Ex-president Mandela’s condition now Reuters
PBoC breaks silence over China cash crunch Financial Times
Latest Brazil protests bring 250,000 on to streets Associated Press
EU banks warns regulation leading to higher funding costs Financial Times
Big Brother is Watching You Watch:
MI5 feared GCHQ went ‘too far’ over phone and internet monitoring Guardian
Glenn Greenwald Takes Apart David Gregory for Trying to Criminalize Journalism Crooks and Liars. You need to watch this. Gregory is such a toad.
The NSA’s metastasised intelligence-industrial complex is ripe for abuse Valarie Plame Wilson and Joe Wilson, Guardian
HKSAR Government issues statement on Edward Snowden
China ‘made final call’ in Snowden’s Hong Kong flight, as US expresses disappointment South China Morning Post
Russia Says It Won’t Intervene on Snowden Wall Street Journal
Candidate Obama Debating President Obama On Civil Liberties vs. Government Surveillance techdirt (subgenius)
While I Was Sleeping Atrios
Edward Snowden heads for asylum: Does the US have any options? Christian Science Monitor
US & NSA Accused of Criminal Privacy Violations in Dozens of Nations – Snowden Blowback Daily Kos (ohmyheck). Pluto thinks the rest of the world is going to take control of the Internet backbone back (admittedly, that will take a while). We had said that was likely when this story broke.
California sends a cease and desist order to the Bitcoin Foundation ars technica
Employers Test Plans That Cap Health Costs New York Times
Retirement Planning by New York Times Commenters masaccio, Firedoglake
QE myths and the Expectations Fairy Frances Coppola
Central banks told to head for exit Financial Times. The BoJ has a different plan, clearly. Plus notice the plug for austerity.
Increasing Bond Yields Risk Debt Spiral in U.S., Japan, BIS Says Bloomberg
Et Tu, Bernanke? Paul Krugman, New York Times
The Housing Finance Mechanism In The US Is Not Fixed David Kotok, Clusterstock
Modifications Decline Significantly; Foreclosure Sales Rise Mortgage News Daily
Antidote du jour (lysa):
117 comments
Comments are closed.
Think you made a bit of a typo there – I’m guessing “Dick Gregory is such a toad.” should be “Toad Gregory is such a dick.”
Yes, some Freudian name dyslexia!
Dick Gregory was a comedian and civil rights activist.
Remember the Hitch Slap (before he left the reservation)?
We need a similar sort of catchy phase for the Glenn Slap.
Great comments over at “Crooks and Liars.” http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/glenn-greenwald-takes-apart-david-gregory
Andrew Ross Sorking
“…almost wants to arrest Glen Greenwald”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/06/24/greenwald-beltway-media-types-are-courtiers-to-power/
Can’t believe I still have a copy of his lousy book on the shelf.
Don’t even give it to your local library. Better to bury it in the compost heap.
Thank you for the anecdog.
The dog is dreaming of the next winner of the ugliest woman or man of the world contest.
Do we humans really have to have ugliest dog or ugliest woman (I hope not) contests?
The dog is dreaming of people not stealing her owner’s photography and using it unattributed.
http://maddieonthings.com/
@ “Latest Brazil protests bring 250,000 on to streets”
I have a friend who is quite a student of Brazil, and he believes that the protests that are continuing now are being orchestrated by Brazil’s reactionary right-wing. Practically all of the left-leaning leadership several days ago put out the word that they would support no more demonstrations. Notice that the demonstrations now are about 1/4 or 1/5 in size what they were before.
These two comments from The Guardian pretty much summarize the situation as my friend sees it.
First, there’s this:
And then there’s this:
To put this latter comment into a comparative framework, the sort of voter corruption from 8 years ago which is being trotted out here against Lula and Rousseff is small potatoes compared to the voter corruption in Mexico. Of course Mexico is completely under the thumb of the US, is a neoliberal paradise, and so voter fraud is deemed to be perfectly OK. Neoliberal ends are so pure as to make any means necessary to achieve them acceptable. In the last presidential election in 2012, the right-wing government engaged in massive vote buying, on a scale that would make what happened in Brazil in 2005 look miniscule. In the 2006 election, the vote-buying didn’t work, so the ruling class engaged in ballot box stuffing that was so ham-fisted and so blatant so as to make Mexican elections a complete sham. Everybody knows this, but nothing is ever done about it. That’s because it benefits the US’s puppet government in Mexico, a US client state extraordinaire.
