This article from Michael Roberts offers up a reasonable background discussion on why default is an option when it comes to the European banking situation:
http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/an-alternative-programme-for-europe/
Open The Books for Everyone
Here’s a great piece from David Climenhaga contributing to rabble about fiscal openness.
While it’s extremely unlikely that the Harperites will follow his advice, I fully agree that now is the time to open all books for any organization that receives (or received) public funds of any kind. If unions are being wrenched open – and I don’t see why they shouldn’t – then we have an opportunity to apply ‘what’s fair’ logic to the other organizations listed below:
- Organizations like the bar, medical, engineering and other professional associations that members must join in order to practice in their fields
- Private corporations that receive any form of subsidy paid by taxpayers
- Private corporations that bid on any publicly financed contract
- Any corporation or organization that exists for the purpose of influencing public policy, including lobbying firms and “think-tanks” not associated with public institutions, which have their own reporting requirements
- Associations of corporations, businesses or individuals that by definition try to influence public policy and trade practices
- Churches and religious organizations that raise funds for other than purely spiritual matters, including the operation of chartable, educational or public policy institutions
- Any organization that can give charitable tax receipts for donations
I would add defense contractors and police organizations to the list, assuming the latter don’t already have to fully disclose details about spending activities (eg. G20 largesse) as part of annual budget reports.
It just makes perfect sense. If you want to hide and recede from public scrutiny, then stop milking the public teat. Stop accepting public funds.
If you want to get grants, subsidies or economic benefit of any kind, then accept the fact that the public has a RIGHT to see what you’ve earned, what you did with the money and decide if it was a good use of funds.
If we have this kind of openness, it’ll likely result in a significant reduction in the number of charities that have been set up simply to ensure a tax dodge for their creators and will go a long way to curbing the corruption that we’ve fomented in places like Montreal with programs like the Economic Action Plan.
The age of openness is upon us. Conservatives ramming this aggressive ideological agenda down the throats of left-of-centre organizations like unions and the CBC will only cause grief for themselves as Canadians demand more insight into the rest of the organizations that they are involved with.
WWIII: War on Syria Begins With No-Fly Zone
It won’t be long now until invasion or some other ‘attack’ of Syria begins now that the Arab League, the US, Turkey and others have agreed to impose a no-fly zone over Syria.
Senior European sources said that Arab jet fighters, and possibly Turkish warplanes, backed by American logistic support will implement a no fly zone in Syria’s skies, after the Arab League will issue a decision, under its Charter, calling for the protection of Syrian civilians.
The sources told Kuwait’s al Rai daily that the no fly ban will include a ban on the movement of Syrian military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and artillery, adding that this move would aim at curbing the movement of Assad forces, and cripple their ability to bomb cities. The European sources said the no fly ban might lead to the paralysis of the Syrian regime forces “in less than 24 hours.”
Meanwhile, it is reported that the leadership of the Turkish General Staff informed all the concerned parties with the Syrian issue its rejection of the idea that the Turkish army would launch any invasion to the Syrian territory including the area adjacent to the Turkish border to establish a “buffer zone” to protect civilians fleeing the violence.
Occupy Santa Claus?
While there is an occupyxmas concept already put out there, will someone act on the idea of occupying Santa Claus parades?
It makes sense:
- Many occupiers are already located in parade routes (Vancouver has already had to divert traffic to other streets)
- There is a blatant anti-consumerist supporter behind the whole ‘Occupy’ concept (ie. AdBusters)
- Many parades around the world are being filmed live, generating countless opportunities for visibility of the movement
If done right, this visibility could be translated into very positive messages related to the occupy movement. Those mainstream media types that typically slander and ‘poo poo’ those with a positive message about what occupy is all about may be forced to confront those positive messages as occupiers are broadcast to middle America.
Maybe have messages like ‘Make Gifts, Not War’, ‘Buy Local, Not From The North Pole’, and ‘Stop Shopping, Start Caroling’ to remind people that the ‘season’ is all about, peace, love and understanding and not about emptying your wallets for Wal-Mart, ToysRUs and other international conglomerates.
If we’re lucky, that message will translate to the millions of viewers that are about to spend the next 4 or 5 Saturdays in busy malls and force them to reconsider what Christmas should be all about.
The down side? Unfortunately, there’s a huge risk that occupiers (or police removing occupiers) might act in poor taste or make threats to parade members or property. This would destroy any positive currency that occupiers may have earned by looking out for the average ’99%er’ and will draw a LOT of criticism from people that can’t see past the commercialism of the annual events.
