If you want to
know what America’s shadow government has in store for Argentina, look no
further than Detroit. Argentina has been
in the sights of RAND Corporation for some time now but recently there has been
an increased urgency for bankrupting Argentina.
2001 was quite
the year for the world, 2001 is the year that the U.S. Government was replaced
with a shadow government run by think tanks.
After the December 12, 2000 Supreme Court coup that installed the George
W. Bush Administration, there was a purge of federal judges in the United
States.
The Bush
Administration installed, in its place, the most highly ideological judges and Supreme
Court members he could scrape up from Reagan’s Administration and the Christian
law school, Regent University.
Excerpt:
“You can’t look at the
Roberts court and say that they’ve done anything other than systematically
unravel voting rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights [and] environmental
progress,” Lithwick tells Moyers.
Greenhouse adds: “I think
it’s hard for anybody looking at this court objectively to come away not
thinking that it’s a court in pursuit of an agenda.”
It
is hard to remember America before December 12, 2000. In
the spring of 2001, RAND Corporation’s Frank Carlucci, Robert Hunter, and
Zalmay Khalilzad prepared “A Global Agenda for the U.S. President”.
Excerpt:
By
Frank Carlucci, Robert Hunter, and Zalmay Khalilzad
The
authors co-chaired Transition 2001, a panel of 54 American leaders in foreign
and defense policy who were convened by
RAND to forge a bipartisan agreement on the central tenets of U.S. national security
policy and to offer bipartisan recommendations to the new U.S. president.
Frank
Carlucci, a RAND trustee, was secretary of defense from 1987 to 1989. Robert
Hunter, a senior advisor at RAND, was ambassador to NATO from 1993 to 1998.
Zalmay Khalilzad, corporate chair for international security studies at RAND,
was assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for policy planning from 1991
through 1992 and director of President
George W. Bush's Department of Defense Transition Team in December 2000 and
January 2001. The conclusions of the panel are summarized below.
Now, isn’t that
nice? One thing is for sure, when RAND
offers a “global plan for the new president” you’d better be listening.
Excerpt:
The
array of new global challenges and opportunities will significantly increase
the demand for U.S. diplomacy and other nonmilitary involvement abroad.
Therefore, nonmilitary spending on foreign policy and national security should
increase substantially as well.
Thus,
Mr. President, we urge that you ask Congress for a 20 percent hike in spending for the U.S. Department of State, for
payment of U.N. dues, and for other critical nonmilitary requirements of
foreign policy. We also recommend that you seek about a 10 percent increase in
defense spending, or about $30 billion
more for procurement plus another $5-$10 billion for property maintenance,
recruitment, targeted pay raises, retirement, and medical care.
When George W.
Bush took office in 2001, there was a peace dividend, a budget surplus and
prosperity was spread across the United States and thus the world. So it’s quite fortuitous that RAND would have
the foresight to bulk up military spending in spring of 2001. Part of RAND’s road
map for the president were short term objectives, such as missile defense
system.
Mr.
President, we believe that you will need to address three critical issues right
away, involving (1) national missile defense, (2) a modernized defense program,
and (3) Arab-Israeli peacemaking.
Yeah, I’ll be
RAND wanted that missile defense shield right away. That missile shield boondoggle is worth a
shitload of money for RAND. Remember all
those missile tests that failed? Think
those days are over with the Obama Administration? Not so, check out this April 2014 article
from Mark Strauss at io9.com:
Excerpt:
Last
month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report:
the system to defend the U.S. from ballistic missiles doesn't work, and
probably never will. But it gets worse.
Congress then voted to expand the broken system, allocating money for a
new, sub-par missile defense site. How did this happen?
It's
the latest iteration of federally-funded cognitive dissonance that has been
going on for years. In theory, the U.S. Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
system—which is overseen by the Missile Defense Agency —should be capable of
launching missile interceptors, each tipped with a "kill vehicle"
that detaches, detects and destroys the incoming threat. In the real world,
ground-based missile defense has failed all three of its flight tests since
2010.
Yep, doesn’t
work and never will. So while public
pension funds are decimated and our military is left sick and wounded from all
the wars that have been fought for a war based economy, our congress is
shoveling billions more into a missile system that will never work.
