Bulletin N° 860

 

 

“The Assassination of Julius Caesar”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IO_Ldn2H4o

(1h16min)

with Michael Parenrti

(1998)

+

“The American Dream”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1NVPEg1jrQ

(30:33)

written and produced by Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl

(2011)

 

 

 

 

Subject : Life under the controls of Monopoly Capitalism, facing the “practico-inert” . . . .

 

 

 

September 28, 2019

Grenoble, France

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

 

Economic history is boring, and the history of finance is fatally boring. It makes staying back on the farm and watching the grass grow seem like high drama. That is until we come across revisionist history which suggests that the boredom is caused by intentional obfuscations, what Michael Parenti calls “gentleman history.” Reading Ellen Brown’s book, The Web of Debt (2007,2011), offers us a view of the world through a window onto high drama, with scenes reminiscent of the paintings of Jérôme Bosch (1450-1516), with his grotesque depictions of  both passive victims and cruel victimizers; this blood lust of the predators and the naiveté of the needy are nothing less than a cautionary tale for all of us. [See Le Jardin des délices for more graphic depictions of the Medieval art from Christendom.] The parasitical relationship between banks and farmers in US history gave birth to the Populist Movement in the late 19th century, and it inspired a resurgence during the Great Depression of the 1930s, for which there is much cultural and political documentation. [See: Wizard of Oz, “We're off to see the wizard” @ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm3ypbAbLJ8&feature=youtu.be.]

 

Brown has been working on this subject for decades. She began in the 1970s , as a graduate student with limited resources, and finally published her magnum opus in 2007, which she modestly calls “a work in progress.” Her study benefited from the 1995 documentary film, The Money Masters, produced by Patrick S. J. Carmack and directed and narrated by William T. Still. But, in the meantime she concocted an ingenious literary device which makes her highly technical analytic discourse more accessible to the non-specialized reader. Economic and finance history suddenly comes alive with Dorothy and Co. exploring the world of Oz.

Ellen Brown introduces the subject of her book with an enchanting description of  Lessons from the Wizard of Oz”:

 

     In refreshing contrast to the impenetrable writings of economists, the classic fairytale The Wizard of Oz has delighted young and old for over a century. It was first published by L. Frank Baum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900. In 1939, it was made into a hit Hollywood movie starring Judy Garland, an later it was made into the popular stage play The Wiz. Few of the millions who have enjoyed this charming tale have suspected that its imagery was drawn from that most obscure and tedious of subjects, banking and finance. Fewer still have suspected that the real-life folk heroes who inspired its plot may actually have had the answer to the financial crisis facing the country today!

 

     The economic allusions in Baum’s tale were first observed in 1964 by a schoolteacher named Henry Littlefield, who called the story “a parable on Populism,” referring to the People’s Party movement challenging the banking monopoly in the late nineteenth century. Other analysts later picked up the theme. Economists  Hugh Rockoff, writing in the Journal of Political Economy in 1990, called the tale a ‘monetary allegory.” Professor Tim Ziaukas, writing in 1998, stated:

 

“The Wizard of Oz” . . .  was written at a time when American society was consumed by the debate over the “financial question,” that is, the creation and circulation of money . . . .  The characters of “The Wizard of Oz” represented those deeply involved in the debate: the Scarecrow as the farmers, the Tin Woodman as the industrial workers, the Lion as silver advocate William Jennings Bryan and Dorothy as the archetypal American girl.

 

     The Wizard of Oz has been called “the first truly American fairy tale.” The Germans established the national fairytale tradition with Grimm’s Fairy Tales, a collection of popular folklore gathered by the Brothers Grimm specifically to reflect German populist traditions and national values. Baum’s book did the same thing for the American populist (or people’s) tradition. It was all about people power, manifesting your dreams, finding what you wanted  in our own backyard. According to Littlefield, the march of Dorothy and her friends to the Emerald City to petition the Wizard of Oz for help was patterned after the 1894 march from Ohio to Washington of an “Industrial Army” led by Jacob Coxey, urging Congress to return to the system of debt-free government-issued Greenbacks initiated by Abraham Lincoln. The march of Coxey’s Army on Washington began a long tradition of people taking to the streets in peaceful protest when there seemed no other way to voice their appeals. As Lawrence Goodwin, author of The Populists Movement, described the nineteenth century movement to change the money system:

 

[T]here was once a time in history when people acted . . . . [F]armers were trapped in debt. They were the most oppressed of Americans, they experimented with cooperative purchasing and marketing, they tried to find their own way out of the strangle hold of debt to merchants, but none of these could work if they couldn’t get capital. So they had to turn to politics, and they had to organize themselves into a party. . . . [T]he populists didn’t just organize a political party, they made a movement. They had picnics and parties and newsletters and classes and courses, and they taught themselves, and they taught each other, and they became a group of people with a sense of purpose, a group of people with courage, a group of people with dignity.

 

     Like the Populists, Dorothy and her troop discovered that they had the power to solve their own problems and achieve their own dreams. The Scarecrow in search of a brain, the Tin Man in search of a heart, the Lion in search of courage actually had what they wanted all along. When the Wizard’s false magic proved powerless, the Wicked Witch was vanquished by the defenseless young girl and her little dog. When the Wizard disappeared in his hot air balloon, the unlettered Scarecrow took over as leader of Oz.

 

     The Wizard of Oz came to embody the American dream and the American national spirit. In the United States, the land of abundance, all you had to do was to realize your potential and manifest it. That was one of the tale’s morals, but it also contained a darker one, a message for which its imagery has become a familiar metaphor: that there are invisible puppeteers pulling the strings of the puppets we see on the stage, in a show that is largely illusion.

