You are browsing the archive for Politics Archives - Rogue Media.

How Big Corporations Are Unpatriotic – and Big Government Backing them is Fascist

April 1, 2013 in Finance, Headline, Politics, World News

By Ralph Nader – This piece first appeared on Ralph Nader’s website, Nader.org

fascism-checklist-bigMany giant profitable U.S. corporations are increasingly abandoning America while draining it at the same time.

General Electric, for example, has paid no federal income taxes for a decade while becoming a net job exporter and fighting its hard-pressed workers who want collective bargaining through unions like the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). GE’s boss, Jeffrey Immelt, makes about $12,400 an hour on an 8-hour day, plus benefits and perks, presiding over this global corporate empire.

Telling by their behavior, these big companies think patriotism toward the country where they were created and prospered is for chumps. Their antennae point to places where taxes are very low, labor is wage slavery, independent unions are non-existent, governments have their hands out, and equal justice under the rule of law does not exist. China, for example, has fit that description for over 25 years.

Other than profiteering from selling Washington very expensive weapons of mass destruction, many multinational firms have little sense of true national security. Read the rest of this entry →

Corporations Are Robbing Us Of Our Right to a Fair Trial

April 1, 2013 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

If you’ve been gouged by your bank, discriminated against, sexually harassed, unfairly fired, you’ll most likely find that you’re barred from the courthouse door.

scales-justiceBeing wronged by a corporation is painful enough, but just try getting your day in court. Most Americans don’t realize it, but our Seventh Amendment right to a fair jury trial against corporate wrongdoers has quietly been stripped from us. Instead, we are now shunted into a stacked-deck game called “Binding Mandatory Arbitration.” Proponents of the process hail it as superior to the courts — “faster, cheaper and more efficient!” they exclaim.

But does it deliver justice? It could, for the original concept of voluntary, face-to-face resolution of conflict by a neutral third party makes sense in many cases. But remember what Mae West said of her own virtue: “I used to be Snow White, then I drifted.” Today’s practice of arbitration has drifted far away from the purity of the concept.

All you really need to know about today’s process is that it’s the product of years of conceptual monkey-wrenching by corporate lobbyists, Congress, the Supreme Court and hired-gun lobbying firms looking to milk the system for steady profits. First and foremost, these fixers have turned a voluntary process into the exact opposite: mandatory. Let’s look at this mess.

— Unlike courts, arbitration is not a public system, but a private business.

— Far from being neutral, “the third-party” arbitration firms are — get this! — usually hand-picked by the corporation involved in the case, chosen specifically because they have proven records of favoring the corporation.

— The corporation also gets to choose the city or town where the case is heard, allowing it to make the case inconvenient, expensive and unfair to individuals bringing a complaint.

— Arbitrators are not required to know the law relevant to the cases they judge or follow legal precedents.

— Normal procedural rules for gathering and sharing evidence and safeguarding fairness to both parties do not apply in arbitration cases.

— Arbitration proceedings are closed to the media and the public.

— Arbitrators need not reveal the reasons for their decisions, so they are not legally accountable for errors, and the decisions set no legal precedents for guiding future corporate conduct.

— Even if an arbitrator’s decision is legally incorrect, it still is enforceable, carrying the full weight of the law.

— There is virtually no right to appeal an arbitrator’s ruling.

That adds up to a kangaroo court! Who would choose such a rigged system? No one. Which is why corporate America has resorted to brute force and skullduggery to drag you into their arbitration wringer. Read the rest of this entry →

US news media has devolved to ‘carnival act’ – Hedges

April 1, 2013 in Editorial, Headline, Politics

Chris Hedges, author, columnist and former Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New York Times spoke with RT about how FCC deregulation during the Clinton administration allowed a handful of corporations to dominate US media.media-ownership

chris_hedges_blur

RT: I want to start off by reading a quote from one of your articles on this very topic, you say: “The celebrity trolls who currently reign on commercial television, who bill themselves as liberal or conservative, read from the same corporate script. They spin the same court gossip. They ignore what the corporate state wants ignored. They champion what the corporate state wants championed. They do not challenge or acknowledge the structures of corporate power.” So Chris, what do you think is the problem with media today?

Chris Hedges: Well, that sort of sums it up. It’s a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate state. You have a half-dozen corporations — Viacom, General Electric, Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, Disney, Clear Channel — that control almost everything most Americans watch or listen to. And, you know, as I wrote in that column, the lie of omission is still a lie. They hold up political puppets as part of this charade to deflect attention from where power actually resides, and that’s in the hands of corporations. It’s impossible within the American political system to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, and so we don’t hear anything about climate change, the poor –  the rural and urban poor are rendered invisible in this country. And they’re really suffering at this point, I just finished a book on it, spent two years on it – Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, with the cartoonist Joe Sacco out on the poorest pockets of the country.

We don’t hear anything about the assault on civil liberties, whether that’s the Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act, or warrantless wiretapping, the use of the Espionage Act to shut down whistleblowers — the misuse of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act, giving the executive branch the power to assassinate American citizens. And climate change – we should have … given the crisis which is now confronting the ecosystem on which the human species depends for its existence, we should have climate scientists on every night. And none of that appears, because it’s all driven by celebrity gossip, trivia — and yeah, okay, Fox will spin it one way and MSNBC will spin it another, but it’s all the same tawdry, useless garbage.

Read the rest of this entry →

Condemned to Endless War: The Sisyphean US terror policy

March 30, 2013 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

By Sam Sacks, a political commentator and journalist, the last five years spent covering politics in Washington, DC.  –  rt.com

US Army troops from C-Company. 1st platoon, 1-23 infantry prepare to deploy 'A-pops' - charges fired by rocket onto surfaces suspected to have IED (improvised explosive devices) traps which explode and trigger the safe detonation of the devices at the village of Gerandai in Panjway district, Kandahar Province on September 21, 2012. (AFP Photo)

US Army troops from C-Company. 1st platoon, 1-23 infantry prepare to deploy ‘A-pops’ – charges fired by rocket onto surfaces suspected to have IED (improvised explosive devices) traps which explode and trigger the safe detonation of the devices at the village of Gerandai in Panjway district, Kandahar Province on September 21, 2012. (AFP Photo)

Remember all that talk about leaving Afghanistan in 2014? None of it was serious.

A promise by the administration to leave Afghanistan came as recently as last October, in the vice presidential debate, when Vice President Joe Biden promised, “We are leaving… We are leaving [Afghanistan] in 2014.”

Сan someone define the word “leaving?”

Because, according to the former commander in Afghanistan, when it comes to 2014 plans in that country, we’re not going anywhere.

Speaking to the Brookings Institution this week in Washington, DC, the retired General John Allen saidout of all the options for American forces in Afghanistan after the supposed 2014 withdraw date, the “zero option” – removing all US troops – was never really an option at all.

“I was never asked to conduct any analysis with respect to the zero option,” General Allen told Brookings.  Read the rest of this entry →

Gun Control and the Politics of Opportunity in America

January 22, 2013 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update

By Nick Hathaway  – roguemedia.org

There have recently been a few tragic incidents involving mass shootings by what seem to be hapless and insane individuals in the U.S.  All politics and viewpoints aside,  these events are tragic, and should be avoided.  But,  not at all costs.  That solution,  “fix the problem, at all costs,”  is what is driving this country over a cliff that we will never be able to climb out of, if we keep current course.

Mentally deranged people should probably be monitored alot more than just making sure they don’t own firearms,  god forbid we allow a lunatic to pump gas and blow everyone up at the local gas-station as well.  I hope u get the point,  everything we do on a day to day basis while daydreaming of something else is dangerous.  Take driving your car for example,  most people think nothing of it.  That is most likely the single most lethal thing americans do on a day to day basis.

Seattle_Panthers4

Black Panthers, on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento, CA
Instrumental in the fight for civil liberties that happened over the last 50-100 years.

Gun control,  and the new fervor for passing into law some draconian ideals that are fueled by sensationalist media campaigns on the evening news should not escape anyone’s notice.  One side will argue that these [mass killings] should never happen again,  the other will argue that we need to uphold the 2nd Amendment,  both sides are right.

However,  despite the debate that ensues after every one of these incidents there are a few things to keep in mind ::

1)  Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety, deserve neither   ( Ben Franklin,  founding father of the United States of America ).   I mean no dis-respect to him when I paraphrase this to say,  ‘you are responsible for your own safety and well being,  make smart choices and keep yourself armed.’

2)  Keeping guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens only makes the problem worse,  in that case all the criminals will have guns and no one but the police state will be around to save you.

