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- Jun 22, 2009
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Italian parliament approves austerity measures, Berlusconi resigns
Now, let's hope that the ***t starts losing some court cases too.
Now, let's hope that the ***t starts losing some court cases too.
- Jun 22, 2009
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- May 13, 2009
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- Jul 2, 2009
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I guess Ted Nugent or Scott were too busy to be on foxnews today..
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201111120006
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201111120006
- Apr 2, 2009
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Cobblestones said:
I don't mean to sound too high falutent, but having parked the car off Via Nazionale and not on the Pincio, as I usually do, my girlfriend and I walked down the Via 20 Settembre to the Scuderie del Quirinale to see the current exhibition on Filippino Lippi and Botticelli, which, as anyone who is familiar with Rome knows, is directly across from the president's mansion. As we approached the Piazza del Quirinale there was a throng of bystanders performing what seemed to be like some bizzare propitiatory rite directly in front of the president's palace, and in full view of the adjoining ministry: sacred chants, uncontrolable dancing, singing and generally behaving ecstatically as if beside themselves with some uncontainable joy. Something between the solemnity of a religious gathering, the fanfare of a political rally and the tifosi of a Giro stage in the Dolomites, gives you an idea of the atmosphere.
Of couse there were all the television reporters and cameramen and the carabinieri, to keep things from getting out of control, which was always, in the eyes of law enforcement, threatening.
Naturally we didn't walk around them, which wouldn't have allowed for an opportunity to closer inspection, but right through them, being careful to take notice at all times of everything that was being said and done, and darkness permitting, not missing anything; like when drinking a glass of Brunello di Montepulciano. My girlfirend wanted to skirt the perimeter of the crowd, as the carabinieri had indicated us to do, but I insisted that we walk through them; among all the happy and overjoyed and totally besides themselves with excitement people. In fact, one could even say, we didn't just observe them, but drank them in, being careful to discern and savor all the predominant flavors and subtle accents, nuances of scent and color, before crossing the Via 20 Settembre and entering the exhibition, which was our primary reason for being at the Quirinale as I have said. It was like opening up the shutters and letting sunlight into an apartment that had be kept dark for many years and bringing in fresh air that was inhaled to allow all the foul and maloderous air to be exhaled that had literally been killing us. It was like going to carnival after having been imprisonend not just for years, but decades.
When we came outside there was total chaos, even more chaos than one usually encounters in Rome, which is not just an ordinary chaotic city, but a world chaotic city, where everything is always disorderly and out of control. This only made the event more exceptional, I thought. Once again we moved through what by now were thousands and no longer hundreds of pedestrian bystanders, men, women and children, who came out to celebrate and make mischief right in front of the head of state's mansion; because Prime Minister Berlusconi had met with President Napolitano to consign his resignation papers and with all the conditions of his stepping down, which no doubt included, as he had stated in the dailies, leaving without being humiliated.
There were several thousand Romans who turned up on this Saturday evening to make sure that Silvio Berlusconi would not have his last wish honored, which, after all, is rather light considering how it ended for Mussolini.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.repubblica.it/
- Mar 11, 2009
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Protest in my hometown is making the national news as the police try to flush them out after a midnight deadline. Several hundred people have occupied two blocks downtown and outnumber the police probably 20-1. It's really hard to tell what is going to happen. The police tried to move some people, but couldn't, and one idiot threw an firework that hurt a cop.
I should note that I support the police in every way. I hope no one gets hurt, but the police have been very restrained and patient, and enough is enough. It was enough weeks ago.
I should note that I support the police in every way. I hope no one gets hurt, but the police have been very restrained and patient, and enough is enough. It was enough weeks ago.
- Jun 22, 2009
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Alpe d'Huez said:
Why is it enough? Isn't civil disobedience all about pushing against limits and restrictions? Isn't there always a confrontation with the forces of power and authority (i.e also the forces of repression) during acts of civil disobedience? Is blind and unwavering support for the police really helpful? Are the demonstrators a threat to you?
To be fair, I pose these questions without knowing anything about the specific circumstances in your city, but something in my head always reacts when I see people expressing 100% support for police, whose task it also is to enforce unjust rules and laws imposed by those in power to ensure that they stay in power.
