listen to corbett report on @RBNlive weeknights at midnight from corbett report: Science-fiction fantasy is becoming mundane reality and video games are increasingly merging with 21st century combat. The DoD recruits youth through traveling arcade exhibitions and new recruits are just as likely to end up behind a keyboard as behind enemy lines. What does this mean for the future of our predictively programmed world, and should we be worried. Find out more in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report.
from russia today: Death rather than nation building - that's what the U.S. army brought to Iraq and is bringing to Afghanistan according to former army sergeant and anti-war activistMatthis Chiroux. He shared his views on the U.S. military campaigns with RT's Marina Portnaya.
bleak US job market boosts military recruitment from reuters: Aided by a bleak job market, the U.S. military met all of its recruitment goals in the past year for the first time since it became an all-volunteer force in 1973, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Military services have been stretched thin by conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, giving added weight to recruitment efforts as President Barack Obama considers sending another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year. The United States already has 67,000 troops in Afghanistan and about 119,000 in Iraq. Pentagon officials said recruitment gains were fueled by the deepest U.S. recession since the Great Depression and an unemployment rate nearing 10 percent.
banks in georgia, north carolina & kansas closed by regulators from bloomberg: Banks in North Carolina, Georgia and Kansas with combined assets of $1.5 billion were seized by regulators last week, costing the U.S. insurance fund $363 million and pushing this year’s tally of failures to 40. Southern Community Bank of Fayetteville, Georgia, and 111- year-old Cooperative Bank in Wilmington, North Carolina, were closed June 19 by state officials, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut First National Bank of Anthony, Kansas. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver.
unemployment at highest level in 25yrs from washington times: The turmoil ravaging General Motors and Chrysler generated big jumps in joblessness last month throughout the Midwest, sending Michigan's unemployment rate above 14 percent and pushing three nearby states into double digits. Jobless rates in Illinois and Indiana surpassed 10 percent, while Ohio's approached 11 percent, according to data released Friday in a Labor Department report. The half-percentage-point jump in the national unemployment rate rippled throughout the country as 48 states and the District of Columbia reported increases in their jobless rates in May. The U.S. unemployment rate rose from 8.9 percent in April to 9.4 percent in May, its highest level in more than a quarter-century. The rate was 10.8 percent near the end of 1982.
cia recruiting laid-off bankers in nyc from newsmax: Laid off from Wall Street? The CIA wants you -- as long as you can pass a lie detector test and show that you are motivated by service to your country rather than your wallet. The Central Intelligence Agency has been advertising for recruits and will be holding interviews on June 22 at a secret location in New York. "Economics, finance and business professionals, if the quest for the bottom line is just not enough for you, the Central Intelligence Agency has a mission like no other," one radio advertisement for the agency says. "Join CIA's directorate of intelligence and be a part of our global mission as an economic or financial analyst. Make a difference in your career and for your nation," it says.
financial dictatorship spreads to europe from steve watson: The European Union is set to mirror moves in the US to overhaul the economic regulatory oversight system, in a move that will see national regulators superceded by European supervisors. “The proposals involve creating three pan-European watchdogs next year to ensure countries introduce new rules on supervision.” Reports the London Telegraph. “Under the proposals, there is to be a European Banking Authority in London, an Insurance Authority in Frankfurt, and a Securities Authority in Paris. All European leaders agreed today to their creation.” These three new bodies will have the authority to dictate and implement decisions on regulatory standards across the board in every member state. Furthermore, the deal will see the creation of a European Systemic Risk Board, that would “monitor the build up of risks”, issue recommendations for action and oversee their implementation. The chairmanship of this new body will be elected by members of the general council of the European Central Bank. This mirrors plans in the US to hand the private Federal Reserve powers to simply seize and take over any company it defines as a risk to the economy. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised by the move given that, for the most part, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are run by the same private globalist banking corporations.
