Saturday, August 9, 2008

PART III GLOBALIZATION


Preamble from Belgium

In parts 1 & 2 of this series we first looked at globalization on the macro scale then saw how it affected workers on an individual level before selecting the blue jeans business for scrutiny. In this concluding part we will learn more about Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest single trading company. We will then review the overall situation before going on to explore what other organizations are doing to redress the balance in favor of the majority of the world population.

Wall-Mart in the Global Economy

Wal-Mart has the uncanny knack of knowing the cost price of nearly ever product on earth and uses this as the starting point in their negotiations with sellers. They can get away with this because there are no shortages of companies pursuing them for business. Companies and also the Chinese government seem to have taken the view that Wal-Mart can cover a businesses fixed costs and profits can be taken from their other customers. The problem is that these other customers have to compete with Wal-Mart and want the same low prices. Businesses are willing to deal with Wal-Mart because this is a more effective way of getting their products on shelves from Germany to California than laying out expenditure on an advertising budget. Dealing with Wal-Mart is its own recommendation to other buyers. Often however, meeting production overheads in dealing with Wal-Mart often means taking money out of the workers pockets. This kind of makes you think twice about Sam Walton’s “Made in America” slogan and what “Everyday low prices” actually entails.

Andrew Tsuei, Wal-Mart’s Global Procurement Center MD regards Chinas stable currency; political peace and compliant work force to be as important as price. He added “There may be parts of the world you can buy cheaper but can you get the product on the ship. If the currency constantly fluctuates there is a lot of risk, China has the right mix.” Again international trade favors strong dictatorships.

China has only one trade union, all others are banned and strikes are illegal under China’s brand of communism. Kong Xianghong, the number two party official in Guangdong province acknowledged that low wages, long hours and poor conditions are common in factories doing business with Wal-Mart and other American companies but takes the view that ”It is better than nothing”. Human rights and better conditions are a long ways down the road; the union sees its primary task as seeing that everybody is fed.

On the other hand, Wal-Mart sees itself as a force for good in China, saying that it enforces labor standards and insists companies with which it deals, comply with Chinese law. It insists that workers are paid above the minimum wage; that there are fire extinguishers and fire exits and these all bear a cost. Tsuei added that Wal-Mart employs 100 auditors and in the previous year they suspended 400 suppliers mainly for exceeding overtime levels and permanently banned another 72 companies mainly for employing underage labor. Li Qiang, a labor organizer told that factories are notified in advance of these inspections so that they have time to clean up. A worker can have time sheets claiming she is Miss Lu for the first eight hours of her shift and Miss Wu for the second eight hours. They are also coached what to say if they are asked a question. Giving the wrong (a truthful) answer might result in the factory having to close with the loss of everybody’s jobs. If Wal-Mart really wanted to monitor conditions it could do so with surprise visits and longer inspections but then prices would definitely go up. Wal-Mart likes to be seen to be doing the right thing.

Summing up

In the 12 years following 1980, the US’s top 500 companies increased their assets from $1.18 trillion to $2.68 trillion but over the same period jobs fell from 15.9 million to 11.5 million. Or again, the world’s top 200 companies control 28% of the global economy whilst employing only 1% of the world’s workforce.

And if these developments were not bad enough they are about to get much worse: A new Global Constitution is being written through the organs of NAFTA; GATT; the WTO and now the Multinational Agreement on Investments MAI. They are laying down the laws for a global economy which increasingly allow corporations to go anywhere and do anything they like and prohibit workers and governments that supposedly represent them from doing very much about it. It is a World Law which is applicable to every land but not responsible to any nation or to any group of citizens and you didn’t get to vote for it.

You may take the view that the opportunity is open for everybody to become an entrepreneur so it is wrong to be dog in the manger towards those who made it. If you feel so inclined you may take a risk and open a shop or start a back street garage. And especially if you have put your family home on the line to secure funding for the venture you deserve more of the rewards. Very quickly you realize that the objective of the exercise is not to employ as many people as you can. Perhaps wanting more for less is a human trait, after all isn’t that what the leisure society was all about. What is different now with multinational corporations is that the objective has moved away from making money towards power and control and those at the helm of society not only want more for themselves; after taking your assets and redistributing them to themselves, they want you to have less. For the time being, at least, they still need you as consumers.

What Can be Done?

There is a faint glimmer of hope in that half light of dawn before the sun comes over the horizon. Increasingly, working people are realizing that the globalization of the economy has linked their interests to those of workers in other countries. Workers are beginning to understand that that jobs will not be secure and wages will not rise if corporations are able to exploit foreign workers living under dictatorships and unable to stand up for themselves. This is why more sectors of the trade union movement are building alliances with worker organizations around the world. At the beginning of July 2008, the US union ’‘United Steelworkers’ and the UK union ‘Unite the Union’ merged to form the first link in the proposed global union ‘Workers Uniting’. USW President Leo W. Gerard said “This union is crucial for challenging the power of global capital. Globalization has given financiers license to exploit workers in developing countries at the expense of our members in the developed world. Only global solidarity among workers can overcome this sort of global exploitation wherever it occurs.” This is not just a paper alliance it is a real merger”. This merger is the major step which must be first established but with the US Dollar tanking and jobs likely to follow it down the drain it may be considered by some to be forging a bridge to a sinking ship. Only time will tell. Further links are proposed with worker organizations in many lands. Next under discussion is a bonding with Poland’s Solidarity.

Can international worker solidarity be effective? In December 2007, workers at Danone’s Minster, Ohio yogurt plant successfully unionized. This success was assisted by international support from other unions representing Danone workers worldwide throughout the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers). It presents an unusual case of an US Union using grassroots organizing tactics together with a carefully pre-planned and coordinated demonstration of international union solidarity. This combination was able to deter the severe violations of worker rights that take place in most private sector organizing drives in the USA. “The Ohio workers primary issues concerned health and safety; retirement and job constancy and stability” said John Price a Union International Representative, “but what it always comes down to is the dignity, justice and respect for workers.”

