By Joshua Krause

All socialist schemes end in the same way. Given enough time, socialist governments will bring poverty, misery, and death to their citizens. But instead of changing their ways, the operators of a command economy will double down over and over again until the whole system collapses.

Since these people only think of the economy as a simple machine and their citizens as cogs, they will inevitably start to treat their citizens like robots as their system falls apart. And that’s exactly what’s happening in Venezuela, where the government is now mandating forced labor for their citizens.

In an effort to deal with the country’s food shortages, the government has decreed that citizens who are physically able will have to work on Venezuela’s farms for at least 60 days per year, regardless of what their current job entails. Workers will still be paid their normal salaries and can’t be fired from their day jobs. The government reserves the right to increase this farm work period if needed.

Obviously this won’t work. Venezuela doesn’t have food shortages because people aren’t working the fields. High-yield farms require equipment and fertilizers that can’t be made domestically anymore, and nobody can afford to buy these supplies abroad either. The real problem is that people can’t work these farms, because they don’t have what they need to run them.

Instead of the solving the food crisis, the forced labor program is going to send hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers to the farms, where they will be paid to do nothing. And since they won’t be doing their day jobs, more shortages and dysfunction will emerge in other sectors of the economy. Surely the Maduro regime will concoct some other ridiculous and authoritarian scheme to deal with those shortages, and that will probably cause more problems. And on and on it will go, either until everyone starves to death, or until Maduro’s government is overthrown.

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Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger.

(activistpost.com)

By James Holbrooks

Only days after completing production of the largest amphibious aircraft ever built, China has just revealed plans to launch the world’s first satellite designed to conduct quantum experiments in space — a move that could one day lead to a highly secure “orbital internet.”

Assuming the initial satellite performs well, as many as 20 additional craft would follow in the effort to create a new category of communications network. Chinese researchers believe their work could ignite a space race as other nations move to refine the technology.

“Definitely, I think there will be a race,” Chaoyang Lu, a physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China, told science journal Nature.

In addition to bringing the world one step closer to a planet-wide Internet based on quantum mechanics, the proposed network would bring a level of security to communication never before known.

Explains Nature:

Quantum communications are secure because any tinkering with them is detectable. Two parties can communicate secretly — by sharing an encryption key encoded in the polarization of a string of photons, say — safe in the knowledge that any eavesdropping would leave a mark.

The militaristic applications of such technology should be clear to all, as classified information and data on top secret projects could be hidden from other nations’ eyes. But there are implications here that should give the everyday citizen pause, as highlighted by UK’s The Sun:

Having an internet based in space would also be very useful for surveillance operations, as it would allow spies to snoop on Planet Earth using high resolution cameras whilst hiding resulting data from the public or enemy nations.

Whatever the potential effects, China’s taking the lead in this type of innovation — and the fact that they’re making it known — is very much in line with the country’s recent exhibiting of its considerable capabilities.

Days before announcing its plan to launch its satellites, China unveiled the AG600, the largest amphibious aircraft ever assembled. Measuring 121 feet in length and with a wingspan of 128 feet, the craft is nearly the size of a Boeing 737.

While the purported purpose of the AG600 is to combat forest fires and conduct maritime rescue missions, Defense News was quick to point out that the craft is “well within round-trip range of Chinese military forces occupying Woody Island in the South China Sea from China’s southern coastline of Hainan Island.”

The South China Sea, as Underground Reporter has previously outlined, is currently a region of great dispute for the United States and the Republic of China.

This conflict — which has both sides preparing for all-out naval warfare — is one reason why eyebrows should’ve raised at China’s recent release of footage of mid-air ballistic missiles destroying targets miles above Earth. Britain’s The Mirror noted the coincidental timing:

The footage is the first time their test — which took place six years ago — has been seen by the public and it could be a warning shot to the US.

Days before the release, evidence of the growing tension between the two countries manifested at the G20 summit. A Bloomberg report on July 24 noted that, by the end of the talks, China and the United States “showed signs of being at odds” on how to proceed with economic policy.

Weeks ago, an editorial in China’s state-run newspaper Global Times suggested the United States “wants to send a signal by flexing its muscles” via interference in the regional conflict in the South China Sea, and that as the “biggest powerhouse” in those waters, it “awaits China’s obedience.”

The same editorial claims China will make the United States “pay a cost it cannot stand” and that the country “won’t flinch” in the face of U.S. intrusion into its territory.

So if nothing else can be taken from China’s recent string of unveilings — in the realms of both militaristic might and technological innovation — it’s that the country has sizable muscles of its own. And if the tough talk is to be believed, they’re not at all afraid to put them to use.

This article (China Releases ‘Warning Shot’ Vid of Missile Launch, Amps Up Tensions With US) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commonslicense with attribution to James Holbrooks and UndergroundReporter.org. If you spot a typo, please email the error and the name of the article to undergroundreporter2016@gmail.com. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Also Read: U.S. Preparing To Launch Submarine Drones Into Disputed Territory Of The South China Sea


(activistpost.com)

By Carey Wedler

“By means that could be termed dishonest, deceitful and corrupt, they manufactured 7.2 billion euros in deposits by obvious sham transactions,” Judge Martin Nolan of Ireland said as he convicted three top bankers on Friday for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. They are among the first in the world to be sent to prison for their involvement in the global meltdown eight years ago.

The longest-ever criminal trial in Ireland lasted 74 days and led to convictions for former Irish Life and Permanent Bank Chief Executive Denis Casey; former finance director at the failed Anglo Irish Bank, Willie McAteer; and former head of capital markets at the Anglo Irish Bank, John Bowe. They received sentences ranging between two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years.

As light as those sentences may seem considering the dire effect bankers’ actions had on the Irish economy, U.S. and English bankers have evaded convictions altogether. Though banks in those countries have since paid out billions of dollars in settlements to regulators for their role in the 2008 crash, no one from those companies has been sentenced to prison.

Reuters reported on the different approach used by Ireland:

All three were convicted of conspiring together and with others to mislead investors, depositors and lenders by setting up a 7.2-billion-euro circular transaction scheme between March and September 2008 to bolster Anglo’s balance sheet. “Irish Life placed the deposits via a non-banking subsidiary in the run-up to Anglo’s financial year-end, to allow its rival to categorize them as customer deposits, which are viewed as more secure, rather than a deposit from another bank.” Defense attorneys for the bankers claimed the scheme was prompted by Irish regulators’ demands at the time that Irish banks “support one another as the financial crisis worsened” in a program called the “green jersey agenda.”

But Judge Nolan maintained they had committed a “very serious crime,” adding, “The public is entitled to rely on the probity of blue chip firms. If we can’t rely on the probity of these banks we lose all hope or trust in institutions.” A blue chip firm is a “nationally recognized, well-established and financially sound company,” according to Investopedia. Nolan also called Anglo Irish“‘probably the most reviled institution in the state,’” noting it was “put into liquidation in 2013 and remains subject to other criminal trials,” Reuters reported.

In recent years, the Irish population has grown increasingly angry over the lack of prosecutions for financial dealings that cost taxpayers “64 billion euros — almost 40 percent of annual economic output — after a property collapse forced the biggest state bank rescue in the euro zone,” Reutersnoted. By 2011, Irish taxpayers had bailed out banks five times, and the Irish finance ministry said last month it could take up to 15 years to recoup the money pumped into those banks.

Willie McAteer, the former finance director at Anglo Irish, was previously convicted of “illegal lending and providing unlawful assistance to investors,” in 2014, but he was sentenced only to community service after a judge ruled he was “led into error and illegality” by Irish regulators.

Two top bankers from Anglo Irish Bank — chief operations officer Tiarnan O’Mahoney and former company secretary Bernard Daly — were convicted and sentenced in 2015 for crimes that preceded the 2008 crisis, but both were released from prison on appeal earlier this year after spending several months behind bars. O’Mahoney could still face a retrial.

The government’s lenient treatment of O’Mahoney and Daly leaves uncertainties regarding whether or not this week’s convictions will translate into actual prison time for the bankers or an upheaval of the current system; the Irish financial system’s corruption extends far beyond the activities of the recently convicted bankers.

Similarly, Iceland, which received widespread praise last year for sentencing over two dozen bankers to prison for their role in the global banking crisis, released three of them in April — years before their sentences were officially up.

In spite of the questions surrounding whether or not convictions like those issued Friday will produce tangible change, the symbolism of bankers actually being held accountable for the destruction caused by their schemes is sure to resonate with Irish citizens, as well as observers from around the world.

Meanwhile, in America, the political party vowing to end the banking oligarchy held its convention at the Wells Fargo center for a candidate bankrolled by Goldman Sachs.

Meanwhile, in America, the political party vowing to end the banking oligarchy held its convention at the Wells Fargo center for a candidate bankrolled by Goldman Sachs.

In case you haven’t heard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZu5MWHECrs 6762 198 5620

This article (Ireland Jails 3 Top Bankers over 2008 Collapse, the Opposite of What the US Did) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Carey Wedler and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radioairs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.

(activistpost.com)