"It is not enough to know that there is a shadow government pulling the strings of the visible government- we must also act to expose it, and defeat it!"-Mark Matheny
Editor's Note: I reported on the assault exactly 1year ago, on the day after the story broke, and predicted that he would not run for President of France, and that he would escape prosecution. I also predicted that the maid was a setup to discredit Strauss-Kahn: See the video below.
Reuters May 15, 2012
(Reuters) - Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a $1 million countersuit against the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, costing him his job and any chance of being elected president of France.
New York police arrested Strauss-Kahn a year ago when hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of forcible oral sex and trying to rape her in his luxury suite at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. Prosecutors later dropped charges after losing confidence in Diallo's credibility.
The countersuit was filed Monday on the anniversary of the incident and a day before Francois Hollande - the Socialist who took the nomination that Strauss-Kahn once coveted - was sworn in as president of France.
Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations, saying the sexual encounter with Diallo was consensual. Diallo nonetheless sued Strauss-Kahn for unspecified damages in Supreme Court in the New York City borough of the Bronx, where she lived at the time.
Strauss-Kahn denies all wrongdoing in the countersuit and accuses Diallo of "knowingly and intentionally making a false report to law enforcement authorities."
"Soon after she entered the room, Ms. Diallo and Mr. Strauss-Kahn engaged in mutually consensual acts," the claim states. "No violence, force or coercion attended their sexual encounter, and Ms. Diallo suffered no injuries whatsoever."
The former international financier seeks damages for his arrest, which included jail time at New York's Rikers Island and house arrest in an upscale Manhattan neighborhood; for losing his job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund; and for harm to his reputation.
The countersuit seeks at least $1 million in damages plus an undetermined amount of punitive damages. It comes two weeks after Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon rejected Strauss-Kahn's motion to throw out Diallo's lawsuit on the grounds he had diplomatic immunity at the time of the incident.
U.S. and British taxpayers are funding brutal forced sterilizations and a growing network of appalling “camps” in India through foreign-aid programs and even the World Bank, according to human rights activists and news reports. But as the scandal surrounding the controversial population-control campaign grows with an Indian Supreme Court investigation into the matter, governments are publicly distancing themselves from the program.
Citing dubious United Nations theories about “climate change,” population-reduction fanatics — especially in the West — have been working fiendishly around the world for decades to scale back the number of humans. Their methods include everything from promoting abortion and contraception to developing sterilization programs targeting poor women in particular. And the barbarity is largely being bankrolled by taxpayers and elite donors in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
According to recent reports, the foreign-aid “family planning” money is being used by Indian authorities to forcibly sterilize Indians using outright deception or even coercion. In some cases, authorities coerce families into consent by threatening to withhold food or other essentials. Sometimes the victims are bribed using Western tax money without being told what the procedures really accomplish — let alone the risks.
The consequences, meanwhile, have included numerous bleeding deaths from botched operations, miscarriages, infections, and long-term health problems for the victims, according to reports from around India. Generally poverty-stricken and under-educated people — who often hail from lower “castes” and do not even have a chance to object — are targeted for the barbaric treatment.
“I tell you they treat them not as human beings, but as cattle or goats,” Human Rights Law Network activist Devika Biswas told theNational Catholic Register after filing a petition about the matter with the nation’s Supreme Court. “They just cut and take out veins. They were bleeding profusely. It is butchery.”
Last month, activists including Biswas submitted video evidence and sworn affidavits by victims showing that population-control officials were completely out of control. Consider, for example, the story of just one night at one sterilization camp in the Indian state of Bihar: More than 50 poor women were allegedly rounded up and sterilized in wildly unsanitary conditions by unqualified “medical staff.”
A video of the tragedy presented to the court showed all of the women crying out in pain after having been quickly sterilized that night by staff using a flashlight for illumination. Nobody came to help the writhing victims. One pregnant woman even lost her unborn baby to the procedure. The court gave state and national authorities two months to respond to the charges, according to news reportsabout the case.
“All of them are forced,” Biswas was quoted as saying. “Generally, the people in the village are very simple. They are very poor. Some of them married at the age of 12 or 13. They do not know what it means. They are told it will be good for them. They are not told it will make them permanently unable to bear children. No risks are explained to them.”
According to reports, a perverse system of incentives helps the system mass-sterilize countless victims. Doctors, for instance, are paid bonuses if they operate on more than a certain number of people per day. So-called “motivators,” who go out in search of hapless prey for the schemes, are also rewarded based on how many people they can round up for the procedures.
