Dark Quadrant

book documents the unsavory alliance between the Mafia, the CIA, and the corporate establishment 

The Party of Perjury

Gangster Number One

 

The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump Part 3

 

Trump’s Dealings With Gangsters

 

Hopsicker has some dirt. Long-winded article gets good after the midpoint.

Donald Trump and The Palm Beach Homies

 

The Devil’s Chessboard

on Amazon

The Intercept reviews a new CIA expose:

NEW BIOGRAPHY TRACES THE PATHOLOGY OF ALLEN DULLES AND HIS APPALLING CABAL

As Jay Rockefeller said in 2007 when he was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, “Don’t you understand the way intelligence works? Do you think that because I’m chairman of the Intelligence Committee that I just say ‘I want it, give it to me’? They control it. All of it. All of it. All the time.”

Lobbying: Organized Crime

‘I Lied About Toxic Chemicals for Exxon, DuPont, and Their Lobbyists’

The council’s credibility is crucial as it currently works with a bipartisan group in the Senate to rewrite the law governing the regulation of toxic chemicals. The bill to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act passed a Senate committee recently by a vote of 15 to 5 and last week picked up 14 new senators as co-sponsors, virtually assuring it can pass the Senate.

US Support for Dictators & Terrorists

 

Salon covers US support for mass murderers…

35 countries where the U.S. has supported fascists, drug lords and terrorists

Unfortunately, with a headline like that they chose to put an image of marijuana at the top, of all things.  Nice job associating pot with fascists and terrorists, Salon.  Whoever chose that picture is an idiot.

Of By For (2013)

Half infuriating and half welcome this talking head documentary humors a lot of the perpetrators as they seek to atone for their sins.  While it features people like Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Ralph Nader talking about the rigged two-party crime syndicate, it also includes far too much weaseling and apologetics from people like Dan Rather, Jack Abramhoff and even lower rung specimens.

Dan Rather’s crocodile tears for the dead republic seem at odds with his actions, when it actually mattered:

“George Bush is the President, he makes the decisions and you know, as just one American wherever he wants me to line up, just tell me where.” 9-17-2001

After a decades long career of pushing American exceptionalism and empire, we hear nothing about the personal damage these creatures have inflicted on the world.  Like their politico buddies, it’s always the system, never the individuals.  Other insiders tell us how Obama and Romney are “good” people.  Of course they are.  How could they not be?  No other narrative is permitted.  If we could only talk civilly then the rape and plunder of the world would magically disappear.  The real problem is negativity or polarization.  Yeah sure.  Would someone cut these idiots?

Nader and Kucinich get in some good points on the blatant corruption.  Neither calls for arrests.  No criminal cases are made.  No finger pointing accuses the monsters directly.

Would that the film would have focused on those who weren’t a part of the problem, and were part of the solution instead, but we have a very mixed bag here.  At least there’s a possibility that third parties can benefit from this exposure, although the systemic, criminal rigging of the system against them seems insurmountable.  Of course polite political commentators never accuse anyone of a crime.  That’s simply not done.  It’s a criminal system, but there are no criminals.  There’s no one to arrest; it’s all lost in abstractions.  Nothing new there.

From Hollywood Reporter we learn that the filmmakers are Republicans, and this accounts for the prominent inclusion of such people as the former head of the RNC.  All in all a nauseating time for all.

Deep Web: Bitcoin and Silk Road

Filmmaker Alex Winter presents a radical and potentially disturbing take on the web beyond the law, the secretive parts of the internet nicknamed the “dark web.”

Winter already did a film favorable to Napster, calling it a “revolution” and giving a one-sided view of file sharing.

 

What strikes me is the total contempt and opposition to the music artists (and other copyright holders) who want to get paid so they can survive.   There is no balance to his presentation, and his fawning description of a web beyond the law, the realm of drugs, organized crime and terrorism, sort of gives pause.  Just what is he advocating?  Some laws are a good thing.

I remember a documentary from 1970 about the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin touring across Canada.  Just after Woodstock, when the massive crowds tore down the fences and the concert turned free – the bands met up with Canadian crowds who only wanted free concerts.  The kids tried to tear down fences in several shows, and Jerry Garcia discussed it with others about how the band needed to get paid so they could tour at all.   The musicians do need some compensation, and the expectation of free everything is childish and unrealistic, actually detrimental to all concerned.  If artists can’t survive then they will be out of the game.  Some compensation needs to be part of the system, or else it validates the claims of music corporations that downloading is “theft.”  Many people hate corporations with a knee jerk response, and the big ones deserve it.  But the musicians themselves are a part of this equation.

Alex Winter’s new project Deep Web is described here:

Deep Web: The Untold Story of BitCoin and The Silk Road

His pitch for a $10,000 sugar daddy is another moment to give pause.  Seems like someone oblivious that he’s playing with fire.  Or else he’s a bit of a pyromaniac.  Something to consider, anyway.

How can we balance the needs of free communications with the need to uphold the law and fight crime?  The new age is scary, for so many reasons.  The rise of hackers, government and corporate sponsored, as well as individuals and straight out criminals has us all at a disadvantage.  The modern condition is hackers 1, citizens 0.  As systems become more complex and pervasive that score is going to get a lot worse.

The Whistleblower (2011)

Unaccountable Immune Mercenary Monsters

This film tells the true story of an American corporate military contractor that was caught trafficking slaves in Bosnia during the UNs occupation.  The scandal was huge, involving many different nationals and organizations, a natural outgrowth of imperial war.

Kathryn Bolkovac was an American cop who took a job there in 1999 to make extra money, but she refused to back down or look away when confronted by the real War Incorporated, which was protected by both the UN and the US State Department.  The real company, of course, was DYNCORP.  This malignant cancer on the ass of the world is still gorging itself at the pentagon trough.  Iimmunity and impunity for America’s hired thugs is standard policy wherever the US goes, including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kathryn Bolkovac (Rachel Weisz) runs up against the corporate/governmental rape culture after learning about all the desperate girls that have been trafficked across the border into Bosnia.  There is little she can do, although she is promoted by a female guardian angel higher up in the UN.  The strict operational parameters and endless paperwork imposed make for an easy environment for mafia and police corruption.  Those committing crimes against the civilians face little oversight, whereas those trying to stop the crimes face the entire satanic military-industrial protection racket complex.

As General Smedley Butler told us 75 years ago, “War is a racket.”  In this case that comes through crystal clear and implicates people from top to bottom.

After Bolkovac informs the top UN officials, she is immediately fired by DynCorp, her ID taken away, already amidst a climate of terrorism and high risk.  Trying to save the imprisoned girls proves nearly impossible up against the most powerful actors on the world stage: the United States, the UN, and the blessed mercenary corporations acting in unison to cover up whatever they don’t want known.

This tense, gripping drama really brings into relief what the US foreign policy looks like on the ground.  How America and other powerful states get away with everything they publicly denounce is a wake-up call Americans need to receive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al3anBiHwmI

“DynCorp cracks top 20 with $3B in prime contracts

At the same time, it is maintaining critical U.S. aircraft fleets, running counter-drug operations in Colombia, training law enforcement agents and shuttling dignitaries throughout Iraq, and maintaining military bases and working with police and Ministry of the Interior personnel in Afghanistan.

The company’s success helped it reach the No. 12 spot on the 2011 Top 100 with $3 billion in prime contracts.”

Rape, Murder, Slavery … The American Corporate Way ™

PS.

Interview: Kathryn Bolkovac