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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Chip Kelly’s Mystery Man
To get the most out of his players, Kelly is turning camp into a performance laboratory—but who’s that at the controls?
“I don’t know if I’m supposed to,” Barwin said, glancing around after an organized team activities session in May. “I don’t want to, like, give up secrets?”
On Chip Kelly’s Eagles this is the new normal. Science and technology are part of nearly everything the team does. But the why and the how are treated like classified information.
And so is the who—in this case, the man hired by Kelly to be the first “sports-science coordinator” an NFL team has ever had. His name is Shaun Huls, and his background—nearly five years as a performance coach for the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Group 2—is as intriguing as his current job title.
Heads turned in February when Huls was listed in the announcement of the new coaching staff, and since then Kelly has taken care to preserve the mystery surrounding this aspect of his program. As training camp was set to open Huls had not yet been permitted to speak to the media, and The MMQB’s request for interviews with Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman about the sports-science initiative was turned down through a team spokesperson. At a press conference in June, Kelly would go only so far as to say that sports science is important because “what you do with your players is ultimately important.” He added, “I’d tell you I’m not a trendsetter by how I dress… We’re just trying to make our team better.”
But there is an unmistakable curiosity about what is taking place in Philadelphia. Perhaps it’s because of Kelly’s reputation as an innovator, or the tie to the military’s most elite warriors, or the fact that the up-tempo offense Kelly became known for at Oregon is presumed to place special physical demands on his players.
Or perhaps it’s because we want to see if thinking beyond the X’s and O’s can really help turn around a team that went 4-12 last season. No matter the reason, there’s a story to be told about what’s going on inside the walls of the NovaCare Complex, even if it’s not one the Eagles are ready to tell.
***
Change is the order of the day in Philly after Andy Reid’s 14-year tenure. Some of what Kelly has wrought is obvious. His frenetic practices are set to deafening music of all genres—Kanye West and AC/DC and banquet-hall favorite “Cha Cha Slide”—that blares onto South Broad Street. And his staff introduced personalized protein shakes—center Jason Kelce’s contains blueberries, avocado, 2% milk and vanilla protein powder—that players grab on their way off the practice field.
Why not devote significant resources … to a cutting-edge approach that will help keep players on the field and maximize their performance?
The array of technology creates a physiological dashboard for each player. Among the equipment: Catapult Sports’ OptimEye sensors, which Barwin was wearing; heart-rate monitors from Polar; an Omegawave system that measures an athlete’s readiness for training and competition; and weight-lifting technology from a company named EliteForm, with 3-D cameras that record not just how much an athlete is lifting but how quickly he is doing it. There is also the low-tech end: Players are asked to urinate in a cup before practice to check their hydration levels.
The result is a data-driven approach to training, which is compatible with and perhaps even necessary for the way Kelly coaches. In the up-tempo style he brought from Oregon—the Ducks averaged more than 81 offensive plays per game last season—players are perpetually on the move. Some sports scientists, like the University of Connecticut’s William Kraemer, say research does not support the perception that an up-tempo pace imposes extreme fitness and recovery demands. But even so, sports-science technology can play an important role in preventing overuse, overtraining and the often accompanying soft-tissue injuries.
“Everyone is saying that going at this pace, people are going to burn out,” says offensive tackle Dennis Kelly, “but they’re making sure we’re getting the rest we need to recover.”
The OptimEye trackers, of which the Eagles have about 55, record a player’s movements through the course of a practice, allowing coaches to quantify acceleration, agility and the percentage of time the player is running at max speed versus standing around. An incentive not to slack off? Sure. But this is also a way to determine how much stress a workout places on a player’s body.
But data means the most when there’s an expert there to understand and apply it, and that’s where Huls comes in. Says Barwin, “If you’re suddenly more sore than usual, or you start to feel an injury pop up, you can go check with him and see what your numbers look like for that practice, and see why.”
Teams are not permitted to use tracking devices on players during games, but an NFL spokesman said there have been discussions with “several companies” about a possible league-wide initiative for in-game tracking, something the CBA would allow for if the players union consented. Forbes reported in May that Catapult, whose NFL clients also include the Giants and Cowboys, is in those discussions.
Still, there are ways to mine data to analyze game performance. Last season Catapult helped one of its NFL clients compare practice data off the OptimEye sensors in weeks when the team won compared to those when it lost. A trend emerged: During Thursday practices before losses, offensive skill players were running a lot but not very quickly. “They were training them to be slow,” says Gary McCoy, Catapult’s U.S. sales manager. “When they saw that, what we were hearing on the phone was, ‘S—, we really messed this up.’ You get those ‘Wow’ moments.”
***
The roots of the Eagles’ sports-science program reach back to Lincoln, Neb., in the late 1990s. This was the golden era of Husker Power, the Nebraska strength and conditioning program that powered three national championships between 1994 and ’97. During that time three ambitious college students began working with the school’s athletic department.
One of the students was Shaun Huls. At Nebraska, his philosophies on training (a reliance on free weights and explosive work) and nutrition (the cafeteria line was reorganized to have healthy vegetables first and meats last) were honed. Huls’s first chance to run his own strength and conditioning program was at Hampton (Va.) University in the mid-2000s. Joe Taylor, Hampton’s football coach at the time, considers Huls one of the best hires in his 40-year coaching career because of the way he transformed their training.
Huls timed players during their lifts, used diagnostic tests such as vertical jumps and shuttle runs to objectively track his players’ fitness, and reorganized the cafeteria line as at Nebraska—all practices he uses today in Philadelphia. Huls won the trust of the players, who gave him standing ovations at their athletic banquets.
Then came the really intriguing stuff: the nearly five years he spent training Navy SEALs at a military base in Virginia Beach. In August 2007 Huls, a civilian, became the first strength coach hired to work in the human performance program at Special Warfare Group 2. A practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he’s the type of trainer who wants to experience the demands on his athletes, so he would do seven-mile ocean swims or carry around the SEALs’ 70-pound backpacks to feel the strain on his body. His hiring was part of a push by the Navy to train SEALs smarter, so his most important challenge was to reduce the non-combat-related injuries that were taking highly trained operatives away from their units during wartime.
In early 2009 Huls and one of his colleagues at the Little Creek base spent about a week in Finland on a fact-finding mission. They logged some 1,500 miles driving from one sports-science institute to the next, picking the brains of some of the world’s top human-performance experts. Their guide was a man named John Underwood, a former international-level distance runner and Olympic coach who now runs a sport consulting firm called Life of an Athlete.
Huls met Underwood, who had studied in Finland for three years, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., and asked for his help in changing the way SEALs trained. “It was like a testosterone contest up until then,” Underwood says of the special forces training. “So we said, ‘OK, we’re going to find and set up a training regimen that’s all based on science and biofeedback.’ That was the beginning of it. Now, they’re changing the way they train pro football players.” Indeed, Underwood was invited by Kelly to speak to the team during June minicamp.
Such a quest for knowledge is typical for Huls, those who know him say. He makes regular trips to the Postural Restoration Institute in Lincoln, Neb., studying a progressive approach for handling injuries based on the idea that the body is asymmetrical. He also missed part of Eagles minicamp away at a science conference. Huls has made a strong impression on people he has worked with for being humble, open-minded and going to great lengths to help others achieve their goals.
Very few people out there really want to help, and [Shaun Huls] is definitely one of them.
Stock was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 when a grenade exploded inches from the left side of his body. After nearly a dozen surgeries he had no motor function in his left arm or hand, and surgeons recommended amputation. But Stock had other ideas and sought out Huls back on the Virginia Beach base. For several months Huls worked with Stock, using the Omegawave to determine when his battered body could handle exercise and inventing ways for Stock to train while his arm was mostly lifeless … and then when he regained movement in his biceps … and then when some function returned to his hand. Within a year of the explosion, Stock says, he could bench press 275 pounds, as much weight as he could before his injury; today he says he has 70% function in his arm and hand.
