The ‘Stupidity index’ traded sideways for most of the day, then broke sharply lower at the end of the trading day, closing out down 86 points. Um, markets around the globe behaved likewise, again, for no discernable reason.
Since the stock market only tells you how the already rich are fairing we will once again put it behind us as we press on with more relevant issues.
And what could be more relevant than not one but two ‘flash updates’ from John Williams over at Shadow government statistics!
Hyperinflation Special Report
(Update 2010) Subscription required December 2nd, 2009
• Economy and Financial System Face Eventual Great Collapse
• Government and Fed Actions Have Narrowed Hyperinflationary Great Depression Timing to Next Five Years
• High Risk of Ultimate Dollar Crisis Unfolding in Year Ahead [You can’t blame Mr. Williams for not being bolder, this crisis is dragging on much longer than many of us though possible…which, sadly, proves the criminal nature of the event!]
No. 262: U.S. GAAP Accounting Delayed,
Employment Report Outlook
Subscription required December 2nd, 2009
• Treasury Delays 2009 GAAP Statement for Two Months
• Employment Conditions Remain Bleak
As you are all well aware, the so-called economic ‘recovery’, as well as the associated rise in the stock markets are due largely to, er, ‘overly creative’ accounting standards.
Were the public made aware of the true state of the economy, there would be riots coast to coast. (And this is AFTER some 25 Trillion (taxpayer) dollars have been, er, ‘sunk’ into the banking system in another failed attempt to ‘save’ capitalism for the second time in less than a hundred years!)
If that news wasn’t bad enough, you’re going to LOVE tonight’s second offering where you once again get to puzzle over just who is concerned that we will leave them ‘high and dry’…They HAVE TO BE defense contractors!
Afghans and Pakistanis Concerned Over U.S. Plan
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and CARLOTTA GALL
Published: December 2, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Obama’s timetable for American forces in Afghanistan rattled nerves in that country and in Pakistan on Wednesday, as American diplomats worked to convince the two countries at the center of the president’s war strategy that the United States would not cut and run. [Say fucking WHAT?!! Are these assholes really trying to tell us that their governments couldn’t stand if not for the US military? And because they’re ‘chicken’ we have to spend our treasure and the lives of our young people in a vain effort to prop up their corrupt government? It simply doesn’t get more ‘insane’ than that!]
In Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, the only minister who commented on the speech, said the announcement that American troops could begin leaving in 18 months served as a kind of shock therapy, but caused anxiety. “Can we do it?” he asked. “That is the main question. This is not done in a moment. It is a process.” [Said the man as he grabbed another bag of cash ‘aid’ from his government ‘handler’.]
In Pakistan, Mr. Obama’s declaration fed longstanding fears that America would abruptly withdraw, leaving Pakistan to fend for itself. [Um, excuse me but did we all of a sudden ‘forget’ Pakistan is a nuclear armed nation? What’s this ‘fend for itself’ shit? Who the hell is defending our nation from the predator multi-nationals? Who is defending the American people from our broken and corrupt justice system?]
Many in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, argued that the short timetable diminished any incentive for Pakistan to cut ties to Taliban militants who were its allies in the past, and whom Pakistan might want to use to shape a friendly government in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal. [And what’s the point in staying, given this point of view?]
“The most serious issue, as far as we see it, is the exit date,” said a senior Pakistani security official who spoke anonymously because he was not allowed to speak publicly. “It will have serious implications.” [Yep, when the Yanks leave, they tend to take all of that money with them, which makes it much harder to bribe people…]
Though American officials went out of their way to brief senior leaders of both countries before Mr. Obama’s speech, many of the people whose support will be crucial to carrying out the strategy — lower-ranking politicians and military or intelligence officials — did not receive briefings.
Leaders in both countries, at least publicly, offered near silence or only a tepid embrace of the Obama plan on Wednesday. President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, who has been lashed in the Pakistani media for being too close to the United States, did not comment on the speech. Neither did President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who has been smarting ever since he was forced to accept that he did not win the presidential election outright. [There’s a pair that beats a full house good citizen, it’s all the more reason to pack our kids up and bring them home…there is no ‘win’ to be had here.]
In Afghanistan, a statement from the presidential palace noted only that the government welcomed Mr. Obama’s new strategy for the support it offered in development and training for Afghan institutions and in protecting the Afghan people. It also commended the plan for the recognition that terrorists were operating in the region beyond Afghanistan’s borders in Pakistan.
