Exclusive: Ex-Greek PM George Papandreou on Greece’s Fiscal Crisis and Why He Backs Occupy Movement
By https://www.democracynow.org
In an exclusive interview, we speak with former Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, who is attending the U.N. climate change summit in Durban, South Africa.
Papandreou was forced to resign last month when he suggested holding a national referendum to allow the Greek people to have a say in whether they would accept the European Union’s bailout plan which would necessitate severe austerity cuts.
We speak to Papandreou about the financial crisis, the role of banks, and the importance of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement. “The Occupy Wall Street movements … are saying something very, very specific, that inequality, in the end, is an inequality of power, and we need to redistribute power, not just money—power—and this is, I think, the democratic challenge that we have today,” Papandreou says.
Source: https://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/9/exclusive_ex_greek_pm_george_papandreou
Million Man March - Occupy Congress January 17th, 2012
December 2, 2011 (WASHINGTON, D.C.) - A growing movement of government dissent, disapproval and discontent has culminated into an Occupy Congress protest to be held on January 17th, 2012. Social media networks are labeling this protest as “the largest Occupy protest, ever” with expectations of more than one million people in attendance.
On a reddit blurb, “Sgt—Hulka” posted, “Congress starts their 2012 legislative session on January 17th. We should occupy OUR city and insist that they start doing their f*cking jobs. OccupyCongress”.
A Facebook page has been created to promote the event as well, entitled, “Occupy Congress January 17th, 2012”.
The objective behind this Facebook page is stated as the following: “It’s time for the American People to send a message to Congress”.
Tweets can be found at #occupycongress.
Source: https://www.in5d.com/million-man-march-occupy-congress-january-17-2012.html
Afghanistan: “There Will Be Civil War”
Delegations from 100 countries and organizations will meet on Monday in Bonn, Germany, for a conference on Afghanistan. Among the 1,000 participants: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and 60 foreign ministers. “Laying the foundation for a better future of Afghanistan” the German Foreign Ministry proclaims. But just when official optimism showed signs of froth, classified documents surfaced in Germany that predicted a dire future for Afghanistan after the departure of NATO troops.
“It is time to focus on nation building here at home,” President Obama announced in June, because “we’re meeting our goals.” He’d pull out 30,000 troops by September 2012, but from a “position of strength” not weakness. By late 2014, all combat troops from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would be withdrawn. In the interim, the US and its allies would transfer security responsibilities to the Afghan military and police. That’s the public plan.
But U.S. and German military and intelligence officials apparently have a much more pessimistic view: Bild, the largest German newspaper—a broadsheet tabloid—has obtained a number of classified documents (Bild, article in German) and decided to make them public “because they prove what no one wants to know.”
Among them was a joint analysis by the German military and the US military that predicted that insurgents could regain power in Afghanistan when NATO troops are withdrawn. Bild quoted from the report:
“After the end of the occupation by the ISAF in 2014, the leaders of the insurgency, who have fled to Pakistan, will return to Afghanistan.” And the conclusion: “When ISAF troops leave the country, there will be civil war.”
A stark contrast to President Obama’s positive spin on Afghanistan’s future, though the likelihood of civil war has been bandied about for years. The model: when the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in early 1989, civil war spread across the country. There are also recent indications, for example, BBC’s story, “What happened when US forces left Afghan hotspot?” So, is NATO really “laying the foundation for a better future?”
Among the other documents that Bild got its hands on:
- Reports by the German military stated that the Afghan secret service was involved in deadly attacks on German soldiers, something the German Ministry of Defense has been denying strenuously.
- NATO documents outlined how Pakistan and Iran were colluding to support attacks on German soldiers. The Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, was also involved. They supplied weapons, training, and money.
- A document from the US military indicated that Pakistan expected an invasion of US troops and established defensive positions in the border region, including radar systems to detect low-flying aircraft.
Afghanistan is the country where a young rape victim named Gulnaz was thrown in jail for adultery because she refused to marry her attacker. The case caught the attention of foreign reporters. To get them off his back before the Bonn conference, President Karzai pardoned her. If it weren’t so tragic, it would be funny. BBC reports:
President Karzai tasked the minister of justice to go and talk to Gulnaz to see what she wants. During her meeting with the minister, she said she will marry the attacker only if her brother marries the attacker’s sister,” Emal Faizay, a spokesman for President Karzai, told the BBC. “This is a decision by her. I can confirm that there is no precondition set by the Afghan government.
But Gulnaz’s lawyer, Kimberley Motley, told the BBC:
In my conversations with Gulnaz she told me that if she had the free choice she would not marry the man who raped her.
Ten years ago, the US military removed the Taliban from power, but Afghanistan still has these kinds of absurd issues. Okay, now they also have cell phones, TVs, and opium, but nearly 3,000 NATO soldiers—mostly Americans—died. It’s time to let Afghans sort out their future. Why wait till 2014 to pull all US combat troops out? There is one presidential candidate who promises to act promptly: Ron Paul.
Meanwhile in Europe, a flood of proposals, plans, and rumors to save the euro rely on the uneasy partnership between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. But he may be out of a job by May 2012—and his potential successors have very different ideas….French Presidential Election: Coup De Grâce For The Euro?
Source: https://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2011/12/4/afghanistan-there-will-be-civil-war.html
Lowe’s Pulls Ads From TV Show About US Muslims
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A decision by retail giant Lowe’s Home Improvement to pull ads from a reality show about American Muslims following protests from an evangelical Christian group has sparked criticism and calls for a boycott against the chain.
The retailer stopped advertising on TLC’s “All-American Muslim” after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association complained, saying the program was “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”
The show premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families from Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population.
A state senator from Southern California said he was considering calling for a boycott.
Calling the Lowe’s decision “un-American” and “naked religious bigotry,” Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, told The Associated Press on Sunday that he would also consider legislative action if Lowe’s doesn’t apologize to Muslims and reinstate its ads. The senator sent a letter outlining his complaints to Lowe’s Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Niblock.
“The show is about what it’s like to be a Muslim in America, and it touches on the discrimination they sometimes face. And that kind of discrimination is exactly what’s happening here with Lowe’s,” Lieu said.
The Florida group sent three emails to its members, asking them to petition Lowe’s to pull its advertising. Its website was updated to say that “supporters’ emails to advertisers make a difference.”
Suehaila Amen, whose family is featured on “All-American Muslim,” said she was disappointed by the Lowe’s decision.
“I’m saddened that any place of business would succumb to bigots and people trying to perpetuate their negative views on an entire community,” Amen, 32, told The Detroit News on Sunday.
Lowe’s issued a statement Sunday apologizing for having “managed to make some people very unhappy.”
“Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views,” the statement said. “As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.”
The North Carolina-based company did not say whether it would reinstate advertising on the show.
The apology doesn’t go far enough, Lieu said. The senator vowed to look into whether Lowe’s violated any California laws and said he would also consider drafting a senate resolution condemning the company’s actions.
“We want to raise awareness so that consumers will know during this holiday shopping season that Lowe’s is engaging in religious discrimination,” Lieu said.
Besides an apology and reinstatement of the ads, Lieu said he hoped Lowe’s would make an outreach to the community about bias and bigotry.
Lieu’s office said a decision was expected Wednesday or Thursday on whether to proceed with the boycott.
Lowe’s issued another statement later Sunday, saying company officials are seeking to talk to Lieu about his concerns and clarify the company’s position.
“We are aware of the senator’s comments and have reached out to his office to arrange an opportunity for us to speak with him directly to hear his thoughts,” the statement read.
Dawud Walid, Michigan director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said his group felt “extreme disappointment” at Lowe’s “capitulation to bigotry.”
Walid said he has heard expressions of anger and calls for a boycott by Muslims but said a key to resolving the Lowe’s advertising controversy will be how non-Muslim religious leaders and others react to Lowe’s decision.
“I will be picking up the phone tomorrow to some of our friends and allies to explain the situation to them,” Walid said Sunday.
Source: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lowes-pulls-ads-tv-show-us-muslims-011436509.html
GOP State Representative Beats Mentally Disabled Son, Kicks Him In Ribs Outside Restaurant
‘State Representative Bob Nicholas (R-Cheyenne) was arrested the day before Thanksgiving for viciously beating his 19 year old son while on vacation in Florida.
Several witness saw Rep. Nicholas punch his son, push or knock him to the ground and then kick him at least five times. The police found that the son had abrasions and welts on his neck as well as a foot-sized mark on his ribcage with what appeared to be the pattern of shoelaces imprinted on it.
Abusing a mentally disabled adult is a third degree felony in the state of Florida. Nichols was released on Thanksgiving on a twenty thousand dollar bail.
Nicholas intends to fight the charges and denies any wrong doing.’
Source: https://
Preppers Are Now Considered To Be Potential Terrorists?
If you and your family store up lots of food, will you be identified as “potential terrorists” by law enforcement authorities? That sounds like an insane question, but sadly it has gotten to the point where “preparing for the worst” has become a “suspicious activity“.
