Edge at Eno's in London - Simon Baron-Cohen on Testosterone On My Mind and In My Brain

"This is a hormone that has fascinated me. It's a small molecule that seems to be doing remarkable things. The variation we see in this hormone comes from a number of different sources. One of those sources is genes; many different genes can influence how much testosterone each of us produces, and I just wanted to share with you my fascination with this hormone, because it's helping us take the science of sex differences one step further, to try to understand not whether there are sex differences, but what are the roots of those sex differences? Where are they springing from? And along the way we’re also hoping that this is going to teach us something about those neuro-developmental conditions like autism, like delayed language development, which seem to disproportionately affect boys more than girls, and potentially help us understand the causes of those conditions."  

Introduction by John Brockman  

"I thoroughly enjoyed the evening last week," emailed Brian Eno. "A lot of interesting people got connected together and everyone told me they enjoyed themselves."  He was referring the first-ever London Edge Reality Club meeting, featuring a presentation by Cambridge research psychologist Simon-Baron Cohen which Eno hosted at his studio in Notting Hill before an assembled group that included artists, curators, museum directors, writers, playwrights, scientists in fields such as biology, math, psychology, zoology, the editors and correspondents of Nature, The Economist, Wired, The Guardian.  

Baron-Cohen held forth before this diverse group on his latest research on the properties and effects of the hormone testosterone, while showing its relevance to his earlier research in sex differences and autism.

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RFK assassination witness tells CNN: There was a second shooter

As a federal court prepares to rule on a challenge to Sirhan Sirhan's conviction in the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, a long overlooked witness to the murder is telling her story: She heard two guns firing during the 1968 shooting and authorities altered her account of the crime.

Nina Rhodes-Hughes wants the world to know that, despite what history says, Sirhan was not the only gunman firing shots when Kennedy was murdered a few feet away from her at a Los Angeles hotel.

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[ Via Real History Blog ]

Deny the British empire's crimes? No, we ignore them

George Monbiot writes:

There is one thing you can say for the Holocaust deniers: at least they know what they are denying. In order to sustain the lies they tell, they must engage in strenuous falsification. To dismiss Britain's colonial atrocities, no such effort is required. Most people appear to be unaware that anything needs to be denied.

The story of benign imperialism, whose overriding purpose was not to seize land, labour and commodities but to teach the natives English, table manners and double-entry book-keeping, is a myth that has been carefully propagated by the rightwing press. But it draws its power from a remarkable national ability to airbrush and disregard our past.

Last week's revelations, that the British government systematically destroyed the documents detailing mistreatment of its colonial subjects, and that the Foreign Office then lied about a secret cache of files containing lesser revelations, is by any standards a big story. But it was either ignored or consigned to a footnote by most of the British press.

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See also:

My critics ignored evidence of torture in Mau Mau detention camps

Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes

CIA Human Behavior Control Studies Reported in New York Times

The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a 14-year program to find ways to "control human behavior" through the use of chemical, biological and radiological material, according to agency documents made public today by John Marks, a freelance journalist.  

Mr. Marks, an associate of the Center for National Security Studies, asserted at a news conference that Adm. Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence, in a letter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week, "seriously distorted" what the C.I.A. research programs involved.  

Mr. Marks said that, based on documents about the program he had received under the Freedom of Information Act, he had concluded that Admiral Turner "seems to be practicing what used to be called 'a modified limited hangout'" when he called the agency's activity "a program of experimentation with drugs."  

"To be sure, drugs were part of it," he said, "but so were such other techniques as electric shock, radiation, ultrasonics, psychosurgery, psychology, and incapacitating agents, all of which were referred to in documents I have received."  

The documents made public today and the disclosure by the C.I.A. last week that it had found another cache of previously undiscovered records suggested broader experimentation on unwitting humans by the intelligence agency or its paid researchers than had been publicly known before. Mr. Marks said he had obtained or read about 1,000 C.I.A. documents, many of which were never turned over to the Senate intelligence committee for its 1975 investigation of agency activities.

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Interrogators Speak Out: America Is Morally Bipolar

From the HuffPost by Matthew Alexander:

And so we embark on another round where those who endorse torture, the men who have never done an interrogation, say it works and the anti-torture advocates, like me, who have successfully interrogated numerous detainees, say it doesn't and/or it isn't worth the long term consequences.

Well, count me in another group that says I don't care if it works 100 percent of the time. Chemical weapons work 100 percent of the time and we don't use those, even though (as the torture advocates assert), they would save lives. Flamethrowers are another weapon that work very effectively and could save lives, especially when clearing houses with suicide bombers, but we don't use those either. Not because it wouldn't save lives, but because these weapons cause unnecessary human suffering and the international community, led by the U.S., decided that they weren't worth the moral cost.

The sad truth is that America is morally bipolar. The country that I signed up to defend with my life has become an endorser of torture, an evader of accountability, and a place where the rule of law is arbitrary, especially for government elites who craft torture programs. The accountability we preach to other countries that is so important for a just society is absent in our own when it comes to torture.

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Ex-CIA officer defends interrogation tactics

The man who helped lead the so-called enhanced interrogation programme in US prisons overseas has defended the policies.

Jose Rodriguez, former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, writes in a new book that techniques such as sleep deprivation and waterboarding are justified.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington, DC.

Noam Chomsky - The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Noam Chomsky explains "the Propaganda Model", the central theme of his book, co-authored with Edward Herman, MANUFACTURING CONSENT: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE MASS MEDIA. Noam Chomsky spoke at the Wisconsin Union Theater on the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin on the evening of March 15, 1989. The lecture was sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate's Distinguished Lecture Series for the 1988-89 academic year.

pdxjustice

It Came From Kuchar - Official Trailer

Long before YouTube, there were the brilliantly insane, no-budget movies of underground, filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. Ceating stars out of their friends and family with just consumer-grade cameras, the teenage Kuchar brothers went from the 1960's New York City underground film scene of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger to become the twin maestros of B-movie glamour and sleaze.

In a mesmerizing stream-of-consciousness style, IT CAME FROM KUCHAR effortlessly interweaves nostalgic footage of 1950's New York, a "greatest hits" collection of Kuchar clips and present day interviews of an all-star lineup of fans including John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Wayne Wang, Bill Griffith, Gerard Malanga, B. Ruby Rich and Guy Maddin. Both outrageous and lovable, George and Mike will inspire you to pick up a camera and start making movies. IT CAME FROM KUCHAR is a must see for lovers of film everywhere.

George Kuchar at Boston University from tim jackson on Vimeo.

Legendary underground, low low budget filmmaker George Kuchar was in Boston for the Underground Film Festival. At Boston University (March 2010) he introduced himself to the startled crowd and screened new prints of his first two films from the 60's: Corruption Of The Damned (1965) which doesn't have sound and is in B&W and the oddly poetic (in color!) Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966).

Woman facing foreclosure arrested outside bank executive's home

A disabled woman facing eviction from her South Gate home was arrested Thursday night following a two-hour standoff between police and 80 protesters outside the home of Wells Fargo Bank Chief Financial Officer Tim Sloan.  

The group also was challenging a San Marino ordinance requiring demonstrators to stay 150 feet from a protest target’s home or 75 feet from the curb, a law enacted by the San Marino City Council after a protest in front of Sloan’s home on Oct. 5.

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Slavoj Žižek - Maybe We Just Need a Different Chicken ...

Sociologist and philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, discusses politeness and civility in the function of contemporary ideology. Dr. Žižek spoke at Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon, as part of the speaker tour for his latest book, VIOLENCE.
pdxjustice Media Productions
Producer: William Seaman

and...

Slavoj Zizek on KUNG FU PANDA

Watch entire interview at:http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11966

The Importance of Being Sassy - How Occupiers, pranksters, and artists speak louder than money

Sven Eberlein writes for Yes! magazine:

Since long before Abbie Hoffman dropped dollar bills over the New York Stock Exchange—unleashing hilarity as Wall Street traders scurried to gather up cash—humor has been a potent political weapon. It can expose the absurdities and inequities of consumer society. It doesn’t need big bucks to be effective or contagious—Occupy has shown that creativity and imagination can be powerful enough to build a national movement. And the Internet and social networking can allow a well-orchestrated prank to reach millions in minutes. Want to use your wit to confront corporate power? Here are creative and inspiring examples.

Truth in Advertising

“I’m driving to meet someone for breakfast … and I’m like, the hell with it, I’m running my corporation for Congress.”  Corporations may try to influence our perceptions through advertising, but who’s to say activists can’t give their messages a little editing? San Francisco’s Billboard Liberation Front has been “improving” ads for clients ranging from Wachovia Bank to McDonald’s for more than 30 years. One recent campaign helped telecommunications giant AT&T refine its message from an obtuse “AT&T works in more places, like Chilondoscow” (Chicago, London, Moscow, get it?) to the more discerning “AT&T works in more places, like NSA Headquarters.”

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Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis is a documentary film that premiered in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It is a collection of interviews and clips by and about the revolutionary artist Jack Smith. It was directed by Mary Jordan and produced by Tongue Press Productions.

The Manifesto of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn

The revelation of the once-secret Hermetic symbols and philosophies that are the foundation of the Golden Dawn's system has long since occurred, yet we still see Lodges swearing their Aspirants to absolute secrecy with mighty oaths of death and destruction, if they dare to reveal to the uninitiated the "secret knowledge" which the uninitiated could buy cheaply at a used book store. We see no reason to follow this defunct and even harmful approach. 

Instead, following the demonstrably advantageous practice of the Open Source Software movement, we build our Order on the sources of knowledge that are accessible to anyone. Our sources are already open; we simply affirm this obvious fact. We have no "secrets" to conceal, in particular those that have already been revealed. And in any case, the era of artificial secrecy is at an end. Ours is the Information Age, and we embrace it fully. Therefore we ordain and establish our order as the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn. 

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Patriots or Profiteers?

"The Big Three military contractors announced this week that they've made more than $2 billion in profits so far this year."

This week, the top military contractor companies announced their first-quarter profits for 2012. Their profits continue to grow while they push Washington, D.C. to protect their budgets at the expense of the rest of us, and while they break the law for financial gain. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and FDR wouldn't tolerate this kind of outrage. They knew that patriots don't behave this way, but profiteers do.

http://warcosts.com

Catastroika

CATASTROIKA WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES via infowar

Dalton Trumbo's Masturbatory Epistle to His Son

Nathan Lane reads a letter by Dalton Trumbo to his son on the subject of masturbation. It's the brilliant, hilarious show stopper from TRUMBO (2007).

Secretive Bilderberg Group Set To Meet In Virginia May 31st-June 3rd

From Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com 

Speculation that the location of the Bilderberg Group’s annual meeting would be chosen to coincide with this year’s U.S. presidential election appears to have been accurate with the likelihood that Bilderberg will hold their confab in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31st to June 3rd.

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Arrests preempt drone war protest

Thirty-three members of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones were preemptively arrested by the Onondaga County, New York Sheriff’s Department two blocks from the entrance to Hancock Air Base. The arrests preempted political free speech as the anti-drone activists proceeded silently and in single file on the shoulder of a public road towards the air base entrance. Sheriff’s Department vehicles blockaded the road and police officers corralled the group.

