“A FIT and PROPER PERSON” – 3, Sheldon Adelston.

Posted on 07/05/2012 by ixpieth

The Governments of Madrid and Barcelona have finished the acrobatics and “bidding” to attract America’s 3rd wealthiest man Sheldon Adelston to their respective Cities. But what is known about the man and what he does, a shadowy figure with casinos in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore and money to burn in Spain. A recent article in Rolling Stone makes a great deal of his $16.5 million donation to Newt Gingrich’s presidential tilt which just collapsed. Not only renowned for his search for political influence, he is also renowned for his union busting exploits in America and use of cheap foreign labour to work 24/7 on Asian projects where labour laws are ill defined.

Indeed, Adelson’s anti-union mania is the most important thing to know about him. For it reveals just how crazy, and how unscrupulous, the man is.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/why-gop-mega-donor-sheldon-adelson-is-mad-bad-and-a-danger-to-the-republic-20120410#ixzz1u7kJRSpV

The following film is of a “sworn deposition” given by Adelston accompanied at the hearing by an armed bodygaurd !

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A recent news item on Adelston’s proposal, “from a crisis to the gutter”, looks at the issue of prostitution as an ‘unwanted’ outcome, but little is said of the known “side effects” of the gambling industry – domestic violence, indebtedness, money laundering, racketeering, and, given the already vociferous approval by regional and federal Spanish governments, the “impression” that gambling is a legitimate “business” that should be encouraged.

Adelston’s backing of Newt Gingrich has recently made reporters look at the history of the pair back to 1996 when Gingrich was able to “neuter” the proposed Federal Gambling Commission,

“House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has recommended a substantial weakening of a bill to examine the runaway growth of legalized gambling in America.” http://wthrockmorton.com/2012/01/24/anti-gambling-group-gingrich-thwarted-efforts-to-regulate-gambling/

The issue of Adelston’s desire for political influence must be high on the agenda when deciding whether “EURO VEGAS” is a acceptable for Spain. He is recently quoted as saying; “I got to tell you something, I don’t want him (Rick Santorum), to run my country,” and with Adelston’s fortune, and Murdoch’s News Corporation as a mouthpiece, money doesn’t talk, it screams.

The Catalan Government is presenting the “brand Barcelona”, buildings of Antoni Gaudi and the Barcelona football club as references. Reports suggesting that Adelston build Guadi’s model of a New York hotel are being suggested. The proximity of the land at Viladecans to the airport, despite the fact that it is good for attracting tourists, cannot accommodate Euro Vegas as seen by Adelson, whose intention is to build several skyscrapers. The Mogul made already clear what meant by skyscrapers: when he visited Barcelona to talk about the project, the Catalan authorities showed him the Agbar Tower, the third highest in the city, 145 meters in height. Adelson responded that “it was not a skyscraper.”

Adelston’s list of requirements before investing in the city that is chosen, include : the complete renouncement of rights over all public property in the defined zone; exemption from social security contributions for two years; exemption from the Value Added Tax for ten years; the reform of workers’ legal status, notably that of foreign workers; the bearing of the costs by the Autonomous Community for the building of all public transport infrastructure to the complex; authorised access to the casinos for minors and banned gamblers.

Madrid is in the lead. Its regional premier, Esperanza Aguirre, has met Adelson five times. “We should change whatever norms have to be changed,” she said recently. “We have to encourage this … and spoke of creating a “fiscal and legislative island” – though there are some demands that can be accepted and others that cannot.” Aguirre said.

Despite the governments making all the right noises, the EuroVegas No! initiative has come out firmly in opposition ; “Jobs and investment are not worth what they want in return,” Maria Fernández says as she passes out flyers in Madrid’s main plaza, Puerta del Sol. Could she be persuaded with more information though? “No. This is not the economic model we need. We don’t want a Sin City here. We don’t want Adelson’s money here. The entire project is intolerable.”

Adelston is no doubt using his experience in Asia to promote the Euro Vegas. Jose Maria Aznar is interviwed below setting out the types of reforms Adelston would welcome, no doubt spruiking Spain to Asia as a gambling destination of choice. Spain already has 30 casinos operating, creating an existing unacceptable level of social disruption. Portraying Euro Vegas as a creator of 350,000 jobs has obviously impressed the Spanish authorities but there are no details at this stage so they are very “rubbery” figures, some estimate 35,000 jobs will be created. What is known is that Adelston seeks to build cheaply, both land value and labour, and is succesful at both. His Singapore Sands Casino and casinos in Macau used both elements, construction continuing around the clock until the projects were finished.

Singapore Sands casino, and an endless pool 53 stories in the air.

It is the profits from the Asian casinos that is bankrolling Adelston as the economic growth in Asia shows little sign of decling. New figures show that “shopping sprees” to Europe are common, with the average Asian shopper snapping up bargains to the tune of $10 – 15,000 per visit. Spains extreme surplus of airports (twice as many as Germany !), is no doubt another reason governments, and more than likely Aznar, are backing Euro Vegas.

Gambling the future? most certainly, and remember the fate of the Hungarian Euro Vegas stated in 2011 as a project to be completed in 2010, then in 2012 ???http://www.euro-vegas.eu/ A blog begun in 2008 suddenly went quiet with the GFC but you have to wonder whether this was Adelston too http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=714110

“A FIT and PROPER PERSON” – 2, Jose Maria Aznar.

Posted on 06/05/2012 by ixpieth

Aznar at his zenith, the “boys” club.

Jose Maria Aznar is elevated to the “Fit and Proper Person” test as the U.K. Independent reveals scorching details of his involvement in “arrangements” made by News International to switch their support from Labour (Gordon Brown) to Conservative (David Cameron) in 2009. Secret talks between Mr Cameron and Jose Maria Aznar, the former prime minister of Spain and a member of Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation board ocurred at a previously undisclosed meeting in November 2009, and also shows how Mr Cameron was being assiduously courted by News Corp executives beyond the Murdoch family, as the company was gearing up for its bid to take over BSkyB. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ios-exclusive-revealed–camerons-secret-summit-with-news-corp-7717644.html

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The secret meeting shows the extent to which Mr Cameron was engaging with News Corp executives, as well as the media tycoon himself, his son, James, and Mrs Brooks, just weeks after The Sun ended its support for Labour and backed the Conservative Party. At the time, News Corp was preparing to announce its bid to take over BSkyB. It is not known whether the future of the digital broadcaster was discussed at the meeting, but it is likely that the commercial interests of News Corp arose.

Mr Aznar, who was prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004, was appointed as a non-executive director of the News Corp board in 2006. As well as in the UK and the US, News Corp has made inroads into Spanish media, including the launch of Fox España in 2002.

Mr Aznar accompanied Mr Murdoch when he flew into London last June ahead of Mr Hunt’s decision on whether to grant approval for the BSkyB takeover – which was pulled weeks later when it emerged that the News of the World had hacked Milly Dowler’s phone. Aznar’s thoughts on Spain’s economic future are here detailed .

It’s easy enough once we get the bubbles started again, get people into debt and everyone can be happy. Easy enough for Mariano Rajoy, (Aznar’s puppet) to follow especially if you have people like Sheldon Adelston just waiting for the biggest concessions to offer a $20 billion “ray of light” (Esperanza Aguirre) to Spain.
Aznar’s friends in the pro Israeli lobby have no doubt included Adelston, a similar socially “liberal” minded conservative whose career seems to have benefited from busting every union organisation he comes into contact with. This naturally suits the conservative party in Spain whose determined attempts to break union influence is only just beginning.

Aznar’s fingerprints are all over the current Spanish authorities, from the Prime Minister to the mayor of Madrid, his wife Ana Botella, to the stacked Supreme Court whose main purpose was to silence Balthasar Garzon. The “Euro Vegas” project will be decided in the near future, but will it be the panacae as is projected ?

“A FIT AND PROPER PERSON”, 1 – Rupert Murdoch.

Posted on 03/05/2012 by ixpieth

Rupert Murdoch has been head of News Limited before, during and after the News of the World phone hacking broke. It highlighted the extent of political influence the Murdoch press has, and uncovered illegal payment of police, “willful ignorance”, sham investigations, and political favouritism in the process of the takeover of BSkyB televison.

He was seen as “NOT A FIT PERSON” to be the head of an international corporation by the Leveson Inquiry report, an opinion quickly denied by the News Ltd Board of Directors which includes Jose Maria Aznar, who have “full confidence” in Murdoch senior, although not commenting of James Murdoch, who once headed BSkyB.

The fact that the takeover has been abandoned may thankfully prevent a “launch” in the U.K. of the rabid Fox News network which has now contributed to America having the lowest political standards anyone can remember due mainly to corporate influence.

Some of the resignations and arrests so far.

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For an in depth report from September 2011 Rueters ran this story by John LLoyd “WHAT RUPERT DID” ; http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2011/09/20/what-rupert-did/

First, the News of the World (NotW), for many years the highest circulation newspaper in Britain, systemically hacked into the phones of politicians, celebrities, and people in the news – including murder victims and their relatives – in order to produce exclusives. Their journalists also bribed policemen, both with petty cash and – allegedly – with large payments: an early estimate was that News International (NI) had spent £100,000 on such bribes.

Second, many political figures have felt bound to confess they had sought to placate and woo Rupert Murdoch. In one of the debates on the issue in the House of Commons, David Cameron made the humiliating comment that ‘your bins are gone through by some media organization, but you hold back from dealing with it because you want good relations with the media’. Peter (Lord) Mandelson, in an interview in mid-July, said that all politicians avoided confrontation with the press ‘because we were too fearful’.

Third, now that this bubble has burst, it seems we ‘knew’ that these things happened. We – really, the political and media people – ‘knew’ that phones were hacked, policemen were paid off, and politicians were exposed, or threatened with exposure if they felt like attacking News International. As with the Wikileaks’ revelations, ‘knowing’ becomes knowing only when detail, context, and impact are combined. We ‘knew’, for example, that Saudi Arabia feared Iran (or, again, the political/policy/media circle ‘knew’). But we knew the scale of it and depth of it only when a diplomatic cable exposed by Wikileaks quoted members of the Saudi ruling house asking the USA to ‘cut off the head of the snake’.

Fourth, the News International titles, in common with all newspapers and especially tabloid newspapers, had huge reservoirs of indignation ready to be poured over governments (especially), corporations, and other institutions which lie, cover up, disguise, obfuscate, and spin. Yet here is another thing we ‘knew’: that, though the news media relentlessly promoted transparency and accountability, they are of all institutions the least likely to live by their rules – indeed, they reject these rules in the name of freedom.

Fifth, journalism has been at the heart of a generally optimistic narrative of freedom and openness over the past three decades, as communism collapsed in central and eastern Europe, apartheid ended in South Africa, media deregulation in India saw an explosion of news media in both broadcasting and print, and partial privatization and the granting of a measure of editorial freedom was allowed to the news media in China, which has elevated the struggle for a journalism of accountability to one of the major elements of a wider push for democratic change. At least until recently, it has been assumed that the world was getting freer, and in getting freer was becoming more open; and that this was due, in considerable part, to the globalization, and liberating effects, of independent news media and their democratic ethic.

John Lloyd however ends with this chilling thought ;

The columnist Nick Cohen wrote that the ‘News of the World routinely humiliated and taunted its targets because of their sex lives. Far from throwing the paper aside in disgust, the News of the World’s audience wanted more of the same.’

No place like home.

How do we start again?

Monthly Archives: May 2012

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