UK: Garbage Rules Enforced with Surveillance Cameras
June 16th, 2007Via: Telegraph:
Householders in a seaside town have been told to put their bins out at the front of their homes and not in an alleyway to the rear.
They must also leave their rubbish out between set times to ensure it does not attract pests or miss the dust cart.
To enforce the new rules, a camera will be placed in a rubbish bag and left in an alleyway to blend in with the surroundings to catch offenders. Those filmed breaking the rules will be given a ticking off.
Repeat offenders could be handed a fixed penalty notice or even be taken to court and fined up to £1,000.
The tiny covert camera, which has cost Weymouth and Portland Council, Dorset, up to £10,000, will also help catch householders who put their rubbish out too early or too late.
“Markets Could Cope with Doubling of U.S. Deficit”
June 16th, 2007Just double from current levels? Why not triple or quadruple it and really get this party started?
Via: Financial Times:
Global capital markets would be able to finance a near-doubling of the US current account deficit to $1,600bn a year by 2012, a McKinsey study published on Friday argues.
The study, by McKinsey Global Institute, breaks new ground in analysing the sources of funding for the deficit, and what a large dollar depreciation would mean for different industries and US trading partners.
McKinsey estimates that, based on trend growth rates and current exchange rates, the US deficit will reach $1,600bn (€1,200bn, £815bn), or 9 per cent of gross domestic product, in five years’ time, up from 6.5 per cent of GDP last year.
…
“There really is nothing imminent about the deficit ending at all,†Diana Farrell, one of the authors of the study, told the FT.
But the study assumes that foreign investors do not alter their behaviour in the light of the apparently unsustainable trajectory of the current account deficit beyond 2012 and demand greater rates of return to compensate for the risk that the dollar will depreciate.
Research Credit: PD
All Pentagon War Game Scenarios on Iraq Resulted in Disaster
June 16th, 2007Via: Times Online:
General Anthony Zinni, the chief of US central command, war-gamed Iraq for more than a year before the invasion and every scenario he devised ended in a disaster, requiring many hundreds of thousands of US troops to bring it under control and remain in occupation for many years. Yet none of these scenarios was even considered by President Bush when he made the decision to invade.
Vice-President Cheney viewed the Iraq as a perfect opportunity to prove the “Rumsfeld doctrine†of low-manpower, shock-and-awe aerial warfare, without any need for the US to win allies or for the military to engage in “state-building†tasks.
There is now strong evidence that President Bush didn’t even know the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims when he decided to attack Iraq – and that dissenting opinions were simply blocked by Mr Cheney before they could reach the President’s desk.
Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20
June 16th, 2007MW, a long time reader and contributor, sent $20. Thank you.
Lowest Food Supplies in 50 or 100 Years: Global Food Crisis Emerging
June 16th, 2007Via: National Farmers Union Canada (PDF document):
Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its first projections of world grain supply and demand for the coming crop year: 2007/08. USDA predicts supplies will plunge to a 53-day equivalent- their lowest level in the 47-year period for which data exists. “The USDA projects global grain supplies will drop to their lowest levels on record. Further, it is likely that, outside of wartime, global grain supplies have not been this low in a century, perhaps longer,” said NFU Director of Research Darrin Qualman.
Most important, 2007/08 will mark the seventh year out of the past eight in which global grain production has fallen short of demand. This consistent shortfall has cut supplies in half-down from a 115-day supply in 1999/00 to the current level of 53 days. “The world is consistently failing to produce as much grain as it uses,” said Qualman. He continued: “The current low supply levels are not the result of a transient weather event or an isolated production problem: low supplies are the result of a persistent drawdown trend.”
…
Qualman said that the converging problems of natural gas and fertilizer constraints, intensifying water shortages, climate change, farmland loss and degradation, population increases, the proliferation of livestock feeding, and an increasing push to divert food supplies into biofuels means that we are in the opening phase of an intensifying food shortage.
Americans Unready to Revolt, Despite Revolting Conditions
June 16th, 2007Entertaining the author’s proposed solution will waste valuable time that people should be using to escape/prepare, but he describes the situation well.
