Tuesday, June 28, 2011

New round of clashes, stones & tear gas in Greece

Peaceful protesters prevailed. They formed chains to pass water bottles and clean the massive amounts of police chemicals off the square and surrounding streets. Some videos from the clashes








Motorcycle riders show support for protesters


Things will be dicey tomorrow with a greater crowd expected and a plan to encircle parliament in a bid to show popular opposition to the medium term austerity program. 

Photos here and here. 

UPDATE: New wave of violence unfolding late in the evening. Authorities must be desperate to break up tomorrow's actions. Follow updates here and here.

Greek police fire tear gas on protesters

Greek police fired tear gas at demonstrators in central Athens at the start of a 48-hour strike to protest austerity measures demanded by international lenders as the price for more financial aid.


Update from RealDemocracy.Gr:

  • 14:33:48  A few minutes ago, at Othonos street. police has used chemicals in order to facilitate the escape of an extreme rightwing group which has previously been disapproved by part of the protesters. Now the clashes have moved to Filellinon and Karagiorgi Servias. In the square people are remaining and insisting on keeping the square as decided by the peoples Assembly of Syntagma the previous days
  • 14:36:00  Just a while ago, the police fire the fist canisters of tear gas, in order to make way for an ultra righ wig group, which had previously been hissed by part of the demonstrators. On and atound the square people is holding ground as was decided in the popular assembly
  • 14:55:13  Despite the clashes people with drums and music insist and do not retreat. We stay at the square and we do not succumb to warmonger blackmails
  • 15:14:09  60 protesters have been transferred to the first aid station with intense breathing problems. Rescuers and 30 doctors have arrived. In the square police is keep using teargas, yet the dance is continuing holding together the gathered people at Syntagma square.
  • 15:15:56  In a short while people are arriving from Thessaloniki!

Greece Crippled by General Strike

By Roddy Thomson, AFP [Industry Week]

Greece ground to a halt Tuesday as angry workers launched a 48-hour general strike against an austerity drive ordered by its bankruptcy-threatened government in exchange for a European bailout.

Crowds converged early on Syntagma Square, where parliament will vote on sweeping spending cuts as planes, ships and most public transport came to a halt.

Europe's economic tsar, Olli Rehn, in Brussels warned that Greece faced "a critical juncture" and the austerity program was the "only way to avoid immediate default."

But that view was not shared by protesters, determined to block passage of the package.

"We don't want your money Europe," a protester named Iamando, 36, told AFP on the square where police were already out in force at 11 a.m. GMT. "Leave us alone -- please, please, please."

The number of police in the center of the capital rose to 4,000, according to the authorities, with traffic unable to circulate in central Athens.

Public transport was halted in Athens for the fourth general strike called this year by the country's two biggest unions, with the exception of the metro, whose drivers decided not to strike so as to allow Athenians to swell protest numbers.

2012 - The Aquarian Shift

2012, Human consciousness & a planetary shift.

The world is going through all kinds of strange upheavals - both man-made and natural - that seem to be serving as a wake-up call of sorts. We are being challenged to open our eyes to other possibilities and new ways of thinking... and that's a good thing! We have lived too long in fear and darkness. Peace is a choice, and now is the time to act in accordance with our belief in peaceful coexistence. Be the change you wish to see in others!

Unprecedented 48-Hour General Strike Begins in Greece



-we were deceived
-we were underestimated
-they thought we were asleep in their nightmare
-but we woke up!
-we gathered at the squares, 
-we came to know each other 
-we started to transform our dreams into reality
-all together
-united
-with solidarity and dignity
-Now it is US who talk, and THEY that are afraid!
-We will not rest in, until those who stole from us, pay! 
-We will not go unless all those who plunder our lives
and burn our future, go first! 
-28 and 29 of June, 48 hours in the streets! 
-All Greece in Syntagma square! 
-The midterm agreement shall not pass! 

