Greece shaping up to a tragedy of mythic proportions

The Greek  debt drama is playing out like a true Greek Tragedy; like Oedipus the Greeks are facing ruin through Austerity foisted upon them by their creditor masters based in continental Europe. I believe that Greece, or rather the Greek people are being used as guinea pigs in a micro Socio-Economic experiment which will see a macro implementation across the developed world in the very near future. What has become apparent is the fact that governments can only function on a constant rollover of current debt while adding more debt to existing debt. This is a wholly unsustainable model that must catastrophically fail at some time. It is also a wealth redistribution model in which wealth is redistributed in society, primarily from the Middle Class to the already wealthy class. It is a model which is hastening the return of Feudalism through Fascism - a few controlling all the resources and the many living in destitute impoverished conditions as they have through most of history. This is how the game is being played in Greece and we should pay heed to what is happening there for it will soon repeat across the developed world, even in the US.

New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) joins Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement is growing and spreading to more cities and organizations; not sure what will come out of it but it could be the start of something big.

According to Daily Kos, The New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) voted to support the Wall Street Protestors at their meeting last night.

A member of TWU Local 100 told a reporter that they would join the protest Friday at 4PM.

Here's more about them from their website:

The TWU has four main divisions: Railroad; Gaming; Airline; Transit; and Utility, University and Service. The Union has 114 autonomous locals representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22 states around the country.

Occupy Wall Street has been picking up some decent support from unions in the past few days. Yesterday we reported that the Teamsters Union declared their support for protestors, and we also found out that the United Pilots Union had members at the protest demonstrating in uniform.

Today we learned the Industrial Workers of the World put a message of support on their website as well.

UPDATE: Verizon union workers have joined the protestors in NYC.

Click here to see the protestor's list of demands >

All of this is good for the protestors, sure, but the bottom line is whether or not these unions can produce bodies. Experience says that when they want to, unions can be quite good at doing that very thing.

And it seems that they're interested. In many of their statements of support, they say that their members are part of "The 99%" that Occupy Wall Street protestors keep talking about.

But what does that even mean? Naturally, we had to get to the bottom of it, so we found the We Are The 99% blog. It's made of a collection of pictures people holding up signs about how the sorry state of the economy has effected them. Here are some examples:

• A guy in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck (you can't see his face) holds a sign saying: "Ivy League medical student over 100,000 in debt committed to a life of helping the homeless and mentally ill. We are the 99%."
• Another girl holds a sign saying: "They say you can be anything you want if you work hard enough. The truth is you can only be what you want if you can pay enough. Only 20 and already drowning in debt because I want to follow my dreams. I am the 99%."
• Another woman holds up a sign saying: "I'm a single mom of four, college graduate 3.6 GPA, shelf stocker, I go hungry daily, I am the 99%. Occupy Wall Street.
  

Now for your protest update: When we checked in on the live feed around 9:30 this morning, the protestors were marching, playing drums and chanting: "All day, all week occupy Wall Street!"

A cop briefly interrupted them and told them that they were "invited" to stay on the sidewalk and the drumming continued to the sound of applause cheers of "YAY the sidewalk!"

Also, good old Michael Moore will be giving an interview from the protest tonight on MSNBC at 8 PM.

Click here to see the protestor's list of demands >

Please follow Clusterstock on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Linette Lopez on Twitter.
Ask Linette A Question >

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-massive-union-just-voted-to-side-with-the-wall-street-protesters-2011-9?utm_source=twbutton&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=clusterstock#ixzz1ZNxoYmGC

Evacuation of Tokyo was discussed after Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe

Evacuation of Tokyo considered after Fukushima disaster. The question is what has changed that this option is no longer being discussed? All that has happened since March is that a steady rain of radioactive toxic particles has rained upon Tokyo and large areas of Japan as well as Korea, China and Russia. How long can the Japanese government pretend that the problem no longer exists when it fact it has grown exponentially since March 11, 2011? In the video at the bottom, Prof. Busby contends that the Fukushima disaster is far bigger than Chernobyl and offer help ideas to protect children, a task that the whole world should be undertaking not just the Japanese government.

Kenichi Matsumoto is the ultimate insider.

As special advisor to Japan's prime minister and cabinet he witnessed both the government's and the plant operator's responses to the worst nuclear accident in a quarter of a century.

And when it comes to the meltdowns, Professor Matsumoto paints a picture of cover-ups, incompetence and communication breakdown.

He confirms that the operator of Fukushima - TEPCO - wanted to abandon the stricken plant and that the prime minister at the time - Naoto Kan - contemplated evacuating tens of millions of people from in and around Tokyo.

Professor Matsumoto also accuses the Japanese leadership of knowing months ago that areas around the nuclear plant would not be habitable for decades.

Fair Use - Via: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-28/japanese-pm-considered-evacuation-of-to...

Fukushima blog.
http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Fukushima-Disaster-Thread-Rolling-Updates - uploaded via http://www.mp32u.net/


Genocide in Japan - Prof. Busby

Dengue Fever outbreak in Pakistan

Dengue fever infects over 12,000 in Pakistan

September 29, 2011 by Masroor Gilani

Already cursed by floods and suicide bombings, Pakistan now faces a new menace from an unprecedented outbreak of the deadly tropical disease dengue fever.In less than a month, 126 people have died and more than 12,000 have been diagnosed with the virus, which has spread rapidly among both rich and poor in Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore.

Dengue affects between 50 and 100 million people in the tropics and subtropics each year, resulting in fever, muscle and joint ache.

But it can also be fatal, developing into haemorrhagic fever and shock syndrome, which is characterised by bleeding and a loss of blood pressure.

Caused by four strains of virus spread by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, there is no vaccine -- which is why prevention methods focus on mosquito control.

Pakistani authorities in Lahore have blamed the crisis on prolonged monsoon rains and unusually high seasonal temperatures.

But furious locals say the outbreak is yet another example of government inefficiency, citing a failure to take preventive measures to kill off the mosquitos and lengthy power cuts.

Saad Azeem, 45, is a police officer who should be out spraying the streets with insecticide, but he is laid up at home suffering from the fever and mourning the death of his elderly father.

"My father was 79 years old and a retired deputy superintendent of police. His death due to dengue fever really shocked us," Azeem told AFP.

"This dengue has become a calamity."

Of the more than 11,584 people afflicted, 10,244 come from Lahore alone, the provincial capital of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province and the country's political heartland.

In northwestern province Khyber Paktunkhwa, at least 130 people have been diagnosed and six have died. Southern province Sindh has seen 400 suspected cases and six deaths. 

Banners emblazoned with giant sketches of mosquitos and public warning messages such as "Eliminate dengue, Have peace" are hung across avenues and crossings in Lahore, a city of eight million.

The chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, whose party runs the local governing coalition and whose brother Nawaz is Pakistan's opposition leader, has urged doctors to do more to restore calm.

"You are doing a wonderful job, but we have to bring down the mortality rate so that the people will be calmed," he said at a workshop this week.

Hospitals are overwhelmed, treating around 1,113 people and having already sent home another 10,000 to recuperate, said Asif Nadeem, a member of a hastily set up anti-dengue task force.

At Lahore General Hospital, where most cases have been reported, the corridors were packed with patients and relatives making it difficult to breathe.

Outside, medics set up large tents to accommodate family members and patients waiting for treatment, offering some shelter in the sweltering heat.

"We have no complaints about the arrangements, but they are not going beyond giving out paracetamol," Rashid Hameed, 27, an accountant, told AFP.

Doctor Zafar Ikram said the hospital was working beyond capacity to deal with the influx of patients.

"I think more people are coming because there is greater awareness about dengue due to the media spotlight and people are scared, so anyone with a normal fever comes to hospital for the (dengue) test," Ikram told AFP.

At the Mayo hospital, hundreds of people queued up in front of registration counters, giving blood samples and collecting reports.

Although the Pakistan People's Party, the main governing party in the federal government, has used the dengue outbreak to try and score points against the Sharifs, local authorities insist they are on top of the menace.

Teams from the World Health Organisation and Sri Lanka are now helping with the efforts. Schools and colleges initially shut have since reopened.

"On the control side a huge effort is going on with a public awareness campaign," said Punjab provincial health secretary Jahanzeb Khan.

In much of Lahore, known for its rich cultural heritage and popular restaurants, life carries on as normal with some establishments as crowded as ever in the cooler evenings.

Others cannot afford to be ruffled.

Mohammad Naeem, a 50-year-old roadside telephone vendor, said he had no alternative but to brave the risk.

"No sir, we do not apply any lotion. It's very expensive. We can hardly buy a loaf of bread. They come to our doorsteps to beg for votes, but they do not come to spray," he complained.

(c) 2011 AFP

SEC expecting PANIC SELLING on stock markets?

