We should all know by now that we live under the vomit of a stinking corrupt system controlled by the financial Mafia. Greece immediately comes to mind, a country where they brought to bear the full venom of their power, to overthrow the government and destroy the social fabric of the country. After five years of "austerity", which translates as poverty and deprivation for the people and the plundering of the country's assets, they have now being shackled to a perpetual regime of higher taxes, lower pensions, more unemployment, a worsening of working conditions and greater plundering of the country's assets. All this in an attempt to protect the financial Mafia's phoney house of cards balance sheets.
The financial Mafia and national governments usually work hand in hand, to the benefit of the banksters, as they always hold the upper hand. When a government doesn't play to their rules, it, and its people are destroyed, Greece for example.
There is never a time, now or in the past, when these banksters, working for the financial Mafia, have got involved in a country to the benefit of the people. Everything they touch, create or modify, is to the detriment of the people and riddled with greed and corruption. From Africa, to South America, Europe to Asia, their poison has ravaged through the lives of the ordinary people, creating poverty, deprivation and wars. Just a thought, If the banks are too big to fail, they should be owned and organised as a public utility.
The latest piece of corruption and greed to come out of this cesspool, is connected to UBS bank. This from Politics in the Zeros:
$72 billion in now-toxic Puerto Rico bonds are stashed away in
supposedly conservative bond funds and retirement accounts. Moody’s
says the probability of default is now 100%. Some of the bonds have
no legal protection and their recovery rate might be 33 cents on a
dollar. Bonds with better protection will still get clobbered.
Recovery on those will be 65-85%. That’s not the worst of it. UBS (and probably lots of other
banks too) underwrote some of the bonds and put them in their own
closed-end funds. These funds are not traded. UBS sets the price.
Some investors bought these bond funds with money borrowed from UBS
and may have used them as collateral for more “investing.”
However, UBS just decreed the collateral value on their very own
Puerto Rico closed-end funds is now zero. That’s right zero. UBS is
saying their own bonds are worthless. Expect a festive number of
lawsuits.
Clients
were warned that they can no longer use these funds as collateral
for loans, even those loans they used to buy these funds with in the
first place.
Thus, they will have to come up with new collateral very quickly
or UBS may sell the bonds and come after them for the balance. Let’s
be clear. Some of them are retirement accounts. All of them will take
big hits. Of course, banks made lots of money by underwriting slop everyone
knew was risky then foisting it off on customers and clients. It’s
all just terribly tragic. There will be investigations. UBS will
promise to sin no more. The government will levy a stiff fine (or is
this a protection racket.) No one will go to prison. Lots of people’s
retirement accounts will drop in value. None of the banks care what
happens to Puerto Rico.
Please watch/share this video and donate if possible to the below
Firefund to help restore the heroic city of Kobanê. Those recently
massacred by TURK-ISIS in Suruç were on their way to assist the
city, and this is a great way to honor their sacrifice. I know and
can vouch for those working on the project, and it was developed by
the official Kobanê Reconstruction Board.
* I was also personal witness to the battle of Kobanê last year,
and I learned more about humanity by watching the Kurds defiantly
resist and repel ISIS there, than all of my years up to that point.
This is why we stand with Kobane Please watch/share this video and donate if possible to the below Firefund to help restore the heroic city of Kobanê. Those recently massacred by TURK-ISIS in Suruç were on their way to assist the city, and this is a great way to honor their sacrifice. I know and can vouch for those working on the project, and it was developed by the official Kobanê Reconstruction Board.[Link to Give] --> http://www.firefund.net* I was also personal witness to the battle of Kobanê last year, and I learned more about humanity by watching the Kurds defiantly resist and repel ISIS there, than all of my years up to that point.
Posted by International Brigades of Rojava on Thursday, 23 July 2015
I wrote this way back in 2001 at the start of the Afghan illegal invasion, it could equally apply to those other countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria and the rest of the world where imperialism has demanded that war is the only game in town.
We have on our side avast army of brave, intelligent and compassionate people, we must surely win if we all come together. No group or groups should have to fight in isolation, solidarity is our weapon of success.
Yesterday Chevron, the company behind the Pacific Trails fracking pipeline, attempted to enter our unceded territories. They have no consent from our chiefs and our hereditary governance system, who are standing strong in their stance against all pipelines. Next to the Wedzin Kwah river, which is pure enough to drink from, Chevron presented us with an offering of bottled water and industrial tobacco.
