Of Course There’s A Racehorse Named Usain Colt deadspin (YY)
Authorities Find 113 Dead Kittens Inside A California Apartment Gawker :-((( Also sad for whoever had to clear it out…
How Our Brains See Men as People and Women as Body Parts: Both Genders Process Images of Men, Women Differently ScienceDaily (Chuck L)
More Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling New York Times
Seed Broadcast Station is Traveling the Country Recording Seed Saver Stories treehugger (martha r). I dimly recall there was a group that was very serious about saving seeds in Santa Fe in the late 1990s. I wonder if this is the same bunch.
Julian Assange defence to be led by Spanish jurist Baltasar Garzón Guardian (YY)
Taking File Sharing to Heart, and Church New York Times
The Drought In The Midwest Could Cause Pork Prices To Surge In China Clusterstock. High pork prices caused social unrest in the recent past.
Spain feels debt heat, Greece way off bailout terms Reuters (David P)
Schaeuble Declares Markets Wrong As Europe Heads To Vacation Bloomberg
Europe needs a bigger crisis firewall GEne Frieda, Financial Times
Liborfest!
MPs tell Barclays to stop fundraising for Mitt Romney Guardian (John L)
BBA ‘warned weekly’ about Libor says former rate-compiler BBC
When a news executive sits on a bank’s board Columbia Journalism Review
Mike Coffman had the best health care around, Aurora survivor Caleb Medley might owe $2 Million Zappatero, SquareState
Best Fix for Postal Service Is to Take It Private Bloomberg (Carol B). Not that we need it, but more proof that Orsag is a neoliberal hack. See: The Post Office Is Not Broke
CNBC to Promote House Flipping Helaine Olen, Forbes
Living Through the Monetarist Experiment From Alpha 2 Omega. A podcast with Philip Pilkington
The Euro as the SDR of Europe? Steve Keen (Chuck L)
Risk premium or deflation charge? Izabella Kaminska FT Alphaville (Scott). Go Izabella! When I saw the Tett piece, I e-mailed some buddies, grumbling “What about deflation does she not understand?” But I’ve shot at Tett aplenty, so glad to see someone else take up the charge.
Today is a day for politics mathbabe
More than half of U.S. metros post higher foreclosure activity Housing Wire
Sales of New Homes Slide Downward Dave Dayen, Firedoglake
Geithner on Financial Crimes: The Dog Ate My Homework Adam Levitin, Credit Slips
House Committee Rakes Geithner Over the Coals About Libor David Dayen, Firedoglake
About the Poor and Taxes Jesse (Scott)
Nomura CEO to Resign Over Insider Trading Scandal Wall Street Journal. A reminder of what is wrong in the US. CEOs in Japan are expected to resign when bad stuff happens on their watch.
Bloodied Trader Pines For Risk As Wall Street Retreats Bloomberg (Lambert)
* * *
D – 45 and counting
lambert here:
“Some people give me the creeps.” –Exene Cervenka
Occupy. Policing: “One of the most notable things, to me, about the police, is that as they have become more and more ‘militarized’ they have become more and more ineffective. It now takes 10 car loads to quell disturbances that 30 years ago a single car could have handled. I was recently treated to the spectacle of less than 50 Occupy Toronto protestors marching, surrounded on all three sides by police, a squad of horse-cops following and a bunch of paddy wagons in addition. Dealing with any sort of real crowds always involves bussing in cops from hundreds of miles around, and their reactions in crisis are slow, confused and yes, brutal.” … Occupy Homes: “On May 30, a group of Occupy Homes activists barricaded themselves around the home of David and Alejandra Cruz — a brother and sister whose family was evicted after their home was foreclosed on by PNC Bank. Fourteen protesters were charged with trespassing. But after refusing a plea deal offered by the City Attorney’s office, these same individuals now face third-degree rioting — a gross misdemeanor, along with four other misdemeanors — which carry a total sentence of up to two years in prison and a $7,000 fine.”
AR. Money: “From what a good source of mine has said, it seems as if North Little Rock’s city government may soon join Fayetteville and Eureka Springs in passing an anti-Citizens United resolution as part of the Move to Amend effort.”
CA. Thuggery: “The immediate catalyst for the [Anaheim] protests was the death of 25-year-old Manuel Diaz on Saturday afternoon. According to media reports, he was shot twice by police in a residential neighborhood, the first time in the leg and then, once he was on the ground, in the head. He was apparently unarmed. The Anaheim police had already been the target of weekly protests by bereaved relatives of earlier shootings victims, who have accused them in court filings of operating ‘like a death squad.’ Sunday, police lost control of a dog which ran towards mourners and protesters at the scene of Diaz’s death and began biting people at random.” … Thuggery: “But a video report showed the police firing projectiles at people who were not traveling in large crowds. The freelance journalist Tim Pool, who was live-streaming the [Anaheim] protests on Ustream Tuesday night, showed on video how the police fired projectiles at him after he waved a press card and identified himself as a member of the news media.”
FL. Privatization: “Signaling a major difference in philosophy from his predecessor, Sarasota County Administrator Randall Reid now blames a rush to privatize government services for last year’s purchasing scandal. [Reid] said that as the recession hit, the county laid off staffers with experience managing contracts. At the same time, the county started using more contracts.” … Voting: “Rumors swirled late Wednesday that two women were being questioned by police after being caught with a bundle of absentee ballots in Hialeah, a political hotbed where many elderly residents prefer to vote by mail. But few details were available from police and prosecutors. Absentee-ballot brokers are nothing new in Miami-Dade’s rough-and-tumble political scene.” … Voting: “[O]ut of the 107 supposed ‘non-citizens’ out of 2,625 ‘potential non-citizens’ identified to county officials, [90%] remain unverified as ‘non-citizens,’ by the admission of the woman responsible for removing the majority of them from FL’s rolls. Nonetheless, the bulk of the corporate media has continued to uncritically report [Gov] Scott and [SoS] Detzner’s unverified claim that 107 registered “non-citizen” voters were, in fact, discovered as a result of their ill-fated purge. They weren’t.”
MI. Referendum: “If the high court says the referendum [currently under challenge in a ‘font size’ suit] can go forward, the emergency manager law would be frozen. That could call into question Muskegon Heights school district converting to a charter system, and Allen Park being under review for a state takeover, and the Benton Harbor manager selling off park land that’s supposed to be set aside.”
NY. Tinpot tyrants watch: “JPMorgan Chase officials denied that they shut down access to the [Chase Manhattan Plaza] open space in response to Occupy Wall Street, despite the fact that it happened a day before OWS protesters arrived in an attempt to move into the plaza last September. Several CB1 members questioned the bank’s statement since security guards at the plaza had told them the fences went up because of the protesters, not because of a waterproofing project.”
OH. Water: “[Kasich’s] order signed Wednesday instructs state agencies to help farmers seeking federal assistance on loans. That includes emergency low-interest loans for crop losses, relief payments for non-insurable losses and temporary deferral payments on federal loans.”
PA. Corruption: “[Dorothy June Hairston Brown], 75, and four executives from her charter schools, were charged with defrauding three charter schools of more than $6.5 million in taxpayer funds.” … Fracking: “The [EPA] concluded that, overall, the [Dimock] results do not suggest health risks from the water supply that has been at the center of controversy over the safety of shale gas development. That’s partly because some homes, located amid Marcellus Shale drilling operations, showed no signs of contamination, and partly because filters are addressing problems in homes where high levels arsenic, barium, and manganese might otherwise create risks.” … Voting: “In Philadelphia, an enormous 437,237 people, or 43 percent of city voters, may not possess the valid PennDOT ID necessary to vote under the state’s controversial new law.”
TX. Voting: TX officials argue citizens can get free IDs at state DPS drivers license offices, except they’re closing the offices (with map).
VA. Creative [cough] class: 11 of top 20 creative class counties in Beltway.
