Archive for July 2014
Gaza conflict: Israel calls up 16,000 reserve soldiers
Gaza conflict: Israel calls up 16,000 reserve soldiers
‘Israel is calling up 16,000 extra reservists to bolster its military as the conflict in Gaza continues.
The move brings the total number of reserves called up by Israel to 86,000. Officials say it will give the army scope to maintain operations.
Separately, Israel has pledged to investigate a strike on a UN-run school that killed at least 16 people.
The UN says it is sheltering 225,178 Palestinians in 86 shelters across Gaza, with 200,000 more displaced.’
Razing Gaza: Before and after satellite images show the true devastation of Israel’s bombardment as 700 homes and mosques are turned to rubble and 400 craters blight the war zone
Razing Gaza: Before and after satellite images show the true devastation of Israel’s bombardment as 700 homes and mosques are turned to rubble and 400 craters blight the war zone
‘The obliteration of Gaza from relentless Israeli air strikes and tank shelling was laid bare today in a series of satellite images charting the escalating violence across the region.
Analysis from UN satellite experts reveal how hundreds of buildings have been razed to the ground in a series of attacks that have killed more than 1,300 Palestinians over the last three weeks.
Using images from July 6 – before the conflict began – and comparing them with ones from July 25, they have identified 700 destroyed structures, many of them homes and mosques.’
Blogger arrested in 2am raid on his home after claiming Lee Rigby’s murder was an anti-Islam HOAX
Blogger arrested in 2am raid on his home after claiming Lee Rigby’s murder was an anti-Islam HOAX
‘A blogger who claimed the murder of soldier Lee Rigby was a hoax aimed at stirring up anti-Islam hatred was arrested in a 2am raid yesterday.
Christopher Spivey, 51, a tattoo artist from Rochford, Essex, was arrested on suspicion of harassment via social media after police raided his home and took away computer equipment.
Mr Spivey claimed in internet articles that he spent hours researching footage of Mr Rigby’s killing and the aftermath to ‘prove’ that the British establishment had faked the murder to incite hatred towards Muslims.’
64% more sleep on London streets due to coalition neglect by joehalewood
64% more sleep on London streets due to coalition neglect
by joehalewood Picture displayed by Street Democracy UK
Grant Shapps the Conservative Party Chair used to be the minister for housing and in 2009 when shadow minister in opposition constantly attacked the numbers of rough sleepers in London that Labour has allowed to happen. On taking office a press release said: As you can see Grant Shapps was a man of his word […]
Tag :
Bedroom Tax,
Benefits,
Corrupt Capitalism,
debt,
Disabled,
DWP,
Homeless,
Housing Issues,
Iain Duncan Smith,
Meet Paul Singer: the greedy capital vulture forcing whole nations into poverty by Tom Pride
Meet Paul Singer: the greedy capital vulture forcing whole nations into poverty
by Tom Pride Picture displayed by Street Democracy UK
The fact you’ve probably never heard of Paul Singer says a lot about the way the world is run today.
Whole nations have been driven into poverty by Mr Singer and millions of people forced to live in extreme penury by his greed.
Singer doesn’t lend money – he buys up old debts then like an old-style gangster he demands outrageous interest payments for them.
The private companies which do this are known as vulture funds and Singer is the greediest vulture of them all.
As just one example example of his activities, a few years ago Singer bought up the Republic of Congo’s historic debts for $10 million and demanded the poverty stricken nation pay him back at a rate of over 1,000%.
The country – scared of the consequences of defaulting – duly paid Singer $127 million, money which could have been spent on roads, hospitals and schools.
As part of the deal, Singer also gets substantial profits from the country’s oil sales, directing much-needed money away from the state and into his own pocket.
Singer has been demanding interest rate payments from Argentina of over 30% and Argentina this week decided to default rather than send its citizens into poverty just to fill Singer’s coffers with more money.
But what does Singer do with all this money?
He openly uses it to support the Republican Party – Singer was one of George W Bush’s biggest donors and also financed Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
And according to Fortune magazine, Singer is a “passionate defender of the 1%“.
Singer – like most of the people who are actually running the world’s finances – hates publicity and tries very hard to be anonymous.
He also apparently hates the word ‘vulture’ – probably because he realises it paints a far too realistic picture of what he and his ilk actually do. They prefer to hide behind and couch their activities in financial gobbledygook which they know nobody – including themselves – can understand.
It’s about time greedy vultures like Singer were exposed to the world for the bloodsucking racketeers they are.
For more click here:
Meet Paul Singer: the greedy capital vulture forcing whole nations into poverty
by Tom PrideTories and Lib Dems engineer fastest fall in wages since Victorian times by Mike Sivier
Tories and Lib Dems engineer fastest fall in wages since Victorian timesby Mike Sivier Pictures displayed by Street Democracy UK
David Cameron must be so proud. He wanted a return to the Victorian era and that is exactly what he has achieved. Wages have nosedived, meaning the gap between the richest and poorest is larger than it has ever been; we already know that diseases once thought long-gone are stalking our streets once again while the […]
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Confirmed – The FULL Impact of Cuts Disabled People Face by samedifference1
Confirmed – The FULL Impact of Cuts Disabled People Face
by samedifference1 Picture displayed by Street Democracy UK
Cross posted from here at the request of Sue Marsh.
"Since the coalition came to power, sick and disabled people have claimed we are being fundamentally harmed by the coalition welfare reforms. Not scroungers or skivers, but people living with long term serious illnesses like me, or who live with physical disabilities. Adults AND children. Young and old. People with terminal conditions, people with kidney or heart failure, people waiting for transplants and even people in comas. None have been spared. The government repeatedly assure you they have.
The government have of course denied that they are putting an unreasonable share of austerity cuts on us. Repeatedly and often aggressively. This is how they resound to the UN of all people :
Since 2011, almost every main voice involved in the services and systems that support sick and disabled people have argued that we must know how all of the changes TOGETHER have affected us so particularly.
Everything we rely on has been cut severely - in some cases by up to 40%. Disability benefits, sickness benefits, social care services, housing support, legal aid for tribunals, respite care, the independent living fund, council tax relief, higher education funding, everything.
It is very possible that if you were affected by one of the changes, you were affected by several or even all of them.
Whilst the government paid lip service to assessing what impact their reforms would have on sick and disabled people, they only did so one by one. They always claimed it was impossible to assess them all together and specifically, how they would affect disabled people when combined.
It has been a long and dishonest journey. As with so many things, the government have done everything in their power to keep the figures from the public.
They said that it wasn't possible despite a petition gathering over 100,000 signatures calling for what they called a "cumulative impact assessment" or CIA.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.
The government treated the debate it generated in parliament - a debate sick and disabled people themselves worked so hard for - like a Punch and Judy show of partisan nonsense. You can watch it for yourself if you click on the following link :
They said it wasn't "robust" when both the very well respected Dr Simon Duffy from the Centre for Welfare Rerform and the equally well respected think tank Demos produced models they believed were viable.
And finally, just 2 days ago, Lord Freud, the failed millionaire ex-banker who re-designed our entire welfare system in just 3 weeks, wrote an official response to the SSAC, the government's own Social Security Advisory Committee, who also called for a CIA relating to disability, confirming yet again, that he believed it was impossible to assess all of the changes sick and disabled people have faced and claiming that the IFS, the all powerful Institute for Fiscal Studies, agreed with him.
This was yet another lie from Freud - there is no other word for it. As the IFS have confirmed
“We can’t find anything we have written down saying we can’t do a CIA....We do think it is possible to do a CIA of tax and benefit changes for the disabled population as a whole."
As it happens, they did one themselves for Wales
Today, at the request of the European Human Rights Commission, (EHRC) NIESR, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research have produced a definitive CIA and it is shocking equalityhumanrights.
For more click here:Confirmed – The FULL Impact of Cuts Disabled People Face
by samedifference1‘Eavesdropping on America’: The NSA’s Orwellian Surveillance State
‘Eavesdropping on America’: The NSA’s Orwellian Surveillance State
‘As a matter of faith, some people believe that God can see and hear everything. But as a matter of fact, the U.S. government now has the kind of surveillance powers formerly attributed only to a supreme being.
Top “national security” officials in Washington now have the determination and tech prowess to keep tabs on billions of people. No one elected Uncle Sam to play God. But a dire shortage of democratic constraints has enabled the U.S. surveillance state to keep expanding with steely resolve.
By the time Edward Snowden used NSA documents to expose — beyond any doubt — a global surveillance dragnet, the situation had deteriorated so badly because the Bush and Obama administrations were able to dismiss earlier warnings to the public as little more than heresy.’
The Elite, the ‘Great Game’ and World War III
The Elite, the ‘Great Game’ and World War III
‘The control of the US, and of global politics, by the wealthiest families of the planet is exercised in a powerful, profound and clandestine manner. This control began in Europe and has a continuity that can be traced back to the time when the bankers discovered it was more profitable to give loans to governments than to needy individuals.
These banking families and their subservient beneficiaries have come to own most major businesses over the two centuries during which they have secretly and increasingly organised themselves as controllers of governments worldwide and as arbiters of war and peace.
Unless we understand this we will be unable to understand the real reasons for the two world wars and the impending Third World War, a war that is almost certain to begin as a consequence of the US attempt to seize and control Central Asia. The only way out is for the US to back off – something the people of the US and the world want, but the elite does not.’
Big Pharma Meds Almost Sent Me to an Early Grave, While Pot Helped Ease My Disease
Big Pharma Meds Almost Sent Me to an Early Grave, While Pot Helped Ease My Disease
‘I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease 10 years ago this August, and looking back those were some pretty horrific days. Within months of being diagnosed I was ready for my first (and hopefully only) surgery to remove over a foot of my diseased colon. At 18 years old I was getting an unintentional crash course on how the American healthcare system works, and the hell of being a human lab rat for corporate pharmaceuticals.
After almost a decade of taking and struggling to pay for Johnson & Johnson’s most profitable drug, Remicade—a drug that brought in $9 billion last year alone—I sought to find out more about this relatively new drug, which was first approved, only for use in treating patients with Crohn’s disease, by the FDA in 1998. Remicade would later be approved to treat seven more conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and psoriasis. What I found was disappointing, but unfortunately, not all that unexpected in the American healthcare system.’
Ebola outbreak may already be uncontrollable; Monsanto invests in Ebola treatment drug company as pandemic spreads
Ebola outbreak may already be uncontrollable; Monsanto invests in Ebola treatment drug company as pandemic spreads
‘A global outbreak of deadly Ebola is underway and has crossed national borders. One infected victim of the horrifying disease flew on international flights, vomiting on board and exposing hundreds of people to the deadly virus which can be transmitted through airborne particles. Ebola has an 8-10 day incubation period, meaning thousands of people could be carrying it right now and spreading it across the cities of the world without even knowing it.’
The Seven Pillars of the Matrix
The Seven Pillars of the Matrix
‘Contemporary baptized, corporatized and sanitized man rarely has the occasion to question his identity, and when he does a typical response might be, “I am product manager for a large retail chain, married to Betty, father of Johnny, a Democrat, Steelers fan and a Lutheran.”
His answers imply not only his beliefs but the many responsibilities, rules and restrictions he is subjected to. Few if any of these were ever negotiated- they were imposed on him yet he still considers himself free.’
Care UK pay cuts made me homeless, says Doncaster striker
Care UK pay cuts made me homeless, says Doncaster striker
‘Care UK workers in Doncaster are fighting pay cuts so devastating that they have already made one woman worker homeless.
Mags Dalton has been a care worker for 26 years. But pay cuts of £400 a month mean she can’t afford her rent anymore—and will be forced to move out of the city altogether.
Mags told Socialist Worker, “I only moved into my house about a year ago. The move cost quite a lot—paying a bond, rent and hiring a van. Then Care UK took over our workplace in September, and by December they were cutting wages.’
Transcending the Parasitic Fear Agenda
Transcending the Parasitic Fear Agenda
‘Everyone experiences fear. It’s a jarring emotion that gets amplified by the reptilian fight or flight side of our human make up. The problem comes when the prompt is deliberately manufactured and therefore non-authentic, which is why the manipulators use it so frequently and to such an extent. Fear interferes with conscious awareness, clear thinking, true knowing and in turn conscious behavior and makes for a highly manipulable state of being.
It’s not only toxic and debilitating, but fear is contagious as well as addicting.’
Armed police officer charged with murder over Azelle Rodney shooting
Armed police officer charged with murder over Azelle Rodney shooting
‘A decorated former Scotland Yard marksman involved in a botched armed operation against a drugs gang was charged yesterday with murdering one of the suspects.
Known only as E7, he is just the third officer in the last two decades to be charged with murdering a suspect in the line of duty.
The officer was charged after a public inquiry found last year that the decision to fire two fatal bursts of gunfire at Azelle Rodney nine years ago was irrational and without “lawful justification”.’
Killed by benefits cuts: Starving soldier died ‘as result of Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reform’
Killed by benefits cuts: Starving soldier died ‘as result of Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reform’
‘A diabetic ex-soldier died starving and skint after officials axed his benefits.
David Clapson, 59, was stripped of the cash after missing an appointment under harsh Coalition reforms.
He died in Stevenage, Herts, with just £3.44 left in his account.’
‘Big Brother’ is watching you! Airport becomes first in the world to TRACK passengers’ movements by mobile phone
‘Big Brother’ is watching you! Airport becomes first in the world to TRACK passengers’ movements by mobile phone
‘Finland’s largest airport will be the first in the world to track passengers’ movements in real-time – from the car park to the departure gate.
Dozens of sensors throughout Helsinki Airport will automatically pinpoint the location of mobile phones with wifi setting turned on – as part of a plan that is drawing criticism from privacy advocates.
The system, which aims to monitor crowds and eliminate bottlenecks at security checkpoints or shopping areas, will send alerts to passengers if their departure times or gates change.’
