There's no need to panic.
Revolutions are messy affairs. They don't follow the easy logic of middle-school textbooks. Hostilities in the American Revolution broke out a year before the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution was not ratified until nearly seven years after the decisive battle at Yorktown. In two years starting in 1974, Portugal went from neofascism to army rule to something like a communist putsch and then to liberal democracy, where, happily, it has stayed. (Along the way, events in that little country made the end of white rule in South Africa and Rhodesia inevitable. That's another thing about revolutions: their reverberations often surprise.) The Philippines got rid of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 but is still groping toward a system of government that is both effective and democratic. (See TIME's photo-essay "Scenes from the Unrest in Libya.")
In the 10 weeks since demonstrations began in Tunisia, the Arab Middle East has been messiness personified. We have seen the relatively swift and peaceful ouster of the regime in Tunisia; an 18-day standoff marked by peaceful mass protests and sporadic regime resistance before the departure of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt; demonstrations for constitutional reform combatted by deadly force, followed by negotiations in Bahrain; and most recently, the outbreak of violence bordering on civil war in Libya. And this catalog of the Arab world's democratic winter doesn't include the protests elsewhere, against everyone from a classic big man in Yemen to hereditary monarchs in Morocco and Jordan. So what can we learn from the region's revolutions - and those that went before them?
1. Provide, Provide, Provide
The key word for thinking about the Middle East today, says Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at Oxford University's St. Antony's College, is provision. Faced with the demands of a rapidly growing population of young people increasingly resentful of dynastic rule and increasingly linked to the outside world and one another by technology - and hence (and this is the key point) able to benchmark their situation against those elsewhere - regimes throughout the region have not done enough to provide sufficient jobs, education, housing, dignity. "Failure to provide," says Rogan, "is the most glaring source of tension. That's the constant." (See pictures of the rule of Colonel Gaddafi.)
Just as constant is the baseline demand of the protesters. It is quite simple: in the chant from the streets, Ishaab ureed isqat al-nizam, or "the people want the fall of the regime." But while those seeking reform in the Arab Middle East share much in the way of both grievance and objective, they also have significant differences. A region stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean is not homogeneous. Egypt has more than 80 million people; Bahrain around 1 million. Some nations, like Libya, have abundant oil and gas reserves; others, like Yemen, have little hydrocarbon wealth. (See exclusive photos of the crackdown in Bahrain.)
2. No Two Places Are the Same
No revolution is a perfect analogy for any other. Each nation in the Middle East has been colored in its own way by its history of colonial rule. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are francophone; Libya has good relations with Italy, its former colonial master; Jordan was once effectively a British protectorate. Egypt receives enormous quantities of U.S. aid, and the leaders of its armed forces have close ties with their counterparts in the Pentagon. That combination gives U.S. interests a salience in Egypt that they do not have in many other nations in the region.
As the revolutions play out, memories, resentments and social fractures specific to each country will shape their outcome. Egypt, for example, was long the natural leader of the Arab world. Humiliated by its decline in standing (this is a nation that once led the nonaligned movement), many Egyptians would doubtless like to see their country regain its place and revive the sense of cultural and political dynamism that elements within their society demonstrated after World War I and again after Gamal Nasser and his colleagues overturned the monarchy in 1952. In no other Arab nation is the desire to retrieve lost stature likely to be so significant. (Comment on this story.)
Elsewhere, religion may shape what happens next. In Bahrain, the crowds have chanted "Not Sunni, not Shi'ite. Bahraini." But in a nation where a Sunni minority and royal family rule over a much poorer Shi'ite majority, sectarian issues could easily muddle demands for constitutional reform. Syria has its own fractures. The Assad family, which has ruled the country since 1970, is from the small Alawite Islamic sect - this in a Sunni-majority nation whose Islamists remember the way the regime bloodily crushed the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. The government of Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen is threatened by two insurgencies - and the armed members of the local affiliate of al-Qaeda. Sudan is split between a Muslim, Arab north (whose members rule the country) and an African, Christian and oil-rich south that has just voted overwhelmingly to secede. Jordan is home to Palestinians who hail from west of the river and those whose origin is in the deserts to the east.