3) All of these recent incidents have numerous reports from eye witness’ that say there was more than 1 shooter.   This should raise a huge false flag to anyone that cares about the truth of the news reports they hear.

4) Mentally unstable people should probably not be allowed to have weapons that are intended to kill large amounts of people all at once.  This may actually include gasoline at filling stations,  let’s be honest.

5)  Our own government has been involved in supplying people, that most of society would view as mentally unstable, with automatic [ i.e.  illegal] weapons that EVEN NOW BEFORE NEW LEGISLATION,  CIVILIANS CAN NOT BUY OR OWN !!!!   (cough ,  cough,  Fast and the Furious Scandal, MK Ultra,  Iran Contra Scandal, not to mention the laundry list of U.S. law officers that have come forward to say that the C.I.A. is involved in a domestic drug cartel,  the list is virtually endless.)

6)  We already live in a fascist police state,  and the time to claim and hold on to your 2nd amendment rights is NOW !

7)  A smart criminal that really wanted to could build his own assault rifle,  with or without gun control,  and do the same things that have happened in these recent cases of violence.  Including building their own ammunition,  the fact is it is fairly easy,  and all the tools are available to anyone willing to take the time to do it.   If you are worried about psychopaths with automatic assault rifles,   gun control legislation will not help you.

8) After passing the recent NDAA,  which allows indefinite detainment WITHOUT TRIAL of anyone (including US citizens) the executive branch of government decides is a terrorist,  they can send you to guantanamo.   REAL FACT.   It’s current law in the U.S. after Obama’s executive order,  and that means he has every reason to disarm the populace.. .   What better time,  disarm everyone,  and then any “insurgents  (read,  people that don’t agree with the master plan )  “  can just be held in offshore prisons where we don’t have to account for anyones health, security or well being…

9) When political protest becomes illegal, and as you have seen if you are awake by now,  peaceful protest is met with violent police state, fascist style repression,  not only in the form of beating and subdueing protesters and activists…  But,  also in the form of mass media repression of the topic.  The major corporate backed news networks simply refuse to cover any protest action,  as if they can totally ignore the communication links already building within the masses.

 

The future of this planet, and our children’s children,  and those to come after depend on us..  Let’s make our voice heard,  I for one want to live on a planet that is sustainable.

 

Pakistan ‘s politicians smell plot to derail polls in cleric’s march plans

January 15, 2013 in Headline, Politics, World News

 in Islamabad  –  www.guardian.co.uk

Parties fear that Tahir-ul-Qadri’s million man march to protest against corruption could threaten first peaceful transfer of power

Tahir-ul-Qadri's supporters in Lahore

Tahir-ul-Qadri’s supporters in Lahore. The cleric’s demands for reform include the disqualification of any parliamentary candidates who have broken the law or not paid their taxes. Photograph: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

A Muslim cleric’s plan to stage a “million man march” against political corruption in Pakistan‘s capital city next week has triggered consternation among political parties who fear a plot to derail the country’s first ever democratic transfer of power in upcoming elections.

Tahir-ul-Qadri, the religious leader who dramatically returned to Pakistan last month after years of living in Canada, has said he will turn Islamabad into “Tahrir Square” – the area in Cairo that became the epicentre of Egypt’s revolution last year.

“This is not a matter of coming for one day and then dispersing,” he told the Guardian. “We will sit there until our demands are fulfilled so that the election will be guaranteed to be fair, honest and free of all corrupt practices.” Read the rest of this entry →

The Hoax of Entitlement Reform

January 12, 2013 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics

  —  huffingtonpost.com

 

EntitlementsIt has become accepted economic wisdom, uttered with deadpan certainty by policy pundits and budget scolds on both sides of the aisle, that the only way to get control over America’s looming deficits is to “reform entitlements.”

But the accepted wisdom is wrong.

Start with the statistics Republicans trot out at the slightest provocation — federal budget data showing a huge spike in direct payments to individuals since the start of 2009, shooting up by almost $600 billion, a 32 percent increase.

And Census data showing 49 percent of Americans living in homes where at least one person is collecting a federal benefit — food stamps, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation, or subsidized housing — up from 44 percent in 2008.

But these expenditures aren’t driving the federal budget deficit in future years. They’re temporary. The reason for the spike is Americans got clobbered in 2008 with the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. They and their families have needed whatever helping hands they could get.

