Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Police Department Spying and Retaliation for the Surveillance State

"...there was no division between corporate spying and government spying." ~Noam Chomsky on Jeremy Hammond's Stratfor revelations

"They're going to nationalize police departments. That's your military coup!" ~John Trudell 

The collection of data regarding all citizens of America has been revealed to be egregiously intrusive and totalitarian despite a 2013 promise by Obama that nothing of the sort is occurring.

Obama To Leno: 'There Is No Spying On Americans'

Of course, Obama has made it possible:

Obama White House had NSA limits reversed

(2011) "The Obama administration quietly got a court to undo U.S. surveillance limits on the use of intercepted phone calls and emails, The Washington Post reported."

Of course, anyone who by this time does not fully understand Obama to be a complete and utter traitor to the American people is somehow not paying actual attention. Browse this blog for more if for some reason you still don't get it.

Most recently egregious is Seattle PD's attempt to set up their own mesh net across the city, one which like the later-mentioned "Sting Ray" technology, would allow them to continuously ping the location of any citizen with a cell phone or WiFi device.

Continuous, total spying upon citizen location and movement. Stored for later use against you. Let that sink in. This is Fascism, pure and simple. This is so completely beyond acceptable it is ridiculous. I initially did not forward the stories I saw regarding it, believing it to be conspiracy theory.

Seattle police deactivate surveillance system after public outrage

"Police in Seattle, Washington have responded to a major public outcry by disabling a recently discovered law enforcement tool that critics said could be used to conduct sweeping surveillance across the city.

...The SPD told The Stranger previously that the system was not being used, but anyone with a smart phone who wandered through the jurisdiction covered by the digital nodes could still notice that their devices were being discovered by the internet-broadcasting boxes, just as a person’s iPhone or Android might attempt to connect to any network within reach. In theory, law enforcement could take the personal information transmitted as the two devices talk to each other and use that intelligence to triangulate the location of a person, even within inches. 

When the SPD was approached about the system last week, they insisted that it wasn’t even in operation yet. David Ham of Seattle’s KIRO-7 News asked, however, how come 'we could see these network names if it’s not being used?'

'Well, they couldn’t give us an explanation,' Ham said at the time." 

More:

Privacy Concerns, Black Bars, and Seattle’s Municipal Mesh Net Project

Much more:

The Stranger: You Are a Rogue Device

Much much more:

Trapwire surveillance system exposed in document leak

"Papers released by WikiLeaks show US department of homeland security paid $832,000 to deploy system in two cities." via @SeattlePrivacy

Indiana State Police tracking cellphones - but won't say how or why

"This year, the Indiana State Police paid $373,995 for a device that law enforcement personnel have described as a powerful tool in the fight against crime and terrorism.

It could allow investigators in a surveillance vehicle to park in a crowded area and track the movements of anyone nearby with a cellphone and capture the numbers of people’s incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.

...But officials at Indiana’s largest police agency aren’t saying what they do with the technology; they’re mum on whose data they’ve collected so far; and they’re not talking about what steps they take to safeguard the data."

DC, Maryland and Virginia cops spying on cell phone data

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) -- It's not just the NSA - local cops are mining the cell phone data to reveal the location, identity and call information of hundreds of people at a time -- whether they're suspected of criminal activity or not.
 
In a joint investigation with Gannett television stations across the country and USA Today, WUSA9 obtained documents that show police in Fairfax County, Montgomery County and the Metropolitan Police in DC have purchased cell phone spy gear capable of tracking your whereabouts - even if you're not the one being investigated."


Cellphone spying technology being used throughout Northern California

"At least seven law enforcement agencies in California are using controversial technology that allows them to secretly collect data from cellphones and track people, News10 has learned."


Secret Military Device ‘Hailstorm’ Used By Michigan Police, FOIA Request By Detroit News Denied

"‘HailStorm’ is a new device obtained by the Oakland County Sheriff with monies from a U.S. Homeland Security Grant and so far, there isn’t much information available on what exactly it can and cannot do.  There were no questions asked when Oakland County commissioners unanimously approved the use of this cellphone tracking device previously used by the US military in Iraq."

Mysterious Phony Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Calls

"To show what the CryptoPhone can do that less expensive competitors cannot, he points me to a map that he and his customers have created, indicating 17 different phony cell towers known as “interceptors,” detected by the CryptoPhone 500 around the United States during the month of July alone. (The map below is from August.)  Interceptors look to a typical phone like an ordinary tower.  Once the phone connects with the interceptor, a variety of 'over-the-air' attacks become possible, from eavesdropping on calls and texts to pushing spyware to the device."


LICENSE PLATE READERS are becoming standard issue equipment for PDs across the country, but there are severe down-sides in terms of collecting and correlating data on citizens:

License plate data not just for cops: Private companies are tracking your car

“'This sort of constant surveillance makes it very dangerous for us as a society,' said Michael Katz-Lacabe, a network security engineer and member of the San Leandro, Calif., school board.

Katz-Lacabe has first-hand experience with the reach of LPR data – police cameras in San Leandro captured his two vehicles more than 100 times over two years, which he discovered from a public records request in 2010. In one of the images, he and his daughters are stepping out of the family’s Toyota Prius in their driveway."

