Wednesday, April 28, 2010

N. Korea Postures for Attack; Roubini: End of Eurozone in a Few Days?

From Jenna Orkin

Headlines
North Korea Makes Major Troop Shift, Postures For Direct Attack
N. Korea Demands Nuclear Weapons State Status
CIA Director: Cyber Attack Could Be Next Pearl Harbor
Bernanke Getting Scared
The Search for a Reserve Currency
Another $586 billion "Stimulus" Coming to China?
Eggs, Fists in Ukraine Parliament
Naval deal brings chaos to Ukraine parliament
Black Sea Drone Wars: the Sequel
Pentagon: Iran influencing Venezuela
Could we see criminal charges against Tim Geithner!?
Greek instability threatens to topple Merkel's government
Roubini: In a few days, there may not be a eurozone
ECB needs 'nuclear' option
Too late to save Greece?
Eurozone edges to endgame as Greek contagion catches Portugal
Greek 2-year Yields Hit 18% on S&P Cut; Contagion Hits Portugal; Credit Swaps on Sovereign Debt at Record Highs; Blind Panic?
Spain's Long-Term Credit Rating Reduced by S&P as Greek Contagion Spreads
Greek Junk Contagion Presses EU to Broaden Bailout
US Food Inflation Spiralling Out of Control

Economy
Eliot Spitzer on Goldman: Where are the prosecutors?
Goldman: Despite The Recovery, America Is Screwed Without More Easy Money From The Fed
"Crowd-Sourcing" IBM to Cut 3/4 of its Permanent Staff by 2017?
Financial crisis hits plastic surgeons

Joke of the day: Did you hear that Goldman Sachs made the Iceland volcano erupt? It did pretty well shorting airlines.

Funny, huh? CNBC feels compelled to go on to explain it's a joke; Goldman isn't that powerful.

How about this one?


Sometime in the '70s, the state geologist of Pennsylvania warned that the birthplace of oil was about to run out of the black gold. "That was the 1870s," the Texas state geologist, Scott Tinker, said Monday, delivering the punch line in a joke about the oil industry's short-sightedness.

Terror/Intelligence/Law

Militias: Patriots or paranoid?
S.F. Admin Guilty of Hijacking City Passwords

Pentagon Takes Bids for Mind-Meld Training Computer

Study: Fair Use Contributes Trillions to U.S. Economy
This is of potential significance to blogs.

Environment
Amid Push for Renewable Energy, Saudi Arabia Cautiously Turns Over Green Leaf
Rising Sea Level Threatens Beaches, Warns EPA Scientist
Whale excrement could help fight climate change
Out for the count: Why levels of sperm in men are falling

And...
Afghanistan: The hot new place to ski

24 comments:

  1. Drilling and spilling for all the oil that's left - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/drilling-and-spilling-for-all-the-oil-thats-left/article1548522/

    ReplyDelete
  2. On: Rapid Growth of Militia Movements

    "Among orders they pledge to ignore are "any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps"... "They are not any orders that anyone (in government) would actually give," said Pitcavage. "They're only orders that you think someone might give if you believe in incredibly elaborate conspiracy theories."

    I seem to remember this --and quite a bit more-- happening in New Orleans, following Katrina. How much actual news can one government deny, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would like to invite you to read my latest blog post:


    http://social-order-front.blogspot.com/2010/04/geopolitics-through-eyes-of-pakistani.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. @F.Kamilov

    As one who has often been accused of being an American, I take my hat off to you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. How interesting...

    A cyber attack could be the next "Pearl Harbor". Could there be any better way to impact a greater number of lives and simultaneously have the true roots of the cause extremely difficult to trace?

    Now the attack can be nationwide, or worldwide. It can pretty much shut down people's lives and businesses.

    And if access to the Internet can't be restored for maybe 7-14 days, television might be up and running just fine.

    And people will be more glued than ever to the mainstream media, telling us all that happened and who's really behind it.

    It could end up being...the perfect crime.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Businessman, hot comment.

