Sweden Shame

Julian Assange has been under grave threat since founding Wikileaks in late 2006.

Wikileaks promised to open a window onto high-level corruption and war crimes, and they hugely succeeded. The internet suddenly became a true & real threat to elite & powerful "leaders" around the globe. Wikileaks turned a spotlight on dirty people beyond law who previously could commit high crimes, even genocide, but simply growl "Fuck You" and retreat to their palaces and ill-gotten wealth.

But after taking on Swiss banking corruption, collateral murder by the "Coalition of the Willing" in Afghanistan, and US diplomatic indiscretions, for the past five years Wikileaks has been very quiet.

Why?

Because Julian Assange has been run to ground and effectively silenced by the Swedish Prosecution Authority, Åklagarmyndigheten. Assange is officially sought for suspected rape, three cases of sexual molestation and illegal coercion.

There's no way we can judge here if Assange is guilty of these terrible crimes. In parallel to pissing-off the globally powerful, did Assange suddenly become a despicable sexual predator? His reputation has been tarred and he's effectively been quieted... surely convenient for many far-worse scum. Is Assange guilty or innocent - who knows?

What we can know is Sweden has responded poorly.

The Assange case is shameful to Sweden for many reasons. Perhaps the easiest and clearest criticism is in a simple timeline:

2010 Aug 11
Assange arrives in Sweden amidst huge political notoriety.
Assange stays with "Miss A" at her apartment.

2010 Aug 14
Assange gives a public lecture in tumultuous international limelight. Afterward he returns to the apartment of "Miss A" - that night there's sexual activity between the two parties.

Assange continues to stay at the apartment over subsequent days.

2010 Aug 17
Assange reportedly has sex with ''Miss W'' - a woman he met at the August 14 seminar.

2010 Aug 18-19-20
Sometime over these days, the two women meet and discuss their sexual encounters with Assange.

2010 Aug 20
The Swedish Prosecutor's Office issues an arrest warrant against Assange for two separate allegations- one of rape and one for molestation. Assange is in Sweden but he is not arrested.

2010 Aug 21
The arrest warrant is withdrawn; the molestation charge remains. 

2010 Aug 31
Assange is questioned by police in Stockholm and formally told of the allegation(s) against him; Assange denies wrongdoing (link) and submits these were consensual sexual encounters. Is this a smear campaign against Assange?

2010 Aug 31 to Sept 27
Assange stays in Sweden. Public opinion is polarized: did the 39-year old became a sudden sexual predator? Wikileaks is considered under attack.

2010 Sept 27
Assange departs Sweden for the UK.
Åklagarmyndigheten later issues an arrest warrant for Assange.

The sordid tale still continues... 

One key question for Swedish justice officials:
In 40 days between 18 Aug and 27 Sept 2010, when Assange was in Sweden, he could have been arrested for any crimes. The Swedish Prosecution Authority chronology (link) manages to evade the fact that 40+ days passed when Sweden failed to provide justice for anyone -- but they did manage to shut-up Assange. Dictators, murderers and the ultra-corrupt are surely grateful!

Nonproliferation?

Many years ago I learned in school that most states holding nuclear weapons have agreed in theory to cut back; in exchange, the many states without nuclear weapons promised not to build them. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force in 1970.

But the nuclear states have failed to reduce their arsenals, and instead use their nuclear status to aggressively dictate their vision of a New World Order.

Certain states claim "Permanent" world-ruler status at the United Nations Security Council, though unelected. Many smaller states and leaders recognize they've been hoodwinked and marginalized.

The situation is unsustainable. The 2015 NPT Review Conference collapsed without progress, and Israel, India, Pakistan have still not signed the NPT (North Korea signed but later withdrew). Nuclear weapons must be eliminated; the big bad nuclear states must do more for disarmament -- as promised.

Let's expand the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones. Why can't Japan pledge to be nuclear-weapon-free? Where is the often progressive Swedish government? 

Widen the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones !   (link)

Korean Walk for Peace

Last weekend a women's group of prominent activists walked to the Korean border, drawing attention to more than 60 years of hostilities.

Gloria Steinem, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire & Leymah Gbowee, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, and dozens of others beg us to reconsider Korea's long & tragic militarization.

https://www.womencrossdmz.org

The women planned to walk across the border. But the South Korean government (and American controllers) wanted to manipulate the news images, so only allowed them across in a bus. South Korea's government bullshit claim (quote) was their forces "could not guarantee the activists’ safety" unless they arrived by bus -- but these activists had traveled via North Korea, where surely there's no security guarantee.

South Korea's military & US Military Command
Don't want peace. 

Peacetime militarists lose budget, power, and perhaps their jobs.

Europe Values Peace

Dark & selfish interests would like Europe to fall apart.

There'd be much more defense spending, and many more huge weapons sales if neighbor fights neighbor!

The USA, Russia and major Asian countries would each individually prefer free reign over world affairs. But  they're now counterbalanced by the EU, and semi-secretly see the European Union as their enemy.

Big voracious corporations can more easily rape & pillage the small individual nations of Europe - but the EU in combination challenges crony capitalism.

Regressive forces not only want to, but work to highlight our differences and frictions. They blossom on decay, propagandizing the belligerence business.

In a Europe with low borders we now enjoy huge economies-of-scale and lower transaction costs.

But I was sitting recently with a group of bourgeois friends who'd throw away our huge gains. "Get Sweden out of the EU" they say, with flashing eyes!

Why?

Because everyday now they must confront beggars: pitiful and aggressive people who've recently come to Sweden from elsewhere in Europe.

Our leadership must address this problem. There's no automatic right to do business on the street without a license. We're typically prohibited from camping in public parks and shitting among the bushes. The beggars' streetside piles of pitiful possessions could easily mask bombs planted by a terrorist.

We've no knowledge of beggar numbers.

Our society must set & enforce rules for sidewalk entrepreneurs. Citizens are registered, and visitor-entrepreneurs should be registered as well, especially those most in need. The future of Europe is endangered.

Fucked Fast Track

We live in a world where our representatives are powerless.

Democracy is kept in the dark.

Fast Track gives corporate insiders the right and opportunity to (pardon me) fuck us up the ass. And they do.

We know nothing of TPP - because it's secret.

Wake up dunderheads - you're being reamed.

"We Are Many"

I've not yet seen the Amirani film "We Are Many" opening today.

But look at the trailer (here) and recognize:
 we're still being shat upon.

Who created the "Coalition of the Willing" Weasels?
We no longer must watch war leaders Bush, Cheney, Rice, Blair, on corporate media everyday. But they remain wealthy and at large.

Worse, their hidden friends & allies continue to manipulate a new generation of delinquent leaders.

Be Sure: We're still jerked by the same puppet-masters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOpa8y2TIy8

Don't Buy Shit

Major meatpackers join sweatshops & convict labor operations to celebrate a WTO finding: labels mean restraint of trade.

Because consumers don't buy as much shithole products -- corporate interests demand we stop labeling details of origin.

But consumers can fight back:
Where's this food from?

Don't Know?   Say No.

Leave that shit on the shelf.

Fast Track NO: Inside Track

Fast Track legislation on secret trade deals guts protective laws. Corporate giants and big capital, free to do much as they wish, can claim predictive damages via investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). They'll operate beyond law.

Corporate powers were already granted Inside Track with plush seats at the top secret bargaining table -- why? -- while we're largely kept in the dark?

Swindler-leaders, Republican & Democrat, offer slavers a perpetual inside track to dominate and control. President Obama's not stupid, he's not naive; Obama's comfortably in bed with swindlers!

Megacorps® are offered our future.
Banksters and lawyers are given our heart.
Our economy & nation cannot bow to these fuckers.

The scum of Enron, the Deepwater Horizon polluters Halliburton & BP, the corrupting riches of the mafia, yakuza and triads, can't be awarded permanent world control.

R U Dinji / Dingy?

Yankee & Co. imprison, torture, and kill without trial or remorse.

Such acts are unjust and criminal. But the world does little or nothing to stop the blatant outrage and carnage.

Guantanamo prison was condemned as outrageous by US Sen. Barack Obama, but since the dude achieved the Presidency it ain't been fixed.

The "evil" of Guantanamo? It's bad PR - a snapshot of fascist power.

US drone missiles kill thousands of people. Most drone strikes are far from any battlefield - we now create battlefields anywhere & wherever convenient to us. Our enemy does likewise.

The killed and maimed are depicted as dinji. We don't see fresh & shiny children, bright eyed kids enjoying play or fun or discovery. We're shown dingy dusty angles at the end-of-the-world, as if pre-modern massacres.

The dinji / dingy people are unfortunate pitiful victims.
Who are the dinji?  You, me & all but a chosen few ...

Killing Peasants

There's no back-story available for people we kill with drones. Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of people enjoying innocent quiet lives are rudely violated when we rain death & destruction upon them (perhaps someone we hate may be passing nearby).

America's drone killings are criminal... such crime threatens us all.

Just dusty peasants, whose blood soaks into arid empty lands?

TPP - Tainted Privately Putrid

The top-secret TPP was given a sharp stick up its arse by the US Senate, which refused to allow the Executive Branch ability to "fast track" its secret trade negotiations.

We'll soon hear how Senators are deeply concerned about their essential need to debate key concessions, and how public transparency should be required.

Actually, it's likely more Senate members want access to the corrupt money underlying the treaty process. Many of these individuals will shut up & climb onboard if given a chunk of the wealth.

Just now, however, it's considered an important defeat against the
Tainted Privately Putrid - - - TPP treaty
Hurrah!

There's NO good reason trade deliberations should be kept secretly hidden from public review!

stopsecretcontracts.org

Mob Mentality

Exclusionism is an abiding part of life in Korea & Japan. If somewhat or somehow different, you're sure to be attacked. Anyone not born in those places is a perpetual outsider. Those with uncommon heritage (for example, a multicultural homelife) are regularly treated shabbily, regardless of linguistic or cultural abilities. You sin if different.

"The nail that sticks up gets pounded down" is a Japanese saying applying as often in Korea.


Many peoples share group mentality, and gang-up on anyone different. But competition for jobs and resources will surely hurt nations and regions smothering creativity. To train everyone simply to follow orders, and mimic others, is surely a path to disaster.

Does stifling diversity hold back Japan & Korea very much?  It's massively costly! ... Homogeneity may allow some pitiful common folk to feel better about themselves, but we need creative & entrepreneurial communities to supply jobs and fuel well-being.

Read here on Jasmine Lee, "One Of The Most Hated Women In Korea"
(article above and Wikipeda link)

UK Rejects Weasels

The UK election results are still not wholly reported, but one clear result: the Liberal Democrats were crushed.

This is the party whose weasel leadership joined in coalition with the Conservatives to rule the UK since 2010. The Liberal Democrats broke their promises to voters, to youth and the future, and have been justly routed & reamed.

People expect little from the Conservative Party. But the Lib Dems were a voice of reason before their sellout. Nick Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister for five years, and got to hobnob with fancy folk, but he sold-out his people. Clegg promised repeatedly to abolish university fees - but instead jacked-up fees horrifically (after he & his generation paid little or nothing). Lib Dems vows of "Fairness" were hypocrisy & deceit.

Clegg, his opportunist colleagues, and The Right Honourable Lord Ashdown now bear finery and flattery as rejected losers - wannabe lackeys outmaneuvered by the English ruling class.

Children's Day?

Japan & Korea celebrated Children's Day on 5th May.

Dedicating a national holiday to children is nice, but children's lives are often tough though surrounded by plenty.

