Idiggraves

2021-08-07T16:24:00.002+12:00

Well folks, I retired from work recently and as soon as I clear a couple of things up will get back to blogging. Hang in there.

Chris Hedges - Our Only Hope Will Come Through Rebellion - 29th March 2014

2015-10-01T21:23:00.001+13:00

Bill Blum: The Questions John Roberts Has Never Answered - Bill Blum - Truthdig

2014-11-14T09:52:00.001+13:00

Bill Blum: The Questions John Roberts Has Never Answered - Bill Blum - Truthdig

The Last Days

2014-05-26T06:34:00.002+12:00

Anybody out there who is in doubt we are living in the last days need to watch this. Why would anyone prescribe psychotropic drugs to a one-year-old child in foster care? The state is evil.

Old dogs new tricks

2014-04-06T09:32:00.002+12:00

My friend, Norm MacDonald always describes himself as an, "Old Chunk of Coal." And as a fellow of that guild we are not often excited by anything coming on the market. After being scammed for products that reverse hair loss and harden your dick, nothing is more sacred than our toilet time. When the fat build-up makes a reach-around wipe impossible and you are restricted to the reach-through method, you know life is getting down to very short strokes indeed. But now something new is at least making a proper clean up possible and that is One Wipe Charlies

Now there is a product made for men, that has put an end to an ass that leaves a wake of aloe or lillies as you walk back from the toilet. One Wipe Charlies is brought to you by the dollar a shave club people. Now when you walk back from the toilet, your ass will leave a clean peppermint waft.

Pushing Toward The Final War

2014-04-05T09:47:00.000+13:00

This Post was copied from Tears of the Moon. Also listen to Dr. Roberts discuss this topic on KingWorldNews. By Paul Craig Roberts Does Obama realize that he is leading the US and its puppet states to war with Russia and China, or is Obama being manipulated into this disaster by his neoconservative speech writers and government officials? World War 1 (and World War 2) was the result of the ambitions and mistakes of a very small number of people. Only one head of state was actually involved–the President of France. In The genesis Of The World War, Harry Elmer Barnes shows that World War 1 was the product of 4 or 5 people. Three stand out: Raymond Poincare`, President of France, Sergei Sazonov, Russian Foreign Minister, and Alexander Izvolski, Russian Ambassador to France. Poincare` wanted Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, and the Russians wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. They realized that their ambitions required a general European war and worked to produce the desired war. A Franco-Russian Alliance was formed. This alliance became the vehicle for orchestrating the war. The British government, thanks to the incompetence, stupidity, or whatever of its Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, was pulled into the Franco-Russian Alliance. The war was started by Russia’s mobilization. The German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was blamed for the war despite the fact that he did everything possible to avoid it. Barnes’ book was published in 1926. His reward for confronting the corrupt court historians with the truth was to be accused of being paid by Germany to write his history. Eighty-six years later historian Christopher Clark in his book, The Sleepwalkers, comes to essentially the same conclusion as Barnes. In the history I was taught the war was blamed on Germany for challenging British naval supremacy by building too many battleships. The court historians who gave us this tale helped to set up World War 2. We are again on the road to World War. One hundred years ago the creation of a world war by a few had to be done under the cover of deception. Germany had to be caught off guard. The British had to be manipulated and, of course, people in all the countries involved had to be propagandized and brainwashed. Today the drive to war is blatantly obvious. The lies are obvious, and the entire West is participating, both media and governments. The American puppet, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, openly lied on Canadian TV that Russian President Putin had invaded Crimea, threatened Ukraine, and was restarting the Cold War. The host of the TV program sat and nodded his head in agreement with these bald-faced lies. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Stephen+Harper+accuses+Vladimir+Putin+being+stuck+back+USSR/9663692/story.html The script that Washington handed to its Canadian puppet has been handed to all of Washington’s puppets, and everywhere in the West the message is the same. “Putin invaded and annexed Crimea, Putin is determined to rebuild the Soviet Empire, Putin must be stopped.” I hear from many Canadians who are outraged that their elected government represents Washington and not Canadians, but as bad as Harper is, Obama and Fox “News” are worse. On March 26 I managed to catch a bit of Fox “news.” Murdoch’s propaganda organ was reporting that Putin was restoring the Soviet era practice of exercise. Fox “news” made this report into a threatening and dangerous gesture toward the West. Fox produced an “expert,” whose name I caught as Eric Steckelbeck or something like that. The “expert” declared that Putin was creating “the Hitler youth,” with a view toward rebuilding the Soviet empire. The extraordinary transparent lie that Russia sent an army into Ukraine and annexed Crimea is now accepted as fact everywhere in the West, even among critics of US policy toward Russia. Obama, whose government overthrew the democratically elected government in Ukraine and appointed a stooge government that has threatened the Russian provinces of Ukraine, falsely accuses Putin of “invading and annexing” Crimea. Obama, or his handlers and programers, are relying on the total historical ignorance of Western peoples. The ignorance and gullibility of Western peoples allows the American neoconservatives to fashion “news” that controls their minds. Obama recently declared that Washington’s destruction of Iraq–up to one million killed, four million displaced, infrastructure in ruins, sectarian violence exploding, a country in total ruins–is nowhere near as bad as Russia’s acceptance of Crimean self-determination. US Secretary of State John Kerry actually ordered Putin to prevent the referendum and stop Crimeans from exercising self-determination. Obama’s speech on March 26 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels is surreal. It is beyond hypocrisy. Obama says that Western ideals are challenged by self-determination in Crimea. Russia, Obama says, must be punished by the West for permitting Crimeans to exercise self-determination. The return of a Russian province on its own volition to its mother country where it existed for 200 years is presented by Obama as a dictatorial, anti-democratic act of tyranny. http://on.rt.com/sbzj4o Here was Obama, whose government has just overthrown the elected, democratic government of Ukraine and substituted stooges chosen by Washington in the place of the elected government, speaking of the hallowed ideal that “people in nations can make their own decisions about their future.” That is exactly what Crimea did, and that is exactly what the US coup in Kiev contravened. In the twisted mind of Obama, self-determination consists of governments imposed by Washington. Here was Obama, who has shredded the US Constitution, speaking of “individual rights and rule of law.” Where is this rule of law? It is certainly not in Kiev where an elected government was overthrown with force. It is certainly not in the United States where the executive branch has spent the entirety of the new 21st century establishing government above the law. Habeas corpus, due process, the right to open trials and determination of guilt by independent jurors prior to imprisonment and execution, the right to privacy have all been overturned by the Bush/Obama regimes. Torture is against US and international law; yet Washington set up torture prisons all over the globe. How is it possible that the representative of the war criminal US government can stand before an European audience and speak of “rule of law,” “individual rights,” “human dignity,” “self-determination,” “freedom,” without the audience breaking out in laughter? Washington is the government that invaded and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq on the basis of lies. Washington is the government that financed and organized the overthrow of the Libyan and Honduran governments and that is currently attempting to do the same thing to Syria and Venezuela. Washington is the government that attacks with drones and bombs populations in the sovereign countries of Pakistan and Yemen. Washington is the government that has troops all over Africa. Washington is the government that has surrounded Russia, China, and Iran with military bases. It is this warmongering collection of Washington war criminals that now asserts that it is standing up for international ideals against Russia. No one applauded Obama’s nonsensical speech. But for Europe to accept such blatant lies from a liar without protest empowers the momentum toward war that Washington is pushing. Obama demands more NATO troops to be stationed in Eastern Europe to “contain Russia.” http://news.antiwar.com/2014/03/26/obama-wants-more-nato-troops-in-eastern-europe/ Obama said that a buildup of military forces on Russia’s borders would reassure Poland and the Baltic states that, as NATO members, they will be protected from Russian aggression. This nonsense is voiced by Obama despite the fact that no one expects Russia to invade Poland or the Baltic countries. Obama doesn’t say what effect the US/NATO military buildup and numerous war games on Russia’s border will have on Russia. Will the Russian government conclude that Russia is about to be attacked and strike first? The reckless carelessness of Obama is the way wars start. Declaring that “freedom isn’t free,” Obama is putting pressure on Western Europe to pony up more money for a military buildup to confront Russia. http://news.antiwar.com/2014/03/26/us-presses-eu-nations-to-hike-military-spending-to-confront-russia/ The position of the government in Washington and its puppet states (Eastern and Western Europe, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Georgia, Japan) and other allies purchased with bagfuls of money is that Washington’s violation of international law by torturing people, by invading sovereign countries on totally false pretenses, by routinely overthrowing democratically elected governments that do not toe the Washington line is nothing but the “indispensable and exceptional country” bringing “freedom and democracy to the world.” But Russia’s acceptance of the self-determination of Crimean people to return to their home country is “a violation of international law.” Just what international law has Washington and its puppets not violated? Obama, whose government in the past few years has bullied Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Lebanon, Iran, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela and is now trying to bully Russia, actually declared that “bigger nations can not simply bully smaller ones.” What does Obama and his speech writers think Washington has been doing for the entirety of the 21st century? Who can possibly believe that Obama, whose government is responsible for the deaths of people every day in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, cares a whit about democracy in Ukraine. Obama overthrew the Ukrainian government in order to be able to stuff the country into NATO, throw Russia out of its Black Sea naval base, and put US missile bases in Ukraine on Russia’s border. Obama is angry that his plan didn’t pan out as intended, and he is taking his anger and frustration out on Russia. As the delusion takes hold in Washington that the US represents idealism standing firmly against Russian aggression, delusion enabled by the presstitute media, the UN General Assembly vote, and Washington’s string of puppet states, self-righteousness rises in Washington’s breast. With rising self-righteousness will come more demands for punishing Russia, more demonization of Russia and Putin, more lies echoed by the presstitutes and puppets. Ukrainian violence against Russian residents is likely to intensify with the anti-Russian propaganda. Putin could be forced to send in Russian troops to defend Russians. Why are people so blind that they do not see Obama driving the world to its final war? Just as Obama dresses up his aggression toward Russia as idealism resisting selfish territorial ambitions, the English, French, and Americans presented their World War 1 “victory” as the triumph of idealism over German and Austrian imperialism and territorial ambitions. But at the Versailles Conference the Bolsheviks (the Tsar’s government failed to gain the Straits and instead lost the country to Lenin) “revealed the existence of the notorious Secret Treaties embodying as sordid a program of territorial pilfering as can be found in the history of diplomacy. It appears that the chief actual motives of the Entente in the World War were the seizure of Constantinople and the Straits for Russia; not only the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France, but the securing of the west bank of the Rhine, which would have involved the seizure of territory historically far longer connected with Germany than Alsace-Lorraine had ever been with France; the rewarding of Italian entry into the War by extensive territory grabbed away from Austria and the Jugo-Slavs; and the sequestering of the German imperial possessions, the acquisition of the German merchant marine and the destruction of the German navy in the interest of increasing the strength of the British Empire” (Barnes, pp. 691-692). The American share of the loot was seized German and Austrian investments in the US. The secret British, Russian, and French aims of the war were hidden from the public, which was whipped up with fabricated propaganda to support a war whose outcomes were far different from the intentions of those who caused the war. People seem unable to learn from history. We are now witnessing the world again being led down the garden path by lies and propaganda, this time in behalf of American world hegemony. Posted by Tears Moon at 3:27 AM - See more at: http://ausbullion.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/pushing-toward-final-war.html#sthash.zO082lgT.dpuf

The TPPA and New Zealand

2014-02-03T11:35:00.000+13:00

As Tim Grosser negotiates the sale of New Zealand to Washington through the TPPA, the stage is being set for an economic "miracle" along the lines of what we saw in Indonesia. John Pilger documents the globalisation of Indonesia in this documentary.

How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio

2013-10-25T15:10:00.001+13:00

Protecting our Children

2013-01-24T19:45:00.000+13:00

This letter is about the responsibility of adult leaders to “be alert and diligent and do all they can to protect children”[1] against all forms of abuse within the institutions we lead. It is also about our duty, once child abuse has been disclosed to us, to prioritise the interests of the child over those of their alleged abusers and our institutions.

By children I mean any boy or girl aged 16 years or younger, and by institutions I mean those places and things which either attract and/or compel children to be part of them. But my focus is especially on our families, schools and churches.

First, because they’re supposed to be the bastions of child protection in our society.
Second, because I am an adult leader in each of these institutions.
Third, because my personal experience of child protection lies most strongly within these three institutions. And finally, because these are where most of the reported abuse of children in my town [2] happens.

Family, school and church are hugely important to me, but if child abuse happens or is alleged to have happened within any one of them, “helping the victim is my first concern.”[3] I think most adult leaders would publicly agree with me on that. And yet my own experience and research reveals that the ways in which many adult leaders privately fail “to help those who have been abused and to protect those who may be vulnerable to future abuse”[4] are so numerous that it would take several volumes to cover them all. Therefore I’ve summarised them into eight representative examples alongside what I consider to be the simplest remedy for each.