 

Ellen Brown turns quickly to dig into the real history of an indigenous US social movement that was premised on the empirical values of socialism from the bottom up.

 

     The 1890s were plagued by an economic depression that was nearly as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. The farmers lived like serfs to the bankers, having mortgaged their farms, their equipment, and sometimes even the seeds they needed for planting. They were charged so much by a railroad cartel for shipping their products to market that they could have more costs and debts than profits. The farmers were as ignorant as the Scarecrow of banking policies; while in the cities, unemployed factory workers were as frozen as the Tin Woodman, for the lack of a free-flowing supply of money to “oil” the wheels of industry. In the early 1890s, unemployment had reached 20 percent. The crime rate soared, families were torn apart, racial tensions boiled. The nation was in chaos. Radical party politics thrived.

 

    In every presidential election between 1872 and 1896, there was a third national party running on a platform of financial reform. Typically organized under the auspices of labor or farmer organizations, these were parties of the people rather than the banks. They included the Populist Party, the Greenback and Greenback Labor Parties, the Labor Reform Party, the Antimonopolist Party, and the Union Labor Party. They advocated expanding the national currency to meet the needs of trade, reform of the banking system, and democratic control of the financial system.

 

     Money reform advocates today tend to argue that the solution to the country’s finical woes is to return to the “gold standard,” which required that paper money be backed by a certain weight of gold bullion. But to the farmers and laborers who were suffering under its yoke in the 1890s, the gold standard was the problem. They had been there and done it and know it didn’t work. William Jennings Bryan called the bankers’ private gold-based money a “cross of gold.” There was simply not enough gold available to finance the needs of an expanding economy. The bankers made loans in notes backed by gold and required repayment in notes backed by gold; but the bankers controlled the gold, and its price was subject to manipulation by speculators. Gold’s price had increased over the course of the century, while the prices laborers got for their wares had dropped. People short of gold had to borrow from the bankers, who periodically contracted the money supply by calling in loans and raising interest rates. The result was “tight” money – insufficient money to go around. Like in a game of musical chairs, the people who came up short wound up losing their homes to the banks.

 

          The solution of Jacob Coxey and his Industrial Army of destitute unemployed men was to augment the money supply with government-issued United States Notes. Popularly called ‘Greenbacks,” these federal dollars were first issued by President Lincoln when he was faced with usurious interest rates in the 1860s. Lincoln had foiled the bankers by making up the budget shortfall with US Notes that did not accrue interest and did not have to be paid back to the banks. The same sort of debt-free paper money had financed a long period  of colonial abundance in the eighteenth century, until King George forbade the colonies from issuing their own currency. The money supply had then shrunk, precipitating a depression that led to the American Revolution.

 

     To remedy the tight-money problem that resulted when the Greenbacks were halted after Lincoln’s assassination, Coxey proposed that congress should increase the money supply with a further $500 million in Greenbacks. This new money would be used to redeem the federal debt and to stimulate the economy by putting the unemployed to work on public projects. The bankers countered that allowing the government to issue money would be dangerously inflationary. What they failed to reveal was that their own paper banknotes were themselves highly inflationary, since the same gold was “lent” many times over, effectively counterfeiting it; and when the bankers lent their paper money to the government, the government wound up heavily in debt for something it could have created itself. But those facts were buried in confusing rhetoric, and the bankers’ “gold standard” won the day.(pp.11-14)

 

Brown lays down as the theme of her book the argument that: “the power to create money needs to be returned to the government and the people it represents. The federal debt could be paid, income taxes could be eliminated, and social programs could be expanded; and this could be done without imposing austerity measures on the people or sparking runaway inflation.”(p.3) This represents the thinking of some of America’s “best and brightest,” including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. Some of the historical facts exposed in this book are as follows:

 

1)    The “Federal” Reserve is not actually federal. It is a private corporation owned by a consortium of very large multinational banks. (Chapter 13.)

2)    Except for coins, the government does not create money. Dollar bills (Federal Reserve Notes) are created by the private Federal Reserve, which lends them to the government. (Chapter 2.)

3)    Tangible currency (coins and dollar bills) together make up less than 3 percent of the U.S. money supply. The other 97 percent exists only as data entries on computer screens, and all of this money was created by banks in the form of loans. (Chapters 2 and 17.)

4)    The money that banks lend is not recycled from pre-existing deposits. It is new money, which did not exist until it was lent. (Chapters 17 and 18.)

5)    Thirty percent of the money created by banks with accounting entries is invested for their own accounts. –Chapter 18.)

6)    The American banking system, which at one time extended productive loans to agriculture and industry, has today become a giant betting machine. By December 2007, an estimated $681 trillion were riding on complex high-risk bets known as derivatives – 10 times the annual output of the entire world economy. These bets are funded by big U.S. banks and are made largely with borrowed money crated on a computer screen. Derivatives can be and have been used to manipulate markets, loot businesses, and destroy competitor economies. (Chapters 20 and 32.)

7)    The U.S federal debt has not been paid off since the days of Andrew Jackson. Only the interest gets paid while the principle portion continues to grow. (Chapter 2.)

8)    The federal income tax was instituted specifically to coerce taxpayers to pay the interest due to the banks on the federal debt. If the money supply had been created by the government rather than borrowed from banks that created it, the income tax would have been unnecessary. (Chapters 13 and 43.)

9)    Contrary to popular belief, creeping inflation is not caused by the government irresponsibly printing dollars. It is caused by banks expanding the money supply with loans. (Chapter 10.)

10)  Most of the runaway inflation seen in “banana republics” has been caused, not by national governments over-printing money, but by global institutional speculators attacking local currencies and devaluing them on international markets (Chapter 25.)