People's Assembly of Syntagma square 1.34
People's Assemblies of districts and region
Unions and Syndicates

Direct Democracy Now

Male Muses And Inner Dicks: A Conversation With Kate Christensen

From the interview by Maud Newton for The Awl:

If Robert Graves were still around, he'd say that's impossible: "Woman is not a poet: she is either muse or she is nothing." Don't worry, though! It's not that women—sorry, woman—can't write, just that when a woman writes "she is herself the Muse, a Goddess without an external power to guide or comfort her." Why do you think there's been so much resistance historically to the idea that a woman might be creatively inspired by love and lust and longing for a man?

This makes no sense to me at all. Women need men to get pregnant, among other important things. So why can’t we need men to fuel our work?

My first muse was a chubby, bespectacled, brown-eyed, sharply intelligent 13-year-old boy in Phoenix, Arizona in 1975. When he laughed at and loved my writing, I felt the erotic surge of my own power. Since then, I’ve written for and about and to and because of men.

Writing with this “external power to guide and comfort me” has inspired me to write in first-person male voices—it’s inspired my sex scenes—and it’s caused me to work very, very hard, in a disciplined, sustained way, as if I were a man, as if I were entitled to seize all that time for something as dubious as novel-writing. My male muses are crucial to my work, inseparable from it. They’re the oil that lights the lamp.

~ more... ~

Inquiry into the CIA hits a series of snags

Dubai: Special Prosecutor John Durham has taken on the Gambino mafia family in New York, the Irish mob in Boston and he's put dozens of gangsters behind bars.

Now he's facing his toughest assignment to date: Investigate the Central Intelligence Agency itself for war crimes committed against Iraqi detainees.

Right now, in a government building in Alexandria, Virginia, the respected US Attorney has started calling witnesses before a secret federal grand jury looking into abuses allegedly committed by CIA interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

One of the deaths being examined is that of Manadel Al Jamadi, more commonly known as "the iceman", who died in custody on November 3, 2003 at Abu Ghraib following repeated interrogation sessions. In an attempt to make his body look less abused, CIA agents packed it in ice to reduce decomposition and to throw investigators off the actual time of death. Al Jamadi's body was later removed from the infamous prison with an intravenous tube attached to one arm — in an apparent attempt to show he was still alive.

[ ... ]

The torture probe, however, is hampered by a lack of evidence from Abu Ghraib caused, in part, when Al Jamadi's blood was washed from a cell on the orders of a military officer. In addition, a bloody hood which covered Al Jamadi's head was destroyed on the orders of a CIA officer. After Al Jamadi died, military and CIA personnel argued over who was to blame, and his body was covered in ice and taken to a shower room overnight to allow them time to get their story straight.

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Abu Ghraib Inmates Claiming War Crimes Violations

Seven years after the release of shocking images of tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the Supreme Court has turned back the appeal of 26 inmates from that infamous facility who wanted to sue two military contractors for damages.

The military's official investigation revealed "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" committed by military personnel and civilian contractors who provided support services at the prison.

More than two dozen soldiers were reprimanded or court-martialed for their conduct. But those who were tortured want to sue two firms that hired the civilians who helped the military with translations and interrogations.

The investigative report authored by now retired Major Gen. Antonio Taguba concluded that the civilians hired by CACI International and Titan Corporation "(did) not appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility." He also identified specific civilian employees who were involved in the torture but lacked the authority to court martial those workers who also escaped criminal prosecution in civilian courts. 

Lulzsec Final Message


Friends around the globe,

We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us. 50 days ago, we set sail with our humble ship on an uneasy and brutal ocean: the Internet. The hate machine, the love machine, the machine powered by many machines. We are all part of it, helping it grow, and helping it grow on us.

For the past 50 days we've been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could. All to selflessly entertain others - vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy. It's what we all crave, even the seemingly lifeless politicians and emotionless, middle-aged self-titled failures. You are not failures. You have not blown away. You can get what you want 
and you are worth having it, believe in yourself.

While we are responsible for everything that The Lulz Boat is, we are not tied to this identity permanently. Behind this jolly visage of rainbows and top hats, we are people. People with a preference for music, a preference for food; we have varying taste in clothes and television, we are just like you. Even Hitler and Osama Bin Laden had these unique variations and style, and isn't that interesting to know? The mediocre painter turned supervillain liked cats more than we did.

Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement. We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz. We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us. The support we've gathered for it in such a short space of time is truly overwhelming, and not to mention humbling. Please don't stop. Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve.

So with those last thoughts, it's time to say bon voyage. Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind - we hope - inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If anything, we hope we had a microscopic 
impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere.

Thank you for sailing with us. The breeze is fresh and the sun is setting, so now we head for the horizon.

Let it flow...

Lulz Security - our crew of six wishes you a happy 2011, and a shout-out to all of our battlefleet members and supporters across the globe 

UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows

Terry Macalister reports for the Guardian:

The government was warned by its own civil servants two years ago that there could be "significant negative economic consequences" to the UK posed by near-term "peak oilenergy shortages.

Ministers were told it was impossible to know exactly when production might fail to meet supply but when it did there could be global consequences, including "civil unrest".

Yet ministers consistently played down the threat with the contemporaneous Wicks review into energy security (PDF) effectively dismissing peak oil as alarmist and irrelevant.

The report on the risks and impacts of a potential future decline in oil production has just been published – but only after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) was repeatedly threatened under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act with forced disclosure.

The information is revealed at a critical time when oil prices have soared to historic highs of around $115 (£71) a barrel hitting motorists through higher petrol costs and helping to drive up household gas bills. The price of oil and gas tend to be linked due under the terms of many wholesale gas contracts.

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Cold fusion economy supported by Greek government

There is a category of inventions called disruptive technology. Funding streams allotted to this sector award designers who innovate based on radical departures from incremental change. A cursory search of disruptive technology will yield many examples, most of which are IT-oriented, such as breakthroughs in social networking, cloud computing, and cyber security.

You will find little to no mention of the most disruptive technology of all, cold fusion, even as the first commercial device is poised to be installed later this year. Defkalion Green Technologies based in Athens, Greece holds the world rights, excepting the Americas, for Andrea A. Rossi’sEnergy Catalyzer, or ECat, a new energy reactor based on cold fusion technology, which Mr. Rossi prefers to be called low-energy nuclear reactions. A factory located in Xanthi, Greece plans to use an array of smaller models of the publicly demonstrated 12 Kw ECat, linked together, to generate 1Mw power for the purpose of manufacturing more ECats.

[ ... ]

Whatever the veracity of the report by Der Speigel Online that Greece would like to “exit’ from the Euro Zone, if a factory in Greece has the rights to manufacture the biggest breakthrough energy technology since the burning of wood, and the government has confidence that it’s ready to be commercialized, these events would influence any decision to leave the Euro behind, and speculate on perhaps creating their own currency backed by profits of ECat manufacturing and licensing, estimated in the hundreds of trillions of dollars? [5]

Separated from the European Central Bank, the people of Greece could be able to keep this wealth derived from energy, close to its shores. Where over two-thousand years ago, the roots of modern science, math, and democracy first emerged, we may now see a next-generation energy technology that will extend globally, for the first time in history, the opportunity for all humans to be equally self-sufficient.

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Democracy Now! Exclusive Report from Greece as US Aid Ship Hopes to Sail With Gaza Flotilla


DemocracyNow.org - Up to 50 Americans are set to sail from a Greek port on a U.S.-flagged ship that is part of an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and letters of support for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents. Its fate is now in limbo under the weight of U.S.-Israeli pressure and Greece's economic turmoil. Israel insists it will enforce its blockade on Gaza, which it says is aimed at stopping weapons from reaching the Hamas government. "The Israelis have a right to interdict arms traffic. We are bearing letters," says Ray McGovern, former Senior CIA analyst and passenger on the U.S. aid ship. "How can these letters be considered a threat to security of Israel?" Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté and Hany Massoud is in Athens to cover the journey of The Audacity of Hope, named after President Obama's best-selling book. He is the only journalist with the U.S. delegation, and files this exclusive report.

