[Pro Publica] After looking for nearly six months, the Federal Reserve says it couldn't find out who had shared confidential policy information. Critics in Congress aren't satisfied with the account.
The leak has become a focus of bipartisan criticism in Congress because of concerns about the Fed's internal controls and whether the leaked information, involving deliberations by the Federal Open Market Committee, could have provided an unfair advantage to investors who received the newsletter. Fed interest rates up? Fed interest rates down? Up, down, up, down, up, down..... who could possibly benefit or gain 'market advantage' from such a pattern ? [sarc off]
#1
It's rigged. Been rigged. Institutional takeover. Big things attract the natural instinct to control that what you view as fundamental your security, economic or otherwise.
The Fed was rationalized as a means to control the 'busts' or depressions of the 19th century. How's that all worked out for you (two major depressions later)?
[ClashDaily] Did you see the Hilldebeest during last week's UN presser try to pawn off on us po' rubes that she didn't break any email rules during her stint as Secretary Of State and that we ... we ... are actually uncouth for even questioning her "integrity"?
That spiel was chocked-full of more deuces than a colicky baby's diaper. A myopic Cyclops could see that. My Jack Russell was even hip to her deception and walked up to the massive Restoration Hardware steamer trunk that our TV sits on and whizzed all over it during her entire twenty-one minute and five-second Bullcrapalooza rebuke.
This is a fairly comprehensive examination of what drives leftists to support Vladimir Putin, his neo imperialist program for Russia and his war in Ukraine: Spoiler alert: Ideology and money.
An excerpt:
Anti-Americanism is a set of beliefs that classifies imperialism as a singular specific American rather than global phenomenon and discounts or ignores competition between imperialists and intra-capitalist rivalries. Anti-Americanism bears little relation to Lenin's concept of many rival imperialist ruling classes divided within and engaged in an unending struggle with one another. Instead, anti-Americanists restrict “imperialism” to a single US dominated bloc without fundamental intra-ruling-class differences.
Such a perspective leads some leftists and liberals to see the world as a stage for a duel between a capitalist USA and NATO on one side, and capitalist Russia on the other. On this Manichean stage, Ukraine must remain Russian, so the US and NATO do not get stronger. Middle or working class Ukrainians who see benefit in the EU, the massive support for the Maidan and the prospect of support from Ukrainian leftists and liberals in the fight against neo liberal capitalism within the EU have no place on this stage. According to this script, those who support EU membership for Ukraine are dupes in a fascist plot, run by the USA and NATO and its new puppet Kyiv “junta” government. Ukrainian national ambitions and independence are synonymous with what these leftists, liberals and Russian rulers call fascism. The fact that EU negotiators and Maidan leaders were urging Yanukovych to remain in power and that he fled of his own volition is ignored. Appalled at the prospect of Anglo- American corporations making money from Ukrainian misery, as they are appalled at how they continue to extract resources from former European colonies, pro-Kremlin leftists and liberals are not appalled by the prospect of the Russian state and its ruling elite continuing to extract resources from its Ukrainian colony – as they have been doing since the 18th century.
The groups here examined include people like Paul Craig Roberts, John Pilger, Oliver Stone, John Helmer, Thomas Hartmann, and Anatol Lieven, who echo the Kremlin’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda on websites like Counterpunch.org, Marxist.com, Greenleft.org, World Socialist Website, Naked Capitalism, Stopimperialism.com, Canadian Dimension, and Globalresearch.ca. Few of these sites list who finances them. How many are funded by the Kremlin, is unknown. These leftists and liberals, contrary to their avowed principles of anti-imperialism and self-determination, pen pro-Kremlin articles that identify the new conservative Ukrainian government containing Russians and Jews and Georgians and Lithuanians, as a fascist “regime” exploiting Russians and “invading” eastern Ukraine – not explaining how a government can invade its own territory and ignoring the Russian troops fighting on Ukrainian territory. These people consider Ukraine in Russia’s “sphere of influence” and that it should stay there. The fact that a majority of Ukrainian citizens prefer not to stay there, and that Russia’s drive for regional hegemony risks starting World War III by breaking international treaties and invading their country, is not considered by any of the Flashpoint authors. Much more at the link
Moved to Opinion
In the course of an uncomfortable hour-long television interview with Grover Norquist yesterday, radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck established a number of things. The most surprising is that the libertarian activist best known for his anti-tax campaigns would rather be perceived as what influence operators call a "useful idiot" -- an individual unwittingly duped into helping hostile forces -- than as an "agent of influence" for those forces. As Bill Clinton used to say, "That dawg won't hunt."
No one who knows Grover Norquist would believe that this Harvard MBA with decades of experience running sophisticated and impactful political and lobbying campaigns at the highest levels of official Washington is an idiot, useful or otherwise. Certainly, he is too smart to have been taken for a ride by relative newcomers to the business, namely Muslim Brotherhood-associated operatives. (As pollster John Zogby recounted in 2001: "[Norquist has] played the role of interlocutor. With all respect, many of the [Muslim] leaders are immigrants and don't have years and years of experience. Grover has filled that void." http://tinurl.com/oebajak)
#2
This is just the latest evidence that the political consulting industry is completely driven by financial greed and not loyal to the West or the Constitution.
But really, what are they other than a reflection of the public at large in an age of bread and circus? The nonmilitary public sector is comprised almost entirely of people loyal to their magic paycheck, not the Constitution or even the task their agency is ostensibly about, so they increase regulations without regard to any logic or proof of utility. Unions are completely OK with shutting down profitable mines like the one in Raton NM if they don't get their way. The legal profession promotes more and more laws because that is good for their bottom line. In an immoral and predatory environment like this we should not be surprised at consultants catching the same groove.
A good buddy of mine pointed out fifteen years ago that America had gotten to the point here the only thing holding it together was money and affluence, much of it borrowed. Take it away, he said, and things would split apart. We are living through those times. A shared vision of limited government, religious freedom, work ethic, and individual initiative tempered by charity at the community level had been under assault since Woodrow Wilson and had taken huge hits in the Thirties and Sixties. It had ruptured by 2000 and we are seeing now that many Americans and the vast majority of those publicly funded in some way have signed on to something completely different.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/28/2015 5:04 Comments ||
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#3
This is what the "no talk of impeachment" gets you. "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."
h/t Gates of Vienna
WASHINGTON -- Already struggling to navigate the chaos engulfing much of the Middle East, the United States is now dipping its toe into another conflict.
In Yemen, the Obama administration is supporting a Saudi-led military campaign to dislodge Iranian-backed Houthi rebels despite the risks of an escalating regional fight with Iran.
But in Iraq and Syria, the United States is on the same side as Iran in the fight against the Islamic State, contributing airstrikes to an Iranian-supported offensive on Tikrit on Thursday even while jostling with Iran for position in leading the operation.
All that while the Obama administration is racing to close a deal with Iran to remove economic sanctions in exchange for restraints on its nuclear program, alarming Saudi Arabia and Israel. From the Gray Lady no less!
[DAWN] In Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the impotence and irrelevance of the PPP government was revealed yet again as its partner, the MQM, is targeted as part of an ongoing paramilitary operation. Neither party has any say in how this is conducted. Tellingly, the Sindh governor was excluded from a recent meeting on the law and order situation in Karachi. Why he has not resigned is beyond me: surely he would be happier taking up golf.
The army has widespread support for its anti-terrorism campaign. Whatever objections right-wing parties like the PTI and the PML-N, and religious parties of all stripe, might have disappeared overnight in the wake of the ghastly massacre of schoolchildren at the army school in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Goodness. That certainly is emphatic, Knuckles Noodleman4287. I'm clearly a little slow today -- would you be kind enough to explain how it is connected to the article?
[ArutzSheva] Years ago, my mother was speaking in front of a high school class of Austrians contemplating their final year in school and not so very interested in a little country in a far off place. Most years, the graduating class chose to go to nearby Italy and explore the Alps.
My mother found the class a bit inattentive, a bit distracted and perhaps even a bit condescending about the message she was sharing. Midstream, she decided to change course.
"Israel has nuclear weapons," she told the suddenly-interested class, "and we aren't afraid to use them if we have to." She looked around, aware that they were quieter than they had been, "Does that frighten you?" she asked.
Several nodded and she added, "good." Me, I prefer biologicals
#2
Yes, nukes are so 20th Century. Designer plagues are now possible, but only by societies that have the advanced knowledge of manipulating genes and DNA.
h/t Gates of Vienna
[CanadaFreePress] To begin with, Iranian (Shi'ite Muslim) military forces are in Iraq because they are fighting the ISIS Sunnis, who Saudi Arabia (Sunni Muslim) is not battling because the Saudi's can't very well side with Shi'ites against Sunnis--plus the official state brand of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, is pretty radical in its own right. So instead of fighting ISIS the Saudis are fighting the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen (Pronounced "hooties." Warning: any play on the words "Hooter Hotties" or variations thereof is unequivocally in bad taste).
Yemen is currently embroiled in a bloody civil war despite being held up as an exemplar of successful US foreign policy last summer by Obama--who also pointed with pride to Somalia, whose main claim to fame for some years has been piracy. In fairness to Obama, he may have been referring to Somaliland, Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, or some other autonomous region that make up the "country" (I use the term loosely) of Somalia. Regardless, in the future Obama might want to pick places other than Yemen and Somalia as being representative examples of his administration's diplomatic expertise.
Meanwhile, Obama is considering moving US troops into Iraq because they are needed there to fight ISIS, and we need to move them there because Obama had moved them out of Iraq after assuring us that they were not needed there anymore. Clear so far?
Regarding ISIS itself--despite the fact that they slice people's heads off, or crucify them, or burn them alive, the US State Department has assured us that ISIS is only being naughty because they lack gainful employment (idle hands are the devil's workshop you know). Also, Obama has informed us that ISIS is not Islamic--although apparently ISIS did not get the memo, as they continue to insist upon calling themselves the "Islamic State" (depends on what your definition of IS is I suppose).
Egypt has sentenced over 180 members of the "Muslim Brotherhood" to death. Egypt's President el-Sisi considers the "Muslim Brotherhood" to be not just an "existential threat," but a very "real and present danger." Meanwhile the White House carries on playing "footsie" with Muslims who have ties to the "Muslim Brotherhood" and other suspect organizations (perhaps discussing importing "shovel ready jobs" to the Middle East?).
ISIS and the "Muslim Brotherhood" are not the only misunderstood jobless Muslim waifs, no indeed--I mustn't forget to mention Hezbollah (Shi'ite Muslim) and Hamas (Sunni Muslim) who periodically fire rockets into Israel from the north and south respectively. Israel, for its part, continues to protect its defenseless citizens against such attacks, much to the chagrin of the Obama Administration--who, for reasons unknown, much prefers dealing with the "Death to America" Muslim theocracy in Iran than with the pro-USA government in Israel. Go figure.
That, in a nutshell, is the situation in the Middle East and the USA's "foreign policy" in the region. Perhaps in a future article I will clear up what actually transpired during the mythical "Arab Spring." But, at least, Americans proved to the whole World that they are not racist.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ClashDaily] Did you see the Hilldebeest during last week's UN presser try to pawn off on us po' rubes that she didn't break any email rules during her stint as Secretary Of State and that we ... we ... are actually uncouth for even questioning her "integrity"?
