News neatly hidden... not "for your eyes only"

                                         
                                                    Protests in Spain - Madrid central square

(Crowd estimates were in the tens of thousands. I'd put it at nearly a million with 30 cities participating)


While you were busily distracted by the latest diversion be it a NASCAR crash or the latest anticipation of who will be wearing what designer dress to the Oscars, the rest of the world was keenly focused on more important matters at hand. We here in the U.S. might be distracted with such mundane events all the while the rest of the world is scraping to get by. 

 Neatly hidden and not so much as a scrap of reporting is a protest that occurred in Spain yesterday. Why should we care? That's a spanish problem you're thinking. Ah but it's not. It's exactly the same problem in country after country from Greece to Iceland. As has been stated here before you can not eat yourself skinny and you can not bolster an economy by cutting away jobs. But this scenario has more sinister undertones. This is theft on a grand scale and yet those in power have so neatly hidden the fact that it's still going on. If austerity measures weren't bad enough the Spanish kings' son made off with $8 million of the people's money. Would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when he showed up recently at a Swiss bank wanting to make such a large deposit. 

 Trust it seems these days is a fleeting comodity. We're seeing the same with Ponzi schemes and embezelments here but on a minor scale. Easier to keep focus on low hanging fruit while the wales make off with the entire house if you know what I mean. It's getting harder and harder to dig for such nuggets of real news as the primary sources have been bought and paid for by those wanting to hide your prying eyes. They keep the fear machine going with you the victim as their primary suspect. It must be your fault because they are too busy pleading the 5th behind closed doors and in secret meetings all veiled as a "national security" issue. Yeah if we found out the facts we'd have their heads on a platter. 

So here we sit with baited breath waiting as hopes and dreams rest like an SUV balanced on the head of a pin. Will they or won't they push it when only a tiny nudge will do? No, my suspicions are that they'll once again keep it neatly balanced. After all the theft can't continue if drastic changes are made. 

 Stay tuned as we continue our quest for an honest man or woman, Sorry but we'll have to wade through quit a few wrap sheets to get there.

Friday pussy counting cat

                                              

Anymore the news is becoming a bean counter's wet dream. Anything that can does seem to boil down to numbers on a page if you just look close enough. And don't get me started on percentages. More lies have shown their ugly heads than a liar's convention on that.

Everything from prison sentences to daily mortality figures grace our headlines. A steady litany in every article. The important ones it seems are buried when it comes to actual numbers. Try finding out what a tax or fee increase will mean to you and the real figure is conveniently hidden at the end of the piece. That was definitely the case in the health care act. And who after all is going to wade through 600 plus pages to get to that little golden nugget?

Then there are the numbers that somehow don't make it to the nightly news. Conveniently erased like a Schwarzenegger movie their nowhere to be found. Let's talk 100,000,000 yes I said 100 m as in million. That's how many people who have been on strike in India for the last two days. And while attention has been on the "if it bleeds it leads" headline of a bomb explosion, the 100 million went unnoticed. And once again those purveyors of austerity would like nothing more than scalp the poor in India. The minimum wage (yes they have that there in some places at least) is a paltry $790 a month excluding taxes I'm sure. Try feeding a dog on that in this country. But somebody thinks that's spoiling the riff raff and would like to lower it. Guess times are tough there too when you can't dump your cheap duds off on Walmart.

It's true that on any given day that a certain number of souls leave this planet. We're hopeful they left at a ripe old age but then we know that's not the case. With gun shot wounds and bomb blasts the saints just keep marching in and no I don't want to be in that number. 70,000 here 100,000 there and soon the numbers add up. Almost enough to consider the mortuary profession. You sure don't run out of business there ever. And speaking of deaths...

Bank fails later
UPDATE: No bank deaths this week.

Still more news you can't use

Posting has been light I know. The news it seems goes round and round chasing it's tail and never winning. What would it do if it caught it anyway? So with that thought we present the latest and greatest washed rinsed and repeated of current events:

Freeze for Florida's citrus belt.

That happens. Crank up the sprinklers and hope it's not a long freeze. I bet those betting against orange juice futures are licking their chops.

Obama presses GOP to halt automatic spending cuts.

Not going to happen. Both sides of the aisle would have to answer to their wall street handlers. War is big business you know.

Nestle withdraws beef products.

Oh just run with it boys. N.E.S.T.L.E.S Nestle's makes the very best h o r s e  m e a t. Comes in chocolate covered too.

Russia asks: How to stop space objects from hitting earth?

Well if you wouldn't shoot so much junk up there in the first place might be a good first start. 

Seven reasons not to take a cruise vacation.

I can think of more than that. The idea of a cheap condom comes to mind for some reason. I'll let you make your own jokes on that thought.

Big diamond heist in Brussels.

Were they worried that maybe extremists might have gotten in and blown up air craft or the terminal? Of course not! In a statement:

"This is causing quite some unrest," said De Wolf. "It was incredible how easy it all went. This is worrying in terms of competitiveness, since other diamond centers are ready to pounce and take over our position."

Banksters gangsters and the government

It' been what something like six years since the banks took their fall from grace and were handsomely rewarded with buckets of "our" cash and yet not one frog walk to a federal pen for any one of them. Steal a loaf of bread can get you at least a couple of years for a repeat offender and in some states it's life. Steal the whole store chain and get a life of ease and a hefty bonus.

And what better way to make that job easier than to own the rule makers. Can almost hear it now. "Do what we say or next election cycle you'll be out on your can". And it doesn't matter which party you vote for they have them all tied up like a kidnapped victim. Be the party of the people and watch the other side booby trap your plans. Fil is such a Buster ain't he? And don't give me that bipartisan BS either. Break that one down you get "bi" meaning 2, "part" being the body and "I san" or I take away.

