News Commentary

Now They Want Your Passwords

"For a dozen years, the FBI and NSA have spied on Americans and shredded the Constitution. They say the Patriot Act “authorizes” their abuses. That means... If you repeal the Patriot Act, they have NO authorization! This is increasingly urgent, because their snooping is only getting worse... The feds are demanding web firms hand over master encryption keys that shield my private Internet activities (http://shar.es/kR364) - and they even want my passwords! (http://shar.es/kRHgV) Hacking into my private data and communications is THE SAME THING as going through my possessions and papers without a court-issued search warrant." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNow They Want Your Passwords

Committing War Crimes is a Duty; Reporting Them is a Felony

"Prior to his trial, Manning was held for nine months in an especially severe form of solitary confinement that involved forced nudity, sleep deprivation, and persistent abuse. His treatment, which constituted torture, won him a reduction off 112 days from the prison sentence he will receive for the supposed offense of exposing officially sanctioned crimes. If Manning had been a war criminal, rather than an honorable soldier who exposed war crimes, his pre-trial confinement would have led to dismissal of the charges against him – or his sentence being overturned." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCommitting War Crimes is a Duty; Reporting Them is a Felony

Guilty of Aiding the American People

"The 'aiding the enemy' accusation presumed that Manning’s distribution of classified material assisted al Qaeda. Actually, the information helps Americans by exposing U.S. war criminality. War criminality ranks among the most important types of government wrongdoing warranting transparency. We cannot debate foreign policy without knowing about its indecencies. What U.S. forces do abroad can endanger Americans at home. Some see the leaks, not the crimes, as the true scandal, but the Muslim and Arab world already know of these atrocities. The American people need to understand what U.S. occupations are like." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuilty of Aiding the American People

The Pretense of Knowledge Is Alive & Well

"The Federal Reserve itself is a tool of the banks. It's a banking cartel. Trying to separate the banks from The Fed is an error. It's one big happy thieving family. Any (and all) government regulations that are put in place (or removed) are done for the benefit of the entire system. The best way to picture it is to think of a giant octopus. The head is The Federal Reserve and the sprawling arms are the banks. 'Regulations' and 'Deregulations' are just fodder for the masses out there to think that 'government is doing something'. To think that The Fed is some kind of 'regulator' is the same as thinking that the arsonist 'regulates' the fire." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Pretense of Knowledge Is Alive & Well

You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

"There appears to be a tendency for market observers to follow the same news stories. The result of this phenomenon is that entire sectors are ignored or understudied for long periods of time. When the attention shifts, large swings can occur as the mob draws similar conclusions and takes action. Here are two phrases to wrap up the point: The first is: 'Liquidity only matters when it’s the only thing that matters.' This is a comment from the 2007-08 crisis, when otherwise functioning firms disappeared overnight because funding became impossible to find. Think Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros. The second is: 'Borrowing is cheap until it isn’t.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYou Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Obama’s Next Big Blunder

"Many believe Janet Yellen, the Fed’s current vice chairman, is the best option because she’s been involved in all major recent monetary policies. But I won’t be taken aback if Obama picks Summers. He’s perfectly qualified for the job. If you have a terrible track record of predicting the economy and like to favor big banks at the expense of everyone else, then you’ve got a good shot at becoming the Fed chief. Because that’s precisely what the Fed does. It punishes savers and helps make bankers rich. And it fails to predict all major economic developments. That’s why Obama is considering Summers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Next Big Blunder

India’s falling GDP growth, financial inclusion and likely impact on Gold

"Governments have urged public sector banks to take up financial inclusion as a top priority and several initiatives have been taken to take banking to the door steps of the rural households. The lack of a well-developed banking system with sufficient penetration in rural areas could be a major reason for people to invest their savings in gold coins and jewellery. But the introduction of Aadhaar (universal identification system), and linking payment of subsidies through Aadhaar linked bank accounts could in course of time force people to think of alternatives to investing in gold, if they are found to be providing risk free returns." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia’s falling GDP growth, financial inclusion and likely impact on Gold

J’ACCUSE … !

"I address you as 'president' only as a concession to popular convention. In truth, your claimed authority is a fraud, and your actual status is that of defendant in the matter of the persecution of Bradley Manning. It was clear to all who cared to notice that Manning is no criminal but rather the worthy nemesis of a crime syndicate formally headed by yourself. He was wrongfully arrested, illegally detained without charge for a period far in excess of the legally prescribed maximums, and finally and illegally put on trial not for his alleged criminal acts but for exposing your crimes and the crimes of your gang, 'the government of the United States.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJ’ACCUSE … !

Michael Hastings: my friend and his enemies

"When Michael spoke to an annual gathering of military reporters in November 2010, he got few congratulations for writing unquestionably the most consequential piece of war reporting that year, and a lot of hostility instead. Michael could give it right back. His journalist critics were hopelessly compromised Washington pseudo-reporters, he railed, slavishly devoted to the access he considered himself to scorn. It was in this manner that Michael and his critics would forever talk past each other. But Michael didn't start it; they started it. And Michael had thick skin for someone so relentlessly vilified as arrogant." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Hastings: my friend and his enemies

Manning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy

"The U.S. government fears an informed American people, and an informed world public opinion, far more than it ever feared al Qaeda. What we’ve called 'representative democracy,' since the rise of universal suffrage in the West a century or so ago, has been an elaborate exercise in securing the outcome desired by ruling elites — preserving an intersecting alliance of corporate and state oligarchies — while maintaining the fiction of popular rule. Manning committed the one unforgivable sin in a sham representative democracy: He let the 'sovereign' people in on what 'their' government is really doing, and whose interests it’s really serving." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingManning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy