Mois : mars 2014

Published on Intrepid Report, by Ellen Brown, J.D., March 6, 2014.

In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the US Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorgan Chase admitted that it, along with every other large US bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of all mortgages nationally remain underwater (meaning the balance owed exceeds the current value of the home), sapping homeowners’ budgets, the housing market and the economy. Since the banks, the courts and the federal government have failed to give adequate relief to homeowners, some cities are taking matters into their own hands.   Continuer la lecture de « The stone that brings down Goliath? »

Interview with Alexander Marin, published on Socialist Worker.org, by Eva Maria, March 4, 2014.

… Alexander Marín is a student organizer and member of Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide), a group working within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), founded in 2007 by supporters of the late Hugo Chávez. Marín talked to Eva María about the nature of the protests rocking Venezuela, where they are headed and the state of the revolution today … //

… WHAT WOULD you say is the social character of the protests since mid-February? What motive or motives have pushed the people to go out to the streets?   Continuer la lecture de « How can the right be defeated in Venezuela? »

Live Updates:

• on Mirror: Live updates after Russian soldier fires first shots in Crimea as surrender deadline passes, March 5, 2014;
• on Russia Today RT: Ukraine turmoil, March 4-5, 2014;    Continuer la lecture de « Crimea: LIVE UPDATES and press »

How international financial elites change governments to implement austerity – Published on Intrepid Report, by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, March 4, 2014.

… Despite their many differences, these social turbulences share two common features. The first is that they are largely induced, nurtured and orchestrated from outside, that is, by the United States and its allies—of course, in collaboration with their class allies from inside. And the second is that, contrary to the long-established historical pattern of social revolutions, where the desperate and disenfranchised masses rebelled against the ruling elites, in most of the recent struggles it is the elites that have instigated insurgencies and civil wars against the masses. The two features are, of course, integrally intertwined: essentially reflecting the shared interests and collaborative schemes of the international plutocracies against the global 99%.  Continuer la lecture de « Global war on the 99% »

Published on TomDispatch, by Tom Engelhardt, March 2, 2014.

There is, it seems, something new under the sun.

Geopolitically speaking, when it comes to war and the imperial principle, we may be in uncharted territory.  Take a look around and you’ll see a world at the boiling point.  From Ukraine to Syria, South Sudan to Thailand, Libya to Bosnia, Turkey to Venezuela, citizen protest (left and right) is sparking not just disorganization, but what looks like, to coin a word, de-organization at a global level.  Increasingly, the unitary status of states, large and small, old and new, is being called into question.  Civil war, violence, and internecine struggles of various sorts are visibly on the rise. In many cases, outside countries are involved and yet in each instance state power seems to be draining away to no other state’s gain.  So here’s one question: Where exactly is power located on this planet of ours right now?   Continuer la lecture de « A New World Order? Missing in Action, What Happened to War and the Imperial Drive to Organize the Planet? »