A Look at a Country Already Following the Corporate Tea Party Agenda

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By Grant Lawrence

Bodhi Thunder

We hear a lot these days about how great the country will be with very little taxes, no governmental regulations, and no social safety nets (social security, medicare, etc.)

According to silly Tea Party people and Glenn Beck no nothings, this path to the right will make this country great.

Now we already know that many of these same policies caused the economic melt down, the collapse of the middle class, and a massive debt. Of course, the wars have also contributed to the huge debt, but nobody wants to do anything about that.

Now recently I gave an example of countries like Sweden and Norway that have a more Socialist economic system and how their standard of living is among the highest in the world. Unfortunately, a super wealthy America doesn’t even make the top 10.

So let’s take a look at a country that has already in place much of the radical right’s corporate “Tea Party” agenda.

There is a country that has little governmental regulation. The country has little or no social safety nets for the people, and it also has very low tax rate of about 10%. This country is also one of the leaders in billionaires per capita.

So which country has all of the things the corporate manipulated loonies on the radical right in this country want to see?

MEXICO

….One of the most serious problems in Latin America is the poor distribution of income, in large measure “because public policies are insufficient,” says Rafael Pampillón, a professor at the IE business school in Spain. “Public spending programs are not adequate and they are poorly designed. Tax systems have very little capacity to collect revenues, and there are a lot of exemptions and deductions. Beyond that, a large part of the economy still operates on the black market.”

According to Pampillón, “Throughout Latin America, there is a general perception that resources are very limited, inequality is very substantial and social spending is not well focused.” As a result, he says, in many countries “tax reform is necessary, and this is as good a time to undertake it as any because we are living in an era of growth. Apart from Brazil, which has a relatively high tax rate of 35%, the other countries, especially Mexico, have extremely low tax rates of about 10% to 12%.”….(source: wharton)

If Americans want to follow the crazies down a road of complete economic ruin for everybody except the super wealthy, then we have a clear corporate “Tea Party” path to follow.

Shocker! Over 90% of Americans Choose Sweden’s Socialism

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By Grant Lawrence

Bodhi Thunder

Nearly every American in a survey chose Sweden’s Socialist wealth distribution over America’s Capitalist system. Over 90% of Americans when presented Sweden’s Socialism chose that system.

More interesting than that, the report says, is that the respondents (a randomly selected 5,522-person sample, reflecting the country’s ideological, economic and gender demographics, surveyed in December 2005) believed the top 20 percent should own only 32 percent of the wealth. Respondents with incomes over $100,000 per year had similar answers to those making less than $50,000. (The report has helpful, multi-colored charts.)

The respondents were presented with unlabeled pie charts representing the wealth distributions of the U.S., where the richest 20 percent controlled about 84 percent of wealth, and Sweden, where the top 20 percent only controlled 36 percent of wealth. Without knowing which country they were picking, 92 percent of respondents said they’d rather live in a country with Sweden’s wealth distribution…..(america blog)

It is clear Americans don’t know what Socialism is. The corporate media has Americans thinking fascism is socialism. But it is clear that Americans could make sound economic judgments on the governing of the economy if they weren’t scared into thinking only in a constrained, indoctrinated way.

God’s Banksters: Vatican Bank Raided in Money Laundering Investigation

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By Grant Lawrence

Bodhi Thunder

The Vatican Bank has long been accused of money laundering dirty political, mafia, and crime money.

See Also

Whistle blower Exposes Vatican Bank Unethical Activities

Hitler’s Saint: An Unholy Alliance Between the Church and the Nazis

Satan in the Temple of God: The Mysterious Death of Pope John Paul I

Throughout the the 70s, 80s, and 90s the Vatican Bank, or the Institute for Works and Religion, was said to be involved in money laundering and financial scandals that led to the collapse of a large Italian Bank.

…The Institute for Works of Religion was Banco Ambrosiano’s main share-holder. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, head of the IOR from 1971 to 1989, was indicted in Italy in 1982 as an accessory in the $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, one of the major post-war financial scandals. Banco Ambrosiano was accused of laundering drug money for the Sicilian Mafia, which used Propaganda Due (aka “P2″), a mobbed up Masonic lodge, as an intermediary. P2 and its Worshipful Master, Licio Gelli, were also involved in financing right wing terror groups during the 1970s. As for Archbishop Marcinkus, he would never come to trial in Italy, where courts ruled that he possessed diplomatic immunity. He lived in retirement in Sun City, Arizona (US) until his death on February 21, 2006….(source: wikipedia)

Archbishop Marcinkus was protected by the Church from prosecution.

But it gets worse.

Pope John Paul I evidently tried to do something about the corruption when he took over as Pope. But he ended up dead about a month after.

….When Pope John Paul I became Pope in 1978 he was informed about the allegations of wrongdoing at the Institute for Works of Religion, and instructed Jean-Marie Villot, Cardinal Secretary of State and head of the papal Curia, to investigate the matter thoroughly. Pope John Paul I died after only 33 days in office, leading to claims that he had been murdered as a result of discovering a scandal. Pope John Paul I is generally accepted to have died from natural causes, although some medical experts believe that he may have died from a pulmonary embolism or an adverse reaction to the medication that he was taking rather than from a heart attack as was stated in original press reports of his death….(source: wikipedia)

Pope John Paul I’s death was certainly convenient.

But it seems the Vatican Bank is not about to change no matter how much dirt it throws on the Catholic Church.

Recently Italian authorities raided the Bank and froze $19 million in funds.

…Prosecutors placed the bank’s director-general and its chairman under investigation in connection with two allegedly suspicious transactions which may have breached Italy’s anti-money laundering laws.

Investigators have spent more than a year scrutinising millions of euros of Vatican bank transactions to see if they violated regulations.

The inquiry culminated in Monday’s raid, in which police froze €23 million (£19 million) of Vatican bank funds, held by a private bank.

The Vatican bank’s chairman, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was appointed last year, was placed under investigation for allegedly failing to communicate to financial authorities where the money had come from….(source: telegraph.co.uk)

The Church is perplexed on how the Italian authorities could ever think the Bank is doing something unethical.

From protecting child molesters to running criminal finance, the Church is being run by frauds. But they are not the only frauds running massive institutions. However, they are supposed to be answering to a higher power.

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Obama’s Assassination Program Could Be Used on American Peace and Environmental Activists Labeled as Terrorists

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By Grant Lawrence

Bodhi Thunder

Recently the FBI raided Peace Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. The search warrants indicate that they were looking for connections between the activists and groups in Columbia and the Middle East.

One of those activists being investigated, Jess Sundin a longtime antiwar activist in Minneapolis, had this to say about the government’s investigation.

…So, one of the things we’re doing is trying to call attention to what’s happened and really make it clear to people that we have done nothing wrong. There is no basis to the claim that we’ve in any way given support to terrorist organizations. But in fact, we are being—we are being—there is attention on us because of our work in the antiwar movement, and in particular, our perspective of solidarity with people in the countries where the US war and militarism are happening. We, following up on these demonstrations, are going to be pulling together a network of people from many of these organizations that have expressed their concern. Folks who want to get tied into that can find us through the Anti-War Committee website, which is very outdated. We’re doing our best to get it up. Of course, as we explained, all of our computers were seized. So we’re doing a lot of catch up, trying to get ourselves organized…..(source: democracy now)

Many years ago, I predicted that the so called “War on Terror” would be used as an excuse to arrest Peace Activists and Environmentalists in an attempt to stop their activities and to put fear into a certain segment of the American population.

But what I didn’t know then was that harmless Peace Activists and Environmentalists, working for the good of humanity, could be assassinated as well as arrested.

President Obama’s assassination program is being used to target US citizens believed to be involved in terrorism.

….The Obama administration urged a federal judge early Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit over its targeting of a U.S. citizen for killing overseas, saying that the case would reveal state secrets…

…Civil liberties groups sued the U.S. government on behalf of Aulaqi’s father, arguing that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command’s placement of Aulaqi on a capture-or-kill list of suspected terrorists – outside a war zone and absent an imminent threat – amounted to an extrajudicial execution order against a U.S. citizen. They asked a U.S. district court in Washington to block the targeting….(source: washington post)

Today we see Anti-War activists and others being accused of terrorism and could face years of prison under the Patriot Act with no representation and no trial.

So it is not too much of a stretch to think that the government’s assassination program that is now targeting American citizens could also be used to target American Peace Activists and Environmentalists labeled as terrorists.

You might think I am completely wrong on this. But I was right about the labeling of Anti-War Activists and Environmentalists as “Home Grown Terrorists.”

The way things are going there may be a camp in some of our futures.

SEE VIDEO HERE

Professor of International Law on Covering Up Israeli “Nuremberg Crimes” Through Public Relations

By Grant Lawrence

Bodhi Thunder

Below is a short video on Israeli War Crimes and America’s complicity in it.

Francis Boyle, a professor of international law, met with the head lawyer for the IDF. He recounts a conversation he had with him:

You know, I spent 2 weeks here and you people are inflicting Nuremberg crimes on the Palestinians, exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews.

What is your explanation?

He said military necessity.

Notice he didn’t disagree with me. I said that argument was rejected at Nuremberg when the lawyers for the Nazis made it.

So then he said, well we have public relations people in the United States and they handle these matters for us.”

SEE VIDEO HERE

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