Today, July 25th marks the 106 anniversary of a week of brutal repression and bloodshed in Barcelona. July 25th. 1909 was the start of a week when the Spanish army took to the streets against its own people and with vicious brutality, put done a wave of anger and discontent in the city, similar attacks on the people took place in other cities across Catalonia. It became know as the "Tragic Week". We should always remember, the state, Spanish or any other, will have no hesitation of killing its own people when ever it feels that its power is threatened. It has happened time and time again in country after country.
Tragic Week (in Catalanla Setmana Tràgica, in Spanishla Semana Trágica) (25 July – 2 August 1909) is the name used for a series of bloody confrontations between the Spanish army and the working classes of Barcelona and other cities of Catalonia (Spain), backed by anarchists, socialists and republicans, during the last week of July 1909. It was caused by the calling-up of reserve troops by Prime Minister Antonio Maura to be sent as reinforcements when Spain renewed military-colonial activity in Morocco on 9 July, in what is known as the Second Rif War.
Out on the bike on Friday, nice run. Kept looking at the beautiful lush green all around me. Then started moaning at getting caught in a heavy shower, but thought, if it wasn't for this abundance of showers, I wouldn't be able to look at the beautiful lush green, felt better. Luckily not too far from a tearoom, where I could continue to watch the rain wash that beautiful lush green land.
Since the "Greek Affair" it is more obvious now than ever before that the EU is not a democratic institution. It never was, it has always been an organisation to allow capital to flow freely across the continent and therefore exert greater power over that area. As time goes on that power will be exerted with greater force and authority in an attempt to continually maximise the profit from their capital and to protect that capital when it runs into problems. The people don't enter the equation. The people can organise a Europe for the people, but it has to be created outside the rules and regulations of capital. The two are totally incompatible.
Syriza’s strategy to end austerity within the Eurozone has
failed. What does this mean for the future of the Greek left and the
anti-austerity movement in Europe?
In the past weeks, the masks have really fallen: the structures
and legitimacy of the Eurozone are now thoroughly broken. Has the
time come for the left to abandon the single currency, or even the
EU? And what role are grassroots movements to play in the
reconstruction of a radical transnational project against austerity
and for a democratic and socially just Europe?
These are some of the questions discussed in this episode of
#TalkReal, recorded in Athens during the GCAS World Conference,
Democracy Rising. Featuring: Costas Douzinas,
acclaimed Greek intellectual close to Syriza; Margarita
Tsomou, Greek performer and commentator based in Berlin;
Jerome Roos, writer and founder of ROAR
Magazine; and Srecko Horvat, Croatian
philosopher and member of the board of European Alternatives. Host:
Lorenzo Marsili, director of European Alternatives.
The International Union of Foodworkers launched an online campaign
last week to support workers on strike at global brewery giant
SABMiller. The company had been refusing to negotiate and was
engaging in union-busting practices at its subsidiary in Panama.
The
company's reaction was to block all email messages coming in.
Thousands of campaign supporters received error messages in their
inboxes. You may have been one of them. SABMiller
has to learn that they can "blacklist" our email servers,
but they can't silence our voices.
The IUF has
forwarded on all the messages to the workers on strike, and is going
to present all the names to the company in the form of a
petition.
So the vile paedophile child abuse in "high" places keeps trickling out. It seems another overlooked file has been found, giving us four names. Of course they are all dead, it would seem that we only discover "mislaid" files after the people concerned have died. The names of the four in this "recently discovered" file are former Cabinet
minister Leon Brittan, Peter Morrison, who was an aide to Margaret
Thatcher, ex-diplomat Sir Peter Hayman and former minister William
van Straubenzee. Hayman, Morrison and Brittan were all products of the Oxbridge sausage factory, while Straubenzee was from that other establishment where rich people dump their kids, The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster. This establishment was recently in the news regarding one of its senior teachers and sexual abuse of pupils.
Investigative journalist Nick Davies reported in The Guardian that Morrison received a caution for cottaging with underage boys in public lavatories.[10] Former Conservative minister Edwina Currie
stated that Morrison regularly had sex with 16-year-old boys – whilst
the legal age of consent (for same-sex relations) at the time was 21.[11] In 2002, Currie described Morrison as a "notable pederast".[12]
In October 1978, Hayman left a package of paedophilia-related
materials on a London bus. The police traced the package and discovered
that Hayman, under the pseudonym "Peter Henderson", had used an
apartment in Bayswater,
London, to conduct obscene correspondence. In the apartment, police
found 45 diaries describing six years of "sexual fantasies" concerning
children and activities with prostitutes, articles of female clothing
and obscene literature. He was investigated by police but released
without charge after being given a warning not to send obscene material
through the post.[7][8] In 1981, Private Eye magazine revealed this event. Then, using parliamentary privilege, MP Geoffrey Dickens asked why Hayman had not been prosecuted.[9][10] The Attorney General's
reply indicated that, while Hayman had been found to have received
pornographic material through the post, it was not of an extreme nature,
was non-commercial and in a sealed envelope, so did not warrant
prosecution.[11] In April 1981 Sir Michael Havers, the Attorney General, said in parliament that, while Hayman was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, he was never a member of the executive committee, so was not prosecuted as others were for publishing contact advertisements.[12][13] In 1984, Hayman was convicted for an act of gross indecency in a public lavatory.[1][9]
He was a keen churchman and served as Second Church Estates
Commissioner (dealing with Anglican Church matters in the House of
Commons) from 1979 to 1987. In government documents released in July 2015, he is named in connection to child sexual abuse.[2]
In 1984, in his capacity as Home Secretary, Brittan was handed a 40-page dossier by Geoffrey Dickens MP that detailed alleged paedophile activity in the 1980s at Westminster.[26] The whereabouts of the dossier is currently unknown, along with other files on organised child abuse previously held by the Home Office.[26] Brittan denied any knowledge of the incident in an e-mail to a Channel 4 News reporter in 2013,[27] and later replied that he had no recollection of the matter to a query from The Independent newspaper.[28]
Brittan later declared in 2014 that Dickens had met him at the Home
Office and that he had written to Dickens on 20 March 1984, explaining
what had been done in relation to the files.[27]
So, as they say in certain places, all four had form!! Of course all dead, are we offered up these morsels of depravity in an attempt to create the impression that all the bad men are dead, and the living group of parasites are all squeaky clean? We do have one living member of that bunch of corrupt hypocrites named, one Lord Janner, however, he is stated to be too sick to stand trial.
These are the people who decide what shape our lives should take, from their gilded cage, these privileged, corrupt parasites dictate the quality of our lives, while abusing some of our most vulnerable children. We give them the power over our lives, we are governed by our consent, we can with draw that consent, and they are powerless. When do we start.
Posting again as a reminder, as I think it is important that we come together to discuss the society we live in, and what we can do to change it in the interests of the people, and away from the plundering of the public purse by the corporate greed machine.
2015 national speaking tour... ‘YOUR CLASS NEEDS YOU’
The National Secretary of the IWW, Dave Pike, introduces the
fighting union, what it stands for and how it is winning victories for
the working class - like higher wages for cleaners, permanency for temps
and safety at work for fast food workers. The IWW sees the world as
divided by the boss class and the working class, and no-one will fight
for our class other than us. We organise so that workers can win for
themselves and are not reliant on Union full timers or politicians to
fight for them. Come along to this event and find out what the IWW is
doing in Europe and around the world, and how you can get involved.
Fight for your class.
CCA, Clubroom. 350 Sauchiehall Street. Glasgow City centre - G4 9AJ
Today, anti-parliamentarians can give a little sigh of relief, the reason being, the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are empty. Admittedly it is not a permanent feature of the place, just the summer recess. From the 21st. July until 7th. September, we get a break from the hee-hawing, hear, hear, parasites, chuckling and giggling in the UK's most exclusive establishment club. In place of the farce we call Parliament, the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will have to look around for more trivial bullshit to spew over us. Meanwhile, most of the "Right Honourable" members, will be taking themselves off to their holiday homes to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.
A welcome sight to all lovers of freedom.
Of course though we will be bereft of a government for a couple of months, what will continue is the poverty, the food banks will be unable to take a recess. Children will still go hungry, those on benefit will still have to juggle with their pittance in an attempt to survive. Those on workfare will still have to turn up and do their stint of slave labour for some rich corporate greed machine.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if, during this spell without a government, we could take control of our own lives and send all "The Honourable Members" their P45's informing them to report to their nearest job centre, as their services are no longer required. I know we could do a better job of seeing to the needs of all our people, than any bunch of rich hypocritical parasites, most of whom are riddled with corruption. They may not all be rich when they enter that cesspool, but they will be rich by the time they leave. Can you say that about any other job open to you?
For those in and around Glasgow a date for your diary this coming Saturday, walk, talk, look and learn, in a friendly fun way.
TRANSECT WALK COMMON GOOD THE GOVAN PROJECT Saturday 25th,
July 15, 1 to 3:00 p.m.
Meeting point: Fairfield Heritage Govan
1048 Govan Road Glasgow G51 4XS
What is a transect
walk?
A transect walk is an information gathering
exercise. This simple tool is easily adopted and replicated at the
community level. It involves outdoor activities, on-field observation
and discussions It is collaborative research, education and action
used to gather information to use for change on social or
environmental issues. It involves people who are concerned about or
affected by an issue and taking a leading role in producing and using
knowledge about it.
What does it tell you? Public
resources, land use, social
differentiation and mobility in
urban communities.
• What resources are abundant or
scarce?
• What constraints or problems are in the
different areas?
• What possibilities or opportunities
are in the different areas?
Love music? Heading to Greece this month? Well you should give the the village of Vergina, near Veria, in the north of Greece a visit.
The biggest DIY Festival in Greece is coming back for the 6th
consecutive year with a great variety of bands from the UNDERGROUND
music scene.
A 3 days DIY festival which helps us organize our
needs and promote our culture through music and other activities. OUR culture which speaks about freedom, solidarity and the
struggle against our oppressors and the society of obedience!! We
stand opposite and hostile in the commercialization of our lives.
The
fest aims to raise money for…
-The solidarity fund for
imprisoned and persecuted fighters -The judicial costs of persecuted fighters in Veria
-The
self-managed studio »GIAFKA» records
-The creation of a
self-managed photocopy in Veria
-The typographic collective
»DRUCK» in Thessaloniki The fest takes place in Platanakia, an open area outside Vergina,
a village close to Veria (North Greece), a wooded location with a
small river that gives opportunities to relax and enjoy the
nature.
There will also be free campsite and lunch for everyone.
«Campers should take note that it is quite cold at night..»
War is state terrorism inflicted on people in another country, war is the expansion of imperialism, and the defence of the power of the imperialists. In this insane capitalist system, war is also a massive creator of profit for a conglomeration of corporate interests. War is never in the interests of the ordinary people.
"A Bundle of Bloody Rags"
But twenty summer suns had past since his first breath
was drawn,
An upright, clean, and manly boy, with hope and vigour
born
Afresh each day, and in whose eyes the light of
knowledge shone---
But now a torn and bleeding thing it was I looked
upon
As he in fearful torment lay beneath a ruined bridge,,
Where he had crawled on palsied knees that morn at
Vimy Ridge.
I saw him clutch the air and fall, I heard his awful shout,
A jagged piece of riven shell had torn his entrails out;
I knelt and whispered in his ear at that accursed place,
And painfully he turned his head and stared into my face;
His eyes were eyes of hunted brutes, his mouth had
gnawed the sand,
And at his ghastly wound in pain he clawed with frenzied
hand.
Although I knew his day of hope had changed to hopeless
night,
I said, "Cheer up, old comrade, we will patch you up
all-right.
Come, let me get you out of this"--He looked with
frightened eye,
And murmered, "Jim, don't touch me. Christ! O,
Christ, why don't i die?
Jim, Jim---you've got a bayonet there----if you have pity
too,
Then send me west, old Jimmy, pal-----for God's sake,
Jimmy do"
Then a madness came upon him----it was madness that I
knew----
For he cursed the one he loved the most, as madmen
always do,
I listened, for I loved him, though my body burned with
shame,
When he with one despairing shriek pronounced his
mother's name;
I say with shame I listened, for I knew the boy of old,
And the love of kin was graven deep upon his heart of gold,
But now with hatred in his voice he screamed, "No dying
kiss
for you, you fiend in human form who shaped my soul
for this;
Who fed my growing body in your lust-empoisoned
womb,
And wove my mind with crooked lies upon a twisted
loom;
Who sent me here with honeyed words to slaughter or to
maim,
That you in empty pride might boast one hero in the
game,
"Heroes! God! more like are we the spawn of hellish
hags,
"Heroes! Piles of broken bones and heaps of bloody
rags.
Your handiwork, your devil's deed, for this you gave me
birth,
Your contributio to the flames of this foul hell called
Another lovely ride round the Campsie area, unfortunately got my first puncture in three years. A sharp tiny granite chip embedded itself in my tyre. Still a great day.