All Entries Tagged With: "fascism"

Moyers : How power and influence helped big banks rewrite the rules of our economy

Big banks are rewriting the rules of our economy to the exclusive benefit of their own bottom line. But how did our political and financial class shift the benefits of the economy to the very top, while saddling us with greater debt and tearing new holes in the safety net? This weekend on Moyers & Company (check your local listings), Bill Moyers talks with former Citigroup Chairman John Reed and former Senator Byron Dorgan to explore a momentous instance: how the mid-90�s merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group � and a friendly Presidential pen — brought down the Glass-Steagall Act, a crucial firewall between banks and investment firms which had protected consumers from financial calamity since the aftermath of the Great Depression. In effect, says Moyers, they put the watchdog to sleep.

Full Story Here: Moyers & Company Show 103: How power and influence helped big banks rewrite the rules of our economy. on Vimeo.

Exposing Dominionism

We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about Dominionists—Christians who believe, basically, that they ought to be running this country.

Dominionism has different strains. But one is embodied in a group called the New Apostolic Reformation, which helped organize a recent prayer rally for Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry.

How seriously should we take this group, and its goals?

To answer that question, Point of Inquiry turned to Rachel Tabachnik, a researcher and writer who focuses on monitoring the Religious Right. She’s a contributor to Talk2Action.org, and recently wrote about the New Apostolic Reformation on Alternet.org.

Download the mp3 (free) at link below

Full Story Here: Rachel Tabachnick – Exposing Dominionism | Point of Inquiry.

Britain enacts blanket ban on protests

The British government has applied a blanket ban on all kind of marches and protest gatherings in London amid fears of violence and disorder.

The Home Office announced the blanket ban on all marches in five London boroughs for 30 days starting from September 2, the Independent reported.

Home Secretary Theresa May banned all marches in Tower Hamlets, east London, and four neighbouring boroughs in the capital for a 30-day period following a request from Scotland Yard Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin.

The move comes amid fears of violence and disorder if the marches were allowed to go ahead.

“Having carefully considered the legal tests in the Public Order Act and balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, I have given my consent to a ban on all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for a 30-day period”, said the Home Secretary.

“I know that the Metropolitan Police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected”, added Theresa May.

Full Story Here: PressTV – Britain enacts blanket ban on protests.

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead .

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, was said to have been found at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

Full Story Here: News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead | Media | The Guardian.

OPS: “…not suspicious…”  proving that  Uncle Rupert is still in control

CNN’s Tea Party Debate Fail

Mother Jones:

CNN today announced that it would team up with the Tea Party Express to host a GOP presidential debate over Labor Day next year in Tampa, the site of the Republican National Convention in 2012. Sam Feist, CNN’s political director, says the arrangement was designed to give undecided voters a way to educate themselves about “diverse perspectives within the Republican Party, including those of the Tea Party.” It’s not the first time CNN has partnered with the group. Earlier this year, CNN embedded with Tea Party Express on one of its bus tours, giving the group extensive coverage. But this joint venture is odd for two reasons.

Reason No. 1. The Tea Party Express isn’t exactly a grassroots activist group. It’s a political action committee created by longtime California GOP political consultants with the firm of Russo Marsh. The PAC has been criticized for raising gobs of money and spending most of it on the services of the consulting firm that founded it. Last year, grassroots tea party activists were up in arms over federal elections filings showing that the PAC had spent donor money lavishly, not on candidates, but on its operators. One particularly outrageous item, by tea party standards: a nearly $1,600 tab for a small meal at a fancy steakhouse in Sacremento. In 2009 almost $900,000 of the $2 million raised by the PAC went to Russo Marsh.

Full Story Here: CNN’s Tea Party Debate Fail | Mother Jones.

Consumers’ right to file class actions is in danger

If AT&T has its way before the Supreme Court, any business that issues a contract to customers would be able to prevent them from joining class-action lawsuits, taking away arguably the most powerful legal tool available to the little guy.

It hasn’t gotten a lot of press, but a case involving AT&T that goes before the U.S. Supreme Court next week has sweeping ramifications for potentially millions of consumers.

If a majority of the nine justices vote the telecom giant’s way, any business that issues a contract to customers — such as for credit cards, cellphones or cable TV — would be able to prevent them from joining class-action lawsuits.

This would take away in such cases arguably the most powerful legal tool available to the little guy, particularly in cases involving relatively small amounts of money. Class-action suits allow plaintiffs to band together in seeking compensation or redress, thus giving substantially more heft to their claims.

Full Story: David Lazarus: Consumers’ right to file class actions is in danger – latimes.com.

Government withholding key data on Gulf seafood testing, scientists say | Raw Story

Gulf states not following consistent protocol, despite government claims

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and FDA officials maintain they’ve provided results of ongoing Gulf seafood safety tests with the utmost transparency. But outside scientists, eager to perform independent evaluations of the government’s findings, complain the information released contains far too many unknown variables that preclude peer review.

In recent interviews, FDA and NOAA officials told Raw Story that they’ve been completely transparent in sharing ongoing Gulf seafood testing data, protocol and methodologies.

Full Story: Government withholding key data on Gulf seafood testing, scientists say | Raw Story.

FDA won’t allow food to be labeled free of genetic modification: report

‘Extra labeling only confuses the consumer,’ biotech spokesman says

That the Food and Drug Administration is opposed to labeling foods that are genetically modified is no surprise anymore, but a report in the Washington Post indicates the FDA won’t even allow food producers to label their foods as being free of genetic modification.

In reporting that the FDA will likely not require the labeling of genetically modified salmon if it approves the food product for consumption, the Post’s Lyndsey Layton notes that the federal agency “won’t let conventional food makers trumpet the fact that their products don’t contain genetically modified ingredients.”

Full Story: FDA won’t allow food to be labeled free of genetic modification: report | Raw Story.

Glenn Beck and the Yearning for Fascism

Matthew Rothschild:

Glenn Beck’s got me worried again about fascism in America.

His so-called restoring honor rally last weekend assumed that somehow America has been dishonored, and that is a classic trope of fascists.

Nor was I comforted by all talk from Beck about “America today begins to turn back to God.”

Nor was I comforted by the full-throated and repeated chants of “USA, USA.”

Nor by Sarah Palin having the gall to claim “we feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King,” this just 10 days after she told Dr. Laura to “reload,” after the talk show host said the N word 11 times in five minutes.

Full Story: Glenn Beck and the Yearning for Fascism | The Progressive.

USDA downplays own Scientist’s Research on ill effects of Monsanto Herbicide — Signs of the Times NewsMonsanto

Sure, the crops are genetically engineered to withstand Roundup; but what about the soil?What would happen if a USDA scientist discovered that one of the most commonly used pesticides on the planet with a reputation for having saved millions of tons of US soil from erosion was - rather than a soil savior - a soil killer?That, to quote a certain paranormal expert, would be bad. And yet, it's true.

This news came to the fore thanks to a recently published must-read article from Reuters on how government regulators are “dropping the ball” on agricultural biotechnology. It begins with the story of USDA scientist Dr. Robert Kremer. Kremer has spent the last fifteen years looking at Monsanto’s blockbuster broad-spectrum herbicide ), the most commonly used pesticide in the world and the companion to Monsanto’s possibly monopolistic RoundupReady lines of genetically engineered seeds.

While exact figures are a closely guarded secret thanks to the USDA’s refusal to update its pesticide use database after 2007, estimates suggest upwards of 200 million pounds of glyphosate were dumped on fields and farms in the US in 2008 alone. That’s almost double the amount used in 2005

Full Story: USDA downplays own Scientist’s Research on ill effects of Monsanto Herbicide — Signs of the Times News.

Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’

Chris Hedges

The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders.

“We are ruled not by two parties but one party,” Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. “It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded.”

The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. They think that the refusal to save the estimated 2.4 million people who will be forced out of their homes by foreclosure this year is justified by the bloodless language of fiscal austerity. The message is clear. Laws do not apply to the power elite. Our government does not work. And the longer we stand by and do nothing, the longer we refuse to embrace and recognize the legitimate rage of the working class, the faster we will see our anemic democracy die.

Full Story: Chris Hedges: Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’ – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.

The Looming Water Disaster That Could Destroy California, and Enrich Its Billionaire Farmers

There’s a disaster waiting to happen in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and a handful of wealthy farmers seem to like it that way.

“That, in your own backyard there, is the scariest place after New Orleans.” — Geologist Nicholas Pinder’s description of the precarious situation in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta after the hurricane Katrina disaster.

Imagine the devastating flooding of Hurricane Katrina multiplied by epic sandstorms, drought and economic collapse of the Dust Bowl. Now picture it happening an hour east of Apple’s headquarters in Silicon Valley and spreading all the way down to the Mexican border. It’s not as far-fetched as you think. A routine 6.7-magnitude earthquake would be enough to set it off, liquefying the decrepit levee system that walls off California’s main source of drinking water from the Pacific Ocean and triggering a deadly flood that would submerge roads, destroy homes, wipe out thousands of acres of farmland, kill countless numbers and possibly cut over 20 million Californians off from their water supply for a year or more.

California’s politicians have known about this looming catastrophe for decades. They also have had the power to neutralize the threat. But no one has done anything to prevent it.

Full Story: The Looming Water Disaster That Could Destroy California, and Enrich Its Billionaire Farmers | Water | AlterNet.

The NYT Veers Neocon

Robert Parry –

Many American progressives don’t want to recognize how bad the U.S. mainstream news media has become. It’s easier to praise a few exceptions to the rule and to hope that some pendulum will swing than to undertake the challenging task of building a new and honest media infrastructure.

But the hard reality is that the U.S. news media is getting worse, with now both premier national newspapers – the New York Times and the Washington Post – decidedly sliding into the neocon camp, where the likes of the Wall Street Journal have long resided.

For the Post, this may already be an old story, given its enthusiastic cheerleading for the Iraq War. The Times, however, was a somewhat different story. Yes, it did let Judith Miller and other staff writers promote the fictions about Iraq’s WMD, but it hadn’t sunk to the depths of the Post.

That is now changing as the Times – behind executive editor Bill Keller and editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal – tosses aside all pretense of objectivity in the cause of seeking “regime change” in Iran, today’s top priority for the neoconservatives.

Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.

QUID PRO DOUGH: House Ethics Panel Rules It’s Okay To Steer Contracts To Campaign Donors

The House ethics committee ruled Friday that seven lawmakers who steered hundreds of millions of dollars in largely no-bid contracts to clients of a lobbying firm had not violated any rules or laws by also collecting large campaign donations from those contractors.

In a 305-page report, the ethics committee declared that lawmakers are free to raise campaign money from the very companies they are benefiting so long as the deciding factors in granting those “earmarks” are “criteria independent” of the contributions. The report served as a blunt rejection of ethics watchdogs and a different group of congressional investigators, who have contended that in some instances the connection between donations and earmarks was so close that it had to be inappropriate.

“Simply because a member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not, on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member’s actions are being influenced by campaign contributions,” the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said in a unanimous statement.

Full Story: Ethics panel clears 7 on earmarks – washingtonpost.com.

OPS:  Ethics? Really?

‘Illusion,’ Corporatism and Inverted Totalitarianism

Chris Hedges -  Audio

“I’m not attacking culture, I’m attacking corporatism,”

In this interview with Vermont Public Radio’s Neal Charnoff, “Empire of Illusion” author and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges emphasizes what makes his book’s argument different from that of the stereotypical elder who disapproves of emerging artistic and cultural forms: “I’m not attacking culture, I’m attacking corporatism,” he tells Charnoff.

Hedges also describes the difference between totalitarianism and inverted totalitarianism (“economics trumps politics”) and what’s wrong with the education provided these days by such vaunted Ivy League institutions as Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Full Story Chris Hedges on ‘Illusion,’ Corporatism and Inverted Totalitarianism – Truthdig.

Critics: ‘Destructive’ Supreme Court decision ‘empowers corruption’

Obama vows ‘forceful response’

The US Supreme Court on Thursday lifted a 20-year ruling which had set limits on campaign financing by US businesses, and critics, including nonpartisan watchdogs and Congressional Democrats, are up in arms about the decision, which most had feared for a long time. Meanwhile, aside from Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Republicans appear to be gleeful about their second apparent victory of the week.

The nine justices ruled that American corporations could dip freely into their general funds to finance campaign ads either in support or against a particular political candidate.

The move overturns a ruling made two decades ago which had forced companies to only use specially earmarked funds from a political action committee.

Full Story Critics: ‘Destructive’ Supreme Court decision ‘empowers corruption’ | Raw Story.

OPS:  Talk is Cheap, and has been – so far.  Let’s see it Mr. President.