bankster 'holiday' planned for september? from kurt nimmo: Bob Chapman’s influential International Forecaster is reporting on the possibility of a so-called “bank holiday” planned for late August or early September. According to Chapman’s sources, U.S. embassies around the world are selling dollars and stockpiling money from respective countries where they operate. “Some US embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies,” writes Harry Schultz, “enough to last them a year.” Schultz publishes the Harry Schultz Letter, an international investment, financial, economic, and geopolitical newsletter named as “Newsletter of the Year” by Peter Brimelow of Market Watch in 2005 and 2008. Schultz believes the global elite are in the process of engineering an FDR-style “bank holiday” of undetermined length in order to “sort-out the bank mess” and impose new bank rules. On March 5, 1933, in the depths of the banker engineered “Great Depression,” newly elected Franklin Roosevelt declared a “bank holiday” that forced banks closed for four days. Roosevelt then rammed the Emergency Banking Act through the legislature. Passed by Congress on March 9, the act granted FDR near dictatorial control over the dealings of banks. It also allowed the Secretary of the Treasury the power to compel every person and business in the country to relinquish their gold and accept paper currency in exchange.
numbers on welfare see sharp increase from wsj: Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging "to end welfare as we know it" more than a decade ago. Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation's total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as a stopgap. The biggest increases are in states with some of the worst jobless rates. Oregon's count was up 27% in May from a year earlier; South Carolina's climbed 23% and California's 10% between March 2009 and March 2008.
condo dwellers finding empty buildings from miami herald: Joshua Hamann jokingly compares himself to the last human in a city overrun by zombies. He's not suggesting his neighbors are zombies. The problem is, he has no neighbors. Hamann dwells in a newly opened condo. And in the six weeks since moving into the gleaming new Everglades on the Bay in downtown Miami, he has felt pretty lonely. Hamann occupies one of only about 50 sold condos in his 49-story tower, out of 409 units. A couple miles north at Midtown Miami, Alisha Marks knows the same feeling. "It was pretty much a ghost town when I got here," she says.
as if the cia & wall st haven't been closely connected for decades... from securities industry: The Central Intelligence Agency is recruiting Wall Street executives – former investment bankers, securities analysts and hedge fund managers – to help catch terrorists, according to a story in the New York Post. The spy agency has advertised for the $160,000 annual salary on Bloomberg Radio, a 24-hour all news radio station. While the same executives may well have been responsible for the current financial crisis, the CIA says they can “use their intelligence for the work of a nation.” The agency say that it needs the executives to track the financial maneuvers of Afghan drug traffickers as well as which economies are more susceptible to manipulation, according to the Post. The interviews are set for June 22 at an undisclosed Manhattan location. The CIA is requesting that resumes be emailed only.
from ap: The U.S. Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy. The Marines are talking with at least six districts — including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas — about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines. Those schools would be on top of more than a dozen public military academies that have already opened nationwide, a trend that's picking up speed as the U.S. Department of Defense looks for ways to increase the number of units in Junior ROTC, which stands for Reserve Officers Training Corps. "Many kids in our country don't get a fair shake. Many kids live in war zones. Many kids who are bright and have so much potential and so much to offer, all they need to be given is a chance," McHenry said. "If you look at stats, what we're doing now isn't working."
2 shot, 1 killed by gunman at arkansas military recruitment center from foxnews: A gunman opened fire Monday at an army recruitment center in Little Rock, Ark., killing one army recruiter and seriously wounding another, FOX16.com reported. A man in a black SUV drove to the recruitment office and began shooting at around 10:19 a.m., a spokesman with the Little Rock police department told FOX News. The suspect, who immediately fled the scene, was later apprehended approximately four miles from the center with an assault rifle in his vehicle.
update: accused arkansas shooter had more weapons from ap: A Muslim convert who pleaded not guilty to killing a soldier outside a recruiting center had the firepower to take out many more while on a mission to "kill as many people in the Army as he could," police said. In documents released Tuesday, authorities said they recovered Molotov cocktails, three guns and ammunition from Abdulhakim Muhammad's pickup truck after the attack Monday in a suburban Little Rock shopping center that left Pvt. William Long dead and Pvt. Quinton I. Ezeagwula wounded.