11)  The same sort of speculative devaluation could happen to the U.S. dollar if international investors were to abandon it as a global “reserve” currency, something they are now threatening to do in retaliation for what they perceive to be American economic imperialism. (Chapters 29 and 37.)

12)  There is a way out of this morass. The early American colonists found it, and so did Abraham Lincoln and some other national leaders; the government can take back the money-issuing power from the banks. (Chapters 8 and 24.)

 

This study is anything but boring. What remains to be done is a careful and systematic verification of facts, that places events in the context of specific social class interests. The ideologies of the ruling classes vary according to specific needs and opportunities at any given moment. An example of this is the verbal assertion attributed to Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) :

 

“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!”

 

While the statement itself has not been authenticated, certainly the veracity of the idea can be tested with specific events at selected moments in history. This is the yeoman work that lies ahead for future historians, to the benefit of all.

 

 

 

The 22 + items below provide readers with reports on the calamitous events which are seen by some as nothing more than new “investment opportunities” for the evangelicals of the neoliberal capitalist cult. We encourage readers to examine carefully the descriptions below and determine for themselves what aspects are most important in the development of vital contradictions, which will surely produce qualitative changes – for better, or for the worse. The pitfalls in this research, like those faced by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, are the paradoxes and ambiguities which threaten to enslave us to the cognitive dissonance, the mental fog, which, as we have seen, can be cast widely. L. Frank Baum was aware of this danger, and his classic American fairytale written in 1899 was a cautionary tale written in code for the benefit of later generations, facing the same financial problems. Today, Ellen Brown has contributed much to our understanding of who we are and how we have been disempowered by private interests in a for-profit central banking system.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

---

Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur des Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego

http://www.ceimsa.org 

 

a.

 

Black Agenda Report

 

Which Way Out of Neoliberalism: Fascism or Socialism?

https://www.blackagendareport.com/which-way-out-neoliberalism-fascism-or-socialism

by Danny Haiphong

+

Economic Update: “Capitalism in Denial”

https://youtu.be/mrJ29PRXyLY

(30min)

with Richard Wolff

 

===========

 

b.

"Please save my life": Julian Assange

https://www.ecpmf.eu/news/threats/please-save-my-life-julian-assange

by Annissa Warsame

+

UK “justice” system tortures Julian Assange, treats fascist Tommy Robinson with kid gloves

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/19/robi-s19.html

by Thomas Scripps

+

Julian Assange Jailed Indefinitely!

https://mailchi.mp/c2375a6843ce/julian-assange-jailed-indefinitely?e=0e90ee3dff

NYC Free Assange [nycfreeassange@gmail.com]

+

Chelsea Manning imprisoned without charge for six months for refusing to testify against Julian Assange

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/09/21/pers-s21.html

+

After Six Years in Exile, Edward Snowden Explains Himself

https://www.wired.com/story/after-six-years-in-exile-edward-snowden-explains-himself/

by Andy Greenberg

+

Edward Snowden: Trump administration sues NSA whistleblower over new memoir

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/edward-snowden-autobiography-us-cia-nsa-secret-files-doj-a9109451.html

 

The government is demanding all proceeds from the whistleblower’s autobiography

+

Journalist Glenn Greewald gives the inside story of Edward Snowden

https://youtu.be/BhdENw-vhDQ

(19min)

+

They're Murdering My Son – Julian Assange's Father Tells Of Pain And Anguish

https://theduran.com/theyre-murdering-my-son-julian-assanges-father-tells-of-pain-and-anguish/

 

===========

 

c.

Our Loss Is BlackRock's Gain

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/our-loss-is-blackrocks-gain/

by Robert Scheer

+

Blackstone, BlackRock or a Public Bank for California’s Money?

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/blackstone-blackrock-or-a-public-bank-for-californias-money/

by Ellen Brown

+

Big Banks Hit With Monster $250 Billion Lawsuit in Housing Crisis

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/big-banks-hit-with-monster-250-billion-lawsuit-in-housing-crisis/

+

Did The Banks Just Tell Us A Massive Crash is Coming?

https://youtu.be/GTPHWtZlqT0

with Richard Wolff

(10:45)

+

Central Bankers' Desperate Grab for Power

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/bankers-will-stop-at-nothing-to-keep-their-grip-on-the-global-economy/

by Ellen Brown

+

Fed has ‘no stomach’ for doing the right thing of raising rates as crisis ‘worse than 2008’ looms

https://www.rt.com/business/469093-fed-interest-rate-cuts/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email

with Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff

+

Russia Will Assist Iran In Circumventing

Illegitimate U.S. Banking Sanctions

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52292.htm

 

===========

 

d.

Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/money-is-the-oxygen-on-which-the-fire-of-global-warming-burns

by Bill McKibben

+

On Contact: Climate Emergency with Roger Hallam,

Extinction Rebellion

https://youtu.be/Y9MQGRI8N48

+

Naomi Klein: We Have Far Less Time Than We Think

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/naomi-klein-we-have-far-less-time-than-we-think/

by Ilana Novick

+

North America Lost a Quarter of Its Birds in 50 Years

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/09/america-has-lost-quarter-its-birds-fifty-years/598318/

+

The U.S. Military Is Destroying the Environment

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-military-is-destroying-the-environment/

by Ilana Novick

+

Iran attacked Saudi Arabia, just as Iraq orchestrated 9/11, and North Vietnam attacked the USS Maddox, and....

https://twitter.com/MnarMuh

by Mnar Muhawesh

 

===========

 

e.

Permanent Record: Why NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden Risked His Life to Expose Surveillance State

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/26/edward_snowden_trump_whistleblower_impeachment

+

Looking back at the Snowden revelations – A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering

https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2019/09/24/looking-back-at-the-snowden-revelations/

+

EVERYONE is on the list:

Snowden says no ‘innocents’

in mass surveillance world

Seg snowden trump split

https://www.rt.com/news/469112-snowden-everyone-list-spying/

 

===========

 

f.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on His Debut Novel “The Water Dancer,” Slavery & Reparations

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/24/ta_nehisi_coates_the_water_dancer

+

Lynching the Past – Truthdig

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/lynching-the-past/

 

===========

 

g.

Chomsky Calls US Secondary Sanctions against Iran ‘Act of War’

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2019/09/24/2102815/chomsky-calls-us-secondary-sanctions-against-iran-act-of-war

+

THE ANGRY ARAB: Hyping the Arab-Iran Conflict

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/09/11/the-angry-arab-hyping-the-arab-iran-confli

+

China's Giant $400 Billion Iran Investment Complicates U.S. Options

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2019/09/19/chinas-giant-400-billion-iran-investment-snubs-trump/

 

===========

 

 

h.

My Voice Is the Gallows for All Tyrants

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/09/20/my-voice-is-the-gallows-for-all-tyrants/

by Vijay Prashad

+

Using Forged Emails, “Progressive” Journalists Smear Their Own for Challenging Syria Groupthink

https://www.mintpressnews.com/using-forged-emails-progressive-journalists-smear-challenging-syria-groupthink/261972/

+

9/11: the deep state false flag that keeps on condoning Western terrorism at home and around the world

https://thesaker.is/9-11-the-deep-state-false-flag-that-keeps-on-condoning-western-terrorism-at-home-and-around-the-world/

 

===========

 

i.

From: "Le Mouvement de la Paix" <communication@mvtpaix.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2019
Subject: Le dossier de presse de la Journée internationale de la Paix 2019

 

http://img.mailinblue.com/1611653/images/rnb/original/5b51e9a69d579c54dc4b195d.jpg

http://img.mailinblue.com/new_images/rnb/rnb_space.gif

https://img.mailinblue.com/1611653/images/rnb/original/5d839f8d6cda4efecf08431e.jpg

 

Le dossier de presse de la
Journée internationale de la Paix 2019

 

http://img.mailinblue.com/new_images/rnb/rnb_space.gif

 

Mouvement de la Paix
9 rue Dulcie-September
93400 SAINT-OUEN
01.40.12.09.12
www.mvtpaix.org
 

 

 

 

http://r.email.mvtpaix.org/mk/op/iVA6pWSrEo3ttE8Cu8aT29dRhh9ktxTSNu-5BGpJqr-_X63k-2C6PzL8ulxOC3fjnjLum-LOWOiP_YLJ7Vc6Tm-E1eaohZfJxlNsJhiiRw

 

===========

 

j.

Our Invisible Government

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/our-invisible-government/

+

“Inside The CIA - On Company Business”

https://youtu.be/EYrznlDTE_M

(1980)

 

===========

 

k.

Tear gas, water cannons, injuries: Chaos erupts in Nantes amid Yellow Vests rally

(VIDEOS, PHOTOS)

https://www.rt.com/news/468840-yellow-vest-nantes-clashes/

— RT World News

 

===========

 

l.

“We Are Striking to Disrupt the System”: An Hour with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg

Seg greta 1

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/11/greta_thunberg_swedish_activist_climate_crisis

+

News From Underground

 

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
Subject: [MCM] The Big Money's using Greta Thunberg (and AOC) to screw all the rest of us (MUST-READ)

 

"Make no mistake. When the most influential multinational corporations, the world’s largest institutional investors including BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, the UN, the World Bank, the Bank of England and other central banks of the BIS line up behind the financing of a so-called green Agenda, call it Green New Deal or what, it is time to look behind the surface of public climate activist campaigns to the actual agenda. The picture that emerges is the attempted financial reorganization of the world economy using climate, something the sun and its energy have orders of magnitude more to do with than mankind ever could—to try to convince us ordinary folk to make untold 

sacrifice to 'save our planet.'"

 

Climate and the Money Trail

https://www.globalresearch.ca/climate-money-trail/5690209?fbclid=IwAR1Eqncc2XJOd4aMbRDgtyDpCvdL0boThdj2rvihNzMOHsQEgoEEjJQmR9c

by F. William Engdahl

 

https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-01-at-11.19.22-AM-400x266.png

 

Climate. Now who wudda thought. The very mega-corporations and mega-billionaires behind the globalization of the world economy over recent decades, whose pursuit of shareholder value and cost reduction who have wreaked so much damage to our environment both in the industrial world and in the under-developed economies of Africa, Asia, Latin America, are the leading backers of the “grassroots” decarbonization movement from Sweden to Germany to the USA and beyond.

 

Is it pangs of guilty conscience, or could it be a deeper agenda of the financialization of the very air we breathe and more?

 

Whatever one may believe about the dangers of CO2 and risks of global warming creating a global catastrophe of 1.5 to 2 degree Celsius average temperature rise in the next roughly 12 years, it is worth noting who is promoting the current flood of propaganda and climate activism.

 

Green Finance

Several years before Al Gore and others decided to use a young Swedish school girl to be the poster child for climate action urgency, or in the USA the call of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a complete reorganization of the economy around a Green New Deal, the giants of finance began devising schemes for steering hundreds of billions of future funds to investments in often worthless “climate” companies.

 

In 2013 after years of careful preparation, a Swedish real estate company, Vasakronan, issued the first corporate “Green Bond.” They were followed by others including Apple, SNCF and the major French bank Credit Agricole. In November 2013 Elon Musk’s problem-riddled Tesla Energy issued the first solar asset-backed security. Today according to something called the Climate Bonds Initiative, more than $500 billion in such Green Bonds are outstanding. The creators of the bond idea state their aim is to win over a major share of the $45 trillion of assets under management globally which have made nominal commitment to invest in “climate friendly” projects.