Make Them Pay
Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in the US research shows that nearly a third of 280 corporations surveyed didn’t pay taxes or even got a tax break.
More shocking with this news is that the corporations that were part of the survey – a mere fraction of the corporations in the US and Canada – received more than $223 billion in subsidies from various levels of US government.
All of this is proof that high corporate taxes are not the problem.
The more I read stuff like this, the more I want a simple tax system where there are NO deductions from income and a very reasonable and lower flat tax of, say, 10% on all activity. This would solve a LOT of problems in most economies.
It would also put a lot of lawyers and lobbyists out on the street!
Remembering Peace
When was the last time Canada truly enjoyed peace or, better yet, pursued peace?
Was it during the 70s when Trudeau bucked the demands of the US to enter Vietnam?
We’ve been in Afghanistan for more than a decade and before that, we helped bombed Kosovo and were active with the forces in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I’m sure our military has been active in all kinds of other locations around the planet.
On this day, I told my son that a lot of people died so that we could enjoy peace. More importantly, I told him that his role is to remember ways to find peaceful solutions to the world’s problems.
But why is it that we tell our kids that fighting is not the answer, but as adults, we kick the crap out of anyone at any opportunity?
Libya certainly experienced this recently and Iran is right around the corner.
When are we going to abolish warfare in honour of those that fought against tyranny? When are we going to stop projecting this new-found sense of tyranny?
On this Remembrance Day and any other day, consider supporting any of these organizations:
- COATS
- Canadian Peace Alliance
- Canadian School of Peacebuilding
- Amnesty International
- White Poppy Alliance
- Artists Against War
- War Resisters’ Campaign
- Ceasefire
- Department of Peace
What’s your favourite organization committed to peace? Please list it below for everyone to share.
I Want Our $100 Billion BACK!
This is a rant. I am very, very upset with you bleeping bleepity-bleep Canadians that voted for Conservatives.
The Conservatives have admitted to rigging the 2006 election and have faced up to penalties related to ‘administrative errors’ related to the In and Out Scandal (admittedly yet to be a scandal because the CTVers and Quebecors make too much money from Conservative advertisements).
Our country is being run by crooks and we’re just sitting back doing nothing.
You bought into the lies of Stephen Harper and his crooked team not once, not twice, but at least three times.
You fell for their pocket-book promises.
You voted for criminals.
You voted for liars.
You voted for thieves.
You voted for bad business managers.
And when your taxes and fees and other costs of living skyrocket because you’re subsidizing tax cuts, jet planes and prisons we don’t need, you will have no one to blame but yourselves.
However, I WANT MY MONEY BACK. Millions of other Canadians should demand their money back as well.
By my calculations, the Conservatives owe Canada at least $100 billion.
Just the GST cut alone probably cost us that much.
Is Iran Next in WWIII?
If you don’t believe we’re in WWIII, you’re clearly not listening or watching between the lines.
Now that Libya is ‘under control’, the question comes up: is Syria or Iran next? Or will it be North Korea?
I was listening to a massive pile of trash this morning on CBC’s ‘The Current’ where they walked through a number of ‘attach Iran’ scenarios like we were talking about ways to get the best bang for our buck with Christmas shopping. This show was infuriating and shameful in the way that the CBC was flagrantly playing into the pile of horseshit propoganda as to why Iran needs to be invaded.
Unfortunately, the media and their masters don’t have a lot of respect for the ‘lay person’ because they’re just steamrolling ahead with their plans to continue world domination.
When will it end?
Excited Delirium Book: Chapter 66 (Watching the Quake Real-Time)
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 66 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
The world had already turned its eyes to Channel China, via their TVs and TIVOs and other recording devices, as preparations for the launch of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games started.
Around the world, more than 2 billion people watched news reports, expecting to witness a great celebration of the power and might of China and its cultural heritage, only to watch in disbelief as the City of Beijing fell before four billion eyes.
Reporters and news crews were not immune from the bone-crushing events of the evening of August 8, 2008. They scrambled to protect themselves, many unable to utter a small sentence, before being slammed by a three-tonne slab of concrete or got swept away by a rush of water released from the City’s once great infrastructure or as they got sucked into a great flame, their last words feeding a missive and unforgiving wall of insatiable heat as it spread through ancient neighbourhoods.
Kite, Eddie, Chaos, Hummus and the others could only watch in horror, along with the rest of humanity, as reporter after reporter succumbed to the endless arsenal of the earth’s fury.
Each tried to say something to the group, stopping temselves as they opened their mouths, each realizing that nothing could be said here and now that could sum up the moment they were experiencing.