WI. Money: “But [election reformer Mike] McCabe notes that in the 2009-10 session, when Ds controlled both houses, bills to regulate issue ads and require shareholder approval for corporate campaign spending passed the Senate but died in the Assembly.” So the Ds should stop whining about how Walker won with out-of-state money. … Fracking: “The number of WI frac sand mining operations has more than doubled in the past year, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism found, and the state leads the nation in production. Frac sand production has increased seven-fold in the past decade, according to the United States Geological Survey. Thomas Dolley, a mineral commodity specialist at the USGS, says he can’t give state-specific numbers to protect individual companies’ proprietary information.” Huh?! (includes excellent map) … Voting: “What is still lacking from [the League of Woman Voters] report [on the WI recall] is an observation of the chain of custody for the votes (by that I mean who handled the ballots and how, where they were stored, and what condition they were in when they emerged). Also no mention is made of the integrity or lack thereof of the voting machines used on June 5th in Wisconsin.” … Identity theft: “The state Department of Revenue acknowledged Tuesday posting online by mistake the tax numbers of tens of thousands of businesses and consumers – at least the fourth time in six years the state has released confidential information and raised the fear of identity fraud. As a safeguard the state will offer free credit monitoring to consumers affected by the mistaken release.”
Outside baseball. The telescreen: “I cannot make my doctor’s office stop showing The Today Show no matter how much I beg. The nurses like it, she says to me. The morning after the Aurora shootings, before anybody even knew what this was, we were having a panel debate on whether you should ‘be worried about taking your kids to [The Dark Knight Rises].'” TV should be abolished from all public spaces, especially airports and waiting rooms. Try watching it after you’ve gotten clean. It’s horrific. … Government: “I had a total ‚ÄúAha!‚Äù moment, where I understood how forest monitoring actually works. [E]very national forest puts out a quarterly Schedule of Proposed Actions (SOPA). The SOPA lists every action being taken in that particular forest, from replacing the bathrooms in a campground, or trail bridges that are falling apart, to prescribed fires, grazing or tree thinning. For every action on the schedule, the forest service must give adequate notice, and wait to receive public comments. There are typically at least two rounds of scoping and comments.”
Media critique. Teams: “Freeh delivered the crux of his findings via a press conference, one covered live by virtually every media organization with an interest in sports or news. With one glaring exception: the Big Ten Network, the outlet tasked with exhaustively covering Penn State’s athletic conference. As one of its signature athletic programs crumbled, BTN was airing its standard summer fare–swim meets, football games from previous seasons, and documentaries on other, lesser pigskin icons. Network executives hid behind the lame explanation that BTN was ‚Äúnot a news organization.'” In other words, they behaved just like the mainstream press with the banksters. Just a different “team-owned broadcast operation.”
Grand Bargain™-brand Catfood watch: “The Senate Wednesday evening approved a bill giving the Obama administration 30 days to describe its plans for implementing the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts scheduled to go into effect beginning in January.” … “Senior Democrats are pushing GOP leaders to replace the looming sequester cuts with a bipartisan bargain on deficit reduction. [In a letter to House Rs,] the lawmakers urged the Rs to start ‘immediate [i.e. not lame duck] negotiations’ on ‘a balanced deficit reduction plan’ that would prevent automatic sequester cuts from taking effect next year.” In the run-up, nice to see Obama pounding Romney daily on how he wants to cut Medicare and slash Social Security. Oh, wait, that’s not happening. That seems odd.
Robama vs. Obomney watch. Lesser evil: “Fracking is reckless, irresponsible and downright evil. But the unwillingness of environmentalists to oppose energy policies from the Obama White House that they would never have tolerated from Republicans makes Barack Obama ‘the more effective’ not the ‘lesser’ evil. Of course Mitt Romney is evil as well, and one of them will be president until the end of 2016. [H]ow is this politics of choosing evil working out for us?”
The trail. Enthusiasm: “Democrats are significantly less likely now (39%) than to say they are ‘more enthusiastic about voting than usual’ in the coming presidential election. Republicans are more enthusiastic now than in 2008, and the same as in 2004.” … Personality: “Romney’s overall favorable/unfavorable score remains a net negative, a trait no other modern presumptive GOP presidential nominee (whether Bob Dole, George W. Bush or John McCain) has shared.”
Elizabeth Warren. Teebee ad: “We need a cop on the beat to make sure no one steals your purse on Main Street and no one steals your pension on Wall Street.” No, we need a cop on the beat who will arrest banksters for crimes already committed, about which Warren is conspicuously silent.
Green Party. Jill Stein on Anaheim: “Shooting of unarmed people is intolerable, and cannot be allowed to become a routine feature of urban policing. And police brutality towards innocent bystanders in a protest cannot be accepted.” … Cheri Honkala: “When police appear to be killing people who are simply scared or committing minor offenses, the community has a responsibility to show up and demand answers. They shouldn’t be met with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and police dogs. We have to recognize the legitimacy of the concerns that are driving protests and give people a fair hearing.”
Romney. White man’s burden: “Mitt Romney’s campaign forcefully repudiated a quotation, ascribed to one of his foreign policy advisers [ROMNEY: “You have a lot of people who offer advice”] and published by a leading British newspaper, suggesting that President Barack Obama does not understand America’s ‘Anglo-Saxon heritage.'” … White man’s burden: “‘It’s not true. If anyone said that, they weren’t reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign,’ [a Romney spokeshole] told CBSNews.com in an email. Saul did not comment on what specifically was not true.” Except it’s the right-wing Telegraph, which stands by the story. Commentary points out how the Telegraph’s loose guidelines for anonymous quotes have worked against Ds in the past. But now they work against Romney, so he’s losing the political class. … “You didn’t build that” flap: “[The Romney] campaign spotlighted Rebecca Smith, owner of the construction company A.D. Morgan Corp. The A.D. Morgan Corporation employs 50 people and has annual revenues of about $80 million, according to its website. The company lists more than 130 projects and developments. [T]he list is nearly all government projects.”
Obama. “You didn’t build that” flap: “‘Those ads taking my words about small business out of context — they’re flat-out wrong,’ Obama says in the commercial. ‘Of course Americans build their own businesses. Every day, hardworking people sacrifice to meet a payroll, create jobs and make our economy run. And what I said was that we need to stand behind them, as America always has.'” Terrible ad. Romney’s not the only candidate who sounds like a robot. Also, “out of context” is whining. And I guess ordinary working people don’t “make our economy run”? … “War on women” flap: “‘I’ve got two daughters,’ [Obama] told 950 donors yesterday as he talked about Planned Parenthood. ‘I want them to control their own health care choices.'” Two words: Stupak amendment.
* 45 days until the Democratic National Convention ends with a pasties and deep-fried Mars Bars on the floor of the Bank of America Panther Stadium, Charlotte, NC. 45. And not 78.
Antidote du jour (martha r):
139 comments
Comments are closed.
Meticulous takedown of Steve Pinker’s recent book.
http://www.zcommunications.org/reality-denial-steven-pinkers-apologetics-for-western-imperial-volence-by-edward-s-herman-and-david-peterson-1
Dear lord that is quite thorough.
Too bad the authors of this “take down” couldn’t hide their own political biases.
Example:
This incredibly dishonest statement is more than enough to disqualify the whole piece. Angola, Vietnam, Cuba and the missile crisis, financing of the anti-nuclear movements in Western Europe; whereas the leaders of said movements could never be bothered to denounce the USSR nuclear arsenal, etc. etc. etc.
Yes! The US has pursued a pretty disgusting policy of imperialism and there is AMPLE historical and documented evidence of this fact. But to peremptorily affirm that the USSR was almost a passive and timid actor? There is ample historical and documented evidence that demonstrate otherwise.
Blanket dismissals based on a single lapse in judgment aren’t really my thing..
(Do note they’re talking about imperialistic tendencies..)
That’s not the elephant in the room!
great photo, the beauty of the guileless
Assange and Garzon back-to-back against the Odious Foe??!!!! YESS! If only for the theater; but they’ll prove soul mates, just watch.
Diane Feinstein gave me the creeps when she called for Assange to be extradited. The war is over.
‘A Euro-drachma would still be a Euro-Drachma, whether it resided in a Greek or German bank account.’ — Steve Keen
This is rather silly. Depositors want accounts denominated in widely used, stable currencies. For instance, try finding a U.S. deposit account denominated in Canadian dollars or Mexican pesos. The demand isn’t there.
Banks would find zero demand for Euro-drachma deposits outside of Greece. But there would massive demand for Euro-Deutschmark deposits throughout the EU. Hell, I’d like a D-mark account myself!
Earth to Steve: playing stupid bankster tricks with fiat currencies doesn’t fool anyone. Bancor already exists: it’s called gold.
Bancor already exists: it’s called gold. Jim Haygood
Gold is just another commodity without government privileges or the expectation thereof. The future is competitive currencies, not being forced to use a hoarder’s favorite shiny metal by government FIAT (deliberate, scathing irony).
Some government privileges are good and some government privileges are bad.
A foot is a foot and not a meter.
A pound is a pound and not 1.5 kg.
Why? The government says so.
Value is subjective; it cannot be measured objectively so your “standard measure” argument is bogus.
So, that’s a good government privilege?
Government privilege for private interests is fascism. Why the heck should gold owners, gold miners, gold loaners, gold sellers or gold buyers have their favorite shiny metal privileged by government? More importantly, why should the creation rate of government money be limited to the mining rate of a metal?
A gold standard is just a previous tool for oppression by bankers. It would be foolish to return to that vomit.
So, are some government privileges good and some government priveleges bad?
What do you say?
Are you in favor of fascism?
I think some government privileges are good and some government privileges are bad.
Even subjective government privileges can be good, case-dependent.
A gold standard would favor the old, the rich and bankers over the young, the poor and non-bankers.
Is that what you wish?
So far, I have written that some government privileges are good and some government privileges are bad, that a foot is a foot because the government says so, and even subjective government privileges can be good, dependent on the situation.
Do we agree on these, before moving on?
No, I don’t.
Are all government privileges bad then?
Are privileges for the rich at the expense of the poor good?
Let me rephrase that a bit.
All government privileges no good?
Answer the question. Are government privileges for the rich at the expense of the poor good?
Is that too hard for you?
Could be but fortunately not.
I am just concerned that you are asking to avoid answering.
So let me re-read this thread again…
Hmmm…
Yes, I did ask the question first.
Is ‘a foot being a foot’ because the government says it’s a government privilege to say so good?
Is ‘a foot being a foot’ because the government says it’s a government privilege to say so good?
Like I said, value is subjective; it cannot be measured objectively like, say, length can be. So you are trying to compare apples and oranges.
A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools. Proverbs 26:3
A foot being a foot because the government says so is like an ouze of gold being $2000 because the government says so.
A foot being a foot because the government says so is like an ouze of gold being $2000 because the government says so.
If gold is worth $2000/oz then it doesn’t need government to make it so. And if gold isn’t worth $2000/oz then government shouldn’t make it so.
You have the same problem with the arbitary nature of defining the foot.
It was only after 1959 that it became 0.3048 meter which is 2ppm shorter than the previous US definition and 1.7ppm longer than the previous British definition.
Before that, it could vary from city to city.
You have the same problem with the arbitary nature of defining the foot. MLTPB
The “foot” is an arbitrary measure of an OBJECTIVE quantity: distance. Distance does change based on what you measure it in, be it meters or feet.
Value, otoh, is SUBJECTIVE. It varies from person to person so defining gold as $2000/oz is absurd besides being fascist.
The arbitrariness comes from the government adopting that standard when it could have adopted something else or a different system entirely (like the metric). It could change tomorrow.
It’s a government privilege, and for me, a good one.
Are you ready to answer the question? Are all government privileges bad?
Government privileges for the rich at the expense of the poor is the question.
Are they good or not?
I’ll take failure to answer as “affirmative” – that you think government privileges for the rich at the expense of the poor is good.
Let me see if I can help get this to a conclusion.
Government privileges for the rich are bad, and there are some other government privileges are bad, but not all government privileges are bad. Some government privileges are good.
Can we agree on that?
The question is “Are government privileges for the rich at the expense of the poor good.”
That’s the question under discussion.
So I take it you (finally) agree that they are not?
Well?
See above.
“A gold standard would favor the old, the rich and bankers over the young, the poor and non-bankers”
Well, except for the “old” category, (into which I fall), that’s the monetary system we have now !
At least under a gold standard, some old people like myself could buy some gold and silver with savings, as a store of value, when interest rates are negative, as they are now.
If you wish to attempt to “store value” in PMs then nothing is stopping you. Just don’t expect government to privilege your choice; “fiat gold” is a hypocritical abomination.
As for low interest rates, that’s a result of the Fed propping up the banks. That’s fascism.
Re Gold Standard as I wrote a year ago (a bit more actually) in http://www.petraitis.us/?p=554
There have been many disparagers of the Federal Reserve and its control over the currency recently and there are also many Gold-Bugs in commodity land touting buying gold. I was wondering actually how any return to a non-fiat currency would take place.
The US economy’s GDP released on Friday is approximately $14.872 billion according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis site. This was a sharp upward revision to a growth rate of 3.1 and knocked down commodity prices, including gold.
Many of the Gold-Bug people decry the “fiat money” and the Federal Reserve, and would like to get rid of the Fed and return to a Gold Standard or a hard money standard. Though many forget that the Federal Reserve AND the Gold Standard of currency conversion were created at the same time. The thought is that “dollars” as created by the government through the Federal Reserve are not a “store of value” but that “gold” is. Why this should be so is not clear, and is tied up with the psychology and philosophy of money and a “reserve currency.” But let’s return to a thought of what it might mean to return to a gold standard.
The US has significant Gold reserves, mainly stored at Fort Knox and the New York Federal Reserve Bank. According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 4,578 metric tons of gold in Fort Knox and about 5,000 metric tons of gold in the NY Fed. Not all the gold in the NY Fed is property of the USA, some of it is held in the accounts of foreign governments and international organizations. These gold reserves are currently valued on the Fed’s books at $42.22 dollars an ounce, while gold is trading at around $1,500 dollars an ounce in the markets. This makes the gold reserves of Fort Knox worth about $222 billion at the current market price for gold.
This leads to the following conclusion:
All the gold in Fort Knox, if allowed to underpin the dollar at current market values, would cover about 1.5% of the needs of the US economy.
Even if we double this amount for the gold in Manhattan, the inability of a commodity based hard money to support the US economy in its current size is clear. The gold bug people will say this argues for an increase in the dollar price of gold. But if we were to say the reserves should be sufficient to cover the economy then the price would have to go up 30 times and the economy would have to stay stable. An impossible thing to envision at this point without calamity.
Steve Keen makes good sense. A “sub-Euro-country” would work to adjust their respective economies in a timely manner. Timely being the operative word, because the current Euro economies have spun out of control because there were no controls. But, aside from the Sub-Euros being able to monetize their own debt, and do so quickly and efficiently before terminal debt sets in, those countries still would not get very favorable interest rates on their bond. But the good news is they wouldn’t worry because they would be busy getting their economies back on track. And it is likely their creditors would receive more than they are soon going to. Funny. A gold standard won’t do one thing to help this situation out.
those countries still would not get very favorable interest rates on their bond. Sto
Irrelevant since monetary sovereigns should not borrow in the first place. Bill Mitchell calls it “corporate welfare.”
Is it welfare when the government borrows from Social Security, private pension funds or individuals?
Yes it is welfare. Welfare is welfare regardless of who receives it. Some welfare (to those who need it) is justified but there is no need to disguise it as “lending to the Federal Government” when the Federal Government has absolutely NO need to borrow in the first place.
Too straightforward for you?
So, the name corporate welfare is not quite correct?
Maybe it can be called individual welfare or pension welfare?
Maybe it can be called individual welfare or pension welfare? MyLessThanPrimeBeef
Only by people trying to justify it? Like you?
If individuals need welfare then it should be generously provided but borrowing by monetary sovereigns provides welfare to those who don’t need it to live but to be rich. Do you defend that?
Is it fine for the government to borrow only from individuals below a certain wealth cut off point then?
No, it isn’t since the welfare would go to those who need it least (those who can afford to “lend” to the Federal Government).
And again, it is confusing welfare with genuine lending. In favor of confusion are you?
Finally.
So, is Billy Mitchell manipulating, or rather weakening his own argument, by calling it corporate welfare, instead of broadening the name to reflect pension welfare/saver welfare/IRA welfare?
No, it is you who apparently wish to weaken his argument by hiding behind pensioners.
