Christy Clark Fatigue and The Streaking Diversion

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Gaza and The Goons

 

 

 

Written by Mark Taliano

 

Nothing much has changed since 1492, except the weapons are far more devastating, and the hypocrisy is much deeper.

Manifest Destiny now extends overseas with the U.S Empire’s on-going embrace of the “might is right” doctrine, and its perpetuation of war crimes to advance imperial conquest. 

Israel, a strong ally of Empire, is thought to be a spearhead for U.S hegemony in the Middle East, and the rules of international law and peace are being defied on a daily basis as Gaza shakes beneath the terror of daily bombardments.

Israel is defying U.N Resolution 242 , and the Fourth Geneva Convention every time a thousand pound fragmentation bomb shreds civilians, every time weaponized phosphorous rips through a toddler’s body, and in a myriad other ways.

Flowing from the tragedy of 9/11, and the concomitant conspiracy to protect the guilty; reinforced by the fraudulent, open-ended “War On Terror,” and the genocidal conquest of the Middle East, lies the black residue of the truth: illegal corporate profiteering.

As in the invasion of the Americas, starting in 1492, racism is an instrument of war, countries are divided and ruined, and the few are profiting to the detriment of the many.  

Permanent war means military industrial complexes, and other instruments that support Death Inc., including corporate media, continue to blindly turn profits; it also means that the world is becoming further destabilized, and that trajectories toward peace, freedom, democracy, and globalized efforts to address imminent threats to life itself, continue to elude us.

The institutions and people who are perpetuating this evil are emboldened by layer upon layer of impunity, and their crimes are continuing.

Israel’s largely American-supplied war machine—though Canada is increasingly adding to the mix--- is perpetuating the imperial cycle of conquest: a technologically advanced force is imposing its monstrous will on a vilified, relatively defenceless people.

The indigenous peoples being killed are the Palestinians; and the coveted commodity is gas. Israel’s illegal conquest and occupation in Gaza means that Israel -- and the U.S, and Britain--- will be able to control and own more ill-gotten resources as it further disempowers Gaza, which is currently not much more than a concentration camp.  

The coveted riches – the Gaza Marine Reserves  -- are located well within Gaza’s territorial waters, but this hasn’t stopped the invaders.

A September 27, 2000 article, “Russia preparing to develop Gaza gas field,”uncovers the truth behind the lies.  As early as 2000, Palestine chose to engage Russia as a possible developer of a resource whose revenues are valued from $6 to $7 billion per year.

As Naomi Wolf explains on her Facebook page: “… (the) Palestinian Authority committed the ultimate mistake, they tried to avoid doing “business" ie being held hostage economically, by US interests (and Israeli and British) … with their own chosen partners because it was their own resources -- so -- voila. This is an object lesson to any other such foolhardy heads of state...”

But it doesn’t end there.  Dick Cheney is also making an entrance.  Genie energy, now has “exclusive rights” to a 153 square mile radius of the Golan Heights, an area to which Israel’s administration is not recognized by international law.

Once again, Cheney is involved in illegal profiteering to advance corporate profits and U.S hegemony, contrary to the rule of international law.

And so the murderous cycle continues: Zionism, which is the antithesis of Judaism, is the new oppressor,  the Palestinians are the new “Indians”, and the conquest for riches subordinates all considerations of humanity and the rule of law. 

Predatory economic practices, welded to imperial war machines, continue to destroy liberties at home and abroad, and increasingly powerful transnational corporations are establishing the rules of the “game.”

The elites will continue to profit, as is the custom, but their ascendancy may well be short-lived.  New threats, including man-made global warming, are imposing themselves on the world, and their reckless degeneracy may be forced to submit.

The parasitical corporate emperors are wearing no clothes.

 

 Mark Taliano

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The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

The Mystery Of Christy Clark`s Shrinking Prosperity Fund Exposed

An interesting article appeared in the Vancouver Sun today, the article describes how the BC Liberal Government has been making wee, tiny insulting cash offers to First Nation elders, what you are seeing the BC Liberals do is attempt to make end run around(s) , a sad attempt to avoid the latest Supreme Court ruling on First Nation land claims...

