Economics and the Present

 

The U.S. still is dealing with the Syrian civil war. Some of the extremists and the neo cons want a Western military intervention in Syria. This comes after the reported chemical attack that recently occurred in Syria. The White House has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to urgently probe the unsubstantiated claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on civilians outside of Damascus this week. Within hours of the alleged attack, France called for a reaction with force. Many American politicians led by Senator John McCain demanded an immediate attack on Syria. “It is long past time for the United States and our friends and allies to respond to Assad’s continuing mass atrocities in Syria with decisive actions, including limited military strikes to degrade Assad’s air power and ballistic missile capabilities,” said McCain, who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The President is walking on a tight rope between the extremists that want an assault and others who do not want a militaristic response. So, the White House seems to try to gain a consensus for possible military strikes before such an action is enacted. “If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work,” he said. “Sometimes what we’ve seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping into stuff, that does not turn out well,” he said in response to McCain and the neocons in Congress pushing for immediate military action. “We have to think through strategically what’s going to be in our long-term national interests, even as we work cooperatively internationally to do everything we can to put pressure on those who would kill innocent civilians.” This was an earlier disputed chemical attacks in Syria. Afterwards, President Barack Obama signed off on arms shipments to the CIA backed mercenaries in the country. This latest supposed attack has been characterized as a false flag provocation by Russia. This could increase the escalation of the civil war via proxies like the disorganized Free Syrian Army, the ruthless Nusra Front and Iraqi affiliates of Al-Qaeda. Secretary of State John Kerry met with many factions that desire to undermine the Al-Assad government (like top officials in the European Union, the United Nations, in Jordan, in Qatar, in Turkey, etc.). Secretary of State John Kerry has also met with the French Foreign Minister Lurent Fabius and Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Assi Jarba. Ahmad Jarba replaced Maoz al-Khatib as president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, has close ties with the government of Saudi Arabia. The timing of the chemical attack and the probability of a Western military response following a cursory investigation and a rubber stamped United Nations imprimatur for an attack on Syria could not have arrived at a more opportune time.  “The situation in Syria is now desperate,” declared Jarba during a meeting with Kerry prior to the supposed chemical attack. Objective observers admit that the CIA’s proxies, despite their radical Sunni extremism and numerous massacres – in Jisr Al-Shugur, in the Alawi village of Hatla in Deir Al-Zor, the disputed attack in the town of Taldou (known as the Houla massacre), and the horrific massacre at Tal Abyad (450 Kurd civilians, including more than 120 children, murdered by the Turkish supported al-Nusra Front) – are losing the terror war against al-Assad and his highly disciplined military. Hundreds have been killed by the alleged chemical attack. Any innocent life that has died in that attack ought to be sympathized with. Now, we see that UN inspectors arrive in the city of Damascus to investigate allegations of the use of toxic arms. Initially, Al-Arabiya posted news of 280 victims on Twitter. Later, the news outlet upgraded the figure up to 1,188 victims quoting the Free Syrian Army. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had a much lower figure, claiming dozens of people were killed, including children. The new agencies like Reuters and AP mostly put the numbers of victims at hundreds, but say that reports can't be independently verified. So, it is wrong to see innocent human life die in Syria regardless of who is responsible for this recent chemical attack incident. Yet, this doesn't mean that Syria should be a pro-Western puppet regime controlled by CIA-funded rebels.

 

 

Inside of Detroit, the government still chooses the big banks over the American people once again. Ellen Brown have made mentioned of this reality as well. She writes about the derivative financial scheme acting like a risky casino. Congress has been manipulated by the masterminds of Wall Street to preserve it or derivatives at all costs. The government was wrong to excessively bailout out Wall Street mega banks, but the government refuses to bailout out Detroit in a hypocritical fashion. Detroit is filling for bankruptcy, because of deindustrialization and numerous other reasons. Detroit reached its first settlement with creditors. The settlement was with UBS and Bank of America, and though the precise terms will not be nailed down until the bankruptcy judge weighs in. So, Detroit is set to pay an estimated $250 million to terminate a soured derivatives transaction from 2005. The banks’ 25 percent hit is nothing compared with the city’s suggested 90 percent cut to the pensions’ unfunded liability  —  which will result in benefit cuts that would be disastrous in both human and political terms and that the State of Michigan must prevent from happening. There are still activists in Detroit trying to protect pensions, trying to protect municipalities from Wall Street, and trying to revoke the obscene privileges of banks that allow them to prosper on the failings of others. Numerous top independent economists and financial experts believe that we have to break up the big banks as a means to save the economy. Ellen Brown, Richard C. Cook, Stephen Zarlenga, Bill Still, and other economic populists want unique solutions to solve our economic ills. The government should not throw trillions at the big banks to artificially make them appear profitable. We have to choose to favor the interests of Main Street. The central banks’ central bank – the Bank for International Settlements- warned in 2008 that bailouts of the big banks would create sovereign debt crises, which could bankrupt nations. This is what is happening. Much of the bailout money has been used to subsidize the bonuses of corporations. A large percentage of the bailouts have gone into foreign banks. A huge portion of the money from quantitative easing came into foreign banks as well. The FED bailed out Gaddafi's Bank of Libya, hedge fund billionaires, and big companies, but not much of the common people in the States. We have a merge of state and corporate power. Economist Dean Baker says that the real purpose of bank rescue plans was “A massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives." The new threat of a stop and frisk program is being developed in Detroit. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is directing its establishment. According to the Detroit News, Orr has authorized the Detroit Police Department (DPD) to hire consultants from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a right-wing think tank, and the Bratton Group, the law enforcement consulting firm, both based in New York, to reorganize the Detroit police and implement stop-and-frisk. The slashing of public services and the savaging of retired workers' conditions has harmed Detroit. The same program (of stop and frisk like policies) is being used in numerous cities across the country, based on the reactionary Terry v. Ohio ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1968 allowing wide latitude for the stopping and patting down of individuals on the basis of police “suspicion.” So, we have fights in our time and we will continue to fight for racial justice, economic justice, and for human rights indeed.


 

 

 

Folks know all about the Federal Reserve. Human beings from across the political spectrum have exposed the errors from the Federal Reserve. I would continue to clarify that I oppose the Federal Reserve completely and I want alternatives to occur as a means to grow our economy systems in the world. We know that the Federal Reserve has been involved in many controversial actions since its inception. It is no secret that corporate interests and the Pilgrim Society (with folks like Paul Warburg, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Henry P. Davidson, Benjamin Strong, and Franklin Vanderlip) influenced the development of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Act formed the modern Federal Reserve in December of 1913. The FED is the modern central banking system in the United States. It can handle interest rates, certain prices, and other functions of the economy. It is made up of the Board of Governors, the Federal Open Market Committee, 12 regional Federal Reserve Bank, etc. found in various cities of America. It acts as a central banking entity. According to the Board of Governors, the Federal Reserve System "...is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms..." This is from the horse’s mouth. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1928: "...Instrumentalities like the national banks or the Federal Reserve banks, in which there are private interests, are not departments of the government. They are private corporations in which the government has an interest..." So, the Federal Reserve readily serve the interests of private interests and not the people totally, especially the poor.  The long-time Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee (Charles McFadden) said on June 10, 1932: "...Some people think that the Federal Reserve Banks are United States Government institutions. They are private monopolies …." The Fed itself admitted (via Bloomberg): "...While the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is a federal agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act and other government rules, the New York Fed and other regional banks maintain they are separate institutions, owned by their member banks, and not subject to federal restrictions..." For that reason, the New York Fed alleged in the lawsuit brought by Bloomberg to force the Fed to reveal some information about its loans – Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) – that it was not subject to Federal Freedom of Information Act. That is why the senior counsel of the Federal Reserve admitted in a court hearing in the Bloomberg lawsuit that the FED banks are independent corporations and not agencies. So, select private interests control the FED. Even the Bank of International Settlements or the BIS is owned by 55 central banks. Private Banks own the FED and other central banks own the BIS. The FED having excess reserves and the fractional banking system are some of the many errors of the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has even bailed out foreign banks, which is immoral and disgraceful to say the least when we still have record poverty in the world. The Federal Reserve has shown policies as a means to benefit the corporate not the interest of the rest of the people. A 2010 Fed audit also revealed that of the $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities the central bank purchased after the housing bubble popped, some $442.7 billion -  more than 35% – were bought from foreign banks. If central banks have cause huge errors and Wall Street still have record profits, then what are the alternatives? There are many. There is the cooperative commonwealth movement that can decentralize power more to the communities of America. Some have advanced state banks or decentralize banks (sending debt free money to the populace. Debt free money is one alternative to fractional banking) that can give great credit to the communities of American society more directly. The state bank of North Dakota has been highly successful in the world. There are the actions of a guaranteed annual income and other anti-poverty measures that can help humanity too. Some want Congress and the people (not the Federal Reserve) to have a more direct role in the economic system of America.

 

 

There is a leaked document that revealed that the government paid millions of dollars to PRISM participants. As recent as in June, nine U.S. tech companies denied their involvement and or participation in the National Security Agency's data mining program known as PRISM. Teach Crunch reported that Facebook, Apple, Google, Dropbox, Mircosoft, Paltalk, AOL, and Yahoo have all “categorically denied” their participation in the tyrannical NSA program. A new RT report documents how documents were leaked to the Guardian newspaper (that showed that not only did some of the tech companies participate, but they were paid millions to do so). On Friday, the Guardian published  “new documentation attributed to former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in which it’s suggested that the US National Security Agency spent millions of dollars making sure the biggest names on the Internet were kept compliant with an international surveillance program disclosed by the leaker earlier this year,” reported RT. The exposed material suggests the NSA spent millions “ensuring Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook were able to share information sent over the Web with the federal government.” When Facebook was questioned regarding their involvement in PRISM in June, they gave the following response: “We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.” Other tech giants have issued great denials of the situation as well. The White House later confirmed that U.S. intelligence agencies did in fact have “access to data held by Facebook, Google, Apple and other web giants for nearly six years in a bid to ward off threats to national security,” reported The Week. The Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill said, “The material provides the first evidence of a financial relationship between the tech companies and the NSA.” We know that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled that the program's domestic data mining action was unconstitutional and a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment. Still, a NSA newsletter admitted that it spent millions to keep tech companies cooperating. Special Source Operations is an unit of the NSA. It handles surveillance programs like PRISM (which allowed telecommunication companies and Internet providers sign on to corporate partnerships with Uncle Sam). Yahoo at first denied PRISM involvement. Yahoo said the following: "...Yahoo! takes users’ privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.” In regards to the latest disclosure, Yahoo told the Guardian the following: "...Federal law requires the US government to reimburse providers for costs incurred to respond to compulsory legal process imposed by the government. We have requested reimbursement consistent with this law.”  In June Google defended themselves and their stance on privacy through the following statement: “Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a backdoor for the government to access private user data.” Now the tech company says, “We await the US government’s response to our petition to publish more national security request data, which will show that our compliance with American national security laws falls far short of the wild claims still being made in the press today.” Google went from denial to downplaying their relationship with the NSA spy program. Verizon Wireless has been another corporate entity that deals with the NSA. Verizon announced their willingness to “give the federal government unfettered access to its customers’ phone records,” in exchange for a 10-year $10 billion contract,” reported the New American. Verizon is just one of ten companies that are expected to participate. The government domestic spy program is very extensive.  

 

50 Years after the 1963 March on Washington represents the past, present, and future of the human rights movement. The March came about in opposition to the evil of Jim Crow segregation and economic oppression. Human beings had the right to make their grievances known in the world. Folks were tired of seeing scenes of police attack Black children with German shepherds and innocent human beings experiencing high pressure fire hoses in Birmingham, Alabama. Some of the gains of the civil rights movement have been eroded like the harm done to the Voting Rights Act and voting ID laws. The George Zimmerman verdict all but refuted the lie that we are living in a post racial society. We have current fights against stop and frisk, racial profiling, police brutality, the prison industrial complex, and the relentless including evil austerity agenda.  The new March on Washington is interesting, yet some liberal establishment groups (with folks like Al Sharpton including his Nation Action Network, the NAACP, and others) refuse to criticize some of the wrong policies from the White House (or even mention the 2 words of white supremacy as the current White House is being used as a means to export a neoliberal agenda). The good news is that legitimate activists now are going to Washington, D.C. as a means to express their legitimate grievances. Constance Malcolm is one of them. She's the mother of Ramarley Graham, the unarmed 18-year-old who was shot and killed by New York City police in his home. Since her son's murder, Constance and her family have fought for justice for their son, along with the families of other victims of police violence. Last week, a grand jury refused to re-indict the police officer who killed Ramarley. So, the reality is that we can never have social equality fully without economic justice. We need a national plan to create jobs for all Americans. We need a national minimum wage that can give all Americans a decent standard of living. As Dr. Martin Luther King said in August 25, 1963 on NBC's Meet the Press: "...I think that we must face the fact that, in reality, you cannot have economic and political equality without having some form of social equality. I think this is inevitable, and I don't think our society will rise to its full maturity until we come to see that men are made to live together as brothers and that we can have genuine inter-group, inter-personal living and still be in the kind of society which we all long to achieve..." So, we have to oppose a profit system that criminalizes young black life and harms the working people. We know about Bill Clinton ending welfare as we know it, ending Glass Steagall, and bombing areas across the world. While many of the Republicans openly declare their contempt for blacks, immigrants and the unions, some of the Democrats say they’re your friends and end up doing the same thing in more slick forms. In Where Do We Go From Here?, King wrote, "There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer." In March of 1968, he said words to sanitation workers the following which I agree with wholeheartedly 100%: "...It said another thing which ultimately distinguishes our form of government from other totalitarian regimes. It said that every person has certain basic rights that are neither derived from nor conferred by the state. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given. America hasn't lived up to this. She gave the black man a bad check that's been bouncing all around. We are going to demand our check, to say to this nation, "We know that that check shouldn't have bounced because you have the resources in the federal treasury." We are going to also say, "You are even unjustly spending five hundred thousand dollars to kill a single Vietcong soldier, while you spend only fifty-three dollars a year per person for everybody categorized as poverty-stricken." Instead of spending thirty-five billion dollars every year to fight an unjust, ill-considered war in Vietnam and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, we need to put God's children on their own two feet..." So, we are fighting for equality in all of its dimensions. We still need fundamental structural change to assist all of the human race as a means for all of us to reach our true highest potential.

 

By Timothy