Forum Post: The Contrast Between Iceland And Ireland ; Some Thoughts & Links ...
Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 12, 2012, 1:12 p.m. EST by shadz66
(19985)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The contrast between Iceland and Ireland could NOT be more stark.
Ireland, erstwhile "Celtic Tiger" has been reduced to penury and its population pauperised by the B(/W)ankers within the blink of an eye in historical terms. The Irish State, Society and The Irish Population were doing fine ; Private Irish Banks were in a 'Big Shit-Sandwich' of their own making but everyone else has had to take a bite with long term austerity etc. and this paradigm is now playing out all over Europe. Clearly, in modern "High Finance" / Consumer Capitalism, it is the PEOPLE themselves who are "commodified" and being Consumed !
In Iceland of course, The People had the sense and wisdom to decide to stop being Sheep at a Wolves' dinner party ; chose not to put up with the bullshit any longer and showed the strength of their Collective Solidarity and respect for the rule, letter and spirit of their laws. However, for the rest of us - what a sick joke demoCRAZY deMOCKERYcy is turning out to be, this government ...
1) "OF The People" - The 99% - WE, The People - Us, the Vast and Potentially Overwhelming {if only!} Majority ;
2) "BY the People" - The 1% - take your pick of Politicians, Corporatists, MSM etc. ;
3) "FOR the People" - The 0.01% - 'A 1% of The 1%' ; "THEM" - the Usurious Banksters, Larcenous Plutocrats, Corporate Kleptocrats and Dynastic Despots.
Unlike "Money" alas, you couldn't make this Shit Up !! Thus, re "The Debt", we are all apparently and allegedly in - some Back to Basics Questions :
a) HOW MUCH ?!!!
b) Calculated by Who ?
c) Owed 'By' and 'To' Who ?
d) Who decided where 'The Decimal Point' goes ?!
e) WTF Is This "MONEY" Shit Anyway ?!!
f.) CUI BONO ?!!!
In the world today, we live under 'The Tyranny of Accounts and Accountancy' ; of Debit, Credit and Double-Entry Book-Keeping, all run by Free Market Fundamentalists, Usurious Parasites, Gangster Capitalists, High-Finance Hucksters, Banskster Robber Barons and Associated Warmongers - all cheered on by the aiders, abettors and acolytes in the MSM and Academia.
People have the ability and desire to see things as they really are but they are kept ignorant and are "Mind-Managed" by the Main Stream Media (Faux Snewzzz-ABCNNBCBS / BBC et al) enthusiastically spewing incessant "Televisual Valium" as well as the ubiquitous Imperial and Free-Market-Fundamentalist Propaganda.
Consider that "Money", The Market and 'High Finance Crapitalism' are increasingly antithetical to human progress, environmental sustainability and indeed, basic ethics.
Options ? EDUCATE ; AGITATE ; ORGANISE and engage the collective imagination and sense of community ... before its too late and We All end up sleepwalking even further towards overt FASCISM !!!
castigat ridendo mores ...
"Consider that "Money", The Market and 'High Finance Capitalism' are increasingly antithetical to human progress, environmental sustainability and indeed, basic ethics."
Worth repeating.
On this Paddy's Day, please consider :
''The Bank Guarantee that Bankrupted Ireland'', by Ellen Hodgson Brown : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36729.htm & more optimistically ..
''People of Ireland begin Criminal Proceedings against Banks'' (Video) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36550.htm .
slainte ...
from the ny times no less! Paul Ryan’s Irish Amnesia MARCH 15, 2014 IN advance of St. Patrick’s Day, I went time traveling, back to the 1840s and Ireland’s great famine. On one side of the Irish Sea was Victorian England, flush with the pomp and prosperity of the world’s mightiest empire. On the other side were skeletal people, dying en masse, the hollow-bellied children scrounging for nettles and blackberries. A great debate raged in London: Would it be wrong to feed the starving Irish with free food, thereby setting up a “culture of dependency”? Certainly England’s man in charge of easing the famine, Sir Charles Trevelyan, thought so. “Dependence on charity,” he declared, “is not to be made an agreeable mode of life.” And there I ran into Paul Ryan. His great-great-grandfather had fled to America. But the Republican congressman was very much in evidence, wagging his finger at the famished. His oft-stated “culture of dependency” is a safety net that becomes a lazy-day hammock. But it was also England’s excuse for lethal negligence. There is no comparison, of course, between the de facto genocide that resulted from British policy, and conservative criticism of modern American poverty programs. But you can’t help noticing the deep historic irony that finds a Tea Party favorite and descendant of famine Irish using the same language that English Tories used to justify indifference to an epic tragedy. The Irish historian John Kelly, who wrote a book on the great famine, was the first to pick up on these echoes of the past during the 2012 presidential campaign. “Ryan’s high-profile economic philosophy,” he wrote then, “is the very same one that hurt, not helped, his forebears during the famine — and hurt them badly.” What was a tired and untrue trope back then is a tired and untrue trope now. What was a distortion of human nature back then is a distortion now. And what was a misread of history then is a misread now. Ryan boasts of the Gaelic half of his ancestry, on his father’s side. “I come from Irish peasants who came over during the potato famine,” he said last year during a forum on immigration. BUT with a head still stuffed with college-boy mush from Ayn Rand, he apparently never did any reading about the times that prompted his ancestors to sail away from the suffering sod. Centuries of British rule that attempted to strip the Irish of their language, their religion and their land had produced a wretched peasant class, subsisting on potatoes. When blight wiped out the potatoes, at least a million Irish died — one in eight people. “The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine,” wrote the fiery essayist John Mitchel, whose words bought him a ticket to the penal colony of Tasmania. What infuriated Mitchel was that the Irish were starving to death at the very time that rich stores of grain and fat livestock owned by absentee landlords were being shipped out of the country. The food was produced by Irish hands on Irish lands but would not go into Irish mouths, for fear that such “charity” would upset the free market, and make people lazy. Ryan’s running mate in 2012, Mitt Romney, made the Tory case with his infamous remark that 47 percent of Americans are moochers, “dependent upon government.” Part of that dependence, he said, extended to people “who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” Food — the gall! You can’t make these kinds of heartless remarks unless you think the poor deserve their fate — that they have a character flaw, born of public assistance. And there hovers another awful haunt of Irish history. In 2012, Ryan said that the network of programs for the American poor made people not want to work. On Wednesday, he went further, using the language of racial coding. This, after he told a story of a boy who didn’t want his free school lunch because it left him with “a full stomach and an empty soul.” The story was garbage — almost completely untrue. “We have this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.” In other words, these people are bred poor and lazy. Where have I heard that before? Ah, yes — 19th-century England. The Irish national character, Trevelyan confided to a fellow aristocrat, was “defective.” The hungry millions were “a selfish, perverse, and turbulent” people, said the man in charge of relieving their plight. You never hear Ryan make character judgments about generations of wealthy who live off their inheritance, or farmers who get paid not to grow anything. Nor, for that matter, does he target plutocrats like Romney who might be lulled into not taking risks because they pay an absurdly low tax rate simply by moving money around. Dependency is all one-way. “The whole British argument in the famine was that the poor are poor because of a character defect,” said Christine Kinealy, a professor of Irish studies and director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University. “It’s a dangerous, meanspirited and tired argument.” And it wasn’t true. The typical desperation scene of the famine was the furthest thing from a day in the hammock. Here’s what one Quaker relief agent, William Bennett, found in a visit to County Mayo in 1847: “We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely visible from the smoke and rags that covered them, were three children huddled together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and ghastly ... perfectly emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last stage of actual starvation.” For his role in the famine, Trevelyan was knighted. The Irish remember him differently. At Quinnipiac’s Great Hunger Museum hangs a picture of this English gentleman with a dedication: “For crimes against humanity, never brought to justice.” Irish Alzheimer’s, goes the joke, is to forget everything but the grudges — in the case of the great famine, for good reason. What Alexis de Tocqueville called “the terrifying exactitude of memory” is burned into Ireland’s soil. But more than forgetting, Paul Ryan never learned.
An excellent and timely post (& the NYT url would be appreciated too) and so in compliment, I append :
Prof. Michael Hudson talks .. ''about austerity in Ireland, how US economic policy has affected Ireland, Europe and the rest of the world as well as how the various political parties in Ireland have mishandled the economic crisis.''
fiat justitia ...
good one
Re. 'Modern Monetary Theory', tho' I'm a big fan of Dr. Michael Hudson and Prof. William K. Black, I first heard of Stephanie Kelton via you. As such I append the following :
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/ ;
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/category/stephanie-kelton ;
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/modern-monetary-theory-primer.html ;
http://issuu.com/occupylondon/docs/occupy_little_book_of_ideas/1 & finally ...
http://rdwolff.com/ .
fiat lux ...
as usual you did a great job here. as I have said before I think this is the issue of our time. do we have the money to move society in the direction of a sustainable system. the answer is yes - of course but that answer is being hidden from the masses.
“The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. The process by which banks create money is so simple the mind is repelled. With something so important, a deeper mystery seems only decent.” (J.K.Galbraith 1908-2006) & also fyi :
''Overthrow the Speculators'', by Chris Hedges : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37251.htm ;
"Banks Weren’t Meant to Be Like This", by Prof. Michael Hudson ; http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30367.htm ;
"How Big Banks Run the World - at Your Expense", by Gar Alperovitz : http://truth-out.org/news/item/9658-how-big-banks-run-the-world-at-your-expense and also consider :
"The Tower of Basel : Secretive Plans for the Issuing of a Global Currency", by Ellen Brown : http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13239 & a final 'truth in jest' :
George Carlin On Bankers (Video) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31492.htm
Edit + fyi http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/22557-gar-alperovitz-and-michael-albert-a-conversation-on-economic-visions
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
Happy St. Patrick's Day, flip. I saw this article and it made me think of this excellent thread.
"Ireland on top of the world in global house price index"
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/mar/16/ireland-tops-global-house-price-index
Seems strange that prices are rising so fast there and not necessarily good for the 99%. Who is really making profits off of those housing price increases?
As shadz66 rightly said, "In the world today, we live under 'The Tyranny of Accounts and Accountancy' ; of Debit, Credit and Double-Entry Book-Keeping, all run by Free Market Fundamentalists, Usurious Parasites, Gangster Capitalists, High-Finance Hucksters, Banskster Robber Barons and Associated Warmongers - all cheered on by the aiders, abettors and acolytes in the MSM and Academia."
''You Were Not Allowed To Know That Bankers Can Be Jailed''
The Corporate ''Mainstream media’s well-kept secret'' by Joe Clifford
fiat justitia ...
''Ireland To Prosecute Top Banker Who Destroyed Their Economy — Guess Where He Was Hiding?'' by Clair Bernish:
Hope you and yours are well flip. Been a long time no hear, perhaps I should really e-mail you but an exceedingly happy St. Pat's day & hope you're #BernieStrong & #StillSanders as you #FeelTheBern!
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Shona!
all good here - and you? still plugging away i see. i come here very rarely as you might guess - will try to check in more often. not voting for hillary!!
Of course you're "not voting hillary"!!! You were ever the voice of the un-duped US liberal here!! GREAT to hear ''all good'' with you & I won't be the only one very happy to see you back around these parts & please do try to stay connected! Yes - I'm ''still plugging away'' because this place still flies the flag for Original Occupy & frankly,even IF things may need repeating, it's still worthwhile for The 99% struggle.
Also fyi,see: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/37070-the-un-democratic-national-committee
& - http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35692-neoliberalism-the-ideology-at-the-root-of-all-our-problems by George Monbiot and a truly excellent and essential, recommended read & share!
pax, amor et lux ...
i read them both - nice job
''Bernie Sanders supporters are flocking to Jill Stein, the presumptive Green Party presidential candidate, with donations to her campaign exploding nearly 1000% after he endorsed Hillary Clinton. Stein salutes Sanders for the progressive populist movement he began and says it is up to her to carry the baton. Can she do it? Critics say her radical policies will not hold up to scrutiny. But supporters say they are just the medicine the economy needs.
''Stein goes even further than Sanders on several key issues, and one of them is her economic platform. She has proposed a "Power to the People Plan" that guarantees basic economic human rights, including access to food, water, housing, and utilities; living-wage jobs for every American who needs to work; an improved "Medicare for All" single-payer public health insurance program; tuition-free public education through university level; and the abolition of student debt. She also supports the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, separating depository banking from speculative investment banking; the breakup of megabanks into smaller banks; federal postal banks to service the unbanked and under-banked; and the formation of publicly-owned banks at the state and local level.'' & ...
''The runaway success of Sanders and Trump has made it clear that the American people want real change from the establishment Democratic/Republican business-as-usual that Hillary represents. But real change is not possible within the straitjacket of a debt-ridden, austerity-based financial scheme controlled by Wall Street oligarchs. Radical economic change requires radical financial change, as Roosevelt demonstrated. To carry the baton of revolution to the finish line requires revolutionary tools, which Stein has shown she has in her toolbox.'' - Excerpted ...
from .. ''Can Jill Carry Bernie's Baton? A Look at the Green Candidate's Radical Funding Solution'' by (the ever excellent) Ellen Brown: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37114-can-jill-carry-bernie-s-baton-a-look-at-the-green-candidate-s-radical-funding-solution
Also fyi: http://www.jill2016.com/plan
per aspera ad astra ...
Ireland world's first country to divest from fossil fuels
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ireland-votes-divest-fossil-fuels-climate-change-world-first-country-parliament-renewable-energy-a7549121.html
thanks for the response - "sending a message." i am good with that - i do think it can be very helpful. my wife and i are in the solar business and i am all on board with renewable energy. what we must recognize is that the world still runs on cheap oil and we need to find a way to change that way of living.
Yes, we must get away from oil fast. The polygamous Islamofascists are not changing their behaviors anytime soon so we must change to cut off the oil money funding Islamofascism worldwide. Polygamy seems to be a big factor in retarding the paternal investments in their offspring leading to long-term decline of the quality of the descendants' software and productivity. The decline seems to be cultural because most societies that had renounced polygamy climbed out of the oppressive poverty as well as the associated barbaric ways needed to hold the sex starvation of the weaker males and the concubines at bay.
Human males' lacking bacula may have resulted from the Rise of Man(or more accurately, Eve's family) from our close relatives in the animal kingdom, the chimpanzees and bonobos(whose males have bacula), by curbing polygamy to reduce postcopulatory sexual competitions amongst males. The Rise of Eve's family was probably shifting genetic evolution to cultural evolution in which the man's "wallet" to nourish the greatly lengthened childhoods of the young ones assumed more importance than before, relative to the man's genetic quality. Nurture gained importance relative to Nature.
I surmise that this polygamy poverty trap also applies to our underprivileged segments of society including those having the rabbit-like breeding of offspring whom the male doesn't need to support. Some males even brag about how many females they have impregnated and not having to support. Well, imagine the quality of the software of their offspring with little paternal investments! Poor.
Ireland is mostly Catholic so birth control other than the rhythm method is prohibited. With men being capable of inseminating nearly without bounds(up to hundreds of millions of sperm per ejaculation and most men can ejaculate at least once a day - it's the reason that farmers can keep very few male animals around to breed the food/produce animals and still do just fine) and the women being kept subservient to the men as sexpots, it led to a baby boom that eventually Nature and/or England culled. No one escapes from the balance or imbalance of suppy and demand, including Irish babies, of course.
Japan was probably similar to Ireland in keeping women as sexpots and it overproduced young men(so did China in recent decades!) in a population boom that caused a war of raping(testosterone-fueled in Both sexes but men have it far more) and conquest. The young men's sex starvation and depravities were manifestly and amply demonstrated by the Japanese Imperial Army's institution of "Comfort Women." Up to this day, Japan is still trying to cover up its depravities and shield them from their children(unlike Germany). I just love to see how Japan's neighbors will react to Japan going nuclear when die grosse fickende V.S.A. pulls out so that the new phallic symbol of nations can work its magic on the womanly ho's there. The Never-Ended Korean War may well turn into the Trans-Pacific Stock Exhange if Wilhelm VI of Orange fails.
Icelanders are mostly non-Catholic so they don't have the breeding-like-rabbits problem on an island similarly resource-limited as Ireland.
What happened to the people on Pitcairn Island after the Mutiny on the Bounty illustrates well how a resource-limited environment worked out to a sustainable level. We cannot do that on Space-Island Earth if we highly value human lives and not cull away most of the men because God(or Allah) had chosen the nearly 1 to 1 sex ratio in newly born babies. The more affluent societies had chosen monogamy so that there was less strife and more productivity growth(it's a bit like how the less unequal inheritance conditions in the U.S. without Britain's primogeniture[winner-takes-all] had fostered faster economic growth over a long period of time causing the U.S. to surpass Britain eventually). Look up how many princes and princesses are in a royal family such as that of Saudi Arabia. It's eye-opening! Are you surprised that 15 of the19 hijackers of 2001-9-11 were Saudis? Not at all for me.
Whilst Ireland is at the forefront of many bold and progressive ideas, sadly it is also very much in the grip of its own 0.01% Oligarchy, who have sold Ireland and The Irish to their own and Global Bankers and Corporations.Thanx for your interesting link and in return & to back up my somewhat antsy point here, please consider:
fiat justitia ...
Stockholm Syndrome at work again: From your article:
"The case of Ireland is a particular disgrace. For decades, Irish governments have received billions of euro in EU development aid for building roads and other infrastructure. Yet, these same Irish governments have colluded with foreign corporations to cheat Europe and the Irish people out of billions of fiscal proceeds. For the Irish political class, the prestige of having top flight companies on their territory inflates their vanity and for a while the strategy may have seemed plausible. Soaring corporate profits artificially boosted headline growth figures of gross national product. But in the end, it is all a scam, for which the Irish people are paying bitterly."
Maybe Enda Kenny's replacement, Leo Vardarkar, the first gay and half Indian prime minister will make some changes....
ok so can you help me here, if we all divest from fossil fuels who will supply the oil that the world needs to distribute food and supplies? we are a very long way from that day. the world runs on oil and the alternatives are nowhere to be seen. trucks are our lifeblood and electric trucks are nowhere near up to the task. keeping oil in the ground sounds good but will require a huge amount of preparation and great change in the way we do business. I do not think divestment is the way to go about solving this problem.
Divestment from fossil fuels isn't exactly taking place across the world. But, as with all things, seeds must be planted. Therefore, those who begin to divest send out the message that we all need to start planning for new energy alternatives which are out there, they're just not funded.
There has been much success, see:
"Renewable Energy Surpasses Coal as World’s Largest Source of New Electricity Capacity"
http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2016/10/renewable-energy-surpasses-coal-world-s-largest-source-new-electricity
"First coal-free day in Britain since 1880s"
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39675418
It's a process, flip. Nice to see you!
you (or more exactly the guy who is not you) remind me of someone i once knew! In Hoc Signo Vinces??
I had an inkling that you had Irish in you, as you once intimated that certain close relatives had a song by the The Pogues at their wedding. Solidarity to you and mayda and indeed - all your crew. Also fyi...
multum in parvo ...
"tá tú breoite" was what flip said to me in Irish. It means, "You are sick." People tend to know the languages of their heritage countries so it's reasonable for me to assume that he's somewhat Irish. If you guessed from my using English that Great Britain was somehow connected to my family, you would have been correct.
ImNotMe knows that you're Irish to a certain extent because you wrote me, "You are sick" in one of our sparring dialogues. He has probably discovered translation engines on the internet because he's starting to reply to me partially in German. The linkage key he used for discovering them was likely 黑鬼。
Are Jews(should I have said Israelis?) Asians and therefore eligible for affirmative actions? You're correct about the Irish being discriminated against. I told my Mom that I was meeting an Irish girl(one of the "sheep" which my favorite Irish-descent author, Mr. McCourt, had spoken of perhaps in exasperation in response to his pubescent students' xeno-curiosity). That touched off a flurry of activities to "arrange" for my girlfriends and marriage. Great Britain had connections to my family so yes, the discriminatory attitude against the Irish might have rubbed off on some of us. It's a bit like why I was surprised at how some Hungarians were so hateful against the migrants moving into Europe. They've been much closer to the Ottoman Empire so I think that might have rubbed off on them.
Distance or a wall helps peoples live better in peace sometimes. Of all of the countries and empires I claim heritage, Every one in any pair of them had fought wars against the other one within the same pair except for a singular pair separated greatly, continents apart, and equally discriminated against by the others. National clashes were the norm, not the exception.
Re."You are sick" - wtf is particularly Irish about those words? Also ... I have NOT read that in "one of (y)our sparring dialogues" w/flip but I guessed he had Irish in him when he once remarked that a song by The Pogues, was played at a relatives wedding! Furthermore - I do not have to "discover translation engines" and IF - I did would I be replying to your ass "partially in German"?!! Nein dummkopf ... I'd be replying in German IF I knew German fully BUT I have enough German to say wtf I want to say to your racialized ass!!! Now read this ... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/17/everyone-loves-bernie-sanders-except-democratic-party - and do try to digest the facts and implications therein!
bist du verstehen jetzt - doltus maximus?!
Happy St. Patrick's Day .. to you, mayda & all your crew.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig Shona!
and to you and yours! how did you know I was half irish - on my mothers side - Ellen Marie Dillon. sicilian father - despised immigrants all around. mayda is a Russian jew - we were both lucky to be born at a time when we are considered white. - by some! .
For Paddy's Day:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/13/protest-persist-hope-trump-activism-anti-nuclear-movement by Rebecca Solnit
Also - https://draftbernie.org/
prospice ...
The New Battle of Milvian Bridge ... is upon us all again!!! U$A's Oligarchy, Plutocracy & Kleptocracy can easily live with tRUMP OR HRC!! BUT USA's Military Industrial Complex - desperately wants her!
See https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/763344501498937344
and .. https://www.facebook.com/drjillstein for NPR Live Details.
Finally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotO-kAFZ70 [25m]
veritas vos liberabit ...
[Deleted]
To debate respectfully is actually far more important than to merely ''agree'',imo! Thanx for the history - personal and social and for the video - which I unexpectedly enjoyed! Bless our dads, RiP + also fyi ...
''Trump Cancels Republican Presidential Debate To Speak At AIPAC'', by Niraj Chokshi: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/16/donald-trump-will-skip-upcoming-fox-debate-for-major-speech-before-jewish-group/
& for St.Patty's Day + for the Irish diaspora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsD95EE69Rk
& for Victims of War - an Irish/Italian combo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeoB-xY_1iw
Finally, see 2nd ICH link .. http://occupywallst.org/forum/democratic-irony/#comment-1070108
multum in parvo ...
