Hey folks – just to let y’all know that I’m taking the night off – there’s no significant analysis going on today that can’t wait till tomorrow anyway.
In the meantime, please feel free to post any links of interest right here on this thread – knock yourselves out – activist away!
Another reason why I'm taking a night off: I've had real slow internet connection for a couple of days now – don't have the patience today to sit through endless waiting for pages and videos to open. Engineers are currently working on this issue – hoping it will all be back to normal in the next 24 hours.
Enjoy the well deserved night off Taxi.
I just posted an article about the Irish elections and how bad it is (yippee!) for Israel. Unfortunately it disappeared but hopefully it will magically appear at some point
MPFB/Recent news of note #61 (March 3, 2016) (63 items)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1450010648623152/permalink/1577156399241909/
–top items of note
1. [Algemeiner] Israel’s ‘ghost warriors’ stealthily combating terror, says US Expert on confronting Palestinian uprisings (INTERVIEW) (“Israelis have been masquerading as the indigenous Arab population since the turn of the twentieth century in order to infiltrate areas that otherwise would have been denied to them,” US-based author Samuel M. Katz told The Algemeiner, to describe a key method of combating terrorism that is still being used today.)
2. [Algemeiner] Saudi-Led Gulf State group classifies Hezbollah ‘terrorist organization’
3. [Antiwar/Daniel McAdams] Neocon armchair warhawks panic over Trump foreign policy
4. [Arutz Sheva] Cruz campaign appeals to Jews: 'high stakes for Israel'
5. [Business Insider] The 10 most influential people in history, according to Wikipedia
6. [Commentary Magazine/Noah Rothman] How the press will destroy Trump
7. [Forward] Mark Zuckerberg is world's richest Jew
8. [Global Research] ’Israel’ confirms delegation visit to Riyadh: Saudi princes say we “don’t care” about the Palestinians
9. [Haaretz] NASA: Drought in Middle East is the worst in 900 years
10. [Intercept] Huge numbers of GOP voters favor Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim entry to U.S.
11. [Jewish Press/Daniel Greenfield] Collaborators in the War against the Jews: Judith Butler (Professor Butler is a leader in the attempt to impose a WORLD boycott against Israeli universities.)
12. [Middle East Eye] Engineers fear Mosul dam collapse could kill 'more than a million'
13. [MintPress News] How the mainstream media became a neo-Stalinist propaganda regime for wealthy neocons
14. [Mondoweiss/Philip Weiss] As Trump smashes the neocons, Kristol likens him to Hitler
15. [National Review] Krauthammer's take: time for Cruz, Rubio 'to open the bomb bay doors' and carpet bomb Trump
16. [Reddit/conspiracy] You can tell just how much power Israel holds by the number of countries and jurisdictions that are quickly passing laws to prevent people from publicly advocating for a boycott of Israeli exports.
17. [Washington Post] In new letter, Republican foreign policy experts declare war on Trump
Good on you Ireland! I've always loved Ireland and the Irish people
"It could take weeks to sort out the recent Irish election and crown a new government in Dublin, but one thing is already certain: Israel’s position in the Emerald Isle is about to go from bad to worse.
Though it is not clear whether the ruling Fine Gael will form a coalition together with its bitter political rival Fianna Fail, or whether Fine Gael will form a minority government, it is clear that pro-Israel candidates were roundly defeated across the board, while pro-Palestinian candidates enjoyed a good day Friday at the polls.
For instance, Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter, the sole Jewish MP who served from 2011 to 2014 as both justice and defense minister, and who has been the victim of anti-Semitic swipes for his willingness to speak up for Israel, was defeated.
As was Joanna Tuffy, a Labor Party parliamentarian who headed the small Irish-Israel parliamentary friendship caucus. In fact it is not clear whether there will even be such a group in the next parliament, as the three or four members of this group were either voted out or retired.
