Jim Dean: Government Shut-Down and the Real Crimes Behind the Scenes — Wall Street Rules and Stealing the Gold

01 Brazil, 02 China, 03 Economy, 03 India, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call
Jim W. Dean
Jim W. Dean

Government shutdown and Chinese gold

EXTRACT

Gordon Duff first reported in Veterans Today another financial scandal motive for the Repubs wanting to hold up Obama Care. New regulations were going into effect to stop the cross collateralization of insurance company reserves, who are all owned by banks, so they could be market traded. The sums involved were astronomical.

“The Obama Care issue is about ‘funds in management.’ The health insurance industry, through investment banks and hedge funds, accounts for 35% of the entire investment capital of the United States.

This sector has been totally unregulated with, not just individual policyholders but industries and government forced to subsidize a health care Ponzi scheme where in some cases fewer than 3% of policy premiums were paid back in benefits.”

Continue reading “Jim Dean: Government Shut-Down and the Real Crimes Behind the Scenes — Wall Street Rules and Stealing the Gold”

Berto Jongman: Sunni-Shia Schism — US Has No Clue and Continues to Prostitute Itself to Saudi Arabia and Israel

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 05 Iran, 06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Peace Intelligence
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

How the Sunni-Shia schism is dividing the world

The unprecedented Saudi refusal to take up its Security Council seat is not just about Syria but a response to the Iranian threat

The Muslim world’s historic – and deeply tragic – chasm between Sunni and Shia Islam is having worldwide repercussions. Syria’s civil war, America’s craven alliance with the Sunni Gulf autocracies, and Sunni (as well as Israeli) suspicions of Shia Iran are affecting even the work of the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia’s petulant refusal last week to take its place among non-voting members of the Security Council, an unprecedented step by any UN member, was intended to express the dictatorial monarchy’s displeasure with Washington’s refusal to bomb Syria after the use of chemical weapons in Damascus – but it also represented Saudi fears that Barack Obama might respond to Iranian overtures for better relations with the West.

The Saudi head of intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan – a true buddy of President George W Bush during his 22 years as ambassador in Washington – has now rattled his tin drum to warn the Americans that Saudi Arabia will make a “major shift” in its relations with the US, not just because of its failure to attack Syria but for its inability to produce a fair Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement.

What this “major shift” might be – save for the usual Saudi hot air about its independence from US foreign policy – was a secret that the prince kept to himself.

Israel, of course, never loses an opportunity to publicise – quite accurately – how closely many of its Middle East policies now coincide with those of the wealthy potentates of the Arab Gulf.

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SchwartzReport: Six Specifics That Make Denmark the Happiest (and Perhaps the Most Productive) Nation on Earth

08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Lessons, Peace Intelligence, Policies

schwartzreport newLo and behold when a society is ordered on wellness and not just profit, as is the case in Denmark, we can see what results — wellness, happiness. So why aren't we doing this?

Denmark Is the Happiest Country on Earth! You'll Never Guess Why
AlterNet (U.S.)

Last month, Denmark was crowned the happiest country in the world.

‘The top countries generally rank higher in all six of the key factors identified in the World Happiness Report,” wrote University of British Columbia economics professor John Helliwell, one of the report's contributing authors. ‘Together, these six factors explain three quarters of differences in life evaluations across hundreds of countries and over the years.”

The six factors for a happy nation split evenly between concerns on a government- and on a human-scale. The happiest countries have in common a large GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy at birth and a lack of corruption in leadership. But also essential were three things over which individual citizens have a bit more control over: A sense of social support, freedom to make life choices and a culture of generosity.

“There is now a rising worldwide demand that policy be more closely aligned with what really matters to people as they themselves characterize their well-being,” economist Jeffrey Sachs said in a statement at the time of the report's release.

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David Sabow: White House/Pentagon/CIA Iran Contra Drug Running — and Destruction of Senator Gary Hart to Stop Investigation

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
David Sabow
David Sabow

This is NOT speculation. Everything told here is documented and supported by a Tosh Plumlee's testimony and supported by letters from Senator Gary Hart to the “Kerry Commission”. I have copies of the letters.  David

Phi Beta Iota: This series by Dr. David Sabow is posted in honor of his brother Col James Sabow, USMC (Aviation), murdered at the direction of Marine Corps General Officers co-conspiring with the CIA to introduce drugs into the USA in the 1980's and early 1990's.  We note with interest that Senator John Kerry, today Secretary of State, became complicit after the fact.  The truth at any cost lowers all others costs.  The day is coming when the public appreciates the truth, and the freedom and dignity and prosperity that the truth can bring to a community and to its governance.

David Sabow: Posted on my Face Book Page in ref to John Carman contact and reply.

John very interesting background. That's what I meant when I said you paid some dues.

I don't know those people you worked with but that doesn't mean anything.

I flew into China Lakes a few times in the eighties and early nineties, and into El Toro's Marine Naval Air Station for mostly refueling before going on the “Roster Hop' to Mexico and Central America, in operation Penetrate. That was mostly in the early stages of what would be later called Iran Contra.

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Jon Rappoport: How Many Lies Can We Tell Before We Collapse?

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Jon Rappoport
Jon Rappoport

How many lies can the White House tell before the walls collapse?

Obama has no one to blame but himself:

He was the one who campaigned, in 2008, on Hope and Change. He was the one who deployed high-flying rhetoric to promise a new day in Washington politics.

He was the one who said he was going elevate the level of discourse and make government transparent. He positioned himself as a new kind of leader. He was the one who turned his candidacy into a religious experience.

He was the one who convinced voters he stood above the fray, as a man and as a symbol, and on that basis they boarded his train and rode it all the way.

He was the one who, inheriting a desperate economy, made his signature move upon gaining office:

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Stephen Aftergood: What Is Overclassification?

10 Security, 11 Society, Definitions, Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call
Steven Aftergood
Steven Aftergood

WHAT IS OVERCLASSIFICATION?

When people criticize overclassification of national security information, what exactly are they talking about?  Is it too much secrecy?  The wrong sort of secrecy?  Classifying something at too high a level?  Oddly, there is no widely-accepted definition of the term.

But since the solution to overclassification, if any, will naturally be shaped by the way the problem is understood, it is important to specify the problem as clearly as possible.

In 2010 Congress passed (and President Obama signed) the Reducing Over-Classification Act, which mandated several steps to improve classification practices in the executive branch.  But in a minor act of legislative malpractice, Congress failed to define the meaning of the term “over-classification” (as it was spelled in the statute).  So it is not entirely clear what the Act was supposed to “reduce.”

Among its provisions, the Act required the Inspectors General of all classifying agencies to perform an evaluation of each agency's compliance with classification rules.

To assist them in their evaluations, the Inspectors General turned to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) for a working definition of overclassification that they could use to perform their task.  ISOO's answer was cited by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice in its new report.  (Audit of DOJ's Implementation of and Compliance with Certain Classification Requirements, Inspector General Audit Report 13-40, September 2013.)

    “Over-classification,” according to ISOO, means “the designation of information as classified when the information does not meet one or more of the standards for classification under section 1.1 of

Executive Order (EO) 13526

    .”  If something is classified in violation of the standards of the executive order– then it is “over-classified.”

 

So, for example, information that is not owned by the government, such as a newspaper article, cannot be properly classified under the terms of the executive order.  And neither can information that has no bearing on national security, such as an Embassy dinner menu.  And yet information in both categories has been known to be classified, which is indeed a species of overclassification.

Unfortunately, however, this ISOO definition presents the problem so narrowly that it misses whole dimensions of overclassification.

 

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