mutepoint wrote:

 I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here RT is biased. 

 mutepoint wrote:

 mutepoint wrote:
 

 mutepoint wrote: 

Secret trade agreement covering 68 percent of world services published by WikiLeaks — RT USA

The text of a 19-page, international trade agreement being drafted in secret was published by WikiLeaks on Thursday as the transparency group’s editor commemorated his two-year anniversary confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

Fifty countries around the globe have already signed on to the Trade in Service Agreement, or TISA, including the United States, Australia and the European Union. Despite vast international ties, however, details about the deal have been negotiated behind closed-doors and largely ignored by the press.

In a statement published by the group alongside the leaked draft this week, WikiLeaks said “proponents of TISA aim to further deregulate global financial services markets,” and have participated in “a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre” by working secretly on a deal that covers more than 68 percent of world trade in services, according to the Swiss National Center for Competence in Research. (...)

WikiLeaks Reveals Global Trade Deal Kept More Secret Than the Trans-Pacific Partnership

(...) Demonstrations erupted in Geneva in April as diplomats met in secret for the sixth round of negotiations over TISA, which would cover international trade in a wide range of service industries ranging from finance and telecommunications to transportation and even local utilities such as water. Protesters demanded that the draft text be released, but it has remained secret until now. (...)

Secret Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) - Financial Services Annex (WikiLeaks)

Study Asserts Startling Numbers of Insider Trading Rogues - NYTimes.com
‘The truth is worse than we imagine’: One-quarter of public company deals involve insider trading — RT USA

 RichardPrins wrote: 

Bloomberg Best (and Worst)

Most Underfunded Pension Plans: States

Illinois Democrats gut Chicago city worker pensions
By Alexander Fangmann and Kristina Betinis

On Monday, June 9, the Democratic governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, signed into law a bill cutting retirement benefits for an estimated 57,000 Chicago municipal workers and laborers in the greater Chicago area.

The law, championed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, imposes severe cuts on workers participating in two city worker pension funds. This is part of the nation-wide drive by the financial elite and its representatives in both big business parties to rob the pensions of public sector workers and channel even more money into the hands of the super-rich.

As in Detroit, California and other locales in the US and around the world, the political establishment claims the slashing of pension benefits is the only way to deal with bad fiscal situations and the only alternative to junking pensions altogether. The last six years of austerity policies have been premised on the lie that “there is no money.” In 2014, the dramatic polarization of wealth in the US coincided with a historic peak in total national net worth of $81.8 trillion—up $1.5 trillion in the first half of 2014 alone. The gains since 2008 are primarily concentrated in the financial and real estate markets. (...)

Coal spies: The secret world of black ops

Revealed: Protesters at the Maules Creek coal mine construction site discovered an undercover operative among them, after years of suspicion.

Burly and bearded, Tony Groves arrived at the camp at Maules Creek in northern NSW, declaring a passion for the environment and an exotic, hidden past.

The former military intelligence officer and Harley Davidson enthusiast called himself Tony Allen, and fitted in at first with the ragtag community of greenies and landowners who had been protesting for three years against the dramatic expansion of coal mining in the area by Japanese mining giant Idemitsu and Whitehaven Coal.

It soon became apparent that something was odd. He would disappear suddenly and frequently and suggest protest actions that were highly risky and potentially damaging to the cause. Somewhat implausibly, Tony had explained he was facing weapons charges, a fugitive from a bikie gang which he had left amid threats of retribution.

''He was just completely neurotic about being in a photograph,'' says Ben Solity, one of the protest leaders.

A Fairfax Media investigation this week uncovered the fact Groves was part of an extraordinary undercover operation against the activists who are known as the Leard Forest Alliance or Front Line Action Against Coal.

For five months, former military and intelligence personnel took on assumed identities with elaborate backstories and rotated through the camp, taking notes, reporting back on any planned actions, profiling the leadership and trying to uncover whether the protesters themselves had spies inside the mines.

It failed. Several agents were identified, and at least one directly confronted.

Groves was a senior figure. His company - the Centre of Intelligence and Risk Management (CIRM) - wrangled the spies for the clandestine operation. He reported to Tyrone Clark, a former Australian Federal Police officer, whose company C5 Management Solutions received the intelligence, distilling it and passed it on to the mining companies via their security arms.

Following Fairfax's first report on the espionage on Monday, Idemitsu admitted it had contracted C5 Management Solutions and another firm understood to be involved, the mysterious Strongs Security Services. After years of suspicions among activists, it is the first time that such an operation has been verified.

These kinds of ''black ops'' may seem like something from a modern spy novel or a Hollywood blockbuster but have been long documented overseas and speculated about here.

And the exposure of the clandestine project raises important and uncomfortable questions about corporate power, privacy and the right to protest. (...)

 islander wrote: 
Happens every weekend in Chicago.

Shooting at Seattle Pacific University today.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
I am troubled by the absent reporting of Mozambique.  And is France under-reporting or is VF cooking over-time? 

Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance | Business | The Guardian

Royal Dutch Shell has dismissed the possibility that its proven oil or gas reserves will become unusable as a result of climate change regulation, saying fossil fuels will play a key role in global energy to 2050 and beyond.

Environmental campaigners, activist investor groups and some lawmakers have warned that financial markets could be overvaluing companies with large fossil fuel assets, such as Shell, thereby creating a "carbon bubble" and putting at risk trillions of dollars in pension funds.

Shell, however, played down such claims last week in a letter it said was in response to shareholder inquiries on the issue of "stranded" assets, referring to large investments in fossil fuel reserves that could become unprofitable if governments pass laws to curb runaway growth in greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to reduce the impact of climate change.

"While the 'stranded asset' notion may appear to be a strong and thought-through case, it does have some fundamental flaws," JJ Traynor, Shell's executive vice president of investor relations, said in the letter posted on the company's website, dated May 16.

Traynor maintained that the world will need oil and gas for many decades to come, supporting both demand and prices.

"As such, we do not believe that any of our proven reserves will become 'stranded'," he wrote.

"There is a risk that focusing on 'stranded assets' or the concept of the 'carbon bubble' distracts attention away from the reality of a growing population, increasing prosperity and growing energy demand."

DEMAND GROWTH

Shell said it believes that climate change will continue to rise up the public and political agenda, but it estimated that energy demand growth would allow fossil fuels to continue play a major role and account for 40-60 percent of global energy supply through to 2050 and beyond.

Shell also pushed carbon capture and storage - a technology that critics say has not yet been proven - as a key tool to help to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, a threshold deemed dangerous by scientists. (...)

 BlueHeronDruid wrote: 
vice versa or maybe the other war around

 Manbird wrote: 
Was it a six bottles of whiskey for the pain card? Because if it was.....

I'm making my very last inventory of things to sell on craigslist to try and pay the.
rent. Unfortunately, everything I have that I haven't already sold  is too large to be mailed
except for a few book rare book and comics. It's amazing how little there is left.
So I have to advertise in the local google. I hope both people read the ads.

The last item to go will be Tessy. I can't really sell India as I'm the only
one who can handle her due to her avian version PTSD. The human version has
come back to haunt me with screaming nightmares and paralysis But I'm fighting
back. I'm already out levithyroxine and mirtazapine but neither of them seem to have
any negative affect when I stop taking them - as far as I can tell.

Yesterday I was able to get 2 sides of one of the mews up which was amazing
but the pain last night was also amazing. A borax bath and a fantastic foot
rub with loads of arnica from mag and a pain pill helped a little. Man, I would
give anything for a foot rub every day especially the broken foot.

Then someone in my told me that they heard a rumor about me that I was spending
all my money (money?) on pot and pills and alcohol. I may be crazy but Hunter
Thompson I am not. But what was weird was that the rumor had travelled far and
wide and through the falcon community. Weird because I don't know anyone.
It's me and mag trying hide away in the mountains and do what we love. Then
mad said it was probably the donation page. One guy, or lady, commented - So, I want to buy
a new house and and all I have to do is put up some fake website and every on the internet
pays for it? Cool! And while I'm ranting I'll just mention how much I miss my Father.
At least once or twice a day when something strikes me as worth writing about
I start composing a an email to my dad before I remember. In the end he had dementia
but only for a year or two. I could ask him what to do about surviving the avalanche
of problems. Everyone has an opinion but I would especially like to hear his. It was
just the last 10 year that we had gotten close and I realized how brilliant he was and that his
flaws were no different than anyones elses. He wasn't the best dad in world but he did his
best - like he did with everything in life.
I'll in heaven when I get my SSI. I already got a form from my doc saying I am
permanently disabled and cannot not be rehabilitated. I had an advocate for our
autism helping us through the insane process but he quit on me half way through,
re reaffirming misanthropic view of the world. I friend sent a really cool card. One of my
best friends in the world.  

 Business as Usual

 sirdroseph wrote: 
I do admit to considering Teddy and for a minute JFK as the only others with major cajones given their circumstances while in office.

There is so much bogus shit going down right now and its all I can do to hold back a major rant. 

So for now, I'll just try and restrict my rage to a few exhibits of drive by sarcasm.

I do have some space left before I boil over.  My blood pressure last week was 104 over 54.

Yep, business as usual.   

 kurtster wrote: 

My main man Theodore is going to rise from the grave upon his steed and charge you with sabre in hand!