Corruption

Bailout BONUS Bonanza Going Bonkers … Again!

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By David Haggith – Re-Blogged From The Great Recession Blog

The banks that are begging for bailouts still cling to their bonuses. To terrorize us into letting them keep their bonuses, the banksters are threatening to release the button on their suicide vests and blow themselves up by not taking the bailouts if they can’t have their bonuses.

You would think the response to that would be a no-brainer: “O.K. Go ahead.” Then just walk off. Watch, however, as the European Central Bank Supervisory Board Chair pretends to be getting firm with the banks because it’s so important that we bail them out on their terms: (The first two-minutes-and-twenty-seconds are all you need listen to. Any more could cause medically unnecessary nausea or brain injury as he goes to say that his recommended conservative measures are “not reflecting a specific fragility” in the European banking system at present. No, there’s none of that. All is well in Bailout Bonus Bonanzaland. They’re just doing unnecessary bailouts.)

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Fraud and Corruption Bring Big Payoffs

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California judges provide stage for kangaroo court justice over Roundup weedkiller

By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

San Francisco area juries have awarded cancer patients some $80 million each, based on claims that the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller, caused their cancer – and that Bayer-Monsanto negligently or deliberately failed to warn consumers that the glyphosate it manufactures is carcinogenic. (It’s not.) Judges reduced the original truly outrageous awards of $289 million and even $1 billion per plaintiff!

Meanwhile, ubiquitous ads are still trolling for new clients, saying anyone who ever used Roundup and now has Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma or other cancer could be the next jackpot justice winner. Mass tort plaintiff law firms have lined up 18,500 additional “corporate victims” for glyphosate litigation alone.

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ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE NEWS

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[This is one good article from the Heartland’s Journal. It’s worth your time tolook at the whole Journal. -Bob ]

By Duggan Flanakin – Re-Blogged From Heartland Institute
The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) has identified the steps it is taking to improve transparency and public input for legal settlements it is considering.A memo from Daniel Jorjani, principal deputy solicitor at DOI, explains what the department is doing to insti-tute then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zin-ke’s 2018 directive to stop entering into secret “sue-and-settle” agreements.Regulatory ShortcutEnvironmental lobbyists often sue vari-ous agencies, including DOI, to force them to implement policies they favor without going through the normally required regulatory process.Under previous presidential admin-istrations, federal agencies have often agreed to legally binding settlement agreements or consent decrees, creat-ing priorities and rules and establish-ing timelines for action outside of the normal rulemaking process.

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When Environmentalism Becomes Corruption

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By Craig Liukko – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Part 1

Environmental principles are too often used to stop lawful, responsible, vital land uses.

All across the United States, private property rights are under assault – assault by state and federal legislators and regulators, environmentalist groups, wealthy liberal foundations, corporations and other special interests, often acting in coordination or collusion with one another. They are seizing or taking control of lands and other valuable property without due process or just compensation, under a host of environmental and other justifications, many of which are fictional at best.

I have personally witnessed attempts to shut down the small mining industry in my state of Colorado. Exploration and development by this industry often results in discoveries of major deposits of minerals that are essential for everything we make, use and do – including medical equipment, cell phones, computers, aircraft, aerospace, automobiles, wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and modern high-tech weapon and communication systems.

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Let’s Do Follow the Climate Money!

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From WUWT

Climate Crisis Inc. gets billions to promote imaginary manmade cataclysm – but attacks realists

The climate crisis industry incessantly claims that fossil fuel emissions are causing unprecedented temperature, climate and weather changes that pose existential threats to human civilization and our planet. The only solution, Climate Crisis, Inc. insists, is to eliminate the oil, coal and natural gas that provide 80% of the energy that makes US and global economies, health and living standards possible.

Failing that, CCI demands steadily increasing taxes on carbon-based fuels and carbon dioxide emissions.

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In Brazil, Any Anti-Corruption Mandate Will Meet Political Obstacles

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Re-Blogged From Stratfor.com

Highlights

  • The next Brazilian administration will come to power with a mandate to deepen anti-corruption probes and deliver greater results against perceived graft.
  • Brazil’s new government will have two general choices at its disposal: create institutions to more effectively detect and deal with corruption, or work within the existing institutions to indirectly target corruption through legislative amendments, including enacting stricter criminal penalties.
  • Obtaining funding to support extensive institutional reforms, balancing anti-corruption pursuits against competing political priorities, negotiating for legislative change with Brazil’s highly fragmented National Congress and other bureaucratic obstacles will shape the next administration’s anti-corruption policy.

A picture showing Brazilians rallying against far-right populist presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo on Oct. 20.

(NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)

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Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup

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Brought to You by www.SEPP.org, The Science and Environmental Policy Project

By Ken Haapala, President

Transparency in Regulatory Science: On August 16, the EPA comment period closed on proposed rules to ensure transparency in science used for regulations called “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science.” Harvard University roared against the proposed rules claiming the rules would “drastically limit the scientific and medical knowledge that underlies a host of EPA regulations that protect human health.”

According to the Harvard Gazette the letter signed by 96 officials of the school included, “Harvard President Larry Bacow, the deans of Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the presidents of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear. It says that the EPA’s push to require studies to reveal the material that supports their conclusions would bar the best available science from being considered in the regulatory process.” TWTW was unable to find the latest letter, but a June 4 letter from then Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust highlighted the key issue.

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Hezbollah in South America: The Threat to Businesses

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Re-Blogged From Stratfor

Analysis Highlights

South America is a strong base of operations for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has had a presence in the continent dating back to the 1980s. The group established finance and logistical networks, which it used to facilitate two bombings in Argentina in the 1990s. The first bombing in 1992 targeted the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 242 more. A second bombing in 1994 targeted the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injured over 300. Since then, Hezbollah has shifted its operational focus from terror attacks to criminal activity to raise money, entering South America’s lucrative drug-trafficking business and dealing primarily with cocaine and heroin. Previously, we explored what Hezbollah now does in South America, and where it does it. Here, we will explore the threat Hezbollah poses to businesses in South America.

(Stratfor)

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UN Agency to US Congress: Drop Dead

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By Paul Driessen – Re-Blogged From http://www.WattsUpWithThat.com

IARC takes US money, manipulates scientific studies, colludes with activists – and snubs Congress

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France has received over $48 million from America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), to determine whether various chemicals cause cancer in humans. Of more than 900 chemicals it has reviewed, only one was ever found non-carcinogenic. The latest substance to face IARC scrutiny is glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide RoundUp.

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Hypocrisy Most Foul. . .

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By Michael Ballanger – Re-Blogged From http://www.Gold-Eagle.com

As you all know by now, I have absolutely zero knowledge of anything related to the “blockchain” technology, which translates into “I don’t own Bitcoin and would not touch HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (HIVE:TSX.V; PRELF:OTC) with a barge pole.” That also means that I am constantly being reminded, primarily by those considerably younger than me, that geriatric anchoring is costing me (and my readers) a great deal of money by avoiding the space which, as you can see from the chart below, has been absolutely true.

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Guanxi: How Business Is Done in China

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By Scott Stewart – Re-Blogged From Stratfor

The case of Candace Claiborne, a U.S. State Department employee recently arrested and charged with failing to disclose gifts from Chinese intelligence officers, offers many useful insights into the world of spying. In my April 6 column, I discussed her unusual motive for working with Chinese intelligence: to help pay for her son’s education. Another item in the criminal complaint against Claiborne touches on a more commonplace, but equally striking, issue. The complaint mentions that Claiborne sent her son a message discussing guanxi, the complex cultural system that governs personal relationships in China. Guanxi typically describes the moral obligations that arise from giving and receiving personal gifts or favors. The custom is generally considered a natural way of relating to people and conducting business in China. Many Western businesses, on the other hand, view guanxi as corruption.

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An Open Letter to Donald Trump

usissuescom Foreign Policy, GDP & Employment, Regulation , , , ,

cropped-bob-shapiro.jpg   By Bob Shapiro

Dear Mr Trump,

During your campaign speeches, you have referred to your Democratic opponent as “Crooked Hillary,” and the crowds have responded positively because they know you are speaking the truth. I suggest that you carry this line of attack forward into the remaining debates.

First, when Hillary comes out and makes a big show of shaking your hand – don’t do it. Look at her hand and say, “I don’t think so.”

Among other things, this will make an opening for you to explain why. I suggest that you say something like:

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