Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), DoD, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call

Attached is a really first rate assessment of the real benefits and costs of the American infatuation with drone warfare. The writer, Patrick Cockburn, is one of the very best reporters now covering the wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Chuck Spinney

Cap Ferat, France

America is deluded by its drone-warfare propaganda

World View: The use of unmanned aircraft to assassinate its enemies is guaranteed to backfire on Washington

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, Sunday, 10 June 2012

As the US and its allies ponder what to do about Syria, one suggestion advanced by the protagonists of armed intervention is to use unmanned drones to attack Syrian government targets. The proposal is a measure of the extraordinary success of the White House, CIA and Defense Department in selling the drone as a wonder weapon despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The attraction of the drone for President Obama and his administration five months before the presidential election is self-evident.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP”

2012/06/09

Owl: A New Civilization Emergent? Twilight of the Psycopathic OverWorld

07 Other Atrocities, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call, Policies

“A Civilization of, by and for the Normal Human Being”

While many articles on psychopaths have appeared in the last few years, few have anything interesting to say about psychopaths in politics and the military, except clichés and overly broad generalizations. This article, published in an obscure source in Idaho of all places, is one of the best I have ever seen on psychopaths, and it focuses on psychopaths in power and the military. The most profound segment in the article has compelled me to change my views on what constitutes the most fundamental human conflict, which before I thought was between rich and poor, and represented in great power struggles and conspiracies of the former against the latter, with the latter usually losing. This segment from the article makes me think the dichotomy is more fundamental:

“So-called conspiracy theorists, some of whom deserve the pejorative connotation of that much-abused term, often imagine that secret societies of Jews, Jesuits, bankers, communists, Bilderbergers, Muslim extremists, papists, and so on, are secretly controlling history, doing dastardly deeds, and/or threatening to take over the world. As a leading “conspiracy theorist” according to Wikipedia, I feel eminently qualified to offer an alternative conspiracy theory which, like the alternative conspiracy theory of 9/11, is both simpler and more accurate than the prevailing wisdom: The only conspiracy that matters is the conspiracy of the psychopaths against the rest of us.”

The author mentions a useful concept, what he calls the “criminal overworld” expressed in political/military psychopaths and their cliques:

Continue reading “Owl: A New Civilization Emergent? Twilight of the Psycopathic OverWorld”

2012/06/07

Penguin: DEAR AMERICA You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government

DEAR AMERICA: You Should Be Mad As Hell About This [CHARTS]

In November, Americans will have a chance to speak their minds.

And there's one thing everyone should agree on:

America just isn't working right now.

It's not just Americans who aren't working. It's America itself, a country whose economy once worked for almost everyone, not just the rich.

In the old America, if you worked hard, you had a good chance of moving up.

In the old America, the fruits of people's labors accrued to the whole country, not just the top.

In the old America, there was a strong middle class, and their immense collective purchasing power drove the economy for decades.

unemployment in perspective — Click on Image to Enlarge

No longer.

Over the past couple of decades, the disparity between “the 1%” and everyone else has hit a level not seen since the 1920s. And there is a widespread and growing sense that life here is not fair or right.

If America cannot figure out a way to fix these problems, the country will likely become increasingly polarized and de-stabilized. And if that happens, the recent “Occupy” protests will likely be only the beginning.

The problem in a nutshell is this:

In the never-ending tug-of-war between “labor” and “capital,” there has rarely—if ever—been a time when “capital” was so clearly winning.

And that's not just unfair.

It's un-American.

Let's go to the charts..(50 of them).

In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in “income equality.” China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

Phi Beta Iota: The actual unemployment rate in the USA is 22.4%. Anyone that does not know this is part of the problem. Anyone that knows this and conceals it from the public is part of the corruption that has created the problem.

