This is a sobering analysis of one of the principal myths we tell ourselves about America.
It's Hard to Make It in America
LANE KENWORTHY, Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Arizona – Foreign Affairs
Berto Jongman & Jon Rappoport: Is NSA a Criminal Blackmail Enterprise?
07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Government, Military
By JENNIFER STISA GRANICK and CHRISTOPHER JON SPRIGMAN
The New York Times, June 27, 2013
Is NSA Blackmail Inc. for the military industrial complex?
Jon Rappoport, 28 June 2013
Read full post including citations from Russ Tice, 20 year veteran.
SchwartzReport: Corrupt Ratings Agency Enabled by Corrupt Government
03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IneptitudeHere is the final bit explaining the complete corruption of the financial sector; it deals with the debasing of the the rating agencies. It is blatantly obvious from many sources that the Obama Administration Justice Department has failed to serve the public interest. We are five years past the 2008 meltdown, and it cannot be denied that no real effort has been made at the Federal level to hold these corporations, or the men and w! omen who control them, accountable. Thus, I do not see how it is going to be possible to avoid another meltdown. The system is simply too corrupt, I think it is going to implode again because of its unregulated greed.
The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis
MATT TAIBBI – Rolling Stone
EXTRACT:
Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
Thanks to a mountain of evidence gathered for a pair of major lawsuits by the San Diego-based law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, documents that for the most part have never been seen by the general public, we now know that the nation's two top ratings companies, Moody's and S&P, have for many years been shameless tools for the banks, willing to give just about anything a high rating in exchange for cash.
In incriminating e-mail after incriminating e-mail, executives and analysts from these companies are caught admitting their entire business model is crooked.
“Lord help our fucking scam . . . this has to be the stupidest place I have worked at,” writes one Standard & Poor's executive. “As you know, I had difficulties explaining ‘HOW' we got to those numbers since there is no science behind it,” confesses a high-ranking S&P analyst. “If we are just going to make it up in order to rate deals, then quants [quantitative analysts] are of precious little value,” complains another senior S&P man. “Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of card[s] falters,” ruminates one more.
Owl: It Sure Sucks When Reality and Conspiracy Merge – Is Greenwald Next? + Hastings & Car Hacking RECAP
07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military
The times, as Bob Dylan wrote, “are a`changin.” Conspiracy theories about journalist Michale Hastings' death – or murder – now have now been pumped out via “mainstream” vehicles, such as Huff Post, without it being just another exercise for bashing conspiracy theories with ridicule and rejection under the at-times hallucinatory influence of maximum prejudice and minimal knowledge. Maybe this change is due to mainstream media finding itself unable to continue freezing out serious consideration of conspiracies because of what someone wrote on this blog called the difficulty of distinguishing reality from conspiracy theories anymore. In this case though, they play it pretty safe by getting a mainstream media darling such as Richard Clarke to do the most of the talking:
NIGHTWATCH: Taliban Spanks Karzai and CIA
04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards
Afghanistan: During this Watch, news reporters and other sources in Kabul reported a series of explosions and gunfire in the center of the city, near the presidential palace and the minister of defense building. Witnesses said the presidential palace was under attack.
Kabul police chief Mohammad Zahir said he could not locate the attack, but confirmed that an attack was in progress early on the morning of 25 June, local time.
A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defense and the CIA headquarters.
Comment: This attack might be Taliban retaliation for President Karzai's refusal to join talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. It is not so much a show of force as an exposure of vulnerability. This is a sensational security breach in the most heavily fortified part of Kabul.
Latest reporting indicates only the four attackers were killed, but the outer perimeter of a US facility was breached.
Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Taliban Spanks Karzai and CIA”
Mini-Me: NSA Routinely Monitored Barack Obama, John McCain, and Other Members
07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Corruption, Idiocy, Military
Huh?
ORIGINAL NSA WHISTLEBLOWER: I Saw The Order To Wiretap Barack Obama In 2004
Michael Kelley
Business Insider, 22 June 2013
Russ Tice worked as an offensive National Security Agency (NSA) agent from 2002 to 2005, before becoming a source for this Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times article exposing NSA domestic spying.
This week he appeared on the Boiling Frogs Show and detailed how he had his hands “in the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts” during his 20 years as a U.S. intelligence analyst.
Tice claimed that he held NSA wiretap orders targeting numerous members of the U.S. government, including one for a young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.
“In the summer of 2004, one of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a forty-some-year-old senator from Illinois. You wouldn't happen to know where that guy lives now would you? It's a big White House in Washington D.C. That's who the NSA went after. That's the President of the United States now.”
Tice added that he also saw orders to spy on Hillary Clinton, Senators John McCain and Diane Feinstein, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, Gen. David Petraeus, and a current Supreme Court Justice.
Continue reading “Mini-Me: NSA Routinely Monitored Barack Obama, John McCain, and Other Members”
Mini-Me: Did This Letter to Israel from JFK Catalyze the Order from New York to Assassinate the President of the United States?
04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Commerce, Corruption, GovernmentHuh?
July 5, 1963
Dear Mr. Prime Minister Eshkol:
It gives me great personal pleasure to extend congratulations as you assume your responsibilities as Prime Minister of Israel. You have our friendship and best wishes in your new tasks. It is on one of these that I am writing you at this time.
You are aware, I am sure, of the exchange which I had with Prime Minister Ben-Gurion concerning American visits to Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona. Most recently, the Prime Minister wrote to me on May 27. His words reflected a most intense personal consideration of a problem that I know is not easy for your Government, as it is not for mine. We welcomed the former Prime Minister’s strong reaffirmation that Dimona will be devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes and the reaffirmation also of Israel’s willingness to permit periodic visits to Dimona.
