Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1188
May 1, 2017
Economic Reality: Bottom 50% of Americans No Longer Matter
*
*
Despite all the corporate rhetoric about economic recovery, half of all Americans are one paycheck away from homelessness.
The Fed likes to brag about the “We saved the world” recovery.
However, the unfortunate truth of the matter is a record Half of American Families Live Paycheck to Paycheck.
Does it Matter? Let’s investigate.
View original post 604 more words
The 1972 US Coup Against Australia
Hot Money and the Politics of Debt
RT Naylor
McGill-Queens University Press (2004)
Book Review
Hot Money is about the trillions of dollars of global financial activity that is never recorded in official economic statistics. Corporate money laundering of illegal narcotics profits is the form of “hot money” that gets the most publicity. However according to Naylor, it accounts for a relatively small proportion of “hot money” percolating through offshore banks and dummy corporations.
Most “hot money” starts out as funds generated via “legitimate” business which rich elites sebd offshore to avoid taxes or in anticipation of economic calamity or regime change. All the world’s most ruthless dictators stashed funds in Swiss banks or similar financial havens prior to being deposed.
A sizeable chunk of hot money is generated from other illegal enterprises, such as gun running, illegal arms deals, prostitution, phony charities and religious groups (eg Reverend Moon’s Unification Church and L Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology) and government agencies (eg CIA) who use “hot money” to finance coups and insurgencies.
For me, the high point of Hot Money is the excellent history Naylor provides of the CIA role in the world heroin and cocaine trade, especially their move to make Afghanistan the major global supplier of heroin.
Nalylor also provides a detailed history about the role of the Vatican Bank as a “hot money” center, the rise and fall of Propaganda Due (P2), a secret collaboration between the CIA, Mafia and right wing Masonic lodges that infiltrated all aspects of Italian public life in the 1970s; the role of Nazi war criminals Klaus Barbie and Josef Mengele in setting up Latin American death squads and cocaine networks; the rise and fall of the two biggest CIA banks, Australia’s Nugan Hand Bank and the Bank of Commerce and Credit International; and the importance of “hot money” in the Iran Contra scandal, in which the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iran to finance the Contra war against Nicaragua.
The most shocking chapter describes the role of the Nugan Hand Bank in funding a bloodless coup US Naval Intelligence carried out against Australia in 1972 – to remove a prime minister whose political views were inconsistent with US interests. Most Americans are totally unaware of this heinous attack against a close US ally. I’ve only learned of it since moving to New Zealand (Australia is New Zealand’s closest neighbor).
April 30, 2017
Fuck Work!
*
*
A man after my own heart. Give us back the land you stole from us and we’ll look after ourselves – or if you stole us (as in the case of African Americans) the 40 acres and a mule you promised us.
James Livingston says “fuck work”! That was the original title of the book that now appears as No More Work: Why Full Employment Is A Bad Idea (2016).
For centuries we have believed that work is where we build character, and that the labor market allocates incomes more or less rationally. These beliefs have become delusions. What then? Why do we hold fast to full employment as the cure for what ails us, and retain faith in the labor market’s efficiencies?
Livingston is Professor of History at Rutgers., and delivered this lecture at the University of Pittsburgh on March 18, 2017 as part of boundary 2’s conference, “Neoliberalism, Its Ontology and Genealogy”:
As More Americans Quit Paying Their Car Loans Wall Street Starts to Worry
*
*
The car loan market is replicating the 2008 housing crash. As cars lose their value, their owners quit paying their bank loans. Car loans, home loans, student loans are all banking rackets. Good to see so many Americans waking up.
(Source: www.businessinsider.sg)
Wall Street is starting to worry about the auto loan market.
Fitch, Moody’s, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho and Evercore ISI have all published research on the market in the past few days, and there’s a recurring theme: It’s not looking good. There could be wide-ranging consequences, with automakers, the economy, consumers and one corner of the bond market all potentially taking a hit.
The increased interest in the auto loan market seems to be based on commentary from Ally Financial, weak guidance from Ford, and what Evercore ISI called “a splurge in incentive spending.” Here’s what you need to know:
To the charts:
Fitch: “Deteriorating credit performance will be more acute in the subprime segment.”
The 60+ day delinquency rate for subprime is at the highest in at least seven years, according to Fitch.
Previously, Steven Ricchiuto, Mizuho’s chief US economist, highlighted a jump in losses on subprime…
View original post 909 more words
Concerning Study Shows Roundup Harms Unborn Children
By Julie Fidler | Natural Society
At a children’s health conference earlier this month, the results of a study were presented which show that glyphosate, the main component in the Monsanto herbicide, RoundUp, is detected in pregnant women and could lead to adverse outcomes, including shorter gestation times and lower birth weights. The news comes just weeks after the USDA scrapped plans to start testing food for glyphosate.
