The Free

We would like to post more information from its inhabitants on the amazing transformation of Raqqa and the inspiring story of the SDF, as a template for horizontally organized revolution in the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East and beyond.

On the Internet you get 1000’s of posts on Trump, but never anything about the amazing Revolution still ongoing in Nth East Syria, , despite being blockaded and surrounded by hostile neighbours.

Raqqa, for example, has risen from the rubble after being the ISIS Capital, after being carpet bombed by the US led Coalition, and being liberated in a heroic street by street war by the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the multi ethnic and gender federation of militias of the Rojava Revolution.

Raqqa is not a Kurdish city, it’s multi ethnic, mainly Arab. After liberation Raqqa Military and Civil Councils were immediately formed, following the successful model in Manbij, with representation from women and all races and religions. 480,ooo citizens returned to their homes, often in ruins, and intensive rebuilding began , with some help from NGO’s and reluctantly from the Coalition. (The SDF retained some power, devolved in its Arabic sections and the Military Council, in a model they try to replicate in Deir Es Zor).

We would like to post more information from its inhabitants on the amazing transformation of Raqqa and the inspiring story of the SDF, as a template for horizontally organised revolution in the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East and beyond.

Raqqa Criticism and proposals from Syrian Democratic Council consultation,

shared with thanks from Rojava Information Center, Focus, News, Translations

Key stakeholders including opposition politicans and tribal leaders were invited, as well as members of the general public

The Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) has launched a series of consultations across North and East Syria. Rojava Information Center (RIC) researchers recently attended one such public consultation in Raqqa, summarized below, following on from another meeting in Heseke (you can read a summary of the Heseke discussion here.)

The meetings are taking place in all seven of the constituent regions of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Along with ordinary civilians then Kurdish and Arabic opposition groups, Arab tribal representatives, minority religious and ethnic groups, women and youth organizations have all been invited to share their perspectives, feedback, criticism and proposals on the political processes underway in the region, and on the internal policies of the AANES.

Continue reading “Raqqa Reborn via Rojava Revolution: Criticism and proposals from Citizens Consultation”

Filed under: Featured, Incarceration, Political Prisoners, Prison Break—Certain Days

In the last few weeks, the public has gotten a rare glimpse into the horrific plight of prisoners locked away in U.S. prisons and jails. With forest fires devastating the West Coast, prisoners continue to suffer and bear the brunt of indifference.

A whistleblower at an ICE detention center in Georgia alleged that hysterectomies were performed on numerous women without their consent, drawing comparisons to the medical atrocities performed throughout history.

In Rochester, New York, the police murder of Daniel Prude has led to daily protests and continued calls for structural change. In Washington State, police murdered an unarmed suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl, who was alleged to have been involved in a shooting of a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon.

Meanwhile in Washington, Attorney General Barr has encouraged prosecutors to consider charging protesters with sedition, a charge often brought against those confronting the State.

Continue reading “Prison Break: With Arms Wide Open”

The scam is to privatize the ”profits” made by socializing the inherent losses. Losses in cash paid by the people, losses in health and suffering by toxic work and pollution. Losses of the ruined environment and massacred animal life, and above all pending mega losses in spiraling Climate chaos. (see also Cancer Alley As virus ravages Louisiana, ‘Cancer Alley’ residents Fight Back

$117 BILLION to pay, and that’s just Texas.

”But what about the Magnificent new horizon of the Permian West Texas and New Mexico fields. The Investment of a Lifetime in the pipelines and the Golden Opportunity of cornering the World LPG supply to make Texas the triumphant Plastics Capital of the dying planet”. (note. LPG is the semi liquid pumpable part of gas production used to make plastics etc, its not LNG)

Image projected onto Houston petrochemical plant during the Houston Toxic Tour, 2017. Credit: Backbone Campaign, CC BY 2.0

This is the Shale Revolution that Made America Great Again. A State of predator capitalists who believe it’s their God given right to promote little gangster businessmen and trash the planet.. So they are lauded and rewarded and given nearly free interest money and a blind eye to toxic aquifers, tailings lakes and massive methane leaks. Just for a few months often, till the wells become ”unprofitable”…

But another and another is already being drilled, till there are millions of them, more than half of them abandoned.(See also Fracking Gas and Oil to Supply Giant US Chemical Belt and Lock-in cheap Plastics Monopoly)

Then there is too much oil and gas, till it’s ”unprofitable” even avoiding most of the real costs. So bankruptcy is declared, after pocketing the assets. Ruining the small suppliers and abandoning thousands of toxic leaking wells and ponds. So the company is swallowed by Exxon or another Corporation and our heroic entrepreneur still has capital to retire on his Texas ranch or DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.

Fracking for Plastics, a DeSmog investigation into the proposed petrochemical build-out in the Rust Belt. Over 12.6 million people in the United States live within half a mile of an oil and gas facility.

So who will pay the $117,000,000,000 dollars, in the middle of a pandemic and economic crash? The poor and immigrants of Texas will no doubt be further squeezed, all social programs cut or abolished. Health care will disappear, schools will fester, homes will be repossessed.. But even so this could never never be able to pay off 117 Billion.

Only and uniquely in The USA, because the dollar has been forced on us as world reserve currency, the State can borrow TRILLIONS and sell off the debt to investors to stash in their fiscal paradises. So the toxic ecocidal bubble can seemingly grow indefinitely. Until suddenly one day people are forced to stop ‘make-believing’ in it.

This is voodoo Trump style economics, based on Endless growth on a finite and fragile planet. But if predictions are accurate its days are numbered, and , though the 1% of big capitalists and warmongers may suffer, social and environmental justice movements, now organizing, may yet triumph in the USA.

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4 october 2020 by EN-AB

Texas Taxpayers Face $117,000,000,000 Bill For Orphaned Oil Wells

04-10-20 11:13:00, Authored by Josh Owens via OilPrice.com.

The state of Texas and its taxpayers could be on the hook for paying up to US$117 billion for the cleaning-up of abandoned wells as a growing number of U.S. oil companies go bust, and the guarantees for paying for the cleanup cover only 1 percent of estimated costs, a report by climate finance think-tank Carbon Tracker showed on Thursday.  

Continue reading “Texas Taxpayers must Pay $117,000,000,000 Bill For toxic abandoned Capitalist Oil and Gas Wells”