On the other hand, new MP Gino Kenny, from the Anti-Austerity Alliance, celebrated his election victory on Saturday by waving a Palestinian flag. (Imagine the reaction were a congressman from Oklahoma to celebrate his victory on election night by waving not the US flag, but rather the blue and white banner of Israel.) Another candidate who won, Independent John Halligan, launched his candidacy in January in the presence of Palestinian Authority Ambassador Ahmad Abdelrazek.
“Delighted that Palestinian Ambassador Ahmad Abdelrazek will be attending my #GE16 launch on Friday in the Granville at 7:30pm,” he proudly placed on his Facebook page in January.
One man, John Fogarty, responded: “This is the same man whose government hasn’t allowed an election in eleven years ? Wow. You sure do pick them John.”
Both Kenny and Halligan supported position statements circulated by two Irish-Palestinian solidarity groups.
Sadaka, the Ireland Palestine Alliance, circulated a “pledge” among all 551 candidates asking them to sign off on the following position points: Ireland should formally recognize a Palestinian state; “vigorously work to end the blockade of Gaza”; seek a EU ban on trade and investment with “Israeli colonies/settlements”; and suspend military export licenses to Israel and public procurements from Israeli arms companies.
Another organization, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, asked candidates to commit themselves to working to end bilateral Israel-Irish arms trade, and to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
Of the 551 candidates, 263 gave some level of endorsement to these pledges, and 142 gave their full commitment. Of these, more than 30 were elected to the 157-seat parliament.
Among those who gave their commitments were the 23 elected members of Sinn Fein, the left-wing, strongly pro-Palestinian party that nearly doubled its strength and is posed to become the leading opposition party, with the aim of being the largest party in the next election. Sinn Fein’s increased parliamentary strength will give them more impact in parliament, something that will be felt by increased speaking time in debates and the ability to bring more motions. All of this, in turn, will translate into more media attention for their key agenda items, including their pro-Palestinian positions.
In addition, they might try to embarrass the government by putting forward propositions such as recognition of a Palestinian state, something the parliament has done, but the government has not.
All of the above bodes ill for Israel in a country where even before last week’s election the government was considered among the most hostile in Europe to Israel, second only to Sweden.
And that is even though over the last five years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Enda Kenny, and with Shatter in the government for much of that time, the tone toward Israel was less strident than during the premiership of Brian Cowen from 2008-2011. Cowen’s foreign minister Micheal Martin was a caustic critic of Israel, especially its policy regarding Gaza.
Under Kenny, however, the government was less focused on the Middle East, and more with internal Irish concerns, such as the economy. Nevertheless, even under this government Ireland, according to Israeli diplomatic officials, led efforts to keep the EU from adding Hezbollah to its terrorism blacklist in 2013.
After the election that brought the Kenny government to power in 2011, the feeling in Jerusalem was that if until that election Ireland scored a “zero” on a scale of zero-to-10 regarding warmth toward Israel, with the new government the needle was been pushed to 1.5. Now the dial has moved back to zero, if not into negative numbers.
While some may say that Ireland’s position does not matter, that it is a small country with little sway, it is important to remember that it is an English-speaking country, so that when an Irish politician blasts Israel in parliament, and a video appears on social media, it has a much greater reach than if a Swedish MP gives an anti-Israel speech in a language few people can understand.
The election in Ireland has presented Israel with a very challenging situation. To overcome it, what is needed is not to say it simply doesn’t matter, but rather to engage it. One way to engage Ireland is to do so indirectly, by engaging with the large Irish diaspora in the US, in the hopes that this could perhaps trickle back to Ireland and soften the tone on Israel somewhat.
Other ways to engage include initiating parliamentary exchanges, highlighting Ireland’s contribution to Israel, and bringing to Israel delegations of journalists and opinion- makers, such as mayors and local legislators, to show them a side of Israel they will definitely not be hearing much of in the next Irish Dali, quickly shaping up as one of the most hostile parliaments toward Israel in Europe..