What Bush did to Haiti

The February 29, 2004 Coup D’ Etat instigated by the Bush Administration

by David Swanson -

If a group of dedicated scholars, attorneys, journalists, and activists had tried to generate a comprehensive list of impeachable offenses committed by George W. Bush as president, and only 35 of them had been introduced into Congress, one of the many discarded ones, in rough and overly detailed form, might have read something like this:

In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution  “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed”, has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, caused the United States of America to kidnap, imprison, intimidate, coerce, threaten, confine, abduct, and carry away the elected, constitutional President of Haiti, and his wife, a U.S citizen, in violation of United States statutes, to wit:

a. The President, both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, prevented the security contractors working for Haiti’s elected, constitutional government led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from receiving reinforcements at a time when Haiti’s constitutional government was under attack. The removal of the security contractors facilitated the kidnapping of President Aristide:

Full Story What Bush did to Haiti.

IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages

Richard Kim, The Nation -

Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday–killing tens of thousands of people–there’s been a lot of well-intentioned chatter and twitter about how to help Haiti. Folks have been donating millions of dollars to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti (by texting “YELE” to 501501) or to the Red Cross (by texting “HAITI” to 90999) or to Paul Farmer’s extraordinary Partners in Health, among other organizations. I hope these donations continue to pour in, along with more money, food, water, medicine, equipment and doctors and nurses from nations around the world. The Obama administration has pledged at least $100 million in aid and has already sent thousands of soldiers and relief workers. That’s a decent start.

But it’s also time to stop having a conversation about charity and start having a conversation about justice–about recovery, responsibility and fairness. What the world should be pondering instead is: What is Haiti owed?

Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor–by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Full Story IMF to Haiti: Freeze Public Wages.

‘Business elite’ behind Honduran coup?

Honduran businessmen at center of coup dispute

The Raw Story » Pressure on Honduran business community grows as coup enters third month

Die-hard supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya are increasingly turning their anger toward the country’s wealthy business elite, a small but powerful cadre believed to solidly back the interim government that removed him at gunpoint three months ago.

The capital is now covered with graffiti demanding “Turks out!” — apparently a reference to the Central American country’s large number of business people of Middle Eastern descent — and on Saturday pro-Zelaya marchers lashed out at the elite’s dominance over wealth in a country where millions are poor.

“They own almost the whole country,” pro-Zelaya protester Arnoldo Pagoaga, a medical doctor who marched in his white uniform, said Saturday. “They’re terrorists. … They own the army, and sic it on us.”

Fellow demonstrator Rafael Alegria complained that Honduras “has a large immigrant community that owns everything: commerce and industry.”

“We don’t really have our own economy,” Alegria said. “We have to set that right.”

Full Story: The Raw Story » ‘Business elite’ behind Honduran coup?.

Health-Care Firms Have Supported Lawmakers Debating Reform

Industry Cash Flowed To Drafters of Reform  - washingtonpost.com

As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation under consideration by his Senate Finance Committee.

At the table on May 26 were about 20 donors willing to fork over $10,000 or more to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, including executives of major insurance companies, hospitals and other health-care firms.

“Most people there had an agenda; they wanted the ear of a senator, and they got it,” said Aaron Roland, a San Francisco health-care activist who paid half price to attend the gathering. “Money gets you in the door. The only thing the other side can do is march around and protest outside.”

via Health-Care Firms Have Supported Lawmakers Debating Reform – washingtonpost.com.

Secret papers ‘show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests’

Secret papers ‘show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests’ -  – The Independent

Documents seen by The IoS support claims energy giant enlisted help of country’s military government

Serious questions over Shell Oil’s alleged involvement in human rights abuses in Nigeria emerged last night after confidential internal documents and court statements revealed how the energy giant enlisted the help of the country’s brutal former military government to deal with protesters.

The documents, seen by the IoS, support allegations that Shell helped to provide Nigerian police and military with logistical support, and aided security sweeps of the oil-rich Niger Delta. Earlier this month Shell agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.6m) in a “humanitarian settlement” on the eve of a highly embarrassing US lawsuit.

One of the allegations was that Shell was complicit in the regime’s execution of civilians. The Anglo-Dutch firm denies any wrongdoing and said it settled to help “reconciliation”. But the documents contain detailed allegations of the extent to which Shell is said to have co-opted the Nigerian military to protect its interests.

via Secret papers ‘show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests’ – Americas, World – The Independent.