130717-license-plate-10p.photoblog600

More:

Privacy’s worst nightmare: company advertises over one billion license plate records

Boston police halt license tracking system as media probe points to privacy violations

Homeland Security is seeking a national license plate tracking system

 

Los Angeles Cops Argue All Cars in LA Are Under Investigation

 


SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS AND 'STING RAY'

Bringing the argument home about domestic spying

By Dan Bluemel, laactivist.com

"Since March 2008, LAPD officers have been reporting on behavior they believe to have a nexus to terrorism. In what are called suspicious activity reports, or SARs, officers report on what the department considers suspicious behavior. Through another police program, called iWatch, civilians too can report on suspicious behavior.

The behavior being reported by police may be as innocuous — and legal — as taking photographs of buildings or inquiring about its hours of operation. The reports garnered from these two programs are sent to fusion centers where they are shared with local, state and national law enforcement agencies across the nation.

...Besides the SARs and iWatch programs, the LAPD also has several cameras positioned around the city that use TrapWire technology, a predictive software that can allegedly detect suspicious behavior in connection with terrorism.

Another technology employed by the LAPD is a suitcase-sized device called StingRay. It mimics a cell phone tower, tricking every cell phone in a neighborhood into connecting to it. Once connected, police can grab information from everyone’s phone in the area, not just the suspects.

StingRay was purchased with Dept. of Homeland Security Funds. It was meant for counterterrorism, but according to documents obtained by LA Weekly, in 2012, the LAPD used StingRay 21 times within four-months in burglary, drug and murder investigations."

Photographers beware! Big Brother is watching you


"Photographers, both amateur and professional, as well as tourists, artists, college students, contractors, engineers, journalists, activists and others, have been secretly reported to the FBI by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies for nothing more than taking pictures, according to documents obtained from a public records request filed by the ACLU of Southern California."


Complete breaches of the Fourth Amendment

DNA samples taken at police checkpoint ‘gross abuse of power,’ say PA drivers


"A Pennsylvania community is asking questions after a government contractor, with help from the local police, pulled drivers off the road and into a parking lot to ask about their driving and – most notably – pressure them into providing a DNA sample."
 
Now they have our DNA as well. Another list upon which they want all of us to be. Total information awareness against the people of this country.

Note the wording of the Fourth Amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Not any more:

Texas judge: Search warrants can be obtained based on predictions of future crimes

"Police in Texas may now obtain a search warrant based on 'a prediction of a future crime,' according to a dissenting judge on the state’s criminal appeals court." 

Police to Begin Inspecting Homes For “Illegal Tenants”

 "The community of Westbury, NY has announced the creation of a new police task force to inspect people’s homes unannounced in search of 'illegal tenants.' The town of 15,000 will hire two new police officers and recently held a town meeting about the new 'zero tolerance policy' against renting rooms illegally. The task force – aptly named the Housing Enforcement Unit – is calling these tenants 'unpermitted guests.' And by 'illegal' they don’t mean immigrants – they mean anyone not on the mortgage or lease agreement."  

Boston Transit Police Conducts Warrantless Searches on All Bus, Subway Riders
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/boston-transit-police-conducts-warrantless-searches-bus-subway-riders/#RJPByxvlx9GAF4to.99

Boston transit police conducts warrantless searches on all bus, subway riders

Supreme Court: Pennsylvania cops no longer need a warrant to search citizens’ vehicles

Boston Transit Police Conducts Warrantless Searches on All Bus, Subway Riders
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/boston-transit-police-conducts-warrantless-searches-bus-subway-riders/#RJPByxvlx9GAF4to.99
Boston Transit Police Conducts Warrantless Searches on All Bus, Subway Riders
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/boston-transit-police-conducts-warrantless-searches-bus-subway-riders/#RJPByxvlx9GAF4to.99

 
POLICE INTIMIDATION AND RETALIATION


If police (and through them, the Feds and the corporations and money interests controlling the Feds) do not like you, they may use surveillance data to cause you suffering and harm...especially if you are protesting the trade show promoting the deadly militarization of police:

"Last Friday, the City Corporation of Oakland hosted a four day ‘Urban Shield‘ conference in which SWAT teams and other militarized police troops from around the globe came together to trade best practices on fighting terrorism, first response training, and of course protest suppression techniques.

...In an effort to either silence a vocal activist or just plain out fuck with his life, Oakland police secretly photographed one protester’s vehicle and sent the photos, along with one of the protester himself, to his employer. According to @Anon4justice on Twitter, OPD falsely accused him of being involved in a hit-and-run accident, which contributed to the dissident losing his job. (Side note; Anon4justice called in sick that day to be able to join his comrades in the streets.)"

¤ProletarianDissent¤ @Anon4justice 


They found out the garage I parked in and got pics of my truck. Also got me at the rally.

"Nine-foot tall, 55,000 pound, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored-fighting vehicles rolling through the streets of America.
Millions of dollars’ worth of military gear being distributed to local police forces on an annual basis.
Drones, M-16s and so many other hand-me-downs from over a decade of war making their way from US forces abroad to a local police force near you."














More:

DHS Spy Files on the Occupy Movement Part 2


ACTUAL DOMESTIC TERRORISM

The FBI and the "patriot act" define "domestic terrorism" as:


"A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act...if the act appears to be intended to: 

(i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population..."