Via: OpedNews:
Part of the genius of our contemporary ruling class elites is that they have engineering a state of political and economic oppression that paradoxically is still embraced by the Lower Class. The rational way to understand this is that ordinary, oppressed Americans are in a deep psychological state of self-delusion. Despite all the empirical, objective evidence of a failed government, they fail to see rebellion opportunities. Many still believe they live in the world’s best democracy. But across all elections considerably less than half the citizens even bother to vote anymore. Yet, as the new NBC/Journal poll results show, people are cognitively aware of just how awful the political-economic system is. Yet they are not feeling enough pain to seriously consider rebellion. And it is visceral pain that must drive people to the daring act of rebellion.
Why is there insufficient pain for revolution? This is a deadly serious issue. What is historically unique about America is that even the most oppressed and unfairly treated people are distracted by affordable materialism, entertainment, sports, gambling, and myriad other aspects of our frivolous, self-absorbed culture. Even failed school and health care systems do not drive people, paying enormous sums to fill up their SUVs, to rebellion. So, Americans are aware of their oppression, but the power elites have successfully drugged them with a plethora of pleasure-producing distractions sufficient to keep them under control. We are free to bitch, but too weak to revolt. The Internet has provided a release valve for some pent up anger and frustration. But it too has mostly become another source of distraction, rather than an effective tool for rebellion.
Though these new poll statistics make news, those in control of the political-economic system are not afraid that the population is on the verge of retaking their constitutionally guaranteed sovereign power and take back their nation. Thousands of people like me keep writing books and articles and creating protest groups and events. Those in power just find new, ingenious ways to keep the population distracted – if not through pleasure, then certainly through fear of terrorism. Growing economic insecurity also contributes to self-paralysis, as do never-ending political lies.
What a system.
China: Shocking Child Slavery Situation
June 16th, 2007Mostly shocking because this is where the U.S. is headed. This kind of thing, and much worse, is standard operating procedure in China.
The factory operators must have fallen behind in bribe payments to the local party bosses. Not to worry. The diabolical Chinese regime can be seen as rescuing the children from hell.
Via: Daily Telegraph:
UP to a thousand children were sold into a brutal life of slave work in a labour “prison” in China, police have revealed as the shocking racket was exposed today.
The victims endured maiming and brutality in primitive brick kilns, Chinese media have reported amid an expanding scandal about official neglect.
The owners ran the prison-like kilns with fierce dogs and thugs who beat the children at will, state television said. One accidentally killed a child with a shovel and buried the body at night, it said.
An army of 35,000 police in central China had so far rescued 217 people, including 29 children, the official China Daily reported today.
But state television said many more may be trapped, making bricks for little or no pay in brutal conditions in Shanxi and Henan provinces.
As many as 120 suspects had been detained.
“Now our conservative estimate is that at least 1,000 minors from Henan have been trapped and cheated into back-breaking work in these Shanxi brick kilns,” a reporter from Henan said on the current affairs program Oriental Horizon.
The program showed workers who had been recently rescued – ragged, emaciated and mute and some bearing injuries.
But even amid the high-profile rescue effort, criticism is rising of official indifference to the poor farming families.
Local media reports and websites have cited what they say is a petition from fathers of boys kidnapped from Henan.
They complained that Shanxi police were unwilling to help Henan authorities to find and rescue the children.
“We are too weak and our children face constant threats to their life. We can only beg the government,” said a copy of the document.
The China Youth Daily noted that local officials had apologised for failing to rescue the workers.
“But we have even more reason to ask why was it only after the case was widely reported by the media and shocked the central leadership that the local government then thought to apologise to these poor rural workers,” it said.
“What were they doing before?”
Clintons Sell Off Stock Holdings
June 16th, 2007To avoid any conflict of interest, eh? And Hillary just happened to be good at trading cattle futures. Right?
Tell me another one. I like a good laugh in the morning.
