Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 29 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Dollar

Study: Wealthy Stockbrokers More Dangerous Than Psychopaths

David Sirota
AlterNet
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:00 UTC
The findings are a reminder of why now -- more than ever -- we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery.

Occupy Wall Street
Like most people living through this jarring age of economic turbulence and political dysfunction, you can probably recall a moment in the last few months when you thought to yourself that our lawmakers and corporate leaders are all crazy. And not just run-of-the-mill crazy, a la George Costanza's parents, but the kind of crazy that makes films like "Silence of the Lambs" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" so frightening.

The good news for you is that you aren't insane for thinking this. The bad news for all of us, though, is that according to two new scientific analyses, you are more correct in your assessment than you may know.

The first revelation came from Dr. Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University. In his recent book, "A First-Rate Madness," he went beyond merely restating the old adage that anyone crazy enough to run for public office probably shouldn't occupy that office. Instead, the book sheds light on what Ghaemi calls an "inverse law of sanity," whereby tumultuous times like these actually reward and promote political figures who are "mentally abnormal (or) even ill."

Comment: For more information concerning psychopaths and ponerology, the science of the nature of evil, see these Sott links:

Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

Beware the Corporate Psychopath

Psychopaths Among Us

Image
© Sott.net


      Read More...
MIB

NATO: At Least 10,000 'Lost Missiles' in Libya

Jason Ditz
AntiWar.com
Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:18 UTC
map, libya

In a secret meeting with German MPs, top NATO officials reportedly confirmed that over 10,000 missiles inside Libya are still completely unaccounted for,with Admiral Giampaolo di Paola saying that the missiles pose a "serious threat to civil aviation."

That's because among those missiles they still haven't found are over 5,000 SAM-7 shoulder-fired suface to air missiles, which could be easily used by any terrorist to shoot down aircraft.

Admiral Di Paola was said to have warned that the missiles could show up anywhere from Kenya to Kunduz (Afghanistan) while a Libyan general expressed concern that the arms had "fallen into the wrong hands."
      Read More...
Alarm Clock

Stopping the Insanity

David Sirota
Truthdig.com
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:53 UTC
Image
© Sott.net
Like most people living through this jarring age of economic turbulence and political dysfunction, you can probably recall a moment in the last few months when you thought to yourself that our lawmakers and corporate leaders are all crazy. And not just run-of-the-mill crazy, a la George Costanza's parents, but the kind of crazy that makes films like Silence of the Lambs and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest so frightening.

The good news for you is that you aren't insane for thinking this. The bad news for all of us, though, is that according to two new scientific analyses, you are more correct in your assessment than you may know.

Comment: For more information concerning psychopaths and ponerology, the science of the nature of evil, see these Sott links:

Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

Beware the Corporate Psychopath

Psychopaths Among Us

      Read More...
Che Guevara

Naomi Klein's speech to Occupy Wall Street

Naomi Klein
The Nation
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:21 UTC
Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein
I was honored to be invited to speak at Occupy Wall Street on Thursday night. Since amplification is (disgracefully) banned, and everything I say will have to be repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (a k a "the human microphone"), what I actually say at Liberty Plaza will have to be very short. With that in mind, here is the longer, uncut version of the speech.

I love you.

And I didn't just say that so that hundreds of you would shout "I love you" back, though that is obviously a bonus feature of the human microphone. Say unto others what you would have them say unto you, only way louder.

Yesterday, one of the speakers at the labor rally said: "We found each other." That sentiment captures the beauty of what is being created here. A wide-open space (as well as an idea so big it can't be contained by any space) for all the people who want a better world to find each other. We are so grateful.

If there is one thing I know, it is that the 1 percent loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time to push through their wish list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

Doctor who allegedly helped CIA track Osama bin Laden is accused of treason


MSNBC
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:19 UTC
Image
© STR / ETA
Str / EPA
A view of the a house of where Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi used to stay, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, taken Oct. 2011.
Islamabad - A Pakistani doctor accused of running a vaccination program for the CIA to help track down Osama bin Laden should be put on trial for high treason, a government commission said Thursday, a move likely to anger U.S. officials pushing for his release.

Dr. Shakil Afridi has been in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency since soon after the May 2 American raid that killed bin Laden.

The agency was humiliated and outraged by the covert American operation and is aggressively investigating the circumstances surrounding it.

Afridi's fate is a complicating issue in relations between the CIA and the ISI that were strained to the breaking point by the bin Laden raid.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

US: Finger Scan Devices Coming to Washington County School Buses

Bryan Anderson
WJHG
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:07 UTC
Finger Print Device
© WJHG
Chipley - The Washington County School District is adding finger scan devices to all of its school buses to keep a better track of student attendance.

Roll call is a thing of the past in Washington County Schools. Students now check in with finger scanning devices.

School Superintendent Sandra Cook said the old method just wasn't cutting it.

"We got to talking about attendance in our district and how it was inconsistent," said Cook.

The systems have been up and running for two months inside the schools, but since the majority of students ride the bus every day, district officials decided to move the devices there.
      Read More...
Bad Guys

US: Surprised? Twisted government accounting behind Postal Service woes

Bob Sullivan
MSNBC / Red Tape
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:06 UTC
You might have heard that the United States Postal Service is in trouble: that it's losing billions, that it will have to end Saturday service and close branches - and most inflammatory, that it might need a government bailout. Perhaps you heard that the Postal Service couldn't pay $5.5 billion bill that came due Sept. 30 and that only an emergency postponement saved it from the government's equivalent of default.

In fact, it's the Postal Service that's currently bailing out the U.S. government. Politicians have been raiding Postal Service revenues for years, using them to make the federal deficit appear smaller than it really is. The fiscal gyrations are so twisted that the Postal Service is right now forced to pre-pay health care benefits for employees the agency hasn't even hired yet - in fact, for many future employees who haven't even been born yet - all to artificially shrink the federal deficit.

It's these crushing accounting tricks, not the cost of delivering mail, that has pushed this 200-year-old institution to the brink.

Welcome to the wacky world of Washington, D.C., accounting.

Comment: This is eerily similar to the propaganda behind the attempt to privatize Social Security in the U.S. First, you take one of the bedrock functions of the federal government, carefully seed propaganda designed to convince people that the program, "won't be around for you," use accounting tricks to raid money from the solvent program, then let the corporations take over the function. Both Social Security and the Postal Service depend for their legitimacy on the idea that they are completely dependable. There is even a poem inscribed at the headquarters about this that everyone knows: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Do we really want to rely on Fedex and UPS for basic mail delivery?

      Read More...
Card - VISA

Mike Whitney: The European Debt Crisis Myth, The Issue is Fairness

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:16 UTC
Image
© RTT
The future premises of the European Central Bank (ECB)
No one opposes unity. And no one opposes a stronger, more unified Europe. What people oppose is policy; policies that slash workers wages, privatize state assets, increase unemployment, and prolong recession. That's what people oppose. The people who are burning cars and fighting police in Athens aren't doing so because the hate unity. What they hate is a policy that shifts all the burden of the financial crisis onto their shoulders. The issue is fairness, not unity.

For over a year we've been hearing about a debt crisis that's spread from one EU country to the next. But, keep in mind, the crisis was predicted long before problems arose in Greece. From the very beginning, experts warned that structural flaws in the make-up of the monetary union would eventually lead to disaster. And so it has. So why is everyone acting so surprised? And why are the politicians and central bankers so eager to blame Greece? This is a structural problem. It has nothing to do to profligate spending, huge budget deficits, or "lazy Greeks". Those are all just red herrings. The one-size-fits-all currency was bound to end in catastrophe unless steps were taken to level the fiscal playing field. What does that mean?
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Fears of an economic meltdown in China

John Chan
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:02 UTC
Mounting instabilities in the Chinese economy have provoked fears among international analysts that world capitalism is about to be hit by another shock.

A clear indicator of global concern over a crash in China is the rising net value of outstanding credit default swaps (CDS) on Chinese sovereign debt - a type of insurance against a Chinese government default. This now stands at $US8.3 billion - the world's 10th largest total, ahead of Portugal and the Bank of America. Just two years ago, the CDS total for China was $1.6 billion and ranked 227th in the world.

An editorial by Bloomberg News on October 3 entitled, "China's fall, not its rise, is the real global threat," summed up the sentiment. It warned that China's expansion, based on "cheap labour, undervalued currency, heavy investment in manufacturing and focus on exports," had reached its limit, with "far-reaching consequences for the US and Europe, both of which are increasingly dependent on China."

The editorial listed the stresses facing the Chinese economy. First, "labour costs are surging" as young factory workers now expected a higher living standard and wage, threatening China's role as the world's largest cheap labour platform. Second, stimulus measures since late 2008 had unleashed cheap state bank credit to the tune of trillions of dollars, which, "has driven overinvestment and pushed up real estate prices to levels many families can't afford, adding to social tensions and possibly setting the country up for a bust."
      Read More...
Che Guevara

Anti-Wall Street protests spread across the US

Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 07 Oct 2011 08:53 UTC
Image
With anti-Wall Street protests spreading to over 100 US cities and towns, President Barack Obama at a White House press conference Thursday cynically sought to exploit the outpouring of spontaneous anger at the banks and big business as a vehicle for his reelection bid.

On Thursday, new Occupy Wall Street protests sprang up in a number of major cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans, Washington, Tampa, Dallas, Houston and Austin. They came on the heels of the largest demonstration so far in New York City, where an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 marched through lower Manhattan Wednesday night.

The demonstrations are driven by a profound anger over unprecedented levels of social inequality as, three years after the financial meltdown on Wall Street, unemployment and declining wages persist and deepen alongside record profits and increasing wealth for the top one percent.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts