statism watch

It’s good to know this history. Everyone should take a course in media studies at some point in their life to see just how easily we are manipulated. Just look at how the threat of the evil rioting bombing protesters has been played up and heralded in the media in just the last couple of weeks. Exhibits A-E: Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Police arrest ‘middle-aged white guy’ in G20 security raid | US issues G20 travel alert for Toronto | Ont. police track suspicious fertilizer purchase | America would send troops to G8/G20 if required

Related: Police push ahead with firebombing investigation | Three held in bank firebombing may face terrorism charges | Ottawa RBC firebomb case: I’m not linked to the attack, ex-government worker who rented SUV says | Bank firebomb suspects hung out briefly at Ottawa cafe | Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | RBC firebombed as protest, group claims

Jesse Freeston, Toronto Media Coop
June 23, 2010

In August 23rd, 1927, Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Massachusetts. The two were convicted of a double-murder committed during an armed robbery. The trial and media coverage focused on the political ideology of the two men, treating as secondary the material evidence related to the crime itself. The two men were members of the Galleanist Anarchist movement, and the trial was a watershed moment in the campaign to delegitimize the global anarchist movement as a whole.

The politicization of the trial extended to Judge Webster Thayer, who allegedly referred to the defendants as “anarchist bastards.” This is one example of the many ways that the pair’s political activities and beliefs were invoked in a way that prohibited a fair trial from proceeding. Some of the most renowned thinkers of the day spoke out against the prejudice surrounding the trial, such as Upton Sinclair and Walter Lippmann. Fifty years later, a Massachusetts government commission confirmed the trial had been unfair and Governor Michael Dukakis declared a “Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Day.”

Sacco and Vanzetti come to Ottawa

On Saturday, Ottawa police announced the charging of three well-known Ottawa activists in connection with the May 18th arson of a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada. What follows is not a comment on the event in question, nor the guilt or innocence of the accused, but a condemnation of the treatment of the accused by the media and Ottawa police.

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Related: Iran to send ship through Gaza blockade | Iran Threatens to Stop Western Ships if Subjected to Cargo Inspection | Israel to allow limited imports to Gaza, economic siege to remain in place | Gaza flotilla attack: activist releases new footage | Freedom flotilla assault timeline unclear, Israel holding confiscated video evidence | Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | George Galloway, on aid mission to Gaza, is deported from Egypt | UN body endorses Gaza war crimes report | UN body debates Gaza war crimes report | UN condemns ‘war crimes’ in Gaza | Israeli soldiers allege abuses against Palestinians | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Israeli military whistleblowers: troops fired on children | Israel pulls land forces from Gaza, gunboats continue shelling coast | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Israel steps up Gaza withdrawal after ceasefire | Hamas joins fragile Israeli ceasefire | Israel declares ceasefire | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | Aid destroyed as UN’s Gaza HQ hit by Israeli fire | Protests over Israel’s Gaza offensive held in Canadian, world cities | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | UN relief agency halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff | Rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel | Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza | Tanks, rockets, death and terror: Gazan civilian catastrophe unfolding | They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
June 23, 2010

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to tighten the blockade against Gaza, the castrated corporate media in the U.S. is reporting that Israeli restrictions are being eased.

Last week, Netanyahu’s office released a statement in English that vowed to “liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza” and “Expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision”.

The headlines quickly followed:

“Israel Eases Restrictions on Goods Bound for Gaza Strip” (Washington Post)
“Israel to Ease Gaza Land Blockade” (New York Times)
“Israel to Ease Blockade of Gaza, Cabinet Says” (CNN)
“Israel says it will ease Gaza blockade” (MSNBC)

And on and on…

However, none of these outlets reported on the fact that Netanyahu’s security cabinet never actually reached any agreement to do anything regarding the blockade.

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Related: Greek anti-austerity strikes hit tourists | The Real Meaning of ‘Economic Austerity’: IMF/World Bank devastation | For G20 leaders, fiscal austerity is the new normal | IMF says Spain taking right steps towards stability | Harper urges austerity, Obama stimulus in urge for G20 to boost economic recovery | Carney warns of ‘age of austerity’, global outlook ‘getting worse’ | Spanish bailout readied as EU chief warns ‘democracy could disappear’ in debt ridden states | Europe embraces the cult of austerity — but at what cost? | British face big spending cuts as coalition shows unity on austerity | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package

Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster
June 23, 2010

The devastating results of Keynesianism didn’t take hold of the western world until after WWII. Cycles were created for the accumulation of wealth. A boom occurs and you get wealthy from investments on the way up and even wealthier on the way down, because the elitists are controlling the supply of money and credit and interest rates. That is the real underlying mission of the Fed, which is owned by banking and Wall Street. All the power to control markets and create inflation and deflation lies with the Federal Reserve. Politicians do not create monetary policy, the Fed does. The politicians do as they are told. They know from time to time there will be economic pain, but the payoffs are so good they learn to live with it.

This time the damage is so bad that the Fed has been forced to monetize trillions of dollars of debt. The disease this time has spread to Europe with the ECB, using, quantitative easing by simply creating money out of thin air. That is something they said they would never do. The only real liquidity in Europe is emanating from the ECB and the Fed. We believe that eventually countries will fail, as Iceland has. You know all the possible victims. There are presently 20 of them including the US and UK. Three-card Monte games do not last forever. If liquidity is that scarce then where is the money coming from? The only place it could be coming from is the Fed. Not only is a $2 trillion bailout in process, but also as banks and thrift institutions fail stress tests some will be bailed out by being absorbed by other supposedly solvent institutions. When that option is gone then governments must bail them out. When the monetization hits the entire system collapses. After 50 or more years in this business we believe the system is definitely going to fold.

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Another well-crafted article by a polished apologist for the security state. Here’s an idea – don’t have a corrupt Keynesian economic system, don’t have fake money, don’t manipulate and micromanage state economies, don’t have global institutions to try and control the resultant house of cards, don’t have global summits. Problem solved.

Related: G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Torontanamo Bay: Life inside the G20 ‘security zone’ | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Construction begins on Toronto G20 security barrier | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Colin Freeze, The Globe and Mail
June 23, 2010

Ensuring the safety of world leaders, authorities face a ‘bottomless barrel of demands’

The moment Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided Canada would host this week’s G20 meeting, Toronto was fated to become a fortified city.

Police and military leaders decided that Muskoka, host of the G8 summit, could not also accommodate the G20 to follow. So they were forced to accept that dozens of world leaders would be crammed into the densest corners of Canada’s largest city — and that, to protect them, authorities would need to install three-metre-high fences and summon thousands of police, leaving residents bemused and bothered.

This is the new reality of hosting global summits in an urban setting, when the only thing officials agree on is that they can’t spend too much to safeguard against the nightmare of playing host to an international incident.

“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” said former top Mountie Norman Inkster, arguing today’s realities bear no resemblance to the last time Toronto hosted such a summit — when he was commissioner in 1988. “This is an entirely different scene now.” [Ed. Note: Eg; a fascist system is required now to fend off all the government-staged terror. Is that it?.]

The ranks of world leaders and entourages attending such summits are swelling to the point that smaller communities cannot accommodate them. And the decision to host not just the G8 but the G20, with its attendant entourage, is about more than the mere addition of numbers — it’s about adding group of countries with diverse political baggage, which in turn multiplies the flanks authorities have to protect in one of the world’s most multicultural cities.

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Related: Canwest sells newspapers to creditor group for $1.1B | Shaw buying up CanWest TV assets from Goldman-Sachs | Goldman appeals CanWest, Shaw deal | Shaw Cable moves for acquisition of controlling share in Canwest Global | Tipping point at CanWest | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Tech giants respond to Media with ideas on charging readers for news online | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Ottawa considering aid for private broadcasters | The Death of Canadian Journalism | Prepackaged News

Susan Krashinsky, The Globe and Mail
June 23, 2010

The judge ordered the feuding parties to negotiate, and after 16 hours of talks, the sale of the TV stations was reached

It took more than 16 hours of negotiations and $11-million to remove the final roadblock to the purchase of the CanWest TV empire by Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.B-T19.44-0.20-1.02%) — and to mark the end of the Asper family’s involvement in the broadcasting company Izzy Asper founded with a single TV station in 1974.

