Radical Jesters

Trailer for the film Radical Jesters about culture jammers, hoaxers, provocateurs, pranksters, situationists.

Entire movie at radicaljesters.com

Civil Disobedience Against Banks - Enric Duran

Enric Duran (AKA Robin Bank) in English from Shaun Chamberlin on Vimeo.

Enric Duran (AKA Robin Bank) is a Catalan activist who spent the two years to 2008 taking out loans totalling nearly half a million euros, and then donated all of the money to various social movements working to build alternatives to our unequal and suicidal economic-political system. I find this video message - revealing what he had done and explaining his motives - to be one of the most inspiring stories of insight and resultant action that I have yet heard.

Here are Enric's words subtitled in English.

As a part of this operation Enric prepared a publication explaining the corruption of our economic system, the looming energy crisis, and the ideas defended by the Degrowth movement, a magazine called 'Crisi' released on Sept 17, 2008. Its associated website can be read also in English:
http://www.17-s.info

Enric left Spanish territory 2 days before his action of civil disobedience was made public and is now awaiting the consequences of his campaign.

More information in English
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20080920062510935

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2987154/Spanish-Robin...

Disobeying the Banks: An Interview with Enric Duran

Arrest of Enric Duran and 'We Can Live Without Capitalism'

Greece's Rigged Election

"However, two senior Greek banking officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, said recent withdrawals have not yet reached the pace seen in February, just before Greece staged an orderly debt default with private investors. There were no obvious lines outside banks in Athens Wednesday, though funds are also being shifted around online.

“This isn’t a panic, but we have to make sure it doesn’t turn into one,’’ said one of the banking officials....

Translation; there is a bank run across the continent and the banker's mouthpiece doesn't want you to know it. "

More...

See also:

BBC cuts off interviewee Yiannis Varoufakis and switches to German talking head...


BBC flashing a neon sign bankers intend to steal Greek elections.

Unofficial opinion polls suggest a fall in support for anti-bailout parties.

Under Greek election law, official opinion polls are banned in the two weeks before the election.

BUMP BACK TO THE TOP AGAIN.

UPDATE: The polls have closed in Greece and even though the exit polls have the New Democratic Party (the money-junkie party) and the SYRIZA party (the anti-austerity party) as within a half point of each other, the western media are in many cases already proclaiming a victory for the money-junkies, that New Democrats will have 160 seats in the Parliament, etc. It is obvious there has been massive vote fraud in Greece, being sold to you with the ludicrous suggestion that the Greek people, driven into abject poverty by corrupt government policies, voted to keep those exact same policies in place. Such a suggestion is patently absurd on the face of it, and given that the United States has a long history of hijacking the democratic process to serve US interests, there is no reason to assume they have not done so here. ...


A consultant to the Ne Democracy was arrested for electoral fraud in Greece

Central Banksters Cry: “We rigged this election and all we got was a 70 point Dow Futures bounce!”

Iceland: The Mouse that Roared (Birgitta Jonsdottir)

A promo clip for the upcoming documentary from Judith Ehrlich.

Occupy Uprising & Native American Prophecy

Kandi Mossett, an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations located on the Fort Berthold Reservation within the state of North Dakota, graduated from the University of North Dakota's Earth Systems Science and Policy Program in December of 2006 and now holds a Masters degree in Environmental Management. She has works with the Indigenous Environmental Network http://www.ienearth.org/

Also see Kandi Mossett and other First Nation People in "Native Peoples Against the Tar Sands & Pipeline" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EK7rLqD2yw

The chart showing "Trends in Natural Disasters" from CRED, the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters can be viewed at
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/trends-in-natural-disasters
That chart though only goes up to the year 2000.
By 2007, reporting by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claimed that some of the costs of extreme weather events could be attributed to global warming. " "Scientific and technical reports present compelling evidence that human-induced climate change is upon us, and that its consequences could be devastating..." Dr. Baliunas and Dr. Soon. "The number of events have gone up very, very dramatically," CRED Director Debarati Guha-Sapir said in Geneva.

The CRED report went on further to comment that during the 2000 -- 2009 period there had been 385 disasters, an increase of 233% since 1980 to 1989, and a 67% increase since 1990 to 1999. Though earthquakes made up 60% of natural disasters from 2000 to 2009, climate-related events, such as droughts, storms and floods, had made up the majority of disasters overall, increasing tenfold since data was first collected in 1950. And from 1992-2001, about 90% of natural disasters were meteorological or hydrological in origin; the resulting economic losses were estimated at $446bn. see http://community.psion.com/blog/b/weblog/archive/2011/02/23/has-there-been-an...


