'The War Is Not Over'

President Obama and JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon each tried to make complex facts fit simple narratives this week. The president may have the easier task.

Were JPMorgan's more than $2 billion in trading losses "stupid," but part of doing business, as Dimon suggested, or painful evidence that risk-taking by financial institutions poses a systemic threat and demands tougher federal restrictions, as Obama indicated Monday?

At least one contrast the president wanted to present against Mitt Romney suddenly looked sharper, thanks to JPMorgan’s self-inflicted black eye. Obama argues that unsuspecting workers and investors can suffer when companies make bad bets with others’ money, while Romney says risk-taking by companies (often with borrowed money) spurs U.S. growth and job creation.

Although Obama’s campaign is investing millions of dollars in advertising in swing states to assail Romney for his Bain Capital corporate takeover history, the ads may be less potent than headlines about JPMorgan’s admitted errors.

Dimon conceded during a television interview Sunday,“We know we were sloppy. We know we were stupid. We know there was bad judgment."

The Senate Banking Committee announced Monday that JPMorgan’s actions will soon be under a congressional microscope to probe trade decisions and disclosures; too-big-to-fail banks and their capitalization; and debates about smart regulation during what has become an era of famously fallible corporate management.

At issue in Congress is the so-called Volcker Rule, which bars banks from using their own money for speculative trades but allows the use of firms’ funds to hedge against portfolio risks. Congress wants to know if the Volcker Rule, which has not yet been implemented, would have prevented JPMorgan’s troubles. Federal regulators are divided on that question, and were expected to meet Tuesday to discuss it, according to news reports.

Obama signed the mammoth Dodd-Frank financial reform law in 2010, and Romney is now campaigning to repeal it. Congressional hearings this spring may serve to remind voters what caused the financial crisis, what prompted the recession, why decisions by financial institutions impact realms beyond their complex bets, and how consumers and investors are being affected.

The president lost no time Monday explaining his side of that story, answering a question about JPMorgan’s losses during a taped interview in New York City with ABC’s “The View,” to be broadcast Tuesday.

“It is my strong belief that we’ve got to have vigorous enforcement of these rules that we just passed,” Obama said, referring to the Dodd-Frank changes and the rulemaking process underway to implement the law within the regulatory agencies.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/201...

“Think about it: This is the best, or one of the best-managed banks. You could have a bank that isn’t as strong, isn’t as profitable, making those same bets, and we might have had to step in. And that’s exactly why Wall Street reform is so important,” he continued.“I hope that everyone who is watching is [writing letters to] their members of Congress [saying that] we want these rules in place to make sure this stuff does not happen again.”

Obama’s reference to government intervention was noteworthy because the bailouts that began under President Bush and continued under Obama’s watch became decidedly unpopular with most of the public. Even mentioning that the government intervened -- or might intervene -- to prop up a major financial institution gives incumbent Democrats the vapors.

JPMorgan can cover its estimated $2.3 billion in losses without upending its own financial health or that of the larger financial system. But Jamie Dimon, his risk managers, and the JPMorgan brand have often been celebrated as Wall Street’s smart set -- the industry’s leaders, not its losers. Dimon, in particular, has enjoyed a reputation as an effective manager who steered his company through the financial crisis when other CEOs did not fare as well. At least three senior officers and possibly more involved in the bank’s losses are now casualties of its efforts to hedge against the potential of an economic downturn while also trying to profit from that hedge.

News you will not see or hear on CNN and FOX News

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/arti...

You Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going To Do About It?

By John Pilger (Contd.)

What are you going to do about it?

The prognosis is clear now: the malignancy that Norman Mailer called "pre fascist" has metastasized. The US attorney-general, Eric Holder, defends the "right" of his government to assassinate American citizens. Israel, the protege, is allowed to aim its nukes at nukeless Iran. In this looking glass world, the lying is panoramic. The massacre of 17 Afghan civilians on 11 March, including at least nine children and four women, is attributed to a "rogue" American soldier.