 

Bonnie Prince Charles, future UK Monarch, along with the Bank of England and City of London finance have promoted “green financial instruments,” led by Green Bonds, to redirect pension plans and mutual funds towards green projects. A key player in the linking of world financial institutions with the Green Agenda is outgoing Bank of England head Mark Carney. In December 2015, the Bank for International Settlements’ Financial Stability Board (FSB), chaired then by Carney, created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), to advise “investors, lenders and insurance about climate related risks.” That was certainly a bizarre focus for world central bankers.

 

534522

 

In 2016 the TCFD along with the City of London Corporation and the UK Government initiated the Green Finance Initiative, aiming to channel trillions of dollars to “green” investments. The central bankers of the FSB nominated 31 people to form the TCFD. Chaired by billionaire Michael Bloomberg of the financial wire, it includes key people from JP MorganChase; from BlackRock–one of the world’s biggest asset managers with almost $7 trillion; Barclays Bank; HSBC, the London-Hong Kong bank repeatedly fined for laundering drug and other black funds; Swiss Re, the world’s second largest reinsurance; China’s ICBC bank; Tata Steel, ENI oil, Dow Chemical, mining giant BHP Billington and David Blood of Al Gore’s Generation Investment LLC. In effect it seems the foxes are writing the rules for the new Green Hen House.

 

Bank of England’s Carney was also a key actor in efforts to make the City of London into the financial center of global Green Finance. The outgoing UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, in July 2019 released a White Paper, “Green Finance Strategy: Transforming Finance for a Greener Future.” The paper states, “One of the most influential initiatives to emerge is the Financial Stability Board’s private sector Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), supported by Mark Carney and chaired by Michael Bloomberg. This has been endorsed by institutions representing $118 trillion of assets globally.” There seems to be a plan here. The plan is the financialization of the entire world economy using fear of an end of world scenario to reach arbitrary aims such as “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.”

 

===========

 

m.

Historians for Peace and Democracy

 

From: Jim O'Brien via H-PAD
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2019
Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 9/19/19: Congressional advocacy; links to recent articles of interest

 

 

Congressional Bulletin

This new feature of some mailings will indicate some pending Congressional initiatives on issues of concern to participants in H-PAD, along with recommended actions.

 

Most Immediate:

A House-Senate conference committee on the 2020 National Defense Authorization bill is beginnings its work. There are three key provisions in the House bill that are especially important.:

1/ a provision that would prohibit the use of funds for military action against Iran without Congressional authorization. 2/ a provision that would end US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, and 3/ repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against Iraq. 

 

Call your Senators and Representatives today - urge them to stand behind these provisions and to speak out now against war with Iran. Capital Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

H-PAD legislative coordinators: 

Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg

Prasannan Parthasarathi

 


Links to Recent Articles of Interest

 

"On the Precipice: The Collective Asteroid of Human History"

By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted September 17 

A long view of the climate crisis.

 

"Autocrats Do Not Need a Majority to Destroy Democracy. A Divided Opposition Helps Them"

By Claudia Koonz, History News Network, posted September 15

The author is a professor of history emerita at Duke University and author of, among other books, The Nazi Conscience (Harvard U. Press, 2005). 

 

"The Only Way to End 'Endless War'" 

By Stephen Wertheim, New York Times, posted September 14

"First, America has to give up its quest for global dominance." The author is a historian active in the Quincy Institute.

 

"More Than a Wall: 30 Years of Life Along the US-Mexico Border"

By David Bacon, The Nation, posted September 12

Striking photographs with explanatory captions and an introductory essay 

 

"We Lost the War in Afghanistan. Get Over It."

By Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, posted September 11

The author teaches international affairs at Harvard University. 

 

"Buying Greenland? Trump, Truman and the 'Pearl of the Mediterranean'"

By Thorsten Borring Olesen, History News Network, posted September 10

The author teaches history in the School for Culture and Society, Aarhus University.

 

"On or Off, Peace Talks with the Taliban Spell Disaster for Afghanistan"

By Ali A. Olomi, Washington Post, posted September 9

The author teaches history, specializing in the history of the Middle East and Islam, at Penn State Abingdon.

 

"The Pompeo Doctrine: How to Seize the Arctic's Resources, Now Accessible Due to Climate Change (Just Don't Mention Those Words!)"

By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch.com, posted September 10

The author is a professor emeritus at Hampshire College; his book  All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change is forthcoming in November.

 

"How the NRA Hijacked History"

By Jennifer Tucker, Washington Post, posted September 9

On the actual origins of the Second Amendment and the campaign to alter its meaning. The author teaches history at Wesleyan University and is co-editor of the 2019 book A Right to Bear Arms? The Contested Role of History in Contemporary Debates on the Second Amendment.

 

"Our Debt to Central American Refugees

By Kevin A. Young, Democratic Socialists of America, posted September 9

On the origins of Central American migration in US policies toward the region.

The author teaches history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

 

 

Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

 

===========

 

n.

From: Cat McGuire
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2019
Subject: Google's tracking you *way beyond* what you've already imagined

 

very scary...

 

Whenever you search for something, Google will create a server log that will remember your browser and OS configuration, IP address and a unique cookie planted on your device by Google. The link you click on from the results is logged and Google will keep a record of the websites you visit from there.

 

If you don't delete this cookie, it will only expire in 30 years, essentially logging your entire digital presence. From there, it's easy for Google to link your search history to your phone number, via any number of Google services for which you've signed up, like Gmail, YouTube, or Google Play, regardless of whether your phone is an Android.