I didn’t furnish links to document the blatant and wide-spread voter fraud in Mexico, all conducted with impunity. But if anyone wants these I can find them, all in Spanish of course.
Just to clear up any possible confusion, the quotes I cited are from the comments section of the story from today’s “LINKS,” which is not an Associated Press story as indicated, but a story from The Guardian.
The comments are quite good, and I would encourage those interested in what is happening in Brazil to take a look. The back and forth in the comments reveals exactly what is going on in Brazi. with the demonstrations at the moment, as the reactionary right and the progressive left square off against each other.
I’d be interested in those links… thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqwiJVJtx40&feature=youtu.be
Subido el 19/06/2011
[en 2006]
Este documental narra como el PAN, el PRI, y la oligarquía mexicana imponen a Felipe Calderón con un fraude en la Presidencia de México, ante la evidente victoria de Andrés Manuel López Obrador. La mayoría de las evidencias del fraude fueron aportadas por miles de ciudadanos, escritores y artistas que quieren que esta historia sea vista y escuchada.
[en 2012]
As to the vote-buying in the 2012 election, there is some reporting in English. I found this in English, for example:
A search of “election fraud Mexico 2012” or “fraude electoral mexico 2012” will yield dozens of stories, many in English, on the election fraud in 2012. In Mexico, it is everywhere and it is blatant. It is in your face with not even the slightest effort made to cover it up. ¡Y no pasa nada!
Here’s one example article on the phenomenon:
The Edward Snowden airplane chase took an intresting turn this morning as Snowden failed to show for a booked flight to Havana and Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says “I know nothing.”
http://tinyurl.com/ktfxny8
There’s a 50:50 chance that Snowden is not in Russia, and the attention of the world on Aeroflot Flight SU213 was actually a ruse.
At this time, Snowden could be anywhere in world.
And the tragedy in all this is that all the reporters who booked the Moscow-Havana flight this morning not only are flying without their story subject aboard, they are also flying with no alcohol on board. It’s going to be a long and boring flight. :)
Hanoi sounds likely
In the story you linked, it reports that Quito’s foreign minister Ricardo Patiño Aroca said “Quito did not know where Snowden was at this moment – or where he was going next.”
That translation of what Patiño said, however, is mistaken. Here’s what Patiño is being reported to have said in the Spanish-speaking press:
As the title of the story indicates, Patiño does not say that he doesn’t know where Snowden is or where he’s headed, but that he’s not telling.
Maybe I am not seeing the whole picture, but China looks worse off than the US in Snowden’s leaving Hong Kong.
(I hope this doesn’t cause more blocking of this website in China).
I don’t see how.
The way I read this is (but I have not followed the technical details closely):
1. Snowden’s visa expired in August
2. I BELIEVE (here is the part I’m not sure of) the only way for him to stay was to get political asylum. That was not going to happen because they have a queue for processing applications and no way would his be processed in time.
3. Per the WaPo, the US and HK had been talking for days re his extradition and paperwork had been submitted.
Now the part that is subject to interpretation is the US claim that they’d sent HK the paperwork and no one had said boo about anything being missing or incomplete or not correctly done. They clearly expected HK to say so. Now HK is not dignifying that charge with a response.
As indicated elsewhere, certain aspects of Snowden’s case fell into legal terrain that had not been sorted out previously due to some aspects of extradition cases not having yet been defined in HK post the integration with the mainland. So HK could have been playing mum re the grey areas (arguably bad faith dealing). Or alternatively, the bureaucrats put the paperwork before a judge and the judge refused to sign off.
There is also the question of what Beijing did or didn’t do.
But the way I read it, the visa issue meant Snowden was NOT going to be tried unless HK bent some procedures for that to happen. So the only issue was whether he got handed over to the US pronto via extradition or whether he left, voluntarily (as he did) or involuntarily when his visa expired.
Pepe Escobar is finding this whole situation highly amusing:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-02-240613.html
I agree with Beef here. China looks like it chickened out of a fight with the US. It had the opportunity to play for public opinion both at home and abroad. It’s very rare that China can cast itself as the good guy. But when the going got tough the Chinese fobbed Snowden off to the Russians. LOL! That kinda looks cowardly. China power aint ready for prime time yet.
