Shmidle Osama Bin Laden Death Hoax Update, 18 August

Great deconstruction from Russ Baker. It's long but worth the effort. A must read for those of you who believe what they read in the bourgeois press.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/08/17/raidbinladen/

Gold Rushes, Trade Agreements, and How Companies Sue Countries

Interesting piece about how NAFTA works.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2011/08/17/gold-rushes-trade-agreements-and-how-companies-sue-countries/

Video survey: Racism rampant among Israeli youth

Good video, better article.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/video-survey-racism-rampant-among-israeli-youth/10286

Propaganda Alert: Chavez Blows Some More Hot Air

Venezuela Plans to Move Reserve Funds

BY JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA AND EZEQUIEL MINAYA

CARACAS—Venezuela plans to transfer billions of dollars in cash reserves from abroad to banks in Russia, China and Brazil and tons of gold from European banks to its central bank vaults, according to documents reviewed Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.

The planned moves would include transferring $6.3 billion in cash reserves, most of which Venezuela now keeps in banks such as the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and Barclays Bank in London to unnamed Russian, Chinese and Brazilian banks, one document said.

Venezuela also plans to move 211 tons of gold it keeps abroad and values at ...

The question is what the hell has Chavez "the socialist" been doing keeping Venezuela's reserves in the banksters' banks? And these banks into which he is depositing the reserves, who owns them? As they are "unnamed" it is impossible to say, but the same shysters who own the BIS and Barclay's also own banks in Russia, China, and Brazil, this may be no move at all. And given that they go unnamed...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903392904576512961180570694.html



Chavez Preparing Government Takeover of Venezuela’s Gold Mining Industry

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered his government to repatriate $11 billion in gold held in banks abroad to safeguard the country from the economic crisis and said he’ll nationalize the local gold industry.
Venezuela has about 211 tons of its 365 tons of gold reserves held abroad at institutions including the Bank of England, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Barclays Plc (BARC), Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) and the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), according to a government document.
“We’ve held 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England since 1980. I agree with bringing that home,” Chavez said today on state television. “It’s a healthy decision.”

Hugo banking with the Rothschilds.

So this makes two Chavez is da Man stories hitting Wall Street's favorite press in one day. Something's up, but whatever it is it isn't socialism. Time will tell.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-17/chavez-preparing-government-takeover-of-venezuela-s-gold-mining-industry.html

Those Huge Demonstrations In Syria--News Is Marketing

You really should read this.

We know for a while that the protests in Syria are far smaller than reported:

That same night on July 15, I received news feeds from the AFP announcing a million protestors all over Syria, of which 500,000 in Hama alone.
In Hama however, they could not have been more than 10,000.

This ‘information’ was even more absurd due to the fact that the city of Hama counts only 370,000 inhabitants.
...
So what sources does AgenceFrancePresse (AFP) cite?

The same which crops up systematically throughout the media and has now become a monopoly in its own right, regarding the Syrian protests: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Behind this superficial veneer of respectability and professionalism, hides a political organisation based in London, its president none other than Rami Abdel Raman, a man who has consistently sided against the Baath regime, who is loosely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Therefore, for many months now, the Western media have diffused an edited reality, corrected by a single source which nobody has deemed it necessary, it seems, to question.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28873.htm

Cartoon O' The Day, 17 August

The Wit And Wisdom Of Michelle Bachman

Are you ready for the revolution now?

Boeing Forced to Turn Over Docs in NLRB Case

Last Friday, union officials claimed a victory when a judge presiding over the National Labor Relation Board's Boeing case ruled that the company must turn over documents related to the cost of producing planes at the unionized facility in Washington state versus the nonunion facility in South Carolina.

The case centers on whether Boeing transferred production to the South Carolina site because Machinists union workers went on strike in Washington. (The company says the shift was made for financial reasons.)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11835/boeing_forced_to_turn_over_documents_at_nlrb_refuses_to_turn_its_docum/

Postal Workers to USPS: Don’t Shred Our Contract

The U.S. Postal Service’s plans to cut more than 220,000 jobs—that's right, nearly a quarter million—and break a collective bargaining agreement has its employee unions up in arms.

The financially-strapped U.S. Postal Service revealed last week that by 2015 it plans to trim its workforce by nearly one-third, close 300 processing facilities and institute its own health and retirement system to replace existing federal programs, according to several reports. About 100,000 of the jobs are expected to be eliminated through attrition.


http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11838/postal_unions_oppose_breaking_labor_contract_mass_layoffs/

Washington’s Anti-Regulatory Crusade, and Why Your Job Hasn't Killed You Yet

An analysis of two union databases conducted in 2000 showed that hazardous energy-related fatalities declined, depending on the industry, by between 30 percent and 55 percent in the years following the enactment of the Lockout/Tagout rule.... OSHA currently estimates that the regulation prevents a total of 50,000 injuries and 120 fatalities per year.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11837/perrynomics_and_the_crusade_against_regulation/

Blogger's Note, 17 August

In reference to my calling the the current government of Egypt the Mubarak-Regime-Sans-Mubarak, I have been asked why I believe that it is sans Mubarak, given that he is still alive and has not left the country. Could he not be giving the orders?