If pensioners need welfare then it should be provided to them generously. And not wasting interest payments on the rich helps to enable that generosity. So who are you protecting? Rich leaches on society?
Look everybody, a battle of question marks! Who will be the first to capitulate and address the other’s points? THE WORLD IS WAITING
EH, I think question marks are less fascist than periods.
A simple solution so no one hides beyond the rich is to just let only those below a certain wealth limit lend to the government if that is the objection. Is that the objection?
Actually, I have addressed his points*; not that I expect him to learn but to show that my arguments are consistent.
*except for the open ended diversions.
A simple solution so no one hides beyond the rich is to just let only those below a certain wealth limit lend to the government MyLessThanPrimeBeef
1) You are hiding behind pensioners, not the rich.
2) If people need welfare then just give it to them and forget the charade of letting them “lend” to a monetarily sovereign government.
3) We need clarity wrt money now, not continual confusion.
Because of that confusion a lot of people are suffering needless, counterproductive “austerity.”
Let’s hope this will avoid any diversions.
You mentioned Billy Mitchell calling government borrowing corporate welfare.
I wanted to know if only corporations lend to the government.
It turned out that it’s welfare to anyone who is a saver who is interested in lending to the government. If that’s case, calling it corporate welfare is not quite correct.
“Is it welfare when the government borrows from Social Security, private pension funds or individuals?”
If the government then plans to default on those loans, as is being threatened, it isn’t welfare. It’s theft.
Social security and pensions are not individual welfare, they are insurance policies, even if mispriced when sold. Private pensions assumed unrealistic returns and were often raided to pay executive compensation of employer corporations ……. however, private and public pension employer contributions were/are merely a portion of the compensation package, often balanced by reduced real time wages (e.g. I applied for a couple nursing jobs for the county where I considered the benefits, incl. pension, esp. pension, absolutely awesome (pensions weren’t big in nursing), worth 20% of the going rate salary…… but the salary was 30% less than comparable work in the private sector. The same money, if set aside over 30+ years, would fund a very comfortable retirement indeed. I’d have been really pissed if the county got the benefit of cheap labor, destroying my savings, then later reneged on the pension). And I don’t know of any private insurers who have close to the same 25 year solvency assurance of SS, assuming the taxpayer-paid-for bonds in the trust fund aren’t defaulted upon (as proposed by right-wing libertarian types who seem to place less “value” (for you, Beard) on bonds forced upon Joe the Plumber than those sold at auction to China and Bill Gross). AIG just went through (I believe) the largest bailout in history. Few large insurers have NOT failed, gone bankrupt, or been restructured since the GFC.
And am I the only person who recalls Reagan predicting the retirement of the baby boomers in 30 years being a future crisis, and the promises he made that the hefty raise in the payroll taxes was both necessary and sufficient to resolve the issue? Our legislators didn’t tell their constituents they were using tomorrow’s food money to pay for today’s tax cuts . Even Clinton relied on surplus revenues from payroll taxes to balance his budget. In the insurance business, they call that “booking bets”. It’s criminal fraud and a conviction results in prison time (assuming a functional DOJ).
Social security and pensions are NOT welfare, nor are they entitlements.
Sto, good points. Agreed.
Re: Yesterday’s links section
Romney. White man’s burden: “[Romney advisor:] We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.” Because Obama’s Kenyan, right?
These same smears were raised against John F. Kennedy, who an Irish-American Catholic.
Just as President Obama has been accused of seeking revenge on the British for their mistreatment of his ancestors in Kenya, then-candidate Kennedy was accused of plotting revenge on the British for their mistreatment of his ancestors in Ireland. Just as President Obama’s father is accused of being a Communist for opposing British colonialism in Africa, President Kennedy’s father was accused of being a Nazi sympathizer for opposing British efforts to drag the United States into WW II. Eventually, British pressure on the Roosevelt administration led to then-Ambassador Kennedy being recalled (fired) on October 22, 1940.
Many White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) seriously believed that JFK would destroy America’s alliance with the UK, turn the US military into a subordinate unit of the Irish Republican Army, unite Ireland (with Northern Ireland) by any means necessary, appoint Satanists to the Cabinet, and install an papal legate in the White House as his unelected successor.
Nor was the criticism and hysteria limited to working-class Protestants. Decades of “scholarship” by Ivy League researchers, large foundations (e.g., the Ford Foundation), and WW II-era government agencies (e.g., the Office of Facts and Figures) purported to “prove” that Catholics, Irish-Americans, Slavic-Americans, and Italian-Americans were a potential threat to national security and cohesion. Commonly called “white ethnics,” they were said to be unable to appreciate Anglo-Saxon culture, genetically and culturally inferior, genetically predisposed to authoritarian forms of governance, and likely to side with their religious leaders and ancestors’ countries of origin against the Anglo-American alliance.
These “studies” would be used to justify everything from “holistic” college admissions standards that favored WASPs over better qualified Jews and Eastern Europeans to deliberately destroying ethnically cohesive Irish-, Slavic-, and Italian-American neighborhoods through, for example, urban renewal projects that dispersed the residents into suburbia. For detailed, if sometimes pedantic, discussions of this, read The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal as Ethnic Cleansing by E. Michael Jones and The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel.
Re: the “Anglo-Saxon” dog-whistle, the Balloon Juice blog had a great image yesterday, from Dennis G.:
The President doesn’t understand our Anglo-Saxon heritage!
That’s a reference to The sheriff is a . . .
you can stick a fork in romney
If I didn’t know better—and I don’t—I’d swear Romney is a plant paid to throw this election for Wall Street’s golden boy, with direct deposits dropped in three or more offshore accounts. For Obama to lose this one, the economy would have to implode completely or he’d have to be caught with in bed with a goat.
I agree.
I’ll bet you Romney is a NRA plant. Wayne Lapierre would be forced to STFU for at least 4 years if Obysmal lose.
American gun makers would lose so much sales, it’s frightening.
Furthermore, the mainstream media hasn’t catch up yet on the new Republican electoral strategy for 2012. That would throw all the prognostics out the window.
The firing of Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., ended his presidential aspirations and significantly reduced his influence in the Democratic Party. His opposition to entering the war in 1939 and 1940 – a position that echoed both popular opinion and FDR’s 1940 campaign platform – would be used against the Kennedy family for decades. As late as 2009, neoconservatives were still using it to attack the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s opposition to the Iraq war, receipt of an honorary knighthood from the UK, etc.
“TV should be abolished from all public spaces, especially airports and waiting rooms. Try watching it after you’ve gotten clean. It’s horrific. … “
Media Reacts To Conan’s Same-Sex Wedding News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4
Here’s a similiarly absurd Conan clip about ice cream.
Forgot the link:
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/07/19/local-tv-news-now-with-ice-cream/
Renee, thank you -a brilliant choice for the state of TV ‘news’ and its utter vacuousness.
source: thessaurus.com
Definition: empty; unintelligent
Synonyms: airheaded, birdbrained, blank, drained, dull, dumb, emptied, foolish, half-baked, inane, lamebrained, minus, shallow, silly*, stupid, superficial, uncomprehending, unreasoning, vacant, void
Notes: vacant pertains mainly to things (vacant house) while vacuous pertains mainly to the absence or near absence of meaning or intelligence (vacuous expressio
René -misspelled your name.
No worries, LeeAnne. I am a boy, however… just in case you were wondering :-)
Yep. A perfect example of how it’s all rigged and controlled.
One could show how more important fake news stories are catapulted as well, like we see in the Western war against Syria.
Check!
Last week I walked through The Hague central station and saw a poster with the following text;
Putin, stop Assad (English version see YouTube!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90jlHnwNIvg
Ugh. More Amnesty thuggery. The war being waged against Syria via terrorism and propaganda has revealed a number of NGOs that are promoting war: Human Rights Watch, Doctors sans frontiers*, Avaaz, etc.
People wonder why my shit list/perp list is getting so long.
Well, the propaganda is so pervasive and I’m finally waking up to these facts, so my list is getting longer and longer. It’s not my fault.
*For e.g., here’s a link to a discussion [that also refers back to a NC discussion] about Dr. Jacques Bérès, who co founded Doctors Without Borders and was called into duty in Syria, and was interviewed and had a piece in the NYTimes (another org on my shit list): http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2012/03/pt-ii-syria-and-options-for.html?showComment=1331712617562#c5577355885964962193
WWM, the Docs Without Borders are Old Timers embedded in the System.
Um, what? I count 5 counties that are inside the beltway (or mostly inside) in that “Bacon’s Rebellion” piece, and one that is part way inside (Fairfax County – which is huge, by the way). Arlington and Alexandria also top lists of “most literate” towns (with some weird criteria, admittedly). I think the whole idea of the “creative class,” including the definition, is kind of dumb – but the places on that list are not inside the Beltway. I’m also not sure what you were implying by using that moniker. Sure – the DC area is armpit deep in lawyers: by including those, you get a skewed result. But I fail to see the need to paint the whole NoVa region with that brush.
I think you’re confusing the physical Beltway, the road, with the economic and cultural Beltway, driven by government.
S, the emphasis on the Beltway draws attention from the “Mormon” creative class in Utah, the New Uber Security State. Can we see the Romney for President connection, the reason for Wllard’s investiture in London, his anointment in “Poland” and “Israel?” Just follow the money and the DNA of the .01% Global Reich and its .99% Agency, and place your bets: As ” Christian Science” was chosen as the “New Universal Religion” of Anglo-Saxon Empire promulgated by the Rhodes Trust/Round Table/Chambers of Commerce in the past, so has The Church of Latter Day Saints been chosen as the “New Universal Religion” of the present and future–Roberto Unger’s elaborate schemes notwithstanding. Willard Mitt Romney, as President/Mormon Bishop, will preach Imperial Salvation from his Bully Pulpit within the Empire’s “District of Columbia.”
Regarding Schauble:
Oh, the markets are wrong alright, old chap, just in the OPPOSITE direction that you’re intimating.
Certainly, the markets today should be up near 2%, right?
Ain’t nothing gonna breaka my stride, says the PPT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY41o-iZStI
Regarding Assange:
Umm, so does this mean you can get rid of the racist, POS that is Alan Dershowitz?
I mean, having as a legal advisor a man who is one of the most strident and ardent supporters of the full-blown Israeli apartheid regime, doesn’t really seem to bolster any person’s arguments as concerns international justice/law.
Regarding the post office:
The post office was created – Constitutionally, no less – to offer people – like most public services – a minimal guarantee that they would be able to receive a service that was deemed necessary for the functioning of a democratic society.
The fact that the neoliberals are attacking the “guaranteed” structures of common good – i.e., public schools, libraries, SS, Medicare, USPS – really should be more than anyone needs in determining that these people are fascist scum.
All of the bright “young” neoliberal stars – Orzag, Sunstein, Powers, Goolsbee – make any right-minded person want to scream when out of their mouths pour the fetid and well-worn mantras of their fascist forebears.
Enough.
The whole Assange thing is fake anyway. All this drama is concocted. The Dershowitz angle was probably added to to the plan just to help build up Dershowitz’s character so he can do more mission in the future.
The PPT is why the Criminal Reserve can never EVER be audited, not until Timmy and Benny are swinging from lampposts. Printing money for directly purchases of stocks, equities and commodities, at 3 or 4 pm every market day might be illegal.
Dershowitz has suffered a rare and serious case of publicity deficit disorder the past few years. To escape his solicitations, Assange should run directly to Sweden if necessary.
“How Our Brains See Men as People and Women as Body Parts”
For “Our” read 230 American undergraduates and for ‘Brains’ read ‘unconsidered reactions to briefly presented photographs.’
BTW, what are ‘sexual body parts?’ I can find my heart beating quickly at the sudden focus on a shapely wrist, and my wife was – so she tells me – first brought short by a glimpse of my naked feet.
Maybe your wife really saw a person and not a body part so when you were talking about the body parts that attracted you maybe she didn’t know how to respond and looked down at her feet thinking: “okay, I can’t say his face because no one will believe that, his body is not in shape and I won’t go there, I know, his feet!”
Just kidding! I’m sure your feet are lovely.
And at least your wife probably loves you as a person and not a body part.
WWM, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.”
Odd that you use that phrase, ‘How beautiful are the feet’. A story by that title, written under the nom de plume ‘bellacanta’ is one of my all-time faves (google it).
“I take these breasts to be my lawful wedded wife … to have and to hold … huhuh …”
Barney Opts for Yet More “Discretion” for Banks, His Discretion, that is
“Barney Frank operated as Geithner’s lawyer through all of this, saying that the 2008-era financial regulators were all Bush appointees. But that’s not the point; none of those regulators had access to documentary evidence of the commission of fraud. ”
Geithner on the NYFed, Jamie Dimon on the NYFed
Barney gripes on Dimon’s griping on Dodd-Frank
Geithner gripes on Barofsky’s transparency
Barney offers more “discretion”
The Circle of Conspirators
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/25/geithner-raked-over-the-coals-in-house-committee-about-libor/
Amazing story.
Basically, everyone in that room, all the regulators and all the politicians, are in on the same conspiracy.
One person gets to play critic at the end. I haven’t looked but he probably needs to get reelected and TBTB decided to give him the role.
One quick very limited airing of the dirty laundry, and then everyone moves on.
How is not our entire government criminal? Why support one criminal gang above the other?
Seriously? Can someone who is planning on voting for Obama please tell me why supporting one gang of criminals over the other will help?
Barney Frank acting as Geithner’s lawyer! This is the Democrats left flank? And Obama stays above the fray in the clouds and faces no push back for assigning foxes to guard the hen houses.
Indeed, where in the heck was Obama through these hearings? Playing Invisible Man President?
Campaigning. Hope, change, and all that.
Barney’s “discretion” has become legendary, and for him to be dispensing it for Geithner is for they to be advertising their complete flaunting of the system.
They are ‘celebrating’ it.
Lambert: thanks for the AR reference!
I guess proximity breeds cynicism or something like that but our local City Council rarely if ever takes its collective head out of a dark place to acknowledge the world beyond WMT, TYSN, & the usual banker/developer complex…
North Little Rock, aka the largest small town in Arkansas, due to it’s politics.
Oh good grief. As a person who set up the first tent in Occupy Fayetteville and initiated Occupy Eureka Springs I have mentioned here all along the way exactly why the Move To Amenders as much as any other reason are why I and many others are no longer participating in Occupy.
They are self-kettling, working occupy just like a veal pen or D party would… taking broad good sounding ideas and turning it into a useless pursuit of seeking nothing binding, only useless platitudes… draining unwitting supporters energy. Move To Amend is not Occupy…. for months nobody knew who Move To Amend was. Nobody could ask questions or participate in proposed language, tactics etc. Yet they have managed to suck all oxygen out of the proverbial occupy room… in pursuit of nothing more than platitudes. I didn’t join Occupy to be part of a new MoveOn self helpless experience…. neither did most others I met, whether they could express it the same way I am now or not.
While I am not familiar with North Little Rock’s proposed language specifically, I can tell you both Fay and Eureka Springs City Council knew the best way to shut Occupy up was to give them a resolution full of nothing but non-binding platitudes. And that is what they did. Within seconds they were all back conducting business as usual with the Chamber of Commerce etc.
Now all of these occupy locales are all but dead. Happened in NYC and LA too (in terms of this area of feckless resolutions, political and electoral reform).
And then there are Occupiers like me, who determined that I don’t need a sign to shape politics.
I am now included in back door meetings regarding my state’s foreclosure legislation…..hearing what the slimy bankers are trying to do.
Occupy should have vaulted you to action. Too bad if you are back doing nothing.
I haven’t been doing nothing for thirty years of my adult life. So I wouldn’t know what going back to doing nothing looked like. Just learning, focusing, and by all means not being led astray along the way. Glad you/your group is on the foreclose bankster trail… our groups in Northwest AR considered it but really could not figure out a strategy. Part of the reason is it’s not as big a problem in AR, much less NW AR. Walmart etc, weren’t hurt in the ’08 aftermath… job/housing loss seemed much less severe and cheap housing for retirees from big cities and California have insulated us from much of that crisis. At least in any way regular folks were willing to stand up and fight on the issue. Even UA students would have less than nothing to do with a movement ready and eager to work on the student finance fiasco.
