Silenced Majority Portal

MJ RIP: The Ticket, The Program, The Hearse, The Children

Separated at Birth: Gordon Brown/Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean")

Daily Beast did "G8- the Movie" this morning and none of them looked right but this one gave me my first morning audible laugh. 

Traces of the Trade: The Story of Slavery in the Deep North

NPR had a story on slavery in the north - a woman from the DeWolf family traced her heritage, and it's all here in this link. Funny how things just drop out of history. James Dewolf was a Senator and second richest person in the country when he died in 1837. He and his brothers built up Bristol, Rhode Island and their family included legislators, philanthropists, writers, scholars, bishops and priests. Their family furtune was built partly on buying and selling slaves. 

Over three generations, they were the country's leading slave traders and brought at least 10,000 Africans to auction blocks in Charleston SC and other ports and to their own sugar plantations in Cuba and cotton mills in the US. They continued even after federal laws made slave trading punishable by hanging. Today there are as many as a half million living descendents of people traded by these Northerners.

You can see the film trailer at the link.  The documentary will be released July 14.  (photo shows DeWolf family members meeting with Ghanaians at the river where slaves received their last bath before shipping out to the New World.

(Thanks again to Alan Castle)

Gautier/Lagerfeld at Paris Fashion Week Plus Bruno, Courtney Love

I looked through the whole collection and these were the standouts. 

Gautier with the Barbarella thing .. 

Lagerfeld with some kind of veiled homage to the tuxedo or is it maternity?

 

Fashion Bonus:

Brüno insults 

The fictional Austrian fashion reporter told Time Out that he heard that Prince Harry is "a slut" who will "stick it anywhere".

Regarding Bob Geldof's daughter Peaches: "Zis vould be ein good look... if she vas ein prostitute. She looks like she ran though Topshop naked covered in glue. Less is more, Peaches."

Of musician Amy Winehouse, Brüno said: "Ich love Amy! She should push zat whole junkie chic thing more. She could be really daring und have ein bracelet made of syringes or ein crack pipe necklace."

Bonus Fashion Photo - Courtney Love Told By Dr. to Gain Weight 

Philadelphia Campers Booted Out of Pool - "Complexion Might Change"

Lady Boys of Thailand

It's from The Nation, but it was sent by someone in India. It's a new book about the lady boys of Thailand. I've seen them at Pattaya, the resort for horny guys most of which come from Australia, Germany and the US of A. We were told they were called "kathoey." One estimate claimed that there were 200 of them in an enrollment of 1200 in a high school, so that they needed a separate bathroom.

As in American movies about high school, there are similar factions in Thai schools: the jocks, the brains, the nerds, the cheerleaders. In Thailand you also have the kathoeys.

The book "Ladyboys - The Secret World of Thailand's Third Gender" profiles nine kathoeys.

"There were certain outstanding qualities that never ceased to amaze and delight us, and they were the willingness, warmth and openness shown to us by all the ladyboys we met. They often seemed way ahead of their Thai nontransgender counterparts in their ability to openly discuss such sensitive and personal issues. We were truly humbled to have been admitted onto what felt like sacred ground - the naked and vulnerable hearts of our subjects."

Fascinating book and I do believe they are common enough that sexual adventurers in Thailand cannot vouch for what they are actually buying when they pick up streetwalkers or get involved with club staff. Fascinating book and it's not clear where biology and economic incentive intersect, whether in another culture which seems exotic, or in our own.

Greenpeace G8 Action at Mt. Rushmore!

I am one former South Dakotan who agrees with the German guy!

Tin Foil Hat TIme: Leaked List of Bilderberg Attendees for 2009

The Bilderberg Group is an unofficial, annual, invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence (Kissinger, Geithner, Rockefeller, Wolfowitz etc.) Here is the leaked list of attendees for 2009.