 

If they can't get your number from their services, Google has partnerships with Facebook, Twitter and other tech platforms to exchange that information with them. If that doesn’t work, Google turns to its 100,000s of third-party partners and data brokers like Acxiom to buy your phone number from offline databases.

 

Thanks to Ed Snowden, we know that all Google servers are tapped by intelligence agencies in the US and in the Five Eyes Alliance countries of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The US National Security Agency has a copy of your search history tied back to your phone number forever in their data centers.

 

If you signed up for Gmail, you didn't just give up your phone number, but some precious information unique to your biology. Ever since Gmail came to existence, Google has been actively scanning your emails for keywords to expose you to more ads in your inbox. But Google also used your private emails to study your writing style and the way you type. Similar to how you walk is unique to your person, the way you hit keys on your keyboard and your writing style also belongs to you only.

 

This allows Google to identify you across your whole Internet presence, even if you create pseudonymous accounts on public forums like Reddit. In 2017, Google promised to stop active scanning of Gmail messages, but it was revealed that Google continues to let third-party app developers that use Gmail to scan users private emails.

 

These third parties are even allowed to further share your emails to their partners, thus multiplying the amount of copies. If you ever deleted your email or even your entire Gmail account, Google visually fulfills your request, but residual copies are kept in their offline backup systems indefinitely and Google doesn’t go after the third-party developers to delete their copies of your emails. Your private emails thus remain copied and stored in data centers across the globe with unknown security and no oversight.

 

Google uses your browsing history not only to target you with ads, but to identify you as well. Google only needs snippets of your browsing record to be able to determine identities of users on the web. Google tracks your browsing history through AdSense, DoubleClick and various other advertising and tracking scripts that belong to the company.

 

Google+ share plugins on websites are used to track users, even if they logged off or never used Google+, similar to how Facebook tracks browsing history through like and share plugins. Where cookies don’t work, Google uses your unique ID number that is assigned to every Android device by default.

 

This ID is continuously followed and cross-referenced with the rest of your record to constantly keep it up to date across all platforms and devices. If these policies aren't aggressive enough, Google purchases the remaining browsing records from data brokers, internet service providers, internet exchange points or content delivery networks.

 

Google really wants to know where you go. So much so, that it keeps tracking your location even if you tell it not to. The first time Google was caught tracking users location on their Android phones and tablets was through triangulation of nearby cell towers servicing users' devices.

 

This information was collected even when users turned off location services, never inserted a SIM card in their phone, or even after factory reset. There was no way for users to opt out.

 

Google said this collection was put in place to improve message delivery, although it wasn't really clear how that could work. Nonetheless, Google promised to turn this feature off and stop collecting location data for users who turn off location services.

 

That was a lie.

 

Even with location history turned off, Google can use any app activity to keep a minute-by-minute record of your location but you wouldn’t have any visual way to find out about it.  To confuse users, Google hid the option to turn off this collection under "Web and App Activity" settings, where this kind of collection would not be expected by an average user.

 

This year is a big milestone for Google. 40% of global ad spending is expected to take place online, outspending TV advertising by $40 billion. Google achieved dominance in digital advertising thanks to their focus, commitment and sheer will - the will to know every single step you take.

 

Google is able to attract advertisers thanks to their ability to profile records of your entire activity on the web. By partnering with MasterCard and other credit card companies, Google now has access to roughly 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the US and they're able to track what you buy even in physical stores.

 

The search giant is able to retrospectively compare these profiles with the aggregated databases of offline purchases to identify individual purchasing histories. Google tracks offline purchases in order to prove advertisers when online ads make impressions that translate into physical transactions.

 

Digital profiles in Google's databases contain very detailed information about users likes, preferences, interests and private thoughts. There might be numerous trade secrets, undisclosed agreements, and technologies developed by Google that are generally unknown to win the race to get inside people's minds.

 

“This is how Google is spying on everything you do”

(Running Time 10 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTF8_DwDjW4

 

===========

 

 

o.

News From Underground

 

From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Peace activists disrupt US/Israeli officials at event demanding war against Iran

 

ACTIVISTS DISRUPT US AND ISRAELI OFFICIALS AT NYC EVENT

 

CALLING FOR WAR WITH IRAN

 

See the source image

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2019/09/peace-activists-disrupt-us-israeli-officials-at-event-demanding-war-against-iran/

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jodie Evans | CODEPINK co-founder | heartofj@gmail.com | 310 621-5635

Rose Assaf | CODEPINK NYC coordinator | rose@codepink.org | 702 281-3275

+

 

From: GAZA PALESTINE [mailto:anahona366@gmail.com]

Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2019

Subject: A distress call .. A martyr in the Gaza Strip .. My friend and his friend Alaa Qeshta seriously injured .. and more than 100 other injuries.

 

 

I hope you do not ignore this appeal.

 

Today, the activities of the 76th week of the great return marches started, and the day of the Israeli occupation army's killing, looting and displacement started.

 

Israeli troops killed 20-year-old Saher Awadallah Jaber Othman in Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

 

Ambulance Alaa Qeshta was hit by a bullet that penetrated the abdomen while she was treating the wounded in the eastern Gaza Strip.

 

One journalist was also shot in the head and another child was shot in the head.

They are in good condition now.

 

The Israeli occupation forces also injured many young men and women very differently. The situation in the east of the Gaza Strip is difficult. All this is happening because of the suffocating blockade on the Gaza Strip 12 years ago

I left here my child and went to work for these young people and the demonstrators. I need your strong support.

 

You can help us get first aid through this link

 

https://gogetfunding.com/please-stand-with-us-we-need-youhelp-us-reach-the-dream-i-hope-that-you-support-us-do-not-ignore-this-2/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

===========

 

p.

