October 13, there are protests planned for at least 90 college campuses across the United States today.
Also today, hundreds of janitors and security guards have joined the Wall Street protests in New York City.
Across the world, there have been anti-government, anti-corruption and anti-corporation protests in about 1,400 cities, so far.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 82% of U.S. citizens are aware of the Occupy movement, and 38% support it. 35% are unsure, with only 24% opposed.
“Buk-M1 surface to air missile systems, modern communications systems and heavy armor, including a battalion of T-80 tanks, have already been delivered to the Kurils. The provision of modern weapons and hardware for the troops in the Kurils will continue.”-Russian Defense Ministry statement
On islands just north of Hokkaido, Russia is modernizing and increasing its military presence. Recently, the new Japanese government had made several statements about taking the islands back from Russia.
Russia is taking Japan’s threats seriously and has been upgrading weapon systems on the Southern Kuril Islands, as well as increasing troop numbers.
New bases are also being built, which includes family housing. Russian officials say the buildup was actually ordered by President Dmitry Medvedev back in February.
The number of Japanese leaving their country, in one year, has hit a record 1.1 million. That’s according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, which counted the number of Japanese who’ve officially become permanent residents of foreign countries.
The country of choice for most Japanese expatriates is the United States, with more than 388,000 becoming residents as of the end of 2010.
China is next with about 131,000, and Australia with about 70,800. The top three countries have remained unchanged since 2008.
Within the U.S., Los Angeles is the number one destination followed by New York City.
Blaming the March 11 disasters, credit research firm Teikoku Databank says at least 373 companies have collapsed since then.
Construction firms topped the list with 63 bankruptcies (despite reconstruction opportunities), followed by hotels and inns with 32 (despite people who’ve lost their homes and need a place to stay) and clothing companies with 23 (despite people who’ve lost all their clothes in the tsunami).
Even companies far away from the disaster areas have failed. More business failures are expected, because there are 2,500 companies who say they are still unable to resume operations!
October 12, Sony announced that over the weekend their computer files were hacked, again.
This time as many as 93,000 customer data files could have been stolen. Sony officials do not think credit card data was stolen.
Once again, Sony is asking their customers to change their passwords.
The following is a brief on research I did on how Revolutions actually work, because they don’t follow the predictions of Karl Marx; that revolutions are led by the lower classes. Three authors were read: Crane Brinton, James C. Davies and Ted Gurr.
James C. Davies (creator of the J-curve theory of revolutions) compared the theories of Karl Marx and A. de Tocqueville, with the Dorr Rebellion, 1917 Russian Revolution and 1952 Egyptian Revolution.
Davies found that economically motivated revolutions come after a relatively long time of decline for the middle and upper classes (the poor are too destitute to do anything about their situation). In other words, it’s like a frog in a boiling pot of water; it takes awhile before the middle and upper classes realize they’re being screwed over.
Davies also discovered that if economic times are bad enough no revolution will take place, because everyone is too busy fending for themselves. In other words if the middle and upper classes wait too long, they won’t have the strength to fight the elites.
Ted Gurr (Why Men Rebel) found that civil strife is affected by many factors, including economic deprivation and how the society views its leaders/government.
Gurr found that societies with a history of recurring civil strife are most likely to continue with such problems in the future. Here in the United States the main problem is that too many citizens put too much faith in their ‘authorities’; from organized religion, to Corporate America and their government (at all levels/local/state/federal). The irony is that the United States was founded on rebellion against authority (something that has been forgotten by many U.S. citizens).
Gurr also found that the success, or failure, of a revolution depends on how much support (from the general population and from outside the country) it gets.
One way the government/Corporate America can snuff out domestic support is to control the media coverage of such revolutions. In fact our government (along with the British) has also used the media to create false revolutions (false flag ops) in other countries: The 1953 coup in Iran is a prime example.
Another proof of support for revolutions comes from the 1776 U.S. Revolution. If it wasn’t for the occasional raids into the southern Colonies by the Spanish, and the blockade of the British navy by the French navy, there would be no United States.
Crane Brinton (The Anatomy of Revolution) applied the scientific method in studying the 1641 English Revolution, 1776 U.S. Revolution (American War of Independence), the 1789 French Revolution and the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Brinton found that those revolutions were actually started by middle and upper class leaders. The poor had little to do with it. The motivation of the middle and upper classes were economic: They were living in circumstances that were threatening to take away the economic gains they, and their predecessors had made, for the benefit of the elites.
Some beginning signs of Revolution: Austerity acts; tax increases/cuts to social programs. Tax revolts. Mobilization of Revolutionaries. Ineffectual government reforms/accommodations. Government repression.
Revolutionaries tend to be better leaders, organizers and motivators, than the establishment, but Brinton has warnings for Revolutionaries: Usually what happens is moderates take control of government but end up running things the same as before. Then extremists take over, and things can get nasty, like a “reign of terror”. Extremists can take advantage of “mob mentality” resulting in social terror that is presented as being democratic. Eventually extremists turn on each other, leading to dictatorships. (Also, read Orwell’s Animal Farm. There’s also a cartoon version, but it’s not really for the kids ’cause it follows the book closely.)
So, these three researchers discovered that it’s not the poor who lead revolutions, it is the middle and upper classes. The middle and upper classes revolt because their economically unstable governments (and now unstable Corporate America as well) put pressure on the more stable public, which causes the public to feel threatened and creates, at the very least, the perception that their economic prosperity (or even the chance of ever achieving prosperity) is finished.
Occupy America: Steve Jobs’ secret to success; Live Life your way
Occupy America: Federal Reserve boss blames Wall Street
Iran intends to boost the volume of its oil swaps to 200,000 barrels per day by March 20, 2012.
Iranian officials say that by using newly devised mechanisms, the demand for trading oil through barter deals, rather than using cash, is climbing.
The barters involve swapping oil related products, such as crude oil for refined fuel.
Iran is the second largest oil exporter within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Britain is not the place to live if you value your human rights. According to European Court of Human Rights, Britain has 107 guilty verdicts against it.
The findings range from violations of the rights of mental health patients to the failure to protect children from unlawful corporal punishment in the home.
The United Kingdom signed onto the European Convention on Human Rights, but recently Prime Minister David Cameron stated that he wants to tear up their current Human Rights bill, and write a new “British” version. Maybe it’s ’cause they keep losing court cases based on the current Human Rights bill.
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has voted to recommend Palestine for full membership. According to Israeli media, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a warning: “I…would urge the governing body of UNESCO to think again before proceeding with that vote because the decision about status must be made in the United Nations and not in auxiliary groups that are subsidiary to the United Nations.”
The United States has threatened to stop paying its portion of UNESCO funding if it recognizes Palestine as a full member.
UNESCO has the authority to give a country full membership, even if the state is not recognized by the United Nations Security Council.
UNESCO has 58 members. 40 voted in favor of putting the Palestinian matter to a vote. 14 abstained. The United States, Germany, Romania and Latvia voted no.
The U.S. has also threatened to end financial aid going to Palestinians, if they become a UN recognized state. Many Israelis are worried that the U.S. will use that to justify ending financial aid to Israel as well. Aid to Palestinians is a drop in the bucket compared to what the U.S. gives Israel.
Steve Jobs was a revolutionary. We wouldn’t have half the personal computer related products without him. I love my Mac, after decades of using crappy IBM based PCs I finally splurged and got me a Mac a few years ago. I’ve never had one problem that I’ve had with the IBM type PCs. I’ve had my Mac longer than any PC I’ve had in the past, which justifies what I paid for it.
Jobs was also proof you don’t need a college degree to succeed! “You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Jobs’ secret to success? Do what you want, not what society tells you to do: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
And that’s exactly what the U.S. Declaration of Independence says you should do: “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
You read that? It says the people of the United States are supposed to base their lives on the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, not following the orders of a society brainwashed by Corporate America, or the military industrial complex, or organized religion, or the Israeli lobby! It’s one of the reasons why the creation of the United States was so revolutionary (like Steve Jobs)!
I hope Apple doesn’t go astray. Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011.