How the USA PATRIOT Act redefines "Domestic Terrorism"

How then are the Federal and local police department actions against Occupy and Anon4justice not domestic terrorism? How is tracking every citizen's every minute location and documenting it photographically not intended to intimidate and coerce, to play upon fear and paranoia? To get us to SHUT UP AND GO HOME AND STAY THERE and allow the powers that be to continue their path without checks or balances?

If there is a price to be paid for voicing your 1st Amendment rights, if there is an obvious risk in so doing, something may be terribly wrong.


Occupy_Protests_Anniversary_0c8f5

occupy-phoenix

riot police guard BofA during occupy la march

occupy portland Steve Dipaola Reuters

Occupy Denver AP Photo Leah Millis

Police brutality at Occupy Philly

OWS Chase-Police-State
Complete breaches of the Fourth Amendment

Occupy Denver, Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post

Democratic National Convention

PD Tanks





Toledo Police Tank


Toledo, Ohio


Jefferson CO tank


Jefferson County, Colorado


AP exclusive finds 165 MRAP vehicles used in Iraq handed to local police departments


"These are not the first armored military vehicles given to U.S. police departments. A little-known 1033 program, originating from the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997, allows the Department of Defense to donate what it considers surplus military equipment to police and sheriff departments, Michael Shank and Elizabeth Beavers wrote in The Guardian. A total of $4.2 billion in such equipment, including tanks and grenade launchers, has been donated so far."


NH legislator introduces bill to stop small-town cops from buying tanks



Iowa town given 49,000 pound MRAP


More:

How the Los Angeles Police Department are made into tentacles of Homeland Security.

ACLU Launches Nationwide Police Militarization Investigation

10 000 cops ordered on to Sofia streets to contain anti-government protests

Stop LAPD Spying! 

Forget the NSA, the LAPD Spies on Millions of Innocent Folks 


Yes, Virginia, there is a police state

Utah considers law to increase SWAT raid transparency
















No Man's Air: Military And Police Drones Proliferate In Latin America

Hedges: Jeremy Hammond Exposed State's Plan to Criminalize Democratic Dissent 

"JAY: So, quickly, for people--most of our viewers must know this, but quickly, just what is it that Jeremy exposed?

HEDGES: He broke into the private security firm known as Stratfor, which does work for a variety of intelligence agencies--for the Marine Corps and the Defense Department, the Pentagon, but also for corporations, including Raytheon, Dow Chemical, and others. And he turned over 3 million emails, email exchanges within the company to Rolling Stone, WikiLeaks, and other publications. Now, this was quite a significant dump, because it illustrated two or three very chilling things about the security and surveillance state, first of all that there was no division between corporate spying and government spying. It was seamless, including the same people going back and forth. It was from that dump that we realized the extent to which the Occupy movement was being spied upon and infiltrated and monitored and followed. And we also found from those email exchanges that there was a concerted attempt on the part of security officials, both inside the government and within the private security contracting agency, to link, falsely, nonviolent dissident groups with terrorist groups so that they could apply terrorism laws against these groups.

And when I sued Barack Obama over Section 1021 of the National National Defense Authorization Act, which permits the U.S. military, overturning 150 years of domestic law, to seize U.S. citizens who 'substantially' support--that is not a legal term, it's not material support, it's an amorphous term--'substantially' support al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or something called associated forces--again another nebulous term--hold those citizens in military facilities without due process indefinitely, part of the email exchanges were entered as evidence in my case. And those email exchanges showed that this private security firm, along with government officials, was attempting to link a group called U.S. Day of Rage, founded by a journalist and activist named Alexa O'Brien, who was one of my coplaintiffs, with al-Qaeda. And why were they trying to link that group with al-Qaeda? So that they could employ the draconian terrorism laws against nonviolent democratic dissidents. That all came out from Hammond."

---

"They're going to nationalize police departments. That's your military coup!"


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Why Israel's #1 ally is about to bomb Iran's #1 ally

Israel's #1 ally is the United States. Iran's #1 ally is Syria. Iran has obligations to respond if their ally Syria is attacked. As does Iran's ally, the recently uppity Russia, who have already stated clear warnings against military action against Syria.

Hillary syria war with iran for israel

Please note that I am not pro-Assad. I am anti-war and am against murder. There must be another solution.

Now: I'm not anti-Semetic. I am anti-Zionist.

“Defenders of Zionism say it is a national liberation movement for the repatriation of a dispersed socio-religious group to what they see as an abandoned homeland millennia before.[5][6][7] Critics of Zionism see it as a colonialist[8] or racist[9] ideology that led to the denial of rights, dispossession and expulsion of the 'indigenous population of Palestine'”.[10][11]


“Zionism” isn't “all Jewish people everywhere” as much as Protestants are not “all Christians everywhere” or “tea party” = “all Americans everywhere”. Singling out any one of these is not an absolute, blanket accusation of ALL related persons. 

I am for the Jewish people and am against the Zionist racist destruction of the Palestinian people. How can anyone imagine there are absolutes functioning here? Zionism is racist. It is killing an entire people. I have a problem here. With Zionists, not the entire Jewish people.

