Category: crooks and liars

all who usurp and abuse authority

Climate protectors block Rotterdam Coal Station

Climate protectors block supply of coal to Engie power station in #Rotterdam

Netherlands, April 25, 2019: 45 people from We Stop Coal occupied the conveyer belts at the Engie coalfired power station this morning at 06.15, bringing operations there to a standstill.

Originally published by Indymedia NL.

#Wijstoppensteenkool has arrived at the Engie coal power terminal in #Rotterdam to shut down the Engie coal fire power station. #planetburningmachine. #STOPCOAL #stopcoal010 #climatestrike #ClimateJustice #studentsforclimate pic.twitter.com/rhQOdyUZyc

— WijStoppenSteenkool (@StopSteenkool) 25. April 2019

The group demands urgently prioritised closure of all coalfired power stations in the Netherlands by 2020, and that all subsidies and tax breaks currently handed out to fossil fuel corporations (€7.6 billion per annum in NL) be transferred to the renewables sector.

Wim Vos, a group founding member gave the following statement ‘Climate change is no longer a problem of the future, people are already being hit hard across the globe – with floods, fires, droughts and extreme weather events, from Saint Martin to Mozambique. We consider it both necessary and legitimate to take this next step, from public protest to civil disobedience. That means we put our bodies in the way, where the change is most urgently needed.’

The CO2 emissions of the Netherlands have risen every year since the signing of the Paris Climate Accord. The Dutch government has ignored its international obligations, and the ruling of its own highest court on the Urgenda Climate case, mandating that it significantly scale up its ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the same period, new tax breaks and subsidies have been authorized for the biggest polluters. The government’s current proposals for emission reduction are wholly inadequate to the task.

Ende Galende Coal Blockade

The Engie facility currently in lock down has been promoting itself as ‘going green’ by incorporating biomass into its production mix. We Stop Coal points out that the burning of wood pellets only leads to further deforestation and emits even more CO2 than does coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels.

‘We are well organized and extremely determined’ said Marianna Peters, ‘but many more people need to step up, wherever they are, and take bold action. There is no time left for little steps.’

We Stop Coal, April 25, 2019

 

Election Farce in the Sewers of the Spanish State

Spanish translation by  Xavier Domènech, English by thefreeonline

leer en castellano más abajo

“Phones tapped in the name of the government party – Extortion, corruption, shameless enrichment: the activities of a former Police Commissioner dominate the electoral campaign in Spain.”

The Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger has published a forceful article on “The sewers of the Spanish state”, which reviews the direct relations of the Popular Party with the controversial Commissioner Villarejo and the Fake News campaign that affected the different political adversaries of the then Government of Mariano Rajoy.

Full text of the article

Neither the Catalan separatists, nor the immigrants who cross the Mediterranean, nor the enormous unemployment rate are the most exciting topics in Madrid during the hours leading up to the general elections.The most exciting topic is the “sewers of the Spanish State”: an abyss of dirty stories with extortion, corruption, illegal telephone tapping, false information dissemination, in which are implicated, above all, politicians of the Popular Party (PP), but also leaders of the Socialist Party (PSOE) currently in power.

The main protagonist is a 67-year-old retired police commissioner, José Manuel Villarejo, who has been detained for a year and a half accused of creating a criminal organization, bribery and money laundering.

Illegal telephone eavesdropping

A commission of parliamentary investigation is clarifying the activities of Villarejo, who carried out numerous dirty tricks as much for the conservatives as for the socialists, without either part knowing his double game.

He also did “jobs” for business leaders. For years he had felt safe, not only because he was protected by senior officials of the main Spanish parties, but also because he had gathered enough blackmail material, had made a huge file of illegally intercepted phone calls, had copied the diskettes and stored them in several safe places.El comisario Villarejo en el programa Salvados de La Sexta

Jailed ex-Inspector Villarejo spills the Beans..

(All kinds of political corruption are rife in Spain with politicians of all parties lining their pockets, and though hundreds have been indicted almost none have ever been convicted…ed.)