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Google can "more or less know what you're thinking about"

From Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster

In 2010, then-CEO Eric Schmidt gave an interview to the Atlantic where he stated, "Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it." Exactly what that creepy line is was never precisely defined, but he did indicate that implanting people with Google microchips was probably across it. Tellingly, though, Schmidt also pointed out that given the amount of information people willingly give to the information trafficker each day, without even typing a word Google can "more or less know what you're thinking about." These words coming from a frequent attendee of the annual Bilderberg conference should at the very least give one pause for thought.

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Occupy Wall Street: '#While We Watch'

By Diane Sweet

These short videos are a brief look at the kind of film "#whilewewatch" - premiering Thursday, April 26th at 8pm ET/5pm PT - will be. The screening will be on Snag Film's website, where it will be livestreamed, and viewers will be able to ask questions of the participants, some of whom are featured in these brief video clips. I'll be there, and hope to see you all there, too.

Now, the first video. Tim Pool is a journalist whose unique style of interactive broadcast journalism exists at the intersection of social and mainstream media. His live coverage has been featured by news outlets such as Reuters, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera English. Pool engages viewers as participants by combining first hand reporting and commentary via live video stream and chat, allowing the viewing public to join in the action by directly asking questions, which he responds to while reporting live.

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Tax resistance in Catalonia

Eight Catalan citizens (pictured) paid their VAT taxes in the Catalan Tributary Agency instead of the Spanish one becoming the first actual resisters to Spanish direct taxation of Catalan citizens and business.

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Prince Charles' Poundbury developer C G Fry & Son - BBC Southern Eye Freemasonry (2000)

Proof of criminal misconduct in public office
Never seen since its one and only showing in 2000 this took some tracking down I can tell you. Please note the processes by which freemasons keep their mutual interests hidden in official government positions.
Rare BBC masonic planning committee corruption flim (2000)

Here's an extremely rare 30 minute BBC regional documentary programme about masonic corruption from 2000
Save the file if ye can and while ye may
Do we need a register of freemasons or are freemasons being unfairly singled out?
Secret Society with secret ceremonies, protect and promote fellow members.Guilds disappeared but the secret symbols.
Quarrying areas are densely masonic. On Portland there are 6 masonic lodges and 500 members. Nationally about 1 in 70 men are freemasons, in Portland it's 1 in 8.
From Working Men's to Gentlemens' clubs.All male tradition.
Commander Michael Higham, Grand Secretary, United Grand Lodge 1980-1998.
Dorset Freemasons Frank Pratt (former Chief Superintendent Dorset Police) &
Gordon Reynolds.
Cllr John Antell, West Dorset District Council. Cllr Jim Hardman, planning
committees and freemasons.
West Midlands serious crime squad. Robin Corbett MP, Chris Mullin MP, Home Affairs Secect Committee investigation.
Provincial Grand Master, Dorset Province of Freemasonry, Harry Barnes.
Includes reconstruction of masonic initiation and vows: "My hand, given to a
master mason shall be a sure pledge of brotherhood. My feet shall
travel through dangers and difficulties, to unite with his, informing a column
of mutual defence and support".
"Worshipful Master an alarm! Whom have you there? Mr John Smith, a poor
candidate in a state of darkness, who has been well and worthily reccommended, regularly proposed and approved in open lodge, and who now comes of his own free will and accord, properly prepared, humbly soliciting to be admitted into the mysteries and privileges of freemasonry."
Are you therefore prepared to take a solemn oath founded on the principles I
have stated. To keep inviolate the secrets and mysteries of the order?"
"I am, I am."
"Then you will kneel on your left knee."
"Give me your right hand."
Peter Marks, curator of Dorset District Provincial Museum.
Harry Palmer - freemason. Housing Develpoer. Cllr Derek B. F. Burt - freemason Bryan Rowe & Eddie Fry (C.G. Fry and Son Ltd.) - Bridport lodge freemasons
Sylvia Wilkes - local resident.
Protect and promote - declaration of interests.
Jerry White, local government ombudsman.
In Dorset Southern Eye identified 16 freemason councillors and 13 of them are involved in the planning committee.
Cllr. Terry Farmer, Owen Curtis both from Sherbourne Lodge and West Dorset
District Council. "All the lodge members do not go to the lodge."

BBC Southampton - Executive Producers Peter Pitt and Eve Turner, Senior Producer Jonathan Bigwood, Producer Andrew Head. BBC South.

Refuse to Give Your Tax Money for Wars on April 15

By Tamara Cushway, Opposing Views

Refusing to pay taxes for war is as old as the first taxes levied for warfare.  Up until World War II, war tax resistance in the U.S. usually manifested itself among members of the historic peace churches — Quakers, Mennonites, and Brethren — and usually only during times of war. There have been cases of people refusing to pay taxes for war in almost every American war. In essence, war tax resistance is as American as apple pie.

The Military Industrial complex is bigger and more lethal than ever. The Federal budget for 2013 includes a breathtaking sum of current military (Dept. of Defense) expenditures totaling $673 billion! (This figure does not include Veterans benefits.) Here are just a few of the deadly expenditures being made on your behalf by the US government:

• Billions to the corrupt Karzai Government in Afghanistan for the continuation of a war that fewer Americans support every day.
• Millions to unscrupulous companies like Blackwater, Halliburton, and Kellogg, Brown, and Root to occupy Iraq.
• Millions to funding of The School of the Americas where future militarists are taught torture and state of the art killing techniques.
• Millions to defense contractors like Lockheed Martin (who receives an average of $105 from each taxpayer) who make drones and other weapons of mass destruction.

It’s time for all good citizens to say NO to the misappropriation of our hard-earned dollars in order to slaughter innocent people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, just to name a few of the countries we are actively involved in militarily. We are not helpless and we can take a stand.

Here are eleven suggestions for what you can do to create change...