India, of course, has around 1.2 billion people; and that is despite a brutal and coercive mass-sterilization campaign from the 1970s that was only “halted” after massive riots broke out and forced the government to back down. But for Western elites convinced that people are bad — either for the “environment” or the “climate” — the number is still way too high.
“They’re using bad science, outdated theories of population and an unproven theory about climate change to justify real harm to real people in real time,” explained Population Research Institute chief Steven Mosher, noting that elitists have long used a wide range of largely bogus crises to justify barbaric eugenics campaigns around the world. And it is still going on today from Asia and Africa to Latin America – often with subsidies extracted from Western taxpayers at the behest of shadowy senior policy makers.
In the U.K., which once ruled over India as its colonial master, the Department for International Development (DFID) gave a grant totaling more than $250 million in 2005 to the so-called “Reproductive Child and Health Program.” The scheme was supposed to offer “family planning” services to Indian women – and sterilization is by far the most common “service” provided under the plan.
The U.K. government, of course, responded to the recent scandal over forced sterilizations by denying that taxpayers were funding it. “British aid has not been used for forced sterilization now or in the past,” a DFID spokesperson claimed in a recent statement, though an official with the department later told the Wall Street Journal that tax funds were indeed being used for “voluntary” sterilizations.
“The government of India has strict guidelines for quality of family-planning services, which include ensuring consent,” the statement alleged, apparently oblivious to the reality on the ground. “The program started in 2006 under the last government. Support will end completely next year.”
Though critics have said the population-control scheme smacks of racism and neo-colonialism, one of the project’s stated goals was to slash India’s fertility rate, supposedly to deal with “climate change.” And the program could be considered a stunning success — at least in terms of its designers’ goals.
According to a government report cited by the U.K. Guardian, some 500,000 Indians were sterilized in 2008 alone. Experts say the true figure is much higher. About half of India’s 26 state governments, meanwhile, have reportedly already achieved compliance with a controversial UN dictate seeking to restrict population to two children per mother. And a “National Family Health Survey” cited by theGlobal Post reported that some 37 percent of Indian women have undergone sterilization so far. The rest are apparently still in the crosshairs.
American taxpayers have also contributed to the controversial programs. In recent years, for example, the U.S. government distributed well over $20 million in taxpayer funds per year just to sponsor “family planning” and “reproductive health” programs in India. But like British officials, American authorities involved in the scheme attempted to downplay the growing scandal as well.
“USAID programs provide technical support to improve family planning information and services,” a spokesman for the agency wasquoted as saying, alleging that the program was committed to improving the health of vulnerable Indians. “USAID assistance has helped improve maternal health and reduced infant mortality across India.”
Despite the platitudes about helping Indians, however, analysts say something much more sinister is going on. Consider the fact that at the highest levels of the Obama administration are people like “Science Czar” John Holdren, who suggested controlling population by forced abortions and secret drugging administered by a “planetary regime” in his highly controversial book “Ecoscience.”
Decades ago, senior officials were on the same page. Under the leadership of top establishment figure Henry Kissinger, for instance, the U.S. National Security Council outlined widely criticized official policies to curb population growth among the poor in the infamous "Memorandum 200." Citing dubious theories about alleged overpopulation, the report proposed a massive global campaign that included propaganda, contraception, the use of food for coercion, and more. India was one of the top targets.
Like in Communist China, where the regime enforces a brutal “one-child policy” by forced abortion if necessary, India has a growing gender imbalance resulting in far more men than women. The consequences will be rough, according to experts. But Western elites — apparently undeterred by the tragedies and despair caused by the “population control” they promote at taxpayer expense — show no signs of scaling back support for the brutality.
The Obama administration has the worst track record when it comes to prosecuting whistleblowers. Obama once claimed he’d work hard to have a transparent government, but many have faced retaliation for revealing controversial government information. Sibel Edmonds, who is a whistleblower, waited 340 days for FBI clearance of her memoir but finally released it on her own. Edmonds, founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, joins us for more.
However, Ron Paul supporters believe that – while he won’t be campaigning in the primary states – Paul is still in the race, and will be focusing on winning delegates in caucus states.
Ron Paul announced today in a letter to supporters that he will not campaign for the popular vote in states that have yet to held their primaries.
In his under-reported IDD strategy (“It’s the Delegates, Dummy”), Paul has focused on the fact that presidential nominees are chosen by delegates, not by popular vote. Paul’s campaign has focused to date especially on states that allow committed Republican Party members to have a greater voice in the process. States like Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Louisiana, Washington, and Colorado have been states where Paul supporters have made tremendous inroads in winning party leadership positions and being influential in the national delegate selection process. While many states have yet to finish the delegate selection process, it increasingly looks like Paul could dominate the nationwide delegate process called long ago in Romney’s favor.