To download the podcast, read the transcript, and for all of Democracy Now!'s reports on the 2010 and 2011 humanitarian aid flotilla sailing for Gaza, visit
http://www.democracynow.org/ 

FP - Exclusive: Top U.S. admiral admits we are trying to kill Qaddafi

. . . "The U.N. authorization had three components: blockade, no fly zone, and civil protection. And Admiral Locklear explained that the scope of civil protection was being interpreted to permit the removal of the chain of command of Qaddafi's military, which includes Qaddafi," Turner said. "He said that currently is the mission as NATO has defined."

"I believed that we were [targeting Qaddafi] but that confirmed it," Turner said. "I believe the scope that NATO is pursuing is beyond what is contemplated in civil protection, so they're exceeding the mission." . . .

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Greek Army Threatens Military Coup Sparking Fears of Military Uprisings And Civil Wars Breaking Out Across All Of Europe

From Alexander Higgins' blog:

I recently wrote that the Greek Revolution has succeeded and the Government agreed to step down and create a new Government.

Revolution Succeeds In Greece!!! Protestors Overthrow Government. New Government To Be Formed.

The Greek Revolution Has Succeeded In Forcing The Government To Step Down In The Midst Of Massive Protests Calling For The Regime of Corrupt Government And Crooked Banks To Be Replaced With Real Democracy.

Read The Rest…

That announcement came amidst violent protests, and as Tyler Durden pointed out, was nothing but a bold face lie meant to placate the masses. Soon after the announcement and the subsequent calming of the masses, the Greek Prime minister announced he would not be stepping down, instead would only be reshuffling top cabinet officials and would ask for a vote of no confidence from the corrupt parliament that is looking to put over stressed tax payers on the hook for an international loan with 30% plus interest rates to bailout crooked greedy bankers.

Needless to say, the Prime Minister survived the vote of no confidence,  and the Greek Government is set to vote for and approve the IMF bailout loan under banker controlled corporate media threats that financial Armageddon will hit the world if the vote does not pass.

Economists, MSM Warn Of Global ‘Armageddon Scenarios’ As The Masses Riot In Europe And Calls For Revolution Spread To The US
Economists and the mainstream media are warning of a global “Armageddon Scenarios” as the masses continue to riot in revolt against the banks and calls for revolution spread into the US.

If you have watched the news today there is report after report of the Global markets being in a stage of economic collapse very similar to the financial meltdown of 2008.

The economic upheaval is strongly tied the massive rights and protests in Greece, Spain and in fact through out all of Europe.

However those threats do little to deter the people across Europe who feel that they have nothing left. In a Land of broken people suffering harsh austerity measures enacted to pay the tab for greedy bankers, who continue to participate in the same acts of fraud and reckless behavior that caused the Global financial meltdown in the first place, the people of Europe have had enough. Apparently so have the police and military forces.

Several news agencies out of Europe are reporting that Army and Police officers have joined the people in the riots against the banks to protest what is being perceived by European nationals as the sale of national sovereignty to foreign powers.

Xander News reports (translation):

Greek Army threatens coup

Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, last year a prescient when he said to fear that several Southern European countries may fall prey to civil war and their democracy would be lost? Several Greek troops have now indeed threatened a military coup against the government because the Greek people, according to the union officer ANEAD feel “to foreign powers to be sold”.

Especially in Europe it is normal for the military’s political neutrality and not interfere with drafting the policy of the government. The call of the Greek officers association is therefore highly unusual, especially considering that the press spokesman for the ANEAD literally said that the army “will not tolerate violation of the Constitution, not the defense of our sovereignty should be.” That was a clear threat to the address of the current Greek government.


~ Via Hot Air ~

Syria: CIA, M16, French, Mossad, Saudi Involvement

By Jay Janson, Countercurrents.org

What is unfolding in Syria is an armed insurrection supported covertly by foreign powers including the US, Turkey and Israel. Armed insurgents belonging to Islamist organizations have crossed the border from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The US State Department has confirmed that it is supporting the insurgency. A monolithic unified slant media cartelrestricts reports to indiscriminate killing of civilian protesters by Syrian government

Now that the West’s war on Gaddafi is going well, American news commentators can in rare moments proudly admit that the CIA is heavily involved. No so, when if comes to Syria. It's too early. The public has not been yet been properly taught to hate Syria's President Assad sufficiently.

