Tag Archives: idaho

International, U.S.

Lessons for the Occupy Movement from the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution: #1; Peaceful Protest does not Work!!!

“We will not be silenced! Whether you’re a Christian, Muslim or Atheist you will get back your goddamn rights!  We will have our rights, one way or another! We will never be silent!”-Egyptian revolutionary

Peaceful protest does not work.  If you take certain U.S. university Political Science courses on revolutionary countries, or history of terrorism courses, you’ll learn of studies that show that peaceful protests always fail.  Most of these U.S. university courses are aimed at students who want to be public administrators, or law enforcers.  Why?  Because the courses teach them how to keep “the people” down!

“I am six months pregnant! I’m ready to die with my child so Egypt would live!”-Egyptian Revolutionary

Was the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution peaceful?  Hell no!  Not only were the police, and pro-Mubarak thugs, violent, but protestors finally fought back. Egyptian protestors used rocks, sticks, trash can lids and even their own bodies, to fight against guns and bombs.

If you want proof just watch videos of the Battle for Qasr al-Nil Bridge, in which police hit protestors with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, even when they were praying, and then repeatedly rammed their armored vans into the crowds.  Watch the violent reaction of the protestors, attacking the armored vans with their bare hands, lifeless bodies being carried away, finally taking the Bridge!

If that’s not enough, watch the many videos from Tahrir Square, in which protestors and police (backed up by pro-Mubarak thugs), spent days in a back and forth of violence!

I watched the January Revolution from day one, many days not getting any sleep because I did not want to miss anything (and I was in communication with some revolutionaries via the internet).  Despite the myth that it was peaceful, it was not.  The protestors definitely started out peaceful, and that’s just what those in power want.

Studies have shown that those in power will violently suppress even the most peaceful protests, because it works!  If they get resistance, they will increase the violence they use on the protestors.  However, the same studies show that the power elite have a short window of time to successfully put down a revolution.  If protestors can withstand the violent crackdown, and even fight back, it will weaken the power elite.  The longer the people can resist attempts by elites to put them down, the weaker the elites get!

As the elites grow weak that is not the time to back off and make concessions. Again, that’s what the elites want. The Egyptians pushed and pushed, and the elites (well, Mubarak anyway) finally fell.

The peaceful U.S. Civil Rights protests of the early 1960s is not what got the Civil Rights laws passed.  It was the violent revolutions of black Americans before and after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, that forced the white Americans to give in!

Research the insurgencies (race riots) in Watts 1965, Jersey City 1964, Elizabeth 1964, New York/Harlem/Rochester 1964, Dixmoor/Chicago 1964, Philadelphia 1964, Cleveland 1966, Benton Harbor 1966 (put down by Mitt Romney’s father George Romney), Tampa 1967, Buffalo 1967, Newark 1967, Detroit 1967, Plainfield 1967, Cairo 1967, Washington DC 1968, Baltimore 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Chicago 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Kansas City 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Louisville 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination).  It was those violent uprisings, and others into the early 1970s, which scared the crap out of the white power elite, and they caved and passed Civil Rights laws.  Also, research the creation of the Black Panthers and MOVE.

And don’t get me started on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was no peace lover!  He just knew how to manipulate.  The Hindus presented themselves to the British as obedient sheep, to the point of doing nothing while the Red Coats beat, shot and stabbed them.  Yet the Hindus were attacking Muslims, provoking Muslims to fight, and then the Hindus would tell the British ‘you see you can’t trust those violent Muslims, give us control of India’.

By the way look what happened to Gandhi’s peace loving wife; assassinated by her own body guards after she ordered the killing of Muslims and the destruction of a Sikh temple!

When I was taking video/film production classes at Allan Hancock College, in Santa Maria, California (back in the early 1990s), I attended a journalism seminar.  At the seminar I listened to a lecture by a retired lobbyist.  The guy spent a couple of decades lobbying elected officials at the state capitol in Sacramento.  He said: “The only way you get action out of elected officials is with money or violence.”

He went on to explain that in his years at the state capitol the only time the politicians truly listened to “the people” was when they had money to offer, or were rioting in the street!  He stressed that those people who peacefully demonstrated were essentially blown off by the elected officials.

Most elitist politicians rationalize that if an issue isn’t bad enough to get people causing violence in the street, then it must not be an issue at all!

“I would rather die with pride than live without it!”-slogan used by Egyptian Revolutionaries

The point is, peaceful protest is a myth created by the power elite to fool the masses.  The only time real change is ever made in societies is through violence.  By the way, that’s how the United States of America came into being!

More to follow…..

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Black Horse & Government Incompetence: Mortgage Settlement money to be used to destroy homes, not keep people in their homes! No protection against MERS! Scams already taking place

Recently the Obama administration announced a victory against the too big to fail banks which are causing the home foreclosure nightmare.  Basically the banks admitted they screwed up, and agreed to pay a huge settlement to help people (lucky enough to still be in their homes) refinance their loans.

But now it’s been revealed that money going directly to state governments can be used for anything, and some local governments will use that settlement money to tear down vacant homes!

The Huffington Post is also reporting that Cleveland, Ohio, has already spent $60 million tearing down homes repossessed by the too big to fail banks.  And that money came from city social programs meant to help the poor!

“We would have much rather spent that money helping families and creating homes rather than knocking houses down that we believe are owned by some very well resourced banks.”-Chris Warren, Cleveland, Ohio’s chief of Regional Development

Now, Ohio is set to get $335 million from the National Mortgage Settlement, and $75 million will be used to tear down homes, rather than get people back into them!

Ohio is getting a big chunk of the settlement money, while New Hampshire is getting a smaller share.  In an opinion piece out of New Hampshire, the SentinelSource says “…investigations have turned up enough reckless and unprofessional behavior on the part of big mortgage loan servicers to justify their paying penalties and granting relief — and in sums far larger than the settlement calls for.”

One aspect of this “settlement” is that states get a large amount of money that has apparently no strings attached. In other words they can do whatever they want with it.

In the case of Idaho, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said on top of the money going to help keep Idahoans from losing their homes (and the piddly, and I mean piddly!, amounts of money being paid to people who already lost their homes), the state of Idaho gets more than $13 million!

  • Eligible Idaho borrowers will receive an estimated $74,686,493 in benefits from loan modifications and other direct relief.
  • Approximately 5,000 Idaho borrowers who lost their home to foreclosure between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2011, because of substandard servicing practices, will receive $9,998,041 in cash payments averaging $1,500 to $2,000 for each affected borrower. These borrowers have been identified by their servicers and will be contacted by the settlement administrator.
  • The settling servicers will pay $15,172,779 to fund a program that allows underwater borrowers to refinance their loans.
  • The state will receive $13,932,238.

Notice there’s nothing specific about what the more than $13 million going directly to the government of Idaho is to be used for.

Also, the settlement does nothing to protect homebuyers from MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registry System).  Recently the Attorney General of New York filed suit against the too big to fail banks on the grounds that MERS was causing many of the foreclosures, illegally: “…brought foreclosure proceedings en masse based on deceptive and fraudulent court submissions, seeking to take homes away from people with little regard for basic legal requirements or the rule of law.”-Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General

To make matters worse, several states, like Alabama and Virginia, are reporting scams: “The caller requests the consumer’s bank account number and alleges that he will direct deposit settlement money into the consumer’s bank account…  Mortgage borrowers should contact their mortgage servicers directly…”-Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Virginia Attorney General

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, U.S.

Ron Paul says the United States becoming the Italo-Fascist state of the 21st Century, would make Mussolini proud. Paul gains yet another victory.

“We’ve slipped away from a true republic. Now we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen.”-Ron Paul, congressman from Texas

While speaking in Kansas City, Missouri, Ron Paul renewed a warning issued by President Dwight Eisenhower, who said “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. ”  Eisenhower’s 1961 speech warned about Italo-style Fascism taking over all aspects of U.S. civilization (you should read the prophetic speech).

Also, while attending a rally in Boise, Idaho, on February 18, Ron Paul won a county caucus, in Maine.  Washington County, Maine, selected Paul over Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.  The caucus had been delayed by weather.

But Ron Paul is actually winning big despite being ignored by the main stream media.  Paul has gained more delegates than Romney or Santorum: “The bottom line is who is going to get the delegates and we think we’re doing pretty good, and it seems like our momentum is picking up. I’m actually shocked at the tremendous turnouts that we’ve had. We’ve been out on the road and we’ve had eight functions here in the last three days. We’ve had 14,000 people turn out. And the enthusiasm seems to be growing.”-Ron Paul on State of the Union with Candy Crowley.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

U.S. Media & Politicians mislead when they call unemployment help “benefits”! Congress reduces unemployment help. It’s a joke anyway ’cause each state handles unemployment their own way! Employers using tricks to get out of unemployment pay outs!

First off, having had to deal with so called unemployment “benefits” myself, I can say without a doubt that they are no “benefit”.  You get piddly squat compared to what you were making when you had a job, and, as in the state of Idaho, they impose unrealistic “qualifications” and “standards” for you to continue getting them!!!

Now the Republican dominated U.S. Congress has agreed to reduce what people lucky enough, or who can put up with the qualification game, will get.

Congress had extended unemployment help to a maximum of 99 weeks (and by the way many states did not adopt that policy), now beginning September 2012 that help will be cut back to 73 weeks.

Idaho Department of Labor office, Pocatello, Southeastern region of Idaho

By the way, in the state of Idaho employers pay into the unemployment fund, not employees and not individual taxpayers.  But, Idaho kicks back a refund to employers for having little or no unemployment claims made against them.  The employees who handle unemployment claims are actually paid by the employers who pay into the fund.  A now retired Idaho Job Service (aka Idaho Department of Labor) employee, who worked the Pocatello office handling veterans affairs, and the accounting for kicking back money to employers, once confessed to me (in 2000) that it was in their interest to deny as many claims as possible, since their true employer was not the state but big businesses operating in Idaho!!!

Here’s a trick employers in Idaho use to get out of paying unemployment (it’s happened to me and several other people I know).  Employers will tell you there is no work today, or that work is being cut back and they will call you when they need you.  Of course, after weeks of no work you start looking for new work.  When you apply for unemployment the company you were working for claims you are still employed, but that you hadn’t shown up and they assumed you quit!

In another case I heard about, an guy was working for a national chain home improvement store, and he was told that work schedules were being changed and not to come in until they called with his new schedule.  A week went by, he called and they told him the same thing.  Several weeks went by and he was told the same thing again.  Turns out there wasn’t any actual work schedule change, but if he tried to apply for unemployment the company could legitimately say that the guy “just stopped coming to work”, it would be his word against theirs.

And since the Idaho unemployment system is actually run by employers, guess who wins (unless your wealthy enough to hire a lawyer, which most people aren’t).

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? 4,000 people stranded when Australian airline is suddenly deleveraged by too big too fail creditors

The latest corporation to become a victim of global deleveraging, is Air Australia.

Deleveraging is when the too big too fail banks take away your line of credit, and demand full, and instant payment of all debts.  Here in Idaho Wells Fargo Bank deleveraged several businesses in the past few years, including a Pontiac dealer in Idaho Falls, and several Sportsman Warehouse stores (owners of both businesses say they were not in financial trouble).

On February 17 (Australia time), 2012, the executives of Air Australia were suddenly told their line of credit had been suspended.  The result was that Air Australia could not buy fuel for use on flights where passengers were about to board, or planes were waiting to take off.  That has left at least 4,000 people stranded!  Another 10,000, who bought tickets for future flights, will not get their money back.

Air Australia has been losing money, especially after it lost a 90 million Australian dollars contract with the Australian Department of Defense.

It looks like the Australian airline industry is run the way the U.S. airline industry is, and that has some people calling for an investigation: “It does say something about…the fact the aviation industry should be properly investigated in this country.”-Tony Sheldon, Transport Workers Union

Business/Economics, U.S.

Corporate Crime: Problems with Idaho’s Coldwater Creek include theft by company officials

Recently Idaho made it into the top ten for number of embezzlement cases.  The study was done by Marquet International of Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Idaho ranks 7th for business related crimes committed by employees: “Small businesses are the ones at greatest risk because, typically, they have very little infrastructure or controls. There’s no budget for it. Or no perceived need. The business owner ends up relying on a single bookkeeper for 15 years.”-Chris Marquet, Marquet International

In a recent case, former Coldwater Creek executive assistant Susan Alene Hopkins, plead guilty in November to stealing more than $250,000. Sentencing is set for March 20, 2012.

Idaho, Influenza

Pale Green Horse & H3N2, H1N1: Two children die, the U.S. now officially in Flu season. California leading the pack, Idaho on the list

On February 10, the U.S. CDC reported that people testing positive for flu viruses hit 10.5%.  The flu season officially starts when at least 10% of the population tests positive for flu.

The state of California is reporting the most flu cases at this point.   There is also reports of increased doctor visits, mainly in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Also, two children have died, but the type of flu has not yet been identified.

The CDC says the most common flu being identified is H3N2v, followed by H1N1. These are types of influenza A, but influenza B is also being found.

I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Hey Mitt Romney, where are those safety nets? U.S. Child Citizens refused food because their parents are not U.S. citizens!

The Southern Poverty Law Center says children, who are U.S. citizens, are being refused food because their low income parents are not U.S. citizens.  Some parents are U.S. citizens, but are being told to “Go back to Mexico” because of their Latino origins.

The SPLC says this is taking place in the state of Alabama.  Alabama, like Idaho, changed the rules for being approved for food stamps; they only count the children in the family, not the healthy (able to work) adults.

However, the SPLC says they know of at least five cases where children, who are U.S. citizens, were denied food stamps because the parents, who are not supposed to be counted under the new rules, are not U.S. citizens.

The SPLC has already filed two lawsuits against Alabama, over its immigration laws, and will likely file a third lawsuit based on the latest revelations of U.S. child citizens being denied food.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Black Horse & Poverty: 2 million people homeless in the United States! Homeless children increasing fast. HR 1734 & Private property developers part of the problem. Hey Mitt Romney, where are those safety nets?