    We really need backup for the internet. A fax network, ham radio... print media hand delivered? I'm low on ideas. But you present a scenario that must not be ignored. Maybe CollapseNet could deal with this question, provide alternate methods of keeping information flowing.

    Very serious issue.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kamilov, you say:

    '(America's justification to dominate the world - when it became capable of this role after 1945 - was at first seemingly ideological: to ensure "free enterprise". But after 1991 when it won the Cold War, this prestense was dropped, and the truth came to the fore: it controls the world in order to ensure the availability and continuity of resources needed to sustain its free-wheeling "American Way of Life"....)'

    "Free Enterprise" has been spun to mean "everybody is free to get rich by their cleverness and hard work." This has never been true, though. The post-WWII conquest of half the world was made, not so that small entrepreneurs could provide valuable goods and services in their own communities, but on behalf of giant American and European companies in a neo-colonial mode.

    We, the American people, largely remained complicit with this neocolonialism, precisely because the system chose to pay us off in "way of life". It needed us, back then. While neocolonialism exploited the raw resources and markets of the third world, it imposed just as firm a control over the American people by addicting us to consumerism and distracting entertainment.

    That, essentially IS "our way of life". It is a cruel fate for America, as well as for the third world, that such a huge hunk of mankind's limited resources were turned from forests, river valleys and subsistence farms into plastic garbage, poisonous chemicals and chocolate bunnies.

    Still, today, it is not for us that these crimes are committed around the world. And they are not just committed by Americans. The WTO has been the grand culmination of a long-evolving class division: Davos Man vs. the World.

    We are victims too, and all the worse because "our way of life" is absolutely unsustainable. In fact, "our way of life" is right now being peeled away to reveal incompetent pseudo-citizens, as needy as the Africans or the Chinese, no longer embraced and nourished by the global masters, and tragically devoid of sane, stable traditions based on local mutuality. A fine mess.

    ReplyDelete
  8. DynCorp monitoring Pak-Afghan border: US


    http://onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=162077

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jenna;
    What do you think of Dr. Sabrosky's video?

    ReplyDelete
  10. ""our [American] way of life" is right now being peeled away to reveal incompetent pseudo-citizens, as needy as the Africans or the Chinese, no longer embraced and nourished by the global masters, and tragically devoid of sane, stable traditions based on local mutuality."

    Yeah, what ^he^ said..!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Eyeballs Re: "we are victims too".

    Victims? really?

    Inset "Western" for "UK"

    "You simply cannot be anti-poverty and pro-the-average-UK-lifestyle. The choice is yours. The fact we like our lifestyles here is not a moral justification for it - it simply means we want more than what is possible for others."

    Mark Boyle (moneylessman)

    Recent interview for background...

    http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/04/12/2870334.htm

    http://www.justfortheloveofit.org/blog

    ReplyDelete
  12. ...Soros bringing down the Euro?
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703795004575087741848074392.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gamedog, that was lovely. I'd read about him before, but the links you posted will be food for further thought. Not everyone can live like Boyle, but the idea that he can do it inspires us all to reconsider what we "need".

    Obviously, he has de-victimized himself and is busy reconditioning others. That's the work, eh? I'm really interested in the Freeskilling workshops.

    Anyway, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  14. 4,29,10; 12:05pm.
    Breast Cancer,

    This may seem to be a distraction,
    Everything is a distraction to someone!

    The Drug company's(Big Pharma.)
    own the world, where not actually,
    through Influence/Pressure/Money!

    The object is not being Healthy, but in making money off of Sick(?) Sheeple.

    If they ever cured anyone, their "Cash Cow" would be dead!


    http://tinyurl.com/2eyybdm

    http://tinyurl.com/2f42stg

    http://tinyurl.com/39t4jww

    ReplyDelete
  15. Eyeballs, don't get me wrong, I agree with your post, just think "victim" is the wrong word, I've been struggling all afternoon/evening to come up with the correct word since your post, and failed :) A poor analogy, but I think we're more slave than victim, tho we westerners might be promoted overseers/prefects in comparison to our 3rd world brethren.