These people are my people. They're all Mine!
We need to help. There's treasure stored in Heaven for those who do.
My ancestors were spared in a revolution because the people remembered. Connections are not inherently evil because as the clan chief, my Grandpa used his influence on his godson to open the grainstore to take nearly worthless money to feed the people. This is the reason why I hate inflation so much(the godson had lots of grain but he wouldn't sell it for money rendered nearly worthless by inflation - my Mom told me that her Most valuable job benefit at the time was a lengthened lunchtime break to spend her wages before the prices rose yet again by evening time when she got out from work). Distortion of the economy and its mechanisms are bad for many people(except the ones creating the inflation through rampant credit/funny-money creation) most of the time.
As some fruit "trees" planted by the ancestors don't bear fruits for generations, I reaped the fruits from the "trees" planted by my Grandpa and Papa. I didn't know for decades but now I know why some people would go to great lengths and take risks(to overcome the various very stupid 'isms) to help my family. It's the Tree of Life.
''Almost as soon as Occupy Wall Street appeared in the fall of 2011, it was clear that the national conversation had changed, that the brutality and obscenity of Wall Street was suddenly being openly discussed, that the suffering of ordinary people crushed by the burden of medical, housing, or college debt was coming out of the shadows, that the Occupy encampments had become places where people could testify about the destruction of their hopes and lives.'' from :
Thanx for the timely revival bw & solidarity.
pax et lux ; nunc et semper ...
Happy Birthday, OWS!! I'll never forget the feeling I had in September 2011 when I first heard about this movement. We're planting seeds here that will bloom in years to come and are already changing the conversation and making a difference.
Solidarity, shadz.
''The famed 99% meme that the movement blazed into mainstream consciousness still lives on in the mass mind, like a festering infected thorn in the side of Goliath. As that mysterious and mystical being once said, “You can’t kill an idea.” As for the movement, it is presently a chasm of unfulfilled potential, temporarily infiltrated and infested with saboteurs, tamed by the forces of centralization and co-option, fractured by factionalism and ego-driven agendas. Yet, it still glimmers on the periphery, just over the horizon. Beneath the calm surface, there's a vast ecosystem of latent energy ready to erupt once again.
''You can slow down decentralized movements, but as long as repressive conditions persist, you cannot stop them. By their nature, decentralized movements toward freedom ebb and flow like waves, shape-shifting and growing increasingly effective in achieving their goals, while weeding out and exposing saboteurs, egos and shortsighted agendas along the way. Decentralized movements are forces much bigger than anyone can wrap their hands around and control; like trying to grasp flowing water or control the mighty seas. These are lessons the Anonymous Gods have reminded us of. They are poetic lessons, while centralizing forces have been off on a fool’s errand, the autonomous actions that built this movement are once again self-organizing and organically evolving, imaginal cells ready to take flight and unleash another wave of action, a tsunami of freedom.'' from :
Year Three of The Movement starts today bw & I have met incredible and inspiring people as a direct result of OWS & with this in mind I append, courtesy of the indomitable DKAtoday the following with a strong recommendation :
Solidarity to you and yours bw. Onwards and upwards ... even when it's occasionally sideways :-)
pax, amor et lux ; hic, nunc et semper ...
"This was a movement that was systematically torn apart by the security state, by the militarized police forces in cities all across the country. This was very clear. It was not only brute force. In meeting after meeting after meeting, there were clear infiltrators who were disrupting the discussions and making sure that no sustainable organizing practices could take hold."
We've experienced this right here on the forum, as well. But, in the end, because Occupy did not become part of the current political system, I believe it will continue to quietly hold widespread influence and will continue to grow from the deepest roots. The seeds have been sown and they will grow.
That was very well put bw. The tea kettle is simmering, and sooner or later it will start whistling.
Patience is a virtue. Watershed change doesn't happen overnight. It can take decades and it certainly will never satisfy anyone's need for instant gratification.
I would hate to think that it would take "decades" for the "watershed change" we need, but you may be right. Chris Hedges despite having a sobersided outlook said that from his experiences in covering the uprisings in Eastern Europe, there is simply no way to know how long it will take or what will spark it. So being an optimist, I'm banking on a ten year time frame. I just hope that it doesn't all fall apart before that.
In any event, PERSEVERANCE is the key to our success.
On another note, Thank You for your support in wanting this forum to be a better place where people can come and express their ideas freely without being denigrated.
~Odin~
Perseverance is the key. You got that right.
property
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One look at how the MAM protests have been completely ignored in the media is enough to convince a lot of skeptics that something just isn't legit. Our incoming local federal representative is now on board with the fight to expose the reality of GMO's in our consumables.
October 12th is World Food day. This a cause that every thinking human being can feel a part of.
If you're not interested in your own health, then heaven help you.
Problem is, the way things are here, Americans need heaven's help.
That does appear to be the case, but those people who I talk with regularly in the US, are really starting to take notice, mostly because of the total media ban on anything related to this issue, or issues, as it is.
We are in a battle status in Australia against the spread of this toxic global cancer, and we aren't going to take this battle laying down.
The media and friends control the issues here, for sure. We get very little news about strikes or protests on any issue, anywhere.
And, I still can't get Russian Television on my computer, but when I crossed the border to Canada, voila, Russian Television on the same computer. Now that's concerning!
At the first mention of monz or GMO in any video, my connection drops out.
I'm experimenting with browsers, but it just goes to show how controlled the interwebz are already.
Freedom? What freedom?
Now this looks interesting; The BRICS nations propose their own global communications web, on fibre optic undersea cable.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-brics-independent-internet-in-defiance-of-the-us-centric-internet/5350272
Very interesting and necessary. Can I join? LOL. I want to watch Russian Television.
Bring on the internetz version 2.01.
I read yesterday that Brazil is joining China's lead by creating their own internal internet. I'm also interested in expanding upon the LAN hookup that hackers are playing around with. No google, of course, but I personally think that would be a good thing.
Still reliant on a power source, but I already have my solar panel and charger running my laptop.
We really do have to try to live outside the norm that they expect us to live within.
meh
I tune out GMO issues on my own
Keep drinking that koolaid.
We'll miss you, Matt.
tree tea oil for the teeth
who can afford a dentist ?
Re. Monsatan, here's insight into your wider point 'B' :
''With the help of a $4.6 million check from the biotech giant Monsanto and millions more from other out-of-state corporate interests, the campaign to defeat a Washington state ballot initiative in November to label groceries that contain genetically engineered ingredients has outraised the initiative's supporters by nearly three times, according to campaign data released last week.''
fiat lux ...
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I believe World Food day is the 16th, to commemorate the founding of the FAO:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/campaigns/food-justice/world-food-day
I imagine MAM could've been scheduled for the same day, but the 16th is a Wednesday. MAM needs the numbers, so the previous Saturday does make more logistical sense.
I was glad to see your Feb 2012 post return from the darkness of the archives
It should serve as a reminder to us in our struggle of what it took for Iceland to achieve what it did, namely breaking the ties to the corrupt big bankers
In a country of approximately 320,000 people, tens of thousands of these normally reserved people went to the streets, and demanded change
It is only when enough people here feel emboldened enough to emulate what the people of Iceland did will we ever have the sea change we so desparately need
~Odin~
"It is only when enough people here feel emboldened enough to emulate what the people of Iceland did will we ever have the sea change we so desperately need" - BIG Fat ditto 'Odin' and thanx & therefore, please consider :
"If you want your economy to excel in the 21st century [...] a big banking sector, even a very successful banking sector, is bad news. You could even argue that the bigger the banking sector is, the worse the news is for your economy... Europe is and should be more about democracy than about financial markets. Based with this choice, it was in the end, clear that I had to choose democracy.” from :
pax, amor et lux ...
When people who recklessly gamble with other people's hard earned money, they should not be considered bankers, but rather con men
And the fewer there are of them, the better society is for it
Iceland came to that conclusion, and we are long overdue to reach that same determination
~Odin~
"What Do We Do When The Banks Attack ?!" - 'STAND UP - FIGHT BACK !!'
Citizens in All Western 'Democracies' MUST learn from our Icelandic brothers and sisters and thus a wee tune by a famous Icelandic Pixie that fits so well here on this thread in reply to you right now :
multum in parvo ...
You Brit's always were on the cutting edge of the music scene. All the great bands from over there used to play in Philly before, anywhere else. Anyway it is that kind of recalcitrant spirit that we need over here.
~Odin~
"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." (Justice Louis Brandeis) & as for recalcitrance - well there's something to be be said for for sure and with this in mind, I append from Kevin Zeese and Dr. Margaret Flowers :
pax, amor et lux ...
Thanks, that was a very informative link, which I want to read again, as it helps me put our struggle into a historical perspective.
BTW.... do you remember, a while back asking me if my one daughters (who is in grad school for anthropology) ever thought about doing a study on the Occupy movement. Sorry i never did ask her, and I never replied back to you. However while talking to her on the phone tonight, she did tell me that she was doing a research paper on the effects that neoliberalism has had on women. I asked her if I could put it up on the forum. she said," of course." So sometime in April or May, I'll put it on here.
Although these kind of studies are suppose to be objective with no biases, I suspect that when you read it, you might see the apple does not fall far from the tree in the 'recalcitrance' department, but luckily for her she takes after her mother in the writing and intelligence dept. lol
I always enjoy our exchanges.
~Odin~
I very much look forward to that 'O' and in keeping with your themes and further to your heart warming comment, I append :
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14513-how-congress-could-fix-its-budget-woes-permanently &
http://zeroanthropology.net/ .
I strongly recommend this Ellen Brown article and the second link is for an extremely interesting site that I came across during the height of 'The Wikileaks Classified Doc./Video' release situation a couple of years ago, when they started running a mirror-site in solidarity. I love this web-site and it may be of interest to both you and your daughter & I'm happy that she takes the best from both of her parents !!
Solidarity to you and yours in all your doings ship-mate :-)
pax, amor et lux ...
Thanks, I read Ms Brown's very interesting link on money supply, and I have the Zero Anthropology site on my favorite's bar now. I am also going to forward it to my daughter too.
As much as I do not mind getting muddied here once in a while, I much prefer staying out of the gutter, and looking at the bigger picture
While no two struggles are alike, there are principles, and courses of action that have stood the test of time, hence there is a lot we can learn from them
Your posts always inspire me to take the higher road, Thank You
~Odin~
BTW, my daughters also get their 'charm' from me. ;-)
I really rate Ellen Brown and can not recommend this brilliant lady too highly. Thanx for your gracious comment friend and in case I have not copied the link to you already, then for you & your erudite and charming daughters (of whom you are so justifiably proud) - I append and can not recommend enough :
"Chomsky gives to us an eloquent historical, present and future perspectives as to the public educational system in the US how he believes it has been used not for the common good, but rather for the special interests of those who have power and money and want to perpetuate a docile non-critical thinking population. Society, or "the common good", as Chomsky called it, encourages people to focus on themselves and their own success. Programs such as public education and Social Security, which are now under attack, are based on a different perception. "They are based on the perception that we should care about other people....That's a dangerous perception. It means you should be a human being and not a pathological creature,"
Solidarity in spades to you, yours, all your doings & @ O.T.S & Good Luck in D.C on Sunday 2/17 re :
Btw 'O' - "charm & recalcitrance" are a great inheritance legacy & a gr8 combo !!!
consilio et animis ...
Your thoughts on the contrast between Iceland and Ireland are painful to me in a way, being half Irish, but are right on. There is an underlying element here that I think bears thought, and that is that Ireland has been conditioned to oppression, Iceland has not. Let us reflect on the psychological effects of oppression, and what it means for us all.
Great post once again.
Thanx & "Time for Outrage!", by Dr. Margaret Flowers :
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34173.htm
"Ninety-three years old. The last leg of my journey. The end is in sight. I am lucky to be able to seize the time I have left to reflect on my lifelong commitment to politics: the Resistance and the program designed sixty-six years ago by the National Council of the Resistance.”
These are the opening lines from “A Time for Outrage!” (Indignez-vous! - see link below) a 35 page book written by Stephane Hessel in 2010 which sold 3m copies in 30 languages and inspired protests like “Occupy” in the United States and 'The Indignados' in Spain. Hassel died recently at the age of 95.
Consider - "Each week we see reasons for outrage and, thankfully, more and more people are joining the culture of resistance."
vox populi vox dei ...
I will reflect on your link. It will be, I'm sure, as all your links are, perfectly apporpriate.
You have one hell of a mind, and more importantly, one hell of a heart.
Fiat Lux.
"Resistance Fighter Stéphane Hessel Has Died", by Lina Sankari, from 'l'Humanite' :
"Born in Berlin in 1917, he arrived in France as a child and was naturalized in 1937. Resistance fighter, deportee and Ambassador, Stéphane Hessel was most well known for his stances on human rights, the right to asylum, immigrant rights and the Middle East. Former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and a friend of Pierre Mendes-France and Michel Rocard, Hessel took up a career in the diplomatic service and the United Nations. More recently, he was a member of the College of Mediators for undocumented migrants in 1996. His pamphlet Indignez-vous! ('Cry Out! / 'Time for Outrage!' 2010), which defends the spirit of resistance, had a global impact, was translated into numerous languages and sold in the millions."
Thanx for your generous words and solidarity to you in all your doings & please 'NB' my edit above.
pax vobis. ...
Direct Democracy in Iceland? Showing the way yet still?
http://truth-out.org/news/item/14097-with-new-constitution-post-collapse-iceland-inches-toward-direct-democracy
Excellent in depth article. Many thank for posting this here & though at a tangent, I also append here :
Solidarity @ The 99% & may we learn from our Icelandic brothers and sisters.
dum spiro, spero ...
Yes, yes Like Richard Wolff says we should have democracy at work! Workers should be part of the decision making & enjoy the profits. You will eliminate outsourcing & execs with 400 times more compensation in one fell swoop. Far too few examples, but enough to learn from & build on.
Re. Richard Wolff : http://rdwolff.com/ - I append :
"Is There an Alternative for Capitalist Economics and Politics ? Richard Wolff Says - Yes" : http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/13759-is-there-an-alternative-for-capitalist-economics-and-politics-richard-wolff-says-yes ;
"How to Occupy the Economy, According to Richard Wolff" : http://truth-out.org/news/item/6614:how-to-occupy-the-economy-according-to-richard-wolff ,
"Capitalism Hits the Fan" - Richard Wolff (Video) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32494.htm ,
"The Truth about 'Class War' in America'", by Richard Wolff : http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/class-war-america-republicans-rich &
"Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism : Mondragon shows the way", by Prof. Richard Wolff : http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/24/alternative-capitalism-mondragon .
Thanx for your comment & solidarity.
per ardua ad astra ...
He is the best. Heard him a few times at the Brecht center here in NYC. Thanks for all the great links.
"Chomsky On Adam Smith - 'What we would call capitalism he despised'!" :
I'm impressed and envious that you got to hear Richard Wolff [ http://rdwolff.com/ ] speak. I watched on 'LiveStream' when he spoke to OWS @ Zucotti Park in Sept.'11 and it is also on YouTube for posterity.
pax et lux ...
The crowds and noise (no electronic amplification allowed) make speakers hard to follow when I was down there, but at the Brecht it is very cozi, close, personal, we spoke with afterwards. Obviously smart, and realistic but insistent that we MUST have real change. His appeal will grow.
"Marx's 'Das Kapital' Lives On in Capitalist Age" (Audio) :
Wolff would approve I feel of this NPR interview with Francis Wheen, as a little bit of theory and history never goes amiss [ http://www.marxists.org/index.htm & http://www.internationalgramscisociety.org/ ].
fiat lux ...
Excellent sites. Ideals I will agitate for forever (since I doubt we can truly get there) Thanks
Most certainly if we don't try - Hey?
We are absolutely trying. And I should say that I DO believe we will get there just not in my lifetime. That is what I meant. TPTB have to much control. but I'm not discouraged, just realistic. I don't mind fighting for my childs future.
I don't mind fighting with ( along side ) you for that future.
My honor. And to keep this thread related, here is some iceland news we should emulate.
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2013/01/28/iceland-wins-icesave-battle-yes-wins/?mod=MarketsMain
http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Women_Better_Off_in_Icelandic_Labor_Market_0_397372.news.aspx
While Iceland prosecuted its top criminal bankers, and thus quickly got through its financial problems and now has a vibrant economy, the American government has done everything it can to cover up fraud, and has been actively encouraging criminal fraud and attacking those trying to blow the whistle.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/its-not-a-fiscal-cliff-its-the-descent-into-lawless-anarchy.html
"America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff", by Dr. Michael Hudson :
The link above is to an excellent & in depth article which will reward a close read & many thanx for your info packed link, which I also recommend to all readers. Best wishes for 2013 to you & all readers here.
fiat lux ...
"In the world today, we live under 'The Tyranny of Accounts and Accountancy' ; of Debit, Credit and Double-Entry Book-Keeping, all run by Free Market Fundamentalists, Usurious Parasites, Gangster Capitalists, High-Finance Hucksters, Banskster Robber Barons and Associated Warmongers - all cheered on by the aiders, abettors and acolytes in the MSM and Academia."
You got that right Shadz and gee, I'm thinking here that this old thread really spells out the spirit of Occupy. Thanks for linking it to me. We should not forget what brought us together in the first place.
Occupy Wall Street!
Learn from Iceland & Occupy Wall Street !!!
"The Icelandic Model of Handling Debt Crises", by Michael ScottMoore, Miller-McCune : http://truth-out.org/news/item/4569:the-icelandic-model-of-handling-debt-crises ,
"Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not", by Deena Stryker : http://truth-out.org/news/item/5181:why-iceland-should-be-in-the-news-but-is-not ,
"Just Say No To Corporate Greed ; The Case Of Iceland", by Ellen Russell : http://occupywallst.org/forum/just-say-no-to-corporate-greed-the-case-of-iceland/ ,
"How Socialists Built America", by John Nichols : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27907.htm
"Why I Am a Socialist ?" by Chris Hedges : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21586.htm .
Onwards & Upwards to a better 2013 & beyond + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlZ9g7O8_Sg ~*~
per ardua ad astra ...
Nothing of value, of true importance, is ever easy.
Our corporate controlled MSM has kept hush on Iceland for obvious reasons. Thanks for putting up all those links, and for the song. Here is a link that works in the U.S. It is a long way to the light indeed, but the light burns brightly in our hearts and souls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cccwBEsx2f4
More Iceland reference regarding the best fiscal approach FYI and a bump to this great post.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14513-how-congress-could-fix-its-budget-woes-permanently
"I think it surprises a lot of people that a year ago we were accepted by the world as a failed financial system, but now we are back on recovery with economic growth and very little unemployment, and I think the primary reason is that ... we didn't follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western world in the last 30 years.We introduced currency controls; we let the banks fail; we provided support for the poor; we didn't introduce austerity measures of the scale you are seeing here in Europe."
That's a great article. Thanks.
A great example for us to follow.
"Revealed : How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown on Occupy", by Naomi Wolf : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33477.htm ,
"The Only Way Left to Beat Republican Fanatics : Call Their Bluff and Go Over the Cliff", by Robert Reich : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33456.htm ,
"America’s Deceptive 2012 Fiscal Cliff", by Dr. Michael Hudson : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33471.htm &
"Has Capitalism Proven its Durability?", by Chris Hedges and Richard Wolff : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33478.htm .
From the last link : "As unemployment in the US decreases and large companies expand their profit margins, we ask if the capitalist system has proven its ability to endure and adapt. Or should Americans be considering an alternative economic system ?"
It may be "A Long Way To The Light" [& thanx for the corrected link] - but it's worth the journey towards a bw for us all and I append the last 3 links above in view of the topicality of the subject matter and the expertise, authority and insights of the authors and the first link speaks for itself & may ring some bells.
fiat lux ...
If anything, capitalism has proven it's abject failure.
And, from the Hudson article, "Workers have become so deeply indebted on their home mortgages, credit cards and other bank debt that they fear to strike or even to complain about working conditions. Losing work means missing payments on their monthly bills, enabling banks to jack up interest rates to levels that used to be deemed usurious."
This is how they want us, in economic shackles, but I can't help it, I'm a dreamer. What would happen if everyone just said "no more." We're not paying back these loans at these usurious rates. What if every kid with a student loan said "No. I'm not paying this month."? Would they get the message then?
Not one person has gone to jail over the scandalous greedy activity that caused the financial crisis. Every American should think hard about that.
Mass collective action and a collective debt repayment moratorium will shake the system and show the way - just like The Citizens of Iceland realised. Thanx for the very relevant comment & also consider :
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/28/uk-iceland-crisis-idUKBRE8BR0EW20121228 ,
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/jailed-bank-boss-linked-to-90m-merrion-deal-3341545.html &
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-28/ex-glitnir-executives-get-9-month-jail-sentences-for-fraud-1-.html .
fiat lux et fiat justitia ...
It is amazing to me that our government has not prosecuted a single criminal bankster. So, what can we do? We can rally together as a people. Perhaps those with student loans can declare that they are not paying one month in protest. Imagine if everyone with a student loan just didn't pay one month? I think the banksters might just get the message. Same thing with the usury interest on credit cards. If people got together in huge numbers, and put their fears aside about what could happen to them, they could send a message.
All the .01% have is money. I say hit 'em where it hurts. We have nothing, zero, nada, to lose.
"Obama Admin. Fails to Prosecute Banking Fraud to 'Save the System'!" :
This is a follow up to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/ & well worth the time spent watching James S. Henry's commentary on 'The Untouchables' with The Real News Network's Paul Jay.
Americans really need to see that in modern societies in which access to most essential of life from food and water to shelter and health care depends on money - control of money is the ultimate instrument of control.
Fortunately, with the help of 'OWS' - Americans are waking up to an important truth. It is a very, very bad idea to yield control of the issuance and allocation of credit (money) to Wall Street banks run by con artists who operate beyond the reach of public accountability and who view the rest of the population, as simple-minded marks ripe for the exploiting.
The critical distinctions between - the making of money and the creation of wealth ... is The True Key to seeing through Wall Street’s illusions. Real Wealth actually includes fertile land ; pure water ; clean air ; healthy food ; caring relationships ; healthy, happy children ; quality education and health care ; fulfilling opportunities for service ; peace and even time for meditation and spiritual reflection.
