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5/6/2006

Bush Warns Graduates on Technology Dangers :.

HA! Tell me another one:
President Bush advised college graduates on Saturday to use technology but not become enslaved by it.
In other news, Pentagon Prepares to Build $133 Billion Robot Army.



Meet the New Boss :.

The new CIA director will be a secretive henchman of Dick Cheney who's behind the illegal spying on millions of Americans.

Late Friday night, word leaked out that Gen. Michael Hayden is the White House choice to take over CIA duties from suddenly-fired spook insider Porter Goss.

Hayden, a 61-year-old Air Force general, was the "human face" of the National Security Agency's criminal spying on Americans that actually began before the convenient 9/11 attacks.



Suitcases of Cash, (Male?) Hookers... and Poker :.

It's just one of those mysteries:

CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

Kyle (Dusty) Foggo, the No. 3 official at the CIA, could soon be indicted in a widening FBI investigation of the parties thrown by defense contractor Brent Wilkes, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the bribery conviction of former Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham, law enforcement sources said.


Related: Bodies of Intelligence


5/4/2006

John Pilger Detects the Salvador Option :.

The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration.

Original Exclusive Coverage: THE SALVADOR OPTION IDENTIFIED BY CRYPTOGON



GOLD $681... Copper Record :.

Where she stops, nobody knows...

Pray for the shorts.

July copper closed at an all-time high of $3.4795 per pound, up 17.45 cents for the session. Prices reached a record intraday high of $3.505 earlier on concerns about tight copper supplies.



50-Year Mortgage Debuts in California :.

Man, They are trying to wheeze a few more dying gasps into this bubble. Why not a multiple lifetime mortgage? HAHA! I love it! Oh yeah, I'll take a double order of supersized freedom fries with that! HAHAHAHA!

Live it up, America:

The Methuselah of mortgages has arrived: the 50-year home loan.

Think of it as a mortgage that has been supersized. Like that other supersizer, McDonald's, the massive mortgage was born in Southern California's San Bernardino County. Statewide Bancorp of Rancho Cucamonga began offering the loan in late March, to California residents. Advertisements have yielded a lot of phone calls and "quite a few applications," says Alex Diaz Jr., vice president of Statewide.

Half of first-time home buyers are 32 or older, according to the National Association of Realtors. If those buyers get 50-year mortgages and never refinance or make extra payments, they won't pay off their loans until they're well into their 80s. Would they be crazy to get loans that amortize or pay off the balance over 50 years instead of the standard 30 years? Not at all, Diaz says.

Getting a 50-year loan is a perfectly rational way to avoid an interest-only or payment-option adjustable-rate mortgage, he says.

. . .

Regulators and consumers worry that foreclosures will surge in coming years, especially among homeowners who got interest-only and payment-option ARMs. The 50-year loan is a lifeline for them, Diaz says.


In Other News: California Foreclosure Activity Hits Highest Level in Two Years

Research Credit: TR


5/3/2006

Cryptogon Reader Contributes $25

Thanks to all contributors for showing their appreciation of Cryptogon in April!

Reader GW is starting off May with $25. Thanks GW!


5/2/2006

OIL KISSING $75, GOLD $670

Are we getting close to the breaking point on oil?

Keep in mind, nothing has happened yet! There's no immediate crisis threatening supplies (of course, there's the ever present Peak Oil crisis overshadowing this mini-crisis). These catastrophic oil prices are based on speculation driven by fear over the Iran situation.

There's chatter out there that the Iran thing is just saber rattling nonsense that is intended to drive up the price of oil. So far, this seems like a pretty decent explanation.

Cui bono from all of this?

If so much as a fly fart starts to actually affect supplies, though, the fear will be translated into a tangible, oh sh*t, in-your-face crisis. At $100 per barrel, I might even consider signing off because I'll be too busy digging in.

No matter what you believe re: Peak Oil, there will be a serious crisis by the time we reach $100 per barrel. And even though this crisis has been allowed to happen, even engineered to happen, that fact won't provide much in the way of consolation.

I woke up this morning thinking about waterwheels. Those were nice thoughts.



United Nuclear Raided by U.S. Government :.

Inventors can't be allowed to provide viable alternatives to hydrocarbon derived gasoline directly to the public. It just can't (and will not) be allowed. If you try it, men wearing black ski masks will show up, point guns at your head and steal your plans, records and computers.

They hate us for our freedom!

People who make jokes about "conspiracy theories" should try this one on for size:

Instead of moving forward with our research, 100% of our time and money is now being spent on fighting a legal battle with the U.S. Government.

Some time ago, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) recruited the SWAT team and other Government agencies to raid our facility confiscating all papers, plans and computers.

They are attempting to block all sales and use of the chemicals used in our Hydrogen storage system.

The materials in question are common Oxidizers and have never been illegal to own or purchase and are not even classified as hazardous materials.