The method was simple: he bribed computer technicians from telephone companies, he could pay up to 1,000 euros per intercepted connection. Continue reading “Election Farce in the Sewers of the Spanish State”

Iran vows a World Recession if US blocks Oil on May 2nd

Millions of us could die and a worldwide mega recession could ensue if the rogue US war state blocks all Iranian oil exports from May 2nd 2019. The US destroyed the historic international peace deal with Iran despite repeated proof that Iran fulfilled, and still fulfills all the conditions. Donald Trump stands to profit personally if a war with Iran boosts oil prices through the roof and gives a new bonanza to the obscene war industry. Now the US have Israel and Saudi Arabia in support, and the only excuse they give is that Iran’s oil export revenue  ..funds destabilising activity. This astonishing assertion unveils an utter hypocrisy and depraved hubris that make the lies that led up to the Iraqi invasion and massacre look like innocent inventions. Now is the time for the US, UK and Israeli public to speak out against a new barbaric genocide.

Iran Threatens To Close Strait Of Hormuz If US Blocks Its Oil Exports

With oil surging to a six month high after a now confirmed report that Trump will not reissue Iranian oil export waivers after they expire on May 2, removing up to 1 million barrels from the market…

… Tehran has gone on the offensive and on Monday a senior Iranian military official said the Islamic Republic will close the Strait of Hormuz if it’s prevented from using it, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

“The Strait of Hormuz based on international law is a waterway and if we are prevented from using it, we will close it,” Reuters reported, citing Alireza Tangsiri, head of the revolutionary guards navy force.”US President Donald Trump’s administration re-imposed sanctions on Iran, including on its energy sector, in November last year after pulling out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced it would not be extending sanctions exemptions for countries that import Iranian oil as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign that aims to eliminate Iran’s oil export revenue, which the US says funds destabilising activity throughout the region and beyond.

The Irani threats are also a response to a response to the US designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist group” earlier this month”. Continue reading “Iran vows a World Recession if US blocks Oil on May 2nd”

Nth America, news roundup/Podcast #63: Like a House of Cards

By   It’s Going Down  

Podcast: Play in new window | Download             Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.    Subscribe: Android | RSS

Welcome, to This Is America, March 9th, 2019.

We have an amazing show/transcript for you this week. First, we talk with someone from PopMob about a recent event in Portland that brought together close to 600 people in response to a series of anti-queer and anti-trans attacks.

Police Rapists Go Free .

In New York, the DA has decided to drop charges against several police officers that raped and attacked Anna Chambers. Anarchists have been a continuous part of the struggle and shown solidarity for months.

In a statement Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council wrote:

Community Safety

We then talk with two people involved in the newspaper project, Salvo, out of Los Angeles, who is currently fundraising to expand their project. We talk about the importance of having counter-information projects, the recent LA teacher’s strike, and more.

But first, let’s get to the news!

Living and Fighting

The Oakland teacher’s strike is over, with many reporting that the teacher’s union gave in to major concessions. Many are now mobilizing to fight a series of proposed school closures. Check out a series of critical articles on the strike on LibCom and Commune Magazine. 

Meanwhile, the teacher’s rebellion continues, with:

A week after Kentucky teachers conducted a job action to protest legislation attacking pensions and public schools, teachers in the state’s largest school district in the Louisville area have staged two days of sickouts in defiance of the unions. On Thursday, Jefferson County Public School teachers were joined by school workers in Meade, Oldham, and Bullitt counties, resulting in the closure of hundreds of schools.

In Louisville, the teacher actions are organized by a group completely autonomous of the teacher’s unions.

 

Chelsea jailed

Supporters of Chelsea Manning rallied in DC recently in support of the whistle-blower who “provided archives of secret military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, [and] was taken into custody on Friday after a federal judge found her in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury that is investigating the anti-secrecy group.” A support fund has been set up here. In a statement Chelsea said:

“In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available. My legal team continues to challenge the secrecy of these proceedings, and I am prepared to face the consequences of my refusal.”

