RT: Ancient Rome better distribution of wealth than in US

Published: 20 December, 2011, 23:03
Edited: 22 December, 2011, 07:22

The 99 percent has found an ally 2,500 years in the past. It just so happens that it’s with those that found themselves in the Ancient Roman plebian and slave classes.

According to research done recently by historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen, cited by Per Square Mile's Tim De Chant, the income inequality gap in modern day America is far greater than the separation within the societies during the days of Julius Caesar.

During the Ancient Roman Republic, says the duo’s study published in Per Square Mile, the top one percent controlled 16 percent of society’s wealth. 

If you fire up the Delorean and go from the Diocletian Empire to twenty-first century USA, you’ll see that things are a little more uneven. Today, that one percent on top controls 40 percent of the country’s wealth.

What difference does a few dozen centuries make, though? Emperors back then had a trained arsenal of soldiers equipped with on equines with hand-trebuchets, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today calls the NYPD his own army (who come with Tasers and pepper-spray on the ready). 

Want more? Today the top one percent saw their incomes rise by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007. Back then, well, back then the Romans saw the rise of the Constantine. Neither, frankly, was all that pretty.

Historical humor aside, the narrowing of America’s middle class and rise of poverty has been a long time in the making, even if just become more obvious in recent times thanks in part of course to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s pressing for reform. 

While 50 million Americans are currently living below the poverty line, in all one-in-two Americans are what the US Census Bureau calls “low-income.” 

In Washington DC, which is part of the wealthiest metropolitan region per-capital in the country, one-in-ten residents actually earns less than half of what would put them at the poverty line, creating an entire new class of the poorest of the poor which is only increasing as the wealth is torpedoed upwards to the top of the pyramid.

In coming up with their research, Schiedel and Friesen mulled over papyri ledgers, old school estimates and Biblical passages, specifically at around the times when the Roman Empire was at its population peak — around 150 C.E. 

Putting together the top members of the hierarchy around that times — the patricians, senators, equestrians and decuriones — the researchers have determined that the top 1.5 percent of the 70 million or so citizens of the empire had all-in-all around 20 percent of the wealth.

Despite this inequality, there was never an Occupy the Aqueducts movement or a tent city within the walls of the Coliseum — as far as we know, at least. Instead, rather, those that didn’t match up with the leading ranks were simply disregarded. 

As Per Square Mile puts it, the empire seems to have been “built on the backs of poor farmers and laborers,” adding, “it’s as though Rome’s 99 percent never existed.”

Sounds like something right out of Fox News.

sources:

http://rt.com/usa/news/inequality-ancient-percent-empire-287/

http://independentsofprinciple.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/this-is-not-right/

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RT: Anonymous declares cyber war on Congress over indefinite detention act

Hacktivists are continuing their mission to take on politicians causing the collapse of constitutional rights in America, with operatives from the online collective Anonymous keeping up a campaign against the signers of controversial legislation.

As Russia Today (RT) reported on Thursday, members of Anonymous began a campaign this week to expose information on the lawmakers who voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, a bill that will allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, the reinstating of torture methods and the creation of the United States as a battlefield. 

Despite the implications of the act, the Senate allowed for the bill to leave Capitol Hill on Thursday, leaving only the inking of President Barack Obama’s name as the final step for ratification.

President Obama had earlier insisted on vetoing the bill, but the White House retracted that statement in the days before it cleared Congress. Before the final draft left the Senate yesterday, Sen. Carl Levin asked that a statement from the administration be added to the record in which the president’s press secretary, Jay Carney, said that the president will not be advised to strike down the bill.

On Thursday, Anonymous hacktivists launched a campaign against Senator Robert Portman, a Republican from Ohio. Not only did Portland vote in favor of NDAA FY2012, he received $272,853 from special interest groups that also backed the bill.

“Robert J. Portman, we plan to make an example of you,” an Anonymous operative posted to the Internet on Thursday. Along with the warning was personal information pertaining to the senator, including his home address and phone number.

On Friday, Anonymous says that this is just the beginning of the campaign against those that are creating the collapse of the US Constitution. With NDAA FY2012 almost guaranteed to be approved by Obama any moment, a second piece of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is close to clearing a Congressional committee. Should that bill be brought before the president and signed into law as well, Internet access and content across America and the world will become largely censored.

“We've been watching you systematically destroy the rights of your own people, one law at a time. No longer shall we stand by and watch you enslave our fellow citizens,” writes an Anonymous operative in an open letter to Congress posted Friday: 

You have continued down this path of treason by creating acts such as the National Defense Authorization Act, Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP Act, and more. You've tried to conceal the true purpose of these bills, and pass them without the consent of the American people.

As a result of the recent legislation which has managed to make its way through Congress, Anonymous operatives write on Friday:

 We are now here to undo your sordid life's work in its entirety. No longer will your transgressions go unnoticed. No longer will you enslave the people. The world will know of your violations against the rights of the citizens you were elected to represent.

In the memo from the hacktivists, they include a copy of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution that have been crushed in-part by the latest congressional meetings. “Every time you violate these amendments we will ensure the people are aware of your actions,” says Anonymous. “You may have previously succeeded in concealing your actions, but that time has come to an end. You were elected by us, and you can be removed by us.”

Anonymous members are using the trending topic #OpAccountable on Twitter to spread the campaign against the congressman involved in the legislation. On Friday, one hacktivist tweeted that the topic is even being used by known members of the Tea Party movement.

“Goes to show this year’s outrage is far stretching," adds the operative.

Note: IAW RT policy, this article is published verbatim. 

source: http://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-congress-ndaa-sopa-013/

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Ron Paul: GW Bush was happy about 911

Ron Paul stopped in Ames, Iowa on the campaign trail on Thursday, and used some harsh words to explain President George W Bush’s reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Specifically, the Texas congressman said that the former president was pretty happy about the events. After all, said Paul, the attacks served as pretext to finally put American troops overseas in what instantly became a justifiable reason for war.

“Think of what happened after 9/11,” Paul told a crowd of around 1,000 in Ames this week. “The minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat.”

What’s more, said the presidential hopeful, is that a decade later, the current administration is creating excitement themselves over what is erupting with enemy forces overseas.

“That’s exactly what they’re doing now with Iran,” said Paul.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been high for years, but talks of a budding nuclear program in Iran has America and its allies up in arms over what could be developing overseas. The loss of a high-tech American drone aircraft in Iran last week has only escalated a stand-off between nations, as Washington and Tehran bicker back in forth in the days since over what the craft was doing in the skies above Iran and whether or not Iran has actually recovered the craft.

Paul has been a critic of both the Bush and Obama administrations, but speaking from the campus of Iowa State this week, revealed that the excuses that each president has used to embroil American forces in overseas skirmishes are eerily similar. Paul added:

I think extremists have taken over. They’re the ones that run the foreign policy and that convinced us as a country to go along with all these wars.

From Ames on Thursday, the National Journal reports that Paul’s audience was unperturbed by the statement. A reporter with the paper relayed the statements to the rest of the world by way of Twitter, in which one critic in particular, however, shares sentiments about the libertarian-leaning GOP candidate. Former Bush administration official Ari Fleischer fired back at Paul’s statements, saying simply, “The man is nuts.”

Paul’s statements aren’t anything new for the libertarian icon, who has opposed the Bush administration’s reaction and response to 9/11 for some time. During a televised debate of Republican Party candidates earlier this year, Paul put the blame of the attacks on America itself. He said: 

They attacked us because we have been over there bombing them for 10 years . . .

If we think we can do that (occupy foreign lands) and not have retaliation, we are kidding ourselves.

source: http://rt.com/usa/news/ron-paul-bush-iran-449/
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RT: Iran shows off captured RQ170 drone

Days after the Pentagon first denied and then admitted that it lost touch with a high-tech drone aircraft, authorities in Iran are now saying that they have the plane — and its condition is pristine.

The unmanned, robotic aircraft — a RQ170 Sentinel drone plane — disappeared last week. American authorities quickly dismissed claims that they lost the plane over Iran, only to later admit that the CIA was flying a reconnaissance mission over Afghanistan when they lost touch with the top-secret stealth drone.

Soon after it was believed that communication was cut once the plane waded through the air in Iranian territory. American officials then claimed that satellite imagery showed that the drone had crashed and was beyond repair.

Officials out of Tehran, however, now say that they intercepted the craft and have it in perfect shape. For proof, Iran television has even broadcast footage of the craft.

Tehran is saying that they brought down the drone themselves with the Iranian Army’s electronic warfare unit after they caught the craft in Iran, around 140 miles from the country’s border with Afghanistan.

The Sentinel has been in the arsenal of the US military since 2009 and the Pentagon has gone to great lengths to keep its exact capabilities under wraps, though those speaking under condition of anonymity to the Los Angeles Times have revealed that among its powers is the ability to intercept cell phone transmissions and sniff out toxic chemicals from miles above the Earth’s surface, all while remaining undetected.

"It's bad — they'll have everything,” one official added to the Times.

"It carries a variety of systems,” author Peter W. Singer tells the Times, “to its allies . . . it's a potential gold mine.”

RT: Iran claims it shot down advanced US stealth drone

RQ-170 stealth drone

Iran's military says it has shot down an advanced stealth US reconnaissance drone aircraft in eastern Iran, state TV reports. 

According to reports, Iranian authorities managed to seize the unmanned aircraft upon being downed, which they claim received "minimum damage."

"Iran's military has shot down an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," an unnamed source has reportedly told Iran's Arabic-language television network. 

Note: This drone which flies from Afghanistan is called "The Beast of Kandahar."

The RQ-170 sentinel "is a low observable unmanned aircraft system which the United States Air Force uses to "directly support combatant commander needs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to locate targets."

According to the semi-official Fars news agency, Iran says it will continue to respond in kind to any drones that have violated the country's airspace, even from outside the country's borders.

However, US officials say there is 'absolutely no indication' the drone which crashed in Iran was actually shot down.

This isn't the first time Iran has claimed to act against a US drone operating from within its borders. In July, Iranian officials said a US drone was shot down while flying over the city of Qom, which authorities contend was gathering intel on a nearby nuclear facility.

Sunday’s reports of the downed drone come as the conflict between the US and Iran centering around the Islamic republic's alleged nuclear weapons program continue to intensify.

In November, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution urging Iran to provide access to its nuclear facilities to UN experts.

The resolution followed a November 8 IAEA report which claimed Iran had been actively developing weapons.

While Iran has continued to maintain that their nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes, the US and the European Union have chosen to tighten sanctions on key Iranian industries.

Diplomatic tensions between Iran and the West continued to intensify after dozens of Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran Tuesday in response to the unilateral imposition of sanctions.

Britain immediately shut down its embassy in Tehran and subsequently closed the Iranian embassy in London on Wednesday, expelling all of its staff.

Other European countries also responded in kind, as Norway closed its embassy in Tehran, while Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands all opted to recall their ambassadors.

As the threats of even tighter sanctions loom over the country, Iran’s foreign ministry had responded that any attempts by the West to block oil exports would be met with a doubling of crude oil prices on the global market.

"As soon as such an issue is raised seriously the oil price would soar to above $250 a barrel," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast reportedly said.

Iran, which received some $56 billion in the first seven months of 2011 from crude oil exports, is the world's third-largest crude exporter and heavily dependent on revenues generated from the trade.

And while no final agreement on an oil embargo against Iran has been agreed upon within Europe, tougher sanctions could be be finalized next week, as various EU heads of state are set to meet for a summit this coming Thursday.

Author and journalist Afshin Rattansi told RT the US has once again broken international law by sending the drone to Iran.

RT: Chinese Yuan may replace dollar as world's reserve currency

Published: 18 November, 2011, 23:46

Tensions between Beijing and Washington intensified this week as international leaders met to discuss the handling of the South China Sea. As America attempts to involve itself in the region, China is asking Obama and company to butt out.

And while once a force to be reckoned with, American dominance may be threatened more than ever as economists predict that the US dollar will be usurped by the Chinese yuan in only ten years’ time.

In its latest report to Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission predicts that the yuan, also called the renminbi or RMB for short, could compete against the American dollar as the world’s reserve currency in a matter of only a decade. As China has pushed their currency outside of its own borders in recent time, the panel predicted to Congress that I could be just a matter of time before the US dollar loses its power as China becomes the world’s economic superpower.

"Chinese financial authorities are laying the groundwork for these ambitions via a series of bilateral arrangements with foreign companies and financial centers," the Commission says in their report. "While dollar-denominated financial markets retain a substantial advantage over their RMB-denominated counterparts in terms of new issuances, the RMB markets have made remarkable progress in less than one year," the add.

In his new book, Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance, economist Arvind Subramanian writes that that “Chinese economic dominance is more imminent and more broad-based – encompassing output, trade and currency – than is currently recognized.”

At one time the British pound sterling was the world's reserve currency but the dollar replaced it. Instability in US financial markets could make the Yuan attractive as an international currency.  


This would be a supreme irony if the currency of a communist nation was used as the world's reserve currency. 


The US would no longer be able to print money without creating inflation if this happened. 

See the complete article at http://rt.com/usa/news/dollar-china-yuan-sea-703/

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CIA Fact Book challenge to US conservatives

Michel Chossudovsky from the Centre for Research of Globalisation in Canada argues that GDP is not representative of the actual strength of an economy, which could mean that China's economy is already the biggest in the world. China officially bypassed Japan as the number two economy in the world.

United States:
Government type: Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition Economy - overview:
The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $46,400. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace.

US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets.

US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II.

The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.

China:
Government type: Communist state
Economy - overview: 
China's economy during the past 30 years has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment.

Annual inflows of foreign direct investment rose to nearly $108 billion in 2008. China has generally implemented reforms in a gradualist or piecemeal fashion.

In recent years, China has re-invigorated its support for leading state-owned enterprises in sectors it considers important to "economic security," explicitly looking to foster globally competitive national champions. After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, China in July 2005 revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies.

Cumulative appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar since the end of the dollar peg was more than 20% by late 2008, but the exchange rate has remained virtually pegged since the onset of the global financial crisis.

The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis that adjusts for price differences, China in 2009 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income.

Assignment to al.politics Usenet conservatives:

1. Explain how the economic system of China, a communist country, has been able to surpass the economy of the US.

2. Explain this development using Supply side economic theory of Arthur Laffer.

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source: CIA Fact Book

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US beats Spain in huge upset

USA caused another sensation at the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009, beating European champions Spain 2-0 to book a place in their first-ever world final. The Spaniards controlled possession at Bloemfontein's Free State Stadium, but the USA, losers of their first two games here in South Africa, played a brave and spirited 90 minutes in freezing temperatures, pulling off a historic victory with goals in each half from Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey.

Bob Bradley's side made a lively start to proceedings, surging into attack early against their illustrious adversaries. Young Charlie Davies, rewarded with a second straight start by the coach in attack, was causing havoc at the Spanish back. His audacious overhead volley nearly caught out Iker Casillas before bouncing wide in the seventh minute.

Carlos Bocanegra, back in the team and wearing the captain's armband for the first time at these finals, went close shortly after with his head and Dempsey tried his luck from distance.

After a slow start, though, the European champions began to assert themselves and take control of possession, Barcelona creator Xavi leading the way. Cesc Fabregas saw his shot in the 12th minute fly over the bar, while Fernando Torres and David Villa both went close to opening the scoring.

Despite Spain's superior technique and pedigree, the ambitious, almost insolent, North Americans stole in and took the lead. After a lovely bit of interplay between Dempsey and Davies, Altidore shook off his former Villarreal team-mate Joan Capdevila to meet a fine through ball and slam home from 18 yards. Casillas got a palm to it, but the Real Madrid goalkeeper simply could not deal with the power in the strike.

The Spaniards continued to dictate the pattern as the half wore on. As the men in red chased their equalizer, Liverpool striker Fernando Torres was again denied, this time by a fine kick-save from Tim Howard with just seconds to go in the half.

Spain emerged from the changing rooms with renewed vigor, Villa turned brilliantly in the box after five minutes but Howard again was equal to the effort.

A bit of desperation looked to be creeping into the Spanish attack near the hour-mark. Villa, Torres and the ever-present Xavi were trying to force their way through an increasingly cohesive US rearguard, marshalled by giant center-back Oguchi Onyewu.

Last-ditch tackles and heroic blocks were coming to define the American resistance. Sergio Ramos slammed off the post in the 64th minute as Spain's pressure was beginning to look irresistible. Bradley brought on midfielder Benny Feilhaber for striker Davies, hoping to shore things up with a little under half an hour to go.

Against the run of play, though, it was the Americans, not the Spaniards, who got the crucial goal. Clint Dempsey, fresh off scoring the third goal in the win over Egypt that saw the US through to this semi-final, took advantage of a rare error by Ramos to poke home an opportunistic goal from close range. The celebrations that followed were in perfect accord with the historic nature of the goal, and the eventual 2-0 victory over the reigning European champions and the world's No1ranked team.

The States will now play in their first-ever final at a major international competition, taking on the winner of tomorrow's semi-final between hosts South Africa and runaway favorites Brazil. However, they will line up in the ultimate match without holding midfielder Michael Bradley who was sent off with three minutes remaining for a two-footed lunge.

Sources:

www.fifa.com/confederationscup/matches/round=250120/match=66213/summary.html

 
codewordwatermelon.blogspot.com/2009/06/usa-shocks-spain-2-0.html

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