[ Updated 1-19-2012 ]
Mr. O’s X on the NDAA is Final Nail in Civil Rights Coffin
So much for the efficacy of preemptive Nobel Peace Prizes.

On the eve of 2012 New Years Day – with shockingly little media or public outrage – Peace Prize Laureate Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizing the U.S. military’s kidnapping and indefinite detention without trial of anybody anywhere in the world…including U.S. citizens.

Though he issued a ‘signing statement’ stating his intention to exempt U.S. citizens, future presidents – like, say, any of the knaves, frauds and crazies on the current GOP campaign trail – will not be bound by it.

‘Yes I Can’ Means ‘No You Can’t’
Mr. Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office has turned his campaign slogan ‘Yes We Can!’ – which his strategists cynically stole from the United Farm Workers’ historic ‘Si Se Puede!’ – inside out and upside down.

‘Yes’ to unlimited banker bailouts. ‘Yes’ to no prosecutions for past war crimes, domestic spying, torture or massive financial frauds.
‘Yes’ to keeping Guantanamo open. ‘Yes’ to massive family-shattering immigrant deportations (exceeding GWB’s record). ‘Yes’ to the permanent war economy. ‘Yes’ to escalating drone strikes on wedding parties and funerals worldwide. ‘Yes’ to a ‘nuclear renaissance’ with federal loan guarantees and the cover-up of Fukushima’s radioactive fallout in the U.S.. ‘Yes’ to bombing Libya. ‘Yes’ (as the first African-American president) to the continuing deployment of the U.S. Africa Command -also known as AFRICOM – to secure for American corporations access to the continent’s remaining resources. ‘Yes’ to saber rattling targeting China and Iran. The list goes on and on. Pick your own slate of favorites.

And now, ‘Yes’ to universal abduction, extraordinary rendition and ‘disappearance’ authority for the U.S. military over all residents of Planet Earth. The final assertion of Full Spectrum Dominance and Global Hegemony. Feel more free and secure now?

If you want to get a sense of what this kind of policy already means for African American residents of Harlem, see Stop-and-Frisk As a Weapon of Gentrification, a radio commentary by Glen Ford at Black Agenda Reports.
“There is ample anecdotal evidence that the relentless pressures of stop-and-frisk have substantially contributed to the mass exile of Blacks from New York.”

ICE raids and massive Hispanic immigrant deportations under Obama are another sobering example.

In this blog edition…
This edition offers links that explore these issues and ends with a video clip of third party presidential candidate Rocky Anderson.

The following comment seems to set the appropriate analytical tone:
The GOP is pleased that Romney is willing to take one for the team and go up against the first politician to amass a billion dollar campaign war chest. Romney will help Obama win another term, assuring that the GOP gets more regressive legislation passed than any GOP president could ever hope to. The added bonus is that the GOP won’t take the heat from the voters, thereby keeping control of both houses of Congress during Obama’s second term. This will in turn give Obama cover to push even more regressive legislation through. No political machine in the history of humankind has ever worked so efficiently to transfer wealth from the 99% to the 1%. As Warren Buffet observed, “my side is winning the class war”. By the time Obama’s second inaugural is held one year from tomorrow you can bet your last nickle that the class war will have been won by the 1%.

Posted by raydelcamino
Jan 19 2012 – 4:51pm as a comment on
Romney Loses his Cool with Occupier ‘America’s Right and You’re Wrong’

Chris Hedges Sues Obama Admin Over Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens Approved in NDAA
Democracy Now

www.democracynow.org – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has filed suit against President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes controversial provisions authorizing the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world, without charge or trial. Sections of the bill are written so broadly that critics say they could encompass journalists who report on terror-related issues, such as Hedges, for supporting enemy forces. “It is clearly unconstitutional,” Hedges says of the bill. “It is a huge and egregious assault against our democracy. It overturns over 200 years of law, which has kept the military out of domestic policing.”

2012’s Civil Liberties Apocalypse Has Already Happened
by Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis – Common Dreams

In case you missed it, President Barack Obama has signed a death knell for the Bill of Rights. It’s a hell of a way to begin a year many believe will mark the end of the world.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) makes a mockery of our basic civil liberties. It shreds the intent of the Founders to establish a nation where essential rights are protected. It puts us all at risk for arbitrary, indefinite incarceration with no real rights to recourse.

The Act authorizes a $626 billion dollar defense budget (which does not include the CIA, special ops, various black box items, etc). Obama’s signing statement says it does address counterterrorism at home and abroad as well as Defense Department modernization, health care costs and more.

But it also includes Sections 1021 and 1022, bitterly opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, among many others. The New York Times urged Obama to veto the bill because of them. The UK-based Guardian said NDAA 2012 allows allows for indefinite detention of US citizens “without trial [of] American terrorism subjects arrested on U.S. soil, who could then be shipped to Guantanamo Bay.” The Kansas City Star was equally blunt, stating that the NDAA is “trampling the bill of rights in defense’s name.”