3 wounded after gunman fires shots into greyhound bus from foxnews: A gunman fired shots into a Greyhound bus in Cleveland Monday, wounding three passengers, FOX8.com reported. The gunman reportedly opened fire at approximately 3:00 a.m. Monday in downtown Cleveland. The bus driver told police he heard a smashing sound before passengers began screaming, according to the station. Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh told FOX8.com that the bus — which was en route to New York from Chicago — had 26 passengers on board. The bus was making a stop in Cleveland when it was struck by bullets, Wambaugh told the station. One passenger reportedly sustained an injury to his left ear, but none were seriously wounded.
from russia today: The US is turning to technology to step up its recruitment drive for new soldiers by introducing a $13 million virtual world of combat simulations where people can experience the adrenaline of a military mission. Tax payer’s money has been used to build a multi-million dollar project called The Army Experience Center in Philadelphia. It is meant to gives ordinary people a taste of the excitement of being in the military... A fancy touch screen in the center lists average salaries and benefits, depending on positions and years served… but what it does not show are the potential consequences of combat, which might stay one’s hand in moving from the virtual world to the battlefield.
bart simpson used to promote scientology from wikinews: Nancy Cartwright, 51, who is a long time member of the Church of Scientology, has created a recording using her voice of Bart Simpson as part of a robocall promotion. The message surfaced early Wednesday morning on YouTube. During the message, Cartwright states that "This is a special message" and announces a Scientology conference this coming weekend at the grand ballroom of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles where she has a speaking engagement. The message ends with a toll free number to call to RSVP... The Simpsons executives did not authorize this usage of intellectual property in this manner. Executive producer Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter, "This is not authorized by us. The Simpsons does not, and never has, endorsed any religion, philosophy or system of beliefs any more profound than Butterfinger bars," referencing the advertisements featuring the Simpsons for the Butterfinger candy bar.
lights, camera… covert action: deep politics of hollywood from global research: Here we build a prima facae case supporting the idea that Hollywood continues to be a target for infiltration and subversion by a variety of state agencies, in particular the CIA. Academic debates on cinematic propaganda are almost entirely retrospective, and whilst a number of commentators have drawn attention to Hollywood’s longstanding and open relationship with the Pentagon, little of substance has been written about the more clandestine influences working through Hollywood in the post-9/11 world. As such, our work delves into the field of what Peter Dale Scott calls "deep politics"; namely, activities which cannot currently be fully understood due to the covert influence of shadowy power players... Many would recoil at the thought of modern Hollywood cinema being used as a propagandist tool, but the facts seem to speak for themselves. Do agencies such as the CIA have the power, like the Pentagon, to affect movie content by providing much-sought-after expertise, locations and other benefits? Or are they able to affect script changes through simple persuasion, or even coercion? Do they continue to carry out covert actions in Hollywood as they did so extensively in the 1950s, and, beyond cinema, might covert government influence play some part in the creation of national security messages in TV series such as 24 and Alias (the star of the latter, Jennifer Garner, even made an unpaid recruitment video for the CIA)? The notion that covert agencies aspire to be more open is hard to take seriously when they provide such scant information about their role within the media, even regarding activities from decades past. The spy may have come in from the cold, but he continues to shelter in the shadows of the movie theatre.
update: house approves digital tv transition delay from pcmag: Get ready for a summertime DTV transition. The House on Wednesday approved a bill to move the DTV transition from February 17 to June 12, by a vote of 264 to 158. The Senate approved the measure last week, so it now moves to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill into law.
fbi didn't keep tabs on 'alleged comedian' carlin's 7 words from ap: Talk about irony. George Carlin spent decades pushing the bounds of free speech by saying the seven words you can never say on television, but not one of them made it into an FBI file on him. Among the 12 pages in a file recently released by Carlin's family are a couple of letters from outraged citizens who complained that the comedian had made fun of the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, during TV appearances in 1969 and 1970. There's also a letter from Hoover himself thanking one of Carlin's critics for defending his honor, and an internal FBI memo that quotes the director as asking: "What do we know of Carlin?" Not much, as it turned out. The memo notes the FBI has "no data concerning Carlin" other than the two letters from his critics. "Which kind of disappoints me," laughed Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall, who provided the file to The Associated Press. "It doesn't really cover any of his more radical 1970s stuff."
from nytimes: Amid the last-minute shopping bustle, the voice in the Black Hawk helicopter simulator shouted with an urgency that exceeded even the holiday mall frenzy.
