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It’s Not Just Spying – How The NSA Has Turned Into A Giant Profit Center For Corrupt Insiders
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Dear NSA Employees, You Now Have a Green Light to Loot and Pillage. It’s Time to Get Paid:
Are you just another one of those frustrated NSA employees who feels that unconstitutionally spying on your fellow citizenry under false pretenses isn’t giving you same thrill it once did? If so, have no fear.
Are you are sick and tired of having to spilt your precious working hours defending the destruction of our nation’s founding document to those pesky terroristic media dinosaurs who still think investigative journalism belongs in Amerika? If so, have I got a solution for you.
While it may sound too good to be true, trust me it’s not. You see, in recent years almost all crony-capitalist criminal activities have been deemed legal in the land of the free (to pillage). This incredible opportunity allows you to directly leverage your intelligence skill-set to earn the big bucks you know you’ve always deserved. You can now do just that by working in the private sector without having to give up that cushy government day job! I mean if we’re going to have this banana republic thing going we may as well GET PAID. Am I right?
Keep at it patriots,
Michael Krieger
If the above sounds like a joke, unfortunately it is not. Last week, two very important stories came out; one from Reuters and the other from Buzzfeed. They both zero in on how current NSA employees are using their expertise and connections to make big money in the private sector while still working at the NSA. Let’s start with the Reuters story, which covers former NSA-head Keith Alexander’s business relationship with the NSA’s current Chief Technical Officer, Patrick Dowd.
Before we get into the meat of this story, I want to set the stage with a little background. In case you forgot, Keith Alexander launched his own cyber-security firm, IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., earlier this year. I highlighted this development in the post, Ex-NSA Chief Keith Alexander is Now Pimping Advice to Wall Street Banks for $1 Million a Month, in which I noted:
So what’s a Peeping Tom, anti-democratic, Constitution-trampling intelligence crony to do after leaving decades of “public service?” Move into the private sector and collect a fat paycheck from Wall Street, naturally. Following in the footsteps of some of the other top tier public sector cronies looking to cash out after doing their best to destroy the Republic, such as Banana Ben Bernanke collecting $250,000 per speech and Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner hopping over to private equity giant Warburg Pincus, Mr. Alexander is in good crooked company.
So what is Mr. Alexander charging for his expertise? He’s looking for $1 million per month. Yes, you read that right. That’s the rate that his firm, IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., pitched to Wall Street’s largest lobbying group the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), which ultimately negotiated it down to a mere $600,000 a month.
As if Mr. Alexander plowing right through the revolving door to earn $1 million per month from Wall Street less than a year after being at the center of perhaps the most expansive government violation of the Constitution in U.S. history wasn’t bad enough, he is now hiring top people still working at the NSA to concurrently work at his cyber-security firm. I wish I was making this up.
Reuters reports that:
(Reuters) – The U.S. National Security Agency has launched an internal review of a senior official’s part-time work for a private venture started by former NSA director Keith Alexander that raises questions over the blurring of lines between government and business.
Under the arrangement, which was confirmed by Alexander and current intelligence officials, NSA’s Chief Technical Officer, Patrick Dowd, is allowed to work up to 20 hours a week at IronNet Cybersecurity Inc, the private firm led by Alexander, a retired Army general and his former boss.
The arrangement was approved by top NSA managers, current and former officials said. It does not appear to break any laws and it could not be determined whether Dowd has actually begun working for Alexander, who retired from the NSA in March.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said they could not recall a previous instance in which a high-ranking U.S. intelligence official was allowed to concurrently work for a private-sector firm.
Alexander, who was the eavesdropping and code-breaking agency’s longest-serving director, confirmed the arrangement with Dowd in an interview with Reuters. He said he understood it had been approved by all the necessary government authorities, and that IronNet Cybersecurity, not the government, would pay for Dowd’s time spent with the firm.
As if the entity paying Dowd for his time spent at the firm is the issue. Alexander is the definition of the word creep.
Dowd, he said, wanted to join IronNet, and the deal was devised as a way to keep Dowd’s technological expertise at least partly within the U.S. government, rather than losing him permanently to the private sector.
Oh I get it now. America has become so hopelessly corrupt, that the revolving door itself is becoming too much of a headache. So the solution is to just get rid of it completely.
“I wanted Pat to stay at NSA. He wanted to come on board,” Alexander said.
Alexander and Dowd have jointly filed patents based on technology they developed while at the NSA.
“If it isn’t structured very carefully, this runs the risk of conflict of interest and disclosure of national secrets,” Rothstein said. “It is a situation that in the interests of good government should be avoided unless there’s some very strong reason to do it.”
So Americans aren’t entitled to any privacy because of a trumped up terrorist threat, yet top NSA employees can moonlight for private businesses involved in the same areas as the NSA with apparently no threat to national security. America has gone completely insane.
Unsurprisingly, this is just the tip of the crony-capitalist fraud that the NSA has become. In fact, Buzzfeed broke a related story recently. It reports how one of the most powerful individuals at the NSA, Teresa H. Shea., has several intelligence related businesses run from her home. She is the registered agent for one of them, her husband holds that position for the other.
Teresa Shea is the director of Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT, which refers to all electronic eavesdropping and interception, including the controversial domestic surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone use. Naturally, no one is commenting.