See Also:

Shadow Statistic Website

Josh Kilbourn: US Disability & Food Stamp Welfare Skyrocketing

Mini-Me: Economists Scoff at Obama, Romney Job-Creation Myths

Paul Craig Roberts: December Net Jobs a 12,000 LOSS – Actual Unemployment 2.6 Times Official Rate or 22.4%

2012/06/06

Josh Kilbourn: US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

03 Economy, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

US Labor Market Is In A Full-Blown Depression

Tyler Durden

ZeroHedge, 6 June 2012

Now that stocks are back to reflecting nothing more than expectations of how many times the Chairsatan dilutes the existing monetary base in a carbon copy replica of not only 2011 but also 2010… and 2009 (because contrary to what purists may believe, the only way to inflate away unsustainable debt in a growth-free economy is by destroying the currency), and manic pattern chasers have crawled out of their holes proclaiming the death of the bear market after a two day bounce, what is happening in the actual economy, no longer reflected by the market, has once again been pulled back to the backburner.

burger flipper — Fastest Growing Job in USA

Which is sad, because while ever fewer people reap the benefits of artificial, centrally-planned S&P rallies, the rest of the population suffers, and what is worse: hope for a quiet, middle-class life is now an endangered species. Nowhere is this more evident than in the following list from David Rosenberg which summarizes how, quietly, the US labor force slipped back into a full-blown depression.

From David Rosenberg:

One Sick Labor Market

There were so many disturbing elements to the May jobs data that we're not sure we can do justice to the litany of disappointments (with some help from our friends at the Investor's Business Daily):

The share of long-term unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression (42%).
Fully 54% of college degree graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.
45 million Americans are on food stamps — one in seven residents.
47% of Americans are on some form of government assistance.
The employment-to-population ratio for 25-54 year olds is now 75.7%, lower than it was when the recession supposedly ended in June 2009.
The number of people not in the labour force has swelled eight million since the recession ended; absent that effect, the unemployment rate would be 12% right now (about the same as President Obama's election chances would be).
The number of people confident enough to leave their jobs fell 11% in May
for the second month in a row to 891k, the lowest since November 2010.
The ranks of the unemployed who have been looking fruitlessly for work for at least 27 weeks jumped 310k in May, the sharpest increase since May 2011.
The unemployment rate for males aged 16-19 is 27% and for males between 20 and 24 it is 13%. Draw your own conclusions from a social (in)stability standpoint.
One in seven Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.
Only one in six of the youth are working full-time and three-in-five are living with their folks or another relative (as per the NYT).
A mere 16% of the 2009-2011 graduating class has found full-time work, while 22% are working part-time. Even those hired from 2006-08, just 23% are working full-time.
According to a poll cited in the NYT, just 14% of high-school grads today believe they will have a more successful financial future than their parents Line of the day, as depressing as it is, comes from an 18-year old: “Thank God I had a buddy at Burger King who could help me out”. Fast-food has emerged as the fast-growing industry in a country once led by technology. Even tech now is fuelled more by companies that produce nifty consumer gadgets and feed our narcissistic needs than those who focus on improving the nation's capital stock which is the ultimate trailblazer for productivity growth and durable gains in our standard-of-living.

2012/06/062012/06/06

Gordon Duff: Germany Mounts Nuke Missiles On Subs For Israel

08 Proliferation, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

Germany Mounts Nuke Missiles On Subs For Israel

Israel Has No Cruise Missile Capabability, Germans Violate Non-Proliferation Treaty

Today, Germany admitted arming nuclear submarines for Israel, not just selling subs, but supplying missiles and warheads. Did they say so openly? In fact, based on research any journalist is capable of, they did exactly that.

We had long suspected, as have most Germans, that Merkel was an agent of some kind, a handmaiden of the secret societies trying to bring about global Armageddon.

Germany’s admissions today aren’t news to those who follow defense issues. They don’t even come close to full disclosure, but they do make it inexorable, that we can now safely assume that Germany has long been a rogue nation and a “behind the scenes” manipulator with leadership only slightly changed from the Hitler era.

Dolphin Nuke — Click on Image to Enlarge

Officially, Israel has 3 Dolphin Class submarines supplied by Germany. Der Spiegel announced today that these boats had been specially modified to launch nuclear cruise missiles. What Der Spiegel failed to note is that the missiles themselves were supplied with the boats, nuclear weapons included.

