What happens when the Euro Blows

Just ignore the dinosaur
in the living room.

After the Greek elections struck fear into the hearts of the global banksters, the fallout remains uncertain. If the next Greek election produces an anti-austerity government, Greece will almost certainly make a speedy exit from the Euro. If this happens — and it is looking increasingly inevitable — the consequences for the global economy are spectacularly gloomy. Yet U.S. media and U.S. politicians are largely silent on the issue, almost as if nothing were happening.

What will happen when Greece leaves the Euro? Foreign banks hold over $90 billion in Greek debt in public and private sectors. These enormous losses could very well bring down banks in Europe and abroad.
Struggling Euro countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland will see their borrowing costs skyrocket, since the wealthy will be more reluctant to waste any more investment money on risky Euro countries, guaranteeing a further downward spiral of bailouts and bankruptcy.

How likely is a Greek euro exit? The conservative Economist magazine reports:
“If Greece rejects the second bail-out or falls drastically behind in its program [of debt payments and public sector cuts], its exit could become inevitable.”
This scenario appears increasingly likely, as Greek voters have tired of supporting politicians that continue to attack the majority of voters’ living standards through massive austerity policies (cuts to jobs, social programs and the public sector in general).

How would the U.S. be affected by a European Union meltdown? The Bank for International Settlements claims that U.S. banks have loaned $96.8 billion to the weakest European nations in the public and private sector, with an additional $275.8 billion to German and French banks, who would suffer directly if the weak nations drowned.

Furthermore, the European Union is the U.S.’s largest trading partner; U.S. exports to the EU would instantly plummet if the above scenario were played out

Which brings us to the silence of the U.S. politicians on the issue. The giant austerity measures that are driving Europe to the edge of revolution have been delayed on the federal level in the U.S. until after the November elections. Then, the seldom discussed budget “sequesters” will go into effect — automatic cuts to federal spending of $100 billion, every year until 2021.

After the election, federally enhanced unemployment insurance expires, as does the federal payroll tax cut. Obama’s stimulus plan supporting state and city governments petered out at the end of 2011, which will add pain to the ongoing deficit crunch nationwide.

U.S. politicians — both Democrats and Republicans — are united in a strategy to combat the weakening economy by resorting to the European strategy of austerity. Both parties have already worked together to cut 600,000 government jobs (mostly local) since 2009, destroying the services these workers deliver in the process (education has been most targeted)

These numbers will balloon when the effects of Europe’s plight reaches America’s shores. The political silence over this fact is a good strategy for U.S. corporate political representatives; the more unprepared working people are for austerity measures, the easier they are to implement (what Naomi Klein calls the "Shock Doctrine".

Therefore, working people in the U.S. need to adopt an increasingly popular slogan that rejects austerity measures: Tax the Rich! Tax the Bastards!

In other words, make the rich pay for the crisis they created. In practice this means that instead of massive job reductions, cuts to education and health care, taxes should be raised on corporations and the wealthy. The banks should be put under public control rather than being bailed out with public money. The public sector should be fully funded and expanded rather than privatized and slashed.
Austerity is when the wealthy attempt to push the effects of their recessions onto the backs of working people, who need only to collectively push back and force the 1% to pay instead.

This is what austerity looks like.

If we do nothing we'd better get cracking and learn to speak Greek, act Greek and push back like the Greek have. It seems our politicians won't listen to us anyway- it's all Greek to them.


ickenittle

It's not so Great being Greek

The latest going's on in Greece.

Is Greece the canary in the coal mine?

Greece’s public finances could collapse as early as next month, leaving salaries and pensions unpaid unless a stable government emerges from the June 17 election, according to Lucas Papademos, the technocrat prime minister who left office after this month’s inconclusive vote.

Mr Papademos warned that conditions were deteriorating faster than expected with cash flow likely to turn negative in early June amid a sharp fall in tax revenues and a loosening of spending controls during two back-to-back election campaigns.

Mounting anxiety that Greece is headed for further political instability and a possible exit from the euro has prompted many Greeks to postpone making tax payments, and has also accelerated outflows of deposits from local banks.

Athens bankers estimate that more than €3bn of cash withdrawn since the May 6 election has been stashed in safe-deposit boxes and under mattresses in case the country is forced to readopt the drachma.

The finance ministry has halted repayment of value-added tax to Greek exporters, and slashed public investment spending by more than 20 per cent in the first four months.

Transfers to the health ministry to pay debts owed to hospital suppliers and pharmacies have been temporarily suspended, obliging patients to pay the full cost of prescription drugs for the first time.

The struggling state electricity utility PPC has received a €250m special payment from the budget to help cover a widening deficit. The utility has been hit by a sharp rise in non-payments of household electricity bills after the finance ministry imposed an extra “solidarity tax” last year that was added to the bills

Greek citizens have been on a tax strike since 2011 and earlier, rendering the greek government bankrupt. From a Greek local, Manos, from last September:

"Today, after two years of screwing and pressing us, most households and businesses have stopped paying. Stopped paying taxes, utility bills, toll fees, or anything else related to the government."

Without a government for the last eleven days, and amid mainstream discussion of a Euro Zone exit, the Greek people are realizing that the economic and political system as they know it is rapidly descending into chaos.

And you thought you were having a bad week......wow.

ickenittle

The Police State Moves North



So you don't have to.

Authorities in Montreal have installed similar, extreme "emergency measures"  just like we have in the good ole USA. These assaults on citizen rights are straight out the fascist handbook. Designed to reign in protesting by using disingenuous tactics against students upset over tuition hikes, Canada has begun following America's lead in the struggle to preserve the status quo, and it's not working. 

Though the jackboots and billy-clubs might be Made in Canada , the increasing intolerance of protesting is a mirror image of our own ever-expanding police state, complete with the propaganda.

Some things Made in America are not worth the trouble to export.

After months of student protests over rising tuition costs the police state has decided it's time to put an end to allowing citizens to redress their government by gathering in large groups. The new emergency measure restricts protests to less than ten people at a time, any more than 10 would require advanced notification as to where and when and what time of day they wish to gather for an event.

This is kind of like asking permission for a revolution in advance.

On its heels, the city of Montreal also passed a bylaw prohibiting wearing masks after several cloaked protesters smashed storefronts and clashed with police during demonstrations continuing into a 14th week amid a deadlock in negotiations.

Fines for breaches of the two laws range from $500 to $250,000. An exception to the no-mask rule, however, is allowed for the Halloween holiday.
Students, unions and the opposition party criticized the government over the emergency law, with one former premier calling it “barbaric.”
Louis Masson, president of the Quebec Bar Association representing 24,000 lawyers, said it goes too far by restricting fundamental “freedoms of expression… to a point that begs the question, who would now dare protest.”

But isn't that the point?


This law has effectively eliminated the "right" to protest in Quebec.  "If we are no longer able to protest in our society, it becomes a totalitarian society,' said Louis Roy, head of the Confederation des Syndicats
Nationeux which represents most university and college teachers in the province. "We are telling our members to defend their fundamental right, the right to demonstrate', he added.

So being an authoritarian closet fascist isn't a uniquely American experience now? How's that working out for you Montreal?

Massive student revolt after emergency measure goes into effect.

Thousands of student protesters flooded the streets in Montreal last night after Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced a proposal for a new ‘emergency law’ in a bid to end the ongoing 14 week old student uprising and strike.

The demonstrations on Wednesday night followed this announcement, as several thousand students met with police, who have started cracking down on the protests across Quebec. Up to 122 students were arrested, as “the acrid scent of police crowd-control chemicals billowed in the cool nocturnal air.”

Shortly after the protests broke out, riot police used tear gas and sound grenades on students. Police have come under criticism for excessive force caught on video that shows patrons on a bar patio getting blasted with pepper spray. Apparently they didn't get prior permission to gather on the patio first. According to the bar owner," People were falling on each other running inside to get away from the pepper spray, breaking things." The waitress thought about calling police until she realized it was the police who were the attackers.

