London's Burning (April Fools)

So after the Battle in Seattle, the Tussle in Turin, and a decade of lies, the calm and quaint British capital is hosting the new international meeting of global leaders, or at least the important ones, on April Fools Day.

So what should be expected? This website is suggesting the visitors will be served more than tea and crumpets. they are planning a party at the Bank of England where they invite the public to feast on Bankers' Brains!



This is the schedule:

On April 1st, the G20 are coming to London to face up to economic crisis and political meltdown
Lost your home? Lost your job? Lost your savings or your pension? This party is for you!

At 12 noon, April 1st the Bank of England.

Capitalism has been heating up our world for years, melting the icecaps, burning up the rainforests, pushing the planet to tipping point. Now we're going to put the heat on them. At the London Summit , the G20 ministers are trying to get away with the biggest April Fools trick of all time. Their tax-dodging, bonus-guzzling, pension-pinching, unregulated free market world's in meltdown, and those fools think we're going to bail them out. They've gotta be joking!

We can't pay, we won't pay and we are taking to the streets
Many, many imaginative actions will be taking place across London on April 1st. One major focus will be four separate carnival parades culminating in direct action against the financial follies in the City of London among them carbon trading.

Full circle back to 1649? 'A very English revolution!'
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will lead themed processions starting at 11 a.m. from the following rail stations:

Moorgate
Red horse against War;
Liverpool St
Green horse against Climate chaos
London Bridge
Silver horse against Financial crimes
Cannon Street
Black horse against land enclosures and borders in honour of the 360th full circle anniversary of the Diggers
At 12 noon, April 1st, we're going to reclaim the City, thrusting into the very belly of the beast: the Bank of England.

Early a.m. April 2nd, we're going to bang on their hotel doors, @ the Excel Centre, Canning town to deliver our message of a world beyond capitalism.

I doubt bankers' brains taste all that good, but I think people are getting angry and many in the upper MBA classes do not know the pain except from an intellectual perspective. There's a hard rain going to fall and wash the trash off the sidewalk.

Zombies R US(ofA)

As Stephen Colbert used to ask:

George W. Bush - Great President or Greatest President?

On the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Obama tried to inform America why AIG was so pivotal in the Rape of Lady Liberty. He said AIG was just a normal insurance company until, in the search for more and more profits, grafted an investment bank on its back. And that investment bank operation got over involved in derivatives and other risky assets, primarily associated with the subprime mortgage market.

Yesterday I watched a video clip of Barney Frank, where he suggested that we file a shareholder lawsuit against AIG for fraud, as we as a country are the biggest shareholder in AIG.

Then it hit me: we as a country and economy are just like those Zombie Banks that are technically, non-technically, hypothetically, and every other -ally so beyond life support that they are undead. Not even Mary Shelley or all the King's men can bring them back to love and life.

At first I thought such a lawshit against AIG would serve some cathartic need, it is pointless. There is nothing to sue for. Our investments in these banks and financial institutions, call it a bailout or whatever, is dead. There may be marginal money there for operations, but a lawsuit by the United States would be frivolous because there are no assets in priority. What I mean is this: AIG, Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, etc etc etc became involved in fraudulent activity years ago. And although Obama said what they did wasn't against the law, he did suggest that these financial institutions did not act in their shareholders' best interest. And they lost trillions.

If you know anything about shareholder lawsuits, a plaintiff attorney only has to find one person (and preferably a few) to file a lawsuit against a corporation along with a request seeking class certification. A class action lawsuit against AIG, BofA, Citibank, Wells Fargo, or General Electric's finance arm would bring any of these companies down. And hard. Now I can think of at least a hundred million people who could serve as lead plaintiff. And I am sure there is a Weil Gottshal, or a Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, or a Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz willing to take such a case.

And what is the chance that such a lawsuit would be successful? Would it be that hard to show fraud? The only thing the companies have going for them is that such a massive discovery process would likely bankrupt a plaintiff firm, even one well capitalized. And any such suit would take priority over a suit by the Attorney General's office. So, all the 'good' money we have poured into these bad financial service firms will become attachable assets in such litigation. I mean if Hank Paulson and Tim Geithner couldn't remember to put strings on the money, do you think they protected the money against shareholder lawsuits? (And if they did, what did they know and when did they know it?)

So it appears that we may be at risk of having to bail these companies out again again again. Is this why Obama and the Fed are setting up a shadow banking system? Whether it is a class action lawsuit or a smoking gun or a butterfly flapping its wings in China, we are at big risk.

The only way out is to collectively agree that the zombies are not only bad, but that they can't be rehabilitated without the baptism of bankruptcy for the remission of sins (and obligations). And a truth commission. It is well known that if you are attacked by a zombie, you will become one. And as we are under attack, we must be very careful.

And there is something else too: we need to be able to say what it is that we want and then build it. We are so afraid to sit down and imagine what type of community, nation, or world we want to inhabit. Very few people have been having that discussion, although that seems to be changing. As Terrence McKenna says: "if you can't describe a reality, you can't inhabit it."





As we are on the topic of zombies, what are corporations anyway? Fictitious individuals granted to possiblity of immortality? WTF.

Zombie MBAs

Warning: If you are ever attacked by a zombie, you will become one. That is what they say. If you or anyone you know has a mortgage, a credit card, or has attended one of three business schools, you had better move to Cuba. It is one of the few places outside of rural Alaska where you can avoid the dreaded MBA Zombie.

Crack researcher (and Zombie fighter) Deborah Barrow has just released her top-secret study of where the Generation Z (that is Generation Zombie) became that way. While not reminiscing about the good old days where kids could run free after school and climb trees with abandon, she does identify where the Zombies go through their initiation rituals and final transformation.

And the biggest Zombie Mill that spawned our current threat? Harvard, or as said by the Zombies themselves, Haaavaad. Don't say it out loud - there may be evidence that if chanted, zombies will appear.

The next on the list: NYU Stern School of Business. Stern is the German word for star, so this must be where they get their training in astrology, figuring out the exact moment to strike. I never knew how they could act in unison. I always thought it was a keen sense of smell, but this changes everything.

And the third? Cornell? That school that wants to be in the Ivy League, but can't decide if it is a state school for the unwashed masses or an elite up-yours-I'm-privileged private school. Somehow that makes sense. Only Zombies would want to have a dairy and farm lab nearby for their ghoulish experiments. Frankenstein is making way too much sense right now.

Now we know what happened to the banks. Be very careful out there. And destroy your credit cards and mortgages, if you have any. It is very important to stay alive. Plant a garden.