- Jul 4, 2009
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rhubroma said:I don't mean to sound too high falutent, but having parked the car off Via Nazionale and not on the Pincio, as I usually do, my girlfriend and I walked down the Via 20 Settembre to the Scuderie del Quirinale to see the current exhibition on Filippino Lippi and Botticelli, which, as anyone who is familiar with Rome knows, is directly across from the president's mansion. As we approached the Piazza del Quirinale there was a throng of bystanders performing what seemed to be like some bizzare propitiatory rite directly in front of the president's palace, and in full view of the adjoining ministry: sacred chants, uncontrolable dancing, singing and generally behaving ecstatically as if beside themselves with some uncontainable joy. Something between the solemnity of a religious gathering, the fanfare of a political rally and the tifosi of a Giro stage in the Dolomites, gives you an idea of the atmosphere.
Of couse there were all the television reporters and cameramen and the carabinieri, to keep things from getting out of control, which was always, in the eyes of law enforcement, threatening.
Naturally we didn't walk around them, which wouldn't have allowed for an opportunity to closer inspection, but right through them, being careful to take notice at all times of everything that was being said and done, and darkness permitting, not missing anything; like when drinking a glass of Brunello di Montepulciano. My girlfirend wanted to skirt the perimeter of the crowd, as the carabinieri had indicated us to do, but I insisted that we walk through them; among all the happy and overjoyed and totally besides themselves with excitement people. In fact, one could even say, we didn't just observe them, but drank them in, being careful to discern and savor all the predominant flavors and subtle accents, nuances of scent and color, before crossing the Via 20 Settembre and entering the exhibition, which was our primary reason for being at the Quirinale as I have said. It was like opening up the shutters and letting sunlight into an apartment that had be kept dark for many years and bringing in fresh air that was inhaled to allow all the foul and maloderous air to be exhaled that had literally been killing us. It was like going to carnival after having been imprisonend not just for years, but decades.
When we came outside there was total chaos, even more chaos than one usually encounters in Rome, which is not just an ordinary chaotic city, but a world chaotic city, where everything is always disorderly and out of control. This only made the event more exceptional, I thought. Once again we moved through what by now were thousands and no longer hundreds of pedestrian bystanders, men, women and children, who came out to celebrate and make mischief right in front of the head of state's mansion; because Prime Minister Berlusconi had met with President Napolitano to consign his resignation papers and with all the conditions of his stepping down, which no doubt included, as he had stated in the dailies, leaving without being humiliated.
There were several thousand Romans who turned up on this Saturday evening to make sure that Silvio Berlusconi would not have his last wish honored, which, after all, is rather light considering how it ended for Mussolini.
http://www.repubblica.it/
...find a short piece on the current situation in Italy...odd that this is the typical level of mess that usually accompanies right wing rule...
Parliament under his rule served mainly to extricate him from any of a number of extra-curricular legal problems, when it wasn’t designing policies almost entirely for the benefit of his businesses. Anyone who thinks that Berlusconi will spend a minute in jail hasn’t been paying attention to how he has run the political sphere for the past two decades, quietly reducing his own exposure to prosecution.
The Prime Minister ran the country into the ground, and even under the circumstances, his exit is welcome news. Berlusconi’s unflagging optimism actually bordered on dementia: his response to the current bond crisis, initially, was that the restaurants were full, so the economy must be doing fine. The country is a mismanaged wreck, where powerful monopolies hold the vast majority of wealth, poverty rises, and protection rackets are the norm. It can be said that, at least when the entire government was under the sway of the mafia, the trains ran on time. This Berlusconi/Mafia hybrid – his ties are well-documented – was just inefficient. Growth over the past 15 years has averaged a paltry 0.75% (of course, this doesn’t take into account a very large black market economy).
...small wonder that there is such joy in the crowd...btw that was a wonderful bit of on the spot reporting...congrats.....
Cheers
blutto
- Jul 4, 2009
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....from James Galbraith, one of the very few economists worth reading, a very nice though longish piece on the Euro banking problems...
As many have been saying for a while now, the coming collapse in Europe (whatever shape it takes) is not a debt crisis per se, but a banking crisis.
Only corrupt Greece got itself in debt trouble before 2008; the rest just experienced banker-financed economic bubbles. Now that the bubbles have burst, Europeans have to decide what to do with the banks. (You know where this is headed, don't you.)
