Best of the Web:


USA

Best of the Web: Pallin' around with terrorists: Hezbollah declared 'terrorist group' for fighting al-Qaeda-in-Syria

Dr. Kevin Barrett
Press TV
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:53 UTC
Image
On Monday, the European Union formally labeled Hezbollah a "terrorist" group.

Why?

Because Hezbollah has gone to war with al-Qaeda.

But wait a minute - wasn't al-Qaeda supposed to be the worst terrorist group in the world? Isn't the West leading a "global war on terror" whose main target is al-Qaeda? Shouldn't the West be thanking Hezbollah, and showering it with rewards, for turning against global terrorist enemy number one?

Apparently not.

Al-Qaeda is now the West's darling in Syria. So anybody who resists al-Qaeda - as Hezbollah recently decided to do - is a "terrorist."

The irony doesn't get any thicker than that.

Comment: With hundreds and probably thousands more al Qaeda (Database) members being loosened from neighbouring Iraq, and the CIA ramping up its arms shipments to 'The Database' in Syria, it looks like the U.S. and allies have decided to simply throw more bodies, money and machinery into their dirty war against Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian leader is stronger than ever following recent successes against the West's death squads. Now that he is supported by the only army that has ever actually beaten Israel in open battle (in Lebanon in 2006), the only way for the empire to 'win' this 'civil war' while maintaining the illusion of 'not intervening directly' is by maximising civilian carnage.

Read More...
Stock Down

Best of the Web: Everything is fine, but...

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:39 UTC
Image
Everything is going to be just great. Haven't you heard? The stock market is at an all-time high, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that inflation is incredibly low, and the official unemployment rate has been steadily declining since early in Barack Obama's first term. Of course I am being facetious, but this is the kind of talk about the economy that you will hear if you tune in to the mainstream media. They would have us believe that those running things know exactly what they are doing and that very bright days are ahead for America. And it would be wonderful if that was actually true. Unfortunately, as I made exceedingly clear yesterday, the U.S. economy has already been in continual decline for the past decade. Any honest person that looks at those numbers has to admit that our economy is not even close to where it used to be. But could it be possible that we are making a comeback? Could it be possible that Obama and Bernanke really do know what they are doing and that their decisions have put us on the path to prosperity? Could it be possible that everything is going to be just fine?

Sadly, what we are experiencing right now is a "mini-hope bubble" that has been produced by an unprecedented debt binge by the federal government and by unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve. Once this "sugar high" wears off, it will be glaringly apparent that by "kicking the can down the road" Bernanke and Obama have made our long-term problems even worse.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't understand these things.

Most Americans just let their televisions do their thinking for them, and right now their televisions are telling them that everything is going to be fine.
Read More...
Eye 1

Best of the Web: Why doesn't the government use its mass surveillance to bust the big criminals ... the banksters?


Washington Blog
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:09 UTC
Image
If the Government Is Going to Spy ... Why Doesn't It Do Something Useful?

The big banks have committed massive crimes and manipulated virtually every market.

The failure to prosecute fraud is preventing a sustainable economic recovery.

As such, prosecuting Wall Street fraud is arguably an issue of national security.

The government is collecting everything ... and spying on just about everything we do.

We are passionately opposed to mass surveillance. But - if the government is doing so - why can't it gather info on the crimes of the big banks ... so we can prosecute them?
Read More...
Dollar

Best of the Web: Global Oligarchy: Richest 300 persons on Earth have more money than poorest 3 billion

Mark Karlin,
Buzz Flash
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 16:33 UTC
Image
© WikipediaPoor rummage through garbage to survive in the Philippines
As we repeatedly focus on wealth inequality in the United States (i.e.; just four hundred persons in the US have as much in assets and income as the bottom 50% of Americans), a video points out the even more extreme global wealth disparity.

There are many reasons for this. Take for example institutional sources that contribute to this trend. The World Bank, for interest, oversees "loans" to developing nations. But by creating long-term indebtedness, these struggling counties end up owing at least $600 billion dollars in interest on loans whose principals have, in essence, already been paid off in actual dollars.

These usorious interest rates end up in the hands of the bankers and the shareholders of the financial institutions that are inter-related with the World Bank through the nations that govern it, particularly the United States which calls the shots. Criticisms of the World Bank focus on how it creates financial conditions that result in debt dependency of the nations that borrow from it, therfore negatively impacting the economic prospects of the vast majority of its residents.
Read More...
Folder

Best of the Web: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! DHS warns employees U.S. government will come after them if they read Washington Post article containing alleged 'secret, leaked NSA slide'

Josh Hicks
The Washington Post
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:01 UTC
Image
The Department of Homeland Security has warned its employees that the government may penalize them for opening a Washington Post article containing a classified slide that shows how the National Security Agency eavesdrops on international communications.

An internal memo from DHS headquarters told workers on Friday that viewing the document from an "unclassified government workstation" could lead to administrative or legal action. "You may be violating your non-disclosure agreement in which you sign that you will protect classified national security information," the communication said.

The memo said workers who view the article through an unclassified workstation should report the incident as a "classified data spillage."

The NSA is a Defense Department agency, meaning it does not fall under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security. It was not immediately clear whether all federal agencies released similar warnings to their employees.

Comment: Here is the 'super top secret OMG secret of secrets' slide that will shock your state of blissful ignorance to its very core... US govt employees, avert thine eyes!

Image
© NSA
"You should use both"?

Is this a joke?!

Apparently not. Apparently it's so serious that to cast your eyes on this 'secret slide' is to risk incurring the wrath of Yahweh God the National Security State.

It's BS of course, intended to buffer the illusion in the U.S. that state secrets exist to protect people when in reality the govt works for the corporations against the people and everything the U.S. does is pretty much transparent to the rest of the world.

Read More...
War Whore

Best of the Web: Obama's secret kill list - How the 'war on terror' entraps 'database' patsies in the disposition matrix

Ian Cobain
The Guardian
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 09:17 UTC
Image
When Bilal Berjawi spoke to his wife for the last time, he had no way of being certain that he was about to die. But he should have had his suspicions.

A short, dumpy Londoner who was not, in the words of some who knew him, one of the world's greatest thinkers, Berjawi had been fighting for months in Somalia with al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group. His wife was 4,400 miles away, at home in west London. In June 2011, Berjawi had almost been killed in a US drone strike on an al-Shabaab camp on the coast. After that he became wary of telephones. But in January last year, when his wife went into labour and was admitted to St Mary's hospital in Paddington, he decided to risk a quick phone conversation.

A few hours after the call ended Berjawi was targeted in a fresh drone strike. Perhaps the telephone contact triggered alerts all the way from Camp Lemmonier, the US military's enormous home-from-home at Djibouti, to the National Security Agency's headquarters in Maryland. Perhaps a few screens also lit up at GCHQ in Cheltenham? This time the drone attack was successful, from the US perspective, and al-Shabaab issued a terse statement: "The martyr received what he wished for and what he went out for."

The following month, Berjawi's former next-door neighbour, who was also in Somalia, was similarly "martyred". Like Berjawi, Mohamed Sakr had just turned 27 when he was killed in an air strike.

Comment: As explained above, "al-Qaida's resilience and ability to spread" is entirely down to US and UK intelligence agencies who understand that the only real threat out there is the threat they face from the masses ever seeing what's really going on and removing them from power.

Read More...
Pistol

Best of the Web: The U.S. v. Trayvon Martin: How the system worked

Robin D.G. Kelley
Counterpunch
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 22:02 UTC
Image
Trayvon Martin
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Senator Rand Paul, Florida State Representative Dennis Baxley (also sponsor of his state's Stand Your Ground law), along with a host of other Republicans, argued that had the teachers and administrators been armed, those twenty little kids whose lives Adam Lanza stole would be alive today. Of course, they were parroting the National Rifle Association's talking points. The NRA and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative lobbying group responsible for drafting and pushing "Stand Your Ground" laws across the country, insist that an armed citizenry is the only effective defense against imminent threats, assailants, and predators.

But when George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, teenage pedestrian returning home one rainy February evening from a neighborhood convenience store, the NRA went mute. Neither NRA officials nor the pro-gun wing of the Republican Party argued that had Trayvon Martin been armed, he would be alive today. The basic facts are indisputable: Martin was on his way home when Zimmerman began to follow him - first in his SUV, and then on foot. Zimmerman told the police he had been following this "suspicious-looking" young man. Martin knew he was being followed and told his friend, Rachel Jeantel, that the man might be some kind of sexual predator. At some point, Martin and Zimmerman confronted each other, a fight ensued, and in the struggle Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.
Read More...
USA

Best of the Web: Coup d'etat: Americans oppressed by an unconstitutional, illegitimate, psychopathic regime

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC
US empire
© Unknown
The American people have suffered a coup d'etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy. Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere "scrap of paper."

An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself. Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints.

The basis of the regime in Washington is nothing but usurped power. The Obama Regime, like the Bush/Cheney Regime, has no legitimacy. Americans are oppressed by an illegitimate government ruling, not by law and the Constitution, but by lies and naked force. Those in government see the US Constitution as a "chain that binds our hands."

The South African apartheid regime was more legitimate than the regime in Washington. The apartheid Israeli regime in Palestine is more legitimate. The Taliban are more legitimate. Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein were more legitimate.

The only constitutional protection that the Bush/Obama regime has left standing is the Second Amendment, a meaningless amendment considering the disparity in arms between Washington and what is permitted to the citizenry. No citizen standing with a rifle can protect himself and his family from one of the Department of Homeland Security's 2,700 tanks, or from a drone, or from a heavily armed SWAT force in body armor.
Read More...
USA

Best of the Web: Apartheid America: Black Florida mom gets 20 years for firing warning shot at abusive husband, Zimmerman walks free after murdering innocent black teenager


CBS News
Sat, 12 May 2012 10:32 UTC
Image
© WETVMarissa Alexander of Jacksonville, Fla., received a 20-years prison sentence, Friday, May 11, 2012, for firing warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband. The judge rejected a defense under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law.
Jacksonville, Florida - A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.

CBS Affiliate WETV reports that Circuit Court Judge James Daniel handed down the sentence Friday.

Under Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing requirements Alexander could receive a lesser sentence, even though she has never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Daniel said the law did not allow for extenuating or mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence below the 20-year minimum.

"I really was crying in there," Marissa's 11-year-old daughter told WETV. "I didn't want to cry in court, but I just really feel hurt. I don't think this should have been happening."

Comment: Shoot an unarmed teenager, walk free. Fire a warning shot at someone who regularly beats you up and you have no other recourse to justice, get 20 years in jail. Only in America.

Read More...
USA

Best of the Web: The United States of Psychopathology: The mental illness of choice for CEOs and Politicians

Dave Hodges
Activist Post
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 14:25 UTC
Image
After writing my most recent article with regard to what typically happens when a currency collapse takes down a country's economy, many people wrote to me asking me when it is going to happen. The short answer is that I have a hard time predicting the actions of psychopaths. All of us have a hard time predicting the action of others who are so different from the mainstream of America because most of us do not think like psychopaths. However, I can state with certainty that when the last mortgage has been stolen and the last pension has been confiscated, then it will be time to collapse the dollar.

Our country should be dubbed, the United States of Psychopathology. Psychopaths are at the root of the world's problems. They kill hundreds of millions in wars which serves no purpose except to enrich themselves. Subsequently, psychopaths such as the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds recruit already compromised psychopaths to do their bidding in both elected office and key administrative positions.

The Whole Country Is Going Crazy

The United States of America is presently undergoing a mental health crisis. An estimated 26.2% of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. This figure translates to almost 60 million people who have a diagnosable mental illness. Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion, which is confined to about 6% of the population, or about 1 in 17 who suffer from a serious mental illness. Nearly half (45%) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for two or more disorders.

In the U.S., mental disorders are diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV).4
Read More...