Archive for the 'Elite' Category
Afghan Security Forces Beat Angry Customers to Prevent Run on Kabul Bank
September 8th, 2010Via: Guardian: Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings today from the country’s biggest bank, which is mired in a scandal of corruption and mismanagement. Kabul Bank’s troubles have threatened to add a financial crisis to Afghanistan’s other woes, with military and civilian casualties at record levels as a […]
John Le Carre on Russia, Banking and the Deep State
September 8th, 2010Via: BBC: “I was laughed at, in a way, when the Cold War ended and the wall came down,” he told Today presenter Justin Webb. “‘Poor old Le Carre, what will become of him? Nobody’s spying anymore.’ “The reality is, the budgets have never been bigger, the recruitment has never been more wholesale.” Today’s Russian […]
Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds
September 8th, 2010What a mess. Via: Vanity Fair: In addition to its roughly $400 billion (and growing) of outstanding government debt, the Greek number crunchers had just figured out that their government owed another $800 billion or more in pensions. Add it all up and you got about $1.2 trillion, or more than a quarter-million dollars for […]
Mafia Cash in on Lucrative EU Wind Farm Handouts – Especially in Sicily
September 7th, 2010“In Italy, for example, power from wind farms is sold at a guaranteed rate of €180 per kwh – the highest rate in the world.” I don’t know what the subsidy is, but it can’t be €180/kwh. (Please tell me it’s not €180/kwh.) I looked up the retail cost of electricity in Italy and it’s […]
The True Cost of the Iraq War: $3 Trillion and Beyond
September 7th, 2010Via: Washington Post: Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration’s 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war. But today, as the United States ends combat in […]
U.S. Navy Makes $3 Billion “Hostage Payment” to HP for Crappy Computer Network
September 6th, 2010Via: Wired: Normally, it’s hard to get anyone but the geeks fired up about information infrastructure. But the Navy Marine Corps Intranet isn’t your normal network. With 700,000+ seats, it’s the world’s second-biggest network, after the internet itself. NMCI’s technical complexities and hiccups are the stuff of dark legend around the Navy. The fights it’s […]
Pentagon Declined to Investigate Hundreds of Purchases of Child Pornography
September 4th, 2010Via: Yahoo News: A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department — including some with the highest available security clearance — who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But […]
Donald Trump Counting Sheep
September 4th, 2010Elite Paedophile Ring in Portugal
September 3rd, 2010Extensive background: Beyond the Dutroux Affair. Via: Guardian: One of Portugal’s most famous television presenters and a former ambassador to Unesco were among those who abused boys in a paedophile ring involving the country’s state-run orphanages, according to a court verdict released today. The verdict being read out today at a Lisbon court brings to […]
SEC Investigating High Frequency Trading: My Voice Is Higher Than Your Voice
September 3rd, 2010WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. “Manipulating share prices to benefit from the distortions would be considered illegal.” *chortle* It’s not illegal, it’s innovation! Rest assured, though, the SEC is going to sort it out. *double chortle* Are you betting your financial future on the stock market? […]
