Funny Things Happened On Our Way from the Bombing

While the media and most of the American public has been engrossed watching looped coverage of pressure-cooker-and-BB bombs going off and the oh-so-sensitive-and-touching film of people with gross amputations of limbs, some interesting little items have been largely unnoticed.   So I thought I'd help you all notice them.

1) The President and Congress Returned Some Insider-Trading-Gained Feathers to Their Nests

From The Hill's On The Money blog:

President Obama quietly signed legislation Monday that rolled back a provision of the STOCK Act that required high-ranking federal employees to disclose their financial information online.

The White House announced Monday that the president had signed S. 716, which repealed a requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act requiring the disclosure, which had previously been delayed several times by Congress.

That provision, added to the bipartisan bill aimed at halting insider trading by members of Congress, would have required roughly 28,000 senior government officials to post their financial information online, and had come under harsh criticism from federal government employee unions.

Both chambers of Congress quickly — and near silently — approved the repeal legislation at the end of last week by unanimous consent, just before heading home to their districts.

The long and short of it is that S.716 delays for another year the creation of a publicly accessible database that would disclose any insider trading by Congress or the President. 

Interestingly, just a year or so ago, this very same President and Congress made a great show of passing this legislation to begin with, in order to restore confidence in Congress.  I'm feeling really confident; how about you?  Read more here.

2)  The Warhawks in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Pledged the US' Undying Love, Affection, What Little Money We Have Left, and the Lives of our Children, to Israel In the Event They Decide to Annhililate Iran For Not Making a Nuclear Bomb

Per Yitzhak Benhorin of YNet News:

Members of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee have adopted "Senate Resolution 65," according to which the US will support Israel in case it is compelled to take military action and actualize its right to self defense in the face of an Iranian threat.
The resolution stipules that Israel will enjoy Washington's diplomatic, economic and military aid.

More on this here.

3) The US House of Representatives Is Resurrecting the Domestic Digital Spying Act, Also Known as "CISPA" to Ensure that the Government Is Legally Entitled to Knowledge of Our Every Online Move (Hi FBI!) Without Any of Those Pesky Warrants or Legal Protections, Which No One Needs Anyway (pffft)

Having had previous attempts at big brother internet surveillance thwarted, our pals in the House are at it again.  They've defeated all amendments designed to protect people's privacy, and are ready to vote again today, while everyone's looking at the suspect/no suspect drama of the bombing.  Read about it.

4)  The Criminal Banking Cartel Known as the Federal Reserve May Have Crashed Gold Prices to Initiate Pre-Set Stop-Loss Trades and Thereby Shore Up the Value of the Obviously Failing Monopoly Money US Dollar.

According to Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary:

This is an orchestration (the smash in gold).  It’s been going on now from the beginning of April.  Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance.   Then, a couple of days ago, Goldman Sachs announced there would be further departures from gold.  So what they are trying to do is scare the individual investor out of bullion.  Clearly there is something desperate going on….

The Federal Reserve began its April Fool’s assault on gold by sending the word to brokerage houses, which quickly went out to clients, that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that clients should get out of the precious metal market prior to these sales. As this inside information was the government’s own strategy, individuals cannot be prosecuted for acting on it. By this operation, the Federal Reserve, a totally corrupt entity, was able to combine individual flight with institutional flight. Bullion prices took a big hit, and bullishness departed from the gold and silver markets. The flow of dollars into bullion, which threatened to become a torrent, was stopped.

Now, I'm not a gold bug--don't own an ounce, and I think that in the event of a financial collapse, or other catastrophe, a case of canned applesauce will be worth more than gold.  And if you're not a gold bug either, you might be asking, "why would this matter?"   Well, here's a way to look at it.  If there's a pack of man-eating wolves running toward your village, is the guy who falsely tells you they aren't there doing you a favor?

Try to understand it, a little, here.

5.  A Non-Profit, Bipartisan Commission, The Constitution Project, Released a 577-Page Report Proving that the US Government, Under Obama and GW Bush, Illegally and Systematically Tortured Prisoners, and (Based on International Standards, Treaties, Laws, and What We've Said About Other Governments) Thereby Committed War Crimes

It's long.  It's disgusting.  And I've only read part of it.  But it should be the biggest story going.  It's so far been pretty much crickets from the mainstream media except the NY Times.   It's worth at least a thorough scanning.


The lesson?  This is like a game of three-card monty.  While you're looking "over here" at the spectacle, a "plant" in the crowd is stealing your wallet (or your rights.)  Keep your eyes open.