Category: Corruption

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Michael Ostrolenk: Should Corporations Have People Rights?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement
Michael Ostrolenk

Corporations are artificial creations of the state and receive special protections from the state. Thus, claims attorney and author Jeff Clements, corporations should not have the same Constitutional rights as individuals even though some argue that they are simply organized associations of individuals.

In this interview with Michael Ostrolenk, Mr. Clements outlines his belief that many of the abuses of crony capitalism are allowed by corporations exploiting these illegitimate “rights.”

He also exposes how tobacco industry attorney turned Supreme Court Justice, Lewis Powell, helped to spearhead the creation of a constitutional right to corporate “speech” which was recently strengthened by theCitizens United decision.  Read more about this issue (and buy his new book Corporations Are Not People) at Mr. Clement’s website.

Listen to Interview

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Chuck Spinney: Democracy & Truth or Tyranny & Lies?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Gift Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Chuck Spinney

My close friend Mike Lofgren writes an important essay describing the nature of ‘truth' in the Orwellian echo chamber that is closing the American mind in the 21st Century.

Chuck Spinney
The Blaster

DECEMBER 20, 2011
by MIKE LOFGREN, Counterpunch

According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has appropriated $806 billion for the direct cost of invading and occupying Iraq. Including debt service since 2003, that sum rises to approximately $1 trillion. The White House estimates the number of U.S. military wounded at 30,000; the web site icasualties.org states that U.S. military fatalities from the Iraq war now stand at 4484. It is impossible to estimate precisely the numbers of Iraqi civilian deaths, but they are frequently cited as being in excess of 100,000. There are now around two million internally displaced Iraqis in a country of 30 million inhabitants. As United States armed forces (but not up to 17,000 State Department employees, contractors and mercenaries) leave the country, Iraq is plunging into a sectarian and ethnically-fueled political crisis. Even if it survives that crisis and remains a unitary state, it will almost certainly be pulled closer to the orbit of Iran, our bogeyman du jour.

In view of the crippling costs both human and financial as well as the strategic and moral disaster the invasion of Iraq precipitated, what sort of verdict do you think our leaders – leaders representing a presidential administration ostensibly opposed to the invasion and promising hope and change – bother to offer us? While junketing in Turkey on December 17, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the press the following:

“As difficult as [the Iraq war] was, I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.”

One’s only reaction to this statement is to blink in disbelief and wonder: is Panetta that stupid, or does he think that we, the supposedly self-governing citizens of this country, are that stupid?

Read rest of article.

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Reform Coalition: “True Cost” Economics & Genuine Progress + True Cost RECAP

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Analysis, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, General Accountability Office, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Office of Management and Budget, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Definition of ‘True Cost Economics'

An economic model that seeks to include the cost of negative externalities into the pricing of goods and services. Supporters of this type of economic system feel products and activities that direct or indirectly cause harmful consequences to living beings and/or the environment should be accordingly taxed to reflect the somewhat hidden costs.

Continue reading “Reform Coalition: “True Cost” Economics & Genuine Progress + True Cost RECAP”

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John Robb: YouTube Censorship by the Millions

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Blog Wisdom, Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency
John Robb

What do you think of the following: YouTube has an “informal system” that allows companies with copyrights to automatically scan all uploads for potential violations. If the software detects the “possibility” of a violation (image, tune, trademark, etc.), it automatically tells YouTube to delete the content. This software is so automated, it can censor millions of uploads a day without human intervention.

Here's an example of how this censoring system was used to block speech that Universal music found objectionable:

A site called MegaUpload, a “large file” sharing service based in Hong Kong, is targeted by copyright holders, including Universal Music, for shutdown. They believe the site makes “copyright piracy” easier.

To fight back on the media front, MegaUpload, a popular (50 m users a day), pays $3 million to produce a music video that promotes the service. The video features big name musical talent.

MegaUpload posts the music video to YouTube to share it with a global audience.

Universal Music, uses special access it has the to the YouTube system (inappropriately named the “content management system”) that allows it to scan all videos posted to the service for potential uses of Universal musical content or the mention of or likenesses of artists it has under contract.

