13 Investigates: IRS tax loophole
Published on Apr 27, 2012 by 13WTHR (youtube)
Deuteronomy 28:33 (ESV)
A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually…
Psalm 83:15 (NASV)
So pursue them with Your tempest And terrify them with Your storm…
The soldiers of Jesus Christ are not unarmed… what is true in the physical world has it’s counterpart in the spiritual world…
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Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons. The possession of a good rifle, as well as the skill to use it well, truly makes a man the monarch of all he surveys.
— Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle
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U.S. Military Snipers Are Changing Warfare
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY last updated 9 May 2012
When Marine Sgt. Jonathan Charles’ unit arrived in Afghanistan, the American troops faced an entrenched enemy that picked a fight with the Marines almost every time they stepped off base.
“They couldn’t get outside the wire more than 50 meters before it was a barrage of fire,” said Charles, a scout sniper.
The Marine battalion quickly dispersed well-camouflaged scout sniper teams throughout the Musa Qala area in southern Afghanistan, the former Taliban heartland. The teams would hide for days, holed up in crevices, among boulders or in mud-walled homes, and wait for unsuspecting militants to walk into a trap.
The result: Dozens of militants were killed by an enemy they never saw. Word of unseen killers began to spread among the “few who got away,” Charles said. Within weeks, the tide had begun to turn and by the end of the unit’s seven-month deployment in March 2011, the battalion’s 33-man sniper platoon had 185 enemy kills.
“They quit altogether,” Charles, 26, said of the Taliban. More important, with the enemy largely neutralized, the battalion could focus on building local security and developing Afghan security forces. This approach is the bedrock of counterinsurgency warfare, which is designed to allow the United States to remove most combat troops by the end of 2014.
Snipers have quietly emerged as one of the most effective but least understood weapons in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Advancements in technology and training have made them deadlier than in any previous generation. Their ability to deliver accurate shots minimizes collateral damage — a key factor in counterinsurgency — and they are often more effective than much ballyhooed drones at secretly collecting intelligence.
The number of slots at the Army’s sniper school at Fort Benning, Ga., increased to 570 last year, up from 163 in 2003, when the Iraq War started. The Marine Corps operates several sniper schools, too.
A precision weapon
U.S. commanders typically describe counterinsurgency as improving government and the economy and protecting the population. But killing hard-core elements of the insurgency helps persuade the population to join the winning side, military analysts say.
Snipers are ideally suited for that. “It’s a lot easier to win hearts and minds when you’re doing surgical operations (instead of) taking out entire villages,” said LeRoy Brink, a civilian instructor at the Fort Benning school.
Snipers have another advantage. They wear on the enemy’s psyche, producing an impact disproportionate to their size. “It takes the fight out of them,” Marine Col. Tim Armstrong, commander of the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico, said of the impact on the enemy.
Snipers will play a prominent role as the military reshapes itself into a more agile force after Iraq and Afghanistan. In a new strategy unveiled in January, the Pentagon said it planned on building a smaller, more expeditionary military force and would expand America’s capabilities to train indigenous forces over the next several years.
Snipers fit well into that concept, said Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “They’ve proven to … have had substantial payoff in terms of military effectiveness. They will continue to be valued.”
Refinements in training and advancements in technology have proved a deadly combination for snipers.
“It’s much more of a science now,” said Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Eggers, a leader at the Army’s sniper course at Fort Benning. “Understanding the technology, better understanding of ballistics — that is what has really changed the game.”
In recent years, snipers have been armed with handheld ballistic computers that calculate the effects of air pressure and other atmospherics on a bullet’s trajectory. Optics and rifles have also improved accuracy. The Marine Corps assembles its own bolt-action sniper rifles to exacting standards here at Quantico.
Typically, a well-equipped sniper in World War II could be expected to hit a human target with a single shot at about 600 yards in favorable conditions and during daylight. Today, snipers can typically hit targets at twice that range — from more than half a mile away — and at night, said Bryan Litz, a ballistics expert at Berger Bullets who has done military contract work.
Psychological impact
In Iraq the value of snipers was clear from the beginning. When Marine officers were negotiating with insurgents holed up in Fallujah in 2004, the enemy’s first request was that Marines withdraw snipers who ringed the city and were targeting insurgents.
Fallujah had become a symbol of insurgent resistance after four U.S. security contractors were killed in an ambush and the charred remains of two were strung from a bridge over the Euphrates.
“They weren’t concerned with the tanks or the battalions in there,” Armstrong said. “They wanted the snipers removed.”
Marine officers refused. Within days, the insurgents met the Marines’ initial conditions.
“They’re a small niche that can really wreak havoc on the enemy,” said Clarke Lethin, a retired Marine officer who was on the staff of the unit that conducted the negotiations in Fallujah. “Our snipers were very effective when we were trying to bring terrorists to the table.”
There’s a personal element to snipers that is hard to quantify but has an impact on the enemy.
When an insurgent is killed by an unseen drone strike, “the enemy sort of absorbs that,” dismissing it as superior American technology, Armstrong said.
They have a different reaction to sniper kills. “When a sniper shoots them … it translates to, ‘I just went to a fight man-on-man and I was bested by another man,’ ” Armstrong said. “That is the psychological impact of scout snipers on the battlefield.”
The enemy also understood the psychological potency of an unseen enemy that can strike at any time. Starting in 2005, insurgents released a series of videos showing U.S. soldiers being shot, claiming it was the work of a single sniper who was stalking Baghdad. The video was an effort to strike fear into American troops by raising the specter of an unseen gunman preying on U.S. troops.
The U.S. military denied that any one insurgent marksman was responsible for the killings and dismissed the video as propaganda. Military analysts say insurgent marksmen lack advanced training and equipment that would allow them to take long-range shots at night.
“They’re not able to engage in the ranges that we are and not at night,” Litz said.
Glamorized by Hollywood
More recently, snipers have been lionized by Hollywood, video games and books. American Sniper, an autobiography of a Navy SEAL sniper, has dominated best-seller lists since its publication in January.
They capitalize on a fascination the public has with marksmen who match wits against an elusive enemy. In 2009, the public was captivated by news of Navy SEAL snipers killing three Somali pirates simultaneously, ending a five-day standoff after the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama was seized off the coast of Somalia. It was the latest in a rash of piracy in the region.
But sniper training is a far cry from the image of lone gunmen stalking human prey that is often portrayed by Hollywood. The training is daunting. Students often spend hours moving a couple of hundred yards without being detected. They learn to pay attention to every detail. Even if instructors can’t see a sniper stalking through the underbrush, they might detect vegetation moving slightly as they crawl a few yards.
“It’s not as sexy as the public would think,” Eggers said, amid the deafening sounds of students at Fort Benning firing .50-caliber sniper rifles, larger weapons designed for use against vehicles. “It’s actually a pretty boring job.”
The image of the lone gunman is dated. During Vietnam, snipers were often sent on hunting missions far from friendly forces, Brink said. Today, however, the Army usually teams them up with conventional forces or places them in positions that can be supported by nearby friendly troops.
“Back in the day, they would just go out hunting,” Brink said.
The Army’s main sniper school at Fort Benning, nestled amid Georgia’s gentle hills and pine forests, teaches students about marksmanship, stalking, observation and other skills.
The Marines put their scout snipers through an intense 11-week course where attrition is high and students learn marksmanship, ballistics and observation skills. Students are screened carefully for intelligence and psychological stability even before arriving at Quantico.
“We’re looking for a different type of Marine: one with a higher (test score) … level of maturity and experience,” said Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Chad Ramsey, who helps oversee the Corps’ reconnaissance career field. “The perception doesn’t equal the reality when it comes to going through the school.”
The Marines’ scout sniper school at Quantico is “one of the top three or four toughest schools in our military, hands down,” said Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Micheal Barrett.
Students in the Army’s five-week course learn complex formulas designed to predict how a bullet’s trajectory will be changed slightly by the atmosphere. When firing long distances, wind variations and barometric pressure can knock a bullet off course. Bullets travel faster at high altitudes where there is less resistance in the thin air.
Reading body language
Students learn how to create Ghillie suits, which are complemented with local vegetation so that snipers can blend into the background when stalking a target. They learn to shoot accurately under stress.
During one exercise at Fort Benning, students run several hundred yards wearing about 45 pounds of combat gear before entering a building to complete exercises before each of four separate firing positions.