You just can't make this stuff up.


Just Stay home and be quiet



"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."  as quoted by one president who found out the hard way what happens when you put Democracy before Authoritarianism. (JFK)

We feel your pain Canada.

Just blame America.

ickenittle

Another Kind of Occupy



Vintage image of ship
attacking harmless squid.

 In an attempt to save the Titanic known as Europe, some quick thinkers have come up with a plan to strengthen the monetary union by giving European politicians the power to declare a sovereign state bankrupt and take over it over. This is like a ship's Captain instructing his crew to throw themselves, all of the passengers and every single life boat over the side in order to save the sinking ship.

Just call it the ECBT plan  (European Central Bank Titanic Plan.)

The plan offered by Jean-Claude Trichet, who stepped down last November as ECB president, would address a fundamental weakness of the 13-year-old single currency the survival of which is threatened by the Greek crisis.

"For the European Union, a fully fledged United States of Europe where nation states cede a large chunk of fiscal authority to the federal government appears politically unpalatable." Trichet said, 

"An alternative is to activate the EU federal powers only in exceptional circumstances when a country's budgetary policies threaten the broader monetary union. It is a quantum leap of governance, which I trust is necessary for the next step of European integration."

Trichet said the building blocks already are in place for moving ahead with his fiscal plan take over. 

Countries have agreed to surveillance of each other's budgets and they have agreed to levy fines on countries that run excessive budget deficits, giving them fiscal oversight authority.

So why not take it one step further and just invade the irresponsible country. 

The next step would be to take a country into receivership when its political leaders or its parliament cannot implement sound budgetary policies approved by the EU. The action would have democratic accountability if it were approved by the European Council of EU heads of states and the elected European Parliament, he said. 

If the word "invasion" is too harsh maybe whispering "occupation" would seem more friendly, after all people are used to hearing about the Occupy movement. Maybe they won't put two-and-two together.

What if the troubled sovereign state is resistant to the declaration of bankruptcy and the takeover its fiscal policy? Well, maybe the Germans would be forced to raise an army and invade the weaker states to force their will upon them, all for the "greater good" of course.

The Germans could then build camps to empty whole nations into and "concentrate" the bankrupt civilians into one area for their own safety. Then the Germans could offer these refugees a final debt solution where they would be freed of their now unneeded belongings for the Germans to use to payoff debts.

Hey, wait a minute ... hasn't this happened once before?

Make no mistake, the situation in Europe is bad... How BAD? Well, France, Spain, and Germany have ALL implemented border controls.

Spain, France, and Germany can each close their borders for up to 30 days at any point if they so choose.

Why are they doing this? Because they know that when the stuff hits the fan and the EU collapses (which it will in the next few months) people are going to attempt to flee with their money... so they have made it so that no one can get it... and no one can get out.

Ever wonder why you never hear about this ticking time bomb on the MSM?

Because it's far more important to hype Facebook stock so a few share holders can make a killing while everyone else gets screwed.

Now you know, so move along... there's nothing to see here.

ickenittle

Well, If It Worked For Hitler

Those sneaky Republicans are at it again, this time they have buried an amendment deep within the latest defense authorization bill.

BuzzFeed has learned;

The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website. Meaning the state department could use propaganda in the same way Fox News does.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.

The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mark Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State. (blue dog democrat)

In a little noticed press release earlier in the week — buried beneath the other high-profile issues in the $642 billion defense bill, including indefinite detention and a prohibition on gay marriage at military installations — Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.” Which is his way of saying, lying to the public is just a-okay as long as it fits your agenda.

The bill’s supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.

Critics of the bill say there are ways to keep America safe without turning the massive information operations apparatus within the federal government against American citizens.

According to critics, the law would allow “U.S. propaganda intended to influence foreign audiences to be used on the domestic population.

The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.

According to this official, “senior public affairs” officers within the Department of Defense want to “get rid” of Smith-Mundt and other restrictions because it prevents information activities designed to prop up unpopular policies—like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.



When you got nothing else.



So selling war by lying about it is what our military industrial complex has in plan for us. When something is as unpopular as the war in Afghanistan, these war mongers need to sell their product just like the tobacco industry did in the 1950's by using lies and manipulation to deceive the public into believing their product is safe.



 We all know how that turned out.

What worked for Hitler can work in the U.S too.

Why let all that good propaganda go to waste?

And you thought the commercials were the worst part of television.

ickenittle

Jamie's Long Overdue Intervention

Jamie's higher power?

It seems Jamie Dimon has gone too far this time. His addiction to gambling with J.P. Morgan-Chase depositors money has him between rock and bottom. Though his denial still continues, it has become painfully all too clear that Jamie is a money junkie in need of an intervention.

An open letter from the 99%

By the Alternative Banking Working Group of Occupy Wall Street

Dear Jamie Dimon:

We, the Alternative Banking Working Group of Occupy Wall Street, are staging an intervention on your behalf. Unlike many in the financial industry and press, we will not be deceived by attempts at misdirection and we are not intimidated by complexity. Your days of gambling with taxpayers’ money and pressuring the regulators to let business go on as usual are over. It’s not good for you, it’s not good for us, and it’s not good for our country.

It’s been a good ride, and we’ve been impressed with how long you have managed to keep it up. The incredible complexity of the financial system helped, of course, just as it helped obscure countless other crimes and frauds.

It’s truly a work of art how you and your enablers have created a system that nobody fully understands. It’s the perfect cover for your continuing addiction to risk, power, and money, and it keeps everyone confused just long enough, well past any statute of limitation for criminal prosecution.

Now your addiction is out of control. Rather than quitting while you and JPMorgan Chase were ahead (if you ever were), you’ve been driven to inhale every last dollar, no matter the risks involved for you and for all of us. What has really worked for you personally, and has allowed you to remain credible for so long, is your intense denial as to the underlying question of what year it is.

You seem to live in a time warp where it is still 2004, the housing market is booming, along with the associated securities market, and you and your friends are printing money with no downside in sight. But it turns out that ’04 model was a bit of a lemon — or, to borrow your words, “poorly conceived, poorly vetted, and poorly executed.”

Here is some sobering news: You are, in fact, living in 2012, leading an enormous, too-big-to-fail bank, which is being continuously bailed out by the Fed’s unlimited loans at 0% interest, on the taxpayers’ dime. In a reasonable world, under these conditions, JPMorgan Chase would be a utility bank focused on the public good, and you would be merely its custodian. You would not be incentivized to take crazy risks to chase yield. Your job would be incredibly boring and your bank only very mildly profitable.

But, sadly, the addiction is still doing the talking. So we’re here to say “no more.” It’s time to put down that fifth drink and walk away from the baccarat table, because no matter how many martinis you have and no matter how much money you lose, you’re still a glorified accountant, not a secret agent. And that’s fine. There’s nothing that JPMorgan Chase, and the world economy for that matter, needs more than a very good accountant.

Perhaps you will protest that you don’t need this intervention. In fact, over the past few days you have repeatedly acknowledged your sloppiness, stupidity, and bad judgment. And though that sounds compelling and humble, as we know you expect it to, you haven’t gone far enough to demonstrate that you understand just how deeply in trouble you are. And don’t claim stupidity – “stupid” isn’t a word associated with Jamie Dimon. You need to admit that you are powerless over your addiction and that your bank has become unmanageable.

Here is what we ask of you:

First, stop gambling with our money and our futures. Stop lobbying for deregulation — we are way past that now. Stop lying to us all by doing silly things like pushing proprietary trading into the treasury office and renaming it, or by pretending that there are no losses when there very clearly are, to the tune of $2,000,000,000 and growing. And, please, stop trying to convince us that nobody at JPMorgan Chase saw this coming. Ina Drew was offering to resign in April but you kept telling the world that nothing serious was amiss, a lie which could get you serious jail time.

Second, admit that your bank is too big to take risks that neither you nor anyone in your bank understands or is able to handle, and that the only thing that will stop you from misbehaving is strong, enforced, and uncompromised regulation.

Third, resign as Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is inappropriate, and dangerous to us, for you to oversee the banking system or the economy when you have proven incompetent at overseeing your own bank — particularly since the Federal Reserve is investigating your bank and your behavior.

Because this in an intervention, you’re going to need to get used to a lot of new folks who will challenge the bad decisions that have become habit for you. The SEC should be facilitating the first step by getting you into a full in-patient rehab program, where the Fed, the FDIC, and every other regulator who has an interest in your bank’s good health can help you make a searching and fearless moral inventory of your bank and its choices. Although the “revolving door” connecting Wall Street to the Beltway has turned our regulatory agencies into the Keystone Kops of the 21st century, your crisis should serve as a wake-up call and put an end to their denial as well.

When you reach your twelfth step, you can help the regulators write tougher regulations based on the knowledge you acquired during your efforts to undermine them.

After all, if you can’t manage the risk, then nobody can. And you’ve taken the first step by admitting that you can’t. Now take the other eleven.

Best regards,
The Alternative Banking Working Group

How about this letter instead?

Dear Jamie, you f*cking criminal,

We are starting a movement to take back all of your ill-gotten wealth, shut-down the private banks through which you and your psychopathic friends lord it over the American people and put you in f*cking prison with the rest of your criminal cohorts. Either come quietly now or this manifest rage will be visited upon you, your relatives and your progeny in the years to come.

Signed,

Those who outnumber you 313,561,376  million to one.

See, the thing about addiction is, you can’t just take away the drug and then say to the addict, “There, everything’s going to be fine from now on.”. In the case of Jamie Dimon, if he can no longer make huge bets with other people’s money, but doesn’t have anything else to do, then he’ll probably just take to phone-scamming seniors.

No, you’ve also got to give an addict like Jamie something to replace the drug and get him out of the environment that both triggers and reinforces his addiction. His continuing to work on Wall Street in any capacity (however helpful) will almost guarantee a relapse.

He and his fellow bottomed-out chronic gamblers need to be put on a heavy maintenance dose of caffeine (to replace the high of gambling) and then shipped to Africa: there to live in thatched huts and help the desperate people there dig wells, plant crops, and build schools.

Call the program Bankers Without Borders.

But that wouldn't be a twelve step program. If admitting he is powerless over accounting tricks and casino gambling wouldn't work for such a hard-core addict like Jamie, it might take stronger medicine;

How about a padded romper room with fake Bloomberg terminals (made by Mattel) with colored buttons, a fax machine, a blackberry, etc. but none of the machines have a connection to real-world communication systems or information.

He could sit in there all day and make crazy leveraged bets on World Systems across the universe. His roommate(s), including Lloyd and Mike Bloomberg, can take turns every evening doing the accounting of the days’ takes, VAR, bonuses, etc. — on iPads that also are not connected to anything. They can even have a closed-circuit communications system on which they can all pretend they’re having high level “secret” chats with people at the White House, the Fed, the OCC, etc. about bending and deleting regulations to allow more Giant Squiddy type schemes!

Of course at night they’d have to sleep in old fashioned army cots after a dinner of canned tuna but hey, let’s not forget that the Financier Play Pen is a real-real correctional facility, not a private island near Fiji.
The Financiers’ PlayPen TM (an innovative concept brought to you by Prisons Corporation of America to accommodate former Titans of Financed unmasked as two-bit fraud salesmen).

Sadly Jamie Dimon will never get an intervention because an intervention is made to help somebody you love deal with their illness.

An arrest is done to ensure safety of the society from a predator: a criminal of Dimon's level.

Jamie Dimon doesn’t need help, he needs prison and a snappy orange jumpsuit to compliment those dreamy blue eyes.

He might even get multiple marriage proposals from lonely women desperate for a sociopath in their lives.

ickenittle

Bank of America's Goldilocks Scam

"The bank says we need more porridge."

After being the lead wrecking ball that nearly wiped out the housing market, Bank of America is now begrudgingly paying penance by offering principle write-downs to 200,000 drowning victims whose homes are underwater.

They aren't doing this out the goodness of their heart, that would be out of character for a banking cartel of this magnitude. After being sued by Federal and state agencies for their role in the fake document, robo-signing, home theft, forgery scandal they are being forced into a settlement which can be equated with throwing a bone to a starving dog, then calling it an act of love.

In other words they are getting away with reverse bank robbery...... again.

A select group of struggling mortgage borrowers is about to get an offer that sounds too good to be true. Executives at Bank of America say that they will begin mailing 200,000 letters offering certain customers (those who can hear dog whistles) mortgage principal reduction. So far 5000 lucky lottery winners have been selected to share in the prize- but wait  -- read the fine print before you jump for joy.

"If people get these things and toss them, they won't be eligible," says Ron Sturzenegger, the Bank of America executive charged with providing solutions to borrowers in need of mortgage assistance. eligible borrowers could get an average of $150,000 knocked off the balance of their mortgages.

Those five thousand borrowers have already received a collective $700 million in principal reduction through a pilot program for those already in a modification negotiation. The 200,000 borrowers being targeted now may have already exhausted modification options or may have yet to contact the lender.

No prize for you sucker!

Executives say borrowers receiving the letters are eligible, but they still have to prove they qualify. In order to be eligible, a borrower must be 60 days late on the mortgage payment as of Jan. 31, 2012. The borrower has to owe more on the mortgage than the home is currently worth, and the borrower's loan must either be owned by Bank of America or serviced by Bank of America for an investor who is allowing the modifications. (huh?)

In order to qualify for the modification, the borrower must answer the letter with full documentation of income, showing that under the terms of the modification they can make the monthly payment. A borrower with no income would, therefore, not qualify. A borrower's current monthly payment must be more than 25% of gross income, and the borrower must show they are unable to afford that, this could be called the Goldilocks Clause, where too much income means "no go", and too little income means "sorry chump", but just enough income is deemed.... "just right".

If the borrower qualifies, Bank of America will bring the monthly mortgage payment down to 25% of the borrower's gross income. That could mean principal forgiveness of more than $100,000, as there is no limit to the amount of the mortgage. If enough borrowers respond, it could cost Bank of America far more than it committed to in the settlement. But if the past behavior of a criminal predicts their future actions, you know Bank of America will find a way to protect their interests.

Not all of the 200,000 borrowers who receive the letters are expected to respond. Executives say there is a level of fatigue among delinquent borrowers who have already received several notices or who may have gone through a failed modification process already. Some borrowers simply don’t want to stay in their homes, while others may think the offer is a scam.



What BofA forgets to mention is that they have billions of dollars tied to those mortgages in second liens, you know those equity loans pimped by the bank where they encouraged home owners to use their homes as an ATM and finance that trip to Hawaii. So as long as some homeowners can afford to pay the first mortgage odds are they won't go belly up on the second.


There are currently 11 million under-water homes across America, some will get the same deal if their mortgage was through one of the big five criminal banks, most however will stay treading water for a very long time. But don't blame the financial wizards who sold you that inflated house, they were just keeping the American Dream alive, honest.

So be grateful for that bone, because that's all your going to get. The rest of the dogs will just have to roll over and play dead.


ickenittle

Dead Birds Tell No Tales

Over 500 dead pelicans were found along Peru's northern shore leaving scientists scrambling to figure out why. The pelicans aren't the only creatures dying off in the area. Eight hundred dolphins died earlier this year along with sea lions, turtles and sea birds.

Preliminary tests indicate that the pelicans died onshore and not while at sea. Results from testing the dead dolphins is due any day and this strange outbreak is being called the Peruvian plague.

The Peruvian government said it was "deeply worried".

Local media reports suggest more than 1,200 dead pelicans have been found in the Piura and Lambayeque regions.

Peru's Deputy Minister for Natural Resource Development, Gabriel Quijandria Acosta, said a virus might have killed the dolphins.
A viral epidemic outbreak was linked to similar deaths of marine wildlife in Peru in the past, as well as in Mexico and the United States.

