Friday, December 18, 2009

International Legal Aid or a Fabricated Intelligence Hoax?

I received a bizarre comment on a film blog that read like a Woody Allen spoof of a Bourne or James Bond film.. the link was to a Google site called "Jillstarrsite".. when I went there it says it's a non-governmental legal society connected to the Int'l Criminal Court of the UN...

Is this a legimate organization and site? Or have we suckered into visiting an NSA or CIA fabrication of disinformation? Remember that the early Bolsheviks around Lenin maintained their power (brilliantly I might add) by KGB founder Felix Derzhinsky created anti-Bolshevik organizations, getting thousands to join worldwide, then rounding up their members at conventions or local meetings.. you have to admire people that ingenious, and their techniques, because they are effective, have likely been studied and copied by most intelligence organizations..

So, if you want to get involved in international humanitarian legal aid that promotes non-violence and protection of individuals and groups, check out this link.. If you find out it's something bogus please let us know.. The "Jill Starr Site" at Google Sites

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Capitalism, Vietnamese Style

When VIETNAM capitalizes a company now, and they plan to capitalize all their companies, each employee gets equal shares. ALL employees now have a vested interest in their company being profitable.. this is "socialism", mgrs get paid more, but not 100m a year, and everyone is happy. THIS WAS SET UP with advisors from the US, former SEC officials, who were able to correct the failures with our system. Their stock mkt has been booming, among the world's best for two years running now.

It's currently KICKING BUTT over U.S. capitalism, which is a corporate welfare state that rewards cronyism and nepotism (let's all hire family members, friends, and frat brothers) and not productivitity or brains or anything else. It's like religions, the most average people of all who produce nothing themselves end up running things and simply steal as much money as they can legally or otherwise - hence, capitalism's failure here. When only the top 1% benefit from this, NO ONE ELSE CARES HERE either, just like in Communist Russia.. where's our incentive now?

There IS NO INCENTIVE here either now, just for buying lottery tickets or playing online poker. There's certainly no incentive for working all your life for minimum wage in a bankrupt system with no money left for social security but apparently plenty left for war and corporate bailouts.

After two centuries of slave labor, it's time to try something more equitable for the masses, the other 99% of us who work for a living. Even slaves got food, housing, and medical attention, things we can even seem to provide nowdays.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

What's Wrong With the U.S. Picture?

The average US salary is now 24k - can you live on that with a family, outside of a few poverty-stricken states? Also, does anyone know if that includes all the executives and hedge-fund managers making over 100 million a year, and pulling money out of the consumer system? If so, the real average is much lower- that's the problem with stats, a few at the top skewer the results into a "positive spin" (fed talk) We also don't know how many so-called "illegal workers" are making even less than that while being paid in cash, so wealthy employers can not only avoid supporting the country through the IRS, but also line their own pockets at the expense of everyone. My theory: if you can afford to own a business, you can afford to abide by the laws.

If you are NOT properly capitalized, you should not be in business. Even the Bible warns people to not "impoverish their employees", that those hiring and paying people are "responsible for their well-being", and tells working people to not work for unfair employers because it perpetuates all the sorrow.

Since we lead the world in bankruptcies, murders, prisoners, guns, insanity, homeless: something is WRONG!

One definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

News Video from Xinjiang Riots

The authorities in China have now killed over 140 demonstrators in the riots in the Xinjiang province.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Dylan Ratigan's MSNBC Show Premieres June 29th

Dylan Ratigan's new show on MSNBC is due to launch on Monday, June 29th, at 9 a.m.


Dylan Ratigan Joins MSNBC

Ratigan had said in the interview with Henry Blodget that he wanted "to cover a systemic failure", basically in U.S. economic policy, "from a wider base", in other words, a bigger rating and not a narrow-demographic such as CNBC's.

[from Wikipedia]
"Dylan Ratigan, born Dylan James Ratigan in Saranac Lake, NY, is a journalist covering the political angle of the financial markets and the broader economy for MSNBC.

Phil Griffin, president of the network, announced on May 6, 2009, that Ratigan would create a two-hour show for the network which he will host. The show, Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan, will air weekday mornings from 9 to 11 A.M. ET and is due to launch Monday, June 29, 2009. Ratigan will also contribute to other NBC News programs. Ratigan previewed the show in thanking Griffin for the opportunity "to discuss any and all political issues with no directive other than to provide compelling content."

[Let's see, from CNBC, an NBC affiliate, to MSNBC, an NBC affiliate.. hmmm - not much of a leap was it? How did I miss this happening, oh, no one cared or covered it I guess, it was in May - Jose]

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Government of, by, and for the Corporations

China blocks all blogs, and totally censors all the information for its citizens, and they're our #1 supporter and trade partner. Yet we protest about human rights in Iran and North Korea, as they aren't important sources of funds for us. It's become obvious that the US can be bought by anyone with any money remaining. Individual rights, liberties, the Constitution are all now rendered meaningless - we no longer have any philosophy or ethics, just debt. We're now the wandering beggar of the world, taking handouts from everyone that will give. This kind of reminds me of churches, like the Vatican being in bed with the Mafia in Italy, the only possible reason could be financial.

This is the problem with depending on money as your basic religion, philosophy, or national system. When the flow of money your way stops, you have nothing to fall back on. So not knowing anything else, they just print more money! Why not change the system that has failed instead? Oh yeah, those with the power and who still have financial clout won't allow the system to be changed, because they are the beneficiaries of everyone else's losses. Someone made money while others lost, I'm still hearing of hedge fund managers getting 500 million for one year.

We all know that politicians are funded by major corporations, and each member of Congress is courted by 4-5 lobbyists, and that all the major media are owned by big corporations. Check out the film Thank You for Smoking for a hilarious satire of this situation. There's no way they want this system changed, they make big profits when things are good, then get bailed out by the government officials they own when times are bad. Meanwhile, the citizens, ie consumers, lose money in each scenario to these corporations. We pay all their profits in good times, then just hand them free money in bad times. Why can't individuals get the same breaks when we can't find jobs?

