Has The Patriot Act Metamorphosed into The Freedom Act?

US Spy Architecture Pared Back as Part of Patriot Act Expires, shouts the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times claims a decade-long shift from focus on national security to a shift on civil liberties in the post Snowden era. Yes, the corporate owned mainstream media is doing its very best to hype the expiration of the Patriot Act while extolling the virtues of its replacement, the USA Freedom Act, in the words of the NY Times:

“the strongest demonstration yet of a decade-long shift from a singular focus on national security at the expense of civil liberties to a new balance in the post-Snowden era.”

Not so fast!   The spotlight is on one agency, the NSA and one expiring unconstitutional body of legislation, the Patriot Act. when they have all sorts of other ways to collect the same kind of intelligence laid out in the original Patriot Act, when there are countless other, even more powerful agencies than the NSA.  It's what the profit-seeking "news" media, owned and run by a tiny elite, obscures that leads to truth.

The massive US intelligence apparatus (see above) has already figured out how to get what it needs through other means. Broadcasting the curbing of the NSA Surveillance Program just gives we, the people false hope that's something is being done. In fact, under the Freedom Act, the program of domestic mass surveillance will only intensify. The NSA is only one of the alphabet agencies under the umbrella of the colossal Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 

It's all a game of smoke and mirrors to mask the ever-growing build-up of the surveillance and security industrial complex. This change they're trumpeting is purely cosmetic. It's basically the transference of responsibility for the retention of cell phone metadata from the NSA to telecommunication companies which now require the NSA to get a FISA stamp of approval before obtaining call records.

What about all of the spy planes equipped with technology capable of tracking and reviewing data from tens of thousands of phones in a single flight and provided to the Department of Justice, including agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF, etc.? 

From How you can track the FBI’s spy planes

“The thing is, when you fly planes in the U.S., you have to fill out lots of official forms that become part of the public record. Because the FBI didn’t want to publicly acknowledge it was sending “spy planes” out to circle American cities (and potentially alert its targets), it created front companies for them. It seems the FBI is uncreative when it comes to spy craft; the fake companies tracked down by the AP and by Wiseman mainly had three-letter names, including FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Because flight records in the U.S. are public, and planes are trackable on radar, the AP was able to track down where these planes flew.

Even politicians who speak out against the ever growing surveillance state cannot be trusted. Take Rand Paul who claims victory of the expired Patriot Act "proposed hiring 1,000 new FBI agents to track potential terrorists."

Anyway, what do you need the NSA for when you've got Google and Apple and Amazon and Facebook?

Newsflash: Big corporations and government are in bed together and cozier than ever. They don't even try to hide it anymore, what with Citizens United, huge corporate bailouts,  not to mention corporations actually write the laws that government officials don't even read.   Of course, I could go on forever but that should be enough to make one, at the very least, suspicious.

Links:

Zombie Patriot Act Will Keep U.S. Spying—Even if the Original Dies

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

EPIC is an independent non-profit research center in Washington, DC. EPIC works to protect privacy, freedom of expression, democratic values, and to promote the Public Voice in decisions concerning the future of the Internet.

Also see: http://privacy.org/

Big Brother Inc

Bugged Planet

The body-worn “IMSI catcher” for all your covert phone snooping needs

National Security Analysis Center (NSAC),

NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program

“The top-secret PRISM program allows the U.S. intelligence community to gain access from nine Internet companies to a wide range of digital information, including e-mails and stored data, on foreign targets operating outside the United States. The program is court-approved but does not require individual warrants. Instead, it operates under a broader authorization from federal judges who oversee the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some documents describing the program were first released by The Washington Post on June 6.

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The "Warm and Fuzzy" Agenda to Control Mankind.

Smart grids, smart growth, smart phones, smart meters, smart cities, smart streets...are they trying to tell us something? That we're not smart enough to run our own lives without all of this smart technology?  Of course they are, but the real purpose behind all of this overwhelming smart and inter-connected technology is the control of individuals through steady indoctrination, and procure compliance from a centralized "government". At the same time, this smart technology is gathering all the information they can about you so they can track your every move if they so desire. Meanwhile, the proliferation of superficial and shallow "relationships" maintained by texting, tweeting and Facebooking are becoming the new normal. That may sound conspiratorial (see image above) but that's because it is. There is an agreement by powerful people in high places to deceive us into cooperating with a system that will try to control every aspect of human life. It goes by many names, often warm and fuzzy, but underneath it all, it's Agenda 21.

According to Rosa Koire,

“UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development/Globalization is the standardization of systems in order to facilitate global control. ICLEI was created as a non-governmental spin-off by the United Nations in 1990 to implement Agenda 21 locally across the world. Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, it is a lobbying and policy group that is designed to influence and change local governmental policies related to all aspects of human life. By concentrating power in cities this group circumvents requirements for ratification of international treaties and gives the illusion of local control. In fact the cities then ally in regional conglomerates which break jurisdictional boundaries and will destroy local control. Ultimately this facilitates global governance by invalidating individual cities, counties, states, and nations with contractual agreements and interwoven systems.

The Kyoto Treaty is an example of this. The United States did not ratify Kyoto, a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adopting carbon trading, repudiating sprawl, and changing land use. But 1,055 United States Mayors did agree to Kyoto, indirectly, by signing onto ICLEI's Mayor's Climate Protection Campaign. Seattle, Bellevue, Bellingham, and many other Washington cities signed it. In fact it was the brainchild of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

Jeb Brugmann, founder of ICLEI (International Council For Local Environmental Initiatives) says the agenda is to "re-engineer what a city is." ICLEI was created, in 1990, as a non-governmental spin-off by the United Nations to implement Agenda 21 locally across the world and ICLEI's international standards have crept into our code and regulations in all of our cities, counties, states, school districts, etc..

Common Core standards are a big part of Agenda 21.  Below, Clint Richardson explains:



So far, 45 states have passed Common Core.  It will only take five more states and Common Core will be federal law:

According to Clint Richardson, CORE Education and Technologies LTD, the "for-profit education corporation that teaches American children and teachers hails not from the United States – but from India." Their annual financial report can be found here. 

Moreover, speaking of control, did you know that there is a "Constitutional Free Zone" in the United States? I did not, but there is a 100 mile border around the U.S. that contain 2/3 of the population—197.4 million people! Airports throughout the country are also included no matter where they are located. The Dept of Homeland Security has the authority to stop, search and detain anyone for any reason within the constitution free zone, resident or traveler.

Constitutional Free Zone

Agenda 21

Links:

Agenda 21 Land Grab: Facts and Resources

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Global Water Capitalists War for Our Water.

For thousands of years, water has been seen as a free public good, with no price attached, but that's changing right before our eyes thanks to insatiable corporate greed. Their monopolistic exploitation of water – the world's most important raw material – in order to provide fabulous returns to investors from a captive market of consumers will eventually make water, like gold, too expensive for everyone but the wealthiest of the psychopathic elite if this global water cartel gets its way.  Unfortunately, although, there is life without gold, there is no life without water...I bet you didn't know that.

