A Synopsis Of This Morning's News... H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files.
[After the commentary the Roy Zimmerman and the Foremen want to remind you of what Christmas is REALLY about. Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG Radio Freedom California Earth.] «o»The hot potato just emerged from the campfire - In a one minute vote the senate sent the two month tax deduction, unemployment benefit, Medicare bill, back to the house. The house will come back into session for a similarly short time to pass it in a no objection possible vote as well if House Speaker Boerner can get his caucus in line. Details.
«o»The Justice Department has moved on Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and told ninety two of his officers they are fired. What's left of the department can no longer enforce US immigration policy. This comes in the wake of a DOJ report that showed three times the harassment of brown skinned people compared to the 'white folk'. Did I mention the good sheriff also bragged about feeding his inmates on ten cents a day each? More.
«o»Twenty thousand nurses went on strike for one day in San Francisco yesterday along with two thousand more in Los Angeles and smaller strikes elsewhere in the state. Their only demand... No... Not pay or bennies... Staffing! MORE NURSES ON THE FLOOR! As of today the returning nurses have been locked out. That means EVEN LESS NURSES ON THE FLOOR today, and extended Christmas holiday for the returning strikers.
«o»The situation in Egypt is deteriorating while today's protests are dedicated to Egyptian women protesters who have been abused and sometimes raped by military and other government agents.
«o»Even as an Arab League fact-finding team comes to town there have been two car bombings outside military and intelligence headquarters in Damascus Syria leaving fourteen dead and twenty five or so wounded.
In OTHER News:
It didn't go as intended... IF there ever was the intention of bringing peace and stability to Iraq at all.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ — On almost every corner in Iraq's capital city, carolers are singing, trees are being trimmed, and shoppers are rushing home with their packages—all under the watchful eye of U.S. troops dedicated to bringing the magic of Christmas to Iraq by force.
[Image: U.S. soldiers instruct an Iraqi to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.]
"It's important that life in liberated Iraq get back to normal as soon as possible," said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz at a press conference Monday. "That's why we're making sure that Iraqis have the best Christmas ever—something they certainly wouldn't have had under Saddam Hussein's regime."
To that end, 25,000 troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and 82nd Airborne Division have been deployed.
Their missions include the distribution of cookies and eggnog at major Iraqi city centers, the conscription of bell-ringers from among the Iraqi citizenry, and the enforcement of a new policy in which every man, woman, and child in Baghdad pays at least one visit to 'Twas The Night... On Ice. [Satire... At the Onion]
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
December 22 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: B of A's Countrywide Mortgage Scandal - B of A Bought The Company After The Fact... So Where ARE The Perps Now?
A Synopsis Of This Morning's News... H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files.
[After the commentary, former local street musician made good, Bob Brozman exhorts us to "Follow The Money", Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG Radio Freedom California Earth.] «o»The Chinese have been hacking the US Chamber of Commerce, a right wing bastion of US labor movement and union suppression along with being the lobby for offshore slave labor operations in Saipan and other NOT US territories. They were hacked by an ethnic Chinese member of the Chamber.
«o»The withholding tax relief two month extension (along with unemployment benefits extensions for hundreds of thousands of American citizens) is still hanging fire with the Republicans now saying THEY will offer a one year extension proposal... Something they'd previously rejected. Expect a coinciding demand that matching budget cuts to match that tax relief be included.
About that unemployment...
You're going to read a lot of positive nonsense news such as:
Unemployment applications lowest since April '08
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week to its lowest level since April 2008, extending a downward trend that shows the job market strengthening. [More]
And:
Unemployment fell in 43 states in November
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment rates fell in 43 states in November, the most number of states to report such declines in eight years. The falling state rates reflect the brightening jobs picture nationally [More]
But all this blather really indicates is most people who have been receiving unemployment benefits are simply no longer eligible, and have fallen entirely off the statistical map.
«o»Poland is about to pull it's troops out of Afghanistan, at least out of the hot zones, after losing twenty four of it's soldiers in a recent attack.
«o»Bank of America's Countrywide mortgage division has been fined $335 million dollars for approximately 200,000 fraudulent loans... enough to pay about $2,000 per former homeowner for their reverse-redlined mortgages... They charged more for mortgages to people of color along with higher fees and apparently knew those loans would fail leading to the company's recovery of the property for another resale, perhaps to another person who wouldn't be able to afford the loan.
What does "Redlining" mean? See "A Southern City With Northern Problems"... Hunter S. Thompson for The Reporter, vol. 29, December 19, 1963. This is the article Thompson collected information for while at the Kentucky Derby... about the Redlining of Louisville Kentucky. It's one of the best sociological and economic accountings of how Racism survived the civil rights movement and, as illustrated above, exists in a very real institutional manner to this day.
«o»There has been a string of fourteen bombings in the wake of the US 'withdrawal' from Iraq killing over sixty people. The attacks appear to be from the Sunni side of the sociopolitical equation but who REALLY knows what False Flag operations are underway right now as a reinforcement to the Shiites of Iraq, who have been pandered to by the West, that they really really don't want Western forces too far away.
From Foreign Policy Magazine Mideast Brief:
A series of Baghdad bombings renew fears of sectarian crisis
At least 63 people have been killed and up to 194 wounded in a series of as many as 14 seemingly coordinated bombings across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The attacks occurred just days after the final departure of U.S.troops and amid recent accusations by the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was implicated in several assassinations, inciting sectarian tensions. Hashemi has denied the charges and is being protected by the Kurdish regional government, while his main Sunni bloc of parliament, the al-Iraqiyya group, has walked out of the government in protest at the accusations. The attacks included four car bombs and 10 roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and were concentrated mostly in Shiite neighborhoods. In response, Prime Minister Maliki said: "The timing of these crimes and the places where they were carried out confirm to all...the political nature of the targets." No one has taken responsibility for the bombings, however some analysts believe that al Qaeda is the only group in Iraq capable of pulling offsuch an attack. [In Full, with links]
In OTHER News:
"...a combination of mistrust and bad maps..." won't help our status in the country.
US: Mistakes led to attack on Pakistani soldiers
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An investigation into a NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops last month near the Afghan border has concluded that a combination of mistrust and bad maps led to the airstrikes on two Pakistani outposts, the U.S. Department of Defense and a NATO official said on Thursday.
It's unclear whether the report, which says mistakes were made on both sides, will reduce the tension between Pakistan and the U.S. over the incident. The Pakistani army has said its troops did nothing wrong and claimed the attack was a deliberate act of aggression.
A statement issued by the U.S. Department of Defense did not apologize for the attack, as the Pakistanis have demanded, and instead defended the actions of American forces.
"The report says we recognize we made mistakes, and that mistakes were also made by the Pakistanis," said the NATO official, who could not be named...
..."We have a lot of work to do to improve coordination, and we've already implemented steps to do that," the official said.
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
December 21 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: The Emperors Of The North (Atlantic Treaty Alliance) Build An Empire-Size Railroad To Afghanistan
A Synopsis Of This Morning's News... H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files. «o»Our elected representatives in Washington have gone home but Saturday's congressional agreement on a two month extension bill comprising of withholding tax cuts and unemployment benefits extensions, including add-on items such as the KeystoneXL pipeline, has fallen apart with the Republicans wanting a full year of extensions, with budget cuts to match expenditures of course. The house Republicans have also demanded a conference on it before they vote which will be impossible to do before the first of the new year and the White House is accusing the Republicans of depriving ordinary working people of their benefits.
«o»Spain goes to the right with a new Prime Minister installed today who will attempt to enforce the IMF mandated austerity measures for the country and get the collapsing Spanish economy under control.
One of the first things the newly elected Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy did was pick Luis de Guindos, a former Lehman Brothers banker, currently a director of PricewaterhouseCoopers and a budget professor at IE Business School Center for Finance in Madrid, as his head finance chief. More at BusinessWeek.
«o»Emperors Of The North (North Atlantic Treaty Organization that is...) The US and NATO are going to build a railroad across the Baluchistan plains from Kyrgyzstan or perhaps Uzbekistan to supply fuel to our war effort in Afghanistan now that Pakistan has closed the Khyber Pass due to NATO's intentional attack on a couple of Pakistani border forts last month which killed 24 Pakistani troops. An interesting sidebar... The only people who have the expertise in building and running a railroad nowadays(this one will be steam powered) are the Chinese.
See this Forbes article for information on why Baluchistan is important to China.
More in the commentary.
«o»Mighty nice of them... The TSA has released the regulations for troops returning from our multiple wars, and all troops in general. They will get to skip many of the procedures to allow them an un-harried trip home for the holidays.
--30--
This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can.
And remember... Capitalism has a gun at your head every moment you're alive:
In The News: H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files. «o»Remember Lori Berenson? Nobody else does either... because it has fifteen years since she was convicted in Peru for assisting the Peruvian rebels. Now that she's completed three quarters of her sentence the Peruvian authorities are allowing her to spend the holidays with her family in New York. But will she return to Peru to complete that sentence?
More in the commentary.
«o»In America, the only 'advanced nation' in the world which does not offer health care to it's citizens, the Supreme Court has scheduled three days of hearings on the health care bill next march which will deal with some contentious Constitutional issues like whether the US government can force someone to buy insurance from a private company.
«o»In the wake of the West's supposed departure from Iraq, an arrest warrant has been issued for Vice President al-Hashemi alleging his involvement in death squads and hits when he was involved in the Hussein government. al-Hashemi denies all the charges and Iyad Allawi of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been quoted as saying president Maliki is acting "like Saddam".
«o»In a new study it has been claimed that one third of all American males have been arrested and booked by the time they're twenty three.
«o»The Republicans have refused a deal on the continuation of the 'middle class tax cuts' AKA the reduction on tax withholding.
In OTHER News:
He feels our pain...
Who‘s Footing the Bill for the Obama Family’s Estimated $4 Million Hawaii Vacation?
So, just how much will President Barack Obama’s Hawaiian vacation cost this year? That‘s a question that can’t be definitively answered until the costs are in and the trip has concluded, but an assessment of the numbers shows that it will likely be the 44th president’s most expensive vacation to date.
The Hawaii Reporter has estimated that travel, alone, will cost $3,629,622 — a startlingly large figure considering the length of the trip.
And, yes, in case you were wondering: Taxpayers will be footing a chunk of the bill. After all, it‘s not cheap to ensure that the world’s most powerful leader is safe as he travels and enjoys time away from the grind.
To begin, the family is traveling separately, as Obama has had plenty to wrap up in Washington, D.C. before the holidays (i.e. the payroll tax cut drama). So, First Lady Michelle Obama already left for the family’s tropical getaway — a $100,000 expenditure, including personnel, travel and security.
Obama’s round-trip flight to Hawaii on Air Force One is estimated to be the largest expense associated with the vacation. According to the Air Force, it apparently costs $181,757 per flight hour to run the nation’s most secure (and probably its most lavish) aircraft. Thus, the total for the nine-hour trip from Washington to Hawaii and then back again will come in at $3,271,611.
And let’s not forget that a USAF C-17 cargo plane is also needed to bring Presidential limos, helicopters and other essentials along... [More, with links]
This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can.
And remember... Capitalism has a gun at your head every moment you're alive:
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
December 19 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: You Are Hearing The Sound Of Spies Scrambling - Hamas 'Outs' The US Intel Network In The Middle East
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
December 06 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Living In Interesting Times - Newt Gingrich And Some Notes On The Republican Presidential Contenders
In The News: H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files.
[After the commentary the Austin Lounge Lizards have a few poignant points to make about the subject of discussion's ethics as opposed to his oratory and intellectual skills... and they seem to be lacking, even in comparison to a common reptile. Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG radio Freedom California, Earth] «o»#OccupyYourHome AKA #OccupyForeclosures is occurring in twenty cities today with the autonomous groups offering to occupy foreclosed homes of residents, and indeed, any available foreclosed, abandoned, neglected, spaces where people may live. More.
«o»The city of Vallejo, officially broke a few months ago, is missing a few stop lights because metal scavengers are stripping the copper wire from the system.
«o»The United States has begun evacuating our Pakistan drone airbase as Pakistan IS NOT DEALING on the deaths of twenty four of their soldiers in an attack by NATO helicopter gunships. Pakistan WILL also repatriate three wives and the children of Osama bin-Laden to Saudi Arabia, which will welcome them. More.
«o»Now that he's a potential presidential candidate, Nancy Pelosi has mentioned that she knows A LOT about Newt Gingrich because she served on the same ethics panel that acquitted him on 82 of 83 ethics charges.
«o»The Post Office is going to close two hundred forty two sorting facilities around the country. A full half of the system. There will be no more Saturday deliveries and no more next day mail... It will now take two days.
This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can.
And remember... Capitalism has a gun at your head every moment you're alive:
The Lieutenant in charge of that operation made a public statement to the effect that camping would not be tolerated on county court house property and the property was to be considered a no trespassing area.
What WAS NOT clear was the fenced off area was NOT the ONLY area off limits but the unused steps where the #OccupySantaCruz General Assembly meets IS ALSO off limits.
Two people, when they were informed of that by a couple of sheriffs at 7pm that evening decided autonomously that one of the core ideals of this particular #Occupation is a 24/7 presence at the site so they U-Locked their necks to the handrail of the county court house steps.
Yours truly was up late with about 30 other supporters keeping them company.
That's my 'excuse'. I have about 3 hours sleep behind me.
I'm gonna take a nap now.
(Afterwards: The tent encampment on the San Lorenzo Park Benchlands IS safe, and under federal protection until at least January 3 when a hearing on the injunction that had been filed by the city of Santa Cruz, and 'counter-sued' by #OccupySantaCruz will be held in a San Jose federal court.)
In OTHER News: Mad Russian!
eXiled's Yasha Levine Released From Jail, Exposes LAPD’s Appalling Treatment of Detained Occupy LA Protesters o o o But I wanted to write down a few things that I witnessed and heard while locked up by LA’s finest...
First off, don’t believe the PR bullshit. There was nothing peaceful or professional about the LAPD’s attack on Occupy LA–not unless you think that people peacefully protesting against the power of the financial oligarchy deserve to be treated the way I saw Russian cops treating the protesters in Moscow and St. Petersburg who were demonstrating against the oligarchy under Putin and Yeltsin, before we at The eXiled all got tossed out in 2008. Back then, everyone in the West protested and criticized the way the Russian cops brutally snuffed out dissent, myself included.
Now I’m in America, at a demonstration, watching exactly the same brutal crackdown... [In Full]
This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can.
And remember... Capitalism has a gun at your head every moment you're alive:
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
December 01 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: International AIDS Day - 30 Years Of The Pharma Industry's 1% Making Bank On A Brand New Disease
In The News: H/t to ChrisM my MP3Angel for supplying the audio files.
[After the commentary there is an intentional one minute of silence in memoriam]
«o»He should just rent a condo - Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq saying goodbye to the 500 troops a day leaving the country, but most won't be going far, as they'll mostly be garrisoned in Kuwait awaiting renewal of, or movement to continuing hostilities with... ? Biden is also in the country to brief Iraq's illegitimate 'president' al-Maliki on the upcoming conference in Washington on America's future 'relationship' with the Iraq.
«o»It's now easier for European banks to loan US currency by the pallet load between their financial institutions to prop up the failing economies of a number of countries but there are problems...
A> All the banks have pallets of US hundred dollar bills to sell, but there don't seem to be too many buyers, leading to...
B> The utterly worthless state of US currency, which to a great extent is 'greasing the rails' of the 'slow motion train wreck' that is Western Industrial-Consumer Capitalism.
«o»The Republicans will vote for the continuance of the payroll withholding tax cut and an extension of the bailout for state unemployment benefits IF there are 10% cuts in federal spending which they expect to accomplish by eliminating government employees over two years (cynically spoken, perhaps cutting the people needed to oversee the tax cuts and unemployment extensions) and it's not yet clear if they'll vote Aye for anything other than a one year extension of those benefits.
«o»Same guys, same government, different 'shirts' - Secretary of State Clinton is in Burma to discuss the future of US relations with our newest Sweatshop Nation. Most of the MSM has glowing reports of all the ostensible changes that have happened in the last year or so in the country, but what they know about it could really be written on the head of a pin and the reports are mostly think tank and government press releases, no less what they're willing to tell us about the government of a nation that runs it's economy on Blood Gems, Oil, and Meth labs (where the indigenous people USED TO live before they were wiped out)
«o»Santa Cruz in the news: If you're going to #Occupy you may a well take the next logical step and occupy enemy territory.
That enemy territory is an abandoned bank in the downtown area, vacant three years, whose perimeter has been home to a number of local homeless and displaced workers. A phalanx of police in full riot gear attempted to break up the crowd outside and remove the barricaded occupiers but were rebuffed and nearly surrounded by the protesters. The police retreated.
The action also caused the closure of a Wells Fargo bank across the street, most likely due to concerns that they might have 'visitors' too.
Overheard, a middle aged man speaking with a fireman attending to a lighting array illuminating the protest area:
"Why are you consorting with these people (the police)? I'm a thirty five year resident of this town jobless for five years now and I've never been inside this building until tonight... I SLEEP OUTSIDE IT....And you know... They have a nice feed going on inside right now.
FWIW, the fireman said nothing, but his SMILE said it all.
From IndyBay:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Repurposing of 75 River St
Santa Cruz, CA, U.S.A.- November 30, 2011
The formerly vacant building at 75 River St. is being repurposed by an autonomous group, in solidarity with Occupy Santa Cruz. Formerly a big bank, it was bought out by Wells Fargo. Subsequently, the building closed, and has remained vacant for nearly three years. Today this group has, without breaking & entering, taken the building with intentions of using the space in a productive way that benefits the community of Santa Cruz . The property will no longer be left open by big development companies as a sign of the economic despair in this county, but will rather be used to enrich and teach the local community.
While the middle class quickly falls toward the poverty line, the big banks and the extremely wealthy continue to get rich at the expense of all. Across the United States 1.05 million properties were seized by banks in the year 2010. In Santa Cruz County alone 1,594 homes were auctioned off between November 2010 and October 2011. The foreclosed and vacant buildings in this country serve as a reminder of the ever-growing gap between the 'rich' and the 'poor'. As people are left without shelter and social space due to foreclosures and a declining economy; big banks and developing companies buy out space to simply leave empty.
An existing time-honored U.S. and California law allows for the transfer of a property title when a property is occupied and taken care of by an alternative party for an extended period of time. This law is called adverse possession. The law was born out of the belief that society's best interests are met when land and property are utilized productively rather than sitting vacant. Today, the building at 75 River St. has been adversely possessed. No longer will the property exist only as an empty parking lot and a vacant building with a sign re-directing people to Wells Fargo across the street. It will be repurposed and used to benefit the community instead of Cassidy Turley, the large-scale commercial real estate company currently leasing the building, and Wells Fargo bank.
Instead of an empty space, there will be a space for community teach-ins, an open library, and discussion forums. The space will be offered to Occupy Santa Cruz as an opportunity to have a roof over its head and allow for more organization to take place. The space will be safe, non-violent, non-destructive and welcoming. The building will be a forum for individuals in the community to learn from one another, and help the Occupy movement grow.
There is a hope to see community support for the reclamation of property and space from the very wealthy, the 1%, back into the hands and benefit of the community.
This action was not decided on by the General Assembly of Occupy Santa Cruz. This press release is not from the Occupy Santa Cruz media team. [Source]
From the local Yellow Rag the Santa Cruz Senile, who apparently can't read, or research a story, or distinguish between the #OccupySantaCruz General Assembly and other protesters:
Occupy Santa Cruz takes over vacant building on River Street
By Jessica M. Pasko and Stephen Baxter - Santa Cruz Sentinel 11/30/2011 04:26:20 PM PST
SANTA CRUZ - Santa Cruz police, clad in riot gear, moved to clear demonstrators from a vacant building taken over by Occupy Santa Cruz demonstrators late Wednesday afternoon.
Occupy Santa Cruz members and other demonstrators made entry into the former Coast Commercial Bank building at 75 River St. late Wednesday afternoon and hung an "Oocupy (sic) Everything" banner from the roof.
Just after 6 p.m., about 30 officers attempted to secure the entrance to the former Coast Commercial Bank building as demonstrators barricaded themselves from the inside using office furniture.
According to Zach Friend, spokesman for the police department, the officers were trying to secure the entrance so no additional people would go in and they were hoping to have a dialogue with the people inside.
Shouting "pigs get out" and "we are the 99 percent" demonstrators outside the building linked arms and moved toward the police. Police eventually backed up and moved away as demonstrators cheered and chanted.
Police left the scene because they didn't think it was safe, said Friend.
"We will evaluate new ways to open communication and hopefully this group isn't representative of a new aggressive movement," Friend said. [More]
Yours truly HOPES he IS seeing something that IS "...representative of a new aggressive movement," that will shake the corrupt power structure of a town that has re-created itself in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake into a culture-less city 'cleansed' of working class jobs, with transient college students and office workers from across the nation used to control the housing and job market. In order to live in Santa Cruz California like a normal human being, you work elsewhere... Typically 'over-the-hill' (San Jose), or commute even farther to the bay area.
«o»Insatiable Greed with that order? In San Francisco, the Fast Food chains have already begun evading the 'No Free Toys With Crappy Meals' rule created in an attempt to deal with a youth obesity epidemic by charging a dime for the toy.
This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can.
And remember... The Bankers Don't Give A Fuck What You Want They Have Your President In Their 'Pocket'
December 23 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Living In Interesting Times - Remember Who Did What In 2011 During The 2012 Election Year 
