Democracy’s not just an anniversary

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Published on Monday, 29 June 2015 09:34

After the charade of the Magna Carta celebrations, against a background of illegal detentions and the tightening noose of state control over our lives, the world moves on. But away from the gaze of the media, many folk are exploring the concept of democracy and constitutional change.

There is a second charter which not many people have heard of, the Charter of the Forest, that was for the common people rather than the barons.

Butter, bacon and fire: reclaiming the two Great Charters

Magna Carta is only one of the two Great Charters of English Liberty, writes Peter Linebaugh – and we should reclaim them both from the conservatives and neoliberals

The major obstacle to change is the global banking and monetary system but most protest and activism is misdirected and fragmented. Of course, we need to fight to protect the vulnerable and the environment because many consequences of the current system are irreversible in their effect – eg. one cannot bring people back from the dead – but unless we change the system, activists and campaigners are losing a war of attrition. More and more people are becoming victims of this abusive political economy.

Critical Thinker Janos uses a metaphor for our predicament: most activists are busy fishing babies out of the river as they float by, we can’t get them all out but we do what we can. What we need to do is go upstream, to find out who’s throwing babies into the river and stop them.

A common platform to unite dissent is essential if we’re to reverse the descent into totalitarianism, war and oppression. The June Magna Carta special edition of the Runnymede Gazette lays out a Declaration of Grievance which could form a common platform for people to unite around for change. It’s only two pages but lays out 12 grievances. It’s a modest start but we need scale to face down the banks. Together we’re irresistible.

Published on Saturday, 27 June 2015 11:42

CIA drug and arms dealing, JFK’s murder, 9/11, WMDs in Iraq, creation of ISIS, MH17, Aleppo chemical attacks, Charlie Hebdo, global warming alarmism, Bilderberg etc. etc. etc. are all “conspiracy theories”, a term established by the CIA to discredit those who seek to expose their black ops. But most so called “conspiracy theories” are far more consistent with the facts than the fantasies promoted by our media and corrupt institutions.

Many of these “conspiracy theories” are subsequently validated by later disclosures. Wikileaks and whistleblowers are now getting relevant information out much earlier and more and more conspiracy theories are being validated as fact.

Truth is, you cannot trust your government, media, corporations or any other hierarchical institution, even those supposed to be holding others to account, such as the judiciary, NGOs, the UN etc. You have to seek the truth yourself.

Update: As Critical Thinker Jimmy points out, “denier” and “conspiracy theorist” are pretty much interchangeable, similar artifices to close down intellectual inquiry and dissent.

When there are so many terms: doubter, opposing view, skeptic, and so on, the fact that they all use the same term, “Denier”, shows a conspiracy to bully people into agreeing or being silent. “Deny” is used regularly only with criminals and neuroses. It has no scientific definition outside of psychology.

It is an emotion stirring word; the very sound of the word is negative. They have morphed it into a schoolyard hazing: Denier, denier, denier, Jimmy is a denier….. the cursing and insults that come with it only prove beyond a reasonable doubt that those who use the term are not interested in scientific discussion but drilling home their propaganda – it is of no use to listen or argue with them – they do not have an open mind or they would not use that term!

From Bertrand Russell’s Liberal Decalogue and essential to critical thinking:

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

Dictatorship of the European Commission

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Published on Thursday, 25 June 2015 11:12

The European Union (EU) was conceived and planned at Bilderberg in the 1950s; one of the main protagonists for the European project was the shadowy éminence grise and Bilderberg founder, Jozef Retinger. The EU is a building block towards one world government by technocrats and corporations on behalf of the Structural Elite.

Lobbyists, working on behalf of corporations, drive EU policy making and law creation; there are between 15,000 to 30,000 lobbyists, based in Brussels. It is these, together with corporate secondees to the commission and some 50,000 civil servants who draft laws and treaties such as TTIP, CETA and TiSA in secret. They are then enacted with negligible disclosure of the details and no democratic oversight.

The Swiss remain outside of the European Union and Switzerland is probably the most democratic nation on the planet; major decisions are made by the people, not by unelected technocrats or corrupt politicians. Which may explain why Switzerland is likely to be the first country to implement an unconditional Citizens Income.

Greece, Ukraine and the IMF

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Published on Wednesday, 24 June 2015 05:43

Tuesday’s BBC Today news programme more or less began with speculation of a deal, between the European Parliament and Greece, getting closer due to concessions given by the Greeks. The report featured the voices of demonstrators, outside Parliament in Athens, all proclaiming that the most important thing for Greece right now is that they remain in the European Union.

The report failed to mentioned that less than a week ago the Truth Committee on Public Debt, set up by the The Hellenic Parliament, had established:

that Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate, and odious.

A similar Guardian report, of Greek submission to debt repayment and, in particular, of the Euro cheerleaders outside parliament, had James Corbett of the Corbett Report tweeting: Protesters plead with Athens to “not endanger #Greece’s place in the #Eurozone.” I wonder how much they were paid?

After  speculating on Tsipras’s capitulation of punishing the Greek people for the country’s debt and how that will play out among other European leaders, we hear from the people:  For the second time in days, thousands of Greeks poured into Syntagma square in central Athens on Monday night to exhort the Tsipras government not to endanger Greece’s place in the eurozone and by extension the EU. Unfurling a giant blue and white flag over the retaining wall of the Greek parliament, they chanted “Europe, Europe, we are staying in Europe.”

The IMF’s hard medicine being dished out to Greece is a far cry from the bedside care afforded to the Ukraine currently. Tyler Durden observes: as Greece struggles to avoid a default to the IMF on debt which was incurred just so German banks can remain solvent and dump trillions in non-performing loans to US hedge funds and Greek exposure, and which would result in the collapse in the living standards of an entire nation (only for a few years before, an Iceland-recovery takes place, one which Greece would already be enjoying had it defaulted in 2010 as we said it should), and as the “criminal” IMF does everything in its power to subjugate an entire nation, or else let it founder, the IMF told Soros’ BFFs over in Kiev, that even if they default on debt to private creditors (in fact please do since Russia is among them), the IMF would keep the loan spigot flowing.