“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Henry Ford

What Could Go Wrong?

"If governments allow themselves to be entirely bound to the decisions of their parliament, without protecting their own freedom to act, a break up of Europe would be a more probable outcome than deeper integration." Monti
/
"The greed for German taxpayer money is blossoming in undemocratic ways with Mr. Monti," party General Secretary Alexander Dobrindt said. "Mr. Monti apparently needs a clear announcement that we Germans will not be prepared to eliminate democracy in order to finance Italian debts."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/monti-comments-on-parliaments-in-euro-crisis-anger-german-politicians-a-848455.html

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Figures Often Beguile Me...

"Here, courtesy of Zero Hedge, we might be able to provide Dave with a clue as to how the BLS managed that little trick: It added 377,000 jobs for seasonal adjustment. That just happened to be the largest such adjustment in July for the past 10 years.
Moreover, the always interesting but not particularly reliable birth/death model chipped in 52,000 additions. Together, , which even by our rudimentary math dwarfs 163,000.these happy statistical enhancements added up to something like 429,000
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111903940904577559010500932368.html?mod=BOL_twm_col#articleTabs_article%3D1

What?

"[T]he correct approach is to reduce taxes and make it easier for businesses to fire workers."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/08/eurozone-new-business-sinks-at-fastest.html

The Associated Press

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 | 12:14 a.m.

The number of unemployed keeps rising in Spain, official figures showed Friday, as the International Monetary Fund called on European leaders to quickly fulfill their promises to help the country and the 17-country eurozone.

The recession-hit country's unemployment rate rose to 24.63 percent in the second quarter.
/
For those under 25 years of age, the unemployment rate climbed to 53 percent, from 52 percent in the previous quarter.
/
Greece's rate was not far behind at 22.5 per cent, though the latest figures available are for April. Many countries that use the euro, including France and Italy, also have double-digit unemployment rates

Democracy My Fat White Ass

Map shows the level of income inequality. As stated, income inequality in the US now surpasses Russia and is comparable with China.

US Jobs Recovery Captured in One Graph

Everyone Knows the US Central Intelligence Agency is Involved in the Global Drug Trade. Right?

They are like pest control companies, only control," said Villanueva Guillermo Terrazas, a spokesman for Chihuahua

Foto: Archivo Photo: Archive

 . The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) United States and other international security forces "do not fight against drug traffickers," but "try to manage the drug trade," he told Al Jazeera a government spokesman in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua .
 The allegations by activists, academics and former officials about official complicity in the drug business are not new.  But they are when they start from an official representative of one of the most violent states in Mexico, U.S. border with Texas.
  "They are like pest control companies, only control," said Villanueva Guillermo Terrazas, a spokesman for Chihuahua, in conversation with Al Jazeera last month at his office in Ciudad Juarez. . "If you kill the pests, you lose your job.  If you end up with the drug business, they become unemployed. "
 A CIA spokesman in Washington declined to comment directly on these accusations, and instead suggested to Jazeera to consult an official website.

PM Mariano Rajoy; an Incompetent Beggar

Francisco Alvarez Cascos, the region’s president and former secretary-general of Spain’s ruling party, accused premier Mariano Rajoy of humiliating the nation by touring Europe with a “begging bowl”.
/
Mr Cascos said the government is “utterly incompetent”, but warned that the deeper crisis is a “perverse” monetary system where capital flight from countries in distress is funding creditor states at zero rates. “This can’t go on for long, or we will have to think about leaving the euro before we are thrown out,”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9427721/Euro-exit-beats-begging-bowl-says-Spanish-elder-statesman.html

What a Dickhead

Public anger over the financial crisis is wrong and must not lead Britain to “hang bankers at the end of the street,” Tony Blair says today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9422096/Tony-Blair-hanging-bankers-wont-help.html

Tony Blair made millions of pounds last year but paid just a fraction of it in tax thanks to the complicated web of companies he has established.

The former prime minister’s secretive business empire declared an income of £12million.

But he was able to reduce his tax bill to just £315,000 after writing off almost £11million as ‘administrative expenses’ – a ‘surprisingly’ high figure, according to one accountant

/

[H]e is also a paid adviser to U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and to Zurich International, a Swiss-based insurance company.

/

Mr Blair’s earnings include lucrative after-dinner speaking, consultancies with banks and foreign governments, a series of deals with foreign companies, and the pension and other perks he enjoys as a former prime minister – including taxpayer-funded police protection. Critics also point out a large proportion of his income is derived from patrons in the U.S. and Middle East – a clear benefit of his alliance with George Bush for the invasion of Iraq.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083827/The-12m-tax-mystery-Tony-Blairs-earnings-soar-42--pays-315-000-HMRC.html

NEW YORK, January 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- JPMorgan Chase announced
today that it has appointed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a
senior advisory capacity to the firm, effective immediately. Mr. Blair will
also join the company's International Council.
/

"We're honored that Tony Blair has chosen to join JPMorgan Chase as a
senior advisor to our executive team and Board," said Jamie Dimon, Chairman
and CEO.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tony-blair-appointed-senior-advisor-to-jpmorgan-chase-56871787.html

A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader.

Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said.

The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat.

"Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," he said.

He said that unlike some other deals - notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan's had never turned "bad".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/8772418/Tony-Blair-visited-Libya-to-lobby-for-JP-Morgan.html

Mr Lawley-Wakelin claimed that Mr Blair had been ‘bought’ by JP Morgan, and that the US investment bank had profited from the Iraq War.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151016/David-Lawley-Wakelin-bursts-courtroom-Tony-Blair-gives-evidence-Leveson-Inquiry.html

Democracy is Hard. Made Even Harder Via an Invasion and Occupation by Hostile Forces Led by a Lying Commander-in-Chief

"Strengthen the (Iraqi) armed forces, relax your hold, and then you will have a coup. Then we will have a dictator, but a fair one. Forget democracy, the Iraqis by their nature are too tough," Mubarak said in the cable
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article791399.ece/Mubarak-told-US-to-allow-dictator-in-Iraq

CAIRO (AP) — The first online statement from the new leader of al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq claims that the militant network is returning to strongholds from which it was driven by U.S. forces and their Sunni allies before the American withdrawal at the end of last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-were-returning-old-iraq-strongholds-131645698.html

Nearly 30 people have been killed and more than 100 others wounded in a series of bomb attacks across Iraq, security officials say.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/22/252288/iraq-blasts-kill-20-injure-scores/

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 89 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Monday after 20 died in blasts the previous day in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslims.
/
As well as the dozens of deaths at least 223 people were wounded in bomb attacks in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad, the Shi'ite town of Taji to the north, the mixed northern city of Kirkuk and elsewhere, hospital and police sources said, making it one of Iraq's bloodiest days in weeks
/
"Recent attacks are a clear message that al Qaeda in Iraq is determined to spark a bloody sectarian war," the official said, asking not to be named.

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY." --Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

(ANSAmed) - New York, July 19 - The United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said the U.S. would continue to work outside the confines of the UN Security Council to put pressure on the Syrian government.
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/politics/2012/07/19/Ambassador-Rice-says-will-pressure-Syria-outside_7211397.html

Yet try as I may, I cannot take Ms Rice and the United States seriously here, because the US sets the world’s gold standard on using vetoes in the Security Council to shield criminal activity — by Israel in particular. I am not sure if Ms Rice and the US government think the world is stupid or merely perpetually servile to American swagger.
http://jordantimes.com/42-reasons-why-susan-rices-anger-is-unconvincing

According to a Sunday report by the Turkish Anadolu Agency, Ankara also deployed troop carriers along the border with Syria.
A train convoy transporting several missile batteries arrived in the southeastern province of Mardin on Sunday.
The report comes at a time when relations between Ankara and Damascus have deteriorated
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/22/252241/turkey-deploys-missiles-on-syria-border/

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western powers on Friday not to take unilateral action against the Syrian government outside the UN Security Council.
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=421165

Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste

                                        Former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel


MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) – President Barack Obama cut his two day campaign swing to Florida short so he could fly back to Washington before a trip to Colorado to comfort the families of those gunned down in a minute and a half of real-life horror at a midnight movie showing
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/07/22/obama-cuts-florida-stops-short-flies-to-colorado/

Unit 131

July 18 2012 SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - Israel vowed to strike back at Iran for a brazen daylight bombing Wednesday that killed at least seven people on a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

/

"All signs point to Iran," Netanyahu said. The Israeli leader gave no evidence to back his charges.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120719/DA03L39G1.html

The Lavon Affair refers to a failed Israeli covert operation, code named Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the Summer of 1954. As part of the false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence for plans to plant bombs inside Egyptian, American and British-owned targets. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian Communists, "unspecified malcontents" or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone.

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair}

Here Mr. Ostrovsky describes in detail how in mid February 1986 the Mossad planted a radio relay device – the “Trojan” – in a rented apartment in Tripoli, the capital of Libya. However interesting, we cut to the consequences.

/

Ultimately, the Americans fell for the Mossad ploy head over heels[,] dragging the British and the Germans somewhat reluctantly in with them. Operation Trojan was one of the Mossad’s greatest successes. It brought about the air strike on Libya that President Reagan had promised – a strike that had three important consequences. First, it derailed a deal for the release of the American hostages in Lebanon, thus preserving the Hizballah (Party of God) as the number one enemy in the eyes of the West. Second, it sent a message to the entire Arab world, telling them exactly where the United States stood regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. Third, it boosted the Mossad’s image of itself, since it was they who, by ingenious sleight of hand, had prodded the United States to do what was right. [More than a hint of sarcasm there.] It was only the French who didn’t buy into the Mossad trick and were determined not to ally themselves with the aggressive American act. The French refused to allow the American bombers to fly over their territory on their way to attack Libya.

http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-affairs/99413-fooled-into-bombing-libya.html

NEW YORK – On the fourth day of the 1967 Arab Israeli War, the intelligence ship 'USS Liberty' was steaming slowly in international waters, 14 miles off the Sinai Peninsula. Israeli armored forces were racing deep into Sinai in hot pursuit of the retreating Egyptian army.

/

At 0800 hrs, 8 June, 1967, eight Israeli recon flights flew over 'Liberty,' which was flying a large American flag. At 1400 hrs, waves of low-flying Israeli Mystere and Mirage-III fighter-bombers repeatedly attacked the American vessel with rockets, napalm, and cannon. The air attacks lasted 20 minutes, concentrating on the ship's electronic antennas and dishes. The 'Liberty' was left afire, listing sharply. Eight of her crew lay dead, a hundred seriously wounded, including the captain, Commander William McGonagle.

At 1424 hrs, three Israeli torpedo boats attacked, raking the burning 'Liberty' with 20mm and 40mm shells. At 1431hrs an Israeli torpedo hit the 'Liberty' midship, precisely where the signals intelligence systems were located. Twenty-five more Americans died.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/margolis12.html

There are times when it takes forever for the present to arrive

How much more abuse can the citizens of the global democracies withstand? Unemployment at record levels, falling wages, more living in poverty and needing government assistance for the basics such as food as the wealthy elite thrive and see their net worth at record levels. Post modern democracy has a death rattle deep in its lungs, one that cannot be cured for the damage is done.

Politicians of all parties tell how if you vote for them and get rid of the other party, they will fix everything. We all know they lie. They seek to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers and act on the behest of their special interest groups, their campaign donors.

One day this charade will end.

 "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

History Rhymes

Mr. Bush, at a rare prime-time news conference, portrayed himself as the protector of the country and repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, saying Mr. Hussein posed a comparable danger.
He tried anew to link Iraq to terrorists, warning that the country could not afford to wait for Mr. Hussein to unleash his weapons against the United States.
/
''I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons,'' Mr. Bush said, in the first formal East Room news conference in nearly a year and a half. He said Sept. 11 ''should say to the American people that we're now a battlefield.''
/
''He's a murderer,'' he said. ''He has trained and financed Al Qaeda type organizations. I take the threat seriously.''
/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/07/world/threats-responses-president-president-readies-us-for-prospect-imminent-war.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

As some in the Bush administration press the case for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq, weapons experts say there is mounting evidence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has amassed large stocks of chemical and biological weapons he is hiding from a possible U.S. military attack.Washington's concern is that Iraq could supply those weapons to terrorist groups, although U.S. officials say that there is no evidence that has happened so far."If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late," said Sen. Joseph Biden
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-09-02/world/iraq.weapons_1_biological-weapons-weapons-inspectors-iraqi-president-saddam-hussein?_s=PM:WORLD

PHNOM PENH — The US said Friday that Syrian officials would be "held accountable" if they failed to safeguard the country's chemical weapons after a report suggested some were being moved out of storage.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iDByw1zdhSVlssmDYThQ2b914ugQ?docId=CNG.9deb90352b40f5a2c047699e3e4f2944.51

BEIRUT, Lebanon — New details emerging Saturday about what local Syrian activists called a massacre of civilians near the central city of Hama indicated that it was more likely an uneven clash between the heavily armed Syrian military and local fighters bearing light weapons.
/
Col. Riad al-Assad, based in Turkey as the ostensible leader of the loose coalition of fighters called the Free Syrian Army, told the Arabic television network Al Jazeera on Thursday that there had been no opposition fighters in the town.
Although what actually happened in Tremseh remains murky, the evidence available suggested that events on Thursday more closely followed the Syrian government account.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/world/middleeast/details-of-a-battle-challenge-reports-of-a-syrian-massacre.html

The Two Faces of Hillary Clinton

Though one is cleary enough.

CAIRO — In the days before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here on Saturday, becoming the highest-ranking American official to meet with Egypt’s newly elected Islamist president, she planned to deliver a forceful public speech about democracy.

 But with the new president still struggling to wrest power from Egypt’s top generals, there were too many questions, too many pitfalls and too little new for Mrs. Clinton to offer, said several people briefed on the process. After rejecting at least three different drafts, the administration called off the speech days before its scheduled delivery, these people said.
/
She said she would work with Congress and the Egyptian government on the details of delivering a $1 billion aid package that President Obama promised a year ago and that Egypt desperately needs. [Fatboy: The Congressional Budget Office said that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014. The US also desperately needs an aid package. The US government borrows $1 billion from China to provide aid to Egypt?]
/
But she alluded only lightly to the military’s recent grab for power, or its failure to deliver on its promise hand power to civilians by July 1.
/
Officials say that the generals have repeatedly ignored American pressure, including the threat that the United States might end its $1.5 billion a year in economic assistance to Egypt, including $1.3 billion in military aid.
/
She said she planned to meet Sunday with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/world/middleeast/clinton-arrives-in-egypt-for-meeting-with-new-president.html


On Friday, thousands took to the streets of Cairo to demonstrate for the demands of the revolution and against the US-backed counter-revolution in Egypt. The military-installed regime of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf passed a law on Wednesday banning all protests and demonstrations, and punishes violations against the legislation with draconian penalties.
/
The attempt of the Egyptian bourgeoisie to stabilise the economy through the use of force and thereby reassure foreign investors has the full support of governments in Europe and the US.
/
Ahmed, an unemployed journalist interviewed by the WSWS in Tahrir Square, said, “At least by the time Sharaf and the military moved to clear Tahrir Square, it was obvious they are controlled by the old forces. The military leadership, in particular, still stands for the old Mubarak dictatorship. I especially hate Tantawi. He’s an old friend of Mubarak and a close ally of the US”.
Ahmed said that the hypocrisy of the US’s role in events knew no bounds: “Hillary Clinton now tears around Tahrir Square, exhorting the virtues of democracy! I remember very well the weapons and the tear gas ‘made in the US’ that were used against us”.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/egyp-m28.shtml


Nothing Egypt's military council has done in its past suggests it has the capacity or inclination to introduce speedy and radical change. Guaranteed its $1.3bn (£812m) annual grant from the US — a dividend from the Camp David peace accord with Israel – it has gained the reputation as a hidebound institution with little appetite for reform.
The frustration of the military's American benefactors shines through in leaked US cables, where the criticism focuses mostly on the man at the top, 75-year-old Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi.
In March 2008 cable [146040], the US ambassador to Cairo, Francis Ricciardone, described Tantawi as "aged and change-resistant".
Tantawi and [Hosni] Mubarak are focused on regime stability and maintaining the status quo through the end of their time. They simply do not have the energy, inclination or world view to do anything differently," it reads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/14/wikileaks-cables-egyptian-military-head

Hélder Câmara

If there is some corner of the world which has remained peaceful, but with a peace based on injustices the peace of a swamp with rotten matter fermenting in its depths - we may be sure that that peace is false. Violence attracts violence. Let us repeat fearlessly and ceaselessly: injustices bring revolt, either from the oppressed or from the young, determined to fight for a more just and more human world.

In the developed countries of the capitalist world, the mass media are beginning to become businesses, and huge businesses at that. The freedom of journalists is now becoming, in most cases, a very relative thing: it ends where the interests of the business begin

Violence builds up at three levels in a society. Primary violence is the everyday effect of structurally ingrained social injustice. This generates secondary violence - the revolt of the oppressed. And that in turn provokes tertiary violence - repression by the powerful to secure their privileged position. And so the spiral of violence tightens.

Russia No Longer on the Sidelines Hillary

"I ask you to reach out to Russia and China and not only ask but demand that they get off the sidelines," said Mrs. Clinton
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-06/middleeast/world_meast_syria-unrest_1_syrian-president-bashar-al-assad-syrian-people-syrian-opposition?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST

MOSCOW — Russia, which seems intent on positioning itself as an increasingly decisive broker in the Syrian crisis, announced on Tuesday that a flotilla of navy vessels had sailed to the Mediterranean Sea and some would dock in the Syrian port of Tartus. The naval group includes several landing craft with marines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/world/middleeast/russia-sends-warships-on-maneuvers-near-syria.html

A. This guys a dumbass B. This guy's a liar or C. This guy's a lying dumbass



Mr Tucker said he could not be sure that abuse of the Libor system is not continuing to this day, telling the committee: “I can't be confident of anything after learning of this cesspit.”
The Libor scandal could be repeated in a number of other “self-certifying” markets where prices are determined, he said.
“Self-certification is clearly open to abuse, so this could occur elsewhere,” he said
/
“We thought it was a malfunctioning market, not a dishonest market,” he said.
/
“We made a judgement that moving away from the existing method of self-certification was just not feasible during a financial crisis”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9387710/A-cesspit-Libor-scandal-may-be-going-on-elsewhere.html



When Will the US Push for Democracy in Saudi Arabia?

Saudi citizens, who happen to be Shias, march in protest of the killing of two unarmed protestors gunned down by Saudi security forces.

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. One Bad Ass Dude

A recent quote from Olafur:
"[I']m simply saying if the collective decision-making structure of the European Union can take such wrong decisions and follow a misleading course and fundamentally unwise for the healthy future of the European banking system, as I advised before, Arguing that private banks should operate in a way that the profits go to them, but the losses go to ordinary people back home is something that they need to examine.

