Uncle Sam Wants You

Poster O' The Day, July 31

Defiant statement by indignant following Syntagma eviction

http://roarmag.org/2011/07/defiant-statement-by-indignant-following-syntagma-eviction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+roarmag+%28Reflections+on+a+Revolution%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Growing poverty may push Arab Spring into Africa

Interesting piece.

http://roarmag.org/2011/07/growing-poverty-may-push-arab-spring-into-sub-saharan-africa/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+roarmag+%28Reflections+on+a+Revolution%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Guest Post: Adam Smith Would Neither Recognize Nor Approve Of Our Financial, Monetary, Economic Or Legal Systems

Smith was sometimes tolerant of government intervention, ”especially when the object is to reduce poverty.” Smith passionately argued, ”When the regulation, therefore, is in support of the workman, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters.” He saw a tacit conspiracy on the part of employers ”always and everywhere” to keep wages as low as possible.

In the 1970s his notebooks were discovered in a loft in Scotland. They revealed a Smith very different from the conventional reckoning.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/guest-post-adam-smith-would-neither-recognize-nor-approve-of-our-financial-monetary-economic-or-legal-systems.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Diversity fundraiser sues UCSD over firing

Documents »
Download: Lawsuit by fired diversity fundraiser against UCSD

A former University of California San Diego employee, hired to raise money for diversity programs, has sued the university alleging that she was fired for speaking up about discriminatory practices at the La Jolla campus.

The plaintiff, Ana Baiz-Torres, contends she was a victim of racial discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination.

Baiz-Torres was hired in September 2010 to fill a new position created after a series of racial incidents that roiled the campus last year.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/27/diversity-fundraiser-sues-ucsd-over-firing/

Didacticide Update, 31 July: Detroit Schools’ Boss Announces Unilateral 10% Wage Cut–and Worse

Roy Roberts, the “Emergency Financial Manager,” (EFM) of the Detroit Schools, today announced a 10% wage cut aimed at all district employees. He also described further benefit cuts but offered no clear details. The wage cut will come, on average, to about $7,400 per school worker.

Roberts was given dictatorial powers under a bill passed by the Michigan legislature this year. The EFM bill potentially applies to cities throughout the state, and all public workers. Roberts, who came to Detroit Public Schools as a former boss at the failed General Motors Corporation, now referred to by Detroiters as Government Motors, was appointed by the past Democratic Governor of Michigan, Granholm.

http://richgibson.com/DPSunilateralcut.htm

Cartoon O' The Day, July 31

How They Must Laugh At Us

G.E. Made $14 Billion In 2010 And Paid NO U.S. Tax

http://dailybail.com/home/ge-made-14-billion-in-2010-and-paid-no-us-tax.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail



CNN's Jack Cafferty: GE Moves $14 Billion Per Year X-Ray Business To China, And They Still Don't Pay Any U.S. Taxes


http://dailybail.com/home/cnns-jack-cafferty-ge-moves-14-billion-per-year-x-ray-busine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Spain: The 'Indignant’ and the Paris Commune

The Paris Commune did not believe in bourgeois institutions, viewing them as incurably deceitful, because it knew that this cumbersome framework of laws, norms and governmental agencies was solely concerned with consolidating the wealth and privileges of the dominant classes and with keeping the people under submission. It demanded direct and participatory democracy and the repeal of parliamentary government, that vicious warping of politics turned into a black hole of thievery and all kinds of compromise and negotiation completely foreign to the wellbeing of the majority. It demanded the simultaneous creation of a new political, executive and legislative order, based on universal suffrage (men and women treated equally, not as later occurred in democratic capitalism where "universal" referred exclusively to males) and with representatives who were directly accountable to – and removable by – their constituents. The members of the commune wanted a real democracy, not a fictitious one, in which the representatives of the people such as those in a state bureaucracy would not enjoy any kind of privilege at all and would be paid the same wage as an average worker. And other things, such as a lasting separation between church and state and universal free, secular and compulsory education for females and males alike.

Terrific piece.

In the fact-checking department, the Commune didn't quite treat men and women equally. It did more for women than any government ever had to this point, but it didn't quite effect equality in the brief time that it survived.

http://zcommunications.org/spain-the-indignant-and-the-paris-commune-by-atilio-boron

Syntagma press release on second EU ‘bailout’ agreement

We are left with no choice. The overthrow of all those who oppress us and deprive our hope for a better life is a one way road. We will not allow for the new memorandum to pass, and it won’t pass. We do not owe, we do not sell, we will not pay! We will stay in the squares of Greece, for as long as it takes, adamant in our objectives, unmediated and truthful, implementing direct democracy. We are determined to succeed.

You have to read this.

http://roarmag.org/2011/07/syntagma-press-release-on-second-eu-bailout-agreement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+roarmag+%28Reflections+on+a+Revolution%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Egypt’s Kefaya demands military apology

Kefaya founders condemned Ruwaini’s statements, and asked him to produce evidence supporting his statements or apologize.

Ruweini spoke multiple times with different media outlets accusing the 6 of April movement of receiving funds from foreign countries and that their members were trained in Serbia to bring down the regime.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37884

Harald Hau: Eurozone Bailout – Tax Transfer to the Wealthy?

More surprising is Sarkozy’s spin on these events. He interpreted the new deal as an important step towards Europe’s economic governance. But before taking too much pride, Sarkozy should remember that a €200 billion subsidy to sovereign creditors is a gigantic wealth transfer from the taxpayer to essentially the richest 5% of the world. In the US, the 5% richest households control roughly 70% of all financial wealth, and this percentage is not much different in the rest of the world. Ultimate ownership of bank capital and sovereign debt is so concentrated among high-wealth individuals that we should characterise the bailout subsidy as an “impôt pour la fortune” (“a tax for wealth”) – a wealth tax supporting the rich.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/harald-hau-eurozone-bailout-%E2%80%93-tax-transfer-to-the-wealthy.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

“Is Standard and Poor’s Manipulating US Debt Rating to Escape Liability for the Mortgage Crisis?”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/is-standard-and-poor%E2%80%99s-manipulating-us-debt-rating-to-escape-liability-for-the-mortgage-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Photos From The Irish Protests

Punt is the old Irish currency. Actually it's how the word "pound" sounds in the Irish brogue.

Egypt Update, July 30

According to the secularists, the Islamists agreed to join with them in a protest on a narrow list of shared grievances, and then they broke their word by turning the event into an Islamist rally.

Some Islamists claimed that there was no such agreement, however a list of the grievances appeared in the media and was reproduced on this blog the night before the event.