Section 1021 reasserts the President’s authority to use the military to detain any person “who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” It also includes the military’s power to detain anyone who commits a “belligerent act” against the U.S. or its coalition allies under the law of war. Despite widespread public pressure, Obama did not veto the bill. In his signing statement he said: “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.” Read more

Why I’m Suing Barack Obama
by Chris Hedges – TruthDig.org

Attorneys Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran filed a complaint Friday in the Southern U.S. District Court in New York City on my behalf as a plaintiff against Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to challenge the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed by the president Dec. 31.

The act authorizes the military in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled “Counter-Terrorism,” for the first time in more than 200 years, to carry out domestic policing. With this bill, which will take effect March 3, the military can indefinitely detain without trial any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. And suspects can be shipped by the military to our offshore penal colony in Guantanamo Bay and kept there until “the end of hostilities.” It is a catastrophic blow to civil liberties. Read more.

10 Reasons the US is No Longer the Land of the Free
by Jonathan Turley

Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?

Does US Senate Commit Treason with NDAA Bill?
January 1, 2012 5:45 am
by Jeanine Molloff – UK Progressive

December 1st, 2011, the US Senate accomplished the unthinkable–with the nearly unanimous passage of the National Defense Authorization Bill of 2012–they committed treason. Written and planned in secret by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the newly minted NDAA contains three sections which collectively sanctions indefinite detention of alleged terrorists or ‘terrorist sympathizers’–anywhere in the world including the US– and designates the military the duty to arrest, imprison and interrogate without benefit of counsel,’ accused civilians here on Main Street. Ironically, the abuse of civilian Iraqis by our military and by military contractors is coming to a locale near you. Theoretically, armed squads of US soldiers might be knocking on your door in the dead of night to take away Auntie Mame for her alleged ‘terrorist’ activities—at the ACLU. This bill potentially allows for the blatant political prosecutions of any dissenter using the military as a bully club to instill deep fear in any who dare to question our government’s motives.

No proof of wrongdoing is required and those accused are denied the due process right of trial by their peers, or the services of an attorney– and are subsequently relegated to the ‘military commissions justice system.’ As a result–the accused are reduced to the status of ‘unlawful enemy combatant,’ and are subject to the following actions: ‘extraordinary rendition’, ‘enhanced interrogation’ procedures, ‘indefinite detention to possibly a life sentence, and ‘presidential assigned extermination of target’ . These powers are then ‘given’ to the President to use at will, fully codified in law,while requiring in reality no proof other than presidential whim.

It is at this juncture that I find the timing of this bill suspicious–coinciding with the exponential growth of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the recent implosion of both EU and US economies, the emerging body of proof documenting Wall Street’s enormous crimes, and the Super Committee threat to cut military funding. It almost looks like the robber barons of Wall Street ‘circling the wagons’ in a fit of legislative revenge against the rabble, namely you and I.

Obama pledges to exempt Americans from indefinite detention law
By Stephen C. Webster
Saturday, December 31, 2011

…The provision was just one part of a massive $662 billion defense spending authorization that funds the military, penalizes Iran’s central bank and freezes military aid to Pakistan, among other things.

The president’s opponents in Congress, including some Democrats, attached the indefinite detention provision to force the administration to either accept a much heavier load of terrorism suspects, many who would be heading to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, or veto the bill and stand accused of opposing funds for the troops.

President Obama issued a veto threat after a provision was added that required all terrorism suspects be automatically rendered into military custody — a fundamental change to the criminal justice system that members of the administration warned could stymie other agencies or put investigations at risk.

Obama agreed to sign it after language was left in the bill that allows the administration to dedicate terror prisoners to civilian courts instead of military custody. In its final form, the bill stipulates that all terrorism suspects are to be handled by the military unless the administration decides otherwise and explains its reasoning to Congress.

Obama Prepares to Authorize Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens for First Time Since McCarthy Era–Glenn Greenwald on NDAA

President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law – ACLU
December 31, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law today. The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision. While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations. The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the NDAA, but reversed course shortly before Congress voted on the final bill.

“President Obama’s action today is a blight on his legacy because he will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally.”

Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.

Published on Sunday, January 1, 2012 by CommonDreams.org
The Delusional Assumptions of Capitalism
by Doug Harvey

One of the more delusional aspects of capitalism is the idea that if one pursues the acquisition of private wealth with abandon, that this is somehow automatically “good” for human society.

Third party candidate Rocky Anderson: Corporate interests control U.S. government

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What’s ‘Appropriate Scale’ for Wind Generation?
In the aftermath of the failed Durban Climate Summit and the absence of responsible international governmental action on carbon emission reduction, citizens at the local and regional levels are considering ways to step into the breach. Generation of electricity with giant industrial wind turbines is being widely considered.

Industrial wind power advocates tend to deny, ignore or poo-poo the issues raised by those who point to potentially serious negative impacts of the technology on wildlife, property values, environment and human health, To the credit of its sponsors, this meeting aimed to look at all sides of the question. We apologize for the delay in getting it posted, but the issue is not going away any time soon.