Allan Demaray Jr. who provides the accompanying flute is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, and is the Education and Outreach Director for Northstar Council based in Grand Forks, ND. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education from the University of North Dakota, and travels throughout Indian Country speaking to schools, organizations, companies, youth, and others about a wide array of subjects. He is an accomplished artist and Native American flute player, and is passionate about education, leadership, and wellness amongst American Indian people.
Native Voices Allan Demaray recorded at Dickinson State University see all 5 programs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55694X8jtvo
http://www.kanutv.com/Gift.html

Debt Slavery – Why It Destroyed Rome, Why It Will Destroy Us Unless It’s Stopped

In more modern times, democracies have urged a strong state to tax rentier income and wealth, and when called for, to write down debts. This is done most readily when the state itself creates money and credit. It is done least easily when banks translate their gains into political power. When banks are permitted to be self-regulating and given veto power over government regulators, the economy is distorted to permit creditors to indulge in the speculative gambles and outright fraud that have marked the past decade. The fall of the Roman Empire demonstrates what happens when creditor demands are unchecked. Under these conditions the alternative to government planning and regulation of the financial sector becomes a road to debt peonage.

Renowned scientist says he has spotted evidence that a universe existed before the Big Bang

Professor Penrose believes that his new theory of ‘conformal cyclic cosmology' means that black holes will eventually consume all the matter in the universe.

According to his theory, when they have finished, all that will be left in the universe will be energy - which will then trigger the next Big Bang - and the new aeon.

Share your movement's story with tear gas

Facing Tear Gas is a story-telling project of War Resisters League by and for people that have experienced tear gas all over the world. By making the links between these stories we hope to bring those that profit off of tear gas further into the public consciousness and, along with that, the inspiring movements the gas is used to squelch. This is part of a broader campaign to end the US’s role in the business of tear gas in solidarity with global nonviolent uprisings and those facing US-backed repression everywhere, including within the US.

War Resisters League is building a campaign against tear gas.

Why?

Because it’s a tool of repression. Tear gas is almost never used against individuals—it is used as a tool of dis-organization against movements and convergences expressing dissent.

Because it kills. Canisters blasted directly at protesters and gas shot into homes and jails cells have ended many lives. There is a reason tear gas is classified as a chemical weapon and is banned under the “laws of war.”

Because movements asked us to. Pro-democracy activists in Palestine, Egypt and Bahrain have directly asked us here in the U.S. to step up and confront the manufacturers of the tear gas shipped to their oppressors and used against them.

Because there’s a war at home. Police repression, including the use of lethal and “nonlethal” weapons, is a growing force globally, as more and more states wage wars against their own people. In addition to its attacks on people in the U.S., our government supports many police-states abroad, supplying them with weapons. Removing one U.S.-made weapon can lead to removing them all.

Because our cities are crumbling. Highlighting the militarization of the police in the U.S. and their fancy toys raises questions about budget priorities and lifts up stories of communities that are hit first by budget cuts and have long struggled against police racism and brutality.

Because we are rising. Because all of us, as a global justice movement comprised of many struggles, are unstoppable in our demands for change and will continue to make our presence felt in the streets until that change comes.

We want to:

• End U.S. international export and local transfer of tear gas.

• Support U.S.-based groups organizing against domestic militarization.

• Change the story about tear gas among people around the world.

• Change the story about policing among people living in the U.S.

The Campaign

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring in late 2010, new generations of people have gotten to witness and be part of a time of global uprising, many of us for the first time. Economic austerity, dictators’ hold on power, and repression by state forces have brought millions of people into the streets from Egypt to Wisconsin, Greece to Bahrain. In the Fall of 2011, Occupy Wall Street brought thousands of new activists into movements for social change in the U.S., many taking direct action to reclaim principles and values, those often squeezed and manipulated by capitalism, through the symbolic occupation of public space.

As we assembled en mass to express our dissent, we saw protestors throughout the world facing some of the same instruments of repression, including tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Much of the tear gas that continues to be used to suppress dissent globally is made in the U.S. and many organizations have sought over the years to call attention to this fact and stop the shipments of tear gas to repressive governments, most notably in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Right now, U.S.-made tear gas is nearly everywhere, including Egypt, Bahrain, Ecuador, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, etc. and is being used by state forces to disperse peaceful protesters.

As a tool of dispersal, in tear gas is always a response to a crowd gathered, a mass of people who have come to protest collectively. Tear gas is handed to police forces to regulate dissent and to prevent it from lingering, to nip it in the bud—because what could we build together if we were in the same public square for long enough?