So the Day of Unity turned out to be anything but. As I have speculated before in this space, capital, for whom the SCAF toils, will never surrender Egypt to its people, so how will they prevent a democratic takeover of power? There have been persistent whispers that the Islamists are working with the SCAF. According to Hossam el-Hamalawy:

The Islamist forces, whose leaders, also without any exceptions, are in one way or another allied to the SCAF awaiting their shares of the booties in the coming parliamentary elections and constitutional reform, decided to escalate their moves against the Tahrir revolutionaries by announcing roughly two weeks ago they were calling for mass protests in the square, to “assert Egypt’s Islamic identity, denounce supra-constitutional principles, and to demand the application of Islamic sharia.” Such announcement was coupled with an agitation campaign that spoke of “purging Tahrir from the secularists.”

There was tension in the square over the past few days. We didn’t know what to expect on Friday. Some were expecting an “Islamist invasion” of the square, medieval style, with swords and sticks. Others thought it was going to be a peaceful day.[1]

The invasion did come, but fortunately without the swordplay.

Thinking aloud: There is reason to think that the two reactionary forces, the SCAF (political) and the Islamists (social/cultural), are colluding. Historically, some Islamists have been quite amenable to sharing a duopoly with government. While the analogy only goes so far, the relationship between the clergy and political rule was not so different as that as existed in the Christian West in the middle ages. The SCAF works for capital and their concern is continued profits, the profiteers won't care if women are denied drivers' licenses and forced to cover themselves. Should the Islamists not balk at capitalism, a deal can easily be struck.

And it's worth noting that up until this event, protesters have been demonized, harried, beaten, tortured, and blocked off and kettled by the police and army. In Abbasiya recently, they were directly assaulted by thugs while the police did nothing but lob tear gas at the protesters. The Islamists went unmolested.

This may just be a strategy on the part of the regime, there doesn't need to be a deal in place. Perhaps the cops are giving the Islamists a free hand so that they can later swoop in and shut the revolution down in the name of fighting extremism, the War on Terror etc.

There was also this:

Egypt army detains 5 suspects in Sinai clashes

On Friday night, around 150 men in trucks and on motorbikes rampaged through El-Arish, firing assault rifles in the air, driving terrified residents into their homes.

They rode through the deserted streets of the north Sinai city waving black flags which read "There is no God but Allah", before attempting to storm the police station.

Sinai, that's near Israel, isn't it?

And in case we didn't put two and two together:

Earlier, the masked men used a bulldozer to damage a statue of the late president Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamist militants in 1981.

http://www.timesofoman.com/innercat.asp?cat=&detail=48291&sec=news



And there is this anachronism:

Egyptian plane catches fire at Cairo airport

The passengers were rushed off the plane to a transit hall as firefighters put out the flames. The officials said two firefighters were later taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

The fire didn't affect general air traffic and another plane was being prepared for the passengers traveling to Jiddah.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Not authorized to speak to the media? Not authorized to say firefighters put out a fire; that some suffered smoke inhalation; that another plane was readied?

Yes this fire could have been a coincidence, but how rare it is that planes catch afire, and at the airport no less. It sure didn't take long for this plane to burst into flames did it?

I don't know what this means if anything, but I have a feeling we will be hearing more about it in the months ahead.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hn1CxP92oSOy4RJWOo2zLea3VmnQ?docId=9b885130dd104e02b06a4aa2c3e16965



I'm not suggesting that the Sinai, airport, and natural gas explosion events were staged, I don't know that to be the case, but they all work to the favor of the SCAF. The moment of truth is coming, the moment when the junta moves on the revolution in the name of establishing order. And that moment may not be too far off.



[1] Hossam's blog has a great account, lots of photos too. http://www.arabawy.org/blog/

Cartoon O' The Day, July 30

Quote O' The Day, 30 July

“For all our dead comrades, not a minute’s silence, but a life of struggle.”

Olav Magnus Linge, Norway’s Socialist Youth

Egypt Update, July 28

Tomorrow is the big day, the Million Man March. The people of Egypt are now see through the military junta, and there is a grave danger of violence between the revolutionaries and the regime.[1]

It was almost derailed when a chasm between the revolutionary right and left developed, and the Salafis threatened to hold a counter march, one which might have resulted in bloodshed. Fortunately this disaster was averted by the preternatural stupidity of the ruling junta and their masters in Washington.

Both revolutionary factions were alerted to the fact that the real problem was the ruling SCAF, when the latter announced they were going to issue a set of principles for the writing of the constitution. Hitherto that project was to be left entirely to officials who were to be elected before the end of the year. These "principles" were an obvious attempt to subvert the process. So the two groups united and agreed on the following demands:

First of all there are the final demands of #July 29 million man Protest or as 27 parties , movements and coalitions from right , left and middle call it : The popular will and unity

1. The military trials for civilians to be ceased and re-trial of those The demands of July 29 Fridayprosecuted in front of military courts.
2. Speeding the killing of the protesters trials and to honor martyrs in the best way.
3. Assigning whole courts to ensure quick and just trials for ex-regime corrupted icons.
4. Maximum and minimum limit of wages.
5. Activating quickly the treachery act in order to exclude all those who spoiled the political life from participating in shaping our future.

Needless to say that maximum income restriction is entirely unacceptable to local and international capital, and has the military thugs now running the country wringing their hands.


http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/july29-final-demands.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail



The SCAF has been in constant contact with their bosses in Washington:

Major General El Assar Goes to Washington

Here is the complete session of Mohamed El Assar , Member of SCAF and the minister of defense assistant at the U.S Institute of Peace. El Assar is the man responsible for American file in the ministry of defense , you can consider him as MOD’s Omar Soliman.
Hate him or love him I think this man among the real minds in SCAF , our military junta.

Soliman was Mubarak's right-hand man and ran Egypt's secret services which tortured and killed thousands of Egyptian dissidents over the years.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/major-general-el-assar-goes-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail



Since the revolution just won't go away, of late the military dictatorship has taken to calling the April 6th movement, the spearhead and most radical element of the revolution, a traitorous group accepting money from and working at the behest of "Foreign interests." Coming from the SCAF this is rich indeed as they would not survive a minute without the backing of foreign interests.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Foreign groups are meddling in Egypt and stirring up unrest, Egypt's army chief said on Wednesday, days after protesters marched to the defence ministry to urge their military rulers to speed up reforms.

"There are foreign players who feed and set up specific projects that some individuals carry out domestically, without understanding," Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military council said in an address to officers.

"It is possible that there is lack of understanding, that foreign players are pushing the people into inappropriate directions," Tantawi said, adding that such foreign parties "did not want stability for Egypt."

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE76R02C20110728



In an amazing counteroffensive ( how does one say "what balls!" in Arabic), the maligned have sued the government for defamation.

EGYPT: Activists to sue ruling generals over treason accusations

Two of Egypt’s most prominent political movements have announced they will sue the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces for “libel and false accusations" over comments made by a senior army official suggesting the organizations were receiving foreign funding and were involved in treason.

The announcement by the April 6th Youth Movement and Kefaya came two days after a statement issued by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces accused a number of political movements, specifically April 6th, of having hidden agendas and working against the country’s interests. The military blamed April 6th for "igniting strife between the army and the people."

