All over the world today some of its richest people are quivering in their boots. Because for over a month hundreds of journalists have been digging through the so-called Panama Papers, the more than 11.5 leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Documents that have exposed how the wealthy are stashing their money in offshore tax havens. So they can become richer while whole countries and billions of people become poorer. And today is the day the names of many of those possible tax dodgers will be revealed.
As Angela Merkel and her gang of EU stooges and bloated banksters give Greece until Sunday to decide how much more flesh they can carve off its shrunken body. Frustrated European leaders gave Greece until Sunday to reach an agreement to save its collapsing economy from catastrophe after an emergency summit meeting here on Tuesday ended without the Athens government offering a substantive new proposal to resolve its debt crisis. And Merkel makes it clear she wants as much flesh as possible. At a separate news conference, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made it clear that eurozone leaders were determined to set a very high bar for Athens before the Thursday deadline. The pressure on her, the EU, and the whole capitalist system is mounting.
The scene couldn't have been more ironic or more appalling. For even as the Ebola epidemic raged out of control, and Oxfam sent out a desperate call for more boots on the ground, in Africa. On Saturday Oxfam took the unusual step of calling for troops to be sent to west Africa, along with funding and medical staff, to prevent the Ebola outbreak becoming the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation”. It accused countries that did not commit military personnel of “costing lives". And leaders like Obama urged Americans not to surrender to fear and hysteria. There was Stephen Harper, with a strange look on his face, receiving an award for helping stamp out polio, while cranking up the fear factor.
With one week to go in the Scottish referendum the YES side's surge to independence appears to have been at least temporarily halted, with a new poll suggesting the NO side is leading again. The YouGov survey for The Times and Sun newspapers put supporters of the union on 52 per cent, narrowly ahead of supporters of independence on 48 per cent, excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote. But with 97% of those eligible registered to vote, either side could still win. And the good news for the YES side is that most of its support is still intact even after being battered by an all-out assault worthy of Darth Vader himself...
He has tried to deny the reality of climate change as long as any crazed person could. Even as he torched the planet, and turned Canada into a hellish place. But the world is warming, the ice is melting faster than anyone once imagined.
It's funny eh? When I see pictures like this one I see people standing up for their rights, telling a corrupt government to take their fascist bill and shove it, or just joining others to demand a better world.
But most of the Con media only seem to see a mob, dangerous terrorists, and above all GREEKS !!!!
It was without a doubt the most grotesque spectacle the Davos Cozy Capitalist Club had ever seen. As they sat there in their silk leather pajamas watching Stephen Harper pose as an economist.
Bragging about the stability of our banking system, while forgetting to tell them that if it had been up to him and his Reform Con cowboys our banks would have been deregulated, and in worse shape than those in Europe or the United States.
Bragging about his job creation prowess even though the Canadian economy hasn't created any good jobs for the last six months. Despite all those juicy tax breaks for big corporations.
Lecturing the Europeans about their debt problems, when he turned a surplus into a massive structural deficit. And Canadians are drowning in household debt.
Ballooning household debt has made headlines in recent months, and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has warned it is the No. 1 domestic risk to Canada's economy.
At the mercy of a housing bubble that he helped create.
In the first half of this year (2008), as the subprime mortgage crisis was exploding in the United States, a contagion of U.S.-style lending practices quietly crossed the border and infected Canada's previously prudent mortgage regime.
And now there's no money for anything except prisons, and fancy jet planes. So what's his solution? Make the old work longer. So hopefully more will drop dead before ever collecting any money.
In December, the National Post reported that there was internal debate within the government about increasing the age of eligibility for the other major element of the public pension scheme - Old Age Security - from 65 to 67.
Make sure they build a pipeline to get Alberta's dirty oil to market, by intimidating their opponents, and sabotaging the process by appointing their friends.
The federal government disassociated itself on Thursday from an embarrassing official policy paper that said the country’s independent energy regulator, now studying a controversial oil pipeline, is in fact a government ally.
The Conservative government is confirming what it’s been hinting at for weeks: Spending cuts in the upcoming federal budget could be twice as deep as Ottawa’s original target.