At the Franklin Mills mall here, past the Gap Outlet and the China Buddha Express, is a $13 million video arcade that the Army hopes will become a model for recruitment in urban areas, where the armed services typically have a hard time attracting recruits.
The Army Experience Center is a fitting counterpart to the retail experience: 14,500 square feet of mostly shoot-’em-up video games and three full-scale simulators, including an AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter, an armed Humvee and a Black Hawk copter with M4 carbine assault rifles. For those who want to take the experience deeper, the center has 22 recruiters. Or for more immediate full-contact mayhem, there are the outlet stores.
The facility, which opened in August, is the first of its kind. It replaces five smaller recruitment stations in the Philadelphia area, at about the same annual operating cost, not counting the initial expenses, said Maj. Larry Dillard, the program manager. Philadelphia has been a particularly difficult area for recruitment.
The Army recruited 80,517 active personnel in the fiscal year that ended in October, slightly surpassing its goal of 80,000, though as in recent years it fell below its goal of having 90 percent of recruits be high school graduates.
and on a related note...
tv & videogames causing speech problems for toddlers from telegraph: Toddlers could be screened for speech problems after evidence that many are so addicted to television and video games that they are failing to learn basic communication skills. An ambitious nationwide screening programme for two-year-olds is reportedly being considered to tackle the problem which experts say is now more prevalent than dyslexia or autism. The decline of the traditional family meal time, the long-hours culture in the parents' workplaces, poor childcare with little stimulation and social deprivation are also being blamed. Barely a 10th of children in some areas can repeat even one nursery rhyme and, in extreme cases, some do not even know their own name. The screening programme is being considered after a review into services for children with speech problems led by the Tory MP John Bercow. Tests could be carried out by health visitors in a similar way to that in which they check eyesight, hearing and general development. Mr Bercow concluded that children with untreated speech difficulties are at risk of ending up unemployed, experiencing mental health problems and involved in crime. "If children are in a home in which they are getting insufficient stimulation, where there is not enough interaction, or where communication through the spoken word is not as common or extensive or imaginative as it might be, that is bound to have an impact," he told the Daily Mail. "The reality is that for far too long, speech and language problems have been under-recognised."
from blacklisted news: In violation of its pledge to the United Nations not to recruit children into the military, the Pentagon “regularly target(s) children under 17,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says. The Pentagon “heavily recruits on high school campuses, targeting students for recruitment as early as possible and generally without limits on the age of students they contact,” the ACLU states in a 46-page report titled “Soldiers of Misfortune.” (540kb PDF) This is in violation of the U.S. Senate's 2002 ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Pentagon recruiters are enrolling children as young as 14 in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in 3,000 middle-, junior-, and high schools nationwide, causing about 45 percent of the quarter of million students so enrolled to enlist, a rate much higher than in the general student population. Clearly, this is the outcome of underage exposure.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest private employer, has more than 1.4 million U.S. employees.
An agreement signed Tuesday obligates Wal-Mart to interview and consider all qualified, participating soldiers for employment after they complete military occupational specialty training.
Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of the Army Reserve, was in Bentonville for the Veterans Day signing of the agreement.
When a reserve soldier who works at Wal-Mart is called to service, the company can draw on 1 million or so citizen soldiers to help identify a qualified replacement to work in the soldier's place. The arrangement is expected to lower costs of recruiting and training for Wal-Mart.
The Army Reserve launched the program in April and has already linked with numerous companies, including Lowell-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Sears Holding Corp., Manpower Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp., among others.
The program also helps the Army find trained professionals.
