Sunday, August 31, 2014

Ferguson, Missouri



08/18/14 07:34 PM—UPDATED 08/19/14 11:43 AM

By Trymaine Lee, Amanda Sakuma and Zachary Roth

FERGUSON, Missouri – The grief-stricken community of Ferguson was once again wracked by violence and chaos overnight Monday.

Police fired tear gas at protesters amid the sound of explosions, shots rang out and armored police trucks sped down Florissant Avenue. At least two people, both males, were shot “in the dark of night,” Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said at a press conference. Two guns and a Molotov cocktail were confiscated. There were two fires, one at a local business and another at an unoccupied residence, Johnson said. Police were hit with bottles and rocks. Thirty-one people were arrested by 2 a.m. CT.


Watch more news videos | Latest from the US

President Obama appeared wary today about the National Guard being sent to Ferguson, Missouri, saying he urged the governor to ensure the troops were involved in a "limited" way.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the state's National Guard to be deployed to the city this morning after another violent night of clashes between protesters and police over the shooting death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Protesters have demanded that officer Darren Wilson be held accountable for shooting Brown.
The prosecutor's office in St. Louis County, which has jurisdiction in the case, said today a grand jury could begin hearing evidence against Wilson as soon as Wednesday to determine if he will be charged in the shooting.

BRIC´s bank



BEIJING
In July 2014, nations known as the “BRICS,” Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, announced the creation of a new, $100 billion development bank (NDB). The project is aimed at lending money to developing nations for investments, much like how the American and European-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank operate.

Liu Haifang, a professor at Peking University’s Center for African Studies, said the bank will provide developing countries with more options for financing.


BRICs Bank To Rival World Bank and IMF and Challenge Dollar Dominance

Outgoing President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, after just three days ago dismissing the idea of a BRICs created, new global multi lateral bank, has come around and endorsed a BRICs bank in an interview with the FT.

Zoellick had initially said that a BRICs bank and potential rival to the western and U.S. dominated IMF and World Bank, would be difficult to implement given competing BRIC interests.

He acknowledged that a BRICs bank was being created and said that the World Bank supported such a bank. He said that not having Russia and China as part of "the World Bank system" would be a “mistake of historic proportions”.

Leaders of the BRICS nations meeting in India appear to have made much progress in creating a new global bank as the emerging economies seek to convert their growing economic might into collective diplomatic influence.

The five countries now account for nearly 28% of the global economy, a figure that is expected to continue to grow.

On Thursday morning, President Hu Jintao of China, President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia , President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India shook hands at the start of the one day meeting in New Delhi.

Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-02/markets/31272774_1_gold-prices-world-gold-council-world-bank#ixzz1ra85vRk9

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Power Elite

One thing one have to acknowledge is that what we have is systemic corruption, rather than individual incidental corruption. Sure Obama is a corrupt egocentric cynic. But he is no closet communist, or a foreigner, or a worshiper of the malignant. He does no evil for evil sake. What he does is the bidding of power groups because that´s how he got to be President, and because it is the path of least resistance. Obama is no different in essence form, say, Bush. The Power elite gets its way because they are organized, concentrate Power and Money, and control the Media. The common man can resist by being informed, understand the issues, and look at policies on their own merits. Most of the public agenda is a charade of false topics to entertain the public and brand the two wings of the Business Party. It is hard to do but one must start from objective understanding: Who´s behind? Why? What are the implications?

Wall Street accountability



Published on May 13, 2012

Rep. Alan Grayson questions the FED inspector General where $9 TRillion dollars went... and Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman hasn't a clue...Dunno whether to laugh or cry - I am still getting over the shock and have watched 4 times - LISTEN carefully to what she says - THEY HAVE NO JURISTRICTION to investigate the fed!!!



Wall Street banks took down the economy by creating hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities that were toxic and often designed to fail. They knew that it was just a matter of time before mortgage foreclosures would destroy the value of those securities. Yet, all the largest U.S. banks packaged and sold toxic mortgages to investors all over the world, who were told these were sound investments. Sometimes the very same banks joined with hedge funds to profit by betting that the toxic securities would collapse. Meanwhile, they pumped up the housing market until it burst all over us.

The Islamic State

August 18, 2014 | 3:25 pm

The battle for Iraq's largest dam continued today, even as officials claimed that government troops and Kurdish forces had regained control of the complex from hardline Sunni militant group the Islamic State, which seized it earlier this month.