Here's economist James K. Galbraith, writing in Salon (my emphasis):
Like our own, the European banking crisis is the product of over-lending to weak borrowers, including for housing in Spain, commercial real estate in Ireland and the public sector (partly for infrastructure) in Greece. The European banks leveraged up to buy toxic American mortgages and when those collapsed they started dumping their weak sovereign bonds to buy strong ones, driving up yields and eventually forcing the whole European periphery into crisis. Greece was merely the first domino in the line.
In all such crises the banks’ first defense is to plead surprise – “no one could have known!” – and to blame their clients for recklessness and cheating. This is true but it obscures the fact that the bankers pushed the loans very hard while the fees were fat.
Quelle surprise as they say in, well, Europe. The Northern Europeans — Germany, France, et al — were the beneficiaries during the boom, and are determined not to let those advantages end:
[T]he Germans reap the rents and lecture their newly indebted customers to cut wages, sell off assets, and give up their pensions, schools, universities, healthcare – much of which were second-rate to begin with. Recently the lectures have become orders, delivered by the IMF and ECB, demonstrating to Europe’s new debt peons that they no longer live in democratic states.
Europe refuses to do the one thing that would end the crisis in a day (the ECB buying or at least guaranteeing the debt of troubled nations). This leaves them with (a) a rolling unsolved escalating continent-wide problem, and (b) a truly toxic solution. Read the following carefully:
[T]he ECB refuses to solve the crisis at a stroke, which it could do by buying up the weak countries’ bonds and refinancing them. ... So instead the zone has gone about creating a gigantic toxic CDO [collateralized debt obligation] called the European Financial Stability Fund, which may shortly be turned into an even more gigantic toxic CDS [credit default swap] (like AIG, they will call it “insurance”). This may defer panic at most for a little while.
CDOs are like the bundles of mortgage contracts that were "tranched" (sliced) on Wall Street and sold as investments. We know what happened there; most went bad and turned into junk.
CDSs are side bets between assorted investment bank and hedge fund gamblers (called "counterparties") on whether specific investments will fail or not. AIG took the "won't fail" side of the bet in most cases, collected monthly fees for providing "insurance" — then couldn't begin to pay off on that "insurance" when the CDOs it was guaranteeing collapsed in a heap, more or less all at once.
What Galbraith is saying is that the ECB is creating a situation in Europe where the underlying "bet" is the ability of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal (et al) to pay their debts. You can invest in the "rescue" fund, and you can place side bets for or against it. All because the ECB doesn't want to guarantee the underlying debt to begin with.
So watch that fund; it's the key to European hopes, and will be their downfall.
Someone mentioned (I think it was Matt Taibbi) that for a whole lot less than the banker bailout cost, the U.S. could have guaranteed or bought out every shaky mortgage in the country and the crisis would have been over.
Europe is facing the same choice, and has the same determination not to take it.
Galbraith's bottom line: Europe is "at the point where political structures offer no hope, and the baton stands to pass, quite soon, to the hand of resistance."
When resistance is your solution, you've got trouble. Tick, tick, tick.
Cheers
blutto
As many have been saying for a while now, the coming collapse in Europe (whatever shape it takes) is not a debt crisis per se, but a banking crisis.
Only corrupt Greece got itself in debt trouble before 2008; the rest just experienced banker-financed economic bubbles. Now that the bubbles have burst, Europeans have to decide what to do with the banks. (You know where this is headed, don't you.)
Here's economist James K. Galbraith, writing in Salon (my emphasis):
Like our own, the European banking crisis is the product of over-lending to weak borrowers, including for housing in Spain, commercial real estate in Ireland and the public sector (partly for infrastructure) in Greece. The European banks leveraged up to buy toxic American mortgages and when those collapsed they started dumping their weak sovereign bonds to buy strong ones, driving up yields and eventually forcing the whole European periphery into crisis. Greece was merely the first domino in the line.
In all such crises the banks’ first defense is to plead surprise – “no one could have known!” – and to blame their clients for recklessness and cheating. This is true but it obscures the fact that the bankers pushed the loans very hard while the fees were fat.
Quelle surprise as they say in, well, Europe. The Northern Europeans — Germany, France, et al — were the beneficiaries during the boom, and are determined not to let those advantages end:
[T]he Germans reap the rents and lecture their newly indebted customers to cut wages, sell off assets, and give up their pensions, schools, universities, healthcare – much of which were second-rate to begin with. Recently the lectures have become orders, delivered by the IMF and ECB, demonstrating to Europe’s new debt peons that they no longer live in democratic states.
