ANONYMOUS - OUR VOICE

Indigenous Activist Fights Against Corporate Pollution And Is Assassinated After Winning In Court

<p><a href="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lima.jpg_35960795.jpg"><img alt="lima.jpg_35960795" class="alignleft wp-image-40967 size-medium" height="300" src="http://cdn10.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/lima.jpg_35960795-400x300.jpg" width="400" /></a></p>
<p>Rigoberto Lima Choc, an indigenous activist who fought against the environmental pollution that was taking place in his area, was shot and killed outside of a courthouse in Sayaxche, Guatemala this week. The murder came just one day after a corporation that was accused of polluting a local river with pesticides was forced by a court to cease its operations for 6 months so the full extent of their impact on the local environment could be assessed.</p>
<p>Rigoberto Lima Choc was one of the most outspoke critics of the corporation, that was extracting palm oil from the region and manufacturing the product with harsh pesticides. The company took no care for their waste and ended up poisoning local waterways with the toxic chemicals.</p>
<p>Rigoberto Lima Choc was shot by two masked men on a motorcycle as he was leaving the courthouse.</p>
<p><em>“We deplore the murder of the activist Rigoberto Lima Choc,</em>” <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/2229676/guatemala-activist-killed-day-after-court-ruling-on-pollution-dispute/" target="_blank">a spokesman for the National Union of Hope party (UNE) told AFP.</a></p>
<p>Back in June, 28-year-old Lima Choc was the organizer of a massive protest against the factory, which sparked public outcry and local support, and eventually helped lead to this week’s temporary closure of the site.</p>
<p>For centuries, <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/indigenous-populations-of-alaska-and-hawaii-demand-their-land-back/" target="_blank">Indigenous people</a> in various corners of the world have been thrown off of their property so their land and resources could be taken for aristocrats in far away lands. It was a war that began hundreds of years ago, and that war is still being waged today.</p>
<p>Sadly, this is just the latest in a long line of attacks against <a href="http://www.trueactivist.com/?s=Indigenous" target="_blank">indigenous leaders</a> in struggles to protect their land. Two of the most high-profile cases are that of Bosco Wisum in 2009 and Freddy Taish in 2013.</p>
<p>Last year, it was even reported that <a href="http://theantimedia.org/indigenous-leader-tortured-and-killed-days-before-un-testimony/" target="_blank">an indigenous leader from Ecuador</a> was tortured and killed in the midst of a controversial fight against foreign mining companies who have unjustly taken land that has been claimed by indigenous people for centuries.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jgvibes" target="_blank">John Vibes</a> writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.</p>
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activism knowledge news Indigenous Activist Fights Against Corporate Pollution And Is Assassinated After Winning In Court

Rigoberto Lima Choc, an indigenous activist who fought against the environmental pollution that was taking place in his area, was shot and ...

Debt By Degrees: How America's Wealthiest Colleges Are Saddling the Poorest Students With Debt

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<h2>Debt By Degrees: How America's Wealthiest Colleges Are Saddling the Poorest Students With Debt</h2>
<span>Debt By Degrees: How America's Wealthiest Colleges Are Saddling the Poorest Students With Debt</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span><a href="http://www.propublica.org/" rel="nofollow">Pro Publica</a></span></div>
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<p>New York University is among the country’s wealthiest schools. Backed by its $3.5 billion endowment as well as its considerable fundraising prowess, the school has built campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai financed by foreign governments, is investing billions in SoHo real estate, and given its star faculty loans to buy summer homes.</p>
<p>But the university does less than many other schools when it comes to one thing: helping its poor students.</p>
<p>A ProPublica analysis based on <a href="https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/" rel="nofollow">new data</a> from the U.S. Department of Education shows that students from low-income families graduate from NYU saddled with huge federal loans. The school’s Pell Grant recipients – students from families that make less than $30,000 a year – owe an average of $23,250 in federal loans after graduation.</p>
<p>That’s more federal loan debt than low-income students take on at for-profit giant University of Phoenix, though NYU graduates have higher earnings and default less on their debt.</p>
<p>NYU is not the only university with a billion-dollar endowment to leave its poorest students with heavy debt loads. More than a quarter of the nation’s 60 wealthiest universities leave their low-income students owing an average of more than $20,000 in federal loans.</p>
<p>At the University of Southern California, which has a $4.6 billion endowment, low-income students graduate with slightly more debt than NYU’s graduates: $23,375. At Boston University ($1.5 billion endowment), it’s $27,000, and at Wake Forest University ($1.1 billion endowment) low-income students graduate with $29,150 in debt.</p>
<p>This new data on student debt is drawn from numbers that the Obama administration assembled as part of a planned effort to create grades for every college. In the face of fierce lobbying from universities, the administration backed away, but has made much of the data public on a new website called College Scorecard.</p>
<p>ProPublica has used that material to create <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/colleges/" rel="nofollow">Debt By Degrees</a>, an interactive database that allows you to search information for almost 7,000 schools. The data provides an unprecedented level of detail on the financial burden that the poorest college students face, showing for the first time how much federal debt poor students take on compared to their wealthier peers, and how well these students are able to repay their loans. The database also shows how much graduates earn on average after leaving school.</p>
<p>The implications of these numbers can be far-reaching. Studies have shown that even small debts can increase a student’s chances of dropping out, particularly for minorities and low-income students. Also, federal loans, which are typically capped at $27,000 over four years, often don’t cover the full expense of college. Many students also take on private bank loans or work jobs outside school.</p>
<p>“Student debt is not the same to every borrower,” said Mark Huelsman, a senior analyst at Demos, a public policy nonprofit. “It can look a lot different to a first generation student from a very modest economic background than to someone going to graduate school getting a law degree.”</p>
<p>Indeed, undergraduates take a fraction of the loans of graduate students but default at much higher rates. Debt can put low-income young adults at a disadvantage for years to come, limiting a graduate’s ability to save, get a mortgage, or get the job they aspire to.</p>
<p>“At the end of the day, you’re talking about households that don’t have nearly as much wealth to fall back on,” said Huelsman.</p>
<p>Rebecca Arthur wanted nothing more than to study photography at Tisch, NYU’s arts school. Her mother, however, made less than $25,000 a year working at a nursing home, so Arthur knew the school’s four-year price tag of over $250,000 would be a stretch. When Arthur was accepted, she was shocked – not only because she had gotten into her dream school, but also because the school only offered modest financial aid.</p>
<p>“The first bill was $32,000 and it was more than my mom made in a year,” she said. “Why would they accept me if they knew I couldn’t afford it?”</p>
<p>Arthur tried to crowdfund the remaining amount of her tuition, but it was only when her mother died a month before school started that NYU agreed to take a second look at her financial aid package. Although they increased her aid, she works four jobs and expects to graduate with over $24,000 in loans.</p>
<p>“The one downside to NYU is that money is always a big problem,” said Arthur, who is now a sophomore at the university. “People that really want [to go to NYU] and deserve it shouldn’t have to fight for it.”</p>
<p>In response to recent criticism of its financial priorities, NYU says it has more than doubled financial aid from 2002-2012 and that average student debt has decreased significantly in the past five years. The school also enrolls a greater percentage of Pell Grant recipients than other elite schools. Finally, NYU points out that its endowment is actually quite modest on a per-student basis, since NYU has far more students than many other elite universities.</p>
<p>“NYU is deeply concerned about the issues of cost and debt,” John Beckman, NYU’s vice president for public affairs, told ProPublica. “NYU has made tremendous strides in improving financial aid.” NYU’s full response can be found here.</p>
<p>While NYU students average debt from both federal and private loans has gone down in the past five years, it’s about the same as a decade ago. And though NYU’s financial aid increased 138 percent from 2002-2012, its revenue from tuition and fees has increased 91 percent. Faculty and students have protested NYU’s $6 billion expansion plan, saying more should be spent on financial aid.</p>
<p>A government report released today along with the data noted just how wide a disparity there can be in the prices poor students pay at competitor schools: Poor students pay an average of $8,086 per year at Columbia University ($8.2 billion endowment) versus $25,441 at NYU.</p>
<p>“Schools talk so much about how they’re about helping low-income students,” said Stephen Burd, a senior policy analyst at New America Foundation. “But their words and actions are so different.”</p>
<p>Overall, students at nonprofit universities fare far better than those at for-profit schools and community colleges. One recent study shows that students at public and nonprofit schools typically have lower default rates and higher earnings.</p>
<p>Out of the nearly 2,000 nonprofit colleges that ProPublica analyzed, a handful of wealthy schools do particularly well in serving the needs of low-income students.</p>
<p>Vassar College, with an endowment of close to $1 billion, charges its poorest students a quarter of what NYU does, and they graduate with less than half the debt.</p>
<p>Only a decade ago, Vassar looked little different than NYU. However, in 2006, the school hired a new president, Catharine Bond Hill, an academic who specializes in college access and affordability. During her first few years, Hill instituted need-blind admissions, accepting students regardless of their financial background. She also created a policy of replacing loans with grants to poorer students. And to bolster low-income applicants to the school, she initiated an aggressive recruiting campaign in poorer neighborhoods, partnering with pre-existing college prep programs.</p>
<p>After 10 years, these changes have made Vassar one of the most affordable colleges in the country for low-income students. Today, over 20 percent of Vassar students receive Pell Grants. That’s double the percentage of low-income students of a decade ago.</p>
<p>“Schools that have the resources should be giving out more in need-based grant aid,” Hill told ProPublica.</p>
<p>Other schools that have helped level the playing field for low-income students include Amherst College and Williams College, both in Western Massachusetts. Nearly 20 percent of students at these schools receive Pell Grants and they graduate with less than $10,000 of federal loans. Berea College in Kentucky charges no tuition and only accepts low-income students.</p>
<p>Vassar’s Hill told ProPublica that other wealthy schools need to do more to recruit low-income students and to make college affordable for them. A White House report that accompanied today’s data release notes that poor kids are often discouraged by schools’ sticker prices, and do not know that they might qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>“We know there are talented students out there and recent work has shown there are ways to get them into our pools,” Hill said.</p>
<p>Harvard ($35.9 billion endowment), Princeton ($20.9 billion endowment), and Yale ($23.9 billion endowment) all give generous support and even free tuition to low-income students. But they do not enroll many of them. At Harvard, only 10 percent of the students receive Pell Grants.</p>
<p>Asked about their modest number of low-income students, a Harvard official said that school is committed to enrolling the best students, regardless of their financial circumstances.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/colleges-flush-with-cash-saddle-poorest-students-with-debt" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Pro Publica</a></p>
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<p>Two men in their 70s have been sparking the imagination and passions of American progressives, both have been featured on the cover of Time magazine – and both agree that the system is broken and radical transformation is necessary.</p>
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<p>Companies' undue economic influence comprised the legitimacy of the country’s elections, the Brazilian supreme court ruled.</p>
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<p>From movements in Bolivia and Uruguay to voter rebellions in Nigeria, Holland, Italy, France and Ireland, citizens worldwide are demanding the return of their water to public hands.</p>
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<p>Clad in yellow shirts, hundreds of people streamed across the Arlington Memorial Bridge on September 15 and ended their nearly 1,000-mile trip at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 7 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Clad in yellow shirts, hundreds of people streamed across the Arlington Memorial Bridge on September 15 and ended their nearly 1,000-mile trip at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
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<p>Sanders’s rise in this election season is inconceivable without Occupy Wall Street having elevated the conversation around inequality.</p>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<p>Over the past month, trade officials have been frantically working to resolve outstanding disagreements over provisions in the TPP in the midst of speculation that the deal is in deep trouble.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Debt By Degrees: How America's Wealthiest Colleges Are Saddling the Poorest Students With Debt

Debt By Degrees: How America's Wealthiest Colleges Are Saddling the Poorest Students With Debt Debt By Degrees: How America's...

Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Systemic Change

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<h2>Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Systemic Change</h2>
<span>Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Systemic Change</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span>Al Jazeera America</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/bernie-pope2-1000x600.png?itok=lsi73IhP" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/bernie-pope2-1000x600.png?itok=lsi73IhP" /></a>
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<p>Two men in their 70s have been addressing massive crowds and sparking the imagination and passions of American progressives. Both have been featured on the cover of Time magazine.</p>
<p>On a first look, however, they couldn’t be more different. One is a Jewish-American self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” politician from Vermont; the other, a Catholic religious leader from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bernie Sanders and Pope Francis, however, share a moral vision of the limitations and real-life repercussions of our current political-economic system as well as a sincere desire to change it.</p>
<p>This surprising intersection of political-economic ideas rooted in morality also reminds us that many people of the sixties generation not only have a history in common, but have become highly successful and moved into positions of considerable influence.</p>
<p>Moreover, the huge response in America, to the Sanders campaign in particular, tells us something important not only about the state of this country, but also about what people with conviction can accomplish, despite their age. The moral courage in the face of systemic challenges demonstrated by both leaders recalls the sixties generation they are both a product of; Sanders as a civil rights activist amidst intense social turmoil and the Pope as a young religious leader during a time of military dictatorship and right-wing death squads.</p>
<p>The Pope has condemned the arrangements of our current political-economic system. Early on in his papacy, he set the tone:</p>
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<p>"Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting."</p>
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<p>Recently he has struck an even more radical tone. “An unfettered pursuit of money rules,” he told grassroots organizers in Bolivia. “That is the dung of the devil.”</p>
<p>Sanders, while not often calling out capitalism by name, similarly challenges the injustices and inequities it generates and explicitly calls himself a socialist. Long before his Sept. 14 speech at Liberty University, Sanders articulated his critique of our unequal economic system in moral terms. “I think this goes back to the Bible,” he told Mother Jones shortly before launching his presidential campaign. “There is something immoral when so few have so much and so many have so little.” At his Liberty University address, Sanders declared:</p>
<p>"It would be hard for anyone in this room today to make the case that the United States of America, our great country, a country which all of us love — it would be hard to make the case that we are a just society, or anything resembling a just society today … when we talk about morality, and when we talk about justice, we have to, in my view, understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little."</p>
<p>These remarkable indictments of the system resonate because more and more people are coming to terms with the inability of small gestures of reform to address a host of deteriorating or stagnating economic, social and environmental trends: rising inequality, high levels of poverty, continued discrimination against women and people of color, staggering levels of incarceration, increasing corruption of the political system and looming ecological catastrophe, to name a few. The system is broken, and what is needed is systemic change — not simply changes in policy but a radical rethinking of the structure of the economy and society.</p>
<p>This point is clear to both Sanders and the Pope. “Let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change, structural change,” Pope Francis has said. “This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers find it intolerable, laborers find it intolerable, communities find it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable. The earth itself — our sister, Mother Earth, as Saint Francis would say — also finds it intolerable.” In his Liberty speech, Sanders directly referenced and affirmed the Pope’s statement that “the worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”</p>
<p>Pope Francis and Bernie Sanders also agree on at least one strategy to begin changing the fundamental structure of our economy: democratizing wealth through worker ownership. Sanders has made worker ownership a key element in of his “Agenda for America,” proposing “assistance to workers who want to purchase their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives.” He also introduced major legislation last year supporting such ownership.</p>
<p>Speaking to the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives earlier this year, Pope Francis declared: “Cooperatives must continue to be the engine that relieves and develops the weakest part of our local communities and of civil society …” The expansion and creation of cooperatives was vital, he urged — especially at “the existential fringes where hope is in need of emerging and where, unfortunately, the present socio-political system seems, instead, fatally destined to suffocate hope, to rob hope, increasing risks and menaces.” Worker cooperatives — institutions that directly democratize the ownership of the workplace and capital — not only generate revenue, provide jobs and build up an independent economic base for the community over time, but point in the direction of larger systemic shifts away from elite capture of our economy and towards cooperative enterprise and community ownership.</p>
<p>The moral case for economic transformation has a climate dimension as well: Both Sanders’s “Agenda for America” and Pope Francis’s remarkable environmental encyclical insist on the need for a reorientation of our economic and energy systems towards more sustainable alternatives.</p>
<p>As a historian, I know that ideas usually don’t matter all that much in the history of the world — except at those points of protracted crisis where old systems have stopped working and new systems begin to take their place. At those key moments in history, ideas — and the moral vision that animates them — become capable of sparking far-ranging transformative change. In our own time in history, we should not dismiss the fact that the leader of one of the world’s great religions and an increasingly viable candidate for the presidency of one of the world’s most powerful nations have each put on table the need for systemic change in the direction of democratic ownership and a truly just and sustainable economy.</p>
<p>That their message is being eagerly received by enthralled audiences suggests that we are approaching an inflection point in political-economic concern, and serves as a reminder that those who think the status quo lasts forever rarely reflect on how the opening stages of historical change often begin.</p>
<p>Gar Alperovitz is the author of “What Then Must We Do?” and co-chair of The Next System Project.</p>
<p><a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/9/pope-francis-bernie-sanders-and-the-moral-imperative-of-systemic-change.html" rel="nofollow">Originally published by Al Jazeera America</a></p>
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<p>Two men in their 70s have been sparking the imagination and passions of American progressives, both have been featured on the cover of Time magazine – and both agree that the system is broken and radical transformation is necessary.</p>
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<p>Companies' undue economic influence comprised the legitimacy of the country’s elections, the Brazilian supreme court ruled.</p>
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<p>From movements in Bolivia and Uruguay to voter rebellions in Nigeria, Holland, Italy, France and Ireland, citizens worldwide are demanding the return of their water to public hands.</p>
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<p>Clad in yellow shirts, hundreds of people streamed across the Arlington Memorial Bridge on September 15 and ended their nearly 1,000-mile trip at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 7 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Robert Califf has deeper ties to the pharmaceutical industry than any F.D.A. commissioner in recent memory.</p>
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<p>Veteran activist Elaine Brown is determined to transform a once-blighted, under-resourced neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., into a thriving urban farm business that employs former offenders.</p>
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<p>The fascist, immigrant-bashing party has shed boots for suits and toned down its rhetoric to emerge as Europe’s most dangerous political force.</p>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Systemic Change

Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Systemic Change Pope Francis, Bernie Sanders and the Popular Demand for Syste...

Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corruption Scandal

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<h2>Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corruption Scandal</h2>
<span>Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corruption Scandal</span>
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<div>This article originally appeared on <span><a href="http://www.guardiannews.com/" rel="nofollow">The Guardian</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/brazilian_supreme_federal_tribunal.jpg?itok=HeiZt7tx" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/brazilian_supreme_federal_tribunal.jpg?itok=HeiZt7tx" /></a>
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<p>Amid a massive corruption scandal which has tarnished Brazil’s political class and driven the country’s president to the brink of impeachment, the Brazilian supreme court has banned corporate donations to candidates and parties in future elections.</p>
<p>With eight votes in favor and three against, the court declared late on Thursday that the rules allowing companies to donate to election campaigns were unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Around 76% of the over R$3 billion ($760 million) donated during last year’s election campaigns for the presidency, senate and congress came from corporate entities. Both the ruling leftwing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and the main opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) received over R$1bn each.</p>
<p>Rosa Weber, one of the judges who ruled in favor of the ban, argued that undue economic influence comprised the legitimacy of the country’s elections.</p>
<p>“The influence of economic power has ended up transforming the electoral process into a rigged political game, a despicable pantomime which makes the voter a puppet, simultaneously undermining citizenship, democracy and popular sovereignty.”</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~dhidalgo/papers/political_investment_2014.pdf" rel="nofollow">“The Spoils of Victory,”</a> a US academic study into campaign donations and government contracts in Brazil, corporate donors to the PT in the 2006 elections received between 14 to 39 times the value of their donations in government contracts.</p>
<p>Almost all of the major corruption scandals in Brazil in recent years have involved campaign finance contributions, from the “mensalão” cash-for-votes scheme that rocked the administration of Lula da Silva to the current Operation Car Wash investigation into Petrobras, the state-run oil company.</p>
<p>Of the top 10 corporate donors in the 2014 elections, five currently have senior executives in preventative detention, accused of involvement in the Petrobras scandal.</p>
<p>The case was brought to the supreme court around one and a half years ago by the Order of Brazilian Attorneys (OAB). On Thursday the organization’s secretary general, Cláudio Pereira de Souza Neto, celebrated the decision. “It is what Brazilian society has been hoping for, even more so in these times of crisis,” he said, adding that the court order should make future elections cheaper.</p>
<p>Despite being the major beneficiary of corporate donations last year, the PT, along with several other, smaller leftwing parties, supported the ban. But in a defeat for the government, congress recently voted to allow companies to donate up to a maximum of R$20 million (US$5.1 million). Following the supreme court’s ruling, President Dilma Rousseff is now expected to veto that bill.</p>
<p>In a dissenting opinion, judge Gilmar Mendes lambasted the PT. “The party that took most advantage of corporate donations is now, like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, calling for their prohibition. It’s a conversion worthy of sainthood,” he said, claiming the party now had enough money from its 12 years in power to finance its election campaigns until 2038.</p>
<p>Another judge who voted against, Celso de Mello, argued that it would be preferable to have control over donations. “If some donation is made from now on all we can be sure of is that we won’t know about it, but we can never be sure that it doesn’t exist.”</p>
<p>Others pointed out the practical difficulties of enforcing the new legislation. Helio Gurovitz, a commentator for the G1 website, pointed out that the rules would not stop secret donations to “caixa dois” accounts – the name for the off-the-books slush funds set up by many political parties.</p>
<p>Similarly, the court ruling still allows for donations by individuals, of up to 10% of their annual income, a loophole that could be exploited by companies channelling their donations through bundles of individual voters.</p>
<p>So far, opposition parties have been muted in their response, promising only to respect the decision. Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of the lower house and an opponent of the government despite belonging to the allied Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB), said the ruling put the 2016 municipal elections in an “unnecessary limbo."</p>
<p>According to a study of 180 countries by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (Idea), 39 ban corporate donations, including Mexico, France and Costa Rica; 126 allow them with certain limitations, including the U.K., Germany and Argentina.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/18/brazilian-supreme-court-bans-corporate-donations-political-candidates-parties" rel="nofollow">Originally published by The Guardian</a></p>
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<p>Two men in their 70s have been sparking the imagination and passions of American progressives, both have been featured on the cover of Time magazine – and both agree that the system is broken and radical transformation is necessary.</p>
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<p>Companies' undue economic influence comprised the legitimacy of the country’s elections, the Brazilian supreme court ruled.</p>
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<p>From movements in Bolivia and Uruguay to voter rebellions in Nigeria, Holland, Italy, France and Ireland, citizens worldwide are demanding the return of their water to public hands.</p>
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<p>Clad in yellow shirts, hundreds of people streamed across the Arlington Memorial Bridge on September 15 and ended their nearly 1,000-mile trip at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 7 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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<p>Veteran activist Elaine Brown is determined to transform a once-blighted, under-resourced neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., into a thriving urban farm business that employs former offenders.</p>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<p>Uncertainty still remains over whether the governor will ultimately approve the bill.</p>
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<p>Last week's DSEi arms fair in London happened as Europe's refugee crisis reaches new proportions and countries respond to a disaster created in large part by the continent's thriving war machine.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corruption Scandal

Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corruption Scandal Brazil Bans Corporations from Political Donations Amid Corr...

Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, and Winning

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<h2>Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, and Winning</h2>
<span>Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, and Winning</span> <a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/field/image/detroit-water-crisis-a-prelude-t_0.jpg?itok=BSifZj1L" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/styles/slide_narrow/public/field/image/detroit-water-crisis-a-prelude-t_0.jpg?itok=BSifZj1L" /></a>
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<p>Private companies have been working to make a profit from water since the 1600s, when the first water companies were established in England and Wales. The first wave of water privatization occurred in the 1800s, and by the mid- to late-19th century, privately owned water utilities were common in Europe, the United States and Latin America, and began to appear in Africa and Asia.</p>
<p>But the privatization flurry faded, and throughout much of the 20th century water was largely a publicly controlled resource. In the U.S., for example, just 30% of piped water systems were privately owned in 1924, dropping from 60% in 1850.</p>
<p>It wasn't until the late 1980s that the idea of private companies managing water re-emerged on a large scale. Under Margaret Thatcher, the U.K. government privatized all water companies in England and Wales in 1989 – making it the first country to do so. Coupled with the global emphasis on free market capitalism after the fall of communism, it began the second wave of water privatization that continues today.</p>
<p>Privatizing water was, and still is, encouraged by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which make public-to-private takeovers a condition of lending. As a result, the early 1990s saw a rush of cities and countries around the world signing over their nations' water resources to private companies.</p>
<p>It is argued by industry and investors that putting water in private hands translates into improvements in efficiency and service quality, and that services will be better managed. Privatizing also provides governments an opportunity to gain revenue by selling off water services, and for companies to generate profit. But with profit the main objective, the idea of water as a human right arguably becomes a secondary concern.</p>
<p>Problems with water privatization often begin to occur soon after the initial wave of enthusiasm – from lack of infrastructure investment to environmental neglect. A 2005 <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/8844/wps3514.pdf?sequence=1" rel="nofollow">study by the World Bank</a> said that overall evidence suggests "there is no statistically significant difference between the efficiency performance of public and private operators in this sector." The most common complaint about water privatization concerned tariff increases, which occur in the vast majority of cases, making safe water inaccessible for many.</p>
<p>Despite these issues, aid agencies, water companies and many governments around the world continue to pursue privatization of water in the name of profit. In 2011, economist Willem Buiter <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/willem-buiter-water-2011-7?IR=T" rel="nofollow">described</a> water as "an asset class that will, in my view, become eventually the single most important physical-commodity-based asset class, dwarfing oil, copper, agricultural commodities and precious metals."</p>
<p>But opposition to this ideology is mounting. Known as <a href="http://www.remunicipalisation.org/front/page/home" rel="nofollow">remunicipalisation</a>, more and more communities and governments are choosing to resist and reverse private water contracts. According to <a href="https://www.tni.org/files/download/heretostay-en.pdf" rel="nofollow">a 2014 report</a> by the Transnational Institute, around 180 cities in 35 countries have returned control of their water supply to municipalities in the past 15 years.</p>
<p>To highlight this trend, here are some of the most significant examples of resistance to water privatization:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Cochabamba_WaterWarAnniversary_03616_MonaCaron-1024x576.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Cochabamba_WaterWarAnniversary_03616_MonaCaron-1024x576.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/privatization-protest.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/privatization-protest.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/10thAnniversaryWaterWar_3619_MonaCaron_0-1024x768.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/10thAnniversaryWaterWar_3619_MonaCaron_0-1024x768.jpg" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>Cochambamba, Bolivia, 2000</strong></h3>
<p>In 1999, the control of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city, was handed over to Aguas del Tunari – a new company and joint venture involving the U.S. engineering company Bechtel Corporation. The deal was orchestrated by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, which made it a requirement for Bolivia to retain ongoing state loans. Privatization did little in addressing access to water for the city's residents – but led to a tripling in water's cost, and is thought to have contributed to an increase in levels of poverty.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ForTheLoveOfWaterflow-2008" rel="nofollow">the people of Cochabamba protested</a> on a mass scale. Tens of thousands took to the streets, and in April 2000, the government reversed the privatization and the city's water was back under state control. Know as the Cochabamba Water War, the case marked a turning point in the anti-water privatization movement. It demonstrated that private contracts could be overcome by grassroots action, and it paved the way for others to follow suit.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/14369307.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/14369307.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Work_crew_digs_water_line.JPG" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/Work_crew_digs_water_line.JPG" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.), 2003</strong></h3>
<p>Although problems of water privatization are often seen as an issue in the developing world, Western nations are increasingly experiencing remunicipalisation as well. One of the first cities for this to occur in the early 2000s was Atlanta. When United Water took over the city's water supply in 1999, it promised 50% savings for the public and double-digit growth for the company. But as soon as <a href="http://www.occupy.com/article/ebb-and-flow-privatized-water-%E2%80%93-buenos-aires-atlanta-mozambique-france" rel="nofollow">the company took over</a>, the workforce was cut in half and water quality declined to such an extent that on some occasions residents were forced to boil their tap water. Meanwhile, tariffs increased year over year.</p>
<p>As a result of public anger, and just four years into a 20-year contract, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin reversed the privatization in 2003. Although <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/6/detroit-public-watershutoffsunitednationsprivatization.html" rel="nofollow">more than 20 cities</a> in the U.S. have taken back control of water from private companies since 2002, that process is under threat after President Obama signed the <a href="http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/knowledge/publications/118268/water-resources-reform-and-development-act-of-2014" rel="nofollow">Water Resources Reform and Development Act</a> into law last year, which seeks to expand private financing for water projects.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/23872213.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/23872213.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/DSC_1673.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/DSC_1673.jpg" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>Uruguay, 2004</strong></h3>
<p>In 2004, Uruguay became the <a href="http://gala.gre.ac.uk/3769/1/PSIRU_9343_-_2004-11-W-crim.pdf" rel="nofollow">first country to make water privatization illegal</a> by prohibiting the sale and operation of water services to private companies. A referendum was held after two private projects in the country proved unpopular. There was also growing pressure from the IMF for new private contracts tied to loan conditions, and threats arising from free trade investment negotiations with organizations like the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Area of the Americas.</p>
<p>The proposal to make water privatization in Uruguay illegal was supported by more than 62% of voters. It stated that access to piped water and sanitation are fundamental human rights, and that social impact takes priority over economic considerations in water policy. A similar law came into force in the Netherlands that same year. In a 2011 referendum, 27 million Italians voted to <a href="http://www.world-psi.org/en/victory-italy-court-blocks-privatisation" rel="nofollow">repeal a law favoring water privatization</a> in order for their water services to remain public.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/1280237_70414900.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/1280237_70414900.jpg" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>France, 2005 - Present</strong></h3>
<p>Despite being one of the first countries to involve private companies in water management, and being home to giant global water companies Veolia and Suez, remunicipalisation is surging in France. Since 2005 there have been <a href="https://www.tni.org/en/article/180-cities-take-back-public-control-of-water-showing-remunicipalisation-is-here-to-stay" rel="nofollow">41 cases</a> of water being put back into state hands, with more reversals expected in the next few years. After a contract with Suez and Veolia expired in 2010, Paris citizens voted to return their water to public control. Since then, the city's water supply has been managed by Eau de Paris using a plan of "water solidarity," which includes discounts for poor households and enables citizens to engage in decisions about water investment and tariffs. In the first year under Eau de Paris, the city saved $46 million and managed to reduce rates for residents.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/irish-water.jpg.png" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/irish-water.jpg.png" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/PF2_0581_0.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/PF2_0581_0.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/00085c22-1024.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/00085c22-1024.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/image_5.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/image_5.jpg" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>Ireland, 2014 - Present</strong></h3>
<p>Until recently, Ireland was the only Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with water free at the point of use. But in 2014, the government decided to establish a semi-state company, Irish Water, as part of a 2010 bailout deal reached with the European Union and IMF. With the formation of the company came the introduction of water usage chargers, despite the fact that citizens already pay for water through general taxation. As a result, the move became the most unpopular of all the austerity measures introduced in Ireland since 2008.</p>
<p>In May, the country's environment minister announced an estimated average household cost of €240 ($272) due to the privatization, and said that water would <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/water-charges-3-1450138-May2014/" rel="nofollow">turn to "a trickle"</a> for those who refused to pay. But people resisted and Irish Water collected less than half the charges due for the first quarter of 2015. Citizens loudly protested the threat of water privatization <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfEOLXR1gcA" rel="nofollow">through song</a> and by taking to the streets in the hundreds of thousands nationwide. In August, a poll revealed that the majority of political parties in Ireland are now in favor of holding a referendum on whether water services should be privatized. With a general election due to take place by April 2016, the people of Ireland could become the latest to reject water privatization, spurring other countries to do the same.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_07a5a99851a648d590a6e2bf1f69416f.jpg_srb_p_920_613_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_07a5a99851a648d590a6e2bf1f69416f.jpg_srb_p_920_613_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_88d6293ed4334b09b5bda6f7d31854c8.jpg_srb_p_1003_613_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_88d6293ed4334b09b5bda6f7d31854c8.jpg_srb_p_1003_613_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" /></a></p>
<h3><strong>Lagos, Nigeria, 2015</strong></h3>
<p>The Nigerian capital, Lagos, hosted a first-of-its-kind <a href="http://www.ourwaterourright.org/" rel="nofollow">water summit</a> in August. The two-day event brought together civil society groups and activists from around the world to look at specific ways of preventing water privatization internationally, and putting forward options for alternatives as companies increasingly put profit before public interest. Lagos was chosen to host the event due to an impending private takeover of the city's water supply, which is facing ongoing opposition from local people. The summit resulted in the formation of the <a href="http://business-humanrights.org/en/nigeria-ngos-form-africa-coalition-against-water-privatisation-to-champion-realisation-of-right-to-water" rel="nofollow">Africa Coalition Against Water Privatisation</a>, which is working to galvanize a network of civil society and development experts promoting access to water as a human rights issue.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_ac721944863e4340996da75f428c974d.jpg_srb_p_1100_584_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" rel="nofollow"><img alt="" src="http://www.occupy.com/sites/default/files/medialibrary/209332_ac721944863e4340996da75f428c974d.jpg_srb_p_1100_584_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb.jpeg" /></a></p>
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<p>Two men in their 70s have been sparking the imagination and passions of American progressives, both have been featured on the cover of Time magazine – and both agree that the system is broken and radical transformation is necessary.</p>
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<p>Companies' undue economic influence comprised the legitimacy of the country’s elections, the Brazilian supreme court ruled.</p>
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<p>From movements in Bolivia and Uruguay to voter rebellions in Nigeria, Holland, Italy, France and Ireland, citizens worldwide are demanding the return of their water to public hands.</p>
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<p>Clad in yellow shirts, hundreds of people streamed across the Arlington Memorial Bridge on September 15 and ended their nearly 1,000-mile trip at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
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<div><span><em>5 days 7 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>This week, Margaret Flowers thinks it's about fucking time we got some more activists into the halls of the mighty – from occupying the streets to occupying Congress.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 12 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>It just got a lot harder to pretend the suffering in Ferguson, Michael Brown’s death and the explosive reaction after his shooting weren’t all about race now.</p>
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<div><span><em>6 days 11 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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<div><span><em>4 days 10 hours</em> ago</span></div>
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<p>Over the past month, trade officials have been frantically working to resolve outstanding disagreements over provisions in the TPP in the midst of speculation that the deal is in deep trouble.</p>
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<p>A new federal lawsuit centers on more than 200 arrests made on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street in September of 2012, when the NYPD arrested and harassed protesters for no reason other than that they were protesting.</p>
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<p>The fascist, immigrant-bashing party has shed boots for suits and toned down its rhetoric to emerge as Europe’s most dangerous political force.</p>
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<p>Those displaced after a “just transition” away from fossil fuels should be able to count on decent new green jobs and retraining.</p>
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armageddon news revolution Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, and Winning

Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, and Winning Reversing the Tide: Cities and Countr...

Archeologists Discover The Ancient Tombs Of The Maccabees, And On The Tombs They Find Ancient Christian Crosses

<img alt="94-QTqDd.AuSt.55" class="attachment-large wp-post-image" height="336" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/94-QTqDd.AuSt_.55.jpg" width="512" />
<p style="float: right; margin: 0 0 10px 15px; width:240px; height: auto;"><img src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/94-QTqDd.AuSt_.55.jpg" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;" width="240" /></p>
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<p><strong>By Walid Shoebat</strong></p>
<p>Israeli archaeologists may be one step closer to solving a riddle that has vexed explorers for more than a century: the location of the <em>tomb of the biblical Maccabees </em>which they recognized by finding the signature of the Cross.</p>
<div id="attachment_85672" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/94-QTqDd.AuSt_.55.jpg"><img alt="94-QTqDd.AuSt.55" class="wp-image-85672 size-full" height="336" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/94-QTqDd.AuSt_.55.jpg" width="512" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A worker for the Israel Antiquities Authority shows The Holy Cross designed on a mosaic floor at an archaeological site at Ben Shemen Forest near the Israeli city of Modiin</p>
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<p>On Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, Amit Reem, an Israeli archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said “the cross is a clue” as it appears on the floor of the only Byzantine-era site burial niche where a cross decorates the floor of a burial vault. Reem said that this indicates it may have marked the spot of an important Maccabean figure.</p>
<p>The Crusader cross was a rediscovery of French scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau who first excavated it in the late 1800s and found a mosaic floor featuring a Byzantine Christian cross where he was drawn to a nearby tomb, where he announced that he found the remains of Mattathias. The site was then abandoned. This month, Israeli archaeologists and volunteers cleared away rubble and exposed the simple mosaic cross for the first time in more than 100 years.</p>
<p>Reem said the cross is a clue. It appears on the floor of a burial niche at the site. It is the only Byzantine-era site where a cross decorates the floor of a burial vault, he said, indicating that it may have marked the spot of an important figure. He thinks it is likely that the Byzantines — early Christians — identified this site as the Maccabees’ tomb. The Christians would have placed the Cross on the tomb since the Maccabees were important figures for Christendom, being the patron saints of the Christian warrior battling evil and paganism. The Maccabees were also the patron saints for the Crusaders of Medieval times.</p>
<p><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/search_tomb_of_maccabees-3.jpg"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-85689" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/search_tomb_of_maccabees-3.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Oren Tal, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University agreed with Reem about other characteristics that correspond to the biblical account and to an account by ancient historian Josephus Flavius. Both describe the Tomb of the Maccabees as a tall structure that could be seen from the Mediterranean Sea, featuring columns and seven pyramids.</p>
<p>The connect adds up since Biblical history tells us that is was in Modiin that the Maccabee family was buried, and the tomb near the West Bank village of Midya resembles the name Modiin.</p>
<p>As they went on their quest, villagers pointed one European explorer toward a hilltop dotted with rock-hewn graves known by locals as “the graves of the Jews” where today even Israeli road signs still label them as Maccabean and Hanukkah ceremonies are held there to honor the ancient rebels.</p>
<p><strong>WHY THE MACCABEES ARE IMPORTANT FOR CHRISTIAN SALVATION</strong><br />
When it comes to the Maccabees, Mattathias, a symbol of Christ defeating Antichrist, is the center of their story. Yet their books and history were <a href="http://shoebat.com/2014/09/17/prophecy-never-knew/">deemed non-canonical by both Jews and Protestants</a> and are still upheld by denominations with apostolic succession. For the Jews, while their book (Maccabees) is a central theme to their history, to Protestants, the book is removed because it simply speaks of souls being purged in preparation for heaven.</p>
<p>But to the Cross the stones are crying out and now Israel’s government Antiquities Authority <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/09/21/israeli-archaeologists-say-may-have-found-fabled-tomb-biblical-maccabees/">said Monday</a> that an ancient structure it began excavating this month on the side of a highway appears to match ancient descriptions of the tomb of Jewish rebels who wrested control of Judea from Seleucid rule and established a Jewish kingdom in the 2nd century B.C.</p>
<p>Scholars in Israel’s quarrelsome archaeological community tend to agree that the site is a significant burial site but reserve judgment about its connection to the Maccabees. “We still don’t have the smoking gun,” said Amit Reem, a government archaeologist who helped lead the dig.</p>
<div id="attachment_85690" style="width: 970px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/b2dd6949279f4949a0f2a5c9b59c2b12-586890f20a374e95849545357ca7caec-3.jpg"><img alt="b2dd6949279f4949a0f2a5c9b59c2b12-586890f20a374e95849545357ca7caec-3" class="wp-image-85690 size-full" height="640" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/b2dd6949279f4949a0f2a5c9b59c2b12-586890f20a374e95849545357ca7caec-3.jpg" width="960" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A mosaic floor featuring a cross is seen at an archaeological site at Ben Shemen Forest near the Israeli city of Modiin on Monday, Sept. 21, 2015. Amit Reem …</p>
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<p>The story of the Maccabees is the story of Messiah’s conquering Antichrist. Mattathias the father commissioned the son, Judas Maccabees and his other brothers to revolt against Hellenic rulers who banned holy practices, and rededicated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This resembles the message of Christ defeating Antichrist who came and another will come again from Asia Minor.</p>
<p>The Books of the Maccabees include Crusader type militant martyrs dying for their faith and was always part of Holy Scripture and became the source of inspiration to fighting tyranny. To early Christians who fought tyranny and believed that Christianity was <em>The Church Militant, </em>Maccabees was the book while to Protestants they viewed militancy to be over with.</p>
<p>The other reason Protestants rejected Maccabees was that 2 Maccabees 12:46 had this to say which upset Luther:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Thus he <span style="text-decoration: underline;">made atonement</span> <span style="text-decoration: underline;">for the dead</span> that they might be <span style="text-decoration: underline;">freed from sin</span>.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And since this was closely related to the Catholic doctrine of the “communion of saints,” Luther acted as if he was God and struck it from being Canon while the Puritans even completely removed them altogether.</p>
<p>Maccabees remind us of the condition of the Church prior to the coming Messiah to defeat Antichrist. Mattathias was no appeasing <em>Pope Francis</em> and neither was he <em>America’s pastor Rick Warren</em>, the Maccabees resemble the simple believer who went against the institutions and the appeasements with the tyranny of Antichrist of their day: Antiochus Epiphanies.</p>
<p>Maccabees sets the record straight, correcting the fallen churches of today, by having the earth cry out pointing to Mattathias and Judas Maccabees. Never in history were these books deemed “Apocrypha” until Luther who attacked the Jews and the integrity of the Bible, which the Catholic Church infallibly reaffirmed the divine inspiration of the deuterocanonical books at the Council of Trent in 1546. In doing this, it reaffirmed what had been believed since the time of Christ. Revelation 21:27 affirmed Maccabees 12:46, that prior to heaven every soul is to be cleansed: “…nothing unclean will enter it …”</p>
<p>The place that is to be entered which this passage refers to is heaven.</p>
<p>But despite Luther’s evil attempts, the New Testament left a clue that cries out “Maccabees”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Women received their dead <span style="text-decoration: underline;">by resurrection</span>. Some were <span style="text-decoration: underline;">tortured</span>, refusing to accept release, that they might <span style="text-decoration: underline;">rise again to a better life</span>” (Heb. 11:35).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No where do we find in the Protestant Bible someone being “tortured” and “refusing to accept release” for the sake of a “better resurrection” except in the story found in 2 Maccabees 7, where we read that during the Maccabean persecution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh. . . . But the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, ‘The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us . . . ‘ After the first brother had died . . . they brought forward the second for their sport. . . . he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done. And when he was at his last breath, he said, ‘You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will <span style="text-decoration: underline;">raise us up</span> to an everlasting <span style="text-decoration: underline;">renewal of life</span>‘” (2 Macc. 7:1, 5-9).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, the main issue was 2 Maccabees 12:46 had this to say which upset Luther: “Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from sin.”</p>
<p><strong>THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS</strong><br />
The Communion of Saints was the crux of the matter, where all of the sudden to “be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8) was ignored and the saints just became “dead”. So when Christians had prayer requests to the saints, the followers of Luther accused apostolic succession Christians of “praying for the dead”.</p>
<p>But such claims were shattered from Scripture itself, as it is in that home, heavenly Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, that millions refuse to approach heaven:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“But <span style="text-decoration: underline;">you have come</span> to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to <span style="text-decoration: underline;">innumerable angels</span> in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">firstborn who are enrolled in heaven</span>, and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">to God</span> [the Father] the judge of all, and to the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">spirits of the righteous made perfect</span> [saints], and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">to Jesus</span>, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the mediator of a new covenant</span>, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22-24)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We approach the Heavenly Jerusalem through “innumerable angels,” “assembly of the first born,” who are saints already “enrolled in heaven,” who are “spirits of the righteous made perfect”.</p>
<p><a href="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/church-militant.jpg"><img alt="church-militant" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-85691" height="720" src="http://shoebat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/church-militant.jpg" width="960" /></a></p>
<p>Here we have saints whom were sinners “made perfect”. How are these “made perfect”?</p>
<p>There is a process of perfection and purging since “nothing unclean shall enter it [heaven]” (Rev. 21:27).</p>
<p>Hebrew 12 is clear, we approach a heavenly host (Jesus, Saints, Angels). There is no where in Scripture that says regarding Revelation 8, where the angel “was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints” alluding that these saints being only on earth.</p>
<p>Angels are part of the life of the saints on earth: “he has given his angels orders about you to guard you wherever you go. They will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.” (Pslam 91:11-12)</p>
<p>Missing Maccabees is how the devil deceives to block the way to God and is why so many do not understand how Scripture is discerned as it was in the early church. With Theosis, the saints become one with God and can act as ambassadors of Christ and is how the apostles were commissioned to “forgive sin”. With John 20:21-23, it is impossible to ignore how the Holy Spirit Who hovered and breathed onto the waters to bring forth life (Genesis 2:7), now in a unique occasion, Jesus breathes on men and through Theosis (being one with God) they can “forgive sins”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">he breathed on them,</span> and said to them, ‘<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Receive the Holy Spirit</span>. If you <span style="text-decoration: underline;">forgive the sins</span> of any, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">they are forgiven</span>; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (John 20:21–23).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And this will remain to “the closing of the age” (Matt. 28:19–20). This can never be unless this apostolic ministry remains in succession and continues and is succeeded by others who also connect to God “to the close of the age”.</p>
<p><strong>IGNORING SINGLE VERSES CAN SEND SOMEONE TO HELL</strong><br />
Without certain verses, nothing fits. Isolating “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men” is where many trip.</p>
<p>When it comes to differences between the ancient Church and the modern none-apostolic, the problem can be summed up simply by this example I received:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If this [Mount Zion] is a crucial way to come to Jesus, why didn’t the Lord Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, etc. mention anything else like this in all of the rest of the NT?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the same case when it comes to all the differences between the modern non-apostolic and apostolic way of interpreting Scripture. The Apostolic sees an ocean of wisdom in one line of Scripture, the non-Apostolic takes an idea that is an inch deep and a mile wide, and uses entire pages of the Bible to prove it.</p>
<p>This is the crux of all the problems from Luther to all the cults that sprouted afterwards.</p>
<p>And  the answer to such questions is another question, Jesus style. For example, when it comes to denying the Trinity by the Hebrew Roots Movement or the Oneness Pentecostals they argue in the same fashion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why can’t we baptize in “the name of Jesus” only. Why do we need “in the name of the Father and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit?” After all in the whole New Testament, and on every occasion Baptism was done in the name of Jesus only in Acts 8:16, Acts 10:48 and Acts 19:5 which reveals that early Christians baptized in “the name of Jesus” only.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The other volume of verses seem to contradict this one verse, therefore, these others verses win. That verse is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">name of the Father</span> and of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the Son</span> and of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the Holy Spirit</span> (Matthew 28:19)<span class="p"><br /></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>And this is how satan enters by simply ignoring this verse and emphasize how many other verses that support the heretic.   It was obvious that during the early church era since “the name of Jesus” was simply to mean “in the authority of Jesus” and such authority entails that when that one verse was more detailed, it took precedence over all other verses and in fact, interprets them all.</p>
<p>The rule is always that the more detailed verse interprets summary verses so that approaching Mount Zion (heaven) is detailed where it explains what coming to Jesus entails a wealth of heavenly angels, saints martyrs … who plead with Christ the King.</p>
<p>These verses are the thread by which everything comes together and without them Scripture becomes useless.</p>
<p>But when you present the case, it matters little since the argument will always sound like the same broken record:</p>
<blockquote>
<p> ”I am entering more into the reality of Mt. Zion, the Holy of Holies, etc. through my direct relationship with the Lord Jesus.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They recognize that “entering” is through “Mt. Zion” yet they still insist because of their traditional teaching on twisting the verses to fit their belief by saying “through my direct relationship with the Lord Jesus”.</p>
<p>This is the same argument cults use when they say “we baptize in the name of Jesus <em>only”.</em></p>
<p>In other words, these recognize the meaning, but by isolating all the other verses they delude themselves. It is this act of rebellion, when these recognize that Mt. Zion is “entering”, yet as Cain did, they set up their own prescription.</p>
<p>From heaven, union with Christ, to even sin, Luther ignored clear Scriptural evidence where today’s modern non-apsotolic Christian says that “sin is sin” where the sodomite is viewed on par with a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar. All this happens because they are taught to re-interpret these single crucial verses. 1 John 5:16-17, with specific verses before and after to give context:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="color: black;">And this is the testimony, that God gave us <i>eternal life,</i> and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has <i>life; </i>he who has not the Son of God has not life. I write this to you who believe in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the name of the Son of God</span>, that you may know that you have <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><i>eternal life</i></span>… <span style="text-decoration: underline;">If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin,</span> he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">There is sin which is mortal;</span><b> </b>I do not say that one is to pray for that. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal</span>…And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and <i>eternal life.</i></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the modern reads “all wrong doing is sin” and he stops. Or he read the word “mortal” and he thinks it is earthly death as if God will punish one with cancer to stop him from sinning and He therefore takes their life away. It is here where even single verses make all the difference. God is saying “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that <span style="text-decoration: underline;">you may know that you have eternal life.”</span></p>
<p>This is discussing how to reach eternal destiny. And when it comes to sin, in verses 16 and 17 it speaks clearly about there being a difference between <em>mortal</em> and <em>venial sins</em>. Mortal sins are those sins that lead to eternal death.</p>
<p>Again, in the prior verses, 11-13, he was speaking about how one gets eternal <i>life</i> and not how one physically lives or dies, but <em>how one gets eternal life and eternal death</em>. He who has the Son will have <i>eternal life</i> and is not what Luther taught that we are saved even if we “sin boldly” (v. 13, provided the Christian keeps the commandments, 2:2-5, 3:24, 5:2-3).</p>
<p>It is here we discover our Christian roots, what is clearly missing from the dynamo of the modern non-apostolic: <em>The Church Militant</em> (<i>Ecclesia Militans</i>). Christianity is not what Hitler described when he saw Germany’s Protestant christianity, “a flabby religion”. The Church Militant makes everything fits. It is comprised of the <a title="Christian" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian">Christians</a> on earth who are living; who struggle against sin, the <a title="Devil in Christianity" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_in_Christianity">devil</a> and “..the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12); the <em>Church Triumphant</em> (<i>Ecclesia Triumphans</i>), comprising those who are in <a title="Heaven" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven">Heaven</a>; and the <em>Church Penitent </em>(<i>Ecclesia Penitens</i>), a.k.a. <i>Church Suffering</i> or <i>Church Padecent</i> or Church Expectant (<i>Ecclesia Expectans</i>), which comprises those Christians presently being purged of sin.</p>
<p>These terms are often used in the context of the doctrine of the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Communion of Saints" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_of_Saints">Communion of Saints</a>; although Christians may be physically separated from each other by the barrier of death, they nonetheless remain united to each other in one Church, and support each other in prayer.</p>
<p>Everything fits like a tight glove refuting the modern reprobates who will always object with fits of rage and anger. These do not save their anger where it matters when the enemy strikes. Such are known by their fruit: thrones and thistles.</p>
<p>Archeology at times sings and this year it sings the voices of the Maccabees and the heart of the crusading militant that are calling to prepare for Christ’s coming battle with Antichrist. Their sounds remind us of what the first Christian, not the modern, envisioned the church:</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uv_2x6JmuaE" width="660" height="415" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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anonymous armageddon isis islam war Archeologists Discover The Ancient Tombs Of The Maccabees, And On The Tombs They Find Ancient Christian Crosses

By Walid Shoebat Israeli archaeologists may be one step closer to solving a riddle that has vexed explorers for more than a century: the...