From Yahoo Finance:

SEC proposes changes in market halts:SEC proposes changes in market halts to apply to smaller declines, shorten them

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators are considering changing the rules for when a dramatic shift in the stock market's value triggers exchanges to cut off trading.
The Securities and Exchange Commission put proposed changes in so-called circuit breakers out for public comment Tuesday. Those are measures that automatically halt trading if the market falls by certain percentages. The SEC wants smaller market declines to trigger halts, but it also wants to shorten the stoppages.
The "flash crash" of May 2010 didn't trigger the circuit breakers, which have activated only once since they were established in 1988.
Circuit breakers are intended to force traders to take a breather and refocus on economic and corporate news instead of an alarming market nosedive. They can't prevent people from losing money; they're aimed at keeping the market from succumbing to huge, snowballing, panic-driven sell-offs in a single day.
They now stop trading if the Dow Jones industrial average tumbles 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent. The new triggers would be drops of 7 percent, 13 percent or 20 percent in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.
The halts would be shortened to 15 minutes from the current 30 minutes, hour or two hours.
The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and the other U.S. exchanges asked for the changes, and the SEC put them out for a 21-day formal comment period and could approve them after it ends.
The current rules were established by the NYSE in 1988 in response to a stock market plunge in October 1987, and the one time they were tripped was in 1997, when an economic crisis in Asia set off a wave of heavy selling.
Along with other measures put in place in response to the May 6, 2010, "flash crash," the proposed changes are "designed to reduce extraordinary volatility in our markets," SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement.....

Greece bailout sinking fast - Eurozone to launch Global Financial Crash

Split Opens Over Greek Bailout Terms

Published: Tuesday, 27 Sep 2011 | 3:47 PM ET

Text Size

By: Peter Spiegel in Brussels and Quentin Peel in Berlin, Financial Times

A split has opened in the eurozone over the terms of Greece’s second €109 billion bailout with as many as seven of the bloc’s 17 members arguing for private creditors to swallow a bigger writedown on their Greek bond holdings, according to senior European officials.

The divisions have emerged amid mounting concerns that Athens’ funding needs are much bigger than estimated just two months ago. They threaten to unpick a painfully negotiated deal reached with private sector bond holders in July.

While hardliners in Germany and the Netherlands are leading the calls for more losses to be imposed on the private sector, France and the European Central Bank are fiercely resisting any such move. They fear re-opening the bond deal could spark renewed selling of shares in European banks, which have significant holdings of Greek and other peripheral eurozone debt.

Shares in French banks have rallied in recent days following signs that eurozone officials are preparing to increase the financial firepower of the bloc’s €440 billion bailout fund, which could within months be able to inject capital into eurozone banks and purchase sovereign bonds.

On a visit to Berlin, George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, urged Germans to recognise the "superhuman effort" his country was making to impose drastic austerity measures in a deepening recession. "I can guarantee that Greece will live up to all its commitments," he said.

Senior European said there was significant division over the move to re-open the bondholders’ deal, which could trigger a bigger and earlier restructuring of Greek debt. Even within Germany, officials are split over whether to press for a bigger "haircut" for private sector creditors.

"In Germany, there are the hardliners and there are the moderates," said one senior European official. "This is the hardliners’ stance." Read CNBC Report

Brazilian President warns of devastating Global Economic Crisis

It seems that that which we have been shouting from the rooftops about a devastating Global Economic Crash is now upon us. The leaders of governments and industry and media personalities generally sound these warning after the fact, when it is too late already. But many in the alternative media have been predicting the Day of Reckoning for the whole world, economically and politically and it would appear that that Day is upon the horizon; Doomsday will soon dawn upon this world.

Brazil Warns A Global Economic Crisis Devastating For All

BRASILIA, Sept 22 (BERNAMA-NNN- MERCOPRESS) -- Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has warned that a full blown economic crisis could be devastating for emerging countries as well as for the world's largest economies.

She added that the global financial situation could also cause a "serious rupture." when speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York. Read More

Economic Crisis deepens as German Judge calls for referendum before bailouts

German turmoil over EU bail-outs as top judge calls for referendum 

Germany's top judge has issued a blunt warning that no further fiscal powers may be surrendered to Europe without a new constitution and a popular referendum, vastly complicating plans to boost the EU's rescue machinery to €2 trillion (£1.7 trillion).

The accusation that German leaders are conspiring with EU officials to emasculate the Bundestag is highly sensitive. Photo: EPA

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor

8:58PM BST 26 Sep 2011

48 Comments

Andreas Vosskuhle, head of the constitutional court, said politicians do not have the legal authority to sign away the birthright of the German people without their explicit consent.

