Law

Candide

We are told by the daily propaganda that we live in the “best of all possible worlds”.

How can this be?
Is it because:

  • The constitution is an ancient ?hand down from a Danish king.
  • The oldest parliament in the world is but a waiting room for government posts.
  • The courts of the land are packed with politically appointed judges.
  • The education system asks no questions.
  • The church still thinks it’s middle ages, and the bishops should initiate the brides.
  • The media concentrates on superlatives about nothing
  • The loss of our financial independence to IMF and ‘our’ ministers as their office workers.
  • The working class has only one pride and prejudice, to elect people who despise them.
  • The fantastic social security system does not compare to neighboring countries.
  • The best pension fund system in the world , is controlled by private interests and government(s) to pay for their follies.
  • The retirement age is one of the highest in the western world with one of the lowest retirement pay.
  • The Criminal Class consists of 14 families who own the country.
  • The 30 Financiers and their cohorts who bankrupted the country
  • The total number of indictments for financial crimes is Zero.

And to day a Parliament committee decides if (or NOT) they should recommend that the same Parliament call on the Court of Impeachment to establish if we are a nation or a joke.

Björk’s Open Letter to the Members of Parliament

” MEMBERS OF THE PARLIAMENT! WE ICELANDERS ASK YOU FOR A
TRANSPARENT, OPEN DISCUSSION AND RECONSIDERATION
CONCERNING THE SELLING OF THE ACCESS TO OUR NATURAL
RESOURCES !

In two weeks Magma Energy Sweden AB could become the biggest shareholder of HS Orka. The company would then have access to some of our most important natural resources for the next 65 years, with an optional extension for another 65 years. 130 years! Is this in accordance with the laws that state only the Icelandic government should have the right to harness and govern the natural resources of Iceland?

Shouldn’t we ask for an investigation of this deal and get a report on the business exchange concerning our resources, as we got a report on the banks?

Shouldn’t the nation be able to decide for itself if it is willing to sell off it’s natural resources, by means of a law change to enable a national referendum?

One of the IMF’s suggestions is that Iceland should open up access to it’s natural resources to foreigners. According to the letter of intent signed by the government last April, it seems that those suggestions will be followed. Are we thus going to use our nature in this way to pay off the Icesave-debts of those few Icelandic venture capitalists?
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Allegedly the Magma deal is about the benefits of foreign investment. How does that compute with the fact that 70% of the purchase price is financed with a local bullet-loan with collateral in the shares?
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Is there anything that guarantees jobs will be created in Iceland through this deal?
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In the future, water will probably be the most valuable resource in the world. Will the deal with Magma Energy possibly set a legal precedent, and be used in the future to enforce the sale of more natural resources?

What will our grandchildren think of the deals we’re making now? “

Bjork.com

Open Letter to the Members of Parliament (full text)

Petition to the Government
” I urge the authorities to stop the sale of HS Orka and for Alþingi to hold a national referendum on the ownership and the utilisation of our energy resources. ”
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It’s Oh (Not) So Quiet. More than 16,000 people have already signed.
Mapping this onto the UK and US census, this would mean more than 3.3 and 16 million signatures respectively.
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Denial-of-service attack?
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Public Services International -Privatisation in the energy sector (pdf)

Freedom of establishment for companies and abuse of rights in EU/EEA law – Energy policy
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Oh my God, the holy trinity of “free” market economics: growth, (foreign) investment and job creation (lol) is at risk!
By the way, we are living and paying for a disgraced profession (one of many), bought and payed for by the likes of the current vulture.
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What we are seeing now is an “operation” of suppressing the truth and splitting hairs.
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” Who owns Magma Energy? Have MPs and Ministers seen and studied the list of shareholders? If not – how dare they sell valuable assets and rights of usage of the Nations natural resources to complete strangers, men without any reference at all? ” – Lara Hanna

The Gods are angry

For those of us who believe in the Icelandic/Nordic folklore, it’s spirits and entities the folklore represents, Týr, the protector of justice, laws, and courts, has appeared on the burning mountain and he portrays our congruent anger.

Anger is good, but laughter is even better. I think it was Michael Palin who said that laughter was much undervalued political weapon.

The Reykjavík Grapevine: (pdf) Without a Platform. Are Icelandic politics a joke? and Terrified Politicians
Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes
Thinking Outside the Box (or Without a Platform)
Are you having fun?
… just what the financial oligarchy wants.
… statement from a disgraced profession. (pdf)

Twelve Nominees for Bankrupting a Nation

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After news of the “Truth Commission” sending twelve letters to people indicated in the “Truth Report”, the press is guessing the price categories to be:

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For Gross negligence in:

Government:

  • The Prime Minister
  • The Foreign Minister
  • The Finance Minister
  • The Minister of Economic Affairs

Civil Service:

  • The Permanent Secretary for The Prime Minister’s Office
  • The Permanent Secretary for The Ministry of Finance
  • The Permanent Secretary for The Ministry of Economic Affairs
  • . . . . . . . Acting Secretary for The Ministry of Economic Affairs

Central Banking:

  • The three Central Bank Managers

Financial Supervisory:

  • The Director General

All but one have now been replaced, but according to the rhetoric, “people failed, nothing wrong with the policy” ?

The “Truth or Black Report” is due at the end of the month, we will then see who gets the actual ‘price’.

Prejudicial European Justice?

