Make no mistake: it's been the year of Edward Snowden. Not since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War has a trove of documents revealing the inner workings and thinking of the U.S. government so changed the conversation. In Ellsberg's case, that conversation was transformed only in the United States. Snowden has changed it worldwide. From six-year-olds to Angela Merkel, who hasn't been thinking about the staggering ambitions of the National Security Agency, about its urge to create the first global security state in history and so step beyond even the most fervid dreams of the totalitarian regimes of the last century? And who hasn't been struck by how close the agency has actually come to sweeping up the communications of the whole planet? Technologically speaking, what Snowden revealed to the world -- thanks to journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras -- was a remarkable accomplishment, as well as a nightmare directly out of some dystopian novel.

From exploiting backdoors into the Internet's critical infrastructure and close relationships with the planet's largest tech companies to performing economic espionage and sending spy avatars into video games, the NSA has been relentless in its search for complete global omniscience, even if that is by no means the same thing as omnipotence. It now has the ability to be a hidden part of just about any conversation just about anywhere. Of course, we don't yet know the half of it, since no Edward Snowden has yet stepped forward from the inner precincts of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, or other such outfits in the "U.S. intelligence community." Still, what we do know should take our collective breath away. And we know it all thanks to one young man, hounded across the planet by the U.S. government in an "international manhunt."

Thailand's military leaders declared martial law Tuesday in a surprise move which they say aims to restore peace and order after months of anti-government demonstrations and unrest have left the nation teetering.

Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha made the announcement on military television at 3:00 a.m. local time and assured the public that even though soldiers will now be in command of public security, order will rule the day. Dozens of people have been killed as a result of the protests since the demonstrations began in November 2013.

"We are concerned this violence could harm the country's security in general. Then, in order to restore law and order to the country, we have declared martial law," Prayuth said, as quoted by Reuters. "I'm asking all those activist groups to stop all activities and cooperate with us in seeking a way out of this crisis."

A decades-long dispute over power has culminated within the past six months with large demonstrations and unrest. The situation escalated earlier in May, when Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was forced from office. Her ouster made way for sitting Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan, who said Monday that his administration would not step down.

The opposition demands that the government give way to an unelected administration that would then rewrite the constitution.

Washington -- The European Union is pressing the Obama administration to expand U.S. fracking, offshore oil drilling and natural gas exploration under the terms of a secret negotiation text obtained by The Huffington Post.

The controversial document is an early draft of energy policies that EU negotiators hope to see adopted under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade deal, which is currently being negotiated. The text was shared with American officials in September. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to comment on the document.

Environmental groups fear the broad language proposed for the deal would eliminate key restrictions on the export of crude oil and natural gas, fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. The document marks the first major bone of contention in the EU deal, amid an outcry from environmentalists over leaked terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a separate pact that the U.S. and 11 Pacific nations are also negotiating.

"Exports of energy goods to the other Party shall be deemed automatically to comply with any conditions and tests foreseen in the Parties' respective legislation for the granting of export licenses," the memo reads, defining "energy goods" as "coal, crude oil, oil products, natural gas, whether liquefied or not, and electrical energy."

The U.S. government treats trade negotiation texts as classified information. Previous leaks concerning the EU deal have focused on lighter topics, including whether American cheesemakers can call their products "feta" or "parmesan."

By encouraging more crude oil and natural gas exports to the EU -- a massive economic force that uses a tremendous amount of global energy -- the proposal could spur more domestic oil and gas drilling and discourage the development of green energy in the EU, dealing a significant blow to efforts to avert climate change. Some environmental and citizens groups also object to the fracking process itself -- in which a high-pressure mixture of chemicals, water, and sand is injected into rock formations to release natural gas -- because of concerns that it might affect groundwater supplies.

"Encouraging trade in dirty fossil fuels would mean more dangerous fracking here in the U.S. and would push more climate-disrupting fuels into the European Union," Ilana Solomon, director of the Responsible Trade Program at Sierra Club, told HuffPost. "The oil and gas industry is the only winner in this situation."

North Carolina legislators are considering a bill that would make it a crime to publicly disclose toxic chemicals that energy companies use in the hydraulic fracturing process, with offenders on the hook for fines or even jail time.

Known as the Energy Modernization Act, the bill would make any unauthorized disclosure of fracking trade secrets - including the chemicals used - punishable with a Class I Felony, according to an Energywire report.

Fracking, a gas and oil mining technique which involves injecting a mixture of sand and chemicals deep into the earth, has been blamed for contaminated drinking water, infertility, birth defects, cancer, air pollution, and other serious concerns. Americans opposed to fracking have not only struggled with obstacles put in place by gas and oil companies, but also with the high profits and employment that come to struggling communities along with the process.

Environmentalists have called for more transparency in the conversation over the chemicals used, although gas companies have fought back by saying that their chemicals are a trade secret and thus should be protected. Now, under the parameters of the North Carolina bill, even firefighters and individual healthcare workers could be in trouble if they openly discuss the chemicals that are injected into the ground near their home.

"The felony provision is far stricter than most states' provisions in terms of the penalty for violating trade secrets," Hannah Wiseman, a Florida State University assistant law professor who studies fracking laws, told Mother Jones.

If the bill, which has the backing of the state's top Republicans, is signed into law, major corporations could be given the power to force emergency officials to sign confidentiality agreements, although the penalty for breaking that agreement is unclear.

"I think the only penalties to fire chiefs and doctors, if they talked about it at their annual conference, would be the penalties contained in the confidentiality agreement," Wiseman went on. "But [the bill] is so poorly worded, I cannot confirm that if an emergency responder or fire chief discloses that confidential information, they too would not be subject to a felony."

As the fight against genetically modified foods continues to intensify across the country, protesters like those involved in March Against Monsanto continue to march on.

Unfortunately, in a staunchly pro-Monsanto state like Missouri - home to Monsanto's global headquarters - those protests just became a little more difficult to hold at the site itself.

Apparently Monsanto protesters have traditionally gathered on a large median on Olive Boulevard outside the Monsanto world headquarters complex at 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd in St. Louis to hold up signs and give out informational pamphlets.

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ADL Struggles To Keep Anti-Human Holocaust Card Gambit Alive as Flat World of Reality Crashes Down on Bigoted Racist Party

A new poll taken by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that about 50% of people under the age of 35 are unaware of the Nazi crimes committed against their fellow Europeans commonly known as the Holocaust. (Read Full Report: ADL GLOBAL 100: An Index of Anti-Semitism)

Like so many other unspeakable crimes against humanity before and after, the European Holocaust committed by the Nazis was pure evil; plain and simple. Whether it was 6 million, 4 million or 1 million people who were murdered, it was horrific period! There is no debate about it! And it should be recognized as such, period!

However, it was not the only genocide committed against humanity in history. In fact, there have been many sick crimes committed by mentally ill humans with massive power in history both in antiquity and in modern history e.g.. Holdomar in Ukraine, Rwanda in Africa, the Armenian Genocide, the Native Americans in North America, the Circassian Genocide and much more......

Zionism Plays Cards Better Than Steve McQueen in Cincinnati Kid

The big difference is the way the Holocaust has been utilized by leading propagandists in the Zionist political movement. In fact, by far, the Holocaust is the most exploited genocide in history making the others seem relatively benign and inconsequential.

And so, for Zionists who's ambition is Eretz Israel, playing the Holocaust Card has become predictable on American media to make sure "we never forget". I mean, you can call it out every time there is a hiccup on the road to their conquest, the card gets played. It's as predictable as the OMAHA call by the Denver Broncos Peyton Manning! You know it's coming!

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicholas Maduro, have struck a deal which will see 240,000 barrels of oil and diesel sent to the Palestinian Authority by state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela.

During his three-day visit to the oil rich South American nation, which sits on the world's largest oil reserves, Abbas thanked Maduro for his support.

"Thank you Venezuela for helping to break the monopoly that Israel has over our economy. Thank you Venezuela for responding to our needs. Thank you Venezuela for being available to continue to lend the Palestinian people more support in their fight," said Abbas.

Maduro reiterated his support for Palestine and its desire to be a fully independent state.

Well here is an awkward issue dear readers.

For some weeks there has been rumour of a Palestinian gentleman being "spirited away" from the sovereign state of Ukraine in an American-esque style black op/rendition.

I have deliberately left this matter alone whilst waiting for something more solid than rumour.

The key person behind the May 2nd massacre inside Odessa's Trade Unions Building appears to have been Ihor Kolomoyskyi who was appointed to be the regional governor in that area by Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian Presidential candidate that the Obama Administration has apparently been hoping will win the May 25th election to take over the Ukrainian Government, from the junta that the Obama Administration imposed in Ukraine on February 22nd. Just weeks before this coup, on February 4th, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Asia, Victoria Nuland, chose Tymoshenko's ally Arseni Yatsenyuk to head the post-coup interim government, which appointed Kolomoyskyi.

Only a few months before this coup, Nuland had asserted that U.S. taxpayers had already invested more than $5 billion, in order to bring "democracy" to Ukraine, by which she was referring to the U.S. effort to oust the Russian-oriented, democratically elected, leader of Ukraine, President Viktor Yanukovych, who had prosecuted and imprisoned Tymoshenko for embezzlement and abuse of governmental office. Tymoshenko was then on 11 October 2011 sentenced to seven years in prison, and was ordered to pay the government restitution of $188 million. She was released from prison less than three years later, two days after the coup, on 24 February 2014. The Ukrainian criminal code was immediately changed, in order to legalize the actions for which Tymoshenko had been imprisoned. This allowed Tymoshenko to run for the Ukrainian Presidency. She had been Prime Minister 2007-2010. Both she and her husband, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, and his father, all three of whom were on the board of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (and thus Ms. Tymoshenko was called "the gas princess"), have been legally prosecuted as embezzling state funds; but so have most of Ukraine's oligarchs and political leaders (and there's a lot of crossover between those two categories).

Government surveillance no longer targets individuals, but entire populations, former CIA contractor Edward Snowden has said. The whistleblower appeared via video link in a Toronto debate over the NSA intelligence gathering programs.

Commenting on the antics of the National Security Agency, which have been described in the past as "Orwellian in nature," Snowden said every citizen is affected by intelligence gathering programs

"It's no longer based on the traditional practice of targeted taps based on some individual suspicion of wrongdoing," Snowden said in the brief video. "It covers phone calls, emails, texts, search history, what you buy, who your friends are, where you go, who you love."

Snowden's video link was screened during a Munk debate in Toronto, where former US National Security Administration director General Michael Hayden and Harvard law Professor Alan Dershowitz went head to head with Glen Greenwald and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian over government surveillance.