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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 28, 2012
Uploaded by evmazu on Nov 20, 2010
An insider describes that the basis of the banking industry is debt (such as that created in wars and conflicts) and that the goal of the bankers is to make everyone slaves to debt. Although this movie is based on Pakistan's defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International, it could just have well been based on the Federal Reserve or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In fact, the name "The International" would have matched up quite nicely with the IMF.
Debt - the very essence of the banking industry (clip from "The International")
Uploaded by evmazu on Nov 20, 2010
An insider describes that the basis of the banking industry is debt (such as that created in wars and conflicts) and that the goal of the bankers is to make everyone slaves to debt. Although this movie is based on Pakistan's defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International, it could just have well been based on the Federal Reserve or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In fact, the name "The International" would have matched up quite nicely with the IMF.
April 28, 2012
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss how shouting 'fire!' in a crowded economy may be the only thing left to save us from our unpayable debts and, failing that, Barack Obama's 'revolving door' could be another GDP booster. In the second half of the show Max talks to David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 Years, about weaponized debt and the origins of May Day.
Max Keiser: Yelling "FIRE" in a crowded economy
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss how shouting 'fire!' in a crowded economy may be the only thing left to save us from our unpayable debts and, failing that, Barack Obama's 'revolving door' could be another GDP booster. In the second half of the show Max talks to David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5000 Years, about weaponized debt and the origins of May Day.
April 28, 2012
from Dissent magazine:
ALEC Retreats, the Right Wing Freaks
Mark Engler - April 27, 2012 10:00 am
Customers should be able to know if companies that they are supporting with their purchases are busy spending money on groups that undermine environmental regulations, attack workers’ rights, promote “Stand Your Ground” gun laws, advance discriminatory “Voter ID” laws, and otherwise bolster the right-wing legislative vanguard. And if these consumers don’t like this behavior, they should be at liberty to take their business elsewhere.
That proposition seems to fall pretty safely within a free market, vote-with-your-dollars paradigm. In fact, watchdogs who are providing consumers with full information about misbehaving corporations should be seen—again, within a free-market framework—as providing a valuable service, since informed consumers are supposed to be an important part of efficiently functioning capitalism.
But no. If you ask right-wing talking heads, campaigners who dare to suggest that consumers express displeasure with corporations are waging a war on “open thinking and discussion of legislation.”
The impetus for this debate is the effort to hold companies accountable for their memberships in the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, groups including ColorOfChange.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have been encouraging consumers to tell corporations paying hefty dues to ALEC that not all of us approve of their behavior. The tactic has worked beautifully. More than a dozen institutions have dumped ALEC, with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut), and Procter & Gamble all joining the exodus since I last wrote. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=746
ALEC Retreats, the Right Wing Freaks
from Dissent magazine:
ALEC Retreats, the Right Wing Freaks
Mark Engler - April 27, 2012 10:00 am
Customers should be able to know if companies that they are supporting with their purchases are busy spending money on groups that undermine environmental regulations, attack workers’ rights, promote “Stand Your Ground” gun laws, advance discriminatory “Voter ID” laws, and otherwise bolster the right-wing legislative vanguard. And if these consumers don’t like this behavior, they should be at liberty to take their business elsewhere.
That proposition seems to fall pretty safely within a free market, vote-with-your-dollars paradigm. In fact, watchdogs who are providing consumers with full information about misbehaving corporations should be seen—again, within a free-market framework—as providing a valuable service, since informed consumers are supposed to be an important part of efficiently functioning capitalism.
But no. If you ask right-wing talking heads, campaigners who dare to suggest that consumers express displeasure with corporations are waging a war on “open thinking and discussion of legislation.”
The impetus for this debate is the effort to hold companies accountable for their memberships in the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, groups including ColorOfChange.org and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have been encouraging consumers to tell corporations paying hefty dues to ALEC that not all of us approve of their behavior. The tactic has worked beautifully. More than a dozen institutions have dumped ALEC, with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut), and Procter & Gamble all joining the exodus since I last wrote. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=746
April 28, 2012
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 27, 2012 (IPS) - With 35 students, the first secondary school specifically for transvestites and other members of sexual minorities who face discrimination in mainstream schools opened in March in the Argentine capital.
The "Mocha Celis" Popular Baccalaureate is the name of the tuition-free school supported by nonprofit organisations, which caters especially – but not exclusively - to transvestites, transsexuals and transgender persons over the age of 16.