On a quiet street in Ellicott City, Maryland, a blue-grey two-story clapboard house, set back from the road, is shaded by two sycamores and a towering maple. It’s the unassuming home of one of the National Security Agency’s most powerful officials, Teresa H. Shea.
In September, BuzzFeed News disclosed a potential conflict of interest involving Shea, the director of Signals Intelligence. Called SIGINT in espionage jargon, it refers to all electronic eavesdropping and interception, including the controversial domestic surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone use.
As BuzzFeed News reported, there’s a private SIGINT consulting and contracting business based at Shea’s home in that quiet neighborhood. Shea’s husband, a business executive in the small but profitable SIGINT industry, is the resident agent for the firm, Telic Networks.
In addition, James Shea also works for a major SIGINT contracting firm, DRS Signal Solutions Inc., which appears to do SIGINT business with the NSA.
DRS declined to comment, and the NSA declined to answer questions related to the Sheas, Telic Networks, or DRS.
Now there’s a new wrinkle, which the NSA has also declined to discuss: Yet another company, apparently focused on the office and electronics business, is based at the Shea residence on that well-tended lot.
This company is called Oplnet LLC.
Teresa Shea, who has been at the NSA since 1984, is the company’s resident agent. The company’s articles of organization, signed by Teresa Shea, show that the firm was established in 1999 primarily “to buy, sell, rent and lease office and electronic equipment and related goods and services.” An attorney who also signed the document, Alan Engel, said he couldn’t comment on client matters.
Records show Oplnet does own a six-seat airplane, as well a condominium property with an assessed value of $275,000 in the resort town of Hilton Head, South Carolina.
This summer the NSA turned down a Freedom of Information Act request for Shea’s public financial disclosure form. The agency said that, unlike every other federal agency, it could withhold the disclosure because of a sweeping 1959 law that allows it to keep almost everything secret.
Go ahead and read that twice. Read it three times. Still think we live in a free country?
Financial disclosure forms are central to public monitoring of ethics and potential conflicts of interests by federal officials. Without that form, journalists or concerned citizens must comb through corporate incorporations, property records, UCC filings, and court records to learn about an official’s financial interests outside of office. Often, these documents are not online and are in offices scattered across different states.
Teresa Shea, as head of SIGINT, has defended the program in declarations in two federal court cases.
Her husband has been involved in SIGINT as a private contractor and engineer since at least 1990, when he set up a company called Sigtek Inc., which would get hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts with the federal government, according to a federal contracting database. On his LinkedIn page, James Shea says the company’s key markets included “Defense SIGINT.”
In 2010, Teresa Shea was appointed the director of all SIGINT at the NSA, after a period working in London. The same year, James Shea became vice president at a major SIGINT contracting firm, DRS Signal Solutions, a subsidiary of DRS Technologies.
As BuzzFeed reported in its first story on the Sheas, neither the NSA nor DRS will comment on whether the company has contracts with Teresa Shea’s directorate.
Asked if there was a conflict of interest, DRS spokesman Michael Mount said “I understand your story, and we’ll still decline to comment.” He said that when responding to BuzzFeed News about questions concerning James Shea, the company has coordinated with the NSA.
Matthew Aid, who has written a book about the NSA, The Secret Sentry, said it would be difficult to understand why Oplnet, this second home-based business, was set up by Ms. Shea, without knowing more.
But he adds that the fact that Shea’s husband works for a SIGINT contractor, and has a SIGINT related company at the couple’s home, is confounding.
“From a purely financial point of view, there’s so much potential of conflict of interest.”
“The fact that the NSA will not respond to your request raises in my mind a host of questions. If there was nothing there, they could have come back to you and said, ‘She’d been diligent. She’s in compliance.’ Then there’s no story. But they’ve said nothing. That to me is what could potential signal some problems.”
Welcome to the American Dream in 2014. Looks a lot like the Soviet Dream.
Utterly shameless.
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The hangings for treason are so very long overdue.
They developed patented intellectual property while at the NSA? It is not their property. It is the USA (Inc.,LLC,AG,LTD) property.
"They didn't build it"
I'm applying for an NSA job tomorrow.
Let's not limit this to the NSA...this bullshit applies to the ENTIRE government.
Correction: it applies to at least few people within all parts of the government. Anytime you make a sweeping statement about all people in a group, you immediately show yourself to be an idiot - or ignorant - or too lazy to make a thought out statement.
Government's main function is to transfer wealth.
So it's working as designed.
"Correction: it applies to at least few people within all parts of the government."
Baloney. When it comes to people in the government and corruption, the majority are in on it, not a few. And its more like a super majority. And thats only 60%. I'd say thats on the low side. Maybe like 80%. The rest are just lazy turd counting parasites that do absolutely nothing productive AT ALL.
I could just as easily argue that 80% of people that don't work for the government are lazy parasites of the system that the government creates. Name me a profession that isn't emplyed by the government.
Neither one of us have statistics to back up our bullshit argument.
You fail at logic and commen sense.
WTF? You think the government runs on fairy dust?
What is this Nancy Pelosi's account?
You do realize that the GOVERNMENT RUNS ON TAX DOLLARS right? Which means that the government is funded ENTIRELY BY PRIVATE BUSINESS.
God damn, you just personified the ignorance that is pervasive throughout our society.
He's either a troll or the solar system idiot.
This country is so poisoned, we are truly fucked
The gov. actually runs on the promised future productivity of unborn slaves.
