May 2010 – Page 3 – Infinite Unknown

Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 3 – Revisiting Civics 101 – Ownership

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by Infinite

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 1 – Revisiting American History – Financial Empire

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 2 – Revisiting Economics 101 – Debt

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 4 – The Culture of Empire

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 5 – The Emerging Global Empire – The New World Order

Added: 21. March 2010

Lesson 3 – Revisiting Civics 101 describes how the media projects a false picture in terms of who controls the US. This lesson illustrates the real power structure, which is modeled after the corporate governance system.

It typically uses Ivy Leaguers to fill its ranks and it exercises ownership rights over the country to some degree.

“I am delighted to be here in these new [Council on Foreign Relations] headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.”
– Hillary Clinton

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”
– Theodore Roosevelt

“The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”
– Benjamin Disraeli

“There is something behind the throne greater than the king himself.”
– William Pitt 1770, British House of Lords

“You know, by the time you become the leader of a country, someone else makes all the decisions. … You may find you can get away with virtual presidents, virtual prime ministers, virtual everything.”
– Bill Clinton

“I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.”
– General Douglas MacArthur

Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 4 – The Culture of Empire

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by Infinite

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 1 – Revisiting American History – Financial Empire

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 2 – Revisiting Economics 101 – Debt

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 3 – Revisiting Civics 101 – Ownership

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 5 – The Emerging Global Empire – The New World Order

1 of 4:

Added: 26. March 2010

Lesson 4 (part 1) – The Culture of Empire moves into a deeper dialogue about the empire system we’re caught in. Part 1 addresses our wealth illusion, freedom illusion, exponential growth, inflation/deflation, and bankruptcies.

2 of 4:

Added: 26. March 2010

Lesson 4 (part 2) – Part 2 focuses exclusively on the issue of scale. As the debt-based empire grows, the scale of our system grows causing all sorts of problems related to the loss of meaning, community, freedom, and agency.

3 of 4:

Added: 27. March 2010

Lesson 4 (part 3) – Part 3 focuses on the issue of velocity. The velocity of money is a standard economic concept, but economists ignore the issue of human velocity caused by the system, which results in the loss of rest, joy, delight, and deeper issues.

4 of 4:

Added: 27. March 2010

Lesson 4 (part 4) – Part 4 focuses on the rise of narcissism, increasing pathology and oppression, and how the financial empire eventually replaces government

Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 5 – The Emerging Global Empire – The New World Order

May 25, 2010May 25, 2010 by Infinite

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 1 – Revisiting American History – Financial Empire

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 2 – Revisiting Economics 101 – Debt

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 3 – Revisiting Civics 101 – Ownership

– Renaissance 2.0: Lesson 4 – The Culture of Empire

1 of 2:

Added: 15. April 2010

Lesson 5 (part 1) explains the strategic global transition we’re currently living through. It provides the correct strategic perspective, thereby replacing false ones like the left vs. right paradigm, to help interpret the overwhelming flow of information we get from the media.

2 of 2:

Added: 15. April 2010

Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

May 24, 2010 by Infinite

– Israel ‘offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons‘ (Telegraph):

Shimon Peres, the Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, was facing deep embarrassment yesterday after it emerged that he allegedly offered to sell Apartheid South Africa nuclear weapons.

Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons

The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, now president of Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Guardian

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons.

The “top secret” minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa’s defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel’s defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them “in three sizes”. The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that “the very existence of this agreement” was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of “ambiguity” in neither confirming nor denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa’s post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky’s request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week’s nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

US Begins Massive Military Build Up Around Iran, Sending Up To 4 New Carrier Groups In Region

May 24, 2010 by Infinite

USS Harry S. Truman

As if uncontrollable economic contagion was not enough for the administration, Obama is now willing to add geopolitical risk to the current extremely precarious economic and financial situation.

Over at Debkafile we read that the president has decided to “boost US military strength in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf regions in the short term with an extra air and naval strike forces and 6,000 Marine and sea combatants.”