The school is named after an illiterate transvestite who worked as a prostitute and was an activist with the Association of Argentine Transvestites. A week after Celis went missing, her body was found, showing signs that she had been beaten and shot to death.
Activists suspect that Celis was killed by a federal police officer who had previously threatened her. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107602
First School for Transvestites Opens in Buenos Aires
BUENOS AIRES, Apr 27, 2012 (IPS) - With 35 students, the first secondary school specifically for transvestites and other members of sexual minorities who face discrimination in mainstream schools opened in March in the Argentine capital.
The "Mocha Celis" Popular Baccalaureate is the name of the tuition-free school supported by nonprofit organisations, which caters especially – but not exclusively - to transvestites, transsexuals and transgender persons over the age of 16.
The school is named after an illiterate transvestite who worked as a prostitute and was an activist with the Association of Argentine Transvestites. A week after Celis went missing, her body was found, showing signs that she had been beaten and shot to death.
Activists suspect that Celis was killed by a federal police officer who had previously threatened her. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107602
April 28, 2012
Uploaded by EzradArtex on Oct 27, 2010
Someone sorted through a lot of Rush Limbaugh soundbytes to edit all the words together to complete this song. Here the "I'm a Nazi" song is set to animation done in Shockwave. I'm not sure who put together the song or the cartoon, but I felt it's well-done enough that it deserves a place on YouTube.
Rush Limbaugh Sings "I'm a Nazi!"
Uploaded by EzradArtex on Oct 27, 2010
Someone sorted through a lot of Rush Limbaugh soundbytes to edit all the words together to complete this song. Here the "I'm a Nazi" song is set to animation done in Shockwave. I'm not sure who put together the song or the cartoon, but I felt it's well-done enough that it deserves a place on YouTube.
April 28, 2012
Published on Apr 27, 2012 by MoyersandCompany
In this broadcast essay, Bill connects the disgraceful McCarthyism of the past to its modern resurgence in the comments of Rep. Allen West and others. Haven't we learned this lesson already?
A Bill Moyers Essay: The Ghost of McCarthyism
Published on Apr 27, 2012 by MoyersandCompany
In this broadcast essay, Bill connects the disgraceful McCarthyism of the past to its modern resurgence in the comments of Rep. Allen West and others. Haven't we learned this lesson already?
April 28, 2012
Food Sovereignty in Action at the Gill Tract in Albany, California USA
Posted April 24th, 2012
Report by Food First intern, Vishrut Arya. April 24, 2012
This past Sunday, April 22, Earth Day, about two hundred farmers, families, and activists gathered for a potluck at Ohlone Park in Berkeley to celebrate the Earth and food sovereignty.
The idea of Food sovereignty, promoted by the international small farmer movement, La Via Campesina is that communities have the right to control their own equitable and sustainable food systems, including access to land, fresh water, and seed.
The group ended their march through Berkeley on Sunday afternoon at the Gill Tract in Albany, CA—the last 10 acres of pristine agricultural land in the urbanized East Bay. While the Gill Tract is public land, the University of California at Berkeley which administers the site, is proposing to privatize this unique public asset by constructing commercial retail space, for-profit senior housing, and a Whole Foods Supermarket.
Two UC police officers visited as planting of 15,000 plants commenced on Sunday afternoon, saying they would be back at 10 PM to make arrests. Around midnight a few officers came and had what was reported to be a peaceful conversation with the group. Nonetheless, they warned that police action would take place the following day. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/Gill+Tract
Food Sovereignty in Action at the Gill Tract in Albany, California
Food Sovereignty in Action at the Gill Tract in Albany, California USA
Posted April 24th, 2012
Report by Food First intern, Vishrut Arya. April 24, 2012
This past Sunday, April 22, Earth Day, about two hundred farmers, families, and activists gathered for a potluck at Ohlone Park in Berkeley to celebrate the Earth and food sovereignty.
The idea of Food sovereignty, promoted by the international small farmer movement, La Via Campesina is that communities have the right to control their own equitable and sustainable food systems, including access to land, fresh water, and seed.
The group ended their march through Berkeley on Sunday afternoon at the Gill Tract in Albany, CA—the last 10 acres of pristine agricultural land in the urbanized East Bay. While the Gill Tract is public land, the University of California at Berkeley which administers the site, is proposing to privatize this unique public asset by constructing commercial retail space, for-profit senior housing, and a Whole Foods Supermarket.