At each position the snipers are given a short time to fire at targets hundreds of yards away. To get to each position, they run up ladders and stairs. They are graded on speed and accuracy.
The exercise is designed to “see how well they operate under stress,” said Arturo Prieto, a 52-year-old instructor and retired Army non-commissioned officer, after a team of panting snipers finished the course and dashed out of the building.
In conventional wars, snipers were often dispatched on missions to kill high-ranking officers, who were identifiable by their uniforms and insignia. In 1777, an American marksman killed a British general at the second Battle of Saratoga, changing the course of the battle and proving the worth of a trained marksman.
Today, snipers face an enemy that wears no uniforms or insignia. It makes for a tougher environment that requires powers of observation and judgment.
They still go after “high-value targets” designated by commanders, but much of their time is used conducting surveillance.
For example, they might watch from a hidden location as conventional forces move toward an objective, or observe a marketplace, looking for things that seem out of place.
“You’re going to need to read his body language,” said Sgt. 1st Class Adam James, 29, an instructor.
That’s something drones and other technology can’t do.
“A UAV is going to be able to report … vehicles or whatever the case may be,” said Sgt. Augusto Zapata, a 26-year-old Marine scout sniper instructor at Quantico, referring to the acronym for drones. “But that Marine on the ground observing through those optics is going to be able to make out somebody who seems nervous or seems out of place.”
Staff Sgt. Ian Shepard, 30, an instructor, watched as two students at Fort Benning’s sniper school settled into their firing positions.
“Shooting is the easiest part of the job,” Shepard said. “It’s more of a mental game than anything else.”
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Related posts…
Ancient evidence of a “wicked seed”
The right weapons… the right strategy… the right tactics…
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Philippians 1:28 (NLT)
… Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself…
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II Corinthians 10:4 (ESV)
… For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds…
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II Peter 2:12 (ISV)
… These people, like irrational animals, are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. They insult what they don’t understand, and like animals they, too, will be destroyed…
Peter John Peters introducing a documentary style video concerning generational evidence of satanic witchcraft and sorcery within washington, dc…
DC Street Sorcery
(now a youtube link)
DC Street Sorcery.mp4
Published on May 5, 2012 by wakeus777 (youtube)
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And who has been given the power to crush satan???
Romans 16:20 (NIV)
The God of peace will soon crush satan under YOUR feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you…
Luke 10:19 (NIV)
I have given YOU authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you…
Acts 4:12 (NIV) JESUS CHRIST
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved…
(cliven bundy fighting land grab)
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Psalm 31:20 (NASV)
You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues…
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Rancher refuses to budge in standoff with BLM
By Keith Rogers
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Posted: Apr. 14, 2012 | 11:59 p.m.
Updated: Apr. 15, 2012 | 8:04 a.m.
Sheriff Doug Gillespie rode with Cliven Bundy in his weathered, white pickup down a bumpy trail on the outskirts of Bunkerville. They chatted about the Bureau of Land Management’s plans to round up the rancher’s cattle.
The sheriff agreed to disagree with the 65-year-old rancher’s suggestion of what he should do as Clark County’s elected law enforcer to keep federal land managers from “stealing” his cattle.
“These are federal lands. They can do what they want to do,” Gillespie recalled telling Bundy during the April 6 tour of the Gold Butte range, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. “I use my influence to make sure whatever is done is done by the law and, No. 2, it is done peacefully.”
Then and now, Bundy remains steadfast in his intention to resist government efforts to round up his cattle from rangeland where his family has lived since 1877.
The BLM had canceled Bundy’s permit for the Bunkerville allotment in 1994. But he continued to let his cattle graze on the vast, sage-dotted landscape — without paying the $2-per-head-per-month fee and in violation of a federal court order that he remove his herd to preserve the habitat for the federally protected desert tortoise.
So, the BLM finally hired cowboys and planned a helicopter-assisted roundup last week to remove his herd — anywhere from 500 to 900 head of cattle depending on who’s counting.
The BLM’s last-minute decision to divert its roundup plans, at least for now, to pursue another legal avenue raises questions about how one man’s resistance to the bureau’s rules will affect other ranchers in the West.
This could signal the resurgence of the Sagebrush Rebellion, a homegrown state’s rights movement against federal land ownership that swept across rural Nevada and surrounding states in the 1980s.