These bribes coming from Christy dumb as a sack of hammers Clark come with a caveat, First Nations must agree to look the other way, not go to court, be submissive, bend over and take it up their ass!...

BC`s LNG industry is not an industry at all, it`s a corporate welfare scam, British Columbia`s government made more money from wheelchair fees on seniors than they did on LNG or natural gas...

Before I get to the GOTCHA quote in the Vancouver Stun article let me remind you of what Christy Clark promised British Columbians the last 2 years and through to and during our BC election...

Quotes from  Christy Clark..

"A once in a lifetime opportunity, a chance to eliminate our BC debt, remove road and bridge tolls, pay for new schools and new hospitals, monies for northern communities impacted by this new flourishing industry, monies and ongoing revenues for First Nations, ......

provincial debt retired, elimination of our provincial sales tax just like Alberta and a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund for future generations"


Almost 2 years later, no final investment decisions from any LNG company, big energies companies have told Rich Coleman and Christy Clark that any LNG tax regime is a non-starter, told the BC Liberals to stick taxation up their fat ass!..Jack Mintx told Christy Clark the same thing...Natural gas royalties the province receives have fallen so low, they now make up a whopping ...

0.05 % of our $40 billion dollar annual budget...

Read the below paragraph from the article, remember that $100 billion dollar prosperity fund?..Before any company has made a final investment decision, before any NG pipelines are built, before British Columbia has made one demand for natural gas royalties, or water, or anything that vaunted prosperity fund has been clipped, no longer is $100 billion quoted, now the fund is advertised to bring in a mere $30 billion over 40 years.../.The fund has been slashed by over 70% before even one shovel goes in the ground..!

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"A $12-million provincial offer to Gitxsan chiefs to clear the way for gas pipeline development is inadequate and ill-timed, community leaders say.
The offer is part of the B.C. government’s efforts to reach agreements with at least 30 First Nations in northern B.C. to allow billions of dollars of liquefied natural gas plants to go ahead. Premier Christy Clark has made developing LNG to export to Asia as the underpinning of her economic plan, promising five plants to create thousands of jobs and fuel a $30-billion prosperity fund."

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Gitxsan+displeased+with+pipeline+offer+made+directly/10050385/story.html


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You Christy Clark are a sick joke, an uneducated bimbo who can`t speak, talk, think, what can you do Christy Clark besides wiggle your butt, flaunt cleavage and saunter off to the nearest oyster bar..


As reported here many times, day by day our complicit media with reduce the amount of LNG jobs we can expect, will reduce the size of the prosperity fund, reduce everything to the point here dollars turn to fairy dust.....Gordon Hoehstra in his article doesn`t even bat an eye when he cites the reduction of the mythical prosperity fund by 70%...

Oh do tell Mr. Hoekstra,..oh ya, you never once hear of Christy Clark`s  $100 billion dollar prosperity fund, you only heard about Christy Clark`s....

$1 billion dollar prosperity fund....oops, sorry Mr Hoekstra I just copied your next LNG headline.....

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open
 

Reflections From The Echo Chamber

Written by Grant G


Motionless, not a breath of air, heat fear and anticipation of anything tangible, stoic posturing is the only order of the day...

I haven`t written much lately, for a reason, the story(s), the stories have been written, federally Stephen Harper`s gang of ugly gnome like lawn ornaments have become tiresome, nauseating in fact, a one refrain repeating automatron buoy that never stops, one message, one theme,..


Justin Trudeau bad, pot smoking unqualified trust fund baby with no depth, ........

Thomas Mulcair is an angry socialist hell-bent on spending AAAAALLLLL the people`s money...

I DON`T LIKE STEPHEN  HARPER,,,,,,,,That`s where the people are at, I talked to a myriad of people over the last month, people who one(me) would think are naturally rightwing leaning, as in conservative, folks such as suppliers, builders, shovel digging, road repairing, shingling, nailbangers and the like, the answer to the question of do you like Stephen Harper is....