Analysis on the dolphins so far suggested they had contracted a morbillivirus, which belongs to the same group as the measles virus in humans,
What we also know...is that in previous cases animals that have higher loads of pollutants in their body will fall easier victims to these kind of diseases because their immune system is weakened."

But climate change /pollution deniers still cling to the belief that human involvement can't be the culprit.

They will tell you that the "Earth takes care of itself" and as long as we continue to use up all of our finite resources to keep us well stocked in cheap crap from China, and rely on the insane belief in unlimited growth, all will be well in the land of milk and honey and ipads.

So much for "taking personal reponsibility".

Maybe one day a rich Republican real estate developer will build luxury condos on top of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and pitch them as being historic view properties, where once upon a time people actually watched in awe, some miraculous creatures called birds and whales before mankind killed them all.



Someone found your disposable lighter.

Who needs to worry about the ocean?

As long as Walmart is raking in the profits and the sea of junk keeps flowing, nothing else matters.

 Besides, nature is sooooo yesterday.



ickenittle

State Sanctioned Hogicide

Some pigs are more equal than others.

The state of Michigan is engaging in what can only be called state sanctioned " hogicide." The extermination of undesirable pig species. It's part of Michigan's new rule to curb invasive species, but is affecting small pork producers right and left, leaving them fit to be hog-tied.

The "Invasive Species Order" has been put in place by the Department of Natural Resources who it seems are in cahoots with some of the large corporate pork producers. These " pork-orations " have complained that many small farmers are raising pig species that are a direct threat to the health of their factory farmed "other white meat".

Small pork farmers claim the Act to be government over-reach designed to put them out of business due to pressure from the big porkerations.

The invasive species order defines all free-range pig species as illegal, and farmers who do not destroy their pigs will be charged with a felony crime punishable to up to four years in prison.

And not a single bankster has gone to jail.


The state has said it will "destroy" these pigs beginning in April, potentially by raiding local farms with government-issued rifles, then shooting the pig herds while arresting the members of the family and charging them with the "crime" of raising pigs with the wrong hair color, and body size.

Will blond blue-eyed pigs be exempt?

These are the same pigs farmers have been raising for decades, now all of a sudden small farmers are being singled out and treated as criminals. Imagine one day waking up to find what you have been doing for decades has suddenly become a felony.

Under threat of arrest many small farmers have begun the heart-breaking task of killing their herds. One farmer described his outrage as this;

"I was served a search warrant yesterday at 7: 45am. I have killed all my hogs. [DNR] gave me papers that say I do not have any hogs on my property. All they saw were dead hogs laying around from my mass slaughtering. It took 12 guys 4 times in there to kill all of them, sows with young, Pregnant sows, dozens of piglets, and old mature boars. It has been a sad few weeks. Does anyone know what it feels like to open fire on 20 baby piglets in one group which weigh between 5 lbs and 15 lbs. They are so adorable and cute.

Though most of the pigs raised on small farms do end up as pork chops, the animals are treated more humanely by people who deeply care for them. Ask any small farmer how they feel about the animals they raise and you get a mixture of pride and deep love for the animals. These are more than "products" to these small farmers unlike the Michigan Pork Growers Association, where cronyism has stymied competition, and pigs are pumped full of anti-biotics and growth hormones, fed cheap food and grown in a mechanistic assembly line fashion.

Porkerations are not people my friends, take action.

As small farms are systematically being " rooted-out " by the greedy pig-stablishment, there may come a day when we will be introduced to Soylent Pink not unlike the now infamous "Pink-Slime", that dreadful gift given us from those cheap bastards in the beef industry. 



Soon to be banned if you are
a small farmer.



When government and corporations marry, and laws are written that are designed to discourage competition from the little guy over the corporate person, then democracy and free enterprise are as dead as the Dodo, a once plentiful creature wiped out by the whaling industry.

First they came for the pigs, is only the beginning.

Support local farmers, don't shop at Walmart.

Sign my petiton keeping chicken poop out of cattle feed.

ickenittle