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Iran is Not Egypt (Yet)
By Brian M Downing
Demonstrations and uprisings against authoritarian rulers are moving across the Middle East. Tunisia and Egypt have driven longtime strong men from office, Libya and Bahrain are in tumult, and Iran is experiencing a return of the demonstrations that took place after the elections of 2009. As much as one might wish to see regime change in Tehran, it might not come nearly as easily and relatively bloodlessly as it did in the Maghreb.
Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was an artless figure who over his many years of power managed to alienate a large majority of his subjects. Urban middle classes, rural dwellers, secular intellectuals, and religious scholars could agree on few things in public life, but on the matter of Mubarak's corruption and brutality they could find a great deal of common ground. Further, all could agree that the future did not bode well for young people.
"Will the bail-out really matter?" (OpEdNews 404 – Repost)
By Robert Singer
Click here to read why “this article is not currently available” at OpEdNews.
September 26, 2008
Will the bail-out really matter?
I will give you odds Congress will vote in favor of the bail-out. And that’s not just because Warren Buffet told Congress to act swiftly. Buffett said, “Wall Street's troubles were inseparable from the finances of everyday US consumers.” The key to figuring out how to bet on the bail-out is the word “consumer” AKA “shopper”. The highest priority for the Bush or for that matter any administration is shopping. Consider the following:
The Economic Stimulus Package was a plan to help the economy. Last spring, the IRS sent checks of up to $1200.00 to over 130 million households. Did it help? Of course not. Why would buying stuff from China that we don’t need and are apt to throw away as fast as possible help the “economy”?
Surely you remember December, 2006, when this nation teetered on the brink of a national economic recession. At that time the President implored Americans to shop more. He said: As we work with Congress in the coming year to chart a new course in Iraq and strengthen our military to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must also work together to achieve important goals for the American people here at home. This work begins with keeping our economy growing. … And I encourage you all to go shopping more.”
And of course, no one will forget that after 9/11, when our country was in shock, President Bush could have suggested any number of appropriate things: to grieve, to pray, to hope. NO. He said to shop. TO SHOP?
Finally, you can’t lose money betting on the architect of the bailout, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. In 2002, he gave a speech about deflation. In that speech, he mentioned that the government is a fiat money system that owns the physical means of creating money. Control of the means of production for money implies that the government can always avoid deflation by simply dropping more money out of helicopters, so that is why he is known as "Helicopter Ben" with his "helicopter printing press”.
Bet the farm on the bailout.
You can find the article I wrote on 9-14 about shopping: "Give Us the ANWAR and Keep Shopping"-They Found They Can't Have Both
Hidden Provisions in Wisconsin Bill
by Stephen Lendman
On February 25, AP said the Wisconsin Assembly, after days of debate, passed Walker's contentious bill, but the standoff is far from over. Senate Democrats remain absent in Illinois, vowing to resist ending collective bargaining rights for public workers. So far, Walker won't compromise, so resolution is on hold.
Much more, however, is at issue. On February 24, economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman headlined, "Shock Doctrine, USA," saying:
"What's happening in Wisconsin is....a power grab - an attempt to exploit the fiscal crisis to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy." It involves much more than union busting, bad as that is.
Institutionalized Arab Inequality in Israel
by Stephen Lendman
In December 2010, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel published a study titled, "Inequality Report: The Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel," saying:
Affecting Jews as well, it takes many forms, including:
-- privileged v. deprived groups;
-- Western Jews (Ashkenzim) v. Eastern ones (Mizrakhim);
-- men v. women;
-- Israeli-born Jews (Sabar) v. immigrant ones (Olim);
-- Orthodox v. secular Jews;
-- urban v. rural ones;
-- progressive v. hardline extremists;
-- gay v. straight, and so forth.
In Re Barak, “Bullahs,” Blackwater, Bounties & the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)
Franklin Lamb
Beirut
When the US marines were in and out of Lebanon in 1983-1984 some of those I met, when visiting their barracks with American journalist Janet Stevens, to discuss Israel’s use of American cluster bombs against civilians had the habit, as did sailors from the USS New Jersey, of referring to the Lebanese Capital simply as “Root.” Or sometimes they would call it: “The Root” as in, “We came to “The Root” to kick some butt!”
The Marines were responsible for unexploded ordnance clearance in the area around Beirut airport while Italian, French and a small British force worked in adjoining areas of West Beirut, following the Israeli siege, which sometimes included intensive carpet shelling. The Marines did a good job in their area trying to make it safe for civilians and took 12 casualties, two fatal, from Israeli dropped American cluster bombs. Unfortunately President Reagan ordered the American forces to support the Israeli backed Phalange government of Amin Gemayel against the popular Lebanese resistance and the marines were soon viewed as being partisan participants in a domestic conflict. This led to the Marines departure following events of October 1983 and despite recent Israeli proposals, it is fairly unlikely that either American or NATO forces will arrive in Lebanon anytime soon.
Wisconsin's Spirit: Courage for Other States to Emulate
by Stephen Lendman
The issue is simple and straightforward - organized big money v. organized people essential to beat it. Since February 15, Wisconsin public workers, students, and supporters have sustained heroic resistance against corrupted dark forces determined to crush unionism there and across America. A previous article explained, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/02/union-busting-in-america.html
The scheme is old, dirty and ongoing - a conspiracy involving corporate bosses, federal, state and local Democrat and Republican leaders, and corrupted union heads to bust unions, effectively depriving workers of collective bargaining and other hard-won gains, returning them to 19th century harshness when they had none.
The battle lines are drawn. Across America, public and private worker rights are threatened unless mobilized resistance saves them. Governments at all levels are using dire economic conditions to make ordinary people bear the burden of recovering from the hardest times since the Great Depression. The solution is worse than the problem - the usual IMF diktat, including:
Justice, Law, and the Struggle for Change
Larry Pinkney
“Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a [hu]man, you take it.” -Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz)
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Whether in the streets of Cairo, Egypt; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; or Madison & Milwaukee (Wisconsin), USA, everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people yearn for political, economic, judicial, and environmental justice. Laws must be made subservient to justice, not the other way around.
Fascism Wisconsin Style - Troopers Target Legislators Homes
By Jonathryn posted by Michael Collins
Special Emergency Powers Legislation
The news from Wisconsin today is that Wisconsin State Troopers, under the direction of a political appointee of the Governor, are visiting the homes of legislators who are resisting the Governor’s deeply unpopular legislation. By what reckoning can an executive, using armed men in state uniforms, dictate a legislator’s prerogatives, or the prerogatives of a caucus of legislators? If you chose “brute force,” you answered correctly.
Wisconsin's Spirit: Courage for Other States to Emulate
by Stephen Lendman
The issue is simple and straightforward - organized big money v. organized people essential to beat it. Since February 15, Wisconsin public workers, students, and supporters have sustained heroic resistance against corrupted dark forces determined to crush unionism there and across America. A previous article explained, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/02/union-busting-in-america.html
The scheme is old, dirty and ongoing - a conspiracy involving corporate bosses, federal, state and local Democrat and Republican leaders, and corrupted union heads to bust unions, effectively depriving workers of collective bargaining and other hard-won gains, returning them to 19th century harshness when they had none.
Yes We Can! (Fix Our Trade Mess)
Ian Fletcher
The fashionable despair of America fixing its trade mess is a mistake.
For example, the standard objection to taking a stick to America's trade imbalance by levying a tariff is that our trading partners would just shrug it off by increasing subsidies to their exporters. (They do something similar to this already: China, for example, is constantly adjusting its export subsidies to protect its positions in foreign markets.) This would, supposedly, force us into an endless game of matching these moves on a country-by-country, industry-by-industry, and even product-by-product basis.
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