"The sovereignty of the German state is inviolate and anchored in perpetuity by basic law. It may not be abandoned by the legislature (even with its powers to amend the constitution)," he said.

"There is little leeway left for giving up core powers to the EU. If one wants to go beyond this limit – which might be politically legitimate and desirable – then Germany must give itself a new constitution. A referendum would be necessary. This cannot be done without the people," he told newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine.

The extraordinary interview comes just days before the Bundestag votes on a bill to revamp the EU's €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF), enabling it to purchase EMU bonds pre-emptively and recapitalise banks.

Tensions are running high after it emerged over the weekend that officials are working on plans sketched by the US Treasury and the European Commission to "leverage" the firepower of the EFSF to €2 trillion, in conjunction with lending from the European Central Bank. 

Read More

Goldman Sachs rules the world, savings to vanish, Occupy Wall Street....

This video clip of a trader spelling out financial doomsday confirms my assessment that the savings and pensions of millions of people will vanish into thin air in the coming months. This trader predicts doomsday within 12 months; in reality it could be much sooner.

He also suggests that Goldman Sachs rules the world, not governments. This is refreshing candor from an insider and he probably will not be trading for long after making such claims on international TV. However it is refreshing to hear some truth for a change on a major network rather than happy 'happy - joy joy, don't worry the government will save the day' garbage that is constantly spouted out on CNN and other media outlets. He says to prepare, I say to prepare, the Bible tells us to prepare...

We are very close to a complete meltdown of the System and the longer it takes to arrive, the more catastrophic will be the consequences.

"Smart money knows the stock market is finished. Get prepared!"- BBC News

 

In related News the Occupy Wall Street Movement is spreading and is being met with an Iron Fist by New York Police. However it seems that this movement or a similar movement will gain momentum across the US and Europe as the average people discover that they have been left holding the bill for the excesses of bankers and politicians. This will lead to riots and possibly revolution, maybe even a civil war in the US... The police will lose control of such a movement sooner or later and then we may see Martial Law declared to allegedly keep the population safe. 

'Occupy Wall Street' Protests Turn Violent' - ABC News 

 

 

Mexico City slwly sinking into the earth

Posted on September 25, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol

September 25, 2011 – MEXICO CITY — Walk into any of hundreds of homes or buildings in the huge capital, Mexico City, and you feel immediately that something is amiss. The buildings tilt. “If you put a ball on the floor here,” Thierry Olivier said, sitting on the ground floor of his three-story building, “it will roll over there.” By Olivier’s calculation, one corner of his 105-year-old building is 11 inches lower than the other. It lists like a tipsy cantina patron. It’s a common phenomenon here, where many buildings are sinking, as each year Mexico City’s 21 million thirsty residents suck up water from the aquifer beneath one of the world’s largest metropolises. As the water level in the aquifer drops, the ground above it sinks- but not evenly. Layers of soft clay beneath the city vary in thickness and the ground sinks faster where clay dries out, grows brittle and collapses. That means that in some parts of the city, sidewalks buckle, window frames lean, subway lines need expensive repairs and drainage canals no longer flow downhill. Engineers say, however, that inhabitants face not only structural risks but potential health problems as houses and apartment blocks incline. “When a building tilts more than 1 degree, then I think it begins to become very uncomfortable,” said Enrique Santoyo Villa, an engineer who is experienced at propping up and bolstering churches, monuments and other tilting structures. By Santoyo’s standards, when a 100-foot-high building is 1 foot off its vertical axis, it becomes hard to live in. One notices it while lying in bed, he said, or perhaps washing the dishes and seeing tap water flow oddly. “Tables aren’t stable. Liquids don’t look right when they are in big containers. … Window panes can break. Doors don’t close right,” Santoyo said. Ancient Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in the middle of a large lake, making it the capital of their powerful empire. When Hernan Cortés and fellow conquistadors arrived in 1519 and conquered the Aztecs, the Spaniards built Mexico City atop the Aztec ruins and then drained much of the lake to control flooding. Scores of colonial churches and other stone buildings in central Mexico City have survived frequent natural disasters but succumb to the soft clay underfoot, leaning or sinking into the ground. Experts say parts of the metropolitan area have sunk by as much as 27 feet since the late 19th century, an average of 2.5 inches or so a year. Some of the heaviest stone buildings, such as the opulent Palace of Fine Arts, have sunk 13 feet in a century. Its original ground floor is now a basement. –Seattle Times

Signs of the End Video News Update Sept. 25, 2011

The following breaking News Reports are pertinent to this week's video News Update.

US and Pakistan near military clash. Islamabad blames US Afghan "disarray"

 Amid spiraling Pakistani-US tensions, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Sunday, Sept. 25, ordered Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to return home from New York at once shortly after she warned the US against "hot pursuit" of terrorists on Pakistani soil. A sense of crisis pervaded Islamabad as Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani held a "special" meeting of his top commanders "to review the security situation."

 WARNINGS OF UPRISING IN UNITED STATES

"There is growing inequality all over the world. We have already seen middle-class unrest in Israel. Germans have smashed fat cats' cars.....As we go into another recession, there will be unrest in the US."..Roubini and Soros state that the US is already in a double dip recession or worse.

With the suffering people in this country are already enduring, the clamp down on wall street protestors with hardly a peep from the mainstream media, and the obvious double-dip, quite possibly depression, we are experiencing it is not hard to see unrest soon. I believe this unrest will come from workers who have been alienated and small investors who have lost their retirement & savings. There is no way this can end well in the current status quo.

ECONOMIC END GAME IN SIGHT: COLLAPSE BY NOVEMBER?

• Nations to default beginning with Greece
• Banks to fail -- European banks first then American banks
• Bank holidays to be declared -- savings to vanish overnight
• Social safety nets to be cut -- no jobs, no incomes, no pensions
• Anarchy and chaos to spread worldwide, Martial Law to be declared regionally or nationally in the US and in other countries
• High probability of multiple 'terrorist' attacks; possible cyber -- attacks and probable nuclear attacks on major cities
• More and bigger wars: Israel, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Koreas -- long list of potential war zones
• Possible Pandemic outbreak

Episode 26 of Last Days / Signs of the End Talk Radio

Episode 26 of Last Days / Signs of the End Talk Radio In this episode Pastorann of TKSCM (The Knowledge Seeker Christian Ministries - sites.google.com/​site/​tkscm1/​) and Paul Sandhu from Signs of the End website (signsoftheend.net) and Apocalypse 2010 blog (apocalypse2010.blogspot.com/​ discuss current events in light of Biblical Prophecy. Topics covered are as follows: The Economic Collapse, War, Riots, Social Unrest, Extreme Weather, Famines, Food shortages, Pandemics and more..

Episode 26 of Last Days / Signs of the End Talk Radio from Paul Sandhu on Vimeo.

Pakistan warns U.S.: "You will lose an ally"

(Reuters) - Pakistan warned the United States it risks losing an ally if it continued to accuse Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was responding to comments by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who said Pakistan's top spy agency was closely tied to the Haqqani network, the most violent and effective faction among Islamic Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

It is the most serious allegation leveled by the United States against nuclear-armed and Muslim-majority Pakistan since they began an alliance in the "war on terror" a decade ago.
"You will lose an ally," Khar told Geo TV in New York in remarks broadcast on Friday.

"You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people. If you are choosing to do so and if they are choosing to do so it will be at their (the United States') own cost."
Mullen, speaking in Senate testimony, alleged Haqqani operatives launched an attack last week on the U.S. embassy in Kabul with the support of Pakistan's military intelligence.

The tensions could have repercussions across Asia, from India, Pakistan's economically booming arch-rival, to China, which has edged closer to Pakistan in recent years. Full Report

Mexico's descent into Anarchy continues with frequent mass killings

 

The bodies of 35 people with suspected links to organized crime - dumped on a road in the eastern Mexican city of Veracruz. The corpses - reportedly of both men and women -- were discovered near a shopping centre along Mexico's Gulf coast - marking a major escalation of violence in the once quiet port city. The Veracruz state prosecutor confirmed the discovery at a press conference Wednesday. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) STATE PROSECUTOR FOR THE STATE OF VERACRUZ, REYNALDO ESCOBAR, SAYING: "We have begun the corresponding investigations and have identified some of the bodies and have confirmed that they all had prior criminal records and were involved with organized crime, like kidnapping, extortion, homicide, among other crimes." Violence between rival drug cartels has been heating up in Veracruz - and local media reported that some of the bodies found were from the feared Zetas crime gang. The paramilitary-style group - founded by defectors from Mexico's army special forces - split off from its former employer, the Gulf Cartel. And the two have since been fighting a battle for lucrative drug-smuggling routes to the United States. Travis Brecher, Reuters