February 2012
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Occupy London protesters accuse St Paul's of... →
St Paul’s Cathedral has been accused of “betraying” Occupy London activists after giving the City of London police permission to remove protesters from its steps and end the four-and-a-half month camp.
The cathedral’s decision, coupled with a previous high court decision obtained by the City of London, meant police successfully removed the entire Occupy London Stock Exchange camp from the...
Hey, tumblr. You noticed I was using a "browser...
And the day before and the day before.
How long u gonna do dis?
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TransCanada to Build Texas Segment of Keystone XL... →
imall4frogs:
TransCanada Corp. will proceed with building a $2.3 billion segment of its Keystone XL oil pipeline from Oklahoma to the Texas coast so that it isn’t delayed by U.S. approval for the rest of the line.
The company, based in Calgary, expects the segment to begin carrying crude from the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast as soon as mid-year 2013,...
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“…the Romers’ elasticity estimate is lower than earlier empirical estimates...”
– How Much Do Taxes Matter? | The Baseline Scenario
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Syria referendum called "a sham" | GlobalPost →
I think we all knew this, but here you go:
Although the two men are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, both Haidar and Omar agree on one thing: the referendum held Sunday on a new constitution was a sham.
One of the many flaws: people were allowed to vote multiple times — one of many flaws in the key plank of President Bashar al-Assad’s promised reforms.
“The opposition may have...
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circlingtheroundabout:
Bill McKibben: Why Not Frack? | New York Review of Books
What is the effect of this surge of gas on national and global efforts to cope with climate change? Though New York and other states will make their decisions on drilling largely on the basis of local effects, this may be the most important question of all, since the implications will extend far beyond the borders...
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“In every country in the world citizens demand improvement in living standards....”
– Bahrain: Where Trying to Solve a Political Conflict Only Creates More Conflict (and Perhaps Saudi Bahrainia)
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Monsanto Wins Lawsuit While Food Justice Advocates... →
On a day that ‘Occupy’ groups, environmental and food justice organizations have called for a global day of action to resist corporate control of the food system, news comes that a federal judge has ruled in favor of seed giant Monsanto Co. in a lawsuit filed on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations challenging the company’s seed patents. [++]
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Wall Street Fixer Rodge Cohen – Big Banks Key to... →
Sometimes finance executives let slip the way they really feel: that they hold the world in the palm of their hands.
It’s not often that the people in charge admit what is really going on: a global game for political dominance. I just saw an interview with Wall Street superlawyer Rodgin (“Rodge”) Cohen of Sullivan & Cromwell, the secret force behind (among other things) the expanded ...
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“Friends of Syria”: The View from Syria | Al... →
Ghaida Awdat saw the conference as setting the stage for eventual foreign military intervention in Syria. She said the gathering would essentially provide the rationale for such intervention, which different countries could later decide how to act on, whether individually or multilaterally.
“The absence of Russia and China doesn’t matter…If the other countries decide to use the conference for...
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“Until the ranks of the GOP primary field were thinned dramatically, Rick...”
– Rick Santorum’s phony theology | Paul Rosenberg
The ninth commandment is the one about not bearing false witness against your neighbor. (don’t lie about people).
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What is really happening in Iran? | Pepe Escobar →
[WHAT’S] really juicy, in terms of Iran’s internal dynamic, is the fact that the cream of the IRGC [iranian revolutionary guard corp.] is engaged in a sort of economic war against the bazaaris - the traditionally very conservative Persian merchants.
It’s crucial to remember that these bazaaris financed the so-called “Path of the Imam” Islamic Revolution. They were - and remain - radically...
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A Marxist History of the World part 64: What is... →
[…] By the early 20th century, the development of world capitalism had become highly contradictory. On the one hand, there was globalisation: rapid economic growth, the dominance of giant firms, a restless search for new markets, ever-expanding international trade. On the other, there was economic nationalism, as industrial cartels, banking syndicates, and military states fused into...
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Juan Cole: Five Things Rick Santorum Could have... →
5. Santorum: “I’m for income inequality.” College could have taught him that too much income inequality has negative effects on a country, as is held by Fed chief Ben Bernanke, who has a college degree in … economics. In nations with high levels of inequality, periods of economic expansion are shortened to a third as long. And, persistent inequality that is felt to be unfair contributes...
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Mother Jones obtains Syrian government hit list... →
producermatthew:
From Mother Jones:
A 718-page digital document obtained by Mother Jones contains names, phone numbers, neighborhoods, and alleged activities of thousands of dissidents apparently targeted by the Syrian government. Three experts asked separately by Mother Jones to examine the document—essentially a massive spreadsheet, whose contents are in Arabic—say they believe that it is...
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Scott Walker's Koch Connection Goes Bad | John... →
[Americans for Prosperity] and its foundation could not campaign openly for [WI governor, Scott] Walker or other candidates, as they are tax exempt organizations operating under laws that protect civic and educational charities.
So it was incredible when David Koch admitted in an interview with the Palm Beach Post that he planned to support Walker with spending by AFP. “We’re helping him, as...
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Overwhelmed by Opposition, Wisconsin's Walker... →
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Morality, Not Markets, Is The Heart of Healthcare →
Deregulation to make market work ‘better’ in healthcare, and to ‘empower’ consumers in the market, really only **serves one purpose: to strengthen the position of those market participants with the most power and information, the insurers. **
When politicians talk about applying free market principles to our healthcare system, therefore, what they are really trying to do is further empower the...
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Stop the NDAA! →
Support Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, and Birgitta Jonsdottir in suing the United States Government to stop the implementation of the NDAA - It’s set to take effect on March 1, 2012 and we want to sign up as many grassroots supporters as possible before then.
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Syria says new constitution approved | Al Jazeera... →
Syrian state television has announced that 89.4 per cent of voters said “yes” to new constitution in a controversial referendum.
Syrian TV said on Monday that 57.4 per cent of eligible voters voted the day earlier and that only nine per cent said “no” to the referendum that President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents and Western nations have dismissed as a sham.
...
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Caught in the crossfire: Should musicians boycott... →
[The] occupation, the wall and the settlements must go. As horrible as the Arab extremists have been, it does not justify this. I support the people of Palestine in their fight to be free, and the many brave Israelis who are totally fed up with their government’s human rights violations and who want to live in peace.
I will not perform in Israel unless it is a pro-human rights, anti-occupation...
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The Star Wars Saga: Suggested Viewing Order →
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Anonymous-Wikileaks Stratfor Leak: Stratfor’s... →
The Microsoft Word doc is titled “The Stratfor Glossary of Useful, Baffling and Strange Intelligence Terms.” The author–not identified in the file’s metadata–succinctly introduces the list of terms and definitions: “Every profession and industry has its own vocabulary. Using baseball terms to explain a football game is tough. These are some of the terms we use.”
The following is just a...
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“The first batch of released emails contains only 167, and the rest some 5...”
– #WikiLeaks publishes millions of Hacked Stratfor E-mails #gifiles | The Hacker News (THN)
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The causes of the protests in Afghanistan | Glenn... →
Whatever. They hate us for our freedom:
The U.S. has violently occupied their country for more than a decade. It has, as Gen. Stanley McChrystal himself explained, killed what he called an “amazing number” of innocent Afghans in checkpoint shootings. It has repeatedly — as in, over and over — killed young Afghan children in air strikes. It continues to imprison their citizens for years at Bagram...
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Karl Rove in the Statfor Emails →
No idea what this is about, but here’s Karl Rove:
You guys need a life. Or dinner on my deck when temp goes down 10 or 20 degrees. And you both hang out with women who are way beyond your low stations in life. As do I. K
From: Karl Rove [mailto:kr@rove.com] Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 07:43 PM To: George Friedman Cc: Kerry Cammack Subject: Re: Ambassador Djalal
I’ve...
Goldman Sachs secrets are about to [be] revealed...
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White House Helped Pay For NYPD Surveillance Of... →
fuckyeahmarxismleninism:
The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The...
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US Intelligence Community: Iran Is Not Actively... →
And now, my 21,847,019,823th post saying exactly the same thing about Iran:
[To] the extent that the federal government has [any] role to play in lowering gas prices, one of the biggest things they can do is stop making the world believe that Iran faces an imminent attack on their nuclear facilities that will potentially inflame the entire Middle East and threaten the security of oil shipments....
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“At this time, many young Iranians all over this world are watching us, and I...”
– Iranian film director ASGHAR FARHADI, on accepting his Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, A Separation (via inothernews)
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Update: US bank Wachovia laundered $70b for...
occupyallstreets:
http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1115826_re-us-bank-dirty-money-.html
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Being Accurate on the Dovish Side
From Tom Engelhardt:
Here’s how, in his classic Vietnam War history, The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam summed up Washington life via the career of Dean Rusk, the hawkish Secretary of State under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson: “If you are wrong on the hawkish side of an event you are all right; if you are accurate on the dovish side you are in trouble.”
Wouldn’t it...
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Qatar, Al Jazeera, and the Age of Virtual Power |... →
Qatar’s role in shaping the new Middle East presents a challenge to classical geopolitical theories and traditional interpretations of international politics.Qatar’s influence comes essentially from two interrelated components. The first is the financial capability it gains from its oil and natural gas exports, which have made per capita income in Qatar the highest in the world (around...
Oscar Guy: Who are you wearing?
Zach Galifianakis: Geranimals.
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Google Workaround Found By Chinese Critical of... →
anonymissexpress:
By Christina DesMarais, Feb 26, 2012
Internet censorship is infamous in China, but average citizens have apparently found a workaround and posted hundreds of comments on President Barack Obama’s Google+ 2012 election campaign page.
The message: Governments can put up all the roadblocks they want to keep their people from communicating freely, but crafty technology buffs ...
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Communism and anarchism | false dichotomy by... →
One of the key differences between anarchist and state communist thinkers is the dogma: the former, like [Peter] Kropotkin, though willing to lay out a general outline of what they think must be done, aren’t willing to dictate a One True Way to anarcho-topia, whereas your Lenins and Trotskys would argue that there must be a revolutionary party that must seize the existing institutions of state...
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President Obama About as Responsible for the Price... →
Sometimes called the “food of the gods,” chocolate comes from the “beans” – actually the seeds - of the cocoa pod. West African countries Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire produce about 70 percent of the world’s cocoa. However when you bite into a bar of chocolate, you can’t tell the origin of the cocoa beans that produced it. All you think about is how sweet, delicious and flavorful the chocolate is. In...
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ECB President Draghi Declares War on Europe’s... →
[Mario] Draghi’s drunk-on-austerity-Kool-Aid message was a perfect fit for the Wall Street Journal. While he wasn’t as colorful as Andrew Mellon’s famous “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” Draghi is still a true heir in believing that his prescription, per Melllon, will result in “High costs of living and high living will come down.” The “high...