More tin foil, Crazy Joe. The government mind control beams are clearly addling your brain. Just sayin'.
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Various conspiracy type sites such as Firebagger Waterbody have broke the "news" that the Department of Homeland Security is buying thousands of armored MRAP vehicles. At which point I say... "huh?!"
So I head over to the Navistar site referenced by the Firebaggers, where Navistar helpfully notes that an upgrade of the current MRAP chassis leaves them with 2,717 rolling chassis already paid for by the Federal government. And Navistar would love, love I say, to sell bodies to put on those things to do any number of things from dump trucks to armored SWAT team carriers.
Still, no Department of Homeland Security there. So next thing I do is head over to Federal Procurement Data System and download their data set for the Department of Homeland Security. The latest data as of April 3 is available (they release data quarterly), and given how Federal procurement works, DHS certainly would not be getting anything with less than three months notice, so ... 425 megabytes of XML later, I have a database with contracts indexed by DUNS number. So I grab every Navistar DUNS number and search the database for *any* occurrence of *ANY* Navistar DUNS number in Department of Homeland Security contracts issued for the first quarter of 2012 and... nada.
Now, granted, a contract might have been issued since April 4. But you certainly wouldn't see vehicles rolling off the line with DHS markings on them yet, because these were rolling chassis -- i.e., nothing but a frame and drivetrain -- and it would take Navistar *time* to build bodies to put on them and put markings on those bodies. If a contract was issued on April 5, just how likely do you think it'd be that Navistar managed to work with *their* subcontractors to get everything needed to assemble bodies for these frames and managed to assemble even a *single* body for *one* of these frames in *SIX WORKING DAYS* since the contract was let? Yet the conspiracy sites have a PHOTO of one of these supposed DHS MRAP vehicles! Or, should I say, a PHOTOSHOP?
So anyhow: On a scale of zero to 100, I put the likelihood of DHS buying thousands of MRAP's at somewhere between zero to 1. The reason why I rate it above zero is that things on the Mexican border are not looking good right now -- and in case you didn't know, the Border Patrol *is* under the Department of Homeland Security now, and has been under fire multiple times from the Mexican drug gangs. It may be that the DHS has decided that armored trucks are necessary for the safety of Border Patrol patrols along the Mexican border and is procuring some. But if so, there has been no contract let yet, unless that happened in the past week -- and certainly no vehicles have rolled off the lines yet, despite any photoshops supposedly proving otherwise.
-- Badtux the Un-paranoid Penguin
Heard about the OMG $29 trillion dollar Fed bailout of the U.S. banks? Yes? Congratulations... you've been taken in by yet another conspiracy theory!
The reality is that the Federal Reserve never had $29T outstanding in loans to the banks. During the peak crisis period when the banks could no longer raise money on the open markup due to a complete lockup of equity markets, the peak liquidity lending was about $1.5 trillion, or roughly 6% of outstanding corporate and household debt. The current balance, BTW, is $0 -- that's how much the banks owe the Fed right now, because they repaid everything they were loaned once equity markets unfroze.
Furthermore, this is sort of the purpose of the Federal Reserve, the whole reason it was created -- to provide liquidity by trading cash for long-term assets when there's a bank run. Which there was. The failure of the Federal Reserve to do this job during 1929-1932 is what caused the collapse of over half of the banks in the United States and massive deflation that resulted in over 30% unemployment.
In short, the conspiracy theorists find a conspiracy in the Fed doing its job. Which is just whack. The whole point of the Federal Reserve is to loan money to banks in exchange for long-term assets when the banks need short term cash, otherwise there's no reason to have it. Blasting the Fed for doing what it's supposed to do is either dishonest, idiotic... or both.
-- Badtux the Monetary Penguin
It happens over and over again, wherever a successful left-wing protest movement is underway. A peaceful march is going along, and suddenly mysterious black-clad ninja wannabes step out of the crowd and start throwing rocks through windows and throwing rocks, bottles, and firecrackers at police officers. In response, TV news shows only the violence and covers the cause that the protest was about not at all, newspapers print outraged editorials about how violent, vile and despicable left-wingers are, and the majority of people shake their heads and turn on Rush Limbaugh, who, after all, has never thrown a brick through a window.
