Venezuela crackdown deemed worst in years

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)

National Guard troops beat dozens of opposition supporters inside a barracks for refusing to accept the government-certified electoral victory of Hugo Chavez's heir, a leading human rights lawyer charged Thursday in what he called Venezuela's worst political repression in six years.

Alfredo Romero said his group's lawyers also compiled evidence supporting opposition activists' claims that National Guard troops had used excessive force against protesters, including shooting some point-blank with plastic shotgun pellets.

As details of the crackdown emerged, Nicolas Maduro prepared to be sworn in as president and the speaker of the National Assembly again threatened to bar the opposition from its only remaining political platform, the legislature, unless it recognized Maduro's legitimacy.

Romero said the beatings occurred at National Guard barracks No. 47 in the western city of Barquisimeto after at least 300 protesters were arrested across Venezuela for backing opposition candidate Henrique Capriles' demand for a recount of all the votes cast Sunday.

Holiday!

Hi folks, thanks for reading this blog, I hope it informs you or at least makes you think.

I'm off on holiday for two weeks, so things will be a little quiet, I'll resume as soon as I get back.

If anything catches my eye, like it did this morning, I'll post before I go. See you in two weeks, have a good one!

Congress Quickly And Quietly Rolls Back Insider Trading Rules For Itself

In November of 2011, the TV show 60 Minutes did a big expose on insider trading within Congress.

While everyone else is subject to basic insider trading rules, it turned out that members of Congress were exempt from the rules.

And, as you would imagine, many in Congress have access to market-moving, non-public information. And they made use of it. To make lots and lots of money. Of course, after that report came out and got lots of attention, Congress had to act, and within months they had passed the STOCK Act with overwhelming support in Congress to make insider trading laws that apply to everyone else finally apply to Congress and Congressional staffers as well.

 The lopsided votes showed lawmakers desperate to regain public trust in an election year, when the public approval rating of Congress has sunk below 15 percent.

Of course, here we are in 2013 and, lo and behold, it is no longer an election year. And apparently some of the details of the ban on insider trading were beginning to chafe Congressional staffers, who found it hard to pad their income with some friendly trades on insider knowledge.

 So... with very little fanfare, Congress quietly rolled back a big part of the law late last week. Specifically the part that required staffers to post disclosures about their financial transactions, so that the public could make sure there was no insider trading going on. Congress tried to cover up this fairly significant change because they, themselves, claimed that it would pose a "national risk" to have this information public. A national risk to their bank accounts.

Economic Armageddon Is Imminent - Club Bilderberg

George Soros knows something dreadful is coming. The Rockefellers know something big and bad is about to happen. 
 

That something big is the imminent collapse of all fiat paper money currencies around the world. In their secret Bilderberg meetings, the globalists have positively planned the exact date of our financial demise. 

You can even bet the next “black whatever day” will coincide with an ironic date which will make the globalists chuckle at the planned inception of next false flag event.

First, we will soon begin to witness more controls placed on the amount of withdrawals which can be taken from ATMS and savings accounts in addition to what has already transpired. And we will witness more MF Global-type events in the coming weeks. Expect MERS mortgage fraud to increase as the globalists will undoubtedly attempt to steal as much as they can before they collapse the economies of the world.

The Federal Reserve will continue to buy distressed properties through printing money out of thin air at the rate of $40 billion per month.

However, the best predictor of the coming crash will coincide with the globalists cornering the majority of the gold market on this planet. After the globalists gain control of the gold, then we will witness a countdown to economic Armageddon in which all currencies will hyperinflate prior to collapsing. Then humanity will be at the mercy of people who have no sense of decency and respect for life.

The financial markets are witnessing a massive artificially contrived takedown of the prices of gold and silver to which the likes have not been seen. In the past week, financial markets have witnessed the largest 48-hour plunge in gold prices in over 30 years.


Silver prices have dropped dramatically this past Monday. Panic selling dominated the market as investors and financial institutions could not dump their holdings of silver and gold fast enough. The market clearly shows signs of mass manipulation by the globalists. The best proof that the globalists are manipulating the price of gold comes from “Goldman Sachs (who) reportedly told their clients earlier this month that they recommend initiating a short COMEX gold position.”

Why Would Goldman Sachs Dramatically Drive Down the Price of Gold?