US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries – shrinking this war machine is a must

https://theconversation.com/us-military-is-a-bigger-polluter-than-as-many-as-140-countries-shrinking-this-war-machine-is-a-must-119269?fbclid=IwAR1XdmdhXa6Spwpm3xmoqGWXbfCftZTr0eGIgEIA1IuUxh8-5YB6UbzrCZk

 

The US military’s carbon bootprint is enormous. Like corporate supply chains, it relies upon an extensive global network of container ships, trucks and cargo planes to supply its operations with everything from bombs to humanitarian aid and hydrocarbon fuels. Our new study calculated the contribution of this vast infrastructure to climate change.

Greenhouse gas emission accounting usually focuses on how much energy and fuel civilians use. But recent work, including our own, shows that the US military is one of the largest polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more climate-changing gases than most medium-sized countries. If the US military were a country, its fuel usage alone would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, sitting between Peru and Portugal.

In 2017, the US military bought about 269,230 barrels of oil a day and emitted more than 25,000 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide by burning those fuels. The US Air Force purchased US$4.9 billion worth of fuel, and the navy US$2.8 billion, followed by the army at US$947m and the Marines at US$36m.

 

===========

 

q.

Iran’s Jewish community is the largest in the Mideast outside Israel – and feels safe and respected

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/world/inside-iran/2018/08/29/iran-jewish-population-islamic-state/886790002/?fbclid=IwAR1PT6NB2dC4rC_REkOQNE4ITpXeqXtTE6f6KP-q5iWzKhGYX2hBSblLg2Y

by Kim Hjelmgaard

 

In a large room off a courtyard decorated in places with Islamic calligraphy and patterned tiles featuring intricate geometric shapes and patterns, men wearing tunics, cloaks and sandals recite morning prayers.

At the back of the room, three women sit together on a bench, hunched over ancient texts. Scarves cover their hair, as required by Iran’s religious law. Birdsong floats into the cavernous space as the incantations grow louder and more insistent.

This is a synagogue. In Iran.

In a nation that has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the Earth, the Iranian government allows thousands of Jews to worship in peace and continue their association with the country founded more than 2,500 years ago.

"We have all the facilities we need for our rituals, and we can say our prayers very freely. We never have any problems. I can even tell you that, in many cases, we are more respected than Muslims,” said Nejat Golshirazi, 60, rabbi of the synagogue USA TODAY visited one morning last month. "You saw for yourself we don’t even have any security guards here."

At its peak in the decades before Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, 100,000 to 150,000 Jews lived here, according to the Tehran Jewish Committee, a group that lobbies for the interests of Iranian Jews. In the months following the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran’s second and last monarch, many fled for Israel and the United States.

It was a dispersion precipitated in part by the execution of Habib Elghanian, who was then one of Iran’s leading Jewish businessmen and philanthropists. Elghanian also headed the Tehran Jewish Committee and had ties to the deposed shah. He was killed by firing squad after being accused by Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries of spying and fundraising for Israel.

 

===========

 

r.

Informer sur le prochain colloque qui se tiendra à Grenoble

le 5 octobre 2019

Chers membres du Choix et le Public,

Nous vous prions de bien vouloir trouver sur le lien ici :

 

http://46tgh.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/cl/f/eGuqzUku8_h2HBK570xhArFZEPbS24OZcNUx9XXye6x59z4JLGOadL7fgLsJz5T3aJzNq9poZ2PHmWgagWy9K9Jcrx7OZWcGpo61lGIFiUIcCOhWpXNyM5kimBqaMwJew7kRCkX1z1OnEC5mSR2dsIpt0dnDBC9SJ7lx5vdCdDpLgqn6QWti80K0vMraiVeJqWfNcYdaGNsMdoij5An25Xs8yMsxzlVPohVSJLpLWYhtHj--HsYZ_W0q ,

 

de plus amples informations relatives à la conférence que nous organisons le 5 octobre 2019 à Grenoble à 14h00 autour du député Jean Louis TOURAINE, porteur d’un projet de loi sur la fin de vie.

Nous vous attendons nombreux pour partager et débattre avec lui lors de ce moment important.

Par ailleurs nous sommes heureuses de vous annoncer la création du Comité Consultatif du Choix. Chargé d’émettre des avis qui aideront aux prises de décision du Collège décisionnel, le Comité Consultatif a pour vocation de participer à la politique de l’association.

Vous pourrez découvrir à Grenoble, et sur notre site internet si vous êtes dans l’impossibilité d’être parmi nous le 5 octobre, pourquoi le Docteur Denis Labayle et François Lambert, neveu de Vincent Lambert, nous font le plaisir et l’honneur d’inaugurer le Comité Consultatif en nous rejoignant.


http://46tgh.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/cl/f/7eT6_VxsAbS0JifFDc84wERceOhmxKfgVnFLLcHp5Nj0tBlHNGVs0S00uaBpJAgYEloOS9aeQ-vsb_QrOC4Jsiqy1cCVm93x-RhrqleOziWNnYvDvc0w0xo_p_MdV0MQ_rXo_TesNlH3CDtj8d2DEjxDa_HFUDU5-aAYFf9Cr2TQLILKJCV8p1IeY2lZJyikc2F9ZrJP_UmCu0fDTOmb709ZTy-OWwGrsvoPFkY42TsAci6PwbsUUj6FyJJe0ETU-cAkzt04auXnMc21dqQscsDS5wY ,

 


http://46tgh.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/cl/f/mQ6XIUN3GZhG7xmA8ioqht02fz4-lh8_I7xfjYsP9L8bAyaHsedEx8AhhRMhGBbn-ilNWg5pSCWNb1h1dVwKMQrlHUy4FRf0N3WniSPg_Y_v8btdoCEKczkDCFXRIxR2PayCfM_JpwEvF4oUe-hAZqFAEnDcpdqkCgK5p5QsSoR6wlA3WQaRWQmmvbwaq_77Kb7zbYNsxT-mtFgOTOaNsAzgwx_YOyogoSXcLhqmhTZMH7HOJySa7aoEhE1QLJDrdb_4fSvq9-Cdc0Zi95HFPv5eqOI



Nous vous remercions pour votre soutien et votre confiance.

Bien cordialement,
Annie Babu et Nathalie Debernardi,
coprésidentes du Choix

===========

 

s.

News From Underground

 

From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Dead birds' nests from all over Europe contain 36 different pesticides—including DDT

 

 

Dead Bird Nests Contain 36 Different Pesticides, Including DDT

http://achnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cropped-Campagnebeeld_SOS_MEZEN.png-1-7.jpg

http://achnews.org/2019/09/16/dead-bird-nests-contain-36-different-pesticides-including-ddt/?fbclid=IwAR35u9GVmm8eUNI_SKbWCNpJiI9D76j3hHvNMjxDHSX5PpX9mvahwJKaRdY

 

 

In Brussels and Florence, people began to express concern over the rising finds of dead newborn birds (tits) in their nests. When these concerned people notified the bird conservation association Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen and the ecological gardening association Velt, they began a crowd-funded investigation. Over 1000 people sent in dead tits and nests, which were analyzed and a report was published with shocking results.

 

http://achnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Rij_dode_mezen_LOWRES-1.jpg

When 1101 nests were analyzed, most contained DDT. Photo: SOS Mezen


===========

 

t.

News From Underground

 

From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2019
Subject: [MCM] What it's costing (us) to keep the war machine at work against the Earth (and countless people living on it)

 

The US Is Spending $1.25 Trillion Annually on War

The military gravy train is running full speed ahead.AIRMAN 1ST CLASS VALERIE SEELYE / U.S. AIR FORCE

 

https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-is-spending-1-25-trillion-annually-on-war/?utm_source=sharebuttons&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=mashshare&fbclid=IwAR04wvJvos-8DKe31mbMElJ6glloKG66H1WPfgte0OBkqN1CZbP6A9Dr5t

 

by William D. Hartung & Mandy Smithberger, Tom Dispatch

 

   

In its latest budget request, the Trump administration is asking for a near-record $750 billion for the Pentagon and related defense activities, an astonishing figure by any measure. If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military budgets in American history, topping peak levels reached during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And keep one thing in mind: that $750 billion represents only part of the actual annual cost of our national security state.

 

There are at least 10 separate pots of money dedicated to fighting wars, preparing for yet more wars, and dealing with the consequences of wars already fought. So the next time a president, a general, a secretary of defense, or a hawkish member of Congress insists that the U.S. military is woefully underfunded, think twice. A careful look at U.S. defense expenditures offers a healthy corrective to such wildly inaccurate claims.

 

Now, let’s take a brief dollar-by-dollar tour of the U.S. national security state of 2019, tallying the sums up as we go, and see just where we finally land (or perhaps the word should be “soar”), financially speaking.

 


===========

 

u.

A Careless Bully At The KFC At The End Of Empire

 

by Phil Rockstrohhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52294.htm

Will Trump go to war with the Iranians or the homeless? Or both?

Trump is a coward. The nation of Iran has the means and the will to fight. Do you recall the will displayed by Iranians when repelling foreign invaders when Iraq attempted to invade Iran as a de facto US proxy force? Conversely, the homeless do not possess any defence against assault by the agents of the US police state.
Regardless of his image among credulous true believers, Trump, character-wise, is the diametric opposite of the image he conveys as a titan of supreme self-confidence. The pose is ego-based compensation for inner feelings of inferiority and abject weakness. Only those who are terrified of their own feelings of weakness and vulnerability fixate on the weakness, real or perceived, of others. If you desire to suss out a person ridden with self-doubt, no matter how outwardly confident and bestowed with worldly success, notice if they possess a proclivity to bandy the ultimate designation of capitalist derision, “loser.” Trump is prone to inflict a Heinrich Himmler-like evil towards the homeless because, as was the case with the chinless cipher “toy soldier” Himmler, Trump is contemptuous of his inner feelings of inadequacy. To avoid a crippling spiral into shame and self-doubt, feelings of doubt and concomitant animus must be displaced.


===========

 

v.

The Untold Story of the Trump-Ukraine ‘Scandal’: The Routine Corruption of US Foreign Policy

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/09/26/what-isnt-mentioned-about-the-trump-ukraine-scandal-the-routine-corruption-of-us-foreign-policy/

by Joe Lauria

 

The impeachment offensive against Donald Trump is another symptom of a partisan disease that ignores an even greater malignancy, writes Joe Lauria.

 

The most crucial aspects of the Trump-Ukraine “scandal,” which has led to impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, are not being told, even by Republicans.

Trump was very likely motivated by politics if he indeed withheld military aid to Ukraine in exchange for Kiev launching an investigation into Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, though the transcript of the call released by the White House between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelinsky does not make certain such a quid-pro-quo.

But what’s not being talked about in the mainstream is the context of this story, which shows that, politics aside, Biden should indeed be investigated in both Ukraine and in the United States.

We know from the leaked, early 2014 telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland, then assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and Geoffrey Pyatt, then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, that then Vice President Biden played a role in “midwifing” the U.S.-backed overthrow of an elected Ukrainian government soon after that conversation.

That’s the biggest crime in this story that isn’t being told. The illegal overthrow of a sovereign government.