[Scroll down for Forum videos.]

Evidence of Harms
EON’s investigation of this issue – and of so-called ‘smart grid’ issues overall – leads us to believe that unbridled enthusiasm for industrial-scale, corporately controlled, centralized wind installations is a Big Mistake, joining the ranks of other green-washed false solutions like the claims that nuclear energy, ‘clean’ coal and fracking are necessary to save the planet.

Wind development as a renewable energy source should be possible, but only if it is appropriate scale, locally controlled, and environmental and health concerns are resolved.

We agree with Magda Havas and David Colling who say in their recent article in the Bulletin of Science and Society, “Wind Turbines Make Waves: Why Some Residents Near Wind Turbines Become Ill,” “With a growing interest in renewable forms of energy, the technology has to be not only energy efficient but also human friendly.”

Abstract: “People who live near wind turbines complain of symptoms that include some combination of the following: difficulty sleeping, fatigue, depression, irritability, aggressiveness, cognitive dysfunction, chest pain/pressure, headaches, joint pain, skin irritations, nausea, dizziness, tinnitus, and stress. These symptoms have been attributed to the pressure (sound) waves that wind turbines generate in the form of noise and infrasound. However, wind turbines also generate electromagnetic waves in the form of poor power quality (dirty electricity) and ground current, and these can adversely affect those who are electrically hypersensitive. Indeed, the symptoms mentioned above are consistent with electrohypersensitivity. Sensitivity to both sound and electromagnetic waves differs among individuals and may explain why not everyone in the same home experiences similar effects. Ways to mitigate the adverse health effects of wind turbines are presented.”

Wind in Marin
Since the County of Marin is amending its Local Coastal Program (LCP) for West Marin to allow industrial wind turbines as a permitted use on the coast, folks need as much information about industrial wind turbines they can find to be able to make informed decisions.

Here is an excerpt from a recent Vermont news story:
“…[A]ll wind turbine ordinances should hold developers responsible for a full-price (pre-turbine) buyout of any family whose lives are ruined by turbines — to prod developers to follow realistic health-based rules and prevent the extreme economic loss of home abandonment.”

Electrosensitive people, (who’ve been injured by overexposure to RF and electromagnetic pollution) may have allies in the victims and scientists involved in “Wind Turbine Syndrome,’ which includes sleep deprivation, ringing in ears, and incredible headaches.

“It’s like living in a microwave oven,” … People hear a ringing in their ears, lose sleep, and suffer headaches, …. the residents’ blood pressure went so high that they needed medication to reduce it.

Wind companies use ‘gag clauses’ – ”which “forbid people who receive payments from wind companies, or who have lost legal challenges, from saying anything negative about the turbines or developer.”

Other gag clauses include…
“Grantor grants and conveys to Grantee a non-exclusive easement, right and entitlement on, over, across and under the Property to permit the Wind Farm or any component thereof to impact view or visual effects from the Property; to cause vibration; to cause electromagnetic and frequency interference; to cast shadows (including, without limitation, any from the turbines and moving blades) onto the Property; to interfere with television, radio or satellite reception; or to emit noise or sounds caused by the construction or operation of the Wind Farm.”

Check out the full article from Vermont’s Chronicle, “Low-frequency sound, stray voltage, are suspects in ill effects of wind turbines.”

Local Volts Wind Forum
The pros and cons of industrial scale, centralized, corporately-owned wind generation in contrast to small scale, locally distributed, publicly-owned wind power are discussed in this community forum held in Pt. Reyes, CA., Oct. 19, 2011.

 

The panel, moderated by author Peter Azmus of Pathfinder Communications, included: Dawn Weisz, Marin Energy Authority; Dave Willard, Sage Renewables; Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity; Helen Kozoriz, West Marin/Sonoma Coastal Advocates; Bernie Stephan, Sustainable Marin; Judd Howell, American Wildlife Institute; and Ed Mainland, Sierra Club California.

Co-Sponsors: Environmental Forum of Marin; Marin Conservation League; Sierra Club’s Marin Group; Sustainable Marin; Transition West Marin; SF Bay Area Chapter Women of Wind Energy.
Local Volts Wind Forum – Pt. 1

Panel Presentations

LocalVolts Wind Forum Pt. 2

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Solstice 2021: Whales in Trouble
Whales And Collective Consciousness Vs. “Smart” Oceans,
Internet Of Underwater Things, And Annihilation By Technology
____________________________________________________________________________________________
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/12/solstice-2021-whales-and-collective-consciousness-vs-smart-oceans-internet-ofunderwater-things-and-annihilation-by-technology.html
____________________________________________________________________________________________
By Patricia Burke – December 3, 2021

