Heads They Win - Tails You Lose.

     As the Cameron/Osborne millionaire cabal continue with their "austerity" plan and you and I slide ever further down the poverty plughole, their mantra of "we are all in this together" and "tough decisions have to be made" merits a little examination.

      Through the period of the "crisis" from 2008 to 2011, average wages for UK workers rose by a mere 3.7% while those who engineered the "crisis" the 1% top financial sector, saw the salaries rise by 8.6%. When the "crisis" arrived in 2008, it is not as if the banks hadn't been raking it in. European banking profits for the year 2003 were approximately €8 billion, for 2007, this had risen to €40 billion, and in 2008, the year of the "crisis" they still made €10 billion. However, those vast sums of money seemed to have disappeared. Where did it all go? Since 2008 until 2011 the European Commission approved €4.5 trillion in state aid to that same financial sector that had been raking it in since 2003.

       We are told we can't afford decent social services, can't afford decent pensions, and benefits have to be cut, where did that €4.5 trillion "state aid" to the financial sector come from? State aid is your money, the state doesn't have any money except what it takes from the people.  "In good times, banks took the benefits for their employees and shareholders, while in the bad times the taxpayer bore the costs. For the banks, it was a case of heads I win, tails you - the taxpayer - lose."  Mervyn King, Governor of The Bank of England. All of that €4.5 trillion "aid" to the privately owned financial sector was plundered from the public purse, stolen from the people.

      Another aspect of the deepening poverty among the ordinary people of Europe is the obscene fact that of a European population of approximately 500 million, 0.6% are millionaires and their wealth is approximately €7.6 trillion, equivalent to roughly 50% of the European GDP. In other words those 0.6% millionaires could have bailed out the banks with €4.5 trillion all by themselves and still had €3.1 trillion left between them.

       Europe is made up of very rich countries, we are awash with wealth, it is just that the system is loaded against the ordinary people and in favour of all those greedy, sweaty palmed, millionaire/billionaire parasites that go to make up the financial Mafia.  "the crisis was the result of human action and inaction, not Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire----- we conclude this financial crisis was avoidable." US Congressional report 2011.  Ah, the wonders of capitalism.  

Figures gleaned from TNI:

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BIG BROTHER TOOK A STEP BACK.

                   More on the US big brother approach to the internet, from AVAAZ. 

Dear friends,

Today could be the day we save the free Internet. We've flipped the White House and Congress is on the back foot. Now Wikipedia's blackout has pushed the US web censorship bills to the top of the news. Today we've reached the tipping point. Let’s bury the bill for good. Click to sign the petition:

Today could be the day we save the free Internet.

The US Congress was poised to pass a law allowing officials to censor access to any website around the world. But after we delivered our 1.25 million strong petition to the White House, it came out against the bill and with public pressure at a boiling point even some bill backers are switching sides. Now, the Wikipedia - led blackout protest has rocketed the public campaign to the top of the news.

We are turning the tide. But the dark forces of censorship are trying to revive the bill right now. Let’s bury it for good today. Click to sign this emergency petition to save the Internet now and if you've signed already, to email, call, Facebook, and tweet Congressional and corporate targets. Then send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

The bill would make the US one of the worst Internet censors in the world -- joining the ranks of countries like China and Iran. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would allow the US government to block any of us from accessing sites like YouTube, Google, or Facebook.

We got the White House to switch sides and now our global campaign and the growing public pressure is forcing Congress to abandon the bill. Last weekend, Senator Cardin, who cosponsored the legislation, announced he will vote against it! Then six prominent Republicans penned a letter requesting that the bill be shelved. Now the lower house vote is reportedly on ice.

Just days ago we were told it was impossible to stop the corporate censorship cabal, but now this is at a tipping point and amazingly we could win! Let’s stop US censorship today. Sign this emergency petition to save the internet now and forward it to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

This US legislation could infringe on all of our freedoms. But if we win, we will show that when people unite with one voice from all over the world we can stop the abuse of power anywhere. We have brought this bill back from the brink. Now, if we amplify our voices today, we can put an end to the most powerful Internet censorship threat that the world has ever seen.

With hope,

Dalia, Ian, Alice, Ricken, Diego, David, and the Avaaz Team

 

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BIG BROTHER NEVER GOES AWAY.

        

         Big brother never goes away, the tentacles of the corporate empire wriggle their way into ever aspect of your life. Government is there to further the aim and to protect the wealth of the corporate empire. It always takes a consolidated effort by the people to stop this continued attempt at control over all aspects of our life, the Internet is there for you as a tool of self expression and creativity and they don't like that, if they can't control it then they will do  their damnedest to destroy it. This bill going through Congress is just another example of the corporate fascism that demands total control over our lives. Only the strength of people power can stop their strangling the creativity of the people. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://boingboing.net/

       

Tell Congress not to censor the Internet NOW! - fightforthefuture.org/pipa

          PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."
        The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behaviour according to this bill.
        According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that's for a fix that won't work, disrupts the Internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the Internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

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USA, - MILITARY DICTATORSHIP!!

       Some time today the America Congress will vote on a bill that will increase military control in that country. The legislation would allow the military to arrest and detain indefinitely, without charge, any American citizen it deemed to be a danger to the country. This dictatorship type legislation would circumvent the FBI and other civil law enforcement agencies. If this passes, it will be the final proof that there is no such thing in America, as even a sham of democracy. The state usually justifies such legislation in time of national emergency and war, of course, America is permanently at war, as are all Western capitalist "democracies" so perhaps that is their thinking. What we should be aware of is that if America introduces such legislation you can rest assured the rest of the Western countries will be looking at it with interest. We live under what at best can only be called the illusion of democracy. The brutal slashing of the living standards of most of the people in the developed world, against their wishes, is proof enough of that.

FROM HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST.

         As early as today Congress will vote on the final version of this dangerous defense bill. It then goes to President Obama. This bill threatens both U.S. national security and fundamental American ideals. It would:

• greatly expand the military's role in domestic counterterrorism, sidelining the FBI and local law enforcement;
• authorize the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects, including American citizens; and
• effectively make Guantanamo a permanent prison.

President Obama promised to veto the bill if the final version contained these provisions. Tell President Obama on Twitter to protect our national security and our rights with a veto of the NDAA.

The Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI, and Obama's Counterterrorism Advisor have publicly expressed opposition to the bill, as have 16 former interrogators and counterterrorism professionals and 26 of the nation's most respected retired military leaders.

Retired four-star Marine Generals Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar wrote in a New York Times op-ed that "this budget bill—which can be vetoed without cutting financing for our troops—is both misguided and unnecessary: the president already has the power and flexibility to effectively fight terrorism."

Please act quickly. Tell President @BarackObama @WhiteHouse: Protect #US National Security and #VetoNDAA!

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