Tax Matters

A Subtle Form of Theft-Simon Black at SovereignMan.com

I received this information from a trusted source. I follow Simon Black at  Sovereign Man, you should also.

Notes from the Field 

Date: December 5, 2011
Reporting From: Santiago, Chile

 

Say what you want about him, but Bernie Madoff was a guy who knew how to keep the party going. For years, he ran one of the largest private-sector Ponzi schemes in history and always heeded the golden rule of financial scams: make sure your inflows are greater than your outflows.

He was finally done in when redemptions exceeded new investments. He didn't have enough cash to pay out investors, and he wasn't able to scam more people into paying in to the scheme. As a result, Madoff finally had to admit that the whole thing was a total fraud. 

Governments around the world are in similar situations right now with their own public sector Ponzi schemes. Faced with failed auctions, declining demand, and rising yields, politicians are having to resort to desperate measures.

Like any good scam artist, they're appealing to the masses first; all over Europe, governments are sponsoring new marketing campaigns suggesting that it's people's patriotic duty to buy government debt.

In Spain, they're actually issuing instruments called 'Bonos Patrioticos,' or 'patriotic bonds.' Ad campaigns say that the bonds are "good for you, good for the future." 

In Ireland, they've issued "Prize Bonds" which carry a 0% interest rate; instead of receiving interest, bondholders are entered into a weekly lottery contest.  Naturally, lottery winnings are only possible as long as people keep buying the bonds... pretty much the definition of a Ponzi scheme!

In Italy, they're rolling out the country's sports celebrities to encourage everyone to buy Italian sovereign debt. 

What's ironic is that Italy's dismal balance sheet is almost universally acknowledged. It's as if everyone knows the country has almost no chance of making good on its obligations, but they still feel the need to willingly throw away their hard earned savings for the greater good of political incompetence.

Thing is, it's not the millionaire sports stars, wealthy business leaders, or political elite who are buying these bonds... at least, not in anything beyond a token, symbolic amount. It's the average guy on the street who really stands to get hurt when the government finally capitulates.

This is a truly despicable act and amounts to theft, plain and simple. 

The United Kingdom, which is rapidly reaching this banana republic sovereign debt status itself, has unveiled a plan to issue roughly $50 billion in infrastructure bonds. This would be the equivalent of issuing $300 billion in the US-- not exactly chump change. 

Given Britain's already colossal debt level, private investors aren't exact diving in head first to loan the government even more money. 

Undeterred, British Chancellor George Osborne plans to 'highly encourage' UK pension funds to mop up about 60% of the total amount. "We have got to make sure that British savings in things like pension funds are employed here and British taxpayers' money is well used," he said.

In other words, 'we are going to make sure that British people buy our junk, one way or another.' 

The last year has seen numerous pension funds around the world, from the United States to Argentina to Hungary, be raided for the sake of keeping these Ponzi scheme going.  The UK is already lining up to be the next. 

It's one of the last acts of a truly desperate government to begin directing public and private savings into their Ponzi schemes. 

Fast-forward a few downgrades and you can plan on seeing the exact same thing in the United States-- appealing to people's patriotism to loan their hard-earned savings (if they even have any) to the Federal government at a rate of interest that fails to keep up with inflation.

It's nothing more than a very clever (and subtle) form of theft. 

 

Until tomorrow,

Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com

 

    

 

A COLOSSAL COVERUP-Bruce Wiseman

This was sent to me from a great friend. I feel it deserves to be rebroadcast.        

                                 A COLOSSAL COVERUP

 

It is one of the biggest cover-ups in US history.  

The oil is still gushing in the Gulf.   

All available data indicates that the original wellhead was never capped: the latitude and longitude of the camera through which we were all watching the oil spew from the wellhead actually changed to a wellhead 7 miles away, and that is the one they capped.  No mention has ever been made of the original wellhead since then.  That’s right, they plugged another well and showed a picture of that one.

So that is lie number one.

In addition, it is a known certainty that the seabed was fractured so badly for miles around the original well that oil has continued to spew uncontrollably from the sea floor, with no way to plug it.

This has been withheld from the public. Number two.

 If oil is pouring from a well and cracks in the ocean floor, why the Hell can’t we see it?

 The answer to this is two-fold.

 First and foremost, someone is continuing to spray the Gulf with the chemical “dispersant” called Corexit. Corexit breaks up the oil so that it quickly sinks below the surface and is hidden from view. Once there, it spreads the mutant concoction throughout the water creating a toxic environment from which the marine life cannot escape.  It eventually sinks it to the bottom of the ocean where it continues to do long-term damage to the entire marine eco system – but that’s not all.

The EPA has stated that Corexit ceased being used on July 19th, 2010. But unmarked, military-type aircraft (C-130s and C123s) have been flying sorties over the Gulf in the dead of night, spraying the poison over the now-toxic ocean to conceal the fact that voluminous amounts of oil are still spewing into the water. The amount of oil reaching the surface has become so evident that they are now risking being photographed spraying during daylight.  Lie number 3.

           

                  

Photo of Corexit being sprayed next to the beach

at Long Beach, Mississippi on March 15th, 2011 (Note from tom-Sorry I could not figure how to get the picture for you when I reposted this to my blog)

  

The dispersant may hide the oil but it is doing massive damage to the eco-system – massive. Moreover, Corexit has one other little problem – it is carcinogenic.

 

In fact, this chemical is so toxic, that people handling it are instructed by the manufacturer’s product handling information to wear Haz Mat suits and full-blown respirators.  Unfortunately for thousands of cleanup workers, BP wouldn’t allow them to wear the suits because they didn’t want it to look like there was any danger attached to the cleanup - it might increase their liability.

 

Not only is the seafood from the Gulf now laced with this stuff (despite the government’s statement to the contrary - #4), the relentless spraying has initiated a massive human health crisis.

 

According to one study, a staggering 50% of the people in the Gulf are experiencing the toxic effects of the Corexit-laden atmosphere. Moreover, there is a report from one of the gulf oil cleanup workers that, “Thousands of Gulf Oil Spill clean-up crew are dying.”

 These workers are experiencing symptoms such as severe neurological damage, kidney and liver failure, paralysis, internal bleeding, "flu" symptoms that won't go away, and death.

 You can see the story of one woman who has documented her own case and that of many others. (It’s not pretty. Don’t watch if you have a weak stomach.)

 http://current.com/news/93090046_thousands-of-gulf-oil-spill-clean-up-crew-are-dying-video-of-the-dying.htm

 This isn’t just another health problem: this is an apocalyptic and immediate  health crisis.

 So, while we are now engaged in a third “war” against a dictator in Libya for human rights abuses against his own people, BP, the EPA and other government entities are engaged in a cover up of an ecological disaster by secretly spraying a virulent poison into the Gulf that is destroying the eco-system, the fishing industry and the lives of people that live and work there.

A deadly hypocrisy.

 A hypocrisy that is hidden in plain sight.

 I said there were two reasons that you couldn’t see the oil. The other “reason” is…you can see it. The oil is now coming up in such massive amounts that it is overwhelming the ability of the Corexit to hide it. And, as mentioned above, the C-130s are now taking the extraordinary step of spraying in daylight.

 These pictures were taken over the Gulf on March 19, 2011 by a professional aerial photographer from a private plane. (same apology as above about pictures)

Just a little odd when BP and the EPA say the well was capped on July 19th, 2010 and that there was no more evidence of oil.  Per journalist Harlan Kirgan, who attended a press conference held by Mike Utsler, chief operating officer of BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration,

“Utsler said, ‘We are actually very encouraged. And, I say we collectively as federal, state, local and trustees and landowners at the progress that has been made in the state of readiness for the upcoming tourism season.'

“Utsler said the overwhelming body of peer-reviewed science that has been published has shown there is no longer an oil plume.”

Lie #5.

Unfortunately for Big Mike’s credibility, 5 days later, the Grand Isle and Fourchon beaches in Louisiana underwent a military-type takeover to shut them down completely and prevent anyone from getting anywhere near them, especially independent scientists who wanted to take samples of the massive oil plume rolling in.

 If you want to see more current pictures of the oil in the Gulf, including pictures of fishing boats fishing in the middle of masses of oil, go here: 

http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll297/creekkeeper_2008/BP%20Slick%20photos/Barataria%20Flight%2003_19_11/?action=view&current=_MG_0837.jpg#!oZZ29QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs291.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fll297%2Fcreekkeeper_2008%2FBP%2520Slick%2520photos%2FBarataria%2520Flight%252003_19_11%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3D_MG_1018.jpg

So why am I telling you this shocking and tragic story?

 Because something needs to be done about it and there is a solution.

I have done something here, which I don’t normally do. And that is, I am forwarding information from my wife’s work.

 Those of you that are also on her email list know some of what I have told you above. And some of you know Barb. But for those that don’t, she is the International President of The Earth Organization http://www.TheEarthOrganization.org , an independent, international conservation and environmental organization.

So, here’s the deal: Barb and the US staff of The Earth Organization have been working on this situation flat out for several months –night and day, 24/7; New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Florida. They came across a solution – a product that dramatically speeds up Mother Nature’s natural processes of cleaning up the oil in a non-toxic way. Whereas, nature would take over a century to clean up the massive amounts of oil in this spill, this method would do it in a matter of a few weeks - and with absolutely no adverse side effects.

The product has been used to clean up more than 16,000 oil spills planet-wide over the last two decades. I repeat, 16,000.

 What is the reaction of British Petroleum and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when informed about the toxic nature of Corexit (which they already knew) and the eye-popping results of the natural product, which they also were aware of? … …A product which has been used over 100 times by the US Navy to clean up oil spills just in San Diego Bay?...

They won’t let the product anywhere near the Gulf.

 Huh?

 Impossible,” you say. “How could a government agency whose purpose is to clean up the environment and protect the public’s health, permit an oil company to poison the eco-system and thousands of Americans?”

 You could just as easily ask how the FDA, an agency charged with protecting the public’s health, can approve drugs that cause heart attacks, suicidality and death, while stopping or curtailing non-toxic health solutions that are nutritionally beneficial.

 There are plenty of other examples. I’m sure you know of some. But my purpose here is not to investigate all of the evil on the planet; my purpose here is to let you know that a national tragedy is occurring right under our noses and there is a solution available.

 Barb and her team have investigated this catastrophe and its solution relentlessly. She is working with world class scientists, professional investigators, state and federal legislators, activists and manufacturers of a product that can clean up the oil spill in a beneficial and non-toxic way. 

 Neither she nor The Earth Organization have any financial interest in the product; their sole intention is to halt the environmental catastrophe still occurring in the Gulf, return the waters to even better than their pre-blowout condition, and save the lives of millions of people living and working there.

 Last week, she took evidence of the situation to key members of the United States Congress in an effort to get the EPA to cease allowing the spraying of Corexit in the Gulf and permit natural solutions to be implemented.

 She had several meetings. They went extremely well. Key congressional committee staff have asked for some additional information, which her team is in the process of gathering. But they are up against one of the biggest oil companies in the world with 96,000 employees and revenues of $297 billion, and a rogue government agency that is supporting the poisoning of the environment and citizenry in the Gulf on a colossal scale.

 Which actually makes it a pretty even fight; but it’s costly, folks.

 The Earth Organization is a registered nonprofit. They rely on the donations of members and supporters. This last cache of information requested by congressional staff is available, but a number of high-priced professionals are needed to scientifically document certain aspects of this, and to bring the necessary pressure to bear to get this situation turned around.

 So I am writing to you to give her a hand.

 We all devote a great deal of time, money and effort to make this a better world. This project, brought to a successful conclusion, will not only save an enormous area of environment, massive numbers of marine life and wildlife, but countless human lives.

 I don’t mean to be gruesome, but people poisoned by the Corexit there are suffering agonizing deaths.

 What do you say, can you give Barb and The Earth Organization a hand in bringing an ethical solution to the toxic holocaust now occurring in the Gulf.

 God will smile. 

Click the link below to donate.

 And thanks for your help!

 http://www.earthorganization.com/Join2.aspx

 Best,  

Bruce

 

Bruce Wiseman

[email protected]

www.BruceWiseman.net

 

Coup d' etat

An important message from a great friend who is battling hard to keep planet Earth informed of the truth.

Coup d’ etat
By Bruce Wiseman

Your conventional coup d’ etat is the overthrow of a government by a military cabal.

But that’s not what happened on April 2nd, 2009. On that day, the Bank for International Settlements, a secretive bank based in Basel, Switzerland, that had facilitated the financial workings of the Third Reich, carried out the most colossal coup in history – they took control of the central banks of planet Earth.

Central banks are the institutions in a country that print the money and control the interest rates.

I know, I know, conspiracy and all that. But that, my friends, is exactly what happened.

And that’s the story of Crisis by Design the Untold Story of the Global Financial Coup, the book I wrote on the financial crisis. It tells who did it, what they did and why they did it.

This is not a book on (yawn) economics; it is the story of the planning and execution of the Global Financial Crisis for purposes I set forth in the book.

The reason I am writing is because, besides paperback, hardback and pdf, the book is now available for iPad, Kindle, Nook, and the Sony eReader right here:

http://crisisbydesign.net/buy.html

This agenda is not over yet. If you want to know what really happened, why it happened and what you can do about it, you can now get the book for any of the digital readers.

Enjoy.

Best,

Bruce

 

The Census and the Constitution

by Tom Alston

I got my Census form today.  Upon reading over the intrusive questions it asked, I decided to refer to my handy pocket copy of The Constitution.  One does not have to read far past The Preamble to find the applicable sentence:  Article 1, Section 2. 

Here’s what our Founding Fathers had to say:  “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” 

That’s all there is to it.

Now you might think that the fairly broad statement at the end (“…in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”) leaves Congress a whole lot of leeway for the questions they ask you.  Nay.  Let’s return to the word “enumeration” early in that solitary sentence.

I went to Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language – the closet dictionary I have to the 1787 birth of The Constitution – and looked up “enumerate.” 

Enumerate comes from the Latin word for number.  The definitions have to do with counting, number by number; to mention a number of things separately; and the act of counting or telling by number, by naming each in particular.

In short, The Constitution speaks to counting and just to counting.  Not to your name.  Or your phone number.  Or your race.  Or your birthday. 

In short Congress can by Law direct how you are counted.  Counted in English.  With Arabic numerals.  Or in Latin with Roman numerals.  With an abacus.  With a hand-held computer.  On the census taker’s fingers and toes.  Or with matchsticks.  But all The Constitution speaks to is counting.

One.  Two.  Buckle my shoe. 

Three.  Four.  Shut the door – on people squirreling with our Constitution!

And just for fun, I wrote in my race:  American!

Somebody Belongs in Jail

I came across this article recently and wanted to share it.

Tom Alston

==========================================

Somebody Belongs in Jail
By Jeff Clark

How is this not a criminal act?

Months before Lehman Brothers officially closed for business, the insiders and the regulators knew the firm was going belly-up. Yet company Chairman Dick Fuld and numerous government officials appeared almost daily on television and assured investors everything was OK.

The bankruptcy examiner's report doesn't explicitly say so, but it's obvious to anyone with more than a single-digit I.Q., the folks running Lehman and the folks in charge of regulating the company knew the firm was in trouble. And they blatantly lied to investors while talking up the value of their collateralized securities.

Never mind the accounting gimmicks and "off balance sheet" transactions that hid Lehman's obscene debt level. That was fraud. Accounting rules made it an "excusable" fraud – if there can be any such thing.

But when a corporate executive shows up on TV and insists that all is right with the company, that the rumors of any problems are being spread by short sellers looking to make profit as the stock falls, that liquidity isn't and will not be a problem, and that leverage ratios are just fine... then it all turns out to be a lie... well, that person belongs in jail.

Of course, that'll never happen. After all, we can't go imprisoning corporate executives for doing what our elected officials do every day.

But keep this in mind...

The U.S. government is about to begin the process of unwinding the TARP and TALF programs. So it's going to start selling some of the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stock in companies like AIG and Citigroup, and the $1.2 trillion worth of mortgage-backed paper it took off the hands of troubled banks.

Anyone can look at the balance sheet and income statement of a company like AIG and realize the stock certificate ought to be issued as a two-ply roll. The mortgage-backed paper doesn't even qualify for that distinction.

But when it comes time to sell, you can bet someone from the government will show up on TV and assure investors everything is just fine. Rumors to the contrary are being spread by short sellers. Liquidity isn't and will not be a problem. Deficits don't matter.

Just as it was with Lehman, it'll all turn out to be one big lie.

Don't buy it.

Best regards and good trading,

Jeff Clark

"Anatomy of a Con Job"

This is an email I received recently, with a link to an eBook by John Truman Wolfe that gives some great data on why things are the way they are.

This is not a political piece.

Take the time to read it if you want to know why things are the way they are. We have been fed a load of crap in a lot of areas of knowledge. This research tells you why, and who.
 
Thomas A. Alston

-------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Crisis By Design - Inner Circle Members - Special E-Report - "Anatomy of a Con Job"

Dear Thomas,

Click on the following link:

http://www.behindthewizardscurtain.com/inner/

At this site you can download one of the benefits from your Crisis by Design membership. It is an e-report called "Anatomy of a Con Job".

But I must tell you it is much more than that. This article lays out an agenda, currently in full swing, that would economically devastate this county and the world). For real.

That said, the report doesn't just expose what is going on here, it provides solutions - real solutions.

We all have lots going on in our lives, but I am going to ask you a favor; the favor is to please read this article. And to the degree you are inclined, send it to any and everyone You think should have the information.

It's important.

Best,

Bruce