I DON`T  LIKE STEPHEN HARPER, ....Harperites calling Justin Trudeau names won`t work, issues like abortion, church, toughness, smarts, experience, confidence,  you and 72% of all Canadians could care less if Justin Trudeau lacks in any of those areas and or muffs talking points, when the public has decided, with cause mind you that they don`t like Stephen Harper, it`s more than that, a visceral dislike, a deep despising of anything Harper-like....For Mr. Stephen Harper..it`s over, ....Say Hello to prime minister Justin Trudeau and yes, ......Thomas Mulcair is far more ready to lead than is Trudeau the younger but being ready or qualified means less than nothing in the 21st century, and who could argue, leaders don`t fall on their swords, days of honor lost, judgement through punditry and spin taint historic records, at least for a generation, George W Bush was re-elected and his portrait hangs in the Whitehouse, Dick Cheney single handed has turned the rupturing of Iraq into a Little Red Ridinghood bedtime tale, happy ending included..

The world`s biggest banks and investment houses along with Wallstreet`s finest engaged in a galactic theft of $30 trillion dollars and in this new norm, the regimes of distortion, a media truth vacuum, we now live in a time when historic record keeping is by written invitation, entry to a club, record keeping and the truth are now in the domain of those occupying headlines, lawbreakers, foxes guarding chickens if you like, those now responsible for setting the record straight are controlled, bought and or complicit and my only hope is one day, perhaps in 40 years the archives will show, record and document the fact that George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and many others are war criminals and Fox News and their contributors are collaborators, ah.....How long can a lie live on, Wallstreet`s theft is now regarded as....2007 economic downturn...or Economic slowdown....Recession ....

What is the truth today, corporate advertising dollars and political contributions...

I don`t like Stephen Harper and why a pissed off Canadian public have gravitated toward Justin Trudeau and not Thomas Mulcair is hard to explain but easy to understand, oil and vinegar, black or white, ranch dressing and the colour purple, or in this case the colour orange, trendy or different is tossed out in times of need, Canadians of all stripes feel the need, needs of the many mentality, Canadians at this point in time... they can`t stand to hear, see or think of Stephen Harper in any capacity, in Justin Trudeau they see only a dragon slayer, skill, ability, political savvy be damned the public have embraced Justin Trudeau for one reason, ....To beat Harper and the cons into submission, nothing else matters, sense, reason or rationale can`t explain what`s happening, the only terms I can think of to describe our federal political scene as it relates to the Canadian public is....Herd mentality, silent signals, survival of the herd above all else, Stephen Harper scared Canada, what will he take away from Canada next, who will be betrayed next, veterans weren`t even safe, hell have no fury like a herd fighting for access to grass and water, ....Justin Trudeau is the leader, leader of the herd, leader of freedom, of choice, of smoke, of majority, inept, unqualified, over his head......funny, sounds like Justin Trudeau has all the qualifications of our next prime minister........I don`t like Stephen Harper..

Hot Summer and she is going to burn, August, September n October, forest floor is dry with ammo, searing heat, sweltering pressure on a now defunct/extinct LNG industry, dead, caput, a 2 year long golden ring election gambit, the gold ring no one ever reaches, Japan has okayed the restart of 2 nuclear power plants, with 2 restarts can 10 more be very far behind....China/Russia gas deal...Australia, now carbon tax(less)...Australia with the ability, and within 3 years the capacity to flood the Pacific basin with LNG.....A report from of all places, The University of Calgary recently released a thorough report that stated, suggested that British Columbia missed the opportunity to be an LNG exporter...oh, they, UoA  also reported that " the industry", that being the LNG industry will not accept any form of taxation outside of low-priced royalties at the wellhead...

The report by the U o A is/was actually, now don`t take this the wrong way, it appears that UoA spent a week reading The Straight Good`s archives on LNG...nothing new for our readers...a report, another report was finally released, Kitimat`s airshed (according to a BC Liberal government commissioned study)can handle 4 LNG plants, a smelter and a heavy oil refinery, the only drawback is a severe survival risk for local human habitants, I wonder if temporary workers fall into that category, ah, but I digress..