Today, there are millions of preppers all across the United States, and the vast majority of them just want to be left alone and do not want the government to interfere in their lives. Storing up food is a completely peaceful activity, and preppers are generally some of the most patriotic and law-abiding people that you could ever hope to meet. Unfortunately, prepping has become associated with “extremism” by many in the government, and lately we have seen some very disturbing signs that authorities are actively seeking to gather information on preppers. So are preppers now considered to be potential terrorists?
Well, read the evidence posted in the rest of this article and decide for yourself.
The other day, U.S. Senator Rand Paul gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate during which he suggested that having “more than seven days of food” in your house could potentially get you branded as a “potential terrorist” by the federal government.
The following is an excerpt from that speech:
Know good and well that some day there could be a government in power that is shipping its citizens off for disagreements. There are laws on the books now that characterize who might be a terrorist.
Someone missing fingers on their hands is a suspect according to the Department of Justice. Someone who has guns, someone who has ammunition that is weatherproofed, someone who has more than seven days of food in their house can be considered a potential terrorist.
If you are suspected by these activities do you want the government to have the ability to send you to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention?
It is incredibly chilling to hear a defender of liberty such as Rand Paul warn of such things.
But just because a politician says something that does not always mean that it is true.
So is there any evidence that Americans that are storing up food are being watched by the federal government?
Unfortunately, there is. In fact, Oath Keepers has posted a report about one incident in which federal agents actually visited a food production facility and demanded the names of anyone that has been “purchasing bulk food”. The following come from an article about this incident that was recently written by Rand Cardwell, the president of the Tennessee chapter of the Oath Keepers….
A fellow veteran contacted me concerning a new and disturbing development. He had been utilizing a Mormon cannery near his home to purchase bulk food supplies. The man that manages the facility related to him that federal agents had visited the facility and demanded a list of individuals that had been purchasing bulk food. The manager informed the agents that the facility kept no such records and that all transactions were conducted on a cash-and-carry basis. The agents pressed for any record of personal checks, credit card transactions, etc., but the manager could provide no such record. The agents appeared to become very agitated and after several minutes of questioning finally left with no information. I contacted the manager and personally confirmed this information.
Why in the world would federal agents be so interested in Americans that are “purchasing bulk food”?
Don’t they have anything better to do?
As I have written about previously, authorities are also now using a tool developed by the CDC to conduct “door to door disaster preparedness assessments” in some areas of the United States.
The following comes from a local news report in Tennessee….
The Metro Public Health and the Tennessee Department of Health will be using a tool designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to go door to door and check to see how disaster ready you are.
The door to door assessment will take place from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. It will be in 30 neighborhoods in Davidson County that have been randomly selected to be the target of a door to door assessment.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone coming to my door to “assess” how “prepared” I am.
This is all very, very disturbing.
Lately, the federal government seems absolutely obsessed with the distribution of food.
As author Brandon Turbeville noted recently, “the U.S. government has publicly raided organic food shops, raw milk distributors, and the Amish with guns drawn” in recent years.
Aren’t there bigger threats to national security than the Amish?
Unfortunately, we now live in a “Big Brother” police state where just about anything can be considered a “suspicious activity”.
In fact, according to the FBI a bulk purchase of “meals ready to eat” is now considered to be “suspicious activity” that should be reported to them.
When the “war on terror” started a decade ago, we were told that we needed to fight the terrorists “over there” so that they would not come over here.
Well, now we are being told that the United States itself is part of the “battleground” and that the “terrorists” might just be our neighbors.
We are being told that if we “see something” that we should “say something” to the government.
In essence, the federal government wants us all to “inform” on one another.
Now that most of the big name terrorists have been removed from the picture, the Obama administration and the mainstream media are really hyping the idea that “homegrown terrorism” is a grave danger.
Just check out these headlines from the past few days….
ABC News: “White House Unveils New Strategy to Fight Homegrown Terrorism”
USA Today: “White House unveils new strategy to combat homegrown terror”
CNN: “Measuring the homegrown terrorist threat to U.S. military”
The entire focus of the “war on terror” has shifted. According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, “homegrown terrorists” represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does at this point.
America is rapidly changing, and not for the better. All of this paranoia is going to rip this country apart.
In addition, have you noticed how they have taken the word “Islamic” out of their description of the terrorists and have replaced it with words like “extremist” and “extremism”?
Well, the truth is that just about anyone can be considered an “extremist” in one sense or another.
In fact, a recent Salon article asked this question: “Are Evangelicals A National Security Threat?”
These days, if you support an “alternative” political candidate there is a good chance that you will be labeled as an extremist.