An Ontario court approved the sale to Shaw on Wednesday, after the company resolved a dispute with a shareholder group led by the Aspers, who objected to the deal. On Tuesday, Madam Justice Sarah Pepall called the situation “ridiculous” and ordered lawyers to resolve it out of court.

Talks ran through the day on Tuesday until 2 a.m. Wednesday, and resumed in the morning, ending in the settlement.

In February, Shaw won court approval to invest in a restructured CanWest, but encountered resistance from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which still controlled a group of the company’s lucrative specialty channels. In May, Shaw announced it would pay $700-million for those channels, raising the price of its deal to $2-billion in total, and raising its stake in CanWest to 100 per cent.

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Something like half the workforce in Greece works for the government, so this is an interesting situation as the state itself is undergoing a schism. The Communist movement in Greece is not just about the poor, it’s part of the establishment, though they differentiate themselves from the Socialist PM Papandreou and the collapsed ‘Socialist’ system in Russia. Whatever. It’s still very upsetting how the people in this country are going to suffer since their ruling party blew out the economy with the able assistance, as always, of Goldman-Sachs.

Related: Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Greece swallows tough medicine in $150B bailout, more spending cuts announced | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | New austerity measures essential, says Greek PM | Greek debt crisis: Europe feels shockwaves as bailout falters | Standard & Poor’s downgrade Greek credit rating to junk status | Greek bailout not limited to €45bn, Flaherty warns | IMF to move quickly on Greek request for loan | Greek PM calls for EU bailout loans | Greek civil servants strike, challenge EU/IMF talks | Soros warns Europe of disintegration | Investors rush to sell Greek bonds | IMF struggles to conceal glee at Greek deal | Greece secures joint IMF/Eurozone bailout program | Greek PM threatens to go to IMF if no EU bailout | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt

Gina Kalovyrna and Lefteris Papadimas, Reuters
June 23, 2010

Unionists block travellers from boarding at Piraeus port

So we’ll mark Soros down as still belonging firmly to the stimulus (more free money for banks) camp. He’s being a little uncharitable considering the cost of bailing out the Mediterranean states has fallen largely on German shoulders. But then, he stands to clean up if the Euro falls, which is why this ongoing sermon is so suspect.

Related: Soros Sees ‘Act II’ of Financial Crisis, Blames ‘Market Fundamentalism’ Again | Soros warns Europe of disintegration | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Davos 2010: George Soros warns gold is now the ‘ultimate bubble’, calls for IMF to handle climate fund | George Soros Calls for World Currency and “New World Architecture” | Soros: China Will Lead New World Order | Soros points out regulated markets fail to operate on market fundamentals, calls for more regulation

Reuters
June 23, 2010

Billionaire investor says the country is dragging its neighbours into deflation

German’s budget savings policy risks destroying the European project and a collapse of the euro cannot be ruled out, billionaire investor George Soros said in a newspaper interview released on Wednesday.

“German policy is a danger for Europe, it could destroy the European project,” he told German weekly Die Zeit.

Mr. Soros, who earned $1-billion in 1992 by betting against the British pound, added that he “could not rule out a collapse of the euro.”

“If the Germans don’t change their policy, their exit from the currency union would be helpful for the rest of Europe,” he said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled plans earlier this month for €80-billion ($107-billion) in budget cuts over the next four years — a package she hopes will bring Germany’s structural deficit within European Union limits by 2013.

“Right now the Germans are dragging their neighbours into deflation, which threatens a long phase of stagnation. And that leads to nationalism, social unrest and xenophobia. Democracy itself could be at risk,” Mr. Soros said.

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It’s irritating to have to give this neocon apologist a platform, but Marcus Gee has had the point he’s making handed to him on a silver platter, and it’s news in and of itself that such a divisive piece has been printed. He’s also taking the opportunity to engage in some fairly transparent spin, however. Let’s break this down and try to stick to the facts.

1. Not all G20 protesters are failing to condemn violence. This may be the position of the umbrella group TCMN which has anointed itself the representative of everyone on the streets, but it certainly isn’t the position of individuals. 2. What anarchists and left-identified activists mean by violence is not violence against persons, but against property. Which this journal, incidentally, condemns as both unprincipled and counterproductive while we have free speech, but the point being let’s not misrepresent their position. That’s intellectually dishonest. 3. Don’t give us this police sob story. The documented incidents of police ‘socking’ people and then charging them with assault to cover themselves are legion.

If it bleeds, it leads – indeed, and perhaps Mr. Gee and other members of the media should look in the mirror as they continue painting the entire activist community with the same brush – deadly dangerous rioters – as a distraction from the arguments being raised. If a brick gets put through a window this weekend, all the cameras will rush right over and we’ll have an opportunity to hear about it for weeks on end. In the meantime, we should be looking at the larger problem – the violence being done to the charter rights of Toronto’s citizens as they’re swept aside.

Related: Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest — for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Marcus Gee, The Globe and Mail
June 23, 2010

The fact is that activists find the violent fringe useful

On the eve of the big summit, G20 protesters are complaining bitterly about all the security — the helicopters, the water cannons, the ugly fence, the countless cops. What they fail to acknowledge is that most of it would be wholly unnecessary if they simply agreed to renounce violence, something they consistently refuse to do.

The other day I encountered veteran local activist Anna Willats at a pre-summit Creative Queer Resistance rally on Queen Street. I asked her: Are you against violence at the summit?

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Related: The drug sting that stung a cop | Detective denies framing subordinate for drug theft, trial hears | Police officer stands trial for stealing fake cocaine in sting

Bob Mitchell, Toronto Star
June 23, 2010

A Peel police officer has been found guilty of seven criminal charges including some related to the disappearance of fake cocaine that was being used in an RCMP drug sting.

Const. Sheldon Cook, 42, remains on bail ahead of a sentencing hearing set for Aug. 5 in Brampton.

Cook was found guilty of unlawful attempt to possess an illegal substance for the purpose of trafficking, three counts of breach of trust, theft and unlawful possession of stolen property, and possession of marijuana.

In a 141-page judgment released Wednesday, Justice Casey Hill also criticized two of Cook’s superiors for their roles on and in the days after the night of Nov. 16, 2005 and during the lengthy trial.

Neither Det. Marty Rykhoff nor Const. Warren Williams was charged criminally in connection with Cook’s trial, but both were disciplined under the Police Act. The Peel police internal affairs unit is still considering whether other discipline is necessary.

Cook had pleaded not guilty in the judge-alone trial that started in November 2008.

He maintained he knew the bricks of cocaine were fake, and that he had been ordered by superiors to take them to his house.

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Okay, fair enough Mr. Strong. Let’s have a look at that fine, nuanced, sophicticated distinction between government and governance that we plebes can’t possibly grasp. Just for you. From the Merriam-Webster online:

gov·er·nance (n.) \ˈgÉ™-vÉ™r-nÉ™n(t)s\
See government

Perhaps, next, we should look up doublespeak. Or doublethink, for those who buy his line. Who’s he kidding? The EU was sold as being merely a system of economic cooperation as well. While the UN and international relations wonks use the term ‘governance’ in a wider context to apply to “corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance”, there is no real daylight between the two, unless the intention is to imply states are to be run as corporations. Which, on further reflection, is probably not too far from the truth. Nice try smearing everyone who disagrees with you as ‘right wing’, though. Tell us another story, Mr. Strong.

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Leo Hickman, The Guardian
June 23, 2010

What I do want, says the man self-labelled ‘the planet’s leading environmentalist’, is for nations to co-operate fully on issues they cannot deal with alone

Maurice Strong, the founding executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme and self-proclaimed “world’s leading environmentalist”, has hit back at his critics in a rare interview with the Guardian.

Responding to internet speculation and repeated attacks by prominent rightwing climate sceptics that he is using the climate change issue to establish a global government, the 81-year-old Canadian, who organised both the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, said his only motivation was to alert the world that mankind’s current actions are environmentally unsustainable.

“I’ve always made it clear that I do not believe that global government is either necessary or feasible,” said Strong, who was a key official at the UN for decades until his retirement in 2005.

“What I do believe is that we need a system of global governance through which nations can co-operate and deal with issues they cannot deal with alone. Maybe that statement is too sophisticated for some, but it shouldn’t be.”

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