Europe refuses to do the one thing that would end the crisis in a day (the ECB buying or at least guaranteeing the debt of troubled nations). This leaves them with (a) a rolling unsolved escalating continent-wide problem, and (b) a truly toxic solution. Read the following carefully:
[T]he ECB refuses to solve the crisis at a stroke, which it could do by buying up the weak countries’ bonds and refinancing them. ... So instead the zone has gone about creating a gigantic toxic CDO [collateralized debt obligation] called the European Financial Stability Fund, which may shortly be turned into an even more gigantic toxic CDS [credit default swap] (like AIG, they will call it “insurance”). This may defer panic at most for a little while.
CDOs are like the bundles of mortgage contracts that were "tranched" (sliced) on Wall Street and sold as investments. We know what happened there; most went bad and turned into junk.
CDSs are side bets between assorted investment bank and hedge fund gamblers (called "counterparties") on whether specific investments will fail or not. AIG took the "won't fail" side of the bet in most cases, collected monthly fees for providing "insurance" — then couldn't begin to pay off on that "insurance" when the CDOs it was guaranteeing collapsed in a heap, more or less all at once.
What Galbraith is saying is that the ECB is creating a situation in Europe where the underlying "bet" is the ability of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal (et al) to pay their debts. You can invest in the "rescue" fund, and you can place side bets for or against it. All because the ECB doesn't want to guarantee the underlying debt to begin with.
So watch that fund; it's the key to European hopes, and will be their downfall.
Someone mentioned (I think it was Matt Taibbi) that for a whole lot less than the banker bailout cost, the U.S. could have guaranteed or bought out every shaky mortgage in the country and the crisis would have been over.
Europe is facing the same choice, and has the same determination not to take it.
Galbraith's bottom line: Europe is "at the point where political structures offer no hope, and the baton stands to pass, quite soon, to the hand of resistance."
When resistance is your solution, you've got trouble. Tick, tick, tick.
Cheers
blutto
- Jul 4, 2009
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....apparently a cache of e-mails or more correctly perhaps THE cache of e-mails that relate to the Murdoch media empire hacking scandel and that were supposedly delated have all been found...in a backup server in India...
...this may become much fun real soon...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/...ils-Devastating-for-James-Murdoch?via=siderec
Cheers
blutto
...this may become much fun real soon...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/...ils-Devastating-for-James-Murdoch?via=siderec
Cheers
blutto
Amsterhammer said:
The Reagan Obedience generation..2nd graders didn't strike their elementary schools in 1970
US 'sorry' for frisking of India ex-leader Abdul Kalam
The United States has apologised after former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked at a New York airport.
The government in Delhi complained after the 80-year-old was frisked on board the aircraft, and had his jacket and shoes briefly taken away.
India has complained in the past about its treatment of dignitaries by US air staff - including a previous incident involving Mr Kalam in 2009.
Protocol exempts former presidents and other dignitaries from such searches.
The incident happened after Mr Kalam had taken his seat on board the Air India flight at JFK airport on 29 September.
Security staff forced the crew to open the plane door, and then took away Mr Kalam's jacket and boots because they had not done the necessary checks before boarding, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted sources as saying.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15711135
Credit to Kalam for not making a big hullabaloo about the situation. Question is, why did this happen twice? It created a ruckus in '09 and should've been avoided.
Credit to the authorities for the due apology, but the situation was unnecessary.
The United States has apologised after former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked at a New York airport.
The government in Delhi complained after the 80-year-old was frisked on board the aircraft, and had his jacket and shoes briefly taken away.
India has complained in the past about its treatment of dignitaries by US air staff - including a previous incident involving Mr Kalam in 2009.
Protocol exempts former presidents and other dignitaries from such searches.
The incident happened after Mr Kalam had taken his seat on board the Air India flight at JFK airport on 29 September.
Security staff forced the crew to open the plane door, and then took away Mr Kalam's jacket and boots because they had not done the necessary checks before boarding, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted sources as saying.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15711135
Credit to Kalam for not making a big hullabaloo about the situation. Question is, why did this happen twice? It created a ruckus in '09 and should've been avoided.
Credit to the authorities for the due apology, but the situation was unnecessary.
""Members of Congress and their aides use insider information to make up to hundreds of thousands of dollars trading in the stock market, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff said.