See TIME's special report "The Middle East in Revolt."
See TIME's photo-essay "Mass Demonstrations in Egypt."
Economic issues, too, will manifest themselves in different ways in different places. A detestation of corruption is a constant throughout the states in the region that have seen disturbances, and for good reason. But it is likely to be a particularly significant driver of change in Libya. This is a nation whose small population, mineral wealth, cultural history and proximity to rich European markets should long ago have made it an economic powerhouse like one of the Gulf states, but instead it has become a kleptocracy run for the benefit of Muammar Gaddafi, his family and their supporters.
3. Patience Is a Virtue
Given the variety of social and economic circumstances in the Arab world and the rapid devolution from smiling faces in Tunisia to the awful violence in Libya, there is a natural temptation to fear the worst: to see years of instability stretching ahead for the region, instability that, as the U.S. learned on Sept. 11, 2001, can seep beyond the Middle East's borders. (See 10 autocrats in trouble.)
The wiser counsel, surely, is patience. During the European revolutions of 1989, it was common to look to the Middle East and wonder why it seemed immune to the democratic wave. But if anything has been abundantly proved in the past month, it is that there is no "Arab exception," no iron rule that specifies that the desires that motivate human society anywhere - a right to choose your rulers, a hope that your children will lead better lives than you, a search for prosperity and happiness - are somehow absent from the Middle East. Why on earth should they be?
That does not mean that the postrevolutionary dispensation in the region will be happy everywhere. Though romantics want revolutions to have charismatic leaders, successful ones channel the revolutionary instinct into habits of effective government through institutions that have a degree of popular legitimacy. (Lucky Poland, to have had both a political organization - Solidarity - and a church hierarchy with such legitimacy in 1989.) Where such institutions do not exist, troubles brew. Russia after 1990 was a country with little organized political opposition and a compromised church and army. Little wonder that oligarchs, criminals and veterans of the Soviet security services rushed to fill the vacuum. (See a brief history of People Power.)
4. Institutions Really Matter
Institutional arrangements are important in the middle East precisely because of the nature of the revolutionary transformation. Organized and brave the young people who have driven change may be, but a crowd in Tahrir Square cannot govern Egypt, nor can a Facebook page or Twitter account - at least not yet. More is needed. Though they may have been hobbled by years of autocracy, Egypt and Tunisia have parliaments, political parties, judges and lawyers, labor unions and a press whose members want to do what free journalists do elsewhere. All of that augurs well for the chance of building systems of governance that are both effective and - just as important - accountable to the people.
The contrast with Libya and Yemen could hardly be more striking. In Gaddafi's madness, Libya has been rendered almost devoid of the appurtenances of state power. (It is officially a Jamahiriya, or "state of the masses.") Yemen has been a unified state only since 1990; poverty-ridden and threatened by regional uprisings, it could face a rocky postrevolutionary trajectory. (See pictures of clashes in Yemen.)
5. Let Them Do It Themselves
Yet even Libya and Yemen have one great thing going for them. When change happens in rough parts of the world, it is easy for those who live in happier lands - such as the U.S. and Europe - to ask condescendingly what they can do to help. And help they surely can - Europe perhaps more than the U.S., since it controls the vital spigots that modulate the flow of people and goods from the Middle East to its most proximate and important market.
But the key thing about the Arab revolution - the reason we can dream that even Libya may turn out fine - is that Arabs are doing it for themselves. This revolution is a regional one, a movement in which each nation's young people have learned tactics, technological fixes and slogans from one another. A local TV channel - al-Jazeera, not the BBC or CNN - has been a principal megaphone. The unplanned system of mutual support that has developed may turn out to have done more to bind the region together than the top-down attempts to create pan-Arabism in the 1950s. This year, says Rogan, "Arabs have been inspired by the example of fellow Arabs. What matters in the Arab world matters to Arabs." For that reason, it matters to us all.