    BBC3 have started showing a series called Blood, Sweat and Luxuries where they take a group of young collage kids and place them in 3rd world jobs/lives for a week. The programs reduced me & my wife to tears. Click thu the youtube links for some clips, I'm not sure if you guys can get BBC iplayer over there, maybe try thru a UK based proxy, well worth watching, very moving, and humbling stuff.

    Each of the people hosting the youngsters, whose lives we only saw small insights from, really moved me, I wanted to let them come live with us here, it really brings home the real issues.

    I know we can't all be Mark Boyle, but the harder we try...

    it's certainly a good model for community.

    Here's the BBC iplayer link for those who can view it.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=Blood,%20Sweat%20and%20Luxuries

    ReplyDelete
  16. "I've been struggling all afternoon/evening to come up with the correct word since your post, and failed "

    Dupe.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Blood, Sweat and Luxuries

    My immediate question was "what third world country made her mascara?"

    ReplyDelete
  18. 4,29,10; 5:29pm.
    "The 100th Monkey" is a story made up to explain an observed
    evolutionary phenomenon, where something changes instantly,
    or seems to!
    The sad thing is that it works both ways, it's called the "Tipping Point", the more Educated(TPTB) know this and are ALWAYS seeking to
    influence/indoctrinate/Brainwash as many as possible.
    If a lie is repeated enough it becomes a fact, or so the less Educated KNOW, & Live/Behave/React.
    The number changes according to the size of the population, the synchrony of communication, &, Or, the harmony of those involved,
    There will always be a small percentage who are out of the norm, who have to hide/pretend or be driven out, there comes a time that that "Remnant" is sought out, protected, & aided, or put to death, to maintain the
    Selfishness of "existence"!

    Now think about what I have said, where does that put you?
    You do not have to Think What/How I think; but you have to think for yourself,
    your mind grows-or dies by what you feed it!

    Amae.

    ReplyDelete
  19. RE: Blood, Sweat and Luxuries

    Typical of the mainstream media, this presents an absurd choice, to mask a much deeper reality. It really doesn't matter if you buy a damn handbag or not. That's not what's driving the exploitation of the third world.

    Organized boycotts, such as the move for South African divestment or the boycott on table grapes, or the insistence that Burger King pay more for tomatoes or something, may (if cleverly managed, endorsed by the right people, and if enough people are attracted to a focussed campaign over a long time) succeed in one limited issue.

    But when the whole system IS exploitation, you will not make the system kinder by participating in it in a particular way. What I mean by victims is exactly that the choice is between a Pakistani handbag and a British-made handbag. What do you need another handbag for, anyway? Why do you need make-up? What are you doing serving the media? Paying your rent? You should be screwing your boyfriend or climbing a tree or meditating or sleeping or working in the garden or any number of other, more directly pertinent things. That it's our business as humans to make executive decisions on where we'll get our next handbag is a waste of human Life.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @agape_wins

    "Now think about what I have said, where does that put you?"

    Oh, I don't have to think about it... I was always the kid on the playing field that the last team captain got 'stuck with'. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. @eyeballs

    It's not that I disagree with you (which I don't). But it's been 2000 years since Jesus threw the money lenders out of the temple, and we still have to put up with bankers. I don't think anyone really cares!

    They don't care what happens in third world countries; it's not their problem. They don't care how bad is sucks for the next generation; it's not their problem. They don't care about wars in the middle east; it's not their problem. etc... etc... etc... They'll care when they board-up the Wal-Mart, trust me! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. eyeballs,

    As well as having been "our way of life [and] a cruel fate for America, as well as for the third world," it is foremost a verification of exactly how things turn out when worshipping mammon (i.e., hm-m-m? at which price? whether tomatoes or whose grapes, handbag, make-up etc etc etc ???): the obfuscation of reality.

    ReplyDelete