MCA ‘bodoh’ ungkit Operasi Lalang, kata Anwar Anwar calls MCA ‘stupid’ for trying to link him to Ops Lalang

Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim menyifatkan pemimpin MCA sebagai "bodoh" apabila cuba mengaitkan dirinya dengan Operasi Lalang 1987.

Anwar, yang juga bakal calon Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Kajang berkata, MCA sepatutnya menegur bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad kerana ketika itu merupakan menteri dalam negeri yang  bertanggungjawab dalam operasi tersebut.
"Bodoh cakap ini semua,” kata Anwar semasa berucap merasmikan jentera pilihan raya PKR di Kota Cheras malam tadi.
"MCA datang sini marah Anwar saja, presiden MCA datang sini kata Anwar tangkap orang dalam Operasi Lalang, masa bila pula saya menteri dalam negeri," katanya.
Minggu lalu, Presiden MCA, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai menuduh ketua pembangkang itu sebagai punca berlakunya tangkapan besar-besaran mengikut Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) pada 1987.
Semasa Operasi Lalang, 108 ahli politik dan aktivis sosial ditahan mengikut ISA.
Selain itu, akhbar seperti The Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh serta akhbar mingguan The Sunday Star dan Watan dibatalkan permit penerbitannya.
Operasi Lalang dikritik hebat termasuk masyarakat antarabangsa kerana penahanan tanpa bicara terbesar pemimpin politik dan aktivis sosial semasa pemerintahan Dr Mahathir itu mencabuli hak asasi manusia.
"Sebab dia tak berani tegur Dr Mahathir, menteri dalam negeri adalah Dr Mahathir, perdana menteri pun Dr Mahathir.
"Tidak berani sentuh Mahathir, semua serang saya," kata Anwar.
Anwar juga membidas MCA supaya tidak berlagak seperti “ketua Pemuda Umno”, sebaliknya menggesa parti majoriti kaum Cina dalam Barisan Nasional (BN) itu bercakap mengenai nasib kaumnya.
"Buat apa dia nak buat kerja Umno, buat apa campur?
“Kempen baik-baik sudahlah, buat apa kamu presiden MCA cakap macam etua Pemuda Umno, tak payahlah.
"Kamu cakap bagi pihak masyarakat Cina, cakap tentang apa masalah masyarakat Cina, apa orang Cina rasa di negeri ini, bila dipermainkan, boleh tampar," katanya.
Mengulas mengenai bakal lawannya, Naib Presiden MCA, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun yang akan bertanding di Kajang, Anwar menggesa supaya kempen kali ini berjalan secara baik dan bersih.
"Saya kata tak apa, saya ucap tahniah kepada dia kerana diangkat sebagai calon MCA dan kita boleh bersaing secara baik.
"Tak payah maki hamun tak guna, jadi tak apa bila MCA pilih dia. Kita lawan dengan baik dalam pilihan raya," katanya.
Sebelum ini Dr Mahathir mengatakan Anwar turut terlibat dalam menjayakan Operasi Lalang pada 1987.
Sambil menafikan tuduhan Anwar bahawa beliau bertanggungjawab sepenuhnya dalam operasi yang menyaksikan pemimpin politik dan aktivis ditahan, Dr Mahathir berkata, sebagai seorang anggota Kabinet ketika itu, Anwar perlu bertanggungjawab.
“Kecuali kalau beliau berkata, saya meletak jawatan kerana tidak bersetuju. Dia tidak pernah berkata seperti itu. Beliau setuju, sokong semua termasuk ISA,” katanya dalam satu majlis di Putrajaya baru-baru ini.
Kerusi DUN Kajang kosong selepas wakil rakyatnya Lee Chin Cheh dari PKR meletakkan jawatan pada 27 Januari lalu untuk memberi laluan kepada ketua pembangkang itu bertanding.
Selain Chew daripada MCA, Anwar akan berdepan dengan calon bebas seperti bekas pemimpin – pemimpin PKR seperti Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Datuk Seri S Nalakaruppan dan N Gobalakrishnan, turut menyatakan hasrat untuk bertanding.
Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya mengumumkan sebelum ini, hari mengundi bagi PRK Kajang adalah pada 23 Mac sementara hari penamaan calon jatuh pada 11 Mac. - 24 Februari, 2014.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has labelled the MCA leadership as "stupid" for trying to link him to Ops Lalang in 1987.

The opposition leader said that MCA should be training its guns on former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was Home Minister at the time.
"Stupid of them to say that," Anwar said in Kota Cheras last night. "MCA came here and accused me, MCA president came here and said I was the one who arrested people in Ops Lalang, but when was I ever the Home Minister?"
Last week,  MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had accused the opposition leader, who will be the PKR candidate in the upcoming Kajang by-election on March 23, as the cause of the major arrests under the draconian Internal Security Act in 1987.
During Ops Lalang, 108 politicians and social activists were detained under ISA.
Apart from that, newspapers such as The Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sunday Star and Watan also had their printing permits cancelled at the time.
Ops Lalang was criticised, including internationally, for its infamous detention without trial which was said to be against human rights principles.
"He did not dare accuse Dr Mahathir, who was Home Minister and Prime Minister at that time.
"They don't dare touch (Dr) Mahathir, so everybody attacks me," Anwar said of his former mentor turned nemesis.
He also ridiculed MCA for acting like it was Umno's "youth leader", and instead called on the Chinese-based party in Barisan Nasional (BN) to speak up on the plight of their people.
"Why are they doing Umno's work? Just campaign properly, why should the MCA president act as though he is the youth leader for Umno? No need for that.
"Speak on Chinese issues, talk about the problems the community faces, how the Chinese feel in this country,” he said.
Speaking about his opponent Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, BN's candidate for Kajang, Anwar appealed for a "clean contest" during campaigning.
"There is no need for us to insult each other. We can have a clean fight," he added.
Before this, Dr Mahathir had accused Anwar of being involved in Ops Lalang, while refuting Anwar's allegation that as the Home Minister and Prime Minister, he (Dr Mahathir) was fully responsible for the incident.
Dr Mahathir had attempted to shift the blame to Anwar, claiming that the latter played a key role in the operation as a member of the administration at the time. But subsequently, Dr Mahathir accepted responsibility for Ops Lalang.
The Kajang by-election was sparked by the resignation of its incumbent, PKR's Lee Chin Cheh, in what has come to be known as the "Kajang move" to make way for PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to enter the Selangor state assembly, amid claims by party leaders that it was necessary to defend the state from being taken over by Umno. – February 24, 2014.

17,000 penerima yang layak tolak BR1M tahun ini

Sebanyak 17,000 penerima Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) pada tahun lalu mengambil inisiatif memaklumkan kepada kerajaan bahawa mereka tidak lagi memerlukan bantuan itu tahun ini.

Menteri Kewangan Kedua, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, berkata langkah itu menunjukkan tahap kematangan yang tinggi di kalangan rakyat negara ini.
"BR1M tahun ini agak luar biasa kerana masyarakat kita makin matang. Ada 17,000 penerima BR1M 2.0 tahun lalu yang tulis surat kepada kita menyatakan bahawa keluarga mereka tidak memerlukan BR1M.
"Walaupun sebahagian besar daripadanya masuk dalam senarai penerima tetapi merasakan bahawa mereka bukan keluarga yang memerlukan," katanya kepada pemberita selepas majlis penyampaian BR1M 2014 bagi Parlimen Tambun di Ipoh, hari ini.
Beliau berkata, ada juga di kalangan mereka yang memaklumkan kepada kerajaan bahawa bantuan itu tidak lagi diperlukan kerana pendapatan mereka melepasi had kelayakan.
Ahmad Husni berkata, nama 17,000 penerima itu akan dikeluarkan daripada senarai penerima BR1M.
Sementara itu, beliau berkata, 100,000 penerima BR1M yang sepatutnya menerima bantuan itu melalui akaun bank semalam, masih belum menerima bantuan itu berikutan masalah teknikal.
"Hari Isnin (esok) akan diselesaikan. Saya masih lagi dalam proses menerima maklumat lokasi bank mana (yang menghadapi masalah itu). Bank itu menghadapi masalah teknikal kerana terlalu ramai penerima BR1M itu akaunnya di bank tersebut," katanya.
Mengulas mengenai ada penerima yang tidak layak tetapi masih menerima bantuan itu, beliau menasihatkan orang ramai yang mempunyai maklumat mengenai penerima terbabit untuk memaklumkan kepada kerajaan.
"Tulis surat dan beri nama orang itu. Kita akan semak dan ambil tindakan," katanya.
Ahmad Husni turut menasihatkan orang ramai supaya mengisi borang permohonan BR1M dengan jujur dan ikhlas bagi memastikan hanya mereka yang layak menerima bantuan itu.
Sebanyak 5.4 juta penerima BR1M 2014 yang mempunyai akaun bank menerima terus bantuan berkenaan melalui akaun mereka semalam manakala kira-kira dua juta penerima yang tidak mempunyai akaun bank, akan menerima baucar secara berperingkat dalam tempoh tidak melebihi 20 hari, bermula hari ini.
Pemberian BR1M 2014 kepada isi rumah berpendapatan bulanan RM3,000 dan ke bawah dinaikkan daripada RM500 kepada RM700 merangkumi RM650 dan Insurans Takaful Berkelompok Rakyat 1Malaysia (i-BR1M) sebanyak RM50.
Bagi individu bujang berumur 21 tahun dan ke atas yang berpendapatan tidak lebih RM2,000 sebulan, nilai bantuan dinaikkan daripada RM250 kepada RM300.
Sebagai tambahan, buat pertama kalinya BR1M diperluaskan kepada isi rumah yang berpendapatan bulanan antara RM3,000 dan RM4,000 dengan nilai bantuan RM450. - Bernama, 23 Februari, 2014.

10 Stories From The Cold, Hard Streets Of America That Will Break Your Heart

By Michael Snyder

If the economy is really “getting better”, then why have millions upon millions of formerly middle class Americans been pushed to the point of utter despair?  The stories that you are about to read are absolutely heartbreaking.  I don’t know how anyone can read them without getting chills.  In America today, if you lose a good job, there is a good chance that you will get back on your feet before too long.  But there is also a good chance that you won’t be able to find a decent job and will plunge into the abyss of depression and desperation that so many millions of other Americans have fallen into.  As I wrote about earlier this month, the U.S. economy is definitely not getting any better.  For example, if you assume that the percentage of Americans that want to work is about at the long term average, then the official unemployment rate in the United States would beabove 11 percent.  And compared to six years ago, 1,154,000 fewer Americans are working today even though our population has gotten significantly larger since then.  Behind all of these numbers are real flesh and blood people, and you are about to hear from some of them.  The following are 10 stories from the cold, hard streets of America that will break your heart…

#1 A 34-year-old man named Rocco…

“While my wife goes to work, I’ve been staying at home to conserve fuel. I’ve been losing weight from eating less, so my family has more on their plates. It feels like the government and big business expect more and more while trying to give back as little as possible. Soon my internet connection will be shut off and since most companies don’t offer paper applications, how will I find work then? Walking around for miles a day, asking for an application that may or may not be available?”

#2 Homeless people wasting away in “Obamavilles” on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland…

A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel.

