USS Enterprise just days away from its final place of anchor

That final place of anchor is...the Arabian Sea, where the Vinson and Lincoln are already anchored.

I'm sure it's perfectly normal to have 3 aircraft carriers operating in the same sea at the same time.

Real money for an imaginary war

Here's a pretty good read on the current police state.

So much money has gone into armoring and arming local law-enforcement since 9/11 that the federal government could have rebuilt post-Katrina New Orleans five times over and had enough money left in the kitty to provide job training and housing for every one of the record 41,000-plus homeless people in New York City. It could have added in the growing population of 15,000 homeless in Philadelphia, my hometown, and still have had money to spare. Add disintegrating Detroit, Newark, and Camden to the list. Throw in some crumbling bridges and roads, too.
-Truth Out

South China Sea tensions escalating

The Philippines has invited foreign investors to explore 15 petroleum blocks in the disputed South China/Western Phlippine Sea. 38 companies have already lined up to place bids on contracts.
Needless to say, Beijing isn't happy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday that "it is illegal for any country, government or company, without the Chinese government's permission, to develop oil and natural gas in waters under Chinese jurisdiction," China Daily reports.

But the Philippines maintains that all of the 15 areas are within Philippine territory.
-United Press International

Two of the petroleum blocks to be exploited are near Reed Bank, where Chinese warships threatened to ram a Philippine survey vessel last year, setting off the current round of tension in the resource-rich region.

Occupy Oakland Lives!

Wow, I don't really know where to begin.
This was a crazy fuckin week.
On Sunday, my wife performed her music at the Occupy Oakland Children's Village, and my son decided to take home a piece of lego home with him. When I saw it, I said that I'd have to return it to the camp on Monday.
Unfortunately, I was feeling sick on Monday, and worked from home. By the time I woke up on Tuesday morning, it was already too late to return the piece of lego.
The camp had been destroyed.
I went downtown and saw the damage.
It was horrible.
Riot cops surrounded Oscar Grant Plaza, which looked like a tornado had ripped through it. Banners had been torn down, tents had been trampled, and almost everything was covered in tear gas residue. It was a truly depressing site.
I thought to myself that this was the saddest day in American history.
Somehow, I went to work for a couple of hours, but came back to 14th and Broadway at midday. The scene was even more tense than it had been in the morning. Many campers who hadn't been arrested were there, as were many others who disapproved of the cops' presence.
After work, I joined the march leaving the main library on its way downtown.
The scene when the march first squared off against the police line at 14th & Broadway and chanted "Oscar Grant! Oscar Grant!" can only be described as amazing.
Then later in the night, this happened.

The cops shot some guy in the face with a tear gas cannister, and then when people came to help him, another cop threw a grenade at them.
That pretty much guaranteed that that was the saddest day in American history. Not just because of Scott Olsen, but because of Occupy Oakland. Scott was the cherry bomb on top.
Occupy Oakland, just like its hometown, is like no other in the world.
Diverse.
Conscious.
Organized.
Wired and amplified even.
It provided services for the city's neediest residents that the city was unable/unwilling to provide. Jobs, food, shelter, heath care, community, and electricity. More importantly, it provided meaning for the city's neediest.
It had to be destroyed, because it represented something completely new and radically different.
It represented the future.
Everyone in, no one left out.
This is what democracy looks like.

Mayor Jean Quan really did have a grass roots background, and she really did betray it. She let someone else do her job for her. She is an Oaklander who kept it real, and it was a horrible mistake, but she has a chance to make things right and make history in the process. We'll see where she goes from here.
The day after her police force shot and teargassed and grenaded a thousand of her constituents, three thousand showed up the next night to reclaim Oscar Grant Plaza. There were no cops, and the fence surrounding the grassy area was easily dismantled and made into geometric sculptures. A general strike was agreed upon for November 2. Mayor Quan waited to speak, but was booed back into the confines of the building.
The Occupation continued.

Does this look "peaceful"?

Pic above from http://twitpic.com/75mjjh/full

Early this morning, sometime around 5am, the rumored and expected police raid came in swiftly and violently. As protestors chanted "You are the 99%!" to the police, their cries were silenced with tear gas, flash bang grenades, batons, rubber bullets, several hundred cops in riot gear and gas masks....the cops trashed the camp and aggressively arrested 75 some people, perhaps more.
The camp now looks like a tornado swept through it....i.e. it now looks how the mainstream media has been presenting it all along.
Protestors who are returning to the camp to get their belongings are allegedly being arrested.
This is one of the saddest days in American history.

