Pirates seize US Treasury, steal trillions, demand planet pay ransom for generations...

[JackRiddler]

Crime of millennium,* but wait!

Coverage suspended due to some ship hijacking story in Somalia. (Pentagon draws up plans to kill a few thousand civilians in the hunt for the dread Somali "pirates." The non-pirates who die should have made better decisions, like to be born in rich countries with effective defense forces against invaders.)



--

(*) Note, on Edit: And 10 to 30 years in the making!

[havocmom]

1. absofuckinglutely!

Crime of the millennium, but WHITE COLLAR crime so :shrug:

:grr: I am so tired of seeing how easily so many people are distracted from the fact that they, their children, their grandchildren are all being raped.

[BridgeTheGap]

2. Nuf' said...n.t

[patrice]

3. How dare you!?! And without even a nod in the general direction of certain socially prescribed

values.

Are you sure that you don't want to maybe add a footnote or something genuine about the nobility of certain personal choices?

[patrice]

5. P.S. with emphasis upon the word "personal", but I've never understood why

if "we" laud certain personal choices BECAUSE they are personal, i.e. an Individual CHOSE to do ____________________ and it is the fact that it was an Individual and it was a CHOICE that makes the behavior amazing, and therefore, laudable . . . . why don't we laud other personal choices? . . . Oh wait a minute, those other personal choices are behaviors that the almighty "WE" have no benefit from, so the important part of certain laudable personal/individual choices is that "WE" benefit . . . :crazy:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. Gotta manage the minds of the serfs my man

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21084

[seemslikeadream]

7. SerfsUp

[formercia]

6. We know who they are

don't we?

Same old gang. Raping this planet for many generations.

Some say they're too big to go after. I say: We have no choice.

[hootinholler]

23. Sure it isn't these guys?

Here.

;)

-Hoot

[Enthusiast]

31. What a classic!

Love it!

[formercia]

33. Maybe they were on to something.

:rofl:

[hootinholler]

35. That was made in like 1983

Still valid today, especially AIG.

-Hoot

[Junkdrawer]

8. ''THE OIL FACTOR IN SOMALIA"

by Mark Fineman; Los Angeles Times, 1/18/93

MOGADISHU, Somalia-Far beneath the surface of the tragic drama of Somalia, four major U.S. oil companies are quietly sitting on a prospective fortune in exclusive concessions to explore and exploit tens of millions of acres of the Somali countryside.
That land, in the opinion of geologists and industry sources, could yield significant amounts of oil and natural gas if the U.S.-led military mission can restore peace to the impoverished East African nation.

According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phi]lips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments there.

...

Although most oil experts outside Somalia laugh at the suggestion that the nation ever could rank among the world's major oil producers-and most maintain that the international aid mission is intended simply to feed Somalia's starving masses-no one doubts that there is oil in Somalia. The only question: How much?

"It's there. There's no doubt there's oil there," said Thomas E. O'Connor, the principal petroleum engineer for the World Bank, who headed an in-depth, three-year study of oil prospects in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's northern coast.

"You don't know until you study a lot further just how much is there," O'Connor said. "But it has commercial potential. It's got high potential... once the Somalis get their act together."

....

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Project%20Censored/CensoredNews_1994.html

[JackRiddler]

9. Oh, you leftists, always seeing an INTEREST behind every war...

Come on, can't you just leave ONE to be that special war for truly humanitarian purposes? How about just ONE that was the fuck-up war that no one really wanted ("quagmire")? Does it have to be that these vast industrial ventures involving billions of dollars in logistics and years of advance strategic and tactical planning always turn out to have INTERESTS behind them? Come on, can't we have just one "good" or at least "accidental" war?

(Sorry if it's not funny, but I've heard the equivalent often enough.)

Thanks for the post!

[acmavm]

10. Yep.

[fascisthunter]

11. well said

Orwellian....


And Yet People are Bitching about Code Pink

[Democracyinkind]

OMG! This thread just so restored my hope in the sanity of my country.

Yesterday it was like all: CONSPIRACY THEORIST!!PIRATE DEFENDER! WE WANNA HELP THEM BUT THEIR EVIL! GOTTA KILLEM! GOTTA PROTECT THOSE FREIGHTERS OR WE'LL ALL MISS THE NEXT HOTPANT-DELIVERY! OMG!

Gotta love you guys who actually KNOW SOMETHING about Somalia. You totally made my day.

[Overseas]

12. K&R !! //nt

[Vidar]

13. K&R. Send the troops to Wall Street! No prisoners!

[Democracyinkind]

14. BREAKING: New polls show americans would love nuclear tuna-sandwiches.

Halliburton has just joined Tyson Foods in order to satisfy a demand americans don't yet know they have - even though it is THE TREND coming out of the horn of africa: radioactive seafood.
Somalians have been enjoying their two-headed fishwiches now for over a decade. We feel that it is time to bring this ultimate experience to the homeland - talk about in-mouth-entertainment.

This joint venture will be sponsored by Darth Cheney. Bon appetit!

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Good one!

[Danascot]

16. You're not the only person who made this connection

Like Somali Pirates, Wall Street Holds U.S. to Ransom

Somali Pirates were condemned when they hijacked tankers, took sailors hostage and demanded million-dollar ransoms. But their demands were a drop in the bucket compared to the ransoms demanded by Wall Street.

And the Somalis were kinder to their hostages than Wall Street is to millions of unemployed Americans. For while the Somalian pirates returned hostages unharmed, bankers, fraudsters and failed insurers continue to harm the US administration and hold millions of Americans hostage. The latter are being stripped effectively, of pensions, savings, livelihoods and jobs.

The Pentagon ordered the US Navy to apprehend Somalian pirates. However there has been no such 'Counter Piracy Execute Order' from the White House or US Treasury and aimed at Wall St. buccaneers. On the contrary. The US Treasury, like the British government, is capitulating to the pirates of the finance sector with a haste and a timidity that is unseemly, and if I may say so, unmanly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-pettifor/like-somali-pirates-wall_b_172909.html

[JackRiddler]

17. I'd be very, very unsettled if it turned out I was...

I mean, if I was the only one on Earth to see something this blindingly, painfully obvious, it would be like a Twilight Zone episode with body snatchers or the like, no? In the present context all you have to say is "pirate," and of course one out of two people will think: "Fucking Bankers!"

[Danascot]

18. Absolutely

I didn't mean it as any kind of criticism of your post. In fact it's an excellent point to make. I think that you, like the author of the HuffPo piece are very perceptive in making the connection; it's a very instructive comparison to make (and not at all obvious to everyone except maybe in hindsight). I thought you'd enjoy seeing the article as a "great minds" kind of thing.

[JackRiddler]

25. Thank you very much - I appreciate!

[Amonester]

24. It is because, most politicians are complicit in the wall-street plans

In fact, many of 'em even end up pocketing big $um$ from the ransom...

And voters keep voting them in... why?

[NBachers]

29. These pirates are the Little Rascals compared to Wall Street

[Better Believe It]

19. K & R

[pitchforksandtorches]

20. Arrrrrrrrrgh

Ninja vs. Pirates
Arrrrrgh Matey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7vT4GSodk


Talk like a Pirate Day: The Five A’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cKCkbWDGwE

[inna]

21. rec#67!

:applause:

[leftstreet]

22. K&R

[Faryn Balyncd]

26. K&R

[WillyT]

27. K & R !!!

:kick:

[RufusTFirefly]

28. But the Somali pirates didn't have contracts. Too bad, because contracts are sacred!!

Except with auto workers, of course, but hey, nobody's really paying attention, so what the hell.

[mtnchk]

30. Too right!

[JackRiddler]

39. Actually, the Somalis may well have contracts (with each other, that is)

The banksters who have suddenly discovered the sanctity of agreements (amid the mountains of their own frauds) had no contracts with the government! They made contracts with each other, for whatever fictional values they felt like specifying.

For example:

Purchaser of credit-default swap from AIG: "I say this piece of toxic shit I'm betting against (which I don't even own) is worth a billion, so you'll pay that if it fails, right?"

AIG Guy in London (Who No Longer Remembers Doing This Shit Today): "I'll agree, even though I don't have enough billions to pay you and the others making the same bet. But I like your premiums, and even more than that, I like the outrageous bonuses I get for landing more premiums."

Thus the Holy Contract is sealed!

And then, when the piece of toxic shit fails, the government steps in to "honor" the contract that the banksters made up out of their own fantasy - dollars literally in exchange for fiction, not bad eh?

Similarly, in Somalia:

Pirate 1 (Hijacker): "If this mission fails, I'll be losing a billion dollars in potential booty and ransom! (Which figure I just pulled out of my ass and sprinkled some fancy-sounding formulas on it. But it sounds like a great number to have!)"

Pirate 2 (Hijack Insurer): "In exchange for a monthly premium, I hereby agree by contract to cover that sum for you, in case by some impossible quirk of fate your mission should fail. Which is impossible, because everyone knows the iron law of economics which states that oil tankers get bigger and easier to hijack every year. While I'm at it, do you have any friends who want to bet against your mission too? They don't actually have to be in the mission, they only have to pay the premium, and I'll promise to cover them as well! It's a CONTRACT!"

Gasp! The mission (hijack a big ship that happens to be a Pentagon decoy full of special forces) fails! Life is so unfair! It's a black swan (tm)!

Now think of the chain reaction if the Hijack Insurer should fail. All those other businesses going under in consequence! Therefore:

We need the government to step in and HONOR THAT CONTRACT!

[RedCloud]

32. Quick! More tot-mom distraction stories!

Come on Nancy Dis Grace. Devote more air time to the same ideas ad nauseum.

[scarletwoman]

34. k&r. Too bad for us that the Wall Street pirates have the U.S. government to protect them. (nt)

[JackRiddler]

36. Thanks all for 88 recs and counting ...

I guess a simple comment touched a nerve. Hadn't really expected that, and wish less suffering and absurdity were involved.

Today, one of the leading pirates, Larry Summers, once again got to deliver the propaganda on the pirates' behalf, appearing as though he were a very smart government spokesperson.

Remember, this Larry Summers, who in reference to the Gramm bill repealing the Glass-Steagal limits on banking in 1999 (which directly facilitated the largest round of pirate plunder ever) said: "This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy."

Same Larry Summers who on Milton Friedman's death wrote in the New York Times: WE ARE ALL FRIEDMANITES.

Well, except for you: there's only room for a few on the pirates' boat, so get off and swim!

[Ian David]

37. Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom!

Just sayin'...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8679016

[mod mom]

38. sorry to miss the recommendation time restraints. This thread brings up the REAL issue

of piracy!

I would like to add that it's more than the 30 years suggested by Jack. It goes back to the same group of robberbarons that were involved in the coup against FDR!

[JackRiddler]

40. True enough - they have generations...

and each generation adds a few nouveau riches, but you're right: the ruling class remains very stable through time. The reason we commoners don't see it is because after a generation or two the big families get to hide themselves behind philanthropic fronts, foundations, offshore devices, etc. It's the nouveaus and recent self-mades who just made their money who are also most exposed and therefore known to the public through publications like the Forbes 400.