As I see it he was only the front man to begin with. The important decisions are made by international capital and he is but their enforcer, their henchman. His function at best could be likened to a franchise manager, but I suspect he has even less real authority than Bank of America affords its branch managers.

But the point is taken.

US army suicide rate hits new high

Just when you’re thinking the US army may have turned the corner on its troops killing themselves, a new number surfaces that dashes those hopes. Friday afternoon the army said it suffered a record 32 suspected suicides in July, the most since it began releasing monthly data two years ago.
The US army is waging war on suicide just as seriously as it has been fighting for nearly a decade in Afghanistan and Iraq. Commanders are immensely frustrated by their inability to drive down the rate, which is demoralising and depressing to the troops, their families, and the nation. President Obama has even gotten involved, deciding last month that he would send condolence letters to the families of those service personnel who had killed themselves in combat zones.

Gee, isn't the president really a swell guy? He's dripping in their blood, and he sends condolences.

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/16-Aug-2011/US-army-suicide-rate-hits-new-high

92% of Foreclosures in New York Lack Proper Documents -- Banks Booting People Without Proof?

Even if we accept that most of these are legitimate, just oddly but innocently lacking in the necessary paperwork, just clerical errors and nothing more, then we are still left with an astonishing high amount of bankster home theft.

http://www.alternet.org/story/152030/92_of_foreclosures_in_new_york_lack_proper_documents_--_banks_booting_people_without_proof?akid=7412.293630.PSBSzR&rd=1&t=2

Government Austerity and Political Instability

In light of the recent riots in the UK (not to mention Greece, Spain, etc) this paper by Ponticelli and Voth is very timely. The paper takes a sample of European countries from 1919 to 2009 and looks at the incidence of various forms of political instability as a function of government austerity. The graph above provides the take-away for most people. The y-axis is number of incidents of instability per year per country while the various shaded bars represent increasing amounts of austerity (measured as the cut in government budget divided by the country’s GDP). The “Chaos” group is simply the sum of all the other kinds of problems. Clearly, the larger the cutback, the higher the chance of resulting social problems.

Read more http://inteldaily.com/2011/08/in-light-of-the-recent-riots-in-the-uk-not-to-mention-greece-spain-etc-this-paper-by-ponticelli-and-voth-is-very-timely-the-paper-takes-a-sample-of-european-countries-from-1919-to-2009-and-looks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29

Read more http://inteldaily.com/2011/08/in-light-of-the-recent-riots-in-the-uk-not-to-mention-greece-spain-etc-this-paper-by-ponticelli-and-voth-is-very-timely-the-paper-takes-a-sample-of-european-countries-from-1919-to-2009-and-looks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+inteldaily%2Ffeeds+%28Inteldaily.com%29

There's Nothing Like The Face Of A Kid Slaving In A Cocoa Grove Update, 17 August: The Domestic Front

Student Guestworkers Sit-In at Hershey Factory –Your help needed!

It's not just all those pre-teens sweating in the African sun that have come to know just how bitter Hershey's cocoa can be, the company, with the help of their...er...our State Department, sometimes imports its victims.

Today,hundreds of student guestworkers from around the world were joined by unemployed American workers and labor leaders in a factory sit-in at the Hershey’s Chocolate Company packing plant in Pennsylvania.

The students paid $3,000-$6,000 each to come to the U.S. this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program through the State Department’s J-1 visa. Instead,they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey’s plant in deeply exploitative conditions. After automatic weekly deductions for rent in company housing and other expenses,they net between $40 and $140 per week for 40 hours of work. The workers talked about their struggle and asked for our support at the JwJ national conference.

http://www.jwjblog.org/2011/08/student-guestworkers-sit-in-at-hershey-factory-your-help-needed/

Quitting the "faux Wal-Mart"

A FEW weeks ago, a disgruntled Toronto Whole Foods employee did what most working stiffs can only fantasize about: not only did he quit, but he sent an epic, scathing resignation letter to the company's entire Midwestern division. When the letter was posted by Gawker.com, it quickly became an Internet sensation.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/08/16/quitting-the-faux-wal-mart

Verizon Strike Update, 15 August

This strike has all the makings of an epic showdown. All the elements of a classic, class war clash are present, and so far it appears to following the all-too-familiar script. We have a corporation aggressively attacking the living standard of its employees, and we have a workforce which to date has been equally determined to defend their livelihoods. And as usual we have the state in the form of the police, judiciary, intelligence services, mainstream media etc. providing hands-on tactical support for capital. For those of us who have familiarized ourselves with the often bloody, heart-breaking history of labor resistance what is unfolding is an old story--the worker against the state, David against Goliath.

Despite its vast profits, Verizon is demanding costly, draconian concessions from its workers.

The concessions Verizon is asking its employees to make would cost each worker $20,000 per year. Verizon is demanding that workers: pay up healthcare premiums of up to $6,800 per year, surrender their bargaining rights over healthcare, and freeze their pensions. Verizon also wants to deny new hires most of the benefits that current employees now enjoy.

What working class person can afford a $20,000 cut in compensation? The company certainly understood that such a request would be met with fierce opposition, what choice would its employees have against such severity? What we have here is class war, pure and simple. As I noted in an article written in November 0f 2008 (Crisis? What Crisis?), One of the reasons Wall Street brings down the economy every so often is to union-bust. The paucity of money in circulation combined with the high unemployment it induces creates a climate where lacking employment alternatives, workers can be made to surrender pay and benefits. Being compromised in this way weakens the unions' position, and makes them susceptible to the anti-worker, anti-union legislation which invariably gets introduced during such periods (such as the Right To Work Bill currently being sponsored by ubercapitalist Rand Paul). As a result, unions, even those which are not corrupt, have traditionally found refuge in capitulation. It's a win/win for capital: Either the unions acquiesce to the oligarchy's draconian demands, or they arch their backs and fight a fight they have little chance of winning. What does Verizon stand to lose here? The worst case scenario for them is that they have to continue on the extremely lucrative course they have been on with their current labor costs.

http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2011/08/solidarity-with-striking-verizon-workers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FILRF%2Finternational_labor_right+%28Labor+Is+Not+A+Commodity+Blog%29



Knowing that they cannot win an honest fight, Verizon has employed the standard ploy of the false accusation. The only chance the workers have is if they garner a good deal of public support and Verizon's revenues begin to decline, hence the preemptive propaganda initiative.

Unions also note that since Verizon cannot convince everyone that its workers are overpaid and greedy it has also tried to win support by claiming it is the victim of union-inspired violence. In the last week Verizon has made numerous allegations regarding sabotage of communications equipment by striking workers.

As a result of what the union calls "exaggerated court filings" judges have handed down injunctions limiting the number of picketers permitted at various locations. In New York the company filings claim a striker fired a BB gun at a non-striking worker and that strikers crowded around a manhole where non-striking workers were splicing a cable. The company alleged that the strikers refused to move when they were ordered to do so by police.

Standard corporate labor-dispute criminality, nothing new here.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/verizon-taking-its-cue-from-wisconsin-s-governor/

And, predictably, the defamation campaign has found sympathy with the judiciary, it always does.

Courts in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware have granted Verizon Communications injunctions against striking union workers who are picketing outside of its corporate offices and retail locations. Specifically, the injunctions are against members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Last week, Verizon filed lawsuits against the Communications Workers of America in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Massachusetts and accused the union workers of sabotage and harassment. 45,000 Verizon Communications employees, about 25% of the company’s workforce, went on strike on August 7th after the company failed to reach an agreement with labor unions over health benefit premiums. Managers are currently filling in for the strikers until a deal is reached, although at this point it appears negotiations could take a while.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/08/15/verizon-granted-injunction-against-picketers-in-new-jersey-new-york-pennsylvania-and-delaware/






And, as always, mysterious people begin to appear.

This Verizon facility houses an "FIOS" call center and the garage which sends out crews to do installations or repairs for cable customers. The only crews going out Thursday were made up of managers, including those drawn from other parts of the country, and recalled retirees. One picketer complained that most of these managers were people she didn't recognize from inside the facility.

At least on of the strikers have been hit by trucks driven by an unrecognized "manager." Infer what you will.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/beep-honk-verizon-picketers-get-noisy-support-in-upstate-ny/



As they always do, capital has called out the uniformed and plain-clothes dogs in defense of their own.

New York City police, including special “anti-terror” units, are escorting strikebreakers across the picket lines and monitoring strikers. The FBI, an agency of Obama’s Justice Department, has launched an investigation into unsubstantiated company charges of “sabotage,” linking the alleged violence of strikers to the upcoming ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Police are aggressively enforcing court injunctions obtained by Verizon in several states limiting picketing. Workers have been confined to fenced-in areas away from building entrances to shield strikebreakers and reduce the pickets to impotent protests. At least eight workers have already been arrested.

Anti-terror units? If that doesn't tell you what the so-called war on terror really is then nothing will.

Arresting strikers, how novel.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/pers-a16.shtml



The press has been doing its share to swing public opinion against the workers. Here capital's ever faithful disinformationists at CNN lurch into action, presenting utter submission as ethical compromise.

Verizon strike: Can both sides win?

Here they attempt to deceive their readership into believing that these are bleak times for the burgeoning, cash-rich, 10b USD company.

There are very few surprised faces from either side of the Verizon picket lines. When a labor contract signed in buoyant times expires in a bleaker era – as is the case with the company's current 45,000-worker strike -- the stage is set for conflict.

Yup, hands-on advocacy for cuts.

Although Verizon is making decent profits, only 0.5% of its income is attributable to the slowly shrinking landline business where its unionized employees are concentrated. The difference between the wireless and wireline sides of Verizon's house is driven by its network architecture. In the wireline business, there are hundreds of thousands of miles of individual telephone and data lines, most sagging from aging telephone poles, exposed to the elements and accidents. After a major storm in southern California it may take 10,000 truck rolls to repair the damage. That is why the wireline business needs 111,000 employees -- about one-third more than the wireless business -- to support revenues only two-thirds as large.

Decent? Indecent is more like it.

This strategy too is straight from the union-busting playbook, capital employs it often. The striking workers are from the least profitable part of the enterprise, hence their efforts don't produce the revenues to warrant their compensation. Tsk, tsk.

Verizon doesn't employ these 45 thousand workers because they like signing paychecks. Most infrastructure are labor intensive and costly, but they are essential to the overall profitability of the business. This argument is entirely specious, and its author and CNN know it.

Farther down in the same article, where CNN knows it is less likely to be read, some truth is injected against the inevitable charges of bias. One might call it a preemptive disclaimer.

Given the current economic climate, where austerity and benefit reductions are discussed daily, it seems a propitious time to bargain. But, Verizon management's position is weakened because of the company's overall success. While the company may argue that wireline profits are only $3,064 per wireline employee, the union can point to the company's large overall profits.

But the honesty doesn't survive into the first line of the next paragraph.

In cases like these, where the pie is shrinking, management may have to legally separate the two businesses in order to avoid cross subsidization. When the business in question has no surplus, the union's position is greatly weakened.

Verizon's pie is expanding prodigiously. They are rolling in money.

And this is a proposed strategy to resolve the conflict so both sides can "win"? Suggesting a course to "greatly" weaken the union?

Now once again feigning impartiality, the author offers advice to the union.

Turning to the union's strategy, it is smart to push back on management before such a split is engineered, exploiting the company's overall profitability. And, it is smart to push back at a moment when the unions have the luxury of having sympathetic ears in the White House.

"Exploiting"? The workers created that profitability! It wouldn't exist without them!

"Sympathetic ear in the White House"? Exactly to whom would that ear belong? The service staff perhaps, but I gather that is not what the author means. Obama has presided over the greatest reduction in unionism and the standard of living of working peoples in decades, perhaps ever, depending on whom you listen to. This president is labor's enemy, any suggestion to the contrary is just a vicious lie.

And now the author uses the crisis to hawk the roll out of fiber-to-the-home initiative so favored by his patrons in the telecom industry.

The Communication Workers union would have a much stronger position were it to use its clout across the industry to work with Congress and the administration to promote a national fiber-to-the-home initiative. Such a program would build infrastructure, create jobs, and, like Eisenhower's Interstate highway program, would have benefits to the economy that many conservative Republicans could embrace.

Work with Congress and the administration? Is that a joke? This is a convicted man working with his executioner.

And, of course, it is off topic, but capital never misses an opportunity for advancing its agenda.

And so who is this shameless huckster masquerading as a conciliator?

Richard Rumelt is the Harry & Elsa Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is the author of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy. Visit his website at strategyland.com.

School of Management, what a surprise.

White House: U.S. would ‘consider’ staying in Iraq past 2011

Well that's a shocker! The US will be engaged in permanent, lucrative, lethal wars in perpetuity until we stop them. If they end a war in one country it will be to launch one elsewhere. Short of a 60s-style anti-war movement this is the way it is going to be from now on.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/15/white-house-u-s-would-consider-staying-in-iraq-past-2011/

Mass protest forces Chinese authorities to shut petrochemical plant

A protest involving thousands of people last Sunday forced the authorities in the north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian to announce the closure of a major petrochemical facility. The event, sparked by residents’ fears that toxic materials would leak from the plant during a typhoon, is a further indication of sharp social tensions and the significant role of the Internet in organising protests against the Stalinist regime and the corporate elite that it represents.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/chin-a16.shtml

Fitch affirms U.S. AAA rating, disagrees with S&P

What does this disagreement mean? These ratings are marketing, nothing more.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/16/us-usa-rating-fitch-idUSTRE77F3B320110816?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly