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Yeah ....I'm one of those who got their proxy statements very late last year. Thank you E*Trade.
oh etrade is up to their knickers in JBII *markers*
zero doubts ..
U.S. regulator probing E*Trade's customer order-routing practices
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-regulator-probing-e-trades-231025919.html
(btw .. as i noted in the prior post) take out the word *options*
and that is exactly what is *on tap* re: the poorly watched
heavily manipulated OTC
===
4kids
all jmo
Holy Shit!.....just read more of that......unfreaking believable.......z
PS..And how much of this is going on with JBII?
exactly .. that is why the dolts (SEC & FINRA)
are now hoisted by their own petard because
they are trying to *clean* up the filth while
not *spooking* retail (as if 2001 and 2008
were 5 decades in the past not mere years)
and pay homage to their masters (wall street)
>> allowing the proverbial rug to be swept under
not sure if you caught this little tidbit
but as i've consistently noted via the crooks and cons
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90966201
2 down >> 2 to go .. guess who no 4 is ;)
4kids
all jmo
Wow. Corruption in High Places in AMERIKA???....Who woulda thought.......lmaooooooooooooo........z
An interesting post by an interesting poster:
Stock market Manipulation and Fraud:
(circa 2008)
Well, this isn't really a FAQ page, but it is close to it.
Here are a series of bullet points that highlight everything you need to know about the current crisis, in "elevator pitch" format:
• Wall Street has a colorful history of institutionally-condoned stock manipulation and fraud.
• Stock manipulation was not illegal until the introduction of the SEC in 1934.
• Joe Kennedy, the first SEC Chairman (and father of JFK) made his fortune running stock manipulation "pools" on Wall Street.
• The head of the NYSE, who argued successfully against any meaningful regulation and oversight of Wall Street participants (brokers) by the SEC (due to their integrity and high moral fiber), and introduced the notion of self-regulation on the "honor" system (still in place today), was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in Sing-Sing for embezzling client accounts - including a fund in his care set up for orphans.
• The SEC originally was envisioned to have prosecution power.
• The final bill giving birth to the SEC was so anemic and watered-down that it was chastised as nonsense when it was passed, and it severely constrained the new Commission, and limited the SEC's power to filing civil suits. Virtually all the rules with Congressional teeth were stripped out of the bill, at Wall Street's behest. That state of affairs continues to this day.
• The SEC was never intended to police Wall Street and ensure a level and fair playing field – Roosevelt created it to, "Restore investor confidence in the market" after the 1929 and 1932 crashes – not to ensure there was any good reason to have confidence.
• The SEC's track record of action against Wall Street players is worse than abysmal.
• Broker/dealers have transitioned from owing their clients a fiduciary obligation of safekeeping, to a "customer" relationship, that is essentially adversarial – caveat emptor being the rule for customers.
• As commissions have dwindled to nothing (due to the advent of discount brokers, following deregulation) Wall Street is now beholden to the large money movers for their income, and stock lending is one of their biggest profit centers.
• Stock lending is exclusively an activity used by short sellers, who must borrow stock before selling it.
• Short selling is a bet on stock price declines. The short seller borrows stock, and then sells that borrowed stock, hoping to buy it back at a lower price later, when he returns it to the lender.
• Illegal "naked short selling" involves placing a sales transaction, but not borrowing the stock, and simply failing to deliver it on delivery day. It is also called "failing to deliver" or FTD – or delivery failure.
• Delivery failure is a significant problem nowadays, as it can be used to run stock prices down in a manipulative manner. Delivery failure in any other industry is called fraud. Hedge funds are the biggest culprits in this illegal trading strategy, with broker/dealers right behind them in the culpability queue.
• Hedge funds are now the largest players in the US equities markets, representing the majority of trading, with almost $2 trillion under management.
• Hedge funds are large, virtually unregulated pools of anonymous money, used to invest in any way the operator sees fit.
• Prime brokers allow their hedge fund customers leverage on their assets, meaning that for every dollar of asset, they could easily hold $10 of short positions.
• This over-leverage presents a systemic risk should positions in several larger funds go the wrong way, as there isn't enough collateral to cover the domino effect of multiple positions being forced to cover.
• This over-leverage creates an environment where the brokers are now pregnant with their hedge fund customers' liabilities, and have a vested interest in seeing depressed stock prices remain depressed – if the stocks go up, the hedge funds could easily fail, and the brokers are on the hook to buy-in and deliver the stock owed by the funds – resulting in brokerage failures.
• The DTCC is ultimately at risk for this domino effect, as brokerages fail.
• The DTCC is owned by the brokers, thus is the brokers.
• The DTCC processes over $1.2 quadrillion (million trillion) every year, and owns most of the stock American investors hold in their accounts - but most of the country has never heard of the company. The total GNP of the planet is about $20 trillion per year.
• 1% of all trades in dollar volume fail to settle (be delivered) every day, per the SEC.
• $130 billion to $150 billion of equities trade every day.
• $2 trillion of total trades are processed by the DTCC every day, including bonds.
• The SEC does not qualify whether they refer to total trades, or total equities, when referring to 1% failing to settle.
• The SEC keeps the total dollar value of trades that have failed to be delivered secret.
• The Securities Industry Association publishes a spreadsheet that tallies the financial position of all NYSE member firms, and that spreadsheet shows $63 billion plus delivery and receipt failures as of the final day of Q2, 2006, just for those firms. Lines 69 and 103.
• The DTCC claims delivery and receipt failures are a rolling $6 billion per day.
• The disconnect in the numbers is CNS netting, wherein all fails are netted against all shares held long by the brokers, effectively concealing 90+% of the problem once netting is through.
• The $63 billion number doesn't include any of the massive international clearing firms. And that number is after pre-CNS netting, where the day's buys are used to offset the day's sells (even naked sells) at the broker and clearing house level, before reporting to the SIA, and before going into the CNS netting system.
• Of the $130 to $160 billion per day that trades in stock, per the DTCC, 96% is handled by CNS netting. This is consistent with the disconnect in the $6 billion and the $63+ billion numbers. 96% is handled by netting, which means 4% isn't. 4% of $130 billion is $5.2 billion not handled by CNS netting. Of that $5.2 billion, $2.1 billion fails. $1.1 billion of the fails are accommodated by the stock borrow program. $1 billion isn't, and goes onto the $6 billion post netting failure pile.
• $5.2 billion per day aren't handled by CNS netting. $2.1 billion fail. That is 40% of the trades, fail. $130 billion to $160 billion stock trades daily. $63 billion fails just in NYSE firms. That is around 40%.
• The SEC insists that the failure issue isn't a big problem. So does the DTCC. So does Wall Street. None of these entities have commented on the SIA spreadsheet, nor has the NY financial press. Not one comment. None.
• $63 billion is a big problem. That is a mark-to-market number, where yesterday's $20 stock is today $1, thus yesterday's $20 billion problem is now valued as a $1 billion problem. That means the actual true value of the problem is likely 10-20 times larger.
• $630 billion to $1.2 trillion is a very big problem. Even by NY standards.
• The SEC "grandfathered" all failed to deliver trades prior to January, 2005, effectively pardoning all those trades (for which money was paid but no stock ever delivered), from ever being required to deliver. This amounts to allowing those that violated delivery rules to keep the money from their illegal conduct.
• The SEC keeps the number of shares grandfathered, as well as the dollar amount, secret, for fear of creating market disrupting "volatility".
• The above numbers do not take into account the large number of undelivered trades that are handled "Ex-Clearing" – a way of handling delivery outside the system. Nor do they take into account pre-CNS netting, nor international clearing house fails.
• Many securities scholars believe the "Ex-Clearing" failure problem is 10 times larger than the in-system problem the above numbers represent.
• Many investors that think they have "shares" in their brokerage accounts, don't. They have "markers" that have no underlying share to validate them. Some call these "counterfeit shares", with good reason. The technical term is "Securities Entitlement."
• UCC8 mandates that all Securities Entitlements have a genuine share on deposit at the DTC, or in the broker's possession, for each Securities Entitlement. That rule is ignored by the SEC and Wall Street.
• The DTCC, via Cede & Co., is the registered owner of all shares held in "Street Name," which are all shares in margin accounts.
• Margin accounts represent the bulk of independent investor account types.
• Registered owners are free to use their "property" as collateral for loans or debt.
• It is unknown what, if any, loans or debts are collateralized by the stock "owned" by the DTCC.
• The DTCC's "Stock Borrow Program" lends shares to be delivered to buyers, if sellers fail to deliver.
• The Stock Borrow Program is operated on the honor system, and is anonymous.
• It allows one genuine share to be lent multiple times, leaving a string of markers/IOUs in the share's wake.
• This creates a systemic risk for the stock market, as more markers are in investor accounts, falsely represented as shares, than shares actually authorized by the companies.
• These markers are freely traded and treated by the system as real, resulting in a large secondary market of counterfeit shares – resulting in depressed stock prices.
• With paper certificates being eliminated – by the DTCC – there is no way to confirm that a share is genuine, versus a bogus marker.
• There is nothing to stop your broker from taking your money, and merely representing to you that you bought shares, without ever actually buying them. You have no way of knowing the difference, barring demanding paper certificates for your property.
• Only a handful of people on the planet understand all this.
• In the end, it is simple – Wall Street is printing shares electronically, investors are paying real money for those bogus shares, and the whole thing is predicated on the idea that few will ever understand what is being done, or bother to check.
• This represents a hidden tax on investors and the economy.
• It is, for the most part, illegal.
• It is being kept secret by the DTCC and the SEC, who are terrified of systemic collapse, and a complete loss of investor confidence, should all the facts become known.
• All the facts are becoming known.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=33434310
thx to alanc for porting that post 6 years on ..
===
4kids
all jmo
TBS Tip: Fight Back:
TBS: sec and fbi CREATE 'criminals' so they can prosecute them.....Our trusted public servants hard at work....nuts:
Looks like the sec and fbi likes to CREATE this bullshit. They obviously don't want to prosecute the REAL market maker/hedgefund/bear raiding crew CRIMINALS.....so they stay busy CREATING them.....lol....: VHGI
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2013/comp-pr2013-155-martin.pdf
3. Unbeknownst to Defendants, the purported buying group was a creation of
the FBI, and the corrupt promoter was a witness cooperating with the FBI.
19. On October 25, 20II, the FBI purchased 80,000 shares ofVHGI Holdings
on the open market for a total cost of approximately $8,325.
z
Collective GOVERNMENT OWNS IT "ALL" BY INVESTMENT
Now the Key Question is: Do you own Government?
Or, does Government own you?
How many governments exist in the United States?
(City; County; School District; Enterprise Authority; State University; Gov Pension; Self Insurannce; Investment Pool; Self-Debt Funding )
As of 2007 TOTAL "Local" Government entities plus Federal are standing at 184,000
And their investment in corporate america EXCEEDS 60% of ALL the companies in the country.
Bottom Line: Collective Government OWNS Corporate America!!!
========================
http://cafr1.com/
========================
Here's what happened to that guy for exposing this obscene outrage:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=32519
z
You GOTTA watch this video......Did you know that government (at all levels, city, county, state) actually OWNS most of the nation's wealth (i.e. they own stocks, investments, etc)
And it's not just government entities...it's universities, associations, departments of transportation, etc etc, you name it.
The State of NJ (as of the date of the video) owned 70 BILLION dollars worth of stocks.
Xerox for example is 72% owned by city/state/county government investments)
We've all been brainwashed into thinking we are in DEBT....when the exact OPPOSITE is true.
At LEAST watch the first few minutes.....it's a Mind Blower
There's 2 sides to the accounting:
1. The Budget (pablum fed to the public 'We need MORE MONEY')
2. Their Investments which are from 8-40 TIMES greater than the budget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkwjtbTjTsE&feature=player_embedded
The AIG Story by Hank Greenberg. A Story about THEFT and CORRUPTION in our godernment at the highest levels: http://www.amazon.com/The-AIG-Story-Maurice-Greenberg/dp/1118345878
z
TATip. Certs and what happens to them:
OK....when you depostit a cert with a broker.....they send it to DTC and it basically goes bye bye....disappears......no longer a cert...