If anything, America’s safety nets have been too small and shot through with holes. That’s why the number and percentage of Americans in poverty has increased dramatically, including 22 percent of our children. Read the rest of this entry →

Demonstrations have not been a success – Diversity of Tactics required

January 11, 2013 in ANON NeWs, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

Joost van Steenis - downwithelite.wordpress.com

 

guillotineEach year there are in Washington about ten big demonstrations.

In the last thirty years eight demonstrations attracted even more than 500,000 participants. (Wikipedia)

1969-11-15 Against the War in Vietnam

1971-04-24 Against the War in Vietnam

1987-10-11 For lesbian and gay rights

1989 April March for Women’s lives

1993-04-25 For lesbian and gay rights

1995-10-16 Million Man March

2000-11-02 CallDC for God’s move in this nation

2004-04-25 March for Women’s lives

The result of these demonstrations was disappointing. They hardly influenced politicians and the pressure on the 1% was minimal. Demonstrations and other mass actions have a propagandistic effect but it is not a real force politicians have to take into account. Mass actions also divide the 99% because they hinder the normal life of many citizens as is obvious with a strike in the public transport.  – A Diversity of Tactics must be used to have success.

In mass actions as demonstrations, petitions, strikes, even referendums and other electoral events many people protest at the same time against decisions. But successes are not encouraging.

Read the rest of this entry →

Commander X: Anonymous infiltrated by the FBI

May 27, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective, World News

Published on May 16, 2012 by

As a preface to this post, we would like to point out that this man clearly says that “this is a war”, a civil war that the governments, corporations and banks that run them, and the media they control have declared on their own people.  In the United States, the right to bear arms does not make any distinction as to if that right to bear arms applies to the only effective weapon left available to the people of the world [computers and information tech.].  As it stands in the current world we live in,  we are sure that most people can recognize that your right to own a handgun or other firearm is null and void if you recognize that the armies of the world now use drones and satellites to target and kill people from afar, before you would ever have a chance…. like the constitution clearly allows,  to stand your ground and fight for a revolution.


Whether you love them or hate them, you’ve without a doubt heard of the hacktivist collective Anonymous. Government officials have claimed that the next major terrorist attack will be carried out over cyberspace, and the feds have all but called Anonymous the next al-Qaeda. Recently an alleged member of the group made claims that Anonymous is perhaps the most powerful organizations in the world. That person, a hacktivist using the handle Commander X, joins us to explain his allegations and discuss the future of Anonymous.

June 9th 2012 – Europe-wide action against ACTA

May 26, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, Video Perspective, World News

Published on Apr 5, 2012 by

June 9th 2012 – Europe-wide action against ACTA
More information: https://pad.lqdn.fr/ro/r.b5zUnGTuykwDUwEY

Map: http://g.co/maps/j4grc

This video is available in many languages.
Check http://youtube.com/user/stopactaeurope

Build up to WW3 – Philippines & U.S. stage War Games in face of CHINA warning

May 9, 2012 in Headline, Politics, Video Perspective, World News

Published on Apr 30, 2012 by

Build up to WW3 – Philippines & U.S. stage War Games in face of CHINA warning

U.S. and Philippine commandos waded ashore on Wednesday in a mock assault to retake a small island in energy-rich waters disputed with China, part of a drill involving thousands of troops Beijing had said would raise the risk of armed conflict. Read the rest of this entry →

Canada Refuses to Allow Fox “news” A License – Lying to People is Illegal There

April 23, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

This is not a new headline,  but I feel it needs to be re-addressed as IT IS STILL PERFECTLY LEGAL TO LIE TO THE PUBLIC in United States Corporate Media,  and it is getting worse.

By Nick Hathaway – roguemedia.org

“Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.  Canada’s Radio Act requires that ‘a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.’ The provision has kept Fox ‘news’ and right wing talk radio out of Canada”   -Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Huffington Post

I lived in Vancouver, BC for about 2 years myself around 2005-7,  and was astonished at the fact they actually got real world news.  Something I was not used to coming from the U.S. and I commented on all the time. People there were shocked to hear when I told them what a traditional U.S. news broadcast entailed..

I told them that I have never lived in communist China,  but going off what I had heard I did not think the U.S. was much different in terms of getting real honest news reports of what was going on around the world, let alone in my own city or state.  I still feel that way today and I believe it is getting worse.