That acknowledgment was precisely what offended many in Pakistan, where the official reaction was limited to a short statement issued by the Foreign Office welcoming Mr. Obama’s “reaffirmation of partnership.” [?]
Politicians, analysts and media commentators, meanwhile, filled the void with skepticism, concern or outright rejection of the Obama plan, and particularly its timetable. [Does anyone wonder why? Didn’t we elect Mr. Obama because he promised to end the stinking war? While it looks like he will keep that promise, I don’t think any of us imagined it would take his entire first (and looking like only) term. I dunno about the rest of you but I’ll never vote for him again. ‘Disappointed’ doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings…and I very much ‘don’t approve’.]
“Is it in Pakistan’s interest to antagonize the Afghan Taliban now, if they will be in power two or three years down the road?” said Ahmed Rashid, author of “Descent Into Chaos,” explaining the thinking in Pakistani political and military circles. “Will the Americans actually deliver after the withdrawal, when the value of Pakistan decreases?” [This is a little ‘cryptic’ isn’t it? Just what are we being asked to ‘deliver’ besides peace?]
Pakistani analysts and security officials expressed skepticism that the United States would be able to achieve in 18 months what it had failed to do in eight years, and they said they considered the military buildup to be more resources poured into what was essentially a losing strategy.
“Pakistanis are not convinced that another military surge will address the issue,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. “This is bombs and bullets bereft of a political strategy.” [Um, the Pakistanis apparently didn’t get the memo because the surge is merely code for highly illegal ‘assassination squads’. Why is the use of assassins ‘illegal’ in war? Truth be told good citizen, assassins would eliminate the need for expensive invasions and endless occupations. You could shrink the Pentagon down to where it could be drown in a Dixie cup, that’s why such a ‘practical approach’ goes against the ‘conventions of warfare’.]
Pakistan is a prickly ally, harboring deep suspicions of American efforts in a region it believes the United States betrayed in the 1980s, when it stopped all aid after the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan then collapsed into civil war, with more than a million refugees pouring into Pakistan, and Al Qaeda set up shop in Afghanistan once the Taliban seized control. [Given those damning accusations, that pipeline is looking more ‘real’ by the minute…but here we are, back to the no blood for oil stance!]
Today, Pakistan’s relationship with the United States remains fraught, with much of it taking place out of the public eye. The United States runs a program of covert airstrikes that it does not acknowledge publicly. It is one of the only tools available to Mr. Obama in Pakistan, but its use is costly as it inflames Pakistani public opinion. [There’s a beaut! Make it look like poor Barry is launching those damn predators personally! Flipping that rock over, they are operating with his ‘approval’, which is close to the same thing. Makes you wonder how ‘stupid’ is going to end the war doing stupid shit like that?]
While Mr. Obama has sought to highlight America’s contribution to Pakistan — it is the third largest recipient of American aid, after Israel and Egypt — the support goes largely unnoticed inside the country, because Pakistan’s leaders shrink from talking about it, out of fear the government will become a target of the rabidly anti-American media. [How worried should we be about allies we have to buy? The moment we take our foot off of their neck they’re going to go right back to business as usual so why the hell should we give a fuck? You know one thing for certain, we’re there for all of the wrong reasons.]
As if to illustrate the point, as cool as the government embrace of the Obama speech was, an opposition politician criticized the government for not publicly registering its displeasure with parts of the speech.
Newspapers struck a skeptical tone. One daily, The News, acknowledged in an editorial that Mr. Obama was trying to change the substance of American-Pakistani relations, but said that the trust deficit was so deep that “it is unlikely that Islamabad will be more attentive to an apparently war-weary U.S. and NATO than it was to a fire-breathing Bush administration eight years ago.”
The lack of trust permeates the relationship. Pakistani military officials say that the United States does not warn them when it moves troops on the Afghan side, leaving holes in areas that Pakistani militants know about, but Pakistan does not.
“At times, we come to know about it through militants’ intercepts,” said the Pakistani security official. “This is embarrassing.” [I guess there’s two sides to that coin, we probably don’t tell them because we want the holes to be empty when our boys come back…]
The official said the Taliban would use the exit date to “bide time, continue with the pin-prick strategy and wait it out until the Americans leave.” [The more you read this article, the more ‘interchangeable’ the word Taliban becomes with the term Republican!]
The Obama administration has tried to offset Pakistani concerns with a package of long-term security guarantees, trade benefits, upgraded military equipment and greater regional cooperation with India. But a Pakistani official said details had not been made public because the offer had yet to be accepted. [Why is the standard ‘peace offering’ always more instruments of war? When will we smarten up and stop providing the weapons that keep putting our own military at risk? I guess we won’t smarten up until we start to put practical considerations ahead of the private individual’s profit margin.]
The Pakistani military sees India as the biggest threat in the region and is frustrated that the United States does not seem to acknowledge that. The disconnect has been a major irritant in relations, particularly as Indian influence in Afghanistan grows. [Where does this shit end? You definitely don’t want to put yourself in the position of playing ‘king maker’, deposing your ‘ally’s’ enemy in exchange for loyalty…because when push comes to shove, there can only be one king, and the only acceptable candidate for that gig is imaginary!]
“This is where Pakistan’s trust of the U.S. could very dramatically increase,” Mr. Rashid said, “if it became known the Americans were trying to get the Indians to become more flexible.” [That is so ‘not happening’ that it’s best not to go there at all.]
In Afghanistan, the worries were closer to home. American withdrawal could spell immediate disaster for the exceptionally weak central government of Mr. Karzai, and Mr. Spanta, the foreign minister, said he had submitted a proposal to secure long-term American assistance that close allies like Egypt and Israel currently received. [Naturally, securing a pipeline to the Baltic would guarantee that happens…but it’s also much easier said than done.]
In Kabul, an increase in troops was generally seen as a gesture of welcome strength. Yet in the south, where the civilian cost has been highest and there is a deep weariness of the war, the mood has been generally against the increase, since many fear it would cost the lives of more civilians.
A senior security official who has been tracking Al Qaeda praised Mr. Obama’s plan, saying a surge of forces could undercut the insurgency in six months, since many of the Taliban were ready to negotiate and could be persuaded to swap sides. [Um, don’t those guys ‘swap sides’ at the drop of a hat in the first place? Isn’t that what provided us with an ‘easy victory’ the first time?]
“They need the Americansmoney,” he said, referring to the Afghan security forces.
Afghanistan and Pakistan drew different conclusions from Mr. Obama’s speech. Mr. Spanta, who met with Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry on Wednesday, praised Mr. Obama’s direct reference to havens in Pakistan. “It is a tremendous change and progress,” he said, adding that it was first time Afghans had heard such words from an American president.
But the Pakistani intelligence official saw it differently, arguing that Pakistan had carried out two military campaigns this year, reclaiming large areas of territory from the Taliban.
“It is very disappointing,” he said. “It was unfair to dump Al Qaeda on Pakistan.”
The question to be asked here good citizen is where would Al Qaeda be if the US wasn’t there? It’s a huge ‘tell’ good citizen that security in our ports or our other commercial goods distribution systems hasn’t improved much in the…what is it now, nine years since 9/11.
It’s a more interesting question to ask ‘why’ we are still in Afghanistan, what are we supposed to be accomplishing? Is this simply ‘political theater’ where politicians use the danger of attack to fill their campaign war chests from the pockets of defense contractors? This is why we’re going ‘broke’ good citizen…we the people are being madly overcharged for what the military often ‘gives away’ to our allies.
Then there is the deeply disturbing issue of the primary reason we elected ‘Uncle Tom’ to the presidency. He promised to end the war…in the end he promised a lot of things that he hasn’t made good on.
And I guess he’ll resort to relying on that old standby, the public’s ‘short memory’.
Um, the bullshit has been flying so fast for so long that the public can’t forget if a politician said it, it must be a lie! That’s the corner the Republican’s have painted all politicians into.
Back in the 60’s, during the civil rights movement, the biggest insult you could throw at a man of color was to call him an Uncle Tom.
It’s an old story and I never read it. If I’m not mistaken it was written by the same woman who wrote ‘Little Women’, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
What did Uncle Tom do that was so upsetting? Tom carried water for the man…Tom was a slave and he liked it. Never lifted a finger to help his fellow slaves and he never did anything to free himself or his family from the multiple injustices of slavery.
Uncle Tom was a disgrace…he was a ‘good slave’ and those are words that should never be true of any living being, black or not.
Well, I’ve seen Mr. Obama ‘carry water’ for both Wall Street and the fat cats that want to profit off of Middle Eastern oil at the expense of your sons and daughters lives.
In my book, that makes the President just like every other president before him, an Uncle Tom who is a disgrace to the entire human race.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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