My father is Jewish. As a decades-long seeker I respect the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah as a pure path (but not necessarily what is being marketed publicly).

The US is a staunch Zionist ally. Billions of our taxpayer dollars a year go there despite its partially being used for murder and destruction. The last Democratic National Convention even involved a Zionist pledge!

“Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa found himself in an awkward position Wednesday night as part of his high-profile role as chairman of the Democratic National Convention when he was forced to call for three votes in an effort to invoke God in the party platform and reaffirm the role of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.”

I am against war and destruction. Zion IS war and destruction; just ask the people of Palestine. Have you forgotten Netanyahu using Wyl E. Coyote graphics to attempt to convince the UN to go to WAR with Iran (whose government, NOT PEOPLE, is also insane) ? 

netanyahu-bomb-un

Now. When you Google

“netanyahu war iran”

You'll get many pages of results. Here are headlines from page 1:

Netanyahu Preparing Public for Possible War With Iran

Jul 20, 2013

Netanyahu: Credible military option needed against nuclear Iran ...

Jul 14, 2013

Netanyahu concerned as ever about Iran, but world powers will not ... 

Aug 10, 2013

Netanyahu & the Lobby Cowboy Up For War With Iran
Aug 9, 2013

Arutz Sheva - 1 day ago

War With Iran: The Very Real Threat of WWIII Will Come Not From ...

Benjamin Netanyahu used his trip to the US to demand that we set specific conditions (red lines) on Iran that would trigger military action if crossed.

Netanyahu calls for stronger Iran sanctions, 'credible' military option ...

Jul 14, 2013

PM to push US for 'more credible military option' on Iran |

Jul 13, 2013

How Netanyahu's Iran Policy Ends Badly

Jul 16, 2013

Netanyahu still war-obsessed despite Iran's moderate swing by ...

Jun 16, 2013

Interesting, yes?
Including the following article from yesterday:

Netanyahu: Syria is Iran’s ‘testing ground’

‘Assad regime isn’t acting alone,’ PM says after meeting with French FM, who claims there’s ‘no doubt’ who’s behind chemical attack

Zion wants war with Iran; continues telling everyone they need to be at war with Iran. Endlessly. They don't stop. 

I do not want this war. Zion desperately wants it. They want more death and destruction. To the extent that they appear to truly revel in it; they spend endless hours attempting to create it. They desperately want war and death and destruction and apparently little else. This in my opinion qualifies them for the descriptor of “death cult”, which would be a group whose principle aim is to cause death, to want and demand it, to dole it out regularly without qualm (such has been done to the people of Palestine). 

Mind you I also find the Iranian government to be insane as well. I support the people of Israel and Iran but NOT their insane governments! 

And how about that Syrian oil and Shell's interest in it:

"1. (C) Summary. In addition to being awarded new concessions in the most recent bid round, Royal Dutch Shell is aggressively pursuing a number of new initiatives which, if successful, would expand the company's already considerable presence in Syria."


This is an ancient and complex issue and I have no full window into it and do not claim to. I do not wish to upset anyone with this post. I am for peace and against warmongers and wish to say something. I've remained silent on the Zion/Palestine issue for decades but can no longer.

Also, the US is guilty of using destructive chemical and radioactive weapons against civilians in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as arming Saddam:

Chemical Weapons

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=564756906920750&set=a.268309903232120.65715.231164773613300&type=1&theater

Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_america_helped_saddam_as_he_gassed_iran


Iraq's depleted uranium clean-up to cost $30m as contamination spreads

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/mar/06/iraq-depleted-uranium-clean-up-contamination-spreads

"More than 400 tonnes of DU ammunition are estimated to have been fired by jets and tanks in the two Iraq wars in 1991 and 2003, the vast majority by US forces. The UK government says that British forces fired less than three tonnes."

So who exactly is condemning others for the use of horrifying weapons?

Stratfor intel discusses attempts to collapse Syria from within:

https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1671459_insight-military-intervention-in-syria-post-withdrawal.html 


"The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” ---Senator Obama, 12-20-2007


Biden too:

Obama And Biden Have Said Military Action Without Congressional Approval Is Unconstitutional
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/obama-and-biden-have-said-military-action-without-congressio

“I want to make it clear to you,” Biden said speaking at a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa in December 2007. “I’ve drafted, with the help of 17 years I was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee or the ranking member. Ladies and gentlemen, I drafted and outline of what I think the constitutional limits have on the president in over the war clause. I went to five leading scholars, constitutional scholars, and they drafted a treatise for me, and it’s being distributed to every senator. And I want to make it clear and I made it clear to the president, if he takes this nation to war in Iran, without congressional approval — I will make it my business to impeach him.”

I know Right



Putin Orders Massive Strike Against Saudi Arabia If West Attacks Syria 

http://banoosh.com/blog/2013/08/28/putin-orders-massive-strike-against-saudi-arabia-if-west-attacks-syria/


---

Notes from Occupy Melbourne; Ten years ago, lies about WMD were an excuse to invade Iraq for oil and endless taxpayer monies. I have not vetted these articles; they are presented for further reading. Take what you like and leave the rest. Apologies if any are from nut jobs. Solidarity with Occupy Melbourne!

U.S. Framed Syria in Chemical Weapons Attack to start War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbfcceEkn_M

Hacked e-mails reveal 'Washington approved' plan to stage Syria chemical attack http://tinyurl.com/l4l2nej

Once again the US & the UK appear on the verge of fighting another illegal war. It all seems so familiar with what occurred before the Iraq war. We were told Saddam had WMD's & links to Al-Qaeda. The fact the US had by far away the greatest links to Al-Qaeda since the CIA founded & funded it, mattered none! The result was the complete destruction of Iraq, enormous casualties, which to this very day, continues to mount. The only country that's gained is Israel, largely due to a pipeline built courtesy of the US taxpayer, from Iraqi oilfields, all the way through Jordan, straight into Israel, where they pay a paltry $2 per barrel! Now the very same people are telling us a similar pack of lies!

However, this time the stakes could not be higher! Russia have already made it clear they cannot allow Syria to be destroyed just the way Afghanistan, Iraq & Libya were! The Chinese too are well aware the next step is Iran.


The Syrian narrative being presented on the nightly news is of brave rebel fighters battling oppressive dictator Assad whose forces go around shelling civilians and murdering babies. And while some of that is certainly true, the real devil lies in the details and omissions; truth being the first casualty of any war since the first shot gets fired. Hardcore war in the heart of the Middle East is complex and prone to lies especially these days when all the major powers are scrambling for the last easily tappable energy reserves on the planet; but that kind of big picture view never fits into a soundbite even if a foreign public wants to hear it.
http://wartard.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/syria-fantasy-war-in-desert.html


U.S. STAGED CHEMICAL ATTACKS IN SYRIA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W1NtZOuq48


See links supportive evidence:
http://stormcloudsgathering.com/leaked-documents-us-framed-syria-in-chemical-weapons-attack


Graphic:Video Emerges from Syria Showing Horrific Aftermath of Chemical Attack http://tinyurl.com/lymmz7d



The Coming Collapse Of The Petrodollar System
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-20/guest-post-coming-collapse-petrodollar-system


"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." - Mark Twain
http://antioligarch.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/experts-doubt-syrian-chemical-weapons-claims/#more-11206

Saturday, August 24, 2013

The 1% are ripping the shit out of us


The world economic circuit:

Larry Summers and the 'End Game' memo
THE CONFIDENTIAL MEMO AT THE HEART OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/larry-summers-and-the-secret-end-game-memo

"The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3 percent unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears.

The Treasury official playing the bankers’ secret End Game was Larry Summers. Today, Summers is Barack Obama’s leading choice for Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the world’s central bank. If the confidential memo is authentic, then Summers shouldn’t be serving on the Fed, he should be serving hard time in some dungeon reserved for the criminally insane of the finance world."

The Trans-Pacific Partnership:

Alan Grayson: TPP Secret Treaty “This Hands Sovereignty of Our Country Over to Corp Interests"
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/first-congress-member-allowed-to-read-secret-treaty-says-there-is-no-national-security-purpose-in-keeping-this-text-secret-this-agreement-hands-the-sovereignty-of-our-country-over-t.html

"An international treaty being negotiated in secret which would not only crack down on Internet privacy much more than SOPA or ACTA, but would actually destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and all other signatories."

Globalization is a prime driver of Plutonomy, according to the third leaked Citigroup Plutonomy memo (linked at the end). Obama is working to fast-track the TPP via TPA. 


Energy and physical resources:

Water privatization by the richest rich is happening now ("hydraulic empire") incl. the Bush family
http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2013/08/water-privatization-by-richest-rich-is.html

"A Citigroup economist gushed, 'Water as an asset class will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals.'"

Goldman bankers get rich betting on food prices as millions starve
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/goldman-bankers-get-rich-betting-on-food-prices-as-millions-starve-8459207.html

Goldman Sachs Took $5 Billion From Consumers By Moving Metal Around
http://gawker.com/goldman-sachs-took-5-billion-from-consumers-by-moving-861862148

The Koch bros. could save $2 billion a year via the Keystone XL pipeline -Greg Palast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36p-zhhkL4

Roll call for representatives with financial investment in the tarsands and TransCanada's KeystoneXL
http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2013/08/roll-call-for-representatives-with.html
  
The Leveraged Buyout of America
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/08/26-2 

"Giant bank holding companies now own airports, toll roads, and ports; control power plants; and store and hoard vast quantities of commodities of all sorts. They are systematically buying up or gaining control of the essential lifelines of the economy. How have they pulled this off, and where have they gotten the money?"

Here's What Happens When Wall Street Builds A Rental Empire

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/25/wall-street-landlords_n_4151345.html 

 

Plutonmists installing themselves in world-wide government and banking positions:

Voila! Greek Gov't Appoints Ex-Goldman Exec As New Debt Chief
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/02/19/838682/-Voila-Greek-Gov-t-Appoints-Ex-Goldman-Exec-As-New-Debt-Chief#

Arrest the Criminals at Goldman Sachs and in the Greek Government (video: Greg Palast)
http://www.v2load.com/videos/aQp22WN0cpg/

Also Italy's Prime Minister; the former attorney general of Ireland during the bailout; the head of the European Central Bank; and more:
http://acampadabcninternacional.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/what-price-the-new-democracy-goldman-sachs-conquers-europe-acampadabcn-takethesquare-acampadasol-15m-occupy/

Obama's defense of Summers not tied to Fed decision -White House
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/31/usa-obama-fed-summers-idUSL1N0G11HI20130731

Citi Offered Jack Lew A Big Bonus To Secure A 'High-Level' Government Position
http://www.businessinsider.com/citis-government-job-bonus-for-jack-lew-2013-2#ixzz2cvh5ASng

Senate Confirms (Billionaire) Penny Pritzker to Be Commerce Secretary, 97 to 1
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/senate-confirms-penny-pritzker-be-commerce-secretary-97-1/66589/

Note:

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini


Housing theft:

The third leaked Plutonomy memo (linked at the end of this post) states the the main asset of the bottom 80% of American earners is their home.

It’s Not a Housing Boom. It’s a Land Grab
http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/05/the_dangerous_new_housing_boom.html

"Just in the last 12 months, Wall Street’s Blackstone Group has raised $8 billlion to buy up homes on Main Street. Following suit, according to The New Republic, JP Morgan Chase—the nation’s largest bank—has organized a fund to purchase 5,000 single-family homes in states with some of the most depressed real estate prices. As I wrote last year, a former Morgan Stanley housing strategist left that bank, organized a billion dollars, and is purchasing up to 10,000 homes with these new resources."

Your mortgage documents are fake!
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/12/your_mortgage_documents_are_fake/

"Georgetown Law professor Adam Levitin spelled this out in testimony before Congress in 2010: 'If mortgages were not properly transferred in the securitization process, then mortgage-backed securities would in fact not be backed by any mortgages whatsoever.'

Szymoniak stated in her lawsuit that, 'Defendants used fraudulent mortgage assignments to conceal that over 1400 MBS trusts, each with mortgages valued at over $1 billion, are missing critical documents,' meaning that at least $1.4 trillion in mortgage-backed securities are, in fact, non-mortgage-backed securities. Because of the strict laws governing of these kinds of securitizations, there’s no way to make the assignments after the fact. Activists have a name for this: 'securitization FAIL.'”

The 1 Percent Is Buying Up All Of The Low End Real Estate
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-1-percent-is-buying-up-all-the-real-estate-beware-of-tom-lee-of-jpm-2012-5#ixzz2cvaZEb5y

BANK OF AMERICA'S SENIOR LOAN COLLECTOR ADMITS TO LYING BECAUSE HE WAS TOLD TO LIE
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/bank-of-americas-senior-loan-collector-30147/


Social Security theft:

Plutocrats' New Pitch: Let Us Rob You Now So You Can Plan Ahead for Poverty
http://www.alternet.org/economy/pete-peterson-and-social-security


College loan debt and rising tution rate scams:

Matt Taibbi: Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ripping-off-young-america-the-college-loan-scandal-20130815

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance
http://www.filmsforaction.org/news/8_reasons_young_americans_dont_fight_back_how_the_us_crushed_youth_resistance/#.UhZ1YsMTgSA.twitter …

1. Student-Loan Debt. Large debt—and the fear it creates—is a pacifying force. There was no tuition at the City University of New York when I attended one of its colleges in the 1970s, a time when tuition at many U.S. public universities was so affordable that it was easy to get a B.A. and even a graduate degree without accruing any student-loan debt. While those days are gone in the United States, public universities continue to be free in the Arab world and are either free or with very low fees in many countries throughout the world. The millions of young Iranians who risked getting shot to protest their disputed 2009 presidential election, the millions of young Egyptians who risked their lives earlier this year to eliminate Mubarak, and the millions of young Americans who demonstrated against the Vietnam War all had in common the absence of pacifying huge student-loan debt.

---

Cities such as Philly, Chicago, and others are having their schools closed and privatizers moving in due to the disaster capitalism techniques of debt and de-funding.


The for-profit private prison industry, created by the for-profit "war on drugs":

Chris Hedges: The Business of Mass Incarceration
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_business_of_mass_incarceration_20130728/

"Poor people, especially those of color, are worth nothing to corporations and private contractors if they are on the street. In jails and prisons, however, they each can generate corporate revenues of $30,000 to $40,000 a year."

Government guarantees 90% occupancy rate in private prisons.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-01/buying-prisons-require-high-occupancy/53402894/1

"Ohio's deal requires the state to maintain a 90% occupancy rate, but Janes said that provision remains in effect for 18 months — not 20 years — before it can be renegotiated. As part of the deal, Ohio pays the company a monthly fee, totaling $3.8 million per year."

Prison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/prison-labor_n_2272036.html


The for-profit surveillance state, created by the for-profit "war on terror":

All your money and privacy are belong to BushCo
http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2013/08/all-your-money-and-privacy-are-belong.html

The Bush disaster family recently enjoyed a $2 billion dollar payment from their 2/3s share of Booz Allen through their Carlyle Group.

5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/5-companies-make-money-keeping-americans-terrified-terror-attacks?paging=off

Meet the Contractors Turning America's Police Into a Paramilitary Force
http://www.alternet.org/meet-contractors-turning-americas-police-paramilitary-force?paging=off

The surveillance state has an annual budget of $1 trillion, going mostly to unknown contractors.

