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originally posted by: IAMTAT
a reply to: texasgirl
It's kind of an old story...but, basically these groups are so powerful that they don't care which party is in power...as long as they put them there and can continue to control them.
A group of prominent Argentine scientists disputes the theory that human activity is the cause of global warming and demand a “more serious debate”. Eduardo Tonni, head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata, notes that, while it's not politically correct to dispute this theory, the evidence for global warming being a "natural" occurrence is far more compelling. He warns that scientists that oppose manmade global warming are lacking funding.
As reported by Perfil magazine, scientist Rosa Compagnucci (photo below), a researcher with the National Science and Technology Commission (Conicet), and former member of the IPCC stated at a recent conference at the Military Geography Institute that global warming is actually a phenomenon that has occurred quite frequently over the past 2,000 years. And, she noted, rather than being caused by carbon dioxide emissions produced by human activity, which many scientists accept as "irrefutable truth," it is much more likely related to "capricious" solar activity which, over a period of decades and centuries, has not been at all homogenous.
At least 4 Iron Mountain facilities previously hit by fires
The owner of the storage facility that suffered a fatal fire today in Barracas, Iron Mountain, has seen at least four other establishments set ablaze in various parts of the world.
Two of the fires occurred in the United States, where the information storage company has its headquarters; while another took place in London and in Ottawa, Canada.
A BBC report dated July 13 2006 notes that "A huge fire has ripped through a six-storey paper storage warehouse in east London," adding that "close to 100 firefighters" tackled the blaze.
The same article reveals that just one week previously a facility in Ottawa had set alight, with thousands of boxes of data inside.
On March 21 1997 it was the New York Times who published a report concerning a "mysterious blaze" that destroyed a "warehouse of corporate documentation" in New Jersey; two days after another fire in a nearby facility, both belonging to Iron Mountain.
The newspaper quoted fireman Robert Davison, who declared that he was "sure that the first of the fires had been set intentionally," and that it was probable for the second.
In none of the fires have injuries or deaths to employees been reported.
Two Iron Mountain facilities hit by fires
The facilities, in London and Ottawa, held public and private archives
Two Iron Mountain Inc. data storage facilities were hit by fires this month, destroying one facility and damaging the other, but the causes of the blazes have yet to be determined.
On July 12,[2006] a fire in the Iron Mountain storage facility in Prologis Park, Bromley-by-Bow, in London, burned the building to the ground, destroying all of the records in the 126,000-square-foot structure, according to Melissa Mahoney, director of corporate communications for the Boston-based company.
An investigation is under way to determine not only the cause of the blaze, but also why fire suppression systems didn't work, she said.
The London fire occurred just one day after a blaze in the east end of Ottawa caused damage to an Iron Mountain facility there, Mahoney said. While the investigation into that fire has also not been completed, it is believed to have been caused by some roofing contractors performing repairs.
Iron Mountain Reaches Truce With Elliott
Iron Mountain reached a settlement with a dissident shareholder, Elliott Management, on Tuesday, agreeing to give the activist hedge fund a seat on its board and committing to $2.2 billion worth of share repurchases and dividends.
The agreement heads off a contentious battle between Iron Mountain, an information management company, and the $17 billion hedge fund. Elliott had urged Iron Mountain to convert itself into a real estate investment trust to pass on more money to shareholders, and had named four candidates for the company’s board.
Under the terms of the agreement, Iron Mountain agreed to back one of Elliott’s director nominees, Allan Z. Loren, and plans to name a new independent director. It also agreed to take up a variety of business initiatives to improve its operating income, including by potentially selling the company’s digital archiving business and exploring whether to become a REIT.
Related Links
Iron Mountain press release
Iron Mountain also agreed to pay out $2.2 billion to its shareholders by 2013, including $1.2 billion over the next 12 months.
In return, Elliott will back the rest of Iron Mountain’s board at the shareholder meeting on June 10.
Iron Mountain already agreed last week to replace its chief executive, Bob Brennan, with its chairman, Richard Reese, to assuage Elliott.
Iron Mountain was advised by JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and the law firms Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Sullivan & Worcester. Elliott was advised by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
It sounded improbable: top Republican money men helping a Democratic rival with one of his biggest legislative goals.
But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb — had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.
Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board. Each of them cut six-figure checks to the lobbying campaign that eventually totaled more than $1 million.
“[I]t was really about a Republican Party reckoning with a profoundly changing power dynamic, where Wall Street donors and gay-rights advocates demonstrated more might and muscle than a Roman Catholic hierarchy and an ineffective opposition."
Marco Rubio’s New Billionaire Backer Top Funder for Open Borders
Hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer’s decision to throw his financial weight behind the donor-class 2016 favorite, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)79%, has sparked fresh questions about Rubio’s coziness with the financial interests funding his career.
Singer was a major financial force behind the Rubio-Obama amnesty and immigration expansion push in 2013.
As Politico reported at the time, Singer “quietly go[t] involved in the fight for immigration reform, making a six-figure donation… to the National Immigration Forum”— a George Soros-backed organization that lobbied for Rubio’s legislation to issue 33 million green cards to foreign nationals in the span of a single decade.
The announcement of Singer’s endorsement highlights an intra-party tension that has emerged with new strength since Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)56%’s inauguration as Speaker of the House.
George Soros And Kyle Bass Battle It Out With Paul Singer In London Court
A group of funds including legendary investor George Soros’ Quantum Partners LP and Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass have filed suit with a UK judge, asking that he release $282 million worth of interest payments on their investment in Argentinian bonds, in the latest development in a fight with Paul Singer of Elliott Management.
U.S. court ruling
A U.S. court ruled in 2012 that bondholders who did restructure their debt – like Bass and George Soros — can’t be paid until bondholders who didn’t restructure (holdouts, like hedge fund manager Paul Singer) are also paid. This ruling tipped Argentina into default on July 30th. When Buenos Aires tried to make a payment to restructured bondholders and not the holdouts, that payment was stopped by a U.S. court.
Thanks to lawsuits filed by U.S. hedge funds led by Paul Singer’s Elliot Management, Argentina couldn’t recover from a 2001 default on debt totaling $80 billion. The hedge funds contend that they won’t take part in an agreement for creditors to accept losses of as much as 75%.