And speaking of psychopaths--not to mention, disappearing lakes--here's a clear example of one: former CEO Nestlé, now Chairman of the Board, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, who strongly believes our food--GMO farming /Monsanto--and water supply should be entirely controlled by corporations like Nestle (Nestle Waters North America received permission to bottle up to 210 million gallons a year from an aquifer north of Grand Rapids that recharges the Muskegon River, a major Lake Michigan tributary), with over $65 billion--or 90 billion Swiss francs-- in profit per year.

What's more, by using a little-known loophole--the bottled water loophole-- in the 2006 Great Lakes Compact that allows water to be labeled a "commodity," our government supports the plundering of our water supply.  Not only does Nestle Company siphon water for it's bottled water brand, it exports  fresh water out of Lake Michigan and ships it to China at a "240 times markup!" Their profit: an estimated $500,000 to $1.8 million per day. That's right. Our government representatives are allowing these multinationals all the cheap water they can get in order to make large profits. If we don't fight to protect the most valuable resource we have, that is, water,

And guess how much Nestle pays for the millions, perhaps billions, of gallons of water it drains? One hundred dollars annually. And let's not forget Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens who is “the largest individual water owner in America, with rights over enough of the aquifer to drain an estimated 200,000 acre-feet a year, at least until the land goes dry.”

“Nestlé PURE LIFE has become in 2008 the largest bottled water brand sold in the world. The company is in 36 countries spanning 5 continents with 64 brands.

Other Nestlé products are Perrier, Vittel, Acqua Panna, Vera, Contrex, Aquarel, Poland Spring, S.Pellegrino, Vie Pure in Algeria and Nestle Pureza vital in some Latin American Countries. Nestlé, has been acquiring water companies since 1969 when it acquired its first 30 percent stake in the Société Générale des Eaux Minérales de Vittel, in France.

It gets even better. Not only is our government involved in this water securitzation scheme, the United Nations is the brainchild of this scam.  UNESCO's Intergovernmental Council of the International Hydrological Program's document HS 15322 explains how the "UN plans to secure resources to use at their disposal. Through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under-developed countries are forced to sell their resources to the global Elite as “full cost recovery” to the global central bankers. Once those resources are under the complete control of the creditors, they become assets to be reallocated back to the enslaved nations for a price."

With the securitization of water  , it makes water sources under central privatization cost more and become less accessible to those who desperately need it. In other words, pursuit of water security means whoever gets the water, chooses who lives and who dies.

“The one water-export method that has been taking off is bottled water. It is among the fastest-growing and least-regulated industries in the world. In the 1970s, the annual volume of water bottled and traded around the world was 300 million US gallons (about 1 billion liters). By 1980, the figure had climbed to 650 million US gallons (about 2.5 billion liters), and toward the end of the decade, 2 billion US gallons (7.5 billion liters) of bottled water were being consumed in countries around the world.

But in the past five years [10 years ago], the volume of bottled water sales has skyrocketed, and in 2000, 22.3 billion US gallons (84 billion liters) of water were bottled and sold. Moreover, one-quarter of all the water bottled was traded and consumed outside its country of origin.

Among the brand name products are Perrier, Evian, Naya, Poland Spring, Clearly Canadian, La Croix, Purely Alaskan, and many more. Nestle is the world market leader in bottled water, with no fewer than 68 brands, including Perrier, Vittel, and San Pellegrino. As a past chairman of Perrier put it: "It struck me ... that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground and then sell it for more than the price of wine, milk, or for that matter, oil."

While bottled water may have started out as a pampered Western consumer affectation, Nestle has found a growing market niche for bottled water in nonindustrialized countries where safe tap water is rare or nonexistent. In these countries, its main product line is Nestle Pure Life, a low-cost purified tap water with added minerals. Marketed on a platform of "basic wholesomeness," Nestle Pure Life has sold well in Pakistan and Brazil, as have some of the corporation's other bottled water products in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Mexico

[...]

“If the OPEC model were followed, the countries containing large supplies of fresh water in the form of lakes, rivers, and glaciers would constitute such a cartel.

Studies by the highly respected Russian hydrologist Igor Shiklomanov, described by Peter Gleick in his book Water in Crisis, identify the countries with the most fresh water in the world. Twenty-eight of the world's largest fresh water lakes, he writes, account for 85 percent of the volume of all lake water, including Russia's Lake Baikal, Africa's Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Superior on the U.S.-Canadian border.

As the world's largest lake system, the Great Lakes together account for 27 percent of global lake volumes. The world's largest 25 rivers include: 11 in Asia (the Ganges, Yangtze, Yenisei, Lena, Mekong, Irrawaddy, Ob, Chutsyan, Amur, Indus, and Salween); 5 in North America (the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Mackenzie, Columbia, and Yukon); 4 in Latin America (the Amazon, Parana, Orinoco, and Magdalena); 3 in Africa (the Congo, Niger, and Nile); and 2 in all of Europe (the Danube and the Volga).

I'm not really sure what the protocol is when posting a quote from someone commenting through Facebook on another website.  For instance, should I post their name?  Or do I even have the right to post the quote in the first place?  So I'll just post the link for the article from where the quote [below] originated because I think this quote is very revealing.

“Out here in Oregon Nestle some how managed to wrangle access to the Columbia river for a new water bottling facility. My husband is a Water Rights Examiner, licensed in Oregon and Washington. I know how difficult it is for citizens to obtain water. In many areas water rights are not available to them. They are hotly contested and we've had guns drawn on us when out doing Water Rights surveys. Then along comes Nestle and they procure a Water Right for billions of gallons, for profitizing?!!! Oregon and Washington citizens have been raped by Nestle. Please don't buy Nestle water. If we don't unite to show our outrage now, they will get control of all the water."

Links:

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation

Flow for Water Advancing Public Trust Solutions to Save The Great Lakes

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Exposing REDD: The Agenda to Privatize Nature.

REDD+ claims to be a climate and deforestation solution, a pillar of the so-called "Green Economy."  In reality REDD+ constitutes a worldwide land grab and giant carbon offset scam to profit northern industrialized nations.  

The Global Alliance of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities on Climate Change against REDD+ And For Life  claim the "green economy" is:

“ ….. nothing more than capitalism of nature; a perverse attempt by corporations, extractive industries and governments to cash in on Creation by privatizing, commodifying, and selling off the Sacred and all forms of life and the sky, including the air we breathe, the water we drink and all the genes, plants, traditional seeds, trees, animals, fish, biological and cultural diversity, ecosystems and traditional knowledge that make life on Earth possible and enjoyable.

“ ….. Under the green economy, even the rain, the beauty of a waterfall or a honey bee’s pollen will be reduced to a barcode price tag and sold to the highest bidder. At the same time, the green economy promotes and greenwashes environmentally and socially devastating extractive industries like logging, mining and oil drilling as “sustainable development.

Watch the video below to get the real story of REDD, the deceptive climate ‘solution’ being proposed in California and being implemented within the UN climate negotiations and the World Bank. It sounds good on paper, but the reality is that REDD enforces the global colonization of Mother Earth; allows the polluting industry to expand its toxic emissions creating local toxic hotspots in faraway places; and creates a stolen future for Indigenous peoples, local forest dependent communities, communities living next door to a fossil fuel polluting industry, and a stolen future for the environment and all life.

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Carnival Cruise: Sweatshops at Sea

From Corpwatch:

Carnival Cruise staff on UK ships are paid $1.20 (75p) an hour in basic wages, according to new documents seen by the Guardian newspaper. Moreover, P&O Cruises withhold passengers' tips unless crew hit performance targets which work out to roughly 15% of wages, unless they get at least a 92% favorable rating from customers.

These wages are below the minimum level recommended by the Joint Maritime Commission of the International Labour Organization which was set at US $555 a month for salaries paid out after January 1, 2012.

“Unfortunately, because the shipping industry is largely unregulated, (workers) wages will normally depend on the kind of contract (they) have signed,” notes the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) web page for seafarers.

The $1.20 an hour wages are for staff on P&O Cruises sailing out of Southampton in the UK. The tour operator began life as Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company which operated the world's first passenger ships starting in 1822 with trips to Iberian Peninsula, and tours in 1844. The UK company merged with Carnival Corporation of Florida in 2003 to create the world’s largest cruise ship operator with annual revenues of $15.8 billion in 2011 and profits of $2.2 billion.

Today most of the workers aboard P&O are from India and the Philippines. Tours in July advertised on the site for the Carnival Legend range between $2,798 and $6,458 per passenger for a 12 day trip around northern Europe. A quick calculation suggests that P&O workers would need to work for almost 500 days to pay for a cruise themselves, assuming that they did not spend a single penny of their wages.

David Dingle, CEO of Carnival UK, told the Guardian that staff were "much happier" and many of them earned over £1,000 a month ($1,600). Some passengers were skeptical. One - Rob Bygrave of Sherborne, Dorset - told the newspaper that "grown men were in tears" after hearing about the new pay scheme.

"It's high time the disgraceful practice of allowing the shipping industry to pay poverty wages to workers who don't live in the UK was stopped,” Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress told the Guardian. “Exploitative rates of pay for those working on British ships have no place in a modern society."

An estimated 1.2 million people work at sea. For them working on board a ship has never been an idyllic operation. Over 200 years after the men of the HMS Bounty rebelled against their captain for mistreatment (commemorated in a number of books and films like Mutiny on the Bounty) activists say that the ship workers are still exploited routinely.

“It’s a sweatshop at sea,” says Paul Chapman, former port chaplain, founder of the Center for Seafarers' Rights, and author of “Trouble on Board: The Plight of International Seafarers.” “A ship owner can go any place in the world, pick up anybody he wants, on almost any terms. If the owner wants to maximize profit at the expense of people, it’s a piece of cake.”

“Cruise ships maintain a degree of glamour and opulence. Advertising projects images of fun and carefree times. Those of us living in port cities see impressively clean, bright and huge ships glide into our harbours, offloading passengers anxious to spend money at stores, restaurants, and with tour operators,” writes Professor Ross A. Klein of Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada who runs http://www.cruisejunkie.com/.

In an article titled “High Seas, Low Pay, Klein adds:

“The reality for many cruise-ship workers, however, is certainly not carefree, nor fun. While the working conditions for officers, cruise staff, and those working in the shops and casinos are adequate, if not good, the experience of those working in the dining room, cleaning rooms, in the galley, and below deck is quite different. These workers are often paid substandard wages, have marginal accommodations, survive on inadequate food, and live under a system that is rife with abuse and uncertainty.”

The ITF has been fighting to get European countries to adopt the Maritime Labour Convention that would require ships to maintain minimum labor standards on board ships. The UK is yet to ratify the convention.

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Another Supreme Court Decision Proving the US is a Corporation First and Foremost.

What is the duty of It is NOT the duty of the police to protect you. Their job is to protect THE CORPORATION and arrest code breakers.According to the US Supreme Court, a corporation is a person when it wants to buy an election - Citizens United ruling - but when it wants to torture and murder people - unanimous ruling on Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority - it's not a person; therefore, cannot be held accountable.

The United States Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a law on the books since 1991 precludes organizations, both political and corporate, from being sued for torture or murder outside of the U.S.

In a unanimous ruling on Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority (PDF), Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the careful text of the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991, the way it is written "convinces us that Congress did not extend liability to organizations, sovereign or not."

Do you need any more proof that the United States is, indeed, a corporation? Because it most certainly is. Not only that, despite what you were taught in school about the Revolutionary War, that we won our independence from the Brits, the United States is still, and always has been subject to the British Crown. 

Keep in mind, the use of "Esquire" which declares anyone who uses that title, British subjection and loyalty to the crown.

The first Charter of Virginia in 1606

Using his money and resources, King James I sent his subjects to America with the expectation of gain from his commercial venture. In the Virginia Charter he declares his sovereignty over the land and his subjects and declared the amount of gold, silver and copper he was to receive. Moreover, the king declared the right to regulate every aspect of commerce in his new colony.

Treaty of Paris 1783

This treaty contradicts what we've been taught about the Revolutionary war. We did not win our total independence. Ben Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams - all Esquires - merely negotiated further granted privileges from the King of England. Quite a few, in fact, except one: his claim to continue receiving gold, silver and copper as gain (see Virginia Charter, 1606) for his commercial venture.

So, why is the King granting us privileges if we won the war? Why  was the King dictating the terms for surrender if we won the war? To this very day, the US is still paying millions of dollars per day to the Crown. Every time you pay a tax you are transferring your labor to the king, and his heirs and successors are still receiving interest from the original American Charters.

Financial servitude

Every taxpayer has an Individual Master File (IMF). Document 6209, about 467 pages, is used to decode the computer codes on the IMF records. If you retrieve your IMF, you will find that you are being held liable for a tax payable to the Crown.

Act of 1871 "An Act To Provide A Government for the District of Columbia."

The 41st Congress, under no constitutional authority to do so, created a separate form of government for the District of Columbia, which is a ten mile square parcel of land.  This Act created a new constitution for the District of Columbia, the corporation.

Here, you will find much more information on the purpose of the War of 1812, the forgotten amendment (#13), 

Queen Elizabeth controls and has amended U.S. Social Security (S.I. 1997 No:1778 The Social Security. A 1040 form is for tribute (tax - A contribution which is raised by a prince or sovereign from his subjects to sustain the expenses of the state. A sum of money paid by an inferior sovereign or state to a superior potentate, to secure the friendship or protection of the latter." Blacks Law Dictionary forth ed. p. 1677) paid to Britain. (IRS Publication 6209).

