Fatboy sez: What. Me Worry?
2014-11-29
2014-10-12
Coming to America (Repost from 8/2/14)
"[w]e have taken every precaution that we know and that our colleagues at the C.D.C. know to ensure that there is no spread of Ebola,” he said.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, agreed that the patients posed little risk to others. And he added: “These are American citizens. American citizens have a right of return. I certainly hope people’s fear doesn’t trump their compassion.”
"[I]n one episode last month, at least 62 Center for Disease Control employees may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria after potentially infectious samples were sent to laboratories unequipped to handle them. Employees not wearing protective gear worked with bacteria that were supposed to have been killed but may not have been. All were offered a vaccine and antibiotics, and the agency said it believed no one was in danger.
In a second accident, disclosed Friday, a C.D.C. lab accidentally contaminated a relatively benign flu sample with a dangerous H5N1 bird flu strain that has killed 386 people since 2003. Fortunately, a United States Agriculture Department laboratory realized that the strain was more dangerous than expected and alerted the C.D.C.
In addition to those mistakes, Dr. Frieden also announced Friday that two of six vials of smallpox recently found stored in a National Institutes of Health laboratory since 1954 contained live virus capable of infecting people.
All the samples will be destroyed as soon as the genomes of the virus in them can be sequenced. The N.I.H. will scour its freezers and storerooms for other dangerous material, he said.
“These events revealed totally unacceptable behavior,” Dr. Frieden said. “They should never have happened. I’m upset, I’m angry, I’ve lost sleep over this, and I’m working on it until the issue is resolved.”
The anthrax and flu labs will remain closed until new procedures are imposed, Dr. Frieden said. For the flu lab, that will be finished in time for vaccine preparation for next winter’s flu season, he said.
2014-10-11
Demokracy in Action
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/us/holder-says-private-suit-against-united-against-nuclear-iran-risks-state-secrets.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHeadline&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1
The invocation of the state secrets privilege in Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis's lawsuit against United Against Nuclear Iran is unusual because the U.S. Government is not a party to the litigation, but is insisting that allowing the suit between the private parties to proceed any further will jeopardize American secrets that must be kept under wraps
/
In general, a private group would not be expected to have classified information. However, UANI's leadership has long been populated by former senior officials of the U.S. Government who would have been privy to such information at one time. The group is currently headed by former Bush State Department official Mark Wallace and former Obama arms control adviser Gary Samore.
/
After President Barack Obama took office, the Justice Department pledged to rein in the use of the state secrets privilege, which many Democrats accused President George W. Bush of overusing. After a review of the policy, Holder pledged to be sparing in its use and to explore ways to limit a case over secrecy concerns rather than dismissing it outright. However, the government's filings in the Restis case say doing that would be impossible.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2014/09/us-moves-to-block-suit-against-iranfocused-group-195409.html
2014-09-06
2014-08-30
2014-08-28
US Economic Recovery: Part XXI
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more anxious about the economy now than they were right after the Great Recession ended despite stock market gains, falling unemployment and growth moving closer to full health.
Seventy-one percent of Americans say they think the recession exerted a permanent drag on the economy, according to a survey being released Thursday by Rutgers University. By contrast, in November 2009, five months after the recession officially ended, the Rutgers researchers found that only 49 percent thought the downturn would have lasting damage
http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/survey-americans-pessimism-economy-has-grown
2014-08-20
US Economic Recovery: Part XX
July, 2010:
Machinery maker Caterpillar's second-quarter earnings surged 91 percent, helped by gains in sales of its equipment for industries like mining, infrastructure and energy.
/
Caterpillar is an industrial bellwether, so its earnings show that the recovery may have some steam.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2012422077_apusearnscaterpillarsummarybox.html
Today. August 20th, 2014:
"[I]n October 2008, the month after Lehman failed and the Great Recession started, industrial bellwether Caterpillar underwent a series of 19 consecutive, record, declines in Global dealer retail sales
/
as of July 2014, that record is no longer valid, because starting with a -1% drop in Global retail sales in December 2012, CAT has now posted a new record of 20 consecutive global dealer retail sales declines, after a -9% Y/Y print for the month of July.
2014-08-19
We Must Remain Vigilant in Safeguarding Press Freedoms
"[I]n a news conference Monday at the White House, the President also said freedoms of assembly and the press must be “vigilantly safeguarded”
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni57623703/
"[I]'ve been in several conflict zones: I was in the civil war regions in Georgia, the Gaza strip, illegally visited the Kaliningrad region when travel to the Soviet Union was still strictly prohibited for westerners, I've been in Iraq, Vietnam and in China, I've met Cuba dissidents. But to be arrested and yelled at and be rudely treated by police? For that I had to travel to Ferguson and St. Louis in the United States of America."
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-19/veteran-conflict-reporter-had-go-ferguson-get-arrested-first-time
"The New York Times reporter James Risen, who faces jail over his refusal to reveal a source and testify against a former CIA agent accused of leaking secrets, has called President Barack Obama “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/17/james-risen-obama-greatest-enemy-press-freedom-generation
2014-08-10
Barack W. Obushma
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were made by U.S. Government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda from 1992 to 2003.
"The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47812-2004Jun16.html
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.
/
"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/
The U.S. government's total debt in 2001 was $5.8 trillion
Today, ISIS holds a fair amount of territory in both Iraq and Syria — a mass roughly the size of Belgium. One ISIS map, from 2006, shows its ambitions stopping there — though interestingly overlapping a lot of oil fields:
http://www.vox.com/cards/things-about-isis-you-need-to-know/isis-goal-theocracy
"President Obama said on Saturday that the airstrikes and humanitarian assistance drops he ordered last week in Iraq could go on for months, preparing Americans for an extended military presence."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world/middleeast/iraq.html?_r=0
Current U.S. government's total debt is $17.7 trillion
2014-08-06
US Economice Recovery: Part XVIII
After making fighting income inequality an early focus of his second term, President Obama has largely abandoned talk of the subject.
I Am The Black Mascot of Wall Street
2014-07-23
US Economic Recovery: Part XVII
December 20, 2012:
"The U.S. Treasury’s plan to sell its remaining 32 percent stake in General Motors Co. is a leap forward for the Obama administration’s effort to end a $418 billion bailout program that in four years was transformed from a political albatross to a winning campaign issue."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-20/obama-proving-418-billion-bailout-no-failure-as-gm-buys-shares.html
May 21, 2014:
WASHINGTON — Members of President Obama's auto team that led the restructuring of General Motors five years ago said Wednesday they knew nothing at the time about an ignition-switch defect that has led the company to recall 2.6 million vehicles this year.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/05/21/obama-rattner-barra-gm-bailout-switch-recall/9396451/
June 6, 2014:
"[A]nd the bottom line, and why this entire bailout farce is now beyond simply criminal and purely ridiculous: as of this moment, GM has recalled more than double the number of cars it sold in all of 2013, or, another way of putting it, more than the total number of cars it sold in 2013 AND 2012 combined.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-16/stunning-fact-day-2014-gm-has-recalled-more-cars-it-sold-2013-and-2012
Today. July 23, 2014:
General Motors Co on Wednesday announced six recalls covering 717,950 vehicles in the United States for varying reasons, although none were related to ignition switch issues.
/
Vehicles involved in the recalls announced Wednesday have been linked to two crashes and three injuries, but no deaths, GM said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/23/us-autos-gm-recall-idUSKBN0FS1Y620140723?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
2014-07-22
2014-07-19
MH17
Upon entering Ukrainian airspace, MH17 was instructed to fly at 33,000 feet, two thousand feet lower than the original flight plan and forced MH17 to skim closely to the prohibited air zone —
which is 32,000 feet, according to Europe’s aviation authority Eurocontrol
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ukraine-traffic-controllers-instructed-mh17-to-fly-lower-mas-says
MH17 flight took a route 300 miles to the north of its usual path:
"But Mr Mark said: "I can only tell you as a commercial pilot myself that if we had been routed that way, with what's been going on in the Ukraine and the Russian border over the last few weeks and months, I would never have accepted that route.
which is 32,000 feet, according to Europe’s aviation authority Eurocontrol
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/ukraine-traffic-controllers-instructed-mh17-to-fly-lower-mas-says
MH17 flight took a route 300 miles to the north of its usual path:
"But Mr Mark said: "I can only tell you as a commercial pilot myself that if we had been routed that way, with what's been going on in the Ukraine and the Russian border over the last few weeks and months, I would never have accepted that route.
"I went into the FlightAware system, which we all use these days to see where airplanes started and where they tracked, and I looked back at the last two weeks' worth of MH17 flights, which was this one. "And the flight today tracked very, very much further north into the Ukraine than the other previous flights did ... there were MH17 versions that were 300 miles south of where this one was."
Records of recent MH17 flights on the FlightAware appear to bear out Mr Mark's claim, with earlier flights significantly further south than the flight that crashed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10975524/Crashed-MH17-flight-was-300-miles-off-typical-course.html
[Twitter feed of Spanish ATC supposedly debunked, but a military escort for a civilian flight diverted over a war zone isn't unusual or unheard of]
MOSCOW, July 18, /ITAR-TASS/. Two Ukrainian fighters were following the passenger Boeing-777 of Malaysian Airlines several minutes before the crash, Russia’s television Channel One said on Friday, citing a tweet made a Spanish air traffic controller of Kiev’s airport Borispol.
According to the Spanish air traffic controller, two Ukrainian fighters had been seen near the Malaysian jet three minutes before it disappeared from radars.
This information is confirmed by eyewitnesses in the Donetsk region who saw Ukrainian warplanes near the passenger jet. They say they heard sounds of powerful blasts and saw a Ukraine warplane shortly before the crash.
http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/741248
Casus belli. The fog of war.
Remember the Maine, the second Gulf of Tonkin incident, Sadaam is buying yellow cake to nuke the free world, and now MH17. The EU has been slow in following the US in tightening of sanctions against Russia. MH17 was used by the Ukrainian government as bait, a lure to be shot down by pro-Russian factions in the hopes of galvanizing Europe and increasing sanctions against Russia, increase weapon sales to the Ukraine and to win this latest round of the propaganda battle.
Records of recent MH17 flights on the FlightAware appear to bear out Mr Mark's claim, with earlier flights significantly further south than the flight that crashed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10975524/Crashed-MH17-flight-was-300-miles-off-typical-course.html
[Twitter feed of Spanish ATC supposedly debunked, but a military escort for a civilian flight diverted over a war zone isn't unusual or unheard of]
MOSCOW, July 18, /ITAR-TASS/. Two Ukrainian fighters were following the passenger Boeing-777 of Malaysian Airlines several minutes before the crash, Russia’s television Channel One said on Friday, citing a tweet made a Spanish air traffic controller of Kiev’s airport Borispol.
According to the Spanish air traffic controller, two Ukrainian fighters had been seen near the Malaysian jet three minutes before it disappeared from radars.
This information is confirmed by eyewitnesses in the Donetsk region who saw Ukrainian warplanes near the passenger jet. They say they heard sounds of powerful blasts and saw a Ukraine warplane shortly before the crash.
http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/741248
Casus belli. The fog of war.
Remember the Maine, the second Gulf of Tonkin incident, Sadaam is buying yellow cake to nuke the free world, and now MH17. The EU has been slow in following the US in tightening of sanctions against Russia. MH17 was used by the Ukrainian government as bait, a lure to be shot down by pro-Russian factions in the hopes of galvanizing Europe and increasing sanctions against Russia, increase weapon sales to the Ukraine and to win this latest round of the propaganda battle.