Is the Black Bloc a COINTELPRO operation? That's certainly a question worth asking. The fact that they show up *only* at left-wing protests, not at any other events that attract crowds, is rather... odd. As is the fact that they show up in geographically far-removed places with no visible means of funding for such widespread travelling. And while the Black Bloc claims to be anarchists, anarchists of my acquaintance have nothing but disdain for the Black Bloc and their tactics, pointing out that smashing the windows of a Starbucks is hardly the same thing as smashing the power structures that anarchists believe must be removed in order to bring anarcho-paradise of voluntary syndics of like-minded people blah de blah.
So asking the question, "who funds the Black Bloc and arranges for them to arrive at left-wing protests" is hardly the odd question it might first seem. They show up in too many unlikely places to be there accidentally and appear to have no agenda other than to cause property destruction and general annoyance to police officers. If they are not paid provocateurs, they certainly behave like such. Note that I'm not saying that the individual members of the Black Bloc are all employees of X (for some mysterious X), but whoever is guiding and influencing them certainly seems to be very successful at generating news stories that discredit left-wing causes and it's certainly a reasonable question to ask, "is this a COINTELPRO operation intended to discredit left-wing causes?". Just sayin'.
-- Badtux the Cavuto Penguin
One of the things that is amazing about the Internets is the things you learn from reading your email. There you learn things like Obama is a socialist, Saddam's nuclear program would have blown up major cities any minute if we hadn't invaded, and I have been reliably informed that I am a banker who is running a blog solely as a brainwashing tool to brainwash my readers into believing that banks are great and gold bugs are demented idiots.
Needless to say, I am quite shocked, shocked I say, to hear all these things. Here I was, thinking that Obama was basically a moderate Republican what with him signing a bill allowing guns in national parks, continuing the Bush Administration's tax cuts, and so on, and now I learn he's actually the second coming of Vladimir Lenin? Whoa! And I knew something was fishy when the Bush Administration's own hand-picked weapons inspectors filed a report saying Saddam had no WMD... clearly, it's a conspiracy, a cover-up of mass proportions! And the fact that I'm secretly an agent of the Jew-run Federal Reserve out to enslave America... wow. Here I was, thinking I was just a regular old computer geek in the Silicon Valley who spends his days writing cool computer software and his evenings reading economics textbooks and econo-blogs, and I'm actually secretly part of some vast conspiracy to turn Americans into slaves of the New World Order? Cool!
So anyhow, gotta go. My phone's ringing, and I'm sure it's my controllers at Illuminati Headquarters with new instructions for me, probably going to dictate my next economics post so that it puts my masters into proper worshipful light. Bye now!
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
So let's say that you're a reporter and you have nothing to report on because nothing is happening (for a change) in the Middle East hot spot where you're stationed. So what do you do?
Last week I reported on how Wing Nut Daily reported liberals censoring Wikipedia when Wikipedia editors scrubbed nutcase conspiracy theories from Wikipedia's entry on Obama. Now we find out that... hold your breath people... the nutcase conspiracy theories were being posted to Wikipedia by WND's Jerusalem bureau, which then used the inevitable reversions of the nutcase conspiracy theories as "does not meet Wikipedia standards for inclusion" as the "proof" for a story on how Wikipedia was run by rabid left-wing socialists or something.
Wow. That's like a garbage man going out and strewing garbage around, then using that to justify the need for more garbage men. Or a debater publishing an article under a straw name, then using that article to support his debate point. Or... oh what the hell. Let's just call it "dishonest hackery" and be done with it.
-- Badtux the Wingnut-spottin' Penguin
Well, at least that's what the lunatic fringe of the right wing is saying. That birth certificate that is posted on Obama's web site and has been held by actual reporters? Lies. All lies. The fact that the State of Hawaii says that it's the real birth certificate and that they have the original on file? More lies. And so on and so forth. Whatever inconvenient facts you bring up, they always have some way to "discredit" it.
So, let's have a little contest:
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Which brings up the odd habit that Democratic candidates have of dying in suspicious plane crashes. Now, as we all know, George W. Bush is actually just the front man for the crime family currently running the United States. The "face", so to speak, of the con worked against the American people. Dick Cheney wears the pants in that family. So replacing him with another "face" in 2008 who is capable of working that Get Out Of Jail Free thingy would be just fine with them. Right now, it looks like that actor dude with the 20-year-younger wife who likes displaying her melons, since the other candidates are flaming out (they just don't have the right acting credits to be the face for the con). But really, it doesn't matter. Whoever it is, the crime syndicate will be working his levers.
Problem is, he's going to lose the election. Unless... unless Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Bill Richardson, die in yet another of the suspicious plane crashes that have killed or simply "disappeared"so many Democratic candidates over the decades.
Then the question becomes: what happens if the Democratic candidates die between getting the nomination, and election day? Does that mean we get the kind of election that Saddam Hussein liked to hold, where there was only one real candidate on the ballot -- Saddam? Except in this case, we get Fred Thompson or Julie Annie as our one and only candidate?
Whoever wins the Democratic nomination, I suggest that they don't fly after the nominating convention. Or drive, if driving in anything less than an armored infantry fighting vehicle with their own private security to protect the candidate from the Secret Service. Because the Rethuglicans really are starting to get worried about losing their Get Out Of Jail Free card... and one way the Party in corrupt thugocracies have always dealt with their political opponents is to see their opponents die in suspicious "accidents".
-- Badtux the Worried Penguin
Oh, I know it's supposedly only going to be for three hours, but if I were President George W. Bush, I would be very careful about my health right about now. Because he ain't exactly a popular man, and President Cheney would love to officially have the title...
BTW, first thing I thought about JFK getting assassinated was, "hot damn, that ratbastard LBJ finally offed him!". History, however, shows that LBJ had nothing to do with it despite being a ratbastard -- LBJ apparently was scared shitless when he took the oath of office, repeatedly asking with sweaty brow "are they after me too? Are they after me too?" fearing that it was a decapitation attempt against the entire U.S. government, and after he fucked over Vietnam voluntarily stepped down and did not run for re-election unlike Georgie who fucked over Iraq but ain't going nowhere. So, reluctantly, as much as I think LBJ was a sumbitch, I have to conclude that he isn't the guy who hired Oswald to knock off JFK...
-- Badtux the Conspiracy Penguin
I happened onto a "911 truth" website, and promptly found out that it was an A-3 Skywarrior ("Whale") that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, not a 757 airliner. This A-3 Skywarrior apparently flew off the carrior U.S.S. George Washington, which was docked in New York Harbor on 9/11.
Where to start, where to start... okay. First of all, the A-3 was retired in 1991. There are none in military service. Secondly, this is a big-ass plane. Its nick-name was "Whale", because it was the biggest plane to ever be flown off a carrier flight deck. If one of them got pulled out of retirement, rehabilitated, and put onto a carrier, someone would have noticed. I mean, we're talking *big*. The damned thing weighs 38,000 pounds *without* fuel and bombs, it's twice the size of any current jet that flies off a carrier deck, you don't hide something that big! Thirdly, flying an unmanned "drone" off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier ain't happenin', and because the A-3 has no ejection seats (and no way to retrofit any due to the cockpit design), it's unlikely that any pilot would volunteer to fly a kamakazi mission. Finally, it takes dozens of people to launch a jet plane off the deck of an aircraft carrier. You can't launch a jet plane in secret. It has to be fueled, the deck crew has to guide it to the end of the runway and hook up the catapault hooks, the operations crew has to clear a flight path... you just can't hide it, and if there was a conspiracy of this size, someone would have leaked by now.
Which brings up what Karl Rove O'Brien called the Conspiracy Theory Conspiracy. That is, that whack conspiracy theories of this sort are generated as "black ops" by U.S. intelligence agencies (See: COINTELPRO) in order to hide the fact that there are real conspiracies out there. 25% of the world's prisoners are in the United States, despite the U.S. having only 5% of the world's population. We are swiftly becoming a prison state where an astounding 10% of adult males of some minority groups are imprisoned in the American Gulag, a vast decentralized system of county jails, state prisons, and federal penitentaries that is the fastest-growing industry in America today. There are currently eight million people caught in the claws of the American Gulag. How did this happen? Who is responsible for this? Alas, if I start speculating, I am merely putting forward a "conspiracy theory" -- which, thanks to the Conspiracy Theory Conspiracy, means it's automatically discredited.
-- Badtux the Conspiracy Penguin
