SYSTEMIC COLLUSION.

        The ordinary punter knows that the entire financial system is no more than a private fiddlers club, a very lucrative scam only open to those and such as those. The continual "shock, horror" by our political class of "Honourable Members", at each of the many revelations of blatant corruption, just re-affirms their complicity. The financial system stinks to high heavens and the political class are part and parcel of that smell. After all most of those sitting in those marble halls of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are millionaires and they them selves will have some of their ill-gotten gains swilling around in that very lucrative slush pot of the financial world, and no doubt will have "connections" to the top of the fiddlers club. They are all doing very well from the corruption and fraud. It is you and I that take the hit.

A quote from a more detailed article by Naomi Wolf:

 

It is very hard, looking at the elaborate edifices of fraud that are emerging across the financial system, to ignore the possibility that this kind of silence – "the willingness to not rock the boat" – is simply rewarded by promotion to ever higher positions, ever greater authority. If you learn that rate-rigging and regulatory failures are systemic, but stay quiet, well, perhaps you have shown that you are genuinely reliable and deserve membership of the club.

Her Heading:

        "The media's 'bad apple' thesis no longer works. We're seeing systemic corruption in banking – and systemic collusion." is the only conclusion available. But then again we always new that.

Read the full article HERE:

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CORPORATISM AND WAR,

Simple and yet comprehensive in its explanation,  it should be on the national curriculum.

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TRUST YOURSELF.

 

Well said.

Dan Barker on Atheism Being Positive.

"I have something to say to the religionist who feels atheists never say anything positive: You are an intelligent human being. Your life is valuable for its own sake. You are not second-class in the universe, deriving meaning and purpose from some other mind. You are not inherently evil–you are inherently human, possessing the positive rational potential to help make this a world of morality,

peace and joy.Trust yourself."

Dan Barker in "Losing Faith in Faith"

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SECURING WHOSE WORLD?

        With the hullabaloo about Olympic security and G4S, a little information on the Goliath corporate beast that goes by the name of G4S is perhaps welcome. This is no ordinary corporate beast, this one is the spearhead of the financial Mafia's privatisation program and in being so has made billions from tax payers money taking over security, prisons, police stations, migrant detention and a host of other parts of the state's control and repression facilities. It's tentacles reach across the world and slither into any area of repression that any state wants to privatise. All done with tax payers money at an extortionate profit to G4S.

 

This from A World to Win:

G4S - 'securing' their world, not ours

        Despite its inability to fulfil its London 2012 contract, the rise and rise of G4S is the story of the privatisation of the state and an increasing emphasis on “threats” and “security concerns” aimed at keeping people in thrall to authority.
     G4S is no ordinary corporation. It operates in more than 125 countries and has 675,000 employees. Group turnover last year was £7.5 billion, mostly derived from state contracts around the world, with 30% of revenues coming from “developing markets”. Pre-tax profits were up 2.1% to £531m.
      The self-styled “world's leading international security solutions group” has cashed in on the drive by the state to divest itself of more and more functions like prisons, crowd control and significant parts of the police service. As the company’s website declares: “In more ways than you might realise, G4S is securing your world.”
Of course, it’s not “our world” so much as their world – the rich, the bankers, the state, and the corporations that G4S helps to secure. And nowhere is “security” more on the state’s lips than in Israel, which continues to occupy Palestinian lands in defiance of countless UN resolutions.

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RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

       When it comes to the media, that babbling brook of bullshit, reporting on the "CRISIS" in Europe, all they report is of the meetings of the financial Mafia and their servants, the political class. They will comment on how the rating agencies are shuffling their betting odds, and we will be told how the bond markets are screwing this country more than that country. Very rarely will it report what the "CRISIS" is actually doing to the ordinary people and what those people are doing to defend themselves against rape and plundering of their standard of living. All this reporting is a public relations exercise for those responsible for the "CRISIS", but never a word about those at the receiving end.

      Greece is in turmoil with poverty and deprivation rampant, and below is a glimpse at what is happening in Spain. As the financial Mafia continue with their assault on the public purse of the European people, we can expect to see more of this type of real resistance. Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger.

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WOODY GUTHRIE, TODAY'S VOICE.

      Sorry, a day late. It was on 13 July a hundred years ago that Woody Guthrie was born, and though his songs, among other things, chronicle the 30's depression, he could have been writing about today. 

This from Care2:

 

At 100, Woody Guthrie More Relevant Than Ever

        Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of American icon Woody Guthrie. I grew up on Guthrie’s music, though at the time I had no idea that “This Land Is Your Land” was written as a protest song. Nor could I have any sense that the centennial of his birth would be marked by the same urgent need for reform and the same defiant protest that made Guthrie a legend.

Continue READING:

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PHOTOGRAPHING CONFRONTATION.

Some excellent advice from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

        With clashes in Spain and especially in Madrid growing in intensity I thought I'd post a few pointers to those photographers who want to cover riots and other such turbulent events. Since 2005 I have recorded, dozens of violent confrontations here in Greece and I hope that these pointers will help keep you safe.

Continue READING: 

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RACIST CRAP.

       This comment is in no way intended for the vast majority of those who read this blog, but just for those few who vomit bile and crap whenever they open their mouths or sit in front of a computer screen.

Emotional Reasoning “... you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.”

        I have always liked a good reasoned argument, however sometimes you receive a comment that is so irrational, the only thing to do is ignore it for the reason stated above. There are those who believe that because you write on a blog you must print every thing that is flung at you, sorry, not so. Sometimes I receive a lot of irrational racist crap and I don't feel in the least that I am compelled to repeat that kind of shit on the blog. I know that the poor miserable souls that send this sort of stuff get off on seeing it in print, and they probably think they are in some way upsetting me. Well, again, sorry, I just feel sorry for you, you are probably rather dim and live in a lonely distorted world, a world with very narrow horizons. I have a little piece of advice for you, if you really want to see your crap in print, then write it out and stick it on your computer screen, then you will be able to see it every time you look at the computer.

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SMART PUDDLE.

Some amusing accuracies from Douglas Adams.  Left Hemispheres:

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NOT ONE STEP BACK.

         Like I keep saying, capitalist "crisis" is always fertile breeding ground for fascists and we have to be ever vigilant that their tainted seeds don't take root in communities.

This from Contra Info:

        The historicity of crisis indicates how it leads to an intensification of exploitation, to impoverishment and social fascistization. The exit from the crisis will not come from either the State, or the para-State, or criminal gangs. Our defense against crisis is the relations of mutual aid and mutual support, self-organization, social structures, comradeship and solidarity. Only then can we stand on our feet and preserve our dignity.

       The ‘troubling incidents’ (as mentioned derogatory by the local bourgeois Press), which began with the attempts of the Golden Dawn to set foot in Agrinio, are not a ‘vendetta’ between some extremes. They arise from the very history of Agrinio… The society of a town with a profound fighting background, with bloodshed memories of labour struggles, of mass executions and public hangings, cannot let the descendants of informers, collaborates and German-Tsoliades go about pretending to be rescuers in its streets, alleys and farm fields.

Our answer is political and derives straight from the movement!
Not one step back!

Neither in Agrinio, nor anywhere
Crush the fascists in towns and villages

Read the full article HERE:

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CHOICE.

 

CHOICE.

I have seen the wretched and the poor.

walked with them through gutter and sewer

as they drag their torn rags and begging cup,

hoping somewhere to rest, something to sup.

I have spoken to ears that hear no cheer

and looked into eyes that only know fear

listened with guilt to their lingering pain

their quest for dignity, comfort, all in vain.

Now ask yourself my friend, if they had a voice

would this dark world be their road of choice?

Would they willing seek a doorway for a bed

or choose the eiderdown with belly well fed?

Are they some alien race preordained to doom

who must live their torpid life in poverty's tomb?

Perhaps my friends, our selfish thoughtless way

Has brought them to where they are today.

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THE MAN SAID, FUCK THE JUDGE.

Ah, the dignity of the court, and by the power invested in me bla bla bla.

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SPAIN, GREECE, -- ITALY NEXT??

        The last piece I posted stated that Spain is on the road to join Greece, well is Italy far behind with $2.6 trillion debt which is 118% of GDP? At the moment Italy's unemployment is running at 10.1% with unemployment among the young, at a shocking 36.2%. The unemployment figure is taken as those actively looking for work as a percentage of the working population. Adding to this the fact that the technocrat government has stated that it will shed 10% of public sector jobs. How many have given up trying to look for work when they know that there aren't any jobs and unemployment is rising. Like Spain and Greece, Italy is trying hard to appease the financial Mafia, It is cutting $67 billion from its budget and now there is to be a further €4.5 billion cut from public spending to try to avoid a further increase in VAT. There is an on going plan to cut public spending, in 2013 there is to be a further €10.5 billion, and in 2014 a further €11 billion. All that translates into cuts in services to the ordinary people, from schools, libraries,health care, etc.. To add to the people's woes, come September the VAT rises from 21% to 23%. How will this affect the ordinary people of Italy? Like Spain and Greece, they will see poverty and deprivation rise alarmingly, health problems associated with poverty will rocket. One of the ways the Italian unelected government is dealing with this, is closing 150 hospitals, while axing 80,000 hospital beds is under discussion. Another way that the technocratic unelected cabal in Italy are bowing to the financial Mafia is to sell of national assets, these will be sold to the friends of the financial Mafia at knock-down prices, they always are.