Previous Cryptogon Link: United Nuclear: Hydrogen Fuel System

Research Credit: DR


5/1/2006

Bolivia Nationalizes Natural Gas Industry :.

Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries after Bolivia's leftist president ordered the nationalization of the sector, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they give Bolivia control over production within six months.

President Evo Morales announcement Monday fulfils an election promise to increase state control over Bolivia's natural resources, which he says have been "looted" by foreign companies.


4/30/2006

GOLD BIDS FIRMING $660

This is nuts. What's driving this!? Don't tell me the Iran thing.

I wonder: Is an institutional short position under pressure? The sharks must smell blood in the water.



Probably Nothing Will Happen.... But...

UPDATE: Peaceful Protests

Thankfully, it's all calm out there.

- - - - -

I have no idea how this immigrant protest thing is going to go down. Here's what I do know:

1) All mass movements are controlled, top down, by national security assets. See COINTELPRO.

2) All public protests are actively infiltrated by a handful of sleeper agents who are there to give the cops an "excuse" to begin arrests, open fire, etc. at the drop of a hat.

Remember the 1999 WTO riots in Seattle? Here's what CNN had to say about who was in attendance:
In addition to hundreds of very visible Army National Guard troops called-up because of the civil disturbances in Seattle, more than 160 active duty military personnel, including a small number of Special Forces troops, were sent to Seattle by the Defense Department for the meeting of the World Trade Organization.

...

The soldiers are "operating in civilian attire -- keeping a low presence," the Defense Department documents say.

...

Troops there are from various military fiefdoms including the U.S. Special Operations Command, the U.S. Forces Command, the U.S. Army Biological-Chemical Command, the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Command and the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Out there in Jesusland, Joe and Jane Six Pack will lean back in their La-Z-Boys and praise God for the fearless cops, who are saving them from the marauding hordes. The clueless protesters, face down on the concrete, beaten, gassed, handcuffed and shot with rubber bullets, will be left wondering who the people in ski masks were, and why did they start throwing rocks/shooting/whatever at the cops???

Why has the U.S. border been left open for decades? Never mind that. We're well beyond dealing with that matter.

3) Just about everyone hates Bush now, except for Pills Limbaugh, fresh from his booking on drug charges. The economy is on a knife edge. Imbeciles are praying for lower gas prices. On and on. Right now, the regime could really use an excuse to seize more power.

Immigrant protests seem like an excellent opportunity for Them to turn people against one another. Who's really behind all the problems we're facing? Immigrants? Nope. Guess again...

If, by the end of the day, there is some kind of anti-immigrant meme flaring up over these protests, just know that this is the oldest trick in the book; divide and conquer. They are pulling the old slight-of-hand trick on you.

Additionally, there is a great deal of ominous chatter going on right now (on fringe sources that I don't want to be associated with). It appears to me that They are throwing fuel on the anti-immigrant fire, as well as whipping up the pro-immigrant protest sentiment. Friday's bizarro gold move is still echoing in my skull...

This won't happen, it can't happen, it must not happen, but if a Balkanization series of events is going to go down, you need get to a safe place ASAP. Don't wait for things to "quite down." If the situation gets weird, it means They are taking the gloves off. It means that They think they need to burn the village to the ground in order to save it; in order to maintain power. For the extra-cautious, now might be a good time to pack the wife and kids up in the family truckster and take a little unplanned vacation. To where?

You should have already thought of that.

Again, probably nothing will happen.



New Oil Shock Ahead as $100 Spike Looms :.

Yeah, yeah... We've heard it all before:

The growing international crisis over Iran's nuclear programme could trigger a catastrophic oil price spike, sending crude prices over $100 a barrel, senior Wall Street analysts are warning.

...

A single political shock could be enough to send oil markets into panic, said Adam Sieminski, senior energy economist at Deutsche Bank in New York. 'If we have one more big problem we are going to have triple-digit oil prices.' Sieminski points to confrontation with Iran, a worsening of the situation in Iraq or a recurrence of devastating hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico as potential catalysts for a major rise.



Mike Ruppert: Peaknics Have Lost the Plot :.

Peaknic A: Hey, man, I think we should start getting ready for this Peak Oil thing.

Peaknic B: Yeah, man, right after the next Peak Oil convention.


I'm waiting for the big name rock stars to start appearing at the Peak Oil circus events. Maybe movie stars. It'll be hybrid Toyotas and greasel Hummers for as far as the eye can see!

My advice to urban Peaknics: Live it up, while you can:

Perhaps the greatest flaw in the Peak Oil movement's current operating paradigm is that, a part of the movement at least, instead of building lifeboats in the face of an immediate disaster, is delusionally focused on trying to build alternative-powered luxury liners that operate just like the paradigm we as a species need to be abandoning.

...

If the activist paradigm that we live under says that we must slow down the process of reform and planning to make room for all and offend no one, no matter how much they may slow down or confuse the process, then we must disengage from that paradigm. This is no longer about protracted-and almost always ineffective-social change. This is about survival.




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