(Fred Weir, CS Monitor, August 31, 2010 )
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Defying a warning from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that anybody trying to stage unsanctioned political rally would be “beaten on the head” by police, hundreds of mainly youthful protesters showed up Tuesday night at Moscow’s fenced-off and police-barricaded Triumph Square to demand that Russian authorities honor their constitutional right of free assembly. . . . “If you get [permission], then go out and demonstrate,” Mr. Putin said in a newspaper interview Monday. “If not, you do not have the right. If you go out without having the right – you are going to get beaten with a club. It’s as simple as that.” . . . » Continue reading “Does Putin = Stalin? … No freedom in Russia”

(Ellen Cantarow, Tomdispatch.com, July 18, 2010)
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Think of oil civilization in its late stages as a form of global terrorism.

If you live on the Gulf Coast, welcome to the real world of oil — and just know that you’re not alone.  In the Niger Delta and the Ecuadorian Amazon, among other places, your emerging hell has been the living hell of local populations for decades. . . . Three federal appeals court judges with financial and other ties to big oil were rejecting the Obama administration’s proposed drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.  Pollution from the BP spill there was seeping into Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans. Clean-up crews were discovering that a once-over of beaches isn’t nearly enough: somehow, the oil just keeps reappearing. Endangered sea turtles and other creatures were being burnt alive in swaths of ocean (“burn fields”) ignited by BP to “contain” its catastrophe.  The lives and livelihoods of fishermen and oyster-shuckers were being destroyed. » Continue reading “It’s not only in the Gulf: Big Oil Makes War on the Planet”

The images above were found at:
BP Gulf Oil Spill Photos Show What BP Doesn’t Want You To See, The Real Reason Constitution Has Been Suspended

(dazebao.org, July 13, 2010)
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The huge oil slick could, in all probability, cause irreparable damage to the activity of thermal regulation of the Gulf Stream, with a domino effect on global climate of the planet. . . . This is what says a study published on the website of the Italian Geophysics by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences Climate ISAC-CNR. The summary of the study, is signed by Gianlugi Zangari, a theoretical physicist, is born by the National Laboratories of Frascati, after careful observation, satellite in real time, the large area of concern. . . . According to the Italian scientist, Gianlugi Zangari, maps of sea surface velocity and height, indicating that the Loop Current is broken for the first time May 18, creating a reel clockwise. . . . » Continue reading “Italian Scientists Fear BP Gusher Damaged Gulf Stream”

(Mira Luna, YES! Magazine, July 15, 2010)
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[COMMENT by Lorenzo: Here is the best idea I have seen in many years. It is perhaps the only way us Working Class People can break the chains of debt and feudalism imposed by the U.S. Central Bank, whose Federal Reserve Notes are merely a reminder that anyone who uses dollars is funding a massive war machine and enslaving their descendants.  ]

Unemployed poor folks got together to create time dollar stores and cooperative mills, farms, health care systems, foundries, repair and recycling facilities, distribution warehouses, and a myriad of other service exchanges. . . . Many of these were based on the hour as a unit of account, and often everyone’s hour was equal and could either be exchanged for another hour of service or its equivalent in goods.  . . . Modern forms of time exchange, called Timebanks and LETS (Local Employment Trading Systems), have been around since the 1980s. Now, with one in ten Americans unemployed (likely twice that, given recording problems), time exchanges are making a comeback. . . . Timebanks USA, a system of over 120 timebanks in the U.S. and a few other countries, was developed by activist lawyer Edgar Cahn as a way to help the underprivileged and underserved help each other through an organized system of reciprocity. In the following interview, Cahn explains the basic principles behind timebanks:
» Continue reading “Forget Money TimeBanking is the New Economy”

July 15, 2010

It is not surprising if you didn’t know that your favorite Apple gadgets — your iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac — are linked to the conflict engulfing the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today and for the past dozen years. Most people don’t know – which is in part why the war in Congo has gone on for so long. With more than 5 million people killed, it is the deadliest conflict since World War II.

When I watched this, Google overlaid an advertisement from an oil company apologist. I didn’t click on it, but after watching this NASA time lapse imagery from the oil gusher in the Gulf, I do wonder what in the world they could say to make me feel good about the unimaginable destruction that is taking place on our little planet.

(Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, Jun 22, 2010)
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The oil giant plans to start drilling in the Arctic this fall — and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop it . . . Obama’s tough-guy act offers no guarantee that oil giants like BP won’t be permitted to repeat the same mistakes that led to the nightmare in the Gulf. Indeed, top environmentalists warn, the suspension of drilling appears to be little more than a stalling tactic designed to let public anger over BP’s spill subside before giving Big Oil the go-ahead to drill in an area that has long been off-limits: the Arctic Ocean. The administration has approved plans by both BP and Shell Oil to drill a total of 11 exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above Alaska — waters far more remote and hostile than the Gulf. Shell’s operations could proceed as soon as the president’s suspension expires in January. And thanks to an odd twist in its rig design, BP’s drilling in the Arctic is on track to get the green light as soon as this fall. . . . Ken Salazar, the Interior secretary whose staff allowed BP to drill in the Gulf based on pro-industry rules cooked up during the Bush years, has made no secret of his determination to push the “frontier” of oil drilling into the Arctic. » Continue reading “BP’s Next Disaster”