The first failure identified is that of blaming the child. In a number of cases, both here and overseas, children have been disciplined by church leaders for the ‘sin’ of being sexually active,[5] and criticised by family leaders for not having fought hard enough against the alleged abuser.[6] That’s totally wrong. Sex abuse certainly is a sin, but not by its victims, regardless of how hard they may or may not have fought against it. Instead of blaming the child in such cases, we have a duty to reassure them that they’ve done nothing wrong.[7]

The second failure is that of keeping “it all in-house.”[8] In one local case a child withdrew his allegations of abuse gainst his teacher because an adult family leader told him that he could “destroy”[9] the man’s career if he took it further. As a result the abuser carried on for years before finally being properly investigated and confessing to the abuse of dozens of children. In another overseas case an abuser [10] died at age 85 without once being brought to the notice of police. And yet complaints had been made about him as early as 1965, and he’d even been suspended two years before his death in 2010 over fresh complaints. Keeping it ‘in-house’ is wrong on every level because the fact is that child abuse is a crime in every country. So even in New Zealand where mandatory reporting [11] is not yet required by the law, if anyone brings an allegation of abuse to us, we are obligated to counsel and help them to report it to the police.[12]

The third failure is that of allowing other adults to pressure and gaslight [13] the abused child. Allowing adults to tell the child that their alleged abuser is suffering horribly in jail, that he is innocent until proven guilty, and pressuring children about the importance of forgiveness, is nothing more than a bullying tactic. “Presumption of innocence”[14] is a core principle that alleged abusers are entitled to rely on. But so too are children entitled to rely on their adult leaders for protection from such unconscionable emotional abuse. We need to remind those who support the alleged abuser to let due process happen, and not use their private acts of charity as a public stick with which to beat already vulnerable children.

The fourth failure is that of not disclosing an offender’s history. In another New Zealand case,[15] an institution’s leaders sent an adult member to another part of the country without disclosing his history of sexually abusing young boys. In his new location, they then allowed him to be with other children who he also abused. The mother of one of those later victims reported having to watch those leaders show concern for the abuser’s welfare and yet apparently show none for the children they knowingly let him be with. There’s nothing inherently wrong with supporting abusers, particularly when they are repentant and seeking to change. But we should never do so ahead of or instead of supporting their victims.

The fifth failure is that of pushing children to “forgive” the alleged abuser, or even an abuser who has been found guilty. So often these people have denied that they’ve done anything wrong in the first place. In those circumstances and no matter how subtly we do it, when we tell a child they need to forgive, we only add to their confusion and vulnerability. Forgiveness is an important part of a child’s healing process, but adult leaders must allow them to arrive at it in their own due time, not put a metaphorical stopwatch on them and pressure them to get there.

The sixth failure is that of not ensuring abused children get access to appropriate counselling. I have seen a case where adult family and church leaders allowed a self-harming, suicidal teenager, who had been a child when the alleged abuse began, to be helped by other adults who also supported the alleged abuser. Such a practice where the so-called helpers have a conflict of interest is downright unethical and dangerous. Even though a child or teenage victim may not understand the risks, adult leaders should. A suicidal, self-harming child needs independent and professional help from counsellors who “practice within the scope of their competence,”[16] and whose sole mandate is the child’s healing, nothing else. We are obligated to give them access to help from such counsellors and protect them from the conflicted help of amateurs.

The seventh failure is that of not following child abuse policies.[17] When allegations of abuse have been brought to their notice, too many adult leaders have left an alleged abuser in position to continue or start abusing children. One of the tragic ironies of this particular failing is that, had they followed the policies, not only would children have been protected, it could also have helped the abusers. All leaders are prey to our own subjectivity, and if we have had a close relationship with the alleged abuser there’s a risk that we’ll act subjectively. Removing or minimising that risk is precisely why policies exist, so we must apply them.

The final failure is that of ignoring and marginalising whistleblowers.[18] Here and overseas whistleblowers have been rebuked, punished and even expelled by adult leaders for exposing child abuse that’s happened within their institutions. Whistleblowers are vulnerable to similar pressures and abuses as the victim, and we owe them the same protections.

All of these examples represent real cases of failure on the part of adult leaders who are supposed to know and do better. At heart, these failings almost always hinge on fear and pride which blind us to what’s right, deafen us to our own conscience, and shrink our integrity.

In one recent case a reporter captured this state of blind, deaf, shrunkenness when he wrote,

“Even as the heartbreaking details emerge, as pages of testimony are absorbed and parsed, and as a seamy picture of alleged child abuse and the subsequent failures to act come into clear, indefensible focus, the reflex of the … hierarchy is one of tone deafness … [Their] focus revolves not around the children who most needed the adults to be grown-ups but around protecting the power: the big, untouchable [institution] with the big name and the big reputation … Surrounded by so much bigness, virtually everyone in a position of authority [seems] to come up very small.”

Before concluding this letter I note that while I have referred to a number of cases from various institutions, and quoted from a number of documented sources on abuse cases within them, apart from my own family I make no claim to represent the official position of any specific institution on child abuse. For that I leave the reader to check the footnote references, and then measure for themselves the performance of any institution referred to in this letter against their own stated official positions.

Finally, as part of my research I’ve reviewed my own practice as an adult leader and recognised my own failure to speak up on this issue before now because I feared that people I know and care about might recognise themselves in the examples I’ve used. That is a sorry excuse, and my silence stops today.

If I claim that the protection of children is my priority, and I do, then I have to walk that talk, as does every other adult who makes the same claim. And if we’re not going to do that, then in my opinion we deserve to be either released from leadership or stand convicted along with the abusers.

[1]The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2010. ‘Handbook 2, Aministering the Church. Policies on Moral Issues, 21.4.2: Abuse and Cruelty.’ p 195. https://www.lds.org/handbook/handbook-2-administering-the-church/selected-church-policies?lang=eng#214

[2]http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/15858502/kaitaia-struggles-with-number-of-child-sex-abuse-allegations/

[3] http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/official-statement/child-abuse

[4] ibid

[5] http://www.affirmation.org/news_1996/1996_05.shtml

[6] http://www.pandys.org/articles/sexualabuseisnotyourfault.html

[7] http://www.jwire.com.au/news/sexual-abuse-victims-you-did-nothing-wrong/17423

[8] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/2010/06/a-roman-catholic-church-fixer-speaks-out/

[9] Arthur, Robin – LLB (Hons) BA AAMINZ. (6 November 2012). ‘Report to the Commissioner of Pamapuria School on review of the employment and offenses of James Parker. page 19, bulletpoint 87. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/142070511/REPORT-TO-THE-COMMISSIONER-OF-PĀMAPURIA-SCHOOL-RE-JAMES-PARKER,

[10]Yorkshire Post. (20 October 2012). http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/main-section/exclusive-police-kept-in-dark-on-complaints-of-priest-s-sex-abuse-1-5047425

[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandated_reporter

[12] http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/the-evil-of-child-abuse

[13] Stern, Robin (1 May 2007). ‘The Gaslight Effect: How to Spot and Survive the Hidden Manipulation Others Use to Control Your Life.’ Random House Digital. ISBN 978-0-7679-2445-0

[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presumption_of_innocence

[15] Sunday Star Times (8 August 2008). ‘Rites and wrongs - alleged abuse in the Mormon church.’ http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/feature-archive/571446/Rites-and-wrongs-alleged-abuse-in-the-Mormon-church

[16] http://www.nzac.org.nz/code_of_ethics.cfm

[17] http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=11602

[18] http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/134767/Jackson_17,_10_pp1261-1262.pdf

The Great Yard Sale

2012-07-13T08:06:00.001+12:00

The finance world knows; the jig is up and they need to trade in their worthless derivative backed assets for something real. This should keep the property bubble in New Zealand inflated, at the same time the government here is selling off any State Owned Asset they can. All this so Elites here can stuff their offshore bank accounts and Go Bags. For a backgrounder, check this out.

The Culture of Dissent

2012-07-10T10:02:00.000+12:00

The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress A collection of Truthdig Columns by Chris Hedges Keep up with Chris Hedges’ latest columns, interviews, tour dates and more at www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_to_think_20120709/

Cultures that endure carve out a protected space for those who question and challenge national myths. Artists, writers, poets, activists, journalists, philosophers, dancers, musicians, actors, directors and renegades must be tolerated if a culture is to be pulled back from disaster. Members of this intellectual and artistic class, who are usually not welcome in the stultifying halls of academia where mediocrity is triumphant, serve as prophets. They are dismissed, or labeled by the power elites as subversive, because they do not embrace collective self-worship. They force us to confront unexamined assumptions, ones that, if not challenged, lead to destruction. They expose the ruling elites as hollow and corrupt. They articulate the senselessness of a system built on the ideology of endless growth, ceaseless exploitation and constant expansion. They warn us about the poison of careerism and the futility of the search for happiness in the accumulation of wealth. They make us face ourselves, from the bitter reality of slavery and Jim Crow to the genocidal slaughter of Native Americans to the repression of working-class movements to the atrocities carried out in imperial wars to the assault on the ecosystem. They make us unsure of our virtue. They challenge the easy clichés we use to describe the nation—the land of the free, the greatest country on earth, the beacon of liberty—to expose our darkness, crimes and ignorance. They offer the possibility of a life of meaning and the capacity for transformation. Human societies see what they want to see. They create national myths of identity out of a composite of historical events and fantasy. They ignore unpleasant facts that intrude on self-glorification. They trust naively in the notion of linear progress and in assured national dominance. This is what nationalism is about—lies. And if a culture loses its ability for thought and expression, if it effectively silences dissident voices, if it retreats into what Sigmund Freud called “screen memories,” those reassuring mixtures of fact and fiction, it dies. It surrenders its internal mechanism for puncturing self-delusion. It makes war on beauty and truth. It abolishes the sacred. It turns education into vocational training. It leaves us blind. And this is what has occurred. We are lost at sea in a great tempest. We do not know where we are. We do not know where we are going. And we do not know what is about to happen to us. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_to_think_20120709/

Libor: The Smoking Gun

2012-07-05T10:23:00.001+12:00

The Barclays Bank Libor-fixing scandal currently being investigated in the UK is huge. Libor is the cost of inter-bank borrowing between the 18 largest banks in the world. Trillions are traded between banks every day. The rate is set by contacting the 18 largest banks in the world and asking them what they would charge a brother bank; the top and bottom four are thrown out and an average is derived from the middle 10. This forms the basis for all lending: because all profits, at each stage are derived from the Libor rate, published each day. For Barclays to fix the rate, there would have had to have been at least four other co-conspirators for any price they quote to move the rate. It was an increase in the Libor that brought down Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. This was the trigger for the 2007 - 2008 collapse. Stop reading about Tom and Katie, Wimbledon, or Higgs boson particle. This should get us off our asses and in the streets.

TPP - The Selling of New Zealand Sovereignty

2012-06-16T16:35:00.002+12:00

The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement cedes sovereignty from national to corporate interests. New Zealand has eagerly presented its hind quarters for a star-spangled buggering.

The State vs. George

2012-06-15T15:11:00.002+12:00

Raise Lending rates now!

2012-06-04T08:43:00.001+12:00

Friday's unemployment numbers (so far as we can believe anything from the BLS) prove that the economy is spiraling deeper into recession. Remember they don't even count anyone who has stopped looking for work, has been unemployed for 4 weeks, or has never had a job. Near zero interest rates are killing our retirees. Instead of living on the safe sure yield of savings or bonds, they are forced into re-investing into crap like Facebook that saw half of their wealth wiped out in a week. Thanks to Ritholtz's The Big Picture, the world's most popular financial blog we listen in on a discussion between two of the only credible people at CNBS... The solution is to take interest rates back to Volcker levels in the '80s. It will be painful, but it will amputate the rot instead of adding one more maggot to the wound - in the hope it will eat the dead tissue. Those academics who want a deaper study of the Volcker gambit can read this. Yes, yes, and yes, I know Volcker was fighting 'inflation' not the deflation we are experiencing today, but today's deflation will end in a violent hyper-inflation, like that experienced in Weimar Germany. I remember Hemingway writing about his travels through Germany at that time. The people were docile and his francs and american dollars, earned from a month's writing, could see him and his family esconced in an Austrian alpine lodge with food and all the extras for the whole of the ski season. Of course, the great debate is whether we are seeing inflation or deflation. John Mauldin is one fella who explains how both can exist before inflation ultimately dominates. Mauldin's Reports are gold to those who follow him on his world dialogue about investing and finance. His newsletter is free. Austerity is the death of a thousand cuts that will embed the psyche of generations. This baby boom (my) generation is the one that needs to feel the pain. Instead retirees are postponing the end to their work and are crowding out their own children and grandchildren. So the question remains: How much pain? How high should interest rates go? To find the answer we can listen to the The McAlvany Report where they interviewed former Federal Reserve board member John Taylor. Taylor recently wrote an op-ed piece in the WSJ, Mr. Taylor, a professor of economics at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the author of "Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged and Worsened the Financial Crisis" (Hoover Press, 2009). Creator of "The Taylor Rule" and "The Taylor Principle", he would see interest rates tied to the rate of inflation... a rate of inflation truly presented. You can listen to the interview here. Or listen below.

"The End Game: 2012 And 2013 Will Usher In The End" - The Scariest Presentation Ever?

2012-06-02T07:59:00.000+12:00

Courtesy of Zero Hedge If Raoul Pal was some doomsday spouting windbag, writing in all caps, arbitrarily pasting together disparate charts to create 200 page slideshows, it would be easy to ignore him. He isn't. The founder of Global Macro Investor "previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe... Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36 and now lives on the Valencian coast of Spain, from where he writes." It is his writing we are concerned about, and specifically his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen.... The End Game

Assange undresses the Occupiers

2012-05-31T14:54:00.003+12:00

Can there be any doubt the Occupy movement has been co-opted and infiltrated by cointelpro? Assange is brilliant as an interviewer. His questions make these self-appointed leaders in the social movement squirm as he exposes them for another set of elites positioning themselves for immortality and their own professorships and television shows. Too much. Made me sick to watch this collection of spokes persons: The pinstriped-hoodie, the smudged eye shadow, the newest Bond man, the gay couple. In a movement without leaders, who - and by what method were they chosen? These people were right out of central casting. Incredible.

Fitch on Obama (Roboma)

2012-05-06T07:59:00.001+12:00

Fitch on Obama

Banks target vulnerable

2012-04-30T10:18:00.000+12:00

BANKS are using predatory tactics to target customers with financial products when they are most vulnerable, leaving customers in greater debt, a new report has found. Banks and other financial institutions have spent up to $200 million each creating customer databases by drilling into personal credit card transactions so they can predict when financially stretched customers might be more susceptible to offers of increased credit limits, insurance, education or superannuation funds and investment products. http://www.theage.com.au/national/banks-target-

vulnerable-customers-20120428-1xruy.html

Lotte - To age 12

2012-04-27T17:21:00.002+12:00

This is an amazing video that I saw on Naked Capitalism

The Real Cost of IPhone

2012-04-05T05:38:00.001+12:00

Created by MBAonline.com

Modern Money Theory and Private Banks

2012-04-04T21:48:00.001+12:00

Guns and Butter "Modern Money Theory and Private Banks" with Stephanie Kelton and Michael Hudson at the economic Summit On Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy. Functional finance; business cycle; real costs of unemployment; sovereign currency versus fixed exchange rates and the gold standard; macroeconomic policy; fiscal policy; vulture banks; Latvia as the standard for Europe under neoliberalism. Original Link

Guns and Butter - March 28, 2012 at 1:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

A Priceless Shot Back

2012-03-31T05:25:00.001+13:00

KONY2012 Madness

2012-03-17T16:14:00.002+13:00

Kony 2012 spokesperson, and co-founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell was arrested Friday after San Diego Police found him incoherent on the street. Police said he was banging his hands on the pavement and masturbating. No charges were laid because police said it was a "medical" matter. A statement from Invisible Children, said Mr. Russell was exhausted and dehydrated.

The Devolution of Capitalism

2012-01-25T13:59:00.001+13:00

David Stockman's days with Ronald Reagan - and his ringside seat since then, gives him the street cred to comment on what went wrong. From the Mexican Peso crisis, to LTCM, to the GFC of 2007, Stockman sits down with Bill Moyers to talk about what's wrong with America. A former Congressman from Illinois, Stockman served as the Director of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget - the President's chief advisor for the White House) for Ronald Reagan in 1981, when the deficit was less than $1T. When he left, four years later, the national debt was just over $2T. Stockman left the Reagan administration after he was criticised for his comments in an Atlantic Monthly article. His book: The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed (ISBN 0060155604)was critical of his time in the White House. His lengthy interview with Bill Moyers is a serious critique of the Obama Administration. He credits Obama's about face after the election with providing him the impetus to work begin a new book: The Triumph of Crony Capitalism.

Moyers & Company Show 102: On Crony Capitalism from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.