Lincoln police arrested Sanchez-Millan on Wednesday at a recruiting station in Sacramento County and later booked him into Placer County jail, said Lt. Paul Shelgren. The arrest came after officials began investigating what the father of the alleged victim, a 17-year-old girl, said has been "a nightmare" for a family with a strong military tradition.
from danger room: "New York City police officers and firefighters cordoned off much of Times Square for more than two hours after a small explosion - set off, the authorities said, by an “improvised explosive device” - damaged the front of the Armed Forces Career Center on the traffic island bounded by 43rd and 44th Streets, Seventh Avenue and Broadway at 3:43 a.m., the Times is reporting. "No one was injured, and after a temporary interruption, subway service was restored." ... "The mention of a bicyclist raised possible links to a May 2005 bombing at the British Consulate and an Oct. 26 explosion at the Mexican Consulate," the New York Daily News notes. "In both cases, police said, the suspect was possibly riding a bicycle when hollowed-out grenades - filled with black powder and a fuse - were tossed into the consulates. No arrests were made in those attacks."
does new york have a serial bomber? from time: New York City's Times Square - the pulsating heart of this teeming metropolis - was its usual, frenetic self Thursday morning, its scores of corporate billboards and animated displays shimmering brightly above the crush of people bustling to work. But something was amiss. Sections of the district were cordoned off with barricades and yellow tape; traffic was snarled, and police swarmed the area. For those unaware of what transpired here overnight, news crawls bellowed the troubling headlines: "TIMES SQUARE BOMBED." Authorities are investigating whether the attack is linked to two previous bombings which bore eerie similarities.
US military recruiting illegal aliens from press tv: Mexican citizen groups claim the US army is recruiting illegal immigrants from Mexico to send them to the war in Iraq. According to Prensa Latina on Friday in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state Sinaloa, civil activist Ildefonso Ortiz Cabrera told reporters that US military officers use young men of Latin American origin to recruit for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
russia successfully tests new icbm from ap: Russia's military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles... President Vladimir Putin has used windfall oil revenues to modernize Russia's military arsenals amid increasing tensions with the West. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying they threaten Russia's security.
army eyes south carolina nuke site for training from military.com: The military is looking for a few good acres - very, very dark ones. The Army apparently has its night-vision goggles focused on the huge tract of federal land that comprises the Savannah River nuclear complex in the southwestern portion of the state. It wants to train light infantry units in battle exercises there that may include Army, Navy and Air Force Special Operations Forces. The plan was announced last month by the National Environmental Protection Act compliance officer at the Savannah River site... The exercises could involve anywhere from a handful of troops to 4,000 Soldiers from combat teams, the announcement said.
idaho police academy slogan: go out and cause ptsd from ap: A state police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it."
bush signs controversial budget bill from press tv: The US President signs a $555 billion bill to fund government operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the White House says. The $555 billion bill for 2008 includes 70 billion dollars for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars without any timeline for troop withdrawal. The President's signature on the massive spending bill on Wednesday capped a long-running battle with the Democratic-run Congress. "The omnibus (bill) funds the government at responsible levels that the President proposed without raising taxes," White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters. "It provides a down-payment for our troops who are in harm's way without arbitrary withdrawal timelines," he added.
italy seeks 'operation condor' plot suspects from bbc: Prosecutors in Italy have issued arrest warrants for 140 people over a decades-old plot by South American dictatorships called Operation Condor. One man - 60-year-old Uruguayan former naval intelligence officer Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli - has already been arrested in Salerno, south Italy. Under Operation Condor, six governments worked together from the 1970s to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents... Among the other names on the list are the former Argentine military leader Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine former naval chief admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, and ex-Uruguayan junta leader Jorge Maria Bordaberry. Those named face charges ranging from lesser crimes to kidnappings and multiple murders.
fair use notice: this site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. we are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, & social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US copyright law. In accordance with title 17 usc section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
from corbett report: Science-fiction fantasy is becoming mundane reality and video games are increasingly merging with 21st century combat. The DoD recruits youth through traveling arcade exhibitions and new recruits are just as likely to end up behind a keyboard as behind enemy lines. What does this mean for the future of our predictively programmed world, and should we be worried. Find out more in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report.
