11'02 Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett explain how the US obsession with sanctions drives Iran and China together
BLOG POST
10'29 Robert Parry explains how the Washington press corps turned bad ARTICLE
COMMENT
11'28 @Consortiumnews "What Leen and Downie represent is an institutional failure...to protect the...power structure." nope ARTICLE
11'29 Chris Hedges and Sheldon Wolin on Inverted Totalitarianism as a Threat to Democracy TRANSCRIPT
11'29 Chris Hedges and Sheldon Wolin: Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? VIDEO
11'29 Chris Hedges: We've Decapitated More Civilians Than ISIS Ever Has VIDEO
10'23 The Imperative of Revolt @ChrisLynnHedges absolutely nails it in this ARTICLE
10'15 Ordained to Write ARTICLE
"Baldwin deplored the self-love in American society – he counted white and black Christian churches as being in the vanguard of self-love – and denounced what he called 'the lie of their pretended humanism'. in his essay 'Down at the Cross' he wrote: '...there was not love in the church. it was a mask for hatred and self-hatred and despair. the transfiguring power of the Holy Ghost ended when the service ended, and salvation stopped at the church door. when we were told to love everybody, I had thought that meant everybody. but no. it applied only to those who believed as we did, and it did not apply to white people at all.' he went on: 'if the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. if God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.'"
12'26'12 Did Vincent Nichols read Orwell? "As long as supernatural beliefs persist, men can be exploited by cunning priests and oligarchs..." George Orwell
11'17 -pic* I did a bit more testing of the Canon 7DMK2 in the brief moments of light over the weekend.
Here's an ISO800 #Kestrel
11'27 -pic* Just to prove that she does fly... #Kestrel @_BTO @BirdGuides @RareBirdAlertUK @WildlifeMag @BWPAwards
11'26 #Jesuit #philosopher Bernard Lonergan died #onthisday in 1984.
@jesuits_ireland's Gerry Whelan describes his impact: ARTICLE
11'28 Confessions Of A Former Truther by Clint Richardson BLOG POST
11'24 -pic* Andre Agassi and Roger Federer play tennis on the helipad of the Burj Al Arab hotel on February 22, 2005.
11'24 -pic* Martin Luther King Jr. removing a burned cross from his front yard with his son at his side, 1960
09'06 My mom wouldn't fuck any of you.
09'06 @Feenohmenal You are so pretty.
Would you object to me inserting my reproductive organ into one of your holes?
09'06 @douchefuck Oh, thank you. No, I wouldn't object.
I'd just go comatose like I did once a year in my marriage. Put a smile on my face after?
08'31 Excite me or get out of the way so someone else can.
08'29 Putting cigarettes out on each other like foreplay.
10'05 -pic* Stop the show. Pork neck caldo gallego, inspired by the Spanish harvest. @DinnerLab #TasteTalks
10'04 "No disrespect to other cities, but Chicago has a hardworking thoughtfulness that makes it one of the most hospitable." Donnie Madia
09'29 -pic* This #superfood may be the best #antiageing food in the world! #rawcacao #nutrition #fitness
11'29 -pic* sex bomb
11'29 -pic* beautiful family
11'28 -pic* Spuren im Sand
11'26 -pic* golden meadow
11'28 -pic* lioness licking her baby off
11'29 -pic* the fire of the instinct
11'25 -pic* Moon Goddess
11'27 -pic* Karlsbrücke, Prag
11'19 The impending collapse of capitalism (quite accurate I believe) ARTICLE
11'30 Karl Montague: "capitalism just meant the right for everybody to control their own money. before capitalism, there was empire-building State-sponsored mercantilism. feudalism and slavery. capitalism was a big step forward for humanity.
but it has flaws, we've had long enough of capitalism to know that. Marxism was supposed to address those flaws, but Marxism has it's own flaws.
I think the modern world is a mix of Smith and Marx. the Scandinavian nations lead the way in this regard.
the future is automated. I think the only way we're going to stop slipping backwards to mass poverty caused by technological unemployment is to implement a form of Universal Income. buying monopolies into public hands (or large chunks of their shares at least!) is also a good idea.
embracing Open Source is the way forward. there are volunteers, and businesses contributing to Open Source software. software like GIMP, or LibreOffice, or Linux is licensed in a special way. anybody can use it for free – including businesses, and anybody can develop it. I think we can extend that to politics and to the rest of society. direct democracy, a publicly owned banking system.
this isn't an abolishment of capitalism. it's an enhancement of it. both socialism and capitalism are necessary attributes of a stable modern society. it's time both sides saw that, to be honest." COMMENT
11'30 Karl Montague: "the main flaw with capitalism is that money trickles up and stagnates. also, that it's bad for society in general, which affects the economy in other ways. poverty means greater crime rates, which costs more to police. it also creates greater health problems, which cost the taxpayer more to cope with.
the flaw that's apparent in today's economy is that there are simply not enough jobs for the people who need jobs. this will only increase as automation and international free-trade increases.
there aren't enough jobs. also, there are a lot of sick and disabled people. refugees, too. the alternative to a welfare system under those circumstances is starvation for a certain percentage of the population.
a strong welfare system is necessary in an economy that has more jobs than people. if society needs work done, like more schools, or better hospitals, then it can create those jobs using taxpayer's money. this is socialism.
unless you can point to a purely capitalist society that actually works? I'm pretty sure that before we had things like worker's rights, child labour laws, and a welfare system, things were really bad. that's the sort of thing I'm talking about.
every stable economy these days requires a centralised welfare system. whether you see it as property-theft by a fascist, socialist government, or whether you see it as a positive investment into the society you have to live in, taxes and welfare are necessary for the economy.
nations like Norway, or even Iceland, aren't exactly running themselves into the ground economically. we are an oil-rich nation, just like Norway. a Norwegian's take-home pay after tax is more than ours.
capitalism means people own their own money. socialism means a centralised system that looks after the society. if it's done in the spirit of democracy, taxes really do become an investment into your society. housing the homeless and giving them a basic income will do wonders for crime rates, house prices, and public health spending. this is the basis of a Social Democracy. we don't go nuts and ban businesses from competing, but we do make sure they don't screw up the planet, and that they contribute to society." COMMENT
11'30 Karl Montague: "interesting, but the guy seems to be selling something. if he was serious, he'd be running a proper forum and building an open democracy manifesto.
my girlfriend and I are working on a GPL-licensed script to help facilitate direct democracy. it will be released on Sourceforge or Github when it's in a very simplified stage. I will be running a demonstration of it as a sort of game set on a pretend island where people can vote for all sorts of crazy laws, but the underlying software will be eventually adaptable into all sorts of systems, from a co-operative corporation to a UN/EU-style international parliament. it could even be used informally, as a way for an MP to poll his/her constituents. the fact is that it will exist, and will be available for all to use for free.
the point isn't even to decide on a better system of government or economy. a direct democracy filled with capitalists would be a capitalist society. a direct democracy full of socialists would be a socialist society. it's just to give everybody a voice, eventually doing away with the concepts of "leaders" as politicians, and merely hire MPs as clerks to administrate the people's will. if they don't do what we want, we sack 'em.
it's my belief that putting the people in charge will create a social democracy. a humane society where the rich and successful are not vilified by the population for being rich while they struggle, but praised for contributing to society, and where taxes that lessen the level of poverty in society are seen by the rich as an investment into the world they live in.
a direct democracy puts the responsibility for society into the hands of the individual. with a transparent budget and an evidence-based approach to taxation and spending, I am confident we can find ways for all of us to enjoy what we have. the next stage in economic theory will emerge from a system like that." COMMENT
11'30 Curt Doolittle, The Propertarian Institute, Kiev, Ukraine: "capitalism (private property, contract, money, prices, and consequential incentives) will exist forever in the same way that math will exist forever, because it is a necessary information system. that can't go away - ever, because capitalism is required for the voluntary organization of production. it is not capitalism that will be replaced, it is the reliance on the banking system that evolved during the era of hard currencies, that will be replaced.
there is no evidence that a distributed block chain employing proof of work is superior to a series of centrally managed databases such as Visa, Mastercard, and Amex, wherein transactions are immediately verified.
what is unique to this technology is that under fiat currency, each unit of currency is equal to a share of stock in the corporation of the state, which while not redeemable via the state, is insured by the state, and functions as a medium of exchange, unit of account and at least short term store of value. digital currency represents a divisible, fractional share of the issuing network. the state currency is insured by the state, but the digital currency is private and uninsured. the state is more likely to demand that any network of sufficient scale is insured for it to be issued to the public without harm. I expect this legislation to appear within the coming decade.
digital currency merely removes the middleman – the bank – from the distribution channel for the currency, and therefore the need for the bank to insure each transaction during the period of clearance when performing an escrow service.
this is the primary value of all bitcoin related technologies.
conversely, it is not rational to expect that the state will allow a digital currency to remain unregulated primarily because it is a ready-made vehicle for tax evasion and money laundering (as we have already seen). and digital currencies rely upon infrastructure that is too perishable (even more so thank ATM networks) and as such the economic impact of such currency failure is too vast. so digital currencies will never evolve into replacements for fiat money, they may only be used as a store of value against the loss of purchasing power of the fiat currency, when the money supply is inflated.
so the post-hard-currency era (I predict) will eliminate banks as a means of central distribution of credit to consumers, and function entirely as means of financing business credit. and transaction costs will drop precipitously since there is no escrow risk on the part of the bank.
but I might as well bark at the moon because the people who talk about their fantasies for bitcoin are ideologues who have very little comprehension of about that which they speak.
cheers. COMMENT
11'30 Chris Sanderson: "in 2007 the EU Parliament announced that its member countries had reached consensus to migrate their energy and communications systems, economies and lifestyles to a post carbon world, that they called the 'Third Industrial Revolution'.
seven years later and we can all see this proceding successfully. the Nord pas de Calais as the French pilot scheme, is their latest region to reach the implementation phase, following Germany and the Skandinavian countries.
Rifkin's article reflects a future that is happening now and one that he has helped create in conjunction with the Europe's leaders. it is also one that our major trading partner China has recently committed to follow.
I hope it is the direction towards which Australia is heading. better to follow the EU success than the US neo-con dysfunctional failure towards which our govt is trying to lead us." COMMENT
11'30 Darren Nesbit: "'individuals and small groups compete with the major established players'
this is where the fantasy begins. millions of independent musicians and creators around the world would completely disagree, it has in fact allowed the big players to monopolise even further.
'key sustainability challenges, such as climate change and resource scarcity'
both of which are a lie. how anyone has the barefaced brass to still be talking about man-made climate change after the climategate emails is beyond me. resource scarcity is also a lie and easy to pull off when you control most of the world's resources. what do you think they do at these Bilderberg and Trilateral and CFR meetings, exactly?
'if the old industries can monopolise the pipes, the structure, and destroy network neutrality, then you have global monopolies and Big Brother for sure'
again, this is an absolute certainty, as we have seen with Cameron's repeated attempts to control and police the internet (with a paedophile aide in charge of child porn filters) and in the U.S. through SOPA and PIPA and other legislation, they are making serious attacks on any idea of a free internet. Tim Berners-Lee came out very publicly in the last couple of weeks to warn against allowing the corporates and the government to take over and control the internet. why would he do that? what will 'extremist views' look like in 10 years' time? what I'm writing now?
many people think the New World Order is this military-industrial complex we have at the moment. it is not. it is only one half of the dialectic. the game they always play to get the world the way they really want it. you have '9/11' then you get to conquer the middle east and the world's premier provider of opium poppies. you make the Capitalist Western Westphalian world so odious that people demand it is torn down and replaced with the nightmare described in this piece, which is coming unless people start waking up and figuring out what is really going on and going to be done to them, in the guise of a brand new better, unified world.
the NWO will not be jackboots and machine guns, it will be Disney characters and happy meals. or more accurately, driverless cars and the internet of things, smart motorways, smart meters, smart chips, a cashless society... a brave new world. everything connected, everywhere. is the penny starting to drop yet? you have read '1984' haven't you?
of course we need change. it just needs to come from us, not them. research this stuff for yourself. if you have not heard of William Cooper, Phil Schneider, John Todd and Serge Monast that's because the rulers want it that way. you would be too informed about what's really going on otherwise. peace, love and freedom." COMMENT
11'30 Nico van den Bergh: "why do you post this article NOW? what Jeremy Rifkin states, are things that other people and me have already been saying for years! so, why is a NEWSpaper bringing news that is already years old! it is like bringing the 'news' that ABBA split up 30 years ago, but only now did you find an 'official source' to back it up!"
"hi Nico van den Bergh, just to point out that we carry as many features as news stories. ABBA may have split up 30 years ago, but 3D printers, for example, are only now starting to reach the mainstream. best wishes, Jo Confino."
Nico van den Bergh: "hello Jo, basically, thay is exactly the point that I am trying to make: many 'new' developments would have reached mainstream years ago, if newspapers had written about them when the were invented, and NOT after they had been embraced by politicians and their advisors!
to give you an example: just before the government of my country started to bail out banks with tax-payers money, in the same fashion as the US government were bailing out their banks, I wrote to them – as well as to newspapers – that they should not do that, because I could already predict that the banks would only use that money to reinforce their own capital and not the economy.
'instead' I wrote 'you had better seize this crisis as an apportunity to invest in branches with a great potential for growth just like, for instance, ICT was in the 1980's. by doing so, you will create a lot of new jobs and you can exchange the -hot air- in the economy, once again, for real values.'
that was in 2008, and of course, I wasn't the only one with ideas like that. the president of Iceland even carried such ideas out! but six years ago, main stream politicians and media had their heads too deep up their own ass to pay attention to such ideas. if they had, tax payers would not have been bled to death financially and jobwise 'we' could have been a lot further, in a much more healthy economy, than 'we' are today!" COMMENT
"And here we see a wild bus drinking water from a river."
11'30 -pic* @thexjarah It's been a long way.
11'18 Udo-Ulfkotte-Blatt feiert RT deutsch: Mit dem kunterbunten Holzhammer ARTICLE via @faz_net
11'25 Olaf Sundermeyer (wer immer das auch ist?) war im "Vorhof der Hölle"! :-) ARTICLE #RT #FAZ #RBB
11'30 @_jasper___ "einen Spaltpilz zu setzen" – interessante Wortwahl.
("äußerst prorussische Positionen" – Hans-Georg Maaßen, BfV) Ist Demokratie neuerdings Glaubenssache?
11'30 "was Maaßen da im Interview betreibt ist tatsächlich selbst Propaganda und Diffamierung durch einen Geheimdienst" ARTICLE
11'14 Truly innovative. ARTICLE | VIDEO
"More #StartUps will survive over 3 years if politicians stop doing what they're told by large corporations." @EnterpriseRocks
11'30 @TonyRobinsonOBE I've read your COMMENT
Industrial concerns of all economic branches are closely intertwined with all kinds of government corporations which makes the whole system a pretty monolithic corporatocracy. TWEET
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