The imperialist media cartel that controls what news is selected and how and with what intention it shall be broadcasted has done its best to demonize Assad. How? Simple! They just keep repeating day in day out that Syrian government forces are shooting and massacring protesters, period. They don’t say anything else. That’s it. There is nothing else happening. When it is necessary to admit that police and soldiers are being ambushed and killed, a cover story comes with it, like, ‘it is suspected that they were killed by defecting police and military.’

This amazing great cartel of Pentagon/CIA fed media conglomerates, which seems to have the great majority of the basically indifferent population of the West in tow, is effortlessly running its usual cascade of disinformation, half-truths and propaganda preparing justification for military intervention as previously in the cases of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Iran.

However, "The plan to destabilize Syria is not working all that well. It succeeded in persuading public opinion that the country is in the grips of a brutal dictatorship, but it also welded the vast majority of the Syrian population firmly behind its government. Ultimately, the plan could backfire on those who masterminded it, notably Tel Aviv" surmises Thierry Meyssan in "The Plan to Destabilize Syria", Voltaire Network, Lebanon, 6/13/11.

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World revolution - Be there at your town square!


There is a global revolution starting and we, the people, decide when and how its gonna happen!
POWER TO DA PEOPLE!!


Reggae Roots

Peaceful revolution, Peaceful revolution
The situation is in desperate need of reassessment
It seems the people just don't feel at home with the decisions of their government, no
And though the tension rules the land
There's something we've got to understand
To change the problems that we have right now
We've got to use our minds, and not combat
Peaceful Revolution
Cause now we know what we're fighting for
Peaceful revolution -Our future looks bright as gold
Peaceful Revolution
This is a time for peace, can't afford no war
If we could find the roots of our conscience
I know the path that we take will be right
Then we can start on a brand new tomorrow
Push all the negative vibrations aside
We must forgive, what's done's been done
Let's clear the air, and the truth will come
The time for unification is now
And guess what? The most high is gonna show us how...
No more puttin' off for tomorrow
What we can accomplish today
Enough with all this procrastination
We've got a beautiful world to save
Peaceful Revolution
'Cause now we know what we're fightin' for
Peaceful revolution
This time we're gonna unite for sure
Peaceful revolution
The future looks bright as old
Peaceful revolution
We can't accept the story we've been told
Only Jah Jah's wisdom can show us our way
Prime ministers, and presidents
They only try to confuse the day
Gotta be awake before the daybreak
I think I can see a ray of sunshine
Selfishness and pessimism, don't you know
They will be out of style...inna peaceful revolution
'Cause now we know what we're fightin' for
Peaceful revolution
Jah gonna lend us a hand, to help us endure
Peaceful revolution
The future looks bright as gold
Peaceful revolution
This is a time for peace, no time for war
Peaceful revolution
'Cause now we know what we're fightin' for
Peaceful revolution, Peaceful revolution
Our future looks bright as gold

Alzheimer's may cause global cash crunch: experts

Already 24-37 million people worldwide live with the incurable form of dementia, and that number is projected to reach 115 million by 2050, a panel of Alzheimer's disease experts told the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

As women bear fewer children and the population ages, the world will become increasingly ill-prepared to cope with large numbers of dependent elderly people and must begin investing more in research to prevent the disease, they said.

Places like Russia, Europe, the United States and parts of Asia are experiencing "declining populations, fewer workers and more people dependent upon public health systems for their support," said George Vradenburg, founder of an called USAgainstAlzheimer's.

"That is producing fiscal stress on our health systems around the world and it is producing the risk that the developed world -- particularly the Asian rim and particularly western Europe -- are going to be declining in their economic growth and prosperity in the coming years."

According to the London-based  International, the total estimated worldwide cost of the disease in 2010 was 604 billion dollars, or nearly one percent of global GDP.

"If Alzheimer's were a country, it would be the 18th largest economy based on GDP," said Daisy Acosta, the chair of ADI, describing Alzheimer's as "the single most important health and social crisis of the 21st century."

"The impact of this disease today is massive and will accelerate with the years to come," she said.

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