“Many of the families with children are now homeless, having to live out of cars and things like that. We believe today that 40% of the homeless, in Washington [DC] are women with children, or families with children!”-David Treadwell, Central Union Mission

The National Law Center of Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) says that more than two million U.S. citizens are now homeless!!!

Most federal and state (in those states that have their own social programs separate from federal) government social programs have been gutted (mainly by those compassionate Republicans, like in Idaho), and privately run charities say they are getting swamped by more and more people needing help every year: “…it’s a big problem, and it’s a bigger problem in 2012 than it was in 2008! It is not going away…”-David Treadwell, Central Union Mission

To make matters worse, the U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would actually create more homeless people.  The bill, called HR 1734 in the House, would give power to private property developers to take over public land, and buildings, now used for low income and homeless people!

The federal government is so desperate for cash that they want to sell off federal property, including that used to help poor people, in order to raise the cash to pay the government’s debts.  The irony of HR 1734 is that it will actually cost the federal government an estimated $82 million to implement!  Sounds like more Mitt Romney style capitalism to me.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Opinion, Technology, U.S.

Black Horse & Apple computers: Apple rakes in huge profits, thanks to slave wage labor! Apple’s China factory installs anti-jumping nets to keep workers from leaping to their deaths. Idaho, Ohio, Michigan & Pennsylvania Republicans hoping China will build similar slave cities in the U.S.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

January 26, 2012

Apple reported their 2011 fourth quarter profits at a record $13.06 billion!  That would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that Chinese workers are being pushed so hard to make Apple products that they’re literally going over the edge to their deaths!

I love my Apple computer (it’s lasted longer than any other computer I’ve had, and with far less glitches), but, one of the factors in me buying an Apple was that I thought they were made in the U.S.  Apparently after (evil) Bill Gates became a major investor in Apple, production was shipped overseas.

Around the time Apple was reporting their record profits, Chinese media was reporting on a factory that made Apple products.  Turns out the workers there threatened suicide because of slave labor conditions.

It’s so bad that a Catholic Online article says Chinese factories are spending money to put up nets around their buildings, to keep workers from jumping to their deaths.

You see, working in Chinese factories is not like working in a U.S. factory (not yet anyway): “Chinese factories are self-contained cities with workers living side-by-side in dorms. Workers spend an average of 10-12 hours per day working, six days a week.” Also: “…life in a Chinese factory is unpleasant, boring, repetitive, and workers have little to no privacy, and few rights-if any. The food is nothing to write home about either. Employers can set workers to task at any hour, force them into overtime, and arbitrarily fire them if desired. It’s as near to slavery as one can get without the chains.” -Catholic Online

When I realize how much I paid for my Mac (more than double what I was paying for cheapo IBM types) it sickens me to know that it could have been made by wage slaves!  I thought one of the reasons for the higher price was that I was supporting U.S. jobs!

This month Apple’s contracted factory in China, run by a company called Foxconn, reported that workers threatened to commit mass suicide.  To give you an example of the crowded working conditions, Foxconn admits they have at least 32,000 workers living on their factory ‘campus’!  That’s not a factory, it’s a self contained slave city!!!

But guess what? The state government of Idaho has been toying with Chinese contractors to build such a slave city right here in Idaho, U.S.A.  They call it an “industrial complex”.

In 2010, the Idaho Statesman reported that state officials were working on a project that would allow the China National Machinery Industry Corporation (aka SINOMACH) to build huge a slave labor camp south of Boise.  It could cover up to 30,000 acres, and is “…based on a concept popular in China today…”.

That camp would include retail shops and homes for workers, and some reports say the ’employees’ will come from China.

SINOMACH also got involved with a fertilizer project near American Falls, but since then all has gone quite on that project.

Lobbyists working for the Chinese say Idaho Republican leaders are great to work with: “One thing these Chinese see is we have a governor here who has a great big open door policy, and I think that’s making a difference in this SINOMACH project.”-Pat Sullivan, lobbyist

The Idaho Republican’s open door policy for China is part of their Project 60 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plan.

Idaho Republican leaders love China: “Idaho’s the last state that should say we don’t want to do business with Asia. Asia’s where the money is.”-Brad Little, Idaho Lieutenant Governor

I’ve also reported on how most of Idaho’s Republican politicians are in the pockets of for profit prison labor operations.

SINOMACH is also dealing with officials in Ohio, Michigan (is there a connection to the union busting going on in that state?) and Pennsylvania.

Also this month, SINOMACH announced they will increase their efforts to set up operations in other countries: “We encourage our subsidiaries, including scientific institutions and design, construction and industrial equipment manufacturing companies, to go overseas and explore and develop new services and markets.”: Ren Hongbin, chairman of SINOMACH

SINOMACH (short for Sino Machinery) reported a revenue increase of 17% in 2011, for a total of $30 billion.  I wounder how much was from cutting costs with slave labor?