Daring Protesters Shut Down Obama Backed Strip Mine In West Virginia; 500,000 in Bail Needed!!!!

Ramping up renewed efforts to end mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia, scores of protesters staged a daring action at the controversial Hobet strip mine today in Boone County, West Virginia, shutting down operations through a series of coordinated lock downs, tree-sits and banner drops. In a symbolic challenge to the Obama administration’s failed regulatory policies, the protest targeted the Hobet 45 mountaintop removal mine, which had been granted a widely denounced permit over two years ago.

According to RAMPS, a West Virginia-based grassroots groups that organized the “mountain mobilization” protest as part of a nationwide summer of actions against devastating extraction industry operations, St. Louis-based mine owner Patriot Coal has left behind a legacy of destruction in coal country for both area residents and miners. Patriot filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, which could also affect pension and United Mine Workers of America union contracts.

“The government has aided and abetted the coal industry in evading environmental and mine safety regulations. We are here today to demand that the government and coal industry end strip mining, repay their debt to Appalachia, and secure a just transition for this region,” said Dustin Steele of Matewan, West Virginia, in a released statement. The son and grandson of union coal miners, Steele took part in one of the truck lockdowns.

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Protesters Blockade Televisa, Mexico's Biggest TV Station, Over Election Coverage

Thousands of protesters on Thursday blockaded the studios of Mexico's most popular TV network, accusing it of biased coverage of the July 1 presidential election.

Shouting "Tell the truth," the demonstrators, including students and union workers, stopped employees entering the offices of the Televisa studios in Mexico City although they allowed others to leave.

The protesters allege that Televisa supported Enrique Pena Nieto, who won the election by almost 7 percentage points over leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The protesters promised to continue the blockade for 24 hours.

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Video Message From the Zapatistas de San Marcos Avilés

Illuminati Occult Symbolism in The 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Magic, through Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, is a theme of the 2012 Olympic Games. A giant figure holding a wand (thought to be Prospero from The Tempest) and a cauldron feature in stadium preparations for the opening ceremony.

The Tempest is thought by most scholars to have been written in 1610–11, and is generally accepted as the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. Scholars have noted the numerous parallels between Shakespeare’s final work and famous occultist Francis Bacon’s final book New Atlantis.

In The Tempest travelers arrive at an island ruled by Prospero, the Magus who has mastery over all nature, and Prospero’s farewell to his art in the play is the Bard’s farewell to his work. In New Atlantis the travelers arrive at an island ruled by a Society called Salomon’s House (Solomon’s House) which has achieved mastery over all nature. New Atlantis depicts Bacon’s vision of man’s mastery over nature, and this work is a summing up and a farewell to Bacon’s lifework. Both works depict travelers who arrive at an island filled with wonders. In the first case the wonders of science, in the second case the wonders of magic, both of which give mastery over all nature. Bacon, it is important to note, said that science in its higher form is magic. The surface parallels between New Atlantis and The Tempest are obvious. But beneath the surface there are more parallels, and more specific identities between the two works. So many, in fact, that they provide strong evidence for Bacon’s authorship of The Tempest.

As both The Tempest and New Atlantis depict societies ruled over by an elite made gods by virtue of their secret knowledge both works serve to define the occult philosophy of the Rosecrucians, Freemasons and the Illuminati. Bacon’s alleged connection to the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons has been widely discussed by authors and scholars in many books and a very good case can be made for him as the author of all Shakespeare’s plays.

Olympic opening ceremony preparations

As part of the Olympic occult ritual the British sheople are invited to participate in Work No. 1197 – those looking for numeric connections to 9/11 and 7/7 won’t have to work too hard. Others may notice 1+1+9+7=18 (6+6+6).

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The Reversing Magnetic Field of Planet Earth

This animation produced by Swiss scientists about the Reversing Magnetic Field of Planet Earth is one of the 16 selected animations for SC11 Scientific Visualization Showcase.

The magnetic field generated in the fluid metallic core of planet Earth is shown. Numerical simulations of the dynamo mechanism, such as this one, exhibit polarity reversals, whereby the north pole moves by 180 degrees; this mimics the behaviour documented many times within the geological record. Our simulation solves the equations of momentum transfer, heat transfer and electrodynamics in an electrically conducting and rapidly-rotating fluid at each point in time. High temperatures in the central part of the core drive thermal convection. The total simulation is equivalent to approximately 40,000 years on Earth. Our movie shows the magnetic field lines that enter and exit the core. High magnetic field strength is shown by red and yellow colours, and lower strengths by blue. On each field line we place a small compass needle with red and white ends, which orient itself in the direction of the field.

Authors: Jean M. Favre (CSCS Swiss National Supercomputing Centre), Jon Rotvig (ETH Zürich), Andrew Jackson (ETH Zürich)

See also:

This World Is An Illusion

...Earth’s background base frequency, or “heartbeat” (called the Schumann Resonance, or SR) is rising dramatically. Though it varies among geographical regions, for decades the overall measurement was 7.8 Hz (cycles per second). This was once thought to be a constant. Global military communications developed on this frequency.

Recent reports set the rate at over 11 cycles per second – and climbing.

The rate is about 12 cycles per second at present. It stops at 13 cycles.

When the Earth stops and its rotation and resonance frequency reach 13 cycles per second, we will be at what is called a “zero point” magnetic field.

“Zero Point” (or the Shift of the Ages) has been predicted by ancient peoples for thousands of years. There have been many shifts including the one that always occurs every 13,000 years at each half of the 26,000 year “Procession of the Equinox”. “Zero Point” (or a flip of the magnetic poles) will probably happen within the next few years.

Time will appear to speed up as we approach “Zero Point”. A 24-hour day will seem to be about 16 hours or less.

It is said that after “Zero Point”, the Sun will rise in the west and set in the east (approximately). Past occurrences of this change have been recorded and found in ancient records. The Earth will be stopped. In 2 or 3 days, it will start turning again, but in the opposite direction. This will produce a reversal in the magnetic fields around the Earth and so forth...

Philosophical Consideration of Death - Dimitris Liantinis (PhD)

Dimitris Liantinis, Professor of Philosophy in University of Athens, gives a lecture at the Military School of Sanitary Practise about how we must face death. Βio: http://www.liantinis.org/english/

Anaheim police violence: "They Shot At Little Kids Too"

Please click below to sign the petition:
http://act.presente.org/sign/anaheimbrutality/

Demand that Attorney General Kamala Harris investigate this incident and the recent increase in police violence in Anaheim.

The Legend of Wunda Woman

Basically, I read all there was in nineteenth century newspaper accounts, plus the odd republished volume like Edward Curr’s Recollections of Squatting in Victoria. These gave me the subject matter for a book that never materialised, although most of the component parts were later published in journals, magazines and newspapers in the early 1980s.

‘The Legend of Wunda Woman’ was one of them:

A long time ago the Bungambrawatha clan lived on the banks of their creek.

The white creatures arrived in summer, when the creek was dry. The Bungambrawatha thought they were wunda – the ghosts of dead people with nowhere to settle.

The ghosts settled by the creek and tied to make contact, without much success. The Bungambrawatha had established ways of dealing with spirits, but not with ghosts they could see and touch, who ate and drank like real people. The amount the ghosts drank was alarming.

After the autumn rains, the ghosts wanted so much water they dammed up the creek and fenced it off. When the Bungambrawatha tried to go down they were driven away. It was a strange way for ghosts to behave.

The question arose whether the wunda were ghosts at all. Perhaps they were a kind of devil. Or perhaps they were real people who through misfortune had been inflicted with a deathly skin.

The Bungambrawatha watched the wunda more closely, to establish what kind of creature they were, but were frustrated by the wunda custom of wrapping themselves up, even in the heat of the sun. And at night, what was the purpose of fire if not to wrap round with warmth and protection?

Then the wunda spent a day screening off a section of their dam with branches and early the following morning one came down to bathe. When the creature removed its wrappings the Bungambrawatha could see it was not only white all over, but female. There could be no doubting the ghostliness now: all her parts were the colour of death. The creature was perfect, white like the witchetty – a wunda woman indeed.

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Jessica Yu: Meet Mr. Toilet

Meet Mr. Toilet | Jessica Yu from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

For those without access to a simple toilet, poop can be poison. Businessman-turned-sanitation-superhero Jack Sim fights this oft-neglected crisis affecting 2.6 billion people...

Join the conversation and tweet #MrToilet to have your tweet featured on the Focus Forward website. Go to http://www.focusforwardfilms.com/films/5/meet-mr-toilet to see the discussion.

Watch more FOCUS FORWARD films at vimeo.com/focusforwardfilms/films and enter our filmmaker challenge at www.vimeo.com/focusforwardfilms/challenge.

Downriver Productions, LLC

DIRECTED BY - Jessica Yu
PRODUCED BY - Elise Pearlstein, Jessica Yu
EDITED BY - Adam Parker
MUSIC BY - Jeff Beal
ANIMATION BY - Chris Darnbrough

Does Quantum Physics Make it Easier to Believe in God?

Stephen M. Barr writes:

Materialism is an atheistic philosophy that says that all of reality is reducible to matter and its interactions. It has gained ground because many people think that it’s supported by science. They think that physics has shown the material world to be a closed system of cause and effect, sealed off from the influence of any non-physical realities --- if any there be. Since our minds and thoughts obviously do affect the physical world, it would follow that they are themselves merely physical phenomena. No room for a spiritual soul or free will: for materialists we are just “machines made of meat.”

Quantum mechanics, however, throws a monkey wrench into this simple mechanical view of things. No less a figure than Eugene Wigner, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, claimed that materialism --- at least with regard to the human mind --- is not “logically consistent with present quantum mechanics.” And on the basis of quantum mechanics, Sir Rudolf Peierls, another great 20th-century physicist, said, “the premise that you can describe in terms of physics the whole function of a human being ... including [his] knowledge, and [his] consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing.”

How, one might ask, can quantum mechanics have anything to say about the human mind? Isn’t it about things that can be physically measured, such as particles and forces? It is; but while minds cannot be measured, it is ultimately minds that do the measuring. And that, as we shall see, is a fact that cannot be ignored in trying to make sense of quantum mechanics. If one claims that it is possible (in principle) to give a complete physical description of what goes on during a measurement --- including the mind of the person who is doing the measuring --- one is led into severe difficulties. This was pointed out in the 1930s by the great mathematician John von Neumann. Though I cannot go into technicalities in an essay such as this, I will try to sketch the argument.

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Belo Monte, Announcement of a War

Belo Monte, Announcement of a War from CINEDELIA on Vimeo.

"A film funded by the audience, from the Xingu River to the World."

A Syrian Bloodbath Revisited - Searching for the Truth Behind the Houla Massacre

Initially, the United Nations was convinced that the Syrian government was behind the brutal Houla massacre. But then, some began to have doubts. SPIEGEL traveled to the town to interview survivors and witnesses -- and was able to reconstruct the horrifying slaughter.

What is Media Manipulation?--A Definition and Explanation

Today the media—driven by blogs—is assailed on all sides, by the crushing economics of their business, dishonest sources, inhuman deadlines, pageview quotas, inaccurate information, greedy publishers, poor training, the demands of the audience, and so much more. These incentives are real, whether you’re the Huffington Post or CNN or some tiny blog. They warp everything you read online—and let me tell you, thumbnail-cheating YouTube videos and paid-edit Wikipedia articles are only the beginning.

Everyone is in on the game, from bloggers to non-profits to marketers to the New York Times itself. The lure of gaming you for clicks is too appealing for anyone to resist. And when everyone is running the same racket, the the line between the real and the fake becomes indistinguishable. The Rise of the Manipulator At top of the pantheon of the media manipulators, of course, sits the late Andrew Brietbart. “Feeding the media is like training a dog,” he once said, “You can’t throw an entire steak at a dog to train it to sit. You have to give it little bits of steak over and over again until it learns.” And learned it did: they followed his lead exactly in the Shirley Sherrod story, and continue to fall for the manipulations of his student, James O’Keefe, who has ravaged NPR, ACORN, and many other liberal organizations.

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See also:

Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back

Greenpeace: From hippies to lobbyists

Its epic battles are legendary. Its influence is undeniable. And it is hard to imagine that, in 1971, it took just a handful of individuals who were strongly opposed to nuclear testing to give birth to this worldwide organisation. So where did it all begin?

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9/11: A Conspiracy Theory

From The Corbett Report:

Everything you ever wanted to know about the 9/11 conspiracy theory in under 5 minutes.

Transcript & links.

Colorado Theater Eyewitness Describes Gunman and Possible Accomplice

Corbin Dates was in the Aurora Colorado theater and describes a man sitting in front of him. Then the man gets a call on his cellphone and goes to the back exit door. He then props the door open and Corbin describes that this man seems to be motioning to someone outside.

See also:

Largest mass shooting in US history? Try three US massacres on Native Americans
The US government committed the largest mass shootings in national history by opening fire on peaceful families of children, the elderly, women, and men at Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, and Bloody Island. These followed repeated US treaty violations to remove Native Americans by armed military force from their lands. Each mass shooting killed about 150 innocent people. But the US government also averages war-murdering 500 human beings every day since 2001.

Blood Red Movie Massacres by Loren Coleman
July 22nd is the anniversary of the 1934 death of John Dillinger, who was killed in front of a movie theater, Chicago's Biograph, after watching the film Manhattan Melodrama. Dillinger was betrayed by the "Woman in Red," a madam (Ana Cumpănaş, also known as Anna Sage) wearing an orange dress, which looked red under the theater's lights...

VA Must Disclose Veteran Drug Test Documents

Veterans won another court order requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hand over more documents about its Cold War-era drug experiments on thousands of Vietnam veterans.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in Oakland, Calif., said the documents requested were "squarely relevant" to the claim that the government failed to adequately notify veterans of the chemicals they were exposed to and what that exposure might do to their health.

The Army and the CIA, with the help of Nazi scientists, used at least 7,800 veterans as human guinea pigs for testing the effects of up to 400 types of drugs and chemicals, including mescaline, LSD, amphetamines, barbituates, mustard gas and nerve agents, the Vietnam Veterans of America and individual soldiers claim in a 2009 class action.

The government covered up the true nature of its experiments, which began in the 1950s under code names such as "Bluebird," "Artichoke" and "MKUltra."

In "Project Paperclip," the Army and CIA allegedly recruited Nazi scientists to help test various psychochemicals and develop a new truth serum using its own veterans as test subjects.

"Over half of these Nazi recruits had been members of the SS or Nazi Party," according to the class action. "The 'Paperclip' name was chosen because so many of the employment applications were clipped to immigration papers."

Veterans say the government was trying to develop and test substances that could trigger mind control, confusion, euphoria, altered personality, unconsciousness, physical paralysis, illogical thinking and mania, among other effects.

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Company Threatened Blogger to Remove Their Link, Claiming it Caused "material financial losses"

Imagine linking to a company's website when referencing them in an article and having that company demand you remove the link because of copyright concerns. Or worse, the company threatens to sue you because they say the link from your website resulted in "material financial loses [sic] to the company."

[ ... ]

Although, the pretense for the threat was a copyright claim, the company explained that the outgoing link from the blog hurt the company "due to search engine penalties resulting from the links originating under your control."

Google's most recent Panda update is said to punish "over-SEO'd" websites. In other words, websites with too many links originating from weak or spammy websites will be penalized by Google.

However, BigPinkCookie is the furthest thing from a spammy website. It's a personal blog with an impressive Google PageRank 5, which means Google has deemed its content quite valuable, and links from that type of blog are typically very desirable for search engine optimization purposes.

[ ... ]

This case displays the insane level that some companies will go to in claiming that unwanted links to their website represents intellectual property "problems". But, disturbingly, some authorities agree with this concept. Last year the Department of Homeland Security preemptively seized websites merely for linking to copyrighted material.

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NSA whistle blowers warn that the US government can use surveillance to 'see into your life'

National Security Agency whistle blowers Thomas Drake, former senior official; Kirk Wiebe, former senior analyst; and William Binney, former technical director, talk to "Viewpoint" host Eliot Spitzer about their allegations that the NSA has conducted illegal domestic surveillance. All three men are providing evidence in a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the NSA.

See:

Spooky: How NSA’s Surveillance Algorithms See Into Your Life

Musical Innerlube: Scab Level - The Virgin Who Killed Our Wallets

Tom Robbins Mobile

This 36-minute mobile movie is with novelist Tom Robbins. Robbins was named by Writer's Digest as one of the "Top 100 Writers of the 20th Century," and has been recognized with numerous awards, including his honor in 2001 as Willamette Writers' Distinguished Northwest Writer.

See also:

The Syntax of Sorcery: An Interview with Tom Robbins

Cultural institutions by and large share one primary objective: herd control. Even when ostensibly benign, their propensity for manipulation, compartmentalization, standardization and suppression of potentially disruptive behavior or ideas, has served to freeze the evolution of consciousness practically in its tracks. In technological development, in production of material goods and creature comforts, we've challenged the very gods, but psychologically, emotionally, we're scarcely more than chimpanzees with bulldozers, baboons with big bombs.

Pakistan’s ‘sevadar’: Deputy attorney-general polishes shoes in India

When he’s not performing his official duties as part of a visiting delegation in India, Deputy attorney-general Muhammad Khurshid Khan chooses to clean shoes at places of worship as “penance for crimes committed by the Taliban”.

Khan, 62, is to clean the shoes of thousands of devotees at India’s Golden Temple in Amritsar in “penance” for the beheading of a Sikh by the Taliban in Peshawar two years ago, reported The Telegraph.

After spending several hours polishing the shoes of worshippers at Gurdwara Sisganj in New Delhi on Monday, where he was part of a Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association delegation, Khan left for Amritsar to clean thousands more.

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India Untouched: Research Documentary! (Screened in Satyamev Jayate 8th July 2012)

All the facts presented in this video are true and were part of a research project.

Revolution OS

The film begins with glimpses of Raymond, a Linux IPO, Torvalds, the idea of Open Source, Perens, Stallman, then sets the historical stage in the early days of hackers and computer hobbyists when code was shared freely. It discusses how change came in 1978 as Bill Gates, in his Open Letter to Hobbyists, pointedly prodded hobbyists to pay up. Stallman relates his struggles with proprietary software vendors at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, leading to his departure to focus on the development of free software, and the GNU project.

Torvalds describes the development of the Linux kernel, the GNU/Linux naming controversy, Linux's further evolution, and its commercialization.

Raymond and Stallman clarify the philosophy of free software versus communism and capitalism, as well as the development stages of Linux.

Michael Tiemann discusses meeting Stallman in 1987, getting an early version of Stallman's GCC, and founding Cygnus Solutions.

Larry Augustin describes combining GNU software with a normal PC to create a Unix-like workstation at one third the price and twice the power of a Sun workstation. He relates his early dealings with venture capitalists, the eventual capitalization and commodification of Linux for his own company, VA Linux, and its IPO.

Brian Behlendorf, one of the original developers of the Apache HTTP Server, explains that he started to exchange patches for the NCSA web server daemon with other developers, which led to the release of "a patchy" webserver, dubbed Apache.

Frank Hecker of Netscape discusses the events leading up to Netscape's executives releasing the source code for Netscape's browser, one of the signal events which made open source a force to be reckoned with by business executives, the mainstream media, and the public at large.[1] This point was validated further after the film's release as the Netscape source code eventually became the Firefox web browser, reclaiming a large percentage of market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The film also documents the scope of the first full-scale LinuxWorld Summit conference, with appearances by Linus Torvalds and Larry Augustin on the keynote stage.

Much of the footage for the film was shot in Silicon Valley.

INTERVIEW SUBJECT'S BIOS:

LINUS TORVALDS

In 1991 Torvalds created the Linux kernel (the unifying program for a Unix-like operating system) at age twenty-one while enrolled at the University of Helsinki in his native Finland.

RICHARD STALLMAN

Stallman founded the GNU Project in 1984 in an attempt to create his own Unix-like operating system that was freely shareable. He also started the Free Software movement to espouse his political agenda of freely-shared intellectual property. Stallman's philosophical and technical work became the foundation for Linux and the Open Source movement.

BRUCE PERENS

Perens authored the Open Source definition and currently works as an Open Source evangelist for Hewlett-Packard.

ERIC RAYMOND

Raymond authored the paper "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" which brought outside attention and understanding to the sociological underpinnings of the Open Source movement.

BRIAN BEHLENDORF

Behlendorf is one of the original co-developers of the Apache Web Server. Apache is the most commonly used web server in the world with almost 60% of the market. Apache was the first "killer app" for Linux.

MICHAEL TIEMANN

In 1989 Tiemann co-founded the first company based upon the GNU Project technology and principles of the Free Software movement. Tiemann is currently the CTO of Redhat Software, the most prominent Linux company.

LARRY AUGUSTIN

Augustin co-founded VA Linux Systems, one of the first companies based upon the Linux operating system. VA Linux Systems was a key early supporter of Linux and the Open Source movement. VA Linux System also set the record for the highest opening price for and IPO. On December 9, 1999, its first trade was at $299 per share. Currently, the stock trades around $5 per share.

FRANK HECKER

Hecker is a former Netscape systems engineer that authored a key internal white paper that advocated Netscape releasing its source code to the public.

ROB MALDA

Malda (a.k.a. CmdrTaco) is the editor of the famous hacker website Slashdot.

MARC MERLIN

Merlin is the president of Silicon Valley Linux Users Group.

DEVO and the Church of the Subgenius

From The Children Of Crux and Coca-Cola:

Mark: We used to be very misinterpreted twenty years ago. If you said something about de-evolution back in the '70s, those were fighting words. People would go, "You guys are cynical assholes!" Now, you talk about de-evolution and people go, "Yeah, it's true, isn't it?" (laughs). If anything has happened, it's that Devo's theories have been proven correct.

JereC7: The media bombards us with it every day. It's evidence of that downward spiral you mentioned earlier.

Mark: You've just got to learn to not be uptight about it. Learn how to celebrate it.

JereC7: Is that where the Church of the Sub-Genius comes in?

Mark: I really like the Church of the Sub-Genius because we're kind of kindred spirits. Except that Bob Dobbs is a mischievous god. First, he tricked Devo into becoming followers. Then he talked us into leaving Warner Brothers, which was really a dumb idea. Then Bob thought we should sign with Enigma. He thought Enigma was a really cool label. So we signed with Enigma. But Bob was lying. Bob was playing a dirty trick on Devo.

JereC7: (waits in amused silence)

Mark: He's a slippery godhead. But that's kinda the beauty of it.

JereC7: What's your personal involvement in the Church of the Sub-Genius?

Mark: Well, I turned over everything I own -- both psychically, sexually, spiritually, and anthropomorphically -- to Bob Dobbs. It's like he took everything I gave him, and he slowly turned around, after heaping together everything that I'd given him -- and the rest of Devo, too -- he heaped them in a stack, turned around in the opposite direction, looking over his shoulder, and he dropped his pants, bent over, lit a match, and blew a big flame and melted all of our red hats, melted all of our equipment, melted all of our homes, melted our cars, our wives, our girlfriends, our children...he melted everything. Then he just let out a little laugh, lifted his pants back up, and said, "See ya later."



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Casseroles Vancouver July 4-18: Got a Thing on My Mind

Vancouver began Casseroles demonstrations in solidarity with the Quebec student movement and against the Charter-violating, emergency anti-protest law Bill 78. This June, some participants at these Vancouver events had bones broken, rotator cuffs torn, and heads smashed into doors when they were assaulted and arrested by the VPD for such things as asking for police badge numbers or almost getting struck by a motorist trying to speed through a crosswalk. So this July, they kicked things up a bit.

Casseroles - Montréal, 24 Mai 2012 vimeo.com/42848523
Casseroles - Vancouver, May 30 2012 vimeo.com/43211816
Police Attack Peaceful Protest -Casseroles Vancouver Pt5 - youtube.com/watch?v=KD9atmqyyq0
Red Square Revolt | Quebec Students on Strike vimeo.com/42702955

Marx: the return of the giant

Marcello Musto writes for The Japan Times:

To relegate Marx to the position of an embalmed classic suitable only for specialist academic research would be a mistake on a par with his transformation into the doctrinal source of "actually existing socialism." For in reality his analyses are more topical than ever. When Marx wrote "Capital," the capitalist mode of production was still in a relatively early period of its development. Today, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the spread of capitalism to new areas of the planet (first and foremost China), it has become a global system that is invading and shaping all (not only the economic) aspects of human existence. In these conditions, Marx's ideas are proving to be more fertile than they were in his time.

Moreover, today economics not only dominates politics, setting its agenda and shaping its decisions, but lies outside its jurisdiction and democratic control. In the last three decades, the powers of decision-making have passed inexorably from the political to the economic sphere. Particular policy options have been transformed into economic imperatives. This shunting of parts of the political sphere into the economy, as a separate domain impervious to change, involves the gravest threat to democracy in our times. National parliaments find their powers taken away and transferred to the market. Standard & Poor's ratings and the Wall Street index — those mega-fetishes of contemporary society — carry incomparably more weight than the will of the people. At best, political government can "intervene" in the economy (when necessary to mitigate the destructive anarchy of capitalism and its violent crises), but they cannot call into question its rules and fundamental choices.

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Distribution of the radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima

The data of the modeling of Distribution of the radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima by the GEOMAR | Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel up to 10 years after disaster.

http://www.geomar.de/news/article/fukushima-wo-bleibt-das-radioaktive-wasser/

"We'll Blame It On The Muslims, Naturally" - 1996

This movie, The Long Kiss Goodnight was released in 1996. World Trade Center Bombing is mentioned and also blaming the "Muslims" for a false flag attack... 'naturally'.

Cat Marks 15 Years as Mayor of Alaska Town

From TIME:

Many citizens are genuinely happy to allow a kitteh to rule the roost. “He doesn’t raise our taxes—we have no sales tax. He doesn’t interfere with business. He’s honest,” said Stec, who converted her store into a part-time mayor’s office when Stubbs claimed victory. Not even the dogs seem to take issue with their new boss, even though there are reportedly more canines in Talkeetna than there are people. “I’ve never seen a dog mess with him,” a local business owner said.

21 burned in walk over hot coals at Robbins event

From the NY Post:

Fire officials said 21 people at an event hosted by motivational speaker Tony Robbins suffered burns while walking across hot coals, and three of the injured were treated at hospitals.

The injuries took place during the first day Thursday of a four-day event at the San Jose Convention Center hosted by Robbins called "Unleash the Power Within." Most of those hurt had second and third degree burns, said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Reggie Williams.

Walking across hot coals heated to between 1,200 to 2,000 degrees provides attendees an opportunity to "understand that there is absolutely nothing you can overcome," according to the motivational speaker's website. ...

Dalai Lama - "F*ck it" - on differences in religion, race

Politicians Welcome German Circumcision Motion

Germany's parliament approved a resolution on Thursday that called on Berlin to create legislation that would ensure that circumcision of boys remain legal in the country. The move is intended to quiet international outrage over a recent German court ruling that criminalizes the tradition.

FKN Newz: Usual Suspects to Run Syria

http://www.fknnewz.com

Motherboard TV: Free The Network

Motherboard's documentary on Occupy Wall Street, hacktivism, and the hackers trying to build a distributed network for the Occupy movement and beyond.

Read more at http://www.motherboard.tv/occupy.

(Via Truth Theory)

Lockheed Martin: Planes Could Be Refueled By Ground-Based Lasers

Planes could in soon be refueled mid-flight by ground-based lasers after successful tests of the technology.

Lockheed Martin said that its Stalker Unmanned Aerial System - a type of drone - can now be powered by a high-powered laser.

[ ... ]

Potentially such a system could result in powered craft that could stay in the air indefinitely.

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Most Profitable Route for Emirates Airline? Greece

An escalation in the euro zone debt crisis, and particularly economic conditions in Greece, would have major consequences for revenues and profitability, Emirates Airline President Tim Clark told CNBC’s “Access: Middle East.”

“So far, so good, paradoxically, Greece is our most profitable route in Europe today. It has the highest seat factor, the highest yield and the highest profit,” Clark said.

The industry veteran admitted that a significant amount of the company’s business is in euros, and that a “halo effect” on Spain and Italy is equally worrying. And a return to drachmas in Greece was one of the scenarios the airline was preparing for.

“I need to be absolutely sure that we have a contingency for the airline if things go a little bit wonky in Europe.”

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New Blog: Big Bank Theory

It's official! Meet Circle of 13's offspring: Big Bank Theory


Spawned on Friday the 13th of July, 2012!

Upcoming Bollywood Movie Features UFOs, Aliens and Crop Circles

...in 3-D!

This is the official trailer of "Joker" which releases on 31st Aug, 2012. The film is an "out of this world" comedy about an NRI (Akshay Kumar) and his beautiful wife (Sonakshi Sinha) who return home to discover that their village has dropped off the map of India. To put it back on the world's radar they must now forge an unlikely alliance of crazy villagers & aliens that will turn their village into the biggest "tamasha" the universe has ever seen!

All Muslims, like Turks, don’t see contradiction between democracy and Islam

The surveys conducted in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan and Jordan are proof that the famous questions of the 1980s and 1990s as to “whether Islam and democracy is compatible” and the dichotomies of “Islam vs. democracy” are extremely wrong and unnecessary. The survey findings indicate that it is not only Turks but also other Muslims who believe that all kinds of individual or group rights and freedoms, particularly the freedom of religion and faith, will improve in parallel with developments in democracy. Muslims’ demands for giving a greater role in political and social life to Islam do not contradict, but overlap, with their demands for democracy and freedoms, provided that religious references are seen as part of the democratic culture and are not interpreted to restrict the rights and freedoms of others. It is impossible not to see that the rising trend in the popular revolts or revolutions collectively known as the “Arab Spring,” despite the fact that they currently tend to be referred to as the “Arab Crisis,” is attributable to these basic expectations.

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Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar

Opinion piece by Moshahida Sultana Ritu for the NYT:

Last spring, a flowering of democracy in Myanmar mesmerized the world. But now, three months after the democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won a parliamentary seat, and a month after she traveled to Oslo to belatedly receive the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, an alarm bell is ringing in Myanmar. In the villages of Arakan State, near the Bangladeshi border, a pogrom against a population of Muslims called the Rohingyas began in June. It is the ugly side of Myanmar’s democratic transition — a rotting of the flower, even as it seems to bloom.

Cruelty toward the Rohingyas is not new. They have faced torture, neglect and repression in the Buddhist-majority land since it achieved independence in 1948. Its constitution closes all options for Rohingyas to be citizens, on grounds that their ancestors didn’t live there when the land, once called Burma, came under British rule in the 19th century (a contention the Rohingyas dispute). Even now, as military rulers have begun to loosen their grip, there is no sign of change for the Rohingyas. Instead, the Burmese are trying to cast them out.

The current violence can be traced to the rape and killing in late May of a Buddhist woman, for which the police reportedly detained three Muslims. That was followed by mob attacks on Rohingyas and other Muslims that killed dozens of people. According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, state security forces have now conducted mass arrests of Muslims; they destroyed thousands of homes, with the impact falling most heavily on the Rohingyas. Displaced Rohingyas have tried to flee across the Naf River to neighboring Bangladesh; some have died in the effort.

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See also:

Occupying the Bohemian Grove

Anti capitalism in the Age of Austerity Alex Callinicos

See also:

International Survey - Crisis Batters Global Faith in Capitalism

Gravity, the Higgs boson and the law of the TRPF

'How can we transform the university into an institution of the common?'

From: The revolution of living knowledge, by Gigi Roggero

We’re living in a revolutionary situation. We could reformulate the classical definition in the following terms: the ruling elites of global capitalcannot live as in the past; the workers, the precarious, the students, the poor, the living knowledge refuse to live as in the past. In the global crisis, the transnational struggles – from the North Africa insurrections to the acampadasin Spain or Syntagma Square, from the Chilean university movement to Occupy and the Québec uprising – are composed by the convergence of a downgrading middle class and a proletariat whose poverty is directly proportional to its productivity.

In this context, the university is a key site. Not so much of knowledge production: on the contrary, the more that knowledge production spreads throughout the social factory, the less the university is a privileged site of its transmission – the Ivory Tower is definitely falling down. But the university is a key site of struggles, of the possibilities of territorialization and generalization.

The Edu-Factory Collective has defined this context as “double crisis” – that is, the crisis of the university and the global economic crisis. In fact, it’s impossible to grasp the transformations and struggles of the university without linking them to transformations and struggles of labor and production. So, in a stenographic way, let’s sketch five global trends of the political economy of the university, and its crisis.

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Capitalist Decline And Fascist Ascendancy: An Analysis of Events in Greece by Thano H.

Special to The New Direction Of Time:

By targeting the downtrodden and trying to use them as scapegoats, the bourgeois state embarked on a campaign of racism that played right into the hands of a group of thugs who have used the conditions created by the crisis to further their own neo-nazi campaign. Almost non-existent before 2007, the neo-nazi ‘Golden Dawn’ accumulated 7% of the vote in the May 6th general election, up from 0.29% in 2009. Even with the new elections to be held on June 17th (given that no party won an overall majority in last month’s election and that talks for a pro-austerity coalition government failed), the neo-nazis are still set to enter the Greek parliament. Lenin’s words can be heard echoing through time, “Fascism is capitalism in decay”.

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Syria: To oppose, or not to oppose?

Those who still buy Assad’s anti-imperial rhetoric should know that the old man whose story is mentioned above was imprisoned simply because he and other fellow citizens organised a small rally to denounce the illegal US invasion of Iraq.

In fact, it is not uncommon to find prisoners - including some of those I met in Sednaya prison** – whose only “crime” was to help Palestinian groups. How could a regime that claims to be anti-Israel not even dare to protect itself against the frequent Israeli air incursions throughout the past decade?

I remember vividly the day I was released, when Israeli warplanes bombarded a site inside Syria under the pretext that it was being used to train Palestinian fighters. Syria’s response on that day was mute – as had always been the case. Finally, it is no secret that Syria, like many other Arab countries, cooperated closely with the US in the so-called “war on terror”. I am only one of few living examples of this covert cooperation.

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** Human rights activist Maher Arar is the publisher of Prism Magazine, and first came to public attention after he was rendered by US authorities to Syria, his native country.

Lakota to UN: Enforce Treaties

Owe Aku International Justice Project’s conference room paper and supporting annotation can be found at
http://www.oweakuinternational.org/Owe_Aku_IJP/3rd_UN_Seminar_on_Treaties.html.

The intervention and conference room paper is personally signed by Chief Red Cloud and is being carried to the United Nations in Geneva by the Eyapaha, or Spokesperson, for the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, Alexander White Plume.

The primary purpose of the conference room paper was for the Lakota Oyate to explore, within the United Nations, action-oriented mechanisms based on creative solutions to enforce international treaty law. Imposing sanctions, diplomatic pressure and international court proceedings have all been suggested. The Lakota Oyate is ready to stand up in defiance of colonial arrogance and suggest that the violation of international law by the United States is, for example, no different than the violation of international law by Iran. We invite Indigenous peoples and nations, with or without treaties, along with member nations with a sense of justice, to join with us in this struggle.

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Occupy Movement 'Leader' as Villain in Trailer for 'Official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' Game

Raul Menendez is idolized as the Messiah of the 99%, yet underneath the surface lurks an insidious mastermind hell bent on global insurrection.

Saudis fear revolution will hit kingdom

Tens of thousands of Saudi Arabian protesters have held a demonstration against the Al Saud regime in the Qatif region of oil-rich Eastern Province.

The demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday to condemn the Riyadh regime for the deadly crackdown on protests.

The protesters were also condemning the detention of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr, who was attacked and arrested earlier in the day.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and the town of Awamiyah in Eastern Province, calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kamel Wazni, political analyst, to hear his opinion on this issue.



See also:

Analyst: Popular uprising against Al Saud regime to make history

Story of Experimental Film

From ZeitEYE – a film on media innovation

“The measure of an artist’s originality, put in its simplest terms. is the extent to which his selective emphasis deviates from the conventional norm, and establishes new standards of relevance. All great innovations which inaugerate a new era, movement or school, consist in sudden shifts of a previously neglected aspect of experience, some blacked-out range of the existential spectrum. The decisive turning-points in the history of every art form…uncover what has already been there: they are “revolutionary”, that is destructive and constructive, they compel us to revalue our values and impose new sets of rules on the eternal game.”

~ Arthur Koestler: The Act of Creation (1964)

Livestreamer Tim Pool interviews satirical candidate Vermin Supreme

Vermin Supreme, who is perhaps the best known gag candidate for president during the current election year, is often taken to be no more than a loveable eccentric.

During an interview with livestreamer Tim Pool at the HOPE9 conference on Saturday, however, anarchist and performance artist Supreme, whose platform is based on free ponies, mandatory tooth-brushing, and zombie preparedness, showed himself to be very much in control of the image he projects.

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Ursula K. Le Guin writes a fable of Occupy Wall Street

If you've been wondering just what's wrong with unemployed people, and why they won't just go get a job, then Ursula K. Le Guin has some answers for you. In the time-honored tradition of fantasists and fabulists, she's phrased her answers in the form of a fable.

Her story "Ninety Nine Weeks: A Fairy Tale" is just as political and confrontational as Vonda McIntyre's story from the same site a while back.

[ ... ]

It really gets interesting once the unemployment fairy shows up.

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Case Study: Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army

“The clowns are organizing. They are organizing. Over and out.”

~ Overheard on UK police radio during action by Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, July 2004




Key Principle at work

Use absurdity to undermine the aura of authority

Ridicule and absurdity are powerful tools against authority. To be effective, authority has to be perceived as such, otherwise people would never obey its commands. On the other hand, who ever takes a clown seriously? Rebel clowning used this slippery dichotomy to great effect, turning the tables on authority in the street by posing in mock-serious fashion next to lines of cops, as well as at the highest levels of power, by pointing out the clownish behavior of George W. Bush and other authority figures.

Get arrested in an intelligent way

Watching police handcuff and bundle clowns into police vans is always entertaining for passersby, begging the question: What did the clowns do wrong? What is this all about? An arrested clown also makes for very mediagenic images. By staying in character during the whole process of an arrest, including giving their clown army names (e.g., Private Joke) and addressees (e.g., the big top in the sky) as their real identity, rebel clowns caused much mirth and havoc in the police stations.

Reframe

Rebel clowning helped reframe the media images of protests during the big summit mobilizations of the mid 1990s. A colorful band of disobedient clowns could easily capture the limelight and shift the narrative away from “violent clashes” and smashed windows.

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I, pet goat II

I, pet goat II from Heliofant on Vimeo.

A story about the fire at the heart of suffering.
Bringing together dancers, musicians, visual artists and 3d animators, the film takes a critical look at the events of the past decade that have shaped our world.
Main softwares used: Maya, Vray, FumeFX, RealFlow
Our site:
www.heliofant.com

Original soundtrack "the Stream", written and performed by Tanuki Project.
www.thetanukiproject.com

Some of the stellar artists that worked on the short: strob.net, huguescoupal.com, sebastienlarroude.com, arnaudbrisebois.carbonmade.com, daverand.com beatstreetclassic.com

Animation is about half keyframe animation and half motion capture.
Motion capture recording by Lartech.

Russia, NATO Warships Converge on Eastern Mediterranean

Vladimir Putin Sends 11 warships to Syria Coast while Israel sends 5 warships to the area, and NATO also sends warships.

See also:

Two more US carriers, dozens of mini-subs rushed to Hormuz

NATO, Russian naval-air buildup in E. Mediterranean, French units to Gulf

War in August? US sends fourth aircraft carrier and dozens of underwater drones towards Iran

Iran should prepare for war and for “the End of Times”

Rap News 14: Higgs Boson (with Prof. Scott Ridley)

Juice Rap News: Episode 14 - "The Waiting for Godot Particle". This civilisation's Promethean quest for ultimate meaning has taken a giant leap towards its epic conclusion. In the latest prequel to humanity's journey to inner-space, scientists at the CERN laboratory announce that they have unlocked one of the key strands in the origin of Life, The Universe and Everything: 42 years on from its coining, the Higgs Boson particle has possibly been detected at the Large Hadron Collider. What does it all mean? How does it feel to meet our Masster? What is our destiny? Could this be the font of all wisdom? Does it anti-matter that Scientists make use of 'ComicSans' - the font of all evil? Is anyone conCERNed about the MASS amount of Higgslarious Pun-upmanship Colliding in the twittersphere? Join Robert Foster as he takes a journalistic journey into this particular world, and manages to corner a colourful character, CERN Professor Scott Ridley, who is several bottles into getting his Bos-on at the massive "Hadron Collider Higgs Boson PARTYcle" celebration.

http://www.thejuicemedia.com

A message to the awakened ones...

Anonymous deliver threat to Greece's Golden Dawn

Golden Dawn Expect Us (New Message by Anonymous Greece)


"Greetings citizens of the world

We are Anonymous

During the last elections on the 17th of June 2012 in Greece, one of the most criminal organizations in the Greek community has entered the parliament: The neoNazi organization called Golden Dawn (Chrisi Avgi).

Amidst the crisis and the despair experienced by most Greeks from the Referendums and austerity measures imposed by corrupt politicians they decided to believe the lies and demagogy of a dangerous organization that denies Auschwitz, uses Nazi symbols and military greetings but even worse, exploits the political legitimacy it has earned in recent elections and engages in criminal activity.

All around the country, Golden Dawn members blackmail immigrants, harass and attack all those who are unable to defend themselves and lead them to despair and fear.

They are common criminals who exploit the disappointment of the Greek citizens whom they persuade that immigrants to the country are responsible for the financial situation in Greece and not their corrupt politicians.

Every day in Greece, there are victims of the Golden Dawn organization in hospitals and on the streets, beaten and stabbed by the hatred of Hitler followers. Every day, people who have a different color or sexual preferences are terrified by threats against their lives and property. All this, under the tolerance of Greek Police.

This must be stopped.

Fear must end.

There is no place for fascism in a free country

The ghosts of 3rd Reich have no place in any country.

Everyone has the right to diversity, life and freedom.

We are watching them

We know them

Wherever there is injustice we will be there

They should ALWAYS expect us

We are Anonymous

We are a legion"

A-bomb doctor warns of further Fukushima woes

It remains unknown if the health problems are linked to the release of massive amounts of radioactive materials from Tepco's damaged plant. But Hida is concerned.

"I am worried because I received such calls much earlier than I expected," he says.

The amount of research into and public knowledge about internal exposure to radiation is still limited because the United States "concealed" information about the problem for a long time after it dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Hida says.

A native of Hiroshima, he was serving as an army doctor there when he was exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb. He has since treated more than 6,000 survivors and worked as a director of the counseling center at the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

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Facebook Monitors Your Chats for Criminal Activity

Facebook and other social platforms are watching users’ chats for criminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behavior is detected, according to a report.

10 Ways to Stop Being a Slave and Bring Down the Pyramids of Control

1. Media and Intelligence - Information is knowledge and knowledge is power — this is where it all starts. Turn off the TV, stop passively receiving information that turns you into an idiot at the teat of the “idiot box.” Get creative: start a blog, a neighborhood newsletter, radio show, public access TV or YouTube channel, write encouraging letters to companies you appreciate and nasty ones to those you boycott; DO something; anything to increase awareness. Homeschooling is another great way to help short circuit the negative influences of systematic programming. Even if you don’t agree with homeschooling, or are not able, there are concepts that you can help introduce into your public school to enhance education. Intelligence – there aretechnologies to thwart constant surveillance, as well as low-tech solutions to high-tech tyranny. The Internet is being used to surveil the public, but it also provides an opportunity for the public to surveil and report the real criminals. Use the system against itself.

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Hobson-Jobson: The words English owes to India

Mukti Jain Campion reports for the BBC:

Another author who has drawn inspiration from the dictionary is Tom Stoppard. In his play Indian Ink, two characters compete to use as many Hobson-Jobson words as possible:

Flora: "While having tiffin on the veranda of my bungalow I spilled kedgeree on my dungarees and had to go to the gymkhana in my pyjamas looking like a coolie."

Nirad: "I was buying chutney in the bazaar when a thug who had escaped from the chokey ran amok and killed a box-wallah for his loot, creating a hullabaloo and landing himself in the mulligatawny."

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International activists to sue Israel

Ramallah: International activists in Palestine will seek to sue Israel in international courts, arguing that the Israeli military is increasingly targeting them at the peaceful demonstrations organized throughout the West Bank to object to the Israeli segregation barrier and the spreading colonies.

“Such an action should have taken place a long time ago as international protestors who have been identified are badly humiliated, beaten, detained and interrogated, and are also now being deported from the Palestinian Territories,” said Jamal Juma’a, who heads the Palestinian Public Anti Wall and Anti Colonies Campaign in the Palestinian Territories.

“The supporters will lodge personal complaints and international human rights organisations will be pressured to play a more active role by supporting them legally.”

Juma’a said that the other side of the international supporters’ campaign will target the countries they come from to encourage them to provide activists with better protection and support.

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SWAT Raid on Organizers of Occupy Seattle

Early morning, July 10, SWAT police forced their way into the Seattle apartment of organizers from the Occupy movement. The sleeping residents scrambled to put on clothes as they were confronted with automatic weapons.

Nathan King - Electric Funeral

Fierce clashes in Madrid: Spanish police fire rubber bullets at miners protest

Riot police fired rubber bullets Wednesday at Spanish coal miners protesting in the streets of Madrid over subsidy cuts they fear will jeopardize their meager livelihood. READ MORE http://on.rt.com/3u9zgj

This Is What Democracy Looks Like

Would you like an order of fries with your fascism?

From: Higgs Boson/Nature’s Bosom/US Bozos at Consortium News

The people of the U.S. need independence from the demonstrably false notion, held by so many that within their debt-enslaved, corporate interest-beholden lives, they possess any degree of meaningful independence.

[ ... ]

News of the Boson particle — the so-called God Particle — into public consciousness arrives, as well, at a time, when as Carl Jung aptly posited, “the gods have become diseases.” In short, estranged gods (i.e., patterns of the human psyche that are analogs of terrestrial and cosmic patterns) invade the ego and reside therein as pathologies, i.e., compulsions, depression, anxiety, addiction, because their purpose has been discarded and forgotten, e.g., the recognition of the sacred quality of life and the evocation of the numinous through ritual.

And mainly to bring to humankind the recognition that we, most definitely, are not gods ourselves … to the understanding that our mastery of fire and machine should not infect us with the hubris to believe we are the masters of the universe.

[ ... ]

Yet, give Americans the choice between freedom, art and science or all-you-can-eat buffets and the viewing of “Jersey Shore,” and, well … they have already made their choice clear. Hence, we find ourselves, as a people, stranded in a howling wasteland of destiny deferred.

In a banana republic, there exists a vast stratification of wealth, wherein the middle and merchant classes have been conditioned to harbor little identification with the poor, but feel affinity, thus side with, an economic and military elite. In these societal structures, militarized police are used to quell dissent. The military is glorified and intellectuals are scorned. The function of the political class is to serve the status quo, and they are generally well rewarded for their efforts in behalf of their economic betters.

Any of this sound familiar? Rather than bananas, we have fast food burgers (grass-fed, free-range variety, of course, for the minority endowed with economic privilege). Would you like an order of fries (or, in the case of the latter class, an arugula salad) with your fascism?

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Finance industry's multimillion-pound lobbying budget revealed

Nick Mathiason and Melanie Newman report for the Guardian:

The British financial services industry spent £92m last year lobbying ­politicians and regulators in an "economic war of attrition" that has secured a string of policy victories.

As the industry prepares to fight off renewed calls for root-and-branch reform in response to the Barclays rate-fixing scandal, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has revealed the firepower of the City's lobbying machine, prompting concern that its scale and influence puts the interests of the wider economy in the shade.

Documents show how finance lobbyists won a host of important policy changes in Whitehall and Westminster. These include:

• The slashing of UK corporation tax and taxes on banks' overseas subsidiaries after a lobbying barrage by the City of London corporation, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and the Association of British Insurers. The reform will save the finance industry billions.

• The neutering of a national not-for-profit pension scheme launching in October that was supposed to benefit millions of low-paid and temporary workers.

• The killing of government plans for a new corporate super-watchdog to police quoted companies.

An extensive trawl of registries, consultations and hundreds of interviews has identified 129 organisations engaging in some form of lobbying for the finance ­sector, with 800 people employed directly. Lobbyists include in-house bank staff, public affairs consultancies, industry body representatives, law firms, and management consultants.

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Mainstream media censor striking miners' 'Black March' to Madrid

Spanish miners in the northwestern provinces of Asturias and Leon, armed with homemade rockets and slingshots, have been battling police in protest against government cuts, including a slashing of subsidies in their industry. (July 9)

Associated Press: http://bit.ly/APYouTube


A Spanish miner's message from the flaming barricades of Pola de Lena in Asturias, Spain.

Approximate translation in English:

"What I'm saying is that the wages of the ministers in the government, that bunch of thieves, should be reduced by 64%. In this way there would be money for the health care system, for education, for transportation, for miners and for many more things. Those sons of bitches are increasing their wages and have a full stomach while other people are starving. Workers should go out and occupy the streets and send these bastards to the cemetery".

Timbuktu tomb destroyers pulverise Islam’s history

Over the last three days, Islamists of the Ansar Dine rebel group which in April seized Mali’s north along with Tuareg separatists destroyed at least eight Timbuktu mausoleums and several tombs, centuries-old shrines reflecting the local Sufi version of Islam in what is known as the “City of 333 Saints”.

The al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters who have used pick-axes, shovels and hammers to shatter earthen tombs and shrines of local saints in Mali’s fabled desert city of Timbuktu say they are defending the purity of their faith against idol worship.

But historians say their campaign of destruction in the UNESCO-listed city is pulverising part of the history of Islam in Africa, which includes a centuries-old message of tolerance.

“They are striking at the heart of what Timbuktu stands for … Mali and the world are losing a lot,” said Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a professor at New York’s Columbia University and an expert on Islamic philosophy in Africa.

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Peru Declares State of Emergency As 5 Die in Protest Against Gold Mine Owned by U.S. Firm, Newmont

The Peruvian government has declared a state of emergency in the mountain region of Cajamarca where thousands have gathered in recent days to protest the expansion of a gold mine owned by the U.S.-based Newmont Mining that has already the largest in South America. Using live ammunition against the protesters, police have killed five people this week alone. In a dramatic video broadcast nationally on Peruvian television, police severely beat Marco Arana, a former Roman Catholic priest, who had rallied protesters despite emergency measures restricting freedom of assembly. We speak to journalist Bill Weinberg, who was recently in Cajamarca. "Every time the company Yanacocha proposes an expansion of the mine, the local people there get organized and they block the roads and they shut down the businesses," Weinberg says.

http://www.democracynow.org/

America Moves Closer To Martial Law: New Army Manual Outlines Plan to Kill Demonstrators

A 115 page U.S. army training manual was recently leaked to the press, making clear intentions to kill and disarm civilian protesters in the case of riots, violent demonstrations or any kind of mass uprising. The manual, titled “Civil Disturbance Operations,” was written in 2006 and has explicit instructions for crowd control including both lethal and non-lethal ways to end domestic uprisings, a seemingly imminent threat discussed in the report. As the number and size of armed militias continues to grow, it appears that the report may take on increasing importance should there be any kind of uprising. However, rights groups of the liberal and conservative ilk have expressed opposition to the plan which many say usurps citizen rights.

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See also:

"Warning shot will not be fired" by MPs trained in Martial Law in America: Military Police training: heavily patrolled domestic detention facilities, dissident/sniper warrantless searches - CONPLAN 3502 Civil Disturbance Operations training @ Ft McClellan

'Rightful heir' to British monarchy dies in Australia

An Australian forklift driver who some historians argued was the true heir to the British throne has died in the small New South Wales town he called home, his local newspaper reported Thursday.

Mike Hastings, 71, was a real-life aristocrat, born the 14th earl of Loudoun, who moved to Australia in 1960 in search of adventure.

He made international headlines in 2004 when a documentary team from Britain's Channel Four conducted extensive research into the monarchy and concluded his ancestors were cheated out of the crown in the 15th century.

Hastings, an avowed republican, died on June 30 and was buried Thursday in Jerilderie, about 750 kilometres (465 miles) southwest of Sydney, the local Wagga Wagga Daily Advertiser reported.

Hastings was a descendant of England's House of York, whose dynastic struggle with the House of Lancaster became known as the Wars of the Roses and was dramatised by William Shakespeare.

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Vigilantes Are Targeting Immigrants In Greece, Human Rights Watch Says

Mark Memmott reports for NPR:

A "wave of xenophobic violence" is rising in Greece, where vigilante gangs are targeting immigrants for beatings, Human Rights Watch reported today.

According to the international watchdog group:

"Most attacks take place at night, on or near town squares. Attackers work in groups, and are often dressed in dark clothing with their faces obscured by cloth or helmets. Some of them arrive and flee on motorcycles. Bare-fisted attacks are not uncommon, but attackers also often wield clubs or beer bottles as weapons. Most attacks are accompanied by insults and exhortations to leave Greece, and in some cases the attackers also rob the victims."

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