We have, however, concentrated on our recovery, and paradoxically, what we are seeing in the last two years is that many sectors in Iceland: the energy sector, the tourism sector, the IT sector, the manufacturing sector, and the fishing sector are doing better in the last two years than they did prior to the banking crisis. And you might also find it interesting that the collapse of the banks revealed to us a very interesting aspect of modern banking, which I think has been more or less overlooked in this discussion in Europe and in America in the last two or three years: the Icelandic banks, like all modern big banks in Europe and America and all the other parts of the world, are no longer banks in the old-fashioned way. They have become high-tech companies. High-ranked engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, programmers and so on and so forth. And their success depends largely on how successful they are in hiring people with this education and capability, not necessarily those trained in business schools or finance, but in engineering, mathematics, computer science and so on."



A story from Forbes Magazine from 18 months ago:
[R]efusing to repay the money will do more than just piss off the U.K. and Netherlands which are now taking Iceland to court. It could very well hurt Iceland’s own financial capacity.
Just last week, Moody’s downgraded Iceland’s debt ratings outlook to negative from stable citing concerns about its recovery related to this very repayment dispute. Now that the people have voted to to repayment there is a sense that more credit ratings agencies including Moody’s will further downgrade the country’s rating.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2011/04/11/icelands-stand-against-bailout-repayment-will-hurt/

WSJ from a week ago:
REYKJAVIK, Iceland— Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who wielded the political power of his traditionally ceremonial office and rejected a deal that would have put taxpayers on the hook for $5 billion to Britain and the Netherlands, has been elected to a fifth term.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577500471830800592.html

NYT's yesterday:
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- For a country that four years ago plunged into a financial abyss so deep it all but shut down overnight, Iceland seems to be doing surprisingly well.
It has repaid, early, many of the international loans that kept it afloat. Unemployment is hovering around 6 percent, and falling. And while much of Europe is struggling to pull itself out of the recessionary swamp, Iceland's economy is expected to grow by 2.8 percent this year.
/
But during the crisis, the country did many things different from its European counterparts. It let its three largest banks fail, instead of bailing them out'
/
Some Icelanders say they have been soothed, too, by the country's bold decision to initiate an extensive criminal investigation into the financial debacle. Many members of the old banking elite have been identified as possible suspects, and some of their cases are beginning to come to trial; several people were convicted of financial crimes last month.
Bypass Paywalls and Log-Ins


So, Iceland under the leadership of Olafur, who as the WSJ article stated, overruled Iceland's Parliment and PM by allowing the banks to fail and telling the Brits to bugger off and actually prosecuted the banking elites now has lower unemployment and larger GDP growth then the Eurozone, Great Britian and the U.S. combined. This proves that capitalism works as well as proving that the U.S, Eurozone and Great Britan's style of cronyism, Oliogarchy, captured politicians and allowing the banks to function as an organized crime syndicate doesn't.

Fill up your glass with Vodka, arise and salute the citizens of Iceland and Olafur as you listen to their national anthem.

US Txxpayer Backed Jordanian Government MP Pulls Pistol on Live TV

“You are a spy in the pay of” the Syrian government, Shawabka said.
Murad, in return, accused Shawabka of being a spy in the pay of the Israeli Mossad agency and said the lawmaker was “a thief.”

Many commentators believe that the Western media remain silent toward the demonstrations in Jordan, shifting the public attention to the turmoil in Syria.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/08/249926/jordan-mp-whips-out-gun-in-live-tv-show/

Come Now Hillary. You Fool No One

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lambasted Russia and China on Friday for blocking efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has lost a key general to defection.
/
She urged the other 100 or so nations and organizations represented at the summit to "make it clear that Russia and China will pay a price" for that position.
/
"I ask you to reach out to Russia and China and not only ask but demand that they get off the sidelines," she said. "I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all, nothing at all, for standing with (the) Assad regime."
Hillary Carries the Torch of George W. Bush as She Calls for "Democracy" in the Middle East


The relationship means the People's Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world.
/
China, which holds $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, still buys some Treasuries through primary dealers, but since June 2011, that route hasn't been necessary.
/
China can now participate in auctions without placing bids through primary dealers. If it wants to sell, however, it still has to go through the market.
The change was not announced publicly or in any message to primary dealers
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-usa-treasuries-china-idUSBRE84K11720120521

The currency holdings, reported by the central bank on its website today, rose by $199 billion to $2.85 trillion,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-11/china-s-currency-reserves-rise-to-record-domestic-lending-exceeds-target.html

Russia – the Union's largest energy resources importer (2009)

• 36% of the EU’s total gas imports originate from Russia
• 31% of the EU's total crude oil imports originate from Russia
• 30% of the EU's coal imports originate from Russia

The EU – Russia's largest trade partner for energy goods

• 80% of all Russian oil exports go to the EU
• 70% of all Russian gas exports go to the EU
• 50% of all Russian coal exports go to the EU

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/international/russia/russia_en.htm

Breaking: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney In Syria to Consult with Assad Regime. Developing.

"Basat al reeh." "Dulab." "Falaqa." They are Arabic names for torture techniques that send chills through the hearts of Syrians, particularly the untold thousands who are believed to have been detained during the uprising of the last 15 months.
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-07-03/middleeast/world_meast_syria-torture-report_1_torture-victims-human-rights-watch-latakia?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST

On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times, assured the world that “torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.” Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer who was born in Syria, was surprised to learn of Bush’s statement. Two and a half years ago, American officials, suspecting Arar of being a terrorist, apprehended him in New York and sent him back to Syria, where he endured months of brutal interrogation, including torture. When Arar described his experience in a phone interview recently, he invoked an Arabic expression. The pain was so unbearable, he said, that “you forget the milk that you have been fed from the breast of your mother.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0208-13.htm

Car Bombs and Kidnapped Mayors Turning Up Dead in Mexico

A car bomb exploded outside the mayor of Nuevo Laredo, killing seven civilians injured, property damage the facade of the building and 11 vehicles with damage, according to the Government of Tamaulipas

Within the limits of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz, was found dead the mayor of Tlacojolpan, Veracruz, Marisol Mora Cuevas, who had been reported kidnapped on the night of June 24 in their home, confirmed Attorney's Office Oaxaca.
The body was found by members of the State Investigation Agency dependent on the Regional Deputy Justice in the road near Bonita Springs - City Island, near the gas plant to plant "Amapa". The body was found handcuffed, plus they showed signs of torture and burns.
NarcoBlog

Fight the Power

This exists to help hide and obscure people's real identity. This is done by seeding the fake data into search engines.
Fake identities on the public internet are not dangerous. Real identities are!
/
This is actually a list of 250 million people, indexed by the WRONG address, name, phone, and SSN.
This data is ficticious. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead is purely coincidence.
http://www.xdd.org/faq/faq.html

They are Not Radicals They are Freedom Fighters, Really They Are

Saudi officials are preparing to pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army as a means of encouraging mass defections from the military and increasing pressure on the Assad regime, the Guardian has learned.
[T]urkey has also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is co-ordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria
"[S]enator Lieberman also supports the idea of ensuring that the armed opposition fighters receive regular and sufficient pay, although he does not believe it is necessary for the United States to provide this funding itself directly."
[D]iplomatic sources have told the Guardian two US intelligence officers were in Syria's third city of Homs between December and early February, trying to establish command and control within rebel ranks.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/saudi-arabia-syria-rebel-army

History Rhymes

Turkey Doing the Bidding of the Dying Democracies Within the Antiquated Structure of NATO?

[S]ince the war against Libya was launched by U.S. Africa Command under the codename Operation Odyssey Dawn to the present NATO-run Operation Unified Protector in place since March 31, air operations have been run from NATO’s Air Command Headquarters for Southern Europe in Izmir, Turkey.

[T]urkey hosted a conference of Syrian opposition forces called “Change in Syria” from May 1-June 2 in the city of Antalya. Although held under the sponsorship of the Egyptian-based National Organisation of Human Rights, logistics and security were provided by the host country.

“[T]he West wants to put the region under Turkish control like in the Ottoman days. Turkey is a NATO member and embodies a safe kind of Islam for the West, so they have done a deal to give everything to Ankara.”
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/turkish-actions-designed-to-trigger-nato-confrontation-with-syria/

SHANGHAI: In a statement that may be interpreted as the harshest response yet to the escalating 13-month-old Syrian crisis, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the first time on Wednesday raised the possibility of calling on the NATO military alliance to protect Turkey’s border against incursions by Syrian forces.
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/turkey-can-invoke-natos-article-5-for-syrian-intervention/

Istanbul (CNN) -- Turkey officially considers the shooting down of one of its military fighter jets by Syria to be a hostile act, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/24/world/meast/turkey-syria-plane/index.html

[T]he Turkish warplane shot down by Syria's air defense forces might have violated Syrian airspace, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Saturday.
"It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over [national] borders... when you consider their speed over the sea," Gul told the state-run Anatolia news agency. "These are not ill-intentioned things but happen beyond control due to the jets' speed."
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120623/174202636.html


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Syria's downing of a Turkish fighter yet as "brazen and unacceptable" on Sunday and vowed close U.S. cooperation with Turkey to promote a political transition in Syria.
"The United States condemns this brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms," Clinton said in a statement following a conversation on Saturday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-syria-crisis-clintonbre85n0l2-20120624,0,5568280.story


Turkish fighter jets violated Greek air space on February 9 2010, Greek daily Kathimeriny reported on February 10.
Reportedly, this was the first such trespassing of sovereign air space at the Aegean Sea perpetrated by the Turks since the turn of the new year, the report said quoting Greek defence officials.
The violation, as on previous occasions, was conducted by four F-16s and four Phantoms F-4s which penetrated Greek airspace at the south-eastern island of Samos, a touching distance from mainland Turkey.
Kathimerini said that the Phantoms peeled off from the initial formation and conducted a low flight over the islet of Farmakonisi. Greek fighter jets chased off the Turkish planes, the report said.
The Greek embassy in Ankara lodged an official complaint.
http://sofiaecho.com/2010/02/10/855589_eight-turkish-planes-violate-greek-airspace-and-are-chased-off-by-greek-fighters


The Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts deep inside northern Iraq, and Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded three others in a roadside bomb attack inside Turkey on Sunday, authorities said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/turkey-hits-kurdish-rebels-1463570.html

Democracy My Fat White Ass

Corporate profits as a percent of GDP

Wages paid as percent of GDP

WTF?

