March 8, 2013

"Greedy Lying Bastards" film takes aim at climate change science deniers

EcoWatch ?@EcoWatch

Greedy Lying Bastards: New Film Exposes Climate Denial Machine - http://ecowatch.org/2013/greedy-bastards-climate-denial/ … @EcoWatch @DeSmogBlog @kgrandia @GreedyLyingBast


http://greedylyingbastards.com/

Daryl Hannah is the executive producer!

March 8, 2013

US Trade Office Calls ACTA Back From the Dead and Canada Complies

Anonymous ?@AnonyOps

YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!! --> "US Trade Office Calls ACTA Back From the Dead and Canada Complies" https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/us-trade-office-calls-acta-back-dead-and-canada-complies …


https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/us-trade-office-calls-acta-back-dead-and-canada-complies

Major announcements from the US and Canada today give a clear indication that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is coming back with a vengeance. ACTA is an agreement negotiated and signed by 11 countries, carrying intellectual property (IP) provisions that would negatively impact digital rights and innovation by ratcheting up IP enforcement measures beyond existing international standards. It will not take effect until six countries ratify the agreement, and Japan is so far the only country to have done so.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) posted its 2013 Trade Policy Agenda and 2012 Trade Policy Report, which covers all of its ongoing negotiations over trade agreements. It reports that the US is working with Japan and other negotiating parties “to ensure that ACTA can come into force as soon as possible,” and encourages Canada “to meet its [ACTA] obligations.”

Canada did not miss a beat to satisfy this demand. The Canadian government introduced a bill today to make Canada compliant with provisions of ACTA, paving the way for its eventual ratification. Among the provisions outlined within the 52-page bill are increased criminalization of copyright and trademark law as well as a new authority for Canadian customs officials to seize and destroy goods they can determine to be “counterfeit or pirated goods” without any judicial oversight.

As we’ve seen in the US, this power has often been abused. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have seized domain names for allegedly hosting infringing content without a court ruling. Extrajudicial takedowns of websites violate our rights to free expression by presupposing guilt and enacting punishment where legitimate content and speech is suppressed. Overall, this new bill is a glaring indication of how willing Canada is to cave to US pressure on intellectual property enforcement.

(More at the link.)

March 8, 2013

Investors Seek Ways to Profit From Global Warming

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-07/investors-seek-ways-to-profit-from-global-warming

Investing in climate change used to mean putting money into efforts to stop global warming. Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks. The appeal of cleantech has dimmed as efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have faltered: Venture capital and private equity investments fell 34 percent last year, to $5.8 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Now some investors are taking another approach. Working under the assumption that climate change is inevitable, they’re investing in businesses that will profit as the planet gets hotter. (The World Bank says the earth could warm by 4C by the end of the century.) Their strategies include buying water treatment companies, brokering deals for Australian farmland, and backing a startup that has engineered a mosquito to fight dengue, a disease that’s spreading as the mercury climbs.

Derivatives that help companies hedge against abnormal weather and natural catastrophes are drawing increased interest from some big players. In January, KKR (KKR) bought a 25 percent stake in Nephila Capital, an $8 billion Bermuda hedge fund that trades in weather derivatives. (The firm is named after a spider that, according to local folklore, can predict hurricanes.) “Climate risk is something people are paying more and more attention to,” says Barney Schauble, managing partner at Nephila Advisors, the firm’s U.S. arm. “More volatile weather creates more risk and more appetite to protect against that risk.”

Drought is helping spur business at Water Asset Management. The New York hedge fund, which has about $400 million under management, buys water rights and makes private equity and stock market investments in water treatment companies. “Not enough people are thinking long term of [water] as an asset that is worthy of ownership,” says Chief Operating Officer Marc Robert. “Climate change for us is a driver.”

(More at the link. Cross-posted from Occupy Underground.)

March 8, 2013

Investors Seek Ways to Profit From Global Warming

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-07/investors-seek-ways-to-profit-from-global-warming

Investing in climate change used to mean putting money into efforts to stop global warming. Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks. The appeal of cleantech has dimmed as efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have faltered: Venture capital and private equity investments fell 34 percent last year, to $5.8 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Now some investors are taking another approach. Working under the assumption that climate change is inevitable, they’re investing in businesses that will profit as the planet gets hotter. (The World Bank says the earth could warm by 4C by the end of the century.) Their strategies include buying water treatment companies, brokering deals for Australian farmland, and backing a startup that has engineered a mosquito to fight dengue, a disease that’s spreading as the mercury climbs.