So RAND had 3
short-term goals for the G.W. Administration, missile defense shield, modernize
military and Israeli Arab peace. Sounds
like a great big goose egg for the United States, but a huge cash cow for
RAND.
So why the
heated rush to destroy Argentina? This
from Counterpoint.com:
Excerpt:
Preparing
the Beggar’s Banquet
The
Ukraine is being prepped, like an ingénue for a beggar’s ball, for mass
immiseration. How frankly the terms are
discussed in the mainstream, such is the pervasive nature of groupthink (a
tautology, perhaps). The blandly discussed facts tumble forth—a 50 percent
increase in gas prices, property tax hikes, reduced pensions (pensioners not consulted),
and efforts to hollow out regulatory bodies…
Have
a glance at this image,
of a hushed exchange between the central puppets in the Ukrainian debacle.
First, the PM of the ‘people’s putsch’, Arseny Yatseniuk or, affectionately,
“Yats” to coup director Victoria Nuland, Secretary of State John Kerry’s
hitman, or hitperson, as it were…
Bribe
the leaders. Fill their coffers with cash. Promise them protection. Embrace
them in public. Then watch them slip the keys to the kingdom into your pocket.
For every Nestor Kirchner there are a dozen Yatseniuks. And for every Kirchner
that succeeds there’s a dead Allende, an isolated Castro, an exiled Aristide,
or a hanged Hussein.
(Kirchner
threw the IMF out of a bankrupt Argentina and helped rebuild the Argentine
economy.)
That’s right,
Argentina threw out the corrupt IMF and has been coming out of bankruptcy and
building up their economy since.
Argentina has been pissing off RAND Corporation, the IMF, Victoria
Nuland, Joe Biden and John Kerry with their support of Russia’s annexation of
Crimea, and their defiance of the austerity that caused their bankruptcy.
and their
defiance of the austerity that caused their bankruptcy.
So it wasn’t any
surprise when a corrupt New York court declared that Argentina is not allowed
to pay off its creditors that were willing to work with them, until they pay
shake down money to America’s think tank financial vultures. From New York Times:
The hedge fund firm of billionaire
Paul E. Singer has about 300 employees, yet it has managed to force Argentina,
a nation of 41 million people, into a position where it now has to contemplate
a humbling surrender.
Argentina on Wednesday failed to
make scheduled payments on its government bonds. The country has the money to
pay the bonds. But a federal court in Manhattan has ruled that unless Argentina settles its debt dispute with Mr. Singer’s firm, Elliott
Management, it is barred from paying its main bondholders.
Now what kind of judge forces a
country, with cash on deposit to pay their creditors, to default on their loan
obligations? I suspect a crooked one
installed by a rogue government.
After more than five hours of
meetings on Wednesday, the sides failed to reach an agreement and the
court-appointed mediator said that Argentina would “imminently be in default.”
Because a $539 million interest payment was not made, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said that Argentina was in default on those bonds.
So not only is a crooked N.Y. judge
presiding over Argentina’s dispute with venture capitalist firm, Elliott
Management, but the COURT has APPOINTED a mediator. What a racket 1) crooked judge issues court
order blocking Argentina from making it’s agreed interest payments to its
creditors; 2) payments to creditors won’t be released by court until Argentina pays
off vulture capitalists and 3) crooked rating agency, Standard and Poor’s
downgrades Argentina’s credit rating for missing payment to creditors.
Man, what some crooks.
The government of Argentina now
faces a stark choice: Try to restart negotiations with investors it has
repeatedly called “vultures,” who have insisted on full repayment. Or it can
remain ensnared in a default that could weigh on the country’s fragile economy
and unsettle global markets.
After the talks collapsed, the economy
minister of Argentina, Axel Kicillof, characterized the negotiations as
extortion.
“We’re not going to sign any deal which
compromises the future of Argentines,” he said at a news conference in
Manhattan.
Damn straight its extortion, but
that’s the world of think tank mafias. This is the new world order baby.
While Mr. Singer’s firm has yet to collect any
money from Argentina, some debt market experts say that the battle may already
have shifted the balance of power toward creditors in the enormous debt markets
that countries regularly tap to fund their deficits. Countries in crisis may
now find it harder to gain relief from creditors after defaulting on their
debt, they assert.