The military added: “SCAF calls on all sects of the people to remain cautious and not to be led by such a suspicious plot, which aims to undermine Egypt’s stability.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/07/egypt-activists-sue.html



In conjunction with the campaign to demonize the revolutionaries, the junta has tightened control on the press.

FEATURE-Egypt media gains reversed by military rulers

CAIRO, July 28 (Reuters) - - Hafez Al Mirazi spent weeks preparing for his new primetime talk show on state television. But one week before "Cairo Local Time" was scheduled to start, an army general ordered it put on hold.

Mirazi was told that the format for the show broke rules requiring more than one host, an explanation that the veteran journalist saw as an excuse to keep him off the airwaves of state television.

"It's not about my show... I am very worried because this incident is a common excuse for intimidating the media."

http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE75D27D20110728



Obviously Washington is watching this march closely. They initial plan was to wait out the revolution by trying to appease it while they delay and delay the demanded reforms. That hasn't worked, so they have postponed the elections. Now the counterrevolution directed by Washington has escalated to a more aggressive phase as an attempt is made to discredit the most determined groups at the core of the revolutionary movement. This has been accompanied by physical assaults by surrogates as happened recently in Abbasiya. Now in the run-up to the MMM tomorrow, an intense propaganda campaign has been launched by international capital and its media assets, some of it quite crude.

Egypt Hosts “Resistance” Conference Attended By Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad…

Resistance being code for terrorism against Israel.

http://weaselzippers.us/2011/07/27/egypt-hosts-resistance-conference-attended-by-hamas-hezbollah-palestinian-islamic-jihad/



How Not to Write About the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

In a ludicrously alarmist piece that appeared on the The Daily Beast, “Egypt’s Simmering Rage” Douglas Schoen and Randall Lane assert that “clearly and unambiguously” the political climate in Egypt is moving in a new direction that is “inimical to American and allied interests.”

They make this stunning accusation, that is likely to garner the undeserved attention of too many U.S. policy makers, on the basis of flimsy polling evidence, and they further slant their shoddy analysis with a misleading characterization of the military’s role in Egypt as protecting democracy “from the Islamists.”

[And yes The Daily Beast is the voice of reaction.]

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2011/07/28/how-not-to-write-about-the-muslim-brotherhood-in-egypt/



And the Zionists are doing their part to keep the people of Egypt in chains.

Egypt-Sinai-Gaza: The Triangular Threat to Israel

In spite of the fact that no organization has taken responsibility for the series of attacks, all of which had a similar modus operandi, various elements in Egypt have pointed an accusing finger at terrorist organizations based in the Gaza Strip: al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, and Jaish al-Islam. At this stage, it is not clear whether Palestinian Salafist elements in Gaza are behind the attacks, or whether it is Egyptian opposition elements.

Indeed it isn't clear, particularly as they left out the possibility of a Mossad false0flag operation.

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011072814152/world/israel/egypt-sinai-gaza-the-triangular-threat-to-israel.html



Iran courts post-Mubarak Egypt, worrying allies

But once an elected government takes over from Egypt's interim rulers in coming months, it would have to be responsive to public opinion, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Assar said in a speech to a think tank in Washington, suggesting that a different course is then possible.

Iran has been strongly courting Egypt since the February fall of Hosni Mubarak, seeking to break its isolation and extend its influence in the Middle East. The prospect has alarmed Egypt's allies — particularly Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries of the Gulf, as well as Israel, all of which fear increasing Iranian power in the Middle East.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-27-egypt-iran-relationship_n.htm



This propaganda campaign is in preparation for the military to quash the revolution and declare martial law, as Mubarak did after Sadat was murdered. This media dissimulation provides the pretext. If the SCAF is unable to bring the population under control and keep Egypt safe for capitalism, there will be another "humanitarian" intervention in affected opposition to military rule; or, in opposition to Islamists or other presumed threat which might come to power.

This theory is discussed quite frankly (and then dismissed) in The Economist, the voice of the British bourgeoisie.

Considering that the ruling generals have nurtured an image as neutral guarantors of revolutionary goals, their sudden hostility to one of the revolution’s primary instigators has jarred. Some attribute sinister motives to the army, pointing to evidence of attempts to plant plain-clothes agitators in protests and to mute the thriving independent press while encouraging state-owned media to portray protesters as hooligans. There are even whispers of a quiet alliance between the army and Islamist parties, aimed at securing a “Caesar option” whereby military rule will eventually be acclaimed by a weary people as a welcome alternative to chaos.

Such fears are overblown. Egypt’s military has little experience or understanding of civilian life, and even less preparation for its current role. Being by nature conservative, xenophobic and more disciplined than Egypt’s fissiparous secularists, Islamist groups may seem natural partners in keeping order. Unlike most other parties, the Islamists laud the generals’ plan to postpone forging a new constitution until after the election of a parliament, which would then be asked to form a 100-strong constitutional congress. Yet their support does not reflect love for the army. Rather, it stems from confidence that elections will produce an Islamist parliamentary bloc big enough to prevent the adoption of a constitution they would deem too secular.

Overblown? The hell they are! Everything in the second paragraph is false. Egypt's revolutionaries as a whole may be fissaporous (prone to splintering), but the secular elements within it, a clear majority, have been remarkably monolithic at least thus far, exhibiting the kind of solidarity that revolutionary times can inspire.

http://www.economist.com/node/21524851



For their part, the revolutionaries have moved along a parallel track: They have quite cleverly taken to distinguishing the army from the SCAF, calling on the former to defend the country from the ruling cabal.

Indeed, Egyptians who want to transform their uprising into a veritable revolution have responded to the ruling SCAF by refining their definition of the identity of the armed forces. If the famous cry of the anti-Mubarak uprising enjoined the army to stand with the people against the regime, the current cry cleverly differentiates between the SCAF and the army, so that the army rank and file continue to be invoked by the revolutionaries as being on the side of the people - while the SCAF is presented as the political antagonist who seeks to maintain the Mubarak regime with some reforms, albeit without Mubarak.

I highly recommend this article. It's the best thing I've read on the Egyptian revolution. I wish I'd written it.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201172885752615193.html



Meanwhile, the families of those slain during the uprising in January.have produced their own list of demands.

The martyrs’ families demand the following from the government and SCAF:
#July 29 Martyrs Demands 0011- The arrest of the officers suspected of killing the martyrs in order to stop their influence on witnesses , changing evidence and blackmailing both the families and the witnesses.
2- The speed in referring the rest of the killing of protesters cases to the criminal courts and the rest of legal procedures.
3- Setting up teams of the best prosecutors to investigate the cases.
4- The MOI to issue an official statement that includes an official statement to the Egyptian people generally and the martyrs’ families specifically and to recognize the protesters as martyrs not thugs.
5- Setting up a permanent committee from the martyrs families , their lawyers , the cabinet and the general prosecution to facilitate all the obstacles facing the trials.
6- To transfer the trials on air on TV channels without the permission of the judge.
7- Honoring martyrs , equalizing them with with the war’s martyrs.
8- Dismissing the minister of interior and the general prosecutor.

The families of the martyrs are extremely angry that the media is ignoring their demands statement , they are also extremely angry from the minister of interior Mansour El Eissawy who is insisting that many martyrs are actually thugs who were to break in to the police stations. The martyrs’ families are insisting that they are the ones at Tahrir square not thugs like what the media claims. There are currently 500 families at Tahrir square that are staying in shifts.
The martyrs’ families make it : They will not wait forever , otherwise that they will get justice by their own hands. Before you blame them and call them whatever you want , you must know that these people have waited for 5 months and got no justice. All what they got is seeing the police officers who killed their own boys and girls enjoying their lives in a cold blood. They had enough from their blackmail and threats , they had enough of going to the ministry of interior then going to the ministry of interior and the end find fancy officials telling that they can’t suspend the suspected police officers.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/martyrs-families-demand-following.html



Here's a great brief analysis of the situation in Egypt.

Egypt may soon be due for an Arab Fall

I’m not surprised. Any time the military is in charge of a government, one can expect corruption and repression. Whether the people get to keep their revolution will depend in great part on those among the rank and file of the military because it is becoming more than obvious that the generals are no different from Mubarak. The question will become: Will the soldiers stand by the people or by the Generals?

It will be interesting to see what the coming weeks bring forth, but at least for now tension in Egypt is growing by the day as the military tighten the screws and begin to spew the propaganda and rumors.[1]

Tomorrow might be the most important day in the history of Egypt. May democracy prevail, insh Allah!



[1] http://my.firedoglake.com/iflizwerequeen/2011/07/27/egypt-may-soon-be-due-for-an-arab-fall/

15 Years in Prison For Taping the Cops?

http://www.alternet.org/story/151806/15_years_in_prison_for_taping_the_cops_how_eavesdropping_laws_are_taking_away_our_best_defense_against_police_brutality?akid=7328.293630.MkgaiP&rd=1&t=2

Photo O' The Day, July 28

Quote O' The Day, July 28

We ask nothing of it, because it has nothing for us.

L.A. student anarchists on the state.

London Message to Syntagma

In this time of great confusion, political apathy and misinformation we are compelled to respond dynamically to issues that affect us all as citizens of the world, as human beings.

We EXPRESS OUR SOLIDARITY to Syntagma Square and, together, we call for the RE-ENFORCEMENT of the network of the Real Democracy Now groups across Europe.

http://eagainst.com/articles/london-message-to-syntagma/

"We owe nothing. We sell nothing. We resist."

[Found at http://roarmag.org/2011/07/one-world-one-revolution-video-from-greece/#comment-2209]

CNBC Moneybunny Erin Burnett Shilling For The MAN

No shame. You can't work for sociopathic cresomaniacs without being willing to prostitute yourself. Not a choice between Wall Street and Main Street? That's precisely what it is, and she knows it. Treasonous lies are part of her job description.

The Gang Rape Of Greece Update: The IMF Bailout Exposed

Internal Doc Reveals GMAC Filed False Document in Bid to Foreclose

GMAC, one of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, faced a quandary last summer. It wanted to foreclose on a New York City homeowner but lacked the crucial paperwork needed to seize the property.

GMAC has a standard solution to such problems, which arise frequently in the post-bubble economy. Its employees secure permission to create and sign documents in the name of companies that made the original loans. But this case was trickier because the lender, a notorious subprime company named Ameriquest, had gone out of business in 2007.


http://www.propublica.org/article/gmac-mortgage-whistleblower-foreclosure

Quote O' The Day, July 27

Thomas Jefferson on the derivatives market:

"The art and mystery of banks... is established on the principle that 'private debts are a public blessing.' That the evidences of those private debts, called bank notes, become active capital, and aliment the whole commerce, manufactures, and agriculture of the United States. Here are a set of people, for instance, who have bestowed on us the great blessing of running in our debt about two hundred millions of dollars, without our knowing who they are, where they are, or what property they have to pay this debt when called on."

Can We Party like it's 1776 and Just Start Over? Thomas Jefferson's Top 10 Quotes on Money and Banking

http://dailybail.com/home/can-we-party-like-its-1776-and-just-start-over-thomas-jeffer.html

NPR Interviews Revolutionaries And Counterrevolutionaries In Tahrir Square

You Gotta See This: Ohio Judge Follows JPMorgan's Advice And They Promptly Throw Him Into Foreclosure

http://dailybail.com/home/you-gotta-see-this-ohio-judge-follows-jpmorgans-advice-and-t.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Senator's Husband’s Firm Cashes In On Crisis

http://dailybail.com/home/senators-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Oslo Update, July 27

'Breivik part of anti-Islam network'

This from his lawyer?

Geir Lippestad, further explained how his client has not so far shown any sympathy for the innocent Norwegians he killed in the recent twin terror attacks, the Associated Press reported.

Instead, Breivik only asked how many people had died and later said that the killings were necessary, Lippestad said on Tuesday.

According to his lawyer, Breivik views himself as a warrior and a savior, saying people will not understand him in the coming 60 years.

Wow! From his lawyer? Since his culpability is beyond dispute, the question is whether he's a terrorist in the purest sense, or just plain nuts. Here his lawyer seems to be confused. The quote in bold print suggests he's a rational person involved in an international hate group, sane, in other words. The other quote suggests he's not sane.

I'm left to wonder whether Breivik's lawyer is sane.

There's a long history of high-profile alleged killers in whose cases the government has some particular interest ending up with lawyers who have deep ties to intelligence agencies. Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, and James Earl Ray leap to mind. It doesn't mean their clients are innocent necessarily (although Ray certainly is), it just suggests there's something that they don't want revealed to the public. I do not hereby allege that Lippestad is a shill, but like the attorneys for the above, his actions thus far have been absolutely bizarre, and seemingly inimical to his client's interests.

That is, of course, assuming anything we've been told is true.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/190915.html

The Incestuous Embrace Of State And Capital

If you think that you live in a country which is equal to and independent of foreign influence; and that your government acts in your interests and is a barrier against those who would exploit you; if you think that you and your fellow citizens are master and your governments are servants; think again. There is an international economic elite, and they own you and your governments, and they don't give a damn about either.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28694.htm

Quote O' The Day, 26 July

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Thomas Jefferson

Joe Morris Sr. dies at 85; Navajo code talker during World War II

Nice piece from the once laudable LAT. Ironies abound.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-joe-morris-20110722,0,3839149,full.story

Wisconsin DMV Tells Boy His Bank Account Doesn’t Show Enough “Activity” To Get a Voter ID

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/640060/wisconsin_dmv_tells_boy_his_bank_account_doesn%E2%80%99t_show_enough_%E2%80%9Cactivity%E2%80%9D_to_get_a_voter_id/

Egypt Update, July 26

The new counterrevolutionary strategy: The junta is attempting to demonize the protesters. And fifth-columnists within the movement are playing their part.