The illusion of freedom of the press is perhaps more damaging and dangerous than knowing that you are being lied to and that everything you hear is censored. Read the rest of this entry →

Romney lawyers rig election in ND: Santorum – Ron Paul cut out

April 1, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective, World News

Doug Wead   –   dougwead.wordpress.com

As the GOP nominating process grinds down to its ultimate end, the Romney campaign has turned savage in its efforts to end the process early.  Open conventions and caucuses where people actually get to vote are apparently their worst nightmare.   In some state conventions fake “unity slates” are promoted, with appeals to Santorum and Gingrich delegates to join them in electing delegates that they promise represent the three campaigns proportionately but will shut out Ron Paul.  The ”unity slates” are actually all Romney delegates.

In other states “Romney Rules” help make up for the candidate’s unenthusiastic support.  In Idaho, for example, where Romney has a Mormon base and won  61% of the vote in a statewide beauty contest, it was nevertheless feared that the candidate would not win a single precinct election in the delegate process.  In almost each of the elections, it was feared that Ron Paul supporters would have a plurality. Read the rest of this entry →

The roads leading to disaster

March 27, 2012 in Editorial, Headline, Politics, World News

Reflections of Fidel -   By:    Fidel Castro Ruz –      en.cubadebate.cu

This Reflection could be written today, tomorrow or any other day without the risk of being mistaken. Our species faces new problems. When 20 years ago I stated at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro that a species was in danger of extinction, I had fewer reasons than today for warning about a danger that I was seeing perhaps 100 years away. At that time, a handful of leaders of the most powerful countries were in charge of the world. They applauded my words as a matter of mere courtesy and placidly continued to dig for the burial of our species.

It seemed that on our planet, common sense and order reigned. For a while economic development, backed by technology and science appeared to be the Alpha and Omega of human society.

Today, everything is much clearer. Profound truths have been surfacing. Almost 200 States, supposedly independent, constitute the political organization which in theory has the job of governing the destiny of the world.

Approximately 25,000 nuclear weapons in the hands of allied or enemy forces ready to defend the changing order, by interest or necessity, virtually reduce to zero the rights of billions of people.

I shall not commit the naïveté of assigning the blame to Russia or China for the development of that kind of weaponry, after the monstrous massacre at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ordered by Truman after Roosvelt’s death. Read the rest of this entry →

While Banks Have the Upper Hand, the Global Economic Crisis Will Continue

March 25, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Politics, World News

The stock market may be up, but for working people the global political economy is likely to remain in crisis for at least another three to five years.

By William K. Tabb

Because the state of the economy looms so large in the outcome of the 2012 presidential election there is a tendency on the part of those who would like to see the president re-elected to be optimistic about recent job creation, factory orders and other indicators that there may be light at the end of the tunnel. The reality may be very different however and the changes needed go far beyond what Mr. Obama is proposing or is likely to get now or in the new Congress. The stock market may be up but for working people the global political economy is likely to remain in crisis for at least another three to five years, with high unemployment and slow growth. The character of this period makes a grim cyclical crisis worse by adding to it both a financial component and a deeper structural crisis which challenges a model of accumulation dependent on financialisation and corporate globalisation. A year ago, then European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet expressed the view that the next ten years could be a ‘lost decade’. Median income in the US declined by 7% between 2000 and 2010 and the Wall Street Journal’s poll of 50 leading business economists expects the losses will not be made up before 2021. These are not the testimonies of radical Marxists (who generally hold similar opinions). Read the rest of this entry →

Russian Economy hit by Eurozone contraction

March 6, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Politics, World News

(AFP Photo / Philippe Huguen)

rt.com

The Eurozone economy is edging towards recession as business activity slows. The February shadow came from Italy and Spain. The Russian economy performed better last month, but is expected to be pressed by the Eurozone doom and gloom in the future.

February PMI data – an indicator of business activity – pointed to a drop in the Eurozone economies, causing fears of a continued recession. “A drop in services activity offset a marginal rise in manufacturing production,” the Eurozone PMI report explained.

The PMI Composite output Index for the Eurozone entered negative territory crossing the dividing line between growth and decline. It stood at 49.3 in February, which is a fall from 50.4 in January.

“At this stage, our best estimate is that the region’s GDP will have contracted by 0.1% in the first three months of the year,” commented Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit.