You can gift wrap words like unionization, worker solidarity, fraternity, any way you wish but what it comes down to is the veiled or unveiled threat of strike action – a Union exists for no other purpose than to hurt company profits more than loss of wages hurts the workers. One can follow the logic of the international labor movement but it will take a real leap of imagination for US workers to strike in support of wage and condition improvements of Mexican workers who now have their jobs.

One downside is that some at least, remember the 60’s and early 70’s when the power pendulum swung towards the unions. Workers would strike as a first measure of communicating their dissatisfaction to management. Strike first then negotiate afterwards was the motto of the day and Union bosses conducted themselves like mini Mafiosi. If International unionism is to work, then we must be prepared to put the Winter of Discontent behind us and worker representatives must conduct themselves with respectability, dignity and all the guile of their company counterparts.

There are many other organizations working for a more just world society. I will mention just two here; the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) who are conducting a relentless drive to abolish corporate person-hood.

Again the problem is not recognizing the problem but having the muscle to do something about it. If Wall Street wants to cut down an old wood forest, they are not going to discuss the finer points of the deal with Friends of the Earth unless they are made to.

Two US Politicians, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D Ohio) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D Maine) have introduced the Trade Reform Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act on 4 June 2008, that has more than 50 House and Senate co-sponsors. The TRADE Act requires a review of all existing trade pacts including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); the World Trade Organization (WTO) and others. It sets forth what must and must not be included in future trade pacts and calls for the renegotiation of all existing agreements. It describes the key elements of a new trade negotiating and approval mechanism to replace Fast Track that would enhance Congress’ role in the formative aspects of agreements and promote future deals that could enjoy broad support among the American public. One can but hope!

We come to the question of whether the little guy with a one or two man bandwagon can make the big guys fall. I really don’t know if this is possible but Brian Gerrish is one guy who is asking questions that are making many others very uncomfortable. I alluded to his campaign against the organization Common Purpose in a comment in the last post. Nobody is quite sure what Common Purpose actually is but serious people are throwing serious money at it. One thing it does is offer management training schemes which are disguised ‘correct thinking schemes’ where future leaders (persuasive correct thinkers) are trained for rolls throughout all levels of society. The inference, though not directly stated is that this is Europe’s answer to the United States of Europe Constitution being rejected at the ballot box. It is obvious Brian has never attended one of these courses because what his laid back style lacks in dynamism it makes up for in content. Before anybody jumps on my back, it is an hour and a half lecture and meant to be so. The video can be streamed at:

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/5706/Common_Purpose_NWO_Fifth_Column_Brian_Gerrish

and is well worth a watch.

A recent disturbing aspect in the overall world picture of events is the reported ousting of the Neo-Conservatives by the Trilateral Commission for control of the US White House. This makes the whole world picture greatly more unstable. Any negotiations made whilst these people are sitting in the background will be like sitting down to play poker but with your own hand dealt face up on the table. Have we done too little a little too late?

Much of power is about need. For the moment they need us a lot more than we need them but it will come down to timing and who has the better overall strategy. It will take a grass roots Tank Man movement to win the day; or as Howard Beale said “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”. In the meantime it is worth remembering that the purchase choices we make have real consequences. Choosing not to shop at your favorite big box store may cause Chinese workers to loose the little they already have but in any war there are going to be casualties and some of them may be on your own side.

Sources

Chinese Workers Pay for Wal-Mart’s Low Prices:

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22507-2004Feb7?language=printer

Workers Uniting

The First Global Trade Union:

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/workers-uniting-the-first-global-union/

Danone Workers Unionise:

Labour is not a Commodity

http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2008/01/dannon-workers.html

Women are now equal victims of a poor economy:

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom:

Abolish Corporate Personhood

http://www.wilpf.org/CPOWER_abolish?style=larger

Public Citizen

Global Trade Watch The TRADE Act 2008

http://www.citizen.org/trade/

Tibet Will be Free

http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/2007/02/07/china-blue/

Trilateral Commission takes over White House

Webster G Tarpley:

http://www.rense.com/general82/uspol.htm

The Tank Man – Video:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/

Howard Beale “I’m as mad as hell” clip

From the film “Network”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

The appearance is that the computer problems are straightened out on our end. We shall see.

I have noticed that there is some weirdness going on. Freeacre tried to post a comment and it wouldn't take. I noticed that some comments are missing. I don't know what to make of it or if there is anything that can be done about it. Considering the other much more radical and incitefull stuff on the internet, I would be really surprised if we got targeted.

Notice that the guy who runs the informationclearinghouse web site has been threatened, and been accosted by strange people. I've come across rumors of similar stuff happening to other sites. Cryptogon is one of them. Oh well, what else can you expect from a country being run by lunatics? Lunatics, oh dear, now that is incitfull. Maybe I should use other descriptors.

I do wonder every day how much longer a free internet will be available to us. It's about the last place in our society where dissent is freely expressed.

Palooka's Revenge said...

TEST

Palooka's Revenge said...

the shaker comment to last thread went up. then came down. i wrote a new one, viewed it, published. that one disappeared and the old one published in its place. after that, nothing would pub. it would view but not pub. .. p

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

You have guessed from my previous comments that I also have been experiencing high weirdness and if others have experienced similar then it is not a local problem. I C&P a comment into the text box and then I will preview and then publish and then it disappears, so after a while I will C&P again then publish without preview. This also disappears but after 12 hours or so only one comment will appear on the blog. That is why I suspected an overseeing eye. Do remember folks that the GEAB people predicted that the PTB would stop supporting the FED about September time. It might be totally irrelevant but there is another armada sailing into the Gulf. And this may be in the class of blogger fantasy but is it possible these recent shakers could be Tesla technology induced, in preparation for………?

