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Archive for the 'Europe' Category
Civil-Rights: (Official) Censorship is coming back to Europe
Today the German Parliament will vote on a new Censorship law to be put in place to block web content as decided by the German administration. Based on black listing web sites and blocking those at ISP level via DNS and the displaying of so-called Stop pages the planned law was originally been handed around and legislators were seeking public approval by false-flagging it as a solely preventive measure against child abuse / pornography.
While almost all experts heard on this matter (fighting such illegal material and use) have clearly demonstrated that the censoring of access is no way forward towards stopping such activities particularly as many of the web servers in question were even physically located in Germany and other means (take-down notice to providers) proofed that within shortest notice (often less than a day) the material was taken off the net, it became more and more clear that the German Government is seemingly following a completely different agenda. The latest text of the law not even contains a reference anymore to the previously so broadly used argument of fighting child abuse but provides the general right to block any Internet content as…
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The 2007 Mafia Inc. Balance Sheet
It looks like it was another very good year for Mafia Inc. in Italy.
With corruption and bribery on the rise almost everywhere the Neo-Liberals got a foot in the door and with the worldwide financial crisis 2008 might turn out to become even better.
With the Neo-Liberal deregulations and the loss of business ethics, new business practices that were just a few years ago considered as criminal and prosecuted as such together with the vacuum created by the loss of values, no wonder bribery and corruption is on the rise, and everybody seems to be doing it not necessarily because they want so, but because they are forced to.
Single persons to get a favor or place someone on an important position, companies to get contracts, and governments on a really, really big scale. And who would be surprised that at the same time these governments have…
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History: Kristallnacht – German pogrom of 1938
Tonight it is 70 years ago, that in the night of November 9th synagogues, Jewish shops and houses were destroyed throughout Germany and Austria. Almost a thousand Jews were murdered that night and 20-30,000 deported to concentration camps.
Sadly these days it looks like the extreme right wing thugs are creeping into society across Europe again. Where do you think that substantial amounts from all those Billions disappearing from military and so-called humanitarian aid programs are ending up?
This time it might not be the Jews, but will the majority of people again look to the other side and profit from…
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Russia’s answer on the U.S. Elections: Obama Matryoshkas
In Moscow, matryoshka – little wooden dolls – of Barack Obama have become one of the best selling souvenirs among tourists and Russians.
While before the election both Obama and McCain dolls were offered by shopkeepers, the interest in McCain dolls that even before November 4th had sold in much smaller numbers, has now more or less completely diminished. Or as one of the sellers put it “my stock in McCain dolls is now worth about as much as shares in Lehman Brothers”
Obama dolls are a new addition to …
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Stock Markets: VW speculations
How crazy the worldwide stock markets have become and how little effects the Trillion dollar packages, speeches and appeals of politicians had on the casino players could one more time be seen today in Germany.
Stocks of one of the worlds largest car makers, VW, rose more than 300 % with intraday peaks even higher – yes we mean it – more than three hundred percent. And some of the in-the-money call options have seen their prices increase of more than 27,000% (twenty seven thousand percent).
While car makers around the world tiptoeing along bankruptcy and demand forecasts for the next year(s) are at best catastrophic for some of them – BMW today stopped production for a few days in some of its factories and Daimler today announced that they will stop production for a few weeks later this year- the outlook for VW is anything but peachy as well.
It’s not fundamentals that are behind these price jumps, it’s plain speculation, the same casino plays like…
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Germany: Bank Robbers ante portas
There was a lot of hectic movement with governments around the world the last weeks to confine the disasters from betting / wild casino speculation within financial institutions. Approaches and road maps laid out (if any) are pointing to different directions even in the key G7 developed countries.
The U.S. – for example – first wanted to give absolute powers to the executive branch and the government – a move widely criticized and changed by the U.S. Congress in the debates following the first bailout plan.
France and the UK have taken another road and bailing out their banks by providing funds only against a collateral – meaning they are de-facto nationalizes key players in their finance industries. France even went a step further with President Sarkozy calling for the creation of national industry funds to stop the fire sales of key industrial players to overseas investors – an interesting step that found much applause with the European Parliament. If you think that further it…
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