“Shaun was one of the very few people—and when I say few, I mean few—who actually believed I would not be a one-armed man for the rest of my life,” says Stock, whose new business, The Human Performance Initiative in Virginia Beach, uses many of the lessons he learned from Huls. “There are very few people out there who really want to help, and he is definitely one of them.”
The secrecy Kelly maintains is a bit ironic considering Huls came from a realm in which information actually is classified. When Huls would take groups of SEALs to train at the Colorado headquarters of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, led by Husker Power godfather Boyd Epley, there were clear guidelines. The SEALs could not be photographed, Epley recalls, and they had to remain anonymous. By extension, there are few pictures of Huls and little information online, other than the news of his hire by the Eagles and a snapshot and brief bio on the team’s website.
How did Kelly find his sports-science coordinator? The answer goes back to those three college friends at Nebraska. The second was Josh Hingst, now the Eagles’ head strength and conditioning coach. The third was James Harris, Kelly’s chief of staff at Oregon, who is now one of the coach’s top advisers in Philadelphia.
Now comes the next part of the story: How will the new approach translate to the season? Of all the questions the Eagles haven’t answered about their new program, this is the biggest. But however undercover Kelly’s program remains, the ultimate measure of its success will be no secret—it will be up there on the giant electronic scoreboard at Lincoln Financial Field, for all to see.
JFK Assassination Paradigm Shift: Deaths of Witnesses Called to Testify
JFK Assassination Paradigm Shift: Deaths of Witnesses Called to Testify
Richard Charnin
July 18, 2013
This post will describe the methodology used to calculate mortality rates and probabilities of the deaths of witnesses whose testimony was sought in four JFK-related investigations. As such, it represents a paradigm shift in analyzing witness deaths. It is mathematical proof of a conspiracy – beyond any doubt. It closes the book on the academics, media and entertainment shills who, after 50 years of overwhelming evidence, continue to perpetuate the fairy tale presented by the Warren Commission.
Warren Commission (WC) apologists have offered tortured explanations to refute the relevance of “convenient deaths” by challenging the witness connection or cause of death. But it is an exercise in futility; individual witnesses are not the issue. The apologists are missing the forest for the trees. The few remaining WC defenders call the analysis of “convenient deaths” the ravings of conspiracy “buffs”.
An actuary engaged by London Sunday Times calculated 100,000 trillion to 1 odds that 18 material witnesses would die in the three years following the assassination, a clear proof of a conspiracy to eliminate witnesses. An HSCA statistician dismissed the calculation as invalid, claiming that it was impossible to determine a known universe of witnesses. But there was a defined universe of 800 material witnesses who were sought to testify in four JFK-related investigations (including HSCA) from 1964-77.
At least 55 of the 800 died under suspicious circumstances, 35 unnaturally (22 homicides,9 accidents,4 suicides) and 20 from suspiciously timed heart attacks and other illnesses. In 1963, the national homicide rate was 0.000062 (1 in 16,000). Just one homicide would normally be expected. The probability P of 22 homicides is 1.46E-25 (1 in 6 trillion trillion). But P must be lower than that. How many suicides, accidents and heart attacks were actually homicides? The ZERO probability is mathematical proof of a conspiracy.
The HSCA and “coincidence” theorists (CTs) are easily debunked by this fact: Witnesses called to testify at the Warren Commission, the Garrison/Shaw trial, Church Senate Intelligence hearings and HSCA were obviously relevant and connected to the assassination or they would never have been called in the first place. Given the known universe of witnesses who testified or were sought in the investigations, focusing on any particular death is a distraction. A serious analyst would seek to quantify the probability of deaths within a defined group during a given time period.
The JFK Calc spreadsheet includes 114 material JFK-related witnesses of whom 81 died unnaturally (homicide, accident, suicide,unknown). The other 33 “natural” deaths include 20 suspicious (induced?) heart attacks. Only 11 unnatural deaths would normally be expected in the 14 year period assuming the 0.000542 U.S. unnatural mortality rate. Of the 114, 94 are listed in Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination , a reference text of 1400+ suspects, witnesses, law enforcement officials and investigators.
The only relevant factors are the number of witnesses (N) called to testify, the number (n) who died, the time period (T) and the appropriate mortality rate (R). Given these factors, we have all the information we need to calculate E, the expected number of deaths: E = N * T * R. Having E and n, we can easily calculate the probability P of n or more deaths in T years. Typically, P is 1 in trillions, depending on the witness group under consideration.
The Poisson formula calculates the probability of n deaths when E are expected:
P(n) = E^n * exp(-E) / n!
The spreadsheet function for exactly n deaths is easy to use:
P(n) = Poisson (n,E,false)
The probability of at least n deaths is 1 – the cumulative probability of 1 to n-1 deaths:
P(>n-1) = 1- Poisson (n-1,E,true)
Sixteen material witnesses died in 1964 (during the Warren Commission). Another 22 died in 1977-1978 (during the HSCA investigation). Timing is everything.
The Warren Commission
According to the CIA, 418 witnesses testified in person and 134 others by affidavit (total N=552). At least n=18 died unnaturally in the T=14 years from 1964-1977, a 0.000164 weighted average unnatural mortality rate. Given 552 witnesses, just 1 or 2 unnatural deaths would be expected:
E = 1.26 = 552*14*0.000164
The Poisson spreadsheet function calculates the probability P of at least n=18 unnatural deaths.
P = 1 – Poisson (n-1, E, true)
P = 1 – Poisson (17, 1.26, true) = 3.0E-15
P = 1 in 333 trillion
In 1963, the annual national homicide rate was 6 per 100,000 (0.000062), a 1 in 16,000 probability. Based on the rate, we would expect zero or one homicide among the 552 Warren Commission witnesses from 1964-1977. There were 10.
E = 0.48 = 552*14*0.000062
The probability of at least 10 homicides is:
P = 1 – Poisson (n-1, E, true)
P = 1 – Poisson (9, 0.48, true)= 1.14E-10
P = 1 in 9 billion
Four Investigations
The 552 Warren Commission witnesses are a subset of an estimated 800 who were sought to testify in four investigations: WC, Garrison/Shaw Trial, Church Senate and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).
Of the 800, 55 are included in the JFK Calc (114 witness) database, 28 in the WC and 27 in the three investigations that followed. There is no question that the WC witnesses are relevant; after all, they all testified. But virtually all of the other 27 called in the three investigations died just prior to their scheduled testimony. Over the 14 year period from 1964-77, 35 of the 55 witness deaths were unnatural, including 22 homicides.
For example, David Ferrie supposedly committed suicide a few days before he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury at the Clay Shaw trial in 1967. Sam Giancana was murdered before he had a chance to testify at the Church Senate hearings in 1975. George de Morenschildt supposedly shot himself the day he was notified of his interview by the HSCA. Seven (7) top FBI officials died within a six month period in 1977 prior to their scheduled testimony at the HSCA . And there were many more.
Given 800 witnesses called to testify, the probability of…
- at least 55 total deaths (0.001182 weighted rate) is
P = 1- Poisson(54,13.24,true) = 3.33E-16 (1 in 3000 trillion)
- 35 unnatural deaths(0.000142 weighted rate) is
P = Poisson(35,1.59,false) = 2.31E-34 (ZERO)
- 22 homicides (0.000062 rate) is
P = Poisson(22,0.69,false) = 1.46E-25 (ZERO)
Unweighted and Weighted Unnatural Mortality Rates
The U.S. unnatural mortality rate (0.000542) is the sum of the individual rates. Assuming this rate, approximately 11 unnatural deaths would be expected in a group of 1400 over 14 years. But there were 81 deaths. The probability is:
P = Poisson (81, 10.62, false) = 5.62E-43 (ZERO)
Nationally, the 0.000359 accident rate comprised 66% of unnatural deaths, compared to 11% for the 0.000062 homicide rate. But since 46 of 81 (56.8%) JFK witness unnatural deaths were homicides, we need the JFK-weighted rate to calculate probabilities. The weighted rate is the sum-product of unnatural rates and corresponding deaths:
R = 0.000148 = (46*0.000062 + 8*0.000107 + 23*0.000359 + 4* 0.000014)/81
E = 2.91 = 1400*14*0.000148
P = Poisson (81, 2.91, false) = 3.42E-85 (ZERO)
The probability of 114 total deaths (81 unnatural and 33 natural) among 1400 witnesses requires mortality rates for heart attacks and other illnesses.
Total Deaths: Unweighted Probability
E = 41.98 = 1400*14*0.002142
P = Poisson (114, 41.98, false) = 2.47E-20 (ZERO)
Total Deaths: Witness Weighted Probability
E = 6.18 = 1400*14*0.000315
P = Poisson (114, 6.18, false) = 1.13E-99 (ZERO)
Richard Charnin
July 18, 2013
This post will describe the methodology used to calculate mortality rates and probabilities of the deaths of witnesses whose testimony was sought in four JFK-related investigations. As such, it represents a paradigm shift in analyzing witness deaths. It is mathematical proof of a conspiracy – beyond any doubt. It closes the book on the academics, media and entertainment shills who, after 50 years of overwhelming evidence, continue to perpetuate the fairy tale presented by the Warren Commission.
Warren Commission (WC) apologists have offered tortured explanations to refute the relevance of “convenient deaths” by challenging the witness connection or cause of death. But it is an exercise in futility; individual witnesses are not the issue. The apologists are missing the forest for the trees. The few remaining WC defenders call the analysis of “convenient deaths” the ravings of conspiracy “buffs”.
An actuary engaged by London Sunday Times calculated 100,000 trillion to 1 odds that 18 material witnesses would die in the three years following the assassination, a clear proof of a conspiracy to eliminate witnesses. An HSCA statistician dismissed the calculation as invalid, claiming that it was impossible to determine a known universe of witnesses. But there was a defined universe of 800 material witnesses who were sought to testify in four JFK-related investigations (including HSCA) from 1964-77.
At least 55 of the 800 died under suspicious circumstances, 35 unnaturally (22 homicides,9 accidents,4 suicides) and 20 from suspiciously timed heart attacks and other illnesses. In 1963, the national homicide rate was 0.000062 (1 in 16,000). Just one homicide would normally be expected. The probability P of 22 homicides is 1.46E-25 (1 in 6 trillion trillion). But P must be lower than that. How many suicides, accidents and heart attacks were actually homicides? The ZERO probability is mathematical proof of a conspiracy.
The HSCA and “coincidence” theorists (CTs) are easily debunked by this fact: Witnesses called to testify at the Warren Commission, the Garrison/Shaw trial, Church Senate Intelligence hearings and HSCA were obviously relevant and connected to the assassination or they would never have been called in the first place. Given the known universe of witnesses who testified or were sought in the investigations, focusing on any particular death is a distraction. A serious analyst would seek to quantify the probability of deaths within a defined group during a given time period.
The JFK Calc spreadsheet includes 114 material JFK-related witnesses of whom 81 died unnaturally (homicide, accident, suicide,unknown). The other 33 “natural” deaths include 20 suspicious (induced?) heart attacks. Only 11 unnatural deaths would normally be expected in the 14 year period assuming the 0.000542 U.S. unnatural mortality rate. Of the 114, 94 are listed in Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination , a reference text of 1400+ suspects, witnesses, law enforcement officials and investigators.
The only relevant factors are the number of witnesses (N) called to testify, the number (n) who died, the time period (T) and the appropriate mortality rate (R). Given these factors, we have all the information we need to calculate E, the expected number of deaths: E = N * T * R. Having E and n, we can easily calculate the probability P of n or more deaths in T years. Typically, P is 1 in trillions, depending on the witness group under consideration.
The Poisson formula calculates the probability of n deaths when E are expected:
P(n) = E^n * exp(-E) / n!
The spreadsheet function for exactly n deaths is easy to use:
P(n) = Poisson (n,E,false)
The probability of at least n deaths is 1 – the cumulative probability of 1 to n-1 deaths:
P(>n-1) = 1- Poisson (n-1,E,true)
Sixteen material witnesses died in 1964 (during the Warren Commission). Another 22 died in 1977-1978 (during the HSCA investigation). Timing is everything.
The Warren Commission
According to the CIA, 418 witnesses testified in person and 134 others by affidavit (total N=552). At least n=18 died unnaturally in the T=14 years from 1964-1977, a 0.000164 weighted average unnatural mortality rate. Given 552 witnesses, just 1 or 2 unnatural deaths would be expected:
E = 1.26 = 552*14*0.000164
The Poisson spreadsheet function calculates the probability P of at least n=18 unnatural deaths.
P = 1 – Poisson (n-1, E, true)
P = 1 – Poisson (17, 1.26, true) = 3.0E-15
P = 1 in 333 trillion
In 1963, the annual national homicide rate was 6 per 100,000 (0.000062), a 1 in 16,000 probability. Based on the rate, we would expect zero or one homicide among the 552 Warren Commission witnesses from 1964-1977. There were 10.
E = 0.48 = 552*14*0.000062
The probability of at least 10 homicides is:
P = 1 – Poisson (n-1, E, true)
P = 1 – Poisson (9, 0.48, true)= 1.14E-10
P = 1 in 9 billion
Four Investigations
The 552 Warren Commission witnesses are a subset of an estimated 800 who were sought to testify in four investigations: WC, Garrison/Shaw Trial, Church Senate and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).
Of the 800, 55 are included in the JFK Calc (114 witness) database, 28 in the WC and 27 in the three investigations that followed. There is no question that the WC witnesses are relevant; after all, they all testified. But virtually all of the other 27 called in the three investigations died just prior to their scheduled testimony. Over the 14 year period from 1964-77, 35 of the 55 witness deaths were unnatural, including 22 homicides.
For example, David Ferrie supposedly committed suicide a few days before he was scheduled to testify before a grand jury at the Clay Shaw trial in 1967. Sam Giancana was murdered before he had a chance to testify at the Church Senate hearings in 1975. George de Morenschildt supposedly shot himself the day he was notified of his interview by the HSCA. Seven (7) top FBI officials died within a six month period in 1977 prior to their scheduled testimony at the HSCA . And there were many more.
Given 800 witnesses called to testify, the probability of…
- at least 55 total deaths (0.001182 weighted rate) is
P = 1- Poisson(54,13.24,true) = 3.33E-16 (1 in 3000 trillion)
- 35 unnatural deaths(0.000142 weighted rate) is
P = Poisson(35,1.59,false) = 2.31E-34 (ZERO)
- 22 homicides (0.000062 rate) is
P = Poisson(22,0.69,false) = 1.46E-25 (ZERO)
Rate....Investigation.......T..N...n...E....Prob
0.000677 Warren Commission.14 552 28 5.23 2.79E-12
0.000476 Garrison/Church....8 145 17 0.55 6.74E-20
0.000886 House Select.......2 103 21 0.18 5.01E-36
0.001182 Total (55=66-11)..14 800 55 13.24 3.33E-16
0.000142 35 unnatural......14 800 35 1.59 2.31E-34
0.000062 22 Homicides......14 800 22 0.69 1.46E-25
E-12 = 1 in a trillion; E-24= 1 in a trillion^2; E-36 = 1 in a trillion^3
Unweighted and Weighted Unnatural Mortality Rates
The U.S. unnatural mortality rate (0.000542) is the sum of the individual rates. Assuming this rate, approximately 11 unnatural deaths would be expected in a group of 1400 over 14 years. But there were 81 deaths. The probability is:
P = Poisson (81, 10.62, false) = 5.62E-43 (ZERO)
Nationally, the 0.000359 accident rate comprised 66% of unnatural deaths, compared to 11% for the 0.000062 homicide rate. But since 46 of 81 (56.8%) JFK witness unnatural deaths were homicides, we need the JFK-weighted rate to calculate probabilities. The weighted rate is the sum-product of unnatural rates and corresponding deaths:
R = 0.000148 = (46*0.000062 + 8*0.000107 + 23*0.000359 + 4* 0.000014)/81
E = 2.91 = 1400*14*0.000148
P = Poisson (81, 2.91, false) = 3.42E-85 (ZERO)
The probability of 114 total deaths (81 unnatural and 33 natural) among 1400 witnesses requires mortality rates for heart attacks and other illnesses.
Total Deaths: Unweighted Probability
E = 41.98 = 1400*14*0.002142
P = Poisson (114, 41.98, false) = 2.47E-20 (ZERO)
Total Deaths: Witness Weighted Probability
E = 6.18 = 1400*14*0.000315
P = Poisson (114, 6.18, false) = 1.13E-99 (ZERO)
Unnatural Mortality Rates
Cause....Rate..... Deaths (JFK witness vs. U.S. share of unnatural deaths)
Homicide 0.000062 46 (56.8% vs. 11.4%)
Suicide. 0.000107 8 (9.9% vs. 19.7%)
Accident 0.000359 23 (28.4% vs. 66.2%)
Unknown. 0.000014 4 (4.9% vs. 2.6%)
Total... 0.000542 81 U.S. unweighted (10.6 expected, Prob= ZERO
JFK Witness 0.000148 81 weighted rate
“Who's Who” 0.000151 66 weighted rate
Natural Mortality Rates
Cause...........Rate....Deaths
illness........ 0.000300 6
heart attack... 0.001000 20
other.......... 0.000300 7
Total...........0.001600 33
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Anthony Weiner’s Sexting Partner Revealed: She’s An Obama Campaigner!
As we reported yesterday, yet ANOTHER sexting scandal has surfaced around New York City mayor candidate Anthony Weiner. And this second scandal happened one year after he resigned from office for the first one…
Apparently, the ex-Congressman just cannot control himself. Weiner loves to send pictures of his Weiner. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself…)
This second scandal has led to Weiner being called upon to drop out of the NYC mayor race. Even liberal publications like the New York Times have suggested Weiner drop out of the race. The Wall Street Journal even went so far as to say the New York Democrat should be forced to drop out “simply because of what he’s forced his wife to endure.”
The woman who he was sending sex messages to in this new, second scandal is 23-year-old Sydney Leathers. She has released copies of the raunchy conversations she has had with the ex-congressman. She also publicly released pictures of Weiner’s genitals that he sent to her.
Leathers is a liberal activist, and even campaigned for President Obama! Who woulda thunk it!
Expansive New Zealand surveillance bill expected to pass through Parliament
Published time: July 24, 2013 04:21
Peter Dunne, leader of New Zealand’s United Future party, changed his position on the legislation and announced his support Tuesday after the bill adopted changes. But critics say the amendments simply aren’t good enough.
If passed into law, more power would be given to New Zealand’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies - the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). Lawmakers have said that both spy agencies need more resources and less legal restrictions to protect national security, as well as New Zealand’s international relations and economy.
The bill is now expected to pass through Parliament with a majority of one, thanks to Peter Dunne’s newfound support for the legislation. Dunne told reporters he changed his mind after Prime Minister John Key agreed to subject the SIS and GCSB to an independent review every five years and force both to release transparency reports revealing the number of times the GCSB and SIS help police or the military.
“No matter how John Key tweaks the particular legislation in front of him, he won’t overcome the suspicion, not of a small group of paranoid people but a wide cross-section of New Zealanders who are asking justifiable questions about how the bodies work, how they should work and why they are needed,” former Foreign Minister Phil Goff told the New Zealand Herald.
Key has said he will outline in the bill a set of principles preventing the law from impeding New Zealanders from unreasonable search and seizure. He also said that a two-person panel would be designated to hear concerns from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, an agency watchdog.
Concerns have also been raised over what, if anything, the GCSB plans to do with the trove of “private communications,” and how metadata will be treated under the legislation.
“New Zealanders can take comfort the GCSB and SIS will be operating under a far stricter and more proactive oversight regime as they undertake important activities to ensure the safety of this country,” Key said.
The “proactive oversight” missed at least 85 cases of illegal spying on New Zealand citizens earlier this year. Leaders across the political spectrum called for intense review policies and an investigation, along with reforms to prevent future problems.
Deputy Prime Minister Bill English told the New Zealand Herald at the time that the revelations shed light on “a number of longstanding issues the government has been looking at now for a couple of years and it highlights the fact that the legislation for GCSB was probably legally flawed right from the start.”
New Zealand’s Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload who is sought by US copyright authorities, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the proposed law. Dotcom previously received a public apology from Prime Minister Key after proving his home was the target of illegal surveillance.
“Abuse of spying powers is not limited to national security matters,” Dotcom said during a heated parliamentary hearing earlier this month. “The GCSB was involved in the raid on my home to support an alleged breach of copyright; it has nothing to do with terrorism or national security.”
Leaks Reveal Drones Killing More Than Thought, Particularly Innocents
The CIA is lying to the American people and the world about drone attacks in Pakistan. A leaked document identified as a report from the Pakistani government indicates that the robotic warplanes have killed more people than the U.S. government has claimed.
The
report claims that 746 people, including 94 children, have been killed
in drone strikes. The report examined 75 separate drone strikes between
2006 and 2009 that occurred in the Federally Administered ‘Tribal Areas’
of Pakistan, a region along the Pakistani border used by the Taliban as
a base area. And as Anthony Gucciardi recently reported, more drone deaths continue to come out with minor recognition from the media.Real Casualty Numbers Unknown
These claims are probably too low because they don’t list all the drone strikes that have been carried out since 2009. Nor do they list drone strikes that might have occurred outside the Tribal Areas. Last year Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the press that between 2,500 and 3,000 people have been killed by drone strikes. Malik also said that there had been 336 drones in Pakistan.Both Malik’s claims and the report contradict the CIA’s official story—in 2011 the agency claimed that 50 noncombatants had been killed in all of its drone strikes since Sept. 11, 2001. That claim seems very dubious, particularly since it is not clear that the CIA has been able to examine all of the drone attack sites.
The report itself is questionable because its source is not identified. The organization that uncovered and publicized it, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, did not identify which Pakistani government agency produced it. Although, the report indicates the Pakistani government has extensive details of the attacks. Instead, it simply says the document came from three sources—what three sources?
During the period detailed in the report, the Pakistani government was supporting the strikes because they got rid of its enemies. The drone attacks are unpopular in Pakistan, but the Pakistani army has tolerated them because they kill some of its enemies.
The Pakistani document indicated that a large number of Taliban militants and their commanders died in the attacks. That indicates the CIA has extensive knowledge of the militants and their operations, probably from agents inside the organization. It also means that the CIA itself is well aware of the true casualty figures.
Are Other Nations Carrying Out Drone Attacks in Pakistan?
There is also an intriguing mystery in the report that the Bureau uncovered. Its reporter, Chris Woods, noted that there were five attacks carried out by forces that the Pakistani government could not or would not identify. That is bothersome because it indicates that other governments, perhaps India’s or China’s, might also be carrying out drone attacks in Pakistan. Both India and China have been attacked by militants backed by the Pakistani Taliban in the past.By carrying out such attacks, the United States sets a precedent for other nations and implies that such killings are a legitimate method of war. A government that claims that it has the right to carry out these drone attacks gives other governments that right as well.
The whole concept of drone warfare needs to be reviewed due to the true mass number of deaths and other devastating consequences that stem from it. We need to ask ourselves if we want to live in a world where drone attacks are an accepted everyday occurrence. And what about predator drone attacks inside the US? After all, they seem to violate not only the Constitution but the Ten Commandments and basic Christian morality. Especially when it comes to shedding innocent blood.
TRYING TO STAY SANE IN AN INSANE WORLD – PART 1
“I mean—hell, I been surprised how
sane you guys all are. As near as I can tell you’re not any crazier than
the average asshole on the street.” – R.P. McMurphy – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
“Years ago, it meant something to be crazy. Now everyone’s crazy.” – Charles Manson
“In America, the criminally insane rule
and the rest of us, or the vast majority of the rest of us, either do
not care, do not know, or are distracted and properly brainwashed into
acquiescence.” – Kurt Nimmo
I have to admit to being baffled by the aptitude of the Wall Street
and K Street financial elite to keep their Ponzi scheme growing. I
consider myself to be a rational, sane human being who understands math
and bases his assessments upon facts and a sensible appraisal of the
relevant information obtained from trustworthy sources. Of course,
finding trustworthy sources is difficult when you live in a corrupt,
crony-capitalist, fascist state, controlled by banking, corporate and
military interests who retain absolute control over the mainstream media
and governmental propaganda agencies. Those seeking truth must pursue
it through the alternative media and seeking out unbiased critical
thinkers who relentlessly abide by what the facts expose. This is no
time for wishful thinking, delusions and fantasies. In the end, the
facts are all that matter. As Heinlein noted decades ago, the future is
uncertain so facts are essential in navigating a course that doesn’t
lead you to ruin upon the shoals of ignorance.
“What are the facts? Again and again
and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine
revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not
what the neighbors think, never mind the un-guessable “verdict of
history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot
always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the
facts!” ― Robert A. Heinlein
Facts are treasonous and dangerous in an empire of lies, fraud and
propaganda. It is maddening to watch the country spiral downward, driven
to ruin by a psychotic predator class, while the plebs choose to remain
willfully ignorant of reality and distracted by their lust for cheap
Chinese crap and addicted to the cult of techno-narcissism. We are a
country running on heaping doses of cognitive dissonance and normalcy
bias, an irrational belief in our national exceptionalism, an absurd
trust in the same banking class that destroyed the finances of the
country, and a delusionary belief that with just another trillion
dollars of debt we’ll be back on the exponential growth track. The
American empire has been built on a foundation of cheap easily
accessible oil, cheap easily accessible credit, the most powerful
military machine in human history, and the purposeful transformation of
citizens into consumers through the use of relentless media propaganda
and a persistent decades long dumbing down of the masses through the
government education system.This national insanity is not a new phenomenon. Friedrich Nietzsche observed the same spectacle in the 19th century.
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”
The “solutions” imposed by the supposed brightest financial Ivy
League educated minds and corrupt bought off political class upon people
of the United States since the Wall Street created 2008 worldwide
financial collapse are insane and designed to only further enrich the
crony capitalists and their banker brethren. The maniacs are ruling the
asylum. John Lennon saw the writing on the wall forty five years ago.
“Our society is run by insane people
for insane objectives…. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal
ends … and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing
that. That’s what’s insane about it.” – John Lennon, Interview BBC-TV (June 22, 1968)
The world is most certainly ruled by a small group of extremely
wealthy evil men who desire ever more treasure, supremacy and control,
but the vast majority of Americans have stood idly by mesmerized by
their iGadgets and believing buying shit they don’t need with money they
don’t have is the path to happiness and prosperity, while their wealth,
liberty and self-respect were stolen by the financial elite. Our idiot
culture, that celebrates reality TV morons, low IQ millionaires playing
children’s sports, egomaniacal Hollywood hacks, self-promoting Wall
Street financers, and self-serving corrupt ideologue politicians, has
been degenerating for decades.
“We are in the process of creating what
deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture,
which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can
provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the
weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even
our cultural ideal.” - Carl Bernstein -1992
The examples of our national insanity are almost too vast to
document, but any critical assessment of what we’ve done over the last
one hundred years reveals the idiocracy that has engulfed our collapsing
empire.The Madness of Crowds
“In reading The History of
Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their
peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they
care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their
minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of
people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after
it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating
than the first.” – Charles MacKay – Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
We have become a nation that seamlessly goes mad every five years in
pursuit of some new delusionary fantasy sold to us by the ruling class,
only to see those dreams shattered like a wooden ship on the reef of
reality. You can never underestimate the power of human stupidity. The
Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve cronies have printed $2.6 trillion
of new money out of thin air since September 2008 in order to prop up
their Wall Street owners, who had engineered the largest control fraud
(mortgage debt/housing bubble) in world history, recklessly gambled in
their ravenous appetite for sordid profits, and drove their firms into
insolvency. It took the Federal Reserve 95 years to accumulate a balance
sheet of $900 billion of safe U.S. Treasuries.
They have insanely quadrupled their balance sheet in the last 5 years by accumulating toxic mortgage debt from Wall Street banks and purchasing the majority of new Treasury debt being issued to fund the Federal government’s insane trillion dollar annual deficits. Bernanke, the corporate media, government apparatchiks, and captured political class act as if this is normal, when it is clearly the act of a desperate ruling class in its final death throes. Bernanke has leveraged his balance sheet 60 to 1. Lehman and Bear Stearns were leveraged 30 to 1 when they collapsed. The 100 basis point move in rates over the space of two months has resulted in Bernanke losing $200 billion and effectively wiping out his $55 billion of capital.
Of course, in a corrupt regime accounting fraud is encouraged and applauded by the status quo. Just as the spineless accountants on the FASB buckled to threats from Bernanke and Paulson in early 2009 and reversed the requirement that assets be marked to market so the felonious Wall Street banks could fraudulently hide their insolvency, the Federal Reserve has decided their losses don’t matter. The Federal Reserve classifies their losses as an asset. Don’t you wish you could classify your 401k losses and your home value losses as an asset? The tapering bullshit storyline is just another attempt to distract the masses from focusing on the fact that Bernanke will never stop expanding his balance sheet because if he stops the financial system will collapse in a catastrophic implosion. The Ponzi scheme will continue until loss of faith leads to a scramble away from the U.S. dollar.
Since the infamous creation of the Federal Reserve by a secretive cabal of bankers and politicians in 1913, the ultimate destination of the American empire was set. Every fiat currency in world history has collapsed. Our entire system has been based on infinite exponential growth. The fallacy of American exceptionalism has been built on an underpinning of pure stupid luck and the issuance of more and more debt. The American empire grew to epic proportions due to the discovery of cheap easily accessible oil in the late 19th century and the physical and economic destruction of Europe, Russia and Japan during World War II. The accumulation of debt was fairly moderate during the glory years after World War II, but began to accelerate after the fateful year of 1971 when U.S. oil production peaked and Tricky Dick Nixon removed the last vestiges of restraint from central bankers and politicians by closing the gold window. With the shackles removed from the wrists of corruptible knaves and shysters, America’s future depended upon the wisdom, honest and financial acumen of Washington politicians and Wall Street financers. Once the citizens realized they could vote for more bread and circuses, our ultimate demise was set in motion. A nation that had produced real annual growth of 4% during the 1950’s and 1960’s has seen a steady decline for the last four decades.
The term pushing on a string describes the Quantitative Easing (literally money printing) and Keynesian debt financed pork spending efforts of our increasingly frantic owners. The insanity of what we’ve done since 1971 is almost too crazy to comprehend. In the first 182 years of our existence the leaders we elected to steward the nation accumulated $400 billion of national debt. By 1981, unleashed from any semblance of spending control, the politicians and bankers had added another $600 billion of debt, a 150% increase in 10 years. By 1991 our beloved leaders had added another $2.6 trillion of debt, another 160% increase in 10 years. By 2001 another $2.2 trillion had been accumulated, only a 60% increase due to the end of the Cold War and a one-time tax surge from the Dot.com stock bubble. Bush’s worldwide War on Terror, expansion of the police state, tax rebate stimulus idiocy, and expansion of the welfare state (Medicare Part D) drove the national debt up by another $2.2 trillion in just eight years, a 40% increase.
The insane amassing of debt since 2008 has put a final nail in the coffin of the ridiculous Keynesian theory, as the Federal government has increased annual spending by 35% over the last five years and the economy is still moribund. Our fearless leaders have driven the national debt from $7.8 trillion to $16.7 trillion in less than five years, a 110% increase. The country continues to add $2 to $3 billion of debt per day. Consider how insane it is that we now accumulate more debt in half a year than we did cumulatively over the first 182 years of our existence as a country. And our elected, or should I say selected, leaders, cheer on the intellectually bankrupt academics like Bernanke whose only solution to every crisis is to print moar and then lie to the American people about his true purpose, act as if annually spending $1 trillion more than we collect while knowing there are over $200 trillion of unfunded promises to fulfill is a reasonable and realistic way to manage the national finances. Any sane person knows our current path will lead to ruin. When you need to issue new debt in order to honor old debt, the end is in sight.
The multitude of insane responses to a financial crisis created by a few greedy psychopathic bankers will be looked upon by historians with contempt and scorn. Future generations will wonder “What were they thinking?” Trillions in wealth were vaporized due to the actions of a small secretive league of highly educated, egocentric psychopaths whose warped sense of morality led them to pillage the wealth of the nation through fraudulent financial products, bribing regulatory agencies, stabbing clients and competitors in the back, and peddling lies, propaganda and misinformation to the public through their captured media mouthpieces. Not only haven’t any predator bankers been thrown in jail, but these villains have grown their parasitic entities to enormous proportions while paying themselves obscene billion dollar bonuses. Jon Corzine stole $1.2 billion directly from the accounts of his customers to cover his gambling losses and he remains free to laze about in one of his five gated mansions. The largest banks on earth have been caught red handed forging mortgage documents, rigging LIBOR, front running the muppets with non-public economic information, insider dealing, and using their HFT supercomputers to manipulate the markets at their whim. Government spy agencies regularly use the U.S. Constitution like toilet paper while accumulating electronic dossiers on every citizen in the country. The rule of law does not exist for the ruling class.
Only in a world gone insane would we be celebrating Wall Street generating all-time high profits through the use of accounting fraud and Bernanke filling their coffers with trillions of interest free money while bilking senior citizens out of $400 billion per year of interest income through his dastardly ZIRP “save a Wall Street banker” scheme. Bernanke has stolen close to $2 trillion from the bank accounts of little old ladies since 2008 and given it to Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfien and the rest of the Wall Street scumbags. While Wall Street and the crony capitalist mega-corporations report record profits, Main Street is left with 5 million less full-time jobs than they had in 2007 and a real unemployment rate exceeding 20%. While the government has insanely reported a recovering economy since mid-2009, the food stamp rolls have grown from 33 million to 47 million. The ruling class cheers the record highs in the stock market that overwhelmingly benefit the top .1% because they are the .1%. Meanwhile, the average schmuck out in the hinterlands is paying double the price they were paying for gas in 2009 and their everyday living costs are rising by greater than 5% annually. Luckily for the financial elite, the average American would rather watch Honey Boo Boo than try to understand the evilness of Federal Reserve created inflation. The economic recovery storyline is obliterated by the fact that real household income is still 9% below its 2008 peak and amazingly 8% below its 2000 level.
Since the 2009 low, the household net worth of the wealthiest 7% has grown by 28%, while the other 93% have seen their net worth decline by a further 4%. The profits accrue to those who run the show, buy the politicians, write the laws, command the media propaganda machine and control the currency. As a sane person in this insane world I’m flabbergasted that there is virtually no outrage at the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. Americans have earned the moniker – ignorant masses. Bread and circuses have won the day in our declining empire. The oligarchs thank you.
The blame doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of the evil men running the show. They have only done what we allowed them to do. From top to bottom our society has hopped on the crazy train. The lack of national morality, sense of civic duty, inter-generational responsibility, and willful ignorance regarding sensible financial policies has led us to a tipping point. Decades of feckless self-serving political leadership making entitlement promises they could never honor to win votes, combined with a parasitic financial class peddling debt to millions of witless, narcissistic, math challenged, materialistic morons, has left the country in debt up to its eyeballs with no escape other than cataclysmic default. Michael Lewis documents the bleeding out of our society in his recent book:
“The people who had the power in the
society, and were charged with saving it from itself, had instead bled
the society to death. The problem with police officers and firefighters
isn’t a public sector problem; it isn’t a problem with government; it’s a
problem with the entire society. It’s what happened on Wall Street in
the run-up to the subprime crisis. It’s a problem of taking what they
can, just because they can, without regard to the larger social
consequences. It’s not just a coincidence that the debts of cities and
states spun out of control at the same time as the debts of individual
Americans. Alone in a dark room with a pile of money, Americans knew
exactly what they wanted to do, from the top of the society to the
bottom. They’d been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without
thinking about the long-term consequences. Afterward, the people on Wall
Street would privately bemoan the low morals of the American people who
walked away from their subprime loans, and the American people would
express outrage at the Wall Street people who paid themselves a fortune
to design the bad loans.” – Michael Lewis – Boomerang
The insanity of our debt accumulation in relation to our pathetic
economic growth is clearly evident to even an Ivy League educated
economist or a bubble headed CNBC anchorwoman. Since 1971 nominal GDP
has grown by a factor of 14. Over this same time frame total credit
market debt (household, corporate, government) has grown by a factor of
32. Real GDP (even using the fraudulent BLS manipulated CPI) has only
expanded by a factor of 3.5 since 1971. The exponential growth model is
clearly failing, with debt going hyperbolic, while GDP has stagnated.
Since 2007 real GDP has gone up $500 billion while total credit market debt has gone up by $6 trillion. Only an insane society would allow itself to be convinced by the perpetrators of the financial crimes that collapsed our economic system that accelerating the level of debt in our system will resolve the dilemma of Too Big to Trust banker insolvency. Transferring the immense losses of greedy sham capitalist gambling addicts from their insolvent balance sheets onto the balance sheets of the taxpayer has allowed the criminals to retain and expand their wealth, while sovereign states shift the pain and suffering onto the backs of the sinking middle class. This is a worldwide phenomenon perpetuated by central bankers at the behest of their crony capitalist co-conspirators. They call it capitalism when the scams, dodges and swindles work and the profits accrue to the schemers. When the gamblers and extreme risk addicts roll craps they use their crony capitalist connections, bought with blood money, to socialize their losses. The game is rigged and your owners don’t care about your hopes and dreams or your children’s future. They care about their own wealth and lifestyles of luxury. When the richest 300 people in the world have a greater net worth than the poorest 3 billion people on earth, a sane person realizes a chaotic end of the existing social order beckons.
“All over the world people borrowed
vast sums of money they could never repay. The honest toting up, and
taking, of the losses is being delayed. There’s a reason for this. The
bad debts are owed, largely, to big banks. The big banks (even bigger
than they were at the start of this crisis) and the people who own them
enjoy a wildly disproportionate amount of political influence. And so,
even now, five years into this mess, we remain at the mercy of the
failed financial institutions that sit at the center of our capitalism.
Geithner & Bernanke, along with their European counterparts, are
doing everything in their power to prevent banks from failing. But the
effect of this new financial order is bizarre: capitalism for everyone
but the capitalists. Ordinary workers remain fully exposed to the
increasingly harsh collisions in the marketplace while the highest paid
financial elites ride protected by a passenger airbag.” – Michael Lewis – Boomerang
Clearly we’ve entered the final phase of our debt financed orgy of
narcissistic materialism and self-absorbed avarice. The unsustainability
of our course is a fact. Our society has gone mad en-masse but we are
only recovering our sanity one by one. The global financial system is
insolvent. A fractional reserve fiat money based system requires
continuous growth or it collapses. The global banking system is
overleveraged and real global growth is stagnant. Central bankers are
not smart men. They have one response to every crisis – print!!!
Bernanke and his fellow banker cronies are printing at hyper-speed in
order to prop up the terminally ill mega-banks. Bernanke feigns
confusion at the fact that his QE to infinity and ZIRP have only
benefitted his banker puppet masters and the richest .1%, while further
impoverishing senior citizen savers and the working middle class.The anger at the true Wall Street malefactors manifested itself in the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street movement, but both efforts were quickly hijacked by neo-con right wingers and socialist left wingers for their own ideological purposes. The existing social order continues to hold the reins of power, but their grip is growing precarious. The anger, dismay and resentment in the country simmer beneath the surface. The average person senses that all is not well, but most absurdly continue to believe the lies and propaganda spewed at them on a daily basis by the ruling class and their corporate media pawns. When the next shoe drops and billions of stock market and housing wealth are wiped out again, the national anger will sweep away the corrupt social order in a torrent of blood and retribution. Innocent and guilty alike will suffer the consequences. Michael Lewis is somewhat perplexed by the lack of outrage and violence so far.
“A lot has happened. And yet, given the
provocation, it’s amazing how little has happened. No one on Wall
Street has been shot, or even jailed – and the existing social order has
not been seriously challenged. There’s a reason for this, too. The
anger arising from the financial crisis finds no natural channel. In
another era – an era before catastrophic experiments with radical
socialism and nationalism – we would be watching market capitalism being
displaced by something far uglier. But today there is no natural place
for anger to flow, and so the anger flows haphazardly, like raindrops
down a windowpane. The only political ideology that anger benefits these
days is anarchy. From the point of view of those who enjoy political
stability, it’s a stroke of luck that anarchists have no natural talent
for organizing themselves. But how long will it take them to learn?” – Michael Lewis – Boomerang
Staying sane in a society gone mad is not easy. Millions of people
believe themselves to be sane, but they have really just adapted to an
insane society, so they appear sane within the warped paradigm of that
insane society. The truly sane people appear to be insane in an insane
society. It’s enough to drive a man crazy. The immense forces of
normalcy bias and social inertia have led millions to refuse to
understand the mathematical certainty of the coming collapse. The
worldwide banking system is like a great white shark that needs to keep
moving or it dies. Exponential growth and continuous credit expansion
have been the essential ingredients to expanding the American empire,
but the growth has stopped, while the debt keeps growing. Infinite
growth on a finite planet is impossible. As natural resources deplete
and become more expensive to obtain, while the planet’s population
continues to grow, the fractional reserve banking system and the nation
states who continue to pile up trillions in debt will suddenly suffer a
catastrophic collapse. We are in the end stages of a confidence game.
Your government will not give you warning. We need to come to our senses
one by one, until there are enough sane people to tip the scales in our
favor. I’ve concluded that I live in a dishonest, insane, intolerable
world and consider it my duty to spread discontent among those I can
reach. I’m a dangerous man in the eyes of our corporate fascist
surveillance state. So be it.
“The most dangerous man, to any
government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself
without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost
inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under
is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he
tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is apt
to spread discontent among those who are.” – H.L. Mencken
In Part 2 of this article I will attempt to figure out why mass
insanity has gripped the world and ponder what might happen when sanity
returns.
China’s new unified coast guard agency has gone into operation, state media reported yesterday amid maritime disputes with its neighbours, and experts said more ships will be armed as a result.
The China Coast Guard integrates the functions of marine surveillance, the existing coast guard which came under the police, fisheries law enforcement and Customs’ anti-smuggling maritime police.
The divisions “that were not allowed to be equipped with weapons can be armed now”, Yang Mian, professor of international relations at the Communication University of China, was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper.
“The new agency will also make our law enforcement more powerful.”
The agency will “have reasonable and legal law enforcement equipment” and “detect and rapidly handle in accordance with the law acts that harm China’s maritime rights and interests”, Zhang Junshe, a military researcher, wrote in a commentary in the PLA Daily.
Tensions have been growing in Beijing’s island disputes with Tokyo and other neighbours.
Chinese surveillance ships have frequently approached disputed islands in the East China Sea, which Japan controls and knows as the Senkakus but China claims as the Diaoyus, after Tokyo nationalised some of them last September.
The Philippines and Vietnam have accused Beijing of aggressively asserting its extensive claims in the South China Sea, although tensions have abated slightly with Hanoi in recent weeks.
With an eye on the rows, the US has strengthened military co-operation with Japan and the Philippines – which are both treaty-bound allies – as well as with former war adversary Vietnam.
Zhang said the new agency will deal with conflicts in the disputed waters according to Chinese law.
That “will… show the international community that China has undisputable jurisdiction over the waters”, he said.
The China Coast Guard will have 11 squadrons and more than 16,000 personnel, according to various media reports.
Gary Li, an analyst with research firm IHS, said the fleet will give China “more stamina” for coast guard patrols in the disputed waters.
The move “will have significant impact on China’s territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas around the Senkaku/Diaoyu and the Spratly islands, respectively”, he wrote in a research note.
Arthur Ding, a Taipei-based researcher at the National Chengchi University, told AFP China’s patrols in the South and East China Seas were likely to become “more frequent and more forceful”.
“As it is named the coast guard, (its ships) are likely to be authorised to carry light weapons so that they can enforce the law,” he said.
“Clampdowns on so-called illegal acts are likely to increase, with frictions with neighbouring countries expected to rise.”
China’s maritime capabilities have increased in recent years, and it has equipped its units with bigger vessels with longer ranges, capable of staying on patrol near disputed areas for longer periods, he added.
The ‘Unnatural’ Death of Dr Kelly: The Forensic Pathology – The Subversion of Due Process Continues
Part three
The examination finished just after midnight. Dr Hunt wrote up his report of his findings at the scene and of his post mortem examination the next day, the 19th of July. He would have come to preliminary conclusions as to the cause of death and been helped in that by the early findings of Dr Allan the toxicologist. That first report has never been published; it was not referred to by Dr Hunt when he gave evidence at the Hutton Inquiry (2) The only report, and that is entitled Final Post Mortem Report – 25th July 2003, was published in October 2010, by the Ministry of Justice. The only original copy of this in existence is a very poor ‘scan’. An OCR and tidied version of this is here (3). That the findings in the first report have never been made public was one among three important concerns brought by this author to the General Medical Council in 2011, established by the Medical Act of 1858. (4) This will be discussed later but suffice to say they were dismissed.
Dr Nicholas Gardiner, HM Coroner for Oxfordshire, opened an inquest as the law demands for all violent, unnatural or unexplained deaths on the 21st July. It is surprising that transcripts of coronial hearings are seldom made. The hearing would have been attended by Dr Hunt, the coroner’s officer and the police. It would have been adjourned until more evidence had flowed in. However, it can be inferred that the cause of death had been given by Dr Hunt. (5 )
Whilst this mouse of an inquest moved ever so quietly, an elephant had been trampling the undergrowth for the three previous days, starting at Harrowdown Hill. Within three hours of the body being found, my Lord Hutton had been engaged to chair an ad hoc inquiry, by my Lord Falconer as Dr Watt has already described. Miles Goslett recently reported in the Mail that Hutton had confirmed in a letter to Norman Baker MP that he had been asked to meet Lord Chancellor Falconer in his Lord’s office around noon of the 18th July and that he agreed to serve.(6) At that point the subject, David Christopher Kelly CMG DSc had not been identified and no cause of death had been established. This fixer was a friend of Blair’s when they were in chambers studying law! He had assisted his friend the PM in bolstering the claim that there was a legal basis for a massive bombardment and invasion of Iraq rather than it being a supreme war crime as defined at Nuremberg.
It is salutary to consider that it took six and half years for the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq ‘War’ to be set up in which over one million Iraqi humans died, at least two million were maimed by customary calculation and four million were made refugees in Syria and Jordan. It took the New Labour high command, the sofa cabinet, just three hours after the death of just one man to set up Hutton with the clear intention of containing the inquiry and ensuring safe conclusions. The instruction given to Hutton was to ‘…urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly’. ‘Urgently’ can be interpreted as ‘nail this promptly’, ‘consider’ as ‘without especial accuracy’ and ‘circumstances’ as equalling the ‘media furore’ which obviously drove Kelly to an inevitable suicide. It was not who the deceased was, and how, when and where he died which are the plain duties of a coroner. It was the ‘circumstances’; and if anything showed the mind and the motives of this most evil cabal, that word is the nub.
The words of the two conversations (6) between Falconer in Westminster and his pal Blair on wing to Tokyo in the hour after noon that day have not, of course, been revealed. That it was to do with an awkward corpse in a wood it is fair to assume. After all, it was a central topic at the press conference in Tokyo where blood, or other medium, drained from Blair’s face with ‘Have you got blood on your hands Mr Blair’ from a Daily Mail journalist. The obvious answer was that he had the blood of thousands upon thousands of people on his hands whereas the European only had one white man in mind at that moment.
Correspondence by Ms Albon of Falconer’s other office (he was also the Secretary of State in the Department of Constitutional Affairs – Mikado style) with the Oxfordshire coroner has a dictatorial ring to it. It was recognised he had to reconvene his inquest in law but this mouse then had to be silent until the elephant had trumpeted the findings. All this was engineered by the mechanism of Section 17a of the 1988 Coroner’s Act. It had been applied for multiple deaths of common cause – Shipman, the Ladbroke rail crash and the sinking of the trawler Gaul. It had at its root – efficiency in investigation, thoughtfulness towards loved ones and verdict as to the common cause. There was no justification for invocation of Section 17a on top of this ad hoc inquiry other than to shackle the coroner and thus to subvert due process. With a few ‘phone calls Falconer had made certain with this ad hoc ‘judicial’ inquiry that there would be no evidence under oath, no ability to subpoena witnesses, no cross examination and no ability to call a jury. The last thing he wanted was twelve good women/men and true.
The coup de grace for the mouse was this Section 17a. There was a further hearing on the 14th of August at which an extraordinary death certificate was conjured up and registered four days later. The hearing was not publicised and again there was no transcript or reportage. This officer of the Crown whose authority and duties stretched back to the 13th Century had been made into a small creature by power and cunning. “The use of these powers to oust the Coroner’s jurisdiction …” is how Frances Swaine of Leigh Day & Co put it an excellent memorandum to the Attorney General in October 2010. (7) (Leigh Day were initially instructed by Dr Frost; they did a large amount of excellent work without charge.)
A letter that Mr Gardiner wrote 6th of August to Ms Albon includes “The preliminary cause of death given at the opening of the inquest no longer represents the view of the Pathologist and evidence from him would need to be given to correct and update the evidence already received.”
(5 – section ONE). This was brushed aside in a letter from lawyers acting for Dr Hunt who were reacting to this long letter from the author to the GMC listing his concerns about Dr Hunt’s performance.(5) Whether his opinion had been changed or not, there was an absolute professional and legal requirement on him to reveal his initial report with its conclusions and his train of thought.
This principle has been tested in the case of Dr Kenneth Shorrock who is currently suspended for unknown reason from the Home Office list of forensic pathologists which was last updated 15th May 2013. This extract from (5 – section ONE) - “He was charged with serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council on eight counts I believe. He had produced a second post-mortem report on a hospital patient which was indicative of negligence by the surgeon without any reference to his first report which had exonerated the surgeon.’
The surgeon was charged with manslaughter but was cleared. He complained to the Home Office whose Scientific Standards Committee of the Policy Advisory Board opined that he had not ‘maintained the standards required’ and simply issued advice, its interest ending in July 2004. The surgeon then complained to the General Medical Council. Mr Vernon Coaker, Minister of State at the Home Office, said in a letter to the author 22 November 2008 “The GMC had been considering the complaint for, I believe, many months (prior to July 2005) and had, similarly, taken no steps to restrict Dr Shorrock’s practice.”
Of the greatest importance is the fact that he was called from Sheffield to examine the remains of Jean Charles de Menezes who had been shot with six hollow point bullets in the head as he sat in a ‘tube’ carriage 22nd July 2005. Sheffield is 150 miles from London which has at least 8 forensic pathologists available. The call to attend a headless Jean Charles was in spite of the fact that a charge of serious professional misconduct was hanging over him; the first hearing by the GMC Fitness to Practice Panel was only six weeks after the killing of Jean Charles. There had been several adjournments of the GMC hearings of this charge which was first heard 5th of September 2005. The nine page summary of the final hearing 19 February 2007 found him guilty of serious professional misconduct. (8 -HALPIN website)
This author wrote to five relevant authorities before the 22nd September 2008 inquest at the Oval, Kennington about this most improper instruction given to Dr Shorrock to take this case in the summer of 2005. There were no replies from any one of the five; this included the Public Solicitor to the inquiry and Justice4Jean. Dr Shorrock’s evidence would be central at this inquest and would include the position and identity of each bullet prior to ballistic studies, and would thus indicate which weapon and which agent had injured Jean Charles beyond recognition IF the evidence had not been contaminated. The Independent Police Complaints Commission does not have a reputation for being just but it did not take possession of the scene until 48 hours had elapsed.
The final hearing of five altogether took place on the 5th of February 2007. The GMC panel found him guilty of the charge of serious professional misconduct. It found his actions “unprofessional, inconsistent, unreasonable, not based upon the medical and pathological information and likely to bring the medical profession into disrepute”.
Two professors of forensic pathology advised the panel:-
Vanezis – ‘He further stated that if a pathologist had reason to change his conclusions or opinion, an explanation should be given as to why he has deemed this necessary.’
Pounder – ‘ Dr Shorrock had a duty to make reference to the existence of the first report. In addition, the second report should have given the reasons for his change of view.
Many had written in support of Dr Kenneth Shorrock. He was simply issued with a reprimand.
The reader has two forensic pathologists in examine.
One was lecturing at the Police Staff College, Bramshill, Hampshire when he was called to a corpse on Harrowdown Hill which was all about a supreme war crime.
The other was called from Sheffield to a most high profile unlawful killing at Southwell Tube Station, London.
Should the second have been on gardening leave until the GMC had considered the serious charge against him? Or did Jean Charles not deserve the best within our law?
Should the first not have fully revealed the first post mortem report he wrote up on Dr Kelly on the 19th of July? It is certain there was a FIRST report and Lord Hutton referred to it in his introduction. Were the opinions as to the causes of death different in important ways between the 19th of July and the FINAL Post Mortem Report of the 25th of July. It is clear the Coroner thought so. That this gross defect slipped through is typical of much that happened at Hutton. His professional and legal duty was made completely clear later in the case of Dr Shorrock.
We move on next to the Hutton Inquiry and its many defects.
Notes http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-unnatural-death-of-dr-kelly-the-forensic-pathology-the-subversion-of-due-process-continues/5343704
- http://chilcotscheatingus.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/death-of-david-kelly-operation-mason.html
- http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090128221550/, http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans33.htm
- http://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:David_Kelly_Post-Mortem_Report
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Medical_Council
- http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/23-articles/dr-david-kelly/144-letter-to-ms-c-f-floyd-investigation-officer-general-medical-council
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362659/Revealed-How-Blair-fixer-picked-judge-David-Kelly-Inquiry-just-hours-weapons-inspectors-suicide.html
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337661/David-Kelly-report.html
- http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/23-articles/dr-david-kelly/146-shorrock-gmc
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