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/The-Irish-election-More-trouble-for-Israel-in-the-Emerald-Isle-446709
Thank you Irish Parliament ! I've always felt a strong affinity for the Irish people , their strong and charming character, their music .
Thank you for posting this article , Bornajoo !
GO IRISH!! ( I claim my part Irish Scot ancestry! The fighting Irish–go boys go)
This I think is extremely import and Americans are totally ignorant of what it is really about.
http://tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text
Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The legally verified text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released on 26 January 2016 and can be accessed by Chapter below
The legally verified text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was released on 26 January 2016 and can be accessed by Chapter below.
You can slog thru the 30 Chapters or if you dont want to have to ‘deconstruct all the legalese ‘ I can tell you what it is about..
This TTP “Trade’ deal is NOT about Trade.
But take some more expert reviews of those who have put their own international attorneys on deconstructing it than my simple layman’s reading of it.
* –In February, at the end of the negotiating process, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) urged her colleagues “to reject the TPP and stop an agreement that would tilt the playing field even more in favor of big multinational corporations and against working families.”
Noting that “most of the TPP’s 30 chapters don’t even deal with traditional trade issues,” she argued, “most of TPP is about letting multinational corporations rig the rules on everything from patent protection to food safety standards—all to benefit themselves.”
“This trade deal is not about trade. It’s about the transfer of power from people to big business.”
* – Public Citizen points out that the TPP “includes rules that make it cheaper and less risky to offshore U.S. jobs to low wage nations.”
According to the memo:
The administration stopped claiming the TPP would create jobs after a four Pinocchio rating by the Washington Post fact checker. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), more than 57,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities have closed and five million U.S. manufacturing jobs – one in four – were lost with more than 875,000 U.S. workers certified under just one narrow U.S. Department of Labor program.
One of the major purported selling points for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a supposed increase in new jobs as a result of the controversial trade deal. The deal involves 12 nations, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia and more. However, two recent economic reports have contradicted the claims that jobs will increase. They have shown that, more than likely, the deal will lead to a loss of jobs.
First there was a World Bank report that predicted that TPP would produce negligible boosts to the economies of the U.S., Australia, and Canada. TechDirt writes:
So according to the World Bank’s figures, the U.S. will gain an extra 0.04% GDP per year on average, as a result of TPP; Australia an extra 0.07% annually, and Canada a boost of 0.12% per year.
* The AFLCIO has also taken apart the TTP as being the death knell for US jobs.
continued….
* – Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of negotiations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies.
According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal. Corbett concludes that the most egregious portions relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism, intellectual property, and food safety standards”
(If you do decide to read it for yourself the 2 chapters on ‘Finance’ and ‘Investors’ shows you want it is really about.–its a wide open invitation to the global vulture financial capitalist to override the sovereignty of the participating nations–those nation will not be able be able to make their own rules concerning their nations own business. )
continued….
* – Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of negotiations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies.
According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal. Corbett concludes that the most egregious portions relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism, intellectual property, and food safety standards”
(If you do decide to read it for yourself the 2 chapters on ‘Finance’ and ‘Investors’ shows you want it is really about.–its a wide open invitation to the global vulture financial capitalist to override the sovereignty of the participating nations–those nation will not be able be able to make their own rules concerning their nations own business. )
Continued…
continued….
* – Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of negotiations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies.
According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal. Corbett concludes that the most egregious portions relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism, intellectual property, and food safety standards”
(If you do decide to read it for yourself the 2 chapters on ‘Finance’ and ‘Investors’ is were the real dirt is.)
continued….
* – Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of negotiations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies.
According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal. Corbett concludes that the most egregious portions relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism, intellectual property, and food safety standards”
continued….
