I have my doubts about the closure of Liberty Reserve. It is widely reported to have had 1 million users. I am not yet convinced that a higher percentage of these were criminals, than is true in much of the mainstream banking system. I have been told by an email – which I cannot currently verify – that of the US $6 billion processed through Liberty Reserve, only US$20 million has to date been seized as the proceeds of crime.
It seems to me that a public sickened by the massive charges of bankers for simple intermediary services, will increasingly look for means to exchange value outwith the formal banking sector using modern technology. Services like Western Union are dreadfully overpriced, and make massive profits on home transfers by poor immigrant workers worldwide. It is getting increasingly hard to despatch money as physical cash by a friend. Carrying large quantities of money, even if it is your own, is seen as suspicious.
I was astonished when, during the Norwich by-election, my request to take several thousand pounds worth of cash out of my own bank account to pay various expenses was met with an insistence by the bank that I complete a form saying what it was for. Furious at being denied my own money, I wrote on the form that I needed the money for “Drink and bad women”. That sufficed to meet the stupid regulation.
The US government through aggressive – and in my view illegal – pressure on banks and financial services providers managed to cut off Wikileaks from almost all avenues of sources of international donation funding by individuals. You cannot trust governments to have the power to control all funds transfers. Governments will abuse that power.
Of course proceeds of crime should be seized. I have no problem with that. Stopping the crime in the first place would be better, but failing that you should track the money and seize it. But the way to do that is not to control everybody’s exchanges of value at all times. It is like asking me for proof I am not going to rob a bank every time I walk out of the house. It would make as much sense to ban mattresses, as stolen cash can be hidden under them, or cars, as stolen cash can be transported in them, as to close down internet transfer options because they might be used to transfer crooked cash.
Am I alone in worrying that the mainstream media’s reporting of this closure has involved simply repeating US government press releases, with no attempt at all to analyse what percentage of Liberty Reserve’s funds were actually criminal proceeds, and compare that to a mainstream bank?
Where has 13 1/2 u-year old Sophie disappeared to?
And who is Kib- O- Noor (BA (failed), Coleridge College), who appeared so soon afterwards?
Could it be that…….? Surely not!
Must get the old language and style comparator fired up.. 🙂
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La vita è bella, life is good!
Colin,
Yuu do realise this is a widly held belief – well the England part anyway?
And some local legends in Scotland have always had Jesus (and curiously also Pontius Pilate was supposedly born in Scotland) up north of the current border.
Presumably nonsense but it hasn’t bewn started by this Dr Strachan.
Sorry Komodo. That don’t fly. Read up on Keynes and also this piece; .http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/710bdd68-540b-11e1-8d12-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2Ussw2w00
Japan is the canary-in-the-coalmine. It’s wobbling precariously now after 20 years of stagnation due to austerity measures.
Debt is not the only consideration in the road to recovery, but the same folks are issuing dire warnings in the US wrt to Social Security and the fact that folks are living longer.
No problem for the UK as long as NHS keeps killing off the pensioners. Same in the US.
Yes, of course I know about Blake, Glastonbury, Priddy, the boy Jesus on the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall (which did exist 2000 years ago), Pontius Pilate in Fortingall, and Saint Sarah, daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. I even know about Jesus’s tomb in Kashmir. I don’t think you’re getting what’s funny here! 🙂
@Anon 4.29pm – I’d be interested to hear about some of the local legends which hold that Jesus went to what’s now Scotland. If you could post the names of some of the places, that would be great. The only one I’m aware of which ever existed is in the Catholic part of the Uists.
Thanks Ben.
Well, all right, I take back the bit about Cornwall existing 2000 years ago! My mistake!
Glenn; Do yourself a favor and watch Mark’s “Sucks Ocock News” (sometimes you have to laugh at what’s going on)
James Petras knows what’s what.
Ireland and the Basque Country
Massive Flight (Emigration) or General Strike?
by James Petras / May 30th, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/05/ireland-and-the-basque-country/
Dunkeld and other places associated with the River Tay. Small Roman trading posts and “missions” supposedly existed in the area prior to the actual armies arriving. Pilate was supposedly the son of a Roman and a local woman born in Fortingall.
The variant of the story I heard some time ago was that Jesus and his uncle visited the spiritually important site of the confluence of the Rivers Tay and Braan which later became the site of Dunkeld Cathedral and of enormous importance to the early church. Perhaps dropping some Greek coins in Dundee on the way which turned up nearly 2000 years later to puzzle archaeologists 🙂
“I take back the bit about Cornwall existing 2000 years ago!”
Apart from the odd chunk here and there that has fallen into the sea and few areas which have been dried out all of the UK existed 2,000 years ago; just not with the names they have now.
“Yuu do realise this is a widly held belief – well the England part anyway? ”
And that’s all it is, a belief.
For my Hero.
Sorry written in haste.
…………………………….
EAT YOUR HEART OUT W B!
Had I ……er..tum-ti-tiddle-um-tums…….
.
Try again
.
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with tum-ti……tum-ti.tum
Er…………. bite and fight, well I was tight
……………Urmm………….
Oh…..Sod that for a lark!
There was an old blugger from Tralee
Who stole the work of Great Ones quite unashamedly*
He was never a poet
But it took some harsh and rather patronising but true for once words from the Habba
For him to know it
And would you banksters ever get your big feet off of my dreams
Immediatelee!
………………………………………………………………..
* Alright! Alright! You too, William McGonnagle.
Tablecloth – great handle 🙂
Kibo Noh
You wrote that very fast. It wasn’t there when I started typing the word Tablecloth.
Hey Halfbikini
Yes, it’s your job to spread confusion and not to encourage clarification. You know how to do your job.
Dreoilin. 6 21pm
Like I said, wrtit ni hayst!
Yeah. And Habba, See what your language and style combloodyparator makes of that!
@Kempe
Are you trolling, or do you really think that countries and other geographically-based ethnic brands, such as Cornwall, have existed for as long as the geographical areas they are now associated with?
As for “the UK”, it’s a name for a regime, used for a current country, which doesn’t even contain a reference to an ethnicity stuck in the middle, as happens with the United Arab Emirates, or put at the end, as with Saudi Arabia. You might as well write as if to suggest that the French Fifth Republic or the Kingdom of Belgium have existed since before the dawn of recorded time.
I knew about references to Cornish tin merchants etc. of 2000 and more years ago, and naively thought Cornwall existed then, but on checking, learnt that it didn’t.
A line from Orwell’s 1984: those who control the past, control the future; those who control the present, control the past.
Could this be the fall out from the latest SIS shenanigans? Mercer was one of their own, and to be sidestepped in this fashion needs to be examined; exploring the reasons of his evident demise.
A good read, a recent TV interview with Syria’s President Assad.
http://sana.sy/eng/21/2013/05/30/485037.htm
Compare and contrast with the buffoon Cameron Southern England has saddled the UK with.
I think ‘government control of money’ is in error, a far greater concern is moneys i.e. central bankers control of government, here there and everywhere with very few exceptions.
A Public Service announcement: As I and many others have blanked by software all trace of the shoddy zionist trolls and shills like habbakduk, Kempe and Company, it is very annoying that every other post refers to them, quotes them, engages with them and simply encourages them. Not feeding the trolls includes denying them they attention they crave. Thank you.
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/publications/special_bulletins/s3_2013___airbus_a319_131__g_euoe.cfm
One engine destroyed and only luck saved the other engine. 27 mins in the air over the most densely populated part of the UK. This could so easily have turned into one of those Aircraft Disaster episodes where the pilots spend so much time “fault-finding” they fail to understand that the aircraft needs to get on the ground right now. Something the crew didn’t fully comprehend until just before landing when they called “Mayday” superseding their previous “PAN” while they pissed about over London as the engines fell apart.
From the always reasonable, polite, balanced and knowledgeable Cryptpnym :
“A Public Service announcement: As I and many others have blanked by software all trace of the shoddy zionist trolls and shills like habbakduk, Kempe and Company, it is very annoying that every other post refers to them, quotes them, engages with them and simply encourages them. Not feeding the trolls includes denying them they attention they crave. Thank you.”
———–
I do understand Cryptonym’s frustration, feel sorry for him and want to help. So here’s a suggestion : why don’t you use software which will blank out EVERY post which makes reference to me, whether directly, through mis-spellings or simply the initials beloved by the likes of Mary/April?
Once that’s installed, you’ll never need to get upset again and you’ll have lots more of this blog all to yourself and the nonsense you post.
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La vita è bella, life is good! (It’s Amschel Rothschild wot done it)
“A Public Service announcement: As I and many others have blanked by software all trace of the shoddy zionist trolls and shills like habbakduk, Kempe and Company, it is very annoying that every other post refers to them, quotes them, engages with them and simply encourages them. Not feeding the trolls includes denying them they attention they crave. Thank you.”
Yes, that’s the problem with kill files, they don’t work.
If it’s any consolation in a few years when you’ve been posting to forums for a while you’ll look back and wonder why the hell you let them get to you anyway.
Every forum has one, get rid of him and another one will take his place, look on the bright side, as long as it’s him it isn’t you.
Why doesn’t the BBC expose the Prime Minister for trading in Nuclear weapons and backing Al Qaida in Libya and Syria. Cameron has got his BBC colleagues to stitch up one of his political critics. I would trust Mercer a million times more than him.
‘BA Near Disaster’ 8:23pm post exposes his/her ignorance and clearly indicates that he/she is unfit for the responsibility of controlling / flying aircraft. The MAYDAY was declared on approach to landing, after the right engine burst into flames. There was no ‘pissing about’ over London.
‘Get on the ground right now’ – too much watching of TV.
Putting the best possible face on it…
“A town in Northern Ireland is getting spruced up for the arrival of some special guests.
World leaders are gathering in the town of Enniskillen for the G8 summit next month.”
http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/northern-ireland-town-fakes-prosperity-for-g8-summit/
Yonatan,
That’s the point. The pilots assumed the aircraft was airworthy and would remain that way allowing a fairly routine return to home base. The only assumption they could really make however was that the airplane’s integrity was UNKNOWN given that the engine covers (which the flight crew are supposed to check pre-departure) had fallen off on takeoff and hit numerous unknown parts of the frame as they did so.
The engine failure seemed to come as a complete surprise to them. Old school British Airways pilots would have immediately diverted to Stansted given that the airplane status was unknown. In fact that was exactly what happened previously in a similar situation many years ago. You can argue that modern flight systems mean there would have been more work (and possibility for error) for the flight crew in diverting to Stansted but given the timing they would have landed st Stansted with both engines still operational had they taken that option.
And if anyone is still falling for the bullshit that it is easy for the crew to miss the covers not latched down during a visual check, then please see Fig 1 in the preliminary report.
Yonatan: “[…] too much watching of TV”
http://arabisouri.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/419059.jpg
Poor Enniskillen, Ben Franklin, wasting money on sprucing it up for the super-rich who have caused the relative closure of businesses. I write relative because I recently read an article on real poverty by Imtiaz Akhtar.
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/05/30/indias-shameful-class-divide/
I wonder what they’re going to do to the tents and caravans that roll up to Watford next week from 6th to 8th June for the Bilderberg Fringe Festival? My blog is not like Craig’s but I think it has been disabled since my last post, incidentally on the Bilderberg Fringe. It has had by far the lowest number of hits of any post. It could turn a fairly level-headed person paranoid.