Mr Abramoff, who was one of the most powerful men in Washington before he was convicted of fraud and sent to prison for three years, said lawmakers who had no background in finance bragged to him about their trading at least a dozen times.""
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060738/Congress-getting-rich-trading-stocks-insider-information-Jailed-lobbyist-Jack-Abramoff-dishes-dirt-book-tour.html#ixzz1dbNQcZWq
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Democrats_want_ethics_committee_to_probe_0119.html
Mr Abramoff, who was one of the most powerful men in Washington before he was convicted of fraud and sent to prison for three years, said lawmakers who had no background in finance bragged to him about their trading at least a dozen times.""
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060738/Congress-getting-rich-trading-stocks-insider-information-Jailed-lobbyist-Jack-Abramoff-dishes-dirt-book-tour.html#ixzz1dbNQcZWq
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Democrats_want_ethics_committee_to_probe_0119.html
- Jul 16, 2011
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Alpe d'Huez said:
First note. I'm glad to see the back of slimy Silvio. Best wishes to Italy's new government
.Some more police news from the UK.
On Friday the London Metropolitan Police arrested 179 members of the English Defence League (EDL) as they feared that there would be violence, since the EDL planned to disrupt the Occupy protestors outside St. Pauls Cathedral, specifically on Armistice Day. Three of these members have been charged and the others released. Also, the Muslim Against Crusades organisation was banned and several of their members detained. Apparently, they had been planning to disrupt the Armistice Day commemorations at the Cenotaph.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/11/edl-arrests-london-occupy-armistice-day?INTCMP=SRCH
Also, veterans are joining the Occupy protest to demonstrate against the government's neglect of ex-servicemen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/12/st-pauls-canon-occupy-protest
I have a couple of conflicting thoughts on this news. Firstly, the scale of the police action seems to indicate a blanket arrest of members of a group (however much I find their views unacceptable) rather than arresting ringleaders calling for aggression, especially as nearly all those arrested were not charged. It reminds me somewhat of "Minority Report" (where predictions of the near future were used to arrest people) and makes me fear that people's fear is being used to limit freedom (from what I know the UK has the highest density of closed circuit cameras, if not per head then definitely per unit area).
Secondly, there is, as often, a great deal of scary irony in the behaviour of the EDL. Namely, that the leaders thought that it was appropriate to present an obviously aggressive face on a day which commemorates not just the loss of many servicemen who fought for their countries, but the futility of war and striving for peace. This irony is highlighted by many ex-servicemen joining the Occupy protesters for Armistice day to protest at government neglect of veterans.
Tank Engine said:First note. I'm glad to see the back of slimy Silvio. Best wishes to Italy's new government
Also, veterans are joining the Occupy protest to demonstrate against the government's neglect of ex-servicemen.....
....I have a couple of conflicting thoughts on this news. Firstly, the scale of the police action seems to indicate a blanket arrest of members of a group (however much I find their views unacceptable) rather than arresting ringleaders calling for aggression, especially as nearly all those arrested were not charged. It reminds me somewhat of "Minority Report" (where predictions of the near future were used to arrest people) and makes me fear that people's fear is being used to limit freedom (from what I know the UK has the highest density of closed circuit cameras, if not per head then definitely per unit area).
Secondly, there is, as often, a great deal of scary irony in the behaviour of the EDL. Namely, that the leaders thought that it was appropriate to present an obviously aggressive face on a day which commemorates not just the loss of many servicemen who fought for their countries, but the futility of war and striving for peace. This irony is highlighted by many ex-servicemen joining the Occupy protesters for Armistice day to protest at government neglect of veterans.
Firstly, I think everybody's happy that Berlusconi's gone.
About the EDL, the last thing that would be needed on Armistice day would be for some radical groups (from either side) to create a ruckus and essentially disrespect the martyrs from the War. In this case, maybe preemptive arrests were the best way forward as an EDL protest could easily result in violence if the radical Muslim groups reacted.
It isn't an ideal situation but with an iffy history and with the clear aim of headline grabbing with regards to the timing, I think the arrests may well have been the best solution (basically, I agree with the last paragraph).
- Apr 2, 2009
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blutto said:
This is what happens when you have a financial system which is supranational, but a political and commercial one that, in many aspects, exists within the same logic of antagonism and rivalry that prevailed before the wars. It has produced a modern pecking order, not established by who has the most potent army as in the past, but financial apparatus and market influence. Today it's the banks, not the armed forces, that constitutes the raw force behind imperialism and colonialization.
In this sense, the EU has never had the type of real cohesion and collaboration that would allow the ECB to guarantee the underlying debt to begin with and thereby difuse the bomb.
Too many intersts, too much speculation....
The irony, if I may call it such, is that the EU was forged within the crucible of a market liberalism and an ideology that said expanded and larger markets would guarantee greater productivity, market leverage and competitivity in a world under the ineluctable forces of globalization; and that this would make us all richer.
After, however, 30 years of placing the purely speculative and worst deregulatory aspects of this ideology, that first came about with Reagan and Thatcher, on anabolic steroids, and in allowing finance to replace work and production as the true source of capital, which led to the rise in sovereign debt on interest this promoted; coupled with the delocalization of labor and production; wage decrease caused by unfavorable and fraudulent currency exchange between the lira, franc, mark, peseta, etc and the euro; the consequent lowering of buying power that came along with it and the enevitable growth stagnation that followed; the real estate bubble that burst at Wall Street, which sent shock waves thoughout the whole financial apparatus sending it in tilt globally and lowering demand in the eurozone, with a now exorbitant supply (thanks to finanicial capitalism under the neoliberal regime), while the bank loans now dried up; which has lead to the proposed austerity measures, with the remifications for welfare and the disintegration of the social state (sorry, I tried to state all that in one breath): a bomb has been constructed that's both economic and social.
If it explodes everyone gets poorer.
- Mar 11, 2009
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Amsterhammer said:
The entire park area has become a completely pummeled, ugly, smelly, rodent infested, near biohazard area, with people smoking weed, and even meth with two ODing in the last week or so, and several weapons were found on people in the park, including knives. Of the 100 people or so that were left down there last week before the crowds gathered to fight the cops and disobey the city's eviction notice, I'd say maybe 10 were principled to the cause, but even they didn't know how to properly organize and remain with little cohesion. Now, the people that have showed up to fight the eviction are opportunistic, anti-police, anti-everything it seems, with a fair number of them from out of town now. It's just an ugly mess.
Compounding this, I do not believe a city park in the heart of the city is a place to camp for weeks, let alone do drugs. I'd like to park to be back to what it was, so I can walk through it, enjoy the trees, the statues, the water fountain. This is what city parks are for, and why ordinances are written and enforced. I believe at this point probably 99% of the other 200,000 people or so that come into the city on a daily basis share my opinion.
As to police support. While I do not support them on every issue, every case, I believe just like most workers, the vast majority of them make the right decision the vast majority of the time. As to this situation, as I noted, they have used extreme care and caution, and shown great restraint and patience in not just going in with teargas and rubber bullets, which to me has been worthy of high praise. If they were to go in with clubs and start beating on people or shooting them, no I would not likely support that. But what they have done, and the methods they have taken, I fully support. And if they have to push a little harder, and arrest a few more people to get them out of there, so be it.
Furthermore, it is my opinion that the remaining protesters are hurting the original cause. This has been taken to such an extreme, and been taken over by such a fringe element of law breakers with no voice to call for any serious reform, that it's causing damage to whatever anti-corruption, pro-labor hopes there may have been to effectively organize and cause real change.
merged foxnews item
""FOX news says: "Some people are talking about..."
Followed by something NO ONE is talking about, usually something only FOX news just created out of thin air. The beginning of a rumor that is posed as a fact. This is something they do to fabricate the appearance of something being 'sinister' and 'plotted' behind closed doors. It's also something they do to fabricate propaganda and give the viewer the impression and sense that they are missing out on something that numerous people are already discussing, it plants the idea in the viewers brain and makes the viewer feel the need to "catch up quickly" on this subject that they are missing out on, which usually makes the viewer want to take the "idea" to an even more radical level.
This is one small example of how FOX brainwashes its viewers, it plants a false narrative posed as a fact. It doesn't matter if it IS a fact, all that matters is it is now planted in their viewers minds. This tactic is used quite often, but mostly by the daytime anchors. The reason for this is because the "Some people are talking about" that they are talking about usually originates from their nighttime primetime line up. For example, it would go something like this: Glenn Beck or Bill O or Hannity, etc. will come up with some warped conspiracy theory that they've created, always negative, always full of fear, and toss it out there. Sometimes this BS theory gets a round table discussion by others who are guaranteed to throw fuel on the flames and take the BS conspiracy theory to an even darker place.
Once the big lie has been created and discussed on THEIR very own station, they add it to their webpage where it is discussed in an online forum by groups of people I'm embarrassed to even call my fellow countrymen. The next day the daytime anchors, notably Megyn Kelley, although the others use it alot as well, will segue to this fake, fabricated news story by starting with the phrase "Some people are talking about (INSERT LIE HERE)". Again, truth doesn't matter there, it's all about planting a false idea in their viewers mind and let confirmation bias do the rest. Combine that with the fact that it's being broadcast on national television it gives the viewer a sense of something being 'truthful' and 'urgent'. This is what FOX news excels at, mixing real although biased news stories in with fabricated and biased news stories until the line between reality and lies blurs before their viewers eyes. They can now control their viewers minds and spoon feed them ANYTHING they want them to believe.
Couple that with the fact that the largest base of their target demographic are people who firmly believe in blind faith and are easily gullible and you have the making of a 100% propaganda "news" channel. The "Some people are talking about..." that they are talking about is really nobody. Nobody is talking about that until they created that false narrative. It is a vicious circle of propaganda and lies. It is manufactured "journalism". The muck at the bottom of the barrel we call the media.
FOX news: Change the channel before the channel changes you.""
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2299424
""FOX news says: "Some people are talking about..."
Followed by something NO ONE is talking about, usually something only FOX news just created out of thin air. The beginning of a rumor that is posed as a fact. This is something they do to fabricate the appearance of something being 'sinister' and 'plotted' behind closed doors. It's also something they do to fabricate propaganda and give the viewer the impression and sense that they are missing out on something that numerous people are already discussing, it plants the idea in the viewers brain and makes the viewer feel the need to "catch up quickly" on this subject that they are missing out on, which usually makes the viewer want to take the "idea" to an even more radical level.
This is one small example of how FOX brainwashes its viewers, it plants a false narrative posed as a fact. It doesn't matter if it IS a fact, all that matters is it is now planted in their viewers minds. This tactic is used quite often, but mostly by the daytime anchors. The reason for this is because the "Some people are talking about" that they are talking about usually originates from their nighttime primetime line up. For example, it would go something like this: Glenn Beck or Bill O or Hannity, etc. will come up with some warped conspiracy theory that they've created, always negative, always full of fear, and toss it out there. Sometimes this BS theory gets a round table discussion by others who are guaranteed to throw fuel on the flames and take the BS conspiracy theory to an even darker place.
Once the big lie has been created and discussed on THEIR very own station, they add it to their webpage where it is discussed in an online forum by groups of people I'm embarrassed to even call my fellow countrymen. The next day the daytime anchors, notably Megyn Kelley, although the others use it alot as well, will segue to this fake, fabricated news story by starting with the phrase "Some people are talking about (INSERT LIE HERE)". Again, truth doesn't matter there, it's all about planting a false idea in their viewers mind and let confirmation bias do the rest. Combine that with the fact that it's being broadcast on national television it gives the viewer a sense of something being 'truthful' and 'urgent'. This is what FOX news excels at, mixing real although biased news stories in with fabricated and biased news stories until the line between reality and lies blurs before their viewers eyes. They can now control their viewers minds and spoon feed them ANYTHING they want them to believe.
Couple that with the fact that the largest base of their target demographic are people who firmly believe in blind faith and are easily gullible and you have the making of a 100% propaganda "news" channel. The "Some people are talking about..." that they are talking about is really nobody. Nobody is talking about that until they created that false narrative. It is a vicious circle of propaganda and lies. It is manufactured "journalism". The muck at the bottom of the barrel we call the media.
FOX news: Change the channel before the channel changes you.""
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2299424
Perfectly Legal
Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and
senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond
their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and
selling stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that
congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very
wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly
unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market.
If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to
apply. """
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/?tag=contentMain;cbsCaro
Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and
senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond
their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and
selling stocks.
Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that
congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very
wealthy. So it's not illegal, but I think it's highly
unethical, I think it's highly offensive, and wrong.
Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?
Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market.
If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to
apply. """
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57323527/congress-trading-stock-on-inside-information/?tag=contentMain;cbsCaro
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