Because making Alberta rich and killing government is all they care about. Even if it drives the rest of the country into a recession.
Oh boy. To think that so many Canadians thought the Cons were good money managers.
Never were so many so dumb. Never was a Canadian government so corrupt and so foul.
Golly. It looks like that fancy pajama party in Davos, has considered the state of the capitalist pig, and found its condition rather alarming.
For decades, this ritzy Swiss resort has hosted an annual celebration of capitalism where luxurious Audis ferry potentates and presidents between lavish hotels so they can bemoan the perils of socialism, high taxes and debt. And yet, this year, the veteran founder and Chairman of the Davos World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, declares that "Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us."
And is so shaken by the situation it's taking a page out of the Occupy movement. Just like Obama did last night.
For all the forced conviviality in the chamber, the most memorable parts of the speech were shaped not by shenanigans in Washington, but by the protests in the streets that have shifted the focus of the nation from debt and government-bashing to the enduring inequalities and inequities in American society.
Because they can see the writing on the wall, and the power of an idea whose time has come. Unlike Stephen Harper.
It was -17 degrees in London, Ontario, today, where a foreign company has locked out 400 Canadian workers. To try to slash their wages and benefits by more than fifty percent, and gut their pensions.
And in Alma, Quebec, where another foreign company has locked out 700 Canadian workers, and is using the courts to club them like seals, it was even colder.
But don't worry eh? The big bosses in this country are warm and toasty.
Stephen Harper greased Electro-Motive's wheels three years ago with a big wad of our tax dollars.
If London's Electro-Motive plant is closed and its jobs moved to Indiana, it'll be after having milked the benefits of a billion-dollar tax break once trumpeted on the plant floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
And like every other corporate giant in Canada, the company just got another juicy tax break from the Harper government. For doing less than nothing.
Uh oh. I mean oink oink. I see the unrepentant capitalist pig just can't help itself. Stuffing itself with human misery. While the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
A new report finds that the gap between the rich and the poor just keeps getting wider in Canada.
So much for the Con plan to cut government jobs, drive down wages, reduce benefits by attacking unions, while giving the rich juicy tax breaks.
Twenty four hours after this little campsite was demolished, I see that Margaret Wente couldn't restrain herself from going down to St James Park, squatting on all fours, and delivering this dreary dump.
Despite the current circumstances, every single protester in North America is pretty well guaranteed a comfortable middle-class existence – so long as he or she can manage to finish school, show up for work and avoid excessive substance abuse – in a functioning democracy with the rule of law.
Right. Just remember which end of her it came from eh?
But of course she wasn't the only one. Who can forget the Progressive Bloggers who called the occupiers "degenerates" and "rabid animals?" Or all those other angry old people who screamed that the baby movement should be strangled in its cradle.
Uh oh. I see that Eurozone leaders don't like George Papandreou's idea for a shit kebab referendum.
The leaders of Germany and France told Greece on Wednesday it would not receive another cent in European aid until it decides whether it wants to stay in the euro zone.
And that he has been spanked by the Iron Frau Angela Merkel.
I went down to the Occupy Toronto campground yesterday, just as the protesters were setting off on a march to City Hall. So naturally I followed them, and had a great time.
Only to discover later, much to my surprise, that according to some in the MSM I was marching with a dying movement.
Miserable weather for camping and public apathy appears to be taking a toll on the "occupy" movement in Canada, even as protesters in Toronto took to the streets for a march and rally at City Hall on Saturday.
Which sort of echoes what the old Con Andrew "Silver Spoon" Coyne had to say the other day, when he dismissed the movement saying more people had lined up for the latest i-phone.
Now it's true that the core group is still a small one. A coming together of young and old activists, community groups, the poor, and the marginalized.
But what Coyne and the other cons don't seem to understand is that this movement has spread all over the world in a matter of weeks. Its message is resonating with millions, and framing a new debate. The global consensus has finally been broken.
These people have not come to protest just against a bad law or a single issue, but the system itself. They are putting capitalism in the dock. The photograph powerfully captures this moment because it so vividly shows the symbols of the order of things that inhabitants of western economies have up to now accepted.
The monster finally exposed.
Occupy Wall Street and the global movement it is inspiring may yet prove to be an effective call for change, or a flash in the pan. That is not the point. Nor does it even matter if the protest is right or wrong. What matters is that unfettered capitalism, a force for economic dynamism that seemed unassailable, beyond reproach or reform, a monster we learned to be grateful for, suddenly finds its ugliness widely commented on, exposed among the lights of Times Square. The emperor of economics has no clothes.
Yup. The Occupy movement can't fail, because it has already won.
And an idea doesn't need a campground to continue to grow, until it eventually changes the world...
As this one must. For unless the capitalist monster is tamed, or replaced by a better system, it will destroy us ALL.
The writing is on the wall...
As economic conditions deteriorate more people will understand that, and more will join the movement.
So even if the campgrounds go down, the light will burn on. It may be necessary to occupy a physical space right now, as Alice Klein says here.
As long as Occupy Toronto manages to sustain its presence in the park, it will have that vital ingredient of time to work through the kinks. Time is needed to get the logistics together, to build community, to forge links with the larger community of supporters, to develop even more powerful means of communication and group process. And finally, time is needed to coalesce around more specific messages and bigger, even more inclusive actions.
But when I saw the pictures on TV at work, and I saw how the Occupy movement is spreading.
I knew that I was right when I said the other day that this is a movement that could change the world, and save it from destruction.
Then tonight on my way home I went to the park and the mood was electric...
A large group of demonstrators had just finished a noisy march around the block, escorted by a contingent of cops on bicycles.
And in the dark park, a wild drumming party was in progress...
But what struck me was the incredible level of organization. Food, water, and other supplies were pouring into the park, and a logistics committee was running around barking out orders with almost military precision.
Don't be fooled by appearances. These people are serious, and they won't be easily moved.
And the dumbos in the MSM shouldn't be confused by their seemingly disparate demands. Because as far as I can see most of them have one thing in common. They are all complaints about a decaying economic system.
Companies, Roubini said, are motivated to minimize costs, save money and stockpile cash, but this leads to less money in the hands of employees, which means they have less money to spend and flow back to companies -- [thus] weakening the capitalist system.
Now, in the current financial crisis, consumers, in addition to having less money to spend, are also motivated to minimize costs -- to save, to stockpile cash and to pay down debt -- thus magnifying the effect of less money flowing back to companies.
They can fix the banking system in Europe, but it won't bring the good jobs back. Without those jobs, and with high levels of debt, consumers can't keep consuming.
So far governments have responded to the renewed crisis of capitalism by frantically seeking to invoke the old magic again, to start the engine of creative destruction once more. The means to do so no longer exist. Even if they did, they would only delay and enlarge the underlying problems.
But now, in the wake of the English riots and faced with possible collapse, we are at last beginning to talk about the issues ignored while the illusion persisted: equality, exclusion, the feral rich and the discarded poor and, in WH Auden's words, about "what the god had wrought / To please her son, the strong / Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles / Who would not live long."
It will DIE. It's really that simple.
Yup. The conditions for a movement like OWS to grow have never been more favorable.
As the Occupy Wall Street protests continues to grow. And unions join the struggle.
Some old wankers still struggle to explain what it means.
The organizers of Occupy Wall Street are fighting to upend the system. But what gives their movement the potential for power and potency is the masses who just want the system to work the way they were promised it would work. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans are really struggling. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans want a revolution. It’s that 99 percent of Americans sense that the fundamental bargain of our economy -- work hard, play by the rules, get ahead -- has been broken, and they want to see it restored.
But not me eh? I don't want to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on a rotting corpse. I want to BURY it.
And I know that when a Con whore like Ann Coulter is scratching her smelly balls and calling it "mob rule."
The capitalist pigs are trembling in their boots trotters, and we are heading in the right direction.
However, if somebody STILL needs to understand why it's happening, and where the river of history is leading us, all they need to do is remember this.
It's time to check ourselves, to see if we still have that small part that believes in the values that America promises. Do we still have a shred of our decency intact in the face of debasement? If you do, then now is the time to give that forgotten part a voice. That is what this movement is ultimately about: giving voice to decency and fairness.
And him...
Each of us is of great value to the whole. Do not forget your greatness. Even when the world around you is telling you you are nothing. You have a voice. You want a better life for your children and the people you love. You live in a democracy. You belong, and you deserve a world that is fair and equal. You have a right to take your place and be heard.
And all the others.
Glory, Glory Hallelujah !!!! It's springtime in America !!!!
But instead are caught on video watching a group of marchers from a balcony.
Laughing and swilling champagne...
As it has others, the video reminds me of the classic scene in Dr Zhivago. When the boobeoisie are gathered at an opulent ball, swilling champagne and rattling their jewels, and the party mood is momentarily broken by the unwelcome sound of hundreds of commie demonstrators outside, singing The Internationale.
A nervous silence descends on the glitzy gathering, until the sleazy lawyer Viktor Komarovsky, played by Rod Steiger, stands up and says: "No doubt they'll sing in tune after the revolution."
The tension is broken. The fat cats laugh and applaud, and the band plays on.
But of course, as we all know, not for very much longer.
Whatever else these protests are achieving, they are drawing a line between THEM and US.
Their protest may be angry but unfocused. They have been ignored by the MSM. Brutalized by the police, and arrested in massive numbers.
But slowly but surely Occupy Wall Street is rediscovering the radical imagination.
We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working-class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: studied, got into college, and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.
Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?
And who would be surprised if it happened here? Where the fat cats and the union-busting Harper Cons are trying to turn young Canadians into slaves.
The CEOs have decided. The value of young people is lower than the value of people from my generation. You don’t deserve the same salary, even if you are better educated. You don’t deserve the same vacation time or health benefits. And you certainly don’t deserve to have the same kind of secure retirement. It’s just not in the business plan.
With the same predictable result.
When the history is finally written, though, it's likely all of this tumult – beginning with the Arab Spring – will be remembered as the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire. Thirty years of relentless prioritising of propaganda over substance, and snuffing out anything that might look like a political basis for opposition, might make the prospects for the young protesters look bleak; and it's clear that the rich are determined to seize as large a share of the spoils as remain, tossing a whole generation of young people to the wolves in order to do so. But history is not on their side.
Welcome to another edition of Porky Tales, where greed meets despair, and the Sopranos meet the bankers.
And where tonight we juxtapose how the Bank of America treated an elderly couple in Florida.
Seventy-year-old Sharon Bullington may lose her home because she paid her mortgage a week early.
That may not make much sense to the thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgages in Florida. But it seems it does to Bank of America, which has filed to foreclose on Bullington and her husband, James, 78, who is terminally ill.
With how they are apparently preparing to grease the wheels of the Republican candidate for President, and right-wing extremist, Rick Perry.
By having some shady looking operative sidle up to him at a meeting in New Hampshire, and whisper in his ear: "I'm from Bank of America and we'll help you out"
Only to have the offer caught on video....
Needless to say, the bank tried to deny it was doing the porky with Perry, but failed hilariously.
And the larger question remains: How could a corporate institution like the Bank of America back a Christianist fanatic with such wacky right-wing views?
And the answer is obvious. They like some of them a lot:
All Bank Regulation Is Unconstitutional: Criticizing the Security and Exchange Commission’s rulemaking process under the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, Perry asserts that “if the Constitution were shown the appropriate respect, Washington regulation writers wouldn’t have to worry about underrepresented views, because they wouldn’t have control over them in the first place”
Because like Rick Perry, and Stephen Harper, and so many Con porkers, they HATE Big Government. Except when they get $45 billion in government bailout money, like the Bank of America did a few years ago.
Or when, like the Harper Cons, they get to spend billions of tax dollars buying themselves an election. Tony Clement where are you?
Because it's never about what's good for ordinary people, or human society, only what's good for THEM.
Which at the end of the day leaves me wondering what happened to that poor couple in Florida?
And how anyone, anywhere, can still seriously believe the system isn't BROKEN...