Egypt party calls for halt to Friday’s protest

Gama’a Islamiya, a leading Salafist Islamic group, said last Friday that they intended to march to the central Cairo square with other Salafi groups to “cleanse the square.”

The group’s statement called the protesters “traitors” and “drug users” and has resulted in controversial reactions and condemnations from other Islamic groups and parties including al-Nour Party, a Salafist party and The Freedom and Justice party, the off-shoot political party of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The GI was staunchly anti-Mubarak and many of its members were tortured and imprisoned by the regime. Every revolution has its right and left wings, and the Salafi's, who in my opinion are overcriticized, may have political differences, even profound ones, with the left, but the accusations attributed to them above are suspect. I doubt real Salafis would tell such obvious lies, particularly as they serve the interests of their enemy, the military dictatorship. Every government tries to infiltrate and co-opt political factions whose efforts and influence may weigh upon the government's ability to rule. I don't know, I cannot know, but this new anti-protester stance smells of duplicity.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37348



The government is using disinformation against the April 6th Youth Movement, which it accuses of working in cahoots with foreigners to undermine Egyptian unity.

This was Gaza Not Serbia

So the Egyptian TV published a photo for April 6th Youth Movement spokesperson Mohamed Adel claiming that it was taken in Serbia where he received a military training , he was standing with a big gun.

Well it seems that the Egyptian TV is still doing what it is best at : Lying

That photo was already cropped to show Adel only without the old lady standing besides him, whom by all measures can’t be a Serbian not to mention that the date of the picture and its story proves the innocence of Adel from that training.

Given Israel's universal unpopularity among Egyptians, the government has moved his "training" from Gaza to Serbia as his association with Palestinian resistance will add to his stature with the Egyptian rank and file, thus making him more difficult to discredit.

Clearly, just as before, the regime controls the media.

And publicizing this photo with the image of the woman removed was a nice Stalinist flourish. It seems the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak has mastered the black arts of criminal statecraft.

I recommend this article.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-was-gaza-not-palestine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail



Postponements, postponements, postponements.

Breaking: Egypt’s Adly trial postponed

CAIRO: The trial of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly has been postponed on Monday morning, before it even began. Eye witnesses at the court said that the judge never even appeared before the announcement that it would be postponed until August 3.

August 3 is also the day scheduled for the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak to begin. Both are charged with the killing of civilians during the January 25 revolution that ousted the Mubarak government of 31 years.

At a local cafe, workers who had been glued to the television waiting for the trial to begin, were obviously perturbed by the delay, saying it was typical of the state of affairs for Egypt.

“What did we expect? I guess this is Egypt,” one of the waiters told Bikyamasr.com

Adly appears in court for his cameo.


These two postponed in addition to the trial of the cops who tortured and murdered Khaled Said. The Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak is too busy for justice.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37373



Somebody is smuggling weapons into Egypt.

RPGs confiscated at checkpoint

CAIRO: An Egyptian newspaper reported last week that rocket propelled grenade launchers belonging to two alleged weapons dealers have been confiscated by the Public Administration for Drug Control (PADC).

Daily youm7.com reported that the RPGs were secured in 6th of October city and the suspects have confessed to trading in weapons in order to maintain their drug operations.

Now that last sentence is really funny. Not enough money in drugs (you know, the economy being so bad), so the poor poison peddlers have to sell grenade launchers to make ends meet. Now that made me laugh!

Whether this is a government fabrication for propaganda purposes, or a legitimate gun-running operation busted is unknown, but where there are "drugs and guns," there are Western intelligence operatives involves.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37382

Counterrevolution Alert: Police attack journalists during Tunisia demonstrations

When around 100 people tried to demonstrate outside the Kasbah Palace in Tunis on July 15 in protest against the current government’s policies, police blocked access to the palace, so many of the demonstrators went to the nearest mosque to made their demands heard, accompanied by the dozens of journalists who were there to cover the protest.

The security forces charged the protesters several times, hitting them with batons, insulting them and using out-of-date tear-gas on them. They also used violence against journalists, who were clearly identifiable because of their cameras even if they were not wearing press markings...

“Hundreds of people were deliberately targeted by the police,” Agence France-Presse correspondent Sofiane Ben Farhat told Reporters Without Borders. “I heard men in uniform shout: ‘The men with cameras down there, they must be attacked’.” Defending their actions, the police accused the demonstrators of vandalism and taking alcohol into the mosque. The Union of Journalists filed a complaint against the interior ministry the next day.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37375

Michael Hudson: Mr. Obama’s Scare Tactics to Get Democrats to Vote for His Republican Wall Street Plan

You know that the debt kerfuffle is as staged as melodramatically as a World Wrestling Federation exhibition when Mr. Obama makes the blatantly empty threat that if Congress does not “tackle the tough challenges of entitlement and tax reform,” there won’t be money to pay Social Security checks next month. In his debt speech last night (July 25), he threatened that if “we default, we would not have enough money to pay all of our bills – bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses.”

This is not remotely true. But it has become the scare theme for over a week now, ever since the President used almost the same words in his interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/michael-hudson-mr-obama%E2%80%99s-scare-tactics-to-get-democrats-to-vote-for-his-republican-wall-street-plan.html

Norway shooting: politician describes witnessing Utoya massacre on her blog

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8656963/Norway-shooting-politician-describes-witnessing-Utoya-massacre-on-her-blog.html

Live Webcam Puerta del Sol Madrid

Watch live streaming video from spanishrevolutionsol at livestream.com

Popular Egyptian Broadcaster Fired For Perceived Insolence To Retired Army Officer

Today’s morning Dina Abdel Rahman highlighted in the press segment the op-ed of columnist Naglaa Badir in Tahrir Newspaper today where the later was criticizing Major Hassan El-Rowaniy and SCAF’s position from April 6th Youm movement.She was hosting journalist Khaled El-Belashy to comment the press today. Then in another segment she spoke on the phone with retired air force major general/strategic analyst Abdel Monam Kato who told her to stop highlighting the opinions of saboteurs like Badir and that she should choose respectable journalists to highlight their opinions !!

Dina Abdel Rahman and the KG1 Democracy !!
Abdel Rahman politely challenged him that he should pinpoint who these respectable journalists were.
Of course what Kato said was nothing compared to his jam :

The Egyptian army is teaching the Egyptian people ABC KG1 Democracy !!

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/it-is-not-about-dina-only.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Indignados re-occupy Puerta del Sol

On Saturday, the indignados brought much of Madrid to a standstill as the popular marches arrived in the city, taking six different routes from all over the country and culminating in a spectacular re-occupation of Puerta del Sol by tens of thousands of protesters.

And so, a month and a half after the original protest camp was broken down, Sol looks like Sol again. With an incredible degree of professionalism, the indignados set up a TV and radio studio, a communications center, a major kitchen, a sound installation, a clinic and more — all in one night.

Some of the marchers had been walking for over 500 kilometers as part of a campaign to spread awareness about the 15-M movement and its demands to the Spanish countryside and to hold popular assemblies with people who otherwise have little opportunity to participate given their geographic location.

http://roarmag.org/2011/07/indignados-re-occupy-puerta-del-sol/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+roarmag+%28Reflections+on+a+Revolution%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

The evisceration of Greece begins: Moody’s Downgrades Greece Three Notches More

Why do I think Buffet (who owns Moody's) is holding some CDS on Greek debt....

What an outrage we are witnessing. The world's uberrich are destroying whole civilizations just to cash in their bets. It is greed and arrogance beyond belief.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/moodys-downgrades-greece-three-notches-more.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Alexander Gloy: Greece – Two Bail-outs and a Funeral

Good detailed piece. Deconstructs the sham. If you want to understand the bailout, this is a good place to start.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/07/alexander-gloy-greece-two-bail-outs-and-a-funeral.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

October 2011: Show Up Or Shut up

The voice you hear at the end is Mario Savio's. It's from a speech delivered at Berkeley in the 60s.

Exploiting a Tragedy

Given that remarkable statement, the Journal's editors must have been deeply disappointed to learn that the person who was actually charged in the case, Anders Behring Breivik, was not in fact a jihadi, a critic of Israel, or even a Muslim. Instead, he is a right-wing Norwegian Islamophobe who is reportedly obsessed with the dangers of multi-culturalism and a contributor to extremist websites like Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs. In other words, he's the sort of person who might well subscribe to the Wall Street Journal not for its coverage of the business world, but for its predictably hardline editorial "insight."

As I write this (Saturday noon EDT), the editorial has still not been removed from the WSJ website and no apology or retraction has been issued. The Journal and its editors are obviously free to continue to sow the seeds of hatred and paranoia, but the rest of us are equally free to view them with appropriate contempt. And let us also take time to reflect on Norway's sorrow, and to remember that hatred and violence can erupt from many directions.

UPDATE: Obviously aware of the egg on its face, the Journal has posted a rewritten version of the editorial on its website here. Note the marked absence of any apology for its initial rush-to-judgment. You can find a fascimile of the original editorial here. And for an interesting commentary suggesting that right-wing hate-mongering websites might have contributed to the murderous mind-set behind the attack, see Paul Woodward's War in Context here.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28676.htm

Journaganda Review

Okay so Rubin is low-hanging fruit, but the point is whether she is actually so stupid to write something like this in advance of knowing the facts. I say no. Rubin speaks for Wall Street and this was a opportunity to spin for the war on terror. Since she works for the same elite who publishes the Post, she can make a million "mistakes" like this without suffering any consequences. An opportunity for propaganda presented itself and she seized it, that's what her blog is for. That it now appears that she was way off base and evincing bias is of no concern to somebody whose goals are not journalistic.

Some lowlights:

This is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists. I spoke to Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute, who has been critical of proposed cuts in defense and of President Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal plan. “There has been a lot of talk over the past few months on how we’ve got al-Qaeda on the run and, compared with what it once was, it’s become a rump organization. But as the attack in Oslo reminds us, there are plenty of al-Qaeda allies still operating. No doubt cutting the head off a snake is important; the problem is, we’re dealing with global nest of snakes.”

Sobering indeed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/norway-bombing/2011/03/29/gIQAB4D3TI_blog.html

Save Our Schools March !

Parents, teachers and families from around the country say they are fed up with so-called school “reform” policies that falsely label more than 80% of U.S. public schools as failures. A coalition of individuals and organizations is mobilizing for a national day of action in support of public schools. 
 
On Saturday, July 30, 2011, thousands of people will gather at the White House in Washington, DC and at locations around the nation for “Save Our Schools” marches. The events are being organized by a network of teachers, parents and community activists. 
 You can contact the march efforts and locate your regional demonstration at http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org,

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/save-our-schools-march/

Who are the bond holders we are bailing out?

This 'widows and orphans' reason why the Bond holders must not take any loss, was trotted out to bolster an earlier reason that started to wear thin, which was that if Ireland pissed off the bond holders then they would refuse to ever deal with Ireland ever again and Ireland would never be able to borrow ever again, ever, and everyone would die in penury, friendless and cold. That first reason started to look like it might not hold, when the Germans started to talk rather too openly about how it might be best for all, them especially, if Greece did 're-structure' its debts (default on its bond holders - a teeny bit). When no one said it would be the end for Greece if it defaulted on the mighty bond holders, Ireland's 'the sky will fall in' reason for not asking its bond holders to share the pain started to look like what it was, a politically motivated lie. Thus the grannies and orphans had to be hurriedly wheeled out.

http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2010/10/who-are-bond-holders-we-are-bailing-out.html

Rothschild Bank AND Goldman Sachs Are Both On The LIST Of Bondholders Getting U.S. Taxpayer Billions In Ireland

Now, in my opinion both figures are likely to be wrong. Certainly my figure is a large underestimate. But taking them at face value Anglo Irish would account for one 5000th of the total assets being managed by all the bond holders. So would even a total default by Anglo Irish cause that much, let alone systemic, pain and risk? Why are the 'Bond holders' and the Irish government so concerned that the Irish people be forced to take the loss and pay the debts for them?

Now lets look at the other side of the equation, at Ireland itself. Well Ireland's GDP before the crash, in 2008, was ... drum roll please... €207 billion. Or 0.207 trillion.

SO.... on one side we have Ireland whose bond holders, its people, have between them a total GDP wealth of 0.207 trillion euros. Who are being FORCED, against their will, to pay Anglo Irish bank's debts to its bond holders, who between them hold 20.8 Trillion euros. The people of Ireland are paying to, and protecting the wealth and power of, people who have 100 times more wealth!

There's a word for this--plutocracy.

THEY OWN YOU!

Who's "they"? Introducing Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, here for his cameo. He owns you. An exhaustive list of the businesses his family owns outright or in large part would be entirely too long for our purposes, but in the States they would include JPMC, US Steel, and our Federal Reserve Bank. They also own BP, whose "product" continues to wash up onto our southern shores.

Seeing the Godfather of the real mafia, il Capo dei tutti capi, being interviewed on television, however deferentially, is a rare spectacle. This farce takes place while the bailout was being debated in the Senate, in other words, in mid-scam. His presence in this venue is more instructive than any of the banalities he utters. Even a Rothschild will join the marketing effort when trillions are to be had.

Please note the selfless determination with which the interviewer repeatedly wedges his obsequious tongue ever so affectionately up Sir Evelyn's ass, even after he bolted the studio. Rothschilds don't wait, after all.



http://dailybail.com/home/rothschild-bank-and-goldman-sachs-are-both-on-the-list-of-bo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyBail+%28The+Daily+Bail%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Who holds America's debt?

Percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:

* Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
* Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
* Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
* Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
* Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
* Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
* Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
* State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
* Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
* United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
* Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
* State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
* Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
* U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
* China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
* The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
* Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/who-holds-americas-debt.html

Didacticide Update, July 25, The Illinois Front: Wolves In Sheep's Clothing, The Philanthropy Hoax

But in the last couple years, Stand for Children has seen an influx of corporate cash that drastically changed the organization's priorities.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of SFC's earlier big donors, began by offering a two-year grant of $80,000 in 2005. In the last few years, however, possibly because it realized that SFC could be an effective ally in pushing the corporate model for education reform, the Gates Foundation drastically enlarged its contributions. In 2007, Stand for Children received a $682,565 grant. In 2009, it got a $971,280 grant, and in 2010, it received a $3,476,300 grant--all from the Gates Foundation.

Though the Gates Foundation remains the biggest donor to Stand for Children, other players in the world of corporate education reform have also begun to see SFC as an effective vehicle to push their agenda.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/21/standing-for-union-bashing

The Late Great Bill Hicks

Dead over a $2 train fare

http://socialistworker.org/2011/07/25/dead-over-a-train-fare

The Israeli ‘Democracy' – An Oxymoron Concept

Amen.

http://www.countercurrents.org/siddiqui250711.htm

Quote O' The Day, July 25

Do not give me scissor as I do not like to cut, give me needle, as I like to stitch."

Hazrat Nizamuddin, Sufi saint.

Israel Erupts in Protest, Tens of Thousands Chant "Revolution"

Some great photos.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7696086505972643859

Photo O' The Day, July 25

Counterrevolution Alert Egypt: "Tonight we may die here"

The moment of truth has arrived. The military junta has been trying to mollify the revolutionaries with bogus reshuffles and reforms, and it hasn't worked. Much to its chagrin, the revolution just won't go away.

On Friday, in a gesture which probably heralds an escalation of counterrevolutionary repression, the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak for the first time publicly criticized the protesters in Tahrir Square. They claimed that the movement was driven by a "foreign agenda," and was trying to drive a wedge between the people and the army. In response, thousands of protesters in Cairo marched to the Ministry of Defense building where the ruling cabal (the SCAF) are headquartered. En route, in the neighborhood of Abbasiya, they were met by barbed wire topped barricades, rows of armed police, and tanks mounted with machine guns.

Once kettled there, they were set upon by "thugs" brandishing knives and swords, and were bombarded with stones and molotov cocktails. Scores were wounded.

The clashes went on into the night, with the army and police using tear gas against the protesters. According to some accounts, they fired into the air in the hopes of creating a stampede.

"The military are just another face of the old regime."

The SCAF claims the attackers were small business owners angry about the loss of business the protests have caused.

Well you can't say they don't have a sense of humor.

The revolution is entering a new phase. International capital will never surrender Egypt to its people, never. It is clear that the revolutionaries are not buying what the SCAF is selling, and an era of brute force is rapidly descending on that ancient land. The MoD building is the seat of state power, precisely that power which the revolutionaries demand, and that the SCAF will never concede without a fight. It is hard to imagine a resolution to this conflict will will not occasion the spilling of much blood. We can only hope the losses will not be too great.

The odds are against the revolution, they always are, but they seem resolute, inspiringly so. And, insh Allah, should they win, their victory will be ours as well. Godspeed! Vive la revolucion!

Thawra!

Here are some interesting reports. Don't miss Hossam's eyewitness account.

http://www.arabawy.org/photos/


This is from the Egyptian military's site, and it's pretty much what you would expect to find there.

http://military.einnews.com/egypt/


The guardian's story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/24/egypt-violence-tahrir-square-protest


Here's the jaundiced account of Egypt's Independent News (It isn't):

http://www.egyptdailynews.com/


And this one was interesting as well:

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt/armed-men-attack-thousands-marching-to-ministry-of-defense-55-injured-dp1.html


And this is good too.

http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=37271

The Gods Laugh No More, RIP Amy

The Banks Still Want a Waiver

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/business/bank-settlement-in-mortgage-mess-may-hinge-on-mers.html?_r=1&ref=business

Who Rules America: An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%

This article was written by an investment manager who works with very wealthy clients. I knew him from decades ago, but he recently e-mailed me with some concerns he had about what was happening with the economy. What he had to say was informative enough that I asked if he might fashion what he had told me into a document for the Who Rules America Web site. He agreed to do so, but only on the condition that the document be anonymous, because he does not want to jeopardize his relationships with his clients or other investment professionals.

I think it's important to emphasize one of the dangers of wealth concentration: irresponsibility about the wider economic consequences of their actions by those at the top. Wall Street created the investment products that produced gross economic imbalances and the 2008 credit crisis. It wasn't the hard-working 99.5%. Average people could only destroy themselves financially, not the economic system. There's plenty of blame to go around, but the collapse was primarily due to the failure of complex mortgage derivatives, CDS credit swaps, cheap Fed money, lax regulation, compromised ratings agencies, government involvement in the mortgage market, the end of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, and insufficient bank capital. Only Wall Street could put the economy at risk and it had an excellent reason to do so: profit. It made huge profits in the build-up to the credit crisis and huge profits when it sold itself as "too big to fail" and received massive government and Federal Reserve bailouts. Most of the serious economic damage the U.S. is struggling with today was done by the top 0.1% and they benefited greatly from it.

There you have it.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/investment_manager.html

The Washington Post Owes the World an Apology for this Item

And for a million others.

Then she goes on to argue on her own:

Moreover, there is a specific jihadist connection here: "Just nine days ago, Norwegian authorities filed charges against Mullah Krekar, an infamous al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who, with help from Osama bin Laden, founded Ansar al Islam - a branch of al Qaeda in northern Iraq - in late 2001."

This is a sobering reminder for those who think it's too expensive to wage a war against jihadists. I spoke to Gary Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute, who has been critical of proposed cuts in defense and of President Obama's Afghanistan withdrawal plan. "There has been a lot of talk over the past few months on how we've got al-Qaeda on the run and, compared with what it once was, it's become a rump organization. But as the attack in Oslo reminds us, there are plenty of al-Qaeda allies still operating. No doubt cutting the head off a snake is important; the problem is, we're dealing with global nest of snakes."

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/the-washington-post-owes-the-world-an-apology-for-this-item/242400/

Oslo Update, July 24: At least two terrorists behind Norwegian youth camp massacre - witnesses

And these witnesses go on record by giving their names. Unless this thing is made out of whole cloth (and yes that does happen particularly with hot stories), then there were two gunmen. Who knows what that means at this point.

Several young people who survived Utoya's massacre, told VG paper that the shootings were coming from "two different places on the island at the same time."

"I believe that there were two people who were shooting," VG quoted a 23-year old Alexander Stavdal.