More pics here.


Here are two nice before-and-after shots of the camp.

World Revolution Update

World Revolution Update

"They are all over the place"

This may be a little nerdy, but if you sit through it, you'll learn that not only did HAARP apparently play a role in the magma pile spewing out radioactivity in Fukushima, but there are also apparently several HAARPs scattered throughout the world.

Dormant volcanoes coming back to life?

So I've been following this guy DutchSinse for a coupla months now (ever since the birth certificate fiasco), and he seems to be onto something pretty huge right now.
On Friday, he posted this video, which shows a major uptick in volcanic activity in California and Nevada.

On Sunday, he discovered similar activity (unexplained plumes coming out of formerly inactive volcanoes) in Oregon as well.
He claimed over the weekend that he was receiving photographic evidence of geothermal activity at some of these sites, but was waiting for video confirmation of an actual plume.
Yesterday, he posted this video evidence of a volcanic plume in Baja California del Sur.

Needless to say, coupled with a coinciding increase in earthquake activity throughout the globe, this situation deserves monitoring.

NMA budget deal impasse cartoon

Obama orders 20,000 troops to patrol US

The police are already out of control.
Will the police sit back and take orders from the military, or will they feel any loyalty to their communities?
Unfortunately, in the ghetto, the cops aren't from the community.
This news is quite unnerving, although not exactly unexpected.

Monday's community press conference in the Bayview

Since following the twists and turns of the ever-changing official version of the story being spewed out by the police and their lapdogs in the corporate media is crazy-making, here's a video of Monday's community press conference in the Bayview. You'll notice that even though people are really passionate about the subject and frustrated with the lack of truth coming out from the police department, listening to them actually makes you feel like the world makes sense.

SF Police Chief booed out of Bayview

SF Police Chief Greg Suhr turned tail and ran while being booed out of a community gathering organized in the Bayview neighborhood to address concerns over the police murder of 19 year-old Kenneth Harding (who was stopped by police as he exited a MUNI train without proof of fare on Saturday afternoon). Unlike Harding, Suhr was not shot in the back as he fled.
An hour and a half into the meeting at the Bayview Opera House, Suhr, who has only been on the job for three months, was "evacuated" by at least 20 officers and his command staff. There was an estimated 300 people in attendance.

“That’s right, walk away,” screamed one man, as the crowd surged around the officers. “You walking out ‘cause you know you not ready to deal with the reality,” a woman shouted into the microphone.

The anger in the predominantly black crowd revealed divisions within the community, with many younger community activists protesting the “establishment” approach of the older religious leaders. They claimed the leaders worked too much with police.
-Bay Citizen

It was the elders whom had organized the community gathering, largely to let the police explain themselves/obfuscate/slander the victim.
Harding ran away from the officers who had detained him, and according to several eyewitnesses, he was doing so at full speed without looking back at the officers. He was clearly running for his life. Media reports have called him a parolee, and have accused him of being linked to a recent violent crime in the Seattle area.
Multiple cell phone videos captured the immediate aftermath of the police shooting on Saturday, and Harding can be seen laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, hopelessly fighting for his life as multiple officers stand over him with their guns pointed at him. An angry crowd forms, and the officers turn their attention to crowd control rather than providing assistance to the dying victim.

One particular video was used by police as "evidence" that a witness picked up an alleged gun that Harding allegedly fired at the officers during the chase. However, the witness in question clearly points to a flat rectangular object on the ground and can clearly be heard asking, "Is that your phone?" The man picks up the phone and disappears off screen.
Earlier in the video, another shiny object had come into view for less than a second, and police allege that the shiny object is Harding's gun. However, the alleged gun is several yards beyond where Harding lay dying, in the direction that he had been running (i.e. he would have had to have thrown, not dropped, the gun forward before he was shot, which, admittedly, is not exactly implausible). The shiny object is also several feet away from the cell phone that is picked up by the witness in the video. The witness does not look in the direction of, point to, or in any other way signal that he has noticed a gun lying on the sidewalk several feet away. Also, the person shooting the video does not notice the alleged gun, even though he/she appears to walk right next to it.
That didn't stop the police from lying and saying, through their media accomplices, that a video had been posted on youtube which showed a witness picking up Harding's gun. This was their excuse for not being able to find the gun for 6 hours, despite combing the entire area, including nearby rooftops, for the alleged weapon.