Iraqi military spokesman Lt-Gen. Qassim Atta told state television today that Mosul Dam had been "fully cleansed" of militants by a joint force of Iraqi troops and peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan backed by US and Iraqi aircraft. However, when VICE News visited the peshmerga front lines close to the dam, fighting was still clearly underway and medical staff reported a number of Kurdish and Iraqi casualties.



It is not true that the Middle East is inherently unstable. Human history is the history of conflict and the Middle East is the cradle of civilization. But it is not true that current conflict is just the continuum of thousand years of fighting. Muslims and Jews have lived in peace in the Middle East for hundreds of years. In Palestine they were well beyond tolerance into actual friendship. Even in the seventies anyone from any country could go to Beirut, Damascus, Kabul, and Bagdad and have a wonderful worry free time.

Most current conflict can be trace to imperialistic meddling. To point some highlights: the arbitrary partition of the Kurdish and Pashtun countries by the British; The creation of a European settler State in Palestine by the British; the placement in power of the aleut minority in Syria by the British; The coup de Etat by the CIA that put the Sha in power in Iran; The creation of the Taliban by the CIA; The unconditional support of Israel by the United States, even against the interest of the people and government of the US, and even after Israel has attacked US personnel in international waters.

The ISIS is a good example. Who supplies the money? Saudi Arabia with petrodollars; who supplies the weapons? The United States. Who provides the entry point for army grade weaponry? Israel; why? To weaken and destabilize Israel's neighbors and pave the way to an all out assault on Syria and Iran.



Obama authorises US air strikes to help Iraqis besieged on mountain by Isis



Barack Obama has authorised targeted air strikes against Islamic militants in Iraq, as the US military began an airborne operation to bring relief to thousands of minority Iraqis driven to a grim, mountain-top refuge.

Describing the threats against stranded Yezidi refugees as holding the potential for “genocide”, the president said he had authorised limited air strikes to help Iraqi forces, to assist in the fight to break the siege and protect the civilians trapped there.

“When we face a situation like we do on that mountain, with innocent people facing the prospect of violence on a horrific scale and we have a mandate to help - in this case a request from the Iraqi government - and when we have unique capabilities to act to avoid a massacre, I believe the United States cannot turn a blind eye,” the president said in a late-night statement from the White House.

“Earlier this week, one Iraqi said no-one is coming to help. Well, today America is coming to help,” he said.





the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians

How Economic Growth Has Become Anti-Life


By Vandana Shiva

01 November, 2013
The Guardian

An obsession with growth has eclipsed our concern for sustainability, justice and human dignity. But people are not disposable – the value of life lies outside economic development

Limitless growth is the fantasy of economists, businesses and politicians. It is seen as a measure of progress. As a result, gross domestic product (GDP), which is supposed to measure the wealth of nations, has emerged as both the most powerful number and dominant concept in our times. However, economic growth hides the poverty it creates through the destruction of nature, which in turn leads to communities lacking the capacity to provide for themselves.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

hate begets hate



7 august 2014

Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Israel is drunk with power. Elated by its ability to get away with war crimes. American teenagers fighting on the Israeli army making reference to the Wild West by quoting that the good Arab is the dead Arab.



When Ahmed Owedat returned to his home 18 days after Israeli soldiers took it over in the middle of the night, he was greeted with an overpowering stench.

He picked through the wreckage of his possessions thrown from upstairs windows to find that the departing troops had left a number of messages. One came from piles of faeces on his tiled floors and in wastepaper baskets, and a plastic bottle filled with urine.

If that was not clear enough, the words "Fuck Hamas" had been carved into a concrete wall in the staircase. "Burn Gaza down" and "Good Arab = dead Arab" were engraved on a coffee table. The star of David was drawn in blue in a bedroom.


At the same time European Jews are wondering why there is a resurgence of anti-jewish sentiment and blame it on the bad hearts of their neighbors. In the space of just one week last month, according to Crif, the umbrella group for France's Jewish organisations, eight synagogues were attacked. One, in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, was firebombed by a 400-strong mob. A kosher supermarket and pharmacy were smashed and looted; the crowd's chants and banners included "Death to Jews" and "Slit Jews' throats". That same weekend, in the Barbes neighbourhood of the capital, stone-throwing protesters burned Israeli flags: "Israhell", read one banner.

Roger Cukierman, president of France's Crif, said French Jews were "anguished" about an anti-Jewish backlash that goes far beyond even strongly felt political and humanitarian opposition to the current fighting: "They are not screaming 'Death to the Israelis' on the streets of Paris," Cukierman said last month. "They are screaming 'Death to Jews'." Crif's vice-president Yonathan Arfi said he "utterly rejected" the view that the latest increase in antisemitic incidents was down to events in Gaza. "They have laid bare something far more profound," he said. In other words, he refuses to take responsibility for Israeli actions.

The Netherlands' main antisemitism watchdog, Cidi, had more than 70 calls from alarmed Jewish citizens in one week last month; the average is normally three to five. An Amsterdam rabbi, Binjamin Jacobs, had his front door stoned, and two Jewish women were attacked – one beaten, the other the victim of arson – after they hung Israeli flags from their balconies.

I do not think that all Jews should be blamed for Zionism. But they cannot have it both ways, support Israel, just in case, and at the same time pretend that it is not their business.



Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love... Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding.
Martin Luther King


World pesticide use

World pesticide amount used was approximately 5.2 billion pounds in both 2006 and 2007 (see Table 3.1). Herbicides accounted for the largest portion of total use, followed by other pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides. Total world pesticide amount used increased in 2007. U.S. pesticide amount used in both 2006 and 2007 exceeded 1.1 billion pounds, in proportions similar to those of world pesticide use, with herbicides and other pesticides representing a larger portion of total U.S. pesticide use (see Figure 3.1). U.S. pesticide amount used accounted for 22% of total world pesticide amount used, 25% of world herbicide amount used, 10% of world insecticide amount used, 14% of world fungicide amount used, and more than 25% of other pesticide amount used in both years. The Agency based its estimates of world and U.S. pesticide amount used on the estimated pesticide amount used and estimated changes in pesticide amount used from public and proprietary EPA databases. See Section 5.2 for historical data on U.S. pesticide amount used from 1988 to 2007. Data in this section were developed to compare world with U.S. pesticide use. For a more detailed look at U.S. pesticide use and a further breakout of the “other” pesticide category, see Table 3.3, Table 3.4, and Tables 3.11 through 3.13.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

shopping can kill



To inform people in boycotting Israeli products (made in Israel or made outside of Israel but directly or indirectly support Israel) send out an emails, tweets, share Facebook pages, post boycott information on forums and different blogs, send out text/SMS messages to people in your mobile phone book, call people and tell them.

Most consumers do not realize the extent of the penetration of Israeli goods in Europe, and in particular the UK market.

The purpose of this campaign is to draw awareness to this and to encourage people to join the boycott by starting with boycotting 'made in Israel' products.

Does the boycott work?


According to the Israeli Union of Industrialists, following the attack on Gaza, one in five Israeli exporters are having difficulty selling abroad due to the boycott. Yair Rotloi, chairman of the association's foreign-trade committee revealed:
 "Twenty one percent of local exporters report that they are facing problems in selling Israeli goods because of an anti-Israel boycott, mainly from the UK and Scandinavian countries". 


9/11 conspiracy theory

Philip Marshall ‘Murder-Suicide’


Many news reports have been quick to echo what the Calaveras County Sheriffs Department has claimed; Philip Marshall killed his two teenage kids, his dog, and himself. What we know is that there is no motive for the allegation, and we know that this conclusion was made the same day that the three bodies were found. The family dog was found in a bedroom, the two kids were found “sleeping” on a couch in the front room, six feet away from each other, and Marshall was found face-up near the front door, in a pool of blood with his gun next to him.

The biggest conspiracy theory here is the one that the police have come up with. Have they tested Philip Marshall for gun residue (ballistics testing)? The police department have not released any information about this question and I haven’t seen it asked in the local news reports about Philip Marshall.

The Calaveras County coroner, Kevin Raggio, claims the two teenagers, Alex (17) and Macaila (14), appeared to be “sleeping.” Joel Metzger, of Calaveras Enterprise.com, points out “It’s highly unlikely Marshall could have shot one without waking the other.” Metzgerreports that Sgt. Chris Hewitt was asked about this. Hewitt responded by saying he could not comment on it, “It’s part of an active investigation.” I thought they had concluded their investigation when they determined Marshall was guilty of a double-murder suicide? Perhaps the investigation is still “on-going” because the police have no motive, no suicide note, and no indication that Marshall fit the profile of someone who murdered the two people closest to him, his own flesh and blood.





Published on Sep 11, 2013