Two UC police officers visited as planting of 15,000 plants commenced on Sunday afternoon, saying they would be back at 10 PM to make arrests. Around midnight a few officers came and had what was reported to be a peaceful conversation with the group. Nonetheless, they warned that police action would take place the following day. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/Gill+Tract
April 28, 2012
Breaking the eurozone's self-defeating cycle of austerity
While a beleaguered IMF and ECB try to hold the line, voters all over Europe are rebelling against their punitive fiscal orthodoxy
Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 April 2012
[font size="1"]A man plays an accordion in the doorway of a closed down bank in Madrid, Spain – where the youth unemployment rate has reached 52%. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters[/font]
It has become a ritual: every six months, I debate the IMF at their annual meetings, the last two times represented by their deputy director for Europe. It takes place in the same room of that giant greenhouse-looking World Bank building on 19th Street in Washington, DC. And each time, the IMF's defense of its policies in the eurozone does not get any stronger.
Maybe, it's because most economists at the IMF don't really believe in what they are doing. The fund is, after all, the subordinate partner of the so-called "troika" – with the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) – calling the shots. And most fund economists know their basic national income accounting: fiscal tightening is going to make these economies worse, as it has been doing. Those that have tightened their budgets the most – for example, Greece and Ireland – have shrunk the most, as would be predicted.
The Spanish government, which on Friday announced a 52% unemployment rate among its youth, has projected that the planned budget tightening for this year would by itself take 2.6 percentage points off of 2012 growth. With the eurozone and now even the UK in recession, with the German economy shrinking and France barely growing, the rebellion against the self-inflicted harm of austerity is spreading to the richer northern countries.
In the Netherlands, which is also in recession, the government fell this week after failing to get its austerity package through parliament. The irony of this happening to one of the most pro-austerity governments in Europe was not lost on the continent. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/27/breaking-eurozone-self-defeating-cycle-austerity
Breaking the eurozone's self-defeating cycle of austerity
Breaking the eurozone's self-defeating cycle of austerity
While a beleaguered IMF and ECB try to hold the line, voters all over Europe are rebelling against their punitive fiscal orthodoxy
Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 April 2012
[font size="1"]A man plays an accordion in the doorway of a closed down bank in Madrid, Spain – where the youth unemployment rate has reached 52%. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters[/font]
It has become a ritual: every six months, I debate the IMF at their annual meetings, the last two times represented by their deputy director for Europe. It takes place in the same room of that giant greenhouse-looking World Bank building on 19th Street in Washington, DC. And each time, the IMF's defense of its policies in the eurozone does not get any stronger.
Maybe, it's because most economists at the IMF don't really believe in what they are doing. The fund is, after all, the subordinate partner of the so-called "troika" – with the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) – calling the shots. And most fund economists know their basic national income accounting: fiscal tightening is going to make these economies worse, as it has been doing. Those that have tightened their budgets the most – for example, Greece and Ireland – have shrunk the most, as would be predicted.
The Spanish government, which on Friday announced a 52% unemployment rate among its youth, has projected that the planned budget tightening for this year would by itself take 2.6 percentage points off of 2012 growth. With the eurozone and now even the UK in recession, with the German economy shrinking and France barely growing, the rebellion against the self-inflicted harm of austerity is spreading to the richer northern countries.
In the Netherlands, which is also in recession, the government fell this week after failing to get its austerity package through parliament. The irony of this happening to one of the most pro-austerity governments in Europe was not lost on the continent. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/27/breaking-eurozone-self-defeating-cycle-austerity
April 28, 2012
Spain has plunged into what the government calls a 'crisis of huge proportions', with its jobless rate rising towards a record one in four. Boasting the highest unemployment in Europe, the country's deficit and the deteriorating economic situation are only likely to be met with a backlash from angry Spaniards. But as Jacob Greaves reports, the more public frustration grows, the harsher the authorities' response becomes.
Crushing Cuts: Cops lash out as Spanish rally
Spain has plunged into what the government calls a 'crisis of huge proportions', with its jobless rate rising towards a record one in four. Boasting the highest unemployment in Europe, the country's deficit and the deteriorating economic situation are only likely to be met with a backlash from angry Spaniards. But as Jacob Greaves reports, the more public frustration grows, the harsher the authorities' response becomes.
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