On Tuesday, 3 days after the shooting (and just before a protest that resulted in 43 arrests), the SFPD announced that they had found gunshot residue on Harding's right hand. The funny thing is, they still haven't announced that they have found any slugs or shell casings at the scene, and they haven't found Harding's fingerprints on the alleged gun. All they have is a video of a man picking up a cell phone off the ground, a dead man's police record, and alleged evidence of "gunshot residue" on the victim's hand (which is the easiest evidence to fake, since the police had three days to put that residue there after the fact - not to mention the fact that the presence of residue on someone's hand does not prove when or where a gun may have been fired by that hand).

In the end, whether or not Harding was an innocent saint, a pimp, a parolee, or even a man who shot at police while running away from them at full speed, he was clearly not a threat to the two police officers who shot at him, resulting in his death. It could easily be argued that shooting at a running suspect on a busy street in broad daylight was the most dangerous thing that happened that afternoon, and that type of police work should not be tolerated in any community.
Further, not possessing a $2 transit pass should not cost any human being their life, no matter what they may or may not have done in the past.

California prison hunger strike starting 3rd week

To protest inhumane conditions, prisoners in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) began a huger strike on July 1. Prisoners in the SHUs at Corcoran and Folsom joined them. Now, not only are pisoners throughout the state prison system hunger striking in solidarity, but family and friends of prisoners are as well.

“The prisoners are progressing rapidly to the organ damaging consequences of dehydration. They are not drinking water and have decompensated rapidly. A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for three days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated.”

A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up.
SHU prisoners at Pelican Bay have said they are willing to risk their lives and will continue to strike until their demands are met.
-SF Bay View

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) finally responded to pressure from strikers and outside supporters, and on Thursday began initial negotiations with the Pelican Bay SHU strike leaders and an outside mediation team approved of by the prisoners.
A peaceful general strike is now being called for in all California prisons.

Click here for more info about the strike and to take action.

Update from the re-birthplace of democracy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Flyover footage of flooded Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant

It's an indefensible industry. The situation is profit vs. public safety. The latter stands no chance over the long term.
-CounterPunch

A floodwall at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant has collapsed under the pressure of the rising waters of the Missouri river.

The 2,000-foot berm collapsed about 1:25 a.m. Sunday due to “onsite activities,” OPPD officials said. The Aqua Dam provided supplemental flood protection and was not required under NRC regulations.

“We put up the aqua-berm as additional protection,” said OPPD spokesman Mike Jones. “(The plant) is in the same situation it would have been in if the berm had not been added. We're still within NRC regulations.”
-Omaha World-Herald

That's the official story.
However, coming the heels of the less-than-acceptable results of a recent investigation into nuclear power plant safety in the US, a de facto mainstream media blackout surrounding the situation at Fort Calhoun, which is only about 19 miles north of Omaha, is to be regarded with the utmost interest and skepticism.
Obviously, people were concerned enough about the flooding that they filled up a 2,000 foot aqua berm...and now that berm has failed.
A second Nulcear Plant in Nebraska that sits on higher ground is also allegedly fine.

Spratly Islands row heating up

"We are determined and committed to supporting the defense of the Philippines."
-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

As tensions in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea have risen dramatically over the past few weeks, the US has dangled some shiny new (used) baubles to reassert its commitment to its puppet regime in Manila.
This past week, in response to repeated Chinese incursions into waters claimed by China, Vietnam, the Pilippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia, Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario was summoned by his real handlers to come begging in Washington for new lease agreements on equipment to upgrade the Philippine military's largely outdated fleet of post-war hand-me-downs from its neo-colonial patron.

Del Rosario, with Mrs Clinton at his side, said: "While we are a small country, we are prepared to do what is necessary to stand up to any aggressive action in our backyard."

The Philippines has announced the deployment in disputed waters of its navy flagship, the Rajah Humabon. One of the world's oldest warships, the Rajah Humabon was a former US Navy frigate that served during World War II.

The Philippines has historically bought second-hand hardware, but del Rosario said that President Benigno Aquino has allocated 11 billion pesos (£157 million) to upgrade the navy.

Shortly ahead of his talks with Mrs Clinton, Mr del Rosario said that the Philippines was asking the United States for "an operational lease so that we can look at fairly new equipment and be able to get our hands on that quickly."

"We need to have the resources to be able to stand and defend ourselves and, I think, to the extent that we can do that, we become a stronger ally for you," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
-The Telegraph

The Philippines claims that over the past four months, there have been nine intrusions by Chinese warships in its territorial waters off Palawan.
Not only has the US puppet regime sent a WWII-era bucket to the area, but the two imperial bedfellows have also scheduled 11 days worth of naval excercises in the disputed waters as well. The excercises, dubbed Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT), are scheduled to begin this coming week.

Lieutenant Noel Cadigal of the Philippine navy said two U.S. guided missile destroyers and a salvage ship would join four Philippine gunboats for gunnery, patrol and interdiction drills off the southern tip of Palawan island.

"We will also hold anti-piracy and anti-smuggling exercises and test the interoperability and readiness of the two navies in responding to various scenarios, such as security, disaster and humanitarian assistance," Cadigal said.
-News Daily

Sounds like the US Navy is going to train the Philippine Navy on how to ride shotgun along with US missile frigates as the world's largest exporter of democracy asserts itself into some neighborly drama between other, allegedly-sovereign nations.

Iraq reconstruction theft may actually be $18 billion

So about that $6.6 billion "largest theft in US history," apparently it was actually more like $18.7 billion. That's almost ALL of the shrinkwrapped bricks of greenbacks that the Bush administration sent over to Iraq to reconstruct a compliant puppet regime in that country. A 2004 agreement established that the US would be responsible for safeguarding the $20 billion in cash that was allegedly sent over. Not surprisingly, almost all of it has disappeared without a trace. US officials have allegedly audited the money 3 times, but still have no clue where it is.

The cash came from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, and was allegedly a combination of Iraqi oil revenue, surplus from the UN's oil for food programme, and sales of Iraqi assets.

The New York Fed is refusing to tell investigators how many billions of dollars it shipped to Iraq during the early days of the US invasion there, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction told CNBC Tuesday.
The Fed's lack of disclosure is making it difficult for the inspector general to follow the paper trail of billions of dollars that went missing in the chaotic rush to finance the Iraq occupation, and to determine how much of that money was stolen.
-CNBC

The Fed is claiming that the money belonged to the Iraqi people, and therefore, they aren't allowed to let anyone else know how much money actually went over to Iraq for reconstruction. However, since the Iraqi people never got the money, and they're wondering where the hell it went, it's a little hard to believe that the Fed can't get authorization from them to disclose how much of their money it allegedly shipped to them.
Clearly, the Fed just doesn't want anyone to know how much money was sent over, because then we'd know how much of it was stolen.

Banksta math versus correct math

"This is what a true sustainable economy should be."

Greece is lowest...and US is worse

Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece's credit rating by three notches today, making it the world's lowest rated country. They're apparently bullish on a Greek default.

A restructuring of Greece's debt — either with a bond swap or by extending maturities on existing bonds — looks increasingly likely to be imposed by European policymakers as a means of sharing the burden of Greece's crisis with the private sector, S&P said in a statement.

"In our view, any such transactions would likely be on terms less favorable than the debt being refinanced, which we, in turn, would view as a de facto default according to Standard & Poor's published criteria," the agency said.
-CNBC

On Wednesday, there will be a general strike, and the general assembly will vote on the "mid-term" agreement with the Troika. And the protestors, some of whom have been camped out in Syntagma square for three weeks now, are threatening to blockade the parliament if they vote away Greece's future to the bankstas. Not surprisingly, Greek officials are cleaning out the underground tunnel from the Greek parliament to Lykavitos and the sea port of Piraeus.

Seriously.
Greek politicans are actually preparing to have to scurry away from an unpopular vote through a tunnel, fearing for their lives.
The Greeks have an excellent opportunity to become the re-birthplace of democracy.
How cool is that?

Meanwhile, over in the #1 exporter of democracy, PIMCO founder and co-CIO, Bill Gross, told CNBC that the United States is actually worse off than Greece.

Much of the public focus is on the nation's public debt, which is $14.3 trillion. But that doesn't include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes close to $50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly $100 trillion," that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won't find a solution overnight.
-CNBC

(sigh)

Which begs the question: What will it take to get the American people to surround congressional hill?