Whale Trust reports,

“The humpback whale song is one of the most complex, non-human, acoustic displays in
the animal kingdom.
But why males sing is still a mystery.
Whale Trust Maui researchers have been following, recording, and tracking humpback
whales singers off the coast of Maui, Hawaii since the mid-70s. After decades of study,
we are currently testing the hypothesis that the song may function as an index of
association between individual males … , the song may be a means for individual males
to recognize how closely associated they are with other males, and may determine if
specific males cooperate or compete for females. This hypothesis suggests that the
changing nature of the song (with all singers in a region singing the same version at any
one time) provides a measure of geographic association between males and a means of
organizing male relationships in the breeding season.”
– Whale Trust

We don’t yet understand the whale song, but we do know that “In the North Pacific,
underwater noise has doubled in intensity every decade for the past 60 years. Noise
from shipping, seismic exploration, and military sonar contribute to underwater noise
and may impact the ability of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) to conduct
critical life processes such as foraging, finding mates, and navigating through their
underwater environment,” according to Wild Whales.

Building an Internet of Underwater Things will not “help humanity monitor changing
climate conditions” in and around the oceans (for example, as claimed by the World
Smart Cities Association).  (continue reading below)

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READ REPORT WITH OUR ONLINE PDF READER.

To ‘Occupy’ or to ‘Decolonize?’ THAT is the question.Updated 12-2-2011

With a reported 25,000 ‘Occupy’ events on-going around the world, this edition attends to the question: It may be global, but is it planetarian? Is ‘occupy’ a word with a history and might ‘decolonize’ be a better watchword?

It also looks at how the transnational ‘banking class’ is continuing its attempt to colonize the world’s economies and remaining dwindling resources, AND how the consciousness raising effects of the OWC movements are spreading to impact environmental issues like the Keystone Tar Sands pipeline.

Is ‘Occupy’ a Dirty Word? Can it be Redefined and Rebranded?
Its an inconvenient truth in the current political atmosphere, but for many – Iraqis, Native Americans, Hawaiians and indigenous peoples worldwide – the term ‘occupy’ has too bitter a karmic history to serve well as the label of a movement for equality, justice, peace and sustainability.

In Oakland this Sunday, the encampment’s General Assembly will consider a motion lodged by Native American activists and others to rename itself ‘Decolonize’ instead. You can hear eloquent discussion of this issue by several key activists on KPFA FM’s Bay Native Circle, for November 30, 2011. [Available until Wednesday, December 14th 2011]

This dissenting view is shared by at least one African American commentator, BlackAgendaReport.com’s Jared Ball in his editorial Decolonizing Our Occupations. Says Ball, “White privilege, the legacy of 500 years of European military and economic suppression of the rest of the planet, is manifest even in movements that purport to be transformational, like Occupy Wall Street. Beneath the politics of economic reordering lie notions that the “new” and overwhelmingly white movement somehow supersedes the centuries-old aspirations of Europe’s primary victims.”

For reference, some key Planetarian transition values are these:

From Control to Cooperation
From Exclusion to Inclusion
From Possession to Liberation
From Exploitation to Compassion
From Short-Term-Profit to Long Term Sustainability

These are the values and consciousness transformation principles we have the good fortune and responsibility to look to as we live our lives in ‘interesting times.’

In this Digest
First, a preliminary report from the Moana Nui Conference in Hawaii. Then new revelations about what the bankers for the 1% have been up to as Paul Craig Roberts shows how Goldman Sachs is taking over the EU; Bernie Sanders and the GAO reveal secret Fed loans of $7.7 trillion to the Too-Big-to-Fail banks; Bloomberg News reports it was actually $13 trillion; Dennis Kucinich charges that the Federal Reserve has captured control of our government; and Rainforest Action Network fingers the top ten Climate Killer Banks.

Finally, excerpts from a recent Democracy Now Special – “Occupy Everywhere: On the New Politics and Possibilities of the Movement Against Corporate Power,” a panel discussion hosted by The Nation magazine and The New School in New York City, features Oscar-winning filmmaker and author Michael Moore; Naomi Klein, best-selling author of the “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”; Rinku Sen of the Applied Research Center and publisher of ColorLines; Occupy Wall Street organizer Patrick Bruner; and veteran journalist William Greider, author of “Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country.”

Naomi Wolf Versus Joshua Holland: Was There a Coordinated Federal Crackdown on Occupy Wall Street?

Resistance is Fertile.

Occupying Asia-Pacific…Pacifically – A Planetarian Evolution
As the growing Occupy Movement was evoking panicky, cruel and illegal excessive force responses from authorities across the U.S., the debt crisis and popular resistance to ‘austerity measures’ were engulfing the E.U., and the Second Revolution was taking shape in post-Mubarak Egypt despite American-supplied tear gas, an unprecedented international gathering of indigenous spokespeople, scholars, legislators and activists from around the world was taking place in Honolulu, Hawaii November 9-11, 2011.

Organized and co-sponsored by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and Pua Mohala I Ka Po, Hawai’i MoanaNui2011.org, , it was the ‘counter-conference’ to a simultaneous gathering of ‘world leaders’ to discuss APEC and the TPP.

Never heard of APEC and the TPP? That’s the way the ‘world leaders’ want it, and the Moana Nui counter conference was organized to shine some Hawaiian public sunlight on these secret backroom deals being crafted by 21 countries, the details of which are not to be released publicly for four years.

APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which bills itself as ‘APEC is the premier Asia-Pacific economic forum.’ TPP stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement, is a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further ‘liberalise’ the economies of the Asia-Pacific region.

Here’s how a leaflet entitled ‘APEC Sucks’ prepared by World Can’t Wait HI decodes what it calls ‘APEC’s Real Agenda:’

“Using ‘free trade’ as a codeword, APEC proposes policies that give inperialist powers and multinational corporations the ‘right’ to go into oppressed countries and take out whatever they want, with as few restrictions as possible.
“The positions adopted at the APEC meeting are then taken to the World Trade Organization (WTO), where the APEC economies lobby for trade policies to enforce them.
“APEC, like the IMF, the WTO, and NAFTA, is against the interest of the majority of the people in the Asia-Pacific Region and the Planet.”

[ For more, see Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation on Wikipedia here. See Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership on Wikipedia here.

For two information packed days, star-studded panels of authoritative presenters covered the following topics:
Native Rights, Economies, Governance – Resisting Global Powers
Militarization and Resistance in the Pacific
Globalization, Development and Geopolitics
Pacific Resources, Lands, Economies
APEC & TPP: What We Must Know; What Should We do?
You can see the full program roster here, at IFG.org.

The EON video team was there and we will be posting our blog and video reports soon.

Meanwhile, you can access our Moana Nui Counter-APEC Conference Photo Gallery here and MoanaNui2011.org video posts here.

The Moana Nui Conference climaxed with the issuing of a public statement and a well-attended march through Waikiki.

In related events, here are two wonderful videos from OWS that illustrate the planetarian impulse uniting all these grassroots, 99%, worldwide awakenings.

Video
Occupy Anthem – chloecornelius
“I’ll Occupy” Recruitment Song: The 99 is Pissed and We Will Not Be Dismissed!

 

Video
Occupy “bat signal” for the 99% (BEAUTIFUL!)

The People’s Library of Occupy Wall Street Lives On
William Scott – Nation Mag – November 22, 2011

The People’s Library at Zuccotti Park—a collection of more than 5,000 donated books of every genre and subject, all free for the taking—was created not only to serve the Occupy Wall Street protesters; it was meant to provide knowledge and reading pleasure for the wider public as well, including residents of Lower Manhattan. It was also a library to the world at large, since many visitors to the park stopped by the library to browse our collection, to donate books of their own and to take books for themselves.

At about 2:30 am on November 15, the People’s Library was destroyed by the NYPD, acting on the authority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. With no advance notice, an army of police in riot gear raided the park, seized everything in it and threw it all into garbage trucks and dumpsters. Despite Mayor Bloomberg’s Twitter promise that the library was safely stored and could be retrieved, only about 1,100 books were recovered, and some of those are in unreadable condition. Four library laptops were also destroyed, as well as all the bookshelves, storage bins, stamps and cataloging supplies and the large tent that housed the library.

For the past six weeks I have been living and working as a librarian in the People’s Library, camping out on the ground next to it. I’m an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and I’ve chosen to spend my sabbatical at Occupy Wall Street to participate in the movement and to build and maintain the collection of books at the People’s Library. I love books—reading them, writing in them, arranging them, holding them, even smelling them. I also love having access to books for free. I love libraries and everything they represent. To see an entire collection of donated books, including many titles I would have liked to read, thoughtlessly ransacked and destroyed by the forces of law and order was one of the most disturbing experiences of my life. My students in Pittsburgh struggle to afford to buy the books they need for their courses. Our extensive collection of scholarly books and journals alone would have sufficed to provide reading materials for dozens of college classrooms. With public libraries around the country fighting to survive in the face of budget cuts, layoffs and closings, the People’s Library has served as a model of what a public library can be: operated for the people and by the people. (click above for full article)

Kucinich: Federal Reserve has captured control of our government
A Revelation- The Fed Grants $7.77 Trillion in Secret Bank Loans

 

Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over
by Paul Craig Roberts

….In my opinion, the failed German bond auction was orchestrated by the US Treasury, by the European Central Bank and EU authorities, and by the private banks that own the troubled sovereign debt.

My opinion is based on the following facts. Goldman Sachs and US banks have guaranteed perhaps one trillion dollars or more of European sovereign debt by selling swaps or insurance against which they have not reserved. The fees the US banks received for guaranteeing the values of European sovereign debt instruments simply went into profits and executive bonuses. This, of course, is what ruined the American insurance giant, AIG, leading to the TARP bailout at US taxpayer expense and Goldman Sachs’ enormous profits.

If any of the European sovereign debt fails, US financial institutions that issued swaps or unfunded guarantees against the debt are on the hook for large sums that they do not have.

