About Occupy Baltimore

Occupy Baltimore is a coalition of people working to change the world. We oppose injustice nationally and globally; we work locally to build a better Baltimore.

In Baltimore, we want better schools and fewer jails; we want resources for the people, not tax breaks for developers. We have a city full of empty buildings and homeless people; vacant lots and food shortages. We want to put energy into things that will help the whole population of Baltimore, not just a chosen few.

On a larger scale, we oppose corporate power over politics and the media. Let's stop putting resources into destruction and start building a world that can survive.

SNJ

Schools Not Jails group at the site of a planned youth jail. Photo courtesy Casey McKeel.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE, 10/22/2011:
Through the transformation of this public space Occupy Baltimore is expressing solidarity with other Occupy Movements throughout the nation and the world who are forcing attention to the issues of political and economic injustice.

Our purpose is to open for all people a lasting, transparent, and honest Democracy organized in a consensus model. Our goals will be defined by the consensus of our General Assembly. We offer to the people what corporate privilege and political complacency in out nation has taken from them.

Posters

Posters at McKeldin Plaza, original site of Occupy Baltimore. Photo: Lauren Adams.

A DRAFT STATEMENT FROM OCCUPY BALTIMORE, 10/4/2011:
The Occupy movement began on September 17th as people from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, and political views gathered on Wall Street. Their central message focuses on the political influence of Wall Street and Corporate America in our political system and the disparity between the top 1% of wealthiest American and the remaining 99%. The Occupy Wall Street movement is committed to nonviolence and has organized themselves to be a leaderless group, committed to participatory democracy and collective decision-making.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired similar actions to begin in cities all across America. In Baltimore, the call to action was heard and the initial meeting was held on October 2nd. Together, as a group, the 200 plus folks who showed up for the first meeting made decisions on where and when the protest would begin. In following with models set up in New York and other cities, Baltimore formed several committees to disseminate responsibility and ensure all the needs of the group were met during the occupation.

Occupy Baltimore was started as a show of solidarity for those protesting on Wall Street. Individuals protesting bring their own specific goals and concerns and the group plans to highlight the diversity of issues inspiring those who are occupying. A plan to create a clear articulation of goals and demands are underway. In the meantime the group continues to find unity as the 99%.

The General Assembly schedule can be found on the calendar.

POLICIES:

#occupybaltimore Sexual Offense Policy

Since its inception, #occupybaltimore has maintained a zero-tolerance policy against sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. We maintain that creating a safe space for all people is paramount to our goal of building community. We actively oppose sexual violence in all its personal, cultural, and systemic forms.

Crowd

McKeldin: The early days. Photo: Graham Coreil-Allen.

Comments

acatelysteleven's picture

ya'all bring light in!!!!
light & love
allways,
in service to the greater good,
in service to the greater whole of humanity,
yours in service,
acatelysteleven

10,000 citizens invest $50 on our public marketdate, we purchase 6 acres of land in Baltimore City, build a triple track go cart, adventure amusement park, split the profits equally, do business openly, honestly, and inclusive. We do this to decrease the crime, stress and murder rate, improve mental and physical health, stregnthen social and family bonds, and contribute to the economic landscape of America.
Original video posted on YOUTUBE October 2007. Book posted on SCRIBD.com under Socioeconomic Empowerment.
I appreciate anyone who takes the time to hear me.

This is great, where to I go to see the Original video? I know youtube but what is the name of the video I can look at?

So it looks like after 8 years of trying to sell Constellation, the executive team has finally succeeded. It makes one wonder if this sale and the windfall it will bring the management team was their strategy all along. The track record of this team leaves much to be desired. As an example: their decision to get into energy trading in the early 2000’s earning millions of dollars (and of course a substantial jump in stock price) only to see the company subsequently lose all 6 years of profits in one two month period due to mismanagement and the financial meltdown of 2008.

I still don’t understand what the value of this deal will bring the ratepayers of this state. Because there isn’t one. Ownership and decisions that impact ratepayers will now be made 700 miles away and let’s be clear, the decisions made will be for the benefit of that company. Not the ratepayers. BGE and Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant are the only two gems in Constellation. We should take pride in the them. Unfortunately half of Calvert has already been sold to EdF and now they are attempting to sell the other half along with BGE.

This is a perfect example of bigger not being better. In this era of too big to fail, can the citizens afford this deal? The answer is no. And if the PSC won’t stop this, then Marylanders should. We should take a cue from Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Pratt Street.

Ranked Ballot (voters ranking candidates in order of preference) will give us (PRACTICABLE!) Instant TRUE Democracy for ALL the World, & even put an end to all war forever.

Because it gives an equal chance of winning to not just all parties, but all combinations of programs, “RB” is the only thing that’s truly both just & free. Because it always elects the candidate most exactly in the middle of all voting, RB is top-dead-center counter extremist, & thus more anti-terrorist than all the many recent retrenchments combined & thus will even disallow the tendency of (virtually two-party) parliamentary systems to give the top to the biggest gang on the block, sometimes with violently extremist results.

RB is the sole unchangeable plank & bylaw of a Ranked Ballot Party, the only practicable third party.) We imagine running on the single issue of RB, promising a citizens’ advisory board based on Organized Communications, “OC”, small randomly assigned discussion groups electing reps to higher & higher randomly assigned levels, by means of RB, ‘til one small group, most exactly in the middle of all voting, remains at the top, to guide us in the rest, which group by its merest invitation to speak inevitably names the perfect compromise & next winner That’s the instant part. You do the same, from the most local on up.
By the power of its example alone, RB will give us practicable instant worldwide true democracy. Virtually no democracy has ever been attacked by another. In a world of only democracies, there would no longer be need of the counter-productive wastefulness of armies, war or the preparation for war. RB will bring us that & all else: a real solution to terror, a perfect marriage of Freedom & Justice, Tradition & Modernity, Palestinian & Jew, Free Market & Communalism, all the fairness, payback & make-up one could wish for, clean back to the Cro-Magnons, ecologically sustainable politics, what’s best for all workers, instant global women’s liberation, world-wide luxury, a rationalization of the drug wars, human unity, the Freedom of Justice & the Justice of Freedom, perhaps the only possible solution to the world’s only real problem, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (once they both are made to have to adopt RB), even integrity. RB is to the horse & buggy two-party system as shopping in the Mall of America is to shopping in Soviet Russia. The majority of the problems we face are due to the heavy-footedness of the two party system. RB lessens the power of the extremes, whether authoritarian, economic or sectarian, except through what they can gain by persuasion, which is only what’s just. While it would be equally useful for all else, RB’s real power is perhaps most clearly shown in the case of Iraq. Unless its Parliament comes to select the Prime Minister by means of RB, it may not hold & the country, region & world will be in danger of going to war over some ancient grudge, oil well, multi-ethnic city, or sabotaged pipeline. While the new constitution does call for the selection of the President by a 2/3 vote in the first round (even if only by the parliament & not the people) (who may then decide who will form the new government) & then by a run-off between the top two vote getters in the second round, if that fails to move all three tribes to nominate centrists, then the resulting handful of old men in a back room will fall far short of RB’s ultimate retail politics. RB would be equally useful for all electoral systems (parliamentary or presidential, the parliaments choosing their PMs by RB from among their members, lest they produce another Hitler or other extreme) coops, collective leaderships, tribal groupings, religious confessions, political parties, associations or, even cabals. Whoever gets there first wins. For leaders to best represent their country, or district, whether chosen at large or by a representative body, they must be the perfect compromise, most exactly in the middle, as is given by RB. Yet because it gives minorities a real say in which member of the plurality/majority gets chosen, RB is the only thing that will lead Iraqis, or anyone else, to support any plan more than inadequate confederation. It will result in “phantasmagoric subtlefaction”, real-time alternatives to all proposals, from wherever: market, coop or social, or tribal, theological or universal, answering infinitely more questions at a time than the two party system’s “who is least bad”. Both more Liberty & Justice can be found in RB than in any ideology. With brakes & reverse comes no more need to suppress popular movements around the world. RB will give us subtlety, responsivity, light-footedness, long-sightedness, objectivity, economy, unity, accountability, integrity & victory over extremism. Palestinians & Jews will give up fighting over a sliver of desert & become members of global cooperatives, all the various forms of hegemonism, whether up front, subterranean or unconscious, will be given up, in exchange for leading the world to the light, & America will finally realize the need for an adequate, howsoever minimal, safety net as the price & foundation of a free market.
Help put this idea, in time, to as many as possible, before “Clockwork Orange” (overpopulation), “1984” (high-tech dictatorship), cosmic collision, tectonic, economic or environmental collapse, or literalist or criminal contretemps. The cost of a full page national ad (sufficient to put RB to virtually all the world) would be repaid in no time, once all that money gets put to actual productive use, at pre-9/11 US annual defense spending of $10,000 per family. Ten to the power of ten (ten levels of groups of ten) would be sufficient to organize & unite all mankind.
RB is very freeing. Because it always chooses the candidate in the middle, all who support it are perfectly top-dead-center, with no more need to fear self expression. Politics will become a family discussion around the kitchen table, with no more jumping back & forth between extremes, or absence of the economists’ requirement of predictability for growth. All that’s needed is to let go of the nut & get your fist back out of the knothole, to free yourself, & to rest in the knowledge that RB will give us perfect Freedom & perfect Justice, at one & the same time, even if not necessarily in the form imagined, as if anyone would then care. Unless all the world’s women have total control over their own bodies, no program or condition will ever amount to anything, because over-population will just eat it up. No woman ever got pregnant to have an abortion. Good enough for New Zealand, Australia, Kerala India, Iraq, London, Ireland, Cambridge Mass, Burlington & 95% of the townships of Vermont, Pierce County Washington, St Paul & Minneapolis Minnesota, the Utah Republican Party for the selection of statewide candidates, the platforms of both the Green & Libertarian Parties & 50 college student bodies across the US with more places coming every year, but not good enough for the rest of us? It must be in somebody’s interest! How can any wish it of others if they do not have it themselves? Having spent every spare moment from the invasion, to the vote on the constitution emailing every Iraqi we could find about RB, we would like to claim some little credit for the reforms they did adopt. The only imaginable definition of Freedom (& Morality) is “Do as you wish, but harm no other”. The maker & sustainer of this world (& cosmos!) could have no need of one bit of it. The fiercer the history of the planet, the sooner it would have been blissed out behind ethnic homogeneity, & thus democracy. Tax consumption, not investment, & spread the productivity around. All powers to their lowest appropriate level. All human evil is due to the out of phase fluctuation of population & food supply, so no-one alive is responsible for the mess we find ourselves in, except for what they do now. Justice is the redress of past violence, Freedom the current absence of violence & Nonviolence the only basis of all Morality. Just go out & collect signatures, asking those who sign to collect them for you as well. The more the merrier. (The “additive” form of RB is to count the first choices & if no-one has 50%, to add in the next choices, & so on until someone finally does.) “Consider that which is common in the sight of all men.” zoe morgan z, realzoe@hotmail.com

It is my opinion that OB must take on the Pentagon and the 50% of the budget which goes towards warmongring. Also it must be noted that the Pentagon is the #1 destructive force leading to climate chaos.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/a-hidden-...

Maybe take on Top Secret America too? Why do the Dems and GOP say we have to cut social entitlements and they won't touch the military?

We are NOT looking to align ourselves with ANY political party... BOTH parties have had their chance and have FAILED the PEOPLE.
We Also will NOT be devided or manipulated based on race, we are ALL one people, people of this planet, people who desire a JUST society.

You are one hundred percent correct. The "Two party system" is nothing more than what I, and many others call the "Republicrats", or Demopublicans", whichever suits your boat. Myself, I prefer the "RepubliCrats", as it rolls off the tounge more easily.

Why do we have a "RepublCrat" system? Easier to control. Easier to control by whom? Well that takes a bit of research to nail down more effectively, and I have. How do I download a PDF college paper (on which an A+ was given) to here? It is from 2007 but still the same old chit. Also, I can update it with some more recent annotated bibliography with ease, as you see, it is sooooo easy to expose the one or two percent that it is almost mind-numbing that the rest of middle and lower American Empire do not get it. I, myself, blame it on the mass media and many organs of government who obviously work hand in hand.

toe.

We are NOT looking to align ourselves with ANY political party... BOTH parties have had their chance and have FAILED the PEOPLE.
We Also will NOT be devided or manipulated based on race, we are ALL one people, people of this planet, people who desire a JUST society.

Yes, XtromatriX. Please see my previous post.
Maybe you can help me out?

Maybe someone can help me out?

Seriously, I am new to this format of posting.

Seriously, guys.

toe.

Why are you picketing cities??