Derivatives that help companies hedge against abnormal weather and natural catastrophes are drawing increased interest from some big players. In January, KKR (KKR) bought a 25 percent stake in Nephila Capital, an $8 billion Bermuda hedge fund that trades in weather derivatives. (The firm is named after a spider that, according to local folklore, can predict hurricanes.) “Climate risk is something people are paying more and more attention to,” says Barney Schauble, managing partner at Nephila Advisors, the firm’s U.S. arm. “More volatile weather creates more risk and more appetite to protect against that risk.”

Drought is helping spur business at Water Asset Management. The New York hedge fund, which has about $400 million under management, buys water rights and makes private equity and stock market investments in water treatment companies. “Not enough people are thinking long term of [water] as an asset that is worthy of ownership,” says Chief Operating Officer Marc Robert. “Climate change for us is a driver.”

(More at the link.)

March 8, 2013

The surveillance grid the rich plan to use on the population once the SHTF:

"As I have repeatedly stated, the oligarchs are using the current period in between financial panics to put in place the surveillance grid they plan to use on the population once the SHTF. It is of extreme importance that the masses stay apathetic and obedient in the process."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022467587

March 8, 2013

How Workers Laid Off from a Chicago Factory Took It Over Themselves

YES! Magazine ?@yesmagazine

How Workers Laid Off from a Chicago Factory Took It Over Themselves — by @GRITlaura http://bit.ly/13Ily7N #occupy


http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/how-cooperatives-are-driving-the-new-economy/chicago-factory-workers?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=socmed&utm_content=FlandersL_Chicagofactory&utm_campaign=130307_65coops

Four years ago, as the recession took hold and layoffs around the country were approaching 500,000 a month, a group of workers in Chicago saved a factory and inspired a nation. Fired by their boss, they occupied instead of leaving. Fired by a second boss, they occupied and formed a worker’s cooperative. Now they are worker-owners of a load of equipment and they’re setting up a factory in a new location.

All they want to do is to get back to making and selling windows. It shouldn’t be this hard to keep good jobs in Chicago, but “A cooperative can be a way of surviving, of moving forward,” says Armando Robles, one of the workers.

Robles was one of 250 workers fired in December 2008 without notice or severance by Republic Windows and Doors when the company announced it was closing its Chicago factory. The company said that it could no longer operate because it had lost its line of credit with Bank of America. The irony of the situation was clear. Bank of America had received billions in government bailouts to keep the economy working, and yet the Republic workers were being laid off without their entitled payments and benefits. Supported by their union, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, Robles and his fellow workers voted to resist. They occupied the plant for six days, winning back pay, severance, and time for a new company to take ownership. Generating thousands of articles and news reports about their fight, they encouraged a downcast nation, even an incoming U.S. president.

At a press conference during the factory occupation, then President-elect Barack Obama declared: “When it comes to the situation here in Chicago, with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned … I think they are absolutely right.”

(More at the link.)

March 8, 2013

They want to shut down our schools, we'll shut down the city. (Update)

ChicagoTeachersUnion ?@CTULocal1

Rally and March to Stop School Closings - March 27th http://ow.ly/ivHPc


http://www.ctunet.com/blog/rally-and-march-to-stop-school-closings

---

ChicagoTeachersUnion ?@CTULocal1

Parents, students, community residents prepare for civil disobedience in school closing fight http://ow.ly/iVmyI

http://www.ctunet.com/blog/parents-students-and-community-residents-prepare-for-civil-disobedience-in-school-closing-fight

CHICAGO – Scores of parents, students, teachers, public school employees and community residents are gearing up for the next stage in their fight to save 129 schools from the chopping block. While the District contemplates how many neighborhood schools they will shutter this year, taxpayers who have had enough of these top-down, draconian measures are strategizing on how to elevate their voices in the school closing fight.

An anti-school closings march and rally is planned for 4 p.m. on March 27 in downtown Chicago. Demonstrators will gather at Daley Plaza, proceed to City Hall and then head toward the Board of Education.

(More at the link.)