Nothing has changed, legal aid for the poor has no money, hospitals are underfunded, overcrowding, BC Liberals are still fighting with teachers, cost of living in British Columbia has become a resident killer, only those with vast wealth need come here, our province is sick, out of whack, stuck, mired in the same corporate media driven historic record keeping conundrum, the place where truth is bent, omitted, deleted, contorted, stretched to lengths that would make professor Reed blush(Fantastic 4)..

Our BC budget hasn`t been balanced in years, selling near $1 billion in assets isn`t speculation or a one-off, it`s a deficit, with BC Ferry debt rising faster than ever, BC Hydro adding another $6 billion to their deferred debt, not counting the Site C proposal.. British Columbia`s own special tax the MSP up, electrical rates up, user fees up, British Columbia is locked in, frozen in perpetual debt with corporate vultures like PETRONAS, EnCana, BG, Shell and Chevron all telling us, telling Christy Clark and the BC Liberals that any taxation equals building nothing, either accept nothing, make nothing and provide incentives or nothing will be built..That is the extent of Christy Clark`s and Rich Coleman`s LNG plan....

Kitimat and Andrew Weaver can relax too, that airshed is safe, there won`t be 4 LNG plants exhaling pollution 24/7, no refinery, no Enbridge either...There might be 1 LNG plant....That is if Christy cluck cluck Clark and Rich hot-gas Coleman give away the farm, the water and capital build write offs, ...

$67 billion dollars, that`s our BC debt, not counting the Port Mann bridge debt, not counting the Massey bridge debt, BC Ferry debt, BC Hydro debt, IPP contractual debt, P3 debt, not counting anything..Yet I hear on CKNW...on Global that Christy Clark and the BC Liberals were elected with a mandate to balance the budget, ???....Great money managers?...Selling assets, deferring debt, hiding debt, avoiding recording contractual debt, every fee, electric bills, gas bills, ferry fares, carbon tax(corporate tax relief borne off Joe Average`s back)...

A mandate to balance the budge, mission accomplished according to the keepers of the media truth, recorded by corporate media pundits on Global BC, Keith Baldrey, recorded by corporate Vaughn Palmer, recorded by Bill Good and Sean Leslie....Recorded in the hallowed halls of today`s truth library, the BC Liberals balanced the budget they were mandated to do...All while adding $20 billion dollars over the last 3 years to out provincial debt...

That`s why I haven`t had much to say lately, it`s already been said..

Or as Gordon Campbell, Wally Oppal, Christy Clark would say, or not say..

"No Comment, it`s before the court"

As for the truth regarding recorded history.....

Those inputs are pending...


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P.S......COMPLETION!



The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open




 

Cedar on Cedar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More to come folks...


The Straight Goods

Devolution. Evolution. Revolution. The Future Is Now.

 

 

 

Devolution. Evolution. Revolution. The Future Is Now.

 

written by  Robin Mathews     July 2014

 

 

This week, this month, maybe this year, the economist of choice is Thomas Piketty, professor at the Paris School of Economics.  Very briefly, Piketty points to present developments in capitalism. Unchecked capitalism (as it exists increasingly in the present devastation of democracies and the empowerment of private corporations) leads by its very nature to unequal concentrations of wealth.  No surprise.  Put another way, when the rate of return on investment exceeds the rate of economic growth (a fundamental purpose of capitalism), the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Uncontrolled capitalism creates returns on investment that drain wealth from the larger population and concentrate it more and more in the hands of a hereditary financial elite.

 While Piketty’s research is interesting to fellow economists, we can’t be sure how widely the interest is shared – or even the direct relevance of the findings.  A part of the power of the work is its return to basics and its refusal to mythologize greed. Those starving in off-shore industrial slums, and those looking desperately for a living wage in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan – not to mention the 18 million in the United Kingdom unable to afford adequate shelter (to name only a few instances) – know there is a rough capitalist boot is in their faces. Piketty’s work doesn’t change that, and until political forces appear that can challenge the boot wearers, not much will change.

 His book has landed with an explosion of interest – a sign the degeneracy of contemporary society has gone so far that a call for justice and a measure of equality is radical and almost shocking! Pointing to “Victorian” inequalities growing in our societies, Thomas Piketty has a name that might, itself, have been lifted from a Charles Dickens novel.

 So far, there is no political force in the Western world challenging what is, in fact, an old, old process of greed in power.  The force of the work of Piketty and those who assisted him is that they have managed, at least, to put the question of growing inequality forward as a distinct evil, not as the natural intention of human activity – and they have suggested a number of actions within capitalism that can ameliorate the greater human lot.

 That is merely to say that Piketty’s Capital in the 21^st Century may not be as important nor as central to real issues as the first Capital published in 1867 ... which never goes out of fashion and is enjoying a quiet resurgence and reexamination in our time. Classics stay “classic” because they don’t lose the relevance they had when they first appeared.

Piketty is morally on the right side.  He wants Progressive Taxation, taxes on extreme wealth, governments with reasonable power and real responsibility to the electorate - wielding humane policies.  He has watched the intensification of private wealth, its move towards – in a few words – naked fascism, and he is arguing against all that evil. Piketty sees Devolution in action and argues for social Evolution. The author of the first Capital might still call for the dictatorship of the proletariat by whatever means necessary – by active and sudden change, sometimes called Revolution.  All the possibilities are present and uncertain.  The future is Now because an intense and brutal conflict is at work ... shaping and shaping what is, and what is to be.

 Paul Krugman, U.S. economics guru writing for the New York Review of Books, says Piketty has created “a revolution in our understanding of long-term trends of inequality”.  Except … except a lot of nobody commentators and non-famous commentators have been shouting that long-term inequality has very visible characteristics … re-appearing now … and becoming a key factor in the lives of the present generation. To them, Piketty’s work might be useful and another log thrown on the fire and – perhaps – attractive because it has Establishment blessing.

 The signs that his work is just another log thrown on the fire go very deep.  The European Union is in a state of self-destruction as a meaningful community.  Robert Savio (May 28, 2014) of Inter Press Service observes that the values of social justice, participation, and accountability are gone from the European Union.  As well, writes Savio, “Eurocrats have appeared more and more unaccountable and isolated, in a maze of bureaucratic values”.  He might have gone on to say that Eurocrats are increasingly clubby, over-paid, and loyal to private corporations.

On June 19, RT quoted a study carried out by the University of Bristol revealing that poverty in the United Kingdom has doubled in the last 30 years.  “Almost 18 million people are unable to afford adequate housing”.  The poor are suffering deeper poverty and the gap between the rich and poor is growing says the University of Bristol study.

 On Vancouver Island Derek Skinner writes an article called “The Dragon with Five Heads”.  He shapes ways to confront the purposeful, growing inequality of our time.  Early on, he states (in capital letters) that IN THE LAST 50 YEARS WE HAVE CREATED A CLASS OF MONIED ‘ELITES’ WHO CAN BUY AND SELL POLITICAL PARTIES AND GOVERNMENTS AND MANIPULATE MONEY MARKETS TO SUIT THEIR OWN INTERESTS AND AGENDAS.  Skinner looks at the large picture from a province (British Columbia) that mirrors everything in the larger world of ‘devolution’.

 In the last fifteen years the people-owned BC Gas was folded and sold to foreign private interests at on-going cost to British Columbians.  The people-owned BC Rail was strangled and corruptly passed to foreign private interests.  B.C. Ferries was removed from public oversight in a bastard privatization to become a source of fake accounting and in-group advantage – and devastating loss to coastal and island people.

 People-owned BC Hydro has been semi-privatized to offshore ownership, and buried in barbaric accounting methods that the Auditor General of B.C. has refused to pass on for TEN YEARS!

 All those ‘transactions’ deserve deep criminal investigation.  But the RCMP, apparently, can find no way in.  Alleged to have been grossly inadequate in the BC Rail Scandal investigations, the RCMP has been granted a twenty-year contract to police B.C. – some believe as a payoff for corrupt co-operation with the Gordon Campbell/Christie Clark cabinets.

