Was it a Republican operative or one of the Wall Street titans he toppled or maybe the Gambino Family? Sounds like he had enemies standing in line waiting for him to do something stupid, and once he fell (or was lured) into the prostitution trap, he did just that.

Once he was paying for prostitution with large cash transactions that must automatically be reported by banks, he, IMO, was doomed. His recklessness in calling up the bank asking to have his name taken off the transactions sealed his fate. Why he was so desperate and stupid is what remains unanswered.

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Four wave power systems will be tested off Cornish coast in Britain. Eureka Magazine has the details and links to the companies.

Wave power technology is developing rapidly, and is, seemingly suddenly, poised to enter the mainstream of renewable energy production.

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Global Guerrillas runs the numbers on the unregulated shadow banking system that has no lender of last resort (like a central bank) standing behind it because the entities involved for the most part, aren’t banks.

Total value of the shadow banking system (unregulated and unsupervised): $516 Trillion.

US GDP ~ $13.86 Trillion (PPP).

Positions held by Bear Sterns ~ $13.4 Trillion (underlying assets ~ $80 billion).

Positions held by JP Morgan Chase prior to Bear Sterns acquisition ~ $77 Trillion

Some, maybe most of those numbers are trades that balance each other out. But even with that, you’re talking trillions in unregulated, difficult to understand and sometimes even harder to sell securities. This is why the credit markets are freezing up. No one trusts any one because who knows what hidden financial icebergs might come crashing into the hull unexpectedly.

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A new version of Students for a Democratic Society formed recently. They appear to be decentralized, grassroots, and somewhat anarchistic in outlook.

Quotes by Kelly from the NY Times interview.

“Society is made up of institutions, and institutions are built on consent And if you get people to say, ‘We withdraw our consent, we want new institutions, we want better policies,’ that’s how movements are built.”

“I actually think violent action isn’t radical at all,” he said firmly. “Radicals go to the root of the problem, and they want to change society. Violence doesn’t change society, and if it doesn’t go to the root of the problem, it’s not radical.” Mr. Kelly paused. “I don’t know what it is,” he added, “but it has nothing to do with what I want to do.”

Violence is counter-productive as it just invites massive retaliation by the authorities. And no, increased repression will not cause the people to become outraged and then rise up as a mighty fist. More likely it will cause the people to become scared, apolitical, and result in the organizers get tossed in prison. Besides, as Saul Alinsky famously said in the 60’s about the Black Panthers, it is idiocy to say all political power grows out of the barrel of a gun when the other side has all the guns.

Besides, Chairman Mao (the originator of the quote) was wrong. There are plenty of instances in history where unarmed people forced change against an armed state. Power ultimately comes from people not from whoever has the biggest gun.

Besides, if you genuinely want to build a mass organization, then violence can’t be a tactic because the masses won’t go for it. Without genuine masses on your side, you can’t build those new institutions.

Update: Brian blogs at Walking Butterfly.

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The Freedom People, who I know from antiwar demos in L.A., will be touring nationwide soon. Go see them if they play near you and until then, watch this excellent video, complete with footage of them playing at mass antiwar protests in L.A.

Website, MySpace.

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Anyone ready for the wave of protests that are likely to reignite in Burma right around the time of the Olympics? How about a round two in Tibet? In Turkic China? Why not even in Shanghai? The eyes of the world will be on China like never before, and the sight witnessed will probably not be pretty.

Indeed, what better time to have protests than when the whole world is watching and Beijing desperately wants to put on a happy face to the world?

Most amusing of all this is the fundamental greed of the Chinese (no less than Americans or Europeans. The Chinese have not developed Tibet for the Tibetans, they developed it for the Chinese immigrants who they sent there to “change facts on the ground” and desperate Tibetans tired of unfulfilled Chinese promises struck back at their oppressors.

Wait, I thought communists were supposed to support the right of persecuted minorities to seek self-determination? Guess not.

Chinese leaders are fundamentally unable to solve the contradictions of “get rich quick” and “take care of the people” and probably won’t be for many years to come. This has created a dangerous schism in Chinese society that could very well be on full display during the Olympic coverage.

And when they will be powerless to crack down hard because the media of the world will be watching.

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