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See also:

History of tax resistance

History of war tax resistance

How to Not Pay Taxes
I started by going to my employer’s human resources department to ask if I might take a significant pay cut. “How significant?” they asked. I said, “I’m not sure yet; maybe 75 percent?”

Starve the Beast of Empire - Ax the Personal Income Tax

Conscription of our money for war (Don’t wanna pay for war no more, Part 2)

San Francisco-based criminal defense attorney J. Tony Serra speaks about his political evolution, confrontation with the establishment, war tax resistance, prison experiences. Filmed May 7, 2011, in Oakland, CA, at a National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee conference. Hosted by Northern California War Tax Resistance.

Gatlif comes up with two films: 'Indignados' and 'Indignez-vous!'

According to Gatlif, Indignados "plunges into the dense and palpable reality of a Europe in revolt just to be able to live, through the gaze and illusions of Betty (Mamebetty Honoré Diallo), a young African illegal immigrant." Travelling along the edge of the borders of a Europe on the verge of collapse in terms of its social cohesion, Betty confronts this reality and the absurd situations it creates.

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Black Venus - Trailer

Black Venus is the powerful true story of Saartjie Baartman, a South African woman who was brought to London by her master to be exploited as a sideshow attraction. Free and enslaved at the same time, the "Hottentot Venus" became an icon in the slums, eventually ending up in Paris as a sexual slave and the subject of dubious scientific study. Acclaimed director Abdellatif Kechiche (The Secret of the Grain) brings Baartman's tragic yet unforgettable tale to life in this "supremely accomplished journey" (THE INDEPENDENT).

Matewan (1987)

Trailer

Ghost of Occupy Wall Street to haunt GE meeting

"It's the 99 percent and we want to serve notice to the 1 percent that it's time to start paying your fair share in taxes and being a little more responsible," said Christian Gary, an organizer with Good Jobs Now in Detroit.

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‘Why do oppressed people have such great jokes?’ — The Yes Men’s Andy Bichlbaum

Laura Gottesdiener writes:

Last week, a press release was released revealing a new website apparently from Bank of America, YourBofA.com, followed by another, seemingly hastily-written press release imploring readers to ignore the “malicious website (YourBofA.com) that is fraudulently representing itself as a Bank of America re-branding effort.” The second release insisted that “Bank of America is not making plans to enter into federal receivership.”

The malicious website (and both press releases) is another creation of the activist pranksters The Yes Men — the group that has posed as World Trade Organization representatives, George Bush henchmen and many more, all in good, subversive fun. To learn how laughter can be the greatest weapon of all, I sat down with Andy Bichlbaum, one of the founders of The Yes Men last month at Scratcher Bar in the East Village. Now, in addition to The Yes Men, The Yes Lab and teaching at New York University, he has been involved in developing the Plus Brigades, a project of Occupy Wall Street meant to infuse the movement with renewed creativity in the streets.

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Upriser Callisthenics!

Bread & Puppet theater performs "Upriser Callisthenics" in Catskill, NY.

Le Havre (2011) - Official Trailer

One of the most shining films in Cannes 2011.

When an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home.

Starring: André Wilms, Blondin Miguel, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Kati Outinen, Elina Salo, Evelyne Didi

Hot Millions (1968): "I Believe It Was Hitler..."

Movie clip. Paroled con man Pendleton (co-screenwriter Peter Ustinov), posing as "Smith," his first interview with American big-shot Kemper (Karl Malden), bluffing computer expert Gnatpole (Bob Newhart) with newly-acquired technical jargon, in Hot Millions, 1968.

Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death

The story of King Leopold II of Belgium's brutal colonisation of central Africa, turning it into a vast rubber-harvesting labour camp in which millions died.

Suicide riddle of weapons expert who worked with David Kelly: Scientist tells wife he is going for a walk, then takes his life in a field... just like his friend

From the Daily Mail:

A weapons expert who worked with Dr David Kelly at the Government’s secret chemical warfare laboratory has been found dead in an apparent suicide.  

In circumstances strongly reminiscent of Dr Kelly’s own mysterious death nine years ago, the body of Dr Richard Holmes was discovered in a field four miles from the Porton Down defence establishment in Wiltshire. It is not yet known how he died.  

Mr Holmes, 48, had gone missing two days earlier after telling his wife he was going out for a walk – just as Dr Kelly did before he was found dead at an Oxfordshire beauty spot in July 2003. 

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Secrets of Prometheus Film Leaked

http://www.infowars.com/secrets-of-prometheus-film-leaked/
No, we're not going to give away any SPOILERS here; instead we will reveal the agenda behind Prometheus, the new film by legendary director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) hitting theaters June 8.

The secret is that the elite believe they are attaining godhood and are destined for the stars. Their ancient and occultic views are reflected in the dark themes of Prometheus, the very name of which hints at the quest for eternity and power among a group who think a divine right bestowed by a higher intelligence gives creedence to their meddling with the affairs of common man.
For more on Ridley Scott's Prometheus, visit:
http://www.prometheus-movie.com/

Devil Worship - The Rise of Satanism

http://jeremiahfilms.com/products/DWRSD This documentary film reveals Satanism from all around the world. WARNING: Very Graphic!

Necrofascist - A Short Course in the Secret War

DevilsAvenger

Assange RT Show Sparks Zionist Media Frenzy

It was a debut destined to stir up a Zionist media storm - the much anticipated show by Julian Assange finally burst onto TV screens around the globe - with controversy not only about the host but his guests as well. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose identity was kept secret until broadcast - was the first person interviewed by the world's most prominent whistleblower. RT's Gayane Chichakyan rates the premiere's impact and reports on the widespread Zionist dominated Western medias outrage and reaction to it.

