by cameron | Jun 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
- Could Obama Be Impeached for Waging War in Libya Without Approval of Congress? Glenn Greenwald asks in Democracy Now. Apparently he decided to ignore the views of top White House lawyers when he decided to invade LIbya. My take on this is that while he probably COULD be impeached, he won’t. The elite don’t do that to each other except under EXTREME circumstances. Oh sure, they will huff and puff about blowing his house down, but it’s all political theatre designed to keep the people distracted, sell newspapers and bump up viewership to cable news and news sites. Meanwhile Goldman Sachs will continue to rape the U.S. blind.
- The Liberty Scam – Stephen Metcalf in SLATE has written a terrific and timely article on why libertarianism fails as a political ideology. I have come to the same conclusions over the last ten years. None of us is an island, to paraphrase John Donne. If you live in a country such as Australia, you are taking advantage of the opportunities that our society offers. That doesn’t only include benefits such as public education and healthcare. It also includes people who build roads. People who collect your garbage. The people who grow your food and the people who sell it to you. It’s one big system and, because you are part of it, you are benefiting from it. If you’ve been successful and made a few bucks, you have to ask yourself the question – “Could I have done this if I had to carve my own roads, manage my own healthcare, grow and harvest my own food, dispose of my own garbage, protect yourself against burglary or enemy invaders?” Chances are you owe, in no small part, your success to the fact that many, many other people are doing the things you don’t HAVE to do, which has allowed you to focus on education or hard work. So you didn’t get to where you are all by yourself. That’s a fiction. You owe a large part of your success to the system you live in.
by cameron | Jun 20, 2011 | Iraq, Uncategorized
- Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after U.S. invasion – “The missing money was shipped to Iraq from the United States to help with reconstruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein….. All indications are that the institutions of the United States of America committed financial corruption by stealing the money of the Iraqi people, which was allocated to develop Iraq, (and) that it was about $17 billion,” said the letter sent to the U.N. with a 50-page report.” That’s what these wars are about, folks – theft. Plain and simple. Theft of money from the U.S. taxpayers and theft of the natural resources of the Iraqi and Afghani people. Everything else they throw at you – Saddam, Bin Laden, the Taliban, etc – is just smoke and mirrors. It’s all about the rich stealing from the poor and the gullible. It’s the oldest trick in the book, a magnificent sleight of hand even Hypnotist Kenny would be proud of.
- Another day another pedophile Catholic priest & cover-up by the Church – remembering, of course, that the key message here isn’t about the pedophiles themselves, it’s about the Catholic Church’s systematic and deliberate cover-up of the crimes to protect their cash. (See my earlier posts on the topic – GDay World 382 – Dr Wayne Chamley on Catholic Sexual Abuse in Australia, G’Day World Video – Peter Kennedy, Rebel Priest, part one, The Irish “Child Abuse Commission”).
- WSJ has a brain aneurism when it learns the The Dalai Lama is a Marxist – “Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama told a group of Chinese students at the University of Minnesota, “I consider myself a Marxist . . . but not a Leninist.”” The author, philosopher Carlin Romano, then goes on to say “It’s an old, familiar position in Western secular intellectual life: Marxism wasn’t a God that failed, and the Soviet Union and Mao’s China don’t count against it, because Marxism was never tried—Communism perverted it.” That’s actually not the argument at all, Carlin. The argument is that the Bolshevik’s perverted socialism. Had the Menshevik’s managed to wrest control of the Communist Party, we might have seen a very different 20th century Russia.
by cameron | Jun 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
- “every pencil David Rees sharpens is shipped with a signed and dated certificate authenticating that it is now a dangerous object.”
- Chrissy and I had a great time catching up with @lelaissezfaire last night. If you don’t follow him on Twitter, you should start now. Read his blog, too.
- Yeah Weiner had to resign. But, as Taibbi says, it’s NOT about sexting. It’s about lying his ass off about it for a week. When you have a job like that, you have to know that if you get caught lying about shit, it’s going to mean people don’t trust you and that’s kind of a bad thing for a politician. So don’t feel sorry for him. He knew the rules when he took the job.
- As @danmc reminds me, “its also about politicians not putting themselves somewhere they can be blackmailed”. Rule #1 when you take office should be “don’t get caught doing stupid shit while you’re in office”.