* – Doctors Without Borders released a statement following the conclusion of negotiations:
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) expresses its dismay that TPP countries have agreed to United States government and multinational drug company demands that will raise the price of medicines for millions by unnecessarily extending monopolies and further delaying price-lowering generic competition. The big losers in the TPP are patients and treatment providers in developing countries. Although the text has improved over the initial demands, the TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries, which will be forced to change their laws to incorporate abusive intellectual property protections for pharmaceutical companies.
continued…
*- According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts. Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations
Following the release of the text of the TPP, journalist James Corbett released an excellent report examining the effects of the proposal. Corbett concludes that the most egregious portions relate to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Mechanism, intellectual property, and food safety standards”
keeping on….
* – http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/01/new-study-confirms-private-trade-courts-serve-ultra-wealthy
The “investor-state dispute settlement” process, or ISDS, is built into treaties like NAFTA and the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It allows foreign investors to sue participating governments if they do anything that harms their investment in that nation. Corporations can sue governments through this process, but governments can’t sue corporations.
As Todd Tucker pointed out in The Washington Post, a “wide range of policies can be challenged” under ISDS: “Argentina has had its macroeconomic policies challenged, Australia its anti-smoking efforts, [and] Costa Rica its environmental preservation laws.”
Suits are not brought through a normal, public court process. Instead, they are heard before private panels of arbitrators, often made up of attorneys who represent corporations as part of their practice. These hearings are conducted under rules set up by independent arbitration bodies that include the International Chamber of Commerce.
more….
* – According to the report, ISDS will give corporations loopholes to escape accountability and empower international bodies, overriding the national sovereignty of signing nations. Under ISDS, foreign corporations would be allowed to appeal legal decisions to international tribunals, rather than face domestic courts.
Critics fear this could lead to a loss of sovereignty and the enrichment of transnational corporations.
Finally, the researchers draw harrowing conclusions about the end result of the TPP.
Globally, the TPP favors competition on labor costs and remuneration of capital. Depending on the policy choices in non-TPP countries, this may accelerate the global race to the bottom, increasing downward pressure on labor incomes in a quest for ever more elusive trade gains.
further…
Lets looks at who is pushing the TPP and who is against it.
Larry Summers warns that Donald Trump could endanger the TPP. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/01/larry-summers-donald-trump-is-a-serious-threat-to-american-democracy/ …
DNC chair and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [DWS] campaigns for the “Trans Pacific Partnership” pro-corporate power trade and investment agreement [TPP].
Donald Trump slams Pacific free trade deal – Apr. 23, 2015
money.cnn.com/2015/04/23/news/…/trump-trade-deal/
CNNMoney
Apr 23, 2015 – “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an attack on America’s business. It does not stop Japan’s currency manipulation. This is a bad deal,” he said
Say what you will about the Donald—in the case of the TPP his opposition to it puts him in the category of —‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
I really cannot say enough about how bad this deal is–and not just for the US citizens and workers but for the ‘lesser’ countries that are involved.
And this deal is aimed mainly at the ‘lesser’ countries–ones that will be hungry for trade and therefore more pliable and easily controlled — the global vulture capitalist will end up literally ‘owning’ them’–they will have no control of their countries own finance or business–be totally ‘unable’ to institute any laws or restrictions on finance or business for their citizens protection without being subjected to law suits by the “outside” investors and business entities that go into their countries.
I don’t remember who blew the whistle on or started the conspiracy about the “New World Order” but this is a major piece of the very real New World Order.
Its no longer a conspiracy theory, its a fact.
Another thing is I am sick to death of any opposition to ‘illegal immigration and ‘free trade being ‘SPUN’ by the self serving politicians as being about dirty Nazi like US ‘nationalist’/Isolationist and “racist ‘ Americans who are prejudiced against not lily white Hispanics and others.
This is about the ECONOMICS—-do the numbers—you cant keep “exporting” nearly (now and counting) a million US jobs and ‘importing ‘ millions of immigrants who need jobs at the same time without reducing the US population to the economic level of the Koreans who have to raid garbage cans for food and Africans who cant afford the simplest drugs for the most common diseases.
Right – I'm off to bed now.
If any comments end up going to moderation, I'll be able to release them first thing when I wake up.
Hey have a great day everyone!
Sorry about the repeated post–for some reason there is a lag and they don’t at first show up at first prompting me to repost them.
American,
Some of your comments are randomly going into moderation – no need to repeat posting as eventually I will rescue them out of quarantine. Usually, signing out and re-signing back in again using your wordpress account info and not your email address has been known to correct this glitch. The spam guard that Plato uses is highly sensitive and if a comment has more than three links, it will send it to pending for review by admin. Apologies for the occasional moderation inconvenience.
Thanks Taxi…will do.
Supposedly the TPP limits some buying of government debt by outside investors—but then again any dispute is subject to ‘arbitration “–which means lawyers of both sides arguing it and the winner decided by ‘supposed’ objective in and out siders. So the lesser countries in the TPP better be on guard.
Argentina:
Argentina Loses Court Appeal Against “Vulture” Fund Manager Paul Singer
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog
June 20th, 2014
Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge fund manager, has claimed victory in a lawsuit to force Argentina to fork out almost 17 times more than he paid to buy bonds issued by the country.
After Argentina’s economy crashed in 2001 and it defaulted on $80 billion in bonds, Singer’s Elliott Capital Management paid $49 million to buy $220 million in Argentine debt. Over the last 13 years, the value of these bonds has risen to $832 million which Singer wants paid off in full. Singer has been joined by several other Wall Street speculators such as Aurelius Capital Management and Blue Angel who together hold a total of $1.3 billion in Argentine debt.
Singer and his friends took advantage of the fact that much of the debt was issued under New York laws and went after Argentina in U.S. courts.
This is not the first time that Singer has taken advantage of governments in dire straits. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was forced to pay him $90 million for $20 million in debt in 2002 and Peru had to pay him $58 million for debt he bought for $11 million in 1995.
But Argentina has refused to play ball so far. “We will not reward loan sharks who bought defaulted bonds for next to nothing and have refused a deal that would have represented a clear profit, asking much more, even several times the amount they spent,” wrote Hector Timerman, the Argentine minister of foreign affairs.. “If Argentina beats Paul Singer and others, the consequence may well be a world where vulture funds’ actions against developing countries are history.”
Iceland:
The plot against Iceland
April 9, 2008 9:05 am April 9, 2008 9:05 am
FT:
Paul Krugman
On a gloomy North Atlantic evening in January, a group of international hedge fund managers gathered in the stylish bar of 101 Hotel in downtown Reykjavik at 8pm for a drink before dinner. They had been flown to Iceland by Bear Stearns, the US investment bank that two months later had to be rescued. Bear had organised the excursion to discuss the bizarre state of Iceland’s economy. What transpired at this dinner has entered into legend within Iceland’s close-knit financial community.
An executive who works with a big Icelandic bank recalls: “Upon entering the bar I was approached by one of the hedge fund managers. He informed me that all people in this party – except for him, of course – were shorting Iceland.” The executive says the fund manager described Iceland’s profit-making potential as the “second coming of Christ”.
“As dinner progressed – some people actually decided not to eat at all but just sit at the bar – and more drinks were downed, the conversation and questions started to get more hostile and short positions openly declared,” the executive says.
What started as an alcohol-fuelled evening has become a full-blown investigation by Iceland’s Financial Supervisory Authority into an alleged speculative attack by hedge funds on Iceland’s currency, banking system and stock market. Jonas Jonsson, director-general of Iceland’s FSA, says the authorities are “searching whether some parties have systematically been distributing negative and false rumours about the Icelandic banks and financial system in order to profit from it”.
Greece:
U.S Hedge Fund Investing in Greek Banks – ENTERPRISE ..
GREECE, Sunday, October 06, 2013.
U.S Hedge Fund Investing in Greek Banks. John Paulson and a clutch of bullish U.S. hedge funds are leading a charge…
Hedge Funds vs. Greece: Lobbyists Want “Cheap Ticket” to …
http://www.truth-out.org/…/34109-hedge-funds-vs-greece-lobbyists-...
Dec 20, 2015 – The main global lobby group for hedge funds is trying to tweak the EU’s rules so they can have a free play in the … Global hedge funds attacked Greek banks in the early part of 2015. ….
Puerto Rico:
How Hedge Funds Are Pillaging Puerto Rico
The American Prospect
How Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis. Vulture investors ….
Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle for Puerto Rico’s Future – The
.
The New York Times
Dec 20, 2015 – The impoverished island turned to hedge funds to stave off collapse. …
…
NYC Pension Urges Hedge Funds to Ease Puerto Rico Crisis
Bloomberg L.P.
Sep 30, 2015 – The top Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee is pushing … hearing into the role of hedge funds in Puerto Rico’s debt crisis
BTW…if you want to know why there was any difference in the way the head politicos reacted to Puerto Rico being ripped off by the vulture capitalist and their non action against US hedge funds ripping off other countries its in the “Pension” detail. Puerto Rico is a US territory and as such comes under the US Pension Guarantee Laws—the US has to pay out on insured pensions, as they all are, and funds that hold pensions funds are allowed to invest in hedge funds.
Note —that the US taxpayers are also on the hook for any pensions lost due to the US funds that invested in Israel. Investing US retirement funds in Israeli bonds is like using retiree funds to chum the water with bloody chickens —-there are just asking to be eaten by the sharks it will attract sooner or later.
.
I can also guarantee you that part of, at least the executive part, of pandering to Israel is some financial advisors know that Israel is not above ‘shorting itself’ or manipulating its own bonds and debt to send those US retiree funds into the toilet–leaving the US to be responsible for those investment debts also.
interesting read from Chris Hedges
The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism
College-educated elites, on behalf of corporations, carried out the savage neoliberal assault on the working poor. Now they are being made to pay. Their duplicity—embodied in politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—succeeded for decades. These elites, many from East Coast Ivy League schools, spoke the language of values—civility, inclusivity, a condemnation of overt racism and bigotry, a concern for the middle class—while thrusting a knife into the back of the underclass for their corporate masters. This game has ended.
There are tens of millions of Americans, especially lower-class whites, rightfully enraged at what has been done to them, their families and their communities. They have risen up to reject the neoliberal policies and political correctness imposed on them by college-educated elites from both political parties: Lower-class whites are embracing an American fascism.
link to truthdig.com>>>>
I think it is more than just the lower class whites, its also the middle class.
I think you could say that the lower class, whatever you want to classify them by, education, job types or whatever, has always had the attitude the ‘man/gov/system is ripping them off.
The middle class after seeing their wages./income/standard of living going backwards for 2 decades is now finally getting on the anti gov and elite establishment band wagon.
Regarding the Dem candidates.
I think Bernie would have had a better campaign if the word ‘socialism’ had never been used and he had just stuck to the top 1% sucking up all the wealth in the nation and ripping off the average citizen..
Its clear that Hillary is hanging her hat on the black vote in the southern states. Little do they know that Hillary and the Dems will keep them in the same ‘welfare limbo’ the current black generation has grown up in. And they will keep them there because that way they will always be the ‘large block go -to- voters’ for the liberals.
The Hill @thehill · Feb 26
Trump: I’ll “open up” our libel laws to make suing media outlets easier
http://hill.cm/sSHFnbD
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am all for this too—–might help clean out the
I-First propagandist in our press and media.
Can you imagine all the people that could sue them for smearing them and inaccurately labeling them as anti semites and other lies?
Hold all the liars accountable.Law suits have always been a road to riches for the Jewish identity militants, Sue them back.