Re Romney’s “Anglo-Saxon” Dog Whistle CODE (connect his wife’s “Dressage” amour: an Anglo Upper Crust romantic pursuit) — Recall: “The Secret Society of Cecil Rhodes” and the Milner Round Table’s continuous putsch for the “special relationship” between the British Empire (even by another name: The Commonwealth of Nations) and Anglo-Saxon “America.”
“Milner was, if not in 1897, at least by 1901, Rhodes’s chosen successor in the leadership of that society.
“The secret society of Cecil Rhodes is mentioned in the first five of his seven wills. In the fifth it was supplemented by the idea of an educational institution with scholarships, whose alumni would be bound together by common ideals–Rhodes’s ideals….The scholarships … were to be one of the instruments by which the members of the secret society could carry out his purpose. This purpose, as expressed in the first will (1877) was:
|The extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfective of a system of emigration fro the United Kingdom and of colonization by British subjects of all lands wherein the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour, and enterprise, . . . the ULTIMATE RECOVERY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA as an INTEGRAL PART OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, the consolidation of the whole Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial Representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend o weld together the disjointed members of the Empire, and finally the foundation of so great a power as to hereafter render wars impossible and promote the best interests of humanity.|
“To achieve this purpose, Rhodes, in this first will, … left all his wealth to the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Carnarvon) and to the Attorney General of Griqualand West (Sidney Shippard), to be used to create a secret society patterned on the JESUITS. The reference to the Jesuits as the model for his secret society is found in a “confession of Faith” which Rhodes had written two years earlier (1875) adn which he enclosed in his will. Thirteen years later, in a letter to the trustee of his third will, Rhodes told how to form the secret society, saying, ‘In considering questions suggested take Constitution of the Jesuits if obtainable and insert “ENGLISH EMPIRE” for “Roman Catholic Religion.”‘
“In HIS ‘Confession of Faith’ RHODES outlined the types of persons who might be useful members of this secret society. As listed by the American Secretary to the Rhodes Trust, this list exactly describes the group formed by MILNER in SOUTH AFRICA:
|Men of ability and enthusiasm who find no suitable way to serve THEIR country under the current political system; able youth recruited from the schools and universities; MEN OF WEALTH with no aim in life; younger sons with high thoughts and great aspirations but without opportunity; RICH MEN whose careers are blighted by some great disappointment. … There is to be a kind of RELIGIOUS BROTHERHOOD like the Jesuits, ‘a CHURCH for the EXTENSION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.’|
“The secret society, after so much preliminary talk, took form in 1891, the same year in which Rhodes drew up his fourth will and made Stead as well as Lord Rothschild the trustee of his fortune. It is perfectly clear from the evidence that he expected Rothschild to handle the financial investments associated with the trust, while Stead was to have full charge of the methods by which the funds were used. About the same time, in February 1891, Stead and Rhodes had another long discussion about the secret society. First they discussed their goals and agreed that, if necessary in order to achieve ANGLO-AMERICAN UNITY, Britain should join the United States. Then they discussed the organization of the secret society and divided it into two circles: an INNER CIRCLE, ‘The Society of the ELECT,’ and an OUTER CIRCLE to include ‘The Association of HELPERS’ …”
The above quotations (CAPS mine) are from pages 33-34 and 36-37 of “THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENT: from Rhodes to Cliveden” by Carroll Quigley (1949; Copyright 1981 by Books in Focus,, Inc.; GSG & Associates Publishers, San Pedro CA; ISBN 0-945001-01-0).
The “HELPER” du jour – Willard Mitt Romney -certainly is in London to pay obeisance to his Imperial Anglo-Saxon Masters. His wife’s expensive AngloAristo “Dressage” habit and her ownership of the horse likely destined to win the prize in the London Olympics 2012 pays obeisance to their “Royal” Imperial tastes, and potentiates the Romney-British “Royal” Anglo-Saxon Imperial Reich bond. Is Romney not to receive his “investiture” as American Puppet President in London, in “Poland,” and in “Israel” by Strategic Despotic Blessing?
True to its commitment to arch propaganda as its means to progress through the centuries, this Secret Society, this Anglo-Saxon Imperial Reich, has by its Agencies forged a compleat disinformation campaign on YouTube, in order to DEFLECT the weight of its treacherous GLOBAL CONSPIRACY onto the backs of “The Illuminati” and the “Freemasons.” This is in keeping with the British Imperial genius for international propaganda, ever since “QEI” (the first Queen Elizabeth), carried magnificently through the era of Queen Victoria, unto the Imperial rule of the so-called “House of Windsor” and its Courtiers today.
Contrary to those “Secret Societies” made to shoulder the blame for Global Conspiracy to dominate the world, The Rhodes Trust-Milner Round Table group “does not have any secret robes, secret handclasps, or secret passwords. It does not need any of these, since its members know each other intimately”–as Prof. Carroll Quigley avers (op. cit, p. ix).
The TELL of the strategic involvement of the American Capo George H.W. Bush–of The Russell Foundation’s YALE and Skull and Bones, as eternal governor of the CIA, whose election as President was abetted by the Rhodes Trust–is Bush’s use of the phrase: “A GREAT IDEA” in association with his phrase, “New World Order” in a speech that has become one of the most infamous clips on YouTube. Quoting Milner’s “great farewell speech of 1905” in which he “called upon his hearers, and especially the Kindergarten, to remain loyal to this ultimate goal” Prof. Quigley reveals Miler’s mind:
|What I pray for hardest is, that those with whom I have worked in a great struggle and who may attach some weight to my words should remain faithful, faithful above all in the period of reaction, to the GREAT IDEA of IMPERIAL UNITY.| (op. cit., p. 74)
Stay tuned: this Anglo-Saxon Empire’s edicts are finessed through the Agency of apparatchiks of “The Round Table, The Times, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the College of All Souls.” (Quigley, op. cit., p. 74).
This Anglo-Saxon Empire has its deepest roots in Rockefeller’s University of Chicago and Russell’s Yale, moreover in all “elite universities,” as well as in all Corporate, Political, Financial, Religious, and Educational “entities” in which recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship exert their treacherous influence overtly or on the sly.
I have admitted how I fell for the treacherous line of the “Obama Puppet,” and now I am quite sure that I fell for the line of the “Unger Puppet”–now seen as a Colonial ELITE mouthpiece from Harvard Law School on the “Fabian” side of the ledger of the Anglo-Saxon Reich, now morphing its New World Order into a different form on Willard Mitt Romney’s watch. It is surely in the interests of the Anglo-American British Empire’s agenda that Barack Obama will take the fall.
So now we must ask: is Jill Stein the “American Jewish vote” SPOILER? Anything is possible. Everything is “deniably” plausible. We the Muppets have no voice.
Further: “The Second World War, 1939-1945” (Quigley, op. cit.):
“Of even greater significance was the gathering of the Milner Group members and their recruits in Washington. The Group had based most of their foreign policy since 1920 on the hope of a ‘closer union’ with the United States, and they realized that American intervention in the war was absolutely essential to insure [sic.] British victory. Accordingly, more than a dozen members of the Group were in Washington during the war, seeking to carry on this policy.
Lord Brand was in America from March 1941 to May 1946, as head of the British Food Mission for three years and as representative of the British Treasury for two years. He was also chairman of the British Supply Council in North America in 1942 and again in 1945-1946. He did not resign his position as managing director of Lazard Brothers until May 1944. Closely associated with Brand was his protege, Adam D. Marris, son of Sir William Marris of the Kindergarten, who was employed at Lazard Brothers from 1929 until the outbreak of war, then spent a brief period in the MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC WARFARE in London. In 1940 he came to the Embassy in Washington, originally as First Secretary, later as Counsellor. After the war he was, for six months, secretary general of the Emergency Economic Committee for Europe. In February 1946 he returned to Lazard Brothers.
