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‘Robin Hood’ band of ‘left-wing activists’ nabs school supplies from shop

“A Robin Hood-style band of Spanish left-wing activists openly stole cart-loads of school supplies from a supermarket on Friday, promising to distribute them to needy children. More than 200 members of the Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (Andalusian Union of Workers) emerged from a Carrefour supermarket in the southern city of Seville pushing about 10 shopping carts brimming with exercise books, pens, felt-tips and dictionaries. They loaded the back-to-school supplies into vans and left. School materials ‘expropriated’ this time would be given to needy families in the next few days, the union said in a statement, describing it as a ‘symbolic act for equal opportunity’.” Continue reading →

So you want to invent your own currency

“Our ability to exchange without knowing where things come from blinds us to the real core of the economy: not money, but the physical things we must wrench from the ground by human effort, which is underpinned by agricultural systems, and energised by sunlight, water and soil. The more we abstract and fetishise money as a thing in itself, the more we lose sight of its sources and its goals. We get confused, and feel disempowered relative to those who wield larger flows of it. Sealed off from inquiry in its hermetic shell, money distorts our perceptions of one another. We can’t seem to remember that it is merely one means of exchange among many.” Continue reading →

Bitcoin-friendly Internet Credit Union suddenly dumps accounts: ‘regulatory issues’

“The Internet Archive Federal Credit Union, an experimental financial institution run by the eponymous nonprofit that archives web history, has established itself as a Bitcoin haven. In contrast to traditional banks, which snubbed businesses built around the virtual currency, the IAFCU basically put up a Bitcoin welcome sign. ‘These are not drug dealers, money launderers, or whatever. These are average folks,’ IAFCU CEO Jordan Modell told Wired. That all changed yesterday, however, when the credit union announced it will be dumping its Bitcoin clients.” Continue reading →

Lawmaker: My ‘gut feeling’ says Syria got chemical weapons from Iraq

“While admitting to not having any information on the matter, Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) still offered speculation based on his ‘gut feeling’ that the Syrian government acquired chemical weapons from Iraq, the Huffington Post reported. ‘I have not had any classified briefing, but all we know is that Iraq had declared chemical and biological weapons, and then they weren’t there,’ Terry told radio host Tom Becka on Thursday. ‘It wasn’t something that the U.S. was guessing, that was something that they actually declared. But they went someplace.’ Terry, who supported the U.S. campaign to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, said Syria was a different situation.” Continue reading →

Defiling the Memory of President Eisenhower

“On a Tuesday night, 52 years ago. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appeared on TV sets across America. Three days later, he would leave the Oval Office to John F. Kennedy. It all happened very fast. No one was prepared for the grim prophecy Eisenhower would tell that night in his farewell address. In 1961, the words ‘military-industrial complex’ probably sounded nuts. But writing in 2013, I can say with confidence that an alert and knowledgeable citizenry is far more absurd. Back when Ike made his address, defense spending was about $350 billion in today’s dollars. Today, it’s over half a trillion dollars. What would Eisenhower say today? Probably, ‘I told you so you, idiots!'” Continue reading →

Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

[April 2013] “China, Russia and four Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan. Ankara began talks on joining the EU in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy areas, or ‘chapters’, every candidate must conclude to be allowed entry due to disagreements largely over the divided island of Cyprus. While China vies with Russia and the West for access to Central Asia’s vast natural resources, some analysts view the SCO as a potential counter-balance to NATO.” Continue reading →

The Syria Endgame: Strategic Stage in the Pentagon’s Covert War on Iran

“Regime change in Damascus is not the only or main way for the US and its allies to prevent Syria from standing with Iran. Destabilizing Syria and neutralizing it as a failed and divided state is the key. Sectarian fighting is not a haphazard outcome of the instability in Syria, but an assisted project that the US and its allies have steadily fomented with a clear intent to balkanize the Syrian Arab Republic. Regionally, Israel above all other states has a major stake in securing this outcome. The Israelis actually have several publicly available documents, including the Yinon Plan, which outline that the destruction of Syria into a series of smaller sectarian states is one of their strategic objectives.” Continue reading →

Mike Gogulski: Is America still a democracy? Who cares? It’s DANGEROUS!

“If you look at the visible signs of how the country has been developing for the last 25 years, the signs of the emergence of a police state are obvious and everywhere. The Department of Homeland Security recently purchased something like one billion rounds of high-powered rifle ammunition. These are not to be used in wars. The US government has just purchased three bullets for every man, woman and child inside the country. When you add to these things the endless American wars that have been going on since ‘peace’ after World War II, the question becomes: ‘Is America a democracy? Who cares? It’s DANGEROUS!'” Continue reading →