These are just a few among the many forms of 'Real Wealth', to which we should properly expect a sound economy to contribute - but Wall Street has so seriously corrupted the language however - that it is now difficult even to express the crucial distinctions between money (which is a facilitator of actual economic activity) & Real Wealth (the purpose of economic activity).
Economists and 'financial commentators' will routinely use terms like 'wealth, capital, resources & assets' when referring to the 'phantom wealth' of financial assets, which makes them sound like something real, substantial and tangible - whether or not they are backed by anything of real value. Similarly, they identify folks engaged in market speculation and manipulation as 'investors', thus glossing over the distinction between those who game the system to expropriate wealth and those who contribute to its creation.
Apologies for any deja vu but the videos warranted a reprise here in late reply to your excellent and sadly overlooked, comment and finally, for you and others, I again append :
fiat lux ...
Elizabeth Warren "...came out blazing Thursday in her first high-profile appearance as a member of the Senate Banking Committee, ripping into regulators and starkly suggesting banks might be cooking their books."
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/why-elizabeth-warren-scares-wall-street-87714.html
Hope?
And, I love your comment. Especially: "The critical distinctions between - the making of money and the creation of wealth ... is The True Key to seeing through Wall Street’s illusions. Real Wealth actually includes fertile land ; pure water ; clean air ; healthy food ; caring relationships ; healthy, happy children ; quality education and health care ; fulfilling opportunities for service ; peace and even time for meditation and spiritual reflection." Amen.
There's much hope in Elizabeth Warren & thanx for your comment & link, further to which I append :
So, I'll repeat myself with : "Economists and 'financial commentators' will routinely use terms like 'wealth, capital, resources & assets' when referring to the 'phantom wealth' of financial assets, which makes them sound like something real, substantial and tangible - whether or not they are backed by anything of real value. Similarly, they identify folks engaged in market speculation and manipulation as 'investors', thus glossing over the distinction between those who game the system to expropriate wealth and those who contribute to its creation."
spero meliora ...
Is Elizabeth Warren the real deal? Is she going to do what she said she would? Time will tell, but this is a good start:
"Tell me a little bit about the last few times you've taken the biggest financial institutions on Wall Street all the way to a trial. Anybody?"
Thanks for the link.
What Elizabeth Warren & Americans are up against :
multum in parvo ...
She sure has her work cut out for her.
From Moyers, "You're looking at the most expensive Congress money can buy. The House races last fall cost over one billion dollars. It took more than $700 million to elect just a third of the Senate. The two presidential candidates raised more than a billion a piece. The website Politico added it all up to find that the total number of dollars spent on the 2012 election exceeded the number of people on this planet -- some seven billion.
Most of it didn’t come from the average Joe and Jane. Sixty percent of all super PAC donations came from just 159 people."
"Bankers Left Reeling as Sen. Elizabeth Warren Grills Financial Regulators", by Justin O'Brien :
Also highly relevantly for this thread and for hopefully Sen. Warren too :
"Emails Prove JPMorgan Committed Massive Mortgage Fraud" : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34049.htm &
"There’s Still a Foreclosure Crisis", by Mike Whitney : http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/19/theres-still-a-foreclosure-crisis/ .
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
They would like us to think the housing crisis is over but....."...the banks are deliberately keeping the majority of distressed homes “off market” in order to keep prices artificially high, fleece another generation of credulous buyers, and effect the appearance of a revitalised and soaring housing market.
And JP Morgan is committing massive mortgage fraud? No! Couldn't be!
Of course, she has her hands full. Good luck Senator Warren and WTFU American people!
She better be. I hope she and Grayson tear it up. She'll be grilling the banks and Grayson will grill the Federal Reserve.
They're 2 of the best people to watch in congress right now.
We will see over the next year or two. I believe so but I've become so disillussioned with politicians that I need to see action before I can say for sure.
she claimed to be of american indian descent,...she lied. nothing unusual for a dem.
Yes, I agree that she is decent. Thank you. (A few hours later and you've fixed your spelling. Typical.)
We should follow Icelands lead on economy, and governance but censorship?
http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Iceland-s-plan-to-ban-Internet-porn-sparks-uproar-4305251.php
Not entirely sure about this and I am not a consumer of porn either.
"Pornography is already banned in Iceland, and has been for decades - but the term is not defined, so the law is not enforced. Magazines such as Playboy & Penthouse are on sale in book stores, and more hardcore material can be bought from a handful of sex shops. "Adult" channels form part of digital TV packages. Iceland's left-of-center government insists it is not setting out to sweep away racy magazines or censor sex. The ban would define pornography as material with violent or degrading content." ... extracted from your link.
I'll trust the Icelanders to make good laws that suit their culture and sensibilities and concur with them that in the main, pornography objectifies and commodifies women and is particularly corrosive to the young. Here's some hard core finance-porn :
"The top five banks - JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. - - account for $64 billion of the total subsidy, an amount roughly equal to their typical annual profits. In other words, the banks occupying the commanding heights of the U.S. financial industry -- with almost $9 trillion in assets, more than half the size of the U.S. economy - would just about break even in the absence of corporate welfare. In large part, the profits they report are essentially transfers from taxpayers to their shareholders."
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
I also trust Iceland. My comment was more light news/tongue-in-cheek.
I am only concerned with bigger more important issues as you article refers to.
Thank you
For more 'hard core finance porn' :
To follow my previous linked article, please also consider :
Where is is the outrage ? It's out there, bubbling ...
spero ...
Why wait foreclosures if buying your home with bank finance just stop making them payments. Keep your house because it is already paid for by taxpayers no need to pay bank again. How about 1/2 payment if working to begin new financial dept. Now that time of our dreams awakens and we must be prepared for implementing all these ways as is and is meant. Commandeer our equipment/resources and especially surplus goods. If it is the Governments in America it is yours. A sunflower is all that need be shown to make way and ready for use what ever We need belongs to us. A picture of sunflower is also acceptable. P.S. This was decided by other than me- said no need it ID just use flower All powered people fast track in solidarity Worldwide FREEDOM...
I still recommend people consider :
http://occupywallst.org/forum/what-do-you-think-of-a-rolling-jubilee-type-action/
Someone could have a huge and yet simple brainstorm that could get this to take off and make a critical difference for society/environment/world.
The jubilee is an important concept. Since biblical times debt jubilees have been a part of history as leaders realized that the people could not continue to live their lives decently with huge amounts of debt. Also, usury interests rates are considered immoral by many major religions. Occupy's work in this area is fantastic and the rolling jubilee, in my opinion, is brilliant. Thanks for bringing it up, DKA.
Thank you for your ever positive input. Just think if the Jubilee was applied to Just the interest on the national debt - dismiss it.
Imagine if the people who created this mess were convicted and jailed.....and we had a debt jubilee!
''People of Ireland begin Criminal Proceedings against Banks'' (Video) :
dum spiro, spero ...
The recalcitrant spirit that these people are showing is beautiful.
I wish we had more of it here.
This Irish response to their penury at the hands of the corrupt, larcenous and venal Banksters and the bought and paid for politicians - is extremely heartening and shows what can be done - when real and principled recalcitrance is channelled and focused. Iceland has 1/10 the people of Ireland, but showed the way for us all. You DO have it in The USA .. but it just needs to coalesce and finds its voice but it has happened before and can again.The fear filled conservative instinct will only lead to an intellectual and psychological dead-end where only fear and loathing remain and guns abound. It need not be like that though & also fyi : http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19465-here-lies-the-tea-party-2009-2013 .
spero meliora ...
All of us here should feel buoyed by the tea baggers failed attempt at holding the government hostage.
Our work is far from over though if we want the systemic changes that we so desparately need.
''Our work is far from over though if we want the systemic changes that we so desperately need.'' :-) & thus :
''In the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, it’s business as usual, if your definition of “business” is the power and profits you get from constantly preparing for and prosecuting wars around the world. “War is a racket,” General Smedley Butler famously declared in 1935, and even now it’s hard to disagree with a man who had two Congressional Medals of Honor to his credit and was intimately familiar with American imperialism.''
fiat lux, fiat pax et ipsa scientia potestas est ...
It's extremely unlikely we would have so many wars if the politicans and the corporatists had to serve on the front lines.
The people that promote and profit from war deserve a special place in hell.
That video is so moving. It takes extreme courage to tell the story of one's own economic plight and to fight back for justice not just for yourself but for an entire country.
Americans need to wake up and stop feeling that their economic situation is their own fault. It's not. It's the fault of an economic system gone haywire with greed and corruption.
''Americans need to wake up and stop feeling that their economic situation is their own fault. It's not. It's the fault of an economic system gone haywire with greed and corruption.'' = succinctly, concisely and beautifully true bw. I was moved to tears by that video too and in compliment - although possibly at a tangent but still very relevantly imho, I append fyi :
caveat ...
"The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing." Thank you, George Monbiot.
And, sad sigh.
''We need a new paradigm, a new system, because we are living in a new reality run by corporations and profits that harkens the early unregulated days of the Industrial Revolution. Surely we can do better than this. We can move forward instead of backward.'' - Because it warrants repeating, from your excellent excerpt and comment & also, re. ''new paradigms'', fyi & relevant to this forum-post :
''Public Banking in Costa Rica: A Remarkable Little-known Model'', by Ellen Brown : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36837.htm & on a theme of Russel Brand :
'''I Won't Back Down' - Russell Brand In Conversation With HuffPost UK's Mehdi Hasan'' (Video) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36816.htm .
To utterly change things for the betterment of The 99% is not beyond the wit of woman but may be beyond the wish of man ... who may need to to be dragged - kicking and screaming - into the light !!
multum in parvo ...
"A large number of state-owned capitalist enterprises were founded. Their profits were returned to the national treasury, and they financed dozens of major infrastructure projects. At one point, more than 240 state-owned corporations were providing so much money that Costa Rica was building infrastructure like mad and financing it largely with cash. Yet it still had the lowest taxes in the region, and it could still afford to spend 30% of its national income on health and education."
Very nice. Shows what can be done.
''Markets are inefficient because all they care about is the extraction of profit and that does not create a healthy environment for human beings.'', from your succinct and essential comment, here :
''If we all collude and collaborate together we can design a new system that makes the current one obsolete. The reality is there are alternatives. That is the terrifying truth that the media, government and big business work so hard to conceal.'' from :
The Transatlantic and Transpacific Trade agreements are probably the end stages of an assumed global corporate consolidation but people everywhere will resist and see the wisdom of 'act local think global' - as nearly all the things we need as societies, can be sustainably obtained and generated more locally. We all need a 'revolution of the imagination' wherever we are and a humane economic system. Also fyi :
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36779.htm ;
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19912-obama-wants-to-cut-social-security &
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19895-bam-bam-bam-the-lostness-of-man .
fiat lux et fiat justitia ...
"I realised then that our treasured concepts of tribe and nation are not valued by those who govern except when it is to divide us from each other. They don't believe in Britain or America they believe in the dollar and the pound. These are deep and entrenched systemic wrongs that are unaddressed by party politics.
The symptoms of these wrongs are obvious, global and painful. Drone strikes on the innocent, a festering investment for future conflict.
How many combatants are created each time an innocent person in a faraway land is silently ironed out from an Arizona call centre? The reality is we have more in common with the people we're bombing than the people we're bombing them for."
There's a whole lot of truth in what Russell Brand says there. We need a new paradigm, a new system, because we are living in a new reality run by corporations and profits that harkens the early unregulated days of the Industrial Revolution. Surely we can do better than this. We can move forward instead of backward.
Nice thought - dismiss the toxic BS - no more smoke and mirrors.
There's another sort of blind paradox going on. The illusion that there is a 99%. Oh, there's definitely a 1%, but a 99? I think not. Divide & Conquer has been the order of the day for decades, and it succeeded beyond the entrenched's wildest dreams. Along political lines, along racial lines, along class lines, and just about any other that doesn't really exist in Ireland or Iceland. We can have utterances of words over these things and, they'll never amount to a thing but wasted oxygen. For there to be a 99%, there would have to be a give-and-take approach-for all races, classes and political views. Then, we run into the real problem, and I see it in Occupy as well, a reluctance of the better off, the smarter, the true activists, the young, the old, the part-time wordsmiths, etc.to give more give and a lot less take. For instance, the break-off groups like Occupy the Hood. Call me a racist if you want. First, it's the exact opposite as melting pot, so I should call you the racist. Second, by design, it falls directly into divide and conquer and becomes the what we already have. No, we aren't 'the people.' We are 'the peoples.' We are far from getting 'the people' in the sense that Ireland is of the people and, Iceland 'is the people.' But, if this country could ever erase the lines, it would be an unstoppable power envied by the world. What we have is establishment talking as though we do have it, and how we should proud of it whilst they privately destroy any chance of it ever happening. The reality is it would require 99% participation. Then trust me, you want to see politicians, bankers and the super rich get nervous? There is also a huge reluctance for people to say, 'I was wrong.' I could already 2 already in that pool; Roam Chomsky and Robert Reich. I really like them. But, I only somewhat admire them. Then, we have the podium problem. Give anyone a grandstand and, well you know. I think Occupy would need to hire a psychologist to help them deal with their narcissism.
Once you accept The 1% ... who are really just the foot soldiers and lackeys of The 0.01% Parasites, Kleptocrats, Plutocrats & Oligarchs - then as for the remaining 98.99%, well yes, you're right that they are divided and stratified (& actively nurtured as such, I'd argue) BUT it doesn't take all of us to change things fundamentally - just enough to achieve a critical mass. There are thoughts about a hypothetical 3% figure for instance. Ergo 3 links fyi :
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/22548-henry-giroux-beyond-neoliberal-miseducation ;
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnkin5.html &
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30333.htm .
You, I and many on this OWS forum and across this Good Earth - our shared, fragile and beautiful home, yearn for a true democratic and sustainable world run along the lines of logic, foresight and compassion. We Are NOT Alone ! We Are Legion !! We Are The 99% !!!
per ardua ad astra ...
But as more people awaken, and are being inspired and emboldened by other people throughout the World, they are NOT "accept[ing]" the rule of "The 0.01% Parasites, Kleptocrats, Plutocrats, & Oligarchs"... This is a very hopeful & beautiful thing, don't you think?
So you are definitely right, "We are NOT Alone ! We are legion !! We Are The 99% !!!" Edit; And We Are The Many & They Are The Few
Save Vake Park In Tbilisi
http://onnik-krikorian.com/2014/01/save-vake-park-in-tbilisi/
The privatisation of the 'Public Sphere' is a Neoliberal phenomenon worldwide.Sadly Georgia in its rush to escape the bad memories of Soviet Era Totalitarianism (btw Stalin was a Georgian) has - under that Bankster Puppet, Shikashvilli, thrown itself on the train trackes of ''Washington Consensus'' ; ''Chicago School'' ; IMF / World Bank - Neoliberalism & Austerity ... and sadly Ukraine is getting ready to do the same - with every Neocon in Europe & The USA bleating cold war cliches whilst banging the drums for ever more conflict, confrontation & ''creative chaos'' disguising the Bankster Crapitalist Anti-Democracy. Resistance Is Fertile !!! Indeed it ''is a very hopefull & beautiful thing'' !! Solidarity To The 99% ! Also fyi :
cave - bellum se ipsum alet ...
From the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, there was little doubt in my mind that it was a Western inspired coup d'etat with the purpose of bringing Ukraine into the neoliberal world. We had to know that it was a very provocative move that Russia would respond to. And I don't believe that it was a coincidence that the violence in the streets was peaking during the Sochi Olympics as the added objective was to sully Russia's image while they were trying to improve it. The fact that Russia offered an alternative to an either/or proposition in helping Ukraine, and that was rejected by the Obama administration is very telling. (see video link)
Here in this country we have been fed a steady stream of BS on our MSM, with the exception of professor Stephen Cohen of NYU who spoke out several days ago on PBS. He speaks after Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia. I do wonder if professor Cohen's job will be on the line for his heresy. It's getting to be that bad as you know from the link that you put up on Israel's War on American Universities.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/debating-moscows-military-moves-crimea/
As some of the countries in the former Soviet Union fall into Western hands, they will soon realize that they have just traded one oppressive oligarchy for another, and yes one that is rapidly heading towards facism.
Thanks, that was an excellent link... & Solidarity 2 U & All The 99%
"As some of the countries in the former Soviet Union fall into Western hands, they will soon realize that they have just traded one oppressive oligarchy for another, and yes one that is rapidly heading towards fascism.'' Weary sigh and ditto. Thus, in compliment ...
Thanx for your excellent comment link and tho' I could not watch the video in my region, the transcript alone was riveting. I recommend the above link in compliment to your PBS link and the 20 minutes it'll take to watch / listen will be well worth it. As will any time spent reading or looking these three links :
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-21/petrodollar-alert-isolated-west-putin-prepares-announce-holy-grail-gas-deal-china ;
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/us-prepares-gas-russia-submission &
http://www.eegas.com/ukraine.htm (courtesy of poster 'A4C')
e tenebris, lux ...
right on man - didn't jim Morrison say - "they got the guns but we got the numbers"
I dunno, who's Jim Morrison?..;-) Seriously though, as we both know, I think there has been an awakening that can be directly attributed to the birth of Occupy. What part Occupy plays in the end is open for debate. One thing for sure though and that is, the cat is definitely not going back in the bag because more & more people know what is at stake now on a bunch of different levels.
that cat seems to keep going in and out the bag through out history. peasant revolts in Europe and socialist stikes here in the land of the free and home of the brave. for sure ows has put the 99% into the mainstream of ideas. we know who will keep trying to stuff that cat back - we "need to fight the power" - did jim say that also?
"That cat seems to keep going in and out of the bag through out history" because people keep forgetting that it is a never-ending battle to keep what our activist ancestors had to fight for. If "Jim" didn't say that, he should have.
Much agreed. The big, big question; How?? Good writing, BTW. You put forth some good stuff.
''10 Steps Toward Radical Revolution in the USA'', by Bill Quigley :
One. Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously.
Two. We must radically reinvent contemporary democracy.
Three. Corporations are not people and are not entitled to human rights.
Four. Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut US military spending by 75%.
Five. Property rights, privilege, and money-making are not as important as human rights.
Six. Defend our earth. Stop pollution.
Seven. Dramatically expand public spaces and reverse the privatization of public services.
Eight. Pull the criminal legal prison system up and out by its roots and start over.
Nine. The US was created based on two original crimes that must be confessed and made right.
Ten. Everyone who wants to work should have the right to work and earn a living wage.
Thanx for your kind words. I append the above in reply to your ''How??'' & OWS is part of a awakening !!
consilio et animis ...
As usual an excellent post shadz
"Cyprus's Cash Machines Run Dry"/"The Great Cyprus Bank Robbery by Financial Terrorists" :
"Cyprus - which accounts for just 0.2 per cent of the combined eurozone economy - is the fifth country to secure a debt rescue package from its eurozone partners in the three-year debt crisis. The price tag is very small compared with two rescues for Greece worth some 380 billion euros, Ireland's 85 billion euros, Portugal's 78 billion and 41 billion for Spanish banks." ... BUT .. we should be aware of the very dangerous precedent being set here and this may finally mobilise the 'I'm all right Jack' middle classes.
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
Iceland continues to lead the way, if only we'd follow: "Iceland wins major case over failed bank"
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/iceland-wins-major-case-over-failed-bank/?ref=todayspaper
Excellent, encouraging and inspiring news !!! Thanx for posting this !! Solidarity to those erstwhile Vikinger Berzerkers ! As such, l also append herewith :
Extracted from the embedded link in your linked NYT article & very relevant here on this thread :
fiat lux ...
It boggles the mind that a small country like Iceland can get it right, but the United States just keeps f-ing up and perpetuating greed, inequality and fear. Thanks for the links. I implore Americans to demand similar action here.
"How Iceland Overthrew The Banks" (Video) :
"Why do we consider banks to be like holy churches ?" is the great rhetorical question that Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimson asks (& answers) in this truly epic three minutes of truthiness from the farce that is the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switz. Amid a week of back-slapping and self-congratulatory party-outdoing, as John Aziz notes, the Icelandic President explains why his nation is growing strongly, why unemployment is negligible & how they moved from the world's poster-child for banking crisis 5 years ago to a thriving nation once again. Simply put, he says - "we didn't follow the prevailing orthodoxies of the last 30 years in the Western world."There are lessons here for everyone.
fiat lux ...
"We were wise enough to understand this was a socio political crisis. We didn't follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, we didn't introduce austerity measures on the scale you're seeing here in Europe. And the end result four years later is Iceland is that enjoying progress and recovery very different form the other European countries that suffered from the crisis."
In other words, Iceland did not put profits over people. Bravo. Thanks for the great link.
Yes, Icelanders put people before profits, perhaps because they realise that ...
"Getting to the Next Level of Constructing a New Society Requires a Common Vision, Strategy & Unity"
per aspera ad astra ...
"In the meantime, realize that Americans are awakening and taking action. Whether they are helping to build cooperatives, community or public banks, community-supported agriculture and farmers markets or other more democratic economic institutions; or whether they are protesting the mistaken direction of the U.S. economy and government – a lot of good work is being done and we should rejoice that so many are working to create a new world."
We really can make change here. Nice. Thanks, Shadz. :)
"This Is What a Humane Economy Looks Like", by Inés Benítez :
"The severe crisis crippling Spain is also sparking some creative responses, such the Okonomía project, a teaching initiative that helps individuals and communities to understand the workings of the economy and make more informed decisions to manage their finances."
Thanx for your very good excerpt above & "a lot of good work is being done and we should rejoice that so many are working to create a new world." Amen & Solidarity @ all striving for a bw.
exitus acta probat ...
"...the Okonomía project, a teaching initiative that helps individuals and communities to understand the workings of the economy and make more informed decisions to manage their finances."
The article states that there are no similar programs around the world. True, and, gee, I wonder why? LOL. Why not here in the United States where we are so free, right? We're not in economic shackles here in this great country! TPTP are not keeping things from us, they love us! We're free! We don't need to understand our economic system. Good grief!
But, thankfully, we do have Occupy Wall Street now and no one can deny that this movement has shed a light on the failure of the economy to work for 100% of people.