And I’m pretty sure that violates all the ancient Chinese laws of hospitality, spiriting a guest away so unceremoniously. Confucius wouldn’t be very proud.
Suspiciously Specific Denial:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuspiciouslySpecificDenial
The real Dick Gregory takes umbrage (or, at any rate, I do for him):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Gregory
The real Dick Gregory would be amused… and probably have a pretty good cutting quip.
Inside Anglo: the secret recordings
Exclusive: Tapes reveal the lies and deception that led to the bank bailout
Paul Williams Special Correspondent – 24 June 2013
TAPE RECORDINGS from inside doomed Anglo Irish Bank reveal for the first time how the bank’s top executives lied to the Government about the true extent of losses at the institution.
The astonishing tapes show senior manager John Bowe, who had been involved in negotiations with the Central Bank, laughing and joking as he tells another senior manager, Peter Fitzgerald, how Anglo was luring the State into giving it billions of euro.
Mr Fitzgerald had not been involved in the negotiations with the Central Bank and has confirmed he was unaware of any strategy or intention to mislead the authorities. Mr Bowe, in a statement last night, categorically denied that he had misled the Central Bank.
The audio recordings are from the bank’s own internal telephone system and date from the heart of the financial crisis that brought the State to its knees in September 2008.
Anglo itself was within days of complete meltdown – and in the years ahead would eat up €30bn of taxpayer money. Mr Bowe speaks about how the State had been asked for €7bn to bail out Anglo – but Anglo’s negotiators knew all along this was not enough to save the bank.
The plan was that once the State began the flow of money, it would be unable to stop.
Mr Bowe is asked by Mr Fitzgerald how they had come up with the figure of €7bn. He laughs as he is taped saying: “Just, as Drummer (then-CEO David Drumm) would say, ‘picked it out of my arse’.
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/inside-anglo-the-secret-recordings-29366837.html
About the Anglo bank deception…
Now the Irish government, (if it had any stones,) can legally seize this bank and fully nationalize it. Then, why not keep it? Unless there were some constitutional impediment, a fully functional State Bank could be quite useful.
uhh folks there seems to be a ‘disturbance’ in china banking
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fstock.caijing.com.cn%2F2013-06-24%2F112947938.html
ICBC many businesses paralyzed for nearly an hour ATM Agricultural Bank of China also appeared unstable
ICBC many businesses paralyzed for nearly an hour Response: computer system upgrade caused :-/
Reporters call the BOC, customer service said, now silver has been fully suspended phase transfer services, online banking, the counter can not be handled, and now has the background system response, recovery time is not yet known.
fx, bonds & commodities charts freakin and Bernanke’s going to speak….Jump on in Ben, the waters warm!
“Timing, degree and conviction are the three wise men in this life.”
Reporters call the BOC, customer service said, **now silver has been fully suspended phase transfer services**, online banking, the counter can not be handled, and now has the background system response, recovery time is not yet known.
caijing.com.cn
oops sorry for the above repost…meant to post this:
China Banking shortage of money makes the world worry about the foreign media to reproduce surprised Lehman moment
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fstock.caijing.com.cn%2F2013-06-24%2F112947938.html
The foreign media to reproduce surprise Lehman moment?
The world should worry about that?
china could easily set off an implosion of shadow bank industry…i bet jeffery (satan’s right testicle) immmelt is pacing the ceiling
But the foreign media to reproduce that?
I wonder if this is someone saying to China ‘This is what I can do to you!’
a Good Read for some perspective…
http://soberlook.com/2013/06/when-it-comes-to-china-mr-mobius-knows.html
May 16th, China’s Next Crisis Lurks in Shadow Banking
snip
In the shadow sector all manner of players, from securities firms to pawnshops, cater to the borrowing and investment needs of those who want to bypass loan quotas, interest rate caps, and other restrictions. Both banks and nonbank institutions have created wealth-management products such as trusts, in which affluent Chinese invest. A trust may lend the money at well above the official rate to companies struggling to stay afloat.
Developers and local governments have tapped shadow finance to work around restrictions on property development, bank lending, and infrastructure projects. The money can flow to questionable investments that may not quickly provide returns, says JPMorgan’s Zhu. Local governments are sitting on 12.8 trillion yuan in debt, according to Fitch Ratings. Add in loans from the shadow banks and the total could be closer to 18 trillion yuan, Fitch says.
