REFLECTIONS

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue:
1. Stocks 2. Stuxnet 3. Allred 4. 20 Bills 5. Suicide

1. Stocks. One of the financial mysteries has been the rise in the stock market in September while every single economic indicator has been going the other way. We finally have an answer: The Federal Reserve is using tax dollars to buy stocks and artificially pump up the stock market. The program was started under Alan Greenspan in 2005 and was revived under Bernanke in March 2009. It has been used nine times since then, artificially jacking up stock market by over 600 points. The program is called Permanent Open Market Operation. Here’s how it works

-Banks borrow money at 0.25 – 0.50% from the Federal Reserve
-Banks buy US Treasuries
-The Fed buys Treasuries back from the banks
-The Banks buy stocks with the proceeds from the treasury sales

It is a shell game, with the feds in charge. The banks and lending institutions doing this are the ones that the administration bailed out with over a trillion dollars of our tax dollars. It appears that the game is now thoroughly rigged on Wall Street and we have arrived at our Fascist financial future. Charles Payne article from Robert Frey, Tues.

2. Stuxnet. One of the Good Guys unleashed a first strike against the Iranian nuclear industry over the course of the last couple months. The weapon is a 500 meg piece of malware called Stuxnet. It targets process controllers used to run reactors, processing installations, and related industries. Because of its size, it appears to be transmitted via thumb drive or other removable media rather than over the internet. The worm installs a root kit, opens a back door into the system, removes / cloaks itself, and then waits upon further orders. Rumors out of Iran over the last few weeks have them scrambling with infected hardware and operating systems. The same rumors also have Russian and ChiCom nuclear scientists scrambling. The investigations and purge in Iran are just starting, which may delay their nuclear capability a bit. US computer forensic experts have a copy of the worm and are deconstructing it. It is a huge complex piece of software, and appears to be constructed by some serious players. Many fingers have pointed at Israel as one possible source. Others suspect the US, Russia of China – all of which mean than nobody has a clue yet who or what unleashed this weapon on the wild. And as of this writing, nobody is saying a thing. The fact that Iran appears to be targeted does give one warm fuzzies. Unfortunately, once the worm is decoded, and I expect that effort is going on in all the major cyber warfare players – US, Russia and ChiCom – expect other versions of the worm to be used against process controllers worldwide. If the computer pulls the rods and melts down a reactor; pumps in too much natural gas and blows up a power turbine; or whatever, the end result is just as effective as a 2000 pound bomb down the cooling tower. It is warfare by other means and it is coming soon to a utility near you.

3. Allred. Democrat political hack and camera chaser, Gloria Allred pulled her scheduled October surprise last week by outing a long-time housekeeper for Republican candidate for California governor Christine Whitman as an illegal. The attack appears to have been coordinated with the Jerry brown campaign. Allred also tried this against Arnold Schwarzenegger during his initial run for governor. It didn’t work then. Hopefully it won’t work this time either. The housekeeper lied about being an illegal to the service that placed her at Whitman’s home. She worked for nine years, and was let go when she told Whitman she was an illegal last year. The Social Security Administration sent a letter to the Whitmans in 2003 saying that the social security number didn’t match with their records. The letter specifically said that it (the letter) could not be used to determine her immigration status or harm her employment. Allred, the democrats, local media and the Brown campaign are using this as their official “gotcha” moment. All this puts Brown in an interesting position, as he is still the state Attorney General. Will he use Allred’s outing of the housekeeper as an illegal as a vehicle to arrest and deport her? Will he use the letter and the fact that Whitman followed the law to the letter as an excuse to indict her for knowingly hiring an illegal during the last month of the campaign? Or will he do what he is doing with the gay marriage crowd, and simply refuse to enforce the laws of the State of California that he swore an oath to uphold? Whichever way he goes, expect it to be the done in the most self-serving manner possible. Allred did her “client” no favors, as she identified her as an illegal – as someone who has committed a series of felonies over the course of the last decade. But sacrificing a nameless, faceless illegal on the altar of electing her favorite democrat is a small price to pay.

4. 20 Bills. Democrats in congress are planning on moving up to 20 pieces of legislation during the upcoming lame duck (or Mad Duck) session of congress following the election. Included will be action on the budget, which they failed to pass this year for the first time since the new budget rules were passed in 1974. By refusing to pass a budget this year, the democrat leadership hopes to take the economy and the outrageous spending they have shoved through congress since January 2007 off the table, allowing embattled democrats instead to focus on personal peccadilloes of the conservatives that oppose them. This is the old Bread & Circuses routine that has served them so well over the last several decades. Also included in the legislation are cap & trade; card check; the DREAM Act, legalizing millions of illegal kids; possible extension of the Bush tax cuts. Regardless of what happens November 2, Pelosi will retain her House majority intact. In the senate, on the other hand, up to five senators will change based on the results of the election. Depending on the state law, candidates elected to fill empty seats may be sworn in immediately after the election. Three that come to mind are Delaware, Illinois and West Virginia. Colorado may be a fourth. If all four end up being Republicans and state law requires immediate swearing in, Harry Reid’s majority drops instantly to 55 democrats. Some believe that congressional democrats and the Obama administration are going to orchestrate a government shutdown in December in an attempt to get their budget passed before the new congress is sworn in in January. Fight’s on! Conservatives won’t have a lot of time to enjoy a victory in November, I expect, as things are going to get ugly in a hurry.

5. Suicide. The latest heart-rending story out of the Lifestyle that Will Not Shut Up (gay rights) is one about a gay freshman at Rutgers that had a sexual encounter with another guy sent out over the internet by his roommate and another girl. Unfortunately, the kid chose to jump off a bridge and commit suicide rather than take after his roommate and the co-conspirator with a baseball bat. I do not have sympathy with suicides, as they are ultimate selfish act. Whatever the problem, there is always another day. Perhaps I am just a bit old fashioned, but I truly do not have sympathy with the kid that killed himself. With his parents, absolutely. One of the things you need to do when sharing a room in a dorm is to set up Rules of Engagement, as that room is a shared private space. Enforce those rules between the two of you however you see fit. But you bloody well need to set them up. If the House Rules are no boinking – regardless of the sex – there is no boinking. If they are the old “hang a tie on the doorknob” routine, do that (though I don’t think that is much practiced any more (40 years later). Otherwise, you may end up with a reprise of the Revenge of the Nerds where your sexual encounter is broadcast for all to see. The fact that this kid didn’t do anything to defend himself or wreak vengeance afterwards on those that did him wrong is particularly troubling. What the Hell are we raising these days? Then again, this may be an example of Niven’s Evolution in Action. Either way, it is a tragedy – but not one based on gay rights or hate crimes.

More later — AG

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Note: Interesting Items can be found also at the following locations: MatSu Valley News and the home page. Rod Martin’s The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. Alex Gimarc is a long-time member of the previous Town Hall Conservative group.