Watch the World Tomorrow on RT's official video page http://assange.rt.com.‬

The Wall Street Conspiracy - Trailer

The Wall Street Conspiracy explores a pernicious form of fraud called illegal naked short selling that has had an enormous impact on the 2008 collapse of the US economy.

Federal Reserve Officials Leave For Wall Street With Privileged Info

The Federal Reserve may be making an effort to open up some of its famously opaque decision making, but the newfound interest in transparency doesn't extend to sharing records of meetings that happened years ago.

The Huffington Post and MSNBC's "Dylan Ratigan Show" filed Freedom of Information Act requests in January to obtain the minutes of Federal Open Market Committee meetings from 2007 to 2010. That month, the Fed had released the 2006 minutes of the confidential committee, which essentially sets national monetary policy.

In response, the bank provided 513 pages of mostly blacked-out paper and cited policy to justify withholding the information.

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The Framing of Bo Xilai

By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com

Murder and politics – they go together quite well. Wars, assassinations, violent purges: these are the woof and warp of politics, which is, after all, nothing but organized coercion or the threat of it. Combine this with international intrigue, and the opportunism that thrives in the heart of all politicians, and you couldn’t come up with a better narrative to outline if not explain the current leadership struggle in China.  

Neil Heywood was an adventurer, or so he liked to think: a British businessman with links to a company founded by "ex"-MI-6 operatives, he was close to the family of Bo Xilai, the ambitious and now disgraced former secretary of the Communist Party in Chongqing. Bo was a rising leader of what has been mistakenly referred to as China’s "new left," a popular leader who rid his city of organized crime, attracted much foreign investment, and was angling for a spot on the Politburo’s all-powerful Standing Committee. He also aroused the ire of China’s supposedly "reformist" leadership, and as such he was in their sights when the current scandal broke – a scandal that provoked rumors of a coup, caused the Chinese authorities to crack down on the internet, and brought the British government into the mix on the current leadership’s side.  

When Heywood was found dead in his hotel room, after having been summoned to Chongqing, the initial verdict was that he had a heart attack, like his father before him. He had been drinking, said the local police, and his family raised no questions about his death, dismissing rumors that he had been murdered as preposterous. All that changed, however, when Bo began directly criticizing the Chinese leadership.

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Pakistani journalist tortured, killed in Karachi

Pakistani authorities must thoroughly investigate the death of prominent editor and writer Murtaza Razvi, determine a motive in his killing, and apprehend all those responsible, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The body of Razvi, the senior editor and head of magazines at Dawn Media Group, was found in a friend's apartment in a relatively wealthy residential area of Karachi on Thursday, according to news reports. His body bore torture marks and his hands were tied, the English-language daily Dawn reported, adding that the journalist "had apparently been strangled to death."

Razvi, a columnist and political analyst for Dawn Media Group, had worked as a journalist for more than 20 years. Before working as the group's magazine editor, he worked as Dawn's resident editor in the city of Lahore. In 2009, he published the book Musharraf: The Years in Power, which detailed the rise and fall of the former president of Pakistan.

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The American who quit money to live in a cave

Daniel Suelo lives in caves in the canyonlands of Utah. He survives by harvesting wild foods and eating roadkill.

He has no job, no bank account and does not accept government welfare. In fact, Suelo has no money at all.

Suelo may have shunned all the trappings of modern American life, but he is not an isolationist.

Since abandoning money in 2000, the former cook from Moab, Utah has remained an active member of his community and avid blogger.

Mark Sundeen, author of The Man Who Quit Money, admits many people would regard Suelo's alternative lifestyle as bizarre. But the 2008 financial crash has led many to question the value of money. He explains some of the lessons found in Suelo's philosophy.

Produced for the BBC by David Eckenrode

“Greece Should Involve Turkish Coup Trial”

From Turkish Agenda:

Turkey have been facing its near dark past by landmark trials of 2 coups of 1980 and 1997 and 1 coup attempt in 2003. Many victims of the coups have been applying to the courts to interfere. One intervener, however, came from outside of the country, from across Aegean sea.

Weekly paper Paron of Greece had headline of “Greece should involve in Turkish Sledgehammer case,”referring to the trial of coup attempt of 2003 in Turkey. The Greek paper Paron had interviewed legal circles of Greece and their opinion was that Greek government should become intervener of the case because of the allegations in the indictment. According to the indictment, the generals allegedly would invade Greek islands as part of creating havoc to bring down the AKP government.

Sledgehammer plot allegedly had planes of bombing two Istanbul mosques and accuse Greece of shooting down a Turkish plane over the Aegean Sea.The plan allegedly was to stir up chaos and justify a military coup.

U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan are committing atrocities, lying, and getting away with it

Jerome Starkey recently reported for The Times of London about a night raid on Feb. 12 in which U.S. and Afghan gunmen opened fire on two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials -- an atrocity which NATO’s Afghanistan headquarters then tried to cover up. Now, in a blistering indictment of both NATO and his own profession, Starkey writes for Nieman Watchdog that the international forces led by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal are rarely called to account because most reporters are too dependent on access, security and the 'embed culture' to venture out and see what's happening for themselves.

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Coup Feared As Greece Veers Toward Economic Collapse

Petros Papakonstantinou

In an interview published in the French newspaper Liberación, March 3, 81-year-old Michel Rocard, Prime Minster during François Miterrand’s administration, declared, "My conclusion is that the inequitable developments will lead to a civil war. This implies important questions for Greece. How can elections be held in this environment? How can anyone govern telling the people that they must give up 25% of their salary over the next 10 years in order to pay the debt? No one talks about this, but the only way to get out of the problem in Greece is through military rule."