Although trust assets, a major part of shadow banking, grew 65 percent in the first quarter, the economy isn’t expanding any faster. Companies and local governments are simply using the new credit to service earlier loans. “This is not going into the real economy,” says Chen Xingdong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas (BNP) in Beijing.
Chen points out that local governments have land and companies they could liquidate to pay liabilities. Beijing could inject cash into banks, if necessary. The central government has ordered banks to limit the size of their wealth-management products and monitor loans to local governments more closely. Despite the risks, the shadow banks perform a service by channeling capital to cash-strapped private enterprises and local governments. That’s why a broader clampdown on shadow finance seems unlikely: Beijing wants to tame shadow banking, not kill it. Only major reform can change this precarious situation.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-16/chinas-next-crisis-lurks-in-shadow-banking
Haha! Switzerland just told the US DoJ to go pound sand!
http://brucekrasting.com/on-bullying-friends/
An interesting situation. If I were the Swiss, I’d jump on the BRICS bandwagon and help establish a viable competing reserve currency. Then, the being able to exchange in dollars trap could be circumvented. This might be the event that triggers the formal destruction of the American Hegemony.
Being the reserve currency is such a burden that only a hegemon would want it…I think.
Dear MLTPB;
Greetings! I’ve been wondering just what would constitute ‘being a Hegemon’ in the ‘Moderne’ world? A big army? Control of the worlds financial flows? Control of the world meme content? It’s all about power, the question being, what that ‘power’ consists of.
As we here in America are discovering, just like countless empires in the past, and no doubt future, it’s all Maya, illusion. The Swiss are crying, “The Emperor has no clothes!” The Hegemony is vainly trying to cover up the naughty bits. Too late!
Maybe the emperor enjoys doing an anasyrma gesture once in a while?
Masaccio’s post over at FDL was a good read. See exkiodexian’s comment as a typical moralizing libertarian lecture about personal responsibility. Cwaltz has a great response with a more accurate view of the roles that luck and work play in our lives.
Libertarians are the Victorian moral crusaders of our times, with all their finger-wagging and self-satisfied condescension.
Hey, dont be so mean to the Victorian crusaders, at least they helped stop slavery in a few countries.
Dont recall libertarians doing anything useful recently.
To be fair though I have a more sympathetic view towards Libertarians than I perhaps should, due to their anti-imperialism. Though all their domestic ideas are pretty anathema to me.
Anyone who says xy doesn’t trust the government with guns, money or personal information is on your side.
One shouldn’t be too choosy.
I’ve heard some libertarians vocally oppose imperialism. But, for me, their “brand” and their product differ markedly. Whom do they choose as their political bedfellows?
Um, Huston, we have a problem (?):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-24/bank-china-declares-moratorium-transfers-online-banking-counters-inoperable
Header: “Bank Of China Declares Moratorium On Transfers, Online Banking; Counters Inoperable”
“We hope the gist of the narrative in Mandarin is far less scary, because if the translation is even remotely accurate, then all hell may be about to break loose in China.”
Shades of Cyprus? Payback for letting Snowden go? False Flag? Yawn?
Um, Huston, we have a problem (?):
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-24/bank-china-declares-moratorium-transfers-online-banking-counters-inoperable
Header: “Bank Of Ch#na Declares Moratorium On Transfers, Online Banking; Counters Inoperable”
“We hope the gist of the narrative in Mandaran is far less scary, because if the translation is even remotely accurate, then all hell may be about to break loose in Ch#na.”
Shades of Cyprus? Payback for letting Snowden go? False Flag? Yawn?
(Testing with the # in Ch#na, since my original comment is awaiting moderation)
Wow! Those Chinese workers are gutsy, holding their American boss, “Chip,” captive in Beijing, demanding severance pay. According to the article, these kinds of rebellions aren’t unusual in China. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-factory-boss-held-hostage-china-workers-demanding-074158539.html
Worker rebellions in china are pretty common. Chinese workers are getting more militant every year, bless their hearts.
Capturing an American boss though, thats a new one. Dont think that happens much.
According to the article, it isn’t unheard of for foreign bosses to be held captive from time to time. What’s truly rare is that it was in Beijing.
Seems like North Americans are rather toothless in comparison. I do recall a similar situation in France, with the socialist mayor’s backing: http://www.france24.com/en/20130329-sacked-french-workers-bosses-hostage-cabestany-economy-unemployment
I think the last time it happened was during the Boxer Rebellion
It ended with many marines taking home lots of good, authentic Chinese antiques.
Dear MLTPB;
I dunno about that. Seems to me the eventual outcome was Sun Yat Sen, and the revival of China. After that, the Yellow Man realized he could beat the White Man. The rest is History.
Of course, Chen Jiongming would argue that Sun was too dictatorial with his one-party system.
Both the CPC and KMT would rather forget Chen.
Dear ambrit, Sun’s closet advisor, Homer Lea, who was an American, wrote about 100 years ago that in the coming struggle pitting the Anglo-Saxons against the Teutons & Slavs, the former would form an alliance with the Asians, presumably in the belief that they needed each other.
Moody’s, Hong Kong and rating the American foreclosure experience. Wow, what kind of day is this going to be?
When an all-powerful central planning (of profits), but communists-in-name-only party demonstrates its omnipotence by manipulating stocks higher, but when the same stocks go down 5% overnight, the party can look pretty pathetic.
Who knows, it might be viewed by some modern-day White Lotus sect as the beginning of the end of that party’s mandate of heaven to rule.
(I hope this comment is not the final straw in Zhongguo).
I wonder what color turbans the guys who start the revolution against the CCP will wear? Since yellow and red have already been taken. I hope they choose blue.
(For those who dont get the nerdy joke, look up the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Red Turban Rebellion)
Green Turban Rebellion – one can love a vegetable (I can do math, please don’t eat me) and make money at the same time.
More like a Yarrow stalk than straw. (Consult the Book of Changes for wisdom.)
Will Gregory rent his basement to the Fannie evicted near by?
Separate lighted entrance, washer, dryer, utility entrance.
Modest rent, $800 a month. Kitchen priveledges.
High interest rates are expansionary: http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2010/09/we-should-all-pray-for-higher-rates.html
Balance sheet recessions are not the same as ordinary recessions. Comparisons with the old normal need to be taken with a fistful of salt.
A money system based on usury is socially divisive and requires exponential growth.
OTOH, money issued as Equity (“shares”) unites people (labor and capital, for example) and allows but does not require growth.
Where’s Waldo Snowden?
who knows but cnn is seizin tweet servers to locate him
Enbridge grapples with pipeline shutdown, weekend spill in northern Alberta (where’s the media??on this)
CALGARY – Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) is working to contain and clean up a weekend spill of synthetic crude into a wetland area and small lake in northern Alberta.
Enbridge also shut other pipelines in the area as a precaution, including the Athabasca and Waupisoo pipelines.
The release of crude comes as Alberta grapples with major flooding, including in the city of Calgary where Enbridge has its head office.
Enbridge said in its initial assessment that unusually heavy rains may have resulted in a ground movement that affected the pipeline, which is part of its Athabasca network.
The company shut down Line 37 after a spill was discovered early Saturday near its Cheecham Terminal, about 70 kilometres southeast of Fort McMurray, Alta., which is the hub of Alberta’s oilsands industry.
The Alberta Energy Regulator said late Sunday that it was working on the problem but hadn’t confirmed the company’s estimate that between 500 and 750 barrels of oil had spilled.
The AES said Enbridge had installed wildlife deterrents and contracted environmental consultants to conduct water sampling and a wildlife survey.
It said there had been no impact on wildlife observed as of Sunday.
http://www.680news.com/2013/06/24/enbridge-grapples-with-pipeline-shutdown-weekend-spill-in-northern-alberta/
The Apache website says the corporation has oil and natural gas operations around the world including the Gulf Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Egypt, the North Sea, Australia and Argentina with assets in 2011 worth US$52 billion.
The Alberta government says it’s too soon to say whether a Texas-based oil company will face charges over a pipeline that leaked 9.5 million litres of industrial waste water.
http://globalnews.ca/news/637772/pipeline-in-northern-alberta-leaks-9-5-million-litres-of-industrial-waste-water/
A ‘reform-to-English’ dictionary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/19/a-reform-to-english-dictionary/
A must-read real-talk glossary of the terms used by the Education deformers
Some examples:
Assessment (noun): A test made by a corporation and protected from peer review and public scrutiny by intellectual property laws and strict confidentiality agreements.
Failing School (noun): A school for poor children of color whose intended funding subsidizes corporations.
