Guest post by John A. Shaw
In the run-up to the 2012 election, a story surfaced about an Iraqi billionaire who managed to buy access to Washington policy makers while funding a Chicago Pay-to-Play scheme that helped produce a Governor, a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, a President of the United States.
The story was eight years in the making, yet despite the extent of his political influence, this Iraqi’s name remains largely unknown. He wants it that way. In fact, he has spent a significant sum attempting to hinder the reporting of his activities by the news media. The lack of attention paid to him, however, is inversely proportional to his level of importance.
His name is Nadhmi Auchi.
Auchi is now a British citizen. He bought respectability in Britain and in Europe through both donations to charities and self-serving gifts to politicians.
He was once Saddam Hussein’s arms merchant. He morphed into Saddam’s main financial operative in Europe. Today, he is one of the richest men in the world, and has, over the last few decades, been a player in nearly every noteworthy, corrupt, international deal involving Europe and the Middle East.
He was convicted of fraud in a $504 million corruption scandal -- the Elf Aquitaine case – the largest corruption trial in French history.
He was a central figure in one of the largest corruption cases during the Iraqi reconstruction, involving $3 billion dollars.
His U.S. visa was revoked for his alleged facilitation of $30 million in bribes to American and British officials in Iraq.
Auchi was a primary beneficiary of the widely abused and notoriously corrupt U.N. "Oil for Food" program while he was the single, largest stockholder in the merged French megabank BNP Parisbas. The bank was a major conduit for the funds flowing through the U.N. program.
He also reportedly gained access to the White House over the course of four separate administrations, beginning with George H. W. Bush, through the Clinton era and that of Bush 43. And it goes without saying that he was intimately involved with the political career of one Barack H. Obama.
Auchi's Chicago proxy was a man named Tony Rezko, best known for his curious land deal with Obama. At the same time, Auchi staged his worldwide operations out of London. But Chicago was the Alpha and Omega of his empire.
Rezko reportedly used Auchi money to grease political skids and buy access into the shadowy world of the Chicago political machine.
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012
Paradox [Dan from New York]
Dan from New York:
It goes without saying, Americans are uneasy about criticizing Islam.
Saudi detains dozens for "plotting to celebrate Christmas"
It's Official: Muslim Population of Britain Doubles
Number of mosques in US grew 74% since 9/11
After all, we’ve grown up with a First Amendment that this particularreligionpolitical system (and certain government officials) appears to despise.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
BEFORE AND AFTER: Capitalism vs. Socialism
Der Spiegel has a startling series of before and after shots of buildings and towns in East Germany. The original photos were taken just after the fall of the Berlin wall and now some 20 years later.
Every person who voted for Barack Obama in November elected to move America closer to the first photograph.
Hat tip: Whale Oil.
Every person who voted for Barack Obama in November elected to move America closer to the first photograph.
Hat tip: Whale Oil.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
MEET YOUR PROSPECTIVE NEW SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Chuck Hagel's Greatest Hits
So long, Israel: it was nice knowing you.
I don't think we've ever had a SECDEF with such a, eh, predilection for terrorists before. But, then again, this administration is historic.
• "The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here."
• "I'm a United States Senator, not an Israeli Senator."
• In 2002, a year in which 457 Israelis were killed in terrorist attacks (a figure proportionately equivalent to more than 20,000 fatalities in the U.S., or seven 9/11s), Mr. Hagel weighed in with the advice that "Israel must take steps to show its commitment to peace." This was two years after Yasser Arafat had been offered a state by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David.
• In 2006, Mr. Hagel described Israel's war against Hezbollah as "the systematic destruction of an American friend, the country and people of Lebanon."
• In 2007, he voted against designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization.
• In 2009, Mr. Hagel urged the Obama administration to open direct talks with Hamas.
• In 2008, Mr. Hagel and John Kerry co-authored an op-ed in this newspaper titled "It's Time to Talk to Syria."
• "The United States and Israel must understand that it is not in their long-term interests to allow themselves to become isolated in the Middle East and the world," he said in a 2006 Senate speech. It's a political Deep Thought worthy of Saturday Night Live's Jack Handey. Does Mr. Hagel reckon any other nation to be quite so blind to its own supposed self-interest as Israel?
I don't think we've ever had a SECDEF with such a, eh, predilection for terrorists before. But, then again, this administration is historic.
Monday, December 17, 2012
TABLET: Why Israel Has No Newtowns
For anyone truly interested in policy prescriptions grounded in real world experience, please consider "Why Israel Has No Newtowns":
[In Israel, a]nyone can come up with an excuse to legally own a gun. I have personally witnessed more than one friend apply under false premises, claiming that their work required that they travel to settlements and other high-risk areas, and walk out, a short while later, with pistols much like the ones used in Aurora or Columbine. Assault rifles, admittedly, are harder to come by in Israel...
...It doesn’t take much of an expert to realize that these restrictions, in and of themselves, do not constitute much by way of gun control. And even though there have been no Newtown-style mass shootings in Israel, the Israeli government has tightened the reins over the past decade, passing a series of additional restrictions and placing further emphasis on enforcement. The result was clear: In 2000, there were approximately 400,000 legally owned firearms in Israel, the majority of them handguns, and the number of illegal weapons stood at about 150,000...
Ten years later, thanks largely to the new strictures, the ratio was reversed: 180,000 firearms were legally licensed, and more than 400,000 were illegally obtained, most of them assault rifles like the M-16 and the Galil, stolen from the Israel Defense Forces. Naturally, this led to an increase in the number of casualties, as it placed far mightier tools in the hands of criminals who were previously content to handle their affairs using the perfectly legal and readily available guns at their disposal...
How, then, to explain Israel’s relatively low rate of gun-related deaths? For Lior Nedivi, an independent firearms examiner in Jerusalem and the co-author of a comprehensive report comparing Israel’s gun laws and culture to that of the United States, the answer lies far from the law books. “An armed society,” Nedivi wrote, quoting the science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, “is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” It may be a bit odd to think of Israeli society as polite, but when it comes to guns it is, and for just the reason articulated by Heinlein: When everyone has a gun, guns are no longer seen as talismans by weak, frightened, and unstable men seeking a sense of self-validation, but as killing machines that are to be handled with the utmost caution and care.
...If the United States, itself awash with weapons, wishes to benefit from Israel’s experience, it must make sure it learns the right lessons. The first and most universal one is that ever more stringent gun control is bad policy: As is the case with drugs, as was the case with liquor during Prohibition, the strict banning of anything does little but push the market underground into the hands of criminals and thugs. Rather than spend fortunes and ruin lives in a futile attempt to eradicate every last trigger in America, we would do well to follow Israel’s example and educate gun owners about their rights and responsibilities, so as to foster a culture of sensible and mindful gun ownership...
...Finally, there’s one more crucial, and tragically ignored, point to consider. In the aftermath of Friday’s shooting, a mother named Liza Long wrote a powerful essay in which she recounted the difficulties of raising her mentally ill son. A brilliant child, he is nonetheless prone to occasional fits of rage and violence. When she looked at the shooter this past Friday, Long felt a chilling sense of recognition...
...Rather than pretend that it was the objects in their hands rather than the afflictions in their minds that led Lanza and Holmes and Cho and the others to perpetrate their monstrosities, we should offer help to those young men and their families. We have no more compassionate route, and no greater hope for peace.
Read the whole thing. Then pass it on.
Hat tip: Uncle Ben.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
QOTD: Selective Amnesia Syndrome
Proving that the White House remains concerned about the Benghazi scandal, President Obama announced today that Amb. Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration as a potential Secretary of State.
As for Quote o' the Day, Jon Gabriel wins in a landslide:
As for the reason for Rice's withdrawal?
Hat tip: @AdamSBaldwin.
As for Quote o' the Day, Jon Gabriel wins in a landslide:
As for the reason for Rice's withdrawal?
The reason can only be fear. Next week, Hillary Clinton is supposed to testify before Congress about Libya. There are some indications Clinton may now back out, or resort to insisting on a closed session hidden from the public. Whatever the result, President Obama clearly does not want to give Congress any more high-profile chances to ask someone under oath what happened in the hours and days after Stevens was killed. Rice was at ground zero of the real scandal: not in Benghazi, where the attack occurred; but in Washington, where the cover-up was planned and executed.
Furthermore, Obama probably thought that sacrificing Rice, who still keeps her job as UN ambassador, would assuage some congressional critics and distract from a pending report on what happened in Benghazi. Most importantly, it eliminates the troubling possibility of a Rice confirmation hearing. That likely still would have led to a confirmation victory for Obama—but a pyrrhic one given the ability of most Americans to sniff out a liar.
Hat tip: @AdamSBaldwin.
A HORRIFYING PREVIEW OF OBAMACARE: 6 in 10 Veterans Administration claim denials are in error
So reports Army Times in a sobering report on the state of a typical, government-run health care system:
When Nancy Pelosi famously opined -- vis a vis Obamacare -- that we had to pass it to find out what's in it, she was wrong.
We know what's in government-run health care: a nice, juicy crap sandwich for everyone involved.
Picture our entire medical system administered by the BMV, the Post Office and the SEIU, combined.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
A new report on an old problem contains some sad statistics about veterans’ benefits claims:
• Thirty-one percent of claims filed with the Veterans Affairs Department are likely to be denied — and 60 percent of those denials will be erroneous.
• Sixty percent of claims will take longer than 125 days to be processed, more than 7 percent of claims will be misplaced, and 4 percent will be completely lost.
• A veteran calling VA’s benefits hotline has just a 49 percent chance of being connected to someone and receiving a correct answer.
...Based on a review of the 870,000 benefits claims pending before VA in 2011 — a number that has climbed to about 900,000 pending claims today... Even faster claims processing might be possible by contracting out administrative services or transferring claims processing from the federal government to states, the report says. It recommends expanded pilot programs to test those ideas.
The nonpartisan National Center for Policy Analysis, which specializes in retirement and health care programs, is skeptical about VA’s stated goal of eliminating the claims backlog by the end of 2015.
VA “is barely able to process current claims,” the report says, “and has exhibited little to no progress toward their stated goal of 125 days and 98 percent accuracy for processed claims by 2015.”
The federal government, in general, does a poor job of administering disability benefits and services, the report says, “as evidenced by the state of Social Security Disability.”
“But the Veterans Benefits Administration appears to be far worse.”
When Nancy Pelosi famously opined -- vis a vis Obamacare -- that we had to pass it to find out what's in it, she was wrong.
We know what's in government-run health care: a nice, juicy crap sandwich for everyone involved.
Picture our entire medical system administered by the BMV, the Post Office and the SEIU, combined.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
DO YOU EAT? These charts should make you nervous
You may remember the last time food prices spiked: the entire Middle East exploded in an inferno of Muslim Brotherhood-fueled unrest. Democrats and the media -- but I repeat myself -- called it the "Arab Spring".
Not to get you overly paranoid or anything, but the race to devalue global currencies -- spearheaded by one Ben Bernanke and his magical printing press -- is touching off more inflation in food prices as evidenced here and here:
Now that the Federal Reserve has monetized trillions in debt, it's safe to say that there is no viable exit strategy. Other than inflation and/or economic collapse, that is.
Not to get you overly paranoid or anything, but the race to devalue global currencies -- spearheaded by one Ben Bernanke and his magical printing press -- is touching off more inflation in food prices as evidenced here and here:
Now that the Federal Reserve has monetized trillions in debt, it's safe to say that there is no viable exit strategy. Other than inflation and/or economic collapse, that is.
Sunday, December 09, 2012
A Small Plan From 1921
These guidelines were originally published as "Rules for Revolution" in 1919 and subsequently reprinted in American newspapers during the 1950s.
Sound familiar?
Sound familiar?
PHOTOS DEPICT RESULTS OF LEADING FROM BEHIND: Syrian Rebels Upload Aftermath of Chemical Weapons Attack on Civilians
Unless Syria's anti-Assad rebels have a full-blown, Hollywood-style makeup department, these snaps of a video uploaded yesterday appear authentic and consistent with a chem attack:
And where did these chemical weapons come from? Saddam Hussein, it turns out. But don't hold your breath waiting for the Leftists to apologize to George W. Bush vis a vis WMDs.
I'm so confused. Didn't Hillary Clinton call Syria's dictator "a reformer" little more than a year ago?
But, hey: it's time for another presidential vacation. Nothing of significance seems to be happening either here in the U.S. or abroad.
Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.
Syrian rebels on Saturday uploaded to YouTube a clip purportedly depicting victims of a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the regime. The video shows Syrian civilians, some apparently dead and others injured, whose faces were disfigured in a manner that could be caused by a chemical agent.
The rebels claim that the video was filmed in a suburb of Aleppo, where the Syrian regime reportedly maintains its largest depot of chemical weapons.
Citing intelligence reports, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday warned that the Syrian government might use its sizable stockpile of chemical weapons against the rebels fighting to overturn Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, AFP reported.
“We are extremely concerned about the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and we are also concerned about evidence during the last couple of weeks that the regime could use them,” Hague said on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.
The London-based Sunday Times reported that Israeli commandos were on the ground in Syria, monitoring the regime’s chemical weapons depots.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source said was quoted as saying. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”
And where did these chemical weapons come from? Saddam Hussein, it turns out. But don't hold your breath waiting for the Leftists to apologize to George W. Bush vis a vis WMDs.
I'm so confused. Didn't Hillary Clinton call Syria's dictator "a reformer" little more than a year ago?
But, hey: it's time for another presidential vacation. Nothing of significance seems to be happening either here in the U.S. or abroad.
Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.
Thursday, December 06, 2012
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? The U.N.'s Internet Surveillance Document Leaked
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is an agency of the United Nations, a world body largely populated with dictatorships, oligarchies, violent theocracies and other delightful governments. The ITU is, as you may have heard, making a play to takeover control of the Internet.
Giving the U.N. control of the Internet is akin to giving a 16-year old boy keys to the new Porsche and a fifth of Southern Comfort.
Yesterday morning, I wrote about the closed-door [ITU] meeting where they were working on standardizing "deep packet inspection" -- a technology crucial to mass Internet surveillance. Other standards bodies have refused to touch DPI because of the risk to Internet users that arises from making it easier to spy on them. But not the ITU.
The ITU standardization effort has been conducted in secret, without public scrutiny. Now, Asher Wolf writes:
I publicly asked (via Twitter) if anyone could give me access to documents relating to the ITU's DPI recommendations, now endorsed by the U.N. The ITU's senior communications officer, Toby Johnson, emailed me a copy of their unpublished policy recommendations.
OOOPS!
5 hours later, they emailed, asking me not to publish it, in part or in whole, and that it was for my eyes only.
Please publish it (credit me for sending it to you.)
Also note:
1. The recommendations *NEVER* discuss the impact of DPI.
2. A FEW EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL DPI USE CITED BY THE ITU:
"I.9.2 DPI engine use case: Simple fixed string matching for BitTorrent"
"II.3.4 Example “Forwarding copy right protected audio content”"
"II.3.6 Example “Detection of a specific transferred file from a particular user”"
"II.4.2 Example “Security check – Block SIP messages (across entire SIP traffic) with specific content types”"
"II.4.5 Example “Identify particular host by evaluating all RTCP SDES packets”"
"II.4.6 Example “Measure Spanish Jabber traffic”"
"II.4.7 Example “Blocking of dedicated games”"
"II.4.11 Example “Identify uploading BitTorrent users”"
"II.4.13 Example “Blocking Peer-to-Peer VoIP telephony
with proprietary end-to-end application control protocols”"
"II.5.1 Example “Detecting a specific Peer-to-Peer VoIP telephony with proprietary end-to-end application control protocols”"
Hit the jump for more of Asher's analysis and the download link:
3. Security threats against DPI entities is listed as:
- Destruction of DPI-related information;
- Corruption or modification of DPI-related information;
- Theft, removal or loss of DPI-related information;
- Disclosure of DPI-related information;
- Interruption of services (specifically mentions DoS.)
Giving the U.N. control of the Internet is akin to giving a 16-year old boy keys to the new Porsche and a fifth of Southern Comfort.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
ARTIST'S CONCEPTION: How President Obama Will Honor Kate Middleton and the Royal Birth
The Looking Spoon:
No word on whether the President plans on sending a shower gift of DVDs or an iPod loaded with his speeches.
Obama recently "honored" Rosa Parks, and Neil Armstrong when he died.
Months ago I did a post about how he worked himself into the bios of every former president going back to Calvin Coolidge... Why would this be different?
No word on whether the President plans on sending a shower gift of DVDs or an iPod loaded with his speeches.
BRUTAL PHOTO: Protesters in Egypt Slam Obama
This photo, posted by @Bushpir8, depicts Egyptians who are simply delighted at the Obama-supported "Arab Spring":
Is the rationale for President Obama's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood just a crazy conspiracy theory -- or is it so sane that you just blew your mind?
Is the rationale for President Obama's embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood just a crazy conspiracy theory -- or is it so sane that you just blew your mind?
Sunday, December 02, 2012
KIM KARDASHIAN WATCH: The Side of Bahrain She Won't Be Visiting
In our semi-annual celebrity update:
I wonder if Ms. Kardashian is aware that slavery -- yes, slavery -- is still alive and well in Bahrain:
I wonder how pretty Bahrain is from the perspective of a slave?
Kim Kardashian had only just touched down in the Kingdom of Bahrain before declaring it the prettiest place on earth...
...Of course, that was before police reportedly fired tear gas to disperse 50 or so angry protesters demonstrating against Kardashian’s visit to the country to promote her Millions of Milkshakes shop.
I wonder if Ms. Kardashian is aware that slavery -- yes, slavery -- is still alive and well in Bahrain:
Scars of severe beating were clear on the chest and shoulders of Salma Bijoum, three months after she fled the home of her abusive employer. Now, the domestic helper is waiting for a court decision to be able to return to her family in Haidarabad.
Bijoum, 35, tasted all kinds of cruel treatment and humiliation at the hands of her employer’s wife during her 45-day stay. She was beaten and kicked on regular basis for no obvious reason. She was beaten for not cleaning the house well, for sitting on the carpet and for drinking cold water. She neither got adequate meals nor a salary. Then came the day she decided to run away: she was asked to sweep the floor using a broom but she could not as her arms had become so swollen from beating. When she declined, the lady of the house beat her with an iron rod. She bled.
The case of Bijoum is not rare in a country where many employers violate the human rights of their domestic helpers. Abuse includes bad language, deprivation from basic requirements like proper accommodation, meals, rest time and monthly wages. Others are insulted, beaten, sexually harassed and raped, according to statements by domestic workers and police records.
Foreign domestic workers in Bahrain represent 4.2% of Bahrain's total population of 1.1 million people. They live in closed houses, making it nearly impossible to penetrate these places to see how they live, or whether they get their full legal rights...
When Bijoum escaped her employer's residence screaming for help, the driver of a labor transport vehicle took her to a police station.
Bijoum is considered lucky. Sings of abuse and torture have to be fresh and clear to constitute evidence of torture. Moreover, the driver who dropped her off at the police station, called a journalist who published a story on her plight. This gave her case publicity, which in turn generated public pressure.
“We should work according to our employer’s will, whenever he so wishes, without a day off," said Bijoum. "This is the slavery of the Third Millennium.”
I wonder how pretty Bahrain is from the perspective of a slave?
Friday, November 30, 2012
WELL DONE, SUSAN RICE: Which countries voted to recognize the latest collection of genocidal maniacs at the United Nations
Twitchy points us to the following map:
Please recall that the Palestinian Authority, in addition to its terrorist roots and its non-stop curriculum of genocide for its children, was inspired by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
And that what really happened in the Middle East is something you'll never see while watching antique media.
Heckuva job, Susan! UN’s Palestine vote yet another failure for Amb. Rice
...On Wednesday, President Obama said he “couldn’t be prouder” of the “extraordinary” UN Amb. Susan Rice. Really? Heckuva job, Susan...
...Yep, that sea of green and black was Rice’s followup to her role in misleading Americans on the nature of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Only eight nations joined the United States in voting “no” on granting Palestine nonmember observer status at the United Nations. Only eight. And instead of being fired, she may be up for a promotion to Secretary of State...
...And as [former State Department official Richard] Grenell notes, Rice “skipped the last open meeting before the planned UN vote to recognize Palestinian statehood.” That’s what Obama calls “extraordinary"...
Please recall that the Palestinian Authority, in addition to its terrorist roots and its non-stop curriculum of genocide for its children, was inspired by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
And that what really happened in the Middle East is something you'll never see while watching antique media.
Monday, November 26, 2012
GOOD NEWS: Let Everyone Know Who Is Really In Charge
It's time to let everyone know your real agenda... how you control the media, the banking system, the New World Order, and (shhh...) the Bilderbergers with exclusive, members-only IZC merchandise!
You can thank me later.
Impress your Zionist friends, colleagues, co-conspirators, and family members with this proof of being an Intergalactic Zionist Conspiracy Charter Member...
Shirts, buttons, coffee mugs, hats, bags, key chains, and other products are available to Intergalactic Zionist Conspiracy Charter Members only. You can customize colors, styles, and sizes.
You can thank me later.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
THE COMPLETE COMIC BOOK: This Godless Communism
"Treasure Chest was a monthly comic book published by the Catholic Guild from 1946 to 1972. Each issue featured several different stories intended to inspire citizenship, morality, and patriotism. In the 1961, volume 17 number 2 issue, the story "This Godless Communism" began. It continued in the even numbered issues through number 20. The entire story is presented here."
To read the complete history of Communism (well worth your time, by the way), click the right side of each image to flip through the comic book.
And then perhaps some of the drones can explain to me how purveyors of this vile ideology of slavery and mass-murder became accepted members of the Democrat Party (see: Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Carol Browner, etc.).
To read the complete history of Communism (well worth your time, by the way), click the right side of each image to flip through the comic book.
And then perhaps some of the drones can explain to me how purveyors of this vile ideology of slavery and mass-murder became accepted members of the Democrat Party (see: Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Carol Browner, etc.).
"THE SCARIEST PRESENTATION EVER": The Economic Endgame Hits Within 12 Months
Tyler Durden introduces what he calls "The Scariest Presentation Ever" with a single paragraph:
I'm no economist, but you don't have to be an expert at much of anything to recognize that unchecked borrowing is unsustainable. This principle applies equally to individuals, corporations and governments. And the debts thus far incurred by corrupt officials around the world have passed the tipping point: they will never be repaid.
What happens when sovereign defaults occur? History teaches us that economic crises usually result in war and despotism. It will be up to Americans -- all of us -- to preserve the civil society and re-institute a Constitutional Republic.
If Raoul Pal was some doomsday spouting windbag, writing in all caps, arbitrarily pasting together disparate charts to create 200 page slideshows, it would be easy to ignore him. He isn't. The founder of Global Macro Investor "previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe... Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36 and now lives on the Valencian coast of Spain, from where he writes." It is his writing we are concerned about, and specifically his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen... And we see a lot of those.
###
The world has no engine of growth with most of the G-20 countries approaching stall speed at the same time. Now, what is that? G-20, that’s the 20 biggest countries in the world. Approaching stall speed. We have no engine of growth. Ask yourself this question: What is the engine of growth in the United States? Currently it is being set up that the engine of growth is the stimulus package, is the United States government. Is that real growth? I contend - and you know the answer - no.
The western world is about to enter a second recession in an ongoing depression. For the first time since the 1930′s, we’re entering a recession. Before industrial production, durable goods orders, employment, and private sector GDP have made back their previous highs. Hear that again. For the first time since the 1930′s before we’ve made if back up on our feet. Usually we have a recession, it starts to grow again, and then we come back down. This is – this is a new trend.
Fact: This will to be the lowest cyclical peak in GDP growth in G-7 history. These are the weakest ever foundations on which to enter a recession.
The problem is down to one thing: Debt.
This is significant. The 10 largest debtor nations on earth have total debts of over 300% of world GDP. History tells us that when sovereign defaults occur, what does that mean? Sovereign defaults? Sovereign default, if a sovereign default occurs, that means Greece goes out of business, Spain goes out of business, Portugal goes out of business. The Euro is a bubble. It will crash."
History tells us when sovereign defaults occur, they come in a series of defaults. We need to understand history in order to grasp the present. The domino effect. In history when you have a default, one falls into the other and the other and the other...
...What is coming? EU sovereign debt defaults. UK sovereign default. Japan sovereign default. South Korea, sovereign default. China, sovereign default.
We are here. We don’t know exactly what is to come, but we can all join the very few dots from where we are now to the collapse of the first major bank, with very limited room for government bailouts... We can easily join the next dots from the first bank closure to the collapse of the whole European banking system and then to bankruptcy of the governments themselves. There are almost no breaks in the system to stop this and almost no one realizes the seriousness of this situation.
The problem is not government debt, per se... The real problem is The 70 trillion in G-10 debt, the top 10 governments around the world, The 70 trillion is the collateral for $700 trillion in derivatives. That number equates to 1200% of global GDP and rests on very, very weak foundations.
Imagine the UK defaulting. What do you think would happen to Japan and China? Would they not be next? And do you think that the U.S. would survive unscathed? This is the end of the fractional reserve banking system and of fiat money. It is the big reset. This is what we’ve been talking about for quite some time. The big reset. This is what George Soros has wanted, the big reset.
When the system has to be rebooted, who are the players that are designing that? This is why when people say to you, George Soros, why would anybody want this to happen? Because if you know the reset is coming, anyway, if you know it’s unsustainable, then you want to be the one to design what the future looks like.
From a timing perspective, I think 2012 and 2013 will usher in the end. You have to understand that the global banking collapse and massive defaults would bring about the biggest economic shock the world has ever seen. There would be no trade finance, no shipping finance, no finance for farmers, no leasing, no bond market, no nothing. The markets are, frankly, at a terrifying point of realizing that there is nothing they can do including quantitative easing to prevent this collapse.
The next phase, as Spain and Italy go, will be to see nationalization of banks – the nationalization of banks and the assumption of bank debts on government balance sheets...
We have Tim Geithner coming out and saying, The governments have to take this debt on. Then expect to be shut out of financial markets. Bonds will be stuck at 1% in the U.S., Germany, and UK, and Japan for this phase.
The whole bond market will be dead.
That means nobody wants to invest in companies. Short selling on bonds will be banned. Short selling stocks will be banned. CBS, banned. Short futures, banned. Put options, banned. All that will be left will be the dollar and gold. As defaults in governments and banks come to fruition, we risk a closure of the stock market entirely and a closure of the banking system as occurred in Argentina in 2001, Russia in 1998, and Brazil in 1999.
We have around six months of trading in western markets to protect ourselves or make enough money to offset future losses. Spend your time looking at the risks of custody safekeeping, counterparty, et cetera. Assume that no one and nothing is safe. After that put your tin helmet on and hide until the new system emerges. I wish I could see another option with an equally high probability, but I can’t find one. All we can do is hope that I’m wrong, but either way, a new system will emerge and it will open up a whole new set of opportunities, but we are going back 40 years in time and 1500 to 3000 years in trading.
I'm no economist, but you don't have to be an expert at much of anything to recognize that unchecked borrowing is unsustainable. This principle applies equally to individuals, corporations and governments. And the debts thus far incurred by corrupt officials around the world have passed the tipping point: they will never be repaid.
What happens when sovereign defaults occur? History teaches us that economic crises usually result in war and despotism. It will be up to Americans -- all of us -- to preserve the civil society and re-institute a Constitutional Republic.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
EXCLUSIVE SPACKLE-VISION PHOTOS: Internal military emails reveal details on bin Laden's burial
Biff Spackle points us to this Fox News report, along with two exclusive photos:
Fortunately, Biff Spackle also located an elusive photo of Bin Laden's real burial at sea.

Shhh. No one tell the most transparent administration evah.
Internal emails among senior U.S. military officers indicate that no sailors watched Usama bin Laden's burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson and traditional Islamic procedures were followed during the ceremony.
...One email sent on May 2 by a senior Navy officer briefly describes how bin Laden's body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet, and then placed in a weighted bag... According to another message, only a small group of the ship's leadership was informed of the burial.
"Traditional procedures for Islamic burial was followed," the May 2 email from Rear Adm. Charles Gaouette reads. "The deceased's body was washed (ablution) then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat board, tipped up, whereupon the deceased's body slid into the sea."
The email also included a cryptic reference to the intense secrecy surrounding the mission. "The paucity of documentary evidence in our possession is a reflection of the emphasis placed on operational security during the execution of this phase of the operation," Gaouette's message reads. Recipients of the email included Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Mattis, the top officer at U.S. Central Command.
...Although the Obama administration has pledged to be the most transparent in American history, it is keeping a tight hold on materials related to the bin Laden raid. In a response to separate requests from the AP for information about the mission, the Defense Department said in March that it could not locate any photographs or video taken during the raid or showing bin Laden's body. It also said it could not find any images of bin Laden's body on the Vinson.
...The Pentagon also said it could not find any death certificate, autopsy report or results of DNA identification tests for bin Laden, or any pre-raid materials discussing how the government planned to dispose of bin Laden's body if he were killed.
Fortunately, Biff Spackle also located an elusive photo of Bin Laden's real burial at sea.

Shhh. No one tell the most transparent administration evah.
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