To be honest, I struggle sometimes these days to understand why we elect and pay politicians, because it is increasingly hard to find any benefits to the general population of such work as the politicians might do to justify the level of benefits they claim!
via Money and power completely out of balance – » The Australian Independent Media Network
America protects its drug business in Aghanistan which began in the 70s could one imagine the profits made over that period. budget The global monetary value of the heroin market is of the same order of magnitude as the defense budget of the USA $717 billion .
Needless to say, the Pentagon not to mention the CIA which launched the opium economy in Afghanistan in the late 1970s are intent upon protecting this multibillion dollar industry. The proceeds of the Afghan drug trade were initially used to finance the recruitment of Al Qaeda Mujahideen mercenaries to fight in the Soviet-Afghan war.
One of Joe Hockey’s first acts as Treasurer in 2013 was to gift the RBA $8.8 billion. The main reason for this was to make Labor’s deficit look bigger. As a side bonus, it allowed the RBA to invest in the forex market, banking on the Australian dollar losing value as the mining boom subsided.
And that is exactly what happened allowing the government to draw…wait for it…$8.8 billion in dividends over the last six years. That’s all very well (if we ignore how the Coalition screamed like stuck pigs when Labor took a one-off dividend of $500 million in 2013) except Hockey borrowed the $8.8 billion so we are still paying interest on it.
via The Coalition money shuffle – » The Australian Independent Media Network
How to rip off peoples savings 101. What the government wants you to see a boom for you to follow in a world of debt. They want your money and you to spend spend spend until you can’t anymore.
- Cut interest rates to record low margins and drive people with savings into the stock market spend and watch it boom.
- Wait for the correction and then watch people suffer.Fake booms real busts losers and winners neither the realm of the elderly whose money is managed by others and only want to reach end of days without worry.
- Self Managed Savings advice it’s safer under the bed than with sharks. (ODT)
Key points:
Australian shares are near record highs while interest rates are near record lows
Analysts say the disconnect between the two usually means that one market will be “spectacularly wrong”
However, analysts also the Australian share market is not heavily overvalued
Housing Crashes Stocks Boom, Stocks Crash Housing Booms, Swings and Merry-go-Rounds how to stop them taking your money (ODT)
Despite a backdrop of troubling economic signals, the nation’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rallied almost 10 per cent in the first quarter — its best-ever performance to begin a year in data going back almost three decades. Strong commodity prices and promises of easy monetary policy from central banks are working in the gauge’s favour even as Australia’s property slump deepens and its economy continues to wane.
via ‘Defied all odds’: Australia’s sharemarket continues to shock
“Trump’s primetime stunt is a campaign dog-whistle to his base, not a legitimate policy speech about a genuine crisis. Shame on every TV station that airs it.”
via Networks Accused of ‘Capitulating’ to Deceitful President as #BoycottTrumpsAddress Surges
Evangelical Christian groups have invested up to $65 million in projects in the “Biblical Heartland” over the past decade, however, that doesn’t include services they provide free of charge, such as volunteer laborers, according to a Haaretz investigation.
Haaretz news outlet reported that about 1,700 volunteers were sent by Christian Evangelical groups to the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Brakha, south of the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus.
via US Evangelicals have Sent $65 mn. to Support Israeli Squatters in Palestinian West Bank
Actually, when you come to think of it, the problem is not what they do with all that moolah, but what they do for it. And, again, because you are a simple person, you understand that if you give somebody money, you’d expect that person to do something for you. That’s the way the world works: your friend fixes a door hinge for you, so you buy him a drink; your wife helps out a neighbour and gets a sponge cake for a thank you; you drop your son’s friend off to school and his father takes you to the football a few times a year.
So you can only imagine what you would be prepared to do if someone actually gave you $95 million. You strongly suspect the folk in government must be feeling grateful to those who gave them all that money. Look, we said you are no genius and have only a vague idea what a government could do to thank those donors, but you feel they will get something for their contributions and you will miss out.
It’s actually worse than that. It isn’t just that they get something that you don’t: they get something at your expense and that of others like you. In other words, each of you pays a small amount of the reward which those donors receive. You pay it in small cutbacks in benefits to which you are entitled; in the rundown of your children’s school, in the roads that, in the old days, used to be free; in a dozen little helpings that enable the top ten per cent of the population to recoup a profit on the donation they have made to the political party.
via Big bucks for political parties: How Australia’s politicians are selling us out
Given these areas of mutual interest it is not surprising that since its inception the Central Intelligence Agency has been in permanent collusion with narco-traffickers, assisting their safe passage, protecting their activities, rewarding drug lords, hiring them for covert missions and using money derived from these operations for other activities. The fact that these drugs end up in American veins has never deterred the Agency and, given the hue of the skin often covering those veins, has perhaps even been seen as a positive outcome.
“This is very unhealthy for our democracy. It’s not right, it doesn’t look right, it doesn’t smell right. This is very, very unusual and concerning conduct,” Mr Shorten said.
Mr Joyce – who is fighting a byelection after being booted from Parliament for holding dual citizenship – said on Tuesday night that “all I’m thinking about now is the things I’m going to do on my own farm” with the money.
When handed the novelty oversized cheque, he exclaimed: “Hooley dooley! Rightio.”
Barnaby Joyce scrambles to hand back $40,000 prize awarded by Gina Rinehart
On Monday, the Pentagon received even more money than it had asked for. Funding war is something that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on
Report of Donald Trump interfering with a federal investigation sets off alarm bells on Wall Street
Source: Wall Street tumbles as investors flee latest Trump crisis
Bankers rig democracy to control the institution of money, says economist Richard Wolff (pictured).
Source: Why Do Some People Have Money While Others Don’t? – Truthdig
Greg Palast’s documentary told how millions of minority votes were discounted through a voter crosscheck program. Now, Palast demands that the DOJ investigate the crosscheck system.
Source: ‘The Best Democracy Money Can Buy’ Claims Donald Trump Stole the Election (Video) – Truthdig
Two disturbing reports out today indicate that the Trump Organization and even Trump himself may be compromised by Russia.
Source: Reports: Trump’s Ties To Russia Are Deep And Ongoing – Updated | Crooks and Liars
The more they have, the more they screw up.
Source: US elections: The rich can’t be trusted with money – Al Jazeera English
CNN law enforcement analyst Harry Houck accused Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton of playing the “race card for black votes” following her comments about the police shooting of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, OK, describing the comments as part of “the war on police.”On September 20, Clinton commented on several recen
Source: CNN Law Enforcement Analyst: Outrage Over Terence Crutcher Shooting Is Part Of “The War On Police”
Ever notice how the U.S. government never calls out Saudi Arabia on its countless human rights abuses? This is because Saudi Arabia is the number 1 buyer of U.S. military weapons/equipment in the world [The U.S. is the number 1 exporter of weapons throughout the world too] and is also a key ally of the U.S. internationally.
Every administration since world war 2, including Obamas, has enjoyed a very close relationship with this corrupt government, which is better described as a dictatorship.
Governments are businesses, corrupt businesses to be specific, that is the most important thing you need to understand about them. Once you realize this, things begin to make more sense.