The Eurozone Composite output Index compiled by Markit tracks manufacturing and services at 4,500 companies in the area to provide for a general understanding of the economic environment.

A PMI reading above 50 points to growth, with below 50 pointing to economic contraction. Read the rest of this entry →

Free Trade or Democracy, Can’t Have Both

March 4, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Politics, World News

by: Dave Johnson, Campaign for America’s Future | Op-Ed

Recent stories about the conditions of Apple’s contractors in China have opened many people’s eyes about where our jobs, factories, industries and economy have been going, and why. The stories exposed that workers live 6-to-12-to-a-room in dormitories, get rousted at midnight to work surprise 12-hour shifts, get paid very little, use toxic chemicals, suffer extreme pollution of the environment, etc. Is this “trade?” Or is it something else?

Is This “Trade?”

“Trade” means to exchange, to buy and sell, you buy from me and I buy from you. I have something you want and you have something I want, and we exchange. We both end up better off than where we started. Read the rest of this entry →

Anonymous – Fed Reserve Caught Red Handed

March 4, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective

Uploaded by on Feb 25, 2012

Read the rest of this entry →

Pensions, free travel and medical cards on IMF hitlist

March 4, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Politics, World News

By Thomas Molloy and Charlie Weston  –  independent.ie

Finance Minister Michael Noonan must still save billions in the next three Budgets even if the economy grows as quickly as the Government hopes

Pensions, free travel and medical cards for the over-70s are being targeted for new cuts.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now has pensioners in its sights as it believes they have largely escaped the effects of austerity.

The key provider of our bailout cash has told the Government to look at saving money by scrapping some free schemes for the elderly.

It warns that these benefits are wasteful because they benefit rich and poor alike.

Among the schemes are cheap electricity, gas and television licences, plus free travel passes and medical cards.The proposals carry all the more weight because they are in a report that accompanied the IMF’s latest €3.2bn tranche of bailout cash released to the Government this week.

But ministers will blanch at the prospect of sparking another ‘grey revolt’ by cutting any schemes for the country’s 480,000 pensioners. Read the rest of this entry →

A World Bank for a new world

March 4, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

Jeffrey Sachs writes: The world is at a crossroads. Either the global community will join together to fight poverty, resource depletion and climate change, or it will face a generation of resource wars, political instability and environmental ruin.

The World Bank, if properly led, can play a key role in averting these threats and the risks that they imply. The global stakes are thus very high this spring as the Bank’s 187 member countries choose a new president to succeed Robert Zoellick, whose term ends in July.

Read the rest of this entry →

Iran – OIL, NOT Nukes – Bothers the West

March 4, 2012 in Headline, Politics, Update, World News

An engineer looks at the Phase 4 and Phase 5 gas refineries in Assalouyeh, 1,000 km (621 miles) south of Tehran (Reuters / Caren Firouz)

Iran insists it is only seeking a peaceful energy supply, while the West suspects Tehran is building an atomic bomb. And yet, some believe it is all about the oil. Again. Read the rest of this entry →

The Arrival of the Warrior Corporation – Drones

March 4, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Politics, World News

ElDave (CC-BY)

By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch

This piece originally appeared at TomDispatch.

In the American mind, if Apple made weapons, they would undoubtedly be drones, those remotely piloted planes getting such great press here.  They have generally been greeted as if they were the sleekest of iPhones armed with missiles.

When the first American drone assassins burst onto the global stage early in the last decade, they caught most of us by surprise, especially because they seemed to come out of nowhere or from some wild sci-fi novel.  Ever since, they’ve been touted in the media as the shiniest presents under the American Christmas tree of war, the perfect weapons to solve our problems when it comes to evildoers lurking in the global badlands. Read the rest of this entry →

On Regaining a Spirit of Defiance

March 2, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Politics, Update, World News

“I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long”

by Phil Rockstroh — dissidentvoice.org

Yo, who let these bankers and globalists turn my ice black with pollution and oil subsidies, WTF DUDES?

The course of action taken by the present-day U.S. political class in addressing the era’s rising tide of economic hardship and ecological peril has proven as helpful as tossing an anvil to a drowning man.

The following two axiomatic headlines reveal much about the dovetailing mindsets manifested by members of both the drowning class and the moral compass-bereft captains of the ship of state:

“Nike Foamposite Galaxy Shoe Spurs Frenzy At Malls” (Associated Press, February 25, 2012)

“Mitt Romney: Wife Ann Drives ‘A Couple Of Cadillacs’” (The Washington Post, February 24, 2012)

Inadvertently, Mr. Romney’s declaration, stated in his own blandly deranged way, captures the As Above/So Below nature of consumer-state psychology. By means of incessant, womb to tomb, commercial propaganda, the corporate class has promoted the idea that an individual’s identity is based solely on the sum total of his worldly possessions. Read the rest of this entry →

Barack Obama Waives Rule Allowing Indefinite Military Detention Of Americans

March 2, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update

WASHINGTON — The White House released rules Tuesday evening waiving the most controversial piece of the new military detention law, and exempting U.S. citizens, as well as other broad categories of suspected terrorists.

Indefinite military detention of Americans and others was granted in the defense authorization bill President Barack Obama signed just before Christmas, sparking a storm of anger from civil libertarians on the left and right.

The new rules — which deal with Section 1022 of the law — are aimed at soothing many of their gravest concerns, an administration official said. Those concerns are led by the possibility that a law that grants the president authority to jail Americans without trial in Guantanamo Bay based on secret evidence could easily be abused. Read the rest of this entry →

13 Million Unemployed : Why Aren’t They a Political Force to be Reckoned With?

March 2, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics

By Jenny Brown  -  alternet.org

Unions are still grappling with how to organize the unemployed, including their own ex-members, into a political force.

Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Wrenching testimonies from laid-off workers are overflowing the internet, crying out from the pages of policy reports, and popping up in commercial media. But unions are still grappling with how to organize the unemployed, including their own ex-members, into a political force.

Department of Labor figures for December showed 13.1 million unemployed and actively looking for work, almost half of them for more than six months. Another 8.1 million were working part-time involuntarily, and 2.5 million were too discouraged to look for work.

Unfortunately, unions don’t do a good job of organizing this vast pool, said Tom Lewandowski, who spent nine years on layoff from GE starting in 1975.

Now, as president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council in Fort Wayne, he’s leading an effort to survey unemployed workers, watchdog the county’s economic development, and demand accountability from the unemployment office for laid-off workers struggling to navigate the system. Read the rest of this entry →

Honduras – Resistance Front Forms Political Party

March 1, 2012 in Headline, Politics, World News

Honduras’s National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) gathered in Tegucigalpa February 11-12 to launch a political party. The name, “Liberation and Re-foundation Party (Libre),” is timely: Honduras is mired in catastrophe.

Its murder rate is the world’s highest. Political violence, crime, militarization, poverty, malnutrition, drug trafficking, and police corruption are overflowing. Landowner thugs kill family farmers; the two-year toll of murdered journalists is 13. The economy shrunk 2.1% in 2009. On February 14 a prison fire killed 350 mostly uncharged and untried inmates. Most died behind doors the police didn’t unlock. Read the rest of this entry →

Britain leads dash to explore for oil in war-torn Somalia

March 1, 2012 in Headline, Politics, World News

and Tariq Abdinasir –  guardian.co.uk

Engineers and visitors tour an exploratory well in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. Photograph: Reuters

Government offers humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in country’s future energy industry

Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country’s future energy industry.

Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world’s most comprehensively “failed” state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean. Read the rest of this entry →

A small but important SF Rally: Why Greece matters to the Occupy movement.

February 27, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News

Are the people of Greece being set up “economic hitman” style and could the US be one of the next victims?  About seventy-five of us gathered Friday February 17 at 101 Market Street in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, our home-base.  Green signs dotted the sidewalk with messages such as “IMF out of Greece” and “The people of Greece are sovereign.”  Cars, buses and trolleys passed by, some honking in support.  But today was different than a typical Friday evening at OccupySF, because a speaker from Greece, Maria, stood with a megaphone describing the economic tragedy that Is unfolding for the Greek people, “Children are fainting in schools due to lack of food…this austerity package sets up the country for privatization where the people will have to sell off their water, their sewage, their telecommunications and their natural resources which includes coal and oil.  It will lead to the country’s resources being pillaged.”

