Beware Scottish Corporate Greed!

Das Schottishman just loves to wheel out its favourite nat-bashing 'business leader' in chief Iain MacMillan, chairman of CBI Scotland. As we know Iain had to be disciplined by many of his own members for his frothing and co-ordinated anti-SNP attacks.

He's regularly wheeled out to talk about GARL and his criticism of the SNP's policy of cancelling that project has sinpired him into a creative mode calling GARL 'GDP Enhansing':

A far bolder approach was required to making savings and to protect, rather than cut, important GDP-enhancing investments in infrastructure. The decision not to reinstate the key Garl transport project, and all the economic and environmental benefits that would bring, is particularly disappointing and short-sighted.

Iain is simply a lobbyist for some multi-national companies operating in Scotland.

He doesn't tell you what has to be cut to pay for GARL. He really wouldn't give a hoot if school dinners get withdrawn or presciption charges dropped just as long as the state pours more cash into the pockets of his buddies.

As Britain enters depression there are less business trips taking place and less car journeys. Consequently there is no urgency for GARL. It does not prevent bottle-necks because there is less demand on the roads because of the state of the British economy and every airline will tell you that there are less and less businessmen flying..

If GARL had been paid for: schools, hospitals and lots of basic services would have to be decimated. I guess that means his pals in the banking sector could offer to buy up public sector infrastructure at bargain basement prices. Hey presto and our democracy is owned by some corporate plutocracy also known as fascism.

The views of Iain MacMillan threaten Scotland and Scotland's democracy. Das Schottishman and their owners who are part of said corporate elite have the same money grabbing agenda. They are not for improving the business culture, they are for fattening their mate's wallets. Meanwhile the average Scottish child gets a little hungrier or a little less healthy.

Does Iain understand how much school dinners saves Scotland? Poor undernurished children cost the NHS a packet and later often cost the prison service a packet too. Of course Iain is all for privatising prisons..

Scotland should beware going down the US style corporate road to hell! Remember that you are citizens of a nation and not simply cheap labour in an economy that serves only a feudal and greedy elite!

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Das Herald Sturmer's at it again with this headline:

For sale: lunch at Holyrood with First Minister - £9,000

No rules are being broken and all parties indulge but this doesn't stop Das Herald Sturmer from trying to smear the SNP. Ad Das Herald Sturmer is a loyal Labour propaganda broadsheet we might expect them to throw as much muck around. I mean their party is so utterly corrupt that they need to try and make the electorate think that every other party is the same. Sad tactics but that's Labour and that's Das Herald Sturmer for ya.

I wonder what the headline be if Das Herald Sturmer covered politics as a democratic newspaper holding political parties and governments to account? Suggestions are welcome. My own idea is:

For sale: Army for Stealing Oil Rich Countries and Genocide - Prime Minister approval £2.5 million p/a Consultancy

What a world we live in when petty attacks on the First Minister for legitimate fund-raising is prioritised over the rightful pillorying of a Prime Minister whose lies led to the slaughter of millions.

Amazing how the media is all about dumbing down real politics, no?

Scottish Por-Nationalism

Por-nationalism

The unionist opposition have got a lot of tea-and-buscuit nationalists keeping shtum about independence of late. So much so that Labour can gloat that the SNP have accepted their agenda and independence is characterised as Alex Salmond's 'dirty little secret'.

We haven't to frighten the children when we are still busy telling them what they have to eat and drink to stop them from costing us money on the NHS you understand.. However you can't keep the children from thinking about real politics for themselves nomatter how hard one tries:




















Picture courtesy of Subrosa

Labour's War: Soldier Speaks Out

Tony Blair's Labour Party took the UK into war in Iraq. Tony wanted to play with the big boys according to then cabinet minister Claire Short. Let's not forget that JP Morgan won the contract to adminster the Trading Bank of Iraq and let's not forget that 3 days after leaving office Blair won a 2.5 million a year consultancy with said JP Morgan. And let's not forget that the blood of over 1 million Iraqis are on the hands of Blair's right-hand man - Gordon Brown.

The people are starting to wake up to the fact that these wars are purely and simply about making the rich richer. The banking elite and their friends in the lucrative weapons' manufacturing game should start to watch their back. When the people find you out, you're finished. You'll be hunted down and left to rot in jail. Below is a moving speech by an Iraqi vet. Watch the reaction to the speech and ask yourselves how many millions more are reaching the same conlusions:

Can Pay Won't Pay!

“People’s emotional attachment to their property is melting into the air.”

So says Sam Khater, a senior economist at the US research firm First American CoreLogic in today's New York Times. By June 2010 there'll be 5.1 million homes where the house is valued at less than 75% of the outstanding mortgage. According to Khater that's the critical point where people give up:

We’re now at the point of maximum vulnerability

What this is spawning is what many have been warning for years would happen - deliberate default by people who no longer want to live under what is called 'house arrest'. How common is this as a stategy?:

..estimate was that about 17 percent of owners defaulting in 2008, or 588,000 people, chose that option as a strategic calculation.

And that is having weeded out those who had trouble with paying other bills..

In Spain where non-payment of mortgages now reaches 5% we can only but wonder if that percentage would increase if house prices were properly being marked to market. We may soon find out.

None of this is considering how people will behave when interest rates finally go up to contract the money supply after all that printing and borrowing that has been going on. If they are considering non-payment now how much will say a 5% increase in interest rates influence their decision making?

The two principle categories of people who are walking away from their 'underwater' mortgages are those who bought just before the crash and those who refinanced their houses as the market spiked..

Naturally the bankers would like to have people stick to their agreements rather than modify the loan according to circumstances. House prices are a risk right? Well, so is selling fraudulant mortgages and derivatives but the banks got bailed-out. So, why should bank customers feel moral obligation to banks who after all caused house prices to spike because of relaxed credit standards and speculation?

Unlike banks, people are reasonable and many don't want to leave their homes. However, as banks refuse to take some responsibility for these underwater mortgages people will feel that they have tried to be reasonable and so have no loyalty to banks who have done lied and stolen from the taxpayer.

As the scale of non-payers increases so banks will lose income. The utterly stupid policy of bailing out the banks instead of mortgage holders will then come into sight. Obama, Brown, Zapatero and many more will begin to see the total stupidity of not letting the failed banks fall. As we know, the banks are still nowhere near solvent despite future generations of taxpayers money being poured into them. As debts are heaped on the taxpayer so the taxpayer will paying their mortgages. The banks are corrupted and now their customers feel no loyalty - there is a widescale collapse in values in society from top to bottom.

This process along with non payment of credit cards is becoming a major issue for the 'recovery'. Consider that and the fact that the next wave of property price collapse is just starting and you begin to understand why 'recovery' is beginning to change its definition depending on how many green-shoots the user has smoked.

With unemployment climbing, tax-take falling, debt at historic levels, local government going bankrupt, currencies losing value, geo-political tensions rising and so on and so on it really is time to wonder just how much of a toll all these economic problems are going to take on political systems and law and order.

The West is collapsing. People should not trust governments or bankers to tell the truth and prepare to protect themselves, communities and countries (Scotland for example) for a very uncertain future.

In sunny Madrid, the store security guards are now chasing shop-lifters around constantly and the police remain in or near the stores. When people need to eat and feed their kids, they'll do what they have to. For those who still have some wealth it would be wise to consider a strategy for a different economy or you may well have to beg, borrow or steal one day yourself!

Insolvent States of America

To pay unemployment money to people out of a job, the individual states have a Trust Fund. The majority of them are now insolvent (see below). Those states are relying on borrowing from the Federal Government to help those out of work. The outlay for unemployment insurance indicates what many already know, that unemployment is far higher than official figures suggest.

















So, exactly how much have they had to borrow from a Federal Government whose own tax take has nosedived (corporate tax down 56% and income tax down 22%)? Below is a chart showing different states. Red is borrowing from Federal Government and Blue is funds still left in Trust.















Unemployment is still growing and there is no 'recovery' despite the propaganda getting pumped out in the corporate media. So, the blue in the chart is going to get smaller and the red bigger. Each state will have to cut more and more services to try and pay unemployment.

No doubt each state will be forced to sell state property to banksters like JP Morgan for quick money fixes. Slowly and surely the banks will take over each state. As the US economy continues to sink because of bail-outs and 'stimulus' will rich states begin to wonder whether or not the Union and subsidising poor states is such a good idea? Keep in mind that 2.5 million were thrown out of their houses in the US last year and the second wave of the housing crisis is just starting..

Many Scots seem to think that throwing our oil money at the British economy is a good idea despite Britain now having combined public and private debt of 449% which is around the same predicament that Iceland finds itself in.

The more desperate the population becomes the more desperate political solutions will be.

And they told you bail-outs and stimulus were necessary to save the economy. How much more propaganda are you willing to swallow?

Haiti Kidnapping

When is humanitarian relief not humanitarian relief? When it's a backdoor invasion by Nobel Peace Prize winning President Hopey McChange Obama.

Securing UN 'formal approval' the Yanks landed thousands of marines. No need to ask the Haitians you understand, so they didn't.

What kind of man would you consider best equipped to lead the 'relief effort'? Why an ex-president who had President Chavez kidnapped, who started illegal wars resulting in millions of deaths and who used the World Bank, IMF and WTO to force poor countries to sell off state assets very cheaply to global corporations all run by his mates. So, Obama appointed Bush to relieve; relieve the country of its freedom, oil and land.

As pointed out by John Pilger in his article for The New Statesman entitled:

The kidnapping of Haiti

..Not for tourists is the US building its fifth biggest embassy in Port-au-Prince. Oil was found in Haiti’s waters decades ago and the US has kept it in reserve until the Middle East begins to run dry. More urgently, an occupied Haiti has a strategic importance in Washington’s “rollback” plans for Latin America. The goal is the overthrow of the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, control of Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves and sabotage of the growing regional cooperation that has given millions their first taste of an economic and social justice long denied by US-sponsored regimes.

And another corporate-controlled ex-President gets to make an appearance to. Yeh, Clinton got in on the trough action via the UN reports Pilger:

Bill Clinton is another comedian, having got himself appointed the UN’s man in Haiti. Once fawned upon by the BBC as “Mr. Nice Guy... bringing democracy back to a sad and troubled land”, Clinton is Haiti’s most notorious privateer, demanding de-regulation of the economy for the benefit of the sweatshop barons. Lately, he has been promoting a $55m deal to turn the north of Haiti into an American-annexed “tourist playground”.

Those who see the world through the lense of the corporate media will no doubt call me a cynical lefty. Obamanoids will scream that it's all about aid. Aye, them drinking the Kool-Aid.

Perhaps a scour of the immediate response to the crisis as it emerged would throw up some evidence of malintent. Some observations by world famous investigative reporter Greg Palast:

- Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few days," Mr. Obama?



















- China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China, Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US bases in Puerto Rico: right there.

- Send in the Marines. That's America's response. That's what we're good at. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson finally showed up after three days. With what? It was dramatically deployed — without any emergency relief supplies. It has sidewinder missiles and 19 helicopters.

- But don't worry, the International Search and Rescue Team, fully equipped and self-sufficient for up to seven days in the field, deployed immediately with ten metric tons of tools and equipment, three tons of water, tents, advanced communication equipment and water purifying capability. They're from Iceland.

- Gates wouldn't send in food and water because, he said, there was no "structure ... to provide security." For Gates, appointed by Bush and allowed to hang around by Obama, it's security first. That was his lesson from Hurricane Katrina. Blackwater before drinking water.

The first thing we were told was that there was no rule of law and looting was widespread. Hence the narrative justifying army, special ops etc. As pointed out by Pilger the initial reports played a huge rule in terms of couching the history of events:

Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.

The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration.

The first TV reports played a critical role, giving the impression of widespread criminal mayhem. Matt Frei, the BBC reporter dispatched from Washington, seemed on the point of hyperventilation as he brayed about the “violence” and need for “security”. In spite of the demonstrable dignity of the earthquake victims, and evidence of citizens’ groups toiling unaided to rescue people, and even an American general’s assessment that the violence in Haiti was considerably less than before the earthquake, Frei claimed that “looting is the only industry” and “the dignity of Haiti’s past is long forgotten.”

So, it begings to look like the next war may well be Venezuela. It's all about terrorists you understand. Terrorists with oil, you understand.