If the cert is in a business name and you deposit it.......the broker sends it to the TA who changes the name to the broker's and then the broker sends it to DTC and it disappears again
z
pretty much
==
4kids
all jmo
TBS Info: Great Read from Rolling Stone: 'Our economy is so completely fucked, the rich are running out of things to steal'....:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wall-streets-naked-swindle-20100405
z
Ron Paul's Farewell to Congress----today. Wed. November 14th. 2012
This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I’ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty.
It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security.
To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire.
The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.
How Much Did I Accomplish?
In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways—thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history.
All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer. A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn’t give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn’t give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues. As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe.
The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending.
The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there’s no “loot left to divvy up.”
Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January.
I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell. Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled.
Authoritarianism vs. Liberty
If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty. There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government.
During my time in Congress the appetite for liberty has been quite weak; the understanding of its significance negligible. Yet the good news is that compared to 1976 when I first came to Congress, the desire for more freedom and less government in 2012 is much greater and growing, especially in grassroots America. Tens of thousands of teenagers and college age students are, with great enthusiasm, welcoming the message of liberty.
I have a few thoughts as to why the people of a country like ours, once the freest and most prosperous, allowed the conditions to deteriorate to the degree that they have.
Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth. In our early history we were very much aware of this. But in the early part of the 20th century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax. The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be “progressive” ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable.
They failed to recognized that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British.
Some complain that my arguments makes no sense, since great wealth and the standard of living improved for many Americans over the last 100 years, even with these new policies.
But the damage to the market economy, and the currency, has been insidious and steady. It took a long time to consume our wealth, destroy the currency and undermine productivity and get our financial obligations to a point of no return. Confidence sometimes lasts longer than deserved. Most of our wealth today depends on debt.
The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected. As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary.
The Age of Redistribution
This neglect ushered in an age of redistribution of wealth by government kowtowing to any and all special interests, except for those who just wanted to left alone. That is why today money in politics far surpasses money currently going into research and development and productive entrepreneurial efforts.
The material benefits became more important than the understanding and promoting the principles of liberty and a free market. It is good that material abundance is a result of liberty but if materialism is all that we care about, problems are guaranteed.
The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail. We have ended up with a system that doesn’t produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends.
If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time. Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue.
We Need an Intellectual Awakening
Without an intellectual awakening, the turning point will be driven by economic law. A dollar crisis will bring the current out-of-control system to its knees.
If it’s not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties. Prosperity for a large middle class though will become an abstract dream.
This continuous move is no different than what we have seen in how our financial crisis of 2008 was handled. Congress first directed, with bipartisan support, bailouts for the wealthy. Then it was the Federal Reserve with its endless quantitative easing. If at first it doesn’t succeed try again; QE1, QE2, and QE3 and with no results we try QE indefinitely—that is until it too fails. There’s a cost to all of this and let me assure you delaying the payment is no longer an option. The rules of the market will extract its pound of flesh and it won’t be pretty.
The current crisis elicits a lot of pessimism. And the pessimism adds to less confidence in the future. The two feed on themselves, making our situation worse.
If the underlying cause of the crisis is not understood we cannot solve our problems. The issues of warfare, welfare, deficits, inflationism, corporatism, bailouts and authoritarianism cannot be ignored. By only expanding these policies we cannot expect good results.
Everyone claims support for freedom. But too often it’s for one’s own freedom and not for others. Too many believe that there must be limits on freedom. They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force, certain liberties.
Some decide what and whose freedoms are to be limited. These are the politicians whose goal in life is power. Their success depends on gaining support from special interests.
No More ‘isms’
The great news is the answer is not to be found in more “isms.” The answers are to be found in more liberty which cost so much less. Under these circumstances spending goes down, wealth production goes up, and the quality of life improves.
Just this recognition—especially if we move in this direction—increases optimism which in itself is beneficial. The follow through with sound policies are required which must be understood and supported by the people.
But there is good evidence that the generation coming of age at the present time is supportive of moving in the direction of more liberty and self-reliance. The more this change in direction and the solutions become known, the quicker will be the return of optimism.
Our job, for those of us who believe that a different system than the one that we have had for the last 100 years, has driven us to this unsustainable crisis, is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers. We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause.
It worked, but we allowed our leaders to concentrate on the material abundance that freedom generates, while ignoring freedom itself. Now we have neither, but the door is open, out of necessity, for an answer. The answer available is based on the Constitution, individual liberty and prohibiting the use of government force to provide privileges and benefits to all special interests.
After over 100 years we face a society quite different from the one that was intended by the Founders. In many ways their efforts to protect future generations with the Constitution from this danger has failed. Skeptics, at the time the Constitution was written in 1787, warned us of today’s possible outcome. The insidious nature of the erosion of our liberties and the reassurance our great abundance gave us, allowed the process to evolve into the dangerous period in which we now live.
Dependency on Government Largesse
Today we face a dependency on government largesse for almost every need. Our liberties are restricted and government operates outside the rule of law, protecting and rewarding those who buy or coerce government into satisfying their demands. Here are a few examples:
Undeclared wars are commonplace.
Welfare for the rich and poor is considered an entitlement.
The economy is overregulated, overtaxed and grossly distorted by a deeply flawed monetary system.
Debt is growing exponentially.
The Patriot Act and FISA legislation passed without much debate have resulted in a steady erosion of our 4th Amendment rights.
Tragically our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
The drone warfare we are pursuing worldwide is destined to end badly for us as the hatred builds for innocent lives lost and the international laws flaunted. Once we are financially weakened and militarily challenged, there will be a lot resentment thrown our way.
It’s now the law of the land that the military can arrest American citizens, hold them indefinitely, without charges or a trial.
Rampant hostility toward free trade is supported by a large number in Washington.
Supporters of sanctions, currency manipulation and WTO trade retaliation, call the true free traders “isolationists.”
Sanctions are used to punish countries that don’t follow our orders.
Bailouts and guarantees for all kinds of misbehavior are routine.
Central economic planning through monetary policy, regulations and legislative mandates has been an acceptable policy.
Questions
Excessive government has created such a mess it prompts many questions:
Why are sick people who use medical marijuana put in prison?
Why does the federal government restrict the drinking of raw milk?
Why can’t Americans manufacturer rope and other products from hemp?
Why are Americans not allowed to use gold and silver as legal tender as mandated by the Constitution?
Why is Germany concerned enough to consider repatriating their gold held by the FED for her in New York? Is it that the trust in the U.S. and dollar supremacy beginning to wane?
Why do our political leaders believe it’s unnecessary to thoroughly audit our own gold?
Why can’t Americans decide which type of light bulbs they can buy?
Why is the TSA permitted to abuse the rights of any American traveling by air?
Why should there be mandatory sentences—even up to life for crimes without victims—as our drug laws require?
Why have we allowed the federal government to regulate commodes in our homes?
Why is it political suicide for anyone to criticize AIPAC ?
Why haven’t we given up on the drug war since it’s an obvious failure and violates the people’s rights? Has nobody noticed that the authorities can’t even keep drugs out of the prisons? How can making our entire society a prison solve the problem?
Why do we sacrifice so much getting needlessly involved in border disputes and civil strife around the world and ignore the root cause of the most deadly border in the world-the one between Mexico and the US?
Why does Congress willingly give up its prerogatives to the Executive Branch?
Why does changing the party in power never change policy? Could it be that the views of both parties are essentially the same?
Why did the big banks, the large corporations, and foreign banks and foreign central banks get bailed out in 2008 and the middle class lost their jobs and their homes?
Why do so many in the government and the federal officials believe that creating money out of thin air creates wealth?
Why do so many accept the deeply flawed principle that government bureaucrats and politicians can protect us from ourselves without totally destroying the principle of liberty?
Why can’t people understand that war always destroys wealth and liberty?
Why is there so little concern for the Executive Order that gives the President authority to establish a “kill list,” including American citizens, of those targeted for assassination?
Why is patriotism thought to be blind loyalty to the government and the politicians who run it, rather than loyalty to the principles of liberty and support for the people? Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it’s wrong.
Why is it is claimed that if people won’t or can’t take care of their own needs, that people in government can do it for them?
Why did we ever give the government a safe haven for initiating violence against the people?
Why do some members defend free markets, but not civil liberties?
Why do some members defend civil liberties but not free markets? Aren’t they the same?
Why don’t more defend both economic liberty and personal liberty?
Why are there not more individuals who seek to intellectually influence others to bring about positive changes than those who seek power to force others to obey their commands?
Why does the use of religion to support a social gospel and preemptive wars, both of which requires authoritarians to use violence, or the threat of violence, go unchallenged? Aggression and forced redistribution of wealth has nothing to do with the teachings of the world great religions.
Why do we allow the government and the Federal Reserve to disseminate false information dealing with both economic and foreign policy?
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority?
Why should anyone be surprised that Congress has no credibility, since there’s such a disconnect between what politicians say and what they do?
Is there any explanation for all the deception, the unhappiness, the fear of the future, the loss of confidence in our leaders, the distrust, the anger and frustration? Yes there is, and there’s a way to reverse these attitudes. The negative perceptions are logical and a consequence of bad policies bringing about our problems. Identification of the problems and recognizing the cause allow the proper changes to come easy.
Trust Yourself, Not the Government
Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust in government and not enough in themselves. Fortunately, many are now becoming aware of the seriousness of the gross mistakes of the past several decades. The blame is shared by both political parties. Many Americans now are demanding to hear the plain truth of things and want the demagoguing to stop. Without this first step, solutions are impossible.
Seeking the truth and finding the answers in liberty and self-reliance promotes the optimism necessary for restoring prosperity. The task is not that difficult if politics doesn’t get in the way.
We have allowed ourselves to get into such a mess for various reasons.
Politicians deceive themselves as to how wealth is produced. Excessive confidence is placed in the judgment of politicians and bureaucrats. This replaces the confidence in a free society. Too many in high places of authority became convinced that only they, armed with arbitrary government power, can bring about fairness, while facilitating wealth production. This always proves to be a utopian dream and destroys wealth and liberty. It impoverishes the people and rewards the special interests who end up controlling both political parties.
It’s no surprise then that much of what goes on in Washington is driven by aggressive partisanship and power seeking, with philosophic differences being minor.
Economic Ignorance
Economic ignorance is commonplace. Keynesianism continues to thrive, although today it is facing healthy and enthusiastic rebuttals. Believers in military Keynesianism and domestic Keynesianism continue to desperately promote their failed policies, as the economy languishes in a deep slumber.
Supporters of all government edicts use humanitarian arguments to justify them.
Humanitarian arguments are always used to justify government mandates related to the economy, monetary policy, foreign policy, and personal liberty. This is on purpose to make it more difficult to challenge. But, initiating violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence. Good intentions are no excuse and are just as harmful as when people use force with bad intentions. The results are always negative.
The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political problems. Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic authoritarians endorse government initiated force to change the world. Even when the desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when well-intentioned—the results are dismal. The good results sought never materialize. The new problems created require even more government force as a solution. The net result is institutionalizing government initiated violence and morally justifying it on humanitarian grounds.
This is the same fundamental reason our government uses force for invading other countries at will, central economic planning at home, and the regulation of personal liberty and habits of our citizens.
It is rather strange, that unless one has a criminal mind and no respect for other people and their property, no one claims it’s permissible to go into one’s neighbor’s house and tell them how to behave, what they can eat, smoke and drink or how to spend their money.
Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and order. Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search warrant.
No Government Monopoly over Initiating Violence
Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil society. Permitting such authority and expecting saintly behavior from the bureaucrats and the politicians is a pipe dream. We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc. numbering over 100,000. Citizens are guilty until proven innocent in the unconstitutional administrative courts.
Government in a free society should have no authority to meddle in social activities or the economic transactions of individuals. Nor should government meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful, even when controversial, should be permitted.
We must reject the notion of prior restraint in economic activity just we do in the area of free speech and religious liberty. But even in these areas government is starting to use a backdoor approach of political correctness to regulate speech-a dangerous trend. Since 9/11 monitoring speech on the internet is now a problem since warrants are no longer required.
The Proliferation of Federal Crimes
The Constitution established four federal crimes. Today the experts can’t even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the books—they number into the thousands. No one person can comprehend the enormity of the legal system—especially the tax code. Due to the ill-advised drug war and the endless federal expansion of the criminal code we have over 6 million people under correctional suspension, more than the Soviets ever had, and more than any other nation today, including China. I don’t understand the complacency of the Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession with passing more Federal laws. Mandatory sentencing laws associated with drug laws have compounded our prison problems.
The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax code has 72,000 pages, and expands every year. When will the people start shouting, “enough is enough,” and demand Congress cease and desist.
Achieving Liberty
Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied the aggressive use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government is needed. To achieve it, more than lip service is required.
Two choices are available.
A government designed to protect liberty—a natural right—as its sole objective. The people are expected to care for themselves and reject the use of any force for interfering with another person’s liberty. Government is given a strictly limited authority to enforce contracts, property ownership, settle disputes, and defend against foreign aggression.
A government that pretends to protect liberty but is granted power to arbitrarily use force over the people and foreign nations. Though the grant of power many times is meant to be small and limited, it inevitably metastasizes into an omnipotent political cancer. This is the problem for which the world has suffered throughout the ages. Though meant to be limited it nevertheless is a 100% sacrifice of a principle that would-be-tyrants find irresistible. It is used vigorously—though incrementally and insidiously. Granting power to government officials always proves the adage that: “power corrupts.”
Once government gets a limited concession for the use of force to mold people habits and plan the economy, it causes a steady move toward tyrannical government. Only a revolutionary spirit can reverse the process and deny to the government this arbitrary use of aggression. There’s no in-between. Sacrificing a little liberty for imaginary safety always ends badly.
Today’s mess is a result of Americans accepting option #2, even though the Founders attempted to give us Option #1.
The results are not good. As our liberties have been eroded our wealth has been consumed. The wealth we see today is based on debt and a foolish willingness on the part of foreigners to take our dollars for goods and services. They then loan them back to us to perpetuate our debt system. It’s amazing that it has worked for this long but the impasse in Washington, in solving our problems indicate that many are starting to understand the seriousness of the world -wide debt crisis and the dangers we face. The longer this process continues the harsher the outcome will be.
The Financial Crisis Is a Moral Crisis
Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms but few understand it’s, in reality, a moral crisis. It’s the moral crisis that has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal government power. Without a clear understanding of the nature of the crisis it will be difficult to prevent a steady march toward tyranny and the poverty that will accompany it.
Ultimately, the people have to decide which form of government they want; option #1 or option #2. There is no other choice. Claiming there is a choice of a “little” tyranny is like describing pregnancy as a “touch of pregnancy.” It is a myth to believe that a mixture of free markets and government central economic planning is a worthy compromise. What we see today is a result of that type of thinking. And the results speak for themselves.
A Culture of Violence
American now suffers from a culture of violence. It’s easy to reject the initiation of violence against one’s neighbor but it’s ironic that the people arbitrarily and freely anoint government officials with monopoly power to initiate violence against the American people—practically at will.
Because it’s the government that initiates force, most people accept it as being legitimate. Those who exert the force have no sense of guilt. It is believed by too many that governments are morally justified in initiating force supposedly to “do good.” They incorrectly believe that this authority has come from the “consent of the people.” The minority, or victims of government violence never consented to suffer the abuse of government mandates, even when dictated by the majority. Victims of TSA excesses never consented to this abuse.
This attitude has given us a policy of initiating war to “do good,” as well. It is claimed that war, to prevent war for noble purposes, is justified. This is similar to what we were once told that: “destroying a village to save a village” was justified. It was said by a US Secretary of State that the loss of 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children, in the 1990s, as a result of American bombs and sanctions, was “worth it” to achieve the “good” we brought to the Iraqi people. And look at the mess that Iraq is in today.
Government use of force to mold social and economic behavior at home and abroad has justified individuals using force on their own terms. The fact that violence by government is seen as morally justified, is the reason why violence will increase when the big financial crisis hits and becomes a political crisis as well.
First, we recognize that individuals shouldn’t initiate violence, then we give the authority to government. Eventually, the immoral use of government violence, when things goes badly, will be used to justify an individual’s “right” to do the same thing. Neither the government nor individuals have the moral right to initiate violence against another yet we are moving toward the day when both will claim this authority. If this cycle is not reversed society will break down.
When needs are pressing, conditions deteriorate and rights become relative to the demands and the whims of the majority. It’s then not a great leap for individuals to take it upon themselves to use violence to get what they claim is theirs. As the economy deteriorates and the wealth discrepancies increase—as are already occurring— violence increases as those in need take it in their own hands to get what they believe is theirs. They will not wait for a government rescue program.
When government officials wield power over others to bail out the special interests, even with disastrous results to the average citizen, they feel no guilt for the harm they do. Those who take us into undeclared wars with many casualties resulting, never lose sleep over the death and destruction their bad decisions caused. They are convinced that what they do is morally justified, and the fact that many suffer just can’t be helped.
When the street criminals do the same thing, they too have no remorse, believing they are only taking what is rightfully theirs. All moral standards become relative. Whether it’s bailouts, privileges, government subsidies or benefits for some from inflating a currency, it’s all part of a process justified by a philosophy of forced redistribution of wealth. Violence, or a threat of such, is the instrument required and unfortunately is of little concern of most members of Congress.
Some argue it’s only a matter of “fairness” that those in need are cared for. There are two problems with this. First, the principle is used to provide a greater amount of benefits to the rich than the poor. Second, no one seems to be concerned about whether or not it’s fair to those who end up paying for the benefits. The costs are usually placed on the backs of the middle class and are hidden from the public eye. Too many people believe government handouts are free, like printing money out of thin air, and there is no cost. That deception is coming to an end. The bills are coming due and that’s what the economic slowdown is all about.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. It is the tool for telling the people how to live, what to eat and drink, what to read and how to spend their money.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. Granting to government even a small amount of force is a dangerous concession.
Limiting Government Excesses vs. a Virtuous Moral People
Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed. The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.
Most politicians and pundits are aware of the problems we face but spend all their time in trying to reform government. The sad part is that the suggested reforms almost always lead to less freedom and the importance of a virtuous and moral people is either ignored, or not understood. The new reforms serve only to further undermine liberty. The compounding effect has given us this steady erosion of liberty and the massive expansion of debt. The real question is: if it is liberty we seek, should most of the emphasis be placed on government reform or trying to understand what “a virtuous and moral people” means and how to promote it. The Constitution has not prevented the people from demanding handouts for both rich and poor in their efforts to reform the government, while ignoring the principles of a free society. All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state-and frequently their own wealth and power.
If the people are unhappy with the government performance it must be recognized that government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom.
If this is the problem all the tinkering with thousands of pages of new laws and regulations will do nothing to solve the problem.
It is self-evident that our freedoms have been severely limited and the apparent prosperity we still have, is nothing more than leftover wealth from a previous time. This fictitious wealth based on debt and benefits from a false trust in our currency and credit, will play havoc with our society when the bills come due. This means that the full consequence of our lost liberties is yet to be felt.
But that illusion is now ending. Reversing a downward spiral depends on accepting a new approach.
Expect the rapidly expanding homeschooling movement to play a significant role in the revolutionary reforms needed to build a free society with Constitutional protections. We cannot expect a Federal government controlled school system to provide the intellectual ammunition to combat the dangerous growth of government that threatens our liberties.
The internet will provide the alternative to the government/media complex that controls the news and most political propaganda. This is why it’s essential that the internet remains free of government regulation.
Many of our religious institutions and secular organizations support greater dependency on the state by supporting war, welfare and corporatism and ignore the need for a virtuous people.
I never believed that the world or our country could be made more free by politicians, if the people had no desire for freedom.
Under the current circumstances the most we can hope to achieve in the political process is to use it as a podium to reach the people to alert them of the nature of the crisis and the importance of their need to assume responsibility for themselves, if it is liberty that they truly seek. Without this, a constitutionally protected free society is impossible.
If this is true, our individual goal in life ought to be for us to seek virtue and excellence and recognize that self-esteem and happiness only comes from using one’s natural ability, in the most productive manner possible, according to one’s own talents.
Productivity and creativity are the true source of personal satisfaction. Freedom, and not dependency, provides the environment needed to achieve these goals. Government cannot do this for us; it only gets in the way. When the government gets involved, the goal becomes a bailout or a subsidy and these cannot provide a sense of personal achievement.
Achieving legislative power and political influence should not be our goal. Most of the change, if it is to come, will not come from the politicians, but rather from individuals, family, friends, intellectual leaders and our religious institutions. The solution can only come from rejecting the use of coercion, compulsion, government commands, and aggressive force, to mold social and economic behavior. Without accepting these restraints, inevitably the consensus will be to allow the government to mandate economic equality and obedience to the politicians who gain power and promote an environment that smothers the freedoms of everyone. It is then that the responsible individuals who seek excellence and self-esteem by being self-reliance and productive, become the true victims.
Conclusion
What are the greatest dangers that the American people face today and impede the goal of a free society? There are five.
1. The continuous attack on our civil liberties which threatens the rule of law and our ability to resist the onrush of tyranny.
2. Violent anti-Americanism that has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of “blow-back” is not understood or denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in. National bankruptcy and a greater threat to our national security will result.
3. The ease in which we go to war, without a declaration by Congress, but accepting international authority from the UN or NATO even for preemptive wars, otherwise known as aggression.
4. A financial political crisis as a consequence of excessive debt, unfunded liabilities, spending, bailouts, and gross discrepancy in wealth distribution going from the middle class to the rich. The danger of central economic planning, by the Federal Reserve must be understood.
5. World government taking over local and US sovereignty by getting involved in the issues of war, welfare, trade, banking, a world currency, taxes, property ownership, and private ownership of guns.
Happily, there is an answer for these very dangerous trends.
What a wonderful world it would be if everyone accepted the simple moral premise of rejecting all acts of aggression. The retort to such a suggestion is always: it’s too simplistic, too idealistic, impractical, naïve, utopian, dangerous, and unrealistic to strive for such an ideal.
The answer to that is that for thousands of years the acceptance of government force, to rule over the people, at the sacrifice of liberty, was considered moral and the only available option for achieving peace and prosperity.
What could be more utopian than that myth—considering the results especially looking at the state sponsored killing, by nearly every government during the 20th Century, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. It’s time to reconsider this grant of authority to the state.
No good has ever come from granting monopoly power to the state to use aggression against the people to arbitrarily mold human behavior. Such power, when left unchecked, becomes the seed of an ugly tyranny. This method of governance has been adequately tested, and the results are in: reality dictates we try liberty.
The idealism of non-aggression and rejecting all offensive use of force should be tried. The idealism of government sanctioned violence has been abused throughout history and is the primary source of poverty and war. The theory of a society being based on individual freedom has been around for a long time. It’s time to take a bold step and actually permit it by advancing this cause, rather than taking a step backwards as some would like us to do.
Today the principle of habeas corpus, established when King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215, is under attack. There’s every reason to believe that a renewed effort with the use of the internet that we can instead advance the cause of liberty by spreading an uncensored message that will serve to rein in government authority and challenge the obsession with war and welfare.
What I’m talking about is a system of government guided by the moral principles of peace and tolerance.
The Founders were convinced that a free society could not exist without a moral people. Just writing rules won’t work if the people choose to ignore them. Today the rule of law written in the Constitution has little meaning for most Americans, especially those who work in Washington DC.
Benjamin Franklin claimed “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” John Adams concurred: “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
A moral people must reject all violence in an effort to mold people’s beliefs or habits.
A society that boos or ridicules the Golden Rule is not a moral society. All great religions endorse the Golden Rule. The same moral standards that individuals are required to follow should apply to all government officials. They cannot be exempt.
The ultimate solution is not in the hands of the government.
The solution falls on each and every individual, with guidance from family, friends and community.
The #1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow. This is of greater importance than working on changing the government; that is secondary to promoting a virtuous society. If we can achieve this, then the government will change.
It doesn’t mean that political action or holding office has no value. At times it does nudge policy in the right direction. But what is true is that when seeking office is done for personal aggrandizement, money or power, it becomes useless if not harmful. When political action is taken for the right reasons it’s easy to understand why compromise should be avoided. It also becomes clear why progress is best achieved by working with coalitions, which bring people together, without anyone sacrificing his principles.
Political action, to be truly beneficial, must be directed toward changing the hearts and minds of the people, recognizing that it’s the virtue and morality of the people that allow liberty to flourish.
The Constitution or more laws per se, have no value if the people’s attitudes aren’t changed.
To achieve liberty and peace, two powerful human emotions have to be overcome. Number one is “envy” which leads to hate and class warfare. Number two is “intolerance” which leads to bigoted and judgmental policies. These emotions must be replaced with a much better understanding of love, compassion, tolerance and free market economics. Freedom, when understood, brings people together. When tried, freedom is popular.
The problem we have faced over the years has been that economic interventionists are swayed by envy, whereas social interventionists are swayed by intolerance of habits and lifestyles. The misunderstanding that tolerance is an endorsement of certain activities, motivates many to legislate moral standards which should only be set by individuals making their own choices. Both sides use force to deal with these misplaced emotions. Both are authoritarians. Neither endorses voluntarism. Both views ought to be rejected.
I have come to one firm conviction after these many years of trying to figure out “the plain truth of things.” The best chance for achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people world-wide, is to pursue the cause of LIBERTY.
If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land.
z
Yeah it is......Welcome to my little hole in the tree....and check out: http://DDAmanda.com .......come join our little group.......z
TBS Alert:
TBS Funny: Some of this is hilarious: http://avherald.com/h?list=&opt=0
Thanks MBOT!
z
Today is last day to get 8K SPy at no charge as part of a DDAManda subscription........tomorrow it will be $350/month........z
TBS Info: Did your stock get suspended? Here's the real deal:
GTGP, MIKP, GPLS, FXPT, BZRT, ALTO, AERN, FDRM
When a stock gets a 10 Day suspension from the SEC, there is no trading for 10 days. After 10 days, trading resumes on the 'Grey Sheets'. There will be no quotations/level 2. And all the trades have to match exactly. Both nr of shares, and price.
Yeah...just found out about that......BUT Good news is that KMAG will still trade.......BUT the HARD PART is all the trades have to MATCH EXACTLY.
For instance. Say you put in a buy for 100K at .014.
There HAS to be somebody else selling 100K at .014 in order for you both to fill.
SO I suggest people put in even amounts if they want to fill. 10K, 50K, 100K......etc.
Bad news is it will probably be trading lower. And liquidity will be in the toilet.
Good news is there will be no more shenanigans by market makers.
Every trade will be an EXACT match between the seller and the buyer.
Gonna be VERY interesting watching the trades go by in 10 days.
NOW.....in order for them to get back to normal trading with quotes and level 2, they will need to submit a form 211 to FINRA.
AND they will need to get ONE market maker to 'sponsor' them...ie they need one MM to start making a market in the stock.
When they get that, other MM's can 'piggyback' on the first MM......and it will be back in business.
They will have to satisfy FINRA and that first MM of their bona fides.....and that everything is on the up and up.........z
I love DDAmanda and 8K Spy!!!............z
how amusing >> the minions keep telling me there is no NSS
except for those benevolent MMs' who do so to kindly provide
liquidity for those *illidquid* co.s on the OTC >> snicker
until there is 100 percent transparency in place to reveal the
*location* of each and every share issued and outstanding in
existence >> the system is a house of cards on a shifting sand
foundation >> about as stable as TNT >> i look forward to the
ensuing implosion that is coming due to the sec's gross and
egregious incompetence at best or collusion and complicity at
worst
===
4kids
all jmo
TBS Info: Altomare speaks on Naked Short Selling:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=17018405103116349&ei=Pyf_SYLhMJPErAL8iay1Ag&q=richard+altomare
z
TBS News: American Concentration Camps. Then and now:
TBS News: Nuclear Explosion at Fukushima Reactor #3:
http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-really-happened-at-fukushima.html
What Really Happened At #3 Fukushima Reactor And Spent Fuel Pool #3?
How would you feel, if someone tried to hide a nuclear accident that resulted in a release of 200-600 pounds of plutonium dust, and an estimated 20 tons of uranium dust? What if a potentially global life extinction event was also being covered up?
Here is one version of events surrounding the Fukushima disaster, making it sound like it was just a minor event, no more than 10% of Chernobyl, by comparison....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster
The above could be considered the ‘official’ TEPCO press release version of events.
Now let’s talk about what really may have happened, since every time TEPCO says something, they seem to have to take it back or change it radically to something completely different at some point in the future. I have never seen so many stories and news reports and official numbers change so often, from a supposedly professional organization made up of nuclear experts.
So let’s save them some trouble and see what reality and evidence may bring to light. It has gotten so bad, that even the mayors in Fukushima are refusing to meet with the government officials in charge of this accident.. Read more at; http://enenews.com/momentous-decision-mayors-refuse-meet-japan-officials-strongly-mistrust-government-kyodo
So what can we all agree on? First, everyone agrees there was an initial explosion at Fukushima Daichi Unit #3 at 11:01 AM JST on March 14th. This explosion was seen by the whole world on television. Details were also recorded in the reactor log. The government was notified as they are required to, by law. The Japanese government was told about the release of nuclear fuel material, which “fell all over the plant site”. The only disagreement about this is how far the pieces of nuclear fuel from Reactor #3 were blown; 1 mile, 2 miles or 3 miles? (see links below) Both the New York Times and the NRC stated that #3 had a nuclear explosion and that it spread nuclear fuel fragments a mile around the plant. http://vimeo.com/28222223
A BBC report also suggests that nuclear fuel fragments were tossed all around the site. Watch BBC Clip: US video suggests flakes of nuclear fuel were scattered around Fukushima reactors -- Secret plans to evacuate citizens from Japan (VIDEO) February 24, 2012 http://enenews.com/video-suggested-flakes-deadly-radioactive-fuel-scattered-around-fukushima-reactors-secret-plans-evacuate-90000-citizens-japan
Other reports claim that the nuclear fuel fragments from #3 flew out two miles and few reports even claim that they went out three miles. This point totally refutes the official TEPCO for public consumption press release, where they still claim to this day that there was no fuel release, no reactor damage and no nuclear explosion, just a hydrogen explosion.
How will the fuel scattered on the ocean bottom affect the ocean for the next 1 million years? How much radiation will contaminate how much ocean, as the ocean circulates water over this several square miles of scattered nuclear fuel debris?
The #3 reactor building explosion was VERY different from the other kinds of hydrogen triggered explosions in all of the other buildings. When #3 exploded, it triggered the evacuation of the whole complex. The hydrogen explosions from the other buildings did not trigger evacuations, by comparison. Also many more people were injured and/or killed with this #3 explosion, even though TEPCO denies that as well. TEPCO decided to abandon the plant shortly after this explosion. However, based on an order from someone high up in government, a small crew of 50 returned to try and save the plant. New York Times: Broken pieces of nuclear fuel rods found outside Reactor No. 2, says nuke executive -- Covered up by bulldozers April 7, 2011 http://enenews.com/nytimes-broken-pieces-nuclear-fuel-rods-found-reactor-2-nuke-executive-covered-bulldozers
Whether or not the power was maintained to instruments, gauages and recording equipment is in dispute. TEPCO claims it never lost power, but other reports say that power was completely out for many days, and there was no way TEPCO could know anything about any reactors for a certain period of time, due to loss of ALL power to the whole complex.
The explosion at Unit #3 was HUGE. The vent tower behind #3 was 700 feet tall. When Unit #3 exploded, its contents of MOX fuel went up into a gigantic plutonium laced mushroom nuclear radiation filled cloud. When Unit #3 exploded the mushroom cloud went up so high that it made the tower look like a tiny flea on an elephant. Report: Nuclear fuel fragments found over a mile away were "ejected from the reactor cores in those explosions" not spent fuel pools, according to NRC (VIDEO) August 18, 2011 http://enenews.com/report-nuclear-fuel-fragments-found-mile-away-ejected-reactor-cores-explosions-according-nrc-video
This explosion was unlike the horizontal, low to the ground, white smoke hydrogen explosions in the other units that exploded at this complex. When Unit #3 exploded, it also carried a huge amount of radiation filled debris along with it, while also spreading pieces of nuclear fuel rods around the plant anywhere from 1-3 square miles. (See analysis links below)
Nuclear engineer: NRC now says reactors and containments have breached and released plutonium off-site -- "Much worse" than if from spent fuel pools (VIDEO) August 22, 2011 http://enenews.com/report-nuclear-fuel-fragments-found-mile-away-ejected-reactor-cores-explosions-according-nrc-video
Assuming that the plutonium/uranium nuclear fuel was scattered in a 3 mile radius from the blast zone, then approximately 7 square miles around the Fukushima plant were highly contaminated with fragments of nuclear fuel, including parts of the ocean floor. (Maybe this is why the radiation readings offshore in the ocean are not going down as expected?) Mag: Curium and plutonium outside Fukushima plant indicate nuclear explosion at Reactor No. 3 -- Broken spent nuclear fuel rods may have been scattered December 17, 2011 http://enenews.com/mag-curium-and-plutonium-outside-fukushima-plant-sign-of-nuclear-explosion-at-reactor-no-3-broken-spent-nuclear-fuel-rods-may-have-been-scattered-around
Bottom line; Fukushima Reactor #3 was loaded with MOX fuel. According to nuclear expert Arnie Gunderson, #3 was an old, poorly designed Mark I reactor design. TEPCO may very well have pushed it too far by loading highly unsafe and very dangerous plutonium containing fuel, which it was NOT designed for. This load of MOX fuel was an ‘experiment’ to see if they could ‘safely’ do this with Mark I reactors. These reactors are all over the world, including 21 of this same type of reactor in the United States.
This Mark I Unit #3 reactor melted down 9 months after it was loaded with MOX fuel, when it exploded, releasing up to an estimated 500 pounds of plutonium nano particle sized dust into the air, plus an estimated 20 tons of nano particle sized uranium dust. This may very well be why the company and Japanese government as well as nuclear regulators pushed so quickly for ‘cold shutdown’ and why no ‘official’ press releases from the company include any mentions of plutonium, nuclear explosion, uranium, or anything else that may sound scary.
NYTimes flashback: Broken pieces of nuclear fuel rods found outside Reactor No. 2, says nuke executive -- Covered up by bulldozers February 25, 2012 http://enenews.com/nytimes-flashback-broken-pieces-of-fuel-rods-have-been-found-outside-reactor-no-2-covered-up-by-bulldozers
No one in the industry wants anyone to know that both highly toxic and dangerous plutonium was released from this explosion, and that may very well be why you will not see this on any GE controlled mass media outlet or even on Wikipedia, which to this day, still claims the ridiculous assertion by ‘experts’ that Fukushima only released 10% of Chernobyl radiation. (GE owns a LOT of subsidiary news companies and has a lot of ‘experts’ hired to refute any non-experts logic, like that above.)
How can a nuclear explosion and multiple spent fuel pools plus leaking reactors only manage to release 10% of what Chernobyl released? Even an average person can see through this obvious fabrication and manipulation. For starters, all of these supposed experts rely on ‘official’ reports that do not include #3 nuclear explosion, and further, they also do NOT include the entire contents of the spent fuel pool also exploding in that same nuclear explosion. The numbers exceed Chernobyl by a huge amount, if we end up with this scenario.
How can we allow a corporation that makes nuclear reactors and nuclear devices and sells them, to also own all of our news outlets and to staff the regulator that is supposed to ensure public safety with a revolving door, just like the FDA and drug companies? Is this not an example of very unsafe conflict of public and community interest? Now let’s turn our attention to what happened at the spent fuel pool at Unit #3.
SPENT FUEL POOL EXPLOSION AT FUKUSHIMA DAICHI REACTOR #3
First, let us prove that SFP #3 Contained MOX Fuel, since many experts claim that #3 spent fuel pool had no MOX fuel in it, and many of those same experts also claim that this spent fuel pool was not damaged in the explosion at Unit #3. TEPCO further put out a video that claimed the pool is full of water, and it appears that little or no damage was done to the fuel rods. This video and their press releases give the impression that nothing happened to reactor #3 and little or nothing of interest happened at the #3 spent fuel pool.
“Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 3 According to the results confirm the soundness of the new MOX fuel in the long-term storage” July 31, 2010 NISA - Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
Introduction: Analysis of this document began under the premise that MOX fuel could in no possible terms be viable and intact after spending a period of 10-11 years in the spent fuel pool. Documents show that 32 Mixed Oxide Fuel Assemblies were manufactured and sent to Fukushima-I in 1999. These fuel assemblies were then stored in the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 3 pending local government approval. This approval did not come until late summer of 2010, at which point arrangements were made and the fuel assemblies were loaded into Fukushima I-3 in September 2010.” http://archive.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/nuctrans/2001jan28.html
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2000/2000-12-29-11.html http://www.nuclearconsult.com/docs/consultationNCG_Submission_to_UK_DECC_Plutonium_Consultation_2011.pdf”
What have we learned so far? The experts claiming that the #3 spent fuel pool never contained MOX fuel were ‘mistaken’. According to the above documentation, #3 spent fuel pool DID CONTAIN MOX FUEL.
Now let us determine if the fuel in this pool was damaged or melted, since TEPCO and many nuclear experts claim that nothing happened in this pool, and some claim that all of the rest are perfectly OK as well. They even released an ‘official’ video claiming to show that the pool is intact and full of water, filled with spent fuel rods. This is a TEPCO provided video of Reactor Unit 3 spent fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi 8 May 2011 http://youtu.be/KugIrnThul0 (TEPCO claims this is a video of an intact spent fuel pool #3)
Could it really be that #3 spent fuel pool sustained almost no damage and is still full of water, with a full load of undamaged spent fuel inside of it?
“New TEPCO data measured on August 19 & 20, 2011 shows severe damage to the spent fuel in Fukushima Daiichi Units 1, 2, and 3. The adjacent TEPCO table posted on the front page shows incredibly high levels of Cesium 137 and Cesium 134 in all three spent fuel pools of Units 1, 2, 3.
This TEPCO data clearly contradicts and refutes the July 2011 assertion by the NRC the Fukushima Daiichi spent fuel pools were not damaged in this tragic accident. Crytome has a new high resolution photo, also uploaded, that shows the extensive damage of the Unit 3 spent fuel pool and the reactor building.” http://vimeo.com/28222223
We also have this report showing high levels of iodine being produced from spent fuel pool #3. This indicates an active fission process, and melted fuel. This sets the stage for the next Highest Yet: Iodine-131 in No. 3 spent fuel pool at over 1,000,000 times normal — “Generated during nuclear fission” (VIDEO) May 10, 2011 http://enenews.com/iodine-131-3-spent-fuel-pool-1000000-times-normal-suggests-nuclear-chain-reaction-nuclear-expert-video
At the very least, we have proved with direct evidence provided by the company itself, that the #3 spent fuel pool was AT THE VERY LEAST EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED, and the fuel was melted. Uncontrolled nuclear fission was happening, (producing radioactive iodine).
So now let us continue on with our detective work, since the nuclear regulators seem to be unable to even accomplish this. Remember that the IAEA visited the plant, along with the NRC representatives and found nothing amiss. They are all still officially reporting no nuclear explosion and only 10% of Chernobyl radiation released.
If we are not afraid of finding out what is really going on, then we have to ask a scary question. Is it possible that #3 spent fuel pool does not even exist anymore and that all or most of its contents were blown sky high in the massive mushroom cloud explosion that everyone saw? Some reports and a few experts who are not afraid to tell the truth indicate that this is the case.
According to a “US nuke industry report, explosions at Fukushima Units 1, 3, 4 may have caused inventory (nuclear rods) to be lost from spent fuel pools -- "Debris" on ground near Unit 3 was extremely radioactive after blast” November 11, 2011 http://enenews.com/nuke-industry-report-explosions-fukushima-units-1-3-4-caused-additional-inventory-nuclear-rods-be-lost-spent-fuel-pools
Lets have a few more experts weigh in, shall we? One Japanese Expert said; “It was a nuclear explosion at Reactor No. 3 — I believe fuel rods were blown out of spent fuel pool.” http://enenews.com/alert-japan-expert-nuclear-explosion-reactor-3-believe-fuel-rods-blown-spent-fuel-pool
The link above consists of a story with Japan nuclear expert Setsuo Fujiwara, who did an interview with SPA magazine. He worked at the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (JNES). He was a nuclear plant inspector and he knows these plants inside out, backwards and forwards. He also claims, as other experts do, that the explosion at reactor #3 was a nuclear explosion.
He described the flicker of fire and the vertical black smoke rising up. But he goes on to say that the spent fuel pool at #3 was destroyed and the contents of the pool were dispersed by the explosion. Specifically he asserts that there was an explosion INSIDE the #3 spent fuel pool and the melted or whole fuel rods inside of it were blown out.
He explains the sequences of events by saying that the water level decreased in the spent fuel pool #3, which caused fuel rods to melt down. Hydrogen gas was produced from the zircaloy water reaction. Inside the spent fuel pool (SFP), the water boiled above the melted fuel, and at some point, a hydrogen explosion happened.
He describes that the hydrogen explosion caused the water to compress downwards, which also compressed the hydrogen bubbles in the boiling water. This created a negative void coefficient so the “reactivity of nuclear fission was suddenly heightened. This resulted in a nuclear explosion of prompt criticality.”
“Nuclear expert: Powerful explosion at reactor No. 3 may have been from "prompt criticality" in spent fuel pool” (VIDEO) April 26 http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-powerful-explosion-at-reactor-no-3-may-have-been-from-prompt-criticality-in-spent-fuel-pool-video
In the video above, provided by Arnie Gunderson, he goes into the explanation about what caused the devastation everyone sees at Unit 3. He explains the difference between a detonation and a deflagration. He reports that there is a huge difference between the explosion at #3, and the hydrogen explosions at the other buildings. He reports that nuclear fuel rods were found as far away as TWO MILES from Unit #3.
Uranium, plutonium and americium has been found around the world as a fine dust. He says that the only way this can happen is if nuclear reaction happened, and that this fuel was volatized and thrown out. He says that the fuel pool exploded, and it accounts for the muzzle shaped explosion. He says the rubble coming back down were fuel racks, fuel rods and debris from the building. The blackness of the cloud were evidence that uranium and plutonium were volatized and turned into dust that traveled all around the world.
He continued by saying; If it were just hydrogen, the explosion would just be under the speed of sound, but the #3 explosion was faster than the speed of sound. A detonation does not cause a flash of red, but a deflagration does. He says that a hydrogen explosion happened, which caused a distortion in the pool, which caused the prompt critical explosion. There is a way to test this hypothesis, and that is to test the smoke. There are two xenon isotopes and depending on their relationship, we can determine if this was a prompt criticality or not, but no one has released this information yet. (end of video)
Another nuclear expert; Dr. Christopher Busby weighs in and says that the #3 explosion may have been a nuclear explosion criticality. FIRST PROMPT CRITICALITY NUCLEAR EXPLOSION At #3. His Analysis of #3 Explosion is detailed in this video; http://youtu.be/1Q3ljfLvHww
Even a former Tepco employee has reported that the government and TEPCO are lying about all of this. He says that “plutonium and uranium in Reactor No. 3 has all been blown out — This was no ordinary explosion — Gov’t is concealing truth” (VIDEO) November 12, 2011 http://enenews.com/former-tepco-employee-plutonium-uranium-all-blown-reactor-3-ordinary-explosion-govt-concealing-truth-video
Some nuclear apologist ‘experts’ claim that there was no nuclear explosion at #3, because there was not enough concentration of enriched uranium/plutonium to support such a reaction. But the evidence of history supports the conclusion that it is possible, and that it has happened more than once in the past, in exactly the same way that it happened here at Fukushima. See ‘Prompt Criticality: Capable of sustaining a chain reaction without the aid of delayed neutrons’. at-McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary http://www.answers.com/topic/prompt-critical
In their article they are quoted as saying that “nuclear reactors can be susceptible to prompt-criticality accidents if a large increase in k-effective (or reactivity) occurs, e.g., following failure of their control and safety systems. The rapid uncontrollable increase in reactor power in prompt-critical conditions is likely to irreparably damage the reactor and in extreme cases, may breach the containment of the reactor. Nuclear reactors' safety systems are designed to prevent prompt criticality and, for defence-in-depth, reactor structures also provide multiple layers of containment as a precaution against any accidental releases of radioactive fission products. With the exception of research and experimental reactors, only a small number of reactor accidents are thought to have achieved prompt criticality, for example Chernobyl #4, the U.S. Army's SL-1, and Soviet submarine K-431. In all these examples the uncontrolled surge in power was sufficient to cause an explosion that destroyed each reactor and released radioactive fission products into the atmosphere.” Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/prompt-critical#ixzz1nasr9yRO
Now we have multiple nuclear experts, all in agreement. All of them are saying a nuclear explosion happened at spent fuel pool #3. If you are not convinced yet that there were nuclear explosions, feel free to follow these links and read more about it..
Two explosions may have occurred early on at Reactor No. 3, very similar to Chernobyl -- Likely at least several hundred pounds of plutonium ejected (VIDEO) June 3 2011 http://enenews.com/explosions-occurred-early-3-reactor-very-similar-chernobyl-several-hundred-pounds-plutonium-ejected-video
Nuclear expert: Powerful explosion at reactor No. 3 may have been from "prompt criticality" in spent fuel pool (VIDEO) April 23 2011 http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-powerful-explosion-at-reactor-no-3-may-have-been-from-prompt-criticality-in-spent-fuel-pool-video
Japan Expert: It was a nuclear explosion at Reactor No. 3 — I believe fuel rods were blown out of spent fuel pool December 13, 2011 http://enenews.com/alert-japan-expert-nuclear-explosion-reactor-3-believe-fuel-rods-blown-spent-fuel-pool
UN agency’s report of 2nd explosion at Reactor 3 must have been made after consulting with RSMC Tokyo: EX-SKF
http://enenews.com/un-agencys-report-of-2nd-explosion-at-reactor-3-must-have-been-made-after-consulting-with-rsmc-tokyo-report
Worker at Reactor No. 3 says nuclear fuel gone from Spent Fuel Pool — “Great skepticism” that any pellets remain (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/breaking-man-who-worked-at-reactor-no-3-says-nuclear-fuel-gone-from-spent-fuel-pool-no-3-great-skepticism-that-any-pellets-remain-video
NYTimes on "Ejection of Nuclear Material": Confidential US doc suggests pieces of fuel blown up to a mile away -- Some between two units bulldozed over April 6, 2011 http://enenews.com/highly-radioactive-pieces-spent-fuel-pools-blown-mile-away
So now that we know this massive nuclear explosion was not only possible, but highly likely, can we find evidence that there were three explosions, which would indicate that experts were correct in claiming that both the reactor and the spent fuel pool are gone?
We started this detective journey by asking if a nuclear explosion was possible. We found out that it was not only possible, but that the explosion actually consisted of at least two and quite possibly three separate explosions, one feeding and causing another and then another, in quick succession.
Now we have two or three explosions to deal with and explain. First, we have a hydrogen explosion at the spent fuel pool, and then we have a nuclear explosion (deflagration/prompt criticality) coming out of the spent fuel pool.
This in turn, may have triggered the nuclear explosion(deflagration/prompt criticality) in the #3 reactor, in quick succession. Is there any evidence of three explosions happening at the #3 building, all at once?
Starting at 20 minutes in, an interview with a nuclear expert on Coast To Coast explains how two explosions may have occurred early on at Reactor No. 3, very similar to Chernobyl -- Likely at least several hundred pounds of plutonium ejected. Most of it will circle the globe and settle out. It only takes one tiny particle of inhaled plutonium to cause cancer and possibly die eventually. Just like in Chernobyl, there were two explosions within milli seconds. He describes Fukushima as a Level 8 event, way about Chernobyl Level 7. A Level 8 is Multiple Source Event, with leaks in multiple reactors, requiring international assistance and cooperation. This will easily be a TRILLION Dollar disaster.
The reactors were worth 38 Billion each, before they melted down. (As of Feb. 2012, only two out of 54 nuclear reactors are still operating in Japan. Multiply 40 Billion each times 54 reactors and that is the total cost so far, assuming they all stay shut down, but without any cleanup or compensation or lost income/taxes). The mass media is NOT covering this, ABC, NBC, CBS and others are avoiding any coverage of this event. (VIDEO) June 3rd, 2011. http://enenews.com/explosions-occurred-early-3-reactor-very-similar-chernobyl-several-hundred-pounds-plutonium-ejected-video
Hartmann - Fukushima...is this the China Syndrome?, The Big Picture, August 18, 2011. In the following video, at 4:15 in, “Paul Gunter, director of Reactor Oversight Project with Beyond Nuclear: We were involved in an Nuclear Regulatory Commission [NRC] hearing on July 28 of this year where the NRC basically admitted that (radioactive) fuel fragments found over one and a half miles away from the facility did not come from explosions from the spent fuel pools, according to the NRC those fuel fragments were ejected from the reactor cores in those explosions. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baya8-agPs4
Source: http://enenews.com/report-nuclear-fuel-fragments-found-mile-away-ejected-reactor-cores-explosions-according-nrc-video
Now we have evidence that both the reactor AND the spent fuel pool exploded and spread highly radioactive fuel rods for over a mile around the plant, including into the ocean.
From another source that would lend more weight of evidence that a nuclear explosion happened, and that fuel got scattered more than mile away; “According to the reports by the Ministry of Education and Science, curium-242 (242Cm) has been detected at a location 3 kilometers from the plant, and plutonium-238 (238Pu) has been detected at a location 45 kilometers from the plant. [...]242Cm's half life is short (about 163 days), and the deposition of 238Pu around the plant is far greater than normal, leading the Ministry of Education and Science to conclude these were emitted from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. If that's the case, pieces of broken spent nuclear fuel rods may have been scattered around the plant, and it is extremely dangerous.” http://enenews.com/mag-curium-and-plutonium-outside-fukushima-plant-sign-of-nuclear-explosion-at-reactor-no-3-broken-spent-nuclear-fuel-rods-may-have-been-scattered-around/comment-page-1#comment-211945
Once the explosions happened, we would expect to find evidence of the destruction of both the reactor and the spent fuel pool, correct? So where is there evidence that both the reactor and the spent fuel pool blew up? We can go further now. Let’s take a look at the evidence directly with our own eyes. See if you can find the reactor and spent fuel pool in the wreckage that was left after the explosion. http://youtu.be/0ZBYQ5opMLs
Watch the following video and tell me what you see.. Does it show a hole in the ground, with smoke coming out of it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfFhvu8Q0M
CONCLUSION
So how much radiation was released when spent fuel pool #3 blew up? No one knows, since the officials will not go there and none of the popular mass media radiation release figures include this. Most figures are still stuck on 10% of Chernobyl radiation total release, but this figure is laughable at this point.
We all know that these out of control nuclear melt downs, explosions and melt throughs released massive amounts of radioactive noble gases, many times more in total than Chernobyl. There is no way this could not have happened, since at least three reactors were confirmed to be leaking, melted down, melted through, and at least one spent fuel pool and possibly one reactor had a nuclear explosion, with many times the total tonnage of nuclear fuel, plus is was MOX fuel, which is many times more dangerous per ton than the equivalent Chernobyl radiation, which only had uranium releases.
The three melted down corium blobs also release radioactive gases and dust, resulting in a bunch of radioactive isotopes that float out into the air. What is this total? No one knows… as they are not counting this.
TMI lost 20 tons of nuclear fuel into the air from ONE reactor core partially melting down for 1 day. How much has been lost from multiple reactor cores over all of this time at Fukushima, in addition to the multiple FUKU spent fuel pools that blew up, melted down, or etc? Any guesses?
The heavier elements melt DOWNWARDS, as proven by Chernobyl, TMI and other nuclear accidents. Just having something blow up does not mean everything disappears into thin air. At Fukushima, the ‘experts’ and nuclear apologists have to admit that do not know where the melted corium blobs are or what they are doing, much less how much radiation they are releasing into the air on a daily basis.
Chernobyl blew up, and still had massive corium meltdown and meltthrough going down through multiple floors under the reactor, combined with massive amounts of sand, boron, lead and God knows what else. The corium at Chernobyl is all melted and fused together down under the reactor. Luckily, Chernobyl was diluted with sand, boron and lead. It cooled on its way down. The corium stopped several floors down inside the building, in the basement. In Russia, they made HUGE efforts to stop that downward movement of corium by utilizing an army that consisted of over 500,000 people, and closer to 1,000,000 people.
In Japan, there is almost ZERO effort to stop the melted corium from going down into the ground. They did not even admit it was happening, and then only slowly managed to admit that it was POSSIBLE that it melted through MONTHS later. Even now, they are having trouble even talking about it, much less investigating it or trying to figure out anything around it. The danger is that there will be a massive explosion when a corium blob hits groundwater and take out the whole complex, thus causing a global life extinction event. The consequences of the nuclear corporate, regulatory body and government coverup/denial strategy may doom the human race. Time will tell. This is NOT over yet.
Very little has changed since Chernobyl blew up and radiated everyone, except that many more nuclear accidents, meltdowns, melt throughs and ‘accidental’ radiation releases happened, plus way more radioactive substances are now in the air, on the ground and in the ocean as well as inside all of us.
How many radioactive elements and isotopes are released from something like Fukushima, some of which eventually end up inside all of us?
According to Asahi: about 1,000 kinds of radioactive materials have been released from Fukushima reactors. http://enenews.com/asahi-sources-reveal-about-1000-kinds-of-radioactive-materials-released-from-fukushima/comment-page-1#comment-195658
Let’s focus on just 93 out of the 1,000 total, shall we? There are 93 different long lived radioactive elements that hang around and pollute both the environment and us for at least 17,000 years and up to BILLIONS of years in total decay life. Want to see the list of all 93?
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/3069680
How much sense does it make to heat water for only 30 years, when these insanely dangerous radioactive elements will affect millions of future generations in a negative way, and quite possibly cause the extinction of the entire human race? If you want to know what happens when a Super Solar Storm hits and knocks out all power, read this… It is predicted to hit in 2013. The Carrington Effect May Cause Year Long Power Blackouts http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/3107047
The potential life extinction question scientists should be asking is; what happens when all 400 nuclear power plants around the world no longer have power for weeks or months, just like Fukushima?
END
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What Really Happened At Fukushima Reactor And Spent Fuel Pool #3? via A Green Road Blog http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-really-happened-at-fukushima.html
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TBS Info: The State of the Union:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30620.htm#idc-cover
Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine
Nightmare and insanity are akin: mysterious and involuntary states that skew and distort objective reality. One wakens from nightmare; from insanity there is no awakening.
Whether Americans live in the one state or the other is the paramount question of this era.
For two hundred years Americans have been indoctrinated with a mythology created, imposed and sustained by a manipulating cabal: the financial elite that built its absolute control on the muscle and blood, good will, ignorance and credulity, of its citizenry.
America began with the invasion of a populated continent and the genocide of its native people. Once solidly established, it grafted enslavement of another race onto that base.
With those two pillars of state firmly in place it declared itself an independent nation in a document that nobly proclaimed the equality of all mankind.
In that act of monumental hypocrisy America’s myth had its beginning.
* * *
A Constitution was written that came to be regarded as American Holy Writ. Its central purposes were to defend private property and suppress mass democracy. It has fulfilled both those mandates beyond the wildest dreams of its creators.
Once the existing oligarchy was secure in law and native people largely exterminated, the ruling class increased its wealth and power fantastically in the 19th century, using the government as its enabler, exploiting to the limit the device of chartered corporations.
With its phenomenal money power, the financial elite began to use the military to expand its sway beyond the continent. Regions, territories, islands, and whole countries were annexed, invaded, and possessed outright, their peoples crushed, suppressed, and ruled.
Because ordinary Americans, like any people, need to believe that whatever the ruling elite undertakes in their nation’s name must be essentially benevolent, noble in purpose and justified in fact, the myth had to be radically modified for imperial expansion.
The foundational story was that Americans had come to a howling wilderness teeming with godless savages and, through invincible strength of character and purity of purpose, had tamed the land and honorably earned the right to possess their bountiful home.
In the era of extra-territorial expansion that version was polished to justify and ennoble imperialism. The new corollary was that America could not ignore colonialist brutality but was obliged, by the Manifest Destiny that led us to civilize our own continent, to carry our mission into barbaric darkness wherever tyranny created abuse and suffering.
A national myth that absolutely binds the loyalty of a people to its government must be a subtle and powerful elixir that elevates and aggrandizes that people’s self-regard. National policy will then appear to be an extension of its superior citizenry’s inchoate will, and the basis for a justified arrogance toward the lesser world.
The simple, powerful myth of America’s altruistic and heroic benevolence, shaped and maintained by the financial/political power elite, infused Americans with a deep and outrageously hubristic sense of racial superiority that, mobilized behind various imperial enterprises, has given all such adventures the character of a quasi-religious crusade. In this way insatiable imperialism acquires the apparent moral perfection of a syllogism.
* * *
With WWII, the world was reconfigured. American Capitalism emerged supreme from the horror that had virtually wrecked its capitalist partners. The Soviet Union, though, having absorbed by far the greatest devastation from Nazi Germany, had astonishingly risen above its ruin to become the leading challenger to America as a world power.
This challenge was not competitive, it was systemic: Soviet Communism was a direct threat to American hegemony in that it categorically refuted the philosophical basis of Predatory Capitalism. Grounded in Marx and Lenin, it attacked Capitalism’s inherent evils, monstrous inequities and flagrant injustices that, exacerbated by speculation, exploitation and fraud, would destroy it. And it promoted world revolution to that end.
This face-off of giants in the Cold War necessitated further refinement of the American myth. Now, instead of simply intervening in situations where despotism or tyranny required America to forcefully implant our just and ethical democracy, America had to become the shield and bulwark of the sacred capitalist system in which “free enterprise” was magically and increasingly identified with democracy and equally to be defended.
This version prevailed through many surrogate confrontations around the globe in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction and survived even the debacle of Vietnam, lasting until the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the propaganda stream became ever more intense and pervasive. On radio and television Americans were subjected to an unrelenting barrage of hyper-patriotism in which American moral superiority was a given, and America’s self-touted courage, generosity and decency were its unchallengeable proofs.
The implosion of the Soviet Union left America, in its own terminology, the “Sole Superpower in a Unipolar World”. This, however, did not result in diminution of the myth. The practical effect of having no doomsday enemy--China couldn’t plausibly be cast in that role then--was to supercharge it by increasing its element of pure, hubristic ego. America was no longer just called upon to defend the “Free World” from monstrous heresy; it was now, by virtue of its universally acknowledged, beatific “exceptionalism”, required to oversee and police it in the interests, and for the benefit, of lesser nations.
* * *
“Power corrupts”, said Lord Mahan, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
When the only rival and counterweight to American power disintegrated there was a sense within the American power elite that the opportunity existed, for the first time in history, for one country to absolutely dominate and effectively control the entire world.
This consensus was expressed in a policy statement composed by a cadre of major right-wing political players representing massive corporate capitalist interests called the Project for a New American Century. This triumphalist manifesto laid out a plan for absolute American access and control of essential resources and raw materials worldwide, to be guaranteed by the military which would enforce Full Spectrum Dominance.
The American Myth, which had seemed to have lost momentum and its animating principle in the totally unexpected so-called Cold War “victory”, was now re-energized with a less defensive and reactive essence, and given the glowing radiance and patina of a true and, for the first time, self-professed and articulated, imperial mission.
The attack on the Towers, an unimaginable provocation, was the trigger mechanism for the explosive launch of the effort to impose that imperial model in practice on the world.
* * *
It has been without question the most spectacular failure in the history of American misadventure. After a decade marked by the waste of trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of American lives, the stunning bankruptcy of our internally burglarized nation, and a consequent recession more fundamentally damaging than the Great One, Imperial America has nothing to show for the botched folly of its arrogant overreach but unequivocal disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, with no end of madness in sight.
An impartial observer would have to say that the hypnotic hold of the American Myth on the loyalty of the people has led only to disgrace and disaster, and set a direct course to inevitable imperial decline and ruin. That would be inarguable on any rational basis, but it entirely mistakes the motive for, and the purpose of, the myth. The American Myth was never intended to serve the interests either of our country or of our people: it was created solely to buttress, shield, and exalt the ruling financial class. It has done that with astonishing and unbroken success that staggers the imagination from our earliest days.
The massive looting of Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan war funding to enrich the Corporate Tyranny—for that is what it has become—is on an unique scale of its own, without anything remotely comparable to its flagrant obscenity in the whole long history of war.
Neither the Pentagon nor any branch of the U.S. government can give any accounting whatever of the many billions of tax-generated dollars that have vanished, evaporated. There is no doubt but that beyond the outrageously inflated, no-bid contracts handed to giant corporate favorites with their preposterous guaranteed profits, much of the money was simply stolen in bulk by, through, or in spite of the military, and distributed among thieves and accomplices, some of it on huge pallets… for convenience, presumably.
* * *
While this wholesale robbery was going on under the oversight of the military abroad, the Corporate Tyranny had evolved a whole set of impenetrably complex devices for the generation of money without any economically productive source or result at home.
The sole driving force and purpose of Capitalism is the realization of profit. According to that calculus, reducing production costs increases profit margin. This leads to the obvious conclusion that as production costs near zero, profit is maximized.
There is no provision for social good in Capitalist theory. Corporations, created to optimize business opportunity through efficient specialization, were originally required to operate for public benefit but that provision was quickly finessed and forgotten.
American law courts have always favored corporate concentrations of wealth since they, like the Congress, exist to serve the moneyed interests. The American Myth was created to provide cover for the financial oligarchy to exploit the country and the citizenry, and the judiciary has consistently cooperated in ruling for corporations against the people.
Indeed, without ever considering the question in law, the Supreme Court long ago endowed corporations with “personhood”, that is with all rights of human beings under our Constitution. The way this travesty occurred--the slipshod by-product of an obliquely related case--shows that the court preferred to incorporate this perversion of the plain intent of the 14th amendment as an unexamined assumption rather than risk an eventual test which would unquestionably have created violent public outrage.
Given the collusion of Congress and the courts in securing legal invulnerability for the Corporate Tyranny and the principle that the only duty of corporations is maximization of profit, it was not surprising that megabanks, huge brokerage houses, giant insurance conglomerates, gilded hedge funds and the credit agencies pretending to certify their work, all engaged in massive and systemic fraud and deception for just that purpose. The result was the crash of ’08, the recession, and the stunning and unprecedented rescue and bailout of the biggest banks, investment houses, and insurance and credit conglomerates with taxpayer dollars. So much for the hallowed Invisible Hand of the Free Market…
* * *
The last decades have seen two related megatrends in American geopolitical mechanics, both with dire effects on the power of the American Myth. First, what belief the world at large had in it has been shattered by a catastrophic series of imbecile and irretrievable military failures and disasters, which has caused erosion of its efficacy at home. Second, in response to this, the State has made increasingly crude efforts to boost the Myth’s waning power by the imposition of totalitarian methods of surveillance, intimidation and coercion on the American people to a degree unprecedented in scope and scale.
The whole clanking, medieval apparatus of Homeland Security that has sprouted like an enormous poison fungus since 9/11 with its brutal police state mindset; the odious Patriot Act with its flagrant subversions of the Bill of Rights; the endless, fantasy-based terror-peddling of the prostitute corporate media with its clowns and harpies churning irrational fear and anger in the uninformed: all this grim, repressive endeavor is a concerted attempt to distract Americans from the real causes of their injury, abuse, and oppression.
And yet, even with the American Myth now totally and irreparably blown full of holes and exposed demonstrably for the tissue of lies, deceptions and frauds that it has always been, it somehow keeps its phenomenal hold on the great mass of the American people. The tragic reality is that, for the majority, their own identities have been so deeply and thoroughly infused with the myth that to disbelieve it is to disbelieve in themselves.
* * *
So the American Myth is dead, and yet it lives on in its deadness, horribly masking our crapshot economy, our bankrupt debtors prison of a society, our Ghost Dance charade of kabuki democracy, while typhoons of impending social, economic and ecological disaster build their enormous, lightning-charged thunderheads above the dark future before us.
And what is it that the dead Myth still imperfectly obscures for Americans? What is outside and beyond the opaque wall of faltering, failing dishonesty and deception? What is the horror that the shoddy, tattered Myth has so long and so effectively concealed?
It is the world that has suffered unrelieved exploitation by the violence of our imperialist mania. It is the many wrecked and pillaged economies financially looted by our imposed predatory capitalist austerity regimes. It is the teeming hundreds of millions of starved, deprived and dying children sacrificed to Wall Street commodities gaming. It is the multitudes of humble, innocent, ignorant people, barely surviving in absolutist and dictatorial regimes propped up in their barbaric cruelty by our military while our banks siphon off the profits left after arming their brutal police and armies and bribing their ruling Kings, Sheikhs or Generals. It is the millions of dead and maimed in the raped populations of simple tribal people whom our indiscriminately murderous juggernaut has left in its bloody wake in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It is the appalling legacy of hate and repulsion, disdain and fear, that America has earned with its appalling hegemonist villainy in every corner of the world.
And at home, what is it we Americans have been so complicit in hiding from ourselves in our devotion to the perverse legend that has come to inhabit our souls like a succubus?
It is the millions of us with no work and no hope in middle age whose jobs and homes have been devoured by the heartless fraud machine of Wall Street. It is the trashed and demolished weedlots of our major cities eroding in crumbling, fire-gutted ruin. It is the many towns and cities with industries shut down and factories deserted or dismantled and shipped overseas. It is our decaying, disintegrating public schools, our bankrupt states and counties, our overtaxed, antiquated public transportation systems, our obsolete, dissolving infrastructure, our bloated, irrational prisons complex, our punishing and inadequate health care disaster, and over it all, the repressive mechanism of our police state, armed and empowered, ready for use against the American people themselves.
* * *
This is where we are. The great question now is whether we as a nation can awaken from this long historic nightmare and face the terrifying and exhilarating prospect of living in the full light of reality without the false props and dishonest constructs of a hoodwinked, herded and dishonored people or, whether we have internalized the falsity and disease to such an extent that it has become an organic, overmastering form of insanity?
In 1846, Henry David Thoreau, offended to his soul by the injustice of the American government’s invasion of Mexico, protested it and went to jail for his convictions. Later, in his essay On Civil Disobedience, he said this:
“If injustice is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”
To attempt to break the hold of the American Myth will be a titanic, daunting challenge. To even begin to openly rebel against the might of the National Security State will require the courage to face much more than official disapproval and denunciation. Imperial America will not respond to even the most peaceful and orderly protest with anything less than hard police repression and the level of punishment will rise in relation to the scope and seriousness of the action undertaken.
Small protests will have no effect and will be meaningless. Organized mass events, when they occur, will draw the whole fiercely and brutally motivated National Security State apparatus down upon themselves. Americans, excepting those of our underclass who have felt it, have no experience with violent police or military repression. Those who commit peaceful civil disobedience, a first and innocent tactic of serious protest, will swiftly find out to their cost how it works. In a National Security State that has excised and eradicated all defensive laws and regulations intended to prevent abuse of the public, whatever the State does is legal. To such a pass have we in America come as a result of our long historic indoctrination in serving our financial elite, our Ruling Class.
To achieve any redemption for Americans, to make possible any more just, humane and life-honoring society, will require complete abandonment of the system of Predatory Capitalism. If offers no prospect of reform or improvement and we have all been witness to the idiocy of the so-called “democratic process” in action for generations now.
America is nearing the greatest crisis point in its history and the terrific cataclysm, when it happens, will determine the future our country is to have. If we cannot, in dominating numbers, rise to reject the heartless, mindless, soulless machine of Imperial Predatory Capitalism, we will be condemned to a fascistic command and control horror in which human beings are mere possessions of the State, units of production or service, and then perhaps not even that, as excess population in that brave, new world nay be eliminated.
That end is not inevitable. We are not lost. We are not even defeated because to this moment we have not engaged. We have not honored our responsibility as human beings. We have not risen to defend our humanity. We have let ourselves be ruled.
All around the world the thunder of vast and immeasurable discontent can be heard and felt. In Egypt and Spain, Jordan and Greece, Iraq and Sudan, Afghanistan and Ireland, Latin America, the Far East and Africa, the legitimate anger of humanity is expressing itself against the dead and killing hand of Predatory Capitalism and its agencies of violence. And here, in America, so long trapped and encapsulated, frozen like a fly in amber in a false religion of state idolatry, the anger is deep, widespread, and growing.
It is up to those who know and care to lead. As Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Nothing is guaranteed us. That can’t matter. We cannot be concerned with odds or outcomes. We cannot let the Machine of Injustice grind on. We must oppose it with all the moral force we own. We must act with quiet courage to confront a vicious tyrannical system that is destroying the earth, its life, and its people. We must put our lives on the line to oppose it.
The Nightmare Machine of rapacious exploitation has overthrown humanity’s decency and reason and its bloody inhuman treason flourishes over us. This must be ended.
Let your life be a friction now to stop the Machine.
See also - The Century of the Self - How politicians and business learned to create and manipulate mass-consumer society.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12642.htm
z
Tehran Persian Nights:
Enjoy it before we bomb it back to the stone age....:(
on my reading list...
MBOT
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
MBOT
Just saw this......To you too MBOT!!........et z
TBS Info: CELLAR BOXING SERIES is a MUST READ for all new investors!!!
PART 1 http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=52672689
PART 2 http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=52664836
PART 3 http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=52664935
z
Some recent events the SEC is not so proud of besides Madoff:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-porn-sites/story?id=10452544
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sec-misled-archives-on-destroying-records-inspector-general-finds/201
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/11_-_November/Want_inside_look_at_SEC_dealmaking__Read_IG_s_Khuzami_report/
http://www.newyorksecuritieslawblog.com/2011/12/sec-ig-report-reveals-internal-actions-that-thwart-investigations.shtml
In another case, SEC examiners in a regional office discovered what they believed to be massive hedge fund fraud committed by a manager deemed to be a major contributor the nation's financial crisis of 2008.
The examiners' concerns were passed along to agency inspectors, who initiated an investigation. Before the probe was well underway, however, a senior SEC official from the regional office took a position with the firm being investigated, which created a potential conflict of interest.
http://www.newyorksecuritieslawblog.com/2011/12/sec-ig-report-reveals-internal-actions-that-thwart-investigations.shtml
original links by Steady_T and Waking Bake
===
4kids
all jmo
Financial terrorism
The war on terabytes
Policymakers worry about attacks on America’s financial system
Dec 31st 2011 | NEW YORK | from the print edition
THE financial industry has done such a good job of bringing itself to its knees over the past four years that it is easy to overlook the threats it faces from outside. High among them is electronic attack. In 2010 Symantec, a cybersecurity firm, estimated that three-quarters of all “phishing” attacks, in which people are deceived into surrendering private details such as account numbers, are aimed at the finance sector. Bob Greifeld, the boss of NASDAQ, has described his bourse as being under “literally constant attack”.
Many of these assaults are carried out by hackers bent on mischief. Some are the work of organised criminal groups in pursuit of loot. But plenty of people fret that some attackers are aiming to cause more serious damage.
Leon Panetta, America’s defence secretary, has suggested that a cyberattack on financial markets, the power grid and government systems could be “the next Pearl Harbour”. In a move that received surprisingly little attention, Barack Obama signed an unprecedented executive order in July declaring the infiltration of financial and commercial markets by transnational criminal groups to be a national emergency. It also pointed to “evidence of growing ties between [these groups] and terrorists”. In a sign that Congress, too, is twitchy, its latest appropriations bill calls for a report into the risks posed by financial terrorism.
Officials’ anxiety has grown amid circumstantial evidence that malefactors helped to exacerbate the market turmoil in late 2008. A report on the risks of economic warfare by Cross Consulting—which was written in 2009 for the Pentagon’s Irregular Warfare Support Programme (IWSP) but which surfaced only in 2011—cites a paper prepared for law-enforcement officials by a group of anonymous moneymen who were alarmed by trading patterns around the time that Lehman Brothers failed.
The paper analyses trading data from American exchanges. It shows that a handful of small and midsized regional brokers saw their market share in equities trading skyrocket in 2008 to the point where some were, for a while, doing more business than giants such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. The brokers’ business was conducted under multiple trading symbols, the market-making identities used in electronic trading so that counterparties know whom they are dealing with.
