Demonstrators protest Monsanto Co. in Paris last year
Last year the World Health Organisation finally labelled the biggest selling weedkiller Roundup as ‘probably cancer causing’. This after decades of sellout to Monsanto’s tame scientists and the incalculable suffering of millions of people. (The word ‘probably’ is just to defend against the lobby’s legal machine, there are thousands of documented deaths).
Nowadays Roundup is everywhere, cumulative and persistent, in your food, in parks, crops, picnic spots, roadsides… By chance its authorization in the EU has just come up for renewal and all hell has broken loose as Monsanto tries everything to covertly bribe or threaten officials (ie. lobbying) and citizens and victims campaign try to ban it.
“The Texas action is not an isolated one. Prisoners in nearby Alabama and Mississippi, and as far away as Oregon, have also been alerted to the Texas strike through an underground network of communication between prisons.”
PRISON INMATES around the country have called for a series of strikes against forced labor, demanding reforms of parole systems and prison policies, as well as more humane living conditions, a reduced use of solitary confinement, and better health care.
Inmates at up to five Texas prisons pledged to refuse to leave their cells today. The strike’s organizers remain anonymous but have circulated fliers listing a series of grievances and demands, and a letter articulating the reasons for the strike. The Texas strikers’ demands range from the specific, such as a “good-time” credit toward sentence reduction and an end to $100 medical co-pays, to the systemic, namely a drastic downsizing of the state’s incarcerated population.
This week we take a look at the multiple converging flashpoints of resistance in France, which have combined into a popular movement that has inspired over a million peeps to take to the streets in a massive expression of collective rage.
On the music break, we have French antifa hip hop group Sang Mêlé, with Le Bal Des Insurgé.es.
From there we move onto a take-down of “the Donald”, and try to answer the question of why his angry message is resonating with millions of Americans. We finish things up with an interview with Crimethinc operative B Traven, who explains what anarchists have against democracy.
Details of the offshore company that was set up by Ian Cameron, the father of Britain’s prime minster David and which paid no UK taxes is given below. The business of Blairmore Holdings Inc is no ‘private affair’, as David Cameron prefers to put it, nor are the questions raised about Blairmore merely about legality. On the contrary, this is a matter of morality, involving issues that goes straight to the heart of Britain’s class system and of how the establishment in government and industry circles enables the rich to retain their wealth to the detriment of everyone else. There are many unanswered questions, not least about the entire tax avoidance system with which Britain leads the way…
Amnesty’s Andrew Gardner says sending refugees back to Syria is “absolutely illegal” both under Turkish and international law in itself. Also 2 documented reports, by Amnesty and the BBC show Turkey is now forcing refugees back into the Syrian war zone. Thus refugees deported by the EU to Turkey could be doubly illegally dumped on into Syria. Turkey is charging EU taxpayers 6,000,000,000 euros, plus free entry to the EU, for the privilege of exploiting this mega scam. Plus for every deportee accepted from Greece the Turkish state can legally dump a ‘documented’ refugee back there!
Over the coming weeks the Greek authorities will attempt to ship to Turkey hundreds of refugees who have been earmarked for deportation under the illegal EU-Turkey deal. Ferries have been commandeered for the task. But the Greek police are overstretched and may not be able to cope if riots and other protests by refugees and their supporters erupt. Already several contingents of riot police from across Europe have been drafted in: this is unprecedented and an admission of failure by the Greek authorities as well as a clear abuse of Greek sovereignty. The situation could be explosive, particularly if those of the ‘Other Europe’ – people who are diametrically opposed to these and other authoritarian measures – take direct action to halt this madness and restore a sense of morality.
On Friday, after rioting, several hundred refugees broke out of the Vial detention centre…
Government-Owned Bank Begs Customers To Borrow Cash
yes folks,Hello Helicopter Money… the first showers of free cash are beginning to fall in Europe…
by Secular InvestorWe have already reported back to you several times on how desperate the European Central Bank seems to be in its attempts to get the money circulation in the Eurozone going again. Unfortunately all of its previous ‘ideas’ didn’t really work out too well, and the ECB just continues to cut its most important interest rates to discourage the banks to deposit cash at the ECB in overnight deposits.
Nice theories don’t always work in the real world, and the idea of negative interest rates definitely didn’t help at all. But then, the ECB’s recent statements contained some interesting surprises. During the Q&A session with journalists, Mario Draghi confirmed ‘ helicopter money ’ is a real thing, and just one week later, one of the main board members of the ECB was quoted in an Italian newspaper saying helicopter money is interesting (and cannot be ruled out).
That would be quite unique, and we were very intrigued when we got our hands on a letter from a Belgian bank to an existing (business) client. In that letter, the bank offered the client an immediate credit facility of 3,750 EUR (which could immediately be expanded to 10,000 EUR upon request).
The most intriguing part is that this bank is 100% government-owned, and that the client has never applied for a loan, nor does he need one. In fact, the company is perfectly healthy, has no net debt but a net cash position on the balance sheet, but still was offered to borrow money without any installment fees whatsoever. The business owner also confirmed to us he has been client at a larger non-government bank for a much longer period of time but has never ever even received just a request to find out what his capital needs are.
Source: letter provided to us, in Dutch.
Was this a publicity stunt? No. Included in the letter was a SIGNED CONTRACT by the bank’s credit department, stating the credit facility HAS ALREADY BEEN OPENED (the highlighted part in yellow states ‘this proposal will automatically turn into a contract from April 15 on’) and no further action was required. In fact, there was an accompanying letter promoting another credit facility of up to 22.5M EUR (keep in mind the business we’re talking about has a total annual revenue of less than half a million US Dollar) which could be made available upon a second check and after paying a 2,500 EUR installment fee. That’s right, a bank was proposing a substantial line of credit with an installment fee of 0.01% of the total amount that would be borrowed.
Belgian-French financial services group Dexia Chairman Jean-Luc Dehaene
We don’t like to use the term ‘ helicopter money ’ loosely but in this case it certainly looks like this (again; government-owned) bank has gone in overdrive to force credit lines down people’s and company’s throats. Giving away credit lines with no end date looks pretty much like a ‘please borrow some money from us’ type of thing. And we have saved the best for last. Belfius Bank is nothing less but the nationalized part of Dexia, the bank that collapsed during the Global Financial Crisis and was nationalized in 2011 after more shit has hit the fan, and the cost to insure against a default of this bank more than hundredfolded.
Corporate Looting vs Public Health
