Every US President has engaged, in one fashion or another, in ‘play acting’ to secure popular approval, neutralize hostility and distract voters from the reactionary substance of their foreign and domestic policies.
Month: June 2013
US Rulers Fear American People
What the disclosures of former CIA contractor Edward Snowden show perhaps above all else is just how petrified the leaders of the United States have become – of ordinary citizens both in the US and around the world. When we say “leaders” we mean the ruling elite – the top one percent of the financial-corporate-military-industrial complex and its bought- and paid-for politicians.
Information Wars
Asked the other day about the whereabouts and official policy toward NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, US Secretary of State John Kerry hit us with a doozy: “I would urge them (Russia and China) to live by the standards of the law because that’s in the interest of everybody”. Laudable words: strict commitment to the rule of (just) law is an essential component of any democratic system. Let us examine such US commitment.
This 2010 Mark Weisbrot article summarizes a few examples (from a list of many) of US ‘interventions’ in South America (until 1996 here, and another more recently updated list here).
The De Warande Conclave – Wrecking the Welfare State in Secret
A golden staircase greets guests to De Warande, an exclusive club in central Brussels. Built in the late eighteenth century, this mansion was acquired in 1907 by François Empain, a banker who helped his royal chum Leopold II loot the Congo. With its historical association to imperial conquest, it is surely an apt venue for furtive talks on how to […]
“I Am Sorry That It Has Come to This”: A Soldier’s Last Words
I am sorry that it has come to this.
The fact is, for as long as I can remember my motivation for getting up every day has been so that you would not have to bury me. As things have continued to get worse, it has become clear that this alone is not a sufficient reason to carry on. The fact is, I am not getting better, I am not going to get better, and I will most certainly deteriorate further as time goes on. From a logical standpoint, it is better to simply end things quickly and let any repercussions from that play out in the short term than to drag things out into the long term.
Everything you wanted to know about the NHS crisis, but were too afraid to ask
By John Lister (Morning Star) Why are all the worst horror stories from England? The NHS in England has been run separately from those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since devolution. And since 2000 successive Westminster governments have used it as a test-bed for experiments with untried “reforms” aimed to transform it from a public health care system into […]
Guardian Reporter Glenn Greenwald on Meet the Press
FISA Court (FISC) – Oversight or Rubber Stamp? Full Clip – Freedom of the press, criminalizing news reporting and other issues meet the press….. June 23 2013
A Brazilian Autumn?
For more than a week Brazilian workers have taken to the streets. Yesterday, the country witnessed its biggest demonstrations since the fall of the dictatorship. But the situation on the ground has confounded many international commentators.
Interviewing for Jacobin, Mark Bergfeld sheds light on new developments with Miguel Borba de Sa — a university lecturer at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is the author of Bolívia – Passos das revoluções and has written extensively on indigenous struggles in Latin America.
The Pursuit of Edward Snowden: Washington in a Rage, Striving to Run the World
Rarely has any American provoked such fury in Washington’s high places. So far, Edward Snowden has outsmarted the smartest guys in the echo chamber — and he has proceeded with the kind of moral clarity that U.S. officials seem to find unfathomable by Norman Solomon Bipartisan condemnations of Snowden are escalating from Capitol Hill and the Obama administration. More of […]
Boat Race protester Trenton Oldfield ordered to leave UK
Australian activist, whose wife is expecting a child this week, will appeal against Home Office ruling that he must leave country by Hugh Muir (The Guardian) The Australian activist who disrupted the 2012 Oxford v Cambridge Boat Race in protest at government cuts has been ordered to leave the country, after receiving a six-month jail term that many thought was […]
This Really is Big Brother: The Leak Nobody’s Noticed
Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.
A Giant Blackmail Machine NSA Spying
So They Are Listening In, After All
Despite a stream of mendacious twaddle from President Obama, congressional grifters and spook agency mouthpieces like Office of the Director of National Intelligence head James Clapper, FBI Director Robert Mueller and NSA chief General Keith Alexander, it turns out our guardians are listening in to America’s, and most of the world’s, telephone conversations after all
Recent
The Killing Fields of Lebanon as ‘Israel’ Lashes out Against Civilians
The Real Story Tying Starmer and Mandelson is Being Buried By A Conspiracy of Silence
Revealed: The internal police guidance on chanting ‘death to the IDF’
Media Exposed: Abby Martin Interview
Iran: A Warning to Washington
Marandi Exposes Times Radio Propaganda on Iran
Iran: War Updates and False Flags
‘Operation Epic Fury’ – Anatomy Of A War Of Aggression
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