OK, back to the subject in hand. Here is a ten minute vid of Wall-Mart employees expressing their dissatisfaction and frustrations and recounting their own brand of high weirdness:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/394.html

And an article (a little on the long side) explaining the corporate reasoning behind that high weirdness.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/94004/corporate_america_prepares_for_battle_against_worker_campaign_to_roll_back_assault_on_the_middle_class_/?page=1

Anonymous said...

murph... re the shadow... i heard j o r d o n m a x x x x x w e l l interviewed last week on coast. don't know if you are familar with him or not. significant shadow research pioneer over last 45 years. probably been on coast dozens of times. he's accumulated and extensive reference library including over 40 various bibles for example. the man is mentor to many.

along the way his work has been mimiced and outright copied in some cases. can't remember that geist triolgy making the rounds last couple years but thats his work. and the opening scene with tom hanks from davincy code where hanks is doing a slide presentation. its straight from his early slide shows AND his commentaries about same. the whole scene is his presentations he's made at conferences.


and along the way he's been under attack. usual drill. rep ruined, marriage destroyed w/wife turned against, money lost, made to be a nutcase, etc etc etc. he'd always taken it in stride considering the work more important than anything. things have changed. significantly! and just recently. not his view on the importance. his safety. or percieved safety. he's scared!!! bigtime!! stuff like his phone conversations being interupted and hearing footsteps walking around in background and voices talking saying things like... "we really need to get this guy". not just once. all the time now. happened during a coast interview a couple weeks ago. interview went dead on the coast end but JM's end patched into this stuff going on in background. then somebody came on the line directly as i recall. can't remember what was said so won't attempt to go there. but the voice coming on the line was the only time that happened. all the rest just background talking back and forth. or just silence with background room noise and people moving around. that is a form of overt threat. obvious they are no longer trying to hide.

on opening and copyright... dw went to bed early and missed it. i missed most of it too. tuned in as c athletes making the round. so i got to see the lighting of the f. incredible show!! and so glad they didn't comercialize it like atl did with that thing that looked like a mcdonalds french fry carton. anyway, was telling L about it so she went on-line to catch a vid. everything's been taken down by the O committee. legitimate yes as i'm sure its all copyrighted. but certainly another look down the rabbit hole. imagine what all is involved scanning the www!! i wonder if they'll do the same with clips of ath events.

btw... sent you and fa a present yesterday. did you get? ...p

stoney13 said...

testing?

Stop Common Purpose said...

More about Common Purpose here: http://stopcp.com

Anonymous said...

Folks,

It appears that comments are coming on now, maybe with some glitches, but at least getting put up for the most part.

I took a look at all the links put up so far on comments. Good stuff, but not new information except for the thing going on in Britain.

An update on our fight with the county government. They passed their odious decree and this last Fiday, we served the county government with a writ of satoria (spelling, asking the court for the county to justify their exceeding their authority from the federal agencies. Boy are they going to be pissed. We are conducting fund raisers now to hopefully put enough money together to fight these Nazi bastards.

If George Ure is correct, after Oct. 1, we may not have to worry about this kind of stuff much. According to Palooka, the web bots say that is going to be the time period when shit is hitting the fan big time. Looking at all the stuff going on, I can believe it. Just hope we can keep the pipes from freezing when it gets cold.

Got to admit I am getting tired of waiting for the Shit to hit the fan. The sooner it comes, the quicker it will end. The longer it drags out, the worse it will be. If the web bots are accurate, time to get ready to hunker down, stock up and be ready to ride it out as best as you can.

We may indeed be monitored, we may indeed be one of the sites that is shut down. No proof yet, so don't know for sure. The weirdness on this site could be just blogger.com. We have had problems before when Cyclone had the site.

Hope you all liked Belgium's posts. I know I did. Thanks SATS.

RAS said...

I'm not sure unions and such will really do much good. Oh some of course, but not the overall transformation we need. The reason is that they are working within the system to change it and I've given up completely on salvaging this system. It needs to come down or collapse before any meaningful changes will be made.
Just my .02.

Anonymous said...

Well, reading Ruppert's take on the Georgia/Russia situation, we may not have to worry about Walmart soon. Links on LATOC to From the Wilderness Blog part 2. Stuff won't be shipping so easily across vast oceans. While Bush is absorbed in watching beach ball bimbos, the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war. That's probably a good thing, come to think about it.

How's it looking from Europe, Belgium?

Anonymous said...

Man i'm sure glad some of you guys can take watch on the global stuff otherwise i would just not know about it i guess, i have enough just to keep up with local stuff along with participating in it to, thought i;d never see that day when i would consider running for public office but now as i listen to these words about the upper? echelon of world events i have come to realize that the local is nothing more then a micro of nation stuff!! maybe not quite as nasty and blood thirsty but the evil assed thoughts are indeed in full bloom on the local level. sigh..
murph's thoughts on how the two-leggeds are just doomed to keep on keepin on killin and a rapen and doing all that nasty stuff that just tends to fuck up a persons day whom is just trying to grow a patch of vittles and smell the flowers.
god damn it to hell, ok how about this,? why is it that a few of us are hep to this shit but are in such a small minority? i mean why anyone for that matter?. beings its such a profound phenomena, ongoing and everlasting like some strange chemical glob that my youngest smears under his arms to smell good and makes me gag for feash air. i was NEVER 18 thats for sure.
so i asked the bug about this and she sighed long and hard and shrugged her bug shoulders, (yes she has shoulders) and replied that the two-leggeds are still in a stage of evolution that was interfered with at some point and a dna swap was initiated with something that was not quite human, ..like having intercourse with a lizard i asked? something like that she said and that the offering made from that union or exchange put the two-leggeds back a few thousands of years.
i said are you fucking with me,? she laughed and said yes, but can you prove me wrong?
i said no i can't. well... until then why don't you just go on that assumption, let everyone know about it and that knowledge will give folks the reason for their shitty behavior and they can wait and party out their lives until the meteor hits and the leftovers can start a new world for the two-leggeds and all will be good and people will love each other to death or something. man this is really hard up for material.

