A Call for Direct Action: Is it Worthy of Consideration?

Your Anon News • A CALL FOR DIRECT ACTION 

Although there are facets of this perspective that are highly debatable, as many of the comments on Tumblr  reveal, this is an intriguing argument not without some merit because aspects of it are increasingly applicable to Canada as we continue to live under the repressive yoke of the #HarperRegime. Today’s revelation about the enabling of a completely undisguised neoliberal foreign aid policy designed to benefit corporation - the exploitative mining industry in particular - #banksters, and of course the investor class indexes the fundamental moral bankruptcy of our government. We saw harbingers of this shift under Smoking Lady. Now we see the big picture under Law and Order Man. This is an outrageous moral breach, a complete distortion of what foreign aid should be - namely, a fundamentally charitable endeavour -  and what makes it even more culpable, more dangerous, is that this is no political game. These people are unequivocally true believers fervently worshipping at the altar of #neoliberalism, spreading their gospel of “the market,” austerity, and free trade agreements that undermine our sovereignty and weaken the real productive economy in the interests of profit for the 1%. They serve more than Mammon. 

We will soon need serious civil disobedience if not some sort of non-violent revolution. I'm willing to give the Council of Canadians' initiative to bring progressive groups together to create an aggregated power base for progressives a chance,  but  some form of civil disobedience ought to remain on the table for debate in that effort. These are increasingly desperate times.

Foreign Aid Shifts Radically To Benefit Investors

Chris Hedges: Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All

Chris Hedges: Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig

We are well on our way to becoming Gazans under neoliberal rule as the 1%, the investor class and its corporate institutions, becomes more frightened of losing both their wealth and power. Look for subtle changes in military policy and increased presence domestically, especially in cities - a move Obama, for example, has been trying to authorize and one which, it would seem, the Harper Regime would approve given the G20 protests. The alibi will be either "domestic terrorism" or "security concerns" of some sort or other.

“Market forces and the military mechanisms that protect these forces are the sole ideology that governs industrial states and humans’ relationship to the natural world. It is an ideology that results in millions of dead and millions more displaced from their homes in the developing world. And the awful algebra of this ideology means that these forces will eventually be unleashed on us, too. Those who cannot be of use to market forces are considered expendable. They have no rights and legitimacy. Their existence, whether in Gaza or blighted postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., is considered a drain on efficiency and progress. They are viewed as refuse. And as refuse they not only have no voice and no freedom; they can be and are extinguished or imprisoned at will. This is a world where only corporate power and profit are sacred. It is a world of barbarism.”

Reporting on Israeli Assault on Gaza

Canadian Media reporting on the current conflict seems less than balanced - not that there really is such an animal - favouring an Israeli perspective on the matter and the damage being inflicted on Israeli civilians by Hamas' or Gaza militants' rockets. Little if any coverage of the damage suffered by civilians - many of them, because of demographics, children - by Israeli planes and bombs. To be charitable, the mainstream western press may not have the sort of access Harry Fear has to Gaza, but that would be to be charitable when cynicism seems much more appropriate. It would seem that the Israeli liberal press and Harry are our best sources of information, then, with intermittent internet and electricity in Gaza and Israeli boots on the ground coming - this latter an extremely risky proposition or colossal bluff that Egypt, Iran and Co. wont do something in retaliation. The UN seems increasingly disabled in such matters these days - not the least because of the failure of such western countries as Canada to respect it.

Why Bankers Rule the World: Your Continuing Debt is Their Business

It's the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World
A detailed reminder that debt fuels the economy and that, given the deep neoliberal muddy hole in which we dwell, it must continue on its neverending circular journey else the whole system will collapse: more debt, more interest, more debt, more interest. . . . 40% of GDP revenue is generated by interest - making money on money, not from real productive economic activity.
It's difficult to decide which sector to attack full tilt, the fossil fuel industry or the financial sector, since they're both destroying the world.

Youth Demographic Vital for 2015

118,296,5 502 votes. The 1/5 of the total vote for Obama coming from the youth demographic (18-29) - even if it might have been generated more by antipathy towards Romney than support for Obama - is encouraging. Let us hope a similiar dynamic emerges by 2015 here in Canada at the very least in terms of antipathy towards Harper. There are signs everywhere - such as Power Shift 2012 - but will it be enough to offset the suburban immigrant and rural voter demographics courted aggressively by the Harperites? Moot since first past the post and new seat distrbution favour the Harper Regime. A widespread coordinated effort is required.

America in 2012: Awe, Disgust, Sadness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q6DNm6rrYY&sns=em

Warning: this video compilation could make you ill. It might also make you weep uncontrollably. I'm serious - I had trouble getting through this I was so emotionally moved by a heady mixture of disgust and sadness. It's also - from various points of view - very frightening to know that there are so many people out there like this.  No more cross-border shopping without wearing a disguise, I guess. Suggestions?

Three depressing conversations I've had recently:

Three depressing conversations I've had recently:

1) With a entrepreneurial neighbour who's about to open a franchise restaurant. Unions are intolerable, crushing people's individualism and stifling business development, and the world's biggest problems is governance. How do "we" govern? He's got an MBA from a prestigious American university.

2) The real estate agent who sold me my house many years ago who's now making over $500,000 a year. She thinks that we should scrap the minimum wage and that people should not receive benefits from any level of government  After all she's never had any.

3) My local pharmacist who thinks we should scrap all welfare programs including unemployment insurance  to give people an incentive to work. Like the other two, she thinks people who "refuse" to work for slave wages are welfare bums. She's a well-educated hardworking landed immigrant.

Sorry, I didn't have the courage to ask any of them for whom they voted in the last federal or provincial election. But then perhaps I didn't have to.