Taxes don't pay squat.
As for the "purpose" of gov.,...
The purpose of power is to extend and perpetuate itself.
The greed of the sociopaths in gov. is where the transfer of wealth comes into play.
The government runs on fiat dollars like the rest of the economy. So what it spends is nearly arbitrary. What matters is what percentage of the economy is government.
You do realize that the government creates demand in every single private business sector right? That demand increases the earnings of private businesses. That increased earning increases the velocity of money, in general, creating a more pleasant economy.
Now if the percentage of people working for the government gets too high, then you start to have a self-destructive problem.
Your simple opinion on how an economy works along with a government needs a little more work.
"You do realize that the government creates demand in every single private business sector right?"
Yes, that is the ultimate poison apple. This has been going on for decades. The temptation to make government bigger has been going on for decades and is already biting every county in the civilized world, in the ass. Once it starts, it only ends in collapse. Greece anyone? Just a "sneak preview". If government isn't limited to a certain - very small - size, it destroys the country it's designed to protect.
And yes, the track record for government self-destruction in this case is 100% going back to the beginning of human history.
Edit: As I've mentioned before, the end result will be similar to what became of the Roman Empire; a conglomeration of small city-states will form after the collapse that will be self-governing by small groups of people.
Listen ACP.
"Alexander and Dowd have jointly filed patents based on technology they developed while at the NSA."
Try that shit in the public sector and you'd get your nuts chopped off by the corporate attorney's, no?
Intellectual property paid for with USSA tax money, is belongs to the General?
Man you Americans are really stupid sheep's.
The old ways in the USSR are not comparable. In the USSR you had to bribe the General who then divided the spoils with his underlings: the colonels getting more than the majors getting more than the captains getting more than the lieutenants. Other ranks had to do as they were told because they were all conscripts and lived off what they could steal and sell.
This is more like Rome where a few at the top skim off all of the cream leaving nothing for the lower ranks. That is why the postman steals the wine you ordered.
LISTEN....to the flower people...
Governments are leeches. They produce NO products of value and sell nothing. They take and destroy and nothing less.
With that said....... "Governments are a necessary evil."
Thomas Paine
"Governments are a necessary evil."
No sale. They're only necessary to service our conditioning.
"The rest are just lazy turd counting parasites that do absolutely nothing productive AT ALL."
I have an aunt that works for the dept. of education. If only you knew how right you are.
Dear Mike Krieger,
Thank you for your letter addressed to our associates here at your National Security Agency.
As defined in the National Defense Authorization Act; Title X, Subtitle D, sub-sections 1021 and 1022:
You have been designated a malcontent and are now considered a threat to National Security of the United States of America.
The Stellar Wind Worldwide HydraSquid Algorithm, facilitated via PRISM intercepts, has detected an anomaly from your IP address and hereby orders you to surrender yourself to the nearest law enforcement agency.
A Skynet airborne drone has been dispatched to your MGRS coordinates to ensure compliance with this directive.
Upon your voluntary arrival at LEA, you will then be relocated to one of the DHS re-education facilities in an undisclosed location.
This is the only notice you will receive.
Resistance or non-compliance will be met with extreme prejudice.
END OF COMMUNICATION
lol at the 'Dear' at the beninning.
Also at your fruedian beni(g)nning :-)
Anything but Beni(g)n eh SB?
Add this story to the increasing chinese home-ownership NUMBers and you have MacCarthy totally vindicated...
a little late though...
Freud.
Otherwise, okay.
Correction: This article never stated that everyone in the NSA was doing this; I was taking the thesis that this agency was infected with corruption, and RIGHTFULLY expanding it to include every agency in the government.
Do I really need to explain that?
I suspect and believe that people within the NSA trawl monitored conversations and emails for insider information that they can either trade on or take advantage of by beating those monitored to the mark.
And this sort of activity would not be confined to just US communications but also communications the world over.
Friends tell me that the Israelies are particularly adept at this sort of activity.
You over-estimate the cunningness of NSA employees.
They can spy on me. I can't know what they are doing, at all. I can't spy on them, no matter how bad I think they might be behaving. I have no rights. Seems asymmetrical and pretty cunning to me...
And I take it as a given that they acquire and trade inside information. Imagine the blackmail ability with standard eavesdropping, never mind anything special.
ACP...You said the "ENTIRE GOVERNMENT"....so yeah, that's a little unclear if you actually meant parts of every part of the government.
If that's what you meant, your point is irrelavent. As all organizations, groups, associations, etc... contain some level of corruption at some level. At some level you are corrupt. At some level your family is corrupt. Correct me if I'm wrong, my lord and savior.
Stop this trolling. Fuck you.
Correct what?
Can you show us ONE government entity that is not corrupt right now?
JUST ONE and show proof...... Doesn't exist!!
And those in government who took an oath to defend the Constitution and do not do so are just as complicit in their inaction.
Listen bunz.
How much do they pay you and Bangalore?
I'm much smarter, more cute, and on a different line of thought than Bangalore.
I wish I could get paid to make fun of the morons here. That would be a dream job. I think it is more of an addiction. I know that even commenting back to you is a complete waste of time, yet I have the urge/need to do it.
Really though...people here are so caught up in their own little biased worlds, they lack even a tiny amount of sense in some areas. Smart people can be really fucking stupid.