As we munched on delicious Greek dolmas donated by a local Café, an Occupy speak-out began on the plight of Greece, and some of our homeless occupiers exhibited knowledge of economics far surpassing the average US citizen.   Mike spoke about the involvement of Goldman Sachs in the derivative swaps that set the country up for failure, and how the signing terms of the austerity measures “literally sell off Greek democracy to private banks and corporations.”  Rob spoke about the parallels with Iceland, a great example of what should happen, and how Wiki-leaks releases showed the corruption and fraud of the bankers, prompting the Icelandic people to denounce the debt.  “We need to prosecute these bankers and get our sovereignty back,” he said.  Derek spoke about how we need alternative structures such as a time-bank/skill-share system to challenge the currency-based system so people can take direct responsibility for what their actions produce, and Nick, a Veteran for peace compared the oppression of the Occupy movement which led to the breaking of his ear-drum by police, to the oppression of the people in Greece. Read the rest of this entry →

March and Rally! Funeral for the Gulf of Mexico! Demands of Government and BP

February 27, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Editorial, Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update, World News

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Mikal NOLA

 

http://www.facebook.com/events/271951906207368/

List of Demands of the Government and BP as a result of the BP oil Disaster:

  1. Revoke the arbitrary cut off dates to file claims: No limit on the filing of claims.
  2. Free public health clinics should be set up in every community impacted by the disaster to facilitate the treatment of those impacted by the chemical poisoning.
  3. The people demand a full and public trial of BP. No settlement! All evidence associated with this trial, documents, tests of marine and human life, and reports should be accessible to the public. We demand full transparency of the government and BP.
  4. The people demand a fair and just outcome of the BP trial, nothing less than 100% compensation for human and marine losses suffered as a result of BP and the government’s criminal negligence and full and ongoing rehab of gulf waters and wetlands.
  5. Ban the use of dispersants, including Corexit. Facilitate the use of green technology to rehab the gulf and wetlands. Facilitate the use of green technology to rehab the gulf and wetlands.
  6. Full disclosure by the U.S. government, BP and NALCO, the company that manufactures Corexit, as to how much Corexit has actually been in the Gulf of Mexico.
  7. NALCO should be held accountable for damages to marine and human life for the use of Corexit.
  8. Seize assets of BP and put them under public control. Those assets will be used toward compensation, health care for all poisoned by the chemicals, green rehabilitation of the Gulf waters and beaches, retraining of oil field workers offer green jobs and fair and just compensation for loss of jobs, and development and production of green energy and technology.
  9. Manage and regulate the oil industry under a democratically elected council of workers, community members and environmental planners.
  10. Massive investment into a public works program to develop and move toward clean, renewable energy and public transpiration to create millions of union jobs and move towards green energy, and end our dependence on fossil fuels.

How Internet Companies Would Be Forced to Spy On You – Under H.R. 1981

February 26, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Politics, Update

By Rainey Reitman

Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the Stop Online Piracy Act, the controversial Hollywood-backed bill. Now Smith, a conservative Texas Republican, is championing legislation that would require Internet service providers to keep track of their customers, in case police want to review those logs in the future. His bill is called H.R. 1981.

Online commentators are pointing to the Internet backlash against H.R. 1981 as the new anti-SOPA movement. While this bill is strikingly different from the Stop Online Piracy Act, it does have one thing in common: it’s a poorly-considered legislative attempt to regulate the Internet in a way experts in the field know will have serious civil liberties consequences. This bill specifically targets companies that provide commercial Internet access – like your ISP – and would force them to collect and maintain data on all of their customers, even if those customers have never been suspected of committing a crime.

Under H.R. 1981, which has the misleading title of Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, Congress would force commercial Internet access providers to keep for one year a “log of the temporarily assigned network addresses the provider assigns to a subscriber to or customer of such service that enables the identification of the corresponding customer or subscriber information under subsection (c)(2) of this section.”  Let’s break that down into simple terms.

Temporarily Assigned Network Addresses: More than IP Addresses

Under this proposal, ISPs would have to maintain “temporarily assigned network addresses” to enable the identification of a subscriber. At a minimum, this refers to the IP addresses assigned by ISPs, including the Internet services associated with mobile phones.  It could also potentially include mobile phone numbers or other forms of cell phone identification, such as the three major mobile device identifiers: IMEI, IMSI, TMSI. These are the tracking IDs for your mobile devices, the unique identifiers that mobile phone companies use to track handsets and the accounts associated with them. Read the rest of this entry →