School Strike… 

Demonstrations continue in Sacramento, California, with students taking a lead, launching school walkouts and strikes, which have marched across the city building as more students walk out of school and join in them.

Anti Racist Victory 

In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, two Silent Sam protesters had their charges dropped, while another one still faces some charges. Check out a statement from Take Action Chapel Hill here.

In major anti-pipeline news, the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline, known as the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which for the last two years has been resisted by the L’eau Est La Vie Camp, is now being delayed in construction “indefinitely.” According to Last Real Indians:

Energy Transfer Partners may have lied to its shareholders when it told investors the Bayou Bridge pipeline will be fully functional this month.

According to reports from Louisiana residents who frequent the Atchafalaya Basin, work on the project – which was first projected to be complete in 2017 – has been halted indefinitely due to high water levels.

Included in this program is a recent update from the Bayou Bridge resistance camp, which will also give an update. Not to be outdone, two other massive energy projects, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, two projects have have written about and covered on this podcast, are also in jeopardy and are far behind schedule.

Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipeline Resistance

As Forbes wrote:

Two proposed long-haul natural gas transportation projects—the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)—are now in peril. That’s the result of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia in late February.

The future of both projects remains up in the air, while resistance in the forms of tree-sits and continued resistance on the ground shows no signs of stopping.

Keystone XL pipeline> Criminalising Protests

In some not so good news however, in South Dakota in preparation for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline:

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s [introduced a bill] to curb violent pipeline protests [and it] has flown through both chambers of the Legislature. Noem dropped Senate Bills 189 and 190 on Monday. On Wednesday, a joint hearing was held on the bills. By Thursday, the Legislature suspended rules in order to pass both bills out of both chambers on the same day. SB 189 establishes civil penalties for “riot boosting,” or contributing money to or encouraging protesters who engage in violence.

Of the bill, journalist Will Parish wrote on Twitter:

If you “encourage” someone to protest (“riot”) against the KXL pipeline, SD now wants to fine you. “The governor’s office coordinated with representatives of TransCanada, law enforcement, local governments and state agencies to draft the bills.”

Alt Right Leaks Victory

Finally, the Alt-Right white nationalist group, Identity Evropa is having a bad week. Media collective Unicorn Riot released a series of Discord chat lots giving antifascists across the country access to a treasure trove of information, which kicked off a new round of doxxing, job firings, and more. The leaks show many connections between local GOP and College Republican circles and show a desire by members of IE to infiltrate the political establishment as much as possible.Image result for Identity Evropa

This weekend is Identity Evropa’s yearly conference, which is supposed to be held in secret, yet the information was also released. The group is currently meeting at a lake resort in Kentucky, and then is supposed to hold some sort of action later in the weekend.

Soon after, the leader of Identity Evropa, Patrick “McLovin” Casey announced that the group would reform under the banner of American Identity Movement, or AIM, which of course is the same initials as the American Indian Movement, which still exists to this day. Whether this rebranding will result in a split within the organization or just a reboot, remains unclear.

Upcoming Events:

  • Saturday, March 9th: Little Rock, Arkansas, State Capitol. Anti-racist mobilization against militia, neo-Nazi, and KKK rally. More info here.
  • Friday, March 15th: Vancouver, British Columbia. Mobilize against Alt-Right trolls Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern. More info here.
  • Saturday, March 16th: March Against Racism and Fascism with UARF. New York. More info here.
  • March 16th – 20th: Mattole Forest Skillshare Camp in Northern California.
  • April 19th-21st: In Prescott, Arizona there is a three-day antifascist gathering called the Cliffrose Convergence at the Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center being organized.
  • Thursday, March 14th at the Social Justice Action Center at 400 SE 12th Ave. PDX Rad Movie is back for our first installment of 2019, one year and one day after our first showing last March.
  • March 30th, East Portland Housing Assembly. More info here.
  • August 16th – 18th: Indigenous anarchist convergence, so-called Flagstaff, Arizona. More info here.