 

The courts of British Columbia are regularly and purposefully starved of funds – to keep, some say, their operation limited to the needs of corporate growth and operation.  On-going court procedure costs for average British Columbians are prohibitive.  In British Columbia that is called “equality before the law” and “justice in a free and democratic society”.

 What I am saying in those statements is that capitalism unchecked doesn’t only lead to an unequal concentration of wealth.  It leads to the brutalization of all social values, to the perversion of almost all positions of trust in society, to fraud and bribery as the currencies of economic interaction and political behavior. So-called public contracting becomes a giant pigs’ trough in which the illegitimately powerful swill.

 On the less visible but even more threatening side, several reports on new, so-called Trade Treaties – The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Europe North American “trade” negotiations - point out they are being carried out in almost complete secrecy to keep general populations from knowing how totally the people are being betrayed by their governments.

 Negotiations for TISA, the Trade in Services Agreement Financial Services Annex is, it is alleged, pushing for privatization of all public services.  The secrecy of those negotiations is alleged to be even greater than the backroom silence of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Those huge ‘international negotiations’ are, in fact, gatherings of capitalist club members using the governments they own to manipulate – even farther – the unequal concentration of global wealth.

 Piketty arrives on the scene with academic knowledge of some use if there happens to be anyone with power who wants to see change in the present growth of inequality.  But there appears to be no significant power that really wants change for the better.  Only a growing portion of the human population wants change for the better … and it is presently shut out ... even from the programming of so-called “Opposition parties”.

 Could there exist a more obvious collision course in process?  That’s why the title of this column is “Devolution, Evolution. Revolution.  The Future Is Now.”

 For biologists, “devolution” means “degeneration” and “reversed evolution”.  The biologists say those things occur, just as evolution and generation occur.  Some observers look a long, long way back to observe the process of human biology, not – with Thomas Piketty – looking back only a scant three or four centuries.  In one way or another concentrating wealth has always been about concentrating power – long before the word ‘capitalism’ was invented.

 The images from history and what we can know of pre-history are pretty clear.  Pharaohs, Emperors, High Priests, and other such tyrants only found in archeological remnants, amassed wealth, gave themselves divine connections, bought supporters, and walked on the faces of the powerless … for as long as they could make their systems work.

 Sometimes, it seems, there was benevolence, storing of crops, building of granaries, holding of public holidays, even provision for care of the aged.  We believe those systems arose because of the potential power of the people.  To hold off revolution, rapid change, new beginnings that would empower the general population, a sense of sharing community was developed and honoured.

 But greed, ambition, brutality, fear, and a desire to be exclusionary drive much of human action biologically.  It is no accident that the Stock Markets of the world – called major engines of modern society – are said to be driven by “greed and fear”. Many of those who use the Stock Markets are driven by greed, by fear of “the other”, and by a desire for wealth they can never use. They frequently despise governments that seek to protect the vulnerable, and they seek the protection of exclusive clubs and societies.  They make heroes of such people as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who - using a system constructed to create inequality -store mountains of wealth while millions around them starve.

 A society that places no inhibition on greed and ambition soon reveals the presence in power of psychopaths and sociopaths.  The true biological degenerates assume social power and reverse (in the modern way of thinking) evolution. In many epochs, eras, civilizations, our present concepts of evolution didn’t exist.  The intention of power in society was to keep things constant, fixed, stable, unchanging so that the powerful would not be challenged.  And so a class system had to be fixed, had to be seen as natural and perpetual – in order to prevent ideas of change … of revolution … from appearing.

 Today we say we are not in a fixed social pattern.  Today we expect technological change, movement in the social order, the equality of women, the equality of people with every sort of sexual orientation, the equality of all races and colours.

 We say that is what our society means – and conditions will change and shift before our eyes.  But that vision is only half – or much less than half – true. For a gigantically powerful core group of the wealthy, using most governments of the day are – as this column is being written – moving heaven and earth, legions of lawyers, mountains of mercenary fighters, armies of bribed taste-makers and indoctrinators – called The Mainstream Press and Media – to guarantee the devolution, the degeneration of present society – to move it to a condition in which the tyrants return. Beneath the apparent variety and difference in our society a single message is being repeated and repeated:

 

“You are lucky.  You live in a free society. It will be guaranteed its freedom by constant police surveillance to weed out dissenters and ‘terrorists’.  Proof of the freedom of your society is shown by the unchecked liberty granted to the rich and to private corporations.  They are given, freely, unimpeded access to all of the planet’s resources, to populations fighting, as individuals, for a chance to work in order to hold starvation at bay.  Your free society will be guaranteed as long as you know there is no free lunch, that no one is entitled to education, health care, social securities, or to genuine representative democracy.  You will be guaranteed freedom as long as you know you’re on your own and you get what you can wrest from a hostile world, freely making your choices and freely choosing. Those qualities are the true qualities of a Free Society.  Be ready to fight for it.”

 The “evolutionary” phase of modern society that grew from the Second World War (at least in some nations) has been stopped in its tracks. Global directions are “devolutionary”, degenerative of community well-being, reversing social evolution.  So obviously is that happening that a large, slow beginning of resistance is being born.  A few South American countries are ending treaties that let corporations sue governments for alleged blocking of profit-making.  Power in banks, financial houses, governments, and in mercenary armies is fighting those South American countries every minute of every day.

 In Europe the Eurosceptics not only see the degeneration – the ‘devolution’ of European democracy - but they are forming parties to fight it.

 

The union movement in Canada is, finally, declaring it will fight back against the erasure of basic bargaining rights and union freedoms.

 Thomas Piketty, an economist, has written a book saying, in effect, that the present economy is anti-evolutionary and is run by degenerates possessing too much wealth – new wealth or inherited wealth.

 The devolutionary surface is being scratched, but – so far – only scratched.  The opposite of devolution is revolution, which is the product of devolution – when people see no other escape than physical conflict.  Stephen Harper’s policies are policies of “incremental devolution” – meaning the slow introduction of fascism: the condition in which corporations own governments and use them to brutalize the population on behalf of the wealthy.

 The Pharaohs, the Emperors, the High Priests – the tyrants – are always waiting in the wings, ready to don the robes of power and magic.  Their moral eunuchs – the Stephen Harpers of this world – are always available to do their bidding.

 

“The people have no bread,” someone said around 1789 to Marie Antoinette – surely a female pharaoh or empress. 

 “Let them eat cake,” Marie Antoinette is fabled to have replied … as the French Revolution was beginning.  With rich (though grisly) poetic justice the people cut off Marie Antoinette’s head, as bread began to become available in Paris.

 Pharaohs, Emperors, High Priests – all the tyrants – think nothing of erasing human lives in the way they would erase hills of ants.  Think of Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Honduras, Chile, Palestine, Nigeria ….

 Finally, the time comes when devolution meets resistance it can’t stop.  The time comes when Pharaohs, Emperors, High Priests discover – too late – that their own lives can be snuffed out as easily as the lives of all the millions they have sacrificed in order to satisfy their greed and fear and ambition and their barely disguised love of brutality.  The time comes when sharp and sudden change – called revolution – happens (the call for evolution having failed). Revolution lays the groundwork for another long term of social evolution – a period we describe as a time when there is a move towards equality, social justice, and security for all.

 

We are living in that present and future, as I write….  The future is now.


Written by Robin Mathews


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The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Corporate Conflation? ...More Like Corporations Confiscating Commoner`s Few Remaining Coins

 

 

Written by Mark Taliano

The modern-day conflation of corporate and public interests forms the bedrock of what is likely the most dangerous ideology to afflict humanity. 

 

Domestically, it creates a "predator" economic system which disembowels the public domain by creating “new” markets which unnecessarily imperil the public’s health, safety, freedom, and material well-being.   

Internationally, it manifests itself as corporate-driven imperial conquest which divides and ruins target countries as it destabilizes political economies globally.

Corporate profit is the foundation of this ideology.  Beneath the lies of the corporatocracy is directionless profit-making that is oblivious to -- if not contemptuous of -- common sense and the public’s best interests.  

The same war criminals who orchestrated the fraudulent, but lucrative, “War On Terror”, and the subsequent illegal war of aggression in Iraq and elsewhere, were those who benefited the most thanks to inflated contracts with the U.S State Department.