Why are you not picketing congress as they are the root cause for this mess?? After all, Congress is the body that voted to give Wall street tax payer dollars without contingencies or restrictions on its use. Furthermore, both the President's staff and Congress have mandated oversight on both banking processes and Wall Street (i.e. Security Exchange Commission) trading rules.

I truely believe that the powers (and money) that are behind this movement are intent on misdirecting our frustrations away fron the true culprits which are our elected officials ( the past and current Presidents along with both parties in Congress. ) You (we) want change...lets go after them with the VOTE.

Please remember - Corporatios and Banks report to the shareholders, Congress (per the Constitution) reports to the taxpayer

On September 17th people from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, and political views gathered on Wall Street. Central messages focus on: the political influences of Wall Street / Corporate America upon our self-governing systems, and the disparity between the top 1% of wealthiest American and the remaining 99%.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is committed to nonviolence and has actively organized to be a leaderless group, committed to participatory democracy and collective decision-making.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has inspired similar actions to begin in cities all across America. In Baltimore, the call to action was heard and the initial meeting was held on October 2nd. Together, as a group, the 200 plus folks who showed up for the first meeting made decisions on where and when the protest would begin. In following with models set up in New York and other cities, Baltimore formed several committees to ensure the present and evolving needs of the group are addressed.

Occupy_Baltimore started as a show of solidarity for those
protesting on Wall Street. Individuals protesting bring their own
specific goals and concerns. We plan to highlight the
diversity of issues inspiring our occupying presence. Clear articulation of goals and demands are conversations that are ongoing.

We continue to find unity as the 99%. (We find unity in other feelings--I hope -- what are they?...get some quotes from occupiers)

Regular General Assemblies of Occupy Baltimore are being held daily at 8pm at McKeldin Fountain located on the corner of Pratt Street and Light Street in Downtown Baltimore.

md_10.19.11.7:07

I have thought for awhile a consumer boycott would be most effective in changing corporate behavior as it hits them in the pocketbook where it hurts most.

I agree Craig. After all, these corporations gain most of their wealth and power from the money that they get from the badly shrunken middle class and the working poor consumer.

I have thought for awhile a consumer boycott would be most effective in changing corporate behavior as it hits them in the pocketbook where it hurts most.

hank49's picture

News from the Facebook group - B-HEARD. B-HEARD is The Baltimore Higher Education Alliance for Real Democracy (B-HEARD) is an affinity group of Occupy Baltimore comprised of faculty, staff and students interested in uniting and giving voice to the 99%. Our goals are to raise awareness and work for progressive social change by strengthening connections between Higher Education and Occupy Baltimore. ...We want to unify and motivate the college community around social justice issues in order to build a society that:

• Puts people’s needs above corporate profits
• Keeps corporate money out of politics
• Puts money into schools, healthcare and infrastructure—not into war
• Creates dignified jobs at dignified wages—for ALL

The text of Professor Chomsky's message:
"Dear B-HEARD,

Very pleased to learn about what you are doing. The Occupy movements are, in my opinion, a very important if not spectacular development. Quite unprecedented in many respects, but these are unprecedented times, and unless current tendencies are soon reversed what has been a major (and shameful) turning point in American history for the past 30 years might become an irreversible self-inflicted decline. Hard for me to exaggerate the importance of the tasks you are undertaking, or my admiration for your efforts and initiatives.

Noam Chomsky"

dianekns's picture

There is plenty of blame to go around for all of our social problems. Number one, you have to remember, that the president can only veto bills or sign them into action. Our congress people and the people who elect them (us) are the ones who push through most of the real laws enacted for the past twenty or so years. So in order to change things for the better we need to get more information on who it is we are voting for in the first place. Then think it over and find out who these people really are that are running for office in the first place.
It is going to take a very long time to actually get to RB if we ever really get there. I went to the demonstration in downtown baltimore on Sunday and took pictures, listened to some of the discussions and decided to post that information online at:http://www.911info.net. I will be glad to post what I find out about this movement and support it online.
I need others to push for a more equality balanced way to build or occupy a large building to put up our homeless and offer them more real solutions. The Code Blue facility does not have enough room and didn't have enough planned space to start out with. Women and their children are on the streeets because there isn't enough room in the overflow facilities. They have even been told to not stay in the parking lots, but to move on to somewhere else. These are our most vulnerable, where are they to go in the colder nights to come? We must take action now!

dianekns's picture

There is plenty of blame to go around for all of our social problems. Number one, you have to remember, that the president can only veto bills or sign them into action. Our congress people and the people who elect them (us) are the ones who push through most of the real laws enacted for the past twenty or so years. So in order to change things for the better we need to get more information on who it is we are voting for in the first place. Then think it over and find out who these people really are that are running for office in the first place.
It is going to take a very long time to actually get to RB if we ever really get there. I went to the demonstration in downtown baltimore on Sunday and took pictures, listened to some of the discussions and decided to post that information online at:http://www.911info.net. I will be glad to post what I find out about this movement and support it online.
I need others to push for a more equality balanced way to build or occupy a large building to put up our homeless and offer them more real solutions. The Code Blue facility does not have enough room and didn't have enough planned space to start out with. Women and their children are on the streeets because there isn't enough room in the overflow facilities. They have even been told to not stay in the parking lots, but to move on to somewhere else. These are our most vulnerable, where are they to go in the colder nights to come? We must take action now!
Convince someone you know who owns a large building to convert it into an emergency shelter. They will get a whopping tax break. Come on, that alone should be enough of an incentive for large property owners to get involved. That is where large land owners live we all know that. All they can do is say no, and then another person or two might say yes. It appears that there are 250 new beds needed, possible more. Do the talking necessary to get what is needed. I'll help knausdiane@gmail.com (http://www.911info.net).

Very glad to see this adopted. It gives us a basis to set goals and move forward.

An interesting article here on how to incorporate lessons from Iran's mass social movement:
http://www.juancole.com/2011/10/sefat-top-10-ways-ows-can-succeed-counse...

Thanks to all who have donated food to our worthy cause. However, does anyone have any connections with any carnivorous serving restaurants like Ruths Chris? It is getting colder and I need to add some layers of blubber to fend off the coming winter. While I am thankful for the vegan/veg soy stuff, I am starting to wither away out here.

backstagevp's picture

Lift your fellow man and you will find a brother. Support a corporation and you will be suppressed.

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This law might have been intended to protect marriages, but instead it now discourage marriage and promote mere living together . The law states that:

§ 1-206.
(a) A child born or conceived during a marriage is presumed to be the legitimate child of both spouses. Except as provided in § 1-207, a child born at any time after his parents have participated in a marriage ceremony with each other, even if the marriage is invalid, is presumed to be the legitimate child of both parents.

(b) A child conceived by artificial insemination of a married woman with the consent of her husband is the legitimate child of both of them for all purposes. Consent of the husband is presumed.

Under the current law , if a man's wife commit adultry and gets pregnant for another man the courts can hold the innocent man responisble for her actions. The courts can and in most cases will force the innocent man to support that child for the next 18 years even if he dont wish to and can afford to.

If during a divorce process the man resquest a paternity test , the court has a discretion to allow or not to allow. Based on latest rulings , 9 out of 10 time the court will not allow it. The burden of proof is on the innocent husband , he must show just cause why the court should allow the paternity test. The man is presumed guilty until he can find other means of showing himself innocent. Even after the man provide evidence that he is not the father the court will still hold him financially responsible.
The court talks about it has to decide what is in the best interest of the child ,but what the court really means is what in the best interest of the state. The courts have been orderd to make sure that somebody financially support every child even if it means lynching a tax payer.The state dont want this fincial burden so they just stick it to a poor tax payer.

This makes no sense as it seem to reward adultry , which under maryland is a misdemeanor punishable by a $10 fine.This is a law which is not enforced and so the lady would walk free, while the husband is sentence to 18 years of child support for someones else child. He is sentenced for a crime he did not commit and could not prevent .

If on the other hand the two merely lived together and did not get married, then things would be different.
Under maryland law a child born to an unmarried woman has no legal father. The burden of proof would then be on the woman to prove paternity. Any man she identified would have automatically have the right to a paternity test if he denies paternity. The judge would have no discretion on the matter.

NOW YOU SEE THE PROBLEM. THE CURRENT LAW DISCOURAGE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE. IT ENCOURAGE SHACKING UP.

WE MUST RISE UP AGAINST THIS UNJUST LAW . WE NEED CHANGES THAT ENCOURAGE FAMILY LIFE AND DO NOT REWARD MISCUNDUCT.

THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR BASIC RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

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This law might have been intended to protect marriages, but instead it now discourage marriage and promote mere living together . The law states that:

§ 1-206.
(a) A child born or conceived during a marriage is presumed to be the legitimate child of both spouses. Except as provided in § 1-207, a child born at any time after his parents have participated in a marriage ceremony with each other, even if the marriage is invalid, is presumed to be the legitimate child of both parents.

(b) A child conceived by artificial insemination of a married woman with the consent of her husband is the legitimate child of both of them for all purposes. Consent of the husband is presumed.

Under the current law , if a man's wife commit adultry and gets pregnant for another man the courts can hold the innocent man responisble for her actions. The courts can and in most cases will force the innocent man to support that child for the next 18 years even if he dont wish to and can afford to.

If during a divorce process the man resquest a paternity test , the court has a discretion to allow or not to allow. Based on latest rulings , 9 out of 10 time the court will not allow it. The burden of proof is on the innocent husband , he must show just cause why the court should allow the paternity test. The man is presumed guilty until he can find other means of showing himself innocent. Even after the man provide evidence that he is not the father the court will still hold him financially responsible.
The court talks about it has to decide what is in the best interest of the child ,but what the court really means is what in the best interest of the state. The courts have been orderd to make sure that somebody financially support every child even if it means lynching a tax payer.The state dont want this fincial burden so they just stick it to a poor tax payer.

This makes no sense as it seem to reward adultry , which under maryland is a misdemeanor punishable by a $10 fine.This is a law which is not enforced and so the lady would walk free, while the husband is sentence to 18 years of child support for someones else child. He is sentenced for a crime he did not commit and could not prevent .

If on the other hand the two merely lived together and did not get married, then things would be different.
Under maryland law a child born to an unmarried woman has no legal father. The burden of proof would then be on the woman to prove paternity. Any man she identified would have automatically have the right to a paternity test if he denies paternity. The judge would have no discretion on the matter.

NOW YOU SEE THE PROBLEM. THE CURRENT LAW DISCOURAGE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE. IT ENCOURAGE SHACKING UP.

WE MUST RISE UP AGAINST THIS UNJUST LAW . WE NEED CHANGES THAT ENCOURAGE FAMILY LIFE AND DO NOT REWARD MISCUNDUCT.

THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR BASIC RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

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This law might have been intended to protect marriages, but instead it now discourage marriage and promote mere living together . The law states that:

§ 1-206.
(a) A child born or conceived during a marriage is presumed to be the legitimate child of both spouses. Except as provided in § 1-207, a child born at any time after his parents have participated in a marriage ceremony with each other, even if the marriage is invalid, is presumed to be the legitimate child of both parents.

(b) A child conceived by artificial insemination of a married woman with the consent of her husband is the legitimate child of both of them for all purposes. Consent of the husband is presumed.

Under the current law , if a man's wife commit adultry and gets pregnant for another man the courts can hold the innocent man responisble for her actions. The courts can and in most cases WILL force the innocent man to support that child for the next 18 years even if he dont wish to and CAN'T afford to.

If during a divorce process the man resquest a paternity test , the court has a discretion to allow or not to allow. Based on latest rulings , 9 out of 10 time the court will not allow it. The burden of proof is on the innocent husband , he must show just cause why the court should allow the paternity test. The man is presumed guilty until he can find other means of showing himself innocent. Even after the man provide evidence that he is not the father the court will still hold him financially responsible.
The court talks about it has to decide what is in the best interest of the child ,but what the court really means is what in the best interest of the state. The courts have been orderd to make sure that somebody financially support every child even if it means lynching a tax payer.The state dont want this fincial burden so they just stick it to a poor tax payer.

This makes no sense as it seem to reward adultry , which under maryland is a misdemeanor punishable by a $10 fine.This is a law which is not enforced and so the lady would walk free, while the husband is sentence to 18 years of child support for someones else child. He is sentenced for a crime he did not commit and could not prevent .

If on the other hand the two merely lived together and did not get married, then things would be different.
Under maryland law a child born to an unmarried woman has no legal father. The burden of proof would then be on the woman to prove paternity. Any man she identified would have automatically have the right to a paternity test if he denies paternity. The judge would have no discretion on the matter.

NOW YOU SEE THE PROBLEM. THE CURRENT LAW DISCOURAGE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE. IT ENCOURAGE SHACKING UP.

