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Save for residual rhetoric, at the beginning of 2014 the United States lies further from its intended course than at any time during its history.
Never has it had an elite so powerful yet so removed from its purported purposes, one more loyal to multinational corporations than to domestic citizens, and one whose conscience has been drained by decades of increasing corruption.
The components of this dismal establishment includes not only the obvious such as the most reactionary right since the Civil War, but major factors that are either ignored or denied such as a national leadership without moral voices, a Democratic Party backed by its liberal fans that has been dismantling 60 years of progress accomplished by the New Deal and Great Society, an academia heavily beholden to its funding sources - whether government or corporate, a media whose Washington branch is deeply embedded in the interests of the very institutions and individuals about which it is supposed to be telling the truth, and a culture driven by the corporations that control it rather than by the artists creating it.
There are other problems, such as intelligence institutions wielding unprecedented improper powers. The NSA, for example, is the most prolific - albeit not most violent - criminal operation in the country, with its victims of illegal spying numbering in the millions. And its challengers are getting at best only mild support from a media that used to care when the government broke the law.
But then we live in an America in which every president since 1988 has had a direct or familial connection with the CIA.
In the latter category are the two Bushes, the elder having been its director. Unreported, however, is the fact that this connection is also shared by Bill Clinton who worked as a CIA informer while briefly and erratically a Rhodes Scholar in England. And Barack Obama worked for a CIA front operation called Business International and reportedly had his tuition debt at Columbia paid off by BIC. Yet, as William Blum has written, "In his book, not only doesn't Obama mention his employer's name; he fails to say when he worked there, or why he left the job." It also appears likely that his mother and grandfather had intelligence connections.
Comment: Further Updates
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18:45 CET
French riot police are positioned at the Conseil d'État at the Palais du Justice in Paris in anticipation of supporters of Dieudonné protesting there.
20:00 CET
It's interesting to note that the Council of State is France's Supreme Court, but unlike the Supreme Court in the US, where permanent members adjudicate cases that bring up constitutional issues, France's Supreme Court has several functions, including as 'legal advisor' to the government. In this role, it is presided over by the Prime Minister, the Vice-President and other members of the government.
In upholding the French government's ban, the Conseil d'État functioned as an appellate court, and was composed of just one judge, Bernard Stirn, great-grand-nephew of Alfred Dreyfus.
20:10 CET
According to Dieudonné's Facebook page, this decision has been handed down at the very last minute. Thousands of spectators are already at the venue, Dieudonné is inside and has asked to be allowed outside to address the crowd but the police won't let him. The authorities are requesting that people return to their homes and Dieudonné has also pleaded with them to remain calm and sing the Marseillaise...
20:20 CET
Dieudonné is now also asking that people to return to their homes following reports that violence has broken out...
In another Facebook update, Dieudonné has again asked people to calmly leave the scene, explaining that a violent confrontation is what the government is looking for:
Dieudonné fans left the Zenith arena in Nantes peacefully, chanting the Marseillaise. The comedian is set to release a video message via his YouTube channel tomorrow, 10th January 2013.