Corruption – Page 482 – Public Intelligence Blog

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

Food Costs Soar Following Severe Worldwide Drought

Food prices are expected to see their biggest annual increase in the past three years thanks mostly to devastating drought conditions all over the world. Dry conditions mean poor crop production; poor crop production means fewer livestock; and fewer livestock means higher prices for meats and dairy at the grocery store. That plus a pinch on products like cocoa, sugar, wheat, rice and especially coffee have the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicting a big bump in food costs.

Higher meat and dairy prices are mostly the culprits in the United States, thanks in part to ongoing drought conditions in the Midwest and Great Plains that have forced ranchers to cull their herds rather than pay exorbitant prices to feed the animals. Inflation of corn and soybean products could be managed if farmers receive favorable conditions for their crops this summer, in turn driving down prices of animal feed as well as products for human consumption. Still, consumers could pay as much as $1 more per gallon for milk at the store to compensate for low supplies mixed with high demand.

Continue reading “Eagle: Food Costs Soar – Revolution in the Air”

2014/03/192014/03/19

Mini-Me: NSA Says Its Water Use is TOP SECRET – We Do Not Make This Stuff Up!

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Military

Huh?

The NSA Says its Water Bill Should be Top Secret

Robert McMillan

WIRED, 03.19.14

The National Security Agency has many secrets, but here’s a new one: the agency is refusing to say how much water its pumping into the brand new data center it operates in Bluffdale, Utah. According to the NSA, its water usage is a matter of national security.

The agency made the argument in a letter sent to officials in Utah, who are considering whether or not to release the data to the Salt Lake Tribune. Back in May, Tribune reporter Nate Carlisle asked for local records relating to the data center, but when he got his files a few months later, the water usage data was redacted.

. . . . . . .

“By computing the water usage rate, one could ultimately determine the computing power and capabilities of the Utah Data Center,” wrote the NSA’s associate director for policy and records, David Sherman in an undated letter filed with Bluffdale in response to the Tribune’s public records request. “Armed with this information, one could then deduce how much intelligence NSA is collecting and maintaining.”

Continue reading “Mini-Me: NSA Says Its Water Use is TOP SECRET – We Do Not Make This Stuff Up!”

2014/03/192014/03/19

SchwartzReport: Media Self-Censors on Oil Spills & Real World

Corruption, Media

As far as I can tell although filed by The Associated Press, this didn't rate a mention on any news network. Further evidence of why we need to leave the carbon era. Instead we have spent a week talking about a story for which no one has a single certain explanatory fact. The NASA report on the collapse of civilization… yawn. Lets speculate instead on whether Martians have d! ematerialized the Malaysian 777 airliner. This and the Crimea, for which there is almost as little certain data. It is the most astonishing display of the complete absence of substance in the American media one can imagine. Literally a week spent on two stories one of which is almost entirely information free and the other which lacks most of the data that would give us insight.

Pipeline Leaks Thousands of Gallons of oil in Southwest Ohio
DAN SEWELL – The Columbus Dispatch

2014/03/182014/03/18

Joseph E. Stiglitz: Transpacific Partnership (TPP) Screws Everybody Except the 1%

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

On the Wrong Side of Globalization

By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ

New York Times, 15 March 2014

Trade agreements are a subject that can cause the eyes to glaze over, but we should all be paying attention. Right now, there are trade proposals in the works that threaten to put most Americans on the wrong side of globalization.

The conflicting views about the agreements are actually tearing at the fabric of the Democratic Party, though you wouldn’t know it from President Obama’s rhetoric. In his State of the Union address, for example, he blandly referred to “new trade partnerships” that would “create more jobs.” Most immediately at issue is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which would bring together 12 countries along the Pacific Rim in what would be the largest free trade area in the world.

Negotiations for the TPP began in 2010, for the purpose, according to the United States Trade Representative, of increasing trade and investment, through lowering tariffs and other trade barriers among participating countries. But the TPP negotiations have been taking place in secret, forcing us to rely on leaked drafts to guess at the proposed provisions. At the same time, Congress introduced a bill this year that would grant the White House filibuster-proof fast-track authority, under which Congress simply approves or rejects whatever trade agreement is put before it, without revisions or amendments.

Controversy has erupted, and justifiably so. Based on the leaks — and the history of arrangements in past trade pacts — it is easy to infer the shape of the whole TPP, and it doesn’t look good. There is a real risk that it will benefit the wealthiest sliver of the American and global elite at the expense of everyone else. The fact that such a plan is under consideration at all is testament to how deeply inequality reverberates through our economic policies.

Worse, agreements like the TPP are only one aspect of a larger problem: our gross mismanagement of globalization.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Joseph E. Stiglitz: Transpacific Partnership (TPP) Screws Everybody Except the 1%”

2014/03/182014/03/18

Owl: Malaysian Airlines a Practice Run or Real Asian 9/11 Aborted for Reasons Unknown?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military

Flight 370: Zio-Al Queda-NeoCon Sequel to 9-11 Aborted, a Practice Run or on Horizon (Literally)?

This article states the piloting of flight 270 involved flying it at very low levels to evade radar:

“As the search for the missing flight MH370 enters its 10th day with few clues as to its whereabouts, the New Straits Times said today the Boeing 777-200ER dropped 5,000 feet (1,500m) to evade commercial radar detection. In an exclusive story, the government-backed paper said investigators analysing MH370’s flight data revealed that the 200-tonne, fully laden twinjet descended 1,500m or even lower to evade commercial (secondary) radar coverage after it turned back from its flight path en route to Beijing. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board. Malaysian authorities said on Saturday the plane was deliberately diverted and its on-board transmission devices switched off to avoid detection. Its last contact was at 8:11am north of the Strait of Malacca. Investigators poring over MH370’s flight data had said the plane had flown low and used “terrain masking” as it flew over the e Bay of Bengal and headed north towards land, the NST reported.”

“Terrain masking” is an interesting term, implying a military aspect:

Continue reading “Owl: Malaysian Airlines a Practice Run or Real Asian 9/11 Aborted for Reasons Unknown?”

2014/03/182014/03/18

SchwartzReport: True Cost of Plastics Leaching Poison Into Foods and Bodies Now Emergent…

03 Economy, 07 Health, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

Here is the latest on plastics, and the potential for harmful substances leeching foods packaged in plastics. This is not a happy story. My counsel is to choose foods, particularly liquid foods, that are not in plastic containers.

The Scary New Evidence on BPA-Free Plastics
MARIAH BLAKE – Mother Jones

2014/03/172014/03/17

Future of Freedom Foundation: CIA, JFK, and the Miami/Cuba PSYOP File….

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Officers Call

JFK Assassination: George Joannides’ CIA Files – Can They Help Determine Who Killed President Kennedy?

Fifty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to release classified documents in CIA Officer George Joannides’ file that could perhaps determine what really happened in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Joseph Lazzaro

International Business Times, March 13 2014

Moreover, if you think the CIA's recent secret searches of computers and its deletion of documents that were used by Senate committee members in their investigation of a controversial interrogation program, as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., charges, is appalling, if not unconstitutional and a perversion of justice, consider what the CIA has done regarding congressional JFK assassination inquiries.

In court filings, the CIA contends that at least 295 documents in Joannides’ administrative file can never be released in any form, due to “national security.” However, the CIA’s national security claim has never been independently verified.

The ongoing Morley vs. CIA suit, led by plaintiff Jefferson Morley, the author and moderator of JFKFacts.org, seeks to make public Joannides’ classified files.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Future of Freedom Foundation: CIA, JFK, and the Miami/Cuba PSYOP File….”