Read this section from Title 26  (at this link, you will find lots more info on this subject) you will see just one situation where the king is still collecting a tax from those that receive a benefit from him, on property which is purchased with the money the king supplies, at almost the same percentage:

-CITE- 26 USC Sec. 1491
HEAD- Sec. 1491. Imposition of tax
-STATUTE-

There is hereby imposed on the transfer of property by a citizen or resident of the United States, or by a domestic corporation or partnership, or by an estate or trust which is not a foreign estate or trust, to a foreign corporation as paid-in surplus or as a contribution to capital, or to a foreign estate or trust, or to a foreign partnership, an excise tax equal to 35 percent of the excess of -

(1) the fair market value of the property so transferred, over

(2) the sum of -

(A) the adjusted basis (for determining gain) of such property in the hands of the transferor, plus

(B) the amount of the gain recognized to the transferor at the time of the transfer.

-SOURCE-

(Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736, 68A Stat. 365; Oct. 4, 1976, Pub. L. 94-455, title X, Sec. 1015(a), 90 Stat. 1617; Nov. 6, 1978, Pub. L. 95-600, title VII, Sec. 701(u)(14)(A), 92 Stat. 2919.)

-MISC1-

AMENDMENTS

1978 - Pub. L. 95-600 substituted 'estate or trust' for 'trust' wherever appearing.

1976 - Pub. L. 94-455 substituted in provisions preceding par.

(1) 'property' for 'stocks and securities' and '35 percent' for '27 1/2 percent' and in par.

(1) 'fair market value' for 'value' and 'property' for 'stocks and securities' and in par.

(2) designated existing provisions as subpar. (A) and added subpar.

(B). EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1978 AMENDMENT

Section 701(u)(14)(C) of Pub. L. 95-600 provided that: 'The amendments made by this paragraph (amending this section and section 1492 of this title) shall apply to transfers after

October 2, 1975.'

EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1976 AMENDMENT

Section 1015(d) of Pub. L. 94-455 provided that: 'The amendments made by this section (enacting section 1057 of this title, amending this section and section 1492 of this title, and renumbering former section 1057 as 1058 of this title) shall apply to transfers of property after October 2, 1975.'

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Everyone But an Idiot Knows That The Lower Classes Must Be Kept Poor

...or They Will Never Be Industrious” —Arthur Young; 1771

It is no secret that an infinitesimally small number of people own a vastly disproportionate amount of wealth. Therefore, it should be no secret that our economic/political system is based on the greed of this infinitesimally small number of greedy power-hungry people. Yet, most Americans still believe that the governing class is well-meaning, albeit, a little dense.

Never mind the continuous creation of government policy that is hell-bent on depriving increasing numbers of us the means for self-provision. Never mind the too-big-to-fail banks that keep growing; the trillions in backdoor bailouts to Wall Street; the extension of tax cuts for the rich; unilateral executive, warrant-less surveillance; never-ending wars; crushing student debt load (student loan debt has grown 511% in 10 years), and Supreme Court rulings that allow strip-searches for traffic violations, and unlimited political expenditures by corporations.  Meanwhile major corporations have not paid any taxes for the last four years. In fact, many corporations make more money after taxes. That's right. They have a negative tax rate!

Last year, Citizens for Tax Justice found that 30 major corporations had made billions of dollars in profits while paying no federal income tax between 2008 and 2010. Today, CTJ updated that report to reflect the 2011 tax bill of those 30 companies, and 26 of them have still managed to pay absolutely nothing over that four year period:

If they  paid the 35% rate, that would've been $78.3 billion more in federal income taxes.

click image to enlarge

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The Companies Profiting Most from War.

While many industries continue to suffer as a result of the financial crisis, leaders in the arms and military services were/are largely unaffected. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI Top 100) global sales of arms (including sales of military services) by the largest arms-producing and military services companies increased in 2010 to $411.1 billion. That's a 60% increase since 2002.

Of the 100 companies on the list, 44 are based in the U.S., including Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. The American companies account for more than 60% of arms sales revenue of the 100 manufacturers. 7 of the top 10 are American, one is British, one is Italian and one is a multinational EU conglomerate. The U.S. federal government has contract deals with all seven American companies. These seven are among the top 10 U.S. federal contractors by amount procured, according to the government’s Federal Procurement Data System.

Based on this report, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 companies with the highest revenue from arms sales. These companies alone account for $230 billion — over half of all arms sales that year.

These are the 10 companies profiting most from war:

10. United Technologies (NYSE: UTX)
Arms sales 2010: $11.41 billion
Total sales 2010: $54.33 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 21%
Total profit: $4.71 billion
Total employment: 208,220
Sector: Aircraft, Electronics, Engines

Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies is a multicompany industrial conglomerate with subsidiaries that include elevator company Otis and refrigeration giant Carrier. The company also manufactures components for use in military aircraft and vehicles. One of its subsidiaries, Pratt & Whitney, builds aircraft engines for dozens of different fighter jets. Among the jets equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines are the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the latter of which is being produced by the hundreds for nine different countries. United Technologies is also heavily involved in aircraft manufacturing. It owns Sikorsky, one of the largest helicopter manufacturers in the world. Sikorsky builds the popular UH-60 Black Hawk. Roughly one-fifth of United Technologies’ total revenue came from arms sales in 2010.

9. L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL)
Arms sales 2010: $13.07 billion
Total sales 2010: $15.68 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 83%
Total profit: $0.96 billion
Total employment: 63,000
Sector: Electronics, Services

L-3 Communications is a top contractor in fields such as communications, intelligence and surveillance. According to the company, its customers include nearly every defense, intelligence and security agency in the U.S., as well as allied foreign governments and commercial customers. Among its many products, the company produces the L-3 SmartDeck, a fully integrated cockpit system, and the AVCATT mobile aviation training simulator, designed for the U.S. Army. Although the company’s arms sales have increased steadily for a number of years, their rate of increase slowed significantly between 2009 and 2010. The company’s rank among largest arms producers fell from 2007’s eighth to ninth in 2010.

8. Finmeccanica
Arms sales 2010: $14.41 billion
Total sales 2010: $24.76 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 58%
Total profit: $0.74 billion
Total employment: 75,200
Sector: Aircraft, Artillery, Electronics, Missiles, Military vehicles, Small arms/ammunition

Italian defense contractor Finmeccanica is the largest high-tech industrial group in Italy. Partially owned by the Italian government, the conglomerate has a large array of products in six areas: aeronautics, helicopters, defense systems and electronics, space, transportation and energy. The company has formed dozens of joint ventures in Europe and the rest of the world. Notable Finmeccanica enterprises include helicopter manufacturer Augusta Enterprises, missile manufacturer MBDA and EuroTorp, the world’s leading antisubmarine torpedo manufacturer. In 2007, Finmeccanica was the number nine weapons manufacturer in the world. In 2010, it moved to eighth, with a 46% increase in sales over that time.

