The United States is on the brink of defaulting on its sovereign debt for the first time since the gold standard ended. The “full faith and credit” of the United States hangs in the balance as the Republican tea party caucus is recalcitrant against raising the debt ceiling, which limits how many bonds that the Treasury can issue.
Nothing less than a global economic crisis and the status of the United States as a world power are at risk if T-bills are downgraded from their coveted AAA status. We’ve already written about how catastrophic a default would be for the U.S.; here are some of the consequences of a default for the global business environment courtesy of experts that we spoke with today.
A U.S. economic collapse & fall of the dollar as a reserve currency?
Original Bashir interview that contradicts Washington’s account of killing bin Laden
A website in the UK, themindrenewed.com, that downloaded the video from the link in my original report of the Pakistani TV interview with Mohammad Bashir has posted the interview with the original English subtitles. You can view it here:
This interview of an eyewitness to the entire event is powerful evidence that the Obama regime’s story of the killing of Osama bin Laden and his burial at sea is a hoax and a lie. Pakistani Samaa TV confirms that Bashir is who he says he is and that he lives next to the alleged bin Laden compound. Samaa TV also confirms that neighbors knew the residents of the “compound.” There has never been any mention of the Bashir interview in the presstitute media.
Kiki Camerena Killed on CIA Orders?
Borderland Beat Reporter un vato
El Diario de Coahuila (10-13-13) Proceso (10-12-13)
By Luis Chaparro and J. Jesus Esquivel
Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
A story that sounds like it was taken from a complex espionage novel has just exploded on U.S. television. Enrique Kiki Camarena, the DEA law enforcement officer murdered in Mexico in February, 1985, was apparently not the victim of the Mexican capo Rafael Caro Quintero, but rather,, of a dark member of the CIA. This individual was the one charged with silencing the antinarcotics agent for one serious reason: he had discovered that Washington was associated with the drug trafficker and was using the profits from the drug trafficking to finance the activities of the counterrevolution.
WASHINGTON (Proceso)(apro).– Three former U.S. federal agents decided to end a 28-year silence and simultaneously entrusted this journal and the U.S. Fox news services with an information “bomb”: Enrique Kiki Camarena was not murdered by Rafael Caro Quintero — the capo that served a sentence for that crime — but by an agent of the CIA. The reason: the DEA agent discovered that his own government was collaborating with the Mexican narco in his illegal business. In interviews with Proceso, Phil Jordan, former director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC); Hector Berrellez, former DEA agent, and Tosh Plumlee, a former CIA pilot, claim that they have evidence that the U.S. government itself ordered the murder of Kiki Camarena in 1985. In addition, they point to a sinister Cuban character, Felix Ismael Rodriguez, as the murderer.
The National Security Agency's $2 billion mega spy center is going up in flames.
Technical glitches have sparked fiery explosions within the NSA's newest and largest data storage facility in Utah, destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and delaying the facility's opening by one year.
And no one seems to know how to fix it.
For a country that prides itself on being a technology leader, not knowing the electrical capacity requirements for a system as large as this is inexcusable.
Within the last 13 months, at least 10 electric surges have each cost about $100,000 in damages, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Experts agree that the system, which requires about 64 megawatts of electricity—that's about a $1 million a month energy bill–isn't able to run all of its computers and servers while keeping them cool, which is likely triggering the meltdowns.
The contractor that designed the flawed system—Pennsylvania-based Klingstubbins–said in a statement that it has “uncovered the issue” and is working on “implementing a permanent fix.”
But that's not the case, according to the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), which is in charge of overseeing the data center's construction. ACE disagreed with the contractor and said the meltdowns are “not yet sufficiently understood.”
A report by ACE in the Wall Street Journal said the government has incomplete information about the design of the electrical system that could pose new problems if settings need to change on circuit breakers. The report also said regular quality controls in design and construction were bypassed in an effort to “fast track” the project.
Google bumped up its advertising services for businesses by giving them the option to add a “click-to-call” service. Search Engine Watch reports that “Google: 70% Of Mobile Searchers Call A Business Directly From Search Results (Study).” A new Google/Ipsos research says the click-to-call option increases click-through rates and brand perception. The research found that when users search on a mobile device and have said option 70% used it. For mobile users, calls are how mobile searchers conduct their research. It allows them to get quick information when on the move. Local services and businesses benefit from the advertising option-69% of users would call them if the option was readily available. Also businesses saw an 8% rise in a click-through rate.
This is concerning to businesses who do not pay for the option:
“And what about businesses that don’t offer a call option? Almost half of those surveyed said ‘the lack of a call option would lead them to be both frustrated with the business and more likely to turn to another brand. Additionally, 33 percent said that they would be less likely to refer the brand to others and would be less likely to use the brand in the future.’ “
Without a doubt this is good for driving business, but from a pure research standpoint it ruins results. Businesses pay for advertising, thus pushing them to the top and ruining organic search results. Other businesses are pushed towards the bottom. Money drives research results…again.
The attached article is a very important and informative essay. Patrick Cockurn describes how the media echo chamber warps the Orientation* of the public, as well as that of a government, to unfolding events in the so-called global war on terror that triggered by 9-11 and the continuously metastasizing instabilities the GWOT is unleashing. I regard Cockburn** to be one of the very finest if not THE finest observer now operating in the Middle East. I urge readers to study his analysis very closely … almost every sentence contains a nugget of wisdom. Then think about how this kind of reporting is messing with your mind — e.g., a good place to start is to work through the Orientation-related ramifications of his reference to “embedding.”
Chuck Spinney
Alexandria, VA
* Explanatory note for new readers: The American strategist Colonel John R. Boyd explained why Orientation is the most crucial yet most vulnerable part of any decision maker's Observation – Orientation – Decision – Action (OODA) Loop. The OODA loop lies at the heart of his influential strategic theories about the elemental nature of any form of conflict — i.e., the interaction of opposing MINDs. Readers unfamiliar with Boyd or his synthesis of the OODA Loop can find brief introduction in my essays Genghis John and Incestuous Amplification and the Madness of King George. More comprehensive but accessible and accurate descriptions can be found in the books by Robert Coram and James Fallows, and Chet Richards. For those readers who are interested in heavy intellectually lifting, I recommend Franz Ozinga‘s analysis of Boyd's strategic thought or even better, they could study Boyd's original presentations, which can be downloaded from this Archive.
** Truth in advertizing: I am proud to call Patrick Cockburn a friend.
The four wars fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria over the past 12 years have all involved overt or covert foreign intervention in deeply divided countries. In each case the involvement of the West exacerbated existing differences and pushed hostile parties towards civil war. In each country, all or part of the opposition have been hard-core jihadi fighters. Whatever the real issues at stake, the interventions have been presented as primarily humanitarian, in support of popular forces against dictators and police states. Despite apparent military successes, in none of these cases have the local opposition and their backers succeeded in consolidating power and establishing stable states.
More than most armed struggles, the conflicts have been propaganda wars in which newspaper, television and radio journalists played a central role. In all wars there is a difference between reported news and what really happened, but during these four campaigns the outside world has been left with misconceptions even about the identity of the victors and the defeated.
What a U.S. default means for the world
