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SOTT Focus: Never in the field of human history has so much been taken from so many by so few

Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:39 UTC
Image
© Credit Union
The last week in March started with the coordinated call from Russia and China for a new non-national reserve currency, an idea that was greeted as one would expect with some derision until US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he supported such an idea. We can only speculate that he forgot his role in this Act 2 of the international stage tragedy "Global Financial Crisis" and used his lines from Act 4 which has of course yet to come. In this Act the role of the US is to resist such calls.

The week ended with the G20 summit and more importantly with the G20 final communique which promises a dark future; for wrapped in the cloth of "free trade", a trillion dollars for the IMF and "trade finance" and the regulation of banker's pay is the formation of a global overseer, the Financial Stability Board and the announcement that "the era of banking secrecy (which means privacy) is over."

There is a great deal in the G20 final communique and what with the general goings on this coming week with the NATO summit following the G20 and US President Obama's visit to Ankara that we will be providing an analysis of the G20 summit and its context during the course of next week.

This week we take a closer look at who really benefited from the AIG bailout and the true size of the US governments financial commitments to the "Global Financial Crisis". With apologies to Winston Churchill and the fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain:-
Never in the field of human history has so much been taken from so many by so few
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Hourglass

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: Come join the New World Order! Pull some strings for Israel! But ignore those lights in the sky!

SOTT Editors
Sott.net
Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:48 UTC
Mars Chastising Cupid
© Art Institute of Chicago'Mars Chastising Cupid', by Bartolomeo Manfredi
A year has passed since we began Connecting the Dots. We have made an effort to keep this little Lighthouse alight amidst the darkness as events unfold relentlessly, charting their line of force in the daily battle against subjectivity.

The Romans named this month Martius after the god of war, Mars. Before the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, March was considered the first month of the new year. War, greed, plague and destruction marked the end of the Roman imperial adventure. Today's empire looks set to meet a fate essentially the same. Symbolic perhaps of its tenacity in the face of imperial pressure to conform, Iran still celebrates Nowruz, or 'New Day' on the 21st of the month, the Spring Equinox.

Comment: A reader has put forward the following suggestion regarding the nighttime photo of possible UFOs above :
Those are most probably not UFOs but reflections of the floodlights below caused by the photographic lens of the camera. And here is the reason why:

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Notice the similarity of the "UFOs" above to a so-called caustic (caused by spherical mirrors or lenses, for example in a tea cup), from Wikipedia:

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Photographic lenses can be complex, with many possibilities of distortions and reflections, which can produce lens flares, optical lens artefacts, etc. See:

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The same kind of "object" can be seen right in the beginning of this YouTube video, also linked to from the current "Connecting the Dots".

That is not to say that the UFO phenomenon is nonexistent! It seems just that the above picture slid into the dataset, which demonstrates how difficult it is to discern the (deliberate or unintentional) NOISE from the REAL SIGNAL.
It sounds like a plausible explanation. But then, who knows? In cataloging the bizarre sightings and events reported daily, there will inevitably be some that can be explained in accordance with known phenomena. On the other hand, learning to discern for ourselves also requires that we keep an open mind to all possibilities. We invite readers to explore the hundreds of sightings of objects that defy commonly accepted boundaries of what is possible and what is not.

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Coffee

SOTT Focus: Inflating Their Way Out of Trouble After All

Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:00 UTC
Toxic assets
© Adam Zyglis/The Buffalo News
A busy two weeks in the global economy as the taps were opened by governments busy creating new money. Sadly they decided to use it to buy government bonds and worthless "toxic assets" rather than employ and train citizens and build much needed national infrastructure.

Inevitably, with new money flowing into the system inflation will grow further eroding the value of savings and wages, while mobile money will seek a home in commodities thereby adding a double boost to the cost of living for us all. Governments seem to be clinging to the hope that excess supply will dampen the inflationary pressure; a forlorn hope. China and Russia called for a new global reserve currency clearly losing patience with the US pretense at global economic leadership.

The US Congress became "a rat's nest of grandstanding" on the issue of AIG bonuses while remaining silent on the secrecy of the Federal Reserve as to who's been receiving the trillions in bailout money and on Goldman Sachs receipt of over $12 billion in AIG bailout money.
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Chess

SOTT Focus: Entropy, Chaos and Power (Part 1)

Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:46 UTC
AIG Bonuses
© Brian Fairrington/caglecartoons.com
The Swiss, a nation long famous for their devotion to banking secrecy, have decided to do away with all that and open the books of UBS to the US government; AIG bonuses are in the spotlight while in fact there is much more to AIG than meets the eye, hence the focus on bonuses; Babcock & Brown went into receivership; GE had its credit rating downgraded; and the G20 Finance Ministers met in Horsham (UK).

What looks suspiciously like a renewal of the British war against the Irish, in a bid to develop a renewed domestic terrorism threat, began with three murders; the circulation of a highly doctrinaire policy document to Missouri State Highway Officers, which flies in the face of the US Constitution, was thankfully brought to public attention, while the French held a bio-terror exercise with the premise that "anti-capitalist = terrorist".

Meanwhile with the focus on bonuses, and the AIG Financial Products ones in particular, are we seeing the beginnings of a manipulated class war? There's nothing like a good distraction to keep people from looking for the real bad guys.
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Attention

SOTT Focus: "The Money Has Gotten Scarce ... but the Truth Is Getting Fierce"

Simon Davies & Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:22 UTC
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© Jules Joseph LefebvreTruth standing naked and bold holding the mirror.
The 1975 lyrics of Murray Head from Say it ain't so Joe seem appropriate for this stage in the Obama presidency:-
they told us that our hero has played his trump card
he doesn't know how to go on
we're clinging to his charms and determined smile
but the good old days have gone
the image and the empire may be falling apart
the money has gotten scarce
one man's word held the country together
but the truth is getting fierce
The question in our minds is just how fierce does the truth have to get before people wake up and really start questioning how the world works.

Surveying the world economy, the past two weeks saw most non-reserve currencies fall in value, as emerging economies and export-oriented countries are suffering capital flight. In past downturns some regions would experience this and not others, some countries and not others, but now capital flight and, it seems, both real and induced social unrest are widespread.

The beneficiary has been the U.S. dollar, which is surprising given the fact that the Federal Reserve has been "printing" money like crazy and the US government has been borrowing like crazy. "There is nowhere else to go" is the justifying mantra of the times. But what seems to be happening is that those making the bets remain convinced of US global military and economic hegemony. As we have been pointing out, the signs are that military force will be used and the era of "free trade" may be coming to an end. Some are pointing to "currency protectionism."
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Eye 1

SOTT Focus: Big Brother Digest - The Fight for Liberty begins... is it too late?

Richard Sawyer
Sott.net
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:43 UTC
speed gun
© unknownSinister Surveillance
Rather belatedly, citizens of the UK are waking up to the fact that they are under constant surveillance, have lost their privacy, their civil liberties and are now beginning to voice their outrage. 1.1 million children are on a UK DNA database and schools are assisting in softening-up the next generation to accept biometric identity and zero privacy.

Drone aircraft are beginning to be used to monitor civilian populations in the USA and the UK. The USA and Australia attempt to catch up with the UK's dystopia by using the tried and tested 'terrorist' meme. Your Skype calls are likely to soon have someone listening in on them and the much criticized social networking sites are actually displaying some positive uses for once.

Has it been left too late to stop the Big Brother society that we are now a part of?
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Heart - Black

SOTT Focus: Israeli troops open fire on Palestinian women outside mosque

SOTT Focus
Sott.net
Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:00 UTC




The scene near a mosque in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun after Israeli troops opened fire on a group of Palestinian women, killing one of them (see here) and injuring 10 others. The mosque had been the scene of an Israeli siege after a group of men, presumed to be armed, took refuge there. Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters




This story should come as no surprise to anyone. Successive Israeli governments have given ample evidence over the past 60 years that, in their opinion, Palestinian life is worth little more than that of the animals that extreme orthodox Jews sacrifice to their destroyer god "Yahweh". Indeed, at least on a symbolic level, the murder of Palestinian men, women and children by Israeli soldiers is seen by Zionists as a similar type of blood offering to the all-too-human "god" that "promised them Palestine" 2,500 years ago.

With such callous disregard for the life of other human beings, what does anyone expect the end result of the manufactured "Middle East crisis" to be, other than the murder of probably millions of innocent people, Arabs and Jews alike, with only the Zionist leaders escaping unscathed, as always.
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Vader

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: The War on People, Obama's No-Change and the Hardening of Right-Wing Israel

SOTT Editors
Sott.net
Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:30 UTC
Capitalism
© International Pub Co. 1911
In the context of the global economic crisis, we are witnessing an important shift in the rhetoric of the media and the elite. Their warnings of riots and social upheaval seem to be implying that harder measures of control will be required; this way, the 'War on Terror' has served its purpose as a template for a 'War on People'.

Contrary to the expectations of its population, the new government of the United States is not moving away from the path set by the Bush administration; the changes so far have only been a matter of appearance.

The right-wing climate is also growing even stronger in Israel with Netanyahu's electoral victory. There are signs that Israel's aggressions towards its neighbors in Palestine and/or Iran will continue after the pause required by the formation of the new government.

All the political and economic turmoil takes place on a planet already experiencing bizarre climatic and cosmic phenomena.
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Chess

SOTT Focus: The Unravelling Continues As More People Suffer

Donald Hunt & Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:27 UTC
World stock indexes fell sharply again the week ending 23rd February, down 6-7% on average.

Gold bumped up against the $1000 barrier on Friday as it became clear that all countries are prepared to go deeply in debt to stimulate their economies and to bail out their banks.

In the background of the economic news there have been some significant moves on the world chessboard. The United States is moving closer to Russia and Iran while escalating the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Russia will now formally allow the United States to resupply their forces in Afghanistan through Russian controlled territory. US diplomatic overtures to Iran continue although the UK Financial Times and other mainstream sources continued to bang the Zionist inspired nuclear weapons drum.

China and the United States are as close as can be economically and neither side seems to need to deny it. China has the productive capacity and the money and the United States has the borrowers, the consumers, and the international police force. The United States, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to China, has ended the hypocritical ritual of "denouncing" Chinese human rights violations. It looks like the world powers are joining forces to institute the next step of the plan. Meanwhile a new overtly fascist government has been formed in Israel by the right-wing schemer, Netanyahu; an event that does not bode well for humanity.
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Chess

SOTT Focus: Cutting through the illusion - The Grand Chessboard

Simon Davies
SOTT.net
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:14 UTC
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The US and Israel - the Reality
It may seem blindingly obvious, but I'm going to say it anyway as we often seem to forget, that clear communication is essential to mutual understanding. Without a common understanding of what we say to each other we find ourselves adrift in Babel-land. The risks to us all from a lack of common understanding cannot be overstated.

In the midst of the deluge of bailouts, rescues and stimulus packages there is no clear communication as to just why these measures are being taken and how they are meant to improve the lives of ordinary people. It is abundantly clear that this is deliberate. If we, the normal people of the planet, were to gain a common understanding of what is really happening, we would decide that we don't approve, we would agree on exactly why we don't approve and we would likely agree on what we wish to see happen instead. Those that control our world know this so they ensure that no common understanding is reached; they need the confusion. In fact, they create the confusion.
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