The "authenticity" of this is vouched by President Obama himself, who had "seen a video" and regards it as "conclusive proof". An independent Afghan parliamentary investigation produces eyewitnesses who give detailed evidence of as many as 20 soldiers, aided by a helicopter, ravaging their villages, killing and raping: a standard, if marginally more murderous US special forces "night raid".

Take away the videogame technology of killing - America's contribution to modernity - and the behaviour is traditional. Immersed in comic-book righteousness, poorly or brutally trained, frequently racist, obese and led by a corrupt officer class, American forces transfer the homicide of home to faraway places whose impoverished struggles they cannot comprehend. A nation founded on the genocide of the native population never quite kicks the habit. Vietnam was "Indian country" and its "slits" and "gooks" were to be "blown away".

The blowing away of hundreds of mostly women and children in the Vietnamese village of My Lai in 1968 was also a "rogue" incident and, profanely, an "American tragedy" (the cover headline of Newsweek). Only one of 26 men prosecuted was convicted and he was let go by President Richard Nixon. My Lai is in Quang Ngai province where, as I learned as a reporter, an estimated 50,000 people were killed by American troops, mostly in what they called "free fire zones". This was the model of modern warfare: industrial murder.

Like Iraq and Libya, Afghanistan is a theme park for the beneficiaries of America's new permanent war: Nato, the armaments and hi-tech companies, the media and a "security" industry whose lucrative contamination is a contagion on everyday life. The conquest or "pacification" of territory is unimportant. What matters is the pacification of you, the cultivation of your indifference.

What are you going to do about it?

The descent into totalitarianism has landmarks. Any day now, the Supreme Court in London will decide whether the WikiLeaks editor, Julian Assange, is to be extradited to Sweden. Should this final appeal fail, the facilitator of truth-telling on an epic scale, who is charged with no crime, faces solitary confinement and interrogation on ludicrous sex allegations.

Thanks to a secret deal between the US and Sweden, he can be "rendered" to the American gulag at any time. In his own country, Australia, prime minister Julia Gillard has conspired with those in Washington she calls her "true mates" to ensure her innocent fellow citizen is fitted for his orange jump suit just in case he should make it home. In February, her government wrote a "WikiLeaks Amendment" to the extradition treaty between Australia and the US that makes it easier for her "mates" to get their hands on him. She has even given them the power of approval over Freedom of Information searches - so that the world outside can be lied to, as is customary.

What are you going to do about it?

www.johnpilger.com

9/11 A Special day for Terrorists- Strange Events and oddities- Part-72

9/11 - Suspicious vehicle fires and things blowing up.

Oral Histories from Sept. 11 Compiled by the New York Fire Department - NY Times

1. Paul Curran Fire Patrolman (F.D.N.Y.) 12/18/01

"At that time I went back to the north tower again, and they were stretching a line. A lot of car fires erupted. All of a sudden cars were blowing up everywhere.

I went back and I helped a guy stretch a line. The guy was all by himself. I helped him stretch a line and started putting water on the car fires. I remember distinctly walking past -- I saw 118 Truck. 118 Truck was parked right on West Street right past Vesey.

Q. Everybody tells me all these vehicles were on fire. What do you attribute all these vehicles being on fire to?

A. I believe it must have been from the debris falling and the heat just started hitting the cars and starting cars on fire. There were an awful lot of cars burning, an awful lot. It had to be radiated heat or just stuff falling on cars and setting them on fire. There were numerous cars burning, numerous."

2. Patricia Ondrovic E.M.T.(E.M.S.) 10/11/01 (See also: 9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby)

"My partner and I grabbed our stretcher, went to put it in the back of our vehicle, and at that time, I think it was the lobby of the building behind us blew out.

I ran into the lobby cause I had no idea what had happened and the cops that were in there were telling everybody get out, get out, get out. Where are you gonna go? Stuffs blowing up.

As I was running up Vesey, the first car blew up on me on the corner of Vessey and the West Side Highway. That set my turnout coat on fire, that set my hair on fire, and that set my feet on fire. I kept running. I got news for you, those turn out coats need to be called burn out coats, cause this thing caught up in flames.