Spying is local too......look no further than the Los Angeles Police Department
http://www.laactivist.com/2013/06/21/bringing-the-argument-home-about-domestic-spying

"Another technology employed by the LAPD is a suitcase-sized device called StingRay. It mimics a cell phone tower, tricking every cell phone in a neighborhood into connecting to it. Once connected, police can grab information from everyone’s phone in the area, not just the suspects.

StingRay was purchased with Dept. of Homeland Security Funds. It was meant for counterterrorism, but according to documents obtained by LA Weekly, in 2012, the LAPD used StingRay 21 times within four-months in burglary, drug and murder investigations."

Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
http://deepthought.newsvine.com/_news/2013/07/30/19773586-lawmakers-who-upheld-nsa-phone-spying-received-double-the-defense-industry-cash-slashdot


Mainstream media in the United States are owned by six corporations.

These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

I haven't even touched upon the use of defunding to close schools in Chicago and Philadelphia to pave the way for privatized charter schools, a long-term plan on their part. (Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel used to work for Goldman Sachs.) This was being done in Australia and elsewhere around a decade ago!

The military-industrial complex? Perhaps larger than all of the above combined. I haven't looked into the weapons manufacturers and service providers, although we already know about Dick Cheney's Halliburton, given no-bid contracts in the Iraq invasion:

Halliburton bills taxpayers $45 per case of soda, $100 per bag of laundry
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/whistleblower_hearings_denied.html

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2004 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Five former Halliburton employees and one former executive of a Halliburton subcontractor describe egregious examples of abuse involving Halliburton's Iraq contracts. In a letter written by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), these whistleblowers describe instances where Halliburton employees would abandon or torch new trucks -- worth $80,000 -- if they acquired a flat tire or other minor mechanical problems. Halliburton would subsequently purchase new trucks with U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The former employees also described repeated instances of theft involving both Halliburton and Army personnel. One employee complained to Halliburton's KBR chief, Randy Harl, about the contracting abuse, but two weeks later he was fired.

Another former employee said Halliburton purchased soda for $45 per case and laundry bags for $100 each.

Employees billed the government for work even when they sat around and did nothing all day. These employees spent weeks in Iraq with virtually nothing to do, but were instructed by Halliburton to bill the government for 12 hours per day for seven days of work.


Want to protest any of this? This is what happens, thanks directly to the 1% who run the whole thing:

OWS NYTimes Lie

Occupy Denver AP Photo Leah Millis 
Occupy Denver AP Photo Leah Millis


In their own frank words to each other, the three leaked Citigroup Plutonomy memos:

Download three “secret” Citigroup “Plutonomy” reports
http://our99angrypercent.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/download-citigroup-plutonomy-memos/

“Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances”
“Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer”
"The Plutonomy Symposium: Rising Tides Lifting Yachts" 

(Citigroup send lawyers to remove postings of the leaked memos; try here for the third)



Where is Plutonomy occurring? Page 8 of the third memo:

“Figure 1 shows...the top 1% of the population of income has grown substantially in countries such as the US, UK, and Canada. The countries, which apparently tolerate income inequality, are what we call Plutonomy countries: economies powered by a relatively small number of rich people.”

What sort of people would put their own interests so ahead of the rest of us?

"The source of the term is a quotation in an October 17, 2004, The New York Times Magazine article by writer Ron Suskind, quoting an unnamed aide to George W. Bush (later attributed to Karl Rove):

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' ... 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

Basically, they're marching in and doing whatever they want whenever they want, and rigging the game where it does not already serve them.


Where does Obama stands on all of this? Shame on you if by now any of this surprises you:

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900

"Average annual corporate profit growth under Obama is the highest since 1900, whereas profit growth declined during both Bush presidencies. As a share of the economy, corporate profits have never been higher.
Unfortunately, this profit deluge has not been shared by workers, whose wages as a percentage of the economy have fallen to all-time lows. Workers also got dinged by the recent increase in the payroll tax, which was large enough to wipe out a minimum wage increase in some states."

8 Huge Corporate Handouts in the Fiscal Cliff Bill
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/8-huge-corporate-handouts-fiscal-cliff-bill

"Throughout the months of November and December, a steady stream of corporate CEOs flowed in and out of the White House to discuss the impending fiscal cliff. Many of them, such as Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, would then publicly come out and talk about how modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy were reasonable in order to deal with the deficit problem. What wasn’t mentioned is what these leaders wanted, which is what’s known as “tax extenders”, or roughly $205B of tax breaks for corporations. With such a banal name, and boring and difficult to read line items in the bill, few political operatives have bothered to pay attention to this part of the bill. But it is critical to understanding what is going on.

5) Subsidies for Goldman Sachs Headquarters – Sec. 328 extends 'tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,' which was a program to provide post-9/11 recovery funds. Rather than going to small businesses affected, however, this was, according to Bloomberg, 'little more than a subsidy for fancy Manhattan apartments and office towers for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp.' Michael Bloomberg himself actually thought the program was excessive, so that’s saying something. According to David Cay Johnston’s The Fine Print, Goldman got $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds."

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/untouchables-wall-street-prosecutions-obama

Yes, Virginia, the Rich Continue to Get Richer: the Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains Since 2009
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/yes-virginia-the-rich-continue-to-get-richer-the-1-got-121-of-income-gains-since-2009.html

U.S. banks in 2012 post highest profits since '06
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-usa-fdic-earnings-idUSBRE91P0N820130226?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=de8376aab3-DD_2_27_132_27_2013&utm_medium=email#.US5jjkXSlU8.twitter

This Year’s Subsidy to Wall Street = the Amount of This Year’s Sequester Cuts
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/this-years-subsidy-to-wall-street-the-amount-of-this-years-sequester-cuts.html#.US_yiFwwnHY.facebook

Don’t Blink, or You’ll Miss Another Bailout
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100466032

America faces more than a dozen deadlines, all caused by billionaires and wealth transfer
http://americablog.com/2013/02/america-faces-more-than-a-dozen-deadlines-all-caused-by-billionaires-and-wealth-transfer.html

Bank Bailout 2: Obama Lets Mortgage Abusers Off the Hook
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/09-5

US banks earn record $42.2B in 2nd quarter (2013)
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-banks-earn-record-422b-2nd-quarter 

“Fiscal Cliff” Deal Makes Permanent 82 Percent of Bush Tax Cuts http://www.offthechartsblog.org/fiscal-cliff-deal-makes-permanent-82-percent-of-bush-tax-cuts/



For further reading, analysis from the third leaked Citigroup Plutonomy memo: Their fears and weaknesses:

Page 17, “The Risks to Plutonomy”.

-Inflation
-Financial collapse
-Ending technological revolution
-Political pressure to end the increase in income and wealth inequality
-Destroy globalisation
-Destroy right-wing, anti-immigration political parties which support the rise in profit share/fall in wage share
Page 18
-Call for relaxing immigration controls/deportation
-”The political process is the greatest threat to Plutonomy.”
-Page 21 lists equity strategies. “Equities are the main asset of the rich.” -Page 12 of the memo. So, attack equities.
Of course, it says that the rich actually drive the economy, and the economy mainly serves the rich. So live outside the economy and destroy the economy.

"The risks to Plutonomy: Finally, political pressure to end the increase in income and wealth inequality."

"Perhaps the most immediate challenge to Plutonomy comes from the political process. Ultimately, the rise in income and wealth inequality to some extent is an economic disenfrachisement of the masses to the benefit of the few. However in democracies this is rarely tolerated forever."

“We see the biggest threat to Plutonomy as coming from a rise in political demands to reduce income inequality, spread the wealth more evenly, and challenge forces such as globalization which have benefited profit and wealth growth.”

Page 18:

"So is Plutonomy under threat politically? We are keeping an eye on this one. At the moment it is too early to make this call. ...does not resonate as a population determined to destroy wealth inequality."

"While there are challenges to this, not least through populations/the political process demanding a more 'equitable' share of the wealth, in the short term we think the trend of the rich getting richer is likely to persist." 

From one of the other memos:

“At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich. This could be felt through higher taxation on the rich (or indirectly though higher corporate taxes/regulation) or through trying to protect indigenous (home-grown) laborers, in a push-back on globalization -- either anti-mmigration, or protectionism. We don’t see this happening yet, though there are signs of rising political tensions.”




America faces more than a dozen deadlines, all caused by billionaires and wealth transfer

"I’ve had an article in draft for some time — 'The 16 Deadlines Facing America' — that details each deadline, describes the dangers, and states why each faces an end-point rather than just a periodic fluctuation... I’ve identified 16 of these game-over situations facing America today, situations from which there is the possibility of no recovery — not the certainty, but the possibility. As I was working on that article though, looking especially what it would take to reverse each trend, I realized it’s really only one story writ 16 times on 16 separate canvasses.

That story? The song of the predator class, the rich and the rest — “All your money are belong to us.”
Here they are, numbered in no particular order, but grouped:

1. Accelerating transfer of wealth to the .001% (“the billionaires”)
2. Accelerating transfer of manufacturing out of the country
3. Marginalization or destruction of effective labor unions
4. Destruction of the middle class (i.e., the consumer class)
5. Capture of government by billionaires of both parties
6. Capture of the Republican Party by anti-Constitutional billionaires via Tea Party-financed candidates
7. Constitutional changes, including changes in practice to rule of law and an ever-widening circle of elites with immunity from prosecution
8. Creation via trade agreements of a transnational state that enshrines corporate sovereignty
9. Permanent war and a permanently expanding military
10. Permanently expanding national security state, including militarization of police, widespread spying and punishment for political crimes
11. The ticking time bomb of increasing numbers of returning untreated war-damaged battle-trained veterans
12. Oil dependence without recognition of oil as a soon-to-be-depleted energy source
13. Deterioration of the environment, largely due to oil and carbon dependence, among other causes
14. Destruction of the integrity of our food supply
15. Destruction of public education
16. Climate catastrophe and the collapse of human populations and level of civilization

My bottom line, and the surprise discovery, is that every single one is driven by one common cause — internationalist billionaires."

http://americablog.com/2013/02/america-faces-more-than-a-dozen-deadlines-all-caused-by-billionaires-and-wealth-transfer.html

(Citigroup) When Lobbyists Literally Write The Bill


"The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins