Saturday, July 30, 2011

‪The Tyranny of Bond Holders‬‏ - YouTube
Wealth Gap Between Minorities and White Americans Doubles After Housing Crisis, Recession

O'Reilly's Muslim-Hatred and Christian Terrorists | Informed Comment

Bad for Employers and Employees - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

A Denial of Reality

New Norway Video Shows Strength of Blast

Beck's Comparison of Norwegian Child Victims to Hitler Youth Obligates us to Boycott | Informed Comm

First Read - Congress: A matter of trust

Norway killer 'insane' - lawyer

Are you psychotic? Here's your dose of debt!

'In Gitmo I got 30 days in darkness for feeding iguanas' - ex-detainee

Nobody Knows Anything - Clusterfuck Nation

Daily Kos: UK Gov't Minister: "Right-Wing Nutters in the American Congress" Biggest Threat to Globa

The Inhumanity of Solitary Confinement

The Maze of Moral Relativism

Messing With Medicare

The Irrelevance of the Knights in a Global Society | Informed Comment

True News: The Norwegian Shootings - A Philosopher Responds

Max Keiser: Obama financially lynched by racist GOP

Ron Paul-The Fed Is To Blame For The Financial Crisis

Activist Post: Propaganda campaign ensues after US recognizes terrorists as Libya's government

The Daily Bell - Why Gold Could Go Much Higher
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

Don't Hold the Middle Class Hostage to Give Millionaires Tax Breaks - The Petition Site

America's Dirty Secret: The "Promotion" Of Segregation

Peter Shiff: Problem is the debt, not the ceiling

'Washington delusional as Hitler in his bunker'

War is a Racket

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Activist Post: 6 Steps by the IMF for a One-World Currency
Activist Post: Propaganda campaign ensues after US recognizes terrorists as Libya's government
The Tyranny and Devastating Glory of Greece | Truthout
Class War in Greece and the World | Truthout
Greece's Crisis Long in the Making | Truthout
Monsanto-Resistant Weeds Take Root, Raising Food Prices - 12160
The Free Press -- Independent News Media from Columbus, Ohio

New world order

New World Order (NWO)

Many have postulated an Anglo-American elite that seeks one world governance – a kind of New World Order (also known as One World Order). Such speculation is commonly derided by the mainstream news establishment as "conspiracy theory." Those who are involved in such speculation see various patterns at play within the larger sociopolitical environment at work in the world today. Their perspectives may be supported by various evidences that there is a conspiracy and that the conspirators are those who seek to saddle the world with such a New World Order.
New World Order Report > Home
Welcome to Core of Corruption
‪CoreOfCorruption.com - 4 Suspects in World Trade Center Before 9/11 Doing Construction‬‏ - YouTube
Revolutionary Politics::Revolutionary Politics : The Truth About Libya
DU – You Don’t Have To Inhale Or Ingest It For It To Make You Sick | Veterans Today
Exclusive: U.S. Blocks Oversight of Its Mercenary Army in Iraq | Danger Room | Wired.com

Dominant social themes

Dominant Social Theme(s)

A Dominant Social Theme is a belief system (usually concerning a purported social or natural problem) launched by the monetary elite that grows into an archetype or meme, usually after much repetition. The problem may be centered on people themselves (overpopulation) or caused by people (global warming). The term was invented by Anthony Wile and first utilized in his book The Liberation of Flockhead. The term actually took on a more defined meaning in Wile's subsequent release of his followup book, High Alert.

Dominant Social Themes often are launched from the centers of the power elite's global architecture, including the United Nations, World Bank, World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, where the related problems are declared to be such. The themes are then rebroadcast by the mainstream media.
The Daily Bell - Edwin Vieira, Jr. on the Power Elite, the Police State and Opposing the Authoritarian Trend

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

First Read - Disagreements could cause FAA to partially shut down

First Read - Disagreements could cause FAA to partially shut down: "Disagreements could cause FAA to partially shut down"

Tyrants gone wild

by Kurt Nimmo

The establishment of a repressive police state apparatus to enforce an ever increasing number of petty laws and regulations is a deliberate and vital component of the global elite's plan to turn the world into a gulag and plantation.
Over the last few months, we have witnessed a number of tyrannical incidents indicating that government - including local government, now largely federalized - is moving in an increasingly authoritarian direction. These include:

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Gerald Celente

PIIGS, PRESSTITUTES AND THE GLOBAL MELTDOWN

KINGSTON, NY, 13 July 2011 — “Read All About It!” You couldn’t not read all about it! The media was full of reports about how happy stock market days were here again. After a stormy start, June closed and July began with US benchmark indexes racking up their biggest weekly gains in two years on good news: the US manufacturing index had unexpectedly risen, and the beleaguered debt-burdened Greeks were bailed out yet again – piling un-payable new debt on top of un-payable old debt.
China economic growth slows to 9.5% - Press TV News
YouTube - ‪Mumbai Blasts: Triple bomb attack hits India city, over 100 injured‬‏
Japan's poverty rate hits record high - Press TV News

COMING TO A TSA AGENT NEAR YOU

3 PRONG / BLADE COOK / MATHIEU RECTAL SPECULUM - NEW | eBay
NATO & Al-Qaeda War Crimes In Libya : Federal Jack

Ask not what your country can do for you

‪March of the Bonus Army - Part 1‬‏
‪March of the Bonus Army - Part 2‬‏
‪March of the Bonus Army - Part 3‬‏

Jim Hightower

A LYING HYPOCRITE FOR PRESIDENT
THE GOP'S ASSAULT ON MEDICARE
DEBT CEILING HYPOCRISY
CORPORATE HOGGISHNESS RUN AMUCK
NO MORE AMERICANS SHOULD DIE FOR KARZAI

Monday, July 4, 2011

YouTube - ‪The Torture Hearings‬‏
YouTube - ‪4409 -- Political control Freaks take over Farmers Market‬‏
Punishing Pakistan and Challenging China
Conspiracies by Paul Craig Roberts
The Annotated Frank Rich - The President’s Failure to Demand a Reckoning From the Moneyed Interests Who Brought the Economy Down -- New York Magazine
Our Incredible Shrinking Constitution | Truthout
King George III Won: Happy Fourth of July! | Truthout
Chris Hedges: Ralph Nader Is Tired of Running for President - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
Why Civil Unrest Is Sweeping the Globe
European Unrest Spreads as Greece, Britain Push for Austerity | PBS NewsHour | June 30, 2011 | PBS
Greece’s Turmoil: A Brief History of the General Strike - Global Spin - TIME.com
Greek Crisis: Key Political Risks to Watch - CNBC
YouTube - ‪US worse than Greece?‬‏

Dimitry Orlov

(Originally published on culturechange.org.)

The ostensible goal of this Web site, and the small but enthusiastic community that surrounds it, is to change the culture. We all recognize that the contemporary mainstream culture of over-consumption and unbridled growth is toxic on every level -- physical, emotional, and cultural -- and is accelerating on a collision course with resource depletion, climate disruption, and environmental devastation. We all want to jump off in time, or, perhaps lacking the necessary courage, to find ourselves lucky enough to be thrown clear.
DARK AGES AMERICA -- Blog for Morris Berman
The gilded generation: What is it like to grow up as part of Russia's new power elite? - Europe, World - The Independent
The Power of a Simple Majority - NYTimes.com
It Gets Even Worse - NYTimes.com
Corporate Cash Con - NYTimes.com

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Republicans in Minnesota

Because they refuse to ask the state’s wealthiest 2 percent to pay their fair share to help close a budget deficit, Republican state legislators in Minnesota are just days away from forcing a government shutdown close the doors to vital public services for working families and toss 38,000 state employees out of work

What Wiconsin elected-hope the voters are happy

On Sunday afternoon behind closed doors, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed the most radical budget in Wisconsin history. Although the taxpaying public was blocked from the signing, hundreds protested outside as they had for months, while Walker silenced the voters and plowed forward with this agenda.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Gerald Celente

COLLAPSE: IT’S COMING!
ARE YOU READY?

KINGSTON, NY, 13 June 2011— Everything is not all right. And things are going to get worse … much worse. The economy is on the threshold of calamity. Wars are spreading like wildfires. The world is on a razor’s edge.

Not so, say world leaders and mainstream media experts. Yes, there are problems, but the financiers and politicians are aware of them. Policies are already in place and measures are being taken to correct them.

Whether it’s failing economies, intractable old wars or raging new wars, the word from the top always maintains that steady progress is being made and comforts the populace with assurances that the brightest minds and the sharpest generals are in charge and on the case. On all fronts, success is certain and victory is at hand. Only “patience” is required … along with more men, more time and more money.

Monday, June 6, 2011

TZM: Response to FBI targeting Political Activists as Terrorists

As many students of history are familiar, Galileo Galilei, famed
mathematician & astronomer, known today by many as the “father of modern
science”, was forced by the Catholic Church under threat of torture to
recant his “heretical” view that the earth revolved around the sun and
not vice-versa in the 17th century. This scientifically valid idea voided
long held religious dogma and hence challenged the Church's integrity
itself.

In a letter from 1634, René Descartes, one of the world's most noted
thinkers and philosophers, stated:
“Doubtless you know that Galileo was recently censored by the Inquisitors
of the Faith, and that his views about the movement of the earth were
condemned as heretical. I must tell you that all the things I explained in
my treatise, which included the doctrine of the movement of the earth, were
so interdependent that it is enough to discover that one of them is false
to know that all the arguments I was using are unsound.  Though I thought
they were based on very certain and evident proofs, I would not wish, for
anything in the world, to maintain them against the authority of the
church.... I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun
under the motto to 'live well you must live unseen'.”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

GREECE BEING SOLD OFF TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER

Greece is coming close to falling into complete anarchy!

THENS (Dow Jones)--Resistance to Greece's latest austerity measures mounted Tuesday with opposition lawmakers rejecting the government plan and the country's two major unions vowing a series of general strikes against the cuts.
After meeting with the country's prime minister, opposition New Democracy party chief Antonis Samaras said he wouldn't support the package when it came to a vote in parliament, and charged that the measures would deepen Greece's recession and do little to close the country's budget gap.
"I am not prepared to consent to this demonstrably wrong policy," Samaras said in a televised statement.
The announcement knocked Greece's equity market, shaving a percentage point off an early rally in the Athens Stock Exchange, and also temporarily weakening the euro against the dollar.
The remarks came a day after Greece's cabinet broadly approved some EUR6 billion in new austerity measures to narrow Greece's budget deficit this year, as well as steps to speed up the government's ambitious privatization drive.
In the next 10 days, it will also detail a further EUR22 billion in new spending cuts and tax increases to bring the budget deficit below 1% of gross domestic product by 2015, from 10.5% last year.
In May last year, Greece narrowly avoided default with the help of a joint EUR110 billion bailout from its fellow euro-zone members and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for fixing its public finances and undertaking far reaching reforms.
But steep spending cuts and sharp tax increases taken since then have also hit the Greek economy--now in its third year of recession--with unemployment and business bankruptcies soaring.
On Tuesday, Greece's two main umbrella unions--private sector GSEE and public sector ADEDY--said they would stage a series of general strikes next month to oppose the government's latest austerity measures.
"As long as these catastrophic policies continue, we will continue with our strikes," said Stathis Anestis, spokesman for the 800,000 strong private sector union GSEE. "We are not talking about one strike, we are talking about more than one strike."
Officials at ADEDY confirmed that the two unions were looking at staging more than one general strike next month and that final decisions would be taken in the next few days.
Greece's smaller unions, especially in state-owned companies slated for privatizations have also voiced their opposition. Workers at Hellenic Postbank (GPSB.AT), where the government wants to sell-off its 34% stake this year, occupied the company's main premises earlier Tuesday and vowed to expand their protest Wednesday.
Likewise, workers at state-gambling monopoly OPAP SA (OPAP.AT), which is due to be privatized at the start of next year, have announced a 24-hour strike Wednesday.
Recently, Greece's militant power workers union, Genop, also threatened rolling 48-hour strikes opposing the new measures and plans to privatize the national utility, Public Power Corp. (PPC.AT).
-By Alkman Granitsas, Dow Jones Newswires; +30 210 331 2881; alkman.granitsas@dowjones.com

Sunday, May 8, 2011

RogueGovernment.com - No Proof Has Been Offered Suggesting That The Official Osama Bin Laden Death Narrative Is Even Remotely True
US meddled in 50 nations over 130 times in 121 years | Revolt of the Plebs

truthout


Jeffrey D. Sachs | The Global Economy's Corporate Crime Wave
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Project Syndicate: "Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich countries that host the global companies that carry out the largest offenses. Money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world. Hardly a day passes without a new story of malfeasance. Every Wall Street firm has paid significant fines during the past decade for phony accounting, insider trading, securities fraud, Ponzi schemes, or outright embezzlement by CEOs. A massive insider-trading ring is currently on trial in New York, and has implicated some leading financial-industry figures. And it follows a series of fines paid by America's biggest investment banks to settle charges of various securities violations. There is, however, scant accountability."
Read the Article

Henry A. Giroux | Youth in a Suspect Society: Coming of Age in an Era of Disposability
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "For over 30 years, the North American public has been reared on a neoliberal dystopian vision that legitimates itself through the largely unchallenged claim that there are no alternatives to a hyper-market-driven society, that economic growth should not be constrained by considerations of social costs or moral responsibility and that democracy and capitalism are virtually synonymous. At the heart of this market rationality is an egocentric philosophy and a culture of cruelty that sells off public goods and services to the highest bidders in the private sector, while simultaneously dismantling those public spheres, social protections and institutions serving the public good. As economic power succeeds in detaching itself from government regulations, a new global financial class reasserts the prerogatives of capital and systemically destroys those public spheres - including the university - that traditionally advocated for social equality and an educated citizenry as the fundamental conditions for a viable democracy."
Read the Article

Nominate Elizabeth Warren - Provide the Pecora Hearings We Need
Simon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario: "Elizabeth Warren has worked long and hard to build a working relationship with reasonable people in the banking community. These investments now seem to be paying off, with the president of the American Banker Association saying this week that his organization would support Professor Warren if she is nominated (although he later backtracked and said he meant they would be supportive 'if she is appointed'). Community bankers have already expressed support in various ways. Her arguments are very hard for Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee or more intransigent bankers to refute in any kind of public setting - because there is very little of the 'market' in our currently predominant banking sector arrangements."
Read the Article

Tom Englehardt | It's Time to Stop Celebrating and Go Back to Kansas
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: "As everybody not blind, deaf, and dumb knows by now, Osama bin Laden has been eliminated. Literally. By Navy Seals. Or as one of a crowd of revelers who appeared in front of the White House Sunday night put it on an impromptu sign riffing on The Wizard of Oz: 'Ding, Dong, Bin Laden Is Dead.' And wouldn't it be easy if he had indeed been the Wicked Witch of the West and all we needed to do was click those ruby slippers three times, say 'there's no place like home,' and be back in Kansas. Or if this were V-J day and a sailor's kiss said it all. Unfortunately, in every way that matters for Americans, it's an illusion that Osama bin Laden is dead. In every way that matters, he will fight on, barring a major Obama administration policy shift in Afghanistan, and it's we who will ensure that he remains on the battlefield that George W. Bush's administration once so grandiosely labeled the Global War on Terror."
Read the Article

Paul Krugman | The "American Hooliganism" on Which China and Russia Rely
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "The funny thing is that Russia, like other emerging markets, is suffering from inflation precisely because it doesn't want to let the United States reduce its trade deficit. Capital wants to flow to the emerging markets, with the counterpart of that flow being a move on their part into trade deficit, while the United States reduces its trade deficit. But the necessary counterpart of that move is a real appreciation on the part of the emerging markets - a rise in the relative prices of their goods and services. They could let their currencies rise; if they won't, the real appreciation will take place via inflation, which is what is happening. What's really weird, of course, is the large number of analysts in the United States who are taking the side of China and Russia in this business. Why do they hate America?"
Read the Article

Troy Davis Facing the Death Gurney
Robert Wilbur, Truthout: "By the time this article sees print, Georgia will almost certainly have set an execution date - his fourth - for Troy Anthony Davis, a black man who was condemned to death for killing a white Savannah police officer in 1989. Having exhausted his court appeals, Davis may well end his life strapped down to Georgia's death gurney. But if the criminal justice system allows this execution to go forward, it will commit one of the gravest miscarriages of justice in American history - an abomination facilitated without a word of explanation by the United States Supreme Court."
Read the Article

House Progressives Call for Withdrawal From Afghanistan After Bin Laden's Death
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) co-chairs on Wednesday sent a letter to President Barack Obama calling for the reduction of US troops in Afghanistan following Osama bin Laden's death. Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and CPC Peace & Security Task Force co-chairs Mike Honda (D-California), Barbara Lee (D-California), Maxine Waters (D-California) and Lynn Woolsey (D-California) wrote that Bin Laden's death offered the US a new opportunity to end their involvement in the war in Afghanistan."
Read the Article

Fourteen Percent Budget Cut to Key Energy Agency Wins Few Fans
Elizabeth McGowan, SolveClimate News: "Congress's 14 percent paring - a drop from an allotted $110.6 million in fiscal year 2010 - leaves the EIA with a $95.4 million budget for the 2011 fiscal year that ends September 30. Though the trims evidently won't require EIA staff reductions, they will mean stakeholders such as the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy won't be able to count on certain databases. 'EIA had already taken a number of decisive steps in recent years to streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency,' EIA Administrator Richard Newell wrote in a news release last week outlining the initial round of agency adjustments. 'We will continue to do so ... to minimize the impact of these cuts at a time when both policymaker and public interest in energy issues is high.' The lower funding level will require significant cuts in four broad categories of EIA's data, analysis and forecasting activities. These include detailed data about oil and natural gas; electricity, renewables and coal; consumption, efficiency and international energy statistics; and energy analysis."
Read the Article

Cinco de Mayo Battle: A Great Victory
Patrick Osio, Jr., HispanicVista: "Once this was done, Mexico entered into one of its most important historical periods, the formation of its Constitution of 1857. There were two political forces at work, the Liberals who wanted to create a country not unlike the US: A representative republic, democratic, federal, religiously tolerant, free market economy, and an educational system independent of religion, and, most importantly - separation between the State and religion. This instrument would provide Mexican citizens with vast constitutional protections rivaling those in the U.S. The other political force was the Conservatives who wanted strong ties to Spain, only the Catholic religion would be allowed, national industrial protectionism (limited imports), regulated freedom of expression, no opposing political parties."
Read the Article

Monsanto in Haiti
Haiti Grassroots Watch: "The first shipment - 60 tons of seed - arrived in early May, and according to Monsanto, a second shipment of 70 tons was to have arrived sometime shortly thereafter. Not surprisingly, the 'gift' caused controversy in Haiti and abroad due to Monsanto's history. Monsanto is the world's largest seed company and is one of the world's largest pesticide companies. The behemoth dominates world proprietary seed market, a market worth almost $32 billion in 2010, up 10 percent from the previous year. The agribusiness giant is renowned for its aggressive marketing and sometimes-illegal maneuvers, which include creating a potential worldwide monopoly by buying up all competitors, bribes, infiltration of farmers' associations through the use of mercenaries and 'ruthless legal battles' including lawsuits against farmers. The company is currently being investigated in seven US states for potentially locking out competitors."
Read the Article

News in Brief: Obama's Approval Rating Increases After Bin Laden's Death, and More ...
President Obama's approval rating has shot up since the killing of Osama bin Laden, with 56 percent saying they approve of him; a suicide bomber crashed a bomb-filled vehicle into the barrier outside a police station in central Iraq on Thursday morning; General Motors posted $3.2 billion in profits for the first quarter today, the highest quarterly earnings the company has seen in more than a decade; the White House opposes a pair of GOP oil drilling bills in the House that it claims would "undercut" safety and environmental reforms; the number of Americans filing state unemployment claims rose to an eight-month high last week.
Read the Article

House Passes "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act"
Amanda Litman, Ms Magazine Blog: "The bill goes beyond the Hyde Amendment, which has banned federally-funded abortions for the past 30 years except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the woman's life. Furthermore, HR 3 denies tax credits to small businesses that purchase a health insurance policy that includes abortions-currently 87 percent of private insurance plans do - and enacts strict requirements for private insurance companies that cover abortions. Additionally, the bill eliminates privately funded insurance coverage for abortion in the health-care exchanges (marketplaces for insurance purchasers) established by the Affordable Care Act. NARAL Pro-Choice America estimates that 13.5 million women who receive health coverage through Medicaid and other government-sponsored programs will permanently lose access to abortion coverage if the bill is made law."
Read the Article

Death of Osama bin Laden Makes Peace Groups Ask: "What's Next?"
James Russell, Truthout: "On the phone from Chicago, Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of the peace group Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV), paused and breathed deeply before answering the question about her initial thoughts on Bin Laden's death. After a few reflective moments, she said she wondered if his death, 'will signal the end of warfare in Afghanistan.' Her hope soon faded as President Obama made his announcement about Bin Laden's death on Sunday night. To Kelly, the disappointment came when Obama did not use his announcement as 'a teachable moment.' Instead of invoking the pacifism and restraint urged during the Vietnam War by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 'Obama presented the death as a victory for American exceptionalism,' she said."
Read the Article

Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut in Year of Record Profits
Allison Kilkenny, The Nation: "As nationwide budget protests continue this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is prepared to unveil the Obama administration's plan to lower the top corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent to less than 30 percent, and as low as 26 percent. In order to pay for the cuts, the proposal calls for closing loopholes and slashing exemptions. Politico reports that Geithner has already begun meeting privately with CEOs, academics, labor unions, and liberal and conservative think tanks, and his aides say he is 'encouraged by the response.'"
Read the Article

Reflections on May Day Celebrations
Peter Mayo, Truthout: "Turkey's celebration of May 1 as international workers day was of particular significance. This was only the third time this celebration was held - following its long ban, finally lifted by the government in 2009. In 1977, a similar celebration was marred by fatal attacks which left dozens of protesters dead as unknown gunmen opened fire. The victims' names were called out on May 1, 2011, by a famous Turkish actor, in a poignant moment which brought to mind the country's tragic past - including a 1980 military coup that paved the way for the onset of neoliberalism (shades of Chile seven years earlier). The memory of protests and violence also led one to remember what was going on all over the region with the struggle for work and dignity, and greater democratic openings, in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya."
Read the Article

Click here for more Truthout articles
Project Syndicate - the highest quality op-ed ( opinion-editorial ) articles and commentaries

Friday, April 15, 2011

MICHAEL MOORE ON TAX DAY

Friday, April 15th, 2011
Friends,
Do you wonder (like I do) what the tax accountants and executives are doing over at GE this weekend? Frantically rushing to fill out their IRS returns like the rest of us?
Hardly. They're taking the weekend off to throw themselves a big party and have a hearty laugh at all of us. It must really crack them up to see us like suckers scurrying around to make sure we report everything to Uncle Sam -- and even send him a check, if necessary.
The joke's on us, folks. GE and tons of other corporations will have a tax bill for 2010 of ZERO. GE had $14.2 billion in profits in 2010. Yet they will contribute NOTHING to the federal government while every last dime is soaked from us.
In the latest budget deal, our politicians could have tackled the deficit by stopping the flow of these ill-gotten billions to corporations. Instead they cut billions from "wasteful" programs that do "wasteful" things, like create new jobs, drive economic growth, and help the needy and our nation's children. It's Democracy in reverse and it sickens me.
GE spends $20 million a year to lobby Congress to throw themselves this party. But do you know what speaks louder than $20 million? 20 million votes! 20 million people, and more, standing together and taking to the streets. That starts now, with you.
This coming Monday, April 18th is Tax Day -- and that's the day when "we the people" will demand our country back from these corporations in events all across the country. You can find the nearest event to you here.
MoveOn members -- along with union, community, and environmental allies -- will gather outside the headquarters and local offices of the biggest corporate tax dodgers to deliver tax bills from the American people. And we'll demand that our leaders make these corporate deadbeats pay.
We're doing this because we don't buy into the Big Lie: that greedy teachers caused the crash on Wall Street! That the selfish firefighters sent millions of jobs overseas! That pregnant woman, infants, and children are sending us into deficit!
No, it was the big corporations that did this. It was the CEOs and the top 1% of the country. THEY brought on the mortgage crisis. THEY made off with trillions of dollars from our economy. THEY are systematically destroying the middle class. And THEY have bought and sold the very people elected to represent us!
On Monday, we will have something to say to Exxon, Chevron, and the big banks that crashed our economy and got billions in bailouts, like Citigroup and Bank of America, who pay little or no federal income tax. In fact, the IRS will likely give them a tax REBATE. If that doesn't boggle your mind then nothing will.
The Tax Day events are about sending this message: We are coming after you, we are stopping you and we are going to return the money, jobs, and homes you stole from the people. This is your tipping point, Corporate America. And I, for one, am glad it's going to happen this Monday.
If you've never been to an event like this before, this is the time. And don't go alone, because none of us can win this fight by ourselves. Plus, it's more fun and exciting to go along with friends and family to be part of real democracy in action -- not the store-bought kind Big Business gets on Capitol Hill.
I really hope you can make it. This is our chance, my friends. Take the time on Monday to make your voice heard. I can guarantee you I will. Please join me.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Five myths about why the South seceded - The Washington Post

WALL STREET AND WAR

Veterans For Peace has joined in endorsing “Sounds of Resistance,” a concert and protest against Wall Street banks that draws the connections between militarism, Wall Street, the wealth divide and the downward spiral of the wealth of most Americans. The event, on April 15 at 11:00 a.m. in New York City’s Union Square Park, is part of a democratic awakening that more and more Americans are joining.

Americans are recognizing the link between the military-industrial complex and the Wall Street oligarchs—a connection that goes back to the beginning of the modern U.S. empire. Banks have always profited from war because the debt created by banks results in ongoing war profit for big finance; and because wars have been used to open countries to U.S. corporate and banking interests. Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan wrote: “the large banking interests were deeply interested in the world war because of the wide opportunities for large profits.”

Many historians now recognize that a hidden history for U.S. entry into World War I was to protect U.S. investors. U.S. commercial interests had invested heavily in European allies before the war: “By 1915, American neutrality was being criticized as bankers and merchants began to loan money and offer credits to the warring parties, although the Central Powers received far less. Between 1915 and April 1917, the Allies received 85 times the amount loaned to Germany.” The total dollars loaned to all Allied borrowers during this period was $2,581,300,000. The bankers saw that if Germany won, their loans to European allies would not be repaid. The leading U.S. banker of the era, J.P. Morgan and his associates did everything they could to push the United States into the war on the side of England and France. Morgan said: "We agreed that we should do all that was lawfully in our power to help the Allies win the war as soon as possible." President Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned saying he would keep the United States out of war, seems to have entered the war to protect U.S. banks’ investments in Europe.

The most decorated Marine in history, Smedley Butler, described fighting for U.S. banks in many of the wars he fought in. He said: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins describes how World Bank and IMF loans are used to generate profits for U.S. business and saddle countries with huge debts that allow the United States to control them. It is not surprising that former civilian military leaders like Robert McNamara and Paul Wolfowitz went on to head the World Bank. These nations’ debt to international banks ensures they are controlled by the United States, which pressures them into joining the “coalition of the willing” that helped invade Iraq or allowing U.S. military bases on their land. If countries refuse to "honor" their debts, the CIA or Department of Defense enforces U.S. political will through coups or military action.

Tarak Kauff, Veteran For Peace activist and organizer, stated, "There are trillions for wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Libya, billions yearly to support Israel's occupation and oppression of Palestine, again trillions in bailouts to make those at the top of the economic food chain even more powerful, but relative pennies for our children's education, adequate health care, infrastructure, housing and other necessities of Americans. Yet big corporate banks are thriving and, like Bank of America, pay no taxes. But you do, and I do, and working people all across this country pay taxes. I ask, what are we paying for and into whose pockets is it going? The wealth of this country is disappearing down the tubes into the stuffed pockets of the financial/military/industrial oligarchs. Americans are being bled dry while people of the world are literally bleeding and dying from U.S.-made weapons and warfare. Do we not see the connection?"

More and more people are indeed seeing the connection between corporate banksterism and militarism; they are seeing how uncontrolled spending on war is resulting in austerity at home. In a recent interview, Cornel West brought the issues of the wealth divide, Wall Street and militarism together. Prof. West also spoke about Obama, calling him “a cagey neoliberal at home and a liberal neoconservative abroad" who expanded the wars and military while re-enforcing the existing Wall Street-dominated power structure at home, a president who has abandoned the poor and working class and is becoming” a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business." See the interview with Professor West here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_y3psTDT58&feature=channel_video_title.

truthout


Robert Reich | Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "It's tax time. It's also a time when right-wing Republicans are setting the agenda for massive spending cuts that will hurt most Americans. Here's the truth: The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich."
Read the Article

Scott Walker's Attorney Says Justice David Prosser Is Vital to Anti-Worker Agenda
Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress: "The success of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's anti-worker agenda is hinging on the outcome of the state Supreme Court election, according to an e-mail sent to Walker's supporters by his chief counsel, Brian Hagedorn. The race is currently too close to call, with challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg holding a 309-vote lead over Walker ally Justice David Prosser with five precincts left to report."
Read the Article

US Sees Array of New Threats at Japan's Nuclear Plant
James Glanz and William J. Broad, The New York Times: "United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."
Read the Article

Robert Scheer | "The Peasants Need Pitchforks"
Robert Scheer, Truthdig: "The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled 'Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%' Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: 'Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation's income - an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.'"
Read the Article

If US Government Shuts Down, Some Services Would Continue
Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers: "If the federal government runs out of money this weekend with no agreement to extend the budget, some essential services would continue even though the U.S. government would shutdown. But much of the government would shut down. Roughly 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed, including many civilian workers at the Pentagon, and much of the White House staff. National parks would close. Hand-mailed tax returns would go unopened. The National Institutes of Health would treat current patients, but deny admission to new ones. Social Security checks would still go out. Soldiers would remain on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and sailors off the coast of Libya. FBI agents would still work. Tax refunds for e-filed returns would go out."
Read the Article

Jim Hightower | Sacrificing Teachers and Firefighters to Hoovernomics
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "America owes a debt of gratitude to such insightful Republican governors as Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Chris Christie of New Jersey. Were it not for them, many Americans - myself included - would still be thinking that today's state budget messes are mainly the product of a national economic crash caused by the reckless greed of Wall Street banksters and rich speculators, as well as the abject failure by political leaders to tax their super-wealthy campaign contributors in order to meet the growing needs in education and other essentials. Luckily, the GOP guvs have set the record straight by explaining that the budget woes are the fault of teachers who have health coverage and firefighters who get pensions."
Read the Article

Seventeen Rooms and What do You Get? Apparently, a Workforce in Rebellion
Dmitri Iglitzin, Campaign for America's Future: "According to a 2009 report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, hotel employees, and especially housekeepers, have relatively higher rates of occupational injury, and sustain more severe injuries, than most other service workers. This was not a surprising conclusion. A 2005 survey of 941 hotel room cleaners found that during a twelve-month period, 75 percent experienced work-related pain, 83 percent report taking pain medication for discomfort due to work, and 62 percent reported work-related pain that forced them to visit a doctor."
Read the Article