Dutch Queen Beatrix

Queen Sofia of Spain

Prince Constantijn (Belgian Prince)

Prince Philippe Etienne Ntavinion, Belgium

Étienne, Viscount Davignon, Belgium (former vice-president of the European Commission)

Josef Ackermann (Swiss banker and CEO of Deutsche Bank)

Keith B. Alexander, United States (Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, Director of the National Security Agency)

Roger Altman, United States (investment banker, former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton)

Georgios A. Arapoglou, Greece (Governor of National Bank of Greece)

Ali Babaca , Turkey (Deputy Prime Minister responsible for economy)

Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Portugal (former Prime Minister of Portugal)

Nicholas Bavarez, France (economist and historian)

Franco Bernabè, Italy (Telecom Italia)

Xavier Bertrand, France (French politician connected to Nicolas Sarkozy)

Carl Bildt, Sweden (former Prime Minister of Sweden)

January Bgiorklount, Norway (?)

Christoph Blocher, Switzerland (industrialist, Vice President of the Swiss People’s Party)

Alexander Bompar, France (?)

Ana Patricia Botin, Spain, (President of Banco Banesto)

Henri de Castries, France (President of AXA, the French global insurance companies group)

Juan Luis Cebrián, Spain (journalist for Grupo PRISA; his father was a senior journalist in the fascist Franco regime)

W. Edmund Clark, Canada (CEO TD Bank Financial Group)

Kenneth Clarke, Great Britain (MP, Shadow Business Secretary)

Luc Cohen, Belgium (?)

George David, United States (Chairman and former CEO of United Technologies Corporation, board member of Citigroup)

Richard Dearlove, Great Britain (former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service)

Mario Draghi, Italy (economist, governor of the Bank of Italy)

Eldrup Anders, Denmark (CEO Dong Energy)

John Elkann, Italy (Italian industrialist, grandson of the late Gianni Agnelli, and heir to the automaker Fiat)

Thomas Enders, Germany (CEO Airbus)

Jose Entrekanales, Spain (?)

Isintro phenomena casket, Spain (?)

Niall Ferguson, United States (Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School)

Timothy Geithner, United States (Secretary of the Treasury)

Ntermot convergence, Ireland (AIV Group) (?)

Donald Graham, United States (CEO and chairman of the board of The Washington Post Company)

Victor Chalmperstant, Netherlands (Leiden University)

Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Netherlands (Dutch politician, minister of Justice in the fourth Balkenende cabinet, member of the Christian Democratic Appeal)

Richard Holbrooke, United States (Obama’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan)

Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, Netherlands (Dutch politician and the current NATO Secretary General)

James Jones, United States (National Security Advisor to the White House)

Vernon Jordan, United States (lawyer, close adviser to President Bill Clinton)

Robert Keigkan, United States (? - possibly Robert Kagan, neocon historian)

Girki Katainen, Finland (?)

John Kerr (aka Baron Kerr of Kinlochard), Britain (Deputy Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and an independent member of the House of Lords)

Mustafa Vehbi Koç, Turkey (President of industrial conglomerate Koç Holding)

Roland GT, Germany (?)

Sami Cohen, Turkey (Journalist) (?)

Henry Kissinger, United States

Marie Jose Kravis, United States (Hudson Institute)

Neelie Kroes, Netherlands (European Commissioner for Competition)

Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, Greece (Group S & B) (?)

Manuela Ferreira Leite, Portugal (Portuguese economist and politician)

Bernardino Leon Gross, Spain (Secretary General of the Presidency)

Jessica Matthews, United States (President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Philippe Maystadt (President of the European Investment Bank)

Frank McKenna, Canada (Deputy Chairman of the Toronto-Dominion Bank)

John Micklethwait, Great Britain (Editor-in-chief of The Economist)

Thierry de Montbrial, France (founded the Department of Economics of the École Polytechniqueand heads the Institut français des relations internationales)

Mario Monti, Italy (Italian economist and politician, President of the Bocconi University of Milan)

Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain (Minister of Foreign Affairs)

Craig Mundie, United States (chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft)

Egil Myklebust, Norway (Chairman of the board of SAS Group, Scandinavian Airlines System)

Mathias Nass, Germany (Editor of the newspaper Die Zeit)

Denis Olivennes, France (director general of Nouvel Observateur)

Frederic Oudea, France (CEO of Société Générale bank)

Cem Özdemir, Germany (co-leader of the Green Party and Member of the European Parliament)

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italy (Italian banker, economist, and former Minister of Economy and Finance)

Dimitrios Th.Papalexopoulo, Greece (Managing Director of Titan Cement Company SA)

Richard Perle, United States (American Enterprise Institute)

David Petraeus, United States (Commander, U.S. Central Command)

Manuel Pinho, Portugal (Minister of Economy and Innovation)

J. Robert S. Prichard, Canada (CEO of Torstar Corporation and president emeritus of the University of Toronto)

Romano Prodi, Italy (former Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Commission)

Heather M. Reisman, Canada (co-founder of Indigo Books & Music Inc.).

Eivint Reitan, Norway (economist, corporate officer and politician for the Centre Party)

Michael Rintzier, Czech Republic (?)

David Rockefeller, United States

Dennis Ross, United States (special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton)

Barnett R. Rubin, United States (Director of Studies and Senior Fellow, Center for International Cooperation)

Alberto Rouith-Gkalarthon, Spain (?)

Susan Sampantzi Ntintzer, Turkey (?) Guler Sabanci, President of Sabanci Holdings (?)

Indira Samarasekera, Canada (President of University of Alberta, Board of Directors Scotiabank)

Rountol Solten, Austria (?)

Jürgen E. Schrempp, Germany (CEO DaimlerChrysler)

Pedro Solbes Mira, Spain (economist, Socialist, Second Vice President and Minister of Economy and Finance)

Sampatzi Saraz, Turkey (banker) (?) possibly Süreyya Serdengeçti (former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey) http://arsiv.zaman.com.tr/2002/05/29/ekonomi/h6.htm

Sanata Seketa, Canada (University of Canada) (?)

Lawrence Summers, United States (economist, Director of the White House’s National Economic Council)

Peter Sutherland, Ireland (Chairman, BP and Chairman of Goldman Sachs International)

Martin Taylor, United Kingdom (former chief executive of Barclays Bank, currently Chairman of Syngenta AG)

Peter Thiel, United States (Clarium Capital Management LCC, PayPal co-founder, Board of Directors, Facebook)

Agan Ourgkout, Turkey (?)

Matti Taneli Vanhanen, Finland, (Prime Minister)

Daniel L. Vasella, Switzerland (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Novartis AG)

Jeroen van der Veer, Netherlands (CEO of Royal Dutch Shell)

Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium (former Prime Minister)

Paul Volcker, U.S. (former Federal Reserve director, Chair of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board)

Jacob Wallenberg, Sweden (chairman of Investor AB and former chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken)

Marcus Wallenberg, Sweden (CEO of Investor AB, former chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken)

Nout Wellink, Netherlands (Chairman of De Nederlandsche Bank, Board of Directors, the Bank of International Settlements)

Hans Wijers, Netherlands (CEO of the multinational corporation AkzoNobel)

Martin Wolf, Great Britain (associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times)

James Wolfensohn, United States (former president of the World Bank)

Paul Wolfowitz, United States (for U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, currently AEI scholar)

Fareed Zakaria, United States (journalist, author, and CNN host)

Robert Zoellick, United States (former managing director of Goldman Sachs, President the World Bank)

Dora Bakoyannis, Greece (Minister of Foreign Affairs)

Anna Diamantopoulou, Greece (Member of Parliament for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement)

Yannis Papathanasiou, Greece (Minister of Finance)

George Alogoskoufis, Greece (former Minister)

George A. David, Greece (businessman, president of Coca-Cola)

How Bruno Interviewed a Real Terrorist

Berlusconi Takes Former Nude Model to the G8 as Escort

In our continuing coverage of the embarrassing saga of this aging Playboy and telecom exec.. we present 

story at the Telegraph