Listen.
FUCK YOU "BOTH".
Race: Indian!
Listen, Bangladesh Bob.
If you or Bunz don't like it here, well leave.
Troll elsewhere.
sorry bunzbunzbunz but you're wrong - even down at the local town hall they are cheating and self-dealing. you really think that cop that just retired miraculously got every possible hour of overtime in those last few yrs of service and then retired with that larger pension? the whole system has no checks & balances...every last person in that town hall knows this is happening and so you get a ton of down arrows for being ignorant...
Not my government... I do not consent to be governed by these lawless treasonous bastards.
Come get some.
"Alexander and Dowd have jointly filed patents based on technology they developed while at the NSA"
Can't believe they made this statement.
They would not have ownership of IP in their field of employment that was developed while they were at the NSA.
The patent is filed by the people who invented it, but the rights to it are assigned to the employer. It's their patent, but the NSA has complete control over the use of it.
This is just good free market policy that NSA officials can have a little action on the side. You need to keep them interested and they are the good guys, show a litttle respect.
I'm all about that bass, no treble.
God I hate this song. Fuck you spotify.
Free Market....
Indeed
Unfortunately, the ones who should be hanged are the ones who decide who is hanged.
I need this on a t-shirt or bumper sticker. Alongside "if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide," well THEY decide if what you're doing is wrong.
Should be: "If you got nothing they want to steal then you have nothing to hide."
we can also imagine the tons of filthy lucre being made directly from the stock market by the royalty of the NSA. if they can zero in on any phone call, email or text the potential for insider trading by eavsdropping is enormous.
Well, as a consolation, he was a total moron in his potash trades.
Who leaked the nude photos of those actresses?
Porn browsing is rampant among govt workers. I hate to think what those nsa guys do when they're bored at work to pass time
Yes, we live in a free society. And the proper subject of debate here on ZH is which economic philosophy is the correct one. And the market is going down because of flow or stock or something.
Free society?
Maybe for the tax eaters.
I forgot the low IQ sarc tag. And what do you care about taxes? You are outside the system, aren't you?
As someone who has been a lifelong worker in the private sector, I would like my money back from the tax eaters.
Like you.
P.S. Judging by your committed love of government, you're stupid enough to believe what you wrote.
Yeah, go fuck yourself. You strike me as a guy who got a net tax refund last year and who bitches about taxes while in the drive through.
Can't say that to you.
You can't get anymore fucked up.
So I'm right, then?
I support freedom.
You should be free to pay for whatever government you want and I should be free from paying your government anything.
Tribes, governments, states, they are all adaptations for survival in the animal world. Understand that they have always operated through death, destruction, and theft - that is what you profess to admire. You can stay in the animal world. I prefer life in a human world, one without your kind.
And there is no way I could consider you human. The fact that society calls you human is just another lie, part of the con to keep you believing that doing evil is moral, proper, and just.
It's a lie and you're wired to believe it.
How about oligarchs who get together and convince douche bags that we should do away with elected government and let them be in charge? What do you call them?
I call them the US Federal Government. You know that happened a while ago. The Federal Government is too large to be an effective democracy, which is why more power needs to be given to the states.
I hear you, but it's larger than the US. The guys who run the show have no particular national affiliation.
Yup, the only affiliation is absolute power.
Is there even the slightest possibility of you understanding that government is the cause of the existence of "oligarchs"? After all, man's world has been systematically constructed by his governments.
Rulers have always had a group of henchmen or relatives that became wealthy at the expense of the ruled and the current forms of government are no different.
"Rulers have always had...."
True. Thousands of years of history. Kings, Queens, etc. A few hundred years of elected government. Rulers have always had.... Why were there rulers before elected government?
Under the conditions of tribal society, those submitting to a powerful alpha shared the benefits of his prowess, i.e. the great warrior.
Times have changed, war is unnecessary because stealing is best replaced by producing - except with government lovers.
To them, stealing and alphas is still the way to go.
Govt or no govt, there will ALWAYS be a "bigger bully". And then the little people band together to fight the bully and before you know it, fuck me! Govt has been reborn. Until the bullies gain control of the govt and then it splits up again. It's a great big cycle and the existence of this great big cycle has been known since ancient times. Learn it. Live with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_five_regimes
Grow up. Stop pretending that evil magically disappears just because govt collapses. The evil is always there. The evil will manifest wherever the opportunity arises.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1989-10-20/
Throughout your life, have you noticed a deeply embedded behavior of government to create circumstances where it is needed or even wanted? Like war, destruction of the economy, using laws to create millions of "criminals", etc.
Harry Browne said "Government breaks your leg and then offers itself to you as a crutch."? It is a feedback loop that creates its own growth and very often, a destructive end.
Predators in nature are necessarily a small minority, same as society. It would be easy to exclude or kill the 1% that are irredeemable psychopaths.
Both of you retards are using the internet. A government creation....my god. You aren't special. Guess what. Tomorrow you are going to go somewhere on roads....another government creation. And you might talk on the phone...or text....another government creation....and you might live on land that you or your land lord has rights to....those rights....A GOVERNMENT CREATION!@#!@#!#
Settle the fuck down. And live nicely.
More specifically, the DOD. The military frequently comes up with good ideas that are adopted by the general public, like the t-shirt. Now compare this with the truckload of bad ideas from the government that have torn society into unrecognizable pieces. What's your point?