Like FDR and Ike told us, we truly have a government of, by, and for the corporations. How about one for small businesses and individuals instead, that would help more people survive. That 100 million a year income can go a lot further if not given to one corporate CEO, and instead went to a thousand small businesses (100k each), who hire more people in the country overall.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

The 9/11 Trainer Was an FBI Informant

[This was a Peter Dale Scott talk in Palo Alto, October 27, 2006.]

This is a well-documented article, and I've heard parts of this from other sources. I also remember the CIA saying they wrote 80% of all the news we hears, so maybe this is their own black ops? I don't think so, it points the finger at them.

I also remember a time when al Queda reps were on the US radio, allowed to go nationwide, begging for money from citizens to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. We gave them money, weapons, sting missile launchers (which can bring down helicopters), basically whatever they wanted.

For years, Saddam Hussein was the U.S.'s ally and basically fought the war with Iran for us, to get our aid. When that failed he predictably became "the enemy".

Believe this or not, personally I think we only find out about 5% of the overall picture, that things are a lot more planned and orchestrated than they want us to believe. He not only was an FBI informant, but also had worked for the CIA, and was a member of the U.S. Army.

The 9/11 Trainer Was an FBI Informant

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Saturday, May 23, 2009

The Memory Loss Tapes, Alzheimer's Project on HBO, Sunday 9pm



HBO is going to repeat this series often, and sometimes the signal will be unscrambled, allowing everyone to see "The Alzheimer's Project". Part one is "The Memory Loss Tapes".
HBO calls the series "A new way of looking at the disease". Click here for the HBO Link, and all four episodes can be streamed from here as well.

My lifetime friend, Charlton McMillan, and his wife Shari Cookson were instrumental in creating The Memory Loss Tapes, the first episode of this four-part HBO series. Shari, who is a multiple Emmy nominee for Living Dolls and All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise, shares director-producer credit with Nick Doob. Charlton, an Emmy winner for Living Dolls, shares editing credit with Nick. Charlton also did some editing work on the second part of the series, Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?

Here are two print reviews for the series:
New York Times
L.A. Times
A blog review from critic James Bawden

Be sure to either watch or record this and let people know about it. We never know when we will have to deal with this disease either within our families or within our own minds. Rather than giving money to corporate gamblers, we should be funding cures and care for humanitarian efforts and documentaries such as these.


The Alzheimer's Organization is at http://www.alz.org/

Patients and families affected by Alzheimer’s can visit Icara Study to see if they might be eligible to enroll. [Thanks to Tracy for this]

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

How to Save the Economy

Well, everyone's got their own ideas on how to save our economy, which has apparently gone to the brink of armageddon because consumers borrowed money they shouldn't have. It's not the fault of the lawmakers, they just did what the corporations told them to do when they put them into office. It's not the fault of the corporations who lent money because that's their business, moving money around, allowing people to "live the American dream", which includes something for nothing, not paying back loans, and getting out of contracts when you're losing money on the deal.


Bankruptcy is also part of the American Dream. You can fail over and over, declare bankruptcy each time, then when you finally hit it big, the money is yours to keep, forget about all the prior creditors you left holding the bag - covering your own losses is not part of the American Dream.

I've been convinced by Larry Kudlow on CNBC (economic whiz from the Reagan era) and other right-wingers and pro-prosperity neo-religions that here are the steps necessary to save economy:


  • Taxes are bad, so no one will have to pay any. It was only necessary when implemented to pay for the Civil War first, then World War I later; we currently don't have a world war to pay for.

  • About a million religions and churches survive on nothing but donations, so why not the military and the government? The US military might has far more supporters than any religion, and as "might makes right" in the modern world, citizens will gladly give money to prove they are the "mightiest" alive. God favors those who take what they want, so this will also please God. Military ads already run free on tv, so we'll just make them all ads asking for donations. In return, we will get bumper stickers and lapel pins with "I Support G.I. Joe" on them.

  • Corporations can hire more and more cheap labor if they don't have to pay taxes, social security, unemployment insurance, all that other bureaucratic nonsense that keeps them from making a fair profit. Corporations can barely survive anymore, and the days of 10 billion a year in profits are harder to come by. They will assuredly use the extra profits to hire more workers and raise salaries as well. Who needs social security if you can easily find jobs until you die? Only the wealthy deserve retirement.

  • Rich people hire everyone else (right, Kudlow?), so they shouldn't have to pay any taxes, which will allow them to hire more and more annually with the savings, called "the trickle down effect". If all the wealthy can hire the rest of us as cooks, chauffeurs, nannies, butlers, gardners, maids, bridge partners, valets, shoe-tiers, dog walkers, ass-kissers, and yes-men, then the pressure will be less on corporations or the "gubbermen" to hire everyone, thus improving their profits as well.

  • Allow everyone to sell weapons without any restrictions. We own over 2 guns per capita as a nation, no reason that can't increase to 4 if we allow unrestricted weapon purchases at things like flea markets, church sales, yard sales, social clubs, baby showers, birthday parties, and every other opportunity available. We will be better protected, there will be less criminals because they're afraid of people with guns, and everyone will have more money to spend as a result. We will maintain our personal weapons edge on the rest of the world.

  • Remove all restrictions on any company or industry's business. Capitalism will always police itself and keep out the corruption and price-fixing, which only occurs when there's government regulation, they go hand-in-hand. The more successful companies there are, the lower prices will be from all the competition. If someone like Exxon or IBM makes a trillion, this will foster and encourage competition. Imagine if we all drilled for oil or built our own super-computers, we could all succeed like the big guys. Get off your butts!

  • Send every citizen about $100,000, then they can pay off credit cards and car loans, then spend like crazy on liquor, fast food, iPhones, downloadable music, new DVDs, expensive SUVs, 60" TVs, air Nikes, Haagen-Daas, and other necessitities currently only available to executives, criminals, bankers, preachers, and congressmen. The $600 rebate stimulated the economy so well that 100k ought to do a great job. Why not, they print money daily, as much as they want - it can be done!


Hey, it's just a start, this is my first day at saving American capitalism, and I'm still waiting for my government stimulation check so I can hire a staff to help me with the next post! and live The American Dream.

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Iran Frees Journalist Saberi

Saberi, 32, a freelance reporter for National Public Radio, British Broadcasting Corp. and others, had been held in Tehran's Evin prison since Jan. 31, evoking an international response as well as a European Parliament petition, and Saberi's own hunger strike.

Here's the full story in the Usa Today release:
Saberi Freed by Iran

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Friday, May 8, 2009

Free Roxana Saberi

Update: Roxana was freed by Iran on Tuesday 5.12

Group at Facebook to free U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi - jailed in Iran for buying a bottle of wine, now charged with spying, given 8 yrs in prison.
Free Roxana Saberi Group



If we are jailed for our opinions, then we're all guilty!

More information:

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Fed Refuses to Help Credit Card Holders

If you needed any more proof that the U.S. is now a "Corporate welfare state", the Fed is refusing to implement any regulations to preven credit card companies from gouging individuals with interest rate hikes and the other shenanigans they pull.
Fed Refuses to Help Credit Card Holders

All the Senate is asking for is some semblance of fairness. When card issuers can borrow money at 2% from the government, there seems to be an element of organized crime at work when they can charge over 20% interest. When did banking get to the point that they can mark up credit at 1000% over costs? What philosophy allows us to give trillions to corporations that gambled away their money and ours, yet not help individual consumers who have not frittered away their wealth at all but are now being punished further by corporations, under the guise of "we can't survive otherwise"? Maybe they shouldn't survive if they can't make money fairly.

If our nation refuses to help individuals, then they've become what Jefferson warned about, "tyrannical and unresponsive to the people." When do the rights of companies who can't survive on their own usurp the rights of individuals, of consumers?

What bothers me is that corporations are nothing more than legal entities, "paper tigers". When they need money, they simply print more stock. This in itself is inflationary and dilutive to current owners of the equity. Apparently both the fed and all corporations can print money, and the latter without any special permission or with any checks and balances.

This system is completely insane. How we let ourselves come to be both governed and gouged by corporations is a lengthy history of gradually letting the crooks have all the keys to the "national bank".

For me, the way to stop this is several steps: (a) do not allow corporations to issue "secondary offerings" of stock unless under financial duress of survival, and only with SEC approval (b) remove the "one share, one vote" rule, which allows a few wealthy individuals to "buy votes" by buying more shares, then the major shareholders can collude to completely control all the other shareholders and override their wishes, then finally (c) declare corporations unconstitutional, which is a bill that comes up in Congress annually, but since the politicians are all owned by corporations through campaign donations, will never happen.

As the current crisis shows, they will rob us blind, gamble away the money, then expect the consumers to pay that back as well as continuing to pay high costs as well. When legal entities become more important than individuals then we have NO democracy, no freedom, and we all become slaves to the whims of big money, who can continue to rob us through the legal system.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Zodiac Killer Revealed by Daughter?

A very interesting story is now developing in regards to the Zodiac killer.
A 42 year old woman named Deborah Perez claims that her father was the Zodiac killer in northern California, Guy Hendrickson. She says she wrote one note to the police, and still has the first victim's glasses, from a cabbie, that her dad kept as a souvenir.

Here's the USA Today version of today's story:
Woman's Dad the Zodiac Killer?

Now, I hope that everyone interested in this case or well-made films has seen the 2007 movie Zodiac, excellent examination by director David Fincher of both the police and a journalist's investigations into the serial killings.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Are Foreign Enemies Crushing Our Markets?

I just did an analysis of the leveraged ETFs (exchange traded funds) for YTD in 2009. It doesn't look good, as nearly all are down vs the underlying indices. So whatever is causing this (management fees?), it's not a good bet for the public investor.

Jim Cramer of Mad Money (CNBC, the "Orwellian voice of corporate propaganda", and proud of it) is wrong that they have too much leverage, because options and futures traders have even more leverage (at least 10-1, 40-1 on futures?) and there are options on everything now - so you'd have to ban all leveraged instruments if that argument of his holds water. I've often thought the futures (especially trading off hrs) have way too much influence - a few guys overnight (Al Q on laptops in their caves using sovereign funds?) can sell em off and clobber the market's opening for no reason. I saw the Dow futures down 500 pts once (when worth 4000) simply because Brazil devalued its currency! WHY do we allow this? The futures should only trade when the market is open to allow immediate adjustments. Like allowing invidual investors to get out with a small loss, not wake up suddenly down 15% like the Brazilian pesata day.

No one seems to care, do they? - let's just give our petrodollars to our enemies who then use them to short the mkt and hurt us even more - this is madness! All this is giving "them" the weapon to kill our kind of gambling capitalism, where corporations survive based on market value! (I didn't realize this until the market runs on the most important financial stocks; suddenly their credit was worthless due to low stock prices). Plus they don't pay tax on the capital gains or dividends either - double whammy of investing 'Pearl Harbor'!

"We had to stimulate foreign investment" they would tell us - WHY?? Why not stimulate them buying goods and not wrecking our investment markets? This system of economics baffles me, it places us at the mercy of our enemies, who certainly don't want us to prosper through investing or it looks like our brand of corrupt capitalism succeeds for the average citizen, which I don't believe anyway. This only benefits those with enough capital to make more, pay huge executive salaries that only benefit a few, and also encourages the buying of politicians and agencies like the FDA, and if they NEED to pay off or contribute to all these to "get their policies invoked", then those must NOT be policies benefial to all, or they would have been implemented already.

Common sense, it there's any remaining in the face of total economic collapse.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Can the World Attain Peace?

I often think that since man's evolutionary nature has been established as nomadic hunter-killers (scientists have proven that the herbalist humanoids died off, each time, but the killer-carnivores survived, largely by eating carrion like other animals), we will remain in this state of evolution until something radical changes us all. Perhaps it will take another deadly plague, perhaps another world war that will end with all national borders being eradicated.

One would hope for our evolution into spiritual beings, as in Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", but that seems still centuries away, sadly. (Kubrick wanted to film this novel, but with existing technology, "2001: A Space Odyssey" was all they could film together at the time, he and Clarke wrote this story just for the film; Clarke, by the way, did not believe in evil, never had a book with any.)

As long as there are invisible national boundaries, we will always have each nation's own sovereignty and security causing wars. Perhaps when the polar caps melt, and 90% of the world's populations are displaced who live along coastlines and major rivers, then we can lose the nationalistic militarism that keeps the world in conflict.

Just because we have the term utopia doesn't mean it cannot be attained. Most of our reality is created from dreams; the future is what we build from these. We also have the opposite term: dystopia, which seems to be the current world state for the last 3000-5000 years at least. If one can be reality, so can its opposite; the Yin-Yang of the universe should always eventually occur to balance each other.

Mankind apparently also finds some sort of validation in the glory and courage necessary for warriors. It seems that women don't have this need as much as the need to create and foster life, thankfully! We all need to assert this feminine grace toward life, and forget about the valor of war, which is attained at the high cost of innocent life. If, rather than "good/evil" struggles, we all just concentrated on progress, exploration, healing, and creating, we might find a better alternative than death and destruction.

A quote from Lawrence of Arabia, "War is for young men of courage and valor, keeping the peace is for old men with nothing else to do." (Alec Guinness as Prince Feisal). Great script, won an Oscar®.

Personally, I would go to jail before fighting in any war or killing another being, nothing is that important. I would die myself before becoming a killer.

Peace to all, José

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Daily Market Reversal

Up Friday, down Monday, up Tuesday, down Wednesday (4.22). Just like that terrible commercial, "you buy and sell the same stocks, again and again." Yep, that's what they're doing. Buy em today, sell em tomorrow, ad infinitum.

Is this market getting to be like a stuck record, constantly skipping back and forth and ending up in the same places? Sometimes it reverses direction daily for 4-8 days in a row. It makes asolutely no sense. One day financials are 'headed for doom', they and the market plunge. The next day, the feds speak, change some rule, and suddenly financials are covered by shorts, 'scrambling like scalded monkeys' ( thanks to Jeff Macke), and the market goes back up. Lately, it's almost like clockwork. A clock with just two settings: light and dark (up and down).

Someone is obviously playing the same old game with us to get churning, trading, commissions, whatever - and the TV propagandists like CNBC are all part of the disinformation game. They just sit there making up news and rumors, then laugh when the market reverses and some sectors, usually financials, move 20%. It's getting very old, and they are losing investors for good whom they should need.

Apparently not, this has become a poker game for insiders only: floor traders, hedge fund managers, big brokerages. The little investor is unwanted and can't pay the huge buy-in required, apparently millions per entry, or you don't rate being in the game.

I think the market professionals didn't really like having the average person in the market, so they figured out a way to get rid of us - all the millions of small IRA and 401 accounts aren't worth the time and effort to do the bookkeeping. If you don't have millions, and allow the brokerages to leverage that for their own use to manipulate stocks in collusion with their colleagues and hedge fund minions, then you're of little use or value, or "the capitalists don't want you."

This has become a game of and for big money only, who are trying their best to eradicate the lower and middle classes from spheres of influence. What they want and may have created is an autocracy of big money - a government by, of, and for the wealthy only. After all, "they create all the jobs", if you listen to the neo-fascist leader of white America, Larry Kudlow of CNBC - the same bozo that was an economic advisor for Ronald "spend like there's no tomorrow" Reagan, who later admitted after the 1987 crash that "the U.S. economy is a house of cards."

Kudlow thinks if you keep giving capitalists a free reign, their immense wealth will "trickle down" to the little guy. Well, that obviously doesn't work: they take what they can steal and smuggle it out to foreign countries with secretive banking, where the U.S. can't get to it, and they can retire both wealthy and out of reach. The joke on us is that millions still believe this, thinking that capitalism is a "lottery they can win", like the housewives paraded for us on shows like Donny Deutsch's "Big Idea", pretending that "you too can get rich with a good idea". Fat chance, I'd be much better off playing the Don't Pass line at any craps table in Nevada, betting against the shooters and with the casino.

Too bad we can't really bet with the casino here. If you buy the stock of a successful company, there's no guarantee they still won't steal all the money and go bankrupt, it seems to be the true American way. In fact, in 1987 some brokerages also went bankrupt and angry investors had to wait for the feds to get around to paying their money back at a pace even slower than the Katrina victims rescue. Let's just hope it doesn't take half a century like it took the Swiss banks to return money stolen from the Jews by Nazis in WW2; they gave it to Israel because this was money without any living heirs, but they held the billions for over 40 years, and no one knows really how much was there, or how much went to other nations' banks.

Money knows no boundaries or politics, and has no ethics to worry about.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

The Dumbest Ongoing Product Bans

Everyone should read this terrific article, about the dumbest bans current invoked by the government.

subtitled: Annual Review of Regulatory Absurdity by Eli Lehrer
The Five Dumbest Product Bans

#1 is the cancer drug Provenge, made by Dendreon (DNDN), of which approval was recommended by the FDA review panel 13-4, with a unanimous vote that "it's safe". However, under suspicious circumstances like conflicts of interest and possible bribery, the FDA itself denied approval, leaving terminal prostate cancer victims with shorter lives and no other promising drug.

This has become just another in a long string of stories involving apparent corporate corruption reaching into the government. Personally, I go in and out of the DNDN stock, thinking one day that justice will prevail and a drug that extends lives will be made available in spite of opposition from big pharma and their lobbyists. I'm currently long the stock once again, since their new test results are supposed to be ready for the feds during 2009.

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Sunday, April 5, 2009

Thoreau on the State vs the Individual

"There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power is derived, and treats him accordingly.. to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistant with its own repose, if a few were to live aloof from it. A state which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a more perfect and glorious state, which I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen."
-- Henry David Thoreau

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Friday, March 27, 2009

Religions Need Financial Auditing for National Security

"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" (words of Jesus)

It's past time to end the tax-free status of religions. Many waste the money on themselves anyway (some preachers now have jets!), some even send the money overseas to terrorists. Making them taxable would enable government auditing, otherwise we have no idea where the money is going. In fact, we're paying for all the CULTS that we love to hate as well. Simply make up a religion ("Church of Monday Night Football" was one) and get tax-free status!

This affects taxes you and I and everyone else pays, we're being forced to subsidize religious contributions. Is this fair to everyone? Athiests? The growing number of 'spiritual but not religious' people? Religions like Buddhism or Taoism that don't ask for money, have no word for "tithing"? Why should all of them pay for donations to televangelists? Most would rather feed the poor than air-condition a big building that's empty 98% of the time.

This also hinders national security, the big buzz-word allowing big brother intrusions on all our rights. OK, the government is going to remove or hamper individual rights, why not the self-proclaimed rights of religions - why are they immune to examination and responsible actions?

Both the OLD and NEW testaments warned that churches are for hypocrites, even Jesus said the truly devout pray in private at home, not in public! I have this and more at Bible Decoded

This blog is aimed at cutting throught the materialist hypocrisy rampant in religion today and revealing the underlying metaphysical philosophy that I believe religions have forgotten and are hiding from the 'worshippers', who get no education, just a place to worship and sing.

My former Methodist church in Macon, Georgia now has a security guard in the huge parking lot, and a bullet-proof glass and a locked-door for their main office! You talk to the receptionist through a hole in the glass! UNREAL -- when I found out after my mom died, I decided to NEVER go back to this church again. They waste enough money to feel half of Georgia annually, and brag about their huge income from annual tithes ("fourth in the nation" at one point). This is not a church, this is a bank with armed guards. Ironically, it's within a mile of some real inner-city slums, of course it's an African-American residential area. This is why people are leaving traditional churches.

What would Jesus think about this, done "in his name"?

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Not Responsible for Accidents

Ever see the useless signs “Not Responsible for Accidents”? (Bowling alleys, gun and archery ranges, etc.) I always thought what a clever legal ploy, just deny any legality beforehand. It’s not really legal; the dean of a law school told me that the signs are irrelevant in court, they just hope to discourage lawsuits. Fat chance, this is America!

So, why can’t everyone just do that, put up signs, waiving responsibility?

On my truck I’ll have:


  • Not responsible for weaving all over the road
  • Not responsible if I hit a pedestrian on the sidewalk
  • Not responsible for old food on the passenger's side
  • Not responsible for the collection of old mail on the floor


While at home, these ought to suffice:

  • Not responsible if you get sick off my food
  • Not responsible if you bust your ass on my cracked steps
  • Not responsible if you can’t find any beer
  • Not responsible for being out of ice, potato chips, or cookies
  • (in the bedroom) Not responsible if you get pregnant

If you write a book, include in the front:

  • Not responsible for cuss words
  • Not responsible for bad humor
  • Not responsible for characters who get naked
  • Not responsible for misspellings
  • Not responsible for exaggerating the author’s romantic prowess

If you’re a singer:

  • Not responsible for singing off key
  • Not responsible for getting out of rhythm
  • Not responsible for getting lyrics wrong
  • Not responsible for broken guitar strings
  • Not responsible for encouraging groupies
  • Not responsible for you not getting laid
  • Not responsible if your girlfriend jumps onstage topless

The government could also do this:

  • Not responsible if you die in a U.S. war
  • Not responsible if you take a dangerous but approved drug
  • Not responsible if you breathe toxic air
  • Not responsible if a military jet crashes on hour house
  • Not responsible if an Army Corps of Engineers dam breaks
  • Not responsible for acts of terrorism that we warned you about
  • Not responsible for unlawful Congressmen
  • Not responsible for inflation, it’s a “free market” thing
  • Not responsible for corporations, they're a “free market” thing

Let’s not leave out law enforcement:

  • Not responsible for donut shortages
  • Not responsible for raids on the wrong house
  • Not responsible for accidental shootings of innocent civilians
  • Not responsible for crime in the streets
  • Not responsible for high speed chase crashes
  • Not responsible for pulling over hot babes for no reason
  • Not responsible for “bad cop” routines or overacting

And of course, banks and brokerages:

  • Not responsible for your stupid stock trades
  • Not responsible for fraudulent investments
  • Not responsible for hackers stealing your money
  • Not responsible for companies going bankrupt (especially ours)
  • Not responsible for corporations, they're a “free market” thing


The Big Guy, the Creator

  • Not responsible for what you do to the world after I create it

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Obama Walking and Chewing Gum at the Town Meeting

“As President, I have to walk and chew gum at the same time.” - President Obama tonight at the town meeting.

Obama gives a great town meeting! Obama started with a short talk, obviuosly winging it, getting into a rhythm and sounding like a cross between Dr. King and Jesse Jackson! He even once said "that be" instead of "that would be", as some street slang crept in - I love it.. we all know what he meant, and now he has street cred as well.

