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Firearms • Mock DHS News Report Depicts Gun Owners as Terrorists
Mock DHS News Report Depicts Gun Owners as Terrorists
Paul Joseph Watson
May 1st, 2013
Infowars.com
A mock news report produced by the Department of Homeland Security depicts American gun owners as terrorists in another example of how the federal agency is trying to demonize the Second Amendment while itself stockpiling ammunition.
The report depicts the arrest of “an extremist group reportedly planning a series of terrorist attacks on U.S. cities.”
Dramatic footage shows police conducting a mock raid of a house and yelling at reporters to get back while the news reporter relates how the men were arrested on charges of “illegal possession of firearms.”
Similar to previous DHS characterizations of likely terrorists, the men are played by two Caucasians in their 40?s.
The video was grabbed from the DHS.gov website and appears in a file along with other documents from a HSEEP training program run in coordination with FEMA in the interests of “national preparedness.”
As we have previously documented, the federal agency’s insistence on portraying the vast majority of terrorists in its training videos as white middle class Americans has prompted charges that the DHS is attempting to demonize conservatives and big government adversaries.
However, the portrayal of gun owners as terrorists is sure to stoke even more rancor amongst those who are concerned that the DHS is being prepared to aid in overseeing the Obama administration’s gun control agenda while itself buying ammunition in huge quantities.
As we reported last month, the federal agency is testing a number of different drones at a scientific research facility in Oklahoma that have sensors capable of detecting whether a person is armed, stoking concerns that the federal agency is planning on using UAVs to harass gun owners.
The DHS is also collaborating with New York State government officials to confiscate guns belonging to people who are deemed, often erroneously, to have a mental condition.
The DHS’ commitment to buy around 2 billion rounds of ammunition has become a huge controversy in recent months, with the Government Accountability Office announcing this week that an investigation of the purchases is “just getting underway.”
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/m … s_05012013
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Wed May 01, 2013 12:30 pm
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International News • Re: Sinclair: Day Of Financial Infamy As Cyprus Depositors F
Large Depositors In Cyprus Flushed
Posted April 29th, 2013 by Jim Sinclair & filed under General Editorial.
http://www.jsmineset.com/2013/04/29/lar … s-flushed/
My Dear Friends,
"The raid on uninsured Laiki depositors is expected to raise €4.2 billion, euro group chairman Jeroen Dijssebloem said.
Laiki will effectively be shuttered, with thousands of job losses. Officials said senior bondholders in Laiki would be wiped out and those in Bank of Cyprus would have to make a contribution – setting a precedent for the euro zone.
An EU spokesman said no across-the-board levy or tax would be imposed on deposits in Cypriot banks, although the hit on large account holders in the two biggest banks is likely to be far greater than initially planned"
News on Cyprus’ large depositor’s confiscation of funds is in an MSM black out for obvious reasons. Money knows what herculean event has occurred to large depositors in Cyprus.
A reporting black out will not make the history making event go away
Very temporary capital controls have historically gone on for significant periods. Capital controls and bail ins will grow and reach your home. If you do not exit the system, you will not be able to exit the system.
Respectfully,
Jim
Bank restrictions on capital ‘very temporary’ says Cyprus president
Step follows last-minute €10bn deal to avoid financial meltdown on island
Mon, Mar 25, 2013, 20:38
Cyprus is introducing "very temporary" restrictions on capital flows when banks reopen this week, the island’s president has said, seeking to reassure panicked Cypriots that a bailout deal struck overnight was in their best interests.
The step follows a last-ditch deal with international lenders on a €10 billion rescue plan to avoid economic meltdown, with Cyprus agreeing to close down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on big depositors.
Without an agreement, Cyprus had faced certain banking collapse today and potential exit from the European single currency. It still risks a run on banks when they reopen their doors this week. The two biggest institutions stay shut until Thursday, but the rest will be open from tomorrow.
"The agreement that we reached is difficult but, under the circumstances, the best that we could achieve," newly elected conservative head of state Nicos Anastasiades said in a televised address to the nation on his return from fraught negotiations with the European Union, European Central Bank andInternational Monetary Fund in Brussels.
He said the Cypriot central bank would implement capital controls on bank transactions, anticipating a run on deposits by Cypriots and foreigners fearing for the safety of their money.
But the president added: "I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed."
Many larger investors face steep losses they cannot avoid.
Backed by euro zone finance ministers, the bailout plan will spare the Mediterranean island a financial catastrophe by winding down the largely state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits of less than €100,000 to the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank", leaving problems behind in a "bad bank".
Deposits above €100,000 in both banks, which are not guaranteed by the state under EU law, will be frozen and used to resolve Laiki’s debts and recapitalise the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggest, through a deposit/equity conversion.
Bank restrictions on capital ‘very temporary’ says Cyprus president
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/ba … -1.1337832
Step follows last-minute €10bn deal to avoid financial meltdown on island
Cyprus is introducing "very temporary" restrictions on capital flows when banks reopen this week, the island’s president has said, seeking to reassure panicked Cypriots that a bailout deal struck overnight was in their best interests.
The step follows a last-ditch deal with international lenders on a €10 billion rescue plan to avoid economic meltdown, with Cyprus agreeing to close down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on big depositors.
Without an agreement, Cyprus had faced certain banking collapse today and potential exit from the European single currency. It still risks a run on banks when they reopen their doors this week. The two biggest institutions stay shut until Thursday, but the rest will be open from tomorrow.
