Image via WikipediaWhat Are the Biggest Financial Scandals in U.S. History?
- John Steele Gordon: Pyramid Schemes Are as American as Apple Pie
- AP: Largest Ponzi schemes in history
- CNN: Who was Ponzi -- what the heck was his scheme?
- NYT: Ponzi schemes ... how do they think it will end?
- TPM: The striking similarities between Richard Whitney and Bernard Madeoff
CIVIL WAR PROFITEERING
During the tenure of Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, a conniving machine politician from Pennsylvania, corruption flourished during the Civil War. As a result of his sloppy practices, the federal government paid top dollar for shoddy blankets, tainted pork and beef, knapsacks that came unglued in the rain, uniforms that fell apart, and guns that blew the thumbs off the soldiers firing them. President Lincoln replaced Cameron after the secretary repeatedly issued supply contracts without competitive bidding, in violation of Lincoln's express orders.
"It's as American as Apple Pie !"
The above article was first noted in Once World's Bread Basket, Iraq Now a Farming Basket Case which included Flashback: The Depleted Uranium Threat and was July 20 2009
The International Tax on the Use of Fire
Image via Wikipedia
Posing with Dumbell - I couldn't resist.
Copenhagen destroyed by Danish draft leak,says India's environment minister
The outcome was determined by a failed "ambush", targeted at the leaders of emerging economies, by the host nation Denmark. This attempted to switch a new negotiating text for the existing UN texts.
( Sounds like Bait & Switch to me ! )
Then there's notice to all and sundry that the US will impose a global tax on the use of fire
Confidential document reveals Obama's hardline US climate talk strategy
Reinforce the PERCEPTION that the US is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change.
Have you ever heard a psyops program described with more clarity than that ?
Background on the media circus trying to paint our options to a black and white choice by scientists who cannot model a chaotic open system, but must pretend they can to avert our impending doom.
This "reliable intel" from the people who have killed on all continents on a covert budget from flogging arms and smuggling drugs plus purloined public purse. Crooks,traitors and murderers in other words...the milk of human kindness overflowing from them.
Climate in Contention
There's no need for discussion ? Too urgent. Right.
Make rational decisions in a panic over something scientifically proven and so simple a fool can see it...and does. We getting over a little ice age and it's relatively warmer now the ice has melted...definite maybe to that - and it would be a surprise why ?
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- Mary Kissel: Climate Change 'Quagmire' (online.wsj.com)
- UN process under fire at climate change talks (telegraph.co.uk)
- Bolivia protests US suspension of climate aid(seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Protesters arrested in Copenhagen (cnn.com)
- Your Philosophy for Social Media and Search Marketing(mikemoran.com)
And I found that a blog which contained information hard to come by was still churning it out.
Don't buy Obama's greenwashing of nuclear power
Last month, inspectors found dangerous chemicals in the groundwater near the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. The situation demonstrates that from the mining of uranium ore to the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors remain as dirty, risky, and as costly as they ever were. If President Obama's recent enthusiasm for nuclear reactors has led you to believe otherwise, you've bought in to the administration's greenwashing of nuclear. FromGrist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
That was from Politics 'n Poetry, which has been a rich source of information and links on the nuclear power industry and uranium mining contamination.
The folks at nuclear news have that article available, as well as a fantastic sidebar, The Very Secret Costs of Nuclear Power. From their site:
Well it is impossible for anyone to estimate the real costs of nuclear power, as only a narrow range of costs are discussed, even where the nuclear industry is supposedly privately owned.1. The nuclear weapons industry is so connected with nuclear power, and the costs on the nuclear weapons industry are huge.2. Where the nuclear industry is state owned - e.g. in France, Russia, China, South Korea, taxation, and the costs of electricity are manipulated, and figures given out for nuclear costs are not really reliable.
Here’s another story about Canada’s outrageous and extravagant spending on AECL flowing from the Chalk River Fiasco.
As a result, Ottawa allocated $824-million in the current fiscal year to the problem-plagued nuclear flagship as the government prepares to restructure it and sell its commercial division, according to supplemental estimates released late yesterday.That’s a 50-per-cent increase from federal spending on AECL in the prior fiscal year. In today’s budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will likely provide hundreds of millions more to support AECL’s operating budget and design work on the advanced Candu reactor and refurbish Chalk River laboratories
Our tax dollars are being sunk into what the PM himself called a “sinkhole” so that the feds can sell it for next to nothing? WTF? It seems that PMS definitely needs to hear from you on this ridiculous, costly venture! Imagine, were that kind of money to be spent on real green technology…
Now you know who to blame for my picking up on uranium mining being something exceeding either catastrophe or disaster...as the consequences are little short of eternal.
Uranium - Mining and 'Depleted'
'Agent Orange' for the Ages
Speaking of which.
