mick063
mick063's JournalUnderstanding South American anger at the United States
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Other countries have had uprisings over this issue. In 1999 mega corporation, Bechtel, the largest construction contractor in the United States and winner of rebuilding contracts after the leveling provided by Katrina and the invasion of Iraq, privatized the public water system in Cochabamba – Bolivia’s third largest city. As reported at the time:
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This is a country where indigenous farming communities previously had their own water rights, but their water sources were converted into property to be bought and sold by international corporations. When the company refused to lower rates, the people began to rise up and revolt against this injustice; they confronted Bechtel during five months of mobilization and managed to defeat them, breach the contract and change the law.”
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A 17-year-old boy named Victor Hugo Daza was killed in the protests along with four indigenous people from El Alto, while hundreds were injured. It was this popular uprising in Cochabamba that led to the election of their new president Evo Morales, the first ever indigenous head of state in Bolivia.”
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So Bechtel was thrown out of Bolivia, but months later they moved to do the exact same thing in Ecuador‘s largest city of Guayaquil. And in November 2001, they filed a lawsuit against Bolivia demanding $50 million, an amount which is just short of what the corporation makes in a day. The case will be decided behind closed doors in a secret trade court at the World Bank headquarters in Washington; it will tell whether the people of South America’s poorest country will have to pay $50 million to one of the world’s most wealthy corporations.”
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Update: In 2006, Bechtel dropped their case against Bolivia. (Source)”
In the case of Ecuador, thousands showed up to protest the corporate takeover of their innate right to use the water that falls upon their land. In some ways, what is happening in Oregon and other Western states is even worse than the privatization led by corporations like Bechtel.
Not only are resources and populations being exploited for financial gain, but as Mike Adams correctly points out for NaturalNews: sunlight and air also fall on your land, so where will this end if people don’t stand up in defense of their most basic rights?
It is the very spirit of American ownership of private property and the right to self-determination that are being threatened. The ideology of collectivism is seeking in myriad ways to upend the foundation of America and criminalize independence. Hat’s off to Harrington who embodies the spirit of true freedom and vows never to end the fight if his rights continue to get trampled.
“When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, ‘This is wrong; you just can’t take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I’m going to fight it.” There are several lines in the sand that should not be crossed within any country claiming to be rooted in freedom.
Revolt has happened in other nations subjected to the same level of tyranny who recognized that even without an American Constitution, this is a human rights issue that in fact has no boundaries. The words of water criminal Gary Harrington ring clear that we’d do well to stand our ground on fundamental issues, unless we wish to give away our spirit along with our land:
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They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail.”
I refuse to vote Republican or Libertarian. That is all I'm going to give you.
I put the onus on you to give me the right Democratic candidate in the primary process.
Give me another DINO and I vote third party or leave it blank.
Chained CPI put me on the fence. "Too big to prosecute" made me sick to my stomach. Appointing a Romney clone to run Commerce pretty much sealed the deal.
Think I'm the only person that feels this way? I'll bet you are wrong.
I never pitched a tent or chanted slogans in the streets, but I am completely aligned with the Occupy agenda. They won me over as a pure spectator.
You are critical of their approach? Think they should work within the confines of the political system? Quit giving them crap candidates.
I'll give you a hint. I will skip Clinton. I will write a fat check and beat the street for someone that thinks/talks like Grayson.
I didn't say I would stay home and not vote at all. There are multiple races to weigh in on.
I leave it to you to get this party headed in the right direction.
The crematorium has been burning bodies for years
Why are people suddenly uptight about it? This is old news. Many of the politicians that we trust are fine with it. The reporter that wrote about this is a liar. The alarmists are in a tizzy over nothing. These actions are a price we must pay for security. The alarmists are simply trying to discredit our leader with trivial bullshit.
DU time warped to Germany 1942.
Bottom line: You can rationalize wrong until you are blue in the face, but you still can't make it right.
We are watching history being made. Sometime in the future, people will scratch their heads and wonder how we willingly accepted the crematorium of our constitutional protections. Illegal search and seizure is now acceptable. How could entire communities watch the ash fall on their town and do nothing about it?
The Patriot Act has such a fascist tone to it. Bin Laden won.
Picture this.....
Franklin D Roosevelt in Obama's position.
He wouldn't take shit from those clowns, would expose the Tea Party with great precision, and rally American support to get government functional again.
Obama is a law school prepper that is in over his head. The debate champion can't govern his way out of a paper bag.
The Tea Party hates him, has lied about him, and has done everything in their power to make him fail. Yet.....he seeks a grand bargain.
You have to believe that the Robber Barons are directing his every move.
What a failed Presidency.
I would prefer a military coup than allow the 1% to own me.
Of course there is the real danger that the military is completely owned by the Robber Barons as well. Perhaps the Generals and Admirals are as heavily infiltrated/influenced as Congress is, but perhaps they are not. One thing we know for sure. Congress is definitely a group of 1% puppets.
Regardless, we are too far down the road for FDR's vision to ever happen in our lifetime. The dreadful changes have been too many and too drastic to overcome. Our Democracy's eventual demise is within clear view now. We will eventually be forced to pick a side.
If I have to be ruled by dictators, I would just as soon they be dictators that had to earn their position instead a of dictator that inherited his position from daddy. At least there would be a more sane structure to it all.
I know what some of you are thinking. Oppressed is oppressed regardless of who is doing it. I'm just stating my preference for who will eventually own me. I'm sure the early African American slaves had preferences as well.
If the time comes, I'm backing the military. You never know. They could potentially have the best of intentions. They could reassure us (like Egypt's military did to their people) and take temporary control until true Democracy is restored.
The more I think about it, the more I believe it is the only way that true Democracy could ever be restored. Otherwise, we ride the slippery slope to the 1700's again. The only current difference is that we have foreigners "pick cotton" in their country instead of ours. Multiple work related deaths is simply the cost of doing business. Really, it isn't that big of a jump to just bring them over here again. Cheaper logistics. These "work permits" are the first step. It is the natural evolution of things. Small incremental changes over time.
I never felt this way until President Obama and Democratic Party recently gave me the feeling that I'm actually living the book "Animal Farm."
Twelve years at the same job and facing impending layoff due to sequester.
Many coworkers blaming President Obama and much of it is racially motivated. Fox talking points used so frequently that I feel I am watching an episode of Hannity. Group mentality that uses O' Reilly methods to debate. Refuse to listen, speak louder and louder to drown out dissenting opinion,
They don't begin to understand what has happened to us. No clue about the Koch Brothers, Tea Party extremism, Walker in Wisconsin, the debt ceiling held as hostage, the "Super Committee", chained CPI, Bush tax cuts of 2001.....the endless list of events that DUers are aware of.
They don't want to hear and they don't want to know. They live in the bubble universe that gave us alternate presidential polls to Nate Silver. The Fox universe. This is all they know and all they trust.
The vast majority of my coworkers identify this job loss to President Obama. "Obama's tax and spend policy has taken our jobs."
They all pay union dues to the United Steelworkers. We currently work under an expired labor agreement and the "take it or leave it" proposal demands 5% cut in pay, loss of pension, mandatory overtime, increase in health care deductible, and elimination of positions related to worker safety. This was what we were facing before the sequester shit hit the fan.
All of it....."Obama's fault"
This nation is truly fucked.
See ya in the unemployment line. Will be living off of my child's college fund.
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