LONG-SIMMERING FEUD
Bundy didn’t mince words when he put the BLM contractor on notice about the cattle gather that was supposed to begin Wednesday.
“There is a volatile situation currently taking place,” Bundy wrote to Cattoor Livestock Roundup Inc. “Cliven Bundy will do whatever it takes to protect his property and rights and liberty and freedoms of those of, We the People, of Clark County Nevada.”
His threat seemed to have worked, at least for the time being. The BLM blinked when officials in Washington, D.C., decided late Tuesday to suspend the roundup indefinitely because of safety concerns for people involved.
That disappointed BLM Southern Nevada District Manager Mary Jo Rugwell. She and her staff had spent months plotting the roundup and coordinating with BLM rangers, a special bureau agent for the Southwest region and the sheriff’s staff and officers who work out of the area’s rural substation.
The FBI even sent a representative to listen in, Gillespie said.
After all, they didn’t want the long-simmering feud over grazing rights to boil over into a deadly confrontation like what occurred at the Weaver Ranch in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, that left two family members and one federal marshal dead in 1992. Or, like the standoff in Waco, Texas, that ended on April 19, 1993, when federal agents besieged cult leader David Koresh’s Branch Davidian ranch, ending in a fiery assault that killed 76 people.
“Nobody wants this to turn into a confrontation where violence would occur,” Gillespie said. “Mr. Bundy doesn’t want that and neither does the BLM.”
While he’s not concerned that Bundy or his family would resort to violence, the sheriff said, the situation is complicated and emotions run high.
“I always get nervous when people come to support a cause on one side or the other. Whether on the environmental side or the cattle rancher side, we have to do our best to mitigate those situations from occurring,” the sheriff said.
Gillespie’s advice to the BLM was to revisit legal avenues for dealing with the disgruntled rancher. He said he felt uncomfortable trying to be the peacemaker after the 1998 court order that federal land managers were trying to enforce had withered with time.
“Those court documents are old,” Gillespie said. “I ask them to take that back to court and address the issue. Then, OK, if he continues to trespass, then you seize the cattle.
“In my conversations with the BLM from their legal standpoint, I see it as a case of ‘could you, should you.’ Could you? Yes. Should you? No. Cattle does not trump human life.”
CATTLE’S IMPACT
Rugwell made removing Bundy’s cattle one of her priorities when she took the reins of the local BLM office in 2008. In the early 1990s when he was still paying grazing fees, the herd on his 158,666-acre Bunkerville allotment was capped at 150 head. About 10,486 acres of the allotment was on National Park Service lands along the tip of Lake Mead’s Overton arm.
After his grazing permit was canceled in 1994, the herd grew and some cattle migrated to far reaches of the Gold Butte area.
Last week, Bundy estimated his adult cattle numbered about 500 in what the BLM describes as the 500,000-acre Gold Butte area.
Rugwell said her staff in December began planning for the roundup but the cattle’s impact on the landscape was getting out of hand, causing considerable damage to natural resources even though Bundy had been diligent in maintaining some 30 spring-fed water systems in the area.
“We really didn’t know how big the problem was until we started doing counts last year. There were as high as 900 (cattle) out there,” Rugwell said Thursday.
Subsequent counts in August tallied 730 cattle, and the latest one this month turned up 750. That doesn’t include strays that had wandered over the state line to Pakoon Springs, Ariz.
Rugwell had set a target of early to mid-April for the roundup because conditions would be right for it.
“We were making sure that it’s not too hot, because there would be less stress on cattle and people. That’s the reason for the timing,” she said.
Rugwell notified Bundy in an April 3 letter about his cattle trespassing on public lands. She informed him they would be rounded up and impounded because the herd had been roaming for 18 years “without authorization in areas that are closed to grazing” in violation of the 1998 federal court injunction.
The letter said Bundy would be contacted after all the cattle had been gathered and he would be allowed to claim any that bear his brand.
“In my mind, the most important issue with respect to trespass is the fact trespass is unfair to other users, like recreationists. They pay fees and follow rules. In my mind it’s a fairness issue,” she said Wednesday after the roundup had been suspended indefinitely.
THE LEGAL ISSUE
Cases like Bundy’s have been tried before in the courts, and county sheriffs in Nevada, California and Idaho have had varying degrees of support for ranchers and their causes.
But Bret Birdsong, a professor at the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an expert on public land and natural resources litigation, said Bundy’s legal arguments that federal rangers and BLM staff have no jurisdiction over the federal lands he uses for ranching “are based on interpretation of the Constitution which has been debunked by the Supreme Court for many years.”
“That is clearly not the law,” he said.
Bundy contends the limitless authority that the federal government had over the territory evaporated when Nevada became a state in 1864.
However, Birdsong said the BLM still has power to enforce laws on public land and to seize cattle through a court order or even by administrative action.
“I don’t see personally why they couldn’t go back to court to seek enforcement of the injunction,” Birdsong said. “The idea that the sheriff should come to his defense seems just wrong.”
Bundy appealed the U.S. District Court ruling, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the injunction against him in a 1999 order.
However, there is concurrent jurisdiction between the BLM and the sheriff with enforcing laws on federal land.
“If someone steals your car while you’re camping at Gold Butte that would be enforceable under state law,” he said. “But if the state passes a law that allows grazing on federal land, and federal law says you can’t, then federal law prevails where there’s a conflict.”
Birdsong points to a 1997 cattle trespass case in Northern Nevada that stands as a precedent for legal action by the BLM over Bundy’s continued effort to run cattle where grazing is prohibited in Gold Butte.
In the 1997 case, Clifford Gardner was charged with trespass by the U.S. Forest Service for letting cattle from his Dawley Creek Ranch roam part of the Humboldt National Forest that had been ravaged by a wildfire. Although Gardner and his wife, Bertha, had a permit to graze there, the Forest Service had reseeded the burn area and closed it to grazing for two years.
Gardner violated the order by sending his cattle in and was fined for trespassing. He was sued by the Forest Service after refusing to pay the fine, arguing that the federal government didn’t have title to the land so he couldn’t be in trespass.
The 9th Circuit, however, held that the United States, not Nevada, owns public lands in the state and that they have power to regulate grazing under the Constitution’s property clause.
PUBLIC LANDS, PRIVATE RIGHTS
The U.S. government’s authority over public land is far-reaching; its agencies hold 87 percent of the land in Nevada. The BLM alone manages more than 47 million acres including about half of the land in Clark County, or roughly 2.7 million of the county’s 5.1 million acres.
Reno resident Ramona Morrison, daughter of the late Sagebrush Rebellion icon Wayne Hage, said she is closely following the Bundy-BLM feud as a member of the Nevada Agriculture Board.
“We need to be sure due process of law is being followed and state law is being followed and the BLM is not conducting a rogue police operation,” she said.
Her father battled the federal government for decades over public lands and private property rights after the Forest Service greatly reduced the number of cattle he could graze. Hage sued the agency for harassment and prevailed in 2002 when a judge ruled he had a right to graze cattle and use springs on federal land north of Tonopah.
But others argue that federal agencies aren’t doing enough to protect public lands from overgrazing.
The Center for Biological Diversity is contemplating suing the BLM for dragging its feet on the roundup, noting the county bought up the grazing rights in 1998 and retired them to benefit its Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, considered a model for allowing development and sensitive ecosystems to coexist.
“On the ground, even though good intentions have been made, nothing is different than before,” said Rob Mrowka, a spokesman for the environmental watchdogs.
Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, a nonprofit conservation group, said the BLM needs to follow through on its roundup instead of knuckling under to Bundy’s threats of resistance.
“They have all the legal authority in the world but not the political will.”
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
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Related posts…
Do they serve us or do we put up with them???
Sierra Club attacking big oil’s competition???
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II Chronicles 16:9 (NIV)
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…
johnny cash Gods gonna cut you down (theme song for the tares)
Uploaded by phsindians55 on Jul 23, 2007 (youtube)
Genesis 27:38-40
Esau pleaded, “But do you have only one blessing? Oh my father, bless me, too!” Then Esau broke down and wept. Finally, his father, Isaac, said to him, “You will live away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of the heaven above. You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you decide to break free, you will shake his yoke from your neck.” (but not forever)
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JPMorgan executives to leave over trading loss: sources
By Matt Scuffham and David Henry Reuters – 14 May 2012
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan will move to limit the fallout from a shock trading loss that could reach $3 billion or more by parting company with three top executives involved in its costly failed hedging strategy, sources close to the matter said.
(losing ina drew… why has the magic stopped working???)
The bank – the biggest in the United States by assets – is expected to accept the resignation this week of Ina Drew, its New York-based chief investment officer and one of its highest-paid executives, in the next few days, the sources said.
Two of Drew’s subordinates who were involved with the trades, London-based Achilles Macris and Javier Martin-Artajo, are also expected to be asked to leave, they said. Neither was available for comment on Monday.
The departures come after the unit Drew runs, known as the Chief Investment Office (CIO), mismanaged a portfolio of derivatives tied to the creditworthiness of bonds, according to bank executives.
The portfolio included layers of instruments used in hedging that became too complicated to work and too big to quickly unwind in the esoteric, thinly traded market.
One hedge fund manager who previously ran a proprietary (or prop) trading book at JPMorgan said the bank’s public commitments to trim balance sheet risk were at odds with its network of trading silos, who were making bets independently with only a handful of the bank’s most senior executives notified of their vast, complex exposures.
“This (CIO) group was completely separate, completely distinct from the prop trading unit. We had no clue about their prop book and they would have no clue about ours for that matter,” the manager said.
“They were all totally independent. All the activities were reported to New York and they ran the allocation of capital to each and every strategy … those decisions were definitely not taken in London. These things were very, very opaque. Every bank is, whether you’re Goldman, Morgan (Stanley) or JP.”
Drew had repeatedly offered to resign in recent weeks after the magnitude of the debacle became clear, according to one of the sources, but the resignation was not immediately accepted because of her past performance at the bank.
Until the loss was disclosed late on Thursday, Drew was considered by some market participants as one of the best managers of balance sheet risks. She earned more than $15 million in each of the last two years.
“Ina is an amazing investor,” said a money manager who knows Drew, but who declined to be quoted by name. “She’s done a really good job over a lot of years. But they only remember your last trade.”
RISK MANAGEMENT
Departures had been on the cards in the wake of the trading losses, though in disclosing the losses on Thursday, CEO Jamie Dimon said only that the bank was continuing to investigate and would take disciplinary action with those involved.
Dimon said the bank’s losses could reach $3 billion or more as it unwinds the positions in coming months.
The losses have marred JPMorgan’s reputation for risk management, prompted a downgrade in its credit ratings and thrown an unflattering spotlight on Dimon, a critic of increased regulation who had become one of America’s best-known bankers.
On Sunday, Dimon’s bravado was badly tarnished when the New York Times reported remarks he made recently at a dinner party in Dallas. Dimon called arguments about too-big-to-fail banks – arguments made by former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – “infantile” and “nonfactual,” according to the Times.
Dimon is himself a board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Elizabeth Warren called for him to resign that post on Sunday. Warren, who chaired the congressional committee that oversaw the bank bailout program known as TARP and is running for the Senate, said he should not be on the panel advising the Fed on bank management and oversight.
“We need to stop the cycle of bankers taking on risky activities, getting bailed out by the taxpayers, then using their army of lobbyists to water down regulations,” Warren said.
Dimon has struck a more contrite pose since revealing the losses. In an interview that aired on Sunday, he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the bank’s handling and oversight of the derivative portfolio was “sloppy” and “stupid” and that executives had reacted badly to warnings last month that the bank had large losses in derivatives trading.
He said executives were “completely wrong” in public statements they made in April after being challenged over the trades in news reports.
“We got very defensive. And people started justifying everything we did,” Dimon said. “We told you something that was completely wrong a mere four weeks ago.
The loss, and Dimon’s failure to heed the warnings, have become major embarrassments and have given regulators new arguments for tightening controls on big banks and requiring them to hold more capital to cushion possible losses.
Issues relating to the bank’s internal controls were raised in 2010 when it was fined 33 million pounds by Britain’s Financial Services Authority for failing to segregate client month from its own in the UK – an incident that also led to its auditor PwC being fined 1.4 million by its professional body for failing to spot the transgression.
No-one at PwC, JPM’s global auditor, could immediately be reached for comment.
JPMorgan lost $15 billion in stock market value the day after the latest loss announcement. Some analysts were shocked Dimon did not have as much control of the company’s derivatives book as they had thought. Before the loss, Dimon had been widely praised for successfully managing the company through the credit bubble and the financial crisis.