thank you SATS for the good info, it helps to put things in prospective somewhat if there is such a thing,somehow the whole thing would be a marvelous joke if it weren't for the fact that people are just trying to make it with missing body parts and this is suppose to be a sign of superior intelligence, good jumping jesus!!!

hey i pulled the movie MIST off of x-torrent yesterday murph, and you didn't say what kind of story it was, Steven King novella made into welllll , one of his spooky assed stories,... had some pearls along the way and the military bit was ok too. it was fun to watch everyone going through their paces of real life scenarios of what happens when faced with things that go bump in the night or something like that. special effects were not bad either.
well its good the blog is nice and tidy again and the perpetrators are doing whatever it is that they do other then fuck with our council meetins.
i thought it was just this site until i tried to comment over at Stoney;s digs and the same shit came up so...?

everyones summer is rolling along ok?, its busy ain;t it, feels a little like fall already between the high nineties in the day and the low sixties at night, makes for good sleeping though, not like down south where the skitters can carry off a small child, huh p and ras.?

not much else going on, should be eating tomatoes off the vine by now and not a red one in sight, phooey, the crap out of the store is just awful, looks like a mater but tastes like a matrix look alike, same with strawberries, nothing,. only found TWO watermelons with seeds this year and put one back because they wanted TEN dollars for the mother fucker, i went berserk at the counter and told the close by standing manager where he could put the melon, got a round of applause from the folks behind me too, felt bad later but what the fuck? TEN dollars for a dinky little mellon that was absolutely nothing to write home about!! ok, it ain't going to solve anything to rant like that but it felt good anyway just to say something about the bullshit that passes for the american dream, i mean nightmare.
i quit, i surrender, bug says i have much to learn about political correctness but she don't know everything.
peace all
aho
mf&b

Anonymous said...

Montana,

Well, got to admit that Freeacre and I spend and enormous amount of time reading report from different perspectives on the world and local happenings. There's a price for doing that too. Unfortunately I don't have a bug to advise me about it either. sigh. Will I ever get it right?


You ask why a few see it different from the rest. Probably we are throw backs before the lizards? Some few didn't have the new DNA take hold? I guess the world really needs a few radical dissidents. Shit, without us we would all be eating lunch at Dennys wearing striped pants and white shoes and wearing a bolo tie.

Montana, read what Sitchin has to say about it. He says that primitive man was visited by aliens from other parts of the universe/galaxy. Bred with the women to produce beings just smart enough to do the work they wanted. The these "gods" started battling among themselves and needed cannot fodder, so you can see what happened next. Maybe bug is right.

One aspect of "mist" that I picked up on is the decision to kill one of the group that was pushing the rest of the people into very cruel positions using religious fervor. From my view, a whole bunch of decisions under those circumstances was just plain stupid, but what the hell, makes good drama I guess.

By the way, loved your confrontation at the grocery store. That was cool. Tell the bug that advanced thinking in humans involve rants time to time. lol

Anonymous said...

Montana,

I was just reprimanded. My chickens got together and warned me not to minimize their input. Cripes, and I thought all they were concerned with was eating and laying eggs. Everytime I have tried to engage them with my concerns with the world situation, they just shrug their shoulders (yup they have em too) and go brrrrrrrup brrrup brrrup. I'm not getting much intellectual stimulation from them. sigh.

Anonymous said...

fa... if its brought mcr in from the cold we can bet he thinks this could well be the key card that will collapse the deck.

mf... not many skeeters here. our most populated pests are people with bibles. well, they look like people anyway. and about this thing that ails us... i was talking to one of my old builders and he was telling me how he had a "contact" in the city of atlanta. if he needed a building permit he just forked over 1500 bucks and in 3 days he had the permit. everybody else had to wait 6 weeks to clear channels. guy said it wasn't corruption, its just the way bid'ness is done! bug may say she's fuckin with you but there are some deep researchers making a pdg case for this dna swap argument. and yer run-in with the watermelon man reminds me of the last time i had one of those seedless wanna bes. that led to ... Masturbating With Watermelon ... http://theunseenroleofdenial.
blogspot.com/2006/08/masturbating-with-watermelon.html

... meler (y'all ever wonder how the word verification monster somehow knows what yer writin about?)

Anonymous said...

... which is usually a whole lot more than i know!

... hftzyyye

RAS said...

MF, lol. Big enough to carry off a small child? Heck, some of them are big enough and there's enough of them to carry *me* off. But they wouldn't dare -I think they know I bite back!

Everything is going up. Peaches are half again what they were last year. Most veggies are a quarter again what their year-ago prices were. Autumn's in the air here in the morning's and people seem to be really worried about the winter this year. Most of them have all ready filled their propane tanks if they got them. Everyone's worried about the price of natural gas and here it doesn't get that cold. We just found out our utility bills are going up by 10-20% in October. That's the second increase this year.

All I want is for the world to leave me alone so I can grow my flowers, my veggies, and write my cheesy science fiction stories in peace. But that's not going to happen in this day and age.

Anonymous said...

08 at 7:24 am Ivan_Russian:
3
People! If you are really aiming to THINK - try to do it by yourself!
1) Figure it out - Georgia ATTACKED South Osetia with HEAVY ARTILLERY and TANKS 07/08/2008 and (in one night) KILLED about 2000 citizens, DESTROYED Tshinvaly (the capital of S.Osetia) and several smaller towns.
2) Mere than 2/3 of osetians are RUSSIANS! And S Osetia is NOT a part of Georgia from 1991 yr. (and its never been a part of Georgia before 1920)!!! NOBODY in Russia wants to gain Georgia “back to the USSR” (I meant in borders of Russia). Georgians wanted to be separated and NOBODY tried to keep them in 1991!
3) EVERY georgian neighbour is ready to declare WAR to Georgian criminal state if it`ll try to repeat S.Osetian scenario. Enough to eat every false your newspaper prints! Just ASK any caucasian about this problem if you are REALLY trying to understand whats happening there! Osetia and Abkhasia don`t want to come back to Georgian borders (ind they will NEVER back).
4) About “Georgian” agression… DO YOU know that “georian” troops consist of international mercenaries? (of cource not I guess…) So ASK GEORGIANS about it - theirs Saakashvilly tried to moboloze, arm and throw to WAR last night`s CIVILIANS! (they even DIDN`t KNOW about theirs destination and aim) So when thew loocked at this foul “turn” against theirs neighbours - they DESERt by themselves! Most of georgians doesnt want this war! Because it concerns all caucasian brothers nations!
5) All this act of Saakashvily is only a cause to fire up situation in Caucasus! This way USA can realize its politics of “struggle against russian treat”… A bullshit that helps to spend your money! :)) And MOST OF YOU ARE STILL EATING THIS!!!

—-
If you are really trying to THINK - look at USA economics!
a) at USDollar EMISSION value (all the data from 2005 classified as secret) - they just filled up all the world with $USDollars = uncovered paper money!
b) at USA trade balance from 1985 (EXPORT-IMPORT)
c) at USA DEBT (including not only external government debt but also “future obligations” (social for example) - and you will see - EXPANCES of US government always needs a “COVER” (overconsumption is take a place).

So EVERY action, every politics is aiming to GAIN A MONEY! Yours or smb. else’s!

If you are still not interesting in TRUTH - so keep your eyes “WIDE SHUT”… and I pity you…

Ivan (from North Caucasus).

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Ivan;

Please stay in touch, as we are aware that what you say is the truth.

Karl Schwartz, Webster Tarpley, Mike Ruppert and Benjamin Fulford are all pretty much in agreement on this, along with a growing host of others.

Even AlterNet has begun to tell the truth.

Fuck Obama. Fuck Brzezinsky. Fuck the US naval armada making its way through the Suez canal as we speak.
Fuck the imminent blockade of Iran. And fuck the CIA's constant fucking with innocent people.

Fuckin' A!

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

ivan...
i don't know how you found us but i'm glad you did and appreciate your comment. thanks for taking the time to stop by. i hope you can come to feel you are welcome around our campfire and we welcome your comments and views. we're all ears. i for one am curious to hear your views on whats going on over there. especially how georgia's aggression connects to the greater geopolitical picture. how that ties in to the pipeline (which has just been announced here that it has been shut down). when it comes to imposing self-proclaimed western democracy we're well aware who's pulling saakashavili's chain since this is a well worn, well used tactic all across the globe for many a year now. one where people die while others turn their heads and demand more oil or cheaper goods or some misguided interpretation of their own personal safety.

bushco is running out of time and chompin at the bit to move on iran. but they know a direct frontal military attack is out of the question unless perhaps it can be justified to the eyes of the world as defensive. given their track record for having moved on iraq and afgan despite serious challenge to the defense argument by a valid counterargument that they've already demonstrated they don't really give a shit about justifying a damn thing, my assesment may be naieve at best. but i'll hold to my view for the time being. i think this is why it hasn't happened yet. many are writing that russia's response was grossly underestimated by the west. what's your view? did US/israeli alligned power forces see this as the back door into iran? did the bear recognize it immediatly for what it was and move to dare the eagle (hawk in eagle's clothing) to proceede?

we're just a bunch of misfits hangin out around an isolated campfire in the woods. we get mucho smoke in our eyes but intent is for open eyes. i 'spect yer preachin to the choir in this neck of the woods. most of us are far from surprised at the current events. but yeah, the woods are within the US of A where there is a massive media blitz going on based on the headline... Russia invades Georgia. that continues to be the headline despite the news that georgia moved first. of course, you're probably watching the same cnn i'm watching so you already know that. and you know it is playing out to inform the ignorant masses here all the while the global audience looks on and i'm sure thinking, damn, will those idiots ever WAKE UP?

not 30 minutes ago cnn carried mccain giving us all a history lesson so we would be informed about a little tiny country in a far away land under unprovoked attack by the big black bear and that just so happens to have a pipeline running through it. played, of course, to the new campaign tune... drill, drill, drill. conveniently ignored was anything about georgia's inflamatory action and certainly absolutly no reference to ossetia and abkhasia past and recent cultural history and socio-political sympathies. he did make a point however, that christian missionaries have done all they could along the way to the make the barbarians see the light....
palooka

and btw, we've just watched oil go from 100 to 150 in a very short time and now back below 115 in an even shorter time. during the up march any tiny hint rumor of anything that might upset supply anywhere in the world always produced an immediate spike to even higher prices. now we have news confirming shutdown of 1/87th of global daily supply and oil drops in the midst of it. go figure!

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Freeacre,

Nothing new to report here I’m afraid. I don’t like it, it is too quiet (this is where I get an arrow I the chest – especially if I have been foolish enough to take a faded photograph of my wife and family out of my wallet and show it to somebody).

Re the post and the subject of nothing new under the sun, the globalisation of unions was completely new to me and this is what piqued my interest and started me note taking, then I thought I had better state what it is exactly they are acting against – hence the post. I also found the English stuff at the last minute and hurriedly put it in. But, you know, the Jews; the Christians and the Muslims amongst others, have been reminding themselves of the message every week for the last 2000 years or so, so it does no harm to stop and take stock of the situation now and again.

Dave, I wanted to include positive stuff and say how people are beginning to fight back and I have included a number of important examples of this. Overall though I have to concur with Ras, as honest and earnest as these people are with their efforts I feel that the last train has left town and left us all standing on the platform. Even Rockefellers Citi Bank is reported to be on the verge of biting the dust and I would have bet money on that not happening. No matter what Poulson or Bernakre say the US of A is in liquidation and are digging a bigger hole as they try to trade their way through. Most of the analysts give it one to two months on life support.

This, in a way explains the $10 melons. Just before Germany’s economic crash of the early 30’s and Hitler’s rise to power there was a famous photograph of a loaf of bread in a bakers window with a price tag stuck in it (I can’t remember the exact figure) but I think it was 23 million marks. The baker couldn’t sell it for less because that is what it had cost him to make it and people couldn’t buy it because they didn’t have that much money. The water melon shop may or may not be profiteering but here is a list of retail outlets that are in deep doo dah.

Ann Taylor closing 117 stores nationwide.

Eddie Bauer to close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.

Cache, a women’s retailer is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.

Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines closing 150 stores nationwide

Talbots, J. Jill closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men's stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill.

Gap Inc. closing 85 stores

Foot Locker to close 140 stores

Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Levitz - the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.

Zales, Piercing Pagoda plans to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.

Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.

Home Depot store closings 15 of them amid a slumping US economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.

CompUSA (CLOSED).

Macy's - 9 stores closed

Movie Gallery – video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery

and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental

chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.

Pacific Sunwear - 153 Demo stores closing

Pep Boys - 33 stores of auto parts supplier closing

Sprint Nextel - 125 retail locations to close with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.

J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are all scaling back

Ethan Allen Interiors: plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.

Wilsons the Leather Experts – closing 158 stores

Bombay Company: to close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.

Dillard's Inc. will close another six stores this year.

stoney13 said...

Interesting things going on in the world! VERY interesting!

My Weird-Shit-O-Meter is bouncing around on the floor, making strange noises, and turning different colors!

Lizards, MF? Well that's as good of a reason as any! Check out Bush in those "grinning like an idiot" photos! Looks just like a horned toad! The Bug must have been doing laps around the metaphysical universe for that little piece of information!

Great series Belgium. It's like George Carlin and me have said for years! We are fucked by the big money, and we weren't even kissed!

Ivan, glad to hear from you! We're in Radio Free America, and the only true voice we get in this country is a foreign one! We're always glad to get an opinion from the place where things are happening, and find out what's up and why!

I always though the great lunge towards Georgia's side of things was odd!

None of their neighbors seems very upset about their situation, so there you go! Only NATO, and The EU seem to be upset, along with President Pork Pie, and his "Coalition of the Drilling" have a problem with Russia standing up for it's people. God knows I don't!

Hope to see you around the fire some more! A different point of view is a great thing to have!

Now if this thing only posts!

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Ivan,

Welcome to the Campfire, I hope you can join our gathering.

You posted your comment 9 hours before my last but it was not on my screen otherwise I would have replied to you. Most in the USA seem to have seen it though. Like Palooka, I am also interested in your interpretation of the situation with the view to the wider theatre including Iran. I was also interested also in what you said that nobody else wants to have any part of Georgia. Now that Saakashvily has made his move and suffered Putin’s unexpectedly quick and decisive retaliation he is reported to have lost his stomach for further aggression. This was not in the plans of his masters. If Putin confines his forces within Russian borders and Saakashvily has lost his will to carry the aggression further, how do you see the situation developing since this was intended as an opening shot in a wider operation? How are people in your locality viewing it?

Anonymous said...

As for the new twist on world suffering, I'm seeing it as Monkey See, Monkey Do, another resource war, hideous and barbaric and probably planned more to envoke a purpose to lead to something else, planned by yours truely (that evil man behind the curtian-cheney). The world needs a peace dictator to remove the apeheads of state worldwide and their guilty disinfo-mation media co-conspiritors and sentence them to a rockpile somewhere. I personally have a more severe parts-removal at both ends plan but I'm working on these sick feelings so not to become a monster repeating their ugliness.

It's wonderful to hear from russiawithlove. Just shows how important this campfire is.

Straying from the current thread...didn't Google say they would allow a certain level of spying re: the patriot act? A shot in the dark but perhaps Google has cooperated w/PTB spooks to extent there's no limit to the carte blanche they've taken, just like that secret room at at&t and as done in current olympic-land and said group of monitors are over zealous in their fear and loathing censorship of whatever they can find that contains certain words. So they feel justified when taking their lucious coffee breaks, fresh fruit and all. Welcome to the new world order where we're suppose to be overjoyed that we even have an internet even if it's monitored, diced up and censored by Un-americans porkers working at google. Probably far more advanced than we want to guess. mrsp, Planet Earth Prison and loving the campfire!

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

Yes the great leader of the Western World (PBUH) made it onto the humble screens of our parochial television. He was explaining to the world how the Russian bear had ruthlessly invaded a peaceful sovereign country and were systematically performing a program of ethnic cleansing (sound familiar?). So that is the way it is going to be played out.

Saakashvily will invite a US peace keeping force onto his territory which will be poised to snatch Iran’s northern oil fields in a pincer operation with forces now sailing to the Gulf.

Anonymous said...

call me curious but... was our little friend for real? or, as it turned out with the last one to come stumbling in, casting for fish? he's been welcomed despite seeming to have come in from the cold carrying a preconceived notion that as goes bushco, so goes the nation. one might wonder that, given the content of the subjects presented here and the accompaning commentary, the reprimand and challenge to think, thus implying such is currently not the case, was misguided at best. and given what happened in the gap between the 2 visits the curiosity and question seems appropriate.

but i for one hope i'm the one misguided by my own curiosity this time. i'd dearly love for ivan the mysterious to be real. and for him to continue to report to us from the front... p

Anonymous said...

Hey Guys and Gals,

I don't know, but ah.... maybe the shit is starting to hit the fan. War in Georgia, a HUGE pile of US Navy ships headed to the Middle East -with the Olympics to occupy the sheeple's knat-size brain. Geez, put a fork in this country -it's done!

And ya know, I think that only way we'll get outta this mess alive is if aliens were to come pm down and save us from ourselves -like in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (awesome flick, by the way). But I don't see that happening 'cause even aliens don't like 'Murikans. We're probably known throughout the gallaxy as "Ugly 'Murikan Assholes."