This article originally appeared in the March 7, 2011 issue of TIME.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Another Dead Microbiologist - The Coming Plague youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgbMh-J2XZw
Malcolm Casadaban (12 August 1949 – 13 September 2009) was Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and of Microbiology at the University of Chicago.[1] Casadaban died following an accidental laboratory exposure to an attenuated strain of Yersinia pestis, a bacterium that causes the plague.[2].According to a CDC report on the incident, the strain that killed Casadaban (KIM D27) had never been known to infect laboratory workers as it was an "attenuated" or weakened strain that had defective genes for iron uptake. On autopsy, Casadaban was found to have undiagnosed hereditary hemochromatosis (iron overload) which likely played in a role in his death. [3]
He became Assistant Professor at Chicago in 1980, and Associate Professor in 1985.
He had also been associated with Thermogen, a company he formed with two of his former graduate students in 1998, to commercialize his work with thermophilic bacteria. The company expanded to an annual revenue of about $2 million, but was sold to MediChem, in 2000; this company in turn was later purchased by DeCODE Genetics.
He had 10 scientific publications cited over 100 times.
"Plague Death" Of Scientist: Unanswered Questions
by Johanna Faust.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19737605
Excerpt:
http://obambi.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/who-killed-malcolm-casadaban-and-why/
Excerpt:
Malcolm Casadaban
I would alert the perspicacious reader to the still unanswered questions, crazy hypothesis, and not-so-crazy ones. Thus my little round of research may prove useful to another, or perhaps this is only for my own peace of mind.
Why his death is of a sudden in the news is a question I have no answer for, but am glad of it for the sake of his family, and their unanswered questions. A detailed biography, including a technical overview of his life's work, is here. The article by Steve Zeltner, Chairman of the California Coalition for Workers Memorial Day, is the most professional piece I have seen on Indybay, and well worth the read in its entirety.
An excerpt:
Professor Casadaban had been working on a live attenuated vaccine strain of Yersinia Pestis, a strain of plague, which was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) safe for humans and for researchers in the lab that no one had died from it. CDC and Researchers called it a vaccine strain (live-attenuated vaccine strain) and excluded the strain from their Containment list of pathogens in 2008. Professor Casadaban had worked at the University of Chicago Department of MGCB and Committee of Virology at the University of Chicago from 1980-2009.
When the family came to Chicago for the funeral, a family member requested the Hospital autopsy team to investigate and later identified that Yersinia Pestis, its live-attenuated vaccine strain, KIM D27, had been the actual cause of death. University of Chicago is a power house of Infectious Disease Experts and is the Center of Excellence in federal Grant support for bioterrorism, ironically, nothing appeared to these experts that Yersinia Pestis and its live attenuated Strain of KIM D27can be dangerous to the lab researchers and public at large. No one from the University and the Center of Research attended him while he was sick. No one warned the University of Chicago Hospital Emergency Room doctors to treat him for the dangerous pathogen, which can be acquired from work. Furthermore, upon his death, no one from the University and its Institutions even suspected Yersinia Pestis pathogen to be the cause of death.
Once Yersinia Septicemia on the live-attenuated vaccine strain had been identified to be the cause of death, 20 people made up of the investigational team from CDC, OSHA and Chicago Public Health (CPH) as well as from University of Chicago visited the site in the investigation of his death. Still today, one year later, CDC, CPH and OSHA have not released their report to the family. OSHA issued a letter of BSL2 compliance though no specific details on their approval were substantiated in their claim.
NIH, which supported the federal research activities of Professor Casadaban and that of the Center of Excellence Grants had not even began their investigation of the case regarding serious concerns and issues relating to the health and safety conditions of the laboratories at the University and nationwide laboratories. The containment and bio-safety rules regarding pathogenic bacteria in public health and safety should be investigated, seriously evaluated and explored particularly on the eve of the death of Professor Casadaban.
(Read more)
More questions emerge in Newscientist's Short Sharp Science Blog. Don't believe any source that says the cause of death is certain, I would say, not only because details of which Yersinia strain are being withheld, but also because (as I have blogged before, elsewhere), Yersinia's responsibility for the Black Death is, or should be, in question.
Casadaban was reported to have been working with a weakened vaccine strain of Yersinia pestis, intended for the development of vaccines against plague. However, doctors are not sure the bacilli in Casadaban's blood were the cause of death, or how they got there. So what's going on?
Y. pestis has been linked to the medieval Black Death, though proof has been elusive. We do know that it kills several thousand a year by causing bubonic plague, and it is considered a potential biological weapon.
The University of Chicago has not revealed which strain the Yersinia was, but says it should have been safe....http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1711
[snip]
The strain seems likely to have been EV76, which is used as a vaccine in Russia and Madagascar. It is considered unlikely to revert to the virulent strain - but even without reverting, it kills some mice immunised with it.
Worse, up to a fifth of people vaccinated with EV76 develop flu symptoms such as fever, headache, weakness and malaise, according to Rick Titball of the University of Exeter, UK, a leading Yersinia expert. Some even need hospitalisation, he says, though no deaths have ever been reported that we know of.
(Read more)
While I do not agree completely agree with another post of the same title, I agree with the general thrust, as I find that I too must ask "Who Killed Malcolm Casadaban and Why?" even as the blog which forms its context dissuades hyperlinking our respective work.
I will, however, call your attention to a similar article, if more daring:
What's so strange, about this case, is that the 'strain' was weakened so as to not cause this. None of his friends, co-workers or family has it.
What caught my eye was the mention that they are looking into something that was in the professors biological make-up to make him susceptible to this disease.
Was this a DNA specific attack?"
(Read more)
Well, no, attack is not the right word. And the plague is not easily transmissible in its most common form, so it probably was not, being an attenuated vaccine. But plague is remarkably 1918-influenza-like, and the "California" or "Ukraine" version of H1N1 that surged right after Casadaban's death is remarkably plague-like.
To recap: details of which Yersinia strain are being withheld; Yersinia's responsibility for the Black Death is, or should be, in question; the strain he was working with, used in vaccines, was so weak it was not given special handling (and if it should have been, more people should be dead); he died right before the outbreak of 'Ukrainian Flu,' that many thought resembled pneumonic plague, of 2009; this flu resembled Spanish Flu (recently exhumed) which itself resembled the Black Death enough to prompt some to consider them one and the same (e.g., "Did the 1918 flu virus cause the Black Death?" here).
And so I leave you, Gentle Reader, as my last source left me, with a link to Steve Quayle's Updated List of Dead Scientists.
And so I leave you, Gentle Reader, as my last source left me, with a link to Steve Quayle's Updated List of Dead Scientists.
Be seeing you.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19737605
Excerpt:
Microb Pathog. 2010 Jan;48(1):42-52. Epub 2009 Sep 6.
Deletion of Braun lipoprotein gene (lpp) attenuates Yersinia pestis KIM/D27 strain: role of Lpp in modulating host immune response, NF-kappaB activation and cell death.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Medical Research Building, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1070, USA.
Abstract
The pathogenic species of yersiniae potently blocks immune responses in host cells by using the type III secretion apparatus and its effector proteins. In this study, we characterized potential mechanisms associated with the Braun lipoprotein (Lpp) that contributed to a further attenuation of a pigmentation locus-minus Yersinia pestis KIM/D27 mutant strain and its ability to generate immune responses in mice. The lpp gene encodes one of the major outer membrane lipoproteins that is involved in inflammatory responses and septic shock. We found that sera and splenocytes from Deltalpp mutant-immunized mice, when transferred to naïve animals, provided protection to the latter against challenge with a lethal dose of the Y. pestis parental strain. Further, the Deltalpp mutant promoted ex vivo a significantly higher interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-gamma production from T cells of immunized mice, when compared to those from animals infected with the sub-lethal dose of the parental Y. pestis KIM/D27 strain. Likewise, murine primary macrophages infected with the mutant, when compared to those infected with the parental strain in vitro, produced significantly higher IL-12 levels. Importantly, increased nuclear factor-kappa B activation and decreased apoptosis were noted in splenocytes and primary macrophages of mice challenged with the Deltalpp mutant, when compared to those in animals infected with the parental Y. pestis KIM/D27 strain. Finally, significantly higher levels of antibodies specific for the parental Y. pestis antigens were developed in mice first immunized with the Deltalpp mutant and then challenged with the parental strain, compared to the antibody levels in animals that were immunized and then infected with the parental KIM/D27 strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a mechanistic basis for attenuation and immunological responses associated with deletion of the lpp gene from the Y. pestis KIM/D27 strain.http://obambi.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/who-killed-malcolm-casadaban-and-why/
Excerpt:
Malcolm Casadaban
The strain is federally approved for lab studies. Dr. Kenneth Alexander, a UC infectious disease specialist, likened it to a “crocodile with no teeth” and called Casadaban’s death a mystery.
Casadaban’s lab on the South Side campus has been sealed off while authorities investigate.
Officials have said it’s unlikely anyone else would be infected, and a Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman said Monday the window for that happening was nearly over.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent three scientists to Chicago on Monday to help with the investigation.
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=136811.15;wap2
Excerpt:
Matt Hatter:
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=700%3Amicrobiologist-alleges-baxter-qswine-fluq-vaccine-is-a-bioweapon&Itemid=64
Joseph Moshe (MOSSAD Microbiologist): “Swine flu vaccine is bioweapon”
Posted on Unfictional.com
Friday, August 21, 2009
Today, the MSM are not talking about this case any more. Yesterday, they wanted us to believe that Joseph Moshe was a nutcase and a terrorist, arrested for threatening to bomb the White House. Interesting detail about his arrest (the “Westwood standoff”) was that he seemed to be immune to the 5 cans of tear gas and 5 gallons of law-enforcement grade pepper spray they pumped into his face. He very calmly remained in his car, as the video footage of his arrest shows.
Professor Moshe had called into a live radio show by Dr. A. True Ott, broadcast on Republic Broadcasting claiming to be a microbiologist who wanted to supply evidence to a States Attorney regarding tainted H1N1 Swine flu vaccines being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions. He said that Baxter’s Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=136811.15;wap2
Excerpt:
Matt Hatter:
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=700%3Amicrobiologist-alleges-baxter-qswine-fluq-vaccine-is-a-bioweapon&Itemid=64
Joseph Moshe (MOSSAD Microbiologist): “Swine flu vaccine is bioweapon”
Posted on Unfictional.com
Friday, August 21, 2009
Today, the MSM are not talking about this case any more. Yesterday, they wanted us to believe that Joseph Moshe was a nutcase and a terrorist, arrested for threatening to bomb the White House. Interesting detail about his arrest (the “Westwood standoff”) was that he seemed to be immune to the 5 cans of tear gas and 5 gallons of law-enforcement grade pepper spray they pumped into his face. He very calmly remained in his car, as the video footage of his arrest shows.
Professor Moshe had called into a live radio show by Dr. A. True Ott, broadcast on Republic Broadcasting claiming to be a microbiologist who wanted to supply evidence to a States Attorney regarding tainted H1N1 Swine flu vaccines being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions. He said that Baxter’s Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/baxter-to-develop-swine-flu-vaccine-despite-bird-flu-scandal.html
Excerpt:
However, Baxter has a very recent and most disturbing connection to flu vaccines.
As reported by multiple sources last month, including the Times of India, vaccines contaminated with deadly live H5N1 avian flu virus were distributed to 18 countries last December by a lab at an Austrian branch of Baxter.
It was only by providence that the batch was first tested on ferrets in the Czech Republic, before being shipped out for injection into humans. The ferrets all died and the shocking discovery was made.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Ramsey Clark about our Murderous Plutocratic Government youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt9xWOPlCfA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy
Plutocracy wikipedia
Excerpt:
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy.
http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
Excerpts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt9xWOPlCfA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy
Plutocracy wikipedia
Excerpt:
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy.
http://www.truth-out.org/bill-moyers-money-fights-hard-and-it-fights-dirty64766
Excerpts:
1) But then it stopped. Since 1980 the economy has also continued to grow handsomely, but only a fraction at the top have benefitted. The line flattens for the bottom 90% of Americans. Average income went from that $30,941 in 1980 to $31,244 in 2008. Think about that: the average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years.
That’s wage repression.
2) Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"
by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech
2) Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"
Wednesday 03 November 2010
That was Howard Zinn; he loved the daring ones, and was daring himself.
One month before his death he finished his last book, The Bomb. Once again he was wrestling with his experience as a B-17 bombardier during World War II, especially his last mission in 1945 on a raid to take out German garrisons in the French town of Royan. For the first time the Eighth Air Force used napalm, which burst into liquid fire on the ground, killing hundreds of civilians. He wrote, “I remember distinctly seeing the bombs explode in the town, flaring like matches struck in the fog. I was completely unaware of the human chaos below.” Twenty years later he returned to Royan to study the effects of the raid and concluded there had been no military necessity for the bombing; everyone knew the war was almost over (it ended three weeks later) and this attack did nothing to affect the outcome. His grief over having been a cog in a deadly machine no doubt confirmed his belief in small acts of rebellion, which mean, as Howard writes in the final words of the book, “acting on what we feel and think, here, now, for human flesh and sense, against the abstractions of duty and obedience.”
http://www.chrismartenson.com/forum/banking-globalization-russia-greece-chile-and-narcissism-harvard-debt-lords/36813
Excerpt:
Today marks the beginning of a new administration in Chile as Harvard economist and billionaire Sebastián Piñera eked out a narrow victory in January. Interestingly this is related to the rest of the world as we also see today Greek police, dressed in the Darth Vader costumes used in every country, cracking down hard on their poor countrymen. They have been robbed by the elite financier/politician tag-teams that roam the world attacking whichever country and currency they choose.
Since almost every currency is just a debt-based instrument, the tag-teams are quite successful. Despite the claims of neoclassical economics and the theories of Harvard Business School, having a debt-based currency means that governments are not in charge of their countries. We are living in a world governed by the bond market, billionaires, and elite financial institutions, not governments. The future is grim if this isn’t changed.
People who dismiss this will learn the painful lesson in due course. Most countries, especially the United States, are now stuck under incomprehensible levels of debt just waiting for financiers to attack. National foreclosure is coming. Those who paid attention when it happened to southeast Asian countries, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, and others know what is coming. People who are paying attention now to Greece can see what is coming—the end of cash transactions, the loss of sovereign land, the privatization of resources, massive taxation, the end of support for the lower classes, and an active police state.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/forum/banking-globalization-russia-greece-chile-and-narcissism-harvard-debt-lords/36813
Excerpt:
The Need to Fix Debt-Based Currencies and Stop Banking Globalization
Russia, Greece, Chile, and the Narcissism of Harvard Debt Lords
Today marks the beginning of a new administration in Chile as Harvard economist and billionaire Sebastián Piñera eked out a narrow victory in January. Interestingly this is related to the rest of the world as we also see today Greek police, dressed in the Darth Vader costumes used in every country, cracking down hard on their poor countrymen. They have been robbed by the elite financier/politician tag-teams that roam the world attacking whichever country and currency they choose.Since almost every currency is just a debt-based instrument, the tag-teams are quite successful. Despite the claims of neoclassical economics and the theories of Harvard Business School, having a debt-based currency means that governments are not in charge of their countries. We are living in a world governed by the bond market, billionaires, and elite financial institutions, not governments. The future is grim if this isn’t changed.
People who dismiss this will learn the painful lesson in due course. Most countries, especially the United States, are now stuck under incomprehensible levels of debt just waiting for financiers to attack. National foreclosure is coming. Those who paid attention when it happened to southeast Asian countries, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, and others know what is coming. People who are paying attention now to Greece can see what is coming—the end of cash transactions, the loss of sovereign land, the privatization of resources, massive taxation, the end of support for the lower classes, and an active police state.
by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech
I don't much like that Michael Moore has this on his website. (Notice George Soros and Media Matters/MoveOn) WTF?
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=238&rc=homepage.alert
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/message-solidarity-with-workers
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=238&rc=homepage.alert
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/message-solidarity-with-workers
Cindy Sheehan's oldest child Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4th, 2004. Since then she has been on a mission to end the wars and hold George W. Bush accountable
Cindy Sheehan
February 25th, 2011 1:29 AM
Working women and men, I stand with you, because I am one of you!
Some people call me the “Peace Mom," because of my unwavering work and stand for peace. In 2004, my son Casey made the ultimate sacrifice for war profiteering and imperial hubris; he was only in the Army because he wanted to take pressure off of his family for college tuition. Because I am one of you, I know that working women and men make substantial sacrifices every day of their lives.
You do it for your kids. For your spouse. And yes, even for your country.
But the sacrifices you are being asked to make today (and make no mistake, leaders of both political parties are responsible) are excessive, egregious, unconscionable and simply unthinkable in the context of personal freedom, collective responsibility, and unconditional equality.
We hear a lot of talk from politicians about compassion and concern, but the minute a politician, or a CEO, thinks the cost of doing business is too high, all that talk goes out the window – and workers pay the ultimate price.
WE MUST CHANGE THAT AND THE STRUGGLE HAS BEGUN!
This is NOT a financial issue! State and national deficits rise and fall with economic cycles. Those who would rob you of your rights know this, and they are lying! They want to scare you into giving up your rights.
DON’T LET THEM! WE MUST STAND FIRM!
This is not a political issue! It has nothing to do with conservatives or liberals, as some try to portray it. A brand new poll says that over 60 percent of American workers SUPPORT your right of collective bargaining!
No my friends, this is not a financial issue. This is not a political issue. IT IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE!
If a president or a governor or a legislature or a board of directors can organize to try to steal away your rights, you must exercise your basic right to organize against them!
THAT BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IS WHAT’S AT STAKE HERE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! I STAND WITH YOU IN DEFENDING IT!
Stand your ground, fight for every thing that is rightfully yours, but don't let your principled and courageous stand be co-opted for crass political gain. Politicians love to grandstand on our movements and co-opt our sacrifices for votes and political contributions, but have a way of conveniently forgetting their promises shortly after election day.
As this assault on your rights continues, take a minute to think about how it happened. We got to this place because we have voted, year after year, for the LESSER OF TWO EVILS. Remember this fact the next time you vote, and remember this: THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL EVIL.
If America is serious about leading the way in human rights, we must protect and expand the rights of those who keep America going: the working class.
I THANK YOU!! I SUPPORT YOU!!
IN SOLIDARITY,
Cindy Sheehan
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
DO SOMETHING:
In Solidarity With Wisconsin:
* * * * *
'Why I Support the
"Right now Thompson is fighting a frontline battle in a war that's been
A Message of Solidarity with Workers from Cindy Sheehan
A MESSAGE FROM CINDY SHEEHANWorking women and men, I stand with you, because I am one of you!
Some people call me the “Peace Mom," because of my unwavering work and stand for peace. In 2004, my son Casey made the ultimate sacrifice for war profiteering and imperial hubris; he was only in the Army because he wanted to take pressure off of his family for college tuition. Because I am one of you, I know that working women and men make substantial sacrifices every day of their lives.
You do it for your kids. For your spouse. And yes, even for your country.
But the sacrifices you are being asked to make today (and make no mistake, leaders of both political parties are responsible) are excessive, egregious, unconscionable and simply unthinkable in the context of personal freedom, collective responsibility, and unconditional equality.
We hear a lot of talk from politicians about compassion and concern, but the minute a politician, or a CEO, thinks the cost of doing business is too high, all that talk goes out the window – and workers pay the ultimate price.
WE MUST CHANGE THAT AND THE STRUGGLE HAS BEGUN!
This is NOT a financial issue! State and national deficits rise and fall with economic cycles. Those who would rob you of your rights know this, and they are lying! They want to scare you into giving up your rights.
DON’T LET THEM! WE MUST STAND FIRM!
This is not a political issue! It has nothing to do with conservatives or liberals, as some try to portray it. A brand new poll says that over 60 percent of American workers SUPPORT your right of collective bargaining!
No my friends, this is not a financial issue. This is not a political issue. IT IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE!
If a president or a governor or a legislature or a board of directors can organize to try to steal away your rights, you must exercise your basic right to organize against them!
THAT BASIC HUMAN RIGHT IS WHAT’S AT STAKE HERE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! I STAND WITH YOU IN DEFENDING IT!
Stand your ground, fight for every thing that is rightfully yours, but don't let your principled and courageous stand be co-opted for crass political gain. Politicians love to grandstand on our movements and co-opt our sacrifices for votes and political contributions, but have a way of conveniently forgetting their promises shortly after election day.
As this assault on your rights continues, take a minute to think about how it happened. We got to this place because we have voted, year after year, for the LESSER OF TWO EVILS. Remember this fact the next time you vote, and remember this: THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL EVIL.
If America is serious about leading the way in human rights, we must protect and expand the rights of those who keep America going: the working class.
I THANK YOU!! I SUPPORT YOU!!
IN SOLIDARITY,
Cindy Sheehan
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
DO SOMETHING:
RALLY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN DREAM
Tomorrow, Saturday, February 26th, at Noon
Local Time in Locations in All 50 States
In Solidarity With Wisconsin:
Defend the American Dream!
* * * * *
'Why I Support the
People of Thompson,
Canada – And You Should Too'
"Right now Thompson is fighting a frontline battle in a war that's been
raging for the past 30 years – the global war of the world's rich
on the middle class." – Michael Moore
'It Was Flint Yesterday, It's Us and Wisconsin
Today, and Tomorrow It's Going to Be Everyone'
"Our fight is for our hometown. It is a fight to ensure we benefit from our
resources. It is a fight to control our own destiny." – Niki Ashton,
Thompson's representative in the Canadian Parliament
HEAR THE VOICES OF THOMPSON:
Blair Hudson: 'This Will Have a Huge Ripple Effect' | Anita Campbell: 'I Will Always Consider Thompson My Home' | Craig Costello: 'High-Paying Jobs Leaving Town' | Sheila Thompson: 'It Will Be Hard for Me to Start Over' | Gloria Jacobs: 'It Can Happen Anywhere' | Nuno Pereira: 'We All Have to Put Life on Hold' | Dr. Ginette Poulin: 'Take a Stand' | Terry Stoker: 'Going Down With the Ship' | Amanda Hart: 'An Inco Family' | Darion Latchman, High School Sophomore: 'All Those Friends Will Be Separated' | Natalie Pegus, High School Senior: 'We Were Panicking'
DO SOMETHING:
Spread the Word: The Fight in Thompson Is the Fight Everywhere
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