Beside trading and bartering, if the dollar and the euro were to collapse tomorrow, what currency of exchange would the left standing? The obvious and simple answer would be primarily, gold, and secondarily, silver. Ask yourself this question, if you knew that paper monies all around the world were to collapse, what action would represent your best option? The obvious answer would be to dramatically drive down the price of gold and silver if one had the ability to do so, and then buy as much as gold as one possibly could. Goldman Sachs has the ability to do so by utilizing their ominous shorting strategy.

Make your own minds up!!

Thousands march in Athens protesting racist attacks in Greece (PHOTOS)

About 3,000 immigrants and human rights activists marched in Athens in an anti-racism rally, protesting the death of a 27-year-old Pakistani, who was stabbed in an alleged ‘racially-motivated’ attack earlier this week.

­Participants of the anti-racism rally marched in the city’s central Omonia square, with the demonstrators holding banners reading: “Neo-Nazis out” and “Punishment for the fascist murderers of Shehzad Luqman.”

Also in Greece

Greek police are hunting three strawberry plantation foremen, who are suspected of shooting nearly 30 workers, mostly Bangladeshi, after immigrants demanded wages they had not been paid for six months.

According to one of the immigrants, they were promised wages of 22 euros ($28.70) a day.
"They keep telling us that we will get paid in a month, and this has been going on for more than a year," Reuters quoted a man who refused to be identified.
 

Thatcher's funeral was a political broadcast

This wasn't simply a funeral. It was a political stunt; a taxpayer funded political broadcast; a triumphalist victory parade.

Along with her friends, loved ones and Britain's political elite, some of the most repellent figures on Earth had generously turned up to pay their respects. One was Henry Kissinger.

 Contrast all this pomp to Clement Attlee: Churchill's deputy prime minister when the country was at war with Hitler, whose party won a higher share of a vote than anything ever achieved by Thatcher's Tories, whose government rebuilt war-ravaged Britain and founded the NHS and welfare state.

His was a modest funeral, attended by 140 guests, which “epitomised Attlee's love of simplicity and directness,” as newspapers put it at the time.

Harold Wilson led Labour to four election victories, and was quietly buried in a Sussex churchyard.

But today, Britain's Age of Austerity was suspended for a day – to remind us which side won.

Margaret Thatcher dies: Reaction in quotes

BARACK OBAMA, US PRESIDENT
 

The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer's daughter who rose to become Britain's first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can't be shattered. As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best. And as an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom's promise.

and more ... 

Margaret Thatcher dies: World media reaction

Former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke.

The following is a selection of views from Monday and Tuesday's world press on her legacy

...

26 Major Corporations Paid No Corporate Income Tax For The Last Four Years, Despite Making Billions In Profits

Last year, Citizens for Tax Justice found that 30 major corporations had made billions of dollars in profits while paying no federal income tax between 2008 and 2010. 

 
Today, CTJ updated that report to reflect the 2011 tax bill of those 30 companies, and 26 of them have still managed to pay absolutely nothing over that four year period: – 26 of the 30 companies continued to enjoy negative federal income tax rates. 

Amongst the 30 are corporate titans such as General Electric, Boeing, Verizon, and Mattel. The only four companies that slipped into positive tax territory were DTE Energy, Honeywell, Wells Fargo, and DuPont, with DuPont the only one that paid more than 4 percent over the four years.

Corporate taxes in the U.S., contrary to the constant protestations of conservatives, are at a 40 year low, with many of the most profitable companies paying nothing at all.

CTJ noted that “had these 30 companies paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate over the 2008-11 period, they would have paid $78.3 billion more in federal income taxes.” And this is not a problem that only afflicts the U.S., as the UK found out last week that online retailer Amazon made billions in sales in 2011, while paying nothing in corporate taxes.

GOLD COLLAPSING WORLDWIDE! THE ILLUMINATI TRICK

World Stock Markets are also falling. Where is your Money

Nestlé chairman says water is not a human right

In a candid interview for the documentary We Feed the World, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck makes the astonishing claim that water isn’t a human right.




He attacks the idea that nature is good, and says it is a great achievement that humans are now able to resist nature’s dominance. He attacks organic agriculture and says genetic modification is better. 

Nestlé is the world’s biggest bottler of water. 

Brabeck claims – correctly – that water is the most important raw material in the world. However he then goes on to say that privatisation is the best way to ensure fair distribution.

He claims that the idea that water is a human right comes from “extremist” NGOs. 

Water is a foodstuff like any other, and should have a market value. He believes that the ultimate social responsibility of any Chairman is to make as much profit as possible, so that people will have jobs. 

And just to underline what a lovely man he is, he also thinks we should all be working longer and harder.

John Brennan’s Astonished Reaction To Bachmann’s Question Is Priceless (VIDEO)

Somebody please tell me why the hell Michele Bachmann is on the House Intelligence Committee?



I mean, besides creating a textbook oxymoron. This committee deals with important state secrets, with the CIA and other government spooks. It’s not a place for someone of little brain.

John Brennan looked perplexed for a few seconds, then replied: “Armed drone strikes in Libya? I am unknowing of such and would defer to the White House to address your question… the White House doesn’t have a drone capability, responsibility… I don’t know what it is specifically you’re referring to.”

She then goes on to ask about a “water reactor” Iran supposedly has, querying “what’s the status” of that legendary item. The CIA men look at each other, seemingly confused and reply that is another topic for a closed session.

Seriously, do they purposely pick people without brains for these positions?

Their faces are a picture!!

President Obama, One Corporate Puppet Among Many

He's not the one running the show, but rather, his strings are being pulled by Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers like Pete Peterson, who is most of the wallet behind the corporate-funded "Fix the Debt" sham campaign. 

Even one of Fix the Debt's key spokesmen admitted that their goal was to create an "artificial crisis" that would justify gutting Social Security. 

Jack Lew, Obama's Treasury secretary, is leading the administration's doublespeak on austerity. In Europe, he's told political leaders to lighten up on austerity measures. But in America, Lew is telling Congress to endorse President Obama's proposals to cut earned benefits for vulnerable Americans who need them to survive, even though Social Security doesn't contribute to the deficit.

Lew is also a pawn of the corporate and financial string-pullers, coming from Citigroup before his years in the Clinton administration's division of budget. He was even guaranteed a bonus by Citigroup if he was able to secure a "high-level" federal job. 

The corporations running our government want our public resources, too. The White House is currently mulling a proposal to sell off the Tennessee Valley Authority, which FDR's New Deal established as the nation's largest publicly-owned power company.

Privatization of public resources is one of the key austerity measures being forced by the European Union right now, particularly in scorched-earth economies like Greece and Spain. 

Privatization of public resources, the selling off of a public good for corporate profit, means that the people who depended on that service are usually subject to frequent price gouging, while under the thumb of an unaccountable private corporation.

Lawyers Warn Hunger-Striking Gitmo Prisoners Could Soon Die

Lawyers representing hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay are warning some prisoners could soon die in the two-month-long protest, which they say includes the vast majority of Guantánamo’s 166 prisoners.


Some prisoners have reportedly lost dramatic amounts of weight, while authorities have attempted to break the strike with force-feeding and isolation. 

Meanwhile, at least one set of pretrial hearings at the Guantánamo war crimes court has been delayed after defense legal documents disappeared from Pentagon computers. The prosecution gained access to about 540,000 emails from Guantánamo defense teams.

UK Uncut: drums, duvets and an eviction notice as hundreds protest outside Lord Freud's London home

Hundreds of anti-cuts activists gathered outside the home of Baron David Freud, minister for welfare reform, to protest against the bedroom tax and benefits cap.

 People played drums and wrote out postcards to send to Lord Freud as they sat outside his semi-detached house, said to be worth £1.9 million, in Highgate, North London.

Protesters sat in the street on beds and duvets and some held up signs reading: "Who wants to evict a millionaire?"

Author and commentator Owen Jones and Green party leader Natalie Bennett came to show their support for the protest, organised by UK Uncut. Mr Jones said: "Lord Freud is an unelected politician from one of the most privileged backgrounds imaginable. 

He had no background whatsoever in social security and welfare state, and yet he's one of the figureheads of this Government's offensives against welfare state and social security.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (who called for a $22/hr minum wage) pays interns $0 per hour

If one is going to grandstand and pontificate about the failures of the current minimum wage, and how $22/hour is the only fair rate of pay for unskilled workers, perhaps it would make sense to pay one’s interns such a wage. Or how about even a wage.

If this going to be a signature issue for Ms. Warren, if she is going to paint herself as some sort of moral crusader she should at the very minimum pay her interns the current minimum wage. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t pay them anything.

I don’t blame Ms. Warren for hiring people who will work for her for free, but she’s advocating a policy which would decimate hundreds of thousands of small businesses (not to say completely wreck the Main Street economy.)

So long as she advocates for this kind of silliness, she at a minimum should walk the walk. Really what kind of person wouldn’t?

Come on, don't let us down!!

InsideClimate News Reporter Threatened With Arrest at Ark. Oil Spill Site

ExxonMobil said Lisa Song would be charged with criminal trespass if she didn’t leave the command center where federal authorities are working.

Thousands of barrels of oil from Alberta's tar sands region—similar to the diluted bitumen that would flow through the controversial Keystone XL project—spilled into a residential neighborhood from a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil, forcing the evacuation of 22 homes.

Those families are now being housed in hotels at Exxon's expense. Song had tried to enter the command compound on Tuesday, but was turned away by a security guard.

“American Dream”: Food loaded into Dumpsters while Hundreds of Hungry Americans Restrained by Police

Hundreds of poor people waiting outside of a closed grocery store for the possibility of getting the remaining food is not the picture of the “American Dream.” Yet on March 23, outside the Laney Walker Supermarket in Augusta, Ga., that is exactly what happened.

Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. 

But a local church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the property holder, SunTrust Bank.

The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely high.”

“People got children out here that are hungry, thirsty,” local resident Robertstine Lambert told Fox54 in Augusta. “Why throw it away when you could be issuing it out?

Right To Work

Right to Work is a national campaign to stop the cuts, defend public services and the welfare state and fight for every job. 

What is role of the Right to Work Campaign? We are a national campaign and for the last couple of years we’ve been the people in the room arguing for a combination of strikes, direct action and occupations as a means of defending public services, the welfare state, stopping the cuts and fighting job losses.

We’ve said time and time again it’s not our crisis and we won’t pay for it.

To that aim we seek to unite those in and out of work, students, pensioners and all those reliant on the NHS and public services in this ‘age of austerity.’

Boycott Workfare

Boycott Workfare is a UK-wide campaign to end forced unpaid work for people who receive welfare. 

 
Workfare profits the rich by providing free labour, whilst threatening the poor by taking away welfare rights if people refuse to work without a living wage. 

We are a grassroots campaign, formed in 2010 by people with experience of workfare and those concerned about its impact.

We expose and take action against companies and organisations profiting from workfare; encourage organisations to pledge to boycott it; and actively inform people of their rights. Know your rights on workfare schemes!

Aerial Footage of AR Oil Spill Details What They Don’t Want You to Know About Keystone

On March 29th, Exxon Mobile’s Pegasus  pipeline burst in Mayflower, Arkansas, flooding a residential neighborhood with thousands of barrels of heavy crude oil.  

 Many reports suggest the media is being kept away from the site. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is opening an investigation into the spill, which he says has “damaged private property and Arkansas’s natural resources”.



Sign petition here!! 

Officials 'can't account for' $700 million in Katrina aid

A new report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development paints a grim picture of a program that was supposed to help Louisiana's Katrina victims protect their homes from future storms - to the tune of $700 million in misplaced taxpayer money.

 The relief program, which disbursed grants of up to $30,000 to more than 24,000 homeowners, was supposed to be used to elevate homes and protect property in areas vulnerable to storm surges.

Instead, as the report by Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) David Montoya now shows, of the $1 billion earmarked for home improvements, homeowners seem to have spent a striking majority - at least $700 million - on anything but.

1 Million Pounds of Food on 3 acres

The co-founder of this initiative is called Will Allen and stated a company called “Growing Power”



Growing Power began with a farmer, a plot of land, and a core group of dedicated young people. Today, our love of the land and our dedication to sharing knowledge is changing lives.

Will Allen, Chief Executive Officer believes, “If people can grow safe, healthy, affordable food, if they have access to land and clean water, this is transformative on every level in a community. I believe we cannot have healthy communities without a healthy food system.”

Their goal is a simple one: to grow food, to grow minds, and to grow community.
So how do they do it?

Continue Reading The Article here

Exxon’s Duck-Killing Pipeline Won’t Pay Taxes To Oil Spill Cleanup Fund

A technicality has spared Exxon from having to pay any money into the fund that will be covering most of the clean up costs of its Arkansas pipeline spill.

A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. 

Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.

Our Welfare Works

Open many newspapers or listen to some politicians speak and you’d think that the only people who received benefits were cheating the system or living a luxury lifestyle. This just isn’t the reality – so this site sets out a few home truths.

Bedroom Tax Protests Take Place Around The UK (PICTURES)

Thousands of people around the country have protested against the so-called "bedroom tax", which will cut the benefit of social housing tenants with a spare room.
 



Campaigners, who have gathered in more than 50 towns, said the move targets the most vulnerable in society, including carers and the disabled.

Bedroom Tax Protest London 30-03-2013 Photo slideshow