During the 2008 election, one law enforcement report identified supporters of presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr as potential terrorists.
Today, if you have a religious or political ideology that differs from the “orthodoxy” of the federal government then you are probably considered to be an “extremist”.
Beliefs that were once considered normal are now considered to be “dangerous” and “radical”.
For example, one unclassified Department of Homeland Security report published a couple of years ago entitled “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment“ claimed that a belief in Bible prophecy “could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons.”
During a Congressional hearing earlier this year, U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee warned that “Christian militants” might try to “bring down the country” and that such groups need to be investigated.
Back on February 20, 2009, the State of Missouri issued a report entitled “MIAC Strategic Report: The Modern Militia Movement“. That report warned that the following types of people may be potential terrorists….
*anti-abortion activists
*those that are against illegal immigration
*those that consider “the New World Order” to be a threat
*those that have a negative view of the United Nations
As I have written about previously, a very revealing document obtained by Oath Keepers shows that the FBI is actually instructing store owners to report many new forms of “suspicious activity” to them.
So what does the FBI consider “suspicious activity” to include? According to the document, the FBI now considers “suspicious activity” to include the following….
*paying with cash
*missing a hand or fingers
*”strange odors”
*making “extreme religious statements”
*”radical theology”
*purchasing weatherproofed ammunition or match containers
*purchasing meals ready to eat
*purchasing night vision devices, night flashlights or gas masks
All of this is completely and totally ridiculous.
Law enforcement authorities should quit worrying about preppers. The vast majority of us that are preparing for the hard times that are coming truly love this country, are completely and totally non-violent, and just want to be left alone.
There are real threats to national security out there, but the federal government refuses to address them. For example, our border with Mexico is wide open and it has been documented that terror groups are working in northern Mexico and have been coming across the border on a regular basis.
But instead of securing the border, the Obama administration is granting “backdoor amnesty” to illegal aliens instead.
In addition, law enforcement authorities should look into the massive breach of national security that the “Fast and Furious” scandal represents. With the full knowledge of the Department of Justice, ATF agents facilitated the sale of thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and dropped all surveillance on those weapons once they crossed the border. Those guns will be used to kill people (including Americans) for many years to come.
In fact, there is so much corruption and so many “potential terrorists” in Washington D.C. that it should be more than enough to keep law enforcement officials busy for a very long time.
So leave preppers alone.
Preppers are not a threat. They are not going to hurt anyone. They just want to store up food and prepare for the difficult times that are coming.
So what do all of you think about preppers?
Source: https://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/preppers-are-now-considered-to-be-potential-terrorists
Georgia Democrat Proposes Drug Testing For Lawmakers
Democratic Georgia state Rep. Scott Holcomb has introduced legislation to the General Assembly that would require lawmakers to pass a drug test before taking office.
The usual bill was filed last week in response to a proposal to drug test welfare applicants, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“This bill is really very simple,” Holcomb said in a statement. “If the General Assembly is going to pass laws requiring struggling, jobless Georgians to pay for drug tests as a precondition to receiving state benefits, then members of the General Assembly should lead by example and take the tests first.”
Random tests would also be mandated by the bill, which lawmakers would be required to pay for with their personal funds.
Following the example set by Florida and Missouri, Georgia state Sen. John Albers (R) introduced a bill that would require all applicants of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare program to pass a drug test.
“Whether you work to receive compensation or collect government assistance, the same standards should apply,” Albers explained to Patch.com in November. “If individuals are receiving aid at the taxpayer’s expense, citizens have the right to know how their funds are being appropriated.”
Under the proposed legislation, applicants who failed the mandatory drug test would be ineligible for TANF benefits for one month. If they failed a second time, they would be ineligible for three months. Applicants who failed three times would be ineligible for three years unless they successfully completed a drug treatment program.
“I would prefer the General Assembly focus on the issues that are most important to Georgians,” Holcomb said. “But, if the General Assembly is going to make drug testing for state benefits a major issue when we return in January, then legislators need to be the first in line.”
The American Civil Liberties Union has decried the laws as discriminatory and other critics of drug testing TANF applicants have said it places vulnerable children at risk. The program is meant to help families so that children can be cared for in their own homes, and requires parents to participate in work-related activities.
Source: https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/07/georgia-lawmaker-proposes-legislative-drug-testing-bill/
A Preview Of Things To Come In America
In this video I talk about the situation we are facing with the Department of Homeland Security.
Trust me when I say that I don’t like making this video.
I don’t like admitting when I am cornered by a force that I cannot defend myself against.
I am posting this so that you will realize what is developing in this country.