No shit it’s going to be a
boondoggle for vulture capitalists with practically no capital at stake and
huge profits for the very top. It’s like
taking candy from a baby.
As a hedge fund,
Elliott’s pursuit of Argentina is motivated by a desire to make money. Having
bought its Argentine bonds for well below their original value, the firm
stands to make a killing if Argentina pays the bonds in full. Legal filings indicate that the face value
of its Argentine government bonds was around $170 million, but the firm
most likely acquired many of them for much less than that. Elliott and other
investors are now seeking more than $1.5 billion, which includes years
of unpaid interest.
Life is good for vultures in
RAND’s America. So can Argentina get a “new” court appointed mediator, since
the current one obviously is not an independent arbitrator?
From New York Times:
A lawyer for Argentina told a
federal judge on Friday that the nation had lost faith in the mediator
appointed to work with a group of hedge funds that hold the country’s bonds.
The lawyer, Jonathan Blackman,
pointed to a statement issued by the mediator, Daniel Pollack, on Wednesday
that said Argentina was in “imminent default.”
That statement, Mr. Blackman said,
was “harmful and prejudicial,” and he asked that Mr. Pollack be replaced…
The statement is more than
“harmful and prejudicial”, it’s more akin to pouring blood into shark infested
waters.
On Wednesday, Argentina slipped
into its second default in 13 years after missing a regular bond payment. The
news sent Argentina’s bonds and stocks into turmoil on Thursday and Friday.
Yes, the first default for
Argentina since 2001. So Argentina was forced to default because of their
“court appointed” mediator. Reminds me
of Detroit and their “court appointed” emergency manager, Kevyn Orr. From Black Agenda Report:
Excerpt:
The
Siege of Detroit: A War of Black Urban Removal
Like the rapist who insists his
victim “wanted it,” Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr claims city retirees
were expressing “strong support for the city’s plan to adjust its debts” when
they voted to accept a 4.5 percent cut in their meager pensions. Corporate media echoed the state appointee’s interpretation of the court-ordered
ballot, in which about half the 32,000 eligible workers and retirees
participated. In reality, Detroit’s pensioners were violated in broad daylight,
stripped of retirement protections and forced to choose whether to die in
poverty or an even more extreme destitution.
Earlier this year, as part of the
Shock and Awe of state-imposed bankruptcy, Orr threatened to cut pensions by 26
percent, in defiance of Michigan state constitutional protections. He was backed by federal bankruptcy court
judge Steven Rhodes, who has brushed aside every objection from lesser,
non-corporate beings. Rather than risk the loss of one-quarter of an
already meager $20,000 a year pension, 73 percent of retirees and workers
accepted the lesser cut, plus an end to cost-of-living increases. This was not
an election, but the cruelest coercion – a rape of the elderly, who were forced
not only to acquiesce to their own further impoverishment, but to give up the
right to challenge the process in court…
Boy, Detroit has RAND Corp’s
fingerprints all over it with “shock and awe” state-imposed bankruptcy. And, once again a crooked federal bankruptcy
judge tilts the scale toward creditors.
Detroit’s elected officials cannot
pass laws, and collect a salary at the pleasure of dictator Kevyn Orr, who is
answerable only to the ruling class, as directly represented by the Fortune 500 clients of the law firm that spawned him, Jones Day. (Orr’s
nominal boss, Gov. Rick Snyder, answers to the same people.) The state-imposed
emergency manager is authorized to usurp the powers of the city – to act as a dictator – but he is
not the city in any but the most technical, legalistic sense.
The 82 percent Black metropolis is
under siege, in the Medieval sense of the term. Just as ancient armies deprived
towns under siege of food and water, to starve and thirst them into submission,
so Kevin Orr has caused the Detroit Water and Sewage Department to cut off tens
of thousands of residents, in an escalating trajectory of systematically
inflicted mass punishment and pain designed to make life in the city unbearable
for a huge proportion of the population.
So Argentina, if
you want to know what America’s shadow government has in store for you, look no
further than Detroit, government by think tank mafias.
By: Patricia Baeten
No comments:
Post a Comment