Max Keiser

B’Man Has Amped His Status

I have been following David Degraw’s work for quite some time. He has been featured all over the internet and has his own blog. Recently, he started a new social networking site (AmpedStatus Network) and I joined very early on. I haven’t been as active as I probably should be, but there were a number of problems with the early ISP (hacks to the site) and I have participated more on Facebook, where I am friends with many of my hometown folks (people I actually know in person).

The problem with many of my hometown friends is that the majority don’t understand, much less agree with the information I present. Many are still TV junkies and it appears they believe almost everything that idiot box tells them to believe. At first, my participation on FB was some of my funny stuff and to say hello to many folks that I don’t normally get the chance to keep up with. But over the past 6 months or so I have become pretty vocal, like my online persona, BuelahMan.

Of course I want to inform and/or help my homies, but if they aren’t interested, then so be it. One of my dearest friends from high school has called me “Chicken Little” and many more have blocked my feeds or even “de-friended” me. All I can say is that I tried. Now I will leave them to their own devices and focus on those that are somewhat like-minded in a way that sees or senses the oncoming onslaught.

Also, Facebook is constantly making ways to give away or sell your personal information. Most noticeable, Goldman Sachs has made offers to get involved and since I know them to be criminal, thieves and totally unscrupulous, I will likely discontinue any major participation there and simply use it as an emergency means of contacting certain people whom I care about. But, why should I bother casting my pearls before swine?

Which brings me back to David’s new Social Networking site (and I hope you consider joining). He just announced that there is a new host that has helped improve the security and has given him aid in a variety of ways. They remain anonymous (which is a bit frightening), but at the same time, assuring in a way because they have stopped the hacks. Max suggests it is Anonymous (I don’t know for sure, but have liked what they do).

Max Keiser interviewed him and posted it today on his blog:

There will come a time when a revolution will be necessary. There are hard ways and soft ways to revolt. Of course I believe in the soft ways (establishing your “network” or “community”, boycotting Big Money, becoming self-sufficient, and simply refusing to participate in the Corptocracy any longer). The hard ways should be a very last resort, but it should never be “taken off the table” (to use Obama’s words).

There are several of you that read here that I hope join and I will be sending invites. You may or may not agree with ALL of the following, but please read and determine if this might be a match for you. If you do join, tell them B’Man sent you and contact me when you get on, so we can “friend” each other.

About The Network

* People participating in this social network agree to at least one aspect of the common-ground platform mentioned below.

It’s time to mobilize and aggressively move
on common sense political reforms.

We’ve had enough of…

• The Two-Party Oligarchy
• Big Government
• Big Corporate Power
• The Concentration of Power

It’s time to…

• Decentralize
• Create New Political Parties
• Restore the Rule of Law

The economic top one-tenth of one percent of the global population has launched an economic war on us. They are hoarding $39 Trillion in investible wealth, not counting the vast sums they have hidden in offshore accounts. In the United States, we now have the highest and most severe inequality of wealth in our nation’s history. While there is a record number of American citizens currently living paycheck to paycheck, in debt, unemployed, underemployed, without healthcare, on food stamps and in poverty, as our society is breaking down, global bankers have taken our tax dollars and given themselves all-time record-breaking bonuses. The same people who destroyed our economy have been rewarded with trillions of dollars in national wealth. It is now evident that both political parties and all three branches of government, along with the mainstream corporate media, have been bought off by a global economic elite.

As a broad-based network representing people across the political spectrum, we are working together to reach common ground and fight for pivotal political reforms. As long as the economy and government are rigged in favor of the top economic 0.1%, we will all lose.

Here’s a general outline of our common ground platform:

• Enforce RICO Laws
• Break Up the Big Banks
• End the Fed
• Break Up the Mainstream Media
• Shut the Revolving Door
• End Closed Door Lobbying
• Increase Government Transparency
• End Corporate Personhood
• Amend Campaign Finance
• Verify All Votes
• Investigate War Profiteers
• Investigate War Crimes
• End the Wars
• Reopen the 9/11 Investigation
• Restore Civil Liberties
• Uphold the Constitution
• Clean Air, Water & Food
• Reduce Healthcare Costs, Profiteering
• Make Healthcare a Human Right
• Improve Education For All, Reduce Costs
• Reform Prison System
• Reform Drug Laws
• Immigration Reform
• Rebuild Infrastructure
• Protect Internet Freedom
• Empower States’ Rights
• End Corporate Welfare
• Raise Taxes on Richest 0.1%
• Reduce Taxes for 99%

These are the core common ground issues that we must urgently rally around and support. Unless we organize and take decisive action, we will all suffer the consequences of our collective inaction. Any politician who does not urgently move on these issues must be voted out of office and replaced by people who will aggressively fight on these fronts.

If you agree with any of the goals mentioned above and would like to be part of this movement, please join our new social network here.

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General… oh General….

Nation building in Afghanistan is not our job— it is theirs.

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 25, 2010
Washington Post

The good news? Nobody has to pretend anymore that Gen. Stanley McChrystal knew how to fix Afghanistan within a year. The bad news? No
President Obama was absolutely right to sack the preening McChrystal, whose inner circle, as portrayed in Rolling Stone magazine, had all the seriousness and decorum of a frat house keg party. And it was a brilliant political move to turn to Petraeus, who is made of purest Teflon. Critics who might have been tempted to blast the president for changing horses in midstream can hardly object when he has given the reins to the man who averted a humiliating U.S. defeat in Iraq.
Note that I didn’t credit Petraeus with “winning” in Iraq. He didn’t. What he managed to do was redeem the situation to the point where the United States could begin bringing home its combat troops. If the Obama administration’s aims in Afghanistan are recalibrated to accommodate objective reality, then Petraeus can succeed there, too. But this means that the general’s assignment should be a narrow one: Lay the groundwork for a U.S. withdrawal to begin next summer, as Obama has pledged.
After relieving McChrystal of his command Wednesday, Obama called in his national security team and read the riot act. No more bickering, sniping, backbiting or name-calling, the president ordered. Play nice.
But all the comity in the world doesn’t resolve the essential tension between those who believe our goal in Afghanistan should be defined as “victory” and those who believe it should be defined as “finding the exit.” Two thousand years of history are on the side of the “exit” camp, and the fact is that at some point we’re going to leave. The question is how much time will pass — and how many more young Americans will be killed or wounded — before that inevitable day comes.

McChrystal, who designed the counterinsurgency strategy being attempted in Afghanistan, didn’t disguise his opposition to administration officials such as Vice President Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who questioned whether the strategy could work. Petraeus is far too good a politician to fall into that trap. He won’t allow any daylight between himself and the civilian leadership.
But ultimately, there’s going to be no way to avoid the central question: What kind of Afghanistan will we leave behind?
One answer would be that we have to leave in place a durable, functional central government that has full legitimacy and control within the nation’s borders. This would provide the United States with a reliable ally in a dangerous region and also ensure that Afghanistan would never again be used as a launching pad for attacks by al-Qaeda. But to get the country to that point, given where it is now, could take a decade or more of sustained, concentrated attention. It would mean not just defeating the Taliban but molding the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai into a reasonably honest, effective government. This would be a tall order even if Karzai were a stable, consistent, loyal partner. Does anybody believe that he is?
A better answer would be that it’s enough to leave behind an Afghanistan that no longer poses a serious threat to the United States or its vital interests. Nation-building would be the Afghans’ problem, not ours.
Petraeus was successful in Iraq because he realized that he couldn’t create an Athenian democracy in Baghdad. But the highly imperfect Iraqi government is light-years beyond what the general is likely to be able to achieve in Kabul. Even after the war, Iraq was left with modern infrastructure, a highly educated and sophisticated population, and a sizable percentage of the world’s proven oil reserves. Afghanistan has none of these advantages. The political culture is stubbornly medieval; the populace is poor, uneducated and wary of foreign influences. Afghanistan does have great mineral wealth, apparently, but no mining industry to dig it out and no railroads to get it to the marketplace.
In recent testimony before Congress, Petraeus was less than definitive when asked about Obama’s July 2011 deadline. Because he has such credibility and standing in Washington, his view on when we can begin to leave Afghanistan will be more important than McChrystal’s ever was. I hope that by putting Petraeus in charge of the war, President Obama hasn’t consigned us to a longer stay. His comments Thursday seem to indicate the possibility.

Oh– and I can bet you that Petraeus told the President that he would accept this position with a few conditions– Like ‘Hey I am a Battle Field General.. And I want to WIN, [ like there is such a thing as win] not mandy-pandy around. I am going to make a few changes to your rules of combat– LIKE allow the men to shoot!!!!!” “ Oh and by the way, Rolling Stone Mag, set up McChrystal!”

North Dakota: The How-To On Fighting Big Banking

Compare all the devastation spread throughout the country and it is pretty scary. But I bet you haven’t heard about the one place in these United States of America that actually is doing pretty well for itself… North Dakota:

Under state law the bank is the State of North Dakota doing business as the Bank of North Dakota.

It seems that someone had some sense and decided to start their own State Bank. They didn’t like the central banking cartel that owns the rest of the 49 and by playing the Oligarchs game, were able to beat them at it (at least temporarily). They did this by creating a “Socialist Bank” or their own central bank with all funds guaranteed by the government (you know, like this entire NATION used to have before allowing the Federal Reserve to gain control… the private, centralized banking cartel that owns and runs America).

You should really go to Max Keiser’s On The Edge and see all of his interview with Ellen Brown (extremely enlightening, especially considering the High frequency trading scam).

What is High Frequency Trading? Go to the Wiki link and read for yourself. What is most important about this is that first, it is done in the off hours and by computer programs and second, it makes up 73% of the trades (where are the humans?):

As of 2009, high frequency trading firms account for 73% of all US equity trading volume.

But more importantly, there are only 2% of the 22,000 Investment firms doing this type of trade (making up the vast majority of all trades). And to top that, they do this with:

few or no regulatory requirements

As Max and Ellen describe, banks like Goldman Sachs (yes, of course, one of those select and privileged 2%) are able to manipulate the stock prices with this “tool”.

Sound fiscal responsibility is not on the minds of the currently elected scumbags in Congress or any branch of our government. With only one or two exceptions, they all kowtow to the heavy dollars being given and they seemingly don’t care if Americans find out. They must believe that most of America is too stupid to figure this out (and from what I see, they are probably correct).

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling

h/t stacyherbert at MaxKeiser.com