March 7, 2013

Bush Family Evil Empire join the rush to privatize the world's water supplies

References for when "Fuck Jeb Bush" is not enough, in and of itself.

http://climatesoscanada.org/blog/2013/02/15/profiting-from-your-thirst-as-global-elite-rush-to-control-water-worldwide/


Former President George H.W. Bush’s Family Bought 300,000 Acres on South America’s and World’s Largest Aquifer, Acuifero Guaraní

In my 2008 article, I overlooked the astonishingly large land purchases (298,840 acres, to be exact) by the Bush family in 2005 and 2006. In 2006, while on a trip to Paraguay for the United Nation’s children’s group UNICEF, Jenna Bush (daughter of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush) reportedly bought 98,840 acres of land in Chaco, Paraguay, near the Triple Frontier (Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay). This land is said to be near the 200,000 acres purchased by her grandfather, George H.W. Bush, in 2005.

The lands purchased by the Bush family sit over not only South America’s largest aquifer — but the world’s as well — Acuifero Guaraní, which runs beneath Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This aquifer is larger than Texas and California combined.

Online political magazine Counterpunch quoted Argentinean pacifist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the winner of 1981 Nobel Peace Prize, who “warned that the real war will be fought not for oil, but for water, and recalled that Acuifero Guaraní is one of the largest underground water reserves in South America….”

According to Wikipedia, this aquifer covers 1,200,000 km², with a volume of about 40,000 km³, a thickness of between 50 m and 800 m and a maximum depth of about 1,800 m. It is estimated to contain about 37,000 km³ of water (arguably the largest single body of groundwater in the world, although the overall volume of the constituent parts of the Great Artesian Basin is much larger), with a total recharge rate of about 166 km³/year from precipitation. It is said that this vast underground reservoir could supply fresh drinking water to the world for 200 years.

(More at the link. For more reading: )

Bill C-45 removes 99% of Canada's lakes and rivers from the protected list

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/12/27/ns-protected-waterways-bill.html?cmp=rss

Greeks Stand Up to Protect Their Water From Privatization:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022168806

Nestle Group -"Access to Water Is Not Your Right"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022179129


Enron, an enormous supporter and contributor to George W. Bush, were early adopters of the hydraulic empire (via KamaAina) :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azurix
Azurix Corp. is a water services company, headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company owned and operated facilities in North America (mainly Canada), Europe, and South America. In 2007, Azurix was awarded a $165 million claim against the government of Argentina by an international arbitrator, the company is currently involved in a dispute over Argentina's refusal to pay the claim.

Azurix was formed when Enron Corporation purchased Wessex Water in 1998. In June 1999 it was part-floated on the NYSE stock exchange, with Enron retaining 34% ownership. The company was formed with an IPO of $800 million and an opening stock price of $22.00, which fell to $2.00 within two years. The business was a disaster for Enron, and in April 2001 Enron announced it would break up Azurix and sell its assets. Enron eventually sold Azurix North America and Azurix Industrial Operations to American Water Works for $141.5 million.

March 7, 2013

Occupy Wall Street Has Raised Enough Money To Abolish $11,236,570 Of Personal Debt

nancy bowen ?@lavenderblue27

Occupy Wall Street Has Raised Enough Money To Abolish $11,236,570 Of Personal Debt http://shar.es/jTzf7 via @sharethis
Retweeted by OccupyIreland


http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/occupy-wall-street-has-raised-enough

Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

Called a “bailout of the people by the people,” jubilee comes from many faith traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A jubilee is an event in which all debts are cancelled and all those in bondage are set free.

Banks sell debt for pennies on the dollar on a shadowy speculative market of debt buyers who then turn around and try to collect the full amount from debtors. The Rolling Jubilee intervenes by buying debt, keeping it out of the hands of collectors, and then abolishing it. The objective being not to make a profit, but to help each other out and highlight how the predatory debt system affects all our families and communities.

Since they launched their effort, they have raised $561,587 which will purchase and abolish $11,236,570 of personal debt.

(A few links at the article page.)

March 7, 2013

Wells Fargo Typo Victim Dies in Court

via Carlos of Occupy Fights Foreclosures. Cross-posted from Occupy Underground.

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-03-07/news/wells-fargo-typo-victim-dead-larry-delassus/full/

On the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, in a Torrance courtroom, Larry Delassus' heart stopped as he watched his attorney argue his negligence and discrimination case against banking behemoth Wells Fargo.

His death came more than two years after Wells Fargo mistakenly mixed up his Hermosa Beach address with that of a neighbor in the same condo complex. The bank's typo led Wells Fargo to demand that Delassus pay $13,361.90 ­— two years of late property taxes the bank said it had paid on his behalf in order to keep his Wells Fargo mortgage afloat.

But Delassus, a quiet man who suffered from the rare blood-clot disorder Budd-Chiari syndrome and was often hospitalized, didn't owe a penny in taxes.

(More at the link.)