- How awesome is this TARDIS prop? It’s the opening shot from the 1964 Hartnell-era episode “The Aztecs”.
by cameron | Jun 16, 2011 | Cuba, geopolitics, Podcast, Wikileaks
In the news today…
- WikiLeaks Haiti: The Earthquake Cables – The Nation has some background (via Wikileaks) on what was happening in Haiti after the earthquake. Remember all those troops that the USA sent in with the excuse of “security”? Well it turns out the US troops weren’t there at the request of President Préval or the Haitian government. They might have been sent to protect the assets of US manufacturers with operations in Haiti. Or, just as likely, they were there to prevent a revolution against the US-backed puppet government of President Préval. As I discussed in NIP05, the US has a long history of over-throwing Haitian Presidents who don’t tow the US line, such as democratically-elected Jean-Baptiste Aristide who was ousted in a US-backed coup in 2004. Interesting quote: “But other countries carried out rescue and medical relief efforts without the presence of military troops. For example, in the six months after the quake, the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, a 1,500 member contingent of doctors who graduated from Cuba’s medical school, treated 70,300 patients, and performed more 2,500 operations, all without deploying soldiers or bringing in weapons, according to a Henry Reeve Brigade report in June 2010.”
- Bitcoin – A Scam? Or Brilliant? – An interesting analysis from various people (some pro-, some con-) about Bitcoin. Worth reading if confusing. Still trying to get my head around Bitcoin. Had to stop running the app yesterday as it was totally taking over my CPU. (HT @willozap)
by cameron | Jun 15, 2011 | Australian politics, geopolitics, Podcast
My guest today is Virginia Balmain who is the President of the United Nations Association of Australia (QLD) and the Vice-President of the UNAA in Australia. We chat about Australia’s role in the UN, our obligations as a Member Nation, and some of the contentious issues surrounding the UN – the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council, the rise of the “Islamic Bloc”, how it is funded and whether or not it is a “toothless tiger”.
by cameron | Jun 9, 2011 | Podcast
Veteran crime reporter Adam Shand joins me again on the show to talk about the TWO films being made based on his book KING OF THIEVES, as well as about diamond heists, the HELLS ANGELS, police corruption and just how lazy the lamestream media have become.
by cameron | Jun 8, 2011 | Melbourne, science, singularity, transhumanism
Adam Ford, who invited me to speak at last year’s Singularity Summit in Melbourne, is also organising this year’s H+ Summit in Melbourne, June 25 – 26. He asked me to post some info about it:
The H+ Summit @ Melbourne brings together an eclectic mix of rationalists, futurists, science fiction writers, AI experts, scientists, biotechnology experts, philosophers and theorists to pursue deep philosophical, scientific and technological inquiry, with the aim of being able to discern those changes which are likely to have profound impacts and those which are merely transient and or fashionable.
Technological innovation permeates all aspects of society — from tiny water purification packets and 3d printers, to GPS tracking devices, wearable smart devices, decision support systems, replaceable body parts and personal genome tests. Because technology and society evolve together, it has become increasingly important to develop a greater understanding of how technology is shaping the course of our lives. We are faced with the challenge to continuously become innovative in harnessing and controlling technological development as it accelerates on many diverse fronts. The “pioneers of the future” are faced with the necessity to become ever more resourceful. Even the most conservative thinkers agree that we have already stepped into an era of a profound change. The good news is that our human diversity continues to spawn both inventiveness and novelty.
This conference is brought to you by Humanity+ @ Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). Humanity+ explores how society might use and profit from a variety of creative and innovative thought. Join us for this adventurous journey into the future where you can make a difference! This conference will challenge and enhance your view of the future.
Seating is limited, so Secure your tickets now! >>
www.humanityplus.org.au
Partial list of Speakers and subjects:
Unfortunately I can’t make it due to Perdomo Lounge responsibilities, otherwise I’d be there with bells on.
by cameron | May 30, 2011 | Podcast
Note: This show is a week old, sorry about that folks. I had weird trouble uploading it to the server. Mostly relevant though, except I have more to say about Mr Rapture.
On today’s show I talk about Harold Camping’s failed Rapture, the International Conference on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants’s summary of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, @JINJIRRIE’s excellent notes on Obama’s latest speech about the Middle East, and reports that the US military drone strikes programme within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of their top military brass.
by cameron | May 19, 2011 | Podcast
The majority of today’s show is about the most evil corporation on the planet, Goldman Sachs, and a great book about them called GRIFTOPIA by Matt Taibbi. I also cover recent news about Obama’s backing down on the Middle East peace process, how piracy drove a book called GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP to the Number One spot on Amazon.com, how a long-time US Government Insider believes that Bin Laden Died In 2001 and 9/11 was a False Flag op, and how deaths from the coal industry still out-weigh deaths from nuclear by about 4000 to 1.
by cameron | May 5, 2011 | geopolitics, Podcast, US politics
I have plenty of concerns about the Bin Laden assassination this week, both in terms of what actually happened and how it is being reported. How could the US President make so many mistakes in his explanation of events? Is it legal to assassinate someone who hasn’t had a trial to determine guilt? Does questioning a government’s version of events automatically make you a crazy conspiracy theorist?
These are some of the questions I explore in today’s show. Would love to know your thoughts.
T-shirt image from $6 Shirts.
