Elite

For the Love of Democracy

January 6, 2010 I wrote: The “political class” is franticly trying to abort the referendum in Iceland because of the dangerous precedence it would set for other plebeians, and God save our “principal men” from Democracy.

This is now confirmed in a classified letter from the US Embassy in Reykjavik published on Wikileaks. It is easy to demonize the president and forget about the 56,089 Icelanders (23,3% of Icelandic voters), that petitioned him to refer the law to a national referendum. Will our “principal men” succeed in breaking the Constitution in these remaining days?
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May the hand wither that works against the inherent rights of the people.
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New form WikiLeaks: UK-NL “profiteering” from deal. (pdf)
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REF: REYKJAVIK 9

Classified By: CDA SAM WATSON FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)

1. (C) Summary. CDA met with Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Einar Gunnarsson and Political Advisor Kristjan Guy Burgess January 12 to discuss Icesave. After presenting a gloomy picture of Iceland’s future, the two officials asked for U.S. support. They said that public comments of support from the U.S. or assistance in getting the issue on the IMF agenda would be very much appreciated. They further said that they did not want to see the matter go to a national referendum and that they were exploring other options for resolving the issue. The British Ambassador told CDA separately that he, as well as the Ministry of Finance, were also looking at options that would forestall a referendum. End Summary.

SUBJECT: LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES TO AN ICESAVE REFERENDUM

The New Spirit (is getting Old)

Our betters are getting in to the Christmas spirit.
After a year of “damage control” they are now testing the waters for the release of a censored ‘truth’ report by adding an 80 year ‘ban’ on the really sensitive stuff. Some of them are furious to be under investigation, others are not being investigated at all.

Smaller fish are offered to be fried but as usual ‘names’ are nowhere to be found.

The propaganda machine continues spreading the gospel truth that a well-behaved public must fund the bill. They call it Scandinavian welfare, except in Scandinavia people get something in return while we only get to appease the angry creditors of private corporations.

Or as they say, this inspired ‘Crash’ is shared with you by the _______. Corporation

Walt Disney – The New Spirit

Global Recession: Shapes and Forms

“Debt crisis in millionaires’ playground could herald new phase in global financial meltdown”

“You say it was always obvious to you that because Britain had such a large financial sector we would be among the worst affected and that our recovery would be delayed. Why then did the prime minister say Britain would be leading the world out of recession?”

Others say that wallpapering the cracks in the capitalist wall – with public money – will not fix structural faults.

I sincerely hope though that the Tamerlane HQ will be saved.

Fears of double-dip recession grow as Dubai crashes
A morally bankrupt dictatorship built by slave labour

Investigating Iceland’s financiers

Joly delivers her verdict on everything from financial sector bonuses (immoral) to climate change (a grave danger) and the situation in Gaza (tragic).
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“This is what you see all over the world,” she says, egged on by the documentary makers’ account of how ordinary Icelanders are paying for the crimes of the plutocracy. “The rules are not for the elite. The elite are always living above the law.”
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Perhaps her most valuable contribution is the leverage she has over the investigation’s political masters. Her presence reduces the risk of the probe being suppressed
. . .
“We must be very vigilant. Many people in the market have one idea: to get back to business as usual. We must not forget that this system is very ill.”
. . .
“I am here to help. The ­people of ­Iceland have invested me with a great hope, great expectations,” she says. “But it is their country. Only Icelanders can lead this inquiry.”

FT – Stanley Pignal and Andrew Ward

Epistemology

Questions regarding cause and effects of the financial scandal have been swarming in the air from the day of reckoning.
While the effects are fairly obvious, the causes we are told, are just to wide-ranging and complex to be understood (The Algebra of Infinite Justice), thus (conveniently) preventing any ‘fair and balanced’ investigation of the causes.
The discredited power elite has learned nothing and is preparing to continue in the same manner, using the same policies, with the same inevitable end, and why should they care? – They never pay for their own mistakes.
“The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.” – Mark Twain

The Myth Versus the Reality …

60 secrecy jurisdictions

Where are the world’s secrecy jurisdictions? – Richard Murphy FCA

“The Mapping the Faultlines project is based on the contention that the mechanisms that allow illicit financial flows to occur result from the synergistic relationship between the world’s secrecy jurisdictions and the secrecy providers (bankers, lawyers and accountants) whose work is based there.”

An excerpt and a full list is available for download here.

The crisis: a year on

After the economic collapse and a year of corruption revelations, not a single kleptocrat has been arrested.

Do we simply have to take Herbert Marcuse’s quote as given, that, “Law and order are everywhere the law and order which protect the established hierarchy.” ?

Corporate welfare

It was heartwarming to observe the first reactions of the transnational corporate giants that have graced our country with their industrious presence, to the suggestion that they might help in restoring an economically failed nation.

However, do to the harsh realities in the international markets (and this and that and the other) this was not a viable proposition in the current time frame. I must inform you, that this totally inconsiderate suggestion originated from a leftist MP, – and we all know that communists have no heart.

It will thus be up to the poor widow’s offering to manage the restorations.

The Silence of the Web

The latest trend in our ‘democratic’ and ‘crime free’ society is the hostility expressed towards bloggers / reporters. The self appointed ‘elite’, financial or otherwise, id est those who have acceptable opinions are mightily indignant over inappropriate comments and leaks in the blogger sphere and want it stopped. The old tools they are so grief-stricken for are the mass media, proper academics and of course their legal technicians (as they are now called).

I my self find Chomsky’s explanations illuminating when he writes: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”

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