Norwegian police arrested on Friday a 32-year-old ethnic Norwegian, Anders Behring Breivik, who is believed to be behind the attack.

The witnesses described the second man as a 180-centimeter tall, dark-haired man with Nordic appearance with "a pistol in his right hand and a rifle on his back."

http://en.rian.ru/world/20110723/165350450.html

Kashmir American Council Bribery Ruse Update: Surely They’re Joking, Mr. Fai! Kashmir’s American Counsel?

Great piece! This entire affair is a psy-op of some kind, and beautifully deconstructed and rebutted here.

The fact that there is an element of surprise over Ghulam Nabi Fai’s arrest after the FBI exposed his connections to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) reveals that this was probably a sudden brainwave.

The allegation is that Mr. Fai’s Kashmir American Council (KAC) was illegally funded by the ISI to exert influence on the US Congress to swing the Kashmir debate in Pakistan’s favour.

Did the ISI do it? Possible. Did Mr. Fai use this money? Possible. Was the FBI unaware about it all these years? Not possible.

http://www.countercurrents.org/versey240711.htm

People's Struggles In Egypt Continuing: Replay or New Phase?

Nice piece.

http://www.countercurrents.org/custers240711.htm

October 2011: It's Time For Austerity Measures For Government

http://october2011.org/welcome

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out...The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve(July 21st, 2011): http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696
FULL PDF on GAO server: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf

It should be noted that many of the banks listed above are owned by the same families. RBS, Deutsche Bank, JPMC and others are owned in large part by the Rothschilds etc.

http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts

Support Group: Documenting the Peace Laureate's Progressive Atrocities

Do you support the policies and political fortunes of President Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate? Then this is what you support: cowardly, cold-blooded mass murder. You support mass murder. You support the shredding to pieces of innocent people, many of them children, week after week, month after month. You support the murder of children. You support the cultivation of extremism and hatred: hatred aimed at you, and your children, for the mass murder -- the state terrorism -- committed in your name by your progressive president. You support extremism. You support hatred. You support terrorism.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2150-support-group-documenting-the-peace-laureates-progressive-atrocities.html

Counterrevolution Alert Egypt: The Return Of "Mubarak's" Thugs

Remember them? They were the barbarous beasts who attacked Anderson Cooper of CNN and punched him in the head 10 times, but left no marks. They also attacked the protesters, then in favor with the international media (now not so much). Well once a dictator, always a dictator. Even from deep within a coma he has sent his boys into the streets to stir up trouble. Wouldn't you know it.

"Civilians," as they are now being called, attacked the protesters with stones and knives.

A crowd estimated at around 10,000 people set out from downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square but was stopped from reaching the military headquarters in the eastern Abbasiyah neighborhood by a line of army barricades. Along the way, they chanted slogans against the military council's delay in implementing their demands.

Bands of men armed with knives and sticks set upon them from side roads, setting off pitched street battles in which both sides threw punches and hurled rocks. Gunfire was heard, but it was unclear who was shooting.

It was not clear who the attackers were. Similar groups of men have tried to break up other protest rallies, and Mubarak's regime often used hired thugs to attack protesters. Some witnesses said they might have been residents or shopkeepers angry at the loss of business as a result of the protests.

These "witnesses" go unnamed of course. I don't know who they were but if the events occurred as described above, this attack on the protesters was well planned and coordinated with the army.

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/22/1820721/egypt-protest-numbers-decline.html

In Alexandria the police fired shots into the air and beat protesters who refused to disperse.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, July 22 (Reuters) - Egyptian military police fired shots in the air and beat demonstrators blocking a main road in Alexandria on Friday, witnesses said, a move which could further sour relations between the army and civilians.

They said the clash erupted after hundreds of protesters blocking the coastal road near the army's northern command headquarters refused to leave the area. Police fired shots in the air and charged demonstrators who hurled rocks at them.

"The military police are firing in the air. They are also beating protesters with batons and kicking them hard," a witness told Reuters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/egypt-protests-alexandria_n_907351.html

Since the Western media has spun the Egyptian Revolution as an anti-Mubarak, anti-corruption movement, it now has to go into re-spin mode. The people who attacked protesters before Mubarak slithered off to Sharm al Sheikh were called thugs, now they are called (of all things) civilians, as in "clashes between civilians and protesters." This suggests the protesters are a martial force, which of course is ridiculous.

The Cairo protesters were assaulted as they approached the Ministry of Defense building. Just about every account I read said they were marching "to" the MoD. American state media, namely VOA, changed the preposition:

The unrest took place in Cairo as about 1,000 demonstrators were marching near the Defense Ministry to press their demands for political reforms.

Near? Also the smallest estimate of crowd size I've encountered was a thousand, which is the number VOA used .

And VOA's version suggests the the violence was reciprocal from the start rather than retaliatory on the part of the protesters:

Witnesses say the protesters and civilians who had gathered along the course began throwing bottles and stones at each other.

More unnamed witnesses chewing the army's cud.

Some protesters said this week's Cabinet reshuffle stopped short of meeting their demands.

On Thursday, the government swore in a new Cabinet, in which about half of the ministers are new. But some activists wanted Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to replace the key interior and justice ministers, both of whom kept their posts.

Demonstrators have urged military rulers to purge all officials who served under former President Hosni Mubarak from the government and prosecute those linked to violence and corruption.

"Demands." "Purge."

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Egyptian-Leader-Promises-Democratic-Reforms-126060053.html



But by far the worst of all came from NBC's ace broadcast journagandist Richard Engel, the voice of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, the embed code link is broken so I can't post it, but please, please, do follow the link.

Engel asserts:

1, The military regime is reacting favorably to the people's demands. He cites the recent cabinet reshuffle which didn't remove the most despised figures from Mubarak's government.

2, The regime recently postponed elections in order to give protesters more time to prepare.

The shameless liar then goes on to contrast the responsive, principled, Egyptian military dictatorship with Assad in Syria, whose government, Engels reports, killed some protesters. Engels makes no mention of the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak's reign of terror and torture, including the violence, albeit non-lethal, against protesters that very day.

Gotta be seen to be believed:

[Eureeka! It's working]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41236104/ns/world_news-africa/



Here's the blog from Egyptian Chronicles:

SCAF has just posted a new statement on its official Facebook regarding the clashes between protesters and military police in Suez, Alexandria and Ismailia.
Unsurprisingly in statement 69 SCAF denied that it dispersed the protesters in Suez , Alexandria or Ismailia or any other city but shockingly SCAF officially accuses April 6th Movement of attempting to turn the people against the army !!
SCAF has accused April 6th movement officially !!
This is the most dangerous SCAF statement , alarming SCAF statement ever issued.

Zeinobia was originally pretty favorably disposed to the army, and, I think, generally pretty conservative, but now she's seeing the light too. The army represents international capital, it represents reaction, it represents counterrevolution.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/scaf-declares-war-on-april-6th-youth.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail

Long live the Egyptian Revolution!