Happy Ponzi Day!

Charles Ponzi was born 129 years ago today, so I guess that makes it Ponzi Day today. The man for whom the pyramid scheme was named though, was a chump. Today's schemers have been many times more successful. By the time Ponzi's scheme peaked in 1920, Wikipedia notes that "he had made $420,000 ($4.59 million in 2008 terms)." See what I mean? $4 and half million isn't even enough for today's ponzi artists to get out of bed. For example, let's look at the currently best-known ponzi artist, Bernie Madoff. The amount missing from Madoff clients' accounts was nearly $65 billion, although that includes fabricated money-- actual losses total about $18 billion. Even at $18 billion though, that's still almost 4,000 times the ponzi scheme than Ponzi himself. Madoff made headlines again this week, saying that “It’s unbelievable, Goldman … no one has any criminal convictions. The whole new regulatory reform is a joke. The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.” And who better to know Ponzi schemes than the man who bested Ponzi?

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PayPal freezes account of Bradley Manning legal defense fund

Since when is it against the law to help anyone--ANYONE--afford their legal bills? Well, PayPal has decided that it has an "internal policy" that justifies shutting down the account of a group that is attempting to help Bradley Manning pay his legal bills. This shutdown is despicable. With this logic, we should also shut down all public defender offices and thus require all poor people accused of crimes to fend for themselves. If you would like to write to PayPal to express your opinion on this matter, follow this link provided by Firedoglake. Here's FDL's suggested template:

According to the Bradley Manning Support Network, PayPal has frozen the account of the group that supports Pfc. Bradley Manning's legal defense. Citizens around the world have donated to the Bradley Manning Support Network to fund the legal defense of Pfc. Manning. This grassroots activism is now hindered because of a political policy decision by PayPal to block these funds. The Bradley Manning Support Network has not been accused of any impropriety. Your company has essentially admitted that there is no legal reason to shut down account access, and that it is simply an internal policy decision. Additionally, the organization has complied with every reasonable demand from PayPal to restore access to its account - short of the extraordinary and unnecessary step of providing PayPal direct access to its checking account. PayPal should drop its unreasonable demands of the Bradley Manning Support Network and restore access to the group's PayPal account.

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Military Psy-ops, this time illegally directed at Congress

Keep President Eisenhower's warning in mind as you read this post (see video below). The U.S. Department of Defense defines "Psychological Operations" or "Psy-Ops" as "Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign government, organizations, groups, and individuals." Such operations may be based upon truth or based upon deception, but the goal is the same: to alter perceptions and "ultimately the behavior" of others. As a matter of law, such actions are supposed to be directed against the "foreign hostile groups", or at least not against Americans. Unfortunately, this law is routinely ignored:

  • In 2009, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) awarded a multi-million dollar contract to General Dynamics to wage a psy-ops campaign aimed at France and Britain. The goal of the campaign was to create "influence websites" to build support for the Global War on Terror.

Continue ReadingMilitary Psy-ops, this time illegally directed at Congress