Three days later, the Spanish El País published an article by sociologist Ignacio Sotelo about the Greek crisis which arrived at the following conclusion, "The danger exists that democracy could be destroyed by a developing process approaching social revolution. The radicalization that this process could imply would not be tolerated by the upper classes in Greece and most likely, not by their European associates either. This obliges them to justify some form of military intervention." Several British media have expressed sentiments along these same lines, "Fears of army coup as Greece hits meltdown," according to the Daily Express.

We should not underestimate the seriousness of these statements, mistaking them as exaggerated. Despite the social horror being proposed and the enormous difficulties, the lack of continuity and leadership within the popular movement (which cannot be derailed by the elections, a hopeless quagmire), a social explosion is not inevitable. The question is not if it will happen, but when and how and what the outcome will be.

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Related:

Greece 1964-1974 "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said the President of the United States ~ excerpted from the book Killing Hope by William Blum

Excerpts From Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook By Edward Luttwak

5000+ Artists Line Up For a Pirate Bay Promotion

Record labels and Hollywood have described The Pirate Bay as one of the biggest threats to their business, but thousands of artists clearly disagree with this view. In recent weeks more than 5000 independent artists have signed up to be promoted by the world’s largest torrent site. Those who were lucky enough to be featured are overwhelmed by the career boost and the positive responses from the public.

[ ... ]

While The Pirate Bay team expected a decent response, they were positively surprised by the avalanche of submissions that have come in since. The Pirate Bay team informed TorrentFreak that thus far they have received more than 5000 applications. Nearly 90% come from musicians and 95% of them are male.

Artists who choose to participate have to offer something free in return and many artists from all over the world have done so. The list includes best-selling author Paulo Coelho who’s a big Pirate Bay supporter.

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Occupy All Streets Not Just Wall Street

Humanity is evolving and waking up to the reality that we are humans not something for corporations to play with we have meaning the world wide revolution has only just begun.
 

Wake everyone up please.

Occupy movement turning to shareholder meetings

Looking to build on the Occupy Wall Street movement, activists say they're turning to corporate shareholder meetings this spring to vent their anger over economic disparity in the United States and to promote an assortment of other causes.

A group called 99% Power -- a reference to those not among the top 1 percent of earners -- says it plans actions at 36 shareholder meetings, with the first big push coming at Tuesday's Wells Fargo & Co gathering in San Francisco.

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Alan Watts - A Conversation With Myself

A 1971 television recording with Alan Watts walking in the mountains and talking about the limitations of technology and the problem of trying to keep track of an infinite universe with a single tracked mind.

Occupy 2012 and the Doomsday Cult of Profit

One thing that became abundantly clear was that neither the Aztecs nor the Mayans were any more concerned about 2012 than the Catholic priests were concerned about the rapture. Several prominent shamans and tribal elders actually told me that they do not believe there is any pragmatic science behind the western interpretations of the 2012 prophecy.

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Russia Stunned After Japanese Plan To Evacuate 40 Million Revealed

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities… including the world’s largest one, Tokyo.

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2012: The Year of the Cooperative

The United Nations has named 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, and indeed, co-ops seem poised to become a dominant business model around the world. Today, nearly one billion people worldwide are cooperative member-owners. That’s one in five adults over 15 — and it could soon be you.

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Shocking photos show Swedish Minister of Culture celebrating with ”n*g*er cake”

A macabre scene with racist undertones took place on Saturday when Swedish minister of culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth attended a tax funded party for the Stockholm cultural elite. The self-proclaimed "anti-racist" Liljeroth declared the party officially started by slicing a piece of a cake depicting a stereotypical African woman.

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OWS Insight

From Responses to “I Fought the Law:

Yesterday I wrote about a sense that Occupy was under triple attack from academia, the police and the Law. There were a good deal of mostly hostile responses on Facebook. While I don’t agree with most of them, as you’ll see, I thought it was fair to post them in the interests of transparency. They are long but all the more reason not to limit the audience.

There was a great deal of discussion about Jodi Dean’s New School keynote, its use of theory and her questioning of the organization of Occupy. The length of these comments suggest that a nerve was touched–or, to be fair, that I was wildly wrong.

Rhetorics aside, at the heart of it is a central issue: does the horizontal leader-less strategy of Occupy continue to be beneficial (we all agree it was so at first, I think) or not? I continue to think that the process is the energy of the movement. If leaders are appointed, Occupy becomes just another political party or a pressure group like Moveon.org. And it would just disappear into the fringe. Others seem to be repelled by the process.

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Thousands of Honduran farmworkers occupy land

Thousands of farmworkers have occupied 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) of land around Honduras as part of a dispute with large landowners and the government, activists and officials said Wednesday.

Activists say the seized territory is arable public land that small farmers have the legal right to grow crops under Honduran law. The large landowners who have been farming the land say they bought it legally from the government. A land dispute between small farmers and landlords in the northern Aguan Valley has led to dozens of deaths among farmworkers in recent years.

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"Television": Lacan on the unconscious

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Slavoj Zizek on How to Read Lacan

... A century ago, in order to situate his discovery of the unconscious in the history of modern Europe, Freud developed the idea of three successive humiliations of man, the three “narcissistic illnesses,” as he called them. ... Today, a hundred years later, a more extreme picture is emerging: the latest scientific breakthroughs seem to add a whole series of further humiliations to the narcissistic image of man: our mind itself is merely a computing machine for data-processing, our sense of freedom and autonomy is merely the user’s illusion of this machine. Consequently, with regard to today’s brain sciences, psychoanalysis itself, far from being subversive, rather seems to belong to the traditional humanist field threatened by the latest humiliations.

[ ...]

Nonetheless, in the case of psychoanalysis, the memorial service is perhaps a little bit too hasty, commemorating a patient who still has a long life ahead. In contrast to the “evident” truths of the critics of Freud, my aim is to demonstrate that it is only today that the time of psychoanalysis has arrived. On reading Freud through Lacan, through what Lacan called his “return to Freud.” Freud’s key insights finally become visible in their true dimension. Lacan did not understand this return as a return to what Freud said, but to the core of the Freudian revolution of which Freud himself was not fully aware.

