Why the 1% cannot tolerate democracy

Oil is running out. Natural gas is almost impossible to protect. The 1% depends on control of fossil-fuel to keep their power and money. They must have totalitarian rule to prevent attacks on their gas pipelines.

Syria: Army retakes Damascus suburbs - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk: "There have been a number of attacks on pipelines since the Syrian uprising began in mid-March with the government consistently blaming armed terrorist groups. The Assad regime says such groups are behind the violence that has engulfed the country since protests began."

Misuse of oil will lead to massive human die-off

Unsustainable Population Growth Is The Elephant In The Room: "The human cost of such an involuntary population rebalancing is, of course, horrific. Based on this model we would experience an average excess death rate of 100 million per year every year for the next 75 years to achieve our target population of one billion by 2082. The peak excess death rate would happen in about 20 years, and would be about 200 million that year. To put this in perspective, WWII caused an excess death rate of only 10 million per year for only six years."

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People of Bahrain have tremendous courage

trust.org

People of Bahrain. Very courageous. Small country against U.S. oil appetite.

#Oil companies are on welfare

Big Oil Pumps Up Profits with Americans’ Cash: "This week the five Big Oil companies—ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Shell—posted massive second-quarter profits thanks in no small part to record-high gas prices and billions in unnecessary subsidies paid by American taxpayers."

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Cars kill, in, oh, so many ways.

Transportation and Health By the Numbers | Public Health: "Some of the statistics revealed at the workshop include:

• Three trillion vehicle miles are traveled in the U.S. each year, according to the Federal Highway Research Administration.
• Between 1990 and 2009 the vehicle miles traveled for passenger cars and trucks has increased by 39 percent, said David Ragland, PhD, MPH, Director of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
• Every additional hour spent in a car is associated with a 6% increase in the risk of obesity, and every kilometer walked is associated with a 5% decrease in obesity risk, said Raymond.
• Thirty-six percent of adults don’t report any leisure time physical activity; 88% don’t meet federal guidelines for the recommended amount of activity.
• The estimated medical costs of inactivity top $75 billion per year.
• Walking and biking are the top leisure physical activities of choice in the U.S., and are also the top utilitarian physical activities.
• Public transit users walk a median of 19 minutes daily getting to and from transit stops. Nearly 30 percent of transit users exceed the 30 minutes of recommended physical activity per day."

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Brussels, Belgium campaign for free public transport

Free Transports in Brussels: "Everyone will benefit from free transports
Free public transport is one of the best way to reduce traffic jams in Brussels. Just think about the benefit that is would be for everyone: less pollution, less noise, better and safer environment for non motorised traffic, and so on.
It also represents an important cost saving for every one, with an increase of the purchasing power as consequence. We are sure that in times of crisis like we know today, nobody will be against less expenses.
And think about the socioeconomic gains that could be achieved by getting rid of all the ticket lines, tickets and control systems. Lots of money goes to these systems which lead to nothing but a bad mood in our common spaces."

Read more....
http://freepublictransports.com/2012/01/13/campaign-in-brussels-belgium/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Transports-in-Brussels/125313980921201

U.S. to send its pit-bull to attack Iran

'US prepping Mideast facilities ... JPost - Iranian Threat - News: "The United States has begun taking measures to plan for an Israeli strike on Iran in order to protect US facilities in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday."

The U.S. has painted itself into a corner. It has bet all its money on highways, parking lots, and bombs. Oil sources and routes are getting scarce. So, more bombs, more highways and parking lots.

You, yes you, can put a stop to this insanity. Join your local #occupy, transit-riders union, or environmental group, and raise the demand for free public transit.

Nigeria revolt shows fragility of oil-based western economies

#occupywallstreet supports the people of Nigeria 

Goldman Sachs Sees Increasing Risk of Rising 2012 Oil Prices - Businessweek: "Nigerian labor unions said they will continue a strike that threatens oil exports from Africa’s top producer because no agreement has been reached yet with President Goodluck Jonathan on restoring fuel subsidies."

The US/UK/Japan bank empire keeps printing money, and keeps collapsing. At some point in the de-leveraging, some part of the imaginary wealth has to be backed by real production. The problem is, most of the "production" is just a billion wasteful consumer products [autos] and inefficient sprawl that depend on fossil-fuels. A million more soldiers could not unscramble this egg. The collapse will continue until enough people rise up and do something about it.

In Brazil, the fight against bus fare hikes and for free public transport

http://fureotubo.blogspot.com/

Tallinn Offers Free Public Transportation to All Residents

Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar said the city is willing to make public transportation free for its residents in 2013, if taxpayers support the idea in a poll from March 19 to 25.

The private auto, whatever it burns, is a wasteful consumer product

Taking Parking Lots Seriously, as Public Spaces - NYTimes.com: "As the critic Lewis Mumford wrote half a century ago, “The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is the right to destroy the city.” Yet we continue to produce parking lots, in cities as well as in suburbs, in the same way we consume all those billions of plastic bottles of water and disposable diapers."

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The 1% is splitting over oil. Thank you, #occupywallstreet

Time to reassess our national transportation program - The Hill's Congress Blog: "economic research concludes that the gas tax is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost of driving. Those who believe that motorists alone should benefit from road improvements fail to recognize the full cost of driving and the benefits of pricing it fairly.

It’s time that those who benefit the most—oil companies—shoulder more of the burden of the nation’s transportation system. More than 70 percent of our oil supply is consumed by transportation. We send $161 billion per year to countries classified as dangerous or unstable by the state department to continue this consumption."

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Split widens in 1% over #transit as oil trolls hurt business

The Recession Squeeze On Buses and Trains - NYTimes.com: "That alarm is not an idle one. But it comes with one piece of good news: the number of trips taken annually on public transit is now more than 10 billion and rising, compared with 7.8 billion trips in 1995, outstripping population growth and the number of miles traveled on streets and highways."

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