Category Archives: defense contractors

Krugman on Cyprus

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(hat tip to common dreams)

Paul Krugman has a few thoughts on Cyprus:  Leave the euro now.

The only issue with Krugman’s column is that he should get a little more detailed and put it into context.  Most folks are not literate in the financial world (which I think they bank on (pun intended)), so a little “lesson” on the history of economics and why we continually bail out banks and financial institutions and anyone else they deemed “worthy”…just as long as they don’t give those sleazy poor people food stamps!!

Banks and profiteering on food.

Christie private profiteering

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Well, the good feelings towards Christie for his actions during the storm crises is evaporating rapidly…with the news of him continuing to destroy public education for private profiteers.

Looking at the comments, Amitola mentions how the town has gone the way of most in the U.S.–jobs dry up, people move or the ones that stay are scraping by–not able to support a robust economy.  And the schools follow–poverty is the number one reason for school’s poor performance.  It’s hard to concentrate on school work when you’re hungry, dirty, and your folks are stressed out because you’re *this close* to being out on the street.  (or worse, you’re already out on the street, living in a shelter, with noise all night long and no privacy and no life).

Another poignant comment is by John Randolph:  the 1% bring the city to its knees and then profit off of the carcass.
Disaster capitalism, folks….(speaking of unions, they announced on the news the other day that Indiana has now lost more union members than gained, thanks to “Right to Work” law.  Also, they are airing commercials promoting a tax break…yes, a tax break in this economy…for Hoosiers—Gov. Mike Pence, an APEC toadie, first spouted this hairbrained idea right after election.  Legislature said no.  Now *cough* Americans for Prosperity are taking it to the airwaves trying to get people to call their representatives.)

Unfortunately, charter school takeover is not just here in the U.S., but now in Haiti. (insert a few choice expletives here). Note that Bill Gates has his filthy little fingers in this, too.  Like I said before, he is not the philanthropist he tries to imitate.

See previous posts here. And here. And here. 

And here.

Accepting responsibility

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…is the first step towards correcting the problem….Washington Post hasn’t quite gotten *there* yet.  The media was absolutely culpable for instilling fear into the public and credibility into the Bush Administration where no credibility existed.

What’s worse is that they are still giving air time to Cheney, et al, as if this guy has any credibility at all.

From the New York Times:

Most notably, Mr. Cheney defends his position on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, the Iraq war and the use of waterboarding with his usual aplomb and deft obfuscation. Other key players, including George W. Bush, have acknowledged mistakes and expressed dismay over decisions that proved misguided. Mr. Cheney says he did nothing wrong and has no regrets.

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One incident is almost chilling. Barton Gellman, a journalist and the author of a Cheney biography, recounts how in 2004 Mr. Cheney fought Justice Department lawyers who had determined that the top-secret, warrantless surveillance program that he had pushed for was illegal. Mr. Cheney was so insistent on keeping the wiretaps going that he kept Mr. Bush, then in his re-election campaign, out of the loop until the 11th hour, when two dozen Justice Department lawyers and the F.B.I. director threatened to resign

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And let’s not forget the profit factor for Cheney.  More here.  Blood on your hands, Dick.

Here’s a good article on those that were promoting the Iraq War through the media.  They use powerful words and the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us…or a fool….”  Hard to go against the grain when put in that context…I tried talking with a friend about it, but she was military and absolutely refused to believe that there was any doubt there were WMD’s.  They wouldn’t lie to her….

The media is very powerful in influencing people.  And the fact that Ronnie Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine has had huge impacts in our ability to get both sides of a story in order to flush out the truth.  The press is no longer obligated by law to present the whole picture instead of something that suits them.  The fact that in my community there are nothing but rightwing radio announcers is testament to how unfair and unbalanced our media is…

Not only Reagan, but Clinton allowed media consolidation.   The media owners get to promote their own political views and world views without having to air the opposing side’s views.

From the article:

(This is my beef, also, about what happened in Fort Wayne last June–save for one station on Friday night, there was no live broadcast talking about the super storm.  NO ONE was live on the air on the next day, Saturday, telling people where they could go for cooling stations, when the power would be back on, how many people were affected (so folks would know that it was going to be awhile to get power and to plan accordingly.))

 

January 18, 2002 A train carrying hazardous materials derails at 1:30 a.m. in Minot, North Dakota, spilling 210,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia in an incident federal regulators call “catastrophic”. Clear Channel Communications owns six out the seven commercial stations in Minot. Minot authorities say when they called with the warning about the toxic cloud, there was no one on the air who could’ve made the announcement. Clear Channel says someone was there who could have activated an emergency broadcast. But Minot police say nobody answered the phones.

Pakistan and Iran…

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…have a new pipeline going in…

Monday’s ceremony comes just days before the Pakistani government’s term is set to expire and could be designed to win votes by making the ruling Pakistan People’s Party look like it’s addressing the energy crisis. It also allows the government to thumb its nose at the United States, which is widely unpopular in Pakistan despite billions of dollars in U.S. military and civilian aid.

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And then there’s this.

…my “antenna” is going up on these two stories.  Perhaps not related, but I’m just wondering at the timing of the story? Why now?  Or is this a case of making an accusation in order to get the U.S. to placate Afghanistan? Is he perhaps fishing for more $$$ in aid? Does this have anything to do with the pipeline being built in Afghanistan and now this new pipeline threatens the profits they hoped to make on it—and they see the U.S. as not doing enough to block the new pipeline?

Time will tell…

…meanwhile, the innocent bystanders will continue to pay the price…

Drug pushing psychiatrists….

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I found this obit yesterday.  Wow….it never ceases to amaze me how depraved people can be…

“A large proportion of the people who have gotten involved in research in this area have been harebrained and irresponsible — Timothy Leary being the most notorious example — and a lot of the stuff that has been published reflects that,” Klee told the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1975.

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Klee was quoted in the article as saying he took LSD to see what it was like because he couldn’t give a drug to someone without experiencing himself.  Did he had anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and other drugs, too?  How much did the LSD affect his own performance and brain function?  Did it alter his perception of what happened to not only himself but the poor saps that were experimented upon?

It is good that he finally came clean and reported yet another experiment on the unsuspecting….but it would have been better had he refused to participate and blown the whistle on the whole scheme to begin with.

My thoughts on Leary here.

In harmony with nature

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Bhutan is the first country to go entirely organic.  Good for them!  Note that they see this as not only a practical idea, but they incorporate their spirituality in their reverence for nature.  It’s not easy, as the article states, because it’s hard to reorient oneself to farming without chemicals.  Chemicals are just too, too easy.  It takes creative thinking and hard work to do the right thing.

<sigh> I wish the so-called progressive America did the same.  (Remember when the United States used to lead the world?)

No, we’re not the leaders anymore….

…we’d much rather do stupid stuff like genetically engineer a life form and then persecute farmers into bankruptcy for using that technology unknowingly.

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In other environmental news, Canadian Prime Minister Harper is being urged to walk away from yet another trade agreement.

From the article:

The Australian government decided in 2011 it would stop including these rights and investor-state dispute settlement in its trade and investment agreements. Many countries, including South Africa and India, are rethinking their investment treaties because of the way corporations and law firms have abused them to undermine democracy and public policies globally. Several Latin American countries are cancelling their investment treaties for the same reason.

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Again, I ask, “remember when the U.S. used to lead the world….?”  Why are other countries doing the right thing while America lists like a battered ship in the sea?

Graham gets it handed back to him

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Police Chief Edward Flynn gives it back to Lindsey Graham, who clearly wants to ask questions and doesn’t necessarily care if he gets answers.  He’s not interested in a civil exchange, but for only his views being heard.

“The background checks worked.”

Most Americans favor universal background checks.

Enough said.

 

Haiti food shortage and disappearing money

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As if these folks don’t have enough to deal with–Haiti is in serious trouble with food shortages due not only to the after-effects of the 2010 earthquake, but from drought and flood…  Good Grief.  (Incidentally, I first read about this on a Guardian blog which is “supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”–I refuse to link to it because of the so-called “doomsday seed bank” which is a megalomaniacal venture.  Playing God with seeds–and you can bet it won’t be the “little people” who will partake in the seed distribution if “doomsday” occurs…if you want to read the Guardian article, you’ll have to search for it yourselves.)

I know it sounds so “out there” reading the above link—but Monsanto has a proven record of destruction, not production.  And the Rockefellers have put money into eugenics.  Given Bill Gates’ business practices (by requiring a monopoly of his products, he shut out better operating systems, therefore acquiring his millions by false means–not true capitalism where the best product gets the market share.)

I couldn’t believe what I was reading in the article about corn being engineered to contain spermicide.  So…I looked on the web and found this by Alternet.  Wow.

This was an interesting quote:

Scientists and corporations alike embrace biopharmaceuticals with glee: “Imagine being able to harvest enough globulin (a compound that fights arthritis) for the whole world in all of fifty acres?” writes Dr. William O. Robertson for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Imagine being able to find the protein healthy people use to prevent arthritis or breast cancer and being able to produce it in large quantities in rice and tobacco.”

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It’s just stunning how myopic these scientists are—especially with the knowledge that GM corn and other products are suspected of causing gut inflammation from GMO intolerance??  Destroying the immune system….to make people…better??  Note that he includes tobacco in products to be used by folks….yeah, now there’s a healthy product. /snark

As Brian Tokar brings up in the article, there are too many unknowns–it’s always an oversight by scientists to consider the effects to all of nature and how much humans’ health is affected by nature.

Here’s another article on pharming….and it’s in Indiana, where you can get away with anything while the press and politicians look the other way:          popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-06/pharming-underground

And another article here…also in Indiana:  intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/8124/21291/338465.html

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Okay, back to Haiti (sorry, got a little off topic there–am detoxing and I’m ADD a little more than usual. 🙂

The Guardian article brings up getting seeds to Haitians (and Africans)—which I thought was a great idea…until I saw the Gates Foundation and Monsanto supporting this….not hard to see that it is a propaganda piece to benefit them.  It can’t be just “coincidence” that they are in a deal with Monsanto and now promoting this idea of seeds to Haiti.  My fear is that these poor vulnerable folks are the guinea pigs for the Gates/Rockefeller/Monsanto venture. Disaster capitalism, my friends.

The misspent donations in Haiti.  Glad to see that people are still trying to help Haiti recover.  Haiti has to be the poster country for disaster relief mismanagement!

From the article:

 

In March 2010, UN countries pledged $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference March 2010. The money was to be deposited with the World Bank and distributed by an internationally controlled fund called the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission Fund (IHRC). The IHRC was co-chaired by Bill Clinton and Jean-Max Bellerive, then the Haitian Prime Minister. 41 The IHRC was created by executive order of Haitian President Preval to exist for a period of 18 months beginning on April 21, 2010.42

This money effectively bypassed all the Haitian public governmental bodies. 43

By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only 10 percent of the pledges had been given to the IHRC.

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Feeling that they functioned solely as rubber stamps, the Haitian members complained of being “completely disconnected from the activities of the IHRC”; given no background information on the projects they are supposed to fund; given no time to “read, nor analyze, nor understand- and much less respond intelligently- to projects submitted”; no follow-up on the previously approved millions in funds; and not knowing the names of IHRC consultants nor their respective tasks.” As if to prove their point the IHRC meeting, held in the Dominican Republic, continued despite the absence of co-chair and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

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(Once again, the Clintons screw things up.  They say Reagan was the “teflon” president because nothing ever stuck to him…well Clinton ranks right up there with him.)

While typing, the chemtrails phenomenon popped into my head– I remember reading a connection between Gates and chemtrails and was wondering about their effects on rainfall.  My thinking is that it can’t just be climate change that is creating the drought.  I found this blog on it, but it was a general synopsis.  Then I found this.  It is an observation of the interference with rain clouds by chemtrails.

A side note~~  A petition against the Gates Foundation’s $27 million investment in Monsanto.  Um-hmm…follow the money, folks.

 

Evil Environmental laws and the UN

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Really, now, the conservative toadies for the oil companies reeeeeally need to come up with some new words besides: “Freedom”

“Liberty” , “way of life”, and this is a good one “our heritage”….to manipulate the public into doing things that are the opposite of what is in their best interests…

…since when is polluting water, land, and air part of our heritage??

If I recall correctly, the Native Americans lived here for over 10,000 years and one could drink from any stream, swim in any river, and eat fish from any body of water and not get poisoned from fertilizers, mercury, plastic, pesticides, nor herbicides….THAT, my friend, IS our heritage!