Cyprus deal reached that will protect small depositors
Cypriots quietly await fate as negotiations on bailout terms continue with Brussels
AUDIO: Europe Correspondent, Suzanne Lynch on the bailout
Video: Lagarde details Cyprus bailout deal
The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content or availability of other websites.
"The agreement that we reached is difficult but, under the circumstances, the best that we could achieve," newly elected conservative head of state Nicos Anastasiades said in a televised address to the nation on his return from fraught negotiations with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund in Brussels.
He said the Cypriot central bank would implement capital controls on bank transactions, anticipating a run on deposits by Cypriots and foreigners fearing for the safety of their money.
But the president added: "I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed."
Many larger investors face steep losses they cannot avoid.
Backed by euro zone finance ministers, the bailout plan will spare the Mediterranean island a financial catastrophe by winding down the largely state-owned Popular Bank of Cyprus, also known as Laiki, and shifting deposits of less than €100,000 to the Bank of Cyprus to create a "good bank", leaving problems behind in a "bad bank".
Deposits above €100,000 in both banks, which are not guaranteed by the state under EU law, will be frozen and used to resolve Laiki’s debts and recapitalise the Bank of Cyprus, the island’s biggest, through a deposit/equity conversion.
Uninsured depositors
The raid on uninsured Laiki depositors is expected to raise €4.2 billion, euro group chairman Jeroen Dijssebloem said.
Laiki will effectively be shuttered, with thousands of job losses. Officials said senior bondholders in Laiki would be wiped out and those in Bank of Cyprus would have to make a contribution – setting a precedent for the euro zone.
An EU spokesman said no across-the-board levy or tax would be imposed on deposits in Cypriot banks, although the hit on large account holders in the two biggest banks is likely to be far greater than initially planned.
A first attempt at a deal last week collapsed when the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on all deposits.
The Central Bank of Cyprus said both Bank of Cyprus and Laiki would remain shut until Thursday, while all other lenders would reopen on Tuesday – just over a week after the government ordered them to close their doors to halt a run on deposits.
In return for the €10 billion package of rescue loans, Cyprus must drastically shrink its outsized banking sector, cut its budget, implement structural reforms and privatise state assets.
Cyprus deal reached that will protect small depositors
Cypriots quietly await fate as negotiations on bailout terms continue with Brussels
AUDIO: Europe Correspondent, Suzanne Lynch on the bailout
Video: Lagarde details Cyprus bailout deal
The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content or availability of other websites.
Cyprus may impose controls on the movement of capital but only for a temporary period of time, the European Commission said today.
"Any measures to restrict or limit freedom of movement may only be enacted exceptionally and temporarily and that is what has been requested by the Cypriot authorities," Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner responsible for the single market, had told a news conference in Brussels.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Cyprus’s recovery from its bailout and bank restructuring is uncertain and it is too early to say when economic growth will return.
"I am confident that the programme will work, but let’s be honest. At this moment, we cannot say exactly what the impact is going to be," Mr Barroso told a news conference today. "It will depend on the level of implementation and the commitment of Cyprus itself," he said.
Russian pesident Vladimir Putin earlier instructed his government to negotiate the restructuring of a Russian bailout loan to Cyprus, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The announcement signals Moscow’s support for the deal despite concern that Russian depositors in Cyprus could take losses as a result. Cyprus had requested an extension of an existing €2.5 billion Russian loan, and a reduction in the interest it charges to 2.5 per cent from 4.5 per cent. Talks last week failed to agree on a restructuring.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan welcomed the deal which he said protected small depositors and reaffirmed the position that all deposits in European banks up to €100,000 were guaranteed.
He said the deal had the unanimous support of the 17 euro zone countries.
The finance ministers accepted the plan reached in 10 hours of negotiations in Brussels between Cypriot officials and the troika.
“We believe that this will form a lasting, durable and fully financed solution,” said IMF chief Christine Lagarde.
Additional reporting Reuters
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Mon Apr 29, 2013 1:38 pm
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International News • Sinclair: Day Of Financial Infamy As Cyprus Depositors Flush
Sinclair: Day Of Financial Infamy As Cyprus Depositors Flushed
Today legendary trader Jim Sinclair told King World News that today is a day of financial infamy as Cyprus depositors have now officially been flushed. Sinclair also stated that history will show this day as being as serious as the flushing of Lehman Brothers. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say in this remarkable interview.
Eric King: “Jim, we now know the answer to the ‘Cyprus Solution.’”
Sinclair: “Yes, Cyprus depositors have now been flushed. The Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest bank said it has converted 37.5% of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into a Class A share, with an additional 22.5% held as a buffer for possible conversion in the future.
Another 30% will be temporarily frozen and held as a deposit. So the amount of money that has been taken from the Cyprus depositors is in all practicality almost their entire accounts. Major depositors funds have now been taken in grand style.
Depositors everywhere are now defined as lenders to the banks. Today is a day of financial infamy. History will see this event as serious as the flushing of Lehman Brothers….
“Lehman Brothers was flushed to create a flow of huge funds into the financial system.
The flushing of Cyprus was done to steal massive funds from depositors. The major percentage of their funds taken were replaced by worthless stock in a bankrupt bank. Up to now everything in Cyprus was speculation as no definitive action had taken place. Now it has.
Are you a depositor in your bank? Then know you are now lending your money to that bank with virtually no return. So the bank earns big money and you get none of it, but assume all of the risk. If the bank goes broke because of their criminal activities, you lose your money.