Former Afghan Lawmaker Joya Says US Soldiers Disregard Lives
Adam Ashton, The Tacoma News Tribune: "A former Afghan lawmaker told an audience of South Sound peace activists Tuesday that photos of Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers grinning over the corpse of a boy they allegedly murdered revealed a disregard for civilian lives among U.S. forces fighting in her country. 'They are making fun with the dead bodies of my people,' said Malalai Joya, 32, a human rights activist who visited the University of Washington Tacoma on her U.S. speaking tour. About 80 people attended her talk, which was hosted by the group Peace Action of Washington and was her seventh in the Puget Sound area this week."
Read the Article

Ten Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World
Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson, Yes! Magazine: "The Arab spring of 2011 has already changed the region and the world. Ordinary people have lost their fear and shattered the perception that their rulers are invincible. Whatever happens next, the changes across the region in the first few months of 2011 will prove historic. In Tunisia, the now famous 'jasmine revolution' began with protests in December, triggered by the self-immolation of a 26-year-old vegetable seller, Mohammed Bouazizi. Bouazizi, remembered by his younger sister Basma as 'funny and generous,' could finally take no more of the official harassment and humiliation meted out to him."
Read the Article

Mass Incarceration Creates Costly Disaster Across America
Linn Washington Jr., This Can't Be Happening: "Herman Garner doesn't dispute the drug charge that slammed him in prison for nine years. Garner does dispute the damning circumstance that doing the time for his crime still leaves him penalized despite his having ended his sentence in the penal system. Garner carries the 'former felon' stain."
Read the Article

Opposition Forces Move on Ivory Coast Strongman
Adam Nossiter and Alan Cowell, The New York Times News Service: "Opposition forces in Ivory Coast said Wednesday that they had begun an assault to dislodge the nation's strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, from a bunker under his residence after he refused French and United Nations demands to leave. The aim was 'to seize Gbagbo physically and, if he is alive, to bring him to justice,' said Apollinaire Yapi, a spokesman for Alassane Ouattara, who is recognized internationally as the winner of the presidential elections last year. Mr. Gbagbo has rejected the outcome and refused to step down, reigniting a civil war."
Read the Article

News in Brief: Wisconsin Supreme Court Election in Dead Heat, and More ...
A Wisconsin Supreme Court election that pits a longtime Republican incumbent against a relative unknown has resulted in a tight race; in Wisconsin, Walker ally defeated in race to succeed him for former position; Florida pastor Terry Jones says no more Quran burning - for now; the Senate voted to repeal the controversial 1099 component of the health care reform bill.
Read the Article

Paul Krugman | Such Elegant Ideas, but Not Always Simple
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "One question that comes up occasionally from readers is: What would make me change my mind about how the economy works? Associated with this is the question of whether I have ever changed my views drastically in the face of events. Let me answer the latter question first. I had a major change of views in the late 1990s, driven by events in Asia."
Read the Article

This Modern World: The Adventures of Middle Man!
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow features Middle Man's "Budget Battle Royale."
View the Cartoon

Click here for more Truthout articles
TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES


Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg holds an extremely narrow lead over incumbent pro-Scott Walker State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. The eventual winner - and there will be a recount - will likely be the swing vote when Walker's union-crushing legislation comes before the state's highest court.
It's a testament to the strength and vitality of the progressive and pro-union forces that Kloppenburg ran such a strong race. Beating an incumbent Supreme Court justice in Wisconsin is a rare occurrence.
As we await - and it may take weeks - the final outcome of the Supreme Court election, let's not forget that Walker received a decisive proxy rejection by the voters of Milwaukee.
As Truthout notes, Republican state Rep. Jeff Stone - a Walker protege - was trounced by Democrat Chris Able for the office of Milwaukee County chief executive. Just a few weeks ago, Wisconsin political pundits had pegged Stone as a shoo-in. What makes this so politically significant is that Stone, who is a supporter of Walker's policies, was vying to fill the position left vacant by Walker when he became governor.
The landslide 61 percent to 39 percent victory of Able for Walker's former political job - which he held for many years - was a stinging rebuke to the policies, statements and actions of the current governor of Wisconsin. It should not go unnoticed.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Boehner's Budget Blowback
Read the Article at Mother Jones

Ann Davidow: For Republicans, It's Always Just About Politics, Not Our Common Good
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Glenn Beck to Exit Fox Stage Right
Read the Article at The Business Insider

Ryan Gets Roughly Two-Thirds of His Huge Budget Cuts From Programs for Lower-Income Americans
Read the Article at The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Why Republicans Persist in Demanding the Elimination of 700,000 Jobs: Must Read by Robert Creamer
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Federal Government Shutdown Would Furlough 800,000 Workers
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Is the Republican Base a Victim of the "Stockholm Syndrome"?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines