June 11, 2014

Unity, Strategy, and Nonviolent Power for an unstoppable movement ( Metta Center for Non-Violence )

ROADMAP is a way of making the movement of movements visual, and set of tools activists (and those who wish to get active) can use to:

Build Community
Train in Nonviolence Principles
Create and pursue strategic thinking toward the realization of campaign goals.

These tools include:

the Roadmap MANDALA (see below)




web-based ways to connect with one another and benefit from many resources, such as the COMPASS, and Study Guides, and finally ways to build a strategy for long-term change integrated into the model itself.

Roadmap mandala

USING ROADMAP: PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

Find yourself in the picture: what issue(s) are you working on, or would like to? (The 18 sub-wedges are just examples).

Ask yourself with whom you need to connect to make an impact with the issue you choose. Using Roadmap, identify: Whom have you tended to work with on this issue and whom might you add to make your strategy more robust?

Articulate the “new story” central to your issue. E.g. Mass incarceration: “we do not get security from locking people away; we become secure by helping others to be secure,” etc.

Build a strategic campaign to address your issue using the Mandala as a guide to full participation and big-picture thinking.

Participate in the creation of a long-term STRATEGY for a “movement of movements.”



Peace from within approach:

Integral to Roadmap is a “peace from within” empowerment model based on Gandhi’s famous concept of svadeshi, or ‘localism:’ we work on ourselves, work with colleagues, and then use that energy to work against oppressing systems (but not the persons operating them!). For some of us this will be more a set of priorities than steps in time.

http://mettacenter.org/roadmap/what-is-roadmap/

June 10, 2014

The Criminology of the “Sure Thing” Portrayed as “Risk”

By William K. Black

John Coates, a former derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs is now a researcher. He wrote a column in the New York Times entitled “The Biology of Risk” that I hope will be widely read.

In this column I explain why his most important conclusions cannot follow logically from his own description of his research finding. While he relies on blood tests, his account of trading when it goes horribly wrong is curiously bloodless and disingenuous. As a Goldman and Deutsche Bank refugee he knows better, but he presents a sanitized version of the crisis portraying the controlling officers and traders at the largest banks as helpless victims of raging hormones rather than fraud perpetrators and facilitators.


Coates’ description of the crisis as triggered by a biologically-induced excessive risk-aversion on the part of traders rests on a failure to understand why varieties of financial risk are vastly different. More fundamentally, he fails to even consider the facts (and relevant literature) demonstrating that the key financial participants were engaged in a series of “sure things” accomplished through accounting control fraud and cartels.

“Risk,” particularly Coates’ false implicit assumption that “risk” is a single concept in the financial sphere, has almost nothing to do with the current crisis, any more than it had to do with the Enron-era crisis or the second (and vastly more destructive) phase of the savings and loan debacle. Further, but for the recognition of S&L regulators that we were dealing with an epidemic of accounting control fraud and the resultant “sure things” the S&L debacle would have grown to resemble closely our most recent crisis in terms of its magnitude and damage.

Coates work is not flattering to finance in the conventional form of flattery. He essentially says Michael Lewis’ description of the “culture” in Liar’s Poker is correct – traders are males who act crazy because they are selected by crazy male bosses. Coates reports that traders have raging hormones and that these hormones vary and tend to be convergent. It is a measure of finance’s desperate search for praise that Coates’ work is warmly received by big finance. The attraction is that it serves as an apologia for their culpability. We’re not crooks – we’re perpetually pubescent prisoners of our pituitaries. White-collar defense attorneys are already seeking to present behavioral finance and neuroscience defenses to prosecution.

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/06/criminology-sure-thing-portrayed-risk.html

June 8, 2014

Moyers and Co. Joseph E. Stiglitz Calls for Fair Taxes for All

BILL MOYERS: This week on Moyers & Company, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ: Our democracy is now probably better described as one dollar, one vote than one person, one vote. We have a tax system that reflects not the interest of the middle. We have a tax system that reflects the interest of the one percent.

snip* A new report by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz for the Roosevelt Institute suggests that paying our fair share of taxes and cracking down on corporate tax dodgers could be a cure for inequality and a faltering economy.

Transcript and video at link: http://billmoyers.com/episode/joseph-e-stiglitz-let%E2%80%99s-stop-subsidizing-tax-dodgers/

June 8, 2014

Sinking ties with US linked to Netanyahu's political fortunes

Never before has the status of the relations between Israel and the United States been the way it is now — not even during President Gerald Ford’s “reassessment period” or President George H. Bush’s failure to approve the international loan guarantees. It is the style that I am referring to particularly. Relations between the United States and its small ally in the Middle East have had their share of ups and downs. Despite knowing even lower points than the current one, never before did the situation turn into such a foul quarrel. Respectful of each other, the parties always made sure not to air their dirty linen in public, dissembling control on the outside. Well, no more.

The relationships between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama can be divided into a few chapters. Initially, there was mutual suspicion and repressed resentment, which was followed by a long period of status quo. In its wake and after the construction moratorium in the territories, the relationships relatively thrived. Their current term started out like a honeymoon when the negotiations (with the Palestinians) resumed and following the optimism that Secretary of State John Kerry imbued with everyone — even though it had no basis on the ground. With the breakdown of the negotiations came the breakdown in the relationships and trust, having reached its all-time low. An open struggle began, including statements from both sides as well as vitriolic leaks by associates.

Now we have entered the last and worst stage — that of the dirty war, the little tricks and attempts to stick it to each other. Rolling up their sleeves, both sides have spiraled out of control, their present goal being to hurt the other side as much as possible. No holds barred, it’s a free-for-all: open season. If we were to liken these relationships to a married couple, the next stage would see the man — or the woman — leaving the house while their lawyers dash to get their hands on the bank accounts and put a lien on them. Never before has such a state of affairs been recorded in US-Israel relations.

On June 2, Netanyahu addressed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for a periodic briefing. He was asked by Knesset member Zehava Gal-On, chairman of the Meretz Party, what would happen when the Palestinians introduced their reconciliation government. What could be inferred from Netanyahu’s reply was that he had been talking with the Americans (Kerry) who promised to look into it and weigh the matter before taking any action. Convinced that the United States would not be in a hurry to recognize the Palestinian government, Netanyahu turned a blind eye to intelligence reports, the signs on the ground and the various warnings. Instead, he relied on what Kerry ostensibly promised him. Even here at al-Monitor it was estimated that the Americans would be the first to recognize the Palestinian reconciliation government. But Bibi (Netanyahu) stuck to his guns.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/netanyahu-elections-jerusalem-washington-war-liberman.html#ixzz343bt8JBe

June 8, 2014

Egyptians for Democracy - UK slams EU stance on Egypt's presidential elections

June 7, 2014

Egyptians for Democracy - UK has described the EU's stance on Egypt's presidential elections as particularly objectionable given that Field Marshall Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has committed what Human Rights Watch described as the 'worst human rights atrocity in modern Egyptian history'. The group deplored the EU's decision to congratulate Al-Sisi one year after his regime carried out the massacre of peaceful protestors in Cairo.

The statement added that Egyptians for Democracy-UK were extremely disappointed that the EU had not vetted the veracity of the government's claim of a 46% turnout.

Dr Maha Azzam, chair of Egyptians for Democracy-UK and a founding member of the Brussels Initiative said "It is particularly disappointing that the EU is endorsing a political leader who came to power on the back of a mass night rally, negating the democratic process by offering the prospect of a 'strong leader', murdering thousands of peaceful protestors and imprisoning tens of thousands of political dissidents."

"I would like to point out to the EU that it is poignant that their statement of support for this xenophobic military regime came out one day before we commemorated the 70th anniversary of D Day. I would have hoped that the lessons of history were not so quickly forgotten by Europe's democracies", she added.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/11943-egyptians-for-democracy-uk-slams-eu-stance-on-egypts-presidential-elections

June 8, 2014

In the war on terrorism, only al-Qa'ida thrives

World View: Exhaustion could end Syria's bloody civil conflict, so long as foreign backers really want it

June 8, 2014

It has been a good week for those who like their hypocrisy neat and straight from the bottle. There was US Secretary of State John Kerry condemning the Syrian presidential election in which Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for a third time against nominal opposition as "a great big zero". But at the same time, the US and Britain said they were officially looking forward to working with president-elect Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt who is turning out to be a somewhat comical figure who cannot even fix an election properly. Despite an official holiday, free transport, massive media support, religious encouragement and the threat of $70 fines for non-voters, polling booths remained stubbornly empty or underused.

Of course, the hypocrisy does not end there. For all his triumphalism over the turnout in Syria, Assad's way of dealing with parts of Syria not under his control is to shell them and drop barrel bombs on them. Nor is the opposition much better when it comes to targeting civilians, except that its means of destruction are much less than that of the state. In Aleppo, the government pounds rebel-held districts in the east of the city, with a population of 300,000, with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters. These attacks have become even more lethal since the helicopters started operating at night when civilians cannot see them in time to take cover.

A reporter in Aleppo, who writes under the name of Edward Dark for the online magazine al-Monitor, mentions a case that "clearly illustrates the ludicrous nature of this inhumane conflict that happened to the Sheikh Maksud neighbourhood in Aleppo". He relates how, when this district was held by Assad's forces, it was regularly shelled by the rebels who said it was full of pro-government militiamen. When the rebels stormed and captured Sheikh Maksud in March 2013, it was the Syrian army that blazed away indiscriminately into the civilian houses that were still standing.

Almost any development in Syria these days should be regarded with some cynicism. For instance, when a ceasefire is declared in a suburb of Damascus and the rebel fighters switch sides, it is often with the assurance that in future they will be allowed to man checkpoints in their districts and have 50 per cent of the takings extorted from passing vehicles. I was in Nabq on the Damascus-Homs main road earlier this year, where government forces had arranged a public celebration of their success in driving out the rebels. Local people angrily pointed out that all that had happened was that rebel fighters, having previously sworn to fight to the last bullet against Assad, had simply joined the pro-government National Defence Force militia and were happily taking part in celebrations of their own defeat and expulsion from Nabq.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/in-the-war-on-terrorism-only-alqaida-thrives-9506723.html

June 7, 2014

Senate Debates Constitutional Amendment to Rein In Outside Cash

Though Democrats and Republicans are split down party lines on whether to add a constitutional amendment to limit campaign spending, both parties ignore 50 percent of Americans in favor of public financing

June 6, 14

Transcript: JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: The Senate Judiciary Committee met Tuesday to discuss a proposed constitutional amendment which would grant Congress the authority to regulate the campaign financing system.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which ruled that corporate campaign contributions are a form of free speech, opened up the floodgates for unlimited and untraceable campaign cash.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): The decisions of the Supreme Court have the American people with a status quo in which one side's billionaires are pitted against the other side's billionaires. So we sit here today with a simple choice. We can keep the status quo and argue all day and all night, weekends, forever, about whose billionaires are right and whose billionaires are wrong. Or we can work together to change the system to get this shady money out of our democracy and restore the basic principles of one American, one vote.

DESVARIEUX: In April, the Supreme Court loosened campaign finance regulations even further in its ruling on the FEC v. McCutcheon case. It did away with aggregate limits on contributions to candidates, political parties, and political action committees. The previous limit was $123,000 during a two-year period. As with the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled that campaign contributions are a form of free speech. Republican senator from iowa Chuck Grassley agrees.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11959

June 1, 2014

Thousands of Area C Residents Face Expulsion ( B'Tselem )

Civil Administration demolishes nearly half the homes in community of Id’eis, the Jordan Valley

On 21 May 2014, Civil Administration and army forces demolished approximately half of the homes and livestock pens in the community of Id’eis in the Jordan Valley, leaving 53 persons homeless. This joins other extensive efforts by Israeli authorities to expel thousands of Palestinians from their homes throughout Area C, despite the prohibition on forced transfer in international law. B’Tselem calls on authorities to allow the Id’eis community continue its agricultural lifestyle undisturbed, as it has done for the last thirty years.



Ne’meh Id’eis, 56, a resident of the community and mother of four, described the demolition in her testimony to B’Tselem field researcher ‘Atef Abu a-Rub:

Many soldiers, big tractors, police and cars blocked off the lands around us. They ordered us to get our belongings out of our homes, and in less than half an hour they demolished everything. They left nothing. The little children and the lambs stood in the sun or under trees. All our personal belongings were outside, and the tractors scraped through and destroyed all our structures. They left no stone unturned. They left us no roof to shelter under. We were left outside with nothing. They even destroyed the stone oven I use to bake bread for the children. I asked them to leave it for us so we could eat, but it was like talking to a wall.

In just a few hours, the place was in ruins, I swear, like a war zone. The army and tractors left, and then the journalists came and everyone wanted to get pictures of the place.


http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20140529_demolition_in_ideis_community

June 1, 2014

WSJ Suggests Hollande May Redefine Chutzpah by Complaining to Obama about BNP Paribas on 70th D Day

Posted on June 1, 2014

By William K. Black

I am not a French hater – and there is no “but” to that clause. The Wall Street Journal, however, frequently engages in French bashing. The WSJ has also, unintentionally and unknowingly, suggested that the French may act in a manner that would provide a new humorous answer to the old joke that begins: “What is chutzpah?” The context is that the U.S. and New York state authorities are negotiating with BNP Paribas (a very large French bank) to settle a series of felonies involving primarily sanction-busting – and covering up those crimes.

A political movement has arisen in France opposing any U.S. criminal actions against Paribas. Americans will have no difficulty understanding this political dynamic, particularly because our Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to give a total pass to the U.S. officers who led the accounting control frauds that drove the crisis and prosecutes only foreign financial operations. What is remarkable is the WSJ’s suggestion of how the French Prime Minister Hollande might bring French objections personally to the attention of President Obama.

“[A]ny hefty penalty imposed on BNP Paribas could revive trans-Atlantic tensions….”

“Mr. Hollande will meet with President Barack Obama next week during ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day….”

So, let me see whether I have this right. The French goal is to avoid “reviv[ing] trans-Atlantic tensions” and the means of doing so would be for Hollande to complain to Obama about Paribas – on “the 70th anniversary of D-Day.” I’m a strong critic of Hollande, but I don’t think he would display the chutzpah of using the anniversary of the death and grievous wounding of thousands of Americans who stormed the beaches of France to liberate that Nation from Nazi occupation as the time to complain about holding Paribas (mildly) accountable for the crimes of its officers.

http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/06/wsj-suggests-hollande-may-redefine-chutzpah-complaining-obama-bnp-paribas-70th-anniversary-d-day.html

May 29, 2014

The OCC Carefully Studies How to Fail

Posted on May 29, 2014 by William Black

The reason we have recurrent, intensifying financial crises is because we learn the wrong lessons from our prior crises and actively make things worse. The consistent explanation for our making things worse is that dogmas lead to “doubling down” on failed faith-based policies. The dominant ideologues in the U.S. and Europe on financial policies are theoclassical economists and their fellow choir members – neoclassical economists. A small article in the Wall Street Journal provides a classic example of the continuing destruction driven by these dogmas.

The WSJ article, of course, sees none of this. It fails to distinguish between two very different concepts. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is supposed to regulate “national banks” – the largest banks. The first concept is where examiners’ offices are located. The OCC uses “resident” examiners in the largest banks. This means that hundreds of OCC (and Fed) examiners have offices in the huge banks. Resident examiners are a terrible idea because they invariably “marry the natives.” When the Fed “marries the natives” it constitutes incest because the NY Fed (which examines many of the largest bank holding companies) has traditionally been one branch of the inbred Wall Street family. The OCC, under Presidents Clinton and Bush, was nearly as bad because it was engaged in a “race to the bottom” with the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) to see which could “triumph” as the worst federal banking regulator.

If the OCC proposal was to cut back dramatically on resident examiners in order to beef up normal examination frequency and scope that would a very good thing that we could applaud. That would be the obvious fix that any effective supervisor would have implemented as soon as he or she was appointed. This is the second concept that the OCC could have meant by its proposal. It does not appear that the second concept is what the OCC’s leadership has in mind. Their system has increasingly deemphasized examination in favor of off-site monitoring (analysts in government office buildings looking at their computers). The OCC has not announced that it adopting an increase in examination frequency or the scope of examinations as a result of its decision to reduce the number of resident examiners.

We Know How to Make Examination and Supervision Succeed

In a normal examination the examiners’ offices are located in a federal building but the examination takes place in the bank’s offices. These examinations are our paramount function as banking regulators. In a well-functioning regulatory agency everyone adds value, but none of us can succeed if the examiners fail. During the S&L debacle, the reason we were able to reregulate successfully, to bring thousands of successful enforcement actions, and hundreds of civil actions, and to make it possible for the Department of Justice to obtain over 1,000 felony convictions in cases it designated as “major” was the examiners’ success. George Akerlof and Paul Romer recognized this point.

in full: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/05/occ-carefully-studies-fail.html