“Among the lesser persons who came to Washington during the war, we should mention four members of All Souls: I. BERLIN, J.G. Foster, R.M. Makins, and J.H.A. SPARROW. Isaiah BERLIN, one of the newer recruits to the Milner Group, made his way into this select circle by winning a Fellowship to All Souls in 1932, the year he graduated from Corpus Christi. Through his connection, he became a close friend of Mr. and Mrs. H.A.L. Fisher and has been a Fellow and Tutor of New College since 1938. In 1941 he came to New York to work with J.W. Wheeler-Bennett in the Ministry of Information’s AMERICAN BRANCH, but stayed for no more than a year. In 1942 he became First Secretary of the Embassy in Washington, a position but recently vacated by Adam Marris. After the war he went for a brief period of four months to a similar post in the British Embassy in Moscow. In 1948 he came to Harvard University as visiting lecturer on Russia.
In addition to these three great fiefs (the Research and Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office, the Embassy in Washington, and the Ministry of Information), the Milner Group exercised considerable influence in those branches of the administration concerned with EMERGENCY ECONOMIC REGULATIONS, although here the highest positions were reserved to those members of the CECIL BLOC closest to the MILNER GROUP. Oliver LYLTTELTON, whose mother was a member of the Group, was CONTROLLER of NON-FERROUS METALS in 1939-40, was President of the BOARD OF TRADE in 1940-41, and was Minister of PRODUCTION in 1942-45. Lord WOLMER (Lord Selborne since 1942) was Director of CEMENT in the Ministry of Works in 1940-42 and Minister of ECONOMIC WARFARE in 1942-45. In this connection, it should be mentioned that the Milner Group had developed certain ECONOMIC interests in NON-FERROUS METALS and in CEMENT in the period of the 1920s and 1930s. The former developed both from their interest in colonial mines, which were the source of ores, and from their control of electrical utilities, which supplied much of the power needed to reduce these ores. The center of these interests was to be found, on the one hand, in the Rhodes Trust and the economic holdings of the associates of Milner and Rhodes like R.S. Holland, Abe Bailey, P.L. Gell, etc., and on the other hand, in the UTILITY interests of Lazard Brothers and the Hoare family. … we might point out that LORD MILNER was a director of RIO TINTO, … that the HOARE family had extensive interests in Associated TIN Mines of NIGERIA, in BRITISH-AMERICAN TIN Corporation, in LONDON TIN Corporation, etc. … that Oliver LYTTELTON was managing director of the BRITISH METALS Corporation and a director of METALLGESELLSCHAFT, the GERMAN light metals MONOPOLY. The chief member of the Group in the CEMENT industry was LORD MESTON, who was placed on many important corporations after his return from INDIA, including the Associated PORTLAND CEMENT Manufacturers and the British Portland Cement Makers’ Federation from 1934 to 1940, resigning to take charge of the government’s cement-regulation program.
“As the war went on, the Milner Group shifted their attention increasingly to the subject of POSTWAR PLANNING AND RECONSTRUCTION….At the end of 1942 the Group founded a quarterly journal devoted to reconstruction. It was founded technically by the London School of Economics, but the editor was G.N. CLARK, a member of ALL SOULS since 1912 and Chicele Professor of ECONOMIC HISTORY from 1931 to 1943. The title of this journal was *Agenda*, and its editorial offices were in CHATHAM HOUSE. These tentative plans to dominate the postwar reconstruction efforts received a rude jolt in August 1945, when the General Election removed the CONSERVATIVE government from power and brought to office a Labour government. The influence of the Group in Labour circles has always been rather slight.
“Its control of *The Times*, of *The Round Table*, of Chatham House, of the Rhodes Trust, of All souls, and of Oxford generally has continued but has been used without centralized purpose or conviction.” [Clearly this changed with the Neocon revolution under the Thatcher Government, continued by the Blair/Brown “Labour” Governments, unto the Cameron-Osborne “Conservative” Government for dominion of the Eton Ethic of the .01%.]
Quotations above (CAPS mine) from pp. 304-5, 307-8, 309, of Carroll Quigley’s “THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENT: from Rhodes to Cliveden” (op. cit. supra).
Are the fundamental MOTIVES of the Anglo-American Establishment CLEAR? Do they differ from those of the British East India Co./British Empire, the “Windsor” Blood Royal, and the Corporation of the City of London, together with its Agents on Wall Street and in the District of Columbia?
Edit: G.H.W. Bush used the phrase: “a BIG IDEA,” since the word “GREAT” has come to mean something else in the “American English” language.
Fixing the Postal Service.
How long does it take when the Postmaster General sends out postal-office closure letters through the regular mail?
50 years?
Took one day for our little rural post office to get the certified news of the ax – we are history as of Monday …. no “public hearing”, no advance warning, no nuttin’. A PO has been here for over 100 years. Sorry elderly and disabled rural customers – you now have to go 20 miles to the nearest PO to do your business. I imagine next they’ll do away with RFD.
All because the Repubs in ’06 decided the PO was a convenient cash cow and wanted to milk her. Well, she’s dry now, and they want to send her to the slaughterhouse.
I think one of my worst fears is The Power That Be replaces mailmen and mailwomen with drones.
That will put the US Post Office, FedEx and UPS all out of business.
And they say for Luddites not to fear machines.
How our brains view men and women.
I believe some brains view them not so much as people nor body parts but bank accounts.
Yes, money is not completely useless.
Re: Jesse’s About the Poor and Taxes
These are the same kinds of people that, throughout their entire lives, they have been afraid not only of their own mortality but are also in a state of hyper-paranoia toward every other living being that could possibly “take advantage” of *them* in some form, without (or maybe they do?) realizing that the system that enables their “lifestyle” was and is built on the backs of those same living beings.
And when they finally do go, a news piece comes out to report that they left their billions to their stupid pet.
That we all have to go is the great eqaulizer.
Undaunted, the 0.01% are working hard to take that away with public money so that one day one may be immortal but at a price only they can afford.
You may live forever if you only have $1 biilion!
Ah, yes. Take THAT, “Death Tax”!
*wringing hands + maniacal laughter*
From Breitbart:
So 65 KongressKlowns signed a letter … BFD.
If they were serious about dealing with Holder, Congress would authorize the Capitol police to arrest him on already-approved contempt charges.
But since this is only a drill (repeat: this only a drill!), Holder can continue running out the clock.
In fact, given Holder’s record of having greenlighted Clinton’s infamous Marc Rich pardon, I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama issues a similar round of bought-and-paid-for pardons next January 19th on his way out the door … potentially including Holder hisself.
Indeed.
Rather than giving credit to these 65 scumbag progressives we should demand their impeachment for failing to uphold the Constitution.
All these scumbags support the fascist Democrat party and the fascist capitalist death cult leader, Barack Obama.
It only makes it worse that these progressive scumbags pretend to care. At least the Republicans don’t pretend to care–the Republicans are full fledged advocates for fascism–they area at least honest scumbags.
But these scumbag “progressives” that write letters are actually helping to support these criminals. By pretending to do something (with the assist of scumbag progressive sites like Daily Kos), the progressives sucker liberals into thinking at least some of their politicians care and are trying to do good.
It’s a cruel hoax. These progressives are traitors to their people and need to be impeached, imprisoned, and defrocked of their false moral authority.
What hurt the most are the progressive heroes/prophets/messiahs beliveing themselves to be so, especially when people themselves are the heroes/prophets/messiahs.
The messiah/prophet hopium is really dangerous.
But I don’t think most of the ruling class believe it themselves. Maybe most of the lower level ruling class, and especially the managerial/professional class (the 1% to 20%) buy into the hype and have incentives and disincentives that bind them to the system.
But one does not get into a position of power, like Geithner has, or Obama has, or Barney Frank has, without being complicit and aware of one’s role. They are not naive. They are complicit.
Hell. Obama was probably in intelligence and was probably born into an intelligence family. We don’t even know what his true biography is! I don’t believe his cover story for one second. Especially the part about him caring about community and poor people, etc. I find it perplexing that people buy this bullshit.
And I can’t see who signed the damn letter, I guess it’s probably mostly Republicans but maybe some progressives too. I don’t care. It’s a bullshit PR trick anyway.
Maybe the ass clown progressives aren’t allowed to write a letter on this one. Obama probably ordered them to keep it to a few quotes in the paper for the most at risk Progressive Ass Boils (the ones that are allowed to go farthest left, like Kucinich).
So who knows how many capitalist tools parading around as liberals gathered the courage to sign this letter. If I know my Democrat propaganda I bet the fuhrer allowed 20 of them to sign. But whatever.
