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SHEARED BY THE SHORTS: HOW SPECULATORS FLEECE INVESTORS
Ellen Brown
“Unrestrained financial exploitations have been one of the great causes of our present tragic condition.” -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
Why did gold and silver stocks just get hammered, at a time when commodities are considered a safe haven against widespread global uncertainty? The answer, according to Bill Murphy’s newsletter LeMetropoleCafe.com, is that the sector has been the target of massive short selling. For some popular precious metal stocks, close to half the trades have been “phantom” sales by short sellers who did not actually own the stock.
Latin America: Growth, Stability and Inequalities: Lessons for the US and EU
James Petras
Introduction: Images of the Past
The image of Latin America portrayed by the mass media and held by the educated public is a region of frequent coups, periodical revolutions, perpetual military dictatorships, alternating boom and bust economies and an ever-present International Monetary Fund (IMF) dictating economic policy.
In contrast the same opinion makers plus their academic counterparts project images of the United States and the European Union as stable societies, with steady economic growth, incremental expansion of social welfare programs, resolving issues via consensual compromises and practicing sound fiscal policies.
Prison Hell in America
by Stephen Lendman
Prison is hell everywhere. America is no different in, by far, the world's largest gulag. Inmates are treated worse than subhumans.
Torture is commonly used. It not just at Guantanamo and similar offshore hellholes. It happens across America in federal, state and local prisons where inmates are terrorized by dogs, shocked with cattle prods, burned by toxic chemicals, harmed by stun guns, beaten, stripped naked, raped, and abused in other ways.
In July 2008, the Southern California ACLU (ACLU/SC) released a "Report on Mental Health Issues at Los Angeles County Jail." It discussed how confinement in overcrowded conditions produces an epidemic of unaddressed mental health issues.
Palestinian UN Membership Roulette
by Stephen Lendman
As Palestinian legal advisor in 1987, Law Professor Francis Boyle drafted its Declaration of Independence, creating a Palestinian state.
Palestinians now want and deserve official recognition and full de jure UN membership. Washington and Israel remain obstructionist.
Doing so further isolates both countries. Globally, Obama and Netanyahu are laughing stocks, more caricatures than leaders.
Turkey redraws Sykes-Picot
Eric Walberg
A new Bermuda Triangle has been spotted, but this one is in the eastern Mediterranean -- between Turkey, Cyprus and Israel.
Turkey’s foreign policy shift is now in full gear. Having kicked out the Israeli ambassador and rejected the UN Palmer Report, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that Turkey plans to take its case against Israel’s blockade of Gaza to the International Court of Justice, not alone, but with the support of the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union. “The process will probably reach a certain point in October and we will make our application.”
Entrapping Muslims in America
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, American Muslims became fair game, targeting them for their faith, ethnicity, and at times prominence and charity.
As a result, they've been ruthlessly vilified and exploited as "war on terror" scapegoats for political advantage.
Entrapment is commonly used. Guilt or innocence doesn't matter, just the illusion that America is safer when, in fact, every victim assures greater insecurity and fear. Many are left wondering who's next.
Rage Against Wall Street Crooks
by Stephen Lendman
Angry New Yorkers organized an initiative called "Occupy Wall Street." Beginning September 17, they called for "tak(ing) the bull by the horns," referring to the familiar New York financial district symbol.
Its web site statement said:
"The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%."
How conservatives unwittingly advance Marxism
By Dennis Rahkonen
Displaying laughable absurdity, Republicans, Tea Partiers, and related reactionaries always label anyone even a millimeter to the left of their own right-wing stance on the political spectrum a “socialist.”
Besides being utterly ridiculous, that outlook works against their own professed interest.
After all, practical solutions to today’s many societal problems will necessarily come from that part of the ideological ground not being trod by clown shoes or neo-Nazi jackboots.
Libya: David Cameron's 2 Billion Pound Nightmare
By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
What do you get when a wannabe imperialist invents a war to get out of trouble at home, straying into deep waters that he neither controls nor understands, getting embroiled in an internecine tribal conflict that spins out of control? The answer to this question is the place where the UK’s David Cameron finds himself now: a 2-bn. pound nightmare.
Not so many months ago, we had David Cameron and William Hague declaring that the Libya Question was “not about removing Gaddafi” and that all it would take would be an immediate ceasefire from the Libyan Armed Forces. Not so many months ago we had David Cameron and William Hague declaring that the war would cost in the region of 200 million pounds, that there would be no NATO boots on the ground and that NATO would not arm the “rebels”.
Call for DOJ to Investigate Clarence Thomas
By Andrew Kreig
Originally published at the
Justice Integrity Project
Twenty Democratic members of Congress wrote federal judicial authorities on Sept. 29 to request a formal Justice Department probe of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas for long-term failures to disclose junkets, other gifts and income.
A coalition of both black and white Democrats told the Judicial Conference of the United States that it is required by law to seek a Justice Department investigation of the new allegations against Thomas and his wife, the Republican political activist Virginia Lamp Thomas. Most of the allegations became public this year. They involve claims of undisclosed gifts, junkets, income and other conflicts, along with the justice's failure to report his wife's earnings on annual judicial disclosure forms that he signed under oath.
“Due to the simplicity of the disclosure requirements, along with Justice Thomas’s high level of legal training and experience,” said the congressional letter to the conference secretary James C. Duff, “it is reasonable to infer that his failure to disclose his wife’s income for two decades was willful, and the Judicial Conference has a non-discretionary duty to refer this case to the Department of Justice.” To be sure, the 20 signatures are relatively few from a 435-member, Republican-run House. Their names are here. Still, the letter marks a significant step in clarifying a potential criminal component to what Thomas defenders and the nation's timid watchdog institutions often trivialize as either oversights by a busy public servant or potential “ethics” issues that have scant remedy as a practical matter.
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