The bulk of the trading appears to have been “sponsored access” agreements, under which established brokers can in effect rent their identities to other traders so that the latter do not have to jump through the usual regulatory hoops. There is no suggestion that the brokers in question were doing anything wrong. They say they were doing business with regulated entities, including other brokers, but the report raises questions about the trades these sponsored entities were conducting.
These trades were heavily concentrated in big, troubled stocks such as Citigroup and Wachovia, the survival of which was seen as critical to the stability of the financial system. They were mostly short-selling, the paper concludes, and a good deal of the shorting may have been of the illegal “naked” kind, where the short-seller does not bother to locate and borrow the shares first. (Borrowing a broker’s identity could have made this easier, since marketmakers were exempt from the ban on naked shorting in certain circumstances.) Supporting this conclusion is a huge spike in trades that failed to settle at the time—in Lehman’s case, the number shot from tens of thousands to tens of millions. One cause of “fails” is naked shorting, because you cannot deliver a share that you have not really borrowed.
Sponsors not being thanked
Trading data alone are insufficient to draw firm conclusions about motives, but the anonymous paper raises red flags. If the brokers were inadvertently greasing the wheels for bear raiders, then who was doing the raiding? The obvious suspects are hedge funds looking to make a killing. But rumours persist of involvement by those with non-economic motives.
Regulators have been tightening the rules. In November America’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted through various restrictions on sponsored access, which Mary Schapiro, the SEC’s chairman, had previously likened to handing car keys to an unlicensed driver. In private, SEC staffers worry that some of the driving might be deliberately dangerous. Not every jurisdiction is moving as fast as America. In an October report, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) expressed concern that some countries’ monitoring of sponsored-access agreements was inadequate.
Sponsored access is not the only way that a determined assailant could create havoc. The “flash crash” of May 6th 2010, in which American equities spectacularly nosedived, showed the damage that can be done by high-speed algorithmic trading. It is much easier to drag markets down when they are already reeling, by the use of such things as short-selling, options and swaps, points out James Rickards of Tangent Capital, an expert on financial threats. This is what the military would call a “force multiplier”.
Just how much danger America’s financial system is in from deliberate attack is hard to judge from the outside. What is clear is that politicians, regulators and the industry have struggled to forge a coherent response. The Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC), an industry group that works under the auspices of the US Treasury, has developed a “threat matrix” in consultation with a group of financial regulators with an equally snappy name, the Financial and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee. But information is not always shared promptly. Banks were miffed that regulators did not tell them about a big attack on NASDAQ in 2010 until more than three months later.
Within government, responsibility is fragmented. In America the Treasury, other financial regulators, the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the FBI, the National Security Agency and others all have a hand in financial cybersecurity. Dots are not always joined even within departments. The Treasury has been keenly focused on combating the financing of terrorists, for example, but appears to have given less thought to how they might use that money to undermine banks and markets. That is unfortunate. As policymakers wrestle to protect finance from its own instability, they shouldn’t neglect the potential for threats from outside.
http://www.economist.com/node/21542186
courtesy of GWMAN
===
4kids
all jmo
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all The Blind Squirrel followers and contributors.....best wishes,
MBOT
I KNOW.......lol.....you wanna know the funniest part?.....I wasn't even TRYING...lol......and then when I went to do it again.......I got involved in something and missed it by 2 seconds..lol.....and I figured out exactly how to do it too.....SO.....yes.....Synchronicity ......WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..........z
You and your 11:11:11, you should pay more attention to synchronicity. Maybe go check out Jung's book.
subject: melissa davis
AlanC
Share
Sunday, December 18, 2011 12:48:34 PM
Re: AlanC post# 7917
Post # of 7922
Someone PM'd me this article which I had not seen before but found interesting and worth sharing. Will we see prosecutions of these "authors" in the near future? Speaking of the IRS I wonder if these "authors" are reporting all their sources of income
Melissa Davis of StreetSweeper: In Bed with Short Sellers and Convicted Felons
Posted on March 7, 2011 by admin
When Melissa Davis of TheStreetSweeper.org published an article about RedChip that was as bizarre as it was inaccurate, RedChip decided to do a little homework on this “financial journalist.”
When she pointed to two stocks that RedChip represented 5 years ago for less than 6 months in an attempt to define our 18-year history, we thought something might be up. When she failed to mention our stellar track record in representing some of the top small-cap names in the market, and when she failed to mention any of our current 30 clients and the market-cap and percentage gains they have experienced under the comprehensive RedChip platform, we knew there had to be a hidden agenda. Approximately 90% of RedChip clients are profitable with strong annual revenues and earnings growth. Many are listed on the Nasdaq and NYSE: Amex.
When she failed to mention that the only notable critics of the RedChip hybrid research model were she, Herb Greenberg, and a now-defunct research competitor, we took a closer look at her background and that of her employer.
Paid by Hedge Fund Shorters to Write Hit Pieces
On February 10, 2011, Ms. Davis published a StreetSweeper article on vaccine developer iBio, Inc. that included the following disclosure:
Prior to the publication of this article, a third-party investor with whom TheStreetSweeper has a profit-sharing arrangement effected a “short sale” of 89,715 shares of the stock of iBio, Inc. at $5.31 a share with the intent of profiting from decreases in the price of such stock. TheStreetSweeper will share in any profits the third-party investor realizes from the short sale.
The fact that TheStreetSweeper.org was in cahoots with a hedge fund shorting the stock Davis attacked should speak volumes to investors about the integrity of her reporting and TheStreetSweeper.org’s real purpose. Davis is a paid hack, not an objective journalist.
Convicted Racketeer Sits on TheStreetSweeper’s Advisory Board
Among other journalistic tactics, Ms. Davis is fond of implying current malfeasance by dredging up prior executive sins, as in a June 2010 exposé titled “Ecosphere: A Clean Energy Company with a Dirty CEO?” in which she trumpeted drug convictions that the CEO of Ecosphere Technologies, Inc. incurred more than 20 years ago. Such actions are hypocritical when you consider that a key member of TheStreetSweeper’s “clean up crew” was convicted less than a decade ago of racketeering as well as conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering. Apparently rehabilitation is something that only members of the StreetSweeper team can achieve.
Tabloid Journalism
In today’s digital age, it is entirely possible to produce high-quality journalism armed with only a phone line and an Internet connection. Indeed, Ms. Davis was honored by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2008 for “Shattered Hopes,” a piece about Johnson & Johnson that she penned for TheStreet.com. We commend her for this achievement; however, her work for TheStreetSweeper.org falls far below “the highest standards of economic journalism.” Her pieces are packed with editorializing phrases and loaded words that display obvious bias, her work reveals little that isn’t already publicly available in SEC filings and press releases, and she draws unsupported left-field conclusions with the breathlessness of a celebrity tabloid reporter.
Takes Credit Where It Isn’t Due
In her RedChip article, Ms. Davis credits TheStreetSweeper with being the first to caution investors about Imaging3, Inc., a medical device company that was a RedChip client for less than a year in 2008. IMGG hit an all-time high of nearly $2 per share in November 2009 before plummeting shortly thereafter. Ms. Davis misguidedly accuses RedChip of not warning investors about IMGG’s imminent downfall.
Here are the facts: Prior to dropping research coverage of IMGG in January 2009, RedChip downgraded its initial rating of “Speculative Buy” to a “Hold” and suspended its target price on IMGG stock, citing concerns about the Company’s lack of visibility, weak balance sheet, and high capital requirements. In other words, RedChip voiced serious concerns about IMGG nearly a year before the stock “collapsed.”
In contrast, TheStreetSweeper didn’t “sound the alarm” on IMGG until November 2009—more than 11 months after RedChip.
Overstates Credentials
Prior to joining TheStreetSweeper, Ms. Davis spent two years as a reporter for The Daily Oklahoman (now The Oklahoman), a newspaper based in Oklahoma City. CNBC commentator Herb Greenberg recommended her for a job at TheStreet.com because both were researching Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. at the same time and he came across her article on the company. Although her StreetSweeper bio touts her seven years of experience as “one of the top investigative reporters at TheStreet.com,” Ms. Davis recently informed Matt Kantrowitz, RedChip’s Director of Equity Research, that she was only a freelance contributor to the site, worked out of her Oklahoma City home, and barely met anyone at the company during her time there. Does this sound like the description of a “top” reporter? One would expect more integrity from someone who works in an industry built upon objectivity and the pursuit of truth.
Low Ratings
TheStreetSweeper does not have much of a following, as its ratings are so low it does not even register as a followed site on Quantcast.com and ranks poorly at Alexa.com. Certainly, citing an anonymous poster from the Yahoo! Finance message board as a source does little to enhance one’s journalistic credibility. Nevertheless, everyone loves a good scandal, and such muckraking journalism carries the potential to drive down a company’s stock price–and has successfully done so in the past. Such slanted journalism must therefore be exposed.
Unreliable Reporting, Not to be Trusted
We at RedChip applaud the efforts of those who legitimately attempt to uncover stock scams and report them in an objective manner. As for Ms. Davis, her work is couched in innuendo, inflammatory language, misdirection, and logical fallacies. Her heavy reliance upon verbal gymnastics and sensationalism calls her motives into question. In our view, this is one “journalist” whose work just can’t be relied upon.
Disclosure: The subject securities are not clients of RedChip Companies, Inc. RedChip Companies, Inc., employees and affiliates may have positions and affect transactions in the securities or options of the issuers mentioned herein. For full financial disclosures for all RedChip clients, please visit www.redchip.com/disclosures.asp?src=rcv. http://blog.redchip.com/index.php/stocks/melissa-davis-of-streetsweeper-in-bed-with-short-sellers-and-convicted-felons#.Tu4B8mDgIgo
====
original post courtesy of alanc
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=70059177
i'm familiar with ms. davis from 2 stocks .. years ago when i still
believed <naively> in the system .. from FPRT .. which was savaged
and more recently from HHWW .. which has also been savaged ..
of course these articles are done to disguise stocks being orchestrated
just remember .. when there is no disclosure <transparency> or
accountability .. it's easy to play both sides .. run a stock
short a stock .. the best way to *short* a stock is to *authorize*
a hit piece .. any co. can be targeted .. but on the poorly watched
OTC .. some are easier pickins' .. than others
one aspect never deviates tho' .. that is mgmt gets labeled as the CONS and scammers ..
when in reality the CON is the *article* and those *backers* who are making MILLIONS off the *timing*
==
4kids
all jmo
TBS Joke: A lawyer and a senior citizen are sitting next to each other on a long flight.
The lawyer is thinking that seniors are so dumb that he could get one over on them easily.
So, the lawyer asks if the senior would like to play a fun game.
The senior is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.
The lawyer persists, saying that the game is a lot of fun...."I ask you a question, and if you don't know the answer, you pay me only $5.00. Then you ask me one, and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500.00," he says.
This catches the senior's attention and, to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.
The lawyer asks the first question. "What's the distance from the Earth to the Moon?"
The senior doesn't say a word, but reaches into his pocket, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.
Now, it's the senior's turn. He asks the lawyer, "What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?"
The lawyer uses his laptop to search all references he can find on the Net.
He sends E-mails to all the smart friends he knows; all to no avail. After an hour of searching, he finally gives up.
He wakes the senior and hands him $500.00. The senior pockets the $500.00 and goes right back to sleep.
The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes the senior up and asks, "Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?"
The senior reaches into his pocket, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep.
Don't mess with old farts!
z
Yeah..there is that....I was talking more about enforcing the rules with the mm's, brokerages, hedge funds....etc........z
Sorry I basterdized your quote....lol...Never seen anything as good as JBII in all my years of investing........fwiw........z
The Blind Squirrel Board HOTTEST Stock of the Decade: JBIIThis Board is for posting general investing knowledge and hot picks. If you're not 99.9% sure of a pick, don't post it..........z 20 GOLDEN RULES FOR TRADERS
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Bad News: If your Stock is involved with Yorkville Advisors, or the NIR group: Similar to YA Global (Cornell, Yorkville Advisors), NIR funding is a death spiral for companies involved with them. The GREATEST SCAM ever perpetrated on the United States of America: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7757684583209015812&hl
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Cool Happy Birthday Song: http://jamiethompson.net |
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