Eat the Rich? How Offshore Capital Now Rules the World 

Today’s super-rich are the most privileged and powerful group of people in history.  If you’re a billionaire, you can even decide an election by funneling a little bit of your money into the race. You can choose to pay 0% tax.
You can sway public opinion by buying up media outlets, and by using think tanks to influence schools and news sources. You can mobilize law enforcement agencies towards targeting your enemies, that is anyone who annoys you.

The eight richest people in the world hoard more wealth than the bottom 50% of humanity combined, they are playing with fire.

Extreme inequality and declining living standards have happened everywhere that neoliberalism has been imposed, including in the Scandinavian countries that have tried to “reform” capitalism. While the world’s eight richest men now have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of humanity, the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people are currently getting poorer.

Some call it Moneyland, others see a return to feudal times. The offshore world could also be compared to the two-tiered architecture of imperial Panem in Suzanne Collin’s dystopian Hunger Games trilogy, which is said to reflect the workings of the Roman empire.

Offshore finance: how capital rules the world

https://roarmag.org/

Gangsterism against Venezuela: US risks Bloodbath in Pirates of the Caribbean

Any discussion on Venezuela is likely to end in fisticuffs. On one side we have the US and neoliberal forces conspiring together with a repressed middle class and the old ruling class in every conceivable way to destroy a state socialist revolution, which may be corrupt, inept and brutal but guarantees basic health, education, housing, food and a vision of social revolution to the great majority of people..
 24 Jan, 2019 13:17      You could scour the bowels of US imperial crimes, from the Mexican-American War to the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, and you won’t find a more brazen cynical act of gangsterism than that which is now underway against Venezuela.

Not since Hitler justified blitzing Poland by claiming it had encroached on the frontier into Nazi Germany has a more blatant set of falsehoods been adduced as a pretext for conflict.

Related image‘This Fight Is Ours’: Venezuela Women March Against Imperialism. 

In Venezuela, it will quickly become a civil war that will most likely draw in other countries from Cuba to Colombia and Brazil (as I previously predicted here) with incalculable consequences – not least for the world’s oil prices.

  US refuses to withdraw diplomats from Venezuela after Maduro breaks ties

Discerning readers will already be aware that Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and is a major producer – and the biggest seller to the American market.

This is not about Maduro, the former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who is now the elected president of Venezuela. If it were, I’d waste my time critiquing his period in office.

Fake11.jpg

Here’s a heart-wrenching picture of babies in laundry-baskets, with the question, What kind of revolution is this? But the photo is from Honduras. see many more false images at…. Exposed: Tsunami of Blatant Lies by Western Media on Venezuela

 

It’s not about Maduro because the US had been seeking to overthrow his predecessor Hugo Chavez for more than a decade before this.

Even though Chavez was one of the most electorally successful politicians on the planet in a democratic process described by former US president Jimmy Carter as “the best in the world,” US presidents Bush, Obama and Trump routinely called him a dictator.

After 18 years of subversion, infiltration, coercion, bribery and a constant blitz of fake news the US is pushing Venezuela into a horrific civil war in order to take control of its oil.
Venezuelan commune movements march in support of the new Constituent Assembly (photo by AVN)

Before they drop the bombs, they drop the narrative, of course. And the disinformation bombardment in Venezuela has been one of the longest bombing runs in history.

Massive sums of US money have been spent on media distortion, subversion, sabotage, military coups, and threats of invasion throughout the Chavez-Maduro era.

Is Maduro a dictator? By whose standards? Remember how we were fooled by the blitz of fake news into condemning Gaddafi, so they could destroy the best welfare state in Africa, leaving him raped and murdered in the street and the country in horrific chaos to this day.  Remember the mega-lying witch hunt against Saddam..Why? To steal rights over their oil.

The gold-toothed Venezuelan emigres who fled to Miami with their ill-gotten gains have long been effectively a coup in the making.

The recruitment of neighboring Colombia into “associate membership” of NATO, the propeling of Brazil’s Bolsonaro (another NATO applicant) to power, and plans for US military bases there have all been in preparation for this day.