Within the U.S. and globally, the police operate similarly to the military, taking orders from their chain of command, and, with the expansion of “counter-terrorism” agencies over the last decade following 9/11 and the use of lethal and “nonlethal” weapons against those who “fall out of line” (i.e. those who express their dissent) and those who are deemed necessary to “keep in line” (i.e. those—mostly black and brown people—who are criminalized and incarcerated on a daily basis in the U.S.), the police often becomes a defacto military force.

Militarized police are on the offensive globally, using violent force to protect the power of the state they represent and serve, doing little for the safety and well-being of the communities they work in, with the exception of the privileged few. This is a campaign engaging with tear gas, a tool used by police in many countries, but we recognize that this tool is just the tip of the iceberg. The militarization of the police has been escalating in the U.S. and in other places for a long time. If we demonstrate our people power within the U.S. against the shipment of U.S.-made tear gas to governments and police forces who are using it to repress dissent in their countries as well as against us—people expressing dissent in the U.S.—we can end the U.S.’s role in the business of tear gas. From there, we can continue to build with one another to end the use of all tools of state repression.

Prosecutors investigate Vatican Bank mafia link

By Nick Pisa in Rome, Vatileaks

Anti Mafia prosecutors have asked the secretive Vatican Bank to disclose details of an account held by a priest in connection with a money laundering and fraud investigation, it emerged on Sunday.

The official request was made more than a month ago but so far the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, has refused to disclose any records of the account held by father Ninni Treppiedi – who is currently suspended from serving as a priest.

Investigators want to know more about vast sums of money that are said to have passed through his account to establish if they were money laundering operations by on the run Mafia Godfather, Matteo Messina Denaro.

The reports emerged in the Italian media and came just two weeks after the head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was sacked amid claims of power struggles and corruption within the Holy See which have been linked to the leaking of sensitive documents belonging to Pope Benedict XVI.

More in line with a Dan Brown thriller, it is not the first time that the Vatican Bank has been embroiled in claims of Mafia money laundering. Thirty years ago this month financier Roberto Calvi was found hanging under London's Blackfriars Bridge with cash and bricks stuffed into his pockets.

More...

Video treat: Early CIA-funded LSD experiment

One of the most fascinating videos you’re likely to see today, commercially filmed and CIA-funded, a truly remarkable case of a psychedelic encounter between two cultures, the scientific and the experiential.

The Finnish Class War 1918

A brief piece explaining that the Finnish Civil War of 1918 was, contrary to rightist claims, in fact, a class war.

The Rise of the New Economy Movement

As our political system sputters, a wave of innovative thinking and bold experimentation is quietly sweeping away outmoded economic models. In 'New Economic Visions', a special five-part AlterNet series edited by Economics Editor Lynn Parramore in partnership with political economist Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, creative thinkers come together to explore the exciting ideas and projects that are shaping the philosophical and political vision of the movement that could take our economy back.


Gar Alperovitz, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland / Historian / Political Economist, joins Thom Hartmann. As austerity continues to batter the Eurozone nations - there are new fears that a severe recession is on the horizon. Are we witnessing the end of corporate capitalism in the global economy - and if so - what will take its place?

Malcolm Gladwell Unmasked: A Look Into the Life & Work of America’s Most Successful Propagandist

In the vast ecosystem of corporate shills, which one is the most effective? Propaganda works best when it is not perceived as propaganda: nuance, obfuscation, distraction, suggestion, the subtle introduction of doubt—these are more effective in the long run than shotgun blasts of lies. The master of this approach is Malcolm Gladwell.

Malcolm Gladwell is the New Yorker’s leading essayist and bestselling author. Time magazine named Gladwell one of the world’s 100 most influential people. His books sell copies in the millions, and he is in hot demand as one of the nation’s top public intellectual and pop gurus. Gladwell plays his role as a disinterested public intellectual like few others, right down to the frizzy hairdo and smock-y getups. His political aloofness, high-brow contrarianism and constant challenges to “popular wisdom” are all part of his shtick.

But beneath Malcolm Gladwell’s cleverly-crafted ambiguity, beneath the branded facade, one finds, with surprising ease, a common huckster on the take. I say “surprising ease” because it’s all out there on the public record.

As this article will demonstrate, Gladwell has shilled for Big Tobacco, Pharma and defended Enron-style financial fraud, all while earning hundreds of thousands of dollars as a corporate speaker, sometimes from the same companies and industries that he covers as a journalist.

Malcolm Gladwell is a one-man branding and distribution pipeline for valuable corporate messages, constructed on the public’s gullibility in trusting his probity and intellectual honesty in the pages of America’s most important weekly magazine, The New Yorker, and other highly prominent media outlets.

More...

Israeli Deputy Ambassador in Dublin Advocates Intimidation & Smearing Human Rights Activists

In an exposé by Israel’s Channel 10 News, it has been revealed that Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to Ireland, Nurit Tinari-Modai, advocates a campaign of intimidation, smears and falsification against Israeli human rights activists who campaign in solidarity with Palestinians, and suggests that “sexual identity problems” lie behind such activism.

Ms. Tinari-Modai, who is also the Culture Officer of the Israeli Embassy in Ireland and wife of the current Ambassador Boaz Modai, made the proposals in a diplomatic communiqué sent to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. According to the Channel 10 report, translated into English by Dena Shunra, Ms. Modai advocates working “directly against those Israeli activists, [to] humiliate and shame them”. She suggests publishing the names and photographs of Israeli activists to embarrass their family and friends, and implying that they are agents of Mossad to undermine trust between Palestinian, international and Israeli solidarity activists.

Ms Tinari-Modai’s cable says that “it is possible to obtain names of the Israelis… you have to try and hit their soft underbellies, to publish their photographs, maybe that will cause embarrassment from their friends in Israel and their family, hoping that local activists would understand that they may actually be working on behalf of Mossad [Israel's spy agency].”

More...

P.I.G.S. WON'T PAY: JOIN THE REVOLUTION!

Occupation of Alcatraz Prison by Native Americans- 1969

The Occupation of Alcatraz was an occupation of Alcatraz Island by the group Indians of All Tribes (IAT). The Alcatraz Occupation lasted for nineteen months, from November 20, 1969, to June 11, 1971, and was forcibly ended by the U.S. government. [Wikipedia]

McLuhan Cloud

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was an encyclopedic thinker. This "cloud" aims to provide a visual representation about McLuhan's thought by focusing his intellectual roots and interdisciplinary approach. In sum, it is a reconnaissance of authors who have influenced McLuhan and his theoretical framework. The original version of the cloud is available on:
http://prezi.com/puj5zalf0krk/mcluhan-cloud/

Creating Freedom - Part One: The Lottery of Birth (Trailer)

www.creatingfreedom.info

From birth onwards our minds are a battleground of competing forces. The outcome of this battle determines the society we create. This is a film about the cultural, educational and commercial forces that shape our identities, often in ways that limit both our personal and political freedom.

Featuring: Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva, Bill Fletcher, Michael Albert, Tony, Benn, George Monbiot, Daniel Dennett, Kathleen Taylor, Jeff Schmidt, Nick Davies and Steven Pinker.

Produced & Directed by Raoul Martinez and Joshua van Praag
Conceived, Written & Edited by Raoul Martinez
Narrated by Nicholas Woodeson
Cinematography by Joshua van Praag
Original Music by Peter Raeburn

We Are All Greeks

The Greece Solidarity Campaign (GSC) is an independent campaign and non-party political organisation, established in response to an appeal by Tony Benn in February 2012 for solidarity with the people resisting ‘austerity’ in Greece.

The working people of Greece are being driven to poverty and mass unemployment by the demands of the so-called Troika – the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund – which has imposed Lucas Papademos, formerly of Vice-President of the ECB, as Prime Minister.

Greece is at the cutting edge of the austerity measures that are being introduced across Europe. All the evidence shows that while these measures may protect the interests of the rich, they just make matters worse for the majority of the population.

What happens in Greece today will be repeated in Portugal tomorrow, and in Ireland and Italy the day after. In Britain, the Coalition government is pursuing similar measures which will see workers earnings cut, working longer for a smaller pension, the marketisation of education and the dismantling of the NHS along with other public services.

The Greek people have shown mass resistance to these outrages and we commit to build a movement of solidarity with them.

Our Aims

• To develop practical acts in solidarity with Greek working people
• To support and celebrate the determined resistance by all those opposing ‘austerity measures’ in Greece.
• To provide information on the situation in Greece including debunking the myths about the causes of the crisis.
• To encourage conferences, meetings, discussions, lobbies, pickets, publications, media work, musical and cultural events.
• To encourage mutual contacts with Greece through delegations, twinning etc.
• To oppose governmental attempts to weaken trade unions and destroy collective bargaining
• To work with solidarity organisations of Greeks resident in the UK and to link with similar anti-austerity campaigns across Europe.
• To defend Greece’s democracy, sovereignty and independence and support the right of the Greek people to determine their own future free from oppressive external intervention.
• To support and build activity around these objectives throughout Britain, within Parliament and local government, with trade unions, pensioners, students, faith groups, equality campaigns, cultural and political organisations, and social movement bodies.

http://www.greecesolidarity.org/

Source

Bilderberg from 1982 onwards (Greece)

Samaras, Andonis, former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Punk Economics: Lesson 1

David McWilliams, Irish economist, gives us our first lesson in punk economics.

http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/