My point is that without a government, we are nomads. It was the government that gave people rights to land. WIthout the government, someone else would have come along and said, this is my land now, die. This gave people the rights to resources like wood and water. People traded with these things.
The government funded and established sewage, roads, dams, sattellites, and on and on. All of these things are what the private businesses you worship are established on. You want true capitalism? You get nomads and fisherman. That's it.
Without government, people would be free of other people's asinine beliefs.
Like your asinine belief in government.
"It was the government that gave people rights to land."
I am not even sure where to start with that statement. The government doesn't give rights. This is why they are called rights. Have you read the founding documents? The government was established in this country to protect the rights that were inherently ours. The people...
The DOD also created the wet t-shirt!
You're full of crap.
The government didn't invent the concept but it spent the taxpayer's money on it.
Paths were a creation of animals, roads of early traders. Governments marched armies down them to kill, conquer, and enslave, and once again, currently spends (wastes) taxpayer money on them.
Who invented the phone?
As for rights, there isn't a right to create a government that creates rights.
You are really really stupid.
Anu,
As much as I would love to live in a world without government and with people that didn't feel like they need it, you just aren't ever going to get rid of it. It isn't that human beings need to be ruled over its just that humans are no different than any other animal and produce hierarchy to establish dominance and to spread the their genes. How are any of these guys who are king of the mountain any different than the alpha male walrus or wolf.
I agree with you. But I would say that all the different forms of government exist because of different stages of the generations that grow up with historical norms. Their aren't a lot of choices to fight the monster that is our society. You just got to ride the wave, stay ahead of the pack, and pray to god the sharks don't get you.
The major religious faiths within countries pretty much co-exist now, countries with different forms of government co-exist, different political parties within countries co-exist. All of which contributes to a better, more interesting, world.
This is because none of those opposing beliefs have a monopoly control.
But governments WITHIN a country have monopoly control. It would be okay for those who wish to choose government, but said governments' monopoly control should extend to only those who desire it.
Governance should be treated like religion: a person's own choice.
I've never gotten the feeling LTER is fond of government. I don't entirely agree with everything he says, but he's not off the deep end, if thats what you are getting at. Live and let live.
Sorry, man. Got to disagree. I'm off the deep end. :)
Just not a fully formed human.
"Live and let live."
The philosophy and and actions of government are diametrically opposed to that.
Most people would rather kill you than give up their control of you. They consider others as their property to use and dispose at their will.
No jackass...most people dont give a fuck about you or me or anyone else that is not within their family.
Your self-importance is your weakness. And what drives your world-view. Rethink.
Really? Try not paying taxes sometime. See how much they don't care about controlling you.
Once again, you don't understand.
The main appeal of government is that the government lover-loser is vicariously in control.
Control in the animal world is a powerful force for survival and most people are unable to leave it there.
Did you forget the /s tag? The market is going down because the CB can no longer hide the rot that lingers beneath the facade.
Not your reddie, btw.
You should re-read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, you might just eat Rand, after all.
Ya' might wanna consult the musings of Edgar Cayce as well. He's looking kinda prescient these days.
Yes, the good books will enlighten me. Cult much? And we're all eating Rand right now. You don't see it, because of the cult thing. Who is Alan Greenspan. Hint: he co-wrote with Rand, and orchestrated this cluster fuck*.
*now is your chance to go through the elaborate stages of denial in which you explain that Greenspan didn't really "get" Rand, even though he co-wrote with that steaming pile.
Conflate much? I'll be honest, I dunno what kinda transformation Greenspan experienced. Yes, I know that Ayn took Social Security payments late in life.
My hunch is that Greenspan succumbed to greed, while Rand succumbed to old age.
DO NOT conflate the wisdom of Ayn Rand with the complicity of Alan Greenspan.
Did you know, that once upon a time, Greenspan was a goldbug? That is, until he wasn't.
Do you know your ass from a hole in the ground, or simply your assigned talking points?
I just pay attention to what they do. You seem to care about what they say.
With respect to Ayn Rand, I would take free money from the government if it was offered to me. After all, I paid into it, why shouldnt I get anything out of it? I paid tens of thousands to CA while I was living there and had to drive on the shittiest roads outside of Tijuana to drive to work because state workers need their $200k pensions and illegals needs their free food and housing. Fuck yeah I'm taking "government" (ie my) money.
With respect to Greenspan, what a trumpet-playing phony. He was a money printed welfare GOD to the banks.
I could care less if Rand took money from the government. That is a side issue. My problem with Rand is that she spawned Greenspan, and she gives cover to oligarchs.
Yes, absolutely...but every idea starts with a rough draft, like the US Constitution.
Every concept created by humans will be flawed and will need to be refined.
Big Edit: Who knows, maybe Ayn was enthralled by the wealthy, like many in the US right now? I remember the movie "Running Man" where one of the wrestlers punched a guy and the guy who got punched acted like he was touched by a deity. Stupid huh? Then recently I heard about some girl on twitter raving about how one of the Obama daughters kicked her. She was bragging about it! The human condition is such that the masses will always be infatuated by the wealthy and powerful, no matter how stupid and/or evil. Take the Kardashians or Paris Hilton or whoever is the new rich fad. How do we take the humanity out of the rule of law and justice, I don't know at the moment, but I think the Libertarian movement is the first reasonable step.
