Latest articles
Justice Antonin Scalia is a Publicity-Seeking Intellectual Midget
by Dave Lindorff / December 13th, 2014
Sometimes you really don’t need to write much to do an article on something. Writing about the inanity of Justice Antonin Scalia, the ethics-challenged, lard-bottomed, right-wing anchor of the Supreme Court, is one of those times.
Scalia just weighed in on the CIA torture issue in an interview for a Swiss broadcast network, saying that he didn’t think there was anything in the US Constitution that would prohibit torture under all circumstances, and positing a situation — a suspect with knowledge about a hidden nuke to be detonated in Los Angeles — that he suggested would make torture an acceptable tactic.
First …
The Global Bankers’ Coup
by Ellen Brown / December 12th, 2014
On December 11, 2014, the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, stepped into the ring. Perhaps what prompted his intervention was the unanticipated $40 drop in the price of oil. As financial blogger Michael Snyder points out, that drop could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20’s new “bail-in” rules are …
by Ralph Nader / December 12th, 2014
The 528 page Senate Intelligence Committee report on C.I.A. torture may come as a shock to many, but would not have surprised the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). In 1991 and again in 1995, fed up with his dealings with this agency, he introduced a bill for its abolition. Too much secrecy that amounted to a blanket institutionalized cover-up, too much bad or inadequate information leading to blunders, tragedies and failures to anticipate events like the collapse of the Soviet Union. Moynihan believed that secret government breeds disaster and shreds democratic societies.
Despite the bill not being put to a …
Notes on the Surveillance Culture
by Binoy Kampmark / December 12th, 2014
The view is from room 300, level 3 of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. The sunlight has long vanished, leaving the twinkling lights of the old castle quarter, Hrad?any, to do their magic outside the windows. The students funnel in. The chalk is waiting to be used. The topic is something that is already wearing thin, not because it lacks weight, but because it has begun to disappear into the ether. What effect did Mr. Edward Snowden have, notably in states with a previous history of massive surveillance?
Any country with a rich history of resisting forgetting would, you would …
Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney
by The Real News Network (TRNN) / December 12th, 2014
By not prosecuting those responsible for torture President Obama failed to uphold the International Convention on Torture, further his current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, was a intelligence official in the Bush Administration, further the heavily redacted report on torture does not include Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo says Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
http://youtu.be/uBCtU3pMXYs
by Nick Fillmore / December 12th, 2014
Multi-national corporations from Europe are destroying the environment and causing climate chaos in Latin America — with destructive mining practices like this in Peru.
Information contained in a new report that details how multi-national corporations are destroying the environment and causing serious climate damage in Latin America brings attention to an important area not being discussed at the UN COP 20 climate negotiations being held in Peru.
The report describes in detail how the destruction caused by three European multi-national corporations is typical of the damage caused by multi-nationals throughout the …
by Andre Vltchek / December 12th, 2014
Qohaito is a mysterious, ancient, pre-Aksumite settlement in the Eritrean highlands, with several impressive monolithic columns rising towards the sky. It is said that right there, under the surface, exists another entire lost city. As you walk, the earth shakes, and somewhere deep below; you can hear the echo of your footsteps.
Just a few minutes drive from the columns, the plateau suddenly ends. There is a cliff and a breathtaking view into the deep valley. This place is called Ishka. And this is where thousands of Eritrean freedom fighters and civilians used to hide from the brutal Ethiopian occupation forces….
Lessons from the #BerkeleyProtests
by Kevin Zeese / December 12th, 2014
WASHINGTON, DC — Yesterday morning at 10:40am, net neutrality demonstrators interrupted the FCC’s monthly meeting by unfurling a large banner reading “Reclassify Now!” behind the seated FCC commissioners. The activists, both union members, were escorted from the room by security after speaking out and asking FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler why he continues to delay Title II net neutrality, which should have been voted on at today’s meeting.
Photo by Brian Fung of the
Washington Post.
Other activists inside the meeting held paper signs …
by Robert Hunziker / December 12th, 2014
The developed world is just crazy in love with the “miracle of Chile,” as expressed by Milton Friedman some years ago. The accolades are everywhere, ranked as a “high-income economy” by the World Bank. The country has the strongest sovereign bond rating in South America. It is a role model for neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism is the Milton Friedman school of thought that the best government is the least government. After all, people can take care of themselves and make much more money when they are free to make decisions in a deregulated free marketplace. The operative formula is: Less government equals more …
Part 2: People versus Power
by Lesley Docksey / December 12th, 2014
We are now living outside of the laws of nature where nature is now turning against man and becoming the enemy.
— The Kogi Mamas
Last week the latest efforts to head off climate change started in Lima, Peru. The aim of this latest conference (the twentieth, would you believe) is to produce a draft agreement on action, to be finalised in Paris next year. With time running out it doesn’t look hopeful. The world is silent.
In 1990 Alan Ereira made a film for the BBC, The Heart of the World: Elder Brother’s Warning. After so many years of it being …
Kick the Habit
by Kathy Kelly / December 11th, 2014
On December 10, International Human Rights Day, federal Magistrate Matt Whitworth sentenced me to three months in prison for having crossed the line at a military base that wages drone warfare. The punishment for our attempt to speak on behalf of trapped and desperate people, abroad, will be an opportunity to speak with people trapped by prisons and impoverishment here in the U.S.
Our trial was based on a trespass charge incurred on June 1, 2014. Georgia Walker and I were immediately arrested when we stepped onto Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force where pilots fly weaponized drones over Afghanistan and other countries. We carried a loaf of bread …
by Kim Petersen / December 11th, 2014
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
— Article 5 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights ((The United States is a signatory to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.))
Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which bills itself as “the nation’s premier defender of liberty and individual freedom,” wrote a controversial op-ed for the imperialist-touting New York Times. ((“Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured,” New York Times, 8 December 2014. )) In essence, by specious circumlocution, the ACLU head parlayed to the favor …
by Matt Peppe / December 11th, 2014
With the holiday season underway and Eric Holder on his way out the door as Attorney General, many Puerto Ricans are stepping up their calls for President Barack Obama to pardon 71-year-old political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, who has spent the last 33 years behind bars for seditious conspiracy. The holiday season is a common time for Presidents to use their power to grant clemency, but this does not appear likely in 2014 for the President who has granted the fewest pardons in modern times. For Puerto Ricans, dismissal of their political demands is emblematic of their subjugation as …
by Steve Horn / December 11th, 2014
In recent years, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has come under fire for disallowing scientists working for the Canadian government to speak directly to the press.
An article published in August by the New Republic said, “Harper’s antagonism toward climate-change experts in his government may sound familiar to Americans,” pointing to similar deeds done by the George W. Bush Administration. That article also said, “Bush’s replacement,” President Barack Obama, “has reversed course” in this area.
Society for Professional Journalists, the largest trade association for professional journalists in the U.S., disagrees with this conclusion.
In a December 1 letter written …
No One is Going to Jail
by Winston Alpha / December 11th, 2014
(An example of just how redacted the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA detention and torture is. And don’t forget it was the CIA itself who redacted the report, even though they are the ones who are the subject of the report).
While the corporate press focuses on what they perceive to be today’s big story—that the Senate Intelligence Committee finally released a heavily-redacted, 525-page version of their original 6,700-page report on CIA detention and torture post-9/11—I’d rather talk about the real story: that not a single person will …
Racism and War in America and Beyond
by Ramzy Baroud / December 10th, 2014
America’s ruling elites are blatant in their intentions of maintaining “white privilege” at home and economic dominance by military means abroad.
Their “democracy” in both of these regions is a ruse, and it is yet to deliver any degree of social justice and equality to the millions of disadvantaged Americans which are comprised mostly of black and Latino communities. The unequal distribution of wealth in the United States is simply staggering. In fact, 75.4% of all wealth in the US is owned by the richest 10 percent, according to the authoritative Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook (2013).
This influx of wealth …
Truth in Media
by Ben Swann / December 10th, 2014
Ben Swann takes a look at the root of police militarization and why even if military equipment is removed from police departments across the nation, militarization will not come to an end.
http://youtu.be/UsRV3y37qcs
by Martha Rosenberg / December 10th, 2014
There is no admittance at Craig Watts’ Perdue contract chicken farm in Fairmont, North Carolina. Nor is Watts allowed to open the barns to admit air or sunlight. But, fed up with the abuse to farmers, consumers and animals he has tolerated for too long, Watts allowed cameras into his barns so the public could see what Perdue calls “humane.” It is “not as advertised” says Watts, an understatement.
There is such a gap between Perdue’s slick marketing and the reality, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof devoted a whole column last week to the video, released this morning by Compassion …
by Maryam Sakeenah / December 10th, 2014
A good deal has been said about ISIS being a grotesque travesty of Islam and a defiant rejection of all that is commonly held to be moral and humane. Islamic scholars from a variety of denominations have come forward with a single voice to condemn it as a grave wrong, and this is of course vital and timely. However, condemnation alone misses a vital point; it flatly rests on the surface of a much deeper phenomenon.
It is more helpful to engage in an effort to understand because when groups like ISIS emerge, we are warned that something about our collective …
by Daniel Borgström / December 10th, 2014
It was Saturday night (Dec 6th), and I was about to watch a video when a noisy helicopter started whirling overhead where I live in north Berkeley. This is a quiet residential neighborhood; the chopper was really noisy, and it didn’t go away. Finally I went outside to look. It was flashing a bright spotlight downwards. So what might that be about? A robbery in progress? Maybe someone held up a liquor store over on University Avenue; that’s where the spotlight kept pointing.
Four or five police vehicles shot past my house, red …
by Adam Parsons and Rajesh Makwana / December 9th, 2014
Given that a call for sharing is already a fundamental (if often unacknowledged) demand of engaged citizens and progressive organisations, there is every reason why we should embrace this common cause that unites us all.
*****
Across the world, millions of campaigners and activists refuse to sit idly by and watch the world’s crises escalate, while our governments fail to provide hope for a more just and sustainable future. The writing is on the wall: climate chaos, escalating conflict over scarce resources, growing impoverishment and marginalisation in the rich world as well as the poor, the looming prospect of another …
by James Hoover / December 9th, 2014
It is time for the federal government to deal with cases of police brutality nationwide. The executive branch of the federal government through the Department of Justice has that authority. I don’t mean to investigate police officers or police departments after the fact, but to provide a reasonable protection of rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, before the fact.
Disclosure through body cameras, local training, and accountability, the latter through totally independent authorities is a start. There is no way that our-do-nothing Congress or even a majority of the states will deal with the problem. Truly accountable cops …
So Can We Bring Check-like Electronic Payments into the Discussion?
by Don Resnikoff / December 9th, 2014
In a recent article, consumer advocate Ralph Nader warned consumers about the many problems of using credit cards as a form of payment. Among other things, credit cards require sharing of confidential consumer information, create risk of fraudulent charges, and may involve consumer late payment fees and penalties. Also, credit card networks charge big fees to merchants that get passed on to consumers.
Using cash and checks to pay for consumer purchases is not nearly so problematic. Paying by check is much less likely to ensnare consumers in such pitfalls, because when paying by check funds are transferred directly …
by Gilad Atzmon / December 9th, 2014
In a superb video (attached below), Dr. Daniela Reich, an Israeli academic who specialises in ‘Israeli studies’ elaborates on her research into ‘Jewess / Goyim’ relationships within the context of pre 1948 Palestine.
The video points at two conflicting factors within the emerging pre-Israeli Hebraic society:
1. The Formal and conscious institutionalized utilization of young Jewish women to ‘befriend’ British Mandatory forces to promote the Zionist project and to collect intelligence.
2. A brutal harassment campaign against young women caught dating British mandatory soldiers and officers.
As usual, the Jewish anti Zionist ‘dissidents’ are very effective in providing juicy historical and factual anecdotes; yet, the nature …
by Dissident Voice Communications / December 9th, 2014
Seed obsession
Blood addiction
Soil possession
Unforgiven
http://youtu.be/b97e3Mfvk-I
by subMedia / December 8th, 2014
In this sedition a special report on the rebellions that have been rocking Turtle Island in the wake of the “no indictment” of racist cop Darren Wilson for his murder of black teen Mike Brown in Ferguson Missouri. Also a very special interview with subMedia.tv’s Franklin López.
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by Thad Beversdorf / December 8th, 2014
Ron Paul wrote an eye opening article recently about some legislation that was just signed in Congress, namely H. Res. 758. In the article Dr. Paul explains the purpose of the resolution. It’s not a new law but provides a basis of facts that will be relied on for future action. So essentially the resolution purports that Russia behaved badly in various ways and by way of signing H. Res. 758 each congressman was indicating their agreement that the propositions contained therein are factual. Now just because a group of obnoxiously arrogant A-holes stand around in a tax-revenue financed chamber and say “yeah” …
by Deena Stryker / December 8th, 2014
Israel, Gaza, and the Termination of Nafeez Ahmed’s Blog
by Media Lens / December 8th, 2014
In July, regular Guardian contributor Nafeez Ahmed examined claims that Israel is seeking to create a ‘political climate’ conducive to the exploitation of Gaza’s considerable offshore gas reserves – 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, valued at $4 billion – which were discovered off the Gaza coast in 2000.
Ahmed quoted Israeli defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, to the effect that military efforts to ‘uproot Hamas’ were in part driven by Israel’s determination to prevent Palestinians developing their own energy resources. Ahmed also cited Anais Antreasyan who argued, in the highly-respected University of California’s Journal of Palestine Studies, that this …
by Matt Peppe / December 8th, 2014
When Condoleeza Rice argued for a U.S. invasion of Iraq by claiming that “we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud,” she touched on a real threat of the nuclear war that could wipe out entire countries and destroy civilization as we know it. Rice and the rest of the Bush administration knew that Iraq didn’t have nuclear weapons and never presented such a threat. They also knew that there was one country in the Middle East who did: a nuclear-armed rogue nation who has proven throughout its history to be possibly the most lawless and bellicose …