Halliburton, which offers a myriad of services, including oil field work, plus construction work, benefits when countries are “bombed to the stone age,” since those same countries need to be rebuilt.  Angelo Young describes the war-profiteering in "Cheney's Halliburton Made $39.5 Billion On Iraq War" :

“As private enterprise entered the war zone at unprecedented levels, the amount of corruption ballooned, even if most contractors performed their duties as expected.
According to the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the level of corruption by defense contractors may be as high as $60 billion. Disciplined soldiers that would traditionally do many of the tasks are commissioned by private and publicly listed companies.”
Blackwater/Academi also offers numerous services, including those previously conducted by the military: security and mercenary work are some of its mainstays.  Jeremy Scahill in "Blackwater's Black-Ops"   describes the pay they earn from lucrative government contracts:

 “A four-man team headed by Prado for counter-surveillance in the United States cost $33,600 weekly, while "safehouses" could be established for $250,000, plus operational costs. Identical services were offered globally. For $5,000 a day, clients could hire Prado or former senior CIA officials Cofer Black and Robert Richer for ‘representation’ to national ‘decision-makers.’ “

These profit-driven corporations, all of which have developed “new” and lucrative markets in domains traditionally reserved for the military, also have tremendous legislative clout.  Former attorney-general John Ashcroft, for example, not only heads up the consulting/lobbying firm Ashcroft Group , but he is also on the Board of directors for Blackwater/Academi. The two agencies work together hand in glove to impact legislation that expands and protects Academi’s government contracts.

 As author and investigative reporter Naomi Wolf explains on her Facebook page:

"Terror and crisis didn't used to be MARKET PLACES YOU COULD HAVE LOBBYISTS FOR -- they invented an INDUSTRY TO LOBBY FOR, LEGISLATION, AND A DEMAND OUT OF WHOLE CLOTH -- it is a closed loop of laundered billions generated by war, militarized police, and fear of 'shooters' and terror 'threats'! You don't even need a real industry now, they just MADE ONE UP!"

n this closed-loop dynamic, fear is exploited by corporations (ie Academi) that lobby for newly-created – and counter-productive markets (police-industrial complex) – as the money flows from the tax base to the “new” markets.

In Give Me Liberty: A Handbook For American Revolutionaries  , Wolf paraphrases historian Stephen Kinzer: “… each time a corporation would benefit from a conflict, hyped war fever swayed most citizens to support the conflict.  So, there has been a century in which American citizens were often manipulated to support policies that were not in their own interests --- and that crushed liberties overseas.”

Canada, increasingly the “living room” of the U.S, is also using the same playbook. Blackwater/Academi is now training Canadian troops, and our autocratic prime minister, Stephen Harper, is reframing the nation in terms of a warrior nation, rather than in terms of peace keeping.  No doubt the profit motive plays a part, just as it plays a part in Canada’s aggressive arms dealing , and the recent trends towards police militarization, despite the fact that police militarization is counter-productive for many reasons, not the least of which is that it creates a “police versus public,” rather than a “police serving  public” atmosphere.

Let’s now project what we know to developing events.  Ukraine is the next Iraq.  Beneath the lies, the war fever, the Putin bashing, the shameful western support -- and orchestration -- of the illegal Nazi/Banderite coup, and the daily toll of corpses, there are resources to exploit for foreign gain: primarily shale gas. Just as in Iraq, the country is being divided and ruined, and just as in Iraq (and elsewhere) corporations will exploit the catastrophe for corporate profit.

Corporations are also eager to drill fracking wells in Moncton New Brunswick.  Fear has already been generated by the tragic shooting of three Mounties and the wounding of two others.  Will the fear be  exploited to create new markets for the police-industrial complex, and to repress anti-fracking protestors? Will the public interest be falsely conflated with corporate interests so that the province’s ground- water is poisoned?

Only time will tell, but there are plenty of red flags suggesting that the closed-loop corporate tactics are on the sidelines, just waiting for the right moment to engage.

 

Written by Mark Taliano

 

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