Dr. M. Elvira Méndez-Pinedo writes: “Whatever the reason or the economic or political arguments, it can be observed now that this lacuna or gap in the EEA Agreement, together with the legal uncertainties of EU banking and financial law, has been extremely prejudicial for Iceland. Icelandic citizens do not have access to justice to the ECJ either. In EU law, any country could start an infringement case or simply take the issue of the interpretation of the State liability deriving from Directive 94/19/EC and the principle of non-discrimination before the ECJ. Iceland, on the other hand, seems to have accepted the principle of State liability and nationalisation of private debt of banking entities abroad without being entitled in the subsequent Icesave agreements to proper judicial and independent review of its legal arguments.”

Icesave – Iceland. The Icesave agreements and other national measures in response of the financial crisis: Revisiting the principles of State liability, State aid and non-discrimination in European law

Dr. Gunnar Tomasson (The Gang of 8 ) refers to “Odious Debt”: „In international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, such as wars of aggression, should not be enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion.”

In The Dilemma of Odious Debts; Lee C. Buchheit, G. Mitu Gulati and Robert B. Thompson (pdf) write: “The prospect of yoking innocent generations of citizens to the repayment of any Profligate Debt causes an audible grinding of the moral teeth; the prospect of forcing this result on people who have already been victimized by a corrupt and despotic regime is even more distasteful.”

Riz Khan – Iceland’s future

Prophecies

In 1848 Karl Marx predicted that “Capitalism would collapse on its own weight because the repetition of business cycles would eventually bring the economy past the point of no return”

In 2007 Niño Becerra wrote: “This is not a crisis like the ones we’ve known for the past 30 years, this is the beginning of the end of the economical system that startet with the Industrial revolution by 1820s.”

Niño Becerra goes on to give this timetable:

  • September 2007 to October 2009: Prelude to the crisis. Governments would take measures to avoid “things going worse” (we are seeing some of them by now, October ’08)
  • October 2009 to May 2010: The believe that “things are not working the way they should” starts to spread out.
  • May 2010: The Crisis starts with all its force.
  • 2011: The worst and hardest year of the crisis.
  • 2012-2015: Governments regulate the economy and people accept it because they are in shock after what happened.
  • 2015-2018: Slowly and not without problems the economy starts to pick up and improve slightly.
  • End of 2018: End of the crisis.

Artículos de Santiago Niño Becerra (spanish)

Is this what happens when we let the criminals write the law?
Ex-Lehman-Banker bekommen Milliarden-Boni

Vaguely Familiar (?)

” Our world seems to have been invaded by individuals whose approach to life and love is so drastically different from what has been the established norm for a very long time that we are ill- prepared to deal with their tactics of what Robert Canup calls “plausible lie.” As he demonstrates, this philosophy of the “plausible lie” has overtaken the legal and administrative domains of our world, turning them into machines in which human beings with real emotions are destroyed. ”

” “Likeable,” “Charming,” “Intelligent,” “Alert,” “Impressive,” “Confidence-inspiring,” and “A great success with the ladies”: These are the sorts of descriptions repeatedly used by Cleckley in his famous case-studies of psychopaths. They are also, of course, “irresponsible,” “self-destructive,” and the like. These descriptions highlight the great frustrations and puzzles that surround the study of psychopathy. ”

” Narcissists are possessed of inordinate abilities to charm, to convince, to seduce, and to persuade. Many of them are gifted orators and intellectually endowed. Many of them work in politics, the media, fashion, show business, the arts, medicine, or business, and serve as religious leaders. ”

” By virtue of their standing in the community, their charisma, or their ability to find the willing scapegoats, they do get exempted many times. Having recurrently “got away with it” – they develop a theory of personal immunity, founded upon some kind of societal and even cosmic “order” in which certain people are above punishment. ”

The Mask of Sanity
Bankers and Stockbrokers as Malignant and Psychopathic Narcissists
“Without Conscience” Robert Hare’s Web Site
Snakes In Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work

To each according to his greed

“The only truly surprising thing about the 2008 financial meltdown is how easily the idea was accepted that its happening was unpredictable. Recall the demonstrations that throughout the last decade regularly accompanied meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: the protesters’ complaints encompassed not only the usual antiglobalization motifs (the growing exploitation of Third World countries, etc.) but also how the banks were creating the illusion of growth by playing with fictional money and how this would all have to end in a crash. It was not only economists such as Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz who warned of the dangers ahead and made it clear that those who promised continuous growth did not really understand what was going on under their noses. In Washington in 2000, so many people demonstrated about the danger of a financial collapse that the city had to mobilize 3,500 local policemen. What ensued was tear–gassing, clubbing, and mass arrests. The police were used to stifle the truth.” – Slavoj Zizek – Democracy Now! & Harper’s Magazine

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.” ?

Surviving the Cataclysm

Webster Griffin Tarpley predicted our current economic meltdown in his book Surviving the Cataclysm (1999). In this second edition he continues his analysis of the “globalized hot money casino run by a tiny financier oligarchy”.

Tarpley calls for “wiping out derivatives, banning foreclosures, and nationalizing the failed Federal Reserve System”.

tarpley.net

US Banker’s Magazine, Aug. 25, 1924. (attributed)

“Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible.

When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.

This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance.

Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”

Hells Angels

We are mightily blessed. – Hells Angels are in town taking over the last remnants of this godforsaken country that wasn’t already in the hands of angels.
However, while the authorities have no difficulty in identifying the former, a leather vest and a Harley, they seem somewhat disabled in recognizing the latter, a suit (white shirt and a tie) and a luxury SUVs.?

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