Germany is helping Israel to develop its military nuclear capabilities, SPIEGEL has learned. According to extensive research carried out by the magazine, Israel is equipping submarines that were built in the northern German city of Kiel and largely paid for by the German government with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The missiles can be launched using a previously secret hydraulic ejection system. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told SPIEGEL that Germans should be “proud” that they have secured the existence of the state of Israel “for many years.”

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota: All sources have mixed reliability depending on many factors. This is worth noting but not sufficient in and of itself.

2012/06/062012/06/06

NIGHTWATCH: 6 Latin American Countries Reject Rio Pact

01 Brazil, 07 Venezuela, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency

Organization of American States (OAS): For the record. At the end of the 42d General Assembly of OAS members in Bolivia, the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua announced that their countries had decided to withdraw from the Inter-American of Reciprocal Assistance, better known as the Rio Pact.

In making the announcement, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Patino said, “Our countries have made the decision to bury what deserves to be buried, to throw into the trash what is no longer useful.”

Article Three states, in pertinent part,”The High Contracting Parties agree that an armed attack by any State against an American State shall be considered as an attack against all the American States and, consequently, each one of the said Contracting Parties undertakes to assist in meeting the attack in the exercise of the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations”

Twenty-two American countries variously have ratified the Treaty since 1947, but Cuba withdrew after the revolution and Mexico withdrew in 2004.

Comment: This is primarily a symbolic snub because the Pact is a relic of the Cold War and no surprise because the US Secretary of State did not attend the meeting.

All four withdrawing states have leftist governments and are the members of Venezuelan President Chavez' initiative known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our Americas (ALBA), which is supposed to be a counterweight to the OAS. They appear determined to assert their distance from the US.

Argentina invoked the Rio Pact when it fought the British in the Falklands, but no American state rallied. The US invoked the Pact after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to enlist the aid of the other American states in the War on Terror. Only four Central American states agreed to participate actively.

NIGHTWATCH KGS Home

Phi Beta Iota: The creation of CELAC — the alternative to the OAS that excludes Canada and the US, has not been covered by the mainstream media. A sustainable revolution is occurring in the South; the US Government will be the last to understand this.

See Also:

DuckDuckGo on CELAC

CELAC at Phi Beta Iota

2012/06/052012/06/05

Paul Craig Roberts: Collapse at Hand – and ONE THING an Honest Government Could Do To Make It All Right

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, General Accountability Office, Government, Law Enforcement, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Office of Management and Budget

Collapse At Hand

Ever since the beginning of the financial crisis and quantitative easing, the question has been before us: How can the Federal Reserve maintain zero interest rates for banks and negative real interest rates for savers and bond holders when the US government is adding $1.5 trillion to the national debt every year via its budget deficits? Not long ago the Fed announced that it was going to continue this policy for another 2 or 3 years. Indeed, the Fed is locked into the policy. Without the artificially low interest rates, the debt service on the national debt would be so large that it would raise questions about the US Treasury’s credit rating and the viability of the dollar, and the trillions of dollars in Interest Rate Swaps and other derivatives would come unglued.

In other words, financial deregulation leading to Wall Street’s gambles, the US government’s decision to bail out the banks and to keep them afloat, and the Federal Reserve’s zero interest rate policy have put the economic future of the US and its currency in an untenable and dangerous position. It will not be possible to continue to flood the bond markets with $1.5 trillion in new issues each year when the interest rate on the bonds is less than the rate of inflation. Everyone who purchases a Treasury bond is purchasing a depreciating asset. Moreover, the capital risk of investing in Treasuries is very high. The low interest rate means that the price paid for the bond is very high. A rise in interest rates, which must come sooner or later, will collapse the price of the bonds and inflict capital losses on bond holders, both domestic and foreign.

The question is: when is sooner or later? The purpose of this article is to examine that question.

Continue reading “Paul Craig Roberts: Collapse at Hand – and ONE THING an Honest Government Could Do To Make It All Right”