Australian court’s gagging order condemned as ‘abuse of legal process’
Australian court’s gagging order condemned as ‘abuse of legal process’
‘A sweeping gagging order issued by an Australian court to block reporting of bribery allegations involving several international political leaders has been attacked by journalists and lawyers as “unacceptable” and “an abuse of legal process”.
The extraordinary prohibition emerged from a criminal case in the Australian courts and relates to part of an ongoing investigation by prosecutors across three continents into allegations of multimillion-pound bribes paid in the banknote-printing industry.
Business executives at a company called Securency are alleged to have conspired to win lucrative contracts to print plastic notes in several south-east Asian countries allegedly by paying bribes to high-ranking politicians and officials between 1999 and 2005.’
Prince Philip’s ex-aide accused of three sex attacks on girl aged 12 while he was working for Royal Family
Prince Philip’s ex-aide accused of three sex attacks on girl aged 12 while he was working for Royal Family
‘A trusted former aide to Prince Philip and Princess Anne will face court next week accused of sexually assaulting a girl of 12 while he was working for the Royal Family in the early 70s.
Ex-Marine Benjamin Herman, 79, has been charged with three counts of indecent assault and one of attempted indecent assault on the child when he was Philip’s equerry – or personal attendant – at Buckingham Palace.
The Lieutenant-Colonel later went on to become Princess Anne’s private secretary, before returning to the military.’
If Ebola Hits U.S., Even Healthy Americans Will be Quarantined
If Ebola Hits U.S., Even Healthy Americans Will be Quarantined
‘With concerns growing over the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed 670 people in West Africa, preparations are already underway in the United States, where even healthy Americans will be subjected to forced quarantine in the event of an Ebola pandemic.
Western governments are now issuing alerts to doctors to be on the lookout for symptoms of the disease after an infected Liberian man was found to have traveled through a major transport hub in Nigeria. The World Health Organization has called the outbreak the worst on record, while Doctors Without Borders says the situation is “out of control.”’
This Is What Is Going To Happen If Ebola Comes To America
This Is What Is Going To Happen If Ebola Comes To America
‘If the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history reaches the United States, federal law permits “the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease”. These individuals can be “detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary”.
In other words, the federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will, take them to detention facilities and hold them there for as long as they feel it is “reasonably necessary”. In addition, as you will read about below, the federal government has the authority “to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill”.
If you want to look at these laws in the broadest sense, they pretty much give the federal government the power to do almost anything that they want with us in the event of a major pandemic. Of course such a scenario probably would not be called “marital law”, but it would probably feel a lot like it.’
Ebola outbreak: Britain is ready for disease, says Jeremy Hunt
Ebola outbreak: Britain is ready for disease, says Jeremy Hunt
‘Britain is ready for the Ebola outbreak if it arrives in the UK, Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary has vowed.
Mr Hunt said the expertise and experience of NHS medical staff meant that Britain could ‘deal with anything’ with might threaten public health in the coming weeks.
US health officials warned that Western countries were just ‘one plane ride away’ from infection while David Cameron said the Ebola outbreak was a ‘very serious threat’ to the UK .’
Ebola outbreak: UK officials 'not prepared' to deal with virus arriving at border, union leader warns
‘UK border officials feel they are unprepared to deal with the threat of the Ebola virus arriving in Britain, a union leader has said.
It comes after the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond concluded a meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra by trying to reassure the public that the disease was “not a significant risk to the UK”.
Public Health England has told The Independent that it has been briefing the UK Border Agency, airlines, doctors and Government departments on what needs to happen if a person with Ebola arrives.’
Rothschild Zionist David Cameron likens Russia’s actions in Ukraine to the aggression against Belgium and Poland that sparked the world wars
Rothschild Zionist David Cameron likens Russia’s actions in Ukraine to the aggression against Belgium and Poland that sparked the world wars
‘David Cameron compared Russia’s hostility towards Ukraine with the build-up to the two world wars last night, as he warned economic sanctions could get tougher.
The Prime Minister likened the situation to Belgium and Poland ‘being trampled on’ before wars broke out in Europe last century.
Speaking to voters in Warrington, he said: ‘This year we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War, and that war in part was about the right of a small country, Belgium, not to be trampled on by its neighbours.’
Time to evict Tony Blair from the Middle East – and the world stage as a whole
Time to evict Tony Blair from the Middle East – and the world stage as a whole
‘Seven years ago Tony Blair was appointed as a special envoy to the Middle East.
It came just hours after he resigned as Prime Minister. While it has no salary it pays him huge dividends in the form of political access and the appearance of still having some clout.
His office – funded at around £2million a year by the EU, UN, US and Russia – is tasked with promoting the economic development of Palestine.’