Gives cover to oligarchs? Oh, you poor, stupid fuck!
Rearden was an oligarch because he developed a superior steel and offered it to the world?
You are probably the staunchest willful idiot I have ever met, and that's saying a lot.
Did you know that writers pander to their audience? Shocking, I know.
Acetinker, the Fountainhead was the biggest piece of shit around. The idea that somebody can destroy anothers property (a skyscraper) because he didn't like what the owner did with it isn't libertarian but sociopathic. If the architect didn't like to have changes to his designs then have a strong clause in the contract that prevents changes. He didn't have that clause so he threw a hissy fit and destroyed what wasn't his to destroy.
Plus the architect wasn't an expert on controlled demolition, the building wasn't properly prepared for demolition (takes months) and anything going wrong could of killed people in a 2 mile radius from flying debris (has happened before). Most large constructions often have subcontractors or their staff working back and often sleeping on site on an informal basis (I often did this waiting to apply a second coat of sealant on jobs).Could of been dozens of workers on site that the architect wouldn't know about (and Rand made sure that that reality didn't interfere with her fiction, wouldn't want her architect a mass killer now).
But too many sheep worship at the alter of Rand.
Just so ya' know, it's altar. You, my new friend are the 'alter' of Rand.
Somehow, you managed to focus solely on Howard Roarke and missed entirely the message Rand was trying to convey-
That being, it does not matter how much work you put into a project, or what your intentions were, if you don't own the output.
Howard made the mistake of believing he had some ownership stake in the property, simply because he designed it.
It's a lot like all the useful idiots who populate (and staunchly support) big mil, big pharma, big insurance, and big finance, etc.
They never seem to realize that their creations don't belong to them, and that the true owners often use their creations against them.
Yeah, but other than that- Rand was an idiot and The Fountainhead was a huge piece of shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keam-CSSllA&sns=em
I'm a snake but treated like a rat, so why even bother enjoy
When will this shit show ever end?
When enough intelligent and informed people decide that they are not going to put up with it any longer or ever again. Take it for what it is.
You act like this just started last century.
Been going on for thousands and thousands of years.
Welcome to the party pal.
Listen.
Ghost said it best. It's not going to stop, so "JOIN" the party. From an International perspective I'd look into China if I were you. Things are just getting started over there.
The nice Jewish people have pretty much run things into the ground in America so you'll run into a "STEEP CURVE TO PROSPERITY" in America.
China is where it's at.
These people have no ethics and no shame.
it will soon be a hate crime to slander the nsa, just like it is illegal to say sieg heil (hail to victory) in germany. and if youre caught saying those words in america the nsa will route your ai speech recognized recording to german intelligence and have you prosecuted to the fullest extent of the intelligence communitys data sharing law.
Every Dictator has had it's own Intelligence organization. Lets see Blackmail, trade secrets, advance knowledge of pending events, how can you not get rich working for the NSA, not to mention best real time Porn in the world
Alpha-males were pretty much able to do their own surveillance.
When formal governments arose with specialization of labor, spying became a necessity for the rulers control, as it was in the tribe.
Most "alpha males" aren't in the NSA.
Even the ones who run it.
Geeks wearing uniforms.
Never seen actual combat.
Probably grovers.
Like children.
Its a .gov.org so it has lesboz and manginas doing stupid shit like allowing all the arabs to get ready for 911.
The russians knew about it because they were tipped off and warned us so we would not blame them.
Yes, the NSA knew about the arabs before the 3 towers were dropped by two airplanes.
They knew about the israelis planting explosives as well.
I didn't say they were.
Spies are employees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BnshOJlsQ&sns=em
I see these these things
america is being led down the same socialist re-education path as germany. look how the MSM has taken out the use of obama's middle name, hussein.
in the near future the history revisionists will make it a thought/hate crime to refer to obama using his middle name... betcha
sieg heil!
Even though it's the precise opposite of socialism, the people owning the means of production?
Reading this blog leads me to believe every institution this country was founded on has been systemically corrupted....gov, money/banking,legal industry, penal system, education, media. Pretty discouraging....
They have been corrupted. They are populated with fallible and depraved humans. That is th ebasis for the small/limited government argument. If you don't cede them power, then they cannot use their power to harm you. Unfortunately ever generation has seen government power grow till it became the leviathon it is today. The generation that gave the government power to levy an income tax should be dug up and their corpses defiled. The basterds.
More direct and less representative democracy.
Willian Banzai = Control + Shift + N
:-)
Grato, novamente, você é fora de série!
Ficaria melhor se fosse brasileiro Kkkkkkkkkkkk!
:-)
A real Captain does not use Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Uai!
You do not see Drug points in Israel.
You do not see users!
Secret Service need to secret funds.
Some agencies taught that marijuana was legal, the same agency taught to do cocaine (and laboratories gain a baba with production of synthetic solvents that were previously used to clean paint nail).
The Russians left Afghanistan not only because it was shit, they left because "someone" taught to make Poppy a drug that was fucking their kids, the drug name is Krokodil.
Look for it on Google ... life.
Marijuana use in the United States today is "medicinal", during the Vietnam era was interesting.
The Cocaine was legal in South America to fight "Communist".
Today opium is coming back in full force on the streets.
Democracy is this.
hehe.
Any CSI can take a hair of my bag - I'm bald - you will not find any trace of drugs.
I witnessed this evolution happening in the world, senpre felt disgusted.
An old guy like me at the end of life can count things without fear.
May believe.
hehe.
Why not just sell the intelligence to foreign governments . . .
look how they took the "N" word (self censored for fear of thought crime retaliation from the american socialist govt) out of tom sawyer and huckleberry finn e-books.
there never was equality. and now that the fabian socialists have destroyed this country there is no longer equality under the law.
as for freedom i have heard you can buy it in a box at the grocery store in the tampon aisle.
liberty is what you see when a dog pisses on a fire hydrant.
bring on the revolution!
we are ready
" look how they took the "N" word (self censored for fear of thought crime retaliation from the american socialist govt) out of tom sawyer and huckleberry finn e-books.
"
I don't understand this Nazi festish people have.
You cannot get through the day without bringing up the Nazi.
Its almost like you are covering up for YKH.
Subtle bullshit.
He's referring to the word "nigger," which occurs many times in Twain's works because he was ardently anti-slavery. The thought police published a revised edition of Huck Finn that completely omits the term because the word "nigger" is now considered too politically incorrect to even use in a classroom setting.
http://thelasttradition.blogspot.com/2011/01/pc-police-remove-word-nigge...
Huckleber-ebola!
I think a better question is what Wall Street is paying for actually.
Patents? Bwhahahahahahaha. Like Wall Street would pay for that.
The cover story of JP Morgan getting hacked is a good one. Hacked by the NSA itself? This thing reeks of an extortion racket.
Anyone can be hacked.
No system is completely geek proof.
Look at snowden and whats his/her name.
The chinese ping and try to hack DOD systems thousands of times a day.
What's the difference between this unbelievably (Potentially) criminal conflict of interest and the revolving door policy of the .Gov/Fed/JPM/GS thieving bastards changing chairs every few months? Nothing. They're ALL at it now.
What next? Military generals and their minions moonlighting at arms manufacturers? State Dept. heads with hubbies running military logistics companies? WH officials' kids getting top jobs abroad in places where they've toppled governments? Wait a minute.... The words core, rotten and fucking come to mind to describe this ridiculous system.
They do this in open sight. They think they're untouchable. You know what? They're right. It's not crony capitalism, it's cosa nostra mafia economics 101 on running global protection rackets.
RICO the whole MF'er.
Right after the amendment to RICO so that it's a crime not to be a racketeer with the government... :)
NSA/DHS is America's KGB/GRU with technology Stalin would be jealous of.
See, just the letters are different.
KGB/GRU didn't end with soviet collapse, they just transferred to America, the new soviet regime.
Forward comrads!
Rossiya - svyashchennaya nasha derzhava,
Rossiya - lyubimaya nasha strana.
Moguchaya volya, velikaya slava -
Tvoyo dostoyanye na vse vremena!
Slavsya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,
Predkami dannaya mudrost narodnaya!
Slavsya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!
I called this over a year ago. With their resources and power they can control the destiny of any major corporation that profits from the sale of patented products. They have access to all R&D as well. Protection money will be paid. Want to see what your competition is working on? All for sale to hte highest bidder. Let's not forget what heppened to Gibson guitars with that bogus search and seizure over fking woood back during the election year. Donating to the wrong political party? They will come down on you.
The land of the free is dead. There are no brave.
After they take enough, they inevitably will turn on each other.
No honor among thieves.
Same reason I keep pushing guillotines as a solution to these criminals: I have the corner on the blades.
Though I am thinking about going into the manufacturing of rope.
An American, not US subject.
"They're making a list; So am I. And so should you: The Crimes Against the American People List (CAAPL)
Dream on, never happen.
In America. .45 ACP
Washington, we have a problem ....
Spread marijuana in Vietnam and did not work, the thing came home.
It was not our fault that our soldiers ate and cagavam marijuana seeds in the backyard ...
Spread cocaine in Central America and northern South America, imagine!
Democracy for all!
We teach the guys to do things with there only paint thinner nail!
Well, they learned and shit again.
It was our mistake to teach the guys to fly airplanes and submarines do, we needed to go home.
Washington, we have another problem. ...
We try to make shit far, was in Afghanistan, poppy planted to stop the filthy communists and Islamic ...
We tried everything but the guys can only grow, not consume our products No way!
Those who consume the advantage of good people, they explode in a sublime way.
Washingon, we are trying to spread the production in Europe.
Whascington, we have, in fact, you have a pobrema, we are here and stoner, you fuck.
Waschinton, the world is ours, we'll take that pile of equipment and do our own if you have some more grenades airmail thank us.
We will fiefdom.
"Come over here nigga, the thing're good!
Grab a knife and sticking another gringo ... "- heard a scream in the distance.
Here despite the heat has much hot woman, just take off the burqa and that appears asshole.
It is best to not need one, here we have many women QuizTutor and talk of separation, no problem, she loses it and goes to the grave, we get the hottest.
hehe.
Democracy is this.
Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
My mind just threw up after reading this. I need alcohol, blow, and two blonde hookers dressed as cheerleaders.
One another with gonorrhea with syphilis.
Kkkkkkkkkkkkk!
HERPEGONOsyphilAIDS... Yahhhh!
PROMIS SOFTWARE. CARNIVORE. PROJECT ECHELON.
Ha!
The NSA was started by capitalists who created the inteligence infrastructure inbedded in every chip and wire.
The FBI tapped phones through your lines in your house in the 50's at least....you can listen to lines.
The head of the NSA in the 60's made 57k.
There is a book about it.
Needless to say he retired twice at least.
These guys retire and get jobs tweaking the MIC.
The CIA are tiny compared to thr NSA.
I know things about the NSA that would never divulge.
Crazy shit.
This world is crazy, and most people cannot go down the rabbit hole.
I have heard stories that will make a white man tur
Their feeble belief system cannot take it.
http://youtu.be/ITz3fTQH4zc
White man has highest IQ.
Too many people who work for the government in regular full time jobs are not smart enough, or are dedicated enough to their jobs to be corrupted.
The ones to worry about are elected officials, and those they "appoint" to certain transient jobs, or jobs from which they can resign - that have market value at some point in the future. Such jobs let them fatten the calf, and then they move to where they can slaughter it and live off the fat.
Q: How many of these people consider themselves as "God fearing"?
Yeah, I thought so.
This nation no longer has Virtues that they'd adhere to, much less fight for.
/ All bow down to the new God: Mammon. And Goldman is his profit. /s
Story of my Life.
Those who stalked and harassed me at several interview and Job Sites actually produced Search Warrants and/or NSA Letters.
They DO intrude in your life; and they CAN make your life miserable - if if they're just abusing their office for Proselytization and Stalking Purposes. I'm a Federal Whistleblower; and I've had my Career in shambles due to a Defamation Racket caused by DoD/NSA miscreants.
Considering I've upheld and enforced Laws and Regulations certain Federal Govt Enclaves and Fiefdoms truly bring in the "Failed State" in America. All with Contractors and Parasites to make a Profit from the Mess in the Meanwhile.
What's worse, some of the Perps have tie-ins to Money Launderers and affiliated with Foreign Interests to keep up the Hegemony. Now with the Cold War 1.0 over, the Parasites have come out in numbers, thinking they can start up and feed off Cold War 2.0 - but more in control of the Politics this Round.
All of this while the Economic System is heading to Catastrophic Failure.
Some people were calling for a Reformation or Revolution;but it's probably going to take serious Changes to the Presidential and Congressional Roster to get the Capitol District to sober up and get in some kind of Order.
I've too many things I want to get accomplished to wait around to see if it happens...
"What's worse, some of the Perps have tie-ins to Money Launderers and affiliated with Foreign Interests to keep up the Hegemony. Now with the Cold War 1.0 over, the Parasites have come out in numbers, thinking they can start up and feed off Cold War 2.0 - but more in control of the Politics this Round."
---------
Do you know anything about UPC and the hundreds of shell and shelf entities they created? This goes back to Enron and continues.
Had shit happen my way too.
Stay safe and healthy Iron....
1) Sorry, Lumberjack. I can't recall if I have; and a quick text Web Search doesn't ring any bells for me.
Some of these entities are well entrenched in the DoD Civil Workforce; and several of these Parasite types have been around for decades. An Antiguan Drug/Money Laundering comes to mind(so FUBAR'd that State Dept kept Bases Open when DoD wanted to Close - just to keep several Satellite Dishes Up and running at CSC/Raytheon's Benefit. Though we hosted a US Coast Guard Counter Drug Advisory Team on Base that traveled around the Region, Drugs were running rampant with the Troops (our Postal Clerk was a user who eventually was arrested and simply discharged - Imagine what kind of shit he could have mailed into CONUS). US Treasury Disbursing Office was being used as a "Money Laundering / Currency Arbritage" Compromised Tooll (until I came and clamped it the fuck down. I should have taken the extra step and called up the DEA since the My Chain of Command(Navy Air) was so pussyfooted about this). This is a Country so corrupt that Foreign Aid Funding Disappears repeatedly; and Fodors warns its readers of the situation. After I left, a second Hurricane that trashed the Base finally allowed the Navy to Leave.
Yet, they've pulled off Ethnic/Cult Enclaves in New York, New Jersey, and in Los Angeles.
2) Thanks, Beetle. You check your Six; and don't hesitate to haul ass abroad when you see that your Industry is FUBAR'd where you live.
"You check your Six; and don't hesitate to haul ass abroad when you see that your Industry is FUBAR'd where you live."
You betcha. How...clairvoyant of you.
America has gone completely insane.
We have a saying for that back on Q99X2. It goes like this: Gone Bernankes. You've gone Bernankes. No You're Yellen Bernankes.
Oh do your Bernankes hang low
Do they wiggle to and fro
Can you tie em in a knot
Can you tie em in a bow
Can you flip em over your shoulder
Like a continental souldier
And so on.
And does anyone think that those within the NSA have not used their ability to gather insider information and then traded on the information to create a nice retirement fund?
Too me this is where Snowden blew it, whatever you think of the guy. Most people with wealth and power could care about spying that ostensibly is protecting them and theirs. Different story if parties within the NSA were profiting at the expense of those with money and power. Now that would be dangerous to them.
And don't tell me most Z Hedgers would not be tempted to front run the market if they could. Just human nature, it has to be occurring.
How about explicitly spying on corporates. That's where the really big pay offs are.
Market your product 10% cheaper? Get it to market a month earlier? Frontrun your opponents ad campaign. etc.
If you have the intelligence you can dominate any market.