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Police State: Insane Clown Posse defends fans with F.B.I. lawsuit

David Itzkoff
The New York Times
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 18:09 UTC
Image
© Marcus Yam for The New York Times
The Insane Clown Posse during a 2011 performance at Gramercy Theater in New York.
The Michigan rap group Insane Clown Posse filed suit on Wednesday against the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, saying that the United States government had made the "unwarranted and unlawful decision" to classify fans of the band as criminal gang members, leading to their harassment by law enforcement and causing them "significant harm."

The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Detroit by lawyers for the band and for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. Plaintiffs include the Insane Clown Posse founders Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler, who perform as Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, and whose fans call themselves Juggalos.

Also listed as plaintiffs are four Juggalos from Nevada, California, North Carolina and Iowa, who offered details of incidents in which they said they had been subjected to police harassment or other punishments for identifying with Insane Clown Posse.

Brandon Bradley, from Citrus Heights, Calif., and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said at a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday that he had been stopped and questioned by police on several occasions because he wore Juggalo tattoos and clothing. He said that after a lifetime of feeling like an outsider, the music of Insane Clown Posse "told me I wasn't alone."


Comment: This is crazy to define a group of musical fans as a criminal gang. It's a classic example of expanding the scope of a law that at first glance seems reasonable: "Gangs are bad, there should be a law that helps police crack down on gangs," etc. For gangs, you could substitute "terrorists" and the same process applies. Now they're going after people who follow a band. Of course, to test this, they picked an easy target. The Insane Clown Posse's lyrics are deliberately offensive and frightening, albeit in a kind of silly way, and the working class white kids who follow them (Juggalos) will look unsavory to the public. But given the broad definition applied here, what's next? People who follow Phish? Even Jimmy Buffet? No doubt some laws are broken by those fans, too.

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Lemon

EU to ban heirloom seeds and criminalize unregistered gardens

Aaron Dykes
Truthstream Media
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
seed mapping
If the global domination is allowed to take root, biotech and Big Agra will control the world food supply, at the expense of personal liberty.

Because independence is the greatest of all crimes under the emerging global government, which essentially works to protect the dominance established by the biggest of corporations, who participate, in turn, as de facto members of the ruling oligarchy - and in baby steps through the EU, and emerging North American Union, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, et al.

Related: Trans-Pacific Partnership Breaks Down Sovereignty and GMO Protections via Intellectual Property Rights

The U.S. has already seen its fair share of cases where backyard gardens and rain collectors are raided by SWAT teams, shut down through regulations and otherwise intimidated out of proliferation.

Now, official policies to support this kind of dominance by biotech, pesticide companies and other plays in big agribusiness are being pushed through in Europe, in this case by the European Commission through a truly bunk proposed law.
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Star of David

An Obituary for Ariel Sharon

Mary Scully
Sott.net
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 17:09 UTC
Image
We mark with some regret the passing of Ariel Sharon in Israel who has been surviving in a vegetative state since 2005. The regrets are not because the world has lost a person of any value but because he died in a long-term care facility rather than the prison cell which he deserved.

Sharon was born in Palestine in 1928 to Belarusian Zionist Jews who fled the Russian Revolution. His parents were a contentious couple who, it appears, reared him in the psychopathic spirit. He came to young manhood embodying the highest ideals of Zionism, in particular its antisocial character. By the age of 14 he was already involved in Zionist paramilitary groups that used terror and massacres to drive Palestinians off their lands.
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Sherlock

Were The Boston Marathon Bombers 'Mind Controlled'?

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sat, 11 Jan 2014 15:05 UTC
Image

Just your average dysfunctional immigrant American family...with "spontaneous, self-radicalized marathon bombers"
Were the 'Boston Bombers' mind controlled?

If it were possible to ask the elder of the two Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan, this question, it seems he would answer in the affirmative.

One of the stories that disappeared down the media memory hole late last year was a report about a five month-long Boston Globe investigation into the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and their alleged perpetrators.

A December 16th 2013 story on the investigation nonchalantly stated:
"Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev heard voices inside his head and had an alter-ego."

As part of a five-month investigation, the Globe spoke to a number of sources close to the elder Tsarnaev. One of them was Donald Larking. Larking said that Tamerlan believed the voices were part of a "majestic mind control", which was "a way of breaking down a person and creating an alternative personality with which they must coexist."
Alrighty then. Not much of interest there.
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Mr. Potato

'Ho-Ho' Hollande threatens to sue French tabloid over report of affair with Socialist actress

Elizabeth Pineau
Reuters
Fri, 10 Jan 2014 14:09 UTC
hollande affair
French President Francois Hollande threatened on Friday to sue celebrity magazine Closer, complaining of breach of privacy after it alleged he was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet.

The weekly French tabloid, criticized in 2012 for publishing topless pictures of Kate Middleton, Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, printed seven pages of photos of comings and goings outside a Paris apartment block to support its allegation.

Comment: Carla Bruni redux? French president François Hollande's affair with actress Julie Gayet exposed

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Snakes in Suits

The Clinton Years: The Cocaine Administration?


BrasscheckTV/Youtube
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:51 UTC
the clintons
Filling in the blanks

We're going to have eight years of Obama and we had eight years of Bush Jr.

Before that we had twelve years of George Bush Sr. (eight under a senile Ronald Reagan and four of his own administration.)

It's easy to forget who came in between.

Bill Clinton...

The economy was booming so few paid attention.

The Internet was still new and not the information powerhouse it is now.

Here's just part of the history you might have missed.

Comment: The Clinton Chronicles

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Stormtrooper

Chomsky: U.S. domestic policy can be summed up in two words: 'Pure Savagery'

Jacob Chamberlain
Common Dreams
Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:07 UTC
Chomsky
© Flickr / tr.robinson / Creative Commons License
Cuts to food stamps and jobless benefits predictable result of 'neoliberal assault' on American people.

As Congress decides this week whether to re-institute emergency jobless benefits for millions of Americans and closes in on negotiations for a Farm Bill that could see billions of dollars cut out of food stamp programs, renowned activist and intellectual Noam Chomsky summed up the state of American politics in an interview Thursday in two words: "pure savagery."

"The refusal to provide very minimal living standards to people who are caught in this monstrosity - that's just pure savagery," Chomsky said during an interview with HuffPost Live. "There's no other word for it."
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Coffee

Study: Washington's polarization and gridlock 'helps the super-rich stay rich, and get richer'

Joshua Holland
Common Dreams
Tue, 07 Jan 2014 12:53 UTC
Republican Democrat sign
© Shutterstock
At the end of 2013, only 12 percent of Americans held a positive view of Congress - three points above the all-time low set earlier in the year, according to Gallup. Two out of three respondents to a CNN/ORC poll said this was the worst functioning Congress they'd seen in their lifetimes. And these dismal views weren't just the product of subjective impressions - in its first year, the 113th Congress managed to pass only 66 bills, the fewest in the 40 years for which reliable data exists.

But a study published last November in The Journal of Politics suggests that this sorry state of affairs is good news for a small group of Americans at the top of the economic pile. "Washington gridlock helps the super-rich stay rich, and get richer," says Thomas Volscho, a sociologist at the City University of New York and one of the authors of the study. "And the richer they get, the more the gridlock actually helps them."

The researchers looked back over 70 years of data, and found that the more dysfunctional Washington is, the bigger the share of the pie the top one percent tends to grab. And most importantly, they also found that when economic inequality is high, the kind of polarization and gridlock that have been the hallmark of Washington since Barack Obama's election make legislative efforts to change course all-but-impossible.
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Sherlock

Investigation confirms evils of fracking

Sarah Lazare
Common Dreams
Mon, 06 Jan 2014 12:46 UTC
fracking
© AP/Keith Srakocic, File
March against hydraulic fracturing and gas well drilling on the Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh on November 3, 2010.
Despite roadblocks by industry and state officials, well water contamination found in four states.

The Associated Press has confirmed what residents have long known and the oil and gas industries have sought to hide: the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, as well as conventional oil and gas drilling, is polluting and contaminating well drinking water supplies.

In an investigation published Sunday, AP reporter Kevin Begos - drawing upon hundreds of complaints made by residents, as well as admissions from state officials and even drilling companies - verifies well water contamination in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Texas.
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Treasure Chest

Deep Pockets - Former Bank of Israel Head Gets Fed Vice Chair Nod

Jim Kuhnhenn and Martin Crutsinger
abc News
Fri, 10 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
President Barack Obama intends to nominate Stanley Fischer, a former head of the Bank of Israel, to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Janet Yellen, who is ascending to the central bank's chairmanship.

Fischer, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, is considered a leading expert on monetary policy. He was a long-time professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Departing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was one of his students.

Obama also is nominating Lael Brainard as a Fed governor. Brainard served as the undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury during Obama's first term. She left the administration recently. He also is renominating Jerome Powell to the Fed for a second term.

"These three distinguished individuals have the proven experience, judgment and deep knowledge of the financial system to serve at the Federal Reserve during this important time for our economy," Obama said in a statement.

In selecting Fischer, Obama is tapping someone with extensive experience in global economics to serve on the Fed's seven-member board. Fischer served as chief economist at the World Bank and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He led the Bank of Israel from 2005 until 2013.
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