WE MUST RISE UP AGAINST THIS UNJUST LAW . WE NEED CHANGES THAT ENCOURAGE FAMILY LIFE AND DO NOT REWARD MISCUNDUCT.

THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR BASIC RIGHTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

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The new meme cheerfully propagated by the mainstream media (MSM) is the 1-percent-versus-the-99-percent conflict, which fits perfectly into its strategy for maintaining strict political divisions of Left versus Right. This bipartisan strategy is absolutely critical for advancing the agenda of the “1 percent,” which, simply stated, is to own and/or control the world’s natural and economic resources, including land and mineral rights, water sources, food and energy production, transportation, money supply, and most important of all labor.

Glaringly absent from this current meme is a proper definition by the MSM of exactly who composes the 1 percent. This, too, is absolutely essential, because if the 1 percent is actually identified, broad-based consensus is achievable and solutions can begin. Instead, the 1 percent is left to the imaginations of the 99 percent, allowing for a wide variety of culprits responsible for society’s woes, and no possible consensus – hence no solutions, either.

If you pay attention, you’ll find that solutions are never proffered in any of the MSM’s endless dialogue permeating the broadcasts, and rarely in print. The very last thing the 1 percent wants are viable solutions emerging to upset the status quo.

So who is the 1 percent?

The 1 percent can accurately be described as a discrete, highly exclusive group of individuals, cherry-picked from the top echelons of global corporations, including banks and financial institutions; the most influential politicians and bureaucrats, at home and abroad; private- and public-sector union bosses; not-for-profits’ executive leadership, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), associations, foundations, and churches; and prominent stewards of the most prestigious academia.

Think of the 1 percent as a triad that requires a three-legged collaboration for any one leg to succeed. Leg one comprises global banksters and captains from strategic mega-industries, including finance, food, pharmaceutical/health, energy/utilities, transportation, communications, and military. Also included in this leg are leaders from the largest private unions, foundations, associations, and academia. Leg two comprises the most influential politicians and bureaucrats who control legislative process, implementation, and enforcement. In other words, Congress, executives from government’s largest agencies, and the courts, including judges and attorneys with specific competencies. Bosses from the public-sector unions, NGOs, and publicly financed foundations and associations, as well as academia, are included here. What should also be noted here is the ever-growing influence of foreign governance, specifically the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Conservation Commission, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, for starters, most of which have treaties/compacts/memorandums of understanding with the United States that not only oblige U.S. taxpayers but constrain our own use of our resources.

Leg three is the highly consolidated, thereby compromised, mainstream media.

It is important to understand that the 1 percent, while few in actual number, already controls the majority of economic resources globally. The rest of us, the 99 percent – which includes most corporations’ stockholders, small-business owners, and the vast majority of private- and public-sector employees (whether union or nonunion), including the workforce for foundations, associations, and academia – unwillingly subsidize this agenda with our tax dollars as a result of this tightly controlled triad of collaboration.

The 1 percent banksters, most of whom answer to the global-central-banks cartel, need to be especially noted because their cross-pollination of all other industry and governments puts them at the top of the 1-percent heap, so to speak. Central and world banksters’ reach resembles a spider’s web, enveloping countless interests at a time, which includes sovereign nations’ finances, all the while being instrumental in consolidating control of resources into fewer and fewer hands.

The MSM is the most egregious of all the legs. Without the mass manipulation of information across the “news” spectrum, regardless of political bias, the corruption that infects economies and politics would not be possible.

The MSM’s mission as the Fourth Estate and the people’s watchdog is to provide the checks against such corruption via investigation and dissemination of such news. Those days are long gone thanks to legislative permission to consolidate ownership of media organizations. Such consolidation would normally be considered a violation of anti-trust laws. But like most of the legislative and judicial permissions contrived from either favored exemptions, administrative procedural law, or the actual repeal of existing laws, special interests – in this case media organizations – are given legal dispensation from the common laws in place that protect we the people. This subversion is occurring with profound regularity, quietly transforming our republic as it was founded.

The MSM are corporations, too, whose CEOs and majority owners are part of the 1 percent, including an elite group of national editors, anchors, and publishers. What was once thousands of independently owned media companies is now a consolidation of six umbrella corporate owners: AOL-Time Warner-CNN, Disney-ABC, General Electric-NBC-MSNBC-CNBC, Rupert Murdock-Fox News-Fox Business, and Simon & Schuster-CBS. These six mega-corporations own hundreds of TV affiliates, radio stations, magazines, and newspapers nationwide. Also of note is Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, which owns Clear Channel – among the largest consolidations of radio stations.

Consider that the lion’s share of all campaign funds is spent on media – billions of dollars these days. It is obscene but worth protecting because it is big business, dwarfing the average individual corporate spend on advertising. Forgetting any 1-percent agenda for the moment, with whom do you think the MSM’s loyalty will lie? Most definitely with the highest bidder, and if the MSM can contribute to the bottom line via content, well that is just good business, in its corrupt view.

The politicians also greatly benefit, regardless of political affiliation, because the MSM controls the message for these chosen individuals. The fact that the politicians make the laws that allow for not only this collusion, but for every other corporate subsidy, bailout, exemption, variance, and favored status that ultimately corrupts capitalism, deftly places the success or failure of entire industries in the hands of the 1 percent.

Most Americans are bitterly aware of the MSM’s conspiracy to manipulate American thought for myriad pre-defined outcomes, whether elections, intervention and war, legislation that would diminish our constitutionally protected rights, social and fiscal policy, militarism of our police departments – the list is endless. For the 1-percent agenda to succeed in these collective goals, it is critical for the MSM to keep Americans dumbed-down and married to the Left-versus-Right political mentality. If Americans ever wake up to the deception of the single-party-posing-as-two-parties system, it would seriously jeopardize the well-honed machine of usurpation of both resources and authority over those resources.

The 1 percent is completely nonpartisan. There is no Left-versus-Right conflict among them. Left-versus-Right is strictly a strategy for controlling voters. We are given a limited choice, but a choice nonetheless, and by making that choice at the polls, we absolve ourselves of any additional responsibility for what ensues. In fact, we eagerly blame the same politicians we re-elect time and again, always blaming one side or the other for the troubles that both create.

It is a never-ending loop. But for the MSM, regardless of the bias preferred, voters might connect glaringly obvious dots regarding today’s issues. Instead, we are bombarded with memes, language, opinions, underreporting, misreporting, and even fabricated reporting – everything but comprehensive factual reporting without bias – designed to confirm whose fault it is: the other side’s, of course!

If truth be told, it is our own fault. We the people are to blame for tolerating the MSM’s manipulation masquerading as news. For how much longer remains to be seen. At some point, shame must set in and force us to recall ourselves. Just pray it won’t be too late.

Critical thinkers need to get involved with civics/politics, regardless of how daunting it appears. Start at the local level by quietly attending council and county-supervisor meetings to observe, then share your observations with others. Trust me, the 1 percent is actively restructuring your local governance with programming such as Agenda 21 and America 2050, both of which threaten your private property rights. (Recently, County Supervisor Larry Minard denied the very existence of Agenda 21, even though it is extremely well-documented and is specifically opposed in his own party’s state platform!)

If you can’t get involved civically with your own local government, then you are a lost American. My guess is many of you would find it empowering, rewarding, and even fun on some levels. If not for yourselves, then do it for your children and grandchildren. What we the people accomplish today civically/politically will make all the difference for their future.

But as long as we remain divided along Democrat and Republican lines, maintaining our allegiance to this faux political system – whose survival depends on that division – America will continue to decline. The leadership of the two parties has zero interest in we the people. Its allegiance is to the 1 percent, whose agenda falsely promises those individuals’ future prominence.

It is time to recommit to America’s republic under the rule of law. (Have you said the Pledge of Allegiance lately? Recall the phrase “and to the republic for which it stands.”) The single, overarching principle is that by protecting an individual’s rights, everyone else’s rights are automatically protected, too. It is a bottom-up principle, starting with the lowest common denominator – the individual. Most other forms of government operate to protect the rights of the group, whose individual members’ rights are expendable if the group requires it. This is often accomplished via majority rule, best described as democracy or mob rule, and is tyrannical by its very nature. Which type of governance do you advocate? Because this question is at the core of how America will fare moving forward.

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Blockbuster Book: Read about everything you ever wanted to know about the economy and the wealthy 1%, including fundamental issues that are at the core of the Occupy Movements list of grievances, all neatly outlined in one book "Occupy World Street" by Ross Jackson, it's aims and purpose and the underlying practices of how the elite 1% are enriching themselves at the expense of the 99% majority and why democracy has failed in the US, certainly a 'Must Read' for every person in the US, how we all have been doped and exploited by the rich and powerful and how wealthy people control corporations, congress, government and the media and how we continue to damage the planet, all in the name of greed and profits.

As demonstrators worldwide demand reform of a corrupt global economy that concentrates wealth in the top 1% of income earners, Occupy World Street offers a long awaited plan of action for 'the 99 percent'. Ross Jackson delivers one of the most lucid descriptions of how global financial practices are driving economies to the brink of collapse, and making it impossible to deal effectively with climate change, ecosystem damage and peak oil.

He outlines a compelling plan that will allow countries to regain control of their economies, reorganize global trade alliances on a more human scale, and gradually replace WTO/IMF/World Bank with new institutions that support sustainable economies and uphold human rights. Rather than force a direct confrontation with the crumbling 'Empire', Jackson’s innovative strategy would be led by a handful of small nations that are already starting to break away from the contemporary global order, and supported by ordinary citizens around the world.

Jackson has done what few others have dared to do: constructed a specific, implementable plan to reorganize the way economies work. It’s a plan, says sustainable economics pioneer Hazel Henderson, that “has the potential to unite hundreds of NGOs and millions of ordinary citizens behind a simple proposal that could change the current dysfunctional game.”

Ross Jackson explains that the current system is no longer serving the majority of the people in the US but rather the wealthy 1% elite and corporate America. This system is based on exploiting the poor and developing countries in the interest of economic gain for the elite 1% only. These threats include economical, ecological, and social collapse which can widely be attributed to the current reigning financial ideology called Neoliberalism, which is the main force driving society toward this potentially disastrous future.

Even though it addresses these issues, this book does not exude a tone of doom and gloom nor is it chalked up with radical left-wing conspiracies or propaganda, rather, the author backs up all his claims with strong evidence and offers a road map to economic recovery and sustainability and a concrete vision for a new society, which favors not mere economic growth and greed but rather serving all of humanity rather than only the wealthy elite and "the corporatocracy". The author, Ross Jackson, is at the forefront of this transformation- spearheading Eco-villages and offering new models for almost all aspects of civilization It is crucial that we as activists, individuals and citizens rise above passivity and understand the threats human civilization face today so that we can start taking action locally and work towards a solution that will be more sustainable. This book is neutral and not politically aligned to any party or corporation, the author states facts as they are and reveals many hidden facts that most of us in the US are not aware of, the author is wealthy and has no ulterior motives, this book is set
to become a best seller.

This book is no urban legend or conspiracy theory, it's all hard facts that is not available to the general public.

*** Note that this book will not be promoted in the US by the mainstream media, because of the tight control that the Wealthy 1%, Corporations, and the Government have on the Press, the wealthy would not want facts that are exposed in this book to me made available to the public.

Book Details:

Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform
Author: Ross Jackson
Publish Date: January 2012
ISBN-10: 1603583882
ISBN-13: 9781603583886

Purchase the book from the comparison shopping site:

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Press Release: www.greenbooks.co.uk/media/OWS_Press_Release_Jan_2012.pdf

Website: http://www.occupyworldstreet.org/ows-the-book

Excerpts from the book:

The period from 1945 to 1980 was, in retrospect a period characterized by relative peace, rapid economic growth, no major financial crisis, a general sense of social cohesiveness in most nations, with the coming to power of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and the ascendency of the neoliberals, everything changed. The subsequent period from 1980 to the present has been characterized by a deterioration of social cohesiveness, environmental destruction, increasing stress, increasing criminality, a shift from solidarity to individualism, a 'greed is good" mentality, a dramatic widening of the gap between rich and poor, and not least, a series of major financial crisis resulting from the 'financialization' of the world economy, recall, that 1980 was also the point at which the marginal costs of growth began to exceed the marginal benefits, the point at which a global collapse may well have begun. It is as if the dominant culture entered a final stage of frenzy, denial, absurdity and fantasy to stave off the reality that its way of life was coming to an end. Nowhere was this truer than in the field of finance, which removed itself further and further from any contact with the real world. In reality basic financial and accounting principles were ignored.
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Deregulation - The basic problem with removing government regulations from markets was pointed out in the 1700s by Adam Smith, who did not trust the morality of a merchant class that had no concept of restraint or social responsibility. Since human ingenuity is limitless, any relaxation of rules will inevitably lead to unintended and unforeseen exploitation by profit-seeking businessmen, typically at the expense of the non-profit seeking parts of society - local communities, working people and the environment. History has shown that repeatedly that markets are not self-regulating as the neoliberal ideology has shown, on the contrary, unregulated markets tend to go to extremes until they eventually crash. The deregulation and removing of safeguards caused an entirely predictable result as it allowed new profit driven unscrupulous investors to get their hands on the enormous assets built up over several decades from local community savings and engage in an unregulated and irresponsible speculative frenzy as they invested in all kinds of dubious get-rich-quick schemes characterized by conflicts of interests, incompetence, highly speculative investments and criminal activities using other people's money. The ruling concept was: head we win, tails the taxpayers pay.
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Unrestricted capital Flows - Free capital flow (including free flow of goods across borders) is both the source of strength and the Achilles heel of neoliberal politics. Unrestricted capital flows systemically cause financial crises in two ways, firstly, they allow investor of one country to create a financial crisis in another that would otherwise not have occurred and secondly, they act like a virus that allows a crisis in one country to spread to other countries and example is the US subprime loan crisis. These unrestricted capital flows are also the reason for systemic recurrence of financial crisis, because the foreign markets in which the "players" invest, even though large enough and liquid enough in normal markets are extremely illiquid in a crisis.
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The Financial Crisis of 2007-8 - This most recent crisis had elements of all three "culprits", deregulation, over-gearing of naked derivatives at the national level in the United States and unrestricted capital movements, which spread like a virus to the rest of the world. A major deregulation event that paved the way for the crisis was the repeal of the American Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 under pressure from the financial elite who wanted more freedom to operate, this act was passed originally back in 1933 to prevent the kind of irresponsible and unregulated speculation that was identified at that time as a major cause of the 1929 stock market crash. The administartion of George W. Bush went even further cutting market oversight to almost nothing. The subprime housing market is often cited as the major cause of the crisis, but this is misleading because the problem is systemic. With Glass-Seagall out of the way, the post-1999 financial world became even more of a casino, unrelated to the underlying economy. Money was not being used productively but for naked speculation. the current global financial system is systemically unstable and flawed and continues to be an accident waiting to happen. The only unknowns are when and how the next accident will be precipitated.
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The Kennan Doctrine - The guiding doctrine followed by the American political leadership over the past half century and the reasoning behind it, was formulated in a remarkably clear statement by George F Kennan (in 1948) " We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population, This disparity is particularly great between the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships, which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and daydreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives......." we see here a classic attitude of the worldview of separation. there is no sense of global solidarity or sharing. Kennan's doctrine is a blueprint for Empire. There is only one wish to control 50% of the world's resources at the expense of everyone else. Other countries might as well be enemies from outer space. But a dilemma is created by this doctrine, because the proclaimed values of the United States for which it has been widely admired the past 200 years are precisely those values that must be sacrificed, and that in practice have been sacrificed, "human rights, the raising of living standards [of developing countries] and democratization", therefore the doctrine must not be announced openly to the American people, who would never accept it if they had choice in the matter. It is the doctrine of the ruling elite (1%).
Thus the US leadership has been forced to be hypocritical, cynical, even schizophrenic, saying one thing while doing another.
In the subsequent 200-plus years, the power struggle between the "opulent minority" and the great majority has continued unabated. Though the trend has been towards democracy in the past, the coming of neoliberalism in the 1980's, the trend has been reversed, evolving into the situation, as we know today, with the minority owners of great private wealth enjoying unprecedented influence while a frustrated majority experiences disempowerment and a constant deterioration in their freedoms and quality of life. Most observers would agree that merely having elections every four years is not sufficient evidence that a nation is democratic. Do voters have real choice or are we looking at a one-party system? There are serious questions about the degree of true democracy present in twenty-first-century United States.
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On 1 % - Inequalities - Increasing inequality is not just a moral issue, there is a causal link between capitalism and inequality on the one hand, and between inequality and social problems on the other that is critical to our understanding of the role of the economic system in social breakdown. The single most important cause of inequalities is the 'private ownership of income-generating property'. Unemployment is identified as the second important factor, and has been linked to increased rates of mental illness, suicide, homicide, divorce, heart attack deaths, stroke deaths, aggression etc.
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Assault on Nature - Today, crisis is all around us. We are living right on the edge of breakdown, our well being, if not our survival, is threatened by climate change, resource depletion, toxic pollution, social breakdown, genetically modified foods, hunger, environmental degradation and a rate of species extinction not seen in 65 million years. Powerful forces are driving our civilization to a deep abyss, behind all of them is a simple reality; ecosystem overload. Too many people with too-powerful technologies are undermining the basis of our existence. As a global population, we are living beyond our means, living off our natural capital, consuming more than Nature can replenish.
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Energy Descent - the peak in global oil production and the subsequent decline in oil supplies is not a threat to our survival as such, but is going to cause a more immediate crisis that is a threat to our whole way of life, we are consuming more oil than we are discovering, it is just a matter of time before demand exceeds supply, when this happens, the consequences will overshadow everything else on the political agenda.
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The Collapse of Civilizations - why is our civilization threatened? an example is where the tendency of civilizations to destroy the ecological foundation of life by cutting down forests and destroying topsoil which results in short-term gains but inevitably leads to long-term disasters. Another example is the human failure to adjust populations to match the level that is sustainable, an example is Ethiopia, which has one of the world's highest death rates and a devastated environment yet population continues to rise, driven by each family's attempt to survive. In he's book "Collapse" Jared Diamond states that from our lessons of history, environmental degradation is a prime cause of collapse. Historian Joseph Tainter on the other hand states that the overriding reason for collapse is economic, more specifically, collapse is an example of the law of diminishing returns i.e. declining benefits to the population. Another reason is the role of energy, it is only energy that can sustain a civilization, every time a civilization increases complexity, more energy is required to maintain the same level of benefits, we are reaching that stage of post cheap-oil era, with substantially higher costs and correspondingly diminishing returns.
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The evidence strongly suggests that our global civilization is undergoing a collapse that will continue to play out over several decades. There can be little doubt that we are on a journey toward a different world for the simple reason that this one is on an unsustainable path.
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So what is driving our civilization toward ruin? Ecosystem overload, over-population, unsustainable growth, species extinction, growing inequality, global injustice, global warming, peak oil - we are so familiar with all these things that it does not occur to us to ask ourselves if there is a common thread linking them. The so-called Cartesian/Newtonian worldview came to dominate the way Western civilization looked at the world from roughly the seventeenth century to the present, and not without good reason. The reductionist, mechanical approach to problem solving inspired by Newton and others, combined with Descarte's concept of the separation of humankind and nature, proved to be a powerful tool in the development of the Industrial Revolution and modern science. It is generally considered to have been a resounding success as on of the key factors in increasing the general standard of living, particularly in industrialized countries. However, it successes have not come without costs. Often these costs appear elsewhere in the global system than we might intuitively expect, for example, in damage to the environment and human settlements from, and outside the field of vision of, the centers of the industrialized world of the west. In this regard, it is important to realize that, until recently, the vast majority of people in the world were far less influenced by this worldview e.g. China, India, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Many of these peoples experienced only the negative effects of this paradigm through colonialism, environmental degradation and commercial explanation. Our civilization has held the Cartesian/Newtonian worldview for too long. The strategies of this paradigm, which work so well in a "new frontier" society, work no longer in a "spaceship
Earth" society. In a world where man is considered to be separate not only from nature but also separate from other humans, it is no wonder that a civilization has evolved that is based on the exploitation of nature and the weaker parts of human society.

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The Role of Economics - Central to this evolution is the role of economics. Indeed, if the objective of someone was to drive our civilization to ruin, then nothing could do it more effectively than the invention of the currently dominant economic system - neoliberalism. Since roughly the end of the Second World War, the primary goal of almost nations has been to maximize economic growth, without the least regard for either ecological overload or peak oil. There are two fundamental flaws in the reigning version of economics. The first one is the treatment of the environment as a subset of economics. rather than the reverse, treating economics as a mechanism of resource allocation that operates within the physical restrictions of ecological space. In other words, economists perceive the environment as a collection of
resources for humanity's use rather than seeing humanity as an integral part of, and inseparable from, a living and complex organism we call Nature. The consequences of this error are enormous, a direct conflict with one of the most fundamental and irrefutable laws of physics, the second law of thermodynamics This law states a fundamental fact about the irreversibility of nature. The nonrenewable resources of our world, once used up (oil) then they are no longer available to do any work.
This flaw allows economist to ignore problems of limited resources , ecosystem overload and energy descent. Economists can literally not see these problems because they are not included in their differential equations. It is as if or civilization is sailing down the Niagara River, and our economic guides, who are servants of the political leadership, have neither compass nor map. They will not see the problems unti w go over the waterfall. The second major flaw is he way in which economist model growth. This is especially dangerous because the ruling elite tends to pay more attention to economists than to physicists. The political power of the business community has been increasing steadily for two hundred years to the point tht today, we can no longer separate politics from business, particularly in the world's dominant economy, the United States. The combination of powerful business interests, political allies and popular support makes it almost impossible to stop the growth bubble from bursting either when the ecosystem can no longer take the pressure, or more likely, when the reality of the coming period of energy descent hits the
financial markets.
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International Monetary Fund - IMF - how does it exploit and put a stranglehold on developing countries ? - IMF loans to developing countries were made conditional upon acceptance of policies of neoliberal ideology (no wonder poor, developing countries, remain in an endless spiral of debt and under-development) For the typical developing-country client, this meant they had to (1) reduce their tariffs on western industrial products without compensating tariff cuts by the industrialized countries; (2) devalue their currency and expose it to short-term speculation by gigantic Wall street hedge funds far larger than their central banks; (3) sell off key public facilities to western corporations at ridiculously low prices; (4) raise interest rates, throwing hundreds of companies into bankruptcy; (5) remove food
subsidies to their poor while being forced to accept the right of the West to dump subsidized food products on their market, destroying their small farmers in the process (6). charge fees for school, resulting in massive school-dropout rates. (7). cut social welfare programs in order to force an unnecessary balanced budget and pay interest on their debt to the IMF (8). switch from import substitution to production of export-oriented materials of value to the West (North). What we see here is a conscious attempt by the IMF to impose on client states an ideology that was by no means universally accepted, and in most cases not even appropriate. The result was nothing less than a crude transfer of sovereignty from member states to the IMF, and hence to the United States, not de jura, but de facto.
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World Bank - supported by associated donor countries and elite organizations like the Paris Club imposed on developing countries by granting them loans that were not really needed by making alliances with wealthy elites and corrupt political leaders in developing countries, who were allowed to pocket a sizable chunk of funds for personal use and for their companies, which were awarded lucrative contracts for unnecessary prestige projects. Most of the money actually returned to the West in the form of contracts with American and European engineering consultancies (Middle Eastern countries are prime examples of this). US Treasury officials openly admitted that two dollars came back for every one dollar contributed to the World Bank in the form of procurement contracts for US exporters. The prime goal of the World Bank and G7 countries is to use developing countries as a cheap source of labor and raw materials and to keep them in an endless spiral of debt.

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World Trade Organization - WTO - The WTO has a Charter written by corporations for corporations, a charter that puts commercial interests above all, a charter to allow the strong to exploit the weak. Constitutions of countries are generally based on the sovereignty of people and countries, every constitution has protected life above profits, but the WTO protects profits above the right to human life and other species. The WTO "free trade" regime is in reality a "forced trade" regime, because developing countries are forced to accept exploitative conditions that put high tariffs on their otherwise competitive exports, while allowing subsidized Western products to undercut local production, this gives the country with the strongest capital base and smallest social and environmental costs a competitive advantage, in this case the United States. The WTO does not support any environmentally friendly practices, example taxes on CO2 emissions, in reality, the WTO system encourages destruction of natural capital, the vey basis of human existence. (profits at all costs).
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Growth is good, not really, only ecologically sustainable growth is good, but an economic system that treats ecology as a subordinate rather than the other way around can never be sustainable. Thus, neoliberal economics confuses capital depletion and return of capital, treating depletion of natural resources as part if it were part of the economic return, an elementary error in basic investment theory.
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"Free markets benefit all, including the poor" - nothing is further from the truth, the last thing that neoliberals want (Western countries) is competitive developing countries, they want cheap labor and cheap raw materials for their industrialized countries and a market for their finished industrial products. The current system is rapidly creating greater inequalities in the world, more poverty among the poorest and more wealth among the wealthiest.
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On Colonialism - as US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles claims to have said "There are two ways of taking a society's economy, one is by armed force, the other is by financial means.
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