Yeah, I'm definitely not a patriot eventhough I spent 4 years in the military and 5 years as a "contractor" in the Middle East. My wife got a little tiffed at me when I refused to get up and put my hand over my heart during a baseball game here in Mormon HQ. I told her I'd get up and put my hand over my heart when this country stops torturing people, stops wars of conquest, stops imprisoning innocent people, stops propping up dictators, stops sending jobs overseas, stops corporate control over the government and restores the Constitution! Needless to say, she didn't give me any grief at the next baseball game.


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9817

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3615.shtml

-later

Dude

Anonymous said...

I hope everyone is checking in on project camelot daily, cause there's some real news developing on that site.

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

oxwips
goddam it, sorry guys been gone awhile and just found out that i neglected to put on the fact that IVAN WAS A CUT AND PASTE, and only put it on because it was forwarded to me from a fellow patriate (of sorts), and i was thinking that it would be a nice comment from where the action is taking place, shit!!! sorry fellow swimmers, it will not happen again, god i can't believe the denseness that seems to have moved in at the most inappropriate of times. anyway you guys already know that sometimes that last hit of LSD bent some of the hardware to the pushing the envelope stage and beyond. thank you in advance for not bringing out the tar and feathers for this one as age must have some mercy rights in the sack of human depravity.
anyway for those interested in the voices and translations of those folks taking it in the ass via the good ole USSOFA across the world its ........have to break it up into pieces i think.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/10/georgia-russia-blogger-from-poti-recounts-the-bombing/

please forgive a bumbling old fool
aho
mf

ps main house is .

http://globalvoicesonline.org/

Anonymous said...

No damage done from this vantage point. I was looking forward to live updates from where the action is, but , hey, that's the way it goes sometimes. We have all done exactly the same thing from time to time, so don't feel bad, mf. I think it's funny.

Rense is reporting that, according to Saakashvili, the US military will be taking over control of Georgian ports as part of a humanitarian relief effort.

Sure thing, boss!

I want to see that happen, while Russia stands by looking on.

Talk about a line in the sand!

-rockpicker

Anonymous said...

Montana,

I went to the link you provided for
http://globalvoicesonline.org/. I went through all the comments that contained a bunch of replies by Ivan. It was interesting.

MF, the only thing you should have done was say that it was comments from another site. lol you stuck the stick in the hornets nest.

Lots of stuff circulating around on the web about Aug and Sept being pivotal times for us and the rest of the world. Heard this before. World social chaos yet to come. Wonder what the PTB are going to do now. Wonder when the chaos like in Georgia comes to us. The manipulation of governments and societies has been escalating. News media putting a spin on every little thing that happens. No news source seems to be putting out dependable informations on facts and not spin.

How in the dark are we all?

Anonymous said...

its a small world!!!

pissin contests know no borders as they piss across borders over borders. and how soon we forget what pissin contests are really made of... frozen points of view and the energies of the denied emotions that hold them in place. when i woke up a week ago and heard tanks had invaded georgia overnight i looked out the window and the only tank i saw was the one harvesting rainwater and the one in my dream that nite holding 4000 gallons of alcohol from my back yard still.

go back to sleep, i told myself!

but wait, just beyond that is the neighbor who can't wait for busco to nuke the bastards. next to him is the bible thumper with the ten commandments posted in her yard. right down the road the redneck with the confederate flags waving from his jacked-up mud-runner. and around the corner, spittle drooling from the cracked smiles on their gloating faces, barely visible behind the huge mccain sign, is the couple sitting on their front porch reading their brand new copy of corsi's obama nation. just down the road but well off the road set back in the woods, the broken down trailer where strange cars come and go in the night. even half a world away, in another georgia, where ivan is the terrible or ivan is the truth depending on who you ask, this is the case....


(email exchange between DW and a friend...)

I ask a dear friend who is very connected to Russia if he had any resources that he could point me to, in order to understand the Russia/Georgia situation better. Here is what he replied. ~L

liz, dear hi!

offhand, can't point you to any reliable resources. perhaps, a starting point for exploration might be http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/ a world citizen journalism/blog aggregator. Also, institute for war and peace reporting, http://www.iwpr.net/

i lived in the north caucasus for close to a year, and was amazed to see how little the people of the north caucasus knew of each other's cultures and histories...never mind ethnic Russians...it took me 7 years of living in Russia to feel like i understood slavic russia a weebit...and the Caucasus is a total Looking Glass world, for me at least...

i have a journalist/ngo friend in Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, she was here in san diego last fall on a XXXXXXXXXXXX fellowship at Univ. of XXXXX ...i could never follow what she was talking about in regarding the area...and she got so impatient with her American student assistant who couldn't quite represent her story accurately in written form...

I am amazed more and more these days how hard it is do really develop a picture of what's going on in the world...and wondering if hoping to have any understanding is worth the effort : )

i used to read the London Guardian online for news...and with their non-reporting on some of the key Iran stuff, including H.Res. 362 and Muhammad Sahimi's work on the illegality of the UN sanctions (I called and left them voice messages on this and never heard back) am not so sure how reliable they are for news these days...

imagine there were an armed conflict on a Navajo Reservation in the US, which does happen from time to time, and it made international headlines. Would we know where to get an accurate reporting of what happened? Or just take understanding what really happened on 9/11...how would we answer that question from an outsider...

i've emailed my friend XXXXX and will see what she has to say...and contacted another journalist friend from North Ossetia...

bet this is encouraging!

warmly, XXXXX



a week later its pretty clear, even from half a world away, who hit whom despite continued mass media blitz in the west to the contrary. while thousands are burned alive some only wonder how well the new munitions are working and the dramatic tension builds in the global masses. one day soon its coming to our own neighborhoods. the operative word will be survival and millions will begin to act out their views... their rage, their fears, their hatreds, upon each other as the rancid piss runs down the leg.

mrs p said...

Did anybody see Democracy Now today with Michael Klare? Interesting his precise description of the TWO U.S. foreign policies in Washington, ie the C. Rice State Department one and the Dick Cheney one. It's very clear we are protecting the pipeline which CNN will make no mention of.