They’ve taken an accounting title of ‘unsecured creditor,’ and now converted that, in the elites’ best interest, to ‘lender,’ for which there is no supporting case law whatsoever. Get out of the system now or you will pay the penalty. Depositors everywhere will have their money stolen at some point.
Gold is for saving. Gold producers with low cost and low overhead are the only holders of the new supply of physical gold. The price of gold will not only reach our original target of $3,500, but it will greatly exceed that level as the fires that are burning in the financial world turn now into an inferno, but physical gold will allow you to survive the massive blaze and financial destruction.”
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Sun Apr 28, 2013 11:56 pm
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International News • Carbon bubble makes Australia’s coal industry ripe ‘for fin
Carbon bubble makes Australia’s coal industry ripe ‘for financial implosion’
Much of the nation’s coal reserves will be worthless if world’s governments fulfil pledge to cap emissions, warns report
Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 April 2013
Australia is already the globe’s biggest coal exporter. s
Australia’s huge coal industry is a speculative bubble ripe for financial implosion if the world’s governments fulfil their agreement to act on climate change, according to a new report. The warning that much of the nation’s coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon emission limits comes after banking giant Citi also warned Australian investors that fossil fuel companies could do little to avoid the future loss of value.
Australia is already the globe’s biggest coal exporter and "mega-mine" plans in Queensland for more extraction are identified as the world’s second biggest "carbon bomb" threatening runaway global warming.
"Investments in Australian coal rest on a speculative bubble of climate denial, indifference or dreaming," said John Connor, one of the new report’s authors and CEO of The Climate Institute, an independent research organisation based in Sydney. "Investors, governments and even some coal companies say they take climate change seriously, but this report shows they do not or are taking risky gambles."
James Leaton, at thinktank Carbon Tracker and also another of the report’s authors, said: "Investors need to challenge the assumption that coal demand will continue to rise in China and elsewhere, otherwise billions of dollars of taxpayer, superannuation and shareholder funds will be wasted in assets linked to unburnable carbon."
Carbon Tracker’s recent global report found that at least two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves will have to remain underground if the world is to meet existing internationally agreed targets to avoid the threshold for "dangerous" climate change. The new report shows Australian coal reserves owned by listed companies alone are equivalent to 25% of the global carbon budget for the fuel to 2050.
However, far from cutting back on exploration for new coal reserves, Australian listed companies spent AU$6bn on developing new deposits. If only half of potential future reserves were exploited, Australian coal would use up 75% of the global carbon budget for the fuel.
Earlier in April, Citi banking group issued a warning to investors in fossil fuel companies. "We see limited potential for engagement to alter the outcome in this case," concluded its report. "If the unburnable carbon [scenario] does occur – even with carbon capture and storage technology – it is difficult to see how the value of fossil fuel reserves can be maintained."
Leaton said China has indicated its coal use will peak in the next five years, but that this had not been priced by markets. "I don’t know why the market does not believe China. When it says it is going to do something, it usually does." Yet Australia is banking on selling coal to China: "That doesn’t add up."
The report, called "Australia’s carbon bubble", also warns that the nation’s politicians will have little control over events: "Tokyo and London have high exposure to Australian proven coal reserves. The decisions in overseas markets that will leave Australian assets stranded are beyond any Australian political control."
It also warned that as coal prices fell in future, Australia’s high costs of production leave its coal less competitive.
A separate report, also published on Monday, highlighted the opportunities available to Australia in joining other nations with big energy resources in transforming to a low-carbon economy.
"There are a lot of opportunities for Australia but the world is changing quickly and we need to be prepared," said Prof Tim Flannery, of the independent Climate Commission. "We are the 15th largest emitter in the world, larger than 180 other countries. We are more influential than most of us think."
"China is accelerating action. After years of strong growth in coal use, this has begun to level off. They have an impressive array of [climate] actions that will drive global momentum in the future," he said. "Renewable energy is surging globally with solar PV capacity increasing 42% and wind 21% in just one year. With so much global momentum this is clearly the beginning of the clean energy era."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 … l-industry
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Apr 29, 2013 12:18 am
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International News • Spain Loses Faith, But Rediscovers Reality
Spain Loses Faith, But Rediscovers Reality
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2013
Contributed by Don Quijones, a freelance writer and translator based in Barcelona, Spain. His blog, Raging Bull-Shit, is a modest attempt to challenge some of the wishful thinking and scrub away the lathers of soft soap peddled by our political and business leaders and their loyal mainstream media.
The reputation of the economics profession was dealt a heavy blow this week when it was discovered that much of the data used to support the findings of Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart’s 900-page book This Time It’s Different – an apologia for economic austerity that since its publication in 2009 had formed an essential intellectual basis for the Troika’s austerity drive — had been heavily manipulated. It was, as Heidi Moore wrote in The Guardian, a stark reminder of the fact that while economists might spit out cold, hard numbers, it doesn’t mean they produce the cold, hard truth.
Not that news of the scandal was enough to put off Mariano Rajoy’s government (admittedly, with the Troika’s gun cocked and pointed at its temple) from announcing a further round of austerity measures on Friday 26th April — just one day after yet another eruption of violent clashes between protestors and riot police in Madrid’s Plaza Neptuno.