His strategy in dealing with the issue has been to apologize repeatedly and say straight-forwardly that he and the bank erred. He has not, however, been willing to describe the exact trading positions, for fear of giving traders in the market information with which to inflict deeper losses.
Dimon is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at the bank’s annual meeting in Tampa, Florida.
(Additional reporting by Carrick Mollenkamp in New York and Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina.; Editing by David Holmes)
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Book dealing with the issue of Esau/Edom (and parasites) in prophecy and in the world today…
Who Is Esau-Edom? by Charles A Weisman
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Obadiah 1:6-7 (NIV)
But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged! All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it…
The Mom Song with lyrics
Uploaded by ashleytisdalefan007 on May 7, 2009 (youtube)
Who said???
“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”
The author’s correct name is William Ross Wallace.
‘The hand that rocks the cradle’: US poet WW Ross (1819-1881)
He wrote ‘… the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world’ in one of his texts and the phrase has passed into common language as a saying.
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Proverbs 23:22 (NASV)
Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old…
The need for baptism is no longer common knowledge…
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Galatians 3:27 (NASB)
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ…
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Revelation 3:17 (NIV)
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and NAKED…
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Matthew 22:12 (NIV)
Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless…
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An expose of: One Great BIG LIE, and the COLD WET TRUTH!
www.swordslingerministries.com
Gospel Tract on Baptism by Denton William Dyer
We have in America today a teaching that has done more damage to God’s people than all of the world’s wars, the communist slaughter of 20,000,000+ Christians in the Soviet Union, Atila the Hun, and Nero’s lions combined. What lie is that? You NEED to know in order to protect your family and yourself.
What am I talking about?
The most important subject in the world. Your personal salvation. All the preachers are glad to tell you that “Jesus loves you”. They tell you that he died for your sins. They tell you that you need to be a “Good Christian”.
All True! But what do they say about salvation? It is sad to say but the majority of today’s “judeo” Christian preachers teach this: “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior and let Him come into your heart”
Well the problem with that my friend is this. That Teaching can NOT be found in the HOLY BIBLE!!!
That’s right, NOWHERE can you find that in scripture. That teaching has kept many believers from God’s true plan of salvation. Causing many to be separated from Christ.
Many at this point will say:
“Well I know I’m saved, I can feel it.” or “He has answered my prayers and worked in my life. I know He has accepted me as one of His” or “He has used me to do miraculous things for Him, such as healing, speaking in tongues, casting out evil spirits” ect.
Jesus tells us of those people in the book of Matthew.
“Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles?” “And I will declare to them, ” I never know you, DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS”.
From this scripture we can see that these people believed Him. They confessed Him as “Lord”. And they obviously had “Accepted Him as your personal savior, and allowed Him come into their heart”
From this very powerful passage it can be determined that instead of “Accepting Jesus as your personal savior, and allowed Him come into their heart” Maybe? Just maybe, we should be concerned about Him accepting us as His personal servant and allowing us to come into His Kingdom.
What “saves” you?
According to scripture we are saved by grace. Ephesians 2:5,2:8. The Bible also says that all things are cleaned by blood. Hebrews 9:22. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 26:28 that His “…blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” It was by grace that He poured out His blood, and made it available for our salvation.
We most also have His Holy Spirit. Paul said in Romans 8:9 that “if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him.”
How does one become “saved”?
In God’s Word many things are hidden or concealed according to Proverbs 25:2. This thing of salvation is so important that it is very, very, clear! 2 Timothy 2:4 says that He desires all men to be saved AND come to the Knowledge of the Truth.
#1 We must believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved. The Master said: “…for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins” John 8:24
#2 We must repent. He also said: “…but unless you repent, you will like wise perish” Luke 13:3
#3 We must confess Christ as Lord: “…that is you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe with your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” Romans 10:9
All of the above you will hear in most of America’s “judeo” Christian churches every Sunday. Anyone can see that what we have here is a recipe. And, just like a cake, if you leave out just one ingredient, like eggs, what you will have is a Frisbee. And my friends one ingredient has been left out, and today people are being tossed about by every wind of doctrine, just like a Frisbee. Ephesians 4:14
The Final Ingredient!
#4 We must “…repent and be baptized {immersed in water} in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, you shall receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
The same Greek phrase “for forgiveness of sins” is the same phrase that we quoted from Matthew 26:28 when the Master said: “…my blood which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
How then do we receive His Spirit and become His as was mentioned above in Romans 8:9? When Baptized. Acts 2:38. The Apostle Paul was told at his conversion to “…Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins calling on the Name of the Lord.” Acts 22:16. It is obvious from this scripture that we contact the saving blood of Christ when we add Baptism as the final ingredient. Below are some scriptures concerning baptism for forgiveness of sins.
Mark 16:16
John 3:5
1 Peter 3:21
John 3:22
Acts 19:5
Galatians 3:27
Romans 6:4
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Proverbs 14:12 (ESV)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death…
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“Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” Acts 22:16
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Related posts…
Church of Christ tract on Baptism…
What follows below was sent as a mass email from the Texas Veterans Commission and is re-posted here as a service to whom it may concern…
editor
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TEXAS VETERANS COMMISSION
Program: Veterans Re-training Assistance Program VRAP
On November 21, 2011, President Obama signed the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 into law which established the VRAP. TheVRAP program will be administered by a collaborative partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Labor (DOL) and provides participants VA educational benefits for up to 12 months of vocational Training, in high demand occupations for unemployed eligible veterans between the age of 35 and 60 as determined by DOL and the VA. Applications will be accepted beginning May 15, 2012.
Review VOW Factsheet attached to this email for additional information and how to apply instructions.
Information:
VA approved VRAP education/vocational education programs must:
– A list of high demand occupations will be available on the VA website
– Applicants must have their selection prior to submitting VONAPP application
To be eligible for VRAP benefits, applicants must be:
To be eligible for VRAP Veterans must NOT be:
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Fact Sheet…
VETERANS MAY QUALIFY FOR ADDITIONAL EDUCATION BENEFITS.
The Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) offers 12 months of retraining assistance to Veterans who are:
. Unemployed
. At least 35 but no more than 60 years old
. Have an other than dishonorable discharge
. Not eligible for any other VA education benefit program (e.g., the Post 9/11 GI Bill, Montgomery GI Bill,
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment)
. Not in receipt of VA compensation due to Individual Unemployability (IU)
. Not enrolled in a federal or state job training program
. Enrolled in a VA approved program of education offered by a community college or technical school
The program is limited to 45,000 participants from July 1, 2012 through September 30, 2012, and to 54,000 participants
from October 1, 2012, through March 31, 2014. Participants may receive up to 12 months of assistance at the full-time
payment rate under the Montgomery GI Bill–Active Duty program (currently $1,473 per month). The program must lead
to an Associate Degree, Non-College Degree, or a Certification, and train the Veteran for a high demand occupation.
VETERANS WITH A SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITY MAY QUALIFY FOR ADDITIONAL
VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Veterans who previously completed a VA vocational rehabilitation program and have used the initial 26 weeks of
unemployment benefits may qualify for an additional 12 months of VA vocational rehabilitation benefits.
. You must have previously completed a VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment program and been
considered “rehabilitated” by VA.
. You must apply within six months of using up your initial 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. You may still
qualify for extended or emergency unemployment benefits.
. You can apply now, but cannot start any education or training until June 1, 2012 and you must apply to VA by
March 31, 2014.
VA may offer incentive payments to encourage employers to hire and train program participants.
. VA may be able to reimburse an employer up to one-half your annual salary for 6 months or longer
. This can provide you with a competitive advantage with employers
. You must apply and qualify for VA vocational rehabilitation benefits prior to being hired
To apply or learn more information about VRAP or Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment benefits, including on how
to apply please call 1-800-827-1000 or visit http://www.benefits.va.gov/VOW and fill out an online application (VONAPP), or
Complete VA Form 28-1900, Disabled Veterans Application for Vocational Rehabilitation, and submit it to the nearest VA
Regional Office.
Explaining The Economic Collapse In 3 Minutes
Uploaded by hawkwarrior7 on Jul 14, 2010 (youtube)
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Leviticus 25:37 (WBT)
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor lend him thy victuals for increase…
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Related posts…
An important “Thou shalt not”…
Equipping the Saints News Service 