For the study, researchers tested and tracked 69 pregnant women and found that the presence of glyphosate levels in the women’s bodily fluids correlated with unfavorable birth outcomes.
The study, which is still in the preliminary stages, is a project of the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN), which is studying the effects of the chemical on reproductive and children’s health amid rising herbicide use in the Midwest.
Paul Winchester, M.D., member of the research team involved with this study, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Franciscan St. Francis Health system and professor of clinical pediatrics at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, Indiana, said glyphosate exposure in pregnant women is a “huge issue,” adding:
“Everyone should be concerned about this.”
Concerning Findings of the Study
Preliminary work found glyphosate in the urine of 91% – 63 out of 69 – women receiving prenatal care through an Indiana obstetric practice. The data, collected over 2 years, from 2015-2016, revealed that women with high levels of glyphosate in their bodies had significantly shorter pregnancies, and gave birth to babies with lower adjusted birth weights.
[image error]
Source: Huffington Post
[image error]
Source: Huffington Post
Both premature delivery and low birth weight are considered risk factors for numerous health and/or neurodevelopmental problems throughout a person’s life.
Read: Study Finds Glyphosate, Other Toxins in 100% of Pregnant Women and Fetuses
The researchers found that women living in rural areas had higher mean glyphosate levels than women living in urban and suburban regions. This suggests that proximity to corn and soybean fields that are heavily treated with glyphosate is a route of exposure for these women.Corn and soybeans have been genetically modified to withstand glyphosate spraying. The weed killer is also used on wheat, oats, and other non-genetically modified crops shortly before harvest, leaving behind residues in grain-based foods.
Glyphosate use has risen sharply over the past 20 years. In 2016, a landmark reported listed the chemical as the most widely used herbicide in history.
Winchester says he was surprised to see such a high percentage of pregnant women with detectable glyphosate in their urine. He also says much more research on the weed killer is needed, and more data is needed on levels of exposure through food.He and other researchers are calling on the CDC to start biomonitoring glyphosate and its main metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). The agency currently tracks levels of other pesticides and chemicals in urine and blood.
Winchester says: “Is this level of exposure safe or not? We’ve been told it is, but exposures haven’t been measured. It’s mind-boggling.”
Source: Concerning Study Shows Glyphosate Herbicide Harms Unborn Children
April 29, 2017
Scientists Find Toxic Chemicals In Name Brand Lipstick & Other Cosmetic Products
*
*
A study released by the University of California, Berkeley (UBC) School of Public health has found many conventional lipstick products to contain dangerously high levels of aluminum, cadmium, lead, and other toxins. Is beauty worth dying for?
A study released by the University of California, Berkeley (UBC) School of Public health has found many conventional lipstick products to contain dangerously high levels of aluminum, cadmium, lead, and other toxins. Researchers tested over 30 popular lipstick products and found this to be the case. The study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Even women using minimal amounts of product still increase their risk of developing harmful health conditions like nerve damage and cancer by an alarming amount.
According to the study:
Most of the tested lip products contained high concentrations of titanium and aluminum. All examined products had detectable manganese. Lead was detected in 24 products (75%), with an average concentration of 0.36 ± 0.39 ppm, including one sample with 1.32 ppm. When used at the estimated average daily rate, estimated intakes were > 20% of ADIs derived for aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese…
Opinion Polls as Disinformation
*
*
Opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion, not for measuring it. Most pollsters don’t even bother to survey cellphone only households (comprising a large percentage of poor people, minorities and young people under 40). Those that do rely on biased pro-business cellphone numbers. See The Tyranny of Opinion Polls
The Mail on Sunday columnist, christian and Burkean Conservative, Peter Hitchens, has said:
“Opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion, not a device for measuring it. Crack that, and it all makes sense.”
I don’t agree with Hitchens on much, but he is right about this.
In his book The Broken Compass, Hitchens informs us that opinion polls are actually a device for influencing public opinion. He says that the establishment and the media are responsible for this manipulation, based on the misuse of statistics. The overall purpose is to “bring about the thing it claims is already happening”.
The author cites contemporary examples of the media attacking Gordon Brown and the “predicted” win of the Conservative Party at the 2010 general election, although Hitchens also described Brown, as a “dismal Marxoid“. Hitchens’ comments are based on his time as a reporter at…
View original post 3,580 more words
The Robert Kennedy Assassination: Why the Official Story is a Fake
The Assassination of Robert Kennedy
Christopher Plumley (1992)
Film Review
This classic documentary from 1992 neatly summarizes a reasonably ironclad case that a second gunman, not Sirhan Sirhan, shot and killed Robert Kennedy in June 1968. It also reveals how the Los Angeles police (LAPD) systematically destroyed and suppressed evidence pointing to the true killer.
Filmmaker Christopher Plumley begins with the forensic and autopsy evidence. The latter shows clearly that the bullet killing Kennedy came from immediately (2-3 inches) behind, whereas Sirhan was in front of him. According to 76 eyewitnesses he was never closer than three feet to Kennedy. At the time if Sirhan’s, trial there were approximately 1,000 photos of the shooting, which the LAPD subsequently destroyed in a hospital incinerator.
Too Many Bullets
The “official” LAPD crime scene reconstruction shows eight bullets (Sirhan’s gun only held eight) hitting Kennedy three times and wounding five other victims. Both the FBI and the LAPD crime scene officer disputed the official reconstruction, based on eyewitness testimony, the autopsy report and bullet holes in the woodwork of the Ambassador Hotel pantry showing there had to be at least 12 bullets.
The autopsy alone proves Sirhan couldn’t have been the assassin. Instead of challenging the autopsy evidence at trial, his defense attorney (who seems to have been party to the conspiracy) advised him to plead diminished responsibility. To this day, Sirhan maintains he has no recollection whatsoever of the shooting.Neither the defense nor the prosecution presented any eyewitness testimony, which clearly would have exonerated the supposed deranged lone gunman.
Witness Coercion
LAPD browbeat and threatened several eyewitnesses who saw Sirhan together with another man and a woman in a polka dot dress. According to at least one witness, the woman claimed responsibility for the shooting as the couple fled the crime scene. Plumley plays a choice selection of a recorded polygraph examination of an ex-CIA polygraph specialist emotionally abusing her – as he tries to coerce her into change her story.
The CIA’s Project Artichoke
The most damaging evidence against Sirhan was a notebook in which he repeatedly scribbled nonsensical threats about killing Kennedy. The last ten minutes of the film looks at declassified evidence about the CIA’s Project Artichoke, a top secret program in which robot assassins were hypno-programed to commit murder and have no subsequent recollection of their actions.
This section features a 1974 audiotape made by Dr William Bryan Jr, who reportedly bragged about being the hypnotist who hypno-programed Sirhan. The psychologist who examined Sirhan in prison confirmed he had been hypno-programed. The latter was fired after seeking permission to deprogram him.
April 28, 2017
Will Trump Release the Missing JFK Files?
*
*
Under the deadline set by a 1992 law, Trump has six months left to decide whether he will block the release of an estimated 3,600 files related to the assassination that are still under seal at the Archives. From what is known of the JFK documents, most come from the CIA and FBI, and a number may help resolve lingering questions about whether those agencies participated in a conspiracy to murder Kennedy.
Unless the president intervenes, we’ll soon know more secrets about the Kennedy assassination
ed note–Please note a few passages from the piece–
‘… Trump White House is acknowledging that it is focused on the issue…’
‘Under the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, the library of documents about Kennedy’s death must be made public in full by the deadline of this October 26, the law’s 25th anniversary, unless Trump decides otherwise. It is his decision alone…’
‘Other documents are known to identify, by name, foreign spies who had previously been granted anonymity for information about Oswald and the assassination…’
Of the many trump cards which the president now possesses in putting pressure on Judea, Inc, this one is without a doubt one of the biggest, overshadowed and outdone only by Israel’s involvement in 9/11, and all can rest assured that in some fashion, Trump and his peeps are busy at…
View original post 1,778 more words
Russian Environmental NGOs: An Endangered Species
*
*
Russia’s ongoing persecution of environmental groups (seemingly linked to the country’s heavy reliance on oil and gas mining) continues to concern global sustainability advocates.
From Human Rights Watch:
“JANUARY 18, 2017 12:22PM EST Dispatches
Russian Environment NGOs: An Endangered Species
Environmental Rights Center Labeled “Foreign Agent”
by Anastasia Ovsyannikova, Natalia Estemirova fellow
2017, officially designated as Russia’s “Year of Ecology,”[1] is off to a disastrous start. On January 16, the authorities labeled one of the country’s most prominent environmental groups, Bellona-St. Petersburg, a “foreign agent organization.”
At the end of 2016, the Ministry of Justice conducted an unscheduled audit of Bellona, and although the group has not yet received the official result of that audit, Bellona-St. Petersburg has been added to Russia’s growing list of “foreign agents.”[2] Since 2012, the Russian government has used its “foreign agents” law to demonize independent groups that accept foreign funding and carry out public advocacy, especially those that challenge government policies and actions. In 2013, the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s Office conducted a joint…
View original post 279 more words
The Most Revolutionary Act
- Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's profile
- 11 followers
![[image error]](https://stuartbramhall.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/hot-money.jpg){kind=link}