The new reforms include a two-year extension to what was supposedly meant to be a temporary, short-term hike in sales tax as well as a further increase in taxes on businesses — measures which, as any self-respecting economist (of which there are admittedly few) would tell you, are not exactly going to help the nation’s struggling and debt-laden companies generate jobs for the more than six million unemployed.
Indeed, the new tax rise could not have come at a worst time, following hot on the heels of the worst quarter for Spanish business closures since the crisis began. And with companies’ tax burden set to rise further, it is a trend that seems likely to continue, if not accelerate — especially in light of the fact that the current government appears to have all but thrown in the towel on the economy, admitting that the recession will likely continue until 2016.
Crisis Obsession and Fatigue
But Spain’s problems are not only economic in nature — they are also psychological. For well over three years now “La crisis” has been the nation’s number one topic of conversation, dominating both elevator small talk and dinner-time debate.
In fact, you can bet what little remains of your life savings that up and down the country right now there are hundreds of thousands of Spaniards discussing how royally fu**ed (if you’ll excuse the pun) they are. Countless others meanwhile struggle to lift themselves out of the depression and uncomfortable numbness resulting from acute crisis fatigue.
Such a bipolar collective mood is hardly surprising. After all, few countries have fallen from grace in such spectacular fashion as modern-day Spain. To recap, in just the last three years alone:
The economy has entered terminal decline and, with it, many people’s job opportunities have gone permanently AWOL.
A ruthless program of public-spending cuts and privatisation has been rushed through into legislation against the explicit wishes of the people;
The country’s banks have intentionally robbed hundreds of thousands of their own customers of their life savings;
Its local, regional and national governments have proven to be dens of treasonous and woefully inept thieves and liars;
Its royal family, seemingly dissatisfied with its multi-million euro budget, has been caught embezzling funds from the public purse.
Even on the football field, one of the last remaining sources of national pride, the country’s fortunes have taken a dramatic turn for the worse following Barcelona and Real Madrid’s recent mauling at the hands (or should I say, feet) of Germany’s Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
But it’s not just national institutions that have lost credibility here in Spain. According to Eurobarometer’s latest survey on the levels of public trust in the EU, Spaniards are also fast losing faith in the European dream.
From Most Europhile to Most Euroskeptic in Five Short Years
While euroskepticism appears to be on the rise in all six of the countries surveyed (the U.K., Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Poland), it is Spain, once a bastion of pro-EU sentiment, that saw the most dramatic increase in public distrust in the EU, from 23 percent in 2007 to 72 percent today. In one of the most dramatic turnarounds this century — and one that merits far greater attention in the continent’s press — Spain is supposedly now more euroskeptic than even the U.K.
There can be no overstating the importance of such a sea change in public opinion. It is as if the youngest democracy in Western Europe has finally lost its youthful innocence. After the betrayal of so many hopes and promises, reality is finally dawning on the people that neither democracy nor EU membership are quite the panacea they were cracked up to be.
Indeed, in what must be a first, the staunchly pro-Europe El Pais published an article from the Screwdriver blog (in Spanish) that explores, in a balanced, mature, and non-alarmist way, the potential ramifications of Spain’s exit from the euro. The article’s author, Antonio Estella, an expert in European Union law, underscores the fact that since adopting the euro in 2001, Spain has become Europe’s most unequal country in terms of income distribution.
While potentially highly damaging in the short run, leaving the euro and reinstating the peseta is probably the Spanish economy’s only way out of its current predicament, the article concludes.
Not that Rajoy’s government seems remotely inclined to consider such a proposal. On the contrary, just two days before the publication of Estella’s article, Rajoy all but handed what remains of the country’s national independence on a plate to Brussels, saying that all EU countries must agree to give up some degree of sovereignty for the “greater good”.
As I wrote in my recent article “Europe’s Stark Choice: Revolution or Resignation“, the continued survival and expansion of the European superstate supersedes all other concerns in Europe, whether moral, political, social or economic.
But the eurocrats and their suppliant servants in national government may find it more difficult than they originally envisaged to bulldoze banking, fiscal and eventually political union into reality, especially with euroskeptic fever on the rise throughout the continent, including even in Germany, the ECB’s paymaster-in-chief.
Perhaps if it had shown itself just a little more sympathetic to the needs of the continent’s working and middle classes rather than favoring the interests of the “markets” and financial institutions at every turn, or, for that matter, perhaps if it had listened to the pained voice of the quiet majority rather than trampling all over democratic principles and conventions, then the EU might not be seeing the tide turn so quickly against it.
That said, the fact that growing ranks of Europeans are finally beginning to see through the EU’s cloak of utopian unity to its ruthless, heartless, technocratic core may well represent the last remaining glimmer of hope for real meaningful change in the fast-declining “old continent”. Contributed by Don Quijones.
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/201 … ality.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Apr 28, 2013 2:52 pm
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International News • Egyptians grab ancient land of the pharaohs to bury their
Egyptians grab ancient land of the pharaohs to bury their dead
Archaeologists fear for pyramid sites as illegal building gathers pace in wake of Arab spring
Patrick Kingsley in Dahshur
The Observer, Sunday 28 April 2013
An archaeologist inspects a new cemetery illegally built near the Black Pyramid at Dahshur.
In Manshiet Dahshur, 25 miles south of Cairo, the villagers recently extended the boundaries of the cemetery. For Ahmed Rageb, a carpenter who buried his cousin in the annexe, it was a logical decision. "We want to bury the dead," he said, strolling through the new cemetery after visiting his cousin’s tomb. "The old cemetery is full. And there is no other place to bury my family."
There is just one problem. The new tombs are perilously close to some of Egypt’s oldest: the pyramids of Dahshur, less famous than their larger cousins at Giza, but just as venerable. This is protected land, and no one is supposed to build here – yet more than 1,000 illegal tombs have appeared in the desert since January.
"What happened was crazy," said Mohamed Youssef, Dahshur’s chief archaeologist. "They came and took space for about 20 generations."
The tombs nestle in the dunes below the Red Pyramid, considered the pharaohs’ first successful attempt at a smooth-sided structure. To the south is the Bent Pyramid, named for its warped walls. In the east, nearer the Nile, lies the Black Pyramid – a collapsed colossus on which the villagers are most in danger of encroaching. This is their right, claimed Reda Dabus, a clerk worshipping at the mosque next to the cemetery. "All the people are born here," Dabus said. "They died here. They should have the right to be buried here." Inhabitable land is hard to come by in Egypt, where 99% of the population live on 5.5% of the territory.
But it is an argument disputed by local archaeologists, who say there is something darker afoot: looting. "Some of them have a real need for the tombs for their families," said Youssef, who said that the land had been designated as government property since the late 1970s. "But when you have 1,000 people, some of them will want to do illegal excavation."
Others agree. "They use the new tombs to hide what they are doing," explained Ramadan al-Qot, a site inspector who grew up in the village. Observers say the cemetery is the latest in a series of forbidden incursions that have markedly increased since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. More than 500 illegal excavations have taken place at Dahshur since 2011 – an increase mirrored at sites all over the country.
"Dahshur is just a single case study of what’s happening on every archaeological site in Egypt," said Monica Hanna, who campaigns for greater resources to be allocated to Egypt’s ancient sites. "It’s happened all around the Nile valley, in El Hiba, in Beni Suef. Everywhere."
In the months following Mubarak’s fall in spring 2011, Nigel Hetherington, a British archaeologist and film-maker, documented dozens of new illegal buildings on ancient sites between Cairo and Dahshur. "They were openly building," Hetherington said. "They had no fear of being filmed."
The situation is symptomatic of a deterioration in law and order since the fall of the Mubarak regime. Nationwide, the police, whose brutality was a major cause of the 2011 uprising, no longer had the inclination to patrol either the streets or sites such as Dahshur. "After the revolution," said Youssef, "the police would not do anything." This left the inspectors to fend for themselves.
"It’s very dangerous for us," said al-Qot, three of whose colleagues were hospitalised following a run-in with looters in December. "The thieves hide behind the tombs and shoot at us."
The retreat of the state is just one explanation for the rise in looting and land grabs. Locals say it is also related to the way that the 2011 uprising prompted many ordinary Egyptians to shed some of their instinctive fear of authority. "The situation changed because the people changed," said Youssef.
"That’s the reason for the building: the revolution," agreed Abdo Diab, a carpenter who has built a tomb at Dahshur. "All the people now, we are not afraid of the army or the police or any government."
"If we want something," said Dabus, "we do it."
At Dahshur, that is what has happened. In January, a dozen people who are said to have needed tombs for their relatives started building on restricted pyramid land. The site’s inspectors reported it to the police – but there was no response. "No one demolished their tombs because the government is so weak," said Youssef. "So the other people realised that there is no punishment."
Residents from other villages then heard about the free-for-all, and started building too. Then a building contractor allegedly claimed the land and started selling off small plots to those who agreed to pay him to build their tombs.
Soon there was a stampede, as no one wanted to be left out. "When one family built a tomb, the other families wanted new ones too," said Diab, who also admitted that he had no legal right to build.
But many villagers still differentiated between their actions and the raids organised by armed gangs equipped with expensive diggers. "Some people built tombs to steal archaeology, definitely," said 28-year-old Walid Ibrahim, picnicking on the boundary between the old and new cemeteries. "But all the old tombs are full and there’s no place to bury our new dead."
There have been suggestions that both the looting and the government’s failure to tackle it results from the rise of Islamists who are culturally opposed to Egypt’s heathen heritage. One Salafi (or ultra-conservative) preacher recently called for the destruction of the pyramids. "But that’s just one person," countered Hetherington. "There is some kind of undercurrent in this story [that this is] about Muslims against their foreign past. But it’s not. I’ve met Salafis here, and their views are not mine – but not one of them wanted to blow up the pyramid."
Hetherington argues that the illegal building stemmed from locals’ economic and social alienation from their ancient heritage. "All they are is a cash cow for tourists," said Hetherington of the pyramids. "And if you’re not in that business, where’s the benefit? In the past you might have got a spiritual value, because your grandmother was buried there, and you were going to be buried there, or because your mosque was in the temple, and you went to that mosque every day."
Not any more, locals said. "When I was born, my grandfather and grandmother said that our pharaohs built the pyramids – but that was all they told us," said Walid Ibrahim. "So many people don’t think about the pyramids. They haven’t any jobs. If the government gave them jobs, they would save the pyramids."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ap … rchaeology
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Apr 28, 2013 1:00 pm
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Enviromental News • The Deepwater Horizon Trial: A Headache for Obama?
April 27, 2013
The Deepwater Horizon Trial: A Headache for Obama?
By Bruce Thompson
Just over three years after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, Halliburton has finally decided to face the music and increase its reserves for payment of civil damages by $1 billion.
Things did not go well for them in the seven weeks of testimony just concluded in federal court in New Orleans. They were caught hiding samples of the exact cement mixture that failed, which they had been ordered by the court to preserve. They had to admit that the cement formulation used "had a low probability of success."
With Halliburton now more amenable to seeking a settlement and willing to provide cold hard cash, the prospects go way up for a settlement before the decision of the court is announced in a few months. BP’s expert witnesses also scored some major points against the federal government and Transocean. So the inclination by most of the parties to sweep this unfortunate episode down the memory hole has presumably gotten much stronger.
Here is a summary of the strategic situation for those who might have been inclined to fight on. There are only three defendants left: BP, Transocean, and Halliburton.
After withstanding three years of accusations, BP has now put forth some impressive expert witnesses for the defense. The defense always goes last, and BP saved their best for last. BP had been forthright early on that it bore much of the responsibility and very prominently created a $20-billion compensation fund way back in 2010. BP’s people also put forth the Bly Report detailing their understanding of the causes of the blowout. Before the trial began, BP pled guilty to 14 criminal charges and the payment of a $4-billion fine, the "largest criminal payment in U.S. history." It seems that BP got the message early: oil spills are unacceptable.
Transocean was more reluctant to accept any of the blame, especially in light of the indemnity clause in their contract with BP to serve as the latter’s drilling contractor. But Transocean also eventually fessed up with a detailed report of their perspective on the causes of the blowout. They pled guilty to a single count of violating the Clean Water Act and agreed to pay the second-largest fine ever, $400 million, and accept 5 years on probation. "The company also said it had paid more than $140 million in salaries and benefits, medical benefits and legal settlements since the accident." While it is not apparent to those not in the know, those sympathetic widows and orphans you saw on TV got multi-million-dollar settlements, paid for by Transocean.
Until this week, Halliburton has been the last holdout among the defendants. Now that Halliburton’s people are actively looking for a settlement, the question becomes whether the plaintiffs are ready to make a final deal.
The primary plaintiff is the Department of Justice (DoJ). And judging by their bluster, one might be inclined to think they would battle for every dime in fines. But their position for the second phase of the trial is weak. Until now, the DoJ has been on offense. The second phase of the trial will deal with the subsea intervention and spill containment effort. That was run by the National Incident Command under Admiral Thad Allen, with input from the Scientific Advisory team under Steven Chu and the Flow Rate Technical Group under Marcia McNutt (with clear links all the way to the White House). Remember President Obama holding forth at a press conference about how he had, based on the advice of his daughter Malia, ordered everyone to plug the damn hole while he thought about the issue night and day?
If there is one overriding imperative at the Obama White House, it is to never get caught bearing direct responsibility for anything unpopular. And an oil spill that the administration itself has estimated at 5 million barrels is indeed very, very unpopular. The president’s reputation for "leading from behind" has become firmly established as the conventional wisdom. Forcing the defendants to go to trial in the intervention and containment stage would put the onus squarely on the White House. As such, it is exactly the kind of news that you will not find in the media. How many stories have you seen about Phase One of this trial? It is not as if there was nothing newsworthy.
Here are a few bullet points about the news that’s not fit to print in the New York Times.
The blowout preventer was capable of successfully shutting in the well — and would have done so, if not for the maintenance failures of Transocean in allowing an old, out-of-date battery to go dead in one control pod and having two relays mis-wired in the other. The relays were wired in opposite polarity rather than working together. A simple analogy would be to consider the effect on a flashlight if you installed one battery right-side-up and the other upside-down, rather than both being right-side-up. It won’t work. When the explosions cut off the electrical and hydraulic connections to the blowout preventer, its automatic "deadman" function should have closed the blind shear ram without human intervention and sealed in the well. If not for these two maintenance deficiencies, there would have been no spill at all from the wellhead.
A BP expert witness, Andrew Mitchell, made the point that master of the Deepwater Horizon saw drilling mud raining down on the deck of his ship several minutes before the explosions. On his bridge was a control panel for the Emergency Disconnect System with a prominent "big red button." Had he recognized that his ship was in deadly peril and pushed the button before the explosion, the signal would have traveled down those electrical connections to the blowout preventer to separate the riser (and consequently the ship) from the wellhead, and the automatic Autoshear function would have activated the blind shear ram and shut in the well. How should he have known that the situation was already out of control? Because the operation they were just finishing was intended to "displace the riser" with seawater. According to the plan, the top of the drilling mud in the well should have been at a depth of 8,367 feet, and the oil and gas should have been below the bottom of the shoe track at over 18,000 feet. In actuality, there was mud spewing out the top of the well, and the oil and gas were already above the blowout preventer at a depth of 5,000 feet. The mud was more than 8,000 feet higher than where it was supposed to be, and the oil and gas was over 13,000 feet above where they were supposed to be. Transocean was in charge of well control, and their men in the drill shack were unreactive until it was much too late. They paid for their inattention with their lives.
The blind shear ram (BSR) was capable of cutting the drill pipe centered within it until the traveling block failed about 25 minutes after the first explosion due to the extreme heat of the fire. When this support holding up the drill pipe failed, the pipe had been firmly clamped in place by the pipe ram below the blind shear ram. The pipe ram took the weight of the drill string above it acting downward under the force of gravity. Less than a second later, the traveling block impacted the top end of the drill pipe with a massive hammer blow. Any carpenter who has ever bent a nail understands what happened then: the drill pipe bent against the inside of the cavity within the blowout preventer. The pipe was way off-center, and the blind shear ram could no longer make a clean cut. When this function was finally activated by an intervention with a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), mere hours before the rig sank on April 22, 2010, the BSR made a ragged cut and stopped short of the fully closed position. That caused it to leak until July 15, 2010. (See the full details here.)
