
<a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/red-light-cameras-stop-crime/">http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/red-light-cameras-stop-crime/</a><br />
<br />
As wired.com introduced the story, "One way to catch criminals is by giving police departments
access to red-light camera footage <strong><em>even when a traffic violation isn’t involved</em></strong>". <br />
<br />
According to the (what'd they call it? OH YEAH!) "study" <strong><em>FUNDED BY AMERICAN TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS!!!</em></strong>, 46 percent of red-light camera footage requested by 172 local police departments between 2011 and 2012 was "used in collision investigations" (guess how many "rear-enders" from people tryng to avoid a red-light ticket; <em><u>c'mon</u></em>), while "5 percent were used in homicide investigations and 10 percent were used in
burglary cases."<br />
(OK, a "homicide" can occur anywhere, buy "burglaries"? Where the hell are they pointing these cameras?)<br />
<br />
Quoting one paragraph direcly from Wired (and claiming fair use under 17 U.S.C. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">§ 107)</span>: <br />
<br />
<div nodeindex="8">
“Red-light safety cameras bring many benefits to communities —
on and off the road,” said National Coalition for Safer Roads executive director
David Kelly, a former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration acting
administrator under President George W. Bush. “These cameras are proving to be a
useful tool in helping police solve crimes and often times putting guilty
criminals behind bars.”</div>
<div nodeindex="8">
</div>
<div nodeindex="8">
So, there you have it! All of those who just won't stop until they "protect" us to death (liberals; progressives, etc.), or throw us in jail for refusing their "protection" ("their" "bearded" fellows, "law and order" types), like the common cold, will just keep on. keeping us "safe".</div>
<div nodeindex="8">
</div>
<div nodeindex="8">
For a price.</div>
<br />
<div nodeindex="9">
<br /></div>
<object height="1" id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" type="application/x-dgnria" width="1"><param name="tabId" value="{A63CB90F-4997-433B-8F82-D18ABE3704A4}" /><strong><em></em></strong></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-24876708230165005262013-03-07T12:32:00.001-10:002013-03-07T14:13:50.939-10:00Can You Hear Me Now?<br />
<object height="1" id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" type="application/x-dgnria" width="1"><param name="tabId" value="{41B0EB05-C73F-4968-BCAF-18ECDCEDF35B}" /></object><strong>DARPA</strong>, the <strong>D</strong>efense <strong>A</strong>dvanced <strong>R</strong>esearch <strong>P</strong>rojects <strong>A</strong>gency (hey Wired! it's an <em>acronym</em>, not a name), wants to record, transcribe, and archive <u>every conversation you ever have</u>. <br />
<br />
For those who really don't know what <strong>DARPA</strong> is (please join us in the 21st century!), think SciFi's "Eureka". <strong>DARPA</strong> (ultimately, that means YOU) funds some crazy ideas, not unlike "Eureka"'s genii. You almost certainly own <em>something</em> that originated from <strong>DARPA</strong> research.<br />
<br />
Turns out that <strong>DARPA</strong> has, and has had for awhile, an interest in <em>text-to-speech</em> analysis, programs, and machines. As contemplated in the Wired.com link, below, "Imagine living in a world where every errant utterance you make is preserved
forever."<br />
<br />
Now, <strong>DARPA</strong> has awarded a $300,000 award for a <a href="http://www.darpa.mil/Opportunities/Universities/Young_Faculty_Award_Recipients_2012.aspx">new
project</a>, called “Blending Crowdsourcing with Automation for Fast, Cheap, and
Accurate Analysis of Spontaneous Speech”, similar to <a href="http://projects.ldc.upenn.edu/EARS/">EARS</a> (<strong>E</strong>ffective <strong>A</strong>ffordable <strong>R</strong>eusable <strong>S</strong>peech-to-text), an earlier <strong>DARPA</strong> project.<br />
<br />
As you read the article linked below, think about these quotes: "make conversational speech more accessible, more <u>part of our permanent record</u>"; "capture all these conversations and make use of them". Those are from the grant recipient.<br />
<br />
EARS was described by the Congressional Research Service as focusing on speech picked
up from broadcasts and telephone conversations, “as well as extract clues about
the identity of speakers” for “<a href="http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/belasco-memo.php">the military, intelligence
and law enforcement communities</a>.” Those "clues" won't be needed if people record themselves.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/darpa-speech/">http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/darpa-speech/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-73660999283078627702013-03-07T05:45:00.002-10:002013-03-07T05:45:24.953-10:00No KiddingThe headline reads as if it actually announces something, well, <em>new; "newsy"; worthy of note</em>.<br />
<br />
But "Banks urge judge to throw out Libor lawsuits" is far from <em>new; "newsy"; worthy of note</em>.<br />
<br />
No more so than the revelation that "the banks" (<em>aka</em> "TBTF"; Too Big To Fail) had "manipulated" LIBOR (the London InterBank Overnight Rate), which, as many Americans have learned, rather painfully, was used to "reset" mortgage payments.<br />
<br />
It IS funny, though. If the "news" agency quoted him right, one of "the banks"'s attorneys admitted deceiving investors.<br />
<br />
Take a look:<br />
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-bankslibor-lawsuits-idUSBRE9241C220130305">http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-bankslibor-lawsuits-idUSBRE9241C220130305</a><br />
<object height="1" id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" type="application/x-dgnria" width="1"><param name="tabId" value="{2A6E4F74-1031-4000-AB65-08CAE8B887C0}" /></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-30677630798204728072013-02-27T16:07:00.000-10:002013-02-27T16:07:24.139-10:00A Long, Dark Wait Till Morning <object height="1" id="plugin0" style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" type="application/x-dgnria" width="1"><param name="tabId" value="{762E5626-7631-4572-B372-6FBB748EB721}" /></object>Did you catch the OS<span style="color: red;">CIA</span>RS?<br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The story is captivating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Not the fantasy about domestic and international crimes (war
crimes) promoted<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as helping bring to
fruition "the hunt" for someone who might or might not have still
been alive when, as the story goes, 19 amateurs with boxcutters outwitted the
military-industrial complex Ike warned us about 41 years beforehand; the one
where this “baddest of bad guys” supposedly hid behind a woman’s skirts (a
story later recanted) before he went down in a hail of bullets (or maybe just one or two); the one where
his body was, supposedly, “buried” at sea (normally an honor bestowed for
exemplary naval service).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The story of which I write is about the first time that a propaganda piece, openly
funded by Wall Street, was nominated for an Academy Award.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I write of the first time in history that the
“field” of Oscar nominees was so expanded (9 nominees this year) as to make room for a
“Lincoln” with enough historical inaccuracies to make one question the
protagonist’s very existence; an “Argo” portraying the (purportedly true) story
of a successful collaboration between Hollywood and Langley (it <u>does</u>
sound like a Hollywood name, doesn’t it? Langley?); and the tale of a "middle-of-the-night raid" (remarkably, <u>not</u> on a private home in an American city, although you couldn't by the raiders' wardrobe) to "capture" (right!) the "most wanted man in <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strike>the</strike></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> ... our world.</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You got me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It wasn’t funded by Wall Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least, not directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
funded, like the legend it portrays, by Wall Street’s offspring, the Central
Intelligence Agency.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I know…you thought the CIA was a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">government</i> agency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And on
paper, it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what <em>the public</em>, defined
by a federal court as “That vast multitude, which includes the ignorant, the
unthinking, and the credulous, who<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Symbol;">¼</span></span>do not stop to analyze, but are governed by appearance
and general impressions” ( <u>J. W. Collins Co. v. F. M. Paist Co.</u>, (D.C.
Pa.) 14 F.2d 614), doesn’t know, or cares not to, is that the CIA, and the “National
Security Agency” (as distinguished from the “Federal Security Agency”, a post for another time), was
proposed, promoted, and eventually the product of, Wall Street banks and their lawyers,
with support from Yale, Harvard, and the New York and D.C. newspapers (by way of example, do a websearch for "July, 1947" and count how many "Roswell", "flying saucer", and "alien" results <u>precede</u> the first reference to enactment of the National Security Act).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
To fully grasp (insofar as one can grasp such a monumental “servicing”)
the whos, whats, whens wheres and hows requires a LOT of research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But there are four books that I was blessed
with obtaining, three of them in the same day, at the same quaint little used
book store (the fourth came to me at a church bazaar) that, when read semi-simultaneously,
paint as clear a picture as any of us will likely ever have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
They are: <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">The
Roosevelts</span>, by Peter Collier; <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Wall
Street</span> – A History, by Charles R. Geisst; <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Running the World</span>, The Inside Story of the National Security
Council and the Architects of American Power, by David Rothkopf; and <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Legacy of Ashes</span>, The History of the CIA,
by Tim Weiner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
So, why is this posted to a blog subtitled "<span>Commentary relating to the ultra-rich megalomaniacs bent on world empire"? Because of a mention of "earning in excess of $100 million". (100,000,000.00)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span></span>Back to that captivating story:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
It seems that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i>
CIA “psy-op” (“company”-speak for “psychological operation”) was, like the vast
majority of CIA’s very, very, very expensive (lucrative? Did I mention the Wall Street connection?) “covert” actions Weiner details in <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Legacy of Ashes</span>, a <em>spec</em><strong>tac</strong><em>ular</em> failure.
See: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/25/zero-dark-thirty-cia-oscars"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/25/zero-dark-thirty-cia-oscars</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Ironic that Americans have to rely on a British news organization
for this story.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-74793693374036475792012-12-20T16:03:00.001-10:002012-12-20T16:03:38.950-10:00"U" Now Stands for "Unlimited"; "S" is for "Serfdom"<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">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). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">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).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">General Holder (has a kind of military ring, doesn't it?) issued an order "allowing" expansion of the completely <em><strong>anti</strong>constitutional SURVEILLANCE </em>of <u>EVERYONE</u>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Described by Wired magazine a "</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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, <u>Constitutionally</u> approve without <em>an amendment</em>) to the "National Counterterrorism Center".</span><br />
"Oh, well," you say, "if it's to fight <em>terrorism...</em>"<br />
Maybe you didn't catch what I said about <span style="font-family: Times;"><em>SURVEILLANCE </em>of <u>EVERYONE</u>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">So, remember, when one of your more vocal friends, or family members, no longer calls, or returns yours...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">YOU let this happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;"></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-76479061140931265872012-12-15T07:14:00.000-10:002012-12-15T07:14:00.331-10:00Just 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:<br />
<br />
They simply <em>aren't big enough</em> yet.<br />
<br />
That's the only conclusion that can be reached. It was curious enough that Forbes magazine published an opinion piece titled <br />
<br />
"Is the Federal Reserve Using Money-Laundering Techniques To Cleanse Banks' Balance Sheets?" <span style="font-size: x-small;">(</span><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencehunter/2012/10/29/are-federal-reserve-regulated-banks-laundering-dirty-money/"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencehunter/2012/10/29/are-federal-reserve-regulated-banks-laundering-dirty-money/</span></a><br />
<br />
Granted, it wasn't Forbes' own, but a Forbes "contributor"'s opinion, that <u>Forbes published</u>. But from a non-elite perspective, my observation was that one of "them" (see the subtitle of this blog) was "eating their own":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"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 <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer">2011 audit</a> 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, <em>Bloomberg</em> has reported on an additional $9 trillion in secret, off-balance-sheet Fed transactions that the central bank <a href="http://revolutionpac.com/articles/who-got-9-trillion-in-off-balance-sheet-fed-asset-purchases">refuses to discuss</a>. Now, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/ben-bernanke/">Ben Bernanke</a> 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, <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h8/current/">which could run</a> to an additional $1.3 trillion loan laundering accompanied by downscale resales."</blockquote>
But, in case you were wondering what "THE FED" has to do with the groups mentioned above, I bring you:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1>
HSBC pays $1.9 billion to settle US probe</h1>
<span class="byline"> By James O'Toole and Charles Riley </span><a class="soc-twtname" href="https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=cnnmoney">@CNNMoney</a><span class="cnnDateStamp">December 11, 2012: 2:25 PM ET</span><div class="clearFloat">
</div>
<!--storytext--><div id="storytext">
<div id="ie_dottop">
<img alt="" border="0" height="348" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/121210101815-hsbc-signage-monster.jpg" width="620" /></div>
<div class="cnnStorySource">
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)</div>
<h2>
Global banking giant HSBC will pay $1.92 billion in a record settlement with U.S. regulators to resolve money-laundering allegations.</h2>
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. </div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">(fair use claimed under 17 U.S.C. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">§</span> 107)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
After a five-year investigation, involving 9,000,000 documents, and the outright admission (<em>confession</em>) of money laundering, there will be exactly 0 indictments. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Which is where the bankster cartel differs from the groups named above .<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT">
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-42726502223860008482012-12-10T09:18:00.001-10:002012-12-10T09:18:47.091-10:00"Will It Never End?!?" Goldfinger Lamentsfrom the New York Times <span style="font-size: xx-small;">("fair use" authorized under 17 U.S.C. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">§ 107)</span></span>: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"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."</blockquote>
Apparently, investors take issue with being sold "securities" that weren't, well, "secured". <br />
<br />
Who'da thunk? <br />
<br />
And they, along with "regulators" (Goldfinger personnel at SEC, etc., with whom this was all A-OK till <em>the organic matter hit the rotating oscillator</em>), prosecutors (<em>ditto</em>), and insurers (<em>ditto, as long as they didn't have to actually pay out</em>) are on the offensive, taking the TBTFs (BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, <em>et al</em>) to court over more than $1,000,000,000,000.00 (that's what "1 trillion" looks like in actual <u>numbers</u>) in "securities" that were, supposedly, "backed by residential mortgages."<br />
<br />
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 <em>Tangent</em> Capital Partners (italics are mine - but you just can't make this stuff up) admits <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The real price tag is terrifying.” </blockquote>
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.<br />
<br />
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 <em>could empty even more well-stocked reserves</em> and <strong>weigh down profits</strong>..." (emphases mine). <br />
<br />
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,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"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."</blockquote>
What NYT overlooks is that the momentum is building from a fourth "front": the other side. As time passes, more and more mortgag<em>or-victims</em> 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, <u>and obtained verification</u> from SEC of these findings: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">"Our search of EDGAR, the Commission’s
electronic database of corporate filings, for the CWABS Asset-Backed
Certificates Trust Series 2006-23 (</span><a href="http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001381999&owner=include&count=40&hidefilings"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001381999&owner=include&count=40&hidefilings</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">=)
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."</span></span></o:p></span></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span lang="EN-CA" style="color: #1f497d; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">W</span></span></o:p></span>hich, 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".<br />
<br />
Giddy-up!.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">:</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-46395484885197781242012-11-30T16:12:00.004-10:002012-11-30T16:12:30.958-10:00Spinning Heads and Revolving DoorsAnyone who's ever read this blog (or Liberty's Blog, <a href="http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com/">http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com</a>) 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. <br />
<br />
(If, after reading this post, any reader doesn't understand why I'm so distrustful of the <em>medical</em>-industrial complex, well...explaining it won't help.)<br />
<br />
Turns out that one Gary Nabel, soon to be former head of the National Institutes of Health <u>Vaccine Research Center</u>, has announced that he's leaving the VRC to become chief scientific officer in the research labs at Sanofi. <a href="http://chrisinmaryville.net/nih-vaccine-chief-gary-nabel-trades-dream-job-for-big-pharma.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://chrisinmaryville.net/nih-vaccine-chief-gary-nabel-trades-dream-job-for-big-pharma.html</span></a>. <br />
<br />
According to Sanofi's website, <a href="http://en.sanofi.com/products/human_vaccines/human_vaccines.aspx">http://en.sanofi.com/products/human_vaccines/human_vaccines.aspx</a> , vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur "is a world leader in...<em>pediatric combination vaccines</em>, <u>influenza vaccines</u>, <strong>booster vaccines</strong> for adolescents and adults, <em>meningitis vaccines</em>, and <u>travel/endemic vaccines</u>...assuring vaccine commercialization <em> in the United States</em> and <em>Canada</em>, as well as 19 countries in <em>Europe</em>...[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?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
So, forgive me if things like a jump of over FOUR THOUSAND PERCENT in dead babies <a href="http://real-agenda.com/2012/11/26/fetal-deaths-up-4000-after-pregnant-mothers-took-flu-vaccine/"><span style="color: blue;">http://real-agenda.com/2012/11/26/fetal-deaths-up-4000-after-pregnant-mothers-took-flu-vaccine/</span></a> give me pause. <br />
<br />
I know, it's not like these guys work for the PhDA (oops, FDA. I think of them as the "<strong>Ph</strong>armaceutical <strong>D</strong>efense <strong>A</strong>gency"), which agency is OK with vaccines containing mercury. <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/037653_vaccine_additives_thimerosal_formaldehyde.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.naturalnews.com/037653_vaccine_additives_thimerosal_formaldehyde.html</span></a>. <br />
<br />
Hell, even the courts are ok with that. <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/03/23/44979.htm"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/03/23/44979.htm</span></a>, although, to be precise, the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW) (I know! What the hell were <em>they</em> thinking?) really has <strong>no standing</strong> (a legal term that means a plaintiff must have an injury that can be redressed by a judgment (Constitutional standing), and <u>must be the actual injured party</u> (prudential standing)). Apparently, none of the NCOW herd was.<br />
<br />
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 <strike>PhDA</strike> (sorry; habit) FDA.<br />
<br />
Of course, I'm just a cynic.<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-25582559248767952952012-11-26T07:19:00.001-10:002012-11-26T08:21:58.051-10:00Blood Money<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>(cross-posted to </em></span><a href="http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Liberty's Blog</em></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>)</em></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br />
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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 <em>he was being paid by the
defense contractors</em> whose weapons and equipment he pimped on the Today show,
and NBC Nightly News. In November, 2008, well after the quadrennial (s)election
of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the new “Commander-In-Chief” of United
States military forces, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">New York Times</a> described “retired general” Barry
McCaffrey’s “post-service” career as “One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media
Complex”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for good reason.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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 <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">to five major television networks</span><span lang="EN"> </span>for adding <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_McCaffrey" target="_blank">anti-drug messages in their programs</a>, including (but certainly not limited to)
<u>ER</u>, <u>Beverly Hills, 90210</u>, <u>Chicago Hope</u>, <u>The Drew Carey Show</u> and <u>7th Heaven</u>, he
founded B R McCaffrey Associates, and <strong>became NBC’s most-frequently-seen
military analyst, </strong><em><strong>around the same time his company began representing <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>defense contractors</strong> at the Pentgon, and in
Congress</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And according to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/11/30/washington/30general_graphic.ready.html" target="_blank">graphic</a>
published in that New York Times article, he’s done quite well, joining the boards of eight defense contractors, and “advising”
four more.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Disturbingly, McCaffrey’s story is far from
a rarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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
<a href="http://www.raytheon.com/" target="_blank">Raytheon</a>’s board of directors, and Admiral Gary Roughead went to work for <a href="http://www.northropgrumman.com/" target="_blank">NorthropGrumman</a>, each while serving on the <a href="http://www.nndb.com/gov/416/000056248/" target="_blank">Defense Policy Board</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many began these lucrative activities before retirement,
a practice the Pentagon supports.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The path from command to certain “defense” contracting jobs
is laid out like paving stones. As put on <a href="http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/11/20/report-70-of-retired-us-generals-take-jobs-with-defense-corporations/">AntiWar.com</a>, “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.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
McCaffrey does just fine “on the home front”, though. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Veritas_Capital">VeritasCapital</a>, 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”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Veritas
gave those advisers board seats on its military companies, profit sharing, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and even equity stakes;
attractive because Veritas intended to turn quick profits through I.P.O.’s. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five days later, the only question was just
how big those increases would be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
McCaffrey’s banging on NBC's war drum, his rants for ongoing <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Oh,
and those networks?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine what they
were paid for <u>The Agency</u> (first broadcast: September 26, 2001!); <u>Alias</u>
(first broadcast: September 30, 2001); and even <u>West Wing</u> (first aired
in ‘99).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But those are subjects for
other posts. Maybe even another blog.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-13053234864679311582012-11-24T08:32:00.003-10:002012-11-24T08:32:47.618-10:00Just 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Coloradans and Washingtonians (The People in those respective states) had the audacity to pass referenda <em>legalizing</em> marijuana. After forty years of a declared "war on drugs" (it started much, much earlier), resulting in a <em>quadrupling</em> 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 <u>any</u> totalitarian regime, <em>anywhere</em>, <em><u>anytime</u></em>, <br />
<br />
<strong>The People</strong> of Colorado, and <strong>The People</strong> of Washington have had enough.<br />
<br />
We already know Goldfinger's people in the branches and various departments and agencies of what began as a <em>federation of states</em> routinely ignore the will of those states. <u>Medical</u> marijuana dispensaries, approved by the true Sovereigns of those states, <strong>The People</strong>, 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.<br />
<br />
Now, a UN organization is displeased with <strong>The People</strong> of Colorado, and <strong>The People</strong> of Washington. <a href="http://investmentwatchblog.com/un-impose-treaties-on-states-legalizing-marijuana/">http://investmentwatchblog.com/un-impose-treaties-on-states-legalizing-marijuana/</a> . Raymond Yans, President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), described as "<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">the quasi-judicial body charged with monitoring
the implementation of the international drug control conventions", (did you <em>know</em> there was an "International Narcotics Control Board"? - gives new meaning to "cartel" & "kingpin", doesn't it?), wants Goldfinger's servants to "<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">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."</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the November 15th press release from the <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">UN Information Service in Vienna (Austria; not Virginia): </span> </span></span></span></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span> <br />
</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">This raises a number of interesting questions. First, the federal go(d)vernment has had "<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">an obligation" -- <em>since 1961</em> -- to <u>recognize the medical purposes of marijuana</u>. (Another 1961"agreement" will be the subject of a post on <a href="http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com/">http://taketheliberty.wordpress.com</a> ) So why does "the" United States (a thing - not a place) insist that there is no medical benefit to marijuana?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Second, just how does UNIS expect "the" United States "<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">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. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span><br /></span><br /></span><br />
<br /></span> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /></span><br /></span><br />
</blockquote>
</span></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-82112338109408766232012-11-22T07:49:00.001-10:002012-11-22T07:49:37.229-10:00One 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.<br />
"They" - the <strong>P</strong>owers <strong>T</strong>hat <strong>B</strong>e - <em><strong>Goldfinger</strong></em>, in other words, have ample reason to be thankful today.<br />
<a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/11/justice-in-america-systematic-document-forgery-and-fabrication-yields-one-criminal-plea-bargain.html#YUhkEiXImM8qCOCl.15">Justice in America: Systematic Document Forgery and Fabrication Yield One Criminal Plea Bargain « naked capitalism</a><br />
Goldfinger's wholly-owned subsidiary law firm (trade name: "Department of Justice") <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/damage-control" target="_blank">stepped in</a> 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". <br />
Lorraine Brown, once "chief executive" of Lender Processing Service subsidiary DocX, whose <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/38591053/Lender-Processing-Services-DOCX-Document-Fabrication-Price-Sheet" target="_blank">"mortgage document fabrication price sheet"</a> established the forgery of more than a million documents used in fraudulent foreclosures, <a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/133350.html" target="_blank">fell on her sword</a>. Brown pleaded guilty, in the state case, to one (<strong>1</strong>) count each, of felony forgery; felony perjury; and misdemeanor making a false declaration, and to one (<strong>1</strong>) "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.<br />
18 U.S.C. § 371 (<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/371">http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/371</a>) 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.<br />
By "agreement", Brown's sacrifice(s) will be a maximum potential penalty of five years in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Fed" target="_blank">"Club Fed"</a> (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?).<br />
The huddled masses may now rest easy (in their tent-cities and shelters). A "bad guy" has been caught, and appropriate punishment shall ensue. <br />
"Just us" has been served.<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-27883350755201995652012-11-21T11:07:00.001-10:002012-11-21T11:07:33.228-10:00GambaruIt means, acording to Ann Curry (formerly of "Today"), "Never, ever, ever, ever give up, even when, especially when, there's no chance of winning".<br />
<br />
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 <em>their servants</em> to investigate and prosecute the bankers that think they own them, at least <u>someone</u> is going to jail. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/20/us/ap-us-mortgage-services.html?hp">http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/20/us/ap-us-mortgage-services.html?hp</a><br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
And now that the dam is being chipped at from the other side, <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/20/new-york-sues-credit-suisse-over-mortgage-securities/">http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/20/new-york-sues-credit-suisse-over-mortgage-securities/</a>, the apparently insurmountable odds are changing. Facing victim/homeowners on one side, and victim/investors on the other, the banksters' days are numbered. <br />
<br />
OPM-addict/politicians beware. Media whores take note:<br />
<br />
We, the People, are coming.<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-13278667627949536722012-09-04T07:23:00.002-10:002012-09-04T07:41:23.100-10:00The Bank of RuthlessThis is interesting. According to an article on OccupyCorporatism.com titled "Morgan Stanley is Insolvent – Only a Matter of Time Before Total Financial Collapse", <a href="http://occupycorporatism.com/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/</a>, 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. <br /><br />An invasion, in other <span></span>words. War.<br /><blockquote>"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 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55lOhYw8Lxk"> $700 billion bailout </a> or else martial law would be implemented immediately."</blockquote><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><p> </p><p><span></span> </p><p><span><br /> </span></p></blockquote><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-84612226738894257102012-09-03T11:09:00.003-10:002012-09-03T11:15:33.037-10:00Captives 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.<br /><br />Here's what only the most ardent have recovered:<br /><blockquote>“Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.”</blockquote>...<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-54868827589608913722012-08-28T12:33:00.002-10:002012-08-28T12:51:43.101-10:00Blind Squirrels, Occasional NutsSantelli finally(?) gets it.<br /><br /><object id="cnbcplayer" height="380" width="400" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0"><br /><param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash"/><br /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><br /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><br /><param name="quality" value="best"/><br /><param name="scale" value="noscale" /><br /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><br /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"/><br /><param name="salign" value="lt"/><br /><param name="movie" value="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000111947/code/cnbcplayershare"/><br /><embed name="cnbcplayer" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" height="380" width="400" quality="best" wmode="transparent" scale="noscale" salign="lt" src="http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000111947/code/cnbcplayershare" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /><br /></object><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-84523257923275018512012-06-21T10:34:00.000-10:002012-06-21T10:34:09.675-10:00That "Bee-sting"? It Could Be A Drone-Installed Tracking ChipI know what you're thinking. Well, not <em>exactly</em>, but I'm pretty sure it involves phrases like "deep end", "round the bend", "drank the koolaid" (oddly inapposite), etc. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHRo6tRIGAXo_aSb35XlzwD08l-AGbhCp5v_A7SkvJsJQrh-knQ5qnJNIJ2aiTAIkGk89OClG4Eb5JnBQRYiL-y4LphHVV4osz9LfemPP1JsFzlbouanb8dBZRevdVuKBnPmwZoXY8WM/s1600/networkworldcom-image_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHRo6tRIGAXo_aSb35XlzwD08l-AGbhCp5v_A7SkvJsJQrh-knQ5qnJNIJ2aiTAIkGk89OClG4Eb5JnBQRYiL-y4LphHVV4osz9LfemPP1JsFzlbouanb8dBZRevdVuKBnPmwZoXY8WM/s200/networkworldcom-image_n.jpg" width="200" /></a>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. <span style="font-size: xx-small;">(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)</span><br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<br />
Money. Lots of it.<br />
<br />
DARPA, the <strong>D</strong>efense <strong>A</strong>dvanced <strong>R</strong>esearch <strong>P</strong>rojects <strong>A</strong>gency, 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.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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 w</span></span>ithout much effort, I was able to find a reference to an article by a <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Stephen
Cole, titled, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">"Robots
in the sky", as far back as November, 2000. A <em>reference</em>; the link that would supposedly take you to a summary "can't be found".</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">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.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here's one blog reference from 6 years ago <a href="http://politech.wordpress.com/2006/03/20/cyborg-insect-soldiers-in-the-future/">http://politech.wordpress.com/2006/03/20/cyborg-insect-soldiers-in-the-future/</a>, linking to an actual, available article: <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/insect-cybug-plan-hatched/2006/03/20/1142703251984.html">http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/insect-cybug-plan-hatched/2006/03/20/1142703251984.html</a>. (Note the blog's closing comment re: "smart ants with bad attitudes. Or worse yet smart bees … or wasps!")</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wasn't published here, of course.</span></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The next one is about a "seed", rather than an insect,
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1208"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1208</span></a>, but the concept holds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
And this one's about a "robot bird": <a href="http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/bursts/look-sky-its-bird-its-plane-its-robot"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/bursts/look-sky-its-bird-its-plane-its-robot</span></a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx0mxwT5UF0A2cYXq2-XTUrLX99gc0XpqHLcKM5bkUAM0JRJjIwwwO5FSqw44yQH0BZzNZRaK9calaaTROw4Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">("Law and Order Special Victims Unit" © NBC; included under "fair use doctrine" pursuant to authority of 17 U.S.C. 107 for educational purposes)</span><br />
<br />
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 <em>no</em> <em>technological reason</em> why my headline can't be, or isn't already, possible.<br />
<br />
In fact, you can even find another reference (remember the '06 blog reference, above) to a video of "nanobees" here<br />
<a href="http://futureoftech-discuss.msnbc.msn.com/featured">http://futureoftech-discuss.msnbc.msn.com/featured</a>, but don't expect to actually <em>see</em> the video. And, apparently, you won't find it anywhere on msnbc.com.<br />
<br />
But an example of "swarmbots" appeared on an episode of CBS' "Numb3rs": <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciPpEVK62k0">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciPpEVK62k0</a><br />
<br />
And they don't have to <em>crawl</em>: See:
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="http://www.maximizingprogress.org/2012/02/quadrotor-swarms-upenns-grasp-lab-flies.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://www.maximizingprogress.org/2012/02/quadrotor-swarms-upenns-grasp-lab-flies.html</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Sleep well.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-33948843582815215472012-06-20T07:11:00.000-10:002012-06-20T07:11:09.606-10:00Goldfinger Issues Edict<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvwRNX_zJLyzYVi9_dEtqnJIZzLr-YRz-uCJRU116MxYE8kz9zqgbAcfmRGQyd5h8GzkkHjqJdIkNSOenrqhMuIMTI37z7U9p2AWyBE8cT3CJRhsG3EDAnkLqzQVPsehuxX7XhFdu_bQ/s1600/Illustration+from+Harper's+Weekly+December+13,+1913+by+Walter+J.+Enright+half-size.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvwRNX_zJLyzYVi9_dEtqnJIZzLr-YRz-uCJRU116MxYE8kz9zqgbAcfmRGQyd5h8GzkkHjqJdIkNSOenrqhMuIMTI37z7U9p2AWyBE8cT3CJRhsG3EDAnkLqzQVPsehuxX7XhFdu_bQ/s1600/Illustration+from+Harper's+Weekly+December+13,+1913+by+Walter+J.+Enright+half-size.jpg" /></a></div>
GOLDFINGER HAS SPOKEN. "The Fed" <u>will</u> "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. <br />
<br />
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".<br />
<br />
Robert Heller, former governor of the U.S. central bank, disagrees. But, he <em>is</em> "former governor", and really doesn't have any authority; not even the <u>illusion of authority</u> that we allow the DCNY vortex-dwellers. <br />
<br />
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?)<br />
<br />
Ironically, Heller (the guy who's no longer there), blames all of this on <em>us</em>. “[Goldfinger has] plenty of liquidity, there’s a dearth of demand for good
credit,” says Heller. <em>“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.”</em><br />
<br />
In case you're wondering, those would be the "balance sheets" that Goldfinger & Ass' <strong>shredded</strong> 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 <em><strong>Capital Hill</strong></em> (and don't comment on my spelling; at least 533/535 are all about "capital"); putting actual "<em>credit-worthy borrowers</em>" into the same "tent-cities" as the (insultingly designated) "subprimes". <br />
<br />
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...".<br />
<br />
Didn't it already "snap back" when we finally <em>heard</em> housing "boom"?<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-10453188665099348132012-05-24T11:21:00.001-10:002012-05-24T11:21:17.239-10:00Worth RepeatingYou can see it on Zerohedge. You can even link to Zerohedge from this blog.<br />
<br />
But a little encouragement is always good: <a href="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">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</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774464839521122577.post-40345192334796909042012-05-24T09:09:00.002-10:002012-05-24T09:09:12.537-10:00Ya Gotta Love ItEver 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.<br />
<br />
And, of course, it was okay to cheer for "the bad guys" (Newman, Redford & Co) because wrongs were righted; the con achieved justice.<br />
<br />
But this IS the real world, and what has happened,and continues to happen, is anything but just.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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 "<organic matter=""> hit the <rotating oscillator="">" 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?</rotating></organic><br />
<br />
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 <em>their victims</em>? A "settlement" worked out by (you guessed it, I hope) <u>their agents in the federal and state governments</u>!!!<br />
<br />
But at least those ravaged by this beast would get <em>something</em>, right? Wrong.<br />
<br />
Goldfinger's agents (federal and state governments) now intend to use that "settlement" to balance thier own books. Screw the victims.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.propublica.org/special/where-are-the-foreclosure-deal-millions-going" target="_blank">http://www.propublica.org/special/where-are-the-foreclosure-deal-millions-going</a><br />
<br />
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".<br />
<br />
Quoting from just one of those cases, what Goldfinger has pulled off is:<br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"…a corporate "Kansas City Shuffle," a
complex confidence game; in the 2006 film, </blockquote>
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lucky Number Slevin, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mr. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Goodkat, (a hitman
played by Bruce Willis), explains (in memorable quotes from Lucky Number Slevin,
at <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt425210/quotes"><span style="color: blue;">www.imdb.com/title/tt425210/quotes</span></a>),</span></span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong>'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'</strong>"</span></div>
<div>
</div>
</blockquote>
And now, "their people" in the states will join in the rape.<div class="blogger-post-footer">“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
-Edward Abbey</div>Gene Kernanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03431762578725647233noreply@blogger.com0