On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters.

You can see some incredible photos of how these homeless people are living right here.

#3 A 50-year-old woman in Pennsylvania named Karen…

“My husband only makes 10 dollars an hour and drives 30 miles round trip, so it’s taking all we have just to keep the Jeep filled with gas. We stopped going to church and all to save gas. We are homebodies now, afraid to use what gas we have. We save two kids from getting put in foster care just to be hit like this. It’s just a constant trap they try to keep you from receiving any help! I’m so disgusted when my 12-year-old asks me why we don’t have snacks anymore, or why are we eating so much rice, etc.”

#4 The following is an excerpt from a comment that was recently left by one of my readers…

“I live right at ground zero. South West Virginia and let me tell you things are bad and getting worse by the day. We don’t do drugs but have family members hooked on meth and or pills or both. Many of these pills are prescribed by local doctors either Suboxone to get you off the opiates, a total joke by the way and tons of Xanax why would anyone need 120 Xanax a month how can you even be expected to function. These pills get traded for cash sex and other items, same goes for the SNAP cards. We have family members going to jail repeatedly for the same crimes making meth, selling pills and stealing anything that’s not nailed down. People who are 30 years old look like they are 55 years old. The jobs here are awful walmat, gas stations, fast food etc. Most of our whole county is on the government dole.”

#5 A 55-year-old man from California named Randy Carpadus…

“I was working as a firefighter for the state of California and was laid off in April 2012, right at the beginning of fire season. At my age, I’m not going to be picked up by another fire department. They want younger guys.

I’ve applied for everything from truck driver, to sales, to nonprofit work. I’ve sent out almost 400 resumes, and I’ve gotten nothing. I’ve done whatever I could to make ends meet.

Through some connections, I got a temp job as a truck driver in Napa Valley — a 3-hour commute from where I live. I lived in my car and worked during grape harvest.”

#6 In this tough economic environment, debt collectors are becoming even more aggressive.  Just check out the kind of harassment that one woman named Jennifer Posey has been put through…

“This is Jimmy Lee calling from CheckCare. Just letting you know we’re in full force,” he said. The man had a thick Southern accent that stretched the word “you” into a two-syllable accusation. “We’re going to have warrants out for your arrest in Columbus, Ga.,” the man threatened. “We know you have an apartment on the canal in Clearwater.”

It was when he mentioned her home in Florida that Posey began to feel anxious. “We’re hurting you,” he continued. “We’re hurting your family, your son’s family, your cousin’s family. Whatever we can do to get you to pay.”

Forty minutes later, her phone rang again. “What about that 12-, 13-year-old child you’re trying to raise?” the voice sneered.

#7 A 50-year-old woman from New York named Sharon Ritchie…

“I am constantly told I am ‘overqualified.’ I’ve also been told to dumb down my resume, but I can’t just erase 30 years of experience.

You can only stand the word ‘no’ so many times. There are times that I cry at night wondering what happened, and at times I have thought about suicide.

But, I keep on going, hoping the cycle will break.”

#8 In response to my recent article about Appalachia, a reader named Rob shared the following…

“I am from rural south central KY (Brodhead, Rockcastle County) and I can tell you that most of the things described above are exactly how it is here. There are so many people on drugs it’s crazy. First it was the meth, which was more of a problem back in 2002-2007, then the pain pills really started becoming a huge problem, OxyContin and perc 30′s (roxicet) obtained from Florida and Georgia doctors. The pain pills are something that you can’t just walk away from after doing them for a while; they cause people to steal from family, sell everything they own, and/or prostitute themselves in order to avoid opiate withdrawal.”

#9 A 30-year-old man from California named Alejandro…

“I need to provide for my son who is diagnosed with autism and my baby girl. I’ve sold a bunch of my belongings to try and put food on the table, to buy clothes for my kids, to pay rent and utilities and to put gas in my vehicle to go job hunting. Not having money for necessities takes a toll on my mind. Depression has kicked in. It really takes a toll on one’s self-esteem and confidence to move forward.I’ve applied to countless amounts of jobs, only to not even get a call back. I’ve gone from construction site to construction site, only to be told they are not hiring. Finally, I got at least a positive call back from a company telling me they will call me to work in a couple of weeks. I am crossing my fingers and praying. There are millions of people in my situation or even worse.”

#10 An excerpt from a heartbreaking letter that an unemployed woman named Paula Bray sent to Barack Obama…

Dear Mr. President,

I write to you today because I have nowhere else to turn. I lost my full time job in September 2012. I have only been able to find part-time employment — 16 hours each week at $12 per hour — but I don’t work that every week. For the month of December, my net pay was $365. My husband and I now live in an RV at a campground because of my job loss. Our monthly rent is $455 and that doesn’t include utilities. We were given this 27-ft. 1983 RV when I lost my job.

This is America today. We have no running water; we use a hose to fill jugs. We have no shower but the campground does. We have a toilet but it only works when the sewer line doesn’t freeze — if it freezes, we use the campground’s restrooms. At night, in my bed, when it’s cold out, my blanket can freeze to the wall of the RV. We don’t have a stove or an oven, just a microwave, so regular-food cooking is out. Recently we found a small toaster oven on sale so we can bake a little now because eating only microwaved food just wasn’t working for us. We don’t have a refrigerator, just an icebox (a block of ice cost about $1.89). It keeps things relatively cold. If it’s freezing outside, we just put things on the picnic table.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

The economic despair that we are witnessing right now is just a taste of the horrible economic nightmare that is going to unfold in the United States during the coming years.

And already there are signs that things are starting to take another turn for the worse.  In recent months, we have seen a whole host of retail chains announce store closings.  In fact, one of my readers wrote to me the other day and told me about a home appliance chain known as “American TV” that is going out of business in the Midwest.  When these stores shut down, close to another 1000 Americans will soon be out of work…

“While this is a sad moment it is also a proud moment. It’s a moment to be proud of our efforts and to be proud of what we have delivered to the community”, said Doug Reuhl, President and CEO of American since 1988. “Words cannot adequately express how grateful we are to our millions of loyal customers, and to the incredible, dedicated family of employees that we have been blessed with over our 60 years of business”. Advanced notice of the business closing has been given to the 989 employees affected in eleven locations. Employees will be compensated, with benefits, through the notification period, and the majority will continue employment through the closing process.

But if you listen to the mainstream media, you would think that happy days are here again for America.  Just check out some of the bizarre headlines that I have collected in recent weeks…

CNBC: “Stop whining! The US economy is in good shape”

USA Today: “Economists: U.S. will see better growth in ’14”

Newsday: “Why the economy isn’t doomed”

Most Americans will buy into this propaganda and will never see the next major economic crisis coming until it is too late to do anything about it.

So what do you think about all of this?

Do you have a personal story to share?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by leaving a comment below…

World Risks Era Of Slow Growth, High Unemployment. Stocks May Crash 30% Or More In A Matter Of Months If The Fed Continues On The Current Course

Man Who Executed QE1 For Fed Says Stocks May Collapse 30%

In the aftermath of the recent chaos and market turmoil in emerging markets, today King World News spoke with the man the Fed called on to execute QE1 and who also set up the Fed’s massive trading room, former Fed member and former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, Andrew Huszar.  What he had to say will stun KWN readers around the world.  He warned stocks may collapse 30% or more in a matter of months if the Fed continues on the current course, and he also said that the Fed is now running the largest hedge fund in the world and it may end in disaster.  Below is what Huszard had to say in Part I of this remarkable interview.

Eric King:  “Andrew, what made you come out publicly and say that QE was a failure and apologize to everybody?  What made you come out and do that?”

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/2/21_Man_Who_Executed_QE1_For_Fed_Says_Stocks_May_Collapse_30.html

World risks era of slow growth, high unemployment: OECD

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/world-risks-era-slow-growth-023404123.html…

In its 2014 study on “Going for Growth”, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said momentum on reforms had slowed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, with much of it now piecemeal and incremental.

As I Suggested Would Happen – More Homes For Sale Now

Look out below…

from Truth in Gold:

Inventory rose year-over-year in 22 of the nation’s 35 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, with the largest inventory gains coming in some of the areas that were hit hardest by the housing recession, including Las Vegas (up 42.8 percent), Phoenix (up 30.5 percent) and Sacramento (up 26 percent). These metros also experienced significant cooling in the pace of home value appreciation in January, as buyers had more homes to choose from and were less apt to engage in the kinds of bidding wars that helped drive prices up so quickly last year.

I have been suggesting that we would start to see a lot more homes for sale starting in January, as home buyers who are theoretically now even or “above water” on their mortgage after paying too much before the bubble popped look to sell and move on, with less debt.

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2014/02/as-i-suggested-would-happen-more-homes.html

 

The die has been cast, and it appears that the world is finally on the path to the great “carry-trade unwind” endgame. If so, this is what it will look like…

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-20/pig-python-about-be-expelled-walk-thru-chinas-hard-landing-and-coming-global-hard-re

Non-Existing Home Sales Miss Expectations, Plunge 14% From Highs, Drop To 18 Month Low

 [6]

http://www.zerohedge.com/print/485200

RBS to Slash 20,000 Jobs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10652879/RBS-to-slash-20000-jobs.html

Asia Currencies Have Worst Week Since November on China Concern

Asian currencies had their worst weekly loss in almost three months as signs of a deeper economic slowdown in China and the Federal Reserve’s support for tapering asset purchases weighed onemerging markets.

South Korea’s won led the declines as a gauge of manufacturing in China, the nation’s biggest export market, fell to a seven-month low. Thailand’s baht was set for its steepest five-day drop of 2014 as anti-government protests turned deadly, while violence in Ukraine also damped sentiment. Fed policy makers backed further stimulus cuts at their January review, the minutes of the meeting showed, a program that drove capital into developing countries.

“Investors remain cautious and are concerned about downside risks coming from a slowdown in China and political instability in Thailand, Ukraine, Turkey and Argentina,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, a Hong Kong-based strategist at Credit Agricole CIB. “There are potential outflows to Treasuries as the Fed tapering is likely to push their yields up as well.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-21/asia-currencies-set-for-worst-week-since-august-on-china-concern.html

Hilarious Transcripts of Fed Minutes from 2008 Reveal Completely Clueless Fed

Today the Fed released minutes of meetings at the start and during the great financial crisis. These minutes show how clueless the Fed Governors were at the start of the recession.

Here is a list of FOMC Transcripts and Other Historical Materials, 2008

Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/02/hilarious-transcripts-of-fed-minutes.html#PwPPXJKxWHIoMkZk.99