With just one aircraft carrier in proximity to Iran, the Nobel peace prize winner has decided to send a clear message that peace will no longer be tolerated, and has decided to increase the US aircraft carrier presence in the region by a 400-500% CAGR.

From Debka:

Carrier Strike Group 10, headed by the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, sails out of the US Navy base at Norfolk, Virginia Friday, May 21. On arrival, it will raise the number of US carriers off Iranian shores to two. Up until now, President Barack Obama kept just one aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Iran, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea, in pursuit of his policy of diplomatic engagement with Tehran.

For the first time, too, the US force opposite Iran will be joined by a German warship, the frigate FGS Hessen, operating under American command.

Read moreUS Begins Massive Military Build Up Around Iran, Sending Up To 4 New Carrier Groups In Region

Cap and Trade Is a Gigantic Scam

May 24, 2010May 24, 2010 by Infinite

As I pointed out in December:

James Hansen – the world’s leading climate scientist fighting against global warming – told Amy Goodman this morning that cap and trade not only won’t reduce emissions, it may actually increase them:

The problem is that the emissions just go someplace else. That’s what happened after Kyoto, and that’s what would happen again, if-as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, they will be burned someplace. You know, the Europeans thought they actually reduced their emissions after Kyoto, but what happened was the products that had been made in their countries began to be made in other countries, which were burning the cheapest form of fossil fuel, so the total emissions actually increased…

See also this and this.

Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are also against cap and trade (and see this and this), as is the head of California’s cap and trade program for the EPA.

Hansen also told Goodman that (notwithstanding Paul Krugman’s assertions) most economists say that cap and trade won’t work:

I’ve talked with many economists, and the majority of them agree that the cap and trade with offsets is not the way to address the problem.

As I have previously pointed out:

Read moreCap and Trade Is a Gigantic Scam

President Obama’s New World Order: ‘We have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation’

May 23, 2010 by Infinite

BARACK Obama wants to shape a new “international order” in which the US co-operates with other nations and seeks long-term support by promoting its democratic values.

The US President’s weekend speech to cadets at the West Point military academy was practically a trial run for the national security policy he will announce this week.

Addressing graduates at the same venue he announced a 30,000 US troop increase for the Afghan war six months ago, Mr Obama said: “Yes, we are clear-eyed about the shortfalls of our international system.

“But America has not succeeded by stepping out of the currents of co-operation — we have succeeded by steering those currents in the direction of liberty and justice, so nations thrive by meeting their responsibilities and face consequences when they don’t.”

His comments indicate he has not been dissuaded from his theme of engagement with other nations, including the Muslim world, despite threats to national security from two attempted terror attacks on US territory.

Mr Obama’s doctrine on national security is a marked contrast to the 2002 policy announced by George W. Bush, who endorsed the idea of “pre-emptive war” and a “distinctively American internationalism”. Consistent with his speeches last year to the UN in New York and to Islamic countries in Cairo, the US President is set to officially dump all hint of unilateralism in favour of building partnerships.

” We have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation,” Mr Obama said. “We will be steadfast in strengthening those old alliances that have served us so well, including those who will serve by our side in Afghanistan and around the globe.”

European Cities on the Edge of a Debt Crisis

May 23, 2010 by Infinite

As European capitals look to fund ballooning deficits, local and regional borrowing is set to reach record levels

Venice: Rialto Bridge and Grand Canal
In a bid to shore up the city’s finances, Venice has put three historic sties, including the Grand Canal, up for sale. Photograph: Sergio Pitamitz/Corbis

While relaxing on the back of a gondola, the millions of tourists who drift by the Palazzo Diedo, Gradenigo or San Casciano in Venice don’t generally know that what they’re looking at are the roots of another European debt crisis. For in a desperate move by the Italian city to shore up its books, these three historic Venetian sites have been put up for sale.

A quarter of Venice’s income comes from the City-owned casino near the famous Rialto bridge, where thousands of tourists gamble, unaware that they’re funding the city’s battle against rising lagoon levels, or paying for its world-renowned carnival. But a credit crunch-led drop in tourism has starved the municipal coffers, and forced the city into new fundraising ventures. Venice recently created an 18-property fund, valued at €82m (£71.3m), expected to be sold within three to five years.