No purchase, payment, or contribution necessary to enter or win. Contributing will not improve chances of winning. Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by June 30, 2012. You may enter by contributing to Sponsor here or click here to enter without contributing. Three winners will each receive the following prize package: round-trip tickets for winner and a guest from within the fifty U.S. States, DC, or Puerto Rico to a destination to be determined by the Sponsor; hotel accommodations; and dinner with President Obama on a date to be determined by the Sponsor (approximate retail value of all prizes $4,800). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Promotion open only to U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of 50 United States, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and 18 or older (or of majority under applicable law). Promotion subject to Official Rules and additional restrictions on eligibility. Sponsor: Obama for America, 130 E. Randolph St., Chicago, IL 60601.                   

Desperate

Hitler Screwed by CNBC, Goldman, Geithner and Bernanke

Hu's On First?

China’s President Hu Jintao, left, is followed by Kyrgyzstan’s President Almaz Atambayev, second left, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, second right, and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmonov as they walk to attend a signing ceremony in Shanghai

Shannon Van Sant

 

June 07, 2012

BEIJING – A regional security alliance led by China and Russia announced its opposition to outside intervention in the Syrian crisis in a joint statement released Thursday.

http://www.voanews.com/content/sco-opposes-military-option-for-syria/1204441.html

Insanity

LONDON — While the Spanish government was able to sell all the bonds it wanted to Thursday, it was the usual suspects that did most of the buying: Spain's increasingly fragile banks.
[First Sentence From a NY Times Puff Piece. No Need to Provide Link, it won't work]

[M]eanwhile, the same happens in Spain, where the government is forced to borrow money (at nearly 7%) it can hardly raise in order to shore up banks that are borrowing from the ECB (at 1%) to lend to the Spanish government at (7%) so that the latter can… bail them out. Not even the sickest of minds could make this up!
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/06/much-much-more-than-it-fears-syriza.html

What Could Go Wrong?

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian pro-democracy campaigners called for a new uprising on Sunday, enraged that a court had spared former leader Hosni Mubarak his life over the killing of protesters during the street revolt that ended his three-decade rule.


Separately, Egypt planned to sell $496 million of treasury bills on Sunday, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
The planned sale of debt will be split one-third in three-month and two-thirds in nine-month maturities. The yields at last week’s auction were 14.388% for the three-month debt and 15.825% for the nine-month issue, the news service reported.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/egyptians-continue-protests-debt-sale-planned-2012-06-03?link=MW_home_latest_news

History Rhymes

A truck driver waits to pass through the Salang Tunnel. NY Times

Entrance to the Salang Tunnel circa 1989

The Salang tunnel fire occurred on 3 November 1982 in Afghanistan's Salang tunnel during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Details are uncertain, but the incident may have been the deadliest known road accident, and one of the deadliest fires of modern times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salang_tunnel_fire

Soviet troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan, nine years after they swept into the country.

/

The journey is especially dangerous on the Salang Pass through the Hindu Kush Mountains, where more than 10,000 mujahideen operate.

The mujahideen - Afghan Islamic fighters - have been involved in heavy battles to try to force a Soviet retreat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/15/newsid_4160000/4160827.stm

SALANG PASS, Afghanistan — Nowhere is the impact of Pakistan’s ban on NATO truck traffic more visible than here at the top of the Hindu Kush, on one of the only alternative overland routes for supply convoys to reach Kabul and the rest of the country.

/

This is the only passable route for heavy truck traffic bringing NATO supplies in from the Central Asian republics to the north, as they now must come.

There are other roads, but they are often single-lane dirt tracks through even higher mountain passes, or they are frequently subject to ambushes by insurgents and bandits. So a tunnel built to handle 1,000 vehicles a day, and until the Pakistani boycott against NATO in November handling 2,000, now tries — and often fails — to let 10,000 vehicles through, alternating northbound and southbound truck traffic every other day.

“It’s only a matter of time until there’s a catastrophe,” said Lt. Gen. Mohammad Rajab, the head of maintenance for the Salang Pass. “One hundred percent certain, there will be a disaste[r]"

/

“I’d rather be driving to Kandahar,” he said. Trucks need to have armed guards because of insurgents on that route, he said, “but I’d rather do that than all this waiting.”