Another Sudden Death of JPMorgan Worker: 34-Year Old Jason Alan Salais

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 23, 2014
On the evening of Sunday, December 15 of last year, six weeks before the onset of the latest rash of tragic deaths of young men in their 30s employed at JPMorgan, the Pearland, Texas police received a call of a person in distress outside a Walgreens pharmacy at 6122 Broadway in Pearland. The individual in distress was Jason Alan Salais, a 34-year old Information Technology specialist who had worked at JPMorgan Chase since May 2008.
A family member confirmed to Wall Street On Parade that Salais died of a heart attack on the same evening the report of distress went in to the police. The incidence of heart attack or myocardial infarction among men aged 20 to 39 is one half of one percent of the population, according to the National Center for Health Statistics and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, based on 2007 to 2010 data, marking this as another unusual death at JPMorgan.
A person identifying himself as Dave Steiner wrote the following about Salais in the online condolence book provided by the funeral home: “My condolences to your entire family at the sudden passing of Jason. When I had the pleasure of interviewing Jason to be a part of the team at J.P. Morgan back in 2008, it was clear to me within just a few short minutes that he was a man of character, intelligence, work ethic, kindness and integrity. In the years that followed, and until the sad news of this week, I was witness to his hard work, the friendships he built, stories of his beloved family and of course baseball…”
According to the LinkedIn profile for Salais, he was engaged in Client Technology Service “L3 Operate Support” and previously “FXO Operate L2 Support” at JPMorgan. Prior to joining JPMorgan in 2008, Salais had worked as a Client Software Technician at SunGard and a UNIX Systems Analyst at Logix Communications.
Six weeks after the sudden death of Salais, Gabriel Magee, a 39-year old Vice President who was also engaged in Information Technology at JPMorgan, this time in London, died under extremely suspicious circumstances. A Coroner’s Inquest into the matter will be held on May 15 in London.
Family and friends report that Magee was a happy, healthy, vibrant young man who emailed his girlfriend on the evening of January 27 to say he was finishing up at work and would be home shortly. When he did not arrive, his girlfriend notified police and called local hospitals. According to the Metropolitan Police in London, at around 8:02 a.m. the next morning, workers looking out their windows saw Magee’s body lying on a 9^th level rooftop that jutted out from the 33-story JPMorgan building in the Canary Wharf section of London.
London newspapers immediately called the death a suicide, initially suggesting that thousands of commuters had seen Magee jump from the 33^rd level rooftop. When Wall Street On Parade pressed the Metropolitan Police on the issue of actual eyewitnesses who had seen Magee jump, the Police backed away from the suggestion that the fall had actually been observed by eyewitnesses.
Magee worked in the European headquarters for JPMorgan at 25 Bank Street in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Drawings and plans submitted by JPMorgan to the borough after it purchased the building for £495 million in 2010, show that the 9^th floor roof is accessible “via the stair from level 8 within the existing Level 9 plant enclosure…”
According to Magee’s LinkedIn profile, his specific area of specialty at JPMorgan was  “Technical architecture oversight for planning, development, and operation of systems for fixed income securities and interest rate derivatives.”
Two young employees engaged in computer technology dying in such a short span of time might seem bizarre at a bank. But JPMorgan is not just any bank when it comes to computer technology. According to Anish Bhimani, the Chief Information Risk Officer at JPMorgan Chase, in an interview published at the Information Networking Institute (INI) at Carnegie Mellon, JPMorgan has “more software developers than Google, and more technologists than Microsoft…we get to build things at scale that have never been done before.”
Let that sink in for a moment: a bank that has “more software developers than Google.” The growing concern in Congress is that America’s biggest bank by assets is now so complex in terms of derivative risks on and off its books and software programs that are incomprehensible to its regulators, that it could pose systemic risk to the U.S. economy in a replay of the Citigroup debacle of 2008.
Six days after the death of Magee, Ryan Crane, an Executive Director involved in trading at JPMorgan’s New York office, was found dead in his home in Stamford, Connecticut on February 3.  No cause of death or circumstances surrounding the death has been released to the public.  The Chief Medical Examiner’s office will only say that the cause of death is “pending” and final results will not be announced for several more weeks. Wall Street On Parade called the Stamford Police last week to ask for the police incident report. Under Connecticut sunshine laws that report should be available to the press. We were informed that if we were able to obtain the incident report, most information would likely be redacted.
Crane’s death on February 3 was not reported by any major media until February 13, ten days later, when Bloomberg News ran a brief story.
On February 18 of last week, again reports emerged of many witnesses having seen a 33-year old JPMorgan employee jump from the rooftop of a 30-story office building, Chater House, in Hong Kong where JPMorgan leases space. No eyewitnesses have been identified by name.
The decedent’s age and the fact he was employed by JPMorgan is all that the media can agree on. The South China Morning Post, an English language newspaper in Hong Kong, has published four articles calling the deceased an “investment banker” and warning that stress in this job may lead to suicide. The South China Morning Post’s competitor in Hong Kong, The Standard, also an English language newspaper, reports that the employee is an accountant working in the finance department at JPMorgan – about as far removed from an investment banker as one could get.
The man’s name has been reported by various media in all of the following incarnations: Dennis Li, Li Junjie, Dennis Li Jun Jie, and Dennis Lee.
Despite four emails to Joe Evangelisti, a Managing Director and spokesperson for JPMorgan, Evangelisti would not provide the name and job title for the deceased employee, saying only that “Our HK team communicated with reporters late last week on this. Here’s the Bloomberg story.” The Bloomberg story provided by Evangelisti was seven sentences long and does not appear on the U.S. web site of Bloomberg News. The earlier story by Bloomberg News, circulated further at the San Francisco Chronicle, depicted the employee as a “foreign exchange trader” citing the (wait for it) South China Morning Post.
When Wall Street On Parade pointed out via email to Evangelisti that under Fair Disclosure rules (Reg FD) a publicly traded company in the U.S. has an obligation to issue its press releases to everyone at the same time and that we would like a direct statement from him on the employee’s name and job title (not another media outlet’s interpretation of JPMorgan’s statement), Wall Street On Parade heard no further from Evangelisti, despite openly copying the media relations folks at the Securities and Exchange Commission on the entire email thread.
The New York Post pointed out in its reporting that there is “no other known link between any of the deaths” outside of the individuals working for the same company. In fact, there are numerous links: all of the men are in their 30s, while according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the expected longevity in 2011 for a U.S. male is 76.3 years. All of the men are believed to have been covered by a life insurance policy which pays JPMorgan upon the death of its employees. (Insurance experts say that larger death benefits can be obtained on younger, highly skilled workers because the death benefit is a function of the number of years of lost earnings.)
But perhaps the most important link is this: three weeks before the death of Salais and within a little more than a month of the other deaths, JPMorgan had been put under a form of probation by the U.S. Justice Department. In exchange for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement that ran for two years and $1.7 billion in fines to avoid the criminal indictment of individuals and the firm for facilitating the largest financial fraud in U.S. history, Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, JPMorgan was forced to agree to “secure the attendance and truthful statements or testimony of any past or current officers, agents, or employees at any meeting or interview or before the grand jury…provide in a responsive and prompt fashion, and upon request, on an expedited schedule, all documents, records, information and other evidence in JPMorgan’s possession, custody or control as may be requested by the Office, the FBI, or designated governmental agency…bring to the Office’s attention all criminal conduct by JPMorgan or any of its employees…commit no crimes under the federal laws of the United States subsequent to the execution of this Agreement.”
When a rash of sudden deaths occur among a most unlikely cohort of 30-year olds at a bank that has just settled felony charges and been put on notice that it will be indicted if it commits any further felonies; when it is currently under investigation on multiple continents for potentially committing criminal acts in the realm of interest rate and/or foreign exchange rigging — for the press to cavalierly call these deaths “non suspicious” before inquests have been conducted and findings released by medical examiners shows an unseemly indifference to a worker’s life and an alarming insensitivity to the grief stricken families still searching for answers.

Related Articles from Wall Street On Parade:
A Rash of Deaths and a Missing Reporter — With Ties to Wall Street Investigations

Suspicious Death of JPMorgan Vice President, Gabriel Magee, Under Investigation in London
JPMorgan Vice President’s Death in London Shines a Light on the Bank’s Close Ties to the CIA

As Bank Deaths Continue to Shock, Documents Reveal JPMorgan Has Been Patenting Death Derivatives 
JPMorgan and Madoff Were Facilitating Nesting Dolls-Style Frauds

30 Stupid Things The Government Is Spending Money On

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If you want to get paid for doing something stupid, just turn to the U.S. government.  The U.S. government is paying researchers to play video games, it is paying researchers to study the effects of cocaine on Japanese quail and it has spent millions of dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.  The amount of money that the government wastes is absolutely horrifying.  Do you remember all of that political wrangling over the debt ceiling deal last year?  Do you remember how our politicians told us that there were cutting spending as much as they possibly could?  Well, it was all a giant lie.  As you will see below, the U.S. government is spending money on some of the most stupid things imaginable.  What makes all of this even worse is that we are going into enormous amounts of debt in order to pay for all of this.  We are borrowing billions of dollars a day in order to pay for stupid stuff that no government on earth should ever be paying for.  Trust me, you are going to find it hard to believe some of the stuff in this list.  It is almost inconceivable what our politicians are doing with our tax dollars.
The following are 30 incredibly stupid things that the federal government is spending money on….
#1 The U.S. government is spending $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
#2 The Obama administration plans to spend between 16 and 20 million dollars helping students from Indonesia get master’s degrees.
#3 If you can believe it, the U.S. government has spent $175,587 “to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior”.
#4 The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, California.
#5 The federal government has shelled out $3 million to researchers at the University of California at Irvine to fund their research on video games such as World of Warcraft.  Wouldn’t we all love to have a “research job” like that?
#6 The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $500 million on a program that will, among other things, seek to solve the problem of 5-year-old children that “can’t sit still” in a kindergarten classroom.
#7 Fannie Mae is about to ask the federal government for another $4.6 billion bailout, and it will almost certainly get it.
#8 The federal government once spent 30 million dollars on a program that was designed to help Pakistani farmers produce more mangos.
#9 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once gave researchers at the University of New Hampshire $700,000 to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#10 According to USA Today, 13 different government agencies “fund 209 different science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs — and 173 of those programs overlap with at least one other program.”
#11 A total of $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
#12 China lends us more money than any other foreign nation, but that didn’t stop our government from spending 17.8 million dollars on social and environmental programs for China.
#13 The U.S. government once spent 2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly.
#14 One professor at Stanford University was given $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love.
#15 The U.S. Postal Service spent $13,500 on a single dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
#16 The National Science Foundation once spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions”.
#17 A total of $1.8 million was spent on a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#18 The federal government spends 25 billion dollars a year maintaining federal buildings that are either unused or totally vacant.
#19 U.S. farmers are given a total of $2 billion each year for not farming their land.
#20 The U.S. government handed one Tennessee library $5,000 for the purpose of hosting a series of video game parties.
#21 A few years ago the government spent $123,050 on a Mother’s Day Shrine in Grafton, West Virginia.  It turns out that Grafton only has a population of a little more than 5,000 people.
#22 One professor at Dartmouth University was given $137,530 to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.
#23 According to the Heritage Foundation, the U.S. military spent “$998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida”.
#24 The U.S. Department of Agriculture once shelled out $30,000 to a group of farmers to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”.
#25 The National Institutes of Health paid researchers $400,000 to find out why gay men in Argentina engage in risky sexual behavior when they are drunk.
#26 The National Institutes of Health also once spent $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#27 The National Institutes of Health loves to spend our tax money on really bizarre things.  The NIH once spent $800,000 in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.
#28 According to the Washington Post, 1,271 different government organizations work on government programs related to counterterrorism and homeland security.
#29 The U.S. government spent $100,000 on a “Celebrity Chef Fruit Promotion Road Show in Indonesia”.
#30 The feds once gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 “to paint a Chinook salmon” on the side of a Boeing 737.
How in the world can our government be so foolish?
Anyone that claims that there is not a lot of stuff that can be cut out of the federal budget is lying to you.
All of this crazy spending is going to get us into a massive amount of trouble eventually.  Already, on a per capita basis the U.S. national debt is worse than the national debts of Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
We have accumulated the biggest debt in the history of the world and we are adding to it at a rate of about 150 million dollars an hour.
Our politicians strut around as if they are the smartest and wisest leaders in the history of the world, but the truth is that someday people will look back in horror at the decline of our once great society.
The federal government needs to stop spending so much money on stupid things and needs to stop pushing our national debt to nightmarish new levels.
Unfortunately, the corruption in Washington D.C. is so deep and so pervasive that it is going to be almost impossible to turn it around.

12 Banker Suicides Linked to JP Morgan Investigation for Forex Manipulation

[SOURCES]
Second JPMorgan Banker Jumps To His Death: Said To Be 33 Year Old Hong Kong FX Trader
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02…
8th Banker Commits Suicide: JP Morgan Hong Kong & 30 Stories Down!
http://politicalvelcraft.org/2014/02/…
Family of missing Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird issues televised plea for his return
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/27/…
Pam Martens on David Bird (Missing) and his Writing
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/…
Series of Deaths Among Financial Workers Jolts London
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S…
Twelve deaths in eight months, by suicide & otherwise, among the CEO classes
http://americablog.com/2014/02/twelve…
Wall Street Tycoon Gives Away $800,000,000 Then Commits Suicide
http://politicalblindspot.com/wall-st…
JP Morgan Chase Foreign Exchange
https://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmorg…
Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBS confirm forex probes
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/b…
International forex probe deepens as Deutsche Bank suspends traders
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/…
Traders caught in widening forex probe
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca69a6b2-7e…
World’s top financial regulator joins global FX probe
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02…

Regulators question JPMorgan Chase on foreign exchange
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/b…

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/12-banker-suicides-linked-to-jp-morgan-investigation-for-forex-manipulation/#b7OvtqPEwhSf2DbC.99

Thousands march in Hong Kong against erosion of media freedoms.

Gold & Silver Bulls Sitting Well, Uptrend in Place: Wyckoff

Kitco News’ Jim Wyckoff talks gold and silver after a full docket of mixed economic data this week, which has impacted the metals. “We had a corrective technical pullback, some profit taking from shorter-term traders to put some modest downside price pressure on gold late this week,” he says. “But overall, the technical posture remains bullish. We’ve got an uptrend in place on the daily chart for both gold and silver.” Looking over at other metals, Wyckoff says the weak data that came out of China will most likely continue hurting the base metals. On the other hand, silver saw an impressive upside breakout a few days ago said Wyckoff. “So, the [silver] bulls have gained technical momentum.” Watch now to hear Wyckoff’s market ratings for gold and silver, which haven’t looked this high in quite a while. Kitco News, February 20, 2014.Join the conversation @ The Kitco Forums and be part of the premier online community for precious metals investors:http://kitcomm.com – Or join the conversation on social media: @KitcoNewsNOW on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kitconews— Kitco News on Facebook: http://facebook.com/kitconews — Kitco News on Google+: http://google.com/+kitco — Kitco News on StockTwits: http://stocktwits.com/kitconews

Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/gold-silver-bulls-sitting-well-uptrend-in-place-wyckoff/#BzJgCI5teUZs5tZ3.99

Old Navy Ad Celebrates Pervert TSA Agents Ogling Women

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A disgustng new Spring TV ad the from Old Navy clothing retailer features an attractive woman in line at an airport security checkpoint who is being ogled and detained by TSA agents.
The ad, which promotes the company's $19 jeans, shows a TSA agent gawking, staring at the passenger in a lecherous manner and putting her face inches from the female passenger's curvy hips and crotch. (under the color of authority, of course.)
The brunette victim also seems to enjoy the attack as a second TSA agent, an obese asian wearing blue rubber gloves, flirtatiously peers at the woman with beady eyes.
This, incidentally, is not much different from the way pervert cops act across the country such as in Texas, where Texas Troopers have been caught raping women of all races on the roadside statewide with impunity. One such officer was even re-hired by the Texas Department of Public Safety despite having an additional case of accused rape pending.
In the ad, after taking notice of the slim brunette, the black female TSA agent tells the passenger "Excuse me Miss, but I'm going to have to take a closer look..." She then repeats "Whoo! Your jeans, they fit so good!"
Old Navy is also running a Spanish-language version of the ad, featuring actress Dascha Polanco. At least one of Polanco's twitter followers seemed to like the ad and tweeted to the actress about it.
Our 2013 article Catholic Schools in Iowa working with Dept. of Homeland Security includes four sections which document the numerous problems with the so-called Department of Homeland Security. It is also republished below:

• 1. HOMELAND SECURITY DEMONIZES CHRISTIANS, CONSERVATIVES AND PRO-LIFERS.
• 2. POPE AND OTHERS CONDEMN DHS BODY SCANNERS.
• 3. HOMELAND SECURITY SAYS CONSERVATIVES AND THOSE WITH TRADITIONAL VALUES ARE TERRORISTS.
• 4. HOMELAND SECURITY RUN BY PERVERTS AND SADISTIC DEGENERATES.

The TSA Agent is played by 51-year-old actress Debra Renee Wilson, formerly of MADtv. First incorporated in 1994, Old Navy is a subsidiary of The Gap, Inc. Their Facebook page can be found here.

In Japan’s Drill With the U.S., a Message for Beijing

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — In the early morning along a barren stretch of beach here last week, Japanese soldiers and American Marines practiced how to invade and retake an island captured by hostile forces.

Memo to Beijing: Be forewarned.

One Marine sergeant yelled for his men, guns drawn, to push into the right building as they climbed through the window of an empty house meant to simulate a seaside dwelling.  The Marines had poured out of four amphibious assault vehicles as another group of smaller inflatable boats carrying soldiers of Japan’s Western Army Infantry Regiment landed in an accompanying beachhead assault.

There were shouts in Japanese. There were shouts in Marine English. There was air support, from Huey and Cobra helicopters hovering above. Then larger Navy hovercrafts roared in, spitting up a spray of seawater before burping out Humvees and more Japanese troops, their faces blackened with camouflage paint.

American military officials, viewing the cooperative action of the former World War II enemies from a nearby hillside, insisted that the annual exercise, called Iron Fist, had nothing, nothing to do with last fall’s game of chicken between Tokyo and Beijing over islands that are largely piles of rocks in the East China Sea. But Lt. Col. John O’Neal, commander of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said that this year, the Japanese team came with “a new sense of purpose.”

Launch media viewer

The Japanese arrived nearly 250 strong as tensions with Beijing over a set of disputed islands in the East China Sea continue. Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“There are certainly current events that have added emphasis to this exercise,” he said, as Japanese soldiers made their way up into the rocks before disappearing into the hills above the beach. “Is there a heightened awareness? Yes.”

In the United States military, commanders are increasingly allied in alarm with Japan over China’s flexing of military muscle. Capt. James Fanell, director of intelligence and information operations with the United States Pacific Fleet, recently said in San Diego that China was training its forces to be capable of carrying out a “short, sharp” war with Japan in the East China Sea.

In a sign of continuing concern, Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, was in China over the weekend seeking to improve the limited relationship between the American and Chinese militaries, perhaps through exchanges of top officers. In recent years, the Pentagon has worried about the buildup of China’s military and a lack of transparency among its leaders.

The islands at the center of the dispute, known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese, are a seven-hour boat ride from Japan, even farther from China, and thought to be surrounded by man-eating sharks. Japan has long administered the islands, but they are claimed by China and Taiwan.

Last year, China set off a trans-Pacific uproar when it declared that an “air defense identification zone” gave it the right to identify and possibly take military action against aircraft near the islands. Japan refused to recognize China’s claim, and the United States defied China by sending military planes into the zone unannounced — even as the Obama administration advised American commercial airlines to comply with China’s demand and notify Beijing in advance of flights through the area.

Launch media viewer

United States Marines participated in an amphibious assault exercise in Camp Pendleton. Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A few weeks later, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan approved a five-year defense plan that took the pacifist nation further toward its most assertive military posture since World War II.

This year, when Japanese troops showed up for the exercise with the Marines at Camp Pendleton, they came packing. Instead of the platoon of 25 soldiers they sent to the exercise in 2006, the first year it was conducted, the Japanese arrived nearly 250 strong. They brought along their own Humvees, gear and paraphernalia for retaking islands — or, in Marine parlance, “amphibious assault with the intent to seize objectives inland.”

The monthlong exercise, which ends Monday, has been spread over a wide section of Southern California. There was the amphibious assault at Camp Pendleton, mortar shoots at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms and live firing exercises at San Clemente Island. There was a nighttime raid at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, presumably out of sight of guests sipping pink Champagne on the verandas of the bejeweled Hotel del Coronado a short distance away.

This year’s Iron Fist, Colonel O’Neal said, was the largest and most involved operation so far. The exercise included drones and the kinds of air support that would be needed to protect Japanese and American troops retaking an island, though the “shaping” that would normally be done in a real-world assault — when the Air Force and Navy bomb intended targets before carrying out an actual ground invasion — was only implied.

In the waters just off Coronado last month, Japanese soldiers, clutching their gear, pushed rubber reconnaissance boats out of a hovering helicopter and jumped into the cold water as part of what the Marines called “helo cast” training. The bread and butter of the Marine Corps, helo cast training, with its emphasis on fast and light movements into hostile territory, is not the type of training which Japanese troops have routinely had in the past.

Launch media viewer

American military officials insisted that the annual exercise was unrelated to the dispute between Tokyo and Beijing over islands in the East China Sea. T. Lynne Pixley for The New York Times

The Japanese soldiers and the Marines have spent much of the past month managing a considerable language barrier. Although they have worked side by side in the joint exercises, they are not intertwined, hence the reason for the parallel amphibious landings. Marine interpreters and their Japanese counterparts dashed between the two militaries, discussing coordinates and plans.

For Japan, the Iron Fist exercise is a “valuable opportunity where we can learn various techniques from the U.S. forces,” Col. Matushi Kunii, the Japanese commander of the Western Army Infantry Regiment, said at the opening ceremony last month.

For Japan, defense experts said, the shift to the more comprehensive training with the Marines is a direct response to a more assertive China. “The Japanese have been getting more serious about broadening their training,” said Christopher K. Johnson, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, because “the Chinese are doing their own exercises that look a lot like island-grabbing.”

He pointed to recent military exercises by China that Asia experts believe could be rehearsals for landing operations targeting the uninhabited islands.

And imagine, Asia experts said, if China became assertive about islands where people actually live, like Okinawa.

Some Asia experts believe that is already happening, pointing to recent talk from Chinese scholars, though not the Chinese government, about Okinawa, which the Japanese call Ryukyu.

“All of a sudden,” said Andrew Oros, an associate professor of political science at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and a specialist on East Asia, “it’s no longer about protecting some deserted island; it’s about protecting somewhere where more than one million Japanese people live.”

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