This week an agreement was reached or at least part of it about disclosure of those numbered Swiss banks accounts that everybody has talked about since we were kids. The act called FATCA is set to go into effect in 2014. After looking through the finer points of this, one might conclude that nothing will change. And you'd be right. It requires Swiss banks to disclose accounts but not necessarily to the IRS directly. They may choose to do so but that's not a requirement of the Act. They only have to disclose information to their government. It will be up to the IRS to seek the information from the Swiss government. You can just about smell that fishy smell in Geneva can't you? So once again the banksters have gained hold of the government. Maybe this bill should have been called by a better name like FATCAT. 

If we think this will change anything it probably won't. They may catch one or two of these tax cheaters but only the ones too slow to get their money out and off to a safe place in the Caymans before the amnesty program hit. And judging by how much our congress is tied up in knots I can only wonder what hold they have on the IRS. Keep your eyes peeled. That could be the next breaking story. 

Friday pussy OMG! I didn't report that

Israel trys to cover up the fact that they held an Australian citizen in jail under a different name. After further review it turns out he had duel citizenship Israeli and Australian. They held him on unknown charges in a maximum security facility only identifying him by the name prisoner X. After considering this matter I can only surmise that he was spying for the Australians as neither government would talk about the matter. But the real kicker in all this is that the Israeli government though they could control information by putting a gag order on the media. That might have worked way back when secrets were kept in a safe, not so with today's internet and the quest for the latest scoop. A simple leak to a foreign news agency and the cat is out of the bag with local papers quoting foreign sources.

Not much to report today until the next earthquake fire or flood. The weather is fairly nice today and I've given up on sports. Let them build another half billion dollar stadium it won't get my butt in one of their seats. Especially when ticket prices can go for a hundred bucks and that's without the parking or popcorn.

Bank fails later UPDATE: One bank failed this week in Chicago,IL.

NGO

Would you trust this guy?

NGO = No good organization

Personally I could care less about what a religion does inside the confines of their own building as long as it comes close to something resembling moral. They can wear silk panties in their heads and whistle "Dixie" it wouldn't matter to me. But 50+ years of child abuse and rape are nothing to be scoffed at. And everybody seems to forget the Spanish Inquisition ( know body expects the the Spanish Inquisition) only it was really the Catholic Inquisition. 

So it appears we are at a major turning point in history. There are those who delve into science and want to understand how our world works on one side and those that think it's all magic and mystical and damn him who tries to understand it on the other. This is true even in Catholicism, Islam and the fundamentals of other faiths. Wouldn't want to rip the curtain down and see that the all powerful Oz was just an ordinary guy like you and me now. It was all just a way to throw about superstition and control the masses. We all have that uncertainty deep in the brain about metaphysical things. But as time passes and our understanding increases things don't look so spooky.

Now we have the pope stepping down. We've heard various stories as to why he would do this just before an Easter holiday. We knew of the infighting amongst his inner circle from the butler. There's been the law suits from past victims of priests and just a year or so ago there was corrupt dealings with construction bids of the church. Thought I had the smoking gun but it turns out to be just another complaint form in a long list complaints. But I suspect something bigger was about to break soon. We'll have to wait and see.

I feel bad for those who attended a Catholic school. I had several friends growing up who did.  From the cracked knuckles and mean nuns I can say it's not a place I'd care to be. But it's the guilt trips that were hoisted on young people that's the biggest turn off. That and the fact that celibate men held so much power over children and abused it. Children were starved beaten and raped all in the name of a deity. All neatly covered up because there was some innate fear of the church's power. So to those parents out there who's children were abused I say run do not walk to the nearest exit. And you can tell them what they can do with their bell book and candle. 

GMO NGO and OMG

It was the mystery of the bees. Those industrious little creatures that assist with our food production took a turn for the worse. Disappeared like teens at a house party with the sounds of distant police sirens. Speculation, analysis and the Sherlocky of Holmes could not break this puzzle. A virus? A bacteria? Or some nasty klingon proved to be no answer.  But someone had the wherewithal to investigate the food stuff that permitted these little buggers to survive. 

Monsanto in it's infinite stupidity (after all what's a life worth when you're making big bucks) decided to engineer crops complete with it's own supply of Raid. A whiz bang idea I'm sure around some brain storming conference table but this is the real world we live in. With all their engineering and chemical degrees not one of them stopped to consider how plants are pollinated. The brainiacs were more concerned about getting rid of pesky weevils and other crop damaging pests to think about the whole process. And this has been no less than a disaster for all involved. You would think that the tiniest amount of altruistic values were at play but you'd be wrong. Monsanto realizing that once word of its' lemons (GMO seeds) got out they'd have to make lemonade which they did. A rather devious legal maneuver and the fact that crops cross pollinate gave them the "in".  They could now say that farmer Browns' crops were part of their "patented" process when they planted their own on the plot next door. It was after all identifiable with it's own unique DNA. So rather than make money the old fashioned way by actually making something they set about to make bowkoo bucks by suing farmers. Pay up royalties or lose the farm or both became the corporate mantra.

Should this all play out as I'm sure you can perceive then Monsanto could have a strangle hold on the world's entire food supply. James Bond never faced such an evil plot. So should this proceed without some type of intervention there'll be no need to slap a GMO label on your supermarket goodies because they'll all be genetically engineered. And it's a safe bet that this stuff can't be good for human consumption because look what it did to the bees. Sorry Monsanto I'm not a lab rat and I don't think anyone else cares to be one either. 

NGOs? Maybe tomorrow