“Still loving the Occupy Our Homes movement. And there appears to be an adjunct of Occupy Our Homes in Spain.” ; “”Surely someone who enters into a mortgage has a duty to meet their payments?” I ask her.

“I don’t agree, because we were tricked. They created a property bubble and they gave mortgages to everyone. It was a fraud in every sense of the word.”

Judge denies Gov. Walker request for extension to review recall petitions

And about this:

you’re going to see some grand thefts as a backlash.

To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, austerity is messy.

Burnett brought forth the guns of war with Iran last night. The propaganda machine has definitely ramped up of late. You can just feel it.

What would the USA do if Iran said, fine, we will dismantle our nuclear program.

I don’t think that would change a thing.

it really is insane. The people running the world are mentally ill. They need help.

They are playing all kinds of mad brinksmanship games all over this planet, while it is being destroyed.

I don’t think that Obama or Israel are nuts enough to attack Iran. That won’t stop them from causing a lot of pain and misery in other ways.

sanctions = human suffering. for nothing. maybe arab oil sheiks and oil companies benefit. that’s it.

insane.

*heh* Pat Buchanan: “My Days As A Political Analyst At MSNBC Have Come To An End” Good Riddance…!

Btw, Tweety just had to eulogize him today…! *gah*

How sweet it must be for Sergey! I’ve been following this one for years. Hope he writes a book.

Court Overturns Conviction of Ex-Goldman Programmer

“The reversal deals a major blow to the Justice Department, which has made the prosecution of high-tech crime and intellectual property theft a top priority. This case tested the boundaries of the Economic Espionage Act, a 15-year-old law that makes it a crime to steal trade secrets. Federal prosecutors held up the arrest of Mr. Aleynikov as an example of the government’s crackdown on employees who steal valuable and proprietary information from their employers.

“The decision is also a loss for Goldman Sachs, which reported Mr. Aleynikov to federal authorities after it accused him of stealing computer code. The bank had portrayed itself as the victim of a brazen crime.

. . .

“Mr. Aleynikov’s arrest in 2009 drew attention to a new and lucrative corner of Wall Street. High-frequency trading uses complex computer algorithms to make rapid trades that exploit tiny price discrepancies. The trading became a substantial source of revenue at banks and hedge funds, and these companies vigilantly guard the code underpinning their trading strategies.”

LINK.

Now for the good news, Obama’s war on weed reaches new heights. Can’t have the serfs smoking the magic vine, now can we?

Food insecurity in the USA by state. The overall rates are bad enough; just wait until you click on the ones for children. LINK.

Inside story: Tibetan discontent smoulders

“Heavily armed police are set up at every intersection [in Aba]. Security personnel holding spiked clubs stand guard beside army trucks full of soldiers in riot gear. Roadblocks cut off the town at both ends, with every vehicle entering and leaving the town closely monitored and identity cards routinely checked.”

LINK.

Bad news for new media models: Chicago News Cooperative to suspend operations

That’s a real bummer all right, allan. Dammit!

very informative and well produced radio program from Australian Broadcasting corporation

“Asia Pacific” podcast

about current affairs in that region.

http://abcasiapacificnews.com/podcasts.htm

Occupy Rahm.

It’s gonna happen, sure as you-know-what.

Pentagon working with FAA to open U.S. airspace to combat drones
“The military says the nearly 7,500 robotic aircraft it has accrued for use overseas need to come home at some point. But the FAA doesn’t allow drones in U.S. airspace without a special certificate.”

LINK.

SVs

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Swarming-Drones-Will-Be-Able-to-Sting-Enemy-05540/

UAV Swarm

“Like a swarm of angry bees, unmanned aerial, ground, and sea vehicles automonously converge on enemy troops, aircraft and ships, decide what to do, then engage the enemy with surveillance or weapons to help U.S. forces defeat them. All this without direct human intervention. Sounds like science fiction? The American military is one of several working on the technology, called “swarming,” in order to make this scenario a reality.”

“According to the SWARMS project at the University of Pennsylvania, future military missions will rely on large, networked groups of small unmanned vehicles and sensors. Groups of this type will typically operate with little or no direct human supervision most of the time. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee individual management or control in the kind of dynamic, resource-constrained, adversarial environments that characterize human warfare. Managing such large groups will thus be extremely challenging, and will require the application of new, yet-to-be-developed methods of communication, control, computation and sensing, specifically tailored to the command and control of large-scale, autonomous vehicle groups.”

In other words, mafr, we’re all doomed. They do remind me of little boys with sinister toys. Only, of course, these aren’t toys the little boys have created and plan to use, though they cannot even control them.

Former paramilitary leader convicted of plotting Mapiripan massacre

“Appearing via video link from a U.S. prison in Virginia where he is currently serving time for drug trafficking, Mancuso pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

“The [1997] incident, in the central department of Meta, saw paramilitaries slaughter villagers with chainsaws and machetes, leaving bodies strewn around the streets and more than 70 people missing. Many of the bodies were chopped up and disposed of in a river, making it impossible to determine the exact death toll.”