"They had said that by using satellite images they could hit very precisely targets without any chance of danger to surrounding crops" said Jim Farrell, Wellstone's spokesperson, who was also there. However that turned out not to be the case. "On the very first flyover by the cropduster, the U.S. Senator, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Colombian National Police, and other Embassy and congressional staffers were fully doused -- drenched, in fact -- with the sticky, possibly dangerous (herbicide) Roundup."
The use of these herbicides (both of which we refer to as Roundup in this story) has consistently produced health complaints from campesinos in the Colombian countryside. Those complaints have gone largely ignored by government officials in Washington and corporate honchos within Monsanto. Meanwhile, Monsanto's sordid history as the manufacturer of Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam war, raises serious questions about its role in Colombia's drug war and the need for transparency in its dealings with Washington.
Bhopal: Generations of Poison
Nityanand Jayaraman
December 2nd, 2009
On the night of December 2-3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India leaked poisonous methyl iso cyanate into its densely populated neighborhood, killing 8,000 people in the immediate aftermath. 25 years later, Dow Chemical (which purchased Union Carbide in 2001) still refuses to clean up the site. But a new generation of Bhopal survivors is taking on the fight.
Nityanand Jayaraman
December 2nd, 2009
On the night of December 2-3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India leaked poisonous methyl iso cyanate into its densely populated neighborhood, killing 8,000 people in the immediate aftermath. 25 years later, Dow Chemical (which purchased Union Carbide in 2001) still refuses to clean up the site. But a new generation of Bhopal survivors is taking on the fight.
Asia Inhales While the West Bans the Deadly Carcinogen
Melody Kemp
February 16th, 2010
Asbestos, a known carcinogen, causes 100,000 occupational deaths per year, according to Medical News Today. Although it is banned in much of the world, asbestos is a common and dangerous building block in much of Asia’s development boom and its export remains both legal and profitable. Asbestos merchants, disputing World Health Organization (WHO) data and overwhelming scientific evidence, still claim that it is safe to use.
Melody Kemp
February 16th, 2010
Asbestos, a known carcinogen, causes 100,000 occupational deaths per year, according to Medical News Today. Although it is banned in much of the world, asbestos is a common and dangerous building block in much of Asia’s development boom and its export remains both legal and profitable. Asbestos merchants, disputing World Health Organization (WHO) data and overwhelming scientific evidence, still claim that it is safe to use.
Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentagon
Pratap Chatterjee
March 16th, 2010
Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have hired a company called International Media Ventures to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a complaint filed by the Central Intelligence Agency and revealed by the New York Times on March 15. The contract built upon his decade-long experience in hiring contractors to run propaganda programs for the military in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.
Pratap Chatterjee
March 16th, 2010
Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have hired a company called International Media Ventures to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a complaint filed by the Central Intelligence Agency and revealed by the New York Times on March 15. The contract built upon his decade-long experience in hiring contractors to run propaganda programs for the military in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.
Protesters in Eastern India Battle Against Mining Giant Arcelor Mittal
Moushumi Basu
March 2nd, 2010
In the rural, tribal lands of Eastern India, protesters are going head-to-head with world steel giant Arcelor Mittal. “We may give away our lives, but we will not part with an inch of our ancestral land," the villagers cry. "The forest, rivers and land are ours. We don't want factories, steel or iron. Arcelor Mittal Go Back.”
Moushumi Basu
March 2nd, 2010
In the rural, tribal lands of Eastern India, protesters are going head-to-head with world steel giant Arcelor Mittal. “We may give away our lives, but we will not part with an inch of our ancestral land," the villagers cry. "The forest, rivers and land are ours. We don't want factories, steel or iron. Arcelor Mittal Go Back.”
The Enbridge Oil Sands Gamble
Andrew Nikiforuk
December 14th, 2009
Patrick Daniel, the CEO of Enbridge Inc, is bullish about the future of unconventional oil from Canada’s massive tar sand deposits. His company not only operates North America’s longest crude oil and liquid pipelines, but transports 12 percent of the oil that the U.S. imports daily. Canada’s bitumen, or dirty crude, lies under a forest area the size of England and is arguably the world’s last remaining giant oil field.
Andrew Nikiforuk
December 14th, 2009
Patrick Daniel, the CEO of Enbridge Inc, is bullish about the future of unconventional oil from Canada’s massive tar sand deposits. His company not only operates North America’s longest crude oil and liquid pipelines, but transports 12 percent of the oil that the U.S. imports daily. Canada’s bitumen, or dirty crude, lies under a forest area the size of England and is arguably the world’s last remaining giant oil field.
Shed a Tear for Our Democracy
Robert Weissman
January 22nd, 2010
Yesterday, in the case Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence election outcomes.
Money from Exxon, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and the rest of the Fortune 500 is already corroding the policy making process. Now, the Supreme Court tells these corporate giants that they have a constitutional right to trample our democracy.
Robert Weissman
January 22nd, 2010
Yesterday, in the case Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence election outcomes.
Money from Exxon, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer and the rest of the Fortune 500 is already corroding the policy making process. Now, the Supreme Court tells these corporate giants that they have a constitutional right to trample our democracy.
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