There is plenty of blame to go around. Will the DoJ risk putting the government’s reputation on the line by persisting, or will they settle? If they do not choose to push this down the memory hole very soon, they will be facing the first criminal trials against BP employees Kurt Mix and David Rainey over the dispute about the size of the spill. BP has consistently argued that the government overestimated to flow. The DoJ tried to discredit these BP employees by bringing charges against them. Now Kurt Mix’s trial is due to start June 10, 2013. So the DoJ has only about seven weeks to make this go away before the tables get turned around. The spectacle of a BP employee being tried under criminal charges would be a media circus perfect for the 24/7 news cycle — except Mix’s attorney is loaded for bear!
The AP reports:
Mix’s lawyers also want copies of transcripts for the grand jury proceedings that produced a new indictment against their client on March 20. The new indictment added allegations that Mix deleted about 40 voicemails from a supervisor and roughly 15 voicemails from a BP contractor.
Stroz Friedberg LLC inspected Mix’s phone for the Justice Department but could recover only a handful of 346 voicemails that callers left between April 20, 2010 — the date of BP’s deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion — and Aug. 20, 2011.
Stroz Friedberg’s report demonstrates the farcical nature of the newly-minted allegation that Kurt Mix ‘corruptly’ deleted voicemails from his iPhone," Mix’s lawyers wrote. "Stroz Friedberg’s findings not only reveal a complete absence of evidence for the new voicemail-related allegations, but also illuminate the distinct possibility that the original and superseding indictments against Mix were the products of a structurally defective grand jury proceeding."
Mix’s attorneys accuse prosecutors of drafting the new indictment to imply "something nefarious" about the alleged voicemail deletions.
"The superseding indictment not only fails to mention that AT&T — and not Kurt Mix — might have been responsible for as many as 253 of the 346 voicemail deletions, but it also misleadingly suggests through use of the passive voice ("were deleted") that Kurt Mix was the culprit behind those deletions," they wrote.
So Obama faces a major dilemma: keep trying to collect big fines to fund the ravenous government maw, or announce a settlement late on a Friday afternoon and hope no one notices. The date of that Obama press conference, May 27, 2010, is not coincidentally exactly the same date on which Kurt Mix was busy trying to "plug the damn hole." It is the same day that the offshore drilling moratorium was written during the wee hours of the morning, while BP tried to stop the flow of oil until ordered to stop by Steven Chu. Does Obama really want the drilling moratorium back on the prime-time network news? He’ll get it, if he persists in trying to prosecute Kurt Mix.
There seems to be a lot of news that does not fit the administration/media template! But you can keep reading all about it here on The American Thinker.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/ … obama.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:18 pm
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International News • Luxembourg Is Not The Next Cyprus, Not Yet, But….
Luxembourg Is Not The Next Cyprus, Not Yet, But….
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013 AT 7:51PM
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with a population of just over half a million, smaller even than the other speck in the Eurozone, the Republic of Cyprus, ranks in the top three worldwide in per-capita GDP. In a Eurozone wealth survey, it had the highest average household wealth – €710,100. Only Cyprus, a former off-shore banking center in the Eurozone, came close. Yet Luxembourg is threatened with ruin.
It has 141 banks – bank companies, not ATMs. One bank per 3,808 people. Most of them do private banking. The financial sector added 38% to GDP in 2010 and contributed 30% to the country’s tax revenues, according to the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL). All due to bank secrecy and tax laws. But suddenly, after Cyprus had been massacred, Luxembourg buckled.
With the big German guns, and the smaller guns from other nations, swinging in its direction, Luxembourg agreed to participate in an international automatic data-sharing arrangement that would send banking data of foreign clients to their countries, starting in 2015. Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, somewhat defensively, proclaimed that lifting bank secrecy wasn’t such a big deal, that Luxembourg didn’t live from tax evasion. For the banks, the “lights won’t go out in 2015,” he said.
During the entire Eurozone bailout debacle that he presided over until February as President of the Eurogroup, he’d proven to be time and again an inveterate optimist.
“It’s expected that only 60 to 70 banks will survive in the coming years,” declared Alain Steichen, a prominent Luxembourgian tax lawyer, at a conference about the consequences of the data-sharing agreement. He should know. Per his online profile, he “assisted Thomson in the merger acquisition of Reuters in order to form Thomson Reuters, with the group’s main holding location being Luxembourg.” He also “assisted Chase Manhattan in the merger acquisition of JP Morgan in order to form their main holding company in Luxembourg.” Yup, there are a lot of benefits to doing business through Luxembourg.
Combine bank secrecy with nominee corporations to get a particularly juicy cocktail. An entire industry of “fiduciaries” has formed around the banks for that purpose. These accounting, audit, and law firms set up and maintain tax-advantaged nominee corporations, the infamous mailbox companies, whose directors and top executives are principals of the fiduciary firm. The client and the source of money remain anonymous to the outside world. A perfect setup for money laundering. Because the bank is doing business with a Luxembourg mailbox company, not a foreigner, and because the signatories are pillars of Luxembourg’s society, the setup is impervious to the automatic data-sharing arrangement. But now mailbox companies too are under attack, not only in Europe, but also in the US Congress.
“I expect a serious change of the banking landscape because there will be customer withdrawals,” Alain Steichen explained. Some banks, he said, “would lose the critical mass needed to survive.”
The private banks he was talking about managed €300 billion in assets, generated €3.14 billion in revenues, and contributed €503 million in taxes, according to the ABBL. They employ over 10,000 people directly and indirectly. Of the assets under management, 19% are from Luxembourg, the rest from other countries. Half of that system would disappear; the survivors would have to shrink.
“A large part of the clients of the Luxembourgian banks have undeclared money,” Steichen pointed out. They wouldn’t have a lot of options other than closing their accounts in Luxembourg, he said. They might repatriate their funds – and pay fees, taxes, and penalties – or transfer their funds to Singapore, Monaco, or other murky banking centers. Either way, these assets would leave Luxembourg. Their power to generate income, jobs, and tax revenues would evaporate.
This “undeclared money” has been called “black money” in the battle over Cyprus, much of it from Russians. Northern Europe revolted against bailing out mailbox companies and their black-money bank accounts. While they were at it, Northern Europe, including France in this case, shut down the whole offshore machine, crippled the Cypriot economy, smashed its largest source of income and wealth, and demolished its business model. Encouraged by success, Northern Europe, now including the UK, swiveled its guns in direction of Luxembourg.
Luxembourg was horrified. There were too many parallels between it and Cyprus – the mailbox companies, foreign black money, a bloated financial sector, high household wealth…. It was the era of austerity when pensions, wages, and social services were on the chopping block in other countries. Taxes were being jacked up, as in France, to an absurd degree. Belts were being tightened around the poor. So, tax evasion by the rich and not so rich has become an obvious target. Governments would crack down, not on their own tax dodgers, but more conveniently on countries whose business it was to help them.
With 38% of GDP depending on the financial sector, Luxembourg could not risk a sudden “transition” to a new business model, à la Cyprus. Some of the banks could collapse in the process. It would cause a depression and shred the country’s wealth. Instead, Luxembourg would cooperate, in return for a gradual transition, some loopholes, and a little wiggle room, knowing that the good times were over, and that on the other end of the spectrum, there’d be the Cypriot scenario.
Austerity in Spain succeeded in trimming the bloated government sector. But instead of picking up the slack, the private sector destroyed jobs almost four times faster! The hope is that this fiasco will finally reverse course, that something will click and start a virtuous cycle before the unspeakable happens. But so far, it has relentlessly gotten worse.
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/201 … t-but.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:17 am
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International News • Is China already in a hyperinflation?
Is China already in a hyperinflation?
Posted on 22 April 2013
Visitors to China these days cannot fail to notice that prices in the local shops for most goods are actually significantly higher than they would pay in the US or Europe. Food prices have doubled in three years. Apartments cost 20 times annual salaries in the big cities.
Has China already experienced a hyperinflation? The money printing of four years ago during the global financial crisis, equivalent to half-a-year of GDP has come back to haunt the nation with a vengeance.
Stimulus side-effects?
In the provincial city of Xian ArabianMoney visited an average department store and found Clarks shoes – made in China but a UK brand – selling for $220 a pair against $80 in Britain. This was far from an isolated example.
We noted locally-branded short dresses cost about $500 each. That would buy you a good brand in the West End of London. Our guide told us that locals like to go to Hong Kong to shop whenever possible because prices are so high.
They have faced the same hyperinflation in ordinary food items like pork or fresh vegetables. But the hyperinflation has been most notable in house prices. Around $210,000 for a 140-square-metre, three-bedroom apartment in Xian might be less than half the cost iof Shanghai, but then the average salary is less than $4,000 per annum.
People who could afford to buy on a mortgage in 2008 could not afford it now. Rents have also soared through the roof though not by the same amount. Yields of less than two per cent on property are tiny compared to 3.2 per cent paid on cash deposits by Chinese banks.
Indeed, salaries have risen by at most five per cent per annum, so the squeeze on the local economy has been huge. Only the wealth effect has kept spending up among house owners who feel much richer after house price rises and spend all their income.
Bubble economy?
Classic hyperinflation economies create a bubble that then collapses. We could see in Xian that most of the city’s massive construction sites for apartment blocks are at a standstill.
The market for new apartments has stalled. People cannot afford them so completed apartments are left empty and then the developers run out of money and stop building.
This is what happens with market forces eventually take over in a hyperinflation. Then you have the construction workers with no income and in China there is virtually no social security. Jobless workers do not spend and you get a downward spiral in the local economy.
So why are shop prices so high in China and not yet in the West? Perhaps they are subsidizing exports by charging more at home. If so this is madness because local people are not buying now except when they really have to.
Empty shops
The shops are struggling to find customers, just like the newly built apartments. The luxury stores of Beijng also looked very short of customers to us. These used to be the shops with the largest sales volumes in the world.
That’s going to squeeze shop profits. Xian is also a tourism hot spot with its famous teracotta warriors. But local tourism is also 20 per cent down on last year, and the prices they now try to charge for local products and souvenirs are ridiculous to most visitors.
Hyperinflation usually ends with a nasty crash, and China now appears close to skirting with that fate. You simply have to look at the prices in the local shops to work this out.
http://www.arabianmoney.net/banking-fin … inflation/
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:28 pm
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