Again, if you are a Democrat and you sit there following orders on huge issue after huge issue . . . who knows how many crimes . . . you are a fascist tool no matter what progressive bullshit comes out of your mouth.
If you vote Democrat you are a fascist in deed. Our propaganda system is so intense, these fools that consider themselves “liberals” or “progressives,” are tricked into supporting fascists! It’s a cruel hoax. These poor souls think they’re helping us as they deliver us to our murderers and slave masters.
Fascist Democrats are killing this country faster than the fascist Republicans!
Jim, thanks for the useful recap. However, the Covington Burling connections to Holder’s shop (including Lanny Breuer, lietuenant-in-chief) are old news here at NC.
You should watch the video of the NYU financial fraud conference held earlier this year (February?) where the camera is on Breuer’s face just as Barofsky (I believe) is formulating the money conflicts-of-interest question. The verbal answer was nonresponsive drivel, but the facial expression and the tensing of the whole upper body tell the real story.
“Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ”
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48317809/ns/us_news/
“New York Police Department spies in N.J., investigation finds”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/new_york_police_department_spi.html
Modern music really does sound the same
I reckon pop music peaked in 1964 like most everything else.
& then it flatlined with the advent of the vocoder.
No doubt. And nearly always cranked to 11. Subtle it’s not.
No mention of rhythms, beats in that article.
“‘I’ve got two daughters,’ [Obama] told 950 donors yesterday as he talked about Planned Parenthood.
Echoes of; I know some of those kinds of people.
Many parts of the US are already subject to random brown outs. And as time goes on they’ll only become more frequent, more widespread, and of longer duration.
That’s why I’m setting up a nice off-grid solar system, despite living in the middle of a city. Every scrap of spare income I get goes to that, or my chickens/rabbits or my garden.
Trust the central authorities? I hope you like sitting hungry in the dark in dirty clothes. Because that’s your future.
Re: Privatize the Post Office.
London Review of Books had an informative article on just how poorly that’s worked out in Europe: Low paid piece workers with boxes of mail sitting in their apartments, spotty service, and of course no benefits for workers. I believe it was about six months ago.
And why do rich people try to convice the rest of us that private business will do government work cheaper? Do they think we don’t know that companies don’t work for free?
This is a conservative argument I’ve never understood: Let’s pay some company $100K, which of course will include at least 20% OH&P for work that we could pay a government worker to do for $100K with NO OH or P. So essentially we’re gypping the taxpayer out of 20% of the budget so some company can turn a profit. All because big bidness just Hates Unions/Pensions/Union Workers. Crabs in a bucket.
The latter option gives one of their ilk the ability to extract profit for persona gain, which is something being a government employee generally does not allow one to do.
PQS, don’t forget they “asset stripped” the P.O. by forcing it to “invest” UP FRONT in postal worker “Pensions”–that’s EQUITY–for looting by grifters of the Monopoly Finance Casino; AND they forced public money into the “private” pockets FedEx profiteers.
Oh Yes. Although, when I point out to anyone that FedEx/UPS et.al would laugh in your face if you tried to use their service for .44 (like a first class letter), they typically shut up.
And to all the Tea Party Constitutional Scholars out there: The USPS is IN THE CONSTITUTION: Article 1, Section 8. Although I’m sure they would consider that to be up for debate, but not the 2nd Amendment, a’ course.
FFS.
That would be Roy Mayall. His personal blog is here : http://roymayall.wordpress.com/ and his LRB blog is here : http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/author/roy-mayall/
The name is, of course, a pun.
Excuse me, ‘ounce.
A word about Philip Pilkington in the above link to the interview by Tom O’Brien. PP gives the same rundown which he gave us here about the monetarists messing around with the control of money and interest rates thereby destroying British industry and crushing the UK Unions in the 70s. The Unions at the time were a great “socialist” threat to capital and capital preferred to outsource British Industry rather than concede anything to Labor. A true austerity in any other disguise. Of interest was PP’s explaination of how the capitalist powers had learned to use Monetarism to go to war. They realized it would work again and again after WW2 because it had been successful in preserving a basic (wartime austere) economy as it paid for the war in the 1940s. Or paid for any other big project – say appropriating all the oil in the middle east.
In reality however, monetarism has been shown to control nothing. Only the economy controls the economy. And the government and its policies in turn control the economy by making sure corporations do not have to answer to the discipline of the labor market, etc. etc. So class war trickle down.
However it was proven that monetary policies do not work to stimulate an economy. Monetarism is more or less useless except to kill an economy.
I enjoyed his 1970s rundown explaining how OPEC screwed the West. And how our finance and industry was on the ropes to survive. This was @ 1979. Interesting, as we have just learned that LIBOR was put into use in 1980.
How is there anyone left on the planet who actually believes any such thing as a “Market” defined even vaguely traditionally exists? What a mess. I would prefer socialism since it’s all statism anyway.
Meet the placebo effect’s evil cousin: the nocebo effect.
Are Warnings About Drug Side Effects Actually Making Us Sick? http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/07/24/are-warnings-about-drug-side-effects-actually-making-us-sick/
“Best Fix for Postal Service Is to Take It Private Bloomberg (Carol B). Not that we need it, but more proof that Orsag is a neoliberal hack.”
Yves is too kind. A hack implies mediocrity, carelessness perhaps. This is a deliberate and deceitful attack by Orsag.
Re: Bloodied Trader Pines for Risk as Wall Street Retreats
I had to check repeatedly that I was not reading The Onion.
Again, with correct HTML.
Re: Bloodied Trader Pines for Risk as Wall Street Retreats
I had to check repeatedly that I was not reading The Onion.
Creative people? Do Wall Streeters use “creative” the same way I do — as a euphemism for lying? E.g.: creative account. Also, “taken a lot of the fun out of the game” — stealing people’s retirements is suddenly a game? I suppose it must have been fun for the Roman soldiers to draw lots for Jesus’ clothes, too.
You say that like it’s a bad thing, Todman.
I say let them be creative, adventurous and cute as all get out. Just do it with your OWN money, not OPM’s. And not with any cent that is backstopped by the US taxpayer.
At what point in banking history did it become acceptable for a small group of guys to play roulette with other people’s money and have that be called “free market capitalism”?
Put them all in a big house in Nevada with jacuzzis, swimming pools and fancy trading platforms that are not connected to anything in the real world. They can have smart phones and blackberries too, and they can call each other and make creative deals together — with each other only and only with their own pretend money.
These guys are acting from the best of motives: Atlas flexes his shoulders joyfully as welfare systems collapse around the globe. It’s called creative destruction.
Yah, they confuse crafty with creativity, a sign of a small mind. And if not being allowed to be “artful” amputates a large part of who they are, it’s very very small indeed.
Crafty, artful, “creative,” “geniuses” . . . that’s fine, they just can’t play cool-guys with people’s real money!
Yes, ham actors, too. Artful dodgers, crafty foxes. Nothing to do with creativity.
As for genius, maybe the greatest narcissists of all time. But nah, even rather rote on that. The only unusual feature is how well they are getting along with each other (as of yet).
You don’t think ripping faces off muppets with shitty deals is fun? What a buzz-kill.
Hey- I was wondering if someone could explain to me, as simply as possible- why investors benefit more from loan modification than do servicers? Or, why a servicer would benefit from a foreclosure more than an investor.
thanks :)
here is my email: Ryan_Erlbaum@yahoo.com
Investors own the loans. Servicers typically only collect the monthly payments, for a small percentage. Profits on servicing are labor-intensive per dollar earned. When there is a foreclosure, there are additional fees charged by the servicer to handle the foreclosure. The servicer is paid all their expenses before the investor gets repaid. Foreclosure fees can be hefty and the markup is high. No funding of the loan is required by the servicer.
The investor gets paid a specific interest rate on their investment as long as the loan hasn’t been foreclosed. Interest rates have progressively declined the last few years, so any loan that is paid off early is a losing proposition. In addition, foreclosure sales typically bring somewhere around 60 cents on the dollar (or current market value, which has gone down since loan was taken out). So, once the house is sold at a loss and all expenses paid, the investor loses most of the money they loaned out.
That’s a simple explanation that doesn’t get into securities and loan pools, but the underlying concept holds true. I hope it helps.