7. EADS
Arms sales 2010: $16.36 billion
Total sales 2010: $60.60 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 27%
Total profit: $0.73 billion
Total employment: 121,690
Sector: Aircraft, Electronics, Missiles, Space

European company EADS, short for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V., is the second of three non-U.S. companies on this list. The corporation, which includes major subsidiaries such as Airbus, is a leader in aerospace and defense products. EADS has a 37% share in missile manufacturer MBDA, and is one of the companies responsible for the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet. Only 27% of EADS’s sales are arms sales, which is the second-smallest share among the largest arms-producing companies. The company has a major presence in markets in the Middle East, North America, Europe and more.

6. Raytheon (NYSE: RTN)
Arms sales 2010: $22.98 billion
Total sales 2010: $25.18 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 91%
Total profit: $1.88 billion
Total employment: 72,400
Sector: Electronics, Missiles

Raytheon is a Cambridge, Mass.-based American defense contractor. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of guided missiles and produces such widely used weapons as the AIM-7 Sparrow missile, the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile and the BGM-109 Tomahawk. The company is also responsible for the Air Warfare Simulation program used by the U.S. Air Force. In 2010, the company had nearly $23 billion in arms sales, more than 90% of its total revenue for the year. These sales were up 17% from 2007.

5. General Dynamics (NYSE: GD)
Arms sales 2010: $23.94 billion
Total sales 2010: $32.47 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 74%
Total profit: $2.62 billion
Total employment: 90,000
Sector: Artillery, Electronics, Military vehicles, Small arms/ammunition, Ships

General Dynamics is an American defense company that deals in aerospace, combat systems, information systems and technology, and marine systems. Although the company has been around since 1952, it has enjoyed a resurgence beginning in the 1990s, thanks largely to a number of mergers. Since 1997 General Dynamics says it has acquired more than 50 companies. Over this same period, its revenue increased from $4 billion to more than $32 billion. It also added more than 60,000 employees to its workforce. Currently, 74% of the company’s sales are arms sales. General Dynamics owns Electric Boat and Bath Iron Works, two of the largest naval vessel builders in the world. General Dynamics is notable known for its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, the Seawolf-class submarine, the M1 Abrams tank and the Arleigh-Burke-class destroyer.

4. Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC)
Arms sales 2010: $28.15 billion
Total sales 2010: $34.76 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 81%
Total profit: $2.05 billion
Total employment: 117,100
Sector: Aircraft, Electronics, Missiles, Ships, Space

Northrop Grumman is the fourth-largest weapons contractor in the U.S. The company, which is based in Falls Church, Va., is one of the leaders in aerospace technology and the leading producer of naval vessels in the world. The company manufactures Nimitz-class carriers that are the current flagships of the U.S. Navy. And over the next few years it is also set to build the new, $9.7 billion Gerald R. Ford-class supercarriers. Northrop Grumman also develops radar systems for aircraft and ground defense, sensor systems for a variety of vehicles and several unmanned aircraft and drones. Weapons systems sales accounted for 81% of company revenue in 2010. Arms sales grew by approximately $3.5 billion between 2007 and 2010.

3. Boeing (NYSE: BA)
Arms sales 2010: $31.36 billion
Total sales 2010: $64.31 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 49%
Total profit: $3.31 billion
Total employment: 160,500
Sector: Aircraft, Electronics, Missiles, Space

As recently as 2007, Boeing was the largest arms producer in the world. By 2008, it had fallen behind Lockheed Martin and U.K.-based BAE Systems. The aerospace and defense company remains one of the largest in the world, however. Boeing is the second-largest aircraft producer in the world by deliveries, behind only Airbus. It is also the second-largest U.S. government contractor, procuring just under $19.5 billion in contracts in 2010. Major products produced by the company include the KC-767, an aerial refueling tanker, and the F-15 fighter jet. Boeing made less in arms sales in 2010 than it did in 2009, although arms sales made up a larger amount of total sales — two percentage points, to be exact — in 2010 compared to 2009. Even in 2010, however, only 49% of revenue came from arms sales, which is among the lowest rates among companies on this list.

2. BAE Systems
Arms sales 2010: $32.88 billion
Total sales 2010: $34.61 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 95%
Total profit: $1.67 billion
Total employment: 98,200
Sector: Aircraft, Artillery, Electronics, Missiles, Military vehicles, Small arms/ammunition, Ships

BAE Systems is an aerospace and defense contractor based in the UK. The company has a major U.S. subsidiary, BAE Systems, Inc., which by itself would be the seventh-largest weapons manufacturer in the world. The British company was formed in 1999 through the merger of Marconi Electronics (which was at the time a subsidiary of GE) and British Aerospace. BAE produces weapons systems in nearly every major military category, including aircraft, defense electronics, vehicles, naval vessels and small arms. Among the company’s notable contributions are the M2/M3 Bradley fighting vehicle, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Type 45 destroyer and the Astute-class nuclear submarine. In 2010, 95% of its revenue came from arms sales, $32.88 billion in all.

1. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT)
Arms sales 2010: $35.73 billion
Total sales 2010: $45.80 billion
Arms sales as pct. of total sales: 78%
Total profit: $2.93 billion
Total employment: 132,000
Sector: Aircraft, Electronics, Missiles, Space

Lockheed Martin is the largest arms-producing and military services company in the world, with nearly $3 billion more in arms sales than second place BAE Systems. Although military sales make up the majority of its revenue, it is significantly less than many other major arms-producers, including BAE’s 95% share. In addition to being the world’s largest arms-seller, Lockheed is also the largest federal contractor in the U.S. by a large margin. In 2010, the company’s government contracts totaled nearly $36 billion. Lockheed produces a number of major products, including the Trident missile and the F-16 and F-22 fighter jets. Despite being the largest military service company on this list, Lockheed is only the fourth-largest company by overall sales among the companies featured on this list. In 2007, the Lockheed was the third-largest arms producer.

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Slavery By Consent

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Study Shows Power Elite Really do Control the World

While it is evident that government caters to corporations and lobby groups, and that the average taxpayer is exploited as a result, now, there is a study, based out of ETH-Zurich, Switzerland that proves powerful multi-nationals control everything, including the air we breathe...or try to breathe, considering the corporation's contaminated  contribution. However, it must be remembered that these huge entities allow people with vast concentrations of private, corporate wealth, to operate in secret from the public in an undemocratic and unaccountable fashion.

Anyway, the team conducting the study "present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic "super-entity" that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers".

Using data obtained (circa 2007) from the Orbis database (a global database containing financial information on public and private companies) the team, in what is being heralded as the first of its kind, analyzed data from over 43,000 corporations, looking at both upstream and downstream connections between them all and found that when graphed, the data represented a bowtie of sorts, with the knot, or core representing just 147 entities who control nearly 40 percent of all of monetary value of transnational corporations (TNCs).