Also OWS has taken on the educational role to a certain degree and for the first time in decades people are talking about the inequity and unfairness in our economy:
http://strikedebt.org/
"The Debt Resistor's Manual": http://strikedebt.org/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual.pdf
The Debt Julbilee: http://rollingjubilee.org/
Yes, http://strikedebt.org/ & http://rollingjubilee.org/ are critical OWS co-productions and :
is An Essential Guide for all Occupiers and 'Debt Resistors'. Thanx for the important and timely reminders and excellent excerpts, further to which, I also append :
"Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage", by Chris Hedges : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33830.htm ;
"The Politics of Debt in America - From Debtor’s Prison to Debtor Nation",by Steve Fraser: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33761.htm & for how we can change, pls see ...
"Noam Chomsky - 'Public Education and The Common Good'" (Video) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TLZN92-dZo [47:46] and/or see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33891.htm (alt. link) .
fiat lux - radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
As Hedges says "Workers who are unable to meet their debts, who are victimized by constantly rising interest rates that can climb to as high as 30 percent on credit cards, are far more likely to remain submissive and compliant. Debt peonage is and always has been a form of political control."
What we need to do is convince Americans that they are not to blame for their poor economic position. There is no shame in poverty or indebtedness. This economic system has been set up to work this way. Shame on TPTB for perpetuating such an immoral system and using the media to convince people that they are to blame for their dire straits when in fact they live in a failed economic system. Half of all Americans earn less than $26,000 per year. Tell me how they can survive on that without going into debt?
"Household debt, which in 1952 was at 36% of total personal income, had by 2006 hit 127%. Even financing poverty became a lucrative enterprise. Taking advantage of the low credit ratings of poor people and their need for cash to pay monthly bills or simply feed themselves, some check-cashing outlets, payday lenders, tax preparers, and others levy interest of 200% to 300% and more. As recently as the 1970s, a good part of this would have been considered illegal under usury laws that no longer exist. And these poverty creditors are often tied to the largest financiers, including Citibank, Bank of America, and American Express.
"Credit has come to function as a “plastic safety net” in a world of job insecurity, declining state support, and slow-motion economic growth, especially among the elderly, young adults, and low-income families. More than half the pre-tax income of these three groups goes to servicing debt. Nowadays, however, the “company store” is headquartered on Wall Street.
"Debt is driving this system of auto-cannibalism which, by every measure of social wellbeing, is relentlessly turning a developed country into an underdeveloped one." - excerpted from the second link above & as a foot note, I'd add that the the final Chomsky video link, tho' nearly 50 minutes long, is well worth it (imho~:-). Many thanx for your astute comment bw and in answer to your final question - 'they can't' hence, as Hedges says, "Debt Peonage" !! Finally, as per my penchant, I also append :
e tenebris, lux ...
"Household debt, which in 1952 was at 36% of total personal income, had by 2006 hit 127%. That pretty much says it all.
Now, our job is to get the American people to realize that their crappy financial position is not their fault. There is no shame in having a load of debt in a debt based economy. They need to wake up and claim back their rights to a fair and just economy that works for them, that doesn't turn them into wage and debt slaves.
And, re: Lendman's article. Of course, Medicare is not the problem. They could solve the problems of healthcare by including all people in Medicare, the young and the old, the sick and the healthy, and watch how inexpensive it becomes per capita. Add the benefits that healthcare would no longer be tied to employment and all people would be covered and, bingo, you have something TPTB don't want. A non-profit healthcare system that is not dependent on capitalists (also known as employers).
Get "the American people to realize that their crappy financial position is not their fault. There is no shame in having a load of debt in a debt based economy. They need to wake up and claim back their rights to a fair and just economy that works for them" - amen bw & further to which, I append :
As JS says : "It is unconscionable that a rich country like the United States has made access to higher education so difficult for those at the bottom and middle? There are many alternative ways of providing universal access to higher education, from Australia’s income-contingent loan program to the near-free system of universities in Europe. A more educated population yields greater innovation, a robust economy and higher incomes — which mean a higher tax base. Those benefits are, of course, why we’ve long been committed to free public education through 12th grade. But while a 12th-grade education might have sufficed a century ago, it doesn’t today."
ipsa scientia potestas est ...
The federal reserve could have funded education with monetary policy, but instead it just gave trillions to banks.
"A debt-based monetary system, where money comes into existence primarily through private bank lending, can neither create, nor sustain, a stable economic environment, but has proven to be a source of chronic financial instability and frequent crisis, as evidenced by the near collapse of the financial system in 2008. They create money from nothing and give it to banks. " - Kucinich
most jobs don't require a college education
"Americans are coming to realize that their cherished narrative of social and economic mobility is a myth."
"Unless current trends in education are reversed, the situation is likely to get even worse. In some cases it seems as if policy has actually been designed to reduce opportunity: government support for many state schools has been steadily gutted over the last few decades — and especially in the last few years. Meanwhile, students are crushed by giant student loan debts that are almost impossible to discharge, even in bankruptcy. This is happening at the same time that a college education is more important than ever for getting a good job."
Another sad sigh.
I just listened to Rollingstones Matt
to me, the numbers loss their meanings and it seems made up to justify who has power.
Amen - from your mouth to everyone Else's cognitive centers.
"Democracy, Disillusion and The Political Process", by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin :
"A new nationwide opinion poll in Ireland has shown that people are becoming more and more disillusioned with the political process leading one to wonder if democracy (people rule) has simply become demopsefia (people vote). This type of disillusionment is becoming widespread across Europe in general. While no one is naive enough to believe all the promises of politicians, in recent years the desires of the electorate seem to be ever more blatantly subsumed to the financial interests/problems of recent governments." - the previously 'fighting' Irish should learn from their Icelandic comrades and use their collective strength to reclaim their democracy and perhaps Americans should consider the same.
spero meliora ...
"The sleight-of-hand conversion of the citizen into consumer only works insofar as the consumer has the wherewithal to consume."
These low wages are eventually going to bite the 1% right where it hurts and it will hurt all of us, everyone, even more than it has already. And, that goes for people everywhere, in every country. Americans are not special. They can't continue printing funny money and going into debt forever.
For far too long, Americans have allowed Wall Street to play them as 'marks' in a confidence scam of audacious proportions. Then they wonder at their seeming utter powerlessness to deal with job losses, depressed wages, mortgage foreclosures, political corruption and the plight of their children as they graduate into Debt Bondage.
OWS has focused national and global attention on the source of the problem. Now it’s time for more sustained action to bust the Wall Street banking corporations, cartels and trusts, 'replace the current Wall Street 'banking system' with a 'Main Street Banking System' and take back America from the rule by 'The Evil, Wall Street Bankster Parasites'.
Fortunately, with the help of 'OWS' - Americans are slowly waking up to an important truth - that it is an extremely bad idea to yield control of the issuance and allocation of credit (money) to Wall Street banks run by con artists who operate beyond the reach of public accountability and who view the rest of us as simple-minded marks ripe for the exploiting.
I hope for 'class conciousness' and the same realisation as Warren Buffet - who concluded & asserted that the only "Class War" was being fought and won - by his class, The 0.01% 'Elites' (= Parasites) !!!
"From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy", ('KPFA - Guns & Butter', Excellent Radio Interview With Dr. Michael Hudson) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24654.htm &
"Economic Policy Deception : Prof Michael Hudson" (Audio) : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34246.htm
There can be no positive change ... without struggle ~*~
per ardua ad astra ...
And truthfully, the entire world can revolt and fight back, but if Americans fail to do so, the global society will pay the price. We must get Americans to wake up to their realities.
Yep & "The Question of Socialism (and Beyond!) Is About to Open Up in These United States", by Gar Alperovitz :
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15680-the-question-of-socialism-and-beyond-is-about-to-open-up-in-these-united-states ergo also http://marxists.org/ and consider ...
"Marx's 'Das Kapital' Lives On in Capitalist Age" (NPR Audio) : http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16697381 .
verb. sat. sap. ...
I highly recommend that NPR link. Thanks, Shadz. Now, let's hope the American people can some day wake up and realize that they have a Social Contract that has been broken, and rights to a decent life that they can fight for.
Fyi : "The Terror of Capitalism", by Vijay Prashad :
[NB Warning - The article contains a potentially upsetting photo.]
''In the Atlantic world, meanwhile, self-absorption over the wars on terror and on the downturn in the economy prevent any genuine introspection over the mode of life that relies upon debt-fueled consumerism at the expense of workers in Dhaka. Those who died in the Rana building are victims not only of the malfeasance of the sub-contractors, but also of twenty-first century globalisation.''
Solidarity @ u & yrs & for a 'bw' for all. Americans need to rediscover the real meaning of phrases like ''Social Contract'' and ''The General Welfare'' clause of their hallowed Constitution if they are to progress.
ad iudicium ...
Re. the above please also see :
"Iceland Proves Ireland Did `Wrong Things' Sacrificing Taxpayers", by Yalman Onaran : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27399.htm ,
"Iceland Declares Independence from International Banks", by Bill Wilson : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28391.htm#idc-cover ,
"Iceland's On-going Revolution", by Deena Stryker : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28934.htm ,
"Key Lesson from Iceland Crisis is 'Let Banks Fail'", by Haukur Holm : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29653.htm &
"Lessons From Iceland: The People Can Have The Power : As early progress in Iceland shows since the banking collapse, the 21st century will be the century of the common people, of us.", by Birgitta Jónsdóttir : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29722.htm .
fiat lux ...
Further evidence of the people of Iceland's wisdom :
"More Icelandic Bankers arrested." : http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/01/20/more-icelandic-bankers-arrested/ &
"Iceland economy grows at fastest pace since crash." : http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2012/06/16/iceland-economy-grows-at-fastest-pace-since-crash/ .
fiat justitia ...
Few in the US are willing to go through some times in order to give their kids a better future.
That attitude is why were are in the mess we are in, and why we probably arent going to get out.
This 'jam today and B-S tomorrow" short-term, instant gratification culture - nurtured by The Wholly Corporate Owned 'Lame Stream Media', wasn't always the case in The U$A and raising conciousness, "educating, agitating and organising" and fighting for a new and just tomorrow - is what 'OWS' is all about. All these'Turkeys voting for Thanksgiving' ; 'Cattle voting for Hamburgers' and 'Lambs voting for Slaughter' - Has Got To End !!!
dum spiro, spero ...
Hear ! hear !
All so called 'Western Democracies' need to learn from Iceland. Period. Also please do consider :
"But we are still here" [Matrix Morpheus].
respice, adspice, prospice ...
Jack booted thugs with power and money, , , Danger, Danger Will Robinson!! Can they really be that fearful of this little hub??? I guess if you got all the doe your paranoia makes you do everything to protect it.
''They'' may have the dough now ...
But they ain't got the know how !!!
Not when it comes to Love & Solidarity !!
'Cause all they've got is fear and perversity !
e tenebris, lux ...
Both have good Indie Folk music!!!!
Iceland: Of Monsters and Men
Ireland: Orla Gartland
By Iceland's 'Sigur Ross' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2Z_1-Frb8 [GR8 visuals from a BBC TV Nature series] and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_Thxckv9E [In case the abv dsn't wrk & an epic live version].
Re. 'Irish Folk Music' - well, the list is endless, to be sure, but can you go with 'The Chieftains' and a couple of US collaborations with US artists, both well known and not as well as 'Clannad' (last link) ? :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOpY0wQdJ5w ;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XPMPwSlews &
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KpNzalFKPo .
minima maxima sunt ...
Kodaline is a really good new band. Mo Hat Mo Gheansi, they sing in the Irish language! Hudson Taylor.
Iceland update. They got it right! Wasn't easy, but their efforts have resulted in more fin freedom from the worldwide banksters
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/iceland-debt-rating-improves-after-icesave/story-e6frfkur-1226573305323
(moodys is part of same bankster syndicate and should be shutdown & eecs jailed, but they still control their part ofthe ratings world))
Re. Iceland, thanx for the interesting link & there is a certain irony in Moody's upping their rating when we kind of really know that these scum bags are corrupt and rife with conflicts of interest but even they can not deny the strength of Iceland's current position and I append :
As an aside, tho' still relevantly and indicative of Iceland's Societal Ethos, please also see :
fiat justitia ruat coelum
Sounds like Iceland is the place to be. I know they get huge amounts of energy from underground thermal somethin or other as well.
"Iceland's President Explains Why The World Needs To Rethink Its Addiction To Finance" :
http://www.businessinsider.com/olafur-ragnur-grimsson-iceland-2012-4? or
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31089.htm [alt. link].
"If you want your economy to excel in the 21st century .... a big banking sector, even a very successful banking sector, is bad news. You could even argue that the bigger the banking sector is, the worse the news is for your economy... Europe is and should be more about democracy than about financial markets. Based with this choice, it was in the end, clear that I had to choose democracy.”
Geothermal Energy btw, has the potential to supply unlimited free energy - which is exactly why 'The Corporations' will NOT pursue it, as they would rather meter and charge and extract ongoing huge profits from The 99%, in their 'de facto' monopolies.
ad iudicium ...
Sounds about right. Thanks for the great info.
"Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not", by Deena Stryker :
fiat lux ...
An excellent recap. I remember reading that about a year ago.
Thx
Re. Iceland, a tune by one of their own which sums up their spirit :
We could all do with some of their democratic spirit, imo !
pax ...
I've loved her since her sugarcubes days. Very creative, avant garde, courageous, independent.
Which probably is the traits that iceland benefitted from as the threw off the yoke of wall st banksters.
Thanks
You remember the Sugarcubes ?! Well that is extremely cool !! Her voice on that first single (Birthday), well - wow !!! Gonna have to bring us both back down to earth now, so sorry but these articles go to the heart of the contrast between Icelandic Democracy and demoCRAZY, deMOCKERYcy, 'USUK' style :
"Billionaire Banker Bandit Likely to Become Next Commerce Secretary", by Greg Palast : http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14493-billionaire-banker-bandit-likely-commerce-secretary &
"Lifting the Veil of Mirage Democracy in the United States", by Kevin Zeese & Margaret Flowers : http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14489-lifting-the-veil-of-mirage-democracy-in-the-united-states .
Sorry for the downer maan & hope this helps a li'l : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPyTgmC3nQQ !
pax ...
Birthday was THE song that sold me on her. So different. Nothing like it since. She was on Elektra Records, I was in the industry (not creative side) and she was such a cutie too, talented, smart, and a cutie.
Heard about the commerce nominee, more of the same. both articles appreciated, but not as much as the youtube.
Thanx
Nice & on an Icelandic-tip, I'd better lay it down here for those who may not know what wtf we are referring to & oh drat, we'll just have to listen too, I suppose, lol :
I've the original 'One Little Indian' LP pressing on vinyl still.
pax ...
Wow what a great interlude. Thanks so much.
Back to the battle.
More Icelandic talent & as an 'exotic cigarette' interlude needed, am sharing this tune by 'Sigur Ross' :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2Z_1-Frb8 [GR8 visuals from a BBC TV Nature series] and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa_Thxckv9E [In case the abv dsn't wrk & an epic live version].
Don't worry - I don't understand Icelandic either & am also sharing this =======##~~~' but ssshhhh ;-)
multum in parvo ...
Wow. What a pleasure. Nice break from the angry inane back and forth I'm in the middle of.
Thanks again.
You are forgetting one key thing. ENGLAND AND HER BANKERS WILL NEVER LET Ireland off the hook.
Nope & re. Ireland and Iceland, consider the U$A and Venezuela :
multum in parvo ...
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Cheers 'Dog' & thanx for that moment of 'Zen' and re. the 'Televangelism of Televalium', occasionally a gem or two does makes it through the crud. As such, consider (& try not to let it perturb your 'Zen') the first link below which is in keeping with the subject of this thread and also the second, which may be in keeping with another of our shared interests :
Hard to maintain 'Zen' in the face of such perfidy - but we stumble on in faith and hope for The 99% :-)
EDIT : 'Climate Of Change', new corrected link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5GVHqlnPAc ~*~
pax, amor et lux ...
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Re. "The Untouchables : How the Obama Administration Protected Wall Street from Prosecutions" :
I do hope that you could get that & please note New Corrected Link re. 'Climate Of Doubt' :
Finally, courtesy of TrevorMnemonic, I very strongly recommend Dr. James Hansen at 'TED' :
I don't have a good word to say about the POTUS other than, thank G*d it ain't 'Mitt4Brainz' !!
fiat lux ...
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"Dr. Cornel West - Remaking America : From Poverty to Prosperity" :
Appending the above in reply as it sits very well here and also goes to the heart of OWS. I purloined it from TrevorM's latest thread :
Be well in all your doings & solidarity 'ZD'. Onwards & Upwards - even when it's sideways sometimes.
pax et lux ...
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Consider - shit going sidewayz beats shit going backwardz - granted not by much sometimes - but the difference can be HUGE !!! Also for your later consideration ...
"The Politics of Debt in America : From Debtor’s Prison to Debtor Nation", by Steve Fraser : http://truth-out.org/news/item/14202-the-politics-of-debt-in-america-from-debtors-prison-to-debtor-nation &
"Rebecca Solnit on How Disasters Can Move Us From a Sense of Self-Interest to a Sense of Community", by Mark Karlin : http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/14193-rebecca-solnit-on-how-disasters-can-move-us-from-a-sense-of-self-interest-to-a-sense-of-community .
Be well dude, the winter is not far from being over & solidarity @ you and yours.
omnia causa fiunt ...
And that's all we ask! Choosing the lesser evil (BO over MR), major bullet dodged there.
Too many times in recent history it has not been the case ~ Nixon, Raygun, Bush, Dubya/Cheney ~ causing damage that will not be undone in our children's lifetimes, and it was completely avoidable if only the lesser evil was chosen. But that's just POTUSes. There's no telling what hell spared if only lesser evil choices in Congress and States had been made. Our protests ignored.
Please don't promote indifferent (cool) insignificance, every choice has consequences (2010 ~ http://occupywallst.org/forum/frontline-cliffhanger-2010-pouting-chickens-come-h/ ). Stupid dirty uncool and costly CONSEQUENCES!!
No mention of the Bankers' Puppet, Bill Clinton then ?! Further, re. Democraps, please also consider :
multum in parvo ...
Bubba was a much lesser evil (and as Philip Roth wrote in The Human Stain, a refreshing Human Being in the WH) than "No Quid Pro Quo" George and Dr Strangelove Dole. Just as the Dems are worlds less evil than 1% owned Cons. Are they perfect? NO! But they will only get worse if we throw reason out the window and just hate on them. They need nurturing and support to be better Reps and Pols. Remember, the alternative is nightmarish!! Now let's work on Instant Runoff Voting and put a stake in the heart of the GOP with third parties!!
I like Greg Palast but not nearly as much as he does. Mostly I love how much he bothers the Righties!! I can't understand how or why they perceive him as such a threat, RW paranoia.
Happy VD!
"Bubba" ?! Oh pleeease !! Enough with the 'leeser of two evils' already - it's one Big Evil in D.C. - with wee variations on the theme therein !!!
"The Untouchables : How the Obama Administration Protected Wall Street from Prosecutions" : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/untouchables/ &
"Obama's Failed State", by Stephen Lendman : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33945.htm .
verb. sat sap. ...
The entire world is a choice of lesser evils, natural selection, Darwin.
However the 'Corporate Republocrat/Demoblican Duopoly' is a sham demoCRAZY deMOCKERYcy !
US Politics need not be like this !! O.W.S & Viva The 99%. !!!
fiat lux ...
Call our neglected political system what you like, it still boils down to a better or worse choice. There is no perfection, anywhere. It would help if more of us participated, though!
I wish we could somehow force every American to read this post. But instead, I suppose we will use what's left of our cherished freedom to watch American Idol or something.
GK : You may be interested in :
"History is written by the victors. It should be no surprise then, that the bankers have developed a very clear story of how the financial debacle happened and who should be blamed, and are now engaged in a campaign to have their version of events accepted and all others declared as dangerous demagoguery. What the bankers realize and so must we, is that unless you write the history, and so control the story, you won’t be the victors. -- It is imperative therefore that we expose the bankers’ narrative for the strait jacket of self-serving lies it is, and that we have our own."
per aspera ad astra ...
Thank you. You're a great sourse of information. Now if we can just break the American Idol trance . . . Any European hypnotists you could recommend? Or maybe we need an excorsist . . . LOL!
capitalism works
democracy works
but we have to prove this equation is the answer:
democracy + capitalism = c r a p i t a l i s m
the key to virtually everything we want - is to sever the two
Since the powell memo in 1971, we have let the koch-norquist-rove-cheney-reagan cabal buy our democracy.
The new bill HJR29 is the first step to taking our country back from the crapitalists -
reversing citizens united & corporate personhood.
This kind of action is supported by millions of Americans and hundreds of pols.
More info:
http://corporationsarenotpeople.webuda.com
I Like the post ;)
the Debt is just another disguise for raising Taxes on the middle class w/o raising Taxes
''The Irish have a long history of being tyrannized, exploited, and oppressed - from the forced conversion to Christianity in the Dark Ages, to slave trading of the natives in the 15th and 16th centuries, to the mid-nineteenth century “potato famine” that was really a holocaust. The British got Ireland’s food exports, while at least one million Irish died from starvation and related diseases, and another million or more emigrated.
''Today, Ireland is under a different sort of tyranny, one imposed by the banks and the troika - the EU, ECB and IMF. The oppressors have demanded austerity and more austerity, forcing the public to pick up the tab for bills incurred by profligate private bankers.'' from :
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas ...
Platitudes! Gore the keepers! Take the keys and be free!
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They are spelled different.
Well done 'Trashy' ... now go see if you can unclog some of your multi-compartmentalised mind, in order to learn something useful or - perish the thought, progressive !!! ~{;-) ad iudicium ...
One has a "c" in it for they wish they were conservative. The other has an "r" in it and wish they had republicans there. How hard is that? Actually,,,, nobody cares about your stupid post. I thought I would help make you a little more popular by allowing you to use my name to get more visits. It was stupid and you know it.
Re. your "It was stupid and you know it." - Was that "FreeDiscussion3" talking to "FreeDiscussion4", all within the constricted confines of your already overcrowded head ?!
caveat orator ...
Actually free is. No discussion needed, how many names and how many ways they track and attempt to participate just shows us (and you know you are) how real our talk is and just how much has been accomplished. Patience in the process because it is sooo happening. Happy kind people are simple devil in the details.
Errrrr ... thanx for that - I think & perhaps also consider :
multum in parvo ...