He's sounding a lot more like a real person now, he's even smiling and in a good mood. When he said "I'm hot, so I'm taking off my coat, you do the same", the crowd went nuts. Hey people, it’s not Elvis in Vegas, or Marvin Gaye in Atlanta!

He even had the kind of "amen" stuff going from the crowd as he was talking. At one point the crowd rose and chanted " O-BA-MA , O-BA-MA" and he laughed and stopped them. I was thinking "my god, he's not Hitler!"

Fun stuff though, a very loose and confident guy for a new President. When asked about running again in four years, he said "I'd rather be a good president for four years and take on the tough issues and problems than a mediocre one for eight years" -- obviously a poke at Dubya Bush.

He also held the meeting in Costa Mesa, Orange County – in Reagan and Nixon country! Good idea... as an announcer said "the most cheering for a democrat in Orange county in decades".

Good stuff and blog worthy! I like this guy and will support his efforts wherever I can. I feel that he has a heart, and that it's in the right place: here with the people.

"I'm not going to play the blame game. I'll take responsibility from now on, because I'm the President."

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Anyone Else Tired of Billionaires?

Well, CNBC kept mentioning the new Forbes annual billionaire list today (which I'm not about to link to!). Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about billionaires, the number we have vs the world, the number of new millionaires, lottery winners, the housewife who invented a baby sling and made ten million.

Not only is this a slap in the face of working people, but it's like a lottery or poker winner gloating to all the losers whose money they just won. This wealth has to come from somewhere, it doesn't just materialize for 'good people', the government doesn't just print them a billion and give it to them - it comes from all the rest of us.

Now let's multiply that times the 40-60 billion that Gates and Buffet and Carlos Slim each have, let's say 150 billion for three people at the top. This means 150,000 millions, or they could give 1,000 to each of 150,000,000 people, or half the people in the U.S. OK, let's say they keep half, only look at families, and don't give any to the top half in income, just families below the median: they could still give away 75 billion, give 38 million families at the bottom 2,000 each, and have 25 billion remaining apiece.

[Note: Any math errors are because I use "Larry Kudlow" math which is often off by a factor of ten, you know the CNBC loudmouth conservative idiot who claims you give a rich man a 5% tax cut he'll go out and hire some people rather than take an ocean cruise - and he was an economist on the Reagan team! Now you get an idea of why we are exactly where we are. Their thinking is often off by a factor of ten when it comes to huge numbers like trillions.]

You want economic stimulus? And this is just the three at the top of the wealth list. Let's imagine every billionaire gave half his wealth to U.S. citizens. Do you think there would be a spending spree to end all consumer binges? It would be crazier 'than a rat in a coffee can', to quote Jeff Macke on Fast Money.

Would a billionaire be worse off with 'only' 500 million?

Of course this will never happen, because the reverse process happened for them to gain all that wealth. We each, or our companies did, contributed to all these fortunes, that's where our money went. Of course it was an exchange, we got some goods or insurance or something in return, which we can't give back either! The portion they got to keep was the profit, and that's capitalism.

Maybe one day you too can become a billionaire, or even win a big lottery, that's the beauty and lure of capitalism isn't it, that one in million shot we each have, or is it one in a billion?

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Friday, March 6, 2009

A Secret Economic War Going On?

[This was a reply and thesis, ie guess, to a friend about something secret going on that we don't know about]

Yes, I finally agree on the 'secret economic war' theory.

Those holding our bonds have to roll them over when they mature, and if they don't the western economy collapses from the massive immediate loss of capital - so its usually not worth the cost to themselves to do this, but at some point those holding the most reach a saturation point (China, Saudi Arabia) and quit rolling them over; so the theory goes anyway.

This scenario was predicted in the 70's movie "Rollover" during the oil embargo and subsequent crisis then resulting in were huge lines at the pumps. However, if you destroy the US economy: no more big oil purchases.

However, if the US economy is already dead own its own accord, there's no reason to prop us up anymore, it's "throwing bad money after good". It looks like we're there now, killed by corporate under-regulation, extreme leverage, and greed.

This is my guess on the likely scenario, along with a possiblity that the counterfeit T-Bills/Vatican Bank scandal uncovered in the late 80's that was running into the billions back then, could be much higher now. Just as that news became public the Justice Department jumped in and squelched the investigation and the public information dried up! National security and all that propaganda, and just after that we had the S&L failures and more financial chaos, resulting in the Resolution Trust Corp and years of liquidation. How much of that was the bogus T-bills that had been swapped into bank vaults in place of the valid ones? Suddenly, banks didn't have the T-bills to back up deposits, they had worthless paper and 2500 failed - was this the real cause?

They can blame it on whatever they want for public consumption, but even the Nazis attacked western currencies to bring them down, counterfeiting first British pounds that passed the British bank inspectors as "valid notes", and were working on the US dollar as well. See the engrossing Austrian film "The Counterfeiters" for that story; it would likely have worked but the war ended, while the Jewish counterfeiters in the camp were slowing down the effort. They were gonna flood world banks with bogus British notes and U.S. dollars and devalue the currencies of each, bankrupting the nations.

Interesting late "news", the public seems to find out about 50 yrs later, when it's far too late!

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Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Former Qwest Head Goes To Prison

This could be an endless stream of these stories, but I used to work for these guys, at least they took over the company I worked for.

The prisons are going to be full of corporate criminals - well, except they don't have enough personnel at the FBI to arrest them all - budget cutbacks, they have 200 people doing the work of 1000... figures, just when you need a white collar cop!

Naccio Off to Prison

From Third Rock from the Sun, when the kid, Tommy, wanted to be a ganster (he mistook a meatcutter called "The Butcher" for a mob hit man!):

Newman: Tommy, if you do a crime there's a 5% chance you'll get caught - if caught, a 3% chance you'll get convicted - the numbers don't lie, so avoid crime! (I believe that comes out to 1.5 convictions per 1,000 crimes, .15% right?) too funny - it wasn't newman but that actor from seinfeld that played the cop..

Eventually the prisons will be full of ceo's teaching each other how to pull stock crimes, steal corporate money, fudge the budgets and financial reports, avoid all income tax with offshore banking, and other such executive short cuts created by lawmakers for themselves.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Will the Right Wing Leave Obama Alone Already?

I can't believe the right-wing media. Now they're blaming all the stock market drop since the inauguration on Obama, as if the financial situation just happened when he took office. ..and the whining about more taxes for the rich, give it up already - it's not enough extra to worry about in the light of everything else going on, or "no one cares about the tax problems of the wealthy anymore (if we ever did)."

First of all, any new remedies take time - he's been there, what, 45 days?

Second: the stock market and its prices are manipulated daily by collusion and hardly represents any kind of reality. It's the reality created by hedge and mutual fund managers and day traders. They think they can affect economic policy with daily market gyrations.

Third: we just gave these clowns a chance and look what happened. Unregulated capitalism = volunteered slavery. We may as well just send corporations our paychecks and let them volunteer how much taxes they'll allow the feds to have, they run things anyway - and once again: look at the result.

They wave the S word (socialism) like a new scarlet letter (see Hawthorne, you illiterates!) when the new bad one should be the C word. Something must be better than this, look at Denmark: 60% taxes, but then the feds provide everything expensive and even pay for social clubs, so 80% of the population are members, the same percentage that goes to church. Apparently 20% of the population are hermits (likely writers and artists) off alone somewhere. And they were found to be the "happiest country" after a 10 yr study. Need a heart transplant? It's free.. so is dying of cancer for years.

This certainly isn't Obama's creation, and the falling market isn't either; it had already been destroyed and will take a minor miracle to reverse at this point. The traders will stop whining, forget about 10% more taxes on what's basically free money anyway (well, you pay in stress) and realize there's more room on the upside at this point. It's just a manipulated numbers game anyway, not connected to any reality but its own.

See the real way the market works in the "Buying stocks doesn't drive the price up" post, based on a 10-yr study of the 1987 crash.
lawrence jose sinclair

"Don't you be calling me the C word!"

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Common Sense Capitalism or Am I Nuts?


As Featured On EzineArticles


I'm listening to the Republican reaction to President Obama's speech to Congress. I'm amazed at how they never really say anything new, but "lower taxes, stimulate the economy" and "we need less government" - naturally.

Well, we just had less government in the form of deregulation of banking, look at the result. We may as well have handed all those executives blank checks in the name of their companies, "here's billions to play with, and no federal oversight - go stimulate the economy". Of course, a lot of the money went overseas, stimulating other economies at the expense of our own. Call it "outsourcing", or simply investments in emerging economies, the simple fact is our money flowed out, not much came back.

If we leave it all up to capitalists, the results would have been even worse, and quicker. We have public committee oversight of utilities to keep them from making mistakes with energy we all need to survive. Why NOT the same for the banking industry? We act like they must be responsible fiscally, they have business or economic degrees. Well, the federal reserve had 1600 economists (with degrees) working full-time before this crisis occurred, and it still happened.

One side blames Congress, the other the President, but the simple fact for decades has been that the Republicans argue for more and more de-regulation and when they get it, it simply fails. They tried in England, and Prime Minister Thatcher had to end de-regulation after U.S. corporations raised water and utility rates 200-300% and go back to basically nationalization of the utilities. They tried it in Argentina, through pressure from the IMF and World Bank who was refusing that government loans unless they went with de-regulation, let U.S. corporations in and concurrently cut the average wages by 25%. Argentina gave in, got the loan, the result was massive demonstrations, rioting, martial law, death squads, and the 'disappeared'.

The facts have always proven out that capitalists will always seek the most profit for the least cost, and the public pays. Ironic, because the corporations need the public as consumers, else no sales, no profits, no corporations over time. They need to realize a healthy, well-paid consumer equates to successful sales and profits, and capitalism succeeds.

This means, higher costs paid to workers would benefit them overall, but no one company wants to raise wages. Less taxes for workers, more taxes for corporations would also increase consumerism, but how many do you hear say that works. Corporations say they pass on the taxes to consumers, so you're raising prices on them, but how about they simply make less money per year, instead of more and more? A healthy but sustainable profit is more valuable over time than ridiculously high profits that bankrupt everyone, such as when oil was $145 per barrel.

They can't charge us more and more annually for the same stuff and think that a six-hundred dollar rebate makes up for the daily gouging we go through on both sides: higher prices and wages that don't keep up. This is the real root of the problem, the system as it is operating doesn't work over time, more of the wealth produced has to be given to the working class, the consumers that pay for all the profits with purchases.

Having a few more millionaires buying expensive boats doesn't stimulate the overall economy, it's time we gave up that ridiculous pipe dream: most of us will never get wealthy from capitalism, we'll simply work for a wage all our lives and hope to live comfortably, and that should be enough.

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

U.S. Capitalism is Done

Capitalism as we know and abuse it is simply "done" - put a fork in it.

As we're seeing, give these jokers bailout money to save the biz and they simply take it home, put it in their overseas bank and the money disappears - just like wages sent overseas and all our other corporate welfare breaks.

The US's wealth has been smuggled to foreign banks with secrecy laws (which is a legal loophole that Congressmen abuse else they would eliminate it), just like the Nazis did in WW2 with money stolen from Jews. Most went into Switzerland, who later returned about 50 billion of this money to Israel, but decades later (and likely under international pressure).

What they don't tell us: wealth transfers between nations are what make them poor or wealthy, and the US got 60% of the world's gold from 1912-1933 in exchange for ARMS we exported to all sides in both wars!