Anonymous said...

From Belgium,

My personal view on Georgian situation is that USA wanted to build up its forces in the region to be in a state of readiness for launching an attack on Iran. They encouraged Saakashvily to launch an attack on S Ossetia thinking Russia would go through the motions of protesting at the UN and making threats against Georgia which would be excuse for packing Georgia with US peacekeeping / humanitarian workers. It looks as though the Russians were forewarned of this plan and responded in the way they did. Sidestepping the question of who took whose bait and if we accept Ivan’s view that Russia does not want to own Georgia the important question is how Russia should now play the situation out? For now, it is maintaining the occupation whilst the diplomatic process plays out at the UN. It appears that America does not want a direct confrontation with Russia in Georgia and has left Saakashvily swinging. Would Russia’s withdrawal after diplomatic accords are signed be equivalent to Neville Chamberlin’s meeting with Hitler before the start of WWII or being aware of such a possibility should they maintain an occupation in order to scotch a launch into Iran?
In a way, the USA has wasted its window of opportunity for attacking Iran and with the home economy about to hit the ground this is a gamblers last throw of the dice and they may not have time to deal with a Russian occupation of Georgia. How do others read this situation?

The Internet is awash with war and diplomatic reports. Here is a You Tube two parter from Al Jazeera that I thought was objective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drb-84Cd2yY&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drb-84Cd2yY&NR=1

On the wider issue of where is all this taking us, here are two further You Tube clips on the issue. Unfortunately, both have been intermingled with religious messages which I feel are wholly inappropriate. If you disregard these and just consider the reportage content it is quite revealing.

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=uP3y1GSozLY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hpa6vPdBEU&NR=1

Anonymous said...

The way the leadership of any country that allies itself with the U.S. are dropping like flies (Great Britain, Pakistan, Georgia), I think that at the least, countries would think twice before becoming an ally of ours. Even Turkey is telling the U.S. that "you are not the boss of me" (or anyone) anymore.(Raw News)
Darth must be having a fit.

Anonymous said...

SATS, whoa, thats some scary shit about the closed door meeting of congress,man i can tell you from inside the heart of this one that the forces of nasty are getting stronger with each passing day, the impulse to acquire and store up substance materials which is totally alien to the life style of my entire being here on this leg of the journey is astounding in its forcefulness. my personal outlook on life has been one of simplicity, both of excess mental baggage and intellectual as well, and also the so called spiritual progress charts, as if such a thing has any value other then an exercise in the denial of the real.i mean of course that which is right in front of our faces,not that which we would wish to be there.
to this one this seems to be the locusts that jump around like legless maggots from this country's main LIE focus, the cocksucking bible, o i forgot that is one of the forbidden utterances which is more important then not being able to see the coffins of our dead children coming back from the wars that keep our vehicles running so as not to miss that great special at wallyworld's once in a life time plastic free for all. you know i see christians everyday and cannot for the life of me understand just how in the fuck that people can swallow that much horseshit without one shred of doubt of its authenticity, its just goddam creepy,but make no doubt about it these sleep shrouded fucks are well armed and will kill you at the drop of a hat, i have seen it in their eyes,. the local catholic church is undergoing a complete new facelift including roof, exterior paint,etc, some rich parishioner must of kacked and left a wad of money, the strange thing though is that its just business as usual and all is just peachy keen in the fucking jesus world of denial.;
hate to beat this already dead horse but its the gate to hell that was brought to this former paradise on mother earth and the legions of walking dead that made it the law, the rule,and the first rule of law was to subdue,and if that did not work then to just kill the subduies, and finish the job of turning paradise into a diseased graveyard fit for the walking dead to exist in,complete with the little insane trinkets that pass for meaning somehow.
man i just don't get it~~!

on a lighter note, spent the day yesterday with the mother of one of my good friends still in a state of shock with the death of her oldest son who took his own life with the help of a pistol shot through his eye,last week. just one more notch on the legacy of the wondrous nature of the american dream, conned into the military with promises of eventual reward for his participation in that same dream,... ended up washing computer parts with a chemical soup that left him with a brain cancer, the good folks then extricated the cancer but something had changed forever in the mans struggle to recover from this miracle of modern sciences ability to cure.
he heard voices,minimal at first but over the years got louder and louder, and these were not just voices of praise and good nature, these were voices of evil and death and blame and scare the living shit out of you voices, and finally the voices told him that if he did not kill himself that they (the voices) would kill his only connection with this world that actually meant a fucking thing, and that was his eight year old daughter,well of course this was the final voice that pushed him over the edge and with his daughter in the bathroom, him setting on the couch he placed the pistol to his eye and fired.
the point being as far as i am concerned is this, this very good friend of mine and even closer friend of my oldest son is just one more example of something that the conquering of this beautiful garden and the disease that was brought with it to be the main reason that this occurred, of course i am going to get flack for this statement but if you could look at such things through the eyes of to this day of the bible thumpers that are still taking indian children from the res and doing exactly the same thing that was started long ago things might make more sense.
500 years of arrogance is about to come to an end and as much as the fact that i am of mixed blood and as much to blame as anyone else for the carnage that awaits close by and the crocodile tears i shed for those other then the friends, brothers and sisters of good hearts that i have been blessed and privileged to have known i welcome the ending and the beginning of turtle island.
those of us that attend this council know all of this already but i wished to bring home the evidence of the long nightmare of the boat people that stands in my front yard this morning.
a grieving mother smothered in the loss of her eldest son whom as a child was bright with promise and now that promise is a box of ashes of which some of those are in a small vile on my desk.
sigie my brother, we shall hold you in our memory and as the giant tree people of yesterday's memorial softly told the grieving mother, be not afraid, we have your son and he is safe, sadly the words fell only on my ears.
aho
mf

stoney13 said...

Let the Gourd of Ashes fall. Let it fall now or tomorrow, it makes no difference.

This world of madness is living off the blood of it's children. It has lost the right to exist!