Paul’s announcement today fits that same vein, but will no doubt surprise many of his supporters. Not only is Paul saying “It’s the Delegates Dummy” to Mitt Romney and the national media, he is taking it a step further and saying that spending his supporters’ money on winning the popular vote is of such little importance to the campaign that they aren’t going to waste time or money on that any longer.
Does that mean Paul has dropped out? Quit the race? Suspended his campaign? Packed his bags? Returned home to lil ole Lake Jackson, Texas? No, it means quite the opposite. It means that Paul will have more ability to focus on delegate selection instead of the many upcoming winner take all states.
As has been the case from January 3 – the night of the Iowa Caucus – this is a two man race. It’s Mitt Romney v. Ron Paul. Paul, the seasoned campaigner, will be on Romney’s heels through to the RNC in August. If Romney makes 1,144 delegates on the first ballot, Romney becomes the Republican nominee. If Romney slips, the man on his heels will gladly take his place. That’s been the story since Iowa and remains the story today. The decision remains in the hands of 2,286 Republican delegates, many of whom have yet to be chosen. Will it be more of the same or will it be the man who’s spent some 40 years standing on his principle against the GOP establishment both inside DC and out?
The following videos show that passionate Paul supporters believe that Paul is still in the race:
Is this wishful thinking by Paul supporters … or for real?
Certainly, the timing will strike Paul supporters as odd, given that Paul has picked up a huge number of delegates in recent weeks, and the fact is starting to be known that delegates pledged to Romney canswitch their vote at will.
But mixed messages are coming out of the Paul camp … even as they claim that Paul is still in the race.
“We are absolutely not dropping out of this race! We are focusing our efforts squarely on winning delegates and party leadership positions at state conventions.”
- Jesse Benton, Campaign Chairman
Ron Paul announced today he would not be competing in the upcoming primary states, saying that he would focus, instead, on his delegate strategy. A strategy that is working, by the way, and transforming the Republican Party. It is something he has said many times since the February 11, 2012 caucus in Maine.
Only this time, the main stream media gave the announcement full attention and treated it like the end of his campaign. Drudge ran it as a front page headline “Ron Paul is out.”
***
For the last two years the national media has been saying that Ron Paul is out. So how could that possibly be news? One might ask, “When has the mainstream media ever thought that Ron Paul was in?”
Bracing for a Ron Paul win in Iowa, major new outlets last January announced that if he won, the Iowa Caucus, itself, would be discredited. According to the New York Times and the Associated Press, Ron Paul is still listed as the recipient of one, count em, one delegate from Iowa, a state that he now dominates.
Likewise, the fact that Ron Paul supporters took a big chunk of the delegation of Mitt Romney’s home state of Massachusetts was not big news.
*** By ending the primary battles, Ron Paul is signalling to the field that this is the end of hostilities. In primaries you end up tearing each other down. It is millions of dollars spent on negative advertising. In caucuses, as brutal as they may be, you change the Republican Party, you empower the new and challenge the established.
The delegate strategy is working. That is the way we will impact the platform in Tampa. That is the way we will begin the process of change. It is through the caucuses that we are attracting youth, like the twenty-one year old woman recently elected to the national committee from Maine or the Ron Paul Hispanics or the Independents who have never been involved in party politics.
***Our people have been punched, yelled at, lied to and worked until they can hardly stand. But on they come, fighting for their children, fighting for their future, angry at the corruption of the banks, of Wall Street, of the lobbyists, of the congress, of the White House. The battle for liberty is not over. It has just taken on a new phase. It cannot be stopped by the national media. If that were the case it would never have been born in the first place.
And some will say that it is a lost cause, which I will not concede but it does remind me of Clarence Darrow’s famous line, “Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.”
The math on the employment situation in the US simply does not compute. Over the last few years, many have escaped the employment market by diving into massive student loan debt. This looks good for the employment figures since these people are not counted as part of the workforce. The headline unemployment rate of 8.1 percent does not jive with 1 out of 7 Americans on food stamps. The last time we had a headline unemployment rate close to 8.1 percent was back in February of 2009 and at that time, we had 32,000,000 Americans on food stamps or over 14,000,000 less! Digging around the data you begin to realize how much phony calculations are being used especially when talking about employment. There is an interesting figure that emerges from a recent surge in disability benefits.