Market-Based Reform (noun): A euphemism for “Corporate Subsidy Disbursement,” “Economic Power Grab” and “Fear-Based Economic Policy.”
And this one, from the comments, perhaps my favorite:
Reform (V.) to utterly destroy and reconstruct in a form from which someone who is already wealthy can make a great deal more money.
Thank you for this. Here’s another: “research supports” indicates that a privately-owned contractor wants to profit from their own “studies.” NPR recently ran a story about low-level novels being increasingly assigned to high school students, the source of which was a private contractor called Renaissance, who wants to make a killing in the public schools. Skip the article, just read the comments to really understand what’s going on.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/11/190669029/what-kids-are-reading-in-school-and-out
Education (noun): the best known effective way to brainwash the young.
chart porn alert
http://brazilianbubble.com/charts-the-brazilian-bond-collapse/
I was surprised to learn the name of the park next the Thai central government area was called Amporn park.
The city was, of course, Bangkok.
No one under 18 should be allowed to pronounce that name.
In Thighland?
bahahahahaa Imposter! What did you do with our Beard???
That pun was irresistible though I should keep in mind:
Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor. Ecclesiastes 10:1
thats more like it’ )
LOL. Good catch, Aby.
The name in Thai is “Krungthep”, which means City of Angels. “Porn” is a not completely accurate attempt to render a sound in Thai that is also frequently written as “Pawn”.
I believe it also means “blessing” or “benediction.” So cue the next round of jokes…
Scary stuff:
Rasmussen:
It’s working..
(Seriously, what does it mean to think that “the government is doing too much”? And why can’t you say ‘too much of the wrong things, too little of the right things’?)
In the matter of faith and trust, a thousand rights can not erase one wrong.
That’s what all my ex’es have told me.
Too Funnee Barry!…brought me to tears
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/06/a-commotion-to-wake-the-dead/
“James Montier, as brilliant as anyone there, did an entire talk about why investors should do nothing right now – literally, he was lecturing on the virtues of inaction and quoting directly from the Tao of Pooh.”
Tao is not about inaction, but action that harmonizes with the flow of chi.
So, if chi is flowing towards the exit, you go with that…with minimal effort.
Thus wuwei (no action).
The eastern ‘no’ is not the same as the western ‘no,’ as just the eastern ’emptiness’ is not the same as the western ’emptiness.’
Over there, emptiness is not no-thing-ness, but a ‘realized enlightenment.’
Yes it’s all fascinating… however, I fear every time we type/say Snowden rather than law, fourth amendment, impeachment of judges, executives from the oval to the NSA, etc., they win.
Shouldn’t there be a call for Gregory media types to resign or be fired as well?
Yet another young person who’s fallen tragic victim for exposing the rot:
06/24/13 By Aron Gupta How Barrett Brown shone light on the murky world of security contractors
http://freebarrettbrown.org/
Just prior to his arrest, Barret had been posting about Trapwire
For those, like myself, who suspect that Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies has not nearly seen enough light of day in light of recent events, you’ll want to check the piece out and also follow the links (see also).
Oddly though, upon reading the piece and scans of many of the linked pieces, Peter Thiel (Palantir and PayPal founder, along with being an initial motivating force behind, investor in, and IPO profiteer from, Facebook) and Facebook (see Facebook’s Project Palantir: Beautiful Visualization Of People Connecting , dated 11/22/08 (Palantir Technologies was founded in 2004)) are not mentioned in connection with Palantir, but then Thiel is stunningly wealthy, and perhaps feared?)
>> Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies
Peter Thiel…the “libertarian”?
Yet another young person who’s fallen tragic victim for exposing the rot:
06/24/13 By Aron Gupta How Barrett Brown shone light on the murky world of security contractors
http://freebarrettbrown.org/
Just prior to his arrest, Barret had been posting about Trapwire
(Sorry if this ends up in duplicate, I’ve broken one post into two, as the first post was eaten)
For those, like myself, who suspect that Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies has not nearly seen enough light of day in light of recent events, you’ll want to check the piece out and also follow the links (see also).
Oddly though, upon reading the piece and scans of many of the linked pieces, Peter Thiel (Palantir and PayPal founder, along with being an initial motivating force behind, investor in, and IPO profiteer from, Facebook) and Facebook (see Facebook’s Project Palantir: Beautiful Visualization Of People Connecting , dated 11/22/08 (Palantir Technologies was founded in 2004)) are not mentioned in connection with Palantir, but then Thiel is stunningly wealthy, and perhaps feared?)