At moments, they looked like fish, tossed from their watery homes, mouths open and closing, gasping at nothing, saying less.
It was Hummus who finally broke the silence as they stood and watched the International News Corporation (INC) live reports on the Quake.
“Sometimes, I just don’t feel we deserve what we’ve got … and then there are others who think we deserve what we get. I don’t think I can watch this much longer. This carnage hurts my heart.”
With that, the reception started to fade and looked like a side-road in Buffalo during a January white-out. Reception was now an issue and the crowd in the bar started shouting for another channel.
As the bartender flipped through the channels, his remote control pointed to the TV like a wand to a toad, hoping it would transform into something more palatable, he showed frustration at not getting anything but fuzz and a few kid’s shows that were not already pre-empted by national news reports.
“Sorry guys. I’m not having a lot of luck,
He said as he clicked the TV off in annoyance.
“Now hold on …” Kite said. “Give it a few seconds and someone like INC or ABCNNBCBS will start editorializing on what’s happening. In fact, Jake, can you set your TIVO to record some of the updates, especially from the UCC?”
“No problem,” Jake said, “but you’ll have to tell me what the hell the UCC is.”
“Sorry … it’s the Univist Communication Channel, the mouthpiece for the OMNINet’s religious organization. It’s channel 88 on the satellite,” Kite answered.
“Done,” Jake said as he adjusted his TIVO setup. “Any reason why?”
“I might need some of the their quotes later,” he said, knowing full-well their religion-based reporting services will be packed with messages about the end of the world, the sins of China as a godless land, and so on.
As Jake set up the recorder to test that everything was set up properly, the group turned to look at each other, signs of worry and anxiety pasted on their faces, as obvious as billboards on a busy highway.
“We have to do something,” Eddie declared, his A=plus personality showing. He was feeling like he had to lead them out of this madness, as he felt responsible for what was happening.
“Eddie … there was nothing you could do about what’s happened,” Kite said, trying to reassure his friend. “Really. You have to know that. And you have no idea how much you’ve helped us understand why it’s happening. And … you have no idea how what you did when you left your office will help us as we catch these fuckers in action.”
“Then let’s get hi mand his little ferret buddy Hadlock and string them up by their ass hairs,” Chaos demanded angrily.
“Let’s see if we can track Diana first. She might have some ideas about what to do,” Kite said as he used his phone to log on to his remote email service. “Oh … look at this.”
“I guess she’s watching the news too,” Kite said, as he showed the screen to each of his friends.
“Well then,” Hummus said, “maybe our beacon has come to shed light on what the fuck is happening to the world.”
OK guys … let’s get our things and get acting on this,” Kite shouted. “Eddie … Forest might be a pretty big help to us. Do you want to ask him to join us?”
“Good idea. I’ll be back in a sec.”
As Eddie went over to chat with Forest, Kite sent a note back to Diana to confirm location.
Within a few moments, everyone was packed together around each other like a football huddle, eagerly awaiting next steps.
“I just got a note back from her … we’re meeting at her apartment.”
[Author’s Note: I conceived of this plot component in 2006 and wrote most of these chapters into the story of ‘Excited Delirium’ during the course of 2007. I was stunned like the rest of the world when a tragic earthquake struck the province of Sichuan on May 12, 2008. Please believe me that I do not want to ‘profit’ from the suffering that the hundreds of thousands in this quake experienced. I remind all readers that this is a work of fiction and that my goals are to speak to the symbolic reference that’s used in the numerology along with the viewpoint of one fictional cult concerning the fate of the Chinese. ]
(Note: “Excited Delirium” is a work of fiction. Any person, place or thing depicted in this work of fiction is also a work of fiction. Any relation of these subjects or characters to real locations, people or things are an unintentional coincidence.)
Did you miss a chapter? If so, click here to see all chapters or click here to go to Excited Delirium: Chapter 1 (Prelude)
Excited Delirium by Liam Young is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License .
Based on a work at www.exciteddelirium.ca .
London Ontario: Home of the Intolerant
London, Ontario has done what no other city could do: be the first city in Canada to boot Occupiers from public property.
What a shame.
The question that will be on everyone’s minds: what’s next?
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure about the claim to occupy in this small south-western Ontario town, but the reality is this: those that run the city keep pushing ahead with boondoggles that are going to (a) break the election promises of Joe Fontana and (b) keep wasting taxpayer dollars.
So, in answer to my own question, ‘what’s next’: we have to continue to send the message that this kind of waste and crony capitalism is unacceptable.