       So with unemployment set to shoot up fast, VAT and prices on the increase, wage cuts/freezes the accepted norm, public services slashed, what you are looking at is the decimation of the social structure of a country, for no other reason than to appease our lords and masters, the financial Mafia. This is capitalism in turbo charge. Who is next to be raped by the financial Mafia?

ann arky's home.

SPAIN JOINING GREECE.

         As the managers of the European Financial Mafia shuffle around their marble halls devising ever more brutal ways to try to protect and increase their bosses coffers, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Spain is fast closing in on Greece as the front line of that financial Mafia's assault on the European working /middle class.

        The Spanish banks are getting a handout of €30 billion, for this the financial Mafia are insisting on more draconian slashing of public spending and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is eager to placate his masters. Four months ago he announced cuts of €27 billion, stating that it was the most austere budget in Spain's history. Now to appease his lords and masters he is pushing through further cuts amounting to €65 billion. The European financial Mafia are insisting on a further 2.7% cut in this year's budget.

          At the moment Spain's unemployment is running at 24%, the highest in Europe, with unemployment among the young at a staggering 50%. Once the financial Mafia's new wave of “austerity” starts to kick in we can expect to see those rates go stratospheric. While unemployment is rising, some of the cuts that are going to hit savagely at the Spanish people will be a cut of 30% off unemployment benefit, plus a 3% rise in VAT to 21%. On top of that there will be a €3.5 billion cut in local government spending and a further €600 million cut in central government spending.

           There is no doubt that what is happening in Greece and Spain will soon be travelling to a city near you. If anybody is foolish enough to think that what the financial Mafia have done to Greece and what they are in the process of doing to Spain will solve the “crisis”, they are living in cloud cuckoo land. Looking at the recent estimate of the unemployment trend, from The International Labour Organisation, I think they are looking at the situation with rose tinted glasses They have stated that they expect Europe's unemployment to rise from 17.5 million to around 22 million, though staggering and brutal, I see this a a grossly under estimated figure. Meanwhile America is teetering on the precipice of financial disaster.

         As the latest manuevers of the financial Mafia unfold, it is blindingly obvious that capitalism as a system for the prosperity of all the people is an illusion. It lurches from crisis to crisis and its only answer is to screw the people, and save the parsites. 

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USA SWAT FASHION POLICE.

          Further to the Seattle armed SWAT night time raid with flash-bang grenades and door battering rams, see previous post. It now appears that the police after leaving without making any arrests did leave with some very dangerous stuff, or should that be “anarchist materials”. What was taken by the police was, a pair of black goggles, a black sweatshirt, a black bandanna, a black stocking hat, papers with note book, and a pink scarf. Perhaps they were fashion police, well they have them some countries, why not the USA? Though it does seem a bit heavy handed for wearing the wrong sweatshirt and scarf.

 ann arky's home.

THEY'RE LOOKING FOR ANARCHIST MATERIALS??

         As the people's anger gets organised, so does that state in its attempt to stifle that anger and destroy any organising by the people. It is happening in Italy, Greece, UK, Spain, US, Canada and in most countries across the globe. As the people's anger grows expect the state repression to grow.

Room after police visit.

This from Kasama:

         Early morning, July 10, SWAT police forced their way into the Seattle apartment of organizers from the Occupy movement. The sleeping residents scrambled to put on clothes as they were confronted with automatic weapons.

The neighbor Natalio Perez heard the attack from downstairs: “Suddenly we heard the bang of their grenade, and the crashing as police entered the apartment. The crashing and stomping continued for a long time as they tore the place apart.”

        After the raid, the residents pored over the papers handed them by a detective. One explained: “This warrant says that they were specifically looking for ‘anarchist materials’ — which lays out the political police state nature of this right there. In addition they were looking for specific pieces of clothing supposedly connected with a May First incident.

When the police finally left, they did not arrest anyone. This action targets well known activists from Occupy Seattle and the Red Spark Collective (part of the national Kasama network).
         This apartment has been a hub for organizing the Everything 4 Everyone festival in August – to bring together West Coast forces for a cultural and political event building on the year of Occupy.

       The raid is a heavy-handed threat delivered by armed police aimed at intimidating specific people – but also suppressing the work to continue the Occupy movement in Seattle, and create E4E as a space for radical gathering.

The E4E site will update this with more as we receive it, including hopefully statement from those involved. http://www.everythingforeveryone.org/

Contact: Liam Wright, Red Spark Collective, redsparkcollective@gmail.com

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LIVING UTOPIA.

        A rather long film but well worth sitting through. It is the same struggle to day, ours is not a new and short struggle or a blip in the capitalists system. It is still the same struggle of trying to have control over our own lives, trying to remove a vile system of repression and exploitation that has been with us for centuries. Trying to get rid of a system that stifles the creativity of the ordinary people, that siphons the wealth of our productivity up to a small group of parasites that control the system. We should never lose sight of the fact that we are part and comrades of those who have gone before, we owe it to them to continue that struggle with as much spirit and imagination as we can muster. The struggle ends with the arrival of freedom and justice for all.

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IT'S A RIGGED SYSTEM.

        Police brutality and repression is present across the world. It is like a sea with waves that rise and fall, rising here, falling there and then changing again in an ever changing pattern. However the state is never afraid to raise the level of brutality, as it knows that it has set up a judicial system that will never point the finger at the state. Those perpetrating the brutality in the name of the state, also know that they will be protected by that same judicial system. But the full brutality of that judicial system will be felt by those who dare to question that state authority and its monopoly on violence. Brutal state repression does not always happen on the streets, it is also handed out by those placed in the privileged position within that judicial system. Those people who dress in fancy clothes and demand that those who question the state be incarcerated for years on end. The state its self is a brutal system that demands obedience and shows no mercy on those who dare to question and/or resist. In Genoa 2001 the Italian state showed how brutal it could be in suppressing dissent. At the G8 summit that year the state's mercenaries, the police, in the hours of darkness, raided the Diaz School, where activists who had come to protest the G8 summit agenda, were sleeping. The police ran through the school, beating and arresting sleeping activists. Now it seems that after all this time all the police charged with various offences related to that brutal assault, will now have those charges dropped, as we would expect. 

 

This from Italy Calling:

       After a 9-hour debate, the Italian Supreme Court has issued its final sentence against the 25 defendants – policemen and heads of security forces – responsible for the violence against the activists sleeping in the Diaz school during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Result: most of the charges have been declared time-barred, leading to impunity for all the people involved. In the meantime, 10 activists are facing a total of 100 years of jail between themselves for crimes of “devastation and looting”.

Continue READING:

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FIGHT TO WIN.

        Another brilliant piece of artistic, critical comment from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

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WORKERS BUY-OUT.

An Appeal from SumOfUs:

When the workers at a window and door factory in Chicago were told their factory was closing and they would lose their jobs, they decided that instead of letting the company's global investors determine their fate, they would raise the money to buy the factory and save their jobs.

But they can’t do it, even though they’ve put in a competitive bid on the factory. Why? Because the owner, Serious Energy, and its global investors Mesirow Financial, are in a rush to sell the factory to people who will sell it off for scrap instead.

We can help the workers save their jobs. Serious and Mesirow know pressure is mounting, which is why they are rushing to sell the factory off. If we weigh in today, the workers believe Serious and Mesirow will have to give them a fair shot at buying the factory and saving their jobs.

Stand with the factory workers in calling for Serious and Mesirow to discuss a fair deal that saves the factory and the workers’ jobs.

At the end of the day, this is about much more than saving one factory. This is a chance to showcase an innovative model of American manufacturing -- worker-owned cooperatives -- and deal another blow to the financial sector that relies on the failure of these companies to line their pockets. By saving this factory, we are helping to build a more just economy for all of us.

Thanks for joining us in fighting for good jobs,
Claiborne, Kaytee and the rest of us 

 Background story:

In February, workers at an energy efficient-window and door factory in Chicago were told that their plant -- owned by Serious Energy -- was about to be shut down, sliced up and sold off for parts.

The workers staged a factory occupation and got an agreement from Serious to delay the factory’s liquidation and give workers the opportunity to buy the plant themselves, with their newly-formed cooperative, New Era Windows. With no overhead for executive salaries, and the potential for contracts with the city of Chicago, which is gearing up for a big energy-efficiency campaign, New Era Windows was looking at a bright future as a worker-run factory.

But then, after months of stalling by Serious, the company suddenly announced on Sunday that all factory bids were due immediately, and that it wouldn’t accept New Era’s offer of $1.2 million -- instead, it asked for more money than it bought the factory for in 2009, and rigged the process to ensure that New Era didn’t have a chance.

These workers want a solution. They have been scraping money together to afford the factory and save their jobs. And they’ve fought like hell before -- back in 2008 they occupied their factory for six days and stood down their previous owner who attempted to fire 250 workers without severance pay.

Part of the pressure to sell is coming from Serious Energy’s owners, including Chicago-based Mesirow Financial. For Mesirow, selling the factory off to vultures means padding its profit by a couple percentage points. For the workers at New Era, the factory’s sale represents their livelihoods.

Stand with the workers at New Era Windows: Tell Serious Energy and Mesirow Financial to work with New Era Windows to find a reasonable solution.

Further Reading:

Workers seek arbitration to save Goose Island window factory, The Chicago Tribune, 3 July 2012
Workers vs. Investors: Chicago Window Factory in Danger of Liquidation, The Nation, 5 July 2012

SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

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