Secret Fed Loans Helped Banks Net $13 Billion

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
…
$7.77 Trillion
The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.

GAO Report: Federal Reserve Is Riddled With Corruption And Conflicts Of Interest, Stephen Friedman Is Targeted

First Federal Reserve Audit Reveals Trillions in Secret Bailouts
by Matthew Cardinale

ATLANTA, Aug 28, 2011 (IPS) – The first-ever audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve has revealed 16 trillion dollars in secret bank bailouts and has raised more questions about the quasi-private agency’s opaque operations.

“This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else,” U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, said in a statement.

The majority of loans were issues by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY).

“From late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars… in emergency loans to the financial sector to address strains in credit markets and to avert failures of individual institutions believed to be a threat to the stability of the financial system,” the audit report states.

“The scale and nature of this assistance amounted to an unprecedented expansion of the Federal Reserve System’s traditional role as lender-of-last-resort to depository institutions,” according to the report.

The report notes that all the short-term, emergency loans were repaid, or are expected to be repaid.
…
Overall, the greatest borrowing was done by a small number of institutions. Over the three years, Citigroup borrowed a total of 2.5 trillion dollars, Morgan Stanley borrowed two trillion; Merryll Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America, borrowed 1.9 trillion; and Bank of America borrowed 1.3 trillion.

Banks based in counties other than the U.S. also received money from the Fed, including Barclays of the United Kingdom, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (UK), Deutsche Bank (Germany), UBS (Switzerland), Credit Suisse Group (Switzerland), Bank of Scotland (UK), BNP Paribas (France), Dexia (Belgium), Dresdner Bank (Germany), and Societe General (France).

“No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the President,” Sanders wrote.

In recent days, ‘Bloomberg News’ obtained 29,346 pages of documentation from the Federal Reserve about some of these secret loans, after months of fighting in court for access to the records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of the financial institutions secretly receiving loans were meanwhile claiming in their public reports to have ample cash reserves, Bloomberg noted.

The Federal Reserve has neither explained how they legally justified several of the emergency loans, nor how they decided to provide assistance to certain firms but not others.

“The main problem is the lack of Congressional oversight, and the way the Fed seemed to pick winners who would be protected at any cost,” Randall Wray, professor of economics at University of Missouri-Kansas City, told IPS.

“If such lending is not illegal, it should be. Our nation really did go through a liquidity crisis – a run on the short-term liabilities of financial institutions. There is only one way to stop a run: lend reserves without limit to all qualifying institutions. The Fed bumbled around before it finally sort of did that,” Wray said.

Bankrolling Climate Change: New Study Ranks Top 20 Climate Killer Banks
Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA – November 30 – Today, as world leaders gather in Durban to discuss solutions to global climate change, an international coalition of civil society and environmental organizations released a new study, “Bankrolling Climate Change,” highlighting the top 20 banks that finance the coal industry. The study examines commercial banks’ lending for the coal industry and provides the first comprehensive climate ranking for financial institutions. The study finds JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America to be the top three banks in the world financing climate change.

A full copy of the study with a ranking of all the researched banks can be downloaded at www.banktrack.org.

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power

How does the Occupy Wall Street movement move from “the outrage phase” to the “hope phase,” and imagine a new economic model? In a Democracy Now! special broadcast, we bring you excerpts from a recent event that examined this question and much more. “Occupy Everywhere: On the New Politics and Possibilities of the Movement Against Corporate Power,” a panel discussion hosted by The Nation magazine and The New School in New York City, features Oscar-winning filmmaker and author Michael Moore; Naomi Klein, best-selling author of the “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”; Rinku Sen of the Applied Research Center and publisher of ColorLines; Occupy Wall Street organizer Patrick Bruner; and veteran journalist William Greider, author of “Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country.” [includes rush transcript]

Richard Wolff: Eurozone Woes Result From Mating of Our “Dysfunctional” Political, Economic Systems

Richard D. Wolff, Emeritus Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and visiting professor at New School University. He is the author of several books including, “Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.”

European leaders are preparing to unveil their plans for addressing the sovereign debt crisis that’s threatened to tear apart the Eurozone. Both France and Germany are expected to push for changes to the Eurozone treaty, including centralized oversight of national budgets and tighter reins on debt. In a speech on Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said radical changes are needed in order to save the Euro. Sarkozy’s address came after central banks — including the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank — took coordinated action to prevent a credit crunch among European banks. For more on the developing crisis in Europe and its implications worldwide, we are joined by economist and professor Richard Wolff. He is the author of several books including “Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It.” “The Fed is recognizing that another bailout is needed,” Wolff says. “All the steps taken over the last two years to try to cope with this crisis of our capitalist system haven’t worked, and so we’re now we are again on the brink of a crisis, and again, public money and public institutions are bailing out a private banking system and a private enterprise system that is not working and is not solving its own problems.” Wolff continues, “The fundamental question is you’ve gotta deal with an economic system that is not working. … You’ve gotta take big steps to change the way this economic system works, or find a new system. … It’s as though we have a dysfunctional economic system coupled to a now dysfunctional political system and instead of fixing each other, these two systems are making each other in a kind of spiral downturn…”

