Thanks to a random slashdot post I came across a very interesting documentary today. It's called The Power of Nightmares, created by filmmaker Adam Curtis. There are three one-hour episodes. It is available for free download from the Internet Archive. I found their download to be very slow, and looked elsewhere. You should have no problem finding it on your bittorrent tracker of choice. The BBC also has an intersting Q and A with Curtis. I've only got the first episode so far (bloody download limits). It's a great look at the origins of the neoconservative and jihadi philosophies and their rise to power, portraying both as a rejection modernity and liberalism. There's wonderful footage of some of the primary figures (young Rumsfeld cracked me up, the man never changes). I found the Reagan-era stuff in particular to be utterly fascinating. I would love to see an academic discussion of the film. There are a gazillion discussions of it on the internet, but nearly all from highly politicized viewpoints, either accepting the film in its entirety or trashing it in every regard. One of the more substantive criticisms I could find was a charge in this National Review article that the conclusions of a book that the film attacks, The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terror were later verified by the Stasi files. There is also some discussion of criticisms in the film's wikipedia entry. I found it to be fairly even-handed, at least in discussion of the philosophies (although Curtis' version of historical events seems more subject to question), and honestly thought that Leo Strauss and Sayyid Qutb (who Curtis holds to be the seminal visionaries on each side) had interesting and important points to make. It's starting to seem that many of the important political and sociological events of the day can fit within the frame of mankind struggling with the onrush of modernity.
Update (7/24): Finished watching the series. It makes some fairly startling claims in the latter part, and presents really interesting arguments to back them. Quite a thought-provoking program, you should give it a look.
Showing posts with label Conspiracy Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conspiracy Theory. Show all posts
Friday, July 22, 2005
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Put on your tin hats, fellas.
Laura Rozen at War and Piece has this breaking coverage of the alleged Pentagon consultant/Israeli spy story. There is a lot of grumbling online that this is related to the niger uranium forged documents, which also might be connected with the Plame investigation. And all signs point to the Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon. This is certainly one to watch over the next week (I wonder if it will detract from the convention).
Friday, January 16, 2004
Alan Greenspan, Evil Mastermind?
Here's a bit of a guest column, Hank's response to the email with the review of Financial Reckoning Day, posted yesterday:
Just thought I'd give an update on my economy watching (and throw in an opinion about Alan Greenspan).
My crackpot theory about Alan Greenspan is that he is doing all of this quite deliberately. I think that he realized twenty years ago that the American financial situation was already intractable. He wanted to put the world back onto a sound financial footing, but realized that this could not be done without ruining the American economy. He realized, in a very Machiavelian turn of mind, that the extreme exploitation of the existing system, which he thoroughly despised, could simultaneously make America tremendously wealthy and precipitate a financial collapse that would stand in perpetuity as a warning against the excesses of fiat money. Thus Greenspan's primary virtue would be his ability to dramatize. He has convinced the American people that the final boom of the twentieth century was real; and he has convinced the IMF and the world's central banks that he is working to protect their interests, while quite obviously working to the contrary.
Thus we get to the point that we are at today. The world's central bankers have finally begun to put the question to the U.S.: "What the hell do you think you're doing?" On the surface they seem stern, but deep down they're terrified that they might already know the answer. The European Central Bank has finally expressed concern about the declining dollar. This expression of concern indicates a likelihood that the ECB will take action against the plummeting dollar, such as lowering European interest rates (already at the lowest rate since immediately after WWII: 2%). Of course this lowering of interest rates would not stop the dollar's actual fall, but merely pressure the Euro to fall with it.
While the ECB and the BoJ (which, having already established zero interest rates, must exchange Yen for Dollars in massive quantities [the cap on borrowing for this purpose has been increased dramatically for the coming year] in order to pull off their own intervention) scream for the U.S. to normalize its finances, and former treasury secretaries Paul O'Neil and Robert Rubin openly criticize our current economic policies, Greenspan and the current administration continue to laugh off their concern. Their levity is understandable. The White House can laugh because they're insulated enough to ignore the criticism, ignorant enough to fail to understand it if they listened, savvy enough to realize that responding to the criticism would be politically untenable even if they understood it, and wealthy enough to not suffer even if the criticism proves correct. Greenspan can laugh because he knows that Europe, Japan, and China are foolish enough to give us everything they own (via the mechanism of their "export driven economies") in a vain attempt to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on the debt (via inflation, a mechanism that prevents them from ever laying claim to the goods we bought from them with their own money, for technically we will pay the debts, with extremely debased money) which constitutes the entirety of their savings. The inconceivable response of these foreign powers to our debonair fiscal policy is to accelerate their lending.
Hence we see the wisdom of Greenspan's approach. Terminating this cycle would be a painful and shocking process, nothing is more onerous to the politician. As the status quo makes Americans more wealthy there is no reason for our politicians to bear the terrible burden of ending it. Instead we will simply exploit our position to the fullest until the time that foreign pols are able to overcome their shortsighted constituents and bring about the correction that would put them back on an even footing with the U.S. The only potential downside to this strategy is that after the system collapses America's credit with the world will be ruined; but by then there will be nothing left for us to borrow anyway, as they will have already given it all to us. The only alternative is to pay the debt off legitimately; this policy would be ruinous.
Anyway, the recent show of concern by the ECB with regard to the dollar's decline has brought that decline to a halt. The anticipation of European action has induced hesitation as to the Euro's future prospects. Currency speculators who had invested their money in gold as a hedge against the declining dollar have pulled out en mass bringing about a 15$ decline in the last two days. Of course this statement by the ECB changes U.S. economic prospects not at all. The dollar's decline against the Euro may slow but this does not mean that the dollar is strengthening, it simply indicates that the only major currency that had remained aloof from the devaluation has decided to participate. After all, the dollar isn't falling because the European interest rate is too high, but rather because the U.S. interest rate is to low. The result of any change in ECB monetary policy will merely be competitive currency devaluations, an environment that would enhance the value of holding
gold. Thus I would say that this current decline in gold should be a good buying opportunity (which should prove serendipitous for mom).
My mom mentioned in the email regarding the article, that she may start to take some action on Henry's gold buying advice..
Just thought I'd give an update on my economy watching (and throw in an opinion about Alan Greenspan).
My crackpot theory about Alan Greenspan is that he is doing all of this quite deliberately. I think that he realized twenty years ago that the American financial situation was already intractable. He wanted to put the world back onto a sound financial footing, but realized that this could not be done without ruining the American economy. He realized, in a very Machiavelian turn of mind, that the extreme exploitation of the existing system, which he thoroughly despised, could simultaneously make America tremendously wealthy and precipitate a financial collapse that would stand in perpetuity as a warning against the excesses of fiat money. Thus Greenspan's primary virtue would be his ability to dramatize. He has convinced the American people that the final boom of the twentieth century was real; and he has convinced the IMF and the world's central banks that he is working to protect their interests, while quite obviously working to the contrary.
Thus we get to the point that we are at today. The world's central bankers have finally begun to put the question to the U.S.: "What the hell do you think you're doing?" On the surface they seem stern, but deep down they're terrified that they might already know the answer. The European Central Bank has finally expressed concern about the declining dollar. This expression of concern indicates a likelihood that the ECB will take action against the plummeting dollar, such as lowering European interest rates (already at the lowest rate since immediately after WWII: 2%). Of course this lowering of interest rates would not stop the dollar's actual fall, but merely pressure the Euro to fall with it.
While the ECB and the BoJ (which, having already established zero interest rates, must exchange Yen for Dollars in massive quantities [the cap on borrowing for this purpose has been increased dramatically for the coming year] in order to pull off their own intervention) scream for the U.S. to normalize its finances, and former treasury secretaries Paul O'Neil and Robert Rubin openly criticize our current economic policies, Greenspan and the current administration continue to laugh off their concern. Their levity is understandable. The White House can laugh because they're insulated enough to ignore the criticism, ignorant enough to fail to understand it if they listened, savvy enough to realize that responding to the criticism would be politically untenable even if they understood it, and wealthy enough to not suffer even if the criticism proves correct. Greenspan can laugh because he knows that Europe, Japan, and China are foolish enough to give us everything they own (via the mechanism of their "export driven economies") in a vain attempt to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on the debt (via inflation, a mechanism that prevents them from ever laying claim to the goods we bought from them with their own money, for technically we will pay the debts, with extremely debased money) which constitutes the entirety of their savings. The inconceivable response of these foreign powers to our debonair fiscal policy is to accelerate their lending.
Hence we see the wisdom of Greenspan's approach. Terminating this cycle would be a painful and shocking process, nothing is more onerous to the politician. As the status quo makes Americans more wealthy there is no reason for our politicians to bear the terrible burden of ending it. Instead we will simply exploit our position to the fullest until the time that foreign pols are able to overcome their shortsighted constituents and bring about the correction that would put them back on an even footing with the U.S. The only potential downside to this strategy is that after the system collapses America's credit with the world will be ruined; but by then there will be nothing left for us to borrow anyway, as they will have already given it all to us. The only alternative is to pay the debt off legitimately; this policy would be ruinous.
Anyway, the recent show of concern by the ECB with regard to the dollar's decline has brought that decline to a halt. The anticipation of European action has induced hesitation as to the Euro's future prospects. Currency speculators who had invested their money in gold as a hedge against the declining dollar have pulled out en mass bringing about a 15$ decline in the last two days. Of course this statement by the ECB changes U.S. economic prospects not at all. The dollar's decline against the Euro may slow but this does not mean that the dollar is strengthening, it simply indicates that the only major currency that had remained aloof from the devaluation has decided to participate. After all, the dollar isn't falling because the European interest rate is too high, but rather because the U.S. interest rate is to low. The result of any change in ECB monetary policy will merely be competitive currency devaluations, an environment that would enhance the value of holding
gold. Thus I would say that this current decline in gold should be a good buying opportunity (which should prove serendipitous for mom).
My mom mentioned in the email regarding the article, that she may start to take some action on Henry's gold buying advice..
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Update: Always at War With Eurasia
Time Magazine's director of public affairs emailed me to let me know that she has forwarded to Time's editor my suggestion that the table of contents online reflects this story . She is also sending websites posting information about this missing article the following email:
TIME has no rights to re-publish the book excerpt which first appeared in TIME's March 2, 1998 issue (and online that week). The book, "A World Transformed," by George H.W. Bush (Sr.) and Brent Scowcroft, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., which holds the rights. The headline on the excerpt in TIME was "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam."
A notice was posted to the TIME.com website on Nov. 11, 2003, to clarify why this excerpt is not available through TIME Archives:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/980302/special_report.clintons_29.html
"The page you've requested is an excerpt from a book by Brent Scowcroft and George H. W. Bush titled A World Transformed, which appeared in the March 2, 1998, issue of TIME magazine under the title "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam". It has been removed from our site because the publisher did not grant us rights to sell the piece online through the TIME archive."
TIME has no rights to re-publish the book excerpt which first appeared in TIME's March 2, 1998 issue (and online that week). The book, "A World Transformed," by George H.W. Bush (Sr.) and Brent Scowcroft, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., which holds the rights. The headline on the excerpt in TIME was "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam."
A notice was posted to the TIME.com website on Nov. 11, 2003, to clarify why this excerpt is not available through TIME Archives:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/dom/980302/special_report.clintons_29.html
"The page you've requested is an excerpt from a book by Brent Scowcroft and George H. W. Bush titled A World Transformed, which appeared in the March 2, 1998, issue of TIME magazine under the title "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam". It has been removed from our site because the publisher did not grant us rights to sell the piece online through the TIME archive."
Re: Always at War With Eastasia
Great investigative journalism, Barry! That's almost worthy of a Chew-litzer prize! You may even rival Geraldo someday if you stick with it. Did you tell them you were a (Boys' Weekend) journalist?
Re: Always at War With Eastasia
I became immediately concerned about this so I called Time magazine's archives department, who said that it is generally their policy to delete articles over five years. I also spoke with someone in Time's PR department, who said she did not want to provide her name, that stated the publisher of the book from which the article was excerpted (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., according to the article) only extended Time a limited right to publish the article online and that time expired. She stated that Time has received a high volume of calls regarding this topic and they are considering publishing a comment in an upcoming issue.
The link where the story used to be listed provides an explanation similar to the one I received on the phone. I asked why the article was not specifically listed in the table of contents for that issue and she said she would get back to me on that one.
The link where the story used to be listed provides an explanation similar to the one I received on the phone. I asked why the article was not specifically listed in the table of contents for that issue and she said she would get back to me on that one.
Always At War With Eastasia
In an event frighteningly relevant to our recent conference, slashdot pointed out a story on The Memory Hole (very interesting web site, BTW) documenting Time Magazine's effort to make one of their columns dissappear. Coincidentally the column is by George Bush Sr. and Brent Scowcroft explaining in detail why they did not attempt to invade Iraq, their reasoning still being quite relevant and valid in present contexts. I can understand why the administration might want this to go away, although how you get from that desire to AOL/TW actually erasing the article would be an interesting thing to know..
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
The Voting Machine Story
I don't know if any of you guys have been following this, but there is an interesting story that has been emerging regarding Diebold's new voting machines. There has been a lot of coverage of it on slashdot, as it has been mostly hacker activism that has brought the issue to light. Slashdotters have been up in arms from day 1 about that fact that any voting precinct would use voting machines which a) are proprietary (ie do not run open source software), and b) have no paper audit-trail. Then reports started to come that these devices are terribly insecure. On top of that some clever folks swiped Diebold's internal memos and leaked them on the internet. They found a number of interesting messages displaying incompetence and subterfuge. Everyone's favorite seems to be:
“I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here "looking dumb".
Then, of course, you have the CEO of Diebold making a statement that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year". And last but not least, author and electronic voting critic, Bev Harris, managed to gain remote access to one of Diebold's machines duing the California recall. Good grief. So lately Diebold has decided to start SLAPP'ing folks to get their memos off the internet. Today the EFF announced they will defend two students against Diebold's claims. I have a sneaking suspicion that this company is not long for the world (or at least for the voting machine business).
“I need some answers! Our department is being audited by the County. I have been waiting for someone to give me an explanation as to why Precinct 216 gave Al Gore a minus 16022 when it was uploaded. Will someone please explain this so that I have the information to give the auditor instead of standing here "looking dumb".
Then, of course, you have the CEO of Diebold making a statement that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year". And last but not least, author and electronic voting critic, Bev Harris, managed to gain remote access to one of Diebold's machines duing the California recall. Good grief. So lately Diebold has decided to start SLAPP'ing folks to get their memos off the internet. Today the EFF announced they will defend two students against Diebold's claims. I have a sneaking suspicion that this company is not long for the world (or at least for the voting machine business).
Monday, August 11, 2003
Article: Still Afraid of the Dark-Skinned Savages
There is a fanastic editorial on CSM today. I think people should be beaten over the head with this on a daily basis. I'm frequently disgusted about how dehumanizing coverage of 3rd world conflicts is, particularly when compared with the sickenly melodramatic treatment that disasters in industrial nations get. I went a few rounds over this issue not so long ago regarding the appalling coverage of the Nigerian beauty pageant riots...
There is a fanastic editorial on CSM today. I think people should be beaten over the head with this on a daily basis. I'm frequently disgusted about how dehumanizing coverage of 3rd world conflicts is, particularly when compared with the sickenly melodramatic treatment that disasters in industrial nations get. I went a few rounds over this issue not so long ago regarding the appalling coverage of the Nigerian beauty pageant riots...
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
From the X-Files folder: The Other Boys' Weekend
Apparently we weren't the only ones having a boys' weekend. The Illuminati were having their little get together too. Details are scarce, but there's a little more analysis in Asia Times. It's some bizarre, creepy freaking stuff, and if ever anyone were seeking fuel for conspiracy theories, this is it. On the other hand, renting out an entire hotel in the French countryside is something we may want to consider for the next Boys' Weekend..
Apparently we weren't the only ones having a boys' weekend. The Illuminati were having their little get together too. Details are scarce, but there's a little more analysis in Asia Times. It's some bizarre, creepy freaking stuff, and if ever anyone were seeking fuel for conspiracy theories, this is it. On the other hand, renting out an entire hotel in the French countryside is something we may want to consider for the next Boys' Weekend..
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