Ahh, the loving liberals with the armaments, oil and drug stock portfolios. Walmart, News Corp (Fox News) and Exxon, true bastions of progressive values. HAHAHA. I can’t wait to see the koolaid swilling, shit for brains, zombie democrats who will come out with something like this:
“Hillary didn’t know she was investing in Raytheon and WalMart. It’s a blind trust. It’s all for the children. It takes a village! Besides, only terrorists would dare to question Hillary’s motivation.”
Via: Guardian / AP:
Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton liquidated the contents of their blind trust upon learning it contained investments of $5 million to $25 million that could pose conflicts of interest or prove to be embarrassing to her presidential campaign.
The blind trust and a bank account valued in the same range place the Clinton’s total wealth at between $10 million and $50 million.
The Clintons opened the blind trust in April under instructions from the Office of Government Ethics and sold the assets in May, according to a disclosure form filed Friday. The Clintons have had a blind trust since former President Clinton was governor of Arkansas in 1983 and had no control over its transactions.
Once they peered inside it, they discovered it included investments in oil and drug companies, military contractors and Wal-Mart.
The report, filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Government Ethics, provides the most detailed look at the Clintons’ holdings as their wealth has expanded since the former president left the White House in 2001.
The new report also shows that the former president made $16 million in speaking fees between January 2006 and Wednesday. So far this year, Bill Clinton has given 34 paid speeches for a total of $5.9 million.
The blind trust held stock in pharmaceutical companies, including $250,000-$500,000 in Biogen Idec and Johnson & Johnson and $100,000-$250,000 in Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. It also invested in General Electric and Raytheon, two leading defense contractors. The trust had a varied portfolio, with investments in numerous other companies, including Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, Walt Disney and eBay.
…
The blind trust held stock worth $100,000-$250,000 in NewsCorp, the parent company of Fox News, which many Democrats have denounced as biased against them. The trust also held stock in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart de Mexico.
The senator served on the Wal-Mart board from 1986 to 1992, and was close with the Walton family that created the nation’s largest retailer. But she has recently called on the company to provide better worker benefits and last year her Senate campaign returned $5,000 to Wal-Mart’s political action committee. At the time, Clinton campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis said the money was returned “because of serious differences with current company practices.”
Friday’s report comes on the heels of Hillary Clinton’s Senate disclosure report, made public Thursday, which only covered activity in 2006 and did not reflect this year’s liquidation of the blind trust.
Research Credit: Marcus
BBC Headline: Are Global Market Bubbles Set to Blow?
June 15th, 2007Via: BBC:
There is a strange fascination in blowing a bubble, when despite your better judgement, you keep willing it to get bigger regardless of the dangers.
Then, suddenly, the violent pop that leaves you picking bubblegum off your eyebrows, or crying soapy tears.
For many observers, global markets are getting dangerously close to such a bursting point.
Research Credit: PD
Feds Cut Brown’s Power, Phone and Internet Access
June 15th, 2007The Ed and Elaine Brown situation is getting really weird. The feds have now cut them off, but people are still being allowed to come and go from the property. Since the Browns have been inviting, “serious people willing to fight” to join them… Something is very wrong here.
When I first heard about this situation, I thought: Feds must be inside with the Browns.
The reason the feds don’t have the place completely barricaded is because they must have people inside who can report on the tactical situation. The feds might also be using this situation as a big honey pot to see how many people will actually show up.
My guess is that if the Browns asked everyone to leave, except for their lifelong friends and family members, the tanks would go in within hours.
For those of you who think you’re going to play Their game Their way, at least read Counter Insurgency for Dummies before going off half cocked like this. All of the 80 IQ fed knuckle draggers who are working this thing have. The Browns clearly have no concept of the counter insurgency tactics that states have been using against their own people for as long as there have been states.
What I’m seeing here is slow motion suicide.
Read the Wikipedia page on COINTELPRO and then review the Ed and Elaine Brown situation. Sadly, along with the help of the criminal, enemy collaborator press, you can already see the multiple ways that the corporate state will benefit from this.
By the time Joe and Jane Six Pack hear about this, they will be exhausted after working at some crappy job and then sitting in traffic jams for an hour of two on their way home. After popping some frozen dinners into the microwave, They’ll turn on their lobotomy boxes (TV) and hear about armed lunatic tax criminals and how the defenders of the homeland were forced to take brave action to protect themselves and the community. There will be images of smoke and fire and maybe injured government storm troopers. Joe and Jane Six Pack will then sit down to dinner and say a prayer to Jesus, thanking Him for giving the defenders of the homeland such strength and courage. (The smoldering remains of the Brown’s and the people who supported them will serve as subconscious reminders of what happens to people who don’t pay their taxes.) What’s for dessert?
I’m sad that this is the way it goes in the U.S. but people can learn from this situation and avoid making the mistakes the Browns have made.
Sun Tzu wrote:
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.
What happened when Saddam Hussein’s tanks and artillery met the U.S. military in the deserts of Iraq? The battle was over in hours, but the U.S. hasn’t won the war, all these years later. The U.S. might be winning most of the battles, but it is losing the war, one soldier at a time. Why? Because the insurgents learned Sun Tzu’s lesson about water.
Now, I’m not saying to selectively start assassinating the bastards and firebombing things, etc. It’s just not a sound strategy inside the U.S. because of the corporate state’s awesome PSYOP capabilities. The first rule of insurgency is that the insurgents must have the population on their side. Because Americans are, in general, docile followers who watch the television, they’ll do what CNN tells them to do. Armed insurgency has no chance of working under those circumstances. But keep Sun Tzu’s lesson about water in mind.
A long time ago, I looked at this and thought, “This is a tough one. If I make a list of the evil bastards and start shooting them, one by one, the corporate state will make me out the be the terrorist and just mint two more bastards for each one I eliminated. On the other hand, stupid hippy sign waving doesn’t accomplish anything…”
That’s when it hit me: The greatest danger to the corporate state isn’t armed insurgents, but people choosing to live simply and cheaply; below their means. It’s people turning their backs on the thing to the extent possible. That is Their sum of all fears. This would collapse the fiat money ponzi scheme plantation system that makes the vampire state possible.
For me, it seemed that living well on very little money was the exact opposite of what the command and control mechanisms of this society had been urging me to do from day one. Since it can’t rip me off for much, it’s probably not worth the effort it would take to kill me.
My guess, though, is that more people will decide to shoot it out, rather than change their ways of thinking about resistance. Shooting it out will accomplish about as much as protesting and sign waving. But for many, going down in a hail of bullets will be easier than trying to come up with smarter tactics. The corporate state will use these opportunities to expand its power and demonstrate to the rest of the sheep, via TV/PSYOP, that you’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists, which means you’re dead.
The vast majority of people are content to chase the myths created by media, which, as you may have noticed by now, enhances the power of the corporate state. This is the default setting. This is what constitutes “normal” most of the time. The corporate state, however, also loves it when people resist using violence because it makes the state’s PSYOP more effective. “YOU SEE! THERE ARE TERRORISTS! DOMESTIC TERRORISTS!!!” Just watch what happens to the Browns, what has already happened to them. This is proof, with mathematical certainty, of how beaten down and clueless the average person is. This is why tens of millions of armed Americans are doing nothing to stop what is happening in the U.S. They have already been defeated, in their minds.
Via: SeacostOnline / AP:
Federal officials have cut phone, power and Internet service to the property of a couple who’ve been convicted of tax evasion and have refused to report to jail.
But it’s uncertain whether that hinders things for Ed and Elaine Brown, who have been holed up in their fortress-like home and have solar and wind power generators and reinforced concrete walls.
Officials say they don’t think the Browns’ equipment is sufficient to keep the home running for an extended period of time.
U.S. Marshal Steve Monier said that authorities are aware that waiting out the Browns could take months, but he said time is on his side. He said he hopes that after a summer without air conditioning and possibly a winter without heat, serving prison terms will seem like an agreeable option.
The Browns were sentenced in April to 63 months in prison. Last week, authorities showed up in force near the property, and this week, they cut the utilities going to the home.
“We have seized their phone and Internet service, and two days ago, we cut their power,” Monier said. “It’s a continuing effort to move them along to understand they need to do the right thing, and this is to surrender to us.”