Universal Music identifies that several of its artists are in the MegaUpload video. It automatically signals YouTube to remove/take down the video. YouTube complies. It does so automatically and without verification that Universal even has a valid claim to the copyright. Why?

Continue reading “John Robb: YouTube Censorship by the Millions”

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Mini-Me: WWIII, from Gold Circles, A Whiff of…? + RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Analysis, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Key Players, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests
Who? Mini-Me?

Sometimes lunatics see stuff the rest of us miss. The trick is knowing when to listen and which pieces to pull out for closer examination.  This is from Benjamin Fulford, reprinted in full at Spiritual Truth Blog, and circulating in Gold Warrior / Gold Lily / Black Eagle Trust circles.  Phi Beta Iota comments and more links below the full piece.

– – – – – – –

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il was murdered Saturday as part of a major power struggle in East Asia, according to Asian secret society sources and Japanese military intelligence.

The murder of Kim was followed by a series of arrests of senior police officials in Japan linked to North Korea as well as the ouster of six CIA agents, the Japanese sources say.

The death has left Yasuhiro Nakasone, the top North Korean and Rothschild agent in Japan, without a power base, Japanese underworld sources say. In North Korea, meanwhile, there is now a succession battle taking place between the Rothschild faction, who want to place their trained stooge Kim Jong Un in power and set up a Rothschild central bank versus a military clique that wants independence from Rothschild control, Rothschild and Japanese underworld sources say. The action is Asia is linked to a worldwide takedown of the satanic cabal that has been trying to create a global dictatorship.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: WWIII, from Gold Circles, A Whiff of…? + RECAP”

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Reference: US Veteran Suicides – 1000 Attempts Each Month, 18 Actual Deaths by Suicide Each Day

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, Military, Officers Call
12,000 Attempts a Year, 18 Deaths a Day

“Shh” Email: 1,000 Suicide Attempts per Month, 18 Suicides per Day

On April 21, the first day of trial, the now-infamous VA internal December 2007 email written by Dr. Ira Katz, the VA’s mental health director, was submitted as evidence. The email states that 12,000 veterans per year under VA care were attempting suicide. Widely circulated within the VA, the email, titled “Not for the CBS News Interview Request” told a tragic tale.

“Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities,” Katz wrote. The email concludes: “Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?”

In November Katz told CBS, “There is no epidemic in suicide in VA,” and that there were only 790 attempted suicides in all of 2007, a fraction of Katz’s estimate stated in the internal email. In the same email Katz wrote there “are about 18-suicides per day among America’s 25 million veterans.”

Update 18 December 2011 (CNN)

Tip of the Hat to Bill Golden at LinkedIn.

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Chuck Spinney: Greece in Freefall, Preview of USA in 2013?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Office of Management and Budget
Chuck Spinney

Europe in crisis: Greece in chaos

Personally and collectively, the Greeks don’t understand and can’t cope with what’s happening now, let alone what will happen next. The welfare state is being swiftly and deliberately dismantled without any time to set up replacements

Noëlle Burgi

Le Monde diplomatique, December 2011

EXTRACT:

The Greeks struggle to see a way out of what a social worker described as a return to a “barbaric” way of life. They feel abandoned and unable to cope. Strong family ties are buckling under the pressure of diminished incomes and a collapsing welfare state. Those who can leave, do so. The options for those remaining are limited. Some turn to the Church, which arranges soup kitchens and other social services. In Salonika, Father Stefanos Tolios of the Orthodox church, is swamped by desperate people looking for work. Residents of several cities (Volos, Patras, Heraklion, Athens, Corfu, Salonika) have set up community-based informal economies, based on local exchange systems. Families are bringing their elderly back from retirement homes, to recover the monthly charge of € 300-400.

No country could withstand this. Greece is worse equipped to deal with the social consequences of the austerity measures imposed with a “scientific cruelty” (7) by the national and transnational elites.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  The level of detail in this article is superb.  The author provides a gripping preview of what could befall the USA in 2012 — Obama will cook the books and spend borrowed money to create a semblance of stability in support of his bid to be President but the bottom line is clear: whoever is elected will deal with a  near-total collapse of the economy and the government in 2013.  If America does not elect a team with a governance philosophy that places We the People first, we are in for four more years of elite loot-fest and the implosion of what is left of the USA.

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