NOW we'll have to see if the fascist wealth owners can complete a dictatorship by the autocracy (if they haven't already) or if the people will fight for freedom once again and change the system.

From 30 Rock:

"..this is our party's ongoing war against the poor" ('GE executive' Baldwin)
"don't you mean 'war against poverty?'" (Tina Fey)
"whatever... " (Baldwin)

This is sad but true, they're trying genocide on poor people once again.

In France, remember that they simply killed the wealthy, (18,000 of em with no discretion, they even killed supporters, incl. the inventor of the guillotine itself!); in Cuba they just kicked the U.S. out, took back the corporate property, and divided up the wealth and every man, woman, and child got free education, healthcare, housing, (even 'basic food'! this was on NPR about 2 wks ago, you don't even pay for bread, rice, milk, etc - so no one goes hungry) - and four acres of land.

So who cares about free speech or even needs it? (do we have it when corporations own all the media anyway?) That doesn't pay for my appendectomy or my mom's nursing home. WE'll NEVER get all that here, the corporations will show enough losses that NO ONE below them can ever get ahead now - we've been had, they've figured out a way to steal our future wealth as well.

Sometimes we think we have freedom, but if stuck without a job or money, how free are we? So I'm free to think or criticize the system, whoopee! It's a false freedom anyway, advocate revolution (changing the system that has failed) then it's "sedition" and suddenly a crime!

Today they'd have to lock up Thomas Jefferson, he advocated a new revolution every twenty years, "by each new generation", lest "the government become tyrcannical and unresponsive to the people."


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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Computers Missing at Nuclear Weapons Labs


It now appears there are at least 67 computers missing from the nation's nuclear weapons labs. Of course, they like to stress "nothing classified is missing", which means that it's highly likely there has been a theft of classified info. We'll only know after the fact, like 911, how our security and intelligence failed us again.

Here's the story at USA Today: Missing Computers


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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Petition to End Fed Ban on Stem Cell Funding

[Update: Pres. Obama lifted the ban on stem cell funding, finally, in early March]

Since Invitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics have killed 500,000 embryos simply helping infertile women have their own babies (when adoption is a better alternative), and stem cells have only been pulled from 20-25, the "they're killing embryos" argument is a moot point - we need to ban IVF first, and allow stem cell research which will save lives - undifferentiated stem cells can be directed to grow into hearts, livers, kidneys, eyes - any of 220 cell types in humans. New cells can be cloned from existing cells so a few can provide an endless stream of cells for research and drug creation.

Geron Corp. has first conquered cellular aging with these, they simply inject stem cells into aged cells and rejuvenate them; they had cells with 6 week lifespans they've kept alive since the 80's now! (called the "immortal line", they just never get old, never die). This can lead to Alzheimer's cures, halt aging, senility, senile dementia, bone dissolution, you name it. Their work on rats with severed spinal columns have repaired the damaged nerves and brought back movement when previouslyl they'd be paralyzed with no hope. These are the human tests that were approved on Jan 21 by the new administration. (No one is prohibited from using adult stem cells, but those are already the type they're gonna be, they cna't be used to grow hearts or eyes). They think they can cure deafness and blindness fairly quickly.

Other nations don't ban this research - a few pseudo-religious people here along with Bush have set us back a decade while other nations went forward. This petition will lift the federal ban on funding; the private sector is allowed to fund it now anyway, which also makes this a moot point: it's being done anyway and will continue to be. Major advancements have been made already at Duke Univ, Johns Hopkins, and U of Wisconsin Madison, UCLA using stem cell technology (most developed by Geron Corp, they have 160 patents so far, including the cloning of animals - their lab techniques cloned Dolly the Sheep).

THis is a petition site to send a petition to the administration to lift the federal ban -- it will happen eventually, this will just speed up the cure.

Petition to End Federal Stem Cell Funding Ban

"Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come" - Albert Einstein


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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Obama to Support New Technology

We all need to get behind Obama, he must succeed or the U.S. may be in real trouble. Like it or not, he's likely President for at least four year, probably eight, as the nation is finally fed up with the arrogance, theft, and self-righteousness of the right wing, the immoral majority, and Republican attitudes in general: "Support the wealthy, screw the rest of you", just doesn't work and now we know. Also, shipping wages out overseas to save a few bucks here on labor doesn't work either- I saw plunging home prices coming a DECADE ago, and posted this when forced out of computer work in CA due to outsourcing. But I'm a gnat and no one listens!

Check this out at the White House site.

The Obama administration support increased funding for stem cell research and other new technology, not announced publicly yet. This is from the White House site:

    White House Agenda


    Employ Science, Technology and Innovation to Solve Our Nation's Most Pressing Problems
    21st-century technology and telecommunications have flattened communications and labor markets and have contributed to a period of unprecedented innovation, making us more productive, connected global citizens. By maximizing the power of technology, we can strengthen the quality and affordability of our health care, advance climate-friendly energy development and deployment, improve education throughout the country, and ensure that America remains the world's leader in technology.

    Barack Obama and Joe Biden will:

    - Lower Health Care Costs by Investing in Electronic Information Technology Systems: Use health information technology to lower the cost of health care. Invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records.

    - Invest in Climate-Friendly Energy Development and Deployment: Invest $150 billion over the next ten years to enable American engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid. This investment will transform the economy and create 5 million new jobs.

    - Modernize Public Safety Networks: Spur the development and deployment of new technologies to promote interoperability, broadband access, and more effective communications among first responders and emergency response systems.

    - Advance the Biomedical Research Field: Support investments in biomedical research, as well as medical education and training in health-related fields. Fund biomedical research, and make it more efficient by improving coordination both within government and across government/private/non-profit partnerships.

    - Advance Stem Cell Research: Support increased stem cell research. Allow greater federal government funding on a wider array of stem cell lines.


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