The calculus of the employment market
The official recession has been over since the summer of 2009 even though we have added some 14,000,000 more Americans to the food stamp program. What we do see is a surge in Americans filing disability claims shooting up by 2.2 million since mid-2010:
Why the recent reversal? One observation that was made is that the recent run-up was aligned with the expiration of unemployment insurance:
“(TrimTabs) From July 2010 to April 2012, the decline in the number of people collecting extended and emergency unemployment benefits was 2.46 million. Over the same time period the number of people collecting disability benefits increased by 2.20 million. We suspect the similarity in the inverse relationship is more than coincidence.”
This is an odd synergy. We know that recently more and more Americans are exhausting their regular unemployment insurance. Interestingly enough states are tied to the headline rates which are now being fudged in a variety of ways. So you get charts like the below:
Source: TrimTabs
It just seems odd that 2.46 million going away from extended unemployment insurance nearly aligns with the 2.2 million increase in disability benefits. Couple this with massive underemployment and many going to school with massive debt and you realize that the 8.1 percent headline unemployment rate misses a really big part of the economy.
Throw in the participation rate
What is adding more fuel to the flame is the declining participation rate. This also helps make the unemployment rate look better but the reality is, many of those now retiring are to some degree costing the system. Actually, we know that 1 out of 3 retirees rely very heavily on Social Security for their retirement income. More and more Americans are retiring requiring more transfer payments while those actually in the workforce continues to decline:
The fact that the per capita average income is $25,000 and the median household income has gone stagnant for well over a decade should tell you the true status of the middle class in our country. It is stunning to see observations like the above. It plays into the low wage economy that is developing. A protracted unemployment situation creates excess labor in the market and wages get slammed. Yet with no political energy or will to protect the middle class, you have a system where the financial system rips off the public and you see how well your bailout dollars are put to use with the case of JP Morgan Chase and their risky bets.
Just think about the fact that the last time we had an 8.1 percent unemployment rate we had 14,000,000 less Americans on food stamps. If this trend continues we’ll have 50,000,000 Americans on food stamps and a 7 percent unemployment rate. This is the new calculus of our employment figures.
"I believe it’s better for the Greeks to stay in the euro area, but that also requires that we set out a path on which Greece gets back on its feet step by step," said the German chancellor. Photo: AFP
Raising the spectre of a Greek exit, the German chancellor said “solidarity for the euro” was threatened by the ongoing political crisis in Athens.
Stock markets around the world fell sharply with fears mounting that a euro break-up could lead to renewed financial turmoil. The FTSE-100 index of Britain’s major companies fell by two per cent to 5465, with bank shares hit particularly hard.
The cost of Spanish government borrowing also hit a record high since the single currency was introduced because of concerns that the crisis will spread.
Today, François Hollande, the new French president, will be sworn in and, in an indication of the concern gripping Europe, will almost immediately travel to Berlin to hold talks with Mrs Merkel that will be dominated by Greece’s plight.
Attempts to form a new government in Athens have been thwarted for the past nine days, although the country’s president will meet all major parties this afternoon to discuss the forming of a “technocratic” administration rather than a coalition.
An outgoing Greek minister warned that the country could descend into “civil war” amid the chaos of a euro exit. “If Greece cannot meet its obligations and serve its debt the pain will be great,” Michalis Chrysohoidis was quoted as telling a local radio station. “What will prevail are armed gangs with Kalashnikovs and which one has the greatest number of Kalashnikovs will count … we will end up in civil war.”
New elections may be held next month and Greek voters are likely to be warned by European leaders that their country may be ejected from the euro if they do not support parties backing austerity measures.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, travelled to Brussels yesterday to take part in meetings with other European finance ministers about the worsening crisis.
Speaking on arrival, he said: “The eurozone crisis is having a real impact on growth across Europe.
“The British recovery has been damaged over the last two years not by Britain getting a grip on its public finances but by uncertainty in the eurozone. It is that uncertainty, not austerity, that is doing the real damage to the European recovery, and indeed the British recovery.” Read the entire article
Tampa, Florida -- Police want your help finding four men who teamed up to beat a young U.S. Army soldier in a South Tampa street.
It was an awful welcome to Tampa Bay for a young soldier. Police say the victim of a violent beating caught on camera is 24 years old and has lived in Tampa for less than a month.
He's a U.S. Army soldier assigned to MacDill Air Force Base and lives not far from the base at Dale Mabry Hwy. and Interbay Blvd.
Police say Sunday morning, at around 3 a.m., the soldier's car broke down a few miles from home along Westshore Blvd.
The attack came when he was walking home and using Iowa St. to get from Westshore to Dale Mabry. At the intersection of Iowa and Renellie Dr., the man came into the view of a neighbor's motion-activated security camera.