/

[P]akistan has expressed willingness to reopen the frontier: for a fee of thousands of dollars per truck, compared with $250 previously. “We’re not about to get gouged in the price,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/world/asia/us-pakistan-dispute-chokes-an-afghan-supply-route.html

There is one downside to the northern routes, however. Bringing supplies overland on trucks and railroads all the way from Europe and across Central Asia costs two or three times as much as shipping them by sea and moving them up through Pakistan.

"Cost is a huge issue, obviously, for anything we're doing in the [Defense] Department and the government right now," says Mitchell. "But obviously the protection of our forces and the ability to achieve our mission is also extraordinarily important, so we need to balance the cost with the urgent requirements on the ground."

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140510790/u-s-now-relies-on-alternate-afghan-supply-routes

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is paying six times as much to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes after Pakistan’s punitive decision in November to close border crossings to NATO convoys, the Associated Press has learned.

/

Pentagon figures provided to the AP show it is now costing about $104 million per month to send the supplies through a longer northern route. That is $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.

/

Over the past year or so, the U.S. military has been shrinking its reliance on the Pakistani routes, which are used to transport fuel and other non-lethal supplies. U.S. officials say they could manage indefinitely without that access if Pakistan either makes the closure permanent or offers to reopen it under unacceptable conditions.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/01/ap-us-costs-soar-for-new-war-supply-routes-011912/

History Rhymes

Nayirah Testimony refers to the controversial testimony given before the non-governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990, by a female who provided only her first name, Nayirah. In her emotional testimony, Nayirah stated that after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers take babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital, take the incubators, and leave the babies to die. Though reporters did not then have access to Kuwait, her testimony was regarded as credible at the time and was widely publicized. It was cited numerous times by United States senators and the president in their rationale to back Kuwait in the Gulf War.

In 1992, it was revealed that Nayirah's last name was al-Ṣabaḥ (Arabic: نيره الصباح‎) and that she was the daughter of Saud bin Nasir Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Furthermore, it was revealed that her testimony was organized as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait public relations campaign which was run by Hill & Knowlton for the Kuwaiti government. Following this, al-Sabah's testimony has largely come to be regarded as wartime propaganda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_(testimony)

Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images

A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at a hospital morgue in the central Syrian town of Houla on Saturday.

It's hard to look at the images coming out of Syria today. They show the bloodied bodies of dozens of children strewn on the floors of morgues. Some of them are just babies, their gazes frozen, still wearing the outfits they had on when they were killed by government forces. In one image, there are so many dead children on a single rug, their limbs are overlapping. One of them is a little girl covered in blood. She's wearing a pink shirt dress with a yellow duckling.
As we've told you on this blog, the images from Syria are distributed by the opposition and taken by citizen journalists. But this time, we have confirmation from United Nations observers on the ground that this massacre in Houla did happen, yesterday.
According to the U.N., their observers visited the city today and counted bodies: More than 32 children under the age of 10 and 60 adults. Some of them killed during the shelling, but others, reports the BBC, were "summarily executed, or butchered" by a regime militia.
"This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account."
The United States said it was "horrified" by the killings.
"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality," said Erin Pelton, of the president's National Security Council.
NPR Reports Must Coincide with US Government Propaganda or Their Funding Will be Cu


The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) has said that ‘armed terrorist groups’ were responsible for the violence in Houla which reportedly killed 92 people.
Over the last few months many armed criminals have been arrested in Syria. Among these criminals there were 26 foreign Terrorists (many of the Al-Qaida members).
Reportedly, the terrorists are:
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/who-is-responsible-for-houla-massacre/

Bloomberg's Market Commentary

Go to this link, http://finviz.com/news.ashx , scroll down on the left to 5:22 am and you see this headline; Saudi Shares Advance on US Confidence, China Pledge.

Scroll up to 10:20 am and the headline reads, Saudi Shares Drop on Concerns About Europe, Oil prices.

Obviously contradictory tick by tick market commentary but the interesting part to me at least is the fact that if you click on the earlier link it no longer exists and you are redirected to the latter post.

Bloomberg never get's it wrong.

G-8

The gathered leaders of the world's largest democracies. What could go wrong?

Jamie and Ben

The unit at the centre of JPMorgan Chase’s $2bn trading loss has built up positions totalling more than $100bn in asset-backed securities and structured products – the complex, risky bonds at the centre of the financial crisis in 2008.
/
The unit, the chief investment office (CIO), has been the biggest buyer of European mortgage-backed bonds and other complex debt securities such as collateralised loan obligations in all markets for three years.
/
J.P. Morgan, the nation’s largest financial firm by assets, is struggling to contain the damage, which already has shaved off more than $25 billion in shareholder value
Ritholtz


"We should say we want smaller institutions so that they can safely fail if they need to fail," he said, although he also called J.P. Morgan "a good player."
Bulltard


JPM is the US' largest investment bank. They are Too Big To Fail. $!00b in worthless, if they prove to be, asset-backed securities means nothing to the good doctor. He can monetize those losses at the speed of light.