READ MORE: Venezuela divide: Turkey, Russia, China stand against Washington, its Latin America allies

Although many such crimes have been committed across all continents for centuries by the US, none have constituted such comic-opera gangsterism as this latest – more ‘Bugsy Malone’ than ‘The Godfather.’Image result for manifestacion en canarias en favor de venezuela

An almost random figure whose name was largely unknown until this week has disdained to put himself up for election as president of the republic, instead pronouncing himself to actually be the president, and has even sworn himself in!

‘Maduro called us and here I am..the Constituent Assembly is the path to peace..Lets Do It!’Another member of the ANC, Melvin Maldonado recalled that in 18 years of the Bolivarian Revolution, there have been 21 elections, which “shows the strength of our National Electoral Council, and it also shows the democratic nature and electoral power in our country.”

All the “experts” on Syria, Ukraine and Russia are scrambling to studios, practicing in the taxi how to say his name.

And the “international community” recognizes Juan Guaido. This includes US, Canada and assorted American satrapies across the world. They will likely soon be joined by the so-called democratic European Union, NATO and almost certainly the UK.
Image result for demonstration in support of venezuelan revolution
It is a new form, to be sure – usually the hated Latin American presidents are dead, like Allende in Chile, or have fled or been jailed before the coup de grace is delivered.

But Trump is in a hurry.

As investigations come ever closer to the Trump syndicate, as the clock ticks towards impeachment or defeat in 2020, as the war-cell of Bolton and company screech for a victory, somewhere, anywhere, it has come to this.

It is a “Wag the Dog” war, and it’s coming to your screens soon – today in fact.

”The rich want lower taxes, and ending social programs for the have-nots, and they want the privatization of vital government enterprises so that they can loot the country, as is happening right now in Brazil. And most of all, they want the privatization of the oil in their hands. They want to be billionaire oligarchs just like oligarchs in other oil-rich countries”. The have-nots, workers, unemployed, women, indigenous, blacks … still support the government. They want the government to keep control of the oil for the benefit of the people, the have-nots. They are in the streets too, they are supporting the government, and they are being violently attacked by the hoodlums of the haves and the mercenaries for the U.S. Empire”.

Dictator Erdogan decrees $20 billion Tank Factory gift to Cronies

How nice to have total power! Here’s yet another little scandal to add to the 1001-crimes-of-adolf-erdogan. Not this time locking up tens of thousands or  massacring the Kurds‎, but adding up to a fine sum of $20,000,000,000 nonetheless.

How Erdoğan rushed to gift Turkey’s multibillion dollar tank factory to his cronies and Qatar

by Abdullah Bozkurt  at Nordic Monitor

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rushed a financial agreement between Turkey and Qatar through Parliament for approval ahead of his decision to turn over a $20 billion tank and pallet factory to a company run jointly by his associates and the Qatari army.
The tank and pallet factory at 1st Main Maintenance Command headquarters in Turkey’s Sakarya province.

The deal, the avoidance of double taxation agreement, came just in the nick of time before the Erdoğan government presented a multibillion-dollar national tank factory on a silver platter to Turkish-Qatari armored vehicle manufacturer BMC, a company run by Ethem Sancak, a member of the MKYK executive body of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The rushed agreement on double taxation between Turkey and Qatar replaced one that had been in effect since 2009.
The taxation agreement was approved in Parliament.
Erdoğan issued an executive decree on Dec. 20, 2018 that turned over the rights to operate Turkey’s national tank factory for a 25-year period to BMC without any competitive bidding or transparent process.

On paper, 49.9 percent of BMC’s shares belong to the Qatari Armed Forces, while Sancak owns 25 percent and the Öztürk family (Ahmet Öztürk, Talip Öztürk and Taha Yasin Öztürk) owns 25.1 percent.

Rumor in Ankara circles has it that Erdoğan is the real owner of BMC and Sancak is merely a caretaker looking after the Turkish president’s business interests. The Öztürk family, known to have mafia links to Galip Öztürk, a convicted murderer and head of an organized crime network, is seen close to the Turkish president.

Continue reading “Dictator Erdogan decrees $20 billion Tank Factory gift to Cronies”