In this analysis the focus was on corporations that have ownership in their own assets as well as those of other institutions and who exert influence via ownership in second, third, fourth, etc. tier entities that hold influence over others in the web, as they call it; the interconnecting network of TNCs that together make up the whole of the largest corporations in the world. In analyzing the data they found, and then in building the network maps, the authors of the report sought to uncover the structure and control mechanisms that make up the murky world of corporate finance and ownership.

To zero in on the significant controlling corporations, the team started with a list of 43,060 TNCs taken from a sample of 30 million economic "actors" in the Orbis database. They then applied a recursive algorithm designed to find and point out all of the ownership pathways between them all. The resulting TNC network produced a graph with 600,508 nodes and 1,006,987 ownership connections. The team then graphed the results in several different ways to show the different ways that corporate ownership is held; the main theme in each, showing that just a very few corporations through direct and indirect ownership (via stocks, bonds, etc.) exert tremendous influence over the actions of those corporations, which in turn exert a huge impact on the rest of us.

The authors conclude their report by asking, perhaps rhetorically, what are the implications of having so few exert so much influence, and perhaps more importantly, in an economic sense, what the implications are of such a structure on market competitiveness.

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The Treasonous Billionaires Are the Real Terrorists.

On September 15, 2007, Iraq veteran Mike Prysner (left), after an anti-war march from The White House to The Capitol Building, and ended up as one of over 160 people arrested;  in his case, for crossing U.S. Capitol Police, that were blocking access to The Capitol Building. during a mass "die-in".

On the sixth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, Mike Prysner, gave a powerful speech (video below), revealing who the real terrorists are, at an event sponsored by Iraq Veterans against the War (IVAW) called “Winter Soldier”. 

"And I tried hard to be proud of my service but all I could feel was shame. The racism could not longer mask the reality of the occupation. These were people. These were human beings.

I've since been claimed by guilt anytime I see an elderly man like the one who couldn't walk and we rolled out on a stretcher and told the Iraqi police to take him away. I feel guilt anytime I see a mother with her children like the one who cried hysterically and screamed that we were worst than Saddam as we forced her from her home. I feel guilt anytime I see a young girl, like the one I grabbed by the arm, and dragged into the street.

We are told we are fighting terrorists; the real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this occupation.

Racism within the military has long been an important tool to justify the destruction and occupation of another country. It's long been used to justify the killing, subjugation and torture of another people. Racism is a vital weapon employed by this government. It's a more important weapon than a rifle, a tank, a bomber or a battleship. It's more destructive than an artillery shell or a bunker buster, or a Tomahawk missile. While those weapons are created and owned by this government, they are harmless without people willing to use them.

Those who send us to war do not have to pull a trigger or lob a mortar round. They do not have to fight the war, they merely have to sell the war. They need a public who is willing to send their soldiers into harm's way. They need soldiers who are willing to kill and be killed without question. They can spend millions on a single bomb, but that bomb only becomes a weapon when the ranks in the military are willing to follow orders to use it. They can send every last soldier anywhere on Earth, but there'll only be a war, if soldiers are willing to fight. And the ruling class, the billionaires who profit from human suffering care only about expending their wealth, controlling the world economy. Understand that their power lies only in their ability to convince us that war, oppression and exploitation is in our interest. They understand that their wealth is dependent on their ability to convince the working class to die to control the market of another country. And, convincing us to kill and die is based on their ability to make us think that we are somehow superior.

Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, have nothing to gain from this occupation. The vast majority of people living in the U.S. have nothing to gain from this occupation. In fact, not only do we have nothing to gain, but we suffer more because of it. We lose limbs, endure trauma and give our lives.

Our families have to watch flag draped coffins roll into the earth. Millions in this country without health care, jobs or access to education, just watch as this government squander over $450 million dollars a day on this occupation.

Poor and working people in this country are sent to kill poor and working people in other country to make the rich richer.

Without racism soldiers would realize that they have more in common with the Iraqi people than they do with the billionaires who send us to war.

I threw families onto the street in Iraq only to come home and find families thrown onto the street in this country and this tragic…tragic and unnecessary foreclosure crisis.

We need to wake up and realize that our real enemies are not in some distant land and not people whose names we don't know and cultures we don't understand. The enemy is people we know very well and people we can identify. The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable. The enemy is the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, is the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable, is the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable.  Our enemy is not five thousands miles away, they are right here at home. If we organize and fight with our sisters and brothers we can stop this war, we can stop this government and we can create a better world. -- Mike Prysner

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy... The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger real or imagined from abroad..." - James Madison - Edité par Phaedrus

Mike Prysner's testimony:





Los Angeles anti-war demonstration, 8th anniversary of Iraq invasion:

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White House and Big Corporations Want to Destroy the Internet as We Know It.

Until very recently, most of us could only passively consume our media. We could listen. We could watch. But we couldn’t touch, enter into, or even respond to the media. The Internet has changed all of that, leveling the playing field in such a way that anyone with a connection can participate. The powers that be are not happy.

The other day, Sen. Al Franken claimed that big corporations are "hoping to destroy" the Internet, by destroying "the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom." He then claimed, "Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time."

However, it appears the Obama administration wants to crackdown on the Internet, and eliminate this new emergent participatory media production that depends on "fair use", by policing the Internet, making copyright infringement a felony.  He wants to tighten many forms of intellectual property law, increase existing criminal penalties, and expand wiretap laws to include copyright and trademark infringement, ultimately giving even more authority to Homeland Security.   He has proposed sweeping revisions to U.S. copyright law, including making "illegal streaming" of audio or video a federal felony and allowing FBI agents to wiretap suspects.

Turning to the specific recommendations, the Administration recommends increasing the statutory maxima for the following offenses:

1. Increase the statutory maximum for economic espionage (18 U.S.C. § 1831) from 15 years in prison to at least 20 years in prison.

2. Increase the statutory maxima for drug offenses under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), particularly for counterfeit drug offenses.

The Administration recommends that Congress: (1)  direct the U.S. Sentencing Commission to increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for intellectual property offenses; (2) require the U.S. Sentencing Commission to consider five specific categories of changes to the Guidelines; and (3) require the U.S. Sentencing Commission to act within 180 days of such legislation being adopted (including issuing a report explaining why it has not adopted any of the specific recommendations). The five categories of specific recommendations for the U.S. Sentencing Commission are:

1. Increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for the theft of trade secrets and economic espionage,
including trade secrets transferred or attempted to be transferred outside of the U.S.

2. Increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for trademark and copyright offenses when infringing products are knowingly sold for use in national defense, national security, critical infrastructure, or by law enforcement.

3. Increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for intellectual property offenses committed by organized criminal enterprises/gangs;

4. Increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for intellectual property offenses that risk death or serious bodily injury and for those offenses involving counterfeit drugs (even when those offenses do not present that risk); and

5. Increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for repeat intellectual property offenders.

The Administration recommends three legislative changes to give enforcement agencies the tools they need to combat infringement:

1. Clarify that, in appropriate circumstances, infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony;

2. Authorize DHS, and its component U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to share pre-seizure information about, and samples of, products and devices with rightholders to help DHS to determine whether the products are infringing or the devices are circumvention devices; and

3. Give law enforcement authority to seek a wiretap for criminal copyright and trademark offenses.

The Administration recommends two legislative changes to allow DHS to share information about enforcement activities with rightholders:

1. Give DHS authority to notify rightholders that infringing goods have been excluded or seized pursuant to a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) order; and

2. Give DHS authority to share information about, and samples of, circumvention devices with rightholders post-seizure.

The Administration recommends six legislative changes to improve U.S. enforcement efforts involving pharmaceuticals, including counterfeit drugs:

1. Require importers and manufacturers to notify the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other relevant agencies when they discover counterfeit drugs or medical devices, including the known potential health risks associated with those products;

2. Extend the Ryan Haight Act’s definition of “valid prescription” (and its telemedicine exemption) to the FFDCA to drugs that do not contain controlled substances;

3. Adopt a track-and-trace system for pharmaceuticals and related products;

4. Provide for civil and criminal forfeiture under the FFDCA, particularly for counterfeit drug offenses;

5. As noted above, increase the statutory maxima for drug offenses under the FFDCA, particularly for counterfeit drug offenses; and

6. As noted above, recommend that the U.S. Sentencing Commission increase the U.S. Sentencing Guideline range for intellectual property offenses that risk death and serious bodily injury, and for those offenses involving counterfeit drugs (even when those offenses do not present that risk).

What's more is that with all of the important unresolved issues, not to mention, the banksters and  major Wall Street criminals basking in their billions and still in charge, you have to wonder why the Obama administration chooses to focus, in comparison, on what seems like such a trivial matter.  Well, one can only conclude that it's much more than that. It's an underhanded power grab, to control the distribution of information, communication, ultimately providing Big Brother with the power to wiretap anyone for any reason.

It all boils down to who benefits and who pays.   As always, it's the elite who benefit the most - the prison industrial complex, big corporations, Hollywood, the banksters - while we, the taxpayers, continue to pay through the nose. As someone once said, "who gets prosecuted for what has always been and always will be political and decided by those with wealth and power".

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The Hidden Wealth of U.S. Incorporated.

In the following documentary, Clint Richardson begins by taking on  former United States Comptroller General, David M. Walker, regarding the trillions of dollars not reported on the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) that all governments (corporations) must file under federal law. From there, he proves that the United States is indeed a corporation, as did the other documentary, Hijacking Humanity, that I posted in January. 



In a nutshell, the United States is comprised of over 185,000 incorporated state, county, city, town, municipality, district, councils, school district, pension fund, enterprise operation, and countless other private and for-profit corporations (at least that explains why we the people serve the government, rather than what we've been led to believe: the government serves us). Moreover, the hidden wealth and investment totals well over 100 trillion dollars.

Oh, and you know those 2-letter abbreviations that all 50 states have been assigned? They are federal district locator codes.

"A gang is a group of men under the command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention. If this villainy wins so many recruits from the ranks of the demoralized that it acquires territory, establishes a base, captures cities and subdues peoples, it then openly arrogates to itself the title of kingdom, which is conferred on it in the eyes of the world, not by the renunciation of aggression, but by the attainment of impunity" - St. Augustine

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Is Blue Gold the New Black Gold?

Flow the film:



"Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed; A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin at some food; And up through the ground came a bubblin crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea..."  Believe it or not, a case could be made the story of the Beverly Hillbillies should be each and every one of our stories, as a conservative estimate of our oil wealth states that every man, woman, and child alive in all 50 United States of America is worth a minimum of $5 million!

However, oil, even though it is a natural resource, is not considered something essential for life; therefore, in a capitalist economy, it's first come, first serve. And those few first-comers have profited so immensely that they gained the ability to deceive and control the rest of us enough to expand that wealth into a powerful cartel.

Which leads us to H₂O. Water, that is, blue gold, nexus sea... Okay, I tried. Anyway, aside from the often discussed "contamination" of our water supply, there is another issue surrounding our water, even more important,  and that is the individuals, corporations and governments preparing to take over the supply and delivery of our water through privatization and theft. And unlike oil, water is essential to human life, right after the air we breathe.

Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry already. Keep in mind that only 2% of the world’s water is fresh, and that 20% of the world’s population does not have access...that’s 1.2 billion people.

The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons that is spread over 94,000 square miles...that's enough to cover the US in 10 feet of water. Almost 20% of the world’s fresh water supply is held in the Great Lakes.

In 1998, a company received a permit that allowed it to pump water from Lake Superior, and ship 50 freighters of the pumped water to Asia. Politicians found out and promised to craft legislation that would prevent that from ever happening again. What they didn’t say was that they were going to insert convenient loopholes, one of which would allow water shipped to foreign lands if it was contained in bottles.

Michigan does not even charge royalties for its water. Former Gov. John Engler gave the global corporation, Nestle, aka, Perrier millions of dollars in tax-breaks, only charging them $100 per year to drill, pump and pipe hundreds of gallons of water every minute.

Consider the strategic purchase of the the Bush family. In 2006, W, under his daughter Jenna's name bought 100,000 acres in Paraguay which is sitting on top of the Guarani aquifer, the world’s largest aquifer .

Then there is T. Boone Pickens, who bought up huge amounts of land in TX panhandle, that's over one of the largest aquifers in the US, the Ogallala aquifer. Under TX law, any water you can access under your property is yours, for the selling. Only there was one problem. Pickens does not own the Ogallala aquifer or the land between his property and Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio, his targeted areas to play water god. But that's not enough to stop Pickens. He changed TX water laws by spending millions on lobbyists and politicians to transform his property, Mesa Vista, all 68,000 acres, into a water district. Now, his property is like a town with special priviliges, such as eminent domain. He can buy up people’s land in order to lay his pipeline whether the owner wants to sell or not.

So, yes, there is an emerging water cartel including industry giants such as Suez and Vivendi of France, the German-British conglomerate RWE-Thames, and more recently, the Carlyle Group, a huge global investment firm with $97.7 billion in assets, who in the process of buying Mountain Water Co.

Links:

A bid by the Shell Exploration and Production Co. for a 15 billion- gallon water right

Charity Water

Food and Water Watch

The Natural Resources Defense Council

Americans alone spend $16 million on bottled water.
Consumers of bottled water pay, on average, $12/gallon. That's 4,000 times as much as conventional tap water. And we complain about the price of gasoline?

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Tea Party: Secretly Guided to Serve Corporate Elites.

The documentary film (Astro)Turf Wars: How Corporate America is Faking a Grassroots Revolution exposes The Tea Party - fake grassroots activism organized from the top down - and other corporate deception for what it is.

In Summer 2009, something stirred in America. After Barack Obama and a Democratic congress swept to power promising a new era of hope and change, out of nowhere a citizens protest movement emerged that threatened to derail their agenda. Was this uprising the epitome of grassroots democracy? Or was it, as some said, an example of ‘astroturfing’? That is, the creation of fake grassroots (ie. Astroturf: get it?) groups, designed to put corporate messages in the mouths of seemingly independent citizens.

Fascinated by this concept of astroturfing and curious to find out if these accusations were true, Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham hopped on a plane to investigate. Going undercover as a curious onlooker, his month-long journey took him over 5000 miles, 6 states and right into the heart of the ‘American Dream’. His three areas of investigation were:

(Astro) Turf Wars trailer from (astro)turf wars on Vimeo.

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Corporate Death Penalty

After all corporations are entitled to all the rights of a person. Why shouldn't they be subject to the death penalty. Especially now that the Supreme Court decision (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) further did away with distinctions between 'corporate rights' and 'individual rights'.

Thom Hartmann's article Halliburton & BP -- Is it time for the Corporate Death Penalty?:

"President Barack Obama pretty much stated the obvious when he called the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico "a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." The oil well pouring a river of crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have the normal type of remote-control shut-off switch used in Norway and the UK as last-resort protection against underwater spills, largely because the oil companies themselves are responsible for "voluntary" compliance with safety and environmental standards.

It was in 1994, two years into the Clinton administration, when this practice of putting the fox in charge of the henhouse was legalized, about the same time George W. Bush was doing the same thing in Texas, a program pushed hard in the previous administration by Dan Quayle's so-called "competitiveness council" charged with deregulating industry. The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. Voluntary safety for oil wells, but you and I can get stopped by the police if we don't fasten our safety belts? Eleven people have died because Halliburton and BP wanted to save money.

In the first hundred years of this republic it was commonplace for rogue corporations to get the corporate death penalty -- being shut down, dissolved, and having their assets sold off. Through the 19th century, it averaged around 2000 companies a year that got the axe. If the Supreme Court now says that corporations are people -- and they did -- then these corporations should be eligible for the corporate death penalty. Time to break up and sell off the pieces of Haliburton and British Petroleum."

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Banksters Will Not Reveal Recipients of $2 Trillion.

Even after the "U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled March 19 that the central bank must release the documents. A three-judge panel of the appellate court rejected the Fed’s argument that disclosure would stigmatize borrowers and discourage banks from seeking emergency help."

Instead, all the biggest U.S. commercial banks and their lobbyists - uniting in an effort to oppose letting we, the public know which banks received how much of 2008's $2-trillion federal bailout for banks - are taking their case to the Supreme Court. That's right. The same court that always sides with Big Money against the interests of the American people. The same court that upheld "corporate personhood" in allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts to buy our elections.

And if that's not bad enough, Comcast partnered with teabaggers to bring new right-wing broadcast network online as they fight a battle to acquire NBC and related assets (including MSNBC) without being deemed a monopoly. Fox News on steroids, perhaps?

Here's a look at their joint venture: RightNetwork

How does this tie into the Supreme Court's decision favoring "corporate personhood" and the decision it will make in keeping us from seeing where "our" $2 trillion went?

Well, Congress already enabled five corporations to control 80% of U.S. media. Considering that the ruling elite depend on the corporate media to maintain its ability to control our minds, and considering the brain-washing that is already going on, do we really need another right-wing network like this?

The case is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 09-04083, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York).

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Corporations Conveniently Cloak the Psychopaths Among Us

Yet, the Supreme Court is endowing these giant psychopathic super powers with even more super powers, without the threat of severe punishment that we mere humans are subject.

Why? Well, it all started with the legal doctrine of "corporate personhood", established in the late 1800s, that makes the claim corporations are persons or human beings, therefore they are intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for persons or human beings. Fast forward one-hundred years and the powers that be have decided it's in we, the human beings, best interest if we the human beings serve these giant beasts that house the psychopaths residing within.

But what makes powerful wealthy people believe that corporations are persons? From what I remember from economics 101, a corporation is an artificial legal and social structure where human beings gather for economic reasons. Yes, it (the corporation) is very good at raising capital, creating wealth, providing a return for its shareholders, etc. However, it cannot serve on a jury, cannot serve time, cannot serve our country, nor can it serve breakfast. It can "live" forever...can "live" in multiple nations at once...can "live" with or without oxygen, food, sex, and all the other things we humans require. The bottom line is, that it is an it...that's it.

The good thing. Obama's angry. Maybe that means he's not going to take it anymore.

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Dead Children: The Consequences of Corporate and Wall Street Greed

Currently, food aid is now at its lowest in 20 years. Tens of millions of the world's poor will starve as rich nations cut or cancel food aid funding in the next few weeks.

Big business and the enormous influence of corporate lobbyists not only undermines democracy, its overwhelming authority often results in dead children (must read) around the globe.

Why? U.S. food aid policy lines the pockets of corporate America - the agricultural and the shipping industry - instead of feeding the starving populations they are supposed to serve.

Current policy requires that at least 75% of food aid has to be grown and packaged in the U.S., and then transported using U.S. vessels. Most countries donate cash as food aid as it offers greater flexibility and enables the recipient populations to get more for their money.

While it's no secret that our economic system is based on profit motive, even when it comes to basic necessities, it's unsettling, to say the least, that profit motivation is the driving force behind programs created to help starving people around the world.

"We prefer cash donations as they offer us greater flexibility -- with cash donations we can purchase locally, enjoy greater flexibility and also speed things up. We can get more for the money if we have cash. We can do the job faster as cash lets us buy the right food we need at the right time." - Richard Lee, a spokesman for the United Nation's World Food Programme.

In 2007, humanitarian and food advocacy organizations called on Congress to rewrite food aid policy. Even George W. Bush proposed that 25% of the food aid be cash, available to buy crops locally for the people who need it. Congress failed to act, fully embodying MLK's description of the kind of men our economic system, that - as he says, "permits necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few" - produces: "...small hearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity."

Sharp increases in global food prices and shipping costs, doubling over the last two years, the impact on food aid groups has been enormous.

"U.S. farm and shipping lobbyists have stifled efforts to simplify aid deliveries, leaving Africans to starve when they might have been saved." -- Andrew Natsios, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington who led USAID, the Agency for International Development, from 2001 to 2006.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports the minimum for avoiding malnourishment is 1,800 calories per day. The food supply that finally arrived "was enough to supply about 1,300 calories a day for a month." To put it in perspective, the average American consumes more than 3,700.

Many fear a return to the conditions of 1984 and 1985, when famines in Ethiopia killed more than 1 million people. During that time, according to Haylar Ayako, the Ethiopian farmer, who recently lost seven grandchildren, “Some people survived eating the wastes of their cattle, some even the skins of their cattle.”

Well, at least, as a Christian country, we live up to Christian principles, such as taking from the poverty-stricken to provide for the greedy, wealthy evil-doers. That is what Jesus preached, right?

The World Food Programme feeds nearly 100 million people a year.

There is some hope: Plumpy'nut . A French scientist trying to fight malnutrition discovered the answer at his own breakfast table.

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