“The lower income from the casino has decreased our expense capacity, so the fund structure gave us half of the value, €40m in cash, ahead of the sales,” said Paolo Di Prima, director of financial investment at Comune di Venezia – the city hall. Downgraded by Moody’s earlier this month but still within investment grade status, Venice is “not desperate, as before we had an excellent position, and now we’re in a good one”, Di Prima says.

The crisis in the eurozone is making headlines at the moment, but at a lower level another debt storm is slowly brewing. European cities and regions are expected to flood the market this year, all anxious to fund ballooning deficits. Local and regional government borrowing is expected to reach a historical peak of nearly €1.3 trillion, according to credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P). The bulk will come from the highly decentralised German Länder (states) and from the deficit-ridden Spanish regions, which face severe central government transfer cuts. Regions also face higher borrowing costs and, most likely, further credit downgrades.

President Obama Wins The Right to Detain People With No Habeas Review

May 23, 2010 by Infinite

More change we can believe in!

(updated below – Update II)

Few issues highlight Barack Obama’s extreme hypocrisy the way that Bagram does. As everyone knows, one of George Bush’s most extreme policies was abducting people from all over the world — far away from any battlefield — and then detaining them at Guantanamo with no legal rights of any kind, not even the most minimal right to a habeas review in a federal court. Back in the day, this was called “Bush’s legal black hole.” In 2006, Congress codified that policy by enacting the Military Commissions Act, but in 2008, the Supreme Court, in Boumediene v. Bush, ruled that provision unconstitutional, holding that the Constitution grants habeas corpus rights even to foreign nationals held at Guantanamo. Since then, detainees have won 35 out of 48 habeas hearings brought pursuant to Boumediene, on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to justify their detention.

Immediately following Boumediene, the Bush administration argued that the decision was inapplicable to detainees at Bagram — including even those detained outside of Afghanistan but then flown to Afghanistan to be imprisoned. Amazingly, the Bush DOJ — in a lawsuit brought by Bagram detainees seeking habeas review of their detention — contended that if they abduct someone and ship them to Guantanamo, then that person (under Boumediene) has the right to a habeas hearing, but if they instead ship them to Bagram, then the detainee has no rights of any kind. In other words, the detainee’s Constitutional rights depends on where the Government decides to drop them off to be encaged. One of the first acts undertaken by the Obama DOJ that actually shocked civil libertarians was when, last February, as The New York Times put it, Obama lawyers “told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush’s legal team.”

But last April, John Bates, the Bush-43-appointed, right-wing judge overseeing the case, rejected the Bush/Obama position and held that Boumediene applies to detainees picked up outside of Afghanistan and then shipped to Bagram. I reviewed that ruling here, in which Judge Bates explained that the Bagram detainees are “virtually identical to the detainees in Boumediene,” and that the Constitutional issue was exactly the same: namely, “the concern that the President could move detainees physically beyond the reach of the Constitution and detain them indefinitely.”

But the Obama administration was undeterred by this loss. They quickly appealed Judge Bates’ ruling. As the NYT put it about that appeal: “The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight.” Today, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the Bush/Obama position, holding that even detainees abducted outside of Afghanistan and then shipped to Bagram have no right to contest the legitimacy of their detention in a U.S. federal court, because Boumediene does not apply to prisons located within war zones (such as Afghanistan).

So congratulations to the United States and Barack Obama for winning the power to abduct people anywhere in the world and then imprison them for as long as they want with no judicial review of any kind. When the Boumediene decision was issued in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” But Obama hailed it as “a rejection of the Bush Administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo,” and he praised the Court for “rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.” Even worse, when Obama went to the Senate floor in September, 2006, to speak against the habeas-denying provisions of the Military Commissions Act, this is what he melodramatically intoned:

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Health Hazards

May 23, 2010May 23, 2010 by Infinite

Dr. Michael Harbut, Karmanos Cancer Institute

Dr. Kathleen Burns, Sciencecorps

Many people will be exposed to airborne and waterborne chemicals as a result of the BP Gulf of Mexico spill. It is important to understand the potential toxic effects and take appropriate steps to prevent or reduce exposure and harm.