LINK.

Another massacre, another arrest.

Former governor [Miguel Nule of Sucre] arrested in north Colombia

“According to Nule’s attorney Jaime Granados, who represents several prominent politicians including former President Alvaro Uribe, Nule was arrested for “things he had been absolved of ages ago, related to his possible links to the Macayepo massacre” in which 15 peasants were killed.

“Two of Nule’s sons are in imprisoned over the embezzlement of millions of dollars of government funds through their construction company.”

He was trying to board a plane to Miami “to visit his grandchildren.”

LINK.

There’s a neat continuous timeline about the Colombian paramilitaries and politicians, beginning with May 2000, at the bottom of the above article.

After his Feb 12th show aired, Judge Napolitano announced on his facebook page that the the final show of “freedom watch” would be Feb 13th.

Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch Finale on Fox News.

Apparently, it spread through through the net that he had been fired which unleashed an army of scorn, but he will continue to be an analyst on Fox.

“

Dear Friends–
Many of you are not happy with the cancellation of FreedomWatch, and you have sent emails to my Fox colleagues expressing that unhappiness. In television, shows are cancelled all the time. [...]

As a favor to me, and as I have asked this past weekend, PLEASE STOP SENDING EMAILS TO MY COLLEAGUES AT FOX ABOUT THE CANCELLATION OF FreedomWatch; and please stop NOW.

All the best, apn.”

Nope, we can’t have drug peace in this hemisphere.

Napolitano to visit Guatemala for drug war talks

“US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will visit Guatemala next week for talks on President Otto Perez’s bold proposal to legalize drug production and consumption, authorities said Saturday.”

LINK.

Here are Perez’s statements from last Wednesday which have led to the visit by Napolitano.

Austerity for thee but not for me (or my friends):
The best way to rob a bank transportation authority is to run one.

The Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority, the agency that runs the region’s public bus system, paid its chief executive more in bonuses last year than over half its 886 employees received in wages,…

Greece is being destroyed by ‘respectable’ fanatics

The EU, which boasts that solidarity is its founding principle, is forcing Greece into destitution and chaos
“But Greek corruption cannot explain why Portugal is in crisis, any more than Italian corruption can explain why Ireland and Spain are in crisis. All five countries are suffering – and France may soon be suffering – because the euro is a monumental mistake. Rather than rectify it, European leaders attack the welfare states, employment protections and public services that the best of the European centre-left fought for after 1945. In the name of saving the euro, everything must go.”

LINK.

Keystone pipeline opposition in Texas:

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/issue/

The raucous protest included an unusual mix of tea party supporters, independents, Democrats, Republicans and even Occupy Dallas protesters. They were all there to support Crawford’s eminent domain court fight with TransCanada, which wants to run the Keystone XL pipeline through her property.

“The more people find out about the safety risks and that the oil will be exported, the more they are opposed. People in Texas are used to oil pipelines, but this one is different. It’s more toxic and more dangerous and threatens our groundwater.”

” The parallels with the 1930s are too obvious to labour.”

amazing times. Soviet Union collapse, Yugoslavian civil war, whats next in Europe?

Here’s the latest propaganda push, mafr.

U.S. May Achieve Energy Independence This Decade, Citigroup Says

“U.S. shale oil output will grow by 2 million barrels a day as California production increases by 1 million and U.S. Gulf of Mexico output gains 2 million barrels, Seth Kleinman, global head of energy strategy at Citigroup Inc. in London, said in a report today. Foreign imports will drop to 3 million barrels a day, according to the forecast.”

LINK.

Joe Romm, Climate Progress,=:

Insiders Warn “Shale Plays are Just Giant Ponzi Schemes” in Bombshell-Laden NY Times Piece on Natural Gas, Fracking
By Joe Romm on Jun 26, 2011 at 11:21 am
The lead story in the New York Times today is a detailed bubble bursting of the much vaunted boom in unconventional natural gas.

“The word in the world of independents is that the shale plays are just giant Ponzi schemes and the economics just do not work,” an analyst from IHS Drilling Data, an energy research company, wrote in an e-mail on Aug. 28, 2009.

-and-

“In September 2009, a geologist from ConocoPhillips, one of the largest producers of natural gas in the Barnett shale, warned in an e-mail to a colleague that shale gas might end up as “the world’s largest uneconomic field.” About six months later, the company’s chief executive, James J. Mulva, described natural gas as “nature’s gift,” adding that “rather than being expensive, shale gas is often the low-cost source.” Asked about the e-mail, John C. Roper, a spokesman for ConocoPhillips, said he absolutely believed that shale gas is economically viable.”

sound about par for the course doesn’t it.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/26/254269/shale-plays-ponzi-schemes-natural-gas-fracking/

truly mind boggling if it’s accurate.