Aby…
One of the modest quality of life improvements I did for myself a few years ago was unplug cableTV. As you are apparently one of the enlightened souls who recognizes the potential for the Public library, hopefully they have an interlibrary loan service in your geography maybe you can drill into it here? http://www.mountainregionallibrary.org/index.php
In my geography we have fantastic IntrL.L.S. that has a excellent search interface and will search state wide if necessary for whatever media I request. Most requests are filled within 3-5 days, a new movie or recent season of a popular series like Dexter or Breaking Bad will be a couple weeks.. no big deal.
Consequently I donate $$ and content to my Public Library in lieu giving exorbitant subscription fees to the local awful CABLE monopoly (Comcast).
Ironically, when I want to watch TV (usually non-domestic news to get a flavor of what is going on in the world) the digital antenna TV pulls in full 1080P signal (not compressed like cable), and has a far better content selection than the cr@p (like CNN, MSNBC etc etc) offered by Comcast.
I wish more people would unplug cable, in its current form it is just another lucrative tentacle of the corporate media leviathan, and migrate their media consumption to the Public Library and digital antenna TV.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/susan-crawford-on-why-u-s-internet-access-is-slow-costly-and-unfair/
I gave up television almost 30 years ago. I have never missed it; not once.
I am amazed that any one will pay to watch something that is at minimum 1/3 advertising.
The really weird part for me is that when I’m forced to watch tv (waiting rooms, etc.) it looks totally alien and strange to me.
One can avoid eye contact, but it’s hard to avoid hearing whatever nonsense is being voiced.
That intrusion of foreign sound waves into one’s ears – that’s audio rape.
And they do that to you all the time.
If you do a count, there are billions of audio rape victims.
I suspect the number of TV-free readers at NC is disportionatley high. I haven’t owned a TV since 2006, and I too notice how crazy it seems when I’m forced to watch or listen to it in public spaces. Especially the news! And not just FOX!
LOL! I haven’t owned a TV since 1997. I only watch TV when I’m in a hotel and everytime I do I’m glad I don’t have one. I can’t understand anymore why you would subject yourself to such a thing.
Televisions are not intrinsically evil IMO, just control the media you consume rather than the other way around.
http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhz-worldview/live
http://www.mhznetworks.org/programs/global-news
..I suspect the number of TV-free readers at NC is disproportionately high.
no doubt..
IMO, televisions are not intrinsically evil, just control the media you consume rather than the other way around.
http://www.mhznetworks.org/mhz-worldview/live
http://www.mhznetworks.org/programs/global-news
re: tv is 1/3 advertising
DVR eliminates most of the problem.
Cable channels are beneficial to find shows that meet the quality of good independent film.
When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.
Rita Mae Brown
i love the library opti! my heaven is a library (with a hammock’). my brother uses electronic antenna and he picks up 4 PBS channels…i don’t! im using a bundled deal at the moment but i’ll drop it when the price rises…im ready for it too!
pardon me for my sentimentality…some wknds while cruising the sweet smellin aisles of the lib., i’ll spot a little girl with stacks of books and i tear up with hope. my childhood was painful/unhealthy…it was a heaven on earth library that saved me. well i may have a guardian angel in there somewhere…there was that time i completed a Helen Keller bio and decided i wanted to be Just like her…fortunately my lill brother couldn’t hit the side of a barn or my life would be a whole lot different.
People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.
saul bellow
I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.
Ray Bradbury
I don’t see how people even figure out what’s on TV.
When I had a TV I didn’t even know how to turn it on. There was a remote control device that looked like soemthing out of Star Trek. It must have had 70 buttons and the best I could do was push 15 or 20 that looked promising, hoping one wold turn it on.
Sometimes I got luck and the screen came on. But there was no sound. So you pressed more buttons, sometimes that would turn it off and you had to start over again, but sometimes the sound came on and it was successful..
Then there was the problem of figureing out what was on. There was no TV Guide like there used to be. IT used to come in the Sunday paper and then there was only 5 channels. Three networks and PBS and a UHF channel that showed Tarzan movies on Sunday morning.
Not any more. Now You had to go to a channel that scrolled what was on all the other channels. So you watch that seeing if something caught your eye. You could be there for over an hour, just watching it scroll by. Often, we’d end up watching the Weather Channel.
IN recent years, I lost track of how to get even that far. Usuallsy the TV would turn on and I’d somehow turn it off trying to change channels. Therw were 80 buttons on the remote and they all lit up so you could see them in the dark.
It could take 4 or 5 attempts to get the set on with the sound working. AT that point, the frustration was so high that you were even more critical than usual about the vapid nonsense you could choose from. It was a very lucky day if a fishing show was on. Even bass fishing. That usually was enough. AFter a while it was easier to look out the window if you wanted to know what the weather was,
Krugman in “Et tu, Bernanke?” adopts my point that real unemployment is higher than the official rate, but then he ties unemployment to the taper and possible interest rate hikes at the Fed. He never mentions wealth inequality. This is important because the Fed’s monetary policies of the ZIRP and QE have done little for employment over the last 5 years, but they have contributed significantly to the restoration of the losses of the rich from 2007-2008 and an even greater increase in the extremeness of wealth inequality over that period.
yeah …noticed that too. Wanted to say Et Tu, Krugman?
Another ruling class asshole worried about his buddies the banksters…how could he even suggest that QE3 has increased employment?? Employment for who? Janitors and hedge Fund managers?
there you are! i’ve missed you…was ponderin sending out a search party for a lady famous for tight stitched arguments
; )
HAH! Right back at ya! SOOO stealing “satan’s left testicle” LOL!
Hope you’re holding on OK, Dolley.
At Chernobyl, danger lurks in the trees
For almost three decades the forests around the shuttered nuclear power plant have been absorbing contamination left from the 1986 reactor explosion. Now climate change and lack of management present a troubling predicament: If these forests burn, strontium 90, cesium 137, plutonium 238 and other radioactive elements would be released, according to an analysis of the human health impacts of wildfire in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone conducted by scientists in Germany, Scotland, Ukraine and the United States. This contamination would be carried aloft in the smoke as inhalable aerosols, that 2011 study concluded. And instead of being emitted by a single reactor, the radioactive contamination would come from trees that cover some 660 square miles around the plant, said Sergiy Zibtsev, a Ukrainian forestry professor who has been studying these irradiated forests for 20 years. “There’s really no question,” he added. “If Chernobyl forests burn, contaminants would migrate outside the immediate area. We know that.”
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/06/chernobyl-forest-fire
fitting…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLye2L3xN-o
Radiation is very patient companion and wants to embrace new friends.
http://kiddofspeed.com/
Good The Cure link btw
re Et Tu, Bernanke? Paul Krugman, New York Times:
My own unemployment (I’m not complaining!) has given me plenty of time to:
1) Read the Bible.
2) Ponder the money system.
3) Realize they are not consistent.
A few more unemployed engineers and the money system is doomed!
http://www.bostondynamics.com/
ok the sandflea is way wicked…i wont one ‘ )
LOVE the mountainlibrary link…drill i will
btw i have kin folk not far from that area(until the late 60’s they hadn’t worn shoes) :-/
Aby..
Ironically i struggle to reached a station in life where I don’t ever have to wear shoes
Reach, that is
http://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/18029.htm
the wave handler blows my pea brain
“self-configuring. This means that the system can be started up quickly and without programming, no matter what the layout is.”
http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/13136.htm
(for anyone interested in the video)
“Self-configuring: The independent address recognition of the modules guarantees the rapid networking of the entire system.” An architecture with much to recommend it….
I ordered a bed that will slide me off onto the floor in the morning.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jun/24/anglo-irish-bankers-taped-recordings1
“The taped conversation between the bankers tends to back up the view that Anglo Irish bankers knew €7bn would never be enough to save the bank but once they had hoodwinked the Dublin government into providing support the taxpayer would keep picking up the tab.
In their exchange, Bowe says: “The reality is that actually we need more than that. But you know the strategy here is you pull them in, you get them to write a big cheque and they have to keep, they have to support their money, you know.”
a little treat for the insomniacs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpaZlGK31BU
Montserrat Figueras – Canção De Embalar (A Lullaby)
don’t know if this has been posted here recently, but it confirms a lot of what I instinctually have concluded about the state of education in society:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17047-laboratories-of-democracy-an-interview-with-henry-giroux