Crude Oil Fact Sheet

Crude oil contains hundreds of chemicals, comprised primarily of hydrogen and carbon (e.g., simple straight chain paraffins, aromatic ring structures, naphthenes), with some sulfur, nitrogen, metal, and oxygen compounds (see Table D-1 in CDC, 1999 linked below). Crude oil composition varies slightly by its source, but its toxic properties are fairly consistent. Chemicals such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are very toxic components of crude oil and of high concern. These and other chemicals are volatile, moving from the oil into air. Once airborne, they blow over the ocean for miles, reaching communities far from the oil spill. They can be noticed as petroleum odors. Those working on the spill and people far from it can be exposed to crude oil chemicals in air.

We have prepared 1 page summaries for the public and for workers. You can download and print them.

www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards-public.pdf

www.sciencecorps.org/crudeoilhazards-workers.pdf

Chemicals being applied to the water, such as dispersants, are also of concern. We don’t have chemical composition details at this time, so can’t provide information on health hazards, beyond noting that most are reported to contain petroleum distillates, which pose health hazards when aspirated. See EPA’s summary of oil spill response products (March 2010): http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/docs/oil/ncp/notebook.pdf

Exposure

Exposure can occur through skin contact, inhalation of contaminated air or soil, and ingestion of contaminated water or food. These can occur simultaneously. Exposure pathways may result in localized toxicity (e.g., irritation of the skin following contact), but most health effects are systemic because ingredients can move throughout the body. Exposure varies based on the duration and concentrations in contaminated media. Differences may result from location, work and personal activities, age, diet, use of protective equipment, and other factors. Concurrent exposure to other toxic chemicals must be considered when evaluating toxic effects. Some chemicals in crude oil are volatile, moving into air easily, and these can often be detectable by smell.

Basic Physiological Effects

Crude oil is a complex mixture of chemicals that have varying abilities to be absorbed into the body through the skin, lungs, and during digestion of food and water. Most components of crude oil enter the bloodstream rapidly when they are inhaled or swallowed. Crude oil contains chemicals that readily penetrate cell walls, damage cell structures, including DNA, and alter the function of the cells and the organs where they are located. Crude oil is toxic, and ingredients can damage every system in the body:

– respiratory
– nervous system, including the brain
– liver
– reproductive/urogenital system
– kidneys
– endocrine system
– circulatory system
– gastrointestinal system
– immune system
– sensory systems
– musculoskeletal system

Fishermen get severly ill from clean-up work in Gulf

June 6, 2010May 22, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 21. Mai 2010

Gary Burris, a fisherman in coastal Louisiana, has become severely ill from inhaling fumes during response work following the Deepwater Horizon disaster and claims many more have become sick but hesitate to come forward for fear of losing their only remaining source of revenue.

Germany: Parliament Votes to Give 66 % of Annual Income Tax Revenue to The Banksters

May 22, 2010 by Infinite

Here is what Wolfgang Schäuble had to say:

– German Lawmakers Approve Share of $1 Trillion Bailout (Bloomberg):

“Every other alternative is much worse and much more dangerous, so we have to do this,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the lower house, or Bundestag, in Berlin before the vote. “We’re not doing this for others, we’re doing it for ourselves and for future generations.”

These elite puppets have just bankrupted Germany:

“Never in recent European history have governments so blatantly looted taxpayers.

If nothing is done to reverse these bills, the economic and social collapse of Germany, Greece and EU nations is inevitable.”

What this really is, is an unprecedented looting of the people by the elitists that control the governments, the central banks, the IMF and the media.

When the elite will have totally bankrupted the people and everything will go into total collapse mode they will present the New World Order (world government and a new world currency) as the only solution to all the problems that they have created in the first place. (See related information at the end of the article.)