So there were still cars parked on the street that were completely independent of that. Three cars blew up on me, stuff was being thrown. I went home all bruised that day. Thank God it was only bruises. I just ran into this park along with a bunch of other people, and stuff was still blowing up...

Stuff is still blowing up behind me, as I'm running. I can hear stuff exploding. I could hear rumbling, the street under me was moving like I was in an earthquake.

I saw my ex-partner, and I said get in this thing and drive it to Westchester. I told him get the hell out of the city. Get everyone was can get in this, I said shit's still blowing up down there."


3. Freddy Burgos E.M.T.(E.M.S.) 10/31/01

"When the first building came down, after the dust lifted from that one, in front of me, the other ambulances, most of them not Fire Department, private or some other ambulances, burning."


4. Richard Carletti Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) 1/2/02

"To our right, there was a parking lot right on West and Liberty. There were about seven cars on fire.
We came back around in front of Stuyvesant High School. They were setting up a command post there. I mean, you could listen to the monitors. Basically they wanted engines was booster tanks to come down and extinguish the car fires then going."

5. Ronald Cifu Firefighter (F.D.N.Y.) 12/28/01

"Even after the collapse when we were starting to relay water to the car fires and stuff like that..."


6. Ronald Coyne E.M.T.(E.M.S.) 12/28/01

"...I saw the building start to topple...I tried to run as fast as I could...and by the time it took me to break the back window of the SUV, my safety coat was already on fire. My socks were on fire.

I was just covered with burns and bruises, and I couldn't breathe at all."

U.S. National Militia Directory
http://constitution.org/mil/mil_us.htm

Crust wrote:

"single handedly" is wrong Muq.

We "lost" badly, but the north Vietnamese lost the most, and are still losers. Imagine if we had prevailed, who knows how much better off they might be right now..

I just read north Korea just sent troops to Vietnam, I never knew that

Ans.

I did not know that any other country went with USA in Vietnam war.

One thing is right, you caused more damage to Vietnamese people than what they did to you.

But that is expected because they were always underdogs…. Their lives and their property and their image had no value….it was USA which was Superpower of the world, one which was leading voice for whole of White Race…

To come back from Vietnam empty handed with lot of eggs on their face…dented their pride..

If you call that “victory”…go ahead, we will change the meaning of that word in our dictionaries.

You will call Iraqi and Afghani campaigns also as “Victories”

MUQ wrote:

<quoted text>
Ans.
I did not know that any other country went with USA in Vietnam war.
One thing is right, you caused more damage to Vietnamese people than what they did to you.
But that is expected because they were always underdogs…. Their lives and their property and their image had no value….it was USA which was Superpower of the world, one which was leading voice for whole of White Race…
To come back from Vietnam empty handed with lot of eggs on their face…dented their pride..
If you call that “victory”…go ahead, we will change the meaning of that word in our dictionaries.
You will call Iraqi and Afghani campaigns also as “Victories”

australia new zealand phillipines,...unofficial canadians...we were not alone..

just imagine how much better of vietnam would/could be if we had prevailed.

uIdiotRacesMAkeWorldPeace wrote:

<quoted text>Our US troops are nothing but pawns. Was US-Viet War really about fight against the Communism?
Lets see how crispy you crust will get!
MWBHAHHAHHAAAAAAA

stop being so eeeeevil Dr. eeevil...

So tell me, what was it really all about

Zionism??? Racism???

rider wrote:

<quoted text> pardoned and than shot.

who???

your typical democratic

vp candidate

like
J Edwards??

I agree!!! >>>accept for the pardoning part

The anti-Hispanic Left emerges on the wrong side of not just history, but the storyline.

From ABC news, in a mop up operation. Go Diane!!
(He could have been Obama's boy).

ABC News Exclusive: Zimmerman Medical Report Shows Broken Nose, Lacerations After Trayvon Martin Shooting

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for the Feb. 26 shooting that left the unarmed 17-year-old high school junior dead. Zimmerman has claimed self defense in what he described as a life and death struggle that Martin initiated by accosting him, punching him in the face, then repeatedly bashing his head into the pavement.

Also today, a trove of documents are being examined by lawyers for both the defense and prosecution as part of discovery in Zimmerman's trial -- including 67 CDs worth of documents, video of Martin on the night of the shooting, his autopsy report and videos of Zimmerman's questioning by police.

Zimmerman's three-page medical report is included in those documents that the defense could use as evidence.

Watch World News with Diane Sawyer for the latest on the Trayvon Martin shooting and the trial of George Zimmerman.

http://news.yahoo.com/abc-news-exclusive-zimm...

MyFace overwhelms SpaceBook. I

How Facebook insiders are preparing to be millionaires.(Jerry Brown is licking his chops).

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)-- As Facebook prepares to go public, the vultures are circling around its fresh crop of paper millionaires.

It's a Silicon Valley ritual: When money seems imminent, wealth managers flock in to help the newly rich navigate their altered financial landscape.

"When you raise money or go public, all of these people see dollar signs and start calling," says Rick Marini, a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company, Tickle Inc., to Monster (MWW). He's been fielding a fresh wave of cold calls since last month, when his new venture, job networking app BranchOut, announced a $25 million funding round.

For those at the top of Facebook's food chain, the planning started years ago.

Both Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his No. 2, Sheryl Sandberg, are clients of exclusive money manager Iconiq Capital, two sources with knowledge of their financial arrangements told CNNMoney. Early Facebook (FB) advisor Sean Parker, whose 4% stake in the company is worth an estimated $2.6 billion, is also an Iconiq client.

Iconiq is an under-the-radar, extremely private wealth management company that caters to Silicon Valley's elite. It was launched last year by a trio of private bankers -- Divesh Makan, Chad Boeding and Michael Anders -- who worked together at Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), then moved to Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) before striking out on their own.

>>> somehow, I smell Democrats. No Republican in sight. We know who runs Goldman and Morgan.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/15/technology/fa...

The Chicago method against freedom of assembly.

CHICAGO (Reuters)- Chicago police, who have a reputation for dealing toughly with protesters, will be prepared for the worst with new riot gear, including "sound cannon", if demonstrators at the NATO summit get out of line this weekend.

America's third-largest city and President Barack Obama's hometown has never hosted anything like the meeting starting on Sunday, which will draw representatives from some 50 countries, including leaders of the 28 members of the military alliance.

The two-day summit is also drawing protesters from around the United States and beyond, most to protest peacefully against the NATO-led war in Afghanistan and economic inequality.

Protest organizers hope thousands will turn out to demonstrate on Sunday and march to the summit site at a sprawling convention center along Lake Michigan.

Police said they will be keeping a watchful eye out for anarchists bent on more provocative actions, and have ordered about $1 million worth of new riot gear, including face shields that attach to helmets and fit over gas masks.

They have also ordered armor for police horses and acquired two long-range acoustic devices that can be used as "sound cannon" to disperse crowds.

Critics say these devices can cause hearing damage. A police spokeswoman said they would be used to deliver messages to crowds.

"What I want to do is extract the people who need to be extracted," Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy said of the strategy for handling protesters.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/15/technology/fa...

>>>NATO led war in Afghanistan? When did Big O give up the reins on this one?

Anyway, will Big O approve the use of drones on the American people?

MUQ wrote:

<quoted text>
Ans.
I did not know that any other country went with USA in Vietnam war.
One thing is right, you caused more damage to Vietnamese people than what they did to you.
But that is expected because they were always underdogs…. Their lives and their property and their image had no value….it was USA which was Superpower of the world, one which was leading voice for whole of White Race…
To come back from Vietnam empty handed with lot of eggs on their face…dented their pride..
If you call that “victory”…go ahead, we will change the meaning of that word in our dictionaries.
You will call Iraqi and Afghani campaigns also as “Victories”

This one was a little further east than you are used to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Lots of billigerents on both sides, much like the continuing conflicts in your stomping grounds.

Notably, though:

The Viet Minh was founded as a league for independence from France, but also opposed Japanese occupation in 1945 for the same reason. The U.S. and Chinese Nationalist Party supported them in the fight against the Japanese.[45] However, they did not have enough power to fight actual battles at first. Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh was suspected of being a communist and jailed for a year by the Chinese Nationalist Party.[46]

CRUST wrote:

<quoted text>"single handedly" is wrong Muq.
We "lost" baddly, but the north vietnamese lost the most, and are still losers. Imagine if we had prevailed, who knows how much better off they might be right now..
I just read north korea just sent troops to vietnam, I never knew that

That is not exactly true, the Vietnam War consisted of fighting small battles almost daily and the American soldiers won almost all of those battles. Tactically, the US fought well in a military sense; the defeat came as a political fall out. Bowing to anti-war pressure from home, the media damaged the war cause beyond repair, some say rightfully so, hence the early American withdrawal came in 1973. Nevertheless, it was a stupid war which, some claim, took us on the path of massive overspending and consequent barrowing!

How many libs here are aware of the fact that the number of military casualties for US and UK soldiers in Afghanistan has more than doubled under Obama?

Why? Four reasons:
1. Obama refused General McChrystal the 10,000 additional troops he asked for to finish the job.
2. Obama surrendered and gave our enemy our exit strategy.
3. Obama was so foolish to believe he could arbitrate and mediate talks between the Taliban and the current group of leeches running the Afghan government.
4. Most important, Obama changed the rules of engagement for our brave fighting men and women by requiring that they be fired upon first before returning fire, and then only if they ascertain first no possiblity of civilian casualties.

That kind of intellect may work for a Chicago community organizer trying to implement Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", but it does not work in war.

The Last Templar wrote:

How many libs here are aware of the fact that the number of military casualties for US and UK soldiers in Afghanistan has more than doubled under Obama?
Why? Four reasons:
1. Obama refused General McChrystal the 10,000 additional troops he asked for to finish the job.
2. Obama surrendered and gave our enemy our exit strategy.
3. Obama was so foolish to believe he could arbitrate and mediate talks between the Taliban and the current group of leeches running the Afghan government.
4. Most important, Obama changed the rules of engagement for our brave fighting men and women by requiring that they be fired upon first before returning fire, and then only if they ascertain first no possiblity of civilian casualties.
That kind of intellect may work for a Chicago community organizer trying to implement Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", but it does not work in war.

You are so full dog turds, none of what you’re saying is based in reality. A classic counterinsurgency doctrine began in 2008 and accelerated with Obama’s 2009 decision to dramatically increase the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Afghan society. Quite obvious, if one increases troop numbers and troop activity in a war casualties will increase – duh! You wanna talk casualties talk about the Iraq war, which Obama exited, and the millions that were killed, maimed, injured and displaced.

News you will not see or hear on CNN and FOX News

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/arti...

U.S. Military Drones Reported Operating Across the United States

By Danny_Schechter

April 30, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --- It’s easy to understand why Presidents, politicians and the military love robots. They don’t talk back. They follow orders. You press a button and they do what they are told. They are considered so efficient, and so lethal.

These modern killing machines represent science fiction reborn as science ‘faction.’

Robots and drones don’t burn Korans or pose with the heads of their captives on the battlefield.(Robots also don’t protest wars.) Lose the human factor and you get silent but deadly total destruction.

And that’s why drone warfare has become such a weapon of choice. You have video game jockeys sitting on their asses in front of consoles of digital displays at an Air Force base outside Las Vegas, targeting suspected terrorists in Afghanistan. After a couple of quick kills, they take the rest of the day off.

It’s only later, that we get the reports of civilians decimated as collateral damage.
Oops!
These new lethal toys are used both for surveillance and targeted assassinations.

In Congress, according to Code Pink’s Media Benjamin, there’s even a bi-partisan caucus to encourage more building of drones cheered on by the military industrial complex. She has just written a book about it. She told me,“instead of having a caucus to feed preschool children, they decided it was more important to have a Drone Caucus and that’s because all the manufacturers in their districts are funding them.”

I asked Medea if this is more evidence that President Eisenhower was right when he warned of a growing military-industrial complex?

“Eisenhower was so right,” she replied,“and he was so right when he said it steals money, it robs us of food for our children, of healthcare for our parents, he was so right. And it’s just worse and worse. And you get the little puppets in Congress, and I’m in Washington now, so I see these little puppets, and wish that they were like the NASCAR drivers that got to have their corporations on their suits, but they don’t rule America. The corporations obviously rule America.

“And when it comes to war and peace, those corporations are so powerful that they’ve kept us for the last decade and more and if we don’t do something about it, they will keep us more for the next decade.”

Anti-war activist and author David Swanson has been tracking this phenomenon too, telling me,“members of Congress have created a caucus for drones, where they openly promote the use and sale of drones at home and abroad. They have now authorized the flight of up to 30,000 drones in US skies for whatever purpose--this is in contrast to the lack of any caucus for senior citizens, for children, for health coverage, for green energy, for human beings—there’s a caucus for robots.”

Soon we will have an arms race in drones of all kinds. The crash of a US drone in Iran has allowed that country to reverse-engineer one, probably leading to Iran soon making their own.

The Russians and Chinese, even the North Koreans, can’t be far behind.

(Contd.)

Hell no its not over.

George Orwell said so .. the never ending war...
Syrian Rebels Admit Terrorist Bombing Campaign
Then Deny Actual Bombings.
by Tony Cartalucci

May 10, 2012 - Perhaps in an attempt to soften coming revelations that Syria's opposition will be increasingly armed and backed by the West for a final military push to divide and destroy a sovereign Syria, Reuters released a report titled, "Outgunned Syria Rebels Make Shift to Bombs." The report admits that the Syrian rebels, depicted so-far as hapless pro-democracy protesters, are now turning to bombing tactics.

Reuters quotes one rebel fighter as saying, "we are starting to get smarter about tactics and use bombs because people are just too poor and we don't have enough rifles." The unnamed rebel continued, "it is just no match for the army, so we are trying to focus on the ways we can fight." Reuters attempts to allay the fears of its readers by claiming rebels they interviewed insisted that, "unlike al Qaeda, their bombs were aimed at military, and never civilian, targets."

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/05/syr...

Overheard wrote:

<quoted text>
You are so full dog turds, none of what you’re saying is based in reality. A classic counterinsurgency doctrine began in 2008 and accelerated with Obama’s 2009 decision to dramatically increase the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from Taliban attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Afghan society. Quite obvious, if one increases troop numbers and troop activity in a war casualties will increase – duh! You wanna talk casualties talk about the Iraq war, which Obama exited, and the millions that were killed, maimed, injured and displaced.

For a minute there I thought was hearing you speak about the Iraq War and the surge strategy, which eventually allowed Obama to end that war with Bush's agreement from 2008.

Real close.

The larger force was used to implement a strategy of protecting the population from (Al Qaeda) attacks and supporting efforts to reintegrate insurgents into Iraqi society. Quite obvious, if one increases troop numbers and troop activity in a war casualties will increase – duh!

Interesting how history repeats itself. I can remember you getting all bothered when I talked about increasing the shooting and increasing the casualties. You were so beside yourself.

frank wrote:

<quoted text>
That is not exactly true, the Vietnam War consisted of fighting small battles almost daily and the American soldiers won almost all of those battles. Tactically, the US fought well in a military sense; the defeat came as a political fall out. Bowing to anti-war pressure from home, the media damaged the war cause beyond repair, some say rightfully so, hence the early American withdrawal came in 1973. Nevertheless, it was a stupid war which, some claim, took us on the path of massive overspending and consequent barrowing!

I'll not disagree with you on this one friend.

Just a lil side needle tho for Barky

which political party led us in(and led major escalations) and which party led us out of that war?