Both Korea and Japan are highly competitive, and from infancy most kids are pushed to fight for advantage and grades. Children are forced to memorize large amounts of useless data, seeking to show one is slightly better than others. You compete with your peers instead of playing with them.

In Japan, the keyword is 偏差値, hensachi or deviation-value.

Koreans focus on 스펙, spec, or personal specifications.

It's a grim kind of hell from a kid's perspective.

Children's Day, central Seoul, demonstrating against excessive study & competition

USA Freedom Act

The hobbled American government is now debating The USA Freedom Act.

The new legislation supposedly will roll-back surveillance and limit use of dirty tricks against American citizens.

Why are we forced to legislate freedom?
Because some American elected officials & government employees subverted the Constitution and undermined our daily lives, creating a dangerously sloppy surveillance system infiltrated by assorted enemies, domestic & foreign.

Unacceptable.

Schoolteaching Sweden

Monday this week the OECD published a report (link) about systematic decline in Sweden's schools. Findings strongly suggest the teaching profession in Sweden needs uplifting.

The report was requested by Sweden's previous right-wing coalition government, who supervised eight years of profiteering while education declined. More schools became autonomously incorporated but teachers became more like production workers.
 
OECD Director for Education & Skills Andreas Schleicher highlights "Only five percent of teachers think what they do everyday is respected by society."  Surely that's a problem!
For more see Sweden's 2013 Teaching & Learning International Survey summary (here); or the full TALIS report (link).

Sweden's educational troubles are no surprise. Increasing numbers of teachers work outside the public sector, in publicly-funded corporate schools. Such "schools" may not be clearly labeled as private businesses though staff are corporate employees, typically subverted as quickly-replaceable units to fuel profit-driven corporate success.  

Sweden's school sector has suckled a class of politically well-connected corporate swine instead of cultivating efficiency and innovation. Fat venture capital parasites feast on underpaid labor, minimally invest in professional development, and cut support services & 'non-essential' dimensions such as the school library or student counseling. Students, parents and society are ill-equipped to fully analyze these firms, and there've been tragic cases of full corporate collapse (such as the 2013 JB Education bankruptcy - owned by Danish venture capital firm Axcel - that directly injured 10,000 students in 20+ schools).

Belief in Brutality?

Does anyone believe it's healthy to be Black in America?

U.S. polarization makes Justice trivial and senseless. People are afraid of each other, terrified by government, savaged by local law enforcement.

Big bosses live large; the rest of us fight for scraps. We're brutalized by frightened pigs hiding anxieties behind arrogance & bravado. The cops require respect for doing shit work, but they can never be paid enough.

Provoking each other:
(one nasty t-shirt earns a pepper spray facial & violent takedown):
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=83f_1430654444

Government's creative response? Beat on the People -- More.

Knowledge is Power

Yes -- Knowledge is Power.

That's why our political masters try to keep us in the dark.

In Western nations (before these ruler-jokers) the Church claimed to know better. Dey kept Power for themselves ... look for the gold of their palaces & retreats.

Thank MASA to help us know bettah:

Manning
Assange
Snowden
Anyone

Info for the Masses?

The European Parliament is debating if nutritional contents should be added to alcoholic drink labels.

All other mass-produced drinks and foods require such labeling... but not if alcoholic (1.2% or more by volume). Why the liquor exemption?  The big-business drinks lobby provides lots of political 'donations' to grease their perspective...

There seems no good reason to keep us in the dark about calories & additives, and many reasons we should know (such as rising obesity & dietary restrictions) what's inside the stuff we could consume.

Conditions are much worse in the USA, where even alcohol percentages are hidden.

Pretty packaging hides dangers. Knowledge is Power!

Anzac - The Rulers Know Best

This week is memorial to ANZAC, the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. Especially remembered are fighting & losses in 1915 at Gallipoli - Çanakkale Savaşı.

As with all wars, the losses and maiming are huge. Profiteers and scavengers (properly incorporated & politically connected) do very nicely. But most grunts simply suffer from WTF:
"What the Fuck Am I doing Here?"
Many go from pain to a box in the earth...

The following leads to a great song, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" as done by The Pogues. The described battle could as well be Vietnam or one of the hundreds of conflicts through history from Afghanistan to Zion. Before enlisting to struggle & sweat & sacrifice for Empire, herded to the killing grounds for Wall Street & The City, listen to war well-told from a peon perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY

Fast Track to TPeeP

Why's Government keeping trade concessions secret? Why can't the people know?

It's Piracy laddie! A corrupt insider scam.

From the scum who gave insider-bankers our national treasuries.

TPP and TTIP will swindle you from home & community.
(And ye cannot emigrate to jobs in China).
Shut it down!

RIP Ms. Sabeen Mehmud

A ruthless response
Smothering debate with guns
Cocky right-wing thugs

Gunned down in the street
Is Karachi beyond shame?
Two unarmed women ...

Dried blood in the dust
Whatever will be, will be?
Fight ignorance now!

 

Petraeus Favoritism?

Former CIA Director David Petraeus mishandled highly sensitive information and violated the U.S. Espionage Act, sharing classified national secrets with his lover during an adulterous affair.

He's now a Federal criminal; but his misdemeanor conviction carries no jail time.

The progressive press is outraged:
"he's a bum"
"Slap on the wrist ... reveals double standard" (link)

A further worry: "initially Petraeus lied to investigators" (link)

Many analysts focus on how rank-and-file whistle blowers who expose government misconduct & criminality are threatened & imprisoned for espionage, and wish the same penalties on arch "insider" Petraeus.

Golden-boy Petraeus was previously widely thought to have Presidential ambitions. And David Petraeus was brought down soon after declaring that US interests often conflicted with Israeli operations. Did God punish foul Petraeus for failing to kiss Netanyahu's fat arse? (link) Perhaps Petraeus was considered unmanageable as a politician.

The "old boys network" in the USA that supposedly spared David Petraeus is not strong.

 The key is active leverage.

The eight highly classified notebooks the FBI found in an unlocked drawer at the Petraeus home were perhaps a diversion.

Petraeus was head of the CIA, he could easily have protective information (real dirt) that kept him from jail.

High-placed friends & wealth might also help...

Gawker sordid flowchart (link)

Nippon... maa...

This sensitive report will require more care to cover properly. But bare bones focus is three topics (as signified by "maa"):

Mishima
Aum
Atomic

Mishima Yukio (三島 由紀夫 born 平岡 公威) was an uncommon character. A novelist and social commentator, he was also able to create a private militia that sometimes trained together with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (Mishima enlisted himself in the JSDF at age 42). One day Mishima and a few of his team pushed their way into the JSDF Ichigaya military headquarters seeking to spark a national coup. When Mishima's bellowing was ridiculed, he gutted himself, and his assistants chopped-off his head. Nutty but Big News.

Aum Shinrikyo (オウム真理教) was a salvation-focused religious group that began to assassinate its enemies, and ultimately released sarin nerve gas on five crowded Tokyo subway trains. But nearly nine months prior, on 27 June 1994, Aum attacked a Matsumoto neighborhood (Nagano-ken, Japan) with poison sarin gas, killing 7 and injuring hundreds. Law enforcement in Japan was heavily criticized for not curtailing Aum's killing operations earlier, as there were many other extreme incidents prior to the Tokyo Subway attacks (Aum attempted perhaps 20 more chemical & biological attacks in the wider community - link, including use of VX nerve agent to murder followers including Tadahito Hamaguchi, and attacking Noboru Mizuno and others). Nutty - and Big News.

Atomic weapons (原子爆弾) were suddenly & violently introduced to Japan in August 1945. Officially, Japan since then has sought to be free of nuclear weapons. But the military alliance with the USA secretly allowed parking such bombs in Japan. After the Fukushima meltdown, it's reasonable to be suspicious of the haste which the present Abe government seeks to restart nuclear power plants -- understanding that nuclear power operations can mask nuclear weapon-building operations. Western governments have repeatedly accused Iraq and Iran and North Korea of such duplicity - maybe some subset of the Japanese government has ambitions for Japan to join the nuclear weapons club... Is this so nutty?

Concepts overly odd are nonetheless sometimes true...

Second Sewol Shipwreck?

Overloaded ferry Sewol 세월호 sank a year ago due to overloading, poor seamanship, and corrupt management. Hundreds of high-school students drowned when the crew ignored safety regulations and public rescue services proved inept.

The Sewol scandal is highly sensitive. But Korean Pres. Park Geun-hye's right-wing forces lost control this weekend in central Seoul, resorting to battering Sewol memorial marchers with clubs, water cannons & tear gas, and making scores of arrests.

Mainstream Korean citizens are increasingly upset by official arrogance and harsh government cruelty...  watching grieving parents & grandparents shot directly in the face with tear-gas... all from an administration only in power because of psy-ops (from organizing corrupt disinformation on their political opposition -- link).

Koreans are being punished for asking questions & disobedience. But it was unquestioning obedience that got the Sewol kids killed !

Buying Blackmail Access

The security services (NSA, FBI, GHQ, MI6, Mossad, etc.) collect and share massive amounts of information. They process and sort the information with private-sector contractors. Ed Snowden officially was employed by Dell during part of his intelligence career; he later followed NSA Director Mike McConnell to Booz Allen Hamilton (McConnell admits some incompetence, but maintains dogged disinformation - link).

Anyhow, the spooks continue collecting a treasure trove of global information about people, love affairs, finances, national security information of governments around the world, business secrets, competitive intelligence, and enemy schedules.

Intel is valuable. Where will the new train line stations be located? Land prices around each site will skyrocket in value. Early knowledge allows purchase option bargaining.

Mid-sized governments spend tens of billions on defense procurement. Or they could spend far-less to discover fundamental rival vulnerabilities.

Key knowledge can be quickly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The bad guys know this. Ruthless little fuckers like Whitey Bulger have money and contacts. Yakuza or less-connected governments or ambitious corporations are each eager to invest. Weak links are targeted -- that will collapse to blackmail or bribery. Our own arrogant leadership infects us with pathogens created for our protection.

NSA's Treasure Trove is surely already infiltrated, and the corruption is global.

Our spying is dangerous to all.

Atoms for Abe?

Nuclear reactor restart is very unpopular in Japan, with only 27% in favor. But Prime Minister Abe's in a heap of hurry to restart Nippon's reactors. After the horrible Fukushima disaster one might reasonably wonder WHY? ...

Atomic restart becomes much more understandable assuming Japan has nuclear weapons capability (or substantive nuclear weapon ambitions) secretly hidden inside its nuclear power industry.

Fearsome Fantasy?

We hope a sane voice decides: "Shut it down."

세월호 Haiku

Careless billionaires
Hungry spawn of Dr. Hwang
Sewol Splashing

Politician tears!
So dry beside the ocean
Sinking Gangnam style

Hijacked radiance
Bright youth choked by nasty Wealth
Down in the eel grass

From spec to ilbe
Live, Work, Die - pali pali
Enthralled by ego

FAST Track Trade Conspiracy

Obama and close friends seek FAST Track authority to consummate new TPP laws (Trans-Pacific Piracy laws).

FAST is spelt:
F%#k  America's  Silent  Trust

Our jobs, savings, family, dreams -- killed by Corruption

What is Apostasy?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia banned slavery in 1962, under reported pressure from U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Of nearly a half-million freed slaves, very many continued working for their former masters.

What's the surprise? That slavery was forbidden so recently? That it was outlawed at all? Why should the Saudi royal family kowtow & grovel to an American president? Can a person dirt poor be truly "free" ...?

Saudi King Faisal offered opportunity. We can imagine he reflected on the teachings of the Prophet (Peace be upon Him). He made a positive step forward.

America may claim responsibility... truth is more murky.