Reichstag, Berlin

Germany’s parliament today passed a bill that will mean that about 66 per cent of the country’s income tax revenue each year will go to banks in the form of interest payments on souvereign dent bonds held by Greece, Portugal and other eurozone nations.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition government voted to give 123 billion as Germany’s portion of a 750-billion euro loan guarantee package prepared by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to enable governments to keep up interest payments to banks on souvereign debt.

The bill was passed by the Bundestag with with 319 “yes” votes, 73 “no” votes and 195 abstentions.

The abstentions came from the center-left opposition Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) and a handful of CDU/CSU and FDP backbenchers. The 123 billion euro bank package comes on top of the 22.4 billon that Germany’s parliament voted to give Greece two weeks ago.

German taxpayers will, therefore, have to give 145 billion euros or 77% of the country’s annual income tax revenue to the banks in the highly likely event of Greece, Portugal and other countries not being able to meet their souvereign debt interest payments.

House Committee on Homeland Security Seeks Cooperation from Max Keiser on Financial Terrorism

May 22, 2010 by Infinite

Can’t make this up!

Here is an email from a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security to Max Keiser regarding Financial Terrorism. Both the email and Max Keiser’s response had me laughing my head off.

Hi Mr. Keiser,

My name is Chris Beck and I work on the staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security in Washington, DC. I have been reading and listening to you regarding the May 6 stock market plunge and the likelihood that this was an act of financial terrorism. I think this is a huge issue that has not been given enough attention, and may warrant oversight by our committee. I would greatly appreciate the chance to talk to you to make sure I understand the nuts and bolts, and to figure out what avenues may be available to correct what appears to be a massive fraud that could undermine U.S. National Security. Can you please contact me and let me know if you are available to talk?
Thank you,
Chris

Chris Beck, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor for Science and Technology
House Committee on Homeland Security

I asked Max Keiser how he responded.

Max Replied “I told him to investigate this financial terrorist crime happening right now! in real time!”

Max went on to say …

I think it’s really incredible how clueless these people are.

Given the recent track record of corrupt regulators in D.C. it’s not hard to imagine that Chris Beck is wittingly or unwittingly just bird dogging intelligence that will be fed to Goldman and used to package ever more exotic Financial Terrorist weapons.

My position is the government IS Goldman and any info gleaned by this type of thing will end up helping no one BUT Goldman.

Here is the video that Chris Beck was responding to. Play the first few minutes of it. It will have you rolling on the floor.

I am also told that homeland security was interested in talking with David DeGraw about his post on Market Oracle Financial Terrorism Operations: 9/29/08 & 5/6/10.

This reads like a spoof straight out of The Onion, but I have phone numbers and email address and a chain of emails to verify.

FDIC: ‘Problem’ Banks at 775, or 10 Percent of All US Banks

May 22, 2010 by Infinite

WASHINGTON (Wall Street Journal) — A total of 775 banks, or one-tenth of all U.S. banks, were on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s list of “problem” institutions in the first quarter, as bad loans in the commercial real-estate market weighed on bank balance sheets.

Poor loan performance in other sectors also continued to hurt banks, with the total number of loans at least three months past due climbing for the 16th consecutive quarter, FDIC officials said in a briefing on Thursday.

“The banking system still has many problems to work through, and we cannot ignore the possibility of more financial market volatility,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said.

There were 702 on the FDIC’s “problem” bank list at the end of 2009 and 252 at the end of 2008.

California: More Than 6 Million Tons of Food Products are Dumped Annually; Food is The Largest Source of Waste

May 22, 2010 by Infinite

WTF!

Sherri Martinez packs food given to the Alameda County Community Food Bank to be distributed in Hayward.

Farmers, restaurants and supermarkets throw away millions of tons of edible food each year at a time when a growing number of Californians struggle to put food on the table.

More than 6 million tons of food products are dumped annually, enough to fill the Staples Center in Los Angeles 35 times over, state studies have found. Food is the largest single source of waste in California, making up 15.5 percent of the state’s waste stream, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

An examination by California Watch and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California found shortcomings along California’s food distribution chain that allow vast amounts of food to go to waste in landfills, despite incentives that encourage food donations.

Among the findings:

— Millions of tons of fruit and vegetables rot in fields and orchards or are plowed over each year. Some of these edible crops are left behind because they are misshapen or discolored. Gleaning programs rescue only a small portion of the field waste.

— Major retail grocery chains are more likely to throw away fruits, vegetables and even entire hams and roasts than donate to distribution centers. While federal and state laws protect grocers from liability, many stores were concerned that donated food could sicken recipients even if it had not reached its expiration date. While some major chains donate food, others do not.

— Restaurants dump tens of thousands of tons of edible food every year. The vast majority of the state’s 90,000 restaurants do not participate in food-donation programs.

‘Ridiculous’ amount of waste

German Lawmakers Approve Share of $1 Trillion Bailout

May 21, 2010 by Infinite

‘For future generations!’ Sure! Future generations have just been looted and raped!

– Now That Is One SERIOUSLY Hyperbolic Alert On CNBC Business Insider (CNBC):

“FATE OF FREE WORLD HANGS ON VOTE IN GERMAN PARLIAMENT.”

Reminds me of:

– How the crooked bailout was passed by Congress:

– Rep. Michael Burgess: “We Are Under Martial Law”:

German Lawmakers Approve Share of $1 Trillion Bailout

Schaeuble waits on German lawmakers’ decision. (Bloomberg)

May 21 (Bloomberg) — German lawmakers approved their country’s share of a $1 trillion euro-region bailout in a vote today, allaying market concern that they would balk at approving a second emergency aid package in as many weeks.

The lower house of parliament voted 319 to 73 in favor of contributing as much as 148 billion euros ($186 billion) to indebted European states to backstop the euro; 195 lawmakers abstained. The upper house, or Bundesrat, also passed the measure, sending it on to President Horst Koehler for signature.

“Every other alternative is much worse and much more dangerous, so we have to do this,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the lower house, or Bundestag, in Berlin before the vote. “We’re not doing this for others, we’re doing it for ourselves and for future generations.”

Rotavirus Vaccines Contaminated With Pig Virus, But FDA Says No Problem

May 21, 2010 by Infinite

– FDA: Glaxo, Merck vaccines OK despite pig virus (Reuters):

(Reuters) – Rotavirus vaccines made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Merck & Co Inc are safe to use despite being contaminated with a pig virus, U.S. health regulators ruled on Friday.

What could possibly go wrong?

(NaturalNews) Rotavirus vaccines are commonly given to children, and this year’s batch of vaccines made by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck are contaminated with a pig virus, the FDA recently discovered. So the FDA called a meeting to determine whether injecting a pig virus into the bodies of young children might be some sort of problem requiring a recall of the vaccines.

Can you guess what conclusion the agency reached? As reported by Reuters, the FDA concluded “…it was safe for doctors to resume giving patients Glaxo’s Rotarix and continue using Merck’s Rotateq. The agency said there was no evidence the contamination caused any harm…”

In other words, as long as they can bury the evidence and deny any link between vaccines and health problems — which has been the standard excuse of the FDA for decades — they can continue to claim the vaccines are safe enough to inject into little children.

Never mind the fact that the pig virus found in the vaccines actually causes a wasting disease in baby pigs, giving them intense diarrhea and causing them to rapidly lose weight. DNA from these viruses was detected in the “master cells” used to make the vaccines.

Asian Stock Markets Drop Sharply After Big Fall in US; Ameritrade clients locked out for 80 minutes

May 21, 2010 by Infinite

The Dow Jones slumped 3.6 per cent, as every stock on the blue chip index fell (AFP)

– Asian Stocks Drop Sharply After Big Fall in US (New York Times):

Stock markets in Asia fell sharply in early trading on Friday after continuing declines on Wall Street and in Europe.

Fears that the fragile economic recovery in the United States might be threatened by the financial and political crisis in Europe gripped Wall Street on Thursday, sending the stock market into a sharp decline and leaving anxious traders wondering where the pain might stop, The New York Times’s Mark MacDonald reported.

– TD Ameritrade clients locked out for 80 minutes (Reuters):

* Online clients unable to log in 11:40 a.m.-1 p.m.s

* Call wait times ‘elevated’ – spokeswoman

* U.S. markets dropped heavily on Thursday (Recasts with resolution, lockout details)

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) – TD Ameritrade Holding Corp (AMTD.O) clients were unable to log into their online trading accounts for about 80 minutes as markets fell sharply on Thursday, the big U.S. online brokerage said.

The company was still investigating what went wrong between about 11:40 a.m. ET and 1 p.m., when individual clients were forced to contact company brokers by telephone to place orders, a spokeswoman said. Call wait times were “elevated,” she added.

Related information:

– Insights From An Ex-Wall Street CEO On Market Manipulation:

“I cannot come up with any explanation for market activity for last 15 months other than treasury intervention. Probability of other explanation is nonexistent.”

And I totally agree because the only thing most insiders have done is sell.

There are no markets anymore:

– All You Need To Know About High Frequency Trading: ‘Sell Everything, And Shutdown’; 4 Years Without A Loss

There is no recovery:

– Why The Elite Hates Gold: There Has Been No Recovery In The S&P 500 When It Is Deflated By Gold

And the stock market plunge was no ‘fat finger,’ but a promise of what is to come:

– ‘Banging’ the US Stock Market

The next leg down in the markets, the crash is coming (everywhere):

– Hedge Funds Bet Europe’s $1 Trillion Bailout Won’t Solve Crisis, Forecast Jump in Inflation, Buy Gold

– Meltup (Documentary): The Beginning Of A US Currency Crisis And Hyperinflation.

– The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente: Greece Only The Beginning; Wall Street Plunge; Bailout Bubble Bursting; 2010 Global Crash; Gold

– Marc Faber: China May ‘Crash’ in Next 9 to 12 Months

– Mike Krieger: This Is The Last Dance

– Jim Rogers: The Next Recession Will Be Much Worse

– James G. Rickards: Possible Run on the Gold Bank, Fed Insolvent, Currency Endgames in US Debt Crisis

– Latest Gold Fraud Bombshell: Canada’s Only Bullion Bank Gold Vault Is Practically Empty

– The US Government Is Preparing For Collapse: Your Legal Right To Redeem Your Money Market Account Has Been Denied

– America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship!

NASA Images Show Oil Entering Loop Current

June 6, 2010May 20, 2010 by Infinite

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Spread: The top NASA image shows the powerful ‘loop current’ of faster moving water the oil is hitting which circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast. The bottom image shows the extent of the spill

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill has for the first time reached a powerful current that could take it to Florida and beyond, say scientists.

A small portion of the slick has entered the so-called ‘loop current’, a stream of faster moving water that circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

New NASA Image of Gulf Oil Moving Towards Atlantic Ocean

June 6, 2010May 20, 2010 by Infinite

A striking new image released by NASA today shows a massive column of oil extending out Southeast towards the open ocean.

This column has not been visible in any satellite photos taken so far and will change the estimated extent of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Source: The Daily Galaxy

More:

– Worry That Gulf Oil Spreading Into Major Ocean Current

– AP IMPACT: Fed’l Inspections on Rig Not as Claimed:

The federal agency responsible for ensuring that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was operating safely before it exploded last month fell well short of its own policy that inspections be done at least once per month, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Since January 2005, the federal Minerals Management Service conducted at least 16 fewer inspections aboard the Deepwater Horizon than it should have under the policy, a dramatic fall from the frequency of prior years, according to the agency’s records.

– Gulf of Mexico: Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil as Large as 10 Miles Long, 3 Miles Wide And 300 Feet Thick in Deep Waters:

Scientists studying video of the gushing oil well have tentatively calculated that it could be flowing at a rate of 25,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil a day. The latter figure would be 3.4 million gallons a day.

– Beyond Stupid: BP CEO Tony Hayward:

“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”

– US Oil Spill: Scientists and Fishermen Alarmed Over Chemical Dispersants:

Approximately 325,000 gallons of dispersant have been deployed so far in BP’s effort to break up the spreading oil slick before it hits the fragile Gulf coast, and over 500,000 gallons more are available.

– Rig firm makes $270m profit from Gulf of Mexico oil spill

– US not accepting foreign help on oil spill

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: New NOAA Projection Map; BP’s High-Stakes Mission; And More News

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection:

The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

– US Oil Spill Disaster Is Now ‘Out Of Control’

Arizona Threatens to Cut Off Electricity Supply to Los Angeles

May 20, 2010 by Infinite

Arizona could cut off electricity supplies to Los Angeles in protest at an economic boycott over the state’s controversial immigration law.

Los Angeles could be plunged into darkness if the threats are realised

Los Angeles receives about 25 per cent of its power from Arizona, meaning a quarter of America’s second largest city could be plunged into darkness.

Politicians in the city voted last week to impose a boycott on Arizona which will affect about $8 million (£5.3 million) worth of contracts with the state. City officials will also stop travelling to Arizona.

In response an Arizona utility commissioner raised the prospect of the state’s utility companies cutting Los Angeles off.

In a letter to the city Arizona Corporation Commission member Gary Pierce said: “If an economic boycott is truly what you desire, I will be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements so Los Angeles no longer receives any power from Arizona-based generation.

“I am confident that Arizona’s utilities would be happy to take those electrons off your hands.

“If, however, you find that the City Council lacks the strength of its convictions to turn off the lights in Los Angeles and boycott Arizona power, please reconsider the wisdom of attempting to harm Arizona’s economy.” Mr Pierce said if Los Angeles was “serious” about its boycott and not just “posturing” then it would have to consider supplying its own power.

North Korea Threatens ‘All-Out War’ Over Warship Sinking Report

May 20, 2010 by Infinite

North Korea defied condemnation from the rest of the world over the unprovoked sinking of a South Korean warship, and pledged “all-out war” if any retaliation was taken.

The salvaged South Korean 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan (REUTERS)

In the most serious attack for over 20 years, a North Korean torpedo was found to be responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, a 300-ft South Korean warship, which sank on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives.

An official report, carried out by South Korean investigators together with teams from the United States, Britain, Australia and Sweden, said the evidence pointed “overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine.” It added: “There is no other plausible explanation.”

South Korea vowed “resolute countermeasures” against the North and is likely to appeal to the United Nations for further sanctions on the rogue state.

Australian Dollar in Freefall

May 20, 2010 by Infinite

The Australian dollar was in freefall this afternoon, plunging to as low as 82.56 US cents against the greenback and falling sharply against other major currencies, on renewed worries about the health of the global economy.

Traders said the losses were caused by global hedge funds selling the dollar to reduce their exposure to currencies considered as risky.

By the time of the local close, the dollar had recovered slightly to 83.15 US cents, still down more than 2.5 US cents from yesterday’s close of 85.88 US cents.

TD Securities FX strategist Roland Randall said the unit had been caught in the grip of investor insecurity about the on-going European debt crisis.

”The big picture is the world is selling risk assets in concerns out of Europe,’’ he said. ”We’ve seen the Aussie plummet.”

It’s been a shocking month for the currency, sinking more than 10 per cent from 92.7 US cents – a shift that may add to local inflationary pressures as the higher cost of imports flows through the economy.

US Coast Guard Under ‘BP’s Rules,’ CBS News Team Threatened With Arrest

May 20, 2010May 20, 2010 by Infinite

Kelly Cobiella reports that a CBS News team was threatened with arrest by Coast Guard officials in the Gulf of Mexico who said they were acting under the authority of British Petroleum.

Watch CBS News Videos Online
May 18, 2010 4:04 PM

Australia: Travellers laptops and mobile phones to be searched for porn

May 20, 2010May 20, 2010 by Infinite

Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers’ laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.

Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying “pornography”.

Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers’ electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people’s private lives. She questioned whether it was appropriate to search people for legal R18+ and X18+ material.

“Is it fair that customs officers rummage through someone’s luggage and pull out a legal men’s magazine or a lesbian journal in front of their children or their mother-in-law?” she said.