Lacan started his “return to Freud” with the linguistic reading of the entire psychoanalytic edifice, encapsulated by what is perhaps his single best known formula: “the unconscious is structured as a language.” ...

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Unlucky indeed: Tragic events that happened on Friday the 13th

It may be a silly superstition, but Friday the 13th has proven to be a disastrous day for thousands of people over the years.

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Neil Heywood death: Bo Xilai's son 'escorted from his home near Harvard university by US officials'

Mr Bo's father, a charismatic senior Chinese politician once tipped as a future premier, was purged by the ruling Communist party this week while his mother, Gu Kailai, was detained on suspicion of murder.

She is accused of plotting the killing of Neil Heywood, a 41-year-old British expatriate and former confidante, whose death in a hotel room last year was initially blamed on alcohol poisoning.

[ ... ]

"If you can establish there's a well-founded fear you would be persecuted in China because you would be imputed with the subversive or corrupt political views of your father, you would be just as eligible for asylum," said Bruce Einhorn, a retired judge and professor at Pepperdine University.

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Online dating for preppers, survivalists, doomsday believers

... "Most will agree that something is brewing that may change life as we know it, whether it be a collapse of the economy, an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) or other natural or government disaster," Burke said.

The site is free for now, but Burke is planning to charge a $5 monthly membership fee so she can generate income from her project. She is considering using a slogan like, "Find love for less than the price of a box of bullets" to draw in paying members. ...

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The Occult Mockery Of Police And Military by Mark Passio

See also:

Paranormal ESPionage - The Military-Occult Complex

NEW DAWN: What prompted you to write Psychic Battlefield?

MANDELBAUM: I had served four years in military intelligence during the Cold War. I was involved in electronic espionage. You know, one of those “gentlemen” who aren’t supposed to listen to the conversations of other “gentlemen” – but do. Back then, it was the Czech military and diplomatic types who merited my attention. That experience gave me a fascination with intelligence. As far as the paranormal goes, I always felt that the intelligence services were using psychics, and was aware that the Eastern Bloc had done extensive research in this area. The use of the paranormal for military and intelligence purposes goes back to before biblical times. While there had been books published on specific time periods and specific projects which dealt with military use of the paranormal, there never had been a complete history of the subject, nor the identification of what is in reality a military-occult complex, comparable to a military-industrial complex.


HEXEN2039 - New Military-Occult Technologies for Psychological Warfare

Our programme involves the testing and analysis of existing occult based research in connection with military histories, in order to develop accurate neurological based technologies for the new British military-occult industries.


Occult Military Patches

The New York Times has an article up about Trevor Paglen's book I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World, which highlights the patches worn on the uniforms of "secret military units [and] classified Pentagon programs."

The SOLO File: Declassified Documents Detail "The FBI's Most Valued Secret Agents of the Cold War"

From the National Security Archive:

The "FBI's most valued secret agents of the Cold War," brothers Morris and Jack Childs, together codenamed SOLO, reported back to J. Edgar Hoover starting in 1958 about face-to-face meetings with top Soviet and Chinese Communist leaders including Mao and Khrushchev, while couriering Soviet funds for the American Communist Party, according to newly declassified FBI files cited in the new book by Tim Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2012).

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Sikkim by Satyajit Ray - The Unseen Film for 39 long years

Sikkim is a 1971 Indian documentary about the nation of Sikkim, directed by Satyajit Ray. The documentary was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India. Ray's documentary is about the sovereignty of Sikkim. The film was banned by the government of India, when Sikkim merged with India in 1975. In 2000, the copyright of the film was transferred to the Art and Cuture Trust of Sikkim. The ban was finally lifted by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in September 2010.

http://www.angelvideo.in/

The Experiment (2010)

Trailer:

A great psychological thriller, produced by none other than KADDAFI'S son...(Saadi Kaddafi).
26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.

Released on 2010

Starring: Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Cam Gigandet, Clifton Collins Jr. , Maggie Grace.

In a Year with 13 Moons - The panel discussion

Roundtable discussion about the Fassbinder film "In a Year with 13 Moons," with panelists Thomas Elsaesser, Wayne Koestenbaum, Leo Lensing, Edward Nersessian, and Brigitte Peucker.

Watch video here.

Mass arrests of the 1% underway?

Tycoon arrests rock Hong Kong

Brothers at the helm of a company that helped build Hong Kong's skyline and the man who once was the city's number two official were arrested in an investigation of a bribery case has shocked the former British colony.

Thomas Kwok, 60, and Raymond Kwok, 58, and their families control Sun Hung Kai Properties, which built the city's three tallest skyscrapers. The billionaires were taken into custody by the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Share price Sun Hung Kai, the world's second largest property developer by market capitalization, was down as much as 15% in the first four hours of trading Friday, losing nearly $6 billion in market value.

MAJOR EVENT: Liens Filed Against All 12 Federal Reserve Banks

The next major milestone for Mass Arrests of the cabal has now arrived. Liens have now been filed against all twelve Federal Reserve banks. A Cease and Desist Order has also been filed -- to prevent the world's wealth from continuing to be stolen.


Financiers and Sex Trafficking

...for more than six years Goldman has held a significant stake in a company notorious for ties to sex trafficking, and it sat on the company’s board for four of those years. There’s no indication that Goldman or anyone else ever used its ownership to urge Village Voice Media to drop escort ads or verify ages. Elizabeth L. McDougall, chief counsel for Village Voice Media, told me Friday that she was “unaware of any dissent” from owners...


Insider Drake Freedom Reigns Update April 12, 2012

Drake stated that everyone who is associated with anything that is detrimental to the public will be held accountable for their actions. One caller asked if the mass arrests will include the people who spray chemtrails in our air, those who place fluoride in our water and those who abuse animals. Drake stated, “You might want to include everything you can think of in terms of making things right.”

Drake has been revealing a new movement regarding a mass arrest of all corrupted politicians, banksters, etc... which possibly might involve the selection of Ron Paul as an interim or temporary President of the United States until formal elections can be held.

If you look at the massive number of banker resignations since September 1, 2011 (450 and counting) it makes sense that these people are quitting in the hopes of not being persecuted for their crimes against humanity. According to Drake, everyone will be held accountable whether they are employed in their current positions or not.

Still, major corporate crimes remain unpunished:

The Latest SEC/Goldman Sachs Sweetheart Deal is the Worst One Yet

No wonder the SEC didn't appear before reporters to announce this latest settlement, choosing instead to announce in an email. Cowardly - but then, would you want to show your face in public after signing a deal like this?

The Crime

What crimes did Goldman Sachs employees commit this time around? They pressured their top analysts to share confidential information in meetings called "huddles," exchanging "high conviction" rating changes the analysts planned to make but hadn't announced yet. These changes were then shared with what the SEC called "a select group of Goldman's top clients" under a program called the "Asymmetric Service Initiative," or "ASI."

Occupy Spring 2012 Chicago: The Leech, the Vermin and the People!

[COOPERATIVE MEDIA]: Edited footage of the Occupy Spring event @ Chicago 2012. Footage of Jesse Jackson and Vermin Supreme. Promoting May 1st General Strike!

Vultures gather for Greek state asset sell-off

Gazprom Cleared to Bid for Greek Gas Monopoly

Gazprom and Russia's mid-sized Negusneft oil firm comply with the tender requirements, along with 12 other companies from different countries, including Japan's Mitsui, Italy's Eni and Edison, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) said.


European railway companies eye Greek network sale

Russia is considering buying the entire Greek railway network and its operator Trainose, while Romania's largest private railway company, Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR), has expressed interest in the cargo business, two high-level Greek officials said.


Ireland is apparently being prepared for a similar fate: Roll up, roll up, for the greatest asset-stripping event this century

Blogger Files Lawsuit Against Murdoch Paper

... According to court documents, a report from the Times, Patrick Foster, hacked into Horton’s email account in an attempt to unmask him.

As the New Statesman says, the Times at first denied accessing Horton’s emails, only to admit that one of its journalists had done this. Foster has since left the Times and done freelance work for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph; he is not named in the suit against the Times. ...

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Iceland forgives mortgage debt of its population

The government of Iceland has forgiven the mortgage debt for much of its population. This nation chose a very different way of stopping the crisis from the rest of European countries. It decided to hear the requests of the population and to put politicians and bankers on the bench of the accused three years after their financial excesses sank one of the most prosperous economies in 2008. teleSUR

Changing Consciousness

Opening Ceremony video for the 2011 Melbourne Sci Fi and Pop Culture Convention, Continuum 7: Changing Consciousness.
http://www.continuum.org.au

Best marijuana legalization argument movie

Brazil's Landless Movement: Without Firing an Arm, We Created a Revolution

By Ilda Martines de Souza and Beverly Bell, Toward Freedom

“We take the land from one hand and put it in the hands of a thousand...landowners would only use this land for cattle, and now we produce beans, milk, food, for the entire population.” – Ilda Martines de Souza, a leader of Brazil’s landless farmer movement.

Long before the Crusades, through centuries of colonization, to the oil-motivated wars of the present day, land has been the currency of religious, imperial, and national power. Farmers have been made landless by economic and political forces within their own countries, as well as those from far reaches of the globe. Spikes in food prices over recent years have triggered the latest wave of international land grabs, with investment firms snapping up agricultural land, hoping to turn a profit for their investors in the next food crisis. An estimated 50 to 80 million hectares of land have been a part of international investment deals in recent years —approximately two-thirds of them in Africa.

Land and development experts Shalmali Guttal, Maria Luisa Mendonça, and Peter Rosset write, “Fair and equitable access to land and other resources like water, forests, and biodiversity is perhaps the most fundamental prerequisite for… a decent standard of living and… ecologically sustainable management of natural resources.” Today, land access remains largely unfair and inequitable. Never has such a high percentage of the world’s population been displaced from their indigenous or ancestral lands, left without land, a secure home, or the ability to feed themselves.

As the consolidation of land as a private resource for profit-making is global, so is the movement to relate to land in an alternative way, one which meets everyone’s needs. Landless, peasant, family, and indigenous farmers worldwide have long been engaged in land reclamation and land reform movements—either seizing unfairly owned or consolidated land or winning laws mandating redistribution. (The same concepts often underlie the struggle for fair housing.) Examples range from Americans fighting foreclosures as a part of "Occupy Our Homes" to Indians lying down in rows to block corporate tractors encroaching on their villages, Haitians still living in tents since the earthquake two years ago marching for their right to housing, and indigenous Hondurans reclaiming their territories in the face of violent repression.

Newer movements have much to learn from groups that have been mobilizing for decades, such as the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST by its Portuguese acronym) in Brazil, a country with one of the highest levels of land and income inequality in the world. The MST’s response to poverty, hunger, and landlessness is to put fallow land back into production in the hands of small farmers. It does this by organizing landless, unemployed, and slum-dwelling people to gain legal title to the nation’s vast unused land. Roughly one and a half to two million MST members have created about 2,000 cooperatively-run, democratic communities on tens of thousands of reclaimed acres. On them, they have established their own models of self-government, restorative justice, self-produced media, ecologically sound agriculture, collective production, law, social relations, cultural expression, and education.

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