Fed Boosts Flow of Dollars to EU
By NEIL IRWIN and MICHAEL BIRNBAUM, The Washington Post
September 16, 2011 – Fiscal Times

Worried that a mounting debt crisis in Europe could trip up the global economy, the Federal Reserve opened its vault Thursday to the central banks of other countries in an effort to head off a crippling shortage of dollars.
The main recipient of the Fed’s money is the European Central Bank, which will in turn extend dollar loans to banks in the nations that use the euro currency. Those banks do significant business in dollars, for instance making loans to customers operating around the world, and have been finding it harder to raise dollars from anxious investors.
The initiative, which entails temporarily swapping dollars for foreign currencies, also involves the central banks of Britain, Switzerland and Japan, underlining the extent of international concern about Europe’s deteriorating financial system.

Naomi Wolf Versus Joshua Holland: Was There a Coordinated Federal Crackdown on Occupy Wall Street?
Naomi Wolf responds to Joshua Holland’s criticisms of her piece alleging a coordinated federal crackdown on Occupy Wall Street.

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Launching a Blog in ‘Interesting Times’
A word from the editors –
James Heddle & Mary Beth Brangan

In this time of converging, synergistic challenges and creative responses of non-violent ‘people power’ around the world, we will be featuring ‘solutionary’ perspectives that go beyond conventional worldviews and opinions.

You will find posts informed by – but not limited to – the insights of leading-edge science, indigenous wisdom traditions, general systems thinking, holism, and ‘fourth world’ political analysis.

In our irregular posts we’ll focus on the following issue areas;
The Planetization Movement – From Geo-Politics to Gaian-Politics
Election Protection & Deep Democracy – Votes Freely Cast, Transparently Counted
and Honestly Reported
Food, Water, Pesticides and Health Freedom – Beyond Big Agra, Big Pharma and Water Barons To Localized Permaculture, Healthy Watersheds and Holistic Healing
Clean Energy & Climate Change Solutions – Co-Creating a Post-Carbon Culture

Please also visit eon3EMFblog.net for news digests, videos and commentaries on issues of electro-magnetic radiation from ELF to RF and nuclear radiation. There we cover:
Electro-Magnetic Health Protection – Public Health, Democracy and the ‘Wireless Revolution’
Nuclear Free Planet – Beyond Weapons, Power, Radioactive Pollution and Waste

As we launch this blog we are seeing global economic chaos, carbon emissions of ‘monstrous’ proportions, extreme weather events, ongoing meltdowns and nuclear fallout from Fukushima continuing, on-going oil wars, and threats of a nuclear war on Iran – to mention only a few of our converging challenges.

Yet all around the world self-organizing groups of ordinary folks from every walk of life are forging an emerging trans-national culture of creative non-violent ‘solutionary’ responses based on cooperation, justice, compassion and caring for each other and the planet. That’s what we mean by ‘planetarian.’

Next week we’ll be covering the MOANA NUI CONFERENCE in Honolulu being held opposite the meeting there of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) – another corporately-captured, un-elected international entity designed to supersede local democracy, national sovereignty, human rights, and international law. For more background, check APEC out on Wikipedia here.

MOANA NUI CONFERENCE is a collaboration between Pua Mohala I Ka Po, Hawaii, and the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), San Francisco.
Some of the subjects the MOANA NUI CONFERENCE will address:

Working for economic and political self-determination for Pacific island peoples;
Actualizing the rights contained in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
Advancing the resistance to militarization and colonization in the Pacific, with special focus on Guam, Okinawa, Jeju Island, and Hawaii

We’ll be blogging from there as time allows. We hope you will find these postings useful. There will be more pages, resources and widgets soon. Please let us know what you think as the blog evolves.

Here’s the first edition…
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‘Occupy’ reaches into living rooms through new TV ad

We May Be Witnessing the First Large Global Conflict Where People Are Aligned by Consciousness and Not Nation State or Religion – Naomi Wolf – Al Jazeera English

They’re fighting a “corporatocracy” that has bought governments, created armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems.

…Suddenly, the United States looks like the rest of the furious, protesting, not-completely-free world. Indeed, most commentators have not fully grasped that a world war is occurring.

Where Occupy & No Nukes Merge and Win!!
Harvey Wasserman

The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing—and saving—the world.

Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.

A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power,” said Jimi Hendrix, “the world will know peace.”

Christian Parenti – Tropic of Chaos Notes from the Underground – Mark Crispin Miller

Journalist and author Christian Parenti, talks about his new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.

Euro-Chaos and Global Capitalism – The Real News Network
Leo Panitch: We are witnessing the irrationality of capitalism and the incredible struggle of people in the street.

Wall Street vs. Greece: G20 Opens as Greek PM Pushes for Referendum on Bailout and Austerity Measures

Michael Hudson, president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire. His website is Michael-Hudson.com.

Jon Corzine’s MF Global Firm Collapses in Biggest Wall Street Failure Since Lehman Brothers William Cohan, contributing editor to Vanity Fair and author of several books, including Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World.

Video Report From Streets of Oakland: First General Strike in City Since 1946 Shuts Downs Major Port

Election Protection
Will the 1% Steal Ohio’s Labor Rights Referendum?
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Tuesday’s most important vote is the repeal of Ohio’s vicious anti-labor Issue 2.

Polls show the repeal winning by 20% or more. But will it—like the 2004 presidential election—be stolen by a 1% intent on crushing working people and stealing huge sums of money?

[ Election Theft 101 – You can download the charts pictured below here and here. FreePress.org published them in July.]

New court filing reveals how the 2004 Ohio presidential election was hacked
by Bob Fitrakis
July 20, 2011

A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio’s 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio’s vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush’s unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash….

International
China-US Energy Geopolitics: The Battle for Oil in the South China Sea
by Michel Chossudovsky – GlobalResearch.org
A new area of potential confrontation is developing between China and the U.S. According to reports, Exxon Mobil which has acquired exploration and production rights from Vietnam has discovered substantial gas reserves in the South China Sea off the coast of North Vietnam. Read more.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – Half Of Humanity, Counterbalance To U.S. And NATO
by Bassam Javed – Global Research

The 10th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) heads of governments meeting will take place on November 7 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The prime minister of Pakistan will participate in the meeting at the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Alexander Putin. The Organization, originally founded in 2001 has evolved into an effective mechanism over the years to enable its member states trans-act on strategic regional issues and economic development….

…Since its inception the organization has come a long way wherein it is now given due importance at all regional and international organizations. As it happens with every upcoming organisation it is confronted with many external and internal challenges as well. Externally, its security concepts run counter to that of Nato and the United States. The SCO believes in ‘non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-interference in the affairs of other countries’ by preferring to convince the countries to solve their differences through peaceful means. The United States still relies on its military prowess to realize its own security and as well as that of its allies through military means. The SCO is working towards ending the ‘cold war’ concepts and transcending ideologies unlike the Americans who still follow them….

…With the incorporation of India and Pakistan, this unique organization will have four nuclear powers (two recognized and two yet to be recognized), a landscape full of energy resources and mineral wealth and accommodating half of the global community; it has all the ingredients to play a powerful role in the world affairs to maintain a balance.

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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
Or…just:

 

These are a few photos (more to come) from EON's coverage of the Moana Nui Counter-APEC Conference held Nov. 9-11 in Honolulu, HA. The event was organized and co-sponsored by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and Pua Mohala I Ka Po, Hawai'i MoanaNui2011.org, , it was the 'counter-conference' to a simultaneous gathering of 'world leaders' to discuss APEC and the TPP.

Never heard of APEC and the TPP? That's the way the 'world leaders' want it, and the Moana Nui counter conference was organized to shine some Hawaiian public sunlight on these secret backroom deals being crafted by 21 countries, the details of which are not to be released publicly for four years.

 

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Another Victory for the Nuclear Free California Movement As California's drought deepens and access to its dwindling water supply is ever more hotly contested, it's encouraging to remember a significant victory in the fight to protect the state's water. It culminated April 2, 1998 after nearly a decade of sustained grassroots effort. CHOICEPOINT: California's Water and Radioactive Waste This video shows the beginnings of the successful long grassroots fight to block government plans for a so-called "low level" radioactive waste dump on sacred Native American land inhabited by the endangered desert tortoise and above a pristine aquifer connected to the Colorado River, source of drinking and farming water for much of the Southwest. CHOICEPOINT was produced in 1993 by James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan. Mary Beth served as the first Coordinator of the Ward Valley Coalition. Designed as a public education and community organizing tool, it chronicles snippets of many of the original events, actions, tribes and organizations in the emergence of the eventually successful movement. It touches on the anguish of Fort Mojave tribal leader Nora Garcia, the excitement of the critical initial legal victory by BAN Waste Coalition deploying the Endangered Species Act to protect the Desert Tortoise; the determined organizing of Greenpeace; testimonies in the State Legislature; clever use of billboards by Americans for a Safe Future and Sen. Barbara Boxer's help. Initial resistance proved fertile. Native American tribes, organizations and individuals continued to build and strengthen the movement.  The tribes and activists defended their encampment that boldly blocked government access to the proposed site while pursuing legal and procedural maneuvers. The combination worked.  As a recent report puts it, "On April 2, 1999, U.S. Ecology and the state of California lost a federal lawsuit. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt refused to sell the land to the state, and with a final U.S. Court of Appeals judgment the next year, the Ward Valley nuclear dump plan came to an end." [ A photo gallery follows below. ]

 

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Solstice 2021: Whales in Trouble — Online PDF Reader

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